Chapter 4- The Search

Trip sat at a coffee table. Others were probably hunting down great monsters and saving the world, but he was sitting at a coffee table. Then again, he had done his fair share of world saving, as had the person sitting in front of him. Dragona Pine had been kind enough to come all the way up to Scotland in his crazy shapeshifting Porsche machine, because he had wanted to ask some questions. In hindsight he could have just gotten a teleporter taxi down to him, but he was here now, sitting in a Starbucks drinking coffee. “Did I find a dead boy while walking in the forest this morning? No, no I did not.”

“Oh good.” Replied Trip, “That makes my job a whole lot easier. No wait, no it doesn’t.”

“Would you mind telling me what this job is, Trip?”

“Miss Evergreen, a sensitive, had two visions of a boy with the taken name Rhydian Saint. He seemed to hold some major significance to the world. Right up my street. One vision he was in a school and it got attacked by a big lad named Cutler. A girl named Miss Cain was there, she fought back. A girl named Kinsey was abducted by a vampire, then Cutler used some kind of magic and knocked them out. After that, they woke up in a library, and there was a letter. They had been ‘recruited’ by the english sanctuary. In the other one, he was camping, went for off for a pee, then got chased and killed by a vampire. You found him, and attended his funeral. Anyway, she asked me to find him. She didn’t actually specify dead or alive though...”

“You’re a terrible story teller.”

“No I’m not!”

“Yes you are. But how do you know that the walk was the one from this morning?”

“Your watch, it tells the date as well as the time, it was the first thing I checked in the vision.”

“Clever.” Said, Dragona, almost impressed. “And in the school? When was that?”

“In three and a half hours, so if you’ll excuse me, I must be off, I’d rather not have to use an attack on a school to tell me where to go.” Said Trip as he got up and walked out.

  After he had left Dragona behind, Trip picked up his phone. Even when you’re the most informed person on earth on anyone who’s anyone and run the largest spy network in the entire magical world, finding a single person in a world of 7 billion is still no mean feat. Luckily for him there had been a census a few years ago. (Anyone remember that? No? Just me? Fine.) There were hundreds of Oswins living in England. Unfortunately he had nowhere to work with, the vision wasn’t very helpful on places. So he had delved into taxes. Normally this information was top secret, but when you have technomancers, anything is possible. Several Oswins had recently bought houses. After that, he had run out of time, if Rhydian had died, it had already happened. Luckily that wasn’t the case, but he was still out there somewhere. He had left some of his best on it, and he phoned them up. “Please tell me you have some good news?” He said down the line almost as soon as it picked up. “Well, it’s gotten slower from here, but we managed to pull up some old estate agent’s photos of the houses, if you come back you can check which one matches the one in the vision.” Replied the voice on the other end nervously. “No time, send the photos to my phone with addresses attached, I’ll find it.” Said Trip as he got into his car. The call ended and a moment later the photos popped into his inbox. He scrolled through them, and quickly found the only one that looked similar to the house in the third vision. Manchester, thank god. two hour or so drive without traffic. He set off, heart pounding. He was going to find Rhydian Saint.

As Trip drove, he grew more and more uneasy. The problem with driving, was that when you do it for seventy years, you could get very good at it. It became something you didn’t have to think about, second nature if you will. So that gives a lot of time to just, think. His mind was on the matter at hand; Rhydian. The boy who makes no sense? The question without an answer? It reminded him ever so slightly of a certain Doctor Who character. He wasn’t pointing any fingers, but he knew that he wasn’t being told the whole truth. Miss Evergreen had ulterior motives, he knew it.

He pulled up outside the house exactly three hours after he had left. Damned traffic jams. he had twelve minutes to find Rhydian’s school and take him to Miss Evergreen. He walked up to the door and knocked three times. No one answered. No one was in. Trip’s heart skipped a beat, this wasn’t good. He had a backup plan. He placed his palm on the lock, then let the energy seep into it. Once it had taken the shape of the lock he solidified the energy, making a key. He turned it in the lock. As he opened the door he sent a massive burst of electricity energy through the alarm. It blew it’s fuse and didn’t go off. He quickly searched the house looking for letters or papers or something telling him where to find Rhydian’s school. Eleven minutes and  twenty-seven seconds later he found the letter, he scanned it and found the school’s address. He leapt back through the door, locking it behind him. He ran to the school, keeping a close eye on his watch. The school was quite far away for someone who had to keep checking a mental map of where to go. He checked his watch and swore, 3 seconds until Rhydian saw Cutler. 2... 1...