Shadow City LA: Case of the golden wedding band 7 by hippo2 on DeviantArt
Chapter 13The air inside tastes like dust and old prayers. Shelves climb the walls on both sides, crammed with mason jars full of dried leaves, roots that look like twisted fingers, powders in colors that don't have names. Bundles of herbs hang from the ceiling like corpses on a gibbet. The floorboards creak under my shoes.Dolores moves past me, sage smoke trailing. She holds the saint's medal out in front of her like a divining rod, murmuring something in Spanish too low for me to catch.I close my eyes and reach out with that other sense—the one that lets me see magic the way some people see colors. At first there's nothing. Just the ordinary weight of the shop around me, wood and glass and dried plants. Then I feel it. A prickling along my skin, a pressure in the air like the moment before thunder."There's something on the threshold," I say. "Behind us. On the doorway."Dolores turns, squints at the green door we just came through. "Yes. Disorientation ward. Mild. Meant to make people confused, forgetful. They'd come in looking for something specific and leave without remembering why they came." She waves the sage smoke across the doorway. "Can you feel its structure?"I try. I can sense the magic there—a faint shimmer in the air, threads of something that isn't quite visible. But when I reach for it with my mind, trying to grasp how it's constructed, the threads slip away. It's like trying to read sheet music when you've only heard songs played."I can feel it," I say. "But I can't see how to take it apart.""Watch." Dolores extends one hand toward the doorway. Her fingers move in a pattern—not quite a gesture, more like she's plucking invisible strings. The pressure in the air shifts, unravels. The prickling sensation fades. "There. Simple dispelling. You pull the binding threads and the whole thing comes undone.""Show me again."She rebuilds the ward—it takes her maybe thirty seconds, fingers weaving that same pattern in reverse. Then she dispels it again, slower this time, letting me watch.I try to copy the movement. My fingers feel clumsy, uncertain. I reach for those invisible threads and miss. The ward stays intact."It takes practice," Dolores says. "You're trying to force it. Magic doesn't work that way—you have to coax it, persuade it. Like calming a frightened animal."I try twice more. Both times the ward remains stubbornly present, that faint shimmer in the air mocking my attempts.Dolores finally dispels it herself. "We don't have time for lessons. Let me handle the technical work. You watch, you learn, and you tell me if you sense anything I miss."Morrison's silhouette fills the doorway behind us. "Everything all right in there?""We're fine," I call back. "Give us a few more minutes."Dolores moves deeper into the shop, toward the counter in back. Her saint's medal swings on its chain, catching the dusty light from the window. I follow, that other sense stretched taut, feeling for more magic in the shadows.Chapter 14I move along the left wall while Dolores works near the counter, letting that other sense stretch out through the cramped space. The shelves press in close, jars catching the morning light filtering through the dusty window. Each one feels inert under my mental touch—just dried plants, nothing more sinister.But there's something else. A thickness in the air near the back wall, like invisible cobwebs brushing against my awareness."Dolores," I say quietly. "There's something behind the counter. Strong."She glances up from examining a ceramic bowl filled with what looks like bone fragments. "Show me."I point to the narrow doorway behind the counter, half-hidden by a beaded curtain. The pressure radiating from it makes my teeth ache.Dolores approaches slowly, her saint's medal swinging. When she gets within three feet of the doorway, she stops. "Madre de Dios. This is serious work. Trigger spell—anyone without magical ability who opens this door will collapse. Severe vertigo, nausea, possibly unconsciousness.""Can you disable it?""Yes. But it will take time. Twenty minutes, maybe thirty." She sets down her canvas bag, pulls out a small leather pouch and a stub of chalk. "Keep scanning the front room. Make sure I haven't missed anything."I leave her to it and continue my circuit of the shop. The right wall holds more shelves, these ones stacked with candles of every color and size. Saints stare down from cheap prints tacked to the walls—Guadalupe, Martin de Porres, Santa Muerte with her skeletal grin. Nothing magical about any of it, just the ordinary trappings of folk Catholicism.But when I reach the far corner near the window display, I feel something else. Fainter than the doorway ward, almost lost in the ambient pressure of the space. I crouch down, running my hand along the baseboard without touching it.There. A loose board, maybe two feet long. And underneath it, something that feels heavy with significance."Found something," I call to Dolores.She's kneeling in front of the back doorway now, drawing symbols on the floor with chalk. "What kind of something?""I don't know. It's under the floorboards. Feels important.""Don't touch it yet. Let me finish this first." Her fingers move in that same plucking pattern I saw earlier, pulling at invisible threads. "This ward is sophisticated. Carmela didn't want anyone getting into her back room."I stay crouched in the corner, maintaining my focus on whatever's hidden below. It doesn't feel dangerous exactly—not like the doorway ward. More like it's simply there, waiting. A secret buried in the bones of the building.Morrison's voice drifts in from outside. "How much longer?""Twenty minutes," I call back. "Maybe more. We're being thorough."The floorboards creak as Dolores shifts position. The morning sun climbs higher, turning the dust motes into floating gold. And underneath my feet, something waits in the dark.________________________________________________________________The story and picture was made with the AI Game "Infinite Worlds". If you want to experience your own Detective Story in the Shadow City, here's the link to the game:https://infiniteworlds.app/shared/xLRAphNext Part:Previous Part:
