After I had made sure that Kasee was all right, we headed back to the car and the rest of our oddly collected group. It seems that the girl I met on the porch got hurt pretty bad during the fighting and the guy that had been with her was bleeding a fair amount too. Apparently she knew something about first aid, because she started bandaging up her companion and seeing to her own injuries. After not too long, they had stopped the guy's wound from bleeding and strangely enough, she didn't appear to be hurt anymore, in fact, she was quite the opposite. Weird... Anyway, our group seems to have survived and dealt with whoever the hell those guys in black and mirrorshades were. Ralph owes me a great deal of explanations. If I can just distract him from surfing the net long enough to give me a couple of straight answers, I will feel a lot better about things.
As we were getting ready to leave, Nathaniel noticed that we were missing a couple of people. Both the guy that walked out of the forest at Forteau's house and the little girl that came with him were gone. We looked around, but they were no where to be found. I did a quick scan of the surrounding area, but came up with nothing. The guy with the bandages said something about the possibility that they had entered the spirit world. I'm not sure exactly what he was talking about. Maybe it had some connection to what happened to the inside of Mr. Forteau's house. I sure hope not. Whatever it was that the guy in bandages tried to pull off, it seemed to have failed miserably. All of a sudden he became vaguely translucent and his expression transformed into something akin to alarm. I tried to ask him what had happened, but he didn't seem to hear me. He did seem to be able to see us. I thought for a minute and brought out my laptop. I typed out a series of question onto the screen and through head nods and shakes we determined that he was stuck halfway between 3space and this spirit world he had mentioned. At one point I tried to touch him, but my hand went right through him, then Kasee tried and actually had a little success. She could touch him, but he still wasn't solid to her. She said that touching him felt like sticking your hand into a block of jello. Then it dawned on me that maybe Kasee wasn't a sleeper. That would explain a lot. As we were talking, the transparent guy disappeared entirely. I didn't know if that was good or not.
Some of the others thought that we should just wait for a little while and see if he reappeared. I took the chance to start talking to Kasee. After a few minutes, I was convinced that she had somehow awakened on her own and she was entirely unaware of that fact. I took a deep breath and tried to explain to her the concept of magic. She hadn't even realized that she was a mage or that what she was doing was unusual. I told her that there are many different ways of doing magic and explained that I am a part of a group called the Virtual Adepts, who work magic through computer programming and extending virtual reality into the real world. Based on the fact that the rest of the group had all showed up at Forteau's and didn't seem particularly surprised that our skirmish had violated the laws of nature, I assumed that the rest of our companions were also mages. I introduced myself and asked that they do the same, giving Kasee an introduction to some of the other traditions of magic. The girl that I had first met on the porch called herself Renae and is a member of the Verbena. Nathaniel was obviously one of the Sons of Ether, and the other guy that had showed up with Nathaniel is named Eric and belongs the Order of Hermes. And now we knew that Kasee was one of the Orphans. Kasee started insisting that I look for her Aunt in the same way that I had found her. Finally I acquiesced and brought up the full displays in my mirrorshades and started scanning the area for any signs of Kasee's Aunt. Halfway through the scan, reality revolted at my use of magic and something bad happened. My computer dumped core in a big nasty way. It would take a while to fix it and get everything working again. In addition, my head hurt like a bitch from the paradox. About that time, the guy that had disappeared suddenly came from over the hill, running like he was being chased by the minions of hell. With him were the other two missing members of our group.
He as soon as he was within earshot, he started yelling frantically that we needed to leave immediately, because something nasty was coming from somewhere behind him. I got Kasee onto the back of my bike and we took off back towards Forteau's. Kasee started insisting that we turn around, because she saw the car that she had been brought in go the other way and she wanted to know what had happened to her Aunt. I decided that it was not the time to worry about that. What's the use of getting answers if something eats you before you get a chance to do anything about them.
I followed the car back to what turned out to be Renae's house. When we got there, I learned the names of the rest of our menagerie. The guy with the bandages was named Reuben, and the tall guy was called John. For some reason, John didn't seem too comfortable, like a foreign exchange student at his first frat party. He introduced us to Crystal, the little girl that had walked out of the woods with him. She seemed firmly attached to Reuben, with no intention of letting go.
At this point I felt like things had calmed down enough that I could relax my hold on that paradox and let reality come back to equilibrium. It's not fun to do, but maybe it will let me get rid of the headache that seems tied to it. When you let go, you're never sure what exactly will happen, so you just have to role the dice. The world went out of focus for a second and then sharpened back up. At first, I wasn't sure what had changed. Then I tried to get up and walk. I attempted to go into the hall, when I slammed into the door frame. After a couple more bruises, I realized that reality had shifted six inches to the right. Both my perceptions and appearance were unchanged, but my location was wrong. I had to be careful of where I walked and what was not quite in the way. It was frustrating to say the least. I was not going to enjoy this and driving my bike was definitely out.
After coming to terms the bitch named paradox, I realized that John and Renae seemed to be involved in a very intent discussion. They both got up and left the room. Out of curiosity I let my perceptions wander with them into the next room. At first I was confused by talk of words like "Garou", but eventually I keyed in and realized just what they were talking about. That huge furry killing machine that had taken our side in the fight was none other than John. He was a werewolf. I guess that I shouldn't have been surprised. I am a mage, why can't there be werewolves too. Somehow that didn't seem to help. They finished their discussion and came back into the living room, so I let my senses center back on where I was sitting. I think that life should be interesting for a while.
Eventually Eric and Nathaniel decided to go out to pick up some stuff. I should have asked if either of them knew where they were going before they left, but I didn't realize just how clueless they are. Nathaniel seems to be even more absent minded than some of my professors. I guess I just assumed that Eric would make up the difference. He seemed fairly quiet, but pretty intelligent. That didn't seem to matter. After they were gone for a while, I did a quick scan and found out that they were really lost. I couldn't get a good fix on them, but they were definitely not anywhere near the Triangle. After what happened when I went looking for Kasee's Aunt, I was reluctant to push my search too hard. I hope they make it back home by morning. If not, I will look again and transfer a map to them. This paradox is getting to me. It's time for bed.