“I’m a phlebotomist. I take people’s blood for a living, okay?”
Day grimaced. “Why?”
“Uh, so that doctors and whoever can run tests, medical tests, and figure out how to help ’em. It’s not for, like, drinkin’ or whatever.” Seymour chuckled. “Anyway. So, sometimes, a clot might form in somebody’s artery or vein. Dependin’ on where it is, it can be real dangerous, like cuttin’ blood off from where it needs to go. Think of it like traffic gettin’ backed up, right? Or, like, tryin’ to cram all those cheeseburgers in your mouth, but somebody’s stuck one of these here trays in there and stopped you.”
“I would eat the tray.” Day narrowed her eyes. “It would not stop me.”
Sariel nodded in agreement. “We have seen what Day can consume. The tray would not work.”
“Okay, okay.” Seymour sighed. “How ’bout, uh, a wad of paper gettin’ stuck in your straw, so you couldn’t drink your milk? Get it?”
Day meowed. “Got it.”
“Okay, so?—”
“Even though I am not using a straw, yes, I understand your analogy.”
“Maybe they need these beacons to help bust up clots to get through. I’m guessin’ all these monster places have some kinda magic protectin’ them, right?”
“Yes,” Sariel confirmed.
“How well do you know the city? Like, where everything is at?”
“Very well. Why?”
Seymour cleared off one of the trays and flipped the placemat over. It was blank. Perfect. “One sec.” He hopped up so he could hurry over to the counter. “Excuse me, ma’am?”
The cashier stared at him. “You need to order again, sir?”
“No, no, but thank you, ma’am.” Seymour grinned. “Do y’all have any crayons or somethin’ I could write with?”
The cashier slowly slid him a pen.
“Thank you kindly!” Seymour rushed back to the table. He plopped down and handed the pen to Sariel. “Okay, can you draw a map? Ain’t gotta be perfect, but?—”
In the space of mere seconds, Sariel had drawn a street map of Somerstown.
“Well. There’s somethin’ I didn’t know you could do.” Seymour laughed.
“Do you wish me to mark the locations that were provided to us by Talos?” Sariel asked.
“You got it, Daddy.”
Day watched Sariel scribble away. “Oh! It is making a circle.” She tilted her head. “Well, not a very good one.”
Good or not, the locations on the map indeed created a somewhat circular pattern. There were a few random dots in the middle, but overall it was immediately recognizable.
Sariel pointed at the dots in the middle. “These are all locations with exceptionally strong magic. They would be the most difficult to reach with any spell, especially that of a hostile variety.”
“Okay, so they definitely wanted to make sure they hit those places hard.” Seymour took the pen from Sariel. “Maybe extra beacons? Or maybe, they made sure they were close to the source.”
First, he drew lines to connect the outer circle of locations. Then, he drew lines between the locations in the middle to make a lopsided rectangle.
Wait, wasn’t that a rhombus?
Could have been more of a trapezoid.
Whatever.
