Haxenpaxen.

I felt the barrel of a gun press against the back of my head as the familiar click of a cocking hammer rang out softly behind me.

"Who are you and how did you find me?"

I gulped heavily, as I turned around coming face to face with a middle aged woman.

"Dana Wallens? Um... Just hear me out. Reynard has returned."

I watched the color drain from her face as pure terror inflected in her eyes.

Her focus split, I immediately seized the opportunity.

With one smooth move, I snaked my hand over her gun, drawing the slider back and with a flick discharged the clip onto the ground.

She looked at me in surprise and went straight to cast a spell, raising her hand high in a chopping motion, when I caught her by the hands, and pulled her close, towering over her.

"I wouldn't advise that, little miss magician." I warned, gesturing at the chain popping out from my pocket.

"Emerson's Alloy." She frowned.

"Yeah. You could have hurt yourself, throwing around battle magic like that." I let her go.

"What do you care?"

"I don't. But with Reynard back, I need your expertise in banishing him. Or else many will lose their lives again. You know first hand what that is like don't you?" I asked, softly.

Really putting that gravitas in my voice.

"Yes." She whispered, downcast eyes filled with regret.

"Look, I just need the banishing spell and a minute with your haxenpaxen. I'm not even asking you to do it for free. In return I will give you a better warding scheme. Prevents even gods from entering your home. Nigh un-pickable." I showed her the Brakebills warding data on my phone.

She looked it over and thought for a moment before nodding, then friwned as if realizing something.

"Wait, how do you know I have a haxenpaxen?"

"Quearomancy. Finding things. It's my discipline." I lied.

Quearomancers. People who can find things instinctively.

A discipline of magic as rare as Traveling and just as valuable.

Wanna find a hidden artifact?

Hunt down some enemy magicians that are really good at stealth?

Extra security for your Fort Knox knockoff?

Get you a quearomancer. Find anything, sense everything.

Nothing can be hidden from them.

Very high demand, almost no supply.

Most of them are in the employ of the Order Of The Library Of The Neitherlands.

But there are a few who are not.

I intend to gather them under my command, with gifts if possible and threats if necessary, until I can do both of those things myself.

She made an 'oh' sound in recognition and nodded.

That was enough to convince her?

Man, she is getting sloppy with age. That would have never caught her off guard in her youth, given the extra extra care she took to hide her demigod child from everyone across time. Even magic couldn't locate him.

"Alright, follow me." She agreed.

She began to undo her wards while I picked up her gun and reassembled it, as we walked into the house.

Instantly she redid her wards before heaving a sigh of relief.

I patted her shoulders, comfortingly and handed her back her gun.

"Let's talk about the banishing spell." She said, gesturing at the living room.

"Yes. Of course, but first can I do the thing with the haxenpaxen. It's really urgent."

She raised an eyebrow and I gave her the puppy eyes.

It was very effective!

Guess being handsome has it's perks huh?

Especially with cougars like Dana.

I smiled.

She sighed and nodded.

"Alright. Follow me."

"Yay!" I cheered and she rolled her eyes as she led me down to the basement, and a dead end.

Stopping before a wall she made a hand gesture, as a door shimmered into existence before our very eyes.

"Come on in." She said, pointing at the hulking 400 pound humanoid in the corner.

A haxenpaxen.

A humanoid creature whose main power is the same as the average gamer.

Being smelly. Like really, really stinky.

Stinks so bad, it's magical aura even more so, that not even gods bother looking at it.

They avert their eyes from it instinctively, the same way humans avert their eyes from onions.

"Wow. He is a majestic boy! Where did you find him?" I asked.

"Why? Do you want one too?" She asked.

"Yeah." I replied, "I am hunting a god after all. Would be nice to have a place to retreat to, hide in, if it all goes wrong."

I was lying of course.

I was planning on stealing her haxenpaxen anyways, once I was done here.

Why work hard when you can work smart?

"There's a colony in Albania. Or at least there was. I don't know about now." She told me.

"Thanks. I'll check up on it." I said, pulling out the incubus tail from my bag, and took a seat on one of the many kitty litter boxes stacked in the shelter.

"Incubus tail? Are you working on the Voltaic Transfer?" She asked.

"You sure know your magic." I praised.

"We hedge witches use it all the time. We don't all have the facilities at Brakebills to concentrate magic around us."

Oh, right.

Hedge witches are basically dealing with scraps in their magical lives, unlike formally trained magicians.

They are basically people who never get that admission into Brakebills, and are left to find their own way to magic.

And once you know magic exists?

There's no way you can just forget and go on with your life.

You gotta find it, learn it, use it.

But therein lies the problem.

Hedge witches don't have a lot of power or talent. So that combined with scarce resources, little to no spell knowledge and no guidance or support, means they never get far, breeding resentment and frustration.

It's the human condition.

They already have more than most humans, being able to do magic and yet they see someone above them and they crave it like cocaine.

And then there was the constant rivalry, blood feuds and other such problems among their own ranks.

No wonder they didn't like proper magicians.

"I didn't mean it as an insult. I'm being serious. Genuine. Even some trained magicians don't know this." I consoled.

"Of course they don't." She scoffed.

"Uh huh." I said, focusing on my spell.

I laid the tail out on my lap and but my finger, staining it with a couple drops of my own blood, before channeling what little magic I had into a spell.

A glowing mandala formed in the air above the tail and little strands of sparking eldritch magic reach down into the tail, soaking it with the enchantment I wanted.

I adjusted the spell formation and the concentric mandalas spun and twisted about, applying the desired effects onto the tail, readying it fo r the finale before I was finished.

With the tail ready I plunged the spell formation into it, as glowing lines appeared on it in a circuitous formation forming interconnected octagonal shaped webs and matrices on it's surface before permeating within, wisps of orange sparking flames wafting out from them.

"What spell is that?" She asked.

"It's a tracking spell. Reynard will soon know where you are!" I said spooking the shit out of her.

I snorted with laughter, catching her off guard.

"No. No, I'm joking. It's a filtration spell to make the Voltaic Transfer smoother. But what would you have done if I was indeed calling Reynard here, huh?" I poked her forehead playfully, as she fumed.

Why was I doing this?

Because I wanted to buy more time.

While still in the presence of the haxenpaxen, I began to use the filter to absorb magic from the world to refill my own reserves.

It wasn't much, but it would be enough to cast the wards on my coat.

The moment I had enough magic for them, I silently cast the wards on myself, making sure that once I leave this house, I will be protected and difficult to detect by the old gods.

"I would have killed you for that, you know that right?" Dana rolled her eyes.

"Yup. But I don't want to see Reynard win. Which is why I'm telling you this.

You need to be more careful Dana.

Don't just believe people who come to you that easily. Check and double check their stories.

You took one look at me and my sloppy answers and just let me in. That's a fatal mistake, Dana. Reynard is playing it smarter this time. Hiding his actions. Fires and missing persons cases instead of bloody murders scenes. You understand? He won't stop at anything to get what he wants."

She gulped and nodded.

"Alright. I'm done here. Can I have the banishing spell now?" I requested.

"Sure. Follow me." Dana said, and we left the basement shelter for her study.

Picking out a thick tome from one of the shelves, she read from it before she pulled out a stack of papers from her desk and spread them out on the table.

She ran her hands over them, chanting a spell and they papers began to glow and shake.

Words and symbols, ingredient lists and spell formations appeared on them, shining for a moment in golden light before settling into the papers in black ink.

"Here." She said, handing them to me, "I had hidden it in encoded spellwork."

"Good choice." I praised her, and she smiled satisfied.

"Of course. I'm not usually this sloppy." She huffed.

"Of course not. I know you're an accomplished magician. Otherwise you couldn't have banished Reynard the first time.

All the more reason I don't want you getting hurt. If I fail, you will be humanity's last hope." I said, putting forth an oscar worthy performance.

Gotta butter her up for the final nail in the coffin that was Julia's last hope.

She preened at the praise and blushed with an 'oh my'.

I, on the other hand, packed up everything and walked over to the door, waiting for her to lower the wards.

"Once I leave, immediately upgrade your wards. And keep the haxenpaxen close. Don't allow anyone else to do this until I come back and tell you it's safe, okay? Vet anyone and everyone." I warned.

Why was I being so nice to her?

Simple.

When Julia comes to her now, in her darkest hour, Dana will reject her out of fear. This will leave her only one option. One avenue of relief.

Me. And that's exactly what I want.

And that is if I even leave Dana alive.

More likely than not, I would return next week to kill her and claim her haxenpaxen for myself if the Albanian colony she mentioned didn't turn up with ideally a younger haxenpaxen like I desired.

After all, how can I pass up the chance to take in a very talented demigod baby?

It's a living magical battery!

And not just that. It will also allow me to dig my hooks deeper into Julia.

I want all of the main cast to be heavily dependent on me.

Because they all serve a purpose in the story. And the things they do, have consequences. Ones I don't intend to bear in order to obtain the rewards.

So I just have to make the main cast do their thing and then reap the harvest like a vulture.

They pay the price, while I take the sweet, sweet prizes.

Hehehehehehe.

I might just end up as the god of carrion at this point.

"I will. Thanks for telling me. Now you need to leave." She said, distressed.

"Yeah. Okay." I said, handing her a card.

"That's my number. Call me if anything happens."

She took the card, looked it over and raised an eyebrow.

"Jay Walker? Is that your real name or..."

"Yes. It's....my parents are weird like that. They thought it would be funny and now I'm stuck with it. Don't tease me too much please." I joked.

She smiled and gestured me out the door.

"I will call you if anything turns up." She said.

"Okay. But I might be busy so don't expect anything anytime soon. I'm going to go look for a pregnant victim now and I'll need to do it on the down low. So..."

"Got it. Now go." She nearly pushed me out.

I stumbled onto the lawn and a new set of wards appeared over her house.

I gave it one last look and waved her goodbye before turning around to leave as an evil grin spread across my face.

I had just eliminated and replaced one piece of this world's main storyline, just like that.

The stage was slowly being set. My manipulations taking root.

And once I am ready, the world will be ripe for the picking.

___________________

MC plays a cougar.

Gets a god banishing spell just in case, and secures a demigod baby for himself in the future.

Four birds, one stone.

Now that's what I call brilliant scheming!

Thanks for reading.

Donate your powerstones!

Next extra chapter at 600 powerstones.

Bye~

Also if you want to read ahead, three extra chapters are available on Pat-reon right now and a fourth is on the way.

www.pat.reon.com/goldenfingers