Marantec garage door opener

https://preview.redd.it/ccwmpyfktzoa1.jpg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d816fed520124292e08627b0a6285e5f2097df66
Cover Art Cover Art (Alternate) First Chapter Patreon Playlist
The Story: When a seemingly-powerless human walks straight through the wards shielding her bestiary, Aloe finds herself with a mystery on her shop floor - and with her merciless kin eager to get their hands on him, they've got a deadline on solving it.
---------------------------------
Aloe took a step back, green eyes wide.
Behind her frozen facade, though, her thoughts raced at a hundred miles an hour. A human. Here.
That was a problem. A big one. It meant something had gone terribly wrong with all of the enchantments on the Dragon—and now, she had to move fast if she wanted to keep Secrecy intact.
The man took a shuffling step backward, going paler by the second. Sweat beaded on his forehead. “Shit,” she heard him whisper. The tension building in his voice was clear.
So when he turned, bolting for the door, she was ready. A trilling whistle exploded from her throat, her lips shaping the tone to a high, looping pitch. The door of the Dragon slammed shut. The deadbolt clacked home.
The human hit the wood a heartbeat later, wrestling with the latch. “Open,” Aloe heard him gasp. “Open, dammit!” His expression twisted even as he said it. Recognition, Aloe knew.
One last slam of his fist against the wall, and he spun, glaring at Aloe from beneath a mess of sandy brown hair. “What the hell is this?” he spat. “Just- Just let me go. I’ll call the cops.” As if remembering himself, he started patting at his coat, his bag dropping forgotten to the wooden floor.
Aloe had already put a hand to her belt, running her fingers across the blocky, wood-and-metal shape hanging at her hip. A kalimba. Not the most complex instrument ever devised, but simple was all she needed. She plucked one of the tines, letting the smooth, bell-like note ring through the shop. Centering herself, she started to play, fingers flying faster as she settled into a rhythm. Her magic rose, called up by the clean, pure melody.
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” she heard from across the room. Her brow furrowed. She’d already started her lullaby—there was no way anyone should be left standing still, much less a magic-less human.
But when she looked up, she found the human man scrolling through his phone, terror steadily replacing confusion on his face. “That’s not-”
“No service in here,” Aloe said softly. The man looked up at the sound of her voice, and she sighed inwardly at the frenzied look in his eyes. She dragged her fingers across the kalimba, letting another chord sail out. Nice and slow, Aloe. It’s no different from calming a scared gryphon. “It’s okay. Nothing is wrong. No one will hurt you.”
The words were laced with another enchantment—a sedating charm, this time—but once again, her magic seemed to vanish when it brushed his skin. He shook his head wildly, wordless, and returned to wrestling with the door. The phone fell from his fingers, forgotten.
Aloe’s heart started to pound. Daisy was there alongside her, hackles raised and a snarl on her lips. When a knurl got to growling they growled, and she could already see the impact it was having on their unwelcome guest. She dropped a hand to the hound’s head, still strumming the kalimba with her other.
“You’re safe,” she murmured, reaching deeper into her well of magic. “Breathe, friend. None will harm you here.” Her unease grew by the second, even as she wove a sleeping charm over the entire Dancing Dragon. She was old, yes, and her magic was powerful enough she didn’t fear often for her safety, but it was specialized. She had sleep, and she had dreams. If they didn’t work on this human, what else could she bring to bear here?
Carefully, agonizingly slow, she inched to the side, to where her field kit sat forgotten alongside the counter.
The tension in her eased as she felt the magic start to take hold, the whole room resonating with the steady peal of the tines. The sunbirds overhead came to rest on their beams. The sprites drifted back to their crystal orb, their light dimming. Even Daisy sank to the ground with a whine, laying her head on her neatly-crossed paws.
The human, however, whirled back around to face her, face wild. “Let me out!” he roared—and he broke into a mad dash back toward her, a wordless cry on his lips.
Aloe was faster. She snatched her hand crossbow from the top of the kit, leveling it at him. He was halfway across the shop floor when she pulled the trigger.
The dart notched against its string shot forward, lancing deep into the man’s shoulder. She had a frozen moment of fear as she saw it bite home. If this didn’t work, she didn’t have any other options—but the poison it was loaded with was made from a heavily diluted basilisk venom, brewed by a dear friend she trusted wholeheartedly. She’d seen the same darts take down a charging troll.
It’d work.
The man pressed onward another lumbering step, and Aloe danced back, her breath catching in her throat. It wasn’t working. She had to-
One more lurch, and she saw the man’s eyes roll back in his head. He dropped like a sack of potatoes, hitting the ground hard.
And with that, finally, the Dancing Dragon was quiet.
Aloe took a long, shuddering breath, pressing a hand to her chest. Her other hand shook as she laid her crossbow back atop her field bag. Her heart hammered away fast as a hummingbird’s, her blood rushing through her veins. “That was too close,” she whispered, eyes still fixed to the motionless form of the human. “What in Ora’s merciful embrace was that, Daisy?”
The knurl let out a whine in her sleep, rolling over to her side. Despite the panic of the moment, Aloe let out a shaky laugh, casting a derisive look toward the hound.
And as she collected herself, she started to circle the fallen man, her mind churning away. “What are you?” she whispered, crouching down beside him. Warning bells rang in her head, screaming for her to stay back, to get away. She ignored all of them, reaching out to grip the man gently by the chin.
Well, he looked human enough. Aloe grimaced, leaning in a bit closer. Dhumir were hardy folk, and they had a bit of magic resistance about them. Maybe this fellow had a few drops from one of their bloodlines to his name. He certainly didn’t have the delightfully solid bone structure of most of them, but neither could she place him as belonging to another of the light-touched races.
Releasing him, she stood with a groan. “What am I doing?” she mumbled, burying her face in both hands. The truth of the situation was obvious. He wasn’t a dhumir, or one of the diminutive gallafi, or an erelin like herself. No matter how hard she tried to find another alternative, there was only one answer. The same one she’d been staring down from the start.
He was human. And yet somehow, he’d blasted her wards to smithereens, shrugging off every last spell she threw at him.
“Lucky I still had my kit out,” she mumbled. Her hands raked through her hair, teasing at the strands that’d fallen from her knots and ties.
Underneath it all, she recognized that she was just wasting time. She’d laid the human flat, but considering her magic had had little effect on him, she couldn’t guarantee he’d be down for long—or that she could do it a second time.
Which meant that as little as she wanted to, she had another job to take care of before he woke up.
Heart leaden, she eased her phone from its pocket, staring down at the blank screen. She wouldn’t have service here any more than the human did. Cell phone towers hadn’t learned how to penetrate a seemspace yet, Mother be praised. But she still had options.
Her nostrils flared as she eyed the device like it’d leap from her hand and attack. Do it, you coward. Finally, she dragged a finger around the phone’s outer edge, clearing her throat. “Heed me,” she mumbled. No song required—it was just a sliver of Rote magic, like any light-touched child of Ora could perform. “Sing out across untold distances.”
The magic took hold—and as the phone started to glow in her hand, she raised it begrudgingly to her ear.
—------------------------
Daisy whined, fixing a red-eyed, mournful look on her.
Aloe shook her head. “No.”
The knurl let out a low whuff, barely audible.
“I said no.” Aloe raised an eyebrow, turning her gaze more fully onto the beast. “I’m sorry I enspelled you. But you already had your dinner.”
Daisy’s flank heaved with a heavy sigh. She dropped back to the floor, laying her head on Aloe’s leg, grumbling all the while.
Aloe smiled to herself, thoughts a thousand miles away. Rat was still curled up on her shoulder, where he’d ridden out the whole boondagle. Her phone lay abandoned across the room. It’d bounced when she’d thrown it. It might even be broken. She’d regret it later, she was sure.
Right now it was all she could do to sit there, trying desperately to will away the sick feeling in her stomach.
The human hadn’t moved. That was the one blessing through all this. She’d pulled him into a more comfortable position after giving him a once-over, and fetched a pillow from her room over the shop. He’d snored away through all of it, totally unbothered.
“You’ll be fine,” she whispered, her gaze lingering on his face. He was young. Too damned young to be mixed up in something like this. “The district mages will get you sorted out, and you’ll toddle on your way none the wiser. You won’t even-”
Right on cue, she felt something prickle at the edge of her freshly-reapplied wards. Her skin prickled.
“Stay,” she said, laying a hand on Daisy’s shoulder. The knurl’s eyes snapped open—but she stayed where she was, lifting her head from Aloe’s leg and laying it back down on her paws. Aloe smiled, ruffling the hound’s yellow-green fur. “Good girl,” she murmured. “Just stay here.”
The fact Daisy was out in the open at all made her gut twist a little. Knurl weren’t exactly domesticated, generally. On the contrary, they were usually considered an aggressive breed. She knew what the prickling at her magic meant. Her visitors had arrived. The thought of them panicking and attacking her hound sent shivers of fear through her.
She stood, though, rocking a bit unsteadily on her feet. The tingle of magic against hers came again, more insistently, and she scowled. “Impatient bastards, as always,” she muttered, swiping a hand across her kalimba again. The Dancing Dragon filled with the clear notes, carrying her magic with them, and she felt her wards come open.
The others wasted no time. A blade of light lanced through the air at the front of the Dragon, tearing wide a breath later. A trio of figures piled out through the brilliantly-lit gap, emerging to gape, blinking, onto the Dragon’s shop floor.
Aloe grimaced at the sight of Willard among their number, his slicked-back hair recognizable even at a cursory glance. He’s Kyran’s advisor. You knew he would come. The other two mages she’d never seen before, but their gear was sturdy, padded out with thick leather and kevlar over their rough canvas uniforms, and that didn’t leave many options. So he sent his soldiers, too.
The pair of soldiers stiffened at the sight of Daisy lounging on the floor—then sprang apart, grabbing brass-and-elm wands from their belts. “That’s-”
“That is one of my registered and approved familiars,” Aloe said, darting forward to place herself firmly between the soldiers and Daisy. Rat raised his head alongside hers, letting out a strident chatter. “This is my bestiary, gentlemen, not your damned shooting range. I have a license with the kingdom. If you harm anything here, I’ll-”
“Peace, Miss Aloisia,” Willard said, holding his hands up. He stepped past the two goons, offering her an easy, friendly smile. “No one intends a fight. It seems you’ve, ah…” His gaze dropped to the slumbering human. His eyebrow arched. “Run into a snag?”
“You could say that,” Aloe mumbled. She pressed her fingers to her temples for a moment, pressing gently. Calm down. Just do what you have to do, and they’ll leave. Pulling away, she stroked Rat’s head, taking a slow breath. “He waltzed straight in here.”
“And he saw?” Willard said, arching one eyebrow. He bent over with a groan, crouching beside the man, and started to probe for a pulse.
She was forced to nod. “I’m afraid so.”
“Haven’t you heard of wards?” one of the soldiers muttered under his breath. “Damned big shop like this, and you haven’t even-”
“I had wards,” Aloe snapped. She folded her arms, drawing herself up to her full height—however much good that did. She wasn’t exactly large, and Kyran’s troops both towered over her. “He walked straight through them, shredding the whole lot in the process.”
All three of her new guests stopped in their tracks. “Pardon?” Willard said. “You’re certain?”
“Absolutely sure of it,” Aloe said. “All of my lullabies bounced right off him, too. I had to stick him with basilisk poison to put him down.”
One of the soldiers snorted, a towering erelin with cobalt blue hair. Not a bloodline she recognized, that one. “A lullaby?” she heard him say, a derisive laugh under the words. His eyes swept up and down her form. “Will you sing somethin’ for us too, love? I wouldn’t mind seein’ you-”
“Watch your tongue, Jarlon,” Willard said, not looking up from his search of the downed man. “You’re biting off more than you can chew, and I won’t be the one to save you.”
The soldier stopped, surprise flashing across his face. He gave Aloe another look, then edged away.
“I don’t know what exactly he is,” Aloe said with a sigh, turning an admonishing look back on Willard. She pulled a bundle from her pocket—the man’s wallet. “I found this while disarming him.” Flipping it open, she showed them the ID within, labeling the man as one Rowen Cole. “It’s just basic human stuff. Nothing magical.”
“Very interesting indeed,” Willard murmured. He took the wallet from her, nodding along. “I’ve never seen a human who could do…well, anything like this.”
“Neither have I,” Aloe said. She pressed her lips tight together, starting to frown as one of the soldiers took the sleeping Rowen’s arm. “You’ll see to him, right? You won’t harm him?”
“He will be safe within Kyran’s territory,” Willard said smoothly, gesturing for the other soldier to join the first. “Worry not. We do have a protocol for such breaches, you know.”
Memory wipes and a toss back out onto the street. Aloe nodded, relieved. “Right. Good.” She’d feel more than a little bad if her duty to the kingdom’s precious Secrecy wound up getting the poor fellow killed. She hadn’t opened the Dragon to cause more bloodshed.
And as the two soldiers hoisted the human’s slumbering form up between them, Willard straightened, turning to Aloe. “Thank you for contacting us,” he said.
She shrugged, even as her skin crawled at the feel of him there in her shop. “Something like this needs to be dealt with promptly,” she said softly.
“Just so,” Willard said. He smiled, drawing back toward her. “Kyran was pleased to hear you’d contacted the district.” A moment of long hesitation, and his eyebrow quirked. “He speaks of you often, you know. I know he would be gladder still if you returned. If you’re ever of a mind to reconsider-”
“I made my decision clear,” Aloe said. The sentence was sharper than it needed to be, and she softened her expression not at all. Perhaps she’d be better served by demurring, here, but she’d told the bastard she wasn’t interested. It was time for him to respect that.
Willard waited a heartbeat longer, but sighed, nodding. “As you will,” he said. “Just know that door remains open, if your mind should change.”
It won’t. “Thanks,” she said, not an ounce of gratitude in the word. “Is there anything else I can help you with? I need to reopen my shop.”
“Yes, of course,” Willard said. “Thank you again, Miss Aloe.”
Her expression twitched. Her nickname, on his lips? She almost lost her cool then and there. It’d feel very good to finally tell the greased-up bastard where he could stick that presumption of his.
She nodded once instead, lips tight, and said not another word. The trio seemed to recognize they were on thin ice because for once they let the silence stand. Pulling their cargo a little higher, they trudged back toward their portal.
Aloe didn’t relax until they vanished through it, the magic sealing up as though it’d never been there at all. When the Dragon was dark again she sagged, suddenly more exhausted than ever. “Well, that’s about enough excitement for one day,” she mumbled.
Daisy lifted her head, letting out a low whine. Rat hopped down from her shoulder, trotting over to press his face against the hound’s, and earned a sloppy lick for his troubles.
She really should reopen the shop, like she’d told Willard. There were a lot of critters living inside the Dragon, and all of them liked to eat. She couldn’t afford to pass up the chance of a walk-by. At a minimum, she should just call Kanna, tell her about what’d happened, and keep her doors open.
But the odds of running into another Child of Ora out here randomly were low enough she couldn’t quite muster up the effort, and as much as she loved her friend, the thought of trying to rehash, just…everything, left her more tired than she already was. She turned away instead, trudging over to her field kit.
The dart she’d fired off had to be replaced and reloaded, of course. It wouldn’t do to leave herself unarmed in case something else went wrong. Then there were a whole mess of dens that needed to be mucked out. There were feathers and sheddings to be collected after that, nails to be trimmed and coats to be brushed.
She went through the motions, her head lost somewhere in the cloud of unease that still hung over her. It’d just all happened so quickly, started in a flash and ended with a bang. She had so many questions—and she’d let that bastard’s people tromp around in her shop.
That wouldn’t do either, so she mopped the place down for good measure, arms aching and eyes starting to go bleary. With every shove of the fibers, she drooped a little lower. The water splashed back and forth, roiling in its bucket like a miniature ocean. Her breath slipped from her chest, her eyes misting over. The waves crashed on, back and forth. The water was beneath her too, buoying her up with every breath. Back and forth, until-
Daisy barked.
Aloe jerked upright. Her eyes snapped open. Her chest ached, her lungs burning as she refilled them with sweet air.
Shaking her head, she started towards the Dragon’s shop closet, tucking the mop and bucket away. “That’s about enough of that,” she mumbled. Her eyes drifted back to her desk in the back, and the narrow drawer mounted beneath it.
It…was probably time. She really should call it a night.
With Daisy padding along at her side, she finished closing the front door up tight, wrapping her illusions snugly enough about the store that not even a light-touched would be able to spot it. The lantern, she pulled from the ceiling, blowing it out. The creatures quieted as the wick smouldered, recognizing the signs of their day ending. Rat ran circles around her feet, chirping in protest.
And with the shop darkened at last, she strode back to that desk. The drawer came open at a touch. Aloe stared down into it, eyes vacant as she scanned the rows of neatly-wedged vials.
There was no getting around it, though. Not tonight, with the stink of that bastard’s court still lingering in the Dragon and the ocean lapping at her mind. The dreams would have her tossing all night if she didn’t shut them up. Sighing, she pulled a vial out, popping the lid off. Down it went, swallowed in a single shot before she could taste the horrible bitterness of it.
Aloe felt it immediately, though. The heavy weight that settled across her shoulders, the cold numbness that spread through her veins. She grimaced. Daisy sidled over, ramming her head into Aloe’s leg, and she couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m fine, dearest,” she murmured, giving the knurl’s head a rub. Stepping back, she held an arm out for Rat to jump onto. “Ready?”
Together they rounded the corner in the back of the Dragon, pushing through a set of swinging doors to the stairs beyond. Aloe waited, pausing a step at a time, as Daisy clambered up the stairs, whining. The sight and sound of it all made her sigh. The leg must be bothering her. She’d have to find an ampoule of salve for it soon.
By the time the two of them trudged down the hallway through the living quarters, the edges of her sight were starting to go fuzzy. She grimaced, rubbing at her eyes, and pushed through the door into her quarters. “Damn stuff works fast.”
As she flopped down on the mattress, though, vanishing into the well-worn covers, that same unease still lingered at the back of her mind. She stared up at the rafters. When Daisy crawled up alongside her, Rat taking up a position on her nightstand, she only gave the knurl a good rub.
But how had a human gotten into her shop in the first place?
That was the question that still burned at her, stuck in her craw. Who had that man been, and just….how?
“Rowan Cole,” Aloe whispered, and sighed. Kyran had him, now. That should relieve her, and yet…she’d met Kyran before. More often than not, being somewhere far, far away was preferable. A twinge of sympathy ran through her for the poor kid.
Well, he wouldn’t have to suffer it long. She allowed herself a tiny smile, eyes drooping closed. Her face sank into Daisy’s thick fur. The district’s mages worked fast. Rowen would be off and back to his business by the time morning came.
No reason at all to be worried.
Exhaling, Aloe curled up tighter against Daisy, succumbing to the waves.

SPECULATION: Maura's friend/BF is from out-of-town & stays at the Amherst Motel when he comes to visit. Looking at the available & detailed phone records that begin on January 23rd, 2004 we can see that Maura never called Dominos prior to January 31st, this might suggest that he arrived in town on that evening after finishing work/classes & was off until the next Tuesday. Someone calls Maura at the security desk from an internal line & Maura fakes a breakdown shortly after (to get off work as per her sister Kathleen.) Maura is let off work but declines KM's invitation to go to Dunkin's & lies to her by saying she's got a roommate. Shortly afterwards at 3:40 A.M. she calls Domino's.
Why would she call her friend/BF at Domino's during after-hours if he's from out of town? It might be to hide his identity. If he got a call on the phone in his room or his cell phone, he could later be identified. If Maura & him were planning to start a new life together, this would leave no clues.
It's possible he grabbed the key on a prior occasion without the owner's knowledge, copied it & then returned it the same day. If he's the one who stole the cc number given to Maura, he'd be capable of copying the key. Once he has the key & sees the owner leaving he could let himself in. Maura always called around closing time or after. Also, it has to be Maura who calls so that people think she's ordering pizza. If he calls, then it's someone calling Maura specifically & from a cell or motel. LE would investigate that for sure.
Sat the 31st 2:44 AM // Thurs the 5th at 12:00 AM & 12:10 AM // Fri the 6th at 3:40 AM
My guess is that if this is what happened, then he might have been due back to work/school on Tuesday or Maura was waiting for the check from her student loan which she might have gotten on that Monday (James Renner blog.) If UMass agreed to hide the fact that they helped her to leave an abusive relationship, they might have made the cheque out to cash.
Let's say the Hadley accident was exactly that, an accident & nothing more.
Finally, the day of departure...
February 9th, 2004 SPECULATION:

• She goes to the Amherst motel behind Domino's & meets up with BF.
• The Saturn is towed from or picked up at Zbylut Motorworks garage (aka Autozone) (open since 2003.) This is one example but there seems to have been other auto-repair shops nearby.

February 9th, 2004 FACTS:

• Maura goes to ATM & receipt is printed around 3:15 PM.
• She gets the insurance forms from AAA located between liquors 44 & the bottle return place.
• She or her BF returns the cans & either both or one or the other buys the alcohol & cigarettes at the liquor store & pays at 3:43 PM.

ETA: I don't think the friend/BF ever went to Maura's dorm room or else they'd be easily identifiable & it wouldn't be the smartest idea if the plan was to help her disappear. It's possible however that he was a 4th person at the party or that just like the tandem theory, a friend of Maura's was relating info from the friend/BF to Maura.
ETA: If you're an AAA member, you can do your most common RMV business at this AAA location. https://www.mass.gov/locations/hadley-aaa-limited-rmv-services
If she can do all that's included in link above, she can get an SF91 accident form. Wouldn't even need to be a member I think. Everyone wondered (including myself) where she got them. Then I enlarged the map & it became obvious.
I also wouldn't be surprised if she then went down the road to one of the cell phone stores, bought herself a burner, called her old mobile one last time & then dumped the old phone. Occam's razor?
ETA: Guess what else she could have done at AAA?
She could have gotten roads maps or asked a travel agent to ,map out her itinerary & book her a hotel room. I hope LE interviewed the employees of the AAA agency-they probably did. It may be the reason why they didn't feel that interviewing the Salamones was pertinent.
​
ALL IN ONE SHOT MAP