I tried to get Huddie to give me the low down about the Havana Black Magic Social Club. He barely said a word on the three-hour drive back to Saint Augustine. I don’t know why but I chattered on like an idiot. That’s not me usually but I couldn’t stop myself. Is that guilt?
Saint Augustine is weird. One minute you feel like you’re in a jungle and then you’re at a dude’s house. Adelaide’s place is a lot nicer than I expected. Goes to show that you shouldn’t judge someone based on their style of dress. Except me of course.
Adelaide got going explaining the magic underpinnings of the swamp monster magic trap but after a couple of minutes Huddie stopped him.
“I thought this might be what you were talking about. I’m familiar with all this, Ida Alice Shourds set this up back in the 80s.”
“I thought you were in Indiana in the 80’s” I said because I did think that.
“The 1880s Grace” Huddie said like I was an idiot for not thinking he was talking about 150 years ago “when I first came here from Australia.”
“You’re Australian?”
“No” he said again like I was being a real dummy.
Adelaide was adamant that the wards that we needed to repair had been there since the 1600s. Huddie said maybe they had been and Ida Alice was just maintaining the ones that had already been there but he said it in a way that made it clear he was humoring Adelaide to be nice and didn’t believe it.
They two of them weren’t getting along very well until Huddie laid the current weak magic environment at the feet of the protestant reformation. Adelaide agreed with him 100% on this fact and once they got talking about that they both got that “this guy is alright” look on their face that dudes get.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, I could tell they were saying something about religion, which in my experience is hardcore anti-magic.
Adelaide said that the Catholic Church, the old one, supported magic, even if they likely didn’t mean to, because they taught belief in the otherworldly and miracles and monsters and things like that. But the Protestants killed all that because they’re all emotionless robots that love logic and reason.
“Some of them don’t even believe in Heaven” Huddie added in with a sniff.
“No, I mean who are the Protestants?”
