Xaviers!

It took Ainsley a bit to figure out where to find Ashlie. He returned with a strange bundle under his arm that he knew he needed to take to her, at least so she could tell him where to take it to next.

He had been given the indication she would be out at the Point so that is where he went looking. He mostly was just wandering around with the invisible severed limb underarm, popping his head into rooms and popping out again when he didn't see her.

"Are you looking for somebody?" comes her helpful voice from a loudspeaker in the central briefing room as he passes through.

Ainsley nods, looking around in a circle for the disembodied voice. Clearly he was being watched, but when all he saw was a security camera, he fixed his sight on it and pointed straight at it. Or rather, the one who watches through it.

"Oh, right. My apologies. You can use one of the terminals in the briefing room to type a response. Unfortunately I'm not able to meet you in person at the moment."

Ainsley shrugged, roaming just a bit longer to locate what he thought Ashlie might mean.

He then set down his bundle on a nearby table, cracked his knuckles and stretched his arms above his head, and began typing like a steno-pool pro.

"Shari found some kind of invisible being feeding on the townsfolk of Maldon. In attempting to stop it she turned into some alien animal and ripped off it's leg.

I brought it back. She wanted me to warn you all of the situation and I thought any evidence, even invisible, is probably a good thing to have."

Ashlie's face appears on one of the monitors.

"Invisible? I hope you're not pulling my leg." she deadpans. "That severely limits my ability to assess what's going on. I'll see if Miss Kinney has a moment to look at it. My apologies in advance for having to deal with her." It's really hard to tell whether Ashlie is joking or not.

Ainsley tilted his head curiously.

"I'll wait here then...?" He replied, unfamiliar with the person Ashlie was referring to.

He didn't have to wait too long for someone to come heading down the hallway. As someone who spend a lot of time interacting with animals he might recognize the way the woman is moving not too dissimilar to a prowling animal. At ease but moving smoothly as if she's ready to burst into movement at a moments notice. When she steps into the room she crinkles her nose ever so briefly before turning her attention towards Ainsley. Not the tallest woman, but still radiating an aura of intimidation.

"Okay what is this about a severed limb?" she asks much too casually, considering what she's asking about.

Ainsley pulled his hoodie tightly over the shape of the object he'd brought to show there was something longish inside, then unfolded the sides to show what was inside.... nothing.

Ainsley pulled out his phone and typed out -"Invisible leg."

"Huh. That's new." she says and steps closer to grab the invisible leg and lift it up to sniff at it.

There's certainly a leg there and it certainly smells like flesh. There's something indefinably 'wrong' yet familiar about the scent though. She's smelled something like it around the school she's almost positive.

"Ugh... yep, that's a leg alright." she says, pulling her head away some. "Smells weirdly familiar too and not in the usual bloody mayhem way. You notice anything weird around the school lately? I mean weirder than usual?" she amends when she realizes she's talking to somebody relatively new to the place.

Ainsley furrowed his brow and stared at the ground hard. Clearly he was wracking his brain.

After a moment he shook his head, but then took to typing it all out his phone. It took him a bit longer this way but he wasn't sure if Laura could get the input the same way Ashlie was.

"Not other than the weird TV show thing, no.

Shari said there was an invisible being at the train station. When I asked if it was a student she said it was older and stranger than a student. She said the spook was feeding on people."

"Ooookay, this smells like a job for the spook squad then. Come on, let's bother the resident mage." she says, hefting the leg on her shoulder like a baseball bat.

At this point, Ainsley had no idea what was going on anymore... but his curiosity and duty to fill in for Shari kept him involved. He followed along with Laura to see what else he could find out about the invisible leg.

Laura leads him out of the Point and to the entrance of the lighthouse, heading up the stairs until they get to Sean's mystical sanctum.

"We're here to see the wizard." she announces herself along with a knock. Usually she'd barge right in, but you never know what kind of non-sense you might step into if you disturb one of these sorcerer types.

Ainsley waited patiently for something to happen. He was taking all his social cues from Laura at the moment.

Which in most situations was probably not advisable but he didn't know that.

"Come in," Sean said somewhat intrigued at having people visiting his workshop several times. He took off the goggles and thick leather gloves he was wearing to look more presentable. He was still wearing a thick leather blacksmith's apron as he moved to greet whoever it was coming to say hello to the 'wizard'.

"So, I think we got something that falls in your field of expertise. Invisible leg." Laura announces as she walks in and finds a place on the table to set the appendage down with enough oomph to make it obvious there's something there.

Funnily enough, Sean has no problem seeing that Laura is putting a leg on the table. The leg looks very pale and like it was wrenched off at the knee. The flesh itself is strange and oddly not wet or gooey the way one would expect flesh to be.

Ainsley's eyes darted about curiously and his surroundings.

Sean was actually pretty excited about an invisible leg or really any random magic object being brought in. He walked over towards the table quickly enough to look at it more closely. His gut reaction was to try to pull the leg into the visible world and began channeling magic to do so.

"That is definitely a leg, broken off at about the knee," Sean said, "Where did this come from exactly?"

Ainsley would for his part see books, notes, and supplies that mostly seemed to belong in another century entirely. There were defined work spaces and desks, the notes appeared to be organized somehow, but in a way that was probably only clear to the owner of them. There were designs in various stages of development some more occult-looking than others, some simply for mundane things, some of the designs though hurt the eyes to look at despite only being ink on paper.

Ainsley was taking it all in until Sean asked where the leg came from, then snapped back into reality.

Grabbing a nearby pen and paper pad that Sean had previously been making notes on, he flipped a few pages to a blank one.

"Shari ripped it off an invisible monster. It was feeding on people."

Sean was indeed able to unwind the magic hiding the leg, though he wasn't sure what long term affect that might have on the leg. The magic to keep it hidden was woven throughout the limb, as much a part of it as whatever the flesh was. The structure of the magic seemed to be predicated on keeping it hidden from normal human eyes though, but not other senses.

Sean felt the pull, no insistence from the leg to not be visible, and decided to let the enchantment reassert itself. There was no point in the leg dissolving away into well, whatever invisible legs from mystery creatures broke down into.

"Feeding on people how? Actually eating them, draining their souls, blood?" Sean asked looking from the leg over to Ainsley.

"Ah, quite," Sean said as he grabbed some chalk and began slowly drawing a circle around the limb. Once the circle was finished he began etching runes around the circle. He grabbed a vial of something from a shelf and then dug in a shelf before pulling out a small mirror with a stand. He placed the mirror carefully at one end of the ritual circle. Sean emptied the vial of silvery liquid and began to slowly chant the magic that made up the scrying spell. The energy Sean channeled caused the runes to glow and the silvery liquid spread over the whole of the circle beyond what should have been possible for such a small volume and began to look like a mirror itself. He was hoping to see an image of the rest of the creature in the mirror so he could better identify it and possibly locate it.

The leg resists for a bit, but without the rest of the creature, it doesn't seem to have the umph to properly resist. Slowly an image of the creature forms.

Ainsley gulped and steeled himself, unsure of what the figment might be capable of.

Sean examines the creature's image trying to figure out what exactly they were dealing with. He gestures with a hand and a book vibrates, slides, and then falls off a shelf nearby hitting the floor before seemingly picking itself up and floating over towards where the ritual is happening. It floats in the air and the pages begin to slowly turn as Sean tries to see if he can find a reference to help.

It's not hard to find some references to the Sluagh, Celtic spirits of the restless dead or dangerous fey depending on the source. 'Rejected by the Earth', they were supposedly able to fly and were said to steal souls. While the description doesn't *quite* match the reality, it's the closest he's able to find.

Sean released the spell having gathered the information he could about what the creature might be. The books slowly worked their way back onto shelves after the spell was over. Sean was fairly certain he had enough raw material to track the creature later. At least a leg was probably better than some hair or even a vial of blood, but he wasn't sure whether the leg would fit in the freezer he had in the shop or not. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and remember there were other people in the room.

"The leg probably comes from a Sluagh," Sean said looking over at Ainsley and Laura, "A magical creature that can steal souls. Books don't seem to agree on whether it's fey or undead. Should be able to track it down since we have one of its legs."

Ainsley froze in thought for a long spell before writing out:

"Do we want to?"

"I want to keep it from feeding on more people, so I will," Sean shrugged.

Ainsley thought for a moment, then nodded.

"I will go too."

"Wonderful," Sean smiled, "Hunting spirits sounds significantly less fun and more dangerous when wandering about alone."

"Should I pack something?" He asked, unaware of what this could all entale.