Cross Your Ts [Valduggery, Skulduggery Pleasant Fanfiction]

The Invisible Man

Despite work from sorcerers such as Coal Atar, total concealment is not possible. Those within Cloaking Spheres can be detected by a skilled Elemental. Atar has hypothesized that shunting rapidly between realities can

"Who is Coal Atar?" Valkyrie grumbled, shutting the book. "He's mentioned in most of these books."

"I arrested him once. His clothes turned invisible."

"Seriously?"

"I haven't told you that story? He took great inspiration from The Invisible Man. But he killed a couple of people, as one does, and I ended up arresting him. He gave up when his clothes turned invisible." Skulduggery thumbed through his book. "Very few people are interested in disappearing completely. People hardly trust teleporters, let alone one who studies disappearing right in front them."

Valkyrie threw her book back onto the coffee table. They had camped out in Gordon's living room. They had attempted to remain in the study, but the stuffiness of the late-afternoon air had forced Valkyrie to grab an armful of books and move downstairs. Skulduggery had followed a few minutes later.

Now, Valkyrie was sprawled on the sofa, books covering her lower half, while Skulduggery was steadily working through his piles of encyclopedias surrounding his armchair.

"Can we recap?" Valkyrie asked, yawning.

"You can go ahead and talk," Skulduggery mumbled, grabbing another volume. "No guarantees I'll listen."

"Okay, so not a teleporter because you would have picked up on the rush of air. Not a Cloaking Sphere, as you probably also would have picked up on that. Not a secret tunnel. Maybe he wasn't real."

"You've cracked the case."

"I'm serious. We're working off of the opinion that I saw that paper on the desk, but what if you were the one who wasn't hallucinating. Maybe Timothy is just a really powerful projection, and so was the paper, but you didn't see that because your not-eyes are more powerful than mine."

Skulduggery tilted his head. "I felt the air currents. There was someone there."

Valkyrie moved slightly under the pile of books, sending one thumping to the ground. "Maybe it was George and—and Basil."

"You named the bald one Barney."

"George and Barney, then."

Skulduggery shut his book. "Convivial called, and she said—"

"Who?"

Skulduggery looked at her. "We literally saw her a few hours ago. The Sensitive."

"Oh."

"You forgot her name, didn't you?"

"No."

"You did."

"Janet and Convivial sound really similar if you hear it under the right conditions. What did she say?"

"From what she and a few other Sensitives can pick up, they have no innate magical ability. However, they do have some form of magical presence in the world around them, but no one at the Sanctuary is quite sure how. It's all very interesting."

"Wait." Valkyrie sat up, reaching out to stop books from showering to the floor. "I shot a bolt of electricity at the bald one, and he didn't go down. I just figured he diverted it, but now that doesn't make sense. Were they wearing magical clothes?"

"Nothing that would divert your magic like that." Skulduggery tapped his fingers against the cover of the book he was holding. "Did you see their magic?"