“Hmm, would it make you feel better if I ordered you to enter the house?” He asks quietly, fully aware of my paranoia. I remember him as a teenager and teaching him to control his elemental abilities as they manifested. He’d been out on the back patio summoning snow in the middle of summer while I hovered in the doorway too afraid to fully step outside. It had only been a few years after that moment that Raziel had killed Tristan.

“Probably, yes,” Not having a choice in the matter would make it easier for me, “but using the coin might effect my ability to travel away from it.” I point out. No, I need to do this on my own.

I calm my nerves and steel myself for the walk before I slip myself through the door and out onto the lawn. I look back to see Raziel watching with a grim expression through the car window. The trip is nerve wracking as every slight breeze blows through me making me feel flimsy and immaterial in this material world. I feel a huge sense of relief as I make my way to the shadowed porch. I look back again to see Raziel still watching me. He gives me a quick thumbs up causing me to smile. With his encouragement I walk through the wall and enter the house.

I try to pay close attention to the sounds of the house. Neither Raziel nor I could figure out what Mr. Heins schedule is and since the man owns multiple vehicles it’s impossible to figure out if he’s home or not by just looking at that. Raziel had figured that a business man wouldn’t be home in the middle of the day on a weekday. He’s likely be working in some office building. There’s no guarantee of that though and so I try to stay on guard.

I wander through the front entrance and find myself in a large foyer with two parallel staircases leading up to the second floor. There’s three doorways plus the upstairs leaving me

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with multiple choices. I decide to start with the right entranceway. The soft sunlight filters through white curtains over the kitchen countertops. I see a few doors leading to other rooms, but I rationalize that a gallery with billions of dollars of artwork wouldn’t be connected to a kitchen so I quickly backtrack to the foyer again.

This time I take the left entranceway and find myself in a large sitting room with big windows lighting the whole room. This seems a bit more promising so I begin to explore further into the room and through other doors.

The search takes even longer than Raziel had thought. I become increasingly aware of the time slipping away as I wander through halls and rooms in the large mansion trying to find the right one. As the minutes tick past and I go deeper into the house I become more and more aware of the coin trying to tug me back. It’s a soft pinprick of cold at the base of my neck. I try my hardest to ignore it and focus on the task, but it becomes increasingly harder.

Frustration takes over as I find myself back in the main foyer. I feel like hitting something if I could. Instead I glare angrily at the three entrance ways and in an angry huff take the stairs to the second level. I silently stomp my way up the steps and onto the landing where there are again three doorways. I decide to start with the double doors in the middle of the landing and am immediately rewarded for my efforts.

Jacob Heins’s gallery is much larger than Mr. Hawthorne’s. A long rectangular room with two curtained glass doors at the end leading out to a balcony. Large chandeliers hang from the rafters and even though they’re turned off I can imagine them illuminating the room and reflecting off the waxed wooden floors while perfectly dressed men and women mingle and admire the art. I quietly make my way in and begin my search for the artifact.

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Raziel and I had assumed that the artifact would be on display in the gallery because from everything we had read about Jacob Heins we’d learned he’s very ostentatious and loves showing off his wealth. Raziel had theorized that if someone like that had magic then they would put it on display for everyone to see. Even though if I fail to find it here our other theory is that it’s in a safe in which case I’ll never find it.

Most artifacts appear as pieces of jewelry, though I’ve seen them take the shape of toys and household objects too. Artifacts are created by wizards and are meant to store magic or perform certain spells without using active magic. Instead all you need is a small spark of power to initiate the spell lying dormant inside the artifact. In Lemuria they’re primarily used by children who have not yet mastered their magic, but in the human realm they’re mostly used by dark wizards so they can use magic without being easily detected by the council’s guard. It’s very rare for humans to be in possession of them and even rarer for them to be able to use them. But not impossible I suppose if their will is strong enough.

I walk deeper into the gallery and inspect the human artifacts sitting on white podiums and sealed under glass boxes while trying to discern if any of them house any magic energy. I glare into the black eyes of an African mask that glares back before moving on to a different podium. A small statue of a wolf yawns sleepily at me in this one, but doesn’t give off any energies. I continue on. It’s in the middle of the room that I find it. If I had a heart beat I know that it’d stop again at the sight of the two Lemurian crystals that shine demurely in their glass cases.

The two translucent blue crystals have been fitted into different pieces of jewelry. One of them is housed in a small amulet bracelet and the other hangs off a chain as a small pendant.