The Sharp Edge of the Veil Ch. 02

I barely had a visitor a day usually. Three in a single day? That was unheard of. There was another knock. I sighed and got up. I opened the door and there was a big man. A big man. The fist hit my nose like a malformed sledgehammer. And well ... you know this part of the story. After I had disposed of Luna's disgruntled boyfriend and seen his car drive away at full speed, I went to the liquor cabinet. The only way this shitty day would get better was by downing a whole bottle of whiskey. And I also needed it for my crushed nose. And whatever anyone tells you, magic and alcohol definitely mix well.

*

I must have fallen asleep on the floor and my breath smelled like I had accidentally eaten a dead badger. But at least my face was whole again. I do drunk magic better than anyone, and I have the face to show for it.

Just as I thought that this day couldn't possibly get any worse than the one before, there was a knock on the door. I stumbled up and slapped my face a few times. The clock on the wall showed seven minutes past eight in the morning. Too early. Way too early. I went to my cupboard and brought out a blasting rod. If you don't know what a blasting rod is, let's just say it is a stick that allows a wizard to store up kinetic energy to be used in any way he or she sees fit. And I had been storing up energy for a long time in this one. I intended to put whoever tried to come at me into orbit.

"Who is it?" I said a little more like a little girl than I had intended.

"It's Sophia."

What in the living hells was she doing here? What could she possibly want? I had had too little sleep and too much whiskey for one wizard.

"Go away!"

Was that the best I could come up with? There was silence for a moment. Maybe she had gone away? I took one step closer to the door.

"Please. You have to help me."

Her voice sounded strange, almost strangled.

"Help you? Help you? You, insane bitch you crushed my nuts and kicked me out of my own house, and you want me to help you?"

There was more silence. I breathed hard, trying to focus. I needed to take something to steady my nerves. I stumbled over to one of the shelves and downed one of the potions. The drug raced through my veins calming me. It is my very own concoction. A great mixture of weed and opium with a touch of untamed spirits from the Sapmi in the north that I like to call Calmness. The Calmness settled over me and I could see clearly once more. I thought I heard sobbing. I put my ear against the door. Yes. Definitely sobbing.

"I'm going to open the door now. Do not kick me in the balls."

"Okay," came a voice on the verge of breaking.

I steeled myself then I opened the door. There stood Sophia. She looked like she had been through hell. Her hair was in a mess, eyes dark and puffy and it looked like she had been crying since I last met her. She looked up at me. And screamed her lungs out.

She screamed. I screamed. The drink table screamed. I blasted the table with my rod.

The shockwave of the released energy from the blasting rod obliterated the drink table and all of the bottles on it. And the wall behind it. The recoil threw me against the opposite wall where I sank down onto the floor. Dust settled, and my ears rang. I blinked a few times. I was pretty sure that I saw a couple of tiny horned daemons fluttering around near the new opening to my office. I blinked again. They were gone. Sophia stepped into view. She held her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide with horror.

"What happened to your nose," she breathed.

I blinked some more. Stood up. Walked over to a mirror that I occasionally use as a mirror, more often as a daemon summoning portal. In the mirror I saw myself. Except that someone had seemed to misplace my nose and put it on my forehead. Damn. Maybe I wasn't as good at drunk magic as I thought. I looked over at the remains of the drink table. That was at least a few thousand kronor's worth of good whiskey and brandy lost. And absolutely no signs or daemons or possessed furniture. I probably should put a little less opium in the Calmness next time.