It's raining in London... again (RP)

"The statue talked to you? Hmmm, interesting"

Jacob sees no reason why he shouldn't explain what happened to Jim. In fact, it might be a good idea, as Slippery Jim happens to know a lot of people all over London.

"Someone who goes by the name of Chaudry has sent some minions to try and rob my shop. Maybe you know him, it seems he's a wizard who likes to play with demons," he asks Jim in return.

Mark walked through the streets; his memory and familiarity carried him to the well-known Café Nocturne, a place he and Jena have visited several times for their arcane studies and life discussions. The staff were so familiar with them that they didn't greet him and only nodded politely, pointing in the direction where Jena was waiting. Mark came and sat opposite Jena, smiling warmly and calmly. She was sitting in her familiar style, with a book and tablet in front of the table, busy taking notes without a care for anything else in the world. A cup of hot chocolate was kept beside her book, evidently forgotten and slowly getting cold.

As soon as Mark sat, one of the staff gave him a cup of hot Darjeeling tea, which caused Jena to look up, her thick-rimmed spectacles sliding a bit at the sudden movement. She looked up and smiled, "Oh, you have arrived. You called me out of my sleep, you know I do the night shift. I hope this is interesting."

Mark nodded and added, "Oh, it is. Have you looked into wand architecture and components before?" He took out the wand from his cloth and set it front of the table. Jena looked at it carefully, taking it in her hand and inspecting it closely. "Umm...and something else. We need to visit the Sanctum. Whatever you know, this won't be completely examined without poking into it with special care. You know what I mean."

Charles Whittier was there today, the almost fifty balding brown haired man was actually a veteran of the Iraq war. He had experience dealing with demons there too, (also known as Djinn and Shaitan) his experience was good even if he wasn’t hunting anymore because of an IED that took his legs.

He took helped Rhiannon spread the stones over a table as she said, "They turned into stone after I killed them."

Charles nodded and adds, "Nice to see you’re learning from the past. Seems like most of them are here and likely no one will notice the stone on the street but, let’s see if this is dangerous young lady shall we?"

She felt like she was in class every time she worked with Charles. Unlike York, who would complain about her being a girl, Charles just treated her like she was a younger learner and she couldn’t blame him there. He had years of experience and wanted to relay it to the others because he couldn’t easily go out on the hunt.

Jacob smiles enigmatically at Jim's comment. He's never revealed his true nature to the beggar, but he's a smart chap, and Jacob bets he already has an educated guess on the subject. Probably reinforced by today's destruction of the bookshop, while Jacob has not so much as a wrinkle in his suit.

"I think Pratchett's wizards would prefer at least four good meals a day, but yes, I see your point," he replies.

"As a matter of fact, I am very busy trying to find out why someone is willing to kill me just to get an item from my shop. But if I could get someone to find out for me, that would give me some free time to find the book for your lady..."

Jena has been scared about the sanctum after the incident where he got locked in the room for half of a day. Who knows what happened to her on that time, but she always avoids the topic and is traumatised by it. Mark knows that it is a risky place but they have both worked previously to unravel the curse. She was not always like this, and previously, both of them worked together in the sanctum until that incident occurred.

Mark sighed but didn't want to give up, "Hey, I know what happened on that time. But, it's not going to happen again. I will be there by your side and I did rescue you, didn't I? Have faith in my abilities. Did you know this stave was used by a demonic creature. Who knows what they are up to. We need to look into this and find it's mystery. Look, I will make it up to you. What do you want in return if I ask you to spend two hours in researching this. Then you are out. You don't have to stay in the sanctum. Please?" He made an earnest face.

"I'm not sure what item", and Jacob is not lying. Technically, he's not sure about whether the demons were after the cross."That's one of the things I need to find out"

"Surely asking a few questions around won't cost you much, and I will help you with finding that book. This is what you want, isn't it?"

Mark sighed and took back the stave. His expression was clearly a dejected one, but he looked up and forced a smile. "I know your routine, Jena; if you had early shifts, I wouldn't have kept you waiting. Anyway, I won't force you again, but you know where the sanctum is, and if you are as curious about this as I am, then you know where to find me. I just thought that you would be very excited about more arcane research. It has been quite sometime since we have done that."

He finished his coffee and paid for both of them and the broken cup. Leaving the cafe, he walked towards the sanctum, determined to work on this alone.

The larger piece of stone rattles a bit on the table and she stabs it with her seax. It breaks into smaller pieces and she curses. Charles chuckles from over at the mass spectrometer and some beakers. "So, some mage summoned these to just look at an item from another mage hmm?"

She nods, "Far as I know why?"

He shrugs and says, "More than one demon…"

She sighs, "Means there are more than one. Always check the full count. I’ll go hit the streets and see if there are any more. Let me know if you get anything from these?"

Charles nods as he continues his experiments and she heads out.