Now the downsides. It has to be kept and transported inside a lead-lined case, and if you’re in its vicinity unshielded for more than a day you’ll come down with radiation poisoning. Oh, and since it was designed as a prototype, it’s bright yellow and covered in radiation hazard stickers and warning labels, like THIS END TOWARD ENEMY and DO NOT EAT. Not exactly subtle.

Number six looks, if not the most promising, at least not as personally threatening.

November 19th, 1947—Spirit Bottle: Glass and metal. Unbreakable. Appears to be designed to trap and contain powerful entities. January 14th, 1948 Addendum DO NOT USE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES

Leaving a note for mages saying DO NOT USE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES is like sticking a banana in front of a monkey and telling it not to eat it. There’s no description as to why it shouldn’t be used. There’s nothing saying what’s wrong with it. And if it were really dangerous, you’d think whoever wrote that entry might mention why.

Since that and the nuclear one are both in the Sherman Oaks storage unit, I figure I’ll grab both and just not tell anybody that if they stand too close to one of them they might go sterile.

I head toward the storage unit, but double back, head a few miles out of my way. Keep my feelers out for any magic. It doesn’t look like I’m being followed. So off to the building I go.

It’s how I left it. Considering the wards and charms on the place, I doubt anyone could get inside without leveling the building. Heading in feels just as surreal as before, with the added benefit of having spent some quality time with the ledger, so I feel like I’m walking through a minefield.

Crates and boxes, desks and bookshelves. So much shit collected over decades, I have to wonder who organized it all, if you can call this organized. How many people know this place exists? This couldn’t all have been done by my family. There aren’t that many of us. My parents and grandparents had no siblings. So far as I know, I’m the last one standing.

Questions to answer another time, I suppose. I’m just thankful the place is air conditioned. After nine o’clock and it’s still up in the 90s. The sooner I can get those two spirit bottles and get the hell out of here, the sooner I can get Quetzalcoatl off my ass and keep him from doing whatever crazy-ass shit he’s trying to pull.