It's never safe to spend too long with your own thoughts, especially when those thoughts have a tendency to get out of hand at times. Months upon months of waiting are finally at an end. Hannah's been busy, busy, busy, usy- John's been hounding her at every turn and potions are a lot more dangerous then Wizard-Burger's use of them would have you believe. The new season starts here folks! Let's see what the gang's been up to...

 

“Ari...”
My head snapped up harshly from the round thingy I was fiddling with on my work table and my jaw dropped open in shock.

“...M-mum?...”

“Ari”

“MUM!”
With a kick my stool crashed to the floor behind me and I broke into a sprint out into the void that surrounds my workshop.
“MUM?!”

“Ari”
Her voice seemed to echo slightly off in the distance to my left but all it did was encourage me to run faster towards her.

It felt like I was running too slow, the endless void of darkness around me playing tricks on me from its uniform abyss no doubt, but eventually a light formed up in front of me, growing progressively larger until I finally burst through it back into the bright daylight of the more publically accessible areas within my realm, only to come to a grinding halt as the bottom fell out of my stomach in fear.

“Ari...”
My body stumbled backwards away from her and I ended up tripping over my own feet, crashing heavily to the ground with a whimper.
“Ari-”

The face, the hair, even the dress was right for the last time I saw her.
It was my Mum without a shadow of a doubt... everything but her eyes?

In place of those warm, caring eyes that I came to know and love all over again in the month I got to enjoy being her ‘youngest daughter’ there are the same cold, dead looking milky-white eyes that have haunted my nightmares for months now.
Eyes that burned themselves into my memory when I saw a sea of their accusing glares staring up at me as John took me away from Wizard Island, the place where I committed the first atrocity of my current incarnation in truly awe-inspiring style.

“Ari”

“This is a dream, it’s just a dream, you fell asleep! You fell asleep you stupid, STUPID-”
Mum reached out towards me for a hug and I froze for a moment at the warm smile that crossed her lips before melting away into an angry sneer as the world around us darkened dramatically to match her sudden change in mood.

“You killed us Ari, why would you kill us?”
My mouth went dry at the hurt look that crossed her face as a single tear fell out of those horribly empty eyes to leave a bitter trail down her cheek.
“Why did you kill me Ari?”

From the growing darkness behind her, shadows started moving and slowly, one after another, bodies with recognisable faces shuffled forward into the light, every one of them staring with those same cold, dead, accusing eyes as they reached towards me in a terrifying mockery of life itself.

“It’s just a dream! It’s just a dream!”

“Why useless girl?”
My head snapped up again to stare broken-heartedly as a shade of Edith moved out of the darkness with a glare on her tired old face.

“Why Han?”
A shade of Sarah stepped out next, dark black lines burned all over her skin like a spiders web as her cold white eyes glared down at me in anger.

“Why Mom?”
To Sarah’s side a tiny shadow moved into the light and Eris’s beautiful little face glared out at me with those same eyes, her neck bent at an unnatural angle that made me nauseous just from the sight of it.

Almost subconsciously I shuffled my butt further back across the floor to allow some distance between us, both physically and mentally, not that it helped much at all as they all bore down on me as one group with Eris in the lead.

“I didn’t do it, it was all Arista! I didn’t do it sweetie, I didn’t, I’m sorry!”
I got lost in the moment when faced with everyone that I’d failed, everyone that I’ve been hiding from for so long, all accusing me of things that even I truly didn’t believe I was innocent of.
I fell apart into a desperate sobbing mess on the floor instead of fighting back as my rational mind was screaming at me to do.
“I didn’t do it, Arista did! I killed her, she’s gone! I stopped her, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry but I stopped her!”

They all moved a few more steps closer towards me and I frantically shuffled back once more until my back hit something that halted my progress with a startled grunt from me.

“Oh, did you now?”
My mouth went dry again and slowly I turned my head up to stare into the maliciously grinning face of Arista’s adult form.
“You didn’t really think it would be THAT easy, did you Alice? You’re mind is mine and nothing you do will EVER change that fact... darling..”
A scream of unadulterated fear ripped its way past my lips.

As everyone surged forth to grab me the world fluctuated and stretched wildly before finally falling to pieces with a deafening crash.

======

A jolt shot up my spine and I surged away from my desk in a cold sweat, my arms flailing wildly in a useless attempt to fight off Arista and her army of the undead.

Several more things crashed down to the floor from their precarious positions around me to join the box I’d been working on, which I’ll assume was the source of the big crash that finally helped me wake up at long last; a thing which has become worryingly hard to do as times gone on in my nightmares.

“Just a dream, it was just a dream Hannah, stop being a stupid idiot you useless-”
My hands came up to frantically scrub through my hair in frustration at my own weakness.

“Al never had problems like this! Stop being such a bloody girl about it and grow up you stupid-”
When they’d finished turning my hair into a mess of, admittedly already dirty, red tangles my hands dropped heavily to my side for a moment before shooting back into action as they reached almost unconsciously towards the rack of test-tubes I ended up sticking to the table permanently after the first few times I knocked it over while distracted.
“-never forget to take a dose idiot, what the hell was I thinking?!”

After a bit of blind fumbling my hand pulled sharply back to my chest clutching the thin vial of mouldy-green looking liquid I’d been searching for, I didn’t even hesitate to pop the top and down the nasty tasting potion at this point, the novelty of it’s disgusting taste completely outweighed by need and necessity after weeks of use luckily.

As I felt the liquid slowly make its way down my throat into my stomach a warm, happy haze of numbness settled over my mind once more, setting the world back to the way it should have been from the start at long last.

The final stages of the potion kicked in, forcing my eyes to roll back for a moment or two as the haze cleared leaving only the numbness and a stark feeling of clarity that comes from being wide-awake, which all flooded through my system in seconds.
It may be potentially dangerous and considered bad form in most places around the world but sometimes you’ve just got to love self-medication in all its completely ill-advised glory!

“Now to clean up this mess, get some more food while everyone’s asleep and water Bitey. It’s gonna be a busy day, busy, busy, busy day, busy da-”
My hand flew up to slap myself across the cheek and break my brain out of the loop it had unhelpfully decided to settle into quickly, much to my surprised delight.

“Thanks hand!”

With one final giggle and a gentle stroke of appreciation to said helpful appendage from its other, less helpful twin that I call ‘lefty’, I set to work on today’s tasks at last with an enthusiastically happy hum of anticipation towards the fun day ahead of me once more.

I think it’s a Tuesday? Feels like a Tuesday, I LOVE Tuesdays!

======

“Hannah’s log, supplemental, these are the voyages of the Starship Hannah, her continuing mission to... something the something?... I forget, but it’s very important so listen up!”
If he could I’m pretty sure my chlorophyll infused roommate would have rolled what passes for ‘eyes’ to his, admittedly one of a kind, species.
“Anyway, progress has been slow as always, everything's too slow, and food is just... I miss food?”

It’s difficult, the hour or two that comes between the end of my last dose and the time I can have another one without killing myself, talking to Bitey is pretty much all that keeps me sane in moments like these. Everything is too clear to be fun, too real to be imaginary and too much for me to handle without sinking into that same horrible state of lost depression I suffered through until I finally worked out how to make the wonderful, horrible tasting, potion at last.

“I can't keep what food I get down too well anymore for some reason, not that you’d know how that feels, would you Bitey?... and I miss it I guess, and... Ugh, never mind, carrying on!”
If he could I’m sure he would have agreed with me.
As it is, he nodded his bulbous little head in what I suspect is actually an automatic response to me breathing near him but one that looks appropriately close to a conciliatory nod for all I care at this point.
“The math isn’t working out on my thrust calculations still, I have NO idea why. Everything else is working fine but I’m missing something on this one... honestly, if I wasn’t scraping the bottom of the barrel on projects to keep my hands busy and my mind from drifting at this point I’d probably just give it all up as a bad job and move on.”

Bitey’s overly large, for his size, head split open to let the leafy appendage I’ve come to think of as his ‘tongue’ flop out stupidly in response.

I sat there for a moment or two feeling almost disappointed over his reaction, not surprised, but disappointed all the same.
Considering what he is and how he came into existence I can’t blame him if he doesn’t understand me honestly, it just helps to talk in general really, until he came along I’d practically lost my voice from a mix of disuse followed by a lot of use whenever a nightmare caught up with me.

“You could at least pretend you care... asshole, I should have named you John!”
His head, still eerily reminiscent of the larval stage to a certain ‘Audrey II’ from a certain little shop filled with horror which Sarah used to love watching along with Grease and anything else with music we could sing along to as a kid, certainly isn’t the most expressive of faces to work with but I’m pretty sure he’s offended now.

Either that or he’s come to associate the word ‘John’ with ‘food’ considering the amount of times I grumble about him whenever I try to get some edible sustenance at this point... that’s all under the assumption that he even CAN hear me, let alone understand any of the noises I make of course..

Speaking of noises I make, my stomach decided that now would be the perfect time to growl loudly with almost bone deep hunger.

“Everyone’s asleep at this point usually, no harm in me grabbing something real quick while John’s distracted, right?”
Yet again Bitey was less than helpful on offering input of any kind but I took his vaguely ‘nod-like’ movement to mean he agreed with me if nothing else.
“Okay, think, feel, do..”

Those words have become my personal mantra of late.
Ironically I seem to spend most of my time trying not to do the first two parts of it but with my magic the way it is I have to rely on what abilities I can take from Ari’s, admittedly pretty brief, instructions on how to control my mindscape and apply them to the realm instead.

“Think-”
Destination, food, no people.
“-Feel-”
Determination, want, need.
“-DO!”

My hand thrust out in a punching movement and a hole tore itself in the space in front of it, floating in mid-air as if gravity and reality were mere suggestions... which now that I’ve said it is probably true in this realm, considering I’m in control of it.

As I unclenched my fingers to start searching for the nearest food item in reach something cold, heavy and metal landed on my wrist with an almost deafening ‘click’, followed moments later by a cheer of some sort which I didn’t really get to hear properly before yanking my arm back out of the rift and clutching it frantically to my chest as the rift snapped shut with a thought.

For one heart-stopping minute there I thought John had managed to get one of his suppression handcuffs on me somehow but that idea quickly fell apart when the rift actually managed to close, a certain lack of a connecting chain holding it open being the biggest hint, naturally.

Carefully I eased my fist back away from my chest to stare down at an oddly shaped, bulky metal band which is apparently now sealed around my wrist like an over-inflated bangle of dark blue metal in confusion and worry.

As I twisted my hand over to check the underside for a seam of some sort a trail of previously unseen runes lit up in a ring around the bangle in a worryingly familiar shade of red, the same red my runes used to take on whenever I activated them using m- using Sarah’s stolen fire core!

The runes flared so bright that I had to wince my eyes down automatically and that was all the warning I got before something heavy, loud and soft appeared out of nowhere to land right on top of me, sending us both to the ground in a pained tangle of limbs.

“HA! I knew it would work, suck it John-boy you owe me a free coffee!”
Past my throbbing head and currently rather crushed lungs I could do little more than stare up breathlessly at the grinning face of Sarah as she supported herself above me on one arm while holding her other, bangle-sporting one, up to her mouth as she shouted out in victory.

“I’ll get you you’re stupid coffee, what about Hannah? Is she alright?”
Sarah’s smile slipped and her eyes cut down to mine making me freeze like the terrified ball of nerves that I am.

“Hi Han, it’s been a while, miss me?”
Even if she wasn’t sitting on my chest right now I doubt I could have drawn breath properly anyway from the warm glow that seemed to come from her face as she stared down at me so lovingly.
All I could do was stare as a smile I honestly never thought I’d see again, either by her choice or... or worse reasons, beamed down at me from Sarah’s normal, unmarked face.
“Han?”

My body tried to take in a startled gasp or two I think, all I know is that a few seconds later I was hyperventilating and Sarah’s smile had disappeared into a worried frown.

“Shit! I think she’s gonna-”
I didn’t get the chance to find out what she thought I was going to do because with one more half-hearted gasp the world faded to black and I passed out into oblivion, from shock I’d assume.

======

“-not going to slap her John. She looked like I was going to eat her or something before she fainted, she wakes up to me doing anything violent and I think we’re in for a meltdown of epic proportions which, after seeing what’s left of Crater Lake, I do NOT want to witness in person!”
Sarah’s voice was easy to pick out as I slowly came back to reality from my blissfully dreamless spell of unconsciousness.
“No harm in looking, I guess? Looks like she’s been busy at least... lot of stuff here I don’t want to even touch considering the power I can feel pouring off of them, the ominously glowing runes and utter mess around them as well come to that.”

I couldn’t make out what response those words got, however she’s communicating with John right now must be pretty damn quiet for me to not even make out anything above a dull mutter.

“She’s got some green junk in vials on what looks like her main desk and... some sort of plant too?... I dunno John-boy, botany was never my thing. It looks kinda weird, familiar but I can’t really put my finger on wh- AHH!”
My eyes flew open and my body jerked into motion at Sarah’s startled yelp.

Before I knew it I was across the room, crouched in front of her protectively as my brain struggled to process the scene around me until it all clicked in my head at last and I broke out into a fit of relieved laughter.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine John... it’s not funny, the bloody thing tried to BITE me you asshole!”
I couldn’t stop laughing as my little green roommate seemed to flex his two largest leaves as if shrugging his ‘shoulders’ before settling back down into his pot properly to wait for his next chance at food to fill his non-existent, yet somehow ravenous stomach.
“Yeah, that’s her laughing, she’s awake apparently... no, I’m not gonna slap her now either John... She’s not hysterical, she’s just laughing, for powers sake!”

The laughter wouldn’t go away and with Sarah’s watchful eyes on me I couldn’t exactly sucker-punch myself back to normal like I usually would without some rather awkward questions, so I went for the easier alternative and moved quickly over to my desk to snag up one of the vials left on there.
I’m a bit early, but having a second dose at this point isn’t going to kill me as long as I don’t make it a regular thing.

I cringed as the green ooze passed down my throat but that quickly faded away as Joy, anger, sadness and disgust all became rather abstract things for me to consider when the potion kicked in fully with the almost customary roll-back of my eyes that left me clear and laughter free at last.

“Han?”
My eyes cut over to Sarah and I put on an appropriately sincere smile for her.

“Hello Sarah, how have you been? I’ve been fine, I’ve been busy, busy, busy, busy, bus-”
Faithful old ‘Righty’ flew up to smack me around the back of the head and break that annoying verbal tick that keeps happening after I take the potion lately.
“-Better! You’re looking well? I was expecting to find you looking like you sunbathed on red-hot chicken wire or something? Reconstructive surgery, magical fix or just a boring old glamor?”

Sarah leaned away from me with wide eyes for some reason but that didn’t deter me in the slightest as I moved over to grasp her face in my hands and inspect her possible glamor for flaws.
Finally something new to focus on which isn’t those stupid thrust calculations!

As I ran my hands over her skin, finding nothing but smooth-ness on all sides I gave up the glamor theory with a frown.
No-one as new to magic as she is could ever make a glamor that covers touch, it’s practically impossible as it is and I really doubt her lines are in any way ready for something THAT complicated yet so it must be... Hmmm..

Almost subconsciously I squeezed her cheeks in to create a rather amusing ‘duck faced’ look while trying to work out how to test other possible hypothesis in detail.

“W-eva you’ gon- do John, ‘urry, sm-onthing’s wrong wit- Han.”
I paused in my inspection of her left ear for surgical incisions and stared at her for a moment or two in confusion as my brain parsed her words through a filter that allowed for the way her cheeks being squeezed would affect her speech patterns, but even then they didn’t make a whole lot of sense?

‘John’s going to do something and there’s something wrong with me?’
There’s nothing wrong with me!
I’m calm, and clear, and busy, and calm, and... something?... I forget.

======

“Why am I squeezing your cheeks Sare?”
She looked up at me with possibly even wider eyes then before for a moment or two as I pulled my hands away from her face in confusion.

In practically the blink of an eye she’d pulled away from me but I wasn’t really paying attention at that point as my eyes locked on the spiralling patterns of my fingerprints in fascinated awe.

“John! John, get here NOW! Something’s seriously wrong with Hannah, it’s like she’s stoned out of her head or something?!”
Heh... something..

Something, something, something.
So many something’s so little time.

“My hands are all swirly..”
I twitched my thumb and the swirls and curves of my fingerprints hit the light just right for a moment or two before going back to normal again.

A new goal and plan in mind, I set to work with renewed energy.
Finding the exact position needed to bring that absolutely PERFECT lighting back into existence!

At last, a challenge!

======

“No, she’s still doing it, how much longer John?”

I barely gave Sarah’s words a moment’s thought before moving back on to much more important things. The light just won’t cooperate for some reason!

Maybe if I... no, that wouldn’t work, as if the sun would cooperate with me?!
Maybe I can see if Bitey can get rid of my... no, that would make it hard to repeat the experiment at later dates past the initial two attempts available and-

Slowly my attention drifted away from my thumbs to stare at the wall to my left.

Something about it doesn’t feel right?
Has it always had so much built up magic behind it or am I just-

With an almighty ‘BOOM!’ which shook the floor beneath my feet, the wall I’d been staring at fell away into an interestingly messy pile of assorted dust and debris as a heavily breathing male form stepped his way through it all with a forced calm on his face which didn’t reach his eyes or his magic sadly.

“About bloody time!”
Ah, I guess this is what Sarah meant when she said John was doing ‘something’.
One something down, many more to go at least!

“Give me a break here Sarah, I worked as fast as I could, Han didn’t exactly build this place to be destructible and the endlessly dark abyss outside is hard to navigate. If it wasn’t for the bond I’d never have gotten here at all an-”
In one relatively twitch-free movement I was up out of my crouch and standing nose-to-chest with John, my eyes squinted in what I think is a glare of some sort, although I could be wrong on that one because my face has never been as cooperative as Righty tends to be.
“-uh... Hi, Han?”

A long awkward silence stretched out between us as I glared up at him and he stared almost nervously back down at me in return.

“You broke my wall”
Statement of fact.
“You’ve broken my wall before”
The house, my safe little bolt-hole in Russia, that tree house thingy he put his foot through when we were nine.
“What do you have against walls John? Is it a personal thing or does the reason behind your actions go deeper? Does Max hate walls? Did he try to stop people from building them back in the prehistoric era maybe or did he invent them and now just looking at a wall fills you with rage at other people stealing credit for ‘your’ ideas?”

For some reason the awkward silence was back as I stared up at him in consideration.
His mouth had dropped open in a weird way that left me wanting to calculate the angles involved to see if they were entirely possible on a normal human body or not.

“Um... I think I see what’s got you so worried now Sarah?”
He turned his head and the fact that he felt the need to speak annoyed me because it ruined the lines I’d been busy calculating in my head.

With an angry growl I reached up, snagged his cheeks in my hand and turned his face back into position without a second thought.

When that didn’t work I huffed loudly to myself and forced myself up onto my tip-toes before pulling his face closer with a hard yank so our lips could collide.
He made some weird noises of surprise but they were irrelevant at the moment because I was rather busy using my tongue to reposition his mouth into the appropriate shape, which his annoying lips didn’t seem to want to take up again for some reason.

In the end after about thirty-seconds of battle we reached a relatively acceptable compromise which, while not as wide and open as before, was formed in a similar shape to what I needed to finish my calculations at last if I factored in the changes inherent in a re-test of this kind.

With a jerk I pulled us apart and settled back on my feet properly so I could get to work memorising his mouth for study before he messes it up again.
It took a few seconds but I eventually realised that my hand on his cheeks would skew my result so, after a squeeze or two to test the elasticity of his skin for future reference, I fixed him with another glare before letting go with a sharp tug of my arm.

“Stay!”
He didn’t listen obviously because he’s John and he’s a jerk like that sometimes but luckily all his uncooperative mouth did was fall open slightly more which could actually work to my advantage as I work on my hurried calculations.

“Still think she’s just a little stir-crazy from being shut up alone in here for a few months John-boy?”
Sarah’s amused but still obviously worried and more than a little annoyed question distracted both me and John at a crucial moment, making both my train of thought, my completed calculations and the reasoning behind them crumble like sand through my mental-fingers all in one foul move.

======

“What were we talking about?... and what happened to my wall?!”
Sarah groaned loudly for some reason, bringing a hand up to her face in a universal sign of disbelief often called a ‘face-palm’, meanwhile John stared at me like I’d grown a second head for a few seconds before his eyes shifted down into angry little slits and he took a step towards me.

Instinct screamed in my head to run away but I was slow to react and in a matter of moments he had me secured to a surprisingly well-conjured chair by equally well-conjured leather straps while Sarah watched over me like a guard-dog and he carefully stepped around the room looking over my previous projects with an assessing eye.

“Are we having a peer review session? I’ve never had one of those before, I hear they’re annoying usually but- Wouldn’t touch that if I were you John-boy! -but I’m always interested in trying new things. Variety is the spice of life and life is a spice that spices the spic...e... um, what was I saying?”
Sarah knelt down at my side so that we were practically on eye-level again and let out a long gusty sigh of discontent.

“I honestly don’t know Han. I have no idea what you were trying to explain or what’s going on with you right now but we’re here to help you so just sit back and try to relax, okay?”
My head cocked to the side in confusion as I scanned the area around me for some kind of social cue on how to respond without upsetting her again.
“Jesus Han, what the hell have you done to yourself?”
Ah! I know this one!

A bright smile split my face and I stared into Sarah’s eyes with all the joyful banality I could manage.
She stared at me in shock for a moment or two for some reason before turning away to glare at John’s slowly approaching back.

“Speed it up John-boy, she’s not getting any better!”

“Well, I’m TRYING to be quick about it but this place is a mess, how the hell do you expect me to find out what’s wrong with her, let alone fix it, when I can’t even tell where an inactive doomsday weapon ends and an enchanted toaster begins thanks to them apparently being one-and-the-same item?!”
My eyes cut between the two of them and another social cue became obvious.

I giggled to myself obnoxiously, breaking the tension nicely as they both turned, once angry but now worried, eyes toward me at last.

“Want me to give you a Tour?”
John’s eyes practically glowed at the airy tone of my voice but instead of lashing out at me in frustration he took a deep breath in before plastering an almost painfully fake smile on his lips instead.

“That would be lovely Han, what’s this thing here do?”
Despite his insincerity I cocked my head to the other side and hummed to myself thoughtfully for a moment or two before answering him anyway.

“That’s the prototype communication unit I made to go along with the satellite.”
Yet another long awkward pause stretched out around us as the pair of them tried to process that idea, three awkward pauses since they got here, I never had this problem when it was just me!

“Satellite?... no, wait, nevermind..”

“Why does it have a sixteen-inch long blade sticking out the front of it that’s glowing yellow if it’s a communicat-”
John glared at Sarah until she stopped talking.

With a heavy breath he stepped over to the next item on the desk in front of him and waved towards it while fixing me with that same, painfully fake, smile of encouragement.
I shifted my head over to my other shoulder again and hummed happily to myself.

This peer-review thing is actually quite fun?
Bitey never had such interesting reactions so obviously on his face when I showed HIM my finished projects, even that one time I accidentally got googly-eyes stuck to him and he spent the day rolling them at me angrily..
“THAT is my auntie-matter recalibration stone!”

“Don’t you mean ‘anti-matter’?”
I rolled my head over to stare at Sarah thoughtfully and a grin split my lips slowly at her nativity.
After a few seconds she shuddered in response for some reason.

Honestly, she really needs to think things through properly sometimes.
What else would you name a stone which can flip someone’s biological gender through several concentrated blood magic rune arrays and an unhealthy dose of liquidised Aconitum injected straight into their heart, when you have an ‘Auntie’ who needs her ‘matter’ recalibrated by it and happened to be the one that inspired its creation in the first place?

“Let’s try to keep things simple and not question what she says until we come to a possible answer on why she’s like this, shall we?”
With that almost growled statement, hidden as a request, John snapped his fingers to get my attention again and purposefully took one step forward before waving to the next item on display.

This is almost like some kind of game, isn’t it?
I LOVE games!

======

“-and this one is?”
Before I could answer him on what the vials on my desk contain, Sarah let out a gasp of surprise and slapped her hand to her mouth in horror.

“She drank one of those vials before she started going insane John! That must be it, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner, everything’s just been so overwhelming and... and..”
John didn’t really answer one way or another on that point, unless you count annoyed growling under his breath as words at least, but either way he turned away from Sarah to focus on me instead.

“What’s in the vials Han?”

I slowly blinked my eyes at him in boredom.
This game got boring ages ago, they shot down my suggestion that we play something else already and now he’s glaring at me while asking the questions too..

“Guess!”
John’s head sank down into his hands with a frustrated groan, mirrored shortly afterwards by Sarah on my other side as my eyes took both of their reactions in with great attention.
I like this new game, new reactions from them, new things to study and do, new things and new things, new things, new th, new, new new-

Eventually the running chain of fractured repetition stopped of its own accord but that didn’t stop me from cutting my eyes down to ‘Righty’ who, for the first time ever, had failed to slap me out of a bad verbal tick and deserved the angry glare on my face for it in return.

“Traitor!”
The now apparently useless appendage in question went limp against the chair in a show of submission that you tend to see a lot in pet’s that have failed their masters as I glared down at him, meanwhile ‘Lefty’ amused himself by twisting in the leather restraints enough that he could face his twin and flip him off in a sign of utter amusement no-doubt.
“How do you two handle this sort of thing, are there training schools for hands somewhere or something to make them behave properly?”

For the fourth time since they got here, we all fell into a long awkward silence, much to my frustration. I can’t believe I’m actually starting to miss being alone, tired, hungry and utterly depressed?
Oh... looks like the potions wearing off again..

It’s always obvious when I start remembering why I remember feeling the way I do about remembering the things that I don’t remember that I do want to remember, remember, remember, remember, member, member, member-

DAMN IT!

“Say, John, bestest of the best man-bestys ever. Don’t suppose you can toss me one of those vials from the desk real quick can you?”
He actually had the gall to look at me as if I was the crazy one, when HE’S the one who’s got me strapped to a chair playing guessing games inside my realm, as if I can’t just command the world around us to break me free anyway!
“I’m asking nicely here John, give me a vial before I stop asking nicely, okay?”

He took a step back away from me and I growled low in my throat as his eyes cut nervously from me to Sarah for a second.

He’s gonna do something stupid!
That’s his ‘I’m gonna do something stupid’ face.
That’s the face he wears when he knows he’s about to be an idiot but can’t stop himself anyway because he’s a bloody idiot!

“John... whatever you’re planning... don’t.”
His eyes cut around him one more time before, with a wild lunge, he snagged up all four of the remaining vials from their holder and sprinted over to grab Sarah around the waist.

She barely managed to let out a surprised squeak before, with a flash of blue light, they both vanished in a warp of some description.
For a painfully long few seconds I sat there in stunned disbelief.

Tha... that utter BASTARD! He stole my potion?!

He stole my bloody potion and he left me strapped to a chair that I’m not COMPLETELY sure I have enough mental-fortitude to get myself free from at this exact moment, despite my self-contained bluster a few moments ago!

How the hell do I get out of this thing?
Cheating?... yeah, cheating sounds about right at the moment!

“You’ll pay for this John-boy... oh, You. Will. PAY!”

Potions, as with most things, rarely improve once past their sell-by-date apparently. Even if it is a very pretty green potion, potion, -otion, -otion... You know, I think the effects might actually be getting worse? Events unfold including but not limited to: Chairs being forgotten, along with many other things. John's trying to do... something?... And Sarah gets a temperature controlled fashion upgrade!

 

The wall to my left exploded outwards for the second time today.
For a few moments I stared at it thoughtfully before turning back to the wardstone in my hands instead, it’s only John after all...

“You fixed the wall?”
After a moment’s pause to make sure he was talking to me I let off a huff and dropped the stone back on my desk while turning to face him with a mildly frustrated frown.

“And you broke it again, color me surprised... asshole...”

John let off a huff of his own and slowly made his way into the room as if he expected some trap or something to be sprung just by his presence.
I’m not entirely sure why but if he wants to act like a fool then let him, I’ve got more important things to focus on at the moment.

“I thought the chair would hold you for longer than that?”
My hands hesitated, half-way back towards the wardstone I’d been working on before his first interruption about an hour ago.

I can’t really remember what happened between those two points very well, side effect of the potion I guess, but I’m clear now and able to work again so why does he have to bother me so much?

“I own this space John, there’s nothing I can’t do in here if I try.”
It’s a good enough explanation as any.

I’m pretty sure whatever I did to get from the chair he mentioned to my desk probably involved the magic of my realm in some way or another, it’s not like I could use my core for anything at the moment anyway so it’s pretty much the only option left on offer.

My eyes flickered over to the once-again broken wall as Sarah carefully stepped her way through the opening and offered me a nervous smile.
Something in my chest ‘thumped’ heavily for some reason but I turned away from her quickly to ignore the annoyance in favor of working, working, working, -rking, -ing-
DAMN IT!

Focus, stop letting your stupid body with it’s stupid reactions and stupid faults control you Hannah or else I’ll... I’ll... uh?... what was I saying?

======

With a twitch my head shot up to stare at the two invaders inside my workshop.

Why are they here? John’s probably just hanging around, he does that sometimes, but Sarah wouldn’t be here unless...
AH HAH! It must be testing day at last!

A wide smile practically split my face and I jumped off my chair in a flurry of activity and with a sweeping gesture I moved past them both, snagging Sarah’s wrist in my hand to tug her along behind me.

What’s taking her so long? We’ve got toys to test out!

“Hurry up Sare, daylight would be burning if I could see daylight right now!”
She shot a nervous look over at John for some reason but slowly fell into step behind me after a few seconds of hesitation.

In the time it took for her to get her ass in gear my eyes had drifted slightly and with a thought the flat white roof of my lab folded away to reveal clear quartz with a bright, sun-filled blue sky above it for all to see.

I couldn’t help but smile happily as the rays hit my face, I’d almost forgotten what the warm sun feels like.

I wonder if the test bench over there could be used for sunbathing if I take the metal thingy off of it?
Oh well, something to do later at least, at the moment there’s more important things to do, like finally testing something properly at last!

“Have you eaten anything pork based in the last twelve-hours Sare?”
She looked at me like I’m crazy or something, which was both highly offensive and more than a little annoying at this point.
“I had to resort to using Hebrew for the cold protection runes on the suit because-”

Why did I have to resort to Hebrew again?
There must have been a reason, something about barking dogs and ‘Coke-la-vim’ or something, I think?
URG! Too many ‘somethings’ again!

“Are you okay Han?”

“Never better! Testing time, testing, testing, testing, -ting, -ing-”
A gasp ripped itself from my lips as I ran out of air which helped break me out of yet another annoying bout of that weird verbal tick thing that keeps happening.
“I’ve got a suit for you to try on!”
The look she gave me could charitably be called ‘skeptical’ at best but that’s also irrelevant.
The suit needs testing and she needs it too, she just doesn’t know she needs it yet, but she will!

The wall’s in front of us folded away with a thought from me and my second, storage workshop expanded outwards as its roof rolled back to show the same quartz that now sits above my main workshop letting that nice sunlight come pouring in.

Why didn’t I think to set that up before?... The sun feels really nice...

We came to a jerking stop in front of the matrix-encoding knitting machine thingy that I never really got around to naming properly.
It’s the thing that you put the thing and the thing into to make the thing make a suit, why would something THAT simple need a name for Powers-sake?!

With a deft flick I switched hands grasping Sarah’s wrist and used my now free Righty-hand to grab up the bundle of soft, stretchable black material with Sarah’s name stitched on the back of it.

My thumb ran itself over the material a few times just because it felt nice and a little hum slipped out of my lips before I could stop it but that quickly passed; allowing me to turn back to the important matters instead.

“Put this on!”

Sarah looked at me like I was crazy for a few seconds.
When it became obvious that she wasn’t going to take the suit from me I growled low in my throat and dropped her wrist to focus on the room around me instead.

It’s testing day! Why is she being so annoying and stubborn on testing day of all days, days, days,-ays, a’s, a’s?

======

Uh... What was I doing?
Oh! Sarah, the suit!

“I can’t believe you’re finally here to try it out properly!”
My grin seemed to make Sarah a bit uneasy for some reason?
It could have been the little bouncing motion I did when she looked at the suit in my hands too I guess, but my money’s on the grin.

Stupid Arista face!

“Well? Come on! You don’t have to strip or anything, I thought of that part already, you just gotta put it on over your clothes.”
She still looked at me weirdly for a few seconds before glancing back towards my workshop where John appeared to be slowly making his way towards us with careful steps.
“Don’t worry, it’s REALLY baggy! It’s easier to produce with the runes on it in large scale anyway.”

An awkward silence fell between us all with John moving ever closer like a Predator stalking a particularly jumpy deer of some kind and Sarah looking progressively more desperate for some reason.

“What’s the suit do Han? Has it been tested before?”
Sarah let out a nearly explosive breath of relief when John finally spoke up.

My eyes cut over to him automatically and my face scrunched up in annoyance.
Of course I’ve tested it!

What kind of amateur does he think I AM?!
I’ve got one of my own already and it’s not given me any problems at all in weeks, since that unfortunate incident with the vocal-control rune being a bit too sensitive when I was working on the dagger prototype at least.

John must have seen the expression on my face for what it was.
Either that or he read my mind somehow... or, maybe I said all that out-loud?...

Who knows? Not important anyway!

“Put the suit on Sarah.”
She jerked around to glare at him and a whole conversation played out on their faces in some weird dialect of twin-speak I don’t completely recognise.

Whatever they said, it ended abruptly with a head-nod from John towards me and a reluctant huff from Sarah before she snagged the suit with her name on it from my hand and shook it out to find the opening at the back easier.

I watched on with avid fascination as she carefully slipped one foot into each equally spacious leg of the black jump-suit and pulled the top part up to slip her arms inside.

When she had it on as much as possible I gestured for her to turn around with a giggle and quickly pulled seam, using the in-built nature of the seam’s runes to seal the suit shut right up to her neck.

“Okay Han, she’s got the suit on, now... what does it do?”
My hands kept themselves busy checking each junction point and wiping ambient magic across the practically invisible seams of the suit to activate the rune clusters centered around them, but it wasn’t such a hard task that I couldn’t answer him on that one at least.

“Thermal protection, heat and cold, it’s also a magical regulation system working as a secondary magical focus in its own right... like a wand, but not crap...”
Plus all the other junk built into it, of course, those important parts barely took up a space from the left shin to knee on this thing by the time I’d worked out how to make it in the first place after all.

The suits are important, and the faster I can get them both into them the better for everyone involved because... because...

Why am I doing this again?
Something, something... a lot of something’s but something specific, something to avoid yet protect at the same time, what is it that I- AAH!

The world around me exploded for a moment and like a cresting wave, memories that I’d practically forgotten thanks to the power of my little clarity potions crashed down upon me with all of the raw, unfiltered emotions attached to them that I could imagine.

Mum, being frozen solid before shattering into tiny fine particles of snow.
Edith’s wrinkled old face frozen, stone-cold in a huddled pose within the crater of Wizard Island.

Seconds later the world was back around me and I collapsed to the floor with a gasp of air.

“HANNAH!”
Two people screamed my name at the same time, one moving to help me despite the silly looking black onesie she had on and the other almost dropping whatever he’s got tucked behind his back in his rush to reach me.

My eyes fixed on the panicked face of my sister, my Sarah, and nothing else mattered anymore.
Not my fear, not my worries, not even the burning pain in my chest from my cores latest attempt to tear itself violently apart in response to my emotional distress.
All that matters is Sarah and that suit!

“...Must be prepared, must be safe...”
Sarah reached me in practically record time and hugged me tightly to herself like I’d fall to pieces if she didn’t.
“Be prepared Sarah.”

“Be prepared? Han, what are you saying?”
She shook me a little in her arms but it didn’t help the frustration building inside me at her ignorance.

She’s so slow! She’s always been slow, my slow Sarah...

“Han, breathe, okay? Breathe, come on Han.”
Her hand came up to slap my back harshly and with an explosive gasp of air that I hadn’t realised I was holding in, I lunged forward to slap my hand to her chest forcefully.

“Alice is bad!”
The voice activation spoken and my job done at last I sank into Sarah’s arms in relief.
At least she’s safe now, all I have to do is get John and Eris into their suits before I can finally stop all this insanity...

“Oww! Han, what the hell?”
...iN-saNity?...

Gah! I must have gone too long without my potion while strapped to that chair!
My backup batch I had to dip into must be a bit out-of-date too, I can’t even remember the last time I thought to replace it so the effects obviously aren’t quite what they should be and-
...Insanity...
How can I call all my w-work, ‘insanity’?!

My heads not w-w-working right and I’m acting irrationally, thinking too much, feeling too much, doing too much an-and...

“You okay?”
John leaned down between us but despite me opening my mouth to answer him, his eyes were on Sarah, not me.

When did they become friends?
They have their own form of twin-speak, and now he’s more worried about her welfare then mine!

“This is padded or something, but even so- Oh God, what's happening?!”
The suit shook a few times, vibrating its contents as it went, and before either of them could react properly it exploded into action.

Long draping sleeves flapping wildly and the legs inflating for the moment or two it took for the internal diagnostics to take effect before turning all her clothing beneath the suit into their constituent parts and storing them away in several rather tricky sets of transmogrification spells triggered by those same, ever so useful, spell storage rune-sets John came up with, for later use.

I worked out that, THAT little trick would be necessary to stop them from interfering with the process to come the first time I put my suit on weeks ago!

The moment that every last item on her person had finally disappeared was pretty obvious to anyone watching because, with a hiss of escaping air from the back of her neck, the whole suit grew taut and promptly shank from an almost spherical, at this point, bubble suit to a skin tight model that looked a thousand-times better in my opinion.

I couldn’t help but let off a relieved laugh of victory as the last few steps took place and magic rolled visibly across the suit on her skin in an array of elements until the suit regurgitated her clothing in a surprisingly smooth set of external transmogrifications to recreate her clothing from their stored parts before the suit promptly disappeared from existence as far as anyone watching it would be concerned.

The suits not really ‘gone’, it’s just invisible and practically intangible, John’s little trick with the self-sustaining runes having been refined by someone who actually knows what they’re doing for once in this perfect application of it in action, which is only mildly more impressive than the other ‘spell-runes’ it took for us to reach this point in the process.

“Success! Protection from heat and cold, no-one can freeze you alive in this thing for sure... Hell, if my math is right you could go to space for all it matters with a few minor precautions and some form of thrust device.”
I grinned proudly at the pair of them as Sarah slowly came down from her growing panic attack and John let out a gusty breath, obviously realising that Sarah was never in any danger to start with an-

...Oww?...

“Frozen alive? SPACE?! Han, what the hell are you-”
Sarah spun on the spot in her crouched position at my side and swung out her arm to slap my shoulder with painful force again just because she could.

“Did I say frozen, who said frozen? Sorry, not sure where my mind went for a second there.”
The pair of them stared at me in disbelief as the memories surged forth again and my eye twitched a little from the effort it took to hold them back once more.

In the end all I managed to do was give off a slightly awkward, off-key laugh for them by way of reassurance this time but it was weak at best honestly and I doubt even I’d be convinced by it given the circumstances.

I need another dose of my Potion damn it, and fast!
This isn’t good, and to make it worse Sarah’s got me practically pinned under her much larger size at the moment as they-

“Okay, where are they?”
My thought processes stumbled to a halt as my eyes drifted up to John’s suddenly stern face in confusion.
“Don’t give me that look Hannah, you’ve obviously got some secondary source of the stimulant potion you’ve been abusing to a stupid degree and it’s obvious that, even by your own messed up definition of ‘sanity’ at the moment, this new load of the potion is defective in some way from your actions alone.”

My eyes glazed over slightly as he spoke, too many words, too fast...
My head hurts and it’s only getting worse at the moment thanks to my ever-growing need for more potion!

“I don’t know what your-”
I trailed off mid-sentence as John turned sharply away from me and stormed off towards my main workshop rather abruptly.

It wasn’t really an intentional thing but my eyes had cut across the length of my now connected workshop areas to stare at the cupboard with my potions supplies stored safely inside it as my brain tried to catch up with his words at a horribly slow pace.

Judging by the speed he was moving at and the direction he was taking, the sneaky bastard must have seen my unintentional tell because he zeroed in on the cupboard with barely a moment’s hesitation.

The doors flew open and he chose THAT moment to hesitate, much to my frustration.
I kicked my legs in a vague attempt to get free from Sarah’s bulk but if anything all that did was make her tighten her grip on me, which is highly counter-productive in my book!

“...What have you done Han?...”
John turned around and the horrified look on his face would be rather worrying if I wasn’t so focused on finding another way to break free from my annoyingly clingy sister instead.

“Ayahuasca, Betel nut, Hericium mushrooms, Jimsonweed... Erythorxylum Coca!”
He shook his head in disbelief at my rather nonplussed reaction to his yelling tone and glanced back at the cupboard full of raw materials I keep piled around my reserve stash of completed potions before looking back at me with wide, almost frightened looking eyes.
“Powers, are you TRYING to kill yourself? Coca, Han, pure unprocessed alkaloid cocaine!”

Sarah gasped from above me but I ignored that in favor of focusing on John this time.
It’s become perfectly clear to me that I’m not going to get out of Sarah’s grasp until she LETS me go sadly...

“It’s all balanced John.”
I made sure of that when I made the potions to start with, everything’s balanced, for every cancer causing Ayahuasca root I threw in a cancer fighting Hericium Americanum stem for Powers sake!

“How the HELL do you know if it’s balanced or not?! You’ve NEVER been good at potions!”

Well... he kinda has a point there?... I’VE never been good at potions personally.
I never had a chance to learn about them honestly, mostly because it’s such a dying skill that even Edith never bothered to deal in them generally and ingredients are becoming a bit rarer as time goes on with the world becoming more industrialised.

That doesn’t mean ARISTA didn’t know centuries worth of information on the topic which I JUST so happened to steal from her when I dived into her section of my mind in search for her worst nightmares, along with a load of other skills and knowledge which I’ve abused to unbelievable levels when working on everything from the new safety suits I designed to protect us all, to practically all of my gadgets and tools that I’ve been making over the last few months.

John nailed it on the head a while ago when describing Arista in general, she knew a LOT of things, but she just had NO imagination for using the things she knew in an ‘outside the box’ way!

When you get your head around the basics of it all, like the plant reaction tables and which ingredients are likely to explode when mixed with which other ones under a new Moon, then Potions is practically just Applied-Sympathetic Magic with a rather fun level of challenge added into the mix from how many variables are involved ranging from ingredient potency to age of the plants involved and even just simple things like the current room temperature!

“My rune-covered distillery is in the cupboard two desks over from your left, the rest of my ingredients are in the cupboard on your right. I know what I’m doing and I NEED that potion John!”

He glared at me harshly and I flexed my arms slightly in an attempt to grab him from across the room somehow in my frustration, but Sarah was ready for me apparently because she barely even twitched as she wrestled my admittedly weak escape attempt back into nothingness.

“Grief, emotional distress, nightmares and a damaged, unstable, core... you tell me John! You tell me RIGHT now to my fucking face, that I don’t need an emotional suppressant in order to avoid doing something stupid which could, at best, kill me and at worst kill everyone around me!”

Mages and intense emotions don’t mix well, that’s always been something useful to keep in mind.
When I first learnt how to use my magic, just having a loud noise happen near me was enough to have me setting fire to things instinctively.

That was several long years ago with an awakening and possibly thousands of stolen cores being hammered into my own core in a truly horrifying way added into the mix to boot.
Me lacking emotional or magical control in the old days was bad but a few first-degree burns a week is NOTHING when compared to the kind of damage I could do right now if my magic decides to go crazy again!

It’s enough of a struggle at the moment just keeping myself relatively calm despite the memories trying to batter their way back into my head and John’s current angry glare.

“I need one of those potions John... I need it, please?”
His eyes tightened down in rage and all I could do was wince as tears formed in the corner of my eye from desperation.
“Please John? Take samples, find a better solution, HELP ME!... I don’t care, jus-just give me some more potion before I hurt someone by accident...”

I didn’t need to flick my eyes towards Sarah’s position at my side but it happened anyway, much to my frustration, and John seemed to accept my logic thanks to that small action alone if I’m any judge of his facial expressions at least.

He hesitated for a moment or two longer, fixing me with a rather intense stare which was only made more intimidating by my currently restrained position and the slight blur to him where the tears in my eyes were gathering awkwardly at the edges of my vision, but eventually he turned back towards the cupboard and snatched up one of the vials full of green goo inside with an angry huff.

“I’ll need two doses John, I’m too sober and that batch has gone off, so its effects are weaker.”
He froze in his crouched position, slowly letting off a frustrated breath through his teeth before reaching in to snag a second vial as he started to stand up again.

“You can’t be serious John?!”
I grunted in mild pain when Sarah’s arms tensed around me as she called out in confused anger at him.
“We can’t give her any more of that crap! Look what it’s done to her?!”

John paused in his slow walk towards us and his fist tightened slightly around the vials in his hand as he obviously forced himself to keep moving despite his misgivings.

“She’s right Sarah, she was out of her mind before but she’s clear at the moment and she’s right.”
His free hand came up to brush through his hair like he always does when he’s upset but he carried on speaking anyway after a brief pause.
“We’ll have to find another way to fix this, I can’t risk things going wrong at the moment if it will hurt either you or her... she’d never forgive me if I did...”

Sarah shifted uncomfortably as if she wanted to pull me away from John when he stepped closer to us and knelt down at my side, she didn’t actually pull away though, the serious look on John’s face and the determination in his voice apparently being enough of a shock for her to stall her protective instincts for a few crucial moments luckily.

He put his free hand under my chin and tilted my head up so that our eyes could meet in an intense stare off which said more than words ever could between us.

He doesn’t like this; he hates it in fact...

He’s angry at me for making him do this.
He’s angry at himself for not getting here sooner and probably even for letting me escape into my realm in the first place all those months ago.

The biggest thing I could feel burning in those sharp blue eyes of his though was the pain this was causing him.

He knows that this potion isn’t right, he knows that it’s a trade-off which hurts me both physically and mentally in order to protect myself and the world at large from the even worse potential consequences of my messed up emotional state and magic in general... but that’s not much of a comfort at this point sadly...

“Thank you John.”
He winced and looked away from me before huffing out another breath and turning back again, his thumb flicking the cork off the end of the first vial in his hand.

“Don’t thank me for this Han, I’ll find a solution quickly and fix this mess for you, I promise.”
Gently he pushed my head slightly further back and poured the foul tasting liquid down my throat in one go before tossing the vial away in frustration and moving on to the next vial in his too-tight fist.

The potion was already going to work, not quite as powerfully as it should but I could feel the effects and the almost euphoric feeling of empty-ness taking over my mind already.
A limp smile formed on my lips as I let my head droop slightly further into his warm palm.

“I know you will John-boy, what’s a Moriarty without his Holmes, huh?”
A giggle pulled itself past my lips but that died away pretty quickly as the humor of the statement I’d just made fled from my brain with another wave of potion-influenced haze leaving the whole thing as an almost abstract statement of fact in my mind.

John huffed heavily to himself before flicking the cork off the second vial and quickly forcing it down my throat.
The moment its contents had finally disappeared into my mouth he let off an angry yell and threw the vial across the room where it shattered with a sharp crack of sound.

For a few more seconds my gaze focused on the wall it had struck, but then the potion kicked in properly at last and my eyes rolled back in my skull, pulling a gasp of pain from my lips as my limbs tensed up under Sarah’s tight grip.

======

“You can let her up now Sarah, she’s safe... just-”
The weight on top of me eased off slightly as John trailed off almost uncertainly, as if he didn’t even want to consider what the end of that sentence should be.

I can’t remember why he’d be acting so oddly but it probably doesn’t matter anyway, John’s kinda boring like that sometimes!

“Why are we cuddling on the floor Sare?”
Sarah slipped away from me completely and stood up again with help from John, leaving me to roll onto my belly with an appropriately light-hearted sounding giggle of mirth.

Neither of them appeared to be happier, despite my giggle and the wide smile on my face, so after a few seconds of more intense smiling in the hope of getting a better result without much success I changed tactics, pulling my face down into a frown to show them both that they were being unreasonably difficult for once as I went.

“What day is it? Why are you both here?”
The calm, reasonable tone to my voice mixed with what I think was an intense look of concentration happened to be moderately more successful in getting a positive reaction from them at least.

John let out a long breath and stepped away from us to go over towards an open cupboard in my main workshop for some reason while Sarah let out a heavy sniff for some equally confusing reason as she reached out to pull me into an unreasonably tight hug which I returned with another socially acceptable giggle of reassurance.

“Sarah, keep her calm and keep her talking if you can. If she starts coming down again and requests another potion then let her have it but try to distract her as long as possible first, I’m going to take these samples and go work on the ‘Koo-ya-ore’, okay?”

I cocked my head to the side in confusion as he slowly spelt out some weird nonsense-word to Sarah that I’d never heard before, mid-speech, as if it was a perfectly normal thing to do, with his eyes flicking between us worriedly a few times and his eyebrows raised to convey some kind of greater meaning.

In seconds my mind set to work dissecting it and as he left the room through a mysteriously appearing hole that seems to have been blown in my wall from somewhere, clutching some of my potion vials in his hands, I shifted focus onto trying to pin-point the ‘word’ he said and it’s country of origin instead in the hope of finding a better starting point if nothing else.

‘Koo-ya-ore’... It sounds vaguely Asian?
Japanese to be specific, although it could also have been some form of ancient mandarin considering my admittedly rather lacking knowledge when it comes to Asian languages in general outside of the few vaguely memorable incarnations I had in the region that I can’t quite get a grasp on at the moment for some reason.

“Han?”
My eyes drifted over to Sarah thoughtfully but my mind was still kind of busy spinning around that strange Asian word and its possible meanings.

For a moment I considered asking her if she had any idea what it could mean but that idea was quickly dismissed too because... well, Sarah’s not exactly an expert on languages to start with and asking her might be a bit insulting when we both know she’ll be clueless about the whole thing, wouldn’t it?

Maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way?

I need to find homophones for it from the languages I actually know instead!
If I can find words that SOUND like the one he used, then trace that words history back, maybe I’ll find a common ancestor somewhere along the same lines which can give me a hint of some sort.

The only word I can think of that sounds like ‘Koo-ya-ore’ at the moment though is the Zulu word for ‘I love you’, ‘ngiyakuthanda’ but even that’s a bit of a stretch at best and it wouldn’t make sense in the context John used it unless... unless?...

“Sare, are you and John dating now?”
Sarah flinched and almost seemed to turn physically green for a moment or two, despite the bright blush that formed on her check moments later in a rather interesting display of odd bodily reactions to a minor external stimulus that had me staring at her progressively paler face with renewed interest, -terest, t’rest, rest...

======

By the time she opened her mouth to assuage my curiosity I’d kind of forgotten what I asked her initially, which was slightly annoying for me obviously but not completely unexpected.
I’ve gotten good at dealing with this sort of thing lately though, you just have to power on through the frustration until you work out what you missed is all!

With that thought in mind I snagging her wrist up with a tug, cutting her response short into more of a surprised yelp honestly, but at least it got us moving further off into my workshop in the process.

I don’t know why she’s here but I bet she’ll be impressed if I show her my stuff!
Hopefully she doesn’t get jealous or anything, if she does then I can show her that suit thingy I made for her to calm her down instead!

Wait... where did I put that suit thingy anyway?...
Ah, nevermind! It’ll turn up eventually I’m sure.

More importantly I’ve got some cool stuff to show Sarah that she’s just gonna LOVE, I’m sure of it!

Now what workshop did I last have the-
Number Six maybe?... or was it Number Twelve?

Sometimes I really wish workshops came with some kind of in-built filling system!

One step forward, two steps back followed by an all-out sprint. The path back to reality can be, ironically, a bit surreal sometimes it seems? The trick is to not get lost along the way due to distractions... ...Hannah, honey, that's your cue?... Events unfold including but not limited to: Hannah showing off, John being missing-presumed 'busy', and Sarah getting obsessed with a stupid bloody wall!

 

“Han slow down, where are we even going?!”
With a frustrated growl I tugged her along behind me.

Despite her apparent need to complain about everything she didn’t actually use her overwhelming strength advantage over me to stop our forward momentum, so she’s obviously just moaning to be annoying, which I REALLY don’t need at the moment because I can’t find the workshop I was looking for and I can’t remember why I wanted to find the workshop, or what workshop I wanted or.. or.. um?..

======

We came to a halt in the middle of one of the more poorly lit workshops that we apparently made our way into somehow along the way and with a thought the roof rolled back to show a delightfully transparent quartz ceiling with bright sunlight past that, which really helped make the workshop look nicer, at least in my opinion.

“Why are we in workshop seventeen, Sare?”
My sister seemed to almost let off some kind of relieved huff in the few seconds it took for her to finally catch up to my side like a particularly slow puppy.

I don’t know why but Sarah’s been acting really odd lately?
It’s like she isn’t sure what’s going on or something, disorientated, that’s the word I was looking for!

While I waited for her to gather her wits together my eyes cut around the workshop.
One of my more boring storage spaces compared to the others I’ve needed to create over the last few months sadly.
A heavy sigh forced its way past my lips in frustration.

My potion’s running low again, I don’t know where the times gone, last thing I remember I’d downed two vials of the stupid green goo that keeps me lucid enough to be safe and I really doubt we’ve been doing... whatever we’ve been doing?... for THAT long at all.

“Huh?... so that’s where I left my Voodoo dolls...”
Without a thought I let Sarah’s hand slip from mine as I made my way over to the still strong smelling little figurines to give them a proper look over.

I can’t quite remember how far I got while working on them before they disappeared, apparently having been accidentally left on one of the desks in here through my travels.

It surprised the hell out of me when I first found Arista’s, beyond secret, stash of illegal drugs and ingredients tucked away in a heavily enchanted set of grow-beds.
She had them running pretty much autonomously inside a rather large room within the realm, one of several that I happened to leave disconnected from the main hallways while reshuffling everything around initially because no-one had been there in centuries.

Along with her apparent drug farm, a few other more useful places like her raw materials stash, enchanted objects stash and her own workshop which, to this day, I’ve been too scared to enter due to how much dangerously uncontrolled magic practically rolls out of its door when I come close, there’s an amazing amount of unsorted storage space just sitting in the void of my realm that I haven’t honestly had the interest or concentration available to deal with lately.

My thumb ran over the little thread of blood soaked material tied into a cord like bundle with some recognisable hair, obviously taken from my own head, which stuck out of the chest of the first hemp doll, thoughtfully as I assessed my own work with fresh eyes.

As things go, I seem to have done a pretty good job surprisingly?
I’ve seen worse before at least and from what I can see the slips of paper tucked into each limb of the doll with Mongolian, the native language of the first people to cultivate the so called ‘weed of dreams’ that I probably used to help with my spells potency when I use them, seem to be all in order.

With a bit of poking I managed to get a better feel on the most important one within the dolls head, sealed with resin from the same cannabis plants used to make the dolls themselves and marked with an Ankh to show who crafted it.

I really need to work on making my own symbol at some point...

Don’t get me wrong, I like the ones I use regularly, the Ankh, Wicca star and Yin-Yang symbols that were used on my suppressors thanks to Edith’s forward thinking, but when you really get into sympathetic magic and run out of cheap tricks to boost your power like I’ve found myself doing lately then your only option left for a power boost is to start refining things better.

Having my own ‘symbol’, preferably one built from the same elements that I’ve used in the past, could potentially give me an edge the next time I match wits with someone who knows sympathetic magic just as well as I do.

I know that technically the only person who could manage that would be Arista herself and she’s gone now but... but in my nightmares she’s still here?
I don’t know if that says something or not, but I’m definitely not taking chances on this one.

If that parasitic bitch decides to somehow come back, just to spite me probably, then I’m going to be bloody READY for her this time!
I swear on my stupid broken core that I’ll be ready!

The second doll needs a bit of tweaking, I must have gotten a bit distracted at the time, I’ll have to sort it out before I try using them on any kind of defensive spell just in case the-

======

“HANNAH!”
My head swayed to the side instinctively to move away from Sarah’s loud, angry yell right next to my poor ear.

“What’s wrong Sare?”
Her chest was raising and falling rapidly for some reason as she glared at me with her hands clenched into tight little balls.
“Are you okay? You look really upset for som-”

“Am I okay? Am I OKAY! Are you bloody okay?!”
Her fingers twitched slightly as if she wanted to reach out and strangle me but she quickly pulled them back into those same painfully tight looking fists at her side instead.
“You went dead still and stopped answering me for over three minutes! Those stupid dolls you were holding are pulsing with magic and I didn’t have any idea if they’d done something to you or... or...”

Without warning her words trailed off and her lips trembled a few times before she surged forwards and pulled me into a tight hug instead of finishing what she was going to say.

I felt a bit confused over her odd reaction at first but after a few seconds pause I relaxed into her hug and looped my arms around her to hold her awkwardly as she shook in what could be rage, happiness or just suppressed tears in general for all I know at this point.
I really need to start paying more attention to this sort of thing.

I’m out of practice dealing with people sadly and that’s a skill I’ve probably taken for granted too much in the past honestly.

Slowly Sarah’s shoulders loosened up and her shaking reached a point where I felt safe pulling back to stare at her gently.
She offered me an awkward, slightly apologetic smile in return which I took as an encouragement to move on with what my instincts insisted was the right thing to help Sarah calm down a bit better.

“Wanna see something really cool Sare?”
Her smile twitched up a little bit more at my enthusiasm which was all the encouragement I needed to keep going at this point.

Although, to be fair, it’s not like I need much of a push to show off some of my new toys in reality.
I AM kinda proud of them after all!

“This way Sare, keep up!”
A playful giggle rolled past my lips which made her smile widen just a little bit more.

This is going to be fun, I can’t wait to see her reaction to my biggest completed project to date!

======

After a few false starts we came to a stop at a blank stretch of wall which I’m pretty sure is the correct one this time.

My knuckles came up to rap on the wall a few times, mostly just for show considering this realm is practically under my complete mental control these days but you don’t just make doors appear out of nowhere without some sort of gesture to warn everyone what you’re doing, it’s the principle of the thing after all.

For a heartbeat nothing happened but then the wall folded away to reveal the, usually sealed from contaminants, chamber inside containing my prototype magical satellite.

With a happy giggle I practically skipped forward to start checking that the calibration hadn’t slipped or anything equally stupid, leaving Sarah at the entrance in some odd state of stasis or confused hesitation which I really hope isn’t a permanent thing because honestly it looks kinda undignified from this angle.

When it became obvious she wasn’t going to move any time soon I turned my attention back to the launch platform instead.
As always the left cradle needs a bit of tweaking for some reason that I’ve yet to work out, it always does that if I leave it alone for a while and by the Powers have I TRIED to work it out because it’s bloody annoying an-

“Han?”
My arms flew out childishly as I turned away from the calculations in my head to face my apparently returned to reality sister instead.
A curiously raised eyebrow and slight tilt to my head was all it took to get her speaking again luckily.
“Why are the words ‘Never try time travel agai-’ written on that wall in what looks like still wet blood?”

Slowly my eyebrow twitched in annoyance at how easily distracted from my much more interesting and impressive mix of magic and technology, Technomancy, as its slowly becoming reluctantly known in the magical world, she is...

She’s not going to let the subject drop unless I at least pretend to humor her though sadly.
With a frustrated huff I turned to look at the wall she was staring at and glared at it harshly.

The words are still there, just as always, just as boring as ever.

Whoever wrote them had terrible handwriting; either that or they were in a rush at the time, an idea that’s sort of backed up by how the ‘n’ on the word ‘again’ is smudged to a point of being practically unreadable by what looks to be a small palm and fingers trailing themselves down the wall to rest at the bottom.
The whole ‘design’ is finished off by a surprisingly distinctive handprint just off to the side from the trail at the bottom, as if they tried to write more after coming to rest down there but couldn’t.

“I dunno? It just kinda ‘appeared’ there one day... no idea how or why really, but its good advice and the red sets off the copper-wire colors on my, much more important and impressive looking, SATELLITE!”
With a swinging wave I tried to bring her attention back over to my masterpiece instead of that annoyingly stubborn wall.

I’ve tried to clean it but despite the continuously wet look to the blood, it’s apparently resistant to being wiped off. The wall itself seems to actually block me from moving, shaping or generally removing it too, which would honestly be a bit more worrying if it wasn’t so aggravating at the same time!

Like it or not, I have a wall covered in not-wet, wet blood writing in here forever now apparently?

I guess technically the wall could be quantum locked into a state of permanent stasis, a bit like Sarah was when she first saw it really, but that would imply that time travel is a real thing with the more worrying addition being that someone messed up time in general somehow and THAT would just be STUPID because time travel is far too insane to be real... no matter how useful it could potentially be if it WERE real...

“Come on Sarah, I show you my genius in action and you focus on some stupid finger-painting!”
She didn’t seem entirely convinced of either my point or my sanity but at least she’s looking at me now.
“Look! Satellite, me make-y by myself, with magic and science and kinda with luck too, impressive?”

Again, she didn’t look too convinced and I caught her eyes slowly inching back towards that stupid wall again.
I allowed myself a frustrated growl at that one just on general principle, even Bitey was more impressed then this when I showed it to him damn it!

In a flurry of eye-catching movement I leapt up onto the launch pad, grabbed the basketball sized tangle of wires and wire-mesh that I call my ‘delivery sphere’ up from its previous position floating at the center of the launch pad and tossed it over to Sarah with slightly more force than strictly necessary.

Showing once again why she’s the ‘athletic’ twin in our now broken twin-ship, she managed to catch the ball out of the air by hugging it to her chest with little-to-no warning, which kinda annoyed me honestly because I was aiming for her head.

“Ta-Daa! See, much more impressive... you’re not clapping? Why aren’t you clapping?”
I scripted this whole scene out in my head a thousand times during my off days in here, she always clapped when she got her hands on the satellite and truly understood my genius at last.

“Han, I-”
She hesitated, her eyes jumping from the ‘ball’ in her hands and back up to me with more than a bit of worry on her face for some reason.

Oh THAT’S why she’s not clapping!
She’s got her hands full, how silly of me, I completely missed factoring in that part when I envisioned this moment before for some reason?

With a careless shrug I lent myself heavily against one of the four support cradles of the launch pad and started my spiel anyway, the problem of Sarah going off script solved, at least for now.
She has a nasty habit of forgetting her lines sometimes I swear!

“This, is my Satellite.”
Her eyes shot up to mine for a second before glancing sceptically down at the ball in her hands yet again.

“...It's a ball of wire...”

“Well... yes, and no?”
My arms came up to fold defensively under my chest, my eyes narrowing slightly at the mix of confusion and disbelief obvious on Sarah’s face.
I’m getting pretty annoyed with having her send those weird looks at me lately!

“Wanna run that one by me again, in English please, Han.”

“Subjectively yes, it’s a ball of wires, and actually no that wire mesh is there to hold the other components inside safely while providing a core that I can build other shapes around.”
She rolled the ball between her fingers, staring at it with that thoughtful, interested expression on her face that I’d been hoping for from the start of this messy introduction.
“Inside the mesh is several bags of magically-compressed fine powder materials, base-components and anything else I could think of needing, all surrounding a main mini-wardstone I’ve designed specially to handle several tasks from remote viewing to transmogrification, material summoning and even storing a mini-waypoint beacon that I can use to send extra materials up there in case of an emergency or if I decide to make an extra satellite someday to save time I can-”

I trailed off as Sarah rose her hand up in the universal ‘stop talking’ gesture with a frown on her face.

“You’re losing me Han, stick to the basics, I promise I’m very impressed but save the technical jabbering for John, okay?”
That’s... surprisingly reasonable of her?...
I can work with that!

“Okay, so one of the biggest problems with normal satellites is that their BIG, and therefore hard to get up into space while being practically unchangeable once they’re up in orbit, with me so far?”
She nodded with just the slightest hint of an exasperated smile on her lips at my expense.
“There’s a trick in sympathetic magic where you can make an object ‘mirror’ it’s partner across great distances, it’s usually been used in the past as a way for quick-covert mail delivery by pairing sets of notebooks, because mages are stupid and have no imagination so they find a use for something and then stop, because their super-stupid, and ignorant, and frustratingly-”

I stalled out again as Sarah rose her hand to interrupt.

It took me a few seconds to realise why she would be doing that and when I did I shot her a thankful smirk in response. The potions wearing thin, but it’s not completely gone out of my system yet, strong emotions prompt stronger effects from it so my annoyance at peoples stupidity in general took me into babbling territory for a second there.

“Anyway, I read online a while ago about this science thing called ‘quantum entanglement’, which sounds a lot like what the mirroring spell does, but on a much smaller scale at the moment due to technological limitations. At the time I found it interesting, if kind of confusing, and ended up skimming through some of the more fanciful, half-joking ideas people were putting out for what entanglement could mean in the far-future and that got me thinking...”
Sarah cringed for some reason.

“...Not good...”

“HEY! Be nice!-”
She snorted under her breath and gave me another disbelieving look, shifting my delivery sphere under one arm so her other one could settle onto her hip, a hip that she proceeded to cock to the side in a show of distain I’ve not seen her pull off that well since our teens.
“-Well, as I was saying, one of the biggest ideas people were bouncing around was for either faster-then-light communications for deep-space voyages or somehow breaking the ‘teleporting’ aspect of the entanglement to create a real life version of the ‘replicators’ from Star Trek to make stuff from practically nothing an-”

“Oh god...”
I stalled to glare at her lightly for interrupting again.

I’ve not even gotten to the good part yet!

“So this ball of parts is my payload, I need to fire it up into space obviously but once it’s up there then I can activate the rune chains I’ve embedded into the wardstone and-”
My hand waved dramatically making the back-wall behind me fall away with perfect timing.
“-force the stone to turn all those stored raw materials through in-built transmutation arrays and a LOT of math into a perfect replica of whatever is in THIS area to the best of its ability!”

This time I couldn’t blame Sarah for the blank, astonished look on her face.
While the launcher platform is housed in practically a cube shaped little cave tucked off from one of my old workshops, I quickly found that satellites in general are a lot bigger than they look on TV and I needed more space to work with as time went on.

The roughly marked out square area, signified by the warning tape draping all over it in bright yellow and black, along with its surrounding walkways I left in to make working in general easier look even better with my current ‘final’ design model for what the fully deployed satellite will look like sitting in the center of it too.

“That’s a spaceship?”
No, it’s a Satellite, thank-you-very-much my poor deluded sister!

A big satellite which doesn’t really look like a ‘conventional’ one by the shear fact that I don’t need silly normal things like heat insulation, solar panels, antennas or anything else really inside it when I can recreate every use you could imagine for it with a specially calculated, one of a kind, plug-in-and-play rune system of my own design, I’ll grant you... but it’s still just a Satellite.

If I wanted a spaceship I’d have made it MUCH bigger!

The pressurised internal area is shielded from pretty much everything, thanks to magic obviously, but due to boredom more than anything else I kept things to a basic level with just about enough space inside to fit one of my workshops, swivel chair and all, next to the wall-mounted array of ‘slots’ left open and ready to receive any of my new mini-wardstones that I want at any time with just enough room to let me go up there and fix something personally if I have to.

Plus, let’s see John-boy ruin THIS bolthole if I ever need to run- uh, ‘take a break’, again without warning him first!

“There’s a specially designed long-range warp point setup on-board already, it was one of the first mini-stones I produced and it’s keyed specifically to my magic so I should be able to kinda ‘half-Bula warp’ up there safely if I need or want to... obviously adding that meant I had to work on oxygen scrubbers next, and a water’n’food source, which both became a lot easier after I somewhat drunkenly applied a bit of logic, a bit of brainpower and a butt-load of math into changing the ‘mirror’ spell so that it draws from a set of stored patterns instead of a direct analogue to source it’s reproducti-”
She’s giving me that look again... why’s she giving me that look again?

“You are unbelievable, you know that?”

“Why? This is all really easy; it’s just applying sympathetic magic in a new way with runes to get the outcomes I needed at the end of the day. The biggest problem I had was working out how to get geo-synchronous orbit going properly while avoiding collision or detection from the normal government junk up there, which took a bit of work because it turns out fire-magic doesn’t like being contained or produced by a rune pattern for very long an-”

“Han?”
I paused and looked at her in confusion once more, I was just getting to the interesting bit damn it!
Slowly her hand came up in an almost perfect mimicry of me when I’m getting a headache as she squeezed her nose with her eye’s scrunched up tightly in obvious pain of some kind.
“...Stop talking, please?...”

Well fine!
Excuse ME, for being proud of the stuff I’ve done over the last three months.

It’s not EASY creating amazingly new technomantic devices while under the influence of some of the world’s most potent psychotropic drugs, ya know?!
I kinda had a helping hand with all the lovely new knowledge from millennia of magical studies that I stole from Arista of course, but I still had to design and make the bloody stuff!

I still am in-fact... in-fact, you know what?
SCREW IT! I’m getting back to work, so THERE!

With an angry growl I shouldered my way past Sarah’s taller form and made tracks towards my current ‘main’ workshop where the little mini-wardstone I’d been working on earlier, before her and John decided to interrupt me, was sat.

The little teardrop shaped rock is still only partly engraved due to a rather frustrating problem I’ve come up against in trying to make a working rune-matrix that can power magical ‘lasers’ I can fit to my awesome satellite, for defensive purposes naturally, mostly coming about when it turned out that actual ‘normal’ lasers don’t work the way they are supposed to on TV in real life apparently.

We’ve had decades, possibly more than decades, of ‘Sci-fi’ showing us how laser-guns are supposed to work, why the hell do I have to be the first mage who wants to make them real with magic?!
It can be really frustrating being the only person in your field striving to make something NEW for once and it’s even worse when-

“Han, wait up!”

With another frustrated growl I picked up the pace and practically sprinted through my workshops to put some space between us before I snap at her properly.
I need another dose or three of my potion, right, bloody, NOW!

======

“Um... Han?”

My humming stopped which was a little odd because suddenly the vibrations radiating around in my head stopped with them making me feel momentarily light-headed.
That problem didn’t last for long though and I spun away from my desk to offer her a nice big socially acceptable grin in response to her questioning tone.

I want to say her names... Sahara?... Sally, Simone, Simon? Sam, Sully, Steve? Sa-, Sa... there’s definitely a ‘Sa’ in there somewhere.

With a twitch good-old Righty came up to slap me back into reality after I started slipping into a sa-, sa-, sa-

======

SARAH! That’s her name, good old Sarah, I remember now, Sarah, Sarah, Sarah...

“Are you feeling okay Han?”
My smile went up a notch and I nodded helpfully.
Righty twitched at my side as if it wanted to slap me again but Lefty moved quickly to stop its usually more helpful twin instead.

“I feel great Sarah, how are you?”
For some reason my smile didn’t have the desired effect I was trying to achieve in helping her feel welcome so I let it slide into a more neutral, yet slightly whimsical, lopsided smirk instead.

“Damn it, you’re completely wasted again, aren’t you?”

For a moment I thought she wanted me to confirm that idea for some reason but she beat me to answering the question all on her own, which left me cocking my head to the side in confusion over why she asked in the first place.

“I need to get this suit you put on me, off again, Han... I need...”
She hesitated for a moment before ploughing on anyway.
“I need the bathroom, okay? So you need to do whatever you’ve gotta do to turn this thing back into its big loose form so I can go quickly an-”

“Why would you need to take it off?”
My eyebrow rose to join my left ear in fixing her with a curious look of confusion that my already cocked head was showing ever-so-nicely anyway.
“The suits are permanent, taking them off would be most impractical and not to mention stupid beyond belief because it would negate all the protection they offer.”

“Han-”
She growled my shortened name out in frustration making me cock my head to the other side for a better look at her face in case I’m missing something here.
“-Han, I get it, your tripping out of your mind right now but can you just PLEASE be serious for a second?... I REALLY need to go and this suits going to be pretty ruined if I can’t get it off pretty damn soon!”

I stared at her for a few seconds trying to work out how something can be both ‘pretty’ and ‘ruined’ at the same time, but then she did this silly little dance on the spot, rubbing her thighs together for some reason and distracted me yet again.

“What do you want Sarah? The suits are important to stop Arista from freezing you to death so I can’t exactly-”

“DAMN IT HAN, I NEED TO PEE!”
I pulled my head away from her due to the volume involved but quickly settled back into my seat as an even more confused frown formed on my lips moments later.
Why is she complaining about THAT of all things, I’ve had that sorted since the second suit prototype after all an-
“HANNAH! Seriously, jus-just tell me what to do here? Fine, I won’t take the suit off but... is there a fly, or a zipper, or something that I just can’t find?!”

Ohhhh... well, this is kinda awkward?...

After a moment’s thought I ended up giggling to myself about the whole situation, which probably had some kind of ‘cause and effect’ relationship with how red her face suddenly started going just because of the timing, although I can’t think of why really.

All of a sudden she burst into action and pounced so quickly that she had me pinned to the floor before I realised what was happening, her face flustered and breath heavy but anger burning in her eyes.

“The suits are self-cleaning?”
The words squeaked out almost automatically to her unasked question, as her elbow came down towards my throat for leverage with almost dangerous precision.

For a few long seconds she froze in her position above me but then the arm restraining me went slightly slack, enough so that I managed to get Lefty free and with a bit of effort press the deactivation runes at my throat which I designed to make the suits perfected ‘I don’t exist’ array turn itself off temporarily.

Her eyes widened as she took in the sight of my suit, or at least what was visible of it from underneath my clothes, which basically consisted of the long sleeves, gloves, high-neckline and possibly a hint of stomach considering how quickly she threw me to the floor in her frustration.

“Toilets are impractical, Shower Monsters are scary and Periods are annoying, so I fixed it?”
Her mouth dropped open in some strange mix of shock and horror at the same time that made me want to start studying her again, but I should probably wait until she lets me up off the floor for that at least an- details!

That’s what she needs; details, then she’ll let me get back to work.

“The suits skin-tight in a literal sense, internally there’s a mesh of tightly packed runes which destroys anything excessive and ‘new’ produced after the initial ‘scan’ the suit did of you before it activated the fitting process you went through at first to a reasonable degree. Liquids are transmogrified into base components for either disposal or use in repairs if needed, same with solids including body hair.”

She still didn’t move so I decided to switch encouragement tactics slightly.

“I told you before that you could go to space in this thing, didn’t I?”
A grin played across my lips which I’m pretty sure is encouraging, either that or annoying, I can’t remember which at the moment.
“I meant that quite literally too, aside from a propulsion system which I still haven’t quite finished making for the Satellite, let alone making the array small enough to fit on the suits, you are your own self-contained unit now and can survive pretty much anything the universe can throw at you for the most part. There’s even a ‘helmet’ bubble of constantly generating air you can turn on to help you breath too if you press your thumb into the three main magic lines running up the underside of your right wrist.”

Finally she seemed to understand what I was saying at last because her shoulders slumped slightly and she rolled off of me so I could get back to my feet.

I watched with only a mild amount of confusion and curiosity as she curled in on herself for a few moments, until her legs twitched slightly and her face went a lot more ‘red’ then I think is entirely healthy for a human-being in all honesty.

“Damn it Han! You thought of everything as always, but still damn you! Thi-this is the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done to me...”
My hand came up with a finger raised to correct her on that one.

Considering I once let her leave the house to go play as part of a parent-suggested ‘play date’ in our backyard wearing only a tutu and diaper when we were two, despite my better judgement at the time saying it was a bad idea, this really isn’t the MOST embarrassing thing... but after a moment’s hesitation I decided that it would probably just lead to more drama if I pointed that fact out and I really need to get back to work before John breaks another wall down with his ‘Koo-ya-ore’ no doubt, whatever the hell that is, obviously interrupting me yet again in the process.

I settled myself down in my chair and picked up the rune-covered mini-wardstone again to go back to my calculations, only half-paying attention as Sarah slowly eased herself to her feet with an awkward, slightly bow-legged, stance which I found odd considering the self-cleaning enchantment on her suit should activate instantaneously.

With a partial shrug I forced myself to focus entirely on the mini-stone instead, only just catching her final grumbled words before losing contact with the world in general as the numbers became everything I could ever need once more.

“...Damn you Hannah Cooper...”

"For your own good" is a useful but often badly thought out phrase, only time can tell if actions eventually work out for the better in a lot of cases where it's applicable. This is one of those cases. Events unfold including but not limited to: Bitey getting his origin story told, John has a (possibly terrible) plan, and Sarah swears while staring at Eris!

 

If I shift the bilateral cooling array just three degrees to the left then I’ll have to rebalance everything again but it could improve efficiency by at least a factor of four in a sustained firefigh-

“Don’t touch him John.”

I paused for a second in confusion that words had just randomly come out of my mouth and a moment later I realised that not only was my left hand not holding my engraving tool anymore but it had also shot sideways to grab onto something warm in a death-grip.

Slowly my eyes trailed up my own arm and settled on a smugly grinning John who seemed rather pleased with himself for some reason as I held his hand just short of Bitey’s usual range of attack.

“I told you Sarah, she never changes. Just like in school, she’s lost to the world while she’s working but it’s like she’s got some kind of sixth sense for when someone’s about to mess with her stuff.”
He shot me a slightly wider, amused, smirk before turning his head to share that same look with just a touch more smugness in what I can only assume is Sarah’s general direction, eventually turning back to me again after a few seconds to really rub the look in naturally.
“Nice to have you back with us Han, how are you feeling?”

With an annoyed growl I dropped his hand and shifted in my seat slightly to get more comfortable for the conversation he’s now obviously intent on having for some powers-known reason.

“Don’t touch the plant; he’ll rip your finger off.”
Just because I have to accept talking over doing my work for now doesn’t mean I have to be nice about it.

Sadly my words only seemed to encourage him, having the opposite effect to what I was looking for, because John smiled slightly wider and wiggled his fingers teasingly at a point between me and Bitey as if trying to tempt us both into snapping at them.

Stupid John!

“Oh come on Han the little guy’s harmless, look at him, he’s barely a sprout an- AH!”
John’s pinky finger waved slightly too far into range and Bitey moved with his usual lightning-fast precision, just missing said appendage due to John’s naturally boosted reaction times luckily.
“What the hell? The stupid thing really tried to bite me?!”

Sarah chose that moment to snigger and mumble something like ‘I told you so’ but I chose to ignore her in favor of setting my ever annoying friend right on the reality of the situation instead.

“Bitey isn’t a normal, cute little house-plant John-boy... early on I was trying to find a way to fix my core using my Golden healing diversion, a plan that failed spectacularly by the way, and part of that experiment involved me channelling the biggest sizable chunk of magic that I could manage from my core without passing out into a dead plant I found in one of Arista’s hidden grow-farms.”
I paused to take a breath and shifted uncomfortably in my seat, well aware that I was both far too sober and far too busy to be having this conversation right now in all honesty.
“I woke up after passing out from the pain to find my new roommate, Bitey, happily chewing away on a chunk of my hair that had fallen within range of his jaws… basically, as far as I can tell, he’s kinda some sort of ‘zombie-plant’ hybrid?...”

A look of horrified fascination spread slowly across John’s face as the seconds ticked by which was more than a little bit distracting.
Meanwhile Sarah seemed content to quietly stand as far away as she could from said plant as if he’d suddenly develop the ability to jump out of his pot and chase her or something equally stupid.

“…A Zombie?...”

“Kinda-”
I stated, holding in a sigh of annoyance that THAT happened to be the part of all this he latched onto for some reason.
“-he was a dead plant after all and now he’s not, like you in a way now that I think about it?”
Judging by the glare that comment got John did not find the comparison in any way amusing.
“I don’t think he’s infectious at least, although to be fair I haven’t exactly tested that theory yet because finding a live specimen I don’t mind turning into some form of highly dangerous zombie if it turns out I’m wrong isn’t exactly an easy feat obviously…”

“…He’s a zombie, and you called him ‘Bitey’?...”
My lips twitched a few times before I gave in and smiled widely in response to John’s incredulous words.

What else was I supposed to call him really?
He’s too smart to be a ‘Darren’ and he practically threw himself off the desk when I suggested ‘Felix-two’, so now his name’s ‘Bitey’ and that’s that!

“You’ve been alone for far too long Han…”
My eye twitched at the implied insult in John’s almost hushed statement.
The fact I can’t exactly argue with him on that one when I’m sober enough to think rationally like this doesn’t help much either obviously.

Instead of dignifying his words with a response I turned around in my seat and picked up my wardstone again to get back to work before either he thinks of something equally as stupid as prodding Bitey with a finger to get my attention again or I get so far out of my rhythm that I need another dose or two of potion before I can carry on, an option which really wouldn’t be healthy at this point considering how close I am to overdosing on the stuff sadly.

======

“Han, how do we get Sarah’s suit off?”

For a moment or two the words spoken directly into my ear by an annoyingly familiar male voice didn’t really register in my head properly, but when his hand came down on my shoulder and shook me gently a few seconds later I jerked away in surprise, practically throwing my chair away in my rush to step away from the unexpected contact.

John’s hands instantly shot into the air in the universal sign that he meant no harm and he eyed me like a cornered animal for the few crucial heartbeats it took for my creating haze to fade enough that I could get my bearings properly at last.

“Sorry Han, didn’t expect to startle you that badly.”
I sighed and rolled my shoulders slightly, trying to ease some of the tension that had suddenly formed in them, its times like this that I REALLY wish mages could pop our joints properly!

“Nevermind, I was just a bit out of it, what’s up? Something about Sarah and a suit, right?”

John shot Sarah a slightly worried look which she shrugged in response to before he turned back to me with a blatantly concerned look on his face this time instead.
He shifted his feet a little awkwardly and after a few seconds of studying my face for some reason he continued speaking rather than questioning my reaction like he so obviously wants to do now.

“The invisible, skin-tight hazard suit you made for Sarah. How do we take it off?”
Oh… this again?…

“You don’t take it off John, I’ve got one on, Sarah’s got hers now, there’s one for you and Eris somewhere around here too. They’re necessary John, I’ll agree that it takes a bit of getting used to but they’re self-cleaning, no sweat, no bathroom breaks, no monthly annoyances for those of us who face that joy-”
For a long moment I hesitated, the words sticking in my throat slightly as flashes of that horrible day so many months ago came back to the forefront of my mind with little-to-no provocation, but I had to carry on despite them.
Of all people John was there and he’ll understand if I can just explain things properly...
“-you saw Wizard Island John, you saw what happened there, you saw the destruction a battle of wills between me and Arista caused.”

Slowly I trailed my eyes up to meet his slightly widened ones with as much seriousness as I could.

“We’ve been at war since the moment you forced my second awakening John, longer than that really thanks to a load of loud-mouthed seers through the years, I stumbled my way through it all and most of us survived that horrible mess… but not all of us…”
My head twitched towards Sarah for a second automatically as my mind turned to guilty thoughts of Mum’s untimely end at my own frost covered hands but with a force of will I pulled them back up to face John again, not that he missed the motion in the slightest of course.

“I’m an Enchanter John, not a warrior. Runes are an art, not a weapon.”
Without conscious effort a heavy breath left my lips in frustration as I shifted my feet uncomfortably under their confused stares.
“I can’t AFFORD to assume that this is all over, just because the tumor-bitch in my head is gone now; I can’t afford to sit back and get comfortable again… Runes aren’t a weapon, but if I’m proactive, if I plan, and build, and work HARD to protect what’s important then maybe next time a war comes to call on me I’ll have a fighting chance at stopping things before they can all go wrong and I end up with more blood on my hands again.”

An almost excruciating silence rolled out after that painfully true statement of intent from my own lips.
My feet shifted awkwardly again and after a moment’s pause I turned away from them both to go pick up my chair again so I can get back to work at last.

“Han…”
I glared defiantly at my desk, a wave of my hand cutting off his words before whatever stupid platitudes he was planning to let loose on the world could leave his lips for once.

“Don’t-”
-for once John just DON’T!

Let me have this, I need this, I’ll accept cutting back on the potions if that’s what it takes to get everyone off my back but I’m not stopping this now. I’ve worked too hard, hurt too much and gone too far towards insanity in this stupid quest to save everyone to stop now!
It’s an empty bid for redemption from someone whose actions are irredeemable at best but it’s all I’ve got now...

“Just don’t John, I know you, I know what you’re going to say and I know that you’re going to be right too because you’re an asshole like that at times… just this once can you let me live with the consequences of my actions in exchange for all the good I can do from accepting them?”

Slowly yet another awkward silence fell over us all once more.
I’m getting pretty sick of awkward silences at this point, even the dr-

“What happened to you in that crater Han?... What aren’t you telling me, telling everyone, that you think is so damning?...”
With a gasp of outrage I spun around to glare harshly at the stupid bastard who’d dare just openly ask me like that in front of Sarah as if i-
“Sleep”

The rage in my eyes died out quickly at his command, shoved sideways into my straining head as those damn hypnotic eyes of his registered to my body before my conscious mind could even realise what was going on.

“You son of a bit-“
Before I could finish cussing him out, the world grew dark as my eyelids got heavy all of a sudden and I found myself falling forwards into his arms before it all faded away into a mercifully blank nothingness instead.

======

“She’s been exposed too long, the only options left are this or we let her go into withdrawal, which is more than likely going to just outright kill her from her body going into shock if nothing else.”
Part of me wanted to groan or growl as John’s voice came into focus but I clamped down on that urge viciously in favor of staying still and listening intensely instead.

“What about the cure? You said if you could get a sample of what’s effecting her you could neutralise it in her system and-”
An impatient growl from John stopped Sarah’s almost desperate question in its tracks as the warm shoulder-shaped object currently stuck in my gut from the ‘fireman’ carry he’s apparently using to move me somewhere tensed in aggravation.

“It’s not a potion Sarah, there is no outright cure, Hannah… she should be dead? There’s no magic to the ‘potion’ she was drinking, it’s just a carefully balanced mix of high-strength narcotics and hallucinogens.”
Vaguely part of my mind connected the dots and belatedly it became clear that the ‘Koo-ya-ore’ that John was talking about before he left Sarah to keep an eye on me was not only English but something as simple as a ‘cure’ that he stretched out the sounds of to confuse me in my drugged state.

“Have you ever heard of an ‘upper’ and a ‘downer’? In essence they’re two types of drugs, one brings on a sense of euphoria and the other depression, Han managed to make a cocktail of those sort of drugs which brought her into an almost perfect state of equilibrium, robbing her of most emotions and impulse control but leaving her in an advanced form of that stupid mental rut she likes to call her ‘creating haze’ for hours at a time… it’s insane, it’s stupid and idiotic, and so NOT Hannah that there’s nothing I can do but this to help her.”

“You’re sure it will work?”

“No, obviously, this is untested ground after all... but if anyone can pull it off then its Hannah. I just need to get her riled up and angry enough to pull it off, than pray to the Powers that she doesn’t kill me in the process, I guess?”

So that’s your plan is it John-boy?
Get me angry then see what happens, how predictable of you!

“You’d better not die, you melodramatic idiot, I only just started liking you. Dying on me now that I actually care what happens to you isn’t an option, okay?”
The humor in Sarah’s voice calmed my thoughts slightly for a moment but slowly the undertone of actual fear and worry underneath that humorous manner of hers struck me with more force then I’d expected.

When I was on the potions I’d suspected something was going on with the pair of them in my absence just from the way they spoke to each other now if nothing else, but hearing that worry in Sarah’s voice hurt a lot more then I’d anticipated honestly?
I’ve lost a lot of things to Sarah over the years, some willingly, some not-so-much… but I don’t think I can lose John to her too at this point.
I need him right now, even the idea of Sarah doing anything to him an-and.. and..

A growl rumbled low in my chest and I practically shot to my feet in a heartbeat sending John stumbling backwards from the force of me kicking off of his shoulder in my bid for freedom.
My eyes cut between the pair of them and Sarah flinched for some reason, taking several guilty steps away from me which I took as an invitation to focus back on the real source of my rising anger.

“Han, it’s not what you thin-”
My hand waved up towards Sarah’s face to cast a silencing spell on her automatically.
I saw her flinch once more out the corner of my eye but nothing happened surprisingly and, after a long confused pause, my eye’s widened in fear.

For the ambient magic around us to not do my bidding, that could only mean one thing…

“You took me out of my realm?”
A shudder made its way through my whole body and the air itself felt suddenly so cold as the idea that we weren’t in my realm anymore finally hit home to that deep, primal-fear section of my brain at last.
“What the hell are you THINKING John?! I’m defenceless out here! My core’s ruined, what if something happens? What if it explodes and kills everyone, what if someone attacks us, what if I-”

Our eye’s connected and a wave of numb calm fell over me like an oppressive blanket as those damn hypnotic eyes of his did their thing once more.

“Calm Hannah, I’ll protect you and keep you from harming others.”
’...I’m calm, he’ll protect me and keep me from harming others...’
“Your core is safe as long as you don’t reach for it, so don’t reach for it.”
'...My core is safe, I shouldn’t reach for it...’
“We are going somewhere safe and I’m going to help you, trust me on this?”
’...I trust him...’

John’s eyes drifted slightly off of mine towards Sarah and for a moment the power of his magic dropped in response before he tightened his gaze upon me once more with slightly widened eyes full of worry.

“Sarah, set up the ward like I showed you, I can’t break eye-contact at the moment, Hannah’s too angry for the effects to linger. Set up the ward and activate it, tell me when you’re done, okay?”
Part of me registered his words but their real meaning escaped me as the seconds ticked by, like water through my fingers when faced with the warmth of John’s eyes.

=====

For the next few minutes I stood in a blissful stare-off with John, who was apparently having to fight hard not to blink for some reason while I focused on his words and the feelings they inspired in me.
...I trust him...

“It’s done, are you sure this is necessary? It’s her realm and-”
Sarah glanced away from us for some reason and her eye’s widened in fear.
“Oh shit”

“Mum!”
Eris’s happy little voice rang out from behind me and even John’s hypnosis couldn’t suppress the bright smile that formed on my lips at the sound of her so happily calling out to me.

Instinctively John’s eye’s left mine for just a moment but that was all that was needed for reality to reassert itself for me, my head whipped away from his and my eyes squinted down as much as I could while still being able to see Eris as she sprinted towards us with a happy little skip in her step.

As she got closer I reached my arms out to snag her up onto my hip like I’ve longed to do for months now, while irrationally fearing that exact same outcome because I’m such a fool!
Just the sound of her voice was enough; I could never hurt her, my Eris...
Not even my stupid broken core would DARE to harm her when-

She’s almost reached me, but something isn’t right?

The world seemed to slow around us as her eyes trailed across me without recognition at all and she continued running past my outstretched arms as if they didn’t exist.

Slowly, almost mechanically, my body turned to watch as she flew by and folded herself against Sarah’s legs lovingly in a way I remember her once doing to me, so many months ago, before she discovered that being carried was much more fun of course...

Sarah’s head moved upwards, seemingly at a painful crawl, until our eye’s met and a silent conversation flew between us in twin-speak twitches that burned my chest even harder than my already rebelling magic ever could.

Apologies, that’s all her eyes could offer me?

Apologies and fear for what I might do next as Eris obliviously moved herself behind my sisters legs in a painfully familiar motion she used to do with me whenever faced with strangers…
Strangers like… me?...

“FUCK!”
John’s frantic yell broke the moment of horrified staring for me as the world sped up and my magic flared in outrage, hurt and every other emotion I could feel bubbling under my skin from my confusion and the growing pit of dreadful, rolling anger forming right along with it.

Before I could even move a muscle he surged forwards and tackled me around the waist heavily.
We didn’t even have a chance to fall before my vision bleached out to the annoyingly bright blue of a forced warp and the world fell away as he dragged me off somewhere despite my best efforts to escape his magic’s grasp.

======

We landed in a tangle of limbs which quickly separated as we both tumbled down the unstable side of some sort of sand-mountain that we’d appeared on top of.

Eventually we came to a stop, and with a jerk I came out of my wild defensive roll to glare at John from across the few meters worth of sand dividing us, my rage growing cold just from the calculating look in his eyes that reminded me so much of Max at his worst.

“Where are we?!”
There are so many questions, so many accusations, so many… so many EVERYTHINGS I want to throw at him right now but the only one that made it past my lips was that enraged war-cry of a question.

“Middle of nowhere, in Death Valley, I needed a safe place for you to explode and this is it.”

“Explode?! Why the hell would I ex-”
Even as the words were leaving my lips I could already tell that they were redundant.

Magic, thick tendrils of it, rolling in the every shade of color and elemental power imaginable were forming up around me, pouring out of my skin itself as my already terrible control slipped even further with my growing panic.

My core pulsed in my chest horribly, beating a rhythm into my magic itself which my Locus point was apparently more than willing to return with interest.
Slowly the pain registered as, with each pulse, my core pushed itself ever closer to its already stretched limit that I’ve been trying desperately to avoid for months now.

“John, run!”

The shaky hold I had over my leg muscles gave out as yet more magic lashed around me wildly and my head sunk practically to my chest as I tried fruitlessly to focus on putting the storm back inside the bottle when in all honesty it’s already long since escaped my grasp at this point.

After a few seconds that felt like a lifetimes worth of me running into a proverbial brick wall of magic, something warm wrapped itself around me as a pair of gentle hands encircled me in a tight hug.

My eyes flew open almost as quickly as my head snapped up to stare at John’s smiling face in horror.

“What the hell are you doing?! My core’s breaking John, RUN!”
He didn’t even twitch at my yell; if anything all it did was make his grasp on me feel somehow even tighter despite his lack of actual movement.
“John! You were right, it was too much. I let my anger get to me and it’s too late, let go and run for powers sake, I can’t hold this all in for much longer!”

His arms shifted slightly and somehow he managed to scoop me up onto his lap despite the magic waving around us violently, yet somehow managing to not hit him in the process.
A warm smirk played across his lips for the second I got to see them before his head came down and he settled his chin on the nape of my neck comfortably.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“John, don’t do this, you don’t understand, my magic’s going crazy and its gonna-AHH!”
A scream pulled itself from my lips and my back arched harshly forward as something deep in my chest, most likely my core, snapped like the most terrible of broken bones.
By the time I came back to myself from the pain my breath was coming out in pants and I’d sunken back against John’s chest like a limp sack of potatoes.
“Please John, leave me here and run. My magic, it’ll... it’ll kill you?”

He shifted once again but, for some powers-known reason, the stupid bastard wouldn’t let me go!

“I’m guessing you heard at least some of my conversation earlier, you’re terrible at pretending to be asleep, and considering the circumstances I should probably cut to the chase-”
One of his arms stretched out to fully encircle my waist leaving his other one free to reach up and gently work its way into my hair in a way that felt surprisingly nice, and more than a little distracting.
“-this isn’t quite what I was planning but we’ll work with what we can here. I’m not going anywhere and your magic isn’t going to kill me any more then it will kill you Han, despite how it feels, there’s still a chance for us to both walk away from this mess unharmed.”

My jaw tensed as he shifted his head slightly and rubbed his chin into the tiny ticklish spot on my neck just next to my shoulder that he somehow seemed to know exists without me having ever told him about it in the slightest, probably a secret he learnt from Arista or Ari like so many others he’s known lately.

“Calm your thoughts Han, your body is weakened from the drugs you’ve been pumping it with, your core is damaged seemingly beyond repair from your fight with Arista and your mind is-”
My back arched violently again as the pain in my chest spiked once more and a scream ripped itself from my lips before trailing into an angry roar of ‘Get on with it!’ which he actually seemed to listen to for once.
“Use your diversion Han... It can heal anything, bring back the dead, and fix bloody-broken walls. When you have THAT as you’re trump card then you USE it as much as humanly possible!”

Not another word was needed between us at that point.

I’ll admit that I felt immeasurably stupid for not having thought of it before now, but in my defence I’ve gotten out of the habit of using the strange Golden ability Edith gave me ever since I knocked myself out trying to use it and accidentally created Bitey.

My magic’s beyond control at this point but luckily a diversion doesn’t need control, it’s practically an automatic process set to a mental trigger after all, almost entirely out of my control after I’ve set it to work.

That being said, I focused for a moment and almost instantly the multi-colored tentacles of magic waving away from my body started to bleed gold, the power inside them not being forced out like when Arista took over my body but seemingly being converted in the same way that this mysterious golden power inside me spread itself through the Hub unhindered, despite Mavens best efforts to stop it.

I found myself letting out a long breath of relief that at least something had gone right for once.
The way John lost what little tension was left in his form beneath me and the fact that the evil idiot decided to place the lightest of kisses on a rather sensitive spot above my exposed collar-bone didn’t help either obviously.

“Not out of the woods yet Han, but good work all the same, pull this next bit off and I’ll kiss that spot just below your ear that turns you to jelly, okay?”
THAT’S PRIVATE!

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Joh-AHHH!!”
I couldn’t even get my denial out before my core surged again, making my throat burn from the agonised scream that burst forth from me in response to its efforts.

The stupid broken slab of metaphysical magical containment didn’t even give me a chance to catch my breath before it started all over again in its attempt to apparently tear itself apart and take my sanity with it!

======

I’m not sure how long I screamed for but eventually the pain DID subside, even if it didn’t completely go away in its entirety.

“It’s okay Han, breath, hold my hand and breath, you’re going to be okay I-”

“My magic’s trying to kill me John-boy; I’m not having a bloody baby!”
I couldn’t see the look on his face after that rather exasperated yell left my lips but I can guess and, honestly, I even had a rather muted sense of his feelings from his magic too which was a pretty odd sensation to have after months of isolation and intentionally avoiding my mage senses for fear of setting off my core once more.
“What’s the last step John? I’ve got a load of gold floating around me like a horny squid and if my guess is right we’ve got at most a minute before my core goes into meltdown again.”

He hesitated for a few seconds before answering me at last, which with John is usually a pretty bad sign in my experience, but nevertheless he still answered me eventually even if his response wasn’t the most reassuring thing that I could have hoped for.

“There’s nothing I can do about your core Han, I don’t know what happened to it but it’s broken beyond anything I’ve ever seen before and your leaking more magic then should physically fit inside you every second that we sit here, it wasn’t noticeable in your realm but ever since we got outside I’ve been feeling it and it’s pretty damn terrifying honestly...”

A little smile made its way onto my lips at the awe in his voice but that died away pretty quickly when my thoughts shifted to the ‘why’ on that one and all the people I killed to achieve this ‘impossible’ level of magical power that’s tearing me apart.

“If we survive this John-boy, I’ll explain it to you properly, now what’s the next step I need to fix my core?”
Despite my best efforts a rather frantic sounding breath pushed itself up my chest and past my lips as the pain in my core increased by an almost unnoticeable amount as if it could understand what I was planning to do and wasn’t too keen on it in the slightest.

“Han… there’s no way to fix your core...”
What?
“I’ve been studying up on Arista’s past attempts at making a stable Locus point and after reading Arthur’s diary on Excalibur, Arista’s first successful attempt at making a Locus point of any kind, from what I can see there’s a step in the creation process she perfected that you haven’t reached yet.”
WHAT?!
“Your core is holding you back at this point, it’s not yours to begin with, I don’t know where she got it from but Sarah’s core wasn’t the only one she transferred into you and if her methods held true over the years than the one you have currently imploding inside your chest is doing exactly that because a magical core CAN’T co-exist with a true Locus point. The power involved is just too much for even the greatest core ever recorded to handle.”

“WHAT?! What the hell are we gonna do the-AHHHH!!”

With impeccable timing my core decided that NOW would be the best time to show its nasty little crack-filled head yet again.
The pain was horrible, objectively not as bad as the pain I went through fighting Arista months ago, but then that was months ago and this is now which happens to bloody HURT!

My vision split between the real world and the part of my mindscape that houses my lines without any input from me, as if my magic had a flair for the dramatics and enjoyed having an audience as it seemed to wait for me to be watching before literally shattering the crumbling remains of my core into nothingness.

In the real world my magic went crazy, massive waves of golden light cresting and letting loose from my body in all directions which seemed to grow taller and wider with each successive pulse of power that left my body as that strange feeling in my gut that I’ve come to think of as my ‘Locus point’ in general started to beat in an almost steady rhythm which drowned out my hammering heartbeat from its intensity alone.

My lines, on the other hand, had become a wild tangle of threads flapping loosely from the location where they used to center themselves around my now destroyed core.

I watched on in a state of pain and bewilderment as the lines began to organise themselves once more and, as they moved, so did my viewpoint which resettled itself on a pit within my mindscape housing an endless void of swirling blue power around a seemingly tiny spec of golden light at its ever shifting heart.

All the loose lines around me sorted themselves out with almost methodical precision, forming up constructs and shapes that I remember clearly from the lines that once surrounded my old core.
When they had themselves in position they almost seemed to hesitate for a moment to make sure I was watching, like a child showing off for a bored parent or something equally stupid, before they all surged forward as one and connected violently with the storm swirling away inside the glowing pit of power in my gut.

I don’t really know what happened next, it all happened so fast.

The world exploded, my inner world disappearing into a golden light and the real world doing pretty much the exact same thing as a practically solid blast of golden light forced its way out of my poor aching body.

It left me no other option but to give in to the inevitable and collapse into oblivion from a mix of pain, relief and the overwhelming power rushing through my body all at once as if time itself would bow its head to this impossible force of nature given form inside me at its whim a-

Not all explosions are bad... a lot of them maybe?... but not all of them at least. Let's just say 'explosions can be a mixed-bag'. It's complicated, no worries, you'll get it eventually. Events unfold including but not limited to: Hannah going for a swim in Death Valley, John giving out a few well-timed cuddles, and the desert will never be the same again!

 

That… fells… AWESOME!

My arms twitched slightly and my every movement seemed to make the warm, comfortable heat rolling through my limp body increase even more.
It felt so good, I must have spent at least ten minutes just rocking from side-to-side on my back with my eyes closed, humming happily to myself as my body practically glowed internally and the magic inside me pulsed within me like someone was playing a rich Caribbean drum solo in my chest.

Eventually my curiosity won out over my love of feeling so nice and with little effort at all I thrust myself up onto my feet again, my magic assisting with amazing precision to add just a pulse of air from my back and make the whole movement unnaturally smooth in a rather interesting way.

The moment my feet settled on surprisingly solid ground my eyes shot open and I took in the world around me with wide-eyed awe.

Everything, from the thick canopy of trees above us to the lush grass around my toes and the slowly flowing waterfall to my right looked so bright, so alive in a way that I can barely remember it having be in such a long time.

Another happy little hum slipped out of my lips as I turned on the spot, swinging my arms out childishly as I just enjoyed the sounds and smells of nature around me.
When I’d almost completed my first full revolution my eyes landed on one, rather obvious, thing that clearly didn’t belong in this paradise I’d awoken in.

“John! John, wake up you useless git!”
He flinched heavily at my yell but that was nothing compared to the outright convulsion he gave off when I took a running leap and landed on top of him with a happy giggle.
“Come on John, you’ve got to see this, I have no idea what happened but it’s so pretty!”

My words seemed to snap his eyes open almost instantly for some reason.
With a startled yelp I rolled off of him as he shot up into a sitting position without any real warning at all.

“W-wha... where the hell are we?”

I kept going with my roll across the lush grass around us before kicking out my knee at just the right time and, with another minor blast of wind from my seemingly ever so helpful magic, sent myself cartwheeling up into a standing position with one smooth transition.

John’s eyes trailed after me in amazement and I couldn’t help but preen a little under his attention.
It’s nice to know your worth paying attention to after all, I’d hate to disappoint by having messy hair or something equally stupid!

“Han? Wh-... are you feeling okay? The last thing I remember was your magic going haywire and then... nothing?”
I giggled in response and went up on the tips of my toes to spin on the spot happily.

He’s such an idiot sometimes!

“I’ve never felt so good in my life John. The worlds so bright and everything feels so nice and my magic is just-”
Rather than even try to explain the wondrous feelings running through my body at the moment I wrapped my arms around myself in a tight hug and shook from side-to-side to show him how nice it all was.

I haven’t felt this good in... ever?... I honestly can’t remember a time in my life when I’ve felt this good before!

Even the explosions of raw, forced enjoyment I got from over-using my diversion so many times can’t compare to how LIGHT I feel right now.
It feels like I could grasp the world in my hands and just hug it all forever or... or, I dunno, something fun like that at least?!

Just because I could, I spun on my toes again, but I barely even reached a quarter of the turn before the water of a nearby oasis caught my attention due to the bright sunlight sparkling off of its crystalline depths.

I smoothly shifted to my other foot and pivoted myself into an outright sprint towards the water’s edge, the giggle on my lips morphing into a laugh of expectant joy as I reached the small beach-like area before the water and kept running.
The water rose up to meet my feet with barely a thought from me and I just kept running, the wind at my back and the water as my stepping stones as I rose higher and higher into the bright sky, until I could even see above the canopy of trees around us to the barren wasteland of sand surrounding it on all sides.

With little more than a glance, out of curiosity more than anything, I took that final leap off of my water-steps and flew down towards the inviting water below with an excited yell.

Hitting the water was at once cold, refreshing and gloriously welcoming.
Swimming through the crystal clear waters of this mysteriously nice oasis felt like coming home to me for some reason.

I wanted to giggle to myself and roll around in the cool, yet somehow warm, depths forever.
It was only a pressing need for oxygen that prevented me from doing just that honestly.

My head broke the surface first and finally the giggle could come free from my lips again without potentially drowning me in the process.

“Hannah!”
With little more than a thought I rolled onto my back and the water around me began rising up into what was, for all intents and purposes, a throne made of water itself.

For some reason the throne looked and felt familiar but I just couldn’t put my finger on why, despite searching in my head as much as possible in the brief time I had before John decided that standing by the water’s edge calling my name wasn’t working and he made the mistake of stepping into the water, trying to wade his way closer towards me.

I shot him a knowing smirk and pulsed a mild surge of lightning magic through my feet into the water, causing his body to freeze up involuntarily for the brief moment I needed to let my water-throne drop as I practically flew through the cool water like a missile until I was right in front of him at last.

Yet again I surfaced with a happy giggle but this time I followed it up but wrapping my arms around him in a tight hug before he could escape.

“You got in my water John-boy, that’s a dangerous place to be, say ‘Uncle’ or I’ll dunk you!”
His eye’s widened delightfully and I laughed at his obvious surprise for the few seconds it lasted before he hid it behind his usual ‘cool’ exterior.

Slowly his arms came up and wrapped around me in a returning hug which honestly surprised me given the fact that I’d just, playfully, threatened to drown him in the nice oasis water around us.
His hands locked in place behind my back and he stared into my eyes searchingly for a second before his magic swelled impressively wide.

For just a moment it managed to wrap tightly around me on all sides before fizzling away into nothing when faced with the force of my much more powerful magic, but by that point the damage was done.

The warm, inviting feeling I’d had pouring into me from the water around us turned cold.
The colors of the trees and grass lost that unnaturally bright shade that had initially caught my attention about this place.

More importantly I felt a chill move down my spine and the rather odd feeling of the magic inside me pushing against seemingly solid walls of that same magic from outside my skin as if fighting back a tide of power in order to... to...

======

With a gasp of air my eyes shot wide open once more, despite my inability to remember closing them in the first place.

It took me a few seconds to gather myself and take stock of my surroundings before my eyes settled on John’s worried face at last, a rather easy thing to do from our rather cosy position hugging each other tightly while we paddled in a seemingly bottomless pool of amazingly clear water around us.

“John?”
His eyes lost some of the tension in them just from my cautious, questioning tone of voice and it felt like he relaxed as a whole moments later, much to my growing confusion.

“No time to explain Han, I need you to trust me and let me wrap you in my magic, then we need to get out of here quickly.”

I didn’t even get a chance to answer before a sheet of his magic came loose from his body and started trying to surround me on all sides, just like it has done so many times lately with equally nice feelings of warmth, love and trust inside it while being only slightly spoiled by the worry I could feel rolling through it almost constantly as it went.

My magic tried to push loose from his hold but it barely took a thought for me to suppress it into a more docile state and let him keep going until all I could feel was his power surrounding me on all sides.
Without another word he shifted his arms around me slightly as if trying to get a better hold before we were both wrenched away in the dizzyingly blue mess of a line-of-sight warp.

======

We came out the other side, wet but otherwise fine aside from some mild nausea on my part, as always when it comes to warping in general.
John let out a long breath I didn’t realise he’d been holding and, even stranger, I found myself huffing one out in relief as well.

“What’s going on John?”
I frowned slightly as my bare feet sunk slightly into the sand that we were now standing on, the water on them just turning the fine particles into a soggy mush which felt anything but nice as I shifted slightly to avoid sinking any further into it all.

“Everything went as well as it could, I think, your core imploded and scattered to the winds leaving nothing but your Locus point behind. That’s good for you, much healthier, not to mention more manageable, but as a side effect you appear to have created a pocket of magic around where the explosion happened.”

He shifted his arms slightly and flicked his head to my right in response to my curious eyebrow.

I turned my head to follow the movement and my eyes settled on a rather large area of green within the seemingly endless mountains of sand around us, at least a mile away easily from where we were currently stood, yet easily visible due to its general size and just how much it stood out compared to the bleak sand-covered space surrounding it.

“My magic did that?”
He nodded and sighed heavily, giving me another, not unwelcome, squeeze for some reason before he continued speaking.

“From what I can tell, it’s like the Hub or your Realm. You’re magic is infused into the ground and when you woke you must have been completely connected to it judging by the way you were acting. I did the only thing I could think of and wrapped you in my magic, forcing you out of whatever was affecting you by cutting you off from all external sources of magic for a moment or two.”

My eyes widened in surprise before cutting back over to the massive oasis that I’d apparently made by accident from nothing but an uncontrolled blast of my magic as a shudder went through my body at the thought of being controlled by the ground under my feet once more.
It was bad enough the first time back in my realm, let alone out here in the real world!

“Thanks for the save John, I’m sorry about... ya know... everything just kinda spiralled out of control and Eris... E-Eris-”
Slowly I stuttered to a stop as tears formed in my eyes in response to thinking back on that horrible moment where the closest thing I’ve ever had to a daughter didn’t even recognise me, running straight to my own sister who she called ‘Mum’ for some powers-known reason.

After a few moments pause to compose myself I sniffed heavily and shot John an apologetic look which he was more than willing to accept with ease judging by the look on his face.

“I feel better now at least! My magic is... I dunno, but it feels good, it feels lighter than it has in ages, I don’t feel out of control anymore and I don’t... um...”
I’m not even sure what I was trying to say at this point.

Being stood here, wrapped in Johns warm arms and his warm magic while I tried to explain how it felt to finally be free from all that built up pressure inside me left me feeling decidedly awkward as I came to realise what it may look like to an outside observer.

With that thought in mind I eased my arms up and gently pushed us apart slightly to create some space while offering him a thankful look just to make sure he knew it wasn’t anything personal.
He accepted my movement with a surprising amount of grace considering John’s usual emotional range that seemed to shift between arrogance and smug smirking in general.

The moment we’d fully separated, his magic fell away from my body and I couldn’t help but shiver slightly at its loss.

We both opened our mouths to say... something?...
I’m honestly not sure what I was planning to say at that point, let alone him, but it didn’t matter in the end anyway because practically the moment his magic left contact with mine there was an almighty roar of noise to our right and we both spun around to stare in horrified confusion as what appeared to be some kind of giant tentacle monster made of water rose high out of the oasis in the distance.

Several thicker tendrils split themselves vertically as they rose out of the ‘beast’ to create surprisingly realistic looking ‘mouths’ and they all turned as one to focus directly on us.
John gulped heavily and I tried to take a step back in fear, practically tripping over my own feet while crashing into his side instead moments later, much to my continued embarrassment.

“Do you think your magic can sense, well, your magic?”
My worried gaze cut between him and the now moving, gelatinous beast made of pure water as it oozed its way slowly towards us leaving a river of water behind in its wake leading out from the oasis’s original central pond and, if my eyes are seeing things right, apparently also spawning grass and more greenery out of nowhere along the sides of the ‘river’ as it goes!

For one horrible moment a few connections were made in my head between my golden diversion magic’s ability to grow plants around my feet on contact, its ability to influence me when I claimed my realm, it’s almost ravenous hunting of me when I used it to ‘defeat’ Maven at the Hub and finally the freak accident from my ill-advised attempts at testing its limits within my workshop while my core was damaged beyond belief which ended up creating the seemingly sentient zombie-plant I’d affectionately come to call ‘Bitey’ over the last few months.

“We need to leave; we need to leave RIGHT now! I don’t care where John, just hurry the hell up and get us out of here NOW!”
Luckily he didn’t need telling twice.

His arms wrapped tightly around my waist and I just about managed to take in a deep gasp of air before the blue light overtook us as we disappeared into a warp piloted by John, leaving behind the horrible, seemingly sentient, water-beast my magic had apparently formed into so it could catch me again just like the golden puddles tried to do at the Hub.

Much to my relief we got away without further incident and despite the potential dangers involved in its very existence as a whole, which I’m quite happy to list under ‘future-Hannah’ problems at the moment thank-you-very-much, at least the water-beast thing is slow moving if nothing else apparently!

======

We came crashing down awkwardly onto a hard wooden floor in a dark building of some kind.

I couldn’t bring myself to study things much more than that at first as I rolled onto my side and heaved a few times, my motion sickness showing it’s hatred for the idea of warping yet again with a much harsher response then the one I got a few minutes ago.

“W-where are we?”
My arms trembled slightly as I heaved in a few more deep breaths to suppress the urge to vomit which I’d probably have followed through with if it wasn’t for a certain lack of actual ‘food’ in my stomach at this exact moment in time.

“My place, it was the first thing I could think of, the manor is shielded so whatever that thing is, it shouldn’t be able to track you while you’re in here...”

I sighed in relief and rolled onto my back, my arm coming up to wipe my damp hair away from my face in the process before my lips split into a wide grin and a string of almost hysterical laughter left me, joined seconds later by John’s own relieved sounding sniggers to my side where he lay spread out on the same hard-wood flooring as I did.

“...I fucking HATE magic sometimes John-boy...”
The words barely escaped my lips before I was back to laughing to myself at just how crazy things had become in such a short space of time.

Less than a few hours ago I was safely tucked away in my own private little dimension doing everything I could to hide from the world and my problems, now I’m lying on the floor in my best friends ‘manor’ house somewhere feeling SO much better!

My core is just... I don’t know how to describe it?... it’s one of those annoying things with magic where you have to FEEL it to really understand properly but it’s like my core, in all its broken glory, was weighing me down for my whole life and suddenly someone’s cut the anchor away!

My whole body is just HUMMING with magic from the center of my chest all the way to the tips of my fingers.

Logically speaking I would have expected there to be some kind of empty, hollow feeling making itself known behind my heart because my core is completely gone but... but, it’s not there?
I can feel my Locus point pulsing away in my gut still, the power it’s radiating out, washing through my body like crashing waves of comfort that warm me from the inside so deliciously that I just want to bask in it whenever I focus internally even slightly.

It’s as if my Locus point has just been waiting for this moment, for my core to be gone so it can run wild through my body, run free... I honestly don’t think I miss my core at this point?... all my lines have reconnected themselves smoothly around my Locus point as if THAT’S my ‘new’ core and everything feels so GOOD now.

I feel refreshed, renewed and so wonderfully FREE at last!

======

“-glad it all worked in the end, I tried everything I could to find a cure for your dependency on that stupid ‘potion’ of yours or your fractured core but in the end all I could think of was to trigger a big burst of your diversion magic and use it’s unnatural power to ‘heal’ you instead.”
I blinked furiously, coming out of my thoughts on the weirdly pleasant feeling of my newly released magic as I rolled over slightly to fix John with a curious eyebrow which ignored in favor of carrying on regardless of my previous lack of attention.
“I didn’t exactly plan for you to snap like that so suddenly, I was actually going to lead you far away from everyone and then try to piss you off somehow, so the plan didn’t change THAT much, but when Eris turned up I knew things were going to go south pretty quickly and you needed to be removed as fast as possible.”

Slowly my head ducked down in thought as my mind focused on that horrible moment when Eris ran past me into Sarah’s arms instead.

The emotions tied to a lot of it all feel so remote now?
I’m not really sure what’s going on there, the thought of Eris not recognising me still hurts, burns me up inside, but the rest...

I know that I should feel upset?
I know that Eris’s ‘betrayal’ was just the tip of the iceberg with Sarah and John’s much ‘closer’ relationship coming before that, along with all the lingering doubts and guilt I have over my part in the deaths of my Mum and Edith as well... but it’s all just so... so... abstract?...

I’m really not sure what’s going on in my head at the moment at all.
One minute everything’s crushing down on me and then the next...

I just feel so light and free now, so disconnected from that rolling ball of rage and hatred that I let fester inside me for the months I hid in isolation.
There’s probably something to that feeling which I should be worrying about right now but I honestly can’t bring myself to face them at the moment if there really is something to worry about involved.

For the first time in a long time I feel like there’s nothing holding me back, nothing dragging me down or subverting my mind to turn it against me.
It’s such an amazing feeling that I just don’t want to let it go until I have to!

======

“What happened with Eris and Sarah, John?”

Just because I don’t want to look into the ‘why’ behind my sudden disconnection from those horribly strong emotions, doesn’t mean I don’t still care of course and John’s my best source for that kind of information at the moment sadly.

“Trade, an explanation for an explanation?”
I glared slightly at him but that only seemed to amuse him annoyingly so after a moment’s pause I huffed to myself and nodded in acceptance like he knew I would eventually.

“Things got messy. I came-to in a containment field, it didn’t take long for me to break-free obviously, I’ve fought rune masters much better than whoever made that one before after all.”

My eyes winced slightly at the idea of telling him it was his own mother who put him in there.
Before I could decide if it was worth keeping that information to myself or not he carried on speaking though, making the decision kinda moot for now as he moved on.

“I knew you’d be in trouble so I used our brands and followed them back towards your realm, it wasn’t until I got inside that I realised something was very, very wrong...”
He winced and shifted slightly so he could look at me better from our rather awkward positions on the cold wooden floor.
“The brand on my cheek, the one you gave me after I enacted the old magic against you, was telling me that you were quickly moving away from your house on a roughly northwards route... meanwhile the brand touching my core, the one that formed between us from your end when I first enacted the old magic against you and I worked pretty hard to keep open afterwards as a ‘back-up’ in case you ever found a way to cancel out the other one, was telling me that you were laying on the floor a few corridors away from me in serious pain.”

My mind spun with the implications involved in that shocking new information as John seemed to gather himself together so he could say what came next.

Slowly facts started slotting together into place making a horrible amount of sense and drawing a surprised gasp from my lips, my eyes widening along with them as I realised just what had really happened when Arista ‘gave’ Sarah back her core in that hallway.

“From what I could figure out, when the first binding between us formed, it connected with your dominant core; Sarah’s fire one to be exact... After that, Arista must have sensed what the magic was settling inside you to do somehow and begun work to prepare for her bid to take over during your so called ‘second awakening’, thrusting her ice core more into prominence, so that when you tricked me with a brand of your own minutes later the old magic latched onto her core instead of Sarah’s.”

‘Old magic doesn’t discriminate between intent.’
That’s what got us into this whole mess to start with, it’s the same loophole John abused to trick me in the first place after all!

Magic’s stupid, magic’s beyond stupid sometimes and it just does what it’s supposed to without questioning things.

The bindings were never designed to deal with someone who has more than one core, there’s never BEEN someone with more than one core before, as far as I know, so why would the ancient rune-masters who created those meeting grounds have factored something so unlikely into their calculations?

“You found Sarah?”
It’s the only way this story can go from here, he followed the nearest brand connection and found Sarah just how I left her, writhing on the floor as her own core burned her from the inside out with a dazed but heavily sleeping Eris laying nearby in the middle of some random hallway of my realm!

“I found Sarah, and Eris but Sarah was the priority obviously, it took a lot of work but I got the pair of them to the Hub doctors who started working their magic on them almost instantly.”
He sighed and brought a hand up to rub at his cheek slightly as he struggled to find the words for whatever he had to say next.
“They stabilised Sarah’s core and got to work preparing her lines for the magic battering its way inside her with surprising ease, apparently there’s some strange genetic deformity in some of the older Native American mage clans which mirrors what she was going through pretty closely because they had spells on hand to deal with most of the problems she was facing as they cropped up... Eris on the other hand...”

I blinked heavily and found myself holding my breath as he shifted his shoulder against the floor once more before continuing on.

“I don’t know what Arista did Han but Eris isn’t who she once was anymore. She’s the same in so many ways but it’s like someone’s memory wiped away all the important people associated with the things she knows and has hidden them away completely.”
He paused just long enough to shudder, probably at the idea of memory wiping being used on a mage like that in general knowing him, but then he carried on as if nothing had happened.
“I didn’t find out until after we got back from Wizard Island. She was still asleep when they got Sarah stable and I left to follow after you but when she woke up she took one look at Sarah’s sleeping form and declared her to be her ‘Mum’... nothing we tried could convince her otherwise, she’d just start thrashing around and screaming if we tried to stop her, in the end Sarah woke up and over the last few months she’s reluctantly fallen into the role thrust upon her in your place...”
...Well, fuck?...

Fucking Arista and her stupid fucking mind-games, and her stupid fucking... URG!
“Arista did it on purpose, she wanted to hurt me and she knew that the best way to do that was to take Eris from me like this...”

Gently John started pushing himself across the floor towards me.
He’d barely reached the middle-point between us before I lunged forward to wrap myself in his comforting embrace as the tears came and sobs followed quickly afterwards.

The rage may be gone, the hate, the anger, the betrayal... but it still hurts... it hurts so much I don’t know how I’m ever going to face Eris again without breaking down in seconds from it all!
Arista wanted to hurt me, to punish me, and she achieved it in the worst way she could possibly imagine...

“I’m glad I killed her John”
He didn’t question who I was speaking about or why I said it so suddenly.
He held me tight and rocked me while the tears kept falling, allowing me my much needed time to grieve at the loss of the closest thing I’ve ever had to a daughter, despite the fact that she’s still alive and well with my sister of all people.

“I’m glad I fucking killed her!”

======

“Sorry John...”
He let off a hollow little laugh and hugged me closer into his chest for a moment, his way of telling me that I was being stupid in apologising.
“Sorry I ran away into my realm for so long, I just couldn’t deal with things and I... I panicked?”

This time he didn’t laugh but he did squeeze me again as a sheet of his warm magic came loose to wrap around me in such a comforting way that I almost lost track of my chain of thought for a moment or two.

“Wizard Island... I k-killed a lot of people John, I’m a monster...”

Without any warning at all he twisted his body sideways, taking me along for the ride with a rather indignant squeak of surprise from me before settling us back down in a seated position, his back resting against a nearby wall and me seated in his lap like he’s done so many times lately.

Part of me wanted to resist his comfort as my thoughts sunk deeper into the seemingly dulled but still present feelings of guilt I had over my actions at Crater Lake, but a much bigger part of me settled into that wonderfully warm cocoon of his power.

I swear I can actually FEEL his magic slowly sinking into my skin, as if my magic itself is absorbing that strength and comfort as best it can just to keep me from falling over the edge once again?

“I saw the bodies...”
A full-body shudder ran down my spine at the almost detached statement of fact that fell from his lips.
He must have felt the movement I made, no matter how small it really was because he easily moved his arms around me ever-so-slightly tighter as he sunk his head down to rest on my shoulder reassuringly.
“What happened Han?... I know you, you wouldn’t have done something like that without a good reason...”

My mouth opened to answer him but I hesitated for a few precious seconds before the words finally came and like a flood I just couldn’t stop them as they all came pouring out in a near constant stream of broken mutters and half-formed sobs.

Starting with Arista’s snide little introductions ‘for my benefit’ as she greeted her followers, through my shock at the rune-covered crater’s unveiling and onward into the horrible jumble of physical and meta-physical fighting that ensued in that Powers-damned crater.

Through it all John just held me close and encouraged me to speak with little more than a few understanding noises at the back of his throat and the occasional squeeze or two when I needed it.
I didn’t realise until I’d started, just how much I NEEDED to get this all off my chest at last, ‘a secret shared is a secret halved’ and all that after all.

“You beat the hell out of her inside your own mind? That’s classic!”

S-stupid John... he always knows what to say...
...Always...

There's nothing wrong with having a good cry sometimes. Getting a weigh off your chest, Misery loving company, Jon loving Hann- Okay, lets not get crazy with this one, shall we? Events unfold including but not limited to: Feelings being talked about, Facts being discussed, and some shocking discoveries are made!

 

“-and then I looked up, and this dome of converging Laylines had formed high above the crater, I was SO scared John! Magic like that could crack the Earth in two if we let it, I didn’t have a choice in the end, I watched as thousands of cores worth of magic started rising up into the Layline streams and I knew that I didn’t have a choice... I thought... I thought I was going to die, John? I readied myself for it, I accepted it, and with everything I had I made SURE that the magic from Arista’s stupid crazy plan wouldn’t TOUCH the earth as long as it had to get through me but... but I was so scared...”

The sobs came back and John rubbed my shoulders a few times as I struggled to get the last few parts out past my trembling lips.

“I woke up on that thick, flat slab of obsidian where Wizard Island used to be, what felt like barely seconds later, and I could hear you calling me. You know the rest from there... it was all too much at that point, I’d been ready to kill, ready to die to protect everyone, not just the people I cared about but EVERYONE on the planet... I wasn’t ready to live through it all afterwards though...”
Slowly the sobs petered out and I was left sniffling to myself slightly as John kept on with his silent but reassuring presence.

“By the time I’d really worked out what was going on we were almost home and I panicked. I panicked so hard and just like Arista, just like all the others you used to call your ‘scared little rabbit’ I ran away from it all and hid as if it would make it all better somehow-”
With one last big sniff I tried to straighten my shoulders slightly to show that I wasn’t about to fall apart again over all of this just because I’d finally told someone what happened all those months ago.
“-I was so stupid...”

A beat of silence fell between us which felt like it had some immaterial ‘weight’ to it, as if I’d just imparted some great fact upon the world which would change the way things worked for all of eternity or something... and then John snorted back a laugh, unsuccessfully I might add.

Within moments I joined him as we both collapsed in a tired, broken puddle of relived giggles at just how stupidly melodramatic that final point had come out sounding.

“I... was, like, SO stu’pid!”
John echoed my own words back in his best attempt at sounding like some sort of vacuous bimbo from the worst acting talent pool a low-budget porno could ever hope to produce through peroxide and an IQ lower then my new, tiny, shoe size.

“D-don’t be an ass J-John-b-boy-”
I couldn’t even get the words out properly past my sputtering laughter, let alone make it sound in any way menacing or dangerous in the slightest.

“Oh, what are ya gonna do, ‘stupid’ me to death?”

It wasn’t funny at all, especially considering the topic we’d just got done discussing, but on the other hand it was hilariously perfect especially in that mocking tone of voice John always used to use in school when we’d quietly discuss just what the more Neanderthal-like members of the football team might be talking about as we watched them from the bleachers while eating our lunches in relative peace and quiet.

“You’re SUCH an ass!”
He just cackled in response and to my shame I joined him too.

It felt nice to laugh at last, things have been far too heavy and depressing lately, after reliving all those horrible moments that scarred me so badly a few months ago it felt good to just cut loose with him like we used to do in the old days.

He knows it all now and he’s not turned on me because of it, he’s not disgusted by me or calling me a monster... he’s just being an ass, just like always...
Stupid John!

======

“So, so you and Sarah aren’t... ya know?”

John blanched as if I’d hit him or something, his arms flying up to wave in front of his face as if it would make my question disappear back into the void somehow.

“We most certainly are NOT, ‘ya know’ing!”
I found myself sniggering at the almost physically ill look that crossed his face as the topic continued on and he started building up to a truly impressive looking rant.
“It's awkward as all hell honestly. We both still don't like each other that much, too much bad blood and Sarah is pretty possessive of you, even now, but we've gotten a working relationship going in the last few months at least as I trained her on how to use her magic properly without hurting herself.”

He sighed heavily and turned his head, rubbing his chin into my shoulder slightly as if that would make this conversation any easier or something.

“The brand is there and it messes with our perceptions of each other sometimes but we're both strong enough to ignore it for the most part, so that’s as far as it goes... I mean, can you IMAGINE me with your bobcat of a sister? She’d kill me within a week!... Besides, I prefer my girls with a sense of humour and I’ve only got eyes f-”

Suddenly his head jerked around and he stared determinately up the empty hallway to our left as if he’d heard something.

======

It took me a few seconds of worriedly watching that same hallway to realise that there really wasn’t anything there and he was just using the movement as an excuse to ‘subtly’ cut himself off mid-sentence.
It also, depressingly, took me a few more seconds to backtrack the conversation enough that I realised what he’d been about to say, making my cheeks flare in a mildly indignant blush as a result.

“So... I've missed a lot, huh?”
John seemed to let out a relieved breath at the easy out I was offering him and his body un-tensed beneath me as he turned back to facing my way again with an amused grin on his lips that felt only slightly forced.

“Honestly... yeah?... Crater lake has been officially declared a ‘death cult’ event, the current story being that they tried to summon a volcano god with explosives of some kind and failed, obviously.” He shifted his legs a little and ducked his shoulders so he could look at me better from our slightly awkward seating arrangement.
“I’ve heard rumors floating around that it might have been some kind of ‘Illuminati’ style ritual instead because of the high level positions apparently held in the normal world by most of the mages working for Arista, but no-one’s really giving that much credit, even if it is kinda closer to the truth than anything else on the table.”

He shrugged a little making me bob up slightly in his lap before we settled down again comfortably.

“On the magical side of things people don’t really know what to think and I don’t think they’ve really had time to work on finding an answer either, considering most of the mages in positions of authority across the globe have all died so suddenly without any real explanation and all.”
He went to shift his legs again and I forced my knees to clench slightly to stop him which drew a snort of repressed laughter from him at least.
“As it is, our magical congress are just barely limping by with assistants and assistants-TO-assistants being thrust into roles they are completely unprepared for just to stop the whole system from collapsing in on itself at the moment.”

A little laugh rumbled up in his chest making me vibrate in response due to our close proximity at the moment but it died off quickly as his face took on a far more serious tone.

“I’m amazed I’ve not been hit by a load of summons daily to come help sort things out really. I assume they’ve just held off on the misguided idea that I might be ‘grieving’ for the loss of Arista or something, but I’m glad they apparently don’t need me at least, it’s a good sign that things aren’t quite THAT bad yet if nothing else...”

I smiled slightly in response and rolled my back slightly harder against his chest just because it felt nice at this point while also giving me a chance to bring our conversation back on track once more.

“Where do we go from here then? I’m clean at last, in more ways than one, but I really don’t know how I’ll be able to cope with your connection with Sarah or Eris’s... just Eris in general at this point really...”
He shifted his legs a bit underneath me and pulled his arms tighter around me reassuringly as he tried to think of a proper response to those rather awkward points of contention.

“For Sarah... well... you and Sarah are connected too, so we should balance each other out pretty well as long as we’re all together most of the time.”
I twisted in his arms and shot him a curious look at that one.

That’s the first I’ve heard of me and Sarah being bloody ‘connected’ somehow?!
I mean, we have our ‘twin thing’ but that’s not REALLY real in a traditional sense.

We just know each other so well that we can kinda ‘skip the boring bits’ when it comes to most conversations while explaining it away with the often nebulous concept of ‘twin speak’ if it ever comes up, but there’s not REALLY some kind of psudo-psychic link between us or anything, that would just be weird!

“You can’t seriously be trying to tell me that you can’t feel it?”
My eyebrow rose slightly higher in response to that one as if the answer should be obvious, mostly because it should be at this point, if he wasn’t such a stupid John.
“There’s a bond between your core and Sarah’s now, easily a thousand times more intense than the one we share, looking at the pair of you with magesight when you’re close to each other is practically blinding now. We used to patrol your realm together, just so I could watch the way your bond intensified as you got closer to Sarah and I’d have a shot at actually catching you when you snuck out to steal more food.”

Son of a-
THAT’S how he found me every-bloody-time I left my workshop on a food run?!

That’s CHEATING! I didn’t even know that we HAD a bond, let alone one so powerful that John could abuse it to track me so easily just by watching it move with magesight!
...I guess it kinda makes sense at least?...
Until recently Sarah’s new core was stuck inside me along with Arista’s one and my Locus point after all.

When you put it that way, it’s only natural that we’re connected; I'd be surprised if we weren't after everything that's happened and all the years ‘our’ cores spent in a connected system with each other.

The sympathetic relationship of a shared core, with a shared identity, and a shared bloodline in a shared lifetime alone would assure that there was some kind of bond tying my Locus point ‘core’ together with her fire one at the very least.

If you factor in us being born as twins, magical twins at that, then it would only strengthen a bond which was already there over time as my power levels grew instead of forming a fresh one in the first place.

I couldn’t exactly drop in and check for something like that over the last few months though, could I?
Until barely an hour ago, my magic has been so broken since Arista’s botched ritual that I daren’t even touch it.

Considering how badly things went wrong in my last attempts to directly access it, leading to my accidental creation of the world’s first ‘zombie plant’ of all bloody things, I was quite happy to work on my runes and use the ambient magic of my realm when a power source was needed thank-you-very-much!

I’ve spent the last few months working with nothing but ambient magic from my, luckily magically rich, personal dimension instead of even TRYING to access my core in the slightest.
Even now I’m kind of worried what I’m going to find if I drop into my lines at this point!

It may just be a Pavlovian response to all the pain I’ve faced from doing just that over the last few months but that doesn’t make it any less difficult to shake off the feeling of dread I have over doing it, even when I know that I should be able to reach my lines and even my mindscape with ease now.

======

“-as for Eris...”

Ah, crap, did I miss part of the conversation?
Stupid brain!

“From what I can tell, from the magic involved with Sarah’s description of things and yours added in, Arista tried to shift Eris's loyalties onto herself with some weird compulsion-based magical signature related system she has in place as part of whatever twisted spell system she’s put together that stops Eris from dying at all.”
He sighed heavily and ran a hand down his face in exasperation before continuing.
“It probably would have worked as she planned; except for one thing she’d overlooked... you were fighting inside YOUR realm at the time... and even when Arista had her in her clutches in an attempt to ‘imprint’ on the poor girl, the very air around them was soaked in YOUR magic instead, making her whole plan a big useless mess to some degree.”

Not THAT much of a useless mess, she still managed to make her forget I exist after all and... and...

As if he could read the direction my thoughts were going in John winced in sympathy and pulled me tighter to himself for a gentle squeeze as his magic ghosted its way across mine reassuringly.

“From what I can tell, while the magical side of things didn't work properly, the mental side did and the compulsions on Eris left her open to suggestion. Like a baby bird she imprinted on the first person who was there when Arista tried to ‘program’ her she saw upon waking up as her 'mother', namely...”

“...Sarah...”

“Yeah... I’m sorry Han. I honestly don’t know how she did it or how to fix things yet but that doesn’t mean we’re giving up any time soon, I promise that we won’t stop until we find a way to bring our Eris back properly at last and undo whatever Arista did to her once-and-for-all!”
My eyes closed heavily as I sniffed back a sudden resurgence of those stupid useless tears once more at the sheer determination in John’s voice as he said exactly what I needed to hear at the moment.

He’s right damn it!

I shouldn’t give up so easily, Arista isn’t unbeatable.
I’ve already proven that more than once and if the bitch wasn’t already dead I’d do it many more times over, just because I could.

I’ll find out what she did to turn MY Eris into HER immortal, programmable doll, and I’ll FIX IT!
I’m Hannah Powers-Damned Cooper and if I say I can do something then I can do it, just watch me!

“G-Guess I'm 'Auntie Hannah' for now then, huh?”
Even I winced at the shaky tone to my voice as I spoke those, at once painful and yet encouraging words, aloud finally.

Ever since the remnants of my ice core exploded in my chest it’s been so easy to let my emotions slide away behind whatever ‘veil’ has formed between them and me in my head.

That veil is still dangerously thin though when it comes to certain topics and people especially.
I’m functioning, I’m surviving at least, but... but while some reminders and conversations can be like taking a Hammer to that ‘veil’ making it ache and wobble when they’re through, others like Eris feel as if someone’s painfully stabbing a sword right through it all and out the other side.

“Until we can fix this, she's alive and she's safe for now, they both are, that's what matters.”
...He’s right...
Wh-why does he always know what to say?... Stupid John!

I mean, what do I know about kids anyway?!
I'm a fighter, not a mother!

Sarah will be way better for her then I could ever be, and he’s right, with them together like this now they can be so much safer.
While I focus on the bigger problems around us, they can look after each other for once in my place.
...Yeah, that sounds about right...

Before I could voice my latest decision, my temporary acceptance of the way things must be from now on, John pulled me in for another tight hug and without any input from me a few more weak-tears fell from my eyes in response.
For a few seconds I tried to fool myself into thinking that they were happy tears, safe tears... not sad ones because I’ve lost my d-daughter to my s-sister an-and..

He squeezed me again and I wrapped my arms tightly around him in response so I could squeeze him back with at least somewhat equal amounts of fervor to match his own warm, accepting grasp.

Stupid John!

The bastard didn't even say anything this time but he still knew EXACTLY what to say when I needed him to...

======

“Ready to face the world again yet?”

I grunted and rolled slightly in his lap, pulling us further apart and sighing lightly as his warmth bled out with the encroachment of some stupidly cold air between our bodies.

“Good. You need some new clothes in that case, I’ve got to make a long delayed stop-off on the way home and you just KNOW Sarah’s worrying herself sick over you at the moment, the quicker we can get everything sorted and meet up with her the better, huh?”

A bitter little snort of amusement left me nose.

I’m okay now. I’m not great, not even ‘good’ really... but just about ‘okay’...
I can survive on ‘okay’, I’ve done more with worse before after all an-
...Hang on a minute, what’s wrong with my clothes?...

Almost without a thought my eye’s scanned down myself with a dawning sense of confusion and surprise which was quickly dwarfed by an even bigger sense of fear.

My clothes are gone!

Well, no, okay... so not ‘gone’ gone exactly?
I’m not naked or anything, but the clothes I had on over my protective suit must have gotten vaporised like the magically un-protected fabric they were at some point during my whole ‘core exploding’ thing and the moments of madness that followed it.

More importantly, and worrying, is the fact that I can see my bloody HANDS!
My feet too, now that I’m paying attention to it all!

The ‘sleeves’, gloves, one skin-tight legging and both ‘sock’ parts of my full body protective suit are just... just GONE...

It looks like I’m wearing a weirdly cut, all black, swimsuit with rather ragged edges more than anything and that... that’s a very, VERY bad thing!

“To be honest I think the look suits you, very ‘bad-assed beach-babe’ in my opinion, but I know what you’re like when it comes to fashion and showing off too much skin these days.”

“John... my suits ruined?...”
He shifted slightly so he could see my admittedly pretty stunned, dazed looking expression a bit better and smirked in response, as if to say ‘Really? You don’t say?!’ without words.
“No, John, this isn’t a joke. My SUIT is RUINED!”

“So? What’s the big deal? You can just make a new one; it can’t be that hard at this poin-”

“John, shut up and LISTEN to me damn it!”
His smirk dimmed slightly as he finally seemed to realise that I wasn’t just messing around but getting seriously scared at this point.
“These suits, I designed these suits to be perfect John... I designed these suits to protect the wearer against the elements, against most firearms or bladed weapons and more importantly against MAGIC!”

He’s still not getting it, I can tell just by the look on his big dopy face.

“External AND internal magic, John! No magic, let alone MINE should have been enough to even make a dent in this suit.”

One of its main purposes was to be a suppressor for when my magic goes out of control again and for the force of my core ‘exploding’ to be so powerful that it did THIS much damage to my suit means... m-means that we might have a serious problem on our hands here, because if that’s how much power my broken, weakened and partly-disconnected core could let off then just how much can my Locus Point itself manage to throw out if it tries?!

He’s not... he’s still not getting it!

My magic’s always been strong, far too strong for my sanity’s sake, and even if it feels so calm and controllable now, you just have to look towards that new ‘oasis’ it made to realise that I still don’t have a complete grasp on just HOW it all works yet let alone WHY it works, which could be SERIOUSLY dangerous even at the best of times.

If my core was THAT powerful and my Locus Point is even half as powerful as it feels like it is when compared to how my broken core was, then this is definitely not a ‘best of times’ situation!

FAR, far away from a ‘best of times’ situation!

======

With a harsh jerk of my body I shot away from John and rolled to my feet, sliding slightly on the wooden flooring until my back hit the hallway wall furthest from John and I could stare at him in fear.

How could I have been so stupid?
Of course my magic couldn’t just WORK for once and be useful without there being a catch!

Compared to anyone else I’ve ever met, even including John, just my normal ‘Golden domes’ of healing power are beyond most of their power levels by a stupid degree.

The ‘Nuke’ I let off when healing John was beyond anything I thought humanly possible and may even LITERALLY have been just that, considering it broke the rules of life-and-death with relative ease at the time.

The blast I let off back in the crater of Wizard Island to bleed power away from the earth was almost purely from instinct alone and it’s not even WORTH calculating the amount of magical power involved because I’m not even sure numbers large enough to work it all out on paper have been given names yet by humanity in general!

I designed these suits to contain and bleed off more than FOUR TIMES the roughly estimated power level of THAT blast into the environment harmlessly... and this latest blast of power managed to vaporise parts of the suit instead.
Even worse it was very specific parts too, ones which contained concentrations of storage, syphoning and control runes, all wiped completely out of bloody-existence!

That can’t HAPPEN, it’s just not real that my Locus point could be THAT powerfu-

======

“Han, you’re sparking?”

My head snapped up and I stared at John in lost confusion as the world started coming back into focus around me from my little introspective moment of fear in the face of my own potential power-levels.

“What?”
...Sparking?...

What the hell does he mean by ‘sparking’?!

Instead of actually answering me he glanced awkwardly down towards my hands.
My eyes followed his down and settled on thick streams of pure electricity, as they arced in almost blindingly bright blue lines around my tightly clenched fists like mini-thunder storms in the process of bringing down the wrath of the Gods upon some poor unfortunate soul.

The moment I realised what was happening a gasp left my lips.
Almost instantly the arcs died out as if sensing my attention upon them, leaving us both blinking furiously to try and clear the light away from our eyes in possibly an even greater state of confusion from just moments before.

With a careful gulp of air I brought my hand up to my eye-level and stared at it hard as if it would provide answers of some sort.

After a few seconds without much progress I tentatively tried to reach out to my magic once more and with barely a nudge it surged forth again, bright blue sparks of electricity shooting between my outstretched fingers for a few moments before being drowned out by much larger trails of lightning which wrapped their way around my hand and partly up my arm like a writhing pile of snakes made of pure energy.

I gulped again as my theory was at least partly confirmed from the sensations I could feel rolling around inside me, and the moment I thought of it the lightning just disappeared once more as my magic obediently returned to its rolling brethren inside my body itself.

“I’m a lightning mage?”
It wasn’t really a question, despite the questioning tone those words slipped past my lips in.
I’m a bloody LIGHTNING mage!

When- How could I- Wha-
What the hell?!

My brain jumped through a billion hoops in seconds as I tried to piece together any kind of scenario where that idea made ANY kind of sense, until finally a pair of often ignored memories from my distant past decided to raise their guilty little hands in response to my troubled search at long last.

The first was from my childhood, the night Dad tried to take me away again in the dead of night and Sarah caught him in the act, the night I panicked because I thought he was going to take Sarah with him too and the next thing I knew he was across the garage against his work-bench, twitching away as if... as if he’d been electrocuted?

The second one was during prom, the night we were kidnapped by Vlad and his vampire cohorts.
He bit me, he was killing me and there was nothing I could do... but during the haze that I fell into through blood-loss, when the MPA stormed the place and the girls screamed in fear behind me, I lost track of the world for a moment and the next thing I knew Vlad was across the room from me, twitching and jerking as if he’d been zapped by... something?

‘I tried to console myself with the fact that I was doing it for you. If you don’t know about magic your safer. I spent the whole night going around in my head about how I was doing it for you and it wasn't my fault... but I knew... I saw what happened in that hall, the same thing that happened to Dad... I KNEW you were a mage.’
Sarah, oh Sarah, I should have bloody LISTENED to you for once!

She knew, she’s always known, but she’s never had any reason or context to understand what that simple observation she made while ranting to me in an empty car-park after our first trip to the Hub together could really mean in the slightest.

I’m a lightning mage.

I’ve always BEEN a lightning mage!
My first awakening suppressed it entirely with Sarah’s fire core, my second with Arista’s ice one, but now they’re both gone and all that’s left is my original ‘core’, my Locus point?

My apparently, lightning element based, Locus point.

Edith’s diversion was set up to tweak the output of ‘my’ core and let me unconsciously manipulate my lines into producing that Golden magic instead of Arista’s dangerous ice... but that cores gone now too.
No core, no diversion!

‘Ba! Ya truly be useless girl, fire ain't a right’un for ya!’

‘Be sayin’ ya be a wrong’n with fire girl but ya not be listenin’ neither. Ice be bett’a but not too right for ya still..’

‘Ya thinkin’ too right-ways, ya need ta think up!’

Think 'up', my ASS Edith!
The stupid little Yoda-wannabe KNEW and she never said anything?!

Part of me is still a little stunned, completely thrown off by the sudden revelation that I’m not what I always thought I was, magically speaking at least.

A lot of early sympathetic magic goes into the reasoning behind and effects of your elemental affinity on you, your personality, your reactions and everything else meta-physical about you as a human being.

...I’ve been running the math wrong...
For years I worked my sympathetic spells and connections on the faulty idea that I was a fire mage and it threw off my calculations in often unexpected ways as a result!

When my core changed over to an ice affinity I didn’t give it much thought, allowing little more than a moment’s pause to think ‘Huh, well that makes a bit more sense at least?’ before carrying on with the rest of the mess that came from my second awakening in general.

I’ve gotten lazy ever since I got my Golden diversion magic, it fixes so many things so easily that I’ve not even bothered to consider alternative methods of doing things half the time.

I didn’t even TRY to use my ice magic to do any kind of sympathetic rituals at all.
If I had, I’d probably have been in for a bit of a shock at the time, metaphorical or literal, because while ice is closer to lightning on the ‘elemental wheel’ then fire it’s still not right and my math would have been WAY off still!

I’m a lightning mage... I’m a BLOODY lightning mage!

At least I can try those battery charging runes out easier now, I guess...
...That’s the spirit, always look at the bright-side of things!...

What are the personality traits most common in lightning mages anyway?
Do I match the profile at all?

When I was younger I always thought I fit the definition of a fire mage a bit too well honestly, but these things are vague and a bit obtuse for a reason I guess.
It’s a bit like the ‘cold-readings’ that ‘psychics’ do with the normals, or ‘horoscopes’ in general, unless their done properly.

Everything is just vague enough that if you look at it properly it can probably apply to any person in any situation most of the time, but those profiles are important, the only reason I managed to find any degree of control over my fire magic was by looking up the profile and... and...

Well... Crap...
I’m such an idiot sometimes!

I read up on the character profile for fire mages, roughly applied it to myself in my head and from then on I ran with it, trying to fit into the personality profile as best I could as time went on.

Self-hypnosis, self-bloody-hypnosis!

I convinced myself it was true and my magic responded to my change in attitude as the fire calmed down in return for my fitting ‘the norm’ of its users a bit better, despite that not being how I naturally am...

What was I really like before my fire magic came along?
I wasn’t brave.
I second guessed myself on everything and I worked so hard to be ‘normal’ growing up, despite being painfully NOT normal in most situations.

Sarah was the brave twin, the fire mage in essence, always pulling us into and back out of danger just for the fun of it all... meanwhile I was... I was...
...Meek?...

I didn’t like being the center of attention, didn’t like responsibility or being forced into situations without a lot of preparation beforehand.
Al, Young Al... would he ever have been strong enough to fight full-blood demons on a daily basis?

The same kid that let his sister boss him around constantly, the same kid that screamed and hid behind the pillows when that same sister put horror movies on at Halloween, the same kid who just went along with things to avoid conflict...

How did I change so drastically over the years without realising it?
The change was slow, I noticed it more in my emotional reactions to things after my change from fire to ice honestly, but the changes were there and there was nothing ‘natural’ about them at the time!

I don’t... I don’t know who I am anymore?
I don’t- I- S-

STUPID MAGIC!

Why does everything have to be so complicated when magic is invol-

======

“Han?”

John’s hand came to rest on my shoulder and I jolted back with a scream of surprise as I was rudely forced out of my own internal moment of panicked realisation once more, back into the real world with a bump as my head met the wall at speed.

Sadly John joined me in screaming a moment later when my magic sparked in response to my emotions and sent more than a few volts through the poor unsuspecting idiot too.

“Sorry John, I... Uh... I, um...”
His hair is standing on end and he looks less than amused.
Even if his magic is telling me quite clearly that he finds the whole situation at least somewhat funny that doesn’t change the fact that I just shocked the hell out of him, in more ways the one.
“Just had a bit of a moment there, ya know?... So yeah, I’m a lightning mage I guess-”
This is starting to get awkward and his hair is still sticking up from the charge too.
“-so uh... ‘Woo-hoo, lightning pride!’ yay for new elements and all that, blah-blah-blah...”

His eyebrow is twitching slightly and I honestly can’t tell if it’s from restrained laughter or just a tick formed by the electrical current presumably still running riot through his nervous system to some degree.

“...I’m just gonna go clothes hunting, as you said earlier...”

Without another word I practically sprinted past him and dived into the first open doorway I could find.
My hand reached up automatically to close the door before pulling back with a yelp when a spark of static electricity shot from my hand to the old metal doorknob instead.

After a few seconds of rubbing my poor hand to get the numbness to go away I huffed to myself loudly and nudged the door shut with my foot instead.

Stupid lightning magic!
As if I didn’t have enough on my plate as it is?

There better be some damn clothes in here or I’m gonna light the world up like a Japanese 'Sparkle-Mouse' having its tail stepped on!

Paying attention is important. Take nothing for granted and nothing will surprise you! It's a nice theory at least... in practice though?... Events unfold including but not limited to: Hannah being carried awkwardly, John staring awkwardly, And multiple floors are going to need cleaning!

 

“You done in there yet Han? It’s getting kinda late.”

‘Am I done in here yet?’
...I honestly don’t know at this point...

I had a bit of a ‘mini-freakout’ over the whole ‘lightning mage’ thing at first but eventually I calmed down, more out of self-preservation than anything else.

Considering how many times I got static shocks off of things because my body apparently develops a charge every time I get angry now, which bloody HURTS by the way, the fact that I’ve managed to actually look for some clothes to cover up my ruined protective suit is pretty impressive in my opinion John-boy!

I’ve got quite a few questions to be asking him when I get out of here though, that’s for sure.
...Maybe that’s a good thing to focus on for now?...

“I think I’m done John-boy. I’m coming out, no laughing, okay?”

The main question on my mind at the moment is something along the lines of ‘Why has he got so many eclectic pieces of women’s clothing in his mansion?’... although, considering they all looked like they could fit me perfectly, I’m guessing the answer to that one is going to be kinda obvious in the end sadly.
...Stupid Arista...

“My options were limited so I made the best of things, but I know it looks stupid so don’t you dare laugh, okay?”
He didn’t answer, annoyingly.

In the end I just screwed up my courage, straightened my back with as much dignity as possible and eased the door open carefully with my new sleeves tucked over my palms to prevent yet another static shock from happening, something which I’m becoming frustratingly used to receiving already at this point.

As I slid my way out of the door I came face-to-face with John who’d apparently decided to change clothes too judging by the dark, tailored suit he’s wearing with a matching black shirt and thin white tie underneath it he’s wearing which looks vaguely ‘retro’ to my inexperienced eye.

I’m by no means an expert on men’s fashion but if he actually bought that suit this side of the last handful of decades then I’d be surprised honestly.

At first his face was set in a wide smirking-grin of anticipation but when I finally cleared the doorway his smirk slowly fell away to be replaced by a rather unnervingly softer look that almost bordered on ‘fond approval’ more than anything else.

I found myself nervously shifting from foot to foot in the little kitten-heels I found at the bottom of the right-hand wardrobe of the apparent bedroom that I locked myself into earlier.

Seeing as I was hunting for clothes that looked more like actual ‘clothing’ instead of a ‘costume’ due to how out-of-date it all seemed to be, it kinda feels like I didn’t do too badly if I’m being objective about things.

There wasn’t exactly much to work with that wasn’t ‘costume worthy’ and I made the best of what I had at least!

I could have done without the skin-tight brown leather horse-riding pants, but considering they were the only thing that could be considered ‘not a full-on Victorian or worse’ skirt on offer, they were an instant ‘yes’ sadly.

The fact that the leather gave me more than a little bit of a wedgy in general meant I had to add something on top of them for my own embarrassment sake if nothing else, just so I didn’t feel too exposed.
The least ‘Victorian’ looking item on offer was sadly a little yellow ‘Ra-Ra’ skirt which I’m pretty sure I remember seeing someone wearing in a movie from the Eighties at some point.
It was obviously not optimal or my first choice in the slightest, but beggars can’t be choosers and it was better than nothing in the end...

Added to that was a frankly kinda embarrassing, lacy white ‘bodice’ I stole from the top half of a massive white ball-gown hanging up in the second wardrobe.
It would have been possibly worse than the leather pants honestly, if it wasn’t for the skin-tight layer of my ruined black ‘wetsuit’ I have underneath it and a long, open frock coat in a dusty shade of off-brown I found a few hangers over from it to go on top, of course.

The coat practically goes down to my ankles with an almost fanned out ‘skirt’ like effect that puffs out almost unnaturally well in a wide bell around me from a point just below the rather tight waistline allowed by its built-in belt.

At first I left the belt undone which let the coat settle a bit better but I ended up using it eventually just to keep the whole thing from flapping open too widely as I moved more than anything.
I think with everything added together it kind of works in making a somewhat serviceable mix-and-match outfit at least.
One which looks sort of okay to me in the mirror but would definitely be considered on the ‘weird’ side of fashion in general back in Klamath falls but-
“...beautiful...”
-Huh?

My eyes cut up sharply to stare into John’s admiring ones as he scanned me up and down a few times almost hungrily.

From the tips of my little heels to the high-neck of my dark under-suit, from the wide ‘bell’ bottom of my over-coat to the partly hidden but still figure hugging ruffles from my ‘borrowed’ bodice and back again.

I shifted my weight awkwardly and coughed to try and break his concentration but sadly he seemed to be far too deep into his dazed staring to be of any use at this point.

“It’s the best I could manage with what you had John-boy, quit staring already... why do you even HAVE all these clothes anyway?... Please tell me I’m not stealing Arista’s stuff; that would just be creepy at this point...”
It’s bad enough I stole all her magical knowledge already!

Don’t get me wrong, the bitch totally deserved it... but the more I think on it all the more uneasy I feel over taking so much from her without any form of recourse from the whole thing?

Mages don’t really believe in ‘Karma’ generally, and even if they did I guess her magical knowledge would be the least she could give me in exchange for the crap she pulled, but we believe in the ‘Powers’ and if you believe the old myths about them then they might as well BE ‘Karma’ incarnate for the amount of times they’ve supposedly ‘taken revenge’ on those who have abused their powers too much in general so-

=====

“Sorry Han, didn’t mean to make you feel awkward, you’re just... the look suits you, I guess?...”
My eyebrow perked up suspiciously at him and he shrugged slightly in response before smirking his usual ‘devil-may-care’ grin at me as if dismissing everything he’d said moments ago, an idea I’m more than willing to go along with considering how weird this whole situation is getting sadly.
“If you’re ready, you can go first and I’ll meet you at the Klamath Falls waypoint?”

Rather than give him a direct answer and chance having to spend any more time standing in this quiet hallway with him awkwardly like this, I shot him a quick nod before dipping slightly into my lines for the first time since my core shattered so I could reach my warping ‘senses’ and get out of here.

It barely took a second or so for me to pick up the right ‘taste’ combination for Klamath Falls surprisingly and much to my relief no problems decided to appear out of nowhere either.

Apparently even my warping senses are working better now that I’m free of the dead-weight put on my ‘true’ Locus point core by Arista and her stupid game of ‘Let’s add more cores to Hannah and see what happens!’.

If anything, I felt a bit put off by just how easy it felt to navigate to my lines now?
There was none of the ‘pushback’, none of the concentration needed to maintain the connection that I’m so used to having be present at all for some reason.
I only needed to just about ‘touch’ the surface of my lines before my magic surged up to meet me like the ‘bottled thunderstorm’ equivalent of an over-excited puppy.

My magic rolled and flipped happily in my chest to such a stupid degree that I didn’t even need to reach my lines directly before my senses kicked in at full power, as if my magic could tell what I wanted already and was only too eager to help.

With one more quick glance over at John I felt the waypoint beacon pulse in response to my probe, showing that it was clear for me to go through and I dropped into warp so smoothly, practically without effort at all as I found myself whizzing across the globe as a scattered bundle of atoms in a bubble of my own magic, surrounded by the familiar blue haze of warp space.

======

The world reformed around me at last and naturally the first thing I did was collapse forward with a sickened groan as my stomach rebelled against the newly rediscovered idea of me existing in ‘reality’ on general principle alone.

“Miss, you need to move out the way, I have another warp request coming in already?”
From my hunched over position on the floor I slowly twisted my head around to glare at the stupid guard guy on duty.
It wasn’t intentional but I could feel sparks of electricity welling up across my skin as my hair stood on end from the static build up that came with them, much to my continuing annoyance.

“Don’t make me zap you random guard-guy, I’m not in the mood. It’s only John, the bastard can wait considering he forgot to remind me that we’d be warping here from bloody ENGLAND of all places!”

The poor guard took several steps back from me as my glare intensified in the few seconds I could hold it before my eyes started wincing down again into pained little slits and my stomach once more disagreed heartily with the idea of me speaking right about now.

That was probably a wise move on his part in hindsight because, after a few deep huffs to prepare myself I climbed back to my feet only to have my magic flare up in yet more arcing lines of electrical fury as I practically fell forward moments later in my best attempt to get clear of the waypoint’s landing zone as requested.

My shoulder slammed into the doorway which acted as more of a crutch for me than anything else as I clung to it for dear life and waited with my eyes closed for the tell-tale disturbance of cold air that should follow John’s arrival in good old Klamath at last.

Luckily I didn’t have to wait long and he appeared behind me with a slight stagger, followed by a rather loud huff of breath that I’m pretty sure was meant to signify the journey had left him at least slightly winded... although maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part at this point...

“You okay there Han?”
Slowly I leaned more of my chest against the doorframe so I could pull my head and shoulders back slightly and turn to shoot him a highly un-amused glare in response to that stupid-bloody-question!
“Oh... right, still got that whole ‘motion sickness’ thing going on, huh?”

Yes John-boy, thank you for noticing, isn’t it just delightful?!
How about you come over here so I can kick you in the balls and we’ll both suffer through mind-numbing degrees of nausea together, huh?

“Why don’t you just blast your golden ma-... oh, right, no diversion at the moment...”
Yes, also a fantastically well-made point John-boy, yet again let me extend my offer to personally help you understand just how sick warping across the bloody GLOBE makes me feel when just going a few miles leaves my stomach swirling on a good day!

“Is she going to be okay?”
I barely managed to restrain myself from letting off another pained groan when the stupid MPA trooper on guard duty decided to chip in to this whole comedy of errors again with an almost annoyingly worried tone to his stupid voice.

“Sorry about her, she’ll be fine soon enough; she’s just a bit grouchy today.”

Don’t think I can’t feel that knowing look you just shot him John-boy you ASSHOLE!
Don’t you DARE use a currently non-existent period as an excuse to another guy for why I’m nauseous, rightfully angry at you and being ‘grouchy’ in the slightest!

“I hope you feel better soon Miss, have a good day, okay?”
Powers damn it; he actually bought it!
Bloody... bloody... MEN!

“Come on Han, let’s get you some fresh air and somewhere away from the innocent people you could harm where you can sit down in peace for a bit, shall we?”
Without prompting at all John loped his way over to me and threw an arm around my waist with his head tucking under my elbow so he could support me better as he eased me away from my nice supporting wall and we slowly started progressing through the motel hallways outside the waypoint room in an awkward three-legged shuffle.

“You tell someone I’m on my period ONE more time John-boy, rightly or wrongly, and I’ll kill you where you stand, understood?”

He’s laughing at me! The stupid bastards LAUGHING at me?!
I can FEEL it, I can feel his stupid shoulders shaking through his stupid suit as he walks my stupid wobbly-ass through these stupid halls with the utmost calm, as if we’re discussing nothing more important than the stupid weather!

“...I hate warping...”

Don’t pat my hair ‘consolingly’ John-boy or I’ll bite your fingers off!
Focus on getting us somewhere that I can puke without being seen you stupid asshole!

======

We took another right-turn along yet another street and a truck whipped by so quickly that I actually staggered back slightly.
My head rose for the first time since we left the motel to scan our surroundings before dipping back down again with a depressingly self-pitying groan of defeat.

ENGLAND?! We warped here from bloody ENGLAND of all places!
On top of that, I’d already let John warp me around twice in the last few hours too; once to Death Valley somewhere and then onwards to his little ‘mansion’ as well.

Third times apparently ‘the charm’ because all that warping seems to have finally caught up with me this time, to a stupidly horrible degree, that’s worse than I can remember having from just a normal warp in a long-long time.

Considering most mages don’t even think cross-continental warping is physically possible and I’ve got a well-documented history of problems like this when traveling by ‘Magical atom bubble’ airlines, I’m kinda amazed I’ve not puked yet honestly?!

“Where are we-”
I paused to suppress a burp that felt like I REALLY didn’t want to let it out at this point and we took a few more steps forward up the street before I could continue on.
“-going exactly?”

“No worries Han, we’re almost there. You can grab a seat and I’ll see if there’s anything to hand that might help you at all.”
Part of me wanted to call him out on how evasive that answer was in general but a much larger part of me just didn’t want to chance opening my mouth to speak again considering how much ‘success’ I’ve had on that front recently.
“Almost there Han, lean over slightly for a sec’ so I can get the door open, okay?”

It apparently took a bit of juggling for him to reposition me without letting me fall, like I SO wanted to right now, but eventually John got things sorted and the apparent ‘door’ on my right swung open with an unexpectedly loud bell-ring that made my already upset stomach roll once more in a horrible mix of guilt, fear and just straight up nausea in general.

“E-Edith’s shop, John?... Why are we at Edith’s sh-shop?”

I had to work pretty hard to get the words out at this point, not helped at all by the sudden stutter that formed up just at the thought of Edith and... and the shop I’ve been avoiding even THINKING about over the last few months through sheer willpower alone because with it comes the knowledge that I’ll have to face the remaining occupants of said shop again one day, no matter how unready I feel about that concept.

“We need to go-”

My legs buckled and my arms twitched heavily as it all became too much for my poor abused stomach at long last.
In a startlingly well lined up shot which really put the ‘projectile’ in... well?... either way my stomach emptied pretty damn quick, leaving a rather disgusting puddle on practically the same spot I once left a distinctly similar sized puddle on this same floor, after Edith got through bashing my brains in due to supposedly ‘Bad Juju’ the first time we met an-

“Well... I’d love to say I didn’t see that coming but...”
...Oh, just shut up John!...
“Come on, slide onto this stool here, at least you missed your clothes for once.”

My butt hit a soft cushioned surface which I’m at least partly sure has usually been home to one of the two male Sibs behind the front counter pretty much every time I’ve been here in the last few years; an idea that was given further credence when I collapsed forward and found my head resting on a nice cool wooden surface which I’m almost completely convinced is the same counter top I’m thinking of too.

“Fena! Fena, you in here? I need you’re mop-”
He paused for a moment to consider things apparently before continuing on again
“-possibly you’re golem to do the cleaning too... I brought Hannah with me?”

Don’t make it sound like I’m some kind of treat you’ll offer her if she plays nice John, I feel bad enough about this mess as it is, ya insensitive jerk!

Yet again I fell short of actually voicing those thoughts, more out of self-preservation than anything else because words are at a premium at the moment sadly, but it didn’t matter anyway because after a long pause of waiting there was no response from Fena in the slightest.

We both stood there... well, I sat but you know what I mean?... ‘stood’ there in awkward silence for far longer than strictly necessary before anything changed on that front too.

I get the feeling John REALLY didn’t want to be the one cleaning up after me, despite the fact it was his ill-advised suggestion of us warping home that was the main culprit behind the puddle I left on the thankfully empty shop floor when we got here a minute ago.

Judging by the long relived breath he let out when the door to my left opened up to let someone big and heavy sounding out of it, along with a clanging slosh that I’m pretty sure denotes some kind of ‘water bucket’ being along for the ride as well that feeling was probably pretty close to the truth too.

“Hey Lurch, ‘clean up on aisle three’ pronto, huh big guy?”
The poor Golem grunted at John, completely ignoring his attempt at humor or friendly banter like... well, like an emotionless Golem would I guess?...
...Big surprise there...
“Is Fena out getting fresh stock or something?”

I was tempted to look up slightly and watch the, honestly painful sounding, attempt John was making at ‘talking’ to Lurch for some Powers-known reason.
In the end I settled for listening along happily as a bucket hit the floor followed by a splash and ‘slap’ of a mop hitting the same floor moments later with the practically silent Golem going to work cleaning up my mess without comment, naturally.

“Powers, what the hell’s wrong with me, I’m talking to a fucking Golem...”
Well done! Finally realising your mistake there John-boy?
What do you do for an encore?
“Right... Han, stay were you are, I’m gonna go check their medicine cabinet to see if they have any stomach-settling potions in stock.”

Oh, that’s what you do for an encore?
Tell me, the person only being held up by the fact that I’m collapsed onto a big heavy desk, to not go anywhere so you can try and find something to stop me puking again...

Bravo! Definitely not worth the price of admission but bravo anyway for trying at least!
...Stupid John...

======

“Okay, I think I’ve found som... uh, you okay there Han?”
In response I groaned dramatically with a ‘negative’ tone hopefully very present in my voice.

Apparently whoever programmed Lurch-
...I’m thinking Edith, the little Yoda would find the whole idea HILARIOUS after all...
-programmed him not only to do simple tasks like ‘stand and look menacing to stop people stealing if no-one else is around’ or ‘clean up if someone pukes on our floor’ but also for some Powers-known reason decided to program him with a ‘comfort people if they are feeling sick’ setting too?

The moment the floor was shiningly clean again Lurch left with his bucket and mop for a few minutes before returning with his usual lumbering lack of grace.

I’d almost decided to give speaking another go, or at least moving in general at the time and probably would have done just that if the big guy hadn’t swooped in with a surprising amount of speed to lift me up into his arms for what I can only describe as a very one-sided ‘cuddle’ involving him holding me to his chest like a baby as he rocks me backwards and forwards with that same emotionlessly blank look on his face that he always has, without showing any signs of ‘stopping’ any time in the near future at all.

...It’s actually kind of comfortable and nice really-...
-BUT THAT’S NOT THE BLOODY POINT!

I swear to the Powers John, either find a way to get him to put me down or you’re both SO dead!
ARISTA levels of dead; dancing on your ashes before peeing on them with my now non-existent equipment built for doing exactly that, levels of dead!

Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m thinking John.
This is so unfair, I’m ill and this is just downright EMBARRASSING!

Hurry the hell up in getting me down NOW you useless asshole!

“Lurch, buddy, I think Hannah’s ready to go back onto a chair now big guy. I’ve got medicine for her, see? Look, nummy stomach-relief potion, see?”

...He’s seriously baby-talking to a seven-foot tall Golem-...
-and even worse it’s WORKING, damn it!

“That’s it big guy, just settle her down on this chair right here and I’ll help her feel better, okay?”

With much more care and gentle movements than I’d ever thought possibly from a Golem, let alone Fena’s often rather blunt pet Golem Lurch, he shifted me in his arms slightly and eased me down into the overly soft single-seated sofa that I’m pretty sure they only keep near the bookshelves for those few days when Fena feels like ‘veg-ing out’ and reading all day instead of doing any actual work at all.

Not that I’m complaining or anything, soft, gentle and slow are all things I can totally get behind at the moment considering the state of my still rolling, if slightly improved, stomach right about now.

The moment his arms were free from underneath me Lurch straightened up to his full height and turned around to go back upstairs through the little side door by the front counter as if none of the last five minutes had ever happened in the slightest.

...Sometimes I envy Golems for their goldfish like memories...
Not to mention their ability to not really know what the hell’s going on, yet still get things sorted due to a certain lack of that key ‘sentience’ which lets us mere Humans suffer through things with blushes and cringing facial expressions most of the time...

“I’ll go grab a spoon, you’re not allergic to Belladonna are you?”
John’s words and sudden burst of action as he moved over to check a draw tucked away down the side of a nearby counter-top threw me for a moment but it wasn’t long before I was jumping back on the conversation train and ready to answer him, despite my slightly muddled thoughts at the moment.

...I blame all that rocking by Lurch...

“Why would a stomach-relieving potion have Belladonna in it?”
He almost seemed to ignore me at first as he kept searching the draws for something even vaguely ‘spoon-like’, before straightening up again and offering me a slightly distracted shrug in response.

“Pretty sure it’s there to help re-balance your equilibrium or something, you’re pupils will probably dilate more, at least that’s what girls used to use it for in the old days... apparently wide, drugged-out looking big pupils are sometimes considered ‘cute’ by some people, along with arsenic-enriched smooth hair and lead-covered complexions...”
Thanks for the history lesson John-boy but really not helping here!
“...Sorry, you’ve kind of thrown me by getting this ill all of a sudden Han. I had this whole plan for how things would go when we got back and now we’re sitting here trying to ignore the fact you just got rocked to sleep by a glorified magical version of the Terminator so-”

My hand shot up, practically on its own accord, to give him a nice healthy ‘one-finger salute’ for that one, although after a few seconds of holding it I let my hand drop down again with a heavy sigh when it became obvious that all I was doing was amusing the smug-bastard even more, despite my best intentions.

“...I hate warping...”

======

“Feeling any better?”

My head jerked slightly at John’s sudden question which managed to pull me out of the rather interesting book on crafting your own magical symbols and languages, entitled ‘Languages be simple stupid’, either as a joke by the author or more worryingly because Edith decided to ghost-write it somehow at some point in time, I’d assume.

“Yeah, a bit, the words on the page have stopped changing sizes or blurring every few seconds and I haven’t had to hold back a dangerous burp in the last hour or so at least-”
John nodded along with my words distractedly as his eyes drifted over to the shop-front with a mild frown which kinda annoyed me just on general principle of being rude more than anything else.
“-I’m sorry, am I keeping you from something important John-boy?”

The question came out slightly colder then I’d intended, although it had the effect I’d been hoping for at least as his head snapped back around to stare at me with an apologetic look on his face that I probably found more gratifying then is strictly appropriate in all honesty.

“Sorry Han, I was hoping to get you home before sunset, it’s a full moon tonight which is bad enough but ever since you’re little trip to the crater-within-a-crater formerly known as ‘Wizard Island’ un-dead and parasitic activity has been on the rise for some Powers-known reason... I’m sure the Hub would be on full alert about it and have it all under control by now, if they weren’t in such a mess right now due to massive-loss of management, naturally.”

Ah... well, not much I can say to that really?
...He just wants to protect us...
He just wants to protect me I guess so I can’t be THAT mad at his distraction but it’s still rude to so blatantly not be paying attention like that after asking someone a direct question, even if it isn’t vitally important or worth arguing over, given the circumstances.

“Any word on Fena?”
John’s eyebrow twitched up slightly at my kinda obvious topic change, although thankfully he didn’t say anything about it at least.
“It’s unusual for her to leave the shop most of the time and the male Sib’s aren’t here either so I figured something must be going on, right?”

Slowly he shrugged and shot a cautious glance over at the door leading upstairs.
A move which I’m pretty sure he didn’t intend to do considering how sharply he turned his eyes away from it a moment later, only to settle on my curious gaze with worry obvious on his face now.

“What aren’t you telling me John-boy?”
His mouth opened as if to answer me before almost snapping shut instantly afterwards as he reconsidered what he was about to say.
“John?”

His face took on a decidedly ‘guilty’ look for a few seconds before he finally seemed to build up the courage to speak again at last.

“Fena’s upstairs an-”

“Well why didn’t you say so sooner? I’m here now and, as much as I’m dreading it, I’m sure she could use the company after-”
As I was speaking I slid the book onto Fena’s little side-table and stood up, making my way over to the doorway leading upstairs so I could go check on her considering how silent she’s been for the last few hours, only for John to step forward.
Without a word he planted himself right between me and the bloody door with a surprisingly determined look on his face for some reason.
“-what are you doing? Stop being an idiot John, let me past for Powers sa-”

I tried to barge my way past him while sliding under his outstretched arm but I found myself blocked by his awkwardly raised knee instead at the last minute.
The move caught me completely off-guard and I ended up staggering back a few steps as my eyes focused back on John’s, not really worried looking but definitely flustered, face.

“Sorry Han, you REALLY don’t want to go up there right now.”
Of all the stupid-
...-as if he can really stop me if I want to get past him....
Fena’s my friend and if she needs help then I’ll damn well be there for her!

My eyes scanned John’s position for a few seconds, weighing him as an opponent and finding him more than a little wanting considering his need to both defend himself and stop me from getting past at the same time.

With a nod to myself and a slight bounce on my toes I launched towards him in a text-book tackle maneuver which had him flinching and shifting his body into position for an equally text-book counter move that would have sent me crashing back on my ass easily if I’d actually been going for a tackle in the first place.

John’s foot slid forwards to hook mine and with a twist I threw my body weight off-center, falling into a forward roll which neatly skipped past his leg while also having the advantage of both knocking him sideways as I went and letting me pull myself back to my feet behind him in a pose that was just perfect for sprinting as John practically collapsed into the doorjamb, giving me those few vital seconds I needed to start moving without him.

“Hannah, DON’T-”
John’s last attempt at getting me to stop fell on deaf ears and trailed quickly into a string of swearing as I sprinted up the stairs into the ‘secret sanctuary’ of the second-floor, where even I’ve never dared venture into before.

By the time I reached the top of the stairs I was actually laughing as I heard John’s stumbling steps close on my heels in his delayed attempt to give chase.

My magic practically sung in my chest, tiny wisps of it trailing behind me in an almost invisible trail of sparks which somehow seemed to boost my speed just ever so slightly and help to keep me those few precious steps ahead of John as we reached flat-ground again and I shot off down the main hallway at the top of the stairs.

My laughter faded as I almost giddily started calling out for Fena, my eyes swinging from side-to-side as I checked each room for her presence while John kept chasing me despite obviously having lost this one for once.

Finally we reached nearly the end of the Hallway and from an open door on my right Lurch loomed out of the shadows with an expression which, if he had such emotions, I could only attribute to ‘long-suffering bewilderment’ of some kind.

It didn’t matter anyway because where there’s a Lurch there must be a Fena!
With one more happy giggle to myself I grabbed the doorframe next to Lurch’s slow-moving form and pulled myself violently around it as I slipped past his massive body with ease... only to screech to a halt moments later, the giggle dying on my lips at the sight that greeted me.

Sitting in what I can only describe as a ‘throne’ of half-eaten, partly rotten animal parts, her eye’s glazed over and blood practically coating her from head to foot as she waved her hands in the air like some kind of twisted mix between what a Normal would expect to see from a so-called ‘mystic’ and a drug addict on a particularly ‘far out’ trip, was Fena.

Dark hair matted and plastered to her skin through a seemingly impossible amount of blood and a horrible, unnaturally-wide looking compared to her usual tight-lipped smiles, grin on her face with one noticeable addition which made my blood run cold in fear.
...She’s got fangs?...

Small but sharp looking fangs, fangs that I know all too well from years of repressed-trauma induced nightmares about ‘Vlad’ sinking his own much larger ones into my poor neck as he gloated over me in the worst possible ways.

“...Vampire?...”

The word just seemed to slip out and the moment that it did I wished with everything I had that I could have held it in because as that one simple word left my lips Fena’s head snapped down to stare directly at me with wide, over-blown pupils that spoke only of the madness and insanity within her now un-dead form.

Something loud, which I can only assume is John, slammed heavily into something else, which I think can safely be assumed to be Lurch, behind me but that all meant nothing as I stared broken-heartedly at one of my oldest friends as she pulled herself slowly up to a standing position from her ‘throne’ with a horrible, wet squelch.

“Al...”
Oh shit!
“...Al?...”

She repeated my old name as if even she couldn’t comprehend she’d said it in such a rough, broken tone of voice the first time, which still left me frozen in front of her from fear that’s only partly due to my bad past experiences with the un-dead in general.

Slowly she took one uneasy step towards me and with a squeak I staggered back away from her automatically in response.

My eye’s turned frantically to the side for just the briefest of moments as I tried to see if I had any backup coming or at the very least something nearby that could be used as a weapon to defend myself with, but that was all she needed because in that brief moment of distraction she just MOVED!

A sharp gasp of air left my lungs as her body catapulted across the room, slamming into mine so hard that it sent us both tumbling to the ground in an almost ‘hug-like’ tangle of limbs.

The world seemed to slow down as she eased herself up my slightly smaller frame until her cheek was resting next to mine and all I could do was shudder as her mouth opened wide letting a blast of cold breath ghost over my soon to be bitten neck.

“AL! You’re alive?!”
...uh, what?...
“You’re alive! You’re alive! You’re alive! John said you were alive but I didn’t believe him and he said you were hiding and I said that’s not like you at all and he said that you were upset and I said he was definitely lying then but I was wrong and your alive and that’s so AWESOME!!”

Some small detached part of my mind noted that the running mangle of words punctuated by the dreaded ‘and’ coming out of her mouth is probably how human-beings in general would speak if we didn’t have that pesky need to take a ‘breath’ every-so-often, meanwhile the rest of me was kind of locked-up, frozen in an odd state of mixed confusion, horror, fascination and above all else relief.

The blood, the body parts, the dark room and the fangs are all terrifying for more than one reason or another in their own right.

Added to that you have the fact that Fena, Goth-wannabe and usually pleasant if not a little emotionally stilted resident of the shop, is now babbling away like some kind of ‘high-school cheerleader’ on a caffeine high directly into my ear.

She’s speaking so fast that I not only KNOW she doesn’t need to breath for certain by now, but can also barely make out any of the words she’s saying and you get one rather confused, mildly terrified Hannah I’m sorry to report.

I think it’s fair to say that my reaction of abject fear is not, as suggested by John’s surprised laughter, amusing, but entirely appropriate and the ‘right’ reaction for me to be having right about bloody-now!
...Speaking of bloody...

Eww, she’s getting animal blood all over me!
...At least I hope it’s animal blood?...

“Fena let me up for Powers-sake, your heavy, and covered in blood!”
Hurricane Fena stopped her loud attack on the English language at my yell.
Her head snapping up from my neck to fix me with an oddly unfocused look that was practically unreadable for the few moments it lasted before it disappeared into a wide, fang filled grin instead.

All I could do was let out a frightened ‘eep!’ as her head came down towards me again, mouth wide, as she proceeded to start LICKING the blood that had been spread over my face where we’d made contact off of me as a sound that I can only call a ‘flirty giggle’ rumbled in her chest... as terrifying as that concept seems to be when it now involves Fena, Vampires and at least several cows worth of blood!

“John! Get her off of me, NOW!”

“Hold on, I’m trying to get this for posterity, smile for the camera-”
The distinctively fake ‘shutter’ sound-effect of John’s phone going off followed that trailing statement as he moved closer to us, although Fena didn’t seem to be paying attention at all considering she’d found an apparently really tasty spot of blood near my chin and was practically lapping it up like an over-enthusiastic dog.

“I swear to the Powers John, if you don’t put your phone down and help me RIGHT now, I’m gonna make you WISH you were part of Fena’s Throne-of-forgotten-farm-animals!”

GAH, not my ear!
Stop licking my damn-ear Fena, I’m ticklish an-

Aah-Hahaha! No!

======

“Feeling better?”

“I wish you’d stop asking me that today, it’s like, your jinxing me or something?... And yes, for your information, I am feeling much better now that I’ve had a shower and I’m away from Fena’s... licking...”

A shudder ran down my spine as memories of her uncharacteristically ‘enthusiastic’ greeting, which John took great joy in capturing from all angles before finally helping me get free from at last and sending her off with Lurch to somewhere else as he directed me towards a nearby bathroom to clear myself up as well.

My new outfit, the one I put so much time into making ‘not terrible’ and John called ‘beautiful’ is RUINED now too!

I ended up having to slip out of the bathroom in just a towel and make a few mad dashes from room-to-room until I found one with clothing inside which, while too big for my annoyingly small Arista-shaped body, were at least designed for a human female and somewhat ‘not ancient’ looking.

To be honest, if it wasn’t for the high-necked remnants of my protective suit I’ve still got on, remnants that are hiding any hint of a ‘cleavage’ I could offer, smallish as it may be, I’d probably still be standing in some random bedroom upstairs trying to find something at this point, because even WITH it on I feel wholly under-dressed!

Whoever owned these clothes before me, my money’s on Fena obviously, must have been VERY comfortable with their body in general and sexuality as a whole because the ‘best’ I could put together from it all which wouldn’t leave me practically more exposed then a bloody-bikini turned out to be this dark blue, velvet looking ‘corset’ thing that buckles its way up my stomach before leaving a nice big window on my chest as it loops around my arm-pits on either side to join what I can only call a ‘spiked collar-style halter neck’ shape around my throat.

The skirt I found to go with it is at least floor-length... mostly... while the back and sides are practically floating around my ankles, the front is cut so high up that it’s practically a mini-skirt at its peak!

I couldn’t find any shoes to fit me so I’m walking around bare-foot until my shoes dry out too.
Bare-feet don’t bother me much but it IS kinda awkward due to the skirt’s back dragging behind me, because it was obviously cut for someone a few inches taller than me in heels, while also being rather chilly too for more than obvious reasons.

Whole outfit’s horrible, tight in the wrong places while loose in equally wrong places and it makes me look like some kind of Gothic bride-to-be in all honesty but I really must reiterate that this was the BEST of what I had to work with, some of the other clothes on offer just... I’m never going to be able to look at Fena the same way again, let’s put it that way!
...It really doesn’t help that John’s staring at us so much...

I suppose I could conjure something up to last me for now but I’d feel a lot better with doing that sort of more intensive magic AFTER I’ve had a chance to ensure my new core hasn’t got some horrible flaw in it that is going to rip me apart the first time I actually try to cast something more complicated than a mild warming-charm on myself at the very least.
...He’s still staring at us...

“Oi! Stop staring John, it’s rude!”

Before he could do much more then flinch and glance up at my face guiltily in response there was a rather loud crash behind us, followed by a fast-moving object that appeared to be some form of walking black bedspread, which moved out of the door leading to the dreaded ‘upstairs’ and mercilessly attacked the little coffee maker at the other side of the room with lots of bangs, crashes and moans while we watched on in confusion.

Finally Lurch ducked his way past the doorway and moved over to take a now slightly damaged mug away from the poor coffee deprived floating-bedspread-of-doom who proceeded to grunt in thanks before collapsing sideways with more grace then I think is strictly fair onto one of the nearby tables, finishing the whole thing off by curling into a little ball and groaning to herself pitifully once more with no obvious plans to stop doing so at this exact moment either.

I shot John a curious look and he mouthed the words ‘sobriety potion’ to me, looking far too amused for everyone’s sake sadly.

Just what we all need right now!
A Vampire Fena with a hangover, how can this POSSIBLY go wrong?!

The best of plans can go astray in any number of ways. It's not like we can always see what's coming a lot of the time, after all, right? Even Seer's have their limits sometimes it seems... Events unfold including but not limited to: John doing 'guy stuff' with a Golem, Fena breathlessly rambling (again), And Hannah gets more then she bargained for multiple times over!

 

“Um... Fena?”
All I got in response was another pitiful moan of obvious pain and torment.

“Fena you-”
I had to practically bite my tongue to stop myself from saying the ‘un’ before continuing.
“-alive in there?”

The next pitiful moan took a slightly upturned note of insistence which could either have been a sound of agreement or a sign that she needs that coffee faster than Lurch can realistically make it sadly.

“Fena... when did you... uh, ya know, become a... um...?”
The bundle of bedspread on the table in front of me shifted slightly, then it rustled before finally it split open at the top like a cocoon to allow the, looking worse than death ironically, vampire Fena to stick her head out and stare at me in confusion.
“What I mean is, when did you become a... a vampire exactly? I know it’s been a few months since I last saw you and John said the un-dead have been pretty active around here since but...”

Her eyebrows slowly crept up her surprisingly normal, if rather pale for most of humanity, looking face until they practically merged with the black mass of tangles that make up her currently messy hair in general.

Eventually, after the silent stare-off between us had reached the point of almost painful awkwardness that had even me considering the option of looking away, just to finish it at last, her eyes left mine and cut over to John as a confused yet slightly amused smirk spread across her thin lips in a way which would honestly have been kinda cute if a fang hadn’t taken that opportunity to make itself known again, ruining the look entirely.

“She seriously doesn’t know?”
Apparently that question wasn’t for me judging by where she was looking and the non-committal grunt she got in return from John.
“Like, really doesn’t know? Not even a clue?”

I turned slightly to try and see the other half of the conversation I’m being excluded from and just managed to catch John’s shoulders lowering out of a slightly bemused shrug before I had to snap my head back around as Fena let off an uncharacteristic burst of loud laughter, only to cut herself short moments later as her hands poked out of her cocoon to hold her head in obvious pain from the sound itself instead.

“I take it I’m missing something?”

John snorted behind me which is honestly never a good sign in general, let alone at times like this.
Slowly Fena lowered her hands down and brought her head back up to look at me again, this time with eyes that betrayed just the slightest hints of fear for some Powers-known reason.

“I’ve always been a vampire Al. Ever since we first met, did you seriously not know? I mean... I kinda thought it was obvious and you just never brought it up to be polite really...”
My eye twitched heavily as those words hit home rather harder than I could have expected, even if I HAD anticipated them before hand, which I didn’t of course.
“The tight-lipped smile you always used to tease me about because it was ‘cute’, the fact I never leave the shop and always stay pretty far away from the windows even on over-cast days, the rings I use to cast elemental spells because my magic has no element anymore what with my being... you know?... I mean, didn’t you ever wonder why I’m always so cold, even when the heating is on and I’m bundled up in multiple layers?”
...Wow...

That... that was definitely not something I saw coming?
She’s right; I mean, the clues were all there and more!

The way she’d always lick her lips nervously if I came into the shop injured, bleeding, before shooting off upstairs to get Edith’s help.
The way she never seemed to get out of breath, even when Edith had us both doing jumping-jacks for a solid hour as punishment for ‘interrupting her stories’.
The amount of times I attempted to ask her out when I was still ‘Al’, under the guise of going for something to eat, just as friends of course...

Oh Powers, FOOD!
How could I have been so stupid?!
Food! She never once ate, not in all the time I’ve known her have I ever seen her EAT something!
Drinking, sure, but even then it’s usually water or wi...ne...

“The reason you used to beat me every time I stayed overnight watching movies in the storage room instead of doing stock-checking was because I was the only one actually DRINKING wine, wasn’t it?”
For a long moment my serious, if only slightly annoyed, glare was met by her lightly apologetic gaze in return before finally she cracked and had to look away from me as she burst into relieved sounding laughter for some reason.

“You just found out I’m a frigging VAMPIRE and THAT’S what your worried about?! That I cheated on our silly drinking games with blood instead of wine?”
Reluctantly even I could see the funny side of it now that she’s said it.

Slowly my lips twitched a few times and eventually split into their own amused grin as a laugh escaped my chest moments later making my shoulders slump in slightly tired relief of my own.

It’s been a long day, cut me some slack here!
...Consider the slack cut!...

“You’ve always been a pretty terrible Goth, if anything, considering my past experiences with vampires in general, you’ll make a pretty great one easily... Vlad was a complete poser too...”
John snorted behind us but he wasn’t important in all of this.
I could feel my own smile get ever so slightly wider as Fena’s laughter doubled in force, if not volume, and she rolled deeper into her blanket-cocoon to snigger almost convulsively to herself inside.

So... Fena’s a vampire?
...Eh, I’ve seen weirder...
It’s a surprise naturally but also kinda not at the same time?

Either way I’m pretty sure I’m already over the initial shock to it all by now and I’m solidly on my way towards ‘acceptance’, with maybe a few stops off here-and-there to tease my friend and see where we both stand with each other again before I have to ruin the good vibe we’ve got going on by bringing up Edith at least.

“Remember when you walked in carrying those enchanted mirrors and ‘some random cat’ hissed at you?... I seriously thought you were angry at me and did it on purpose at the time but now it’s pretty obvious that you’re just an idiot Alistor Cooper!”
Her head popped up again and she pulled a frankly adorable face at me before carrying on in a tone that was probably about as deep as her usual soprano voice can manage as she carried on while shooting me a light-hearted glare that plainly said that she was impersonating me, the old me that is.
“Oh, what happened to your face Fena? Sunburn! It looks really bad, do you want me to take you to a hospital?”

Her voice shifted back into her usual tone again but the mockery was almost palpable as she went on to explain.

“Thank the Powers Edith was there, when you came in a burst of sunlight reflected off the mirrors and practically burnt my eye out! If Edith hadn’t ‘suddenly’ noticed some Bad-Juju on you and knocked you out while trying to fix it I’m pretty sure my survival instincts would have kicked in and I’d have attacked you as the nearest blood-donor to me at the time!”

...Seriously?!...
How many other moments have I misread or misunderstood because of this big secret between us?

“Then there was the time you decided that I should help you carving protection runes into the back of all those crosses you ‘borrowed’ from the Vatican, do you KNOW how many chickens I had to drain to recover from all the blisters I got when you dumped that lot in my arms all of a sudden?!”

...Oh Powers, this could take a while...

======

“So, how old ARE you exactly?”
Fena paused momentarily before shooting me a now much more relaxed smile.

We spent over half an hour reminiscing about the past of all things; mostly about the things we’d both completely gotten wrong due to being equally obvious to each other’s oblivious-ness.
Finally after a few uncertain stabs at conversation proceeding the nostalgia we managed to settle into a comfortable ‘normal’ for us, where we talked about what we’ve been up to lately while steering pretty clear of the elephant in fluffy slippers that seemed to stomp around every time Edith’s name came up at all.

I spent most of that time telling Fena all about my latest projects and getting a much better reception, let alone general comprehension from her, then I ever did with Sarah... mostly because Fena could actually understand half of the words I was saying of course.

Meanwhile Fena rather embarrassedly told me about the ‘blood-n-drugs’ binge she went on after ‘the event’ as people are apparently now calling it in magical circles.

Between Edith not returning home, the Male Sibs ‘disappearing’ on the same day and then her misguided belief that I too had died, along with everyone else after John’s rather botched attempt at explaining what he knew of things to her, the day after I fled into my workshop while looking for some help in finding me again, she fell into a bout of depression.

That lead her to doing what she apparently ‘always used to do’ when depressed... pay drug addicts to donate blood to her privately and get high off of their tainted blood for a few hours at a time... a story which was almost worryingly parallel to my own, although where I had Arista’s secret stash to fall back on she had to rely on Lurch for getting hers once she became too dependent to go out and get it for herself.

On a slightly amusing note, the local Police department are now convinced that some ‘Freaky Frankenstein lookin’ Mo-Fo’ is in Klamath Falls going on a one-man vigilante spree against the local drugs trade while taking large samples of his unconscious victims’ blood as ‘some kind of sick trophy’.

At least that’s what the officer who had called around one evening to give, poor, defenceless and only partly sober Fena a warning about it said... along with giving her his personal contact details on a card she waved around almost proudly during her explanation.

While amusing, that all did lead us back to that one big point we’d been dancing around for the last hour, namely the reason for her depression and binge, ‘the event’ at Wizard Island.

Naturally I scrabbled for the first safe topic I could to avoid it all yet again and somehow settled on asking about her age of all things.

...Stupid brain...
Yeah, stupid brain!

“It’s not polite to ask a Lady her age Al-”
She shot me a cheeky wink and leaned in a little more as she’s been doing every so often when she finds something even funnier than usual lately.
“-but just between us girls Hannah-”

...Oh, that’s what she found so amusing?...
She’s still not quite used to the concept of me being both female and using my ‘new’ name sadly.
I can’t exactly blame her, but at least she’s trying, even if she does act like the whole concept is a big joke or game where I’m hiding behind a false identity like some sort of spy or something.

“-I’ll be Four-hundred and Twenty-Six next spring.”
My mouth dropped open in shock and she practically fell off her chair laughing at the apparently rather stupid look on my face as I tried to process what she’d just said.

It’s not so much the age itself, although it is at the extreme of what I’d often considered the ‘maximum possible age’ a mage could live to naturally in one body if they were really lucky, but more the idea that Fena of all people could be that old in general.

“I’m the oldest of the Sibs after all; admittedly it’s been centuries since Edith, Romi or Remi have treated me like the ‘big’ sister annoyingly but then, when you get to that age the long way round, without eternal youth or a fear of daylight at your side, I guess an age difference of a few years doesn’t really mean much anymore?”

She grimaced slightly but eventually shrugged to both me and herself at whatever thought had crossed her mind in that brief moment.

“Vampires see time in a completely different way than humans after a while, most go insane because when you’re effectively full-on immortal, life has little-to-no meaning in general. We found a way around that for me by taking the old saying of ‘living in the moment’ to a pretty big extreme but it’s still kinda an issue.”

Short attention span at times, impulsive actions, almost childish amusement at little events and a constant need to avoid feeling ‘bored’... yep, I can definitely see what she means by her ‘living in the moment’ now that she mentions it.

Honestly at one point I was pretty convinced she just had the Goth equivalent of some hyperactivity disorder, with this new information it definitely makes at least some level of sense though.
If she’s too busy focusing on the ‘now’, she isn’t busy focusing on the ‘forever’... which would also explain her quick slip into depression when overnight she lost Edith, the male Sibs and me all in one go too, I guess?

...I still think she has ADHD though...
Definitely Vampire-Goth ADHD!

======

“Fena... it’s been fun and all but I think it’s time we talked about... Edith...”
Just rip the band aid off!

Come on Hannah, time to be a big boy... girl... whatever, and just do it so you can-
“Oh! Saying that, she left you a letter upstairs, two seconds I’ll go grab it for you.”

Before I could respond, the now rather overwhelmingly perky form of my usually rather quiet friend took off with inhuman speed for the doorway leading back upstairs without a second glance, leaving me sitting on my chair staring after her in surprised confusion.
...Edith left us a letter?...

The evil little Yoda was a seer after all.
I guess she might have... might have known what was coming, maybe?

Why have I got a bad feeling about this all of a sudden?
...Hidden Seer powers activated!...

My right-hand shot up to smack myself over the head on some kind of instinct that I don’t fully remember ever gaining which is more than a little worrying, almost as worrying as the anticipatory grab my left made to stop it before it could make contact too.

After a few seconds staring at them both in shock they both seemed to almost ‘realise’ that I was watching them because they went limp suddenly, my right ironically crashing palm-first on top of my head as it fell down despite the left’s best efforts to stop it.

I quickly shot a glance around the room to make sure no-one saw that little momentary bout of insanity, finding that thankfully John and Lurch are still off somewhere doing ‘guy stuff’ as John put it, so he could leave me and Fena to our ‘chatting’ apparently.

Slowly my eyes settled on my hands again which had seemingly decided that cupping gently together in my lap was some way of showing ‘innocence’ of any such wrong-doing I may think they might have done.

...We’re unofficially-officially going crazy, I swear...
Stupid defective brain!

======

“Found it, sorry about the blood stain on the corner, I kinda dropped half a sheep on it at some point I think, but the rest is fine I promise!”
I really didn’t have the heart to even glare at her for that one at this point.

The fact that she was offering me a pretty convincing look of apology helped and I’m pretty sure she’d be blushing if her rarely displayed dimples showing is any indication at least, considering she can’t actually... ya know... ‘blush’, being un-dead and all.

Another stupid thing I missed about her that I’ve only just realised is that no matter how embarrassed she gets, in all the years I’ve known her, I’ve never seen her properly blush before... for now rather obvious reasons no-doubt.

Rather than voice that rather stupid new realisation I settled for offering her a gentle smile and taking the envelope from her with almost reverent care, before flipping it over to find it sealed shut by an honest-to-Powers wax ‘seal’ straight out of history with a family crest on it and everything.

“Edith said you’d want to be alone for reading it, don’t worry, I’m going to go clean up my room for a while... although how on earth I’m going to get some of those blood stains out I have NO idea-”
She didn’t really say anything more to me from that point on as she turned away to head back upstairs, although I could distinctly hear her still muttering to herself thoughtfully under her breath as she went anyway.

With a few more steps the door leading upstairs shut loudly behind her and I was left alone in the quiet main room of the Sibs shop holding the letter carefully away from my body just in case it might explode in the time it takes for me to get up the guts to open the damn thing, let alone read it!

...This is Edith we’re talking about, so good call on that one I think...
Exactly!

======

‘Useless Girl,

By now you know that my ‘accent’ is fake for the most part, so I’ll skip the preamble.
I’ve written and re-written this letter a thousand times in the last few years, always thinking up new ways to explain what needs to be said... but in my final hours before I come to join you in battle, I find myself writing it all once more.

We both know you don’t have much of an attention span so I’ll jump to the important points.
Number One:
Don’t be an idiot and blame yourself for my death!

I’ve got blocks in place to stop myself from seeing events past my current incarnations life-time, a security measure to ensure I don’t create another mistake like Arista once more, but I’ve known how I would die for a very long time now.

All I can say is that I died proud and happy to have been your tutor as well as your friend.

Edith...

My last view before the ice consumes me entirely will be of you collapsing backwards as Arista’s core-shard is thrown out into the void at long last, for that you have my deepest thanks and above all else my undying loyalty, do not blame yourself or do something stupidly ‘you’—like throwing yourself into a depression filled drugs binge like Fena is sure to do unless you follow point Number Two properly!

Uh, oops?...

That brings me onto point Number Two:
Survive the fight, as I know you will, survive and come back to Klamath Falls for Fena.

A long dead incarnation of Arista by the name of ‘The Countess Beth’ turned her into a vampire many long years ago and she cannot be left alone as she is.

It took some borderline necromancy for me to keep myself and the twins alive for all these years without reincarnation. I’m basically being held together by my magic these days and the twins are even worse off, their cores having fallen completely to a point where they are only sustained by my magic alone, which as you can imagine is more than slightly limiting on life in general.

This all means that the moment I die the twins will, too, leaving Fena all alone in the world but for you. Take care of her Useless Girl!

She is my sister and I love her as such, but the vampirism has taken its toll on her as with all undead, warping her mind and working in similar ways to the methods that Arista has used upon you in the past, to shape her thinking towards darker intents.

Her core is dead and, as such, her personality is no longer safe within the natural reincarnation cycle.
When Fena dies the version of her that you know, the version which I have watched grow from a slightly airheaded little nobles daughter into a passionate and caring human being, will cease to exist.

We’ve spent centuries trying to find a solution to help her, to make it so that she can have a normal reincarnation again, but from all accounts it is just not possible.
All I ask is that you keep her safe, keep her happy and keep her alive until I can once more return to watch over her again, can you do that for me Useless Girl?

Of course...

The third point I must raise is of the future.
I cannot tell you what is to come from now on, that is the purview of my next incarnation after all, but I can make some guesses from my lofty position as your ‘stupid/wise old yoda-wannabe’.

Uh oh!...

Yes, I have heard your grumbling on more than one occasion and I take it in the vein it was offered, with little more than an amused smirk at your childish choice of wording in general as my only comment upon it.

Well, that’s something at least—Sorry, Edith...

You do not know how far the battle-lines are drawn on both sides of this conflict useless girl and you are not yet ready to face it all even if you did, I’ll leave the history lesson for those who are more knowledgeable than I on the topic you will no-doubt meet in the future.

I can assume that when news of my death reaches certain areas within our political system you will be contacted by a familiar but unwelcome face. Please do not dismiss him out of hand as I know you will wish to. He holds information you will need and maybe even offers some form of closure for you at the same time.

...Cryptic much?...

I’ve spent a long time thinking on my final moments over the years since I first saw them with my gift and I’ve come to one rather startling realisation.
You have more than two cores within you!

Um—you’re a bit late to the party on that bit of info, Edith, I’m sorry to say.

To be precise, I believe you have three!
One which Arista will ‘give’ back to your sister in the next hour or so, one ice core of unknown origins which houses Arista’s core personality, and a final one which allows you to survive the removal of Arista’s ice core in my final seconds.

It wasn’t hard from there to work out that this third core would be your much fabled ‘Locus Point’ and something which I’d initially forgotten may be a problem due to its almost total uselessness as anything but an annoyance for all of us up to this point.

This brings me onto my final point and the end of this missive to you, my often exasperating student.

======

"Oh I’M the exasperating one, am I Edith?!"
Can you say ‘Bad JuJu’ at all you little-
...Calm breaths...

Slowly I lowered the letter down into my lap and let off a heavy huff of air to calm myself down a little bit, my right hand came up automatically to wipe away a few tears I hadn’t consciously even realised I’d been letting fall as I read Edith’s very... ‘Edith’... final letter to me at long last.

Only she could be so infuriating that even in a letter from beyond the grave she manages to piss me off!

“Powers damn it Edith, you just had to get to me one more time, didn’t you?”
Despite my possibly harsh sounding words, a bitter little smile formed on my lips even before they’d truly finished leaving them.
“...Powers damn you Edith, you evil little troll...”

Without another word I turned back to her note, a sense of almost ‘zen-like’ calm falling over me for having something to turn my attention onto once more if nothing else.

======

The ‘diversion’ I placed upon your magic when it became obvious that Arista had pushed her core into a controlling position, after you let that stupid toff friend of yours make you a little more ‘girl’ and a little less ‘useless’, was not some great mysterious power you made it out to be in the weeks following my placement of it.

In fact, it’s not even a ‘diversion’ in a traditional sense but more a reduction to the complexity of your internal magic’s self-regulation as a whole.

Uh—what?...

I shall use small words so you can follow me through this properly.

...Smug much?...
Don’t read my mind from the dead Edith; It’s creepy!

You’re magic is comprised of Arista, Mother and Yourself.
You house three very different cores in ability, content and associated personalities but each holding one overriding connection amongst themselves.

At your very centers, at the very apex spark which spawned your cores in the first place, you each hold the same unimaginable power which few mages would believe existed if not for the very real results of that powers existence.

Mother’s magic was once the purest source of this power, she was even able to manipulate it to some degrees in healing which is actually what gave me the original idea behind your so called ‘diversion’.

Arista received only part of this power, barely one-percent by what I can see while studying your lines as you cast, and it only ever manifested in the most basic form that she became so widely known for within the magical community.

Then we come to you...

I cannot be certain on this, having never actually seen this theoretical ‘third core’ of yours in action. However from what I have seen in the last few weeks of your ‘Golden domes’ and their power levels, I can surmise that you are truly on a completely different level from even Mother herself.

The power I speak of is, of course, the ability you share to create life itself, magical life, the ability to birth new magical children at all!

The same ability which earned your counterparts their often overblown joint title ‘The Mother of Magic’, the same sole domain of the two most unstable members of the magical world in general, until you came along at least...

With the removal of Arista’s core your miraculous ‘Golden domes’ will, I assume, disappear.

Due to the shifts required within your lines to accommodate the change in main magical element being converted and the limitations of the ‘reduction’ I put upon you, it will become useless the moment your system is cleansed of Arista’s ice in its entirety.

The trick I used was crude at best, using a sample of ‘your’ ice magic and using it to trigger a conversion which is technically as much of a step backwards as you managed to take when diverting from ice to water for some damned fool reason so many weeks ago, but with one fundamental difference.

The power within you is incredibly dense... just like you!

‘HEY!’
...That’s just mean!...

The power to create life from nothing which you all share is so amazingly dense that barely a drop is needed to establish its dominance within your system and despite being a technical ‘step backwards’ from the far more complex magic required for your body to naturally assume an elemental nature of any kind, that magic’s density provides an amazingly terrible exchange rate, something which you desperately need with how much magic you produce just by existing, Useless Girl.

On the final page of this letter I have provided a list of reference books and instructions on how you may gain a connection to that spark within you once more.

Mark my words, I know you will need and regain your precious ‘Golden domes’ in the times to come until I see you once more.
I say that as your mentor, as your friend and thanks to your general lack of ‘thinking’ or a ‘ sense of self-preservation’ that would have given me a heart-attack years ago if such a thing could actually kill me at this point.

This new method is much more in-depth when compared to the reduction I put in place before, but hopefully when you complete its training you will have a better understanding of yourself, your Locus Point and your magic as a whole, so that if the worst ever comes to pass and you die once more, you will still be able to access that spark within yourself despite the change in body that comes with reaching a requiem.

Edith, I don’t know what to say...
...Say nothing. Keep reading...

The last few years working with you have renewed my faith in the future which had honestly been almost completely eroded with the passage of time that has come from watching over Fena for so very long.

You are a truly exceptional person—useless—but exceptional, and I’m so very proud to have been a part of your life for so long, obviously crazy old fool that I am.

Take care of yourself Useless Girl.
Don’t mourn me, protect Fena and LIVE!

One day a much younger looking ‘crazy little Yoda’ will appear on your doorstep and I will be expecting to hear about all the madness I have missed that comes from just knowing you in the slightest apparently.

I’m sorry for my part in any suffering you have faced over the years.
A seer does as a seer is told to by fate herself, it is not our place to question, only guide those we must... but with you I can truly say that for the first time in an eternity I have grown attached to you and hope you have a long, happy life ahead of you in the coming years.

I must prepare, I have a set of new robes to enchant against blunt force, earth magic induced, trauma before ‘Mother’ calls us all together at Crater Lake.

May the Powers bless you, Useless Girl
Until we meet once more.

Esti-dif Ta
Sixth born of the Ta clan, Guardian of Delphi and honoured ‘Yoda’ to the magic emporium of Klamath Falls.

P.S - If Fena does somehow end up going off the rails before you get this letter and comes up with the stupid idea of mixing an orphanage with an opium den again, tell her that it didn’t work in London and it definitely wouldn’t work in Klamath Falls of all places, so just drop it you silly old fool!

======

That final point, which Edith just HAD to tack on at the end there, I suspect specifically because she knew how I’d react to it, left me laughing almost hysterically for a while, slumped heavily in my borrowed but still nice and squishy sofa chair.

Eventually, almost mechanically, my hands flipped over to the next page, finding what I can only assume were the promised instructions and reading recommendations that Edith left for me.
I couldn’t tell initially because my eye’s had mysteriously filled with water for some Powers-known reason?

With a forceful sniff I brushed the water away, for safety’s sake, I’m a lightning mage now after all and lightning does NOT play well with water!

Slowly the note came into focus and I stared at it for a while, not really comprehending it because my mind was stuck more on the letter that came before it.

Finally after a period of time which could have been anything from a minute to an hour for all I know my introspection and lost musings were cut short by a clatter of noise to my right as a rather guilty looking, once more blood splattered and now dragging a suspiciously ‘animal parts’ shaped trash bag behind her, version of Fena came shuffling back into the room.

She actually jumped slightly in surprise when her tense gaze settled on my own curiously amused one, which I found even more amusing then the actual scene itself in all honesty.

“You finished with Edith’s letter?”
Her grip on the bag’s opening shifted slightly and a hoof of what I can only assume is some kind of sheep flopped silently out of the bag to hit the floor behind her, completely unnoticed by Fena as she stared at me with worry obvious on her now much more open and expressive face.

“...Yeah...”

After a long moment’s pause as if she expected me to say something more than that and one more shift of her grip which let what was possibly some form of rat’s tail fall out and join the sheep’s leg in its bid for freedom, she seemed to realise that I wasn’t offering much more on the topic at this point an-

“Anything interesting?”

-or maybe that was just my wishful thinking at work?

“Not much, just her usual stuff really, she called me ‘useless girl’ a lot, told me to keep an eye on you and offered some help on what I need to work on next in my training.”
She seemed to almost deflate at that response.

I know I could have told her the more serious details in the letter but something held me back from it, despite the disappointment obvious on her face from my rather flippant response instead.
The letter was for me, I know Edith pretty well at this point, if the letter was for me and she sealed it to make sure Fena couldn’t read it then it was for a reason.

Whether it was a good reason or just because she felt like it may be up for discussion but she definitely had A reason in mind and I’ll respect that if nothing else for now.

That being said, I’m not above sharing some of the less important or private parts with Fena if it will lift her mood at least.

“She did happen to demand that if you went into a drug-fuelled vampire binge that I should tell you your idea of mixing an orphanage and an opium den is just as stupid now as it was in London, so drop it before someone gets hurt?”

THAT did the trick at least!

While far from perfect and slightly strange to see, it really was a sight to behold as someone who couldn’t ‘blush’ did a pretty credible impression of doing just that, only without the red-tint to her cheeks that you would normally expect to be part of such an action.
My worries over her subdued mood were assuaged pretty easily from there as her head snapped up to glare at the ceiling above us.

Her delicate-looking pale fist came up quickly to wave dramatically skyward as she cried out something about ‘It was only one time!’ between sputtering fits of laughter that I happily joined her in without a thought, continuing on for a while afterwards as we made eye-contact again which only seemed to encourage us to laugh all the more for some reason.
...Good choice slipping that bit in Edith...

“I swear Al, it really was just this one time and I wasn’t being SERIOUS, you know, it was just an idea because at the time we-”

As Fena continued to awkwardly dig herself deeper into the hole of her own past actions, all I could do was settle back and grin at her happily.
I’m gonna miss you, you old witch, but don’t worry... I’m sure we’re gonna be fine in your absence for now...

“-and then Remy said ‘Well if you’re going to run both, why not save on space’ and so I said-”
The literally breathless rambling just went on and on but I didn’t mind.

For the first time since I saw her in her gore covered bedroom looking like some deranged feral beast, there was a spark back in her eyes that I’ve known and loved for years now.

So, I’m best friends with a vampire?
I’ve been tasked by my old mentor to help keep her sane until she can come back from the dead to take over again... and I’ve got a new magical ‘homework assignment’ to work on in my spare time.

That letter was unexpected but damned if it didn’t help me gain some sense of closure on my feelings for Edith and the guilt I let fester for so long during my isolation as well.

“-then the police showed up and tried to arrest me for prostitution, which I SO wasn’t doing! and-”

My relieved laughter joined Fena’s ever more desperate attempts to prove her innocence and the shop felt just a little bit lighter than it had barely an hour ago.
...We’ll be fine, I can tell. Thanks Edith...

Moving house can be a hassle, Moving house with magic is, presumably, meant to be a bit easier? Moving house with John’s help would likely be... ...Yeah, not the best idea in the world, is it?... Events unfold including but not limited to: The sun being discussed, Taxi rides being (relatively) skipped over in silence, and explanations of events are exchanged, much to both sides confused frustration.

 

“Hope you two are done chatting because it’s almost painfully too easy to beat a Golem at chess sadly and I-”
Words froze on John’s lips as he stared at us and we stared back feeling only slightly like naughty children caught mid-act.
“-I’m assuming there’s a reason you two are doing that?”

My eyes cut from Fena’s slightly flustered face down to the big ‘bottomless’ bag we’ve got stretched out as wide as it can and the still full book shelf we managed to tip onto its side with aid from Fena’s vampire strength a minute ago.

The original idea was to save time by just loading them straight in but despite what I’d presumed in my own testing of the bag Edith gave me ages ago, the openings don’t just keep growing forever and it’s kinda a tight fit getting the shelving unit inside honestly.

“Um... We’re packing?”

John snorted in amusement and for once I really can’t blame him considering how silly we must look, Fena struggling to pull the bag edge over the feet of the unit while I’ve somehow ended up mounting the bloody thing for a better grip as I play my part in making sure the bag doesn’t just fall off again.

“You know what?... I’m not even going to question the multiple different, much easier, ways you could have tried to ‘pack’ and instead I’ll settle on a much more simple ‘Why?’, just on general principle...”

Oh how magnanimous of you John-Boy!
Ever so nice of you... you smug asshole...

“Fena’s packing up shop and moving in with us back home. With a little bit of tweaking we think we can get rid of the UV ray’s coming from my fake-sun inside the realm, if it even produces any at all to start with, so she can hang out with people and feel ‘normal’ while being closer to us if she gets bored...”
Before I could finish explaining Fena straightened up a little bit and shot John an almost smug look of her own, continuing on where I’d stopped.

“Also, considering this new ‘realm’ place has a massive shopping mall’s worth of magical shopping mall spaces inside it I plan on picking out some prime real-estate, tax free because I know the owner and everything.”

I’m sure somewhere up there or something Edith is grinning proudly down upon her ‘big sister’ right about now because that sort of enthusiastic assumption that I’m gonna let her take one of my best shops up for free is exactly the kind of thing Edith would have done in a heartbeat given this same situation.
...Damned if it’s not gonna work too!...

“Make yourself useful and help us get this shelving unit into the bag John-Boy so we can make our way home faster, yeah?”

He scoffed loudly in response but didn’t hesitate to help us seconds later, even if his ‘help’ turned out to be a few almost bored looking hand waves which left Fena on the floor to my right and me sliding off a now emptied shelving unit to land painfully on my butt moments later.

The books once occupying it’s shelves had all levitated out and flown into the bag along with every other book around us in the few short seconds it took for the shelving unit itself to shrink down to about half its usual size for easier entry into the bag.

He waved his hands again and the other shelving units shrunk to similar size before making their own floating way into the bag as well. The smug smirk on his face was undeniably annoying but I didn’t have time to match it with my own glare before Fena cut between us with a hand offered out to help me back to my feet instead.

“Now I see why you keep him around, easy item storage isn’t cheap usually, you know?”
We both laughed, me slightly harder as I noticed a tick of irritation barely being hidden behind John’s smirk, as his moment of gloating was interrupted by Fena’s slightly catty words.

Eventually we had our fun at his expense and both turned around to face him again with almost identical evil-grins on our faces a few moments later.

“John-Boy! You’re on packing duty seeing as you’re oh-so-good at it!”
He shot me a momentary glare for that one but there was honestly no heat to it and even Fena could tell he was more amused than anything else by my commanding tone.
“Well, chop-chop! I don’t pay you to stand around looking pretty after all.”

His glare reappeared with a slightly more challenging tilt to it this time but he didn’t argue back, perhaps sensing the mood me and Fena had settled in which would make any protest he could muster just the subject of ridicule unfortunately.

With one last huff of what I think might have been fond exasperation he turned away from us both to start waving his hands around like a certain mouse in a certain animated classic about an inept wizard’s apprentice trying to cheat while doing his chores.

“It’s like watching a really boring version of ‘Fantasia’, isn’t it?”
My head jerked to the side slightly to watch Fena out the corner of my eye and I allowed myself one tiny smirk in response as she summed up my thoughts rather well.

Part of me was almost tempted to conjure a patched and floppy blue wizards-hat with accompanying red monks robe for him honestly but he really is doing us a favor so I shouldn’t be mean at this point, despite how funny his reaction could be.

“Come on, we’ll go box up your clothes so the ‘Great wizard’s apprentice’ doesn’t have to go digging through your underwear draw unnecessarily.”
This time it was Fena’s turn to glare at me lightly but that didn’t stop her from moving off towards the stairs with me trailing behind her to do just as I’d suggested.

He may be helpful and relatively nice these days but somewhere deep down inside ‘John’ is still the pervert/stalker supreme known as ‘Maxarimus’ after all, even I’d hesitate to let him near my underwear draw... although in my case it’s because knowing him he’d throw out all my nice new comfortable stuff for support-lacking push-up bras and an endless parade of thongs, for his own amusement if nothing else.
...Stupid John...

======

“That’s this room done, what about all your stuff in the room across the hall?”
Fena hesitated, then shot me a slightly confused look for a moment before bringing her hand up to stifle a giggle of some kind.

“I’d wondered where you got that outfit from, that’s Edith’s spare bedroom for whenever she decides to take an aging potion and go out clubbing or whatever it is ancient people in temporarily young bodies do at least...”

I couldn’t help but have a full body shudder run down my spine.
First at the idea of Edith going clubbing, then her going clubbing while wearing something as dramatically ‘shows off a lot of skin’ as the clothes I found in that room and finally because I happen to be wearing the most in-offensive clothing I could find from that worrying collection of clothes at the moment, much to my growing horror.

Fena let me stew on the image of Edith, admittedly a non-potioned into youth version of her, dancing with young guys while wearing a leather mini-skirt an-
“...I think I’m gonna be sick...”

“Oh don’t, you big baby, I was kidding-”
...Thank the Powers!...
“-You were right, it’s my ‘out of season’ stuff being kept for when the fashion cycle starts over again in a decade or two so I’ll have a suitably ‘vintage’ wardrobe to work from... the look on your FACE though!”

My glare hopefully showed her just how not-funny I found her obvious joy at my near brush with vomiting once more today.

It really hasn’t been my day for that sort of thing, has it?
...Nope, terrible day for it really all things considered...

“Let’s get on with this then before John finishes with downstairs.”
Fena grumbled something about me being ‘grumpy’ in response but we both moved out of the now bare room behind us with its lingering smell of blood and neat pile of semi-packed items so we could move on to the next one over instead to start all over again.
“Powers, who knew moving house with magic could be this tiring?”

======

“-And that’s the last of it.”
We both let off slight cheers to ourselves but they sounded a bit weak really which I guess is kinda understandable considering how much pile-making we’ve had to go through over the last hour or so, let alone the whole fiasco with trying to ‘disarm’ Edith’s room full of magical toys and Bad Juju hitting implements!

“I wonder how far John’s gotte-”
As if summoned like a true demon of old his head popped around the doorframe to shot us an unfairly energetic smirk by way of greeting.

Judging by the almost lazy hand waving he offered while summoning the item pile in the middle of the room out into the waiting bottomless bag at his side I’m willing to bet he’s gotten on pretty well in the packing department, just to spite us for giving him the ‘hard’ job if nothing else.

“...Your such an ass sometimes John-Boy...”
I elbowed my way past him, my magic brushing up against his, highly amused, magic for a moment or two which really wasn’t helping things as I went through the hall making final inspections for missed items along the way back down to the main shop-floor.

Despite my intense efforts there really does appear to be nothing missing between the top floor and the front door at this point so I guess we’re finally free at long last to continue on with our day as originally planned, plus one vampire-Fena as...well...

“Uh, don’t know if this is a stupid time to point this out but it’s day-time outside?”
Full daytime too, as in, sunlight pouring in through the windows and people going about their late-morning lives as birds sing in the late-fall breeze.

“It did occur to me too, we HAVE been here for a while after all...”
Not helping John-Boy!

“What about Fena?... ya know... vampire plus sun equals hissing and ash-puddles, right?”
This time I really did feel like an idiot as the pair of them shot each other oddly exasperated looks for a moment before John nodded the responsibility of ‘correcting’ me off to Fena with a negligent twitch of his head.

“It’s the sun Hannah, not some sort of vampire-seeking laser or something...”
Oh?...
“Give me some high factor sun-screen, a few of my sun-rings, a big floppy hat with a full-body wetsuit and I can laze around at the beach these days.”

Well that’s, Uh...
Yeah actually, I guess that would make sense, wouldn’t it?

...Fena in skin-tight neoprene...
Shut up brain, not helping!

“Generally though I prefer blending in a bit considering it’s almost Winter and the Upper is freezing this time of year... give me a minute and I’ll go get my Leathers.”

That being said, Fena turned and went off to find said ‘Leathers’ apparently.
I couldn’t help but turn a questioning look over to John but he just shrugged in response despite the grin that refused to leave his lips at my obvious confusion.

Some annoying part of my mind was running in circles at the idea of Fena in ‘leather’, although luckily it wasn’t hard to keep those sort of thoughts under control for the most part, I DID grow up as a semi-average hormonal teenaged boy after all.

When it didn’t look like Fena was coming back any time soon I let out a huff and hopped up onto the now empty counter by the door to wait instead.
Hopefully she doesn’t take too long finding them.

Knowing her, she probably had Lurch hold onto them, if this was a planned part of her leaving after all.

“So, how long exactly have you known about Fena’s... vampire-ish-ness... without telling me John-Boy?”
His eyes widened slightly and he quickly looked away from me as if that would help avoid the question in general.

At least I won’t be bored while waiting!

======

“Does this look okay? It’s kind of hard to check yourself out when mirrors don’t show your reflection...”

My eyes cut away from my now minute-long silent glare at John to glance over at Fena’s newly arrived form instead and had to bite down hard on my tongue to stop myself from making some kind of sound honestly.

Biker leathers, full-body skin-tight biker leathers with a dark black helmet tucked under her arm, the silver accents of which really worked well with the studs on her belt, boots and jacket as a whole to give off the impression of a truly interesting looking biker-girl in my opinion.
...And I thought we had it bad when she went through that whole ‘Lolita’ phase a few years ago...

“I-it looks... good...”
The words barely managed to pass my lips as she turned around slowly, showing off every curve she had in such an amazingly unfair package.

“It’s very, uh-”
My next stab at an awkward compliment stopped short when my voice actually cracked slightly into a higher pitch as I fought hard to hide the blush I can already feel creeping up my cheeks despite my best efforts.

Judging by the knowing look on her face, and barely surprised ROLLS of laughter I could feel coming off of John behind me, I have no doubt that they both know exactly what my problem is, which sadly only made the blushing problem worse out of embarrassment if nothing else.

“I’m glad you like it Hannah, if you ask nicely I’m sure I can sort you out with a set of your own. The guy who makes mine does a lot of work for the more quiet and hidden members of the vampire community usually.”
She shifted her feet in her biker boots and glanced away from me slightly as a tiny frown formed on her lips before she continued with just a touch of bitterness to her voice.
“I’m pretty sure the old perv would jump at the chance to fit someone with an actual pulse into one of these things...”

Before I could question her sudden change in mood Fena practically skipped forward, all bitterness seemingly forgotten, and snagged my arm up in hers with only slightly faked excitement.

“Come on then Hannah. I’m ready to go out into the world again, it’s been too long since I’ve been both conscious and sober at the same time long enough to notice how dark and depressing it can get in this place at times.”

In a smooth, obviously practiced motion she pulled her motor-bike helmet onto her head with one hand and with a few moments fiddling managed to get the chin strap in place where it could overlap slightly with the high neck of her leather under-shirt.

The image finally complete I could understand her logic in wearing it all honestly.
While the leathers offered complete skin coverage on all sides and the, I’m assuming UV protected, visor of her helmet allowed her to see still, she also didn’t exactly look ‘weird’ or ‘out of place’ in general either.

Well, no more so than a Motorcyclist in Klamath Falls could look at least.

For some reason it felt like she would easily fit in to some kind of action movie as the ‘faceless courier’ character who the hero has to chase down, due mostly to the all-black coloring and my overactive imagination I think honestly, but she definitely doesn’t scream ‘vampire walking around in the daylight’ at least which I guess was the intended goal in the first place after all.

“Daylights burning and I’m sure everyone’s wondering where you are at this point seeing as your visit apparently wasn’t planned or anything, so let’s go already!”

That being said she placed a leather-clad hand on the small of my back and practically pushed me out the front door, John following in our wake with Lurch bringing up the rear with her bottomless bag containing practically the whole shop inside it.

As we made our way down the street towards the taxi office a few streets over that we’re apparently going to use to get back home now on some silent decision between John and Fena, without my input being needed nor requested, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of foreboding that I just couldn’t shake for some reason.

It wasn’t until we were just a few steps away from the taxi office’s doors before it finally clicked in my head what was bothering me so much.

...We disappeared?...
Me and John, we disappeared while I was having a pretty major magical freak-out and when my magic exploded it knocked us both out for who knows how long!
...I don’t have my phone on me...

Hell, I’m lucky I have clothes on me considering John had just got done dragging me out of a magic and drug fuelled state of insanity when everything went crazy.

Whether we were gone just a few hours in that desert or a full day, or more, it doesn’t matter because the outcome is still going to be the same... Sarah’s going to go ballistic at me for worrying her again!

Almost unconsciously I allowed Fena’s gloved hands to guide me into the backseat of our taxi and my mind started going into damage-control mode as I tried to find some way of getting through this without being yelled at by my rightfully frightened sister in twenty minutes or so.

...The odds aren’t exactly in our favor on that one...
Very, very not in my favor!

======

“Fena could you... just kinda... go in first to tell everyone I’m safe and stuff?”
John’s highly amused snort was joined a moment or two later by Fena’s slightly muffled laugh which really isn’t a good sign here.
“Please?... I’ll get you all the goat’s blood you could want, promise?”

This time there was no laugh from her and, although it was hard to tell with her face covered by her visor in total darkness from my perspective, it felt like she was at least mildly curious at the idea if nothing else.

John’s snort progressed into a full blown snigger naturally, not helping my nerves any more than the collection of curious heads I could see popping out of our front-front door to duck inside again a moment later as their owners went back into the bowels of our house, presumably to spread the news that we’ve returned at last.

Fena actually had the gall to offer me a silent, but nonetheless mocking, pat on the back in false reassurance!

Even from here I could hear a commotion starting in the house which could really only mean one thing, Sarah’s coming.
In desperation I turned and grabbed Fena’s hand while using every trick I’ve picked up over the years to give her the most devastatingly adorable ‘puppy dog’ look I could manage as she staggered away from me slightly in surprise.

“Human virgin’s blood Fena! No questions asked, I’ll get you as much as you want if I have to raid every Chess Club from here to Brooklyn, just please... PLEASE, don’t let Sarah get her hands on m-”

“HANNAH COOPER, YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE!”

Oh crap, crapping, cra-
...Too late for that now dumbass, RUN!...

My knees jerked and within moments I was sprinting towards the back of our house in the direction furthest away from Sarah’s now gaining form as possible.

As I whipped around the side of our house and jumped the slope entirely with one awkward roll that lost me precious seconds it was hard to miss the nearly hysterical laugher coming from John that happened to be joined annoyingly by Fena’s still muffled voice as she made no move to help me in the slightest despite my earlier pleading.

“Get back here Han!”

======

A few wild minutes later, we both lay on our backs in a panting mess trying desperately to catch our breaths after the garden-borne chase that just took place.

My plan had originally been to dodge into the back door and go hide in my Realm for another month or two until she calmed down properly but every time I tried to make a move towards it she somehow knew what I was thinking because she was RIGHT there, every bloody time!

Eventually there’s just only so many times you can dodge around trees on pure luck alone and Sarah managed to tackle me to the ground as if it had been a forgone conclusion that she would from the very start.

On the plus side the whole manic chase itself seems to have worked wonders for her mood if the mild grin I can see stretching her cheeks is any indication, but on the negative side I’m completely worn out, feeling weak as a kitten and utterly defenceless if she decides to have yet another change in mood at some point in the near future.

“I’m glad you’re okay, Han... Sorry I yelled...”
Slowly I rolled myself over in the grass so we could look at each other properly again and a small grin flitted across my lips in acceptance of her apology.

She had a good reason to be worried and if I didn’t know any better I’d almost think this whole chase was just her way of making sure I really was ‘okay’ despite the near-meltdown state I was in the last time we saw each other honestly.

“So what happened after you left?... I’m sure John could fill me in but I caught you so you’ve got to spill or else, that’s the rules after all.”

This time I really did smile, her little grin turned into an outright smile as well as we devolved into a relieved fit of laughter between us that felt so nice as my heartbeat finally settled back into something close to a ‘normal’ rhythm in general.

“How long have you got?... I kinda accidentally made a brand-new oasis somewhere in Death Valley that tried to eat me and I’m a lightning mage now apparently, as you can imagine, that’s just the cliff notes version...”
Her hand flew out to slap my shoulder lightly in reprimand but her smile didn’t dim in the slightest.

“Start from the top, tell me everything!”

======

“So Fena’s really a-”
Sarah’s hand came up and she did a kind of awkward ‘fang-like’ gesture with her fingers in front of her mouth that didn’t exactly take a genius to work out the meaning of sadly.

“Yup, throne of dead animal parts and everything... she’s fine though! Just kind of went off the rails a bit like I did apparently but she’s all sober now and perfectly safe as long as we keep a stock of blood around for her come dinner time.”

“Well that’s.... reassuring?”

Seriously, of all the points to come out of our catch up conversation THAT'S the one she's stuck on?

I mean sure she's not exactly had any good experiences with vampires over the years.
She didn’t exactly get on with Fena even before finding out about it either come to that, but surely me going all ‘God Hannah’ again while forcefully shattering what was left of ‘my’ powers-damned CORE should be slightly higher up the worry list here, right?

...She’s being unreasonably selfish in her fear, in my opinion...
Exactly!

“Trust me on this one Sare, Fena’s safe. Even when she was high on junkie-blood for weeks on end she never attacked anyone or made a throne of human remains after all.”
...It was animal parts instead, completely different and understandable...

“It’s fine Han, nothing I’ve seen over the years leads me to think she’s a threat to us at all... it’s actually kinda a relief. I always thought something was off with her honestly but it all makes more sense if she’s a vampire.”
Um... what?
“She doesn’t blink enough for a normal human. It’s creepy and always made me feel like she was some sort of psycho stalker just waiting for me to push her too far so she could kill me in my sleep or something.”

What is she-
I don’t... I mean... wha-

“You seriously didn’t notice? The blinking thing and the weird irregular breathing patterns were pretty obvious at times, especially if you got too close and she sniffed yo... oh, okay... yeah, that IS kinda creepy again now that I think about it.”

Fena sniffs me?!
...Constantly...
Powers-damn it, am I literally the only person who didn’t know something weird was up with her?
...Probably...
Damn it!

Let’s move on quickly before I start getting paranoid about people sniffing me all over again.
It was bad enough the first time!

“We’re getting a bit off topic here Sare, I’m almost tempted to suggest we get back to you yelling at me for letting John kidnap me to protect you and Eris over discussing Fena again at this point, so can we just drop it now we know that you feel safe with her around, please?”
Sarah shrugged a little uncertainly but didn’t argue as I almost frantically started searching for a new topic to fill the void in conversation my request had introduced.

“How about you catch me up on what I’ve missed around here, huh? Not that I’m expecting much obviously, I was only gone a day afte-”
She cringed visibly.
“-uh oh, what’s that look for?”

“A messenger from the government came for you this morning.”
Oh... oh, I am just so not stoned enough to handle this right now...

“Hold that thought, if I’m going to be dealing with the next idiocy to invade my life already I at least want to be sitting down with a coffee and something to eat first, Sare.”
Surprisingly she nodded along with me as if that idea made way more sense than even I’d intended it to which really isn’t helping this situation honestly!

“Probably a good idea, I’ll make some sandwiches and call Eris down to give you a hug, trust me you’re gonna need it Han...”

Powers damn it!

======

“I’m sorry but I’m really just not getting it, can you run this by me one more time, Sare?”
Eris giggled from her new, to her mind at least, position on my lap at the kitchen counter.

It was unbelievably awkward when she first turned up and I can’t even describe how much effort it took for me to not wince when she called me ‘Auntie Hannah’ but I’ll admit that having her so close is helping me stay at least slightly calm at the moment if nothing else.

Distractedly I reached out and grabbed a piece of Eris’s sandwich, tearing off the crusts with a now practiced twist before holding it up for her to take a bite out of, which she did with yet another happy little giggle.

It’s amazing how quickly little actions can become second nature to you really?
I barely even noticed I was doing it until she giggled again, my mind more focused on trying to process the latest mess to land on my doorstep and who I should be blaming for it all.

“He said that the magical congress was being called to session so they can finally do something about the whole ‘everyone dying’ thing, you’re the main person delaying them at this point because they need five of the ‘numbers’ or their representatives present before they can make any new rulings official, outside the initial state of emergency at least, and most of them are currently dead.”

Yep... that sounds exactly the same as it did the first two times she said it...
I have so many questions but also no ability to verbalise them properly because swearing around Eris is a bad idea in general!

The magical congress thing I get.
They’ve been slow in reacting to everything, thanks to me apparently, but generally speaking their jobs are to keep the magical world ticking over if something big like Crater Lake happens unexpectedly.

The ‘Numbers or their representatives’ part I get too sadly.
Why they couldn’t have just called John in I have no idea, probably something stupid to do with that whole ‘making me his heir’ thing he pulled out of his ass when we were claiming our house and the surrounding miles of land at the Hub knowing my luck, but I get that the Numbers are considered wise and important to most politically savvy mages at least.

With John being ‘Number Two’, Edith apparently being the ‘Sixth’ and presumably Arista being ‘Number One’ they could be calling me in for multiple reasons I guess, my role as John’s heir, Edith’s apprentice or just because I technically inherited everything from Arista thanks to her meddling with my core.

Most of the Numbers being dead isn’t hard to work out either.
They could have died separately, for political reasons or something, but odds are that Arista’s highest ranking children would obviously have been at the Lake the day I went and massacred the lot of them, unless they’d had a falling out with her of course, which I think it’s safe to say is probably why some of them are alive at all right now...

I get all of that. The problem... the question I don’t get is WHY?!

Why me, why now, why... just generally ‘why’ really?
I’ve never wanted to go into bloody-politics!

I just don’t have the temper for it for a start.
The first guy who says the wrong thing to me when I’m in a bad mood and I’ll likely be up for homicide in their once hallowed but now blood-stained halls, for Powers-sake!

There are so many people who are better positioned to do this sort of crap.
The first one coming to mind being John obviously, the sneaky bastard that he is...

Come to think of it, I think I’ve finally worked out who’s to blame for this mess now at least.

“JOHN! Get your ass here now or else!”
Ahhh... that felt good...

My arm reflexively squeezed Eris as reassuringly as I could, making her relax out of the stiff pose she’d taken on when I yelled so suddenly.

I ran my thumb absentmindedly across her cheek and up to tickle the little hairs behind her ear, in a way I know she likes, as she slowly eased herself even further back against my chest.
Eventually her little head finally came to a stop on my left breast and she turned it slightly to the side so her ear could rest unerringly on that same damn spot she always manages to find somehow with a contented sigh.

A little smile came to my lips as the familiar sensation of our aura’s magics mingling together pulsed away in my chest like a heartbeat, louder than ever before to my senses... although that’s probably just because my control is so ridiculously improved compared to the way it was when she used to do this sort of thing before-
“You call, Han?”
-and here comes the entertainment at last!

Let’s see if John knows anything helpful about this new mess, shall we?
...I’d be surprised if he didn’t plan the whole bloody-thing honestly...

“John-Boy, what do you know about the magical congress calling a meeting that needs at least five ‘Numbers’ there before they can even start?”
He froze mid-step but that barely lasted a moment before he was moving swiftly to my side and sliding into the empty stool next to me with a practiced ease.

“Oh Crap...seriously?”
...My thoughts indeed John-Boy, my thoughts indeed...

======

“Auntie Hannah! You gotta get up, Dad says if you don’t then he’s gonna call your guards to do it instead!”

“Murphurna-”
...I hate you so much sometimes John...
“-wha’ time’sit?...”

A certain over-excitable little limpet decided that my half-intelligible grunts didn’t count as being ‘awake’ apparently because she proceeded to lunge onto my bed and start jumping around in a manner I’ve become annoyingly used to over the summer I’m afraid, despite the relatively few times she’s actually done it in that timeframe.

We stayed up pretty late last night hashing things out and coming up with plans for our apparent near future.

Between John’s ‘helpful’ input about what will be expected of me as ‘Maxarimus’s representative’ and what kind of ramifications might come crashing down on my head if I don’t go along with this latest madness, it took a while just for me to get past the ‘swearing portion’ of the night in all honesty.

If I don’t turn up then they can’t call the congress to session and if they can’t call it to session within the next week or so then we’re all doomed because officially the Magical Government of America will be formally ‘disbanded’, making rights over the magical citizens of the USA essentially ‘up-for-grabs’ to the highest international bidder.

It’s a bloody-stupid system in my opinion.
A system that just about makes sense when you consider it was designed back in a time where national borders were more of a suggestion than anything else.

A time where any mage worth his magic had claimed some small area of land and people as his own private kingdom which should never be allowed to go too long without a ruler... but is so horribly out of date at this point with the invention of ‘countries’ in general that it’s not even funny!

John reckons that they must be really desperate if they’re calling in Maxarimus, or me as his representative at least, because normally the higher numbers tend to just be left to their own devices like the walking time-bombs of insanity they tend to be, to minimize damage for everyone involved.

The fact that they sent someone in person and the fact that it was to ME of all people says a hell of a lot about just how bad things apparently are below the surface!
To misquote Hamlet; ‘Something’s rotten in the state of New York’... and considering how my luck goes these day’s I’m probably going to end up being the only one who can fix it.

I hate my life sometim- Oww, that’s not a handhold Young Lady!

“Okay, okay! I’m getting up!”
Anything if she’ll just let go of my- Ahh, that’s better.
I swear she gets the boob-grabbing thing from John...
“Go make sure John’s ready and breakfast is cooking for me sweetie, I’ll be down in a minute, I promise.”

That was all the assurance Eris needed apparently before she shot off the bed in a rather comically slow sprint that only a young child could consider ‘fast’ but the giggle she let off at the same time warmed my heart.

It still hurts having her so close by and, if nothing else, this little side-trip to our magical state-capital will give me some breathing room to get settled again after the all-out assault dealing with Eris for the last twelve hours or so has felt like, so I guess I shouldn’t grumble about it all too much in the end, huh?
...My boob’s still hurt from her using them as hand-holds again though...

With a sigh I sat up and rubbed tenderly against my now sore left side for a few seconds before flicking my legs over the edge so I could shuffle my way out of bed to go find my bag with a fresh set of clothes in it.

A few minutes later and I had on a comfortable set of jean-shorts with a baggy red boat-necked sweatshirt that practically covered those same shorts from view due to it’s length and my short legs.
I really do miss my golden magic badly at times like this; I could go days without changing clothes thanks to that little tri-

The bedroom door opened, as commanded by my hand turning the handle in much the same way as you would expect really, but the sight that greeted me on the other side of that door, along with the general chaos and noise which somehow hadn’t managed to reach me through the wall to such an impressive degree that I suspect magic may have been involved in some way, was enough to make my still only just awake mind stall out completely once again in horror.

“Oh... what fresh hell is this?”
...Looks like someone is trying to organise an army’s troop movements at short notice...

I have no idea who decided to tell my extended family that they are coming with us to Long Island but it’s hard to take this mess any other way when several werewolves are busy chaining camping equipment and suitcases down the hallway right in front of me with smiles on their faces, and I know exactly who’s going to be to blame for it at least.

“JOHN!”

When it comes down to it, sanity can often be found in the strangest of places and situations, if we need it desperately enough... in my experience at least. Sometimes it can just take being put, reluctantly, back into your element to bring on clarity and a sense of purpose properly at long last. Events unfold including but not limited to: Hannah breaking some windows to get attention, John using his magic effectively without casting a single spell, And a Jeep needing to have its windows opened quickly!

 

“No! No werewolves, the minute they leave our clan grounds they’ll be fair game for anyone who wants to take a shot at them an—”

Henry, one of ‘our’ more annoying magical children wandered past me clutching what I can only describe as a fishing pole crossed with an overly large cucumber and a smirk on his face that made me really just want to go back to my initial reaction of hitting John repeatedly because this is all his BLOODY fault!

“No children either! The big or the little kind!”

This is getting out of hand, I only slept for a few hours?!
How the hell have they managed to mobilise so quickly and come to the mistaken idea that anyone else is coming with us to visit the magical US’s political elite?
...or what’s left of them at least...

“You need to bring an entourage with you Han, I told you that last night, and apparently someone heard us talking because it quickly got out of control, I guess?”

Out of control, ‘you GUESS’?!
There’s an army of werewolves planning on marching on the bloody-capitol building because they mistakenly believe an ‘entourage’ is code for a bloody-ARMY and you GUESS things might be a bit ‘out of control’?!

I’m... I’m going insane?...
What the bloody-hell am I going to do to stop this unholy cluster-fuck car-crash of a situation unfolding in slow motion before it’s all too late?!

...We tried yelling yet? Works on John usually...
Yelling! Perfect, why didn’t I think of tha- oh, wait, I did? –nevermind!

My fingers came up to my lips and John ducked away from me almost instinctively as I pushed magic up my throat to enhance my noise making potential.

With a single huff of breath I let off a whistle so powerful that all the windows in front of us looking down onto our backyard shattered in seconds as every dopy idiot child, cousin or miscellaneous relation in a three mile radius dropped to the floor with a pained yelp.
...Teach them to do stupid stuff while we’re sleeping...
Exactly!

No kid gloves this time.
This. Ends. NOW!

======

My hand came up to rub tiredly against my forehead while the arguing continued on despite my obvious lack of involvement at this point.

“How many ‘entourage’ members are we down to now, John-Boy?”
His eyes cut up from a piece of paper and even before he opened his mouth I could tell just from the look on his face that I wasn’t going to like the answer he had to offer.

“Four-hundred and thirteen”

Crappppp... if anyone ever says that ‘it’s good to be loved by your family’ to me again then I’m going to personally zap them in the balls with lightning magic!

So many people, so many diverse little sub-groupings of people, and they all expect to be ‘represented’ in my ‘honor guard’ while taking offence every damn time I try to offer a compromise of any sort to calm things down at long last and... and, ya know what?...

“Screw it, I’m done!”

With stamping feet I forced myself back to a standing position and rose my fingers back to my lips making everyone around us freeze with such satisfying horror on their faces that even in my current state I couldn’t help but let a little smirk out just because I could in response.

“I’ve made my decision! My entourage will consist of Me and John, that’s it, the rest of you get lost back in the realm before I lose my patience.”

Everyone stayed frozen with obvious disbelief written on all their faces as they stared back at me at first but all it took was one more forceful huff and a little lean forward that left no doubt in anyone’s minds that my next actions would shatter yet more eardrums if they don’t get moving to start the stampede back upstairs at long last.

“Say what you want, I’m already packed and so is Eris so we’re still coming Han.”
Damn it... I’ve got such a headache...

“I’m coming too, ‘vampire rights and peace’, ‘free the under-represented once-buried masses’ and all that stuff... I’ve always wanted to try my hand at politics honestly...”
Really big headache, really, REALLY big headache!

“Motherrr! I’ll come too as your-”

“NO!”
Not him, anyone but him.
What the hell kind of role does he even think he could pretend to do in m-
“Damn it Narcissus, don’t start crying!”

...Seriously?!...

“Look, I’m sorry I yelled, okay? I’ve got a headache and it’s just... it’s just...”
...THINK! Quickly!...
“It’s just that I need you here more than anything?”
...Ohh, good one...
“Uh, yeah! I need you here to... keep an eye... on the shopping district while I’m gone...?”

John coughed awkwardly to my side in a way that really didn’t hide his snigger at my poorly hidden, let alone thought out, ‘cover story’ for why I couldn’t bring Narcissus with me to Long Island.

The sappy self-obsessed idiot didn’t notice though apparently, probably lost in his own little world of joy at his ‘mother’ having such an important role for him in her absence judging by the almost sparkling effect of unshed tears in his eyes in the brief moment I got to see them before he dived forward to give me a really unwelcome hug around my waist instead!

“Get. Him. Off of me. Now, John-Boy...”
Yet again Narcissus seemed blissfully unaware of the growl rumbling low in my chest as he clung on to me and rambled on about ‘plans’ he’d apparently made months ago because ‘he just knew I’d pick him eventually’ or some such garbage.

I’m honestly beyond the point of caring as long as he’s gone soon, very, very soon.

Thankfully for all our sakes Echo seemed to notice the near murderous look in my eyes because she made quick work of easing him off of me with surprisingly little effort, while getting him into a discussion about ‘his new job’ full of open praise which distracted him far too easily for my sanities sake as the pair walked away as if nothing that happened just moments before was ever ‘real’ to start with.

“I’m in a nightmare, an honest to Powers nightmare... anyone else want to crawl out of the woodwork to try and claim their spot on this stupid non-existent entourage?!”

Silence descended around us, blissful, wonderful silence which I think even John was glad to see at this point.
I can feel the little hairs on my arms sticking up from built up static electricity I’ve gained where my emotions got the better of me an-

“Knock, knock?”

I’m... I’m gonna kill someone?...
I don’t care who, maybe just myself will do, but I’m definitely, definitely going to kill someone!

“It’s only us, Trudy and Rosemary, from the AMS?... We heard your guard detail were coming up to prep for this whole ‘summons to New York’ thing and figured we’d hitch a ride with them on the way because-”
I didn’t hear what else Trudy was saying from that point on.

Someone’s arm made its careless way around the corner leading from our front hallway into the kitchen and I lunged forward sharply only to find myself pulled back with a grunt by John of all people.

For a few seconds I struggled against him but he didn’t hesitate to unleash his aura making a shudder go down my spine due to our proximity even as a thick blanket of his magic drifted its way around me in a warm wave of love, affection and calm feelings that I just couldn’t resist.

Like a puppet with its strings cut I sunk heavily back into his chest and let out a long, tired sigh that pretty much summed up the last hour or so since I woke up in its entirety at this point.

“...I fucking hate politics...”
John laughed and the little jolt of amusement I felt through his magic felt so nice I laughed dazedly along with him for some reason.

The arm’s owner finally came into focus for my slightly blurred eyes and I let out one last, almost insane sounding giggle as Pauly looked down at us with more than a little confused frustration obvious on his weathered old features.

Me, John ‘the magical blanket’ Jones, Sarah and Eris apparently, Fena our newly dubbed ‘vampire rights activist’, the AMS girls and Pauly’s crew of annoying soldiers just to add the icing on the cake!

I really did go to bed last night thinking this whole thing might actually be SIMPLE and easy for once but no; as if the universe could ever let anything in my life just be simple and easy in any way-shape-or-form!

“...I wanna go back to bed...”
John snorted and my head lolled back slightly further as my eyes shut under the wonderful assault of his magically transmitted emotions that washed over me once more.
“Wake me up when we’re ready to go Joh-”

Before I could even finish my sentence my tiredness and the stress of everything combined with that wonderfully warm feeling of love surrounding me won out over my conscious mind and I drifted off to sleep while standing up, being awkwardly cuddled to his chest by a grinning John.
...At least everyone’s being quiet at last...

======

“Bacon... Steak... Sausages dipped in pig fat...”

My head jerked up in bleary surprise and seemingly the whole world around me exploded in laughter for a few seconds before I could work out what was going on.

We’re apparently in one of Pauly’s stupid Jeeps, number three again judging by the two soldiers in the front looking so annoyingly familiar that they can only have been the same ones from the last time I travelled by ‘Pauly cab’ so many months ago now.

“Told you, all it takes is a good bit of meat to wake her up, pay up gun-wavers!”
I can’t even bring myself to be vocally annoyed at John over the obviously intended double-entendre in that sentence?

It probably doesn’t help that I feel so comfortably warm at the moment, still wrapped up in his magic and-
My eyes cut down slightly to make sure my senses weren’t being fooled, only to find a comfortably sleeping Eris sprawled across my chest in her usual ‘starfish’ like pose with her ear stuck just above my heart like old times.
-I’ve got Eris with me too apparently, which feels really good even if she still doesn’t think of me as her ‘Mom’ anymore...

“Wha’ did’I miss?”
The words came out in a half-awake drawl which I honestly hadn’t intended but one that only seemed to amuse everyone around me a little bit more at this point.

There were some shuffling sounds behind me and a few seconds later a recognisable hand holding a recognisable brand of coffee cup reached over my shoulder like some kind of gift from the heavens.

Not willing to give up even the hint of real live coffee in my half-awake, at best, state I moved my free arm up to snag it before I’d even fully realised that the arm holding it belonged to Sarah.
It took me a few more seconds to realise that we obviously can’t be in the same stupid Jeeps as last time because this one apparently has a third row of seats in it.
...Unless Sarah’s currently riding around in the trunk at least?...

Out of curiosity more than anything my eyes cut back over my shoulder to stare at the highly amused face of my sister, sat happily in one of two other ‘back seats’ behind us.
Behind her, Trudy and Rosemary waved happily at me from an even further extended very-back row with the still helmet wearing form of Fena lazing comfortably between them as well.

My coffee-holding hand came up to ‘salute’ them all slightly as best I could before practically diving back down towards my lips so I could take one nice long suck from the precious life-giving nectar inside.

“...Thanks Sare...”
Another round of smiles was my reward for that mumbled comment, but I didn’t mind too much at this point considering it gave me a chance to settle in and slowly reengage my brain over the course of the warm cups life-cycle.

Eventually I noticed that we were moving and it took longer than it probably should have for me to realise that I didn’t really recognise the roads around us at all, meaning we’ve obviously been traveling for a while if nothing else.

“Where are we going?”
John turned his head away from the front to offer me a surprisingly gentle smile as he turned his body to better face me once more, his magic twitching as he moved but not coming loose from its current job as my nice warm invisible blanket.

“The airport.”
I jolted slightly in surprise, almost spilling my coffee a little and getting a tiny sleep-filled grumble from the Eris-starfish on my chest at the same time.

“But... I don’t have any of my stuff?”
I also don’t like flying in planes and he KNOWS that!

I don’t really get travel sick too badly with planes unless we hit some turbulence or have a bumpy landing so that’s something at least but on the other hand I DO have what I’d like to say are mild, but are probably better described as ‘major’, panic attacks when we’re in the air!
...We scream like a little girl and cling to the nearest person for dear life is more like it...
Human-beings flying in the air thanks to anything but magic is just not natural! Okay?!

“No worries Han, we got your expanded bag full of clothes and junk from your bedroom, it’s in the jeep behind us, and Sarah even grabbed a pile of books in case you get bored.”
His smile was still looking eerily gentle for some reason which kind of threw me off for a second but I managed to pull myself together again quick enough to give him a proper answer at least.

“Not that stuff John-boy, I need a new safety suit for a start and if we’re going to face magical politicians then I’m going to need every dirty little trick my drugged up mind could think of just to survive most likely!”
Eris shifted a little at my raised voice and my hand moved to better support her head while patting her hair to help her settle back down again without a thought as I stared meaningfully at John’s disbelieving face.

“You’re exaggerating...”

“Maybe a little bit but I’ll feel safer with them anyway and more importantly the suit at the very least keeps my magic calm... just because it’s not been a problem since my core exploded doesn’t mean it couldn’t go wrong eventually.”

Even I’m not completely convinced there’s anything to worry about anymore with my core honestly but it’s as good an excuse for him as any.
I put a lot of hard work into that suit and I’ve kinda gotten used to not needing silly things like showers and toilet breaks thank-you-very-much, not to mention it helping me deal with my periods better on a cramps-front and mess-front, of course.

Besides, we have no clue who could be a sleeper agent for Arista at this point considering she established the MPA apparently. I’d rather wear the suit and not need it then need it and not have it at this point, preferably with Eris and John also wearing their own ones for safety sake, come to that.

“I’m not going to be the one to tell this lot to turn back. It was hard enough convincing them that a flight on my private jet was better than three days of non-stop driving and I really don’t want to push my luck with that Paul guy... pretty sure he was tempted more than once to just shoot me and get it over with honestly...”

“You have a private jet?”
It took a second for my brain to catch up with the rest of his words and I felt a little stupid for voicing that question when I did.

Of course he has a private jet; he’s a rich ancient-mage and an asshole at the same time after all.
He also has a manor in England now that I think about it?

I really need to sort my finances out at some point. I can’t let John have yet another reason to feel smug around me by being the one always paying for everything much longer or he might realise it’s happening and find a way to block my bank access entirely just to be an ass and enjoy it all a little bit longer.

“Forget that, more importantly we don’t need to stop... I think?”
Cautiously a shot a glance around the elongated Jeep-thing we’re riding in and after a quick glance down to check Eris would be okay if the sound involved woke her at all I focused on our two gun-toting drivers in the front seats instead.
“Umm... just a heads up, if this works we’re going to have a visitor making a bit of noise and fire dropping in so... uh, don’t panic, I guess?... Okay?”

The male driver stayed focused on the road ahead but his female companion in the passenger seat turned to shoot me a knowing look that came off as only moderately smug, although that could just be because I’m used to John’s ‘entirely smug’ looks all the time at this point and I’ve lost the ability to judge normal levels of smugness properly or something.

“Okay, here goes... Felix?”
For a moment nothing happened as we kept driving along the road and Sarah even started to snigger slightly under her breath at the worried pout that I could feel forming on my lips as the seconds ticked on without response.

Finally, just as I was preparing to give up on my self-proclaimed ‘familiar’s odd ability to hear when I call him that’s saved my butt more than once since we met, there was a puff of smoke followed by a rather pathetic looking flame that seemed to almost gutter out the moment it formed right in front of me.

Several people helpfully opened their windows to let the slowly spreading smoke out and I eventually got a clear view of Felix at last, who honestly did NOT look well at all!
His little wing-flicks looked slow, almost tired as they just about held him in the air and his bulbous little eyes looked glazed-over as he took in everything around him with a lost look on his chubby little red face.

“Felix?”
He twitched and within moments seemed to gain some life back into himself as he swung around mid-flap to face me, his face lighting up in surprised awe and delight as the seconds ticked on.

“Bii-Sanya? Bii-Sanya!”
I barely got any more warning then that joyfully confused cry before he dive bombed me, latching his cute little furry body practically around my head as he hugged me as if I’d come back from the dead or something.

“Hey buddy, it’s been a while, huh?”
He didn’t answer me verbally but I could feel his little body shaking from its new position as if he were crying, which was worrying in itself honestly because I really didn’t know Imp’s COULD cry, biologically speaking at least.

Before I could say anything to help comfort him an odd sensation formed across my forehead, right where he had his own little fur-covered one resting on mine, which grew quickly into a forceful pressure upon my magic itself.
My first instinct was to lash back at the invading force but almost as soon as I’d thought of that it finally clicked in my head why the pressure felt so familiar.

“Felix?”

He didn’t answer yet again but he did squeeze my head a little tighter as the force that can only be his fiery Fae magic at this point continued to cautiously force its way into my system from the point where our heads touched.

While I didn’t know what he was trying to do, I DO trust the little guy and it didn’t take much for me to effectively tell my magic to ‘let him pass’.

Practically the moment I did just that his magic surged forwards, flying down the line leading from my left temple across my chest and blazing a trail down to the only possible destination it could realistically be searching for at this point.

His trailing line of magic connected with my Locus Point core and in seconds the warmth of his power spread out across my body in an amazingly wonderful feeling of care and devotion that almost reminded me of the way John’s magic feels when he wraps me up inside it.

“...Bii-Sanya...”
“...Lady-Death...”

A wide smile came to my lips in response to that funny little musical echo of words that I hadn’t realised I’d missed as much as I did until I heard it once more.

”You-are alive! We feared-the-worst when-your power exploded-across the-laylines of the-sleepers-hole...”
Slowly he eased his grip loose from around my head and pushed himself backwards slightly with a flap of his wings so we could see each other better.
“I must-inform the-others. The-Fae will rejoice at-your-return Lady-Death!”

All signs of his sluggish, hazy lack of energy had seemingly disappeared at this point and his red little cheeks seemed to positively glow as he grinned at me, his eyes still taking me in constantly as if he couldn’t really believe I was sitting in front of him like this.

The excitable little guy moved back slightly more and almost instinctively I knew he was about to leave.
Probably to do just as he’d said, inform the Fae that I wasn’t dead, which would kind of defeat my original point in calling him if I didn’t say something quickly.

“Felix! Before you go to the others, can you drop into my realm and grab some things for me?”
He froze in place... well, about as frozen as someone can be while being suspended in the air by wings flapping behind them at least?... but his face didn’t lose any of its newfound joy at least as he nodded his little head with a happy smile playing across his fanged lips.
“I’m not really sure how to describe where you have to go, my workshops are kind of hidden behind a locked door at the moment, but I need a large bag that’s tucked away in a dark corner of my satellite chamber and a replacement for this torn suit I’m wearing?”

My hands came up to play with the high-neck of my suit to show what I meant and he seemed to concentrate on it for a few seconds before blinking a few times with another nod of understanding.

“Lady-Death’s realm is like-the-golden-halls, yes?”
...Golden halls?...

Oh! The ones back at the Hub I infected with my magic by accident while fighting Maven?
That reminds me, I really should go see if I can fix that at some point.
...Time for that later though, one thing at a time Han!...

“Yeah, kind of like those halls Felix, it’s pumped full of my magic at least and-”
The almost violent nodding of Felix’s head made me trail off in confusion as he grinned at me knowingly in response.

“The-halls like-me. They-feel Lady-Death’s touch. I-will find what-you-need easily!”
That said he flapped harshly once more and twisted in the air, disappearing in a Fae teleportation which was a lot more ‘fire’ and a lot less ‘smoke’ when compared to the one he appeared with earlier at least.

With a sigh I leaned back in my seat a little more and got ready to wait for him to reappear.
After a few seconds where my eyes almost drifted shut again from just how warm and comfortable I felt, even with John’s magic having fallen away when Felix latched onto me, I flinched slightly as Eris moved against my chest.

Slowly her little head turned up so her eyes could stare at me in mild confusion but it bled away into curiosity a few seconds later for some reason and she opened her mouth to speak instead.

“...Was that Felix?...”
A little smile played across my lips and I brushed her hair back from her face unconsciously in amusement as her lazy eyes trailed over my face thoughtfully.
“What did he want? He’s Mom’s familiar but I’ve not seen him in ages since...”

My eyes went wide in shock almost at the same moment that hers drooped in lost confusion.

Part of me wanted to jump around in as much excitement as Felix showed a few moments ago at the idea that some part of her still remembers something so specific, something about me, even if she’s now confused because reality doesn’t quite match up with her thoughts due to Sarah not really being her ‘Mom’.

The other, more rational side of me is spinning in circles trying to find a way to do damage control if this goes any further than it already has.

Whatever Arista did to her isn’t perfect.
That’s great, fantastic even because it means that there could be ways for us to subvert it all and fix it... but it also means that Eris could be in danger if we aren’t careful too.

Potentially this could be like Mum all over again!
Her memories were tampered with and she’s hitting walls where things don’t add up.
Things could go so much worse from here if we’re not supremely careful at this crucial ti-

Before I could make up my mind one way or the other about where to go from here the confusion on Eris’s little face cleared completely leaving her looking worryingly blank for a moment until it finally moved back into her usual smile again and she settled her head back down on my chest once more as if nothing had happened in the slightest in the time between her raising her head and her resting it back down once more.

For a few long seconds I stared down at the top of her head as the newly re-opened wound of losing her stabbed away at me inside but with a slightly harsh huff of breath I managed to force those emotions back behind the ‘veil’ with all the other things I’m just not ready to handle at the moment, instead turning my head up to stare at John with hope-filled eyes which he’d have to be stupid to not understand at this point.

I almost felt like mouthing the words ‘she remembers’ to him as he looked between me and her with unspoken pain obvious on his face but seeing the shocked, almost hurt, look on Sarah’s face from her position practically next to him stopped me short on doing that at least.

My minds already coming up with small ways I can test the limits of this tiny chink in Arista’s horrible mind-work on turning my... turning Eris against m... US.
It’s not much, but I’ve done a lot more with a lot less in the past and Eris’s wellbeing is one hell of an incentive for me to start getting creative!

Slowly my eyes drifted down to stare at the once more ‘starfish’ shaped Eris lump on my chest and I gently eased her loose hand up, tucking her fingers away until only her thumb remained so I could easily slip it between her slightly parted lips.

A gentle little smile flickered across my own lips as she sniffed slightly in her sleep but finally started to suck her thumb the way she always used to do in so many past incarnations that I only vaguely remember and one that I hope we can get back someday soon.

John’s magic spread out to wrap around me once more while I was busy watching Eris start to snore to herself lightly, the comfortable warmth felt perfect as a compliment to the rekindled hope I could feel slowly growing in my chest just from knowing that all isn’t lost for the first time in a long while.

“...Thanks John-Boy...”
Out the corner of my eye I could see his smirk almost as easily as I could feel his happiness at that thank you vibrate through his magic moments later.

We’re heading to the biggest collection of high-power mages left in the United States.
Sure, I’m going to have to put up with an airplane trip to get there... but where there’s mages there will be experts in every field imaginable.

I don’t care if I have to go full Arista-mode just to get their attention, I WILL get their attention, and when I do I’ll make damn sure that if anyone has even a hint of an idea what she did to Eris then they will tell me every-damn-thing!

======

We were just passing under some kind of large overpass, about five quiet minutes of driving since my little revelation with Eris, when there came a surprisingly muffled ‘pop’ followed by a roar of flames and Felix appeared in the Jeep with us once more, his little wings flapping frantically to stay airborne due to the weight he was carrying with him.

In his little clawed hands he was clutching the rather long handles of the ‘bug-out bag’ I’d requested from my workshop, a recognisable roll of black cloth tucked through those same handles, showing that against all odds he’d actually managed to get my spare suit too.

My free hand came up to rub gently on top of his round little red-head in thanks and the little guy seemed to practically glow under my attention, even as he let the bag fall into the space by my feet in order to better stay at the right height to get a proper head-scratching in peace moments later.

“Thanks Buddy, I knew you could manage it. Do you want to stay with us for a while? I’m sure Eris will be happy to see you again at least.”
For a few seconds he just kept rubbing his face into my palm blissfully but with some effort obvious on his face he managed to pull himself away from my scratches to look at me better once more.

“Little-Lady-Death-Pup is-confused by-me Lady-Death. It-will-be-better if she avoids-contact with-me for-now. I-must-return to the-others to-inform them of your-return anyway but thank-you for-the praise my-bonded. Call-on-me again when-you-are free to-do so once-more.”

With a happy little yip that even our odd familiar bond couldn’t translate, one that felt like laughter of some sort from what I can feel of his magic through this newly re-established bond we share, one that I’m pretty sure we must have had before but I can feel so clearly now that it’s mildly disturbing, he flapped slightly harder and disappeared with a ‘pop’ and a well-controlled burst of sulphurous flames.

“That’s probably the most I’ve ever heard the little guy say in one go, anything interesting?”
I rolled my head to the side and shot John a slightly reproving glare before shaking my head moments later.

It’s none of his business what we say to each other after all.
If John’s so curious what Imps say around him then he’ll just have to learn how to speak their language or at least get himself a translator like I have, so there!

A smirk played across my lips from the mild disbelief I could feel radiating out of John’s magic in response to my last words and I snuggled down in my seat for the rest of our drive to the currently undisclosed airport ahead of us somewhere.

I’ve got a goal now.
I’ve got a something I can gain out of playing along with all this stupid mage-politics and, wherever this latest mess is going to take us in the process of unfolding, it will be worth it if I can help her.

If it takes me claiming conquest rights over Arista publically to do it then so be it!

Obviously that won’t be my first choice or even ‘Plan F’ for that matter but if that’s what it takes for me help Eris then I’ll outright pretend to be that crazy dead-bitch no matter the consequences.
She hurt my daughter, worse than that, she did a terrible job of it at the same time for Powers-sake!

Watch out Long Island!

You just invited Hannah Cooper and her entourage to dinner and we aren’t taking prisoners anymore.
I’m going to ferret out every Arista supporter, sponsor or collaborator left among you bunch of magical snobs and when I find them I’m going to have some questions answered, either willingly or after copious applications of my traitorous Grans favored lightning empowered ‘interrogation methods’!

...Hoo-Raa!...