"I kind of wish we could talk to what's-his-name the wizard from that other Chicago," Naomi commented. "I bet he'd be able to help--" she was prevented from saying anything more when the unfamiliar words on the page seemed to shimmer as a strange wind kicked up around them. Naomi only had time to glance at Osanna before the world around them faded out and they were taken somewhere else.

Osanna blinked a few times as they were dropped briefly in Genkai's garden. She had a short view of Yukina, looking very surprised, starting to ask them if they were alright, before the world sort of tilted agai and they were gone.

Naomi didn't even have time to yelp at being dropped on Osanna before they were whisked away again. This time, it dropped them briefly in front of a sign, which Naomi barely had time to read as 'Rockbell Automail,' and then they were gone again. Just as quickly, it deposited them in the middle of what looked like someone's living room.

"No more!" Naomi squeaked. "We give, no more!"

Harry blinked a few times when they got dropped in his living room. He and Thomas were sitting around talking some things over. Or they had been, before their unexpected visitors.

Osanna waited to make sure they'd stay there before she flopped to the floor gratefully. Oh that had been awful. If she'd thought the random jumping had been bad before, this was even worse.

Naomi managed to roll a bit so she wasn't pinning Osanna to the floor, and then sat up to look around. She blinked when she realized where they were.

"It worked?" she asked. She nudged Osanna. "Osa, look. I think it worked."

Thomas raised an eyebrow at the scene. He knew well enough by now that this wasn't normal, even for his brother, and that said something.

Osanna lifted herself carefully and beamed when she saw Mouse looking at them, looking rather confused. She promptly went to go cuddle her favorite dog, and he settled down to let her.

"Well, this is... unexpected," Harry said, leaning over to offer Naomi a hand up. "What brings you around this time?"

Naomi paused for a moment, gathering her wits. She was still a little disoriented from the sudden trip, but not disoriented enough to misunderstand the question.

"Magic book?" she said, holding up the book that seemed to be the root of the whole problem. "My stepmother had it."

Well, this was interesting. Thomas sat back on the couch to watch the spectacle unfold. He remembered these two, so he wasn't worried about them being there. The two girls were harmless.

"What kind of magic book?" Harry held out his hand to see if Naomi was willing to give it to him. He could tell right off the bat that it wasn't a normal book. It was off in a way he hadn't seen before, which made him very curious.

"If I knew what kind of magic book, we wouldn't need to be here asking," Naomi pointed out as she handed the book over. She was kind of glad not to be holding it anymore, to be honest; it made her uncomfortable and set her newly-honed instincts on edge. "Osa and I can both tell it's weird, and it's not a weird we're familiar with."

Why don't we ask Bob about it? Osa prompted, once she was sort of done cuddling Mouse. She'd moved to lean against him instead of wrapping her arms around him, as much as she could.

"That's what I was thinking too," Naomi agreed, nodding at Osanna. She looked back at Harry. "We figured your know-it-all talking skull buddy would be able to help, too."

Thomas blinked. The girls knew about Bob? He glanced at his brother, knowing full well that Harry didn't know that Thomas had met Bob already before. This could have plenty of disaster potential.

Harry looked totally blindsided for a moment, looking at Thomas furtively before looking back at the girls. "I'll just, uh, borrow that and go see what I can do about translating it..." He trailed off into almost inarticulate muttering as he took the book, going over to the sub-basement and dropping down.

Osanna blinked. Did we do something wrong?

Naomi blinked.

I have no idea, she signed back. She glanced over at Thomas, but he got up from the couch with a soft sigh.

Going over to the trap door, he tapped a foot on it.

"I think it's about time I head out anyways, Harry," he called. "Have fun with that book."

"I'll call you later," Harry yelled back, bent over the book already trying to decipher what it said.

Once they'd both vanished, Osanna sat and looked at Naomi, her eyes wide. Did we do something wrong...?

Thomas waved a goodbye to the girls and left, leaving Naomi and Osanna alone in the living room.

"I don't know," Naomi replied, just as confused. After a moment, she went and leaned over the trap door. "Did I say something wrong?" she called down.

"No," Harry said, his voice muffled. "Not exactly. Thomas doesn't know about Bob."

Osanna grimaced. Oops. Sorry. Hopefully Naomi would pass the message along.

Naomi blinked.

"But he didn't seem surprised, really," she pointed out. "We're really sorry if we blew some sort of cover, though. Really." Sitting down on the floor next to the trap door, she braced herself against the opposite edge and leaned over so she could see downstairs. The air in the subbasement was pleasantly cool on her skin. "We didn't know."

"I know you didn't. It's fine." Harry sighed and looked up at her briefly between jotting down notes. "We'll go talk about it eventually."

"Alright," Naomi said, although it was clear that she was sure that it wasn't fine. "On the upside, I managed to steal that book out from under my stepmother's nose, I'm kind of proud of that."

"Yes, well, this is not like any book I've ever seen." Harry kept jotting down notes, pausing every once in a while to copy phrases out of the book, very careful not to string them together so as to complete whatever spell the book obviously held.

"Glad we could bring you something new, then," Naomi replied. She watched for a moment, and then took the opportunity to glance around the subbasement while she had the chance. It was tiny and cramped, and she couldn't completely suppress a snicker when she saw a few stacks of cheap romances on one shelf.

Harry glanced up at her and jotted down a few more things before he paused when the phone rang. He shooed her out of the way and moved up to the basement, grabbing his phone.

"Dresden."

"Dresden, what the hell have you been writing down in the last twenty minutes?" Kincaid hadn't even bothered with an imitation of a greeting. He didn't sound angry or upset, however... Oddly, he sounded worried.

"Um. Writing down some notes on a book some friends brought me. Why?" Harry frowned, wondering what exactly was going on. He shouldn't be freaking anyone out too badly with that...

"Whatever it is, stop writing it," Kincaid ordered. "The Archive is reacting badly." If that wasn't an understatement. In reality, the Archive was tearing apart what passed for her bedroom in an attempt to figure out what exactly was being written down and what it would do if and when the text was complete. Just the pieces were enough to send her into minor breakdown, and the best explanation that Kincaid had been able to get out of her was that it was nothing she'd ever seen before and not something Dresden could develop on his own.