Clara's magic was tingling and every time it had done that before, it had been to indicate that she was in danger. As they walked down the streets, returning to Ritchie's place, she knew the danger would only increase from this point on. 

John was holding a projection of a mystery ring, examining it from all sides. Bruce peered down, inspect it in his own way. "I don't recognize it."

"Me neither," John replied. "But if there's a person alive who can, it's Ritchie."

"Are you forgetting when you made your friend despise you?" Boston pointed out. 

"This is too bloody important for hurt feelings," John looked grim as they walked on, almost at Ritchie's place. 

Clara's magic sparked wildly and she looked up. The Shrouds were back at Ritchie's place, hovering in wait to reap his soul. She felt the slightest of shivers go down her spine. "Shrouds again?"

A Shroud floated out the door and looking up on the approaching team, recognized one of them. "Constantine."

"Bollocks," John cursed. 

"You've arrived in time to witness my..." The Shroud could never finish its sentence as John disintegrated it without even looking. He rushed inside and the rest of them followed. 

More Shrouds lingered in the hallway of Ritchie's home, where it looked like there had been a scuffle. There were cracks in the walls and some paintings had fallen to the floor. And running away from the scene was the notorious Jason Blood. Clara knew of him and the rumors that surrounded him. Here he was, attacking a dying Ritchie in his house. It was important to capture him, now. 

Shrouds hovered around Ritchie's body, ready to take his soul. Boston kept trying to push them away, but in vain. 

"No pulse," Batman said grimly, kneeling next to Ritchie. 

"I know," Boston grumbled, still trying to push the Shrouds away. 

Clara's mind spun wildly, trying to recall a spell that could push literal death reapers away. But before she could even come up with anything, Bruce pulled a syringe out of seemingly nowhere and stabbed Ritchie's torso. With a gasping breath, Ritchie returned to the doors of life. The Shrouds let out an inhuman screech, but his soul had already slipped out of their grasp. 

Clara blinked. What even was in that syringe-? Do I actually want to know?

No, she decided. She did not want to know. 

Just as Ritchie passed out, John returned with Jason Blood captured in golden, magical chains. "I see you have a few tricks of your own, eh?"

"Not everything requires magic," Bruce answered plainly.

Clara would never admit it out loud, but he was right about that. Magic was not truly needed for everything. 

Back at the House of Mystery's library, John had chained Blood to a chair. Once he returned after handing Ritchie to Orchid's care, he was ready to interrogate the fellow mage. "We need to talk, you and I, but if you try and summon Etrigan, I'll fill your lungs with bile before the first verse is done. Savvy?"

'Etrigan the demon...' Clara realized. That was the reason Blood had his notoriety. She had read about this demon and its powers and knew it to be very dangerous. She took a step back as John removed the chains from Blood's body, giving him the freedom to speak and move his body freely. 

"The situation was not how it seemed," Blood explained, rubbing his wrists. "The apartment was like that when I arrived. Richard as well."

"It's hard to believe that seeing that you were all over him," Clara said, crossing her arms. 

"I was attempting to help, " Blood stood up, continuing to speak. "When you burst in, I knew I'd get blamed, so I ran."

"Do you believe him?" Zatanna asked, walking up to John.

"Jason's not the murdery type," He answered, half smirking for some reason. "He's chock full of honour, loyalty, and rubbish of that sort." 

"Then tell us why you were there," Bruce stated firmly. 

Blood sighed, before he responded. "Richard is known as a collector of the arcane and supernatural. I wanted to see if he had something that could gain me access to this place."

"Why would you wanna break in here?" Boston sounded curious.

Blood walked towards the bookshelves, stopping in front of one with a dark red crystal with sharp edges. "For this. The single most powerful conduit of evil in the history of the world. He named it the Dreamstone, but it's really the stuff of nightmares."

Blood took a small pause, before continuing his story. "I was a young knight, green as grass, with visions of battle-won glory dancing in my head. Needless to say, these were dispelled thoroughly. He called himself Destiny, but Merlin told us he was a man of science one time, before he went insane. Destiny forged the Dreamstone with black magic and his soul. He used it to subject people to their most terrifying nightmares and then feed off their torment. It was actually the demon Etrigan who won the day. It was also the beginning of my eternal life sentence with Etrigan."

Blood picked up the Stone and turned around to face everyone. "I didn't think you'd give it up willingly, and though this piece is useless without the other half, it's far from powerless." 

He returned it to the shelf, just as John walked closer, almost as though he was ready to attack. "Safe where it is."

"Displayed like a tourist trinket?" Blood reached out to grab the Stone again, but his hand phased through, like the Stone was not even there. 

"Neat, isn't it?" John smirked slightly. "The House keeps my valuables out of phase, so they don't go wondering off." 

"But, still, the timing of the Stone's appearance and its power indicates that it's somehow involved with these crimes," Bruce said. 

"Which is why it stays here, where only I can get to it," John answered, frowning. 

"I think me, them and everyone else who knows you might want it to be somewhere else," Boston said. 

"I agree with Boston," Clara said. "Is it really that safe here?"

Before anyone could say anything, Orchid appeared. In her oddly soothing voice, she said, "Your friend is awake."

Immediately, they rushed to the room where Ritchie was resting. His eyes were open and judging from his expression, he was still in a lot of pain. 

John kneeled at the bedside. "Ritchie, who was it? Who did this to you?"

"Faust," Ritchie mumbled, sounding very much out of it.

Clara looked at Bruce, whispering under her breath, "Felix Faust, again? I hate that guy."

Bruce didn't say anything and only acknowledged her with the slightest 'Hmm.'

Ritchie passed out again.

*

Back in the library, John tossed books aside till he finally found the one that he was looking for. He pressed his finger to the page and it started to glow, projecting an encyclopedia like entry on Faust. "I give you wizard and asshole extraordinaire, Felix Faust. Hell, I should have put it together. Conjuring a whirlwind is just his style."

 "The League had a run-in with Faust but his location isn't in our database," Bruce stated, looking at a tablet he had pulled, once again, seemingly out of nowhere. How much space did that utility belt of his have??

Clara had been there at the time and let's just say, she really fucking hated Faust. 

"Yeah well, wizards don't make a habit of signing up for credit cards or social media," John answered. "His grandly named Observatory of the Cosmos is hidden from the likes of you and Superman, but not from me."

He picked up a small gold pin and started uttering a spell, making it glow purple. The pin slowly floated in the air before piercing through Faust's projected entry page. John pulled up a magic circle, this time with a map of the globe in the center. The pin spun near the globe, trying to detect Faust's location.

"What's happening?" Boston asked as he tried to get a closer look.

"If this were a computer, I'd say it's frozen," Bruce said plainly. 

"Cheers," John said, holding up a peace sign. 

"Felix Faust would take precautions against locator spells," Zatanna commented. 

"Exactly. I could try using Magical Sight on him, but it wouldn't work," Clara said. Magical Sight was a type of location spell that could see far-off distances very quickly. But against a fellow user of magic, it would be completely useless.

"There's another way," John crossed his arms. "But it involves asking a favour of someone that I don't have the best relationship with."

"Someone else dislikes you?" Blood remarked sarcastically. "Shocking."

Orchid appeared again, as though she had just phased through the shelves. "Your friend slips from the mortal plane."

"John!" Zatanna said in a concerned tone.

"Keep him alive and safe," John said, looking at Orchid. "Understand?"

"That is not my purpose," Orchid answered. 

"I don't give a flying shag what you think your bloody purpose is. I order you to help him any and every way you're able." 

Orchid nodded.

"Let's go." And John walked away.

I literally have no excuse for not updating this; it's just that life has been really weird and I barely have had writing inspiration. But I have made a plan to update the stories that I haven't touched in a while. And then my second plan is to prewrite as much as I can for stories that are closer to completion. This is one of those. I don't intend for Enigma to be a long fic and right now, my plan is for it to have at least 24-25 chapters. So, I am going to prewrite this as much as I can so that I can start regular updates at least.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapters. Your comments and votes will be much appreciated <3