Under different circumstances, it would be a good plan, Azriel said. But it will achieve little in this instance, and only amplify the danger to your friends.
Then we need to nullify that first.
There is no reasoning with the Raziq. As with all Aedh, it is only their plans – their desires – that matter.
Then maybe that's the tack we need to take. To the Raziq, I said, "Look, I don't give a frig who actually gets the keys. I just want to get back to normal life again."
That statement has a scarily fierce ring of truth about it, Azriel said.
I ignored him and continued on, "So, really, it behooves you to actually do what you can to help me rather than offering a long and tedious line of threats to both my near and dear."
"We cannot help find the keys, because we have no idea where they are hidden."
"No, but you can help me find the bastard who keeps stealing them from me."
"That is not possible. We do not interact with the human world."
Unless it was to fuck or torture us, of course, but I bit that remark back. "No, but you interact with the fields, and the sorcerer has to use magic to access the fields and the gates. Therefore, he must have a particular entry point somewhere on the fields." After all, a door always opened into the same room. I didn't know much about magic, but it seemed logical a transport portal would do the same. "If you shut that point down, it confines him to Earth, and gives me more time to find him and the key."
"Why shut it down, when all we have to do is find it, and then wait for him to step through?"
Well, there was that. I hesitated, thinking fast. "Except he has to know that's a possibility now that he no longer has Lucian to guard and guide him. He may wait until he has both the remaining keys to make his next move. The fact that he hasn't used the second key even though he's had it for several days certainly suggests this is a possibility."
And I mentally crossed my fingers that Azriel was right, that the Raziq and my father couldn't read my thoughts. That they'd believe this was a very real possibility, and not realize that the only reason our dark sorcerer hadn't used the key was the fact that he still didn't know which of the artifacts he'd stolen it was.
"Even so, all we would have to do —"
"No," I cut in. "You're not getting it. Our sorcerer was working with an Aedh – someone you not only tortured, but abandoned on Earth. Let me tell you, he wanted revenge, and he wanted it badly. And he was canny enough to ensure that, even if he was killed, you'd never get your mitts on the one thing you truly wanted."