Disclaimer: I’m pissing in two ponds now, and neither belongs to me.

A/N: For those who haven’t read Dresden, I’ve included explanations and, apart from everyday facts, for the most part spoiler free. I reckon the hardest thing about this story will be bastardizing the two unique systems of magic into something I can pass off as existing within the same world. Oh well – read and review! Cheers to the DLP clowns for proof-reading, as well.

All the best,

Joe

*~*~*~*

Chapter Two – Dreadful Starlight

Something had gone wrong.

Par for the course ‘round these parts, I know, but something had gone really wrong.

Wrong enough that the Merlin had called an emergency meeting of the entire White Council, the Captain and Commanders of the Wardens, and every wizard or apprentice worth a drop of magic across the seven continents, deep beneath the streets of Edinburgh.

Yeah, Scotland. The heart and soul of the Old World – where magic thrived in centuries past alone in the wild… What better place for wizards? Great and powerful ley lines crisscrossed one another beneath most of the land, and specifically under Edinburgh. Supernatural energies and outstanding magic coursing through the veins of the planet.

The milk of the cosmos flowing from the oldest foci known to wizard kind.

My name is Harry Blackstone Cop—but no, the last few years have taught me not to be so blasé with something as dangerous as a name. My name is Dresden. Harry Dresden, P.I., look me up in the Yellow Pages under ‘Wizards’ – I’m the only one there. Serving greater Chicago and surrounds for more years than I ever thought I’d be alive.

It was hot beneath the castle in Edinburgh. Too hot for this time of year. My grey Warden’s cloak hung heavy against my frame – a dead weight.

“Consensum habemus?”

All the assembled wizards in their various dark robes and mixed blue, gold and scarlet stoles mumbled assent. The Merlin commenced the meeting without the normal formalities being observed. Always interesting. The game was most definitely afoot – and if the journey here through the Nevernever had been any true measure, then whatever was wrong had something to do with the blasted faeries.

“Then let us proceed,” Arthur Langtry, the Merlin, said softly in fluent Latin. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man with dark blue eyes and a long, flowing silver beard. He stood at one of the seven podiums erected on the stage at the head of the meeting hall.

One of seven. The other six were held by wizards of the highest caliber – four men and two women, standing either side of the Merlin. The Senior Council, upon which the world turned and grunts like me fought and died for.

I eyed my old mentor, Ebenezar McCoy, standing grim and tired, looking old and worn. He gave me a hesitant nod, and I caught an air of warning in his gaze. Oh yeah, something was up. Next to McCoy stood Gregori Cristos and Ancient Mai. On the other side of the Merlin were Joseph Listens-to-Wind, Martha Liberty and, hidden in the shadows and completely unobtrusive, the most mysterious of the lot, Rashid.

The Gatekeeper.

I cast an eye over the hundreds of assembled wizards and apprentices in the room, as well as the envoys from various supernatural parties seated off to the side, and watched them watching the Senior Council up on stage. Very few settled their gaze on Rashid for long, if at all. It took a certain kind of know-how to see and keep seeing the Gatekeeper.

His face was hidden deep within the cowls of his hooded robes. Yet I could feel the man’s eyes, one of them constructed of metal and able to perceive the future, regarding me from within the shadows.

I shifted my weight uncomfortably, wishing I wasn’t so noticeable and tall at the heart of the room. I’d just as soon not have Rashid’s attention. There were still debts to be paid there – to him… and to the Council.

It was the Gatekeeper who was tasked with guarding this world from influence beyond the Outer Gates, and the awful creatures known as Outsiders. The Outer Gates are the furthest boundaries – way way beyond the Nevernever – of all the universes across existence.

Well, perhaps not beyond the Nevernever. The theory goes that they exist as part of the Nevernever, as the final, outlying regions of all that can or ever will exist. A bit about the Nevernever… It’s what we surly and contemplative wizards call the entirety of the realm of spirit. It isn't a physical place, with geography and weather patterns and so on. It's a shadow world, a magical realm, and its substance is as mutable as thought. It has a lot of names, like the Other Side and the Next World, and it contains within it just about any kind of spirit realm you can imagine, somewhere. Heaven, Hell, Olympus, Elysium, Tartarus, Gehenna—you name it, and it's in the Nevernever somewhere.

“I shall come straight to the point,” the Merlin said. His tone was almost frail, belying the true strength of the man considered to be the strongest wizard alive. “Safe passage through the Nevernever, specifically through the provinces of Winter, can no longer be guaranteed.”

Well, I’d been expecting that. Whispered murmurings broke out amongst the assembled members of the Council. While troubling, to say the least, there were other ways through the Nevernever, and new paths had been forged before. This news did not warrant the haste or size of this meeting. Something was still very wrong.

No one was saying it, but I could taste war in the air. But with who? Or, more likely, with what?

“Messengers have been sent to the Summer and Winter Courts,” the Merlin continued. “None have returned. There is great upheaval within the Nevernever. The source of which can be traced to much graver news.” The old man paused for effect. His gaze slid over mine without so much as a glare. “The Accords of the Wild have been broken.”

The Accords of the Wild have been broken…

Oh.

Shit.

I felt that announcement like a thump in the gut – like a punch of hot flame from my own blasting rod. Whoa… So the rumours were true. Now the size of the meeting was beginning to make a whole lot more sense. I ran over quickly what I knew of the hidden community of wizards – a community of magical folk hidden under veils of secrecy that, even for the Old World, were almost absurd. It took me about three seconds. I knew very little.

“Warden Soren, if you please,” the Merlin said, gesturing to one of the grey-cloaked men at the front of the stage.

I didn’t know the man, but I recognized the object he held in his hands. A small crystal once carried by a warden who had tried to kill me – more than once. He walked up on stage and placed the crystal on the podium before the Merlin. Then he lit a candle and placed his hands over the flame, muttering a garbled incantation.

Light streaked from the candle into the crystal, a vast array as colourful as any rainbow. A beam of clear silver light rose in a cone above the entire stage from the tip of the crystal, forming a haze of sparkling radiance, at the heart of which appeared a spinning globe of the Earth.

Some of the younger wizards in attendance muttered appreciation at the special effects. I’d seen it before, and was less impressed.

“As we know,” Soren said, brushing his slick black hair away from his forehead as he spoke. “Wild Wizards are primarily located in various communities throughout the Old World. The red dots over Europe and the United Kingdom indicate known locations of their towns, their structured governments – Ministries of Magic, they call them – and the yellow dots are suspected locations.”

Soren paused and waved his hand over the candle. The spinning globe changed, the image zoomed in, and we were looking at a large map of England, Wales and Scotland. There were suddenly a lot more red dots and at least three times as many yellow. London was a hotspot of red, and there was a strange collection of yellow hovering just southwest of where we sat in Edinburgh. Curious.

“After the Second World War,” Soren continued, “it was learnt by the Council that a wild wizard named Grindelwald had been responsible for a significant amount of the damage caused during the conflict. Had he not been stopped, it is likely the war would have continued far longer than it did. The Council decided after the war that the use of magic during the conflict by the Wandwavers’ had repeatedly violated at least half the Laws of Magic. To avoid another conflict, between our world and theirs, representatives of the Wandwavers’ Ministries and the White Council signed the Accords of the Wild, and Grindelwald was executed.”

This was all history. I knew of it vaguely, as did most wizards. No one ever expected to have much to do with the Wandwavers. They really were well hidden, behind clouds and clouds of magic. I had never met one – beyond the Merlin, I didn’t know anybody that had. Although I suspected the Gatekeeper may have.

I poured myself a glass of water from the jar on my table, wondering where this was going. After the war with the Red Court vampires, our forces were still circling the drain. The Merlin couldn’t be pushing for war. Could he? A true magical war, a wizard’s war, hadn’t happened in centuries. Soren was talking again.

“Thirty years later and another Wandwaver began to cause trouble throughout their hidden world. His motives were unclear, yet it was learnt at the time that the Wild Wizard nearly succeeded in overthrowing their society here in the United Kingdom. The situation degenerated quickly – this internal war was very nearly revealed to the non-magical community.” Soren paused for unnecessary dramatic licence. “The Wild Wizard was killed, or so it was said, and the rest of the Wandwavers abided by the Accords and the policy of non-interference with the world at large. The honored Merlin met with representatives of their government at the time, and was assured the threat had been neutralized.”

The Merlin nodded. “Thank you, Warden.” Soren removed his crystal and returned to his guard duty at the front of the stage. “Troubling indeed. The Council has learned that once again there have been severe abuses of the Laws of Magic, specifically spellwork designed to induce enthrallment, committed by prominent and powerful Wild Wizards. The Accords have been tested and broken thrice since their inception, and thus no longer stand whole. Wild magic, unknown magic, has run rampant across this land and the cost has fractured the balance of the Faerie Courts, and plunged the Nevernever into chaos.”

Tense silence followed the Merlin’s strong words. I thought it might be time to say something myself, but the Gatekeeper stepped forward into the dim light, clearing his throat.

“Their use of magic does not always abide by the rules we understand. It is untamed and often reckless. Yet just because it can’t be explained does not mean there is no rational explanation for the seemingly vast differences between how we use our gift, and how they use theirs.” His tone was light, curious, like a whisper shouted out loud.

“Yes, thank you, Rashid,” the Merlin said, waving the man silent as politely as he could. “The fact still stands that the Wandwavers, or the Wild Wizards – call them what you will – have brought this calamity down upon us. It is time they were brought to task over the numerous breaches of our Accords.”

The Merlin really knew how to work a crowd. A lot of the members were shifting uncomfortably in their seats, under the pale glow of the candlelight from every table, and frowning through dark and contemplative brows. No one quite knew what to do, or had much to do at all, with Wild Wizards. They kept themselves so secluded and locked away that I hadn’t given them much thought since before moving to Chicago.

“From what we know,” Ebenezar McCoy said, shuffling forward from behind his podium. My old mentor was bald safe for a few tufts of silver-white hair. He sported his own neatly trimmed beard. “The Accords were broken by a self-styled Dark Lord of Wild magic. The boy who busted the damned Nevernever was fighting a murderer – a Wild Wizard who, from all accounts, had no trouble at all disregarding all the Laws of Magic. It’s been sixteen years since any of us had any contact with their world, Alfred. Let’s not piss them off until this is a bit more clear. ”

“Right,” I said, a touch loudly. My deep affirmative spread to the tables around me, earning me a few frowns and scowls. I decided it was time to say my piece. I clicked my fingers twice, standing, and hooked a thumb at myself. “We’re not gearing up for a wizard’s war, are we? Because that would be seven kinds of stupid.”

The Merlin glared down at me, his expression becoming several shades cooler. “Warden Dresden.” He paused. Invoking all manner of malice and hate into the silence. There was much mutual dislike between us. “You have something to say?”

I always did. And it always ended in bruises and headaches, if not a few broken bones and internal bleeding. “We can’t vilify an entire community of wizards, Merlin, based on the actions of a few.”

“The Accords stated non-interference with the Nevernever. That is the province of our wizardry, Dresden.” The Merlin stamped his staff against the cool stone. It echoed around the baffled, muttering room. “A boy wizard, one Harry Potter, summoned an Elder Demon to the mortal world and used it to consume a fellow mortal. Not only that, but if the reports are to be believed, this boy assumed the mantle of the Winter Knight.”

What!

“I was offered that gig,” I said flippantly, with a shrug, to hide my shock. “Long hours, crappy pay, and a murderous Faerie Queen riding me into the ground made me turn it down.”

“What would you have us do, Warden Dresden?” Martha Liberty asked from her podium. “We send messengers to the Wild Wizards, and they are offered naught but lip-service before the next Warlock takes it upon himself to disregard the Laws of Magic. It is long past time that all wizards were brought under the governing strength of the White Council.”

“So we’re not going to talk to them before we press our agenda?” I asked, feeling the familiar resentment for the powerful and often heavy-handed techniques of the Senior Council. “I submit that we abide by the Accords, even if they have not, and request a meet to understand just what’s gone on to make Winter turn tail and run deeper into the Nevernever.”

There were murmurs of agreement from across the entire hall. Nobody wanted more conflict. It was foolish of the Merlin to push it… but then was he? You didn’t get to be the Merlin by playing the fool. I had known the man long enough to suspect that there was some other game afoot here…

But I had made my choice.

I had invoked our end of the Accords. Despite however the Wild Wizards used magic, ignoring the Accords now could have some serious magical consequences for the Senior Council, and the Merlin himself. Binding magical contracts were not something to be disregarded lightly.

The Merlin knew that.

And I knew that… better than most.

I let out a deep breath slowly. Why had I just angered the most powerful wizard on the planet?

Oh yeah, because a one-eyed fortuneteller had told me to. Hell’s frickin’ bells.

*~*~*~*

“Your played your part well, Dresden,” the Gatekeeper said.

We stood together on one of the balconies of the castle, overlooking the city below against the light of the moon and stars. It was gone midnight, the streets were busy, a stream of cars trailed along the motorway, and a cool breeze ruffled our wizardly robes. The meeting had ended as well as to be expected, with a coalition of high ranking wizards opting to seek out the governing bodies of the Wild Wizards and demand an explanation.

“You going to tell me why I had to openly back the Merlin into a corner?” I rubbed the stubble on my chin with care. “There’s no love lost, to be sure, but I try to keep myself off his radar wherever possible.”

At seven feet tall, the Gatekeeper was one of only a handful of wizards taller than myself. When he lowered his hood, I beheld a scarred and leathery face, complete with that ball bearing in his missing eye socket. It was the face of an old man, a man who had been burnt and a man who hid in shadows, perceiving the endless pathways of the future.

“You did it,” Rashid said, “because I asked you to, and you trusted me. You did it because you would have done it anyway, and you did it because I cannot be seen to have my own agenda in this matter. The Senior Council must be seen as whole, especially with times as they are… and what is to come.”

That sounded as ominous as anything I had heard tonight. “What’s to come then?”

“Watch the sky, young wizard.”

“Eh?” Suffer my eloquence, Rashid.

The Gatekeeper turned his good eye toward me. Wizards avoid direct eye contact wherever possible. It can lead to an uncomfortable trick known as the Soul Gaze. To look too long into another’s eyes, for more than a few seconds, would trigger it. Things seen in a Soul Gaze could not be unseen – and were always as fresh as that first glance.

“If you believe in such avenues of prophecy that exist, Dresden, you will watch the sky and count to ten.”

I blinked, beginning a slow count in my head. The stars were dim and few against the lights of the city shining bright into the night. A dome of manmade illumination dimming the heavens. Five… Six… The breeze was cool but the air was humid. A distinct reminder that Summer was pressing an advantage against the Nevernever, infringing on the mortal world. What was Winter thinking, abandoning their outposts? Eight… Nine…

“Ten,” the Gatekeeper whispered, and part of the sky exploded.

I saw it happen. Hell’s bells, I even thought for a minute that my count had made it happen.

A torrent of blue and gold light, tinged silver-white and as bright as the full moon – twice as large as the full moon – exploded across the dark sky. At first I thought an X-Wing must have just discovered a weakness in the Death Star, as the fireworks were huge in the sky but looked distant, far away and beyond the moon. It was a detonation in space.

“A supernova,” Rashid said. He sounded sad, tired, as if the entire world had just ended. “So prophecy rings true a sixth time… Behold a stellar explosion, Dresden, of a star whose size would reach from here to the clouds of Jupiter. Betelgeuse, some five hundred light years away, as we measure time and distance across such vast, empty space, has ended its life.”

The light of the explosion burned across the night sky. Purples bleeding into reds, electric blue and gaseous clouds of far away dust. There was no sound, not a whisper, yet the biggest explosion ever witnessed by man raged overhead. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor.

It hurt when I blinked – I’d been staring at the damn thing for two minutes straight. Strange thoughts ran through my head, mingled with more than a little apprehension and fear…

“I’m no physics buff, Rashid, but isn’t that star some distance away? Wouldn’t it take more than the time we’ve been up here for those fireworks to reach us?”

Rashid smiled. “The star exploded over five hundred years ago. It will burn in our sky for a year or more.” His smile turned grim, almost sickly. “And the fireworks reach us today, Dresden, to mark the fall of the Sixth Dread Barrier.”

That didn’t sound fun. I hesitated to ask, knowing full well that something wicked – and no doubt powerful – was heading down my road. I’d feel a lot more comfortable if I had my spelled leather duster around my shoulders. “Go on then, hit me with it.”

Rashid was silent for a long, desperate moment. With a start that chilled me through I realized that he was scared, terrified, and barely mastering his fear. If Rashid was afraid, then we were all in trouble.

“There were once Seven Dread Barriers, Dresden. Seven seals that held the Outer Gates in place.”

“And six have fallen?”

“Six have fallen.” Rashid nodded. “The remnants of that long dead star blazing across the heavens mark the Sixth. One Barrier now remains – the last and most fragile. Should it fall, the Outsiders will no longer be restricted to the farthest reaches of the Nevernever. They will be here. They will descend to devour the cosmos.” Never had I felt such a dark and terrible gaze as the one Rashid considered me with just then. “And they will come for you first, Dresden, because you, and you alone, can kill them.”

My throat felt like it had been scraped raw with sandpaper. “What’s this got to do with the kid the Merlin was talking about? With Harry Potter?”

Rashid shook his head, looking once again at the supernova lighting up the night sky, brighter than the full moon and then some. It was an awesome, truly unique, sight to behold. “He is the last Dread Barrier,” the Gatekeeper said finally. “The Boy Who Lived, Dresden. He survived a terrible death curse, withstood eternity, and assumed the mantle of the Seventh Barrier – inadvertently. He has no idea just what he is.”

“And how did he do that?”

“The nature of the Seventh Barrier is such that it was meant to be unbreakable – and untouchable.” Rashid paused. “The Seventh Dread Barrier was stitched into the fabric of an immutable mortal law. The Law of Death. We all must die, our times will all come, one way or another. The wizards who designed the Barrier long ago understood this… however magic has evolved since then. It has been abused and twisted. Harry Potter should have died many years ago, and many times since. He is the exception that proves the rule – his soul is ensnared within another – and neither can live while the other survives. Thus, the fabric is torn, the Seventh Dread Barrier can be brought down if Potter is destroyed.”

“So let me try and keep this straight,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose to ward away a headache. “The kid’s angered the entire Council, broken the Accords that keep two magical worlds from war, he’s the Winter Knight, and all that stands between the whole world and an orgy of Outsiders punching through the Outer Gates? That about right?”

“He is also lost deep within the Nevernever. I do not know the mind of Winter, but the balance between the Faerie Courts has been tipped in favour of Summer – all because of what Potter did. Now Winter has turned its full might against the nether realms of the Nevernever, seeking the power of the Winter Knight to restore balance… before it is too late.”

That was a lot to take in. A helluva lot to take in. Which monumental screw-up was going to kill us all first? “The Sixth Barrier – that star – was one of seven locks, yes, so what happened to locks one through five? Hell’s bells, Rashid, why so much doom and gloom all of a sudden?”

Rashid shrugged. His soft-spoken British accent was near maddening in its calm inflection, belying the seriousness of our conversation. “They have collapsed over the centuries, as their creators always expected they would. All save the last. The First Dread Barrier fell alongside the city of Atlantis. The Second Barrier when the Courts of Faerie split to what we know today, fracturing the nature of the Nevernever forever. The Third Barrier to the Eternal War between Heaven and Hell, sometime around the sixteenth century. The Fourth Dread Barrier to the Great Wars of Mankind, and to the holocaust only sixty short years ago.” Rashid sighed. “And the Fifth Barrier to you, Warden Dresden, with the death of the Summer Lady Aurora upon the Stone Table.”

I blinked. That was some time ago, in the last near-war between the Summer and Winter Courts. It was only by the skin of my teeth that I’d kind of saved the world, stopped an all-out faerie war, and only a few people had to die for it. It’s usually a good day when only a few die.

“No one told me – you didn’t tell me,” I said, sticking an angry finger in Rashid’s face.

“Would it have changed anything had you known?” the Gatekeeper asked. “No, Dresden, you were better off in ignorance. The cost of those years still weighs heavily on your soul. So much pain and death, the loss of love, why add to that burden?” Rashid chuckled – it was a sad, lonely sound. “Although, even I did not foresee the Sixth Dread Barrier falling within our lifetimes. Not until it was almost upon us this evening.”

I waved a hand across the sky, across the brilliant schemes of course blue light. A gaseous cloud of wonder – the mark of the dead star. “Well, my keen investigative mind thinks it may have fallen.”

“Indeed. And it changes… many things.”

“So what do we do?” I asked. “This kid Potter needs to be protected. Is Winter after his head?”

“Yes.” Rashid paused. I sensed uncertainty. “He is, for the moment, beyond our reach.”

“I know my way around the Never…” I trailed away, giving it some thought. Quests into the Nevernever were not to be taken lightly. The creatures stalking even the outer realms of Winter were now free to attack foolish young wizards who thought they could fight the supernatural and live. I had enemies in the Nevernever – powerful, dangerous enemies.

“The Senior Council won’t sit by and let this all play out without some game plan,” I said. “You, Rashid, you’re the Gatekeeper – what will you do?”

“The Council has tasked me in seeking the aid of both Summer and Winter to forge a new lock on the Outer Gates. The Outsiders breaking through will not benefit either Court. However, Summer are pressing their advantage. It is hot out tonight, no?” Rashid stroked his chin in thought. “As it stands, neither Court is in any position to even want to help the other.”

“Then what’s our move?”

Rashid cocked an eyebrow. “Our move, Dresden?”

I shrugged. “I broke one of your locks. I’ll fix it.”

The Gatekeeper inclined his head. “The Merlin would have me manipulate you into forging ahead through the Nevernever, seeking the Seventh Dread Barrier, and likely perishing in the attempt. Even your penchant for survival may not see you through that. Hence, why I asked you to defy his will this evening before the meeting.”

“Just another nail in my coffin.” I was running out of space to hammer those in.

“Yet I think our efforts are better concentrated on finding out all we can about Harry Potter, and understanding what fate has led him beyond our reach.” The Gatekeeper’s metal eye flashed. “Besides, I have a feeling he may return to us on his own.”

There was an air of warning in what may have just been prophecy from the Gatekeeper. Still, he had warned me against risking the Nevernever, and it appeared we were both contradicting the Merlin to do so. If there was any man that could get away with it… The Merlin and I had a history – one that did not shine favourably upon my good health. There was bitterness, anger, and a helluva lot of politicking between Arthur Langtry and me.

“Kid’s got family?” I asked.

“No. But he is a prominent member of the Wild Wizard community. Come with me tonight, Dresden, through a forbidden forest and through some of the strongest magical wards every constructed.”

I shifted my weight against my oaken staff. The blasting rod hanging from my belt suddenly felt like it might come in handy. I hadn’t brought my old revolver to this rodeo, but now I wish I had its comfortable weight tucked into a pocket. A lot of supernatural beings didn’t account for six chambers of smokin’ hot lead. At least my shield bracelet was good to go.

“World is in six kinds of mortal peril, check. The Merlin scheming to remove a thorn from his side, check. Forbidden forest no doubt home to dark creatures, check.” I tightened my grip on my staff. “Deadly ward schemes, check. And one dumb kid lost in the Nevernever with the fate of the world in his hands… check. Why the forest, Rashid?”

The ashes of a once-massive star, burning and burning some five hundred or more light years away, eclipsed the light of the moon. Such distance beggared the mind. The interstellar fireworks overhead cast an unearthly pall over the whole world. It would burn in the sky for a year or more to come, Rashid had said.

“The forest is old, with long-forgotten paths through the Nevernever. The castle beyond it is old, as well. A place of learning, Dresden, a school of witchcraft and wizardry – of magic refined into something almost foreign to what we understand.”

The Gatekeeper regarded me as he replaced his hood over his head, hiding that metal eye within the shadows.

“It is there we must go to learn of Harry Potter. It is there we seek a man named Albus Dumbledore.”

*~*~*~*

A/N: So, there we go, what do you think? Favourable to folk who have read Dresden, and those who haven’t? Next update is on its way, as always. I’ll be updating Wastelands of Time next, some 3,400 words already written there, so look out for that. Cheers,

Joe