Threefold

Logan Matthews would never work out what made him come here but both he and his physiotherapist were getting frustrated by how little progress he was making when supposedly he was meant to be further ahead in his recovery. So that was why he was lying face down on a table while a woman he could only describe as out-there used some strange blue rock to channel his energies.
Clara, as she had introduced herself at the door, had a house filled with herbs and dream catchers and other paraphernalia that made Logan peg her as Hippie the moment she opened the door.
“Now just relax and let the jewel do its work,” Clara told him in her breathy ethereal voice.
Logan rolled his eyes wondering how the blue stone was going to help him walk again.

Six months ago he’d been driving home after a date when some idiot ran a red light. Logan remembered nothing about the next week, only that one minute he’d been singing along to the radio then opening his eyes in a hospital bed unable to move his legs.
They kept telling him that he might regain some use with physiotherapy but so far that hadn’t happened. He winced as he felt intense heat burn into his back.
“Clara,” he called as the burning intensified.
He heard a scream coming from the other room and tried to move.
“Clara,” he called again, managing to swing himself off the table and nab his wheelchair over. Easing himself into the chair he started towards the other room.
To his horror he found the woman who had welcomed him a few hours ago lying unconscious on the floor. Before he could move towards her three men appeared, all looked like the guys who played football back home. Tall, bulky with the brains of a gnat, Logan who was tall normally felt himself swallow in fear as in the wheelchair he had no way to get away from or even fight these guys.
The leader moved towards him and Logan pushed the chair back as much as he could, wincing as he slammed into the wall behind him.
He was in trouble.

Logan’s view was filled by the large man in the centre of the three until one of the men called out.
“I have it.”
The man in front of Logan smiled darkly down at him, “That’s bad news for you.”
As the man pulled out a knife, Logan tried to move but they were all stopped by a new voice coming from behind the three men.
“Now, this isn’t the way to act as house guests,” a woman’s voice made the three men turn.
From his vantage point Logan saw a woman who was at least a foot shorter than the smallest of the three guys; she had a slight smirk of amusement on her face as she stared at the three men.
“Get out and we won’t hurt you,” the leader tells her.
Logan was shocked as the woman laughed.
“Okay, one that isn’t even a possibility,” the woman said, “And two, that stone doesn’t belong to you and I want it.”
“Then take it, little girl,” the leader goaded.
Logan gasped as two of the men moved forward; the woman ducked her long blonde hair flying before she seemed to gesture towards one of the men who suddenly flew back against the wall.
“How?” the leader demanded.
The woman laughed as she plucked the blue stone from the final man as they stared at her.
“You have three seconds to leave,” she told them, “Or I start doing something more interesting than just throwing you against a wall.”
To Logan’s complete surprise the three men ran and the woman turned to him.
“Your friend should be alright,” the woman told him, “They just knocked her unconscious.”
“Who are you?” Logan demanded.
The woman smiled, “Arianna,” she introduced herself before raising her hand, “Unfortunately, you’re not going to remember any of this.”
As she waved her hand all Logan saw was a bright white light and then nothing.

---

Davin looked up as the door to the shop opened, “Well?”
Arianna pulled out the blue stone, “Victory. One down and three to go.”
“Did you have any problems?” he asked as they moved through to the office in the back.
Arianna sighed, “Unfortunately I had to blank two people’s memories not to mention the muscle I ran into.”
Davin frowned, that was never a good thing especially here. There was a large oval mirror sitting on the wall in front of them and Arianna jumped onto the table to sit waiting. Davin waved his hand across the small jewel at the bottom of the mirror which flickered before settling into the face of an old man with no hair and a fluffy white beard.
“Davin, Arianna,” he greeted them, “Tell me you have some good news.”
“The blue stone has been retrieved, Godwin” Arianna told him, “We’ll keep it somewhere safe until the vault is ready to hold them again.”
Godwin nodded.
“How are the others?” Arianna asked.
The old man sighed, “I’m afraid Ella died. Her injuries were too severe but the others are recovering. It’s slow but they hopefully shouldn’t be long before we can send someone with more experience to take over for you.”
Davin saw Arianna’s face cloud over for a second but neither of them said a word.
“Godwin, are there any suspects in who took the stones?” Davin asked.
“No,” the old man grimaced, “We think there has to be more to this than we originally thought. I’m sending you a list of possible suspects on Earth but there are a lot and without magic we’re not sure how they could have possibly pulled it off.”
“I’ll keep trying to locate the other two stones but they’re proving difficult to find,” she told them, “The only reason I found the blue one was someone was trying to use it. Unless whoever has the stones tries to do something with them there’s very little chance.”
Godwin nodded before he disappeared leaving them alone.

Arianna sat tapping a pen on the table as Davin made them some coffee, she just couldn’t understand these people. She had just managed to retrieve one of the three most important objects of her world in a completely different one.
“You’re doing well,” Davin told her taking a seat at her side.
“Thanks.”
“Arianna,” Davin made her look at him, “You are good at your job. You are a talented sorceress.”
“I’ve been an apprentice for more years than anyone,” she reminded him, “Davin, the only reason they elevated me was because I was the only member of the special ops team who wasn’t hurt.”
Davin nodded, “I know. Arianna, don’t think about what they say focus on the task.”
“I’m trying,” she sighed, “But what can we do? The other two stones are missing and with so little magic in the atmosphere it’s not...” she trailed off and dropped her head into her hands with a groan.
“What?”
“The one thing that is missing from this world,” Arianna said, “Is magic. Meaning that if the stones are hidden away then there will be some kind of hint. Strange things happening, things like that.”
Davin shook his head with a chuckle, “It makes sense, now you have to trawl through about a months’ worth of news.”
“I thought we were a team?” Arianna asked.
Davin patted her shoulder, “I’m in charge and here to help guide you, Peacekeeper Skylar but you’re the one who has to do the work.”
Shaking her head Arianna motioned the small laptop in the corner to her, she heard Davin tut slightly as she used her magic to do something so pedestrian but she didn’t care. Starting it up the way he’d showed her several days before Arianna started the laborious process of scanning the news from the previous month.

---

Logan groaned as he woke up, completely confused as to how he got here. Trying to remember the previous day he came up with a complete blank. Scrubbing his hand across his face Logan swung himself round and wandered to the bathroom. As he washed his hands Logan stopped and stared at himself in the mirror as realisation hit him.
He was standing.
He’d walked here.
Logan gripped the sink as his head swum with astonishment, he wasn’t paralysed anymore. It wasn’t possible!!
He didn’t know what to do.

“I told you that there was always this possibility,” Dr Edwards reminded Logan as he checked the man, “The swelling in your spinal cord was what we were waiting for to come down.”
“But it just disappeared overnight,” Logan mused, “How is that possible?”
Edwards chuckled, “The human body is an amazing thing, Logan. I’ve seen amazing things in the thirty years I’ve been a doctor. People with injuries that should have killed them walk away, people in comas that should have never woken up have. I want to see you next week but if there is anything you’re worried about I want you to call me.”
Logan nodded, “Thank you, Doctor Edwards.”
Edwards clapped Logan’s shoulder before letting him leave. Confused Logan walked out of the hospital still astonished that his legs were working once more. He tried to remember what had happened the day before but nothing came to mind. Annoyed with himself Logan decided it was the best idea to go see Laurie for her advice. Not to mention he had to let her know what had just happened to him.
He could walk again and telling his friends as well as his family of this development could be quite an interesting conversation. Especially his mother.
Logan had come to Glasgow to study when he was eighteen against his mother’s wishes, his father who was paying for it was happy that Logan wanted to go to another country. His mother hated it even more that after graduation Logan had decided to remain. After his accident she demanded that he return home with them but Logan had been independent from childhood and refused to be anything else after his accident.
Now he had his old life back, but he just couldn’t understand how it had happened and he was going to find out.

---

Arianna sighed as she woke up in the armchair at the small reading room at the back of the shop wrapped in a blanket. She rubbed her eyes wondering when she’d fallen asleep. Then again six hours of reading over news articles that were no help whatsoever would do that to you.
“Are you awake?” Davin asked with a chuckle as he arrived with a mug of coffee and some toast.
“Barely,” Arianna sighed, “What time is it?”
“Just before nine,” Davin replied as he set the items on the small table, “I wanted you up before I opened the shop. Don’t think that having you snoring in the back room is the way to run a business.”
Arianna laughed, “I’ve been here for a while now and I don’t remember seeing more than two customers in all that time.”
“You barely spend any time in this place,” Davin shot back, “How would you know?”
Arianna chuckled again, “Alright, I have some investigating to do. I found a possibility for the red stone. A guy swears his house went on fire when there was no way it could. Probably nothing but I want to check it out.”
“Where is it?”
“Somewhere called Lochwinnoch,” Arianna shrugged, “I might need some money.”
Davin rolled his eyes, “I am writing this up you know.”
She smiled and took the money he offered before heading up to the small flat above the shop to get freshened up before her trip.

Arianna was beginning to hate this place.
She’d spent three hours trying to find a trace of magic in the house that had gone on fire, instead she found a guy who was obviously trying to get insurance money. Now she had to get back to the shop and find another possible lead. Maybe Godwin was right, and she was useless at this.
Trudging back to the shop Arianna wondered how things had become like this. She’d been so full of enthusiasm when she’d joined the Peacekeepers. An apprentice still she knew that with hard work she’d be elevated to full sorcerer within a few years, that hadn’t happened. For some reason she’d remained an apprentice no matter how good her work was, no matter what happened they refused to elevate her.
Ten years she’d waited for her chance to become a full sorcerer and now that she was here it felt wrong.
The theft of the three stones, the centre of power within her world had thrown everything into disarray. The thieves had targeted the Peacekeepers conference, setting off several explosions and fires to make sure that they couldn’t be followed.
Arianna had been the only member who wasn’t injured and had the experience necessary to try to start the quest to recover the stones.
At least Davin was here.
Arianna had known him since she was a baby; he had been her mother’s partner when they were both Peacekeepers. He’d been reassigned as the Sentry to the porthole between the worlds which existed below the shop when Arianna was fourteen.

“How did it go?” Davin asked the depressed looking young woman who staggered into shop.
“It was an unmitigated disaster,” Arianna sighed, she jumped up onto the counter, “This is stupid, Davin. I shouldn’t be here. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Arianna...”
“The only reason I’m the one doing this is because you’re not green,” she reminded him, “If you were then you could be trying to track down...”
“Enough,” Davin cut her off, “Arianna, you are a talented sorceress and you’re doing a good job. You found the blue stone.”
“Yeah, I found it,” Arianna sighed, “And had to blank two people’s memories in the process.”
“Which you had to do,” Davin reminded her, “The only way we can keep our presence on this world is to make sure no one knows we’re here.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay,” Davin grabbed her arm and pulled her off the counter, “We are going for a drink.”
“What?”
“There is a bar just on the corner,” Davin told her, “We are going to relax for the evening and get back to work tomorrow.”
Arianna gave him a relieved smile and let him lead her out of the shop.