The top of the tower consisted of a wrap-around observation deck and decent sized room with all four walls made of glass. As was true of most forester towers. Inside was a large table with a map of the preserve under a transparent acrylic top, it had all the other substations and ranger towers marked on it. It also showed all the access and visitor roads, but the center of the map was dominated by the exclusion zones marked area. A second table next to the door held radio equipment and a third across from it had a laptop for reviewing trail cam footage when it was needed.

  A gun locker was on the far wall, a mini fridge and small cooking area with it, and finally a cot to sleep on in case of emergencies made it cozy. There were plenty of smaller pieces of equipment of course, medical kit, lock box with speciality ammunition for other kinds of emergencies, even a few books to help pass the time. Kasia looked around and claimed a chair, “Reminds me of some mountain huts I've been in. Guess some things don't change with time huh?”

  She leaned forward, “So anyway, we blew the ammunition storage and sent half the farm house up with it before I charged in. The others exchanged fire with the Germans to cover me, but the explosion had rattled them hard so it was more picking them off than anything. I got in close and it was all over but for the crying.” She snorted and sat across from her, “Not gonna give me the blow by blow on that?” The vampire was suddenly more interested in the map than meeting her eye, “That part was unpleasant. The ah… messy part of the story you know? I don't like to talk about those details.”

  Myla hesitated and smiled, “Well can you at least tell me how you handled the tank? Gun through a vision slit? A grenade?” Another pause and she looked back up, “We set them on fire and shot anyone that managed to climb out.” Myla took that in for a second, “Oh. Huh, that's more simple than I thought. Wouldn't being in a tank save them from that?” Kasia shook her head, “Mm no. The armor conducts heat just like any metal would, and if you get burning liquid into the air intake… well either the engine overheats or catches fire.”

  The vampire started picking at her fingers, “Both shut it down. And they can't really use the cannon that close in, the hull gun is easy to avoid, so the only other option was to climb out and fight us. Without infantry support though, it was nothing but bad choices left for them.” Myla rubbed her chin, “Huh. I doubt that will work on modern tanks, their design has changed a lot over the years and that sounds like it shouldn't be hard to fix.” Kasia shrugged, “Engines still need to breathe. Even if they did, they'll have another weakness. Nothing is truly invincible in my experience.” Myla grinned, “Oh? What about dragons?”

  Kasia was pulling out her phone and an odd pocket notebook she had had in her bag, “Even them. I actually saw one captured once.” Her smile evaporated, “What?” The vampire paused, “Uh. Actually I shouldn't have told you that. Dragons are proud things, the more people that know that story the more people are in danger of potentially embarrassing that one.” She hesitated and shrugged, “But without names? They were captured by the Nazis pet occultists while they were asleep. Once they were captured they were stuck, but the bastards had a serpent by the tail and had no idea what to do next.”

  She looked smug, “Well they thought they had, but they didn't realize that the binding spells they used were two way. That's not really explained in the text it comes from, so when they used the only binding spell that could bind a dragon it just… backfired fully. The dragon took them over instead and the occultists that first tried it were executed for trying to release it. Their best wasn't enough.” Now this was a real story, “How do you know about it?”

  Kasia shrugged, “They stole the Book of Binding from me. It's the original copy and those fucking monsters used it to soul bind people to do their biding. Soul slaves, do you have any idea how fucked that is? How it breaks people? Between that and their experiments into chimera… I infiltrated the base they were using as a holding site. I took some time to dig up information on what they were doing there and when I learned what they were trying to bind, I went right to the dragon. Didn't even bargain, I just set a bomb on the holding circle and got out of the blast range.”

  Her grin became vicious, “That dragon made it their mission to burn that cult out of memory. Couldn't have happened to more deserving dick heads. I wonder if they managed it…” Myla sat back, “That almost sounds like bullshit.” Kasia laughed and fished out her phone, “I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't been there. But I got my damn book back and the Thule Society burned. I had to move my entire collection after that too, if those goat fuckers figured out how to steal from me, then it was just a matter of time that someone better did it too.”

  She watched the vampire carefully typing on her phone. Her grandfather was faster. It was painful to watch. “Not sure if I still own any of that. I’m not sure how much of my company is still alive. Agatha might be at least, that woman knew how to survive. Wouldn't be shocked if she sold the books, and more power to her. We lost the war, she would need the money to start over.” Myla was quiet for a moment, “I went into the military young. Sixteen year old kid, believing the recruiters lies. I got stuck state side for all of my service, never saw foreign bases, never explored new countries, never met new people. Just nonstop guard duty and hearing other people's stories.”

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  Kasia smiled at her with an odd look, “No offense, but I've seen enough wars to say that's good. War breaks people and renders them down to animals fighting in the mud.” Myla shrugged, “I got all that training for nothing and didn't even get to travel. Hard to not think of it as anything except a waste of time.” The vampire waved an admonishing finger, “Nothing is truly a waste of time. Except for teaching, no one ever wants to learn anything.” Myla snorted, “Yeah? Sounds like you know from experience, what did you teach?”

  She waved a hand, “I taught spell work mostly. I'm not much of a mage, I can't visualize spells so I'm slow and need to draw them out physically. But I’ve always been good at figuring out how they're supposed to work. Refining them too, on paper at least. I used to trade knowledge for knowledge, spell for spell. I just love watching a new working come to life.” Myla fished into her rifle bag and pulled out a mobile projector. She put it on the table and went around the table, “What's your number? Wait you wouldn't know. You can find it in… on second thought just go into the menus I tell you to.”

  She walked her through finding her phone number and Kasia wrote it down in her notes. Myla sent her a link to a site, “Right, this is an Aether Site. Aether sites are… they're places where people can send each other messages and pictures and files. Stuff like that.” Kasia glanced at her, “What a very detailed explanation.” She snorted, “Well it's not exactly a complicated thing. Anyway, this site is a place where people post spells they want to share for free.” That got her a less than trusting look, “People just post them for free? Without verification of effects?”

  Myla shrugged, “I’ve heard they have mages who test the spells before they're posted publicly. My own talent is minor, so I can't cast anything they post.” Kasia pulled up a spell and studied it, “Hmm. That's actually not bad for an Arabian byproduct. Typically offshoots have mana bleed issues that make them take more to cast. This one almost eliminates the issue.” Myla nodded and sent another link, “I think you'll want to learn this one.” She clicked it and read in silence.

  Then she looked up, “This is a Babel age translation spell. These are priceless, but the skill to cast it is… it'll probably take months to learn… but it is like the Dead Tongue spell isn't? Is that Babel too? We never did find origins…” Myla propped her chin up with a hand, “Dead Tongue?” Kasia waved the question off, “It lets you speak with the dead. But it doesn't make them talk back, so you're relying on them wanting to speak. You can't do much to make a soul speak if it doesn't want to.” Myla gestured at the projected screen, “Huh. Well there's discussion forums for these spells too, if you want to see what people think of it. Here.”

  She pulled out contact wearables that barely sized down far enough for Kasia's fingers. She would need to buy her ones that actually fit, “So now you can move this with your hand.” Kasia hesitated, “I'm not certain I should be using this. It feels.. odd. I liked the screen better.” Myla gave her a skeptical look, “You haven't even tried it. Look, it's like a typewriter right? You're familiar with those?” She immediately nodded, “Of course I am. And this looks nothing like one despite having the keys. If it's this or the physical screen, I think the screen might be better.”

  Myla felt dirty doing it, but she nodded, “Ok so let me walk you through this one step at a time.” She directed Kasia through the store page and filled in her own payment info to buy a new simulated keyboard. Kasia promised to pay her back, but it was only a few bucks. The new keyboard was a favorite for insufferable people that think the past was perfect. Or on second thought, vampires that were older than phones. Kasia smiled at the typewriter, “Now this I know at least. So why was this important for these… forums? Like political forums or documentation?”

  She shook her head, “Discussion forums. And only on topic, they frown on people talking about other things when people want help with spell work.” The occultist studied one of the discussions on the translation spell, “Interesting. Ah and it tells you how recently the last person spoke. Is it so you know when people might actually be around to answer your questions?” Myla chuckled, “Or so you can fight about things.” Kasia nodded, “Ah so like actual discussion groups. Are women still unwelcome in them?”

  Kasia was slowly starting to type as she asked. Myla hesitated, “Well it depends on the group. This one is generally fine, if a bit nitpicky for all their free spells shtick. What are you writing?” Kasia shrugged, “They misidentified the origins of the spell. That changes what fundamentals the spell structure follows and that's very important for mana efficiency. See with the wrong fundamentals on this spell alone you reformat it…” Myla slowly sat back as she realized that she might be on this topic for a while.

  It was the simple passion in her eyes and gestures that kept her engaged in the impromptu dissertation on magic theory. So she just listened and enjoyed the company. They sat in the tower watching the night together after Kasia had finally run out of relevant magic theory to discuss. It was a beautiful night. And she could barely keep her eyes open just two hours into a six hour post. Myla yawned, “Alright maybe you had a point. I am tired.”

  Kasai was still in the chair opposite her with her legs pulled up under her chin, letting her rest her head on her knees. She looked so small like that. Myla tried not to over think the posture because she was still grinning ear to ear, “I told you. I've been assigning watches for over a century.” Her tone turned mocking, “I know who to post myself with, and unlike you weak mortals I’m guaranteed to stay awake.” She laughed to herself as Myla rolled her eyes, “So, what do you normally do up here?” She shrugged, “Play solitaire? We've got cards.” Kasia grinned, “Poker.”

  She snorted, “We both know you don't have money Kasia.” She nodded agreeably, “You are correct. So it should be strip poker.” Myla grinned, “No! I'm working, if the chief stops by I'm already going to have to explain you being here. I don't need to explain why we're naked too.” Kasia giggled and she resisted the urge to suggest things they could get away with. She was a professional… mostly. Then she saw a shift in Kasia's gaze and watched her pupils dilate into dinner plates.

  It was like seeing a cat lock onto a bird, it was just unnerving when she realized it was over her shoulder. Was the chief already here? She started to turn but Kasia spoke through a fixed smile, “Freeze. Don't turn around, not yet.” Her heart rate picked up, “What do you see?” The vampire shifted very subtly, “Black form, gold eyes, humanoid but not human. Can only see a hazy shape not the actual form, can't tell if it's solid from here. We are no longer alone.”