Chapter 19: Chapter 19: Searching for a Fairytale

Eve POV:

“Eve? What’s going on?” Zatanna’s voice asked from the laptop standing on the table where we had set up a video call.

“We’re on a mission and kinda need a magical consultant,” I explained. “My knowledge is kinda limited, so we called an expert: you.”

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open slightly before she asked, “Me?”

“You are a talented magician with ties to the Justice League, and Arcana speaks highly of your knowledge,” Kaldur said in a serious tone. “Are you willing to assist us? We will arrange for you to be compensated for your troubles.”

“No!” Zatanna exclaimed. “I mean yes!” Then she composed herself and clarified, “Yes, I’ll help if I can. But I don’t need anything. I want to help.”

“Then we thank you for your assistance,” Kaldur said with a nod before turning to me. “Arcana, if you would please explain your theory.”

“Alright,” I said and cleared my throat. “Ahem! So, the town has been plagued by what can be described as magical pranks. Mysterious lights and noises, things disappearing and reappearing in strange places, harmless vandalism.”

Kaldur, Robin, and Roy had all been asking around and had gotten more accounts of what had been happening. It was more of the same — harmless, but annoying pranks. M’gann had also confirmed that most of the townspeople were more worried and annoyed than anything. There were some fearful people, but they were a minority.

“The police don't have any suspects,” Robin interjected. “I hacked their records, and they seem to think it’s just some local kids. They don’t even consider the car crash to be related.”

“It’s a bit of a leap,” Roy agreed. “Pranks are one thing. Cutting someone’s brakes is attempted murder.”

“Is it, though?” I asked with a small smirk and everyone turned to me.

“I don’t know how much you know about physics,” Wally said in a condescending tone. “But when a moving thing hits a not moving thing, something goes boom. Car crashes kill people. Everyone knows that.” He sounded crass — almost hostile — but I knew he didn’t actually intend for it to be mean-spirited, so I let it pass. He really needed to work on that personality flaw, or someone was going to punch him one of these days.

“What if they don’t understand the concept of death?” I hedged.

“A child?” Robin said skeptically. “Anyone too young to understand the concept of death would be too young to do all of this.”

“Remember, there’s magic involved,” I reminded them. “So, if we assume the perpetrator is magical in nature and don’t understand the concept of death, we get…?”

“You’re dealing with a fae,” Zatanna said with a wince. “You’re not gonna have a fun time dealing with that, that’s for sure.”

“Bingo!” I said, but then I added, “Well, I don’t know for sure, but it would make sense. The car was affected by a spell, same as the display at the museum. Unless there are two people with very similar magic and very dissimilar attitudes running around here, it’s the same person. Or creature, if I’m right.”

“Hold on,” Wally interjected. “Are we just gonna accept that there is a literal fairy tale creature doing this?” He looked around the room. “I mean, come on! Guys?”

“We can’t assume until we have definite proof,” Kaldur said. “But from what little I know of them, it does seem a plausible assumption.”

“I have a spell that can locate fae within 30 feet,” I said, having summoned my book and checked the details of ‘Detect Evil and Good’. “The rest of you can continue other lines of investigation while I continue this one.”

I was convinced that my deduction was right and that we were dealing with a fae, but I had to admit that I could be wrong. Abandoning all other lines of investigation would be foolish. Even if the town was small, searching all of it in 30 foot sections would take a while. Having the rest just sitting on their thumbs while I did that would be a waste. I was hoping I didn’t have to search the whole town, though.

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“I don’t know much about fae, though,” I said, turning towards Zatanna. “Do you know anything we should be aware of? Any ideas where I should start looking?”

I had never seen Zatanna as proud as she looked when she started relaying what she knew about fae. Her face lit up with an excited smile as she said, “One sec!” and ran off to get a book from the bookshelf behind her. Fortunately, she had taken the call in the Shadowcrest library.

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With a new understanding of what we were potentially up against, we set out to search. This time, Donna joined Kara and me, and Robin got saddled with Wally. If we did encounter a fae, having another magical combatant for protection would be reassuring. Especially after Zatanna’s impromptu lesson on fae.

As I suspected, fae were rarely malevolent. When they interacted with mortals, it was more often than not in a friendly manner. Any harm caused was usually because they simply didn’t have the capability to understand how humans worked. They did like messing with people’s minds though, which Kara was very vulnerable to. Having Donna — who had the best natural magical protection out of all of us — around helped put my mind more at ease.

Having the excuse to avoid the awkward conversation I knew that I needed to have with Kara was just a bonus.

“The park would be a natural first place to look,” Donna’s voice interrupted my musings. “Zatanna said they prefer natural areas.”

“The town is pretty close to the forest, though,” Kara noted. “Wouldn’t that be even more natural?”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “But it’s a smaller area, so we might as well check it out first.”

I summoned the Maginomicon and quickly found the page for ‘Detect Evil and Good’. It was a low-level spell, so it was relatively easy to cast, but I had never practiced it before. I formed the mental rune constructs and fed it mana. The spell activated and— My head whipped to Donna as I got an immediate response.

“Huh…” I mused. “Yeah, guess that makes sense.”

“What?” Donna asked, a little self-conscious as I studied her.

“You’re showing up as a celestial being,” I answered. “Not really a surprise, all things considered. But it does pretty much confirm that you have divine parentage.”

“I see,” she said with a thoughtful expression. Then she gave me an appreciative smile and said, “Thank you. It is good to finally have our suspicions confirmed.”

“You’re welcome,” I said. Then I grinned as something occurred to me. “Although, you should wait until the next time we spar before you thank me. This revelation gives me a few options.”

Donna and I had sparred a few times before — both by ourselves and as team practice. I was the only one who could hold my own against her for any significant amount of time, using ‘Misty Step’ to stay mobile and ‘Shield’ to deflect her attacks. I’d never been able to beat her though, and now I was hoping ‘Protection from Evil and Good’ might give me the edge I needed to actually fight back.

She didn’t seem worried and just grinned back at me as she said, “Good! I shall look forward to the challenge!”

“Battle maniac,” I muttered with a fond laugh. Of course she would react like that.

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We headed to the park and searched it thoroughly. Unsurprisingly, we didn’t find any fae in the small semi-natural area. Since it was getting a little too late to start searching the surrounding forests, we decided to just call it a day.

M’gann and Conner decided to get dinner on their own and the boys did the same, so the three of us had to make our own arrangements. The little town had a surprising amount of restaurants so we had plenty to choose from. We were walking through what could pass for a shopping district, looking for a place that appealed to us when we heard a voice call out from behind us.

“Hey, Eve!” I felt Kara move slightly closer to me as we turned and saw Milly walking towards us with a tired smile on her face. She had changed out of her work uniform and was wearing a simple white summer dress.

“Hey, Milly,” I greeted her with a smile. “Off work?”

“Yeah,” she answered with a tired sigh. “You’d be surprised how tiring it is to just stand around doing nothing all day.”

“It is the middle of summer,” Donna interjected politely. “Is this not the busiest time of year for the tourist industry?”

“Yeah,” she agreed, and I could feel that her next words would be prime sarcasm. “Today was especially busy. The number of visitors was 300% higher today compared to what it usually is!”

“...”

“We were the only visitors today, weren’t we?” I asked deadpan.

“Bingo,” she answered with a sigh. “I have no idea how that place survives. Sometimes I’m afraid I’m an unwitting part of a money laundering scheme or something.”

“Anyway!” she continued, more enthusiastically. “I never got introduced to the rest of you. I’m Milly, nice to meet you!”

“Kara,” the girl at my side answered and hesitantly grabbed Milly’s outstretched hand.

“And I am Donna. It is good to make your acquaintance, Milly.” Donna was, as usual, far more jovial in her greeting as she confidently introduced herself. “We were just about to find a place to eat. Would you like to join us?”

Milly looked a little taken aback at Donna’s enthusiasm, but happily responded, “Um, yeah, sure. Nice to meet you, Kara, Donna. Know where you’re eating yet?”

“You’re the local expert,” I said with a grin, happy to leave the decision to someone else. “Lead the way.” Deciding where to eat was always a nightmare.

She eyed me with mock-suspicion, telling me she knew exactly what I was up to, but acquiesced. “Fine. Asian sound good? Morris makes the best ramen — well, the best you’ll find in this place, at least. It’s also the only ramen place here, so~ But it’s good! I promise!”

With that ringing endorsement, we headed out. Stomachs rumbling in the afternoon sun.