You can't chose your family, if they're determined enough you can't chose your friends either. Basically it's probably better to just go with the flow and stop complaining on both counts sadly. Events unfold including but not limited to: Grace being a 'bad doggy' (according to a 'funny baby' with an apparent death wish) Oh! and Hannah get's to play peacemaker for once.

 

“Han?”

I squeezed bridge of my nose slightly harder at Sarah’s voice.
Why did I ever want to come home?

I should have stayed in the backwards-ass traditionalist paradise.
At least people there were too in awe of me to cause much trouble in general.

“MUM?!”
Sarah finally seemed to realise who was lying unconscious on the floor.
Despite how tired she looked she still ran over and joined John in trying to lean her up into a more comfortable position.

I’m kind of tempted to let off a blast of my magic to wake her up but if my guess is right and somewhere inside the house at the moment is a rather large group of MPA or government officials, then that REALLY wouldn’t help my case with them much at all.

Before I could finally crack and let off some magic anyway Mum groaned.
She sluggishly started moving again which solved my little internal conflict nicely.

With one last warning glance at Eris, who actually seemed to have realised that what she did was wrong judging by the worried looks she kept sending Mum, I paced up the step and joined the little huddle at the door to see if she was okay.

“I-”

Before I could say anything Sarah cut across me.
She sounds REALLY tired for some reason?

“Han, we’ll talk later. At the moment you need to go out back, we’ve spent the last few hours trying to stop World War Three from kicking off. The only thing that’s going to calm that lot down is you.”

I opened my mouth to say.. something?..
I don’t know what I was going to say honestly, she kinda threw me off with the sudden ‘World War Three’ talk.

“Go! We’ve got Mum, she’s just exausted, we’ve already left them alone together for too long.”

Our eyes met and I could read her face easily.
She’s frustrated, confused, annoyed and above all else TIRED.

Without another word I nodded to her, shifted Eris on my hip a little better and squared my shoulders.
Never a boring day around here..

I drew in a deep fortifying breath because, honestly, I kind of needed it at this point?
I’ve barely walked in the door and yet again I’m going to throw myself into the middle of a situation that I have no idea why it’s happening, how it’s happening, what’s really going on or why the hell it has anything to do with ME in the first place!
..my life kinda sucks sometimes..

Eris’s little head kept swinging from side to side as we walked through the house.
She seemed fascinated by our boring old house for some reason?

We made it to the backdoor and I hesitated for a second.
I could hear a certain rumble coming from outside as we walked through the house but now that we’re closer it sounds more like a dull roar of raised voices.

With one more deep sigh I shifted Eris again and took the last step back out into the midday sun.

======

“What the HELL is going on here?!”

Eris shoved her head to my chest when I yelled.
Without really thinking about it my hand came up to cover her head protectively.
I was a bit busy glaring at everyone out here to focus on her at the moment though.

..let’s take stock shall we?..

To my left we have several men in suits, along with a few lab coat wearing techs, a contingent of SWAT members with their guns raised slightly and standing at the front is a very flushed looking Trudy.

To my right, standing closer to the treeline and looking a lot more feral then the last time I saw them was my ‘new’ extended family.
The men were mostly standing at the front with their hands stretched out in an odd way that I think would look in some way threatening if they had some form of ‘claws’ to show off with it.
Behind them I could see a line of the women with their hands cupped up in a standard ‘casting’ pose for elemental magic, which is as close as you get to an open threat from a mage really.

Even further back was a mix of men, woman and some ‘children’ ranging from the teenage girls I saw hanging out by the radio during the barbeque at the farm down to a few kids, Jessie’s boys age.

Standing at the front of their little war-band were three people.
Gran, obviously, she looked frustrated more than anything.

To her side, being held back loosely by Gran’s arm was a rather wild and dangerous looking Grace.
Her eyes kept scanning the ‘Hub’ group for any kind of threatening movements.

Standing on Gran’s other side was, of all people, Edith!

I’d probably consider her wide stance and grumpy little old face with her squinted eyes amusing if I didn’t know her well enough to know that she’s practically ready for battle from the way she’s holding her shoulders so tightly under her floor-length little old lady dress and fluffy slippers.

“Lady Arista, get back! They’re Wolves!”
One of the suited men actually took a step towards me as he yelled out his ‘warning’ but that single step was enough to make several growls rumble out across our back yard in a way that made me instinctively want to run VERY far away.

It was honestly quite terrifying to hear, even when it wasn’t aimed at me in the slightest.
Eris shivered and pulled herself a little tighter into my chest somehow.

Trudy turned and, ignoring the growls, seemed to relax a little at the sight of me.
The SWAT guys on the other hand lifted their guns slightly higher at the warning sounds coming from the family side of the yard.
They seemed ready to start firing at any moment!

“YOU LOT!”
My free arm came off of Eris’s head to point at the Hub group.
“GUN’S DOWN! NOW!”

It actually surprised me a little when they listened to my command.
With obvious reluctance they lowered their gun’s to rest at their sides.

It was easy to see that they were in NO way comfortable standing there without their weapons raised.
I don’t have time to plicate their egos though.

My head turned to glare at my ‘family’ and my arm swung around to point in their direction too.

“YOU LOT! HEEL!”
I couldn’t really think of anything else to say to them, they don’t exactly have weapons to put down so I figured a ‘dog’ command would be about as good as I’d get given the circumstances.

The men of our family turned their heads and offered an almost simultaneous glare at me for saying it like that.
I don’t mind though, if they’re busy focusing on me they’re NOT focusing on the other group at least.

Grace turned her head and silently glared at me as well.
I don’t think she appreciated the command, mainly because it came from ME of all people.

“Leaders, to the center!”
My feet paced out along the imaginary line dividing the two sides and came to a stop right between Trudy and Gran.
“We’re sorting this mess out NOW and you AREN’T turning my garden into a warzone no matter what happens!.. COME ON THEN!”

Everyone jumped at my raised voice, even Eris.
My hand came up to cup her head again, the instinctive action brought me a bit back to reality.

I kinda fell into old habits for a second there?

Sometimes on missions it’s easier to just take charge, even when you have no real idea what you’re doing.
People tend to fold quickly if you at least SOUND like you know what you’re doing usually.
It probably doesn’t help that I’m still a bit exhausted, emotionally all over the place, drugged up AND in a bad mood from John’s little trick that made Mum faint!

My magic’s rolling with my mixed up emotions, I imagine they can all feel it in some way.
That tends to happen when a powerful mage is pissed off.
Even normal people can feel the magic pressure, although it tends to be more of a cold wind to them then a physical force.

Trudy waved off the few people that were going to follow her forward.
Gran, Edith and Grace stepped their way over to me without any kind of delay from the family though.

It’s kind of funny that the trained soldiers and Hub staff were the clingy ones in this while my family worked like a well-oiled machine?

When Trudy reached my side she reached out an arm and gave me an awkward hug, avoiding Eris as best she could.
Grace growled at her for it but a look from me stopped her short.

We’re sorting this mess out NOW!
I’m not going to be blamed for some kind of pissing contest gone wrong between my new family and the de facto magical government of the United States!

“I’m glad you’re here Hannah, I’m not sure how much longer I could have held back that lot.”
Trudy casually pointed over her shoulder at the gun toting SWAT team and all the staff around them.

“Ya timin’ be annoyingly good useless girl..”
Edith hobbled up to my right and her lips twitched into the barest hint of an approving smile before she went back to her usual grumpy old flat look for everyone else around us.

Gran came up to my side and with a curious look down at Eris, who was watching her back with equal curiosity, she gave me a light hug of greeting.

When Grace came within range of me the Hub lot tensed visibly but all it took was a warning glance from me for them to settle down again.
..I think I get what’s going on here..

“Anyone want to fill me in? I spend a few days recovering from an overloaded spell and come home to THIS.. I’m honestly not in the best of moods so let’s keep it simple shall we?”
Eris moved her head to lie against my chest again.
She really seems to like that position for some reason.

Grace opened her mouth to speak, judging by the openly hostile glint in her eye anything she was about to say wouldn’t be very helpful at all.
Luckily Gran brought a hand up and placed it on her shoulder which instantly seemed to make her rethink her planned words.

“I be hearin’ Lou-Lou be visitin’ ya. Come to chat. Fae pets found out about her bein’ here and turned up ready for war.”
Everyone seemed reluctant to say anything else after that.
As always Edith managed to get to the heart of the problem easily, even if she did say it weirdly with obvious bias in her voice against the ‘Fae Pets’.
Trudy was blushing slightly and seemed to be trying to not look as guilty as she felt.
“Lil’ Tudy saw what be happenin’ pretty quick, she kept them back while we kept the wolf-kin back.”

Trudy’s face scrunched up and her blush went up another level at being called that silly nickname again in such a serious situation.
You don’t get out of nicknames from Edith no matter what’s happening, take that from a ‘useless girl’ with first hand experience on the topic.

“When did you get the new hip accessory?”
Everyone turned to look at Grace.

She had the decency to flush a little when all of the older members of our little group glared at her for going off topic.

I glanced down at Eris who seemed to be studying Grace like a particularly disgusting worm.
Feeling a bit vindictive for her prank on Mum earlier I took a step forward and slid her off my hip into an awkward forward hold.
Before either of them could protest I slid her into Grace’s surprised arms and stepped back with a smirk.

“HEY! I don’t do babies?!”
Grace glared at me over Eris’s head and growled a little in annoyance.
She didn’t let go of Eris though, just held her awkwardly against her chest as best she could.

A little hand came up and lightly swatted Grace on the nose.
I froze momentarily at the surprise evident on her face as her head slowly turned down to look at the little red-haired bundle in her arms.

“Bad Doggy, don’t growl at my Mom.. and I’m NOT a baby!”
To finish off the moment Eris leaned her face a little upwards and gave a surprisingly good impression of Grace’s previous growl.

With a jolt I managed to snatch her back out of Graces arms and turn her away quickly.

Powers! Has this kid’s got NO self-preservation instincts?!
You don’t just go around hitting werewolves on the nose and calling them ‘Bad Doggy’s despite how funny the idea is!

I’ve seen personally why you do NOT want to even PLAYFULLY growl at Grace specifically either!

Grace had the start of a truly deep growl building up in her chest when Gran reached out to her and stopped her short with just a touch again.
They shared a look and Gran cocked her head to the side.

Reluctantly Grace backed down, she actually walked away from our group to go join the rest of the family near the treeline in the end.

When she was reasonably far enough away Edith burst into a short, uncharacteristic peal of laughter.
She pulled herself back together quickly but shot an amused look at Gran for a second before turning back to me and squinting at Eris thoughtfully.

“I be likin’ her. Useless girl maybe not so useless if she be spawnin’ funny baby’s like this one..”

Eris turned her head from my side and glared at Edith angrily.
When her glare didn’t seem to do much it slid into a pout, which eventually turned into a frown.

“..I’m not a baby..”
She really didn’t sound so sure of herself this time though.
I don’t think she’s been teased about something by more than one person at a time before from the look of it?.. poor kid..

To shake her out of her little funk I jostled my hip again which refocused her attention back on me.
With a rather overdramatic sigh she smiled at me and slid her head back onto my chest, resting just above my heart again as usual.

Powers be damned!
When did having a little kid resting her head on my left breast become ‘usual’?!

“Okay, let’s get back to business shall we? From what I can gather, the Hub found out our house was being ‘invaded’ by werewolves and panicked, right?”

There was a slight grumble from Trudy but in the end both her and Gran nodded.

Edith stayed out of it, mostly cutting her eyes between me and Eris thoughtfully which I’m honestly kind of glad for because she has a tendency to make everything more complicated than it has to be when she feels like it.

“Well.. Trudy, meet my Grandmother. Grandmother, meet my magical social worker Trudy.”
I gestured between the two of them casually with my free hand and couldn’t resist smiling at the confused looks they both gave off, probably because of the ‘social worker’ comment.
“Introductions now complete, we can move on to more pressing matters.”
My head turned to Trudy specifically and she cringed back a little from me for some reason.
“Trudy, be a dear and get your people OFF my lawn will you?.. you can stay but anyone in a suit, lab-coat or carrying a gun has to leave.”

She shot one last worried look over at the rest of the family who, while not giving off any kind of obvious threatening motions, were still standing in regimental lines as if ready for a fight to break out again at any moment.

Grace was talking animatedly with a few of the men at the frontline which probably isn’t going to help things in the long run knowing her.
Finally Trudy turned back to me and reluctantly nodded in acceptance.
We all watched as she made her way back over to the Hub staff and started talking to them with an obviously forced level of calm.

I drew in a heavy sigh and turned to face Gran next.

“I’m not sure why you’re all here but family’s always welcome and no-one got bounced off the wards so there was no ill-intent on either side, towards anyone living here at least, want to get everyone to calm down a bit then come in for a coffee?.. I could do with one at this point honestly..”

Gran gave me a bright smile and nodded happily.
She gave me one more light hug, ran a fond hand through Eris’s hair which surprised the little girl more then I’d expected it to before making her way back to the family side of the garden.
The moment she was within range everyone, even the people hiding at the back, came forward into a big bundle to hear what she had to say.

I glanced between the two sides and sighed heavily in relief.
I HATE being the peacemaker!
..mostly because I’m not normally very good at it..

“Useless girl should have let them fight, I always be wanting to see who would win out’ta gun’s an’ werewolves..”

My head slowly turned to glare at Edith for saying something so mean.
She shrugged her heavy little shoulders and turned to start wandering back toward the house using her JuJu stick as a cane again.

“Useless girl, be passin’ funny baby off to someone an’ followin’ me.. we be needin’ a talk..”

She didn’t bother saying anything else, frustratingly.
I could feel Eris shift against me enough that she could glare at Edith’s retreating back.
My hand came up to pat her head soothingly like Mum used to do for Sarah when we were kids which seemed to help somewhat judging by the way her body relaxed a little.

With one last worried glance over at the two sides of the, hopefully now averted, ‘potential World War Three’ situation I started making my way back into the house.

I know I have to talk to Edith soon, she wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t serious, but I REALLY need a coffee first.
I need to check up on Mum and catch up with Sarah too.

GAH! Too many things to do at once!

“..People are annoying..”
A glance down at Eris’s little face showed exactly what she meant, her eyes were glued on Edith’s back with a glare that honestly looked kind of adorable in a ‘completely non-threatening but trying desperately to be’ way.

“..yeah.. they are..”
My hand came up to pat her hair again and she nestled into me a bit tighter, Edith seemingly forgotten in exchange for hugging tight to me.

..people really ARE annoying sometimes..

======

“Ari, sweetie, is everything okay out there now?”

Not good!
Mum sounds far too cheerful all of a sudden!

“I hope you managed to calm everything down.. now, how about you take a seat and explain to me just how I managed to acquire three Grandchildren overnight who call you ‘Mommy’ and Max ‘Daddy’.. just days after you ran off together to parts unknown.. huh?”
The pleasant tone to her voice didn’t even slightly hide the frustrated, confused look on her face.

“I’d love to Mum but Eris needs to go to the bathroom and Edith asked me to-”
Mum silenced me with a look and gestured to one of the stools by the kitchen counter.

“Sit.. NOW..”

I couldn’t hold back the worried gulp that came out of my throat at the downright angry look on her face all of a sudden.
I really didn’t think she’d react this badly to John’s little prank?

Maybe she’s already a bit stressed out, who knows how long she’s had to put up with the warring tribes outside?!
She looks about as tired as Sarah did earlier, possibly worse now that I’m looking at her properly..

My shoulders slumped a little and I took the last few steps over to one of the stools.
Eris grumbled when I moved her off my hip and sat her in the stool next to me but she perked up curiously as she took in the kitchen behind Mum.

The way she acts about this house.. you’d swear she’d never seen a kitchen before or something?

“Mum I’m-”
Her hand came up to silence me again.

I sat there watching her with a bit of worry eating at me as she busied herself pulling things out of the fridge and doing stuff on the counter out of sight.

Finally after almost a full minute of clinking glasses and scraping knifes she turned back to us, sliding a Jam sandwich with the crusts cut off in front of Eris.
She turned again and came back around with two tall glasses of orange juice.

Eris’s little eyes lit up at the juice.

She grabbed the tall glass awkwardly with both hands and managed to drink it fairly smoothly all in one go.
We both watched, kind of stunned, as she managed to down the entire glass before wincing a little and letting off a surprisingly deep sounding ‘burp’.

Mum turned her eyes over to me with a raised eyebrow.
A smirk slowly came to her lips.

“She’s definitely her mother’s daughter.”

I glared at her slightly but I’m honestly a bit relieved that she’s up for jokes?
For a second there I thought this was going to be like one of our old ‘sit down and yell it out’ arguments that we used to have a lot when I was ‘Al’.

It looks like Eris unwittingly managed to calm Mum down just by being a cute kid.
Never underestimate the power of a child on a woman’s maternal instincts!

Not that it’s relevant or useful in most situations but I’m glad Mum’s calm from it at least.
It should make this whole conversation a lot easier..

“You disappeared again Ari, at least this time you told your Grandma why beforehand I guess..”
I cringed a little and sunk my head down guiltily.
“Okay enough with the guilty looks, fill me in on what happened and I’ll tell you what you missed over here in return, sound fair?”

Cautiously I moved my head back up to stare at her but she really does seem to just want to know what happened while I was away?
That’s what her surprisingly relaxed body language is telling me at least.

For a moment I felt relieved before I remembered just what DID happen while I was away..
This isn’t going to be easy to explain.

Maybe I can soften the edges a bit for her, make it sound ‘not as bad’ as it really was somehow?

======

“..so Max died?!”

I sighed and brought my hand up to rub away my headache for what felt like the millionth time.

It seems she can take the whole ‘Hannah is technically the Mother of Magic’ thing with barely a blink and a giggle.
She understood my little field trip around the country with nothing more than a mumbled statement that I should have thought it through better and at least brought some help with me.

John dying, when he’s currently visible through the kitchen window playing a surprisingly effective peacemaker between what’s left of the MPA group and my worryingly large family, seems to be a step too far for some reason?

Thank the powers I didn’t tell her about Storyteller!
The whole ‘I have Grandkids, I’m too young to be a Grandmother’ aspect of things let me brush over THAT little bombshell so that’s something I guess.

“..yeah.. he died..”
Not to sound callous but he’s alive NOW, ya know?
This is the third time I’ve had to repeat that sentence for her and for some reason having to say it really annoys me!

“..really dead?..”

My hand squeezed down on the bridge of my nose to stop my building headache from getting worse.
“Yes.. Mother.. dead, stone-cold, not breathing, no heartbeat, no magic signature, no aura, DEAD! OKAY?!”

Mum flinched back from me.
Eris whined a little and tried to tuck herself into my side.

I huffed a heavy breath through my teeth and tried to calm down.
Talking about it gets me worked up, I really shouldn’t snap at her for it.

My arm snaked out to pull Eris closer to myself.
She obviously took that as an open invitation, because in seconds she’d scrambled from her stool over to mine and fit herself comfortably into my lap.

I’d protest about it but honestly, I really did need the comfort that her presence provides right now.

It turns out that this new ‘not really a new incarnation’ incarnation is a bit of a ‘cuddler’.
I should have guessed as much the first time I squeezed poor Felix really, Al would never have let himself do that but as Hannah.. sometimes I just kinda NEED to, ya know?

While Mum looked nervously around the room, obviously not sure where to go from here and Eris leaned a little forward to pull her second Jam Sandwich closer to herself again, I slid my free arm down to my side so I could grab my bag.

It wasn’t too hard to get it onto the table and with a bit of searching I managed to find my pill bottle.

That little outburst I just gave Mum is probably a good indicator that my mood stabilizers are wearing off to some degree.
Mum watched me curiously and opened her mouth to ask something but stalled out eventually as she watched me pull out two pills.

I downed them quickly with a few gulps of orange juice.
After a long pause between us l caved to her curious stare.

“They’re mood stabilizers, I pushed things too far a few days ago and my magic is pushing back.”
I shrugged my shoulders and smiled at her awkwardly.
“Before I started taking these little gem’s I was a complete mess.. worse than usual even..”

Mum didn’t seem very amused by that remark.
Eris probably didn’t like it either, she glared at the pill bottle until I slid it back into my bag out of sight.
That probably says a lot, although I’m in no state to work out just exactly WHAT it means, if anything.

“..so.. you just.. poof!.. and he’s alive again then?”
Mum really tried to make that question sound casual but, as ‘smooth changes of topic’ go, it’s not the best I’ve ever seen to be honest.

She gave me a weak smile which was enough for me to let her get away with it anyway.
I shouldn’t have yelled at her so I owe her at least one weak ‘out’ from an awkward conversation moment in return.

“It’s really not THAT simple.. but in essence.. yeah? Poof! and he’s back to his usual asshole-ish, breathing, beating-heart self..”

Mum hissed in a breath and glared at me warningly.
I couldn’t help but cringe slightly.

What the hell did I do NOW?!

“..don’t talk like that around the little one..”
Really?!..

..‘Asshole-ish’?..

That’s barely even a swear word!
Eris has said worse things than that about ‘Dite in the last few days, let alone heard them when I was having my little freak-out sessions!

One more glance at Mum’s resolved expression made all my protests kinda die on the tip of my tongue though.
“Sorry Mum.”

Just to have something to do that didn’t involve looking at Mum I moved my hand up and gently ran my fingers through Eris’s hair.
..she likes when I do that..

When I chanced a look back up at her, Mum’s lips had slipped into more of a fond smile than anything else as she watched the byplay between me and the now seemingly sleepy Eris sprawling slightly in my lap.

“So.. the Gladstone’s woman, Trudy, said that they thought you were the source of the solar flare that-”
She trailed off when she saw the look on my face.

“..yeah..”
I felt myself cringe a little under her incredulous gaze.
“It was kinda an un-predictable side effect from what I did to John an-”

“Speaking of un-predictable results..”

I turned on my stool slightly to give Sarah an incredulous look of my own.
How long has she been standing there just WAITING for an excuse to cut in like that?!

“Things are calming down outside, everyone’s breaking up to sort out their tents for tonight now that the big bad men with guns have left, and Gran want’s you outside again.. apparently something about your footprints has her worried?.. I dunno, they look the same as last time to me but.. whatever.”
She finished her little spiel with a lazy shrug and grinned at me for a moment before her face split into a jaw-crackingly wide yawn.
“I’m off to bed. Wake me if World War Four starts..”

With a backward wave she was gone, leaving me sitting there with Eris cuddled up in my lap and a worried frown on my face.
..footprints?..

Why would Gran be worried about my foo-
CRAP!

I jolted off the stool and barely managed to keep a hold on the suddenly awake Eris.
She groaned, tried to find something to hold onto me better with through half closed eyes.
A slight bounce on my feet had her settled a bit higher up against my chest, high enough that I could get an arm under her butt to make sure she didn’t slip.

“Sorry Sweetie.”
She didn’t answer, which I’ll take as a positive response seeing as she’s not trying to get away from me or anything.

It’s weird having a little kid around even if she IS cute sometimes.

Shaking myself back to reality I paced over to the kitchen window and cringed.
In an obvious straight-line from our back garden path, across to the near center of our backyard and back were a perfectly formed set of footprints!

How the HELL did THAT happen?!
I’ve not got the bloody cuffs on anymore!
That SHOULDN’T be happening!

“Ari, are you okay?”

Mum sounded worried.
I grunted to her and offered her a sideways glance that may have been a reassuring smile if you didn’t blink, but I was quickly back to staring out the window.

Without another word my feet pulled me through the backdoor and out into the midday heat again.

The moment they saw me everyone stopped what they were doing and paused like a wave of statues, staring at me.

It was pretty unnerving honestly.
I don’t like being the center of attention at the best of times!

“Hannah, over here.”

A glance in Gran’s direction had me shaking my head again uncertainly.
..I don’t want to go walking out onto the grass again..

“Don’t be silly, the damage is done now, come over here so we can check you out properly.”
She waved a hand slightly at the group of woman around her which, if I’ve not missed my guess, consisted of pretty much every mage in the family.

With a reluctant sigh I pushed myself off the path and made my way out to them.
The grass was just as annoying as ever, I don’t know how I missed it a minute ago, I WAS a bit distracted though I guess..

When I reached them one of the blonde women, her name’s Joan I think?
She’s one of Mum’s sisters either way, one of the quiet ones, unlike Grace or Jessie.
She stepped up to me and offered her arm’s to take Eris for a minute.

For some reason I felt reluctant to hand her over?

I know that they need to see my magic to find out what’s wrong.
I kind of wish I still had my glasses, if that asshole Storyteller hadn’t stolen them I’d be able to just flash magesight on myself and see what’s wrong without their help.

I guess I COULD use normal mage sight but with the headache I’ve got rumbling on in the back of my head that’s probably not a good idea honestly..

“Eris sweetie, I need to let everyone check my magic for a second.”
There was a slightly sharp intake of breath from someone but I was busy focusing on the bundle of red hair in my arms.

Her little head turned up to look at me in confusion.
I really can’t tell if she’s still actually sleepy or not?

Probably not considering the jolt I gave her a moment ago when I stood up so suddenly but she really seems tired.. or.. maybe not tired I guess, but lazy?..
Kind of like me when I bliss out a little from venting some magic, ya know?

“I can pass you over to this lady for a second if you want or I can put you down, it’s your choice?”
She scrunched up her face but after a long pause pointed her hand down at the floor.

I carefully slide her onto her feet and took a moment to pat her dress down so it was straight again.
She seemed to like that.

When I finished her hand came out and cupped itself into mine.

It shouldn’t hurt their attempts to find out what’s wrong with me if we’re still holding hands, right?
I straightened up and shot a curious glance at the woman around us.

They all have really weird looks on their faces all of a sudden?

“You’d make a good Mother, Hannah..”
I flinched visibly at Gran’s words.
A few of the women seemed to find my reaction amusing but most of them were focusing on Eris for some reason.

Instinctively I shifted her slightly behind me and shot a warning look at them all.
Why are they looking at her like that?!

As a group they seemed to realise that they’d been caught staring so obviously.

Gran sighed and brought a hand up to the bridge of her nose in frustration.
It’s weird seeing someone else do that same delicate gesture as I’ve been doing so often lately.

“Don’t mind them Hannah, they don’t mean anything by it. They’re just a little surprised to find out the little girl with you is Eris, ‘fates discordant apple’.. we don’t tend to meet many awakened mages back home, it can be a bit of a culture shock sometimes.”

I perked up an eyebrow at Gran, carefully my eyes shot down at Eris.
She huffed to herself and tried to fold her arms defensively without letting go of my hand.

“..stupid title.. you throw one little apple at one stupid bimbos head and everyone thinks it’s important for some reason..”

..I’m honestly not touching that one..

No wonder she’s so mean to ‘Dite?
..talk about OLD grudges, yeesh!..

I can see where she’s coming from with titles being stupid though.
Coming from the ‘Mother of Magic’, ‘Holder of the keys to Avalon’, ‘Owner of far too many stupid sounding titles’, I can legitimately say that they just get annoying after a while.

“Let’s focus on Hannah ladies, shall we?”
Gran’s words were phrased like a question but following them was by no means ‘optional’ apparently.
Judging by the way the women around us snapped to attention and their eyes all flashed with the easily recognisable signs of activating magesight the message came through loud and clear.

In seconds I felt like I was being held under a microscope.
My hand may have squeezed down on Eris’s a little more in my unease but she didn’t complain if I did.

“Well.. uh..”
None of the woman seemed willing to add anything to the brown haired one, Cynthia’s words.

“That bad, huh?”

Gran winced and shot me a worried look.
I probably should have asked her to check me over alone first.

I knew the results were going to be weird at best, I’M weird at best!

I kind of forgot that it might be a surprise to them?
It’s not polite to scan other people with magesight without asking first after all.
None of them, even Gran, would have probably seen anything close to my messed up magic before now..

“The good news is, the footprint effect should be temporary.”

A breath hissed out through my teeth that I didn’t even realise I’d been holding.
That’s a relief!

“It looks like those devices you let ‘John’ slap on you at the farm have left a partial imprint on your lines, like a weak diversion. You should be able to turn the effect off now that you know it’s happening if you work on it a bit?”
I smiled at her but she didn’t smile back.
“The more worrying aspect is just what on EARTH is happening to your magic otherwise?”

Ah, yeahhh.. well this is kind of awkward isn’t it?..

“That’s kinda.. normal.. for me?”
They all froze for a moment, staring at me in shock.
“Well, I mean.. it’s.. my magic’s always been weird I guess..”

To hell with it, ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’ as the Brit’s and John would say..

“I’m a Locus point, my awakening was weird. I had a second partial-awakening that made it weirder, shifting my element from fire to ice.. then Edith added my healing diversion.. AND on top of that Storyteller added a brand that did something I’m still not fully clear on but seems to have turned me into a kinda.. I dunno, magical equivalent of a mage/werewolf hybrid?...”

They all stared at me in blank shock.
Even Eris was watching me with wide, confused eyes.

“Useless girl talk too much.”
My head jerked around to stare at Edith as she seemed to appear from nowhere right behind me in that creepy way she does, usually just before she’s about to hit me with her JuJu stick.

On reflex I actually recoiled away from her but at a second glance she didn’t seem to actually have the stick with her?.. weird..

“Don’t be lookin’ at me like that, ya be lettin’ other’s mess with ya bad JuJu. I be tellin’ ya we need ta talk girl, this be why..”
She huffed heavily and stared at the group of women around us with her beady little eyes.

She obviously didn’t like something she saw because her face scrunched up for a second before smoothing out again into her usual grumpy little frown.

“Ya been slackin’ Lou-Lou. None of ya girls be awakened yet?”
This time it was Gran’s turn to flinch.
She made a nervous noise in the back of her throat and looked away from Edith.
“Sentimental lil’un, ya always been like that, silly girl.”

Gran blushed.
An actual, visible, full on red-cheeked blush!

..just how old IS Edith?..
Trudy was one thing but Gran’s ancient.. like.. three, nearly four hundred years old?!
She looks good for her age I know but that’s mages for you.
We age weirdly sometimes.

It’s kinda random as far as I know, something about the way our magic helps us to stay in ‘peak condition’ also keeps us in ‘PEAK condition’ for a bit longer than it should, if that makes sense?

With that in mind, either Edith’s magic isn’t very good at keeping her looking young, Gran’s is EXCEEDINGLY good at keeping HER looking young or Edith is WAY older then even I imagined possible without some kind of reincarnation being involved!

“Don’t be gapin’ at me like a fool useless girl, ya come by the shop this week’an I be fixin’ ya right on ya lines ‘gain!”

With a worryingly childish huff that she seems to have taken a liking to giving off lately Edith turned on her fluffy slippered heel and marched away towards the house without another word.
A few of the woman around me stared after her in shock and mild offence for some reason but as always she blatantly didn’t care in the slightest.

======

“Sooo.. putting up tents, huh?”
My weak attempt at changing the topic seemed to shake the lot of them back into the here and now at last.

Gran smiled a little awkwardly but appeared to be thinking about something pretty deeply still for some reason.
The other woman sent glances over to the treeline where a load of the men and some of the women were trying valiantly to work out how to use some really old, shabby looking canvas tents.
The tents REALLY don’t look like they should be used by ANYONE honestly, just from how frayed their ropes are if nothing else!

“It’s a bit of a squeeze, we only have five tents and there’s.. ten.. twenty.. thi.. there’s a lot of us?.. let’s leave it at that.”
The brunette woman with Sarah’s smile, that I vaguely remember checking out my glasses when I made them back at the farm, shrugged her shoulders but didn’t seem too fussed by the worrying amount of overcrowding ahead of them tonight.
..if only we had some extra space for them inside..

We have the sofa’s I guess?
Me and Sarah could double up in my room, so that’s two more single beds in our old rooms and the guest room on top of that.

That’s still not NEARLY enough to hold them all fairly though!
It’s not like I can just expand a room on the fly for them an..d..

I really need to keep track of things better!

“Gran, hypothetically speaking, if I had a pocket dimension to hand which I think is probably big enough to hold you all for the night if you’re okay sharing a room.. but it’s currently full up with unsorted clutter, would you all be interested in helping me clear it out in exchange for a more comfortable night’s sleep?”

Gran’s shoulders slumped in obvious relief and she smiled at me fondly.

“Hypothetically speaking, I’d shovel horse manure for hours if it meant we could sleep indoors tonight Hannah. Some of the girls are already talking about going home instead of spending the night in these old tents, the whole thing is probably a bad idea with the MPA being so edgy around us at the moment anyway.”

I couldn’t help but wince at that.
Having worked with Hub people in the past and been around them all in general for a while, I can honestly say she might have a valid point there.

I wouldn’t put it past some of the SWAT guys to come back under the cover of darkness with hair-trigger fingers and a determination to ‘protect Lady Arista’ or something equally stupid.
..being famous sucks sometimes..

“I’ll go get the doorway setup somewhere indoors if you want to go gather the troops?”
Gran nodded, smiled warmly at me and stepped over to give me a hug before casually wandering over to the still struggling tent setup teams.

I glanced down at Eris to make sure she was ready to go back inside, she smiled at me in a way that made her little dimples show on her cheeks.

My chest felt warm at the sight of it for a second but I’m not sure why?
In the end I shrugged the feeling off and squeezed her hand as we turned to walk back into the house.

From behind us, near the treeline, a sudden enthusiastic cheer rose and if I’m not mistaken it was followed closely by the sound of several people throwing down their tools and assembled tent parts.

I’d better hurry before they start getting antsy to get started!

We eased our way into the house through the backdoor.
Mum was still standing in the kitchen, fresh cup of coffee in hand.
She looks a bit more awake now at least.

Her head turned to look at us and she smiled warmly at me.
I couldn’t help but smile back.

Eris tucked herself into my side a little uncertainly for a moment but eased off a second later.
I don’t think she’s quite used to Mum yet?
She’s not particularly good around new people from what I’ve noticed so far.

“I think I’ve got a way that we can fit everyone in the house tonight Mum, I kinda.. already told Gran about it, sorry.”
Mum’s smile slipped for a moment as I spoke but eased back into that same warm look by the time I finished.

“That’s okay Ari, do you need any help?”

I’m not really sure what kind of ‘help’ she thought she could offer but it’s nice of her to offer at least.
Really, if there’s as much old mail in that pocket dimension as I THINK there is then I could probably do with every spare pair of hands I can get!

Once we’ve actually managed to get inside and checked out the room a bit my current plan is to get some expanded bags off of John.
We can just pile it all into them for temporary storage today.
Even expanded bags have their limits though, we might end up filling my old room up with bags by the time we’re finished if there’s as much in there as I THINK there is!
Over a hundred years’ worth of Birthday, Christmas and ‘Anniversary’ cards at the very least!

“Is it okay if I set the doorway up in the back of the elevator?”
That idea came to me just a second ago as I spotted the sliding door to the old thing out of the corner of my eye.

No-one uses the elevator anymore and it’s pretty much the best place to hide things in the house.
I don’t particularly want any ‘normal’ visitors like Aunt Lily to just wander into the pocket dimension thinking it’s a toilet or something after all..

“That should be fine Ari, I still don’t like the thing but as long as you’re not going up and down in it you should be okay. I had a man check it out a few years ago, he fitted some electro-magnetic breaks to it at cost..”
I don’t think she noticed the slight blush that came to her cheeks but I certainly did!

My eyebrow popped up curiously.
When she noticed it she blushed slightly harder and looked away guiltily.

Something tells me Mum’s tried dating again since Dad left?
Just call it a gut instinct.

..well.. good I guess?..
On one hand: ‘eww’ old people dating, especially when it’s my mother.
On the other hand, I’m not going to begrudge her trying to move on, ya know?

..it’s kind of nice actually?..
Yet another sign that I really DON’T know what’s going on in her head anymore, sure, but considering the last time I was wrong about that sort of thing she ended up practically apologising to me for how she treated me when I was Al while we had a little heart-to-heart in the car, I’m not TOO upset with the idea that she’s changed so much under my nose.
Even if it IS still annoying to some degree..

I think that annoyance is just my old instincts making me twitchy honestly?
I don’t like not knowing things, it tends to come back to bite me on the ass nine-times out of ten!

With a smooth movement I picked up my bag with my free hand and gave Mum my best reassuring smile to show that I didn’t mind the idea of her dating again.
She seemed to get it after a moment judging by the relieved smile she shot me in return.

With a scoop and a slightly happy skip in my step I made my way upstairs, bringing Eris along for the ride.. as if she’d let me leave her alone anyway!

She really can be a bit clingy at times?
If it wasn’t so cute and I didn’t kinda still need some kind of reassurance when my emotions go a bit haywire sometimes then it could possibly be considered ‘annoying’ too, but currently it’s just ‘cute’ luckily.

As we reached the stairs Eris’s eyes lit up and she asked me to let her down.

We made it up the stairs with me taking my time every few steps so she could catch up.
By the time we reached the top she was puffing little breaths, which was quite frankly adorable.

It also means she needs to get more exercise.
I’ll have to get back into my old exercise routine at some point to stop this new body from being so squishy and useless I guess.
If she’s still around by then I’ll have to drag her into an abbreviated version of my routine to help her build up some stamina.

Her eyes scanned the dining area and connected hallways with that strangely curious look she had when we first came into the house earlier?

She focused on the TV and sofa’s as we walked past the door leading into the TV room but she didn’t have long to look before we moved past it towards the elevator.
She actually looked kind of disappointed when it went out of view?

I’ll have to remember to take her in there later.
She probably wants to watch cartoons or something, most kids like that kind of thing right?
I did as a kid at least..

We reached the second floor entrance of the elevator.
I pushed the call button making it light up.

Even something as mundane as that had Eris staring at it with unconcealed curiosity.
I swear it’s almost like she’s never seen an elevator befor..

Well.. maybe?..
Maybe she hasn’t?.. seen an elevator before I mean?..

She’s young, I’m not sure when she last had an awakening before her current one either?

It’s not recent enough that it’s reached my ‘favorite’ freelance magical gossipmonger’s ears at least.
Jack would have been all over the story if she’d awakened in any meaningful way for the last fifty years or so?
He tends to ignore awakenings further apart then that because those people tend to not be a threat in the slightest due to culture shock more than anything.

I’ve heard of some newly awakened mages over the years having to basically re-learn how society works from the ground up because things have changed so much since they’ve been ‘away’.

Eris.. she’s in awe of our little house?
She used a wand back in New Avalon and no-one seemed to really notice or care at the time?

..has she been living in New Avalon with those backwards-ass traditionalist idiot’s all this time?!..
My hand squeezed hers slightly tighter.

Well not anymore she’s not!

I don’t care what anyone says, no kid should have to live in that place!
DEFINITELY not Eris!

The elevator pinged and its doors rolled open under Eris’s wide-eyed stare.
I took the moments distraction to calm myself down a bit, then shot her a reassuring smile that she barely seemed to notice as she stared at the metal ‘room’ inside the elevator shaft.

With a sigh I let my hand slide out of hers.
For a second she shot me a wild, worried glance but something on my face seemed to calm her down quickly.

“Don’t worry sweetie, I just need to get the doorway out of my bag and set it up. Can you do me a big favor and keep an eye out for anyone trying to interrupt me while I’m working?”

Her little eyes went wide again for a second before they shifted down into surprisingly cute little slits.

Her hand fished around in her dress and came out holding her wand.
With practically a pirouette on the spot she spun around to glare at the room outside the elevator doors as if some kind of monster was just waiting out there to strike at us at any moment.

For a second I had a flash of worry about leaving Eris standing guard like that but it’s mostly just to keep her busy and out of the way while I work.

What’s the worst she can do with that silly little twig anyway?
Honestly, wands are just stupid!

I’ll have to start showing her how to use her lines soon at the very least.
It’s not right for a mage to grow up not knowing how to use them properly!

I sighed a little but couldn’t help smiling at her enthusiasm.
My hand came up casually to hit the button that locks the elevator doors open before I started fishing in my bag for the shrunken doorway leading to Arista’s little ‘private’ pocket dimension.

I finally managed to catch the edge of the door from where it was hidden under my map and yanked it out pretty easily.

With care to keep it angled, so if it gets too big it’s not going to get stuck on something and break either itself or the elevator in general, I ran my finger around the edge of the mini-doorway and cycled my magic until it felt ready to pop.

One line to my pancreas, one to my mind and two lines to my hand.

Cancelling a shrinking charm is pretty much identical to casting one, just in reverse order.
Not every spell is that neat and tidy obviously but shrinking and enlargement charms are about as ‘basic’ as you can get when it comes to altering the properties of existing matter.

The door shook a little and started growing slowly back to its original size.
I stepped back, watching it go until it pretty much filled the entire floor space of the elevator with the way it was turned.

I ran my still charged hand across it slightly when it finished growing.
With a little focus and a slight shifting of my lines the door shrunk down ever so slightly, just enough that it would fit against the back wall of the elevator without issue.

It took a few awkward maneuvers to get it properly placed but I managed it in the end with only a single slightly crushed finger for my efforts.
A flash of my diversion magic fixed that right up and I stood back to grin at the blasted thing.
It actually looks quite good, weird, but good!

Already fully aware of what awaited me on the other side of the door I reached for the handle to open it cautiously.
At the last possible second there was a shout outside the elevator followed by a mild bang and some surprised yells from down the hallway.

“Stay back! Mom’s working!”

I had to open my big mouth earlier, didn’t I?..
I KNEW I shouldn’t have chanced it by writing off that wand as being useless!

“ERIS!”

She yelped in fear at my angry yell and dropped her wand to the floor, her eyes flying up to me guiltily.
For a single moment we stared at each other before her eyes started shining and she burst into tears, her legs folding under herself as she went.

Instinctively I moved forward and scooped her up into my arms.
I was already making apologetic noises for scaring her before I knew what was going on.

My hand came up to pat her hair like Mum used to do for Sarah when she was upset.
It didn’t seem to help much sadly?

Under the incredulous but slightly worried stares of my extended family on the staircase, painfully aware of the slight burn mark visible to their right neatly seared into the wall, I rocked her in my arms and tried to think of a way to calm her down.

Damn it, this is why I don’t work with kids!

Gold is called 'Aurum' in Latin, it means 'yellow'.. rather silly really isn't it? Surprising how much weight it can have for some people though and how useful it can be in some situations. Events unfold including but not limited to: Gran running a private postal service (without cost too, you've got to love family rates) and Hannah teaches a class while making her bed.. repeatedly.

 

“I’m sorry sweetie, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Her crying calmed down slowly but she was still sniffling a lot and shaking.
“I was playing when I said about you standing guard for me, I didn’t mean for you to try and attack anyone, you scared me. I’m sorry sweetie.”

Maybe if I explain things to her she’ll understand?
I DON’T work with kids for EXACTLY this reason!

Back when I was male they always seemed to cry eventually and I just have NO idea how to handle that!
It was different when I babysat in Sarah’s place, the boys she looked after were too ‘tough’ to cry.

Sarah cried a lot when we were growing up but I never had to try to get her to stop, just my presence was usually enough to calm her down!
Admittedly she WAS more of a screamer and a ‘roll around on the floor thrashing about’-er rather than this weak little sobbing thing that Eris is doing.

Something about the sounds Eris is making are just hitting a nerve in my brain.
I have NO idea what to do!

This isn’t something I feel like I’m in any way prepared to deal with honestly?!

======

I must have done something right somehow because eventually Eris shifted herself in my arms and settled her head on my chest just above my heart.

I think she’s listening to my heartbeat?
That’s really weird but I’m fine with it if it stops her crying..

“Is everything okay up here? I heard a bang and.. oh..?”
Mum paused at the top of the stairs, watching us uncertainly.

I offered her a weak smile, pleading for her to come and help me, which she was more than ready to oblige with.

In a few steps she was at my side and cautiously reached out to stroke Eris’s tear-stained cheek.
She flinched at first but after a long moment she rolled her head into Mum’s palm.

My eyebrow perked up in surprise when Mum started humming.
It’s a tune I’ve not heard in a long time, she used to hum it to help Sarah get to sleep when we were really young.
I’d forgotten it was even a thing honestly?
I’ve not thought about this tune in ages..

Eris’s eyes went wide and she stared at Mum in shock for some reason.
It took me a second of indecision but I could feel the tune rising in my head so I joined in, humming along with Mum.

Eris’s head turned back to stare at me with a level of awe I honestly hadn’t expected?
It’s only a little tune, nothing special..

Mum missed a beat and I carried on for a second before realising that I was the one who got the beat wrong.
I don’t know why I thought that bit was meant to go differently all of a sudden?
I learnt the tune from Mum after all.

Maybe it’s just been too long since I last heard it.

Eris’s eyes were still stuck staring at me but she shuddered a little when I hummed the wrong note.
She’s a bit of a weird kid at times..

Without a thought I smiled down at her and jostled my arms slightly.
She watched me intensely for a moment longer before sighing and resting her head back on my chest, above my heart.

Mum caught my eye and smiled at me proudly.
I shot her a questioning look but she shrugged and turned away before I could question her on it properly.

“It looks like Hannah has her hand’s full, can someone come open the door on this..”
She turned her head and peered back inside the elevator as if only just realising what she was about to say.
“..door?..”
After a long pause she shook herself and looked back at the assembled mass of family on the stairs.
“Anyone?”

There was a mild scuffle and Jessie’s boys forced their way to the top of the stairs.
With an unreasonable amount of excitement and rather loud yells they seemed to race each other over to the elevator so they could squabble over who got to grab the door handle first.
The blonde haired one who’s name I finally found out at the Barbeque is ‘Tommy’ won in the end and smirked at his dark haired brother ‘Tristan’ before giving the handle an almighty tug..

..it probably would have worked better if he pushed honestly..

After an awkward pause he laughed nervously and tried pushing instead much to Tristan’s obvious amusement.
Eris eyed the boys with undisguised disgust.

What girl likes boys at her age though I guess?
I’m sure that will change in a few years when puberty shows its ugly face for her.

Tommy struggled so much trying to push the door open against the bulk of mail behind it that Tristan stepped up to his side and between them they managed to shove it back just enough to let a pile of letters and packages spill out onto the elevators floor.
For a moment I thought they were going to be buried by it all but luckily that’s not how physics works and they ended up knee deep in paper instead, while grinning proudly at each other.

Gran made her way over from the stairs, cautiously followed by the rest of the family, and blanched when she saw the mess.
“..that’s a lot of letters..”

“yeah.. we’re gonna need a lot of bags.”
I shot a look over at the people making their way towards us from the stairs.
“Can someone find John for me? We’re going to need all the help we can get to finish before nightfall..”

Someone at the back of the mass made a sound.
It was easy to hear their quick steps as they rushed downstairs to gather up whoever wasn’t already up here.

“Where do we start?”
I cringed and scanned the letters again before swinging my eyes around the dining area uncertainly.
..there’s not many options really..

We can’t get to the real clearing until John can make some expanded bags for us and the doorway itself will eventually be the bottle-neck in the whole thing.
If I’d thought about it before I could have enlarged the door and mounted it at a slant so it would all pour out or something but I’ve got the door in the right place for later now and I’ll be damned if I’m moving the bloody thing again!

“If we start chaining as much as we can out onto the dinner table and the floor until John gets here with the bags then we should at least be able to get into the room easier.. possibly get a vague idea if it’s going to be large enough to fit you all in tonight?”
Gran grinned at me and nodded with authority.

“You heard her, form a chain. Men at the front bailing letters, woman at the back sorting them, mages at the side scanning for any potential dangers as we go.”

I opened my mouth to argue but when everyone jumped to work with laughs and smiles the protest kind of died on my lips.
Having the mages scan things for danger is probably a good idea, I should have thought of that.
I didn’t expect them to SORT things though!

The plan was to just put it all into the bags and leave it for later.. right?

Eris kicked her legs a little and waved for my attention.
It was easy to work out that she wanted to get down for some reason.

The minute her feet hit the floor she shot off to the pile of letters around the boys legs and snatched a bright pink one from the side of the pile.
With all the subtly of a particularly dull monkey she shot a nervous look around herself, not raising her eyes high enough to notice most of the adults watching her, and carefully slid the pink envelope into the seemingly bottomless pockets of her dress.

With a satisfied smile, her eyes scanned the pile in front of herself and she noticed another card at the other side of the elevator in that same eye-catching shade of pink.
She quickly scrambled over to it and repeated the process of ‘hiding’ it with pretty much the same results.

I shot Mum a curious look but she seemed to find Eris’s actions somewhat endearing.
A look at Gran earned me a warm smile and a shrug.

“I think she’s trying to collect the letters she sent.”
My shoulders slumped and I slowly turned back to watch her go while everyone else moved around us.

With a surprising amount of daring that I’ve honestly not seen from her before Eris practically belly-flopped onto the letters nearest the doorway and started ‘swimming’ her way through them to get inside the room first.

My instincts told me to call her back, but honestly.. she’s pretty good at launching the letters out for everyone else to gather up, so I’m kind of reluctant to tell her to stop?

In the end I settled for watching her closely to make sure she didn’t somehow ‘sink’ into the letters as she moved about picking out the pink letters and slipping them into the pockets of her dress every once in a while.

This is going to be a LONG day, I can just TELL!

======

“Bag seven’s full!”
I jolted my head up from the letter I’d been skimming over in surprise.

Seriously?!
SEVEN expanded bags full already?!
The damn things are near impossible to fill normally!

..SEVEN?!..
I guess now is as good a time as any to see how everyone’s doing?

At first I tried to help the men move letters but they smiled and said they had it covered.
I tried to help the women sorting too but they smiled at me and practically told me outright that they didn’t need me, I’d have been a bit offended if I hadn’t seen just how effective they worked together to get the job done already.
Every letter was slit open, glanced at long enough to tell who it was from and then put into the relevant pile to be bagged up.

In the end Gran took me over to one of the sofas in the TV room with a pile of letters that she slipped into my hands.
Apparently these were the ‘miscellaneous’ letters that everyone thought I should probably check out, including things like bank statements, deeds and pretty much anything money related.

It’s worrying to think that ‘money related things’ fell under ‘miscellaneous’ while ‘death threats’, ‘marriage proposals’ and ‘correspondence from Royal families the world over’ all have their own individual bags on the go..

How the hell does Arista even KNOW so many Royal families anyway?!
The few that I saw included a long dead Sultan, three Dukes from Norway and a ‘get well’ card from the man who is now currently fourth in line to the throne of England back when he was a little boy!

I grunted as I forced myself out of my seat.
A sofa’s REALLY not meant to be sat on for THIS long!

What time is it anyway?
It’s getting a bit dusky outside and the temperatures dropped a bit.
I’m kind of glad Mum made me put on one of my cap-sleeved T-shirts to cover the bikini top now honestly, even if it did feel a bit embarrassing to need her pointing out what I was wearing before I’d even noticed the potential problem.

I tugged at the hem of the yellow T-shirt self-consciously as my feet lead me outside into a surprisingly quiet, rather clean looking dining area and hallway.

Following my ears more than anything I made my way around to the elevator doors and got my first real glance at the interior of Arista’s pocket dimension.
Ignoring the flurry of activity going on where the family seem to have moved all sorting operations to INSIDE the room once enough space was cleared to fit everything comfortably, the first thing that caught my attention was the ceiling followed quickly by the walls.

Is that.. gold?

With cautious steps I moved through the elevator and walked into the room proper.
A few people shot me uncertain looks when they noticed me but they quickly got back to work without comment.

My finger came out to brush the wall and yanked back slightly when I felt cold metal under my touch.
Holy CRAP it’s REAL?!

This place looks like the tackiest, more overpriced hotel imaginable!
From crystal chandeliers to the solid gold walls and all the detailing around the edges which would look a lot less insane if they were carved into wood instead of solid BLOODY gold!!

“Hannah, how are you holding up? I must admit, when you said you might have a room for us to use I didn’t expect THIS level of opulence.”
I jumped at Gran’s voice but smiled at her uneasily in response anyway.

She peered at me closely for a second then snorted a laugh to herself in disbelief.

“You really had no idea this was all here did you?”
Reluctantly I shook my head which seemed to amuse her even more.
“Well on the positive side, we should be able to get this first room cleared by tonight and there’s definitely enough floor space for all of us to sleep, even if we can only conjure up a few beds between us.”

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
Why only a few?
With this many mages they should be able to have a bed each pretty easily!

“If everyone’s busy I could conjure up some beds?.. if you give me a rough total of how many you need at least.. I’m sure I can talk John into shrinking and carrying them up here when I’m done, or I can do it myself?..”
Gran’s eyes went really wide for a second before moving back down to her usual size, now with curiosity obviously written on her face.

“If everyone’s busy?.. it’s not about being busy Hannah, there’s too much to do for the mages we have at hand? Conjuring’s a hard talent to use.”

..it is?..

Well.. I mean it’s a bit complicated and you have to think about a lot of factors when making something I guess..
I wouldn’t really call it hard though?

I once got pinned down in a small dead-end room with a tidal wave of acid coming towards me.

Constantly conjuring wall sized four-inch thick slabs of solid steel while simultaneously getting rid of the remains of the previous wall for half an hour until the acid finally ate through the floor below itself and let me rest.. THAT was hard..

Making some beds from nothing is practically something I’d do more out of boredom then consider an ‘effort’ of any kind?

“You really have no idea what I’m talking about do you?”
My eyes shot up to meet hers and I shrugged helplessly to her.
I really don’t see the big deal.
Conjuring’s kind of fun honestly, not as fun as Runes obviously, but it’s a good mental workout to try and make an item increasingly better as you go on.

“Hannah..”
Gran stalled out from whatever she was about to say and sighed to herself tiredly.
“If you could create maybe.. ten beds then we would really appreciate it ..”

I frowned at her and glanced around us.
There’s WAY more than ten people here!
Hell, there’s more than ten people just doing the sorting at this point let alone everything else?!

“Twenty?”
It almost sounded like Gran had to force the word out of her lips for some reason.
My eyebrow perked up at her in confusion.
That still won’t be enough, she should be able to see that?
“..thirty..?”
Her voice actually squeaked a little as she rasped out that one, as if she couldn’t quite believe she was saying it.

“Are you okay Gran?”

She shuddered violently and seemed to have to pause to gather herself before facing me again.
When she did she was smiling though.

“Yes Hannah, I’m fine. Thank you for being so helpful with the beds, are you sure you can handle it all?”

I shrugged and smiled at her a little.
To be honest I’m feeling a bit cooped up having spent the last two hours reading a seemingly constantly refilling pile of ‘miscellaneous’ letters.
Being outside will be a relief and I’m always up for a new way to vent off some of my constantly regenerating magic that doesn’t leave me a giggly mass on the floor.

My magic’s kind of straining for release at the moment actually..
I still vented the same amount that I got used to doing in my bolt-hole at regular intervals while I was working on the letters but apparently that’s not enough at the moment for some reason?

Oh well, making the beds should help a bit.
I wonder if Gran will get annoyed if I take some liberties as I make them?

A room this.. golden.. deserves nice beds after all.

Shame I can’t make the beds out of ‘real gold’ really?
If we’re going with a tacky amount of gold already then more couldn’t hurt.. but making gold from nowhere is pretty much impossible.

You can fake it obviously, like the little ‘golden’ clasp on my bag.
In that case I made the clasp out of highly compacted ‘fools gold’ to make it as close to the real thing as possible.
The real give away would be that the clasp on my bag is magnetic while a ‘real’ gold one wouldn’t be, but there’s not much I can do about that sadly.

Magnetism and Magic go together like chalk and cheese.
Well.. okay maybe not technically.. if anything they get on together a bit TOO well honestly.

The most magically resonant metals tend to be the most magnetically resonant ones for some reason?
It’s impossible to either generate or eliminate a magnetic force using magic without cheating.

Trust me, a LOT of people have tried over the years.

A commonly miss-quoted fact is that Alchemists were trying to make gold from nothing with magic.
With the right rituals and base elements to hand making real gold isn’t that hard, just expensive, time consuming and pretty much not worth the effort.
What Alchemists were REALLY trying to do was make a MAGNETIC gold, without the expensive rituals involved if possible.

Fact’s get lost in the sands of time, especially when it’s normal humans who are recording things instead of mages, but the fact remains that a lot of people spent a LOT of time trying to make magnetic gold and failed miserably.
Even possibly the most famous Alchemist ever, Nicolas Flamel, with his supposed ‘Philosopher’s stone’ failed miserably at his art.

The only person I know of who seemed to actually know what the hell he was doing in Alchemy was an Egyptian guy with a funny beard called ‘Abramelin’.

Now HE was a genius!
He was truly dedicated to his Kabbalah faith, while embracing the scientific method as he worked tirelessly to improve himself by combining the two with magic wedged in-between.
He was one of the earliest documented adopters of the so called ‘symbolic magics’, now called ‘sympathetic magic’.. ya know.. the thing that I’m the best at!

The guy practically wrote the book on my strongest area of magic and-

======

“Are you okay Hannah?”
I jumped in surprise when Gran’s voice cut me out of my musings.

Damn it!
I’d kind of hoped I was over this awkward phase again!
It’s really not healthy and I honestly have no idea what to do about it?!

..what were we talking about?..

“huh..oh right, beds! Sure, I’ll see you in a bit then Gran, I’ve got a John and possibly some kids to gather up.”
Before she could call me out on my embarrassing slip into a completely internal conversation of my own I turned on my heel and practically sprinted out of the pocket dimension.

Luckily everyone was so busy with their work that Gran was probably the only person to notice my slip, that’s something at least.

======

“What on Earth are you doing?”

John looked up from his position awkwardly straddling ‘Dite with Eris swinging from his neck like a particularly loud and cute cape.
At least Tos had enough sense to not get involved, he seemed quite content to watch them from his position slumped against a tree.

“Teaching basic combat tactics?”

Before I could come up with an appropriate answer to that blatant lie, considering they were showing all the hallmarks of having spent a while doing what I would call ‘play-fighting’, Eris decided to drop from John’s back with a gleeful squeal.
Her little feet landed hard on the back of John’s shin’s making him yelp out in pain but she ignored it in her efforts to sprint across the garden and dive into my arms.

I only JUST managed to get my arms up in time to catch her honestly.
Apparently I’m forgiven for shouting at her earlier, either that or she’s just plain forgotten about the whole thing at this point.

“Hi sweetie, it looks like you’ve been having fun while I was busy?”

My lips wanted desperately to twitch up into a smug smirk as I peeked over her head slightly and watched John roll off of the suddenly worried looking ‘Dite to clutch his injured legs with a pained hiss.
Looks like she’s got combat tactics down pretty well already John-boy..

“We was gonna go help with the letters but Dad caught me hid.. uh.. HE TOOK SOME TOO!”

Wow.. I’m almost tempted to outright accept that she’s my daughter just because of that terrible attempt at covering her own mistake?
It’s got to be a hereditary thing..

I shifted my head to John who had gone suddenly, suspiciously still and quite.
..they’re both as bad as each other..

“I take it you wanted to hide your letters to.. your Mom.. so people didn’t see them, huh?”
Eris blushed brightly and sunk her little head guiltily to rest on my chest.
I was paying more attention to John though.

He’s blushing just as much as she is and he honestly looks pained at having been ratted out.

I guess I can let it drop for now?
It’s hardly news that John has an obsessive devotion to the original Arista, even if I WAS the real her, I imagine he’d want to hide some of the more embarrassing ones he may have sent to her over the years?
The same with Eris really, it’s just more cute then funny with her because she’s so young still.

“I’ve promised Gran to make some beds for her and the others to sleep on tonight, who’s up for learning some conjuration?.. or practicing if you already know how to do it?”

Dite perked up and actually looked surprisingly interested all of a sudden, Tos did too.
John sighed out a relieved breath and shot me a grateful look that plainly said he owed me for the change of topic.

Eris, of all people, was the one who seemed least impressed by my offer of conjuring training.
She stuck her little nose in the air in an over-dramatic way that only a small child could pull off convincingly and aimed her face at ‘Dite.

“I can do conjurin’ already.”

It wasn’t just my imagination that the usually oblivious or at least easy-going ‘Dite gritted her teeth a little in annoyance.
Apparently Eris isn’t the only one who can get jealous out of the two of them?

“You can, can you?.. well why don’t you show us then?”

Eris’s face lit up happily and she wiggled out of my arms to reach the ground.
Her hand dived into her pocket and came out holding her wand again.
..I really need to get her off of relying on that thing..

“Amoeba, Amoeba, Amoeba!”
She leaned over and rapped her wand against the ground.

I’m not sure what that ‘spell’, if you can call it that, means..
Whatever it is, I can tell just from the accent she said it with that it was Ancient Greek at least?
..some information is better than nothing I guess..

I’m not sure what it was meant to do but apparently what it DID was turn a small patch of dirt from our garden into a slightly malformed teddy-bear.. with a lazy eye.
Eris set her hands on her hips proudly and turned from ‘Dite to stare at me with pride in her eyes.

Despite the fact that I REALLY wanted to laugh at her honestly pretty weak attempt at ‘conjuration’, let alone the fact that it technically was more of a ‘transmogrification’ then a conjuration, I smiled at her instead.
Carefully I took a step closer and knelt down to be near her level.

Feeling just a little silly I held my hand out for hers.
Her eyes went wide, she almost seemed to know what I was going to do before I could open my mouth and say anything?

She dropped her new ‘toy’ quickly and cupped her hands in mine as if waiting for me to drop something into them.
Her smile went up a notch or two for some reason as well?

I eased my other hand out to cup over hers and dipped into my lines, just enough for what I needed.

Without much warning the spell was done and I pulled my hand away to leave Eris’s wide eyes focused on the, admittedly ‘classic’ in design teddy-bear cupped in her palms.
Not to take away from her efforts but MINE didn’t have a lazy eye at least, and it was at least four times larger than hers was, without needing a source to draw from when I made it.

None of that seemed to matter to Eris though.
With a little gasp of air she clutched the bear to her chest and bowed her head.

Her shoulders started to shake all of a sudden.
I reached out to hug her but she beat me to it and dived into my arms for a tight hug of her own.
It kinda stunned me for a moment but in the end I let a breath out, wrapping my arms around her to finish the hug.

Out the corner of my eye I could see John watching me with some weird expression on his face but he quickly wiped it away before I could get a better look annoyingly.

It took almost a minute for Eris to stop shaking and by the time she was ready to pull away from me, teddy-bear still clutched tightly in her arms, ‘Dite and Tos had joined me and John in a rough circle on the grass.

“Okay.. so the key to conjuration is focus-”

It was kind of nice to have their attention all on me?
Even John is watching with curiosity, which is usually about the best reaction you can expect from John in any given situation really.

======

“Well done ‘Dite!”

The blonde ‘goddess of beauty’ blushed and ducked her head a little in a way that reminded me quite a lot of Eris’s earlier reaction to my praise.

She really DOES deserve it though.
In the last hour she’s gone from barely being able to make a misshapen lump to a doll sized bed with a surprising amount of detail showing steady progress as she went along.

Eris is at a similar level as her at this point but I spent more time helping her perfect her little teddy-bears instead.
She’s now gotten pretty good at making them, even if they are still relatively small compared to mine.

Tos was the most surprising of the group.
Once I finished my little speech about how conjuration works he spent a few minutes seemingly lost in his own head then finally turned his eyes down to his hands and got to work.
Within less than half an hour he managed to make his first roughly square object with a lot more size then either Eris or ‘Dite have managed to date.
He’s only gotten better since then.

He’s a quiet guy but he really impressed me so far.
At this point he’s actually stopped trying to make beds and he’s working with John off to the side at making himself a hut to sleep in tonight.. apparently he’s too big to fit through our back door?

I feel kinda guilty for not thinking of that, not so little, issue earlier..

At least with John showing him I can be safe in the knowledge that he’ll have a nice night’s sleep?
If John knows one thing, it’s how to make his living environment better.
Max was always good with spell-based temporary enchantments and so far John seems to be just as good, if not better.

“Mom look!”
I cut my eyes down and smiled warmly at Eris.

She’s managed to make a teddy-bear with light blue fur.
It’s about twice the size of the ones she’s been making before too!

That’s actually really impressive?!
I should have guessed that me praising ‘Dites work would spur Eris on to try harder I guess..

“That’s really impressive Eris.”
My hand came out to cup her face and play with her hair a little which made her giggle happily.
“Are you going to name it?”

She shot me a cautiously curious look then glanced back down at the bear in her arms thoughtfully.
“I don’t.. um..”

I didn’t need my magic senses to feel the sudden uncertainty and worry that overtook her.
She practically shrunk in on herself the longer she stared at the bear.

Careful to not scare her I knelt down to her level again and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
Dite watched us with an odd look on her face but didn’t decide to weigh in for some reason.

“It’s okay sweetie, do you want some help?”
Eris’s eyes turned up to me and with a little nervous gulp she nodded to me forcefully.

What on earth’s gotten into her all of a sudden?
I swear just when I think I’m getting a handle on her she reacts differently to something then I could ever predict..

I brought my hands up and cupped them around hers at the bear’s waist.
With a little jiggle I made the bear dance slightly which actually brought a smile to Eris’s lips.

“What do you think, is the bear a boy or a girl?”

Eris stared at it hard for a second, shook her head and eventually smiled again.
“He’s a boy.”

Feeling a little playful I jiggled the bear again.
“Are you sure? She looks like a girl to me.”

Eris turned her far too wide eyes up to me, froze for a second before quickly ducking away and blushing brightly.
“yeah.. she’s a girl..”

I had to resist the urge to laugh at the relief that seemed to flood over her at that little statement.
Kids are so weird sometimes?

“well, what do you think then?.. she looks like..”

Uh.. oops?.. I probably should have thought this one through a bit better!

A name?!
Any name?
Something!
The first thing that comes to mind, quick!

“An Agatha.. she looks like an Agatha to me?”

Instead of the laughter and possible confusion I was expecting from her for giving a little bear such an ‘old lady’ name, Eris’s whole face crumpled.
Without warning she dropped the bear and dived into my arms sending me crashing back on my butt so hard I think I bruised my tailbone!

I opened my mouth to complain but then I felt it again.
She’s shaking?

What the hell did I do NOW?!

She’s shaking really badly.
She’s crying too!

Her little fists are bunched tightly into the loose fabric of my T-shirt and she’s pushing herself into my chest hard.
My hands came up to hold her close and I rocked us despite my uncertainty.
She just keeps shaking!

I glanced over at ‘Dite for some kind of help.
She seemed a bit lost.
She was watching everything with an oddly blank, sad look on her face?

“Dite?”

She didn’t move.
Her eyes stayed fixed slightly to my side on the bear that Eris dropped.

What’s so important about the bloody bear?!
It’s just a toy!

“Come on Eris, let’s take you inside for a bit to calm down yeah?”
She didn’t react audibly but held on tight to me as I rose back to my feet awkwardly.
I turned and took two steps towards the house before remembering the reason I came out here in the first place.

With a glance followed by a dip into my lines I waved my hand and filled our garden with rows of wooden beds.
I didn’t really count how many I was making, I’m a bit distracted honestly but the design was easy enough to fix in my mind.

They’re all copies of the single bed I have sitting disused in my old bedroom at the moment, right down to the bedding and pillow cases.
It’s always easier to conjure something long lasting if you know it intimately and I slept on that bed for years during my teens!

I turned my head and caught John’s curious eye.

“Can you shrink these and take them up to the elevator room for Gran when she’s ready John?”
He looked a little uncertain and surprised but nodded anyway which is all I needed.

Without another word I pushed Eris up in my arms a bit better and made my way back to the house.
It’s probably best if I take her to my room, no-one will bother her there.

======

I sighed and quietly shut the door to my room before slumping against it.

I still have honestly NO idea what set her off like that?
She wasn’t really up for talking.
I ended up lying on the bed with her spooned into my chest while she sniffled to herself, but at least she stopped crying eventually.

She’s asleep now.
Hopefully she’ll be more ready to speak when she wakes up?

My feet turned me towards the stairs and I paused mid-step when I came face to face with ‘Dite.
She had a really weird mix of worry and sadness about her, her eyes kept cutting behind me to my now closed bedroom door as if she could see Eris inside.

With a wave I pointed her into the TV room.
It’s deserted so we can talk without anyone hearing us.
She pretty obviously wants to talk, I don’t need to be a mind-reader to tell that, just from the look on her face it’s pretty obvious..

When I had the door shut and I’d settled myself on the sofa to the right of her ‘Dite opened her mouth to speak.
She paused and seemed to shake herself a little to dismiss whatever she was going to say in favor of something else.

“Eris.. she’s young?.. she doesn’t really understand things sometimes.”
Her lips tried to twitch up into a pained smile but she couldn’t quite manage it for some reason.
“She’s always been young. She’s never had a chance to grow up, not properly. It’s her curse in life to be the eternal child among us. She’s always been fates little apple, never able to grow into a tree as she should..”

I tried to digest that idea while ‘Dite shifted uncertainly in her seat.

She’s being surprisingly solemn and calm suddenly?
Not much like the ditzy young woman I’ve gotten used to over the last few days.

Something in my eyes must have shown my confusion because she finally managed to open up again and speak.

“We all have elements of ourselves that we would rather not embrace as much as we do but that’s the price of being an awakened mage, our curse, with the good must come the bad.. you told me that.. a long time ago..”
She nervously flicked her hair out of her eyes and started running her fingers through a blonde strand like a child trying to calm herself down.
“I have my vanity, Tos has his social anxiety, Eris has her childishness..”

Dite turned her eyes up to stare at me.
For once it was easy to look past the beauty of her face to see the pain behind it.
..how have I not been able to see how badly she was hurting before this?!..

As if breaking a spell she glanced away and it was gone again.
All I could see was the confident, if innocent and sweet, girl I’d gotten used to seeing recently?

“Eris needs her mother.. I know.. I know you’re not.. I know what Dad told us..”
She shifted again and cupped her hands together in her lap, squeezing them down into a painful looking ball.
“It’s just so hard to see you and remember that.. and you’re so much LIKE her!.. you may not see it, I doubt anyone but us COULD see it but it’s there an.. and it hurts.. it hurts so much to have you back but no-”
She trailed off into a sob that shook her whole body.

I moved before I’d even really decided what I was going to do but the decision was easy in the end.
My butt landed on the sofa next to her and I pulled the taller girl down slightly into a hug that she obviously needed.

“This is what I’m talking about?!”
She sounded so frustrated but also a bit heartbroken?

I pulled her closer and moved one of my hands up to gently ease her fingers apart from their tight grip.
She finally let go and sniffed heavily to herself, her now free hand coming up to push her hair out of her face again.

Out of some kind of instinct my hand came up to stop her mid-movement.
I don’t know what possessed me to do it but with a dip into my lines I made a small pair of red hairclips.
Dite froze as I carefully slide them into the long strand of hair that seems to keep bothering her so much and she jumped a little when I clipped them both shut.

For a long moment we both sat there.
I brought my hands in to my chest cautiously.

I’m not really sure why I did that?
It just FELT like the right thing to do?!

I’ve been running on instinct a lot today, especially when it comes to Eris, but this is the first time I’ve really noticed a certain.. I dunno.. disconnect?.. between what I’m doing and what I’d normally do in the same situation..

Something about these people.. Arista’s kids.. something about them just DOES something to me.

Dite’s hands shook as she brought them up to touch the hairclips cautiously.
She flinched away from them the moment her fingers made contact and before I could really realise what she was planning she launched herself off the sofa and left the room at a run.

I stared after her feeling a bit lost.

I did it again?
Why am I making them cry so much?!

I don’t care what she says, I’m nothing like Arista!
Everything I’ve heard points to the fact that ‘Arista’ was a monster!

Sure my memories don’t really match that image much but then I don’t really have access to HER memories, do I?!
Everyone in my head that was sane enough to talk to didn’t even go by the name ‘Arista’.
The past-lives that moved permanently into my mindscape all seemed to have their own names, their own personalities, their own LIVES.. far removed from the shadow of ‘Arista’..

“..I’m not her..”
I shook my head hard to get the horrible creeping feeling out of my head.
“I’m NOT her..”

Before I could do much more then shake my head again John barged his way into the TV room with a proud grin on his face.

“All beds moved and installed in the golden palace of excess as requested Hannah, need anything else? I want to go help Tos finish his little bachelor pad before the sun goes down.”

He caught me completely off guard.
With a jolt I pushed myself to my feet and paced slightly before stopping to give him a weak smile.

“Thanks John, go ahead, have fun.. I’m just.. gonna go lay down for a bit okay?”

He seemed far too energised and happy to really listen to what I was saying.
With a series of quick nods he shot off again, most likely to go back to helping Tos as he said he would.
I couldn’t help but feel a bit lonely when he left.

Shaking myself hard out of that stupidity I practically ran from the TV room and made my way back to my bedroom.

The door eased open on silent hinges.
I pushed my way inside and shut it as softly as I could to not wake Eris up.
With a silent breath I slipped my T-shirt off, leaving me just in the bikini-top and shorts I’ve worn for the last few days.

I swear if it wasn’t for my magic ‘refreshing’ my clothes every time I let some out I’d probably stink at this point!
I had to hold in a little laugh at that thought as I watched Eris’s curled up form on my bed to make sure she didn’t wake.

Gently I eased my way onto the bed and nestled myself back into position behind her.
She didn’t wake up luckily but she DID seem to lose some kind of unseen tension in her body.

As I shuffled into a more comfortable position and got ready to take a nap of my own, just to avoid having to deal with all the implications of what ‘Dite just said if nothing else, Eris shifted herself enough that she was pressed warmly against my chest as tight as physically possible.

..I hope ‘Dites okay?..

John’s there!
He may be having fun playing ‘builder’ with his ‘son’ at the moment but he’d surely notice if ‘Dite needed help?
Failing that Mum will notice if she’s still upset and, while I’ll probably hear all about it later, she’s always been good at helping out in situations like this.

I just.. I just can’t face ‘Dite right now?
I’m not like Arista.. I’m NOT..

“..’m not..”

My head drooped to rest on the crown of Eris’s little red head.
Sleep feels like a good idea right now.. nice.. sleep..

======

“Mother?”
What?..

“Mother, look! The birds!”
What is she?..

“ERIS! Get away from the window!”

“but Mother look at the-”

My hand launched forward and wrapped tightly around her little wrist.
With a force that I’ve never managed to use before I tossed her deeper into the hut and turned to face my now inevitable fate.
..Gryphons, of course he’d send Gryphons..

“MOTHER!”

------

“Don’t stray too far Eris.”

She giggled and rolled around in the grass some more.
I couldn’t help but smile at her fun from my position at the door.
I wish I could be as carefree as she is..

With a sigh I glanced around our home critically.
It’s hard for a place this small to get dirty but Eris sure seems to find ways to manage it somehow.
..I swear, that girl..

“Mum? There’s a ma-”

My blood ran cold.

NO!
Not now!
NOT HERE!

I line-of-sight warped outside and came face to face with Claudius.
He had his gloved hand wrapped around Eris’s throat.

“I told you what would happen if you defied me Julia.”

He rose his sword and in one clean swing, before I could even move, he-

------

Her little eyes lit up in amazement as I waved my wand in a tight pattern, weaving together my present for her.

Slowly the form took shape.
Just like the bears of the wild that she seems so fascinated by.
As an extra touch I added a small blue twine to its neck.

When the beast finally took form I sat back in my chair with a tired sigh.
Magic is not easy!
I need to ensure Eris understands what we must do about the-

“HEIDREK APPROACHES!”
..NO!..

The bard burst through into my chambers.
His eyes widened when he saw me holding a toy out to someone that was, in his eyes, a lowborn waif.

“Princess Sifka, your father’s men are retreating! We must leave!”
I glanced from his panicked face down to Eris’s beautiful little eyes and the bear I’d just crafted for her..

I made my decision.

“Bard, I order you to take this girl with you back to my father’s hold, this is my word as your princess. If you fail to protect her, then your life will be forfeit!”
The bard staggered back slightly and gasped.

“..Eris..”
She looked up at me with so much fear in her eyes.
It broke my heart to see it.
“Eris, you must go with this man. Take your bear darling, protect him while the man protects you.”

“Mu-”
I slide a gentle finger to her lips and smiled at her with a calm that I didn’t feel in the slightest.

The bard gathered himself together and stepped forward to accept her into his arms.
I tucked the bear into her arms, using our closeness to kiss her forehead.

She wasn’t fooled at all.
Before he turned to flee I could see the tears in her eyes.
My clever girl.. always my clever girl..

With a fortifying breath I stepped out of my chambers and marched up to the leader of those brave few that would stay behind to hold off Heidrek’s men.
True warriors of the Hun like none other!

“Where can I be of best help?”

The war-band leader gaped at me in shock.
His men were uneasy in my presence.

“Princess? You must flee! Heidrek is almost upon us and-”
With a wave of my hand I sent up a trail red of sparks.

“Magi?!”
The leader and his men all staggered away from me in fear.

“I’m here to stop Heidrek’s advance in any way possible, make use of me as you will. You don’t have to like it to understand what I can do, yes?”

The leader practically shook his head loose when he nodded frantically.
Within moments I was sent to the front lines.

If I weren’t facing near certain death it would all be rather amusing to see the men clad in their rough leather armors and me in my best casual Scythia silk robe.

Heidrek’s men crested the hill, horses at full charge and bows drawn.
With everything I had I pulled my magic forward and sent it off in a wave of ice not seen since the last great frost.

Men screamed, horses panicked but Heidrek didn’t flinch.
I could see his eyes fix firmly upon me as an amused smile came to his lips.

“..be safe Eris..”
The men nearest to me turned in my direction with confusion but they don’t matter.
None of us matter, only her!

“CHARGE!”
With a primal roar of anger to hide my fear I broke ranks and ran at the disarrayed forces of Heidrek’s men, spikes of ice throwing into the confusion whenever possible as I made what would surely be my last great act of life.

For her!
ALWAYS for her!

------

“NO BETH!”
The mockery of what was once my dearest friend grinned at me with the most disgusting of sickly smiles.
Eris shuddered and tucked herself into my side tightly.

“Oh come now Susannah.. the girl could hold the key to all that I’ve searched for these long years.”

I tried to run but she disappeared in the shadows and a moment later she was upon me.
With casual ease she tossed me aside, her eyes only on Eris.

How had I been so stupid?!
I KNEW what she was doing but I always thought she would resist Eris for my sake!

“Get.. get your hands off her..”
It’s so hard to breath!
My eyes are fading from the world more than not.

Lady Elizabeth turned to me, Eris held in her grasp almost casually.
“Susannah I really don’t see what your problem is with this? If it’s the waif that’s at fault I’ll get you another one Dearheart.”

I hissed at her angrily and tried to pull myself back to my feet.
She watched me with obvious confusion on her face.

Of course she doesn’t understand.
Only a HUMAN could love their child and she’s beyond HUMAN at this point!

“If you hurt her Beth I swear on my very BLOOD that I will make you and all of your line PAY!”

She didn’t seem in any way affected by my words.
With a casual flick of her wrist, Eris’s body went slack.

I screamed, I screamed long and hard!

The fire came but Beth was already gone, off with her prize on her endless quest for eternal youth from the blood of the young.

I sank to my knees and sobbed until I could cry no more.. then I rose anew to set forth on my now lifelong quest.
From this day forth I shall not allow a single Vampyr to survive my flames!

All will pay for their Countess’s madness!

NOBODY takes my DAUGHTER from me and survives to gloat about it!
With a grab and a kick I broke loose a long blunted table leg to peer at it critically.

Starting with that BITCH Beth!

------

“Mommy, can we go outside?”

I smiled and patted her hair gently.
She shuffled over and pulled herself into my lap, her head settling upon my bosom so she could listen to my heartbeat.
My hand came up to tap her nose making her go adorably cross-eyed for a second.
..she’s always liked lying like that, ever since she was a baby..

“No petite pomme, death is on the streets tonight. We must stay close to the fire and wait for him to grow bored, non?”
Eris turned her face up slightly to stare at me with those bright little eyes of hers and my heart melted.

I could not allow her out of my sight tonight though, only I am safe on this night.
Only my life is forbidden for the hunts touch under the bloody moon’s light.

Slowly I started humming her lullaby to myself.
It’s an old tune, one known in my family for years now.

I rocked us slowly and hummed her to sleep as she fought Morpheus’s call with all that she had.
She’s never been able to resist sleep when safe in my arms.
When her mouth moved open slightly I pushed her thumb up to her lips.

It warms my heart to see her so content.

With care I reached out and took up her toy bear, Agatha, named for her godmother of all things.
I really don’t know where that comes from, especially when the poor girl insists the toy is male?

Who would believe a pink silken male called ‘Agatha’ could exist?
The thoughts of children are often silly indeed..

A howl broke the silence of the night.
Even in her sleep Eris shivered in fear at the sound.
I had to resist doing the same myself.

Heavy footfalls raced around the inn’s lower floors and screams quickly followed them.
Eris woke with a gasp.
I had to hold her tight to restrain any noise she might make to attract their attention upon us but it was no use.

Slow, heavy feet brought someone to our door.
With horrifying certainty a fist of some kind struck the door.

I didn’t need to guess what it was.
Slowly I increased the volume of my humming and rocked her in my arms as the pounding strikes grew louder and more insistent.

With a crash part of the door gave way, enough that the golden eyes of the wolf-kin could stare back at us in cold hunger.

I jolted to my feet and ran to the far side of the room away from the beast.
Eris slid to my side and tucked in tightly while holding my hand in a death grip.

“I am Arista of the Red Moon. By the debt of your people I demand that you leave us!”

The beast stopped moving for a long moment.
Its eyes fixed upon me.

Slowly.. painfully slowly.. a sound built in its chest.
A sound that, should it be human, I would have called ‘laughter’.

In a deep guttural voice that resonated within my chest to the point of being almost incomprehensible, the beast spoke.
“The debts of Christian’s kin are not of mine wench. We come for this town’s young.”

I shifted Eris further behind me and dropped her hand so I could cast better.
Her worried fists found the back of my dress and she pulled herself tight behind me in fear.

“Don’t cry sweetie. I’m here. As long as my heart beats there is hope.”
The beast laughed in a horrible imitation of a man’s amusement.
“Never cry in fear sweetie, be brave my petite pomme.. he is but a dog in need of obedience training..”

The beast didn’t find that amusing.
He flexed his muscles behind the partly broken door and reared up to strike at it again.

My hands came up to cup at my front in a steady caster stance.
With a growl of my own and a twist of my arm all of my will, all of my magic, I forced everything I had out into that small area..

“Bad dog! Know your place!”

A single push sent my magic forward.
It left me all at once.

In a wave of fire so large it burst through the walls themselves and out into the night sky, my magic turned everything as far as the eye could see to ash.
The beast didn’t stand a chance.

The moment my magic finished being cast I collapsed to the floor.
My chest burned with fire equal to that which I’d just created.
Too much.. I used too much..

“MOMMY!”
I smiled as Eris came into view.

Fire licked at the walls around us.
I used too much.. I didn’t have enough control..

The beams above us creaked.
With foresight of a true seer I knew they would fall.

With all that I had left within my very SOUL I wrenched forth power and caught Eris up into the air.
She screamed for me one last time but the beam above us finally gave way.

One last push sent her out of the window to hopefully meet the grass below.
I had one breath to let out before the beam landed on me.
The world disappeared in fire and pain.

------

I jolted up in bed, a choked scream pulling itself from my lips.
Eris jolted in her sleep but didn’t seem to actually wake up after a long moment.
My fist came up and shoved into my mouth so that could bite down hard on it, to lessen the chance of waking her again.

It all felt so real!
Where.. wh.. I..

We.. I’m home?.. I.. I’m Hannah?

A long panicked breath eased out of my mouth past my fist and clenched teeth.
We’re safe!

I’m not dead!
Eris isn’t dead!

She.. she’s not dead.. right?..

I know she’s not!
I can feel her magic!
I could never forget her magic, I know the feel of it better then I know my own!
How could I ever forget the feel of my daughter’s magic?!

======

Like a cold wave, reality washed back over me and I had to hold back a second scream.

What.. what was that?..
I’ve never remembered those memories before!

They’re there now though and they are SO real!
Worse than the other memories, more intense than even the girls I’ve integrated already?!

Oh powers... oh powers, that was all REAL!

Eris.. Eris lived through all of that?
How is she still SANE at her age?!

“Mommy?”
Her sleepy voice made me jump but instinctively I was already moving back down to cuddle up against her.

“I’m right here. It’s okay sweetie.”
She hissed a breath of relief out through her teeth and snuggled deeper into my arms.

She was quickly back to sleep but I REALLY couldn’t face the idea of going through more of THAT again.

I’ll let off a burst of magic in the morning.
That should clear up any leftover tiredness easy enough.

For now, I’ll just cuddle Eris and focus on breathing.
Just breath.. we’re safe.. it’s all okay..
..just breath..

Just breath.

Family can be a bit overwhelming at times, too many people, too much history. Some people shy away from interaction with their family's, others embrace it with open arms. Sometimes you don't get a choice either way sadly. Family's family though, good, bad or miscellaneous right? Events unfold including but not limited to: John making himself useful (as a waiter, which he’s surprisingly good at?) and Hannah is having a magic free da- Wait! there's something in the trees?!

 

“You look like hell..”

A growl rumbled low in my chest and I glared at him with all that I had.
“YOU look like a selfish asshole, get your ugly face out of my way ya rat-bastard.”

Everyone froze.
It took me a moment to realise I’d said all of that out loud.. I’m way too tired for this crap..

“I need my meds.”

John’s surprised face shifted slightly into a more amused look.
“Really? It doesn’t show.”

I grit my teeth down, rolling my magic around in my chest to try and calm myself down a little.
It’s about as close as a mage can get to cracking their knuckles to relieve stress.

“Really not the time to be a smartass John.”
He didn’t resist when I pushed past him, a groggy Eris following behind me at a shuffle.

Before anything else could set me off I made a bee-line for my pills and got a glass of water to down them with.
Hopefully they do something, I’m pretty sure my mood is more tiredness and bad dream related then a magic induced mood swing but the pills are given to mental patients so they’re probably good for something, right?

“Did you sleep at all last night Han?”

I glanced up at Sarah and wrinkled my nose in frustration.
Those dreams last night really unsettled me.

I’m trying not to think about how natural it feels to have Eris tucked in behind me now.
It wasn’t exactly uncomfortable to begin with but it feels like it’d actually be more awkward and unsettling if she WASN’T near me at this point.

“I’m.. I’ll be fine, just had a bad dream and got caught up with some rune problems.”

She’ll buy that, she’s used to me getting a bit too into my work when it involves runes.
She woke up for work more than once in the flat to find me slumped over a table doodling possible glyph patterns on messy piles of paper.

She didn’t look too convinced by my words for some reason but that didn’t seem so important a moment later when she placed a fresh cup of coffee on the table in front of me.

I mouthed the words ‘love you’ to her and she finally cracked a smile at last.
Eris seemed to perk up a little in interest when she saw me sip the unofficial life-blood of American civilisation from a steaming hot mug, a few seconds later her eyes lit up happily when Sarah placed a glass of juice on the counter next to my mug for her with a wink.

“T’anks”
Her partly slurred word made me want to scoop her up in a hug and make her giggle somehow.
She’s always been such a slow-poke in the morning, just like her mo-

DAMN IT!
I almost slipped into it again!

All last night I had to beat back thoughts and feelings that weren’t naturally MINE!
Eris’s presence didn’t help, if anything she draws them all out worse than anything else..

I can feel what thoughts are ‘mine’ and which ones aren’t but if I’m not concentrating hard enough then they just slip through before I can catch them!

I’ve had this problem before, it happened a lot during my first awakening.
That doesn’t make it any easier or less scary to deal with NOW though!

“Everyone else is outside, Mum and Gran organised everything so we’re having breakfast in the garden for once.”
I caught her eyes and she rolled them dramatically to show me what she thought about going outside this early in the morning.

Sarah’s worse than me sometimes when it comes to mornings, especially sunlight, before she’s had a few hours to let her eyes relearn how the world works first at least.

For a moment I considered going back to my room and getting changed but the smell of meat cooking from outside decided to waft in through the open doors at that exact second, cutting off any ideas of clothes swapping as my baser ‘stomach related’ needs kicked into overdrive.
I glanced at Eris, still in her dress from yesterday which was now wrinkled beyond belief, and down at my own shorts/bikini combo under the equally messy long yellow T-shirt from yesterday with a sigh.

“Two seconds.”

With a dip and a shove I let a fraction of my diverted magic leak out.
Not a lot, just enough to refresh my clothes, Eris’s clothes and possibly reach Sarah on the other side of the counter.

Judging by the sudden ‘perk’ that appeared on Sarah’s face, along with a wide knowing grin, it reached her pretty easily.
I couldn’t help but sigh when my magic managed what the coffee so far hadn’t and took away that horrible dragging feeling of sleep deprivation for me.
Eris giggled at my side, taking my free hand in both of hers with a lot more perk to her as well.

A glance told me why she was giggling, just like always, the diversion had done wonders for all of our hair, Eris’s long red curls had puffed up at the very least.

She was playing some kind of game as she tried to blow her fringe up out of her eyes from where it had landed in a tangle.
I put down my now empty coffee mug and ran my hand through my own hair which was probably as ‘styled’ and ‘full’ looking as Sarah’s near identical cut now.

“Thanks Han, if we could bottle that gold-magic thing you do we’d be millionaires!”

I was tempted for just a moment to point out that we have a solid gold basketball court sized room in our elevator.. and when I get my accounts back in order I’ll be a ‘millionaire’ several times over again.. but the warm happy feelings from my diversion dissuaded me from bursting her bubble.

Following along with my new inborn instincts that seemed to mesh EVER so well with those forced happy feelings, I swooped down and smoothly scooped Eris up into my arms.
She let off a giggle and quickly set about sliding her head onto my chest, just above my heart as always.

“Lets go get some food, huh?”
Sarah smiled and nodded in agreement, Eris glanced up at me and smiled too.

As almost an afterthought I glanced over at John, who’d been unusually quite since I stepped past him, catching a flash of worry in his eyes before he hide it away behind his casual but amused smirk.
If I wasn’t ME and I didn’t KNOW him then I’d probably have missed it honestly.

We’ll probably be having words about whatever’s worrying him sooner rather than later.
..not now though..

“Onward! To food and sunlight!”
Eris giggled to herself and pressed her ear to my chest a little more as I jiggled her in my arms and lead the march out towards the annoyingly bright morning sun.

======

“Who conjured the benches?”

A load of picnic benches were lining our garden’s grass, full of family members obviously.
They looked familiar for some reason?
John decided to confirm why a moment later.

“No-one did, your family brought them from the farm along with the barbeques.. apparently I’m not the only one who can make expanded bags, despite what you seem to think..”
I shot him a warning look for being snarky.

John’s not like me in the morning.
He’s way more alert but in a much fouler mood typically.
Sometimes he just needs a glare or two to remind him that I’m not the enemy and he doesn’t have to snap about everything.

Feeling a little cheeky I slide over to his side and bumped his hip with my own.
“You make them so WELL though John-boy.”

He glared at me for the ‘John-boy’ jab but his face smoothed out into mild acceptance after a slight pause.

He probably has a reason to be annoyed, it can’t have been fun making all those expanded bags to store Arista’s mail yesterday OR shrinking and carrying all the beds.
I should have at least asked him before volunteering his help but in my defence I WAS kind of distracted at the time.

“Any preferred place you wanna sit?”
His eyes trailed up my arm as I waved at the tables and jiggled Eris on my hip to get her in a bit of a better position again.

He scanned the tables slowly with a slight look of distaste on his face.

He never has enjoyed dining ‘Al Fresco’.
Even in the court of King Louis, when we had free roam of Versailles Gardens practically to ourselves most days he would barely take a drink to the door, let alone eat his meal among the flowers.
..he’s such a prissy sod sometimes..

“How about I go save you a space and you get us some food? Meat preferably, Bacon if they have it?”
He shot me a curious glance but in the end he shrugged and left for the meal queue with a nod.

I shifted Eris on my hip one more time to get her comfortable and made my way over to one of the empty tables closer to the treeline.

Dite seemed to be holding court with the teenaged girls that hung out around the radio at the farm, on one of the tables nearby, while Tos slumped himself against the side of the table with a plate full of burgers and a grin on his lips.
Despite the way ‘Dites elbow kept lightly hitting the back of his head as she spoke and waved her arms around enthusiastically he seemed about as content as I’ve seen him be so far.

The whole scene was rather sweet honestly?
In a weird way of course, but still sweet, they seem so comfortable with each other in general?
It kinda reminds me of how Sarah and I were when we were younger.. they looked like a real brother and sister despite how different they appear from each other at first glance..

I wonder how long they’ve known each other?
In these incarnations I mean, not just in general because I can guess THAT would be roughly three to four millennia just from where their myths begin in recorded history..

“Oh powers, she’s talking again.”
My head dipped down to stare at Eris in surprise.
I’ve not heard her use that phrase before, it’s pretty common for mages around here to call on the ‘powers’ instead of making ‘god’ references but I always kind of figured it was just a local thing?
I picked it up from Karl honestly, so maybe he got it from somewhere else to start with I guess..

“She’s allowed to talk you know?”
Eris turned her bright little eyes up at me with a frown on her face.

For a moment I almost stumbled in my steps as a burst of several different variations on that EXACT expression came across several different variations of that EXACT same cute little girls face, flashing across my minds-eye at lightning speed.
With an effort I managed to shove them all aside and offer her a weak smile at last.
She didn’t seem very convinced either way sadly.

“She never stops talking, it’s so annoying..”
Eris shot her adversary a little glare that somehow still managed to look ‘cute’, then turned her eyes back up to me with a slightly lost look.

“Do we really have to sit with her? Can’t we go over by-”
She cut herself off and shot a quick, slightly desperate glance around us but apparently came up empty?

I couldn’t help but be amused as the emotions flashed blatantly across her little face while she studied each table and seemed to find some kind of flaw with them.
Jessie’s table had the boys playing around it, Grace’s group had Grace in it and all the other tables held family members that she’d pretty much never met before.

Knowing what I do now, it wasn’t hard to see that she wrote off most of them just because they had ‘strangers’ on them.
After what I saw in my ‘dreams’ last night it’s not hard to see why she would be nervous around strangers.. especially the werewolves of the family..

I shuddered a little as the final part of the dream played through my head one more time in quick succession before I could stop it.

I honestly have nothing against anyone here but even I’M going to give the werewolves of the family a bit of a wide berth for today.. maybe tomorrow too.. just long enough for me to move past the red moons light and maliciously tight golden eyes of that night, ya know?

That’s the trouble with past-life memories sometimes.
They can be insidious and slip their way into your brain without you even noticing them a lot of the time until something jars a little ‘wrong’ with your current self’s personality and you realise what’s happening.. but sometimes..

Sometimes they are like last night, sometimes they just come in like a freight train and drag you along with them leaving a lot of mess behind for you to clear up in their wake..

“How about we go take one of the empty tables in the shade and see who joins us instead, huh?”
I jiggled her on my hip again just to see if she’d brighten up a bit but it wasn’t necessary because she smiled at me anyway, just from the suggestion.

I wove my way out onto the grass, valiantly ignoring the annoying feeling of flowers sprouting up between my toes as I went, and got us over to the free bench that sat slightly off to the side of everyone else’s.
It took me a moment to recognise it but when I ran my hand over the smooth, fresh-red painted surface of the table top it was pretty obvious that this was the same bench I sat on for most of the barbeque a few days ago as people processed in and out with greetings for us to save me the embarrassment of walking everywhere with my stupid footprints in toe.

“Oppsie Daisy”
Eris looked about as surprised as I did when the words slipped past of my lips while shifting her from my hip onto the bench seat next to me.

I blushed brightly and ducked my head while glancing around to make sure no-one else heard me.
My eyes finally came back to Eris who seemed to be having a hard time not giggling at my embarrassing slip-up.

Despite the embarrassment I grinned and cupped a finger to my lips making a ‘shhh’ sound which made her giggle even more, especially when I added a wink for good measure.

“Not a bad spot, bit cold in the shade like this but at least we’re not sitting on the grass like animals.”
I yelped loudly when John just seemed to appear at my elbow, arms full of plated food and several water bottles sticking out of his pockets.
My surprise and overreaction set Eris off into a full blown laughter fit as she cupped her hands over her mouth to try and unsuccessfully hide her amusement.

“Don’t DO that! Damn near gave me a heart attack, ya maniac..”

John seemed just as amused as Eris did by my reaction.
Even as he slid the plates into place in front of us and fished out the water bottles so he could take the seat opposite me I could feel his eyes twinkling away like they always do when he finds something hilariously funny but doesn’t want to vocalise it.

“Ohhh, funny table! Always good this time of morning..”
Without much preamble Sarah plopped herself down in the spot next to John and pulled one of the plates full of meat toward herself with a hungry look in her eye.
“What was so funny anyway? Guessing Hannah did something stupid?”

I twitched and shot her a glare for the insinuation but it couldn’t hold much weight when she’s actually correct for once.
It was me that set the pair of them off after all..

“Shu’rup”

Even through clenched teeth she got the message I was trying to give and held her arms up slightly in surrender for a moment before going back to her food with a smug grin.
I shot John one more warning look which he seemed to find amusing and dove into my burger with gusto rather than try speaking again.

Eris had a fork in her hand from somewhere and out the corner of my eye I could see her trying to stab it into her burger.
It took me a moment to realise what she was trying to do but in the end it clicked enough to make me sigh.

Sarah used to be like that too.
Either her food was cut up or it wasn’t edible as far as she was concerned, luckily she grew out of that stage eventually..

“Pass them here sweetie.”
Eris shot me a slightly worried look but after blushing slightly she put the fork and a blunt knife she’d held at her side into my hands.
I pulled the plate closer and cut her burger up into strips, just like Sarah used to demand it.

She blushed a lot when I passed the knife and fork back to her but she also seemed inordinately pleased with the outcome of it all if her quick work of stabbing burger portions is anything to go by.

I moved back over to my own plate and caught Sarah’s eye as I went.
She had a warm look on her face that seemed a bit weird honestly?

“Gran’s right, you make a good mother Han..”

Part of my burger that I’d been chewing went down the wrong hole and sent me into a coughing fit out of surprise.
It took a few seconds to clear the blockage but it still left me gasping for air.
My hand snatched up one of the water bottles to chug some down which helped a lot at least.

Everyone at the table was watching me now.

John looked far too amused for his own good.
Eris seemed confused, she kept shooting looks between me and Sarah every few seconds between mouthfuls of her burger.
Sarah was trying, and failing, to look apologetic for catching me off guard like that.

With a sigh I folded my arm under my bust slightly and gave myself a loose little hug.

What is it with people and making ‘mother’ comments lately?
It’s not like I’m treating Eris weird or anything!

I used to do practically the same stuff I do for her for Sarah when we were kids and no-one commented on it back then!

Maybe it’s just a female thing?.. people see me as a woman with a kid at her side and instantly everything’s all ‘mother’ this and ‘you’re so good with kids’ that, talk about sexual bias!
I bet I wouldn’t have to put up with this crap if I still looked like Al!

“..stupid sexism..”

Luckily Sarah and Eris didn’t seem to catch my grumble but I have no doubt that John did, or that he understood where my brain had gone on the topic judging by how he cringed a little guiltily and sunk his shoulders instead of laughing like I would normally have expected of him.

It’s kind of nice to know that he feels guilty for doing this to me I guess?
That’s some kind of bright spot in it all at least.

“So, what’s the plan for today Han? Got another mad magical adventure planned?”

Her smirk didn’t dim even slightly despite my glare.
It’s not like I actually PLANNED to have all the crazy crap that’s been happening lately interrupt my life all the time?!

“Absolutely nothing, oh smart-assed sibling of mine, after breakfast I’m going to go change into something comfortable.. maybe get a book out and watch some TV with Eris?”
My head dipped a little to glance at Eris but I shouldn’t have worried.
She’d perked up instantly at the mention of ‘TV’.
Maybe it was just the idea of doing something with me though?.. kinda hard to tell honestly.
“I’m having a mildly magic free day today, no crazy people, no accidental spells and NO surprises!”

“INCOMING!”

My body tensed automatically even as I whipped around to stare at the source of the yell.
Dite and Tos had shot to their feet and were staring off towards the lake, despite the fact that it wasn’t visible through the trees.

“Stay here Eris, Sarah keep an eye on her..”
Sarah nodded and Eris huffed a little as I pushed myself to my feet.
“John.. come on, let’s find out what’s going on..”

As we both made our way over to ‘Dites table I felt like beating myself over the head repeatedly.
I just HAD to say ‘no surprises’, didn’t I?!

There should be a law about stuff like this!
It’s not fair that the world likes to screw with me so much.. with such a worryingly accurate degree of timing too!

Dite jumped a little when I came up to her side but quickly swung her eyes back into the treeline.

“What’s wrong?”
She grimaced and didn’t quite meet my eyes in the glance she shot at me but it’s pretty obvious something’s worried her.

“Can’t you feel it? There’s something.. or someone.. out in the trees?”
With a frown I dipped into my mage senses and had a quick scout around us.

There’s not really much that stands out honestly?
I’ll admit, my senses aren’t exactly the best and with all the magical folk around us it’s hard for me to focus on just one area at once but I can’t really feel anything particularly dangerous at least?

“It’s like.. I don’t know?.. like a Succubus or something?”

That made me frown even deeper and try my senses once more.
Succubi are bad news.
They’re technically human/fae hybrids so they can be reasoned with like normal people usually but for one to come this close to a house so full with THIS many magical signatures..
She must be starving or something?”

“I really don’t feel anyth-”
Something in the treeline moved making me stop mid-sentence.

Quick as a flash my hands came up and ice was already forming at my fingertips.
Whatever it was moved a bit closer at a steady pace and with a twitch I sent off a warning shot.

The long javelin of ice flew straight and true, embedding itself into the trunk of a tree near the things head.
A very human, very girly scream followed a moment later.
In a frantic rush the thing moved closer at a frightened sprint and burst out of the trees into the morning light.

For one painfully long second I almost followed my instincts and tossed a second Javelin at the perceived threat but as I took in the sight before me my shoulders slumped in relief.
With a heavy sigh I let the ice fall to the floor un-thrown.

“Narcissus, what the HELL are you doing here?!”

The tall, effeminate dark haired visage of Arista’s ‘son’ seemed to relax slightly at the sound of my voice.
With a practiced sweep he had his suit looking perfect again with his hair smoothed back down and a charming grin plastered on his face.

The tree’s moved and ‘Echo’ stepped out looking a bit worse for wear clothing-wise.
She looked like she’d just run a marathon honestly.

“Motherrr!”
With an exuberant wave of his arms Narcissus made his way towards me for a hug.
He never made it sadly.

Without much warning at all he was tackled to the ground by a flying missile with long red hair.
“SISSY!”

Everyone watched the byplay with several degrees of amusement on their faces as the first frightened, then dashing and now floundering ‘perfect’ specimen of man tried to fight off Eris’s grabby little hands while she fought tooth and nail for a hug of some kind.

I brought my hand up to the bridge of my nose in frustration but didn’t pause in walking over to the spot where they were rolling around on the floor to separate pair of them.

It didn’t take much to grab Eris by the back of her dress and lift her bodily off of Narcissus.
Her little arms stretched out for him for a moment more before she seemed to realise who it was holding her up, seemingly without missing a beat she turned her body and latched on to me instead in a tight cuddle.

I sighed and tried to ignore the way my arms automatically shifted to hold her better as she wiggled for a good position.

“..be a good mother my ass..”
No-one seemed to catch my little grumble but my point was clear enough for me at least.
Arista has FAR too many kids, I’m not sure how on earth I’m going to survive if this keeps up!

“To reiterate, what on earth are you doing here Narcissus?”

He lay panting to himself on the floor instead of answering me at first.
Before he could gather himself back together properly Echo spoke up instead.

“We heard that you were finally out of New Avalon, he wouldn’t listen when I said we should call his Father first.. but then what do you expect, he never listens to ME anyway..”
I tried to not wince at the last part.

The fact that it was painfully obvious, and true, just from what I’ve seen of the pair so far made things somehow so much worse.
..poor girl..

She blushed self-consciously and flicked her hair out of her face slightly with a huff.
“Sorry for bursting in on you like this, it looks like we aren’t the only ones at least?”
Her eyes turned to Eris and a warm smile crossed her lips.
“Hi little one, it’s been a while..”
Eris turned away from her and huffed to herself with her face buried in my chest again.

“Eris don’t be rude.”

Her head turned up to glance at me with tight eyes for a second before she inevitably gave in.
“Sorry Mommy.”

She didn’t apologise to Echo, despite having said that.
I jostled her on my hip a few times to prompt her but she seemed determined not to apologise to Echo for some reason.

In the end I turned my eyes back up to Echo and offered her a weak smile with a slight shrug.

She seemed disappointed by Eris’s reaction but not overly surprised so I think it’s safe to assume there’s some part of this that I’m missing?
As always with awakened mages everything’s complicated by history at some point.
With so many years around each other in different forms and situations I’m amazed we can keep it all straight in our heads at the best of times, let alone remember other people’s problems too!

“Have you both had breakfast? We’ve got the barbeque going still.”

Echo smiled at me awkwardly but nodded her thanks anyway.
I think she was just glad for the change of topic honestly?

My eyes cut down to Narcissus, he stared up to me with surprise obvious on his face.

As I studied him I had to hold back a relieved sigh when the overwhelming lust for him I’d had the first time we met didn’t show its ugly head again.
That pretty much confirms my initial thoughts at Yellowstone of my ‘overly-flirty’ mood being partly brought on by influences from one of my newly integrated past-lives.

Hopefully the whole thing is over with for now!
I definitely feel different at least, a lot more stable and less out of control.

It looks like Theodora may have pushed me out of my first integration cycle with her scary little ‘body-snatchers’ routine after I brought John back?
Well.. if you ignore the whole ‘bad dream/partial memories from incarnations I didn’t even know existed before’ thing last night at least..

“Eris sweetie, can you go get some burgers for Narcissus and his friend before they stop cooking them for me?”

Eris turned her wide little eyes up at me uncertainly but with a glance across the yard at the pretty much non-existent queue and a second glance back at Narcissus she nodded.
She shuffled around and managed to get across that she wanted to be let down easily enough so I slid her carefully off my hip until her feet hit the grass.

She didn’t hesitate in running off to the barbeques, although she DID give the people still sitting at the benches a wide berth.

I couldn’t help but frown slightly at her caution.
It’s probably not healthy that she’s this scared of people when she’s on her own..

“My names Kit by the way..”
My eyebrow twitched a little but luckily Echo.. uh.. ‘Kit’ I guess?.. didn’t notice it.
“Don’t worry about it, we got the lowdown on your memory problems through the grapevine.. for what it’s worth I’m sorry we came on so strong back at the restaurant, I was having a bad day and Narcissus has a certain ability to set me off at times.. especially when your involved..”

My face mirrored hers with a grimace but those looks gave way to twin smirks of amusement when we realised we’d matched for a moment.

I kind of like her?
I thought she was pretty bossy, kinda scary and not just a little delusional the first time we met but she seems a lot calmer now if nothing else..

Narcissus obviously had enough of not being the center of attention because he shot to his feet in seconds with a flourish that was just DESIGNED to get attention, breaking the moment as he went.

Ech.. ‘Kit’.. that name still doesn’t feel right for some reason?..
Anyway, ‘Kit’ grimaced again as she watched Narcissus slide his body into that same dramatically enticing pose he’d struck when he stepped through the door in the Chinese restaurant the other day.

It really feels weird to not be effected by it suddenly?
I’m kind of curious which past-incarnation I was in the process of ‘integrating’ at the time for her to find him to be some kind of ‘god among men’ perfect specimen..
..if anything he looks kind of silly now that I look properly?..

His pose in general is something I could imagine John doing if he was trying to be funny, like his fake ‘male-model’ pose, only with a bit more emphasis on the ‘model’ part to make it obvious that he wasn’t playing around.

“She’s not buying it this time Narcissus.”
I smirked rather proudly at E.. ‘Kit’..
She doesn’t strike me as the kind of person to normally speak out of turn unless she’s in a particularly bad mood?

Just call it gut instinct, but I think she’d usually be far more likely to commiserate with Narcissus for his failed attempt at looking ‘seductive’ then openly tell him that it failed for some reason.

Either way Narcissus suddenly looked, in a far too dramatic way, deeply offended at the idea that I wouldn’t find him attractive.
He opened his mouth to give some kind of comeback but before he could voice anything he was interrupted by a.. reluctantly welcome voice.

“Echo? You finally caught up with us huh? I take it little Sissy delayed you..”
‘Kit’.. or as I apparently correctly guessed ‘Echo’ cringed.

I shouldn’t be overly surprised I guess, a lot of mages tend to adopt preferred pseudonym’s as times change and their true mage names become well known enough to make life in general slightly awkward.

Hell, I don’t go by ‘Arista’ after all.
It’s not like it’s a crime to use a different name or anything..

Naturally John sounded far too amused to NOT know that he’d used the wrong name for her as he came over to us but, much to my surprise, there was no malice on his face or in his magic?

It took me far longer than it should have between Eris’s happy cry earlier and now Johns opening words to realise that ‘Sissy’ wasn’t in some way an insult against Narcissus but apparently an openly accepted nickname instead?

I guess times DO change a lot?
While ‘Sissy’ tends to have a different meaning these days I don’t really have any memories of it being an actual word until pretty recently..

In fact, the closest thing I can think of to the word before the fifteen-hundreds would be a little fishing village on the expansive coast of the Greek island Crete?
Not that I particularly remember HOW I know there’s a place called ‘Sisi’ in Greece but I must have picked it up from one incarnation or another.
That tends to be the reason for most of the knowledge I just somehow KNOW, ya know?

“Hi Uncle Max, you look well!”
With more enthusiasm then I’d expected Kit.. or Echo..

You know what?
In the sanctity of my own mind I’ll call her Echo for now, ‘Kit’ really doesn’t feel RIGHT for some reason..

Anyway, Echo bounced on her toes excitedly and shot over to give John a warm hug.
The fact that John not only didn’t try to dodge her but actually seemed HAPPY to be hugging her threw me off completely.. also, since when did John become someone’s UNCLE?!

Narcissus huffed to himself loudly and practically pouted when he realised that John had taken the limelight off of him again.
I had to resist the urge to laugh at how silly he was being honestly.
He really IS just an overgrown child at times.

Speaking of children, Eris wandered over to us on slightly unsteady legs.. which is completely understandable considering she was weighed down by a large tray of burgers in her little arms.

I quickly moved to her side and took the tray from her with a smile.
She grinned back at me proudly, it kind of made me want to drop the tray and hug her?
She’s far too cute for words when she smiles like that!

Instead of dropping it I moved the tray onto the nearest empty table before kneeling slightly and offering her my open arms.
She didn’t need a seconds thought before practically diving in for a hug that let me scoop her up in a twirling hold that settled her on that particularly comfortable spot she seems to automatically land in at my hip every time.

She giggled to herself happily and buried her face into my T-shirt for some reason but I let her do it anyway, I was giggling a little too honestly, although I tried to keep it quiet so John wouldn’t notice.

When we finally looked away from each other it became apparent that we were now the center of attention.
I blushed brightly and Eris buried her face a little more into my chest.

..I kind of wish I could bury my face in someone’s chest to hide too now..
My eyes subconsciously turned to John with an assessing gaze before I shook the stupid half-formed idea away with a frustrated grunt.

No matter how awkward the situation, THAT’S not gonna happen!
Stupid brain, why does it always have to come up with weird ideas when John’s involved?!

“The burgers are here, why don’t you catch up with John while I take Eris to go get dressed for the day?”
John opened his mouth, possibly to complain, but I think he worked out why I was trying to leave so quickly a moment later.

I don’t tend to handle being the center of attention very well to start with.
The fact that even more ‘new’ people are here, and they’re drawing out strange feelings with accompanying instincts from me.. it has me feeling unnervingly far from my ‘comfort zone’ at the moment.

Rather than wait for a response I turned on my heel, jiggled Eris a little to get her positioned properly again and made my way back towards the house.

“She’s leaving footprints in the grass, is that normal?.. Who’s ‘John’ anyway?”
While I didn’t even miss a step in my march towards the house I DID cringe visibly at Echo’s mumbled question.

Eris’s head pushed up a little so she could catch my eye.
She offered me a weak smile before settling her head down against my shoulder so she could peer out at the trees as we moved by.

“..people are annoying..”

It took everything I had to not burst out in a giggle fit when she spouted that line again.
I really shouldn’t encourage her with that idea but she’s a girl after my own heart if nothing else.
..ah, what the hell?! She can work out the meaning of tolerance and friendship another day..

“Yeah.. they are..”

She sighed happily and slid her head down slightly further until her ear rested above my heart.
It felt nice to know I could get a reaction out of her like that so easily.

With a slight skip to my step I brought us onto the path and carried on toward the house with a smile playing across my lips.

======

I hissed a frustrated breath through my teeth.
In a smooth gesture I managed to yank my shirt over my head and pulled my short-shorts down without pausing in between.

Eris watched on from the bed with interested eyes.
While I’m not particularly body conscious, especially about THIS body, there’s something unnerving about having a little girl watch you get changed.

I tried going into my en-suite bathroom but she followed me.
I tried to shoo her outside for a moment so I could at least change my underwear in peace but she wasn’t having any of it.

After we wasted almost ten minutes with me trying to find more and more inventive ways to encourage her to leave the room I gave up, hence why I’m now standing in front of Eris in my bikini top and the embarrassingly feminine panties I’d worn under my shorts for the last few days.

I hadn’t exactly planned on someone else seeing me wearing them when I put them on, I was more focused on how annoying and scary my lack of magic was at the time!

I shot Eris one more hopeful look but she seemed entirely too interested in seeing what I would do next and didn’t seem to even notice my glance.
With a heavy sigh I made my way over to my bag and shoved my arm inside, up to my shoulder.

In my minds-eye I focused on the particular clothes I’d decided to wear today and a dip into my lines was enough to summon them from the depths of the expanded bag into my hand.
..that’s so much easier to do with magic..

I kept my back to Eris but my cheeks still flushed when I put the bundle of cloth out on the table and carefully slid the too feminine undies down my legs.
As quick as humanly possible I grabbed the plain white cotton pair I’d summoned from my bag and stepped into them in the blink of an eye.

Bra swapping was a bit less nerve wracking.
It took a bit of fiddling but I managed to get the straps at the back of my bikini top undone then switched it out for a much more boring but comfortable skin-tone sports bra.

When I turned around, finally feeling a bit more at ease with Eris’s presence now that the really embarrassing parts were done, I was met by a slightly disappointed look from her.
I think she doesn’t like the ‘boring’ undies I picked?

Well TOUGH little Miss picky!
I’m the adult.. sort of.. and I’ll pick my own damn underwear, so THERE!

She seemed to perk up a bit when she realised that the last part of my outfit was, in fact, a dress at least.
Of all the unnecessary clothes Mum and Sarah got me at the store I actually like this dress the best..

Come to think of it, should I be worried that I have a ‘favorite’ dress now?

It’s a royal blue modern-style midi dress with a wide pleated skirt that feels delicious and a sort of.. off-the shoulder-but-technically-not design to the top?
okay.. so I’m terrible at descriptions..

It has a sort of.. slightly dipped neckline with thick shoulder straps that don’t connect to the sleeves?
The Cut-outs at each shoulder show a bit of skin on either side and end with a set of almost ‘Bardot’ style mini-sleeves that end just past my armpits?
It looks very retro if I’m honest with myself, luckily that’s in fashion these days I guess..

If you’d told me a few years ago that I’d be able to use the knowledge of old, pre-color film era woman’s clothing that I gained when Sarah went through her ‘elegant’ phase to describe my own casual, comfortable clothing choices I’d have probably laughed in your face.. but what can I say?

I may have only BEEN a woman for a week or so but I know what I like!

Everything about this dress from the eye-catching yet subdued color to the heavy but breathable fabric and the top half that somehow makes me feel so much cooler despite only exposing a few inches of shoulder on either side is just PERFECT to my eyes.

When I had it all settled properly I gave a little twirl sending the skirt and it’s subtle layer of stitched in ‘petticoat’ material fluttering around me, much to Eris’s approval judging by the wide eyed look and accompanying grin she was sporting.
Feeling a bit ‘fluttery’ myself after giving in to yet another strange impulse from my muddled brain I dipped into my lines to feed some power into my pancreas.

It won’t last, conjured stuff never does in the end, especially if it’s done quickly without a proper source design but it will do for now.

Within seconds the image in my minds-eye became reality and clutched in my hand was a truly adorable replica of my dress but in miniature scale for obvious reasons.
Eris squealed happily and shot off the bed.

Without hesitation she yanked her old dress over her head and was moments from grabbing the new dress from my hands before I rose it slightly out of her reach.
She shot me an almost offended look and tried to hop up slightly but to no avail.

“New undies first, then the dress.”
She cringed and seemed uncertain of herself suddenly.

At first I thought she was just shy but that’s not it, from the way she shifted her body uncertainly I can read a few details about what she’s thinking.. most prevalent is that she doesn’t have any other underwear around.

I gave her a warm understanding look which seemed to freeze her in place and with a florish of my free hand, followed closely by a dip back into my lines, I was clutching a dainty pair of little girls panties and a cami-top for her to wear.

Her face lit up again and she grabbed them from my hand without hesitation.
I quickly spun on my heel so I didn’t have to see her naked, it’s bad enough she pretty much saw me naked a minute ago without making this all even MORE awkward and wrong!

The first sign I got that she was finished was a slight tugging on the dress in my hand.
I turned cautiously and couldn’t help but smile as she stood there in the delicate, overly fussy undies that came to my mind when I tried to think what a little girl would wear.
I think Sarah wore something like these quite a lot when we were younger, naturally that means I probably wore them at some point too.
..damn pushy sister..

The pink little cami’s a bit plain but the panties with their frilly little butt, rows lace and opal-like soft pink coloring just made her look cute as a button!
If anything the whole outfit somehow made her look smaller or younger in some weird way?

Instead of letting her do it I stepped up and moved the dress in my hands above her head.
After a momentarily confused pause she seemed to realise what I was going to do because a wide grin split her face and she shot her arms up in the air.
With care to not hurt her I slid the dress over her head and helped move her arms into the little sleeves.

Eris giggled to herself when the skirt of the dress settled around her knees.
She grabbed a side of it with her hand and spun in a circle making the skirt flare out like mine had previously.

We both shared a smile.
Without conscious thought my hand came up to cup her face lovingly and she practically sank into my touch.

The royal blue of her dress is rather striking in contrast to her red hair.
It doesn’t clash surprisingly.. at least, not to my eyes?

“Give me a second to grab a book or two and we’ll go watch some TV, how does that sound sweetie?”
Eris smiled happily.

Her hands wouldn’t stop fiddling with the edge of her new dress and she seemed inordinately pleased to be wearing a similar outfit to mine.
I turned back to my bag to grab a few books from inside it but froze a second later when a weight collided with my stomach.

“Thanks Mommy.”
My eyes tracked down to Eris’s bright little face from where she’d splayed herself into the skirt of my dress, her arms wide in a hug around my thighs that didn’t even come close to reaching all the way around.

I couldn’t have stopped the warm smile that came to my lips even if I’d wanted to.
My hand came up to pat her hair slightly in that particular way she seems to enjoy so much.

With a twist, dip into my lines through my kidneys and a gesture of my free hand I managed to summon a pile of books from inside my bag without getting any closer to it.

I’d been focused on the books Edith put in there seemingly so long ago, back when she first gave me the bag.
I’ve got to get around to reading them at some point anyway and this is as good a time as any.

I’ve got to give credit to Edith though!
I doubt I’d have been able to find the books so easily if she hadn’t done such a good job on the bag itself.

It’s got to have some kind of ‘retrieval’ charm on it or something?
There’s no way I’d be able to pick out such a specific but undefined set of items as ‘those books Edith gave me’ with a simple summoning charm normally!

Every time I think that I’m catching up to her the crazy little yoda has another trick up her sleeve..
It’d be frustrating if it wasn’t so fun working out how she does it!

“Let’s go then, TV calls!”
Eris giggled happily and slid to my side so she could grasp my hand tightly as we stepped out into the hallway.

A glance back into my room and a wave of my hand later had the books levitated off the floor to follow after us like a particularly papery but eager pile of puppies.
..I love magic sometimes..

======

‘Mindscapes are malleable by the will of the owner only, if two beings inhabit a mindscape at the same time then the dominant one will hold the power alone. This effect can be seen in diagram four below as-‘
I paused mid-sentence and glanced up from my book to check on Eris.

I needn’t have worried.
She was far too busy lying out on the floor in front of the TV, her little legs kicking the material of her skirt around slightly as she stared avidly at the screen.

A wave of nostalgia flowed through me as I watched her for a moment.
Add in another girl at her side, change her hair to a duller shade without her signature red in it and she could practically BE me as a kid!

The amount of times Sarah and I would lay out on our bellies watching TV like that, skirts flying about as we chatted and laughed with each other in our own little oblivious world.. even dad couldn’t ruin that little bonding activity for us.
Although, after he was gone, we had to be a bit more subtle about it and wait for times when Mum was out running errands before even attempting to bring skirts and dresses back into it all..

Still.. the cute sight before me warmed my heart a bit anyway!

I couldn’t resist smiling to myself when a particularly hard leg kick sent Eris’s skirts flying and flashed just a hint of pink underneath.
Little girls can be so oblivious to things like that, I should really warn her about it but I just can’t bring myself to interrupt her fun at the moment?

There’s only the two of us here anyway and I changed her cloth-diapers as a baby so it’s not lik-

DAMN IT!
It’s getting harder and harder to keep those insidious little thoughts from leaking out when Eris is involved!

The book on mind-magics slid from my fingers and landed on the seat to my side as I brought a hand up to squeeze the bridge of my nose hard.
All it takes is just a moment of inattention and ‘BAM!’ for all intents and purposes I’m Eris’s ‘Mother’ in all but name!

It’s really getting bad.
Imagining a day without having her at my side is almost physically painful at this point.

I didn’t even realise that I was doing it at the time but this whole ‘matching mother-daughter outfits’ thing is ridiculous too!
I’m not going to change it NOW obviously, Eris seems so happy that we’re wearing the same clothes but in principle I shouldn’t have even THOUGHT about putting her in something like my clothes because it would be ‘cute’ or ‘adorable’..

Those are ‘Mom’ thoughts, those aren’t ‘Hannah’ thoughts damn it!

I’m NOT her mother!
I’m NOT Arista and I don’t ever WANT to be her!

I need to get a handle on this soon or who knows what will happen?!
Today I’m the mother, what if tomorrow one of her ex-husbands turns up and I’m suddenly the ‘wife’?.. or even worse I wake up and I’m just flat-out ‘Arista’ instead!

I HATE magic sometimes!

Eris burst into a fit of giggles when the dopy looking purple thing on screen fell over.
The sound jolted me out of my melancholic musings and reluctantly a smile slipped onto my lips again despite myself.
With a sigh I settled back into the sofa a little more and picked up my book.

No use worrying about it now, there’s not much I can do about it if something IS wrong at the moment.

It’s just lucky my magic’s been almost frustratingly calm since I woke up in New Avalon really?
Apollo checked me over and agreed with John’s theory that I’d come out of my first major integration cycle as a result of the ‘solar flare’ I let off a few days ago.

For the next few weeks I should be practically stable and pretty safe to be around.. and then it’s back to panic stations again.
..naturally John couldn’t resist making a PMS comparison 'joke'..

I hit him for it of course.. HARD!
He didn’t seem to find my ‘sudden relapse into violent mood swings’ either convincing or fair, but screw him!

You don’t make PMS jokes to the person you exclusively had a hand in turning into a woman!
“..stupid John..”

======

“Hannah?”

Sarah stuck her head around the doorframe into the TV room and paused for a moment.
I desperately tried to neither blush nor show in any way that I was somewhat embarrassed at her seeing me sitting here in a dress with Eris in a matching outfit.. it didn’t work of course..

Her previously worried face split into a slight grin as her eyes cut between me and Eris a few more times.
She seemed to catalogue every similarity as she went, being painfully obvious about it as she did.

“Can I help you with something Sare?”
She didn’t particularly seem to notice or care about the warning tone to my voice but at least it got her attention back again.

“John needs you for a second, apparently Echo’s brought something to his attention.. it sounded kinda important.”

Eris twisted her body and peered at me thoughtfully for a moment.
I offered her a smile even though I felt a slight flash of worry go down my spine.

If John thinks something is important.. it probably is?..
He’s an ass at times but he can be serious when he has to.

“Can you stay with Eris while I go see him Sare?”

Sarah’s face lit up for some reason.
Eris didn’t seem at all pleased that I’d be leaving her for a moment but when I caught her eyes she rolled her own ones in a sign that she’d be okay, but by no means happy about it all, and turned back to watching the TV.
..I’m starting to see why mothers plant their kids down in-front of the ‘idiot box’ so much these days..

“Thanks Sare, I’ll be back soon.”

I left my book on the side table and made my way downstairs to find John.
It wasn’t hard to guess where he would be.

Since his little trick at our front door that made her faint, Mum’s been a bit cold with him and he honestly seems a bit worried being too close to her?
That means he seems to spend most of his time in our back garden with Tos and whoever else happens to be out there at the time.

I’ve got to admit it IS kind of feeling a bit cramped indoors at the moment.
Our house was kind of a squeeze with just me, Mum and Sarah growing up so having THIS many people saying over.. let’s just say it’s a good thing we have so many bathrooms in the house!

My foot hesitated slightly as I went to step out onto the grass but with a sigh I did it anyway.
I need to work on stopping the whole ‘grow flowers’ effect, Gran said I should be able to with a bit of practice but honestly it’s finding the time to do it that’s the problem..

“What’s wrong John?”

Everyone in his little group near Tos’s temporary ‘sleeping-hut’ turned to look at me.
It made my stomach tense slightly to have so many worried looks sent my way at the same time.

“Echo reminded me that her and Narcissus weren’t the only ones out looking for you the other day. She also mentioned that before they got here she sent out word to everyone that you were awake and apparently open for visitors..”
John seemed to be unsure how to react to his own words.

I don’t really see the problem, the rumor-mill that is ‘mages in general’ would surely have told everyone at some point anyway right?
Echo winced and guiltily stubbed her shoe in the grass when my eyes drifted over to her.

I frowned, my eyes cutting back over to John so I could give him a curious eyebrow.
What am I missing here?

“We just got word that the Klamath Falls waypoint beacon has been reactivated and it’s promptly been flooded with incoming travellers.”

Ahh.. that’s.. that’s not good?..
“How long do we have until-”

Dite visibly tensed and turned with Tos in tow to stare out into the treeline at the south-side of the garden.
With a dawning sense of inevitability I turned to follow her gazes, trailed quickly by everyone else.

Slowly the lower bush-like tree branches started moving and people started coming into view, cautiously at first, but with progressively more confidence as others followed behind them.
Ten.. Twenty.. Thirty.. there’s got to be more of them then the worrying amount of people from Mum’s family currently indoors already!

From the middle of the crowd a few little children that seemed to be around Eris’s age, give or take a few years, pushed their way through and broke into a squealing happy run straight for us.
Almost in unison they broke the awkward silence that had fallen over the garden with their bright little voices.

“MOMMY!”

John cringed at my side.
I could feel his magic roll around with worry as he scanned the mass of people coming towards us.

“..we’re going to need more beds..”

My face scrunched up into a frustrated frown as the youngest of the group reached the halfway point between us and the treeline.
Subtly my foot came up to stamp hard on his unsuspecting foot.

This is NOT the time for jokes!
He’s such an asshole sometimes..

“MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY!!”

I carefully slide a smile onto my face as the younger ones got closer.
My magic rolled around in my chest with worry but I focused on everything I’ve learnt while dealing with Eris over the last few days instead of voicing it openly.

The only thing that could be worse than an unexpected flood of ‘children’ at this point would be if I manage to make the lot of them cry by showing just how PISSED OFF with this whole mess I am right now!

Damn it Arista!
Couldn’t you keep your bloody legs shut for ONCE you heartless bitch?!

“MOMMY!”
With giggles and squeals I was buried under a wave of excitable little children that practically tackled me to the floor.

I had to focus on breathing for a moment as they settled themselves on top of me in a way that I assume was in some way ‘comfortable’ for them but left ME with a compressed chest and a definite lack of air!

“Mommy! We missed you, can we have ice-cream?”
The one that spoke from somewhere near my navel suddenly yelped and squirmed a bit.
“Mommy, tell her! Lache hit me!”

“I did NOT! Mommy, Clo’s lying!”
My one free arm came up so I could bring my hand to my nose and squeeze away a headache for what feels like the millionth time in the last few days.
“OWW! MOMMY, Pos kicked me!”

A breath hissed its way through my teeth as I tried to not do precisely what I wanted to do SO badly at the moment.

“Don’t look now Hannah but here come the ‘adults’ of the group.”
My eyes squinted down into a tight little glare as I stared at the upside-down face of John.
He seems FAR too amused about all of this suddenly, his magic is practically rolling with supressed mirth!

“DADDY!”
His eyes shot wide and a moment later he was tackled to the ground by a swarm of teenaged girls.

I tried not to be too obvious with just how good it felt to see him get the same rough treatment as me but there wasn’t much I could do to hide my wide grin or the laugh that rumbled in my chest, especially with so many kids on top of me to hear it!

My eyes tracked a boy of about fourteen, who actually held a worrying likeness to John, as he came flying out of nowhere and dived on top of the veritable dog-pile garnering indignant yells from the girls and a pained grunt from John.

As the writhing mass rolled around on top of him I lay back into the grass and shifted the little ones on my chest into a slightly more comfortable position so they could look at me with wide happy eyes and bicker with each other lightly without hurting me too much.

“OWW! That’s my hand Ninka you fat drunk!”
My eyes flew back over to the dog-pile on top of John as two of the girls started fighting amongst themselves and John’s magic flared in a way that signified a sudden jolt of pain.
..feels like I got off kinda lightly actually?..

HA! Teach you to make PMS jokes and laugh at me being swarmed John!

The commotion had obviously attracted attention from inside the house.
People were already coming out of the backdoor with curious and weary looks on their faces.
A little object wiggled its way through the legs of the men at the front of the house group and made a break towards us, her red hair trailing behind her and her royal blue dress flapping about in the breeze.

I almost managed to let off a plea for her to stop before Eris kicked off and practically flew out to land heavily on top of me.
She clambered around to claim the spot near my left breast as her own, with a few well-placed kicks and shoves she managed to tuck herself into my arm and plant her ear above my heart as she always does.

The other little ones started moving angrily at what they saw as Eris’s invasion of ‘their’ space.
I could see the arguments and fights brewing already with horrible inevitability.

“..THIS is why I don’t work with kids..”
No-one seemed to notice or appreciate my muttered groan for what it was.
If anything the wide grin on Sarah’s face as she 'busily' takes her sweet-ass time getting over here to help me would suggest that I’m, in fact, completely alone in understanding just how horrible this whole situation is!

Is it too late to join Grace in the ‘I don’t do babies’ club?
..I wonder what the membership requirements are?..

OUCH! That’s my boob not a hand-hold you annoying little-!

Nothing's ever as clear cut as it appears, the world runs on 'cause and effect' not convenience. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you can work out patterns from the mess but most of the time you just don’t know enough vital information to see past the tangled knots around you. Hannah isn’t immune to that problem either, sadly. Events unfold including but not limited to: John's being responsible (I KNOW, it shocked me too!) Meanwhile Hannah finds out what drowning feels like.

 

“..I’m not talking to you..”

Sarah openly laughed at me despite my very real annoyance at her.
She left me buried under a pile of fighting children for five whole minutes so she and everyone else could amuse themselves at my situation!

I wouldn’t do that to HER damn it!

It’s not fair.
My ribs ache from little feet striking them
My head hurts from loud squealing near my ears when ‘Pos’ and ‘Clo’ started shouting at each other from either side of me over who said what about when or some such nonsense, I wasn’t particularly listening due to their volume if nothing else!

“Oh come on Han, you’ve got to admit it was funny. You can throw magic around like its confetti and rumor has it this ‘Arista’ person was a total evil badass but you got floored by some little kids who called you ‘Mommy’.”

I glared at her for a long moment just to show that, ‘no, I don’t have to admit it was funny’.. but in the end I gave it up with a huff.

I really need to work on holding a grudge against Sarah better at some point.
Even when I was glaring at her openly I had to resist the urge to smile every time I caught her eye as she sat there grinning at me so happily!

“Any real idea of how many kids you actually have yet?”
My eyes tightened in pain and I cupped my hand up to the bridge of my nose to squeeze down hard as my head sank back against the sofa with a heavy sigh.

“Currently nearby, about eighty of them?.. John’s got them all clearing more space in the pocket dimension and moving extra beds in at the moment. Luckily no-one expects me to do anything this time.. I think Gran is worried I’m using too much magic or something, I dunno?”
Sarah watched my free hand fly up in a frustrated shrug but quickly turned back to watching my face with curiosity.

“How many worldwide?”
She seemed to notice my wince and frowned with worry.
“That bad?”

I nodded quickly and closed my eyes for a moment.
Honestly, I needed to gather myself together before admitting to this one..
“How many mages are there on earth do you think?”

Sarah dropped into silence for a second as she did the rough math in her head.
“About.. I dunno.. three-thousand maybe? Including un-awakened ten-thousand tops?”
..nice try but not even close sadly..

“It closer to a million, according to the last worldwide poll of Hub staff and conscription levels..”

Sarah’s jaw went slack in surprise.
I can’t really blame her, even I didn’t think it would be THAT many.
That’s not even taking into account the one’s flying under the radar that the Hub don’t have records of.

From what John said.. after he got free of the dog-pile naturally.. ‘Arista’ probably accounts for about ten percent of those mages by being either their ‘first’ mother or at least their suspected ‘first’ mother.

The worst part is, I think he actually low-balled that figure to some degree for my sanity’s sake?
I dread to think what the REAL percentage could be!

“You look exhausted Han. Why don’t you go to bed early?”

She’s got a point.
I really AM exhausted, between getting no real sleep last night and today’s events it’s taken a toll on me for sure.

“yeah.. you’re probably right. I’ll go check on everyone, then turn in early I guess?”
With a grunt of effort I managed to stagger to my feet but Sarah followed me up and put a calming hand on my shoulder.

“Go to bed Han, I’ll check on everyone for you.. go on.. shoo, be a good little sister and do what your big sister says.”
I was sorely tempted to take a page out of any number of my ‘children’s books and poke my tongue out at her for that comment but doing so would take far too much energy honestly.

“Thanks Sare, G’night.”

We kinda fell into each other in a limp hug for a moment before leaving the TV room, Sarah in search of people and me in search of my bed.

Why does this stuff always happen to me?..
I was going to have a nice calm day with no mess or fuss but NOOO! The universe can’t have THAT can it?!

No, Hannah has to spend her morning being mobbed by strangers of all ages and sizes claiming to be her children.. then all afternoon being pulled from pillar to post as she juggles her mother, sister, best-friend, uncertain werewolf extended family AND the newcomers who couldn’t seem to decide if they were glad to be here or if they just came to pick over old fights with each other instead!

JOHN had to be the RESPONSIBLE one!
Can you imagine just how bad things had to get before THAT was our only option?!

I had to levitate two people into the air, in what I can only describe as a ‘timeout’ for five minutes until they were ready to apologise and more specifically NOT ready to destroy my backyard with magic as they argued over who stole who’s abacus, powers knows HOW many years ago!

It wouldn’t have been so bad if they weren’t both over FORTY YEARS OLD!!

The moment I put them down I SWEAR the look of annoyance on my face was the only thing that REALLY made them stop arguing too?!
They both apologised to me like children who got caught being naughty by their ‘mommy’ and the worst part about it is that, from their point of view, that’s EXACTLY what was BLOODY happening!!

I just.. I just want to go to bed and forget today ever happened, ya know?
I should have known nothing good could come from a day that began with me having nightmares torn straight from history involving me as the loving mother and Eris as the scared, innocent little daughter.
I’m just not lucky enough for THAT to be the low-point of my bloody day!

With a hiss as my head throbbed again from the major league headache I’ve got going on I pushed my bedroom door open and stumbled inside.
Part of me wanted to just collapse on the bed and be done with it but another part, specifically my bladder, disagreed with the idea insistently.

My head drooped down in defeat after a long moment’s indecision.
Stupid tiny female bladder!

======

A splash of water on my face from the bathroom sink helped clear my head a little.
The snap of cold did more than I expected to wake me up, for a moment at least.

My left hand went behind my back to reach the zipper on my dress while my right one reached out to open the door.
As the bedroom came into view I almost screamed in surprise when Eris made her presence known, oh so innocently sitting on my bed with a hopeful look on her face!

I couldn’t bring myself to argue at this point.
My head hurts too much and I just KNOW she’d argue VERY vocally if I tried to get rid of her.

The zipper finally decided to work properly and in a smooth motion the whole dress slid down my arms to pool at the floor.
Rather than pick it up I just nudged it out of the way as I wandered over to my bag in a bit of a daze.

A minor bit of searching and just a touch of magic left me clutching two light bundles of cotton in my hand.
Without much ceremony I tossed the smaller shirt over to Eris and slid the long pastel yellow baseball-tee style nightshirt over my head.

Out the corner of my eye I could see Eris struggle slightly in getting her own dress off but before I could stumble over to help she managed to get it loose somehow.

Quick as a flash she’d pulled my usually ‘small’ T-shirt over her head.
Luckily, due to her relative size compared to me, it draped down past her knees and while the neck was a bit loose it would do for now.

I’m too tired to conjure something new for her and even if I could be bothered my heads hurting so much I’d probably not be able to focus enough if I tried anyway.

With a heavy grunt I fell into bed and pulled the covers up despite the afternoon sunlight peeking through the curtains.
A moment later Eris slid under the covers to nestle herself up against my chest.

She sighed out a breath of relief for some reason.
I was honestly kind of tempted to mirror her but that would take way too much energy.

Sleep!

Sleep will help.
I’ll deal with the fallout of everything that’s happening in the morning.

If it comes to it I’ll just let off a blast or two of ice magic into the tree’s until they all shut up in fear.. or.. or I dunno, run away screaming bloody murder?!
I don’t particularly like being feared or considered ‘crazy’ but it’s better than the alternative at this point..

Eris yawned widely.
That set me off and by the time I’d finished my eyes were half shut while my arms pulled her in a bit tighter like a warm little teddy bear.

..I really shouldn’t find sleeping like this as comfortable as I do..

======

“Ari? Wake up it’s time for dinner.”
For a moment I thought it was Mum calling me but the voice wasn’t right somehow?
I wanted to groan and tell the voice that I wasn’t hungry but apparently my body had other ideas.

Despite my mental protests I sat up from the surprisingly comfortable leather settee I’d been laying on.
A careless hand pushed my hair out of my eyes and I squinted around until they settled on the person who’d spoken.

When did John have time to grow a beard?
It looks kind of stupid on him, like the one he had on that odd wooden picture in-

“Max, how could you let me sleep like that? It’s undignified. A woman of my station shouldn’t be-”

The words coming from my mouth certainly weren’t mine but the voice was, although it had a certain light musical air to it that I don’t think I’ve ever used before?
For some reason it felt a bit like when I hear Felix ‘speak’, the word flow wasn’t quite normal, as if it was translated in some way?

“There’s only us here my little rabbit, no-one to care or tell you off for being human.. mothers in London after all..”

I felt myself blush and a hand covered in a white silk glove came up to cup over my mouth to hide my smile a little.
“Oh Max, you are frightfully naughty. If mother heard you..”

He grinned at me with a smile I recognise more from my John than anything I’d associate with ‘Max’ in the slightest.

It just DID something to me.
My belly burned slightly with what I’d hesitate to call ‘desire’ and my cheeks flushed slightly more in response to that sudden warmth.

“How are the children?”

With a smooth, obviously practiced, motion my body pushed itself up from the settee and I started the awkward process of trying to straighten out my skirts.
For the briefest of moments I flashed just a hint of thigh which seemed to catch Max’s attention ever so delightfully.

Feeling a bit naughty myself I fussed with my petti’s just a bit more causing the skirts to fly once more.
The effort was worth it for the look of surprise and desire that flashed across Max’s regal features before he managed to smooth them out behind his usual façade of socially acceptable ambivalence at least.

“They’re fine, the little ones are with their governesses and the awakened are with their tutors.”

My hands came up to my hips.
It seems wrong to entrust them all with the staff so much.
I’m still too used to the old days when I ran the orphanage practically single handed I guess?

It feels almost like a lifetime since those long tiring days, before Max found me again.

Even his boar of a mother and her rather demanding ideas about what is and is not acceptable for the wife of a noble to be seen doing hasn’t yet soured the joy of being reunited with my love.
It is rather aggravating at times to process my way through the strange ideals and customs of my past lives but at least I have Max to anchor me in reality.

To think, that just a few short years ago I was little more than a guttersnipe fighting for what little I had to support my ever-growing collection of lost ones?
I’m not ashamed to admit that I turned tricks once or twice to keep the orphanage afloat.

The gentlemen of Holborn were never the most appreciative for a poor girl from Seven Dials but they paid well for my time, especially if they got overly rough at times.

I much prefer my Max for such things.
He’s so gentle in everything he does.
His hands are softer than mine and he is ever so good to me with them..

“I know that look.”

My cheeks flared in embarrassment at being caught thinking of such things.
Max didn’t seem to mind though.
His long arms came up to hold me and I practically sunk into him with a purr of enjoyment.

I much prefer my life with my Max now.
He’s ever so sweet.
I feel like a princess every time he looks upon me.
It’s nice.. ever so nice..

..I love you Max..

------

With a jolt I was no longer in Max’s strong arms but standing upon a mountain, bitter wind and rolling snow battering at my cloak as I looked out at the horror’s before me.

For a moment I felt disorientated but it didn’t shake my tight, prideful stance in the slightest.
The feeling passed quickly though and I settled back into happily watching the mayhem as brother struck down brother at my whim.

The smallest of smiles crept unbidden across my thin lips as I watched several magic-less mongrels stab each other in quick succession, all for the glory of their ‘Queen’.

They are like puppets.. MY puppets..
Toy’s to be played with and discarded as I chose.

The magic-less are so unbelievably DULL!
I didn’t even need magic to set them against themselves, they did it all on their own.. maybe with just a nudge or two from me of course..
You can’t blame a girl her pleasures after all?

“ARISTA!”

With a flourish I spun away from the bloody battlefield to stare at him.
There’s no mistaking that voice.
Those cold, hopeless eyes.
That annoying face.

“Took you long enough Maxarimus. I’d expected better from you.. for making me wait I shall have to kill some of your kin..”
A delighted smile crossed my lips as he visibly flinched.
“..not that you have many of them left at this point, I believe your brother Godfrey was just disembowelled by your cousin Simon.. he always was so impressive when playing with his.. sword.”
Just a slight tilt of my head and raise of my eyebrow would tell him exactly what I meant by THAT comment.

It’s always EVER so fun to needle him about such things.

“I believe your sisters are so far free of the battle though? I’m sure I can do something about that in due time, depending who survives the night I might even be able to keep it ‘within the family’ Dearheart.”
He flinched again but tightened his stance in preparation for whatever silly idea he’d devised to stop me this time.
“You always did say that family is important sweet Maxarimus, we should always endeavour to keep things within the family if we can after all..”

“Arista please! I beg you, stop this.. Ari.. please..”

My eyes tightened down in anger.
How dare he use that diminutive with me!

Before he could truly realise the depth of his error my hand arched out and with a silent push a razor thin trail of ice-infused wind cut through the night, neatly removing his head from his shoulders and ending in a virtual fountain of his life blood!

It really was a glorious sight while it lasted but unfortunately his body collapsed far too quickly for my tastes.

Maxarimus disposed of, I turned fond eyes back to the battlefield.
It seems only a few remain standing but they are dedicated to their principles and will not rest until the others lay dead at their feet.

With a wave of my hand and a flicked wrist the compulsions fell over the survivors.
Whoever leaves the field this day will march home proudly covered in the blood of their siblings and slaughter all of their line as they sleep.

Family indeed.. such a silly concept when one can be so easily turned against the fold..

“Bored now”
In one hand I reached down to pick up Maxarimus’s head for my collection, with the other I forced the shadows to raise to my bidding with a giggle.

The warm bite of several demon infested dimensions flew past my eyes and it was ever so fun to watch the great beasts shy away from me in fear.
At least THEY know their place in this world!

They may have their domains and take what they will from the world outside but they know who their mistress truly is this day.

It’s good to be the Queen!

------

The world jolted and I instinctively tried to strike out at whatever stupid corpse had decided to interrupt me as I travelled, but my body would not follow as commanded for reasons beyond me at this moment.

Something felt wrong in so many ways but as the seconds stretched on and I stared up at the thatch above me it all seemed to settle back into place nicely.

I’m not sure what just got into me, the problem was easily forgotten as my love turned upon our bed and threw one muscular arm across my waist.
The fire had died out through the night’s passage so more warmth is always welcome, but even more so when it was his.

He grunted and leaned himself against me more.
I felt his intention before his eye’s had even opened properly.

“Oh Thor, really?.. again?”
His thick red hair shifted and he gave me a lust filled stare more befitting of a beast then a man.
For a moment I considered resisting him but I do so LOVE his touch and he was so well behaved yesterday during Loki’s visit.
“Fine but only until the others awaken, we have much to do today my love.”

Thor grunted at a vocal depth so low that it rumbled deliciously in his chest and through mine in return.
I nuzzled my nose up under his chin to rub at the rough stubble there as he turned his lower body to be better positioned and I couldn’t help but let out a mew of joy.
He always has liked it when I mew and cry for him..

He used his arms to push himself up high enough that he could stare down at me with warm, loving eyes before he lowered himself upon me and-

------

I desperately tried to fight back another mew, this one in disappointment and confusion when the world changed around me, but I needn’t have bothered because I could not seem to vocalise it anyway!

Thor is gone?

Oh well, the brute would only slow me down anyway.
No man could hope to keep pace with me, even dear Arthur and his pet wizard are useless!

“LE FAY!”

I couldn’t help but giggle and roll over in the lakes deep waters so I could see him standing pompously astride the shore in his overly ostentatious golden armor.
I know that gold is magically resistant but he really does take it too far!

“Morning Arthur dearest, come to join me?”
His angry, offended growl was like music to my ears.
“Arthur, Arthur, look, look! Who am I?”

With a push of my arms I sunk below the water’s surface leaving only a single arm hanging high out of the water.
Desperately holding in my amused giggles I folded down all but one finger of my hand and waved it in his general direction before surfacing with a flourish.

Arthur was naturally offended beyond comprehension.
He does have SUCH a soft spot for that boring old draggle Nimue.

Honestly!
The ‘Lady of the Lake’ indeed, tossing enchanted swords around and thinking she’s so special!

This is MY Lake.
She doesn’t even pay me for the indignity but she’s got the world convinced that I’M the trespasser.
I should turn the whole Lake to ice for a summer, see how she likes claiming ownership THEN!

“Arthur, we must hurry, is the sea witch coming or not?”

With a toss of my hair and a wave of my arms the water followed my command.
I rose up on a throne of seemingly solid water, in seconds my body was dry and my hair settled neatly around me in bountiful curls.

“Hi Lance’a-lot-a-yummy-muscles!”

His eye twitched heavily.
I know he heard me.

He can’t pretend to ignore me forever!

Guin thinks she’s so much better than me, getting his attention, but someday he’ll notice me!
I’m the REAL Queen around here, she just got lucky and managed to make it ‘official’.
Non-magicals can be ever so tiresome in their delusions sometimes..

“Le fay, we need your healers touch. A great force is on route to us, Myrddin fears we will not survive the coming battle without you.”

My eyes rolled up to the heavens in exasperation.
That old fool still thinks himself a soothsayer?!

The overgrown pigeon he calls a ‘familiar’ has more of the gift to him then that crazy old coot does!

“I’d love to Arthur, really, but I’m ever so busy. The water-bitch challenged me to a race this afternoon and dear Guin wants my help making her ass look relatively acceptable in her new dress too.”
I couldn’t help but giggle at the silly expressions on both of their faces.

As if Nimue would ‘lower herself to my level’ enough for something as childish as a race around the lake, and Guin hasn’t requested my help in choosing her clothes since the unfortunate incident with the Toga.. as if it’s my fault the silly girl didn’t know how to hold a simple cloth shroud in place!

The pair shared a very obvious look of uncertainty but in the end my darling future-husband Lancelot shrugged to his King for some reason.

“Myrddin said that you would be more willing to aid us if I mentioned a name?.. Maxarimus?
A breath hissed through my teeth in surprise.
My concentration broke, making the ‘throne’ of water I was sitting on collapse, plunging me into the suddenly ice cold water below and yanking a startled gasp from my lips.

By the time I resurfaced, sputtering and bedraggled the pair were both watching me with nervous surprise.
Slowly Arthur continued speaking.

“He comes to avenge himself upon the woman that would steal his love from him?.. truly Myrddin likes to speak in riddles..”

With barely a thought I pushed myself up onto the water’s surface and I started pacing over to the wide eyed men’s side.
The water below my feet froze solid as my anger bubbled deep within my chest.

“We AGREED to a generation long truce!”

That sneaky bastard’s probably spent the time which I’VE spent fooling around with these mortal filth finding more ways to stop me from attaining my goals!

That’s CHEATING!
That’s not FAIR!
That’s.. that’s.. that’s kind of evil?..

Oh Maxarimus.. oh Dearheart.. are you sinking to my level?..
How utterly delightful!

A malicious little grin spread across my face.
It must have worried the men-folk because Lancelot took up a hastily formed ‘ready’ stance and drew his sword to help defend his king.

“Back off Man-Whore, I’ve got more interesting things to worry about.”
My feet met the thin sand at the water’s edge and I stared hard at Arthur with my hip cocked aggressively to the side.
“Well?.. lead on ‘my king’, I’ve got a slimy little bastard to bring to heel!”

They both shared another uncertain look but at Arthurs nod they turned to go back along the trail towards the castle grounds.

“I take it you know this.. ‘Maxarimus’ then Morrigan?”
I shot the silly man in his silly armor a deeply annoyed look and continued towards the castle.

I know Maxarimus.. oh.. do I KNOW Maxarimus!
Fool me into wasting my time will you?!

You’ll pay for that indignity Maxarimus!
Ohhh.. YOU. WILL. PAY!

------

One minute I was taking a step along the dirt path and the next I was held tightly in place?
I felt cold too, how odd?
I don’t tend to feel cold, being an ice mage and all..

Also.. I’m naked?

I’m all for fun and games but chaining me to a rock by the shore while naked?!
Someone’s been naughty!

Without my intention, my eye’s scanned across the harbour lights with worry as night fell across the land but the action itself was enough to settle me soundly back into the world at large.
My breath hitched in my throat and I thrashed against my bindings hard as I realised the true import of what was happening.

Why me?
I did NOTHING wrong!

It’s all mothers fault!
First she organises an arranged marriage for me with my pig of an Uncle Phineus and now, because she doesn’t know how to keep her mouth shut, I’m tied naked to a rock in the harbor waiting for Poseidon’s stupid beast ‘Cetus’ to come and eat me in some kind of stupid last minute attempt at quelling the water gods anger!

This isn’t FAIR!

The water far off rippled and a large fin broke its surface followed quickly by a head that was twice my size alone, with horribly sharp teeth shining in the sun’s dying light.

I screamed.

The beast seemed pleased with the sound and when its beady snake-like eyes landed on me its wide jaw dropped open in delight.
With speed born of its monstrous size it pushed itself through the water at a frightening pace.

In what felt like moments it had reached the water’s edge and rose almost majestically up, higher and higher!
I couldn’t resist the urge to scream again as its huge head reared back with obvious intent.

As it dropped down to swallow me in one gulp the world seemed to slow to a trickle.
My heart beat away in my chest violently and my body couldn’t seem to decide whether it should be unbearably hot or chillingly cool as the two extremes battled themselves out in my chest.

I could smell the beast’s wet breath on my face and see those razor sharp teeth so close to my face before the internal battle was finally settled.

In the pause between seconds my body was flooded with white hot heat the likes of which I’ve never felt before.

I screamed once more as my head felt like it was going to tear itself apart but I clung on with everything I had, determined to see my end with wide eyes and unfettered breath!

The long second ended and my body exploded.
Fire, as if stolen from the sun itself, poured out from me and struck the beast head on.
It screamed an unearthly death kneel of pain that made some vindictive part of me feel so much better!

With a great wobbling step it slid to the side and partly submerged itself at the water’s edge, little more than a charred husk of what it once was.

From somewhere above me there came the sound of flapping wings and a neighing horse?

With bleary eyes that just refused to focus properly I stared in shock as a man wearing the tattered remains of a cloak and some singed cloth landed at my feet.
He rose to his full height and panted hard as his eyes crossed my naked body with lust but just a touch of something deeper as well..

For some reason a word came to my mind.
It was strange but I felt such a forceful urge to speak it and I was in no position to resist.
“Max?”

His face slid back up to mine in shock and he gasped as our eyes met.
“Ari?”

That word felt familiar too but I couldn’t work out why?
Something deep in my soul told me that I could trust this man.
That he would protect me, save me from this horrid life of mine.

“Get me out of here, far from these people, and I’ll do anything in return!”

A naughty glint appeared in the man’s eye.
His eyebrow rose as if challenging my fortitude in some way.

“..yes, even in THAT way.. if you must.. pervert.”
The naughty glint refused to leave but his eyes softened with something else as he stared at my face for some reason.
Well, he’s better than my uncle I guess?..

“I said get me out of here NOW pervert!”

He sighed heavily to himself but seemed entirely too amused as he did something to the chains at my wrists, setting me free, one restraint at a time.
When my body was finally released from that horribly cold rock I reached out and snagged the tattered cape from my ‘rescuers’ back and forcefully pulled it from him to wrap around myself, covering my shame neatly despite the fact that it left his exposed to all who would look.

“May I at least know your name before we leave ‘hero’?”
My eyes kept wanting to dip downwards as he awkwardly stood there trying to rub feeling back into his neck from where I’d practically choked him while stealing his cape.

“It’s Perseus, or Max if you prefer.. and yours my beautiful sacrifice?”
He sounded so smug as he shot me a charming grin and winked dramatically as if that should mean something to me in some way.

“..Pervert.. my name is Andromeda, I suppose you deserve as much for helping me even if you WERE a bit late about it!”

“Andromeda.. ruler of men?.. how appropriate.”

Feelings of unreasonable anger forming deep in my chest, mostly at the indignities that my life had fallen to, sunken so low that I required saving by a near-naked man of such blatant perversion!

I struck out at him.
Despite his obvious pain when my loose fist struck his nose he seemed entirely too amused about it for both of our sakes.

Our building, if rather one sided, argument was interrupted by the appearance of my father.
I felt a growl form low in my chest just at the sight of him but ‘Perseus’ put his hand on my shoulder which seemed to just drain the fight out of me somehow?

“I did battle the beast, slay it and thus claim this sacrifice as my wife in compensation.”

..WHAT?!..

“WHAT! You can’t do that you- mmph mmm mmph mm!”
The cowardly naked pervert put his grubby hand over my mouth calmly, as if it was only natural, and gave father a winning smile despite my best efforts to argue the point.

I told him to get me out of here, NOT take me as his wife!

Father practically fell at the man’s feet in gratitude for slaying the beast which apparently would appease Poseidon in some way, which I don’t truly understand the logic of honestly..

He fled the scene quickly, the beasts corpse scaring him obviously beyond reason because he shouted out directions towards our home for the marriage ceremony to take place and he left me alone with the pervert!

When father and his men were out of earshot Perseus’s shoulders sunk and he sighed heavily.

On a sudden inspiration I stuck my tongue out and unceremoniously licked his hand causing the so far rather austere ‘hero’ to shriek like a little girl, yanking his palm away from my face and clutching his wrist as if I’d bitten him or something.

“Don’t you EVER put your hand over my mouth like that again!”
I’m not sure if he was listening because he seemed rather busy washing his hand in the seawater beside us but I wanted to make the point clear nonetheless.

“So.. I’m practically naked, your literally naked and father just left for the city with all his horses in tow.. tell me hero, how are we going to get out of here with any sort of dignity?”

As if answering my question the heavy beating of wings came from above us and my eyes tracked up to see what I can only describe as a flying horse.
White as fresh fallen snow and obviously of good breeding, aside from the wings I’d almost say it was a noble steed befitting a ‘hero’, one much better than a pervert of this man’s caliber could possibly deserve at least!

Four hooves touched down lightly on the rocks beside us and the winged demon-thing bowed its head as if offering us passage to ride him.

My head turned slowly to glare at the pervert.
He offered me a winning smile and shrugged self-consciously.

“I’m not getting on that thing.. if man were meant to fly we’d all be throwing ourselves off the tallest towers to prove it!”

The ‘horse’ bowed its head slightly lower and clopped over so that it could nudge against my thigh slightly.
My heart melted a little as its big expressive brown eyes focused on me for a moment but reality quickly snapped me back out of that insanity with a bump.

It’s not a horse!
It’s a monster, a cute monster but still a monster and I’m NOT flying on it!

Perseus obviously had enough of my attitude because in a smooth motion he scooped my legs out from beneath me and tossed me belly first onto the back of the ‘horse’.
Before I could react he’d somehow mounted the thing and with a click of his tongue we were airborne.

I screamed so loud I wouldn’t be surprised if people washing in the Nile could hear me!

In seconds that had to die out though, when my breath became short and I started panting hard to stop myself from vomiting as the horse-bird-thing bucked and swayed in the breeze.

We were just flying over a group of startled onlookers when my stomach finally decided enough was enough.
They all called out in shock and disgust but I just shut my eyes tight and tried to hide against the horses flank.

..so much for getting home with some dignity intact..

------

The world shuddered and everything became dark.
For a moment I marvelled at the ground beneath my feet and the clothing on my back but that cleared quickly as I took in everything around me.

“Queen Arista, we beg you to lift this curse upon our lands.”
I casually flipped my hair and rolled my palm up to let one of my little darlings settle there.
Its body of almost crystalline ice shifted and wavered in the light so beautifully as its little wings flapped lightly against my palm.
“Our deer are dying, our people cannot survive the winter at this rate.”

The darling flapped its insect like wings of pure un-fallen snow and left me to join its sisters flying in formation above us, making the sun’s light cast shadows around the room in startlingly pretty rainbow like shafts.

“My Queen PLEASE..”

With a sigh I shifted my thick white fur’s and rose from my throne to pace over to the grovelling worm.
It took less than a gesture to force the brute to his feet again.
He stared at me with wide frightened eyes as I leaned in closer.

One kiss.

The kiss of the Snow Queen can do so much but this one should be more fun to watch than most.
The fear and desperation fled from the brutes face as my magic worked its icy fingers into his heart and mind.

He would forget.
As they all did, he would forget his lost kin and their suffering so that he may serve only me till his dying day.. just like little ‘Kai’..

“MOTHER!”
Ah.. more entertainment, how utterly joyous!
“Mother, let him go. I beg of you let him go!”

“Eris, dearheart, you are so VERY dull.. your father is happy where he is. He has his wish, to live at my desire?”
My hand came up to wave at little ‘Kai’ as he played blindly on the ice around us making designs and pictures in them with a happy smile.

“Please Mother, see reason?!”

“Eris.. no, you’re not deserving of that name in this form.. Gerda wasn’t it? Your name of birth?”
Before she could interrupt I swept my furs around myself and stared at her coldly.
“I am the Snow Queen, nothing you say or do can change that this day. Go home to your new ‘family’.. foolish child..”

Eri- Gerda fell to her knee’s sobbing as she finally accepted the truth of my words.. after so many years of denial..

I do not need her or anyone else in this life!
I have my darlings, I have my throne and I have little ‘Kai’.. nothing else is that important.

“She can’t stop you.. but I can.”

My eyes shot downwards in shock as little ‘Kai’ rose to his feet proudly.
His face.. his expressions.. he’s.. he’s not..
“..Maxarimus?..”

“For the pain I am about to cause you I’m sorry but you would agree with its need were you in your right mind Ari.”

Tears formed on my cheek and froze before they could do more than stain my perfect flesh.
He doesn’t mean that!
He CAN’T mean that!

“STOP CALLING ME ARI!”

He didn’t say anything more.
With a stamp of his little foot the ice around us lit up in powerful magic.
My eyes feverishly shot around trying to make sense of it all.

His drawings?
The childish scribbles he’s always forming from pieces of fallen ice around us..

“..runes?..”
His eyes winced down in pain at the heartbroken tone of my voice.

He used my own talent against me?..
I was so caught up in my lovely ice that he could use my OWN speciality against ME!

The web of runic patterns around us stretched as far as the eye could see across the ice and then they flashed brightly.
My arms came up in defence but it didn’t work, it could never work..

Something deep in my chest burned like the fire of the sun.
NO!

NO! NO! NO! NO!
NOT THAT!
ANYTHING BUT THAT?!

I barely had a moments respite before the fire inside me peaked and I collapsed to the ice in pain.

Something deep within me snapped.
My body warmed as foreign magic flooded within it and for one brief moment I could see all that I had done with such clarity.

“I’m sorry Ari.. sorry you have to see this..”

The tears on my cheek thawed and started to flow heavily down my cheeks.
My mind was assaulted with thoughts and feelings that weren’t my own.
A deep pool of regret flushed through me as I looked upon what I’d done in this lifetime.

“I’m sorry Eris.. my darling Eris.. I’m so.. so sorry.”
Before either of them could stop me I instinctively pushed some of this new fire within me down towards the ice.
A perfect ring around me melted and my body dropped through into the icy water below.

I could hear Eris scream and Max scramble to reach me but with the last vestiges of my ice magic I froze the hole I’d just fallen through solid above myself and let my body go limp.
With a last breath I cursed out my dark heart with every drop of sanity I’d managed to regain.

..I’m so sorry..

The burn in my chest built again but this time it was from more than magic.
Drowning.. what a simply horrid way to die..

======

I surged up in bed, not even able to scream as my throat instinctively closed itself to hold onto that last desperate gasp of air within my chest!

Before I could gather my wits and work out what was happening Max burst through the door, practically sprinting to my side.
I don’t know how he knew I needed him or how he managed to reach me so quickly but I don’t CARE either!

With a flying tackle I buried my face in his arms and sobbed with deep, painful breaths.
He held me tightly.
Eventually he lifted me into his lap on the bed so that he could rock me as I cried.

Some shuffling sounds to my side brought Eris’s eyes, wide with worry but also painfully curious, into view.
Her gaze broke me all over again with a swell of guilt as something deep down inside me recognised what I’d put that poor girl through in my time as ‘the Ice Queen’.

I’m a monster!

I’m.. I’m a monster?..

“shhh, it’s okay Hannah. It was just a dream.”
John rocked me again and his hand came up to stroke my messy hair out of my face.
I could feel his magic tumble around with mixed emotions but his hand stayed steady.
“It was just a dream, whatever you saw it wasn’t you. You're Hannah Cooper.. you. are. Hannah Cooper.”

My tears wouldn’t stop falling but I could follow that logic.
It gave me something to cling to as thoughts and memory’s that weren’t my own tried to batter their way into my psyche.

I’m not sure how long we sat there.
I lost track of the world honestly.

Nothing mattered but John’s warmth and Eris’s familiar magic as she tucked tightly into my side.

“It’s okay. Whatever you saw was just a dream Hannah..”
He rocked me again to emphasis his words.
I couldn’t do much more then draw in heavy breaths and try to re-find my center for a while but eventually I managed to reach some level of ‘calm’ where I could begin pulling myself back from the edge at last.

“The Ice Queen..”

I could feel John go stiff in my arms and Eris flinched visibly.
I KNEW it!
It wasn’t just a bloody dream!

oh powers.. how can Arista be so twisted?!

One minute she’s a shy but soft hearted ex-orphanage matron and the next she’s this horrible ice-beast obsessed with her own enjoyment without a care for the people she hurts along the way?!

..even the others.. the incarnations in between?..

Some evil Queen that casually killed John and managed to scare DEMONS in their natural habitat, followed by this unassuming but madly in love ‘wife’ of Thor’s!
MORGAN LE FAY! Morgan BLOODY Le Fay!.. and then headstrong but innocent Andromeda?..

It’s like she’s two different people?!
I know I’m schizophrenic, technically all awakened mages are, but this is just getting RIDICULOUS!

Even ‘Max’ seemed to treat her differently depending on the incarnation!
It’s like some incarnations lived in the REAL world and the others all lived in some.. Bizarro world?
A place where evil people are nice and dogs are scared of cats or something?!

I can’t keep it all straight in my head!
This wasn’t NORMAL.. if I integrate a past-incarnation into my mind properly then I get ALL of their memories and full control over how much of them I access!

This.. this was something different?

They’re like the dreams last night about Eris..
They’ve affected me, changed me at my core.. but I don’t remember the lives attached to them?

URRGG!
This is SO frustrating and confusing and my head hurts and I just.. I just can’t..

“I’m so sorry..”
My tears wouldn’t stop falling.

Logically I know there’s nothing I could have done differently.
I wasn’t the ‘Snow Queen’, she was her own person, her own version of Arista.. but..

“..I’m sorry..”

John’s shoulders lost a lot of tension for some reason.
His magic calmed over the course of a few long seconds leaving only determination behind in its wake.

“You have nothing to apologise for. I’ve said it before, you’re nothing like Arista.”

Eris turned her head up to stare between us for some reason.
She seemed confused for a moment but eventually her eyes widened in understanding.

I was completely caught off guard by the happy little giggle that left her lips and the sudden rush she put in to squeeze herself back into my side again.

At my curious look, through still puffy eyes, John didn’t seem willing to offer much help.
If anything he looked a little smug and possibly a bit proud too?

..when did he start having more than one emotion on his face at once?..

“Don’t jump down my throat straight off Hannah but I think we need to leave?..”
Despite everything that’s going on, I couldn’t help but perk up a curious eyebrow at him.

I’m really not following his logic?
Yeah.. I had some crappy messed up memory/nightmares but..

Why would that make him start talking about leaving?

This is my home.. where the hell ELSE could I go?!
I guess we could go to Sarah’s flat or one of my bolt-holes but I just don’t see how that could help matters honestly?

“I was already trying to think of a way to bring up the idea but these dreams make things a bit more urgent.. having so many people that you’re past-lives associated with around you can’t be helping whatever this is in any way and it’s only going to get worse as more people turn up.. powers help us if one of Arista’s husbands decides to show his face!”

I may have made a slight squeak of fear but I refuse to accept it if I did.
It’s just.. at the mention of ‘husbands’, I had a flash of Thor again with his uncovered bulging muscles, wide chiselled jaw and thick untamed red hair as he stared down at me on our bed before he could-

My head swung around violently as I tried to dislodge those very bad thoughts out of there as fast as possible!

I did NOT enjoy the dream with Thor ANY more than the other emotionally scarring ones!
I don’t CARE if thinking of his warm expressive eyes and loving smile makes my belly tingle!

I DIDN’T LIKE IT!
I.. I DIDN’T!!

John’s hands came up and he cupped my face making me reluctantly stop shaking it to stare at him in confusion.

“They were just dreams Hannah, treat them as bad dreams for now, okay?”
My cheeks flushed brightly with a mix of embarrassment, excitement and John’s close proximity.
“The other reason I think we should leave is that the Hub is going to come looking for answers about the ‘solar flare’ sooner or later, Arista’s husbands are already on the move too.. it would be good to let them all sort themselves out a bit before you have to deal with them.”
He hesitated for a moment but continued anyway.
“In the meantime I know someone who’s good with mind magic, she can help you regain some control which you DESPERATELY need..”

His hands didn’t leave my cheeks but they did stop holding my face still so forcefully at least.

I squeezed my eyes shut and bowed my head until my forehead bumped against his chest.
My breath was coming out in short sharp bursts still for some reason, John didn’t seem to notice though as his hands shifted to my shoulders and he pulled me into a tight hug.

..he’s so warm..

“..I think you’re right?..”
He jerked a little in surprise.
I almost giggled at his reaction

I don’t think he expected me to accept his logic so quickly.

He’s got a point though.
I’m in NO state to be dealing with things right now, if it wouldn’t kick off yet ANOTHER game of ‘cat and mouse’ I’d probably just leave on my own at some point soon anyway..

Well.. maybe not alone?
I’m not sure I could leave Eris behind honestly?
Just the thought of it ties my stomach in guilty knots..

“..okay?..”
John hissed a breath of relief out and lowered his head on top of mine for a moment before surging up with renewed vigor.
“Okay, you need to gather everything you’ll need together. We’ll leave as soon as possible, the earlier we go the slower people will be to notice that we’re gone and the further we can be from any potential pursuers.”

With a healthy dose of reluctance I pulled myself away from his warm body and glanced around my room until my eye’s settled on my expanded bag.
I’ve still not unpacked from the farm trip, I didn’t see the point honestly.

“I’m already packed, we can stop off at a store somewhere and grab Eris some clothes or I can just conjure her some temporarily..”
John’s eyebrow rose in surprise for a second.
I huffed out a breath and gave him my best warning look.
“We’re taking Eris with us John.”

It wasn’t up for debate.
He’s my best option for lasting the week with what little sanity I have left still intact but I’m NOT going to leave her behind no matter what he says!

He opened his mouth to say something.
Before he could get it out his attention seemed to shift and his eyes drifted away from my face towards my waist.
My eyes followed his and settled on Eris.

I couldn’t resist the slight smirk that formed on my lips when I recognised the look she was giving him, it seems that I’m not the only one who can give John a ‘warning look’?
..She’s actually worryingly good at it?..

Sarah’s pout mixed with my sneer and Mum’s squinted eyes.
I think she’s picked it up from me sadly.. it’s almost identical to how I must have looked just moments ago..
I kinda HAVE been throwing that same expression around a lot lately I guess?..

“Fine.. she comes too but you’ve got to leave a note behind for everyone, your sister is going to be bad enough when she wakes up with you missing but if someone tells everyone else that the three of us are ‘gone’ without some kind of reason to it they are likely to jump to conclusions which could be.. messy..”

He’s right.

I can’t argue with that logic, I was just going to call Sarah with my phone at roughly the time that she should wake up, but I hadn’t really factored in the nearly hundred-strong army of ‘kids’ we have sharing a pocket dimension with my werewolf extended family at the moment..

Mages can be irrational and, considering how clingy they’ve all been with me in the few hours we’ve had since they came out of the tree’s to swarm our house, I wouldn’t be surprised if they tore the country apart to find me again!

“Fine, I’ll do the note. Give me five minutes to get changed and we’ll be out. How are we gonna get away without getting caught?”
John’s face lit up with a playful smile.
His hand dipped into his pocket and came back up swinging his truck key’s around a finger carelessly.
“Really?.. it’s not exactly a quiet and sneaky vehicle..”

“Silencing charms”
Ah.. well then.. not much I can say to that I guess?

We’ll have to limit our magic use to keep our trail from being too easy to pick up as we travel.. to wherever we’re going?.. but for now it’s not too important, the whole area is saturated with our magic so any new spells will get lost in the background noise around them until we at least reach Klamath Falls proper.

“Right, fine.. good. Leave now so I can get myself dressed without you staring at me.”
Johns face slipped into a blatantly false pout of disappointment and he tried to give me some kind of ‘puppy-dog’ eyed look which REALLY doesn’t work with his sharp features in the slightest.
“Go John-boy! You’ll see me naked over my cold dead body, perv!”

It took a moment for those words to click in my head.
I cringed guiltily and John’s face lost its light playful cast as well.

‘Cold’ and ‘Dead’.. really not a good thing to bring up after seeing what happened to the ‘Ice Queen’ earlier..

With a weak smile John left the room on silent feet.
I turned to Eris and huffed out a heavy breath.
..open mouth, insert foot much?..

“Okay, let’s get dressed then shall we Eris? What do you want to wear?”
Her little eyes lit up with unholy glee.

Why does it feel like I shouldn’t have asked her that question all of a sudden?

..open mouth, insert foot again!..
Damn it!

Road trips can be fun but they can also get old quickly. The same can be said for being ‘on the run’ and ‘in hiding’ of course. Naturally Hannah would mix all three together, you know what she’s like? Events unfold including but not limited to: Eris eating pancakes and John stares at the sky (then he swears a bit) In other news, Hannah considers turning off her phone.

 

John’s mouth dropped open while I was still crossing the street.
He didn’t bother closing it even after I reached the truck and pulled the door open with a hard yank.

“..not one word..”

I tossed my bag into the back of the truck.
Dropped my phone onto the dashboard and put both hands on either side of the doorway.
It took a bit of effort to get my long skirt into the truck’s cab properly.

Eris barely seemed to notice hers as she hopped up the slight step and landed herself neatly in my lap with a proud grin on her face.

“It’s very.. uh..”
He trailed off uncertainly.
With a glance in his direction I blushed and moved my arm around Eris to cover my cleavage from his wandering eyes.

Apparently Eris and I spent a lifetime together in Austria, where I spent a few years as a maid to a family and she played her part as my daughter.. naturally?..

I don’t remember it in the slightest but Eris took great joys in telling me with far too much detail how fun it was there.
Before we had to leave when one of ‘my’ Husbands caught up with us at least, forcing us to flee under the cover of darkness.

Eris loved the clothing apparently, specifically the ‘dirndlgwand’ I wore while working.
Quite obviously at this point, she took the chance I’d given her to ‘request’ that we wear a matching set of them for the journey!

Honestly.. despite her hopeful looks and pleading I almost turned her down in the end.
I can’t even wear a BRA with this thing!
I feel completely exposed!

It took five tries for me to even get something close to what she wanted conjured correctly, the closest thing I’d ever seen to what she wanted was those little joke costumes you see all the waitresses wearing in photos from Oktoberfest in Germany.

My first attempt ended up with a skirt no longer then my forearm and a neckline so low it felt like you could see my bellybutton through it.
At this point I’m almost glad to be wearing the current version which, while looking like I’m on my way to a ‘Ren-faire’ in Germany, it at least covers a fair amount of skin and looks relatively pretty now.

The bodice is a bit tight though?
It was even tighter on the forth version which Eris decreed to be ‘perfect’, luckily I managed to talk her around to letting me ‘make it prettier’..

For a start I switched out the simple but thick and heavy cotton material for velvet and silk.

The velvet has a bit more stretch to it.
If the bodice wasn’t made of velvet then I doubt I’d be able to breathe right now with how tightly it’s pulled my waist in!

The white silk blouse underneath is full of ruffles and ends with puffy sleeves that go with the style even if they wouldn’t be my first choice normally, at least the silk is light enough that I’m not going to be dying in the heat later.

Unlike the original design Eris described, the skirt is connected to the bodice to form an ankle length dress, although it’s made of dark blue linen instead of the velvet of the top half.
Eris wouldn’t let me change the detailing on the knee-length overskirt/apron with its fussy little beading and almost ‘old lady’s scarf’ like patterns but I could at least make it silk and change the color from a bright gold to more of a muted bronze that suits my complexion better..

The whole look was topped off with some little detailing like the ruffled blue silk around the neckline and some little metal fastenings which Eris managed to roughly imitate with some staples I had laying around so that I could understand what she wanted.

The silk belt was an almost last minute edition.
With long trailing ends tied in a wide bow at my waist that does a surprisingly good job of hiding the point where the elasticated edge of the overskirt meets the velvet bodice.

It’s actually quite nice?

Eris seemed to take an inordinate amount of fun from making sure the bow was positioned ‘just right’ so that it rather annoyingly sat just slightly above my bellybutton, over my stomach obviously.
From the way she was giggling her head off I’m sure there’s something I’m missing but I’m kind of getting used to the bow already so whatever it is can’t be that important.

Honestly, I’ve worn worse before?
It’s just kind of embarrassing, especially because John can see me in it!

I may look like I just stepped out of a particularly posh Disney movie or ‘the sound of music’ but at least Eris is wearing a mini-version of the same outfit so I’m not alone in looking silly.
It helps that, from what John was saying, we’re going to be traveling all day so it’s not like anyone’s going to see me too much.

Whenever we stop I’ll find an excuse to change outfits and I am NOT making the mistake of letting Eris choose our clothing next time!

======

“Hannah?”

John’s voice snapped me out of my blank moment before his arm could actually give me the shake he was obviously aiming for.
I shifted my feet a little, then shifted Eris in my lap self-consciously before turning to look at him with a forced smile.

He cringed for a second.
Is it really THAT obvious how deeply uncomfortable I am in this thing?

All I’m missing is the funky hairstyle and the beer mug, I’d be every drunk man’s high class dream German waitress!
My boobs are going to get COLD from this wide, almost ‘U’ shaped neckline!

..speaking of which..

Before he could protest I brought my thumb up to my mouth and dragged a sharp canine across the side of it to let out a little blood.
John almost freaked out when I reached for the dashboard of his Truck but a single look stalled his protests easily enough.

I’m NOT in the mood for arguments right now!

It only took me a few seconds to finish the design.
I perfected this thing years ago.

My very own, one of a kind, ‘temperature control’ rune-set.
It’s REALLY primitive but that’s what makes it so handy!

The biggest problem with it is that it tends to burn itself out after a while.
That’s not too bad in this case where I’ve put it on the old truck’s dashboard, because it’s made of metal, but on plastics or especially cloth like the cotton of my old male underwear I last used this gylph on it tends to pretty much reach a limit and decide to ‘melt’ whatever it’s drawn on into a charred mess.

Even if you stop using the thing they’re drawn on, the runes will eventually self-destruct.
Thinking of it, I should probably fish out my last set of ‘Al’ underwear and throw them away soon before they decide to burst into flames?

Luckily Edith is REALLY good at making expanded bags.
I think she even put a flame-resistance charm on it, which should keep the runes from smouldering until they’re removed from the bag at the very least.

“..if you’re quite done messing with my truck ‘Julie Andrews’?”

Ohhh.. he did NOT just go there?!
Just for that, I’m making a note to screw with his truck every chance I can from now on!

I REFUSE to apologise or admit to being embarrassed, out loud, that I let my daugh-.. because I let ERIS get me wearing a silly outfit that she likes so much!

..damn insidious ‘Mother Arista’ thoughts..

“Make sure you’re both strapped in quickly. We’ve got to go, we’ve wasted too much time as it is.”
Before I could reach for our belt he’d already put the Truck in gear and pulled us out of the Martials driveway.

If he’s actually silenced the Truck then it’s got to be localised in some way because I can still hear the engine’s meaty roar just fine.
Judging by the fact that no-one came running out of the house wondering what all the noise was though I guess he really did manage it somehow?

I’m angry at him for the ‘Julie Andrews’ comment still, so I refuse to offer him compliments at this moment.. but it IS pretty impressive in a completely arbitrary ‘only if done by someone who isn’t a complete asshole’ kind of way..

I wonder what method he used to do it?
Knowing him, he probably did something un-necessarily complicated and flashy just because he COULD.
His ego is one of his biggest markers in most of the things he does sadly.

Not that I can really hold the moral high-ground on that one, making things far too complicated and long lasting for what they need to be is one of MY biggest markers, which is pretty much equal to his ego when it comes to bad habits you could fall into as a mage really..

======

Eris passed the seat-belt into my hand and I moved it across the pair of us to clip it shut.
The belt only just reached but with a little bit of shifting we managed to get comfortable anyway.

“I’d recommend you both get some sleep, it’s still early and you look tired.”

Hypocrite!
He looks even worse than I do at the moment?!

Eris seemed to accept his idea without question though.

She settled her head on my chest.
After pushing one of the silk blouses ruffled edges away from her face she had her cheek on my breast with her ear above my heart as usual.

I’m pretty tired but I’m NOT going to sleep again anytime soon!
I’ll just have to keep myself busy somehow?

My hand came up to adjust the seatbelt when Eris shifted a little, pulling it tighter across my neck.

Hmm.. Project number one?
Magical replacement for an annoying seatbelt!

I’d started doing the rough math in my head already as John silently turned us out onto the highway leaving the resort and ‘home’ far behind for now.

An awkward silence fell between us and stretched out through the confines of the truck which quickly became both pretty distracting AND annoying.
With a mental note that my second ‘project’ should be some way to magically boost or replace John’s crappy radio I sunk deeper into my own head to make it easier to process the math without having paper to write it on.

Where are we even going anyway?
I kinda forgot to ask..

Oh well, I can check later when Eris isn’t trying to go to sleep I guess?

======

I was just putting the finishing touches to my mental ‘diagram’ for the seatbelt replacement system when my phone started buzzing against the dashboard.
Instinctively I jolted out of my haze and reached forward to snatch it up with my free hand.

“Hannah speaking?”
For a painfully long ten seconds there was silence from the other end.
“..Hello?”

“Han, darling dearest little sister.. why are you not in your bed?.. and why did you leave a stupid little barely legible note on your pillow?”

..uh oh..
Sarah sounds PISSED!

“Heeeyyy Sarah. Lovely.. um.. morning?.. huh?”

I think its morning at least?
She’s awake and the sun’s really bright in my eyes so I think that’s a fair guess?

“It’s a long story but basically I had a nightm-”

“This is John’s idea, isn’t it?”
I cringed and my eyes trailed over to John as he slumped forward slightly and continued to drive along whatever highway we’re on at this point.

“Technically..?”

“I’ll KILL that little bastard! WHERE ARE YOU?!”
..Whoa?!..

“Sare, calm down. It’s no big deal, we’re jus-”
I couldn’t even get my explanation out properly before Sarah cut across me angrily.

“Don’t give me that crap Han! We talked about this damn it?! You can’t just go wandering off like this all the time!”

My breath hitched angrily in my chest for a second.
I’m not ‘wandering off’..

We have a plan!
We’ve got REASONS to leave right now!

She can’t just jump to conclusions like that, it’s not fair..

“Sare, come on. Be reasonable we’ve got-”
She cut across me again!

“No Han, YOU come on, we only just got you back you can’t just go running away again!”

I could feel Eris shift slightly against me as a frustrated growl rumbled low in my chest.
What the hell is her problem?!

This is another bloody ‘girl’ thing, isn’t it?
If I was still male she wouldn’t give two SHITS if I disappeared for a while, note or not!
She never did before.. but no, I’m ‘Hannah’ now.

I’m her LITTLE sister, I’ve got a track record for being impulsive and unreasonable lately so she think’s I can’t take care of myself or something?!

“Damn it Sarah LISTEN to me! We left for a reason. I ne-”
She made a noise as if she was going to cut across me.. AGAIN!

Before she could manage to voice her next blast of yelling about how much I can’t be trusted to look after myself or whatever I sent a pulse of magic into my hand which cut off the call instantly.

A long silence stretched out awkwardly in the Truck.
John kept cutting his tired eyes over to me before turning back to the road and repeating the process over again.

“..she’s the one being unreasonable..”
He didn’t say anything but I could just FEEL his judging eyes on me.

My phone started buzzing.
A glance at the screen told me all I needed to see, it was Sarah again.

With an angry growl I tossed my phone onto the dashboard instead of answering.
The long judging silence stretched out again while John kept cutting his eye’s over at me when he could.

“She should have let me explain first, I’m NOT the one who wouldn’t bloody LISTEN..”
My phone stopped buzzing for a moment and then started all over again.
Out the corner of my eye I could see Sarah’s number on the screen.

We carried on driving in silence until the phone stopped vibrating at last.
John moved slightly in his seat and his eyes shifted over to me one more time.

“..shut up John..”

He huffed loudly and shook his head instead of answering me properly.
At least he’d stop giving me those annoying ‘knowing’ looks now!

..stupid stubborn Sarah..

======

I was idly staring out at the rough stone to our left and the wide river to our right when John shifted gear and flicked on the indicators.
My eyes caught on the off-ramp sign, apparently we’re turning off Exit 124 for the I-38 East to ‘City Center and Diamond Lake’?

“Where are we?”
He cut his eyes over to me as we pulled down the little slip road towards a run of buildings including a blue motel that had honestly seen better days.

We came to a crossing and a sign pronouncing this road to be part of the ‘Oregon Scenic Byway’, ‘Rogue-Umpqua’ to be specific.
That feels kinda familiar but before I could really work out where I’d heard it before John spoke at last.

“We’re in the outskirts of Roseburg just off the I-5. I need some coffee, the little one needs a bathroom break and the truck needs gas.”

True to his word he took a right at the next crossing followed by a sharp left a few seconds later pulling us into a Denny’s car park.
I glanced down at Eris.
It was pretty obvious by the look on her face that she needed the toilet, not desperately or anything but there was just some slight tightness to her face that I recognise from years of watching her as she grew u-

DAMN IT!

This is seriously annoying.
I NEVER saw Eris growing up!
I never changed her diapers for her, I never held her when she had nightmares or taught her how to talk!

These memories are getting too much.
I can barely feel when they decide to rear their heads anymore!
I..I’m kind of scared?

What happens when I really can’t tell what’s ‘me’ and what’s ‘them’ anymore?!

“Hannah, snap out of it. Eris needs her Mom to take her to the bathroom.”
John’s words were like a cold blast of wind, jolting me out of the spiral of self-doubt I was circling dangerously close to the edge of for a second there.

It’s going to be fine.
I’m strong!

No stupid crusty old memory from a dead woman is going to stop me living my life!

“Come on sweetie, let’s go find the ladies room shall we?”
Eris hopped down from my lap without a word.
The motion reminded me just exactly what we were wearing.
After a moment’s hesitation the pinched look to her eyes washed my embarrassment away, in favor of sorting her out first.
“Find us a table and get me a strong coffee John. We’ll only be a minute.”

I got some odd looks from the early morning patrons of the Denny’s when I swept in looking like a Swiss milk-maid but with years of practice I ignored their stares and marched us off to the bathroom.

“Do you need a hand going in your dress Eris?”
She shot me a slightly embarrassed look but shook her head and quickly dived into the only open stall.

While she did her business I turned to the little mirror above the sink and fiddled with my hair a bit to make it look slightly less like I just rolled out of bed.
The bags under my eyes weren’t helping the look either.

By the time Eris was done with her business I’d managed to get my hair tucked back slightly behind my ears but it wasn’t great or anything.
If only we could do magic at the moment!

Roseburg isn’t THAT far from Klamath Falls, it’s the next big city on the I-5 after Medford.
While that’s a good hundred miles away it’s not far enough for my liking.

With the amount of mages around at home the odds are good that at least one of them is proficient at tracking magic properly.
Even a weak pulse of my magic at the moment would be enough to give them a rough guess of where we are, it’s not like it’s hard to get a sample of my magic considering our home is practically swamped in traces of it at the moment.

“Wait for me.”
Eris nodded and moved over to practically stand guard over the cubical door while I went in to do my business.

The skirts on this ‘dirndlgwand’ dress weren’t hard to handle, I’ve worn worse before.
It was awkward trying to pee while knowing there’s someone standing outside waiting for me and I’m still not quite comfortable with.. ya know.. ‘all of that’?

It took everything I had to not blush brightly when I came out of the cubical a minute or so later, only for Eris to quickly tuck herself back into my skirts before I could even reach the sink to wash my hands.
She really is clingy sometimes?

I can kind of see why, if more of her past-lives were anything like the ones I’ve seen lately in my nightmares, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying or awkward..

We slipped out of the bathroom without much hassle and I quickly made a beeline for the little ‘booth’ table John had managed to claim for us.
Eris happily hopped onto the green leather seat and slid along so I could sit down next to her.

I’d only just managed to get my skirt settled before a waitress in a bright red apron and black shirt came over with two coffees in her hand.
She gave me a second look because of the dress obviously but I have no doubt my silly outfit wasn’t the weirdest thing she’d seen on the job.

Roseburg is the self-proclaimed ‘timber capital’ of the US after all.. a town that’s proud of something like that has to be weird deep down in my opinion..

“What can I get for you today?”
I smiled at the waitress awkwardly.

She really didn’t seem bothered by how weird we must look?
..that’s kinda nice honestly..

I shot a glance down at Eris and smiled slightly.
She’s made herself comfortable leaning into my side.
With one hand I reached down to give her a little squeeze, with the other I reached out to snag a menu.

“Have a look and see what you want Eris.”
She perked up and took the menu with wide eyes.
Like the TV and the rest of our house before that, I don’t think she’s ever ordered from a menu before, traditionalists aren’t exactly up-to-date on modern consumerism after all?

While she scanned through the menu, staring at the pictures with surprising intensity, I turned back to the waitress and ordered my breakfast.

“I’ll have a Philly Cheesesteak Omelette with an extra side of bacon, John will have..”
I trailed off and shot him a questioning look.

“An All-American Slam and a French Toast Slam.”
..piggy..

I glanced down to Eris again, she smiled up at me but seemed reluctant to speak.
Judging by the way her eyes kept cutting between me and the waitress it’s not hard to guess why..

With a shrug I slumped over slightly so she could tell me what she wanted in relative ‘privacy’.

“Can I get this and some juice?”
Her little finger pointed at the ‘Grand Slam Slugger’ meal, two pancakes, two eggs, two bits of bacon and two sausages with Hash browns.

For a moment I was tempted to swap out her order for the kid’s meal equivalent but it’s not like she has to eat it all.
If it comes to it I’ll finish what’s left off for her, I don’t mind a bit of leftovers and those pancakes DO look rather nice..

“She’ll have a Grand Slam Slugger and an apple juice.”

The waitress nodded to me, her eyes flicking down to offer Eris a little grin too.
She’d obviously worked out that our order was complete but she still asked if there was anything else anyway before receiving a negative from John and moving off to deliver our slip to the unseen chef.

We settled into a comfortable silence as people moved around us and cars drove past the window.
Eris was content to lean against me and stare at the menu while her hand played with the wide silk ribbon which made up the ‘bow’ of my dress.

“..sorry for getting you in trouble with Sarah..”
I shot a glance up at John and smirked slightly at him.

“You didn’t get me in trouble, I got me in trouble.. I probably shouldn’t have hung up on her but she was treating me like a child and it just.. I’m sick of it, ya know?”
John wisely didn’t open his mouth but he did nod at me encouragingly.
That was all I needed to go on.
“Everyone’s acting weirdly, Sarah’s trying.. I know that.. but.. but she just doesn’t GET it! She’s acting like my change is some kind of Joke?!”
I shifted my arms a little and rested a casual hand on Eris’s shoulder without thinking.
John winced visibly.
“Don’t blame yourself for that one John. The physical changes.. I.. I’m kind of okay with that? Magic can fix physical problems eventually, it’s the emotional side of it that’s bothering me. Ever since my second awakening I’m having a hard time working out where I end and the other incarnations begin.”

He winced again but nodded in understanding.
Of course he understands.. he’s gone through this sort of thing more times than I have..
He always.. he always understands?..

“How do you do it John? How do you hold back Max so easily?”
We sunk into a painfully long silence and John couldn’t look at me for some reason.
Eventually he huffed out a long breath and took a gulp of his coffee.

“I don’t.”

For a drawn-out moment I froze in fear.
He can’t mean it like that?
He’s John!

He’s changed, he’s not that crazy bastard anymore I can FEEL it!

“Mages.. there’s an old trick we developed centuries.. millennia ago. I can teach you but you need clarity first, that’s why I’m taking you to her, so you can have enough clarity to pull off the first crucial steps.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this before?”
He cringed at the hurt in my voice.

After a long pause he shifted uncomfortably in his seat and glanced around to make sure no-one was listening.

“I wasn’t sure if you were ready. This trick.. it’s not clean cut or easy to pull off. If it works you could go into shock with how far along you are in your integration cycle so far.”
His magic said he wasn’t lying and his body language agreed but something didn’t feel right?

I’ve lied by omission enough times to know when he’s hiding something.. no idea what though?

“John.. be honest with me, what’s the real reason you didn’t tell me?”
It was almost physically painful to see the play of uncertain emotions cross his face.
His magic wasn’t much better.

Just feeling how he was changing his mind so quickly through his magic was enough to give me a mild headache.
My arms shifted slightly so I could hug Eris a bit better, it seemed to help a little.

“I..”

Before he could continue the waitress practically appeared from nowhere at our side and started dishing out breakfasts with a warm smile.
I shot him a look to say that this wasn’t over but turned to smile at the waitress anyway.

When her ‘Grand Slam’ was put down in front of her Eris was all smiles and wide eyes.
Her smile got even bigger when the tall glass of apple juice joined it.

“Thanks.”
The waitress smiled at us and walked off.
She really is surprisingly nice for Denny’s server this early in the morning..

“okay, so as-”
I stalled and glanced over at Eris.

She was holding her knife and fork awkwardly with her head cocked to the side slightly as she tried to cut into the pancakes.
With a heavy sigh I leaned over, took the cutlery from her and started cutting it up for her.
She blushed and sunk down in her seat a little but smiled at me anyway, so I guess I did something right at last?

When I finally finished cutting her food for her she happily took her knife and fork back to dig in with gusto.
I turned back to my own food and opened my mouth to start in on John again but before I could get a word out my phone started vibrating.

I’d been tempted to turn the bloody thing off in the truck but I’m really not in the habit of turning my phone off in general, it makes me nervous.
I shot John a glare just for poor timings sake but grabbed my phone up and checked the screen anyway.

Crap.. it’s Mum?!..

I coughed nervously to settle myself properly then accepted the call with a forced grin on my face, even if she can’t see it.

“Hi Mum, what’s up?”
She paused just long enough to let me know I was in trouble before answering.

“You sister’s upset. I’m not much better.. you ran off AGAIN Ari?!”
My mouth flapped down, a denial on the tip of my tongue, but I managed to hold it in.
She’s right.. technically a least?

I went away from the place where I didn’t feel safe and moved very fast while doing so, that’s generally acknowledged by most people to be pretty much the dictionary definition of ‘running off’..

“I left a note this time!.. and I didn’t go alone, and it’s not my fault Sarah wouldn’t listen to me! She just kept yelling and she wouldn’t listen an-”
For some reason tears started forming in the corner of my eye?

My hand came up to wipe them away quickly and I felt immensely stupid for letting it happen but at least John kept his mouth shut and didn’t laugh at me for once.
With a sniff I pulled myself back together and waited for the inevitable explosion from Mum.

“..what’s going on with you Ari?.. there’s something you’re not telling us?”
My breath caught in my throat slightly.

How annoyingly ironic?
I have a go at John for hiding things then get accused of doing the same by Mum!

“I had a bad dream Mum, that’s all. John knows someone who can help me sleep better, we should be home in a few h-”
John waved his arms for attention and shook his head furiously.
“-a few days?”
He nodded then let out a relieved sigh.

“..at least you have your phone on this time I guess?..”
I’m not sure if she intended for me to hear that grumble or not honestly?
“Look Ari.. just.. just think next time okay? I could have done without waking up this morning to find you missing again..”
She just sounds tired at this point, tired and a bit disappointed..

“Sorry Mum. I’ll try next time.. it was a really bad dream and with the.. the ‘kids’ turning up and the threat of ‘husbands’ following on soon..”
I hesitated for a moment to let out a long breath.
“It seemed like the right thing to do, the SMART thing to do at the time.. ya know?”

“I believe you Ari, I really do.. but it doesn’t stop me from worrying when my sixteen year-old goes running off with her ‘not-really-a-boyfriend’ older boyfriend and a little girl claiming to be their daughter to parts unknown in the middle of the night..”

“He’s NOT my boyfriend!”
Instead of accepting that stated fact for what it is she LAUGHED at me?!
John’s not my powers-damned BOYFRIEND!

Okay, so he’s a boy.. man.. and he’s my best friend, but that DOESN’T make him my boyfriend damn it!
He’s my.. he’s my ‘Man-Besty’?!
It’s a COMPLETELY different thing from a boy-friend!

John laughed openly which really didn’t help me stop my flustered reaction or lessen my embarrassment in the slightest.

“I have to go now Mum, John wants to get back on the road and Eris is looking a bit tired.”
Eris grunted in annoyance through a mouthful of pancake.
John opened his mouth to speak but a hard kick to his shin under the table stopped whatever evil little plan had popped into his head to make my day worse.
“Love you Mum. I’ll be home as soon as I can be okay?”

She barely managed to return my hasty farewell before I cut the call in my rush to avoid anything else going wrong.
As soon as the line cleared my phone landed on the table and I shot a glare at the pair of them.

“Eris, if I lie to someone then it’s for a reason okay sweetie? If you want to know why or don’t understand then just play along until we’re alone and I’ll explain what was happening for you.”
She shot me a slightly confused look but eventually nodded with a partial shrug in favor of going back to her food.

“If I have to tell you what’s going on than you’re purposefully being an asshole John, stop trying to make things worse for your own amusement. It’s not big, it’s not clever and it’s NOT funny..”
He shrugged but didn’t meet my eyes as he chewed his food instead.
His magic was broadcasting loud and clear that he was feeling mildly guilty, only mild of course, but it was honestly more then I was expecting to get from him right now.

With a frustrated huff I snagged a sausage on my fork and stuffed it in my mouth.
Chewing gave me something to do rather than grumble, it was kind of therapeutic too.

“Can we have ice cream?”
Eris looked up from the menu she’d laid out on the table at the desert page and gave me a look that could melt steel with its cuteness factor alone.
What is it with Arista’s kids and ‘ice cream’?!

Marshalling all my willpower I pushed pass the pout on her face, I’m LONG used to her unwittingly manipulative looks. She picked most of them up from me wh-
DAMN IT!

“If you eat all your breakfast we can get something to go..”
Hopefully my annoyance didn’t show in my voice.
Eris didn’t notice if it did, she squealed happily and gave me a quick hug before diving back into her breakfast with a renewed sense of determination.

I smirked slightly despite myself.

As I turned back to my own breakfast I caught John’s eye and he winked at me with obvious amusement on his face.
We shared a secret little smile that went over Eris’s head, metaphorically and physically, before going back to our food again.

The food here’s surprisingly good.. even if mines got a bit cold at this point..

======

“Where are we going anyway?”

We passed through the edge of Eugene about an hour ago.
I don’t really recognise the road we’re driving along but it’s nice looking at least, very ‘forest-y’.. if that’s even a word..

John glanced up at the sky for a second then back over at me before turning back to the road.
He seemed somewhat tense all of a sudden.
Whatever the answer is, why does it feel like I’m not going to like it?

“Reach into the glove box for me and grab the glasses from inside?”
Bastard!

“Don’t change the topic..”
He’s so frustrating!
He KNOWS that I’ve worked out something’s going on but he just refuses to give it up.

“Get the glasses out, put them on and I’ll tell you.”

With a suspicious glare and a huff I popped the glove box open.
There’s a few different pairs of glasses inside surprisingly?

Why the hell does he have so many glasses?!
He doesn’t even wear any!

I grabbed the first pair to hand, a wire framed pair with a metallic blue finish to the rims and arms, shoving them onto my face after a glance to make sure there were no obvious tricks on them.
Without another word I turned to glare at John again expectantly.

“Well?”
He sighed heavily but didn’t look away from the road for once.

He seems to know where we’re going but I don’t recognise the practically empty backwater road we’re on in the slightest, we turned off the I-5 a while ago.
Eris seems to be enjoying all the trees and little farms around at least.

“The woman I’m taking you to see practically invented mind-magics, she knows you.. well, knows Arista at least.. sorta..”
He cringed and seemed to have to stop himself from glancing over at me.
“She’ll help. That’s the important part, trust me on this one Hannah.. please? It’s going to be awkward but until she looks you over I just can’t go into it all.”

If anything that explanation left me feeling MORE suspicious and with quite a few extra questions too.. I.. I trust him though?..
He’s John.. he can be an asshole, Max was a psycho and they both have their flaws but neither of them have ever outright lied to me, not that I can think of at least?..

“Okay.. for now. This better not be a trick or something John, I’m giving you ONE chance here.”
He cringed again.
“DON’T blow it!”

An awkward silence stretched out in the truck.
Even Eris was quiet.

I think she’d been eavesdropping on our conversation?
I can’t exactly hold that against her though, it’s kind of hard to NOT listen in on a conversation when your all stuck in such a tight space together I guess?

“So what’s up with the glasses? Despite the pair I had the other day they’re really not my style in general..”
It was a weak attempt at giving him an easy out but honestly I’m curious and perhaps a little confused by his sudden insistence that I wear them?

“How many mage’s do you know that wear glasses?”
Duh, that’s an easy one!

“..none..”
He didn’t seem to appreciate my deadpan tone but continued on despite that fact.

“Precisely, after a while mages tend to get a habit of discounting people wearing glasses from being threats. If someone needs glasses then they can’t be a mage.. it’s solid logic, if completely flawed in a very obvious way..”

Clever bastard!
Sneaky clever bastard!!
THAT’S why he has so many glasses.
That’s HOW he gets around without being noticed so easily?!

That’s.. that’s..
That’s so bloody STUPID!

That’s not how reality works!
Despite what his ego might say, he’s NOT ‘Superman’!
You can’t just put glasses on and magically make everyone think you’re a completely different person..

Well.. I guess you could?

Magically speaking, a pair of glasses are just as good as a leather choker if you want to put a long lasting illusion on yourself, better in fact, depending on the materials involved?
That’s not what he’s talking about though.
He just means using the glasses as some kind of psychological trick, no magic involved.
No-one’s stupid enough to fall for that!

“If you want to hide, why don’t you just change your hair color Mom?”
My head dropped down to meet Eris’s curious eyes in confusion.

..I guess I could?..
I’ve never really looked into it, we’d have to stop off somewhere to get some dye or something though which sounds like more effort than it’s worth to be honest.

“You can do that?”

Huh?
Why’s John looking at me weirdly all of a sudden?

“What?.. eyes on the road!”
He turned back quickly, not that it matters much.
We’re on about as isolated a stretch of road as you’re likely to find at this time of day.
There’s nothing but trees and the road for as far as the eye can see.

“Yeah she can! She did it all the time when we were in Nottingham. I wanted her to teach me but she wouldn’t, I’ve been stuck as a ginger for years now because of it!”
Eris’s little cheeks puffed up in annoyance and she huffed to herself while tossing a strand of her long red hair back as if it was suddenly offensive to her.

I’m.. honestly not sure what to make of that?
..it feels kind of familiar I guess?..

I don’t remember any incarnations from ‘Nottingham’.
I think that’s in England isn’t it?.. Robin Hood and all that stuff?..

“Did ‘I’ happen to say how I did it?”
Eris shrugged lightly and her eyes got a little distant as she seemed to drop into thought for a moment.

“Something about modifying a hair-care spell? You got the idea from Morrigan’s shape-shifting thingy..”
She wiggled her hands together a bit as if she was trying to describe an item using nothing but poorly done mime but I honestly don’t have a clue whatever she was talking about.

Modifying a hair-care spell though?
That has potential.
I’ve already done that, by accident originally and then on purpose when I cast the same one on Sarah to make her hair longer too..

Let’s see, the ‘Artius Capillatio’ spell only has three lines to it?
The middle one apparently controls hair length so the other two would be..
..hair color and hair ‘volume’..
Maybe?

Those are the two effects I saw from the spell that aren’t attached to the growth from the middle line at least.

I hadn’t even noticed my hand coming up to my head until it made contact, I must have been running on autopilot or something?
..there’s only one way to see I guess?..

I dipped into my lines, pulling a single strand of power along the ‘left’ line to my hand and leaned forward slightly so I could run my hand from the crown of my head down to the point where the tips are piled messily just below my shoulders because of the seatback.

Almost the instant I finished the hand motion to activate the spell my hair fluffed itself up into massive wide curls to a point that I had to push them back before I could see anything as the sides pushed in to cover my whole head.
DAMN IT!

Apparently it’s not the left line that controls color?!
The three of them together must balance themselves out to give a ‘perfect’ effect normally because without the other lines they seem to go out of control pretty quickly..

Eris made a happy squeal sound and reached up to play with my puffy new ‘perm’ like curls with her hand.
John shot a look over at me before turning back to driving with a smirk on his lips.

I can feel his magic, he just wants to crack up laughing but he’s resisting it as best he can!

Damn magic!
I must look like some kind of county singer with hair like this!

Out of frustration rather than planning I dipped back into my lines and dropped a single line into the ‘right’ hand line instead this time.
My scalp tingled as I ran my hand awkwardly through my now much less manageable hair, down to the thick curly tips again.

“Cooollll..”
I shut my eyes tight and sighed.
I almost don’t want to know what could make Eris sound that full of awe so suddenly?
“Do me next!”
Her weight shifted on my lap as she obviously positioned herself to be in easy reach for the spell.

Her little hands snatched up mine and placed it on the top of her head expectantly after I apparently took too long to comply with her command.

With my eye’s closed it was easy to pretend nothing out of the ordinary had happened at least?
I dropped into my lines one last time and dropped a lines worth of power into the apparent ‘hair color’ line, finishing the simple spell off with the usual sweeping gesture.

For a long moment the truck went silent.
Ever so reluctantly I cracked my eyes open to see what happened.

Well then.. I turned Eris into a brunette apparently?
It could have been worse I guess!

I could have turned her hair a light pastel shade of blue.. like I did to MY bloody hair for example!!

What the hell am I going to do with BLUE HAIR?!
It’s not even something nice like royal blue, it’s a pale baby blue!
How can you make blue look like such a girly color?!

Damn it, stupid magic!

I opened my mouth to complain at how unfair the world is but stalled slightly when a rumble of thunder practically shook the truck and made me jump in fright.
What the hell was that?

It’s a clear day!
There’s not a cloud in the sky let alone bloody thunder and lightning!

“..oh crap..”
My head swung to face John through my thick curls of now baby-blue hair.
He slammed his foot down jerking us all back in our seats.

He’s going WAY to fast!
What the hell’s gotten into him?!

“John, slow down!”
He grunted to show that he’d heard me but didn’t pull his foot off the accelerator in the slightest.
“JOHN, SLOW DOWN DAMN IT!

Eris squeezed herself tightly into my chest.
My arms wrapped around her in response and I clung on for dear life.
This isn’t safe!
She’s not even got a proper belt on!

“SLOW THE DAMN TRUCK DOWN JOHN OR I’M WARPING OUT AND TAKING ERIS WITH ME!!”

My seatbelt cut into my upper-chest a bit as we decelerated sharply.
We’re still moving at a good sixty miles per hour on the deserted ‘highway’ but at least it’s better than the speed we were doing a moment ago!

“What the HELL got into you J-”
My rant was interrupted by a deep rumble of thunder that shook almost painfully in my chest.

“..shit, we didn’t lose him..”

“Lose WHO John?! What the hell is going o-”
More thunder, so loud it practically drowned out my voice as it crashed down around us.
“-and what the HELL is going on with that bloody lightning?!”

Before he could respond there was a bright flash ahead of us with an accompanying rumble of loud thunder.

John slammed on the breaks making me yelp and Eris cry out in fear.
We came to a rough stop slightly askew in the road facing the flash’s location and I took the chance to blink furiously in an attempt to clear away the effects of the flash from my eyes while gasping a little for breath.

“oh shit.. keep your mouth shut Hannah, let me do the talking.”
I growled low in the back of my throat at his rude demand but he ignored me in favor of scrabbling out of the truck in a rush.

From the point ahead of us where the flash struck the road, a voice rolled in with an angry growl all of its own, a voice I’ve never heard in real life before but one I certainly recognise from my ‘dream’ last night..

“BROTHER! Where is my WIFE?!”
I froze.
Almost subconsciously my magic started shrinking back, deep beneath my skin to ‘hide’ as much as possible.

John coughed nervously and made his way around to the front of the truck.
“Thor, buddy! How’ve you been? I haven’t seen you since New York in seventy-seven! We re-”

Thor, because that’s who the newcomer from the lightning flash was without a shadow of a doubt, cut across him in his deep overpowering voice as if John hadn’t said a word to start with.

“Don’t play games Loki! I felt her magic, clear as day. Echo said you’d taken her in the night, this is your last warning Loki. WHERE is my WIFE?”
..oh.. crap..

DAMN IT ECHO!
Why do you have to repeat everything you hear to anyone who will listen?!
Oh yeah.. ‘echo’..
..greatttt...

Thor’s here for me and John was Loki back in the day!
John was Loki.. why does that not surprise me in the slightest?..

Thor stepped closer to us and my heart started thumping away in my chest.
“Oh crap.. oh crap..”
I’m hyperventilating!

My arms went to squeeze Eris a bit tighter to me for my own comfort as much as hers but she struggled and managed to get loose from my grip with surprising ease.
The moment she was free she leapt to the side and stuck her head out of the trucks window with a big grin on her face.

“Hi Uncle Thor!”

The large red-headed wall of muscle with his thick ceremonial leather armor, bushy red beard and ever present enchanted Hammer hanging from his belt-loop turned from John to stare directly at us instead.
I sunk down nervously in my seat until I was practically out of sight but it probably didn’t help much with my hair being so fluffy and still such an eye-catching shade of blue!

“oh crap.. oh crap..”

With tense fingers, my hand reached out and tugged Eris back inside the cab of the truck by the back of her little replica ‘dirndlgwand’ dress until she was tucked in at my side practically laying in the foot-well of the long passenger seat.

Heavy footfalls started moving towards the truck, each step seemingly emphasised by a slight rumble of thunder as he moved close and closed.

I squeezed my eyes shut tight in fear.
Hopefully Eris doesn’t feel me shaking.

I don’t want this!
I don’t want to have to see Arista’s ex-husbands EVER, especially HIM!

Powers damn it!

It isn’t fair!
This is PRECISELY the reason why I left home with John this morning in the first bloody place?!

Why the hell did I have to go using magic?
It’s practically second nature to me but that’s no excuse, I should have been paying more attention not getting caught up showing off for Eris!

I’m going to get captured by a Norse GOD and all I got out of it was BLUE bloody HAIR!

People will see what they want to see a lot of the time. Confirmation Bias should always be factored in to any situation. If you quack like a duck, walk like a duck then hopefully people will believe your a duck.. it might even work on a lightning god.. just for example? Events unfold including but not limited to: John panicking and Eris crying (not necessarily in that order) Meanwhile Hannah takes a long nap at last, it's about time after all..

 

My heart seemed to beat in rhythm with his heavy footfalls as he came ever closer to us.

“Thor, she’s not here. She split the moment she got clear of me as always, you know what she’s like buddy she-”
His voice cut off suddenly and the thunder rumbled slightly louder around us before going back to its almost painfully steady beat.

John didn’t try saying anything else and after a few more steps a large frame came to the side window, blocking out what sunlight had been coming through beforehand.

He had to bow slightly to fit his large head inside but when he did his eye’s settled on us.
I shuddered in fear again but Eris seemed excited for some reason?
Her little hand came up to offer the giant man a childish finger wave.

“Hi Uncle Thor”
The man paused for a moment longer then threw his head back in a laugh, only just managing to not clip his head on the door as he went.

“ERIS! Darling little one, how are you? What are you doing hanging around with your old man?”
Eris squirmed about until I reluctantly let her go.
The moment she was back up in the seat properly I felt so horribly exposed and alone.

“Mommy wouldn’t leave without me before.”
Thor nodded along with her, showing a lot of interest all of a sudden.
“We had ice-cream and pancakes an.. and..”
Her voice trailed off.

I watched with wide eyes as Eris’s whole body seemed to shrink in upon itself suddenly.
My instincts screamed at me to comfort her but I couldn’t exactly move out of the foot-well with my dress and her in the way at the moment.

“She.. she got really mad..”
Thor’s face crumpled in obvious grief.

I don’t know how she managed it but she sounded heartbroken all of a sudden?
I could see from here that her shoulders were shaking as if she was trying not to cry.

“She said that daddy was trying to fix her again and she ran off and she left me behind a.. and-”
Her words trailed off into a pained squeal.
A moment later she practically collapsed onto Thor’s shoulder and started crying her heart out.

I was left lying in the cramped little space gobsmacked by the sudden turn of events.
My eyes trailed disbelievingly as Thor reached a surprisingly gentle hand through the window and scooped Eris out to rest against his barrel-like chest.

He slowly turned to look towards John around the other side of the truck and after a few stalled attempts he started speaking again.

“I apologise Loki. I should have taken your word on this brother, she is truly awake then?”
I don’t know what John did but he muttered something I couldn’t quite make out from my awkward position.
I started pushing myself back up but it was still a struggle to manage in what little space I had.
“Fear not brother, we will find her before she can cause any more grief..”

My butt finally landed back in the seat.
With a huff I pushed my hair out of my face and glanced between the two of them.

A pair of warm brown eyes which seemed a little tight with some unspoken pain turned to me.
I froze again as he moved back over to the window and peered in at me curiously.
A trickle of sweat moved down my spine as his eyes scanned me up and down with obvious interest.

“Who is this one brother? I don’t recognise her from the last gathering.”

Part of me wanted to hiss out a relieved breath when he didn’t instantly realised who I was but luckily the rest of my brain managed to hold back the reflex at the last second.
John turned to me with a smirk and a naughty look to his eyes as if he’d thought of something VERY amusing suddenly.

I don’t know what he was planning and I doubt I ever will because Eris beat him to it.
I’ve never been more glad to hear her little voice in my life!

“Her name’s Hannah, she’s our new sister.. Mom, ya know?..”
The little shrug of her shoulders would have been adorable in any other setting but it annoyed me slightly instead because.. well, technically that’s ME she’s talking about isn’t it?!..

I can read between the lines, she’s not exactly being subtle about it.

‘we have a new sister, what do you expect? Mom’s a slut we all know that’
She didn’t have to say it for her meaning to be obvious for anyone watching.

Damn it Arista.. why do I have to put up with YOUR bad reputation?!

Thor turned back towards me with curious eyes and I just managed to slap a worried smile on my face to replace the slight scowl I’d had building moments before.
He seemed to study me for a painfully long time.

My hand came up awkwardly to push ‘my’ glasses up my nose a bit more.
His eyes tracked the movement and it actually seemed to reassure him about something because his face split into a warm smile moments later.

“Hello young Hannah, welcome to the family. Sorry for all the fuss, don’t worry you shall get used to it with time, you are newly awakened yes?”

I froze again.
It’s his fault damn it!
He just DOES something to me?

The moment his big expressive eyes land on me, my body just locks up for some reason?!

“She found her magic today, Mom.. Mom said that her proximity to us triggered an awakening?”
Even Eris didn’t sound sure about that one but Thor accepted it readily without further comment.
He turned to John with an assessing look that eventually turned into a rather proud smile.

“It’s good to see you caring for family, not just your own lot for once Brother.. do you know who her father was?”
His last words made me cringe but even if they hadn’t been about ME in some way I probably would have cringed anyway because of the almost dangerous tone that had subtly appeared in his deep voice by the end of the question.

“I’m not sure of course, but the hair speaks for itself..”
John blatantly avoided looking at me after he said that.
Yet again I had to clamp down on the instinct to yell at him for mocking me but I managed it with little more than a slightly pained grunt.

“Poseidon?.. Damn that beast of a man!.. Indeed, the resemblance is striking now that I know where to look. His influence always bleeds true for her kin, much more than it did for that horse of a woman Amphitrite.”
Thunder rumbled in the distance as Thor stewed in his obvious annoyance.

“I have reason to believe, from what Arista said before, that any pairing with him wouldn’t be by her choice..”

A scream pulled itself from my lips when the sky was suddenly lit up with a crack of bright lightning despite the utter lack of clouds above us, followed closely by thick bone shaking rolls of imperious thunder.

“You are sure of this Loki? We agreed that her next life-mate would be our Lady’s choice?!”

“I can’t be sure of anything when Arista is involved, you know that as well as any, but Ari despised the man with a passion and I think we can both agree that he’s capable of it..”
John winced slightly and seemed to spend a moment gathering himself back together as another bright flash burned across the sky high above us.

Eris whimpered when the thunder continued to roll in response to Thor’s obvious anger.
For a long moment the crashing noise paused and with great care he slid her from his chest, placing her delicately back inside the truck where she quickly scrambled over to huddle herself into my side.

Thor watched her with soft, warm eyes that spoke of apology and great care towards her which caught me a bit off guard with their intensity.
Slowly his eye’s left Eris as she calmed down only to settle on me instead.

“Hannah, Kin of the Sea, I pledge you my protection as long as you wish it. When next we meet I will teach you how to call upon the lightning like your Grandfather Zeus before you.. you will have my aid whenever it is needed.”
His eyes were so soft and warm that I felt myself falling into them slightly.

I could sit here forever staring into those eyes..
Much too soon for my liking he glanced away from me, breaking the moment completely.

“I will go to confront the vile fiend Poseidon. Loki.. protect her brother, as you would your own, I’m proud of you.. very proud.”
The large red haired man came around the truck and clapped a hand on John’s back, which actually made his knee’s buckle slightly, before walking a distance up the road and disappearing in a flash of light with accompanying thunder.

John’s arms slumped in relief and he leaned heavily against the truck.

“..thank the powers he’s a moron..”
I’m not sure if I was meant to hear that bit or not but he sounded happy at least and his magic felt like it was calming down too.

John moved slowly around the side of the truck and slid himself back into the driver seat with a heavy sigh.

“Is he really gone?”
I jumped a little at Eris’s mumbled question.
John perked up his head slightly and offered her a weak smile.

“yeah, he’s got a head of steam on now. We won’t be seeing him for a while.. uh.. you might want to avoid coastal regions for a while though, just in case?”

In seconds Eris’s body moved and she seemed to go from a scared child to her usual perky self without any kind of transition between the two.

“Good, I hate having to act like that when he’s around..”
My jaw dropped open in surprise.

She was ACTING?!

I mean.. okay, sure I kind of got that before but she was REALLY convincing!
I fell for it and I KNEW she was lying?!

“What the HELL is going on?”

John cringed.
Eris shifted uncomfortably at my side.
For a moment she tried to settle herself above my heart as usual but for once I ignored my instincts to comfort her and shrugged her off slightly instead.

She turned worried eyes up to me and cringed, Arista’s ‘resting bitch face’ mixed with my confused anger is apparently pretty easy to pick up on.

“This isn’t the first time Eris has had to cover for y.. for Ari, when one of her Husbands turned up.”
He sighed and shot me a worried glance for a moment before turning back to staring out the window again.
“I’m sorry for the deception but if Thor knew who you were he wouldn’t have let you out of his sight again. It’s better that you disappear for a while, you’re getting too big again, too recognisable.. I don’t think you fully understand the mess you could start just by trying to live a normal life right now Hannah.”
He sighed once more and slumped heavily onto the steering wheel.

Eris shifted uncomfortably for a moment and pulled herself up into my lap.
I helped her up without a thought, my attention focused on John more than anything.

“We’ll have to tell some people obviously and the people that have already met you will know the truth but hopefully his word and a bit of misinformation should be enough to convince a lot of the people you want to avoid and keep them far off track in their attempts at chasing ‘you’ for now.”
His head turned on his folded arms so he could fix me with a sad look.
“I didn’t plan this Hannah.. it’s easy to forget how precarious our positions are when I’m with you again like this..”

My eyes squinted down suspiciously.

‘I love you.. Hannah.’
The words echoed in my head as if he’d spoken them all over again but I tried to ignore them as best I could.

I shook my head hard to get the echo out of there and focused back on the real world, managing to barely miss a beat luckily.

“Something’s going on around here and I want answers John.. why all the secrecy? why all the confusing half spoken hints and carefully chosen words?”
He shifted uncomfortably but that just made my eyes harden all the more in determination.
“What is it you don’t want me to find out?”

The truck settled into a long silence.
Eris shifted in my lap but seemed to be trying to keep out of things as best she could.
John heaved a heavy sigh and after a long pause turned to face me properly.

“There’s more than one version of Arista..”

That’s it?..
Well DUH?! Of course there’s more than one version of her!

Does he have ANY idea of just how many past-incarnations I have stuck in my head?!
There’s so many ‘Arista’s that it hurts to even try and count them all!!

“Not like that.. I didn’t mean your past-incarnations. I.. we..”
He stalled out and cupped his hands together tightly with worry.
His eyes found my confused stare and he huffed out an awkward breath.
“I’ll admit that Max was never the most.. stable?.. of people, but at first.. at first he was good and so was Arista, ‘Ari’ as she preferred.”

Where is he going with this?
I’ve read his file before, I know all about how they met..
The blending of their tribes, the constant battle of wills between Max and the first Arista where he wouldn’t take no for an answer?

Yet again, it’s a set of memories I don’t have but it’s recorded in history as having been told by both of them several times over the years.
What is he trying to say?

“At one point, I’m not sure what incarnation we’d reached by then but it was after we left Africa and before the continents had finished splitting completely.. something.. something changed?”
He let out a breath, his eyes leaving mine again so he could stare unseeingly out at the trees around us.
“Ari.. she changed, I thought she was playing around at first but as time went on it became more obvious that she wasn’t the woman I loved anymore.”

Eris squeezed herself against me a bit harder for some reason.
I barely noticed my hand come up to stroke her hair reassuringly.

“Once in a while she’d have moments of clarity, she’d have an incarnation that was HER again instead of.. instead of the monster she’d became.. for those short gaps we were so happy..”
His breath stuttered and, while I couldn’t see his face, I think he’s crying?
“I worked it out eventually. Something, something or someone, had split her core memories apart. They took all that was good in her and shoved it away behind this more powerful, darker side.. I.. things reached a peak, the ‘Ice Queen’, the madness had to stop!”

Eris shivered in my arms.
It jolted me out of my awed daze enough to take in our surroundings again.
I kind of regret asking about this now..

“I don’t know what you saw last night but the Ice Queen was the epitome of ‘Arista’ in all her cruelty, the few of us left at the time who wanted her back properly had been working on a way to.. to ‘fuse’ her core memories back together?”
Eris shivered again.
“It didn’t work. For a brief moment Ari was back in charge but she used that power to end her life, to protect us from what her other half could do if she ever came back.. her next incarnation was just as unstable as before, not even a trace of Ari within her..”

John’s shoulders slumped a bit more and he shot me a quick saddened look.

“Something good came out of it all, as time went on versions of her, both 'Ari' and 'Arista', started turning up a bit.. odd?.. they weren’t the real her but close enough to be worrying at times.”
He sighed heavily to himself before continuing.
“Eris dedicated herself to staying with her whenever she could, she’s always been Ari’s favorite child. They practically found each other by accident in most incarnations..”
He wouldn’t look at me again.

“I played interference, keeping everyone else away from Ari so she wouldn’t come to know the horrors her other half would do when she wasn’t there.. after a while I gave into temptation and rekindled what we’d lost.. ‘Arista’ didn’t like that.”
His face scrunched up in a mix of pain and anger that frightened me slightly in its intensity.
“For every incarnation of Ari that had a quiet life ‘Arista’ became more angry, more violent.. sometimes she’d use tricks? Fool me into doing her bidding under the idea that she was Ari.. she was so good at lying..”

In a sudden movement that made me jump he threw his head back against the seat and stared at the roof of the truck with lost eyes.

“I was fooled so many times, the lines blurred and I stopped being able to see when she was truly ‘Ari’ or when she was just ‘Arista’ lying.. in the end I got angry about it..”
Eris shuddered one more time.
I had the presence of mind to hold her tighter but I didn’t feel much better myself.
John’s voice had taken on a certain dark edge that really didn’t make me feel comfortable.
“I hurt Ari so many times in my mistaken delusion that she was her darker self lying again.. she came to fear me, rightfully so, even Eris ran from me eventually..”

His head dropped down to his chest and he hissed out a long pained breath.

“Then you came along? You were an enigma Hannah.. my mind screamed that you were Arista again, that you were messing with me.. but while so many things you said and did matched up with what I knew of her, there’s something just.. You..you’re not truly Ari but you’re not Arista either?”
His eyes turned to me and it took my breath away to see the pain within their blue depths.
“You’re Hannah. You’re your own person, my best friend. Your different.. in so many ways you’re so different from either of them but then you’re SO much like them at the same time..”

The truck descended into silence.
John didn’t seem willing to say anything more.
I was stuck trying to process it all and fit it in with what I knew from personal experience.

I’d only thrown the idea around in frustration before but the memories that I have, compared to what people have told me and what I’ve seen in these new nightmares.. it would make sense?
In some twisted way it actually feels right somehow?
It’s not that Arista is flip-flopping between evil and good.. she’s switching between two different personalities?

Two different people, two different sets of goals and thought templates shoved inside one body..
No wonder nothing ever seems to mesh right?!

My awakening.. my messed up awakening and male body must have done something?
They changed the battlefield between the two personalities just enough to throw things into a mess and create.. well.. me?..

Maybe power comes into it too?

I’m a locus point.
‘Ari’ or ‘Arista’, whichever was supposed to be in charge of me in this incarnation, they’re powerful but nothing can compete directly with a locus point in raw power.
It’s like with the truth spell, they couldn’t take over properly because my magic is just MORE than theirs?

..yes.. no?..
That doesn’t make sense?.. or does it?
This is making my head hurt!

Why can’t things just be simple for once?!

======

The truck’s engine jumped to life and jolted me out of my mental rut.

“I’m sorry Hannah.. I didn’t know how to tell you before, I didn’t WANT to tell you before honestly.. Sorry..”
My head turned to John automatically.
He wasn’t looking at me, he wouldn’t look at me!

He pulled us back into the correct lane and seemed to focus entirely on driving.
Eris shifted in my lap once more.

My head drooped a little with tiredness as my seemingly ever present headache decided to show its ugly face again.

..I’m too tired for this crap..
I think my med’s are wearing off too which really isn’t good!

With a heavy sigh I sunk my chin down on Eris’s now brown little head of hair.
She shifted slightly to get comfortable and we cuddled for a while as the trees breezed past us.

My eyes drooped slightly, the warm sunlight coming in through the windows making me feel so comfortable and safe, despite everything that’s been going on.
My exhaustion and John’s presence, his warm magic, lulled me into a dozing state over the course of a few hazy minutes.

Eris being added into the mix like a particularly cute little doll in my lap, with her reassuringly calm magic, it wasn’t much of a surprise when I started losing track of things.
My head came down to rest on hers one last time and I slipped off into a deep, desperately needed sleep.

======

..I think it’s gone?..

The squid thing isn’t exactly fast but it wasn’t until I got the spacesuit th-
Hang on?.. this feels familiar?..

The rocket ship around me shifted suddenly, going from stark NASA white to the weird mix of blue colors I’m more used to seeing when I drop into warp.

“Felix of the imps, you would defy the will of the higher powers?”
Felix?

The world around me became clearer but kept this strange haze over it that made everything feel slightly surreal, like I was viewing it through a bubble underwater or something?

What the hell is going on?!
I’m.. I’m dreaming.. right?
It feels like I am and that damn squid dream again is kind of a giveaway too.

I think.. this feels like the other dreams somehow?

Not the same, I’m not being taken over by the people here.
It’s almost like I’m.. floating?.. floating above this strange meeting in whatever warp-blue place we’re in..

“Speak up, I do not bear well with waiting little imp!”

My eyes managed to focus on the speaker at last.
I recognise her too?.. I think?..
She’s.. she’s the fae I crossed in the halls of the Hub ages ago!

She’s kind of hard to miss with the whole ‘full-body white’ motif she has going on, with her delicate features and dark black pupil-less eyes.
She wasn’t staring at me this time, those tiny black-holes were focused slightly to my right and down?

I followed her gaze and jolted in surprise when the unmistakeable little red head of Felix came into view below me.
Maybe it’s my imagination but he looks somehow bigger from this angle?
..did he always have so many muscles on his shoulders like that?..

“The imp’s protect the Lady-death in all things Maven-”
Before he could continue his speech the white one cut across him.

“QUEEN Maven!”

It took me a moment to process what that meant in reality.
Queen Maven.. Fae Queen Maven?..

She’s the one that OWNS the realm that the Hubs are built in?!
She’s one of the most powerful Fae in all existence!

“You’re no Queen of mine, our Lady-death is the true Queen of-”
He was interrupted again, this time by a vicious scream of rage from Maven as her delicate arm swung out and sent Felix flying back as if he’d been hit by a semi-truck?!

“The Lady-death is a MYTH! I should destroy you where you stand you impudent little bug!”

Her head turned from Felix to glance around her.
It was only in that moment that I realised they had an audience of sorts?
I can’t really make anything out, they’re all cast in shadow somehow, but I can feel their presence and their attention pushing in on us all now..

“You should, but you can’t.. can you?”
Felix shut up!

If you keep going like this she’s going to kill you?!
Powerful Fae aren’t known for being reasonable at the best of times and Maven looks PISSED OFF!

“My bonded protects, she nurtures us more then you ever did and her magic won’t ALLOW you to harm us anymore Maven!”
FELIX SHUT UP!!

“We’ll see about that..”
The white Fae Queen twisted her body in an almost unnatural way and sent out a horrible, sulphuric yellow beam of magic from her palm directly at Felix’s face.

I tried desperately to reach him but I couldn’t seem to move closer to him at all!
I can’t even feel my arms or legs at the moment?!

At the last second there was a flare of light and the almost diseased looking yellow beam was deflected high into the air as it struck a solid golden dome of magic that had formed up around Felix when it got too close.

..Did I do that?..
It looks like my magic, my diversion.. but I’ve never made a shield with it like that before?!

His little face twisted up into a wicked look of victory and pride as the watching shadowed crowd around them broke out into murmurs that seemed to rumble around us without ever being loud enough to become clear as actual words.

“The Lady-death is the true mother of magic, the Lady-death has finally come to us.. come to break your grasp on our kin and free us all from your perversion Maven!”
Felix flapped his wings enough to bring himself a few feet off the ground and he shot a glare at the shadowed crowd of onlookers.
“You cower from her, you run from her and beg at her feet but NEVER forget that Maven is just a Fae like any other! She is NOTHING compared to the Lady-death and she will always BE nothing compared to her power, her kindness..”
His little eyes were tight with restrained frustration.
“The true Mother has returned and you all need to make a choice, do you follow this weak excuse for a ruler or do you turn back to the righteous path of the Lady before she destroys you all in her rage?”

His pointy little teeth flashed out and the hair on his neck flared up like the hackles on a dog.
He’s obviously angry about something?

“Anyone who remains at this frauds side when the message goes out, as the scrolls predict, will suffer our Goddesses wrath. The Lady-death is caring but she does not forgive traitors!”

Without another word he twisted on the spot and disappeared from the strange warp-blue space in a flash of fire.
As if pulled along by his disappearance I felt a strange ‘yanking’ motion within my head and the world around me faded out to black.

------

It took me a moment to realise that I had a body again, that I could feel my extremities and the air heaving into my lungs with each desperate breath.

‘Eris keep her st-’
I jolted at the words.
They felt far away but so close at the same time?

Before I could do more than process how familiar the voice sounded the world started brightening and shifting again.

------

“Eris keep her stable, we’re almost there!”
John?

He sounds really panicked all of a sudden.
The world feels hazy still, like before..
I think.. I think I’m still dreaming?..

This is the truck though?!
He’s driving really fast and next to him is.. me?

“Damn it Hannah, what the hell is going on with you?”
His voice was at a low mutter but I heard it crystal clear anyway.

He’s really worried?

The truck gave a jolt and I bobbed up and down in the air for a moment.
Inside the truck my body violently twitched, my arms flailing to a point that they almost hit Eris.

With more determination then I’ve ever seen on her little face she grabbed my arms and crossed them at my chest before promptly throwing herself on top of me to keep them from moving again.
..that’s one way to do it I guess?..

“We’re almost there, we’re almost there.. Mum will help her, we’re almost there..”
Johns voice had taken on a chanting rhythm as he spoke to himself and he focused on the road while throwing glances over at ‘me’ when he could.

“Eris we need to-”
His words suddenly cut off from my ears and the world faded out again leaving me back in the dark place with a panting body but that lasted barely a moment before there was another flash.

------

“-she needs to stop doing this Mum!”
Sarah?

“Give it a rest Sarah, Ari’s going through a tough time at the moment-”
Sarah let out a loud frustrated yell which stopped Mum mid-sentence.

“Why are you so calm about this?! She’s gone somewhere with JOHN, he can’t be trusted!”

“..honestly, you’ve got to let this jealousy g-”
Yet again Mum was interrupted by Sarah.
As my eyes cleared I could take in our kitchen, more specifically Mum’s really angry face.

“I’M NOT JEALOUS!”

“DON’T take that tone with me young lady!”
Sarah cringed and shrunk away from Mum a little.
I can understand why, when Mum pulls out the ‘young lady’ card it’s a sign that she’s REALLY annoyed about something.
“Ari is having a hard time lately, your father has really hurt her by just dropping her on us like this. Do you think it’s easy for her to deal with losing everything? Being carted half-way around the world and dropped on people that she barely even remembers?.. all while trying to get to grips with her magic on top of everything else?!”

Sarah’s eyes look puffy?.. has she b..been crying?..
..because of me?..

“Stop defending her with Dad! He’s got nothing to do with this, she’s just being a brat! She’s been acting so weird lately and she won’t listen!.. he NEVER listens..”
They both slipped into a long awkward silence.

“She’s not Al Sarah.. I know you miss him and I have no right to talk to him anymore but you can’t hold Ari to Al’s standards, she’s just a kid? She didn’t grow up with you and Al, she doesn’t know things you expect her to and it’s not fair on her for you to treat her like some kind of replacement for your brother. She’s your little sister that’s suffering, NOT your twin brother.. understood?”

Sarah was crying again.
I don’t know what’s going on in her head but she won’t look at Mum at all for some reason?

Their ringing silence was interrupted by the chirrup of Sarah’s phone.
She dived for it like a lifeline and when she brought it up I caught just a glance of it over her shoulder.

‘Sorry for being a brat Sare. Be home soon. Love you.’
The message came from ‘Al’ judging by the contact name, I guess she hasn’t changed my contact info over yet?

This is so weird.. I’ve never sent that text message before?..
How can I see a text sent by me that I’ve never SENT?!

With a now familiar mental tug the world faded back to black around me and I was back to having a body with panting lungs as standard.
The light didn’t hesitate to flash back into existence before my eyes could even get a chance to adjust to the darkness around me.

This is starting to get really old, really fast!

------

“-office will provide recon at all times. We’re running this tight and to the book people, this isn’t a training exercise, we’ve got a VIP with multiple involved world-wide parties showing interest in either harming or stealing her for reasons unknown.”
Someone coughed and people shifted about a bit.

It took a moment for my eyes to clear but when they did we appeared to be in some kind of briefing room.
Judging by all the armor around with ‘USMPA’ stamped over it I think it’s safe to assume we’re in some kind of Hub mission briefing?

Someone below me sighed heavily.
My vision shifted down a little and I came face-to-hair with a rather bored and moody looking Trudy.
Her pen wiggled in her hand a few times as she twitched it between her fingers.

“The AMS office have been given control over all matters involving the VIP’s status and emotional state. You will prioritise any order from and defer all judgements to team psychologist Trudy Vandal.”
Trudy’s pen dropped onto the desk in her obvious surprise.
Everyone turned their attention to her for a moment before shifting back to the armored man at the front of the room.
“The security detail will include a representative from Research and Development along with several medical staff. We’ve been given a blank slate on cost so anything you believe could be of use in protecting the VIP needs to be listed and passed on to your department head by the end of the day for prep.”

The man at the front, his face didn’t seem very clear for some reason for me but he was definitely male at least, glanced over a sheet on his desk and sighed heavily.

“As a final reminder of our current status, we are at ready state for deployment.”
He straightened but still seemed a bit uneasy for some reason.
“The VIP is currently MIA but in contact with known factors, we’ve been advised by the AMS to not force a confrontation with the VIP and to remember that in all things she wishes to be treated in as low-key a manner as possible. Following that I MUST emphasise the fact that she is currently using the Alias ‘Hannah Cooper’.. if I catch any of you calling her anything but that name or ‘Ma’am’ then you’ll be back on waypoint duty for a month!”

Everyone, even Trudy, shifted uncomfortably at that apparent threat.
I didn’t think guarding waypoints was THAT bad?.. it might get boring after a while I guess..

“We’ll reconvene tomorrow to go over any additional proposals on the table, I’ll pass you over t-”

I didn’t get to hear what else he was going to say before the world muted and faded back to black again.

------

The light came back quickly this time but it felt different somehow?
Everything seemed to be a bit uneven and out of sync with itself.

A light source behind me provided a view into our kitchen from the backdoor.
Mum was busying herself making something with her back to me.
The sound of a foot hitting the wooden flooring made her jump and turn.

She seemed to almost turn in slow motion but when her eyes landed on my general direction they opened wide in surprise.

“Ari?..”

The world jolted into a blur of colors with flecks of black.

------

“Useless girl always been bad at ‘membering things, that’s why she always be useless girl-”

I didn’t even have time for my vision to clear before the world started spinning again.

------

“Why am I the one doing this fiddly crap?”
As the world slowed down and settled itself enough that my eyes could adjust properly things moved back into focus.

The first thing that caught my attention was the skyline.
Wherever we are, we’re high up?

Just past the sides of the rather large slanted peak around us there were long stretches of tree’s with thick looking snow nearby.
The peak itself seemed to be completely clear of snow in a suspiciously round manner that, to me, suggests magic at work.

“I can’t do it at the moment and you’re a self-proclaimed ‘Handyman’.. who better to assist this poor one-armed ‘storyteller’?”
The tone was snide and mocking.
It was recognisable too.

My eyes shot down to stare at the side of his head.
With everything I had I tried to will my arms into existence so I could grab him.

STORYTELLER!!

The second voice grumbled but didn’t give any more protests as he carried on his work inscribing something into the slanted rocky peak below their feet.
It took me a moment to recognise him without his stupid suit but the growl that had already been building silently in my chest went up a notch when I did.

HANDYMAN!!

“Do we know when she-”
Storyteller hissed loudly making Handyman shut up instantly.

“The Fae are still buzzing around, Maven’s lot aren’t part of the plan.”

Handyman seemed to take his words to heart by the way he kept his lips shut after that.
He continued to work on whatever he was doing while Storyteller kept a keen eye on him from a slight distance.

“Maven’s not too bad.. better than that bastard Lich Dante and his pets..”
Storyteller snorted back a laugh, shifting his one remaining shoulder a little as if he wanted to shrug.

I had a brief flash of smug pride that he still hasn’t managed to fix the damage I did to him, my magic must be lingering in the wound, it’s a problem a lot of weaker mages tend to face after fights with those more powerful then themselves.. then his words registered in my head properly.

DANTE?!!

“Aren’t you knights meant to stick together in these things?”
It was Handyman’s turn to snort back a laugh.

“That creature stopped being the Dandyman I knew a LONG time ago, maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll catch another face-full of fire soon..”

They both sunk back into an almost comfortable silence with a chuckle each as they apparently got lost in the idea of the Dante’s possible re-death.
The world around me started to fade once more but something about it felt different.. slower?

“You’re terrible at runes, that ‘Hugin’ rune looks more like a baby’s scribbles..”

Handyman tensed but before I could see what he did in response to Storytellers criticism the world blacked out completely.

------

Silence stretched out as the world rebuilt itself around me.
The first thing I saw when the world finally did come back into focus was my own face?

..no..
Close, not quite my face?
The cheeks are different.. she’s pale too, far too pale?

As I stared up at this.. this imposter?.. as I stared up at it, it’s face split into a wide malicious grin which really doesn’t look right on MY face.

“Well Alice.. you really do know how to make a mess of things, don’t you?”
She shifted her hips.
The strange long black gothic dress she had on seemed to flow unnaturally around her as she moved, in stark contrast to her stiff pale body.
“Their blood is on your hands you know? I would have let them go but you just HAD to be difficult didn’t you?”

Her feet shifted and with smooth grace she moved away from me to look out into the unclear distance, everything around us seemed to be in flux somehow?
There’s only her and me and..

My eyes cut down to the figure crumpled on the floor below me.
Is that.. is that ME?..

I look so tired and..
oh powers.. I know that look!

Whoever this imposter is, she’s done something?!
Something that I could NEVER forgive!!

I know the expressions on my face, even from this angle this new face can’t change that dangerous look Al used far too many times when faced with atrocity’s only a demon could conceive..

The version of me on the unclear floor shifted.
She had something, something metallic in her hand?

I couldn’t make out what the object was.
Everything’s starting to blur and fade again!

With keen eyes I focused on my double’s fist as much as I could.
Her hand clenched tightly around the dark metal for a moment and something that might have been electricity sparked around her fist as she forced her way back to her feet.

Her arm went momentarily slack but then stiffened until she was pointing at the imposter with the metal extended.
Is that.. is it a knife?..

Slowly her grip on the ‘blade’ loosened and her head cocked to the side slightly.
Seemingly out of nowhere a laugh bubbled its way up past my doubles lips as she gestured at the smug imposter with the ‘blade’ and her closed fist.

The imposters smile slipped into a dark glare for just a moment but before I could see anything more the world started fading back to black yet again.

“Do you know the difference between us-”

------

The moment I had my body back within the darkness, I let out a frustrated yell and sunk to my knees, striking the floor below me in anger.
What the HELL is going on?!
Is this.. am I seeing the future?!

The imposter, she can’t really have been.. she can’t have.. can she?!

There was no warning when the darkness shifted and began to lighten again, despite my attempts to resist it with all my sizable willpower!

------

Screaming was the first thing I could hear.
Before I could regain my sight that was overtaken by something far worse.. pain!

The world seemed to be moving at lightning speed.
I couldn’t get anything clear.

Sob’s, screams, blood and flashes of light followed closely by smoke with a deep burning pain in my chest?!

The only clear image I could make out was a man’s shadow as it moved away from me towards some kind of bright door.
The pain returned at an even worse level then it started as a moment later and I lost track of everything.

..a voice?..
A heart-breaking little girl’s voice managed to force its way past the screams and pain.

“..please.. no more..”

The black started moving back in around me and I was almost relieved for it as the pain slowly slid away with its approach.
At seemingly the last possible second a flash of white pulled me in a completely different direction.

My chest hurt but that was nothing to the pain I’d experienced moments before.
One more flash and everything was gone.

======

“aaaAAAAHHHH!”

I jerked up and spun my body frantically to the side.
A second later I landed against something hard and cold.

With a shudder my knees came up to my chest and I pulled myself into a tight little ball as my body was wracked with sobs.
Where am I?
What’s.. why am I naked?..

..Wh..where am I?!..

There was a lot of noise from somewhere nearby.
A light flicked on behind a closed door right in front of me.

I started pushing myself back as best I could without letting go of my knees, rolling under the cover of whatever I’d just fallen off of more than anything.

A shadow stretched from the bottom of the door, after some mumbling and a long pause the door opened allowing bright light to stream in around the silhouette of a man.
The whole scene flashed back across my eyes from just moments ago.

I couldn’t help the frightened scream that wrenched itself from my lips, or the frantic movements I made to escape away from the figure.

“..please.. no more.. please.. no more..”
The words tumbled from my mouth in a hysterical chant.

Like the girl before me the words did no good.
The silhouette seemed to hesitate less than a moment before taking a step closer to me!

I let off one more panicked scream and squeezed my eyes shut in fear.
The air felt cold for a moment but the feeling quickly faded as the light was blocked out from my vision somehow.

I lay in my tight ball sobbing to myself in relief as the cold darkness seemed to squeeze in around me.
Even the dark is better than that man!

He was real?!
I don’t know how but something deep inside me can just TELL he was real, it was all real..
It was all real!!

“Hannah?”
I screamed and jerked away from the male voice that seemed to have come out of nowhere at my side.

“Mom?”
This time my heart hammered away ferociously in my chest but I managed to bite back another scream at least.

That voice I recognise, I can’t remember how but just the sound of it flooded me with warm reassuring feelings.

My arms that were still wrapped tightly around my knees, slackened slightly and I managed to pull in a deep gasp of air.
That voice, a little girls voice like the other one.. but so different.. so special?

“..Eris..”
My voice cracked before I could get anything else out.
Instead of trying again I pulled my knees back into my chest and sobbed with everything I had left until all I could do with breath.

..Eris?..

See the past, see the present, predict the future. We all do it, some of us are just better at it then others. Some people get an unexpected helping hand in that department though apparently, whether they want it or not? Events unfold including but not limited to: Eris admitting that she likes her current incarnation. John trying to apologise (after having a long 'talk' about his not-so-recent behavior) and Hannah finds some new things to focus on for her sanity's sake if nothing else.

 

“I think she’s coming back to us.”

I don’t recognise that voice?
My first instinct was to panic.

My arms started moving but I quickly managed to clamp down on that urge in order to focus on everything around me.

“Hannah.. Hannah can you hear me?”
John?

My head hurts.
It’s bloody cold too!

Slowly I squinted my eyes open and blinked uncertainly in the dark.
My hands moved up slightly but stopped short when they came into contact with something really cold?

“What’s going on?”
No-one answered for a second.
Eventually there were some footsteps and John spoke up again, his voice sounding a lot closer this time.

“You fell asleep again in the truck, about half an hour later you started having convulsions.”
..oh.. that’s not good..
“We managed to get you here and secured. The expert I was taking you to see, she checked you over and confirmed my suspicions..”

Well?.. What ‘suspicions’?
I’m dying aren’t I?!
Brain tumor or something!

“You’re a seer Hannah.”
For a long moment I paused but as the words finally sunk in I couldn’t help but snort loudly in amusement.

While I’ll admit there may have been a bit of ‘future prediction’ POSSIBLY happening in that latest set of dreams I’m NOT a seer by any definition of the word!
Edith said it, I’ve got the gift but not the stomach for.. it..

Wait!
What.. what if Edith wasn’t just mocking me for my weakness at the time?..
What if she was being literal?!

..Theodora?..

When Theodora took over me after I revived John my stomach got really cold just before my core got hot..
These messed up ‘not-quite-memories-but-close-enough’ dreams started happening after that too!

Have I..
I’ve.. I’ve integrated Theodora?..

“..oh crap..”
John’s feet shifted uncomfortably on the other side of whatever’s between us.
His magic rolled with worry but I can’t see his face in the darkness.
“oh crap, I’ve integrated Theodora..”
It makes too much sense to not be true.
‘Greatest Oracle of her line’ my ASS!

That last burst of dreams weren’t like the others, the others were clear cut, certain.
The new ones had a soft unfocused quality to them.. less like memories, less solid then the other ones.

Seer’s don’t just see the future, they can see anything!
The past, the present AND the future.

The other dreams.. the powers been building?
The first time it happened I lost myself in memories of my past incarnations with Eris.
The second time I BECAME the people I was dreaming about, progressively getting closer to present day.
The third time.. the third time I had some sort of control over it and ended up focusing on people I know?

I’m a seer.
Holy CRAP I’m a SEER!
This.. this is life changing?!

I’ve got enough problems without adding THAT to my list!!
Why the hell does everything have to happen to me?!
This isn’t FAIR, I don’t want to be mentally handicapped on top of everything else!

Oh sure, seeing the future SOUNDS good at first but it’s a curse!

I’ve never heard of a seer who hasn’t suffered with the gift.
It’s like what Mum said about that Aunt of ours.. I can’t remember her name, it was a weird one I think, but she had her driving licence taken away and her husband’s classified as her ‘carer’ because she can’t be trusted on her own!

“John.. John, I’m..”
My breath wouldn’t come out properly.
I’m far too cold!

I need to get out of here!
I WANT OUT!
LET ME OUT!

Frantically my hands came up in tight fists to strike at whatever was boxing me in so tightly.
I can’t breathe!
LET ME OUT!!

A rush of uncontrolled magic flew from my core and poured out of my fists the moment they struck the surface around me.
The magic left my body and stretched out across the surface like a spider’s web.
I don’t know how but I could FEEL it as it moved, practically SEE it through the darkness as it shot along a roughly dome shape above me.

All at once the magic contracted back inwards and without any more warning the object shattered into a million heavy pieces.

I lay there on the floor panting as chunks of ice fell all around me and the light came back in.
My chest still felt tight but it was a lot better for having fresh air and clear space above me.

“Hannah?”
I almost jumped out of my skin when John just seemed to APPEAR at my side.
He was trying to help me sit up and I let him.
I’m in no state to move on my own.

When he finally had me at least partly sat up I rolled to the side and planted my face into his warm chest.
He wrapped me up in his arms and rocked us while my breathing slowly calmed down.

“..I don’t like tight spaces..”
John snorted as if I’d said something funny.
Without a thought I growled lightly and swung a limp fist at his shoulder to shut him up.

It’s NOT funny.
It’s bloody TERRIFYING!
I’ve had irrational fears before, even to this day I can’t STAND rats, but this is different?

I don’t like being caged.
Something deep down within me just can’t handle being held in a tight space without any form of control over it.

“Maybe next time you won’t wall yourself off in solid ice so badly then huh?”
I wanted to hit him again for that comment but his body’s so warm.

His magic feels light and so full of care directed at me..
‘I love you.. Hannah’
Is this, this warmth and care, is this what love feels like through someone’s magic?

..it’s really nice..

“We’re working on a way to suppress your seer talent, until we manage it you probably shouldn’t sleep again but you can if you want to?”
It’s nice of him to offer.

I’m sorely tempted to just leave it to him and this ‘expert’.
As long as I can stay like this, with his warmth, then I’m fine with that for now.. BUT they will probably have better results if I lend a hand?
I’m the runes expert here.

Aside from some kind of compulsion charm or strange powerful mind magic I don’t understand in the slightest, runes are our best bet for controlling this somehow..

Hell, I might even be able integrate whatever we come up with into those magic inhibitors I was working on back at the farm?!
I need those inhibitors more than ever now, Theodora took CONTROL of my body.. she didn’t just influence me like the last integrations did.
..it’s getting worse..

I need to be proactive and stop this before it becomes uncontrollable!

“Can you help me to a workshop? You’ll need my help if we’re going to manage this before I pass out from exhaustion again.”
John smiled at me and I found myself marvelling at the shear warmth on his face, in his body and magic.. all at once.

When did he start being like this?
I’m.. I’m kind of glad he has..
..it’s really nice..

“Come on then little rabbit, let’s go see the mad brain doctor shall we.”
In a smooth move John scooped me into his arms and carried me out of the mess of melting ice around us.
A glance backwards showed the shattered remains of a bed surrounded by a lot of mess.

My magic did that?
..oops?..

My bad, I’ll have to offer to fix it at some point.
I can’t even remember what set me off so badly?

Whatever it was it really was frightening at the time?!

I don’t just let off that defensive ice dome thing for nothing.
The last time I managed it instinctively was under the very real threat of being killed by an angry Fena!

I snuggled my cheek against John’s chest rather than dwell on it too much.

‘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’
I winced and pushed my cheek into John’s warmth a little more.

Does he really like that I’m short?
Does he like picking me up and carrying me like this..

I kind of hope he does?.. I like it a bit too honestly.
Not that I’d ever tell HIM that but there’s no point in lying to myself about what I like and I definitely like this.

“Mind your head on the doorframe.”
John swung us around quickly and only just managed to miss hitting my head on the aforementioned doorframe.

“..asshole..”

He smirked a little and his magic rolled lightly with suppressed amusement.
Sure, laugh it up!

Rather than snap at him verbally I grumbled under my breath and kicked my legs a little from their dangling position over the edge of his right arm instead.
It would take way too much energy to start arguing with him at this point.. he might even end up putting me down if I argue too much?

Much better to just let it go for now.
..he’s really warm..

======

“Ah, looks like she’s settled down at least. I knew you could do it Johnny.”

I heard her voice before John turned so I could see the face to go with it.
While she sounded a bit different from the last time I heard her, it wasn’t hard to recognise her in the slightest, especially when her slightly older looking face was added to the mix.

“Mrs Turpin?”
The words came out as a confused mutter but both of them heard me clearly from the look of it.

John’s Mum, Mrs Turpin, turned her eyes down to me and her mouth slipped into a gentle smile.

“Hello Ari dear, it’s been a while hasn’t it? It’s ‘Jones’ though, I remarried a while ago.”
She scanned me with her eyes as I lay sprawled out in John’s arms in shock.

“The last time I saw you Max had snatched you from that awful boarding school in your nighty and cotton socks.”
Her lips pulled into that same sharp smirk I’m so used to seeing on Max’s face.
“It seems that every time we meet he’s managed to get you more exposed.”

Exposed?
What does she mean ex-

A cold breeze decided to pass by us at that exact moment from somewhere making me shiver and my pocket thermometers pop up in alarm.
I flinched a few seconds later when it became obvious at a glance that I was, for all intents and purposes NAKED in John’s arms!

I’ve still got the frilly black lace undies on at least so that’s something but no bra and worst of all NO DRESS!

Wh..why?.. where..
CRAP!

I conjured the dirndlgwand dresses in a rush without a strong mental image!

Not enough focus, not enough power, not a strong enough mental image or symbolic connection to the item being crafted.
It faded away while I was asleep!

THIS is why I don’t conjure stuff normally!!

My arms came up to cover my belly, crotch and breasts as best I could with only two arms.
My eyes landed on John’s amused face for a moment causing me to flush bright red and growl at him angrily.

HE KNEW!
The bastard knew and he didn’t say anything!

“Pervert!”
John’s face flushed a little too and he shifted his feet uncomfortably but he didn’t answer to that accusation.
“Put. Me. DOWN!”

I kicked my legs a few times before he managed to get me safely on my feet.
Despite the fact that Mrs Turp- Mrs JONES was watching my actions with far too much amusement for my comfort’s sake I still practically dived behind her.

It took me a moment to reach into my lines and get myself organised.

Screw secrecy!
If my ice dome earlier didn’t tell everyone on earth who cares EXACTLY where I am then they must have some kind of wards up to hide magical signatures around here, and even if they don’t I’m bloody NAKED!

A few lines and a thought later I had a thick wad of cloth in my hands.
A shuffle and a few wiggles after that I was wearing a nice basic black training robe that I’d conjured and pulled down over my head.

For a second I was tempted to just stay where I was, hiding behind Mrs ‘Jones’, but I’ll have to face the pair of them again at some point if we’re going to sort this ‘seer’ mess out together.
If John says ONE word though I’m going to hex him into oblivion!

With a deep breath and a bright blush I moved back around to face them both.
John looked a bit surprised but mostly amused.
Mrs Jones had her hand over her mouth to hide her giggles.

“Better?”
I almost snapped at John before I realised that it wasn’t him asking.

“uh.. yeah, sorry Mrs T.. Jones?”
It felt like I couldn’t blush any more but somehow I managed it.
My ears are burning!

“We’ll have none of that Ari dear, my current name is Natasha but you can call me Hel if you feel more comfortable with it.”

What kind of name is ‘Hel’?
Is that her true mage name or something?

How can she be a mage anyway?!
I knew her for years!
She was really nice, a bit distant at times but still nice in general.

I didn’t even have a HINT that she was anything but a bloody housewife!

When things went down with John going all ‘psycho-Max’ his family just pulled up sticks and disappeared.
I never really thought about it, being so overwhelmed with my awakening at the time, but it’s kind of weird no-one ever seemed to bring their disappearance up at all?

Mum was friends with her but didn’t seem to notice at all when she disappeared.

Mum.. Mum never picked up on John’s connection to ‘Al’ me when he turned up either?
Despite the fact that she’d BABYSAT him a load of times as a kid and he’d stayed over our house loads of times when we were in school!

Mum.. could it be more left over mess from the memory tampering?
How the hell can you just FORGET a whole family of people that were so close to you for so long?!

“Hannah?”
I jumped and got half way through throwing a punch before I clocked what was going on.

“Sorry, I spaced again.”
It was better than admitting I had a bit of a panic attack for a moment there honestly, but not by much.

“I see what you mean now John. She must be a pretty powerful seer to ‘space out’ that easily..”

What does she mean by that?
What’s John been telling her exactly?

I turned to glare at John.
He shrunk away from me slightly and let off a nervous laugh.

“I’ll just.. go see if Eris is awake?..”
In seconds he’d practically broke into a sprint to leave the room.
Pretty dirty trick, using Eris as an excuse to ditch me with his Mum of all people!

“Would you like some tea Ari? I’ve got some more of that lovely Charlton Earl Grey left still, I know you like that one.”

I kind of stalled uncertainly for a moment.
Mrs T..Nat.. uh.. ‘Hel’?..

John’s Mum, that’s better!
Anyway, she sounds strange at the moment?
She’s treating me weirdly and she keeps calling me ‘Ari’ too..

“My, you really ARE out of sorts aren’t you dear? Why don’t you take a seat and I’ll put the kettle on.”
Her bright sunny smile had me smiling back awkwardly out of instinct more than anything else.

She never seemed particularly interested in me when I was John’s friend Al but apparently she’s got enough history with the ‘Ari’ side of Arista’s weird split personality to treat her like an old friend, maybe even a daughter judging from the way she’s acting honestly..
“You gave us quite a scare young lady, John was frantic when you turned up. Do you remember much from your visions? From what I understand a seer’s first few times are distorted and can be rather confusing in general.”

I blushed deeply and sunk down into the offered chair instead of answering.

While distorted and confusing could definitely be applied to the ‘visions’ in my opinion, that’s more from the way they seemed to change so much between.. sessions, I guess?.. and the lack of consistency or context to things in them.
To be honest the actual dream/vision/memory stuff from the initial Eris ones through the horrible ‘Ari,Arista’ ones and the latest set of messy practically underwater ‘future predicting’ ones were all about as clear as possible in my mind, even if I kind of wish they weren’t.

There’s something that feels a bit off, everything’s kind of a blur from the vision where I faced the ‘imposter’ version of me?
I’m not sure what it is but it must have been connected to the freak-out I had when I woke up or something I guess.

“I didn’t know that you were a mage..”
I’m not really firing on all cylinders yet.
Normally I’d never have said something so stupid out loud.
“I mean.. in Klamath Falls you were so.. ya know, normal?..”

John’s Mum paused half way through adding the tea leaves to an ornate little teapot she’s using.
Slowly she turned around and stared at me as though seeing me for the first time.

“Sarah?.. he was right, oh god you poor girl..”

Uh.. what?..
Why is she-

Oh!

“Not quite, I’m.. well I WAS, Al?.. Alistor Cooper, yo-”
She let off a startled little shriek, her hand coming up to cover her mouth instantly in shock and horror.

Before I could do more than blink she’d crossed the space between us and pulled me in to a tight hug.

“Alistor?!.. but your.. he..”
She didn’t seem to quite know what to say or do all of a sudden.

The kettle’s loud whistle broke her out of her loop of confused half-mutterings after a rather awkward few seconds of hugging.
With a heavy huff she let me go, much to my relief, and turned back to counter.
Her movements seemed oddly tense and stilted for some reason though?

“I’m so sorry Alistor, I thought you were Ari, you look just like her?..what’s that son of mine been up to?!”

She REALLY doesn’t want me to answer that question.. right?..
It’s all kind of embarrassing and still a little confusing to explain honestly.
I’d feel a lot better if John was here to add in his side of things better than my initial ‘John went Max-Psycho and turned me into a girl’ breakdown of events could at least.

“It’s.. uh.. okay?.. Mrs Jones, John didn’t mean to.. well he kinda did, but not like REALLY mean to.. sort of.. um..”

HELP! What do I say?
My fumbled attempt at an explanation did little aside from upset her even more!

..the truth?..
Well, it’s worked before I guess?.. sort of..

“Um.. how about you finish the tea and I start from the beginning?”
I think she appreciated having something to do honestly.
She quickly focused entirely on making the tea and setting everything up on the table for a ‘traditional’ English tea.

Despite myself I couldn’t resist the urge to sit up a bit straighter as she put the cups and saucers down gently.
With the amount of old English and Victorian incarnations I have in my head it’s practically second nature for me to play along with the ‘ceremony’ involved in a proper afternoon tea setup.

When she’d finished putting things JUST right she sat down opposite me and started to pour from the teapot with delicate precision.
Eventually everything was done and the steam began to rise softly allowing her to finally look back up at me with a heavy sigh.

“Okay, tell me what he’s been up to..”

I cringed a little and slumped my shoulders slightly.
At least I’m getting better at this sort of thing, I’ve had enough practice lately if nothing else.

“Well.. it started when we we’re kids-”

======

“-and then he stepped forward to follow me into the house and walked head first into my wards which bounced his arrogant ass half way across the street! I kind of lit into him pretty badly, I was frustrated with him being an idiot and honestly a little hurt he couldn’t tell the difference between me and ‘Arista’ still. The look on his face was-”

The door creaked a little making us both pause and turn to look at it curiously.
It pushed open slowly to unveil John, his hand holding onto Eris’s little one as he shot an awkward look between us.

Eris squealed happily and broke free of his hold to rush over to me.
It was practically instinctive for me to lean forward and scoop her into my arms at this point.
That doesn’t mean I didn’t notice the way moving her onto my lap was practically muscle memory already, I just didn’t resist the instinctive reaction involved for once.

Mrs Jones’s face shifted from the pained wince she’d held pretty regularly for the last half an hour into a soft approving look as she took in my ‘motherly’ reaction to Eris’s presence.
No doubt she’s seeing a bit more of ‘Ari’ in me then I’d like at the moment, not that I’m ever likely to be able to completely climb out from either version of my core awakened personality’s shadows for a lot of people sadly?

With one more wince Mrs Jones’s face shifted into open hostility and she turned to face John.
He cringed back from the look, which was honestly pretty intimidating even when it wasn’t directed at me.

In a few short angry strides she reached his side.
Her hand came up and she grabbed his ear tightly between two sharp nailed fingers.
With a solid yank she pulled a now whimpering John along in her wake as they left the room.

Maybe I should have focused more on the nice things he’s done for me and the way he’s been reacting since our little poolside chat rather than going into the full detail of his Psycho-Max binge of stupidity?..

Na! He’s a big boy and it’s about time someone pulled him up on it all, I don’t really have the heart to do his stupidity justice, punishment wise.

“Is daddy in trouble?”
Eris’s quiet little question drew me out of my musings on John’s existence and the often times annoying effect he’s had on my life as of late with a jarring jolt.

I peered down at her for a second curiously.
She didn’t look worried?
Honestly I’d have to peg her expression as mildly interested and amused over anything else.

“More then he knows but less then he deserves..”
She giggled a little and hugged into my chest a bit more.
Despite myself I cuddled her a bit tighter before reaching out for my cup.

I’m sure John’s Mum won’t mind me ‘playing mother’ as they say.

Eris seemed strangely interested as she watched me lift the teapot and pour myself another cup of the simply AMAZING Earl Grey tea she’d provided.
A quick blow on it with just a touch of ice magic in my breath cooled it to perfection so I could go straight on to sipping.

My first sip felt a little gritty and it took me a moment to realise that I’d forgotten to use the strainer when pouring.
..Oh well, no harm no foul..
A few tea leaves aren’t going to hurt me right?
Hell, one of my past incarnations developed a nasty habit of chewing tea leaves because tobacco was far too expensive and she could swipe the leaves from work pretty easily!

I’ve said it before but I really do have some WEIRD people in this poor abused head of mine..

“Who is that lady? Is daddy going to be okay with her?”
Ah.. I guess it just took a while for Eris to work around things before she could jump into her usual ‘worrying’ faze that seems to be her default reaction when one of us leaves her line of sight.

“Don’t worry sweetie, she’s your Grandma.”
She squinted at me in disbelief.
“Your OTHER Grandma, she’s HIS Mum.”

Slowly her face shifted through a few recognisable stages as she processed the idea and weighed it against some kind of internal chart only she could understand.
Eventually she nodded imperiously and settled her head back on my chest in her favourite position.

I managed another few sips of my tea before she decided to speak up again.

“I like this incarnation, I’ve never had a Grandma before and now I’ve got two..”
My lips twitched up a little in amusement.
I’m sure my Mum would be happy to hear that if nothing else, she’s taken a shine to Eris surprisingly quickly.
“Tee-Vee is fun and your nice’n’squishy too.”

My mouth dropped open in both offence and surprise.

Cheeky little brat!
I’m NOT ‘squishy’.

I’m perfectly well proportioned.. except for my chubby cheeks.. and my squinty little eyes.. and my complete lack of muscle tone..

Oh powers, I’m FAT aren’t I?..
I’ve never been fat in my life!
Stupid Arista and her stupid body an.. and stupid.. stupid.. UGHH!

“I’m not fat. If anything I’m underweight for my size, the doctor’s said so!”
Eris twisted her head a little so she could stare up at me in confusion.
“Look at me! I’m NOT fat.. why the hell do I care anyway?!”

I don’t care.
I shouldn’t care!

This isn’t really my body and at some point I’ll work out how to turn back into myself.

I’m getting far too comfortable with all of this, it’s got to be the insidious ‘integrated past-incarnation’ memories playing tricks on me!
They always HAVE been annoying, slipping little stupid idea’s into my head behind my back.
It’s so much harder to tell when they are having an influence on me or not since I started properly integrating them..

“Don’t frown, you’ll get wrinkles.”
I jumped so hard when Eris’s little hand came up to rub at the spot between my eyebrows softly that we almost ended up in a pile on the floor!

“Sorry sweetie.. do you want a drink or something?”
It was a weak attempt at covering for my twitchy-ness but she didn’t seem to mind.
Her face lit up with interest and she gave me her best big grin.

“Juice?”

She really seems to like juice for some reason?
I guess she probably didn’t have many chances to have any back in New Avalon..

“Sure, sit here and I’ll see what they have.”
She eased off my lap onto the chair at my side and watched closely as I made my way over to the fridge.

A bit of searching came up with some orange juice and some ‘prune’ juice of all things..
Bleh!.. nasty..

“Orange Juice okay sweetie?”
Eris nodded almost frantically and smiled brightly for me.
I smiled back at her absentmindedly but focused on pouring out a little glass for her instead.

She practically downed the glass as soon as it was put in front of her.
She’s making a bit of a habit of doing that lately?

With a heavy sigh I settled back in my seat and rested my head on my palm with my elbow on the table.
My eyes cut across to the doorway thoughtfully.

I can feel John’s magic still.
He’s nearby, maybe a room or two away judging from the strength of what I can sense?
His magic’s rolling around a fair bit with some mixed emotions, the most prevalent of them being guilt, frustration and shame.

I think his Mum’s reading him the riot act honestly?
I’m not going to defend his past actions or anything, even if he IS proving himself as a friend again ever so slightly the longer we get to hang out together.. but I feel a little sorry for him at the moment too?..

I’ve been on the other side of FAR too many one-sided Mum-based third degree arguments in my life to take enjoyment from knowing someone else is going through it too.. even if it IS just John!

“Can you show me how to do that ice-dome thingy Mommy?”
She’s really got to work on a new ‘innocent pleading’ act, I’m not falling for it anymore.

“Maybe when you’re older..”
Watching Eris slump a little in her chair was both worrying and kind of cute at the same time.
“I could teach you a few other cool things though if you like?”
She perked up instantly.

Oh boy, what am I getting myself into now?!

======

“-when you have a solid grip on that bit of magic feed it into the line leading into your palm and-”
Before I could finish she did just that and then let off a quiet little frightened yelp when a puddle’s worth of water formed in her palm.
“Well DONE Eris! I can’t believe you managed that so quickly, it took me weeks to get that far..”

She blushed brightly at my praise and shifted over to give me a hug.
I couldn’t help but smile proudly down at her while lightly hugging her back.

I’m honestly pretty impressed?
We’ve only been going for about fifteen minutes but she’s managed to feel her lines, at least partly map out the more important ones I’ve told her about and then she finished it off by just about managing a little blast of her element as well!
She’s got no control at all and it will probably be a while before she’s ready to cast actual spells with her lines but it’s still a pretty impressive first step for her to cover so quickly.

I’m not particularly surprised that she’s a water mage at least.
They tend to crop up in Mediterranean areas, which her supposed ‘original’ native land of Greece falls neatly into of course.

I’m kind of worried though at this point.
Water mages tend to gravitate towards ‘healing’ as a profession which I’ve got pretty much zero experience in aside for a mild wound sealing hex.. and my diversion obviously, but that’s a bit of a cheat technique..

“So, how does it feel to know you’re never going to need to a pay a water-bill again in your life?”
Eris gave me a confused look.
Really?.. not even a slight giggle?..

Well I thought it was funny!
It’s true too, you wouldn’t believe how many bills you can skip out on paying when you’re a mage.

Add a little application of physics and you can start getting REALLY fun with it.
Now I know a real-life Lightning mage, in the form of Gran, I’ll have to see if it’s actually possible to recharge a battery with lightning at some point I guess?
I’d completely forgotten about that until now.

When I run out of ‘magic’ related things to research I tend to branch out a bit and at one point I designed a rune-set that, if it works, would convert pure lightning magic into DC electricity with a bit of buffering in place to stop it from just exploding the battery or whatever the powers being dumped into.

Compared to Lightning magic, water isn’t quite as useful for the fun science-y magic stuff but at least it’s better than ice, fire or earth!

Wind’s got some potentially big bonus’s to it as well, if nothing else some mage in Europe runs an ‘alternative energy’ company where he basically generates more power than a nuclear power plant daily by just sitting on his roof and shifting the air currents to maximise the power generated by a massive field of wind turbines stacked next to each other virtually blade to blade.

There’s not really an official name for the fun science-y magic sort of stuff yet, it’s pretty new honestly and even now most awakened mages that could potentially power a lot of really interesting things by mixing science and magic together don’t bother because they think the idea is ‘stupid’.

Mage’s are set in their ways sadly, it comes with age apparently and no-one does age related problems like a mage who can live for hundreds of years per incarnation!

======

“Mum?”
Eris’s little hand waving in front of my face brought me back to the real world again with a bump.

..stupid drifting off thing..
Of all my ‘quirks’, that was the one I was the happiest about losing before it decided to come back again!

“Sorry Sweetie, did I miss anything?”
She squinted at me for a second but reluctantly shook her head anyway.
I’m not sure if that means I didn’t miss anything or she doesn’t think it’s worth repeating if I did.
..kids are confusing sometimes..

“What were you thinking abo-”
She cut herself short when the door creaked again.

Mrs Jones made her way in, looking slightly flustered and agitated.
John followed behind her with his eyes downcast.
His magic was stuck pretty heavily into ‘guilt’ and ‘self-loathing’ territory.

“Sorry about that girls, I think someone has something to say..”
Mrs Jones shot a sharp look over at John and he cringed slightly before reluctantly turning to face me properly.

I honestly felt sorry for him at this point.

He’s practically been a different person lately, it feels wrong to blame him for his actions as ‘Max’?
I know it’s not that simple and I have more right than anyone else to enjoy his suffering but that’s just kinda.. not the sort of person I am?..

John’s my friend.
He’s an asshole, he’s self-centered and twisted in general but he’s still my friend!

“Hannah. I want to-”
I lifted my hand up between us making him stall instantly in confusion.

“You’ve already apologised once John. I get that you have problems sorting things out in your head at times but I’m just as messed up as you are and you’ve put up with my insanity pretty well so far..”
He seemed completely lost now.
The look would be kind of cute if his magic wasn’t going haywire at the same time.

“We get each other John, we always have. I’m not going to put you through some long drawn out punishment over it all.. yes, you were wrong.. yes, I hated you for what you were doing, I hated myself for LETTING you do it too? You used our friendship and your knowledge of me to abuse my trust..”
He’d practically sunk away from me at this point.

Almost instinctively I slipped off my chair and stepped closer to him, sliding a thumb under his chin to push his face upwards so our eyes could meet again.

A few weeks ago I could never have done this.
A few weeks ago I wouldn’t DARE give ‘Max’ a chance to stare directly into my eyes with that damned hypnosis of his just a thought away from being used!

A few weeks ago.. a few weeks ago we wouldn’t have been in this situation at all?

A lot has changed over a pretty short period of time.
We’re practically different people at this point.
We’re not Ari and her Max.. or Arista and her Maxarimus..
We’re not Al and his mate John either?

We’re something new.
A new, fresh start to a repeatedly long-lasting ‘relationship’?

I decided back in New Avalon to take people by their actions, not their history.

I refused to judge Eris for her actions however many incarnations ago.
I refused to hold myself accountable for the evils ‘Arista’ committed, even if I can’t forget them entirely.

Why can’t I do the same for him?

Despite what he says, despite what he said in the truck about not really ‘controlling’ his Max side, I know he’s changed.
I can FEEL it!
I can SEE it!

He’s not Max.. and honestly.. I don’t think he’s really ‘my’ John anymore either?

He’s like me.
He’s ALWAYS been like me.
He’s not quite the same as he used to be, something’s changed him completely?

The ‘Max’ of a month ago would have declared his undying love for me while secretly using my reaction to his advantage.
The ‘John’ of a few weeks ago would have been more likely to laugh at me than admit that he even LIKED me.

I can’t be sure what did it but I can guess at least?
Dying apparently has an effect on you no matter who you are..

There’s something inherently human in confessing your feelings on your death bed.
I don’t feel the same way about him, I’m not even sure if HE really meant it at the time or if he was just saying it because he could.. because he thought he was going to die..

I can’t accept even the idea of being ‘in love’ with my best friend as a possibility.

It’s too soon, wounds are too fresh and trust is still being built on both sides.
I’m not even sure if I CAN fall for someone while living in this body?
It feels wrong to even consider it when I’m not really female, not deep down.

UGH! This is getting too complicated and confusing!

Instincts!
I’ll just go with my instincts, they rarely lead me wrong.

“You’re my best friend John, in your own stupid way you’re trying to help now and you HAVE helped, more than you can ever know.. I forgive you.. you big goofy idiot..”

It took a few seconds for my words to sink in.
It was obvious when they did though because his whole face lit up in a strange mix of confusion and Joy.

We slid into a mutual hug easily.
It’s awkward that my face now barely reaches his armpit but I can overlook that annoyance for now.
That’s what friends do after all.

He’s so warm, his magic is rolling across my skin as his infectious happiness and warm contented vibes practically sink into me!
..they probably are in a way, sympathetic magic and all..
SHUT UP BRAIN! You’re ruining the moment!

When we finally broke contact he continued to stare at me with something close to awe on his face but we didn’t say another word.
We didn’t need to.

He understands me and, powers help me, I understand him too.. just like we always have..
He’s still an asshole but he’s MY asshole and I’m not going to lose him again out of some stupid petty need for ‘retribution’ against who he was.

He’s trying?
That’s more than I would have hoped for from him even a few days ago honestly..

“So, who wants another cup of tea?”
I broke the silence at last, neatly bringing us all out of the strange solemn mood that had fallen over the room.

Mrs Jones didn’t seem quite as comfortable with letting John off so easily for his past stupidities but she just doesn’t get it?
No-one who doesn’t LIVE our messed up lives.. lives that are practically counted in millennia more than hours, could possibly understand the connection John and I have.

Did we strain it pretty badly through his stupidity and madness?
Yes.
Did we reach breaking point and go beyond it?
Yes.
Did he hurt me badly?
..yes..

He’s John though.
He’s always been an insensitive git, even when he’s trying to be nice and understanding.
I’m not sure I’d be able to survive if he changed THAT much so quickly..

“Should we get down to business and sort out this whole ‘I’m a seer’ thing then? I’ve got a few ideas already and-”

======

“Can I have some more paper?”

John sighed heavily and with a flick of his wrist he conjured another piece for me.
I really need to work on that one!

When I summon paper it always comes out too thick and fades after a day or two, honestly, how can you get a ‘good mental image’ of paper?!
It’s bloody PAPER!

The tea and discussions went well.
We’re going to sort out my little Theodora instigated ‘seer’ problem tomorrow.
John wasn’t kidding, his Mum’s SCARY good at mind-magic!

I only have a novices understanding of it all and that left me with just enough knowledge to see that I was completely out of my depth trying to breakdown her work into something I can even ATTEMPT to say I ‘comprehend’ with any degree of certainty.
She sounds confident at least, I can take that for what it is if nothing else?

In the meantime I filled John in on what he missed of my ‘selective suppressors’ that he helped check the math on back at the farm.

Luckily it only took a few pages to cover the actual design for him.
Once I’d finished doing my ‘final’ design work most of the math was pretty much useless, who cares about the fifty odd pages of calculations needed to reach the result when you have the result in itself.

Naturally John had to be himself about it all though.
He nit-picked everything I did, with a ‘why did I add this cluster?’ here and a ‘why didn’t I add this enchantment?’ there.
I’m kind of grateful for it?
His questions and arguments got my brain going.

We’ve spent the last few hours adding ‘improvements’ to the overall package.
If I’m going to be packing a practically full-body suite of enchantments into the form of two bracelets, two anklets, a necklace, choker, and a belt, then we might as well pack in every possible thing we can think of right?!

It’s not like I’m limited for space, the only reason it’s going to be in so many different pieces is because they are closer to prime locations needed along my lines.
It’s practically like planning out a major construction project at this point.
You can’t put this turning on that road because it will cause a backlog but if you put it on the left leg ‘road’ instead of both of them then you create a release valve of sorts.

Magic’s complicated.
Enchanting is even worse.

Enchanting in runes using sympathetic magic to bond several items that look like ordinary jewellery on the wearer, so you can stop any kind of overpowering ‘take over’ attempt by any one of a seemingly endless swarm of personified ‘past-life’ memory clusters inside the wearers head, while ALSO adding in basic functions such as climate control runes, a ‘danger sense’ ward and several minor external diversions to allow me to cast with multiple elements easily..

yeahh.. as I said.. Magic’s complicated..
Even when you’re the one designing with it and you technically know what you’re doing it’s still a complete mess when you’re working on something THIS big and THIS powerful!

“Dinner will be ready in a minute.”
I glanced up from my paper and offered John’s Mum a smile which she returned easily.
“Johnny, remember the rules, no glamor spells at the dinner table.”

..huh?..
I shifted my eyes over to John’s face.
He looks like someone has just fed him half a raw onion!

“What glamor spell?”
He cringed and seemed to be trying to avoid my eyes as best he could.

Not having any of it I dropped my shoulders and practically flopped across the chairs we were sitting on so my head was in his lap staring up at him from below.
I’m running on a bit of a crafting high at the moment, that’s all I can think of to blame for my silliness honestly.

“It’s nothing..”
Oh no, you don’t John-boy!
It’s got to be something good or at least funny as all hell if your sudden blush is anything to go by?!

“Just tell me, I’ll find out eventually and it can’t be that bad. You got to laugh at me with the ‘school uniform’ stuff, it’s only fair I get to laugh at your zit’s or whatever you’re covering with a glamor of all things!”

With a long heavy sigh he reached a hand up and tapped it gently on a necklace I can’t actually remember BEING there a few seconds ago?
Was he always wearing that?

I SWEAR he wasn’t?!

The little metal necklace with its strange metal symbol hanging from it flashed slightly as whatever magic was built into it died out.
He winced slightly as my eyes got progressively wider.
Right there on his face, etched into his cheek in an ink-like burn mark, was his BRAND!

How?.. when?..
WHAT THE HELL?!!

He managed to cover his bloody brand up!
Not just that, whatever glamor he’s got in place on that necklace didn’t just hide the big nasty looking brand left on his check as punishment by the old magic of the temple but it practically DELETED it’s existence from my memory?!

I mean.. I knew he was branded still, I knew he wasn’t a direct threat to me because of it..
I just kinda forgot he had a big old tribal tattoo on his face because of me!

The necklace too?!
He’s got to have been wearing that for a while but I can’t remember him ever wearing jewellery before so it must hide its own existence somehow too?

That.. that’s..
THAT’S GENIUS!

My face split into an almost predatory grin.
He flinched slightly when my hand came up to rub against his now visible brand, just to check it was still real, the moment my fingers made contact with the dark black mark a trail of warm magic started flickering along my fingertips and followed down my lines, ending at my core directly.

I wish I’d been able to remember this brand was a ‘thing’ back when I was hunting for John a few days ago!

It’s so EASY to feel the connection on this one.
WE’RE connected!

It’s practically a physical rope between our cores from this side of things.
No wonder he managed to find me so much easier than I could him!

Slowly my hand moved down his neck making him shudder for some reason.
With delicate fingers I traced the few visible runes awkwardly marked into the necklace’s thick chain, the ornamental little metal symbol at the bottom held a few too but they were all almost painfully basic.
He must have mixed long-lasting charms with the runes to maintain them better somehow?

That’s a charging rune there.. and a storage one over here..
This whole thing is amazing!
It’s so simple but so EFFECTIVE!

It’s.. it’s got POTENTIAL?!

“We should hurry down to dinner, before your Mum gets annoyed.. when we get back up afterwards we’re going to have a nice LONG talk where you explain to me with many numbers and sketches just HOW in the HELL you pulled this glamor necklace off under my nose John-boy!”

He didn’t look very pleased about that idea but he also didn’t resist when I rolled to my feet and offered him a hand up.
A huge grin was plastered on my face that I doubt I could remove even if I wanted to.

I LOVE magic!
Real magic, NEW magic!

John’s been casually wearing every Rune master’s DREAM enchantment around his neck to hide a slightly embarrassing binding mark!!

Invisible runes!
Self-sustaining glamors!
Spells and runes blended perfectly together into one working unit?!

I take back what I said before.
It turns out you CAN break magic!
John’s done it right here and he doesn’t seem to even realise what he’s DONE!!

Just think of all the fun I can have with THIS little trick-set under my belt, both figuratively AND literally!

For some reason it feels like I should let off some kind of maniacal laughter at the moment?
I settled for a happy giggle and gave John’s arm a sharp tug to speed him up a bit more.
The faster we get dinner finished the faster we can get to work!

..I hope Eris wasn’t too bored this afternoon?..
I think she was hanging out with Mrs Jones at one point?

======

We turned the last corner and came into Mrs Jones’s kitchen area.

Judging by the adorable splashes of flower on her little nose and cheeks, along with the white powder covered apron she had on and the proud grin she sent our way before she turned excitedly back to mixing.. something in a bowl?.. I’ll guess Eris didn’t mind us disappearing to work in the slightest?

Why do I suddenly feel a bit upset that she got to play ‘chef’ without me?
It’s not like I’m much of a cook or that I’d have thought to show her how to make something in general like some happy little housewi-

GAH! Stupid past-incarnation mothering instincts!!

Sometimes we don't know all the details in a situation until it's too late. Sometimes we know the details but don't understand their importance. Sometimes.. Sometimes we can misjudge so much without even realising it? It's called being human sadly. Events unfold including but not limited to: Eris going for help. John going to bed (reluctantly) and Hannah making progress for once!

 

“Comfortable?”

Eris didn’t really answer.
Her little head lolled back lazily and she splayed herself out on top of me as I settled into the chair I’d spent most of this afternoon sitting in while working with John.
She tends to get a bit sleepy after eating and I’m kind of reluctant to stop her, she’s so cute like this.

For a moment I think John thought he could get out of explaining his little ‘glamor’ enchantment as I got settled with the Eris-ball on my chest but a look from me killed that hope in an instant luckily.
I may be holding a now stuffed and sleepy Eris but I am NOT missing out on a chance at breaking down and reworking his glamor necklace into MY new ‘selective suppressors’!

He’s been pretty quiet and self-conscious since dinner honestly?
It probably didn’t help that his Mum seemed entirely too smug at seeing his brand out in the open or that Eris seemed to be amazed by it to a point where she actually poked his cheek tentatively while he was distracted multiple times as we ate..

Still, priority’s first!
He owes me enough at this point that I am NOT letting the Rune master’s ‘holy grail’ slip through my fingers just because he’s feeling a bit embarrassed over a mark I gave him!

He gave me a bloody TRAMP STAMP!
At least his one looks kind of cool in a ‘well you either made a stupid mistake or you’ve spent time in prison’ kind of way, tramp stamps are exactly what they sound like, stamp markings inked onto the lower back of a girl of loose morals!

Just thinking about it annoys me even NOW!
If I didn’t need him to be my source of unlimited rune-casting glory and power right now I’d be tempted to get revenge for the ‘back tattoo’ he gave me in all its indignity instead!

“Well?..”
He flinched and glanced around nervously for a moment before finally giving in to my sharp demanding eyes.
His shoulders slumped a little but he moved over to the table with a huff and started sketching out lines on the paper.

I couldn’t get a good view of what he was doing from this angle.
I’d be tempted to lean forward but I doubt the sleepy brown-haired Eris-ball in my lap would appreciate the movement.

Instead I had to sit through an almost painfully long twenty minute wait as John set to scribbling numbers and diagrams out on spare paper.

I wonder if this is what Sarah feels like when I start working?
It’s kind of annoying not being able to tell what he’s up to honestly.

Eventually he seemed to slow his pace down and the pen in his hand stopped moving against the paper.
He shot me a cautious glance upwards before huffing heavily, shuffling the papers together and handing them over to me.

I had to squint a little to read his handwriting at first but it got easier the further in I got.
So far so good, the math is adding up if nothing else?

When I got to the first diagram my mouth dropped open a little.
I practically don’t need the rest of the papers just from the diagram alone!

I guess to a normal person it would just look like a confusing jumbled mess but to a rune master, to ME, it was practically a work of ART!

Charging rune, Storage rune.. so THAT must be the front of the necklace..
..huh?.. I never noticed the little ‘Esti’ runes on the corner of each chain link?..
They must be like.. a cheap and dirty way to copy the main rune effects across each link?

I guess that works.. ‘Esti’ is Latin for ‘to be’, I’ve never seen the rune for it used in this way before though..

There are a few ‘aestus’ runes dotted around on the chain too but I can’t really see their purpose at the moment?.. kind of random really..

It looks like the chain is pretty much being used as an amplifier for the main stuff carved on the little metal symbol hanging from the necklace?
That’s ingenious all on its own!
Crude as all hell and I can think of better ways to pull it off but as a force multiplier you can’t deny that using a basic novice level Latin rune on all the little metal links of a roughly twenty-two inch long necklace is an almost scarily effective way of doing things?!

Okay..
..okay, the metal symbol..
Storage runes.. why so many storage runes?..
That looks more like a..

My eyes shot up to meet John’s in surprise.
He actually seemed to have lost a lot of his nervousness at this point.
If I’m not mistaken he’s starting to get a bit smug and taking enjoyment from the mild awe on my face?

Looking at it now I’m pretty surprised no-one else has done this sort of thing before?
I mean.. I kind of did it first, a long time ago, but I never thought of applying the principle into something so small or just.. I’m more surprised he thought of it than anything else?!

The chain of ‘Esti’ runes is more impressive than this little trick he’s got going on a technical level in all honesty, but the fact he managed to condense it down to such a small size is pretty impressive too I guess.

From what I know of how terrible he is at drawing runes properly he must have expanded the size of the chain and ‘symbol’ to a stupid degree before being able to write them out clearly enough for them to actually.. ya know.. WORK!

“Don’t get too big headed John-boy. I’ll give you you’re due, I’m amazed you managed it but your still a few years too late to teach me something new.”
He seemed to almost deflate at my little jibe.

Good, smugness isn’t good for his health.. especially when I’m around.

After a long second he shifted his face back up with a curious twinkle to his eyes.
Instead of answering his obvious unspoken question about WHEN I beat him to the idea I turned back to the diagram instead.

It’s been so long since I thought about it, I really do have a problem of starting things and then just kind of.. forgetting about them, don’t I?
Come to think about it. I HAD planned on making another one before my awakening kind of drove most rational thought out of my head practically overnight at least..

John’s little ‘eternal glamor/forget this exists’ necklace is theoretically the same as the ‘Bad JuJu stick’ I made in Sarah’s car as we made our way to the docks chasing after the group who’d kidnapped Mum back when we were in our late teens.

I never really got to use the blood-rune encrusted resonant rod with mounted casting rings for its original purpose, having to make it overload and blow up in Dante’s lich-y face and all.

While the application’s different the process is the same.

The rings on my ‘Bad JuJu stick’ had spell patterns stored into them.
They are designed so that low skilled mages, either the weak or just the young like Eris, can cast useful spells by pumping magic into the ring and aiming it.
John’s used that technique to ‘bottle’ a specifically designed glamor spell into a pretty basic rune-cluster and hooked the whole thing up to a few triggers!

Surely that couldn’t work?
He’d hit the same problem most glamor based enchantments have eventually, like the choker I made so I could pretend to still look like my passport, he’d run out of power eventually and burn out the enchantment pretty badly at the same time?

There’s got to be something I’m missing here.. follow the lines, it’s all just math.. what am I missin-
THE ‘AESTUS’ RUNES ON THE NECKLACE!

..okay, now I’m impressed again..

Heat or ‘Aestus’ runes, their dotted around on the necklace links in odd points!
I couldn’t work out what they were for before but if he’s chaining the enchantment through the necklace then he can chain the burn out effects too!

It’s like.. it’s like he’s spreading the load?
Normally a glamor enchantment runs low on power and practically eats itself to keep going, in the end it tends to ruin whatever it’s inscribed on in the process.. often with HEAT..

By spreading the effects of the enchantment out across so many little chain links he’s not just boosting the power levels, he’s spreading the load across all of them!
The ‘Aestus’ runes are being used as vents for excess power, they push out a small amount of concentrated heat instead of allowing the pressure to build and destroy the whole system!

Pair that with some charging runes touching his skin and a storage rune for a renewable power supply and you have a pretty much permanent glamor enchantment that only needs some excess power taken from the magic naturally leaked out from around the wearer’s body..

Holy crap, that’s GENIUS!
I can’t take away from it this time, I’d never have thought of doing that to sustain things!
This.. this is huge?..

..wait a minute..
No?..maybe?..
Oh.. you ASSHOLE!..

“Give me the necklace.”
I practically growled the words out.
Eris flinched a little against me in her sleepy daze but John flinched harder.

You KNOW why I’m angry John.
Don’t make me wait!

Reluctantly he slid the necklace off and passed it across the table to me.

I took a moment to study it before slipping it over my head delicately.
A little tap of a magic infused finger on the activation rune turned the whole thing on again.
The skin on my cheek feels a little weird, obviously the glamor is in place even though I don’t have anything to hide there.

“I’m perfectly happy with you right now John, in fact I think your just perfect and you don’t deserve to be kicked in the balls for holding out on me for so long like this in the slightest..”
My tone wouldn’t convince anyone, the clenching of my teeth probably didn’t help matters but that’s not the important bit.

I just lied!
I just lied about my BLOODY feelings and my brand didn’t burn me for it in the slightest!

The necklace draws a constant but tiny amount of magic from the lines near your throat.
The brand uses the emotions in my core magic and compares them to the magic in the air leaving my mouth when I speak.. the amount may be tiny but it’s enough to confuse the hell out of the old magic, enough that it can’t work out if it should burn me or not!

The brands.. John’s brand is still at the passive activation stage?
We never made a deal on his punishment so the initial brand is sitting there on his cheek just waiting for me to decide what form my revenge should take.

One feature that often gets skipped over with brands is that during this ‘passive activation’ stage the person being branded can’t actively work against the person they harmed.

Back in the temple I got warning burns just for THINKING about hurting John.
He just had to simply ‘suggest’ that I come sit down at the table and my body practically dragged me over to follow his command!

“Go stand at the window for five seconds then come back over here and sit in the chair next to me.”

John winced and seemed to almost fight it for a second but inevitably he couldn’t win.
With slightly stilted steps he walked over to the window, paused for a few seconds, then wandered back over to land heavily in the chair next to me with an indignant grunt.

“You clever son of a bitch..”

Don’t get me wrong, I like his Mum, this isn’t about her.
This is about John.

He’s had this on since before he even reached Klamath Falls!

“When did you add the glamor?”
He cringed but, as it should have from the very start, the brand wouldn’t let him hold back information from me for long.

“I already had one on, I just tweaked it. I finished working on the glamor part while you were apparently busy covering your house in anti-me blood wards.”

The dinner party? The first day we officially ‘met’ as neighbours?
The one with Aunt Lily and Uncle Jim, where he rubbed my leg under the table!

He must have had it active even then, to be able to taunt me like that?.. but it would be partly disassembled at the time if he’s right?
What changed?..
What could he have been covering with a glamor before that time?

HIS AGE!

I thought he was mocking me a bit at the time.
I completely forgot about it after a while, I’ve just kind of gotten used to John looking like this nineteen year old version of himself?!

It’s a bit more comfortable that way honestly.
He reminds me less of ‘Max’ now that he looks younger too.

With actual care this time I eased the necklace over my head and passed it back to John.
He winced at the pity in my eyes but slipped the necklace back on anyway causing his brand to disappear almost instantly as the glamor took hold.

He’s already stopped aging..
It happens, like with Gran looking forty rather than her actual four-hundred years of age..

“How long have you known?”
He grimaced again and wouldn’t meet my eyes.

“Since the rat thing, when you came into my office to ask if you and Sarah could borrow a room for the week, you were taller than me?”
..ouch..
“Not that I’m proud of it or anything but.. it may have at least partly been the reason why the old magic made you so much younger when it changed you too, my subconscious wanting you to not be older than me again..”

Oh John..
It was awkward with Eris in my lap but I managed to reach out a hand to rest on his shoulder in commiseration.

Aging.. aging’s an awkward thing for mages..

I never really considered it a problem as Al.
I hit my peak and kept going without problems.
I’d been scared before that of course, I didn’t want to age slower than Sarah after all?

Imagine having a life all set up but not being able to stick around for too long in case people start noticing that you don’t seem to have aged a day in the last twenty years?
Imagine.. imagine falling in love, having a family.. having to watch them all grow old and die while you stand by helpless?..

A few tears escaped from my eyes before I could squeeze them back.
With a nervous huff I pulled my hand back from John’s shoulder and wiped away at them quickly to hide the evidence.

The runes on the necklace are rough but the design overall is well thought out.
This is why they are so well done.. John’s had a long time to work on them?..

He wasn’t holding out on me for petty reasons or just to be an ass, he was embarrassed?

Embarrassed to admit that he’d faked aging, even when we were at each other’s throats with him as my sworn enemy..
Embarrassed to admit that he pretended to be normal still so I wouldn’t notice..
Embarrassed to admit that when I became a teenaged Arista-clone he stopped hiding it so we could be closer in age again..

‘I love you.. Hannah’
I blinked furiously as his mumbled words came back to the surface of my mind.

That phrase, why can’t I just let it go?
Every time I get past it something happens to bring his words back to the center of things!

John you stupid.. you stupid soppy idiot!
Al wouldn’t have cared if you stayed young while he got older!
Al.. I wouldn’t have held it against you..

“..stupid John..”
We fell into a quiet reverie as that statement rolled between us awkwardly.
I didn’t really mean to say it like that, it just kinda slipped out.
“..sorry..”

He shrugged slightly but leaned back into his chair with a sigh.

======

“NO! That wouldn’t work, you can’t just-”

“It would TOTALLY work! You just don’t get it, look if you just move th-”
He’s refusing to look at the bloody paper!
He didn’t say as much, he didn’t have to, I can SEE him doing it!

I’m right!
I KNOW I’m bloody right!

We’ve been going around in circles for almost an hour now on this one.
I’m kind of glad we got past the awkwardness at least, work and magic are always a good way to get past real life problems.. but on the other hand it’s BLOODY FRUSTRATING!!

“Will you just LISTEN to yourself?! You can’t put an ‘Estis’ rune next to an ‘Esti’ rune and a ‘toto’ rune!”

Who’s the rune master here?!
I KNOW what does and doesn’t work with Latin runes!
I can write Latin runes practically in my SLEEP!

How does he think his opinion even matters on this?!
HE CAN BARELY WRITE A BASIC RUNE OUT!

I’m the expert here!
I’m the one who knows what he’s doing!
I’m the one who’s dedicated years of my life to learning this crap!!

My fingers twitched.
I was SO tempted to just reach out and snatch the necklace from around his neck.
If I get it off of him then he’ll listen to me, he’d HAVE to listen to me!

It took a few seconds for that idea to filter through my brain before I realised just how wrong it would be.

That’s not the sort of thing you do to a friend..
John’s my friend, that’s not changed, right?
..my head hurts..

Things have gotten a bit out of hand.
They always do in situations like this, we’re both a bit emotionally raw at the moment for various reasons and it’s making us more likely to snap as we go on.

Before I could do much more than get my hand up to the bridge of my nose and rub at my headache the door slammed open.

“Okay, ENOUGH the PAIR of you! It’s getting late, your both getting too worked up over this and you’re scaring Eris.”
I turned guilty eyes over to John’s Mum from her position by the now open door, hands on hips and a determined look on her face.

My eyes drifted slightly lower to see Eris hiding behind her.
She must have run off to get help at some point.. Did we really get that bad?

So bad that Eris would rather find help from a relative stranger than ask us to stop?

A little puddle of guilt settled heavily in my stomach.
I grimaced but my eyes softened the longer I looked at Eris’s worried little face.

“..sorry sweetie..”
The moment the words left my lips she seemed to let out a long held breath of relief and practically broke into a sprint, crashing into my arms for a tight hug.

I really didn’t mean to scare her.

It’s just.. me and John?..
We work well together and we bring out the best in each other’s work but we tend to argue, a LOT, in the process.

It was always that way in school.
We’d practically reach the stage of having fist-fights over Geography homework at times because we were both too bloody stubborn to give ground on our points until one of us was proven right on it all.

I shot John an awkward, apologetic look over Eris’s little head.

He seemed to only just be working out what had happened as well.
It’s pretty easy to see how bad things got just by the finger shaped burn marks his hands have left in the arm of the chair he’s sitting on.
..I’ll have to fix that later I guess?..

“Sorry Mum.”
I gave him an awkward little smile of approval but let it go a second later to turn back to his Mum.

“Sorry Mrs Jones.”
She offered me a weak smile in return but I think it was more out of worry than anything else.

It’s been pretty well established that John, Max, Me, ‘Ari’ AND ‘Arista’ can all have pretty volatile tempers at times.
I’m not surprised she was worried we’d go completely off the rails honestly.

My head dipped down and I nudged my nose next to Eris’s ear.
She flinched slightly but giggled at the same time, she’s always been ticklish around her ears.

“Sorry sweetie, we didn’t mean to scare you.”
I’m not sure if anyone but Eris heard me but it was only meant for her to hear anyway.
Her head rose slowly and she fixed me with a weak smile which seemed to gain strength the longer she looked at my face.

I twisted my body slightly making her little legs swing up as she spun which had the added benefit of setting her off in another quick peel of giggles.
Just for the fun of it I did it a few more times getting the same reaction each time until finally her little head settled on my chest, just above my heart as always.

“I think it’s past someone’s bedtime..”
Eris groaned a little but didn’t argue thankfully.

I shot a questioning look at John’s Mum.
She nodded in understanding and led the way out of the room.

======

It took about ten minutes to get Eris settled down in a suspiciously ‘child-orientated’ room down the hall that I’m tempted to guess was once John’s bedroom back when he was a kid, possibly even before his awakening?

She didn’t like when I went to leave but with some coaxing, a conjured teddy bear or two and several rounds of her ‘lullaby’ she drifted off with surprising ease.

That damn lullaby still has me worried honestly.
I get that it’s been in our family for a while and I get that our family has been around for a while too..
I know that the story John told me about ‘Christian’s kin’ and ‘Arista of the red moon’ basically guarantee’s there was a connection between my family and that Arista incarnation as well..

Having LIVED it though, not her life, not her memories but that short intense burst just before her death..

I’ve hummed that lullaby to Eris twice now.
Once with Mum leading in on it and just now.. I sung it ‘right’ both times though?

I’d never heard the ‘original’ version of the lullaby before.
It’s changed over the years, probably been miss-remembered as it was passed on from generation to generation.

The first time I sung it to her I thought I’d just remembered it wrong but the ‘vision’ of that incarnation tells a different story.. it’s Mum who remembered it wrong, I remembered the original?..

How can I remember the original version of a lullaby instinctively without having the memories to go with it at the time?!
How many things do I do instinctively without truly noticing how worryingly CONNECTED to my past-lives they all are?

The hair clips for ‘Dite?
The conjured bears and calling one of them ‘Agatha’?
Settling Eris on my hip so easily every damn time!

Something’s happening to me.
Something new, something different?

..Theodora..
Whatever that crazy bitch triggered when she took over my body to give her stupid ‘prophecy’?
Something in my head’s changed and I have no idea how to stop it.
I barely even know that there’s something TO stop?!

“Are you okay Hannah?”

With a jolt I was back in the hallway outside John’s childhood bedroom.
Mrs Jones was watching me with no small amount of worry on her face but I offered her a weak smile and shrugged it off as nothing important for her sake if nothing else.

I’ve got time to sort through things, who knows, maybe it’s just some kind of side-effect from me integrating a Seer personality into my mind?
Powers know I’ve had enough OTHER side-effects because of that mess!

I’ve never really looked into prophets and their ilk, I’m not normally very good at the whole ‘future predicting’ skillset so as usual when I find something I suck at I ignored it, more out of frustration than anything else.
..I don’t tend to handle being bad at something very well sadly..

“Let’s go grab a nightcap shall we? Coffee?”
Mrs Jones smiled at me warmly and nodded, leading the way back down the hall towards her kitchen.

I wonder if she’s got hot chocolate?
I LOVE hot chocolate!

======

“Are you going to sleep tonight?”

Reluctantly I pulled my nose out of my book and shot John a withering look.
Does he even need to ask?

Mrs Jones is helping me with the vision problem tomorrow.
I’m NOT going to chance going to sleep again before it’s sorted out.

One glance into the abyss of the future was enough thank-you-very-much!

It’s not so much the visions that are the problem, it’s the paradox’s involved.
I’ve spent about half an hour flicking through one of the books Edith gave me which JUST so happened to be titled ‘Future sight, looking past your present’..
How she knew I’d need this one is something ELSE I’m going to ignore for now, for my own sanity’s sake if nothing else!

The book basically boils everything down to one key point.
‘The future is what we make of it’

It’s not some set, immutable thing.
A Seer ‘sees’ a set of possibilities, when they aren’t busy seeing the past or ‘back-stepping’ as it’s apparently called.. or seeing the present which is often called ‘projecting’..

The main thing though is that the Seer SEEING these ‘possibilities’ usually changes the very thing they see!
The best example I can think of is the vision I had about Sarah arguing with Mum.
In that one she received a text message from ME claiming that I’d been a brat or something?

It’s a very real possibility that I’d have said that at some point if we were arguing and I wanted to apologise, but now that I’ve SEEN it happen.. I’m not going to bloody do it!

There are loads of stories around about Seer’s suffering from the ‘Cassandra complex’, basically they get to see things that are coming but nothing they do can change the outcome?
The book agrees with me that those are just stories though.

I’ve never met someone stuck in one of these ‘no win’ situations because of a vision, all you ever hear is at best third-hand accounts of something POSSIBLY happening.
There’s no PROOF!

Without proof there’s no point in listening to them all.
As weird as it seems to say considering all my past-lives and magic, I’m a product of my generation.

In short, SCIENCE!

Magic’s all well and good but if it doesn’t fit with the scientific method then what’s the POINT of it all?
If you can’t test something repeatedly and get the same result then there’s obviously something you’re missing!

Maybe it’s just my inner ‘rune mistress’ talking but science fits so WELL with my favored brands of magic so it’s not too strange that I’d want to apply it’s logic across all fields?
Sympathetic magic was practically BUILT with scientific method at its core, Rune’s are all about precision and repeatable results from set formula too!

Sympathetic magic is like Physics, one action causes another and everything is connected to produce a final desired reaction.
With that logic.. then Runes is practically Chemistry, using precise measurements and known quantity’s to get the reaction you want.

When you boil it down.. all of science is just applied math?
Magic’s the same, MATHS or GLORY!

Take two things that have a common ancestor and it starts to become easy to see things they have in common.
No-one’s ever DONE it of course.
A MAGE play with that silly new non-magical ‘scientific’ JUNK?
The whole idea’s preposterous.. mages are stubborn and set in their ways after all!

They’re also PEOPLE.. so add ‘stupid’ to that laundry list of character flaws too..

I’m not saying I’m going native or anything but as time’s gone on magic’s kind of lost it’s ‘sparkle’ for me?
All it ever seems to do is breed problems.

Sure, magic helps fix those problems most of the time but without it there wouldn’t BE a problem to start with!

Only new magic, only INTERESTING magic gives me that happy little glow anymore?
Back when I first started all of this stuff as a wide eyed teenager everything that seemed to break the laws of science left me gaping at it and clamouring to find out HOW it worked, but as time’s gone on it’s getting harder and harder to find new things to explain.

Most of magic falls into one of three category’s sadly ‘power, augmentation and design’.

Some spells work just by sheer POWER, they can force the world to do their bidding by pouring more of this ‘force’ within our cores out then the universe as a whole can handle.
..my ‘spell’ bringing John back to life being a useful example of that one..

Other spells work WITH the universe, coaxing it, taking things that happen naturally and just.. just pushing them to the extreme?
My modified ‘hair’ spell falls into that category.

‘The hair’s going to grow anyway, it grows naturally this way.. why can’t it just go a bit faster?’
The magic augments what it’s trying to effect instead of forcing it.
When my hair grew out it was sudden and unnatural but it didn’t just HAPPEN, my hair GREW naturally, just at a vastly sped up pace..

The last one, the type I tend to gravitate towards the most, tends to be more difficult to pull off but it’s also a lot more effective when it DOES work.

Runes work by trapping the universe by its own rules.
That’s why there’s so much math involved in new runes, you have to work out every aspect involved in what you’re trying to do, then make a ‘Gordian knot’ of logic and counter-logic with strategic applications of magic at JUST the right points to make the world do what you want!

My ‘fresh-air’ doormat design is probably the easiest example of it in action?
I didn’t ‘create’ the wind that blew away the bad smells.
My magic doesn’t ‘tell’ the universe that the person stepping on the mat MUST have a constant gentle breeze around themselves to clear things away either.

It SUGGESTS, it gathers just a small amount of ambient air and gives it a marker to follow.
The way the marker is designed means that the air can’t ever settle properly so it constantly moves to try and get close to the marker and in doing so it creates a breeze as a by-product.

There’s no getting away from the fact that magic is cheating.
It breaks the rules all the time.. but if you look deep enough, if you know what you’re looking at, then despite how WRONG the outcomes are, the results are actually kind of natural?
Everything’s just cause and effect in the end, magic jus-

“OWW!”
I glared at John hard.

He looked mildly amused and watched on as my hand came up to rub at my now sore wrist.
The bastard PINCHED me!

“I take it I have your attention again now?”
His lips pulled up into a slightly smug look that still doesn’t suit him, even if it isn’t as annoying or sharp anymore.

“Screw you, asshole”
His eyebrow popped up in surprise but his smirk shifted into more of a smile so that’s something I guess.
“What did you want? Can’t you see I was busy?”

I wasn’t exactly busy doing much more than zoning out and talking to myself but HE doesn’t need to know that!

“I’m going to bed, I wanted to see if you actually planned on sleeping tonight or not?”
oh.. yeah.. he did kinda ask about that before didn’t he?..

..oops?..

“I’m going to stay up and read. Sorry John, I’ve got a lot on my mind at the moment.”
He shifted awkwardly at my apology but nodded in understanding and turned back towards the door after a moment’s hesitation.
“Night John-boy.”

He pulled a face at me for that comment but I could tell that he saw the humor in it even if he didn’t appreciate being the butt of the joke.

“Night Hannah, I’m just down the hall if you need me.”
Without another word he slipped out the door and silently slid it shut behind himself.

I huffed to myself loudly, feeling a little stupid for having spaced out mid-conversation AGAIN, but eventually I turned back to my book instead of sinking too heavily back into the whole annoying problem.

======

“..it’ll have to do I guess?..”

The book got dull quickly, so sue me, I got to work on the ‘selective suppressors’ a bit early instead.
I figure they might come in handy if things go wrong when we sort out this ‘seer’ stuff tomorr..
uh.. today, I mean today I suppose?..

Wow, is it dawn already?
How long have I been WORKING on these bloody things?!

I’m a bit lucid at this point honestly..
Doing runes always makes me a bit ‘spacey’ and disconnected from reality after a while, the fact that these ones were so in-depth and I may have had to use a bit of blood just to finish off a few key areas probably isn’t helping either.

Of course sleep-deprivation is a factor too, I’ve not had a peaceful night’s sleep in days and now I’m pulling an all-nighter to avoid more ‘visions’.

I didn’t really know where to start on the suppressors at first.
It wasn’t until I went diving into my expanded bag for a new book that things got a rather abrupt kick-start honestly?

I don’t know HOW she did it but I can guess.. and if I’m right then I’m kind of scared because sitting in the bag, tucked in with the incense sticks and other junk Edith decided to apparently shove in there at random, were several lengths of thick chain necklaces along with some leather strips and little metal symbols!

I’m slowly building up a case for Edith being a SEER of all things and that scares me a HELL of a lot more than anything else could right about now!
The little Yoda’s bad enough NORMALLY, the last thing I need is her knowing the FUTURE too..

She even knew my preferred focus talismans!
I’ve got three Ankh’s, just like the paper ones she showed me how to make back when I was learning to control my fire magic, along with a few that look like lopsided ‘Wicca stars’ and some ‘yin-yang’ symbols thrown in for good measure!

I know that a mage wearing things like ‘Gothic’ Ankh’s, ‘Wicca’ stars and ‘Taoist’ circles is so VERY cliché but it’s cliché for a REASON.

The Ankh is powerful in symbolic magic for multiple reasons but mostly it’s used in connection with ‘life’, considering these suppressors are going to be blocking my past-LIVES that’s probably a VERY good thing to add into the equations power-wise!

The Wicca five-point star is actually a pretty new concept but it’s based on a much older concept which developed a bad name during the rise of Christianity, the ‘Pentagram’.

An original mage five-point star is slightly blunted at one point, the same one that’s a little off center, but it doesn’t matter too much.
The Pentagram itself is about balance and harmony, most Wicca’s these days consider the five points to cover five ‘key’ elements, thanks to a certain smug Greek philosopher.
They refer to them as ‘Water, Earth, Fire, Air and Spirit’.

The whole things a bit ‘pre-schoolers first spell book’ for my liking but the symbol itself is no joke, having a much older, much deeper meaning for real mages.

The points are connected to the four building blocks of any spell ‘The Flow, A Base, Willpower and The Push’.. the shorter point is ‘The Core’, it’s short to show it’s deeper connection to us in general.
I shouldn’t have to explain things at this point with magic but it’s probably easiest to give a recognisable example, it tends to help me usually at least..

When you cast a spell you start with ‘A Base’, the thing you’re trying to cast at?
You dip into your lines, or ‘The Flow’ as it was once called, then you give your desires shape in your mind, ‘The Push’, and finish it all off with a burst of magic from your core, ‘Willpower’.

I wasn’t joking when I said that wands are stupid!
People have known about their lines LONG before wand’s were created but over time people started to forget the real meaning behind the symbols we all hold so close to ourselves.
Wand’s are practically a step backwards from using your lines but I guess even magic can’t cure ‘stupid’ no matter how useful it would be if it could.

ANYWAY, compared to the complex mess around the ‘Wicca’ star the Taoist yin-yang is practically beautiful in its simplicity.
The duality of nature, the light within the dark, the dark within the light..

I’m not a philosopher or a religious person in general but even I can appreciate the perfect design of the symbol, just simple enough to be memorable while having a deeper meaning right out there for anyone to see.

With mages we tend to associate the yin-yang with our reincarnation cycles, the awakenings to be exact, the positives and the negatives that come from our existence with the fusion that happens, forming our new-selves at each new incarnation.

I’m proud of these three symbols.
As a user of sympathetic magic, symbols are important in everything I do.
These three sum up who I am as a mage.. who I’d like to be?..

======

“..Uggg..”
My hand came up to pinch between my aching eyes for a moment.

I NEED to sleep but I really can’t.
My brains all over the place, it’s bad enough I drift off so much now but it’s even worse when I start rambling to myself!

“Just a bit more and you can stop, come on Hannah get it together.”
My fingers let go of the bridge of my nose and with one sharp twist I gave myself a relatively light slap across the cheek.

It worked for what I needed it to do, the short burst of pain woke me up a bit and let me focus properly on the task at hand.

I’ve finished the leather choker with a chain threaded through it to add in John’s new additions to the project AND it gives me somewhere to hook the little Ankh symbol without much fuss too.
The choker handles a lot of the hard work, while connecting with the other pieces for feedback purposes through a little hidden blood magic on the back of the leather.

I managed to simplify my design a fair bit with the addition of John’s necklace’s ‘design’.
Essentially the choker messes up the magic in my voice so the ‘don’t tell lies’ brand can’t work out if it should shock me or not, just like his glamor necklace did.

On top of that I’ve added a few fun little add-on’s, including a voice changing glyph, a fresh air rune-set which should theoretically let me swim underwater longer by giving me a bubble to breath as I go and best of all a selection of illusion charms, the main one based on my old ‘Al’ face which will hopefully give me some much needed anonymity in public from now on!

Admittedly the illusion’s not perfect, I couldn’t really get a clear enough image of ‘my’ face when casting so I kinda cheated and visualised Sarah’s face instead, it was so much easier to think about her than me for some reason?
It was much easier the second time when I set the other illusions, including one of my current ‘Arista’ face because you never know when having an instant ‘hide anything wrong with your face’ button could come in handy after all!

The leather ‘bracelets’ are finished too, with more chain threaded through them and an Ankh embedded into the leather each.

They’re designed to cut off access to my lines when the ‘signals’ from the ‘choker’ and my soon to be finished ‘belt’ don’t match up.
Luckily the Ankh on the choker sit’s low enough to feel the magic in my throat as I form words BEFORE the chocker itself messes with the output.

The comparison system should be pretty good at covering things.
Your voice is the purest ‘sample’ of your current magic you can get and the belt is designed to specifically imitate MY magic.

If I have another personality shift, getting taken over by Theodora or anyone else in general, my magic will change with their presence.
It’s only slight, the tiniest of shifts, but runes are MADE for the little stuff!

My magical signature changes in some way and BOOM no more external magic from my body!

That’s where the anklets come into things.
One of them is built to do what John’s cuff’s did before, dump my magic out as fast as possible through my foot.
The other one is built to do the opposite and DRAW IN magic.

It’s a weird concept but the math works so hopefully it will as well.

There are two ways to ruin someone’s magic control, you can flood their system like my second brand has done to me or you can get the user angry enough that their magic goes into chaos from their mixed up emotions.
By having one leg dump out my magic and the other one draw it BACK IN, with just a little bit of contamination from whatever I’m standing on, in theory at least my control should be less than ZERO!

Anyone trying to take over THIS body again is in for a NASTY surprise!
I’ve managed to regain some control over my magic with time and effort by having my system flooded for so long, humans are adaptable like that after all.
An invader on the other hand.. with a constantly changing flow of magic and fluctuating percentages of contamination, that’s going to be next to impossible for someone else to pull off!

I guess if you managed to stand DEAD still for a while to let your magic settle into some sort of ‘rhythm’ as it cycles, than it could work, but do you know what that makes you?
A SITTING DUCK!

As loopholes go, I’m happy with one that makes the body-snatcher have to freeze in place for ages before they can do even the tiniest of magic tricks!

EVERYTHING has a loophole somewhere, nothing in the real world is perfect and the best thing you can do is make the nearly inescapable loopholes as useless as possible most of the time.
The effect is subtle so hopefully even the much vaunted ‘Arista’ wouldn’t be able to figure it out before someone can stop her from doing anything stupid!

There’s more tricks added in to each item of course, it would just be a waste to do all this work for a simple suppression system AND the more runes thrown into the mix, the harder it will be for someone to work out just how these beauty’s work!

I added far too many little life improving enchantments to name at the moment.
Everything from elemental converters on the bracelets I can tap to activate, so casting multiple elements becomes easy as anything, to climate control runes on the belt and my old favorite ‘velox ped’ enchantment fitted into the anklets.

We had practically half a DAY to add features to my original basic design, between my devious little brain and John’s downright SCARY head we managed to chuck in way more enchantments than I would have thought possible even this morning!

No wonder I’m so tired.

All told I’ve probably enlarged, shrunk and activated more things in the last few hours than I have EVER before.
It’s been fun obviously but still REALLY tiring!

Now I just need to finish off the belt and this thing’s ready for field testing!
I LOVE magic sometimes!

..now where did I put that inscribing blade?..

======

“Just one more anddd... done!”
Well.. no, hold on..

My fingers settled gently on the belt’s metal buckle.
I used the big wide interlocking-disk shaped belt I got in the mail last week to save time and effort.. plus it looks nice too, better than all the leather on the other bits at least.

A dip and a shove had the belt practically glowing in runes as they all set themselves properly.
A quick turn of the belt in my fingers confirmed that there were no mistakes, not that I needed to check really, I don’t make mistakes when it comes to runes!

“Can’t believe I actually got it d-”
My proud mumble stalled out as it was interrupted by a jaw achingly big yawn.
“-done at last. John’s going to be so jealous that I did it without him!”

Slowly my fingers ran over the engraved runes on the belt as I considered my work for a second.
“’You can’t put an ‘Estis’ rune next an an ‘Esti’ rune Hannah, blah, blah, blah!’.. HA! Screw you and your third-rate knowledge of rune crafting John-boy!”

My smug little imitation of John’s voice ended with another cheek stretching-ly wide yawn.
Eyes slightly squinted, I turned to look at the sun slowly creeping its way into the sky outside the nearby window.

My hand moved up to play in the warm rays of light just peaking their way into the room.
..I’ve always liked sun-beams in the morning..

As my hand fiddled in and out of the light my head sank down to rest on my other arm lightly.
My eye’s REALLY ache for some reason, too much concentration probably.. that would explain the headache too, come to think of it..

I think I’ll just rest my eye’s a bit?
Not sleep, can’t sleep, but just.. rest my eyes, ya know?

Mmmm, the sun feels really nice..
..so nice..

======

“The girl comes, she sees, she knows!”
..huh?..

“..that the best you can do? I’ve heard better from Max when he’s drunk!”
That’s my voice isn’t it?.. how weird..

“You be wantin’ a prediction do ya? Be wantin’ to know what world waits for one of your kin?”
Is that.. Edith?..

“I wish to know what you see in our future Esti, do we rise to power as Max believes?.. does our family rule over all else?”

Esti?..
Not Edith then.. could have sworn that was Edith’s voice though?..

What’s going on anyway?
..my head hurts..

“Tellin’ ya would do ya no good. Ya need to SEE it, to FEEL ya future before ya will believe what must be done..”

“Oh? How do you propose to do that? I’ve never had the gift, you always did take after your father more than me Esti.”
Father?.. my voice.. Father.. ARISTA?!

Oh crap!
I fell asleep!!

“I be showin’ ya, set ya right on ya lines. Ya not be thankin’ me for this but I be showin’ ya exactly what ya need to be seein’!”

My vision started to clear, or should I say THE ‘vision’?
We were in a small hut of some kind.
A short but rather well built woman with long hair of the purest white was staring at me intensely.

Before I could take in more than the vaguely recognisable expression on her face her hands came up and slammed onto either side of my head.
It felt like it should have hurt, even thought I couldn’t feel anything in the slightest.
..visions are weird like that..

The white haired woman with Edith’s voice huffed in a large breath and squinted at me for just a moment.. then the world exploded.

Everything went into fast-forward.
I couldn’t tell what was going on, flashes of recognisable things disappeared almost as quickly as they came for what felt like ages!

I saw a flash of John with that stupid goatee beard he wore in my Victorian vision?
A flash of the Ice Queen’s ‘little darling’ ice constructs landing on her hand..
I saw Eris’s loving little smile staring up at me, quickly followed by an apple that seemed to almost glow in a golden hue as it fell through the air.

The pain in my head got worse and worse as things kept flashing by, to a point where I just stopped trying to focus on them.

One last flash caught me off guard when my own face came into view, wide scared eyes staring up at me from a rocky snow-covered mountain top, lying in a spreading patch of red?..

Is that.. a bleeding stump where my right hand should be?

The vision slowed down and seemed to almost jump into reality out of nowhere.
Suddenly I could feel the wind on my face, soft silk brushing my legs.

The version of me on the floor’s left hand was clutching tightly onto something metallic.. I recognise this scene?

Everything’s more focused this time..
I couldn’t make out many details before, in MY future vision, but the blood on the snow is almost vivid this time..

The version of me moved at last, with a stagger and a twitch she moved into an unsteady standing position.
Her remaining hand came out brandishing the metallic object in my direction, her stump tucked protectively to her chest.

“Do you know the difference between us Arista?”

My view.. the imposter’s view.. ARISTA’S view shifted slightly as if she’d cocked her head to the side.
The world got a bit smaller as she squinted her eyes down in anger.

“I’m the Mother of Magic, and you’re just a girl who won’t do as she’s told.. I’m sure that won’t be a problem for much longer though..”
The imposter’s arm moved up and the snow around us swirled, as if following her unspoken command.

------

With a jolt everything changed and I was suddenly staring up at the celling of a vaguely familiar hut?

“I be tellin’ ya.. you not be knowin’ what ya be askin’ for Mother.. power’s help us, but you asked for it..”
My view drifted down to follow a womans back, shrouded in pure white hair, as its owner left the hut without another word.

My body.. the body, Arista’s body.. shook violently?

After a painfully long delay a sob wrenched itself from her lips.
The body I was in rolled to the side and curled in on itself in obvious pain.

“..Alice..”
The word left her lips on the tail-end of another sob.
“My children.. I’m sorry..”

She broke down into more open sobs at that point, it hurt just to hear them honestly.
These aren’t the sobs of an evil woman?
The Arista I’ve seen in my visions.. she could never cry like this?..

I barely got a glimpse of the things she saw but whatever it all was it’s truly broken her?
..broken her to her very CORE..

‘What the hell is going on?’

As if that unspoken question was some kind of catalyst the world faded to black around me and moments later I felt a tugging in my chest that I normally associate with someone trying to pull me out of my mindscape by force.

Light started to fade back in again but before another vision could start up the tugging in my chest peaked, pulling a breath and a pained yelp from me as moments later I was thrown back into the waking world with a thump.

No rambling Confucius-like comment this time.. which probably makes a statement in itself? There's a time to be lazy and a time to be proactive, we all just need a bit of help working out which is the right reaction every once in a while I guess. Hannah's worked it out for now, from the looks of things at least? Events unfold including but not limited to: Eris cooking beans. John getting told off again (he still deserves it of course) and Hannah reluctantly gets naked!

 

My body hit the floor hard with a worryingly loud ‘thump’.

People moved frantically around me for a few seconds, hands brushing against me on all sides.
My head throbbed painfully and it seemed to take ages for my eyes to clear enough for me to see anything again.

“John?”
I could feel his magic more than see him at first but eventually his tight worried face hove into view above me.

“Your name is Hannah Cooper, you think I’m a dickhead sometimes but we’re friends?”

Why is he.. what’s he going on about?..
Of course I’m Hannah, he IS being a dickhead now that he mentions it!

“Wha’ are you goin’ on ‘bout?.. stupid John..”
It was a struggle to make my lips work for some reason?
Something I muttered must have been at least slightly understandable though because he leaned back and sighed heavily in relief moments later.

“She’s fine, I can’t think of any other incarnation that would call me ‘stupid’ that casually.”

Huh?.. did I say the ‘stupid John’ bit out loud?
..my head hurts..

“She’s not fine Johnny, she’s obviously recovering from one hell of a vision.. you don’t get nosebleeds from the simple stuff..”
John’s Mum sounds worried too?
Something about that.. something..

Urrgg! I can’t concentrate!

With that burst of frustration my control slipped slightly and a moment later my magic broke free to let off a big golden dome of healing.
In seconds my head cleared completely.

I sat up from my awkward position on the floor, apparently I fell off the chair at some point?.. that’s probably where the big ‘thump’ sound came from earlier I guess..

“What happened?”
No.. wait.. I know what happened?
I had another vision!

Arista.. I think it was Arista?
Arista and Edith?.. no, not Edith.. some other name?..
It’s all practically a blur now?!

Something about Arista wanting to know the future and then.. she got ‘vulcan mind-melded’?..

Whatever it was that she saw, it included me at some point and it left her crying her heart out on the floor as a complete mess?

“I put a remote listening charm on the door before I left, good thing I did, you started having another fit and your yells woke me up. We got here as fast as possible but it took Mum using some mind-magic trick to pull you back out of the vision you were apparently having..”
I tried to pull myself upright but almost slipped sideways in the process.
John’s hand shot out to stabilise me which earned him a weak smile from me.

I’m kind of tempted to let off another burst of magic to fix myself again but if it didn’t get fixed with the first blast then it’s probably more of a mental ‘me’ problem then a physical, healable one.

“We need to suppress your Seer ability’s sooner rather than later Ali- uh.. Hannah?..”
The sound of Mrs Jones’s voice surprised me slightly; I hadn’t quite noticed she was there, aside from a vague almost subconscious acknowledgement of a presence in general.

I twisted my head to look at her worried face and nodded in agreement.
I’m all for getting rid of these stupid migraine-inducing visions as soon as bloody possible!

“Let’s go to the basement, I’ve got a meditation chamber set up down there. Johnny, can you go wake Eris up and sort out some breakfast for her? We shouldn’t be too long if all goes well.”
John didn’t seem too pleased with the idea of leaving my side but he reluctantly eased back to his feet and headed outside with a few cautious glances back at me.
It took a little effort but I managed to ease a hand up and wave him on with a smile which seemed to be all he needed to take the last few steps toward the door.

It’s not that I don’t appreciate his help but someone has to keep an eye on Eris and more importantly, if my guess is right, I need to be naked for the next bit.. definitely better for everyone involved if John is in no way near me for it to be honest..

“Come on then Hannah, let’s get you up.”
With a grimace I accepted Mrs Jones’s hand and let her pull me back to my feet.
She led the way out of the door and down the hall towards her basement with me following behind on slightly unsteady legs.

======

“Relax Hannah.”

Yeah, well.. you’re not naked in the middle of a ring of etched runes with your best-friends mother painting glyphs onto your skin in body paint, I think I’LL decide when I should be relaxed lady!

“Seriously Hannah, everything’s going to be fine. You might feel a slight disconnect from your integrated past memories but aside from that you will barely notice the difference when we’re finished..”

It’s not the ‘finished’ that’s got me worked up it’s the ‘process’.
I’ve read about this sort of thing, runic rituals are pretty common in my books being a rune master and all, on top of that Edith’s book about mind magic had a whole chapter on it.

That doesn’t mean I’m in any way comfortable at the moment!

I get the theory, the runes are being used as a focus lens of sorts.
The rings on the floor are built to help lead your magic through your lines to your mind without conscious effort to save splitting your attention and aid the ‘meeting-of-the-minds’ thing Mrs Jones is going to try pulling off.
The runes on my body are mostly centered on my Nexus points, known as ‘Chakras’ by the non-magicals, they technically don’t exist but as with most magic SYMBOLICALLY they do and any help we can get is useful honestly.

Annoyingly that means I had to let Mrs Jones draw ‘clarity’ runes around my ‘Anahata’ or ‘heart chakra’ to help her see what she’s doing when she reaches for my core, meaning I had to be topless and let her scribble all over my breasts which was REALLY weird to feel!

The ‘Blocking’ runes around my ‘Manipura’ or ‘jewel chakra’ were annoying too because my belly button is kinda ticklish and she had to do two full rings of runes around it before she was done.
Luckily I didn’t need anything done to my ‘Svadhishthana’ or ‘sacral chakra’, the one between my belly and my.. you know.. that one’s usually reserved for fertility rituals because it sits kinda above a woman’s ovaries.

The really embarrassing part was when she drew ‘support’ runes with a few more intricate glyphs for my ‘root’ or ‘Muladhara’ chakra.
It’s technically meant to be on your tailbone but apparently drawing any of these runes on your back doesn’t work in these rituals, so I got the ever so fun indignity of having a woman with a tiny paint-brush drawing around my still-new ‘woman bits’ and inner thighs.

Compared to THAT lot the ‘Linking’ runes on my ‘Vishuddha’, ‘throat’ chakra and the ‘blinding’ runes on my ‘Ajna’, third-eye chakra were practically a welcome task to endure!

Basically from what I’ve gathered by asking questions as she works and my own runic knowledge, the floor turns my body into a great big mind-magic satellite dish and her work around my chakra’s ‘tunes’ my body to her frequency while providing support where needed to key areas of my lines.

To block off an ability that’s as instinctive as a Seer talent you have to go DEEP, she’s going to take a trip into my mindscape level ‘deep’.

It’s kind of scary honestly, if I wasn’t so desperate to stop the visions and she wasn’t John’s Mum I doubt I’d have trusted her to do it all?
Even Edith never went this far when she was teaching me how to access my mindscape.. although that may just be because she enjoyed hitting me with her JuJu stick more than holding my hand through the process..
..evil little yoda..

“I think we’re about done Hannah. John tells me you can access your mindscape, which is pretty impressive by the way, but it should also make things a bit easier for us. I want you to go to your mindscape and wait for me? I’ll join you as soon as I can, okay?”
Her voice stayed just on the right side of ‘reassuring’ and her smile held nothing but encouragement.

For some reason that didn’t help much with my nerves though..

I’ve not been into my mindscape in a while and the last time I DID go in Ellie was in the process of a minor breakdown.
I promised to come back quickly to help her out but then things happened and I just.. kinda.. forgot?..

I’ve got a feeling she’s going to be PRETTY pissed with me at this point!

“Hannah?”
..here goes nothing I guess?..

======

With a dip into my lines and a few traced trails of magic the world disappeared completely only to rebuild itself in a blinding white light that slowly faded back into the recognisable shape of my mindscape.

Well.. sort of?..
Where the hell is everybody?!

Isn’t there meant to be, ya know, PEOPLE in here?!
Last time I was here there were less of them and they were all scared to death but I definitely had incarnations and their ‘houses’ cluttering up the place!

Everything’s just GONE?
No houses, no forest, no past-me’s.. it’s back to being just a plain white space again?!

“Where the FUCK have you been?!”
A yell in my own voice from behind me made me jump in fright.
I didn’t get a chance to turn and face it before an arm looped around my neck, pulling me sharply to the floor in one of my old favorite Judo inspired takedown moves.

In seconds she had me pinned and a version of my angry face glared down at me hard.
Her teeth were bared and a growl was coming from her delicate throat as she worked to overpower me completely into submission.

“Ellie?”
I think it’s Ellie at least?
She’s changed her outfit and hairstyle for some reason but I.. I dunno, she just FEELS like Ellie?..

“My name is Hannah and I’m the one’s asking questions here bitch!”
I couldn’t help but wince slightly when her fists squeezed down on my wrists tightly in her anger.
“What did you do with everybody? Why did you leave me in here ALONE?! GIVE THEM BACK!”

I flinched slightly when she let go of my now slightly sore wrist and winced down harder in pain a moment later when her hand connected with my cheek in a solid slap that seemed to ring out into the empty space around us.

“GIVE THEM BACK! Why are you taking everyone from me you evil, selfish BITCH?!”
Her hand flew out again making my cheek sting a second later.
“GIVE THEM BACK!!”

She was practically sobbing at this point.
The fact that she had me pinned down was immaterial because even if I could break loose I was too stunned to manage it.

What the hell’s happened to her?
I know I’ve been integrating a few of my past-incarnations but the way Ellie’s acting.. it’s like.. like I’ve killed them or something?..

“Ellie wh-”
I didn’t manage to get anything else out before she reared back and slapped me again.

“MY NAME IS HANNAH!”

Before she could finish the wind-up for her next slap she froze.
Her head cocked to the side and she seemed to turn her whole body away from me for a second.. then her eyes came back to me with a cold look of pure rage inside them.

“You brought reinforcements?! You’re letting someone ELSE into here without MY permission?!!”
She leaned forward, so close our noses were practically touching even as I tried to lean away from her and she let off a truly deep ‘Grace-worthy’ growl of undisguised anger.
“You’ll get yours Alice! NO-ONE takes my fucking FAMILY from me and gets away with it.. not even YOU!”

In the blink of an eye she vanished?

I ended up laying on the stark white floor of my mindscape panting heavily in shock for a few seconds more before there was a flash and Mrs Jones appeared a pace or two away from me.
For a moment she looked mildly disorientated but that cleared quickly and she focused down on me with a look of confusion.

“Are you okay Hannah?”
The fact she had to ask means I must look a right state but I’m just relieved she turned up when she did, who KNOWS what Ellie would have done to me if she hadn’t!

“..my mind’s a scary place..”
Mrs Jones didn’t seem to quite know how to respond to that comment but, being the consummate ‘parent’ that she is, she made short work of helping me back to my feet at least.

“Okay, let’s get this show on the road shall we?”
She shifted her eyes around the open white expanse of my mindscape and shuddered for some reason.
“You’re mindscape’s worryingly empty, didn’t you try customising it at all?”

I shrugged self-consciously.
She’s kind of got a point, I never did get around to learning HOW to shape my mindscape properly.
There didn’t really seem to be a point when all the other incarnations started popping up and changing stuff.. it’s not like I’ve really had the TIME to look into it even if I wanted to either..

“Well I’ll need a marker pen at the very least. Do you know how to manifest something in here?”

Uh.. maybe?..
Well, sorta.. it’s all about willpower I know that much!

I think you just kinda.. hang on I’ll try it?..

Concentrate, Concentrate, Concentrate!
Marker pen.. pen with which to draw in marker..
Permanent Marker pen, thin tipped round object with ink..
Concentrate, Concentrate, Concentrate!

Oh come ON brain!
It’s like conjuring, it can’t be that hard!

Marker pen.. give me a marker pen..
Marker pen NOW!
N-N-NOW!

GIVE ME A BLOODY PEN DAMN IT!

======

With a puff of suspiciously cheesy looking smoke a felt-tipped pen appeared on the floor at my feet.
I huffed out a long breath I hadn’t realised I’d been holding.

That took WAY more effort than I thought it would!
I think my anger made my magic spike enough to create it more out of instinct in the end.. rather than from my efforts in general.

Magic’s like that sometimes, mine is at least.

I’m new to the whole ‘letting go of control’ thing that John’s opened my eyes to recently but my magic’s always been a bit.. responsive?.. I guess.
It tends to know what I want it to do more than I think is ‘normal’ at least.

It’s worked in my favor with no downsides so far so I never really bothered questioning it honestly.

“One pen, as ordered.”
My voice was pretty smug there, I’ll admit I’m kinda proud of that pen now?
No real training or reading into the method behind creating stuff within my mindscape and my first attempt worked perfectly!

Mrs Jones knelt down and picked the pen up.
She popped the cap off to inspect it thoughtfully.
Slowly she brought the nib up to her nose and gave it a gentle sniff.

“Blood? I’ve never had a marker pen full of blood to use before, should work though, I take it you’re a blood mage of some kind for this incarnation?”

Blood?

Ohhh..’give me a BLOODY pen’, bit too literal there I think?..
..stupid magic..

“Uh, yeah? Edith taught me bound blood magic and I’ve integrated it in with my runes for convenience with the added bonus of a power-boost.”
Mrs Jones smiled at me with almost pride in her eyes for that one.

“Making the most of your talents, clever way to do it too, very unorthodox..”
She shot me a wink and straightened up to glance around us again thoughtfully.
“Let’s get started shall we? Once the mirrored runes are in place I can seal things up nice and tight.. uh.. you’re going to have to be naked again Hannah.. sorry?..”

I sighed heavily but didn’t argue the point like I did the first time in the real world.
I know logically why it has to happen, that doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable but it DOES mean I’m not going to be an ass about it.. this time at least.

The same principle applies in here as outside.
Magic’s all about symbols, doing a load of runes on and around me in the real world gives us a nice solid starting point for this mind-magic ‘trick’ she’s going to pull off.. but doing it again INSIDE my mind turns a ‘solid design’ into a practically unbreakable spell system all of its own.. and that’s before she even starts doing the mind-magic mumbo-jumbo that will block the ‘seer’ junk properly!

I kept a cautious eye on Mrs Jones as she worked on the floor rune-sets but I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that we were being watched?
No matter how many times I jerked my head around I couldn’t seem to catch who or what it was giving me that feeling.

It’s probably Ellie, right?
I don’t know what’s happened in here since I last dropped in and I’m really worried about her but on the other hand she scared the HELL out of me!
Also, WORSE than that, I have NO idea HOW she pulled off her little ‘disappearing’ trick before Mrs Jones appeared?!

It’s really strange to be so scared while in your own head..
Mindscapes are meant to be sanctuaries of sorts for the mages that have access to them, a place to reflect and find your center again.
Mine’s been a pain-in-the-ass since day one but NOW I.. I don’t feel SAFE here anymore?..

“You need to strip off and settle in the circles for me now Hannah.”
Great.. just what I need, as if I wasn’t self-conscious and unease enough here already, now I get to go through it all while naked!

A blush lit my cheeks as I reluctantly stepped into the circle and, facing away from her, willed my clothes to disappear.
It took a moment because, honestly, I didn’t want them to go?
My mind was well aware of that fact but eventually I got it and with a shiver I settled myself down in meditation pose.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get this done as quickly as possible so you can go play with Eris and John again okay?”
She’s trying to sound reassuring but it’s a bit of a hard sell when she’s approaching me cautiously with a felt-tipped pen full of blood, even if this IS all in my head.

..when did my life become a long chain of ritual circles and blood?!..
Honestly, I practically can’t remember a time when I DIDN’T have something unsettlingly ‘occult’ going on around me at this point!

“Thanks for doing this Mrs Jones.. I mean this in the nicest possible way, but can we just get this OVER with so I can spend the next few hours hiding from you in embarrassment?”
She smiled at me understandingly with more calm then I could hope to fake right now.

With almost tender strokes she made the first rune marking on my shoulder which would ring around my neck.
Slowly she made her way around to my front and I folded my arms to hide what I could.
I couldn’t help but blush harder again as well.

“I told you before Hannah, you can call me Tasha or Hel if you like? There’s no need for all the blushing dear, you’ve got nothing I haven’t seen before and honestly, considering you used to play with the hose in our back yard in the summer when your Mom was working, it’s not like it’s going to be the first time I’ve seen you naked or anything.”
Nice try Mrs J but if anything that made me blush even harder!
“Do you remember the time Johnny talked you into going fishing?.. the pair of you came back covered in so much mud I could hardly tell which of you was which!”

That made me smile at least and my arms went a little slack as I slipped into remembering it all.
Sarah was pretty pissed with me the day afterwards!

We were.. seven, maybe?
The only reason she wasn’t with us at the time was that Mum had dragged her off to some ‘spa’ for some ‘mother-daughter bonding’.
She got two days of being treated like Mum’s personal doll and came home to hear that I got to go fishing AND get covered in mud at the same time, without her.

I think that might be the day she really started to dislike John honestly?
That’s when the ‘Joe’ stuff started at least, passive aggressive as it was, it was also the start of several months where she tried to monopolize my time and keep me away from John as much as humanly possible out of pretty obvious jealousy.

She conned me into swapping places with her an hour before her next ‘mother-daughter bonding’ trip a few weeks later too..
I think that was more of a mild punishment aimed at me for doing things without her at that point but if it WAS then it backfired amazingly because I had fun with Mum that weekend and apparently she hated every minute of having to pretend to be me around John!

A smug little smirk came to my lips as I focused on those days and tried desperately to ignore the tickling sensation around my breast area where my best friends Mum is busy painting me up like some kind of tribal offering to a pagan god..

Mum showed me how to paint my nails that weekend!
Sarah never DID learn how to do her own nails properly, she usually gets her studio people to do them for her ‘to save time’ instead.

“Lean back for me Hannah I need to reach your stomach and.. well..”

Oh joy.. I REALLY need to work out a better way to do this!
I’ll add that to my long list of future projects right under tattoo runes, the Bad Juju Stick version Two-point-O and that whole ‘science mixed with magic’ idea I guess..

When did my life get so complicated?!
I used to have time to get BORED for powers sake!

“Bit more Hannah I can’t quite reach your-”
YES! I get it, Thank-you!

GAH! COLD PEN!
Watch where you’re putting that thing lady!!

======

“I think that’s everything? You ready to start Hannah?”

I cringed, having to fight the urge to fold my arms over my boobs and.. the rest?..
It’s bad enough I’m naked and covered in imaginary blood-ink but I can’t even cover myself properly or I’ll mess up the runes!

“Ready when you are, kind of desperate to get this over and done with honestly..”
Mrs Jones smiled at me warmly which, again, would have been a lot more reassuring if she hadn’t just spent the last ten minutes painting my front in annoyingly sticky blood-ink mixture from a pen!

This is all in my mind and symbolic anyway so why the HELL couldn’t I have imagined the blood-ink to be a lot less sticky and nasty?
I SWEAR I’m meant to be able to do that sort of thing in here, it’s MY mind after all?!

“Okay, close your eyes and settle into meditation. I’m going to shut off your conscious mind just long enough to get the mental blocks in place and then leave here to finish the ritual in the real world.”
She patted my knee, one of the few spots un-marked by ink at this point, reassuringly.
“It’ll be just like waking up, but when you do you should hopefully be free from those horrible visions.”

My lips twitched up into a nervous smile for her.
I don’t LIKE having to do this but she’s the expert and the idea of no more visions or accompanying mess is SO enticing.

With a final nod I dropped into meditation stance and focused on trying to lose myself.
Mrs Jones brought her hand up to my forehead.
Her mouth moved through some kind of incantation but I couldn’t make it out in my vaguely aware state of being.

A heavy weight seemed to form, pulling me down into the floor and draining my energy as it went.
For some reason it felt like I could see shadows moving behind the vague outline of Mrs Jones before me, for a moment at least, but I couldn’t focus on them properly and a heartbeat later the world went black?

======

I jolted up with a gasp.
It took me a moment to work out what was happening but the furniture around Mrs Jones’s basement-come-meditation chamber hasn’t changed at least?

A closer inspection of the area allowed me to pick up the person standing on the other side of the room from me, writing notes in a book of some kind.

“Mrs Jones?”
She jerked in surprise and spun around to give me a nervous smile, her hand slapping the book she’d been writing in shut as she went.

“Hannah, how are you feeling? You took a bit longer to come out of it then I was expecting?”
I shot her a somewhat confused look but shrugged it off after a moment.

How AM I feeling actually?

I feel.. I feel.. clear?..
My head feels clearer then it has in AGES, hell I practically feel like my old self again?!

When I told John’s Mum as much she smiled at me warmly and nodded to herself with pride.
Obviously this little added benefit to suppressing my ‘seer’ trait was less of an unexpected bonus to her then it was to me, she IS the expert on mind-magic’s though I guess..

“It should take a few hours for the spell to truly settle in but in the meantime why don’t you go wash off all that ink and get dressed? If I’m not mistaken I THINK John has just finished preparing some kind of indecently large breakfast for all of us, with Eris’s help of course.”
The little twinkle of enjoyment in her eye was kind of infectious and I couldn’t help but smile back at her as the image of John trying to both cook AND look after Eris at the same time made me want to laugh aloud.

He never HAS been very good at multitasking.

“The shower is just through that door there, you know where the kitchen is right?”
I nodded and with one more fond smile she made her way to the stairs out of the basement, leaving me to sort myself out.

Nervously I hopped over the ring of runes around me so as not to mess anything up and started towards the door she’d waved to.

Despite my pressing need to get clean I stopped short after a few paces.
After long a moment’s pause I shot a glance around the empty room and rushed back over to the desk she’d been writing at.

The book she’d been filling in was sitting there, almost begging me to check it out, but at a glance I’d seen enough for my worries to be assuaged.
Written on the front in neat embossed calligraphy were the words ‘Natasha Jones Project Log - seventh edition’, the book looked slightly aged so she’s obviously been using it for a while.

A lot of mages tend to keep project logs.
I don’t, but then I’m a messy researcher in general?

For a wild moment there I thought she was up to something with how nervous she’d acted when I woke up but it’s kinda understandable with one of these things, mages can be pretty protective of their project logs.. the ones that actually bother doing them at least.

“Sorry Mrs J.”
I patted the books cover and quickly made my way back towards the basement shower area.

I was so busy trying to work out how to define this new.. clarity?.. I’m feeling after having her do whatever it was that she did to block the ‘seer’ talent for me, I barely even registered that I would be facing yet another ‘shower monster’ before I was half way through trying to rub the ink off my boobs!

Well.. either that or I’m becoming somewhat ACCUSTOMED to this body?..

..weird thought that?..
It’s probably better if I go with the ‘distracted’ option there for my own state of mind if nothing else.
I’m in NO way ready to even CONSIDER being somehow ‘comfortable’ in this body!

“What kind of ink IS this?.. Come OFF you stupid..GRRR!”

OWW!
Note to self, don’t rub hard on your boobs, definitely not a good idea at ALL!.. owwww..
..stupid girl body..

======

“Hey Hannah, feeling better? uh.. you’ve got a little.. um..”
John paused and gestured to his neck slightly but stalled out when my warning look finally registered in his brain.

“Yes, thank you for pointing that out John. I couldn’t get some of the ink to come off..”
His mouth shifted into an awkward smile and he shrugged at me in a way I think he considers to be in some way ‘charming’.

I’ll admit the look suits him better than being ‘smug’ does at least but he’ll get nothing more than THAT from me at the moment!

“Breakfast? I’m sure at least Eris will be glad to see you, she’s been worried..”
I smiled at him and folded my arms around my ribs self-consciously.
It feels really weird to be standing here in just a conjured robe, I never thought I’d miss wearing a bra but when mixed with a distinct lack of underwear down below as well..

“Sure, you know me, food is always a good idea!”
John laughed at my forced cheer, surprisingly that made my smile become a little less forced eventually.
“What have you been up to in my absence then?”

“Cooking”
I couldn’t help but snort at that one.

Without another word he turned to lead me back towards the kitchen area.
The door was only a few steps away and the moment we entered the room proper there was a happy squeal followed quickly by a small body running head-long into my waist.

“Mom! We did bacon and Dad showed me the macro-wave an’ beans are SOO good!”
Her little arms squeezed me for a moment before loosening as she reached up in an obvious plea to be picked up.
..I think she meant ‘micro-wave’.. just a guess?..

“Sounds like fun, are you ready for breakfast sweetie?”
She nodded with as much force as a girl her age can and let off a happy little sound as I scooped down to pick her up at last.

I’m guessing John helped her get dressed or at least picked out her clothes for her?
She’s wearing a little pair of blue shorts and a black T-shirt which I vaguely remember John wearing as a kid.
He’s even got her wearing a pair of little ‘boyish’ sports socks and trainers with a load of different colors on the side!

It’s all a bit big for her but John’s never been great with complicated conjuration, or at least Max never was, so it’s probably the best he could manage on short notice.

I’m not sure why she wanted picking up honestly, we’re only a few steps away from the table and it’s not like her feet are going to get cold or anything with those thick sports socks on?
That being said I took those few steps to the table easily and slid into the nearest chair without comment, letting her slide slightly off my hip as I landed.

Instead of settling in the seat next to me as I’d expected she shoved her way around to sit on my lap.
I had to push the chair out a little more to make room for her but eventually we got comfortable enough.

Luckily John chose that moment to make his way around from the kitchen with a plate in each hand.

He didn’t comment on Eris’s seating decision but he offered me an awkward smile as he put first one then a second, slightly smaller, plate down in front of me.
Eris’s eyes lit up instantly when she recognised the food.

I’m kind of surprised honestly.
There’s not a burnt item in sight?

I was expecting to have to fake my way through ‘enjoying’ some terrible mess of John’s crafting for the sake of Eris’s feelings if nothing else but this actually looks APPETISING?!

When did JOHN learn how to cook?
I helped him make a mother’s day meal once when we were in our teens and despite me relegating him to mostly simple tasks like ‘gravy duty' he still managed to ruin practically every ingredient he touched!

“This looks good..”
Eris giggled and wiggled her butt forward slightly in my lap to reach her plate better.

“Dad did the bacon, I macro-waved the beans, everything else Gran Jones had to step in with before he could melt it into mush.”

‘Gran Jones’?
Well I guess that’s one way to go about it.

I’m kind of glad she’s getting used to our weird ‘family’ situation, although if Mrs Jones tells me to call her ‘Mum’ I’m SO out of here!

Despite appearances John’s not the father of MY child, I’m NOT the mother of his and we are in NO way at the ‘calling each other’s parent’s our parents’ stage of our ‘relationship’ even if we WERE together.. which we’re TOTALLY not!

I may be doing a pretty good impersonation at the moment but despite what she thinks I’m NOT Eris’s mother and I’m NOT Arista!

“Try the black-pudding Mom, it’s just like the stuff we got in England!”
I smiled down at her excited little face, partly in thanks for the interruption before I could get too worked up over the whole ‘not Arista’ thing again, but it’s pretty awkward having to pretend that I know what she’s talking about.

What even IS ‘black-pudding’ anyway?

It looks like a lump of slightly wet charcoal honestly?
Under the watchful eyes of Eris I sighed and cut off a small corner of the little black ‘urinal cake’ nearest to me.

Huh?.. it’s actually not that bad?..
Kinda meaty, a lot softer then I was expecting and a bit tart with just an added little ‘tang’ that feels vaguely familiar but I can’t quite put my finger on where from..

After a moment to finish chewing I offered Eris a smile of approval and turned back to my breakfast.
I wonder if I put a bit of the black-pudding with the bacon it will.. ohhh!..
Okay, THAT tastes good!

I’m going to have to find out the recipe for these or something so we can have them at home?
Anything that can improve the taste of BACON has a magic all of its own in my book!

“I take it you’re a fan of Marag Dhubh Hannah?”
Mrs Jones looked oddly smug for some reason.

I think.. ‘Marag Dhubh’.. that sounds familiar?..
Scotish?.. Irish?.. something like that.
GAELIC!

That’s it, old Gaelic.
Let’s see.. ‘Dhubh’ is.. ‘Black’?
So ‘Marag’ would be..

UGH! Wake up Hannah! ‘Marag’ means ‘pudding’ duh?!

Pudding Black, or Black pudding in English..
Well THAT was a waste of time!

Why’d it take me so long to work that one out?
I’m normally pretty quick with languages and I have quite a few Gaelic speaking past-incarnations, Lady M to name just one.

“..Marag Dhubh?..”
Why does it feel like I’m missing so-

BLOOD SAUSAGE!
EWWW!

Despite having already swallowed my last mouthful already I still turned away from the table and cupped my mouth to my sleeve so I could do a few little ‘spits’ to clear what was left on principle alone.
A moment later I had the cup of coffee John had put down in front of me while I was eating up to my lips and was sipping away to clear any remnants from my mouth.

Black Pudding is a type of blood sausage!
A sausage made with actual pigs blood in it!

It’s pretty popular in Germanic based society’s and especially England for some odd reason but it’s made with BLOOD?!

That’s DISGUSTING!
I can’t believe I was EATING that!

“Are you okay Hannah?”
Everyone looks pretty surprised and worried by my reaction, kind of understandable really I guess.

Blood! Fine, I work with the stuff all the time, but EATING it?!

With a heavy shudder I grimaced, turning back to face them all with a slight shrug.
“I forgot what actually goes into black pudding.. sorry..”

John’s lips twitched up slightly in amusement.
Mrs Jones seemed more surprised than anything else still and Eris just looked confused.

“It’s not like there’s much actual blood in it Hannah, you’d get more out of a rare steak honestly with all the oatmeal and suet in it?”

Oh shut UP John!
Don’t come at me with LOGIC here!

I already know I completely overreacted there.
I’ve tasted my own blood enough times during fights that I shouldn’t find it in any way ‘gross’ at this point but for some reason I just freaked out a little bit there, okay?!!

It was practically instinctive honestly..
..stupid instincts..

Eventually I gathered myself back together enough to offer Mrs J an apologetic smile for making a scene.
She gave me a warm knowing look in response, obviously catching on to the problem from John’s words.

Eris still seemed to be watching me in confusion but after almost thirty seconds of staring up at me where I ignored the look and turned back to my food, nudging the black pudding away with my fork so I could focus on the rest of the nicer stuff, she seemed to shrug it off and turn back to her own food with surprising gusto.

I winced slightly when I saw her spear a rather large cut of black pudding on her fork and shove it into her mouth with some bacon and beans.

I tried to resist but in the end I couldn’t take it anymore!

Taking the clean sleeve of my conjured robe in my fingers I shifted just enough that I could wipe the trail of bean juice off of her little chin.
She shot me a surprised look for a moment but quickly ducked her head back down in embarrassment when she worked out what I’d just done.

My cheeks flared in an equally bright blush as I settled back in my seat better and noticed the two Jones’s watching me, one with a warm smile and the other with a knowing smirk.
..shut up John..

“What’s the plan for the rest of the day then?”
Finally someone changed the topic, even if it WAS John!

“I want Hannah to stay close until she’s had at least one clear nap without any visions, but aside from that it’s up to you really, I’ve got some projects to work on so you’ll have to amuse yourselves I’m afraid.”
That’s better than nothing I guess?.. we need to head back to Klamath falls at some point soon anyway, people are probably getting antsy over there with me being gone so long..

“I want to do a final check over of my suppressors and then give them a test run this afternoon, aside from that I’m up for suggestions?”

It’s not like there’s much to do around.. where ARE we anyway?..
I can’t believe it’s taken me THIS long to think of it but I don’t actually know where John’s Mum’s house is?!

“We could go to the Bazaar? It’s always worth a trip when you’re in the area.”
My eyes cut over to John in surprise.

The Bazaar?.. but.. that’s in Seattle?!
It’s a big magical shopping district, even bigger than the one in Portland I was thinking of visiting a few days ago!

“Where ARE we exactly?”
I must have sounded at least slightly stupid judging by the smirk that John gave me but he didn’t leave me hanging long at least, I doubt he could resist rubbing it in at this point even if he tried..

“Welcome to DuPont, our little slice of Americana hidden between Olympia and Lakewood, forty miles south of Seattle.”

We’re in WASHINGTON? Just how long was John DRIVING for?!
I know it’s technically not much further from Eugene to Portland then it is from Portland to Seattle but it FEELS like a big difference, he had to cross a bloody state line!

“Don’t tease her Johnny, she had no way of knowing with the visions making her sleep through most of the trip.. need I remind you that when we first moved here YOU thought we’d somehow travelled nearly three-thousand miles east in one afternoon because of the ‘Welcome to Washington’ sign..”

I cracked up laughing, Mrs Jones seemed pretty amused too.
Eris didn’t seem to quite get the joke but she joined in laughing when it became obvious she was missing out.
John ducked his head and grumbled to himself.

That’s John for you, mind like a steel trap but give him a ‘school’ related topic like geography and he can’t tell his ass from his elbow!

“I think he was busy pretending to have some kind of long term ‘debilitating disease’ that just so happened to stop him from being able to do homework when we covered Oregon and it’s neighbouring states Mrs Jones.”
If anything John’s blush went up a notch at that one and he cringed a little when his Mum’s eyes turned with a bit of a sharper focus upon him in obvious annoyance.

It was years ago but it’s surprisingly fun to finally be able to tell someone of how many stupid little ‘get out of doing work’ schemes John tried to pull back in school!

“You know, he once told our math teacher that he was blind and tried to prove it by walking into everyone’s desks like a human pinball until someone tripped him and he landed face first in Judith Baker’s cleavage?”
Eris practically vibrated in my lap with the giggles she was trying hard to hide for John’s sake.
I on the other hand had NO problem with showing my amusement openly.

“JOHNNY!”
John flinched pretty badly and shot me a quick accusing glare before turning back to face his mother’s, much delayed, wrath for the years of stupid childishness I had to put up with.

Far be it from me to hold a grudge or make his suffering even-
I cut my eyes between them and a smirk grew on my lips slightly.
-okay fine, just one more..

“He was the one that dropped that big balloon of paint on our English teachers car from the school roof too, she gave him an F because he argued with her on whether ‘ye’ was an actual phrase in old English.. then he managed to frame some guy on the football team who’d been giving him crap the week before, getting the guy suspended.”
ahh.. that felt GOOD!..

“JONATHAN MAXARMIUS JONES, you are in SO much TROUBLE!”

Eris finally cracked and let off a peel of laughter which she quickly tried to suppress by stuffing a lump of bacon into her mouth but I don’t think she actually fooled anyone.
John caught my eye for a moment while his Mum took a breath in her tirade against him and offered me a weak glare, he would have probably done something more but he KNOWS he’s had this coming for far too long!

Never give your friends a reason to want mild revenge on you John-boy.
You may be my friend and I may be getting used to having you around again but you still owe me BIG-TIME mister!

I’m not a cruel or vindictive person but.. well.. it’s John, ya know?
..ah what the hell.. let’s pour gas on the fire shall we?..

“You know, this one time he-”

======

“..I can’t believe you told her about all of that..”

I jumped almost as much as Eris did in surprise at John’s low voice.
When it looked like I couldn’t add much without causing Mrs Jones to have an ACTUAL meltdown I kind of fled with Eris for safety.

She’s spent the time watching TV from my lap while glancing at the book I’ve got in my free hand every once in a while, I spent it reading because.. well, I’m me?.. what ELSE would I be doing with my free time?..

John grumbled to himself and moved over to the sofa just slightly away from the pair of us.
He’s obviously still not forgiven me yet but he will eventually, it’s not like it all REALLY matters now at least, it all happened years ago after all!

Just before he could sit down I made a little coughing noise to get his attention making him freeze mid-shuffle.

“You sure you want to sit down right now John-boy? Yer gonna need a padded cushion for that poor abused butt of yers after yer Momma got done spankin’ yer somethin’ rotten huh?”
I barely managed to hold it together long enough to finish my, admittedly terrible, Texan accent before I folded into a fit of laughter at the look on his face.

He flushed heavily and landed hard into the chair just to spite me.
He couldn’t quite meet my eyes though which probably means I might have been a bit closer to the mark then expected on that one, while he obviously didn’t get ‘spanked’ for real, a verbal spanking is a whole other demon to face from your parent even at our age!

“..screw you Hannah..”
Aww! He’s blushing even more now!

“In your dreams John-boy, I’m so out of your league it’s not even funny!”
With a careless flick of my hair which was actually more of a trained motion, learnt from Sarah, I smirked at him and winked just to get his goat again.

He didn’t say anything in response but he was still staring at me when a strand of hair fell in front of my eyes, shaken loose by the flick.

My hair’s STILL bloody BLUE!!
Why didn’t anyone SAY anything?!
I must have looked a right idiot all day!

It was wet in the shower and honestly I was a bit too distracted at the time, as shown by my still slightly aching boobs but I shouldn’t have just FORGOTTEN about it?!!

Some of the emotions going through my head must have shown on my face because despite his previous mood and obvious annoyance at me John broke out with a laugh of his own.
It’s NOT bloody FUNNY!

What the hell am I meant to do with BLUE hair?!
WORSE, bloody LIGHT blue hair!

“When were you going to tell me?”
The words came out as practically a growl.
Eris shifted herself off my lap in what was probably a wise move by her honestly.

“..when it stopped being funny?..”
DAMN IT JOHN!

In seconds I shot to my feet and launched myself at him.
He was ready for me, in one smooth move he practically tossed me over his shoulder onto the floor and had me pinned with ease.

We used to wrestle like this all the time as kids, if him overpowering me was an instant ‘win’ for him at this point then I’d have never survived five minutes against him growing up!

I bucked my hips just enough to bounce him up and rolled to the side, shifting his center of balance and taking out one of his knees as I went.
He collapsed to the side and I managed to scramble on top of him before he could recover.

We both sat there panting, him flat on his back and me sitting on his chest.
Slowly a grin formed on his lips.
I could feel a similar smile twitching up on mine too.

On an unspoken signal we both made our moves, he bent his knee to buck me off but I was ready for it and hooked my leg under his knee, kicking out to send it back down to the floor with a ‘thump’.
The action threw my balance off though.
I fell chest first on top of him, our faces ending up inches apart as we both tried to gather our breath again from the sudden impact.

Our eyes met and we both started laughing.
His laughter made my whole body shake from my position on top of him.
Slowly my head sank down and landed on his shoulder, our cheeks touching lightly as we laughed a bit more.

Some things never change.
We get at each other but all it takes is bit of a tussle and everything’s sorted again.
I’ve.. I’ve missed this?..

“Oh HONESTLY?! If you’re going to do that you could at least do it in private.”
..Huh?..
“I expected better of you two, with Eris here and everything..”

What is she..
Oh.. oh powers!

With a jolt and a twist we both surged away from each other, John’s back slammed hard into the sofa but I managed a full rotation and ended up kneeling a foot or so away from him by the time things were all said and done.

John started sputtering off answers and denials to the idea that we were doing anything ‘inappropriate’, although his argument that we were just ‘wrestling’ didn’t seem to be holding much weight with his Mum in the slightest.

I couldn’t quite bring myself to say anything.
My cheeks are burning and my ears feel like they’re on fire!
Outside the moment I can’t help but wonder what the HELL I’d been thinking?!

The rules are different now!
I can’t just go wrestling with a guy, people will get the wrong idea!.. Even if it IS John!

..it was fun though..
It was totally fun and cleared the air between us like always but it just goes to show that while WE haven’t changed much the situations around us have!

For a moment a load of other scenario’s blasted through my head.
We had communal showers in school.. showering with John..
We shared a bed on sleepovers when we were kids.. sleeping with John..
We used to go for long drives together and park up in the forest to chat alone.. together..

Is there anything LEFT that I can do with John that couldn’t be taken the wrong way?!
No wonder my Mum’s been so weary of us disappearing together so much!

I.. WE know it’s not like that but people are going to see what they WANT to see, and like it or not, that means I need to be more careful what we do or say around other people..

“Sorry John.”
John paused mid-defence and shot me a confused look.
Eris was already making her way over to my side, for another cuddle no doubt.
She didn’t miss a step at my words but Mrs Jones certainly did.

Her eyes cut between the two of us and after a painfully long silence she cracked a smile.
“What am I going to do with you two huh? You’re both as bad as each other..”

A small smile found its way onto my lips but I kept my head down anyway.

The amount of times she used to say those exact words to us as kids.
..a lot of things have changed but some important ones are still the same I guess?..

The tension in the room eased as Mrs Jones sighed heavily and landed a gentle hand on Johns head to rub his hair like a misbehaving dog.
“For the record I have nothing against the pair of you getting together but can you PLEASE not do it under my roof until your married at least?”

“MUM!”

We all have mad moments where we do something impulsively. If we're lucky other people don't notice them but it can be rather embarrassing when they DO notice can't it? Events unfold including but not limited to: Eris requesting a spelling lesson. John groaning (for various reasons) and Hannah needs a bra ASAP!

 

“Well that was awkward, as if we’d.. be like that..”
I couldn’t quite meet his eye and my blush decided to flare up again.

This is just stupid, why did she have to say something like that?!

MARRIED!
ME and JOHN?!

AS IF!

My hands shuffled in the messy sleeves of my conjured robe.
The edges are starting to fray, I need to sort that out at some point.

Eventually I couldn’t take it anymore and shot a quick glance up at Johns face.
He’s blushing too but he’s trying to cover it, better than I am at least!

He offered me a tight little smile for the second before I ducked my eyes down again.

Not to get into too many details but I’m sweaty from the ‘wrestling’, my only clothing is starting to unravel and my stupid body can’t seem decide whether I’m hot or cold judging by my burning cheeks and annoyingly hard ‘pop up thermometers’ that seem to have decided that I’m standing in the middle of a snow storm since approximately the moment I ended up pinning John to the floor and falling on top of him so suddenl-

The reason behind my body's annoying reaction finally clicked in my head and with a surge I folded my arms tightly over my chest to hide them from view.

I need a bra.. desperately need a bra!
RIGHT NOW!

“I’m going to go get changed, my robes starting to unravel, can you make sure Eris is okay for me John?”
Judging by the relieved sigh he let off he was more than happy for the excuse to leave the room in a rush.

I’m not the only one feeling majorly awkward because of his Mum’s little ‘marriage’ comment, although I am the only one who’s body is giving away just how turned o-
um.. bra!.. yes, definitely need a bra..

..I think I’m the only one who’s showing at least?..
Against my better judgement my eyes trailed down John’s body as he passed me on his way towards the door.
I can’t really tell, his jeans aren’t exactly good for showing if he’s.. ya know..

wait..
WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING?!!

I spun on the spot to face as far away from John as humanly possible.
I was just staring at my best friends-!

Stupid past-incarnations!
It’s GOT to be their fault!
It’s ALWAYS their fault when this stuff happens?!

I don’t even find him attractive!
It’s just what his Mum said about us getting together playing tricks on me that’s all!

..deep breaths..
Calm, Zen, Breath in.. and out..

Okay.. I’m good..
I’m good, calm Hannah.. not naughty staring at John’s-
DAMN IT!

“I need to get changed.. changed into something frumpy and comfortable after a nice long cold shower..”
..good idea me! let’s go with that and see how we get on shall we?..

======

“Yee-ai!”
Okay, note to self, cold water on hard nips is NOT a good idea either!

I shivered and turned away from the water to protect myself as much as possible.
..stupid girl body..

“Forget it! That’ll do, frumpy clothes time!”

Rather than waste another second drying off I flared my magic instead.
In seconds I felt better, although it did do the same thing it always does and made my hair fluff up into an annoyingly ‘pretty’ style which also brought my attention back to the fact that it’s still bloody BLUE!

Ah, screw it!
If nothing else the blue hair makes me look less like ‘Arista’ I guess?

It also makes me look less like a ‘sane person’ but I’m kind of happy to have something which takes me away from HER for once.
Since my second awakening it seems like life in general has just been pushing me further and further towards being the new version of HER!

“Stop overthinking things Hannah. The worlds not out to get you, your just being too sensitive..”
I carefully wrapped my now dry towel around myself and made my way across the hall to Mrs Jones’s guest bedroom, the one I’ve taken over for the next day or two.

Normally I don’t bother with towels to cover up but that’s mostly because I have an en-suite bathroom at Mum’s place and at Sarah’s flat we never had much of a ‘decency’ issue to worry about.

“Right.. okay, boring?.. dull, frumpy, un-sexy stuff.. definitely a good idea..”
It took me a few seconds digging into my bag and ‘summoning’ things with that vague goal before I had a workable outfit.

It turns out I don’t seem to actually HAVE many ‘frumpy’ things to wear?
Between Mum buying my stuff, Sarah adding in things she found funny and my not having a chance to go shopping alone yet for stuff that fits my new body, I’ve not got much that isn’t in the ‘dress, skirt, flattering top’ category.

The outfit I managed to cobble together isn’t great but it will do until I can get something better.
..maybe I can steal something from John?..

Now THERE’S an idea!
He’s not THAT much taller than me.. well.. kinda..
Okay so he IS a bit taller than me, and wider.. and more muscly..

DAMN IT FOCUS!

Yes, he’s bigger then me, but he’s probably got some old stuff around I can be swamped with, in a completely unflattering way.
The kind of ‘completely unflattering’ way that I need pretty badly at the moment!

I just need a break from being.. me, I guess?..
Since my second awakening I’ve kinda sunk into the relatively girly side of me which come’s part and parcel with being ‘Hannah’ in general.

I need some Al time.
All this Hannah time is messing with my head, making me blush over stupid things and stare at John’s cro- AH!

Uh.. making me.. um.. yeah, I need some Al time?

I slipped on a comfortable stretchy pale yellow pair of undies and pulled a new sports bra over my head before moving on to the clothes.
I only need to wear them long enough to reach John’s closet really.
Despite my slight optimism on that idea it still leaves me tugging myself into a pair of nearly skin-tight bellbottom jeans and a cowl-necked earth tone fuzzy sweater for the trip, which REALLY don’t do a very good job of ‘de-emphasising’ everything I’d rather hide right about now..

“Stupi-d ti-ight JEANS!”
The back finally pushed past my annoyingly perky butt enough that I could pull the waistband up properly.

I feel like a particularly juicy sausage in these things!

..that’s the second time I’ve called myself a ‘juicy sausage’ or something like that lately?..
Sometimes I get the feeling Sigmund Fraud would have a field day if he got his hands on me!

“End goal Hannah, stop talking to yourself and focus on the end goal.”
Stealing John’s clothes, the best end goal I’ve had in a LONG time, it’s got the lowest chance for things to go wrong as well!

With that happy thought in mind I slid the surprisingly comfortable sweater over my head and snuck out of ‘my’ room to head for John’s door.
It’s far too hot to wear this sweater for too long, comfortable it may be but I’m already starting to feel warm with it on.
We may be near the lovely overcast big city heights of Seattle but that doesn’t mean it’s not still SUMMER after all.

I shot a cautious look around to make sure the coast was clear and carefully eased John’s door open.
It took a moment for my mind to process what I was seeing but almost as quickly as the view registered in my head I managed to react.

The reaction happened to be more in the ‘squeal and slam the door shut’ kind then the more useful ‘shut the door quietly and leave at a jog’ sort sadly but it’s the thought that counts I guess?

“SORRY!”

..Oh powers, when did JOHN get a six-pack?!..
SHUT UP BRAIN!

“That you Hannah?”
John sounds about as confused and unsettled as I feel!
At least I’m not suffering alone I guess?

“Yeah, sorry John, I was just going to borrow some of your old clothes and I didn’t think you’d be in there and I CERTAINLY didn’t think you’d be naked and.. and I’m babbling and I’ll.. um.. I’ll just.. g-go.. now.”

Without another word I broke into a sprint, slinging myself around the doorframe into ‘my’ room and slamming the door tight behind me.

“URRRGGG!!”
Damn it Hannah! For once in your life can’t you just STOP making a fool of yourself for five POWERS DAMNED minutes?!

I practically threw myself onto the bed and screamed angrily into the pillows.
What’s gotten into me?!

This can’t just be Mrs Jones’s little ‘marriage’ comment anymore!
There’s definitely something going on, I’m acting like a love sick little school girl.. about bloody JOHN!

======

When I’d finally gotten all the yelling, rather childish tantrums out of my system.. and beat up one of the pillows to the point where I actually started feeling sorry for it.. I eased myself up slightly on my elbows to huff out an annoyed breath.

I feel better now.
Not great, not normal, not even ‘good’, but better at least?

Naturally the moment I came to that monumental decision on life’s long journey of self-discovery someone had to knock on the door and ruin it!

“Hannah?.. is it okay if I come in? I’ve got some of my old stuff you wanted..”
Nooooo!
John, why did it have to be JOHN?!

I rolled over on the bed to stare up at the ceiling and huffed a breath out that made the hair just above my eyebrows flutter slightly.

There’s not much to be gained by laying here all day feeling sorry for myself is there?
I just wish I could have a bit more time to gather myself back together again before facing him!
Like.. a day?.. or a week?.. maybe a month?.. a year or two?..

“Hannah?”
I sighed heavily again and let my arms flop out onto the covers limply.

“Come in John, I’m dressed.”
..at least one of us is..
SHUT UP BRAIN!

John eased the door open and peered at me uncertainly for a moment before taking the last big step inside and shutting the door behind himself.
He’s wearing a loose T-shirt with some Jeans, his usual day-wear choices really, he’s never exactly been adventurous in his clothing choices for some reason.
He also has a bundle of cloth under his arm that includes a sweatshirt which looks vaguely familiar?

“You okay?”

Stupid question, of COURSE I’m not bloody okay!
My stupid brain is rebelling against logic and common decency with HIM at the center of it all!

When did this start?

I think.. I think I need to talk to his Mum?
Maybe my turning into a hormone driven blushing mess is a side-effect of the mental magic she did to me?

“Thanks for the clothes John. Do you know where you’re Mum is? I kinda need to ask her advice..”

As he stepped closer to me I sat up on the bed and reached out for the clothes in his hands.
When I had a solid grasp on them I tried to pull them back into my chest but they stopped short?
My eyes drifted up to John’s face in confusion and I could feel myself freeze in place as he fixed me with a surprisingly deep, searching look.

“Are you okay Hannah?”
Don’t do this to me John.. don’t look at me like that..

I could feel tears building in my eyes before I knew what to do with them.
My hand dropped from the clothes between us and shot up to rub harshly at my eyes as I sniffed forcefully.

Don’t look at me like that.. don’t act like you’re worried for me and you care and you.. and you..

“S-Stupid John..”
His eyes softened when I managed to eke out that slightly stuttered statement of fact.

What’s gotten into me?!
This isn’t like me!

He leaned forward and pulled me into a gentle hug.
Despite myself I practically folded into him, sinking my head against his chest as my breath came out in little uneven gasps.

“..sorry John..”

He laughed.
I could feel it more than hear it with my ear resting against him.

“What are you apologizing for?”
He sounded amused but there was definitely a note of confusion mixed in there as well.

My lip trembled and my voice broke slightly when I answered him.
Against all logic tears started forming in my eyes all over again.
“..I don’t know?..”

He finally seemed to work out that something was seriously wrong with me at that point.
I nestled my cheek into his warm chest a bit tighter and my shoulders started to shake with supressed sobs.
..I don’t know what’s happening..

“..ah hell..”
John’s magic felt conflicted.
I don’t think he knows quite what to do or how to react at this point?
Me being unreasonably angry and lashing out at him is pretty much standard with us but tears and shaking are new for the pair of us.
“..shhh, it’s okay Hannah. Whatever’s wrong we’ll sort it out..”

His hand came up and patted my hair like I was some kind of startled pet he needed to calm down.

..it’s kind of nice though..
I don’t like admitting it but it kinda IS actually?

He’s surprisingly soothing to cling to, his body AND his magic are just SO warm.. and he feels really gentle too..

My neck gave up the last of its strength, mushing my cheek hard into his chest in the process.
Slowly I started losing track of the world around us as his hand played with my hair and he made soothing sounds that just felt SO good for some reason?

..he smells really good too?..

======

“She’s not asleep?”

The hand stopped scratching my ears for some reason?
I mewed in annoyance and raised my head slightly higher to butt against the palm hovering above me.
The stupid human doesn’t seem to understand what I want..

“Do you know what’s happening?”
I purred a little from the back of my throat and rubbed against the nice smelling chest that rumbled with the voice.

He smells so nice.. like food but also like a mate?.. I like both of those things!

“I think my attempt at suppressing her seer talent was a bit more effective than anticipated?”
The food-mate thing with the warm chest sighed heavily and shifted us slightly.
It only took me a moment to get settled again so I didn’t protest, this time at least.
“It happens sometimes, a particularly powerful latent ability or a larger set of conflicting ones end up suppressing each other for an awakened mage until they are in some way disabled, allowing the others to come back into force shortly afterwards.”

“I can follow that, I’ve seen that happen before, it’s rare but.. okay, so what does that have to do with her doing a cat impersonation?”
I purred again as the warm food-mate’s chest rumbled.

I like him, I’ve never had a food-mate of my own before..
..I wonder what he tastes like?..

“I’m no expert on the topic but if I had to guess I’d say the change in her mental balance that came with me blocking her seer talent, along with the associated incarnations involved with it, has caused a power vacuum and thrust forth a once subconsciously suppressed spiritual skillset.. along with its accompanying incarnations.”

The food-mate shifted.
I stretched slightly, digging my somehow blunt claws into his arm to show my distaste with his actions.

“So that all means.. what exactly?”
I love how his chest rumbles.
It’s like he’s purring even when he’s just making noise!

“It turns out that hidden under the seer talent that’s been pretty common among a lot of Arista’s incarnations, Hannah has a surprisingly strong connection to her spirit animal?..”
The food-mate moved again.

I slammed my paw down on his arm and hissed at him lightly.
Food AND mates should know when not to move, a food-mate DEFINITELY should!

“So she’s-”
The food-mates arm moved again.
I growled low in my throat to warn him not to keep defying me.. stupid human..

“She’s in a waking, instinct driven, daydream state where she thinks she’s a cat of some kind.”

“oh? well that’s.. weird?..”
..mmm, nice rumbles..

“I’m honestly not sure how to shake her out of it? Mind magic and the baser ‘spirit’ skills don’t tend to crossover very often sadly..”

The food-mate moved his arm.
With an angry hiss I surged forward and sunk my teeth into it.

He yelled out in surprise and tried to pull away from me but I locked my jaw down and moved my head along with him, my body arched up and what little fur I had stood on end.
..I WARNED YOU HUMAN!..

It took almost half a minute for him to calm down.
The other voice moved closer and slowly started petting my head like the food-mate should have been doing from the start of things.

Finally a human who knows how to behave properly!

When her fingers pushed down into that perfect spot near my left ear my legs went limp and my jaw opened so I could purr happily in approval.
The food-mate pulled his arm away from me quickly.
..stupid human..

The scratching hand moved slightly and I rolled over on the lap of the food-mate to give the hand better access for proper scratches.
As I rolled over my nose crinkled a little.
I couldn’t resist the urge to sneeze slightly and clear the food-mate’s taste from my mouth.

It turns out the food-mate smells better then he tastes?
..I wonder what his fur tastes like though?..

My eyes rolled up to stare at the food-mate.
For some reason he suddenly started looking really nervous?

A moment later the scratching female reached my collar bone and I collapsed completely into a pile of too long fur-less limbs as she hit the PERFECT spot!

She’s SO good at this!
It’s a shame she doesn’t smell as good as the food-mate though..

“Any idea’s where we go from here then?”
The female stopped scratching for a moment as her face scrunched up.
I barely had to twist and nip at her before she started up again though.

I wonder if she has an owner already?.. she’s surprisingly well trained, much better than my food-mate at least..

“Try not to piss her off and work on a way to re-awaken Hannah’s core personality?”
The food-mate rumbled something in return but at that moment the female hit JUST the right spot and I lost the world to the pleasure that hit me.

======

“Where did these come fr-”

“WAIT!”
The sudden loud noise made me jump and stare wide eyed over at the food-mate.

The female was holding up some loops that look familiar for some reason?
The food-mate quickly moved over to the female and took the loops of material from her delicately.

“Holy crap, she actually finished them?.. she was talking about it at breakfast but I didn’t think she’d gotten THIS far into it..”

I rolled over on the sofa and brought my paw up to my mouth for a bit of cleaning.
Now the food-mate has stopped yelling it looks like things are safe again.

“What are they?.. they look a bit kinky?”

The food-mate twitched and shouted out something like ‘MUM!’, I didn’t stick around long enough to find out more.
Loud noises are never good!

As I left the room on all fours there was some kind of commotion behind me.
The food-mate tried to grab me but with a twist of my chest he ended up landing face first onto the floor instead.

I barely made out his groaned ‘crap’ before I got far enough away that I couldn’t hear him anymore.
There’s got to be somewhere nice around here to sleep, maybe somewhere with a nice warm sun-spot or something?

I sniffed the air uncertainly and in the process picked up a new, rather interesting smell.
Without another thought I broke into a run chasing the new smell with determination.

======

The food-mate thinks he’s being sneaky.
Humans are so dumb, how can you be sneaky with big heavy feet flapping around when you move?

He reached out to touch us but I just hissed at him and reared back.
He quickly retreated to a safer distance, it’s nice to see he CAN learn eventually!

The kit shuddered and I nuzzled my nose down at her ear to reassure her.
Despite my calming movements and licks she didn’t seem to be calming down much for some reason?

“..Dad?..”
She sounds so nervous?!

It’s got to be the food-mate’s fault!
She’s calling to him and he’s here now!

He moved a step closer and I shifted to hide the kit better while giving him a warning hiss just in case he’s thinking of doing something stupid.

“It’s okay Eris, your Mum’s just having a bit of a.. uh.. she kind of think’s she’s a cat?”
The kit made an uncertain noise in the back of her throat.
I glared at the food-mate, he’s making her upset!
“It’s going to be okay Eris, she won’t hurt you. If I toss these bands over to you do you think you can slip them on her? The thick one goes around her neck like a collar, the little ones on her wrists, the long one around her waist and the last two go on her legs.. I think?..”

The kit nodded and twisted her face up to stare at me with worry.
I leaned down, licking her to reassure her.

Judging by the way her face had scrunched up when I finished she didn’t appreciate it for some reason?
..Kits! They’re so picky sometimes..

The food-mate tossed the familiar loops over at us.
I glared at him and pulled the kit closer to myself.
HE shouldn’t throw things at MY kit!

The kit snatched up the loops with her odd human-shaped fingers.
Not that I’d ever tell her but she looks kind of weird to be my kit?

She looks kind of like the food-mate or the female human really..
If she didn’t just SMELL like my kit I’d have my doubts but she smells like she’s mine and she tastes like me so she must be mine!

She reached up and slowly rubbed her fingers around my neck.
I wasn’t sure what she was doing at first but eventually she finished and leaned back leaving me with something loosely set around my throat?

Did she.. did she put a COLLAR on me?!!
Naughty kit!

I hissed at her a little and gave her a warning look but she didn’t seem to understand for some reason.
She just looked scared?

With an annoyed little chuff I leaned back in and licked her strange paw to show that I didn’t mean to snap at her.
She’s just a kit, it’s not her fault she doesn’t know what she’s doing..

Saying that, what IS she doing?

I watched with mild interest as she looped something around my belly and clipped it shut somehow.
When I didn’t hiss at her she seemed to build a bit more confidence in herself.
She reached out for my paw and actually offered me a little smile.

I leaned down and licked her fur in approval.
It’s good that she’s calm, I don’t like it when she’s not calm.

She finished fiddling with my front paw and moved on to my other one.
I got slightly distracted by the sparkly little thing she’d put on me?
Slowly I brought my paw up to my nose and sniffed it cautiously.

I can smell metal, metal and beef?.. old beef..
There’s something else though?

I brought my paw really close and rubbed the new thing against my cheek.
The metal-beef thing feels like me!
How odd.. it’s kind of nice though?..

The kit finished whatever she was doing and moved down towards my hind paws but I ignored her in favor of nudging at the metal-beef thing with my nose and trying to bite on it to see what it tastes like.

“When you get that last one on step back quickly Eris, there’s probably going to be some kind of reaction..”
I jumped in surprise at the food-mate’s voice.

I’d almost forgotten he was there?
He’s being surprisingly well behaved.
Since he tossed the loops over to my kit he’s barely moved a muscle!

The kit tugged on my back paw slightly and suddenly shot back, making a dash towards the food-mate who scooped her into his arms protectively.

A growl started building in my chest when the food-mate moved as if to step away from me.
HE’S STEALING MY KIT!!

My back arched and I hissed low in the back of my throat.
Seconds before I could lunge at him my body just FROZE!

With a strangled yelp I collapsed to the floor as a floppy puddle.
A chill made its way down from my chest and along my left leg to my foot.
..I don’t feel so good..

Magic practically burst out the sole of my foot as a wave of nausea hit me like a punch to the gut.

“..hurk..”
Heavy breathing, panting and my best efforts didn’t save me in the slightest from a final indignity.

With one more pained ‘hurk’ sound I threw up what felt like most of my breakfast and finished the job by collapsing to the side in a dead faint.

======

“Uuhhnermmpa..”
Did anyone get the number of the bus that hit me?.. or the one that followed it and reversed a few times just to be an asshole about it?..

“I think she’s awake?”

Eris? What’s Eris doing here?
I thought she was down the hall watching TV or something?

“Hannah?.. Hannah I need to know if your.. you?.. can you hear me?”

Ughh! Not now John?
Can’t you see I’m suffering?!
Why didn’t you stop the buses you useless asshole!

..stupid food-mate..
Yeah! Stupid food-ma.. what?..

He shifted and moved closer to me, I could feel him by his magic and his smell got slightly stronger.
He smells REALLY good? I wonder what deodorant he’s wearing, it must be new?

With a light shove he managed to roll my limp body over so I was staring up at the ceiling this time.
Slowly his hand moved in front my face, waving back and forth a few times until he seemed to give up on that idea.

Eventually his hand moved down in an unmistakable action that I’ve seen happen in movies FAR too many times.
It never works in the movies either so I have NO idea what he’s thinking!

“I swear to everything that’s powerful John, if you slap my cheek to ‘wake me up’ I’m gonna shove your fist so far up your ass you’ll be able to brush your teeth with your mouth closed!”

His hand froze, I’m not sure why but I felt a bit smug that I made him freeze so easily.

..stupid food-mate?..
Stupid foo-
What the.. where the hell is that COMING from?!

Shut up brain!
You’re obviously drunk or something?!

Wait.. am I drunk?.. is that why John’s acting so weird?..

“okay? that answers the ‘are you Hannah’ question I guess?”
Shut up John!

..my head hurts..

“What happened this time?”
I think something happened?
I was freaking out a bit over John.. naked John..mmm-AH!

uh.. yeah.. so something was messing with my head then John came in, with clothes on this time, and hugged me an.. and I just kind of drifted off?..

It feels like there’s something missing here?
For a start I swear this isn’t the same guest room I’ve been using?!

“You had an adverse reaction to the blocking of your seer traits.”
Oh hey Mrs Jones, didn’t see you there?!

“Lovely.. am I better now?”
Well sometimes it’s easier to just ask then assume, ya know?

“I’d hesitate to use the word ‘better’ but you’re at least stable thanks to that ingenious little set of BDSM jewellery you apparently crafted while we were all sleeping?”

BDSM jewellery?..
Ohh, the selective suppression system!

I guess technically they could be considered a bit like that, leather and chains, that sort of thing?
Well.. at least we know they work now right?

With that in mind this is probably a perfect moment to test one of the features we worked so hard to fit into them!

My hand moved slowly up to my throat and after a bit of feeling around I managed to get a thumb and finger on the two control runes needed to trigger John’s basic ‘self-hiding’ glamor system.
In seconds I could feel a slight tingle run up my spine but a moment later it finished and, despite the fact that I could still feel them on me, I couldn’t SEE the suppressors at all.

John’s Mum gasped in surprise.
Eris moved quickly from her previous unseen position behind John to stare at me in open curiosity.
John leaned back slightly and offered me a smug smile of approval.

Seems like I actually managed to lay things out well enough after all?
Don’t put Estis runes next to Esti runes my ass!

I told him it would work perfectly well like this but would he believe me?!
“Now that the aptly named ‘BDSM jewellery’ is hidden, can someone tell me what the hell’s been going on please?”

John flushed slightly in embarrassment.
Mrs Jones looked a bit unsure of herself for a second too.

“What’s B-D-S-M mean?”
With a jerk my eyes cut down to Eris in shock and horror.

“Uhh.. so, what did I miss?”
Please let her forget it!
Please let her forget it!!

Mrs Jones sighed heavily, offering me a weak smile which was honestly a LOT better than John visibly shaking with laughter and Eris staring up at me with a worrying amount of intense curiosity.

“Well Hannah, it seem that when I blocked your seer talents there was a-”

“What’s B-D-S-M mean?!”
Eris tugged on my shirt for attention, cutting across Mrs Jones explanation neatly while causing John to make a loud ‘snerk’ noise as he held in his laughter as best he could.

With inspiration born of frustration and embarrassment I turned to my carefully ‘not laughing’ best-friend and smirked darkly.

“You’re Dad knows Eris, why don’t you ask him to explain it? I’ve got to talk with your Gran for a minute okay sweetie?”
Eris’s bright eye shifted quickly from me and focused like little lazer-sights on John instead.

John’s jaw dropped open in surprise.
Mrs Jones tried to hide the laugh that bubbled out of her chest by cupping her hand over her mouth, obviously it didn’t work too well..

Eris let go of my shirt quickly and in the blink of an eye she was clinging onto John with big begging ‘puppy-dog’ eyes set to stun.

I felt tempted to just watch the inevitable circus show that would be John’s attempt at stopping her curiosity but there’s more important things going on, like what did I miss happening and where the hell did the whole ‘food-mate’ thing come from?!

“So, as you were saying, something happened after you blocked the seer stuff?”
Mrs Jones blinked slightly in surprise but quickly realised what was happening and offered me a devious little smirk as her eyes cut back over to the now flustered John for a second before opening her mouth to carry on with her interrupted explanation.

======

“Just to be clear.. a cat?.. really?..”

Mrs Jones sighed heavily.
I think she’s getting a bit frustrated with my attempts at oversimplifying things.

“Sort of, it was more of a symbolic 'what you think a cat would act like' kind of change but in general you ran around on all fours, licked things, bit John, hissed, slept a lot and purred surprisingly often.”
She almost hesitated for a second but in the end I don’t think she could resist asking whatever was on her mind.
“Just out of curiosity, do you like having your ears and belly scratched?.. I tried it to calm you down at one point and you practically melted in joy over it all.”

Ear’s and BELLY?!
NO!

At least.. I don’t think I do?

It’s never really come up honestly.
Sarah used to tickle me a lot when we were younger because I’d end up with practically no defence against her from it but I’m pretty sure she never focused on my ears or my belly at all?

In the end I shrugged to Mrs Jones unhelpfully but I think she understood my general point of not having the slightest clue one way or the other at least.

“Oh, you recognised Eris as 'yours' in some way too because you snagged her up and wouldn't let us get near you both? In the end John had to toss her your suppressors and get her to put them on you.”

I sighed heavily and cut my eyes over to the pair of them.
John’s still valiantly trying to distract Eris from the embarrassing ‘BDSM’ question with a moderate amount of success.

It seems like Eris has pretty much forgotten the reason she was annoying him in the first place at this point and has moved on to the much more fun game of trying to see what she can get away with in pushing his buttons with silly demands like seeing if he can lick his elbow?

“Okay, I went cat, claimed Eris.. great.. anything else I should know?”
Mrs Jones looked thoughtful for a moment.

My stomach decided to chime in on the long pause with a deep rumble of discontent.

“Oh! You also threw up so you’re probably hungry?”
Lovely.. never let a strange series of events happen without Hannah managing to puke on something, it’s practically tradition at this point!
..Edith always did say I don’t have the stomach for a lot of stuff..
“With that in mind I think it’s time we get to work on lunch, can you come give me a hand while Johnny and Eris.. uh.. play?..”

My stomach grumbled before I could quite get an answer out.
I guess that’s answer enough though, it seemed to be considering the amused look Mrs Jones shot me as she lead the way back out to the kitchen.

“Okay, so you CAN lick your nose. That still doesn’t explain what B-D-S-M means daddy?”
I had to stamp down hard on the impulse to laugh as John groaned audibly from behind us.

It turns out Eris isn’t quite as easily distracted as I’d given her credit for.
She’s a clever girl for her age.

..’always my clever girl’..
DAMN IT! Stupid Mother Arista thoughts!

======

Eris bounced in proudly and landed on one of the chairs with hope shining in her little eyes.
John came in at a much more subdued pace which only seemed to amuse her even more.

My eyes cut over to Mrs Jones and we shared a knowing look.
It seems she finally managed to crack John in one way or another..

I wonder what he ended up telling her?

I’ll admit I caught myself feeling a bit too ‘domestic’ as we worked on lunch together without the pair of them.
I know it’s not right but somehow we’d still ended up falling into the classic old stereotype of ‘women in the kitchen’.

I’m determined to not let it happen again!

It’s not like I’m even any use in here usually?
If we weren’t making something simple like sandwiches at the moment I’d probably have given up and ordered takeout or something.

I may be a better cook then John but that’s like saying that a baby is a better swimmer then a rock.. it’s a kinda,‘well DUH!’ situation, ya know?

“Ham with the crusts cut off for the conquering heroine, and cheese’n’pickle for the valiant but defeated looser.”
Eris grinned at me brightly and I couldn’t help but grin back at her.

John didn’t seem to find his title funny but he definitely appreciated the ‘cheese and pickle’ sandwiches at least.
I’ve never had pickle before, not this type at least, apparently his Mum picks it up whenever she’s back in England to see family.

I always thought pickles were like.. green and pimply?.. this stuffs more like brown mush!

Either way, Mrs J got me to try a bit and it’s honestly VILE in my opinion!
..really tangy..
It made my mouth itch and it’s just.. bleh!

How John can stomach it I’ve got no idea but judging by the speed at which his sandwiches are disappearing he must somehow ‘like’ it.. he’s weird sometimes but that’s just pushing it!

I ducked back into the kitchen for my own ham sandwich and followed Mrs J back through as she carried out her well-used teapot.

======

Feeding time lasted for a good ten minutes with sips of tea, juice in Eris’s case, and some mild chatter about random things.

For once I managed to have a nice quick meal with John around without something stupid or strange happening.
It was rather nice to be honest?

Yet again I had to shake off the creeping sensation that I was being a bit too comfortable with things and taking on the role of ‘mother’ without thinking about it, especially when Eris finished her juice in one big go and I automatically borrowed one of Mrs J’s napkins to wipe around her mouth without thinking anything of it for a good few minutes afterwards.

When everyone’d finished I leaned back with a contented sigh.
My stomach approved of the food at least.

It wasn’t exactly five-star cooking but then I’ve always been more of a one-star cooking fan anyway.
Give me bacon on something and I couldn’t honestly care if the sauce was finely ground from Prussian-sourced red beans or bought in a large tube for a dollar at the local store?
Good food is good food, whether it’s a cheap and cheerful sandwich or a full on steak dinner!

======

“You still want to go to the Bazaar before we leave?”
John’s question jolted me out of my happy little food coma.

It would probably be a good idea to drop in at the very least?
There’s a fair few things you just CAN’T get in Klamath Falls, even from Edith’s shop.
A lot of spell and ritual ingredients along with pre-fabricated spell focus items flow through the Bazaar every day, it’s almost always worth a look.

“Sure. When are we leaving for home?”
I know technically this is John’s home with his Mum living here and all but he knows what I mean.

Not to be disparaging of Mrs Jones’s hospitality but I’m kind of eager to head home now that the most pressing issue going wrong in my life has been sorted out?
There’s a lot of stuff I need to sort out back in Klamath Falls, family and the Hub to name just the most obvious ones.
While technically some of them are probably going to be easier to handle if I leave them a bit longer to settle down others certainly won’t!

Sarah.. for instance?
..she sounded pretty pissed off before..

Sarah being angry is hardly ever a good thing and NEVER a fun experience for anyone involved.
If we can’t leave soon then I’m probably going to have to bite the bullet and call her back just to clear the air a bit if nothing else.

“I figured as soon as Mum gives you a clean bill of health we can leave?”

John’s statement seemed to catch Mrs Jones off guard by putting her in the hot-seat suddenly.
She shot a reluctant glance from me and down to Eris before sighing heavily in what I think was disappointment?..

“Normally I’d suggest a few more days for observation but those B-”
Her eyes cut sharply down at Eris as she realised she’d come dangerously close to kicking THAT whole can of worms over again before she continued.
“-your new jewellery, Hannah, is surprisingly effective at keeping you stable. At this point I would normally expect wild mood swings and personality shifts as your core tries to re-center itself around the drastic change in your psyche that would come from us forcefully suppressing such a large and active part of your very being, but instead your.. well your about as normal as could be hoped for from what I can tell?”

Runes conquer all!

She’s pretty much hit the nail on the head there.
I felt clearer and more stable when I woke up after her mind-magic ritual but that faded fast as things got out of control.
Now though, with the suppressors on, I can think clearly and I just feel so FREE all of a sudden?!

It feels like I can laugh and smile without this constant ever-present weight pushing down on me again.. I hadn’t even noticed it happening before, the change was so slow and gradual I guess, but her putting a stop to the ‘seer’ stuff seems to have eased a lot of the mental pressure for me?

I’m not perfect.
I’m still getting those annoying little ‘Motherly’ thoughts and moments just HAPPENING at random, but they aren’t pushing down on me anymore.
They happen but even though the thoughts themselves are jarring and off-putting I’m not acting on them against my will like I was before?

I can deal with that.
I dealt with that kind of thing for years after my first awakening, it’s so much EASIER than facing the crushing depths of emotions and feelings I’ve had since my second one..

It’s a bit like riding a bike I guess?
You never forget how to handle this sort of thing after you’ve been through it once before.

======

“I guess we should head out to the Bazaar then?”

Even John didn’t sound too sure of himself this time.
I probably should have said something beforehand as confirmation for his sake but I kinda got lost for a moment there.

I feel kind of sorry for Mrs J now?
It can’t be easy for her to handle being here all alone while John stays at the Martials and everything..

“If you’re not busy you could always warp down to Klamath Falls and stay for a visit if you want?”
The words tumbled out of my mouth before I’d quite finished thinking them through.
Mrs Jones’s head perked up in surprise and, if I’m not mistaken, some level of ‘joy’ as she processed the idea.

“Oh no, I really couldn’t impose like that. It’s bad enough Johnny’s staying with Lily and Jim without adding me in as well..”

She REALLY wants to visit though.
I can tell by the looks she keeps shooting John.
To a lesser extent she’s even doing it with me and Eris too!

I think she’s lonely?

“It wouldn’t be an imposition.. Powers know my house has enough people in it at the moment to start our own small island nation, I doubt one more person is going to break us or anything.”
She’s tempted, I can tell, she doesn’t want to be too obvious about it but she totally wants to be around John more, what mother wouldn’t miss their child like that?

Just another nudge or two will do it!

“You’d probably be doing us a favor. Mum’s getting a bit stressed out over everything and she could use a spare pair of hands or just someone to talk to who isn’t either her family or my ‘family’ to be honest?”
Phrased like that there’s no WAY she can resist!
It’s kind of true too, aside from Aunt Lily I don’t think Mum has many ‘friends’ as such.. not ones I know of at least..

It would be good for both of them to bond again, even if Mum doesn’t remember her properly.

Plus.. just think.. TWO ‘Grans’ for Eris to hang out with when I’m busy!
It’s a no brainer and you can’t beat free baby-sitters!

“Okay, if you think it would help your poor old Mum.. how is Susan anyway? I’ve not seen her in years..”
Ah.. yeah, well uh.. I guess she’d find out eventually huh?

“She’s not been too great honestly.. um.. okay so, cards on the table, she possibly doesn’t remember you and if she does she certainly doesn’t remember that you’re John’s Mum at all..”
Her jaw dropped a little in surprise.

“What?! How can that be? Susan-”
I waved my hand for attention before she could build up too big of a head of steam about it all.

This is gonna be one long and messy explanation.
Even I don’t know all the facts still!

“Gran, my Gran, would be able to fill you in better but basically someone’s been fooling around with memory charms and-”

======

“That’s simply horrible!”
I nodded along calmly as Mrs Jones glared at the table hatefully as if it had mortally offended her in some way.
“How can someone DO something like that to someone like Susan? She’s such a sweet woman!”

For a moment I felt the irrational need to validate myself a bit by pointing out that, when she wants to be my ‘dear sweet’ mother can be a RIGHT bitch, especially when ‘Al’ is involved.. but that’s all in the past now?

In the meantime Al is long gone and not likely to show up until I can find a way to turn back into a guy somehow, rehashing over past problems after Mum’s seemingly come to her senses a bit and sort of ‘vicariously’ apologised to me for being that way would just be petty and not a little bit stupid of me.

I may take fun from getting at John with his old misdeeds at times but HE deserves a kick in the ass sometimes and until I’m male again I’m not going to let him forget that he messed up badly if I can help it!

Forgive but never forget and all that philosophical mumbo-jumbo.

“Do you want to come with us to the Bazaar as well?”
This time John glared at me slightly for asking.
I think he wanted to shop unhindered and, let’s face it, who wants to shop for anything with their Mum around?

I certainly wouldn’t!
It was bad enough when I went ‘clothes’ shopping a few weeks ago thank-you-very-much!

“Oh no, I couldn’t Hannah dear, but thanks for the offer all the same. You kids go have fun.”
She reached out and patted my arm with a warm smile.
“I’ve got a lot of packing to do if I’m going to warp to Oregon in a few days.”

John almost let out a relieved sigh at that point but he quickly managed to hide it from his mother’s view even if I caught it easily enough.

“Right then, lets gather up our stuff and head out. I guess we’ll be seeing you in a few days then Mum?”
He didn’t seem particularly enthusiastic about that idea either but he covered it well, I just know him better than that.

With a heave I managed to get myself back to an upright position and on my way to the guest room I’ve been using.
I’ve not got much to pack but if nothing else I need to change into something less ‘frumpy’ for going out and my bag needs dragging back down to the Truck.

It took me a moment to realise that Eris had slipped into my side as I moved and put her hand gently into mine.
She offered me a slightly lopsided smile which I returned without a thought.

Looks like I’m getting changed with an audience again I guess?
Come to think of it I should probably sort her out a new outfit too while we’re at it, until I can find her something in the Bazaar properly at least.

You’d be surprised what you can find in a magical shopping district, normal clothing and even low cost magically-imported beer are the first two things that come to mind?
It’s amazing the price-cuts you can offer when you use magic to remove delivery costs AND import taxes from the items you’re selling!

“What do you fancy wearing Eris? Remember nothing too off-the-wall this time, we still have to get into the Bazaar unnoticed by the non-magical people around first so let’s stick to something practical shall we?”
She looked mildly disappointed for a moment but that passed quickly as she seemed to get an idea.
Her hand came up and she blushed slightly as she beckoned me closer to her.

I couldn’t help but smile a little at her shy antics but dutifully knelt down to be within hearing range for her whispered request.

“Can we do matching stuff again Mom?”
Her breathy little whisper made me shudder a little as the air tickled my ear but after a moment to recover I turned to face her with a resigned sigh.

Well I should have guessed THAT one was coming!

Oh.. what the hell!
It’s not like it matters in the long run.
Considering I apparently get to pick what I’m wearing first, at least it won’t be anything awkward or weird this time!

“Okay sweetie. Go use the bathroom and wash your hands quick while I conjure us something.”
She let out a happy little yip of joy, shooting back out of the room towards the upstairs toilet at a sprint.

My smile lingered for a moment more as she disappeared but slowly dissolved into a thoughtful frown.
What the hell am I going to conjure for us?
I don’t think I thought this whole deal through well enough!

Oh well.. it could be worse I guess?
At least there’s not going to be any ‘dirndlgwand’ dresses in sight this time!

“Let’s get started then!”
I clapped my hands together and rubbed them to limber up a little.
Conjuring isn’t hard but technically this is the first bit of magic I’ve done since putting the suppressors on so it might take a bit of fiddling to get the power balances right again if nothing else.
“Hmmm.. trousers or a skirt?..”

Decisions, decisions!

Why is it, when you're hungry, everything suddenly has some kind of food connection to it? I'd be tempted to say it's a psychological issue but we can't rule out the obvious answer that it's all just magic of course! Events unfold including but not limited to: Eris enjoying the fall in a glass box. John gains a personal assistant (minus the mini-skirt and free coffee delivery) and Hannah has more cat troubles!

 

“Oh don’t you both look adorable.”

“Urk!”
Definitely not the response I was looking for!

Eris seems delighted by her ‘Gran’s response though.
Her little arms swung around fluffing up the airy little sundress she had on in a flurry of light material and giggles.

I’d intended to go for something simple but kind of got a bit too into it.
By the time Eris got back from the bathroom I was practically in one of my usually rune-based ‘creating hazes’ and she happened to throw in a suggestion or two until.. well.. here we are I guess?

Naturally the outfits are matching.
I couldn’t decide between trousers or skirts in the end so I went for a bit of both.

We’re wearing black leggings that go down to about mid-calf under these light sundresses, always a classic look for beating the summer heat.

Originally I was going to change our colors around a bit but Eris was rather insistent that we should match perfectly.
Now what was going to be my nice mature looking sea-green or possibly burnt-orange, I hadn’t quite decided at the time, sundress is.. a pastel shade of pink.
It doesn’t look BAD per-say but the dresses definitely looks a lot more ‘childish’ then I’d like in my opinion, just from the coloring alone..

Eris got busy fiddling with my hair while I added the finishing touches to our outfits including the slight ruffle at the bust and the wider double straps to hide my bra straps a bit better.

I didn’t really pay attention to what she was doing, ‘creating haze’ being in effect and all, but when she’d finished my hair was off of my neck at least.
She moved around and offered me her hair with instructions on how to do the same thing for her.

I’m pretty impressed honestly.
Who knew she was so talented with hair?

It turns out she’d taken my pretty much butt-length hair and managed to twist it up into a bun of sorts.

I managed to replicate the look on her from instruction alone, there wasn’t a mirror in the guest room sadly, but essentially it’s just a bun.
A really fancy bun with a ponytail sticking out of it to hang slightly away from her neck at about shoulder length, but still a bun.

One thing I DID learn from it all is that you can use magic to make your hair just ‘stick’ in place.
It took me a few tries to get a hang of it but basically you have to vent some magic into your palm so it’s outside your skin, then ‘rub’ it onto two parts of hair you want stuck together and like magnets they just ‘ZOOM’ stick together tight!

Eris said I taught her how to do it ages ago but I can’t remember if I did, obviously.

Apparently I got fed up with her loosing bobby-pins and other hair ornaments so I came up with this simple little trick as a work around.
Even without accessing her lines she can do it wandlessly, it’s not exactly HARD to vent your magic after all, controlling it when you finish venting is the hard part usually.. unless your me with more magic then sense, in which case the opposite is true..

We’re both wearing thin little sequined slip-on shoes in matching shades of black.
I’m tempted to call them ‘ballet pumps’ but that sounds weird and we aren’t dancing anywhere so they’re slip-on’s, simple as that!

“I wish I had a camera; matching mother-daughter outfits are so fun! One time when John was little I.. uh..”
Mrs Jones suddenly paused mid-sentence as if realising what she was about to say.

Oh no Mrs J.. don’t be shy.. PLEASE, continue?!..
I think you were just about to confess that you dressed John up in matching mother-daughter outfits when he was little?.. PLEASE let that be true, that would be HILARIOUS!

Just WAIT until the next time John mocks my outfit choices!
I can see it now, little John with his sharp little chin walking around the store with his grinning Mummy as woman coo over how cute he is!

HA!

I wonder if she kept it up for a while?
Maybe I wasn’t the only one wearing skirts on a semi-regular basis back when we met in pre-school?!

“You girls ready? We need to get off if we want to make reasonable time getting back to Klamath after the Bazaar.”
My grin hurt my cheeks slightly and Mrs Jones blushed bright red as John came in shooting us all curious looks.
“What? Something on my face?”

Even Eris seemed to pick up on the amusement.. well MY amusement.. judging but the happy little giggle she gave while swishing her sundress with her free hand.

When did she manage to slip her other hand into mine?
I didn’t even notice!

“Ready as we’ll ever be John.”
It was a fight to hold down the urge to outright laugh this time.
I turned and shot Mrs J a knowing look which made her blush even brighter somehow.
Instead of dropping her in it or being mean I just stepped up and offered her a one-armed hug which she happily took with a relieved sigh.
“We’ll see you in a few days then Natasha.”
It still feels weird to call her by her name..

Eris giggled and shot forward for a tight hug from her ‘Gran’.

She’s a bad influence on me, when she got finished hugging John’s poor Mum I bent down slightly and ended up with an armful of content little girl which I think I honestly wouldn’t change for the world.. as weird as that feels to admit..
Carrying her around so much is awkward at times and it can get a bit warm having her tucked up against me too but deep down I don’t really feel comfortable if she’s not within reach at this point?

I know it’s probably bad and definitely related to the dreaded ‘Mother Arista’ problem that keeps rearing its annoying head lately but on the other hand it feels good to have her little ear pressed into my breast as she listens to my heartbeat and I refuse to deny myself that pleasure no matter how weird and ‘not me’ enjoying it may be!

“Bye Mum.”
John leaned in and gave Mrs Jones a warm hug that she returned happily.

I’m glad I ended up inviting her to visit us back at home.
She really was starting to look almost depressed as conversation turned to us going home, but now she’s full of smiles and I can practically FEEL the joy coming from her.

“Lady’s first..”
John waved me through like the true aristocrat he once was.

I was SO tempted to wave him through and make some kind of smart-assed comment about his apparent ‘mother-daughter’ time as a kid in return but I held it back with some effort and restrained myself to a smile for him with an internal giggle for me.

Something like that.. you don’t just waste it on a little jab?..

Thanks to Mrs J’s little slip-up I just hit pay dirt!
A new trump card to hold onto in case he picks another fight when I’m REALLY not in the mood for it, just like the ‘peeing himself in kindergarden after his awakening’ one I used on him back at the farm.

I’ve said it before, rule one when dealing with John is to always have some kind of plan to fall back on!

It’s not just a saying it’s a way of life!
Without another word I lead the march out towards the truck.

Shopping and then home.
This time I can actually SLEEP through most of the journey too, thank the powers for small mercies!

======

“I spy with my little eye something beginning withhhh...”

“We’re almost there.”
I glared at John for interrupting.
Who knew ‘I-Spy’ could be such a hard game when you get through a few rounds and run out of the obvious stuff?

“I spy with my little eye something beginning with Y.D.B.G.”
Eris’s eyes went wide in shock.

I don’t think it ever occurred to her that you could use more than single initial before, I don’t think you CAN without cheating honestly but I can’t resist this one.

“Give up? I spy Your-Dad-Being-Grumpy!”
Eris cracked up laughing.
The light glare John shot at me didn’t help matters, if anything he set her off again in another peel of giggles that I joined her on.

“Oh come on John, lighten up. As you said we’re almost there now.”

To be honest the journey’s been surprisingly quick.
I always thought Seattle would be one of those mega-cities like New York where it’s practically faster to walk then drive anywhere but we’ve made good time, barely an hour’s drive and no real traffic.

To be fair we started in the practically deserted ‘suburb’ area of DuPont.
A few turns and we pulled a right past an athletics field that had a rough football field surrounded by a bright red running track and possibly a baseball diamond on the far side all built into one facility.
A long curving road brought us past some kind of forest area then seemingly straight through DuPont’s shopping district.

It was mostly food places from what I could see as we pulled past it?
On one hand I was kind of disappointed to not have something more interesting to look at but on the other hand they have a ‘Jack in the box’ restaurant!

I’ve not had Jack in a box in AGES, we have one back in Klamath Falls but it’s right on the far side of town from Mum’s place, nearer to the Walmart in Altamont honestly.

The signs for their ‘Brunchfast’ meals and ‘Panko onion rings’ had me watching as we cruised past, almost whimpering in regret when they disappeared.
I know I only just had breakfast but.. but food?!..

As if taunting me the next corner lead to a run of shops including a Starbucks coffee, Domino’s Pizza and a Subway!

Luckily we went past pretty fast but I still felt a little cheated and mildly hungry because of it all.
The final round of food trauma was a surprisingly large McDonalds on our left as we pulled onto the I-5 heading to Tacoma.

Once on the I-5 it was a pretty boring ride at least, hence the little games to keep Eris entertained.
Aside from a bit of awed staring from her when we drove past the McChord air force base and a surprisingly large, worryingly low jet took that moment to land practically right in front of us, we had few other distractions.

The ones that got the most fun reactions from Eris included the point when we passed the ‘Wild Waves’ theme park with all its colorful water flumes looming high into the sky and the few times we were overtaken by a big-rig or two, making her gape in awe as they moved by.

Aside from that she seemed to need the games to keep her from getting fidgety honestly?
I could tell after about twenty minutes when she started fiddling with my hair that she was growing bored quickly and no-one likes a bored child on a journey, even if it IS a pretty short one.. the journey that is, not Eris.. although she IS short AND pretty too, but then I’m her mother so I would say tha-
DAMN IT!

We just past a sign for ‘Glendale’ when John had his little grump-fest and a few minutes later we went past our second airport of the day, this one being ‘King County’ International Airport apparently?
Eris plastered herself to the window looking for planes again and just as we moved past it she got lucky as, what I assume was, a Boeing jet came in for landing near level with our side window.

She squealed and stared at it with childish wonder that made me feel oddly warm for some reason.
I know she’s not really used to a lot of things about the ‘modern’ world yet but it’s still fun to see her acting her age and being so cute about it in the process!

As we came to the messy junction where the I-90 crosses over and partly merges with the I-5 we hit our first major run of traffic.
It took a while to clear but eventually the somewhat recognisable skyline of towering buildings that is Seattle hove into view.
Yet again Eris was up and looking around eagerly.

She seemed to be amazed by every tall structure we went past.
To be fair, I doubt she’s seen anything this tall before, let alone things that are man-made.
The housing in New Avalon could be kindly described as ‘rustic’ and in my opinion best described as ‘a step up from mud-huts’ sadly.

The truck rolled on underneath a long overpass throwing us momentarily into darkness until it opened up slightly with a tree lined area which even caught me by surprise before plunging us back into the darkness.
I’ve never driven through here before, me and cars in general don’t mix of course, but I really didn’t expect to see much greenery at all in such a built up area honestly?

When we came out the other side of the short tunnel area John pulled us over to the off-ramp labelled ‘Exit 166’, after a bit of dodging and weaving we were making our slow way through the surprisingly heavy traffic of ‘Denny Way’.

On the right there was some kind of construction project going on and yet again I lost Eris’s attention as she stared up at all the heavy building equipment in a funny mix of confusion, fear and awe.

Just before a large cream colored building with ‘The Seattle Times’ slapped on top of it John pulled us onto a side street and into a pretty jam-packed parking lot area that I THINK is meant to be for residents and staff or something, but if it is then John didn’t seem to care either way.

It took almost five minutes of us driving around in circles before a space opened up, even magic can’t improve parking in the city apparently?

I suppose we could have just shrunk someone’s car and taken their space or something but that would just be mean.. although if we hadn’t found a space when we did I wouldn’t have put it past John to do exactly that out of frustration if nothing else.
He always HAS been impatient about pretty much everything.. silly bastard..

“I’ll go get us a ticket, you want to come Eris?”
I winced a little at how quickly she hopped off my lap, barely even waiting for the seatbelt to come loose in the process.
Her eyes keep shooting from side to side at the ‘strange’ mix of cars around us.

If she wants to go with him I don’t mind, it’ll give me a second to get myself sorted and move my expanded bag from the back to the cab of the truck so it doesn’t get stolen or something.

======

They took a few minutes to come back, Eris skipping along with wide eyes and John smiling lightly at her side.

I think I’ve roughly got my bearings at this point.
I may have cheated and brought up a map on my phone after rescuing my ‘not a handbag’ black little shoulder strap bag from its expanded cousin but I’m a mage, we cheat at everything, it’s practically in the rule book..

Actually it IS in the rulebook now that I think about it?
Page twenty-three under ‘rules of engagement for newly awakened mages in times of crisis’.. say what you want about the Hub’s but whoever they get to write their guidebooks is wise beyond their years in SO many ways!

“I take it we’re heading a few blocks over to the Needle?”
We can’t see it from here with all the tall buildings around but according to my map the Seattle Space Needle, the big pointy tower thing with a doughnut of glass on top that everyone recognises about this city, is a few blocks west of us apparently.

You’d be surprised how many people don’t believe it when they’re told there’s a whole magical shopping district under the Needle.
It’s a pretty smart spot to put it, no-one ever seems to question that one ‘staff’ elevator which doesn’t seem to go up the tower very often despite being in near constant use and looking like the two main glass fronted ones in pretty much every other way.

‘Who cares about a ‘freight’ elevator that goes so slowly compared to the other two anyway?’..
right?

Just for appearances sake every once in a while they open it up to the public of course but luckily there’s a reserve exit to the Bazaar in one of the nearby buildings to let people out if they don’t want to just warp out like a normal person.

Despite having been to the Bazaar a fair few times this is the first time I’ve come to it from ground level.
I’ve never actually seen the Space Needle before, most of the information I have comes from an information board they have at the far end of the Bazaar so this is just as much of a new experience for me as it is for Eris.

If I remember right there’s a whole ‘cloak and dagger’ password system to get a pass for the third elevator and a special trick to gain access to the buttons for it too.
From there we travel through thirty feet of solid concrete foundation and another twenty or so of mixed stone and rebar before popping out above the Bazaar.
I’m kind of excited to see the view honestly?

Like most mage ‘towns’ that don’t hide inside the fae realm the Bazaar is deep underground in a protective little cocoon of reinforcements and charms.

On the plus side whoever designed the place, back when the ‘Space Needle’ was first being built, worked with the Carlson guy who designed it and did an amazing job of enchanting the Bazaars ‘roof’ to look like open sky.
It’s so good you can barely tell your underground when your down there!

Unlike New Avalon, the Bazaar isn’t an ‘enclave’ but more of a trading district, so people from all walks of magical life meet up there.
It’s about as metropolitan and modern as you’re likely to get with mages sadly.

As far as I know the story goes that the Architect ‘John Graham’ struggled at first to provide a way to keep the tower secure despite only having a hundred-and-twenty foot square space to build it in.

There’s magic involved obviously, a bribe for letting the mages build underneath, although it’s apparently all just for safety sake because the tower is SO well designed that it would stand up on its own anyway somehow?!
Engineers.. they do a magic all of their own sometimes I swear!

The land itself used to be a long forgotten mage home, a bit like one of my bolt-holes, and when the team designing the needle for the nineteen-sixty-two World’s Fair couldn’t find anywhere to build it ‘someone’ just so happened to ‘find’ a seventy-five-thousand dollar plot of land in the middle of downtown Seattle that was just perfect for the groups needs in every way possible..

Personally I think the magical congress had a hand in it all.
The idea of such a large space to work with inside the heart of such an under-represented city for the magical world would just be too tempting an offer to pass up!

I’d assume some memory charms were cast and some in-the-know normal’s were bribed to help the strangely ‘appearing’ land seem like more of a clerical fluke then the actual reappearing landmass that it really was for everyone involved.

Either way that’s all not exactly relevant to us today but I can’t be blamed if my mind wanders, the walk from our parking lot to the Needle is a lot further then it looks on the map!

We’ve already gone five blocks up and all I’ve got to keep me entertained is Eris’s funny little reactions to ordinary things like stop signs and fire hydrants or the tiny boring display windows in stores like the Walgreens we just walked past..

Okay, I’ll admit I don’t mind the ‘Walgreens’ displays as much as most chain stores I guess?

The symbol in their window has a mortar and pestle on it with stars sprinkled inside!
That’s like an outright STATEMENT that they are magical in some way?!

I’m pretty sure that, until recently at least, a lot of their ‘medication’ would be termed as ‘potions’ or ‘alchemic concoctions’ if looked at by someone who isn’t in on the conspiracy.

There aren’t many people or groups who bother with potions anymore let alone alchemy.
It’s nice to know the old skills are still around somewhere AND that they are being used to help normal people, even if it IS for a tidy profit.

That’s about as good as we can get as mages these days in all honesty?
This isn’t the old days where you could just roll up claiming to be a witchdoctor or medicine-man and people would believe you.
If you want to help people with magic nowadays you have to be sneaky at best and outright lie about it at worst!

One more block up and the buildings suddenly flattened off giving us our first real glimpse of the Space Needle.

It really IS impressive.
I paused slightly and gaped up at it slightly and John took that as an invitation to scoop Eris up onto his shoulders so she could see as well.

“Wow.. did mages do that?”

I flinched and shot a nervous look around us but it doesn’t seem like anyone heard her?
No-one’s looking at us unusually at least, although a few people are giving me second glances.

It probably says a lot about where I am in this whole ‘gender change’ thing that I’m barely registering those looks anymore, they’re still annoying obviously but on the whole you tend to just forget about them after a while.
Men are going to be men sadly and I can hardly blame them for staring.
Like it or not, with this body, I’m a hottie..

A short, puffy cheeked and worryingly young looking ‘a hottie’.. but still a hottie?..

John doesn’t stare at me anymore so that’s something I guess?
Just goes to show that if you desensitize them to you, men CAN act civil about things!

..I sound like a feminist..
ACK! You know what I mean!!

I’m not saying men are pigs or anything because until recently I was one of them and I wasn’t a pig but just.. well.. maybe sometimes they are a little bit?
Not intentionally, not harmfully or even offensively either but just.. it’s a social thing I guess?..

I never even used to notice when I watched women as I walked past really?
It’s just something you grow up DOING as a guy, ya know?

It’s not an excuse or anything and I’m sure there ARE some guys who are intentionally assholes about it but it’s not like women are saints either!

I’ve been in women’s bathrooms before and even the locker room at school once or twice.
Women are just as obsessed with men as men are about women sometimes.. they’re just better at hiding it.. maybe?..

Either that or men are just bad at noticing when they’re being checked out?
I guess it’s easier to stare at someone’s crotch ‘subtly’ then their cleavage considering said cleavage is a lot closer to the face and more likely to catch someone’s attention?

I’m pretty sure John didn’t notice me checking out his Jeans when he- GAH!
Um.. change of topic time.. quickly!

“What’s the time?”
John shot a curious glance over at me and shrugged which made Eris giggle from her apparent new favorite position on his shoulders.

It’s rather cute to see honestly?
Despite his usual demeanor John really is a softy when he gets the chance to be.
Eris is enjoying herself being up so high all of a sudden and I’m pretty sure that there’s just a hint of a smile I can see on John’s face too.

Rather than prod again I reached into my bag and snagged my phone up to check instead.
Nearly noon.. damn.. too late for second-breakfast and too early for lunch!..

Oh well, if we wait until we get to the Bazaar before eating we can get some ‘Wizard Burger’ instead of just normal junk I guess?
I’m sure Eris will find that fun if nothing else.

I’ve got to admit I’m rather partial to ‘Wizard Burger’ myself, it’s like the magical equivalent of McDonalds, only more fun.

Want a burger that will turn your hair purple and your nails blue?
There’s a burger for that.
Want a hotdog that can make you grow horns for half-hour?
They got you covered!

It’s not a joke to say that mages like ‘playing’ with their food because we tend to PLAY with it at every chance we get sadly.

I’m pretty sure the ‘every flavor beans’ idea from Harry Potter are totally just an off-brand rip-off of ‘Dan Boons dynamite doubloons’, a brand of chocolate coins with random timed hexes on them that your meant to eat in a dare game with a group of friends.

I’ve never had them before obviously.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I kind of lack the sort of friends I can spend a night messing about eating charmed chocolate with sadly?.. they look nice and fun though!

I mean, who doesn’t like chocolate or magic?!
Put them together and you’ve got a masterpiece!

“..you’re drooling..”
Eris giggled from John’s muttered statement.
It was her giggle more than his words that really jolted me back into reality as we turned the corner onto Fourth Avenue with a clean line of sight all the way along to the towers base.

I KNOW I wasn’t drooling but I still wiped my chin just in case which seemed to amuse the pair of them even more sadly.

A sign strung up next to the old Seven-Eleven store on the corner advertising their ‘Big Gulp’ drinks made me kind of want to ‘drool’ again though.. I don’t know why I’m so hungry all of a sudden but it’s REALLY irritating!

“If you’re both done giggling at me? We really should get to the Bazaar before the lunchtime rush.”
The faster we get there, the faster I get food!

Also crowds and me don’t tend to mix too well..
As weird as it is to say, I’m kind of glad for the whole ‘light blue hair’ thing at the moment?
Hopefully it will cut down on the amount of people who recognise me as ‘Arista’ while we shop if nothing else.

“Lady’s first..”
John waved me on with an awkward bow that set Eris off giggling in enjoyment as he leaned her forward slightly.

With a huff at his cheeky attitude I folded my arms and paced ahead as offered.
If he’s going to be like that then so be it!

Maybe I can get in the elevator before him and leave him waiting on the ground floor for a few minutes, it would serve him right for laughing at me if nothing else!

======

“Sir you have to go the other way around, this elevator is for staff only at the mo-”
John fished around in his pocket for a second and flashed her some kind of badge inside his wallet.
I didn’t get too good a look at it before he’d flipped it shut and stored it away again annoyingly!
“OH! Mr Jones sir, I didn’t know we were due for a surprise inspection today?.. although I guess that would defeat the purpose of the ‘surprise’ now, wouldn’t it.. heh?..heh..uh..”

The woman seemed to practically fall apart the moment the badge got flashed.
She went from a stern, professional business woman to a giggly little school girl fawning over John in the blink of an eye.

Either magic’s involved here or she’s got some kind of fetish for ‘power’ as she apparently thinks John’s some kind of ‘higher up’?

Eris shifted uncomfortably on John shoulders for a second attracting more than just my attention.
I almost felt sorry for the woman when she got a full blast of Eris’s adorable ‘I don’t like you but I’m so sweet and innocent looking that it’s still cute’ look.

“This must be your daughter? She’s a real cutie.”
She tried to cover her discomfort from the look she was getting with chatter but it apparently didn’t impress Eris in the slightest.
In a probably wise move she shifted her attention over to me and blinked for a moment in surprise as she obviously registered my odd hair color.

“-and you are?”
She stuck her hand out to shake mine despite the confusion in her voice.

John opened his mouth to say something, probably something either rude or embarrassing.
Luckily I beat him to it for once.

“I’m Mr Jones’s Personal Assistant.”
I took her hand and shook it casually.

She seemed even more surprised now and possibly a little impressed by me.
..I probably shouldn’t enjoy that mix of emotions on her face as much as I do..

“um.. right, so uh.. the elevators all yours. Have a good day.”
Without another word the woman turned and practically fled the area leaving us to make our way to the currently dormant elevator doors.

“Personal Assistant huh?.. this mean you’re getting my coffee and wearing a mini-skirt from now on?”
I tried to ignore him for a few seconds as I leaned out and hit the call button on the elevator but it was no good.
I could practically FEEL his amused grin burning into the back of my head.

“..shut up John-boy..”

“That will be shut up MR John-boy.. SIR.. from now on little PA of mine.”
It took everything I had not to react, if he didn’t have Eris on his shoulders I SWEAR I’d swing around and clock him one RIGHT in the nose!

I was starting to stew over the indignity of it all when Eris let off her first audible giggle.
The sound seemed to practically drain all the anger out of me in seconds.
..I can’t stay mad if it’s making her laugh so much..

I guess it IS kind of funny and I DID set myself up for it?
That doesn’t mean I’m getting the smug bastard a coffee though OR that I’m wearing a powers damned MINI-SKIRT either!!

The elevator finally slid open after quite possibly the most painfully long ten seconds of my life so far.

I didn’t need prompting to shoot inside quickly.
Anything to get us out of the public eye so I can glare at John openly without someone seeing us at this point!

======

“How much longer is this gonna take?”
My eyes cut down to Eris as she stood between us kicking her little slip-on shoes against the floor out of boredom.

I’ve got to admit I wasn’t expecting it to take this long just to travel fifty feet downwards but I guess there’s a reason this is the ‘freight’ elevator and not a public use one?
Capacity in exchange for speed.

..things are always slower without magic too..
At least I don’t get travel sick in slow elevators though!

Come to think of it, I haven’t gotten sick from John’s truck yet either?
Maybe it’s because he’s not a violent maniac driver like Sarah.. forget that, it’s PROBABLY because he’s not a violent maniac driver like Sarah actually!

The sound of the elevators decent changed slightly around us for a moment as it has at what I guess would be every ten feet or so that we travelled downwards.
Moments later the poorly lit elevator suddenly slid out into bright light and we were left moving swiftly down out of the ‘sky’ above a large assortment of buildings in practically a mini-city.

Eris squealed in delight and moved forward to stare closely out of the glass front windows while John kept a strong hold on her hand but smiled happily as well.
I staggered back until I hit the ‘wall’ behind us, as far away from the glass on all sides as I could manage.

A single peek over the edge was enough for me!
I’m not exactly afraid of heights.. when magic is involved.. but practically ‘falling’ from the sky in a little glass box powered by electricity and wires is on the same level as travelling by airplane for that primal ‘fear’ part of my brain apparently?!

When we were about half way down to the ‘ground’ again the elevator jolted slightly.

Realistically I know it was nothing, just some kind of break kicking in to slow our decent in some way.
In reality I freaked out and with a lurch managed to plant myself into John’s side with my face buried in his back so I didn’t have to see anymore.

Why did I EVER think seeing the view from the elevator was a good idea?!

I should have bloody WARPED down to the Bazaar!
It would have been nasty but not ‘falling in a glass box’ nasty!!

John’s arms moved and he shifted me around slightly, cupping me into his chest so he could hold me better.
My breath kept coming out in slightly panicked pants and I’m not sure I can take my hands out of the tight fists they’ve formed in his shirt even if I tried!

With one final ‘bump’ that made me let off a frightened yelp into his chest we finally came to a stop.
The doors opened and John started slowly moving us forward, me on slightly unsteady legs.

“Is everything okay sir?”

I could feel John’s magic roll in amusement for a second but I just couldn’t bring myself to care at this point.
Not until I know we’re safely back on solid ground at least!

“It’s okay, my Personal Assistant Hannah, it turns out she doesn’t like heights after all..”
Har-Dee BLOODY Har John-boy!!

Laugh it up!
I’ll get you back for this somehow?!

“Not to worry, we get that reaction sometimes, usually from earth mages generally.”
They both shared a laugh as John guided me forward a few more steps.

“You can look now, it’s safe.”
I didn’t expect the gentle tone that came from him but it was welcome to say the least.

Slowly I pulled my face away from his chest and glanced around us carefully.
When it became obvious that we were both on solid ground again AND causing a bit of a scene I blushed bright red, practically shoving him away to save at least a little face from it all.

I can’t believe I fell apart like that?!
How embarrassing.. some ‘badass’ mage I am!

“Sorry.”
John’s light smirk made me blush harder for a second before I managed to duck my eyes away from him.

“No big deal, it’s pretty cute honestly, when did you start fearing heights that badly?”

I couldn’t look at him again but I managed to huff an annoyed breath out through my teeth at least.
I don’t like being called ‘cute’ thank-you-very-much!

“It’s not the height, I just don’t travel well with technology.. motion sickness, ya know?”
My downright panic attack had nothing to do with my usual motion sickness but hopefully he’s in a good enough mood to let it go at that.

After a painfully long moment of consideration John snorted his acceptance with just a hint of amusement obvious to my ears.
“What’s the plan then?”

..Good question?..

I need some more pure nightshade powder for a start, it’s useful with blood magic and I used the last of mine months ago while banishing a Voraxis demon from a run-down apartment complex in the Philippines..
A few casters trinkets for Eris would probably be a good idea too, just until I can get her using her lines properly I guess?

It feels like there’s something I’m missing?
AH! I was going to look for a set of voodoo dolls too!

Not for the obvious reasons, I may be a blood mage but I’m not evil OR twisted enough to use the bad ‘voodoo’ techniques of all things!

Voodoo dolls are little human shaped objects that ironically have nothing to do with either the ‘Voodoo’ or ‘Vodou’ religions and despite what most people believe actually originate from England of all places.

They were used a lot as a way to track and ‘punish’ mages by witch hunters back in the dark ages but their existence go’s WAY further back than that.
Even I’m not really sure who first came up with them honestly but they were used for protection by the druids for a while and the pagans practically loved the little things until they decided they were too ‘grown up’ to play with dolls anymore and moved on to praising food before eating it.. weirdo’s..

Anyway, Voodoo dolls can be made of a few things, cloth and clay being the most popular ones for some reason.
Personally I prefer having ones made from hemp, even if they CAN be awkward to explain away if you get a bit too close to a police sniffer dog.

The power and flexibility inherent in the ‘weed of dreams’ when cultivated in an appropriately magical environment is just silly in comparison to anything else!
As casting mediums go cultured hemp is up there with blessed wool when it comes to materials that work well with sympathetic magic.

The symbology involved, both the old fashioned ‘dreams’ connection and the more modern ‘repression’ connection from it being illegal for so long work pretty well for anything I would want to use the dolls for too.

In all honesty it’s either hemp voodoo dolls I need or I probably won’t even bother getting them?
There’s a tricky little sympathetic magic trick that I can hopefully use to my advantage with the hemp ones.
It’s kind of similar to the bonding I did with Sarah when she was in her coma back when we thought we would be fighting some kind of ‘el diablo’ level demon in the jungle but with a lot less drawbacks and side-effects involved.

They can be used both offensively and defensively by either ‘confusing’ your magical signature, making you harder to charm and manipulate with magic, or enhancing the sympathetic response in any spell you cast by a surprisingly large margin just by creating a basic feedback loop of sorts.

It all goes back to that old tragic fact of life sadly, Magic is complicated.

Complicated magic is even worse and you don’t get much more complicated than sympathetic magic!
There’s a REASON barely anyone uses it after all..

======

A slight movement by Eris didn’t exactly ‘bring me back’ to the real world but it certainly reminded me that I still hadn’t answered John yet.
At least I didn’t get lost in my own head for long this time, it looks like the whole ‘blocking the seer talent’ thing has worked as hoped to some degree if nothing else.

I opened my mouth to tell him my shopping agenda for the day but my stomach beat me to the punch with a low grumble.

“Food first?”
He grinned at me but nodded in agreement at least.

Eris seemed pretty excited at the idea of more food too.
I guess Mum was right, like mother like daught-
DAMN IT!

Those insidious little thoughts are getting REALLY annoying!

“..Mau?..”
A surprisingly loud plaintive little mew coming from the floor made me jump in surprise before we could make good on our food hunting plans.

We all turned our eyes down to see an adorable little kitten sitting patiently at my feet.

I’m amazed it managed to get so close without us noticing?
Usually my situational awareness is better than a kitten could ever hope to beat, even when I’m a bit distracted!

I squinted down at the little longhaired fuzz-ball and it’s unusually large ears as it stared back up at me with wide little blue eyes full of hope and cuteness.
My traitorous new female brain decided to join my heart in melting a little despite my best efforts to resist the silly pests allure.

It’s fur was a little odd, white almost to the point of being called ‘silver’ with little black dot’s all along it’s back ending in black rings around it’s legs and long tail.

For some reason it looks familiar?
It took me a few seconds to work through my jumbled memories to pick out why.
The coloration, ears and tail are the big giveaways.

It’s some kind of ‘Egyptian Mau’ cat?
The kind that the normal’s used to treat like royalty back in the days of Pharaohs and the pyramids..

Something’s a bit off though, Mau’s don’t tend to have long fur as far as I know and this little one is fluffy beyond belief?.. then again I’m not normally much of a ‘cat person’.. if you ignore the whole ‘acting like a cat’ thing this morning at least.

Either way it’s not like I’m an expert on the breeds or anything I guess?

I’m not really an animal fan in general really.
Pet’s always seemed like too much hassle for me, I had Sarah to keep an eye on and she’s enough of a handful without adding a brain-dead little beast into the mix as well.

“..Mau..”
The kitten cautiously stepped forward slightly and when I didn’t move it seemed to take that as an invitation because it quickly slid up to my feet and started running circles around my ankles with its strange little off key meows and purrs.

“She’s so pretty! Can we keep her Mom?”
Eris practically squealed her words as she knelt down and offered the curious little beast her hand to sniff which it did with surprising gusto before turning its attention back to running around my legs for some reason.

“THERE you are! Mau, come here!”

We all glanced up from the happily pacing kitten to an overweight man in his forties who seemed to be struggling to catch his breath as he stared down at the fur-ball with no small amount of annoyance on his face.
The kitten apparently couldn’t care less for his annoyance though.
Instead, it opted to finally stop pacing and plopping itself belly-first on my left shoe like a particularly fluffy throw rug.

“Mau.. Mau come here boy!”
The kitten didn’t even twitch at the man’s voice.
All of a sudden the man seemed to realise that we were there as well because his eyes trailed up my leg to finally land on my face.

“Uh.. hi?.. this your cat?”

Please let it be his so he can take it away!
I have enough problems with Eris being clingy without adding an animal into the equation too!

“OH! Sorry Miss, yes.. well, no.. he’s.. uh, I run a pet store down the road.”
He vaguely waved his hand towards a row of three-story buildings in the middle-distance.
“This little fellow has been driving me a bit crazy honestly, ever since I got him off a breeder last week. He’s part-Russian Blue Nebelung, part-Egyptian Mau but a full on pain-in-my-ass so far!”
He clenched his hands slightly but eventually let them loosen with a sigh.
“The crafty little sod is an escape artist, don’t let the angelic little eyes and goofy proportions fool you, he’s quick as all hell when he wants to be.”

The man slowly moved towards my new foot-warmer and crouched down in preparation to make a grab for the kitten.

“The breeder said he should have all the best traits of his kin, healing and fair fortune from the Russian Blue with whatever Nebelung traits come from being a ‘creature of the mist’ and the agility you’d expect from a purebred Mau.. apparently he clocked the little guy going over sixty miles-an-hour on the ranch but I’m not sure how much I’d believe that even if the little guy IS magical by nature..”

He inched forward ever so carefully while the kitten obliviously lay spread out on my foot, completely ignorant to his robust hunter getting ever closer.

“This is first time the little sod’s left the store or bothered someone though, he mostly seems to like jumping up into the rafters and hiding there until food gets put out so far but for some reason he shot right out the door a minute ago. I’m just glad he stopped when he did or who knows WHERE he could have gotten off to!”

I made a humming sound of agreement as I watched the shop owner creep ever closer to my foot.
I can feel John’s magic bubbling around slightly in amusement and it’s even easier to hear Eris trying to hide her giggles about the whole situation.

With one last surge the pet store owner ‘leapt’ forward and tried to grab the kitten.
In a movement that I can only attribute to its magical heritage the fuzz-ball went from carpet to missile, flying up a good fifteen feet above us and almost floating back down to land comfortably on the store owner’s back as he leaned heavily against my leg in surprise.

The man’s hands ‘covertly’ moved around to his back so he could attempt another grab but it was pretty obvious that the kitten knew what was coming even if it did seem more interested in staring up at me with those almost luminous blue eyes of its.

My stomach grumbled again from my hunger and I sighed heavily.
Rather than wait out this little byplay through to it’s inevitable conclusion of a little kitten defeating a grown man repeatedly I reached down and picked the beast up by the scruff of its neck, lifting it high enough into the air that the store owner could straighten up and get off my bloody leg at last!

When the kitten reached eye level with me its little head moved forward slightly as if reaching for me in some way and it let out a pathetic, almost pleading version of the strange ‘Mau’ sound it seems to favor.

The man finally got himself sorted and offered me an embarrassed but still bright smile.

“Thanks Miss. Sorry for all the trouble.”
He reached out and took the kitten’s scruff from me without too much effort.

I swear the little fuzz-ball seemed to practically sigh in defeat when the trade of hands took place?
It’s eyes settled on me one last time and it let off a slightly more pitiful ‘Mau’ which hit my brain like a sledgehammer of cuteness for a few seconds before I managed to regain control and wrestle the urge to coo over it back where it came from!

“Now Mau, we’ll have none more of this, huh? Be a good cat and don’t go running off bothering people anymore from now on.. thanks again!”

The store owner offered me one more grateful smile and turned to walk back up the street, presumably back towards his shop.

My stomach grumbled, with a sigh I turned away from the odd sight and smiled at the others.
“Okay, food time!”

John grinned but Eris pouted a little and watched the man wander off, fuzz-ball in tow, as we walked in the opposite direction towards what I THINK is the right street to reach the nearest Wizard Burger.

I practically lead the way for a few minutes, trying desperately to remember the route from memory but struggling; mostly because I usually come through the Bazaar from the opposite side where the warp areas are.

It didn’t help that there were a few rather interesting displays along the way and I almost bought a little animated snow-globe full of tiny dancing ‘people’ at some kind of festival?
In my defence the enchantments looked interesting!.. and it was kind of cute too..
..stupid girl brain..

“Do you actually know where you’re going Hannah?”
We came to a stop at an intersection and I whipped my head around hopefully in search of SOMETHING I could use to at least pretend I wasn’t as lost as I really am.

“..Mau..”

I locked up for a moment at the little sound from my feet.
The feeling of soft fur brushing against my bare ankles confirmed my fears a moment later.

The bloody kitten’s followed us somehow!
Eris squealed happily and quickly bent down to pet the thing but I just glared at it as it turned its head up to fix me with an equally intense stare of its own.

“Mau”
Despite being the exact same sound it keeps producing so far, this time it felt like there was some weight, some judgement, reprisal and almost petulance to the little beasts ‘tone of voice’ as it stared up at me with those wide blue eyes.

“Shoo.. go away..”

Eris twisted and stared up at me with wide begging eyes, her mouth open in shock and horror that I would try to get rid of the little fuzz-ball.
Her look stalled me even more than the kittens ‘judgemental’ one had before.

I really don’t like making Eris look like that but I also REALLY don’t like pets!

“It’s not ours Eris sweetie, we can’t keep it.. okay?”
My hand reached out and landed on her now brown head of hair in commiseration.
She nodded in understanding but it was pretty obvious to see that she wasn’t happy about it in the slightest.

Suddenly her eyes lit up with some determination and joy.

“If we buy her then she can be ours, right?”
I flinched hard.. why does she have to know how ‘money’ works?..
“Pleaseeee Mommy? I’ll look after her and play with her and everything I promise!”

My hand came up to the bridge of my nose in frustration.
..I REALLY don’t need this right now..

“Your Mom’s right Eris.. I mean, this kitten’s magical after all?.. It could be a familiar for someone just waiting for them to turn up and take it home, right?”

Wow?.. a surprisingly well thought out point there John-boy?
Much better than the ‘I don’t like pets!’ angle I was going to go with at least?!

Eris sniffed unhappily but after glancing over at John she nodded in agreement at his logic.

A familiar bond is an important thing with most awakened mages.
The bonds are so deep and long lasting that most people just aren’t magically ready for the commitment and connection involved.
Over time familiars practically become a part of you and they live on past their natural life-spans until the day that their ‘owners’ current incarnation dies.

Many people who DO manage to form such a close bond end up swearing off ever trying it again after their first bond, due mostly to the pain and grief involved in losing the being which is practically a vital part of them by the end of it all.

Eris may be a bit childish and naive at times but even she can see the importance of letting a magical animal chose its own bonded owner.

“How about this sweetie, we’ll come back in a few weeks and if it still hasn’t bonded with someone by then we’ll consider getting it properly.. how’s that sound?”
Eris brightened at the idea she could still have a chance at getting the kitten.

It’s a pretty under-handed offer from me honestly.
Not that Eris would know but nothing lasts long at the Bazaar, most things in stock barely stay in stock for a few hours at a time before they run out due to high demand on pretty much everything on offer.

A few weeks should practically guarantee the fuzz-ball has gone on to a new home.. far away from us..

“Mau?”
The kitten blinked its wide blue eyes in surprise when John scooped down and picked it up by the scruff of its neck like I did the first time.
It turned its head from me to John for a moment before shifting back to me again with an almost pleading look of hope in its eyes.

“Mau”

I sighed and offered it an apologetic look.
The cat’s obviously smarter than most of its kin, the least I can do is show that I’m sorry in some way before it gets marched back off to the pet store again.

“..mau..”
Oh that’s just not fair!

The little thing sounds almost heartbroken to my stupid delusional ears this time!
How can an animal be so expressive when all it does is make that one sound?!

I moved over to John’s side and petted the little fuzz-balls head making it purr happily for a second before it fixed me with those wide eyes again with what felt like bright hope shining in them.

“Sorry little one. I honestly don’t know what to say? I’m not good with pets and you’d probably hate life with me, especially at the moment.. I’m sure you’ll find your owner soon and be really happy okay?”
I swear its head sank sadly when I finished speaking.

With one final ‘Mau’ of defeat it let its tail go limp and hung from John’s fingers like a puppet with its strings cut.

“You see if you can find a food place Hannah, I’ll take this little guy back to the store.”
I glanced up at John for a moment with a weak smile but my eyes ended up drifting back down to the depressed looking little kitten eventually.

Some small part of me really didn’t want to let it go?
It really is adorable!

Eris likes it too and honestly it seems to be a pretty impressive conversationalist?!
Much better then Sarah was at its age at least!

..maybe I could potty-train it faster than we managed with Sarah?..

That thought made me snort slightly in amusement but it was tinged with regret.
My hand stroked its little head again getting a purr from it which really wasn’t helping things.

In the end I had to turn away and sigh heavily to get my center back a little.
Stupid new girl body’s messing with my head, I KNEW it would happen eventually!

First Eris and now kittens, next thing you know I’ll be puttering around in an apron making dinner while waiting for my husband to come home like a regular Susie-Q homemaker..

An image of John coming in through the back door of our house wearing a suit and putting a hat on a hat-stand we definitely don’t own while undoing his tie came to mind.
Just for a brief moment I could see myself in one of Mum’s more ‘motherly’ dresses and an apron going over to him with a smile too but the moment the imaginary me went up on her toes to greet the imaginary John with a kiss the whole thing shattered leaving me back in the street feeling suddenly chilled.

For one wild moment my stomach dropped out at the thought that I’d just had some kind of horrifying ‘seer’ vision of the future to come but sanity reinstated itself a moment later with a reminder that I’d had that problem fixed already.
THAT was just a daydream.. nightmare.. daymare!..

Whatever it was it wasn’t real in the slightest and I’m quite happy to pretend it never happened, while NEVER speaking of it to anyone.. EVER!

I shot a glance around in surprise when it finally clocked in my head that I was standing on the street corner alone.
A glance back up the way we came showed the unmistakable shape of John walking along a fair way off, Eris at his side and leaning in as if she was playing with something out of view.. most likely the kitten..

A huff escaped my lips at the fact that they’d left me alone without saying anything but that was quickly followed by a blush at the idea that I’d just been too gone in ‘fantasy’ for them to reach me if they did.

With one last shudder as the image of me in Mum’s green cooking dress and ruffled apron leaning up on my tip-toes to reach a suit wearing John’s warm smiling lips flashed quickly past my eyes again I managed to finally shake the whole thing off as the stupidity that it is in favor of much more important things.. like food hunting!

My stomach grumbled and gurgled its agreement at the idea.

As if commanding me to get a move on, my gut tightened up sharply for a moment before relaxing back to normal.
The experience left me a little winded and surprised but at least it was over quickly?

I let off one last sigh and made my way down the street in search of a landmark I could recognise to get my bearings and move on from there.

There's a time and a place for cat's; it's usually 'whenever they damn well please' in my experience. Still, for all their independence and aloofness they DO tend to come back home to their family eventually don't they? Events unfold including but not limited to: Eris having her secret project exposed. John can't seem to work out when to just stop (talking, doing things or just breathing depending who you ask?) Meanwhile Hannah run's with a stereotype and ends up crying in a bathroom!

 

“..tell me that’s not what I think it is?..”

John shuffled uneasily and tried to tuck the large plastic container behind his legs slightly to hide it from view even though the handle’s position meant that it stuck out painfully obviously from both sides of his legs by the time he was done moving it.

Eris giggled to herself.
I should have guessed just from the happy little grin on her face the moment I spotted them coming out of the crowd!

Slowly my head sunk down to rest on the textured wood of the ‘outdoor’ table I’d sat myself down at when I eventually found this bloody place.

“..you bought the kitten..”
The words came out quietly in something that might pass for a groan if you listened hard enough.

“We bought the kitten.”
As always when he does something unbelievably impulsive and stupid John looked strangely proud of himself for it all.

“We got Mau!”
Eris’s exuberance wouldn’t have been too bad if said kitten didn’t take that exact moment to practically appear out of nowhere with a hop, landing delicately on top of Eris’s head to purr and offer an almost smug look in my direction from its little kitty face.

“Mau”
I glared at the feline menace.
It stared back at me, I swear if it was human it would be giving off waves of almost John-level smugness right now!

With a hop that made Eris giggle in delight the kitten sent itself high into the air above us.

Eventually it came down again in an almost textbook summersault to land in my lap.
I watched it with wide surprised eyes for a moment, not quite believing the utter GALL of the beast, along with the supernatural precision it achieved the move with?!

It purred happily and nuzzled its face into my thigh for a moment before slowly turning its huge bright eyes up to me again.
Yet again I don’t know why but I got the impression it was mocking me in some way?

“..Mau..”
Even its strange little chirrup approximation of a normal cat’s meow sounded mocking and smug!

My eyes cut up from the kitten in my lap to glare hard at John.
He cringed and offered me a weak smile in return.

DAMN IT JOHN!
This is all YOUR fault!!

“Mau”
You can be quite too mister!
I shot a warning look down at the kitten but it honestly didn’t seem to care and was quite content to roll slightly in my lap instead.

Slowly it seemed to realise the direction my mood had taken as I grit my teeth down hard.
At first there was just a slight twitch of its ear but in the blink of an eye it was up and practically flying through the air again to land delicately on Eris’s head.
From there it eased its way down to her shoulders and promptly seemed to fall asleep somehow with its legs kicked out over her left shoulder and its front paw’s over her right.

Eris giggled when its purring breath brushed her ear and moved her hair a bit in the process.
My heart melted a little more at the sight of her so happy despite my best efforts to ignore that annoying instinctive reaction.

I can’t get rid of the cat now.. not after seeing how much joy it brings Eris?..
The only way to get rid of it at this point would probably be to get rid of Eris at the same time from the looks of it and that’s just unthinkable!

It looks like..
I sighed heavily and shot John one more glare just because he was an easy and appropriate target for my annoyance.
..it looks like we’ve got a cat then?

Damn it John!

“Go get us some menu’s John-boy.”
He didn’t need telling twice, just the tone of my voice told him how close I was to snapping over this whole ‘kitten’ thing.

I DON’T do pets!

Oh.. who am I kidding?!
I don’t do pets, I don’t do kids, I don’t do mushy stuff and I don’t act like a girl!

From that LONG list of things I supposedly ‘don’t do’ there’s not a single one I haven’t done in the last few weeks?!

“..this is just getting stupid..”
My eyes casually drifted back over to Eris.
She chose that moment to crinkle up her shoulder slightly and giggle in delight as the kitten’s breath lightly brushed her ear again.
My head slowly sunk down to land flat on the table with a gentle ‘thump’.
“..I’m so screwed..”

“Mau!”
You said it buddy!

‘Resistance is futile.’

======

“They don’t have a menu so I brought the next best thing.”

I sighed loudly just because I could as I pulled myself upright enough to give John the gimlet eye.
Standing awkwardly behind him, practically hopping from foot to foot with excess energy, was a skinny guy in roughly his early twenty’s by my guess?
He’s so pale that I’d be tempted to think he was a vampire or albino if he didn’t have a short crop of brown hair on his head and a certain lack of fang’s or campy fashion sense..

He seemed unreasonably eager to take part in whatever latest stupid idea John’s come up with though?

“This is my new friend Leroy, he-”
With a surge the new guy, ‘Leroy’ apparently, pushed past John and took center stage with an eager grin on his face.

“Welcome to Wizard Burger, where all our burgers are just wizard-awesome!”
A slow almost painful silence rolled around us.
Even John didn’t seem to quite know what to say to that.. that..

“DAMN IT LEROY! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT’S NOT THE COMPANY MOTO?!”
Our eyes all cut up to an open window on the second floor where a bulky man was doing his best to lean out and glare down at the newcomer in obvious frustration.

“If it’s good enough for Darth Vader then it’s good enough for us, ‘wizard’ is the best adjective ever!”
I had to groan at that one.

It’s not like they don’t set themselves up for it a bit by calling their shops ‘Wizard Burger’ around mages but Leroy’s apparently a fan of the money-grab ‘Star Wars’ prequel movies; which brings a whole new level of cringe-worthiness to his attempts at humor..

“I WILL fire you, I don’t care if you ARE my Nephew!”
Those words had more of an effect than anything else had so far on Leroy.

He made a big effort to visibly slump his shoulders and bow his head in submission.
I’m sure that from up high.. say, a window on the second floor?.. it looked like he was finally giving in.
From down here on the ground though it was pretty obvious from the wide cheeky grin on his face and the wink he shot a now giggling Eris, that he was anything but sorry for his actions.

I’m not sure what I was expecting honestly?
The guy works at a novelty magical fast-food restaurant, I’d be surprised if he DIDN’T have an awkward and annoying personality to one degree or another!

“What wizard-food can I get you on this truly wizard-day folks?”
In the blink of an eye he was back on form with the annoyingly perky attitude in possibly a louder voice then he’d even started with.

Eris almost fell out of her chair with giggles.
I’d like to think I’m slightly harder to impress then a toddler but even I couldn’t resist a slight smirk just from him having the guts to do it if nothing else.

“LEROY! MY OFFICE, NOW!”

Leroy shot me a dramatic exasperated look and winked at Eris which set her off again before turning and making tracks quickly back inside the shop.
John didn’t seem to quite know how to react to the whole thing.
I don’t think he’s used to other people managing to out ‘stupid’ him honestly?

“Mau..”
You said it, mages ARE crazy, my surprisingly observant little unwanted kitten-friend!
“..Mau..”

Some of my reluctant acceptance of his presence must have shown on my face because the fuzz-ball decided to take a chance and with the slightest of hops he ended up settled in my lap again.
My first instinct was to shove him off in frustration but he turned those wide pleading eyes up at me and my shoulders slumped in defeat.

It’s not like it’s a stray or anything this time, is it?
..stupid John..

I guess I’d better get used to this sort of thing?
I’m the not so proud owner of a kitten now, I know John bought it but he’d be worse to the poor little thing then I would?!

He had a goldfish when we were seven and forgot to feed it for almost half a year!
..Rest-in-Peace Goragmar the Destroyer..

It’s not like I have much choice anyway is it?
Eris would never forgive me if I didn’t keep the fuzz-ball at this point anyway..

Maybe Mum is looking for some animal company?
I’m stuck living with her until I’m ‘not a teenager anymore’ and Eris is probably with us for the long haul now too anyway.

It’s practically a rite of passage for her anyway?!
Every Mum should have to look after a pet her child bought home without consulting her first!
It’s a rite of passage my Mum never got to enjoy the first time around with my lack of interest and Sarah’s lack of attention so hopefully she enjoys the novelty of it enough that I won’t have to feel too guilty when I inevitably end up doing something wrong for the poor little thing..

“He forgot to take our order?”
My eyes cut down to Eris again and I sighed heavily.
Just to prove her point my stomach growled deeply a moment later.

“Yeah he did.. come on we’ll go inside and order instead.”

======

“Please don’t do that..”

Eris paused, her hand just inch’s from my tail.
Her eyes were alight with curiosity and joy as she watched it swish back and forth through the back of the chair.

The kitten isn’t much better, it’s taken a position behind me and is watching the swishing appendage with almost awe on its little kitty face.

I took another reluctant bite of my burger while my ears twitched high on top of my head to show my agitation.
John shifted slightly uncomfortably under my angry gaze.

“You don’t have to keep eat-”
My mouth dropped open and an angry cat-like hiss left my throat almost naturally.

HE thought it would be ‘funny’ to get me a ‘cat’ burger without saying anything!
HE cracked up laughing when my first bite left me with baby-blue furred cat ears and a baby-blue tail awkwardly sticking out from underneath the folds of my sundress!

I’m eating the burger!
I’m eating the damned burger and then I’m going to spend however long it takes before it wears off glaring at him!

..it’ll give me enough time to come up with an appropriately fitting punishment for him after all..

“Hannah seriously it was just a joke, you don’t have to keep eating th-”
My jaw dropped again with another angry hiss to cut him off mid-sentence.

With eyes squinted down into a tight glare in his general direction I slowly and deliberately brought the burger up again for another bite.

A few chews later and the latest additions to the whole ‘cat’ motif made themselves known in suddenly elongated, slightly fang-like, canine teeth.
John actually seemed a bit uneasy when my mouth shifted into a bright grin for him to show off the newest additions.

I’m not vain and I KNOW that it’s all temporary.
I don’t know what charms are involved in making the ‘Wizard Burgers’, it’s a company secret recipe obviously, but I know it’s not any form of self-transfiguration or even transmogrification.
That stuff’s WAY too complicated and time consuming to be used for a two dollar burger and still turn a profit!

I’m tempted to think that it’s actually some kind of illusion mixed with a few animated-conjured constructs?
That still doesn’t explain how they make all that come from a BURGER of course but it’s reassuring to at least have a vague idea what’s going on when you start gaining cat-like features in general.

“Seriously Hannah, you don’t want to finish that burger. You’ve got enough cat problems at the moment..”
I glanced down at the leftovers in my hand then back up to John again.
My head cocked to the side curiously and my new ears twitched in amusement.

“Whose fault is THAT exactly?”
Before he could defend himself in any way I popped the remains of the burger into my mouth in one go.

As I chewed I could feel changes washing over me.
My nails grew a little into a slight point, my hair took on a silky soft texture you normally only find in felines and, more worryingly, my eyes suddenly blurred.

After a few furious blinks the world came back into focus, although it seemed a bit stretched and weird at first until my brain got used to the new view.
Without a thought a deep amused rumbling purr built low in my chest as I stared at John smugly.

Not so funny NOW is it John-boy!

What’s wrong?.. isn’t this what you wanted?..
..pretty kitty Hannah..

I giggled to myself and brought my hand up to my lips to lick some of the sauce from my knuckle where it had spilled as I ate the burger.
When a rough, almost sandpapery texture made itself known on my hand even I blinked in surprise.
I hadn’t noticed my tongue changing?!

“That was nice. I was really hungry, thanks for the burger John-boy!”
He cringed and didn’t seem to quite know where to look now.

Without warning something grabbed my tail.
I hissed loudly and spun around, blunt but shaped long nails ready to scratch whoever dared to do it.

Eris shot back, a guilty look on her face which almost instantly dissolved into scared tears.
The cat features must make my ‘normal’ annoyed look seem a bit more scary for her I guess?

After a long pause to gather myself back together my shoulders slumped and I sighed heavily.
“Sorry sweetie. I said not to touch my tail, it’s really sensitive and not in a good way.”
Her little head bobbed up and down almost frantically in agreement as she quickly moved forward to sink into a hug with me.

“Mau”
I couldn’t help but giggle a little at the slightly disappointed noise from the floor-born kitten to our side.
I think he’s feeling a bit left out?

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about YOU John-boy, how long is this effect going to last exactly?”

Out the corner of my eye I could see John cringe slightly.
That’s definitely not a good sign in any way, shape or form!

“bou’six’n’our”
His quick, guilty mumble made the tiny hackles on the back of my neck rise angrily.. hackles I’d not even HAD half an hour ago!

“Care to repeat that.. slowly.. and at a volume intended for human ears to pick up?”
Just to punctuate that point I swivelled my surprisingly responsive new cat-ears a few times which seemed to almost mesmerise him for a second.

“It was only meant to be a joke, I didn’t think you’d get much past the first mouthful let alone eat the whole damn thing..”
I cocked an eyebrow at him and waited silently for him to finish.
“..he said it would take about six hours to wear, off give or take an hour depending on how receptive your body is to the potions involved of course..”

POTIONS!
Why didn’t I think of that?
Of COURSE they use potions to get the effects, how else are you going to put so many triggered effects into a burger of all things?!

Without thinking about it I ended up leaning back slightly and purring in interest.

I wonder what else could be done with potions like this?
It would be an interesting route to look into at some point if nothing else.

I’ve never had an incarnation that I can remember who used potions; runes take just as long to make and last so much longer usually so the better option was apparently always a no brainer?

..the ability to slip something to someone without them realising it until it’s all too late though..
Maybe it’s the ‘cat’ in me talking but the subtlety and elegance of it all is certainly interesting if nothing else?

“Well I guess we’ve got a few hours to kill in the Bazaar then? Looks like you’re playing ‘bag carrier’ for us like a gentleman John-boy.. oh!.. and your TOTALLY paying for everything of course!”
He opened his mouth to argue but a glance from me made him snap it shut quickly.

I smirked, which seemed to annoy him slightly but not enough for him to push past his guilt and worry to argue the point properly at least.

Honestly I CAN see the funny side of it all in reality.
First I ‘go cat’ back at his Mum’s place, then we get here where the fuzz-ball starts following us around and now this.. just because I can see the irony and odd timing to it all doesn’t mean I can’t still be pissed at him over it though?!

I only had a few things I needed to get today but NOW.. oh NOW, John-boy, you’re going to spend so much money your wallet will be weeping by the time I’m done with you!

“Let’s get a move on then, first stop is the clothing district. Eris needs a complete new wardrobe and I need something designed with tails in mind.”
It really isn’t comfortable having my leggings folded down at the back to let the tail hang loose over the edge; it feels like they’re gonna fall down or something equally stupid!
“You know what? Just for the hell of it I’ll get a new wardrobe too, Summer AND Winter clothes of course.”

Eris practically vibrated in excitement at the idea of new clothes.
It took a moment for me to realise that, while she may actually BE excited, the real reason she was vibrating so much was that she was trying to hide her laughter from John.
..we can’t have that can we?..

“I think we both need some new jewellery too. I’ve always been fond of twenty-four karat gold and Oppenhiemer diamonds you know?..”
A little ‘snerk’ noise came from the brown haired bundle in my arms as I listed the two most expensive things I could think of off the top of my head.
“What about you Eris? Any preferences?”

Despite her best efforts, her lips trembled slightly as she desperately tried to keep a straight face while answering.
“..I always HAVE been fond of Emeralds?..”

John groaned loudly, which was the final touch needed to set Eris off properly into a long fit of giggles that shook her little frame as she hugged tightly into my chest.
My lips split into a wide amused smile with just a hint of sinister intent that was emphasised by a flash of fang for good measure.

I really need to find a mirror soon because these ‘cat features’ I’ve got seem to be REALLY good for intimidation if John’s full-body shudder is anything to go by?!

There’ll be time for that later though, we’ve got six whole hours to kill after all!
Besides there are much more fun things to be doing right now.. like prodding John some more.

“Do you know, I think I heard a rumor that someone’s got a Dragon’s foot with them today?.. certified as being taken directly from Leherensuge, the last of its kind, during the great Basque culling of eighteen-o-two.. just IMAGINE how much THAT’S worth?!”

I’m joking of course?
Leherensuge WAS the last European dragon known in existence and it WAS killed in the early eighteen-hundreds; but I have no idea where its foot could be in the slightest.

It’s just fun watching John try to not show how painful the idea of spending THAT much money out on something so useless just to appease me because his little ‘prank’ gone wrong annoyed me a bit honestly!

I think I’m feeling a bit predatory and vindictive at the moment for some reason too, which probably helps I guess?

======

“You look like the cat that got the cream Mom..”

I groaned dramatically and slumped against the bench seat of our changing room.
Eris started giggling happily to herself over her ‘barely-a-pun’ pun.

Her burger’s effects, purple eyes and orange fingernails, have already worn off at this point.
We’ve been shopping for about an hour so far so that’s to be expected although sadly I can’t say the same for MY newest editions though.

I’m not exactly a huge fan of clothes shopping but as my earlier lack of ‘frumpy’ clothes and my currently conjured outfit attest, it’s kind of necessary this time?
I wasn’t really planning on doing it TODAY of course but John made that decision with his stupidity earlier so he’s only got himself to blame!

He’s waiting outside with several bags in his hand at the moment.
At first he went to shrink the bags but a growl from me put paid to that idea.

He’s being the bag-boy for today and that means NO cheating with magic!
I want his arms nice and sore from all the heavy carrying by the time we get done, serve him right for being an asshole with this whole ‘cat burger’ thing.

“What’s next Mom?”
My eyes cut down to Eris.
She stared back at me in fascination.

I can’t really blame her for that.
When we got into our first changing room of the day I spent a good solid five minutes staring at myself too, my eyes to be specific.

Slit pupils and an odd almost-yellow coloration that I’ve only ever seen in cats before are really weird to see on my own face?
The fact that my pupils can’t make up their minds when it comes to dilation and seem to be in almost constant movement, shrinking and growing apparently at random, doesn’t help either!

“I’m done for now but there are a few more dresses left for you to try on. I’m going to check on John, so you try them on and come out to show me okay?”
She didn’t seem too pleased at the idea of me leaving but I think the fact that I’d be just outside the changing rooms waiting mollified her somewhat.

Powers know I’ve had enough practice in the last hour, but I’m still not comfortable with the idea of changing around Eris in the slightest!

Before she could talk me out of it I quickly gathered my outfits together and made my way outside.
It wasn’t until the door slid shut behind me that I let myself breathe out the sigh I’ve been holding in for a while now.

“How much longer are we going to be doing this? My arms are tired and honestly I’m bored as all hell..”
My lips twitched up in an amused smirk at John’s almost sulky tone of voice.

“Mee-aybe we’ll keep going until the shops shut? All these outfits are just purr-fect.”
I know the puns are bad and the ‘accent’ is stupid but I’m doing it for a reason!

It’s taken a while for me to work it out.
I’ve got nothing BUT time to kill at the moment though and you can’t rush brilliance after all..
Either way, I’ve got a theory!

It’s been gaining traction ever since the cat ears ‘appeared’ on my head, although I put it down to just guilt at first.. I think John has a thing for ‘cat-girls’?
It’s not any one thing exactly but his reactions, general twitchiness and strange little looks whenever my tail swish’s or my ear’s move have started to add up over time.

The first time I used the ‘accent’, stolen from a particularly annoying anime character I vaguely remember, was about twenty minutes ago and every time I do it again it gets the same reaction from him.
His eyes twitch a little and if he’s not already flushed then a blush forms on his cheeks that’s just barely noticeable against his usual skin tone!
The really big sign though, in my opinion, is that he’s suddenly become so easy to manipulate?!

Not in an evil sort of way but there is no WAY I’d normally be able to just tell John to do something and he’d do it without at least questioning my motives?
..Like this for instance!..

“Go put these back on the racks for me nee-ow John-boy.”
He flushed again and couldn’t quite meet my eyes but he also didn’t hesitate as his hand shot out to take the assorted dresses and tops from me before marching off without another word to put them back where they came from.

Honestly? I could get used to this kind of service!
I might have to keep the cat features when this all wears off just for the amenities I get from their existence?!

..it’s quite fun watching John turn into a particularly useful puddle of putty in my hands..
Oh, here he comes!
That was fast?!

“I don’t know why you can’t just take your own stuff back..”
Someone’s been away from the power of the cat-girl for too long!
He’s already falling back into his usual grumpy ways.

..we can’t have that, I’m enjoying myself too much..

Careful to seem ‘careless’ and calm, I sidled up to John’s chest and butted my shoulder into his arm for attention.
He looked down at me at last and I twitched my ears cutely.

Barely a second passed before the flush returned to his cheeks.

I KNEW it!
I KNEW all that anime as a kid would corrupt his-
..wait, this is John we’re talking about?..
-push his already corrupt mind further into the gutter!

..There, that’s better!..

“You knee-ow you’re enjoying it too John-boy..”
From my new position against his chest I let a purr rumble out which got another full-body shiver from him.

He’s becoming oddly predictable at this point?

“That’s the problem with pets, they never do know what their owners want..”
His cheeks are even brighter after saying that line but it was a nice attempt at breaking the moment and trying to regain his usual ‘cool’ attitude.. it completely failed of course, but the attempt was nice at least!

“Ohh.. a pet am I?”
I pushed a bit harder into his chest and stared up at him with my best ‘wide-eyed’ innocent look, just a hint of fang poking over my lip because I knew how much it would screw with his head too.
“Are you offering to be my owner John-boy?”

His blush went super-nova!
For a long moment he just kind of stalled while staring down at my face in awe.

“Hannah what are yo-”
I saw my chance and went in for the kill.

My fur soft hair brushed lightly against the bare skin on his arm as I turned and forced my back against his chest playfully while my head rolled up to meet his eyes again.
The purr that rumbled in my throat made even ME feel good.

John didn’t stand a chance.
Words died on his lips and he could barely manage to stutter to himself for a solid ten seconds.

With one last evil little smirk I twisted my surprisingly flexible body and stare up at his flushed face with wide innocent ‘kitty’ eyes.
“Being yours would be just purrr-fect.. Master..”

If this WAS one of those ‘cat-girl’ animes then I’m pretty sure John’s head would have just exploded with the mother of all nosebleeds!

As it is he turned bright red and just gaped down at me in so much shock that I think he almost swallowed his tongue?!
I couldn’t hold it anymore!
With a jolt I pushed away from him and practically folded in on myself with laughter.

“THE LOOK ON YOUR FACE!”

That’s SO going in my memory vault for future incarnations to enjoy!
His whole look right now is just priceless, he looks like a purr-ticularly cute fish!

uh.. correction ‘particularly’.. and ‘un-cute’ fish..
I think this cat things going to my head a bit?

Damn malfunctioning female feline brai-
Something warm and wet just pressed lightly against my lips?!

My eyes shot open again in surprise.
All I could do is stare into John’s slightly worried but still somehow gentle eyes as he kissed my lips.

It seemed to take him a while to realise that I was watching him but when he did he jerked back with a surprised gasp and quickly paced backwards away from me.

“..you kissed me..”
He flinched and his eyes shot around us to see if anyone was around to see us.
“You KISSED me!”

“Hannah, I’m SO sorry! You just looked so cute and you pouted with those little fangs and your ears perked up and I just..”
He didn’t quite seem to know what to do with himself?

I don’t know what to do either?!
He bloody kissed me!

HE kissed ME!
John doesn’t kiss me!
There is NO kissing of any kind!!

“You son of a bitch! What the hell do you think your-”
His hand covered my mouth to stop the steadily increasing volume of my voice.

Almost instantly I had a flash back to my vision of Andromeda in pretty much this exact same situation with her version of John, ‘Perseus’.
My hands fisted into tight balls for a moment before loosening again slightly as my pointed nails dug painfully into my skin.

“Ge’m-m’our-‘and-omph-mm-moph”
I’m not sure if he heard me or understood me even if he did.
He seemed more focused on making sure no-one else heard my initial yell honestly.

I could go with the same trick Andromeda pulled and lick the offending appendage.. but I think I can do better than that?

To be fair I gave him another five seconds to pull his hand away before smirking into his palm and opening my mouth wide.
A purr rumbled low in my chest when my pointed new canines sank into the skin of his hand effortlessly.

It was almost fun to watch the second it took for John’s face to register the pain.
Less than a moment later he’d yanked his hand free and moved away from me with a startled yell.

I tried not to feel too proud of myself but my amused grin and happy purr probably gave the game away slightly I think?

“Don’t EVER put your hand over my mouth again!”
He hissed and clutched his arm just above his palm instead of answering me properly.

Oh for powers sake.. he’s such a baby!
Good thing for him we’re in a magical shopping district.
It’s also a good thing that the Bazaar itself is magically shielded beyond belief?

Seeing as the last time I used magic outside of Mrs J’s house we called down the wrath of a surprisingly nice Norse thunder god, I wouldn’t have bothered helping him otherwise to say the least..

With a dip and a swirl my magic sprang forth eagerly.
A portion of it left my body in a cresting bubble of golden light.

It got just past John’s body, healing his ‘injured’ hand in the process, before dissipating suddenly.

Woah! Headrush?!
My hand came up to steady myself slightly as my sense of balance decided to go silly for a second.

..What on earth caused that?..

I think I’m okay?.. maybe?..
Well, the worlds not exploding around us so I guess whatever it was can’t be that bad can it?

Anyway.. can I just say, ‘wow’?!
The wards around here must be better than I thought?
Full active-magic suppression with such a quick response time and wide area of effect..

It might even be the reason I suddenly got a little light-headed for a moment there too?
I kinda want to check out their ward-stone now!

I bet it’s got to be the size of a BUS to manage something on that scale so easily?!

“Thanks.”
My eyes cut back over to John distractedly and I offered him a slightly limp smile, my attention more focused on the new rune ‘problem’ I’d just found then him honestly.

“No problem, letting off golden bubbles is what I do apparently..”

What were we arguing about again?
It had to be something bad but venting some magic always makes everything a little hazy for me.
It was something.. wait..

“You KISSED ME, you BASTARD!”
John flinched hard and shot a nervous look around us.
A few other shoppers had stopped to watch the scene we were making but I was beyond caring at this point.

I can’t BELIEVE he bloody KISSED me?!

We DON’T do kissing!
There is no kissing of ANY kind!
Not me, Not John, Not ANYBODY!

I don’t do kissing!

“Way to go Dad, step one on project ‘baby brother or sister’ complete!”
I practically froze solid.

That one didn’t come from me or John?
The voice is too high-pitched and childish for a start..

Slowly I turned to face the newcomer which turned out to be Eris of course.
She grinned at me proudly with a bright cheeky smile on her face.
..project ‘baby brother or sister’?..

I flinched hard as what that meant finally registered in my head.
In one smooth action I spun around to glare at John again in rage.
What the HELL is he planning?!!

He looked about as surprised as I did though sadly.
The confusion on his face calmed my anger slightly, the waves of surprised and mortified emotions rolling off of his magic added to the overall effect too.

It looks like whatever this ‘project’ is.. not that it’s hard to guess with a title like that.. it’s something Eris came up with herself?

With that in mind I turned back to her and gave her a warning look.
It deflated her prideful smile in seconds.
I actually felt a little guilty for ruining her obvious fun but at the same time I need to press the point home to her VERY quickly that there will BE no ‘brothers or sisters’ as long as I’m in charge!

I know Arista has like, a BILLION kids at this point, but that doesn’t mean she needs any more OR that I’m going to help in that manner no matter what anyone says!

“Eris, that dress looks very pretty. Come back into the changing rooms and we’ll check out the last few.”
She cringed at my measured tone.
Despite that she dutifully followed me back behind the curtains and into the little room with her piled up clothes inside it.

“I’m in trouble aren’t I?”
Her subdued tone and downcast eyes mollified a little more of my anger over the whole situation but I still need to drive the point home before she gets anymore bright ideas and tries to ‘help’ the ‘project’ along in some way.

“Close the door and take a seat sweetie. We just need to have a little chat.”
Her shoulders slumped and she moved over to the bench like a condemned prisoner, keeping her head down instead of looking at me which really doesn’t feel good in the slightest honestly?

I sighed heavily, bringing a hand up to squeeze that one spot between my eyes that helps when I get a headache.
I don’t have one.. yet.. but it’s still something that helps me calm down in general.

“Look Eris, I know that I.. that your Mom.. uh..”
..oh boy, this is going to get awkward..

I can’t even get the pronouns right, let alone cover the important points!

======

“All sorted?”

“Stop talking, I’ve still not forgiven you for kissing me yet.”
The smirk that formed on his face really didn’t help my mood in the slightest.
Not that my feelings matter in any situation apparently!

Ten minutes of ‘chatting’ with Eris and we made practically zero progress?!
I tried to be subtle at first obviously but eventually even a blunt ‘I’m not trying to get pregnant’ failed as well.

She smiled at me knowingly and nodded along but I didn’t even need to feel her magic to tell she didn’t believe me in the slightest.. it’s like she’s so used to ‘her mother’ having kids that the idea I might not actually WANT any is a completely new concept for her or something?!

“Do you have a time-frame in mind before you forgive me and we can talk like adults again?”
With a huff I turned away from him to focus back on watching the changing room’s entrance for when Eris eventually comes out instead.
“You know that’s always been one of your more endearing personality traits?.. you’re maturity..”

“You know one of YOU’RE more ‘endearing personality traits’ was the fact that for several years I didn’t know where you were or have to listen to you talking on a regular basis?!.. let’s go back to the good old days, shall we?”
Out the corner of my eye I could see him flinch hard at that one.

I didn’t mean to snap at him.. well.. no, actually I TOTALLY did..
He deserved it because, no matter how you look at it, he bloody KISSED ME!!

The curtain to the changing room area moved slightly and Eris slowly made her way out to us.

She was unsurprisingly a bit overloaded with clothes.
I probably should have been in there to help her but I just had to get out of that changing room before I really snapped at her over the whole ‘thinking she’s going to get another brother or sister’ thing to be honest?
I never claimed to be good parent material!

I took a step forward to give her a helping hand but before I could take another step something warm landed on top of my head.

My body froze in place as whatever it was shifted and started slowly rubbing the spot on my head between my new ‘cat’ ears.
A few seconds later my legs turned to jelly as the thing, I’m guessing it’s a hand of some sort from the way it’s scratching me so well, hit JUST the right spot; pulling an involuntary purr from my lips in response.

My head practically moved on its own as it rolled into the warm palm.
The next thing I knew my whole body had turned into the warmth and another deep purr rumbled up from my chest.

“..huh.. works even better when you actually have the ears to go with it?..”

It took all I had to fight past the fog that was starting to take over my brain and shove him away forcefully.
I must have caught him completely off guard because John nearly seemed to fly as he skidded across the floor and came to rest against a rack of clothes in stunned silence.

As I came back to myself again the hackles on the back of my neck flared and my tail shot practically straight up with the light blue hairs on it fluffing up in indignant rage.
I almost sank down onto all fours instinctively as my ears flattened themselves back and an angry hiss left my lips.

“Don’t you EVER do that again! I swear to the powers John I WILL hurt you, you’re on thin-ice right now you smug asshole!!”

Before he could gather himself back together enough to offer some kind of lame defence for his actions that I REALLY don’t care to hear right now I was up and leaving the store at a sprint.
Eris called after me in surprise but I couldn’t stop, I’m annoyed at the pair of them for different reasons right now and she’ll be safe with John at least.

With speed that I’m honestly not sure was entirely ‘normal’ I was three streets and two junctions away before I leaned heavily against a clear space of wall to catch my breath.

Damn it John!
Why can’t you just STOP being an asshole for once in your life?!

Just when I started thinking you could be.. damn it John!..

======

“..Mau?..”

With one beady eye I turned my head to glare at the fuzz-ball.
Apparently he followed me?

“Not right now.”
My hands twitched in their current position holding my belly tightly.
I’ve been having twinges and little sharp pains in my stomach for a while now, it’s really not helping my mood honestly and I’m not sure what’s causing it?

The kitten seemed to consider me for a second, its head cocked slightly to the side as it stared with those too-wide blue eyes.
“Mau?”

I huffed loudly to myself and folded my arms under my chest in frustration.
I KNOW I’m being stupid, I don’t need a cat to tell me that thank-you-very-much!

“Mau..”
My eyes cut over to him again in a sharp glare.

No, I’m not going back!
Do I look stupid or something?!

With the way things have been going lately I’ll take one look at the pair of them and start sobbing my heart out or blowing things up in rage or.. or just doing SOMETHING that really isn’t ‘ME’ in general!

“Mau”

..yeah, a bathroom break’s probably a good idea..
People are giving me weird looks so if nothing else I can wash up or something I guess?

I must be a right state at the moment, blue hair and blotchy tearstained too-puffy cheeks!

“Come on then. I suppose you’re going to follow me aren’t you?”
He seemed to preen proudly for a second or two before looking back up at me with an unnervingly intense stare.

“Mau”
Figured as much..

“Fine, but you’re not coming into the bathroom too. It’s called the Ladies for a reason.”
He almost seemed offended for a moment.
I’m not really sure how I know he’s a ‘he’ honestly but I just do?

His reaction says I’m right anyway so what does it matter in the end!

“Let’s go then..”
I pushed myself back up the wall a little, careful to not scrape my tail on anything as I went, and started pacing towards the nearest toilets I can remember seeing.

It took a few more steps before the strangeness of our whole ‘conversation’ finally hit home at last?

My head turned to fix him with a searching look for second.
He’s not a normal cat, too smart for a start.. but even so, I shouldn’t be able to talk to him and understand him so well just from the noises he’s making?

Maybe it’s a cat thing?
I’m apparently ‘strongly in-touch with my spirit animal’ at the moment AND I’ve got the tail, ears and sandpaper tongue to match as well..

It would be almost weird if I COULDN’T understand him at this point wouldn’t it?

..when did my life become so messed up that THAT kind of logic became ‘normal’ in any way?..
With one last heavy sigh I left that train of thought for later and focused back on sorting myself out first.
Now that I’m up and moving, I kinda need to pee which may have influenced that decision slightly too by some small margin?

Not that they don’t feel weird already just by existing, but things ‘down there’ feel a bit weird at the moment?
Probably best to check it out quickly, who knows what crap could be wrong with me THIS time?!

“Mau”
You said it buddy!

I could go for some cat-nip myself right about now come to think of it?..

======

Some ‘witch’ in a barely thigh-length black robe that practically screamed ‘Halloween costume’ instead of the parody of a traditional robe it was supposed to be gave me a snooty look as I wandered into the bathroom, sans the kitten obviously who seemed to take up some kind of guarding position at the door when we got here with surprising efficiency.

Rather than let her judgemental look get to me I shuffled past and made my way over to the end sink furthest from her before daring a look in the mirror.

I kind of can’t blame her for the look now?
I’m a total mess!

My hairs all over the place and still that far too bright shade of blue obviously; all the work Eris put into fixing it partially up for me this morning has started to unravel as well.
..I guess her magic isn’t strong enough yet to last a full day after all?..

My far too ‘cute’ looking Arista face was marred by puffy eyes as I’d guessed it would be from the crying and all.. not that I cried THAT much or anything..
While it wasn’t exactly a good look, I have to reluctantly admit that it does add a certain level of ‘vulnerability’ to my now standard resting bitch-face if nothing else?

The slutty witch with the obviously fake hair extensions and ugly sneer on her face finally left, throwing a backwards look at me just for the sake of it.
I sighed heavily and leaned against the sink a moment later.

“Pee first, than sort this mess out.. priority’s Hannah..”

Pep-talk complete I made my way over to one of the empty stalls and mechanically went about my business.
I let off a quiet squeak and winced slightly when my poor butt landed on the cold seat.

Why is it we can use magic to do SO many things, but no-one’s invented a permanently warm toilet seat yet?!

“Probably all too squeamish to think of it.. I’ll add it to the list I guess?”
As I shuffled around slightly to get comfortable my stomach suddenly spiked in pain for what feels like the hundredth time in the last hour.

“Fuccckkk...”
My hands squeezed down hard on my stomach to try and alleviate the pain a little.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that I’m grouchy and I made an ass of myself running out of the shop earlier now I’ve got THIS to contend with!
..stupid traitorous new body..

“What the hell’s wrong with me?.. I-”
My writhing finally brought my attention down to my legs that had kicked out slightly for balance, or more specifically my partly rolled down leggings and underwear.. my slightly stained underwear..

Seemingly without any input from me my head rolled back to stare up at the ceiling in disgust.
It didn’t quite feel real as I sat there trying to process it all and desperately trying not to puke at the same time.

That makes WAY too much sense!

Unreasonable bouts of anger?..
Weight gain and insecurities about that gain, imagined or not?..
Random crying jags for no understandable reason?..
Food cravings?.. Headaches?..

A rather terrifying and sudden ‘interest’ in the other half of the procreation equation, more specifically John and his.. ya know?

“Crap.. I’ve practically been following every step in the ‘Surviving Sarah on her period’ guide book for DAYS now?!..”

Figures!

It all makes too much sense right about now.
‘what are you apologizing for?’, ‘I don’t know’..
How did that not tip me off instantly?

STUPID female body! Stupid John! Stupid Hormones!!

I’ve lived with Sarah long enough to know the symptoms for what they are.
I wrote them off completely with all the stress I’m under and Mrs J’s little mental magic throwing new incarnations into the mental swamp of dead-women that I call a brain?!

My magic use and venting probably didn’t help either?
The bliss effect I get from venting lately is like taking a Xanax and half a tab of Ecstasy every five minutes!
..it REALLY can’t be good for my mental health now that I think about it..

“Why me?”

If you want to be rational and calm about it all then it’s probably got a mix of reasons behind it honestly.
My..my ‘period’ has just been exacerbated by the already existing problems I’m having from all the mind-magic and general incarnation/integration related mess I’ve had lately?

I’ve barely had time to catch my breath recently, let alone properly find my center and calm down the ever increasing storm of un-processed emotions in my head..

Slowly my eyes trailed back down to stare at that damning mark.

“..urgk..”
Just looking at it makes me feel sick!
The stomach- CRAP! They’re cramps aren’t they?!

I’m SUCH an idiot!..they aren’t helping the sick feeling was my original point though.
..stupid cramps..

“Screw it”
With a dip and a push I forced out a golden dome to clean things up.
It had the added benefit of momentarily easing my.. my cramps.. but it really was only a momentary reprieve and if anything the pain came back even worse than it started out as before somehow?!

“urgk!”
Feels like someone kicked me in the gut and then came back for seconds!
..anymore of that and I really will puke..

To try and ease the twisting pain I leaned back into the toilet seat.
At the last second I remembered my tail but that became a bit of a moot point when my back came to rest against the lid without any kind of obstruction getting in the way?

“Huh?”

Cautiously my hand went around to feel the spot just below my brand where ‘my’ tail had sprouted after eating that stupid burger.. and made contact with nothing but smooth skin?..
With a flash of excitement despite my aching stomach my arm shot up to my head and touched.. my hair?.. JUST my hair!

No more cat ears? No more tail!
I ran my tongue over my front teeth and couldn’t help but grin to myself.
No more fangs and no more sandpaper either!

Have I mentioned how much I love my magic lately?!
I LOVE my MAGIC!!

“Wooo! No more Cat-Hannah!”
Someone outside my stall snorted back a laugh at about the same moment that my stomach decided to remind me that throwing up fists in celebration when you’re suffering from cramps isn’t a good idea.

“..owwie..”

The dizzy spell I had when I healed John earlier must have been my magic trying to counter the cat potion from the burger and failing due to lack of power or something instead of the backlash from overly powerful wards like I’d assumed?

Part of me wanted to start working on that idea but a much bigger part focused on the sharp ache in my gut that decided to make its presence known again.
I curled in on myself and hissed in a pained breath through my teeth.

Damn you mother-nature!
I’m a guy damn it, I’m not meant to understand how this feels from personal experience!!

======

“Aaah..Fwooo!”
Glad that one’s over with!

Swear these things are getting worse?
It doesn’t help that my butt’s going numb sitting here for so long either!

..maybe I should get up and see what I can do to fix this?..

Good idea brain, one-two-three.. uhggggkmma!..
NO!.. No, definitely not a good idea!..

..owwie..

Urg! Come ON Hannah!!
You’ve fought your way through demon dens with practically every important bone in your body broken before, are you really going to let a little stomach ache that half the human race goes through monthly take you down?!

Sarah’s had to do public events for her show while she was due on before?!
I REFUSE to be the weak sister here!!

“Urgk.”
With more determination then I honestly thought I had left I managed to force myself back to my feet.
A few gasps and twitches later I managed to get my undies and legging back up in relative order.

“Look on the brightside.. yeah.. the brightside..”
I almost ended up face-planting into the door when another stabbing twist made itself known out of nowhere but luckily it was only a short one, even if the intensity did catch me off guard.

“It’s almost over.. just a few more days of this crap.. yeah, ‘brightside’.. maybe not?”
The door eventually opened and I went over to the sink right in front of me, leaning heavily against it to catch my breath.

Powers! If this is what a period feels like just imagine what fresh kind of hell child-birth must be?!!

“Pregnant.. brightside.. I’m not pregnant.. heh..”
Deep breath in, and out again.

It’s not a punishment from an evil universe that hates me, it’s an alarm clock going off telling me that I’m not.. that I’m..I’m not.. pre..pregnant?..

I don’t know what came over me but I went from a mild sense of relief to all out tears of anguish in seconds as that realisation sunk in!
I don’t wan..want to be pregnant?

Why..why does the idea suddenly HURT so much?!!

My hand eased itself off of the sink to rest gently on my belly making me wince as a wave of guilt and emptiness came rushing in again, threatening to overtake me completely.

This is crazy!
This isn’t me.. it.. it REALLY isn’t me?

Not in an ‘I’m acting weird’ kind of way I mean this LITERALLY isn’t me?!

This is some past incarnation acting up!!
Like that time Lady M managed to force me to hate the red tartan skirts and swap them for the blue ones..

Oh crap why NOW of all times?!
I couldn’t see anything, it took me a moment or two to realise that tears were blurring my vision.

I..I’m not pregnant?
A sob of grief ripped itself from my lips and I practically collapsed to the floor beside the sink.
My back landing heavily against the tiles as I pulled myself into a miserable ball around my stupid empty bleeding uterus!

“I can’t.. I..”

No words could quite seem to express the horrible mix of emotions battering their way into my brain at that moment?
Guilt, Anger, Disgust, Fear and Self-loathing?

All the ingredients needed to push me right up to the edge and beyond!

“I’m sorry.. ‘m s-sorry..”
Another cramp hit me hard and I tightened my little ball a bit more in response but no more words could come out.

The world was just pain and sobs as I fought an uphill battle to try and stay sane with so many voices in my head going crazy, blaming me, blaming themselves, blaming the world in general or anything else they could think of for why we weren’t carrying something so precious with us at this exact moment!

“..I’m sorry..”

======

“Mom?”

ERIS! Like a little ray of sunshine she stood by the bathroom entrance watching me with wide, confused eyes.

Ignoring my body’s complaints I was back on my feet in seconds and across the room to scoop her up in a desperately tight hug.

She’s MINE!
My daughter, no-one else’s!
I’m not going to lose another one EVER again!

“Mom, what’s wrong?”

She sounds really worried.
It almost physically hurt to hear her so worried about me..

Well, either that or it was another cramp building I guess, who knows at this point?!

Her little hand came up and wiped at my cheek gently as she stared at me almost fearfully.
“Mom?”

The floodgates broke and I ended up collapsing back to my knees while burying my face in her hair.
She seemed momentarily stunned while I held her and shook with silent sobs that hurt my chest from their intensity.

She’s mine!
They’re all mine!
She’s mine.. my little Eris..

“DAD!”
I winced at her volume but a moment later someone came scrambling in behind us.

“Sleep”

Before I had time to really process what was going on a hand landed on top of my head making the world fade out in a muddled haze and on into the blissful emptiness of sleep that swallowed me up whole.

It's amazing how some journey's can feel longer then they really are or seem shorter then they should at times? I guess time really does fly when your having fun.. or something like that?.. Events unfold including but not limited to: Eris sleeping a lot John get's annoyed at pickup truck drivers (while ignoring his own truck of choice, naturally) and Hannah recovers to one degree or another before facing her fate in an entirely mature, totally not bratty and childish, way!

 

“Urrgmager..”

“You okay there Hannah?”
With an unhappy groan rolled to the side but ended up leaning on a tangle of thick straps around me instead.

Seconds later I tried to shot up in surprise making Eris lean back into her seat and squeak from her position above me.
..apparently I had my head in her lap?..

“What happened?”
There was a long awkward pause from John as I tried to take in everything around us.

It’s dark out?
We’re back in the truck somehow and John’s driving?
The thick straps that freaked me out a moment ago are actually seatbelts looped around my legs and under my arm pits like some kind of restraint.. that’s a relief at least?

I really hate being restrained these days.

“You freaked out in a bathroom. The cat led us to you when the brand link started acting up and I couldn’t get a handle on your position.”
..Cat?..

“Mau”
Oh, that cat!

“Want to fill me in on what’s going on with you? You mumbled some stuff about Eris and being pregnant but I couldn’t really work it out. You’re not still hung up on that stupid ‘project little brother or sister’ thing are you?”
I almost groaned at that too, although the sharp warning look Eris shot him for calling her ‘project’ stupid nearly made me laugh instead.

Do I really want to admit all this to him right now?
He’s going to be insufferable!

As if it wasn’t bad enough BEFORE when he was making PMS jokes about my mood-swings, imagine how bad he’ll be when he finds out that I really WAS PMS-ing at the time?!

“It’s nothing John. I’m fine.”
Glad we got the suppressors sorted out, the last thing I need is a burn for lying on top of everything else.

Speaking of ways to restrain me; I cut my eyes down to my chest and started untangling myself from the seatbelt straps around me so I could sit up properly again.

I still feel like crap but at least I’m not cramping constantly anymore.
I wonder how long I was sleeping for?.. it must have been a while to get past all that nastiness!

“You sure you should be sitting up? You looked pretty bad earlier and you moved about a lot in your sleep too..”

“I’m fine John. I’m not an invalid or anything..”
While we were talking I finally managed to kick my legs free of the belts and twisted around to work on the belt at my chest instead.

“Well what’s going on then? I can’t help if you don’t tell me what’s wrong can I?”
Oh for powers sake!

“You can’t ‘help’ me John, I’m having my period, OKAY?!”

He went dead silent at that.
I tried to feel smug at finally shutting him up but it was a bit of a hollow victory and I honestly can’t work up the energy to gloat over something at this point.

The belt came loose at last and I sat up.
After a moment’s pause as my head swam from the sudden movement I leaned down slightly so I could clip Eris in properly with the belt that just became free for her to use properly.

She was staring at me with wide shocked eyes for some reason.
Just as I got the belt done she reached out and looped her arms around my neck in a tight hug.

“..sorry Mom..”

Sorry?
Why is she sorry?
It’s not her fault I didn’t manage to get preg-
DAMN IT!

I jerked away from her as tears started forming in my eyes all over again.
These aren’t MY thoughts!

Get them out.. GET THEM OUT!!

I squeezed myself tightly into the corner near the far door and brought my knees up to my chest defensively.
I don’t like this!

How can such a simple and completely natural bodily function make me fall to pieces so easily?!
It’s like every single incarnation in my head is taking their anger out on me for not getting ‘up the duff’ or something?!

“I’m okay.. I’ll BE okay.. I’m just struggling with it all for some reason?”

“That makes sense, Ari never was very good at handling herself with this sort of thing..”
For powers sake, shut up John!

I’m not ‘Ari’ and I don’t CARE if she sucked at dealing with her periods too?!

“Thinking about it, this all makes sense to some degree. If anything was going to trigger an integration cycle for you it would be the start of your other cycle.. you basically hit a perfect storm of PMS and life-integration; with just a touch of magic withdrawal and overflow to drive you insane for a while.”
Yes.. I worked that out for myself John, thank-you-very-much..

“The sudden cravings for junk food and getting a bit softer around the middle in the last few days too..”
WHAT! I’ll show YOU softer around the middle John-boy!!

“Uh..Dad? maybe you should stop talking now..”

“AND you getting so horny all of a sudden the other day, that was just weird without context but it makes more sense now. Ari used to get like that a few days before too.”
WH-BU!-I.. I. was. NOT. Horny!

He shot an almost bored look towards me before continuing.

I WASN’T horny damn it!
I just.. I just wanted a hug.. and he was warm.. really warm.. and he smelt nice and leaning into his chest made my belly tingle a little bit.. BUT I WASN’T HORNY!!

“I’m not stupid you know? I’ve lived and died through so many wives, mostly versions of Ari or Arista I’ll admit, and I’ve survived enough of their cycles that I can practically set my watch by them.. as an aside, you might want to prepare for the cramps somehow? They’re due between now and the next few days at the latest, they can be brutal if you’re not prepared..”

Really John-boy? Cramps can be brutal can they?!
My I never realised!
It’s not like I just went bloody through them or anything?!!

I could feel my magic rolling around slightly in an awkward mix of anger, embarrassment and frustration.

“Daddy you should really stop..”
I think Eris can feel my magic from the worried look on her face?
Her voice gave me something other than John and his stupidity to focus on which helped me maintain some control for a bit longer if nothing else.

“If you hadn’t ‘gone cat’ on us at almost the exact same moment that it all peeked, I’m pretty sure you would have tried to pre-empt Eris’s ‘little brother/sister’ project in one way or another too honestly..”

My cheeks flushed bright red at the truth in his words that I REALLY didn’t want to acknowledge in the slightest.
Finally at my limit I growled low in the back of my throat and surged across the seats to smack him one around the back of the head.

Luckily we were practically parked or he might have ended up swerving dangerously or something just from the impact alone.

He hissed in a breath of pain and rubbed at his head but he didn’t seem at all surprised by my reaction for some reason.
After a long pause where I stewed in my annoyance he let off a little laugh which caught my attention instantly.

“Better?”
I grit my teeth and glared at him.
“When Ari used to get in a depressive mood from her time, nothing snapped her out of it more than getting angry at something.”

STOP TRYING TO BE SMART JOHN!
I’m not ‘Ari’ and your stupid little mind games aren’t going to make me feel better!
I’m uncomfortable, I’m cranky, I feel like a bloated pig with bladder issues and let’s never forget that it’s all. your. BLOODY. Fault!

With an angry huff I pulled myself tightly back into ‘my’ corner of the truck’s bench seat and huddled in tight.

A certain uncomfortable wetness made itself known when I moved about.
For a long moment I almost vented another flash of golden magic to get rid of the evidence again but we’re not in the Bazaar anymore, so me using magic could cause trouble that I’m in no mood to handle.

I’ll just have to tough it out until we’re near home where the ambient magic from all of the mages in our house right now will shield me to some degree and I can clean myself up a bit.
With a sniff I pulled my knees in tighter to my chest and rested my head on them.
..periods suck..

Eventually I heard Eris sigh rather dramatically to herself.
I’m not sure if it was meant to be relief that John had stopped goading me or just a general sigh of frustration but it didn’t really matter because a few moments later she unclipped her belt and slid across the bench seat to tuck into my side.

I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel good to have her so close again.
It feels like ages since we’ve cuddled properly.

My arms came loose from my knees and before either of us really knew what we were doing she’d scrabbled over to rest on my poor aching belly, her head landing on that exact same spot she always goes for just above my heart.

“You should sleep while you can Hannah, I can suppress any pain that may come while you’re out with a spell Ari taught me but it only lasts six hours at a time before having to wait on the next application so..”

Huh?.. he can DO that?
I’m not going to complain, it’s just my luck that a past incarnation of mine would have made something as useful as THAT but I wouldn’t remember it?!

“..Thanks John-boy..”
Eris snuggled into my chest a bit more to show her approval for the idea of a nap of some kind.
I smirked to myself lightly as my hand came up to play with her hair a little before settling in a bit better.
“Are you okay driving for so long?”

He nodded but didn’t offer more of an explanation then that.
No doubt he’s probably tired at this point but I really don’t see his stubborn ass admitting it if he is, so there’s not much chance I’ll be able to drag anything else out of him at this point.

Maybe if I still had the cat-ears and tail it would be relatively easy but I don’t and it’s not like it’s THAT important or anything; he’s just being slightly annoying as usual.

“Wake me if anything happens okay?”
He nodded without looking away from the road.
“Night John-boy”

As I settled in properly and shifted Eris into a slightly more comfortable position so I could rest my head on hers he finally responded with a quite ‘Night Hannah’.

A little smirk played on my lips again and I turned to look at him for a moment.
“You can call me ‘Han’ you know John-boy.. Hannah’s such a mouthful sometimes, it sounds awkward from a friend..”

His lips twitched up into a smile that warmed my heart to see, just ever so slightly?
It’s nice to know I can get those kind of reactions from him so easily still.. even when he’s been kind of a dick in general.

“Night Han.”
I buried my face back into Eris’s hair to hide my smile a bit better.

“Night John.”

======

With a snort that was honestly anything but ‘elegant’ I woke up to a stabbing pain in my gut.
My eyes scanned around wildly for a moment before I could focus back in on the pain safely.

Truck-Dark?
Eris-Warm?
Pain-Cramps!

Everything processed neatly I sunk into my minds-eye and ‘looked’ around the lines of my body thoughtfully.
While the pain isn’t quite as bad as it was back in the Bazaar bathroom yet it’s a sign that John’s spell is wearing off if nothing else.

I can’t actively cast anything while we’re travelling but internal magic on the other hand.. well I AM a blood mage, even if I don’t tend to use it for much these days with my golden domes doing a far more efficient job of healing any injuries I may get and all..

I’ll be honest, I think I’ve become a bit lazy ever since I got this diversion?
I used to put so much work into everything with complicated, almost ritual like, sympathetic magic enchantments, Midas Bands and blood magic being used on a near constant basis..
I practically forget it’s all an option at this point?

I’ll have to watch that!
If I’d been calm enough to think right in the bathroom I probably could have saved myself a lot of pain sadly.

Just cycle a bit of blood magic down these..
Ah! No, too much!..
..there.. that’s better..

It’s not perfect but it will do for now?
Blood magic can’t heal an empty uterus obviously, there’s nothing to heal.
What it CAN do though is effectively ‘block’ your pain receptors from specific areas of your body.. if you know where to send it.. which I do..

Pulling back into the real world I let out a long sigh of relief when the gut deep pain was reduced to just a simple tight feeling in my belly now.
I can survive this, I can cope with it.
..for now at least..

As I revelled in my sudden lack of pain my eyes scanned our surroundings outside the truck.

I’ve got no idea where we are but ‘generic freeway’ might be a good way to sum it up.
We’re probably somewhere on the I-5 considering it’s practically a straight line route from Seattle to Klamath on there?

A sudden flash of light startled me in my still sleepy daze until I managed to make out the source, which happened to be my phone sitting on the dashboard.

With a grunt I leaned forward to grab it, having to quickly cup my other arm up to hold Eris in place as I went.
It took a bit of shuffling to get comfortable again when I leaned back into my seat and Eris grumbled in her sleep but I don’t think she woke up at least?

A tap on the power button showed a brief list of information, the most important ones being ’20 missed messages’ and ‘7 new voicemail’.

Crap.. reception in the Bazaar is non-existent and I’ve been sleeping pretty much constantly since we left it haven’t I?

Knowing what I was probably going to face but also reluctant to face it at the same time I pulsed my magic under my skin to unlock the phone.
Voicemail’s first.. one missed call from Mum, the rest are from Sarah naturally.

I’m pretty sure there’s no reason for me to blow my ear out listening to her yelling at me over and over again at the moment?
Instead of actually retrieving the voicemails I switched over to the texts and stared at two separate highlighted contacts.

..Mum first?..
Definitely, definitely Mum first!

‘Hi Ari, how are things going? Any idea when you will be home yet? The Gladstone’s people have been dropping in all day and your Gran had to scare off some more visitors who claimed to be your children? I’m not complaining, the house has never been this busy before, it’s rather fun actually but it’s also all a bit exhausting. Hope you’re safe. Mum’

Looks like that was about an hour after we got into the Bazaar?
Hopefully things calmed down from there for her.

‘Ari do you have any idea when you will be back? People are asking a lot and one rather dashing Irish boy called Ocean turned up saying he’d come for the Cry-san-tha-mantis of Tear-na-Norg that you borrowed from him? When I said I wasn’t sure where you were he gave me a nice business card and left, he’s a LAWYER!.. if things don’t work out between you and Max you could do a lot worse, Irish accents are so dishy aren’t they?! Hope to hear from you soon. Love, Mum’
MUM! I DON’T need more dating material right now!

Who the hell calls their kid ‘Ocean’ anyway?
For that matter what’s a ‘Crysanthamantis of Tearnanorg’ when it’s at ho-

Tir na nOg?
The Irish mythical ‘otherworld’ of everlasting youth, beauty, health, abundance and joy?
..ancient Irish Heaven basically..

If I’m right, and Mum just can’t spell things she’s never heard of before.. then that would make him..

Oisin? That’s the only name I can think of close to ‘Ocean’ that’s connected with Tir na nOg?
I have a rough personal knowledge of most myths in general from around the world that’s usually supplemented by my past-incarnation knowledge but I’m not perfect or anything!

I still have no idea what a ‘Crysanthamantis’ is at all, and that’s assuming that Mum was even close in her attempt at spelling it.

When did she.. message received at three-thirty huh?
Amazing how things can change in a few hours..

At least he left easy enough, that probably means he’s not an ex-husband if nothing else.
From past-incarnation and now personal experience I can say that THEY wouldn’t be THAT easy to dismiss usually!

Okay, enough stalling, last message then on to.. Sarah..

‘I hope you’re alright Ari? Sarah’s becoming a bit worked up over everything which is getting annoying, just between us, but I can’t really blame her. You’ve been out of contact for over a day now which is worrying in itself. If you weren’t with John I’d probably be as worried as she is but he’s shown he can bring you home safely enough times lately if nothing else. Please message me back soon just so I know you’re okay? I’m going to struggle sleeping tonight otherwise. Gran’s threatening to do a location spell on you if you don’t answer back soon.. I have no idea if that’s even a real thing but you have a few more hours before I let her do it anyway I guess? Call me. Mum’
Ouch.. just over a day and they all start losing it?..

I miss the old days where taking a random two week holiday camped out at the riverbank where the Rhine meets the Moselle in Koblenz, Germany so I could re-find my center after a particularly difficult string of missions would just about earn me a curious look from Felicia when I turned up for my next mission with a tan and NOTHING else!

When was.. seven hours ago?..
Oh boy, I should probably message her back soon then!

Sarah.. Sarah first though.. I guess?..
..Oh just get it OVER with for powers sake!..

With a gulp I flicked over to Sarah’s messages and cringed heavily.

While her first one was almost pleasant if you ignored the obvious sarcasm about how ‘grown up’ I was being in not answering her and how ‘responsible’ of me it was to leave her, Mum and Gran to look after my re-incarnated ‘army’ of children.. things steadily got worse..

I could feel my eyes getting a bit teary as I scanned my way through them all.
She said some really hurtful things in there.. she doesn’t mean them, probably?.. but she still said them and it hurts and..

It took a few deep huffs of breath to calm myself down enough that I could keep reading.
My free hand left Eris’s belly to wipe my eyes slightly at the same time.
..stupid hormones..

‘WHERE ARE YOU?!! You can’t keep doing this to me Han?! I don’t know where you are or if you’re okay or if you’re DEAD or something!! Stop being such a brat and COME HOME! Everyone’s worried and if you don’t get your stupid ass home NOW I’ll personally kick it so hard your NEXT-INCARNATION will still be feeling it!!’
At least she didn’t swear in that last message.. that’s a good sign right? or a sign of something relatively close to good I hope?..

I had to sniff a little bit and wipe my eyes again.
I couldn’t help but go over the messages constantly, my guilt building with each go around.

Sarah’s really stressing out and it’s totally my fault.
I know the sniffling and tears are just my hormones making me go loopy at the moment but they ARE my hormones and Sarah’s MY sister and.. and she’s right?

I got angry at her treating me like a child on the ride up and, even after I’d realised that I was in the wrong to snap about it all, I still didn’t message her back because I was embarrassed about my actions.

I needed to get the ‘seer’ stuff sorted and the cat business that came with it delayed us too but I should have said something when John suggested going to the Bazaar?
I should have at least messaged Mum or something to let her know we were on our way back, even if we were making a detour.. but I didn’t?..

She’s right.
I’ve been a brat this whole time.
I felt like I wasn’t being treated like an adult so the first thing I did was childishly ignore her then self-centeredly forget to check in with them later, after I’d calmed down.

If Sarah did that I’d call her a brat too!

Eris shifted on my lap slightly and moaned into my chest.
The movement brought me slightly back into the here-and-now, although my eyes are still heavy and the tears won’t stop for some reason.

With tense fingers I rose my phone up again and started typing.
By the time I really knew what I was going to say the short one-handed message was done and my thumb was left resting on the depressed send button.
‘Sorry for being a brat Sare. Be home soon. Love you.’

The message felt familiar but I was in no state to work out why.
I practically threw my phone back onto the dashboard and settled into the corner again, both of my arms coming up to hug Eris’s warm body in tighter to myself for comforts sake.
Without thinking I planted a kiss on top of her now messy hair and rested my cheek on the spot I’d kissed a moment later.

Out the corner of my eye I could see John shooting me curious looks.

Just a touch of my mage-sense’s gave me the full story.
He’d obviously seen me using my phone, along with the crying and my final reaction to it all..he’s worried about me?

His magic is doing that warm thing it does now where it’s full of worry and care specifically for me.
..it’s really nice?..

I wish I could wrap myself up in this feeling and never let it go!
I wish the world would just slow down a little so we could take a break from everything and relax.. maybe enjoy that feeling while it lasts if nothing else?..

I let off another sniff and shifted my cheek slightly so I could talk freely.

“Don’t worry John-boy. It was just Sarah being.. being Sarah?..”
He nodded in acceptance although I don’t think he really understood what I meant by that.
Hell, I don’t think I even understand what I meant by that?
“You holding up okay?”

He turned his head slightly so he could look at me for a moment before turning back to the road with a smile.

“Yeah, only a hundred miles or so left to go now, we passed through Merlin about five minutes ago.”
My lips twitched up in amusement.

‘Merlin’ is a little forest-heavy town just north of Grants Pass, which in turn is north-west of Medford.
While it’s technically its own place, most mages treat it as just the more rural part of Grants Pass because it happens to house the Hub shared between Grants Pass and Medford within its tiny borders.

I’ve honestly never had a reason to go there before, although the idea of a hidden magical Hub being in a place called ‘Merlin’ is still somewhat amusing every time it comes up in conversation.
Judging by the slightly pleased spike in his magic at my smile, John finds it funny still too.

“Night John, thanks for doing all the driving and stuff..”
He smiled at me and his magic surged a little with pride in response.

Slowly I settled my cheek back onto Eris’s head properly and tried to go back to sleep.
After a few seconds of still hazy indecision I gave in to the urge that had been building in me over the last few minutes and reached out a tightly controlled line of magic from my natural aura to touch John’s magic.

He jolted slightly in surprise at the touch but seemed to try almost suspiciously hard not to look at me despite my actions anyway.
With a bit of tugging and gentle persuasion a ‘sheet’ of his magic finally came lose and stretched out across the truck’s cab until it came to rest around me and Eris like a warm blanket.

She didn’t seem to notice the change, I certainly did though.
John shot me a curious look but my smile seemed to calm him down quickly enough.

My eyes slowly slid shut as I let his warm, caring.. loving?.. magic wrap around me tightly.

He could never do this by force.
I’m too powerful for that.. but if I let him do it?.. that’s a whole other story.

..he’s so warm..
‘I love you.. Hannah.’

With those words echoing around in my head and his magic adding so much more weight to them than ever before I quickly sank back into sleep properly at last.
A contented smile played across my lips as I went and I doubt it left even after I was lost to the world.

I can’t really find it in myself to care though honestly?
..he’s SO warm..

======

We pulled up sharply for some reason and that was enough to start the sometimes long process of waking me up.

John grumbled under his breath for some reason.
His magic is still warm as always but there’s definitely an edge of frustration to it now.

After a long moment wondering why he’d be frustrated it finally connected in my head just why I could feel his magic so easily.
With a heavy blush I ‘pushed’ the layer of his magic away from me and tried hard not to catch his eyes despite knowing full-well that he felt the shift that happened as his magic returned to him.

“..shut up John..”
His magic jumped slightly with amusement in response.
I have no doubt there’s that annoyingly ‘knowing’ smirk on his face again right about now!

“Did you sleep okay?”
Thankfully he left the embarrassing extra ‘while willingly wrapped up in my magic like a swaddled baby’ part unsaid.

If he’s willing to drop the whole thing then I’m MORE than willing to go along with the delusion!
I don’t know WHAT I was thinking?!
His magic.. it just makes me feel good..

That could be dangerous but.. ya know?
He’s JOHN? What’s he going to do SMIRK me to death?!

“I slept like a log thanks. So what’s with all the grumbling?”
Finally! I actually managed to change the topic in a conversation relatively smoothly!

Score one for team ‘not socially awkward’ Hannah!

“Downtown traffic during some weird holidays-ignoring school rush.. how so many people think it’s a good idea to drive pickup trucks in a town this size I’ll never know?..”
Despite myself a little ‘snerk’ noise escaped me before I could stop it.

While I’m still desperately avoiding eye contact with him, that doesn’t mean I can’t feel the mild glare he sent my way in response though!

It’s not my fault he’s complaining about people dropping their kids off at school using pickup trucks in a small town.. while driving through said small town in an ancient pickup truck with a small child along for the ride..

“I take it that’s a ‘no’ on you doing the school run to drop Eris off in the morning come September then?”
His magic rolled in mild annoyance again but he couldn’t hide his amusement from me for long.

I finally cracked and let off a quiet laugh of my own at the idea of John being checked out by the single-mom’s club that always seemed to hang around the school gates looking for fresh meat every year.

You can practically set your watch by them.
A lot of them tend to get bored or disheartened after the first few days most years but even MY Mum was guilty of ‘loitering’ outside the school within the pack and on the prowl sometimes, back when we were young enough to need or want a lift to school still of course..

“You know she wouldn’t leave home without you anyway, good luck convincing her to spend most of her day away from you all week long for months on end..”
My eyes cut down to Eris’s head as she lay sprawled out on my chest like the warm brown-haired little bundle that she is.

“..shut up John..”
He sniggered to himself.
I’m sure he thinks he somehow ‘won’ the conversation there, immature ass that he is.

He’s got a point though I guess.. I’ve got absolutely no idea how even I’D react to her being gone all day either honestly?

It doesn’t seem real that until recently I didn’t even know she existed?
Aside from moments where I’ve been either working, hiding or unconscious I’ve not really been separated from her at all for a week or so now.. has it really only been a week?..

GAH! Stupid past-lives are messing with my head again!
On the one hand it’s been a little over a week since we ‘met’ but on the other hand I’ve spent countless DECADES as her mother, be that biological or adoptive?!

As if prodded by my attention Eris shifted slightly in my lap.
Slowly her head moved up and her mouth split open in an adorably wide yawn that made me smile just at the sight of it.

“..mmsurnampher..”
I had to hold back another laugh, the mumbling as she wakes up is apparently yet another thing she gets from some version of ‘me’ no doubt?..

“Morning Sweetie.”
Her little eyes squinted against the early morning sunlight outside but eventually she turned them up to me and smiled awkwardly in acknowledgement.

She really IS cute when she’s sleepy.
..What am I saying?..
She’s cute all the time!

It’s in the genes obviously, like mother like dau-
DAMN IT!

Rather than show my frustration I cut my eyes away from her to stare out the window instead.
As I tried to get a hold of myself and focus again it took me a few moments to recognise where we actually were.

“No wonder you hit traffic, why are we coming in from the south?”
We’re on Shasta Way, just by the big Fred Meyer store in downtown Klamath if I’m right?

Hell, we’re practically in the ‘school district’.. if a town this small can have something like that?
There’s two high schools that run summer school sessions, a day-care and an adult learning center literally just up the street from here!

“I wanted to avoid pinging on the Hub’s sensor grid before absolutely necessary.. figured we could park up on the far side of Klamath lake and line-of-sight warp across to that field just off from your place? That way we’d be within your wards before anyone could detect us.”

Huh.. I forget how smart he is sometimes?..

The Hub likes to keep a team of ‘trackers’ on station in a rough perimeter around the outskirts of Klamath Falls.
A lot of Hub’s tend to do it if they can spare the man-power considering mages who are sensitive enough to ambient magic for the system to work are slightly rare, I’m pretty sure we only have a few people on staff to handle it all here so they have to randomly search directions as best they can throughout the day instead of having any real form of ‘full coverage’..

The system is commonly known as the ‘grid’ and they mostly use it to keep an eye on who’s coming or going in the local area these days but I think originally the idea was to give early warning and help defend from ‘demons’ or ‘monsters’ back in the days when magical creatures travelled the world more freely.

It’s almost more traditional than anything else these days, a holdover from the old settler and enclave mentality that’s still pretty strong with most mages sadly.

It’s never really been an issue before but technically all the roads leading into Mum’s place are covered by the grid so it probably isn’t a good idea for us to drive all the way home directly.
We.. I need time to get settled before the SWAT guy’s come storming over to bring me in for questioning or any other excuse they can think of to shove their noses in again!

“..you’re not just a pretty face after all..”
Unintentionally I glanced over at him and we made eye contact.
He smirked brightly before turning back to the road which made my cheeks flush slightly for some unfathomable reason.

“I AM a pretty face though and you can’t deny it huh?”
My eyes jerked back over to him angrily for mocking me but he was already waiting for me to look and wiggled his eyebrows stupidly in a way he KNEW would get to me.

With a reluctant huff to hide my smile I turned away from him and focused on the street again.
It’s much safer to look at the streets at the moment.. he’s in a funny mood this morning, it must be sleep deprivation from driving for so long or something..

“Can we go swimming?”
Huh?.. oh, Eris!

“I’m sure we can sort something out sweetie. We used to swim in the lake most summers so I don’t see the harm in it.. not today though obviously, we have to get home today.”
She looked a little disappointed at that but not too much.

Luckily I remembered to add that last point in there!

Something tells me I’m going to be too busy when we get home to be rushing around so we can swim or anything else really?
Mum, Sarah, Gran, relatives both wolf-y and incarnation based.. along with anyone else that’s hovering around and the Hub itself eventually..
Yeah.. today’s definitely looking ‘busy’ in prospect, I’ll say that much!

“We’ll have to get you a swimsuit. Obviously your Mum’s got a Bikini already, as she showed half the United States last week when she warped around like a headless chicken.”
HEY!

“A ‘headless chicken’ who was frantically trying to save YOUR ungrateful ass Mister!”
He snorted in amusement but held his hands up while resting his palms on the steering wheel to show he was admitting defeat.

“Bikini’s are like the string top thing, right?”

..that’s one way to put it I guess?..
I glanced down at Eris’s curious face and nodded with a smile.
She huffed to herself, folding her arms to show her distain.

“I don’t like those. There’s nothing to hold onto.”

John snorted again in amusement.
No doubt his dirty mind came up with several responses he wouldn’t DARE say around Eris after the whole ‘BDSM’ incident almost instantly there!

“They’re traditional native outfits for American women, your Mom was just trying to blend in with normal Americans at the time Eris.”
I shot him a withering look but it didn’t stop his smirk in the slightest.
Eris seemed to chew over that idea a little bit before nodding to herself thoughtfully.

“Like the Fontange’s at Lou-lou’s?”

um.. maybe?..
Fontange.. Fontange, that sounds familiar?
AH! The headdress thingy’s in France!

Oh powers, they were HORRIBLE!

I don’t know what Louis was thinking when he decided to make Marie Angelique the ‘Duchesse de Fontanges’?!
By the time people wised up and stopped wearing the stupid things I’d already developed a permanent neck-ache from having a couple pounds of cap-wire with untold amounts of ribbons, pearls, flowers and muslin on top of my head every time I left our rooms!
..bloody stupid idea in my opinion..

uh.. well, I personally never had to deal with it all of course but past-incarnation memories and all..
You know what it’s like at this point?!

Let’s just say that no matter what era you live in fashion often sucks and is usually stupid in some way or another.
Give me a pair of jeans and a cotton work-shirt any day!

“Yeah, like the Fontange’s at Lou-lou’s.. but less annoying..”
Eris nodded wisely and turned to settle her head on my chest again like she always does.

If nothing else I think the conversation woke her up a bit more so that’s something?
Nothing worse than line-of-sight warping with a half-awake grumpy toddler in tow!

“Where are you going to park up then?”
I’m getting good at this whole ‘changing topic’ thing today aren’t I?

=======

“You seriously own this place?”

I’m pretty impressed honestly?
After a bit of dodging and weaving along the road that runs around the right-hand side of Upper Klamath Lake we ended up pulling into the little parking lot outside the Klamath Yacht Club.

I’ve never really had a reason to go over this side of the lake, it’s mostly just big residential housing, the OTHER golf course and the Technology Institute over this side as far as I know?

“Of course I don’t. I’ve got a boat in the dock so it’s free parking.”
Oh.. I guess that makes more sense?

..I’m kind of disappointed now?..
The ‘Yacht Club’ isn’t exactly impressive.
It looks like a converted aircraft hangar more than anything but they’ve made an attempt to spruce it up with a big windowed front at least.

I’ve just never known anyone who owned their own Yacht Club before, ya know?
I mean.. yeah, I technically own more land than some monarchies if you count up all my boltholes but you can’t show a bolthole off to people and be like ‘yeah, I own that!’.. that would kind of ruin the whole point of HAVING a bolthole wouldn’t it?..

“wait.. you have a boat?..”
I’ve never known anyone who owns a boat before either!

Well, technically I guess Dante had a boat, the old white one he put the entrance to his base on?.. but I have little doubt that was probably stolen in some way!
..stupid Lichs, they have no respect for personal property..

“We live practically next-door to a massive freshwater lake? Who wouldn’t own a boat in that situation?”

um.. me?.. I guess?..
I never really thought of it that way.

The lake is just.. it’s just THERE, ya know?

It’s kind of like the mountains on the horizon.
After a while you tend to stop seeing them if you stay in the area long enough.
I’ve been away a lot over the last few years but I’ve not really stopped to take it all back in again?

With new eyes I shot a glance out across the water and north towards the tree-rich hills circling around us.
..Klamath Falls really is a pretty place if you take a moment to just LOOK at it..

“Can we take the boat across the lake Daddy?”
My moment of introspection shattered at the dangerously innocent tone to Eris’s voice.

The same one I’ve only just started building a proper immunity to but that John-
“I don’t see why not? I can dock it up and take it back over once your Mom’s safely behind the wards.”
-that John still folds to like a wet blanket as she twists him around her little fingers?
..powers damn smart kids!..

“I’m NOT going on a boat! I get seasick!”
..probably?..

“Well you can still warp across I guess?”
John didn’t really seem that fussed by the idea but I think he’s a little disappointed he doesn’t get to show off his ‘boat’ or something.

My head sunk down and I let out a heavy sigh.
..now I feel guilty?..

“Fine I’ll go in the bloody boat BUT, no speeding around like a maniac!”

His smirk went up a notch which from him is practically an outright happy grin.
Eris made a happy noise and bounced in my lap a little before settling in for another hug.

My eyes drifted out at the currently calm water.
I felt a little ill already just at the thought of it honestly?

Reluctantly I glanced back down at her head as she nuzzled into my chest happily.
I swear, the things I do for her..

======

“Do you need a hand with that?”

John grunted and tugged on a few different ropes that I honestly have no idea what the purpose of are?
His boat’s not exactly huge or anything but it’s a nice little white skimmer with a motor, a mast and all the other things I’m sure you’d expect to see on a boat found in a ‘Yacht Club’.

It was already moored up in the water so we just have to cast off or whatever it’s called, but John’s been fiddling with those ropes for almost a solid minute now?

“Most of the boats enchanted for longevity, the rope knots are like a security system.. it’s just been a while since I’ve used them..”
So in other words he’s forgotten the ‘combination’ for his boat lock?
You know this feels oddly familiar..

Ah! That’s it!
The amount of times we’d have to hang around after school because he’d forgotten the combination to his bike lock or something equally stupid as kids!

“You need some bolt cutters there John-boy?”
He shot me a dirty look.

His bike lock problems were one of the few times I got to gloat at him back in school.
The threat of calling the janitor to cut his lock open always used to get the same amusing reaction back then too.

“You know I would have had a hell of a lot less problems like that in school if you would have just listened to me when I told you to go on ahead right?”
Who’s he trying to kid?!

As if my leaving would suddenly mean he could magically remember his bike lock combi- ..Oh.

“You used to use magic to open your bike lock didn’t you?”
He winced and wouldn’t look at me as he still fiddled away with the ropes in his lap.

He TOTALLY used magic to open his bike lock!

The amount of time we wasted because he didn’t want me to see him using magic on the bloody thing?!!
..of all the stupid, wasteful, pointless-..

“..magical or not, no-wonder you got bad grades in school..”
The twitch of his eyebrow I got back for that one was OH-so-satisfying to see!
I think we’ll count that as one point to Hannah!

“Who designs a lock enchantment without a backup way to easily open it themselves later?”
He does apparently?

His eyebrow twitched again!
HA! Hannah two, John zero!

“I’m not an enchanter. It’s pretty amazing I managed as well as I did with it okay?”
opps.. I think I hit a sore spot?..

With a huff I hopped off the jetty and landed on the hard bench seat next to him.
It’s not like I feel sorry for him or anything.
I’m just fed up of waiting that’s all!

“Give them here ya stubborn idiot.”
He really is reluctant to pass the rope over, I think it hurts his pride a little to admit defeat honestly?

We held a rather intense little stare off for a few more seconds until he finally gave in and slide the ropes over into my lap.
I offered him a proud smirk which was hopefully not as smug looking as I think it may have been?

My fingers twitched slightly to limber up before I ran my hand over the ropes, injecting just enough magic in them to make them glow brightly.
Magesight may be more subtle and efficient for inspecting enchantments but I really do prefer this method.

I can FEEL the weave of the magic so much better this way, it’s like reading brail over having someone describe things to you, there’s something just more VISCERAL about being able to FEEL how things work yourself instead of relying on your eyes which are, at best, just giving you an impression of how everything works?

AH! There it is!..
Just a little tug HERE..
..and HERE.. HERE.. and THERE!

With a jolt the massive tangle of knots all fell apart in my hands into nearly perfect, neat rows of rope.

For a long moment we sat in silence.
I spent it pulling my fingers out from under the ropes while trying to ignore the weight of John’s disbelieving stare.

“With that much precision and skill how have you NOT become the world’s greatest magical thief yet?”
I cut my eyes over to him, not able to resist when he gave me such an easy line to run with.
Slowly I reclined slightly and shot him a defiantly raised eyebrow.

“Who say’s I’m not?”

The real irony here is that it’s kind of true too?
You don’t get good at breaking into bad guy’s bases, demonic lairs or just pulling your oblivious sister’s ass out of the fire day-in day-out without learning a thing or two about unravelling security enchantments.

Hell, I can pick normal locks too.. and fry electronic ones.. and there was that one time that I had to trigger a four person dead-man switch remotely without either the operators or the system itself realising what I was doing..

Come to think of it, I probably AM one of the world’s best magical thieves?
Huh.. learn something new every day I guess?..

“..please tell me you’re joking?..”
I’d love to John-boy but I’m not in the mood to lie at the moment!
Bet you wish you hadn’t asked now huh?
“Hannah.. PLEASE tell me it wasn’t you that broke into the Archivum Secretum?..”

The Vatican’s ‘public’ secret archives?

What does he take me for?!
There’s nothing useful in that place.. it DID make a nice distraction when I went after the REAL secret archive though..

My lips twitched slightly despite my best efforts.
There’s honestly nothing funnier than watching the chaos that happens when you kick over an organised religion’s biggest ant-hill of power.

You wouldn’t BELIEVE how much those priests can swear when they think someone’s stealing their dusty old papers and priceless hidden artworks!
I almost wish I’d been there to hear the air turn blue when the REAL higher ups were informed that several of their ‘doomsday’ weapon pet-demons had been slain in the confusion?!

I’d have taken that mission for free just on principle in the end honestly.
I’m all for coming up with ways to stop the ‘end of days’ from happening, but sealing up some of the most powerful demons to ever reach our realm and keeping them locked away for eon’s just to piss them off in the misguided idea that the ‘power of god’ in your city would somehow purify their evil ‘souls’ and make them willing pawns you can unleash on whatever thing threatens humanity the most is just being pig-headed!

“I know that look.. Hannah.. what did you do?”

I couldn’t look at him and keep a straight face.
It’s nice that I’VE been the naughty one for once!

Maybe he’ll finally understand what that horrible feeling of dread that comes with knowing someone you care for has done something unbelievably stupid but won’t explain it to you properly feels like huh?
..yeah, I thought it was a longshot that he’d think that far into it too..

“Hannah seriously, you didn’t really-”
Before he could finish badgering me for answers the boat rocked violently as a squealing little girl landed in it.

“I got Mau! Can we go now?”
She did indeed have the kitten with her too.

I have no idea where the little fuzz-ball got off to, probably fell asleep in the foot-well under the seats or something?
Either way he’s wide awake now and quite obviously terrified as he stares out at the wide expanse of water ahead of us.

Just to keep the distraction going and avoid any more awkward questions about world-wide organisations I may or may not have pissed off in the last few years, I moved forwards slightly and stretched out my hands towards him.

Eris let off a surprised yelp when the kitten almost frantically batted his way out of her grasp and made a leap for my arms.
Despite my initial reluctance the fuzz-ball really is growing on me?
It probably helps that he likes me and seems surprisingly intelligent for his species too.

I shot John an amused look as he finally started gathering himself back together again which probably didn’t help if I’m being honest with myself.

Eris huffed to herself and folded her arms as if the kitten had mortally offended her with his treachery.
After a long moment where her huff didn’t get the result she wanted she let it go with a sigh and made her way over to my side, nudging John and me apart slightly so she could slot herself in-between us comfortably.

With one more moody look at the kitten, who seems to have decided to stretch out on my chest with his little head resting on my boobs and his little eyes squinted shut happily, she pushed herself into my side a bit more and sighed to herself.

“Hannah, we should really discuss this?”
I purposefully ignored the ‘hint’ he was trying to drop that he wanted to speak out of Eris’s hearing range.

I’m comfortable here.
I’ve got my cat, I’ve got my Eris and I’ve shocked the hell out of John.

This is turning out to be quite a good morning surprisingly?!

“You should get the boat started before someone notices us and wonders what we’re up to John-boy.”
He glared at me for a moment but there wasn’t any real heat to it, he’s just annoyed I got one over on HIM for once.

“This isn’t over..”

Sure it isn’t!
It’s not like the whole breaking into the Vatican thing happened years ago or anything?
..honestly he’s so nit-picky sometimes..

“Just start the boat already.”
As much as I know I’ll regret thinking it, I just want to go home now!

======

“Is that a dolphin?”
Eris bounced around excitedly while waving out at something across the water.

I’d love to tell her categorically that ‘no, it’s not a dolphin’ but I’m both too busy trying to hold down my non-existent breakfast to look and clinging on to the boat for dear life to speak.

It turns out that, like most awkward forms of travel, I don’t do boats at ALL!

John finally throttled back as we came closer to the bank on the lakes edge nearest to our house.
I think he went fast on purpose just to get back at me for the Vatican thing?!

“I’ll get you for this Joh-”
Urk!.. No! I can’t even get the words out!..

I’ll get him for this somehow, only John could somehow manage to force me into using some stupid way to travel and make it seem like it’s MY idea!

New rule: Hannah doesn’t do boats!
Make a note of it!

“Are you okay Mom?”

The boat finally bumped gently up against a rough dock someone has obviously built for themselves on the lake’s edge and I was off like a shot, surprising Eris in the process as I scrambled onto the uneven but solid wood with the cat clinging to me as if it’s life depended on it.

I slowly sunk to my knees in relief as the world stopped bobbing up and down.
The cat took that chance to unleash its death grip on my top, landing with only a slightly unsteady wobble on the wooden dock before promptly mimicking me in collapsing to the floor in relief.

“..Mau..”
You said it buddy!
‘NEVER again!’

“You alive there Han?”
SHUT UP JOHN!
I can feel you’re bloody smug smirk from here and I’m NOT in the mood!
“Go give her a hand Eris, I’ll go back and sort the truck out.”

Seemingly oblivious to my poor stomach and growing headache Eris squealed happily, scrambling up to nudge persistently against me in an attempt to get me back on my feet no doubt.

All I could do was groan and thank the powers that at least the journey was over now.

======

“Are you okay now Mom?”

I hesitated for a moment as we both stepped awkwardly over a fallen tree in the way before turning my head down to grin at her reassuringly.
She grinned back and gave a little skip to keep pace with my longer legs.

Despite my best efforts to keep the pace low for her she’s still not very good at walking for long.
It’s probably just her age honestly, the fact that she doesn’t walk around much in general probably doesn’t help either though?

I should start making an effort to get her walking more or she’s going to end up as one of those mages who can throw around elemental spells like they’re free candy but runs out of stamina if they have to jog upstairs for something?

“Mau!”

My eyes cut down to the kitten who was happily sprinting around tree roots and hopping between sunspots on the grass like.. well, like a kitten really?..

“Come on little guy, I’m sure we’ve got some tuna in the fridge you can steal if you look at my Mum cutely enough.”
His awkward little ears instantly perked up and instead of continuing his playful running he practically made a beeline straight towards Mum’s place despite it still not being visible through the trees yet.

Eris giggled and picked up the pace to go after him with me hovering slightly behind her to make sure she didn’t trip over anything as she went, naturally.
When we finally did catch up with him Eris was slightly out of breath and he stared up at me as if wondering what took me so long, the cheeky little fuzz-ball!

“Mau?”

“Hold your hair on, we’re almost there..”
With that said I lead them both on the last half-overgrown path that works its way through the trees stuck between our house and the resort’s golf course.
It didn’t take much for me to push my way through the last low bush-like branches of the trees around our garden, clearing the way for Eris to follow on behind me.

The kitten reached the wide clearing we generously consider our ‘backyard’ and broke into a sprint that must have reached forty miles-per-hour in less than a few seconds.

It’s easy to forget that he’s got the speed of a purebred Egyptian Mau with how little he-
“MAU!”
-except when he makes that damned noise at least?!

The kitten suddenly pulled a complete one-eighty turn and like the proverbial rocket that he’d become, shot back towards us, only stopping when he got close enough that he could hop up into Eris’s eager arms.

I stared at him curiously for a moment before shrugging it off as him just being a cat.
I wonder what scared him so much tho-

Oh..
..Oh, that’s not good!..

A cacophony of voices rose from the house as a veritable swarm of people poured out of it.
Young, old, male, female, it didn’t seem to matter!
They were all running towards us.. towards ME.. AND calling out happily with terms ranging from my name to my reluctant designation of ‘mother’.

Leading the charge was a tightly controlled but obviously pissed off sprinter that I’d recognise anywhere.
She always HAS been a fast runner, no wonder she’s leading despite some of the crowd being werewolves with the physical prowess you’d expect to go with that often unwanted ‘gift’.

“HANNAH!”
..oh..crap..

Sarah’s pissed, RUN AWAY!

“Eris stay safe and look after the cat.”
She opened her mouth to protest but I was already dipping into my lines for a warp.
I don’t have enough time to do much more then line-of-sight it but it’ll do!

As the cresting wave of ‘family’ came charging in towards me my magic finally connected and I disappeared in a blue blur.

A moment later the world came back into focus and I landed splay legged on the peaked roof of our house with a hiss as a still rather new, rather sensitive part of my body slammed down onto the curved peak leaving me to cling on and ride the wave of disorientation that comes with line-of-sight warping out.
Luckily I landed with a leg kicked out either side of the peak which afforded me some awkward sense of balance at least.

It didn’t take them long to work out where I’d gone but, as I’d hoped, they were all reluctant to warp up here after me.
They’re all on their ‘best behavior’ around me at the moment and it’s rude to go warping around someone’s house when you’re still a guest!

“HANNAH! GET OFF THE ROOF?!”

Cautiously I peeked over the edge with a bit of a gulp at the height involved.
Eventually I managed to make out Sarah from the crowd down below, staring directly up at me with her hands fisted at her waist like she always does when she’s trying to be authoritative.

“I’m good up here Sare.. thanks though!”

A lot of the crowd down there started talking amongst themselves but that did nothing to cover Sarah’s annoyed growl from my ears in the slightest.. yup, I’m SO totally good up here thank-you-very-much!

My eyes wandered a little bit and I was relieved to make out Eris wandering over to join the back of the crowd, kitten in tow and completely unharmed.

It’d been a measured risk.
If I’d been much slower they might not have been able to stop in time to avoid running into her.

At the speed they were going, the odds of her getting hurt in the mass of people if I HADN’T warped out would have been much higher too.. so I did what I’m good at?..
As stupid as it may seem sometimes, running works more often than you’d think!

“HANNAH! You’ve got a count of ten to get down here or I’ll MAKE you!”
I peeked over the edge again to stare at Sarah’s still angry looking face.

She’s finding this all funny, I know her too well to not assume as much anyway but it’s reassuring to see it on her face if nothing else.
That DOESN’T mean she’s not still pissed off at me though!

“Nuh’uh, I’m good up here, really!.. how about everyone just go back to what they were doing and I’ll come down when I’m ready, yeah?”
There was more than a little pleading in my tone at this point, definitely more then I’d like to admit honestly, but if it works then use it.

“FIVE HANNAH! Don’t make me come up there and get you!”

She wouldn’t.. would she?..
That’s insane!

It’s just an empty threat, how would she even get up here?
It’s not like she’s got magic to cheat or anything?!

“TWO HANNAH!”
She’s bluffing!
She’s totally bluffing!

“ZERO! Okay, you asked for it!”
With those final words she started moving towards the house until she finally disappeared from my view beyond the edge of the roof.

The crowd down below seemed to be busy watching her more than me at this point.
I could practically gauge her progress in whatever she was up to by the way their eyes all trailed slowly up the side of the house.

After about fifteen seconds of near silence the old metal guttering around the rim of the roof shook violently and a pair of hands just about managed to catch onto the edge of the roof by their fingertips.

The crowd down below gasped in surprise but that was nothing compared to my fearful wheeze as the guttering shook a few more times and slowly the fingers forced their way upwards until the top of a head rose above the lip, followed closely by a pair of angry eyes I know FAR too well!

Come to think of it Sarah IS a professional ‘adventurer’ and all.. she used to go rock-climbing and train on an overhanging climbing-wall a few years back too, until she got bored because it was getting ‘too easy’ at least?..
With a grunt the eyes started rising higher again followed by a mouth set in a determined frown.

..Uh oh!..