"How are the boys?" Kyle asked Moon.

"Complaining as usual."

That's good. It's when they start saying nice things about me that I'll be worried." He paused and looked over the room. "This will be a simple direct-progression ritual. I need to locate and tag a missing boy, Mitchell Truman."

"Should be simple enough," Moon said matter-of-factly.

Til be using a Kellehoff circle as the basis."

The spirit shrugged. "You say that as though my opinion on the matter would carry any weight"

Kyle chuckled. "I just thought you'd like to know."

"Very thoughtful."

Kyle reached for his jacket and pointed at the small, round black lacquer table in the center of the room. "Would you move that and the rug under it for me? That's where I want to build the circle."

The spirit rolled his eyes skyward for a moment, then complied. "Moving furniture is, of course, the eternal aspiration of all ethereal beings."

"Good. I knew you wouldn't mind," Kyle said as he pulled two flat leather cases out of his jacket's special pockets.

Hanna Uljaken laughed. "Are they all like this?" she asked.

Kyle smiled, and the spirit looked up from where he was guiding the table across the floor with the motion of his finger.

"No," Seeks-the-Moon said. "Some of us actually have complete, fulfilling existences, complete with rewards and respect."

"No, they're not all this way," Kyle interjected, ignoring Moon's sarcasm. "In creating Seeks-the-Moon I used the Rigetti formula. The only problem is that Rigetti was a Jungian, a fact I didn't attach quite enough importance to at the time."

"I don't understand."

"Seeks-the-Moon is, in a sense, or in essence, a reflection of my 'shadow', the repressed and often nefarious aspect of my personality."

The spirit winked. "Indeed."

"So it's part of his nature to be at odds with my conscious desires, which generally makes him a pain in the butt." But Kyle smiled almost benevolently as he watched his ally rolling up the small rug.

Uljaken thought about that for a bit "And yet, if he is a direct, or even symbolic connection to your subconscious, the fact that Seeks-the-Moon is expressive could be extremely useful."

Both the spirit and the mage stared at her. "Yes," Kyle said.

"Except that he usually finds the embarrassing and doesn't let me out much in public," the spirit said as he resumed his work of clearing away the rug.

"We can talk more about it later if you're interested," Kyle said.

"I am."

"Good. I can also tell you something of what I am doing here, though I can't afford to go into much detail because it would distract me."

Kyle unzipped the two leather cases. Both were slightly larger than his hand and each contained a number of small, flat gold objects, some thin gold thread wrapped around a piece of copper, a small sheaf of parchment paper, and a pen.

"A magical spell," Kyle told her, "is cast by harmonizing, adapting, shaping, and constructing patterns of magical energy-mana-according to a specific formula."

Seeks-the-Moon squatted down and blew away the faint border of dust that lay around the empty space where the rug had been.

"Each formula is finite in its potential, though segments in the formula are left open for elaboration," Kyle explained as he carefully removed the gold items from the cases. "If I were to create a spell with 'X' potential, its formula would have 'X' complexity. If I were to increase the spell's potential to, say, twice 'X', the formula could very easily, and very quickly, reach a complexity of four or eight times 'X’."

Hanna Uljaken nodded understanding. "Potential and complexity are geometrically related."

"That's right." Kyle gathered up the gold objects and walked into the center of the room. "But you must remember that I'm talking generally and abstractly.

"The complexity of the formula is what ultimately determines the difficulty of casting the spell, that and how much raw energy must be channeled in the casting. So, instead of trying to cast a spell with a four-times potential but a sixteen-times complexity, and probably failing and getting hurt in the process, we cast the normal-potential spell but use a ritual to amplify and expand those parts of the formula left open for elaboration. The basting takes significantly longer, but the complexity is minimized, the potential increased significantly, and the danger limited."

"Makes sense," Uljaken said.

"That," said Seeks-the-Moon, "is the grossest oversimplification you are every likely to hear, short of 'I snap my fingers and it goes poof.’"

"Well, it will do just fine," she told him.

"Really?" Seeks-the-Moon turned toward Kyle and raised an eyebrow archly.

Kyle ignored him. "I'm going to use a simple detection spell to find Mitchell. Normally the spell's range is so limited that if he wasn't, say, on this floor of his building, the spell wouldn't find him. But the ritual will let me cast the spell over a wider area.

"But I must cast the spell in a metaphysically 'balanced' environment, which these items are going to let me create. I'm going to do this silently, if you don't mind. Building the circle takes time and concentration."

"I, however, would be more man pleased to keep you amused," Seeks-the-Moon told Uljaken, smiling broadly.

She started to reply, but Kyle spoke first. "You must both be silent for this. I'd suggest you go off to another room to chat, but I'd like you to stay close to Seeks-the-Moon for the attunement.

'Truthfully," Kyle added, "I don't trust him."

"That's an interesting bit of self-observation, Mr. Teller," Uljaken said, and the spirit laughed loudly. "I'll have to keep it in mind."

Kyle shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a space to initialize." And with that he knelt and began placing the gold items upright at the edges of a circle he was slowly building around himself.

"Each stand sits on either a cardinal or subordinate point," Kyle said while examining the completed circle from the outside. 'Those are metaphysical points of correspondence that different traditions and theologies have assigned definitions and importance. I studied hermetics primarily at Columbia, which was also about as secular as you could get. Nonetheless, association of the cardinal points to something greater definitely allows a certain degree of conceptual and procedural centering."

"A common starting point, and so on?" Uljaken said.

"Exactly." Kyle pointed at each of the primary upright stands in turn as he spoke. "For example, north corresponds with the element of earth in many Western traditions, east with the element of air, south with fire, and west with water. There are theological correspondences as well, but I don't want to get into that"

"Coward," said Seeks-the-Moon.

Kyle ignored the jibe. "When I begin, I'll stand at the center, which corresponds to spirit. Some argue that that's the fifth element. I'm not so sure. I'll begin the ritual facing north since we're looking for a physical body."

Uljaken looked around at the eight upright stands marking a rough circle in the center of the room. "Doesn't the circle have to be closed?"

Kyle nodded. "It will be, but only once I'm inside. Before that I need something of Mitch's to focus on, something that will pick up his resonance for use in both the spell and the ritual."

"That's what the ritual sample you talked about earlier would have been for."

"Yes. Any random samples around here-hair, body fluids, and such-would be long 'dead' by now, so I'll have to go with something symbolic or associative of Mitch instead. Can you think of anything here that might be particularly important to the boy?"