Winds of Change

Winds of Change

## Blurb

**The times, they are a-changin’…**

Sometimes the biggest events begin with the smallest incidents.

This time, it’s another of Jason’s strange cases: a missing man a tracking spell can’t trace.

It isn’t long before the man turns up. Except he’s…different.

And he’s not the only one.

A new magical affliction is creeping through the world, permanently altering people’s auras and changing their astral forms. As Alastair Stone and his friends struggle to understand it and trace its source, he soon finds he’s got another, far more personal, issue to deal with.

A powerful foe is back with a proposal for Stone—and this time, he doesn’t seem willing to take no for an answer.

The world of the Stone Chronicles is about to change irrevocably. You don’t want to miss this one.

## Plot

A tiny tear in reality exists in a storeroom in Rochester, Minnesota, where a boy from another dimension and his mother had hidden briefly (Rite of Passage). A LARPer at a convention there never notices the odd particles that attach to him when he searches the storeroom during a scavenger hunt. Nor does he notice he’s shedding them at the airport, on the plane… No one else they contact notices, either.

Alastair Stone gets a message about something ‘weird’ from Jason while he’s enjoying dinner with Aubrey and Susan, who have just announced their engagement. He ignores the message, focusing on his family. Later, though, Aubrey urges him to go; he knows Stone can’t contain his curiosity for long.

### Pause here a moment WARNING, Possible Spoilers Ahead

Back in San Jose, Jason tells him he has a missing person case, but he hit a snag. Verity’s tracking spell acted strangely and couldn’t locate the man, Wayne Carter. Amber, too, had a strange occurrence; she scented the man from his belongings, but his scent changed when she tried tracking him, becoming ‘sexier’.

Stone gets together with Verity and tries a tracking ritual of his own, with the same odd results, as if the man were different than when he’d used the belongings they’d used to track him. The Harpies come through with a lead, though, from a prostitute. They meet her in a bar and she identifies a photo as the same man, but…different. The man she’d partied with had been ‘special’ and able to satisfy her and two other women for hours.

When Stone is walking to a ley line to go home, a furtive being crosses his path. It looks almost like a werewolf to magical sight. He follows and comes across the creature attacking a homeless man with its claws. It flees and Alastair is able to heal the man, who describes his attacker as an ordinary man, who must have had knives, to cut him up so.

Perplexed, Stone leaves a message for Leo Blum, who calls back the next day saying he’s been run ragged with a serious uptick in crime in the Bay Area in the last month. Stone reports his incident, but Blum tells him the attack will be pretty low on anyone’s priority list, especially since he can’t include ‘werewolf’ in the incident report.

Jason and Verity conference call Stone later that day and compare notes. That evening the prostitute they talked to reports Wayne Carter is at a dance club, having a great time. Jason is busy with prenatal classes, so Stone and Verity dress for clubbing and head to the place to check it out. It turns out to be a sex club, with people in various states of action and privacy, or lack thereof.

They find Wayne in an alcove with several other men and women, very involved. Stone tells Verity to get a surreptitious photo – they only need to inform his wife, not confront him. But he switches to magical sight while she’s busy and sees that ordinary Wayne is now a satyr, with all that entails. He tells Verity and she switches and sees it, too. Wayne notices them and realizes they can see his satyr form. He shoos his partners away when Stone says they need to talk.

Wayne is astonished they can see him, since no one else can, with the exception of an ogre-like man on a commuter train. He says he just woke up a few days ago looking like a satyr, and nearly lost his mind. But when his wife barged in on him in the bathroom and didn’t notice anything different, he calmed down. Very quickly, all he could think about was sex and partying, so he just – left. Rationally, he knows he’s hurting his family, but can’t bring himself to care; none of that matters anymore. He tells Stone to tell his wife to divorce him; they had good savings the family can live on. Verity tells him to tell her himself and not be a chickenshit.

After filling Jason in, Stone admits he has no idea what’s happened. He’s never heard of anyone looking like a different species to magical sight, and he thinks the man’s aura had also changed, explaining why the tracking rituals failed. Wayne was able to see the ogre-thing on the train, so they can see each other. Mages can see them, but mundanes can’t. He’s enlisted Eddie and Ward to research the phenomenon, but wonders if it isn’t due to a rift. A quick check of Desmond’s globe, though, shows no rifts for hundreds of miles from San Francisco.

Stone goes solo to cruise San Francisco, since both Verity and Jason are busy. One night he spots a monkey-like creature which, when it spots him, flees. He follows, using invisibility to stay hidden, and tracks it to an upper-story room in a derelict building. He levitates up and peeks in the window to see the monkey-man, along with a muscle-bound woman and a gnome, all of whom look like ordinary people to regular sight. Someone attacks while he’s occupied, nearly hitting him in  the head, though he’d managed to dodge and take most of the blow on his shoulder. He manages to avoid a fall, getting safely to the ground where he texts Verity, saying he needs healing. At Scuro’s shop, Verity heals him up and he relates what he saw, including that the person who hit him sounded scared, not malicious. He figures their sudden change has them skittish and defensive.

Both Kolinsky and Mme. Huan are ‘away’ and out of touch, though Stone worries they’re avoiding him again. But that night he gets a text from Gina, Jason’s assistant. She’d been out sick lately, and he didn’t socialize with her in any case, so he is surprised, especially when she insists she needs his help. When Stone gets to her apartment, she’s acting oddly, even for her, as if she expects some reaction. He switches to magical sight and finds she’s been changed into a human-sized cat.

Gina’s freaking out, though she seems relieved that he couldn’t see her cat form at first. Stone explains that he’s a mage and demonstrates some magic for her. Quite a bit of explanation ensues, on both sides. Stone also examines Gina’s aura, which has changed like Wayne’s did. Gina actually seems pretty content with her new status, now that she’s sure regular people can’t see her cat form. And she’s excited about the new world Stone opens up for her. One thing seems clear: the changes appear to bring out a person’s personality in visible form. Wayne was oversexed and frustrated and became a satyr. Gina is curious, lazy…catlike.

The next day, Stone kind of sits back to watch the show, having asked Amber and Verity to both be at Jason’s office. Gina arrives, and Amber first notices something is different in her scent. Then Verity switches to magical sight and yells, “She’s a cat!” They explain to Jason and Amber that Gina has changed like Wayne did, into a cat in her case. Gina is more or less inducted into the ‘Scooby Gang’. She also agrees to let Verity take her blood for study.

More soberly, Stone and Verity discuss the trend, wondering how many more changed people are out there, and why it’s happening. When Stone gets to ‘how to stop it’, Verity asks why. Wayne and Gina both seem happy with their changes, so why do they need to be ‘cured’? And if the phenomenon is widespread, then it’s time to get other mages involved. Stone says Eddie and Ward could get word out in the UK, but so far they only know of cases in the Bay Area, not elsewhere in the world. With Kolinsky and Mme. Huan incommunicado, Alastair realizes he still does have one other person to consult.

Stone contacts Ian, who says to meet him in a club in Prague. When Alastair says he needs to speak to Gabriel, and alone, Ian is hurt or offended, but gives him the address to their apartment. There, Stone asks if Gabriel knows how to contact Kolinsky. He does, but advises against it; he and his father don’t get on. But Alastair lets Gabriel know that, not only does he know about dragons, he’s been drafted by them to investigate strange and possibly dangerous occurrences. Gabriel is amused and impressed that Stone, scion or not, has been given so much information. Having ‘gone native’ himself, he avoids the dragons’ politics except to find it entertaining. He gets serious, though, when Alastair explains the changed people, and his theory that they’re related to a rift. He offers to help if he can, to at least keep his eye out for anyone who’s been changed. But no, he’s not going to tell Ian about him being a dragon, nor should Stone. Some things the other dragons wouldn’t countenance.

Verity contacts Stone and asks him to meet her at Sybil’s Apothecary, her shop. When he arrives, Verity reports that whatever is changing people appears to be contagious; changed people shed it like a virus, passing it on. Neither she nor Hezzie have it, but they can’t tell if it’s an immunity, because they’re mages, or what. Verity says they need help, more mages on the case. In the course of the conversation, Stone and the man-hating Hezzie reach a sort of accord. She’s working on her issues, and he’ll try not to trigger her.

Back at Thayer Investigations, Gina tells Stone she’s contacted others like her by setting up a secure message board. She’s found about 20, from as far away as Africa. A re-scan of Gina doesn’t tell him anything new, so he asks her to give him access to the message board so he can read the discussion himself. He pops to London for a pint with Eddie and Ward at the Dragon and updates them with Verity’s news. They’ve found no precedent for what’s happening in the Library or at Caventhorne. They discuss bringing other mages in, especially those in medical or biological fields, and setting part of Caventhorne up as a research center. When he attempts to leave, his travel is hijacked, and he finds himself facing Aldwyn.

Aldwyn slyly pokes at Alastair that his dragon friends have deserted him. They’re in a conclave about the new changed people and didn’t bother to tell Stone about it. Alastair is aware Aldwyn is trying to get him on ‘his side’. He calls him a monster for killing people for the foundations of Surrey house. Aldwyn calls him naïve, and tells him times have changed anyway, so things like that are unlikely to happen again. He says their bond is strong, that he’s never lied to Alastair, and he’s hoping he’ll come to trust him. He gives Alastair a card to contact him with. But he opens a portal for Stone to leave, not wanting him to know his location by ley line – not very trusting. Stone leaves him with a parting shot: Aldwyn’s enemy, Brathwaite, is still alive and practicing necromancy, residing in the body of his descendant, Miriam Padgett.

At Caventhorne, with the number of known changed people over a hundred, the researchers are getting down to business, tentatively concluding that the changes are permanent, and that the people had to have come into contact with some catalyst. Some people report feeling more like themselves, and even some improvements in overall health, though a couple incidents of suicide occur. Stone wants to know the key to who gets it and who doesn’t.

That night Stone delivers a seminar at Stanford and is approached afterward by a former student, Michele Berry. She comes on strong, proposing she and Stone do it right there in the lecture hall. Stone keeps fending her off, despite some odd attraction she’s exuding. He looks with magical sight and she’s suddenly gorgeous, with pointed ears. She starts really pushing it and, seeing she’s changed, Stone pushes her away. She fakes a hard fall, then threatens to go to the university administration and turn him in for inappropriate contact. When she leaves, he goes, shaken, to Verity for advice.

Discussing the incident with Verity calms him, gets him thinking rationally again. Her advice is to go to Beatrice Martinez and get the jump on the situation. Stone wonders if the changes don’t amplify what is already in a person’s personality. Unable to sleep later, he checks the message boards and sees there are now nearly 200 members. He also checks email and gets an email from an anonymous person asking to talk to him about the woman who came on to him. He knows it’s risky, but decides to do it.

The woman he meets tells him about Michele's change in habits and personality, and says she’s concerned and worried. But, she also knows Stone wasn’t at fault. She was there, and took video of the whole incident that will prove she was the aggressor.

A couple of days pass with no issues. Stone visits Jason’s office to check in with Gina. Jason tells him he’s got a case and is leaving for LA, while Amber is going to Tahoe for her baby shower. Meanwhile Gina has been plotting occurrences and they’re now over a thousand, mostly in the US. The oldest is from San Diego. She also asks him to stop talking loke it’s a disease that needs a cure.

He gets a message from Michele, despite every reason not to, he meets with her. She apologizes and tells him, while she feels more herself, she’s having trouble managing the change. He gives her Gina’s contact information, and gratefully considers the incident closed.

At Caventhorne, Stone learns that the ‘affliction’ seems to be magical in nature, but affects those with magical heritage but no magic of their own. Gina, Eddie and Ward have also plotted a likely location for the start of the infection – the upper Midwest US, including the area where Daphne Weldon and her son Jeremy had been before they returned to their plane. Before he can pursue it, Jason calls; Amber has gone missing.

Jason is frantic. Amber was headed to her family’s remote home near Tahoe and the roads there are bad. Stone and Verity combine their power for a tracking ritual and are able to get within a few miles of Amber’s location. She informs Jason and authorities in the area, while Stone pops directly to the nearest ley line and begins searching from the air.

He finds Amber down an embankment with her legs trapped beneath her Jeep – after the initial accident she’d tried to get out of the wreck and it rolled on her. Alastair lifts the car and Amber pulls herself out. Stone sets flares and a signal light he finds in the Jeep. When he returns, Amber says something is wrong with the baby. Stone tries to remember everything Verity about healing, about empathy and human body systems wanting to be in balance. He enters Amber’s body and finds the baby in distress; pouring as much energy he can into her, he helps the tiny girl unknot the red wound in her aura and heal the wound in her body. When he finishes, exhausted, Amber says she thinks the baby is okay. Stone conceals himself nearby when responders arrive, then pops back home once he’s sure Amber is in good hands.

When Stone visits the hospital the next day, Jason nearly crushes him with a grateful hug. He and Amber are overcome with gratitude that he saved Amber and healed the baby. Alastair gives credit to Verity for her healing instruction. Then he tells them he thinks he knows the source of the changes and will be going back to Minnesota. Verity invites herself along, saying she’ll call on Bron Broome’s family for travel assistance again. They plan to leave as soon as Verity can get back home to San Francisco to gather some things. But then he gets a text that Michele Berry has attempted suicide.

By the time he reaches the Stanford hospital, he finds the girl’s friends are taking turns waiting in the ER area. He goes for coffee with the girl who’d taken the video. She’d found Michele unresponsive, having taken pills. She’d left a note saying she couldn’t cope with what she’d become. Shortly after, they get a text that Michele has died.

Stone is morose when Verity arrives, and he tells her about Michele. He’s adamant now that the changes need to be stopped, and a cure found. Verity reasons with him, pointing out that not all people can cope when they discover they have magic, either. The majority feel better off for it, both magic and the changes.

Stone pops to Minnesota and goes to the parking garage where they’d last seen Daphne and Jeremy. He searches for a rift while waiting for Verity to arrive. Finding nothing, they next try the house Daphne and Jeremy squatted in. There’s nothing there, either, though they find a homeless woman and her two children, one of whom is a changed wolf boy. Reasoning that the rift has to be somewhere where people can be affected by it, they next try a nearby hotel that hosts conventions that draw people from around the country.

After an exhaustive search through a hotel full of conventioneers, the pair come up empty. Stone has a thought and calls Gina, asking if she can trace anyone in her database back to the hotel. She does, and sends a link to the Facebook page of a Darrel Gronsky. After studying his convention photos, they notice a storeroom they don’t recognize. They find it, and the fissure, and Stone sets about closing it. But a convention volunteer who’d been eyeing Verity and watching her movements barges in. Verity manages to convince him they’re LARPing an urban fantasy which thinks is cool and, since he won’t leave, orders him to just watch and not interfere. Something on the other side of the fissure tries to make a grab for Stone but finally, with a boost of energy from Verity, he gets the fissure closed. Stone is spent, bleeding from the nose. The pair slip away when the convention guy goes for a medical kit.

Things quiet down, and the day of Aubrey’s wedding arrives. It goes beautifully, except Ian doesn’t show, making Stone disappointed and angry. Until Gabriel suddenly arrives. Getting Stone alone, he tells him Ian has gone missing and he can’t locate him with a tracking ritual. He asks Stone to help, particularly by donating his blood to strengthen the ritual. Frantic, Stone has Verity make his apologies and heads to the Surrey house with Gabriel. There, the ritual fails again, but this time Gabriel is sure Ian is alive, but on a different dimension. He says further that something is blocking his magic.

Gabriel says he needs to consult the other dragons to find out whose scions Stone and Ian are; a dragon can always find its scion. Stone tells him it’s Aldwyn, which upsets Gabriel more. Aldwyn keeps away from other dragons, and is considered aberrant and very likely insane. But he’ll go to the other dragons to see if they can help find either Ian or Aldwyn. He pops out, leaving Stone pacing and worrying.

Stone considers options, then remembers Aldwyn gave him a way to contact him. He uses the card to call out to Aldwyn. Shortly after a phone call tells him to return home. Nothing else. He pops back to the Surrey house to find Aldwyn relaxing on a sofa. They wrangle a bit – Stone’s impertinence to Aldwyn making Aldwyn touchy. He goes as far as to say he can’t be sure Aldwyn didn’t take Ian himself, which prompts Aldwyn to warn him about his accusation, given he’s asking for help. But the old dragon finally agrees to help Stone – for a price.

Aldwyn tells Alastair that he must perform three services for him, over a period of not more than five years. For that, he’ll locate Ian. Stone tries his best to mitigate the oath required, demanding his family and friends must remain safe. And, he asks Aldwyn to find Ian *first*, before agreeing. Aldwyn pops out and returns a short while later. Ian, he says, is in another dimension that isn’t quite compatible with human life. His energy is failing, so Stone must hurry to agree to the oath, or lose his son. Knowing Aldwyn is playing him somehow, he agrees.

Aldwyn gives Alastair a ring, saying when he gets to Ian, to clasp his hand and press the stone. Then he sends Stone to a small, white room with only a bed, where a wholly unharmed Ian tells him it’s a trap. He hands Alastair a note he says is blank, but Stone can read it. Aldwyn tricked him. He took Ian. He now has a choice: send Ian home and stay in Aldwyn’s trap, or return home and sacrifice Ian – the ring will transport only one. Stone of course chooses Ian. He gives him the ring and tells him to put it one and take his hand so they can both go home. Ian fades away, and Stone is engulfed in white light.