TV personality and Tomb Raider Sarah, along with her faithful camera man Tor went off route in search of their next episode. Things didn't go quite as planned, and these are the consequences..

“She keeps this up she’s gonna die, ya know?”
Tor offered me an apologetic shrug to try and take the sting out of that fact.
It didn't help much.
“What happened?”
He leaned back with a deep sigh and centred himself.
This wasn't gonna be a fun story.

“We just got back from Peru, found some mighty fine treasure in that jungle hell-hole I can tell ya”
He looked at me sideways as if judging me.
“How much do you know?” he finally asked with caution.
“About…?”
“..About all of it. Sarah never said but I got the feeling.. This.. Isn't something she would have kept back from you..”
I gave him a coy smile.
“Oh.. You mean about the magic stuff?”
He took another deep breath and sighed it out in relief.
“Okay.. So we were doing the usual, Sarah doing her Lara croft shtick and me following behind with the camera. She broke into a tomb, no idea how she found it in the middle of the forest floor like that, but we went in. Nice little intro to the next series, ya know?”

I couldn't help but smirk.
Always nice to see Sarah using my gifts in her work.

“We got in deep, she made me get all the glyphs and stuff recorded for study later, plus the fans eat that kinda stuff up. We finally hit the main chamber and.. And it just all went to hell..”
He got a bit teary eyed so I rested my hand on his shoulder for comfort.
Took some effort, Tor is a nice guy but damn if he isn't bigger around then I am tall!

He took a big sniff and blinked at me blankly as if reliving the events.
“It was my fault, I caught my foot on something and stumbled. It happened so fast, one minute we were in this dark cave area then suddenly the whole room lit up bright and this voice..”
He shuddered
“This.. This voice, I never listened to Mama when she went on about that stuff but ya know.. el diablo eh?.. It was shouting in some language I dunno, but it felt dirty just hearing it, ya know?”

I processed that, several ideas already forming about what could have caused a voice to boom out, only some of them involving magic.

“She.. Sarah.. She checked me out first, ignoring it but when she knew I was okay she turned to face the voice and yelled back”
If Sarah knew the language, that narrows down the source a fair amount. She never was too good with languages, kinda ironic really.
Tor finally smiled and a chuckle slipped out.
“She told el diablo to ‘speak English, shut the hell up or I’ll make you!’.. Waved her fist at it and everything”
Well.. So much for that idea.
“The voice stopped talking for a second and then.. Then it just ROARED.. it was so loud, thought my ears were going to bust! I fell on my ass but Sarah just stood strong to it, wind whipping around her, kinda wish I got it on film eh? Would have been a great shot..”

He trailed into silence and offered me a weak smile.
I didn't hesitate in returning it. He needed it to be honest.
“Finally the roar died off and Sarah turned to me smiling. I thought it was over, we laughed ya know.. Then.. Then the light just died out and this thing.. el diablo.. It was like a tail, jet black with ridges.. It come shooting out of the darkness and whipped around Sarahs leg.”
He shuddered again.
Poor guy
“I reached out, managed to grab her arms and pull back. We had a good ol’ tug-a war with her.. Me against el diablo, who’da thought huh?”
I smiled at him reassuringly. Sarah was here, so he can’t have done too badly.
“It felt like ages going back and forth, I almost dropped her a few times, but in the end her leg gave out with a massive crack and the tail clawed back into th’ darkness.”
He looked over at Sarah with big sad eyes.
“We fell backwards and Sarah hit her head as we landed.”
I glanced over to Sarah myself, well that explains the head wound.
I assume she has some kind of cast on under that blanket too.
“I moved as fast as I could, left the camera and our tools behind, grabbed Sarah around the waist and ran as fast as I could out of there. Took forever to get out, could hear th..That thing breathing down my neck the whole way. I managed to hook her into her harness and get us both back out of the tombs opening. Sarah wasn't waking up so I called in for an Evac and they brought us here”

We both went silent for a while.
Dunno what he was doing but I was processing everything.

Eventually I eased out of my seat and stood before the big guy.
“You saved my sister Tor. I owe you a debt for that”
I gave him a hug, best I could with our relative sizes.
He seemed surprised, almost like he would protest before he finally gave in and hugged me back.

We pulled apart, he looked a bit embarrassed but I let him sort it out on his own.
I was too busy working stuff out.
For being related, me and Sarah had little in common.
Well.. except the obvious, twins, strange twins at that but personality wise not so much.
She has always been adventurous, and as we grew up she dragged me along into it all.
That’s probably why I ended up as cautious as I am, and since she got into treasure hunting and TV work I've been learning a whole new level of caution.

Funny thing about magic.
Once you know it exists, it tends to notice you exist too.

Sarah found her first magical cursed artefact, a minor level curse, easily fixed; involved a flute which called rats within a radius.. her landlord was not happy when we worked that out.
Anyway, she found her first magic item, and showed it to me.
Five weeks later and she had stumbled across no less then 20 magical phenomena on just two ‘adventures’.
Me?.. I wasn't so lucky.
Turns out I'm like cat nip for magic somehow.
My first day back in work my overweight boss tried to hit on me, out of the blue.. The dude was married.. And a dude.. Well.. He was till he blocked the office door and unveiled that he was actually some kind of lizard demon in disguise at least.
I may or may not have jumped out of a second story window to protect my virtue.. But that’s not important.
Anyway, you would be surprised how much magic junk is mixed in to daily life.
Being the cautious twin that I am, I had to be proactive.
So for a little over two years I set to learning magic to greater and lesser degrees of success.
Sarah’s tracking amulet, which I assume she used to find that “amazingly well hidden tomb entrance” was one of my first successes.
Then I hit my peak and.. well..
Magic is.. Complicated.

You don’t need the full breakdown here, its just complicated, and fiddly.. and very dangerous in some circumstances.
Say.. like.. the circumstance where the sister to a mage, using magical artefacts created by that mage, breaks into the ancient tomb of a being which, her man-mountain camera man, best describes as ‘el diablo’.. and then proceeds to not only piss it off but then escape and flee far away from the tomb itself.
Yeaahh.. those tend to be circumstances where magic can be very dangerous.
It also means that examining this demon, finding its weakness, and containing it safely becomes the sister’s magic wielding twin’s responsibility.
.. if you get where I'm going with this..
If my guess is right, under the cast on her leg, Sarah has a brand.
Most likely hidden in the bruising from her fractured ankle.
Longer I leave it, the longer that thing will have to build up power and seek her out.
It also means longer before Sarah is likely to wake up.
A normal human breaking into a magically warded tomb/prison to a demon, gets free and then bangs her head seconds later hard enough to be in a coma?... yeah..
Magic is complicated.. and kinda vindictive.
She isn't waking up until I get this sorted.
So like the good brother I am, I’ll have to man up and sort out my sisters mess.. again.

Speaking of manning up. Should get this show on the road.
“Tor?” I broke the silence in the room making Tor jump from his watch over my sister.
“Yeah?”
“Think you can lead me back to the general area of this tomb, or at least mark it on a map?”
He looked at me, his mouth open in surprise before settling on worry.
“Sarah didn't tell you I knew about magic for a reason Tor.. I KNOW about magic..ya get me?”
He considered that for a second before his eyes went wide in surprise.
“She ain't waking up till this is over sadly. Much as I’d like to spend our time in this hospital room watching her play sleeping beauty, I gotta make a date with ‘el diablo’ to get my sister back.. I'm gonna need a hand with that, if you think you can handle it?”

He gulped, and stared away from me at Sarah’s sleeping form for a while.
Slowly he gave a nod and turned back.
“You’re going to stop that.. thing?”
“I'm gonna do more then stop it Tor, I'm gonna make it wish it had never woke up in the first place”
He seemed to stare at me in awe for a second before finally recovering enough to smile.
“I'm in, can’t wait till this is all over and I get to tell mama I helped spank el diablo.. she's gonna be so proud.. or think I'm crazy”
I smirked at him.
“Hope for the first, plan for the second. You got Sarah’s spare kit bag from the car?”
He blinked a few times before nodding and waving over to it by the other side of her bed.
“be back in a sec” I offered at his confused face, taking the bag and moving into Sarah’s unused private hospital bathroom.
I can see why she keeps him around, he’s kinda cute when he's confused.

=================

Fifteen minutes later I put the finishing touch on my makeup and fluffed up my hair a bit.
Amazing how no matter what I do, Sarah always manages to find a reason to get me doing this stuff.
Even if she’s currently unconscious.

I gave one more glance at myself, borrowed skirt swishing slightly as I turned to give my reflection a pouty air kiss, before opening the door and clicking my way out to Tor.
He had his head down, probably trying to catch up on his sleep from the last few days panic.
“Hey Tor, ready to move out?”
I added that little lilting kick to my voice Sarah was known for.

His head shot up and he stared at me as if I was an angel from heaven.
“Sarah?.. Your.. Y..” he glanced at the bed and locked up when he saw my sister sleeping away.
“Not so much big guy, think of me as a stunt double.”
More like bait to be honest, demons don’t like to find a branded prey without their brand, imagine how ‘el diablo’ is gonna feel when he sees Sarah kicking his ass?
There may also be a bonus factor in my odds of success due to sympathetic resonance between me and Sarah, with me looking this way…. As I said.. Magic’s complicated.

Tor gaped at me for almost a full minute, his head flipping back from me to Sarah as he tried to play spot the difference.
I knew he wouldn't find it, oh how I knew he wouldn't find it.
Mostly because, with clothes on and my hair like this, there wasn't one.
“Why?” he finally managed to get out.
“We are going into that tomb ourselves, I'm going to have to do all that crazy Lara Croft stuff Sarah loves so much, might as well dress the part. If you bring your backup camera, we can finish off her episode while we are at it.”
I smirked and gave him a flirty wink, which was more ‘Sarah the tomb raider’ then ‘Sarah the real person’ and posed heroically.
“You know the network LOVES when Sarah ‘add’s CGI’ to her episodes?”

He gaped a bit more, seemed to be the thing to do at this point.
In the end he nodded slowly.
“Well, just think of the ratings when we get a full body shot of ‘el diablo’ being taken down by Sarah’s mad magical treasure hunter skills huh?”
I smiled at him and he thoughtlessly smiled back.
It took him a second to get out of his daze enough to realise he was smiling at me and not the real Sarah I think.
His frantic head shake seemed to suggest so at least.

“Ready to go then?”
He gave one more look at Sarah.
With a weary sigh he got up and followed me out the door.
“I'm not calling you Sarah, just to be clear..” he stated like a reluctant five year old.
“Good, wouldn't want you to. When the camera’s rolling just call me Boss.. You can say it sarcastically if that’s any help?”
He rolled his eyes but didn't disagree as we made our way down to the elevator.
“What do I call you when the camera’s ain't rolling?” He finally let out as the doors opened.
“Sarah called me Hannah, you can call me anytime though big guy” I winked at him again for good measure.
Tor gave a full body shudder as the doors shut and then gave me a mild glare.
“Don’t do that”
I smirked, leaning my body back in an arch I perfected when Sarah talked me into posing for her calendar photo shoot last year.
“do what?” I asked as innocently as possible.
Tor’s eyes flitted across my reclined body automatically, he finally yanked his eyes away and fumed slightly when he caught the tail end of my smirk.
With a deep sigh he pulled himself together and shot me an annoyed glance.
“.. this is going to be a long trip”
I grinned and cuddled up to his arm just for the hell of it.
“oh honey, you have no idea..”
He grunted and turned to counting the floor numbers as we descended rather than give me more ammunition.. smart man.

-------------

“You have to be the stupidest man I've ever met!”
“HEY! No need to get so snippy with me Barbie!”
“WHY. YOU!”
I finally snapped and took a swing at him.
He chuckled deeply and moved back from my swing, surprisingly nimble for a man of his size.

The Journey had not gone well.
It took us a day and a half just to gather up supplies, transport and other necessities (such as Tor’s ancient looking backup camera)
At first, I amused myself by needling Tor with my sexiness.
Of course he suffered to my sexiness well, I know how to wield the feminine whiles I shouldn't have like a razor blade!
Hell, this one time during her senior prom Sarah made me… you know what, never mind.
Anyway, the main point is that I was enjoying myself. Making the man mountain Tor blush several shades of flustered.

Then we split off to go to bed.
Me, sleeping in Sarah’s room (after spending a bit too much time inspecting her wardrobe for battle AND camera appropriate clothing).
Him, sleeping in his room next door. Doing who knows what!
The next morning.
Gone was the shy man mountain I’d met in the hospital room.
Now he was grumpy, and brooding, and wouldn't look at me in the eye.
..I'm tempted to think he had a naughty dream about me..
Although that’s probably me using him to vent my frustration and nerves with humour.
That’s pretty much why it started in the first place anyway.
Nerves are not good for magic, not good for magic users either.
Neither is frustration.
So I find ways to vent, not the nicest ways I will admit, but better than me bottling it up and, at the wrong moment, me having a blowout by accidentally turning him into a duck because he asked if I wanted two sugars in my coffee instead of one!

Things continued to go downhill from there.
We sniped back and forth
Him, picking on me for crossdressing so successfully.
Me, poking holes at how obvious he was about being in love with my oblivious sister.
And so…

“I swear to all that’s powerful, when this is done I'm going to turn you into a chicken and feed your giblets to Sarah so for once in your life you’ll get to see her with your balls in her mouth!”
He took a swing at me for that one, I dived to the side and ended up getting dirt all over my legs because these stupid ‘camera ready’ adventurer’s short shorts didn't cover anything but my crotch!
I will find whoever came up with making Lara Croft the basis of what the public think a female adventurer should look like and I WILL hurt him!
My emotions got the better of me and with a wash of power every plant within a meter circle of me turned violent orange.

Tor turned to see what was taking me so long getting back up and then preceded to gape, as is his apparent default expression.
How the hell did I consider that cute, even for a second?!

“Hey Sa..uh..Han..er..Boss?.. you okay?” he sounded hesitant.
Not willing to step closer to me and my circle of orange.
I gave out a giggle which sounded a bit too close to a sob.

He let out a breath and cautiously stepped into my orange domain to crouch beside me.
I didn't hesitate, just on instinct I lunged upwards, wrapped my arms around his neck and slammed my lips to his.
He held back stunned for a moment before reluctantly allowing it while he worked to pull me up to standing again.
After almost twenty seconds of kissing him, it clicked in my head what I was doing and I yanked back with a yell.
He watched me cautiously as I fumed at myself for my weakness…

… for.. my.. weakness… oh..crap.
“TOR!, get the salt out of your pack quick!”
He blinked but eventually turned and retrieve the bag of salt I bought at our last town stop.
I grabbed it from him in a rush and he opened his mouth to yell about it.
He probably would have had a good roar about it too, he had been bad enough when I bought the bloody bag in the first place.

Luckily he didn't get the chance because I threw a handful of salt in his face bringing him to a sputtering silence.
With shaking hands I tilted the bag and ran out a wide circle around us of uninterrupted salt adding a bit of excess to the thinner lines when necessary.

I straightened up and came face to chest with Tor.
“What on earth are you doing?”
Good, he’s calm, its working already.
“Hold that thought” I told him, trying to keep my frantic thoughts under control.
With a few flicks of my wrist I had salt launched over both shoulders and one face full of it for good measure.
I turned back to Tor, considering my options before finally shrugging it off and launching two handfuls of salt over his shoulders for good measure.
With that all done I settled down to the uneven jungle floor with a huff and tried to get myself back together.
“What..” Tor seemed to stop and tried to process something before continuing.
“What the hell happened to us?”

I tried to chuckle but it came out as more of a giggle.
Sympathetic magic, that’s what happened to us.
I banked on it helping me against ‘el diablo’ but didn't factor in the emotions and brand already involved.
Magic's confusing, I think I covered that already.
Basically while sympathetic magic, in theory, gives me an added edge because every spell I do against ‘el diablo’ will be multiplied by Samarian vengeance theory.
Sympathetic magic also drags in the emotional conflicts from focus to wielder.
In this case, poor Tor has been battling with himself because I've suddenly taken on position of my sister in his subconscious.
Naturally, with what his waking mind knew, that caused him to lash out.
Added to all of THAT we have the brand.
Which, while I haven’t seen it in person, I can now safely assume has some kind of ill feelings compulsion to it.
Most likely one aimed at vengeance and anger, a bit of bait to lure my sister back to his damn tomb in the name of revenge no doubt.
It just so happened to make us both resonate and cascade with the Samarian vengeance theory.. Well… it’s pretty amazing we hadn't killed each other by now!

He looked at me expectantly and I offered him a sheepish smile.
“Bad Juju?” I offered.
He huffed and seemed to weigh that against what he knew already.
“el diablo?”
“Yeah, sorry. Side effect. It’s complicated but the salt has sea essence, its temporarily blocking the effect for a while.”
He weighed this also.
Finally with a nod of acceptance he dropped down into a sitting position and waited for me to continue.
“Give me five minutes and I’ll rig us up some defences to ward it off as we move on. Can you hand me the wool?”
He shot me an ‘are you serious?’ look before reaching into his bag and getting it out.
“You’re not making anti-juju jumpers are you?”
For a moment my temper flared, remembering the snipes he made at me when I got the wool in the first place.
I took a deep breath and settled it back down into close to calm.
A few seconds later I ended up tossing another handful of salt in my face just for good measure.
This is effecting me on a much larger scale then him right now.

When I eventually opened my eyes, he seemed to have worked out what he said wrong and looked apologetic.
“I'm going to make some Midus bands for us with the wool. It’s…” I stalled
“Complicated.. I get it.” He finished for me with a cheeky smile.
I refused to blush, in the end I ducked my head and swiped the wool from him with a huff.

----------------

“They look like friendship bracelets?” he muttered uncertainly.
I sighed dramatically and slid one on each of his wrists before pulling the last over his head.
“Midus bands are… ok, wool is nature and protection, salt is pure from the water context, I'm a locus point. So mixing my blood with the salt, then pasting it on the wool and wrapping them in…. you know what never mind, just.. It will work okay?”
He was watching me with something close to fondness in his eyes as I ranted, which made me even more flustered.
Damn it! While these bands will block out most of the ill will there’s no way I can stop the sympathetic bonds effect on my emotions.
Seems my sister has some explaining to do about her and her feelings for her camera man.
I just do NOT need this right now!

“Friendship bracelets, keep away bad juju. Got it”
I shot him an annoyed glare and he offered that cheeky smile again which made my heart flutter and my brain want to stab itself to death.
Why does magic have to be so complicated?!?

=================

“The openings a bit off that way now” Tor offered, gesturing due south.
I hummed at him in acknowledgement, busy as I was looking through what was left of their camp site.
“Find anything?”
I waved him off for a second and continued my inspection.
Finally I realised what had been bothering me.
“Ah hah!” I called in triumph, pulling up a pair of earrings from what was left of my sisters travel bag.
Tor sighed and looked at me accusingly.
“All that for some earrings.. You really are related to Sarah, ain't you?”
I offered him a smug glance and waved my hands over them.
The earrings lit up like a Christmas tree in twinkling lights.

Tor huffed loudly.
“These, my in-observant camera monkey, are not just earrings.”
He looked at me waiting for an explanation.
I ignored him, spending my time looking through the rest of the bag and eventually finding the food packaging which had obviously led the local animal life to ripping apart Sarah’s tent and bag.
Sloppy sis, no matter your cravings you shouldn't keep spam sandwiches in your kit bag.
That’s just asking for trouble.

He cracked finally and sighed.
“What are they then, if they aren't the earrings they so plainly are?”
I offered him one more smirk for good measure.
“These look like earrings, earrings our mum gave Sarah for Christmas a few years ago in fact. Funny they also appear to look like the exact earrings Sarah has currently in her ears back in the nice safe hospital”
Tor looked at me with an expression plainly screaming ‘so what?’
I sighed and resisted the urge to smack him up the head.
“They are fakes, items Sarah never leaves without but can easily over look in her kit bag.. And they are also magical”
He seemed to understand finally and took a step back from the ‘earrings’
Smart guy.

I waved my hand over the earrings, getting the same light show again, but this time actually paying attention to it.
Tracking.. No, location based.. Compulsion but not location based.. That looks.. No.. Okay.. Maybe..
“These earrings are made to.. Encourage someone to come to this location, but more specifically to approach someone in this area… my moneys on ‘el diablo’.”
Oh, fun fun fun.
“Sarah didn't need to scrye to find this place..this whole things a setup”
Tor whipped around, looked ready to fight off an ambush.
I couldn't help the giggle that slipped out.

He turned back to me looking sour.
“Not to fear, the traps already sprung.”
He let out a sigh of relief before stiffening.
Oh yeah, he’s worked it out alright.
“el diablo.. This was never about Sarah, it wants you doesn't it?”

I nodded carefully, working to hold back my anger.
Using my sister to get to me, in such a carefully planned and obviously personal way..
Ohhh.. Whoever is behind this is going to pay.
Oh boy, are they going to PAY!
“Boss” Tor called me out of my own head “your.. um..”
I glanced at him and he gestured down to my… ah crap.
“The colour suits you?” he tried to be diplomatic.
Yup.. Anger plus magic equals accidents.
I'm now the not so proud owner of naturally bright orange fingernails.
Magic is annoying.

=================

“This is it?” I asked, staring down into the black pit from between some overly large tree trunks.
“Yeah, there’s about a 20 foot drop to the floor. I’ll go get the..”
He stopped and gaped as I stepped out over the edge and a tree root moved out to support my foot.
“I’ll see you down there, go get your ropes and stuff”
After a moment hesitation as he watched me go over the edge into the dark he nodded and moved back toward camp.

=================

I almost had a heart attack when a loud thump sounded out behind me.
Turned out to be a coil of rope instead of the demonic minion I had expected.
“Look out below” echoed down from above.
I eased away from battle ready as the rope whipped around and from the skylight hole above Tor’s bulk appeared, zipping his way down to me.

He took a moment to unhook himself and smiled at me.
Then he looked around properly and whistled.
“Magic?”
I glanced around the walls where small blue flames floated listlessly, lighting up all corners of the overgrown tomb’s.. Correction, Temple’s, front entrance before nodding back.
“Magic”
He grinned at me, looking impressed.
“Cool”
I shrugged, its low level stuff.

“Found anything?” Tor asked, obviously he’s can’t take the silence as I work.
“Found a lot. None of it adds up.” I grunted out in frustration.
“Tell me, it might be clearer if you explain it out loud” He shifted his camera on his shoulder and gave me that damn smile again.
“Fine.. Okay, from the carvings on the walls.. this isn't a tomb, or even a sealing place for a demon or demi-god of any known pantheon”
He nodded encouragingly.
“Its.. Okay, that wall over there is written in Sanskrit.” I gestured to my left “It talks about a temple of connection, an equal ground of non-violence where warring tribes can meet safely to argue and come to an agreement of peace”
He nodded again, smiling at me.
“This wall” I gestured to my right “is written in Mesopotamian, it talks about a hallowed ground of love where truth is confessed before unnamed gods and they are blessed with eternal happiness”
He jostled his camera on his shoulder and raised an eyebrow at me.
“th..this wall” I waved behind me, trying to suppress my blush “its in..well.. its in English… judging from the writing conventions Americanised English at that. It goes on about some great sonnet crafted in the heavens, the two children of earths chosen people coming together and.. Well.. Making a.. The next generation of humans who are clean and magically pure.”
He grinned at me and I shot him a warning look.
Damn my sister and her lack of emotional control!

“Sounds like this whole place is some weird Romeo and Juliet prophecy”
I nodded and rubbed my nose in annoyance.
“It just doesn't make sense. The languages don’t match up, the messages of each one are different but can be connected. Each wall specifies this place as a temple to something but the layout and general design of this place screams ancient burial tomb not religious temple!”

We settled into silence for a while, Tor fiddled with his gear and I tried fruitlessly to clear the floor to see if there was more words below our feet.
In the end I gave it up and decided to move on, not like it would help much anyway.
Tor looked up from his camera and nodded his head towards the entrance deeper into the.. Temple.
I nodded back and took the lead, his flashlight was useful but I discreetly left blue flames behind us to make things easier on the way out.

After a single long but strangely blank corridor that turned right sharply about half way down we ended up at another doorway.
Tor put his hand on my shoulder and shook his head.
“This is it. You ready?”
I almost snapped at him that no I was not ready to face a being he considered el diablo!
I settled for a gulp and hesitant nod instead.
With great effort we both stepped across the threshold.
My breath stalled as I stared into the darkness before us.
I could feel it, a presence, something powerful with magic.

I shuddered, I could feel the build-up already, finally it crested and the voice boomed out at us, deep, guttural, and painfully amused.
“So you came little rabbit”
My shuddering halted for a moment, shocked into stillness, why did it call me that?
“So bright but oh so weak”
I shuddered again involuntarily.
A cold chill swept over me, I felt violated, the magic was pushing in.
Reading my fears, reading me from my very core.
“You are so far from home aren't you? Freak no one could love”
The voice sounded almost amused, as amused as a guttural demonic beast can sound at least.
“You came and did your sisters bidding, as you always have. She’s the one people want after all”
My chest hurt.
The magic was pushing and pushing, crushing down on me with despair as the voice pulled out my deepest fears and threw them in my face.
“If only you would just..” The voice stopped suddenly.

I blinked in shock for a moment as I registered what was happening, Tor was in front of me, kissing me.
I could feel him holding me close, he was so warm.
The crushing pressure disappeared, the grief and self-loathing eased as the magic just folded away from me.

I finally realised what was going on, partly at least.
I’d been caught in a glamor.
It was built to bring me to the edge, destroy me completely to stop any kind of resistance.
Tor had pulled me out of it, he could have slapped me or any other physical input, glamor’s are weak to outside interference.. But he kissed me.
I smiled slightly as he pulled away from me.
“I couldn't get through to you. Are you okay?”
“Yeah” I managed, my voice slightly tight.
I felt a tear trickle down my cheek, first indication I had been crying.
“We got in and you just locked up, then you started crying, I tried shaking you but.. Well”
I smiled at him fully this time.
“Thanks Tor, that’s twice I owe you now”
He chuckled.

We both sat in silence, I spent my time holding onto Tor and trying to pull myself together.
That glamor had been powerful. Too powerful.
This isn't some security feature to an ancient temple.
This is fresh magic. The caster must be nearby.

I opened my mouth to warn Tor but before I could utter a word I was interrupted.
“Well.. This is inconvenient” came a cultured British accent I knew all too well.
I gasped and shot my head up.
Little rabbit.. oh it would be wouldn't it!
He smiled at me, his smile, that shark like grin of pleasure I've spent so long trying to ignore.
“Hello lover” he added, tipping his hat back with a flick to unveil his wide blue eyes.
I ducked my head quickly, only realising seconds later my mistake.
With a thud Tor fell over beside me, mild snores coming out of him already.
So much for backup.

I sat in silence, my eyes closed tight, hoping this was all a trick and the big demon I had planned for would appear instead.
“Really, that’s not very polite.”
Oh but he sounded smug.
“I go to all the trouble of bringing you home and you won’t even give me a smile?”
I shuddered again, I could feel his hand brushing the hair from my shoulder.
He rested his chin on my collar bone.
“Nothing? I'm hurt, even your sister was better than this. I never took you for the submissive type”

I snapped, with a roar of anger I reared my head back and slammed it into his nose.
He gave a pained groan as he fell back.
Quick as I could while he was distracted, I grabbed the midas band from around Tor’s neck and pulled it tight on my forehead like a circlet.
Protection firmly in place I finally opened my eyes and spun to face him.

He hadn't changed, not that I expected he would.
He lay on the floor, clutching his nose in obvious pain, but he was laughing.
He was LAUGHING!
Then I felt it.

With a gulp I turned and saw what had him so amused.
From the darkness beyond us came a long tail.
It looked metallic, like someone had made a string of triangle shaped chain mail and animated it.
I recognised it now, I hadn't even considered it before, my mind so focused on every demon it could be connected with.
I tried frantically to get up and away from it but I was too slow. Of course I was. There’s no fighting this kind of binding.
I flipped onto my back as the binding chain eased its way up my leg, higher and higher until it held me tight.
Its tip slowly moved to rest on my lower back and I felt a burn.
I tried to hold it so much but in the end I screamed.
I screamed long and hard until finally it stopped.
As the chain moved back into the darkness I sobbed.
I could feel the binding already.
Pulling on me, pulling at my very core.

“You never were one to listen to the old tales” he stated with an admonishing tone not even trying to cover his amusement.
“th.. The bindings of bad faith” I managed to choke out past my sobs.
He may have me but I won’t let that bastard insult my intelligence too!
“Good” he stepped over to me and knelt down to my level “very good, so glad time hasn't dulled your mind at least”
“Screw you” I managed and he laughed.
“Your whit on the other hand… well I guess that can be forgiven for now”
He came closer to me.
For once I met his gaze, unafraid of his hypnotic eyes.
He smirked and with a gentle grasp of my chin he kissed me with force.
I struggled for a moment but in the end it was useless.
The binding would see to that.
“We have so much to discuss. Do you prefer a summer or a winter wedding?”
He dropped my chin and stepped away, with a casual wave of his hand he dispelled the darkness around us and moved to sit at one of the ancient looking carved stone seats unveiled below.
“Do get up, we should be civil about these things”
My body cried out at me in reluctance but I couldn't resist his command.
Not with the binding in place.
With a relieved sigh I reached the carved seat opposite him, as is traditional for these meetings.
My back burned lightly in warning as I considered if I could kill him from this distance with a well-placed foot.
Message received loud and clear.
Damn it, Magic is stupid!

=================

I broke the silence, he smiled, the jerk.
“The entrance way.. You added the second and third notes to confuse me. Using unconnected languages you knew I knew.. If I had been thinking clearly the first wall’s description of this place being a safe place for discussion would have warned me about the binding..”
He grinned, enjoying his chance to gloat as always.
“All three walls were added by me actually. I felt we should mark this wonderful occasion for future generations”
I snorted back a laugh.
“Romeo and Juliet my ass. You believe what you put up there connects to us?”
“Of course.. Our past” he gestured to the binding pattern on the wall a reminder of how he caught me.
“Our present” he smiled at me indulgently and I shuddered slightly.
“Our future” he finished, his smile getting warmer.
I held it for a full heartbeat before finally cracking.
I leant back and laughed, hard.
“Yo..You think that you.. And me” I cracked up again.
He looked annoyed. Good.
“Good luck with us birthing the next generation! Unless you haven’t realised I'm a guy!”
His annoyance disappeared back behind that smug smile.
“For now..” he oozed with a raised eyebrow.
I felt a shiver go down my spine again which had nothing to do with a glamor.
Oh.. This is not good.

I weakly tried to redirect the conversation.
“This place, it’s an old centre for negotiations. You set this whole thing up, so my sister would unknowingly threaten you and be bound. Forcing me to come here and make the same mistake?”
He smiled lazily at me.
“Brilliant isn't it? For once you can’t run from me. Until we meet an acceptable compromise you can’t dare leave and I'm coming into this with a position of power over you and your dear sister”
I flinched and he noticed.
“If I’d stayed calm and not attacked first, you wouldn't have this binding… Quite a gamble?”
“We both know you have a temper Aris-“
“DON’T CALL ME THAT!”
He smirked at me while my binding burned a second warning. Damn him!
“You have a temper, a few centuries would not change that. My little efforts to leave you stressed and primed to snap would not hurt either of course..”
“The vengeance loop?”
He grinned openly this time.
“No matter what incarnation you have, you have always believed in Sympathetic magic’s power. It’s in your nature, the rest was easy.”
“Your glamor on Tor set me up on a mind-set where I could do nothing but jump to conclusions and dance to your tune. You needed me to think you were a demon of ‘el diablo’ levels..”
“Is Tor the fat one up there?”
I glared at him but reluctantly nodded.
“Yes, worked out wonderfully that. I didn't expect him to take your sister during his nightmare glamor but considering I was going to lead him out with her anyway it didn't matter in the end.”
I shuddered. The nightmare glamor turns your mind against you, voicing your fears.
The fact that Tor even thought about my sister’s well-being during that speaks a lot about his feelings for her.

“What now then?”
He leaned back and relaxed comfortably.
“Now.. We negotiate..”
“You have nothing I-“
He cut me off with a wave of his hand.
“I have everything you want. I have your sister, I have you. The real question is what are you willing to give me in exchange?”
I stared at him in silent rage.
“What.. do you want?” I managed through clenched teeth.
He bounced out of his relaxed pose and leaned forward in excitement.
“I want what I've always wanted. I want you Arista.”
I resisted the urge to yell at him and took a deep breath.
“That won’t work, it can’t work. Ignoring all the bad blood between us and everything else, I'm Male this time”
He grinned that shark like grin again.
“And that is my biggest demand, in exchange for unleashing the binding on you and your sister. Allowing you; your freedom and her; her consciousness. I would take your masculinity.”

=================

I sat rigid in shock. My eyes wide at the sheer audacity of him.
I know I look too much like my sister.
I've always known that from the first time an old lady complimented our mother on her darling girls to every time Sarah talked me into ‘doing her a favour’.
I later found out why.

If you delve deep enough into magic you always come across an annoying little fact.
Reincarnation, at least for magic wielders, is real.
Loads of theory’s go around, the main one I personally believe is that its magic’s way of propagating, despite its relatively low amount of users.
A single magic wielder only needs to learn a spell once, and they will remember it each time their next incarnation unlocks those past memories.
If they unlock their past memories that is.
Many low grade mages stay just that, low grade, because they are afraid of what they will unlock with those memories.
There are so many horror stories of ancient mages who were uncontrollable monsters.
No-one wants to chance waking up the sleeping dragon within.

Naturally, when it came to me, I didn't have a choice in the end.
A chain of events, starting with me going across town to try a new pizza joint and ending with me escaping naked from a ritual most closely mirroring the classic demon summoning you see in Hollywood movies, lead to my memory block being forcefully shattered as a side effect.

There she was, Arista, and all her previous incarnations.
Every one of them female.
Every one of them looking like my sister.
Every one of them subconsciously telling me that my body was now wrong.
It almost broke me.

I dropped off the map for weeks.
A 19 year old boy is not built for that kind of influx.
As I meditated, I eventually found my safe ground.
An equilibrium of sorts that balanced out to keep all the sides of ‘me’ happy.
My biggest loss in the whole thing was that I had to take my sisters thinly veiled attempts to get me in drag without argument and come to terms with the fact that I was now Bi-sexual.
That was enough to settle everything down for a while.

Then he showed up.
In this incarnation he should be called John.
Such a nice dull name, there are so many Johns in the world.
Naturally, he doesn't use it.
Oh no, the great Maxarimus would never lower himself to such a title as ‘John’
From what I have gathered, his memory block broke even earlier than mine.
The idea of a 6 year old boy having the memories of millennia dumped on him hurts so much I’d almost feel sorry for him.
If he wasn't himself.

In the old culture, Arista’s first culture, names were important.
At the time Arista was the future shaman of her tribe and then her people met another tribe.
After long sessions between their leaders, ironically held in a temple similar to this one.
With the threat of the bindings of bad faith hanging over them, they reached a solution and their peoples merged into one great nation.
Jobs were mixed, people mixed, languages mixed.
As a result Arista ended up face to face with her greatest enemy.

Having learnt of her culture, and its ideals.
Maxarimus was looking forward to meeting the girl who, by her own people’s customs, would be his soul mate.
Two children born of similar age, named by separate partys but sharing a common naming point.
It was an old custom, mostly myth passed down by word of mouth.
Max-ARI-mus met ARI-sta and fell in love at first sight.

For years the two fought a battle of whits. The boy never giving up hope of catching her.
Then.. At the grand old age of 24, Arista died.
It wasn't a fun death, trust me on that.

Apparently Maxarimus was broken by her loss.
Following her but a year afterwards.
And then they were reincarnated, and he was so happy until she left him again too soon, without returning his love.
And they were reincarnated again, and he was glad.. and she left him again, without love.
And again.
And again.

Maxarimus tried everything as time moved on.
I know he’s more powerful than me.
In several reincarnations he denied Arista her magic and therefore her memories, but he still worked.
Determined that one day he would be worthy of her attention.
Eventually determination became obsession.. and obsession became something much worse.

Finally I was born.
John, as he was then, knew me.
Fate, it seems, has a sense of humour.
We shared schools, friends, and hobbies.
Then Sarah found her little magical flute in a flea market and my world got bigger.
A year or so later, he picked up an object that fell from my school bag, and his world got bigger too.
A while after that he called me Arista aloud and I ran.
I've been running ever since, one big game of cat and mouse…

=================

“You’re insane” I croaked out breaking the tense silence.
He leaned back and laughed.
“Probably.. It happens” he brushed it off thoughtfully.
“Can the bindings even do that? They are old magic. Powerful.. but even power has its limits”
“You would not know this Arista -“
I twitched
“- our people used the temples long before yours discovered them. There were several incidents where the head of other tribes promised marriages between the clan’s heads in bad faith, believing us too stupid to notice their wording. It’s where the bindings name comes from. The punishment was often the same, the clan head would be changed so they may fulfil their side of the bargain”
“That’s where you got the idea for all of this from..”
“Of course, one thought does tend to lead to another”
I bowed my head in thought.
Finally with my eyes bright I looked to him.
“Is there another option?”
He shook his head firmly

“My sister.. If I give something else for her first as a sign of good faith will you accept it?”
He frowned but eventually nodded.
“I have one other minor offering, it’s not equal in worth to your sister’s life, but as a sign of good faith…”
I didn't hesitate.
“Name it”
He smile at me, looking honestly pleased.
“You may never again lie about your feelings”

It felt like he had hit me in the chest with a hammer.
That kind of binding.. from this source.
It would be unbreakable.
I would never be able to directly lie about my feelings again.
It would be hard.. It would hurt.. But.. Sarah.
“I accept your terms”
He grinned.

The room around us glowed softly, a tendril of black chain faded out from the glyphs around us and I could feel it reach out far away.
Moments later an equally fast tendril came out to meet me.
I eased up in my chair and allowed it to brand on my lower back, its detail presumable lost under my current binding.
There was a sound of shattered metal and the tendril faded back in among the glyphs.
I felt a weight settle down upon me and barely restrained from crying out.

“How do you feel about me?”
He didn't hesitate.
I clamped my lips together tightly.
I may not be able to lie but I can still restrain myself if needed.

He waited a full minute before giving it up with a dry chuckle.
“I expected as much.”
I blinked at him in surprise.
“You’re not mad?”
“Of course not, while I'm sure it will be useful and amusing as time goes on. My goal has been achieved. We are bound now, with a bit of training you won’t escape me again”
He grinned wide and I flinched back.
“..Bastard”
He tricked me again, it was never about him wanting my honest feelings on him.
He wanted a physical link between us, the contract keeping me from lying is tied to his core.
If he wants he can follow it like a rope tying us to each other no matter how far I go now.

“If you’re quite done sulking. Now for your freedom?”
I glared at him, my binding burned again.
I need to get out of this, that burn would drive me insane in time if nothing else.
“What is your demand?” I asked formally.
Hopefully he puts in a loophole with the wording.
“In exchange for the binding’s removal, I demand your masculinity.”

Masculinity is a nebulous point these days.
He knows that.
It’s also a solid defined factor in old magic’s.
He wants me to be female in body only.
That’s something at least.
I can accept that. If he only directs it that way then I may be able to turn back at a later date, he’s not banning me from changing back later after all just wants my current masculinity…
“I demand that any changes to my person be held off until I and my party are reunited. I must see the health of my sister directly before facing such drastic changes”
He looked thoughtful but eventually nodded.

Yet again, the room glowed. This time two binding chains came out toward us each.
My chain gently wrapped around me, settled over my binding and with a minor sting it was gone.
Deep inside my chest I could feel its power settle though.
Waiting, ready for when it could be enforced.
I watched as Maxarimus received a small brand to his wrist.
It was temporary, a sign for him for when my end of the deal was fulfilled.

Well.. I guess it could be worse.. Speaking of worse.

He stood up with grace and walked over to my side of the table.
I didn't offer resistance as he looped his arms around me and came in close.
He gently nibbled on my lip after a moment I reluctantly kissed him back.
“How do you feel about me?” he asked again. His eyes light with victory.

I waited, timing was everything here.

He eased his mouth around to nibble on my neck.
I’d be lying if I said it didn't feel good.
“I hate you from the very depth of my soul. You are everything I despise..”
His jaw tensed down painfully on my neck. Close but not enough.
“You have more chances seducing Tor then me currently, Johnny boy”
I would have continued but it was too late.
At the mention of his hated name he unconsciously clenched down on my neck so hard it drew blood.
A single drop, barely a knick, but it was enough.

With a gasp he jumped away from me, shock and betrayal written on his face.
“You’re not the only one who can play mind games John.. I know you just as well as you know me”
He staggered back, with worry he whipped his head toward the walls and watched in fear as slowly, unstoppably the chain formed up and moved toward him.
“Funny thing about old magic, it doesn't discriminate between intent.”
He staggered back further, desperately trying to move away but knowing it was too late.
“My sister unknowingly threatened you, and she was punished”
The chain made contact with his leg and slowly eased tightly upwards as he kicked out at it in panic.
“You fooled me into harming you blindly, and I was punished”
The chain finally reached its destination, looks like John was going to have an interesting new tattoo to explain on his cheek.
“..And now you wounded me within these chambers while I provided no defence, and you will be punished”
He threw his head back and cried out in pain as the binding burnt into his cheek.
“See you around Johnny boy”
I walked away from him without looking back.
Bastard deserved some retribution for once.
He’d find a way to break free eventually no doubt, he’s slippery like that but at least for now I’d be free of him.

I worked my way over to Tor, still snoring away and proceeded to sit on him.
As much as getting here was fun, I needed to get while the going was good.
With a quick glance I gathered up his cameras, no point leaving them behind.
“This is going to be fun”

=================

With a crack of displaced air me, the sleeping Tor, two cameras, a bubble of musty dust filled air and several grams of ancient dirt appeared in the middle of Sarah’s hospital room.
I glanced at the door and sighed in relief that we hadn't come at a bad time or worse, while someone was standing where we would appear, that could get messy.
I barely had time to stand up before someone behind me screamed in surprise.

I whipped around and came face to face with Sarah.
“oh good, your up. Take care of this will ya.”
She stared at me with wide confused eyes but I didn't pay attention after that.
The heat of old magic which had settled in my chest exploded outward and I threw my head back in a silent scream before mercifully falling into unconsciousness…

A hero isn't born a heroine and growing up can be a bumpy road. In this instalment we go back a few years. Events unfold including but not limited to: A slightly more awake Sarah (although the benefits of that are debatable) And Hannah reluctantly goes to prom for a night he should never forget.

“oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god”
My feet ached from sprinting so hard across the pavement, hopefully if I can just get around this corner she won’t..
“Get back here you little snot!”
Well so much for that idea.
We have the same leg length, it’s so not fair she’s this fast!
“I SAID GET BACK HERE!”
I leaned into my sprint and pushed even harder.
Just a little more to go and I'm saf-

With a strangled yelp I flew forward and we collapsed in a tangle of limbs on Mr.Martial’s front lawn.
Sarah laughed and with little effort pinned my arms above my head.
She’s way too strong for a seventeen year old!
Like her legs, our arms are the same size but she can just put so much more into it.
It’s not human, it’s a conspiracy, how am I meant to fight off-
“Thought you could get away Han?” she hissed dangerously.

My breath came in sharp bursts, her sitting on my chest wasn't helping.
Damn her and her training.
“Don.. don’t call me that” I panted out.
Her evil grin got wider.
“Aww, does my little Hannah not like her name”
I growled at her as best I could between gasps for air.
“If you play nice, I’ll not say anything Han. Sisters look after each other, right?”
I wanted to yell at her
I wanted to rip into her
I wanted to buck her off me and punch her oh so smug face!
..but I can’t.. and I won’t.
It would only make it worse in the end.
“What do you want?” I managed to eke out, shifting underneath her to try and get her weight off my hip.
Either I've got something in my pocket I've forgotten about or I'm sitting on a sharp stick.
Sarah stared down at me, that malicious little spark in her eye twinkling away.
“I need a body double for prom. Luckily I have a little sister who can help”

Oh god..
“So tomorrow you’re gonna skip your little geek meeting, come home, get changed and we are going dress shopping!”

It gets worse..
“Of course you’re gonna need some new undies too. Don’t think I haven’t noticed your running low on makeup Han”

And worse..
Sarah eased off of me, her demand given, obviously safe in the knowledge she’d get her way.
I tried to sit up and managed it after a few moments struggle.
With a barking laugh Sarah gave me a hard shove in the chest back to the ground.
“You get up when I tell you to dork”
I flopped back to the ground with a sigh.
Today had been going so WELL too.
I should have guessed it wouldn't last.

==============

“Al, honey, can you be a bit more careful? You have grass stains on your shirt again”
I held back the urge to shot Sarah a nasty look.
It wouldn't do any good anyway.
“He’s a boy mum, you can’t expect him to stay clean and neat”
Mum tried not to show it but I know she agreed with Sarah.
Eventually she reached over and petted Sarah’s hair in approval.
“I suppose your right, sometimes I wish..” Mum trailed off, looking at the wall with far off eyes.
I didn't need to be a mind reader to know what she meant.
Neither did Sarah guessing by the malicious little grin she shot me.
She nodded her head toward mum’s vacant expression and raised an eyebrow.
‘H-a-n-n-a-h” she mouthed at me, her grin getting wider by the moment.
I froze up like a mouse in front of a snake.
She wouldn't tell. She CAN’T!
Sarah seemed to enjoy herself for a while.
Between mums continued hair patting and my fear, how could she not?

I managed to shake myself into action, somehow, when it looked like she would open her mouth again.
Well.. By ‘into action’, I mean I shot off upstairs to put as much distance between us as possible.

“Don’t run on the stairs!”
Looks like mum noticed I left at least.
Sometimes I wish I was an only child.. or emancipated.. or anything really.
But no.. I'm a twin. A twin with an evil spiteful blackmailing sister!

For almost a full heartbeat I managed to build up a head of steam.
Then it gutted out and reality came back in.
There’s nothing I could do to change things, yelling would just make things worse.
It’s not like she was always like this either..
I think I’ll just go lay down, at least she won’t come after me in my room.

============

“Morning Han”
I rolled away from her and pulled myself into a tighter ball.
It’s too early to put up with her crap.
“oh, don’t be grumpy. I got you a present”
I froze, tense and ready for the punchline.

It came quickly.
With a flourish Sarah laid a pair of pan.. well.. a pair of underwear, lets go with that, right on my bed.
They were pink, and lacy, and fussy with a ribbon or two on them.
I knew what she wanted.
She knew what she wanted.

I gave her a pleading glance but I might as well have not bothered.
“You can thank me now or thank me later downstairs with mum. You’re choice”
I took a deep gulp of air around the lump forming in my throat.
“Thanks Sarah. They’re pretty”
Sarah grinned her usual evil smirk and nodded in approval.
“Good girl, we’ll get you out of your tomboy phase in no time”
I didn't bother answering her.
It wouldn't make a difference.
I slowly moved my hand out from my cocoon of blankets and pulled the pan.. underwear in.
At least they aren't taunting me so much now.

Sarah gave another nod of approval and then skipped her way out of the room.
I'm sure she would call it a strut or some other needlessly adult definition for walking but to me it was a gleeful skip.
She got her way, as always.

==============

“You look like you had a fun night?”
I jumped and squeaked, unconsciously pulling the back of my shirt down further in defence.
John grinned at me, all teeth like a shark.
“Did you actually sleep at all?”
He glanced around us, he looked a bit like a meerkat doing it.
I had to suppress the urge to grin, he wouldn't appreciate the comparison after-all.
“I got some sleep but Sarah-“
John gave a deep lovelorn sigh at just the mention of her name.
I had to suppress yet another urge, this time to puke.
“-she was being mean to me again..” I finished, knowing he wasn't paying attention any more.
A slow, warm smile worked its way onto John’s face and then he finally shook himself out of whatever fantasy he’d dived into.
“wha?” he shot at me, his voice dipping into that awkward accent he got when he wasn't paying attention.
“Never mind, come on we’ve got to go. Maths, first today”
John watched me thoughtfully for a moment and then shrugged it off with a huge sigh.
He’s never been a fan of maths.
He claims it’s because it takes too long translating between the language differences in his head.
I think he’s talking out of his ass.
English is English, just because his mums from some forest in England he seems to think that makes him a Brit.
It doesn't, I've seen his passport.
Not even joint nationality, he’s just as American as me, or Sarah or.. I dunno, Apple pie and monster truck racing I guess?
You get what I mean.

“Wonder if Walker will let me copy you if I pretend I'm blind?”
I sighed deep and gave him a mild glare.
“You used that excuse last year, then complained to me when he gave you all your worksheets for the week in brail”
John frowned, his sharp nose crinkling in annoyance.
“oh yeah.. deaf then?”
I sighed again and just started walking.
I swear, if he would just put as much effort into his maths as he did into trying to dodge his maths..

=============

“Alistor, are you with us?”
I jolted up from my notes and shot Mr.Walker an apologetic look.
He huffed at me while the class tittered about me getting caught.
“Welcome back, if you would?” He stated, gesturing toward the board.
I gulped.
Standing up I pulled my shirt down nervously again, the walk from my desk to the board felt painfully long.
I was fully aware of what I had on under my clothes and that the slightest mistake from me could lead to humiliation of world ending proportions.
Damn Sarah!
I was hyper aware of everything around me, twitching at every mumbled word and suppressed laugh behind me, waiting for all hell to break lose.

“Good, not quite right, you rounded up instead of down but the equations right at least”
I sighed and started to make my way back to my desk.
Facing the class it was easier to calm down, just a glance could tell me no one was paying the least bit of attention to me.
I should have guessed, its Maths class after all.
By the time I got back into my seat my pulse was getting back on track.
John nudged me and I flinched.
He shot me a questioning look which I tried to wave off.
Eventually he nodded and turned back to Mr.Walker.
As the class droned on, I spent it trying not to space out in doom and gloom too much this time.
The last thing I need is another reason to stand up in front of the whole class today.

============

“Where’re you going?”
I paused mid-step, considering my options.

Who am I kidding, there is no options involved.
“I gotta skip tonight, chores got piled on at the last minute “
John gave me a look.
It was part accusing and part sympathetic.
I shrugged at him and he nodded.
“I’ll tell Mike, I'm sure he’ll make you catch up lunchtime or something” he offered
“Yeah, most likely. Wish I had a choice, be a lot easier”
John nodded wisely and settled on an encouraging smile for me.
“Message me when you get done okay?”
I smiled back half-heartedly.
I'm not going to be finished soon if Sarah gets her way… and she ALWAYS gets her way.

============

“Full moon Han?” Sarah asked with a giggle.
I jumped and spun around, my hands going down to cover my butt.
“Shut the door” I hissed at her quickly.
She rolled her eyes dramatically and pulled it shut behind her.
“There’s only us here, what’s got your panties in a twist?”
I grimaced and she grinned at me.
“Pun intended” she added needlessly.
“I meant shut the door with you on the other side” I growled at her.
Her grin dropped into a pout.
“That’s not very nice” her voice going sickly sweet which didn’t match her glaring eyes in the slightest.
“Look I..”
She waved me off into silence.
“There’s a skirt and top for you on my bed. You got your bra still?”
I flinched but eventually nodded to her.
“Okay, downstairs in 10 minutes? If we hurry we can get to the mall before the crowds get too big”
I hesitated slightly but in the end there was only one answer.
She smiled at my nod of acceptance and went off to plot someone else’s misfortune for a while.

============

“Stop fiddling with it. You look fine Han”
My hand spasm'ed and I pulled it quickly away from my.. From the skirts edge.
“Now, what do you say if we meet someone I know?”
I hunched my shoulders slightly and opened my mouth to respond.
Sarah slapped my arm without looking away from the road.
“Lady’s don’t slouch”
I flinched and tried to straighten up.
She nodded in approval.
“I'm your cousin, we’re shopping for..” I stalled, I really didn't want to say it.
“For..” she prompted with a sharp look.
“..For our prom dresses” I finished with resignation.
Sarah smiled and nodded again.

At least someone’s happy about this.

==============

“I don’t care if you don’t like it. It’s my prom night, you’re just the stand-in and they even have two of these which fit us off the rack. So lucky!”
It was blue, it could have been worse at least.. I guess.
I shot a glance at the pink frothy monstrosity two racks over from us and shuddered.
On the other hand, this dress expects cleavage I don’t have.
Hell, Sarah barely has enough to work it.
“You got your bank card on you?”
I blinked in surprise and turned to Sarah.
She waved towards the tills and my mouth dropped open.
“I'm not going to buy-“
She cut me off with a cold look.
“You are going to be such a nice brother” she hissed quietly to me “and buy my nice dress, which happens to be twice as expensive as we expected.”
I wavered in rage, my fists clenched and a denial on my tongue.
“Or-“ she added, staring directly into my eyes “-you can be a silly sister who has to walk home. I’m sure you will get some sympathy for it by the time you get home and mum answers the door.”
I almost cried right there.
This isn't fair, this isn't god damn fair!
“I might invite your little boyfriend over too. What was his name? Joe? He’s sure to-“
“Okay, okay I’ll buy the damn dress”
She grinned at me and offered both dresses for me to carry.

This is going to take a chunk out of my savings the size of a small African nation.
So much for getting my own car.
And upgrading my laptop.

“Now we just need to get some nice shoes and then some nice undies for such a special occasion and we’re done”

And anything else from the sound of it..

With one more heaving sigh I made my way over to the till’s to pay.
At least the sales-girl looks bored.
Shouldn't be any problems of her noticing my card’s in the name of ‘Alistor Cooper’ if I rush.

=============

“He has a thing for you”

I hissed at her and glared.
“Oh please, even you must have noticed”
He IS being kind of obvious about it.
I shuddered hard.
“Maybe he has a thing for twins” I tried.
Even to my ears it didn't sound convincing.
“Maybe he has a thing for your feet”
My head whipped around and I glared at Sarah.
She shrugged with a grin.
“If he did have a thing for feet, a shoe shop’s the best place he could work right?”
Reluctantly I saw the humour in it and snorted.
Sarah smiled openly, for the first time in ages I can see her smile without some kind of dark joy behind it.
It almost looks weird to see honestly.

“We have these in a size five. Are you sure you both want the same colour?”
Sarah nodded, I reluctantly nodded along with her.
He glanced between us.
I hope it was just my imagination, but I'm pretty sure he focused more on me then Sarah.
“I’ll be back with the boxes then. You don’t want to try them both on?”
Sarah smiled at him and I blushed.
“We’re sure. If they fit Hannah, they will fit me. We’re twins”
He blushed and sputtered to a nod before quickly walking off toward the back room.
“Maybe you had a point, looks like he has a thing for twins”
I glared at Sarah, my cheeks hot in embarrassment.
“Why are we getting these anyway? I can’t use these shoes” I asked, waving my hand out in annoyance.
“You can use them. You just need to practice more”
Her smile lit up at me in joy.
“No I can’t, I nearly broke my ankle!”
She bumped my leg with hers and smiled innocently.
“It was barely a stumble, ya big baby. They’re only three inch heels”
I growled low at her and she frowned.
“A little practice and you will be ready to go”
I growled again and turned away from her.
“When the hell am I going to get time to practice?”
She ticked her eyebrow up at me in amusement.
I could see it out the corner of my eye.
“There’s a few weeks before prom. I guess you can just get home from school and use them”
Her eyes were alight with fun at the idea of it.
“I’ll show you all the tricks. You’ll be a pro in no time!”
I turned to face her again and blinked owlishly.

Sensing my worry Sarah’s smile dropped and she shot me a warning look.
“That’s not fair, I-“
She cut me off with a raised finger.
“I don’t care if it’s fair. I'm not having you show me up at prom. So you will do it or else”
I waved my mouth a few times.
Ready to deny her.
Ready to argue.
Ready to do SOMETHING.
Nothing came out.
She would get her way. As she always did.
What’s the point of even trying to fight her?

===============

“Left foot, right foot, swing your hip and turn, and flip your hair, giggle and blow a kiss”
I mechanically followed her commands.
The fight, what little of it there was to begin with, was gone from me.
“For god sake Han, smile. It’s a dance not a funeral”
I plastered a painfully fake smile on my face.
Sarah still didn't look pleased.
I knocked it down a few levels and tried again.
She nodded approvingly and moved on.
“Now you’re stable and you can strut like a pro, we just need to work on dancing next”
“huh?” I managed weakly. My eyes going wide.
Me? Dancing?.. I would assume dancing with a guy..
“Sarah I can’t-“ I tried with more force than I expected.
She didn't let me finish.
“You can! I can, we’re twins, you can. That’s how it works. It’s just for a few hours and then you’re free”
My shoulders slumped for all of five seconds.
With a glare Sarah smacked me on the shoulder and I tightened back up again.

“Why do you even need me anyway, he’s your date!”
Sarah looked at me like I was a particularly slow toddler.
“Prom or not, I'm not missing Jenny’s party. Mum would kill me if I cut prom to go to another party, especially one run by Jenny”
Damn right she would! Jenny’s bad news.
Worse, she’s got a reputation and a criminal record.
“I can’t miss Jenny’s party, I can’t cut prom and I can’t be in two places at once. Luckily I have a handy clone laying around spare”
I couldn't meet her eyes for that one.
That hurt.

“I don’t think you should go to Jenny’s party.”
Sarah looked at me incredulously, slowly her mouth pulled back in a nasty snarl.
“If I wanted the opinion of a defective knockoff, I would talk to those Barbie dolls Uncle Joe got us from china”
I drew away from her as if I’d been burned.
Sarah almost looked surprised at her own words but I didn't bother trying to argue, I just left.
Fast as my heels would take me I was up the stairs, into my room and slamming the door tight.

With a sob I crashed out on my bed, heels and skirt ignored in favour of just letting it out.
Sarah never used to be like this.
She’s getting worse too.
It’s not fair.
Why does she have to be like this!

Sarah didn't come up to check on me.
I half expected her to come storming in, demanding I get back to practice.
Eventually I calmed down enough to get changed.
I stashed the folded up dress I’d borrowed from Sarah in my wardrobe along with the heels for prom and went back to bed.
I couldn't be bothered with it any more.
I just wanted sleep and for this day to end.

=================

We didn't talk for almost a week after that blow up.
I still practised.
Sarah wouldn't let me off of that.
For the first few days she seemed to feel guilty.
She kept shooting me sideways glances as I went through the movements.
Eventually she must have resolved her issues though because by Friday she was back to snapping at me and, if possible, in even more of a foul mood then she usually has been lately.

“Hand on my shoulder and follow. Try not to walk around like a moose on stilts this time”
I didn't acknowledge her, just kept my head down and followed instruction.
That seemed to set her off less at least.

“Head up, smile for your date. You don’t need to like him, just last through the dance and forget him”
I pulled my head up and put on a smile.
Not meeting her eyes though.

She seemed to build up to tell me off for that too but eventually she let it go with a breath and just swayed us to the music.
I was thankful for that at least.

====================

“His names Dan. He likes soccer and swimming. He’s going to be nervous so just be agreeable and he won’t push you too much. When you think you've been visible enough that people will remember you. Tell him you’re ready to leave and come straight home. Make some noise so mum knows you’re in.”
I twitched violently and stared at her in shock.
“Mum can’t see me! She’ll be able to tell.”
Sarah snorted and gave me a mild glare.,
“Oh please, mums not been able to tell us apart when we’re like this since we were four.”
Reluctantly I backed down and nodded.
Mum was pretty bad at it even when I wasn't wearing Sarah’s clothes.

One time we spent a whole morning baking cookies and she didn't notice.
It wasn't until Sarah came stomping in covered in mud and bruise’s that mum realised her mistake.
And then she blamed me for it.. because.. I dunno.. why not, right?!

“Okay, I'm off. If anything goes wrong I’ll call you. Escape plan is you hide somewhere, I’ll come back and dive in to take your place until it’s all over”
I gulped and nodded.
Sarah checked me over one more time.
She fiddled with my hair a bit and fluffed the long skirt of my dress a bit more so that its thigh slit provided a bit more modesty.
“You.. We look good. Two seconds, I need to get a photo”
I opened my mouth to argue but gave up.
What’s the point?
By now she has more photos of me then I could hope to count from over the years.
One more isn't going to make a difference.

Sarah came back with her camera and posed me.
Putting the camera on the mantel piece she hit the delay and came back to pose with me.
The shutter went off.
I let out a breath and turned to her.
Then it went off again.
I swung around in surprise and it got me one more time, with a flash right in the face.

By the time I blinked the flash out of my eyes, Sarah had gotten her camera and slipped it in her purse.
“I’ll come in through the back. Probably pretty late. Stay in my room tonight. I’ll sleep in yours and we can swap before mum gets up in the morning”
I looked at her uncertainly but nodded along.

She gave me a surprisingly warm smile and hugged me.
“Look after yourself Han. Thanks for this. I’ll see you later”
She pulled away and walked out to her car.
I stood there gaping in surprise.
For just a moment, the evil monster disappeared and my sister had shined through.
I almost cried in relief that she was still in there somewhere.
I didn't cry..I can’t fix this makeup that well.

===============

“Mum, really..”
Mum patted my head, just like she always does to Sarah and smiled at me.
“You only get one Senior Prom Sare”
I held back a grimace.
Sarah is not a name that should be shortened.
Especially not to Sare, it rhymes with Care.. Something I doubt Sarah would do the way she’s been lately.

“Plus you two are just so cute together”
I didn't hold back a grimace this time.
At least the doofus agreed with me.
Dan looked very close to calling this whole thing off, he kept watching mums camera like it was a dangerous weapon or something.

Finally after a bit of fuss we managed to get all of mum’s wanted pictures done and get out the door to Dan’s worryingly rusty Car.
The drive to school was, in a word, awkward.
Just as we were pulling in Dan turned to me and smiled weakly.
“So..”
I swallowed my nerves and smiled back weakly.
“So..” I echo’d
We shifted slightly.
I fidgeted with my dress and sighed.
He finally coughed uncomfortably and tired again.
“This is a lot harder than I thought it would be”
“..That’s what she said” I mumbled in a quiet tone, only for my ears.
Dan’s eyes went big and his lip twitched.
After a few seconds he couldn't hold it any more and cracked up laughing.
I held out a little longer but it didn't work.
I ended up laughing too.
What can I say? His laugh was infectious.

The ice wasn't broken, not fully, but it was enough that we could act like humans now.
Dan seemed in awe of the idea that I’d made a dirty joke.
Poor innocent guy.
If he only knew the kind of things that go on in the girls bathrooms.
I almost had a mini-breakdown the first time I found out.
I ended up hiding in the stall for almost half an hour just to be sure they were gone.
It turns out, Tracy Mullins has the mouth of a sailor and either a LOT of experience in things she shouldn't have or a very active imagination, by the way.

Eventually he came around the car, opened my door and helped me out.
Quite the gentleman.

Now that we were past the painful stage of awkwardness I allowed myself to relax.
Sarah’s training kicked in and I moved toward the school with graceful steps.
Before we reached the main gates I’d hooked my arm around his and rested my head on his shoulder slightly.
He seemed happy.
He’d started spouting information, at a slightly frantic pace, but at least he was open and talking.
I nodded along and looked appropriately interested when he explained his three brothers or how water polo is a majorly under-appreciated sport in USA history.

We worked our way past the eagle eyes of the teachers with little fuss.
There was some mess behind us when a guy I vaguely recognise from gym class tried to come in dateless and wearing a truly awe inspiring suit that looked like it was made of glow in the dark vinyl.
Dan turned to me without a word and we both snorted in amusement.
The ice broke a little more, which pleased me for some reason.

Getting our official photos done was a hassle.
I survived quite well.
By the time it was our turn me and Dan were subtly mocking some of the more worrying couples around us.
He seemed to take great pleasure in pointing out other soccer players to me and whispering details I’m sure they didn't consider ‘for public consumption’ in my ear.
I let him do it. It was nice to relax for once.
Me and Sarah used to have this kind of fun.
We had our own language and everything.. Then she changed.

I shook my depressive thoughts away and smiled at Dan.
He smiled back and drew me closer to himself.
“wanna dance?”
I looked out over the people currently here.
Listened to the nice slow music for a moment and then nodded.
What the hell. I didn't do all that training for nothing.

We got out on the dance floor.
Only a few of the long term couples were already dancing, however badly, around us.
The night is young after all.

Dan smiled at me warmly and tucked a loose hair behind my ear.
I shuddered and tried to play it off as a good thing for him.
I think he bought it.
“Do you know how to dance?” he asked me quietly, putting his mouth closer to my ear.
I pulled back a little and offered him a challenging eyebrow.
“Do you?”
He blushed and looked pretty embarrassed to admit that, in fact, he did.
I couldn't resist a smile for him.
“Prove it” I finished, my eyebrow twitching up to emphasis the challenge.
He caught my eye and drew himself upright.
We moved into classic waltzing positions.
His hand may have slipped a bit low on my hip for a moment but I didn't hold it against him.
He’s been nice so far and he did correct himself quickly enough.
We made eye contact and he smirked.
Without warning he kicked off and I almost wanted to thank Sarah for her horrible training because without it I would have started this dance taking one step and going flat on my face.

==============

I collapsed into a spare seat with a happy laugh and Dan followed closely.
We settled together, both a bit out of breath and rosy cheeked but personally I was warm and happy.
Dan was a GOOD dancer.
I worked out just how good, about the first time he spun me out and pulled me back in for a dip.
That’s about the same point we developed a small audience.
Apparently it was easier to watch us then it was to face dancing with each other for some of these awkward new prom night couples.

“I’ll grab us some drinks”
Dan smiled at me and I smiled back.
By the time I lost sight of him in the crowd I was feeling a bit calmer.
I’d certainly not expected him to be so talented.
You would think Sarah would have mentioned that in her little biography of him?
Speaking of Sarah.
I reached into my purse, which felt weird to acknowledge in itself, and pulled out my phone.
For a second my blood ran cold.
Right on my screen, clear as day, sent no less than 5 minutes ago from a number I didn't recognise was a text message.
“SOS Sarah”

I didn't think.
In seconds I was on my feet, eyes scanning for my target.
As luck would have it he was approaching me.
When he was within speaking distance I struck.
“Dan, this is going to get confusing but can we get out of here? I have a family emergency”
His smile dropped and he looked at me with worry.
The drinks in his hand tipped slightly, seemingly forgotten.
I offered him a tense, worried smile.
“I’ll explain outside. I'm really sorry. It’s not you just.. Just come on..”
With one hand I took my new cup from him and downed the contents, fruit punch it turns out, with the other I took his now free wrist and dragged him behind me.

We got some odd looks as I marched toward Dan’s rust bucket, dragging its owner behind me, my skirt swinging with each tense step.
We finally reached the car and Dan fumbled with his keys.
In the end he took a page out of my book and downed his punch cup with a grimace before chucking it away and opening the doors.
I hopped in, surprisingly not catching my dress anywhere, although it may be a bit messed up because I don’t remember the split seam going quite that high and wide before.
It wasn't important though.
What was important was Sarah.

Yes, she’s been a bitch lately.
Yes, I've thought many times over the last few months how much I wished she didn't exist.
Yes, I at least partly hate her.
Even now while I'm panicking…
But she’s my SISTER.
She’s my TWIN.
She’s mine and she needs help!

“You know where Jenny Dooley lives?”
Dan’s eyes went wide and reluctantly he nodded.
I gave him a thoughtful glance.
Maybe he’s not so innocent after all.
He must have read my mind because he blanched and tried to wave me off as if I was accusing him of something.

“Okay, truth time.”
Dan stopped pantomiming a wave to watch me curiously.
“I'm not Sarah.”
Dan’s mouth dropped open in silent surprise.
“I'm not getting into it. It’s unfair I know, and its complicated as all hell but basically..”
I hesitated.
“Basically, Sarah wanted to have a prom experience AND go to some party Jenny is hosting.”
Dan’s eyes got a little wider and he nodded, obviously curious now.
“In comes her handy clone.. Hi, I'm Hannah”
I stuck out my hand for him to shake.
He stared at me incredulously for a moment before a smile made it out and he let off a small laugh.
He grasped my hand and flipped it, kissing the back of my hand in one smooth motion.
Now it was my turn to stare.
“I wondered when Sarah suddenly developed a sense of humour”
I blinked once, twice, then smiled back at him.
“Okay… okay so, I just got a message from Sarah. She’s in trouble”
His eyes lost their humour in seconds.
“I've got no details but the fact she had to use someone else’s phone to reach me is.. Worrying”
He nodded once and turned back in his seat.
“Strap in, we’ll go find her”
I held in a gasp and eventually smiled at him instead.
“This could be dangerous, if you can get me to the party I can find my way on from there.. If you want?”
Dan revved his engine and shot me a surprised look.
“As if, Sarah’s my friend”
I snorted at that and he shrugged.
“Well, as much of a friend as Sarah ever is to someone”
That sounded more like it.
“Okay, just don’t say I didn't warn you”
He nodded seriously then turned back to the wheel.
He gunned the engine and we pealed out of the car park, most likely leaving nice long tire marks behind us.
I felt myself slammed back into my seat from the acceleration.
The speed helped me focus on something other than my worry for Sarah.

================

We pulled up at a big farm house on the outskirts of town.
Lights and music were pouring out of a large barn nearby.
As we pulled up the long drive to the car strewn house front I stiffened in my seat.
Something wasn't right.
Something was very, very not right.
My stomach twisted up so hard I took a gasping breath in.
Dan pulled to a stop and looked at me with concern.

I took some shuddering breaths and cupped my hand to my stomach.
“I'm okay. Just.. S..something’s not right”
Dan watched me cautiously before looking out at the farm and nodding.
“There’s no people”
I pulled my head up and whipped around.
He’s right.
That’s not why my stomach suddenly decided to eat itself, but..
I snapped my door open and paced toward the barn.
After only a few steps I growled aloud and in a very ungraceful hopping wobble managed to kick both of my heels off, one at a time.
Unhindered I managed to reach a near full sprint before Dan had gotten past the front of his car.
He called out to me but I wasn't listening.
My gut instinct, the part of it that wasn't busy tearing itself to pieces at least, was screaming at me to get into the barn NOW.

I blew through the open barn doors and stalled to a halt.
The place was a mess.
Not a barn mess.
Not a party gone wrong mess.
A real mess. A fight mess.
I shakily stepped further into the barn, eyeing every dark corner with worry.
This didn't feel right.

There was a loud crash behind me and.. Well.. I screamed.. And fell on my ass.
I was gearing up for a second nice big scream when a thick hand clamped around my mouth.
Someone, I could assume it was the hands owner, growled at me in warning.
I did what anyone else would do.
I went stiff and wouldn't move a muscle.

There was some kind of commotion outside, a fair bit of yelling and some thumps then silence.
The hand’s owner grunted at something, possibly behind me and without warning there was pain at the back of my head.
The world went dark.

=============

I woke up to something that will scar me for life.
My head hurt, throbbing hard, my eyes wouldn't focus properly for a moment.
When I finally did get them to focus I came face to face with what I can only guess was an overweight Hollywood style 80s biker with a spotty rat-like face.
He wasn't helping his cause by having his pudgy face scrunched up, taking a huge enthusiastic sniff of my dangling leg!
I screamed, shot backward, regretting it moments later when my head hit metal and the world shook.
Well, better to say that the world rocked.
Not that I noticed, I was too busy using my once dangling leg to try and kick the ratty little biker gang reject in his spotty little face!
He screamed almost as loud as I had and drew away from me with a cat like hiss.

We both settled into a slightly stunned silence.
His dark little eyes were shooting everywhere, only occasionally settling on me.
My head throbbed and as I came more into the conscious world details filtered in.
Like the fact I was sitting in an honest to god CAGE.
Judging by the rocking motion of it, a cage hanging in the air.

Rat man seemed to gather himself back together a bit.
He started tentatively sniffing in my direction again.
“HEY!”
He let out a shrill scream and scarpered off around the corner.
I tried to settle down back in.. back in.. my cage..

Only I could get knocked out and wake up in an overgrown bird cage.
An overgrown bird cage hanging in a place that looks like someone tried to make an industrial warehouse look spooky!
The walls are all dark and look like solid stone.
The floors look like cold stone tiles.
The lighting is flickering as if provided by some unseen candle.
I can even hear the faint sound of a continuous drip.

It would all be very scary.
If it wasn't completely cliché and very obviously fake!
Don’t get me wrong, I'm no expert, but the top corner of the ‘solid stone’ walls is damp and peeling slightly.
I'm pretty sure I've seen this style of faux-tiles going cheap at our local hardware store.
The unseen candle light source is flickering in a set pattern like one of those novelty fake candle bulbs.
For a place with such a heavy drip going on constantly, it’s surprisingly dry.
In fact, it’s surprisingly warm in here too.
If you want to make a place look like an old spooky castle dungeon, don’t leave the heating on!

I allowed myself a minute or so to sulk over the fact that I got captured by a bunch of posers.
Then it finally settled in that I had, in fact, been captured.
And Sarah was still missing, now presumed captured.
And I don’t know what happened to Dan.
And I don’t know what they plan to do with me now.
I held it together long enough to sink to the bottom of the cage and pull my knees up to my chest.
Then I had a long, chest hurting, cry over it all.

============

A while later, it may have been minutes, it may have been hours, I don’t know.
I finally pulled myself together.
No doubt I’d wiped my makeup into a mess at this point.
I can see stains of mascara on my arm.

Carefully I got to my feet.
The care didn't help much, the cage rocked from side to side no matter how much I tried keep it steady.
The chain holding the cage looked pretty thick and sturdy, all the way up to the wooden beam.. um..
Correction, to the metal beam above me painted with a wood effect.
Still, can’t hurt to try right?
Taking hold of the bars around me I hiked my legs up in a jump and slammed them down hard on the cage’s base plate.
Shock went straight up my legs, vibrating my teeth.
That didn't stop me though.
Four more attempts and I felt like I was making a difference.
The cage seemed a little shakier as it swung around at least.

I took a breather. Let my teeth get used to my head again.
Then went for another few stomps.
It didn't help, no kidding myself, I'm not making a difference.
“AARH!”
With one last frustrated roar I stomped down as hard as possible.
The cage bounced, rebounding upwards.
For a moment it was weightless and then it came back down, gravity bringing me with it.
I landed in a pile at the base of the cage.
Seconds later there was the sound of tearing metal.
I managed a yelp of surprise before the cage chain ripped off at its base.
The cage crashed to the fake-slate flooring below with an almighty bang and rolled a few times until it caught on the side of a nearby table leg.
I wasn't quite so lucky, I was scrambled around like an egg in a blender.
“oww”
It didn't help the pain but weirdly, it made me feel better to voice something.

============

I may have passed out,
There was a definite period of time where my eyes were closed.

I jerked awake and regretted it moments later.
My head hurt more than ever.
Heavy footfalls coming closer made me flinch.
I slowly flipped onto my back and stared up.. and up..
Wow he’s tall.
Like.. Basketball player put on a stretching machine tall.. but bulkier..
Big guy, grunted at me.
Without any sign of effort he lifted me up.. well.. he lifted the cage up at least.
I kinda came along for the ride without a choice.

Big guy did something to the cage door.
In the time it took me to get upright again he had it open.
With another grunt he waved me out.
I’ll be honest. I almost decided to stay.
Cages can get surprisingly homely when you’re faced with the alternative.
Apparently he didn't agree.
A meaty fist roughly the size of my head reached in and pulled me out of the cage.
I might as well have been made of paper for the effort it took him.

He didn't say anything, just turned and walked off, partly leading, partly dragging me out of the ‘dungeon’ area.
I was kind of surprised when the dungeon entrance led to a well-lit corridor.
Very clean, very white, very post-modern art feeling.
The Corridor didn't impress Big guy at least.
He just carried on walking along, dragging me in his wake.

Eventually we reached the end of the corridor, he pulled me toward the last door on the right.
Without any pre-amble he opened the door with one meaty fist and pushed me through with the other.

I froze.
They froze.
None of us wanted to make a sound.
I'm not sure why they were staring at me. My makeup must be horrendous or something.
I was staring at them because it looked like I just got sent to the sultan’s harem.

“Sarah?” A weak voice asked, breaking the silent stare off.
A blonde girl, in mostly see-through pyjamas, stepped closer to me with caution.
I squinted at her, in the rooms low light it was hard to make out, but beyond the rather thick makeup and fearful expression I think she may be a girl from Sarah’s math class.
I vaguely.. um.. Beth?..Be.. Definitely a B name.
“Sarah!” The blonde girl called out in joy.
She rushed to give me a hug and I flinched back.
As she got within arm’s reach her eyes went wide.
“oh god, Sarah. What the hell did they do to you? Your all beat up.”
I weighed the option of telling her I wasn't Sarah against the possible benefits.
In the end I landed on just leaving it for now.
“Come on, we’ll get you changed. They don’t like it if you’re not.. um.. Presentable?”
My eyebrow popped up incredulously.
The blonde girl gave me an embarrassed shrug and gestured around at everyone else.
She had a fair point.
I kind of stuck out like a sore thumb in my dirty torn prom dress with them all in mostly see-though pyjamas with a fair amount of gold strapped on.
I swear, Sarah can never find out about this.. ever!
“yeah.. okay..”
She gently took my arm and moved me toward a partition at the back of the room.
When I came to a stop behind the partition containing a toilet, a sink, a makeup counter and a chair with what I guessed would be my clothes on it I sighed deep.
Sarah.. in fact, everyone.. no one can ever find out about this!

============

One of the girls I didn't recognise sat behind me playing with my hair.
Another one was in the process of painting my nails.
The blonde girl was hovering about, covering most of my exposed skin with a cream of some kind that covered my bruises pretty well.

From what I could gather, Sarah had been here earlier.
Then some guy came to take her away.
It’s been happening semi-regularly that someone gets taken all night long.
As far as they were concerned I, or rather ‘Sarah’ was the first one to come back from being taken.
They tried to push me for what happened while ‘I’ was away.
I covered pretty well by just mutely shaking my head at them. They seemed to get the message.

While not calm, I managed to reach a state at least approaching calm while the girls worked around me keeping themselves busy.
Most of them had finished with me and moved off to do other things when the door opened up with a heavy bang.
Instantly the room was flooded with noise from outside and a tall man, a lot thinner and spindly then the big guy from before, stepped in.
He glanced around the room and sneered at the girls, his curled mouth flashing a hint of quite large canine teeth.
“Bring me the mage child.”
In almost perfect unison every girl in the room turned to each other with the same blank look of confusion.
The spindly guy hissed in annoyance, a lot like the little rat man had at me earlier.
He drew himself up to his full height and took a deep sniff of the air.
…. Uh oh..

The girls pealed back towards the walls as he swept his way in on silent feet.
Every so often he would approach one girl in particular and sniff her specifically before moving on.
When he approached the girl who painted my nails earlier, after previously focusing on my hair stylist I got an idea where this was going.
Crazy person sniffing people? Sounds like something I would end up involved in.
It’s been that sort of day really..

Finally he came to rest before me.
I had a strange urge to stand up and bow to him but I forced it down with little effort.
Just for the sake of it I pushed myself deeper into the pillows I’d been resting on and offered him a smile.
In the blink of an eye he was invading my personal space.
I had flashbacks of Rat man when the spindly creeper sniffed at me.
The creeper gave a shudder I can only attribute to joy from the look on his face and pulled back from me.
“Take her. The mage child is for the master”
I didn't actually put up a fight when the big guy from earlier lumbered his way into the room and picked me up.
I was in a kind of stunned mental stall.
Mage child?.. Master?.. her..
.. well okay, I can understand the her part at least.
But.. hardcore Dungeons and Dragons fans maybe?
Why would I be a mage child?
The sniffing thing maybe?
I'm pretty sure I didn't have that bad of a sweat built up after all.
Whatever the case, I could settle on one factor as the big guy swept me up over his shoulder in an awkward fireman’s carry, I did NOT want to find out what kinda freak these guys called ‘master’!

===========

We took a fair few turns along equally blank hallways.
I didn't have much to see aside from big guys lower back and the spindly creeper following behind us.
I entertained myself trying to work out his name.
He looked like a Reginald to me.
Very stiff upper lip.
Pompous with just a side offering of smugness.
Yep, definitely a Reginald, not a Reggie.
Big guy on the other hand? He could be a Reggie, most likely a Darren though.
He had the face to be a Darren from what I remember.

My mindless wanderings cut short when we pulled up abruptly.
With a slight shifting from my perspective Darren (as I have now dubbed him) moved us in to a room and I gaped back at the huge wooden doors he must have shifted to get us in there.
Those looked like real wooden doors.
Glancing down I found what seemed to be real, uneven, stone flooring.
Back up again, real stone walls too from the looks of it.
And the whole room was rather chilly compared to the last few rooms I’d been in as well.

On some unspoken command Darren dropped my see-through pyjama wearing, belly-dancer looking, self onto the cold stone floor.
Definitely a real stone floor this time.
“Leave us” A high, accented, nasally voice commanded.
I couldn't resist looking up and ended up almost choking on my tongue holding back a laugh.

Darren and spind.. Reginald!
Darren and Reginald must have gone back out the doors because behind me I could hear the eerie groan of those massive wooden doors closing shut with a thud.

So here I am.
Just me and… I'm going to call him Vlad.
Trust me, it’s appropriate.

The nasally tones of Vlad rolled across the room sounding surprisingly smooth despite his pitch.
“You are an inter-vest-in-k one, no?”
I held it.
Oh god did I hold it in.
Then the bastard had the utter gall to swish his thick knee length black cape with its stupid red inner lining about himself for dramatic effect!
I cracked.
From my flat out position on the floor, feeling the stones cold bite at me through my flimsy harem girl outfit I cracked hard.
I was near tears laughing, banging my fist on the floor.
“V-at are you findin-k v-unny?”

I couldn't look at him.
If I look at him it’s gonna set me off again.
Oh god, he’s a.. he’s a..
..a walking cliché!

“I v-ant to z-uck your blood. Bleh!” I near shouted at him in glee.
My throat tightened and without any control I broke up laughing again.

Vlad just watched me.
I think he was confused, his pale eyebrows were scrunched up at least.
I couldn't be sure though, to get a solid look at him I would have to.. Actually look at him.. Which would likely set my whole laughing cycle off again.
Eventually he hit his limit of patience I guess.
He glided over to a rope hanging from the ceiling and gave it a slow tug.

The huge doors opened up and someone came in slowly.
“Move her to a z-eat and call Heinrich. I v-ill sample z-e newest batch”
Someone, possibly Darren.. or Darren’s twin, how the hell should I know?
He was big either way, and he scooped me up off the floor.
With surprisingly gentle movements he eased me into a thick posh looking, high backed chair.
His big meaty fists moved around me draping some material as he went.
With a zip and several metal clinks I found myself pinned to the chair tightly.

Okay.. Suddenly the funny side is getting less funny.

I tested my arms for leverage but they were held tight by the leather-like straps around me.
With a gulp I looked up into the face of ‘Vlad’ and it was also now a bit less amusing and a bit more intimidating..
He must have seen the fear in my eyes because he smiled at me, baring large canines which seemed to shape his face into a sharper, more frightening profile.
“St-eel v-unny, no?”
I gulped and tried to offer him some kind of brave front.
As it is I think I managed a shaky smile at best.
“Good, you o-nderstand now, yes?”
I silently nodded.
“You’re a v..vam..”
He nodded indulgently at me.
“That’s stupid vam.. They don’t exist!”
He looked affronted suddenly.
He drew back, his hand resting over his heart and his mouth open in overstated pain.
Apparently our Vlad has a bit of an over-dramatic streak.
Big surprise.

My retort died on my lips when the huge doors groaned once more and in came a mismatched crew of men in mostly white outfits.
I say mostly white because a few of them had the odd splash of red on them at random.
As they proceeded in they dragged several girls along with them.
All in recognisable harem outfits.
All of them chained together with thick iron manacles.
A few of them I vaguely knew from school.
One of them got my sole attention though.

She was pale like the others, looked pretty shaken up.
Her hair was resting limply across her shoulders and she stared out with blank unseeing eyes.
“SARAH!” I shouted without a thought.
All the girls in the line flinched, most staring back at me in confusion.
Finally Sarah twitched and turned her eyes blearily on me.
“H..” Her voice was weak and very faint “Hannah?”
I tried to pull out of the chairs restraints viciously but it was no use.
I had to sit there and watch as my mouthy blackmailing bitch of a sister burst into tears.
She crumpled into great heaving sobs and stared out at me.
I watched with my heart breaking as she silently mouthed pleading “no’s” at me, as if begging me to not really be sitting there.

My rage went cold in my chest.
Slowly, mechanically I turned away from her to face Vlad.
“Okay, I'm game.. What do you want Vlad?”
The vam.. the cliché, yeah that’s better.
The cliché hissed at me, his big pointy teeth glistening with spittle.
In gliding strides he came closer and fixed me with an angry stare.
“You v-ill do as I command mage child or I v-ill k-eell them all, yes?”
Bastard
I stared into his wide bloodshot eyes.
He’s serious.
Oh god he’s really serious.
Delusions and cliché stupidity aside he’s actually serious!
I tried to restrain it but it was no use, I gulped loudly which made him smile.

What can I do? What should I do?
What.. what.. what would Sarah do?
It only took a moment for me to realise the real answer.
Sarah would get her own way. Like she always does.
Sadly the only skills she taught me that might help in this situation are well..
.. I guess.. When it’s your only plan and all..
..Seduction..?
..I'm so going to regret this..

“What would you ask of me.. Master?” I asked, dropping my voice into a huskier tone of invitation.
Vlad blinked in surprise.
The girl’s chained across from me blinked in surprise too.
Sarah’s Jaw dropped.
… She’s never going to let me live this down is she?

===========

Vlad recovered first.
His mouth pulled up into an indulgent smile which may have suited him if he didn’t have a huge fang sticking out over his lip.
I didn't have a clue what else I could do while restrained.
In the end I fell back onto Sarah’s training, flipping my hair with a head flick and offering him a pouty smile back.

“Heinrich, you’re ser-wi-ces will not be needed h-after o-ll.”
One of the white coat wearing men drew back, almost on the edge of protesting.
He had the most red on his coat and a thin moustache that made him look like you wouldn't trust him near children.
I assume he was Heinrich.
That assumption got a bit of solid ground when he gave a strange formal bow to Vlad in response.
The white coat guys started marching themselves and the girls back out of the room.
I caught Sarah’s eye for a moment.
She looked desperate, whatever they were walking back to must be truly bad for her to look that terrified.
“Master” I croaked out.
Everyone in the room paused watching me.
“Please keep them here..”
Vlad scrunched his eyebrows in confusion again.
Carefully I leaned as far forward as the bindings would allow and flipped my hair again.
I cocked my own eyebrow at him and lowered my voice back into my husky tone.
“..I like an audience, master”

You could have heard a pin drop.
I didn't dare look away from Vlad but I'm pretty sure Sarah was dying of shock.
He looked shell shocked.
I pouted at him and twitched my shoulders in a fake shudder.
“Whatever you want with me..” I trailed off, making it into an invitation.
Slowly Vlad’s mouth came up into a truly dark smile.
“..Anything.. Dancing?”
His eyebrow twitched up.
“Warmth” I shifted slightly in the chair.
Vlad’s other eyebrow rose to join its partner.
I dropped my voice down to just above a whisper and hissed out the next one as if I was enjoying just the sound of it.
“Sex?”
Vlad’s face twitched and his tongue rolled out to lick his lips.
I didn't need to fake a shudder, although the smile I had for him.. that was fake.
“Blood” I finished to the near silent room.
Vlad practically drooled at that one.
Slowly, I would call it sensuously but that’s hard to pull off while tied to a chair, I sank back into the chair and pressed into it hard.
“..I'm an exhibitionist master. I want them to watch..”
I flicked my head momentarily in their direction and flashed my own dark smirk.
“..Who knows, they might learn something”
The girls took in a sharp breath as a whole.
I could feel their eyes on me but didn't look at them.
Vlad was the important one.

Vlad wiggled his finger in my direction.
His smile ratcheted up with amusement.
“You are an inter-vest-in-k one mage child”
I almost cringed but tried to make it into a coy look instead.
“Master..” I coo’d at him.
Vlad slowly glided toward me.

He came to a rest with his legs at my knees and bent down low.
His breath was disgustingly warm on my face.
“I know v-hat you are doin-k, mage child”
He moved forward again and captured my lips with his.
The sharp edge of his pointed canines was awkward and annoying.
I struggled against him but he seemed to enjoy my resistance.
He let go of me at last and smiled.
I turned my head and tried to spit my mouth clean a little.
“V-or z-em you v-ould allow dis?” he hissed at me.
His eyes were tight, judging me.
“For them I would allow this and more.. Master”

Vlad slowly pulled back into an upright position.
“You are brave mage child. V-oolish but brave”

He hissed suddenly, dew up with dark ominous eyes and bared his fang-like teeth at me.
I had a moment to realise what he intended before it was too late.
He swooped down on me and sunk his sharp canines into my neck.
I felt the pain with a gasp.
The feeling of blood pouring from the wounds he inflicted almost made me pass out.
The fact that the sick bastard was lapping up that blood, licking it from my neck.
I convulsed, not a shudder but something much more visceral, it felt like I was going into the first stages of shock.

=========

It happened all at once.
One moment I had Vlad at my neck lapping away.
There was a loud bang from the doorway behind.
I felt a pressure in my chest and there was a flash of bright light.
Blinking my eyes furiously to clear them I gasped in shock.
Vlad was across the room, crumpled in a pile on the floor, jerking like he was having a fit.
From behind me I could hear a lot of commotion.
Bangs, grunts, shouts cut short and a few female screams.

Things eventually calmed down and all I could hear was panting with a few strangled sobs.
A guy stepped into my line of sight.
He was tall, but not the scary Darren kind of tall.
His short brown hair had just a touch of grey in it and his face held a worried frown that showed his few wrinkles in stark contrast.
He approached me gently.
My eyes caught on his stab proof vest, down his chest past a shield shaped bit of metal that looked like a police badge reading U.S.M.P.A and down to the pistol strapped to his thigh.
I gasped out when he pushed a ball of cloth to my neck, I’d guess to stop the bleeding.
My eyes found his.
He had a look of regret about him.
“Sorry we’re late, we got word about the party a while ago but it’s taken us until now to find the hideout”
His rough five o'clock shadow caught my attention and I blearily watched as his jaw tightened.
“We’ll get you all home miss. Don’t worry, the others have been detained and your friends are safe”
I let out a sigh and allowed tears to leak out at last.
My neck hurt.

“They were vam..vamp..”
The man placed a gentle finger to my lips and shushed me.
“They were a group of fanatics. Cultists. Nothing more”
My mouth gaped and I tried to argue the point.
“B..but..they..he..”
The man shook his head slowly and gave me gentle smile.
“Just men, cultists. Nothing more”
I sputtered out into silence and he nodded.
“Don’t worry. When you wake up this will all just be one very bad dream”
My eyes went wide and he looked almost apologetic.

===========

I jerked up in bed, panting, my heart hammering away.
Fight or flight kicked in and I threw myself out of bed, rolled across the floor and pulled into the far corner.
My eyes shot around looking for danger and found nothing.

There was a gentle knock on my bedroom door.
I didn't answer it, just watched it in fear.
Slowly the door opened and Sarah’s face popped in.
She looked a mess, as if she’d been crying.
Her eyes were red and puffy and her makeup was a mess.

Carefully, her eyes locked on me and with her hands up as if I was a scared animal, she came closer.
Finally she got within reach of me and knelt down.
She offered me a pained smile and pulled me into a hug.
I went stiff, not sure what was going on but not willing to push her away.
“Al.. oh Al, I'm so sorry.”
My throat went tight.
“Can you ever forgive me? I've been such a.. I'm sorry..”
Slowly I moved my arms around her and fisted my hands in her shirt.
“It wasn't.. I..” she sniffed loudly in my ear.
“I didn't mean to get so bad with you.. I just.. I wanted a sister and I had you and your so..”
She sniffed even louder and let out a single sob.
“You.. I.. I can’t..”
She broke and cried, clinging to me tightly.
I cried too.

She was back.
I don’t know what happened.
Vaguely it felt like I should.
As if something big was missing, connected to my nightmare maybe.. but even the nightmare was blurry now.
Either way I didn't care.
This was Sarah.
My Sarah again.
Not that evil.. not like she’d been lately.
I clung on tighter to her shirt and buried my head in her chest.

Everything would be okay now.
I could feel it.

==========

“What on earth did you do?”
I blinked at John in confusion.
He waved around us in general.
My eyes drifted around the room and, as a whole, a large majority of girls shuffled or looked away from me quickly.
John raised an eyebrow and smirked at me.
“Did you hold an orgy at your place with half the school this weekend and not tell me about it?”
My mouth dropped open and somewhere to my left I heard some eavesdropper snort out a laugh and start choking on something.
I glared at him and he grinned back at me with pride.
“Screw you”
His grin went sharp at that one.
“No, you didn't, that’s why I'm complaining”
I flushed red and tried to kill him with my eyes.
My face got redder still when a few more people got caught eavesdropping by their surprised laughs.
“Oh calm down, ya wuss. It’s just a joke”
I clenched my fist and shot him another glare of warning.
He was going to answer but stopped short.
I eyed him curiously for a second then went stiff instead when someone draped their arms around my neck from behind.
“Morning Al. See you after maths, save me a seat?”
Sarah hugged me tight for a moment before waltzing off with a backwards wave.
“Bye Al, Bye Joe”
I squirmed awkwardly under John’s wide eyed stare.
He looked from me to Sarah and back a few times.
He was so shocked he didn't even get all glassy eyed over her for once.

With a cautious crawl he came in and invaded my personal space.
His eyes flew around in search of danger.
His voice came out in an awed whisper.
“Seriously, what the hell did you DO?”
I pulled away from him and growled.
“I don’t KNOW okay?”
John huffed loudly and gave me a sceptical eye.
“Fine, be like that.. Come on Walker won’t wait for us”
I crossed my arms and gave a huff of my own but in the end got up to follow him.
I really don’t know what’s going on!
My neck twitched slightly.
I brought a hand up to the tender spot there.
It felt like I should know why but.. It just wasn't there.
This is so unfair!

===========
===========

Eventually I found out what happened.
Between Sarah, the U.S.M.P.A and.. Well.. HER..
By the time I found out, I couldn't really bring myself to care.
But at the time, it annoyed me for.. About a week?
The nurse looked at me weirdly when she called me and half the older girls from school in to get treated for a school wide spate of anaemia too.
Then the fuss died down a bit and I got on with my life.

Sarah didn't revert to her bad ways.
If anything she became a bit too nice for a while.
I think it was guilt or something.
It was nice to have her back though.
She stopped calling me Hannah which was weird but better than having her throw it in my face every five minutes.
She managed a whole month before she needed another ‘favour’ which I found impressive.
She actually showed gratitude for it afterwards too.

Mum started giving me weird looks, especially when Sarah was around.
.. In fact this one time well.. That’s another story isn't it?

Family is complicated. Magic doesn't help. In this instalment we are a bit closer to our end goal. Events unfold including but not limited to: A socially deviant receptionist (a title she would accept with joy) And Al gets to the hub of things, in more ways than one.

“It’s a flute”
Sarah sighed deeply and gave me an ‘are you stupid?’ look.
“.. It looks diseased”
That look didn't even try to leave her face.
“This isn't going to be like the tuna thing again is it?”
Sarah glared at me and stamped her foot.
“The damn thing was possessed!”

I rolled my eyes and fiddled with the flute again.
This isn't the kind of conversation I look forward to at 10am on a Saturday.
I'm still in my pyjamas and I've not even had coffee yet!

“It was a tuna Sare.. a dead tuna at that”
She threw her hands up in the air and stamped again.
“Every time you looked away it started dancing!”
I had to hold back a snort, even now it sounded stupid.
“How convenient..”
She roared in frustration and scrubbed her hands through her hair.
I decided to let it go for now while she took some calming breaths.
It’s an old argument, she doesn't need me on her case too.
Mums bad enough, I can’t believe she tried to get Sarah to go to a shrink!

“Okay.. I’ll bite.. What’s so special about it?”
Sarah’s frown dipped a little and she looked a bit embarrassed.
“I dunno? I was going through the market and my necklace got hot.”
I tried to keep the glare out of my eyes.
Another old argument, I swear she finds ONE lost ancient relic in the lady’s toilet of the cinema and she’s a dyed in the wool Seer.
It’s just a funky rock on a string, it can’t get hot!
We had it tested and everything.
“Some old lady had a stall up, it looked kind of rickety and homemade”
I shifted the flute over to be held with just my fingertips.
The disease ridden flute idea now feeling a bit more plausible.
“Anyway, I backtracked and waved the necklace around a bit and it ended up focused on that thing”
She threw her hand out in a frustrated wave.

“So..”
Sarah glared at me and snatched the flute from my reluctant hold.
“So, we blow it and see what happens. Duh.”
I cringed and waved my hands out a bit.
“We clean it first.. With hot water.. Boiling water from the kettle. That first”
She glared at me.
“Then you can blow it or whatever”
Finally she eased off and gave a nod of acceptance.
With a huffy hair flip she turned and made for the kitchen.
I was tempted to flip my own hair back at her, mine’s a bit longer so I win.
Resisting was hard but eventually I followed her instead.
Whatever mess she’s going to start, it’s usually better to be at the center of it.
For your own safety if nothing else.

=================

I cringed and clamped my hands over my ears.
Music’s never been Sarah’s thing.
I don’t think that flutes going to help either.
Stupid things really high pitched and out of tune at the very least.

We both sat waiting for something to happen.
Sarah was becoming progressively redder in the face.
She wouldn't meet my eyes.
I entertained myself with just being smug.
Maybe she will actually get a clue this time that there’s no such thing as mag-
“RAT!”
I jumped out of my chair and hopped up on the coffee table.
“WHERE?”
Sarah gave me a curious glance and waved over in the corner where a big fat black rat was sitting, furiously washing its face by licking its paws.
I staggered back and almost fell off the table.
I HATE rats.
What the hell is a rat doing here? We’re on the 3rd floor!
Eww, its sniffing stuff.
Why do rat’s have to sniff stuff like that! It’s so gross.
My hand came down and scratched at my leg subconsciously.
It felt itchy.
“Al, what’s wrong?”
I glared at her for a moment but then turned back to keeping an eye on the pudgy little house invader.
“I don’t do rats Sarah.”
She gave me an incredulous look.
“Since when?”
Out of the corner of my eye I spotted movement.
“Oh god it’s another one!”
Sarah whipped around and gaped when a second rat came shuffling in from the bathroom.
Behind him there was another one waddling in.
I almost screamed.
Sarah peered sideways into the bathroom door and cringed back.
“They’re coming from the toilet”
My jaw dropped and I gave her a disgusted look.
“Don’t give me that! You think I'm happy about this?”

More were coming, I could feel it.
Loads of them, creepy little squealing bastards all coming to get me.
I started hyperventilating.
Are the walls getting closer? It feels like the walls are getting closer.
“We need to get out of here”
I couldn't agree more.

Sarah sprinted for the hallway and yanked the front door open.
I watched her go with a whimper.
“Come on Al!”
My eyes shot around at all the little buggers.
There’s more of them.
Oh god there’s more of them.
I counted the steps to get to the door.
I’d never make it, I’d have to run through them, I’d-
SOMETHING TOUCHED MY LEG!

I screamed and blindly ran for it.
Sarah watched me with wide eyes as I shot past her out into the rat free apartment hallway.
“Shut the door, shut the door, shut the DOOR!”
She spun and slammed it closed.
I let out a breath and brought my knees up to my chest so I could breathe again.
“The hell is all the noise about?”
I screamed again and jumped at the unexpected sound.
It was Sarah’s landlord.
Oh.. oh.. okay, the landlord.. that’s okay.. that’s good.
I fell a bit light headed.

“Sorry Mr.Keen. This is my sister, we.. um.. we kind of have a rat in the flat?”
I shot Sarah a glare for the introduction and she shrugged to me with her tweaked eyebrow.
It asked ‘what else was I meant to say, you were screaming like a little girl’.
I let out a breath and accepted it.
Mr.Keen didn't notice the interaction.
Twin speak can be useful sometimes.
“A rat?”
Sarah nodded and waved him toward the door. I just shuddered a bit.

Mr.Keen pulled his keys out of his pocket and opened the door up again.
After a moment’s pause he slammed it shut and turned to us with wide eyes.
We all shared similar stunned looks and his eyes darted from me to Sarah a few times.
“That’s not just one rat” He finally said, sounding a little lost.
I snorted and Sarah nodded to him.
“We noticed”
Mr.Keen tried to shuffle his jacket a bit and pull himself back together.
“well.. uh.. I guess.. I mean.. can you girls find anywhere else to stay for a while? I’ll have to call the..”
His face shifted through a few different options before he settled on an answer.
“..call a few pest control people”
Sarah let out a breath and nodded to him.
“Naturally I won’t charge rent for the missed days. If you can keep receipts I can reimburse you afterwards for any costs okay?”
Sarah nodded again and shot me a look.
“oh no.. really?”
She nodded and tilted her head towards the stairs.
With a deep breath I swung myself up to standing again and started walking towards the parking lot.
Is she crazy? Mum is gonna flip out when we turn up on her porch looking to stay for a while..

“Thanks for coming to check on us so quickly Mr.Keen. Sorry about all this”
Mr.Keen gave Sarah an awkward smile and shook off the apology.
“You’re a good kid Sarah. You just go, keep an eye on that sister of yours, she looks a bit out of it”
I cringed but carried on walking until I was out of hearing range.
Rats! Why did it have to be rats!
I couldn't resist another full body shudder.
My arms came up and wrapped around myself to stave off the cold.
I HATE RATS!

===============

“So what’s the deal with you and rats?”
I glared at her in warning and she glared back.
“Eyes on the road” I finished lamely.
Sarah smirked and turned back around.
She knew I’d crack eventually.
“I don’t know, okay?”
Her face crinkled in confusion but she didn't look away again.
“I just.. it started a while ago. Around prom, ya know? I just..”
Sarah’s eyes went a bit too wide at that and her body went a bit stiff.
That’s become a pretty normal reaction from her if I bring up prom.
I dunno why.
It wasn't all THAT bad.
I mean, she may have been a bit.. well I guess ‘nasty’ is putting it lightly.. she was a bit bad about it beforehand but I enjoyed it in the end at least.
Dan was funny and it was over in an hour or two.
Hell I spent most of it dancing, which was surprisingly fun, and Dan was a gentleman the whole time.
I vaguely remember getting in his rusty old car and I got home safe so no harm done. Right?
I think someone may have spiked the punch though, most of the night is a bit hazy from there.
Anyway, that’s not important.
This is about rats.

“I just.. They make me a bit squicky now, okay? They’re all sniffy and ugly and creepy and just..”
I shuddered involuntarily.
Quickly I reached out and turned up her heating to cover for it.
From what I could see of Sarah’s profile she looked guilty, and a bit upset.
I reached over and slung an arm around her in a lose hug.
She’s driving after all.

After a few seconds she relaxed a bit and offered me a smile of thanks.
I grinned back and let go.
“So, what’s plan A through D for when mum tries to use this as a reason for you to move back in?”
Sarah cringed and shrugged helplessly.

Yeah.. I’d had about the same amount of success on that one too.
This was going to be funnnn..

===========

“Rats?”
Sarah nodded trying to look defiant.
I may have lost her cool points by whimpering behind her.
Mum sighed
“Honestly, can’t you go one day without-“
Sarah growled and threw her hands in the air.
“It’s fine, we’ll get a hotel. Don’t know why I even bothered”
She turned away and started making tracks back to her car.
I stood there awkwardly looking at mum.
My mouth opened and I raised a finger as if I had a point to make.
It turns out I didn't.
I just kind of shrugged to mum helplessly and turned to follow Sarah.

We got to the sidewalk before she caught up to us.
“Look, Sare, I'm sorry okay? Of course you can stay.”
Sarah gave her a nasty look and mum cringed a bit.
“Both of you” she added as if that point needed clarifying.
Sarah considered the offer and shot me a questioning look.
I shrugged helplessly.
Getting between mum and Sarah while they’re arguing has never been high on my ‘good idea’ list.
“Fine” Sarah allowed, tossing her hair in aggravation.
I let out a sigh of relief.
Today couldn't get any worse at this point.
At least one crisis was averted.

=============

“Are you insane? No!”
Sarah glared at me like I was a reluctant child.
“Do you see any other options? It’s either this”
She waved the outfit she was holding at me.
“You’re Pyjamas”
I cringed a little.. Rat’s had been near them.
“Or you can have the fun, fun task of going to ask mother dearest if she would loan you a spare dress or two”
I drew back into myself on that one.
In perspective, Sarah’s outfit with its pastel yellow shorts and light blue T-shirt were looking a lot better.

“Fine” I snatched the clothes from her “but I swear, if she says one word!”
Sarah nodded to me solemnly, my point understood.
I inspected the pile in my hands carefully.
“Don’t you have any boxers or something?”
She shot me that oh so famous ‘are you stupid?’ look.
I gave it up with a huff.
She’s trying to help at least.
That’s something I suppose.
Still.. How does she get me into these situations every damn time?!?

======================

Mum smiled at me.
I tentatively smiled back.
“You look nice”
I blushed and ducked my head.

“AL, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WEARING?!?”
My head shot up to look at mum but she wasn't looking at me.
Sarah came waltzing into view wearing a flowing knee length summer dress.
She grinned at mum and fluffed the hem of it at her.
“What’s wrong mum? Don’t you think it’s pretty?”
Mum went bright red in the face and her lip curled back in a sneer.
Sarah rolled her eyes and reached out for my arm.
“And like that we lost her.. I'm amazed she lasted a full twenty minutes”
She gripped my arm tight and gave me a slight shake.
“Come on Al, let’s get out of here.”
She sneered over at mums frozen body.
“I knew this was a bad idea but I’d hoped for Al’s sake..”
She gave me one more tug and started walking for the door.
I caught mums eye for a moment and she was watching me in amazement.
“See you later mum”
She didn't respond.
I turned and followed Sarah out to her car.

================

“Was that really necessary?”
Sarah almost swerved the car when she swung around to look at me angrily.
“STOP defending her!”
I flinched and drew into myself a bit.
“She doesn't mean it really.. watch the road”
Sarah reluctantly turned forward, but she kept shooting me looks out the corner of her eye.
“Why do you keep defending her? She’s messed up Al”
I pulled tighter into the car seat and folded my arms defensively.
“..and you’re not?” the mutter slipped out before I realised it.

Sarah wouldn't look at me.
She was blinking too much to be healthy.

“..sorry”
It didn't come out as sincerely as I’d hoped.
Sarah let out a long breath and pulled the car over.
She bent her head down and rested her forehead on the steering wheel.
“I'm trying Al”
She shook her head against the steering wheel and shut her eyes tight.
“It’s my fault. I made you dress up again. I made you stand in for me and I’m the one who got caught but YOU’RE the one paying for it”
I put a hand out to try and comfort her.
“Sarah, I didn't mind helping you out like-“
She jerked away from my touch and shot me a dark look.
“STOP defending me too!”
I paused and watched her carefully.
Her dark look fell into a sad frown and tears formed in her eyes.
“For once in your life Al look out for yourself. Mum doesn't deserve you and neither do I.”
Her tears fell and her head followed them down.
On instinct I stretched out an arm and held her tight.
Sarah openly cried in front of me for the first time in ages.
“You should hate me..” she muttered into my chest.
I couldn't help the frown that crossed my face.
“You’re my sister. You annoy the hell out of me at times but I won’t hate you”
She gave a gross snort of mixed laughter and tears.
“I took Hannah away from you” she muttered again, drawing herself closer into my hug.
I looked down at her bowed head in confusion.
“m’Sorry” she finished, shoving her face tightly into me and shaking it.
We sat like that for a while.
Sarah stopped making sad sounds and we just settled into breathing.

===========

I shifted uncomfortably as another person looked at us with open curiosity from the sidewalk.
“Sarah?”
She sniffed loudly and shifted her head aside to look at me with puffy eyes.
“yeah?”
My hand started playing with her hair slightly from nerves.
“You going to be okay?”
She sniffed again and pulled herself away from me a little bit.
“yeah.. Sorry Al. Mum, you know?.. she just sets me off these days..”
Her face started to flush a bit more and her mouth curled just from mentioning mum.
Time to move on to a new topic I think.. or at least move on to a new place.

“So..” I started, nudging Sarah up and away from me, much to her reluctance.
“… magic’s real huh?”
Sarah went ridged, a moment later she shot up to stare at me with wide open eyes.
“What?”
I frowned at her and shifted uncomfortably.
“Well, you blew the flute and it summoned rats right?.. that’s.. ya know.. magic.. crap, disgusting, storybook magic but magic still, yeah?”
Sarah’s mouth dropped open and her eyes bugged a bit.
“It worked” she almost mouthed out rather than speaking it aloud.
I shot her my confused ‘what are you on about?’ look.
“It worked, FINALLY!”
Sarah seemed to get some life back into herself.
She pulled away from me and settled back into her seat, rubbing her eyes dry as she went.
Without warning she turned the key and gunned the engine with a roar.
I blinked at her in confusion and watched her pull us out into traffic.
“Wha-“
She waved her hand at me for silence.
A grin spread on her face.
“Okay, new plan..”
She shifted into the high speed lane and kicked the car up another gear.
“..First we go to see the MPA, get all that out the way. Then we go to Beth’s place and get some supplies. Then we sit down and have a nice lengthy talk that’s been a LONG time coming”
She swung her head at me with that almost demented grin, looking for approval.
I nodded frantically so she would look back at the road faster.
“Great… GREAT. Oh, this is going to be so much fun!”
I sunk back into my seat with worry.
Her idea of fun usually involves trouble eventually.

==============

Sarah pulled sharply into a disused looking street.
We bumped a few times on potholes and came to rest in front of some abandoned shops that lined the street.

The place was a dump.
Sarah popped out of her door in a hurry and was practically hopping on the spot in anticipation.
I took my time getting out, trying to recover a bit from her express speed driving.
She came around the car and stood next to me.
I shot her a sceptical look and she nodded her head towards one of the buildings with a big grin.
My eyes scanned the area in general before settling on the one shop that wasn't boarded up.
It looked old, in disrepair and a bit silly to be honest.
In flaking golden paint on a time worn pink background were a list of Asian looking letters and a subheading.
I glanced down at the dusty shop windows and back up to the sign.
Sarah nudged me and nodded towards it again in excitement.
“um..”
She watched me like a hawk, it was making me nervous.
“It’s very.. uh..”
Sarah sighed but her smile didn't dim.
“What is it?”
I paused long enough to shoot her a confused look but she waved at the store again happily.
“It’s some kind of toy store? Geeky stuff.. the banner’s bad English, says something about..”
I squinted and moved my head around a little for a better angle on it.
“Ultra-Sailor Morphing Protection-Avengers, TEAM G0!”
The writing was even harder to read below that.
“Ask us about our mega-monster zord. Wednesday’s comic book sale day”
Sarah collapsed against the car in hysterics.

“Oh my god, you’re such a geek!”
I looked at her in confusion and no small amount of hurt.
She hasn't called me a geek in years.
My face must have shown what I was thinking because she sobered pretty quickly and rushed over to hug me in reassurance.
“Oh no, sorry Al. I didn't mean it like that. It’s just.. ohhh I'm making a mess of this.”
She grabbed me by the wrists and yanked me forward.
“Come on, you’ll get it in a minute”
She pulled me through the front door of the mucky comic book shop.
It would have been less impressive if she’d opened the door first.
I stalled my legs hard into the floor with a loud squeak and we were left standing in a bright, clean, mostly white entrance way.
My eyes flew around the room, noticing all the people bustling about in a mix of odd uniforms and more casual clothing.
The florescent lights high above us had an odd twinkle in them which hurt my eyes a little.
“Welcome..” Sarah chanted, stepping away from me and throwing her hands out wide.
The fresh smell of cut oranges and chocolate hit my nose seemingly from nowhere as she wafted the air.
“..To the USMPA!”

She stood in that silly pose waiting for my reaction eagerly.
I blinked a few times and glanced around behind her.
A few of the uniformed people frowned toward Sarah but mostly the casual clothed ones seemed to find her amusing.
“um.. okay.. so..?”
She deflated a little and shot me an annoyed glance.
“Take the fun out of it, why don’t ya?”
I shrugged at her.
She grumbled a little and half-heartedly continued.
“This place is Hub G-0, our local center for the United States Magical Proliferation Agency.”
My eyebrow went up all on its own.
“The outside’s magical, it shapes itself differently for everyone’s eyes, there’s probably someone who could explain the details to you around here but hell if I know who it would be”
She squinted at me and seemed to realise I wasn't quite as impressed as she’d wanted.
“Come on, let’s go jump through hoops so I can get you registered as a non-com”
I opened my mouth to question that but she waved it off.
“You’ll get an introduction session later. The guide’ll be a lot better at explaining this then me. Just follow and don’t piss anyone off okay?”

===========

The bored looking receptionist eyed us in annoyance.
To be fair she looked pretty busy, her desk was full of paperwork which she had studiously been ignoring in favour of reading a newspaper as we approached.
“Non-com cadet Cooper reporting in with perspective candidate Cooper for eval”
I blinked a few times and tried to process that those words had just come out of Sarah’s mouth.
She was standing a bit ridged too.
Not military straight but quite stiff for Sarah’s usual flowing grace.

The receptionist glanced from me to Sarah again before nodding.
From under her desk she pulled out a truly ancient looking push button microphone.
With care to not harm her surprisingly long fingernails she slowly pressed the button down.
There was a large squeal that rang out around us.
I jumped. Pretty much everyone else in the area jumped as well actually.
Judging from the receptionists smirk she enjoyed that reaction.
“Carlo come and get your pet. She’s cloned herself or something I’dunno”
Sarah sputtered and settled on glaring at the now smug receptionist.
“Anythin’ else I can do for ya pet?”
Sarah grumbled to herself and shook her head,
She turned back to me and waving us away from the desk.

==============

“Ignore her, we try to.”
I shot Sarah a confused look and went back to watching the receptionist.
She was acting very unprofessionally.
Currently she had her feet up on the counter, an act which tipped a large pile of paperwork onto the floor from the sound of it.
Her image wasn't helped by the sloppy torn jeans she was wearing, or her bare feet.
For a moment she caught my eye, smirked and lazily waved hello at me before going back to the her current high stress job of.. Juggling paperweights apparently?..
I turned back to Sarah and tweaked my eyebrow at her.
Sarah sighed and looked apologetic.
“Her names Claire.. Or Janice.. Or.. you know what never mind. She changes it every few days just to annoy people”
My eyebrow perked up again.
“I know, its weird.. Look.. this is all about magic. I'm not too good for explanations, they have people who can help you there. Basically.. Magic.. magic’s complicated”
I frowned and she shrugged helplessly in return.
“A lot of stuff around here was made by Claire’s ancestor ages ago. It’s tied to her bloodline so it only works for her. The USMPA needed her, so they recruited her.”
That made some kind of sense, if you ignored the whole part where it didn't make sense at least.
I get the feeling I'm going to face those kind of situations a lot today.
“She was on her way to being a lawyer when she was recruited. They gave her an offer she couldn't refuse, so she accepted but she wasn't really happy about it”
Both my eyebrows went up in surprise and I twitched my hand toward my neck carefully.
Sarah’s eyes went wide and she shook her head violently.
“Nothing like that, they signed her up on a lifetime contract. She gets $500,000 a month.. plus pension, living expenses, health care, dental, a rental car for outside office use and four assistants she can run ragged without oversight. Her job is to sit at her chair and operate the tools, like that intercom she used earlier, between 11am and 3pm Monday to Friday.”
I gaped at Sarah incredulously.
“She’s pretty mean about it all, they need her and she knows it. We’re lucky she’s in a good mood today”
I glanced over at the receptionist again, she was now talking to some guy who handed her a coffee.
For some reason he looked like he’d just run a marathon.
She patted him on the cheek and waved him off, he managed two steps before her foot came up and she gave him a shove in the butt which sent him staggering away.
My eyes turned back to Sarah with another look of disbelief.
“This is her being nice?”
Sarah nodded sadly and shrugged.
“We all know the details of her contract because for her first month, she made it a requirement to read off her benefits package before she would accept any kind of work orders from anyone.”
She shuddered a little.
“She refuses to use people’s names either.. One time she made a new rule up that every group of six people who came to her with work orders would have to play twister on the main hallway floor to judge who got seen first, if you were the first person of the line you were in for a LONG wait before she gathered the other five people.”
I flinched and offered her a sympathetic look.
“She didn't allow bathroom breaks or leaving your place in the queue either, said something about it building character”
We both shared a pained look and turned to watch the receptionist’s desk again.
Apparently she’d found some pencils, she was in the process of tossing them up as high as she could to see if they would stick in the ceiling.
From the looks of it they wouldn't, most were coming crashing down around her like little pointed missiles much to her amusement.

I glanced over at Sarah one more time and sighed.
What the hell am I getting myself into here?

============

“Wow, she wasn't kidding?”
I jumped a little and turned to the smooth male voice on my left.
A moments study let me realise that I didn't like him.
He looked like a pro-footballer with bulging biceps in a tight t-shirt.
Definitely feeling the jealous hate already.

He bent down to me and casually kissed my cheek.
I jerked back with angry eyes.
My hand came up without thinking and gave him a slap which rang out across the entrance way.
I distantly heard the receptionist give a pointed “Ha!” of laughter.
Sarah got between me and the muscle monster.
Her hand twitched out and I stepped back a bit.
She’d given the sign that she would handle it.

“Karl, sorry.. um.. that’s not a clone, I'm normal Sarah. This is my brother Al”
The face kisser, Karl apparently, looked between us in surprise.
This time I actually turned to watch when the receptionist laughed a braying cackle and pointed our way “Classic!” she chanted out, apparently just wanting to provide commentary for the universe.
I considered adding her to my list of people in dire need of a slap.
Right after Karl, Karl, and one more to Karl just for luck.

============

I sighed for what felt like the millionth time but continued following in Sarah and Karl’s wake.
We’d crossed so many branching pathways, all blinding white and seemingly endless.
This place was scary-huge, packed full of people despite that fact, and very same-y.
Every Corridor looked like it had been copy and pasted from the last one, it was quite off putting after a while.
My mood wasn't helped by the amount of people shooting me weird looks and glancing back to Sarah as they passed us, which got annoying quickly.

“Doctor Miller will look him over and then we can sort out his induction, shouldn't take too long”
I felt kind of left out as we walked along.
Sarah was avidly watching Karl, it was pretty obvious she had a thing for him.
I wonder if the receptionist noticed?
The way Sarah bounced around him happily put me in mind of an excitable puppy, so the ‘pet’ thing would make more sense at least.

We eventually came to a stop in-front of a door, pretty much as blank as all the others.
There was a rough number scratched into the top left corner that looked a bit weird compared to the clean cut white of everything else in this place so far.
Sarah turned to me with an encouraging smile.
“Doctor Miller is cool. Don’t worry.”
I frowned and looked between her and the door nervously.
“You’re not coming with me?”
Sarah shook her head but didn't lose her smile.
“It’s okay, you’re a big boy. She’ll send a runner when you’re almost done, we’ll be waiting out here by the time you come out.”
My frown must have gotten worse because Sarah looked a little guilty.
“Sorry, we’re just going to Karl’s office. I have some paperwork I have been putting off for.. well.. lets call it a while.. Promise I’ll be back to pick you up no problems okay?”
In the end I let it go with a shrug.
Sarah rarely took the time to notice guys existed.
Far be it from me to discourage her when she finally does.
I couldn't shake the feeling I was taking a step out into a very strange new world without a safety net though.
It would have been nice to be able to hide behind Sarah for most of it but I can deal with it if I must.
It’s only magic after all.
It’s not like it’s some kind of overpowered force which can shape reality in ways beyond my imagination, yet keep itself hidden pretty easily from the normal world at the same time, right?
.. Okay, maybe there is a reason to worry just a little bit.

I must have nodded or something because Sarah carried on.
“Cool, see you later then”
She gave me a quick hug and walked off with the muscle.. with Karl.
I turned to the doorway and hesitated for a few moments before reaching for the handle.
The door opened before I could reach it, which didn't creep me out at all, but for reasons other than being creep-ed out, I very cautiously made my way inside with an ear open for danger.

=========

“Ah, Cooper right? Been expecting you”
I blinked a bit deliriously at the woman speaking.
She was dumpy in a motherly sort of way.
Her Rosy cheeks blended quite well with the truly blinding red wallpaper behind her.
The whole room looked like a strange cross between a standard doctor’s office full of equipment, an occult shop and.. a colour blind persons idea of interior decorating I guess?

“Your Sarah’s twin right?”
After a moment hesitation I nodded and offered her a weak smile.
“It’s okay dear, I don’t bite..”
I flinched a little and she watched my reaction with interest.
“hmm, I think I’ll add a psych eval to your test schedule. Do you have any past of traumatic experience’s involving teeth or biting?”
My head shook slowly while I considered the possibilities.
“I got bitten by a dog once. It didn't hurt that bad though?”
She hummed to herself again and cocked her head to the side.
“Plausible, but the eval can’t hurt anyway. More data is always more useful after all”
I shrugged and let the conversation drop.
This is getting awkward.

After a few moments writing on her pad she turned back to me and smiled.
“Right, let’s get this initial scan out the way then shall we. Please stand on the X on the floor there dear”
I followed the direction her arm was pointing and came to rest on a cross marking.
For lack of a better option I walked over and stood on it, watching her for further instruction.
“Okay dear, now this will tingle and you may see a shimmer or two of light. Don’t panic it’s all very normal.”
She fiddled with something that looked like a rather large projector aimed at me by its holder clamp hanging from the ceiling.
“On three dear”
She held up three fingers and slowly ticked them off.
When she folded her last finger the world went bright.
I yelped and staggered back, from the sounds of it, she did too.

We both blinked our eyes a few times and watched each other in confusion.
“Was that supposed to happen?” I finally broke the stare off.
She frowned and tapped her fingers at her elbow in thought.
“..no.. not really.. The only time things like that happen are when.. hmm..”
She held up a finger for me and turned back toward her desk.
“Hold on a second dear.”

I stood awkwardly for a while as she flipped through her notes and muttered to herself.
“non-com.. child.. bond.. teen.. vampire?.. inspection.. hmm”
She finally turned back to me, her eyes a lot sharper then they had been previously.
“my oh my, you are an interesting one aren't you sweetheart?”
I'm not sure why I shuddered at that.
No-ones called me interesting before, it didn't feel nice though for some reason.
“Who’s your sponsor? Do they know you’re a mage? You really should be getting a full charter test instead of this basic one you know?”
Her questions fired at me but I could only shrug at her uncertainly.
“uh.. Sponsor? My sister brought me in here if that’s anything? She found this flute that filled her flat with rats and when I asked her about magic being real she got really excited and brought me here..”
Doctor Miller sighed deeply and gave me a sympathetic look.
“This isn't my kind of thing. Karl should have known better and sent you over to processing first. Give me a minute dear, we can get this all cleared up”
She walked to her office door and rapped on it sharply.
After a moment the door eased open and my eyes went wide in shock.
A short, stubby little man wearing a messenger bag and little else came in to the room with a curious look at the doctor.
He was very hairy, not just on his face, although he had a full goatee beard there too.
His legs, from his belly button down, were covered in fur with his knee caps being oddly angled and his feet seemingly replaced with hoofs like a horse.

The little man fiddled with his bag strap awkwardly and glanced at me before quickly looking away again.
“Letter miss? Where to?”
Doctor Miller scribbled something out on a sheet of paper and handed it to him.
“Can you take that to Com Sergeant Karl Nobbs for me?
The little goat legged man glanced at the note before giving her a nod of acceptance.
Without another word he turned and left the room, pulling the door behind him as he went.
Doctor Miller turned back to me and after a moments confusion seemed to realise what was wrong.
“First time seeing a Faunus dear?
I slowly moved my eyes from the door and stared at her with a wide stunned blink.
“he.. it.. what’s a Faunus?”
She shook her head and offered me a warm smile.
“Not a fan of mythology dear? They are Greek, well.. I think Billy is originally from Egypt himself, but in general The Satyr court is in Greece.”
That didn't help much, I frowned and shook my head.
“I mean.. is he.. was he human?”
Doctor Miller laughed heartily at me there, she tried to be polite about it but I’d obviously said something stupid.
“Oh dear me, oh you really are new to magic aren't you?”
I nodded, not that she needed confirmation at this point.
“Faunus are.. Well, not to get too complicated but they are elves of a sort. The building we’re in is one layer deep into the fae realms, a lot of the less.. Prickly elven races tend to help out here and around when they can.”
She leaned in toward me and cupped her hand to her mouth conspiratorially.
“I heard talk that the Magister tried to pay them once, pressure from non-human rights groups you know? They didn't take well to that, apparently to this day he has trouble getting a cup of tea let alone sending letters or filing requests in this hub. He has to work through others to get help now which is rather amusing”
My mouth gaped and I blinked furiously.
So many questions coming to mind all at once.
Elves are real?
Fae realm?
Magister?
Non-human rights?
Slowly I closed my mouth and brought my hand up to rub at my temple.
I knew this was going to get confusing.

Before I could voice any of the questions I had brewing, there was a knock on the door.
It creaked open and Sarah’s head popped in with a smile.
“Hey Doc, he ready to go?”
Doctor Miller gave Sarah one of her warm smiles and nodded.
She walked back over to her desk, patting me on the shoulder as she went.
“Good luck dear, I'm sure you will work it out eventually. Just follow your sister, she’s a good sort”
I swung my head between her and Sarah a few times.
Eventually I just dropped my shoulders and stood up.
I'm sure if I keep going I’ll eventually come across someone normal who can explain things around here.

Sarah called out a goodbye to Doctor Miller when I stepped out into the hallway, I turned and half-heartedly offered one myself as the door shut.
Slowly I finished my turn and ended up facing Sarah and Karl who were watching me happily.
Sarah nudged her elbow into Karl’s ribs.
“Told you he was special”
Her face soured a little after saying that and she pointedly stared at Karl.
He didn't take his eyes off me but nodded a little at least.
“You’re really a mage?”
I blinked and stared back at him in annoyance.
“How the hell should I know?”
Karl shrugged and turned to walk down the corridor ahead of us.
Over his shoulder he threw out a snort.
“It’s not the sort of thing you tend to not know. Ever done something weird without explanation?”
Nothing really came to mind except..
Sarah must have seen the frown on my face because she pulled me into a hug and started walking us to catch up with him.
After a few steps I was comfortable moving on my own and leaned away from her a little.
She took the hint, pulling her arm back and skipping forward to stand next to Karl.

“Where are we going?” I finally asked as we crossed the forth blank corridor in a row.
Karl and Sarah stopped speaking long enough to glance at me before smiling.
“You’re booked for an induction.”
Sarah smirked
“You can get some answers without me garbling them for you at last”
That calmed me down a little, I ended up following them along, my attention more on the curious people around us then anything they might be saying.

We were turning a sharp right at a crossroads of white hallways when something caught my attention.
With a glance at Sarah I shuffled back a few steps and looked down one of the other corridors.
What I can only describe as a large lizard man with green scales was walking along with an equally large fox man who had black tipped ears and more than one tail
They both were walking casually toward me, apparently deep in conversation.
I tried not to stare as they both walked past smiling and chatting back and forth, occasionally taking swigs from the plastic coffee cups in their hands.
The lizard man had some kind of white lab coat on but left it open showing he only had a pair of tracksuit pants on underneath it.
The Fox man was wearing a worn looking brown suit with leather elbow patches stitched on it.
Their conversation had stalling as they got closer but picked up again quickly.
I turned and watched them go off down the left corridor, my eyes were drawn to the fox man’s tails that swished back and forth.
The fur flowed like an orange and white tide of water, it was kind of hypnotic..
After a few steps they both paused and glanced over at me.
I dropped my eyes guiltily and tried to shrink into the floor to hide.
The lizard man snorted in his deep tone of voice before starting to walk off again.
From the corner of my eye I watched the fox man grin at me and wink as he stepped away to follow his scaly companion.
“I told you man, mage chicks dig furry’s”
The lizard man growled low in his throat but didn't stop walking.
The fox started talking again but at that point he was too far away for me to hear what he was saying properly.

I stood at the crossway for a few seconds awkwardly and tried to pull myself back together again.
First little goat legged men, now giant human-animal hybrids.
Seriously, what the hell am I getting myself into here?
Slowly I turned back around to catch up with Sarah and Karl.
..Only to find an empty hallway instead.
I turned back in surprise and almost ran, nose-first, into a solid brick wall.
Frantically I patted the wall down where there was a crossroad only seconds before.
Quick as a flash, I spun back to the hallway to find it was different too.
The corridor apparently now curved to the right.
A few people walked by me curiously but I just stood dead still, afraid to look away from the corridor in case it changed again.
“oh… crap..” I mumbled to myself, a chill going up my spine for some reason.
Why me?

===============

I spent almost a full five minutes standing on that one spot, barely willing to blink let alone move.
They taught us at summer camp that if you were lost, just stay where you are.
If people are looking for you they will find you easier if you’re not both moving.
Finally I heard the loud stamps of someone running and felt arms come around me in a hug.
“Oh gods, you’re okay!”
My shoulders slumped and I relaxed into Sarah’s arms.
She squeezed me tighter and turned me to face her.
It felt like she spent a bit too long inspecting me for injuries before nodding to herself that I was fine.
“Everyone around here knows not to go wandering the halls alone. We’re in the fae realm, even if it is a nice one, ya know? What were you thinking?”
I stared at Sarah and blinked at her slowly in disbelief.
She seemed to realise why after a moment and dropped her jaw guiltily.
“ah..”
I nodded back.
“I probably should have mentioned that at some point shouldn't I?”
I nodded again.
“Sorry, I said I was no good with explaining this stuff. Magic’s complicated”
Karl reached us at that point and did his own inspection of me.
“You okay to go? We’re going to be late”
Sarah nodded and grabbed my hand tightly before we set off again.
She turned her head back to me and smiled.
“Sorry again.. Basically.. um.. The hubs are safe spaces for magic of most forms. Some mages in the 1800s signed up for them and the Fae Queen of the third realm, her name’s Maven, she agreed to host us because she had the space going and she was curious to learn more about humans or something.”
I tried to look encouraging but she was already losing me.
“It’s great for keeping the area secret because the entranceway can be moved easily and the space we have is near endless without taking up more than a doorway’s size on the outside world. The biggest problem though is that it IS in the Fae realm, and that makes things complicated.”
She looked around quickly and brought her head closer.
“The fae are really picky, Maven only likes the halls to look a certain way.. so they do.. all of them. It would take a full mage to make any kind of change to the hallways without it resetting, even then most end up being able to barely scratch numbers into doors or tie enchanted ribbon to banisters at best.”
I thought back to the rough, almost un-readable numbers etched on Doctor Miller’s door and nodded in understanding.
“The fae realm..uh..” Sarah trailed off and looked at Karl hopefully.
Karl sighed but twisted to look at me as he continued walking.
“The Fae realm isn’t built for humans. We lack several key areas in our brains which can process just how their dimension works. As a result we tend to drift and get lost really easily if we’re not careful. For most people, just having someone with you when your both going to the same place is enough to work past it, Journeys are still longer then they should be but you get there in the end.”
He scrubbed a hand in his hair and looked a little embarrassed.
“We all end up getting lost at one point or another. If you’re a mage and you know what you’re doing you can summon a fae to escort you but most low level mages tend to avoid walking the halls anyway. They use focused teleportation spells to get around instead and cut out all the hassle.”
I could feel my head nod along with him but at this point I was just hoping he would stop talking.
My head hurt from information overload.

We carried on walking until we reached a door which surprised me by the amount of little scratch marks on it.
It looked like someone had tried to take off all the white finish from it using a dull pin.
Karl knocked and entered without hesitation.
I followed cautiously and found myself in a dim classroom with an awkward looking set of wooden seats.
A desk stood at the front of the room but seemed to only have a few books and a single apple on it.
Sarah pulled me over and sat us down in the middle of the front row.
Karl didn't sit down but moved over to the far corner of the room, settling into it with crossed arms.
I nervously twiddled my thumbs and bit my lip.
The silence was killing me.

===========

A few minutes after we sat down the door opened and we were joined by an odd mix of people, some old, some young, some with weird accents and others looking like they had come dressed for a snow storm.
Finally an older woman with her hair back in a tight bun came in and shut the door tightly.
“This is introduction to magic. I have you all for a fifteen minute slot so let’s not dawdle.”
She settled herself at her desk and let out a frustrated sigh.
“To answer your first questions in order, yes magic is real, yes it’s really real, no I'm not joking, yes you did see whatever it was you saw, no you can’t tell anyone about it and yes we WILL stop you from telling anyone about it if we have to”
There was a general grumble around the room, most of the people around us must have felt the same as I was about her abrupt manner.
“Common logic states that once you know about magic, magic tends to know about you.”
She stood up and paced slightly, shooting a stern look around the room.
“With that in mind I MUST remind you all to not tell anyone about it. If you do, you are putting not only yourself and the operational safety of USMPA but also the person you tell in serious danger.”
Her pacing stopped and she brought her hands together.
“There are exceptions for people suffering from magical events who chose to not have their memories wiped of them, which is why most of you are here now.. There are also exceptions for non-awakened mages who find out about magic on their own”
She sent a sharp look directly at me, I tried not to shrink down in my chair too much.
“Now, some of you may choose to look deeper into magic and its relevance to you. I can commend you for that.”
A thin smile of approval bloomed on her face but died off quickly into a frown.
“..Others of you may choose to go back into the world and ignore magic. For those of you taking this path I can offer only a warning that now you know of it; magic will be a part of your life whether you want it or not.”
She unclenched her hands, shifting her feet slightly.
“Try to keep yourselves safe in either case and at the very least keep the contact details of the USMPA on hand in case of emergencies.”

She rummaged in her desk a little bit and drew out a stack of books.
“I will now open up the floor for anyone who has any questions, then hand out these government recommended manuals.”
She lifted one of the green covered paperbacks up as an example.
“Please take the time to read them if nothing else.. yes, you with the red hair”

A boy looked around at the rest of us nervously and almost mumbled out his question.
“Is it true that werewolves can change at any time or do they only change at the full moon like my brother?”
The woman’s mouth pulled into a thin line before she broke into a detailed answer to his question.
It could basically have been condensed into ‘it’s complicated’
That set the tone for the rest of our time because seemingly every question she received, including such topics as, mermaids, biting cupcakes, a talking hamster and dancing tuna..
..What I was curious?
Sarah kicked me under the desk for asking it anyway.
Every single question got a long answer filled with jargon and side references.
It was pretty obvious no one else understood any more of it than I did but each could basically be summed up with the dreaded ‘it’s complicated’.

After what felt like ages she looked down at her watch and nodded to herself.
“And that’s time. Please take a manual on your way out, you will be escorted to either your next meeting or the exit depending on your choices. Good luck to you all.”
There was a general jumble of movement as people got up, picked up a book and left from the main door.
I sat back and waited for them all to go before getting up myself.
When I reached out for the last remaining copy of the manual I was stopped by the lecturer woman.
She held her hand over the manual and shook her head at me.
“Not for you, mages get a special book”
My jaw dropped open and I shot Sarah a confused look, she shrugged back at me unhelpfully.
The woman reached into another draw of her desk and drew out a book almost twice as thick as the manual with a stiff leather hardback cover instead.
Without a word she dumped it into my hands and turned to leave.

When the door shut tightly behind her Karl came out of the corner.
I jumped having forgotten he was there which seemed to amuse him.
“Take a copy of the standard manual too. Can’t hurt”
I eyed him suspiciously for a moment but grabbed the second book anyway.
“That’s us done for the day. We’ll have to set you up with a full charter test in the next week or so just to be safe but you seem pretty healthy to me.”
He turned to Sarah and smiled at her.
Sarah seemed to melt under his attention.
I felt the urge to puke at her sappy look for a moment.
“I’ll see you at the next group session Sarah. Today’s been fun. Take care of Al and I’ll see you in a week okay?”
Sarah nodded sloppily and grinned at him with glassy eyes.
Karl gave me one more nod and made his way out of the room too.

Even though we followed closely behind him, by the time we got out into the hall Karl was nowhere in sight.
I’d normally assume he’d run away or something but with the way these halls work who knows where he went to.
“Well that was useless” I muttered.
Sarah seemed to catch what I said but shrugged it off unhelpfully instead.
“Read the guide book, that’s what I did”
I frowned but accepted her advice.
“Come on, let’s get out of here. We have a few more stops before we can relax”
She took my hand and dragged me off in a seemingly random direction.
Did I mention that all the hallways look the same?
I don’t know how she had a clue where she was going.

==================

“Al, are you listening?”
I jumped and turned to Sarah guiltily.
I’d started reading the mages manual while she was driving.
The front few pages were fascinating enough.
The inside cover contained a map.
The weird part being that it tended to move and parts of it changed over time.
The center point on it seemed to be focused on us, or the book at least.
Behind us I could see a blue marker which indicated the Hub, currently open for public use.
Ahead of us were several yellow markers indicating private magical companies and businesses which were open for use at the moment.
Far off to our right was a large area marked out with a dotted red border and red cross-hatching inside it.
When I tapped on the red area the book gave a shudder in my hands and wildly flipped pages, coming to rest on a closer view of the area and a page full of information including several warnings about it being a ‘Wolf Den’ and ‘Unsafe for mages or Dryads to enter’
I’d been amusing myself turning between the map and its pages to check out the local area.
One shop had surprised me, it was a supermarket I’d gone to a few times before, as far as I knew it had been perfectly normal at the time.

“Al, will you listen!”
I jumped again.
This time Sarah was full on glaring at me.
“Eyes on the road” I said automatically.
She growled low in her throat and threw out a hand to snatch the book from my grasp.
“I'm not driving idiot. You would know that if you pulled your nose out of that book for a second”
I cringed a little and realised she was speaking the truth, we were parked next to the curb in a relatively nice looking area of downtown.
“Sorry”
Sarah huffed but let it go in the end.
“I was trying to say. Things might get a little awkward with Beth. You might not remember her from school but she remembers you.. or.. well.. she remembers..”
Sarah’s face scrunched up a little and her voice dropped into a guilty mutter
“..Hannah”

I sat staring at Sarah for a few heartbeats, she began to look guiltier as time went on.
In the end I broke the tension with a smile and shrugged at her as if it didn't matter.
Sarah let off a sigh of released tension but still looked a bit off about it.
“Sorry, it’s just for a little bit then we can go on and find a place to stay the night okay?”
I glanced at her curiously but nodded acceptance anyway.
I have no idea what her problem with Hannah is lately.
Maybe she wants us to find a new name for when I'm pulling the twin trick or something?
Not sure what we could replace it with, anything else would feel awkward at this point.
Besides, Hannah’s special. She knows that..

“It’s no biggie. I figured we could get a place at Johns anyway”
Sarah tried to hide it but she pretty obviously wasn't happy with that option.
I can kind of guess why.
John’s still got a major crush on her so that could get awkward.
Can’t argue with mates-rates pricing though, especially for a last minute hotel room.
“Sure, whatever” she trailed off.
After a moment’s pause she got out of the car.
I managed to only throw one look into the backseat at the mage guide before getting out to follow her.
That maps addictive.

================

“Don’t be a stranger now hon, it’s been too long”
Awkwardly I turned my head over while held tight in Beth’s hug.
Sarah was trying to hold back her smile.
It turns out I HAVE met Sarah’s friend Beth before.
I'm not sure where but from the moment I stepped into her house she’d become clingy with me.
My nerves are pretty shot at this point, I'm not normally a very touchy feely person, Sarah being the obvious exception.

Finally Beth pulled away from me and turned to give Sarah a much shorter squeeze instead.
I let out a sigh of relief and made my way to the car.
Sarah joined me when she got finished talking to Beth.
We pulled away from the curb and waved back to her until she was out of sight.
“Well that was awkward”
Sarah looked at me out of the corner of her eye and seemed a bit nervous.
“I don’t even remember meeting her before? Was she at prom or something? I was pretty wasted from the punch that night”
I hung my head back in the seat and considered scenarios.
From what she was saying and the way she was acting you would think I’d saved her life or something.
Sarah was looking increasingly uncomfortable.
We drove on for a few streets in silence before Sarah couldn't take it any more.
She swung us around into an open parking lot and took us over to an isolated corner.

Slowly she leaned her head forward onto the steering wheel and gently hit her forehead on it a few times.
“We need to talk”
Her frown didn't give the impression this would be a fun talk.

She eased herself back into her seat and took a deep breath.
“Don’t interrupt. I have to get this out, I've needed to for a while.”
I mimed zipping my lips shut and throwing away the key.
It got a weak smile out of her at least.
“So.. okay, you know about magic now. I've known about it since.. since prom”
I frowned.
She tensed her shoulders and took a breath.
“You don’t remember it, the commander who.. who rescued us sealed your memory of it all at my request.”
My eyebrows shot up to my forehead but Sarah didn't stop, I don’t think she could at this point.
“Prom night you stood in for me while I went to Jenny’s place for a party. A few hours in some biker guys turned up.. and.. and it got a bit insane.”
A tear built up in her eye.
“I was one of the first ones grabbed, they tossed me in the back of a van with a load of other girls and we were driven off. Beth.. she still had her phone on her, silly cow’d stashed it in her cleavage and they didn't check her for it.”
The tear trickled down her cheek and she coughed as if her throat was sore.
“My first instinct was to contact you. Don’t ask me why, I was panicking. I sent you an SOS then I called the police. We couldn't give them much info because we were in a van, ya know? They weren't taking us seriously!”
She fisted her hands in her lap and banged them on her knees.
“They wouldn't take us seriously and the woman hung up on me. Before I could do much more then hit redial the van stopped and the biker guys came around to get us out. We hid the phone again but I was so scared they would realise.. They took us in this doorway, I don’t know what it was meant to be but when we got through it we were in a bright white reception area.”
I blinked and tilted my head a little.
“Like the hub?”
She nodded blindly and took a breath.
“Yeah, I didn't find out until later but it was an abandoned Hub. The place was overrun, the doorway moved and the department didn't have anyone to spare who could look for it. Apparently the va.. the biker.. well.. okay.”
She took another breath and looked intensely into my eyes.
“They looked like bikers but they were really vampires.”
My head rocked back and I felt my eyes go wide.
Sarah gave a dark chuckle and nodded at me.
“Yeah, vampires. They found the place. Their leader, a little guy calling himself Rastalin, set up home there.. started.. started a processing plant of sorts.”
I shuddered involuntarily and reached out for Sarah’s hand.
She gave me a watery smile in return.
“Vampires, smart vampires, they don’t kill. They take humans off the street and they keep them, renewable food source ya know? Bleed someone out, nurse them up a bit and then repeat.”
She shuddered this time and pulled her other arm in, to her chest.
“Rastalin, he was thinking bigger. With a hub at his disposal he figured they could take a bigger score. He was kind of desperate, he needed a lot of blood fast, customers demanding more and the town was running out of homeless people apparently.”
Her head came down and another tear came out.
“I didn't know that at the time. We were terrified. They took us into a room and.. and watched. They made us put on flimsy outfits, we looked like a load of genies by the time they were done with us.”
She pulled herself sideways into my arm.
“I was one of the first taken out for processing. They chained us up and.. and stuck us with needles to draw out the blood.”
She shuddered again and pulled in closer.
“I was delirious by the time they finished. There was a load of shouting, then some of the white coat technicians came and gathered us up. They marched us out of the processing room and into a big hall. I thought.. I thought they were..”
She cut herself off with a sob.
I had to virtually pull her out of her seat and into my arms.
We rocked together for a little bit while she calmed herself down.
“I was resigned to it you know, I thought that was it, I was going to.. to die.”
I patted her head and tried to hold myself together for her sake.
She was hurting. She hurt, I hurt, that’s the way it works.
“and.. and then you were calling me. I looked up and..”
She pulled herself tighter into my chest.
“You were beat up, and you were strapped to a chair, and you were fighting it but.. but you were there, they got you too.”
Sarah cried again, I just held her so she could let it all out.
“I broke down. I was going to die and you were going to die too and it was all my fault”
She breathed heavily against me then suddenly burst out in laughter.
It wasn't a nice laugh. It was bitter and angry.
I just held her close and she rocked us both while it petered off.
“You, you glared at me. I thought you hated me. You should have.. and.. and you turned around. You stared at Rastalin with so much open hostility on your face and then it smoothed out and you got so calm. Scary-calm”
She shifted against me, her voice dipping just a little into an awed hush.
“You looked at him and you hissed out ‘Okay, I'm game.. w..what do you want Vlad?”
I chuckled and held her close.
“Vlad, I like that. Good name for a vampire.”
She smiled weakly at me but it was a smile at least.
“He taunted you and he tried to have us moved out of the hall but you.. you stupidly.. stupid.. stupid!”
I cringed as she shot up and smacked me on the shoulder in rage.
“You stupid asshole! You begged him to keep us with you, you offered him everything to buy us time and you offered him..”
She ran out of steam taking deep heaving breaths.
“You offered him your blood and he took it Al.. My heart STOPPED when he reared up and sunk his teeth into your neck! I was screaming, the others were screaming and you just looked over at me with bleary eyes and you smiled at me. You SMILED while that bastard was killing you!”
Sarah kicked her feet hard on the floor of her car a few times but it didn't seem to help because she yanked away from me and threw her door open.
I quickly got out my side and we stood on opposite sides of the car staring at each other.
“I thought you were dead, and it was my fault, and the worst part.. the worst part of it, the part that makes me sick to my stomach is that some part of me was glad. Glad you were gone.”
My stomach drooped like a heavy weight, it felt like I’d been hit in the chest and I took a deep hissing breath in.
“I love you Al but at that time I hated you so much”
She banged her fists hard on the car roof and glared at me.
“You’re better than me! You've ALWAYS been better than me. You were always smarter than me!”
She threw her hands up in the air and growled out in annoyance.
“You were dad’s favourite! You spent so much time when we were kids looking down on me, even then I could tell.”
She smashed her fists down hard and her glare went up another notch.
“And when it kicked off, when it all happened and Dad ruined Alice..”
She deflated and laid her head on the car’s roof staring at me.
“When he left and mum.. mum changed.. you were happy for me.”
A tear rolled down her cheek and she pressed her face hard into the rooftop.
“I tried to help with Hannah, like we always did before, and it was good. You were happy and I.. I.. I hated it Al. Even for those short times you had with mum I resented you because mum liked you better than me! Just like dad!”
She scrunched up her face hard.
“I bottled it all up. I wouldn't ruin Hannah for you. I promised myself I wouldn't ruin Hannah for you.”
She forcefully slammed her head against the car roof and let out a sob.
“B.. but I did Al. I ruined Hannah. I started to go on dates, and I had friends, and I knew how to use makeup and you DIDN'T. For ONCE I was better than you at something and it was SO good.”
She breathed hard and let out an unhappy laugh.
“I kept finding reasons to need Hannah, more and more times to prove I was better then you at something for ONCE.. and.. and you got better at it! Like you ALWAYS do, you got better at it and better at it until you were a better girl then I was!”
She weakly hit her fist against the roof, the rage leaking out of her and leaving her looking broken and empty.
“Everyone likes you, everyone loves Hannah! Do you know how many of my friends stopped talking to me after prom? Do you know how many of them would only come over to ask me about Hannah?.. Dan was my best friend! I liked him.. more than liked him.. but.. but I was angry at you and I wanted you to hurt and I threw him at you for ONE NIGHT! And you just.. just in a few hours you stole him from me! And you saved me. And you saved everyone else. And everyone knew it too!”
She shifted her other arm around and laid it over her eyes to hide her tears.
“and for just that moment while I watched you smile at me.. while a monster killed you and you were so pleased to have given us even a little bit more time.. I was glad.”
She slowly pulled herself up to standing, pulled her arms around herself in a tight hug and looked at me with wide sad eyes.
“I can never forget that Al, I can never forgive myself for it. The MPA came in and rescued us but you were hurt and they offered.. They offered to make it easier on you.. Like you were weak. Like you needed protecting!”
Sarah’s mouth opened into a thin, painful smile and she took in some gasping breaths.
“I was disgusted with myself Al. I hated myself.. but I still agreed to it. You may have been better than me again, but I got to remember it, and you didn't.. and.. and I knew about magic too.”
She took a step closer to the car and glared at me.
“I had magic, finally I had something in my life you couldn't take from me!”
Her arms came lose and she swept one across her eyes fiercely.
“You deserved the truth Al. I was selfish, by the time we got home I was thinking clearer. I could see what I’d done and that I’d hurt you again. After only just seeing how badly I could hurt you for my own stupid ego, my first chance to do it right and I hurt you again!”
She gripped the edge of the car’s roof and frowned deeply.
“I tried to console myself with the fact that I was doing it for you. If you don’t know about magic your safer. I spent the whole night going around in my head about how I was doing it for you and it wasn't my fault.. but I knew.. I saw what happened in that hall, the same thing that happened to dad.. I KNEW you were a mage.”
She slapped her hand down hard on the car roof.
“How could you not be? I found magic. Of course you had to be better again!.. an.. and mages.. the not knowing about magic thing.. it doesn't apply to mages. It’s safer for a mage to know.. and I didn't want to tell you..”
Sarah let out a gasping sob and half collapsed against the car.
“..and you forgave me”
I shifted my feet a little, tempted to come around to her side and help her.
“I nearly got you killed, I treated you like crap, I took away magic from you and I RUINED Hannah.”
Her chest hitched and she breathed out harshly.
“and you forgave me, like you always do. You were the better person as always.”
She shuddered hard and finally sank out of sight by sliding down the side of the car.
I tentatively stepped around to her side so I could see her curled up against the back tire.
“I'm just like dad.. It took me a while to realise it but when I did.. I've been going crazy for months now trying to convince you that magic’s real.. to give it back to you, To fix what I broke, but everything I did just made you more sceptical!”
I paced over to her and sank to the floor myself.
She glanced at me, offering a truly broken smile.
“It’s still not right Al. I ruined Hannah for you and all the rest and even today.. even today I was so happy to finally fix it. To give you back magic.. but when Karl looked at you like that, amazed that you were a mage.. I felt it again”
I held my arms out for her and she dived into them for a vicious hug.
“I don’t deserve you Al. I'm so.. so sorry”
She buried her head in my chest and broke down crying.
I settled my legs out wide and hefted her over onto my lap for support.
We sat like that for a while, just rocking back and forth while she cried.

==============

“You didn't ruin Hannah”
Sarah pulled away from me sharply and glared.
“Of course I did, I-“
I snarled deep in the back of my throat and she went quite.
“Let me talk.. you didn't ruin Hannah. We’re not kids any more Sare.”
She was shaking her head, obviously ready to argue.
I placed my finger on her lips and shook my head back at her.
“For a few months you went a little crazy. I was hurt by it, I hated it, I hated you, I hated.. I hated Hannah”
She tried to speak but I kept my finger tightly in place and frowned at her.
“But Hannah isn't.. we made Hannah. She’s ours. She’s part of me. At your worst you never did anything permanent. You never publicly exposed me or ruined my life”
Sarah shook her head again.
“I wanted to..”
I nodded and smiled at her.
“but you didn't. You stressed me out, made me doubt myself and you.. but you didn’t push it.. you didn't ruin what we had.”
Sarah sniffed and hugged herself closer to me.
“I don’t deserve you”
I chuckled and rested my head on hers.
“Probably not but I suppose I’ll have to be the better person won’t I?”
Sarah gasped and looked up at me for a moment before smiling.
I grinned at her and settled her head back down.
“Idiot”
She giggled against me, it felt good to have her laugh again.

“Think you’re in any state to drive? It’s getting dark. I hear there’s dangerous things in the dark. Vampires and such..”
Sarah snorted and pulled herself away from me with a smile.
“yeah, I think I can handle it.. Smartass”
I grinned at her in response.
“Come on then, let’s get over to John’s motel and give him a call. I'm sure he can put us up for the night. God knows, he’s got enough rooms to spare.”
Sarah’s smile dimmed but she nodded anyway.

======================

“Sarah? Have you seen my-“
I stepped out of the bathroom and spotted the mages guide sitting awkwardly on my bedside table.
Sarah was sitting a little away from it looking nervous.
“You can look at it, ya know? No need to hide it”
She deflated a little.
“Thanks, sorry, I'm just curious. Mages are really uptight about their guidebooks.”
I nodded and sat down next to her.
“I can see why, the map’s useful if nothing else”
She grinned and nudged me with her leg.
“You know you have to go to work right?”
Her eyes went wide and she shot off the bed.
“Crap, I'm gonna be late. Are you gonna to be okay on your own?”
I waved her off with a grin.
“I'm sure I can amuse myself, if nothing else I can drop round John’s office if I get bored”
She smirked at me and nodded.
“Don’t lose the book, I call dibs reading it after you”
We shared a smile but she dived quickly into the bathroom moments later.

================

Waiting a week for my official tests had been hell.

Sitting here with Sarah waiting for the results was worse.
“Mr Cooper?”
This doctor was a lot more tall and spindly when compared to Doctor Miller.
She creep-ed me out a little to be honest.
Her current smile wasn't helping, it showed a bit too much teeth.
“Your results are in and they are fascinating”
A shorter man with a wide bushy moustache came up behind her, coughing nervously.
The doctor woman jumped a little and cringed.
“Um. Sorry, fascinating for us from a magi-science stand point but.. um.”
She seemed to flounder for a moment then settled a hopeful look to the robed man.
“Hello Mr.Cooper, I'm Healer Parsons and this is division G-0’s head of cognitive magic research Ms.Silvante”
He held his hand out for a shake which I accepted easily.
That was a much better introduction.
Ms.Silvante seemed to think the same if her pained expression said anything.
Healer Parsons turned to Sarah and shook her hand too.
She smiled in appreciation, Ms.Silvante now looked really awkward.
I almost felt sorry for her.

“As you may have gathered your results were.. Interesting”
Interesting.. I'm getting tired of that word.
Interesting never leads to anything good.
“I have to ask you this Mr.Cooper.. have you or any of your family had a history for synaptics abuse?”
Sarah’s head swivelled to stare at me and we shared an incredulous look.
“I'm sorry?”
Healer Parsons Shoulders slumped but he looked more worried than relieved.
“Mr.Cooper.. your results show a rather startling history of.. Memory tampering and compulsion spell damage to your core”
My breath hitched and Sarah brought her hand out to clutch mine tightly.
“I understand this can be a shock but unsanctioned memory tampering is a crime, I must ask..”
I stared at him waiting for the hammer to fall.
“Could any member of your close family or friends be responsible of such magic to your knowledge? Any mages who would have easy access to you for an extended period of time? The damage we are seeing.. it goes back a long way, the earliest recorded event we could recover was around you’re seventh birthday?”
My blood ran cold, I turned to Sarah.
She met my eyes and frowned deeply.
“M-U-M” she mouthed, quirking her eyebrow up questioningly.

Sarah had confided in me a few days ago, her worries about mum.
In the last two years, a lot of events seemed to not add up.
Even when you factored in Sarah’s knowledge of magic making her attract trouble.
At the core of most of them seemed to be mum.
She was the one who bought Sarah her magic tracking necklace because it was ‘pretty’.
She was the one who suddenly decided to take us out for dinner just before Sarah’s magic items stash was raided in a ‘burglary’.
She seemed to have a six sense for when Sarah was doing something with magic overall.
That’s why things eventually kicked off between her and me.
I’d stood in for Sarah while she went to get a book she needed, at the time I didn't know it was a magic book she was hunting for but for the first time since we were kids mum had been suspicious of me when I pretended to be Sarah.
She ended up sticking close to me all night and caught Sarah coming in through her bedroom window with no way for us to deny it all.

I shook my head slowly.
She couldn't do something like that, mums never done magic, she doesn't even know it exists..
..well.. that we know of at least?
I mean.. Theoretically she could be a mage or something right?.. she never..
My stomach rolled and I felt sick to my stomach.
Oh god..
Sarah squeezed my hand harder and her frown deepened.
“We don’t know of anyone exactly Sir.. but..”
She looked to me for permission.
I brought my hand up to my mouth and closed my eyes tight.
Slowly I nodded for her.
“Our mum, she’s been a bit.. I've had some worries about her in the past”
I didn't open my eyes when Sarah put her arm around me tightly.
I just settled into her hold and just focused on breathing.

mum.. why?

Magic is complicated. Family doesn't help. In this instalment we take one final giant step backwards. Events unfold including but not limited to: An assault on Bad Juju (with some assistance from a big stick) And Alistor has an identity crisis because Sarah has awkward teeth.

“And he was going like..”
My face scrunched up and I waved my hand around like crazy.
Sarah laughed so much she fell on her butt.
“I KNOW right? And Sally was like..”
My other arm came up and waved just as crazy.
Sarah snorted like a pig and carried on laughing.

“Come on kids, dinner’s ready”
I stopped mid hand wave.
Sarah frowned back at the house.
She shuffled over to me on her butt and threw herself around me in a hug.
“Alis”
She rubbed her face in my hair and grabbed my hands.
“Com’ on, dinna”
A sigh came out of my mouth but I let her lift me up instead of arguing.

We stumbled into the kitchen, Sarah leading the way as always.
“Go wash up”
Sarah nodded to mum and continued dragging me toward the bathroom.
She shot a look over her shoulder at mum and huddled closer to me with a giggle.
“Alis” She shot her head back at mum naughtily and grinned.
“Le’s swap” She Popped the ‘P’, her eyes wide with fun.
I sighed but shrugged anyway.
Sarah’s grin got really big and she yanked me into the bathroom.
“Com’on quick” She clicked out the ‘K’ hard and was already pulling her shirt over her head.
My back pushed tight against the bathroom door to make sure it was shut.
“Shoes first Sarah”
She huffed with her shirt up over her armpits.
She stood still long enough for me to bend down and untie her shoe laces before turning to undo mine as well.
“S’ert next” she tutted on the ‘T’.
I think she was trying to sound like mum.
“Sure, sure” I mumbled, having to help her get her shirt up over her head.
She did a little shimmy and dropped out of her shorts too.
“Com’on quick” she hissed at me.
I yanked my shirt over my head and dropped my shorts too.
We had to awkwardly shuffle around each other to get re-dressed.
“S’oes” She commanded with her foot out toward me.
It took me a moment to realise what was wrong.
“Socks first”
She grit her teeth at me and flicked her hand up.
I frowned but didn’t argue with her, she’s right we were taking too long.
Sarah sat on the closed toilet lid while I slid my socks onto her feet.
“Done Alis?”
I hopped a few times to get her other sock on my foot then bent down and put my shoes on her, tying them tight.
Sarah grinned at me in appreciation.
She went straight for the door but I stopped her with a raised hand.
This is why I lean against the door, I learnt from the last few times, she’s so impatient.
I managed to get her shoes tied tight on my feet and inspected her.
As usual she stood ready with her arms out.
This was all part of the fun of it for her by now.

It took longer than it should have for me to realise what was bugging me.
“Hairclips”
Sarah dropped her arms and glared at me.
I reached to undo them and offered her a shrug as compensation.
A few moments later I had the clips slid into my hair, either side of my face.
Sarah hummed happily and stroked the hair clips.
“P’itty” She coo’d out, popping the P as always.
I slowly moved her hands off my head, fixing her with my best warning look.
“You’re me. Nothings pretty”
Sarah pouted but nodded along.
“No pouting either”
Her eyes went sharp and she glared at me instead.
“No big wo’rds” she hissed out, her finger waggling in my face.
I sighed but she ignored it to keep waving her finger.
“Ta’wk ‘ike dis?” I imitated her.
She went back to pouting.
“Meany”

===========

“How was Cathy’s today Sarah?”
I shifted in my seat and grunted rather than answer.
Dad looked a little upset but he didn't tell me off for it.
Under the table Sarah kicked me in the leg, hard.
“Well at least one of you seems happy, how was Cathy’s Al?”
Sarah practically bounced in her seat and grinned at Dad.
“We did f’inga pain’in!” she cheered happily.
I had to resist the urge cover my head.
Mum started choking on her dinner for a few seconds but cleared it quickly.
Dad’s smile got a bit strained. He glanced between me and Sarah a few times.
“again?” Mum asked as if it hurt to even speak it.
Dad looked once more between me, with my head down trying to look innocent, and Sarah, looking wide eyed and guilty with her hand over her mouth.
“again” he sighed out, shooting me an upset look but turning to calm down mum first.
Mum was looking at us both in annoyance.
“How the he.. No, I don’t want to know. For the last time Al, Sarah’s clothes aren’t yours!”
I kept my head down and tried to avoid looking at Sarah.
“We’re T’wins” Sarah tutted out past the T.
Mum looked at her in warning but turned back to me again with a frown.
Dad took over explaining to Sarah.
“You’re twin’s honey but Al is a boy and you’re a girl. You can’t keep swapping clothes”
Sarah sat tense and glared at him.
I breathed in, ready for the explosion.
“We’re Twins, Alis wear’ mine, I wear ‘ers”
Sarah folded her arms and pouted hard as if she expected everyone to bow down to her logic.
I cringed.
Dad stalled just long enough for mum to jump in.
“Sweetie, it’s not right. You and Al can’t keep doing this, we have enough on our plates without yo-“
She shot Dad a glare.
“oh for god sake Gerald”
The dam broke and Dad started laughing.
“Alice” he managed between laughs, his hand came up to rub my hair.
“Alice Cooper, perfect. How did I never think of that?”
Mum growled at him which shut him up quickly.
She shut her eyes and brought a hand up to rub at her temple.
Dad took the chance to look over at me and fake an air guitar.
My hand cupped over my mouth to cover my smile from mum.

==============

I lay in bed, still awake despite our early punishment bedtime.
“Alis”
Sarah’s voice hissed quietly at me from the floor.
With a sigh I put down my torch and book.
Careful to not make a noise I slid out of bed and slowly I crawled over to the vent in the corner.
A few tugs with my fingertips had the grate loose.
Sarah’s sleepy but grinning face came into view.
“Wanna’ ‘leep ‘ere?” She asked, mangling her words but I understood what she meant.
Her hand gestures have always been easier to understand then her spoken words.
It’s awkward to do while laying down, we tended to stick to short one word sentences and gestures usually.
It’s easier to talk silently at night if you use your hands anyway.
To be honest, I think she’s just being lazy with words when she talks.
She understands me fine and she’s far too clear when we talk with our hands for it to be how she really thinks.

I shook my head and waved her back toward her bed.
She looked a little hurt so I raised a hand for attention and wiggled my fingers.
Eventually she sighed in disappointment but she understood.
With Mum being mad about earlier the last thing we needed was her catching us sharing again too.
Sarah shuffled off and I slid the grate back in place.
“N’ite Alis”
My mouth shifted into a smile.
“Night Sarah”

============

“I'm just saying it’s weird, Gerald”
I looked up from my book but there’s not much I can do about it.
Dad says the walls are thin and mums got a loud voice.
“Suze, come on, their just kids”
Mum obviously did something because he trailed off into silence.
“Last week they came home from Cathy’s and they’d already switched places, it’s not normal Gerald, they need to grow out of it soon or it will get them into trouble”
I frowned, letting my book drop into my lap.
Mum is always worrying about us swapping.
I don’t get why, Sarah finds it funny and it’s not like it hurts anyone.
“Suze, what can we do about it? We tried separating them and Sarah had a fit. We tried giving them different haircuts and Sarah had a fit.”
Mum didn't have an answer for that one.
If something happened she didn't like, Sarah DID tend to go off screaming and shouting like mad about it.
The haircuts had been horrible.
My hand came up to gently pat my shoulder length hair, just to make sure it was still there.
“We both know the kids are.. special.”
There was another long pause.
“Sarah is far behind her age group for speaking..” dad edged carefully.
“She will grow out of it, the doctors said so”
As always, mum jumped to defend Sarah.
“..and Al..” Dad continued, apparently not willing to argue the point with mum.
I pulled my blankets up higher and hugged them tight to myself.
“..The kids smart Suze.. Like your brother Joe, not normal smart”
Mum didn't answer, my imagination had her sitting down with her mouth in Sarah’s best pout.
“He corrected me on the crossword the other day, with only a glance at the paper.”
More silence.
“I caught him writing out math equations from your college prep work the day before that too”
Even more silence.
“He invented that sign language thing him and Sarah are always do-“
Mum cut across him, a bit too loudly in my opinion.
“Okay, I get it Gerry. You’re little boy is oh so special. You’re so proud”
I cringed and pulled my covers partly over my head.
They didn't help.
“Suze..” Dad trailed off, his voice sounding hurt.
Mum didn't say anything back.
“..he’s your son too”
Neither of them said anything for a while.

============

“I don’t want him to turn out like Joe”
My book folded shut and I almost sighed.
I’d hoped that was the end of it.
“Joe’s successful Suze”
Mum snorted like a pig.
“Joe’s a shut in Gerry! He can’t cope with the world, he’s constantly in his own head working out.. working out.. I DON’T KNOW.”
She was breathing hard.
“He was always like that, even when we were kids. We’d get sent out to play and he would sit there counting grass so he could work out how much was in the whole field”
Dad was quiet for a while this time.

“Maybe that’s why they do it?” Dad asked, sounding a bit surprised.
Mum grunted.
I scrunched up my face in confusion.
“What?” Mum finally snapped, asking the question we both wanted answered.
“Why Sarah and Al keep swapping places. As much as you like to jump the gun at Al for it, we’ve both seen them go off to swap before. Sarah is usually the instigator.”
My face stayed scrunched up. I made a note to find out what in-sti-gay-tor meant in the morning.
“She’s not-“ Mum started but stopped for some reason.
“Let’s not argue that again. My point is that.. maybe pretending to be Sarah.. maybe it helps Al connect with the world.. maybe Sarah knows it and that’s why she encourages him”
Mum grumbled a bit but didn't give an actual answer that I could hear.
“They’re kids Gerald” she finally ground out, as if we were stupid or something.
“They’re twins Suze and at least one of them, possibly both of them is special.”
Mum didn't answer at first, then she sniffed loudly.
“Can’t they just be normal?.. sometimes I just wish..”
Dad made some murmuring noises.

I’d heard enough, too much honestly.
Quietly as possible I reached under my bed and pulled out Dad’s ear defenders.
He let me keep them when he showed me around his tool shed.
I don’t think he realised at the time, just how much use I would get out of them.
A normal kid would have gotten bored of them pretty quickly.
A normal kid would..
I don’t know..
What would Sarah do? Dad said she wasn't normal either but.. she’s closer.
Sarah doesn't read books, she doesn't do maths, and she doesn't write or speak well either.
..but Sarah’s more normal..

I looked over at my half-read copy of Lord of the rings.
After a few seconds considering it, I lifted the heavy book up and slid it under my bed.

=============

“Al honey, can you go get Sarah’s shoes for me?”
My legs almost moved on their own but I stalled at the last minute.
With a deep breath I turned back around and gave mum my best version of Sarah’s pout.
“I don’ wanna”
Mum froze half way through tucking in Sarah’s vest.
Slowly she turned around to look at me.
She flinched hard when she saw the pout.
I must have got it spot on.
“Al.. what’s wro-“
I cut across her, stamping my foot and scrunching both my hands into fists.
“I don’ wanna, I don’ wanna, I don’ wanna!”
Mum looked shell shocked.
From behind her I could see Sarah staring at me with her mouth dropped open in shock too.

==========

“I'm telling you Gerry, it was uncanny. For a minute I thought I was dealing with Sarah having a hissy fit”
Dad snorted
“You’re over-reacting Suze”
Mum growled, in my head she had Sarah’s pout again.
“It was scary Gerry.. Al.. a boy shouldn't be able to just pout and look like that.”
Dad didn't seem to have an answer for her.
“Didn't you notice at dinner? Since last night, Al’s started copying Sarah.”
Dad coughed awkwardly.
“They’re twins Suze. We've covered this, they're bound to react alike”
Mum growled again.
“This isn't them acting alike Gerry. Everything’s changed, Al’s body language is different. At first I thought they’d managed to swap places without me realising it but Sarah was acting normal”

Quickly I yanked Dad’s ear defenders on so I didn't have to hear any more.

It wasn't working.
I acted like Sarah but it just made Sarah more normal and me weirder.
Maybe if I.. well I could.. Sarah would go for it at least..
I’ll check with her in the morning.

==============

“Sarah, Al, come down for breakfast”
Sarah giggled and grabbed my hand.
We staggered down the stairs.
I was nervous but Sarah was excited.
“Mornin’ mum” Sarah chanted like normal.
“Hi mum” I added tentatively, keeping my tone light as possible to keep up with Sarahs.

Slowly mum turned around to look at us with wide eyes.
“Oh no..”

===============

Dad didn't sound pleased this time.
“Both of them?”
“Yep, both of them. Standing there bold as brass. Both wearing Sarah’s nighties like it was normal”
Dad sputtered a bit.
“I tried to convince them to go and get changed but..”
She paused and continued angrily.
“Gerry, don’t give me that look! I had to get to work and the moment I tried to argue with them, they BOTH sunk into hissy fit’s”
There was another short pause, then mum continued in a sharp tone.
“They were in sync Gerry, they fed off each other. In the end I had to yell over them that they could stay that way just to shut them up”
Dad sputtered to himself.
“B..but you sorted it before they went to Cathy’s right?.. right?”
There was a painfully long pause.
“Suze” Dad uttered, sounding offended.
“You weren't there Gerry! I tried to get them dressed and it just set them off again. In the end I told them to dress themselves and they shot off-“
Dad sighed loudly.
“oh boy..”
Mum let out a mirthless laugh.
“Exactly.. Cathy was ever so surprised when the twins turned up today in color matched sun-dresses”
Dad groaned and made a loud ‘thunk’ sound somehow.
“And the worst part Gerry.. The worst part that really worries me is that they had fun today.”
Mum made a strange snorting laugh noise.
“Both of them had fun Gerry. Al didn't read a book all day, he joined in with the others. Apparently he followed Sarah around all day and Sarah introduced him to everyone as Alice and the other kids just accepted it..”
She sniffed loudly.
“I don’t know what to do Gerry. Are we bad parents? Should we take Al to a shrink?”
Dad made a low grumbling sound but it didn't sound like he was disagreeing with her.

I slid on my ear defenders.
I’ll have to get dressed quick tomorrow. I need to check what a shrink is apparently.

=================

I stumbled a little as we walked out the front door.
Sarah’s shoes are slippery to walk in, her dragging me by my hand isn't helping.
My head keeps trying to sink down too, I got up too early.
It was useless anyway, my dictionary has nothing about a shrink.
It’s a verb for making things smaller, there’s no such thing as ‘A’ shrink.

“Alis com’on” Sarah gave me a hard yank toward the car and I staggered head first into it.
Sarah gasped, her hands came up to stroke my head better.
I looked at her a little stunned, she looked guilty and she was already crying.
Mum came out of the house in a rush.
For a split second I considered my options.
What would Sarah do…
..no..
What would Alis do?
Slowly I scrunched my face up tight.
My hand came up to cup the bump on my head and I let out a scream of pain.
Mum dropped her keys and Sarah joined me in crying fully.
I felt kind of guilty when mum looked at us as if she had no idea what to do.

After a moment her face fixed into a pained look of determination and she approached us.

==============

“I can’t keep this up Gerry.”
Dad didn't answer her.
“Something’s seriously wrong with Al”
Dad snorted.
“That’s an understatement, he called me Daddy today”
Mum gasped.
“Exactly, the kid hasn't called me Daddy in years.. Sarah does but Al..”
They both went quite.
I fiddled nervously with my blanket.
The temptation to reach out and get a book was strong but I carefully resisted.
Alis wouldn't read a book.
I decided I’d heard enough.
Slowly I slide my ear defenders out from under the bed.

For a moment I considered them with a frown.
Sar..Alis..
Alis wouldn't wear them at night.
I needed them though.
In my head I considered the options and decided.
Tomorrow I'm bringing them with me to Aunt Cathy’s.
She’s got arts and crafts stuff.. Sarah can help.

With that decision made I slipped them on and settled down to sleep.

==============

Mum seemed a bit surprised that me and Sarah weren't wearing dresses again today.
I still had on Sarah’s stuff but she was wearing shorts and I had her overalls on instead.
She didn't say anything, but I think mum was a bit relived.
We got out to the car without incident and she dropped us off at Aunt Cathy’s.

Sarah grabbed my hand the moment we got in.
She tried to pull me down the hall but I leaned back.
She turned around to shoot me a confused look.
I raised my backpack up to her and nodded towards the crafts cupboard.
Sarah’s eyes went a bit wide but her smile got wider.
“Aun’t Cat’y, we do c’afts?!” She yelled out at the top of her voice.

Aunt Cathy looked around at her in surprise but looked back down as Gary and Tom grabbed her pants leg for attention as well.
Quickly she looked back at us, more specifically me, and nodded.
“Okay but don’t make a mess. I’ll call you for breakfast”
Sarah cheered and did a little dance hop.
I copied her which seemed to make her smile even more.
Her smile was so big it looked painful.
“Com’on” she told me, giving my arm a yank towards the crafts cupboard.
As we moved I grabbed the foot stool and dragged it with us so I could reach the middle shelf.
That’s where Aunt Cathy keeps the pipe cleaners and the ribbons after all.
=============

“P’itty” Sarah uttered in awe.
Her hand was stroking my hair and patting at the ear defenders.
Aunt Cathy came in the door just then and jolted back with a gasp.
Sarah dropped her hand guiltily but her smile was still there.
My smiled matched hers.
We stared at Aunt Cathy for a moment.
Slowly I dropped my mouth open like Sarah does when she wants to be cute.
“Meow” I let out, my hands coming up to my chin, folded over like paws.

=============

Mum gasped and stared at me with wide eyes.
It was almost automatic by now for me to pose and let out another ‘meow’
She looked confused, glancing between my new looking ear defenders and my clothes a few times.
It probably wasn't helping that I was currently in Sarah’s shorts instead of her overalls.
We swapped a few times through the day.
I don’t think Aunt Cathy worked it out.
She seemed to think Sarah just liked my ear defenders now.
Who could blame her if she did?
The cat ears took ages to make with cardboard and pipe cleaners, the ribbons cover the scratched paint too. The ears took the most time obviously because they need to be strong so they don’t break when I go to sleep.
“Sarah wh-“
Mum abruptly stopped as Sarah came cannoning past me and ran into mums arms with a playful giggle I've still not managed to get right yet.
Mum’s face went a little pale.
With one arm hugging Sarah’s excited self, her other one came up to rub at her temple slowly.
I grinned at her and tried my own giggle.
Judging by mum’s spasm, I think I got it right this time.

=============

Mum was breathing heavy, I think she’s stopped for now.
I kept my kitty ear defenders on at first though, she still sounded really angry.
“-call in sick tomorrow Suze. I can drop Sarah off at Cathy’s and have a word with Al, okay?”
Mum sniffed loudly but didn't answer him.

Slowly I rolled over and pulled my ear defenders back on.
Sarah’s not going to be happy about that.
I don’t think I’ll tell her about it.
Even I don’t like it when Sarah goes off having a fit about stuff.

=============

Dad gaped at us.
Sarah was grinning her head off.
She pulled me past Dad so we could get out the front door to the car.
With my free hand I reached up and patted my ear defenders, just to make sure they were still on my head.

============

Dad slammed his door shut and let out a long slow breath.
From here, with the doors shut, I could hear Sarah’s screaming already.
Aunt Cathy is not going to be happy with Dad any time soon.
I think dad knew it too.
He looked back at the house for a minute before turning on the car and pulling us onto the road.
As we drove away I slid my ear defenders down around my neck.
Sarah’s loud when she’s mad.

“Okay.. uh.. Al.. is there anything you want to tell me?”
I stared at him with Sarah’s big wide innocent look but didn't answer.
He glanced away from the road and flinched hard when he saw it.
“oh god..” he groaned out under his breath.

For a while he didn't look at me.
Eventually he sighed deep and pulled us into a parking spot.
“Come on, we can go sit in the park”
I nodded and hopped out after him.
He seemed surprised when I sprinted past him to get to the swings.
Sarah loves swings.
Alis should love swings.
It just makes sense.
Dad called to me before I could get anywhere close to them though.

“Al-“ he cut himself off and glanced around at the other parents.
He looked hard at me for a moment too.
Self-consciously, I fluffed Sarah’s dress a bit by swinging my arms and tried not to fidget.
“Alice” Dad finally said.
It looked like it hurt for him to say it.
I gave him my best big Sarah smile, it didn't help if his look was any indication.
“Come sit on the bench first, we need to talk”
My shoulders slumped but I followed him with a bit of relief.
I didn't really want to go to the swings anyway, it’s just what I should do to be Alis.
Sarah like swings.
Dad says I get motion sick on swings though.

“Al..ice..” Dad started slowly, stalling over the name.
I dunno why, Alis is most of my name.
Dad sighed loudly and sunk his head in his hands for a moment.
“Kid.. what's going on with you?”
My mouth dropped open and I stared at him.
“You’re mum might be in denial but I know you understand things more then you should”
He shifted his back and leaned into the bench a little.
“Why do you let Sarah dress you like.. like this?”
He waved his hand toward the dress.
I looked down and kicked my legs a little instead of answering.
“..and the swapping thing.. and the last few weeks.”
He didn't sound angry, just confused.

We sat in silence for a while.
I cracked first, I hate awkward silences.
“Sarah likes it”
Dad sighed deep and stared off into the distance a bit.
“That’s part of it, what else? The last few weeks.. you have us a bit worried to be honest..”
I didn't answer him.
After a while he seemed to give up.
“This Alice stuff.. I mean.. what’s going on with that? Do you want to be a girl, like Sarah, is that it?”
My head jerked up and I gaped at him.
He stared hard at me for a moment and seemed even more surprised than I did.
“..that’s not it, is it?..”
Slowly I looked back down and shook my head.
My throat bobbed and I had to remember to breathe out for a second.
“Sarah doesn't know.”
Dad’s eyebrow tweaked up at me.
“She can’t say Alistor. She doesn't know any better so she says what she can.”
Dad glared hard for a moment in thought before his eyes went wide in realisation.
“Al-is?” He said it more like a question then a name.
I nodded though.
“She can’t do hard ‘T’s yet. In ‘Natural Health’ they said that some kids have different teeth that can’t do it until they’re older..and a lot of them get self-conscious about it so I didn't correct her”
Dad looked a little stunned but slowly nodded along in agreement.
He probably read the same article, it was his magazine not mine.

“That’s not all of it though, is it?”
My head shot up again then I guiltily moved it back down.
“That’s what Alis means to Sarah. What about to you?” he made a point to speak out the name to make it obvious it wasn't a girl’s name to him this time.
I sighed and tried to push deeper into the bench.
“Alis.. Alice..” I trailed off putting emphasis on the second one to show him what I meant.
He seemed to get it a bit.
He looked a little ill when he did though.
“I.. I heard you and mum the other day”
Dad gasped and his face got really tight with worry.
“The walls are thin” I stated in a rough tone, giving him a half smile.
Despite himself, dad let out a little laugh.
He’d told me that whenever he caught me playing with Toys after bed time when I was younger.
Looking at it logically, I don’t think he realised how true it'd been.
With everyone in bed and the TV off, the house was so silent you could hear a pin drop.. or any conversation above a whisper if you were close enough.
I don’t think Sarah could hear them at least, that’s something.
Her room is on the other side of mine so there’s enough space to hide the sound.
She’s never mentioned it anyway, and when I sleep in her room sometimes, I've never heard anything.

“Look kid, I-“
My hand came up and waved away dad’s words.
I don’t need him to apologise.
“I'm weird. I know that.”
He built himself up to argue but I stared up at him and he went quiet again.
Slowly I reached up and pulled my ear defenders off from around my neck.
For a while I just stared at them hard.
“Dad.. I know I'm weird. I know it scares mum and it worries Sarah”
He didn't answer, his eye twitched though instead.
“Sarah started calling me Alis in school a while ago. I don’t know why she did it so suddenly but everyone copied her after a while.”
My hands fumbled with the ear defenders for a moment, as I considered how to get the words out.
“When mum said about it the other day.. It hurt.”
Dad’s slipped over and squeeze my knee a little bit.
“But.. but she’s not wrong, ya know?”
Dad’s hand squeezed a little harder, I kept my eyes on the ear defenders.
“I don’t know how to be normal Dad.. but I.. I can be like Sarah.”
Dad flinched and I could feel his eyes on me.
“I've been trying to be normal for the last few weeks.”
My free hand gently stroked the ribbon I’d wrapped around the band of my protectors the other day.
“I started asking myself what Sarah would do in stuff but that didn't work.. so.. I asked myself what Alice would do..”

Dad’s hand didn't move from my leg, I don’t think he moved at all for a while.
I focused on the defenders, stroking the ribbon ends and patting the cat ears I’d made for them.
I'm kind of proud of them, they look cute.
A girl.. Alice, Alice would love them.. and the ears are really strong, I liked that.
“I don’t think Sarah has realised. I think she’s just happy I'm doing more stuff with her.”
My hand shook a little.
“I don’t want to be weird dad”
Dad let out a slow breath as if it hurt.

“You’re not weird”
My head shot up and this time I stayed staring at him.
“You’re special Al..” He glanced around and eventually settled back on me with a small smirk.
I couldn't resist the small smile that came out.
“Special people, it’s okay to be special Al. You.. Some people don’t get that.”
He sighed and shut his eyes for a moment.
“You’re mum.. She means well. She doesn't get it either though.”
He shook his head a little.
“She grew up with your uncle Joe around, I didn't meet Joe until college.. By the time I met him, Joe was comfortable with himself, he was blowing the grade curve on every subject and enjoying it..”
His hand left my knee and cupped together with his other one.
“Suze.. Your mum, she just remembers him as he was, an awkward kid who no one understood and people teased. She can’t see the happy person he is now.”
I kept my mouth shut.
Uncle Joe only visits around Christmas time, mum always tries to keep him from doing anything.
It’s like she’s worried he’ll break something or get hurt if he does something.
I know he’s okay though.
He used to be put in the TV room with us.
He caught me reading a book and we talked a lot.
Sarah didn't like it, she kept trying to tug me to go play with her toys but he’s nice and he seemed happy.

“Mum loves you, don’t doubt that Al”
My nose scrunched up, I had my doubts.
Dad seemed to notice because he pulled me into a soft hug.
“She does love you, she just.. She doesn't understand you. She gets Sarah, she understands Sarah and maybe she goes a bit too far defending her at times..” he trailed off as if he was talking to himself instead of me for a moment.
“..but she loves you a lot. I think she’s been realising just how much over the last few weeks.”
He shifted me a little and I ended up sitting on his lap.
He wrapped his arms around me and popped his chin on my head like he used to.
“You really scared her Al. At first she was kind of happy, worried about you dressing like a girl obviously, but happy that you were making friends and acting.. normal”
I could feel his chin tense at having to say that word again.
“She thought this was her chance to finally understand you.. but as time’s gone on she’s gotten more and more worried about you.”
He sighed and rubbed his chin on my head.
I'm kind of glad I took the ear defenders off, he would have broken them.
“She doesn't want you do be a clone of Sarah. You don’t need to.. to be an Alice for us to care about you kid. We both love Alistor just as much”
A smile spread on my face and I nuzzled back into Dad.
He let out a sigh and relaxed a bit along with me.

“Seeing as you’re dressed like that..”
Dad let go of me and gave me a little push so I would stand up.
“How about we go pick up Sarah and I take my daughters shopping? Ice cream may be involved too”
My mouth dropped a little.
“Dad!” I hissed at him.
He looked amused.
“I'm not a daughter, I don’t want to go shopping either”
His mouth moved into a full smile and he knelt down to my level.
“Not what it looks like from here sweetie”
Slowly he brushed the side of my.. of Sarah’s dress and nodded at me as if it proved a point.
I didn't hesitate to bring out Alice this time, Sarah’s pout and foot stamp did a good job of showing that I wasn't amused.
Dad laughed at it though.
“Let’s face it kid, both of us are going to need to do something to calm Sarah down. I figured a shopping trip with her sister and ice cream would do a good job of it”
My eyes went wide for a moment and I shuddered.
Sarah is not going to be happy.

============

Dad stayed in the car and waved me toward the house.
Even from here I could hear her.
I slide my ear defenders carefully onto my head and had to hold back from ‘meow’ing.
It’s weird how much some cardboard cat ears and a day’s worth of pretending can affect you.

My hand was hurting a bit by the time the door opened.
Aunt Cathy took one look at me and gasped in relief.
She mouthed something that started with
“Thank god”
I could tell by the way her mouth waved about.
Quick as possible, I moved past her and ran upstairs following Sarah’s muffled voice.

She was in the guest bedroom.
Apparently she’d worn herself out in the time it took for me and Dad to talk.
She was laying on the floor yelling her head off but she only banged her hands and feet once in a while instead of a full on fit.
“Hey Sarah!”
I had to shout it just in case she couldn't hear me.
She abruptly stopped shouting and her eyes went wide.
In the time it took for me to slide my ear defenders down she was up on her feet and glaring at me.
“ALIS! Where’d ya go?!”
She didn't give me a chance to answer before she dived at me in a tackle and we ended up in a mess on the floor.
She sat up after a moment, looking pleased with herself, but settle back to glaring at me.
Luckily a mix of adult sized stomps from outside reached the doorway at that point and Dad marched in with Aunt Cathy close behind him.
Dad scooped Sarah off of me and wriggled her around in the air which made her eventually crack and giggle.
Aunt Cathy stood back a bit and sighed.
“Thank god that’s over”
She shot a tight look between me, Sarah and Dad before settling on Dad.
“Never again Gerry. I don’t care what the reason is, I'm never putting up with something like that again. How is Susan still sane?”
Dad looked guilty and apologetic.
It seemed like the right thing to do because Aunt Cathy didn't look TOO angry, now at least.

Sarah squirmed in Dads arms and he let her down.
She quickly ran over and grabbed me in a tight hug, rubbing her head in my hair like usual.
“Alis, don’ go ‘way ‘gain”
My hands came up and hugged her back.

“About that..” Dad trailed in.
I cringed a little, knowing full well that I wouldn't enjoy what came next.

===========

“Mum! We’re ‘ome!”
Sarah had a huge grin on her face.
She swished her new dress around happily and kept grinning at me.
I tried to smile but it didn't work too well.
This dress is awkward, and big, and fluffy.
Dad seemed amused about it, the lady at the store had been gushing over us for ages.
“The hell-“
Mums first words stalled.
I shot a look toward Dad and saw him glaring her into silence.
“Suse, can you come with me to talk downstairs for a minute?”
She stared at me and Sarah with wide worried eyes for a moment, but eventually nodded.
“Al, keep an eye on Sarah. Sarah keep an eye on your.. sister, we’ll only be a moment.”
I grimaced but Sarah giggled and pounced on me for another hug.
“Sister, sister” she chanted, rubbing her cheek against mine happily.
Dad gave me an apologetic look but he followed mum downstairs instead of saying anything.

I managed to angle us towards the TV room and turn it on with Sarah still clinging to me.
“Sister, sister” she chanted again, fluffing my dress out.
After a while she got engrossed in some show on TV with a load of girls in it.
At one point she squealed and hugged me close saying something about twins and Anna or something.
I wasn't really paying attention, with my ears strained I could just pick up the sound of yelling coming from downstairs.

==================

I didn't hear anything from mum and dad’s room last night.
They didn't talk at all.
It made me kind of worried.

Sarah seemed really excited this morning.
She dragged me out of bed and slipped one of her nighties on over my pyjamas while I was still waking up.
I managed to squeak out a protest when she grabbed my wrist and pulled me downstairs.
“Mornin’ mum” Sarah chanted out happily.
Mum turned around and I froze.
She didn't look happy, she looked tired..
..Then she saw me, and she looked angry.
I tried to pull back behind the door frame a little but Sarah wouldn't have it.
She was happy to just tug me toward breakfast with a skip in her step.
“Mum, can we wear th’ dress’s t’aday?”
She bounced on her toes in excitement.
Mum gave me a bit of a sharp look for a second but then she turned to Sarah and smiled at her.
“Of course you can, we can show you and Alice off to Auntie Cathy”
She sounded really excited for Sarah and glanced at me out of the corner of her eye.
Sarah squealed in happiness and hugged me tight.
“..but first, breakfast”

============

Dad didn't look happy when he walked into the TV room and saw me huddled up with Sarah in our fluffy dresses watching TV.
He eventually gave us a pained smile and walked back out.
“Susan” he called out.
There was a bit of talking I couldn't hear very well, something about a joke.
I was going to listen for more but they quickly went downstairs.

==============

Mum smiled at me and played with my hair like she always does with Sarah’s.
“Thanks mum” I grinned and ran back to the TV room with lunch.
Sarah reached out for her plate and smiled at me as I flopped on my belly next to her to watch cartoons.

Dad came in from one of his weekend chores, cleaning the car.
We both turned to smile at him as he walked by.
He smiled at us and continued on toward the kitchen.. Then he doubled back and stared at us with wide eyes.
His face went really red, he turned away from us and went quickly toward the kitchen again.
“Susan!” he called out in an angry tone.
Me and Sarah shared a look.
She tilted her head.
I nodded and flicked my wrist a little in response.
Without another word we turned back to the TV.
I reached out to turn up the volume.
Sarah giggled when my long skirt caught on my knees and tugged down a little to show off my undies.

===========

“Girls, dinner”
We rushed downstairs and stalled at the kitchen door because Dad was in the way.
“Susan” Dad sounded calm but he looked really tense.
I turned to Sarah, she nodded and puffed out her cheeks.
We both turned around and walked into the TV room to stay out the way until we got another call.
“Cathy suggested..” was all I heard from dad before the TV kicked in and Sarah got the volume turned up again.

===========

My head was groggy, it felt too early.
“Where’re we going dad?”
My mouth split in a yawn and it made my whole body shake a little.
It’s WAY too early, the suns not even out yet.
“I've got you an appointment, about this Alice stuff. It’s getting out of hand kid, a jokes a joke but..”
I quirked my eyebrows at dad.
He didn't seem to notice though.
Sometimes it would be so much easier if everyone could talk like me and Sarah.
“Okay” I yawned again, stretching out in the car seat while dad buckled me in.

===========

“You okay kid?”
Dad looked a bit worried.
I shuddered and pulled myself closer into the car seat.
That didn't seem to help Dad.
He looked really worried now.
“..The hell did Pastor Roberts do..” He muttered uncertainly.
I shivered and drew myself even tighter into the car seat.
Hell.
I'm going to hell and I'm taking mum and Sarah with me because of Alice!

============

As we pulled into the car garage I could hear Sarah yelling.
Dad barely had time to unbuckle me before mum came storming out of the house.
“GERRY!”
Dad flinched and looked at me uncertainly.
“GERRY! In the house, RIGHT now!”
Dad popped my door open and waved me to get out.
Mum took one look at my face and she looked even madder.
She cupped a hand on the back of my neck and gave me a shove back toward the front door, away from dad.
“I can’t BELIEVE you Gerry! We talked about this! What the he-“ she cut herself off and shot me an angry look over her shoulder.
“In the house, go talk to Sarah, Alice”
Dad’s face twitched, I flinched and my arms came up to hug my stomach.
“NOW!” mum roared.
I jumped and ran for it back inside.
Inside I couldn't hear what was going on behind me because Sarah was making a lot of noise.
Quick as possible I ran downstairs to find Sarah, she was in her room hitting the bed and screaming.
“Hey Sarah..”
She Froze and turned to me with her mouth dropped open.
“Alis”
I flinched and glared at her.
“I'm not Alice!”
Sarah looked really hurt, she sniffed a bit and had tears in her eyes.
I crossed my arms and looked away from her.
Pastor Roberts said I have to not be Alice, I'm not Alice!
“A..” her mouth trembled a little.
She reached out a hand to pull me into a hug.
I pulled away from her and darted out of her room into mine instead.
Boy’s don’t hug girls. That’s bad.
Pastor Roberts said so.

==============

Someone knocked on the door.
“Alice..”
It was mum.
She opened the door and her face looked really bad.
She had puffy eyes with messy makeup.
Slowly she came over to my bed and sat down by my legs.
Her hands were shaking but she reached out to stroke my hair.
I flinched away from her and turned over.
Pastor Roberts said..
..Mum strokes Sarah’s hair. She stroked Alice’s.
I'm not Alice.
“-m not Alice” I muttered aloud.
Mum gasped and her hand moved away from me slowly, it was still shaking though.
We sat like that for a while, then mum got up and walked to the door.
She stood at the door for a while too but I didn't turn around.
I'm not taking her to hell because Alice is bad!

==============

Aunt Cathy smiled at us.
Sarah smiled back but ducked her head to look at me quickly afterwards.
Aunt Cathy smiled at me for a moment then it faded.
“Alice, are you o-“
I yelled and stamped my foot hard.
“I'M NOT ALICE!”
Sarah jumped away from me a little, looking scared.
Aunt Cathy didn't look much better.
I huffed loudly and ran off upstairs.
Uncle George has some books.
Alice doesn't read books.
I'm not Alice!

===============

“-He’s been upstairs all day, won’t talk to anyone. He’s been reading George’s car manuals.. well, looking at them anyway, I don’t think he can read them?”
Mum’s face looked tight and angry.
She looked up the stairs at me and I ducked my head down.
Her and Aunt Cathy watched me make my way down the stairs, past them and out to the car.
Sarah quickly followed behind me but she didn't catch up to me or say anything.

===============

Dad stayed home today.
I don’t think he told mum about it.
She looked really surprised when we came into the house.
Dad looked up at us, his eyes looked weird.
He settled on me and I flinched.
Slowly his face scrunched up like he was going to cry.
He picked up a bottle off the table and drank from it.
“Gerry” Mum hissed through clenched teeth.
Sarah glanced at me, her hand came up to tug me with her but stopped short.
In the end she turned and walked into the TV room looking sad.
I watched mum stamp toward Dad but turned around and followed Sarah into the TV room instead of getting involved.
Bad kids argue with their parents, I'm not bad. I'm not Alice..

================

I woke up feeling warm but moving.
It took me a moment to realise I was being held.
I flinched and struggled to be put down.
Dad almost dropped me but it was enough to get my feet on the floor.
I staggered back a bit and almost fell on my butt.
Dad looked over his shoulder with a worried frown.

I shivered and hugged myself, my hands brushed sleeves that felt weird.
I looked down and saw I was wearing one of Sarah’s dresses.
It was really loose, I don’t think it fits her or me at all.
My hands came up and I could feel my ear defenders on my head.
Frantically I yanked them off and threw them across the room.
I was going to struggle out of the dress but Dad rushed over and scooped me up in his arms trying to hush me to be quiet.
“I'm sorry, I'm sorry.” He muttered quietly.
I winced and tried to get out of his arms again.
His breath smelt bad and he was holding me too tight.
Slowly he took a few steps closer to the car.
It was dark out still, I could see it through the window.
I could feel it, what he was thinking.
He was going to take me to Pastor Roberts again!
I'm not bad! I'm not Alice! I'm not bad!
I panicked and struggled against him.
“Hey, kid, watch-“ Dad staggered and tripped over a cable on the floor.
We almost fell on hard stone but Dad caught himself with a few fast steps forward.

“Daddy?”
Dad flinched.
He slowly turned around and we both could see Sarah standing in the door way.
She looked tired, and confused.
Her nighty didn't help, she shivered as she stepped out onto the cold garage floor.
Dad’s mouth flapped a little.
“Sarah, honey, go back inside okay? It’s too early”
Sarah looked between Dad and me.
She didn't seem fully awake at first.
Her head drooped a little and her eyes squinted but she finally seemed to realise what was going on.
“Oh no..” Dad got out before she opened her mouth and screamed.
Dad staggered toward her and almost dropped me in his rush to get to her.
“NO!” I yelled without thinking about it.
NOT SARAH TOO!
Dad grunted, there was a massive flash of light and I fell on the floor hard.
It really hurt, I couldn't help crying. My eyes hurt too.

As my eyes cleared I could see Sarah stood by the door, furiously scrubbing her eyes to try and clear them.
My head shot around and I could see Dad.
He was on the floor next to his work bench, a load of tools and some liquid was piled up around him like he’d crashed into it hard.
He looked really bad, his mouth was open and he was moving in little jerking fits, his whole body was folded in on itself like Sarah does when she has a nightmare.
A crash by the door made me swing my head again.
I felt kind of dizzy from the movement.
Mum stood in the doorway, her mouth open in shock.
She bent down, scooped Sarah up in her arms and stepped quickly toward me, her eyes focused on Dad the whole way.
I tried to stand up but my legs were wobbly, I managed a staggered step and then I was falling forward.
“Al-“ Mum got out but then the world blacked out around me.

================
================

It turned out that Dad was drunk, I didn't know that at the time.
The doctors said it looked like one of his tools had shorted out when he fell on the table.
He got electrocuted pretty badly.
When he recovered enough to be released things really went wrong.

He said that he was going to take me to a shrink when mum’d caught him.
Mum didn't believe him, they yelled a lot after that.
Dad kept looking at me weird whenever he saw me during the day.
Before bed time on the day he got out of hospital Mum lost it and kicked him out of the house.
She was really scary.
When he finally left she went into the TV room and sat on the sofa crying.
I tried to come and hug her but she pushed me away and yelled a lot.
In the end, I went downstairs to my room, to hide.

A while later I came back up, mum wasn't yelling any more.
I stood at the top of the stairs and watched her rock in the chair hugging Sarah tight.
Instead of going in again I made my way downstairs to my room.
Mum was okay with Sarah, not me.

That stuck with me fo-..
Wait?.. what am I doing?
It feels like my head is fuzzy, like.. like something warm’s pouring over my brain..
Why.. this feels familiar.. why would I..?

==============
==============

I stepped through the doorway
A bell above it rang out.
The shop was about as dingy as it appeared in the guide book.
Its offers and deals, those that I could see, were pretty dumb too.
The electronics and tech in the window were at least twenty years old but the prices were through the roof.
As cover stories for hidden magic shops went, it was probably quite successful.
I can’t think of anyone who would go in here with what was on offer from the window.

The mage guide’s map listed this place as a meeting point, center for potions ingredients, magic books, cut rate focus items and something called ‘the Sibs’, which were apparently a speciality item because it was highlighted.

I’d considered it for a minute or two but in the end there wasn't really a choice to make.
I needed more information, my official tests have me marked as a mage now, non-com status.
They tried to get me into a basic level mage course, apparently it’s all really simple stuff.
A lot of people don’t even go past the basic level course for some reason but everyone so far has gotten uncomfortable when I asked why.
The mage course won’t start for another few months though.
I CAN’T handle waiting that long.
If I can get some books on the course itself, at least I can read ahead on the more interesting topics.

Two old men sat at the front counter, it seems quite possible they could be dead.
Their pasty white skin was wrinkled beyond belief and neither of them twitched at the bell.
I couldn't even tell if they were breathing, my eyes may have kept coming back up to their huge bushy grey eyebrows though, they were impressively large.

I leant across the counter and jumped in fright when one of them moved.
His mouth gaped down and he let out a keening moan.
I staggered back into a display behind me.
To the right of the counter a door eased open, a large man.. a REALLY large man, made his way out.
He came to a stop in front of me.
I stared at him, he stared back at me with a blank look on his face.
For some reason it felt like his name should be ‘Darren’ or something..
He looks like a Darren to me.
“uh..hi?”
He looked at me and grunted as if only just noticing I was there.

“LURCH, how many times! Stop scaring the customers!”
The huge man turned away from me and looked across the messy shop floor towards the voice.
She looked young, really young when compared to the nearly dead men at the counter at least.
In all honesty though, she’s probably about the same age as me, maybe a little older.
She was dressed like a Goth, Black lace skirt with fishnet’s, dark hair, pale skin and big boots.
She almost looked like a stereotype instead of an actual Goth, if you really considered it for a moment.
I may have gotten distracted by her cleavage.

She came jogging up to me with a warm, oddly closed lipped smile.
I hadn't expected her to be so bouncy from the way she was dressed.
“Sorry about him, 5th generation Golem, you know how they can get.”
I may have been paying more attention to her smile then her words at the time.
I nodded along with her and took the chance to smile back.

The huge man, Lurch, a Golem apparently?
He walked off, taking his time to walk back through the door he’d originally come from.
We stood and watched him go.
The Goth girl seemed to watch him with fondness.
My eyes stayed fixed on him with caution, for some reason he put me on edge..
I still think he looked more like a ‘Darren’ then a ‘Lurch’.
When he finally shut the door behind him I turned back to the Goth girl.
She eagerly stuck out a hand for me to shake.
“Hi, I'm Fena.”
My eyebrow twitched a little at the name but I took her hand and shook it politely.
“I'm Al”
She smiled at me, staring into my eyes for just a little too long.

“Ahh” One of the old men groaned out suddenly.
We both jumped and our hands drifted apart.
Fena shot a glare at the old man on the left.
When she didn't get a reaction from him she turned back to me with a huff.
“Sorry about the Sib’s. They mean well at least but..”
She trailed off and looked a little pained.
I smiled at her cheerfully and shrugged.
She seemed to be happy to not finish that sentence, she took the chance to spin around and walk further out on to the shop floor.

“What can I do for you then? I've not seen you around before, new mage?”
I nodded quickly, trying not to show how much I’d been watching her ass as she walked.
Her smirk said that she’d noticed anyway.
“Well, what are you looking for? We don’t tend to keep the basic mage books around here.”
My smile fell a bit but I shrugged it off easily enough.
“I've got a long wait before they have a training slot open for me.”
Her eyebrow raised curiously but she didn't comment.
“I kind of.. Well I'm going to be bored really. I was looking for some books on interesting magic or magical history I guess.”
Fena smiled and nodded at me encouragingly.
Without another word she spun to face the book shelves lining the wall and started picking out books, seemingly at random.

“Okay, we have ‘Magical ‘Merica’, good for light reading and to get an overview on the hidden history behind the American civil war to present day”
She slapped a medium sized book with a green cover into my hands.
“Next I can suggest ‘Mage’s through the ages’, a nice who’s who list of known awakened mages, both active and sleeping”
A bigger, red covered book slapped down into my arms making me buckle a little.
“uh.. What’s an awakened mage?”
Fena paused with her next book in hand looking at me weirdly.
“Honestly, what do they teach you lot these days?”
She grumbled to herself a little but eventually moved back to me with a pleasant smile.
“An awakened mage is someone who’s unlocked their reincarnation memories”
My eyebrow quirked up at her.
She huffed in response.
“Reincarnation? Past lives, cultured experience?”
She frowned when I just stared back in confusion.
“Like.. the religion thing?”
She glared at me hard.
After a moment she set down the books in her arms with another huff and waved me over to a set of chairs in the corner.
“Come on, this is going to take a while to explain”

================

I smiled at Fina as she loaded me up with all her recommended books.
“Thanks for your help”
She shot me a mischievous grin back.
“Feels like you need all the help you can get”
We both laughed and smiled.
Reincarnation had been confusing but it lead into other topics.
Before long we’d been chatting for a few hours.
Fena knows a LOT about magic apparently.

We walked over to the second counter and she rang up my purchases.
My eyes flicked over the books titles, anxious to dive into them.
Out of nowhere, there was a loud ‘WHACK!’ sound and pain blossomed across the back of my head.
My brain felt like it was splitting in two, I almost blacked out from the pain.
Finally, after the pain had built up to unbearable levels, something snapped in my head.
I yelled out, falling backwards to the floor with a groan.

Slowly, like someone was pouring hot honey across my brain something was happening.
It hurt so much, lasting an eternity and only a moment at the same time.
..A flash of fangs, glinting with malice..
..A rat like blob of a man sniffing at me intently..
..Girls in see through pyjamas..
..A spindly Reginald..
..A grunting Darren..
When my brain decided to settled back into working order, the hot honey feeling seeming to cool down and fade, I let out a gasp for air in relief.
Slowly my focus turned back into the world going on around me.

“EDITH! I've told you before, stop hitting the customers!”
A gravelly woman’s voice grumbled for a few moments before answering.
“Bad Juju!”
Fena hissed at the back of her throat and glared.
I turned my head slightly to see who hit me.
It was a haggard old lady, she was standing there in a grey floral print dress that draped from her shoulders right down to the floor.
Just peeking out from underneath it were some fluffy pink slippers.
The lady, Edith apparently, pulled her shoulders up tightly and stuck her chin forward in challenge.
“She be trouble! Bad Juju. I be hittin’ her with me JuJu stick, as should”
She stated it in such a matter of fact tone, it felt like I should be agreeing with her logic.
She glared hard at Fena, it was pretty obvious she felt that Fena should apologise for interrupting her hard work or something.
Fena turned to me and shrugged sadly.
She mouthed a silent ‘sorry’ at me.
I offered her a wobbly smile and slowly pulled myself to a sitting position.
My mind was rebooting, the pain was going away too which helped.
“I think she scrambled my brain, I've got memories that..”
I trailed off, my face scrunching up a little.
These memories felt right, they were about prom.. They fit with what Sarah told me the other day..
Oh god.. What the hell was I thinking?!?

Fena’s nose crinkled up and she grimace.
I did too.
I can’t believe I just threw up..

==============

“Honestly, it’s okay. Nothing the Sib’s can’t clean up quickly”
Fena offered me a reassuring smile and I smiled back.
“Bah! No stomach to ya girl!”
We both frowned and glanced over at Edith.
She squinted back at us.
“Don’t be lookin’ at me like tha’, ya be useless girl! Can’t even take a little memory seal breaking without losing yourself..”
She trailed off into grumbles and waved her stick at me again.
I glanced at Fena in confusion.
She shrugged unhelpfully.
“What do you mean girl? I'm a guy..”
Edith glared at me like I was an idiot and waved her stick around again.
“Not be havin’ no time for ya young’ins an’ ya weird ways girl. Ya full of Bad Juju, come an’ I be helpin’ ya”
Without another word she turned around and started off towards the door behind the front counter.
I watched her for a moment then turned to Fena with a raised eyebrow.
She cringed a little and shook her head.
“Sorry, Edith’s a bit.. uh..”
My smile came back, much to Fena’s relief.
“She’s a bit crazy but somehow her hit unlocked memories in my head that the MPA sealed”
I rubbed my temple a little and groaned again.
All of the memories were back, kind of scrambled but there again.
I can kind of understand how scared Sarah must have been now.. Wow, vampires are assholes!
Fena stalled and ended up laughing nervously instead.
“That would be her Juju stick”
I looked at her sharply, the question on my lips but she continued first.
“Edith was a shaman a while ago. Her and her brothers are known as the Sib’s by most magic users around here.. to me, she’s more of a pain in the ass. Always uses Juju as an excuse to hit people, even when it isn't needed.”
We both shared a laugh and relaxed a little.

My shoulders tensed.
I spun around on the spot and caught Edith’s ‘Juju stick’ in the palm of my hand.
It hurt but it would have hurt a lot more if she had managed to hit my head again.
Seconds after catching it I let out a gasp and dropped the stick, my hand was smoking.
Fena rushed to a nearby desk and grabbed a bottle of water to pour over it.

I gripped my wrist with my other hand and winced, for some reason the burn didn't hurt as much as the sting from the sticks initial hit had.
“Ba! Ya truly be useless girl, fire ain't a right’un for ya!”
I blinked my eyes a few times and looked at her in confusion.
One of the older men at the counter slowly moved his arm up and gestured down toward my shoes.
“Ah” he intoned wisely.
I glanced down and jumped in shock, quickly scuffed my shoe on the floor to put the flame out.
Edith smirked at me, her sunken little eyes sharp and unsettling.
“Ya be no use to no-one with a trait like that girl!”
She waved her stick around and clipped me on the leg.
I went to yell out in pain again but a glance down stalled me into a choked silence.
My other shoe was on fire this time.
“Me Juju stick be showing yer’ nature girl. Ya be fire! Full of bad Juju and Fire.”
Edith huffed and hobbled away grumbling to herself.
“Back tomorrow. I be settin’ ya right on ya lines or else’n”
I gaped at her as she moved back behind the first counter.
She patted the old man who’d spoken on the shoulder and continued on through the door behind them.

Slowly I turned back to Fina who was trying to hide her smile.
Eventually I processed what had just happened and sputtered a little.
“Did she just?”
Fina nodded, grinning at me.
“Looks like she’s taken an interest in you Al.”
She shuffled her feet uncomfortably.
“Come by tomorrow, I'm sure she can help. She’s..”
I cut in, feeling the humour, as I finally got an idea of what was going on.
“Like Yoda in a floral nighty?”
Fina collapsed sideways into a chair laughing.
To my surprise one of the old men at the counter rolled back and gave a withered belly laugh.
He slipped sideways off his chair with a thump but didn't stop laughing.
His brother on the other chair slowly lifted his head up curiously.
“Eh?” He bellowed, his eyebrows furrowed.
I joined Fina in laughing.

====================
====================

My first impression of the Sib’s was.. that they were weird.
Training from Edith was useful and really worth it.
I wouldn't be the mage I am today without her help.
She-..
Huh?.. again? Why.. my.. my head..
I was thinking about Alice.. not Fena.. why am I.. what..
Sarah.. help..

====================
====================

I sniffed hard and pulled my pillow closer to my chest.
There were some bump sounds from over in the corner, eventually Sarah rapped out a demand.
I hesitated for a moment but inevitably got out of bed instead of rolling over and ignoring it.
Careful to not make too much noise and wake mum up I slid the grate out of the way.
Sarah looked back at me, her eyes oddly serious.
She nodded her head toward her bed.
I went to protest but she shook her head and pointed hard at it.
She stood up and moved back over to her bed.
With a puff of annoyance I slid my body through the grate’s hole
Sarah patted the bedding next to her.
Reluctantly I came over and sat down.

“Alis-“ she started but I cut her off with a hiss.
“I'm not Alice”
Sarah glared at me for interrupting.
“Le’s no’ do tha’ ‘gain”
I stared at her in awe.
Her voice had lost most of its usual cutesy tone and even some of her sloppy accenting.
I KNEW she was doing it on purpose!
“Wha’ ‘appened?”
My shoulders sagged.
“Dad took me to a Pastor last week.. a..about Alice”
She shifted closer to me and draped her arm around my waist.
I flinched hard but didn't pull back.
Girl’s can hug boys. Boy’s can’t hug girls.. Alice is bad.
“He.. he said th.. that me being Alice was bad.”

“Alis isn’ bad.”
Sarah’s nose crinkled up a little and she shook her head.
I pulled away from her and shook my head hard back at her.
“Alice is bad, Alice is gonna send me and you and mum to hell. Pastor Roberts said so..”
I trailed off and breathed hard for a while to calm down.
Sarah face shifted through a few different expressions, as she considered it all.
She settled on a sneaky smile, the same type she uses when she wants to pull off a twin swap.
“Alis is bad. So you can’ be Alis!”
My mouth dropped open.
I tried to shy away from her a little but she held tight to my waist.
Even Sarah wants me to be Al now.. weird, weird Al.
Tear’s started leaking out of the corner of my eyes.
I thought she liked me acting like her..
But she said Alice was bad and I can't be..

“hmm. ‘annah!”
I locked up and stared at her in confusion.
“What?”
She grinned at me and flicked my nose for being slow.
“You’re ‘annah, like on TV! ‘annah’s good, not bad like Alis”
Her logic was simplistic at best but.. She didn't hate me..
I smiled at her and she grinned back.
Carefully she tugged me sideways until we were settled into a cuddle together on her bed like usual.

For a while we just breathed, getting used to each other’s presence.
“We can’t tell anyone, they’ll call Pastor Roberts again”
Sarah nodded her head under my chin.
“We’ll have to make sure mum doesn't catch us too”
Sarah nodded hard on that one.
“You’ll have to call me Al most of the time”
She didn't look happy but nodded again.
“Hannah..” I muttered, shifting my head so my cheek was on the pillow better.
Sarah grinned in the dark and shifted closer to me.
“..I like Hannah. She sounds nice.”

================
================

We didn't last two days before Sarah asked me for her first ‘favour’.
Mum didn't really pay attention.
She was a bit out of it, because of Dad.
I don’t think she even noticed the changes in Sarah or me either..
Sarah grinned at me that day and said she needed a favour so she could go to the park.
She wanted to go play with the local girls in the park and.. and Hannah too.. with me.. kind of..
My smile stretched and I hugged her tightly.
She loved me, that’s all that mattered.

The logic of us making Hannah seems silly now but it was important to us at the time.
I-..
.. why am I explaining this?.. my head hurts.. wha..
I.. I know this feeling, why am I..
Oh..
..oh no..

Memories are funny things. In this instalment Al takes us on a whistle stop tour towards present day. Events unfold including but not limited to: A paper Ankh getting roasted (fire can be awkward like that sometimes) And Al meets a rather dandy man with excellent hair because.. well that would be telling wouldn't it?

“ugg..”
My shoulders drooped
Mage 101, class number five done.
Boring, boring mage 101.. we were practising pencil levitation again.
I got it down in five minutes the first day but for some reason most of the people there are struggling with it still.

I nodded to the receptionist on my way out of the Hub’s front door.
“See you later Felicia”
She looked up from painting her finger nails and smirked at me.
“It’s Stacy, this week” she called out casually.
I turned to walk backwards and grinned at her in return.
“You’ll always be Felicia to me sweetheart”
I mimed a kiss to her and she shook her head in amusement.
“I don’t kiss girls honey or clones, this week at least, but thanks for the offer”
I almost stumbled over my own feet and she cracked up laughing.
With a deep sigh I waved my arms dismissively and turned back to walking normally.
“Point to me!” she shouted with glee, no doubt pulling out the scoreboard she managed to get somehow a week ago to mark off another win.
Without looking back I waved a thumbs up to her in agreement and finished it with a wave.
I don’t get why everyone is so scared of her, it turns out the way to get on to her good side is to give as good as you get, who knew?
Before she could start something else to distract me I left the hub at a mild jog.

==========

“John?”
He tensed up and turned to look at me with confusion.
I was pretty tense myself.
What the hell is he doing around here?
Why would he be anywhere near here? He lives in one of his motels on the other side of town..
“Al?.. the hell are you doing here?”
My mouth twitched a little at that one.
“Back at ya.”
He smirked and made his way over to me.
“How are things? You and Sarah get the rat problem sorted in the end?”
I nodded and tried to not shudder.
It took a whole two weeks for the exterminators to clear the flat for us to move back in.
Every time they thought they had it cleared, more would come.
Sarah got a bit desperate in the end and went there after the first week.
She wore a lot of thick clothes, apparently she needed it.. they were swarming again.
After a bit of effort she got her hands on the flute and got out of there.
The rats ‘mysteriously’ went away after that.

Karl was happy.
Turns out the flute is a low grade enchanted item, comparatively, but more useful because of it.
Low grade enchanted items aren't very strictly controlled by the MPA, so they can be passed on to non-mages by a registered mage.
In this case, one of Karl’s cousins does animal control for the county.
Nice little income.
He’s now paying me rent for the flute every two weeks which I split with Sarah for the flat’s rent.
It’s a bit.. it’s one of those things that is technically in a legal grey area but everyone who can, does do it.
Mage’s have a thing for heirlooms, anyone who’s too afraid to go through their awakening and too passive to work as a commissioned attack or support officer tends to make their living renting out any enchanted items they acquire, especially members of the four families.

While I considered just how much to tell him, John got close and shoulder bumped me like he used to when we were kids.
I wasn't ready for it and almost went flying.
A few staggered steps saved my face from meeting the street but my bag decided to spill its contents instead while I struggled to keep my balance.
John’s grin dropped and he looked apologetic.
I gathered myself together again and shrugged his apology off but he bent down to pick up my stuff for me.

After he passed me back a few bits and pieces his hand settled on my mage’s guide.
He froze for a moment, I couldn't see his face but his whole body went ridged.
Slowly he picked up the guide and shifted it in his fingers.
His head moved up and he stared at me thoughtfully.
“You running errands for Sarah or something?”
I frowned and cocked my head in confusion.
“No, just taking the long way to work from the.. library. Why?”
John’s face melted from thoughtful to suspicion and settled on shock.
I stared at him with worry.
He’s not acting normal today.
His eyes squinted and panned around my face then seemed to settle above my left shoulder.
For a moment his mouth dropped in surprise but he quickly pulled himself back together and his face went blank.
“Arista”
It came out as barely a whisper.
Without another word he shoved the guide in my hands, stood up and marched away at a near sprint.
“John?..”
He didn't answer me, just turned the corner and disappeared.
I stood there for a moment trying to work it all out but in the end I gave up.
It’s not like this is the first time John’s been weird about things.
A sigh escaped me but I bent down to gather up the last of my stuff.
I’ll have to call him later on in the week to make sure he’s okay.

================

I nearly stumbled into the office.
Getting caught up with John made me a bit late.
The receptionist looked up and scrunched her nose at me.
She does that sometimes, I think she doesn't like just me personally to be honest.
I've never seen her do it to someone else.
“Almost late Cooper. Townsend wants to see you in his office”
I paused and blinked at her for a moment.
Her face smoothed a little and she shrugged.
“Probably about your leave, this IS your first day back with him here”
My head nodded for me and I tried to smile for her but it felt weak.
What the hell could old Townsend want from me?
I'm barely a blip on his radar, even if I HAVE been off for three weeks.

I carefully made my way to his open office door.
Out of the corner of my eye I caught what looked like a long white lab coat hanging on his hat rack tucked in the corner.
For some reason it felt like it should mean something, I couldn't remember it being there before at least..

“Cooper, in here now. Shut the door” Mr.Townsend’s voice sounded a lot deeper than usual.
I slipped inside and closed the door softly.
For some reason I had a bad feeling about this..

=================

“oww”
My back hurt.. my head hurt.
For a moment I dazedly looked up at the cloudy sky above before shaking my head clear.
My eyes shot a look up at the second floor window and I frowned.
Mr.. well.. the giant lizard man who, as far as I know, was Mr.Townsend a minute ago leaned his head out the window a little and hissed at me darkly.

Fight or flight kicked in.
Ignoring my body’s grumbles I rolled off the car roof.
My feet settled on broken and melted glass.
A glance told me that I’d totalled whoever’s car it was, my fall and what looked like a relatively large amount of fire damage had wasted the whole thing.
I’d have to go talk to Edith about it later.. well talk to Fena at least, she’ll likely be sympathetic at least. Odd’s are, Edith would be listening in anyway, she tends to do that all the time apparently.

One more glance at the now lizard-free window told me that I had to get moving.
With a hand cupped on my lower back I stumbled off onto the main road nearby.
Better to be in public when chased by a lizard man, unless he can turn back into Townsend with a thought?
I tensed up for a moment and regretted it because my back roared at me.
Reluctantly I picked up my pace and moved toward the subway nearby.
At least it’s easy to get lost in the crowds at this time of day.

=================

“Get lost, I'm meditating”
I could feel her mischievous grin without opening my eyes.
“oh, com’ on. We haven’t had a weekend out in ages”
Despite all attempts to the contrary my face frowned.
“I'm busy”
Sarah stamped her foot loudly.
“You’re always busy. All you do anymore is study, meditate or go to see Fena!”
I clenched my teeth and opened my eyes to glare at her.
“I'm-“
Sarah yelped and jumped back.
A glance downward showed that, yes, I had just set my paper Ankh on fire.
“Damn it!”
Not a clever idea.
Sarah took a few more steps away from me.
I quickly patted my leg where my nice comfortable track pants had started to smoke.

In the silence that followed I offered Sarah a mild glare but there was, ironically, no heat left in it.
“I need to meditate Sarah. I'm dangerous until I can get this under control, okay? I almost flash fried a HR rep today, she said that Townsend was threatening to press charges on me for sexual harassment”
Her eyes were wide.
“That filthy snake tried to.. and I jumped out a sodding window just to escape him! He’s got the utter gall to..”
With clenched teeth I patted out another smouldering fire that had started up on my pants again.
She nodded slowly.
Eventually I sighed deep and offered her a weak smile.
“You could always take Beth with you? You know my sizes too, right?”
She gave me a weak smile back but her eyes were sad.
“yeah.. yeah, sure..um.. I’ll go call her now.. see you later, okay?”
I gave her a nod and turned back to my meditation position with a sigh.
‘Ya be useless, ya need to control ya self girl. Don’t be needin’ my help’
Fena translated that into ‘go meditate, idiot’ for me but even then it wasn't helping much.
As soon as my stress levels spike I set something on fire, ever since Edith hit my with her stick for the second time.
At least the paper Ankhs work to divert the fire for a short while, I need to make more of them.
Apparently there’s some mythology involved, something about fire linking with life essence and its aspect being enforced by the papers nature essence.. or was it the Ankh’s connection to eternal life being inverted by the paper’s status as part of a dead tree being used to draw in the flame and extinguish it at the same time..?
Fena went into lecture mode about it and I kind of blanked out watching her talk instead of actually paying attention.
They work at least, maybe if I make a load of them and fill my pockets up I can at least delay the point I start setting stuff on fire long enough to clear the area or something?
There’s no rush though, for now all I can do is try and ‘find my center’.
If I try to make any now they will probably just burn up in my hands..
Why does everything in my book about meditation sounds so vague?
Does anyone really know what ‘find your center’ means?
It’s kind of annoying.

==============
==============

I didn't go back to work.
John hooked me up with a night shift running the desk at one of his motels instead.
Between that and the income from renting out the rat flute, I pretty much broke even on it all.
I got the fire under control too.. mostly.
It only took a week or so to become stable.
That doesn't mean it’s stopped completely though.
I have to be careful.
Sarah was annoyed about it all.

She came in with the big news about her new job, she was going to be the face of an MPA sponsored treasure hunting TV show.
I was so happy for her that I accidentally scorched the floor when she told me.

I THINK she was more annoyed at me because of what happened after that though..
She handed over her briefing folder to me.
Apparently the MPA use the show, and a few others, to spread information about magic to the general public without them having to know the dreaded ‘magic is real’ part of it.
The minute I saw her shooting schedule I had a minor freak-out and roasted the folder to ash.
In a little over four months’ time she would be out of the country for a whole four months of on location shooting!
We’ve never been apart that long!

She-
.. my head!.. why.. this..
.. it feels like my head is going to explode..
..When will it end?.. this is worse then..
NO!
Don’t think about it!.. no. no. no. n-

==============
==============

“Mums missing”
I froze, pizza halfway to my mouth and my phone cupped on my shoulder to free up my hands.
“What?”
Sarah sounded twitchy, she shifted the phone constantly.
“I went around to her place after today’s run through. She’s not there, the door was unlocked and the house is a mess”
Slowly my body unlocked, I dropped the pizza to my plate and ran my hand through my hair in frustration.
“Crap”
Sarah nodded in agreement, the phone shuffled a bit more.
“She’s not..?” I trailed out at Sarah’s negative grunt.
“I called Aunt Cathy, she’s heard nothing. The neighbours have heard nothing either”
My shoulders slumped a little, so much for that idea.
“Where could..”
There was a smashing sound on the other end of the line.
Sarah moved quickly, it sounded like she dropped the phone, most likely so she could draw her MPA issued, blessed ‘kirpan’ knife from its ankle holster.

“Sarah?”
She shushed me in a near whisper.
After a long tense silence she breathed out hard in relief.
“No-ones there, looks like someone threw a brick through the kitchen window..”
I blinked hard at that.
“A brick?”
She grunted and I could hear the crunch of broken glass.
“Looks like it’s got a note tied to it”
For a moment I frowned in annoyance, a brick with a note on it is like something out of a TV show.
How very Cliché.
“What’s it say?”
My impatience may have shown because Sarah growled at me to be quite.
“Al, where are you?”
My eyebrows sunk and I hunched in closer to the phone.
“I'm at that new Pizza place up on western.. it’s bad isn't it?.. about mum?”
Sarah breathed deep and shifted the phone again.
“Stay there, I’ll come get you”

============

“This is a bad idea”
I frowned and shifted my shoulders a little.
“You didn't have to come”
Sarah shot a glare at me and huffed loudly.
“Of course I did, its mum”
My frown got a bit deeper but I bit back my initial retort.
We drove on in silence for another block.
For lack of a better option I pulled out the note again and stared at it.

Little rabbit,
You ran and you ran but your time is up.
We have your mother.
Come to the docks by midnight tonight.
Come alone.
An associate will meet you there, you should recognise him.

It was hardly descriptive.
Didn't leave me much wiggle room either.
I shot a look over at Sarah but she was focused on driving.
The ‘come alone’ part bothered me.
Was the message for me or Sarah? It’s not like we have many enemies.
Well.. that I can think of anyway..

“Take a left up here”
Sarah glared at me out of the corner of her eye.
“I need to stop off at Fena’s.”
Sarah’s glare went up a notch but she turned anyway.
“It says-“
I cut across her with a frustrated growl.
“I know, I know. Come alone. I'm not going for backup, I'm going for some equipment”
Her eyebrow perked up in surprise and she grunted questioningly.
I couldn't resist a smirk.
“Just because the mage classes are taking ages doesn’t mean I'm not learning anything”
Her other eyebrow rose but she didn't challenge me.
We took a sharp right onto the street with Fena’s shop on it.

=============

“Yes, I'm sure.”
Fena squinted at me suspiciously.
“I don’t know..” she stated in a slow, careful tone.
Sarah sighed obnoxiously from the door.
Fena shot her a sharp look of dislike.
They haven’t gotten on since the moment they met for some reason.
“I need my ready bag and I want to buy a few bits. It’s not like I'm asking for the moon here Fena..”
She looked back over at me and her frown evened out.
“Sure..”
She didn't look happy but she agreed at least.
“What do you need?”
Out of the corner of my eye I could see Sarah huff silently.
“At least one of your resonant rods and.. how many of those throw away caster rings do you have?”
Fena’s eyebrow popped up and a mischievous look darted across her face.
“Well you’re never boring at least..” she grumbled while turning to go check her stock in the back.

=============

Sarah shot me a confused look but didn't turn away from the road fully.
After almost a solid minute she couldn't hold it in anymore.
“What on earth are you doing?”
I looked up from my notepad and frowned at her.
“Maths..duh?”
She looked like she wanted to hit me.
“Why..” she ground out eventually “..are you doing math?”
I querked an eyebrow at her and smirked.
It didn't seem to help her desire to hit me.
“I've got about twenty minutes before we get to the docks.. in that time I've got to make something potentially useful for almost any situation we might come up against.”
She watched me for a moment longer and then turned back to the road, seemingly satisfied.
“What’s with the pole and the rings?”
I put my pen down and sighed loudly to show her my annoyance.
“Do you really want to know?”
She nodded decisively.
“The ‘pole’ is a resonant rod, it can be tuned to a caster’s magic by bonding it with a minor blood magic ritual-“
Sarah almost swerved the car off the road in her rush to pull us to the hard shoulder and glared at me with real heat.
“Blood magic!” she roared.
Her eyes were wide with worry.
I couldn't help but frown at her.
“yeah.. blood magic.. It’s not a big deal. Edith uses it a lot it’s just-“
She cut across me again and glared harder.
“Blood magic’s evil! Lich’s and-“
I cut across her in return by waving for silence.
“Blood magic’s only evil if you use it on other people..”
She didn't look happy with just that, so I continued quickly.
“Blood magic comes in two forms, Binding and Bound.”
A small amount of confusion mixed in with her worried look.
“Binding is the big bad rituals that drain other people to empower the caster. Bound blood magic is mostly minor rituals used to channel magic externally through an un-enchanted object or internally for self-healing”
Sarah sighed hard and her shoulders slumped.
“You sound like you know what you’re talking about”
I nodded and gave her a tentative smile.
“I trust you.. I do. I just.. blood magic, the binding stuff, it’s scary. A while back I.. well..”
She trailed off hesitantly.
“Yeah.. It’s not nice..”
She didn't carry on from there, I would have pushed her on it but we’re running out of time as it is.
After a moment more of staring at me Sarah nodded to herself and pulled us back onto the road.
“So the rings and the.. pole” she trailed off awkwardly.
I smiled a little and turned back to my calculations.
“The rods not important really, I just need a mounting that I can conduct my magic though and it’s a quick, easy shortcut to use. The rings.. well.. they store one spell pattern each.”
Sarah didn't slow down this time but she looked confused and curious.
“I might not have time to use spells directly if things get rough, the stuff I know from memory are slow anyway. A caster’s ring is another shortcut that lets you skip the visualisation stages and just push in the power, the ring does the rest.”
Her nose scrunched up a little.
“So put them together..”
I nodded and grinned.
“If I can get the maths right I should be able to slide the rings on the rod and have basically a load of spell options ready to cast without any visual cues to giveaway what I'm doing.”
My eyes dipped down to the pages of calculations I’d already had to work through.
“Bound blood magic is complicated. It’s really good for the mind stuff so with a bit of tweaking I should even be able to cast from the rod even remotely, while handcuffed”
Sarah frowned again and shot me a cautious look.
“You think you’re going to be handcuffed?”
I caught her eye and grinned a bit more.
“I hope not but like you said.. its mum.. I'm not taking any chances.”

=============

“Lurch?”
Sarah pulled the car to a full stop and her mouth dropped open staring out the windshield.
It took me a second watching him to realise that he wasn't actually Fena’s faithful golem.
His face was a bit different.. he looked more like..
“Oh crap.. It’s Darren”
Sarah swung her head to stare at me.
“You know him?”
I kept an eye on him, he didn't twitch or move around like a normal person.
Not that I could have known last time we met, but he’s defiantly a Golem.
Hard to tell what generation though.
“He was a henchman for Vlad”
She frowned in confusion for a moment but then gasped in fear.
“yeah..”
On instinct I glanced out the back window and could see a tall spindly man in a suit standing at the back bumper.
My throat got tight and I gulped.
It’s Reginald..
It would be wouldn't it..
What the hell is he doing out here?
Yes, the suns already set but it should take at least another twenty minutes before the reflective rays are comfortably dull enough for him to be out in the open.
He slowly brought his hand up and gave me a creepy, childish finger wave.
“Oh..crap”

Slowly, so neither of them would rush the car to stop me I moved my hand down my seat and slid it into my pocket.
“Stay here” I told Sarah, she looked like she was going to argue but my look silenced her.
Now wasn't the time for arguing.
I eased my way out of the car and dragged my roughly made, unnamed, last resort spell stick weapon with me.
A glance toward Darren the golem made up my mind, I turned to face Reginald as the bigger threat and one in charge.
With carefully slow movements, to not set him off, I eased my hand back into my pocket and withdrew my USMPA badge.
Reginald tensed at the sight of it.
“Re..” I paused a moment and frowned at him “..what’s your name?”
His tension eased and he smirked with a flash of fang.
“Bob, my name is Bob”
He looked oddly smug and straightened his tie proudly.
Despite the situation my mouth dropped a little and I stared at him.
“wh.. no.. okay, lets go with that..” I paused one more time “Bob.. really?”
He glared at me lightly as if I was mocking him.
My shoulders shrugged a little and I grinned back at him.
“Fine, fine.. so.. Bob..” It still felt weird “..I must warn you that I am an official operative of the MPA and you are acting against the third iteration Cromwell..”
He twitched his arm and I lost track of what I was saying with a flinch.
“the.. the Cromwell acts of New England Prospect”
His face pulled back into a big fanged grin, he cocked his head at me in amusement.
“You’re new at this, aren't you?”
I tried to stay strong but I think my hand trembled a little, it probably gave me away.
After a single deep breath I tried to center myself again.
With as much bluffed bravado as possible I shifted my hips to look more casual.
“First time I've had to use this thing”
I waved my badge a little and smiled weakly at him.
“Got any tips?”
He seemed amused at least, amused is better than ‘ready to kill me’.
“Yeah.. just one..” he trailed off and leaned a little closer to me “..don’t ignore a Golem”
I flinched but before I could move, two heavy hands came down on my shoulders.
My head turned and stalled, my stomach dropped hard as I got a glance of someone standing on the other side of our car.
He looked like a biker, probably a vampire but possibly another Golem from the size of him.
Oh.. and he had Sarah at knife point with a hand on her face to gag her mouth..
Shouldn't forget that part..

A jerk at my side made me swing back around to see Re.. Bob, standing a lot closer to me and in his hands he was swinging my ring covered, last resort, resonant rod.
Instinctively my hands came together and I desperately clutched my badge to my chest for protection.
His smirk looked a lot darker now but no less amused.
“Shall we head in then? Ladies first..”
He waved my stick dramatically over my head.
I didn't have a chance to argue, Darren practically lifted me off my feet and carried me down the dock.
Sarah grunted behind me but she went silent a moment later, so I'm guessing they didn't like her arguing with the idea.

===========

My eyes flew around constantly as they walked us past a few different piers and came to a stop at a medium sized yacht on the fifth mooring.
It was white, like most yachts around here seemed to be.
The paint was a little rough in places and the metal fittings looked used.
Overall I wasn't impressed.. well.. maybe a little.
I've never seen a yacht before so it was a BIT impressive at least.
Darren didn't pause long, with a surprisingly gentle shove to my shoulders we were heading up the old wooden planks to get on-board.
“well, this could have gone better..”
Sarah glared at me as we marched up the tight gang plank.
She tried to growl at me through the cloth gag they’d put into her mouth, apparently they don’t like it if you try to scream either.
“It’s not my fault you don’t know when to be quiet” I hissed at her with a glare of my own.
She tried to kick me and almost fell off the gang plank instead.

The biker guy grabbed her at the last moment and pulled her back into line.
She didn't look pleased about it.
“So..” I trailed off and considered my options “..You boys still working for Vlad?”
Above me Darren grunted but didn't give a real answer.
Not surprisingly considering that he’s a golem with a limited ability to provide input.
“Rastalin’s in charge still but he’s not the master any more”
I frowned and tried to swing my head around to look at Re..Bob.
Darran’s bulk got in the way so I gave it up with a sigh.
“Who’s in charge around here then?”
Bob chuckled from out of my view range.
“Got a new boss. Human, a lich naturally, calls himself Dante”
I jumped in surprise when Sarah started freaking out.
She lashed out her legs frantically and tried to get lose, yelling into the gag hard.
One of her stray kicks almost knocked me off the gang plank.
With an indignant squawk she was picked up and thrown over the biker guy’s shoulder.
I had a brief flash of being in a similar position with Darren before and felt sorry for her.
Sarah didn't calm down, even in her new position, she kept thrashing around much to Bob’s amusement.
“You've heard of him then?” He asked mockingly.
I shrugged against Darren’s hold and frowned.
Obviously Sarah has at least.

Without another word they steered me through the nearest door into the yacht’s hull.
I almost gasped aloud when we stepped inside and were suddenly in a massive high ceilinged stone entrance way.
You would think I would be used to it by now, mage’s have a thing for expanded spaces.
It looks like this Dante guy has the same interior decoration ideas as Vlad, although from the sound of my feet on the stone flooring he at least does it with some class.
“Not bad, can see you upgraded since I last visited”
My attempts to hide my worry still seemed to be able to get a snort of laughter from Bob.
“New place, lot smaller, MPA took back the Hub thanks to you”
I didn't resist a smirk this time.
It’s not like I really did much in the whole tracking down their base and rescuing everyone part of things but any credit I can take is good to wrong foot them in this kind of situation.
“Not my fault you guys were dumb enough to try and steal a Hub”
Bob grunted in partial agreement but didn't sound quite as amused this time.
“Less talking, more walking”
I grunted back at him but didn't argue.
There’s no point in aggravating him more than necessary right now, not until we have more of an idea what’s going on at least.

===========

They took us down a few passageways that wouldn't have looked out of place in a Transylvanian castle and finally came to a stop at one of the thick wooden doors so Bob could unlock it.
Inside there was a lot of clutter and a large barred off area that looked like an old west style jail cell.
My ears picked up sobbing before I spotted the cell’s only occupant.
“Mum!”
She jumped slightly from her huddled pile in the corner and shot her head up to stare at me with wide eyes.
I couldn't hold back a wince, her face had a fair few bruises on it and it looked like she’d been crying for a while.
She didn't say anything but her eyes welled up with even more tears and she sunk her head again.
“Al..” I could barely hear her voice over the sound of us walking, even then its tremble was easy to detect.
Darren moved a hand from my shoulder and pulled a key from his belt to unlock the cell door.
With a shove I ended up sprawled on the stone floor near mum.
Behind me there was a thump and grunt from Sarah.
I barely had time to shift my head before the door was shut with a loud clash and locked tight again.
“Have a nice stay, I’ll go tell Dante you came to visit”
The smile on Bobs face was anything but nice.
I slowly sprawled myself out on the cell floor again with a deep sigh.
Being in a cage sucks..

=============

“SARAH, CAN YOU GIVE IT A REST!”
She roared in anger and tried to kick the cell door open for what felt like the millionth time.
Mum stirred from her miserable little pile and looked up at her with sad eyes.
“Sarah..”
She looked heartbroken at the sight of her.
“Aaah!”
Sarah gave one final kick to the door and sunk to the floor in a heap.
I moved over to her, for a moment she tried to bat me away, but eventually she crumpled into my arms and sobbed hard.
My eyes caught mums.
She looked just as lost as I felt.
“Sare.. what’s wrong?”

Her head shot up to glare at me and she hit me in the chest hard.
“WE’RE PRISONERS!”
She threw a few more hits to my chest.
“AGAIN!”
I grunted with each hit but didn't stop her.
She needed to get it out.
“THAT’S WHAT’S WRONG!”
In barely a breath, her face crumpled and the fight seemed to leave her.
When she spoke again her voice was weaker.
“We’re all gonna die here Han..”

She tried to struggle out of my arms and after a moment of hanging on I let her go.
Unsteadily she got to her feet and wobbled out a pacing circle on the floor.
“Dante, he’s evil..”
I looked up at her in confusion.
How DID she know this Dante guy anyway?
Sarah must have seen something in the look on my face because she stopped pacing and took a deep soothing breath.
It seemed to work for a moment but then she broke into a choked off sob and had to try again.
Her arms came up to hug herself and she shook slightly.
“About a year after Karl took me under his wing at the MPA there was an all-points call out.”
She looked at me and gave the ghost of a smile.
“Remember when I called you to cover for me for a few hours, then didn't get back in contact until the next morning?”
I gulped but nodded anyway.
She really scared me that night.
I didn't know what happened to her, I almost came out and told mum that I wasn't Sarah just so we could start looking for her.
Sarah’s frantic phone call in the morning came about twenty minutes before my set deadline to go talk to mum.
She seemed really shaken up for a while afterwards as well, but she wouldn't talk about it.
“yeah..”
I blinked and looked up at her.
Obviously she’d read my face again, her tentative smile slipped and she shuddered hard.
“..By the time me and Karl got there most of the big stuff had finished, we were on clean up detail.”
She leaned against the cell bars and pushed her head back to stare at the ceiling.
“It was a mess Han, Dante is a lich king. Lich’s are.. they have no morals, he was killing people and using their parts to feed his undead horde.. he was.. there were child-”
She cut herself off abruptly and her hand came up to her mouth, with barely time to turn around she puked through the bars.
I scrunched up my nose in disgust but tried not to focus on it.

After a few more dry heaves Sarah turned back around and slowly made her way into another corner of the cell.
“Sorry..” she let out quietly, looking ashamed of herself.
“S’okay” I answered for the sake of it.
At least she’d held back long enough to turn away.
Sarah shuddered and huddled herself down in the corner, almost mirroring mum’s position.
We all sunk into silence.
Slowly I reached into my pocket, pulled out my MPA badge and started fiddling with it in my hands.
No-one felt up to breaking the silence.

==========

“She going to be okay?”
I jumped a little at mum’s raw sounding voice.
A glance at her had me glancing back over at Sarah instead.
She was shaking in her sleep.
Every once in a while she would give out a little sob or moan too.
My eyes moved back to mum and we shared a look.
We both could see it.
This Dante guy had Sarah terrified, she wouldn't last long going on like this.
I looked back down at my badge and fumbled with it a little more.
“If I had a way to get someone out of here..” I trailed off thoughtfully.
Mum seemed to perk up a little and watch me with caution.
I caught her eyes and stared at her hard, then nodded my head at Sarah.
Mum seemed to take in a heavy breath and slowly closed her eyes tightly, with a careful movement she nodded.
My lips curled up into a small smile.
I couldn't help but feel proud of her for that, I’d been tempted to use it myself more than once since everything went wrong at the dock.
My legs were a little numb from the cold floor but I crawled over to Sarah’s side and gave her a gentle shake anyway.
She snorted in her sleep and jolted up with wild confused eyes.
After a moment she settled on me and drifted to the cell bars.
Her face fell in disappointment as she realised it hadn't all been a dream.
Quickly, while she was still disorientated I hugged her tight.
“We love you Sare.. me and mum do, okay?”
She watched me with even more confusion, she went a little cross-eyed trying to watch my face as I leant in and kissed her on the forehead.
It took me a moment to pull away but I was ready when I did.
I stared hard into her eyes and gave her the best smile I could offer.
“Alice is bad”
The words came out easily, which almost surprised me, but it was for Sarah..
I pulled back from her and dropped my badge in her lap.
Sarah watched me move away.
Slowly her head dropped down to look at the, now glowing, badge.

It only took seconds but it felt like ages for her sleep addled brain to realise what was happening.
Her head shot up to stare at me with so much pain, it hurt my chest to look at her.
I wouldn't look away though, I couldn't.
Her mouth dropped open and she let out a sharp hissed breath.
“No”
She tried to stagger out of her sitting position but it was already too late.
“NO! YOU SON OF A BI-”
The badge flared in blue light and when it cleared she was gone.
A wind of cold air blew across the cell.

I knew it was a side effect of the ‘secret’ emergency teleport spell etched into all trainee mage’s identification badges.
I knew it wasn't actually wind but a pressure wave caused by the vacuum created when she disappeared to her target destination, the emergency medi-bay back at the Hub.
I knew it wasn't actually cold either, that was just the way my skin and brain could understand the mixed messages it received when hit with the large magical backlash from such an overpowered spell.
It was worse than most people’s would have been, you’re only meant to charge it for your first week but I've charged mine every night before bed, since the day I got it, just in case..
I knew..
It didn't matter what I knew.
I knew Sarah was safe.
That was the important part.
Mum let out a broken sob, I felt like joining her.
Slowly I moved back toward Sarah’s corner and settled myself in her place.
The stone floor was still warm.
It was probably my imagination but it felt like I could smell her still.
I shivered hard and huddled tighter into her spot.

We sat in silence for a while, I almost fell asleep a few times.
“Thanks Al.. you did good”
Mum sounded bad but she gave me a watery smile at least.
My head nodded without actually answering her.
I did it for Sarah, not her.
Slowly I moved my head down to the floor and spread my body out.
Sleep is probably the best thing I can be doing, until they come back and we face our fate at least.

==================

“You hate me don’t you..”
I considered not answering her but despite it all, she’s my mum.
My head rocked to the side so I could get a better look at her.
“Pretty sure if I did the feeling would be mutual..”
Her face scrunched up, which looked a lot more painful with all the bruises.
“I don’t hate you Al”
She sounded hurt, having to say it aloud.
“..Funny way of showing it..”
I rolled back away from her.
She didn't have anything to say in return apparently.

===================

“It’s not easy Al.. Finding out your son’s a-”
She cut herself off from finishing that thought.
I sighed and slowly rocked my head back to look at her again.
“A what?”
She squinted at me in annoyance and took a deep breath.
“A homosexual”
For a moment I watched her in surprise but it got to be too much very quickly, I cracked up laughing.
Mum didn't find it funny.
She pulled back her shoulders like she always does when she thinks someone’s mocking her.
With some effort I pulled it all back in, my grin wouldn't go away though.
“I'm not gay mum”
Her eyes went wide and she locked up completely.
I couldn't hold it any more, with a snort I started laughing again.
“How can you.. I mean.. I SAW you”

I shifted around into a sitting position so I could talk better.
“You CAUGHT me, pretending to be Sarah.. so she could go out after curfew”
Her face scrunched up tight.
“You still..” She didn't seem to want to finish talking.
She waved her hand around to show what she meant.
“So?.. Face it mum, me and Sarah look alike, TOO alike to be normal.”
She didn't look happy accepting that fact but nodded eventually.

It was a nasty thing to do, but I couldn't resist.
With a shift of my hips, a flick of my hair and a few other facial shifts I was Sarah.
“Mum, it’s not a big deal, ya know?”
Mum’s jaw dropped.
I shifted my hips back into a more lazy position and smirked at her.
“You’re practically the only person who knows we aren't twin sisters these days”
My mouth slowly pulled into a small frown.
I hadn't really considered it like that before but it’s true.
Well.. her and John at least, he’s been my best friend forever though, so that doesn't count.
“Sarah suggested I try to be her stunt double for the show, if it wasn't for my magic trai..”
I trailed off and cocked my head at mum for a moment.
“Hold on..”
My eyes squinted at her hard.
“Why aren't you freaking out about magic?”

For a moment I flashed back to Sarah’s theory about mum and all the memory tampering the doctors found.
Careful to not set her off, I moved a bit tighter into the corner and brought my hands up to provide a bit better defence if necessary.
Mum looked a little guilty.
My legs tensed a fraction more, just in case.
“I already knew about magic..”
My eyes flicked around the cell for some kind of weapon but for such a cluttered room outside, the cell was surprisingly clear of debris.
“are you a..” I stopped myself from voicing it.
Please say no, please say no..
“a mage?” she finished for me.
Her head dipped down and she looked at her fingers.
“no”
I let out the breath I hadn't realised I was holding.
She glanced up at me with a confused frown but settled back down onto her hands.
“Your grandmother was though and I'm.. well..”
She trailed off as if she didn't really feel ready to continue.
After a long pause her head came back up and she stared at me for almost a solid minute.

“You’re a mage, aren't you? I recognise that badge you gave Sarah..”
I rolled my shoulders back and frowned.
“yeah”
Her eyes went a little wider and a small smile formed on her face.
“How long have you known..” she trailed off and considered me for a moment “is this why you and Sarah always.. well it would make sense if you wanted to hide..”
My eyebrow popped up in confusion.
Mum cleared her throat and tried to look calmer.
“You've known since you were young right? Your father..”
She paused as if talking about him still hurt a bit too much
“He was convinced you and Sarah were magical.. Is that why you started pretending to be Sarah? What was your first contact with magic?”
She shifted her legs and knelt forward a little in interest.
“um.. prom?”
Mum jolted back and stared at me hard.
“Prom?”
I nodded and smiled a little.
“Prom. Sarah didn't want to go so I stood in for her-”
Her eyes went a little wider there.
“-one thing lead to another and we ended up facing vampires.”
She looked pretty confused after that.

“That’s weird..”
I squinted at her.
“It’s magic, of course it’s weird.”
She actually laughed a little at that one but her face still looked a bit tight in thought.
“Mother.. my mother” she trailed in uncertainly “she said that most mages find out about magic from an early age.. it kind of.. seeks them out..”
I’d been told similar from a few people.
Fena said that no-one could work out why magic reacted the way it did, some people even have near religions based on the idea that magic was conscious and needed appeasing to be kept happy.
“..So why didn't it come for you sooner?”
I opened my mouth to answer her then paused in thought.
After a painfully long moment where I drew a blank, all I could do was offer her a shrug.
Mum looked a bit more worried at that.
She went to say something else but a noise from the door made us both freeze up.

Slowly Darren the golem made his way in.
He grunted at us and unlocked the cell door.
His huge hand reached out, just managing to snag me by the ankle.
Mum surged to her feet but he pushed her away, seemingly without effort, and dragged me roughly out of the cell.
The door slammed shut with a heavy ‘thunk’ while mum frantically tried to stagger back to her feet.
“Al!”
She dived forward, trying to grab my arm desperately through the bars but Darren had already moved me too far out of reach.
“Keep safe-” I managed to call out to her before Darren rounded the corner and pulled me out of sight with him.

===========

I tried a few times to get Darren talking but it was pointless.
Golems aren't known for being talkative.
They aren't known for being careful with cargo either, as my now sore head can attest to.
Eventually he must have gotten bored of walking because he dragged me into the center of a large, dark chamber and left me in the middle of the room facing a raised area with a throne on it.
A real, gaudy, King’s and Queens style golden throne.
“Thanks big guy, always a pleasure”
He didn't even grunt at me, just turned and walked out the door instead.

Slowly I stood up and dusted myself off a bit.
After a moment of consideration, I decided it was worth a try and casually went to follow him back out the door.
I got a grand total of three paces forward before hitting some kind of invisible wall and bouncing back to the floor hard.
“oww.. well that’s not fair”
A glance downward told me all I needed to know.
Engraved into the stone floor were a lot of symbols that looked vaguely archaic in nature.
Most telling of all was that, roughly where I hit the invisible wall, there was a ring deeply etched into the stone and dyed dark with a dull red paste smothered into it.
“Binding blood magic.. of course it is.. Sarah just had to jinx it didn't she..”
A rich male voice laughed from behind me.

I whipped around and stared at him with wide eyes.
He was tall, very pale and very skinny.. well.. Mostly bone-y.
His skin was dry and tight like it had been stretched on to the framework of his body as an afterthought during his creation.
He was leaning against the side of the throne and watching me with amused eyes, dark hair hung lazily across his face and his regal dark robes hung open to show off all of his emaciated ribs.
“Sarah?” His voice vibrated in my chest and made me shudder for some reason.
It took me a moment to get myself under control but he enjoyed the spectacle anyway from the looks of him.
“My sister, you had her in a cage with me and my mum earlier”
He pushed himself off from the thrones side and with casual grace eased himself down into its seat.
His eyes never left me throughout the whole display.
Doesn't he ever blink?
“Had, being the opportune word I take it?”
I didn't resist the small smile of victory that came to my face.
‘Had’ was definitely the opportune word.
Sarah’s safe.
That’s the important thing.

He watched me for a few long seconds.
With a graceful chuckle that felt wrong coming from his startlingly hollow looking body he reached out and pulled a cord hidden to the side of his throne.
I twitched when the door behind me opened but didn't dare look away from him to see who had entered.
There was some muffled groans and a feminine squeal followed by the sound of something hitting the floor hard.
Careful to not look completely away from the skeleton in human flesh in front of me, I eased my eyes sideways to see what had happened.

Mum was just pulling herself back up from the floor behind me.
I had to bite back a gasp when I realised what was going on.
It turns out mine isn't the only Blood magic cage engraved into the floor.
A quick scan of the rest of the floor indicated that there was, in fact, three ritual circles marked out.
The one to my right was still inactive.
I guess they were planning to put Sarah in it before.. well that’s something at least.
Rituals balanced with the power of three tend to take time to redesign for working with only two targets.
A glance at the skeleton made me smirk.
He was obviously thinking in the same direction, judging by the frown on his face.
He shuffled his foot slightly and caught my eyes with his own dark pits.
His frown slipped slowly into a smirk of his own, which made mine falter.
This isn't the time or the place to get complacent.
Lich’s don’t last long without being smart about it.. and the skeleton was definitely a Lich.

He stood from his throne and bowed deeply at us.
“I am Dante Dandes, in some circles, I am called the ‘Dandy Man’”
His eyes travelled quickly over mum and drifted leisurely up my legs to rest on my face.
“You, my dear, are so awfully familiar.”
His smirk turned a little excited and he leaned forward in interest.
“Have we, by chance, met before? I'm thinking.. London.. No.. Leicestershire.. yes.”
He straightened regally and grinned.
“Leicestershire, England, in the year of our lord 1394 I believe, such a tragic time with the death of poor Anne”
His smirk turned darker but he seemed so much more enthralled by me suddenly.
“yes.. I'm certain of it. On the night of the bloody moon, you were the maiden who freed the Were’s held in enslavement by Lord Benedict.”
He adjusted his robes and seemed to be watching me with some measure of awe.
“Such a beautiful night, the blood of the innocent ran red in the streets and you danced with the pack in the dark moon’s light”
He sighed and rolled his eyes back in pleasure.
I shivered hard.
For some reason his words felt familiar.
I could imagine the places he’d described with a bit too much clarity to be just my imagination.

He wallowed in his memories for a moment longer but seemed to come back to himself with a sigh.
His eyes swept down to me and he smiled a warm smile.
“My lady..” he trailed in, casually making his way to a recess I hadn't noticed partly hidden behind his throne “..perhaps, considering we are such old acquaintances, you would do me the honour of explaining this curious device to me.”
He pulled back into the light and brought with him a pole, its multiple jewelled rings sparkling in the rooms dull light, as he twisted it through his long fingers like an expert.
The arrogant bastard was holding my last resort stick!
“It is blood magic, of a kind, yes? I can feel it, the bond of your blood is..” he trailed off and sniffed deeply in ecstasy “..your blood bond is simply delicious.”
My shoulders shuddered hard, disgust battling hard to be shown on my face.
Since prom, men sniffing at me has not been something positive in any way, it wasn't really a good thing even before prom in all honesty.
Before I could come up with a good insulting answer for him the door creaked open again and in came a tight grouping of men.
Most of them looked like biker rejects, one looking like he stepped out of a 1940s horror movie.

“Master”
Vlad bowed his head but he did NOT look happy about it.
Dante looked amused, I felt amused too.
In fact, I couldn't resist the laugh that bubbled up.
Vlad swung his head around to stare at me and in one movement he loomed up with a very dramatic hiss of rage.
“YOU!”
My laugh trickled off, I couldn't help grinning at him teasingly instead though.
“Vlad! Honey! How’s my favourite pain in the neck? Un-life treating you well?”
He hissed in rage and tried to raise up even more dramatically.
If he went up any higher on his tip-toes he’d fall flat on his face.
Dante looked amused about the whole situation.
“Vlad, Vlad, Vlad.. Honestly..”
I flicked my hair at him for effect.
“Any other day, I promise, you’d be scary.. but today? I'm facing a bonafide, at least 800 year old, Lich here.. with fabulous hair and his hands on my staff of power.. Ya just can’t compete buddy..”
Dante flicked his head arrogantly and smiled at me for the compliment.
Why are all the evil men in my life obsessed with their looks?

Vlad went to charge me.
With a wave of his hands Dante somehow managed to freeze him mid-stride.
He glanced over to me and looked smug.
“Vampires..” he trailed off as if we were discussing a particularly naughty breed of puppy.
I stared hard at Vlad’s frozen form, his eyes darted around but he really couldn't move a muscle.
“Cool..” the word slipped out unintentionally “How’d you do that?”
Dante smiled at me and flicked his head again.
I think the hair compliment went to his head a bit.
“As you so graciously point out, my dear, I'm a powerful Lich King. The undead are mine to command”
My eyes flicked to the other vampires in the room, none of them looked particularly pleased at that fact.
“Command over vampires and you never have to diet again.. sign me up?”
Dante chuckled darkly and smiled at me indulgently.
“You have the makings of a good Lich.. the brains”
He nodded to me.
I tried not to feel smug at that one.
“..and the power” he waved my last resort stick like a pompous baton.
My smile slipped and his eyes bore into mine.
“Now, care to explain what this does?”
I flicked my eyes around the room looking for a distraction.
The vampires re-entering had given me an idea of a plan, it would hurt but it might work.
I just need a few more details..
My wandering eyes settled on mum in her blood magic ritual circle.
She looked afraid, not just of the evil guys around us, when her eyes met mine she flinched hard.
I tried not to be offended by that, I'm pretty freaked at the moment too.

“Trade? Details for details?”
Dante looked amused again.
For some reason, it felt like that was his default way of handling new situations.
“An acceptable idea.. Ask away m’Lady..”
After a moment of considering the right wording I went for it.
“The cages”
I waved my hand and gently brushed the invisible wall to show my meaning.
“It’s binding blood magic, obviously, I'm curious though.. the shielding’s VERY strong.. It must have taken a lot of power to charge? Did you use a shortcut of some kind?”
Dante looked a little offended.
I tried to look innocent and curious to calm his ego.
“Maybe, the shield only stops people and things getting out instead of getting in and out from either side, right?”
Dante shook his head but his eyes were warm with understanding.
“I would never cut corners in such things. The death of a sacrifice victim before or even during a ritual is unthinkable, such an amateur mistake is beneath one of my power”
For his sake, I nodded along in excitement, as if I was hanging on his every word.
Meanwhile I was discreetly reaching into my pocket to pull out anything I could find.
Turns out the only thing in my pocket was a dull penny, my lucky day.
With a flick of my wrist I sent the penny toward the barrier.
Everyone, even Vlad, followed its decent with their eyes.
The penny hit the invisible wall and bounced off without losing any momentum.
I nodded to myself and grinned.
Dante looked at me curiously, the beginning of annoyance crossing his face.
“ah, my turn, right?”
He nodded expectantly.
I gave him a flirty smile and geared up for the final act.
This was going to hurt.
I hope mum can get through it okay, shame I can’t give her a warning somehow.
“You have, in your hand, my very own rough and ready Bad JuJu stick”
He held it out at arm’s length and looked at it from a few angles.
“It’s blood bound to me. I can use it as a remote focus, with a bit of effort, naturally.”
He smiled knowingly and stared harder at the rod in interest.
“It’s got an ‘Estes’ rune cluster on top of a line of ‘Arbitrio’ runes in parallel and my own little addition, a comparative filter based around several emotional tuned ‘Mentales’ trigger runes.”

His face scrunched as he worked hard to process it all.
Judging from how long it took him to work it out, I’ll take a guess that he never learnt enchanting on his long road to becoming a Lich.
“Uncountable control runes on a choice matrix with mental command.. emotional triggers?”
His voice sounded uncertain.
Rightly so, while his Latin may be up to par, his understanding of rune theory was lacking at best.
“My mentor, she often tells me that I'm full of Bad JuJu, the stick in your hands is tuned to me and my Bad JuJu..”
I twisted my body away from him slightly as the magic I’d been pooling reached the limit of what I could safely contain without it becoming visible, and smiled wide for him.
“oh.. and fire.. can’t forget that.. Bad JuJu and Fire”
His eyes went wide, he tried to throw the stick away but he was too slow.
No-one can be faster than the speed of thought after all.
I dumped a mental command along the thin blood connection between me and the rod.
Without time to take cover I ended up getting a head on blast of sound and the pressure wave of magical backlash that launched me back into the already flaring blood magic wall behind me.

==========

It felt like I’d gone unconscious for a moment or two.
I hit my head on something on the way down, most likely the floor.
Carefully my arms found a grasp that seemed solid and I pushed myself up.
I probably groaned or something but my ears were ringing from the sound of the explosion, so I couldn't hear it if I did.
A smirk formed on my face as I surveyed the damage.
Dante was gone, his throne showed signs of singeing and it was partly melted.
The vampires, more specifically Vlad, were dust.
There were no visible dust piles but odds are that they were vaporised in the blast.

I hadn't lied to Dante.
The rod definitely used those specific runes, in that specific layout.
I just happened to not mention all the rings wrapped around it.
Originally I planned to be able to trigger different ring enchantments by forcing different emotions down my blood bond.
Fena gave me a nice mix of rings to work with, fire, ice and water.
Oh.. and my personal favourite, two of her custom ‘sunlight’ rings.
Very good for fighting most forms of undead.
It’s kind of a shame I didn't get to actually use them as intended.
I’ll have to work on making a new one later.
Just imagine the look on Edith’s face when I block her next ‘JuJu stick’ strike with my own ‘Bad JuJu stick’!

That’s for the future though, I don’t even know if the stick would have worked as planned..
I did the maths right but magic can often be more complicated then you expect.
With Dante, I just sent a full pulse of mental focus and as much magical power as I could offer into the stick.
It overloaded, resonant rod, blood rune clusters and several types of focus rings..
BIG boom basically..

A glance down told me that my hopeful deductions had worked out just as much as my luck in all of this.
Stone and debris was covering the floor in an uneven layer everywhere.. except inside my ritual circle.
I eased up into a sitting position and turned to check on mum.
Her circle had held just as well as mine, blood magic’s reliable like that.
From the looks of it she may have done the same as me, she was sprawled out unconscious on the floor.
It looks like she has some blood from somewhere near her head, that’s a little worrying but there’s not much I can do about it until the blood ritual circles run out of juice sadly.
She’s breathing at least.
We both survived..
We both survived being captured and put in ritual circles by a highly dangerous Lich!

I let out a long breath and then cracked a smile.
In seconds I had my head back and I laughed hard.
The release of tension was nice.
Eventually I calmed down and settled in for the wait.
That’s when the clapping started.
I turned slowly to look over my shoulder at Dante’s melted throne.

He was leaning, partly in shadow, against the throne.
He was clapping at an almost mockingly slow pace.
He caught my eye and I felt a crushing weight come down on my chest.
For some reason he looked different, his face was sharper, his smile looked more frightening than usual.
“..John?”
He stopped clapping and turned to face me properly.
“Impressive as always.. Arista”
For some reason his eyes bore deep into me and my head hurt.
That name..
“Lich’s.. useful to be sure, but against someone of your level?”
His voice was in that oddly tight British accent he sometimes let slip when under stress.
With silent feet he eased himself around and sat gracefully in Dante’s melted throne.
“Well.. let the fun begin..”
He waved his hand and I collapsed to the floor with a gasp.
Something was ripping, tarring at me.
The blood runes beneath my feet were glowing a bright ominous red.
My head came up with some effort to look at him.
“Why..”
He smirked sharply and leaned forward in the seat.
“There are many ways to break a memory seal Arista.”
He shifted further forward to watch as I winced in pain.
“I've found that one of the most effective ones to integrate the unlocked memories quickly, especially with reincarnation memories, is pain.. pain and fear.”
His lips opened into a shark like grin.
“You’re not the only one suffering. While you are drained by this well-crafted blood ward to a point that your seal will FINALLY break.. Your mother will be joining you in the experience.”
Slowly I managed to shift my head left enough to see mum twitching on the floor out the corner of my eye.
“Better get to work quickly on breaking those memories free Arista.. I don’t think she will last as long as you sadly”
He looked anything but apologetic about that fact.
I could feel tears welling up in my eyes.
My head felt like it was going to split in two, possibly more than two pieces.
My arms gave out finally and I fell hard to the floor with no way to stop myself.
I didn't move after landing.
It hurt too much to breath let alone move.
All I could do was cry.
Slowly, the edges of the world got dark and my head got worse.
I screamed out in pain when the pressure spiked.
My vision whited out and I lost contact with reality.
As the world faded, John’s laughter rang in my head.

===========
===========

Its too much.. not again.. its too much!
PLEASE!

===========
===========

We were in a never ending white room.
So many of us.
So many voices.
So many..

===========
===========

No, no, no, no, no-

===========
===========

I surged up, gasping for air.
They wouldn't stop!
From the corner of my eye I could see mum.
She looked almost dead.
The blood from her head wound had spread and she was breathing in hitched breaths.
I need to get her out!
I need to.. I..
Teleport! Blood magic can’t block low phase warping teleportation spells.
How.. how do I..

My arm shakily raised up to point my palm at mum.
My aching chest burned even more but I didn’t stop.
Unfamiliar magic flowed up from my core.
I could feel it shifting through my lines, burning a path forward to make a spell matrix I don’t recognise.
..but.. I do.. I do recognise it!
How..
“AAAH!”
The primal roar helped me focus.
With a monumental effort I squeezed my hand into a tight fist and let it drop.
The shadows within the room rose up around us and converged on mum.
She was shrouded in the darkness and without a sound she faded into the floor.
Gone.
Gone and safe.
If my aim was right..
Of course my aim was right, it’s not the first time I've..
No..
Yes.. It IS the first time isn't it?
With a great sigh I flopped my burning chest back to the cool stone floor, exhausted.
Sarah is safe, Mum is safe. That’s all that matters.

“Impressive”
His voice made my breath hitch in my chest.
The voices..
They ALL called out at once. My head..
“Shadow magic, not your best field of expertise. I wonder who you got that from..”

His smug, smug voice!
The pressure on me eased.
The burning red blood runes on the floor died out.
He turned them off.. that.. that arrogant bastard..
I could hear his footsteps coming towards me.
With a surprisingly gentle push he moved me onto my back so I could stare up at him.
His smile was so disgustingly smug.
Why wouldn't he be?
He always is when this sort of thing happens, isn't he?..
..isn't.. isn't he?.. my head.. John doesn't.. no.. not John..
MAX!
His eyes lit up with joy, he must have seen the recognition in my eyes.
“M..” my breath hitched and forced me to choke off slightly “Max.. arimus..”
His grin spread further.
“How..”
Slowly he rocked back on his heels.
He looked like a child showing off for his parents.
He always.. he always..
The voices are screaming!
They can’t agree!
Run! FIGHT! Cry! KILL! K..kiss..

“You almost got away with it, I was so convinced that it was Sarah. The boy act? Ingenious.”
He rolled his shoulder and smiled brightly
“To think, all those years.. I wasted so many hours modifying your memory to keep you unknowing of magic and loyal to me, just so I could stay close to her.. and she was useless after all..”
He stank to his knees at my head and cupped my face in his hands.
The voices in my head yelled out in rage.
How DARE he touch me again! After.. after he..

“At last, I have you where I want you”
His eyes stared deep into mine and he smiled brightly.
“Are you in there my little rabbit?.. You are, aren't you..”
One of the voices cried out in joy.
The voice that wanted to k..kiss him earlier.. the one..
Oh god.. he’s sick! How could he!
My body tried to pull closer to him but the other voices shouted her down.
I sighed in relief as she stopped pushing my body to move.
The mental fighting hurt my head but it left me feeling clearer.
All the opinions and pressure focused inward instead of on me for just a moment.

Options flew through brain at lightning speeds.
My brain was working painfully fast, processing things, processing everything.
Spells I’d never heard of, but knew I could cast.
Facts about the ritual he’d used on me and how to counter its painful effects, were used without thought.
Knowledge about him.
Everything there could be to learn about Maxarimus after countless lives of working against him.. Working with him..
Working..
my head..
FOCUS!
He stroked my cheek lovingly.
With slow inevitability he moved his head in and kissed me.
The voices roared in rage.
I blocked them out as much as possible.
FOCUS!

My hand shook but it moved as commanded.
I managed to get it up to cup his hand loosely.
He pulled back and smiled at me with warmth.
That one voice tried to tell me not to, but she was shouted down by so many others.
“Johnny..”
Max twitched, his sappy smile slipping into a dark frown.
My hand tugged his and with surprising ease I managed to get his hand where it needed to be.
His eyes went wide in shock.
“I'm a guy.. Idiot..”
His face crumpled up in confusion and just the beginnings of rage.
I rocked my head back and laughed hard.
Stupid arrogant bastard!

His hand whipped out of my grasp and slung back into a fist.
I braced myself for the hit.
After a few seconds I squinted my eyes open and watched him.
He was frozen, his face spoke of so many different emotions.
Overall, he looked lost.
Heartbroken and lost.
For a moment I felt pity for him.
Then the voices called and memories surfaced harder.
The bastard doesn't deserve my pity!
My leg felt warm.
It took me a moment to realise why.
Fire.. bad JuJu and Fire..
PERFECT! I just need a distraction..

A smile split my face.
The voices cheered in agreement.
Joh.. Max.. no.. JOHN!
Screw his pride!
John looked at me with just a touch of concern.
He knows me, he must see the look on my face.
“Johnny”
He twitched hard and glared at me.
“Oh Johnny, Johnny, John boy..”
His shoulders were tighter and tighter with rage.
“You don’t have the balls to hit me”
His teeth clenched hard and his fist rose up threateningly again.
“I've always had bigger balls then you Johnny.. and now that’s not just a metaphor”
My face split into a sharp grin.
A laugh forced its way out of me with just the right level of mocking.
He’s always had a problem with being mocked.
Come on Ma-John!
I know you, ya egotistical bastard!
He pulled his fist up tighter for a strike, his eyes clouded with anger at last.
Even though I braced for it the hit still hurt.
He caught me right in the nose, for a moment I thought he’d broken it.
I worked on through the pain though
“Oh Johnny..”
My voice came out a bit muffled from my nose but the amusement and anger in my tone was obvious.
“You just made a mistake”
My smile must have looked like his shark-ish grin by now.
Max staggered away from me.
He looked a bit stunned at the fact that he’d actually hit me more than anything.
His eyes tracked me as I pulled myself painfully up to a standing position.
Flames flickered between my fingertips.
The fire in my chest danced in joy.
So much time I've spent fighting it.
So much time I've meditated to suppress it.
But now.. oh.. it felt GOOD to let it free.
“Max.. I hate you..”
His face twitched in pain from my words.
It didn't matter though.
I’d bought enough time.
“Bye Johnny, see you next time”
With a final shove I forced all of the natural fire magic built up in my system out as a wave of destruction.
It burst out of my body from all angles, melting through my clothes like they didn't even exist.
I managed to get a glance of Max's impossibly wide, fearful eyes before the flames blocked out my vision.
My legs gave out and I crashed to the floor with a heavy sigh.
Sitting at the eye of a storm of pure white hot destruction I finally felt at peace.
The voices had died down at last.
My brain was working beyond normal, already coming up with ways to use this fire.
The fire is a symbol of my inner spirit.
If I just put a bit of effort in..
why does it have to be literal fire?

A memory pulled up slowly and I had to choke off a laugh.
Barely a trickle of the fire remained in my system but it was enough to test with.
I touched my hand gently to the surprisingly cool floor and pushed.
The single stone slab I was sat on turned a vibrant orange.
Symbols.
Magic’s all about symbols.
It’s complicated but.. oh, so simple if you look at it right.
My head throbbed painfully but I couldn't stop the manic laugh that came out.
I lay there in an awe inspiring ring of fire but in complete and utter control.
For the first time in ages I felt totally at peace.
..Then the voices started up again. Figures it wouldn't last.
With a deep sigh I laid out flat on my orange stone slab and squeezed my eyes shut.
Reincarnation sucks..

============
============

Reincarnation.. why would I.. Rein.. Re..
Please no..
Please..

============
============

Shui-al-gorath grinned at me.
Higher demons are disgusting.
His multiple tongues lapped at his distended lips.
All around me his followers lay dead or dying.
They knew what they were getting into.
His green glistening body wavered from side to side and his slimy tentacles stretched toward me.
“M-E-A-T” his deep voice resonated so powerfully that my body shook as if I was standing in an earthquake.
I smirked and swung my stolen staff up to point at his bulging bloodshot eye.
“Com’on big boy. Let’s dance”
He roared in unearthly glee and we dived forward in unison.
My smirk turned feral.

============
============

No.. ple-

============
============

“You want me to..”
I shook my head at him.
“It’s been a year. She misses you kid”
My mouth tried to smile but it hurt.
“She’s safer like this. Who’d have thought it, my sister, the TV star?”
Karl smirked and rubbed his hand on my hair fondly.
“You should talk to her..”
I stared down from the balcony we were stood on.
Sarah laughed happily and hugged the arm of a burly man beside her.
“Nah.. she’s okay. I've got to go anyway. Got a mission”
Karl growled in the back of his throat.
“Again? No wonder no-one wants to become an awakened mage..”
I smirked and twirled my cloak dramatically.
“Job’s a job. I'm needed. Someone has to keep people safe”
My eyes focused on Sarah.
“Keep ‘her’ safe you mean..”
My eyes turned back to Karl and a shy smile slipped out.
He knows me far too well.
“Keep me up to date”
He nodded.
Without more than a wrist flip I warped away, hopefully Sarah wouldn't notice the light show.

============
============

No.. P-
============
============

“Karl! Karl, YOU SON OF A BITCH! You’re not dying on me!”
Blood bubbled up past his lips.
He tried to push me away but he was too weak.
My hands came up, I tried to force a healing spell into him but it failed.
Thousands upon thousands of years of magical training, why the HELL didn't one of my self-entitled past-selves dedicate her life to healing!
His hand came up and stroked my face, his eyes said so much.
I broke down crying.
With shaking hands he cupped my head to his chest and he let out one deafeningly loud breath.

============
============
No..
============
============

The medics loaded Sarah onto a stretcher.
She wouldn't turn her head away from watching me, even when the medics demanded her attention.
I pulled back into the shadows a little more.
People at her studio joked about her having a guardian angel.
I could believe it.
How can someone get into so much trouble?
Damn her and her adventurous spirit!

If she had just stuck to the paths and not gone off with her camera-man on a hunt!
Why did I ever make that damned amplifier for her necklace!
She’s reckless!
She’s stupid!
She’s.. she’s Sarah..
I sighed and let my shoulders slump.
She’d be okay.
For a moment I considered taking her necklace away while she slept in the hospital.
It would make things a lot easier but she’d never forgive me for it.. last thing I need is her mad at me again.

“Coward..”
I'm not sure if I said it or one of my past-selves pushed the word out but it was true.
Most of them agreed with the sentiment too.
It’s lovely having a peanut gallery in your head to give a critique on your life.
“Get lost, it’s my life. I won fair and square.”
I could feel some of the voices well up in indignation but they couldn't do anything about it.
I won, I'm in control.
That’s what matters.
That and Sarah.

For a moment I watched her new cameraman load his bulky form into the back of an ambulance to go with her.
His names Tor or something I think.. I’ll have to check that.
Pretty sure K.. pretty sure it was in my last report on her, somewhere.

My pocket vibrated.
Slowly I reached in, pulled out my phone and gave the mental trigger to accept a call.
The phones enchanted to all hell, naturally.
“Hannah speaking”
One of the remaining medics glanced my way, with a hand wave I dropped a mild illusion to disappear from his vision.
“Hannah this week is it?”
Felicia, the receptionist from Hub G-0 sounded amused.
I think she’s still just riding the happy high with the way I managed to update the tech in the hub so she doesn't have to spend all day working the front desk any more.
She always seems to be in a good mood lately.

“yeah, this week”
I smirked to myself.
Changing with the weeks is her thing not mine.
People tend to underestimate me when I'm Hannah, it makes most jobs easier.
“You free?”
My head trailed along the road to watch Sarah’s ambulance disappear into traffic.
“yeah, new job?”
Felicia barked out a laugh.
“What else? Tell me, how is your Russian accent?”
Ohh, interesting.
“It’s good enough to fool most natives.”
It sounded like she shifted the phone around to a more comfortable position.
“Perfect. Meeting room three in twenty minutes?”
I glanced at my watch and considered my options.
Just enough time to grab a hotdog on the way, lunch kind of got forgotten in the rush to help Sarah.
“Sure, any hints for me?”
Felicia grinned, I could feel it down the phone.
“Ever heard the one about the Succubus and the whore house?”
My leg paused mid-step.
“You’re kidding?”
She broke out in another laugh.
“See you in twenty Hannah”
I growled and shoved my phone in my pocket.
My stomach growled back.
Hotdog first, then strangle her for teasing me.
It’s always good to have a plan.

============
============

No more.. No more..
It's too much..
All of it again..
..My.. my head..

What’s tha-

-Light?.. finally..

An Identity crisis isn't the same as having a crisis with your identities. In this instalment we finally find out just what HAS been going on. Events unfold including but not limited to: Sarah annoys a doctor (somehow) And Hannah awakens, in more ways then one.

============
============
Too many memories, all pouring into my head!

Who am I?
Arista, Athena, Gwen.. Jennet?

No..
..my poor head..

My name..
My name..
I’m..

============
============

“Hannah”
The name came out as a choked off whimper for some reason but with it came a moment of clarity at last.
I shot up in bed and my eyes flew wide open.
Slowly they squinted down again in pain.
My hand came up to cup my aching forehead.
It feels like someone shoved my brain in sideways.

I closed my eyes tight and focused on breathing.
My mind keeps throwing images, memories and thoughts at me that aren't mine.
With a mental shove I managed to bottle it all off to the side.
It’s only temporary but it should hold for a bit.

Why the hell did I go through that?
It wouldn't stop!
Ugh..my heads still too fuzzy to think..
I sunk back onto the bed, through squinted eyes I could vaguely make out that I was in some kind of bland room.

A familiar snore near my arm made me jump.
Sarah.. it feels like so long since I last saw her.
..When DID I last see her?

..In the cell?
Her eyes burning angrily at me as she was warped to safety..
no, that’s not it.

Her crying her heart out while venting her pent up emotions at me in a deserted carpark?..
no..

Was she teasing me in a shoe shop?..
no..
well, she did but that’s not it either, that was years ago..

She stared at me with wide eyes standing on the garage floor in her nighty..
“oww..”
My hand came up to cup my forehead again.

I must still be waking up because my hand fell short and ended up smacking my nose instead.
“owwww”
Voicing it doesn't make my head hurt less but it always makes me feel better to complain, even if no-ones listening.

========

Eventually my eyes settled back on to Sarah’s sleeping form.
She’s in a wheelchair.
Why didn't I notice that before?
It looks like her foots in a cast, why does that feel familiar..

We can’t have been here long.
I can feel Sarah’s tight adventurer shorts cutting into my hips a little.
They tend to undress you in hospitals if you’re there for a while..

The shorts acted as some kind of trigger apparently, memories shot through my brain in rapid fire.

MAX! That insane bastard!
Who the hell even THINKS about using Old Magic to give someone a sex-change?!?
I woul-
No I wouldn’-
My hands squeezed tightly into the bedding wrapped around my waist.
My memories are too scrambled to think right now!

Okay..
Deep breaths Han, you can deal with this..
Anger and frustration don’t mix well with mages!
Options, think, breath..

John, my best friend since we were kids.. Max, my..

He had some new big plan, using Sarah to trick me with the Bindings of Bad Faith.
I escaped with Tor using a ‘Bulla warp’ spell, it was the only one I could reliably pull off with the Old Magic sitting so heavily on my core.
You always have to do teleport spells reliably, so much can go wrong otherwise..

“Kinda lucky, we didn't come out of it too badly. No lasting effec-“
My lower back flared with a burning pain.
I hissed and shifted my hand down to try and sooth it but the burn cooled quickly on its own.
‘You may never again lie about your feelings’
..oh, yeah.. THAT.
Damn you Max!

Wait..
I wasn't really voicing my feelings there though, was I? My opinions sure but..
Oh powers! Please don’t be..
“I think Chicken burgers are better than Beef Steak”

For a long moment I paused, waiting for the burn to come back but luckily it didn't.
It’s not my opinions then.. must be emotionally triggered?
I didn't care about that lie so it didn't trigger.
Old magic normally isn't about intent but if it’s looking to ‘ward’ me from lying about my feelings it would HAVE to have some kind of emotional trigger to it.
How to test-
“The capital of New York State is Long Island”

Another long pause.. Nothing.
Okay, so it’s not ALL lies either, just..
“um.. I am perfectly fi-AHH!”
My hand shot down to my lower back again.
It felt like someone was jabbing me with a hot poker!

My yell woke Sarah up with a jolt.
In seconds she was blindly trying to push me back down into the bed.
I frantically pushed to stop her, my back hurt too much to lay down again so quickly!
My arms latched to the bed’s side bars and I heaved my chest forward.
Sarah stopped trying to push me back.
She settled back in her chair, just blearily looking at me instead.

Slowly her brain seemed to be turning back on, she’s never has been good at waking up.

I glanced away, trying to look over my shoulder to get a better look at my new binding, while simultaneously trying to rub a hand over it to sooth the burn.
My hair got in the way a lot for some reason.
“Han?”
My shoulder twitched, carefully I turned back around to face her.

She was crying.
It looked like she’d been crying before I woke up too, her eyes were already rimmed in red.
Without another word she dived forward and hugged me tightly, I didn't hesitate to hug her back.

We sat there hugging for a while, I don’t know what she was thinking but my mind drifted a little.
I may just be insane but the hug felt weird..
A quick glance downward gave an answer for that.
Her breasts were pressed tight against mine..

That fact settled into my head for a few seconds..
Slowly, I was gearing up for a nice healthy scream, but the impulse eased the more I thought about it.
I’d been expecting the whole ‘being a woman’ thing.
Just kind of in denial really..
In the back of my mind I’d noticed and been cataloguing the differences since I woke up though.

That doesn't make it any less weird to feel Sarah squishing against my, now surprisingly sensitive, chest.
The hug felt weird too, even ignoring my sudden additional chest baggage.

I glanced back down again for a second and stared thoughtfully.
“Are my boob’s bigger than yours?”
Sarah tensed in my arms and I twitched with worry.

She started to squeeze me slightly too tight in warning.
With clenched teeth she turned her head to stare at me.
“I was just feeling glad you were awake little sister, don’t make me regret it”
I let out an indignant 'squark' and tried to move my pinned arms.
“Who you calling ‘little’?”
Sarah smirked at me for a moment..
..Then her face fell into a frown which made me a bit worried.
..Then her eyes got a bit misty and she looked really sad.

“Sare?”
She huffed to herself and moved one hand away from me so she could rub her eyes dry.
“I saw the camera footage of what happened. It didn't show much, Tor’s camera was facing the wrong way but the audio was pretty good”
I cocked my head to the side and considered her.
For some reason it feels like she’s trying to change the subject.
“What’s-”
She cut me off with a hand gesture.
“Who the hell was that guy, what was all that stuff he was saying about ‘Arista’, getting ‘married’ and ‘before’?”
My breath caught in my throat slightly.

For what felt like an eternity we sat staring at each other.

I coughed awkwardly and tried to divert the conversation.
“Where are w-”
Sarah growled at me in warning, the arm she still had around my waist tensed painfully.
“No, Hannah. We ARE discussing this!”
I groaned but couldn't exactly fight her off.
She’s always been stronger than me.

“What’s to discuss?”
I could already tell that wasn't going to work on her.

“Han.. I just got you back in my life”
She eased off her death grip on my ribs.
“I said I was sorr-“
The look on her face stalled any protests I could think of.
“You dumped me in the medi-bay, while you and Mum faced one of the worst Lich Kings of all time. Then hours later mum turns up by a high level dark magical teleport, looking like she was minutes from death..”
Her arms drooped and she stared at me, looking lost.
“I waited for you.”

She shifted her eyes uncomfortably.
After a moment she slid away from me to sit in her wheelchair better and folded her arms around her stomach defensively.
“I waited for days. No-one would tell me anything. Eventually K- He came to me, said you’d been commissioned and were busy on a mission but he wouldn't say anymore than that!”

========

The memories were fresh in my head, her nudges pushed me back in to them easily.

After the fire had burned down and the MPA troops found me fleeing the scene, I’d been put into treatment to help me handle my awakening.
It hadn't worked out like a normal one should have.
Instead of the memories merging into my subconscious, for some reason, mine had formed into individual entities in my head.
Every past-life I’d..
Every past-incarnation of Arista, had been shoved into my head and they wouldn't shut up!
The main theory seemed to be that, because I was male, the dissonance between my body and mind had disrupted the merging process.

Luckily most of my past-selves seemed to be relatively easy going, they tend to agree with me on most things.
A few though..
Arista herself was very outspoken at first, her rage against Max pushed painfully in my head.

One girl, Anise, she could be a real bitch.
She enjoyed mocking me if I messed something up and would swear at me in French if I offended her somehow.

And then there’s Theodora..
She was so annoying.. but I kind of felt sorry for her..
She was Greek, roughly sixth century if my maths is right.
Her and her times version of Max, who went by ‘Justinian’, were in love.
A messed up kind of love that, when I dare to dive into her memories even slightly, leaves me feeling ill.
Her ‘Justinian’ managed to keep her from breaking her memory seal for a LONG time, most of her life in fact.
He had years to work on her, and she was fanatical for him in return for his effort.
When he took over the Greek empire behind his father’s senile old back and that dear meddling cow Euphemia died, he made her his wife..
..His Empress.
He did so many things to her.. His poor little rabbit..

=========

“HAN!”
Sarah’s yell cut through my memory fit.
I shuddered hard and tried to smile for her as an apology.
I think it looked more awkward then anything, she certainly didn't seem moved by it.

“What the hell is going on? There’s something you’re not telling me and it caused all of this so just TELL ME!”
She slammed her fists into her knees in frustration.

I felt myself puff up haughtily.
Maybe it was just thinking about my past-selves, maybe it was one of them pushing me on but I felt a surprising amount of indignant rage at her.
How DARE she question me!

“Do you really want to know?” It came out as an angry hiss.
Sarah seemed surprised by my tone for a moment but hardened her face seconds later.
“YES!”
I huffed and tensed in annoyance.
“Fine..”

My eyes focused on hers and she flinched a little.
“FINE. You want it, you got it! I went through my awakening that night, gained all the memories of my past reincarnations.. and it went WRONG, I damn near lost my MIND!”
She flinched again, harder this time.
“It took me YEARS to get control again, on top of that I had missions to do for the Hub, on top of THAT I had to keep an eye on YOUR ungrateful ass!”

She shrunk back in her seat a little.
“I went through stuff that would drive a sane person mad, all to keep myself whole and it worked.”
I was breathing heavy now, my hands scrunched into tight fists.
“Edith taught me how to consciously access my mind-scape, and I dived in there.. It was a MESS!”

Sarah watched me with cautious eyes.
“There were more of them then I could count, all looking like you, all glaring at me!”
My shoulders shook a little.
I’d been terrified at the time.

“I challenged all of those self-entitled little TUMOURS to beat me.. and then I KICKED ALL THEIR ASSES!”
My fists slammed down hard on my legs which hurt surprisingly more than I’d expected.
I let out a hissed breath and shut my eyes tight.

“When I had myself back together.. I checked in on you, I never left yo-”
“you DID! I DIDN'T SEE YOU FOR YEARS! an-”
My eyes flew open and Sarah froze mid-rant.

I think some magic may have slipped out, she shouldn't have gone quite from just a look.
“I NEVER left you.. I couldn't be with you, Max-”
She looked confused.
“John, remember him? He’s a mage too, he’s the Maxarimus you heard in Tor’s video”
Her face scrunched up, after a moment she shuddered.
“That creepy friend of yours with all the motels? I KNEW there was something wrong with him.”

I didn't argue with her.
My anger was easing, I just felt kind of empty now.
“He was after me. I had to keep moving, and I had to keep him focused on me, so he wouldn't come looking for you or mum.. again”
Sarah stared back at me in worry.

“After..”
I gulped hard around a lump that had formed in my throat.
“After Karl..”
Sarah’s hand slowly came up to cup her mouth.
“After he died, I couldn't keep an eye on you from afar anymore.”
I shifted my hips awkwardly.
“So I came back and you SAID you’d forgiven me, I did the photoshoot and everything to pay for it..”
She flinched a little.

“We barely had time to talk between my work and yours. Then you had to go off for this new expedition and after two weeks of silence, I get a frantic call from some hospital in the middle of nowhere, Bolivia. Saying you were in a coma and they needed the next of kin!”
Her face went tight in pain.

“It was all a setup from Max, I guess you got that from the video..”
She sunk back in her chair a little more.
“He used you to get to me.. THIS is why I stayed away, and this is the result!”
I waved a hand at my new ‘rack’ for her inspection.

“AND to top it all off something weird’s going on.. I just went through something that felt suspiciously like a second awakening. My head hurts, and-”
I cut myself off, my eyes blew wide in surprise.

The voices?
I sent a mental shove into my mind-scape, that’s usually good to get a reaction from one or two of them at least.. nothing.

“oh crap..”
I stared at Sarah, she was watching me with equally worried eyes.
“Did I die?”
Sarah flinched hard.
Slowly, as if she was reluctant to accept it as reality, she nodded.
“oh..”

“Only for like, a few minutes. You collapsed, had a fit and when the fit was over you’d changed.. I..”
She trailed off looking guilty.
“I didn't know what to do. Tor woke up while you were in the fit and he saved you. Gave you CPR or something.. I dunno, it worked whatever he did. You had a pulse again”

I gulped hard.
That’s three times I owe him for saving me and Sarah..

“..then you didn't wake up and the doctors came rushing in, moved you here for observation..”
My back sunk deeper into the bed and pushed hard against the pillows.

“oh.. crap.. that.. that’s not good..”
Sarah looked a little annoyed.
I glared back at her, daring her to make a comment.
“Really not good, magic wise..”
My hand twitched slightly in response to the second mental shove I forced along my lines..
..Still nothing.

“Give me a minute, I have to check this out. If a doctor comes in shake me hard, it should be enough to wake me, okay?”
She didn't look happy, but she also seemed a bit worried about setting me off ranting again.

With a deep sigh I shifted back comfortably and pushed magic up from my core towards my brain, the line was easy to force by now, I've done it enough times at least.

The magic felt oddly cold but that wasn't important compared to what I was potentially facing.

==========

My mind-scape formed up fast, quicker than usual at least.
The bright endless space glowed with enough glare to make me squint but it was plainly empty.

“Where is everyone?”
Welcome to my mental core by the way, well.. sort of.
It’s complicated.

Basically, this big open white area is how my brain can process the extra-dimensional magic used as a buffer when an awakening happens and reincarnations kick in.
.. It’s like how my body can read a pressure wave from an overpowered spell as a ‘cold wind’..
Or that time I detected some thorax potion mixed into my meal because it made my ‘hair itchy’ to be near it.
Magic senses are weird like that.

For most people, they lose access to this space after their awakening, unless they train to keep it.
I probably wouldn't have lost my access with how messed up my awakening was anyway, but I got extra training to access it easier from Edith so that point is kinda moot now..
If you get good enough at this, you can change your mind-scape to something past the ‘default’ endless light look.
I could never get a hang of it.

Edith suggested that all the past-me’s in here were screwing up my control.
..well..
no..
What she actually suggested was along the lines of ‘Ya be too full to be shape’n girl’ and ‘Till ya can shut them all up ya be useless girl. Come, I be showing ya way’s’.

I've just gotten better at translating her grumbling over the years.

=========

I kicked a bright white rock hard across the endless white space.
Is it childish that I willed the rock into existence just so I could kick it?

My robes fluctuated and for a moment they shifted into a burlap set of peasant wear.
This lead to a quick cycling of different outfits, some more awkward then others.
That.. isn't good..
With a mental push I fixed my outfit back to my basic training robes.

Everything here is symbolic, most things in magic are honestly.
As Max pointed out, Arista’s.. I've always been a fan of sympathetic magic.
Sympathetic magic is like taking the idea of ‘magical symbols’ and working it into a science, an art!
I'm a natural at Sympathetic magic, Arista’s many lives worth of training in it help too, obviously.
..Maybe Sympathetic magic isn't the best way to explain symbols.. I tend to get a bit to technical with it all apparently?

Okay..
It’s like how I managed to change what happens when my magic flares with my emotions.
With the ‘default’ fire I originally produced, it was just a direct release of my basic magic built up and then forced out as flame.
Fire is my element, it symbolises me.
At my very core, I AM a fire user.
Fire users tend to fit within a certain personality profile.
..how to explain this.. uh.. okay..

Celtic myth puts fire within the ‘Arwen’, the triple flame, it had a few meanings to them but the relevant one to me from a magic standpoint was the ‘unification of polarities’..
Or more simply put a ‘balancing point’ between male and female.

Chinese myth placed fire as one of its key ‘trigrams’, it shows clarity of purpose, and independence.

The Nords used the ‘Ken’ rune for fire and strength, a symbol of positive action, passion and warmth.

Mayans had the ‘yajaw k’ak’, the held flame, as a point of ignition for magic.
In modern terms, one of the names for that system is a ‘locus point’.

There are other meanings.. but you get where I’m going with this right?

I'm balanced between male and female..
well, I was at least..
I'm independent in my actions and driven by my goals.
Usually to protect Sarah, as annoying as that is.
I'm passionate but with an excess of warmth, which tends to come out as me being a bit too forgiving to those I care for.
And.. I'm a locus point.
With access to a deep well of magic that can dwarf other users in comparison.
It’s not bragging, it’s just the way it works.

Edith still insists fire doesn't suit me but she won’t explain why.. irritating little female yoda that she is..

Anyway.. to get past all of THAT, my very nature as a human being, I had to play a bit of mental hopscotch to stop myself setting fire to.. myself.. with every flash of irritation.
Fire provides warmth.
To me the color orange is also warmth, its silly but if I had to describe orange I instantly think of ‘warmth’.
From that starting point I had to build up a mental connection between the two ideas.

Fire can seem orange at times if the flames right,
Fire can be dangerous, often warning signs for fire and volatility have orange in them,
Even the sun setting, it often shifts into orange hues,
The Egyptian ‘Bennu’ bird, the original source for the modern idea of a ‘phoenix’, they were known to build a nest of cinnamon twigs.. to me cinnamon twigs are orange looking.

It doesn't matter how obscure or awkward the connection is.
They are easy symbols to focus on for ME.
The more connections I could make between the two focus points, fire and orange, the stronger the symbolic link between them would be.
After locking all that in my mind, all it needed was a little magical push to seal the connection in my brain.
Now if I get angry or embarrassed, I don’t set myself on fire like I did at first.
I turn things orange, plants in a jungle or my own fingernails for example?

So.. getting back to my original point.
My body in my mind-scape, it’s a symbol too, just like the color orange I use to stand in for the fire.
That’s why it’s bad if my mental image of my body start to shift wildly.
It’s a mental representation of ME.
My training robes are close to gender neutral, close enough that it didn't set all the other ‘me’s’ off ranting in anger at me for showing ‘a lack of feminine grace’ or ‘no decorum’ at least.

My outfit changing from that neutral..
Specifically when, now that I think about it, I recognised some of those outfits from the many iterations of ‘girls’ who used to reside in here with me.. is NOT a good sign.

“Hello?.. Hellooo”
No-one answered obviously.
It’s kind of hard to hide in a stark white endless room, so I’d expected it, but I needed to make some noise to stop from spiralling off in thought..

The important question here is.. where are the other ‘me’s’?
It feels weird to not have a committee of girls, who look like my sister, shouting at me by now.
I never thought I’d reach the point where NOT having them in here would be off putting.

“Okay, don’t panic”
This is just like the time when Philippe accidentally awoke my-
..That’s not right.
..That’s not MY memory. That’s definitely from Anise!
The bitch in the red cloak that kept swearing at me in French if I did something socially awkward!
Well, I shouldn't call her a bitch.. she may have been annoying, but she reminded me so much of my Gabriel I could forgive her a-
..no.
THAT memories from the roman chick who burned down the-
yes.. uh..
Let’s just say it wasn't MY memory either and not go into more of HER actions, okay?
..I've never met anyone called Gabriel anyway.

Well.. no..?
I HAVE actually, now that I think about it.
There was that cute-y who paid the madam for my services and then spent the whole time sobbing about his wife..
oh! And that Doofus in Duffus, Scotland.. he was pretty cute too.
Maybe all Gabriel’s are cute?

===========

“FOCUS!”
I shook my head hard to drive the memories back and gain some control again.
It helped a little but not for long. They keep pushing in, almost like..
..oh no..

How did it taken me this long to work it out?

Last thing I remember, the old magic.
Max that incompetent BASTARD!
He actually managed it, he used the old magic to turn me female in body..
..and I died in the process..
..and then I was brought back by Tor.

THAT’s why I've been tortured with a rolling mass of my own memories!
THAT’s why all the mental representations of my past-lives are missing!
They’re still here.. all of them.
IN here, IN my head.
We merged.
We merged completely..
Holy crap! I went through an awakening again!
I died, the old magic killed me.
I died, and it rebuilt my body to its whims..
Then Tor revived me and I instantly went through an awakening!

Am I even me anymore?
I barely was before, with them all in here and all the pressure, being Hannah felt more comfortable then Alistor ever could..
Maybe I should be happy?
The shattered existence we maintained for the last few years wasn't healthy.
Papa Nico would be glad. He always-

THAT!
That’s what has me worried!
The memories are so easy to reach.

They've always been there, even before my awakening they were affecting me.
I can see it now.
It’s so obvious, I don’t know why I couldn't see it before.

I think that’s why I was so ‘special’ as a kid..
How many six year olds can you think of that can speak at least three obscure languages like a native?
How many four year olds can you think of that have issues with accidentally using accents and words from places and languages they've never heard of?

Sarah always joked that I was picking up stuff from John when I slipped English slang into my words.
His stupid British accent thing, we wrote it off as his influence and ignored it, but that isn't how it works.
He was trying to cover it up to fit in better when we were kids, not mimicking his mum’s accent.
Of course John would speak like a born Brit, he had his full awakening at the age of six!
From what I can see from the memories, Max’s last few incarnations have all been English.

The Declaration of independence was only signed a few hundred years ago.
Most of the upper classes enjoyed the comforts of London too much to face the harsh lands of the ‘new world’ for a century or so after that.
I can only think of ONE other incarnation I'VE had that was born in the USA, let alone Max.

Does that make me part-British too?
I've definitely clocked in enough years to get citizenship, technically at least.
Well.. Scottish I guess..
England was only settled by the romans about fifteen thousand years ago.
Before that most of Arista’s incarnations were Celts.. for a while at least.

So technically I've lived two.. one and a half maybe, lifetimes as a citizen of the great US of A.
Through my past-lives.. I've lived SO many of them in Scotland, a fair few of them in the rest of Britain.
Hell, I've hit up most of Europe more than I've lived in the USA from these memories.
Greece, Rome, Egypt, Germany, and Gaul.
Before written language, mass market and feudal kings it’s even harder to work out where my incarnations lived..

Arista, the original shaman Arista, her people were nomadic.
I can’t be sure but I think they were from somewhere near Norway, winters were cold and long, summers stifling with short days.
Their spoken language matches up quite well with a few of the Proto-Germanic ones I can think of too.

Putting it all together like this, it’s pretty amazing that anyone with my shear MASS of past-lives could speak English at all?
I've got more experience speaking Old Norse then I do English stuffed in my head!

I'm pretty sure the awakening used my brain to provide some kind of ‘Rosetta stone’ for the languages so I could understand them easier when needed.
I can think about events in my past-lives but they play out in English when I do, even when I KNOW that wasn't the language being spoken!
When I read languages that a past-incarnation knew how to read, it tends to just look like English to me too, unless I focus on it.

With John.. he awakened at the age of six.
So much life experience and learning dumped on the shoulders of a child.
He’s got more lives in his head then I do!
The only thing keeping him sa..
Well okay, he's not really ‘sane’ but the only thing that could have kept him from going off on a murder rampage across every state of America one of these days must be the fact that his awakening went off normally.
Just thinking about how badly things could have gone if he had been born with a different sex to his past-selves makes me shudder.
It’s bad enough when I'm going through it, and I'm sane.. if you ignore the whole ‘voices in my head’ thing at least.

No wonder he’s more Max then John, how could he not be?
He’s become more ‘Max’ as time’s gone on too..
Back when we were kids, he wasn't perfect, he’d slip up a lot trying to hide everything.
Having a fresh perspective on it, I feel a bit stupid for not putting things all together sooner.
It’s not just the language stuff either!
I walked in on him casting a minor scrying ritual once and he told me to ‘bugger off!’.
..then he waved his hands and wiped my memory of it..

Oh..
I have THOSE sealed memories back too, I guess?..
All the ones he sealed over the years to keep me from realising he knew magic.
Maybe that’s why I didn't put it together before?

This all feels really weird..

I can’t tell where I end and THEY begin, ALL of them, these other unlocked memories are just making things even more confusing!
So many lives, so many woman, so different from me but in so many ways completely the same.
All shoved in my head..

=========

“F-O-CUS!”
Shaking my head to get some clarity again worked for a moment.
I forcefully pushed back the flow of memories that were jumping to distract me and slowly sunk to my knees.
It took longer than I would have wanted to slide into meditation stance.

I need to sort this out.
If I don’t get a handle on it soon, I’ll lose myself to.. my-selves?..
…Reincarnation is awkward on pronouns.

With one more deep breath for courage, I forced my mind deeper into my true core.
Maybe if I find..
I could..
it should work?.. maybe..

===========

She blinked at me oddly.
I stared back.
Her clothes looked weird.
Like she’d raided the mix’n’match historical bin at a costume shop.
Who wears a full 16th century nobles petticoat under an off the shoulder toga?

Apparently not her, just me thinking about it was enough to set her clothes shifting again.
She frowned at me as if it was my fault.

It kinda is, I guess.
She’s me.
Well.. Part of me.
I think she’s always been here?

You know how, if you try to split your attention between two tasks really hard and then focus back on one single task straight afterwards, you feel a bit disorientated for a moment?
She’s that.. but with magic.
Magic makes everything more complicated..

She was probably made as a kind of a defence mechanism by my brain to protect me from Arista’s influence.
Instinctive magic like that is always unreliable and chaotic.

She wasn't here when I arrived earlier, it took diving deeper into my core to bring her back out.

I think she got mixed in with all the other girls at one point, before the merging happened.
It’s hard to tell.
Naturally she looks the same as them, they all do.
All incarnations of Arista seem to have looked like the ‘original’ Arista.

While Arista looks a lot like Sarah, there are still differences there.
If anything I'm the odd one out in here.
Looks wise we were mostly the same. Same skin tone, hair color, eyes.
I was taller than the rest were, a bit older too, sharper face, shorter hair..
Really, I look more like Sarah then Arista ever did.
There’s a reason we could still easily swap places afterall..

Honestly the biggest difference between THIS girl and Arista’s ‘army’ is that I made her, sort of.
She’s not a past-life being shown to me as a person, because of my broken mind-scape.
She’s part of me!

We, me and Sarah, we named her ‘Hannah’.. ages ago.
We didn't realise it at the time but it worked, she’s part of me, my feminine side given form.

========

“You gonna be okay?”
She tilted her head at me, an odd mix of emotions playing across her face.
I shrugged apologetically.

The easiest way I could think of to handle an overload of past-lives was to shift them on someone else.
It’s an old mage trick, to prepare for a possibly dangerous reincarnation event.
I don’t know why no-one’s ever mentioned it to me at the Hub actually.. it’s pretty useful.

..I guess.. maybe they don’t know about it?
I picked it up from a few of my past lives, mostly the old ones.. the REALLY old ones..

She.. I need to find a new name for her.
I can’t call her ‘Hannah’, that could get confusing quickly.
Can’t call her ‘Arista’ either.
She has the looks for it but I've already got several of THOSE in my head already.
That would just take confusing to the next level!
Well.. more confusing than a metaphysical representation of my divided attention given the form of my feminine side with magic at least.. Is that even possible?
My head hurts again just thinking about it!

She doesn't need a name really, she’s just a part of my psyche.
I've got more important things to deal with at the moment then what do I call the imaginary girl in my brain!

It just feels kind of rude to not give her a name, ya know?
It’s not like she’s a different person or anything.

She’s me, but she’s got her hand on the filter control, holding back all the memories I can’t handle.
Basically, I split part of my mind off so it could focus completely on keeping my past memories from getting in the way of being.. well.. me?

The last thing I need is to be talking to someone as Al and suddenly slip into a feminine aristocratic old-English accent.. or Gaelic.. or Nynorsk..

Although..
With Max’s little ‘old magic sex-change’ trick having worked, I guess the feminine side of it won’t be as big of an issue..
yay for plus sides, I guess?
Okay..
Now I'm a little depressed..

==========

Ha-
HER, she sighed at me in sympathy and waved her arms around.

Trust a part of my mind to use twin speak to talk.

She waved her arm again and slapped me on the shoulder for attention.
She’s right, we need to find a better solution to this.
I've heard horror stories of people holding back their past-lives by force and it never ends well..
Often it ends with mental institutes and lots of drooling.

I felt another sharp slap on my arm.
A glance at her gave me nothing more than a confused shrug.
Who would be..
Yet another sharp slap almost jolted me forward.

Oh.. Sarah.
Doctors must be doing the rounds?

I gave HER another apologetic look.
She shrugged it off.
Of course she did, she’s me..

With a bit of mental force I shoved myself back into the real world.

=========

“See, I told you she woke up”
Sarah sounded smug.

I groaned for effect, blinked my eyes open and glanced around curiously.
The hospital room, suspiciously similar to the one Sarah had been in before, was pretty generic.
It’s much easier to take in when my brain isn't tearing itself apart, looks like ‘Inner-Hannah’ is doing a good job holding things back already.

We’re definitely in a hospital; off white walls, wood paneling, retro-linoleum flooring.
No TV, so not a private room, some kind of room specifically made for coma patients maybe?
..Would a hospital even have something like that?..

“So I see, thank you for being so.. thorough in informing me of that fact Ms.Cooper”
The doctor was old, really skinny in his baggy suit and lab coat.
He was a little taller than Sarah, which isn't saying much for a man, with drooping shoulders and greyed hair.

One of his bushy eyebrows rose up at Sarah and for a moment I was reminded of the male Sib’s with their huge puffball eyebrows.
It must be the color?
No-one can match the Sib’s for crazy eyebrows otherwise!

He didn't look amused about whatever Sarah had been doing to cover for me while I ‘woke up’.
Probably not a good start..

“Now young lady, your sister has been very worried about you.”
He squinted at me thoughtfully.

I don’t like his eyes, he looks a bit too smart to be trusted.

“This may seem indelicate but allow this old man his eccentricities..”
His voice was surprisingly smooth and soothing, like a favoured grandparent.
Oddly, it made me want to trust him less to be honest, a smart doctor with a good bedside manor can be dangerous if you’re hiding something..
Hiding something big; like a sudden emergency teleport into a coma patient’s room, followed by the coma patient magically waking up and you magically slipping into an 'awakening' induced coma in response.
Just as a random example..

“Are you Anorexic?”
My eyes went wide.
Sarah snorted to my side, which didn't help at all.

The doctor squinted at us both again and seemed to lose some of his tension, just from our reactions.
“You’re under-weight for your age.. fainting spells like yours, they don’t tend come on without a source..”
He glanced over at Sarah suspiciously but flicked his eyes back to me.
“When was the last time you ate something?”

I shrugged slowly.

How should I know?
Depends how long I was out for really.
We were in a bit of rush to get to the jungle, my sisters life being on the line and all so.. a few days?
I think I had something on the train when we left the hospital.. maybe?

“Any answer which isn't ‘just before I came to visit my poor sister, Doctor Rischard Sir’ would be an incorrect one”
I looked up at him guiltily.
He didn't look angry, more amused than anything.

“Either way, don’t do it again. Your EEG was a bit frantic for a while but overall you settled into normal sleep just fine.”
He smirked a little at Sarah.
“Like your sister, you apparently just couldn't seem to decide if you wanted to stay unconscious or wake up.. who knows it could be genetic?”
I glanced at Sarah and she cringed a little.
There’s a story there I think..
“Just let me-“
The doctor shuffled over to me and pulled a penlight out of his top pocket.

His surprisingly strong, wrinkled hand came up and turned my head slightly.
The penlight flashed in my eyes a few times while he made considering noises to himself.
Finally when my eyes had teared up to the point that I couldn't see anything, he let me go.

“Normal enough, drink lots of fluids-”
He shot a sharp look over at Sarah.
“- make sure she eats, don’t leave her in the care of that Tor fellow again. He obviously can’t look after her properly”
Sarah cringed again and I felt a bit annoyed.
Tor’s a nice guy, he-
He brought me back to life!
He didn't do anything wrong, how DARE this-

The old doctor waved away any further conversation and turned his back on me.. I mean on us!

“You’re clear to leave, I advise you both visit your family doctor for a check-up when you get back to the states. Your company’s already paid for your care Ms.Cooper, your sister.. I’ll let slide. At my age, you can tend to forget little things..”
He glanced over his shoulder at us with a mischievous glint in his eye.
“Some dear girl fainted quite badly? Certainly, she reminded me of my granddaughter! ..Such an enthusiastic little girl that one-”

His eyes scrunched thoughtfully and he continued walking to the door while carrying on as if he was having a conversation where someone had just interrupted him.
“-medical care costs you say?.. Really? I don’t remember that. I'm sure she was perfectly well when I saw her. She reminded me of my granddaughter you know..”
He trailed off as he rounded the corner of the door.

Despite my anger at him over his Tor comments, I had to quickly force down a giggle.
As he turned right at the door to walk up the hallway, I caught just a brief flash of his warm grin.
Cheeky old man!
He may have been a bit of an ass about Tor, but it was nice of him to not make a fuss over me at least..
Definitely too smart for his own good though!

Turning back to Sarah I had to bite down a full laugh.
She looked less amused then I was by his play acting, more flustered and confused than anything else.

“Surprisingly nice, for a doctor at least?”
Sarah gave me a mild glare but eventually huffed and nodded instead of arguing.

==========

“TOR!”
He smiled awkwardly at me and squeezed his bulk through the doorway.

“How’s your head, Boss?”
I smiled a little and he tentatively moved closer to the bed.

“Missed ya big guy, Sarah told me about..”
He grimaced.
“yeah.. thanks”
His mouth morphed into an awkward smile and he nodded at me happily.

“Anyway..”
I trailed off to break the potentially sappy moment.
“I’ll be fine, my head aches but most of the pains gone, how’s yours?..”
For a moment I resisted but it wouldn't stay unsaid.
“..want me to rub it better?”
I leaned back in the bed seductively and batted my eyelashes at him.

Tor made an amusing ‘snerk’ noise of disapproval and blushed brightly.
Sarah gasped and slapped me on the arm hard.

“What? You know he’s cute”
Sarah glared at me.
I winked back at her knowingly and she quickly gained a blush equal to Tor’s.

“uh..”
My head swivelled back to Tor, he’d apparently gotten control of himself again.
“I don’t think that really appropriate anymore..”
My eyebrows scrunched up in confusion.

Sarah sucked in a breath sharply.
It may not have been intentional, but it got my attention anyway.

She looked really worried about something.
“What?”
She shook her head a little but moments later her shoulders slumped and she let out a reluctant sigh.
“You changed Han”
I squinted at her in annoyance.
“..well duh?.. Old magic does that to ya apparently..”

She cringed and shook her head a little.
“Not that, you CHANGED..”
A growl came from the back of my throat in frustration.

With surprising ease I pushed myself out of the bed to face her better.
It’s impossible to show proper levels of annoyance while laying down!

She glared at me in warning, seemingly a bit annoyed at my ‘over-reaction’.
With a lot more effort than it took me, she pushed herself up from her wheelchair into a wobbly standing position.

I paced a step closer to her, bringing us close enough that we should have been nose to nose..
..then I looked up from her chin, into her eyes instead?..

Her sad eyes made me flinch hard and collapse backwards on the bed again.

“Crap..”
Sarah nodded dejectedly. Slowly she hobbled her way over to sit next to me.
With gentle movements she brought her arm around my shoulder in a hug and squeezed tightly.

“Crap..”
She rubbed her chin in my hair soothingly but didn't comment.
I squinted at the wall and growled.
“Max, you son of a bitch..”

==========

“La, la, la, I'm not listening, la, la, la”
With less effort then it would have taken her normally, which wasn't much to start with honestly, she yanked my fingers out of my ears and glared at me.
“Be rational Han. You can’t ignore this.”

I shrugged her arms off of me and moved away from the bed.
With a dramatic spin I came back around to point at her with a flourish.
“I'm being rational! The rational thing to do in this situation is put my fingers in my ears and pretend it’s not happening. YOU’RE the one being irrationally calm!”
Sarah just sat there gaping at me in surprise.

“I will NOT accept being the little sister!”
She cringed and looked apologetic

“I barely accepted being the sister, I-“
My arms went limp and I could feel myself tearing up.
“What the hell happened?.. Is it bad?”

Sarah shuffled forward a little and gave my arm a tug until I stumbled into her full reach.
With seemingly no effort at all she turned me around and sat me on her lap.

“It could be worse”
I cringed hard this time.
That’s never a comforting phrase.

“At a guess, you just look.. eighteen?”
She didn't sound convinced of that number.

My eyebrow popped up challengingly.
“Twenty-one”
Sarah growled and shook me a little.
“I was being generous with eighteen”
I growled and shoved her backwards a little in retaliation.

“I am NOT waiting another three years before I can have a bloody drink!”

Sarah sighed and leaned foward to rub her chin on my head again.
“Don’t think your gonna have much of a choice Han..”
My eyes got a little tighter and I fisted my hands in my lap.
“I'm a mage. I’ll fake it if I have to..”
We both fell silent at that one.

I clenched my eyes shut tighter and my shoulders started to shake.
“We’re not twins anymore..” my voice hitched slightly in pain.
Just voicing the thought we’d both been trying to keep quite broke us.
Tears poured down my cheeks and Sarah hugged me tight, her whole body shaking in rhythm with mine.

===========

Someone opened the door behind us loudly.
I turned my head away from Sarah’s warm hug and glanced at the invader.

She looked like a nurse.
She was wearing scrubs instead of a long white coat, that’s a nurse on TV at least.

“Oh, sorry to interrupt, are you almost done? We have a patient due up here in an hour, the room needs cleaning”
I could feel Sarah shrug her shoulders but she didn't respond, leaving the choice up to me.
“Yeah, we’re done.”

Sarah’s arms reluctantly came loose from around my waist and she let me stand up.
“Sorry, we lost track of time”
The nurse smiled at me.

Tor stood up from his chair in the corner.
I jumped back in surprise.
I’d forgotten he was there, for such a big guy he can be really quite apparently.

He stretched his back with a loud pop.
“I’ll go get the car and meet you both out front?”
Sarah struggled up to her feet, awkwardly balancing with the cast.
“Sure, see you in a minute”
They both shared a smile.

I felt a little awkward, like I was interrupting something just standing there for some reason.
The moment broke and with one more nod to me, he made his way out the door.
Seconds after he was out of sight Sarah sighed and limped her way over to her wheelchair.

“He knows your injured you know, no need to hide it”
She glared at me and pointed to the handles at the back of the wheelchair.

“I just don’t want him to think I'm weak, he’s surprisingly protective..”
I tried but couldn't quite cover my smirk.
Normally I’d put it down to her being dense about this sort of thing but the feelings I got from the sympathetic bond I formed with her when we went after ‘el diablo’ told a different story.

As the old saying goes, ‘De-nial ain't just a river in Egypt’.

“What are you smirking at?”
She puffed up defensively and pouted.
A memory of a much younger Sarah giving me the exact same pout made me smile a bit wider.

“You never change Sare”

I moved behind her and gave the wheelchair a shove.
It caught me off guard by moving a lot easier than I would have expected.
“You lost weight?”
Sarah grunted in annoyance and turned her head to pout at me more.
“Don’t think compliments will get you off the hook.. little sister”
I sighed and lowered my head slightly.
“You’re enjoying this aren't you?”

She turned back around to face the door and shrugged.
“No, I hate it.. but we have to deal with the hand we’ve got.”
She turned her head around a little and stared at me seriously for a moment.

With a practised flip of her hair she turn forwards again and slipped easily back into her more teasing tone.
“So suck it up little sister, I'm injured and you have to be nice to me”
Another sigh escaped me but I felt better knowing I wasn't the only one who was hurting from my change.

“Fine, fine. Com’ on Sare”
I pushed us out the door and down the hall to the main reception.

==========

Sarah staggered into the hotel room on her new crutches.
We tried to help open the door for her but she got all huffy and independent about it.
Tor looked a bit annoyed but I just chalked it up to Sarah being Sarah.

“Dib’s on the bathroom”
I slipped around Sarah and made for the door on the far side.
She grunted at me and flopped down on one of the beds with a sigh.

For a moment I paused and squinted at her, just checking to make sure she was okay.

Tor came staggering in the front door with our bags, huffing loudly.
He’d refused to let us carry them.. the macho idiot.
With a sigh I let it go and stepped into the bathroom.

The moment I realised what was in front of me I froze.
A mirror.
Sitting innocently above the sink.

“Crap”
It came out as almost a whimper.

Standing in the mirror was a girl I recognised.
I’d seen glances of her in windows and glass as we made our way here but a mirror could apparently tell such a different story.
She looked a lot like Sarah.. only shorter, with less muscle, longer hair trailing to just below her shoulders and a face that held a bit too much baby fat to suit her lithe frame.
The baby fat is the part that annoyed me most, it made her face look more childish then it should.
I can see why Sarah figured I looked so young now..

“Arista..”
That’s who she was, I’d recognise that face anywhere.
I've seen multiple versions of it for years now.
In my mind-scape.
In my memories..
“..crap”

How the hell am I going to get a flight home looking like this?
The resemblance is close, close enough to assume I'm related to Sarah at least.
There’s no way someone could confuse this face with Sarah’s though.
Her kid sister maybe..

I squinted hard at the mirror and she squinted back at me.
“You’re going to make this difficult, aren't you?”
For a moment I expected her to answer, tiny adventurer shorts and loose necked T-shirt aside, she looked like one of my past-selves.
I'm used to them giving me angry looks.

..maybe I could..
Memories started surfacing as needed.
Inner-Hannah was obviously doing her job well.
She must be searching the mass of life experience and cherry picking the useful parts for me.
I know she’s not real and everything but I feel grateful to her anyway.
I REALLY need a new name for her now, I'm starting to feel guilty..

The memory flow settled down and I couldn't help but smirk.
Clever, really clever.

I need to get back to the States.
Height and weight aren't important.
Everyone puts on or loses weight compared to their passport numbers, it’s not like they’re gonna weigh me anyway.
I’ll wear heels to the airport for a height boost too.
My figure should be a non-issue as well.

While I definitely don’t have a ‘man’s’ shape anymore, I didn't really have one to begin with.
I'm a little bit curvier then Sarah now, judging by how her adventurer shorts are cutting into my hips slightly and.. well.. we noticed that I have slightly bigger breasts then her in the hospital..

..this is getting awkward already..

Anyway!
My point was that passports have a headshot on them, not a full body photo.
So my biggest problem is this face, Arista’s face.

Good thing I'm a mage right?
An awakened mage with millennia of life experience dealing with magic to assist me as well!

========

I turned away from the mirror with a minor glare for the girl in it.
I may have lost a lot in the last few days but I will NOT lose my face!

When I stepped back into the main hotel room Sarah looked over at me with worry.
She was spread out on the left-hand side bed, still fully dressed.
She looked a little tired but the worry came through the clearest at the moment.

I shrugged at her, offering a weak smile.
It seemed to calm her a bit.
I can understand why, I wouldn't want to face me if I was angry either..

“How’d it go?”
My eyebrow perked up at her and she blushed a little.
“First time you.. ya know.. did ya make a mess?”
A laugh burst out of me and she blushed harder.

“Sorry”
I choked back the laugh, it was getting a bit hysterical in pitch.
“Sorry, no, I didn't.. uh..”
Her eyebrow went up challengingly at me.

“..use the facility’s..? I got caught up on the mirror”
She seemed to accept the euphemism easy enough and frowned at the mention of the mirror.

“You gonna be okay?”
I smiled at her instead of answering.
With her ever watchful eyes trained on me, I made it over to my backpack and got my notebook out.
Sarah looked interested but held off commenting for now.

I settled on the spare bed and awkwardly tried to move into meditation pose.
My joints seemed a lot more flexible and willing to move into the right place but my shorter legs made me mess up once or twice before I got it right.
When I finally got everything sorted I cracked open the notebook to a new page and started everyone’s favourite part of higher level spell design, the math work.

“Really?”
My head shot up to look at Sarah curiously.
She rolled over onto her stomach and qwerked an eyebrow.
“That’s it? You saw yourself for the first time, so you come back in here and do math?”
I shrugged, dipping my head back to the notebook instead of looking at her.

“It’s temporary, I’ll fix it somehow. It’s not like I've never seen this face before anyway”
Sarah made a curious noise in response.
After a moment of consideration I sighed and put my pen back down.

With a wiggle to get in position, with the memories coming forward to aid me, I straightened my back and gave Sarah a somewhat regal look of disdain.
“I am Lady Arista Montrose, third duchess of Montrose, contact to his majesty’s court for the burgh of Angus, Scotland”

My shoulders sloped down to look a lot less confident.
“Beggin’ ya’ pardon miss, Arista’s me name. Would ya be wantin’ th’ tea served soon?”

I shifted my hips and drew myself up in indignation
“Zis.. dwelling ees.. less zen befits one of my station, Dégoûtant! Girl, go find your mast’air and tell ‘im I wish for a room befitting to ze Noblesse Uterine! Vite Vite!”

Sarah’s mouth had dropped open and she stared at me in wide eyed shock.
I gave her a weak smile and shrugged defensively in return.

“When I died, even though it only lasted a minute or two, the old magic got to work. It had to make me female and, as I've come to realise, there hasn't been a single incarnation of Arista before me who didn't look exactly like this.. even the French one..”

My head cocked to the side in consideration.
“Well no, actually there was this one that lost an eye.. ..Oh, and one who had facial scaring from smallpox! and one-“
Sarah waved her hand for me to stop.

She took a deep settling breath and let it out slowly.
After a moment more of considering my face she seemed to decide to not voice the question she had brewing, whatever it was, going for an easier question instead.
“..and the math?”

I relaxed a little at the diversion and let my posture slip back to normal.
“I'm making a custom disguise enchantment for my face. It should be enough to fool most normal people, so I can get a flight home with my passport”
She looked confused.
“Only your face?”
I shrugged and picked my pen up to start writing again.

“Illusions are normally quick and dirty magic. More force of will then anything else, I need this one to last for as long as possible.”
I ticked off a few numerals to eliminate the unneeded spell casting routes.
“Making it an enchantment rather than a spell will extend its life span by a few hours but I need the conversion matrix to somehow.. shift the illusions focal point.. if I don’t, the first time I touch cold metal it will bleed off magic like a tap on full blast.”
I crossed a few more Al-Tughrai Squares off and considered the numbers in front of me for a second.

“The less space I have to cover with the illusion the longer I can extend the life span, if I wear baggy clothes and some beefy platform boots, we should be able to pull it off.”
I flipped my new, too long, hair out of my face and smiled a little.
“It’s not like Bolivia is known for its tight and stringent airport security. When we get back into the US, I’ll just slip away and warp past the security desks”
Sarah sighed but nodded in understanding.

======

“Couldn't you warp home from here?”
I cocked my eyebrow at her and frowned to give an impression of just how much of a stupid idea that was.
She huffed defensively.
“How should I know? You’re the mage”

She kind of had a point.. and technically, I probably COULD warp back to the US.
I shouldn't though.
That much magic released without warning is bound to attract attention AND, as far as most non-awakened mages know, warping a distance longer than a mile or so without a waypoint is too dangerous to consider.
It IS too dangerous after all.. for them..
For an awakened mage though?
There’s a bit more power we can put behind it.

Especially with me, I'm a locus point after all..
I think I mentioned that before?
Basically, my core can draw in magic from the local environment to ‘refill my tank’ so to speak.

Not much research has been done into locus points, I've never met someone else who is one.
Most of them apparently don’t spread the fact that they are one around.

Understandable really, so much dark magic can get a power boost from using a locus point as a sacrifice.. let’s not even get into necromancy or Lich animation!
From what the ‘general public’ knows, locus points are basically walking layline conduits.
It’s a close enough comparison for most situations that matter.
Laylines just kind of gravitate towards me if I get too close, most magic does really, although that’s a little less obvious.. and less dangerous.
I can do some REAL damage if I go near a building built to draw power from laylines, I know that much for sure.

One mission, a few years ago when I’d just started working for Hub G-0, after my awakening.
The idiot mage I was hunting made his WHOLE base’s defences tap directly into the layline hub it was built on!
I was meant to take him in for questioning but I barely got within half a mile of the place before the entire base just IMPLODED into this TINY cube, about the size of my FIST!
The building, his equipment, his staff and him. All of it just.. BOOM, cube sized.

The thing was unsurprisingly heavy to move when I went to retrieve it.
I felt kind of silly having to cast multiple levitation spells just to move it an inch.

In the end I made a rough enchanted holder for it that would eliminate gravity’s pull on anything it contained.
Even then the thing weighed too much for me to pick up without magic.
I dunno WHAT he was doing in there but SOMETHING had to be messing with time and space for it to have any weight at all while held in my custom built holder for it.
Either that or I messed up the math in making it, but honestly, the chances of that are slim.

One of the R’n’D mages confiscated the cube from evidence later apparently?
I think he wanted to see if he could reverse engineer the protective enchantments to see what went wrong.
Last I heard he’d given up in disgust and was using the thing as an unmovable paper-weight.

..R’n’D people are weird..

=========

“Whatever”
I flicked my head up to Sarah and shrugged at her apologetically.

She wasn't really angry, she knows what I'm like if I start thinking about something.
It’s going to be even worse for a while too, all these memories in my head, being barely held back by my ‘Inner-Hannah’.
If she wasn't doing such a good job of it I'm pretty sure I’d be lost to the world at this point.

With a sigh Sarah rolled over on her bed and started searching for the TV remote.
I was tempted to point out to her that, judging from the age of the TV in this room, there probably wasn't a remote for it.
In the end I decided to let her have her fun instead.
It’s been years since she took part in an easter egg hunt, especially one where I’d already worked out where all the eggs were and she was bound to not get any.

A smug little smile came onto my face but I made sure to duck my head back down to my notebook before she could notice it.
See what you get for calling me the ‘little’ sister, think twice next time Sare!

==============

“I told you I’d make it through fine”
Sarah frowned and shot a glance across the aisle at Tor.
I shifted in my seat a bit and grinned.
Finally an upside to this whole transformation, more leg room in coach!

“Couldn't you have done something for Tor?”
I considered her question for a moment but shrugged instead of answering.

It’s kinda ironic really.
Sarah spent so long coming up with plans for what to do when I got caught trying to get onto the plane with a man’s passport, she didn't consider any other possible problems.

“Having a finger up your butt builds character, every man should try it!”
Sarah growled and whacked me in the arm.
“They pulled him out for a pat down and bag check, not that!”
I pouted at her and hunched in my spacious seat a bit more.

“Not my fault Bolivian security consider man-mountains like Tor a target for cavity searches-”
Sarah’s face went a red and she glared me into silence.

“It may not be your fault but being flippant about it isn't helping.”
I shrugged and put my headphones on.

Me being flippant IS helping, thank-you-very-much!
I happen to be a nervous flyer.

Give me a ‘Wings of Icarus’ enchantment and I’ll soar in the sky for hours.. but in a plane?

There’s got to be some unspoken magic in planes..
I REFUSE to believe something THIS big and heavy can fly unaided.
Physics be damned, my gut says we shouldn't be airborne!
The whole thing makes me nervous..

The one thing you DON’T want on an airplane at forty thousand feet up is a nervous mage.
Magic and nerves don’t mix together.
If we’re lucky all I’ll end up doing is turn the whole plane orange!

If not.. well.. I know a quick and dirty ‘float’ spell.. I think.. It seems vaguely familiar at least?
The plane would be a write off naturally, but at least me and Sarah would survive!

I’d feel guilty about Tor but I doubt anything is going to stop HIM from plummeting from the sky like a rock.
There’s a reason I went down through the temples entrance hole by a theurgicly infused tree root and he had to use high tensile climbing equipment..
..I'm a mage, not a miracle worker!..

Sarah mouthed something at me, judging by her face it was another complaint, so I didn't bother turning the music of.
With an intentionally slow movement I picked up my sleep mask and slid it over my eyes.
The look of rage on Sarah’s face before I got it fully on made me smile.

Annoying siblings is always good for calming nerves.
I have a right to do it anyway!
Annoying big sisters is what ‘little’ sisters are FOR, right Sare?

She is SO going to regret calling me ‘little’ one of these days..
..Probably not today though

The plane bumped and started taxiing along the runway.
My hand reached out blindly and grabbed Sarah’s tight.

Only a two hour flight from La Paz airport to Lima..
.. then another from Lima to Bogotá for three hours..
.. then ANOTHER from Bogotá to San Salvador..
.. and one more, six hour flight from San Salvador to LAX, Los Angeles.

From there we can do the SANE thing and drive the rest of the way home!

Why does it feel like I'm going to end up having to memory wipe some security guy who’s a bit TOO good at his job?
I hate doing that..

Did I mention I don’t like flying by the way?

The plane bumped a few more times and my stomach dropped out as we pulled up.
I let out a squeaky whimper and shoved my face into Sarah’s arm.

WHO’S BIG IDEA WAS IT TO FLY HOME!

Home can be a lot of things, but sometimes its just the place you sleep. The gang are back in the great US of A at last. Events unfold including but not limited to: Sarah giving Hannah's cold shoulder a poke (not that it helps much) And Hannah gets a bit too close to a mythical mountain.

“Never again..”

My groan got Sarah’s attention, she slowed down her shuffle across the car park to keep pace with me.
“Stop being a baby. We didn't have a single rough flight.”

I groaned louder but stopped quickly to cup my belly instead
“Tell that to my stomach”

Sarah twitched hard and glared at me in warning.
“I swear if you puke in my car, I'm gonna slap you!”

She looked like she’d do it too.

“..See if I put the effort in to save you next time, this is the sympathy I get..”
I trailed off into grumbling when her glare focused back on me again.

Never again!
I don’t care if it brings half the world’s magic users to my doorstep, next time I’m warping home!

==========

“Com’ on sleepy head”
I groaned and tried to wave her away.

She never lets me sleep in.

After a moment’s pause something slapped my butt hard and I jolted up with a yelp.
“Damn it Sarah stop doing that!”
She danced away from me on her crutches with a mischievous grin.
“Pee break, you've been sleeping for hours”
My jaw cracked in a yawn and I swayed dazedly.

For some reason I'm in the back seat of a car..
Sarah’s car I think..
Why am I.. oh.. yeah.
“I hate planes..”

Sarah looked amused for some reason.
“So you've told me.. repeatedly.. for each plane we boarded”

She gave my foot a tug.
“Come on, UP missy!”

I growled at her but shuffled out of the car door to stand up anyway.
Good thing we’ve stopped, I need to pee..
.. oh yeah.. that..
THIS is gonna be interesting.

Sarah turned around and led the way into the services.
I followed behind her reluctantly.

===========

The stall door slammed loudly behind me and I staggered over to the sinks.
My hair looked perfect in the mirror but I could feel that underneath the illusion it was a mess.

Sarah took a bit longer to make her way out, the crutches were awkward to fit into a stall from the looks of it.

“..Women are gross”
Sarah turned on the tap to wash her hands without comment, but glared at me warningly in the mirror.
I threw my hands up in defence and tried to look innocent.
“Just an observation!.. toilet paper is like sandpaper too”
She winced a little and nodded reluctantly in agreement .

“When are you gonna..?”
She waved her hand at her face to show what she meant.
I frowned and twitched a hand toward the rough choker I’d made to hold the enchantment in place.
“Gonna leave it till it dies out. I need to know how long it will last.. amazed it’s lasted this long honestly”

Sarah nodded but before she could speak the door opened and an older woman walked in.
She glanced at us for a moment but headed over to the end stall without comment.

“Come on, Tor’s probably waiting. I’ll buy you a burger and we’ll head out again”

I gave the mirror, with my old ‘clone of Sarah’ face in it, one more fond glance.
Then nodded to myself and followed her out.

===========

“Wha’ time’s it?”
Sarah glanced at me over her shoulder.
“Two-thirty, your illusion faded about three hours ago. We figured we’d let you sleep”

I grunted and ran a hand over my face.
It felt weird still, my cheeks were too puffy, I'm never going to get used to that..

“Fourteen hours in flights, two short layovers, and.. how long have we been driving?”
Sarah shrugged a little.

Tor shifted gear in the driver’s seat.
“About nine hours total, we hit some traffic near Sacramento.”
I grunted and lay my head back down

The face illusion lasted about twenty-one hours then.. I can work with that..
I must have missed a decimal somewhere, the illusion was only meant to last for fifteen hours, at best.

“Don’t go back to sleep. We’re gonna stop off in Cottonwood for food in about twenty minutes”

I grunted and rolled myself up into a sitting position to stare out the window instead.
The parched grass dotted with little puffs of tree whizzing past and my eyes merged them into one long blur.
Every once in a while a few cars or a billboard would break the rhythm but I just leaned my head on the glass and focused on staying awake.
At least I didn't feel ill any more, sleep helps with that when I fly, shame I couldn't sleep while we were flying really.

============

We pulled off the Freeway on exit 664.
The sign for it perked me up a little.
I remember that sign.

“Cottonwood, is this where dad used to pull in for breakfast when he went fishing?”
Sarah shifted in her seat and looked at me in confusion.
“What?”

It took me a moment to realise why she didn't get what I meant.
“You might have been too young”
She frowned at me.

“We’re the same age.. no, you’re younger than me now..”
She started off sounding mad but trailed off thoughtfully with a smug smile.
Obviously she thought I was insulting her and felt the need to retaliate.
She needs to stop with this teasing stuff, I'm all for not addressing the elephant in the room but all this fake happiness about my change is annoying.

Tor silently pulled the car around to take us up across the overpass and back down on the other side, stopping short at the lights.

“I didn't mean it like that, he stopped taking us with him after the incident with the catfish.”
Sarah querked an eyebrow at me, unimpressed.
“We were like three years old, I figured you wouldn't remember it that’s all!”
She settled back into her seat and pouted to herself.

“Why do you think I wouldn't remember if you do?”
The lights changed and we rolled on to the next set, Tor shifted us into the left-hand lane so we could turn off for the little shopping mall.

I moved awkwardly in my seat and looked at the back of Sarah’s head.
“I'm not being mean Sarah, you know I've always remembered stuff better then you.”
She didn't turn around.
“Since.. since my awakening.. the second one. Stuffs been a lot clearer in my head then it was before. Feels like I relived my whole life on top of everything else..”
She didn't answer me but her shoulders lost a little tension so I figured she understood my point at least.

We pulled into the little mall and Tor swung us around into an open parking spot.
There were a lot of them around, business can’t be booming here.
Either that or we managed to come on the day no-one else needs to get food in Cottonwood.

Sarah sighed and her shoulders eased even more.
She turned around to me and smiled a little.
“What do you want then? From the looks of it we have a Subway, two types of pizza place, a coffee place or we could get sandwich stuff from the Grocery.”

I glanced around at the shops and made a considering sound from the back of my throat.
Most of them looked a bit run down.
I know they could be perfectly fine inside but my first instinct was to play it safe and go for the nice freshly painted Subway instead.

Sarah pulled a face I recognised.
She wants Pizza.
She ALWAYS wants Pizza.

“I guess, I’d like some Pizz-AHHH!”
My brand burned hard, it was so bad I couldn't breath!

I rolled around in the back seat trying desperately to make it stop.
Sarah and Tor were shouting but I couldn't tell what.

========

After an unbearable lifetime, the burn faded.
I laid out flat on the seat and breathed heavily.

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!”
I flinched at Sarah’s volume but tried not to move myself too much, just in case.
“Binding.. It should have been on the video.”
My breathing wasn't steady enough for me to say much more.
Sarah glanced at Tor in confusion, he shrugged helplessly but seemed thoughtful.
After a moment of silence he answered her for me anyway, I almost felt tempted to mark it up as another time I owed him.
“I listened to the video a few more times last night, from the sound of it this Maxarimus guy traded you’re life for Hannah swearing to never tell a lie about her feelings again”

I greedily sucked in a few breaths and tapped his seat to show I’d pick up from there for him.
“He used magic to make sure I didn't break my vow, it’s the same stuff that put you in your coma and changed me into this”
My hand waved vaguely at my body but I didn't sit up yet.

Sarah looked ill.
“That’s so messed up.. Are you gonna be okay?”
I grunted and reluctantly rolled myself back into a sitting position.
“I’ll get over it. It’s just painful for a while, it fades pretty quickly”
She squinted at me, seeming to weight my words against some kind of truth scale only she knew of.

“What set it off?”
I sighed and she frowned at me warningly.

I didn't need to be told that lying would be a bad option at this point.
I don’t think I'm going to even attempt lying again to be honest, it’s too easy to slip out the wrong lie.. I do NOT want to have to go through THAT again any time soon.

“The pizza thing. I wanted Subway but you wanted pizza, so I said I did too”

Sarah glared at me for a moment, with a little huff she turned around in her seat a little more.
“I thought you liked pizza?”
I grimaced and looked to Tor for some help.

He didn't seem to get what I was subtly telling him.
If we’re keeping him around I'm going to have to teach him twin speak..

“It’s alright sometimes”
Sarah looked upset.
“All this time we’ve been having pizza and you don’t even like it?”
I shrugged carefully and popped the door open to get out.
My back was aching a little, I needed to walk it off for a bit.

Sarah got out quickly to follow me.
She was still frowning so I guess we can’t just drop this.
“What the hell Han? Why didn't you say anything?”

I paced in a circle and grimaced.
“Because I wanted to make you ha-”
There was a build-up of pressure in my spine.
I could JUST feel the beginnings of another burn coming up.

Sarah looked at me weirdly when I stood still for a few moments without saying anything.
Slowly the pressure eased and I sighed in relief.
Apparently, if I catch myself soon enough and don’t actually voice the lie, the burn can be avoided.
That’s useful to know.

“What’s-”
I looked up at her apologetically and she stopped talking.

“I originally did it because I was convinced that it was what you wanted and..”
I really didn't want to tell her this.
My head ducked down a little in embarrassment.
Eventually I managed to look back up at her but she still looked a little worried.

“I figured.. with mum and stuff.. well.. ’Sarah always gets her way’, what was the point in arguing, ya know?”

I cringed.
It looked like Sarah was going to cry or something.
She slowly moved closer, pulling me into a tight hug.

“Sorry” I muttered self-consciously.
She moved my head so it was resting on her collar bone.

“Oh Al..”
Sarah sighed with regret.
“I'm the one that should be sorry. I didn't even think..”

We both stood there in a silent hug for a while.
It felt nice.

==========

“Sure ya don’ wan’ one?”
I grimaced and waved her off.
Sarah eating pizza is disgusting, she talks with her mouthful and everything.

Tor chuckled to himself from the driver’s seat and took a big bite of his own pizza.
He’s obviously seen her eat like this before, probably thinks it’s cute or something.
They both keep sharing ‘looks’ every once in a while, then glancing away quickly afterwards.

It’s driving me insane!

I took a nice big bite of my Sub, to hide my annoyance.
Tuna and mayo, Italian foot-long with cucumber and green peppers.
Trust me, it’s sooo good.
Some country should have made this their national dish by now!

For a moment I forgot to be mad and just enjoyed the Tuna goodness.
Then they looked over at each other again, smiled and blushed hard.. again!

“Will you two just get a room”
Both of their blushes went up a few more degrees.

“HAN!”
I leaned back further into the corner and huddled my legs up protectively.
Even while stretching out Sarah could only just managed to swing her fist at my foot.
Another win for the change making me smaller than before!
If this keeps up I'm going to have to start liking this whole situation..

..yeah, not gonna happen.
It still sucks!

“You’re both driving me crazy with all the silent lovey-dovey looks. Can’t you both just admit you like each other and get it over with?”

Sarah growled at the back of her throat and shifted in her seat to open the door.
“Give us a minute Tor”
She climbed out with her crutches, careful to avoid spilling open her pizza box.
After straightening up and taking a deep calming breath she stuck her head back in to glare at me.

“Han, out.. now”
I watched her for a moment and shook my head a little.
..I may have gone a bit too far this time.
“NOW!”

Reluctantly I popped my door open and slid out the other side of the car.
Sarah’s glare didn't get any weaker, she nodded her head off toward the shops and started hobbling along on her crutches.

I glanced back at Tor for some kind of help but he put his hand up to show he was keeping out of it.
Judging by the look on his face he was a bit annoyed at me too.
My shoulders slumped and I followed her.

This is so not fair!
Normally it’s ME that has to do the telling off when SHE mouths off.
I don’t get why them flirting was annoying me so much anyway?
My emotions are just out of whack at the moment for some reason I guess.
I’d love to blame it on hormones but I've got a lot more likely culprit.
The awakening..

Last time I went through this I had no control AT ALL.
One minute I’d be so happy I was glowing.
Literally glowing.. it’s a fire user thing, don’t ask.

The next I’d be sinking into depression because I saw a leaf fall off a tree or something equally stupid and it reminded me of ‘how fragile life is’..

It’s not THAT bad this time in comparison, most likely thanks to Inner-Hannah taking the reins on it all.. but some part of it must still be affecting me..
Maybe I'm getting the emotional run off from Inner-Hannah dealing with it all?

I’ll have to meditate and check on her when we get back ho-

========

Sarah yelped and wobbled dangerously.
I staggered backwards a little, barely stopping myself from falling on my ass from the impact.

She turned around and growled at me angrily.
“What the hell is your problem!”

My shoulders sunk a little.. she's really angry.
Now I'm thinking about it, I could feel something WAS off with me.
Its possibly been going on since I woke up in the hospital honestly.

..I've got a problem..

My vision blurred and I drew in a ragged breath.

..Something’s really wrong with me..

My eyes hurt.
Why am I even bothering? I always mess everything up!

The blob in front of me, that was Sarah a second ago, moved.
Her hand came down on my shoulder but I jerked away from her.

I couldn't hold it in any more, I burst into tears and collapsed.
Somehow Sarah managed to catch me before I hit the ground.
It must have been really awkward with her leg and everything.

..her leg must hurt..

It must really, REALLY hurt an.. and I annoyed her even though she was hurt..

My head kept running guiltily through everything I’d been doing to her since I changed, then it went even further back.

I stole her favourite bracelet when we were kids!
It was really pretty and she wouldn't let me keep it but I took it anyway, I've got it in a box with my photo’s at home.
I'm such a bad sister!

========

“HAN!”
I twitched in my haze but didn't answer.
I shouldn't-

“HAN! Han, com’ on Han. I'm sorry.”
My shoulder twitched, something was poking me.

Slowly I could feel something changing in my head, it felt like someone was tugging me out of a swimming pool of Jello.
It took almost half a minute, Sarah’s voice was getting more frantic as time went on, but eventually the feeling cleared completely and my head felt lighter.

I opened my eyes, breathing out harshly in relief.

My breath misted as if it we were standing in a freezer or something.
My arm’s felt awkward, not cold but cool and a little numb..

“Han?.. Tor, her eyes are open!”

I blinked a few times to clear my eyes, my eyelash’s felt heavy and stiff.

“Han?”

Apparently I’d been laying on the asphalt, all curled up in the foetal position.
With a big shudder I managed to push myself upright.
There was a crinkling sound and some flakes of something drifted off my shirt.

Sarah was standing about a yard away from me.
She looked really worried and she was holding a long, white tipped tree branch for some reason?

“You’re okay..”
She took in a shuddering breath and dropped the stick to hug herself tight instead.

I glanced around.
The car park was still surprisingly empty of people nearby.
Kind of lucky.
It would have been embarrassing to have a freak out with everyone watching me.

“Han, can you step clear of it?”
I glanced at her and frowned.
Clear of where?

She gestured at the floor.
My head followed her finger and I jolted back in surprise.

In a set of expanding rings around me was.. ice?
The asphalt was almost pure white at the center, under my feet, but as it expanded out it thinned into just a smattering of frost.

I tested the ground with my hand and it felt a little uneven, as if the asphalt had buckled from the cold.
My foot caught slightly on a crack that had formed under the thick frost as I gently eased myself up.

“What the hell?”
I shook my leg a little and a thin layer of frost came off of my jeans.

“Hannah! Come on, we gotta go. Quick, before someone notices”
Sarah clapped her hands to get my attention and gestured to the car, her eyes were tight with worry.

I nodded and moved out of the rings toward the car, initially in a slow walk but gaining speed as I went.
She’s right, we need to get out of here.
This kind of thing is bound to attract attention and I do NOT need the MPA on my ass on top of everything else!

========

Tor pulled us quickly out of the car park and back over the bridge to the Freeway.
He looked a bit spooked about it all.
I wasn't feeling much better.

My hand stayed tight on top of the discarded pizza boxes from Sarah and Tor’s forgotten meals.
None of us felt like talking unsurprisingly.
I don’t know what they were thinking but my mind was stuck on the ‘why?’ more then anything.

Why did I just freak out?
Why did it all spiral out of control like that?
Why..

WHY ICE?!

I'm a FIRE user.
If I was going to have a burst of magic, it would have been fire!

Hell, it shouldn't even have been fire!
I got that under control years ago.
At the very worst I should have turned the floor orange..

Why Ice, of all things?!

========

“Han?”
Sarah sounded unsure of herself.
I looked away from the window to watch her.
“Yeah?”
She looked nervous as well, a bit too nervous to be normal honestly.

“You’re not gonna flash freeze my car, are you?”

For a moment we both sat staring at each other.
Her mouth twitched a little, mine did too.

Almost in sync we both cracked up laughing.
It wasn't really funny but we needed to laugh.
It was either laugh or cry at this point and I've done enough of that today so far.

Tor didn't turn away from the wheel, he didn't look angry or anything but I think at this point he just wanted to get the whole journey over with.
It’s a long drive from Los Angeles to home.
I'm kind of glad I slept through most of it.

Come to think of it, where does Tor even live?
He’s not local, I know that much.
Sarah’s production company signed him on.
The Hub staff approved him so I never bothered to really look into it.
What if he lives on the east coast or something?
He’s driving us all this way and he might have to fly home afterwards!

My curiosity was piqued.
I leaned forward in the seat and brought my mouth closer to Tor’s ear.
“Where're ya from Tor?”
He shuddered visibly, my breath on his ear must have tickled.
I felt a little smug for getting the reaction out of him but Sarah’s warning look made me sit back a little further away from him and not try it again.

He’s cute but Sarah’s obviously building up for her big moment to ask him out.
I’d have to be a real bas- a real bitch to poach someone she’s fancied for so long.
She doesn't date enough as it is!

Well.. Tor’s not my type anyway, so there..
It’s nice to know I can still get a reaction out of him though, even with this stupid childish face.

“I'm from Las Vegas..?”
He said it as more of a question then an answer, as if he was confused about why I was asking.

I smirked a little, it was understandable confusion, he’s not privy to how my mind works.

With the awakening, I'm switching mental gears a lot at the moment anyway.
At least I've got an excuse to be spontaneous for a while, that’s a useful card to be able to play if I do something stupid.

“Wouldn't have pinned you for a Vegas kid? Bright lights, casinos and strip joints?”
I tried to catch his eye in the rear-view mirror but he wasn't co-operating.

“I was thinking more.. Kansas farm-boy?.. Oh! Or Texas cow-boy!.. Defiantly a boy scout at some point either way, right?”
I tried to give a big cheesy grin at him in the mirror.

By the time he turned his head to glance at me the grin had gone a little limp.
Grinning wide like that made my cheeks hurt..
..Stupid new face..

Tor’s eyes were smiling, obviously he found something funny.
“What’s so funny huh?”
Impulse control is apparently not something I've got a lot of at the moment.

I reached out and slapped his shoulder lightly when he didn’t answer fast enough, not hard, he’s still driving after all.

He smirked back at me in the mirror.
“Las Vegas, New Mexico”
Sarah giggled.

I huffed and slid back into my seat properly.
“..tease”

He mimed tilting an imaginary hat at me, without looking away from the road.
“Ma’am”

Sarah giggled some more.
I huffed again, louder this time, and turned away to look out the window so I didn't have to look at their smug faces.
Teasing’s only fun when you’re the one doing it..

========

Most of the journey was boring after that.
Sarah turned the radio on so we had some noise but no one seemed to be willing to talk.
Either that, or I was still radiating annoyance at Tor for getting me earlier and they didn't want to argue with me.

For a while I considered going back to sleep but I wasn't sleepy anymore.
The freak-out session in the car park and the resulting Ice magic had woken me up nicely.

I know I should really be trying to work out what the hell happened there, but it’s not like I can do research in the car!
This is why the Hub has its Mage library.
In my case, I’d have a better chance of getting answers if I drop in to see Fena and Edith.
Fena is like a walking encyclopaedia of weird magic stuff.

It’s not life threatening or anything anyway.
I just have to be careful to not let myself get worked up over things until I can sort it out.
Nice and easy..

“Ohh, Lake Shasta..”
I leaned across the back seat and stuck my face against the window.
We went over the bridge slowly, traffic was pretty thick for some reason.

Lake Shasta is huge, well it seems it anyway..
Okay.. maybe that idea is tinged with some leftover awe from my childhood.
It’s not really THAT big, especially compared to the ‘Upper’ back home, but the water looks brighter for some reason and all the rough edges to the riverbank are really interesting.
Put together it makes it look deeper and wider than it really is.
It almost looks like someone just dumped a load of water into a valley, which makes sense I guess.
It’s not really a lake, there’s a Dam somewhere around here that turned it into a reservoir in the fifty’s.

They had a display about the river once, at the end of the tour through the Shasta Caverns.
Dad took us to the Caverns a few times each summer when we were kids, the Air-con at home wasn't working well enough for his liking apparently, he never liked the heat that much.

Caverns are really cool places.. as in they are cold, not like their ‘interesting cool’..
Although I guess they were pretty ‘interesting cool’ too when we were kids.
Sarah didn't like them though.
Mum used to take her to the play area while Dad took me with him on the tour.

I opened my mouth to mention it to Sarah but stopped before voicing anything.
She was sleeping in the passenger seat, her head lolled away from me against the window.

She wouldn't have cared anyway, Sarah doesn't tend to care about stuff if Dad was involved.
I tried to talk about it to her once but she cut me off and didn't want to talk about it for some reason.

A glance at Tor told me that he wasn't up for conversation either.
He looked a bit annoyed at the cars in front of us.
We’d got past the bridge but the traffic hadn't eased at all.
It looked like there was some kind of road works or an accident being recovered ahead of us.

I sighed and settled back in my seat a bit more to stare out the window again instead.

========

We followed the I-5 for another hour or so.
The Traffic eased and Tor seemed to lose some of his tension with it.

He calmed down so much, that I even managed to get him to play a hushed game of ‘l Spy’ with me.
It didn't last long.
Once the initial ‘tree, bush, road, rock, car and hill’ options were used up it just became silly.

Even though the interstate was lined with a pretty thick run of trees I could tell when we got close to Mount Shasta.
No magic user could ignore it.
It’s huge, even for a mountain, but the pure primal energy that was just oozing off of it was much more impressive than its actual size.
The power sent vibrations out for miles that could touch you to your very core!

The Klamath tribes believed that a spirit called ‘Skell’ lived on top of the mountain and fought another spirit called ‘Llao’ by throwing hot rocks and Lava at his home on ‘Mount Mazama’.

No offence intended to the Klamath tribe but I've been to Crater Lake, the giant hole in the ground where Mount Mazama once stood and there’s no magical residue there.
I’d love to put the whole thing off as old superstition.
A god-like being that throws hot rocks and Lava from the top of a volcanic mountain?
Let’s be honest, logic dictates it’s more likely to have just been the volcanic mountain.. ya know..
Being a Volcano.
If I wasn't a mage, I’d probably just write it all off easily but just driving past the Mount Shasta puts me on edge.
It feels like something old and powerful is watching me!

The only other time I've felt that kind of oppressing power before was when I passed one of the True Fae guardians in a hall at the Hub.
Normally they stay out of sight in the halls, I don’t know why she chose to walk past me.

She’d looked a bit weak, really delicate features with an aristocratic feel about her.
She was almost pure white, her skin, her hair, her clothing, all of it as white as the halls of the Hub.
The only splash of color to her was her eyes, dark black pupil-less eyes.
Her eyes looked like tiny black-holes.
It only lasted for a moment, but when we made eye contact I felt pressure crash down upon me.
I get the same feeling from just being NEAR Mount Shasta.

My legs came up to my chest and I huddled into the corner seat furthest from the mountain while we followed the I-5 around it.
The feeling stayed with me, even after we turned off the I-5 at Weed and on to Route 97.

Eventually Tor got us out of the mountain’s ‘range of effect’ and I let out a big sigh of relief.
Being near there is defiantly not a nice feeling!

This is the first time I've had to come near it since I discovered magic.
Normally I just use a waypoint or warp myself around the country in small trips.
I’ll have to make a note to never get this close again.

I feel kind of dirty.
Can’t shake the feeling that whatever gives the mountain its power noticed me.
Don’t ask me why, it’s just my gut instinct, telling me that coming back here would be a very bad idea!

=========

Sarah woke up as we were passing out of a little one-horse town called ‘Macdoel’.
She’s never been good at sleeping in a car, she must be pretty tired for her to have even tried to honestly.

The sign we passed on the way out, assured me that we were ten miles away from ‘Dorris’ and thirty miles from ‘Klamath Falls’.
Home sweet home.

“Are we going straight back to the flat when we get into town?”
It had been bugging me for a while, we barely have enough space for me and Sarah in the flat.
Unless she’s planning to share a bed with Tor.. and let’s be honest, what are the odds of THAT with the way they keep dancing around each other?

“We have to report into the Hub for a scan and debriefing. Probably some decontamination time too”
I blinked at her for a moment in confusion.

Really?.. I never have to do any of that normally?

Sarah must have read my disbelief on my face because she shrugged.
“It’s standard procedure. The real hard work is going back to the studio and trying to pretend everything is normal.”
She frowned and rolled her shoulder uncomfortably.
“Explaining any ‘CGI creatures or effects’ that are on the footage ahead of time is annoying, we had to call in a mage to wipe the studio staff’s memories once because they got the footage before Tor could crop out the unbelievable parts.”

She really didn't look comfortable with the idea of memory wiping people.

It’s understandable, I'm not particularly comfortable with it myself.
I still do it, it’s necessary sometimes, but some low grade mages get a bit too liberal with its use.
After a while, I think they just figure that it’s easier to wipe or modify a memory instead of coming up with a believable cover story.

“But yeah.. Normally we get checked in, spend twenty minutes in decontamination, have a short debriefing to hand over any items we retrieved for inspection and then we can leave.”

I shrugged back at her but didn't argue the point.

For some reason no-one’s ever made me go through that kind of after-mission stuff..
Normally I just go home and then file a report with Felicia, the hub receptionist, in the morning.

Unless I'm injured obviously, then I tend to drop by Fena’s for some healing and sympathy first.

“If it’s standard procedure then it can’t be that bad. What’s the worst that can happen?”

========

We ended up having to park a few streets away from the Hub’s entrance.

I can’t believe I never noticed just how many car’s there are in this area?
There’s only a few empty store fronts and a motel used by Hub guests in this section of town but virtually every inch of side-walk has a car parked alongside it.
You would think the Hub could come up with a more covert way to hide the entrance.
A private car park nearby or something?

Then again, if they ever had the police try to raid them it would only take one mage to get rid of any evidence and the memory of it all.. I guess.

They would do it without blinking too!
I once saw a SWAT mage wipe a year of a woman’s memory clear, just because her boyfriend turned out to be an unregistered Parthax demon!
Parthax demons are vegetarian and, aside from some weird looking toes, they look human too!
The Hub has a few doctors on the payroll who helped her ‘get over her spontaneous amnesia’ but it still doesn't feel right to me..

That’s not even considering when they do memory modifications either.
That’s just messed up.. and awkward for everyone involved.
People who get memory modifications tend to be disorientated for a while because every time they find a situation that doesn't match up with their ‘new’ memories, it takes a few moments for their brain to come up with a ‘believable’ reasoning that fits with the modified memories.

It can lead to some weird situations.

One woman whose dog turned out to be a weird magical cross-breed, she woke up the next morning convinced she’d had to give the dog up.
She loved the dog, so giving it up didn't initially make sense to her, but within minutes she would swear blind that the dog bit her and she’d developed a deep-seated fear of dogs from it.

That’s the problem with memory modification, you can NEVER know which direction someone’s brain will go with the new information you’re dumping in there.
I don’t like using memory modification OR memory wiping.

If a civilian gets caught in the crossfire while I'm on a mission, I tend to send them to the nearest Hub for an induction.
Knowing about magic CAN be dangerous but at least if they get an induction they get to choose if they remember everything or not.
Plus the induction team tend to be a less.. loose.. with their casting.

An onsite SWAT mage will normally just take a whole day from someone rather than trying to find out when during the day they actually came into contact with anything magical.
I've been on the other end of that kind of situation, it’s not nice.

Sarah told the SWAT team who rescued us from Vlad’s place that I got involved ‘after prom’, seconds later and I had no memory of how or why I was waking up in my room.
A moment after that and I was convinced that I got blisteringly drunk the night before.
Despite the fact that I’d never drunk alcohol before that and I was suspiciously lacking a hangover!

For years after that, until Edith’s ‘Juju stick’ gave me the ACTUAL memories back at least, I avoided alcohol like the plague!
It seems irrational to me now, and I can’t help resenting the way it affected me so badly without my knowledge.

=======

“You getting out or what?”
I blinked rapidly and glanced over at Sarah.
She was standing outside the car, leaning back in with a fond smile on her face.

“I don’t know where you go sometimes, the lights are on but no-one’s home.”
I shrugged and shuffled out of the car.
It happens, I get kind of lost in thought.
As Max said ‘one thought does tend to lead to another’
It’s going to happen even more for a while, reincarnation sucks like that.

“Let me do the talking. When we’re cleared I’ll have a word with my supervisor to get everything sorted, have you sorted for a new ID and stuff.”

My eyebrow popped up, I would think that my complete change in gender and apparently age too would be more of a problem for them to handle.
It’s not exactly normal..

“Legal are surprisingly quick about these things. I got them to sort out my passport and renew my driving licence, took less than twenty minutes, beats the DMV at least.”

I grinned and couldn't hold back a snort of amusement.

“What?”
She probably would have slapped my arm just for the sake of it if she didn't need both hands to use her crutches.

“You cheated to get your licence.. explains your driving..”
I didn't wait for her response, just shot off ahead of her to avoid any kind of retribution.
It sounded like Tor found it amusing at least, even if Sarah was yelling after me angrily.
They were both left in my dust as I rounded the last corner and came to a stop near the entrance way to the Hub.

..well.. I think it’s the entrance way at least?
It’s the right place, just..
Where I used to see a tacky disused comic book shop with a terrible name, which just so happened to spell out USMPA G-O.
There was just a blank shop?

Peeling crème paint, empty glass windows which showed nothing but a lot of dust and debris inside.
The door wigged me out the most honestly, it was glowing blue!
REALLY blue, like the color I see if I keep my eyes open when I warp somewhere.

Never let it be said I'm not brave!
..also I could hear Sarah catching up to me and I REALLY don’t want to give her a chance to get back at me so easily.

With a deep breath I stepped up to the glowing blue door and cautiously prodded it with a finger.
My finger tingled for a moment and seemed to disappear the more I pushed at the door.

A glance back over my shoulder showed Sarah and Tor rounding the corner so I figured, to hell with it.
I shut my eyes instinctively and stepped through the glowing blue door.

========

The sound of a lot of feet moving and the muffled rumble of people talking was the first thing I picked up.
I peaked an eye open and sighed in relief when I saw the Hub’s reception area, looking just as it had the last time I saw it.

Feeling a bit stupid for getting so worked up by the entrance way acting weird, I straightened up and tried to look like I hadn't just been worried magic was going to do something screwy to me.
My first step told me that I really had been worried, my shoe crunched a little on a few ice crystals that fell off of it and came under foot.

I glanced down at it and frowned hard.
“Brilliant.. at least I didn't burn anything I guess.”
When I looked back up my eyes met Felicia’s stare.

She was behind her desk as usual, although the paperwork that used to litter it was missing.

I didn't know it until the higher ups called me in to help upgrade the communications system and tools behind her desk, but there really IS a reason why they pay her so much, while putting up with her attitude problems.
Somehow, they wouldn't explain it to me in anything but vague words, her being at that desk allows the Hub to draw power from the laylines around town.

I can guess it’s not a direct connection.
Probably something like her being here completes the ‘circuit’ and lets some remote place draw the power for storage or something.
If it worked as a direct connection then I’d never have been allowed in here..
As bad as it was when my Locus point nature crushed that idiot mages base into a tiny cube, imagine how bad it would be if I managed to collapse a Hub in the same way!

Hub G-0 is almost completely built within the fae realm too.
Maven the fae queen who, for lack of a better word, ‘rents’ the space to us would NOT be happy if I managed to turn her entire N’th dimensional realm into a fist sized cube!
Just the thought of it makes me shudder..

The shudder wasn't helped by the blank look of annoyance on Felicia’s face.
She obviously didn't recognise me.
I tried to not feel hurt by that, I wouldn't have recognised me either I guess..

=======

My mouth stretched into a weak smile and I made my way over to her.
Hopefully she will take this all in stride, she tends to go with the flow on most things, she did when I first turned up for a mission briefing dressed as Hannah at least.

I barely got within a foot of her desk before some kind of alarm went off on it.
Vaguely it felt familiar, probably one of the ones I installed.
The alarm itself at least, not whatever set it off.

I just did the enchanting necessary to give her a computer and newer tools on her desk, with connections to all the old output devices already in place.
The computer let all the other tools be integrated into one messy system.
They got some software guys in, from somewhere, to build a program that let her use everything despite the different kit involved.
I dunno how it works, I just enchanted the computer to run off ambient magic instead of electricity.
I'm a mage, not a computer.. tech-y type person!

The higher ups were really impressed at least, apparently not many people go into the whole ‘enchanting technology’ thing.
I don’t know why, my phone has so many useful extra features because I enchanted it.
Remote dialling and no need to charge it, just being the tip of the iceberg.

Edith gets really grumpy about my phone though.
Apparently she thinks using minor blood magic enchantments to make ‘New’fangled machines’ work with magic is appalling..
Crazy little Yoda woman..

=========

I shook my head hard to clear my train of thought again, this REALLY needs sorting out.
I'm so easily distracted it’s not healthy.
Powers be, if I go on a mission and get distracted it could literally be the death of me!

Felicia was looking at me weirdly.
If I didn't know better I’d say she was afraid of me for some reason?

Come to think of it, the alarms sound has stopped now and-
I glanced around the room a little with nervous gulp.
-there’s a lot of intimidating looking SWAT members with guns, trying to look inconspicuous, in the usual crowd of people moving about.

My head turned back to look at Felicia and she flinched a little.
Before I could voice any sort of question or protest someone clapped their hand down on my shoulder and leaned past me.

“Team Tomb Raider and assistant reporting in for debriefing and inspection”
I let out a breath I hadn't realised I’d been holding, it was Sarah, having caught up with me instead of some SWAT guy getting suddenly physical.

Felicia’s mouth gaped open a little and she shot a nervous look behind us for a moment.
Eventually she shrugged, waving us off down the left corridor out of reception.

Sarah seemed to know where she was going at least.
She led the way, hobbling along on her crutches, while Tor brought up the rear at his usual lumbering pace.

I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched.
It’s probably all in my head but I swear I saw the same, off-duty looking, SWAT members walk past us a few times as we walked the halls.
I guess it COULD just be coincidence, I had first-hand knowledge of how easy it is to end up walking in circles through these halls.

Normally I avoid them, like most mages do.
There’s a specific safe warp point set up in a back room of the motel down the street that most mages tend to use as an unofficial exit for the Hub, if they don’t want to face the hallways at least.

Sarah took a seemingly random right turn at a crossroads, then another sharp right moments later.
I followed along dutifully.

My eyebrow DID raise a little in amusement when we took a final right and ended up in dead-end corridor leading to a single, worn looking, door at the end.
Who said that three rights make a left?
Whoever it was obviously never tried to walk anywhere in the Fae realm!

Sarah stepped aside a little and waved me to the door.
“Ladies first”
She had a smug smile on her face that annoyed me for some reason.

I mimicked her movement and let a mocking look pass over my own face.
“Age before beauty”
She glared at me for that one.

Before we could come up with anything else to needle each other with Tor sighed loudly and squeezed past us to go through the door first.
“Can you both give it a rest?”
We shared a guilty look and shrugged in sync.
I put my hand up for a high five of peace and she easily slapped it in acceptance.

Tor’s right, with everything else going on, we really don’t need to be arguing at the moment.
I think we’re both just a bit edgy and upset, so we’re lashing out a bit.
I know I am a least..

We both turned to face the door and I didn't argue when Sarah hung back on her crutches this time, I just followed after Tor instead.

=========

“You've really never been in decontamination before?”

A grunt came out of me rather than really answering her.
She’s asked like five times now..

I don’t get what the big deal is.
The rules are different for mages, even more so for awakened mages.

Admittedly, I've never actually met any of the other, on staff, awakened mages since I started working for the Hub but the few low grade mage’s I've worked with before had whole teams surrounding them when they got deployed.
I just got given my briefing and had to file for travel expenses after the mission was over, when necessary.

I'm more interested in these ‘decontamination’ rooms anyway.
The glasses wearing lab tech guy who greeted Tor when we came in, seemed to be a bit.. distracted.
I trusted Sarah’s blasé attitude when he waved us toward, what looked like, three solid stone cubical rooms about the size of a small bathroom.

The moment I stepped inside the room had gone momentarily dark, then the door sealed tight and everything lit up again.

The walls MUST be enchanted.
If I run my hands over them all I can feel is cold stone but looking at them.. well..
..They kind of don’t exist?

I mean.. they EXIST but they’re see-through!

Pretty cool little bit of enchanting honestly.
I’ll have to ask someone how it works, when we get out of here.
I've been staring at this wall trying to break it down in my head but all the glyphs they used must be inscribed on the outside because I can’t find anything remotely useful inside by running my hands over the wall.

========

“Han? Give it a rest will you. We’ll be out in a minute, don’t worry.”
She offered me a reassuring smile.

I was tempted to glare at her in response.

I'm not freaking out!
I'm just curious..
It’s not often I get to see magic, this well made, that I don’t already have some kind of inherited knowledge about.

Sarah’s smile slipped a little into worry so I gave my inspection up with a sigh.
We’re going to be in here for who-knows how long.
Best to not start another argument over something petty.

“Hey Tor, you okay buddy?”
He glanced over at me from his ‘room’ and grunted.
He’s probably dead tired.
I would be, having to drive for hours on end, after having so many flights beforehand as well.

Taking a leaf out of his book, I slid myself into a corner of my ‘room’ and tried to distract myself.

Maybe if I inverted a ‘Lux’ rune and connected it to a ‘Speculo’ rune, on either side, I might be able to remake this ‘invisible walls’ enchantment they have?

It would need a LOT of control clusters though and..

DAMN IT! Where’s my notebook when I need it?
Trying to work out a new spell in my head is annoying AND confusing!

=========

We’d been in the rooms for about twenty minutes when the distracted lab tech guy came over to check on us.
He had a clipboard with him and was inspecting something in the top right corner on each of our see-through doorways.

It annoyed me a little that he didn't even bother to greet us, just went about checking whatever was written up there and making notes.

Finally he finished with Tor’s block and lowered his clip board to inspect us curiously.
His eyes settled on Sarah and he walked over to her room.

“Ms.Cooper. I'm getting some readings that are a bit.. well..”
He actually showed an emotion at last, pushing his glasses up his nose nervously.

“Come on Reggie, we’ve done this song and dance enough times. What’s the damage? An extra ten minutes before we’re clear?”
Sarah seemed to be well versed in how this stuff works, probably from personal experience.

I glanced at the lab tech guy again.

Seriously, his names Reggie?..
He doesn't look like a Reggie to me.
Defiantly not a Reginald either!

I shuddered a little.

What do I know about names anyway?
The LAST Reginald I knew turned out to be called Bob!

“uh..”
‘Reggie’ seemed a bit more flustered now.
“A bit longer than that Ma’am. You didn't happen to come into contact with some kind of.. class five or above magical object, did you?”

Sarah looked nervous now.

“Not really..”
She didn't sound sure of that though.

‘Reggie’ sighed and pushed his glasses up to rub his nose a little.
“I'm getting the most residual feedback from your..”
He shot a momentarily confused look at me but seemed to come to some kind of decision eventually.
“..assistant.”

I frowned at him.
I'm getting a bit annoyed with that term.
Assistant, my ass!
How about ‘Savior’ or ‘Long suffering sibling’ instead?

“Mr.Nobbs has the least residue, so little it’s as if he hasn't even been in contact with the object at all?”
‘Reggie’ seemed really confused by that.
I was more interested in the other bit of information he’d said.

Nobbs.. Tor Nobbs..
No wonder the poor guy just goes by ‘Tor’.

For some reason it feels like the name ‘Nobbs’ should mean something to me but I'm drawing a blank on that one.
Probably some Arista incarnation from fifteen-hundred B.C that had a pet cat called Nobbs or something equally inane.
It happens all the time..

Sarah chewed her lip nervously and shot me a worried look.
I shrugged back at her, they are going to find out eventually, what’s the worst that can happen.

“On our last expedition a mage tried to trap us with something called-”
She cut herself off and looked momentarily confused.

I decided to pick up for her, it’s not THAT hard a name to remember.
“The bindings of bad faith”

‘Reggie’ jerked as if someone had electrocuted him.
His head twitched from me to Sarah and back a few times in worry.
“Seriously?”
I shrugged, Sarah nodded.
Tor didn't answer.. well.. unless you consider a rumbling snore as an answer at least?

“This isn't good. Not good at all..”
My lips twitched into a smirk.
“Tell me about it, Max is an utter bastard at times”

‘Reggie’ twitched and shot a nervous look up at the top right-hand corner of my doorway again.
Slowly he brought his eyes down to me, it looked like he was sweating all of a sudden.
I wish I knew what that corner bit said..
Judging by his face, it’s not anything good.

“..Max?”
His voice came out as an almost horse whisper.

I cocked my head to the side and considered him for a moment.
Maybe he’s heard of him.
Awakened mages of Max’s level aren't exactly common.

“Maxarimus.. well, John.. I call him John normally. It really gets his goat, stupid big headed ass-hole”

It felt good to cuss him out AND spread the use of his name at the same time.
Maybe one day I can get us to a point where EVERYONE calls him John.
Just imagine the look on his face!

‘Reggie’s glasses started fogging up, he was sweating so much
He must have heard of Max for sure, I wonder what Max did to him?

Without any form of warning ‘Reggie’ lunged away from us and slapped his palm down hard on a big red button on his desk.
I’d not noticed it before, it looks like it was partly buried under a load of paperwork.
Almost as if it was rarely, if ever, used.

Red lights started flashing around us and a loud whooping warning siren went off, giving me a headache instantly.
In seconds a group of armed SWAT guys came pouring in the door as if they had been just waiting to be called.
I got a glimpse of their nervous, wide eyed stares before everything jolted.

After a moment pause there was another big jolt and I was thrown to the ground as the entire room I was in went shooting backwards somehow.
The invisible walls went back to plain stone and I was plunged into darkness.

I was only just gathering my whit’s from what was happening when it all stopped with another jolt.
A yelp of surprise escaped my mouth but, for the amount of speed and force that seemed to be involved, I didn't actually feel very hurt by sliding across the floor into the back wall so sharply.

I hope Sarah’s okay?
She’s got her leg, and she was the only one standing up when this all happened too..

Slowly I eased my hand along the floor and eventually found a side wall to follow up so I could get into a standing position.

“Hello?”
I felt a bit stupid knocking on the stone wall but there weren't many other options.
What else am I going to do when it’s so dark I can’t even see my-
.. Duh!.. Am I a mage or not?!

With less than a push at my core a blue flame ignited in my palm.
It’s the same type of fire I used to light up the temple entrance in the jungle.
The flame came out a little more violet then my normal sky blue but a flame’s a flame.
It’s a really basic spell.
The ‘Safety flame’ was the first thing Fena ever showed me how to make.
It can’t burn anything and feeds off of ambient magic to pour out light.
Not sure HOW I managed to mess it up enough to change the color so much but it’s not THAT important.

What IS important is that I'm now locked in a stone box, who-knows-where for who-knows-what reason!
I felt little chill of fear go up my spine..

My nose scrunched up and I tried to forcefully warp out of the box to the nearest waypoint.
..Then I tried desperately for the nearest back-alley I could remember.
..Nothing.

"I can't warp out.."
My stomach sunk like a stone.

I'm trapped.
I can't get out..
My breath started coming in short, sharp pants.

The air feels warm, kinda stuffy..
Logically there must be some kind of airflow in here, probably magical, but my chest feels tight.
I can’t breathe properly..

Are the walls getting closer?
It feels like the walls are getting closer..

I sunk to my knees in the corner and tried to get a clear breath in.
Even though I had a light source now, maybe I would be better off without it?
I squeezed my eyes tightly shut and just focused on breathing.

“HELP!”
No-one answered.
I went back to breathing.

Just breath.
It’s okay, just breath..
Without conscious effort my arms came up to hug my knees and I started slowly rocking in the corner.
“LET ME OUT OF HERE!”

No-one answered..

A dark, little stone box is not the greatest of places to start a new life from. Events unfold including but not limited to: Sarah has warm hands (in comparison at least) And Hannah ruins a perfectly good outfit.

Breath, breath, breath..

I can’t focus enough while caged up like this to actually meditate, but by zoning out and just focusing on my breathing I can hold the panic back for a while..

Breath, breath, breath-
My mantra broke when I felt the jolt again

Finally I'm getting out of here..

G-force pushing me into my corner a bit tighter, but it still seemed slightly cushioned.
They probably have some kind of enchantment in place to protect the prisoners during movement.
I could design something to do that pretty easily.. but not right now.

I need to get out of here.
I can’t focus properly like this..

=======

The second jolt made me lean forward a little but didn't leave me sprawling like it did the first time this happened, mostly because I was prepared for it.

I let out a deep breath of relief when the dark stone walls around me became translucent again.
The light hurt my eyes a little but anything is better than being stuck in this tiny box with nothing but stone to stare at.

While I was busy trying not to freak out, the stone cell has been busy moving rooms apparently?

The room outside looks very.. pompous.
A huge difference from the cluttered mess of the lab techs office earlier.

The first thing that comes to mind is that this room’s owner is probably some sort of stuck up politician.
Two of the walls are covered in floor to ceiling bookcases, judging by their neat color coded order, the owner is either obsessive compulsive or has never actually used the books for anything but display.
A thick, dark wooden desk took up most of the floor space in the room with a high backed chair behind it.. another classic, pompous ‘power-play’ move.

A shift in the room’s lighting drew my attention to the thing I’d been trying to avoid.
Standing in front of a large bay window behind the desk, with his back to me, was the silhouette of a man.
The window is most likely a fake enchanted one, you don’t get real windows in the Hub.
Yet again, another detail designed to intimidate and show power..
It’s like this guy has been following some kind of ‘power-play’s for dummies’ book.

He turned slowly from the window to face me.
As he stepped forward he came out if the windows glare and into focus.

His suit screamed ‘I'm in charge’.
Sadly it was undermined a little by the fact that his haircut screamed ‘man who is so old he still believes slicked back, greased hair is fashionable’.
Neither his suit nor his hair suited his surprisingly young looking face though.

“Arista..”
His tone was smooth and silky.
It put me on edge instantly.
I've never met someone who talks like that and wasn't some level of messed up in the head!

“You’re shorter then I was expecting”
I let out an indignant noise and staggered to my feet in defiance.
Judging by his smirk, he was expecting that reaction.

He walked toward my stone cell with the swagger of someone who KNOWS they are holding all the cards.
I’d like to say he wasn't but.. I'M the one trapped in an inescapable box with a bad case of claustrophobia clouding up my thoughts, while he stands outside smirking at me..
Kind of hard for him NOT to be holding all the cards at this point really.

“Who are you?”
It was the first question that came to mind at the moment.
He smiled in pleasure and waved his hand in the air with a dramatic flourish.

“My name.. is not important”
His smirk took on a teasing tone, which showed in his voice as well.

Like a gleeful child he moved up to the front of my cell.
If there wasn't a slab of thick invisible stone between us, I'm sure he would be invading my personal space by now.

“My, my.. your lithographs really don’t do you’re beauty justice”

I shuddered and took a step back from him.
His eyes were wide with wonder and just a hint of madness.

I know those eyes..
I've seen those eyes before..
Max had those eyes when he demanded to know my true feelings for him.
..Obsession.. madness..

“What the hell is a lith-o-graph? I'm sure I've never had one before, whatever it is.”
For a moment his happy smirk slipped and his whole face darkened along with it.

“Let us not play games Arista.. at least.. not yet.”
The darkness eased from his face again but didn't truly leave his eyes.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as his eyes slid over my body and slowly made their way back up to my face.

“So much power, in such a little vessel..”
He cupped his hands under his chin and offered me a smile that, I believe, he thought would be charming in some way.
I shuddered hard in response and took another step back toward the center of the cell.
Tight and horrible as it was, I felt slightly glad that there was a solid stone wall between us right now.

“The Fae have been talking about you, you know.. all little whisperings.”
He fluttered his hand as if trying to show me visually what a ‘little whispering’ was.

“The old one, they say. The true partner to Pathos, they call you..”
He leaned forward and pressed his nose up against the see-through stone wall between us like a child at an aquarium.

“..and, my personal favourite.. Death.. They scream it in ecstasy! The death of millions, destroyer of worlds, Queen of the damned..”
His mouth pouted slightly and he seemed to relish the next few words.
“..Arista.. de La Morte”

My head was shaking frantically from side to side in denial before I even realised I was doing it.
That’s not me!
That’s not even Arista!
I have her memories but that’s not me. That’s not HER!
Nothing even hints at something so.. so..

“You've got the wrong girl..”
He perked up again and grinned at me happily.

“Oh, I do so love it when a girl plays hard to get”
With surprising grace he pushed himself away from the stone wall between us and reached for something on his desk.

He leaned back toward me, in his hands he now held some large vanilla folders full of paper.
Carefully, almost lovingly he pulled the first one from the pile and flicked through it until he found what he was looking for.
The rest of the folder dropped from his hand but he didn't seem to notice, now focused solely on the small picture in his other hand.

With surprisingly speed he twisted the picture in his nimble fingers and slammed it against the stone wall.
His grin became slightly manic as he watched me trying to work out what it was meant to mean.

“Kherty, the slaughterer. This is the earliest known depiction of.. him”
I tried not to let my confusion and annoyance show through.
The last thing I need to do is set him off somehow.

“The Egyptians worshiped him as a death deity. What many don’t realise is that, before Egypt’s second dynasty, SHE was worshiped as a deity.”
I frowned at him, not finding this story in any way as amusing as he appeared to.

The picture was of a rough carved sandstone drawing.
Most of the details were useless, I could just make out a generally feminine form and what appeared to be a set of goat horns on the figures head.

“A cult formed up around her actions, as cults tend to do”
He slid the picture off of the wall and stared at it thoughtfully.
“The narrow-minded priests of ‘Leotopolis’ found it more fitting to swear themselves to a male deity, it’s a common problem among their ilk, so they changed her references to suit their needs”

He was losing me quickly, it felt like this tangent he’d drifted into was completely pointless..

“She was deeply connected to Osiris, they were said to share the task of ruling the underworld together.”
His eyes drifted from the photograph, back to me with a considering look on his face.
“We know from confirmed sources that you’re dear.. friend.. Maxarimus was, or at least portrayed himself as, Osiris..”

A cold chill went down my spine.
Oh.. That’s why he’s telling me this.

“You think that.. that Arista was this ‘Kherty’? That she pretended to be a god with her magic, just like Max did?”

He grinned at me with childish glee and dropped the photograph carelessly to the floor.

“I don’t THINK anything, I KNOW you were Kherty. The data all makes sense if you look deeply enough.”
He shifted forward and peered about as if searching for spy’s listening in.

“It’s okay, you can tell me Arista. I'm right aren't I? So many incarnations, and a pattern to all of them.”
His eyes lit up with unholy glee for a moment.
“Death, Goddesses and Maxarimus. Wherever all three are present.. there you are.”

My mouth dropped open in shock.
He’s insane!
I'm not.. I mean Arista’s not.. She’s innocent!

I've got her memories, I KNOW she’s innocent.
There’s not even a hint of some kind of.. of god complex or death fetish in her memories!
Arista may have had some incarnations that were a bit high strung or in positions of power but nothing like this!

“You don’t believe me”
He sounded really disappointed for a moment but flipped back to an excited grin moments later.
“I’ll just have to try harder to convince you”

He grasped the next folder and flicked through it at speed.
With a painful sounding slap he placed another photograph against the wall for me to see.

It was of another engraving.
This one, a lot less rough to the eye, seemingly moulded in clay rather than sandstone.
It showed a woman, being jabbed with spears and held over an open flame by a group of mostly naked men.
Not a very pleasant image..

“Gullveig”
He smiled at me hopefully.
“She is believed to be the same person as the Goddess Freyja, but in human form.”
When I didn't react he frowned and continued anyway.
“They called her ‘she that remembers, the first on earth’. She was stabbed within Odin’s temple and burned as sacrifice.. and then she returned.”
He smirked and wiggled the image a little against the wall.

“They burned her to death three times, and three times she returned to smite them. She was said to be a practitioner of magic.. It was said that she could see and know more than any other of her time, and to the evil, she brought great joys.”
He pulled the picture way and turned it around casually.

“Freyja, her goddess namesake, was the goddess of sex, gold, war.. and death..”
He smirked at me and fanned the picture teasingly.
“She had a husband as well, a fellow god by the name of Odr, not much is mentioned of him in myth.. but some clues can come from his name.”
He leaned toward me excitedly.
“Do you, by chance, know what the name ‘Odr’ translates to?”

I shook my head and held my breath slightly.
His eyes lit up with glee.

“Of the many possible iterations ‘Odr’ could mean, a few stand out.. tell me if they remind you of anyone in particular?..”
He twitched his hand a little and stared meaningfully into my eyes.
“The Divine madness.. the frantic, vehement and eager-”

“ENOUGH!”
I shivered and brought my arms up to hug around my waist.

I knew those words.
In past lives, some people have described Max with EXACTLY those words.
His chasing of m.. His chasing of Arista.. it came across to many people as simply that, a man driven mad by his eager lust for the woman he loved.
No-one ever looked twice at his motives or actions, he was considered a love-struck fool in a lot of incarnations.
It suited him to be overlooked while he chased me.. chased Arista!

This is bad, this guy has my head all mixed up.
I'm not Arista!

She’s in here, I can access her memories but my trick with the ‘Inner-Hannah’ is keeping her at bay.
I'm NOT Arista!

“You are starting to see my side of things, one more perhaps?”
My head shook ‘no’ but he ignored it and flicked open the next folder instead.

As much as I willed him not to, he found the next picture quickly and slid it onto the wall like the others.
It was a picture of a marble statue.
Well.. the head of one at least.
The woman depicted looked a bit moody, her hair was held back by something which made it look like she had two little puff balls of hair on top of her head.
They reminded me of little panda ears, even on a carved statue.

“Dea Tacita”
My eyes cut up to him and he smiled at me warmly.
“The Roman ‘silent goddess of the dead’. She went under other names as well.. Muta, Larunda and Lara.”
He pulled the picture away and stared at it lovingly.
His hand came up to stroke the images face, then he looked up to me and smiled.
“Under the guise of Lara, she was punished by Jove for having a loose tongue.. by having her tongue removed.”
I winced, he seemed to find the movement of my face enthralling for some reason.

“Jove ordered the god Mercurius to escort her deep into the underworld.”
He leaned in again, as if he was going to share some great secret with me.
“During the journey, Mercurius fell in love with Lara and forced himself upon her.. As a result she became mother to twin minor gods, the Lares, guardian deities to the Romans.”

He smirked at me, it wasn't a pleasant smirk.
“There are confirmed reports that Mercurius, Mercury in modern English, was Maxarimus..”
I hissed in a breath and glared at him, daring him to finish that sentence.
He seemed to enjoy my reaction.
“The rest is purely speculation of course..”

A growl came from the back of my throat.

“It’s not me!”
He frowned slightly.
“Arista never did any of that, and beside that I'M NOT ARISTA!”
My arms hugged tighter around my stomach.
“M.. my name is Hannah..”

He drew back, looking slightly offended.

“I thought we were past this Arista..”
His eyes stayed fixed on me as if he was trying to work out some kind of puzzle.
“Very well. Quickfire round..”

He hopped up to sit on his desk and pulled the next folder toward himself, waved it at me slightly, then tossed it over his shoulder carelessly.

“Nyx, lady of the night. Greek, said to have stood at the beginning of creation and with help from her husband Erebus she birthed the twin primordial deities, Aether and Hemera, Brightness and Day.”
He smiled slightly.
“Later, with the loss of Erebus, she either figuratively or literally brought forth a brood of personifications to subjects including; Death, Destruction, Doom, Blame, Pain, Distress, Retribution, Deceit and.. more Death”

My mouth dropped open a little.
It fit with the pattern he’s been trying to establish but that doesn't remove the fact that it’s NOT ME!

I stamped my foot and glared at him.
My foot came down with a crunch, probably from ice forming on my boots.

He pulled up the next folder without breaking eye contact.
“Manea, mother of ghosts. Etruscan Goddess of insanity and madness.”
‘Slap’ went the folder as it impacted the floor.

Slowly, he picked the remaining folders up, and one by one, tossed them onto the floor as he chanted off their contents.
“Lamia, Styx, The Keres, Crete, Marzanna, Pajauta, The Czernobog, Patulas, Oźwiena, Num..”

He looked so smug.

I shuddered hard.
Those aren't me!
I don’t remember any of these!
I didn't recognise even half of those names as WORDS let alone past-incarnations!

He let the last few folders slide out of his hands carelessly.
Slowly he settled his hands back into his lap and smiled at me brightly.

“Asking me to use anything other than your true name would be a waste Arista. You and I both know that any one of these could be as good a fit for you as this new.. Hannah..”
His tone became patronising when he said my name.
As if my name was somehow worth less than all the others he’d listed!

“My NAME is Hannah”
I put a bit of extra effort into that sentence but he didn't seem impressed.

“Call yourself as you will. I’ll not play your games about it, I learn from the mistakes of the others that have come before me. YOU are Arista de la Morte.. I will address you as such”
He slid off the desk and moved closer to my stone cell.

It felt like he was weighing my worth and judging me with his suddenly cold eyes.

“The important question is not what to call you, it’s much simpler than that.”
He took the last few steps forward and placed his hand on the transparent stone between us.
“Why are you here Arista?”

I huffed and stamped my foot again, ignoring the crackle of breaking ice I got for my efforts.

“I Live HERE!”
I stamped my foot again and continued to stamp with each following point I had to make, it made me feel better for some reason.
“This is MY town! I have family here, I work for the Hub! I AM NOT ARISTA!”
My breath was coming out in frustrated gasps which misted instantly.
“My NAME is Hannah Cooper! I've had ENOUGH of your stories, let me out of this DAMNED BOX!”

With a grunt I swung back my arm and lashed out at the stone wall between us with a solid punch.
Magic was pooling all over my body, I could feel it, colder than usual but still of use.
When my fist made contact with the wall a pressure wave of energy blasted out of it, protecting my hand from damage and multiplying the force of my strike.

A lot of dust came up, it set me off into a coughing spree.
After a few moments, some part of the box’s enchantments must have kicked in because the air cleared sluggishly.
I may have actually damaged the thing?

Right in front of my face, seemingly floating in the middle of the air between us, was a long crack that went from the floor all the way up to the boxes ceiling.

The crazy storyteller’s eyes were wide in shock.
I slowly looked back down from inspecting the crack and smirked at him darkly.
Not so inescapable after all..
One more hit, maybe two?

My fist came back for another punch and the storyteller flew into action.
His hands skittered across the surface of the stone wall between us, obviously he could see something I couldn't, probably the same thing the lab tech guy kept looking at earlier.
I paid it no mind, just focused on gearing up for my next strike.
I will NOT stay in this damned box a moment longer!

As my fist swung forward to strike the wall again the world slowed down.
I couldn't move my head, it felt like my body was trying to swim in treacle.

The storyteller let out a sigh of relief and turned back to me with wide, interested eyes.
“That’s not a skill we have on file.. Very interesting.”

I opened my mouth to cuss him out but my tongue felt like it weighed a ton.
Now my jaw was open it took so much effort to even move it, let alone speak.

“Time dilation field, it’s part of the system we use to block warping from inside containment, I just ramped it up a bit..”
I could hear him fine but my body wouldn't react to my thoughts.
Normally time dilation like this causes words to be muffled and distorted.
The box must have some kind of telepathy based ‘intercom’ system built into its runes to send sound from outside directly into my brain, bypassing my ears.
“The box slows all biological matter inside it like this, luckily, as a mage you can still listen and think just fine..”
DAMN IT!
I WAS SO CLOSE!

“Speaking of the systems we use to contain newly awakened mages..”
He tapped out something on the wall again and something behind me made metallic sounding series of clicking noises.

Just above my lower back, resting on my spine itself, there was a burning sensation.
For a moment I thought it was my ‘no lying’ brand acting up but it was slightly higher up then that should be.

I wanted to scream.
I wanted to thrash around in pain.
I wanted to stop it!.. but I couldn't.
I couldn't move, the time dilation was forcing every mental twitch of my body to take so long just to go down my nerves let alone actually DO something.

The burn increased, my spine flared in so much pain I wished I could black out but I couldn't.
It felt like a torturous lifetime before my body collapsed to the floor.

Whatever was burning me didn't stop, if anything it got worse, but at least my body could move again and it wasn't so mind numbingly slow now.

“Sorry about that, receiving a brand while under time dilation.. how unpleasant.”
He sounded mildly amused.
“You’re lucky I caught it so quickly. Imagine if I’d left you to it until the brand finished?”

I didn't respond to him, I just curled up into a ball on the floor and tried not to twitch too much while the brand did its work.

“I have more questions of course, I doubt that you will be in any state to answer them now though”
He made some kind of gesture at the box’s wall and the burning at my spine increased.

I let out a scream of pain but it didn't seem to affect him.

“I'm not sure why you've come here, I don’t understand your logic behind trying to integrate with the Cooper family of all people.”

My lips twitched slightly.
It took a lot of effort to push past the pain but I needed to get this out now, while I have the chance.

“Screw.. you..”

He made a disgruntled noise but didn't react otherwise.

“The sister is unimportant. Low level eye-candy for the PR departments little TV show project.”
I could hear his feet move as if he was pacing.

“The mother is one of Christian’s many descendants, her mother is a relatively powerful first-generation mage but she has personally shown no talent in any way”
The burn of the brand slowly started to cool, I twitched a few times but tried to focus on his words instead.
I've never heard of mum being even slightly related to some ‘Christian’ guy?

“The father.. we don’t have much on him. Absent at best, derelict at worst.”
I growled at him as much as I could manage.
He shouldn't be talking about my family like this!

“So that just leaves.. the son..”
He stopped pacing and loomed over me.
The brand was apparently finished doing whatever it was doing, the burn was already cooling and I could hear the chain retracting back into wherever it came from.
“Curious case that one. An awakened mage by power levels, but no true awakening. We've been able to make use of him as a free contractor for a few years now”

Free contractor!?
Like HELL I was!
I worked for the Hub as an awakened mage!

“Last report we received, he was in South America on an assassination job.”

It wasn't an assassination!
I had to take out a damn Toraxis demon that had a whole village under his thrall!

“He completed the job and then dropped off the map suddenly, a few days later and his monitor crystal dimmed.”

I got a call from the hospital about Sarah, of course I left quickly!

“You wouldn't happen to know what happened to him, would you?”
I grunted and tried to push myself up so I could see him better.
My legs weren't working properly, the brand must have done something to my spine, hopefully it’s only temporary.

“That sounds like a yes..”
I gave up on standing and just swivelled my head so I could glare up at him instead.
“Did you have to kill him Arista?.. I know it’s your thing but the boy was a useful asset.”

My glare went up a notch.
Why would he instantly jump to THAT.
I didn't kill myself!
I mean.. yeah.. I died.. kinda.. but it wasn't on purpose or MY fault!

The storyteller sighed and rested a palm on the box for support, as if he was tired of standing.
“I think that’s enough for now. I'm sure we will get to the bottom of it all during your therapy sessions, with that brand in place it’s not like you can avoid them.”
I grunted again and made the effort to bring myself up to a kneeling position so I could look at him properly.
He looked a bit regretful for some reason but I was beyond the point of caring.

“What did you do? What’s the brand for?”
He rolled his shoulder and seemed to lose interest in me slightly.

“A basic security precaution. We give it to every awakened mage these days, we’d be stupid not to”
His eyes caught mine and he seemed to get lost looking at my face for a moment.
“If you try to use too much magic at once it will burn, if you are given an appointment at the Hub and do not turn up, we will burn you remotely.”
I flinched away from him hard.
I feel sick..

Another brand.
On top of the other one.

The Hub’s do this to all awakened mages?!
That’s not public knowledge.
Who the hell would want to become an awakened mage with that hanging over you?
Even if you ignore all the possible negatives that can come from the awakening on its own!

“I'm not heartless”
My eyebrow popped up at him instinctively but he didn't seem to be affected by it.
“We will help you settle in with your new.. family..”
What does he mean-
“You’ll love the group sessions and retraining too. Most of the awakened mages we have to hand see them as the highlight of their day..”
He looked amused for some reason.

“I think we are done here Arista. I’ll be in touch eventually. Try to stay out of trouble.. someone like you.. I will be watching”
It felt weird to see his face suddenly so serious.
Weird and scary.

“Bye Arista, have fun”
He started tapping something on the wall.
I growled low in my throat and surged to my feet.

“MY. NAME. IS. HANNAH!”
He didn't react.

He just carried on tapping away on the wall.
A moment later he finished whatever he was doing.

For just a second he made eye contact with me once more and smirked.
“Arista de la morte..”
His voice sounded wistful but his smirk said something completely different.

“Get it through your thick-head my na-“
The stone box jolted, cutting me off.

“..no..”
He seemed a bit amused by my reaction.

“NO! Don’t put me back in th-“
Before I could finish the wall changed back into plain stone and the box went pitch black.
The room around me jolted once more and sent me flying head-first into the wall.

“DAMN IT! DON’T LEAVE ME IN HERE!”
I could feel it already.
I'm trapped again.
I’d forgotten with the light and the room and HIM..

“Damn it..”
I squeezed my eyes tightly shut and slid down to the floor.
My hand moved to my back and cupped around my new, still sore, brand.

Slowly, the air around me chilled and I could feel ice particles forming up on my palm, soothing the branded area.
The room kept cooling but I didn't care at this point.
I'm trapped in here again..

From above me snow started falling.

I couldn't feel the cold..
It was a sensation, but I didn't feel ‘cold’ in itself.. not like I normally would.

“Don’t leave me in here.. don’t.. I can’t..”
A tear came out of my eye and froze solid before it could leave my cheek.

“Please..”

======

“Holy sh-”
The man’s voice I vaguely recognise seemed surprised.
“Why is the time dilation so high?”

I didn't look up.
It’s just my head playing tricks on me again.
Don’t think, don’t feel, just breathe..

“Out of the way, idiot”
There was a scuffling sound and then a few loud thumps of flesh meeting stone.
“Hannah! Hannah, damn it answer me!”

“Sarah..”
Even as a hallucination, it’s nice to hear her voice.

“What are you staring at idiot! Open the door NOW!”

I sighed out a cloud of mist.
Her voice is really loud.

“Ms.Cooper I can’t just-”
There was a meaty slapping sound and the voices turned silent.
My head perked up a little.
Why would I be imagining the lab tech guy’s voice?
Although, the thought of him being slapped IS amusing.
..bastard..

“Open. The. Damn. Door!”
Sarah sounded pissed off.
They’d better do what she says quickly or she’s likely to start biting people on general principle.

There was some more noise and then with a loud ‘Thump’ the wall in front of me disappeared.

A sheet of thick ice came crashing down to the floor without the wall there to hold it in place but I didn't care.
I could see light, real light.
The cold air around me rushed out of the room and for the first time in so long I could feel a gust of warm air rolling around me.

My skin felt so sensitive to the warmth.

“Han? Han, your scaring me here..”
Someone moved in front of the light and I groaned a little.
I want the light.
Don’t take it away again..

“Oh Jesus..”
Sarah sounded worried.
“Somebody help me! Her.. is this.. ice?”

There was a lot of clattering sounds, moving feet from the sound of it, and slowly my cold little prison felt warmer then I can remember it being in so long.
Human bodies throw out so much heat!

“Bash it open, we need to get her legs free”
The speaker was a gruff male.
He got several equally gruff mutters of agreement in response.

After a long pause and some shuffling there was a loud ‘thump’.

“It’s solid, we didn't even make a dent in it..”

Someone bent down in front of me and blocked out even more of my light.
I groaned but they didn't move.

“Han..”
A warm hand stroked my cheek.
I tried to lean into the warmth but it moved away quickly with a hiss.
“Jesus Han, you’re freezing..”

Sarah.. Sarah’s voice, Sarah’s hand..

“Han.. we want to get you out of here but we can’t. Can you do anything?”
I groaned and shook my head slowly.

I don’t feel too good..

“Melt the ice or something? Anything Han.. we need to get you warm fast and we can’t do that in here..”
My head lolled to the side and I sighed deeply.

Warm, fast.. that would be nice..

She wants me to..
.. what can I..
I could..
..yeah..
That’ll work.

I squeezed my eyes shut tight and focused on the spell.
Its basic magic, all I ever seem to do is basic magic..
Usually it’s used to dry wet clothes.. but if I overpower it a little..

Someone gasped and the feet shuffled about a lot.

“Get back”
The feet all moved out of the room quickly but Sarah stayed with me.
Her hand was so warm..

I could feel my legs getting wet.
My jeans soaking up so much water from the ice that they couldn't dry off fast enough.

“This is going to ruin my jeans..”
Sarah let out a choked laugh which may have been a sob.

“I’ll buy you new ones, just get out of here okay.. Deal?”
My lips twitched into a smile and I wiggled my toes in my still frozen boots.

“Need new boots too..”
Sarah laugh-sobbed again and stroked my hair carefully.

“I’ll get you a whole wardrobe. Just hurry up, my feet are getting cold”
I lifted my head and smiled at her shakily.
My brain felt a little slow as if I’d just woken up but I could see that she was trying to be funny.

Behind me there was a loud ‘crack’ and seconds later a lot of crumbling noises.

Sarah stepped away from me awkwardly, it took me a moment to remember about her leg cast.
Some of the gruff men from before picked me up by my shoulders and with a heave I was being dragged limply out of the room.

Finally out..
Finally..

I managed a weak smile before my eyes closed and I passed out.

=======

‘Beep’

I groaned.

‘Beep’

I groaned louder but it didn't help.
Instinctively my hand shot out at the annoying sound and with a sparking crash it stopped.

Much better..

=======

“Whoa..”

I groaned and tried to swat at the annoyance.
The sound got worse for a moment, there was a lot of yelling and frantic footsteps but soon it was back to silence.
I snuggled deeper into the warmth and smiled sleepily.

======

“Han?”
Sarah sounded a bit lost.

My head felt heavy but I shuffled it out of my cocoon of blankets to look in her direction.
She was standing at the door, some kind of riot shield between her and me.

“Sare.. why are you over there?”
She peaked over the shield a little and gave me a tight smile.

“You kinda.. almost killed someone.. they wouldn't let me close without the shield”

WHAT!

I jolted up in bed and got tangled in the blankets.
A strangled yelp came out of my mouth as I slid off the bed in a jumbled mess.

Sarah snorted a laugh but didn't move to help me.

I growled in the back of my throat and gripped the sheets to pull them off.
Seconds later I let go of them with another yelp of surprise.
They’d frozen solid!
She was peeking out from behind the shield, with a weird look on her face.

“What are you laughing at?”
My free arm swung around to point at her in annoyance.
Sarah wasn't laughing anymore.
She dived behind the shield again.

Good thing she did too.
The moment my arm stopped moving a large spike of Ice formed up at my finger tip and flew off at her.
It missed, hitting the door frame to the right of her head but it was close enough to freak me out.

“What the-”
I moved my arm back and stared intensely at my hand.

My magic was bubbling under the surface of my skin.
It felt really cold but under so much pressure, like a fizzy drink bottle someone shook really hard!

I tried to focus my eyes into mage sight.
It’s not one of my better skills.
Normally I prefer to push magic into an object and read the light show it gives off.
It’s easier, works well with my sympathetic magic and hurts my eyes less.

The lines to my eyes finally built up enough magic to access mage sight.
My hand lit up with a deep sky blue color.

I gasped and leaned away from it in surprise.
My aura is wrong!

I'm a fire user.
It should be red!
..well.. more of an orangey red, with some yellow mixing in..

Definitely not pure BLUE though!
..Yeah, I know I've been having this weird problem with ice lately, but I'm still a fire user!

You can’t just.. just wake up and change your elemental affinity!
It’s.. it’s a part of you.
It’s like..
I dunno.

It’s hard to explain.
You have to FEEL it to understand.

The simplest analogy I can think of is with the religious concept of the ‘Soul’.
You are your soul, it makes up everything non-physical about you, your personality, your memories, your thoughts, feelings and opinions.

As a mage your magical core would be the very CENTER of that soul.
It’s the part of you that the rest of you is built around.
Every facet of your.. you-ness?.. is directly connected to your core.
It’s why the awakenings are called AWAKENINGS and not just reincarnation.

Your magical core holds all your past-life memories and experiences together when it passes on.
Its energy.
Energy, even magical energy, can’t be destroyed.
It can be shifted, dissipated into a wider area or have no visible effects but never destroyed.
When someone is born as a mage, they are basically getting a reused ‘soul’.
A magical core that some mage or mages before them had.
Awakenings are just the moments where our core’s finally settle into us properly, the disconnect between our current ‘soul’ around the core fades and the current version of us merges with all the past versions that were dragged along by our reused core.

No-ones sure if there even ARE any truly ‘new’ mages being born.

That’s why the MPA were set up in the first place.
While they have divisions that work as a police force, research teams, Special Forces strike teams and any number of other jobs that you’d normally expect to find in a larger independent country’s government system rather than a relatively small grouping of people hidden within one of the world’s biggest first-world nations, they are the MPA.

The Magical PROLIFERATION Agency.
Their whole ethos is based around finding ways to bringing more magic into the world.
The other jobs, the policing, the research and the special forces.. that’s all there to protect current mages from the public, not the public from current mages.

No-one really knows how the world would react if they found out about magic’s existence all at once.. but judging from similar situations in human history..
People tend to attack what they don’t understand.

A person can be rational, a person can see both sides of an argument and can be talked out of doing something rash or dangerous.
People.. in my experience.. People are stupid.
Get enough individual, rational, ‘persons’ into a group and they become the writhing mass of stupidity and rash, violent, fear mongers known as ‘people’.

It’s not anti-social to say that I don’t like people.
I like a person.
I like a lot of person’s in fact, but there’s a reason I don’t go out to clubs or try to hang out with the off-duty staff of the Hub like Sarah does.

Hell, I don’t even try to hang out with other mages!
I've never seen another awakened mage, outside of Max.
Normal mages, the lower grade ones who fear their awakenings..
They’re people.. They are PEOPLE.
Maybe a better word for them would be ‘sheep’?
They just herd together and gossip or follow the loudest voice.

I walked into the cafeteria of the Hub once and found all the off duty mages playing dodge-ball with fire.
Right in the cafeteria!
No-one had the guts to tell them not to and none of the mages were willing to tell the few voices who came up with the stupid idea that it was so whole-heartedly STUPID!

If you’re curious, I didn't stop them directly.
I sat at a table nearby and every time they tried to launch their ‘ball’ I put the flame out.
It was amusing for a good hour watching them trying more and more ‘complicated’ spells to get their fire balls working again.
One of them even theorised that their game had pissed off some voodoo god or something.
That’s when they all started getting nervous and scattered.
Irrational, stupid, PEOPLE.

.. Where was I..?
.. My hand, my aura..
Oh yeah.
This awakening is getting seriously on my nerves!
I can’t go five minutes without drifting off on some thought tangent.

=======

“Han?”
Sarah looked relieved when I blinked a few times and let my mage sight slip away.

“Sorry, got lost for a second there”
She smiled at me nervously and waved toward me with the hand not holding up her riot shield.
“You okay? Got.. that under control?”

My fingers twitched.
Without any actual conscious thought, a needle like icicle formed out of thin air and slammed itself a few inches deep into the wall to my left.

“Definitely not under control”
I frowned and focused on the feel of the magic in my hand.
“Give me a minute”

It’s a bit harder to do when you’re not working with an element you understand I guess.
I doubt anyone else has had this problem before, but the same trick should work just as well with ice as it did with fire.

The problem is, what can I use to divert the ice effect?
Fire was easy, fire and orange are pretty connected and at that point I was so used to burning stuff and how to stop it that it wasn't even that much of a problem to start with.

Ice though.. and with THIS level of control..
I've never had my magic so eager to be used before that it would spontaneously react with a thought!
Something’s wrong here..

My best working theory at the moment is that whatever the storyteller guy did with that second brand has screwed up my magic somehow.

He mentioned that it should limit me from high level magic but it doesn't FEEL like I'm limited in any way.
If anything I feel BOOSTED, I feel like I could warp to the moon and back just for fun honestly..

My magic’s cold, which is a majorly weird feeling still, but it’s much more concentrated then usual.
I can’t focus on it for too long.
The feeling in my core is just too intense.

It’s almost calling to me to let it lose.
I can tell just at a glance that diving into my core at the moment would be.. euphoric?
It would be disastrous too.
Knowing my luck, I’d end up accidentally causing the next ice-age with THIS much power built up.. but for me it would feel so blissfully nice..

.. damn it! I lost focus again!..

Magic.. Ice.. how to change it.. think..
What do I associate with ice that isn't going to be so blatant when it happens that I can’t go out in public just in case it goes off?
First thought is liquids from ice.. drinks maybe?

Ice goes really well with drinks to cool you down..
Ice can melt into water, which is a drink..
Vodka Martini on the rocks..
Ice-pops.. Slushies!

Okay, liquids are a definite route for now.
I can ask Fena for a better idea later.
Better wet then throwing ice spikes.

Shouldn't take too long.
Take the idea ‘Ice to liquid’, take a sample of my magic, twist the two and seal the connection in my head..

“Oww..”
Last time I did this my head felt nice and warm.
This time I've got brain-freeze.

I hate magic sometimes..

======

My eyes opened and I let out a long sigh.

“Better?”
Sarah looked a bit worried but she seemed to know what I was trying to do at least.

We shared a smile.

She waved at me encouragingly but didn't move from behind her shield.
I don’t blame her for wanting to see proof that it worked before letting her guard down.
I hesitated for a moment but it DID need testing I guess.

“Do something to upset me?”

Sarah’s face lit up in glee.
It was probably a bad idea to give her a blank slate like that..

“MY SISTER HAS A CRUSH ON THE HUB RECEPTIONIST!”

My ears burned in embarrassment.
“SHUT UP!”

A chill went down my spine, pooled at my waist and slowly travelled down my legs to pool again at my feet.

We both stood there stunned for a moment.

“Did you just wet yourself?”
My face burned even brighter red in embarrassment.
Sarah face had a mix of disbelief and amazement on it which didn't suit her at all.

With a careful hold on my embarrassment to not make things even worse I glared at Sarah.
“Would you prefer an ice shard in your face?”

She blanched and shook her head rapidly.
My sister’s not stupid..

“Looks like, instead of making ice crystals, I'm making water from my back now”
Her eyebrow popped up at me.
“Just water” I added to shut up her scepticism.

Sarah considered me from behind her shield for a moment and then slowly let it slide away.
She walked over and gave me an awkward hug, trying to avoid touching any of the water on my back and legs.

“It’s just temporary, I’ll talk to Edith later and see if she has any better ideas”
Sarah seemed reassured by that but didn't comment in return.

“Do you think they can give me some spare scrubs?”
My hospital issue patients dress, gown, thing felt awkward and heavy with all the water trailing down my back.
“I'm not gonna wear my clothes when I'm like this”
Sarah winced but nodded in understanding.
“Wouldn't work anyway, your clothes are a write off. Your jeans and boots.. whatever you did to get free of the ice didn't treat them nicely.”

I frowned and huffed.

“Partly melted, partly charred, missing a lot of the thread and patches of leather?”
Sarah nodded and squinted at me a little.
“I expected it, the heat had to come from somewhere. Usually it’s barely noticeable while using it to dry clothes but I had to kind of supercharge it..”

My frown dipped a bit more and my hand came up to slap my forehead.
“Duh..”
A small amount of focus and a push to my core set off the spell.
The hospital gown dried instantly.
It didn't do anything for my damp legs or the puddle at my feet but at least my back was dry now.
“If you can get me some scrubs I should be able to keep dry better. My legs are still wet at the moment.”
Sarah nodded and made her way out.

=======

I spent the time she was gone practising with the water.
If I forced an emotion forward enough I could trigger it on purpose, a lot like I could do with my fire but even then it came easier than the fire ever had.
For some reason my elemental affinity seems to be on a hair trigger now and I have no idea how to stop it.
At least after a few tries I managed to change where the water formed, instead of getting a wet patch trailing down my back I could make the water come out of my hands and feet.
I even managed to make it come out of my hair, although that just left me with damp hair plastered to my face, so I doubt I’ll be doing it again.

“They didn't have any scrubs, I bribed the ward medi-mage for her spare outfit though. It should fit.. maybe..”
Sarah stepped in the door with a bundle of clothes under her arm.
She didn't seem completely convinced that the clothes would work but anything’s better then what I currently have at least.

Without another word I tugged the hospital gown over my head.

There’s little modesty between us.
It comes from doing quick changes of outfits since we were kids.
Sarah DID seem unusually interested when I stood before her naked though.
I guess the change in body IS a bit off putting.
I'm just trying not to think about it.

When she didn't hand them to me directly I ended up having to snatch the clothing from her instead.
That seemed to break her of her trance-like stare at least.
I laid out the clothes on the bed for inspection.

The undies were utilitarian, white cotton with a wide cut, they looked comfortable so that’s something..
The bra looked a bit big for my shoulders but it would be tight everywhere else, probably a sports bra from the looks of it.
The top was just a plain T-shirt in olive green, nice and boring.
For my legs we had some leggings, a knee-high black pleated skirt and some soft sole ballet flats.
Overall, not a bad haul.
I didn't waste any time getting dressed, I just want to get out of here now.

The bra was a bit awkward, it fit but was generally too tight feeling.
I've never liked sports bras, even when I was just filling in for Sarah with no actual boobs to compress.
They felt too constricting.

Beggars can’t be choosers though.

The ballet flats were nice and soft at least.
I’ll have to look at getting some more of them later.

When I’d finished pulling myself together, Sarah grabbed a brush out of her purse and waved me to sit down.
She hit a few snags but generally just brushed my hair to hang flat down.
I’ll have to see if I can cut it back to our usual length.
Having it hanging around my shoulders like this is annoying..

“We’re cleared to leave, they set you up an appointment with the Rep from ‘Awakened Mage Support’ later this week but physically your fine at least.”

My face scrunched up a little in annoyance.
I'm not up to testing this new brand yet.
I've never heard of this ‘Awakened mage support’ before but I guess it can’t hurt to see what they want.
If it comes to it, I’ll keep my back to a wall and push my new water talent to full blast, if I push hard enough I should be able to imitate a point blank fire-hose with a bit of practice.

“Ready?”
I nodded and she took my hand to lead me out of the room.

The medi-bay mage offered me a strained smile but everyone else seemed pretty tense at the sight of me.
I put my head down and followed Sarah.
If I don’t react maybe we can finally get out of here.
The sooner I can get to Fena’s shop for some research materials and help, the better.

She led me out of the medi-bay and through a lot of turning corridors.
As we walked along there was a general hush that would form up and when we passed the sound would build up again as whispers in our wake.

I could feel myself getting tense because of it.

I don’t like people paying so much attention to me.
My job has made me healthily paranoid against people staring at me.
Especially if they are being so blatant when talking about me behind my back.

We came out of the corridors into the main reception area.
I lifted my head a little to look for Felicia.
She was sat at her desk.

It hurt to see the fear in her eyes.
She tracked me the entire way, while we walked to the exit.
As we stepped out of the entrance way I just caught the huge sigh of relief she gave off before she sunk down in her seat.

“Don’t worry, things will work out eventually. I got a briefing while you were unconscious.”
I frowned and tugged her hand a little for a better explanation.
“I’ll explain at the flat. It’s not great but it could be worse too, so don’t panic”
I opened my mouth to question her logic but stopped short when her mobile started ringing in her purse.

She let go of my hand and fished around frantically for it.
When she finally got it out she stared at the screen a little for some reason.

“It’s mum..”
She sounded confused by that fact.
I stood awkwardly to the side while she answered the call.

“Hey mum I-”
Sarah frowned deeply.
“What?.. I didn't-”
Her mouth pursed tightly in annoyance.
“What are you.. no I.. Mum will you just.. Of course sh- I mean..”

Sarah’s eyes went wide in surprise, her head swung around to stare at me with worry.
“She’s here now.. yeah I g-”
She growled low in her throat and tightened her grip on her phone.
“Yes.. Mother..”
She sounded really angry now, she was talking through clenched teeth.
“We’ll be there soon”
Sarah hung up without saying goodbye and stared at me with a lost look.

“What is it?”

She took a deep breath in and huffed it out.
This is going to be bad..

“Mum’s been trying to call for ages.”
I nodded, it made sense, the Hub cuts off cell phone services.
It cuts off most things actually, if you work in the Hub there’s no TV or radio available sadly.

Sarah’s teeth clenched again and she glared at her phone.
“She wanted to know if I’d ‘stolen Arista on the way home from school again’ and if I was ‘trying to corrupt my poor impressionable little sister’.. and THEN she demanded that I bring you back home RIGHT now or she’s calling the cops on me for kidnapping..”

My jaw dropped.
We both stood there in a kind of stunned silence.

My brain finally tweaked on a forgotten detail..
I was so busy getting worked up at him at the time, it just hadn't registered initially.
The storyteller.. that son of a bitch!

“Crap”
It came out as a whimper.
I could do nothing BUT whimper at this.. things are about to get a whole lot more complicated.

Sometimes.. I REALLY hate magic.