Witch's Bell Book One

sworn to-'
    'We get it, Mr Detective,' Harry interrupted, 'but I still don't believe you're really a Knight.'
    'I have a suit of armor that moves at Will, isn't that evidence enough?' Nate gestured at the crumpled armor on the floor.
    'I'll admit that is weird,' Harry grumbled. 'But a true Knight is bound by more than words. Show us your registration, chump.'
    Nate rolled his eyes. 'Fine.'
    Then he began to do something entirely unexpected. The upstanding Mr Detective began to unbutton his shirt.
    Ebony sucked in a breath. 'Ah, what are-'
    But before she could squeeze out the words or a whistle, Nate had whipped off his shirt to reveal, much to Ebony's disappointment, a singlet.
    'Right....' Ebony said carefully. 'Do knights, as a rule, always wear singlets? Is that why you took off your shirt?'
    Nate pointed at the small tattoo on the tip of his left shoulder. It was about the size of a coin. It was a small circle with another circle inside. That was it.
    Ebony, already bored by the tattoo, let her eyes drift to the rest of the Detective. To say he had impressive arms, was the understatement of the century.
    'Ah, I see,' Harry said carefully, 'you are a knight. My mistake.'
    Nate buttoned up his shirt, catching Ebony's gaze and cocking an eyebrow. 'You done?'
    Ebony sniffed carefully. 'Okay... so just because he has a really small tattoo, we believe his story?'
    'That's not a tattoo,' Harry said, 'that's a Point of Registration. The man's a knight, definitely.'
    Ebony blinked hard and then just threw her hands in the air. 'What is going on here?'
    'I'm a knight. We just covered this.'
    'So, why are you here, Mr Knight?' Harry's voice had lost the edge of antagonism. Perhaps the prospect that Nate had fought dragons had impressed Harry. 'You Knights don't act without orders from your Round Table. So what is it, fess up, what's going on?'
    'You're very direct, bookstore. You want to know why I'm here,' he turned to take a long look at Ebony, 'I'm here because of your Portal,' he said simply.
    'Why, there something wrong with it?' Harry grumbled.
    'You could say that. For a couple of years now, Portals around the world have been decreasing their output of energy. We don't know why,' Nate pressed the bridge of his nose. 'But the fields that support the Portals have been fluctuating.'
    'Fluctuating?' Ebony asked. 'And? How is that important?'
    'Sorry, you an expert on thermic-field dynamics? No, well I am. The flow of energy into and out of the Portal has to be balanced, otherwise....'
    'Reality goes pop,' Harry rattled around on the ground. 'But you're wrong, Mr Knight. If anything, Vale's Portal has been increasing its output. Ever since I've been here its magical fields have only been growing stronger. Why, I remember when it was hard to raise a good fire-spell, now every nancy wizard can do it.'
    'And that's why I'm here,' Nate crossed his arms and sighed. 'For some reason the Vale Portal is bucking the trend. For some reason, every other Portal on the planet is taking in less energy than they're sending through, except for Vale.'
    Harry's buckle clicked for several seconds. 'Oh my. Sounds like something is trying to come through from the Other Side.'
    'We hope not,' Nate sighed heavily, 'we really hope not.'
    'So, hold on,' Ebony interjected, still not really following, but not wanting to be left behind either. 'You knew about the Portal all along? Then why did you ask me all those questions in my shop? Why did you borrow all those books?'
    'To see what you knew,' he answered simply. 'We suspect that someone is working with... whatever is trying to come through the Portal. Maybe they're trying to help it come through or maybe they're being used themselves. We don't know. But I wanted to know how much you knew about the Portal, to rule you off my list. I figured, as the witch consultant to the police force, that you should be investigated first. With the kind of connections you have with the Coven and the Force, you would be in an excellent position to manipulate the Portal without anyone knowing.'
    Ebony crossed her arms tightly. 'And what exactly did you learn, Nate?'
    'Ha!' he chuckled quickly. 'Oh, don't worry. You're about as capable of pulling that off as Harry is of winning a Manners Contest. I ruled you out ages ago.'
    She huffed. Not really knowing whether she should feel annoyed or relieved.
    Nate offered her a half-grin. 'Something wrong? You'd rather you were still under investigation? You want to be