---

“Ari? Are you okay? you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Mum made her way over to me.
My eyes stayed focused on the new people though.

Grace chose that moment to stare me right in the eye and blatantly lick her lips.
I gave a full body shudder and stepped back again, almost slipping on the rough gravel.

Mum’s head turned to glare at her on my behalf.
“Grace! Don’t do that.”
The blonde tried to look apologetic but she couldn’t wipe the amused smile off of her face at the same time.
Mum’s arm came around my shoulders making me flinch.
“Shh, Ari it’s okay. Calm down.”

I stared at her for a moment and shot a worried glance over at the new people again.
They hadn’t moved.
That’s good..

“Werewolves?”
It came out as more a squeak then the strong questioning tone I was hoping for.

Mum grimaced.
The blonde with the boys did too.
Grace just seemed even MORE amused by it all.

“It’s okay Ari, yes they’re werewolves but they won’t hurt you.. right Grace?”
If looks could kill Grace would be a dark red smear spread across several states at this point.

She had the decency to look a little ashamed this time at least.

I’ve never seen a werewolf look ashamed before.
Admittedly I’ve never seen a werewolf in real life either but still.. the whole idea of it seems weird.

Werewolves.. werewolves are EVIL!

Not even the smart but annoying ‘Max’ kind of evil!
Just straight up baby eating, mage hunting evil!

Werewolves are like the boogiemen for mages.
They LOVE the taste of mages.. well, mages and dryads.. anything human shaped with magic in its blood really..

I’ve never met one obviously.
You don’t just wander into werewolf territory and introduce yourself if you’re a mage!

My old mages guide had a warning feature built into it that made it vibrate if you got too near to a known werewolf territory.
THAT’S how bad they are, the Hub actively tries to keep mages as far away from them as possible!

My eyes shot around the new people again.
Grace gave me a little smirk which did NOTHING to make me feel better.
Her arm twitched and I flinched back into mum’s side with an undignified squeak.

“DON’T EAT ME!”

The moment the words left my lips I regretted them.. that sounded so stupid, even to MY ears.
I sounded like a little girl running away from someone trying to put bugs in her hair more than the bad-assed awakened mage I’m trying to be!

The blonde to the side made a snorting sound of amusement but tried to cover it quickly.

The boys behind her didn’t seem quite as inclined to hide how funny they thought my reaction was.
Grace certainly didn’t.
She went from watching me with worryingly intense eyes to throwing her head back in a loud barking laugh that left me blushing brightly in embarrassment.

“ENOUGH!”
Mum finally snapped and glared at the lot of them while squeezing me a bit tighter to her side.
“Jessie, Boys, you KNOW the things they tell mages about you! You’re only making it worse for Ari.”
Her head turned and she fixed her glare solely on Grace, who’d let her laugh die off when mum started shouting.
“YOU’RE the one who complains so much about mage’s being scared of you Grace! THIS IS WHY!”

She huffed in a deep calming breath and hugged me even tighter to her side.
To my shame I buried my face in her shoulder.

It feels nice to have someone protect me for once, especially mum.

======

“..ugg..”

We all jumped a little as the silence that had fallen over us after mum’s yelling fit was broken by a groan.
My eyes shifted to look at John.

Without my notice he’d somehow ended up basically sitting on the ground holding Sarah, I’d forgotten about her in all of the ‘werewolf’ panic honestly.

Mum didn’t resist too much when I pushed away from her and made my way over to Sarah’s side.

“Hey Han..”
Hey eyes didn’t quite seem focused yet.
After a moment she blinked them furiously and let out a ragged breath as everything around us cleared for her.
“..it wasn’t a dream.. was it?”

John snorted a little but didn’t make a smart-ass comment for once.

“No.. it wasn’t..”
I turned my head to glare suspiciously at the new people again.
“I’m not sure what’s going on but it looks like we’re safe for now.”

One of them tried to make some kind of noise of protest but I didn’t bother turning around to face them.
Sarah’s more important than them right now..

“Can you stan-”
I froze mid-sentence.

It’s taken me far too long to process what’s going on but.. did mum say that we’re PART werewolf?!

“Han?”
Sarah looked a bit worried, she probably thinks I’ve zoned out again but that’s not it.

I CAN’T be part-werewolf!
I mean.. sure, they’re werewolves and they’re apparently related to us but.. I can’t be!..

..I do tend to growl a lot though don’t I?..
Shut UP brain!

That’s normal, it’s a family thing.
I do it, Sarah does too.
We probably got it from mum, she growls..

..Crap..

We probably got it FROM mum..
What if it wasn’t a mimicking thing?
What if it’s just us?
Wh.. what if.. it’s the wolf showing through?..

I don’t WANT to be a werewolf!
I can’t!
I couldn’t kill people just f-..

I’VE ALREADY KILLED PEOPLE!

I never felt any remorse for it either, especially when I was Al!
Even this new incarnation has blood on its hands now.
..I.. I’m a monster..

My magic surged forth, hungry to be used.

I need to get away.
I need to run, before it’s too late and I kill again!

Two line’s to my legs, one to my head, one to my lungs.
Shadow magic is so beautifully simple.

Just as I started pushing the magic along the lines from my core and the shadows started stretching towards me so I could teleport away, something slapped down hard on my wrist.
It felt like all the power I’d built up inside me suddenly drained away, traveling down the lines I’d already established to my feet and pouring out into the ground below.

I let out a gasp of shock.
The world around us seemed to BLOOM with life suddenly.
Tree’s started growing taller, grass became thicker in a vivid shade of green, and flowers started popping up everywhere, blossoming in seconds.

Within less than a heartbeat the plants around us seemed to overgrow everything in sight.
I couldn’t even see the gravel path anymore through all the grass and weeds that had suddenly sprouted up around it.

“..Nice effect, you REALLY need to stop overloading your teleport spells..”

I glared at John in rage and tried to jerk my arm away from his grip but the rattle that followed my movement made my stomach drop.
A glance downwards made my magic bubble angrily in my chest.

“You son of a bitch!”
I took a swing at him with my free hand but he ducked out of the way easily.

HE HANDCUFFED HIMSELF TO ME!

“Get this off of me NOW!”
He ducked my second swing and used my awkward position to push my arm to my chest so I couldn’t swing again.

“I’m not letting you run off again, calm down.”

Calm down?!
CALM DOWN!

He handcuffed me!
I’m attached to him!
He put one cuff on his wrist and the other on mine!

“Let.me.GO!”
A yank of my arm did little more than jolt his shoulder.
“Where did you even GET these?!”

I stared at them hard for a moment, now that I think about it they look familiar.
It finally clicked in my head where I’d seen them before and another growl rumbled low in my chest.

They’re the same cuffs that the SWAT golem put on me!
The ones that damn near melted through my wrists a few days ago!

“You son of a BITCH!”
I tried to yank my unchained arm out of his grip again but he held on tightly.

“Hannah, calm down.”

My magic bubbled in my chest again.
I’m already back to full power, with a little more excess power building up in my lines by the second.

He glared at me.
It’s pretty obvious that he’s not going to let me go.

I rolled my magic and with a little concentration managed to shift its form from the golden healing magic of my diversion back to the plain old ice magic that’s now my true nature.
I could feel its cold power roll along my arm toward the handcuff.

I thought of this trick the other day, after reading some refresher notes on elemental magic from a book on Al’s ‘forbidden’ shelf.
The ice magic under my skin should protect me from the burning and if I can get enough power into them the cuffs should shatter, they’re only metal after all.

Enchanted metal, sure, but still metal!

Just when my magic hit its peak, ready to vent along my arm, it started draining away again.
I could feel it; I watched its progress with my inner-eye.
It travelled down my arm, along my chest, down my legs and exploded out of my feet into the ground around us.

In seconds the flourishing grass and plant life around us started to wither and die.
Frost formed up on the ground and a cold wind blew up around us from nowhere.

Finally it all died out and I was left panting on weak knees.
That took a lot out of me, venting so much magic twice in such quick succession isn’t a good idea.

He must have modified the cuffs!
They didn’t burn me like I’d expected.. it’s like they’re.. grounding me?
They’re sending all my magic back into the earth like electricity hitting a lightning rod!

Isn’t that just damn ironic!
First mum grounded me, now John has too!

The fight left me as I stared down at the cuffs in annoyance.

How did he do it?
He’s never been good with runes.
He’s never been good at modifying other people’s work either.

Well.. Max never was at least.. this is JOHN we’re talking about though, isn’t it?

“Are you calm now?”
He fixed me with a serious look.
His magic felt worried and frustrated but not mocking.
Whatever he’s doing, he obviously isn’t doing it just to annoy me for once.

“Get this cuff off of me..”
My lips pulled into Sarah’s pout.
It’s pretty much reflex at this point, if I’m out of options then be cute to get sympathy.

John noticed the change in my demeanor and let off a relieved sigh when I made eye contact with him again.

..Yes John, I’m calm now..
As calm as I can be while Handcuffed to you by something which stops me from casting magic, when we’re standing in the home territory of a pack of werewolves that I’m probably related to.. which means that I could be a werewolf too..

..Calm is all a matter of perspective..
In this case, the fact that I’m not franticly trying to escape because I’ve run out of ideas how to manage it is about as close as I’m going to GET to being calm any time soon!

“Get them off.”

Calm voice.
Nice, calm, happy.

Look at how calm I am John?
It’s perfectly safe for you to let me go.
I’ll only turn you into an ice sculpture for a little while in revenge.

Nice smile, pleasant smile.
Come on John, hurry up, take them off!

“I kind of..can’t..”

My smile froze on my face.
My magic surged up again and poured out of my feet just as quickly.
Thanks to my diversion and my lack of concentration the ice around us melted, the plants that had all practically died off came back to life with blooms of flowers everywhere and a wild surge of pollen which made me want to sneeze.

“..what?..”
He winced and turned his head away from me.
“Don’t look away from me John! What do you mean you CAN’T?!”

With obvious reluctance he turned his head back to face me.
His eyes said he was sorry and his magic agreed, not that it helped my mood much.

“We need a mage who’s not wearing them to remove them.”

I quickly shot my eyes along the path and through the forest around us.
Everyone else was pretty far away at this point, taking refuge in the doorway of the stables.

I don’t even KNOW how Sarah managed to get out of the danger zone before I started raging?

They were still in the range of my magical senses though, just about.
None of them has an active magical core, Jessie has.. something?.. but whatever it is, it’s not an active core, it feels too.. weak?
More importantly, there’s not a mage among them!

“Where.. are we going to find another mage to take these things OFF?”
The growl rumbled in my chest again and I grit my teeth hard to stop more yelling from leaving my mouth.

“I kind of figured.. your Grandmother could help?..”

PERFECT!
Jus.. just bloody PERFECT!
What a lovely introduction THIS is going to be!
‘Hi Grandma-I-didn’t-know-existed-until-recently, can you just remove theses handcuffs so I can kill the moron who chained himself to me and then run to safety from all the werewolves you call family?’

..yeah.. because THAT will go down well!..

I sucked in a deep breath and let it slowly ease out through my teeth.
John winced at the glare I aimed at him.

“You’ll pay for this..”
He cringed but seemed to almost nod as if he’d seen that reaction coming.

Damn it!
What am I going to do now?!

======

I shuffled my feet a little as we walked up the rough pathway to the big old manor house in the distance, careful to keep John between me and the werewolves mum calls ‘family’.. just in case they have a change of heart on the whole ‘eating us’ thing.

“This sucks..”

John snorted and shot an amused look at me.
I turned away from him and huffed in response.

I’m not talking to him.
I’m making it a rule of thumb to not reward him with attention when he does something stupid like handcuff himself to me.

“Admit it, you’re curious how I made the cuffs aren’t you?”

My eyebrow twitched in annoyance.
Damn him! He knows me too well!

“I didn’t use runes if that’s what you’re thinking.. or deconstruct them to their base enchantment and reassemble them from the ground up either..”

My eyebrow twitched again.
I had to fight the urge to turn around and argue with him.

The ONLY way he could have modified the cuffs is by either bypassing the charms on them with runes or breaking them down and redirecting the charms for a different effect.
That’s not a guess on my part, that’s just how magic WORKS!

A set of enchantments as complicated and interconnected as the ones on those handcuffs would have to be either suppressed and diverted with a complex rune cluster or be picked apart through trial and error until you had it all ‘disassembled’, for lack of a better word, at which point you could put it back together with a few additions of your own to change the eventual effects of the spellwork.
Magic’s weird AND complicated but it has RULES damn it!

“I’ll give you a hint.. I didn’t even have to use magesight to make them.”

I couldn’t hide the frustrated growl that came out of my mouth, or the way that my shoulders tensed.
That’s LITERALLY impossible!
You can’t modify someone else’s work without SEEING it!

It’s hard enough to do normally, let alone trying to pull it off when blind!

My growl drew some attention from the others ahead of us but they quickly turned back to their conversations.
I don’t think Grace and the other sister, Jessie, are quite comfortable with me at the moment.
My little flash of ‘fix everything’ magic, along with the magic show that happened when I tried to fight through the cuffs earlier WAS pretty impressive.. even by my standards.

The boys seem to think I’m some kind of god at this point.
Every time I catch them watching me they blush and try to hide behind the nearest adult.

It would be funny if it wasn’t so worrying.
These people are supposed to be my family but they’re already treating me like the weird one..

“They’ll get over it, even I was a little scared the first time I saw you vent that new magic of yours.”

I finally gave up on ignoring him and turned my head to glare at him.
I think he was trying to look reassuring with his weak smile but it was a little undermined by the doubt I could feel from his magic.

His magic is practically screaming at me currently as well, something about being chained together by these handcuffs has left my magic senses a bit overpowered when he’s concerned.
As a trade-off it’s muted my magic sense for everything else which is a bit scary but survivable, it’s not helping my mood much though.
I’ve not exactly been in a good mood to start with today and he’s really not helping right now!

“Are you going to talk to me or just look at me with those big doe eyes of yours?”

Almost instinctively my eyes scrunched up in a deeper glare but I forced myself to ease off a moment later.
I really don’t want to play into his hands by just glaring at him again, even if I don’t particularly feel like talking to him at the moment, he’s only going to take my silence as a challenge at this point.
John tends to get annoying when he’s going up against a perceived challenge.

“What do you want to talk about?.. Lovely evening isn’t it?.. Don’t you just LOVE the feel of metal handcuffs on your wrist while taking such a fine walk?”
It was his turn to frown this time.

“..Whit is still not one of your strong points Hannah..”

“Thinking before you do things isn’t yours! I know which fault I’d prefer to have!”
He glared at me for a moment but there was no heat to it.
He knows I’m right.

While I will concede that my attempt to run at the first sight of danger was.. stupid..
I saw a threat, from them and from me.. I just REACTED.
That’s all I ever seem to be doing lately.

Not dealing with things properly is bad, I get that.. but at least it’s not ‘slapping cuffs on the pair of us that essentially block our ability to do magic while deep in werewolf territory’ bad!
..stupid John..

Just to make myself feel better I took an awkward step forward and yanked my cuffed arm around while pivoting my body for more torque.
John went staggering forward in surprise and then yanked sideways at the last minute.
I practically managed to make him move in a full circle around me before he got his feet under him and pulled me to a stop with his annoyingly superior strength.

We both glared at each other.
I wasn’t the only one who growled this time.
We both stopped and went back to glaring instead.

The stare off lasted a few painfully long seconds but it was John that broke it in the end, not me.
HA! Victory!

He shot a look at the others and a smug little smile came to his lips.
They’d all carried on walking while we were..busy.
They managed to get quite far ahead of us in such a short time because of our little game of ‘spin John’ too.

With one more glance at me he purposefully started marching forward in a half-jog to catch up with them.
Due to my annoyingly shorter new legs and the fact he caught me flat footed I was practically yanked off my feet and had to run to keep up with him.

“John, slow down.”
He ignored me and kept marching to close the gap with the others.
“Slow DOWN!”

He’s bloody ignoring me!!

With a little hop I managed to shift my body so my feet were placed in front of my center of balance.
It provided a nice solid base I could push away from him with.

The chain between us went taut and for one glorious moment I thought I’d stopped him.. then he took his next step and my feet skidded along the path throwing up gravel in my wake.
He shot me an amused look but didn’t slow down in the slightest.

I tried a few times to pull another trick or two on him but despite my best efforts he managed to drag me for almost a hundred meters before I finally gave up and shifted my weight forward into an unstable jog to keep pace with him.
The arrogant bastard smirked at me in victory.

..damn it John!..

======

“..That’s a big house..”
I know I called it a mansion earlier and it looked pretty big even from a distance, but being up close and personal.. it’s REALLY big..

‘Farm’ my ass!

This is a country estate!
I should know; I lived in several of them for some of my recent past-incarnations.

“Shame it smells of wet dog..”
I shot a shocked glance at John.
I can’t believe he said that!.. I mean.. it’s kind of true, but I can’t believe he SAID it!

Grace growled at him along with Jessie and the boys.
Even mum gave him a warning look.

He was unrepentant though, not that THAT surprised me in the slightest.
John’s never been one to mince words when he’s in the mood to be annoying.
I’m just kind of glad he’s not aiming his ability to drive people mental at me for once.. handcuffs aside..

“If you can find a way to get rid of a smell in a building this big.. which has housed several generations of werewolves, mostly male, since before your GRANDPARENTS were born kid, I’d like to see it?”
I’m not sure I like Grace that much..
She seems very aggressive, almost as if she’s just looking for a fight all the time.
Her tone was slightly mocking but at least she’s not growling again.

John shot a curious look at me and raised a questioning eyebrow.
What?.. what does he think I’m going to do about it?

“Hannah’s our resident rune expert..”
My glare blatantly told him to shut up but he ignored it and seemed almost curious to see what I’d do now that everyone was watching me.
“Don’t tell me you’re going to let a little smell beat you, are you? If I’d known it was that easy..”
He shrugged his shoulder which made my cuffed hand rise a little.

The unwanted movement annoyed me almost as much as his challenge did.

“..Anyone got a pen?..”
John’s face split into a wide grin and he pulled a fat permanent marker out of his back pocket.

..How did he even fit that in there?!..
No.. wait.. nevermind.
Priority’s here!

I need to prove him wrong!
I KNOW he’s doing it on purpose but I can’t just let him get away with challenging my skills like that.

It’s a guy thing!..well.. Ex-guy I guess..

My hand snatched the marker from him but I was already busy running the math in my head.
He trailed dutifully along behind me as I paced up the imposing steps to the front door of the mansion.

Everyone was watching me and it’s kinda putting me on edge but I’m not backing down now!.. plus the smell IS pretty bad, it’s already making my nose itch..

They had a surprisingly basic looking rubber doormat sitting on the doorstep with the word ‘welcome’ written on it.
It’s convenient for me at least.
I wasn’t looking forward to writing on a, possibly listed, historic building with permanent marker.

John watched me with interested eyes and a smile.
He didn’t even complain when I knelt down to flip the doormat over, dragging him down with me.

My eyes scanned the doormat thoughtfully as I ran another roll of math equations.
The Glyph I was planning to use would be too big to fit on a simple doormat.
I need to compress it a bit.

If I cut out the second ‘recentibus’ rune cluster and shift the first one into the center..
Move the ‘potestatem’ rune with its control cluster and ‘exhaurire’ rune to the left..
Just a little..
.. and this one..

..yeah.. that should work..

I got to work mapping out the basic outline so I could fill it in with the runes afterwards.
It’s a bit cramped fitting it on the back of a doormat like this but the bonus’s that come from using it outweigh the downsides.

I’m making a ‘fresh air’ system.
It’s basically a minor enchantment fitted inside a regenerative runic trap.

Just because runic traps CAN be used to kill people with various trigger’s, ranging from releasing fire under the victims feet to turning them into a solid silver statue as I theorised the other day.. that doesn’t mean they HAVE to be deadly.

In this case I’m setting it up so a bubble of fresh air will form up around whoever steps on the doormat.
The enchantment should form on the bottoms of their feet and last for a few hours at a time.
It’s not perfect but if I wanted to really sort out the problem I’d have to get access to the ward stone of the house which I REALLY doubt they’re going to let me have.

At least by putting it on the doormat, if they don’t like the effect they can just move the mat..also.. it kind of helps that the mat is made of rubber.

Rubber is a good conductor for enchantments, it’s terrible for charms but enchantments pass through it like fish through water.
I’m honestly not sure why it acts like that.
Magic’s just weird sometimes, ya know?

I could feel John’s magic roll in awe and joy as he watched me work.
It was kind of distracting honestly.

I like that he appreciates my work and that he actually understands what I’m doing to some degree without needing it explained to him every step of the way but it’s definitely still distracting anyway.

“Slow down, I’m getting lost here..”
When I glanced over at him his eyes were wide and moving quickly from side to side as he tried to work out what I was doing.

With a little smirk playing across my lips I sped up my movements.

This is all being written with Latin runes.
I could close my eyes and write them with the pen in my mouth without problems.
Speeding up to annoy John isn’t even a challenge!

Everyone was watching me in something close to awe now as I worked to get the last few clusters done.

Despite his slight annoyance at me for going faster, specifically to annoy him, even John couldn’t get over what I was doing.
I felt like preening a little in pride.

It’s not often I get to show off during something that isn’t a life or death situation.. I kind of like it?

With a few final ticks I finished the main runes.
The final part is hardly necessary but it makes things neater in my opinion.

I ran a ring of ‘obscurum’ runes around the edge of the finished Glyph and polished it off with a little combination-pattern cluster tucked into the edge of the mat.

Combination-pattern clusters can be used a bit like a keypad lock would be.. but using runes instead of numbers.. and magic instead of electricity.. and drawings instead of buttons..
..You know what?.. it’s not much like a keypad after all now that I think about it..
The EFFECT should be similar to a keypad lock at least.

No-ones getting a good look at this thing without knowing my access code!
When I activate the Glyph its pattern should be obscured to the point of being unreadable, unless you know what combination of runes you have to hit to turn off the outer ring at least.

Now I just need to activate it.
Normally I’d just put a finger on the completed Glyph and push a lines worth of magic into it but that’s not really an option with this cuff on my wrist disbursing any magic I try to push out into the ground.

Never let it be said that I don’t learn from my mistakes though.
It took me three hours and two rather obscure books on mage-anatomy before I worked this new trick out.. well.. two obscure books and the rude one about how to please a female mage that John found at least..

..okay.. it was just the ‘how to please a female mage’ book.. but in my defence, I was curious and bored!

..Anyway..
It turns out that the bodily fluids of mages are pretty good at storing and conducting a magical charge.

Did you know that?
I certainly didn’t know that!

The book talked about using your saliva and charging it with a mix of elements to make it ‘fight’ itself.
The physical side-effect of that strange idea being that the saliva would vibrate for a short while after leaving your mouth.

It went on to describe several ways THAT feature could be useful for its readers but those aren’t important at the moment.
..stupid pervy book..

It gave me an idea though.
I’ve not had a chance to test it but the theory is sound at least.

If I’m handcuffed in a way that blocks me from casting magic I’m practically useless against another mage.
If I have the time I can draw up some runes which would give me a huge advantage and even possibly a chance to escape.. but, as we saw in the clearing with handy man, I’d have no way to activate the runes without my magic.. making them essentially useless.

I can’t rely on Felix appearing to save my ass the next time something like that happens!

Careful to not push any magic out and activate the cuffs effect again I started swirling the free magic floating around in my body.
When it had the charge and consistency I was looking for I shifted the swirl I’d started so it would travel up my body to my mouth.

I could feel the moment that it worked.
The saliva in my mouth suddenly tasted sweet.
It took on a rather sticky texture and made my mouth tingle a little where it touched the sides too.

I blushed a little when the ‘hock’ sound I made to gather it all together came out a bit louder then I intended.
I could feel John’s disgust through his magic when he took an awkward shuffled step back from me too.
..He’s such a prissy little git sometimes..

“Agh-k, P-TU!”

Everyone shifted away from me and pulled faces.
Sarah went so far as to make a sound like she was going to throw up, I’m not sure if she was faking it or not.

It doesn’t matter though.
My ‘magic loogie’ hit the mat dead center, right on target!

I felt my mouth spread into a wide grin as the center rune cluster of the glyph lit up in a bright shade of gold.

Rune activation colors tend to change depending on a lot of factors, the biggest one being what you drew them with.
In this case the runes themselves were drawn with a normal permanent marker but my spit was super-charged with my magic.

It’s the diversion that made it come out in a bright shining gold color because that’s what my magic defaults to with it active.
..It looks pretty at least..

I stared intently at it as the magic progressed, spreading out across the glyph like a golden spider web activating each cluster it touched.
When the magic reached the outer ring the whole thing seemed to suddenly blur and I couldn’t make out any of the symbols I’d just drawn inside it.

Perfect!
I LOVE it when things work like they should!

Just need to test it now.
This is the point that, if I was evil, I would use someone else to test it.. but I’m not, so that duty falls to me sadly.

At least I trust my own work?
That could be a level of arrogance that will get me killed someday but it’s not done me wrong so far at least.

I flipped the mat back over, spit and all.
It should dry at some point.

It’s hot out so it shouldn’t be a problem for long really.
Even if it was it wouldn’t be MY problem!

I’m doing magic here; I’m not the bloody cleaning lady!

Shooting one more glance around at everyone I couldn’t help but take pleasure in the looks on their face.
..oh yeah, I know I’m awesome!..

One confident foot was quickly followed by the other.

For a long second nothing happened which almost worried me but finally I felt the drain kick in.
It should take enough to charge itself fully and then-

..uh oh..

It’s draining from the magic that’s in my body instead of my core!

That wouldn’t be a problem but it’s not STOPPING!
Even worse, I think John’s handcuffs have kicked in because even more of the magic filling my body is moving down towards my feet at a worrying rate!

What the HELL did John do to these cuffs?!
Why would they..
..did he..

Stupid Bastard cut corners!
You NEVER cut corners with magic!

It’s okay.. deep breaths.. think!

The drain is fast and getting faster but I’ve got more than enough free magic in my system to keep feeding it for another minute or two before it starts affecting my core.
That’s practically a life time!

The real problem is that the mat can only hold so much magic before it will.. kind of.. explode..

Take another deep breath, in and out.. everything’s fine.
Calm thoughts.

How do I stop the drain effect?

If I wasn’t the one standing on it I could just slap a suppression rune on it and be done.
If I had my magic properly available I could trigger the ‘fresh air’ effect and vent the magic build up.
If..

Ugg!
What is it with me and having too many ‘ifs’ lately?!

Think!
Basic Latin runes.. they’re easy to bypass if you can see what you’re doing, hence why I put the obscure enchantment on it.

Bypass.. trigger.. drain..
Something.. I just..

GOT IT!

I quickly bent my knees and awkwardly slapped a hand down on the top of the mat.
John was yanked along for the ride but I didn’t listen to his grumbling.

If I take my feet off the mat it will explode.
If I missed my aim then I’m screwed.
If..

STOP IT WITH THE IF’S BRAIN!

With my hand in place I started swirling the excess magic in my palm.
It took a moment to catch but when it did I let out a breath of relief.

I never set the drain runes to be ‘one way’, I didn’t see the point honestly.
It would just take up some of my limited space anyway.

It’s a weird feeling to have my own excess magic pour back into the swirling vortex I’ve created in my palm.
I’m already pretty full to bursting as it is and this is just adding to it but the secondary effect is what I’m really looking for.

There’s only one drain rune on the mat.
I had to cut the other cluster to save space.

Now that it’s busy draining the stored magic back into my hand, it can’t keep draining my magic out through my feet.

I focused on spreading the flow of recycled magic around my body as best I could to stop it pooling in one area or another but my lines are practically singing with power at this point.
I’m pretty sure that if I had the time to look at them with my inner-eye they would be glowing in the purest of golden colors too.

Finally the flow of magic slowed down.
I gave an awkward hop back off of the mat and rose to my feet.

I.. don’t feel so good..

I feel bloated.. it feels like someone stuck a pump up my ass and started filling me with air like a Macy’s thanksgiving day balloon.

Too much magic!
FAR too much magic!

My head sluggishly turned to look at everyone but I think the only one who could see what was coming was John.

He met my eyes and cringed.
I don’t blame him.

Magic’s sparking between my toes!
It’s in my hair, it’s flowing down my spine, it’s arcing between my fingers and burning at my eyes!

..this is gonna SUCK!..

“Sorry.”
I just managed to get the word out before my control slipped and the world went too bright.

A moment later and my body gave out on me, sending me crashing to the floor.

The floor.. the floor’s so nice..
John’s here!
The sky..
Good!
Everything’s so good..

In a sloppy, giggly mess I rolled around on the floor cackling away to myself.
I LOVE magic!

======

All I can do is lay here, staring up at the blank white ceiling of my mindscape.
I’m not sure how I got here so suddenly.
I probably passed out or something?

Being in here is giving me some clarity at least, some detachment from the feelings that are being forced on me in the real world by the pleasure effect of my diversion.

If only I could just STOP laughing!
I can’t seem to move in here but I KNOW I’m still laughing in the real world.
My chest hurts.
My throat hurts too.

I didn’t even know it was POSSIBLE to feel pain in your mindscape!

Where the hell is Rosaline?!
She’s been here to greet me every time I’ve dived into my mindscape so far and the ONE time I could use some help she’s missing?

My mouth won’t move right, my tongue feels heavy.
I can’t even call out for anyone.
This is a nightmare!

“Holy crap, is that someone new?”

I’m not sure who it was talking, she had my voice naturally.
I can’t see her either.
If only I could move my head a little!

I could hear her coming closer with what sounded like a mob of other girls following along behind her.

Finally a shadow crossed over my eyes and a face came into view.
She gave me an awkward, confused look, turning her head to the side a little like I do if I’m considering a weird situation.

“You okay there? Need a hand up?”

I desperately tried to move, to give her some kind of indication what I needed but my body just didn’t want to co-operate.
She squinted down at me for a moment and then turned to the left where all the other voices were coming from.

“Anyone know if we had a paraplegic incarnation or something? I don’t think she can move..”

There was a lot of confused muttering.
No-one seemed to be able to make up their mind on whether we did or not.

Not that I could give any input, but I certainly don’t remember one if we did!

Let’s be honest, for most of human history the life expectancy of people who couldn’t move hasn’t been measured in a timescale worth mentioning.
It’s only recently that medical knowledge and technology has opened the world up for those poor people.

“Let me through!”

That must be Ellie.
The commanding tone to her voice mixed with her slight but distinctive accent makes her stand out pretty well.

Hand’s reached for my shoulders and back, slowly they maneuverer me so I was basically sitting upright, propped against something they stuck behind me.

The crowd looked.. small?

I recognised all of them at least.
All my past-incarnations that I finally bonded with recently.. but there only seems to be a few of them here?

Usually the fifty or so girls make a worryingly large looking mob when something happens, it seems that way to me at least.

These girls.. they look.. tired?.. and worried?..

Ellie pushed through the last few girls in her wide purple robes and stared at me in shock.
“Hannah?”
She quickly moved over and crouched down to stare into my eyes intensely.
“Can you hear me?”

It took all the effort I had to twitch my eyes but she saw the movement and let out a relieved sigh.

“This.. someone’s cursed her with immobility?.. who would do something like that?..”
She quickly got to work feeling along my arms and legs.
I’m not sure what she was trying to do but after almost a minute of work I felt the first twitch’s of movement in my fingers.

I honestly have no idea what she’s doing, injecting magic into my frozen body parts is my best guess, but whatever it is its working!

“Hold on a second Hannah, this is going to feel weird.”
She put her hands on my head, just above my temples.

For a moment the world turned sideways.
I could taste colors and smell my heart beating frantically in my chest before it all finally came to a stop.

My mindscape came back into focus and I blinked furiously.

It took me a moment to realise that I COULD blink again.. and move in general.
Ellie sat back with a sigh of relief.

“I don’t know who the hell you pissed off but be careful! That was a pretty powerful spell just to keep you immobile.”

I grunted and wiggled my toes for a second.

She’s right; I have no idea who did it though so the advice isn’t exactly helpful.
I must have missed something while I was stuck within my ‘after venting magic giggle fit’ in the real world.

Hopefully it’s not an enemy?
How would they have even found me?!

We’re at mum’s family’s place after all
I kind of figured going so far away would give me SOME form of escape from that sort of thing at least!

“Not much we can do about it if someone has you prisoner in the real world sadly, you’ll have to deal with that when you wake up.”
Ellie looked a bit upset that she couldn’t be more help but I shrugged at her and smiled.
I’m used to having to deal with messy situations in the real world, what’s the worst that can happen?

..did I ACTUALLY just think that?.. way to jinx it Han!..

“Sorry, I know you’ve probably got enough on your plate as it is but I’m glad your here.. we kind of.. may have a problem..”
My eyes sharpened on Ellie.

She let out a long breath and stared back at me.
Her face looked apologetic but her eyes practically screamed that she was worried.. really worried..

“Everyone move back so she can see.”

The girls around us parted like the red sea until I could finally see the village behind them.
Well.. what’s left of it at least?..

What was once a tightly packed little citadel of oddly blended building styles from across the centuries, was now looking far less ‘citadel-ly’?.. if that’s even a word?

Dotted all over the place were building sized holes where houses once stood.

“Girls are disappearing.”
Her face was blank as she said it but there was a wobble to her voice that suggested she was anything but calm at the moment.
“We’re not sure how many.. Rosaline was one of the first to go; she took the list with her.”

The girls around us shifted awkwardly and tried to not meet each other’s eyes.

They’re scared?
I can see it plainly on every face here.
They’re all scared to death!

“Even worse.. some of the council.. Dexi, Hydna and Greta have all gone missing too.”
Ellie looked lost for a moment, as if voicing their names made it all so much more real to her suddenly.
“I don’t.. they wouldn’t have just disappeared without SAYING something!”

My body felt far too heavy but I pushed past it and managed to move enough to rest a hand on her arm in reassurance.
She glanced at me with wet eyes.
I could feel her shaking slightly with every breath she takes.

The other girls are scared, I noticed that already, but Ellie.. she’s TERRIFIED!..

With another push I managed to stagger to my feet and partly-collapse into her side to give her a hug.
Her breath was coming out in short little pants.
She barely lasted a second before burying her face in my shoulder and bawling her eyes out.

The other girls turned to look away from us, to give her some privacy as she cried.

I think they don’t like seeing their de facto ‘leader’ falling apart either.
I didn’t particularly enjoy seeing her cry but it seems like she needs it.

She’s under a lot of stress holding back all the other past-incarnations anyway.
..having this on top of it as well?..

She nominated herself as their protector, their savior.
I can’t imagine how much it’s eating her up inside that the people she worked so hard to save are disappearing under her watch and she has no idea how to help.

After almost a full minute of crying her head rose from my shoulder and she sniffed loudly in my ear.
“..Sorry..”

“It’s okay.”
She sniffed again and pulled back from me awkwardly.

A glance around us made her flush slightly in embarrassment but smile a little too.
I think she appreciates that they let her have her moment.
I’d love to let her enjoy it longer but I need to check things out while I can.

“Can you help me over to where Rosaline’s house was? My legs aren’t quite reliable yet and I want to check out the area.”

Several girls turned around quickly and joined Ellie in supporting my slightly limp body as we made our way over to the spot just near where I always appear in here that used to hold a rather Victorian looking house with the balcony from my school’s version of Romeo and Juliet attached to the side of it.

There was literally nothing left!
For a moment it felt like the white floor that used to hold the little house was darker then the area around it but within a single blink of my eyes the color difference disappeared and I’m not sure if it was my imagination or not..

Although, if you want to be nit-picky about it, the whole of my mindscape is in ‘my imagination’ I guess?

I slowly eased my way down to the ground and ran my hands along the floor space.
There’s nothing there at all?
Nothing.. not a bump, not a scratch.

It looks like any other stretch of untouched land that used to make up the entirety of my mindscape.

I breathed in a heavy, frustrated sigh while staring at the space and froze.
..something doesn’t smell right?..

Everyone watching gave me strange looks as I spread myself out on the floor as much as possible, my nose pushed down as low as I could manage.

Another deep sniff confirmed it.
I could smell.. roses?..

It’s a strange thing to detect in here.
The ‘air’ in my mindscape doesn’t tend to have smells at all.
Despite how my mind shows it and how REAL it can feel at times it’s all symbolic in here.

With that in mind.. why would the floor space, once taken up by Rosaline’s house, smell of roses?..

My brain was going a mile a minute as I tried to process all the possible meanings that could be implied by it but I was coming up empty on finding a real solid meaning I could believe in.

I need to research more!

I’m virtually a novice at mind magic.
I only ever managed to learn enough to survive with all of the other incarnations pressing down on me.. on Al.. whatever!

There wasn’t TIME to research the more esoteric and theoretical sides to it all.
I’ll have to correct that when I get back to the real world.. somehow..

I flipped over on the floor and pushed myself awkwardly back to my feet.

Everyone was staring at me now.
Ellie especially seemed to be staring with raw hope in her eyes.
I wish I had something better to tell her then ‘I’ll look into it’..

“I-”
Before I could voice another word my tongue froze.
My whole body froze and I started falling forward with painful inevitability.

There was a rush and commotion as the girls frantically scrambled to catch me.
They only just managed to stop me from hitting the floor, face first.

I couldn’t move again!
Damn it!
Why is this happening ag-
“She’s fading!”

..I’m what?..

“No! Not now! Hannah, Hannah! If you can hear me then come back as soon as you ca-”
I didn’t get to hear what else she had to say before my vision whited out and I could feel the familiar tell-tale pull of going back to the waking world.

What really worried me though was that, for the first time since I finished training mind magic with Edith, I wasn’t the one doing the pulling!

======

My eyes snapped open and I was greeted by the ceiling of a dark room.

It feels like I’m lying on something soft at least.
My head hurts something fierce though!

Being yanked out of your mindscape by force is NEVER a pleasant experience.

I tried to roll over on whatever soft thing I’m lying on but my arms and legs didn’t want to co-operate.
Just like in my mindscape I’m apparently paralysed, although judging by the fact that I can blink, maybe not quite the ‘full body’ paralysis that I had before.

“..Son-of’a-bitch..”

No-one made a sound in response.
I was expecting SOME kind of reaction.
Even the most bad-assed of evil people tends to react in some way to unexpected vulgarity, most of the time their only response is amusement but it’s still a reaction of some kind at least.

“Whoever decided to play ‘lets turn the Hannah into a living mannequin’, I know your here.. you can’t have gone far since you recast your spell.”

Still not even a twitch of sound.
That’s kind of un-nerving.

I can feel them here, their magic is pretty obvious from this distance.. although it’s blank of emotion?
They must know how to hide their emotions from their magic.

Your magic can’t lie but that doesn’t mean you can’t hide the things it DOES say, most people just don’t bother doing it because it’s hard to learn and hardly anyone on earth can even READ your magic, let alone feel the emotions in it.

I don’t like it when enemies are smart enough to keep their mouths shut, it never bodes well for me!

“I can keep this up all day ya know?.. it’s not like I’m going anywhere.. you have exactly ten seconds to show yourself before I start singing ‘a million green bottles’ in the most painfully off-key voice I can manage..”

Ah HA!
THAT got a reaction.
It was barely a twitch but I could hear some kind of fabric moving with the movement.

You HAVE to love the classics they ALWAYS work!

I’m not sure if I even CAN sing in this new body, with my new voice and everything.
It’s not like I’ve TRIED.

..I kind of hope they don’t show themselves now?..
It would be a good excuse to make a fool of myself and test my voice out at the same time at least.

Not that I really NEED a reason to make a fool of myself, I’ve gotten pretty good at it over the years actually.

“A million gre-e-en bottles, sitting on the wall. A million green bottles-s-s, sitting on the wall, and if ONE green bottle-”
The figure moved finally.

As a side note, it turns out that my new voice is annoyingly good at singing.
I was TRYING to be off-key but it came out almost pitch perfect anyway.
..stupid new body..

“I thought you said I had ten seconds?”
She, because the voice is definitely female, sounded like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh or yell at me for some reason.
“Young people these days, so impatient.”

My eyes squinted down hard into little slits.
I tried to move my head to see her but she was somewhere near my feet and my neck wasn’t feeling quite as co-operative as my mouth is apparently.

Finally the woman moved and came into range of my limited vision.
Blonde hair, the same shade as Grace and Jessie’s, deep blue eyes that remind me of Sarah’s and a sun-aged face that I’d place as being a few years older than my mum in actual age range.

“Quite the impressive little magic show you put on outside.”
She definitely sounded amused now.
Her lips twitched up with just a hint of a smile.
“It could have been avoided if you just cut off the lines to your feet from your core for a moment and sent some power out in intermittent pulses.. obviously.. but still an impressive show at least.”

..I could have WHAT?!..
Who the hell does she think she is telling me how to.. well..

..huh..

Okay.. maybe she has a point actually?..
If I’d cut off the lines from my core to my legs completely it would have interrupted the drain effect at least, probably made my legs give out as well but that would have been a small price to pay.
The pulsing though?.. what would that achieve except..

OF COURSE!
That’s genius!

If I’d pulsed my magic it would have rapidly triggered the drain effect on and off again.
The rest of the glyph relies on the drain effect to provide the stability needed to keep the whole matrix in balance.

Basically.. if I’d pulsed my magic the glyph would have triggered the ‘fresh air’ aspect over and over again, that’s the part of it that uses the most power!

With the amount of magic that got dumped into the doormat before I even noticed what was going on it would have taken up to ten minutes to bleed it all down to a less dangerous level but it WOULD have worked.

STUPID!

I panicked when I felt the drain!
I only got worse when John’s handcuffs kicked in.

I didn’t think clearly.. not that I would have thought to pulse my magic like that honestly but I COULD have come up with SOMETHING better then turning myself into a golden ‘fix everything’ bomb.

“..I’m such an idiot..”

She snorted and moved closer to the bedside.
A hand came up with delicate fingers and brushed some hair away from my eye, tucking it behind my ear for safe keeping.

“Yes.. you are.”

Oh thanks for that Lady!
I didn’t need your opinion thank-you-very-much.
I’m perfectly aware of my faults without having them agreed on by a committee.

I get enough of that from my past-incarnations anyway!

Speaking of which, I hope we can hurry this up a bit.
She doesn’t LOOK like she’s going to kill me and I really need to get some meditation in to find out what the hell is going on in there!

“You’re a lucky idiot if that’s any consolation?.. well either lucky or skilled, I’m not sure which I’m more worried about honestly..”

I’ve never wanted to roll over and bury my head to hide from the world more in my life.
Don’t compliment me lady!
Don’t do it in such a backhanded way either!

She shifted herself forward and, for a moment, I got a face full of cleavage before she pulled back a little to smile at my face brightly.

“You must be the ‘little Arista’ Susan has been going on about.”
She squinted at me thoughtfully for a second and nodded to herself.
“Well at least you LOOK like you could be related to us.”

Her lips suddenly fell out of their pleasant half-smile and it seemed like a shadow passed over her face out of nowhere.
“..it’s a shame for you that I know you’re not..”

Her eyes seemed to take on a whole new level of terrifying as she stared down at me with a blank look of disgust on her face.
I could hear a crackle of lightning coming from just out of my eye range.

No doubt she’s flashing her magic between her fingers threateningly.
It’s a thing a lot of mages do when they’re angry, like a nervous tick.

Why did she have to be a lightning mage?!
Those guys are a BITCH to fight!

At least I know how she paralysed me now.
Not a curse after all, just REALLY well controlled electricity.

It felt like she was judging me as she stared down with those suddenly cold eyes, weighing my worth against some kind of scale and finding me wanting.

..this conversation is NOT going in a good direction anymore.. especially not a direction I’m comfortable with when I can’t move my bloody body!

“Now.. let’s have a little talk about what happens to people who lie to my family and abuse our trust to gain access to our home.. shall we?”

My throat bobbed in a painfully loud gulp of fear.

Her hand came up to hover over my face.
Lightning sparked between her fingers in arcs that left neon trails on my vision for a few seconds after they’d died out.

I opened my mouth to say something.
..Something smart?
..Something useful?
Hell, at this point I’d just settle for saying something that will make her stop looking at me like that!

“um.. you’ve got the wrong idea?”

She didn’t look amused in the slightest.
Well.. there goes that idea.. nice one Hannah..

“..I really am related to the family..”

Her face scrunched up in a frown and her hand tensed a little more, the lightning sparking just a little faster between her fingers.
Okay.. there goes plan B..

She shifted her body and brought her hand closer to my face, almost touching my nose.
“Enough lies. I know Susan doesn’t have another daughter, especially one called ‘Arista’..”

“I..”
Her face hardened.

..there’s not much I can say to change her mind at the moment, is there?..

The magic in her hand sparked slightly harder.
I let off a yelp when one of the sparks decided to ground itself on my nose, making it go numb instantly.

That’s it!

Screw secrecy!
I HATE lightning!

“I’m Alistor Cooper!”
She froze with her hand almost touching my face.
I froze too for a moment.. then my spine flared up with a familiar burn.

Before I could stop it my senses were overwhelmed by the burn that spread throughout my body and I blacked out with a scream of pain that hurt even MY ears.