While Robert was asleep, the rain started to come down hard. It was pouring when he stepped out of his building. Back in the days, when he was a real sorcerer, he would have cast an umbrella-like spell, probably without even noticing it. It was hard without the comfortable, handy everyday spells, but ever since he lost most of it, he found a new appreciation for magic. Sure, he could have protected himself from the rain with the Name of Movement, but he chose not to. He just put the hood of his yellow hoodie on and out he went into the rain.

The old little car had troubles igniting the engine, but it always had in cold weather. Robert didn't like the idea, but he knew he would have to buy a new car soon. This one has served its time. When the engine finally kicked in, he backed up onto the empty, rain struck road. He knew the place Rose had texted him, it wasn't the first time he had to go and pick up Benjamin from that bar. Every now and then, when something in Benjamin's life didn't work out the way he would have preferred it, he had started to spiral. It usually began with alcohol, a rough night a week, or maybe two, and ended with a 72 hours non-stop self-destruct-session with drugs, very similar-looking ladies who all liked Benjamin's wallet better than the man himself and then a call in the middle of the night from a friend or a bartender. This time Benjamin got to this phase very quickly, but Robert wasn't surprised about that. He went through some terrible times, after all.

The roads were almost completely empty except for a few trucks that were delivering for supermarkets so the people tomorrow morning could have fresh goods. Even in the very light traffic, Robert didn't risk to drive fast: his car wasn't made for that, especially not in this rain. Or any other time, Jenna would have pointed it out. Robert smiled as he imagined the girl complaining about his car and decided to hold that new car purchase off for a little while, just to annoy her. 

He made it to the bar in twenty minutes anyway. It was one of those "open late" places that didn't have a closing time: they were serving drinks until there were enough people to buy them. They called themselves a bar instead of a pub, because they tried to look American, but on the menu the first beer was still Budweiser and the kitchen made more fish and chips than anything else. The place was in Zone Two, more specifically, in Whitechapel. Robert wasn't a superstitious type at all, but it somehow still didn't seem a wise idea to walk around in the middle of the night where Jack the Ripper walked once. The most common theory about him was that he was a vampire, and who knew? They never found out who he exactly was. He could be still alive. Still there.

Robert shook his head as he parked his car. Vivid imagination was vital when casting spells, but it had its downsides. He got out and put his hood up once again then crossed the road. Despite the late hour, the bar was crowded. Mostly because of Benjamin, who sat in the corner with a very blonde, very underdressed girl and kept buying rounds for everyone present.

As far as Robert was concerned, the place couldn't offer anything else besides its customer-friendly opening hours. It was as generic as it gets, with a pool table and a jukebox full of old and cheesy songs. The walls were covered by movie posters that they probably got for free from the cinema next door.  

'Finally,' said Rose. She grabbed Robert's arm and pulled him down to a chair next to hers close to the entrance. 'He is out of control. He almost cursed Martin when he said that Benjamin should call it a day.'

'Where is he? Martin, I mean.'

'Left. They had a bad fight. Martin said he cannot watch what Ben was doing.'

'I don't blame him,' shook his head Robert. Benjamin just snorted something white up from the cleavage of his companion. 'Do you have any idea what he had and how much?'

Rose scoffed.

'Everything he could gather up and a lot. I don't know, Robert, it's bad. Before I called you he tried to kiss me and when I wasn't into it he said I was a two-faced whore and I would shag anyone but him. He might have mentioned you by name…'

'Why would he do that?' frowned Robert.

'For a smart guy you can be really stupid sometimes, you know that, right?' asked back Rose. 

'That is the commonly agreed premise, yes,' Robert nodded.

'Ben always had a crush on me,' explained Rose. 'Nothing serious, not even he thought we would work out together, but you cannot control what you feel.'

Robert blinked with a surprised face. Sure, Benjamin and Rose were close friends, and there was this tension between them, but...Oh, yes. I am indeed very stupid sometimes, Robert thought.  

'So I assume he won't be happy to see me,' he said. Then he sighed and got up. 'Thank you, Rose. And I'm sorry.'

'It's not your fault,' the girl said. 'It's not really his, either… I just didn't know what to do. Listen, do you think you can handle him alone? I should really get some sleep, I promised to babysit my brother's kid tomorrow, all day long...'

Robert nodded. 

'Sure, don't worry.'

'Call me tomorrow,' added Rose from the doorway. 'I want to know if he is okay.'

'I will,' promised Robert, and Rose left.

The man walked through the drunk crowd. When Benjamin spotted him, his face went pale and he made a sudden move as if he wanted to run for it. 

'Fuck, bro, for a moment there I thought you were our Dad…' he said when Robert sit down on his table. 'What are you doing here?'

Robert touched his red beard. He got used to it and Jenna seemed to like it very much, but now that he was thinking about it, it did make him look like the lord. 

'Yes, I suppose we look alike,' he nodded. 'I'm just here to see how you are doing, brother,' he added.

'What do you mean, bro? I got my drinks and here is a beautiful girl, I couldn't be better,' Benjamin answered.

The beautiful girl, who from up close looked way too young to be out in this hour, gave a concerned look to Robert.

'Are you a copper?' she asked.

'No, I'm just his older brother,' he answered. 'Listen, why don't you go and see if your parents had already worried enough?' he got out his wallet and threw a few notes on the table. 'For cab,' he said. 

The girl looked at the money which was much more than a cab fare, then decided that the party was over, grabbed it and left.

'Hey, wait, don't go…' called after her Benjamin, then he tried to focus on Robert. 'You fucking bastard, do you have to take all the girls from me?'

'I didn't know you had feelings for Rose, Benjamin,' said Robert quietly. 'I'm sorry.'

'Of course you didn't know, you never know anything that isn't about magic or the only person you care about: the great Professor Robert Montgomery… Well guess what, you arse! You are old news. Nobody cares about you anymore. Not even Dad. Yeah, that's right, without your magic, you aren't even important enough to annoy him anymore!' 

Robert smiled but that smile had no happiness.

'You should know better than anyone that I really couldn't care less about what our father thinks.'

'Yeah, whatever,' said Benjamin. He got out a little plastic bag filled with white powder. He tried to open it but before he could have managed it, Robert snatched the bag from him.

‘Hey, thats mine!’ said Benjamin angrily. 

‘Do you want to end up like me, struggling to cast the simplest spells because your brain soaked in this shit and you cannot think of anything else but one more snort? Do you?' he asked.

Benjamin didn't answer.

'Didn't think so,' nodded Robert and tossed the little bag away. It opened and filled the air with a small white cloud of cocaine. 

'You fucking...' began Benjamin, and he tried to get up, but Rubert pushed him back. Normally, Benjamin was the physically strongest between the two of them, but he was so drunk and high now that he could barely stand.

'Listen to me, brother,' said Robert. 'I know you feel guilt and regret now, and God knows, you should. You killed someone.'

'Fuck you!'

'Let me finish. You killed someone, and that is a fact not you, not me, not the bloody drugs can ever change,' Robert grabbed Benjamin's shoulder and forced him to look into his eyes. 'Do you want to hear some more facts? Here you go: it was an accident. You didn't mean to. And one more: there is nothing wrong with feeling guilty. I'd worried about you much more if you weren't.'

Benjamin slapped Robert's hand away and grabbed a beer-bottle from the table. It turned out to be empty. He tried to put it back but he managed to knock over two more bottles with it. One of them was half-full and flooded the table with beer. 

'Shit… See? That's me, bro,' Benjamin said. 'I'm not a big, smart professor, I was only ever good with four Runes and I still kill people accidently with them. I can't do nothing but drinking and I fuck up even that.'

Robert didn't know what to say. Realising that you don't have all the answers is bad, but realising it when you cannot tell anything that might help your ruined brother was even worse. 

'I'm sorry, Benjamin,' he said, because that was all he got.

'That is very touching,' came a familiar voice and as Robert looked up, there was a man in front of their table. The crowd started to ease up by now, but whoever left was watching them. 

The man was older with impeccable white hair. He wore a black three-piece suit, white gloves and black shoes polished to be shiny. He stood painfully straight and looked around the places as if he was afraid that just being there will give him some kind of disease.

'Look, bro, that's the old fucker Maxwell,' said Benjamin. 

'I can see him, Benjamin, yes,' nodded Robert very calmly, then he got up. 'What are you doing here, Maxwell?'

In Robert's memories and nightmares, Maxwell was always unnaturally tall, but those were a child's memories. Now that they were standing face to face, he actually towered over the old butler, even if not by much. 

'My master has friends in several places,' the old man said. 'Even the ones like this. He sent me to pick up his son before the boy could drag the Montgomery name through more mud.'

Robert smiled. His burnt hand started to hurt again all of the sudden under the bandages. He closed his fist, then opened it again. 

'I find it very hard to believe that my father has friends, and frankly, he did everything in his power to make the name Montgomery despised countrywide. As of Benjamin, I will take care of him. You are dismissed, butler.'

Maxwell's face flinched. 

'My master made it very clear that you are not important anymore, boy. I know you are just an empty shell now, nothing but a magicless has-been. Don't make me hurt you.'

'Why, you don't feel nostalgic right now? You never had a problem with that in the good old days,' Robert still smiled, but the smile resembled more and more what a rabbit would see before the fox attacks. He didn't open his fist anymore. 

'I did what I had to, boy,' Maxwell said. 'Hate me if you want, but look at yourself. Professor and famous hero… You would be a soft, rich nobody like your faggot friend without me.' 

Robert toyed with the idea of simply just hitting the old man, just to give him a right hook on the chin. But then he took a deep breath and opened his fist. He turned away.

'Benjamin, we are going,' he said.

Maxwell took a step back and the Runes sewed into his white gloves lit up. People around started to hastily grab their belongings. The first ones were out of the door already when the creature appeared. It looked like a spider, as big as a golden retriever, made out of black stone. Its legs were sharp and pointy like eight long knives. Someone cried out and someone else asked:

'What the fuck is that?'

'Last chance, boy,' said Maxwell. The smile of almost perverted glee sat on his face. 'Don't make me hurt you.'

'Whoa, man, what the fuck do you think you are doing? Leave my brother alone,' said Benjamin. He tried to get up again but fell back on his chair. Maxwell shook his head with a disgusted grimace.

Robert looked at the butler, then at the earth-elemental. Then he smiled again. Maxwell's face became surprised, then worrying. 

'You see, old man, you thought that you can do whatever you want, because I don't have my magic anymore. Truth to be told, I'm much weaker than I used to be. But if you would know me half as well as you are claiming you do, you would know that I am still the most dangerous man in this goddamn pub,' he raised his hand and opened his fist. A little ball of unbelievably hot blue fire raged above his palm. The elemental backed up.

'Choose your next word very carefully, Maxwell,' said Robert, and his face was almost wraith-like, cold and terrifying in the blue light.

'Attack!' Maxwell said and the stone-spider jumped towards Robert.