Every fireworks display has to end at some point, sadly. Events unfold including but not limited to: John getting to the point of things (possibly not in the way he'd prefer) And Hannah goes home the quick way

 

The fireworks finally died down.
I had to blink furiously to clear out the after-trails from my vision.

When I did we ended up staying laid up against the tree anyway.
It’s kind of comfortable honestly.
It’s cold out now too.. and John’s really warm.

“Hannah? John? Mum said it’s time to stop kissing in the shadows and come back in.”
I groaned, burying my face into the side of John’s shoulder.
He laughed under his breath.

Trust Sarah to say the most embarrassing thing she can to completely ruin the mood.

“Come on, we better go before she starts even more rumors.”
I pushed off of John so I could stand up making him grunt a little in pain.
“Oh please. I barely touched you.”
He groaned with a lot more dramatic emphasis this time and from the sound of it he decided to flop around against the tree childishly, although I couldn’t see him if he did.

Blindly my hands reached out until I managed to latch onto his arm.
I tried to yank him to his feet with little to no success.

After leaving me struggling just long enough to make a fool of myself he eased himself up to his feet and followed behind me quietly.
Even in the silence I could FEEL his smugness.

Rather than give him the benefit of seeing me react I just marched ahead ‘dragging’ him behind me.

We broke the treeline and stepped out into the dying glow of the campfire someone set up surrounded by now empty benches.
Sarah stood off to the side of it rubbing her hands together to keep warm.

While the grass growing up to surround my toes felt annoying with each step I valiantly ignored it in favor of reaching Sarah before she can get too annoyed at us.

We came up to her side quickly.
She shot me a knowing smile but didn’t make a smartass comment at least.
For some reason John tugged a little on my arm as if he’d stopped short suddenly.

I was so focused on my little stare off with Sarah, daring her to say something to my face, that I didn’t really pay attention to what he was doing.
That’s why I jumped and shrieked in surprise when a warm hand landed on my mid-back with long fingers spread wide.

“What’s this?”
His voice sounded strange, as if he was forcing himself to sound calm when he didn’t feel like it in the slightest.

I spun around to glare at him, slapped his hand away from me and pointed at his nose warningly.
We’re friends and everything but no unexpected delicate touching!

He met my glare with one of his own.. his eyes feel unusually cold all of a sudden?
His fingers twitched as if he wanted to reach out and touch me again.

“Hannah.. what’s that mark on your back?”
My blood ran cold.

“uh.. it’s my brand, the one you gave me. Remember?”
I tried to play it off with a nervous laugh but he obviously wasn’t buying it.

..crap..
Of all people I didn’t want JOHN to know about the brand Storyteller gave me!
It’s bad enough having other people know about it but JOHN!

In hindsight wearing a bikini top probably wasn’t such a good idea?
I completely forgot that the second brand was something to be kept secret honestly, everyone who’s seen them tends to pair them together as a single problem.
Trust John to be the exception considering that he GAVE me the first one!

With the muscles in his arms tensed to a worrying level he set a palm on my shoulder and turned me slowly around so he could see my back again in the firelight.

I shuddered when his fingers came out to trace my second brand again.

“Who did this to you?”
His voice made me shudder from just how WRONG it sounded coming out of his lips.
“Hannah.. I’m asking nicely.. who did this to you?”

“I..”
My eyes cut over to Sarah for help.
She shuddered for a second but eventually stepped closer to us with her hands up in a placating gesture.

“John, calm down okay? It’s just-”
His eyes shot over to her and she fell silent instantly.

“JOHN!”

I know that trick!
Max’s hypnotic eyes!
He stopped Sarah from talking with just a look!

He twisted his head and glared at me hard.
I flinched back from him.
My arms came up to fold over my belly defensively.

I don’t like that look!
That’s not a ‘John’ look!

He caught my eye before I could look away.

My body froze stiff under his intense gaze.
I couldn’t feel my lines but I’d recognise the effects of this spell anywhere.
It was one of my favourites back when I worked ‘for the Hub’ as Al.

“Look into my eyes and speak truth.”
My head locked in place, staring directly into his eyes no matter what I tried to do to resist him.

“John.. please.. don’t do this..”

He frowned at me.
The expression seemed a lot worse in the flickering firelight and long shadows.

“Who put that messed up marriage brand on your back above the one I gave you?”
I tried to clamp my lips shut tightly and tried desperately to resist with all my strength but there was little point even trying.

My magic is practically non-existent!
Just like when I cast this same spell on Trudy in my rage over the brand, it’s a battle between my magic and his for control.
At the moment he’s got the equivalent of a tactical nuke behind him while I’d struggle to fight my way out of a wet paper bag!

He showed pretty effectively at breakfast that it’s not even a struggle for him to wrap me up in a bubble of his magic at the moment.

“He didn’t give me a name. I’ve been calling him ‘storyteller’. He ranted on about a load of past-incarnations where you and Arista pretended to be Gods with your magic. He wouldn’t accept that I wasn’t really Arista. He said that the fae have been talking about me. He called me ‘Arista de la Morte’. He-”

John finally broke eye contact with me.
While I was by no means free I could finally stop the constant stream of words from pouring out of my mouth.

“De Rais.. I thought that prick was dead!..”

Who the hell is ‘De Rais’?..
Does John know the storyteller?!

He seemed to completely lose track of the world around him for a moment.
He paced a few steps in the firelight frantically, like a caged animal.

Finally his head snapped up to stare at me again.
My eyes locked back onto his against my will, the spell’s still going strong obviously.

“Where did you see him?”

I didn’t even bother trying to stop it this time.
What’s the point?
There’s no stopping this spell when it’s got you under such a tight hold!

“I was going through decontamination at the Hub, the tech sent us into lockdown because of the old magic involved in what you did to me. While I was stuck in the box he diverted me to a big office and talked about past-incarnations I can’t remember where you and-”
John’s eyes dropped from mine again.

A sigh of relief left my lips.

It really isn’t a pleasant feeling, having words forced out of you like that.
If they weren’t all completely evil assholes I’d actually feel sorry for the people I used to interrogate when I worked ‘for the Hub’ at this point..

After a few seconds to collect himself John’s eyes turned back to me.
Before I could even snap my eyes back up to his, he had his hand up covering them with his palm.

“Sleep-”

======

“OWW!”

My body jerked so much that I ended up hitting my face with a flailing arm.
It felt like someone shocked me with a cattle prod!

“You’re awake, I’ll keep this brief. The compound is un-secure. Someone tore through our wards to warp away and left you unconscious out here. We can’t find your friend Max, what happened?”
My back hit the grass hard and I groaned slowly.

“Gran?”
She grunted and put a hand on my arm again.
Just like the last time a jolt of electricity shot through my body making me twitch upright and gasp in mild pain.

“Okay, OKAY, I’m awake! I GET it!”

She had the decency to look at least mildly apologetic.
From somewhere nearby I SWEAR I could hear Grace laughing to herself though.

She may be my Grandmother but she’s still a Psychotic old bat!
Screw Grace too!
This isn’t a time to be laughing, not when John.. when.. John..

oh.. CRAP..

It took more effort than I want to admit to pull myself back to my feet.
The moment I was stable though I thrust my wrist out to Gran.

“Take them off.”

She looked at me with obvious concern.
It must look weird for me to go from naught to sixty from the outside but I’ve always recovered fast when it’s important and being without magic isn’t going to change that fact!

“What are you going to do if I remove those.. devices?”
Her nose crinkled a little as she stared down at the cuffs.
I huffed to myself and impatiently pushed my glasses a bit further up my nose again to bleed off some nervous energy.

Now is NOT the time to start questioning my motives!
I need to get back to Klamath Falls FAST!
Who KNOWS what kind of damage John could do if he’s let loose on the Hub hunting for the Storyteller?!

This is the man that encouraged Nero’s insanity because he found him FUNNY!
This is the man that turned his enemy’s against themselves during the Nika riots with only a eunuch and a bag of gold, so that his men could come in afterwards to slaughter the survivors!

Over thirty-thousand rioters!
..okay.. so Theodora might have hand a hand in that.. but he still DID it!

He did all that and he wasn’t even ANGRY at the time!

The look in his eyes before he put me to sleep..
John’s so angry.. to a degree that I’ve never even SEEN before.. as himself OR as Max..

“We don’t have time for this! I need these cuffs off NOW. I’ll reactivate your wards and then I’ve got to go, I’m the only one who can stop John from going on a rampage but I need my magic and I need to go NOW!”

Gran stared at me hard for a moment.
With seemingly a lot of reluctance she brought her arms up and moved her fingers along the lock of the cuffs until they snapped off of my wrists with a faint click.

I almost collapsed to my knees as the world seemed to come back into color suddenly.

I could hear things again!
I could SMELL things again!
All the little aches and pains I’d developed from laying on the ground for who-knows-how-long faded quickly.

My lines started filling with excess power almost instantly and my core SANG at being free again.

Before I could stop it my magic was already cascading out of control.
Magic flickered between my fingertips, even my hair sparked with wild magic!

“I DON’T have TIME for this!”

With a monumental effort I forced my will upon my rioting magic and made it follow MY command.
Wards are hard to bring down subtly but their easy to bring back up unless you shatter the ward stone.
..all they need is a kick-start..

“POTESTATEM!”

‘Give power’
It’s such a useful Latin incantation, a really useful rune too actually..
It’s also a quick and dirty way to give any magical device within range a boost in power.

If there’s one thing I’ve got to spare at the moment its power!
My magic rolled through my body and concentrated on my palms as I directed it to.

“POTESTATEM!”

With one more push I forced a violent stream of golden magic out of my palms towards the house.
I may accidentally end up re-charging any magical artefacts they have in the house but more importantly the free magic should be drawn into the currently struggling ward stone to give it that little kick.

My magic calmed down slowly as I kept pouring a stream of it out towards the house.
I’m still loading up on way more then I should have inside my body, as usual, but the magic feels calmer at least.

Finally some threshold was met because with a rumble that shook the very earth beneath our feet a bright golden dome of magic formed up around the property, ending far off into the trees around us.
A moment later and the dome faded into invisibility leaving nothing but the knowledge that it was there behind in its wake.

“Wards are up, sorry to rush but I’ve got to go. Can you do me a favor?”
Grandma perked an eyebrow up at me.

I think she doesn’t want to admit it but she’s impressed.
I would be if I saw someone do what I just did, that’s not even my ego talking.. just a stated fact.

“Keep Sarah and Mum here? If I fail.. Klamath Falls could become a bloodbath. I’ll work better if I know they're safe.”
She flinched and drew away from me slightly.

Slowly, painfully slowly she nodded her head and gave me a considering look.
“How are you going to get there?”

I paused mid-step.

She’s got a point.. how AM I going to get there?
I was just going to shadow warp honestly.
John probably cheated with a Bula warp but yet again I didn’t think to set one up before we left.

Gran’s hands came up to her neck and she unclasped the hook on a thin golden chain she had tucked into her blouse.
As she pulled it away a cameo brooch with the delicate face of a woman came into view.

It felt familiar for some reason but it took me a moment realise why.

Mum has a necklace just like that at home?
She used to wear it constantly, I think she still does honestly but I never thought to ask where it came from..

“This is a family artefact. It will allow you free transport between here and any location protected by a family ward stone.. a ward stone like the one I had fitted within your house a long time ago.”

My mouth dropped open a little in shock.

I don’t know why I’m surprised?
Of COURSE Mum’s family put in the ward stone for our house!
Who the hell ELSE would have done it?!

“H.. how does it work?”

She slowly reached out to me with the chain in her hands.
After a moment I realised what she wanted to do and I pulled my hair back so she had better access to fit the chain around my neck.

“Its old family magic, come visit me again sometime and I’ll teach you.”
A little smile played at her lips as she finished clipping the little latch closed.
I couldn’t help but let a gentle smile play across my lips in return.
“For now, just hold the cameo in your hands and think of your home. With your index finger of your other hand tap the face three times.. I’ll warn you now, it’s not the most comfortable way to travel..”

A mirthless laugh made its way out of my chest.

Magical travel is NEVER comfortable.
Personally I think it’s a trade-off for the convenience and general broken laws of physics involved in using magic to move around.

“Thanks Gran”
Her smile grew a bit wider and she patted my shoulder before taking a step back.

“I was going to give you one soon anyway. Every girl in the family receives one when she’s ready, even the non-mages.”
Before we could continue some raised voices started approaching us from inside the house.

With my newly un-restrained hearing I could make out Sarah’s voice inside the mix of arguing tones.

“Go, now, before the other’s find out and try to stop you. Just come home safely Hannah? I want to learn more of my new Granddaughter soon, preferably in her own words.”
Her lips twitched up slightly in the same way mine do when I’m amused by something but trying not to laugh about it.

“Thanks Gran.”
I put my hand around the cameo and brought my other one up to tap on it gently.
On the second tap she finally responded.

“Don’t thank me yet, you’ve not travelled by one of these things before..”

“huh?”
My head lifted to meet her amused gaze but my finger had already made the final tap.

It felt like someone jammed a fishing hook into my core!
With no warning at all, the world turned blue.
I tried to scream as I was dragged through the blue magical slipstream of warp but my mouth wouldn’t move let alone my throat!

I HATE magic sometimes!!

======

“aaaaAAAAAHHHH!!”

With no grace at all I crashed to the floor of our kitchen with a painful thump.
It must have had some kind of power behind it because the plates and dishes in the cupboard rattled loudly when I landed.

“That..sucked..”
My breath would only come out in desperate pants for almost a solid minute but in that time I managed to stagger to my feet at least.

I need to move!
I need to get to the Hub fast.. but.. how the hell am I going to get there?!

The waypoints down!
It’s a ten mile hike into town from Mum’s place.
Even if I use magic to assist, it’s going to take me ages!

If I don’t get to the Hub soon and stop John then who knows WHAT he’ll do!

Okay.. okay.. don’t panic.
..panicking is bad..

I need.. CRAP! I left the cuffs behind!
I was going to go in, slap them on John and drag him into a room to yell at him until we both calmed down but I can’t do that if the cuffs are sitting on the grass outside the Gran’s house can I?!

Crap, crap, CRAP!
Okay.. deep breaths.. it’s all fine..

I just need to get into town fast somehow and find some way to stop John.

Come on Hannah, think logically!
John was right earlier, I’m still me!

I’ve got no excuse to not be as good at things as Al was but my own stubborn stupidity!

My hand came down to pat my shorts for my phone automatically.
That was usually my first resort as Al.
I loaded so many little tricks and enchantments into my phone that it’s not even funny..

I really need to get that back at some point.

Usually my second option would be to call Fena for som-
..I’m such an idiot..

I sprinted over to the phone on the wall and feverishly dialled the shops number.
It rang for three rings before finally picking up.

“aah?”

Oh great, it’s one of the male Sibs!
Why does he even bother trying to answer?
All they ever seem to do is make weird noises.

“Hi, can you put Fena or Edith on the phone for me?”
There was a long pause that didn’t help my nerves in anyway.

“ahh..”

Great.. just.. just GREAT.
As helpful as always apparently!

The phone gave off some weird shuffling noises and after almost half a minute of straining my ears to pick up anything else but coming up empty, the phone finally seemed to change hands and a slightly flustered sounding Fena came though clearly.

“Hello, we’re kind of busy and do you KNOW what time it is?..”
She sighed heavily, despite her introduction she slipped back into her ‘saleswoman’ voice easily a moment later.
“How can I help you?”

Wow, she sounds really stressed?
That can’t be good.

“Fena, it’s me Hannah. I just got to Mum’s house but I need to get to the Hub as soon as possible, any ideas how to do that?”

For a painfully long moment she was silent.
Eventually she gasped out breath of surprise and recognition.

“AL! Holy shit, Al!”
She trailed off for a second but seemed to gather herself together quickly.
“Do you know what’s going on? The shops been flooded by people who can’t get into the Hub, apparently someone’s locked down the entrance somehow and no-one can get in.”

..crap..
Damn it John!

“It’s John. He noticed the messed up marriage brand on my back and he’s on the warpath looking for the storyteller.. I need to stop him Fena. How can I get to you quickly?”
She seemed to hesitate for a second but Fena’s smart, nothing’s going to stall her for long.

“Edith’s got a backup waypoint in the storeroom. Give me a minute, I’ll activate it but be quick I’ll have to turn it off the moment you come through.”

I let a breath ease out through my teeth and a smile cross my lips.
I KNEW she’d have something.

“Thanks Fena, see you in a minute.”

I hung up and settled myself into a meditation pose on the kitchen floor.
I need to focus my magic sense on locating this new waypoint beacon.
The standard beacons are constantly on, to a point where they’re just background noise unless you’re looking for a specific one.

Every beacon within range has a different ‘flavor’ to it.
You have to use magical senses to locate them after-all, of course it’s weird!

In the same way that an overloaded spell feels like a cold wind on my skin, when my sense’s ‘ping’ a beacon it feels like I’ve just put something in my mouth.
I get a hint of the flavors involved that are like a marker to say which beacon I’ve located.

The normal one in the motel outside the Hub tastes like candyfloss, bacon and some kind of eggs.. if your curious.

THERE it is!
Orange Juice, Honey and Strong Coffee.
I’ve never had a waypoint beacon with THAT particular mix before come through so strong.. trust Edith to have a weird one.

I activated warp while zeroing in on the beacon’s signal.
As always normal warping isn’t pleasant in any way but at least I’m sitting down this time so I won’t fall flat on my face when I appear.

======

“GAH!”

The floor formed up beneath my folded legs at about the same moment someone screamed in surprise.
I head shot up to stare at the voice and found a shocked looking Fena.

“You need to turn the beacon off.”

After a few tired blinks at me she reached out and placed her palm to a glowing rune set hidden rather well on the storeroom wall.
A few seconds later the orange, honey, coffee taste faded away from my senses and the main lights inside the storeroom came back on making us both blink slightly at the bright glare.

“What.. on earth.. are you wearing Al?”

I blinked my eyes furiously a few times and focused on her.
She looks really tired.
Her usually painstakingly styled ‘messy’ hair is kinda.. just a mess?

“Are those flowers in your hair?”

Oh.. yeah.. I forgot about those..
Damn Sarah and her fiddly fingers!

“We really don’t have time to be discussing my fashion choices right now Fena. I need to get to the Hub and find out what the hell John has gotten himself into.”
Hopefully she’ll accept that and drop the whole clothes thing.

I REALLY don’t want to go through the awkwardness of explaining to her that I chose the bikini top and short-shorts to fit some kind of stereotype I had in my head about girls at family barbecues.

I REALLY, REALLY don’t want to consider the idea John brought up that I might be somehow using an old trick that a lot of younger girls use by ‘dressing older’ to make myself feel like an adult again in some messed up ‘barely makes sense because it’s all about emotions’ way!

I swear I didn’t INTEND to go around like this to show my new family that I’m a ‘big girl’ now or something but now he’s said it.. there’s kinda this little seed of doubt in my mind about whether that was something I did subconsciously instead.

Either way I don’t like it!
We don’t have time for deep self-analysis or explanations at the moment anyway.

“I need to go.”

I managed to stagger to my feet and made a quick bee-line for the storeroom door.
Fena quietly followed behind me but from the feel of her magic she’s a bit confused and mildly amused for some reason.

As I opened the door a cold hand came to rest between my shoulders making me jump and gasp.
The hand moved up my spine making me shiver and ended up touching the flower filled braid Sarah had turned my annoyingly long hair into.

“The hair suits you. I like the flowers.”

I shivered again for a completely different reason this time.
Fena’s voice sounded a little off, her magic keeps flickering between happiness and sadness for some reason.

I’m not sure if these wild shifts in mood are normal for her or not but they feel weird.
Out of respect for her privacy I don’t normally leave my magic senses ‘on’ in the shop but with my magic still bouncing around like an eager puppy at being free again I’m not completely sure I could turn them off at the moment if I wanted to.

Instead of answering her fairly awkward words and actions I finished opening the door to pace down the hall leading out into the front of the shop.
One more door and I was on the shop floor which seems to be full of a LOT more people than usual, all bustling about talking to each other and shooting nervous looks outside.

My senses took a hit when they picked up all of the emotions floating around the room.
There’s got to be at least twenty relatively powerful mages in here, their jumbled emotions are quickly giving me a headache.

Reluctantly I dipped into my lines and muted my magic senses as best I could.
The enhancements to my normal senses are fine but it’s just a bit too much having my..
..I guess you could call it ‘magical empathy’?..
It’s a bit too much having it on with this many mages nearby.

Fena came up behind me and slipped around to face me again.
She looked a bit embarrassed for some reason but smiled at me awkwardly with her usual tight-lipped smile anyway.

“Edith’s already gone to check out this thing blocking the entrance way to the Hub. I’ve got to stay here and keep an eye on this lot, is there anything you need to take with you?”

For a moment I considered asking if she had any kind of magical restraints but honestly they’re not the sort of thing you just have lying around, they’re pretty much illegal to sell without being certified by the Hub and I’m pretty sure it would lead to some awkward questions too.

“I should be okay. Worst comes to worst, I’ll turn him into a human ice-cube and drag him back.”

Fena’s eyes took on a slightly feral glint at the idea of hurting John.
I don’t think she’s forgiven him for the whole ‘turning me into a girl’ thing yet.. not that I’VE forgiven him either but she’s a lot more willing to show her displeasure then I am.

“I’ll see you in a bit Fena. I’ve got to go.”
She nodded and waved me off towards the door with a little smile still playing on her lips.. I think she might be enjoying the idea of me freezing John a bit too much?

With one more glance over at her I made my way outside with a sigh.
I’ve already got a headache brewing and I’ve not even reached the Hub yet!

======

The moment I stepped out onto the street I regretted it.
It’s bloody COLD!

It’s hard to believe that a few hours ago I was happily sharing warmth with John against a tree while watching fireworks go off and now I’m here.. walking along the dark streets of downtown Klamath Falls in the early hours of the morning.. wearing a bikini top.. alone..

You know what?.. I think I’ll just speed this journey up a bit!

Not that I’m scared or anything, I’m a powerful mage with years of experience during some of the darkest periods of history!
I just have to get to the Hub fast.. because of John.
..yeah.. John..

..Stupid John!..
It’s all his fault!

Trying to look casual I reached down as if I was adjusting my sandal straps and ran my hand along them while dipping into my lines.
Three to my palm for direction, one to my lungs for air and one to my mind for control.
Trying to keep my voice as quiet as possible in the still night-air I gave the incantation.

“Velox Ped”
You’ve got to love the romans, they knew how to make spells simple at least.
Need a spell to make you walk faster?
What should we call it? ‘Swift foot’ maybe?

I really like Latin spells and incantations.
Does it show?

The spell caught finally making my foot raise slightly off the ground.
Careful to not overbalance and fall on my ass I repeated it for the other sandal until I was wobbling with my feet floating above the floor.

I’ve got to be honest, this spells usually not practical for most situations but I DO like it.
Like the wings of Icarus spell, there’s just something fun about augmenting your movement in such a direct way.
It takes practice to get good at using it though.

Luckily I’ve got a lot of experience from playing with it when I was a younger, more fun loving but still serious 'Al' training under Edith while living under Mum’s roof.

Ten miles is a long distance to travel when your young and in a hurry, but it’s a lot easier to do if you can take shortcuts over, under, around and through the deserted forest near your house or the huge lake area just east of it.

I leaned forward into my step and took off in the right direction without having to move my feet.

The ‘velox ped’ spell makes a bubble of air under your feet that eliminates friction and giving a directional propulsion effect if I lean in the right way.
While the spell works a bit like the fresh air enchantment I put on Gran’s doormat, magic wise, it feels like I’m rollerblading while going constantly downhill honestly.. just without any bumps.. or brakes.. at high speed.

I leaned to the side and slammed my feet forwards for a second to counter my forward momentum so I could glide around the corner.

A shortcut across the parking lot by the Christian ‘Fellowship’ building and I eased around the back of the court house to skid into the alleyway on the opposite side.
Instead of going down Main Street like I usually would, I have to take the backstreets, it’s far too early for anyone to be out walking in town but that doesn’t mean main street is going to be completely clear.
Luckily a lot of people who DO notice when I use this spell usually shrug it off saying that I must be wearing rollerblades or something but no point in chancing it when I don’t gain anything by going that way.

I weaved through the carpark behind the ‘Quality Inn’ and shooting across the deserted interchange into the little Veterans Memorial Park just across from the Hub’s entrance.

It took a careful bout of gymnastics to bleed off my speed, ending in a handstand which led into a forward roll so I could lie on the grass with my feet in the air.
For a moment I considered stopping the spell but its probably good for another few hours with the power I ended up dumping into it, despite trying to use as little as possible, it COULD be useful if I need to leave quickly for some reason.

It’s not like I particularly NEED shoes anyway.
I can heal my feet easily if I step on something by accident at least.

It almost caught me off guard how easy it was to fold my legs up enough that I could take my sandals off without letting them touch the ground.
I still tend to forget that this new body is basically nothing but flexibility and fluff.
I don’t particularly NEED muscles or anything, I’m a mage after all, but I LIKED being strong when I was male.

It’s surprising how many mages just aren’t ready for a physical fight?
It kind of feels like they just forget that doing something with your feet and fist’s is an option after a while.

If I ever get a slow day I should probably get around to giving my fighting style an overhaul to better suit my new body.. I’ll have to add it to the list of other things I’ll ‘get around to’ on that almost mythical day too I guess..

Sandals in hand, grass growing between my toes at every step and my free hand wrapped just under my boobs to try and keep some warmth in I carefully stepped through the park, making my way up the street to the Hub.

It caught me a little off guard just how ruff and painful it was to walk on asphalt with my new feet?
I was almost tempted to put my sandals back on for a second but in the end I cracked the tiniest amount of magic out of my core to heal them constantly as I walked instead.

It’s not exactly subtle, my skin’s glowing against the darkness around me now, but there’s only me and Edith here anyway from the looks of it.
..well.. Me, Edith and several official looking people that I assume work for the Hub in some way I guess but Bureaucrats don’t count, right?
They’re all paying more attention to the Hub entranceway then my approach anyway, so it’s not like it really matters.

“I not be fixin’ nothin’ without pay!”

Ahh.. Edith..
Gotta love her, the stubborn little human-goblin..

“Madam Shysie, PLEASE be reasonable.”
The officious ‘lifetime bureaucrat’ looking man who seemed to be leading the charge of the argument against her seemed almost desperate at this point.

I could tell him that asking Edith to be reasonable is a lost cause.
If she gets it into her head to do something, she’s gonna do it.

“NO! Ya young’uns be makin’ this mess.. shackin’ up with fae an’ bein’ surprised when it be goin’ wrong.”
She turned away from the lot of them with a rather childish looking huff and folder her arms imperiously.

The moment she finished the turn her eyes settled on me.
For a long moment she seemed almost stunned at seeing me standing there, then her face split into a wide grin instead.

“Useless girl! Ya come ‘ere an’ talk to these.. fae pets. They not be understandin’ how capitalism is!”

Reluctantly I wandered over to them and offered a weak smile.
I’m probably not exactly an impressive sight, walking along barefoot in short-shorts and a bikini with flowers in my hair..

“Hello Gentlemen. Sorry but she DOES have a point. Edith doesn’t work for the Hub so if you wish to acquire her services she will need some restitution.”
I couldn’t resist shooting a naughty smirk over at Edith before continuing.
“Considering most of your on-duty staff appears to be hiding within her shop down the road too I think you may have to pay her rent of some kind as well.. at full business rates obviously?”

The official looking group cringed and Edith let off a cackling laugh as her hand came up to pat me on the head happily.

It wasn’t just magic that I learnt from Edith after all.
She used to get me to mind the store for her if Fena was busy and she didn’t want to do it.
‘People be people, problems be problems and jobs be jobs but money is the solution to all of them!’

..she’s a crazy little Yoda but that doesn’t mean she’s by any definition of the word ‘stupid’..

“I could take a look at them for you at a discount rate if you wish?.. and before you ask, no I don’t work for the Hub either. I’m a freelancer.. apparently..”
For just a second my voice dipped down in frustration.
It still hurts that I let myself be fooled for so long into doing work ‘for the Hub’ without either officially working for them or even ACTUALLY working for them!

“I doubt a slip of a girl of your obvious.. moral standing.. could aid us in any way?”
The main guy who’d been arguing with Edith before seemed to smell something disgusting as he looked over my outfit.

I get that I’m not exactly in a professional business suit or anything but the guy’s got to be a serious idiot if he can’t tell I’m a magical powerhouse?
Well.. an idiot or a non-mage at least..

Now wouldn’t THAT be interesting?

Why would the only people here to represent the Hub be normal humans?
Surely the Magister should be around somewhere trying to sort things out, he’s pretty much the director of the Hub when it comes down to it?

Come to think of it, I THINK Felicia may have said something about our Magister not staying at the Hub very often.. he pissed off the Fae or something?.. maybe..

One of the men behind the main guy seemed to finally pay attention to me because he shot forward and cupped his hand at the main guy’s ear to whisper something to him.
The main guy’s eyes went wide and he shot a confused, almost disbelieving look at me before trying to pull himself back together and straightening his suit self-importantly.

“What’s your price?”

..I think SOMEONE just recognised my face..
Who knew looking like Arista would come in handy for once?

“Three-thousand dollars for the initial inspection, Two-thousand more if I have to probe the barrier with my magic and Fifteen-thousand if I get through it within the hour.”

Edith made a disgruntled tone from beside me.
I KNOW I’m going easy on them but I’m in a rush to find John so this is more just me being petty for easy cash and an excuse to go in before the SWAT guy’s can invade the place.

I get something out of it and I’m going to have to break it down soon anyway so I can get inside.

Magic’s all about supply and demand anyway.
We’re their best chance at getting into the Hub again this side of Christmas, even then getting a powerful mage from a Mainline Hub to come out here for something as simple as breaking a barrier will make them a laughing stock across the county.
What kind of Hub doesn’t have their own on-staff mage to deal with this sort of thing?
Even a low talent non-awakened mage could break through a barrier eventually.. might take them a couple of weeks of course but they could still DO it.

“..fine..”
The main guy grit his teeth, obviously not enjoying having to take an offer from me but, give him his due, he stuck his hand out to shake on it despite how much he obviously didn’t like it.

With a teasing smile and an airy giggle I snatched his hand up and pumped his arm vigorously.
After the fifth pump he finally managed to yank his hand free of my grip and glared at me for mocking him.
Edith found it funny at least and I THINK one of the men behind him smirked too.

Turning away from them all I rolled my shoulders and flexed my fingers to limber up.
I kinda miss being able to crack my joints already.. stretching myself out is a lot more fun when it comes with sound effects!

“Okay, let’s have a look at what the big nasty John did to you shall we?”

As always, since my second awakening, the Hub’s entrance looked like a rundown, partly-boarded up building with a blue glowing doorway.
Unlike usual there was some kind of thin veil curving around it with about a meter’s gap between them.

I walked around all sides of it looking for a hole or weakness but obviously I’m not THAT lucky.

With a fortifying breath I pushed some magic into my finger tip and reached out to touch the barrier.
From what I’ve heard so far it’s literally just stopping people, not doing any kind of violent counter-measures that I should be worried about, so that’s something at least.

The second my finger made contact with the barrier my senses lit up with basic information about it.
The influx stunned me a moment which slowed down my reactions just long enough that I watched my finger sink through the barrier up to my knuckle without seeming to actually hit anything solid!

Ignoring the messages my sense were giving me about the barrier I jerked my arm back and yelped in pain when my finger refused to move..
..crap..

Edith ambled over to me using her stick like a walking cane.
She leaned closer and stared intently at my finger for a moment before glancing at me and back again.

“Useless girl, not so useless for once? How’d ya be findin’ the barrier’s weak point so quickly?”

I stared at her for a heartbeat with an incredulous look on my face.
What’s she going on about?

The barrier’s right there!
It’s kind of hard to miss honestly.

“My fingers stuck..”
Let’s focus on the important thing here first shall we Edith?

“Pull it out then?.. People bin’ leaving the place all the time, its goin’ back in that be the problem.”

I huffed and leaned back to pull my finger out as hard as I could.
It didn’t budge in the slightest.

“I’m gonna kill you for this John..”

If Edith heard my mutter she didn’t react to it, she just seemed to be interested in the point on my finger where I was breaching the barrier.
She rose a gnarled old hand up and gently prodded my hand just below the knuckle.

“My finger.. is stuck.. Edith.”

She’s being unhelpful on purpose, I can tell.
She’s always like this when she’s not taking things seriously.

She glared at me for talking to her in such a sharp tone of voice but at least she’s listening now.

Cautiously she reached out to feel her way along my hand until she reached the barrier.
For a moment the thin veil flashed brightly in a green-y silver light before settling back down again a moment later when she took her hand off of it.

..crapppp..
Trust that insufferable bastard to put down some kind of one-way ward and code it to my magic!

Just to test the theory I pushed some magic along the lines to my finger and vented it out into the barrier.
My eyes wanted to squint down at the light-show that went off when I did it but this is the easiest way I have of understanding the spells involved.
It’s the same method I used to check the fake earrings from Sarah’s bag back at the temple.

It’s a lot easier on my eyes then magesight beca-
I’m such an idiot!

While it’s more of an afterthought to test what my normal technique is telling me at this point I still reached up with my free hand to flick the switching rune on my glasses over to magesight for my right lens.

Under magesight the results were even more obvious than before.
My stomach rolled with worry and a chill moved down my spine as I stared at the swirling mix of green and silver magic cycling around the barrier.

“This isn’t John’s magic.. oh crap.. this isn’t John’s magic!”
It took a lot for me to stop myself from hyperventilating.

Someone else is doing this?!
Someone else set up this barrier.. a barrier that lets people out but not back in.. one that will let ME in but not back out!

“BAD JUJU!”
Edith’s manic little voice rolled out across the empty street, louder than even my frantically beating heart.
Her JuJu stick came swinging down and struck the barrier straight on.

I watched with more than a little fear as the barrier flared in mixed shades of magic again.
The ripples rolled along the thin veil like a wave and seemed to focus on my finger to a worrying degree.

Suddenly, as if someone yanked the plug out of a bathtub, there was a tug that made me stagger forward heavily.
By the time I got my feet back under me it was kind of a moot point.

I’m up to my elbows in the barrier, one knee stuck tight at an awkward angle and some of my hair’s managed to sink into it just enough that it’s hard to turn my head without pulling on my scalp.

“DAMN IT EDITH! You and your BLOODY STICK!”
I could hear her grumbling something under her breath but I couldn’t turn to look at her properly.
After a long moment something wooden came up to gently rest against my cheek and pushed my face slightly closer to the barrier.
“..you wouldn’t dare..”

She huffed to herself and pushed the stick a little more into my cheek.

“Useless girl shouldn’t be shoutin’ at her elders.”
With those wise words she pushed me hard enough to send me staggering closer to the barrier, burying me into it up to my neck.

Honestly, there’s not much point left in trying to resist it.
Instead of making a spectacle of myself and possibly leaving my butt dangling out of the barrier for Edith to take a swing at with her JuJu stick I pushed myself fully through the barrier and stood in the tiny gap between the veil and the entranceway with a frown firmly on my face.

Well.. I guess I was going to come in eventually anyway, right?
It’s not like I had any other option really and even if this IS a trap I still need to go in and find John before he gets himself killed.. or worse.

I’m not sure what ‘worse’ would be in this situation but as I always say, there’s ALWAYS a worse!

“Edith, you’re a nasty, mean little Yoda clone and your stick looks like you found it on a compost heap.”
..well.. if I’m going to go into a near certain trap, I might as well be honest with the spiteful cow right?

Careful to not accidentally step through the entranceway I turned around to face everyone on the other side of the veil barrier.
Edith glare at me and twitched her stick as if she REALLY wanted to hit me with it but for once I’m completely safe from that annoyingly powerful twig.

The official suit wearing men are all looking at me like I’m crazy.
I’m sorry to admit that I won’t hold that against them, I can see where they might get that idea from at least.. especially if they're non-mages.

“You lot owe me some money!”
The main guy’s mouth dropped open and the men behind him flinched a little.
“I inspected it, I probed it and I got through it. You owe me twenty-thousand, you can leave it at Edith’s shop with Fena for me to pick up when you go to pay your rent there later.”

The main guy sputtered and waved his hand frantically at me.
I didn’t bother to resist the urge to smirk.

Rule one of economics, pay attention to the small print.

“You didn’t take down the barrier!”
He finally managed to get the words out past his tongue but I wasn’t impressed in the slightest.

“I never said I would, I said I’d ‘get through it’. I guess you’ll have to pay Edith to take it down for you after all, won’t you?”
I shot a grin over at Edith whose face shifted from anger at me to utter glee.
“Of course, seeing as I’m a registered awakened mage with more past-incarnations then pretty much anyone else on the planet and I couldn’t work out how to break the barrier.. I’d assume her fee will have to be scaled up equal to the difficulty represented by the task.. it’s only fair after all.”
Edith bounced on her little old lady fluffy-slippered toes and a shark-like smile crossed her lips.

“I be lettin’ ya off ya words this time useless girl. I be almost tempted ta’ make ya co-owner of tha’ shop for this.”

Despite myself I felt a little warm inside at that.
It’s not often Edith is that open with praise.. or forgiveness.. or whatever you want to call it?
As far as I’m concerned this is about as close as Edith ever gets to ‘praise’ so I’ll take what I can get!

“Ya be okay girl?”
If I didn’t know any better I’d swear she was actually worried about me.
“Be ‘memberin ya trainin’ an’ ya be fine.”

I smiled at her and nodded slightly.
Her tight little eyes squinted down at me while her lips twitched up in a returning smile.

Feeling immensely better about my situation because of her trust in my skills I spun on my heel and stepped through the entranceway before I could come back to my senses and remember how much of a stupid idea it is to walk head first into a trap that’s obviously set up with you in mind.

======

The lights in the reception area are flickering, which is REALLY not a good way to start this trip.

“JOHN! Get your stupid, stubborn ass out here NOW!”
My voice rolled around the room and echoed out down the hallways going off deeper into the Hub.

For a few seconds I waited, carefully listening to see if he would save me a lot of trouble and answer.
I’m not that lucky though.

“..damn it John..”

Rather than go wandering off into the Hub hallways like an idiot I made my way over to Felicia’s desk and searched around for some writing tools.
After tossing aside several piles of unfinished reports, a collection of nail files and at least four slightly mouldy coffee cups I managed to find her box of pencils.
Sitting next to it were several bottles of nail polish too.

It’s amazing the things you can find useful if you’re a master of runes!

“Okay.. what would..”
I scanned the desk again and saw what I was looking for.
Without really trying to protect the cups on top of it I grabbed Felicia’s serving tray from under them and flipped it over by the handles so they all crashed to the floor.

Luckily I’m not trying to be stealthy here.

The pencils won’t work on a plastic tray so I tossed them away and focused on the nail polish instead.
First things first, I’ll need an enlargement charm.
It’s pretty basic but it gets the job done, this time I’m compensating for the nail polish brush’s size rather than the size of the item I’m enchanting like I had to do for my glasses.

I could do this the easy way and use the same magic tracking rune-set I used to find the AMS office the other day but no-ones screaming or coating the walls in their own blood from John inflicted wounds so I can spare a minute or two to do it right instead.
Besides that magic tracking rune-set is distracting and takes a while to place.
It can also get confused easily if you’re trying to track a potentially moving target.

The magic tracking glyph is pretty basic honestly.
My one is customized, so it’s special and MINE.. but it’s still about as basic as you can get for a moderate level Glyph pattern of over twelve medium tier runes.

Last time I had my blood tipped fingers, a wall and people walking around me a lot.
This time I’ve got a brush, a nice big portable tray and a Hub practically to myself.

Slowly with even brush strokes I started the first curve of the core 'magic tracking' runes in a ruby red shade of polish.
Without even realizing it I started humming to myself as my nimble new fingers swished and flicked the nail polish onto the tray.

The 'tracking' rune fits nicely in the top left corner of the tray.
Hook it up to a variable filter on the bottom left near where my thumb will be, route it around to a 'location tracking' cluster in the top right corner and loop it all onto four little control clusters on the bottom right.

Now the fun bit!
Make a wide ring of ‘Tabula’ runes in the remaining space and cross hatch a net of ‘Orbis’ runes inside the ringed off area.

Connect the lines, add a ‘Storage’ and ‘Charging’ rune-set to the other side of the Tray along with a broadcasting cluster that I THINK is usually used in making waypoints, although in this case I’m using it to search for magic rather then throw it out into the world.
Cancel the enlargement charm and I’m done!

I carefully brought up my finger and used a reinforced nail to make a small cut on my other hand so I could drip a little blood on the Charging runes.
It never hurts to add blood to any kind of rune based enchantment.

With little more than a dip and a push I managed to pull a lines worth of magic out and drop it into the tray to set the runes while charging it all at the same time.
Flipping it back over I couldn’t resist grinning excitedly when the runes lit up with golden power.

The Tabula ‘map’ ring did its job, focused by the Orbis ‘world’ rune onto the local area and tracking to precisely where I’m currently standing with the location tracking cluster.

Hello interactive, magic tracking, filterable map device!

A little golden dot blinked at me from the center with a worryingly twisted network of hallways in front of it.
Some of the hallways seemed to cross over each other without actually meeting. Others seemed to just stop, only to start up again a few hallways over as if nothing happened.

“No wonder people get lost around here, the Fae realm is like the world’s most annoying labyrinth!”

I slipped my thumb up to the top left corner of the tray and focused on John’s magical signature.
I don’t even need a sample to know what his magic feels like, I’ve personally had it wrapped around or near me more than once in the last twenty-four hours and on top of that I’ve got several lifetimes worth of memories spent constantly on the lookout for his magic so I can escape him!

The runes finally picked up what I was trying to tell them and the map lit up with a new trail of red dot’s that matched the color of John’s magic whenever I’ve looked at it under magesight.
A grin blossomed on my face that made my cheeks hurt a bit.

“Got you now John. You’re not the only one who can track someone, idiot.”
With one more glance around the reception area I confidently went down the third hallway on the right, following my new map with a slight spring in my step.

When I reached the third junction, still following John’s trail, I came across a large burn mark on the wall that seems to have already started to fade.
I think John’s getting a bit annoyed with the Hub’s endless corridors already?
As angry as he seems to be, that’s probably not a good thing.

Hopefully he didn’t come across anyone while he was working his way through the halls.
He may not have much of a moral problem with hurting some nameless person just because they got in his way but I’ve kind of been getting used to him being relatively nice lately.

Killing innocents because it makes you feel better is kinda the complete opposite of that!

The more hallways I passed through the more slowly fading burn marks I could see everywhere but luckily there’s been no bodies so far.
If the maps to be believed he should be right ahead, one corridor over, inside one of the rooms on the left.

When I reached the right corridor it was pretty obvious which room he went into because the door had been blown off its hinges and the area around the opening was singed black from an out of control fire of some kind.
I cautiously made my way over to the room and quickly peered in before pulling myself tightly back against the wall.

Good thing I did because seconds later an arrow shot out of the room and slammed into the far wall right next to a tiny mark I’d completely missed within the rest of the destruction.

Careful to not move into the obvious trap’s line of sight I slide down the wall and leaned out far enough that I could see the edge of the fallen door.

Another trip into my lines, with four of them directed to my hand for the actual casting and one to my Kidneys for.. okay, don’t ask me why but apparently your kidneys in some way represent ‘Levitation’ according to your lines.
I know it doesn’t make sense but it’s MAGIC, I gave up on ‘sense’ when magic’s involved a LONG time ago!

With a jerk of my arm and a flick of my wrist the door rose up into the air and floated roughly where it would normally be mounted.
I slid out from the wall and settled behind the door instead.

With slow twitches of my hand the door slid forward like a walking barricade until it butted up against something bulky on the other side.
My right hand stayed in place to hold the door up but I moved the rest of my body around so I could peek out and see what I was dealing with.

When my first peek wasn’t met with a hail of arrows I chanced a second, longer one.

It looks like someone set up some kind of quick loading crossbow on a heavy metal mounting swivel.
For a moment my heart hammered when I saw the swivel but a closer look showed that the swivel joint itself appeared to be completely melted and fused solid so it couldn’t turn away from the doorway.

With that knowledge and a check of the room with my magesight lenses I felt safe enough to ease out and check the area behind the crossbow mount.

There’s a lot of fire damage?
No John obviously.. but there IS a small pool of blood near the corner, sliding down the wall as if someone hit that point and collapsed to the floor while wounded.
Most telling of all was a bloody arrow lying to the side as if thrown there carelessly after being removed.

“..damn it John.. you better be okay you asshole..”

It looks like the blood puddle is the ‘high concentration of John’s magic’ that my new map detected.
I guess this thing’s not perfect after all.

Hopefully he was smart enough to get the hell out of here after getting shot by an enchanted arrow.. people have had century’s to make arrows dangerous with magic, if we’re lucky it was just a simple arrow.. at worst though..
Well.. ‘flesh rotting’ curses are a thing after all?.. and blood spines that turn the iron in your blood to little, unbelievably thin slivers of metal which rip you apart from the inside.. slowly.

“Oh powers.. John you better be okay you stupid asshole!”

My eyes scanned around the room again, just so I didn’t have to focus on the blood puddle or the arrow.
They finally settled on a white piece of paper sitting folded over like a place holder at a restaurant and leaning against the back of the crossbow’s mounting.

..I swear that wasn’t there a second ago?..

I stared at it hard and even scanned it with my magesight lens but came up with nothing.
Finally I caved to the inevitable, walked over and picked it up to check what it said.

My Dear Arista.
So glad you could make it.
We simply MUST speak.. if you want your little lapdog to survive the night?

Leave any magical items behind and go for a walk through the halls.
It doesn’t matter where you go, I’ll find you.
Hope to see you soon.
Your friendly neighbourhood ‘Storyteller’

“oh crap..”

From somewhere deep within the Hub a sound built up that chilled my blood in my veins.
Laughter.
Masculine, maniacal laughter.

I know that laugh.
So full of joy but utterly broken at the same time!
“Storyteller..”

..crap.. crap, crap, crap, crap, CRAPPP!..

Sometimes you have to give in before you can win. Sometimes you just mess up and have to make the best of things. Sometimes you have to run. ..wonder which Hannah will do?.. Events unfold including but not limited to: John being the cause of all life's problems (according to Hannah) And Hannah gives Storyteller the cold shoulder.

 

What the hell do I DO?!
It’s not like I have many options..if my guess is right, the arrow that hit John is poisoned in some way?

The storyteller’s holding the cure over my head in exchange for me following his orders.

His demand that I come without magical items isn’t too bad at least.
It’s not like I have many on me or anything.
I kinda forgot my sandals at Felicia’s desk when I got caught up with the new map and the map itself isn’t exactly going to be useful in this situation anyway, is it?

“Crap”

I’m kinda stuck..
I can’t get out of here without giving away what I’m doing!
I can’t afford to wait around for help to turn up either if John’s really in danger?!

As much as I hate to play by his rules.. I kind of walked into this trap with my eyes open to start with didn’t I?
I just didn’t expect it to be the Storyteller of all people!

“Damn it.. damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!”

In frustration I kicked the wall which is a REALLY bad idea while barefoot!
I dropped down and cupped my toes carefully with one hand.

My magic seeped out just a little to stop the pain but it didn’t help with the frustration.

Instead of repeating my mistakes or wasting even more time I gave the map tray a satisfying kick across the room and made my way to the door.
When I came level with the crossbow on its mount I paused and glared at it.

It barely took any conscious thought to turn off my diversion, so I could dump a few lines worth of Ice magic into the stupid thing.
It froze solid in seconds.

After a moment considering it I slid a finger down to the partly melted support and dumped another few lines worth of magic into it, this time from a much more concentrated position.
The metal creaked loudly as the temperature dropped even further.

It barely took a gentle shove from me to smash the now brittle metal into pieces making the crossbow fall to the floor with a nice loud ‘thump’.
I probably shouldn’t have wasted so much time on that but it helped calm my magic down a bit and it was damn satisfying!

“..screw you and your toys Storyteller..”

He didn’t answer aside from his constant mocking laughter coming from outside but hopefully he’ll see it at some point and get an idea what I’m going to do to him when I finally get my hands on him!

“Let’s get this over with, if I deal with this asshole fast enough I can go find my asshole-friend John and save his bloody life from whatever was on the arrow he got shot with while trying to rampage through the Hub like a stupid asshole!”

I like the word ‘asshole’.. it makes me feel better if I get to call someone who’s annoyed me it at some point at least..

======

“Storrrytellllerrrr..”
He didn’t answer my taunting drawl.
“STORRRYYYTELLLEERRR..”
Still no answer.

“DAMN IT STORYTELLER! YOU told ME to come out into these halls!”

My eyes cut over to the nice pristine white walls of the hallway, the same pristine white walls that I’ve walked past far too many times in the last half an hour.
I’m almost tempted to kick something but I really can’t be bothered to go through the whole ‘healing my toes with magic’ thing again.

“I know your still here! You may have stopped laughing but you’re not the type of megalomaniacal asshole that could just leave in the middle of a plan. I’ve dealt with people like you for years on my missions, you’re NOTHING.. YOU HEAR ME?! YOU’RE NOTHING!”

For a long moment there was no answer.
I opened my mouth to let off another angry tirade at him, just because I could, but stopped short when his calm voice rang out from a corridor somewhere to my left.

“You very well may have met people like me on your ‘missions’.. my competitors do tend to make weak attempts at emulating my genius after all.”
My foot froze mid-stride.
“Oh come now Arista.. you can’t honestly think that I would have you running around doing such fun little tasks as ‘missions’ without gaining something from it?”

My teeth grit down hard to try and resist the urge to go running off after him.
That’s precisely what he wants.

This little pointless run around the Hub, followed by taunts.
He wants me angry.
He wants me SLOPPY!

Well tough luck Storyteller!

I’m not the same overly emotional, half-conscious little girl you had caged up last time.
John said it perfectly.
I’m still me!

I may have gone through an awakening.
I may have changed my magical affinity.
I may have changed my body and brain chemistry.. but I’m still what’s left of Alistor Cooper!

Alistor Cooper wouldn’t give this dickhead the time of day.
The guy’s a blatant narcissist!

He loves having my attention on him, that’s obvious from the way he behaved when I was stuck in the box.
It’s like he’s showing off and trying to win my approval by showing what a ‘clever boy’ he is!

Well SCREW IT!
I’m not some puppet following his commands.

Let him TRY and push my buttons!
I’m Hannah Cooper and I’m not afraid of him OR his overinflated ego!

“It’s a shame what happened to your little friend.. what was his name?.. Karl?.. Commissioned Sergeant Karl Nobbs, correct?”

My blood ran cold at the same moment that it boiled which is a really strange feeling and may have something to do with mixed signals coming from my body and my magic.

“Shut up..”
The bastard laughed an airy giggle.
“Shut the HELL up!”

“Such a bright young man, so much promise, such a bright future.. and then you got him involved in things far above his head.”
His voice was almost gleeful as he spoke.
He knows he’s hitting at the sorest spot possible and even worse he knows it’s working!

“SHUT. UP!”

My hands came up to cup over my ears childishly as if it would help drown out his words but it’s no good, in the utterly maddening silence of the Hub’s empty hallways my magical enhanced ears will still pick up every sound he makes with only minimal muffling to the volume thanks to my hands.

“I’ve been researching, it turns out that a partial awakening isn’t as uncommon as I’d believed.. a known result including a change in magical signature, the same magical signature that is used in tracking crystals to detect if someone is still alive..”

He sounds so smug!
My fists clenched down tightly to resist the urge to go running off after him and beat him senseless until he forgets how to speak!
Only one assholes allowed to sound THAT smug around me and he’s currently missing with a possibly lethal wound!

“Your actions make a lot more sense when residual memories of ‘Alistor’ are taken into account.. some of his actions make better sense too..”
Careful to keep an even pace I started walking down the corridor towards his voice, eyes scanning for traps and other tricks he might have laid out for me.
“Tell me, just out of curiosity, did you ever truly love him?.. or was turning him gay with your feminine wiles, bending him to your will and getting him brutally murdered before your eyes just a way to relieve some subconscious desire for your old favorite pastimes?”

A growl bubbled low in my chest and I saw red.
Throwing caution to the wind I sprinted around the corner to catch him by surprise.

NO-ONE TALKS ABOUT KARL THAT WAY!

He was standing mid-way down the corridor with a smug little grin on his face and madness twinkling in his eyes.
I didn’t hesitate to sprint at him.

My magic poured out of me instinctively making me faster, stronger.
I drew my arm back to deliver a devastating punch to his smug face, the kind of punch that managed to crack the solid stone walls of my decontamination chamber the last time we met.
Someone’s going to have a fun job cleaning what’s left of his head off the ceiling!

“SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH YOU BASTARD!”

With a push I leapt across the five meter gap remaining between us as if it was nothing, fist raised to strike.
At the last possible second the world went momentarily blue and my momentum just DIED.

He grinned at me and took one careful step forward into my personal space.
I struggled and thrashed but I couldn’t move.

“Please.. allow me.”
He gently slid his hand up the curve of my neck and pushed my hair aside, completely ignoring my thrashing as if it was inconsequential.
With a few taps at the arm of my glasses the world through my right lens dulled to an off white.. all but him with his horrible green-y silver magic and the blindingly bright blue ‘web’ of light anchoring my body to the walls, floor and ceiling with thick pulsing strands of magic!
“Rather ingenious, isn’t it? Sumerian spider trap, frightfully hard to set up and rather obvious under magesight.. but we both know you’re not comfortable with that particular skill, are you?”

With swift fingers he pulled my glasses off of my face and examined them curiously.

“I do like your style.. such extraordinary detail. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone turn a pair of glasses into a powerful artefact before, how utterly delightful!”
His wide crazy eyes turned up to me and he winked dramatically.
“I think I might keep them? I DID say to come without magical items after all.”

He slid the glasses onto his face and pushed them delicately up his annoyingly straight nose.

“Now.. I think it’s time we had that little chat I promised you Arista.. you’ve been a very naughty girl haven’t you?”
His voice was amused but his eyes still twinkled with malicious glee.

I tried to struggle once more without any form of progress.
With a deep calming breath I let my body go slack instead.
I’ll just tire myself out if I keep trying to fight it.

He’ll PAY for what he said.. but I can’t make him pay by acting like a stupid emotional rage machine, that’s what got me into this situation in the first place!

He played me perfectly.
I KNEW he was going to try it but he just pushed and pushed.. then he left such a perfect target for me to go after when my control was completely gone..
The moment his words about Karl left his mouth he’d already won this fight.

That doesn’t mean he’s going to win the war though!

“Keep the glasses, they help hide your ugly face a bit.”
I know it’s weak but I need to say something to get him talking again while I try to work a way out of this trap thing.

I’m not very good with Sumerian, it’s not really something within my comfort zone as a mage.
There must be something I can exploit in it.. some weakness.
Every spell has a weakness somewhere.
The hard part is just finding it!

“Oh come now Arista.. don’t be such a sore loser. You’re letting your ‘Alistor’ side show, always such an impatient and brutish young man that one..”
He seemed entirely too amused by that statement.

“Screw you!”

I pushed my magic to vent it out all at once in the form of Ice magic, hoping to catch him in the blast that was bound to happen.
Before it could do more than add a general layer of frost to my clothes and make my hair go a bit stiff the magic started focusing into specific points of my body.. the same points that this ‘spider’ trap is touching me!

As my magic poured into it the ‘web’ of the trap it seemed to hold me even tighter in its grip.
The bloody thing is draining my ambient magic to make itself stronger!

Where the HELL is everyone suddenly getting these enchantments from?!
Six YEARS I spent fighting bad mages and I never once came into contact with this sort of thing, in the last week everyone and his MUM has found some kind of trick to block magic!

“Been there.. done that.. I’ve had better honestly.”

My head turned slowly to stare at him in a wild mix of disgust and shock.
He DIDN’T just say what I think he said, did he?

“This ‘playing innocent’ game is getting old Arista. You of all people shouldn’t be surprised about this sort of thing, even if the Knights are right and your memories are incomplete.”

The ‘Knights’.. why does that feel familiar?..
The Handy man?.. he said something about Knights too!

“Arista de la Morte.. it’s ironic that the woman who’s responsible for more death on this planet than any other single being in existence is also the Mother of magic.. who will sleep with anything that moves.”

NO!
That’s not true!
I’m not.. I’ve never even.. I..

..deep breaths Hannah..

He’s just trying to get a rise out of me, he’s taunting me.
Just like last time he’s using my messed up memories surrounding most of Arista’s incarnations against me!

“Have you met any of your kids yet? The ones you had with Max alone should make for an interesting time, that’s not even counting the dramatic little ones you had with Orpheus.. or Heracles.. Odin.. Shango.. Atlas.. Hathor.. Sun-Wukong..”

A growl rolled out of my chest.
It only seemed to amuse him even more honestly.

“Nyankopon.. Kronos.. my, you certainly had fun with him didn’t you? God of Fertility indeed..”
He paced closer to me again and slid a gentle hand up my neck, so slowly that it made me shudder.
“Let’s face it Arista.. you’re the original damaged goods, if reincarnation didn’t usually come with a fresh new body you’d be a walking source for every sexually transmitted disease out there at this point.”

“SHUT UP!”
Before he could pull away from me I drew my spit together and sent a nice big loogie at him.
It landed with a satisfying splash on his slightly stunned face.

I got a nice warm sense of vindication as disgust spread across his aristocratic features waring with anger for dominance, I know it’s a childish response but screw him!
I’m not a slut no matter what he says!

“Just when I think you can be reasonable.. ‘Alistor’ has to show through again?”
He reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a handkerchief to delicately wipe away the spit.
“Maybe I should just reach into that brain of yours and get rid of him permanently.. it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve helped guide your destiny after all..”

..what?..

“Oh honestly! This new incarnation of yours is so.. plebeian..”
At my blank look he continued in his annoyed tone, moving away from me slightly to pace the hall instead.
“Did you never notice all those little blank spots in your memories? The emotions and situations that just didn’t quite add up, the things that you look back on and wonder ‘how did it all go so wrong suddenly’?”
He paused mid-stride, a small smile coming to his lips

..is he.. no?.. Gran said that Dad was wiping our memories?!..
He can’t be saying..

“Admittedly I didn’t realise that you would be the next incarnation of Arista, if anything I believed your sister would be the one up for THAT honor but one must always keep an eye on the potentially powerful and it wouldn’t do to leave your family unit so.. stable.”
He spat out the last word as if it was some kind of curse.
“I’ve had my eye on your branch for a long time now, the offspring of Christian and Louise who showed no talent in either direction.. and a child of the Oracle’s line that showed no talent for his family’s craft either.. how could I resist?”

His pace eased as he made one more pacing turn and his arms came up as if he was displaying me to a crowd.

“..and look at you now? I felt validated when you made yourself such a willing and useful asset, my long years of shaping your life.. making you distrust everyone, even yourself.. it all paid off tremendously.”
His grin turned sharp.
“An assassin of the highest order, with more power than anyone else in existence at his fingertips and skills to match.. one who would be unquestioningly loyal to my commands under the guise of the ‘Hub’ and ‘protecting his ‘precious’ sister’.”

My heart hammered in my chest.

That can’t be true?
Gran said that.. that she THOUGHT Dad was the one tampering with our memories..
She.. she thought..

..oh powers.. no..

“Imagine my joy when research and experimentation after our last meeting led to one undeniable conclusion.. my little anti-social toy, turned tool.. my Pawn.. had become a Queen!”
He sucked in a breath as if he could actually smell his success somehow.

“While your actions are often times perplexing, your value has gone up wondrously.. imagine.. little old me having the reigns to THE Mother of magic, to the ‘Great Arista’.. all it took was a few spoken words, just enough to tell you exactly what you needed to hear..”
His eyes sharpened and he focused on me with a sadistic smile on his face.
“Mother to us all you may be.. but what kind of mother could deny their child a few little treats?.. besides, your still more ‘Alistor’ then Arista at this point, aren’t you?”

I froze my subtle attempts to move against the ‘web’ and glared at him.
Up to this point I’ve been working with the idea that he’s at least partly delusional because he keeps calling me ‘Arista’ despite KNOWING that I used to be Alistor.. but that statement.. that’s not good!

“Don’t worry, if I know Arista.. and I DO.. that won’t last forever. One day you will wake up and she will have made her move to take back control. You may be resourceful with a lot of raw power and a surprisingly advanced skill at relic creation but your still just a vessel for her, no matter what you do the true Arista’s personality within you WILL be the more powerful.”

He stepped closer to me and ran a hand through my hair again almost lovingly.
I tried to resist him but it didn’t lead to much with my body held tightly by his trap.

“You’re a child trying to fight the world and you WILL lose little sister.. when you finally give in to the inevitable, every mage will celebrate the Mother of magic’s return while no-one will even remember your name.. Alistor Copper will be nothing more than a bad dream.”
He pulled back from me just so he could see the worry on my face.

He can’t be right!
He lied about so many things last time, why should I believe him now?!

Maybe.. maybe it’s because deep down he’s calling out to my deepest fears?..

He’s still playing with me!
He knew how to set me off when he talked about Karl.. now he’s tapping into my fear rather than my anger.
Either way he’s abusing my pain to get what he wants from me.

He wants me angry.. he wants me scared.. he wants me SLOPPY!
..and I’ve been playing right into his hands..

I’m not his little sister!
I’m not his ‘Mother’ Arista!

“My NAME is Hannah Cooper!”

The enjoyment on his face dropped completely into a mask of disgust.
The change was so fast that it didn’t truly look natural.

“Back to this again?.. you’re a fool.. you waste your true potential by lowering yourself to the level of a mere mortal.”
He glared at me and stuck his nose up as if he’d smelt something bad.
“You call yourself ‘Hannah’, you hide away in this dead-end town pretending to be ‘happy’, putting all your efforts into pandering to your useless sisters whims and trying to win the approval of your half-breed mother while always striving to be ‘normal’.. it’s disgusting!”

Seemingly without conscious effort he started pacing again.

I think I pissed him off a little?
Ohh.. this could be useful..

Come on Storyteller, show me what’s really going on in that head of yours tough guy!

“My name is Hannah, I love my family, I’m generally content with my life and magic tends to cause more problems than it helps fix honestly.”
The brand John gave me flared a little bit in warning at the ‘generally content’ remark but I managed to cover my wince well enough I think.

The minor flash of burn through my nerves was worth the look on the Storytellers face though.
He looked like I’d just tried to force feed him three month old roadkill!

“You are a STAR! A beacon that could lead us into the next great magical renaissance if you would only stand UP and be COUNTED!.. your potential.. you could shape the world to make it perfect, ready for the true Mother’s return and the rise of the Magical Elite!”

Ohh.. he’s talkative isn’t he?
I’d call him ‘racist’.. but is ‘magical’ really a race?

“Shan’t, can’t, won’t!”
I had to fight down the urge to grin when he twitched angrily.
Sarah’s voice at her most petulant, I’m glad I spent the time as a kid learning how to imitate it perfectly.
“Magic’s crap, mage’s are idiots and Arista’s a monster.”

The words spilled out of my mouth in an almost sing-song chant.
It’s rather fun to mouth off at enemies; the talkative ones never take teasing well, just look at Pre-new-John Max.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

He’s sputtering! his feet are stamping as he paces!
..this has potential to actually work?..

“You were right, I AM a vessel for this ‘Mother Arista’.. the true SLUT of the magical world.”
He tensed.
I could feel his magic rolling with white hot anger.
“How does it feel to know that your mother, the woman you idolise so deeply, is just a dirty whore who enjoys killing to make up for how disgusted she is at her WEAK and USELESS Children’s FAILURES!?”

He snapped.

In the blink of an eye he was in my face.
His cheeks almost purple with anger and his voice loud enough to make my ears ring.

“DON’T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT MOTHER LIKE THAT!”

It’s not fun when people poke at your sore spots is it Storyteller?
I know people like you!
In the short time we’ve had together I can see all your dirty little secrets unravelling like a poorly made jumper..

My voice dipped into a faux-comforting tone and my lips slipped into Sarah’s best pout.
Let’s really see what makes you tick shall we?

“Aww.. poor little Storyteller.. poor little ‘De Rais’.. Did Mommy never hug you? Did she ignore your constant attempts to win her praise?.. did she laugh when you tried to seduce her?”
I’ve seen a lot of people in my life and even more in my past lives.
I could be wrong but I KNOW that I’m not.

..someone’s got an Oedipus complex..

“When she wouldn’t smile at you, wouldn’t look at you as a good son.. you decided to make her see you as a man instead.. didn’t you?.. and the callous bitch laughed in your face, didn’t she?

He took too much joy in telling me that he’d ‘slept’ with a past version of me!
He didn’t include himself in the long list of ancient men that he claims have fathered children with Arista.. but I bet he wanted to!

“She chose your brothers over you, didn’t she?”
It was a wild guess mixed with an attempt to get at him but judging by the sharp breath he took in I hit some kind of nerve.. not quite right but..

..oh.. oh that’s too GOOD..

“She chose your SISTERS over you.. didn’t she? Mommy-dearest would rather chose a lesbian relationship with your sisters over touching yo-”
His fist came out of nowhere and rattled my teeth in my jaw.

He didn’t stop.
I don’t think he could stop at this point.
..why do the crafty ones always resort to violence?..

I focused on diverting the pain, shifting it into a corner of my mind and walling it off so I could think through it unhindered.

So much for the great and mysterious Storyteller!
The man who claims to have shaped my life from the start..
The man who claimed responsibility for all of my family’s memory problems and compulsion charms!
..and he had the utter gall to call ME a child?..

I think I’ve lost a tooth or two?
My jaw’s stiff and I think my nose is broken but he’s winding down, he’s calming down..

..we can’t have that can we?..

“I may not have all of her memories.. but I do have one specific one very clearly.”
It was really hard to get the words out.
I had to spit a few times to clear the blood from my mouth and the punches he was trying to keep throwing into my stomach made my tone of voice uneven at the same time.

“I remember that you were an accident! Arista’s first thoughts upon finding out that she was pregnant with you were ‘oh no.. another pointless little weak BRAT to follow me around’.. your sister’s on the other hand.. oh she was happy about them at least..”

It’s utter bullshit.
I’m making it all up off the top of my head because he’s shown me EXACTLY what he needs to hear!

If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, blind them with bullshit!

“SHUT UP!”
He swung at my face again.

Without feeling the pain associated with it the whole thing seems so much funnier!

Who’s shouting and out of control NOW, huh?!
Who’s lost their cool because someone else is bringing all their worst fears and hated facts out into the open!

You may have got the upper hand on me before Storyteller but you. are. NOTHING!
His fist swung for my already broken nose again and I made my move.

My magic rolled eagerly up to my cheek and as I turned my head into his punch I let it loose.

For one glorious moment all that could be heard in the corridor was the dripping of my blood and the crackling of ice.. then he started screaming.

I just dumped a worryingly large amount of ice magic directly into his fist!
Before he’d even pulled away from my cheek in shock the ice had turned his hand into a solid block.
I watched gleefully as it spread up his arm, pulling his body awkwardly to the side as the ice grew bigger and heavier.

I’ve never enjoyed someone’s screaming so much in my life!

Screw you Storyteller!
I’m no-ones toy, or tool!
I’m not a mother, I’m not some savoir and I’m NOT Arista!

I’m Hannah Cooper!
Ice Mage, Rune Mistress to beat all others, former man and currently a big bloody mess!

I’ve had showers scarier then you, you gutless asshole!

“Might want to do.. something before that ice.. hits your heart, flash-frozen to death from the inside.. is REALLY.. not a nice way to go.. trust me on that one.”
The words where hard to get out but completely worth the effort.
To his credit he tried to gather himself back together and put up some kind of defence from it but the ice was already past his elbow and approaching his shoulder.

He’s panicking now!
His first instinct was to flush his body with fire magic, I can tell by the flickers of flame around his free hand, but that’s not going to work.

John may have some crazy ideas about how magic really works but he was right on one thing.
Magic is about power and force of will, when you strip away all the important complicated bits.

He’s not on my LEVEL power wise and it’s going to take more than a half-panicked reaction to stop MY determination to HURT him!

The ice finally hit his shoulder and he gave up all the clever plans he was formulating.

My ice is spreading too fast for any of that.
I learnt a LONG time ago that the biggest mistake an enemy can do is give me the most powerful resource I’ll ever need.. time to think of a plan!

“What are you going to do now sweetie? I’d tell you to run home crying to mommy but.. oh yeah, that’s me isn’t it?.. and I can’t stand the SIGHT of you!”

His breath was ragged.
He wouldn’t look at me and he barely reacted to my jibe but any distraction I can offer is useful at this point.. plus it makes me feel better and I REFUSE to apologise for that fact!

The ice passed just over his shoulder joint when he finally made his last ditch attempt for freedom.
His unfrozen hand went into the pocket of his jacket and he gripped something tightly.

A moment later there was a bright flash of light followed by the sound of a rather large chunk of ice with a mostly frozen but still squishy center falling heavily to the floor where it preceded to shatter into pieces.

“..bastard..”
He must have had some kind of backup escape plan in place.
Probably something like the enchantment on my old USMPA badge that got Sarah safely out of Dante’s cage.

My eyes drifted down to the mess on the floor.
I’ve lost a lot of blood apparently, that must be why my head feels so weird?

I couldn’t resist the giggle that came out when my eyes finally focused on a single pinky finger laying slightly to the side of the rest of the mess, freed when the ice around it shattered.
My magic saturated his arm when it froze it.. just like with normal warp, if you’re too saturated with the wrong type of shaped magic you start leaving body parts behind.

I didn’t plan that bit but BOY is it satisfying to see!
The Storyteller may not be harmless by any degree but he’s definitely ‘armless’ now.

..that’s such a bad pun..
But I don’t care!

I may not have gotten out of it unharmed and everything pretty much SUCKS at this point, he got away again too.. but at least I got some revenge for everything he’s put me through!
I hope he SUCKS at healing and he dies of blood loss in whatever place he’s gone off to hide in!

With a wince I spat out a thick glob of blood onto what’s left of his frozen arm.
“See if you touch me again.. asshole..”

With what little strength I had left I rolled my blood magic around my body to stop the vital fluid from pouring out of me at least, with this trap draining anything I push out of my body I can’t exactly do my normal golden healing trick to finish the job.

I tried anyway and managed to do some superficial repairs but not nearly enough.
It took a lot out of me too.

Everything took on a worrying haze and my head drooped as much as it could to sort of rest my chin on my chest.

..bloody Storyteller..
The least he could have done is let me down before he left!
I’m so tired.. just.. just a little nap?

It shouldn’t hurt.. nothing wrong with naps.. naps are nice..

======

My head jerked up at the frantic sounding little squeaks around me.
It took me a moment to realise that out of the mass of sounds there was one extra voice coming at a slight delay in my head.

‘Do-not touch-her. She-lives and protecting-her as-she heals is-all we-can-do at-the-moment.’

“..Felix?..”
All the little squeaks died out as I practically groaned the name out.

‘I-am-here my-bonded. You-are-safe. Rest. You’re-friends are-coming for-you-soon.’
His little second voice didn’t sound any more convinced than his first incomprehensible one of that fact but it didn’t matter.

Felix is here.
He came to protect me again.
He’s protecting me.. I..

“-love you Felix..”
My head lolled to the side slightly.
I can’t even bring myself to open my eyes.
Everything feels so heavy!

Maybe just another few minutes.. I..

======

I woke up with a disgusting snort as a wad of congealed blood decided to make the trip from my nose to my throat and almost choke me.
It hurt to cough but I did it anyway.
It hurt to breathe honestly but at least the cough let me do that vital task again!

‘are-you-okay my-bonded?’

Felix.. Felix, it just had to be Felix!
How did he know I needed help?
..not that he can do much..

If only I coul-

..I must be worse off than I thought?..
I swear I’m not normally this slow to think things through!

“Felix..”
His name came out of my mouth as a rasping groan.
I could feel the air move painfully across my exposed skin as he flapped to come up to eye level with me but I didn’t open my eyes to check on him.

Everything hurts.

“Felix, can you do.. me a favor buddy?”
He didn’t respond but I could feel his worry from here and he moved a bit closer to me anyway.

“Can you get some.. Imps together an-”
My words trailed off into a painful coughing fit but when it cleared I continued slowly.
“Can you all drain the magic from.. the trap holding me up?”

There was a long moment of silence then the area around me burst into loud squeaky arguments in the imp language.
It was hard to focus but it felt like Felix was angry at himself for some reason.
He kept shouting things about ‘idiots’ and complaining that he didn’t think of it sooner.

A lot of flapping around me made me cringe.
My skin’s so sensitive to all the air movements!
I must be one big bruise at this point.

Without warning the ‘spider trap’ holding me suspended in the middle of the corridor died out.
I braced for impact as best I could but a scream of pain still left my lips when I landed badly on a probably broken rib.. or two.

Through the haze of pain I could hear Felix shouting and FEEL his anger but with all my strength I focused on my inner-eye instead.

My magic obviously hasn’t liked being contained for so long.
I barely came near my core before all the built up excess magic in my body surged forth.

I didn’t resist, for once.
The magic peaked and I exploded.

The pain was gone in seconds.
My body was wondrously numb and I sighed happily for the long moment that my relief lasted before my mouth split into a wide grin and a laugh bubbled out of me.

In the space of a heartbeat my brain was swamped in a tidal wave of giddy, euphoric joy.
It didn’t make sense, it wasn’t natural but I didn’t bother resisting.
It’s so much nicer to just ride the tide and enjoy it!

It’s so nice.. it’s so good.

Everything’s good.
Everything’s SO goo-

======

“She be awake.”
I groaned and tried to pull my mind back together at the sound.

I’ve heard stories of ‘mind-numbingly’ good sex before but my diversion probably puts that stuff to shame.. it feels like I’ve just spent a solid week with nothing but constant orgasm’s for company!
My body is just LIMP, it feels like I can’t move anything in the slightest.

I couldn’t think before.. I’m awake now but my brains taking ages to reboot for some reason?
“Felix?”

I flinched a little when something bashed down hard into the floor near my ear.
My eyelids twitched in an attempt to open but they failed miserably.

“Useless girl be thinkin’ or dreamin’? Get right on ya lines girl, I not be havin’ all day!”

Not Felix.
Edith.. the OTHER little midget demon-looking being in my life!

The one who hasn’t saved me AND isn’t cute OR huggable.
..figures.. I could have done with a Felix-cuddle right about now..

“Edith I swear to the powers if you hit me with your stick I’m gonna turn you into an ice sculpture.”

She grumbled to herself and shuffled her fluffy slippers on the floor a little.
I think she was really going to do it too?.. there’s something seriously wrong with her sometimes..

“Useless girl be learnin’ new tricks with ice?.. very messy, I shouldn’t be havin’ left ya with it ta start with, far too dangerous in young ‘ands.”

I heaved in a rough laughing breath which thankfully didn’t hurt my chest at least.
Edith..

I’m suffering and she’s complaining that she left me the ability to defend myself, which I KNOW she did on purpose?!

Sometimes I just want to strangle her but I know why she’s doing it.. she’s worried and uncomfortable.
When she’s like that she tends to lash out a lot over stupid things, she did the same thing when I turned up at the shop after being presumed dead.
She’ll calm down eventually.

She always calms down eventually.

Someone scooped an arm under my legs and back pulling me up into the air, tight against their rather large, squishy chest.
I managed to peak an eye open enough to get a general idea about who did it.

Trudy..

I’m safe?
I survived another meeting with the Storyteller and actually got a few hits in of my own too!

Felix watched over me.
I’m safe.
Everything’s g-

JOHN!

With a surge of adrenaline came some clarity.
My body twitched and twisted enough to make Trudy stumble.
I slipped out of her grip, landing awkwardly on weak legs.
My body slid to the side quickly, leaving me half collapsed against the wall.

I don’t have TIME for this!

John’s hurt!
He’s in danger!

I need to.. I need to..
Crap.. I need to FIND him first!

“Damn it John.”
The map won’t work.
It’s not got a wide enough range to just find him randomly SOMEWHERE on earth.

When I ran away to safety I ended up in Northern RUSSIA!
His bolt-hole could be ANYWHERE.. if he even went to a bolt-hole to start with!

I need.. how can I.. I..
THE BRAND!

John found me by following the Brand last time.
That’s the whole POINT of the bloody thing!
I just need to find the link between our cores and follow it!

Trudy gently tried to stop me moving again but I shook her arms off quickly.

I need to focus!
John.. he’s an asshole but he’s my FRIEND.
He’d do the same for me. Hell, he DID the same for me already!

People were talking but I blocked it out in favor of dropping into my lines with my inner-eye and starting the search.

It shouldn’t be hard to find.
Just need to find a string of magic going out of my body in a sea of moving, twitching magic inside me that’s.. all the same color..
..crap..

Okay.. I can do this!
It CAN’T be that hard, John managed it after all.

A quick scour around my body made it obvious that the brand on my lower back is where the line between us is formed externally but I’ll never manage to follow it across long distance if I can’t start from my core.

Stupid magic and symbols!
It would be so much easier if I could just follow the thread but it dissipates quickly to my senses when it hits open air.
The only way this is going to work is if I can find the strand internally, close to my core and try to find where it ‘tugs’ towards as I move.

Come on Hannah, you can do this!

It took me a few failed attempts but I finally got a handle on the strand of magic, following it through my body, back to my core.
Well.. close enough at least.

For some reason it moved behind my core, out of sight from my inner-eye?
When I tried to ‘look’ around my core to see where it’s going the strand just seems to move with me, always staying hidden behind it.

That’s REALLY weird but not important right now, I’ve got the strand locked in, I’ll be able to find it from now on hopefully.

Now to test it!

Keeping half an ‘eye’ on that single thread of magic I paced forward a few steps.
While the strand pulled tight there wasn’t much help to be gained from it annoyingly?

When that method didn’t seem to do anything useful I turned on the spot slowly.
This time the strand seemed to go tense whenever I turned outside of a roughly ninety degree area facing down the hallway.

That’s a bit better.
I can work with that.

All I need now is a Map and a bit of creative warping!

“Useless girl be possessed! I be hittin’ her with me JuJu stick, be sortin’ all out!”
My eyes flew open wide to stare at the strange sight of Trudy trying to hold Edith back from coming near me while her stick waved around threateningly in my general direction.

..oh yeah..
I guess I should probably sort things out here first shouldn’t I?

“I’m not possessed Edith. I’m trying to find John, he’s injured and ran off somewhere.”
The JuJu stick stopped waving almost instantly and Edith’s sharp little eyes focused on me with unsettling solemnity.

With the way she behaves sometimes it’s easy to forget that she’s a powerful un-awakened mage, a practically ancient one at that!

I’m still kind of curious to find out just how much of the things she does are all an act for her own amusement honestly?
Judging by the suddenly serious look on her face I think the answer is probably in the ‘more then I think, but less then I’d hope’ area sadly.

“What useless girl be needin’?”

That’s it?!
..No questions?
..No snarky little grumbles?

If she wasn’t so distinctly EDITH I’d suspect she was someone else impersonating her!

“Don’t be lookin’ at me like tha’ girl. Ya friend be a right’un, not a good’un but a right’un. You find him fast, be healin’ him up as should.”
Oh.. that’s surprisingly sentimental of her?

I didn’t think she even knew John, but I guess seeing that he seems to know Fena and everything..?

“uh.. o-kay then..?.. I need a map, a pen and someone to lead me out of the Hub until I can walk properly I guess?”

My legs are working which is a good thing but they’re in no way stable enough to support me through the maze of hallways in the Hub on my own yet.
Knowing my luck I’d end up lost for so long that John would d-

NO!
Don’t be stupid, he’s not gonna die!

He’s John for powers sake!
The slippery little bastard could survive a nuke with only dusty clothes to show for it!

Trudy came over to my side and offered me an arm.
My eyes cut over to Edith who seems to be already invested in shouting at the Hub staff around us for some reason?
I think she’s trying to get me a map from one of them but who knows, she could just feel like yelling at the ‘fae pets’ a bit.

“I’ll lead you to the reception area Hannah. I’m sure Edith will be able to find us when she’s finished.”
Reluctantly I took her arm and stumbled along as she waved goodbye to Edith for me.
The little troll waved her stick in our general direction before turning back to the poor Hub staff she was busy tormenting on my behalf.

“Scary little gremlin..”
I don’t think Trudy intended for me to hear that judging by the face she pulled when I laughed.

“She’s scary and insane but ya gotta love her, at least she’s honest about herself.”
A little smile came to Trudy’s lips as we kept moving down the hallway.

I like Edith, while she’s often a hard person to defend she DOES deserve defending.
Only her friends get to talk about how twisted she is and even then it’s only to her face!

“She’s your mentor, isn’t she?”
My head perked up to glance at Trudy.
“I haven’t known you long honey but it’s pretty obvious you adore her, quirks and all.”

I couldn’t help the flush that reached my cheeks.
Trudy just seemed amused by that fact.

“You’ve got a cute blush going there Hannah, nothing to be embarrassed about. I’ve known Edith for a while and I’ve honestly never seen her happier then when she’s talking with you.”
She shifted her arm slightly into more of a ‘hug’ and squeezed me a little bit.

I tried to not be obvious about it but there’s no denying that a smile ghosted across my lips.
After all these years it’s nice to know Edith doesn’t just see me as some kind of charity case or something.

Fena’s my friend and the shop’s the shop but Edith.. Edith’s EDITH, ya know?

“If we get there quick enough do you want to put some prank spells on that bitchy receptionist’s desk?”
For a moment I hesitated at the idea of it but that didn’t last long.
It’s honestly starting to get on my nerves the way Felicia keep’s acting so scared of me.

I get people have problems with ‘Arista’ but she’s never been scared of someone so blatantly before and she KNOWS that I know Sarah at least, seeing as she was working when we came in as ‘Team Tomb-raider’ for decontamination?
Hell, she wasn’t afraid of me when I was physically Alistor and some of the crap I did back then scares even ME!

“Sure, I’ve got a few ideas. Felicia could use a reminder to chill out a little..”

A devious little smirk played across my lips for a second.
I wonder if I can put a time and pressure triggered runic trap on the bottom of her seat to give her a cold butt with a tiny burst of ice magic?
I’ve always wanted to try that one on someone!

Trudy took one look at my face and cracked up laughing.

I can’t blame her.
I practiced looking ‘devious’ in the mirror with this pudgy new face the other day an..

I was bored and curious okay?!

It didn’t work anyway, the look tends to come across more ‘naughty little girl’ then the ‘evil but playful’ that I was going for.

======

We managed three good rune pranks between us before people started coming into the reception again.
The pranks should be good for a few weeks at least before they run out of charge.

Trudy had a really interesting extra trigger she added to them which detects whoever is sitting at the desks emotions through their magic, looking specifically for ‘amusement’.
I didn’t even know that was POSSIBLE with runes but apparently it is, she promised to show me the book she got it from at some point.
It should mean that the pranks only trigger when Felicia’s amused about something mean she’s done to someone else!

Any guilt I may have developed about putting the pranks in place was pretty much countered by that trigger.
I’ve told Felicia SO many times to stop being mean to people but she never listens!

The second group of people to come out of the halls was followed by a slightly slower Edith grumbling to herself.
It looks like she managed to get a map from somewhere, somehow, although it’s only A3 sized and looks like it was magically copied from a book of some kind in a hurry.

“Map”
She slapped the paper onto the receptionist’s desk while her free hand left her JuJu stick to stand upright on its own, probably with magic, and started searching in her baggy old dress.
“Pen”
She managed to find a red ‘biro’ from somewhere in her dress and added it to the pile on the desk.
“Compass”
She practically pulled that one from nowhere but didn’t seem done yet.
“Ruler”

She finally stopped patting herself down and fixed me with her tight little glare.
Her eyes scanned the reception area just long enough for her to huff in annoyance.

Instead of saying something to me she turned to shoot Trudy a warning look.
“Ya no be teachin’ her bad things lil’ T’udy. Useless girl get too many funny idea’s as is.”

..T’udy?..

When I turned to fix Trudy with a curious eyebrow she cringed self-consciously.
Why do I get the feeling that when Trudy said she’s known Edith for ‘a while’ she may have meant something more like ‘since I was a little kid’?

“Bah! I be goin’ back to the shop. Fae pet’s gettin’ on me nerves. You go savin’ ya friend girl, we be keepin’ ya pay safe till ya back.. minus you’re tab ‘course.”

My smile soured a little at the idea of her taking some of the cash I tricked out of the Hub guy to pay off my tab in the shop but I guess I had to get around to paying that off SOMETIME..

I should probably get on to changing my accounts so I can access them again too now that I think of it?

Most mages keep their money either in private hiding places or in banks which require only key’s and code words to access their contents, it tends to be a lot simpler if you awaken after a few years of being ‘dead’ and have to get access even though you’re new ‘family’ isn’t even close to being related with your old one.

Me being me, I didn’t see the point of it all when I was Al.
I left a will leaving everything to Sarah or failing that mum and washed my hands of the whole thing.

It’s kind of annoying that common lore mage logic turned out to be right for once to be honest!

We both stood there watching Edith stomp her little old legs out of the Hub’s front entrance with fond smiles.

It may have been my imagination but I think she shot me one last glance before she disappeared into the outside world?
Either way I huffed in a breath and started gathering up the things she left behind for me along with my almost forgotten sandals.

“So.. little T’udy, huh?”

Trudy glared at the Hub’s entrance for a second as if she could still see Edith through it.
Reluctantly her eyes finally turned back to me and her cheeks flushed a little.

“Don’t start ‘useless girl’.”
Ah.. touché..

We both smiled a little and silently agreed to let the whole thing drop.
Edith’s Edith after all, at the end of the day she wouldn’t be herself if she didn’t have annoying nicknames for everyone.

“Right I’m off, wish me luck? I’m going John hunting. I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be like chasing bug’s bunny down a rabbit hole but with a lot less sarcastic humor..”

Trudy snorted a little laugh and waved me off with another warm smile.

I managed to step through the entranceway into the mid-morning sunlight falling over Klamath Falls with my arms full before I gave up trying to keep it all balanced and carefully dropped it to the floor.
I HATE carrying things!

With a surreptitious look around to make sure the coast was clear I dipped into my lines and fed some power into my pancreas.

Like with the whole ‘kidneys for levitation’ thing, I don’t know WHY it’s like this but your pancreas is good for conjuring with internal magic?
Who cares, magic’s just stupid sometimes let’s leave it at that!

After a second to concentrate I felt a light weight settle into my hand and let out a sigh.
With as much dignity as possible I stuffed the map, pen, ruler and compass into the little shoulder bag I’d formed from magic and my will.

I refuse to call it what it is.
It’s a bag, not a purse!

Definitely not the purse I caught myself looking at thoughtfully when I was shopping with Mum and Sarah at the department store earlier this week.. and DEFINITELY not the same purse I kind of thought would have suited my whole ‘bikini and short-shorts’ outfit when I checked it out in the mirror yesterday!

It’s just a bag!

I need it to hold the map while I’m hunting for John.
The long straps good because it won’t get in the way if I have to cast something on the fly and the cute little gold clasp, that goes perfectly with the black leather of it all, sets off my hair..

uh.. I mean it could be used to..
damn it.. can’t even lie right in my own head!..

This is all YOUR fault John!

I don’t know HOW it’s all his fault, but it IS and he’d better be fine when I find him so I can beat him up for making me suffer such indignities!

“Might as well be productive about this..”
I need some reference points that are far enough apart to give me a good trace on his location before I can narrow it down properly.

Can’t start here, he lives local so my readings might get thrown off by residual magic he’s left behind.

..I needed to go into Medford to pick up my phone from the mailbox at some point anyway?
Who knows, it might be useful at some point, it usually is..

Well.. Medford here I come.. I guess?
I’m blaming this on John too by the way.

I can’t STAND Medford on a GOOD day!

You can make a family business out of anything you know? ‘Family business’ can mean many things though, most of them annoying usually.. Events unfold including but not limited to: John being weighed in value and importance against food. (which is completely understandable, it’s good food) And Hannah reluctantly opens the door on Arista’s life, while finding out more about her ‘kids’ then she could ever want to know.

 

It took me a few minutes walking barefoot on the sidewalk until I was in a nice hidden wooded area on the other side of the interstate.
Not that I’m paranoid or anything but with the Klamath Falls waypoint beacon down I don’t particularly fancy trying to find somewhere mildly isolated within the motel near the Hub to warp from.

I sunk into my mage senses and searched around for the ‘taste’ of Medford.

If you’re going to travel long distances as a mage you have to start cataloguing waypoints in your head.
I’ve had Medford memorised since I was eighteen luckily, strong cheese, sour cream and chives.. not the most appetising of ‘flavors’ but then again it’s not the most appetising of cities honestly.
While Medford’s definitely bigger then Klamath Falls, the general consensus here is that it’s full of ‘big city’ folk with more money than sense.
Ashland is a bit better, certainly cheaper at least.

I’ve been to big cities, Medford’s not even up to Portland’s standards in size or scale truth be told but it’s still not my favourite place in the world because it FEELS so ‘big city’.
I’ve heard they have nice art exhibits.. apparently.. that’s something I guess?

I only go there for my dead drop post-box.
That’s kind of why I set it up there honestly, it’s not like I’d be in the area for any other reason normally so it helps hide its location rather well within my usual travel patterns.

The beacon for Medford pulsed slightly to signal that it was clear for an incoming warp so I dipped into my lines, activated warp and let the beacon take me.
It feels REALLY weird the first time you warp by beacon, it’s bad enough turning yourself into a cloud of sentient atoms in a bubble of magic then flinging yourself off into the distance, it’s even worse doing it when you’re not the one in control of where you’re going.
Although.. I kind of prefer waypoint warping over normal warping these days?

It’s safer for a start, and a lot easier on my stomach.
I’ve never been one for travel of any sort aside from my feet or possibly the Icarus wings spell but warping the ‘normal’ way just does something to my stomach, it’s like motion sickness but a thousand times worse!

The vague blue haze of warp came to a jarring halt and like EVERY damn time I do this I collapsed to my knees.
The guy manning the waypoint didn’t try to rush me off to make way for someone else at least.

When my stomach finally settled down a bit I glanced around to get my bearing in the dingy little waypoint room.
Medford doesn’t have its own Hub, they share the one about thirty miles up the Pacific Highway in Grants Pass, I always found it amusing that the ‘rich folk’ in Medford didn’t get one of their own but we did.
..teach them to call our town ‘K-Falls’.. it sounds so bloody STUPID!..

Sorry.. I may have some issues with people from Medford.
To be fair THEY started it!

We were shopping at Medfords local ‘mall’ when we were kids, the imaginatively named ‘Medford Center’ and I kind of got separated from Mum and Sarah.
A group of old busy-body ladies found me and took me to the security office, which I was ALREADY going to!
They treated me like I was an idiot, talking to me in that annoying baby voice adults do to little kids for AGES before Mum showed up.

To top it all off they tried to tell Mum off for not keeping an eye on me properly!
The moment they saw Sarah’s little ‘Klamath Falls Pelicans’ backpack that dad got her they all turned on the smiles and played nice suddenly.
It wasn’t until we were walking off that one of them muttered about ‘those poor girls, having to live in K-Falls with all the trailer trash’ while another one said something about ‘no wonder the mother’s such a mess’..

Logically I know that was just one incident with a bitchy group of old lady’s in a mall and if I wasn’t an un-awakened mage at the time I probably wouldn’t have even heard what they said, I probably would have come away from it all thinking how annoyingly nice and helpful they were.. but I AM a mage and I don’t CARE about logic.

Medford sucks and little old ladies are mean!

Anyway.. I’m getting lost in thought again.
The waypoint guard’s been surprisingly nice about it all?
He doesn’t seem at all bothered that I’ve just been standing here staring into space for who-knows-how-long..

..oh..

My eyes tightened into a glare and I cupped arms around my exposed belly defensively.
Bloody pervert!

With quick steps I was out of the waypoint room without a backwards glance and weaving my way through the back hallways of the Medford Center’s ‘Sears’ department store.
I swear whoever thought to set up a waypoint in a disused back corridor of a big public shop was an idiot!
The population of mages in Medford is probably even lower than the tiny amount of us in Klamath Falls BECAUSE of where they put this waypoint.

Mages aren’t exactly known for being subtle!
Most of the ‘traditionalists’ in their robes and hooded cloaks would stick out like a sore thumb in the Medford shopping district, that’s not even going into the Furrys!

Can you IMAGINE the chaos that would happen around here if a seven foot tall human/animal hybrid decided to chance a daylight trip home through Medford’s Sears store?!
There’s a REASON those people tend to live, work and socialise within the Hub!

It’s not that I have anything against them or their lifestyle choices of course.

To each their own and everything.. I passed a rather gorgeous looking Fox-man in the Hub’s hallways once when Sarah first brought me in for an induction.. his fur.. let’s just say that I can kind of see the attraction of having a boyfriend AND a pet all in one soft, furry tailed bundle.
..let’s also never bring that up in conversation again please?..

The point still stands that putting the waypoint for a wannabe mini-city of Medford’s size in the back of a major department store is STUPID!
..stupid Medford people..

As I passed by one of the aisles on my way outside a pair of middle-aged woman inspecting some rather dated looking flower-patterned black dresses sneered at me.

Message received loud and clear!
Turns out short girls in short-shorts, bikini tops, bare-feet and long hair platted with flowers aren’t welcome in Medford.. big surprise?
Well screw them!

I’m busy!
I don’t have time to go clothes shopping.
I need to get to my post box, get my phone and get a trace on John mapped out before I move on!

What the hell are they doing shopping this early in the morning on a Sunday anyway?
Bloody nosey housewives!

The only concession I made on my way out was to pause at the front doors of Sears and pull my sandals out of my bag.
A wave of my hand cancelled the lingering ‘velox ped’ spell on them so I could drop them to the floor and slip my feet into them.

I may not be THAT self-conscious or anything but have you ever looked at the streets in a city?
I don’t fancy getting my feet THAT dirty!
Who knows what the hell they could have on the streets of Medford?!
..disgusting fake-city..

I crossed the parking lot and took a right from the Sears front door, trying to ignore the second glances I kept getting as I walked along, mostly from men.
You’d think they’d never seen a girl with flowers in her hair before or something!

The smell of poorly cooked but still tasty food drifted out of the Red Robin Dinner on the corner.

I was kind of tempted to stop for a moment but I steeled my resolve and marched on to go under the flyover along East Jackson Street.
I know this route pretty well.. I should, I’ve taken it enough times over the years.

Along past the Taco Bell on the left and the small family run dinner on the right.
I swear the food gods are taunting me!
I’ve never noticed how many places there are to eat around here before?!

Finally I reached the Garage on the corner and swung a left onto North Central Avenue.
It’s only a few blocks up to the ‘Medford Mailbox’ where I have my dead drop set up from here.

Hopefully Frank’s working today, he usually is.

Frank’s a dick..
Well.. no.. he’s a nice guy, but he’s a dick too?
..is it even possible to be both a dick AND a nice guy at the same time?..

Okay.. he’s lazy, disinterested and kind of bad at his job?..
He’s also never asked questions when I’ve turned up as ‘Hannah’ to collect my mail in the past.

It was pretty obvious when he realised that ‘Hannah’ was just ‘Al’ with some makeup and a different outfit on but he didn’t even flinch about it even slightly.
It’s rare in life that I’ve found people that could just accept the whole dual nature of who I was as Al so easily without at least questioning it in some way.

He win’s points with me for knowing that I’m a mage but not making a big deal about it either.
I think he’s a mage too.. maybe..
If he is then he’s a weird one, but he seems to accept everything as just ‘normal’.

When I had to have a six foot tall Fertility statue held in the backroom of his store for a month until I was ready to use it he didn’t bat an eye before telling me that storage cost was calculated on weight, not size for foreign imports.

Don’t ask what the statue was for!

It’s a long story that may have started with a tentacle monster in Japan and ended with a literally, and metaphorically, ‘horny’ square-lipped Rhinoceros trying to find a mate before the next full moon in order to help purify the waters of a small African nation, which would counter a potentially lethal contaminant before it reached the main water supply and killed millions..

Hi, I’m Hannah, have you heard about my life yet?..
..that was sarcasm by the way.. in case you missed it..

So yes.. ANYWAY..
Frank takes ages to get things done, he’s a slob and a lazy prat.. BUT he’s a nice guy, ya know?

Cutting across the parking lot next to the ‘Medford Mailbox’ my feet almost took me on a wild detour when my nose picked up the smell of Chinese food coming from the ‘New Far East’ Restaurant on the other side of the lot.

Damn it!
I KNEW I should have eaten something earlier!

I just went through a life or death situation and used a fair bit of magic, of COURSE I’ve got the munchies.. I always used to get the munchies after missions.
It’s just one of those things, probably something adrenaline related or just ‘me being weird’ related.

I need to stay on track though!
John’s counting on me.

Reluctantly I turned my feet back towards the mailbox and walked in through their dingy little front door.

When my eyes got accustomed to the gloom inside I let out a sigh of relief.
Perched on his little stool behind the long ‘receiving’ desk, bag of chips in one hand and eyes fixed on the little portable TV under his desk that I think was originally meant to be for security but that he usually uses for watching Honeymooners re-runs, was Frank.
His crisp blue uniform shirt was open showing off a food-stained white vest and sizable beer gut.

“Frank!”

He jolted as if someone had electrocuted him, bag of chips going flying and his legs kicking up dangerously as if he was going to fall off his stool in surprise.
With wild eyes he turned to look at me and a moment later his eyes went somehow even wider.

I’ve never gotten THAT particular reaction before?

“Lady Arista?”
..ah.. crap..

Frank frantically started moving.
His hands fumbled to try and do up his uniform shirt while he ran a wide hand over his the desk to clear some of the spilled chips off of it before dipping down and turning off the TV in a surprisingly smooth, possibly practiced, motion.

He straightened himself up into something that may generously be called his version of ‘neat and tidy’, ran his hand through his thinning hair and offered me a nervous smile full of crooked teeth.

“How can I be of assistance today, Lady Arista?”

My breath came out in a slow, pained sigh.
Of course he knows who Arista is!
Of course he would react strangely the moment he saw me with this new soft face!

It’s just.. it’s just bloody TYPICAL, with the week I’ve had!

Next thing you know he’ll-
“I never believed my father when he told me about your founding boxes or their contents but your here and.. it’s an honor Ma’am!”
-he’ll be sucking up to me and saying I’ve got some long standing connection to his family..

I just HAD to jinx it, didn’t I?!

With a pained smile that was about as close as I’m likely to get to ‘pleasant’ at the moment I moved over to the desk properly and sighed again.
..let’s just get this over with..

“I’m here to collect my boxes along with any new items delivered for Alistor Cooper’s box as well.”

He hesitated.
I could see all the arguments going on in his head flash openly across his wide face.
He’s not in the business of giving others access to customers boxes but I’m ‘THE Arista’ apparently and I’m here to collect some mythical ‘boxes’ that have been in his family for what sounds like so long that it may even be linked with the start of their dealings in the ‘mailbox’ industry as a whole!

“I.. I can help you with that Ma’am, come into the back and I’ll get your space ready to move for you.”

He walk over to the little lift-up hatch in the side of the desk, with a few loud crunching noises as he obviously stepped on a few of his fallen chips, and flipped it over so I could come through.
He seemed to almost drop into a light bow as he waved me through.

..why do I get the feeling this is going to be a headache inducing five minutes all of a sudden?..

Damn Arista!
The woman got around if nothing else?..
Saving werewolves from captivity here, helping fledgling mailbox company’s there!

Next thing you know she’ll ha- NO!
I’m not chancing it again!

Learn from your mistakes Hannah!
If you tempt fate then it will personally come to kick you in your now non-existent balls!

That’s just how my life WORKS..

Oblivious to my inner monologue Frank turned from me and hitched his pants up a bit higher on his overflowing waist.
He led me through the back door and into a secure cage of metal built into the very foundations of the building to help protect its contents from theft.

His hands fumbled nervously with his key bundle as he unlocked the door and moved quickly inside, making a bee-line for a far corner that seemed to be full of clutter.
It took me a moment to realise that the ‘clutter’ was actually assorted mail packages in big mailbags stacked awkwardly against something.

Frank paused and laughed nervously to himself before grasping onto one of the mail bags on top of the pile and moving it to the side a bit.
When he moved the third bag it finally became clear that there was a doorway hidden behind all the clutter?

It seemed to be standing upright but obviously lead to nowhere.
Considering it wasn’t connected to any walls behind it or anything I’d assume as much at least?

He managed to reach above the mess and turned the doorknob letting the door creek open slowly.

Inside was.. a hell of a lot of paper?
The whole area was stuffed to the brim with letters and small packages!

Frank turned to me and grinned proudly as if he’d just done something awesome.
I stood there a little mystified for a moment before it clicked in my head what was going on.

How the HELL did Arista get THIS much mail?!
Even worse, the bitch left ME to deal with it!

“You’ve got to be kidding..”

Franks smile dimmed a little at my obvious lack of enthusiasm but he perked back up again and seemed to almost bounce on his toes like a worryingly large toddler in excitement a moment later.

“We’ve used the room you set up to hold everything for you as requested. When my Great-Grandfather emigrated to America my father was a little worried that you wouldn’t be able to find us again but Great-Grandfather was sure it wouldn’t be a problem for you and here you are!”
He grinned happily, seeming to gain back some more of his enthusiasm by the second.

My hand came up to the bridge of my nose and I squeezed it hard to hold off the headache I could feel forming.
I KNEW this was all going to lead to something stupid!

After mentally counting down from ten I opened my eyes and gave Frank my best fake smile.
He brightened again despite how obviously fake the smile was.

For a moment I had a wild flash of him being some kind of ‘giant pale imp’ that somehow found Joy from my smiles just like Felix and his friends do, but that thought was beaten to death efficiently for the sake of my sanity.
I DON’T need the mental image of a big red furry Frank thank-you-very-much!

“Can you fit the last of the bags into the room and shut the door for me, then step back from it all?”

His eyes went wide but he quickly got to work trying to shove the overfilled bags into the overfilled room with a surprising amount of success.
Eventually he managed to get them all inside and just about got the door shut behind them.

When he stepped back he almost slipped on a handful of letters that must have fallen out of one of the bags.
He looked like he wanted to cry when his eyes cut back over to the door, probably trying to imagine how he was going to open it up again to fit them inside.

To save him the trouble I scooped down and picked them up, sliding them into my bag and fixing him with another smile.
He sighed in relief but smiled back at me a moment later.

After a seconds pause he realised what I was waiting for and took a few steps away from the door, watching me closely as if I was going to do some big magic trick..
I guess I kinda am?..
..huh, still sound silly..

Cycling my magic a little I stepped up to the doorway and placed a hand on its frame.
Two lines to my hand, one to my mind and one to my pancreas.
It’s technically not ‘conjuration’ but shrinking or enlarging an object falls under the same mechanics for internal magic.

I’m just lucky the door’s perfectly ‘normal’, the connection of the pocket universe isn’t really relevant in this case, if it was enchanted in some way on TOP of the connection then the whole spell becomes a lot more complicated like when John shrunk my glasses when he finished enchanting them.

As usual I have no idea why.
I do magic, I don’t teach it!

The door shook a little when my magic connected with it and spread across its bulk.

A moment later the door started shrinking.
Luckily, unlike Trudy’s expanded cupboard/training room in the Hub, this ‘room’ of Arista’s is a pocket universe tied to the doorway for easy access by people who aren’t her.

The door’s irrelevant.
If I wanted to I could shrink it to the size of a postage stamp or enlarge it to the size of a tanker ship without actually damaging anything within the pocket dimension connected to the entrance.

I have no idea what most of the mail inside it might be but if nothing else the doorway and pocket dimension could be useful at least?
I’ve never got around to making one of my own.

The method involved in claiming a pocket universe is long and time consuming normally.
It’s always been easier for me to just leave things in a bolt-hole, I’ve got so many of them full of the spoils of ‘war’ that a bit more mess doesn’t tend to make much of a difference in the long run.

Since John found me so easily in my favourite one the other day and it seems that just ‘running off’ to hide is going to be some kind of big issue from now on with Mum and Sarah becoming so neurotic about ‘knowing where I am’, it could be handy to clear out the pocket dimension and use it as a portable private hide-away?
I can probably add an intercom to the outside of it so I can tell if someone wants me while I’m inside too, John managed it on the Martials front door so it can’t be THAT hard after all.

When the door reached the size of a cell phone I let go of it and swiped it off the floor to slide carefully into my bag for safe keeping.

I turned back to Frank with a smile but he seemed a bit lost staring at me in awe.
I think it’s safe to say that he’s not a mage at this point..
To be so surprised by a pretty simple shrinking charm, he’d have to be a completely fresh un-awakened mage and I just can’t honestly see that being likely considering his age?

Magic attracts magic after all, there’s no way a mage could go THAT long without finding out that they could use it in one way or another over the years.

“Can I leave a forwarding address for you to send any new mail too and get the contents of Alistor Coopers box for him now Frank?”

He jolted out of his awed daze at my voice and frantically nodded before moving off to the other side of the ‘vault’ area.
My eyes trailed after him as he sorted through his keys and finally found the one for my mailbox.

He got the right one, number Three-One-Four-Two.
I have no idea why they have such high numbers in here.
From what I can see, the boxes in this ‘vault’ start at three-thousand and go up from there but it’s not THAT important I guess.

His hand dipped into the box and for a moment my heart beat a little faster with worry.

What if my phones not turned up yet?
I finally got around to casting the little ‘summoning ritual’ for it on the second night in my bolt-hole, so it’s had a few days to get here which should be more than enough, but..

His hand came back out with a few letters and an A3 size padded envelope with one suspiciously box shaped package on top of them all.

I nearly snatched the box out of his hands the moment it came into view.
He seemed surprised but my eyes were on the box instead.
A touch of magic leaked into it gave me a warm surge of magic in return.

MY PHONE!
I’ve got my phone back!

I didn’t realise how much I’d missed it with everything else going on but the moment we reconnected, despite the changes to my body and magic, I couldn’t help but clutch the box to my chest tightly and almost hug it in happiness.

Sarah has her car, Mum has her kitchen, and I have my phone.
We all talk to them and look after them and.. and..
I’ve got my phone back!

I almost did a little jig on the spot in joy but a glance at Frank’s surprised face made me pause long enough to realise how silly that would look.

My bag’s a little full at this point, a critical glance at it left me doubting that the phone box would even fit in there as it is.
Given the option of shrinking my phone or enlarging my bag it wasn’t really much of a choice.

My hand held onto the little ‘golden’ clasp of my bag and a few moments later with a slight detour into my lines the bag doubled in size while leaving its contents and the strap untouched.

Frank flinched and gaped a bit more in awe when he saw what I was doing, but what’s done is done now.
I offered him a smile while slipping my phone into my now bigger bag.

The letters and packages slid out of his hands into mine so I could put them in the bag too.
Fishing about I grabbed the pen from inside and took his hand gently.
He didn’t resist at all as I carefully wrote the address of a disused warehouse sized building I ‘own’ on the far side of Ashland by the little airport.

That should keep his shop from being flooded with Arista’s mail for a while until I have time to sort something else out for him.
Judging by the fact that he didn’t ask about money I’m guessing Arista’s storage is paid for already so that shouldn’t be a problem at least.

With one more smile for him I made my way towards the front of the shop.
It’s been interesting.. annoying as all hell and overly complicated.. but interesting all the same.
I gained a pocket dimension with attached doorway out of it too!

Now I’ve got to get back to tracking John, the stupid bastard.

“I’ll see you around Frank. I’m collecting Al’s mail for him for a while so I’ll be by in a few months or so. Thanks for all your help, try to cut down on the chips at your desk, yeah? You’re getting a little pot-belly going on there.”
I could feel my eyes twinkle a bit with fun as I glanced over my shoulder at him.
He was watching me go with a rather stunned look on his face for some reason.

I hope I didn’t break him?

Imagine the stories he’ll tell his friends about meeting THE Arista, hopefully he doesn’t embellish it too much?
I’ve got enough stories going around about me lately as it is..

With a casual wave over my shoulder I eased out the door and left the Medford Mailbox behind.
For a moment I took in a deep calming breath which happened to fill my lungs with the smell of freshly cooking Chinese food.

..damn I’m hungry..

I need a flat surface to mark the location information onto the map anyway, right?
Ten minutes isn’t going to make much difference in the long run while hunting for John, right?

I could just pop into the restaurant, borrow a table and maybe order some chicken balls with egg fried rice to go.. maybe some crispy duck too.. and some egg rolls.. and a drink.

My lungs filled with another whiff of Chinese food at practically the same moment that I made up my mind.

I’m coming to find you John!
..Just.. ya know.. a girls gotta eat, right?

With a happy little hum and a pat to my phone buried in my now big bag I made my way across the parking lot in pursuit of food and a flat surface.. but mostly food.

======

The waitress smiled at me awkwardly.
I don’t think they’re used to having many people in this early.
There’s an old couple over in the corner chatting and a college girl by the window eating noodles of some kind but that’s about it.
I must look a bit weird too, it’s not exactly warm out yet and I’m hardly dressed for the morning chill.

“I’ll have a number five, two number seventy-eights, three one-hundred-and-six’s.. annnddd four number thirteens please.”
Her smile seemed to get a bit more awkward but she didn’t say anything if something was wrong, she just wrote it all down on her pad and nodded to me before going off to the kitchen.

For a moment I relaxed back into the nice warm leather of the booth that I’d claimed, one with a clear line of sight on both the front and back entrances.
..old habits die hard..

Reluctantly I stretched and dived into my bag for the map.
When I had the map laid out next to the compass so I could get my bearing’s I paused for a second to think of a good excuse to stand up.
A glance at my bag solved that one pretty quickly.

Playing up the ‘ditzy’ young girl act I stood up from the booth, frowned and squinting my eyes down as if I was frustrated about something.

It took me a moment to dip into my lines and find the thread that started at my Brand and ended somewhere behind my core.
When I had a good mental ‘grip’ on it I started patting down the pockets of my short-shorts and turned in a smooth circle like a dog chasing its tail.

I’m not sure if someone was watching but if they were they probably thought I was some kind of idiot, not that I care much but it always helps to make weird things look at least semi-understandable to normal people when you’re a mage.

When I finished the full circle I threw my hands up in disgust and plopped back into my seat heavily.

My nimble fingers snagged the red pen from the table and, careful to make it look like bored doodling more than anything else, I sketched out a roughly forty-five degree angle on the map starting at Medford and facing near perfectly east.

As it turns out, wherever he actually is, John’s somewhere east of here.
That’s a start at least?

Where should I go next?
My eyes scanned the map thoughtfully for a second.

They seemed drawn towards one point in particular.
..I’ve always liked New York in the summer..

It would give a good counter point and thin out a lot of map space if I can narrow his location down to somewhere in the mid-west within my first two scans.
I’ve got a rough plan to hit at least five spots by nightfall, depending on the distance involved obviously, that should give me a nice small area to work on tonight.

Targeted searches should be a lot easier to do under the cover of darkness.
I could put some kind of perception ward on an item I’m wearing then go for a fly right now but those wards feel nasty!
It works for animals like the Gryphon Handy Man called into the clearing as part of his ‘grand’ escape plan because THEY can’t bitch to you about how annoying and oily it makes their skin feel or work out that you’re the one causing it.

I’d much rather just wear something dark and fly high up tonight honestly.
It’s not like I can speed up the process by any appreciable level if I try to use the perception ward method anyway.
It would take me an hour or two just to work out if I can manage it on something like my clothes, let alone make it reliable enough to not just fail on me at the worst possible time!

My focus on the map was broken when the waitress came back followed by two assistants all carrying food.
With a careless sweep I sent the map and everything else sliding onto the bench-seat beside me.
The smell of food practically overwhelmed my brain to the point that I couldn’t care less as long as I got some of it SOON.

The waitress smiled at me again and started putting plates out for me.
The college girl by the window watched them chain along plate after plate for me with shock pretty obvious on her face but the old couple carried on talking as if nothing unusual was happening at all.

When they finished loading me up with food I smiled and bowed my head slightly to them in thanks.
Judging by the fact that none of them actually looked Chinese I’m guessing they’re just some kind of morning crew of students and cheap labor, but that probable fact isn’t related to food and therefore it’s unimportant at the moment!
With almost a purr of happiness I grabbed my chopsticks, cracked them apart and dived in.

Ohhh.. their Hoisin Duck tastes amazing!

======

My head rolled back against the nice padded leather of the booth’s seats and I let off a long contented sigh.
Chinese food for breakfast is the food of champions!

The college girl gave up all pretence of eating about twenty minutes ago when she finally seemed to realise that I was planning to eat ALL of the food on my table by myself.
Even now she’s ‘subtly’ watching me from her window seat with a weird mix of amazement and disgust.

I couldn’t honestly care.
LET her stare.
That food was AWESOME!

My eyes drifted over the table and settled on the few remaining egg rolls at the far side.
I can’t.. I honestly.. honestly can’t eat them right now!

My eyes carried on and settled on my bag.
For a moment I hesitated but I’ve put it off long enough by now.

A lazy hand drifted down from my little pot-belly to reach blindly into the bag for the bundle of letters inside.
My other hand cleared the plates in front of me by stacking them up in the center of the table.

The top letter happened to be an ‘Al’ one.
It was kind of obvious by the name on the front of it, also I recognise the handwriting.

It’s from my freelance magical gossipmonger.
They call themself is ‘Jack Spice’, I have no idea if that’s a man’s name or the short version of a woman’s name honestly.
I did a job on the side for them a few years ago.

It was a simple information gathering job, no killing needed.
Quite a nice little break from all the mess I was getting involved in for the Hub at the time.

In thanks for my going above and beyond to bring them ALL the information they needed, not just the stuff they requested, they pledged me ten years of information updates about the rumors floating around the Hub’s that I might normally miss due to just generally being my usual anti-social self.

I tore the envelope open without hesitation.
Jack’s always good for a few laughs about the infighting and petty squabbles that happen around the world if nothing else.

My eyes scanned the pages rather than reading them properly.
There’s plenty of time to really get into the details after I’m done running around the country hunting for an injured idiot.

Let’s see.. Samson and Delilah are on the outs again, she wanted him to try getting a perm apparently and he lost it, the guy’s always been picky about his hair..
..Caesar’s awakened again? That’s got to be the sixth time he’s awakened in the last hundred years!
I think someone’s got a vendetta out on him or something?.. maybe Mamurra’s just in a bad mood..

Another high ranked awakening.. Arista de la Morte, Empress Eternal of the Bimabdn Imperium, Queen of the Highlands Spring, Holder of the keys to Avalon.. blah blah blah.. long rumored ‘Mother of Magic’..

Well crap.. what do ya know?
I made the Gossip Columns!

Wonder if I can sue my own unofficial black-market information broker for slander?
I most certainly do NOT hold the keys to Avalon!
Never heard of a ‘Bimabdn Imperium’ either, let alone been inducted as their Empress!

..damn Arista..
She really DID get around didn’t she?

Rather than keep going I tossed the stapled sheets over with the map and moved on.
Seeing her name and exploits being listed kind of soured the fun of catching up on the magical world for me, go figure.

The next letter was just a bank statement from my off-shore account.
No point reading that one for now, I can’t even access my accounts at the moment due to the whole ‘new body and identity’ thing.

The last item on the little ‘Al’ pile of letters was a padded envelope.
I leaned the package away from me and slit it open with a sharpened nail.

Letters are one thing but who knows what people could get past mail screening in a padded envelope?
No puffs of smoke, blasts of powder or annoyingly loud audio messages came out after a few seconds, so it looks like it’s safe at least.

I tilted the open envelope towards my face and peaked inside.
My shoulders quickly slumped in relief.

Feeling a little stupid I reached in and pulled out a clear plastic bag with wide, flat interlocking gold-looking rings inside it.
I forgot I sent off for this bloody thing!

It’s a belt, one of those chunky metal chain belts with disk sized rings strung together to wrap around your waist?
I had an idea for a covert way to hide some useful glyphs on my body if I was going incognito as ‘Hannah’ on a mission by inscribing the runes on each plate-like ring’s inner edge so they weren’t visible when I was wearing it.

Kind of pointless now I guess.. although the belts still kind of cute?

I can probably put some useful daily runes on there, tuck in a few emergency ones too around the back just for safety’s sake?

I might even put it on in a minute.. it should fit in the belt loops of my shorts and the 'real gold' color should work well enough with the clasp on my bag too.
..forget that last bit..

Lets rewind back to the ‘useful for hiding runes’ bit and stick with that reasoning shall we?..
It feels less inane and stupid in my head if we go that route with it.

Following that logic I put the belt to the side too and took a deep breath.
Only the letters for Arista left to go through now I guess?

The first one looked simple enough, just ‘Arista Morte’ written on it in flowing handwriting and the public address of the Medford Mailbox.
For some reason it feels like I’m going to regret this but with a wince I used my sharpened nail to slit the envelope open and gently pulled a thick card out from inside.

Turning it over I cringed and realised what my instincts had been trying to warn me about.
‘Happy Birthday Mommy’

“..ah crap..”

Pushing that letter to the side I grabbed the next one and with a wave of certainty, slit it open to revel a slightly more adult version of the same item, a birthday card..

I flipped it open and scanned the words inside briefly.
It was made out to ‘Mother Arista’, wishing to see her soon and that she has a happy birthday from ‘Your loving son, Leonidas’

“..crap..”

This time being gentler about it, I let the card settle on the table and moved on to the last one of the pile.
I’m not even going to hope that ‘Leonidas’ isn’t THAT Leonidas, the warrior King of Greece.

I’ve seen the movie ‘300’, let me tell you, it was terribly inaccurate!
I don’t remember much more than that fact from my past-incarnation memories sadly but I KNOW it was inaccurate to an almost insulting level just from the emotions I felt while watching it!

“Please don’t be another card from her kids.. please don’t be another card from her kids..”

I tore open the top of the envelope and cringed again when another card came into view.
Pulling it out and turning it over made things even worse.

“Well.. so much for that wish..”

Note to self, I HAVE to start being more specific when I beg the universe for things!
The words almost taunted me as they glared out from the happy little white card with flowers drawn all around its border.

‘Happy Anniversary’

Flicking it open I cringed and let my head sink down in defeat.
‘From your loving husband, I miss you dearly, Thor xx’

I didn’t know what I was expecting from the front cover but it’s somehow so much worse..

Thor..
THE Thor.. comic-book and movie character played by Chris Hemsworth in all his gorgeousness?..
Thor.. the Hammer swinging, lightning throwing ancient GOD Thor?!..

Okay.. from what I know of Norse mythology that means Arista was either his wife ‘Sif’, his giant lover ‘Járnsaxa’ or that one other woman who’s name.. was.. never record.. ed..

Sometimes I REALLY hate my life!

I shuffled the card on top of the rest of the pile and sunk my head into my hands.
I’ve definitely got a headache now.. can this day get any worse?!
..did I really just think that?..

“Craaaapp...”

For almost half a minute I stayed in position with my head in my hands in the vague hope that maybe for once no-one was listening when I said something stupid.

Amazingly after the thirty seconds were up nothing had happened?

I couldn’t resist the urge to perk up and smile slightly.
Maybe my lucks changin-

DAMN IT!
I need to stop doing that!

My own thoughts aren’t safe enough to think something like that!
Something which is so blatantly tempting fate!

Especially on a day like today, where everything I even consider going wrong seems to do exactly that moments later!

After another painfully long half a minute, nothing happened again.

I’m kind of getting twitchy with things NOT happening now?
..where’s the giant demon bursting through the wall with a tentacle full of flowers for me and an anniversary card?
..where’s the floor full of babies being dropped off by child services in tractor loads because they finally tracked me down after all these years of looking for a ‘Arista Morte’ to take them back?
..where’s the-

..okay, I think I’ve tempted fate enough at this point..
I’m not normally a big believer in that sort of thing anyway but every time I’ve expected something to happen today it has so far, ya know?

Maybe it’s finally over?

I’ll pay for my meal, find an isolated area and warp to New York’s waypoint so I can get a better lock on John and when I finally do find him he’ll be sitting in an easy chair watching Honeymooners re-runs like Frank was while laughing his head off like an idiot.

“S’better than most of my plans usually are at least..”

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and dropped one of my hands so I could start loading things back into my bag to make a move.
My eyes drifted over to the few surviving egg rolls on their plate.

With a put upon sigh I dropped my other hand and stretched over, grabbing one of the egg rolls to munch on as I packed up everything else.

I’m such a glutton sometimes.. good thing I’m a mage.
Without the enhanced metabolism that comes with that fact I’d probably be the size of a house at this point!

Not that it really matters I guess.. but if I’ve got to be female I want to have a nice figure at least, ya know?

Speaking of which, I wonder if there’s any truth to that old rumor about milk making you grow taller and making your boobs grow bigger?.. probably not.
If there was then Sarah would have bought her own dairy farm years ago for personal consumption only.

Everyone’s got their hang ups and for Sarah it’s her ‘dancers figure’.
There’s a REASON people struggled to tell us apart in our teens, even though I was completely flat-chested, after all..

When I got down to just the map left out of the bag I squinted at it to make sure that it’s about as accurate as I can make it.
Rather than stand up again and spin around like an idiot to scan for the ‘tugging’ feeling, I just focused on the line connecting us and twisted my chest to face in the right general direction until the feeling eased like last time.

..Yeah, that feels about right?..
I’m not going to get it dead-on without a proper sensor charm or some kind of ‘magical mind-controlled GPS’ system.

huh?..
That might not actually be that bad of an idea honestly?
It would take a bit of work, it’s a fair bit more complicated in concept then the basic ‘map’ system I made on the back of Felicia’s tea tray at least.

I might even have to make my own magical Satellite and send it into space somehow?!..
Now wouldn’t THAT be an interesting project?

I’d have to make it invisible to basically everything as well as protecting it from any kind of impacts that might happen in space.. then there’s the whole ‘recreating technology with magic’ side of it.. and the general ‘how the hell am I going to get something into space?’ side of it too..

I wonder if a propulsion rune, with a ninety degree launching slide and some ‘velox ped’ enchantments on the payload would be enough to get it up to low earth orbit at least?

My hands moved automatically to slide the map back into my bag and then proceeded to grab another egg roll from my quickly dwindling pile of leftovers so I could chew something.
It helps me think better.

..would I have to invent a brand new wide-ranging broadcaster Glyph?..

Maybe I could take the useful bits from the magic used to make waypoints?
Waypoints can send their ‘tastes’ across the world after all, that would be kind of useful to be able to replicate..

Come to think of it, Edith has her own personal waypoint in the backroom of the shop doesn’t she?
That’s totally illegal, hence why Fena was in such a rush to turn it off, but if they have one then they must know how to MAKE one too, right?

Ohhh.. this could be FUN!
I LOVE new magic!
I coul-

“Miss? Are you okay?”

My body jolted in surprise before I was fully out of my ‘creating daze’.
The waitress was standing near the edge of the table looking at me with some worry.
After a moment to catch my surroundings I offered her a tight, awkward smile.

“Sorry about that, I have..”
Mental problems?.. no!
Aspergers?.. no, wrong symptoms.
The thing when you fall asleep randomly?.. would help if I could remember what it was called!

“uh.. I’ve got problems?”

The waitress grimaced but seemed to understand that whatever was wrong with me, I wasn’t willing to talk about it.
Instead of carrying on our now awkward conversation she smiled at me weakly and left the bill on the table before moving off to check on the old couple to see if they wanted another drink.

I groaned and sunk my head into my hands again.

One of these days I’ll manage to talk to a girl without making a fool of myself.
Becoming a girl myself hasn’t helped THAT problem in ANY way apparently, if anything it’s even worse now!

With a deep fortifying breath I pulled my head upright and snatched the last egg roll from my plate, stuffing it in my mouth to make myself feel better.
As I tried to chew it awkwardly I happened to catch the eye of the college girl who was watching me with a worrying amount of interest at this point.

Don’t suppose I’m lucky enough that she’ll turn out to NOT be some kind of mage that would NOT have recognised me as ‘Arista’ by any chance do you?..
..yeah, I didn’t think it was that likely either..

The college girl went to stand up while looking at me directly in the eye.

She’s going to come over here and confront me isn’t she?
What’s the bet that I’ve got a ‘birthday card’ from her in the pocket dimension, held behind the shrunken door tucked away in my bag?

The front door beside the college girl opened with a smooth ‘swish’ that actually sounded surprisingly loud for some reason, like a wave breaking on the coast or something.
Either way it made her pause in her steps and me stop chewing to gape at it in shock.

A tall, dark, dashingly handsome man stepped in to the restaurant with a dramatic flair worthy of some kind of award.

He had thick black hair, neatly trimmed to perfection.
A well done goatee in the same shade of black and aristocratic features that I’m not ashamed to admit made my new twin ‘Hannah likes’ indicators decide to ‘pop-up’ randomly.
He had a VERY expensive looking suit on with a decorative cane in his hand and a suspiciously ‘turn of the century mage’ looking dark gentleman’s cloak draped over his shoulders.

..Hello.. secret government facility?.. I think your perfect specimen of ‘man’ escaped!..

The wind ruffled his hair and his sharp piercing eyes scanned the room making my heart beat a little harder.
I’ve got a rule in place on a semi-permanent ‘NO’ for the whole ‘Me, as a female, with guys’ thing.. ..but it’s more of a guideline really?..

The moment broke and he shifted his hips slightly in a way that woke me up from my sudden hormone driven love-daze.
..there’s something definitely not right about the way he just moved his hips?..

Oh powers.. that’s just not FAIR!

I spend my adult life as a reluctantly bisexual male and the minute I turn into a woman the PERFECT man comes along.. and he’s bloody GAY!

Well.. I mean.. I think he’s gay?
He’s got the whole ‘flare for the dramatics’ thing going on that I vaguely remember being a common thing with gay actors and entertainers that I’ve met in my past-incarnations.

His hips.. his whole body has just SHIFTED effortlessly into this really effeminate pose suddenly?

Maybe.. maybe he’s just the world’s most effeminate, while secure in his masculinity enough to not care, straight man?.. please let him be that!..

He shifted position again and I cringed when not only did he bend his wrists in a way I’ve never seen a straight guy do before but he also finally laid his eyes on me.
His whole face lit up in joy at the sight of me!

..maybe he’s a vampire?..
Vlad was very ‘effeminate’ after all.. and he had a flare for dramatics.. and he wore a cape.. and.. and.. but he was attracted to me!

A vampire wouldn’t be perfect but we could work something out.. please powers..
If you’ve ever cared for me before show me a sign!

Please.. a vampire, actor ex-husband of Arista!
I’ll take THAT over him being gay at this point!
He opened his mouth and out came a voice that was possibly more girly sounding then MY new one!

“Motherrr!”

Oh yeah.. he’s totally gay, no question left on that one!
Even Vlad couldn’t roll an ‘R’ that mu-

wait.. what did he say?
SCREW YOU POWERS!

I don’t ask for much, damn it!
You couldn’t make him straight and just to kick me while I’m down you made him one of Arista’s bloody KIDS!!

Quick as a flash, his hips swinging wildly, he made his way over to me and pulled me up into a tight hug that literally lifted me off my feet.

I sucked in a sharp breath and pulled a mouthful of forgotten egg roll down my throat.

“Uggh!”

..can’t.. breathe..

So this is how it ends, huh?
Choked to death by an egg roll that went down the wrong hole when my, possibly a gay actor, son tackle/hugged me unexpectedly while calling me ‘Mother’..
Bravo powers, even I didn’t see THAT one coming!

Bloody powers, see if I ever use you as a replacement for the word ‘god’ in fear of your wrath EVER again!

“Aguuhhh!”
He eased off his hug on me at least but looked into my slowly reddening face in confusion instead of.. ya know.. HELPING ME!

I NEED AIR DAMN IT!

I’m NOT gonna die like this!
I REFUSE to die like this damn it!

It’s not even bloody DIGNIFIED, let alone NOBLE!

Some journey's are worth the effort. Some of them are pointless. Some of them are painful. If your lucky then their short sometimes.. Events unfold including but not limited to: Repeated appearances of the Chinese food that was more important then John. (although it's mostly unwelcome this time) And Hannah plays cat and mouse while getting in a whistle stop tour of the continental US.

 
Someone’s kissing me?..
Well.. that’s a nice way to wake up I guess?

WAIT!
Why is he..

No! Don’t do that!

The person kissing me squeezed their fingers down on my nose and blew hard into my mouth making my chest hurt as seemingly everything inside me inflated for a moment, then they let the pressure go suddenly.
Before they could even TRY to do that again I coughed hard into their mouth which happened to also unclog whatever was stuck in my airway.
Whoever was kissing me pulled away from me sharply and started sputtering to try get whatever it was that was stuck in my throat out of their mouth instead.

My eyes were watering but I managed to focus enough to blearily see who it was that I just re-gifted my last egg roll to.

..well.. hello college girl?.. hell of a greeting you’ve got going there?..

The gorgeous, annoyingly gay, man was hovering over us practically dancing from foot to foot in worry while wringing his hands nervously as if that would help in some way.
The moment the college girl was clear of me he moved over and scooped me up in another surprisingly tight hug.

“Oh dear! Mother are you okay?”

I was groaning anyway from the whole ‘nearly dying’ thing but I groaned louder in response because I could.
Please don’t call me Mother.. just.. just don’t.. please..

He reluctantly let me go, enough that he could pear down at me with bright, shining happy eyes.

“I knew you’d come here eventually, my special friend Frank at the mailbox called saying you’d come to collect your stuff and I just HAD to come over as fast as I could!”

FRANK’S GAY?!
I’m not stupid, I know what ‘special friend’ means when you say it like THAT!

I didn’t see that one coming?
I mean.. good on him and everything, yay for bucking the stereotypes that this new guy seems to have embraced to the hilt and everything, I guess?..
...Frank’s GAY?.. seriously?..

I REALLY didn’t see that one coming!
No wonder he didn’t react poorly when he found out about the whole ‘Hannah is Al’ thing back when I was still male..

The goatee wearing ex-hottie, now walking stereotype, grinned in a surprisingly sweet way at me for a moment before diving back in for another tight hug that made me rasp out a harsh breath of pain.

“I’m fine by the way.. if anyone’s curious?”

The college girl finally managed to spit out the last of the egg roll I ‘gave’ her and climbed back to her feet.
She glared at the new guy, her hands on her hips impatiently as if she was waiting for something.

The moment he let me go again she swooped in, pulling me into an equally tight hug that felt a LOT more awkward when I registered just how squishy her chest was, pressed hard against mine.

“Hmph! Line-cutter, I got to her first.”
The new guy pouted dramatically and stamped his wing-tipped shoe like a child, turning his whole body away from us both to show his disapproval.

“Oh will you give it a REST Narcissus?!”

He didn’t turn back to face us properly at the college girls yell, but he did cock his head to the side and stick his tongue out at her which only seemed to make her angrier.
For my part I was just kind of stalled.. trying to process everything mostly..

I think my brains finally done rebooting from the choking thing at least?..
Let’s see.. fireworks, my brand, the Hub, kicked Storytellers ass, John’s hurt, hunting him, got my phone back, Arista’s son turned up while I was eating..

Where does the ‘college girl’ fit into all of this though?

Aside from giving me CPR.. which come to think of it, isn’t something your meant to do if the airway isn’t clear are you?
Kind of lucky she didn’t kill me.. faster than the egg roll was at least..

Someone nudged me as they moved, pulling me out of my thoughts and back into the annoying real world.
Apparently the college girl and Arista’s son, the one she called ‘Narcissus’, are still busy arguing in a worryingly childish way?

“You’re not!”
Narcissus huffed and stamped his foot angrily, his fists clenched at his waist while he glared at the college girl for yelling at him again.

“I am TOO!”
The college girl let off a frustrated yell and threw her hands up into her hair in response to his declaration.

“You’re not gay Narcissus, stop this it’s insulting!”
They were both virtually nose-to-nose at this point, as if a closer proximity would prove their individual points better somehow.

“Show’s what YOU know, I like men!”
The college girl threw her hands up in the air again and turned away from him angrily.

Narcissus leaned away from her, a smug look of victory on his face that brightened a little when he noticed me watching them both.

“A man Narcissus, you like A man! Not ‘men’, you like a single man who happens to be YOU!”

That’s weird?.. what does she mean by-
ohhhhh..‘Narcissus’..

The man who was so beautiful, he died staring lovingly at his own reflection in a pond, Narcissus?

I think I see where this is going now.
Bloody Reincarnations!

While my eyes widened in surprise as the implications settled in, namely that Arista was somehow the supposed mother of yet ANOTHER ancient mythological figure, Narcissus’s face had shifted into a wide charming grin aimed over the college girls head at me.

With a dramatic flick he tossed his hair back and shrugged carelessly before fixing me with a look that made my toes curl in uncontrollable, completely unwanted lust.

“Can you blame me?”
He finished the line off with a wink that made me automatically want to giggle and blush at the same time.

When she noticed that his attention was on me rather than her, the girl seemed to grow even more enraged for some reason.
Her hand came up and she slapped him hard enough to leave a red imprint on his chiselled jaw.

“That’s your mother, you SICK bastard! Have you no shame?! YOU’RE the one who tried to convince ME that YOU’RE gay just a second ago!”

It feels like she’s kind of stuck in a loop here?
The wordings a bit different but already his head has dipped away from looking at me and they’re both back to glaring at each other nose-to-nose.

That feels like it should..
..Echo?..

In the Roman version of Narcissus’s story there was a Nymph called ‘Echo’ that fell in love with him?
She was too shy to show herself because of a curse upon her and could only repeated things he called out, when she finally tried to hug him he rejected her.
She went off into the wilds and faded away until nothing but the ‘echo’ of her voice remained, lost in the wind.

Her story is where we GET the word ‘echo’ from.
Hell, Narcissus is where we get the word ‘narcissism’ from.
..bloody awakened mages..

Obviously that’s not what ACTUALLY happened.
Stories like that are all twisted out of proportion and I know from personal experience that history rarely records things accurately after a while.. but..

She IS trying rather hard to convince him he’s ‘not gay’ isn’t she?.. and she got angry when he was paying more attention to me then her?
..I think someone’s got a crush still after all these years..

Echo, if that really is who she is, was doing a rather nice job of keeping a huffy Narcissus’s attention off of me at least.

Careful to not catch their eye, I shifted my arm to scoop up my bag and slowly walked backward towards the door.
They were so focused on each other and apparently trying to see who could yell at the other the loudest, that they didn’t see me go.

I cringed when the restaurant’s door creaked a little as I opened it but luckily they didn’t seem to notice the sound either.
I hate to dine and dash but I’m not sticking around here any longer!

One of Arista’s kids finding me was bad enough.
TWO of them is just pushing it!

Have they seriously been camping out in Medford waiting for me to turn up and access Arista’s ‘mailbox’?!
The one that I didn’t even know existed until this morning!

Come to think of it, what are the odds that of all the places I could have MY mailbox it would be with the same family that SHE has HER’S?

I HATE Medford!
This whole city SUCKS!

Rather than waste time I made my way into a shadowed alleyway just off of the restaurants parking lot and dipped into my mage senses.

The right combination was easy to locate.
A distinctive tang of Hotdogs, Pizza and some type of metal that I’ve never been able to work out the name of but is probably related to aluminum, just judging by the way it puts my teeth on edge?

Screw Medford, I hate CITIES in general!
Whoever set’s up the waypoint flavors for major cities is an asshole!

The waypoint’s taste flickered to indicate it was clear for an incoming warp and not a moment too soon.

Narcissus and ‘Echo’ both burst out of the restaurants front door, their eyes scanning wildly around in the hope of finding me again no doubt.
For a second I locked eyes with Echo’s own worried ones which widened in surprise before my warp kicked in and all I could see was blue.

New York, New York, here I come!

======

The world came back into existence with a bump.
As usual I collapsed to my knees and panted a few deep breaths to recover.

“Move it sweetheart, I got a party of five comin’ through!”
..Bloody RUDE New Yorkers!..

I managed to stumble to my feet and out of the safety circle fast enough to not get mushed by an impatient ‘party of five’ but it was a close call.

When the three men and two women appeared they all looked at me weirdly.
The guard just glared at me but didn’t offer any kind of help at all.

With an annoyed huff I finally managed to get my feet under me properly and staggered out of the waypoint room.
New York, being a lot saner in general when compared to Medford, have their waypoint in a magically hidden back corridor of the New York Public Library on the corner of West 42nd street and 5th Avenue.

The spots pretty much in the dead center of Manhattan Island and perfect if you’re going for day trips, while being hidden well enough that no-one ever feels awkward when they turn up.

Who really pay’s attention to people going in and out of a library these days, honestly?

Before I could turn the corner out of the hallway leading from the waypoint room there was a sudden commotion inside it.
A lot of raised voices, at least one of them being the waypoint guard and I THINK the other two will be VERY bad for me if I don’t get moving!

With a jerk I broke into a sprint and quickly got myself lost within the stacks until I reached a corner where I couldn’t see the main corridor from where I was.
It took me a moment to get my breathing under control but the second I could manage it I opened my bag, pulled out the map and laid it out on the floor.

I need to hurry.
They were too close when I warped last time.
If you can reach the location that someone warped from and you know where to look it’s pretty easy to ‘piggy back’ on their warp.
You won’t know where you’re going and it can be dangerous if the waypoint on the other end isn’t clear when you get there but it’s possible.

Credit to them, I didn’t expect Narcissus and Echo to be able to put their squabbling aside long enough to reach that alleyway before I got out of the building at the very least.

I’ll just have to make this a whistle-stop tour of the big apple I guess?

Closing my eyes I slowly turned in a circle, hesitating twice when I hit the borders of where this strand of magic linking me to John eased its tension slightly.
When I had the directions solidly in my mind I opened my eyes again and dived into my bag for the compass and pen.

If I’m facing north then the points are... here and.. HERE!
Just gotta draw some lines out from those two points on the map..
..double check my locations..

My knees are a bit sore having to kneel on the floor awkwardly, to ease it I spread myself out flat on my stomach so I could focus on the map and draw easier.
It’s awkward but it’s easier then-

“She can’t have gone far.”
The sound of hammering feet made me freeze, spread out on my belly with my pen in hand.

“She wouldn’t have gotten anywhere if you weren’t such an asshole!”

Well.. at least they’re not working together properly I guess?
It sounds like Echo’s really pissed off at Narcissus at this point.
That’s good, anger makes you sloppy.

..case in point..
Their heavy footfalls were easy for me to track with my magically enhanced hearing.
They’re so busy picking on each other that they’re not looking for signs of where I might have gone.

They didn’t even hesitate at the start of the long row of shelves that I was tucked into the far corner of, just breezing past while arguing and keeping their eyes forward on the idea that I would have tried to leave the building first.

To be fair, if I hadn’t heard them arrive I probably would have done just that.
..maybe my lucks finally changing?..

When they’d moved far enough away for my liking I let out a heavy breath and stared back down at the map thoughtfully.

From the way that the two sets of lines cross over it looks like John is in either.. Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho or West Oregon..

This is why it’s important to get lots of research data before jumping to conclusions kids!

Okay.. I’ve got two options, North or South.
If I got north then I can get a downward angle on the map and cut out a lot of the useless states, same if I go south.

To get the best positioning it would have to be.. Kansas for the south or North Dakota.. for the north, obviously.
..talk about your hard choices?..

Did I mention its summer?

It feels like I’ve mentioned that little fact at some point when we were all sweating like pigs during the car journey to the farm?!
..yeah.. nothing short of a world ending invasion of giant, fifty-story high squirrels in tuxedos with flamethrowers and free alcohol is going to get me to even CONSIDER going to KANSAS in JULY!

It’s hot enough to melt steel down there at this time of year!
I’m not stupid!

North Dakota it is then I guess?
..now I just need to work out how to get there..

Unsurprisingly, I’ve never had a mission that’s taken me to North Dakota of all places.
The nearest waypoint that I have memorised would be.. Minneapolis?
That’s only.. about four-hundred miles off?
..damn it..

You know what?
Forget North Dakota!

I’m going to Minneapolis and crossing my fingers that it will give me a nice friendly result that thins out a lot of space even though it’s a bit too far off center on the map to be perfect.

If it’s a big fail I can just warp over to Denver on the south side of the remaining area, without the insane heat of Kansas, and get another point marked down with the time I save by not trying to travel four-hundred miles while being chased by ‘my’ bloody kids!

With a nod I pushed myself back up to my knees and shuffled everything back into my bag.

My sensitive ears picked up raised voices coming back towards me.
I spared enough time to cringe before dropping into my mage senses and searching for the waypoint that I know in Minneapolis.
It’s in the University campus, the ‘Malcolm Moos Health Sciences Tower’ to be exact.

Ah hah! Got it!
Full fat milk, burnt ozone and monkey’s fur.. the people who decide the flavors for waypoints are weird.. and mean assholes!

I can guess that this one’s a bit of a joke, I think the guy doing it may have been an old movie fan too?
Your setting up a magical waypoint inside a ‘tower’ dedicated to health ‘sciences’ named after a man called ‘moos’.. why not use cow’s milk, the lightning from Frankenstein’s famous ‘it’s alive!’ moment and fur from the tower climbing monkey King Kong?!

I’ve never personally had a problem with remembering waypoint flavors but some people do apparently.
A lot of waypoints are set up to try and provide some kind of easy way to remember how they connect with their location like that.
The logics there.. it’s just a bit.. ‘if you think like me then it’s simple’?

That’s mages in general for you though I guess.

Just because I know WHY they did it , doesn’t mean that I appreciate having the taste of monkey fur in my mouth though!
..bloody mages..

Narcissus and Echo are still a way off from the sound of it, but the faster I leave the more of a lead time I’ll have on them at the other end.
Powers help me if either of them think’s to get a sample of my magic!

I’ll never shake them if they do.

The Minnesota waypoint’s taste flickered in and out of existence to show that it’s clear for new arrivals so I dropped into warp and left the library behind in a flash of blue light.

======

The blue disappeared again leaving me to fall to my knees and throw a hand out for extra balance.
Using normal warp twice in as many minutes isn’t good for my stomach, I can’t afford to waste time recovering though, the kids are probably already locking in on where I warped from.
..Come on Hannah, get off your ass!..

Before the waypoint guard could tell me to move on I launched myself back to my feet and wobbled my way out of the waypoint room with a heavy sigh.

I can’t keep this up!
When I first planned this, as much as ‘planned’ can be applied to the decision to go traveling around the country chasing John that is, I figured I’d have time to stop off for a bit in each city to recover like I did in the restaurant after my first trip.

You would think that the shorter distance on that first little jump would have helped to lessen the problem in some way but it really didn’t.

Warp is warp after all.
Distance doesn’t make a difference in anything but the power needed and the time to travel when you’re warping by waypoints.
We still have the same limits on the amount of times we can warp in quick succession and I have a more specific problem where my travel sickness tends to get worse the more times I do it without taking a break.

I staggered along the hallway and reluctantly dipped into my lines to give off a micro-burst of magic to heal myself a bit.
My travel sickness doesn’t seem to usually be affected by healing spells, I’ve tried before, but the diversion currently on my magic doesn’t tend to care what I think about how magic works in general so hopefully it doesn’t matter this time either.

My legs felt a bit more stable after the little pulse of magic went off.
My stomachs not quite ‘normal’ yet, but it IS better at least.

Now I’ve got to get out of here!
If the ‘kids’ DID get a sample of my magic then that pulse will help them narrow down my location a LOT quicker than normal if I don’t move fast!

With that thought in mind I took a random hallway and broke into a sprint to get clear of the area.
Hopefully, if they’re following my magic, then the pulse will have put out enough power to coat the surrounding hallways in a trace of it leaving them no choice but to check the area thoroughly.
That might actually buy me some time as long as I’m far enough away by the time they show up.

“Hold the door!”
The guy in his late teens wearing a blue sweater-vest looked up from his phone and gaped at me.

REALLY helpful jackass!

With a frantic movement I managed to dive through the elevator doors in a practically airborne sideways shimmy, but only just.
I almost managed to catch both my bag AND my boobs in the closing door too!

The doors shut tight and the elevator jerked into motion while I slumped slightly against the wall opposite to the sweater-vest guy.

“..uh..”
My head rolled back to thump against the wall and stare at him with a quirked eyebrow.
He blushed visibly and dipped his eyes down at the floor instead of looking at me.
“Sorry, I was going to press the button for you but I froze and you.. I.. um.. sorry?”

I almost smiled.
He’s kind of cute in a ‘nerdy, future Bill Gates’ way, terrible at hiding that he finds me attractive but still cute.
I always DID have a thing for shy guys before my second awakening, kind of amazing considering I was friends with John for so long but maybe that’s exactly WHY shy guys are so interesting to me?

It helps that even though he’s blushing up a storm and he obviously wants to, he’s not talking to my boobs?
I’ve found that to be a problem over the last week no matter what I’m wearing let alone now, when I’m standing here in a bikini top!

“It’s okay. These things happen, I’m Hannah by the way.”

My hand came out to shake his and his blush got even brighter somehow.
Almost reluctantly he reached out to take it while cutting his eyes up between my hand and my face as if I was suddenly going to pull it away for some reason?

“D.. Drake, I.. my name’s Drake?”
He actually managed to turn his name into a question.. that’s kind of adorable..

His hand finally landed in mine and his wrist twitched as if he was going to turn it over but he flinched into just shaking my hand instead.

I think he was considering doing the old ‘flip over the hand and kiss it’ routine from the look of how he reacted but I won’t hold that against him.
What geeky little dweeb’s not thought about someday pulling that off on a girl they like?
I certainly did back, when I was an insecure fifteen year old Al crushing on Sarah’s friend Tiffany!

It took him long enough that my mouth twitched up into a little smirk before he realised that we’d been shaking for far too long already.
He dropped my hand like it was made of lava and grimaced, probably telling himself off in his head.

The elevator jolted to a stop and the door’s opened smoothly beside us.

He hesitated to step out.
While he was busy second guessing himself I’d made up my mind.

I wasn’t the guy who got the girl in high school.
I was a complete geek at one point, as Sarah took great joy in telling me over and over again.
I was lucky enough to discover magic and gained some level of confidence from it though..

Drake flinched when I moved closer to him, but as I pressed gently to his side and went up on my tip-toes to give him a little kiss on the cheek his eyes went wide in shock.

“Don’t believe what they tell you Drake. Sometimes being the nice guy gets you the girl, yeah?”
He didn’t answer me but I knew he was listening to me anyway just from the way he was staring at me in amazement.
I added a little extra roll to my hips as I left the elevator and I could feel his eyes watching me as I left.
“You’re sweet Drake, someday some girl will be lucky enough to see that. Don’t lose hope okay?”

Without another glance I waved over my shoulder at him and smoothly slipped down the nearest hallway.
As soon as I was out of his visual range I broke into a run.

That felt nice, doing something good for him.
At least this body’s useful for something finally.
I kind of wish someone had been willing to do that for me at his age, ya know?

Still, I wasted a little time in doing it and the kids are going to be looking for me soon.

With that thought in mind I put a hand to the door sensor of the nearest fire exit and popped the lock-bar open while pulsing just enough magic into it to delay the alarm, before it could go off.
The door snapped shut behind me and after a moment of worried waiting on my part it didn’t start making any kind of noise which had me sighing in relief.

Wouldn’t it be embarrassing to sneak away so well and then get caught because I’m busy trying to explain to campus security why I opened a bloody fire door?!

A glance around gave me a direction to move in pretty quickly.
Across a little bush-lined street was the bike rack lined entrance of ‘Amundson Hall’.
I have no idea what goes on in there but that doesn’t matter, I just need some clear space to work on the map for a minute out of direct line of sight for my pursuers after all..

Checking both ways and trying to ignore all the mid to late teenaged males that were stopping to look at the girl in a bikini top walking through their campus, I marched across the street in search of a nice hiding spot.

======

It turns out there’s a handy, not too nasty, public toilet just within the entrance of Amundson Hall.
I dived into the ladies and set myself up in a stall with the map placed on top of a closed toilet seat.

A few girls gave me weird looks when I came in but I think I managed to be about as subtle as I can be in these clothes.
It’s all well and good to be dressed like this for a family barbecue in the summer heat but walking around a university campus gives a slightly different impression apparently.

I closed my eyes and slowly turned in a circle while mentally ‘holding’ the thread of magic connecting me to John.
When I had the directions down right my eyes snapped open and I got to work marking them out on the map.

So I’m facing west.. the points are here.. and HERE..
Extend the lines and.. well.. crap?..

The good news is that John’s not in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin or Iowa
The bad news is that he could be pretty much anywhere in Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho or West Oregon still.
I was hoping by going from the north end of the map I could cut down the possible states a bit more then this but it will have to do for now I guess.

Looking at how the new lines cut into my existing ones made me changed my mind about my next pit-stop, Denver wouldn’t give me the best result at this point.
I need another city, closer to the remaining search area.. maybe not a city at all actually?
Looking at the map, one of the most central areas I could go for which I happen to actually know the waypoint ‘taste’ for is Yellowstone national park.

It’s right on the northern edge of Wyoming and at least part of it is outside of my search area.
It should help me cut out a few more states from the map if nothing else..

The only other option that looks possibly useful at this point is Salt Lake City in Utah.
I had a mission down there once so I’ve got the waypoint and it’s pretty close to my search area but a little further then Yellowstone.
..I think Yellowstone’s the better option..

With a nod I finished packing everything up and dipped into my mage senses to search for the right taste combination.

Sulfur, basalt and spring water.
Yet again, waypoint makers like to make things obvious and simple when connecting locations with waypoints but not tasty!

The moment the waypoint flickered I jumped into warp without hesitation.

I’m going to feel SO ill at the other end but I might actually be able to take a break there too because Narcissus and Echo are probably going to waste a lot of time hunting for me on campus.
I’ve got a good solid lead on them and this toilet is out of the way enough that hopefully they won’t find it for hours, if it takes them long enough the remnants of my warp ‘trail’ could even fade to the point that they won’t be able to use it to follow me!

======

The world faded back out of that annoying blue shade of warp.
I collapsed to my knees, panting hard to try and suppress the sudden urge to puke.

Too many warps..
Not enough breaks..
I HATE normal warping!

“You okay there sweetheart?”
Instead of answering the guy I just kept my head down and groaned.
Without warning a strong arm slid around my waist and practically lifted me off my feet.
“Let’s get you into a chair, do you want a drink or a sick bag or something?”

I groaned again but nodded slowly.
Even that movement made the ‘sick’ feeling surge up again.

The guy left me in a soft chair and went off somewhere for a while.
When he came back he had a few people with him, not that I was up to opening my eyes yet but I could hear several sets of footsteps approaching at least.

“Oh you poor dear.. it’s okay Daniel it looks like she’s just overstretched herself a little.”
A soft, gentle hand that seemed to match the female voice speaking came to rest on my forehead and patted my hair after she was done checking my temperature.
“Don’t worry dear, this sort of thing happens all the time. You’d be surprised how many new mages decide to come to Yellowstone on their first waypoint day-trip.”

I opened my mouth to argue with her that I WASN’T a new mage and that this ISN’T my first waypoint trip but the moment I did the ‘sick’ feeling surged up again.
My lips quickly slammed shut and I clamped a hand over my mouth just to be safe.

“We’ll move you into the restaurants staff room until you’re feeling better dear, that way you can avoid embarrassment, okay?”
My head nodded and with slow, careful movements I eased myself out of the chair to be lead blindly out of the waypoint room.

A hallway later we entered a room with a few people chatting lightly in the corner.
I was lead over to a nice plush sofa and slid into its embrace gratefully.

My heads already clearing luckily, I’ve gotten pretty good at working through my motion sickness over the years.
It wouldn’t even be a problem normally if I hadn’t just warped three times in a row.
I’m pretty much at my limit, barring some kind of miracle, I’m not going anywhere by warp for at least another hour.. two if I want to feel at least slightly human by the time I reach my destination.

“Stay here and get her a cup of coffee Daniel, Tom will take over in the waypoint room for now.”
I squinted my eyes open and smiled a little at the warm look on the matronly looking Native American woman’s face.

She looks like she could be someone’s Mum?

“Okay Momma.”
I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes when the guy who picked me up before, Daniel apparently, answered so appropriately.

I should have seen that one coming honestly..
In touristy places like Yellowstone, a lot of mage clans tend to set up family businesses around the waypoints.

It’s a good little money spinner, usually it gives any non-mages born into the family an easy job too.

The Hub’s don’t mind it at all.
It costs less to subsidise a family for running a waypoint within their home/business than it does to pay a team of guards a full wage to do it instead after all..

At least I should be relatively safe here, even if there are any awakened mages working here their probably Native American.
The Native Americans have a lot of old techniques passed down through families to gain access to their past-lives knowledge without the weight of their memories coming with it all.

A lot of mages that come from European cultures originally think it’s all pretty disgusting honestly, like when John found out about my memory troubles, to European mages and most New Americans your past-life memories are just short of.. sacred?
It’s a pretty big clash of cultures that has left a sizable rift between the two magical sub-cultures honestly.

I winced when turning my head made me feel slightly dizzy again but my eyes came to rest on ‘Daniel’ at last.
His thick lips turned up into a warm smile that made my still recovering belly tingle a little.

What is it lately with me meeting tall, dark, handsome men?
His Native American heritage is obvious to see but that just adds an exotic edge to his good looks to my eyes.

I swear I don’t normally turn into such a hormonally charged mess around cute guys, but lately..
Ever since I got John to fix the cuffs to stop the past-incarnations involved in my cycle from usin-

..oh.. Damn magic!

My integration cycle!
My brain is taking past-lives and fully integrating them into my psyche!

The first one that I actively noticed it happening with was Dexi of all people.. no WONDER I’m acting like a love-struck schoolgirl at every moderately good looking guy I meet!

Dexi may have been jaded and wise to the way of the world for her age, but at her core she was always kind of a hopeless romantic.
She liked sex, she liked her job and she liked men in general but one of her biggest flaws as the roman equivalent of a ‘call girl’ was that she tended to fall for her clients a bit too much.

If I’m remembering it rightly that was one of the reasons they never used to let her work with the mage clients, her ‘owners’ didn’t like the idea of letting their powerful little pet go running off with another mage of some kind.

Dexi wouldn’t have put it that way but, like with my memories of life before my second awakening, there’s a certain detachment for me when I think about her memories that makes things that she missed or wilfully ignored feel SO painfully obvious.

I bet Dexi’s ‘owners’ couldn’t believe their luck when they got THE Arista as one of their working girls!
Wonder how many non-mage clients of hers truly knew who she was?..

How many of them chose her specifically because of the rush they could get from having her for a night?

The Romans were weird about mages.
They knew we were useful and they knew we were powerful but they didn’t tend to elevate normal mages above other people in society.

The God’s were different obviously, but times were different back then too.

The Roman Empire lasted for a LONG time.
By the time Dexi was born the elite had gained a lot more experience in dealing with mages and become rather jaded about religion in general.

That didn’t stop the normal people from still believing in the old gods obviously but the elite of Roman society tended to take joy in repressing or using mages for their own gains the longer the empire went on.
It was a dangerous game, one that ended up eventually biting them in the ass when they faced off with the warrior mage Celts in England but Roman society was all about playing games, dangerous or otherwise so I doubt they would have cared either way honestly.

There was this one time th-

“Do I have something on my face?”
Daniels lips were up in a slightly worried smile but he looked amused still.
At least he wasn’t annoyed at me for staring I guess?

“Sorry, I tend to drift off a bit sometimes.”

His warm, understanding smile made my belly tingle a bit more but I tried my best to ignore the feeling.
It’s just Dexi’s mind playing tricks on me.

I don’t really find him attractive, it’s just another case of my stupid brain being stupid!

It’s odd, when my magic was supressed by the cuffs I didn’t have this problem?..
Well.. no, actually I did I guess?..

The Aussies in all their gorgeousness.. that was a thing after all..

I don’t think I spaced out at all when I had the cuffs on though?
That’s something to think about.
To me that points to the slightly worrying idea that maybe the excess magic in my body is somehow flooding my brain so much that it’s making me space out more often?

Take away the magic, you take away the spacing out.. that sort of thing, ya know?

It’s something to keep in mind if I ever get around to actually doing a proper in-depth look at what the hell is going on in my head at least.
Who knows, maybe I’ve got a brain tumor or something equally mundane?
Gran DID say that people with a lot of compulsions put on them tended to die of brain aneurysms after all..

Okay, now I’m starting to get worried!

I should stop this stupidity, I’m not going to die!
My heads perfectly fine in a messed up ‘too much stuff in it with not enough organisation involved’ kind of way.

I’m just jumping at shadows.
It’s not like-

“You’re doing it again.”
Daniel’s amused smile still made my belly tingle even as I jolted back into the real world.

I don’t have time for this!
I need to find John!

If I focus on John maybe I won’t be so easily distracted.
My hand reached down to my side for the opening of my bag but came up empty.
For a moment my blood ran cold.

A second later Daniel reached down and pulled up my bag from the floor and offered it out to me.
I let out a long relieved sigh, taking the bag and smiling at him as best I could in gratitude.

“Is everyone here.. um..”
I cut my eyes over to the other two people wearing restaurant uniforms in the far corner.
Daniel seemed to understand what I was asking at least because he nodded with another warm smile.

My hand dived into the bag and pulled out the map to lay it out flat on the coffee table in front of us.
No point trying to be subtle if we’re all mages or at least know about magic in general..

I tried to ignore the curious eyebrow Daniel raised as I fished about for the compass and pen.

When I had it all laid out I took a deep breath and pushed myself to my feet.
For a moment I wobbled but I quickly managed to lock my knees and gain some level of stability instead of falling on my ass like an idiot.

Daniel seemed to be content with watching me in confusion as I closed my eyes and turned in a slow circle again.

When I had the two ‘tightness’ borders worked out I dropped back onto the sofa and started working on the map.
I’m facing east.. the first one was.. here.. and the other one.. HERE..
Just draw the lines out, the same as the last few sets..

My eyes shut tightly and I let out a long, slow groan of annoyance.

The good news is that I’ve managed to eliminate a lot of states from the search, practically all of them to be precise.
John’s either in Wyoming or.. no.. on second glance that’s it, just Wyoming actually?..

That’s great and all but it doesn’t help much considering that, from the way the lines divide up, we’re looking at a search of practically half the state!
That’s over fifty-thousand square miles to cover!

By the powers.. whatever made me think this was a good idea?
It looks so small and simple on the map, my thumbs bigger then the area left to cover..but in real life?..

I sunk back into the sofa and brought a hand up to rub at my eyes.
I’ve got a headache already to go along with the lingering travel sickness now.

I’m good but I’m not THAT good!
I’ve either gotta go for another warp trip to somewhere in east Wyoming so I can thin out the area AGAIN, which I’m REALLY not ready for at the moment, or.. I.. I don’t know?..

“Looks like you’re searching for something?”
I jumped at the sound of Daniel’s voice.
He’d leaned forward while I was busy complaining in my head and was staring at the map thoughtfully.
“If it’s magic related I’m surprised you didn’t just go to Avalon, someone there would surely be able to help you?”

Reluctantly I let my hand fall from my squinted eyes and I fixed him with a questioning look.

“New Avalon? The big traditionalist enclave in Overlook Mountain? It’s about fifty miles south of here..”
His hand came out and he pointed to a spot on the map that fell well within my search range.

..oh powers..

I’m such an idiot.. New Avalon!
New BLOODY Avalon!

John was running, running from storyteller but he knew that I would follow him and he wanted to stop me from following him into the Hub!
He obviously didn’t think I could get back to Klamath Falls so fast because logically there’s no way I should have been able to with the town’s waypoint down for ‘maintenance’.
I wouldn’t have been able to if not for Gran’s necklace!

Where’s the one place on earth that he could just appear while wounded and be SURE that there was a virtual army of awakened mages ready, willing and able to go save me?
NEW AVALON!

Trudy’s little trick..
Arista’s kids..

I thought it was weird that Narcissus and Echo would stake out my mailbox in Medford on the random chance that I’d go there.. but that’s not it!
It wasn’t random chance at all!

John knows me.
John knows FAR too much about me!

He knows how I think.
He knows what my priorities are.
He took himself to the one place that he could find a nearly fanatical group of powerful people willing to do anything to help their ‘Mother Arista’ and then gave them their marching orders!

If my plan hadn’t been so random..
If I hadn’t literally been picking places as I went while marking up the map..
I BET that I would have come across more and more of Arista’s kids whenever I reached my usual haunts until they finally managed to catch me, once and for all!

John wanted me brought to him.
I didn’t give Narcissus or Echo enough time to stop their childish arguing and explain the situation.

I did it again damn it!
I panicked and just REACTED!

“I don’t suppose there’s a quick way to get from here to New Avalon that doesn’t involve me using a waypoint is there?”
Daniel grimaced but shook his head in response.
I threw my head back to rest on the sofa and sighed loudly in return.
“What’s the waypoint taste for New Avalon?”

He seemed reluctant to tell me at first.
I think HE thinks that I should rest before I go off warping again..

Personally, I agree with him?.. that’s not really an option though, is it?

“I’m pretty much recovered now, I’m fi-IAAI!”
My brand burned ferociously in response to my attempted lie.

I’d completely forgotten about it in all the commotion going on, it was rather nice to not have to worry about it when I had the cuff’s on before but it made me a bit complacent..

“Are you okay?”
Daniel had a hand on my stomach holding me in place on the sofa so I didn’t fall off as I thrashed against the burn.
The two gossipers in the corner stopped talking to warily watch me from afar as well.

With a groan I pulled my still twitching body into something close to a sitting position and sighed hard.
Just what I didn’t need.. MORE aches and pains to go on top of my travel sickness!

“I’ll be fine eventually.”
Hopefully he’ll buy that.. a nice simple lie of omission.

I WILL be fine eventually.. I just didn’t say how long off ‘eventually’ would be.

Magic is stupid sometimes, old magic is even worse.
It does what you tell it to do, not what you MEAN it to do.

With John’s ‘no lies about your feelings’ brand it only works on direct lies.
If I just phrase things in the right way I can probably get away with saying anything and not setting it off, it just takes a bit of thinking before I speak which tends to be more of a problem for me then I’d like to admit honestly..

“What was that? You just started having a fit all of a sudden?”

I tried to smile reassuringly at him but my slight wince half way through probably didn’t help calm him down about it all.
I could go into all the things that are wrong with me but he’s a stranger, a cute stranger but still a stranger damn it!

“Can you tell me the waypoint taste for New Avalon please Daniel? A lot of my problems will go away if I can get there quickly..”
Like the thirty or so of Arista’s kids undoubtedly making a nuisance of themselves in my favorite hangouts at the moment..

“.. if you’re sure?..”
I nodded.
Obviously against his better judgement Daniel leaned his head back and sighed loudly.
“..Okay.. Avalon’s code is fresh cut grass, fresh baked bread and cooked wild boar..”

Great.. another weird one..

“Thanks Daniel, sorry for all the hassle.”
I leaned across the sofa and placed a little kiss to his cheek in thanks.
He blushed a rather amusing shade of red which shone through his dusky skin tone.

Before he could do anything more than smile at me slightly I bundled the map back into my bag and reached out with my magic senses.
As luck would have it the waypoint was easy to pick up and the moment that I did, it pulsed to show it was clear for arrivals.

With one last smile for him I jumped into the blue world of warp leaving the nice little staffroom behind.

======

I landed hard at the other end on my hands and knees.
My stomach apparently decided enough was enough because seconds later I puked up some of my Chinese breakfast.
It just so happened to splash onto the shoes of the highly un-amused waypoint guard standing before me in a thick black robe and holding a Magi-staff proudly.

“Sorry.. travel sickness is a bitch..”

His mood didn’t seem even slightly improved by my light tone and awkward, apologetic smile.
I feel a bit better for having gotten that out of my system.. at least that’s something right?

Without a thought I dipped into my lines and let off about two lines worth of magic in the form of my now classic ‘golden dome’ shape.

The guard staggered back a step as the dome hit him and spread across the room.
I couldn’t help but sigh in relief when the horrible smell disappeared leaving a sparklingly clean floor behind in its wake.

“Sorry again, I’m kinda in a hurry.”

The guard seemed too stunned to respond so I shrugged it off and staggered to my feet.
I feel better for having vented a bit of magic, my diversion can apparently help a little more than it did the first time if I push enough power into it?

The guard tried to call after me when I left the room but I’d already broken into a full run at that point.
Unlike Hub’s, enclaves traditionally didn’t have ‘reception areas’ as such
They did have a central enquiries area that newcomers could visit for help in finding the person or place they needed though, usually in the center of town.

When I came out of the waypoints little building into the street outside I paused in surprise.
This place is pretty impressive honestly?

Daniel wasn’t kidding when he said the enclave was ‘in’ Overlook Mountain.
High above our heads, dotted with tiny lights which almost look like stars at this distance is a massive dome of solid stone.
The Enclave is LITERALLY inside Overlook Mountain.

The city itself is HUGE.. I can see buildings going on, seemingly forever.
The space is way bigger then Klamath Falls at the very least!

I got slightly lost in looking over at the city with its odd mix of traditional building styles, more modern looking billboards and advertising lights.
That moment of wonder was shattered a second later when a rather dumpy woman in her late forty’s wearing an old wool robe walked past me and sniffed disdainfully to herself while glaring at me.

My eye’s drifted around the street and it was pretty easy to see why she reacted like that to me.
I’m getting a lot of attention already!

Daniel apparently ALSO wasn’t kidding when he said this was a ‘traditionalist’ enclave.
Everyone is either dressed like they just stepped out of the middle-ages or wearing thick black formal mage robes with wide hoods hanging down their backs.

Everyone also appears to be carrying either a Magi-staff like the guard in the waypoint room or a Wand!

Who the hell uses WAND’S in this day and age?!
They’re a crutch for the incompetent!

Non-awakened mages used to use them to help train children from an early age in how to harness their core’s power but they went out of fashion when people realised that full grown adults were going out into the world not knowing how to cast without them!
They were so conditioned into using wands that they couldn’t even FEEL their lines, let alone CAST with them!

“..stupid, backwards-ass idiots..”

It wasn’t until a young mother walking past me glared even worse than everyone else and hustled her kids away from me that I realised I’d said that out loud.
Judging by the glares I was getting now, she wasn’t the only one to hear me either.

With a heavy sigh I stepped out onto the street proper and joined the flow of people going towards the center of town.

Faster I get this over with the faster I can drag John back to Klamath Falls.
We may be a little town but at least we don’t have a load of idiot ‘traditionalists’ living with us!

I’d barely made it a hundred meters up the old cobbled street, with people glaring at me for the fact that I DARED to walk their streets in a bikini top and shorts, before a distraction decided to show itself in the form of a crying little girl.

She was huddled up against the side of a building on my left, her long red hair was tucked behind her ears but still messy and uneven looking in general.
She stood out, mostly because she was wearing a bright little modern style yellow top and a frilly pink skirt that I could imagine seeing in the kids section at the mall.

Everyone on the street seemed to be completely oblivious to her cries and sobs too?

I’ll admit, I felt rage build up in my chest at the sight of her.
It’s one thing for these traditionalist bastards to glare at me for wearing this awkward outfit in their city but she’s just a little kid!

What kind of sick bastards could just IGNORE a crying little girl like that when she obviously needs help, just because of the way she’s dressed?!

I slipped out of the moving crowd and made my way over to the girl’s side.
She flinched a little when I stepped close enough for her to notice me so I came to a stop and crouched down to her level to make myself look less imposing for her.

“Hi sweetie, are you okay? What’s wrong?”
She stared up at me with wide, frightened eyes.
Her little lip trembled as if she was moments from breaking into tears again while she stared up at me in surprise.

“..I lost my mommy..”

My heart melted a little at the plaintive tone of her voice.
A girl her age being separated from her parents would be bad enough, but in a city full of pompous traditionalist assholes like THIS one..

“It’s okay sweetie, do you know what her name is? I can take you to the town center so we can find her if you like?”

She stared at my face hard, in a way that was honestly quite adorable.
It looked like she was trying to decide if I was trustworthy or not?

She cautiously slipped forward on her knees so she was closer to me and tilted her head to the side as she examined my face.
Finally she seemed to be satisfied by what she saw because her little eyes lit up and a smile spread across her lips.

“Thank you! That’s okay though, I’ve found her now!”

Before I could react she dived forwards and latched her little arms around my waist.
A shock of magic went through my body out of nowhere.

What the hell is she doing?!
Why did she cast a numbing spell on m-
..oh.. crap..

Her little head turned up as she unburied her face from my stomach and she smiled at me with a bright, cheeky grin on her face which I’m now unwilling to admit is cute in ANY way!

“Gotcha Mommy! Dad said you’d be here eventually, his ring works too! I just got to call the others and we’ll go see him yeah?”

She looked EVER so pleased with herself as she let go of my frozen body with one hand and used it to fish around for something in her pocket.
With a flourish she drew out a wand which REALLY shouldn’t have fit into the little child-sized pocket sewn into the side of her frilly skirt and with a deft flick she sent up, what was essentially, a firework into the dark cavern sky.
It flew out high above the city and died with an eye-catching pop of red light.
Her task seemingly done she slid her wand back into her pocket and moved herself over so she could hug my still frozen body even more than her first grasp had managed.

“I’ve missed you Mom, everyone else has too. When we’ve gone to see Daddy can we have ice-cream?”
She turned big, bright puppy-dog eyes up at my frozen face.
A part of me melted at the look but a larger, much more mature and angry side wanted to pick her up by her adorable little neck and make sure she never pulls this sort of crap on me again!

I can’t believe I got tricked by a bloody toddler!!

Have you ever had that feeling that everything’s happening far too quickly, yet painfully slowly at the same time? It’s like watching a house of cards you built with so much care come crashing to the ground all at once.. it’s not a nice feeling to be honest. Events unfold including but not limited to: John being short of breath (although that’s hardly his biggest problem) and Hannah.. Hannah breaks the rules a bit?..

 

People were giving us a slightly wide berth at this point.
I was stuck in a tiny awkwardly clear spot within the sea of people progressing down the street around us.
Even ‘traditionalists’ are smart enough to recognise trouble when they see it apparently?

The little brat won’t stop clinging to me
It doesn’t look like she has any intention of letting go anytime soon from the looks of it either!

She’s not saying much, it’s kind of weird how she’s clammed up so quickly actually?
I wish I could move my lips so I could talk to her or something..

Even if it would just be so that I could yell at her for tricking me like this if nothing else!

She’s got a pretty good full body paralysis spell going on me though, I’ll give her that much credit.
It’s surprisingly powerful for her size and apparent age.. although ‘age’ can be deceiving with mages I guess?

I’m honestly not sure what spell she’s used to make my body so unresponsive, it doesn’t FEEL like any spell I’ve been under before?

It’s definitely not lightning magic like Gran used on me before, yet somehow it seems to be just as effective at leaving me a sitting duck for attacks.. or in this case worryingly intense, rather embarrassing cuddles?

“You’re shorter than usual.”
Her voice was light, almost conversational when she finally decided to break the silence.

I wanted to move my head down a bit so I could see her facial expressions better but with her current location, buried tightly into my side with a strong grip that I don’t think she’ll ever let go of at this rate, that isn’t likely to be much of an option.

I’d probably struggle to see her face even if I wasn’t frozen stiff judging by how she’s nestled herself into me so tightly to be honest..

“I like it. You’re always cuter when you’re short.. Daddy likes it better too ‘cause he can pick you up easier if you start arguing about silly things.”
This is so frustrating!

I want to talk to her!
I want to stop her prattling on and just get the important details about everything that’s going on, specifically JOHN!

She thinks I’m Arista obviously but.. her ‘Daddy’?..
She IS talking about John, right?

I assumed as much but she’s not even directly said his name yet!
..does John like that I’m short now?..

It’s a stupid thing to focus on but it’s not like I can do much else at the moment and I’m kind of curious actually.. now that she’s brought it up?

He picked me up back at the farm so he could carry me across the grass when I argued about walking across it?.. that kinda fits with what she was saying I guess..

He was really casual about it too, now that I think about it?
As if it was just something normal, so completely normal to scoop me up and carry me around the garden like some kind of oversized doll!

“I guess that won’t be the case for much longer though? By the time he reincarnates again you’ll be all old and tall..”

My blood ran cold.
What does she mean ‘reincarnates again’?
Is.. is John.. dead?

Am I too late?!

If I’d just used my brain and taken the time to think instead of running around the county I would have been here so much sooner!
I should have.. I could have saved him!
He..
I..

J..John..?..

I couldn’t move at all but apparently my tear ducts still work.
Two thick dribbles slowly poured out from each corner of my eye and the shallow breaths I could manage became a little more frantic.

John..

My magic rumbled uneasily.
It swirled about at a progressively faster pace through my body, fighting to get loose in response to my troubled emotions.
I can feel that whatever kind of ‘paralysis’ she’s holding me under is slowly slipping away?

It is my chance to escape!.. but I.. I can’t?..
John.. John is..

My hand flew up to my mouth to stop the sudden powerful urge to puke again.
I’d take the time to celebrate having apparently broken the spell later but I’m kind of busy holding back the urge to vomit right now.
My stomachs not quite right still and the shock just..

The little girl gasped, leaning away from me in surprise for some reason.
She stared up at me with wide, worried eyes.

“How did you break free?.. you can’t do that!”
She dived forward and grabbed me around the waist again with gritted teeth.

With my magic cycling through me so viciously now from my messed up emotions I could feel when she tried to paralysis me again.
It barely even took a blink of my eye to push the spell away now that I could see it coming and had some prior warning.

She was shocked still when I reached out and took a solid grip on her waist in return for the ‘hug’ she was giving me.

With a squeeze I managed to pull her up to eye-level, even from my kneeling position she was short enough that her little legs dangled in the air beneath her in an almost comic way.

Her face scrunched up in fear as she stared at me with wide scared eyes.
“Mommy?”

I flinched when she said it but I have to know.. I need to know if he’s..

“What happened to John? Is he still alive?”
Her eyes seemed impossibly wide but her face sunk into confusion instead of giving me any kind of indication either way.

“..who’s John?..”

For a moment I breathed a sigh of relief.
It figures that, with my luck, she would be one of Arista’s kids from some guy who ISN’T John.
He’s fine.
He’s got to be fine.. he-
Crap..

“Max?”

Her head perked up again and she smiled at me for a second in recognition.
So much for that idea.. oh powers.. John, no?!

“Daddy’s fine? He’s sleeping a lot and it won’t be long until he moves on to his next awakening but he’s been surprisingly active lately. He REALLY wants to see you Mom.”

HOW CAN SHE BE SO CALM ABOUT THIS?!

John.. John’s dying?
He wants to see me but she seems so calm and accepting about the idea that he’s going to die as if it’s.. as if it’s normal?!
..idiot..

She’s got to be awakened too, despite her worryingly young age?
Awakened mages.. death is more of an inconvenience and an excuse to have a ‘see you soon’ party called a ‘Requiem’ then an actual reason to cry for them!

John.. she knows him as Max..
If he dies then he’ll be reborn at some point but.. he’ll come back as Max, not John?..
Not MY John at least..

“You’re going to take me to him.. now.”
She stared at me with some level of awe.

Other people were giving us a pretty wide berth again at this point.
At a glance it was pretty obvious why, my magic is going a little out of control from my worry.
I can feel a faint golden glow suffusing my skin from-

“MOMMY!”

I barely managed to turn in time to get a face full of obscenely huge squishy cleavage.
The little girl in my arms got caught up in the flying tackle/hug as well judging by the muffled grunt she gave off in protest at having her face squished between my chest and the huge things that just collided with us.

“Oh you’re just ADORABLE! No wonder Daddy wanted to see you again before his passing, I could just EAT you UP your so cuteee!”

..can’t.. breathe..

Not again!
What is it with Arista’s kids and trying to choke me to death?!

The little girl, who was now loosely held in my arms but had her left cheek squashed painfully against my chest by the newcomer, wriggled around frantically for a moment until her little head popped up from between us and she took a frantic breath of relief.

“GET YOUR BIG FLAPPING MAN-COW TITS OUT OF MY FACE ‘DITE!”
The newcomer flinched and practically dropped us in her rush to let go.

Some obvious eavesdroppers in the people walking past flinched at her volume and probably her language as well, even a few people that weren’t eavesdropping appeared to flinch just by how badly they staggered away from us suddenly.

I flinched too honestly, more at the little ones sudden volume and anger than anything else.

At least the newcomer HAD let us go though.
I sunk to my knees and panted for breath while my eyes were drawn over to the newcomer to take her in properly.

If there was ever going to be a personification for ‘Stereotypical Californian Blonde Bimbo’ it would be her!

Long, thick blonde hair running from the top of her head down to her tight bubble-butt, ending with the lightest of barrel curls at the bottom of her short denim skirt.
A deep sun-kissed tan that made it look like she’d spent practically all of her life lying out by the beach, which would make sense if the yellow skin-tight T-shirt she had on proclaiming herself ‘Surfing Queen of Huntington Beach’ was anything to go by.
She had a near perfect ‘Barbie-doll’ face, with button nose, wide innocent looking eyes and a figure that countered that innocent face nicely by just being SO mind-blowingly over-endowed!

The complete effect was so powerful that I actually shied away from her a little in shame at how she totally outclassed my own less than amazing figure.
For a long moment I actually started to sink into insecurities about my appearance before my brain kicked back in and decided to remind me that I’m not really a girl so I shouldn’t care if she has breasts bigger than my head!

..how my hips, wider then Sarah’s, didn’t even come close to hers.
..how her face looked like it was carved by some kind of artist while mine had puffy childish cheeks and annoyingly small eyes.

With a jolt I realised just WHAT I was doing?!

Just LOOKING at her was making things worse!
In a last ditch attempt to save at least some of my self-confidence before she ruined that too, my eyes diverted away from her to look down at my feet.

She’s.. she’s perfect?!
THAT’S SO NOT FAIR!

“There’s no need to be mean Eris..”

Her voice could break hearts just from how lost and sad she sounded?
It trickled into your ear like warm honey and made you instantly want to just stare at her in awe.
The slight pout on her lips didn’t help at all either..

All around us, stuffy traditionalist men in their dark robes were stopping in their tracks to stare at her in some kind of.. some kind of lust induced haze?

Frantic traditionalist women were trying to get the attention of their husbands and son’s while shooting angry glares at the blonde but they failed terribly as the newcomer turned her chest slightly and somehow shifted what was previously a painfully hurt look of devastated innocence into an invitation for a man, any man, to come and comfort her in ANY way he saw fit.

She did it all with nothing but body language alone and honestly..
I don’t think she even noticed that she was doing it?..

She’s kind of too busy focusing on the little one, apparently trying valiantly not to cry over her ‘mean’ comments about her huge breasts, to be in any way ‘acting’ at the moment.
The ‘almost’ crying expression just ramped up the vulnerable air around her and made things even worse again!

“You’re making a scene ‘Dite. Let’s just go.. I’m sorry I yelled..”
The blonde perked up almost instantly when the little girl she called ‘Eris’ practically muttered out her apology.

It was as if the sun had come out from behind the clouds.
The effect that just a simple twitch could have on the men around us was kind of worrying honestly.

When she turned her head slightly to look at ‘Eris’ properly a strand of her blonde hair fell delicately across one eye and all the men let off a simultaneous sigh at the sight of it.

I tried to take a step away from the pair of them but a little hand shot out and grabbed my arm before I could get away.
The look of.. something?.. hope, maybe?.. in little Eris’s eyes when she looked at me pleadingly stalled me into reluctant immobility, mid-movement.

I didn’t even flinch a moment later when the suddenly, strangely happy blonde, ‘Dite’ scooped her up in a big squishy hug while squealing something about being forgiven for the last time she hugged the poor girl.

It felt like a long, awkward pause as I stood there watching ‘Dite’ swing ‘Eris’ around as if she was a favourite doll and laugh to herself innocently in happiness.

When she finally did let go it looked like Eris was having trouble staying upright from all the jerking movements she’d endured.
I offered her an arm to keep her from falling over, she took it as an invitation to slide into my side instead and hugged me tightly around the waist again.

“Can you lead us home ‘Dite?”
Eris sounded subdued now, as if the big hug a second ago had somehow taken the fight out of her completely.

‘Dite’ nodded and smiled vacantly at us before moving quickly to the right so she could walk out onto the street proper.

The crowd of traditionalists around us parted as she moved.
I helped support Eris for a few steps but it was pretty obvious that she was having trouble walking now for some reason?

With a reluctant sigh I scooped her up in my arms and settled her on my hip.
I’ve done this sort of thing before, I stood in for Sarah as a babysitter at one point.

Eris isn’t much bigger then little Jimmy, the boy I was looking after at the time, and when he tired himself out at the park I’d inevitably end up having to carry him home afterwards just like this.

With a little jiggle and shake I managed to get Eris comfortable enough on my hip that I could start to quickly pace after ‘Dite’ who was already making a worrying amount of progress ahead of us, having seemingly forgotten that she was meant to be leading us in her enthusiasm to be helpful.

Eris shifted her head and ended up settling it on my left breast, just above my heart.
She let out a little sigh, her hands scrunching into fists when she tried to get some kind of grasp on me which would probably have been easier if I had more than just a bikini top on honestly.

“I missed you Mom..”
The moment those words left her mouth she blushed heavily and buried her face into my shoulder shyly.

I don’t want to admit that a little bit of me melted there too.
I’m not her mother, I’m not Arista.. but it seems like she could really do with having a hug from the next best thing.

My hand came up almost automatically to pat her hair in the same way Mum used to do for Sarah when we were kids.

That little action seemed to drain the last bit of energy from Eris because she just went limp in my arms.
It took me a long moment to realise that the slight shaking I could feel on my hip was coming from her.

I think.. I think she’s crying?..

I shot a look at ‘Dite’s retreating form to make sure I hadn’t lost her and gently moved my free hand up to brush Eris’s hair out of her face.
She rolled her head into my touch and stopped shaking for a moment.

When I went to move my hand back she started again so I gave in and moved my hand back up to rest at the nape of her neck, against her warm little cheek.
That’s another thing I remember Mum doing for us a lot when we were younger..

My eyes scanned around us again and I tensed slightly at some of the surprisingly approving glances I was suddenly getting from the traditionalist women around me

I ended up focusing on following in ‘Dite’s wake out of embarrassment more than anything as we walked deeper into the Enclaves network of seemingly packed winding cobbled streets.

This is going to be a long trip, I can just FEEL it!

======

It felt like we’d been walking for hours but realistically it’s probably only been about twenty minutes.
Eris seemed to get progressively heavier as we walked, especially when she apparently fell asleep in my arms and became a completely dead weight all of a sudden.

We finally reached some big archways with words inscribed above them in different languages for each one.
At a glance I could tell what they said, the arch to our left was luckily written in Latin.

I had to get good at Latin, it’s my main runic language after all.

‘Home of the Second. Invites only, challengers by appointment, love rivals please use the side entrance through the septic tank and then use the ritual blade provided to kill yourselves.’

..charming..

I can’t shake the feeling John had a hand in that message?
It feels like his kind humor honestly, snarky and trite with just a touch of aggressive annoyance.

It looks practically fresh cut into the stone of the archway, although that doesn’t tell me much really considering this is a magical city.
There’s probably some kind of ‘ever-fresh’ enchantment on the archway to stop it from being damaged or decayed over time, logically speaking.

‘Dite’ turned to face me with a proud smile on her perfect face.
I couldn’t help but wince.

Just her face in general is lethal, a smile makes the effect ten times worse somehow.

If she’s really as innocent as she appears to be then something weird is going on because there’s NO WAY a woman who looks like HER could have gone anywhere in life without being accosted by desperate men to a point that any innocence in her was beaten out by jaded disgust?!

I’m not even close to being in the same league as her looks-wise and even I’VE had an introduction into just how creepy straight guys can be when you’re a two-legged female of the human variety over the last week or so..

“Daddy’s inside, everyone else is busy preparing for his Requiem but I think Hygeia and Apollo are with him if you want to go see him now?”
‘Dite’ moved back towards me with a natural hip-rolling gait that made me feel a little jealous all over again.. despite the fact that I’m not even really a girl, aside from.. ya know.. biologically speaking..

“Here, I’ll take her for now. She’s already spoken to Daddy and you don’t have much time left to see him where he will actually remember it all later..”

I loosened my grasp on Eris’s legs enough that she gently slid from my grasp.
She groaned a little in her sleep but settled with relative ease on to ‘Dite’s.. hip..

..'Dite?..
We’ve got Narcissus, Eris and she just mentioned Hygeia and Apollo too..
Greek.. they’re all Greek god’s and goddesses?

By that logic there’s only one answer to who ‘Dite’ really is.
No wonder she’s so beautiful, seemingly matching every shallow, stereotypical ‘male’ fantasy you hear about..
She’s Aphrodite!

The Greek Goddess of love and beauty!
She looks like every red-blooded American boys wet dream come to life because in some way that’s exactly what she is, if myth is to be believed at least?..

“Thanks Aphrodite, do you want me to come back out and take her so you can see him too in a bit?”
I mostly asked just to have an excuse to test the waters and see if that really is her name honestly.
It’s probably a good idea to offer to swap places with her at some point as well though I guess..

“Don’t worry, I’ve already had my time with him. Take what time you have left, Requiem’s are important and he specifically wants to see you Mom.”
Her smile was so sweet and innocent that it almost felt false, but my magic’s rolling around enough inside me that picking up her emotions isn’t hard in ANY way.

She’s actually giving off near solid waves of worryingly pure happiness and contentment?
It’s kinda odd to think that a mage could BE so openly nice honestly..

In my experience most mages tend to be at least slightly messed up in the head, which tends to leave them with a slightly cynical view of the world.
Even the nice ones don’t tend to escape that little mental trap.

Aphrodite, that must be her name considering she didn’t correct me, reached out her free arm and gave me a surprisingly gentle hug before nodding to me and wandering off with a sleeping Eris resting on her hip.

Reluctantly I turned to face the door that would lead me through to John.
I’m kind of scared to go in there.. what do I do if he’s.. if he’s..

NO!

The faster I get in there and see him, the faster I can help save him and we can get on with our lives!
He can go back to being his usual, annoying self and I can go back to trying to pretend that he doesn’t exist!

I don’t know why but my breath hitched in my chest slightly and my eyes suddenly feel a bit damp?
John..

Before I could lose my nerve again I quickly moved over to the door and opened it with a bit too much force.
The hallway inside seemed dull compared to the surprisingly well-lit high ceilinged cave-like streets outside.

A fresh-faced boy, about my current height and apparent age, wearing a lightweight white robe and sandals wandered out of a side door carrying a bowl of water.
He froze when he spotted me, seemingly a bit stunned as he got a good look at my face.

“Mother?..”

I cringed a little.
I’m never going to get used to people calling me that!
In a way, I’d kinda prefer it if they called me ‘Arista’.. at least that one doesn’t make me feel awkward and a bit uneasy, just mildly annoyed instead..

“Father is through here, come, he doesn’t have long left.”
My heart hammered in my chest and it took everything I had to put one foot in front of the other as I followed him inside.

It can’t be that bad.. John’s like a cockroach.. right?
Nothing short of the End of the World is going to kill him!

I’d almost convinced myself of that fact when I turned the corner and stopped in my tracks.

He.. oh powers..
I practically broke into a sprint to cross the room and reach his side.

His skin’s so pale and clammy?
His veins.. they’re risen up visibly on his skin and they’re BLACK!

His eyes blearily focused on me and despite the obvious pain it caused him his face broke into a smile.
A moment later it slipped off again as he seemed to crumple into a coughing fit that hurt MY chest just from witnessing it before he finally sunk back onto his bed heavily.

The moment he was settled down again the smile came back to his lips despite everything that was happening.

“You made it..”
His voice was barely above a whisper.
It didn’t sound right.. it didn’t sound like his voice anymore.. it’s too.. it’s too weak?..
“I knew you would.”

His pale, shaking hand came up painfully slowly.
I leaned closer to save him some work as it finally came to stop, resting against my cheek.
His thumb gently moved to the side and wiped away a tear I hadn’t even realised was forming in my eye.

“John.. tell me what to do? How can I fix this? Should.. should I blast you with my magic?”
It sounded stupid when I said it like that but it’s the only thing I can think of that might help!
I’m not a healer!
I wish to the powers that I was but I’m not.. all I can do is use my diversion now..

“No.. use..”
His words came out in soft painful pants as if it hurt just to speak suddenly.

The guy in the white robe, I think it’s safe to assume that he’s probably ‘Apollo’ at this point, put a gentle hand on my shoulder and glanced over at John.

“We’ve tried everything, some of the world’s best healers have come in to help him and they’ve all left empty handed to join the others for the Requiem.. whatever it is that’s effecting him is..”
Apollo’s hand tensed on my shoulder almost painfully as frustration battled with sadness and anger for dominance on his face.
“It’s vicious.. it’s a type of magic we’ve never seen before, his blood is literally turning to poison, we tried cycling in new blood but it just spread into it and sped up the magic’s progression..”

“..john..”
My breath hitched in my chest in a strangled gasp, I couldn’t resist the urge to lean forward and lay my arms around him the gentlest hug that I could manage.
Even then he took in a sharp breath of pain.

“I need to..”
His voice trailed off so he could take in another sharp breath.
“..I nee..”
His voice got even quieter somehow.

Even with my magic enhancing my hearing again I had to lean in to hear what he was saying.
His breath was hot as it brushed against my cheek.
For one horrible moment I wasn’t leaning over him in this dark little room on his bed..

I was in an abandoned service tunnel?

John was older, bigger.. his face wasn’t right..
He looked at me with loving but pained eyes and coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Karl?..

“..Arista..”

I froze.
My body didn’t want to move but honestly that doesn’t matter because it felt like someone had just punched me in the chest.

Why?.. why did he..
“I’m not her John.. you know that?”

How could he.. John?..

He stared at me with glazed eyes that I don’t think could really see me at this point.
Despite that, he seemed to be building himself up to something.

A moment later I felt my body lock up and my eyes draw themselves towards his.

He’s doing it again!
How the hell can he cast magic when he’s like this?!

“Look.. at me.. and speak.. truth..”
His breathing’s gotten even worse!

It must be taking everything he has to do this?!
WHY?!

“John, what are you doing? Stop this, you’re not in any state to be-”
I could throw him off at any time.
His magic is so weak right now but if I did that.. if I did that I might end up killing him?..

“Stop.. talking.”
My lips slammed shut despite my best efforts.
Slowly his hand came up to grip my wrist weakly.

For a moment I wondered why Apollo hadn’t done something to help me but he seemed reluctant to get between us from what I could see out the corner of my eye.
I guess Arista’s kids WOULD be smart enough to not get in-between their usually volatile parents, wouldn’t they?

“I know who I’m.. taking to.”
A chill ran down my spine at the sudden coldness in his quiet, pained voice.
“I know you’re.. in there Arista.. I know what you’re.. doing and I’m telling you now to.. stop..”

He’s delirious?.. He’s got to be!.. b.. but what he’s saying..

For some reason his words are making me uncomfortable?
Not a normal kind of ‘uncomfortable’.. it feels like my heads getting.. fuzzy?..

“She’s not the one Arista.. just.. just let it go?.. please..”
He sunk into another coughing fit, one so vicious that it actually broke the truth spell on me as his concentration slipped.
My body practically collapsed along with the spell and I quickly pulled away from him.

I stared at him with wide, scared eyes.
I don’t know what he was trying to do but.. he did something?
My head..

His coughs finally died off and he rolled his face to the side with a wince so he could look at me again with those far too soft, pained eyes.

“Just let her go.. she’s innocent in all.. of this.. Arista.. pleas-“
Before he could say anymore his voice cracked and he burst into another horrible death-rattle like coughing fit.

“..John?..”
I was a little reluctant to approach him again honestly but.. but he’s John, ya know?..

His pale lips twitched up into a horribly warm smile, the kind of smile you give a friend you’re never going to see again to make them feel better.
“I love you.. Hannah..”

I froze stiff again.
My mind spun frantically in a painful mess of thoughts and memories.
..those words..

Before my eyes the world shifted?
The bedroom was gone again.

I squinted my eyes down tightly to see properly in the dark, dank service tunnel.
My hands were coated in blood.
..not my blood?..

John..
His face shifted again.
..Karl?

“I love you Hannah..”

My heart hammered in my chest so hard I couldn’t breathe properly.
Why.. why is he..?

John?.. Karl?.. what.. what’s happening?!

“I love.. you.. Hannah..”
The words echoed around in my head so much it hurt!

I’m panicking!
I know I’m panicking!
Why WOULDN’T I be BLOODY PANICKING!!

The world shook again and with a jolt I was back in the bedroom, John stared up at me with so much pain and hurt on his face.
A thin trail of blood trickled out the corner of his mouth and he coughed again sending droplets of crimson onto the bedsheets around him.

I couldn’t move.
My eyes were stuck, staring at the blood on his lips.

It’s happening again!
It’s happening again.. because of me?..

John went to the Hub because of me!
He got hurt because of me!
He.. John..

He coughed loudly and let out a long, rattling breath as his eyes shut and his body went limp.

“JOHN!”
Frantically I surged forward and scooped him into my arms.

He didn’t move.
He’s not breathing!

“JOHN! JOHN YOU’RE NOT DYING ON ME YOU SON OF A BITCH!”

He’s not moving!
He’s not moving!
He’s.. he’s not..

..john..

I can’t see anything.
The world is blurred from my tears but I’ve got him, I rocked him in my arms as if it would help in some way but he didn’t react!

“..john..”

Apollo shifted to my left and came up to my side.
He slid a gentle hand on my shoulder and moved to ease my grip on John.

NO!

He’s NOT dead!
JOHN’S NOT DEAD!!

He’s not.. he’s.. he’s not..

My magic is in chaos, my minds even worse.
I can’t.. John?.. John don’t..

..don’t leave me?..

In a last desperate attempt I tried to grasp some of my magic and force it out.
I can’t concentrate!
I barely managed a flash of golden light!

It’s not enough!
It’s not enough!

I’m not enough..
..not.. not again?..
..not John..

An angry growl rumbled low in my chest.
Magic sparked between my fingers and my hair swayed in an unseen breeze.

You’re not doing this to me John you ASSHOLE!

With everything I had I grabbed every last scrap of magic I could and forced it out.
A solid golden dome of power arced out of my body and quickly spread past the walls of the room.

For one moment I felt it.
For one glorious moment I HEARD it!
His heartbeat..

Just one.. one little thump..
It’s not enough?
My magic’s not enough, my diversion.. I..

NO!
I’m not giving up like this!

I’m a FREAK!
I’m one of the most powerful mages in existence!
I’m.. I’m a.. a locus point?..

With inspiration born of the thousand desperate plans that flew through my mind in the moment between heartbeats I dived into my lines and started to draw in magic.

I’m a locus point!
I naturally draw in magic from the very AIR around me just by EXISTING!
..who’s to say that’s all I can do?!..

Time to see if you were right John.. let’s see if power and ‘wishes’ are stronger than reality!

All the currently refilling, pooled magic in my body moved towards my core at a mental nudge from me.
With a thought and a forceful mental-push I compressed it all down like a tightly squeezed spring.
The full potential of my body’s worth of magic squashed into a tiny space just above my heart!

It’s not enough!
I need more!

Magic was already pouring in to fill the void in my body left behind by the compression of the other magic but it’s not FAST enough!

“You’re MY magic damn it! You do what I SAY!”

As if my words were some kind of spell all of their own, the seemingly too slow trickle of magic pouring back into my body jumped up in pace at my command.
It was still coming from my skin and flowing along my lines towards my core like before but now it’s faster?!

I.. I can do this?..
I CAN DO THIS!

MORE!
I need MORE!

The magic reached saturation point and with a shove I compressed it all down again, leaving my body empty for more to come in.

“You’re not dying on me John! You’re NOT leaving me alone!”

More! Faster!
Compress! Shift! Draw in!

In the time between seconds, all of the magic coming into my body started speeding up again.
More and more, so much tightly bound magic that it HURTS!

I can’t breathe!
My heart is hammering away in my chest but I CAN’T stop!

I REFUSE TO STOP!

I couldn’t save Karl.
I didn’t have the skills!
I didn’t have the POWER!

I’m not that innocent love-sick little boy anymore damn it!

I’m the next incarnation of Arista!
Everyone seems convinced that that should mean something, that it makes me somehow special?!
People thought we were GODS back in the old days!

I’LL SHOW THEM A FUCKING GOD!!

The world seemed to slow down as I tried to shift my lines.
After a long second that felt like an eternity I gave up even TRYING to control my magic and left my lines alone to do as they would so I could focus more on the power I was building up to unnatural levels within my core.

I’ve got more magic then I ever dreamed possible inside me!
My core is so flooded with tightly compressed magic, it feels like I’m going to have a heart-attack?!

It seemed like my arms were moving in slow-motion as I lifted them up and planted my palms flat on John’s chest.

“YOU’RE NOT DEAD YOU BASTARD! REVĪVŌ!”

It’s a nonsense spell word, latin for ‘Revive’, I had to say SOMETHING though!
There ISN’T a spell to bring someone back like this but I’m MAKING ONE damn it!

“REVĪVŌ! REVĪVŌ!”

With a final push I managed to get all of the compressed magic from my core to bubble across my skin and released in one concentrated blast of sheer power.

I’ve said that I ‘explode’ with this golden diversion of mine before but that’s all been practically NOTHING when compared to this one, those pathetic little domes I’ve been letting off are like bottle rockets compared to a nuke with this new spell that I just let loose on the world!

“REVĪVŌ!!”
With everything I had, with all of my WILL and my DESIRE I forced the power streaming out of me into my palms.

I’m NOT living like this without John!

I’m NOT going to face all the messed up, crazy shit that happens in my life without him there to understand me again!
He’s the ONLY person that understands me!
He’s the only person that ever COULD understand what my life is like!

In a second it was over.
My magic ran dry leaving me feeling so blissfully.. painfully, hollow inside.

My arms went limp.
My whole body went dead a heartbeat later.. to the point that I just collapsed on top of John’s still warm corpse.

I can’t breathe.. I can’t see.. I can’t..

My ears strained for a lifetime waiting for it.
Hoping for it.
PRAYING for it!

Come on John.. don’t do this to me..

‘Thump’
My whole body twitched.
‘thump-thump’
I couldn’t move my body enough to cheer but my mouth managed to twitch up into a smile at least.

‘thump-thump’

..welcome back John..
I told you not to die on me you selfish, arrogant bastard!

I almost allowed myself to pass out before he surged up on the bed, throwing my body further down it and sucking in an inhumanly deep breath while he frantically scrambling his arms around as if he was being attacked in some way.

“John..”
My voice came out weaker than I’d intended but his manic eyes settled on me and his mouth slowly dropped open in shock.

“Hannah?”

I couldn’t help the giggle that rolled out of my chest.
I couldn’t stop it when it progressed into a full blown laugh and proceeded up again into a painful cackle that shook my whole body.

It feels like I’m losing my mind!

Everything’s so surreal!
I just.. I just raised the dead?!

SCREW YOU LICH’S!
There’s a new power in town, you ain’t the only ones who can bring people back anymore ya sick bastards!
My John is a DAMN sight better than your pathetic little undead army’s too!

My chest hurt but I couldn’t stop laughing.
The after-effects of venting my magic are so powerful this time that they’re out of control?
I’m out of control but.. but I’m clear?

I can think clearly for once, I can feel the effects rolling through me still but I can think clearly through them anyway?

While my body was lost.. numb and stuck in a loop of laughter that’s probably going to do some kind of damage to me in the long run.. my MIND isn’t stuck along for the ride for once?

This.. this could be either good or very.. VERY bad..

======

I lost track of how long I was laughing for.

From what I can see, John’s awake, alive and apparently even up for walking about judging by how quickly he shot out of bed and scooped me up into his arms to lay me down on it as I laughed maniacally to myself.

Apollo tried to check him over but John refused treatment, his eye’s kept trying to catch mine as my body thrashed on the bed.

..He looks so serious?..
He’s still John but he looks worried, the fun’s gone from his face?

It’s like.. there’s nothing but care for my safety left in him at this point?
..it’s kinda making my chest feel warm just looking at him..

..no.. wait?..
That’s not what’s causing it?!

As I watched on from whatever part of my mind I’ve managed to lucidly sink into, while my body rolls with the waves of pleasure and laughter hitting it, my stomach slowly started to get cold for some reason and my chest started to feel unusually warm.. HOT even!

My body’s laughter shifted suddenly.

It’s not manic anymore.. it’s.. it’s broken?..
A broken kind of giggle that I’ve only heard one other time in person before..

As if that realisation was some kind of trigger, my body suddenly stopped laughing.

Without any input from me it rolled itself up into a sitting position and grinned at John’s slightly stunned face.
I couldn’t control anything but I could feel something.. some emotions?.. something alien to my mind just under the surface?

“Hello Max..”

..what?..
Why.. why did I say that?
I DIDN’T SAY THAT!

“It’s been so longgg darling, you look well? I take it Little Alice did her job?”

John’s face had gone slack from the moment this alien.. thing.. started talking.
Slowly his face flushed with anger and he shifted his body forward to glare at me.

“Arista?”

My blood ran cold.
No.. no, not now!

NOT EVER!
No, no, no, no, no, NO!

“Our survey says... bzzzt.. nice try Max, want to have another go?”
My hands moved up to fold carelessly under my breasts, pushing them up as my body leaned back like some kind of pin-up model.
That horrible, broken giggle rolled off my tongue again and I finally realised what it truly meant.

“..Theodora?..”
John said it at pretty much the exact same moment that I thought it.

“Oh Max.. my Max.. what HAS that girl been doing to you?”
My hands came loose from under my breasts and reached out to touch John.
He jolted away from me and glared harder.

“What’s going on Dora? You’re not like Arista, I’d expect a takeover bid from her but YOU?..”

My lips moved into a playful pout.
My arms folded back in again and a cheerful little tuneless hum rumbled in my throat.

“I DO wonder.. why would I, the single greatest Oracle of my line, come out to play when Little Alice left herself so invitingly open.. so RIPE for the taking?..”

John flinched and diverted his eyes from me for some reason.

I could feel my lips pull back into a delighted grin.
Her emotions are getting clearer in my head.

Knowing what she is, knowing WHO she is.. it makes it easier to decipher what it all means.
She’s happy?
She’s more than happy, she’s ecstatic!

“A prophecy?.. you’re here to give a true prophecy.. about Hannah?”

My whole body shifted with lightning precision.
A hand came up to my chest and settled with splayed fingers against my right breast while my mouth moved into an exaggeratedly offended looking ‘O’ shape.

“Oh please, don’t be so boring Max.. I’m here to join the party!”
She shifted my legs and folded one over the other leaving me perched delicately on the side of the bed while my eyebrow popped up teasingly at Johns obvious confusion.

“The Fae are screaming Max, can’t you hear it? It’s so deliciously ironic!”
She unfolded my legs and kicked them childishly over the side of the bed.

“Every Prophet, every oracle or two-bit soothsayer on the planet is screaming with them too, by this time tomorrow morning every mage from here to Timbuktu will have heard the magic’s message!”
My lips pulled back into an amused grin.
“Even the normals know something’s going on, they’ll call it a ‘solar-flare’.. whatever THAT is.. they ARE simple creatures, who can blame them for their confusion I guess?..”

She leaned my body forward and squeezed my arms in a way that emphasised my not-so-impressive cleavage.

“I knew from the first time we met that Little Alice would be fun but even I didn’t foresee this much wondrous chaos!”

John glared at me and tensed his neck as if he was holding himself back from doing something he’d regret.
I think he’s struggling to handle having ‘me’ act like Theodora, he tends to be a man of action most of the time so holding back like this must be horrible for him?

When it’s Theodora in control, even I wouldn’t fault him for punching me in the face or something!

“Little Alice?”
Hardly an important or helpful question John?!

It’s pretty obvious that’s just Theodora being Theodora!

She said something similar the last time I saw her, calling me ‘Little Alice’ and talking about me seeing just how far the rabbit hole goes or something.
It’s nothing important!

She’s just crazy.

“Oh Max.. wouldn’t you like to know?”
She rolled my hips and settled into one of the ‘model’ poses Sarah taught me for her photoshoot, while pulling my lips up into a taunting little flirty smile.
“As fun as this has been, I can’t spend all day catching up.. I’ve got a job to do after all.”

“What are you going to-”
Before John could even get his question out fully Theodora cut her arm dramatically down between us, silencing him instantly.

“I’ve always wanted to do that.. ANYWAY! Back to the matter at hand Max darling, there’s a war coming..”
She shifted my body over a little and made my eyes light up with wicked delight.
“Pick your side carefully; if you chose wrong you will regret it for the rest of your lives Max.”

She carelessly flicked my hair over my shoulder and smirked darkly at him.

“Everyone on earth will hear magic’s call soon enough, everyone with even a trace of the gift is crying out the good tidings for all to hear..”
A light tuneless hum came to my lips as she waved her arms around at waist level like she was playing with the material on some kind of imaginary ball gown?
“Why should I be the only one left out of the fun? You should hear the news too anyway.. this is just so much FUN, isn’t it?!”

With a horribly tight grin that made my cheeks hurt Theodora moved my body into a standing position and took a step towards John.
He flinched away from her and put a hand up defensively but it was pointless, I can feel from her weird ‘emotional echo’ thing that she wasn’t going to hurt him.

She’s too happy.. FAR too happy!

She spread my arms out wide, in a mockery of the ‘crucifixion’ pose prevalent in Christian imagery.
My head threw itself back and my body cackled loudly to the ceiling.

“The Lady-Death is awake! The time of the long dark is upon us, she will set our sisters free and lead us to retribution! The Lady-Death is awake!”

All at once her presence just LEFT my body, her ‘job’ apparently complete.
I collapsed painfully to the floor and just lay there breathing heavily.

“..the lady death?..”
John’s confused mutter sounded far away for some reason.

From much closer to me, somewhere deep inside my own head, a sound replied to his question.
A single, long, cackling laugh of pure joy with Theodora’s unmistakable tinge of insanity running through it loud and clear.

I shuddered and tried to focus on breathing as my body twitched and rebelled against every command I threw at it.

I think I may have done some serious damage to myself here?
I can’t move my legs!
Why.. why can’t I move my legs?!..

John’s voice seemed to get further and further away.
For a moment I could feel him touch my arm but my vision is already dark at the edges.

I know how this goes, it seems to happen a lot to me lately for some reason.
With one last desperate gasp of air I blacked out into sweet unconsciousness.

======

“- are baffled to explain a seemingly harmless flash of light, theorised to be a solar-flare affected by ball lightning, which struck the North American mid-west and parts of Canada early in the afternoon yesterday. Several eye witnesses have reported seeing a strange ‘dome’ effect to the unexplained phenomena but all video evidence recorded, either digital or analogue seems to have been bleached out by the flare’s ligh-”

Someone moved and the sound stopped suddenly.
I groaned, rolling my body slightly on the soft mattress below me.

What time is it?..
What happ.. CRAP!

With a push I practically launched myself off the bed.
Before I could get too far a strong arm flew out and snagged me in the air, pulling me back onto the bed by my waist.

I tried to bat the person away frantically until my eye’s finally opened and I came face to face with John.

For a second I froze but that didn’t last.
A relieved sob ripped itself from my throat and I dived into his surprised arms to hug him tightly.

“You’re not dead, you’re not dead.. you’re not dead!”
In a surprisingly gentle move for John he held me close and made comforting noises as I sobbed into his chest.

He’s so warm!
His magic feels so warm!

He’s ALIVE!

As if a switch flipped in my head I went from overjoyed to ANGRY!
My body jerked away from his hold and my fist came up to clock him across the nose with a satisfying ‘crunch’.

“OWW! SON OF A-”
John rolled away from me, landing heavily on the floor and cradling his now bleeding nose.

“YOU ASSHOLE!”

While he was lying on the floor, slightly curled up, I couldn’t resist swinging my leg back and kicking him hard in the butt.
“You don’t die without me, YOU HEAR ME?!”
I swung in another kick at his unprotected butt again.
“WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING, RUNNING OFF LIKE THAT WHILE YOU WERE INJURED?!”

Before I could take another swing at him someone’s strong, thick arms wrapped under my armpits in a full-nelson and lifted me bodily into the air.
My legs kicked uselessly for a moment but I’m NOT in the mood!

I bent my knees and for just a second my feet managed to touch whoever’d grabbed me from behind’s much larger, muscular knees.

With a push, subtly influenced by my magic in a way that I’ve never consciously felt happen before, I managed to both break his stance sending him to his knees from the force of my kick and launch my body up into a flip that was practically a full cartwheel sending me high over his meaty frame.

My head tucked in tightly as I rolled to protect my neck but my hair slapped him in the face which a small part of me found EVER so amusing for some reason.

It all went so fluid, he fell forward, his grip loosened just enough that I could sail over his head and use the grip he had on my arms to reverse the full-nelson while wrapping my arms around his throat and locking in tight.

He choked and wheezed, trying to get me to let go as his air supply thinned but it did him no good, I’ve got experience dealing with huge muscle-bound brutes and when I’ve got a hold like this locked in there’s NO escape!

It took him forever to finally go down.
When he did collapse- not dead, just unconscious –I let go of his throat with shaking hands and panted heavily in relief.

John cautiously made his way over to me, his hands raised to show that he wasn’t a threat.
I stared at him for a moment then looked back down at my trembling hands.

Without any warning at all I collapsed into heart-wrenching sobs.
In seconds I couldn’t see anything for all the tears pouring out of my eyes.

My head!

Why am I..
..I.. I can’t..
I can’t control it?!

My arm came up to wipe away the tears but the moment I saw John again they started up again.

Why did I choke that guy?
He was only trying to stop me from hurting John!

Why was I so angry?
I was so relieved and happy a minute ago and then it just.. it.. I..

..mood swings?..

It’s so much worse than usual!
Probably from just how MUCH magic I threw out as I vented it all to heal John.. but it doesn’t usually hit me like this?!

“Hannah.. I’ve got some cuffs in the bedside table, they’re enchanted like the pair I used on you before, you can pull them out and put them on.. you’re safe here, I’ll protect you.”

He didn’t step any closer to me.

He’s scared of me?!
He’s so scared of me, just like Sarah and Mum and everyone else!

They should be scared of me!
I’m a freak!
I’m a monster!
I’m.. I’m..

John sighed loudly in frustration when, instead of doing what he wanted, I broke down crying again.
With a feat of strength I wouldn’t normally consider possible I pulled the hulking brute I just choked out closer to me and held his unconscious body in a desperate hug like an oversized teddy-bear.

I’m sorry!
I’m so sorry!
I didn’t mean to hurt him.

I didn’t.. I..

Something deep in my brain ‘shifted’ again.
I could FEEL it happen.

With a confused blink I dropped the stupid muscle-bound beast, folded my arms over my chest and turned my face away from both him AND John to give off an annoyed huff.

He should have known better then to TRY and restrain me!
Idiot!

Out the corner of my eye I focused a weary glare on John.
He should have warned me that the guy was coming too!
Stupid Idiot John!

“Well.. this is going to get annoying..”

SHUT UP JOHN!
NO-ONE ASKED YOU!

This day SUCKS!
This city SUCKS!
EVERYTHING BLOODY SUCKS!

Why did I even BOTHER trying to save you, you great big insensitive ungrateful ASSHOLE?!

With one last mental ‘shift of gears’ my arms dropped to the side and I collapsed to the floor in chest wrenching sobs.
I HATE MOOD SWINGS!

My hands found my hair and I started slowly twisting it through my fingers to try and calm down.
John just stood there looking lost.

He’s alive!
That makes me so.. happy?.. sad?.. frustrated?.. horny?!..
The mental ‘gears’ jumped again and I finally realised what my brain was trying to say.

He’s alive!
That makes me so.. ANGRY!

“SCREW YOU JOHN!”

“What the hell did I do?!”

STUPID JOHN!
STUPID DEATH!
STUPID MAGIC!
STUPID.. STUPID EVERYTHING!

ARRRAAGH!!!

People are complicated. They can surprise you with maturity one moment then ruin it seconds later without missing a beat. Events unfold including but not limited to: John putting his arm possessively around Hannah's waist (not by invitation either!) And Hannah gains a gardens worth of flowers with the adoring public to go with them.

 

“Mom? Everyone’s packing up to go, are you ready?”

My shoulders still slumped a little at being called ‘Mom’ so casually.
I’m kind of getting used to it from Eris, she’s become my little shadow since the mood stabilisers kicked in, but that doesn’t mean I have to LIKE it..

It turns out mages can use normal drugs by the way?
That was news to me honestly.

I always figured that, when normal painkillers did nothing for me, my body did the same ‘overly cautious’ thing with drugs that it did for sun-bathing and skin cancer.. basically, eliminate any affects you would normally expect to see before they even had a chance to kick in?

I didn’t know what drug it was they gave me at first, they convinced me to swallow the pills when I was in a ‘happy/cuddly’ phase where I pretty much did whatever anyone said as long as it would make them smile at me.
Kind of embarrassing now that I’m ‘sober’ really..

Afterwards things settled down a bit and I could focus a little better, which just made me more determined to keep taking the pills regularly.
I should probably be worried that I’m taking the same drugs they give people that are Bipolar or manic-depressive but honestly.. they help?.. and I really can’t be bothered to argue about it at this point.

I.. I just want to go home?..
This city is.. I don’t like ‘New Avalon’!

I dislike it possibly more than I dislike Medford, which is scary in itself.

New Avalon is the last ‘mage colony’ in the United States.
There’s a REASON it’s the last colony here, the people who live here are just.. weird?

You’re either ‘traditionalist’, robes, wands, broom, pointy hat, black cat, the whole stereotypical ‘witch’ setup with the fifteen-hundreds mentality to go with it or you’re just not welcome here.

It’s kind of depressing seeing all these people just cutting themselves off from the world like this?
People that live in New Avalon.. they LIVE in New Avalon.
They never leave!

I don’t know if they could leave if they wanted to honestly, the worlds probably a pretty scary place if you’ve grown up living effectively over five-hundred years in the past?

When everything settled down, or more specifically when I settled down, John went out and bought me a robe to cover up with and blend in a bit better.
It’s kind of necessary around here anyway, the whole ‘cave ceiling full of star-like lights’ thing may look pretty but being underground is COLD!

I never thought I’d miss the sun so much or so quickly.
If we can just get home I’ll be happy..

John and Apollo managed to get in contact with Gran so I don’t have to worry about Mum and Sarah getting angry with me more than necessary at least.
Sarah’s still pretty pissed off at me for leaving her behind again though apparently.

THAT’S going to be fun to come home to!
Even with that little talk on the horizon, I still can’t wait to get home.. just getting away from HERE will do honestly..

“I’ve not exactly got much to pack.”
Eris raised a little red eyebrow at me suspiciously.

It’s kind of scary how many of my mannerisms seem to be present on her face most of the time.
We’ve only just met but it’s like she’s been watching me for years?
I SWEAR she’s even picking up on some of the twin-speak twitches that I let off automatically when I’m talking!

“Aren’t you bringing your flowers?”

Ah.. yeah.. THOSE..
Apparently word’s got out that ‘THE Arista’ is visiting New Avalon.
Even before I was prescribed the mood stabilisers yesterday, bouquets of flowers with little ‘get well soon’ cards started turning up.

It seems that gossip travels fast, even in this backwards little time-capsule of a city.

The front entrance of the compound is practically a flower garden at this point.
John had Thanatos, the big guy I choked out in my post-Theodora mood-swing haze yesterday, act as a gate guard to keep people from coming in to try and get a glimpse of me.

The big guy is surprisingly gentle outside of a fight.
He tried to apologise to me when he saw me again after he woke up but I had to override him and apologise for my actions instead.
I really didn’t mean to hurt him.

He reminds me a bit of Tor honestly?
I kind of like that, I can relate to him better because of it.
I can kind of see how he became known as the Greeks ‘nice’ god of death.

In the later years of the Greek Empire he was seen as the more gentle ‘passing of life type’ of death god, a big contrast to most of them, especially when compared to his mother ‘Nyx’ who it was said even Zeus himself feared.
As a side-note, it turns out storyteller wasn’t COMPLETELY lying the first time I met him.. as annoying as it is to accept that idea..

While I don’t remember BEING her in the slightest and I’m still worried about that fact.
It’s kind of hard to argue that I WASN’T Nyx when Thanatos calls me ‘Mother’ and assures me that his siblings Aether, Hemera, Moros, Ker, Oneiroi, Momus, Oizys, Nemesis, Apate, Philotes, Geras and his twin brother Hypnos have all contacted him for information on my condition in the last twenty-four hours.

Doubling down on that problem is the presence of Eris.. who happens to be ANOTHER child of Nyx.
She told me this morning that, while she hasn’t heard from the ‘Moirai’, more commonly referred to as ‘The Fates’ these days, she HAS been in contact with the ‘Hesperides’.

The Hesperides are a clan of Nymphs, half-human half-fae, that apparently have their home colony somewhere in North Africa and consider ‘Arista’ to be their Leader?.. Mother?.. Honorary Queen?
No-one’s really been clear with me on that one.

People seem to be happy with just saying that ‘they love Nyx’ and leaving it at that, which is kind of frustrating.

OH!.. and just to add to the overload of evidence that I must have, in some way, BEEN Nyx in a past-life we apparently received a disturbing messenger bird last night in the form of a ’Strix’.

The ‘Strix’, while looking like rather odd owls with long golden beaks, red wings, yellow pupil-less eyes and four black legs each, are connected with ill-fortune, recorded as having eaten human flesh and sucking the blood of infants regularly.
It arrived while I was sleeping last night so I didn’t have to see the creepy little thing lucky but the moment it turned up everyone knew who it came from.

There’s only one group on earth that keep Strix birds as pet’s and familiars, the ‘Keres’, another group who name Nyx as their ‘Mother’.. although in this case I think it’s more of a religious ‘we follow you’ kind of Mother.. I hope so at least?

Otherwise that’s a LOT of daughters for one woman to have had.. even while ignoring the kids she ALREADY has!

I hope the Keres decide to stay home through all this..
Their note wasn’t exactly helpful one way or another, they basically just wanted Eris to tell them if I was alive and ‘awake’.

It brings another worrying possibility to my already full plate as well.
I might attract the interest of what’s left of the Valkyries now too?!

That should be fun, considering Rosemary and Trudy are both un-awakened Valkyries themselves and everything.. the Keres are what the ‘Valkyries’ were eventually reborn into.. sort of..
Ugg! Reincarnations are hard to explain!

Okay.. the Valkyries were scary warriors, that’s well known but at least they were slightly reasonable about the whole ‘killing people’ thing, demanding a reason to do it before turning their blade on someone at the very least.

A lot of them were reborn in Greece centuries later.. it happens a lot with awakened mages..

Obviously I can’t speak from personal experience but Nyx must have been pretty ‘inspiring’ in a twisted way because a lot of the scary and powerful, but overall noble Valkyries joined the literally bloodthirsty horde of the Keres in the space of one generation!

From what I’ve read and been told, their numbers have thinned a lot over the years.
That’s somewhat of a relief.

At a guess I’d say that a lot of mages have had new incarnations and decided to leave the group for any number of reasons?
Personally I’d go so far as to say it’s because ‘being crazy gets boring after a while’.

..THAT one I can give you from personal experience!..

As someone who went from the insanity, bloodshed, power-lust and the mind-games of Theodora and, only a few incarnations later, coming out the other side as a nun living the pious life with pride and joy until her dying day.
I can categorically state that sometimes..
Sometimes, you just need to take a step back and re-evaluate your past-incarnations actions before following in their footsteps when you’re an awakened mage?..

Not many mages actually DO that obviously but I guess experience shows through eventually considering how many nice ‘Not-Arista’ incarnations I have hiding from her in my head at this point.

======

“Mom?”
I jerked out of my thoughts and offered Eris a weak smile.

..yeah.. that whole ‘spacing out’ thing is back again..
It’s back with a vengeance actually?.. I blame the drugs..

The mood stabilizers must have some kind of side effects on a mage, even more so with my messed up head.

I can live with spacing out if that’s the only side-effect I end up stuck with in exchange for not flip-flopping between emotional extremes every five seconds though.
That gets EXAUSTING after an hour or two!

“Can you go find your dad and ask him to bag up all the flowers for me Eris? I’ll try to find somewhere to put them when we get home..”
She nodded and smiled brightly at me before running off to find John.

Its awkward referring to John as her ‘dad’ but it’s also a lot less complicated then calling him a specific name around Eris.
More than once I’ve asked her to get John for me and received a completely blank look of confusion in exchange.

If I didn’t know any better I’d swear she’s doing it on purpose!
You would think she’d have worked out who I meant after the first few times it happened, right?!

Kids can be a bit picky about things like that though.
She’s made it perfectly clear through her actions that her ‘Dad’ is her ‘Dad’ and her ‘Mom’ is her ‘Mom’.. nothing we say will sway her on EITHER of those points sadly.

She’s a good kid.
She reminds me of some kind of hybrid between me and Sarah at her age honestly?
She’s got my brains, she knows how to use them like I did at that age too, although she seems to know WHEN to use them as well which is something young Al never really picked up sadly.

I’ve witnessed her go from an innocent, rather shy but curious child to a yelling little miss who’s convinced she’s right about whatever topic is up for discussion and, annoyingly for the people involved, she’s usually right about it in the end as well.

My brains and young Sarah’s personality.. if she wasn’t so clingy and cute I’d be terrified honestly?

She’s growing on me though.
I know that’s a weird way to put it but I’m trying to keep the idea of us forming some strange, cross-incarnation mother-daughter relationship from being in any way a possibility in my head so ‘growing on me’ is about as far as I’m willing to admit at the moment.

It’s bad enough that my new body is screwing with my emotions, I REALLY don’t want to become some sappy little twit who coo’s at babies in the street and plays homemaker all day.

Reluctantly I can accept that I’m female.. for now.
That doesn’t mean I have to become some nineteen-fifty’s stereotype ‘June Cleaver’ monstrosity!

My Mum works.
My Sister works.
Aunt Lily works.
Fena works.
Even Edith works!

Every important female in my life so far is independent and strong willed, often to a worrying degree!

I will NOT be the feminine one out of that long list of women.
I REFUSE to be the girly one!

No matter WHAT stupid mixed up signals my brain and hormones may be throwing at me randomly..

======

“He’s done packing the flowers and ‘Dite is getting impatient, apparently she wants to get started on decorating her new room.. when she gets a place.. IF she gets a place.. stupid cow-uddered bimbo..”

Eris snapped her mouth shut when she saw my warning look.
I don’t think she expected me to catch that last part but I’ve come to expect snide little comments when it comes to Eris speaking about Aphrodite.

I’m tempted to say it’s just plain old Jealousy.. with a Capitol J..
She has a worrying tendency to drop into rude comments and nasty mutters when the unfortunately over-endowed but worryingly innocent girl is involved.

At first it seemed like understandable sibling rivalry between the more mature girl and poor insecure little Eris, but after talking to John it seems that it’s just a pure and simple good-old-fashioned ‘Rivalry’.

I tend to forget, but Eris hasn’t ALWAYS been a sweet little girl.
She’s awakened, even younger then John did this time, and apparently that had an effect on her mental development.. but she’s still awakened.

When I’m not around she’s apparently a little monster that uses her older mind and intellect to get what her younger personality and instincts demand.
She once tracked down her cheating ex-husband a few centuries ago and at the tender age of ten took revenge on the then old man in a series of cruel ways that left him heartbroken and practically wishing for death.

Personally.. I find it hard to see?
She’s usually so sweet and nice about everything to me, Aphrodite aside.

According to John, she’s something of a ‘Mommy’s girl’ which is why I only tend to see her ‘nice’ side.
She’s one of the children who hunt’s for each Arista incarnation almost as diligently as Max did, which should say a lot for her mental stability and possible ulterior motives.

Despite John’s advice I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt for now though.
The same with all the other kids of Arista, both those that I’ve met and those that are yet to turn up.

I’ve learnt over the years to not completely trust my past-incarnation memories.
There are too many flaws and missing patches present for them to be fully trustworthy if I’m going to judge someone by them.

The fact that I can’t even remember a past incarnation that was a mother at all, considering how many kids Arista seems to have had just in one incarnation with JOHN of all people, should show just how bad of a problem rushing to judgements like this could be..

So I’ve decided to wipe the slate clean.
I’ll judge people on how they act or don’t act rather than what I’m told about them or read in the history books.

According to the history books, I’m a monster myself.. multiple times over.. so they hold about as much weight as my past-life memories do at this point.

======

“Mom.. Mommm...”
A little hand came out and poked me in the forehead, finally jerking me back into the real world again.

Oh yeah.. the spacing out thing is DEFINITELY worse than before!
..stupid defective brain..

Eris seemed happy to have my attention back on her judging by the bright grin she gave me.
I couldn’t help returning it with a smile of my own.
She really is adorable.. Felix at his fluffiest kind of adorable..

..yeesh..
Female brain chemistry and biological imperatives towards ‘cute’ things!
I’m tellin’ ya, they’re one hell of a drug!

Its honestly kinda scary how hard I have to fight down some truly stupid little impulses now, it’s not really been THAT bad all week.. aside from a bit of extra vanity and interest in clothes that I THINK comes more from past-incarnations bleeding through then some kind of ‘female’ related thing.. but NOW?!

Sometimes Eris just LOOKS at me and I have this sudden urge to pick her up and squeeze her in a big hug.

I’m NOT a ‘hug’ sort of person.
I never HAVE been and I never really PLANNED to be.

That ridged determination kind of went a bit lax when it came to Mum this week, just because I’m glad to have her back and.. ya know.. not all angry and bitter at me..
That was ONE exception though!
It’s not a new rule brain!
Get that through your thick.. brain..

Damn it.. even my ‘talking to myself’ is getting confusing and stupid now!

======

“Hannah?”

Another violent jerk and another frantic blinking session left me back in the real world again.
John squinted at me uncertainly for a moment but seemed to come to some kind of decision about my sanity that he found comforting enough to glance away from me at least.

Judging by the worried look on Eris’s face she was the one who went to get John to help me.
I must have gone all ‘blank faced’ and unresponsive on her this time.

We made eye contact and she practically ran over to dive into my arms for an uncomfortably tight hug.
I would complain, but honestly she’s shivering a little?
I’m kind of worried that she gets like this so often, it’s like she’s afraid to cry or something so she just bottles it up and tries to hide it.

While I was out of it she apparently became so frantic John had to put her to sleep until I showed signs of stability from the drugs, just to stop her from trying to in some way ‘heal’ me herself.

I’m no expert but at a guess she’s got some kind of bad experience of a mother figure, possibly a past me, becoming ill before her eyes?
I could be way off base though, I’m no psychologist after all..

======

My hand came up and caught John’s before he could pat my head.
I practically have a sixth sense for when he’s going to do that.
I used to HATE it in school, it was so embarrassing, but now it’s just one of those things I missed having while we were ‘disagreeing about my identity’.

“You’re really bad at the moment aren’t you?”
I glared at him and shifted uncomfortably, dropping his hand with my free arm while holding Eris close with my other one.

“You try having Theodora shove your brain back in sideways, see how well you cope with it.. I’ll be okay eventually, just.. just try and avoid asking me any provocative questions, okay?”
He grinned and perked up a suggestive eyebrow.

..not THAT kind of provocative.. stupid perv!

“If you ask me something which is going to draw me into thinking about it too deeply I’ll just drift away like I’ve been doing.. maybe there’s a problem with my short-term memory or something? I dunno, I just seem to get stuck on recent events and overthink them at the moment.”

He nodded in acceptance of that theory for what it was but took the time to turn and gently steer me towards the door so we could finally leave this stupid backwards little city.

It took me a moment to realise that the pressure on my side as I stepped forward was Eris.
I’d kind of forgotten she was there honestly?
Having her tucked into my side like this feels worryingly ‘normal’ for some reason.

When my next step was awkwardly timed between the three of us I sighed and in a quick sweep scooped her onto my hip to carry her out.
She smiled to herself almost proudly as if that was what she’d wanted all along.
Without a word she settled her cheek on my shoulder and looked up at my face from the side.
..kids!..

John seemed entirely too amused by the whole thing.

A warning look from me wiped the smirk off his face surprisingly.
I seem to be giving a lot of ‘warning looks’ at the moment.
All of them seem to be surprisingly effective too, no idea why?

“You’re public awaits..”

Another warning look was sent his way for that one but he didn’t seem quite as affected this time.
Maybe he’s building up an immunity already?
..stupid John..

======

The whispers are getting to me.

It’s not THAT long a walk to the waypoint from John’s little Greek hideaway in the city but the traditionalists, that glared at me so openly a few days ago, are practically bowing down in worship now!

One guy actually did JUST that!
John chased him off quickly with little more than an angry look but it still HAPPENED!

Our group, consisting of Aphrodite, Eris, Thanatos, John and me was bound to catch some attention.
Even with me wearing a hooded robe to blend in when I’ve even, reluctantly, agreed to keep the annoying hood up to cover my face.. word travels fast with mages.

Aphrodite’s eye-catching curves, Eris’s over the top cute-factor, Thanatos’s sheer SIZE and John’s commanding walk all add up to the social equivalent of a big neon sign pointing directly at us.
If anything my low-key robe makes me standout even MORE just because I don’t look weird compared to everyone around us?

“This is stupid.”

Before anyone could stop me I hooked a thumb into the wide neck of the robe and yanked it over my head.
It got caught a bit on my messy, partly loose, hair and on my boobs but that was barely an annoyance in the grand scheme of things.

I hate wearing robes.
I hate trying to blend in with all the traditionalists even more!

Blending in would be normal except for the fact that traditionalists painfully AREN’T normal.

They’re IDIOTS, they’re PEOPLE!
Sheep in all but name, too afraid to go out and see the world so they cling to their ideas despite everything around them showing just how stupid it all is!

Seeing them walking around with their wands and their robes on their stupid rough cobbled streets.. it kind of makes me see what’s annoyed John so much when he’s been trying to show me his ideas about magic lately?..

He was right.
I can’t deny that now.

Just like how the traditionalist’s think that casting spells through a wand is the only good way to do magic, despite how LIMITING it is.
I was doing the same thing with my lines.
..blind, wilful ignorance?..

You can’t BREAK magic!
No-one can.
John was just using it better than I can, in a different way that works SO much EASIER than normal.

I’m not normal.
I’ve accepted that.
I’m also not going to ignore this anymore.

I made up a spell on the spot, completely ignored my lines, while throwing out a nonsense word and MADE it work!
John said it best, ‘if you’re powerful enough the rules don’t apply’..

I don’t know HOW or WHY but I did it and it worked!
I forced my magic to do something that the golden rules of magic say is impossible without great cost to yourself and those around you.

I raised the dead!

There’s a REASON Lich’s are so deranged and walk around looking like living corpses.
Death doesn’t like to be denied it’s due!
I didn’t just deny it, I COUNTERED it!

“John?..”

He turned his head and slowed from his marching pace at the front of the group to offer me a curious smile.
Eris moved a little from her position tucked into my side at the sound of my voice too but she quickly settled down to just walking normally again and ignoring everyone to focus on holding loosely to the belt loop on my shorts.

“Can you teach me.. teach me how to do magic like you?”

His smile seemed to almost dim for a moment but it must have been my imagination because, while it definitely wasn’t as bright as before, his whole face took on a warmth that I’ve not seen in him before.
With a casual shrug he turned back to the front of the group and threw an answer over his shoulder.
“Sure, when we get back home and have some free time.”

The others didn’t seem to get what we were talking about luckily.
I was trying to be a bit obscure in case it was a secret or something but John’s casual answer eased what little curiosity they had about the whole thing.

We finally reached the waypoint area and aside from a crowd of people trying to look like they WEREN’T following us and an angry glare from the guard, everything went relatively okay.

“Jones, party of five, I booked this morning.”

The guard grunted and shot me another glare.
Obviously SOMEONE hasn’t forgiven me for puking on him the other day?

I cleaned it up and said I was sorry!
What more does he want?.. asshole..

“The beacon’s clear for departure at both ends if you’re ready now sir?”

Oh sure, JOHN gets respect!
I just get nasty looks.
That’s SO not fair!

John’s arm went around my waist and settled with worrying ease on top of Eris’s head.
The movement was so smooth it almost seemed like a practised motion or long used habit more than anything?

I don’t think I’m ready to think too deeply about THAT idea right now..

Without a word he steered us over to the waypoint safety zone and we all huddled up.
Simultaneous warps are awkward but no-one would get anywhere if we didn’t do it this way sometimes.

I pulled in my magic as best I could.

I could feel John do the same thing with his.
It didn’t matter too much for the others, while they’re powerful in general they’re also worryingly outclassed in the power department by both of us.
If anyone’s going to mess the warp bubble up by overpowering part of it, it will be either me or John.

“Three.. two.. one.. Jump.”

We all hopped at the same time and slipped into warp.
The world turned blue and for an annoyingly long time we had to go through the unsettling feeling of having our atoms bump randomly against each other which is both a lot weirder and also a lot more boring than you would expect.

When we finally got out of warp at the other end I collapsed to my knees within seconds.
I REALLY hate warping!

Eris became rather frantic for a moment as she tried to find out what was wrong with me but John put a calming hand on her head which actually stalled her with a mix of surprise and worry on her face.

Aphrodite looked like she wanted to come and help me too but she was holding herself back for some reason.
Thanatos was understandably reluctant to come too close to me, I think he learnt his lesson when he tried to restrain me the other day.

..good for him..
Always nice to know when someone’s a quick learner!

“Move it along folks, next pa-”
With a look John managed to stop the guard mid-sentence.

I’m not sure if he used magic or if just the look on his face was enough, but I’m glad he did something at least.
With a grunt I pushed myself up to a kneeling position and one more heave had me back on my feet somewhat stably at least.

“You okay?”
I shot John a confused look but nodded anyway.

He knows I don’t do normal warping very well, why’d he even bother asking?
Maybe it was just him trying to calm down the others.. that’s something he’d do, it’s easier to show people I’m fine then just tell them.
No-one ever believes you unless they see it directly from the source anyway.

“Come on then..”
He cupped his arm around my waist again and lead me outside with the others following behind us like three rather large ‘little’ ducklings.
“Oh.. try not to attract attention?”

It was more for the ‘kids’ benefits then mine but he’s got a fair point.

If my guess is right then we’re in the one place where we DON’T want to get too much attention as we leave.. not that I think hiding’s even possible considering we have Aphrodite with us.. and Thanatos..
Neither of them particularly ‘blends in’ if you get what I mean?

We made our way through a few more dim corridors and finally reached the shop floor.
Of all places, John had us warp to Medford!

I’d recognised the hallways already but I kinda hoped I was wrong honestly.
No such luck though, nowhere else is stupid enough to put their waypoint in the back of a Sears at the mall!

There are a few more people in here this time.
Judging by the light outside it’s about mid-day so that’s not exactly a surprise.
I kind of lost track of time in New Avalon, it’s constantly dark because it’s underground after all..

Eris’s little hand slide into mine.
I almost let go instinctively but a glance down at her worried face stopped me.

I don’t think she likes crowds?
How odd.. another thing we have in common I guess, huh?..

It was awkward trying to walk through Sears with John wrapped around my waist and Eris clinging to my hand.
In the end I gave a huff and scooped her up to settle her on my hip again.

Like always she seemed entirely too pleased to be in her new position and quickly settled herself comfortably against me.
If we were getting weird looks before they got even worse now.

We must have been a sight to behold.
A seemingly young ‘mother’ with a child on her hip, a possessive ‘boyfriend’ on her other side, a possible Barbie doll ‘big sister’ behind and a walking wall of muscle beside her.

Rather than put up with the cool, judging stares of the Medford mid-day Sears shoppers I quickly moved us outside.
The moment we stepped out into the hot sun I sighed in relief.
..I REALLY hate Medford..

“Where to now then, oh fearless leader?”

John shot me a light glare for my sarcasm but stepped forward and took command anyway.
It’s pretty funny to see how quickly the ‘kids’, big strong Thanatos specifically, seem to instantly fold to his will if he steps up and starts giving orders.
I’m probably the only one in our group who’d be willing to honestly call John out on being an idiot if he tried something stupid..
..that’s kind of worrying actually?..

“I’ve got a truck in storage a few blocks away, we can take it back to Klamath Falls for now and I’ll return it when the waypoints back up.”

A solid plan.. I didn’t realise that he had something other than his car to use though?
It seems kind of silly in retrospect, it’s not like he’s poor after all, he’s got access to all of Max’s money which must be QUITE a lot considering how many lifetimes he’s had to collect priceless items to sell or trade on a whim.

Hell, even I’M not poor!
While I can’t exactly access most of my accounts at the moment, ‘Al’ was very good at his job and got paid good money for it with very few living costs involved.

As much as it annoys me that it was Storyteller playing me so well back then, that’s not enough to put me off of using the money I unwittingly earned fair and square.

I really will have to sort out my banks at some point.

I held off before, at least partly, out of guilt for taking ‘his’ money.
Now that I can see we’re not REALLY separate people, even if we ARE separate versions of the same person, I don’t feel so bad using the cash anymore.

If nothing else I need to go on a shopping trip for some magical items.
Portland’s magic district should probably have the few important bits I need, I know a selection of good traders there too so it’s probably worth going there instead of one of the bigger trade districts down in So-Cal at least.

I’ll give it a few days for things to settle down obviously.
Who knows, maybe John and Sarah will want to come with me or something?
I’m sure Sarah will be up for it if she’s not working, she loves seeing the magic districts when she can.

“How big is this ‘truck’?”
Even I jerked in surprise when Thanatos spoke.

He’s a pretty quiet guy and surprisingly good at fading into the background somehow?
I can guess why he’s asking about the truck though, someone of his sheer MASS probably has problems with most kinds of normal travel like cars and trucks.

“Don’t worry ‘Tos, you’ll fit no problem.”
John actually moved over and patted the big guy on the arm in reassurance.

The whole movement seemed somehow odd to my eyes, not normal ‘John’ behaviour at least.
A bit too ‘nice’ in general honestly..

Thanatos looked surprised.
It took me a moment to rewind back and work out the probable reason for that look.

John called him ‘Tos’?

Obviously a shortened version of his rather awkward full name, but again, not characteristic of John in general..
He’s not the type of person who usually uses nicknames for people.
Even if he was, I doubt he’d do it for someone he pretty much just met?
..somethings going on here that I’m missing?..

“Which way is it then Daddy?”
Even I cringed when the words slipped out of Aphrodite’s mouth.

She may BE sweet and innocent but her voice REALLY shouldn’t be used to say the word ‘Daddy’ in any context, it comes across as being pretty dirty, even when I KNOW that there’s an actual valid reason for her to be saying it.

The poor girl.. I know she’s biologically older than me but I just can’t think of her as anything BUT an innocent little girl in a far too large body.
She acts younger then Eris does sometimes!

John tried to not let how uncomfortable he was at hearing her speak like that show but I can feel his magic just fine, his surprise and embarrassment went through the roof for a moment there.
With the slightest of hesitations which spoke volumes if you know him well enough, he waved us down the street in the opposite direction to the route I usually take when visiting the Mailbox.

======

He wasn’t joking about it being two blocks over.
I can still kinda see the front of the parking lot outside the mall from here..

John led our little group along East Jackson Street, past a bakery on the right.. not that I’m obsessed with food or anything.. although I am KIND of hungry now that I think about it?

Anyway, we passed that bakery with its enticing smells without dropping in for a doughnut or three sadly and went on a little further, taking a left on Howard Street and a right onto an unnamed back-alley between the suburban sprawl until we reached a strange looking ‘extended’ two story house that seemed to have been converted into some kind of low budget apartment block.

We slipped through a slightly hidden side entrance and came out in a wide, mostly deserted, parking lot tucked in-between all the other buildings around it.

With barely a glance I could tell we were in the right place.
Sitting on its own, on the far side of the lot was a big bulky old Ford pickup truck.

It looked like something out of a fifty’s movie.
I’d even go so far as to say it reminds me of the car from the movie ‘Greece’.. ya know.. just.. a truck version instead of a car?..
..that’s possibly the worst description I’ve ever heard..

Oh, what does it MATTER!
It looks old to the point of being slightly funny when JOHN’s the one who owns it and the back of the pickup looks like it could hold Thanatos’s mountainous frame easily so that’s the important parts about it covered!

I still cringed a little at the signs of rust around the wheel arches and faded red paint in annoyingly splotchy patches across its hood and sides.
John obviously doesn’t look after this thing very well.

“Dib’s on the front seat.”

Eris’s head swung up from my shoulder to glare at Aphrodite.
She probably didn’t actually care about who sits where, judging by how disinterested she was a second ago, but the moment ‘Dite started claiming things it got her full attention.
It would be funny if it wasn’t so worrying.

I hope things don’t keep going like this?
I don’t like being in the middle of people fighting and it’s looking pretty obvious that at some point, sooner rather than later, Eris is going to snap at poor oblivious ‘Dite again.

Jealousy and a child’s brain with an adults intellect REALLY shouldn’t be mixed.. EVER..

To get her attention back off of it all I jostled my hip a little and bounced her slightly.
Her eyes cut back over to me sharply but the tension seemed to leave her the longer she looked at me.

Finally her little lips shifted into a slight pout that unnervingly reminded me of a young Sarah and her head drooped back onto my shoulder in defeat.
It wasn’t really a battle of wills but if it had been then I would have been the winner by her reluctant acceptance and obviously forced annoyance at having me stop her picking on Aphrodite.

“We’ll take the window seat, Eris can sit on my lap. Are you okay in the back Thanatos?”

The big gentle giant blushed and ducked his head a little in a slight nod.
I smiled at him and almost turned away to head for the front of the truck again when he spoke up.

“Tos.. you can call me 'Tos.. if you want?”

He actually sounded worried?
As if I might refuse and that my refusal would have some damning weight to it?
..poor guy has some serious self-esteem issues..

I smiled at him and nodded in agreement.

He still reminds me a lot of Tor?
I guess it can’t hurt to have both of the worryingly huge but surprisingly gentle men in my life go by three-letter nicknames with only a single letter separating them.

Who knows?
Maybe I can get Tor to have a chat with ‘Tos’.
Tor seems to have himself pretty well put together, maybe he’ll have some advice for him or something..

..wait.. Tor.. Tos..
Tor-tos.. Tortoise?
I had to quickly spin on my heel and bring my free hand up to my mouth to cover the sudden burst of laughter that wanted to escape.

It’s not even funny!

Just something about merging their two names and coming out with a slow moving animal that hides shyly in its shell a lot made me instinctively want to laugh.
I could TOTALLY see a Tortoise being either Tor’s OR Tos’s spirit animal!

From the amount of times Tor became all shy and hesitant with me, just on our journey to the Temple through Bolivia, I could imagine his big head slowly sinking into the neck of his T-shirt with every awkward bit of small talk he tried to start with me.
It didn’t last long into the Journey thanks to John’s ‘ill feelings’ compulsion making us both uncharacteristically angry at each other but for the beginning of the journey at least it fitted him well.

Tos is the same way!
He really doesn’t seem to like being the center of attention.
He must have a lot of practice at hiding in a crowd if even I can forget he’s there sometimes, following behind us like a walking wall.

When I finally had my laughter under control I took my next step forward and, trying to ignore the confused but slightly amused look on Eris’s face, turned to shoot ‘Tos’ a warm smile.

“Come on big guy, hop in the back.”
My head turned again to face Aphro.. to face ‘Dite’, who appeared to be standing by the passenger door watching our little byplay uncertainly.
“You too ‘Dite, we don’t have all day. The faster you get in, the faster we can get home and free of this rust bucket of your fa-”

I had to cut myself off and blinked furiously in confusion.
Luckily ‘Dite didn’t notice my surprise, she’d already turned to start getting into the truck.

Now where the HELL did THAT come from?
I almost called John her ‘Father’ in a worryingly maternal way!
My Mum used to talk EXACTLY like that to us when she was discussing Dad.. before the Alice mess and the divorce at least..

My head shook from side to side in a weak attempt of clearing it a bit and I carried on my walk towards the trucks passenger door.

The suspension sunk visibly as Tos moved almost delicately into the flatbed and shifted himself around to get comfortable.
I’m just being silly, paranoid.. paranoid AND silly!

I’m not a bad person and they aren’t either.
I’m just being friendly!
That’s all there is to it.

No point getting myself worked up over such stupid nonsense.

I’m NOT their mother!
Nothing’s going to change that in the slightest thank-you-very-much.

“Uppsi-daisy!”
I slid Eris off my hip and passed her over to a reluctant ‘Dite to hold while I hopped into the truck cab.

The poor girl got a rather annoyed look from little Eris in the time it took me to get settled and she honestly seemed a bit relieved when I reached out to take her back.
Eris settled easily in my lap and leaned lazily onto my chest, her ear lying somewhere near my heart, if you ignore the boobs in-between of course..

“Did you really just say ‘uppsi-daisy’?.. that’s something your Mum would say..”

I turned my head sharply and gave John a warning glare.
His amused smile went up a notch and he cocked a challenging eyebrow at me in response.

I was trying to ignore that those words tumbled out of my mouth thank-you-very-much John!
How would you like it if I started going on about the time you called our first grade teacher ‘Mommy’ by mistake huh?!

We all say stupid stuff without thinking sometimes so just DROP it!
I have enough anecdotal evidence on stupid stuff you did when we were kids to fill a filling cabinet so don’t even START with me Mister!

Naturally I didn’t say any of that to him but he seemed to get the gist of what I was thinking when my glare didn’t soften in the slightest for a painfully long time.

With a huff that was more of an acknowledgement then a sign of his annoyance he turned back to the steering wheel and turned the key to tick the engine over.
The truck gave a rather unhealthy sounding groan and something inside it started clacking away loudly.

“Seriously?”

John turned his head and shot me another questioning eyebrow in response.
He can’t seriously expect us to drive to Klamath Falls in this thing can he?!

It sounds like someone put a Mariachi band in a blender!
Eris has her hand up against the ear that’s not pressed to my chest to try and keep the noise out for powers sake!

“You know what?.. I’ve got this.”

His eyes went a little wide and he tried to reach out to stop me but ‘Dite being sat awkwardly between us got in his way long enough for me to dip into my lines and vent a roughly car sized dome of my magic.

The golden wave washed over everyone.
I felt the urge to giggle come out of nowhere, as usual when I vent, but it was surprisingly easy to suppress for some reason.

I don’t normally tend to catch other people in my magic on purpose but the effect on the truck was worth it.
This thing’s purring like it just rolled off the lot now, despite obviously being at least sixty years old just from its design.. possibly more?

Naturally a few other things happened as well..

The slight ache on my hip from carrying Eris around so much today faded, my hair decided to fluff itself up annoyingly again into thick curls that went all the way down my back.
Eris was staring at me in some kind of awe while ‘Dite had dived quickly into her pocket and pulled out a small mirror so she could inspect her now-fluffified hair with a look of obvious joy on her face.
Even Tos moved in the back and let off a quiet little surprised sound to himself.

“Don’t do that again! My truck was perfectly fi-”

Before John could finish his little tirade at me for fixing this hunk of junk for him he was cut off by an excited squeal from ‘Dite.
My head was pulled to the side by surprisingly strong arms and my face ended up smooshed into her cleavage yet again.

“I LOVE IT! Thanks Mom, how did you DO that?! That’s like, the BEST magic EVER!”

I almost slid sideways when ‘Dite dropped me without any real warning, much to Eris’s annoyance judging from the sound she made as I moved to straighten us up again.
Dite didn’t seem to notice any of that though.
Her eyes were already back to her mirror, her hands trying to push and move her hair around while she pouted to herself, obviously trying to look ‘sexy’ which came off as something closer ‘childish play-acting’ then an actual serious attempt.
..she really is worryingly innocent about some things..

“..stupid bimbo..”
My eyes cut down to glare at Eris in warning.
That’s not a nice thing to say.
I’m reluctant to admit that she may.. possibly.. kinda.. maybe.. have a point?..
..BUT it’s STILL not a nice thing to say!

“No calling people names.”

My free hand came up to tap her on the nose lightly as a playful warning.
I don’t know where the movement came from honestly but for some reason it made little Eris’s eyes go wide in shock.

Before I could ask what was wrong she blinked furiously and practically buried her face back into my chest as if she was hiding from the world in some way.
..kids?..

I sighed loudly and shot John an apologetic look.

I probably should have thought through my little magic outburst better, or at least given him a chance to object properly before doing it.
I just kind of got caught up in the moment and the annoying sounds that the rusty old wreck was making.

Eris’s reaction to it probably didn’t help either.. not that I did it just for her or anything but I’m just saying it was probably a factor too, ya know?

John noticed my look and sighed loudly in response.
With one last worried look over at ‘Dite, who appeared to be trying to move the mirror into a higher angle so she could somehow see the back of her head too, he turned the wheel and gently rolled us out of the little parking lot.

I tried not to feel too smug at the slight smile that came to his lips when he revved the engine and it roared back at him like a brand new muscle-car.
Obviously I DID feel smug about it but I TRIED not to feel like it at least.. kinda..

He shot a glance around the cab to make sure everyone was secure and even reached back to pat Tos on the shoulder, getting a thumbs up in the mirror for his troubles.
With one more rev he pulled us onto the road and off for the relatively short trip from Medford to Klamath Falls.

Honestly, now that it’s not full of rust and holes.. I kind of like this truck?..

Maybe I just like how stable and calm John’s magic feels now that he’s driving it?
Oh well, it’s not important I guess.

I settled myself a bit better into the nice ‘good-as-new’ leather seats, stuck an arm out the window to wave in the breeze while keeping my other one wrapped tightly around Eris’s waist.

If this is going to become a ‘thing’ then we’ll have to look into getting some kind of booster seat for her or a secondary lap belt or.. just something so she’s a bit safer on my lap.
It’s not like John’s driving like a maniac or anything but there’s always a chance we could have a crash, going like this once is fine but I’d feel better if she was a bit safer the next time..
IF there’s a next time obviously..

“Does the radio work in this thing John?”

He shot a quick awkward smile at me before turning back to the road.
His lips twitched up a little higher into a soft smirk.

“Technically..”

Great.. he’s feeling playful!..
With a grunt I shifted a bit into ‘Dite’s personal space and looked at the middle console properly.

Oh.. now I get what he means..

Is ‘AM’ radio still a thing?!
The.. I’d hesitate to call it a ‘stereo-system’ but.. the noise making box built into the truck is so old that it doesn’t even have a tape-deck in it, let alone ‘FM’ radio, CD’s or a bluetooth connection for my phone!

“..if you’re keeping this thing, we’re getting you a better radio..”
John’s eyebrow perked up yet AGAIN.

Don’t even TRY it John, I know the look on your face for what it is!

Now that this big truck actually runs well and looks like more than just a scrap pile, I wouldn’t be surprised if he trades in his car because he doesn’t need it anymore.
He’ll never admit it but I fixed his little ‘never actually going to do anything with it’ hobby project into a nice working vehicle for him and he’s pleased about it.

..the least he can do is put in a nice stereo-system for me..

“..yes dear..”
ASSHOLE!!

======

The truck pulled up at the crossroads leading to the private little cul-de-sac that we share with the Martials.
John grimaced and shot me an awkward look.
I cringed too.

It looks like the family decided to follow Mum and Sarah home?.. ALL of them.
Every spare bit of rough sidewalk along the worryingly long road leading to our house is full with some kind of car.

John cautiously pulled us around onto the road and we crawled along peering into each car as we went.
It’s kind of creepy honestly, like some kind of abandoned highway from a horror movie?

As we got closer I started recognising some of the car’s, the Audi on the left is DEFINITELY Uncle Joe’s new one!

We finally came to a stop in the only clear space on the street, right in the middle of the round space between our house and the Martials place.
John sighed and leaned back against the leather seat heavily.

“This is going to be a pain in the ass, you know that right?”

I nodded and squinted my eyes shut at the headache I could already feel pre-emptively forming.
Even MY huge new extended family doesn’t have THIS many cars.

There must be more than just family visiting.. considering I covered most of the mid-west in a ‘solar flare’ the other day it’s probably not a bad guess to say that the Hub, the MPA and possibly the normal government are PISSED at me for it!

With a fortifying sigh I popped the door open and carefully slid out.
Eris grumbled at having to be moved but she settled down quickly enough once I had her back on my hip again.

“Did anyone get my bag?”

I’d forgotten about it for a while there honestly but my phones in there AND that stupid mailroom door of Arista’s.
I’m not going headfirst into a possible crap-ton of pissed off government types without my phone to hand!

If nothing else it’s got an auto-record function built in so I can get an audio recording of everything said if they try to arrest me or something equally stupid.

John slid out of the car too and made his way around to me.
From his back pocket he pulled out a tightly folded cloth sack.
When it unravelled properly he dived a hand in and pulled out my ‘not-a-purse’ bag, good as new.

I squinted at him angrily for ‘breaking’ the rules of magic again by making an expanded bag that appeared empty to the point of being foldable while in use.. well, either that or he made a portable pocket-dimension just for storing stuff?
..I’m not sure which option is worse actually?..

I really couldn’t put too much heat behind it though, he kept my bag safe for me and he’s not taken his chance to run away while he still can, leaving me alone to face the wrath of whatever’s waiting for us indoors..

“You two coming?”

Dite looked up from her mirror and shook her head at us before looking back at it again and primping her hair a little more.
I’m starting to get worried about her..

Tos rolled his chest over slightly so he could see us past the cab of the truck and shook his head too.
I think he’s somehow managed to get comfortable lying in the back like that?
Takes all sorts I guess.. I’d definitely not be able to get comfortable like that though.

With one last sigh we turned to face the house and started walking.
When we reached the path to the front door I hitched Eris up a little bit so she sat better against my hip.
John took the chance to step ahead of me and ring the doorbell.

For a long awkward moment nothing happened, then fast moving feet could be heard coming from inside.

The door finally opened to show Mum stood there looking a bit overwhelmed and tired.
Her eyes drifted from John and settled on me.
The moment we made eye contact she lit up with obvious relief to smile at me.

Slowly her eyes slide to the side and focused on Eris a moment later.
All I could see was the little red-haired top of her head resting against my chest but her face was turned towards Mum so I guess they could look at each other in some way.

“Who’s..?..”
She didn’t even try to finish the sentence.

It wasn’t hard to work out what she meant.
It’s not like I turn up every day with a little girl on my hip or something.

Before I could say anything John shifted slightly.
My eyes and Mum’s were drawn to him.

His eyes had a mischievous twinkle to them all of a sudden.
He took a step to the side into my personal space and wrapped an arm around my waist like he keeps doing lately.
..that’s not good..

“She’s our daughter, the other two are still in the truck.”
He waved vaguely over his shoulder but he really didn’t need to, Mum was a bit too busy gaping at him in shock.
“We had a big family reunion of our own a few days ago and Hannah wanted to introduce them to their Grandma..”

..WHAT?!..

My spare hand that wasn’t busy holding Eris fisted into a tight ball.
A growl rumbled in my chest as I realised what he was doing.
He’s SUCH an ASSHOLE!

Eris didn’t seem to like the growl but she DID turn her face up to me in confusion.
With a look of total and complete innocence which, if I hadn’t already fallen for it once before, would have had me tripping over how adorable she was she opened her mouth to speak.

“Is she my Grandma, Mommy?”
I glared at her and the side of her lip currently not facing Mum twitched up in an evil little smirk that was just PURE John!

Damn it John.. this is all your fault!
My eyes pulled towards him angrily but stalled when a muffled ‘thump’ came from in front of us.

“Mum?”
My head turned slowly to face the front door again.
I already knew what I’d see.
It’s just how my life works sadly..

Mum was lying, spread out on the floor.
She’s breathing fine but her eyes are shut and she obviously fell awkwardly.

She bloody FAINTED!

DAMN IT JOHN!
This is all YOUR fault!

Sarah started moving towards the front door curiously.
I could hear her voice and footsteps easily.

“That was fun, can we do it again Daddy?”

Painfully slowly my head moved down to fix little Eris with a warning look.
Her lips slammed shut and the grin on her face faded away into an ‘innocent’ pout.

“I fully intend to blame you for being a bad influence John.. now go help your ‘mother-in-law’ up before I HURT you, BADLY!”

With a jolt John moved over to check on Mum while I held on to Eris and tried to not squeeze her too hard in annoyance at the pair of them.
He’d managed to prop her up a little by the time Sarah rounded the hallway and stopped dead in her tracks in surprise.

I sighed and brought my free hand up to rub between my eyes to ease my growing headache.

DAMN IT JOHN!
THIS. IS. ALL. YOUR. BLOODY. FAULT!