Tal turned; placid of mind and visage.
“Mr. Cosgrove! Such a pleasant surprise!” Tal said in such a way that it was hard to believe that the two had any unpleasantness between them.
“Don’t give me that Crap! It’s been almost ten years since you disrupted that spell I was working. Do you know how damned hard it was to work out the logistics of that, not to mention getting all the materials and components I needed?” Cosgrove snarled his handsome face twisted in anger.
“I’m sorry I interrupted your attempts to look up your family tree, but you were going a bit overboard with that kind of magic. Something had to be done. Blood magic is a serious thing and just a bit too chaotic. You of all people should know that.” Tal said with the same calm he had when he first turned to face Cosgrove.
“I know that! I took precautions!” Cosgrove almost shifted in his rage then and there. He was growing larger and furrier, his body straining at his expensive suit. “That’s why most of the blood was mine and the rest were willing donations from my cousin, the only damned family I have left… that I know of that is! Damn it, I was trying to find my parents and my older brother and you had to fuck it up for me! Tell me why I shouldn’t shred you right here and now!”
Cosgrove had let the rage mask fall. His pain was raw and evident now.
Tal felt a twinge of sympathy.
“Look, I’m sorry, but what you were doing was possibly going to wreak havoc with local magical equilibrium and if I hadn’t put a dampening field around that floating museum your own people would have arrested you. The FBM internal affairs would have crucified you. Cosgrove… Sloan… you did damned near did something dangerous to you and possibly this world. The souls you were trying to contact are at rest, who knows what kind of chaos would result if you actually opened up that bridge between the worlds here? This is a strong nexus world, you know that. Not as strong as some but strong enough. Look, I’m willing to help but…” Tal said and was cut off.
“Felix, this is bull shit! You could have helped me then, instead you shut it all down and all my research and efforts were for nothing! You know I can’t do that spell again for another thirty eight years, the planets won’t be right again until then and by that time I’ll probably be dead. If you want to help me, stay out of it next time I find a solution.” Cosgrove was near tears now and he remained in that ‘Bearish’ state of partial humanity.
“Sloan. You know I can’t let you do that if it’s as dangerous as that other spell. ‘Tale of Souls’ is a dangerous spell, but there are alternative magics to blood; they take time.” Tal said.
“Yeah, time I don’t have. I’m getting older by the day; how much time do you think my parents have left if they’re alive… or my brother? I’m not a young man and each day I delay means another day I can’t spend with them. Hell, my father might have died yesterday for all I know.” Cosgrove said and he trembled in his efforts to restrain his grief and his rage.
“I’m sorry, but think it through Sloan; you know what could happen if you do something rash.” Tal said.
With that Tal walked quietly past the great Bear and back to the table for the celebration.
Alone in a stall in the men’s room, Agent Sloan Cosgrove wept quietly. He’d loosened his pants and removed his shirt, tie and jacket and taken off his shoes. He was more Bear than he’d been when confronting Tal. He had wanted to rip Tal to shreds with his claws. He wanted to disembowel him after he broke every bone that would not bring instant death, but he couldn’t. Cosgrove was after all, a good man.