Sunshine
Some, but not necessarily only a full or new moon. It was more like they used the lunar cycle to mark a power cycle, so it could be tied to any day within a 29.5-day moon cycle.
I fired off a text to thank Sunshine for her help, then slowly opened the car door while pondering Sunshine’s revelation. Elf artifacts and weapons… Maybe Orrin could have been referring to one? But why?
During the conversation, Orrin had referenced twenty-nine days, and that he believed I wouldn’t need to come back again. Obviously, he’d felt like he’d delivered information I needed to put together… something, but what?
Had I missed something else he’d said—or maybe not said?
I eased myself down into the front passenger seat of the car, double checking my weapons on autopilot before I closed the car door.
The night we captured Orrin, he said he had to finish things that night. We know he’d been testing Tutu’s seals with his creatures, so he was attempting to… break in? Blow the place up?
We’d never found out because of Orrin’s geas. And somehow, Orrin thought he’d given me enough information to go by.
April opened the car door and hopped in, rocking the car. “Ready, Blood?” she asked as she buckled her seatbelt.
I reached for my seatbelt and absently nodded.
If Tutu’s was the goal—whether breaking into it or trying to damage it—how could that be related to the 29 days thing? Is that why Orrin had said he had to finish it the night we got him? Because of elven magic going through a lunar cycle power up?
He’d used an elven necklace to make the gates he used to summon fae monsters, but we already knew that necklace had a seven-day power cycle.
Sunshine had mentioned elf artifacts and weapons. I didn’t know much about elven magic—as elves had been long dead, they were not on the slayer list of ‘foes to learn and be prepared to face’。
However, an elven holy sword had been used in an attack on the Magiford Curia Cloisters about two years ago. It had done major damage, and even I knew that it was just one of the many types of weapons the elves had created.
Tutu’s was pretty much the only storage solution for artifacts and weapons like that if the owners didn’t want to risk personally holding onto them, and the Magiford branch was the only one in the Midwest. If anyone in the area owned weapons and magic like that, they were stored here.
Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with what Orrin was trying to steal.
It was possible the dragon shifter even had elven spells on the place—elven magic could still be purchased on the black market; a few elven spells had recently surfaced in Magiford. Maybe the 29.5 days referred to when the spell was weakest on Tutu’s?
Wait… if Orrin was trying to break in or bust up Tutu’s on a specific day in the lunar cycle… and it’s been twenty-nine days since then…
I released my seatbelt and violently kicked my car door open. “Sarge!” I spun in a circle, looking for him.
I hope I’m not too late!
He was standing with Captain Reese next to the SUV Captain Reese had arrived in. The pirate-dressed vampire was in the driver’s seat and had the car on idle.
“Sarge!” I yelled.
Sarge turned around, his silvery hair gleaming golden from all the car headlights. “Something wrong, Blood?”
“Tutu’s—twenty-nine days!” I babbled incoherently, trying to organize my thoughts into the fewest number of words possible as I sprinted down the street towards him.
I skid to a stop just short of the SUV and bowed to both Sarge and Captain Reese. “Sunshine said a lunar cycle is 29.5 days and that some elven magic will use a lunar cycle to model a spell’s or artifact’s power cycle. It’s probable Tutu’s either contains artifacts with such a power cycle, or even has protective spells on it that use that kind of magic,” I said, my words coming too fast for me to stumble over them. “The night we arrested Orrin he said he had to finish it. And it’s been twenty-nine days since we arrested him!”
Sarge rotated to peer at Captain Reese, who was rubbing her chin. “It could be coincidence. Orrin could have meant he had to finish it because Gisila would be leaving. Not to mention this timing is the worst—we’ve got to get the Telliers hauled in front of the Regional Committee tonight. But…”
“Better to be safe and check on Tutu’s?” Sarge guessed.
Captain Reese’s wolfish smile was back. “Absolutely.” She turned around to bark at the team. “Tetiana! Brody! You’re going on a fieldtrip with April and Blood!”