Eli finally joined us, still talking to Rolf, and he couldn’t see it, either. Rolf seemed to be amused by that.

“Any ideas?” I said to him. Rolf nodded and draped his arms around both their shoulders.

“Ahh,” said Eli. “Now I see. Amazing.”

Rolf removed his arms from their shoulders, but once they’d seen the pool they could keep their vision of it. Victor walked around to the other side, taking care not to get too close.

“Hmm,” he said. “Now that I actually see it, I’m thinking we might have to change our strategy.”

“It’s too strong to push it back,” Eli agreed. He walked around the pool and joined Victor on the other side. “Perhaps we could speed it up, instead. Add some additional energy and destabilize it that way.”

“Hmm. Could work. What about the Coriolis force? Can we adapt that?”

“No, but there should be an analogue we could use.”

As usual, they were talking way over my head. I wandered away and joined Rolf.

“Quite the professors, ain’t they?” he said.

“Not a bad thing, actually. It doesn’t hurt to be smart.”

“Never said it did.”

We watched them measuring and discussing. After a time, Victor reached into his traveling bag and took out four crystals, placing them around the perimeter of the circle, evenly spaced. Next came a series of wooden rods, and he enclosed each crystal with a triangle of three sticks, like a little tent. Finally, he nodded and stood next to Eli.

“Will it be enough?” asked Eli, and Victor shrugged.

I walked over slowly to where they stood. Eli in particular wasn’t going to like this, but I had no choice.

“These might help,” I said, taking the two rune stones that I’d been carrying around out of my pocket. Eli looked at them, then at me.

“How long have you had those, son?” he said quietly.

“All along. I kept a few back when we used them to trap the Wendigo.”

Victor just shook his head and reached out a hand for them, but Eli stepped forward and took them instead.

“How many more do you have at home?”

“Some.”

“My fault. I should have known. A junkie doesn’t turn over all his drugs just because you ask for them. Well, time for that later. Right now we can certainly use these.” He handed one of the stones to Victor, who circled around to the opposite side. Eli lifted up his own stone, and a rueful smile broke out upon his face.

“I forgot how it feels to hold these,” he said. “This is what it feels like to have real power. Very seductive, I must say.” He called over to Victor.

“Ready?” Victor raised one arm in the air. “Now,” said Eli, and there was a crackling sound as a flash of phosphorescent green light arced between the stones. The crystals flashed in unison and began to pulse with their own light of swirling color, reflecting the colors of the pool. The swirl of colors in the energy pool started to move more quickly, and a high-pitched hum like a jet turbine filled the air, making my teeth hurt. Lou had been sitting by the edge of the pool, gazing into it, fascinated as always, but now he jumped back in alarm.

The pool revolved even faster, like a maelstrom in a horror tale. Bits of color broke free and washed up onto the ground, like nothing so much as a whirlpool throwing off rainbow-colored spumes of spray. The colors blended together as it spun faster; then, when it seemed as if it could no longer hold together, it folded in on itself like multicolored Silly Putty. One final spasm rocked through it, and just before it collapsed, a long streamer of viscous energy snaked out, falling right across one of Lou’s front paws. As it contracted, it dragged him toward its center and pulled him under, almost as if it had a malevolent consciousness. There was a horrible slurping sound like a clog becoming unstuck in a bathtub, and then the entire construct dwindled into nothingness. Then, at the last possible moment, it surged back, gyrated wildly, and finally settled down into its familiar rhythm. The humming cut off abruptly, and the only sound left was the roar of traffic on the access ramp overhead and a far-off ambulance wailing.

I ran over to where it pulsed, seemingly eternal. It was back, but Lou was gone.

IT WAS HARD TO BELIEVE A SPACE SO SMALL could feel so empty. My flat is great, but it wasn’t suited for pacing, and I couldn’t sit still. Four strides and I was up against a wall; four more brought me to the opposite side of the room.

This wasn’t the first time Lou had gone missing. But the previous time I’d thought he’d simply left, abandoned me. That happens sometimes with Ifrits; it’s a lurking fear felt by every practitioner who’s blessed with one. It had plunged me into a depression and paralyzed me, but this time it was different. He’d been taken, swept up by the energy pool, and I didn’t even know if he was alive or dead. And if he was alive, I had no idea how to locate him. Neither did Eli or Victor. It was like watching someone fall into a raging river, swept away by the current. You stand on the bank, watching helplessly as the torrent sweeps them away. You feel you have to do something, but there’s nothing you can do.

Which was ironic. If it had been me that had fallen into that thing, Lou could have found me, and he would have, come hell or high water. But I wasn’t as clever.

Victor wanted to try closing the pool again, but Eli nixed that idea. He pointed out that if we closed the pool now, Lou would be gone forever. The chances of his finding his way back were slim, but if the pool were destroyed, those chances would drop to zero.

Besides, he was worried. Trying to close the pool had instead made it even stronger. Another attempt might have unintended disastrous consequences. A lot more research and thought would need to be done before the next attempt, and that would take some time.

I didn’t care about any of that. I wanted Lou back. The only person I could think of who might be able to help find him was the Wendigo, and the only way that I knew to find the Wendigo involved using Lou’s talents. Catch- 22.

For once, the knock on the door came as a welcome distraction. When I answered, the Wendigo stood outside. I’d never been so glad to see an untrustworthy supernatural entity in my life. But why was he here? Of course. He was still hoping to get the remaining stones.

“May I come in?” he politely asked.

Normally I wouldn’t have wanted him to. But now I treated him like an honored guest.

“Of course,” I said.

He nodded and walked in, looking around with curiosity. He wandered back and forth, picking up things and putting them down again before sitting down at the kitchen table, much like Morgan had done. With him it seemed rude and out of place, though. I guess he hadn’t quite got the human conception of appropriate boundaries yet. But a lot of normal people are the same way.

“Sorry about what happened at the energy pool,” he said. Once again he seemed to know everything, which saved some time and explanation. “You’ve got to be careful with those things.”

“I get that. And it was pointless, anyway; it’s still there. But Lou’s not.”

“I know. A shame, really.”

“Yes, it is. I don’t suppose you have any ideas?”

“About what?”

“Locating Lou. Bringing him back-if he’s still alive.”

“Oh, he’s alive all right, unless something on the other end got him.” Relief flooded over me at hearing the word “alive,” but I didn’t like the rest of the sentence.

“What other end?” I said, suspecting I wouldn’t like the answer. The Wendigo looked at me patiently.

“The other end of the energy pool. It doesn’t work quite the way you seem to think it does.”

I regarded him sourly.

“I have no idea how it works.”

“Take a guess,” he said. I thought about it.

“Well, Eli thinks it creates things based on archetypes, bringing them into existence in some fashion.”