Interactions: N/A
Sloane’s Apartment
Sully let out a low whistle as he poked his head out of the driver side window of his car and craned his neck to look up at the vertigo-inducing pair of skyscrapers that made up the Harrisburg Towers Luxury Apartments. The afternoon sun reflected off of the mirrored glass window, making the building appear as if it were crafted out of solid gold and serving as a beacon to the trust fund babies and one percenters of St. Portwell. Sully suddenly felt extremely out of place. His rusty truck stood out in stark contrast with the waxed and polished luxury vehicles pulling out of the rounded drive, and he was dressed in clothes from the day before the day before while everyone else looked like they had stepped out of a Neiman Marcus catalog.
Sully let his truck idle for a moment at the turn into the apartments, taking a second to smooth out his hair and wipe a bit of campfire soot off of his cheek by wetting his finger with his tongue. He gave his shirt a sniff and heaved out a rough woof as his eyes rolled in the back of his head. Sully had taken Tayla’s advice to heart and hidden out at Greenwood’s camp over the weekend to avoid dealing with Dean, but the smell was nearly as deadly. He grabbed around in the plastic bag sitting on his seat and pulled out a can of spray deodorant, the car exploding in a sandalwood mushroom cloud.
Sully turned into the drive and got out at the valet, expecting the ladies to clutch at their pearls, the gentlemen to scoff at him with an upper crust, “my god!”, and the poor fucker dressed like a butler just trying to make rent being yelled at to remove him from their property. Instead Sully, backpack in one hand and plastic bag in the other, found himself just ignored by the valet as he approached his podium. He had to cough into his fist to get the fella’s attention.
“Hey Jeeves, I was told to leave my baby with you,” said Sully.
“Your what, sir?” said the man behind the podium. He was affecting some kind of posh, not-quite-English-but-nearly-there accent that caught Sully off guard. Surely it must’ve been a bit? Sully had been a valet before for a couple of weeks, and most of the valets he knew were either actors or comedians awaiting their big break.
“I meant my motorized vehicle, my good sir,” said Sully, unintentionally adopting the accent.
The valet gave Sully the ol’ up-down, looked at his truck, and then back at Sully. “Mm. Are you a guest of one of our residents, sir?”
“Oh no, milord,” said Sully, leaning into the accent now. He wasn’t good at it, unintentionally shifting from an English lord to a peasant shit farmer mid sentence.
“I just fancy trying to have a bit of a laugh by giving away my baby, you see. Of course I’m a guest, you see, of the kind lady Sloane Faris who lives at the top of this here castle.”“Why are you talking like that?”
“Talkin’ like what, bruv?” another shift.
The valet shook his head, went inside, and approached a man at a desk. A bead of sweat began to form on Sully’s brow, worried that maybe the guy was one of those dudes who took his job way too seriously, half tempted to bolt as he saw the other guy at the desk pick up a phone. A head was nodded and the valet came back outside, looking a little red in the face.
“Terribly sorry about that confusion, Mr. McPherson.”
“Aw now guv, ain’t no problem now innit?”“Um, right. Your keys, sir?”
“Oh shit, right,” said Sully, shifting back into his normal tone as he pulled a small screwdriver out of his back pocket and waved the valet over to his truck.
“You’re just gonna want to jam it into the ignition there and turn. You’re gonna feel like it’ll break but trust me it probably won't, so just keep turning until it starts up. This a bad neighborhood? There’s a wheel lock club in the backset just in case.” The valet gave Sully a suspicious look, which prompted Sully to add,
“Don’t worry, it’s not stolen.”“What happened to your accent, sir?”
“My what?”“Your accent.”
“What happened to your accent?” “It's been the same, sir.”
“Yes it has, sir, yes it has. Keep up with that commitment, man. You’ll get there one day,” said Sully, passing the valet the screwdriver and clapping him on the shoulder.
He left the man dumbfounded with a screwdriver in his hand and entered into the lobby, whistling to himself. Sully pulled out his phone and squinted to reread the text from Sloane through the spiderwebbed cracks on the screen, bypassing the first series of elevators to head to the one with exclusive access to the penthouse. He whistled along with the jazzy muzak as the elevator shot up to the top floor, the door sliding open into a private hall leading to Sloane’s apartment. Sully rapped his knuckles to the rhythm of “shave and a haircut” upon the door and stepped back, arching an eyebrow up at the security camera pointed down at him from the corner.
Moments later the door opened and Sloane stood in the entrance, her arms crossed.
“You’re late, Sullivan.”“Only by a little bit.” Nearly an hour.
“What’s with your valet speaking in a fake English accent?” Dark eyes locked with his own and stared in unblinking silence for what felt like an eternity.
“I mean, I assumed he was an act—”“You assumed he was an actor before assuming he was English?” said Sloane.
“Well, yeah, it’d be kind of weird if he was from England…”“How would that be weird?” asked Sloane. Sully rubbed the back of his head and sucked on his teeth, screwing up his face as if he were in deep, ponderous thought. Sloane held up her hand to stop him from saying something stupid.
“Nevermind, I don’t care. Did you bring it?”Sully pulled into his backpack and pulled out the Chalice,
“Ta-da!”The Chalice was plucked from his hand in a flash by Sloane, her lips curling in what Sully almost mistook for a smile on the normally dour woman’s face. She nodded her head and turned as she headed back into her apartment, the door being left open the only sign of an extended invitation inside. Sully kicked his boots off in the entrance, assuming Sloane would be furious if he traipsed about her place with muddy shoes.
He gently closed the door behind him and followed after the woman, his jaw going slack as he looked around her place. He’d figured that Sloane’s place would be fancy, but what he hadn’t expected was for it to look like his grandmother’s house, chock full of weird looking knick knacks. The only thing missing was the plastic covers on the floral couches and pictures of the Virgin Mary. Sully paused by a row of wooden toy soldiers, unable to resist the boyish urge that came across every adult man whenever he saw an action figure to have it fight the other one. He pinched the arm of the soldier and turned it so that his musket would aim at the soldier beside him, his face blanching as the soldier’s arm snapped when he moved it. Sloane, who was sat down at a coffee table, a few crumbs the only evidence of her usual tiny sandwiches that she had crashed in quiet fury about thirty minutes ago when she had assumed Sully had stood her up, her Channeler placed against the Chalice as she began to weave her dual Luxes together, did not appear to notice. He slipped the arm into the plastic bag, burying it along with a change of clothes.
“Hey I don’t want to impose, but could I use your shower? The water has been out at my place for the past couple of days and I’m starting to smell a bit too ripe,” said Sully, jangling his plastic bag with the clothes he’d snagged when he’d snuck in past his landlord to get into his apartment that morning.
If it had been warmer outside he just could’ve used the Chalice to give himself a hot shower, but he would’ve shriveled his bits off in this weather. Camping out at Greenwood’s hideout was starting to become unviable, too, but between Dean and the landlord he didn’t want to be caught hanging out in his studio apartment. Sloane looked up as if to say “are you serious” but before she could speak he hit her with his patented puppy dog eyes. She deftly rolled her eyes away from them, but still acquiesced with a sigh and a nod, informing him that extra towels were in the hall closet.
Once in the bathroom, Sully hit the fan then rushed over to the toilet, threw the arm down into the bowl, and flushed—or tried to, anyway, but couldn’t find a handle. He gawked at the panel beside the toilet, lined with a dozen buttons, and pushed the one that looked like the flush. Sully shouted in horror as a nozzle protruded out from the basin of the toilet and shot a mist of water in his face. He gagged and hit another button, ducking to the side a spray of water arced across the bathroom. Why were there two different types of sprays? He hit every button on the side panel, turning on and off lights, causing the lid to close and open automatically, playing the sounds of nature, before finally a flush, the dismembered arm spiraling down the drain. The arm was a fighter and did not stay down until the fourth flush.
What followed was the longest shower ever, partially due to wanting to purify his body of Sloane’s toilet water and partially due to not wanting to go back out into her living room knowing full well that she had to assume that he’d just blown up her toilet.
“Crazy dream the other night, huh? Is that what made you think about duping the Chalice again?” asked Sully, fresh dressed in new duds and smelling like whatever the fuck tumeric body wash was,acting as if nothing weird had happened.
“No,” said Sloane tersely.
Sully sat down on the couch across from her.
“Anything I can do to help?”“Do you have Orange Lux?”“No.”“Then just be quiet. I need to focus,” said Sloane.
Sully nodded his head, put his hands in his lap, and kept nodding his head as he looked around the room, part admiring all of the books on her shelves, part wondering why someone would need to hold onto so many books when the public library was a thing. Resting against the shelf was a seven-foot tall wooden staff with decorative blue butterflies atop of it.
Hey, that’s Auri’s staff. Sully got up to take a closer look. Sitting on the shelf by the staff was a fancy looking pen covered in runes, a bizarre looking camera’s lens, and a—Sully laughed out loud in surprise,
“Holy shit, you freaky bitch! Hell yeah, Sloane.”Sloane’s head snapped up, the Lux that flowed around her hands fading away as she turned to see Sully standing near her bookshelf wiggling his eyebrows like a weirdo. Her eyes widened into a rare expression of panic as she saw Sully take the pen and use it like a crime scene investigator who was too cool to wear gloves to lift up his source of amusement.
“Wait, no—it’s not—goddamnit, you don’t know where that’s been!”“Oh, I’m pretty sure it’s been in one of two places…”“Sullivan!” Sloane let out a frustrated sigh as Sully laughed.
“Just…just shut up and let me explain.”
Sunday Night
After the Preliminary Sycamore-Greenwood Meeting
An atrocity committed by @Shin Ghost Note that I was powerless to prevent.Flowers and Canvases.
“So… let’s get work, shall we?” said Auri.
Sloane stared blankly at Auri’s smile, a smirk really, as she suggested that they get to work without even bothering to make an excuse for why Sloane hadn’t been invited to a meeting attended by half of the coven. Even after the others had departed there were still signs of her exclusion all around Auri’s flower shop—over a dozen chairs formed roughly in a half-circle and a few mostly empty boxes of pizza whose smell mixed unpleasantly with the pollen from the petunias and posies lining the nearby shelves as well as a lingering hint of skunk weed. Auri not only lacked the consideration to clean up after her little pizza party, but she had scheduled Sloane’s meeting with her to overlap so that Sloane could be embarrassed when she’d arrived.
“Yes, let’s,” said Sloane through gritted teeth.
She took the pizzas off of the counter and stacked them roughly on one of the chairs that had been placed out for anybody but Sloane. Decade old slights stung anew. Sloane remembered then and there how deeply she actually despised Auri, who had been unfairly involved in all of the decision making solely because she had been buddy-buddy with Ashley and would just side with her when what the Coven truly needed to stay functioning was someone who would’ve stood up and told Ashley no. Sloane heard Anya’s voice echo in her head and shoved the feelings of jealousy that she mistook for righteous indignation down, walked around the counter, and set her channeler down on it.
“I’m glad you were finally capable of having a meeting that didn’t end in disaster,” said Sloane as dry as a desert. It could have been a complement. It wasn’t, but it could have been. As much as Sloane wanted to continue to go off on Auri for her questionable leadership choices, both then and now, she gained nothing from getting distracted. She gestured to the counter.
“The Butterfly Staff, please. This should only take about an hour.”Sloane’s insides boiled. She shouldn’t poke, she shouldn’t poke, she shouldn’t poke, but,
oh fuck it, she simply could not resist. The others had told her to give Auri a chance. She had and now five of them were dead and they were being terrorized by Emily and her goons. Sloane leaned against the counter and stared Auri dead in the eyes.
“I imagine that’s more than enough time for you to explain why you keep leaving some of us in the dark when it comes to making moves. The Void Heart, Greenwood,” said Sloane, counting on her fingers.
“What did you say the problem with the old Coven was? Something about leadership making decisions without informing the others?”Auri gave Sloane a narrow look, as she said,
“Now, Sloane,” Auri began. “In all fairness, the entire thing with Greenwood was dropped on me at the last second… I didn’t get a chance to gather everyone together! Jack didn’t inform me of the whole thing until earlier today...”
Then she shuddered, playing with her thumbs before she said, “As for the Void Heart… We just couldn’t risk the Void Heart catching on to our plan to seal him.”
She shook her head, “Please understand I didn’t mean to leave you all in the dark.”
“You still did a pretty good job of leaving the lights off after the fact. I don't necessarily disagree with the idea, but imagine if that fiasco with sealing the Void Heart had gone just a degree worse than it already did,” said Sloane, her voice cold and steady. They could’ve been killed by the Temple or trapped in the Void if Jack was taken out.
“It’s not a big boost of confidence to see your supposed leader almost get herself killed because she went all-in on an idea that was undercooked.”“But I-”
“And in all fairness,” said Sloane, a little snip coming in as she pulled out her cellphone and loudly set it down on the countertop,
“A text isn’t that difficult to send. Seems like you had no trouble finding a way to get in touch with someone like Britney or Greyson.”“It's Sunday, I didn't want to bother you, Sloane,” Auri simply answered. “Next time, I’ll remember to send you a message.”
“It’s Sunday?” repeated Sloane with a sharp, singular laugh as her hand slapped the countertop, unable to believe what she had just heard. Her mouth hung open as she stared at Auri in a look of horrified disgust. She raised her voice,
“Is that some kind of joke or are you actually an idiot? Over a dozen of us are dead. What the actual fuck, Auri!?”“Like you care about anyone but yourself,” Auri said with a roll of her eyes. “Now, you will not speak to me that way in my own store.””
Sloane sharply inhaled as she stood up straight, her hands tightening into fists at her side, her left eyelid twitching ever so slightly as she glared up at Auri. What a load of nonsense. Although she might not outwardly show it, there were plenty of people who could vouch for Sloane actually caring about others—Adora, Luca, even Linqian of all people. Yet there was no point in arguing with Auri about it because it was clear from her response that she was, in fact, just an idiot. An idiot wouldn’t listen to Sloane’s logic and an idiot’s opinion didn’t even matter in the first place, so why did Auri’s words sting so badly? If anything Sloane cared about others too much, way too much, overly concerned with worries about if they respected her, if they cared about her, if they even thought about her…
Sloane broke eye contact as she exhaled, her hands trembling, shaking her head in disbelief, as she muttered,
“Just give me the staff so we can get this over with.” “Now you want to get it over with?” Auri huffed, before she shook her head. “A minute ago you wanted-”
Auri said, before she noticed something at the corner of her eye, at the window. An orange mass. She whipped her head towards it to see Odessa Maxwell with her face and both hands pressed against the window.
… Then she licked it.“A minute ago I wanted to get this started but instead, uhhhh…” Sloane trailed off as she looked back up at Auri but got distracted by the strange woman running her tongue over the window like it was a lollipop. Sloane took a step back as her brain short circuited, the mental lag unable to compute, her eyebrows hopping to the top of her forehead as the clearly deranged woman gave the window another lick right above the decal sticker that read “Keep St. Portwell Weird” that appeared in almost every local business window. As a fellow small business woman, Sloane had also dealt with her fair share of weirdos who had taken the slogan too literally, but she’d never experienced a windowlicker.
“Do you have a backroom?” suggested Sloane, unable to pull her eyes away from the window.
“Oh! Um, this…” Auri put a concerned look on as her face went red. She gestured towards Odessa and said, “This is-”
Odessa was still licking the window.
“Odessa! My… Um, friend!”
Odessa licked the window some more.
“... She can pick the lock,” Auri sighed.
“You know her?” said Sloane, unable to hide how aghast that made her. If Auri had managed to scrape a single crumb of respect out of Sloane over the years the two had known one another then in that moment it had fallen between her fingers and disappeared beneath a floorboard to never be seen again.
“Tell her to leave, then.”“... If you insist!” Auri said before she walked outside. She chatted with Odessa for a bit… Before Odessa skipped past her all the way to Sloane with Auri in tow.
“... Wait, Odess-”
“Hello, friend!” Odessa greeted Sloane with a warming smile. “Why do you want me to go before I even get a chance to introduce myself?! I am so excited to meet you!”
“W-what?” said Sloane.
Sloane shot Auri a look as she took a reactive step back. Why would Auri even mention that Sloane had asked her to be sent away? She could’ve just made an excuse. Sloane squinted, a spike of pain shooting through to the back of her head as a migraine started to form. Never in her life before had anybody ever told Sloane that they were excited to meet her. It simply wasn’t a thing that was possible. Sloane wasn’t exciting. She didn’t want to live up to the expectations set by being believed to be a source of excitement.
“Why?” asked Sloane, genuinely befuddled, moderately alarmed, and slightly terrified.
“Because… you’re a friend of Auri’s - thus, you’re a friend of
mine, friend -
and I’m Sycamore’s
biggest fan!” Odessa said with a wide smile before she said, “I heard you were an
Artificer! I have some artifacts on me. Would you like to see?!”
“You’re deeply mistaken,” said Sloane, speaking over Odessa and rolling her eyes as she was about to correct the statement about her being one of Auri’s friend, a spark of life flashing in Sloane’s eyes as Odessa carved through her interruption and mentioned the artifacts. Sloane rubbed her hands together like she was about to feast upon a big meal.
“It’d be more correct to say that I am a Counterfeiter. Now what are we working with?”“Counterfeiter,
counter-fisher, you make artifacts. Therefore, you’re an artificer, no if-ands-or-buts,” Odessa laughed as she dug around her robe, “Now, where did I put them -
AH!”
She pulled three artifacts out of her robes, a silvery pen with runes, a camera’s lens, and what seemed to be a condom covered in glowing runes. She pointed at the pen,
“This is the Quill. After you write an event down with it, the pen will take over and write down details you may have missed or overlooked!”
Sloane nodded along with a hand on her chin, curious about the extent of the Quill’s power. It could actually be quite useful in their investigation of Father Wolf. Still, her eyes drifted to the final artifact that Odessa had pulled out, but her attention was diverted when Odessa pointed at the Camera’s lens.
“This is the CameraEye! When looking through it, you can see people’s souls, what they would look like in different dimensions, and even through their clothes!”
Sloane stopped nodding and started blinking rapidly in confusion. What did souls even look like, and what would be the point of seeing them? Wait, did she say they could see through clothes? Who? Why? What kind of creep would make something like that? Besides, she imagined that most people looked bad without clothes alone and that they would look even worse if their clothing were smushing—wait, wait, wait, no, hold on, that implied that she was imagining people without their clothes on at all like some kind of pervert. Sloane blushed slightly and opened her mouth to protest an accusation that hadn’t been thrown her way as Odessa pointed at the condom.
“... And this is the magic condom. It's reusable and protects against magic STDs. Very handy.”
Sloane felt her migraine flare up as her jaw hung slack, silence permeating the flower shop, as her rapid blinking slowed until her eyes were completely closed, unable to believe that she was going to ask a follow up question. She asked,
“What about normal STDs and unwanted pregnancies?”Odessa shrugged.
“... You’re outta luck! But you don't have to worry about a demon baby, at the very least!”
Sloane’s hand slipped over her face as she made a sound as if she had been punched in the stomach. Her fingers moved so that she could peek one eye out from behind her hand shield as if she was gazing into the abyss, not wanting to know more out of fear of what she would learn but unable to move on from the subject.
“And these demons are consensual partners that use protection?”Odessa stared at Sloane, still smiling. It was probably ten seconds before she spoke, but it felt so much longer.
“... They’re demons.”
“So how would you ever actually use it?” asked Sloane, her voice hollow like a crestfallen soldier who’d spent weeks fighting in trench warfare.
Odessa put the other two artifacts on a nearby chair. Then…
“... Okay, first you open it up,” Odessa says as she cracks it open, “Then you either put it on the member or you stick it in because it's adaptiv-”
“No, I know how it worked, I meant—you two are friends?” said Sloane, turning sharply towards Auri.
“That is correct.” Auri awkwardly pulled at her collar.
“Everyone is my friend!” Odessa laughed.
“Like, close friends?” asked Sloane, sticking her hand out to stop Odessa before she spoke up.
”Not like that.”“... Aw.” Odessa said.
Auri grabbed her chin before she added more context.
“I would say we’re somewhat close; it started as a business partnership - where Odessa found me the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen - but it grew from there.”
“Yes, it grew!” Odessa put a strange amount of emphasis on the last word.
Sloane gave Auri the blankest look possible, her ability to emote completely drained from her mind and body, the only hint of her disapproval the slight upturning of her nose as she merely said,
“Okay.”Auri walked over to where the Butterfly Staff was leaning up against the wall. She grabbed it, and handed it to Sloane who didn’t hesitate in snatching it from Auri.
“How about we get back on track here?” Auri began, before turning to Odessa, “... She won't interrupt.”
Sloane, who had been admiring the Butterfly Staff, gave Odessa a side eye,
“Uh huh. This spell does require me to be focused, so if you two have to talk please do it quietly. Over there, maybe.”Sloane dismissively gestured towards the other side of the store and turned her back on the two women, a thin smile appearing on her face as she turned her attention back to the Butterfly Staff. It had been a decade since Sloane had last held the artifact, the looming threat of what was to come after the Stygian Snake all Sloane needed to convince Auri to let her Counterfeit it. It was well-crafted, with a nice heft to it and a beautiful stain on the wood. Despite it being a family heirloom of the Auclair’s and the seven foot tall staff looking silly in the hands of someone as short as Sloane it just felt right in her possession, as all artifacts did. Sloane gently laid the Butterfly Staff down on the counter, giving a moment of silent reverence to the creator before she committed, what was in her mind, sacrilege.
Odessa had called Sloane an Artificer. Sloane had called herself a Counterfeiter, but deep down she thought of herself as something more than just that. Something rotten. She was a corrupter, a ruiner, a debaser. She took a thing that someone had poured blood, sweat, and tears in to make and crafted a bastardization in its image. She was unoriginal. A ripoff artist. A hack. Sure, a few of her knockoffs turned out useful, but those were the flukes. She had no real control over what came out once she started making a Counterfeit except for the option to stop making it, although she never did. She was scared to. It would be admitting the truth: she was bad with magic. Lacked the vision for it. Ten years and the improvement had been microscopic.
Sloane shook her head and grabbed her Channeler, shutting the negative thoughts out. She pressed her Channeler to the staff and began to cast, the Butterfly Staff swirling with Blue and Orange Lux. She closed her eyes tight in concentration, her lips mouthing words unheard, her brow furrowing. Lux like ink from the tip of a busted pen began to drip from her free hand as it started to form the Counterfeit of the Butterfly Staff. If it was her first time creating the Counterfeit her mind would be filled with flashes of inspiration from a source she could not cite, but instead she was left alone with the memories of how long it had taken the first crafting of the Chrysalis Staff. She guessed remaking it would take the better part of an hour, but the first Counterfeit was always the longest. Nearly an entire month, although there had been a very good reason for that.
Sloane winced. Already she felt her hand cramping up. She stopped her casting for a moment as she rubbed her wrist, her eyes opening…
… And saw Odessa standing directly next to her. Like inches away from her face.
Smiling.Sloane reeled back with a start,
“What are you doing?”Odessa booped her. Sloane was immediately made so uncomfortable that her body essentially shutdown and entered into a near catatonic state as her mind was too busy trying to process exactly what the hell was going on to also send synaptic impulses to her motor functions.
“I think you’re beautiful,” Odessa began, before she walked around to Sloane’s back. “But, I know what will
really bring your beauty out!”
“Um, Odessa!” Auri raised a finger.
Odessa began braiding flowers into Sloane’s hair. Sloane’s skin crawled the second she felt fingers run through her hair, jump starting her body as she turned swiftly and batted away Odessa’s hand with an indistinct yelp. Sloane’s hip stiffly collided with the counter as she had tried to back away, a sharp intake of breath the only acknowledgment of the pain. She rapidly combed through her hair with her fingers as if a spider had landed in it, tearing loose the stem that Odessa had managed to tangle up in her locks, as she shimmered alongside the countertop to get distance between herself and Odessa, her Channeler crumpled up against her pounding heart.
“What the fuck is your problem?” said Sloane to Odessa, her voice a meek whisper that exploded as she pointed and screamed at Auri for allowing this to happen.
And what the fuck is your problem!?”“I can’t,” Auri calmly said. “I’m afraid if I interfere, she won’t boop me later.”
Sloane believed the pain in her head wasn’t from the migraine but rather her actually being able to feel her brain cells being genocided. She gawked at Auri, her neurons lined up against the wall, facing the brick, and listening to the sounds of guns being loaded. Sloane fired off the fire shot instead of allowing the massacre of gray matter to happen without a fight as she coolly said,
“God, you’re a joke. This is why nobody respects you or thinks of you as a leader.”“... And you think they won’t feel the same way with you in charge?” Auri spat back. “Now, Odessa, please leave Sloane alone so she can work, please?”
Odessa stepped back.
“I hope this doesn’t ruin our future friendship, friend!” Odessa shouted with a wide smile. “Maybe as a peace offering, you can borrow those artifacts I showed you. As long as you bring them back to me after this blows over. So don’t lose them! Or break them. Or lose them, and
then they get broken. Or break them, then lose what’s left!”
“Um, okay,” said Sloane, torn by the idea of borrowing the artifacts. On one hand, it meant she’d probably have to interact with Odessa again which might trigger a stroke and cause her to lose the ability to form sentences or breath with her mouth closed. On the other hand, it was probably for everyone’s best interest if Odessa wasn’t in possession of any of those artifacts.
“Thank you?”“And I didn’t say I should be in charge,” muttered Sloane quietly to herself as she turned back around.
She held her Channeler against the Butterfly Staff but did not start casting. Instead, she waited for a moment, shoulders tensed and braced in anticipation of Odessa creepily touching her again. It was only after a few beats that she exhaled, closed her eyes, and began casting again, the Lux weaving itself around the Butterfly Staff and then snaking up her channeler like she was siphoning it from the artifact. Sloane was a bit more rushed her second go around, heated from Auri’s insinuation and certain that there would be another interruption if she took too much time.
She pushed the Lux through her body as she formed the base of the Chrysalis Staff. Her right hand began to grow numb as a thin, shell-like coating of Blue and Orange Lux solidified itself around Sloane’s skin. Sloane ignored the tingling sensation and pushed on, the shell creeping up her wrist and forearm as the essence of the Chrysalis Staff began to spark to life. It was the other reason that it took her so long to properly Counterfeit an artifact—whenever Sloane was Counterfeiting one, her body would become subjected to the effects of the Counterfeit. With some it wasn’t so bad while with others, such as the paralyzing Chrysalis Staff, it was quite the frustration.
And, in some situations, quite the risk. Sloane took a break, the shell forming around her arm beginning to fade in luster as she tried to open her eyes but found them temporarily sealed by the Chrysalis. She started to flex her face in an attempt to crack the shell faster, a groan rumbling in her throat.
“Sloane!” Auri ran over and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Oh, lord, um, make noise if you need help!”
“... Welll, that escalated quickly,” Odessa laughed. “What if she can’t?! How are we going to help her? Chip away at her shell?!”
“I don’t know!” Auri said.
“I’m. Fine,” said Sloane. Tried to, anyway. What she actually said was something like,
“Umbime.” The dulling shell began to fade and become translucent, vanishing into thin air as Sloane flexed her fingers and lightly brushed Auri’s hand from her shoulder. A sheen of sweat was on Sloane’s forehead and she felt some heat rise to her cheek as she turned to Auri and reiterated,
“Really, I’m fine. Just part of the process.”She looked down at the start of the Chrysalis Staff with a sneer. It still had a long way to go.
“Jack said something about bringing water?” said Sloane, her throat feeling dry as she checked her watch.
“This is going to take awhile.”
“Look, you’re at that age where your body’s changing and you’re starting to become interested in boys. I get it. Honestly, I’m just proud that you’re practicing safe sex, kiddo,” said Sully.
“Sully, another fucking joke and I’m going to grab the wheel of your car and crash it,” said Sloane.
She was sitting atop a towel in the passenger side of his truck. It was the most disgusting vehicle she had ever been in and even if it hadn’t become a hotspot for mildew after a Vashti storm had wrecked the upholstery it still would’ve been an absolute piece of shit. She had been so distracted telling her story—venting, really—to Sully that she had hardly made any progress on the Counterfeit Chalice. The actual Chalice was resting on her lap, while in her hand was a silver saucer shaped object that would become the bottom of the Sluice. Awkwardly jammed into the passenger side with Sloane was the Chrysalis Staff, making the already uncomfortable drive even more uncomfortable. It didn’t help that Sully listened to the same music her dad liked.
“This would be the song to do it to,” said Sully as the chorus hit.
Sloane didn’t feel so much like knocking on heaven’s door as she did like jumping out the car’s door. Sully was an idiot. A moron. Stupidly annoying and when she had highlighted how her evening with Auri and Odessa was proof that Auri was incompetent he wouldn’t hear a lick of it, barking like a loyal lapdog that Auri was trying her best. Well, if he thought this was her best then he should’ve been massively concerned, but of course he wasn’t because, again, he was an idiot.
But that idiot had saved her life.
“Thank you, Sullivan, for being there when Lu…when the Rot almost took me out,” said Sloane.
“I’m pretty sure I would have been a goner if not for you.”“Whoa, hey now, anybody could have done it. Now I know with all these dreams we’re having it’s becoming pretty clear amongst the group that I must be the Chosen One, maybe the Second Coming of the Messiah even, you know, their words, not mine, but I’m just a guy with a cup. Anybody would have done the same. Hell, anybody could have done it,” said Sully.
“You should be thanking Anya. She knocked me out of my hallucination.”“I know,” said Sloane. There was no point in explaining to Sully that he was one of the few people in the Coven who could actually use the Chalice. Most others were Adepts and without a Severance they wouldn’t be able to utilize it, and she doubted many would give up their magic for her. Anya probably would, although Sloane wouldn’t want that of her despite knowing that she’d do the same in a heartbeat.
Sully pulled into the lot of the House on the Hill. Auri had a knack for finding abandoned places for them to squat. Sloane didn’t get it. Couldn’t they just rent a room somewhere? They were much less likely to get jumped in a public place then they were in some desolate skid row. Where would the next meeting take place? In a cabin in the woods? She awkwardly hopped out of the truck, carrying too many artifacts and counterfeits, but was stopped by Sully.
“Hey, wait, can I have the Chalice back?”“I planned on trying to finish up the Sluice. Nothing ever happens in these things anyway, so I could at least get some work done.”“Man, maybe you should try coming at things with a little more construction and a lot less criticism and you might make things happen. Anyway, I’ll give it right back to you when I’m inside. Just go on ahead, okay?” said Sully. He could see Sloane hesitant.
“Consider it paying me back for saving you.”“Whatever,” said Sloane, going ahead of Sully.
For an abandoned bar it was actually quite nice. Sloane walked in with little fanfare, although she looked and felt ridiculous holding the Chrysalis Staff that towered nearly two feet over her head. She discreetly made her way through the bar. A good portion of the Coven was already present, discussing in tense tones things that did not sound relevant to what should have been on the agenda considering what Auri had texted them about. Wasn’t this the meeting to rub elbows and play nice with the other coven in town? She noted the presence of a couple of newcomers, perhaps representatives from Greenwood, and felt her shoulder sink at the thought that the others were clucking at one another in front of guests. She quietly slid into a seat by Anya, leaning her Counterfeit staff up against the table
“Busy weekend. I take it that we’re already off topic?” said Sloane to Anya.
“Give me a second, I’ll catch up.”She pulled out a pocket notebook and the pen that Odessa had given her and started jotting down a few notes. After a few lines Sloane stopped writing and allowed the Quill to take over for her, the automatic writing guiding her hand as it began to fill her in as if she was reading through the minutes of the meeting. Her hand slapped her forehead and by the time she was done catching herself up to speed her hand had slipped back to the top of her neck, her head having hung lower and lower and lower. See, this was precisely why Sycamore needed someone like her to pop the hinges off of doors and keep the course focused. Whenever they were given time to idly chatter they kept doing dangerous and harmful things like taking an impulse and calling it an actual thought. At least the other two weren’t Greenwood although…Vanburen? Ugh. Thank god it wasn’t Trisha.
”Our history shows that we’re more likely to get fucked over by ignorance and sheer incompetence than we are by ill intentions,” muttered Sloane to Anya, just loud enough that Tayla would've been able to hear if she wasn't rudely trying to catch up on podcasts during their meeting.
A boom rang out through the room as Sully kicked open the door. He was dual-wielding a pair of cheap pink water pistols with a do-it-yourself bandolier draped over his chest holding half a dozen squirt guns made out of duct tape and velcro. A flimsy, kid-sized cowboy hat barely held on to his head by a fraying piece of twine as he threw his head back and shouted,
“Yeeeeeeeeeeehaw, bitches! Reach for the skies! Your boy’s come strapped today! Lemme so those fucking hands if you’re not feeling one hundred. The Chosen One’s got you. Oh, Sloane, catch!”Sully lobbed the Chalice gently over towards Sloane. It was a perfect toss that could have easily been caught if Sloane’s reaction had not been to scream, duck, and throw her arms over her head, the Chalice bouncing somewhat painfully off of her forearms. Sully didn’t notice as he did it a little spin, hollered at Luca and Layla, and blasted a stream of the Chalice’s healing elixir at the mouths of the two chronically weak members of the Coven. Sully then took a seat, spun it around, and stood with his foot up on it as he leaned forward on his knee.
“So what’d I miss? I reckon y’all were talking about them weird ass dreams, right? Anybody know what’s up with that book? I’m pretty sure I’m meant to have it,” said Sully, completely oblivious to the conversation beforehand.
“Case and point, whispered Sloane to Anya, grabbing the Chalice before it rolled off the table.
& 
& 
