Chapter 1

11:57pm 3rd of June 1902 The old guard groaned as he rose from his chair. His ageing bones creaked as he stretched his stiff limbs. He looked around the museum then slowly shuffled forwards. Some time later he completed his circuit of the exhibitions, then content that the museum was safe he sunk back into his chair. As soon as the guard relaxed, a black figure dropped the twenty metres from the ceiling and landed silently on the marble floor five metres behind the guards chair. The figure stood up and surveyed the room. It crouched as if about to leap and then froze as the clock on the wall donged twelve times. As soon as the clock stopped the figure leaped the five metres between it and the guard and gracefully turned a flip to land facing the front of the guard. It quickly grabbed the guards head and snapped it to the left and with a muffled crack the guard was dead. The figure then made a series of sharp clicking noises and then stood unnaturally still as a second figure, identical in shape and size, dropped from the roof and like its partner landed silently on the marble floor. After a brief conversing of clicks the two sprinted with complete silence through the maze of exhibitions. Two minutes later the pair had murdered three more guards and sprinted through three kilometres of museum. They finally stopped before a large glass case containing an emerald on a pedestal. As soon as one of the figures smashed the glass all the lights in the museum flickered on and a deafening siren blared through all the halls and corridors. The figure grabbed the emerald, then the two stood side by side and muttered an incantation and with a flash of blinding green light they were gone. The next morning Detective Saunders waved off reporters as he ducked under the yellow tape that now surrounded the Royal British Museum. He flashed his badge at the guard at the door who opened the door and waved him through. Upon entering the museum the detective gave a quick nod to the police constable then went to the doctor for the report. Four dead sir reported the doctor three had their necks snapped from behind and one from above. Very good, thank you sir replied the detective, before turning to the police constable to inquire which objects were stolen. Interestingly enough the robbers did not touch anything except for Solomons Emerald which they stole answered the constable. How very odd mused the detective to himself it would appear that they came solely for the purpose of stealing the emerald, but the first body was found near the other end of the museum After two hours of searching the entire museum for clues the detective had found nothing more and the question of why the robbers had not just taken the emerald when they came through the front doors, (which he assumed they had, as there was no signs of a forced entry anywhere) as it was on display in the main hall, still bothered him. After a final quick scan of the locks on the front doors, which showed that they had not been picked, Detective Saunders headed back to his office.

He walked down the street and waved down a cab, opened the door and slumped into the seat mentally exhausted as he always was after a day at a crime scene. Fourteen started the detective Harley St finished the cab driver Yes, I know where you live Mr Saunders said the cab drive in response to Saunders alarmed look but were not going there. Who are you? Where are we going? shouted the detective his tiredness forgotten, his mind instantly alert for danger. My name is not important but, if you must know I work for a secret government division codenamed S.P.I.A. or the Super-natural and Paranormal Information Agency. As for where we are going, you will discover shortly the driver calmly responded. An hour later after going through kilometres of back lanes the cab finally stopped in front of a brick wall. They waited for a minute or two and then, to the detectives astonishment, the wall seemed to just slide into the ground revealing a cavernous garage behind it. Oh my lord exclaimed Saunders how does it do that he asked, his face still stuck in a look of surprise. A new technology we invented replied the driver smugly, as he slowly drove the cab into the cavernous space beyond. As soon as the cab past the entry the brick wall slid back up with a soft hiss ending in a thud that echoed back and forth throughout the garage. For a moment the whole area was plunged into darkness. Then suddenly the room became filled with a bright light (the source of which Saunders could not identify) to reveal that the garage was not a garage but what looked like a huge warehouse filled with cubicles, all containing offices of some sort. Saunders was pulled out of his mental assessment of the room, by the cab driver opening the doors and signalling for him to get out. This is all very impressive, but why have you brought me here asked Saunders. This morning you were called to investigate a theft at the royal museum stated the driver, who waited for Saunders to nod in agreement before continuing, four guards were killed, all had their necks neatly snapped, I am correct, am I not pronounced the driver. You were told that only Solomons Emerald was taken, but this puzzled you as the emerald was on display in the main hall but there was a body near the other end of the museum told the driver. To Saunders astonishment all this was correct. You are now wondering how I know all this said the driver, which to Saunders amazement was correct again. Well Mr Saunders, here at S.P.I.A not only do we gather information on abnormal activities around the country, we are also all users of magic ourselves. I, for one, specialise in telepathy. Yes magic is real Mr Saunders, very real. Saunders wanted to reply to this incredible statement but he found himself incapable of talking, his brain still trying to comprehend what it had just been told. For as much as he wanted to say that the driver was lying, he knew that there was no way he could have known all that information without something like telepathy. Finally he managed to recover enough from the shock of this new revelation to ask how this affected him. A good question; you are related to all this because the Royal Museum was not robbed by conventional methods, no, it was robbed by magic. More specifically sorcery; the summoning of magical spirits to do the summoners bidding, very complex magic, answered the driver. But how did these magical spirits rob the museum asked Saunders, who was feeling more and more out of his depth with this magic business. We believe the spirits teleported into the museum stole the emerald, and teleported out again responded the driver. A very interesting theory Saunders thought aloud. But why did they kill the guard at the other end of the museum questioned Saunders. Again a very good question, you really are quite good at this, but the answer to that problem lies within the item they stole, the Emerald of Solomon, that emerald is no ordinary gemstone. No, within that emerald lies the power to kill a thousand men in the blink of an eye, if an accomplished magician

were to have full control of that emerald he could destroy the world with a single word, and then rebuild it with another. It was found by King Solomon and was said to fall from the hand of god and throughout the ages it has been called many things, gods stone, the rock of creation, the emerald of destruction and most notably the philosophers stone. Such is the power of this gemstone that it prevents anything from teleporting in within a two kilometre radius. You can teleport out but not in, so the thieves would have needed to have arrived on the far side of the guard said the driver but enough talk its time for you to meet the rest of the team.