[IC] Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

[Zombiedude101]

House on the Hill
@Shin Ghost Note

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ambience

As people had slowly filtered away, Clancy had taken the liberty of stepping aside from a now somewhat-stable Luca to poke through the old building in a hunt for something to wear, for what was probably the nth time in as many weeks.

As it was, he had been half-naked, wearing the tattered remnants of his shorts with sneakers that looked as though they’d been through a woodchipper. His shirt wasn’t much better, and as he’d moved around the tattered remnants of it sloughed away like dead skin, exposing the facade of pale flesh that had by this point reformed, painted back in. Even his eye had returned to occupy the empty socket, to the point he now looked as much as himself as he ever could. 

Given he stood out, he didn’t want to draw more attention than needed. The police scanners no doubt would be alive with reports of an underdressed child if he walked out like this, and that would in turn catch the attention of the hitwoman and her employers. An annoyance that threatened to become something more, and he wasn’t eager to experience that kind of pain again.

A few minutes of clambering over the bar and crawling through crevices eventually found him something that would work for now. A leather jacket, bundled in a heap in a corner under a dripping faucet.

It had seen better days to say the least. While it was still intact for the most part, the grainy patches of white material speckled across its edges betrayed a colony of mold that had formed across the surface. For Clancy’s part, that didn’t bother him. He didn’t need to worry about breathing in the spores, and the musty, mossy odour it gave out was no worse than the other array of things that assaulted his senses out in the wilderness. 

Slipping it on, Clancy found it had been oversized for him, enough that he had to roll up the sleeves, and it extended to the midpoint between his waist and knees, but it would do. It was better than nothing, and worst case scenario strangers would not annoy him with small-talk if it meant having to deal with that moldering-grass pungence that usually came with mold.

Luca and the swordsman would probably be leaving soon, In the corner of his vision, he caught a glimpse of Britney. She hadn’t yet left.

”Did you know this would happen?” he asked, pointedly, ”Your friends and the Prom Queen.”

Britney narrowed her eyes at Clancy, resting a hand on her hip. ”You’re gonna have to be more descriptive, hun.”

Deep down perhaps, he might have understood some of it if his perspective was in a different place. Maybe if they had been desperate.

”You might not trust me, but I try to be better than those parasites. And you've worked with worse than me.”

”No, no,” Britney raised her hands. ”It feels like I am actively working with worse - but that isn’t on my mind.”

For a moment, she paused.

”You might have the others convinced you’re not a threat, but be straight up here: what are you? What gave you these abilities?”

”Feeling is mutual,” Clancy cracked back, ”Not convinced about either of us.” For a moment, his face scrunched, ”What am I?” 

For a moment, he seemed to weigh his options.

”Twelve-and-a-half.” He answered with a flippant shrug, motes of dust flaking off the sleeve of his moldering jacket, I don’t know.” he said, dispassionately. 

”Come now, you have to know something,” Britney pushed, ”Where did it start? If you remember?”

”I’m not an expert in this stuff, like you people, I guess I ran into the same kind of monster that you fed people like Luca and Emily Reed to.” 

The truth came sharply. Bitter, painful memories surfaced and washed over him, colouring his words. 

[b]”If you really want to know… imagine you wake up from your worst nightmare. Except that’s the last time you’ll ever get any [i]sleep[/i again. You’re cold, but you’re not freezing to death. You’re [i]always[/] hungry, starving even, but you can’t make it stop. Not really. Food tastes like… dirt, sand, dust. It’s all meaningless. And you feel the world through a filter. Pain isn’t…. It isn’t there. And you can’t die, no matter how hard you push your luck. I’ve been under cars, trains, dropped into frozen rivers and fell from rooftops. I’ve been shot in the head enough times I could spit fragments out.”[/b] It streamed forth now, a diatribe on his situation, ”Do I like that? No. Do I have a choice? Also no.”

”So… maybe I’m still me, or I’m something that has all the memories of me. And I keep going by dealing with assholes and bad people. That’s how I keep control. That’s all I’ve had to keep going. Ashley? She was family, and I’m trying to find the asshole who murdered her, and stop her idiot friends from dying the same way. Does that cover it?”

Britney was silent, as she looked at Clancy.

”… Do you remember where or when it started?” She asked. ”Something had to have changed you… unless you are an Abominable.” She shrugged.

”I don't know what that is.” 

”A magical creature basically. Some are created… some are born,” Britney explained.

”Maybe, whatever.” Clancy shrugged, ”East. Somewhere between Huron and Michigan, maybe. I was twelve-and-a-half when it got me, and I woke up like this.”

Half of the truth. The closer he got to the memory, the more difficult it was to maintain a normal composure.

His last moments alive had been inhuman terror beyond anything he could understand.

”So I'll ask again. Did. You. Know?” Clancy switched back to his original line of questioning, ”What they would become, what they would do. What would happen to them? You know that boy-... that Luca is rotting from the inside, don't you? I felt it. I could smell it.”

Britney silently averted her gaze from Clancy. ”… No, I didn’t.”

”You know now.” Assuming she wasn't lying. ”Barely know him, but even I can see he doesn't deserve that. Even if they're assholes now, I bet 8th Street didn't deserve it before they chose to be monsters. Have you thought about whether any of this could be because of that?”

He let the point hang for a moment. 

”They were calling for your blood.”

”Of course I have,” Britney said with a nod of her head, ”Look, I understand what I did was fucked up. I’m not going to sit here and try and justify or excuse it. I had this conversation a thousand times already.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, ”If it’s my fault, then it’s my responsibility to fix it.”

[b]”Sure,” Clancy shrugged, optimistic of neither her chances nor her sincerity, ”If you want to make a start, Luca. You help him, and I'll probably keep Emily Reed from wearing your skin.”

If he could save one of them from being consumed by the monster that had taken their body, it was him.

He seemed to pause, then reconsidered.

”You said ‘abominable’ earlier. I don't know if that's what I am now. I'm Clancy Patrick. Or I think I am, and I have his face and memories. But you know these monsters better than me. If you want to do something right, maybe point me in the right direction on how to kill one of them. When our business is done, I'm going to end the thing that did this to me. I won't be anyone's problem after that.”

He offered out a hand to her, cold and unflinching.

”Deal?”

Britney hesitated for a moment, ”I’m already working on something for Luca. Don’t worry about that.” She shook her head. ”And look, at the end of the day, Emily and Vashti are my responsibility. Not yours.”

”Offer stands,” Clancy's hand pulled back, his expression creased a little further, ”You can do something good and leave the world with a few less monsters in it, for a change.”

Britney stared at Clancy, ”I think I am looking at one.”

”Maybe we agree on something, then,” The boy offered her a dour expression, ”But you're not above working with them, either.”

”No, I’m not,” Britney sighed, ”But, let’s just shake on it and be done with it, okay?” She extended her hand, and after a moment's pause, Clancy returned the gesture with a firm, icy grip. 

And maybe she needs a mirror, he considered, wordlessly breaking off from the contact as soon as they'd made it.

[AtomicEmperor]

& &

Mood Music

Edict & Linqian & Henri

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Mentions: Britney Williams, Aryin/Aaron Thorne, Anya Baksh, Lila Blackwood, Jinhai Han | Written in collaboration with @FernStone | Location: The House on the Hill > Edict's Apartment

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The meeting had been a shitshow stopped at just the right moment by a timely fire alarm. Linqian had already been planning to head out, but it gave an easy excuse to get the fuck out of there. Though with Britney in some kind of conversation with the not-a-kid, that was their easy ride out of there gone.

Thankfully, Edict had them covered - all it took was a quick call to have another car on the way.

Fucking rich asshole.

Linqian lit the cigarette she'd pulled out a while back as they walked a bit away from the main group, making sure to keep a tight grip on it and blowing the smoke away from Edict. Cheap shit, the kind of stuff he was likely to try snatch from her lips and throw away - and she really wasn't for waste right now.

”Well, that was an absolute shitshow,” she said, with a shrug. With her brother's voice in her head it was easier to reflect on the meeting without getting all tense about it, but it had still gone to shit. Very little decided... Again. She was still seriously considering striking it out with just Aryin to hunt the fucking murderer down themselves. ”Thank fuck Lila suggested that group shit, so I don't-”

She was cut off by her phone buzzing in her coat pocket. There weren't many people who'd call her, so it was either her brother or her (other) boss. She pulled it out with a frown. Andre, right. Less worrying than it being Henri.

”One minute, got to take this,” Linqian said to Edict before picking up.

”What?- I'll take whatever tone I want with you... Tonight?- Fuck no, I'm busy... I got loads of shit going on, fuck off... Just fire Sophie! She never does shit, hire someone more reliable, stop calling me! Yeah I need the money, but I can't-” The hand not holding her phone to her ear jerked about, trail of smoke following the aggressive motions. It was more comedic than it was scary, similar to the way she used to bicker with Jinhai. ”Oh, threatening to cut my pay again? Well you can go kneel at my mother's grave and beg for her forgiveness, cause her ghost won't be so fucking nice, Andre- Right, fine, you were just asking… Wednesday. Don't fucking call tomorrow, I'm busy too. I'll see you Wednesday.”

Linqian rolled her eyes, slipping her phone back into her pocket. She turned her head towards Edict with a languid smile. Unbothered, even after what sounded like a lot of aggression. She figured there was no point starting with any actual business while waiting around for a car, so she went with just complaining a bit. ”It's a fucking pain being in such high demand. As if I'd work a shift tonight after doing double Saturday and then yesterday- Well, I didn't really work in that way yesterday. I certainly worked out.”

Her eyebrows raised, smile turning more smug, before taking another drag of her cigarette.

“Oh, cram it… Like I wanna hear about you gettin’ stuffed by the big bad wolf.” Edict started off, knowing that it was going to be a long ride.

She was mostly relaxed now, even if he was acutely aware that he'd planted a funny little virus in her brain. His Jinhai construct had, at the very least, taken her off the doom spiral course and into a state where she could function. Function enough to think about getting plowed…
That fuck… Not even transparent cult shit? Because Ruby is familiar. More like she's actual family.

“You don't make much sense to me sometimes… Didn't I offer you a job? Not like some fuckin’ bullshit mafioso job like whats between us right now: And certainly not some dead end Temple bar where your boss plays cozy for a bunch of crazy people. A real job being in charge of real people…”

Edict ignored the whiff of shitty cigarette stench that rolled past him in favor of lighting his own. They were standing on the front side of the main area road, both pressed up against a shop's exterior wall. A scene not so uncommon ten years ago, when they would both loiter with their cheap smokes to bitch for fifteen minutes together.

Edict softened, clearing his throat.
“I'm serious… There is no catch: I think you'd be good at it once you got the hang of being a manager. I know it doesn't sound glamorous, but it's not a small position… More than enough for me to get you set up on payroll right now, and you never have to worry about that prick bothering you again…”

That piece of shit, tell him to fuck off. Don’t accept anything. Just walk-

”That ‘prick’ you’re talking about knew my mom her whole life, so watch it,” Linqian retorted, though there was very little bite to it, as much as Jinhai yapping away in her head wanted there to be.
”You offered me a job for after this shit is done. My bills don’t stop, and my debts sure don’t get fucking smaller. It’s not the lack of glamour- I mean fuck, what kinda glamourous job do you think a highschool dropout would be doing? This bar job’s one of the best I’ve had cause I can actually say no.”

None of it was said aggressively, rather just with blunt honesty, which she continued talking with. She watched him closely, trying to figure out if he was being honest. Was there really no catch?
”You’re actually serious? Look, a stable job and pay is all I fucking want… but I’m not quitting the bar one. I’ll reduce my hours, one day a week or fucking whatever if that’s what I need to, but I can’t. It’s not even a lack of trust- What happens if you die? I’d be fucked, again.”

“Linqian, that's the fucking point.” Edict grunted through a cloud of smoke.
“The farm, the club, the fucking… I have legitimate business with legitimate people! I'm not a fucking monolithic dictator sucking my wealth from the state, I'm a business man! Entrepreneurship with a self-replicating bankroll that I can use to expand. The people who I deal with down in Louisiana are starving for full time leadership, and right now the person I have doing the part time work can only handle so much. I'll fucking… Payroll you now. We'll go, we'll do the paperwork; but for God's sake, get some fucking sleep for a change. You nearly blew up your spot, and if people start to see you as a loose cannon, they'll be less likely to work with you!”

Edict was fantastic at jabbering. He jabbered, and did it some more before he finally took another cigarette drag.

“Besides… There's more pressing issues than work right now. If it takes me paying off your entire life for you to focus on that, I'll take the short term financial impact.”
His voice shifted slightly as a recognizable car turned down the boulevard.
“I need you to promise me something… That for the next twenty minutes, you will refrain from any sort of physical violence? I know it sounds weird now, but it'll make sense real soon…-”

The car pulled to a stop in front of them, and a young man got out of the driver's seat in a fresh suit. He practically sprinted to the back of the car, opening the carriage style door for Edict and Linqian to slip into.
Inside was a private rear cabin, the slight stretch of the vehicle allowing for two bench seats facing one another to be installed. Edict let Linqian get in first, then slipped into the seat opposite of her.
“My place, Fenzo. Thank you, my man.” Edict politely instructed, slipping a hundred note to the driver before they were closed into the private space.

Just punch him right now. In fact, use your magic. I won’t tell you to hold back. Don’t promise that.
”I’ve never fucking hit you for all I threatened it, have I? But fine, I promise, twenty minutes,” Linqian leaned back, folding her arms in front of her chest. As much as the car was really nice it was so fancy she struggled to relax. Which was probably good, because it prevented her from nodding off immediately.
I’m counting down the minutes.

Linqian laughed out of nowhere - at least it would look that way to Edict. She tapped her head. ”Honestly, you’ve no idea how much I’m fucking holding myself back right now. This is way too fucking realistic- but fine, I get it. Most people already don’t want to work with me, but that’s not the fucking point, is it… I don’t want to die. So give me the paperwork, I’ll cut back on the other shit, and I’ll actually sleep. So long as I can keep a roof over my brother’s head and don’t have to worry about the debt collectors calling round, I don’t give a shit.”

Edict didn’t want to mince words. If he had twenty minutes, it meant he had to calm her back down with Jinhai in her head. He couldn’t hear it, but a gentle prod into the recent opening let him know it was working overtime.
”Linqian? Your brother Henri… Uh… Look, I know you told me to keep away, but I’ll come clean with you. I don’t know if he told you like I told him to, but the kid Kindled. Recently, not so recent, but recent enough that he’s got no clue what he’s doing. But the kid’s strong, he’s… He’s learning, Linqian. About us, about you and Jinhai. I’m teaching him. The right way.”

His words hung in the air, waiting for swift and furious retribution.

”He told me.”
Linqian’s tone didn’t change - in fact it was entirely monotonous. Cold. Just like the temperature in the car, plummeting towards painfully cold without causing any actual damage. Her left hand covered the other, fingers touching the two wedding rings on her right ring finger. Her eyes narrowed.
I told you so. He can’t be trusted. Do you understand now, Qian-er? This is why I made you cut him off. This is all a game to him.

Somehow, Jinhai’s own vitriol calmed her down enough to stop her from immediately breaking her promise. Her skin was visibly pallid, the kind it went when her temperature dropped enough to actually hurt someone, but she didn’t make any more movements. Not that she raised the air temperature at all.
”What gave you the right to teach him? I told you to keep away for a fucking reason- and I told him to stay away from everyone too, fuck. Fuck, you piece of shit. If you’ve messed with his mind, that’s it, twenty minutes or not, I don’t give a fuck. And- and you told him to tell me?! Did you tell him to do it like that?! Acting like he thought I was going to fucking disown him or some shit. Fuck!”

Her hand jerked out to the side, punching the car wall - not denting it, but frost spiralled out from where it contacted.
”Give me one reason why I should believe any of this shit you’ve said before this- fuck, why I shouldn’t just beat your ass in-”
Seventeen and a half minutes.
”Seventeen and a half minutes.”

”Because when you go and ask him what I’ve taught him, you’ll know that every single bit of it has been true. Linqian, I came here with the same bullshit I left with. I was still holding onto it until I saw that kid. Until he let me in, and I saw who he was, and I felt fucking ashamed. You hear me, Jinhai? When have I ever felt fucking guilty about something? That fucking kid, he’s got these… These eyes, and they suck up all the light and the space in the room, they drag it all into one spot, I fuckin’-”

Edict shoved both of his hands forward, holding them out to Linqian.
”-Fucking kill me now if you think that’s necessary! If that’s really how you feel, like you can’t listen to my explanation, or give me the chance to prove to you that I’m trying to be fucking better, then just end it! Cash me out here!”

Jinhai was silent.
Linqian glared at Edict, seriously considering it. To protect her brother from someone that could be a threat, as much as she was starting to trust him. But it was that same need to protect Henri that stopped her. Everything that Edict said made sense. Henri was so bright, he lit up the room, and he brought out the best in people. He could make someone like Edict want to change just by being himself… that was exactly what her brother was like. He was her whole world, and she’d do anything to keep him safe. Sacrifice herself, kill someone, and… let someone else near him that could protect him too.

Her hands shot forward to grab his. On first contact it would be like holding ice, a sharp burn that quickly disappeared when her temperature moved back towards normal. Her expression didn’t change - still pissed off, scowling murderously. She held onto Edict’s hands like he might somehow jump out of the car rather than agree to what she was about to say.
”Promise that you won’t hurt him. In fact, promise that you’ll protect him if you have to. If I die, you make sure he doesn’t. If for some fucking reason there’s a choice between me and him, if one of us is going to die, you choose him. Every fucking time. Promise, and I won’t kill you.”

Edict’s eyes turned cold and dead. It was an expression that, until now, Linqian never would’ve seen him make in her life. It wasn’t the pain of being nearly frost-bitten, or how hard she was still gripping onto his wrists. He didn’t speak for a long moment, face slowly and surely narrowing the gap between them. When he finally spoke, it was darkness that left his lungs and traveled across the air into her ears.
”I will kill, and kill, and kill again. For that smile.”

He didn’t stop staring at her. Directly into her eyes. Into her soul.
”But we need to buckle you down too. No more work. Not so much that you can’t train. Britney and Me, we never stopped working on our magic. It’s good she got you out this morning, but it can’t just be a morning.”

Taking a deep breath, he finally pulled his torso back into the seat normally.
”And I’m thinking about renting a house. A bigger house: You, Henri, me, Brit, Aryin… Anyone looking to be included in our operations. I’m sorry, but we can’t keep that poor kid out of the loop, not with how he feels about you possibly getting hurt. We’ve gotta include him, and he’s gotta learn how to defend himself. God forbid something happened to him and he couldn’t do anything to stop it.”

Linqian took a deep breath too. It was what she needed to hear. She was pissed still, but just like Henri’s smile was enough to have Edict trying to change his ways, it was enough for her to push down her anger. For him.
Don’t even fucking consider it, Linqian. I’d sooner die than have you live with him.
”Seriously, use your inside voice… and you’re already dead,” Linqian groaned in Chinese, pulling a hand back to press against her head as Jinhai absolutely yelled within her mind. It was almost funny, if the current topic wasn’t so serious.
”This is honestly too realistic- ah-”

She grimaced, forcing the switch back to English, and back to the actual topic at hand - the one more important than making conversation with a fake Jinhai with an anti-Edict agenda as big as the real one.
”Aryin’s going to be delighted when she has to move again, since she’s moving into mine tomorrow… Which used to house five, by the way, but I won’t complain if you’re looking for somewhere larger- as much as I’m wary about it. You’re- fuck he’s going to yell in my head again, and I hate to admit it too, but you’re right. I thought that keeping it from my brother would keep him safer, but now that he has magic… Well, fuck, he’s at risk just by being in the city.”
Give him my spellbook and it won’t be a problem.

Just like she often had before his death, Linqian ignored Jinhai.
”I’ll train too. It’s not that I didn’t want to, I just didn’t have the fucking time. You think my sleep now is bad, you should’ve seen when I was working two full time jobs- but fuck, that’s not important. I started working on three spells this morning, but one’s fucking useless, so I need to keep trying… and I need to not work for that. Fuck! I’m still so fucking pissed at you, and it’s worse that everything you’re fucking saying makes sense. Fuck.”

She groaned, conflicted with all the emotions clashing in her mind while being squished into a corner by the Jinhai voice talking over them.
”When the fuck did you really start caring? Just when you got inside his head?”

Edict’s face deflated. She was going to hit him.
”Seriously? Fuck, Linqian, anywhere but the face…-” he mumbled before holding up his hands.
”I was… I was going to feed him a line. Get him hooked, to get under your skin and make sure you would stay in line when things got heavier… It wasn’t the first time I was in his head, more like the second. But he…”

Edict paused, staring at Linqian with a slacked jaw.

Without a single thought, Linqian shot forward, one freezing cold hand grabbing his hands to shove them out the way and another ice cold fist slamming right into his chest. It remained there and pressed in, forcing him to feel the painfully low temperature as frost spiralled across her clothing and almost seemed to form in her eyes.

But she didn’t follow up with another punch, pulling back to sit down across from him again, temperature lowering.
”I’m holding back for him, so keep fucking explaining.”

Thankful for the vest plate under his shirt, Edict accepted that she’d broken their agreement and decided to move on with minimal resistance.

”-He took me to your fucking childhood home. I saw pictures of you, your family, it was all in his mind. The kind of picture I would paint. In that moment, I wasn’t me anymore, I was… I was me from so long ago, Linqian! I was fucking younger than him again, I saw myself in him; every little part of me I thought these fucking ingrates burned to death! Him and his fucking smile, and his goofy curly hair, the way he fucking loves the two of you! You and… Jinhai… And how much he wants to keep you safe, Linqian! You’re the only thing he has left!”
Linqian would easily be able to feel the bubbling of pink Lux filling the cabin of the car as tears welled up in Edict’s eyes.

”Please don’t let this be how things are, Linqian… I wept in front of him, and I’ll weep in front of you, manhood be damned. I want to be a better man, Linqian. For Britney, for you, and Henri… Fuck proving the babbling ghost in your head wrong, Fuck proving the rest of the Coven wrong: They’re right. I’m still a piece of shit. But I can’t change that without y’all.”

She knew what he’d seen, because it was a real place - somewhere shitty and small and messy, but filled with love. It was a home that didn’t exist anymore outside of Henri’s head. Henri himself was her home now… She couldn’t lose him, but she couldn’t let him lose her either.

But with Edict crying, she wasn’t entirely sure how to react, just staring at him as pink Lux smothered her emotional field without trying to actually get in. It wasn’t that she hadn’t seen other people- men- crying. Henri did all the time, and there were times when Jinhai did too. It was different with them…
”You might as well just confess your love putting me in the same sentence as Brit, haha,” she joked through the awkwardness, waving a hand in front of her face.

”I… I’m not standing on some fucking high ground where I can give second chances or shit. Henri is everything to me- so fucking be as awful as you want to everyone else, so long as you don’t hurt him, or me, or Brit… Change or whatever it is you need to do for that, so I can actually fucking trust you, and it’s-” Linqian let out an exasperated hiss, pinching the bridge of her nose. She really hated talking about such serious shit, even when it was someone she knew had deep dived into her mind and seen it all anyway.
”It’s not like I fucking trust anyone, alright? But it’s only because it’s you that I haven’t actually fucking killed you over it- You, Brit, Aryin. That’s it, outside of my brother.”

Her hands went back to her lap, fiddling with the wedding rings, a clearly non-confrontational posture.
”Do all of that for us, then, and I’ll try trust you- and Brit too.”

”There’s gonna come a point where you’ll need to take a leap of faith with me. Every bit of you is going to rail against me, and it’s going to look like I’m a filthy liar… But I’m wrapped up in something bad, Linqian. Something that I need to stick with, or we may never really know what’s going on with Father Wolf. I came into it with bad intentions, and they really think I’m in with them. They tried to hurt that kid, I’m certain of it.”

Greyson did his best to rope himself back in, taking a deep breath and leaning back into the seat again. His hand flipped through his pocket and started to rummage until he pulled out his cigarette case. One practically flipped into his mouth, and he held out the box to Linqian.
”So… In case anything happens to me, we need to set this up as soon as possible. It’s hard enough getting your crew to cover one another if anyone gets pinched, never mind cursory orbits. I haven’t talked to Brit about moving, but I don’t think she’s going to want to. Not even with this sub-group shit.”

Linqian took a cigarette, not even bothering with a lighter, managing to heat up just her finger tip enough for it to start burning at the tip. A sign of her growing control after just one training session.
”I’ll try take that leap of faith when it comes to it… But that shit aside, it’ll be hard to move if she doesn’t want to. I don’t think Aryin will be too happy about living with you, but I’ll be able to convince her. Can you convince Brit? Cause I don’t see how this shit works if you can’t… Well, I already live with Henri and Aryin- nearly- but five is better than three when it comes to watching each other’s backs. I don’t fucking know, I’m not a thinker… I’ll follow your lead with that.”

She took a long drag of the cigarette, holding the smoke in her mouth before sighing it out without much care for how it filled the space. They were both smokers anyway.
”One thing. Before we move on with this house shit- and the payroll stuff too- we’re sitting down and talking with Henri. The three of us, because I’m not dealing with anymore fucking secrets there.”

”Then we've gotta get to my apartment: I've been letting him use it to get out of the house, I've got games and shit. Him and his buddy… Uh… What's the name…?”
Greyson pulled out his phone and didn't see the tell-tale text Henri was instructed to send whenever he left. It was the deal to confirm that everything was spotless and in the same shape in which he found it.

”Louis.” Linqian pressed her free hand to her forehead, feeling a headache coming on with each new piece of information. She wasn't particularly happy that Edict had just had her brother at his apartment, and that this had been going on for almost a week without her knowing… but it was better than him out in less safe locations.
”Your apartment, then. Anything else you want to tell me? You haven't been training him to use fucking guns or anything, have you?”

Edict looked at Linqian with a strained expression on his face that could only have been his admission and resignation of his fate.
”Y'know, the guys love him. Started calling him ‘Q-Tip’ ‘cuz of the… Hair…”
The car ride to Edict's apartment was certainly hot for all the wrong reasons. Upstairs, there was a gentle beeping that Henri would've come to know as someone making their way up the elevator coming toward the penthouse. It usually only happened when Edict was coming home, so it served as a good warning to get their ducks in a row before he showed up.

”Hide the booze!” Henri yelled dramatically as he threw a game controller to the side, character on the screen quickly getting shot in the head. He jumped up, looking around in a panic at the pizza boxes spread out over the place as well. He thought they had more time!

“It's four cans of beer, and I can legally drink,” Louis commented, not even bothering to get up from the couch, eyes still concentrating on shooting as many other players as he could… before Henri went over and kicked him in the shin.

”I can't! Its- it's all yours then,” Henri shoved the cans of beer - two empty, two unopened, all over to Louis' feet and then started to close open, half eaten pizza boxes too. Otherwise the place wasn't an awful mess - they were a few strewn pieces of clothing, both men having discarded hoodies, jackets and shoes in random locations on the way in.

“You respawned,” Louis pointed out. “I'm going to shoot-”

”Don’t you dare!” Henri jumped to grab his controller, thought of tidying up completely discarded in favour of getting more kills in the somewhat realistic shooter game they were playing.

The elevator opened to an argument.
”-ian, I swear to God! I swear, it has not been that serious! I took him to a racket once to get a quiet space so I could do an exam, then after that it's all very casual stuff! You guys ain't even Italian! Not even a little! What makes you think I'd even wa-”
Greyson rounded the corner trying to avoid Linqian. Turning his head, he looked into the living room at the two younger men.

”Oh! OH! Henri!? Help me!”

”Greyson! Help you with what- Jie?!” Henri's expression went from a bright and cheerful grin at Greyson's appearance to wide eyed terror as Linqian came round the corner right after him.

”Don’t try and fucking drag him into it, Greyson,” Linqian hissed, pointing a slightly glowing finger at him. Not that she'd gone to punch him again… entirely… but heating up the elevator on the way up wasn't exactly pleasant.
”You think I give a fuck if it's casual or serious, I don't fucking want him around them, I barely want him around you and I'm seriously fucking regretting-”

”Jiejie, why are you here, I thought you had a meeting!” Henri bounded forward, physically putting himself in between Linqian and Edict. He put his hands on her shoulders with a bright grin that had her temperature lowering immediately. ”I don't know what you're arguing about, but I'm sure it can be resolved if you sit down and listen to each other's side!”

“Yeah, take a chill pill, Linqian,” Louis commented from the couch.

”Shut up, Louis, don't make me call your dad,” Linqian snapped, before looking up at Henri with a heavy frown. ”We’re fucking arguing about you.”

Henri's eyes widened again, head snapping towards Greyson, then back to Linqian. He hadn't even realised at first… oh shit! ”It’s not what it looks like, Jie, I swear!”

”I didn't say cover your own ass, Henri! I already told her everything, there's no point in lying. Just… Tell Linqian how you've been doing for the last week! In fact, why don't you show her the progress we've made!?” Greyson was trying to find a damage control method that would keep her from freaking out more.

If Henri showed her how responsible and diligent they'd been, he figured maybe she'd ease up!

”Oh! Oh- everything?! Even those things I asked for advice about cause I was too embarrassed to ask her?!” Henri asked with wide eyes.

”What things.” Linqian narrowed her eyes.

”Nothing! Look, look, Jie! I showed you what I could do before, right? I could absorb light but not do much with it, but look…” Henri held out a hand, absorbing light from one of the many in the room. Then, in a burst of speed, he dashed around the room - so fast it was only visible by the after trail, and the breeze it kicked up. ”I can also shoot a blast of it- I won't do that here- and heal myself. Hit me and I'll prove it!”

”I’m not hitting you, Yi-er,” Linqian stepped back, arms folded and still clearly pissed. But she wasn't aggressively going after Greyson anymore, so it was a step in the right direction. ”How do you even know that- you know what, fuck it… Is that all?”

“No! There's more… Louis, shoot a bunch of guns- in the game!" Henri shouted loudly enough that Linqian winced, trying to ignore the exhaustion headache that was just making her grouchier about this whole thing. A bunch of gunshots rattled off from the speakers, before going completely silent - while Louis was still quite happily shooting random people in the game. “Look, I can absorb and use sound now too!"

He reached out for Linqian with one arm, easily lifting her up… before going to do the same with Greyson, enhanced strength more than enough to pick both of them up at once. “We've been training really hard, Jie, I promise!"

”Fine, I get it, just fucking put me down,” Linqian grunted out, visibly softening. She could stay pissed with Greyson for hours, but as soon as Henri was involved and present… it was impossible. She'd always been to soft on him.

Greyson happily swung his legs, no longer the direct target.
”See? No harm, no foul. And tell her how safe we've been at the range and stuff…”
He stopped, pointing at Louis.
”You too! Don't act all innocent, I've been letting you hang around us and help him too… You got nothing to defend your buddy with? Anecdotes, anything?”

While he was mostly joking, peanut galleries were some of his least favorite social happenings. Spectators… Freeloaders stealing their entertainment from the frustration and pain of others.
”My point, Linqian, is that if I thought we were doing things the wrong way, I'd have kept it hidden from you, and the only thing you would've heard is that he was magic. Also my idea for him to tell you in the first place…”

“She's got my dad's number, I defend him and I get a beating when I get home,” Louis said with a shrug. “But he's been real chill, Linqian, nothing dangerous.”

”Right! It's been super safe, if anything, Greyson's made it safer- remember that one time we all went to a range for fun and I kept doing stuff the instructors couldn't stand? Well he doesn't let me do any of that!” Henri put both Linqian and Greyson down, turning to her with a pleading expression. ”He’s right! I wasn't going to tell you because I didn't want you to have more to worry about…”

”Fine! Fine.” Linqian let out a hissing breath, stepping back again and tilting her head back. Fuck, she wanted another cigarette, but that would mean going back outside. Just because she was calming down didn't mean she was done talking. ”I understand. I'm still not fucking happy about it, but I'm not going to beat your asses over it. It's as safe as bringing my little brother around any mafioso could be… and you fucking told me about it, even if it was a week.”

”Yeah, yeah, that's right, Jie! And you're real hard to tell stuff sometimes, yknow, you get all mad! So we can move on-”

”We’ve still got plenty to talk about,” Linqian cut him off with a sigh, before also pointing at Louis. She just looked tired more than anything now, as her explosive temper dimmed like it always did, quick as it came. ”You go home. In fact, go to the bar, cover Sophie’s shift so I have one less thing to worry about.”

“Well I know when I'm not welcome!” Louis joked, hopping up. He went over to Henri first, patting his shoulder and leaning in. “Good luck explaining the beers without me.”

Then he disappeared in a blink of green and purple, leaving the three of them.

”They're not mine,” Henri said immediately, pointing to the beer cans.

”Oh, Henri, what the fuck… You gonna sit and lie to two troublemakers? Who ‘you foolin’?” Greyson lifted a hand and swept it forward, his eyes narrowing in judgement of Henri’s fibbing.
”Who cares, man? A couple beers at eighteen ain’t gonna kill you. But lying? That could definitely get you killed anytime. Now-”

Going into his pocket for another cigarette, he held the case up to Linqian and took a deep breath in order to light his own.
”Pay attention, because this is important: As far as what we’ve been doing goes? She knows. Some things we’ve talked about? Not so much. Private, man things… Not vulgar, but… We’ve got different emotions, and without your older brother, you ain’t had many people to talk about that stuff with. It’s fine, and that’ll always be between us. But, whatever is magic? You make sure she and I both know what’s going on at all times. We’ve gotta be on the same page: The three of us. So, how do you feel about moving out of your house and into a new one with me?”

”Got it- wait, what?! Like- like with just you?!” Henri's mouth fell open, shock quickly coming after the relief that Greyson hadn't shared any of those private things they'd talked about… the magic and what they'd been doing was fine. He was glad it was all out in the open. ”I’m not sure…”

Linqian took a cigarette with a frown, but didn't actually light it. She didn't like smoking around Henri - he was the reason she'd been able to almost quit in the first place, even if Jinhai's death had sent her right back to doing it far too much again. ”I’m moving too. Me, you, Greyson, Britney and Aryin… remember I told you about her, you'll meet her tomorrow anyway.”

Henri scratched his chin as he thought about it. ”Well, if Jie's going too and she's already agreed to it! I love our current place but it's not got much space… and living with more people will be fun!”

”You have the largest room in the house- And it's for safety, not fun,” Linqian rolled her eyes.
”We’ll move back when everything's over…”
”What about Ge? He's still…”
”Hopefully we can have a proper funeral before then,” Linqian said, in a much quieter voice, with a sigh. It was easier for her to talk about when there was still the occasional comment from not real Jinhai in her mind, but the reality of her brother's ashes sitting in her closet was never a fun one to have brought up.

”That was also something… I know the last thing Jinhai would’ve wanted was me picking up the tab for his funeral, but every bit of my blood feels uneasy not having him properly rested. We may never have liked one another, but that doesn’t mean I can’t respect him. Right? So, that’s covered. We’ll get that done as soon as you’re willing.”
Which was the same kind of truth Greyson had given to Henri at the outset.
”But, it’ll be fun too, Henri. A property I’ve been interested in on the bay opened up, so we’ll have direct access to the ocean. You’ll all have your own space, the rooms are big enough. Me and Brit’ll take the top floor, you and Aryin can have the middle, and Henri can take the suite in the basement… Or, whatever, you guys work it out, but there’s plenty of room. We could have more people in, and I still don’t think it’d be a problem.”

Greyson continued to look toward Linqian, taking a drag of his cigarette and ignorantly flicking the ashes onto the floor.
”We’ll all be close. You’ll have three of the finest Adepts in St. Portwell to teach you, and it’ll be a place where you can use your powers without worrying if other people are gonna be affected. And if it ever comes down to it, you’ll be able to help protect your sister…” he said, head turning slightly to Henri with an encouraging smile.

”I’ll need to talk to Sloane first- I'd rather not, but she did offer to pay for the whole thing and I didn't want to accept that,” Linqian said simply, deciding not to argue with it. At this point, she wanted Jinhai properly buried, rather than sitting in her wardrobe like he was right now… laid to rest in a place they could visit, near their parents.

”Oh, the whole basement?! That'll be so cool… I've always wanted my own room. Properly… I always had to share with Ge till…” Henri trailed off, hanging his head slightly. Linqian reached up to rub his shoulder.
”At least you always had a room. I slept on a couch for years.”
”... Jie, you're awful at comforting people!”

Though just like that Henri brightened, as if easily cutting himself off from going down the many heavy emotions that came with grieving.
“Oh, if they're as good as you are I'm sure I'll be learning even faster! I can't wait… I have loads of ideas for spells, I'm just not sure about how to do them. Don't worry, Jie, I'll get strong enough that you don't have to worry about anything."

”Aw, that's cute of you,” Linqian managed to laugh, reaching up to squeeze Henri's cheek with an eye roll.
”I’ll be able to fucking defend myself, thanks, but we do need to train more-” Henri turned his head away as Linqian spoke, coughing. She frowned, glaring at Edict.
”Can you not fucking smoke inside?! I'm not having that shit around him if we're all living together.”

Greyson’s head tilted back slightly, a small grin forming across his face.
”Brit don’t like it either… But this is my apartment. He’s magic Linqian… The cure for cancer is in there.” he said, pulling his free hand up to his temple to tap away at his head gently.
”But, when we all move in together, I will not smoke in the house. Because that’s right.”

He turned his body, beginning to walk further away from the two of them and on toward the fridge.
”You got any more pizza in there, Henri?” he asked very casually, trying to make sure he didn’t stick on anything for Linqian to get mad at.

”Well I fucking hope he's got a cancer cure, then he can fix the two of us after all our bad decisions,” Linqian snorted, folding her arms over her chest. She was pretty fucking hungry too, having only managed to snatch a piece of pizza before everything went to shit at the meeting. She looked at Henri expectantly.

”Uhhhh…” Henri went over to one of the pizza boxes on the floor and flipped it open. There were a few slices left, and he held it up towards Greyson with an apologetic smile. ”Didn’t put any in there, y'know how it is, we got big appetites! I'm still growing.”
”I fucking hope you're not, you've already outgrown everyone.”
Henri laughed. ”Oh, I bet Jie will cook something quick! Or I can order more pizza… But Jie's cooking is nicer and I'm still kinda hungry.”

”Hey!-” Greyson prodded, poking the slice of pizza at him as he pulled it from the box. ”-Your sister’s a busy woman: She’s not your personal chef. If anything, she’s been pretty cool about this whole thing, so you should think about how you can make that up to her. While we go work on something that needs to be done. Capice?” he asked, head tilting and eyebrows furrowed.

”But I only know how to make eggs…” Henri said.
”He didn't mean with the fucking food, idiot,” Linqian moved to Henri just to slap him around the back of the head, though there wasn't any actual force to it. She tilted her head towards Greyson with an almost grateful smile. Not that she minded cooking- in fact it was one thing she enjoyed that she still had- but it was different when it was demanded.

”Ohhhh! I get it, yeah, then, capice!” Henri's fingers formed an ok symbol and he grinned.
”I’m surprised she didn't yell at us for hours- uh, don't glare at me like that, Jie, I'll do something for you! I'll think really hard about it!”

”So long as it doesn't involve making more mess for me to clean up,” Linqian pressed a hand to her forehead, looking between them both.
”Since I've been pretty fucking reasonable about this all… but don't get any ideas and think you can get away with other shit, alright?”
”Yes, Jie!”
Linqian sighed, and turned to Edict. ”Let’s go get that other shit done then…”

Nodding her along, Greyson led Linqian up to one of the doors that he'd been very insistent about not getting opened. The first night she was here, he'd told her not to open it… But it was fine now. If he really was going to try and work with them, anything particularly nasty was all moot.
Entering in, it was clear the place was an office. A messy one, with books on books strewn about the desk and small table within. Coffee cups were full of cigarette butts, a fly danced around a rotting apple core sitting on the floor next to a full trash can. On the desk, three monitors sat with a pale pink glow playing off the wall they were facing.

Specifically, the monitors illuminated a massive cork board. It was full of notes, names, pictures taken surreptitiously. Ominously, Linqian would recognize herself in a picture secretly taken at the bar she worked at. She was behind the counter face half-obscured by her arm held up pouring a drink.
There was also a glass display case, and inside were some strange, ancient carvings surrounding a notebook that sat on velvet cloth.

”Henriiiii!?- he called out. ”If you wanna be useful, come take these cups and wash them for me.” he chided, scooping up the cups off the meeting table. His foot pulled out one of the chairs, and he nodded to Linqian.

”Sit, sit. Let me just tidy up.”

”On it!” Henri shouted back, practically running to the door to take the cups off of Edict without even looking at the room, and running back out.

”Fuck, if I gotta give you credit for something, it's getting him to do that. You have no idea how much I need to ask for him to get off his ass and do anything,” Linqian commented, sitting down in the chair Edict had pulled out. Her nose wrinkled slightly, and she had to really resist helping tidy up. It wasn't her place, it wasn't her mess, but that urge was still there. With Henri in and out of the room quickly, and likely to be out most of the time, she lit the cigarette Edict had offered her and finally started smoking it.

That's incredibly creepy.

As Linqian looked around her gaze landed on the very ominous, and creepy, cork board at the back. She stayed sitting rather than getting closer to read anything like the voice in her head wanted to. But she did point to the picture of her, turning to look at Edict with raised eyebrows.
”You couldn't have gotten a better picture for your creepy stalker wall? No secret cameras when we were fucking? Hell, a day I was better dressed at work would've done.”

Greyson looked a little embarrassed about it.
”I didn’t take it; I complained when I saw it too, trust me. Didn’t get your face well.” he shrugged, sitting down at the computer and pulling up a landline phone. Holding it up, he shook it.
”Y’know what’s great about magic? Anti-tapping. Leon’s little brother; real cock sucker, and not in a great way. But: Hell of a wiz with magical computer components…”

As Linqian had to sit there, he plugged in a number. There was a ringing, then a little more, then it ticked over into a woman’s voice.
”Lotus Root: Julietta speakin’. What can I do for you?”
”It’s me.”
”Dat don’ change my questions: What’chu want?”

Greyson laughed aloud, shaking his head.
”Can you prep some onboarding paperwork for a management position on the Farm?”
”You finally found someone?”
”Yep, yep. Here in St. Portwell.”
”Dey there now?”
”Yes…”

There was a click on the line, then the computer began making a great deal of noise. Tilting his head back, he brought his hand up to usher Linqian around behind the desk.
”If I die, this woman becomes your Boss… So, come here. Come meet my sister.” he explained to her.

Linqian pushed herself to her feet with a half eyeroll, taking another long drag from her cigarette before tapping it off into her own hand, cooling down the ashes before dropping them in the full bin on the way past.
”Any chance I can swap bosses in before death?” she asked as she came round the desk. One arm went round the back of Greyson's chair to let her lean on it as she turned to properly face the screens. She raised a hand in a half wave.

”Linqian Han. I don't have much experience in farm management, but I've done plenty of person managing in bar jobs.” Linqian spoke with a certain amount of politeness Greyson probably wasn't used to - she was certainly never that polite with him. It was reflexive when it came to some new possible higher up in a job… him and Andre were different, since she'd known them well before working for them. And she'd rather lose her job than have to be weirdly polite to him.
”Nice to meet you.”

On the other side, an incredibly beautiful dark-skinned woman with the thickest dreadlocks tied into a single tail that hung down her back. Her clothes seemed modest, but her smile was beautiful with her teeth in perfectly straight rows.
”Greyson… Whad’we say about ‘irin’ your beddies?”
”Naaaaah, it ain’t like that! I’ve known Linqian for a very long time. She’s absolutely the right decision.”

The woman gave a loud laugh, tilting her head back and snorting.
”M’playin’... You said… Sister, spell that shit- L-I-N-S-”

”L-I-N-Q-I-A-N H-A-N,” Linqian replied easily, squinting at the screen a little. She'd slept too little and been wearing contact lenses far too long, screens were a fucking pain… but she could see well enough to know the Greyson's sister was very attractive. Not that Linqian was going to fuck up what she had here for something like that.
”And I made him wait ten years, would've done it earlier if I wanted to sleep my way into money- and honestly, someone easier with that shit.” She was joking, of course, easing up a bit with the forced politeness she'd grown used to. Possibly not a good thing… for Greyson.

She laughed aloud again, snorting even harder than the first time.
”M’likin’ what M’seein’! Gaddamn Gal… Call me Julietta, family L’roq. Dis’ clod y’call Greyson is my half brotha… Lil’ shit.” she snickered.
”Y’ain’ gotta tell me nothin’ boutcha qualifications. Far as I’m concerned, until you’re out there, y’ain’ more than a donation. Maybe y’ll be worth it one day, but ‘til then, I’on know nothin’ bout nothin’. Buuuuut I look forward t’seein’ you provin’ me wrong, aye?”

”Jules, it’s extremely important that we make sure there’s a position for Linqian at the salary we agree on, even if things don’t work out at the farm. I mean it.”
”D’ja get ‘er fuckin’ pregnant, Greyson!?”

”Ha ha.” Linqian tilted her head up, telltale heat radiating off her body. Jinhai yelling inside her head didn't help dampen her reaction at all. She was fine with all the rest of it - she didn't expect to be respected for qualifications when she had none, even if being seen as a donation pissed her off a bit when she'd worked so hard to get anywhere in life… but it just meant more hard work to prove it again, as she always did.

But that shit? Really rubbed her the wrong way, even as she took a deep breath to calm down.
”Fuck no. If he did I'd be fucking getting a lot more out of him than a job.” Not that she would technically know, when it'd barely been over a week and with her cycle completely fucked from stress, lack of sleep and poor eating. But she was pretty fucking confident gut feeling wise.
”He’s gotten fucking attached to my little brother. If I'm sorted, then he's sorted. He's the only kid in the fucking picture, so I'm not taking this job just in name or any shit like that. I'll work for that salary wherever I fucking need to.”

Julietta clicked her tongue between her teeth.
”Peeeeeace, Sister. T’wan mean’ta be affront, aye? M’play too much, ‘tis the nature of the Lotus…”
Greyson giggled and laughed slightly.
”She’be aflame?”
”Yes, Sister. She’s a fellow.”
”Den sh’gets what sh’wants! We’ll set’cha lil’ brotha up too, get’chu both onboarded so we can start unloadin’ a bit more of this cash. Salary’s a great way to get it out t’people. ‘Ow long y’thinkin’ we be watin’ before ye gettin’ down here?”

Linqian's temperature lowered fully back to normal, and she frowned a bit. Aflame? Fellow? Some cult sounding bullshit… did they mean about her magic? Well, whatever. So long as she wasn't dragged into that shit she couldn't give less of a fuck.
”Don’t set my brother up. He's a college student, he'll be back in a completely different city next summer…” She held back from saying any shit about him having a future unlike her, because that was not the thing to say to the people she was getting a job from. Probably the best fucking job she'd ever have, and one she'd never qualify for otherwise. But it wasn't what she wanted for him.
”And honestly? I don't fucking know how long it'll be. Gonna be stuck here till-” she paused and looked at Greyson, raising an eyebrow.
”Does she know?”

”’Bout Daddy Doggy? Aye, ‘das grim shit! M’told young G he should be comin’ back t’me Islands t’be wit us, but what d’wa know?” Julietta threw her hands up into the air before clearly moving around on her mouse and keyboard.
”So m’don one then. And what’s the portion, Grey?”

Greyson looked sheepishly at Linqian.
”How much do you want a year? After taxes… We’re legitimate here, so you’ll get your tax paperwork every year. Don’t worry.” he explained.

Linqian looked back at Greyson, lips slightly parted and eyes widened. For once, she was speechless. It wasn't often that Linqian didn't have an instant response, even if it was a fucking awful one… but straight up being asked how much she wanted? Choosing her own salary? Fuck, he really was serious about all of this shit…
”One moment,” Linqian said, pulling out her phone. She swiped through the lockscreen, displaying a picture of her brothers, and opened up a spreadsheet filled with numbers. Mortgage, bills, Henri's money, all the debts… the amount she needed monthly, how much she earned, how much she still had to pay off. A number higher than it had started at thanks to interest… and a very large one at that.
”Fifty five… sixty thousand? Fuck, you can just ask me what I want. I can tell you what I need, and that's about it if I ever want to be debt free.” she didn't even look up from her phone, frowning at the numbers. That'd cover all the current bills, and Henri's rent when he moved back out… plus it'd pay off enough of the debt yearly she'd be clear eventually. But it was also more than double any salary she'd ever had.

Greyson narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t sure in that moment if she didn’t understand the question, or if her expectations of lifestyle were simply that low. His tongue rolled in his mouth as he tried to find words to use to convey what he wanted to say.
”A-a… A year? Fifty five, sixty thousand a year?"
Julietta knew to keep her mouth shut knowing full well that it was her brother’s money that kept their privateering lifestyle afloat.

”That too high?” Linqian lowered her phone to look at Greyson, head tilted. With the amount he'd given her so far it seemed pretty reasonable - it wasn't excessive, but she'd be comfortable enough, especially when she didn't have to support her brother anymore.
”You can cut it when Henri's out of college, I don't really give a fuck then.”

Greyson stared at Linqian another few seconds, his eyes not saying anything particular about his actual feelings of disbelief. Finally, he cleared his throat.
”Julietta… Please set our friend here up with the level benefit package, and shoot for a yearly net income of one hundred and forty thousand, please. A five year contract. I expect that to be upheld and renegotiated based purely on inflation and a standard three percent increase in perpetuity. Until, God forbid, the company dissolves. Is that understood, Jules?”
”In perpetuity, Greyson, aye.”

Greyson’s eyes turned back to Linqian.
”When you do finally get there, and you start doing everything you’re supposed to be doing well, and you think you deserve more than that? You come talk to me and we’ll work it out from there. I expect to have to make adjustments.” he said, holding out his hand to her and standing up.
”Deal?”

One hundred and forty thousand, one hundred and forty thousand, one hundred a forty fucking thousand. Linqian was in fucking shock. That was the kind of money she'd dreamed of Jinhai making one day… she had never wanted it for herself. Hadn't expected much of it to come to her either. How much was she going to have to be working for that money? Every waking hour? Well fuck, she'd do it.
”Deal.” Linqian reached out to shake Greyson's hand.

Immediately afterwards, it came up to press against her forehead.
”What the fuck am I supposed to do with that much fucking money? Fucking thinking I deserve more… what the fuck would I need more for. Fucking hell, Greyson, how much fucking work am I going to be doing? Fucking hell.” It wasn't even a lack of confidence that had her in so much shock so much as realism about her qualifications, and how much she'd ever been able to earn. Sure, she hoped to do management in bars or some shit sometime, but that'd barely reach the amounts she'd said.
Well, fine, she wasn't going to fucking dwell on it too much. If he wanted to pay that much, she'd let him pay that much.
”Don’t expect me to be any fucking nicer to you cause of this.”

”Justifiably, ‘tis a lotta work. Big job, lots of machines, probably a hundred employees. I’ss not just a tobacco farm, y’got the livestock and the bumpa’ crop. ‘Tings y’d not think about just imaginin’ a place we grow a plant in. Mostly, it’s the processin’ facilities, where we age the product and roll them smokes… Important shit, reason we can charge almost twenty bucks a pack n’ rich people still be buyin’ em.”

Greyson nodded his head, hand waving toward his sister on the monitor. The printer under the desk began to spit out pieces of paper one at a time as she transferred them to him.
”Once it’s all done, I’ll scan it back in and send it off to you Jules.”
”Take a few days: Do you need any dough for now, Linqian?”
”I can cover her for now, just make sure I get another infusion soon. Double it.”
”You got it, Lil’ Brother. Linqian, I’ll pick up y’number off the paperwork and contact y’when it’s all set. And, Greyson, the property?”
”All set?” Greyson asked simply, leaning in.
”I’ve already called the movin’ company for you.”
”Oh, good shit. Alright, I’ll talk to you soon then; give Momma my love and affection.”
”I will, I will. She ‘spectin’ you back down ‘ere before too long so get your shit up there takin’ care of, Baby. B’bye for now.”

And then the screen closed, Julietta’s face disappearing to leave a blank desktop background. The printer was still printing away below, making little mechanical noises as Greyson leaned back, a smile crossing his face as he looked at Linqian.
”You really don’t have a clue about workman value, do you… You know, families like mine got started working through Unions hundreds of years ago: We believe in fair pay by merit. God, I’m just sorry you’ve been getting fucked so hard your entire life. They could’ve paid you better for it.”

”Well sixteen year old highschool dropouts aren't exactly in high demand, I took what I could get, and kept doing it,” Linqian shrugged, turning around to half sit on the desk without actually touching any of the shit on there. If he had a problem with that… well he could fuck off, honestly. And then she'd move.
”Not like I had any fucking comparisons, and even if I did, most of my bosses wouldn't give a fuck. Couldn't exactly afford to just tell them to fuck off and walk out. The poor salary was hardly the worst I put up with, anyway… current place aside. They're really paying me best they can.”

Did it even fucking matter if Greyson thought they weren't? Probably not… not like they'd slighted him like that bar he'd burnt down had, or any shit like that. Wasn't a risk.
”You don't realise till you lose your parents how much fucking shit you need to ask them. Fuck, they weren't exactly sitting us down as kids and talking about that shit. Even Jinhai with all his fucking brains didn't know shit about ‘workman value' or whatever.”
Her lips pulled up into a half grin at inner monologue Jinhai's protest to that, pushing it down. If she'd really been underpaid her whole life, it didn't matter that much. They'd made it to here. Henri was healthy. It'd get better.
”But y'know, I got fucked hard in some pretty good ways in my life.” Of course, it wasn't Linqian if she didn't sidestep that more serious shit with a crude joke.

Greyson teetered on the edge of danger as his brain thought of every innuendo it possibly could. He choked on the Pink smog that drifted up through the veins in his throat and out his mouth in a little hiss.
”You can’t be talking like that with your little brother in the other room… Really kills the potential. I mean, I could lock the door, but that’d look fishy wouldn’t it?”
Clearing his throat again, he leaned downward and slipped the papers out of the printer. It was a solid stack of them, all neatly marked for Linqian to sign.

”Now, I know you don’t have a lawyer, so you’ll just have to trust me that I’m not fuckin’ you over with this contract… Or, you can take it home with you. Sign it as you like, give it back to me on the day we move you guys into the new place.” he offered, running it through a hole punch in sections before sliding an empty binder out and putting it all in for her. His hand held it out to her.

”Well you're gonna have to figure something out when we all move in together, cause I'm not censoring myself,” Linqian's lips pulled into a playful smile, before she laughed. She really wasn't going for anything today, anyway, as much as it was always fun. One time led to another time which led to a whole night, and less sleep. She really needed that fucking sleep tonight.

”You can't fuck me over anymore than I already have been… unless there's some fucking indentured servitude clause in there, that'd be real fuck.” Linqian took the binder from him, flicking through it casually. A lot of long sentences and jargon she didn't entirely understand. It was the kind of thing she would've had Jinhai go through with her before… but he wasn't here, and as smart as Henri was he'd probably never read a contract in his life. He'd just get fucking distracted anyway.
”I’ll trust you this once, since I said I'd try to. Not like I'll understand it any fucking more in a couple of days.” She held out a hand as she scanned through it, assuming he'd understand she was looking for a pen.

”Hey, I figured you could give it to… I don’t know, Anya Baksh or something, have someone with a brain read through it. But fine, you wanna just go for it, please- Fill in all the info between the lines, sign on any stars. I’ll… I’ll call Brit; we’ll get reservations for a nice dinner tonight. You, me, Henri, her… Fuck it, bring Aryin too.”

[NoriWasHere]

When our strongest struggle….

Ten years ago

Daylight burned away every shadow on the ground, and all the clouds on the planet seemed to fear this place. It was truly a beautiful day in St. Portwell, and yet it could not have come at a worse time.

In an untouched portion of the fancier part of town, Jack dragged himself across an old dirt road. The old forest of sycamore trees did very little to block the sun, and nothing but grass and silence kept him company on his death march. His body was wracked with a mixture of numbness and the worst pain he ever felt in his life. The snake got him good, there was nothing remaining of his left shoulder, just a fountain of blood that refused to slow. His leg, albeit intact, was functionally useless right now. He couldn’t even feel it if he tried.

Everything hurt, and everything felt ice cold. The Stygian Snake turned back time once again, meaning no one was at the usual “forward camp” they used as a meeting spot. The coven had a hideout that they would be in right now, but it felt like a million miles away for a kid who was cut off from his magic thanks to the damn weather. It was too bright for him to teleport, and even if he could, he just might make the broken ribs in his chest worse.

His head was spinning so much that it hurt to look ahead. It was like a dagger being plunged into his temple, but Jack couldn’t stop. He wasn’t a corpse yet, but he would be if he gave up and stopped before finding civilization again.

Looking up again, sweat, dirt and blood marred his vision. His right arm felt like it was going to fall off from the cauldron’s worth of things plaguing him right now. Jack recognized a pale gray shape flecked with green to his left, a large rock that wasn’t far from the hideout.

Not far for those in a car, at least.

I have to keep going.

And so he continued onwards, scratching and clawing at the dirt with half of his willpower and waging war against his lungs for breath with the rest.

Every pull across the dirt road painted the ground further and further with a stroke of dark red, every breath threatened to escape and never come back. Jack was on fire and at the bottom of the ocean, and he could not tell the difference when he dared to look up to get his bearings.

Aryin had been dragged far in their pursuit of one of those damned Apparitions that the snake had brought to battle the night before. They chased it through the town, through the woods, back into the town and then back out into the woods. They felt like this particular apparition had mocked them during their battle before it got scared and ran off, and it was this mocking that drew the ire of Aryin. It was weak, it was pathetic, and it said that she hit like a girl. The…fucking…nerve. If that wasn’t bad enough, the monster was always one step ahead of them no matter how fast and hard they ran. It always got out of the way of any blast that Aaron would send its way. Aryin wondered if it was even real or if the fucking snake had created it in their head to pull them away from the fight.

What mattered now was getting back to the lair, checking in with the coven to see if anyone else saw what they saw, and if no one did gaslighting them into thinking the monster was always there and present. Today would be a good day if they could do that, today would be a good day if nothing else happened that pulled them away from their plan and…… wait, was that Jack? Aryin’s head tilted as she saw the tell-tale signs of a hot topic addicted teenager walking her way, and she could sense the depressive aura from here. He was limping and he was…

”Oh shit,” Aryin whispered, stopping their steps as they did, as they noticed the missing arm and torrent of blood coming out of it. ”Oh shit,” they repeated as they felt their chest tighten and their heart rate increase. It was just a momentary hesitation before they took off in a sprint running as fast as their feet could carry them to their friends' side. ”Jack what the fuck we need to get you help,” Aryin said as they stopped and exclaimed the wounds, eyes wide with fear. ”Oh shit, guess who is getting carried? This emo kid who is about to bleed all over me!”

Initially, he didn’t even realize Ayrin was there until he felt his body moving. Unsurprisingly, blood sloshed off of his clothes and all down Ayrin’s arms and legs. His head rolled back as if he were unconscious.

All he could do to respond to Ayrin was wheeze and lazily open his eyes to look at her. There was no focus in those eyes whatsoever, just the threat of finally going to sleep.

”Oh no you don’t you fucking twink,” Aryin shouted as they picked up the pace and ran faster and faster and faster still. One of the benefits of their magic was their near-unlimited stamina, which allowed them to run as fast as their muscles allowed. They carried Jack along the old dirt road, never leaving the road until they hit the main road that would then carry them straight to the old mansion.

Consciousness eluded him further, being jarred around in Ayrin’s arms did not help with that. At one point or another, the world around him faded to black, and Jack was out cold.

---

Aryin burst through the door to the hideout and looked around for any of their healers. Fuuuuuuuuuck there were none in the front area of the mansion which meant that they’d have to carry this bleeding asshole all the way to the left wing of the mansion to the healers room. Already eyes were on the two of them as the coven watched in horror as the life began to fade from Jack. Aryin took off in a rush towards the room, shouting at everyone to get out of the way and to make room as they did. After a few more moments they burst through the door and spotted their healers who were already busy tending to the other wounded from the night before.

”He’s almost gone!” Aryin shouted to the room and was instantly met with initially angry eyes before shock, and fear took over. A second later a pair of hands grabbed Jack from Aryin and put him down into a bed as they began to work their healing magic,

The healers didn’t have an easy job with him. There was nothing remaining of Jack’s left shoulder, or the last two inches between it and his chest. His left leg was snapped in two places upon further inspection, and he had various skin-deep wounds all over his body. Some were deeply bruised from particularly violent attacks. He also had a pretty nasty concussion, indicated by cracks in the back of his skull that the healers had to treat carefully.

And there was the fact that he had lost a lot of blood by now. Enough that he had passed out before getting indoors.

They were able to stabilize him eventually, but Jack was going to be in absolutely no condition to get out of bed for a few days. Over the next few hours, they kept a close eye on him as he drifted in and out of a blurry consciousness. It was like fog rolled over his mind, and he was neither fully asleep nor fully awake. The healers could not leave him alone for more than a few minutes at a time, or else Jack might not ever wake up.

Aryin was one of the people who kept a close eye on Jack. They were still covered in their blood soaked clothes as were their arms and chest, and they couldn’t help but shift uncontrollably due to the emotional nature of her race against death. If he hadn’t been as fast as he was, or if she tripped and fell on his face, then Jack would be dead. Just another dead friend on the growing pile that had begun to build in the hearts and minds of everyone. She had spent this entire war protecting her friends, and Jack was yet another friend that nearly died despite his efforts. “Don’t you die,” Aaron whispered to himself as she watched over Jack, ” You fucking twink.”

Quietly, someone walked into the medical wing of the building, and laid a gentle hand on Aryin’s shoulder. ”Knowing him, he’s seen worse.”

Reza sat down in a chair next to her and across from Jack. He looked to be at peace, no doubt worried about Jack just as much as she was. ”I came as soon as I could, they told me you got him here just in time. He’ll pull through, and you did good.”

”I did good,” she paused as she scoffed, “the difference between him being alive and dead was the difference of single step over and over again” Aaron paused as he looked at Reza with tears in his eyes, ”I had to be perfect,” Aryin paused as she swallowed a cry, If I made one mistake his wounds would’ve gotten him. I don’t know if I can do it again. Keep doing that again without making a mistake.”, Aaron paused as he wiped the tears from his eyes, ”I don’t know if I can do that, be that savior again. I just don’t.”

He scooted over and put an arm around. ”It’s easy to feel that way, isn’t it?” He asked, gently. ”That your race has been run, like you’ve run out of things to give? I know that feeling. There’s nothing that brings a person down more than that. But you aren’t alone. The strength of this coven is its people, not one person. You made it here with him and saved his life. Don’t be too hard on yourself, you’re worth better than that.”

Aryin took a deep breath as he let his head rest on the side of Reza’s. Reza was right. While things like this were hard, scary, and impossible in this fight against the snake, they had the support of a great group of people who were fighting and dying to save the world. If anyone could support them as they did everything to protect everyone it would be someone found in this coven. “The fate of the world is on our shoulders. We’re just kids, and we’re forced to suffer through this,” she pointed towards Jack with his arm, “it’s not fair.”

”I know, there are so very few fair things in the world.” Reza was talking from experience, it was how had come this far to St. Portwell in the first place. ”But things will be better, one day. They’ll be better because of us. We fight today so we don’t half to once we overcome this.”

He believed in everyone, and he had to. It was part of him. ”When this is behind us all, we’ll make everything fair together. I promise.”

”I hope so,” Aryin stated as she finally fully saw just how much blood covered her body. Her shifting had finally slowed enough to allow her to focus, ”will you stay with him? I need a shower and some sleep before tonight.”

Reza nodded. ”Of course I will. Go on, and rest afterwards. And I don’t mean just physically.”

”Is he still alive?” Another person joined them, voice coming from the doorway. Jinhai leaned against the wall, eyebrow raised, eyes on Jack. He didn’t look particularly tired, but most of his night had been spent directing others rather than on the frontlines. ”All other stragglers have been collected, we’re moving to the ‘day shift’. I’m in charge today…”

He trailed off, eyes narrowing at Jack. ”Making sure no idiots go chase after the Snake in other worlds.”

“Our healers are good so I think so,” Aaron paused as he cleared his throat. It was evident that she had cried recently. ”I was lucky to find him when I did.”. Aryin moved towards the doorway and gave Jinhai a weak smile before he headed towards the shower and the sleep she needed.

”He’ll live. I’ve gone over his escape plan dozens of times before with him, when he goes out,” Reza told him, beckoning for Jinhai to come over and stop being shy in the doorway. ”He knew what he was doing.”

”Oh I'm sure he knew what he was doing going out without a radio and making it nearly impossible to find him,” Jinhai shook his head, with a dry smile. He came over to the bedside, leaning over it to stare at Jack with narrow eyes, ring on his finger glowing slightly. ”But correct, he'll live. But I'm worried other hotheaded idiots will try to follow in his footsteps.”

”I always make him bring a radio when he goes on these missions. But the fact he didn’t use it tells me he must’ve lost it, or it was damaged.” Reza leaned forward on his sword, resting the end against the floor in its scabbard. ”Besides, who else would even consider doing something like that, and actually have the magic for it?”

”There are plenty of other Purple lux users. Drake, if he put his mind to it,” Jinhai pointed out, moving away from the bed to lean against a wall. ”Reckless enough with access to the magic, and he’d drag people like my sister along.”

”True. But, I don’t think Linqian would. And Drake wouldn’t be subtle enough, have you ever seen someone hide with a sword made of lightning?” he commented. ”I do agree, though. Sometimes I wish he’d at least try to teach his spells to others. He’d be great at it if he could find the-”

At last, Jack stirred awake, with a groan of pain.

”...Time.”

”Is it time for round two already, Snake?” He opened his eyes and looked around like he had just woken up from being blackout drunk. Everything was blurry. ”Is that you, Jinhai?”

”And he’s awake,” Jinhai chuckled, leaning forward again, hand moving in front of Jack’s face. There was a light glow around his ring as he cast a green lux health check spell again, and more basic healing. Enough to help with his vision, perhaps. ”Yes. Me and Reza are here. How are you feeling?”

”Numb. Like I just passed through a tundra. A few pounds too light…” He blinked and looked down at what used to be his left shoulder and arm. ”That’s not coming back, is it?” He asked, a dry smile crossing his face as if it was funny.

”No, it’s not,” Jinhai replied with a light laugh, as if going along with the joke. Then his eyes narrowed, and his tone turned more serious. ”Do you have any idea how lucky you are to be alive? You’re a fucking idiot, Jack. If Aryin hadn’t chased an Apparition too far, you’d be dead. You’re lucky it was just your arm.”

Reza quickly pulled his phone out to send Aryin a text: He’s awake.

”Well… You’re welcome,” For someone as intelligent as Jack, he wasn’t seeing the fact that it objectively was a crazy thing to always be spying on the Snake. ”It shifted time back again, that’s why I went out. I still have notes about what was lost in the shift as usual. Someone has to.”

”Not alone. You die, then what? We’re already lacking people who can teleport- your suicide missions arent helpful. You’re just giving us more problems!” Jinhai tilted his head back, hand coming up the bridge of his nose. ”This is a team effort, not something to boost your ego with.”

”How many teleporters, of the ones we have, could’ve teleported through a time funnel? Other than me? Drake’s teleportation is too erratic, Kenshiro’s would take too long, and he would run the risk of being caught in the gap.” He looked up at Jinhai, not exactly brimming with confidence but still sure of himself.

”It doesn’t make us any less worried, though.” Reza stood up and walked up to the bed, taking Jack’s hand into his. ”You’re alive, that’s what matters.”

”All of that is why you’re indispensable, so start acting like it,” Jinhai sighed. ”Reza’s right… you’re alive, and you won’t be going anywhere for a while.”

The assembled group would hear a commotion starting far away. It just sounded like pottery shattering on the ground, before a muffled pair of voices entered the shuffle of sounds. Move, move get out of the way were heard before an equally loud chorus of what the fuck- fucking bitch -you’re crazy . The sounds drew closer and closer before the towel clad Aryin entered the room. He was shifting uncontrollably again, and she smirked. She had two towels on, one tied tight around his waist and a second wrapped across her chest. The towels, formerly white, were stained deep with the blood of Jack that Aaron had only just started to scrub off. ”You fucking bitch.”. Aaron paused as he laughed a hearty laugh as he leaned against the door frames.

Jack blinked slowly, grinning at Aryin and all the blood they were covered in. ”You look terrible.”

Aryin grinned before her jaw dropped ever so, ”you should see the other guy,” Aryin paused as tears welled in her eyes, “I’m glad you’re back with us,” Aryin paused as she walked across the room and gave Jack a big hug. ” Promise me you will be more careful”

”Yes, promise that you'll be more careful,” Jinhai echoed Aryin, fixing Jack with a hard stare.

”I am always ca-“ Jack’s answer was a pained choke as he felt his ribs sliding around under his skin when Aryin hugged him. ”Careful. But I’ll keep being careful, if that’s good enough.”

”Be more careful-”

”I heard that Jack's- oh fuck, Aryin, you kill someone while showing? It's a good look.” Linqian barged into the room, curls practically bouncing with the way she ran in. She screeched to a halt before properly crashing into Jinhai. ”Fuck, Jack, you've lost an arm!”

”What? Me? This?” He moved a shoulder that wasn’t there anymore. ”I’ve had worse,” he said, bluntly.

”We get worse every night, eh?” Linqian laughed, leaning over to slap Jack on the still existing shoulder.

”Linqian, seriously?” Jinhai hooked an arm around his sister’s neck and pulled her back.

”Ow.”

”Fuck off, Jinhai, what is it they say- laughing’s the best medicine? Some shit like that,” Linqian rolled her eyes, before pointing at Jack. ”Don’t go fucking almost dying again, you piece of shit.”

Aryin walked over to Linqian and punched her in the arm. “Someone tried to sneak a peak. I had to do what I had to do.” Aaron looked back to Jack and rolled his eyes. “You would’ve been worse if I wasn’t in the right place at the right time. With that said, I gotta hand it to you. You’re always ballsy as fuck.”

No one said anything for about five seconds. Instead, they just stared at Aryin.

A cough was heard coming from somewhere in the room.

”This is nothing. I’ll be fine. You think this might slow me down, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Watch.”

He pointed to where his sleeve and shoulder used to be, and now there was a flickering shadow in its place, shaped like the limb that the Snake was currently digesting.

”Problem solved.”

“You’re a problem.” Aryin chuckled to herself. The shifting had finally gotten itself under control and she laughed a little bit harder. “Don’t do that to me again, okay?.”

”I’ll try. For now, I can’t feel my left leg, so I’ll be stuck in this room for a few days. So, here…” Jack reached into his bloodied clothes and pulled out a notebook that was somehow only slightly smeared red.

”Updates on what was lost in the last rewind, before the Snake bit me. Reza knows how to read this if you need his help and I’m not awake.”

”You’d better not be awake if I come in here, Jack,” Reza chuckled, squeezing the edgy Adept’s hand.

“Good. You better listen to Reza, or else,” Aryin paused as they cracked their knuckles, “I am going to get clean, and then get some sleep. Rest up.” Aryin waved to Jack and walked out of the room. A few seconds passed before she ran back in, punched Linqian in the arm, shouted “BITCH,” before running out of the room again towards the showers.

”HOE!” Linqian yelled back, managing to wrangle herself out of the chokehold Jinhai had put her in.

Jinhai rolled his eyes. He then held out his hand towards Jack. ”Why don’t you hand it over so we can go through it with Reza, and you’re not tempted to stay awake.”

Jack handed it over to Jinhai. ”I’m not very tempted to be asleep right now, either. But I’ll behave myself… Perhaps, at least.”

Reza fixed a weary smile on him. ”I’m glad you made it, but don’t let me catch you sneaking out tonight, okay? You’re on house arrest.”

”If you say so,” Jack grinned. ”Sorry about the scare, but it takes more than a demigod to kill me. And on the bright side, now I have a new spell idea to work with. I’ll be alright.”

Jinhai took the book and tucked it under his arm. ”We’ll post guards around your room if you try leave. Actually, we’ll leave Linqian here to keep you company if you don’t think you’ll sleep. You can tell her all about your new spell.”

”What the fuck, no fucking way, you can go to hell, Jinhai,” Linqian kicked her brother’s shin. ”I’ve been hauling ass all over the city all night fighting that bastard, you keep him company.”

”I would love to, but we need to go through everything that was lost.”

”The worst of it was Hagan walking into a trap, which was reset, and Goro losing progress on his newest artifact. Hagan goes out at 7:30pm tonight, and a hydra ambushes him. It comes from the tourist district and-“

Reza cleared his throat.

”…You’ll see what I mean.”

A gasp could be heard from the doorway. “You okay, Jack?” Michael asked as his eyes remained wide at the sight of the shadow arm thing.

”Michael?” Jack looked over and smirked again. ”I will be, once I replace my lost limb,” he said without any reverence for the traumatic experience.

“That……looks painful,” Michael squirmed in place. A moment later five crows burst into the room and swooped around Jack as if they were examining the wound for the the themself. They rested on the surrounding area after a short while.

It was painful. Jack felt his arm despite losing it an unknowable number of hours ago. But the wound had been sealed up and taken care of. The shoulder was gone, there was a recess where someone’s bones should’ve been. But he was fine.

”I will be fine. Our coven has good healers.”

“Goo…good” Michael said with a sigh. He rubbed his neck with his hand, “Do feel better, Michael said with a half smile as he walked out of the door, and his crows soon followed.

Reza turned and left, smiling one last time at Jack.

”You’re crazy, you know that?”

Jack grinned, feeling so smug.

”Where would any of you be without me?”

---

we help them see the light…

Aryin could not stand to stay around the others after that disastrous meeting. It was a complete waste of time for everyone, it was a complete waste of time for Greenwood, and it was time that Aryin would rather spend doing anything else but this. Aryin walked through the streets, her steps echoed off the sides of the buildings and people scattered around her less they dare challenge the wrath of a person walking with vengeance at their back. They walked for several minutes before the walked past the old mansion that served as their home base ten years ago. Aryin continued past it before their steps slowed to a stop. She took a few steps back in order to get her eyes on the ruined structure. A tear welled in her eyes. Aryin was not bound by their dead friend's trauma, she had risen above it, she made herself stronger because of this. And yet she’d never been to the mural.

It was time to actually visit an old friend. It was time to reaffirm her commitment to this coven.

Aryin walked around the outer perimeter of the mansion, her eyes darting around the yard. Memories flicked into her mind of carrying Jack who was bleeding out, of practicing her joint spells with Linqian, and being chased by Lila’s crow after she accidentally ate some of the snacks Lila brought to feed them. Aryin smiled at the latter two memories, but the first was related to the person she came to see. Aryin finished wrapping around the building and saw it for the first time in nearly a decade. The tree, that beautiful tree, still stood strong even ten years later. As well, Aryin gasped at the beauty of the flowers that surrounded it. Someone had spent so much time and effort to make this peace as serene as possible. Aryin smiled. Their past may be marred by trauma and loss, but they did well at honoring their dead. Aryin took several steps forward but soon stopped as she finally saw the letters engraved on it. Tears began to well again, and she wiped them from her face

Aryin walked all the way to the mural and began to drag her finger down the list. She had long since forgotten what the code words meant, vaguely remembering that the animals were somehow related to the lux, and the trees to the role, but the extent of which was lost to time. As she reached the end of the list she gasped. She did not remember the code name she was looking for. Aryin tried to search the mural several times more before a few tears finally escaped her face. Instead of leaving, instead of hating her memory, Aryin committed to a new plan. Aryin sat down in front of the mural and cleared her throat and took a deep breath. She looked up at the mural with a smile.

”Hey everyone,” Aryin paused as she used her arms to pull her knees close, ”I hope that you are all still proud of us. I’m sorry it’s only my first time coming to see you.”

”They would be, if they were still here.”

This mural had no words for her. It had no solace to offer Aryin, just cold depictions of a time that will never return. But she wasn’t alone. There was a faint sound of someone walking over grass, getting closer and closer as Jack came within view. He had left the meeting around the same time as Aryin, and it had gone great until one crack in the glass showed itself. Beyond that point, it was downhill, between tempers flaring and a ghost from the past making itself known. Jack was considering it a win regardless. After all, he was the reason that meeting happened in the first place, but the others just couldn’t last one meeting without going for the throat.

”It’s hard to believe that,” Aryin used her hand to pat the ground next to her, inviting Jack to sit down, ”Hi Jack. I came by to see Reza but could not remember his name. Figured I’d try and remember as many as I could instead,” Aryin sighed as she returned her arm to the outside of her knee.

Jack kneeled down beside her, and pointed to one of the names. ”This one. Reza Cabrerra… Hero of the World Tree,” he read, remembering carving the name into the tree himself, back then. ”Fitting for him, I felt.”

”I forgot how to read our code names, who was what animal,” Aryin looked to where Jack pointed and squinted, ”hi,”

”The animals were symbolic of Adepts. Crows for black Lux, a tortoise for green. A snowy owl for white… The Aberrations were different, their names were simpler. Reza was named a Hero of the World Tree, because he was just that, a hero.”

”Is that how we did it,” Aryin chuckled at that mural and tried to remember what his friends' animals were. He wanted to see, alongside Reza, Ella. ”It’s easy to forget we were kids back then. Yet when you see that codename system, and how obvious it was, it’s like bam, only a kid would think of something like that,”

He nodded. ”We had families to hide from. They would never know, and it was a cruel world we lived in. Us, the weight of extinction, and a demigod bent on enacting it,” Jack mused aloud, staring up at all the names.

”The All-Verse is infinite, one cannot quantify the universes it holds. And yet, each and every one of them had all been in danger. If the Stygian Snake won against us, darkness would have befallen every corner of creation. We saved them all, more places, worlds and realities than we will ever know… Some things were best kept from our loved ones.”

”It was better to keep them in the dark,” Aryin said as she looked up at the mural. ”Do you remember which one was Ella?”

”Sun Conure of the Manchineel. Towards the bottom,” He said, pointing to her name. ”Every last one is here.”

Aryin emotionally swapped to Aaron at the sight. Their red flannel was now a bit too big, and their once oversized jeans now sat snugly on his waist. “Hey Ella,” Aaron said as he stared at her name, “I am sorry this is my first time coming to see you. I wanted to let you know I still carry a part of you with me. I still do that thing I learned where I, like some fucking anime dweeb, announce all my attacks before I send them. And,” Aaron paused as a weak smile spread across his face. “I think, I think I learned how to do that ‘Falcon Punch’ idea you had before,” Aaron paused as he looked down, “well, you ended up on a mural. I just miss you so so much, I miss all of you. This coven is missing something, and I often wonder what would be different if you were still here.”

Aaron looked over to Jack and asked, “if you could say anything to Reza, what would you say?”

Jack glanced at Aaron, and looked back at the mural. ”That I never forgot the time I spent together with him. That I never will.” It was a question he had asked until it could not be asked anymore. A question that he carried with him as he pressed deeper and deeper into the Void, as if he’d find the border.

”Wherever he has gone, I know he rests easy, and that is enough for me.”

“Do you remember the time I literally had to outrun death carrying you,” Aaron smirked as he remembered one of his hardest saves, “Reza was the first one there after the healers got you patched up. He was so wise as a kid. The strength of the coven was in the people, not the individual. Blew my mind back then, helped me fight harder to support everyone. What would he say right now, with everyone being this fucking awful,” Aaron sighed, “I’ve always felt that the snake took our heart, and without that heart,” Aaron paused as he looked at Ella, Reza, the rest of the magical girls, and finally the mural as a whole, “how will we accomplish anything like that victory again?”

”We will find it again, Aaron.” Jack had learned things from his descent into oblivion, wisdom that carried him further now. ”There are infinite possibilities in the world of magic, but something so very few people in life come to truly understand is that nothing is permanent. Everything has its season, and will not last forever.” Even in the Void, there were scarce traces of reality. Figments of entropy that had bled through the cracks, like the Shadowzone, as ruined as it was.

”Not life, not fortune… Not love,” he continued. ”But endings, too, are finite. Even darkest Winter gives way to brightest Spring in time. With each passing day, this infighting wanes, as all things do. We will find our way home, as we have found our way back to St. Portwell.”

“I want to find it soon,” Aaron joked as he wiped another tear from his eyes, “if not for us then for them,” he paused as he looked for the mural. “I haven’t felt this connected with my magic since a decade ago, and I think that’s because I’ve been back with everyone. I don’t want to lose this family again, you know?”

”Of course not. And neither do I. But old wounds must be healed before others are willing. Some of us have moved on, and these things take time, therefore. I learned, from my time in the Void, that all roads can lead to a place you once thought forgotten, if you walk far enough.”

“I feel that. I have some of that bad blood and it’s not my place to fix it,” Aaron said in reference to, “what if we try to bring the various groups together on an individual basis? Lila is right, we’re better in our small groups but I want us to be together again. As a whole. Without them realizing that’s what we’re doing.”

”We worked best when distanced from one another as children,” Jack pointed out. ”We all knew where we stood, it is not different now.”

“It sure feels different, Aaron said as he stood up, “I just don’t want to feel like I’m constantly losing, you know?”

”No one does.” Jack also stood up. ”But we are relearning our old ways. Give them time, it will all fall into place.” He knew this, and knew it was correct because it had to be.

“I don’t suppose you have any special alcohol you’ve found on your hero’s journey, have you,” Aaron said as he chuckled. He could use a drink.

”…I do, now that you mention it. I tend to hoard things that are good for gatherings. Not that I ever have a use for it.”

”Want to have a drink? To toast our friends, to commemorate the alliance you built, and to help with your hoarding problem,” Aryin said as they placed a hand on his shoulder, ”you fucking twink.”

Jack grinned. ”Certainly. Follow me,” he said, opening a doorway to the Eleventh Path.

---

”Faith,” Aryin said as she threw her arms around Faith's shoulders and hugged her from behind. Aryin was wearing one of Jack’s trademark coats, and she quickly turned around and grabbed Jack by the shoulder and pulled him to the table and pushed him into a chair. There was no chance she was going to let him miss out on some socialization outside the coven. ”Faith thank you for inviting us out,” Aryin said as she giggled as she sat down, ”you all should’ve seen the place we just came from, mind fucking blown. Oh. OH. This is my good friend Jack, Jack from the coven! He nearly died ten years ago and we’ve been besties since. This is Faith. Lori, and Thomas. They’re really nice Jack.”

Jack didn’t resist getting pushed into a seat… He didn’t remember this place existing back when they were kids.

Faith had invited Aryin to The Flying Dutchman. It was a small dive bar off the beaten path frequented by paranormal beings. It was kept safe for the blind and the one eye open by an adept who could sense a person's lux. If there were creatures inside they would be turned away. It was a rough bar, it was a crude bar, but it was a safe and queer bar. The vibe was also more relaxed and laid back than any other queer space in St. Portwell.

Faith looked at Aryin and chuckled. “You’re drunk already?” Faith was wearing a simple fit, a black bralette and a black puffy jacket on top, and jean shorts and tights on bottom.

Thomas smiled as he looked at Jack, extending a hand towards Jack’s good arm. “Thomas, pleasure to meet you.” Thomas wrote a simple striped sweater, black skinny jeans with a chain that fell off his left hip, and red converse.

Jack took the hand and shook it. ”Jack Hawthorne.”

“Sick arm,” Lori said as she leaned in close. She wore a simple overall over a colorful striped sweater, “how’d you lose that?”

”The Stygian Snake swallowed me whole, so I cut my way out of its stomach. I didn’t leave in one piece.”

Faith raised an eyebrow, and then raised a hand into the air and summoned a waiter. “Put his drinks on my tab.” Faith looked over the arm and then the man it was attached to. “So, you mean to tell me that you cut your way out of an all-verse threat and only lost an arm when you were, what, seventeen?”

“We might need to reconsider Octavia’s offer,” Lori said with a smirk, “that group would love to hear this story.”

“My liver can’t keep up with that group,” Faith said with a chuckle, “besides, despite your coven's best attempt to detail that meeting earlier it seems we are a part of the same alliance now. I want to be regaled by stories of a man who has seen so much.”

“How did the Stygian Snake eat you, and how did you not die,” Thomas asked, “and what do you drink?”

Jack leaned back in his sweet, resting his chin on his fingers. ”When we were in a war against it, I tracked the Snake across worlds to maintain awareness of time that was reversed. It caught me; I did not die because I have something of an advantage against creatures that prowl in the darkness; I’ll take a dark rum, thank you.”

“Cool,” Thomas said as he flagged down a waiter, “a round of a dark rum for the table, please,” Thomas waited for the waiter to walk away before he turned his attention towards Jack, “that was a lot of words that, individually, make a lot of sense. But together? So the war, and you tracked the snake across these words. What were those worlds like? I’ve never left shimmer.”

“Ask Alex,” Lori said as she finished her cocktail while she awaited the next round of drinks, “they can take you to a different world.”

“Nononooo. I do not like traveling through the art dimension,” Thomas paused as he looked to Faith, “what can we talk about?”

“Be open,” Faith said, “we’re all friends here.”

“The citizens of that dimension hate me, I can feel it,” Thomas said as he returned his gaze to Jack, “so. What are those other words like?”

”They were often in worse conditions than Shimmer, at the time. In Glare, I followed it to their version of Paris, which was overrun and no longer exists. Shade had a much more efficient analogue to the PRA, and they were able to defend themselves well enough,” Jack mused.

”Though, I did not stay for long. I preferred to follow it and move when it moved. It was safer, that way.”

“Fascinating,” Thomas said as the waiter returned with their drinks.

”He took a lot of risks, sometimes they paid off, sometimes they didn’t. But they’re a fucking hero if I ever saw one,” Aryin said as they grabbed a drink, their voice slightly slurred from the alcohol the two drank at the 11th path, ”yay,” she squealed as she grabbed her drink and took a big sip.

“Didn’t you go out just last night,” Lori asked.

”Shush,” Aryin said as she slapped Jack on the shoulder.

“So you saw all this death, destruction,” Faith said as she placed her elbows on the table and rested her head in her hands, “and, as a kid, you kept following it. I have talked to my Sycamores and they told me tales about that time, it was a wonder any of you made it out.”

“What have you done since,” Thomas asked with a grin.

Jack didn’t answer immediately, but…

”I spent most of the last decade walking through the Void.”

All around the table everyone’s mouth dropped. Thomas was mid drink when he heard the word and immediately the drink fell from his mouth. Lori’s bow hissed from her violin case. And faith looked to Aryin with suspicion. They all heard the stories about the Void. No one wanted to ask the obvious questions, questions like how could one survive there? How can one remain sane after a day, let alone a decade? And would he be a threat? Anyone that wanted to hear more would be labeled a mad person.

“I would like to hear more,” a voice spoke from behind Jack, the sound of a chair being dragged across the floor soon . The man spun the chair backwards and sat down next to Jack, and then the man rested his arms on the back of the chair. The man had short, messy hair and glasses that seemed a decade or two out of style. He had a black and white vertical striped shirt, ripped black jeans, and entirely too many brackets on one wrist, and entirely too many rings on the other hand. “What was your average day like? Was the trip to the market better or worse than Shimmer,” the man paused as he realized there was something he forgot to say, “I’m Cyrus, pleasure.”

Jack turned around, taking a contemplating sip of his drink. ”There were no “days,” there. Time is a concept intrinsic to the All-Verse, not the space beyond it. One “day” in the Void is one and a half, or perhaps two in Shimmer.”

“Cyrus, you came,” Faith said with a half smile. “I didn't think you’d actually leave your little cave. And Hope? Was she going to come?”

“Of course I came,” Cyrus said with a half hearted laugh, “you just promoted me to the major league. I wouldn't miss my first night out as an official 317 member. Hope is on the way, don’t you worry.”

”Cyrus is a wizard with the camera, he runs a studio in the 317,” Aryin filled Jack in, ”he tends to be very sarcastic and dry with his sense of humor… and he can be a dick,” Aryin warned as she looked at Cyrus with a stern look.

”What, can’t a guy ask how another man survived in the void for ten years,” Cyrus paused as he placed his bracelet laced hand on Jack’s shoulder, “let me rephrase, how did you eat?”

”I didn’t,” Jack answered. ”There is no entropy in the Void, and time does not exist in the same way as the All-Verse. So I could spend years without food.”

“How did you avoid the pit on your journey to and from,” Cyrus questioned further.

”That, unfortunately, is a secret.”

“Alright keep your secrets traveling man,” Cyrus chuckled as he patted Jack on the shoulder, “how did you not go insane though?” Cyrus was asking questions that the rest of the table wanted to know, everyone had their heads firmly on Jack and seemed to hang on every word, except for Aryin. Aryin had her eyes on Cyrus with a neutral expression on her face.

”It takes more than eyes to see into the darkness,” Jack said, cryptically as fuck. ”Sometimes, the abyss gazes back. And sometimes, it is simply blind.” What did that mean? Who the hell knew?

“Fascinating,” Cyrus said as he looked over the rest of the group, he could tell that they were wanting to know more. They were practically hanging on each and every word that he had Jack spill forth. “But you must’ve faced threats? Anything memorable?”

Jack leaned away, and took a sip of his drink. ”Aside from being repeatedly banished back to Shimmer by the creator of reality, staring through the infinite eyes of the Denizens, and learning to navigate a place where direction is meaningless?”

”...A few things.”

”How’s enrichment feeling for you Jack,” Aryin said as she took a big drink.

“A decade away from Shimmer surely means its light shines brighter for you, no,” Cyrus continued Aryin’s question.

Did it?

”There are no shadows without the light. All roads lead back to it, it was only a matter of time before I returned. Not a question of if.”

“Well we’ll have to make sure that we enjoy you and your stories while we have them. Regale us some more funny magic man,” Lori finally erupted at a loud volume.

He took a contemplative sip from his glass. ”If I had known I’d be telling this many stories, I would have brought one of my books,” he joked. Jack had a book with him already. Granted, that book was his channeler, but it didn’t count. He wasn’t going to show something that important in front of strangers. ”Once, I had returned to Shimmer in another country, and a paranormal woman set me on fire in an attempt to learn my secrets.”

Cyrus leaned back off the back of his chair and scanned Jack from head to toe. “Well I’m glad to see you got better.”

“Shuuuush,” Lori said as she leaned forward, “deets, now!”

”She had, unfortunately, noticed me returning and stalked me for days. She was quite the power-obsessed individual. A chronomancer, no less… I despise time manipulation,” he explained. ”Imagine, if you will, being tied to a street lamp, drenched in kerosene and repeatedly immolated as time rewound until you broke. I did not.”

“That.. is awesome,” Lori said as the violin bow vibrated in the case.

“Painful,” Faith said as she took a deep drink.

“How’d you get away from a chronomancer,” Cyrus asked, though this tone was less playful than usual. It carried his honest intrigue at the situation.

”A simple task. Often, those who manipulate time are so fixated on one aspect of it, that they cannot see another. She dove into my past, expecting to find her answers there. By the time she had given up, I was no longer there.”

Jack was a vindictive trickster at heart. He played people for fools, outplayed them with his magic and laughed all the way to the bank. Umbramancy had its strengths, and one of them was making those shots in the literal dark land. ”And then, I teleported directly into her home, stole everything that wasn’t nailed to the ground, and left Shimmer.”

“I like this guy,” Cyrus said as he finally turned the chair the right way around and sat down again.

“What advice would you give a group of individuals who are going to be thrust into fighting for the first time,” Faith asked, “I’ve taught them all I could, Aryin has talked about the fights against the snake, as have Jasper and Aislin, but given your unique perspective I’d like to hear more.”

Jack leaned forward, thinking about the question. ”If you cannot fight directly, then do not. Cut the enemy’s legs out from beneath them, prevent their retreat. Avoid a direct confrontation if it is ideal. Victory is often decided by who has more options… Personally, I play tricks on my enemies.”

“And I turn my enemies into my tricks,” Faith said with a chuckle. “Let’s keep drinking. And I to know some more cheerful stories. Come, another round on me and let’s get to know each other more.”

” You should ask him to play some music. Another round,” Aryin laughed as she took a healthy drink to finish off yet another rum drink and got a healthy cheers in support from everyone else.

---

Three hours later

Jack had built the Eleventh Path with Kenshiro to be a place of safety. It was warmth, in a world where everything was cold. When his Lux flowed through for the first time, it was given out of love for those who were still on the Earth. He hoped, with a bit of effort and time, that it’d be a crossroads to bring back everyone who needed solace.

And now, all he could feel was loss.

He and Aryin had gone back, after a few more drinks, and now he was splayed across the couch in his room of the building. He stared up at the ceiling with his old, dusty guitar from better days in hand, as his hands recalled a song that Reza always loved. He felt empty, despite everything he had done in so little time.

At least she was here with him.

Aryin was holding strong. Despite the copious amounts of alcohol, despite the foolish decision to challenge Leon to a fight, despite getting the confirmation that the fight was on, despite a time remembering their lost friends, and despite that clusterfuck of a meeting Aryin was still holding strong. And then Jack started playing that song. Aryin swapped to Aaron and he sighed as he looked over the back of the chair he was draped across

“Was that the one Reza loved,” Aaron asked as tears continued to well in his eyes, “keep playing it.”

”I learned to play it… Just for him,” Jack said, and his voice was small. He kept going, thinking back to everything that had brought them together.

”It was only three months that we were all together. Three months, countless stories of life and death… There are gods in this life who search longer for something so priceless.”

“Three months that felt longer than the decade that followed,” Aaron joked as he wiped a tear from his eye. As the song kept playing Aaron found it harder and harder to stay composed. “I wish I would’ve appreciated the good that was there in those three months because I could really use some of that right now,” Aaron paused as he tried to laugh, “I wish I could’ve actually said goodbye.”

At the mention of a goodbye, Jack stopped playing.

And he laughed. It wasn’t a happy laugh, it was just an empty pantomime of one.

”…Goodbyes are such a cruel thing, wouldn’t you agree? Every time we say our farewells, we admit to ourselves that someone is never coming back.” There was a small crack in his voice.

”I left Shimmer because I believed that there was nothing left of us, did I ever tell you? Did I ever say my goodbyes to everyone who deserved to know whether I’d survive the Void? No. I left, and I never told anyone I’d be back. I have… Aaron, I remember nothing of my life from before the coven. Before that very same day Britney found me in a public library, tucked away reading books about pagan witchcraft,” Jack continued. ”I know nothing of who I was before I came to St. Portwell, or what circumstances introduced me to the paranormal. The- The earliest stages of my life were this coven…”

He craned his head towards Aaron. Long strands of black hair stuck to his face. He had tears dripping down his eyes. ”And even after Reza was killed, I abandoned you all.”

“You didn’t abandon us,” Aaron said to Jack in between sobs, “we should’ve been there for you,” Aaron paused as he matched Jack’s eyes, “I should’ve been there for you,” Aaron chuckled in between sobs, “I knew you were hurting the most near the end, and sure we were all hurting, but I saw that you suffered more than most, you know? But you leaving is not your fault. You were so alone at the end you went to the place you would truly be alone,” Aaron paused as he wiped the tears from his eyes, “It’s ours. Mine. I’m just glad you came back despite it all.”

“Goodbyes are a luxury,” Aaron said as he smiled, “and seeing friends grow old in spite of it is priceless.”

”I could have stayed Aaron. I could have rebuilt the coven with you, with Sloane, Drake- We could have found answers to 8th Street long before they wanted to kill us.” All things that Jack dwelled on for a decade, walking through the darkness before existence.

”There was nothing left of the Sycamore. I did nothing. Nothing. I surrendered, left you all to fend for yourselves. My own family.” Jack wiped the tears from his face with a hand. ”I… You were all the world to me. Every single one of you. I should have done more.”

“Oh Jack,” Aaron said as he stood up and walked across the room and pulled Jack from the couch and into a close hug. “You did the most already.”

He hadn’t been hugged since he was a kid. He let the guitar slide off him and onto the couch, and Jack just leaned into Aaron’s embrace, quietly, and rather drunkenly sobbing into his friend's shoulder.

”It is not enough,” He said. ”Not enough, until we are all safe again.”

“If this father wolf thinks he has a chance,” Aaron paused as he hugged Jack tighter, tears streaming down his face,“he doesn’t know that we’ve seen worse than him. Let’s do our old friends proud and make sure that our coven is safe again.

That was all Jack ever wanted. Everything he did. He did for them. He put his arms around Aaron and held him close, like he would disappear if he didn’t.

”…We will. I swear it.”

Reza would never come back, nor would Saskia, or Kari, or all the rest. But nothing lasted forever. They wouldn’t have to come back. Everyone would be reunited one day, in time.

And for today, that was enough.

[NoriWasHere]

Bianca Manalo

A night to remember..

---

---

Lynn returned from the possible future, eyes returning to normal, and shifted her head just enough to watch Sabrina pull the fire alarm. This was how this meeting would end. This is how this chaos would end. In a chaotic flourish this coven would leave this building and depart. No closer to finding their killer, no closer to finding Kari, and no closer to convincing the coven that her futures were useful. As she feared, but also as she had grown to expect. The only people who took her visions seriously were her close friends and even they did not stand up and voice their support for her. This day sucked. And as the alarm blared Lynn knew that she would need a God tier distraction, a distraction such as copious amounts of alcohol with a friend. Lynn ran through a short list of people she’d want to drink with and eventually she pulled out her phone and sent a single text to one friend in particular, Bianca.

“heyyyy. Meeting turned out to be a shit show per the usual. I need to get my mind off it. Want to grab a couple drinks tonight?”

Why do you do this to yourself, Lynn?

Lynn put her phone in her pocket before she looked around, making sure no one was watching, before she pulled out her trusty flask and downed a full flask worth of whisky. The taste was bitter and rough but she knew that a single drink this early into the night was not a problem. She did not have a problem. This alcohol was the solution to her problem and that was this crazy group of adult size children and the petty nature they carried. Hell, she could probably quit tomorrow if she wanted to if she was no longer around these corruptive fuckers and their stress. She grabbed a pack of gum from her pocket and started chewing on a piece. The wintergreen gum fought hard to fight off the lingering flavor of the whiskey, a battle that would last until Lynn got tired of chewing and spit it out into the trash. She pulled up another number on her phone and shot a text to the waiter from the day before.

“Heyyyyyyy. This is the girl from the restaurant you gave your number to. What’s your name and what are you up to tonight?”

Lynn turned around and found her people and remained on the edge of the group. Not because her breath probably still smelled like whisky, no not at all. She stayed on the edge of the group because tensions were high and she wanted to make sure she respected personal space. Totally.

Totally

And she didn’t feel the urge to drink some more. The warm burning sensation that lingered at the back of her throat and down to her stomach was the closest thing she could experience in her search for the warmth that love brought. She didn’t even consider pulling out the second flask that she always brought with her. Not even a thought crossed her mind as her hand reached into her bag and felt the cold metal that promised relief. Totally.

Totally

Lynn was totally in control. Totally. Now, and forever more.

A response came from Bianca after a short while.

From Bianca: That bad? It’s your lucky day, I’m actually off work - just text me a bar and I’ll meet you there!

Sick. Let’s meet at The Bar first and see where the night takes us. I’ll get an Uber and be there in 20.

Lynn looked at the group and threw on a fake smile. “Well that was a meeting. I’m going to catch up with Bianca, I’ll be home later,” Lynn paused as she flashed a more genuine smile at Jasper and Luca. “Don’t go too crazy without me tonight,” Lynn paused as she pulled up the Uber app and ordered a ride. Thankfully it was not long before the car arrived and Lynn hopped in and headed towards the night. Sadly, however, the driver was once again the same one from her first night.

“Oh hey, it’s you again! How are you Evelynn? Back in town again already,” the man asked which caused Lynn to grab the second flask and down it as well.

---

Lynn arrived and hurried inside. She had forgotten a winter jacket and it was already feeling cold outside. She was greeted at the door by a host who asked how many were in her party. She still hadn’t gotten a text back from the guy so she simply held up two fingers and was led to a small table close to the large windows at the front of the building. She sat down and looked at the menu and waited for her friend to show up.

”Heyyyyy, fancy seeing you here,” Bianca appeared pretty quickly, only a few minutes after Lynn got seated. She was dressed pretty casually, with an orange checked shirt open over a black bandeau top with wide legged jeans. She patted Lynn on the shoulder in a friendly manner and winked before sliding into the seat opposite her. ”I’m so fucking glad you asked me out - I was stuck helping at my parents shop, as if I get regular days off and just laze around with them. A drink is exactly what I need.”

“It seems we both had fun days today,” Lynn chuckled as she passed Bianca a drink menu, “tell me more about what sucked about your day and I’ll tell you what sucked about mine,” Lynn smirked as she scanned the menu and saw that they had a St. Porter on draft and Lynn quickly made up her mind on what she was going to get. “You hungry at all?”

”Deal,” Bianca laughed as she took her own menu, quickly looking through it and trying to decide whether to start on the beer or go right to the liquor… ”Fuck yes, definitely need some food. I’m no lightweight, but I want to make the most of my night off.”

”Don’t order any fish if you’re squeamish, because fish guts are a big part of why my day sucked,” she grinned, before waving over a server. ”I’ll have a Starry Flounder, and my friend will have…”

“A St. Porter draft please,” Lynn said with a smirk as she pulled out a food menu and passed one to Bianca as well.

“All right, I’ll let y’all look over that there food menu and I’ll be back right in a jiffy,” the water said with a smile.

“Only day off and your family kept you busy, eh?”

”Yup, as is the way,” Bianca rolled her eyes, leaning her chin on her hand. ”Fishing just doesn’t stop, and while my dad’s out the rest of the family’s selling it. The amount of fish I had to gut to sell today… you wouldn’t believe it. We buy ‘em from other fishermen, make them all nice to sell, then run a stall at the market. Pretty sure it’s ‘cause they’re still resentful I’m not taking over, like I don’t pay their rent. Hell, dad could retire and just do the selling part.”

She shook her head. ”Shit’s rough, and I’ve seen far too many dead fish eyes staring at me today… I’ll be having dreams of it for days. Makes me almost miss some of my more annoyin’ coworkers.”

“Not the pervert I hope,” Lynn grinned as she looked towards the bar and saw the bartender prepping their drinks, “what’s his deal anyway? He doesn’t read as ‘agent material’ like the rest of you. ”

”That’s the one!” Bianca laughed. ”Trevor- he’s a fucking three time trainee agent or something insane like that, but he’s an honest to god tech genius. Shame he’s incompetent in nearly every other way. He’s just weird- but you know what? He totally thinks he’s dating Anya or some shit like that.”

“Honestly I think that works perfectly,” Lynn paused as she smiled, “Please tell Trevor I’m so happy for him and that the future told me marriage is on the way.”

”Oh I will, they’re perfect for each other,” Bianca cackled. ”So, your turn. How bad was the meeting?”

“Where did it start,” Lynn paused as the waiter returned with their drinks, “So it was crazy. First, it was just a complete shit show with the way everyone was talking to each other. There’s so much fucking bad blood and it’s really coming to a head as things keep getting worse. We were just attacked by 8th not long ago and we were rattled. I get that but, I mean, it was too crazy even for that. Then the ghost of Alize showed up and tried to kill a few of us and resulted in a small fight. Then the ghost was apparently claimed by Leon and the temple and they’re going to adjoin the ghost to a fucking kid, well she’s an adult, but she looks and sounds like a kid. All the while Greenwood is pissed, Lila is ready to flip out, Luca got hurt, and then it just abruptly ended. Chaos. From start to finish.”

”That really doesn’t surprise me.” Bianca took a sip of her drink. The whole coven ‘reunion’ was always going to be a shitshow. ”There’s a reason it dissolved before… And I was there till near the end, I saw it all. But fuck, Alizee’s ghost, really? I sure hope she’s not as reckless as Alizee herself… I saw her get shot. It was shit.”

Bianca shook her head. ”Is Luca alright, at least? I always liked the little guy, real shit ghost he got stuck with.” you

“He’s good! He’s got a few ghost friends with him, and he has,” Lynn paused as she leaned in, “Jasper.” Lynn

”Oh?” Bianca leaned in too, lips pulling up into a playful smile. ”Is love in the air in the coven again? Honestly, I see it, they’d be so cute together… almost makes me wish I could be around just to witness it. I need some cuteness in my life.”

“Perhaps.” Lynn smirked as she took a drink, “honestly yeah, they’re one of the cuter pairings right now. Though there’s not too many as far as I can tell, but they’re really cute even If they haven’t actually gone on a date or confessed their feelings.” Lynn rolled her eyes while chuckling. “The cuteness can still be witnessed without coming around the chaos. I’ll have to invite you out next time we all do something.”

”Please do,” Bianca smiled. ”I don’t miss the chaos, but I miss some of the people- honestly, even with the chaos I’d come back, but work, y’know? I’m not allowed to. Conflict of interest. I’m doing my best to do what I can but… yeah. Please invite me, I need to bath in the cuteness and cleanse my daily suffering with it!”

“Oh for sure! We have Lila, Jasper, Luca and myself and we hang out every day with the threat of that father wolf, so there will be plenty of chances for you to be invited into,” Lynn paused as she leaned forward, “If Lila has her wings out promise me you won’t stare. Did you know Lila has wings now? Oh my god Lila has wings now!”

”Shit, seriously? I saw the… claws at the Halloween Festival, but not the wings. Don’t worry,” Bianca held up her hands. ”I’ve seen much weirder in my line of work. One of our agents- a lovely girl, honestly- is more mantis looking than she is human. Wings are nothing… But how the fuck did that happen?”

“Mantis girl right,” Lynn paused as a memory entered her mind, “we were all so worried that Jasper had the hots for a fed at the time. Oh how things change,” Lynn took a deeper drink than before to prep her answer to the final question. “Well….. Lila invited Britney over to discuss this Maiden who started to talk to her. We had a few, a few, drinks and during the sealing……from what Lila told me…. Britney sealed the apparition in her body. We didn’t know at the time so we continued to drink, and maybe summoned a demon. You know, typical girl slumber party things.”

”Hey, what’s wrong with having hots for a fed? Some of us are smokin’!” Bianca laughed, taking a large gulp of her drink before continuing, shaking her head. ”Oh yeah, I remember doing those all the time as a teen- but seriously, what the fuck? I know who I’ll be reporting next time we deal with a demon on the loose! Fuck, poor Lila. If I come across anything to help her I’ll let you know soon as.”

“Some of you, yes,” Lynn playfully winked at Bianca. “I can’t even remember which one it was. It was some giant skeleton that giggled. That’s about all I can remember,” Lynn paused as she sighed, taking another big swig of her drink, “the future is a complicated place for Lila. There are many good, many bad, paths that Sage could go down. It’s too soon to tell but I’m keeping an eye on her,” Lynn paused with a smile, “she’d appreciate the sentiment half the time and wish for the cure the other half. Some days I feel like she likes the maiden, and others she hates the idea of sharing a body.”

”Right, giggling skeleton, I'll keep an eye out,” Bianca laughed, pulling out her phone to note it down. ”That seems to be the case with a lot of adjoined… less the future, I can't see that, but at least the mixed feelings about sharing a body. Some love it, some hate it, but most are a bit in between. Sometimes the help that's needed is more control. At least she's not alone, and there are other Adjoined in the coven…”

Bianca smiled, finishing off her drink and holding it up. ”Another? Should we order food too?”

“She’s been having it rough because The Maiden is like sealed in her body. Not just forcibly adjoined,” Lynn paused as she sighed as she finished off her first drink and smirked, “I don’t plan on getting too drunk tonight so yeah, let’s eat,” Lynn said as she flagged down the waitress.

”Ah, that's worse. Difficult to fix,” Bianca said cryptically to avoid talking about magic around the waitress that came over. ”I’ll have a Cracker pale ale and a double hamburger with fries, thanks.” She grinned at Lynn. ”I also don't plan to get too drunk, I sadly have work tomorrow.”

“And what about you, love?” The waitress turned to Lynn with an overly bright smile.

“How about a Twilight Sparkling Ale? And I’ll take a double cheeseburger with fries as well, light on the sauce,” Lynn said with a smirk. She turned her attention back to Bianca. “What is your day to day like,” Lynn asked inquisitively.

”Filled with a lot of paperwork,” Bianca laughed, rolling her shoulders. ”It’s like a menial office job a lot of the time, except the case files are about the paranormal… till shit hits the fan and we have to go out in the field. There's constant training too, as a team and individually… but that's much better than the paperwork, which is the bane of my existence.”

“I mean that sounds nice. The training, not the paperwork,” Lynn said as she leaned back in her chair, “I would be the worst agent though. I would never get my paperwork done. Before I left my job I had like a hundred cases I was working on and instead of just working through it I quit a week ago. Fuck doing that much paperwork,” Lynn chuckled as she leaned back.

”Oh yeah, the paperwork's the fucking worst,” Bianca shook her head, pausing as the waitress came over with their second drinks. She smiled and raised her new glass. ”Well here's to less paperwork for the both of us. Normally I try to push mine off to Trevor, anyway.” She laughed, and took a long drink. ”How are you doing with the… future telling? Anymore control than before?”

Lynn raised her drink and took a sip of the twilight inspired drink. It wasn’t good but it for sure had a charm to it. “I still suffer from the same issues as before. I’m much better at navigating the uncertainty but at the same time it’s hard to pin down events further away with any accuracy. Present events I’m really good at, however, as there’s less that can influence the outcome and a lot less steps to try and get a reasonable sample size,” Lynn said with a chuckle, “I do wish I could be whomever or whatever cursed my family. Maybe I could get a better deal.”

”Undoubtedly,” Bianca chuckled. ”I don't envy you with magic like that… Hell, really makes me feel lucky to be born an adept, even if specialising in boosting makes me an easy target alone… well, that's what guns are for! But hey, I'm glad you're getting there… if you ever need any help with that shit, give me a call. I'm a lot more knowledgeable than I was ten years ago.”

“I never envied your power but I gave envied adepts. I think life would have been much easier if I could control plants or something,” Lynn chuckled, “I will take you up on that, the more help the better,” Lynn chuckled.

”We have a lot of flexibility… even if it has to match our personality a bit. I could never be like Leon, using my Orange Lux to punch apparitions,” Bianca shrugged with a rueful grin. ”Good, I'm always happy to help… but enough with this serious talk! We’re here to relax after our shit days! You said about Luca and Jasper making cute eyes at each other… but what other romances are bubbling away at the coven? Or entertaining tensions, I'll take any gossip.”

“I can do that. Linqian and Aryin fucked Leon, Linqian, Greyson, and Britney are a throuple I think, Lila’s long dormant crush on a man has returned but I won’t say who due to a pinky promise, and a shy, timid, bit surprisingly cute waiter gave me his number” Lynn chuckled as she looked at Bianca. She was unsure if the Linqian mention would be bad but fuck Linqian she deserves any flak she gets.

”Fucking hell-” Bianca nearly spit out her drink as Lynn listed off a lot of sexual escapades focusing around her ex. Bianca had no problem with it, since she'd long gotten over Linqian… but wow. ”I knew Linqian had some stamina, but fucking hell- Britney and Edict? Well y'know, I can see it… but tell me more about this waiter. Is it like a crush or just a hopeful hook-up?” Bianca grinned.

“Well he’s like very shy, but cute. Maybe a one night thing, I don’t know yet. I did text him earlier ,” Lynn chuckled. “He practically stumbled trying to get the number to me, and Sloane grabbed it from him thinking it was the bill. I told her beforehand that the waiter would either give me or her his number based on the futures I saw,” Lynn smirked. “I don’t know how I’ll play this but I am open,” Lynn stuck out her tounge as she took another drink.

”Being open is good, just see where it takes you… so long as it ain't a bad place!” Bianca grinned. ”I wish I had anything like that… the one curse of being a lesbian, only ever straight dudes giving me their number. And the last time I tried to go to a strip club it turned into a gun fight! But hey, glad you're getting cute waiter’s numbers… even if it's after suffering Sloane's company .”

“I am bi so I get it. Sloane was not actually the worst. She had a very fair prediction on my futures for Kari. It’s what brought us together the other day,” Lynn paused, “If I see any hot lesbians I’ll send them your way tonight,” Lynn winked as she took another drink.

"Huh, I guess some of the others have matured," Bianca mused, talking a long drink. Hopefully the food would get here soon so she didn't have to watch herself… not that two beers was much at all. "Please do, you have no idea how fucking hard it is! Especially with my job, and then living with my family… literal nightmare, my parents are still tryna set me up with fishermen's sons. I need the stress relief…"

“We could,” Lynn leaned in, “go to that lesbian bar after here.”

Bianca smirked. ”That sounds perfect. I can pick someone up and if that cute waiter doesn't work out, you'll have other options. I ain't been in… fuck, years. No time since I came back here.”

“Who are you picking up,” Lynn smirked as she downed her drink, “anyone I know,” Lynn leaned back as she awaited the answer.

”I wish I knew,” Bianca laughed, also finishing her drink. Thankfully the waitress seemed to be on the way over with their food. ”Any fellow lonely lesbians at the lesbian bar! Do you really think I'd jump back into the coven pit for hookups or dating?”

The waitress silently put down their meals with a smile.

”Thanks, double rum and coke," Bianca said as she did, deciding after two drinks it was time to move past the beer… the food was here to soak it up anyway.

“Fuck no I don’t blame you,” Lynn chuckled. “Make that two double rum and coke ,” Lynn said as she followed the vibe. “We’re going to have so much fun tonight.”

”Oh yeah we are,” Bianca grinned as she dug into her food. ”I don't normally get to drink with people who can keep up with me.”

“I’ll put your liver to the test,” Lynn smirked as she took a fry and bit into it with ravenous intent.

”I’ll hold you to that,” Bianca grinned, grabbing and holding up her third drink when it arrived. ”To a fucking wild night.”

---

Another double rum later, and the two moved on to their next location. The famed lesbian bar of St Portwell, in the arts District.

Pink Pykes.

It was still earlier enough they didn't have to queue in, but late enough it was starting to get busy - busy enough there weren't any free tables, but plenty of standing room.

”Bar first?” Bianca asked Lynn, already feeling much more comfortable surrounded by women.

“Oh this is much better. Yes, yes let’s start testing that liver.”

”So, shots then?” Bianca grinned as she made her way over to the bar. She leaned against it, waiting for the bartender to come over. She looked around the bar, taking in all of the people.

“Tequila?”

”Hell yeah- it's one me,” Bianca grinned as a bartender got to them. ”Six tequila shots, two double rum cokes.”

As she waited for them to be made up, she continued looking around. It was mostly groups of people tonight, no obviously alone women… but that didn't mean that everyone was taken or nobody was looking for a good time. Nobody she recognised either, which was probably a good thing tonight.

”Maybe if we just stand here and look hot someone will come over,” She joked as their shots arrived. She picked up one of the tequila shots and grinned. ”Let's destroy our livers first.”

“Bound to happen, you’re literally the hottest person in here,” Lynn said as she picked up one as well. “To our health?”

”To our health,” Bianca laughed, downing the shot and picking up the next. She quickly went through all three, assuming Lynn would keep up. Then she leaned her back against the bar, looking around. ”Or maybe I should just shoot my shot with someone… Bein' this fucking hot, y'know? Get us some more drinking company too.”

Lynn followed suit and downed three shots of tequila without even thinking of using the salt or lemon provided. “Take a look into the crowd, does anyone catch your fancy?” Lynn paused as she placed a hand on Bianca’s shoulder. “These girls are ready for you, Bianca,” Lynn said as she grabbed her rum and coke and took a sip.

”Let’s see…” Bianca tilted her head towards Lynn, gaze trailing across the various women around the room. She didn't exactly have a ‘type’. Feisty, maybe. No, that wasn't quite true. Then she froze. [color=fa912]”Lynn… There's a man in our woman's paradise. A man.”[/color]

She pointed over to the group of five. Then her finger moved to a shorter, tattoo covered woman. ”She’s fucking fit. Maybe I can forgive them for bringing the guy.”

“She’s hot as fuck,” Lynn said as leaned back on the bar. She squinted at her face. She’d met this girl before, somewhere in this city but the alcohol had started to dull that pesky long term memory aspect of her brain. “You have great taste, Bianca,” Lynn said as she patted Bianca on the shoulder, “how do you think you’ll approach her? That man is very tall.”

”Just watch,” Bianca grinned, bumping her shoulder against Lynn's. ”Well follow me over. Watch by my side.”

With the confidence that came from three shoots, being hot as fuck, and regularly dealing with much worse situations, Bianca made her way over to the group. Namely, Trevor. Nothing could phase her. As she walked pulled her hair back into a ponytail to stop it from falling across her face, and slid her shirt down her arms to give it more of a cool off the shoulder look.

”I couldn't help but notice your tattoos from over there… they're beautiful. As are you,” Bianca began with a playful smile towards the woman in question. ”... really, it was you I noticed first.”

Then she looked at the wider group. ”Can I get you all drinks? Funny looking person you've brought in with you,” she joked, pointing to the man. ”But I guess we don't discriminate round here.”

The woman looked Bianca up and down, before she took a step forward and looked her up and down again. She was dressed in some very short shorts that truly showed off her body, a tube top, and a sleeveless jean jacket. The rest of the group had turned their heads to each other before a silent cheer erupted. Hands were thrown in the air, hugs were given, and this group of artists was ready to take Bianca up on her offer. “You are too kind. How about we take your drinks back to my table so you can see them more closely,” Octavia paused as she looked at Lynn, “Sycamore, good to see you again. I heard you had quite the meeting today,” Octavia paused as she returned her gaze towards Bianca, looking her up and down one final time for good measure. “I’m Octavia, beautiful,” she paused as she used her hand to guide Bianca towards a nearby empty booth that they had reserved, she would let Bianca take the lead if she so wished.

“Octavia Wilde.”

”Bianca Manalo… it's so nice to meet you, Octavia. Suddenly all the shit of a working day seems worth it,” Bianca smiled, completely unperturbed by Octavia's looking, even tilting her head invitingly at one point. After telling the bartender to keep a tab for her with their round of drinks, so they could just order whatever they want, she was quite happy to grab her drink and move towards the booth. She gestured for Lynn to come along with a smile because she was… curious…

”You know each other?” Bianca asked as she sat down, sliding across the booth, looking between Lynn and the artists. Of course, her gaze went to Octavia the most, and she didn't hide her open looking. Though in the better light… ah, 317, if she remembered correctly. Not noted as a threat, thank fuck. ”Those meetings sure are famous, huh?”

Lynn’s mouth dropped at the name and it remained somewhat askew as she followed Bianca’s lead and sat down at the booth, sitting next to a shy looking artist who wore glasses. She looked over to Bianca, over to Octavia, and then back to Bianca before she smirked “Oh we’ve met.”. Lynn looked towards Octavia and raised an eyebrow and Octavia simply looked at Lynn in a way that suggested ‘if you tell her before I do I we’ll kill your and use your skin as art’ and Lynn complied, “I met Octavia briefly back at the 317 before Halloween. She introduced us to an intimidating woman who made our powerpuff costumes.”

“Sycamore meetings have been very famous on the grapevine lately,” Octavia chuckled as she turned her attention towards Bianca, “they’re always so much fun to hear about on the grapevine. Which tattoo caught your attention first?”

“I’m Alex,” Alex said as they waved at Bianca, “you’re a goddess for the drinks.”

“Jordan,” he said as he adjusted his glasses.

“Zeri, hi! I’ve heard so much about Sycamore,” Zeri leaned in, “and his friends who saved the world.”

”Sypha,” they said with an amused glance towards Octavia.

“Summer. Pleasure to meet you, Bianca,” Summer said with a quick wave.

”Nice to meet you all,” Bianca grinned, holding up her drink towards them all. She turned to Lynn with a mock accusatory look. ”Why didn't you tell me you knew someone so hot- wait. Wilde… oh shit.”

“You know my younger brother as well I take it,” Octavia chuckled as she gave Bianca a long, long stare, “you’re not sycamore now, how did you meet him?”

Lynn leaned over to Bianca and smirked. “She scared me when I was a kid. She still scares me today. In that protective kind of way. It’s cute how much she cares for Jasper.”

”Ohhh, well some of us like intimidating,” Bianca said, with a grin and a wink. She then held up her hands, smiling at Octavia. ”Former Sycamore, so I knew Jasper ten years ago. I didn't go back cause of… conflict of interest. But y’know once Sycamore, always Sycamore. The knife fucker certainly doesn't discriminate.”

“I’ve been told,” Octavia cleared her throat, “while I wish there was more I could do to help, we have a former Sycamore of our own and I don't want to lose my brother, we at least try to offer our help where we can. If you ever find out who is killing you, have Jasper give me a call. We’re more than winning to help. But enough talk about that,” Octavia said as she leaned in towards Bianca, “we’re at the start of a legendary pub crawl, how about you two join us. I’m sure we can learn so much about each other.”

”Hopefully I'll be able to call you myself,” Bianca smirked, leaning towards Octavia too. She pushed the work part of her brain to the side, where she'd dissuade anyone here from trying to help. She couldn't just tell people to leave it to the professionals when she knew they had far too much on their plate as it was. ”We’ll definitely join. Lynn and I were just going to bounce bar to bar drinking, so a legendary pub crawl sounds great. Assuming you're good with that, Lynn?”

Bianca shot Lynn a look that was very much a ‘please do this for me.’ Then she looked back at Octavia. ”Getting to know each other… You said you have a Sycamore as one of your own. You're part of one of the group's round town, then? Lemme guess… the cool artsy one.”

“You had a night out recently with Lila. She talks very fondly of that night,” Lynn looked at Bianca and nodded her head, “ I’m in.”

“Ah yes, the night my brother came out to me,” Octavia smiled, “I will expect great, great, things,” Octavia paused as she looked at Bianca, then Bianca’s mouth, then back to Bianca, “out of you….two.”

”Oh, I'll make sure to deliver,” Bianca's lips curved up into a smile, and she leaned further towards Octavia, lowering her voice. ”I never leave anyone unsatisfied.”

She leaned back again, turning her body more to involve everyone. Especially when she was here with Lynn, it was rude to forget that in her pursuit of a really hot woman. ”We’ll drink you all under the table… but Jasper just came out to you? I always thought he was a little, y'know…”

“Oh I knew since he was a kid that he had a limp wrist. He was always way too well dressed to be entirely straight. Bi energy and all,” Octavia sighed as she grabbed a hold of her drink and finished the entire cocktail in one go, “well, we’ll see about that gorgeous.”

”Oh yeah, especially as a teen, all the other guys- aside from our favourite mobster- wore fucking sweats, when they bothered getting dressed at all,” Bianca laughed, before matching Octavia and downing her entire rum and coke. She shrugged off the slight burning sensation like it was nothing. ”You know who he's into then? Lynn was telling me about it earlier… they'll be super cute, honestly, Luca was one of the best of us.”

As she spoke she reached over for a menu, beginning to look through the cocktails.

“Some boy named Luca, right? I don’t really know him well, do you have a photo?”

”Let me see…” Bianca pulled out her phone, going to her photo album and going to one labeled ‘Sycamore’. She slipped through and pulled up a photo of a smaller group. It was a picture taken of a photograph from a disposable camera, if Bianca remembered right it was snapped in the last week before they beat the Snake. For memories, she'd insisted, using the disposable camera she'd snatched from a destroyed shop.

She was there with Linqian, arms wrapped around each other with wide grins. Aryin was next to Linqian, punching her shoulder. Moving along… Saskia looking like she wanted to be anywhere but there, Ella with a smile brighter than anyone's, then a small gap with Olivia beside her. Then a larger one and there was Luca. Younger, healthier, with a bright smile.

”There he is,” Bianca pointed to Luca. ”Well, at fifteen. I took a lotta pictures like this back then, this was a group of us before we went out for the night. Front liners, you could say. Oh, look at this!”

She swiped to another photo, that she wasn't in. It was of members of the traditionally ‘quieter’, nerdier group. Kari, Lynn, Aaron, Ella, Saskia, Lisa, Olivia, Luca… then in the background painting, Jasper too. Luca seemed to be looking at him, mouth half open to say something. Bianca had taken it while they were all sitting watching some anime Ella had forced on them all, the glow of the television lighting them all of

She showed it to Octavia, then Lynn. Her smile was warm, though there was a hint of sadness in her eyes that Lynn would understand. ”Cute, right? I don't have any recent ones. Lynn might?”

“Oh it’s so cute, thank you for sharing that,” Octavia smile matched Bianca’s, “you all carried the burden of saving the world back then. I never fought that monster directly but I did what I could to save as many as I could.” Octavia looked over to Lynn who was pulling up some photos on her phone.

“Here we are at the Halloween festival,” Lynn said as she passed Octavia her phone. “Lila and I were the powerpuff girls, and they were the manly versions of us.”

Octavia looked through her album, pausing on one in particular. It was the one where Luca was practically on Jasper’s lap, head resting on Jasper’s broad shoulders. She looked to Lynn, then to the photo, then back to Lynn and laughed. “So they’re not dating already in this photo?”

Lynn shook her head no.

“And Jasper still doesn’t know if Luca likes him back?”

Lynn shook her head yes.

“My brother is an idiot,” Octavia chuckled as she shared the photo with the rest of the table. Holding up the photo to her artists first, then to Bianca.

“Oh yeah,” Alex said as they were in the process of cleaning their glasses, their eyes squinting as much as they possibly could, “even I can see that.”

“When you have an unforgettable gay night sitting that close to you,” Octavia said as she arched her back ever so, eyes drifting back to Bianca, “you have to take it.”

“Don’t be too hard on Jasper,” Jordan said as he took a drink of his St. Porter, “I mean we all know what happened after that fight. You’ve told us that much Octavia. I think he’ll get there in time.”

“Indeed,” Sypha responded with a smile, “he’s a good man.”

Lynn took her phone back up and pulled up another album. This one said ‘parties at Lucas’ and it was a daily snap shot into their lives together. She passed the phone to Octavia and Octavia raised an eyebrow at what she saw.

“My brother is an idiot. Is this Lila? She looks…different”. The photo in question was one where Lila’s mwings were out and her eyes black.

”She’s dealing with a nasty Apparition, I think… I was shocked too,” Bianca said, leaning in against Octavia to look at the photos Lynn had taken. They were cute, and she was glad to see that little group happy… or as happy as they could be. ”They’re all right, some are slower than others, not everyone knows what they want… even if it's that fucking obvious, holy shit.”

As Bianca said this she stretched her arm on the seat behind Octavia. She turned her towards Lynn. ”Does Luca have… better control over the rot, then? If they're that close.”

“Lila is,” Lynn paused as she contemplated her words. She knew that very little was as murky as what would befall Lila in the future. “Lila is still getting used to being an agent. And no, the rot is still very much present. Octavia and Sypha both saw that,” Lynn smirked at the memory, “ There was a bee and Luca jumped into Jasper’s arms and Jasper got the rot pressed to him.” Lynn paused as she raised a finger, “as long as their party tonight goes as expected he will learn Abjuration spells from Stormy. I imagine he’ll try and help Luca even if it’s not much.”

“How do you know,” Octavia asked as she scooted towards Bianca, a sly smirk filling her face as she leaned in closer to have a more private conversation.

“I checked the future.”

“You can see the future? How many fingers am I holding up,” Alex asked as they held up two fingers in full view of Lynn. Lynn looked at the two fingers, back to Alex, back to the fingers, and back to Alex. Lynn sighed as her eyes flashed green and a projection emanated forth showing Alex revealing that they had two fingers.

“Woah.”

”Pretty cool, right?” Bianca laughed, hand moving forward to curl over Octavia's shoulder. She shook her head. ”If a bee's all it takes for Luca to jump into Jasper’s arms, he's fucking head over heels. And if Jasper's learning spells for him…” Bianca whistled. ”Well, enough about them… tell me, Octavia, what do you do. Magic wise, that is.”

“Oh I can do a lot,” Octavia responded as she placed a hand on Bianca’s shoulder, “I can’t show you in here but I can show you once we are on our way to our next spot. Spray Paint Spell Slinging is the name I’ve given to it. I create glyphs and they do cool things, the bigger the better.”

”That sounds incredibly cool, like proper artistic shit? Was never much of an artist myself, but I always love seeing it… and magic like that? Fucking awesome,” Bianca grinned, genuinely interested in that kind of thing. Magic… the variety of it, what Adepts decided to learn. She had to understand it to boost it, and she loved understanding it. ”I definitely have to see that… Where's the next planned spot, anyway?”

“The Salty Sailor,” Jordan said with a smirk, “not quite as fun as Le Tournesol was, which was our usual second stop, but it does not have an open mic night. After that last time at Le Tournesol we’re waiting a bit to go back. Still, Salty Sailor is another queer space and the drinks are cheap and the liquor strong.”

”What happened last time? It ain't changed hands or anything, has it? I never got to drink but I swear, the food there ten years ago was the best….place has been there a fucking age,” Bianca shook her head with a smile. Her and Linqian would just chill there all the time, especially in the few months they stayed together after beating the Stygian Snake. ”Salty Sailor's fucking good too, though. Cheap enough to lure in some of the younger fishermen- and women- without em running away at the queerness.”

Bianca grinned, tilting her head towards Octavia. ”Plenty of us from those families are queer anyway.”

“I’d be more surprised if they weren’t,” Sypha chuckled as they sipped at their wine.

“There was a comedian there. He was bad,” Octavia said dully, “it’s usually so much better but we could only stay for a minute. I still have nightmares.” A fake frown fell across her face, a moment before she looked at Bianca with the sides of her eyes. “How about we get some more drinks, and then I show you my magic if you show me yours?”

”I’ll have to make sure you don't have any nightmares tonight, then,” Bianca smiled, hand dropping from Octavia's shoulder to wrap around her waist. ”Deal… we can do it at the same time. I need someone else's magic to even show mine. Booster, yknow?”

She then let go and when to stand up. ”Ill go get another round… what're the orders?”

“St. Porter,” Jordan said as he downed his beer.

“A nice red,” Sypha chimed in.

“Aby IPA,” Summer said with a smile.

“Anything sweet,” Zeri and Alex said together.

“Maybe some sex on a beach,” Octavia grinned.

“Double rum and coke.”

”Oh I'll get you some sex on a beach,” Bianca grinned, with a wink. Then she nudged Lynn. ”I'll need some help carrying all of that, c’mon, friend.”

Bianca headed over to the bar with a slight bounce in her step, flicking her dark hair over her shoulder as she did. She put in all the orders, plus a Naked & Famous cocktail for herself.

”I think this is going pretty well,” Bianca leaned against the bar, smirking at Lynn. ”Any news from your waiter?”

“It is. She’s fucking ready to jump your bones,” Lila playfully tapped Bianca on the arm. Lynn held up her phone showing a picture of the waiter that had just been sent to her. It was clear that the man was either into photography, or just had a photo shoot done, as he looked very good. “He’s asking where we’re going next.” Lynn held up her phone showing a text ready to send that said ‘Salty Sailor meet us there’ and Lynn smirked.

”I’m ready for her to do it,” Bianca grinned, nudging Lynn back. She leaned in to look at the picture, whistling. ”I don't swing that way, but damnnn, he's fine. Good fucking photo. We’re both gonna have a good night.”

The drink orders arrived, and Bianca managed to grab and balance just about half. ”Shall we? Let's get these drinks down then we can go meet your man of the night.”

“And get you back to the woman of yours,” Lynn said as she hit send and grabbed the drinks alongside Bianca. Tonight was going to be magic.

---

“Alright beautiful,” Octavia said with a wink, “you gonna give me a boost?”

Octavia had led the group back to the 317 grounds. It was at an in-between spot between the two bars. Octavia had two spray paint cans, one in each hand, and she used them to paint the first sigil on a wall. It was a large circle, with a few hundred small dots inside.

”Sure thing, babe,” Bianca grinned. ”What do you want? Just the basic strength boosting?”

As she asked she flicked out a hand, nautical rope bracelet lighting up a soft orange. She concentrated on boosting Octavia's abstraction to be much stronger - it was a potent, and refined boost, even after everything she'd drunk. Being tipsy was a much better situation than most that she cast in!

Octavia grinned as she held up her ring, activated the spell, and watched as the sigil seemingly grew in size with the added power. A second later a massive volley of ice spears began to shoot out at an even more impressive speed. They aimed for a section of her building that was also reinforced by a sigil of protection. A second later Octavia activated that sigil, and the side of the building began to glow a dull yellow glow. As soon as it was up the spears impacted the shield, breaking and splintering, and scattering ice chunks in every direction.

Jordan had his jaw down at the increased power displayed here. He looked at Bianca. “Can you do art, and do you want to join a collective?”

“I want her and I’m not even an adept,” Alex said in a dry tone.

“What else can you boost,” Octavia asked with a smirk, “your power is incredible.”

”Sorry, there ain't an artistic bone in my body, and I can't join anyway,” Bianca replied, leaving the last bit cryptic. She really wasn't supposed to talk about her job, even if so many people in the magical world knew about them. ”But I can boost any abstraction - you don't need to be an Adept. I can specialise it a bit more- duration, range, ability to penetrate emotional fields, increased emotional fields, boosting multiple people at once… I'm a specialist, really. Anything that can be boosted I can do it. Support type, if I was in a game. But thanks, it's been a pain in the ass to hone.”

“And I thought your beauty would be the most impressive thing about you. Well, it still is, but this is the second best thing this night has given me,” Octavia paused as she wrapped her hands around Bianca’s waist. “I am curious though, I wonder how strong Jordan would be with that power.”

”Aw, nobody's ever gone for me for my magic,” Bianca joked, hands coming to rest on Octavia's hips. She smiled at her, before tilting her head towards Jordan. ”I can boost him too, if he wants to try it out… anyone that wants it. One night offer only, take it or leave it.”

Jordan looked at Sypha, Sypha looked at Jordan, and the duo looked at Summer. “Where’s your brother?”

“DND night do not disturb on the phone,” Summer said as she laughed.

“Do we have any way to test Jordan’s strength,” Alex asked, “he’s already freakishly strong. How much stronger would he be?”

“Enhance me,” Sypha said as she cut open her palm and pulled out several blood tendrils.

“This will be good,” Octavia joked as she squeezed Bianca’s side.

”Oh, I'm excited,” Bianca grinned, leaning against Octavia as her bracelet glowed again. She boosted both Jordan and Sypha, layering emotional field boosting on top of the normal strength enhancement. ”I’ve boosted your emotional fields too, so you shouldn't knock each other out.”

Jordan, and Sypha both took in a deep breath as the spell effect took hold. They both closed their eyes and exhaled as they did, “Sypha, I haven’t felt this strong since we fought the Sunken King.”

“I was about to say the same thing,” Sypha said as their tendrils began to grow in size. The tips hardened into sharp and durable points. The tendrils began to wrap around each other and turned into a long crimson blade. Jordan, meanwhile focused his power on his strength, his durability, and his speed.

A decorative tumbleweed broke free of its place and was carried by the wind between the two fighters.

A moment later Sypha raised the crimson blade high into the air and brought it crashing down on Jordan, who instantly rushed forth away from the attack. The blade impacted the ground and splattered onto a giant pool of blood. Jordan moved at an incredible speed, but Sypha was not content with letting him have free access to them. The blood tendrils pulled back before they shot back out, easily counting in the hundreds, all aimed for Jordan. To avoid this Jordan jumped over them, fist cocked, and descended towards Sypha. In response. Sypha’s other hand opened up and an equal amount of tendrils shot out and impacted all across Jordan’s body, and forced him to a complete stop. One tendril slowly moved and hit his nose, “boop” escaped Syphas lips and a soft “oww” Jordan before Sypha and Jordan started laughing as the tendrils pulled back, Jordan fell to the ground, and Sypha said “my tendrils infected you, you’re delirious for an hour. I win.”

The rest of the 317 laughed alongside them. Alex , meanwhile, had a dour expression on their face. They wanted bloodshed. Lynn looked at the massive pool of blood and watched as a tendril shot out from Sypha, hit the pool, pulled it all back together before any and all debris was removed before it pulled back. “You remind me of someone,” Lynn said with a fond smile as she remembered a former coven member.

”Me too,” Bianca said softly, looking over at Lynn for a moment, eyes sad. It only lasted a moment.

“I felt so strong. If George was here I might’ve been strong enough to beat him in a fight,” Jordan said with a smirk.

”Well if you ever need to beat his ass, gimme a call, if I'm free I'll come over and boost you,” Bianca laughed, pushing through the somber feeling. ”So long as I get to watch the fight… well, no choice there, I gotta actively boost the whole time.”

“Well I’d need your number, you know, to call you when we’re in trouble,” Octavia smirked as she walked up to Bianca as she wrapped her arms around Bianca’s shoulders.

”Well, that ones easy,” Bianca grinned, one hand coming to rest on Octavia's waist while the other pulled out her phone. She unlocked it and held it up. ”Put yours in and I'll text you straight away. Call me anytime you want, babe.”

“I think we’ll get along well” Octavia paused as she typed in her number, “so you’ll be hearing from me. Ready for the next bar?”

”Mm, I think we’ll get along very well,” Bianca hummed, before nodding. ”Let’s go!”

---

The Salty Sailor. Just like its name suggested it was closer to the port than the arts district, filled with younger fishers and sailors after a working day. But they were mixed with people more like their group, and adult children of the fishing community. It was loud, it was rustic, it was friendly, and most importantly, it was cheap.

Bianca really loved it here. As one of those fishing family queers, it was a place she’d frequented whenever she came home from college… and it hadn’t really changed. Still the same good vibes, and less pretentious from some of the other queer locations of the city.

”So, your man of the night here yet?” Bianca managed to take a moment away from intensively flirting with Octavia to lean over to Lynn with the question as they went into the bar and headed to the bar.

“He should be here,” Lynn said with a smile, “he said he was at the-” Lynn paused as she looked across the bar she was now resting on and locked eyes with him. He had a warm, inviting smile that looked much different than the fake one he wore at work. His button up shirt was only buttoned up so far, and the last three buttons were left unbuttoned. His hair was actually styled, and he had that messy but natural look that worked well for his face shape. He had a simple hair of denim jeans, and black Doc Martens that were laced up all the way. He leaned forward and waved towards Lynn.

“As good as the photo,” Lynn said to Bianca with a smirk.

”Fuck yeah, even I can appreciate that,” Bianca replied, with a laugh. Aesthetically, he was pretty damn good looking, even if Bianca would never swing that way. She patted Lynn on the shoulder. ”Good fucking going… go on, bring him over. I gotta suss him out before I let my friend go home with him.”

Lynn smirked as she walked over to the man. Bianca would watch as Lynn and the man gave each other a hug before she engaged in small talk for a second. A moment later Lila led the man towards Bianca. As he approached it was clear the man exuded golden retriever energy and fully let Lynn take the lead back towards her friend.

“Bianca this is Theo, Theo my good friend Bianca,” Lynn introduced with a smile.

Theo held out a hand towards Bianca and smiled wide.

”Nice to meet you, Theo,” Bianca smiled back, reaching out to shake his hand firmly and with a bit of extra, unnecessary strength. Making sure that he knew, even if she appeared small, she could absolutely kick his ass if necessary. ”I hope you’re alright with joining quite a big, but fun, group for the evening! We’ve already had a fair few too.” She jerked a thumb towards the 317 lot.

“Pleasure,” Theo said as he looked at Bianca’s hand and made a mental note to remain on her good side, “Lynn told me she was out with friends, I always like a crowd. Totally not overwhelmed by them or anything.”

”You’ll get used to them,” Bianca laughed, as if she hadn’t only known them for a couple of hours. ”Look, we’ll do gradual introductions…” She waved at Octavia. ”Hey, Gorgeous, come meet Lynn’s… friend.” She smirked. ”Also, what’re we drinking?”

“Oh my,” Octavia walked over to Bianca and threw her arms around Bianca, “Lynn found herself a stray. I’m Octavia. I’m drinking anything you want me to tonight, beautiful.”

“I’m a beer kinda guy,” Theo joked as he held up a St. Porter.

“You’re lucky I’m a beer kinda gal,”

“Ugh you’re cuteness is boring,” Octavia joked as she hugged Bianca tighter, “I’m Octavia by the way.”

”Well we've moved onto stronger stuff,” Bianca laughed, wrapping her arm around Octavia's waist. ”Let’s go for this place’s special cocktail…”

She reached out with her free hand and tapped the bar, before holding it up. ”Oy, Ben, two Strong n' Salties. But hold the gin, put more rum in instead.”

“Y'think you run the fuckin' place, Bea? 'M chargin' extra for that.” The bartender she'd called over, a tall, muscular and rather rough looking man, leaned over the bar and hit her with a hard stare.

”Guess you like your fish pricey n’ less fresh then? Maybe a couple've bones left in 'em?” Bianca shot back, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, yeah, don' set your ma on me, I'll hold the fuckin' gin.” He pulled out various liquors. As he poured, he looked at the rest of the group. “How ‘bout the rest've ya?”

Theo looked at Lynn and smirked, and Lynn returned the smile. “Aye Aye, Captain.”

“Was that mean?” Ben looked at Bianca in confusion.

”You making fun of us fisher kids?” Bianca asked, reaching out to prod Lynn's shoulder while laughing. ”Whaddya- What do you want to drink? If you wanna go hard, get Strong n' Salties too… beer? Get the home brew if you want strong, cheap and tasting a bit like fish.”

“It was a SpongeBob reference you dork,”” Lila said with a weak tap on the shoulder.

“Oy, it ain' that fishy,” Ben laughed too, pushing forward the two finished cocktails. Vodka, rum, scotch, whiskey all mixed in and topped with a stout beer. Sea salt was lightly sprinkled over the top.

Bianca gestured to one of the glasses, looking at Octavia with a smile. ”It’s good, I swear, but it's gotta kick. You think you can handle it?”

“Strong n' Salties it is.” Lynn waited for the drinks and, once arrived, grabbed them and brought them over to Theo.

“You might as well be drinking water,” Octavia said as she stuck her tongue out at Lynn, she paused as she looked towards Bianca, “I can handle anything you throw my way.” Octavia winked as she grabbed Bianca’s waist and pulled her close.

The rest of the 317 were down the bar around Jordan who was drinking a full pitcher of beer. They were chanting “chug, chug, chug, chug,” as he drank. He finished it in remarkable time add put the pitcher down on the bar and beat on his chest like a drum.

”Good, cause I'll be throwing plenty,” Bianca smirked, leaning against Octavia as she looked along the bar at the chaos the rest of 317 were participating in. ”Fuck, that was pretty good.”

She laughed, and knocked back about half of her cocktail in one. It was a pleasant buzz as the alcohol really started to kick in now. ”Sooo, Theo, what d’you think of Lynn?” she really didn't beat around the bush with it.

“She intimidated me at first,” Theo chuckled as he took a big drink, “she was pulling this weird power move on someone else, she ordered ahead and told me exactly what to bring out and when. Very particular with the details. She’s also very pretty. Pretty and intimidating, and I think that’s a good mix.”

“Sloane,” Lynn said to Bianca with a smirk, “and it wasn’t a power move, guys like you are just blind to what we were doing.”. Lynn tossed out a quick warning to the rest of the group. As far as she could tell Theo was blind to the magical world that enveloped him.

”Fuck, if it was Sloane, you should’ve pulled out the weird power moves,” Bianca laughed - though she knew what Lynn had been doing really. Future reading and all the fun that came with that. She’d assumed the guy wasn’t magic, as she did with most - job instincts - but the confirmation meant she shouldn't have to cover up anyone else talking about it… something she was also used to.

”So long as you keep thinking she’s pretty but don’t forget she’s intimidating, we’re good,” Bianca said, leaning in towards the two of them. ”But! You seem pretty solid, so let’s keep drinking!” She’d already finished her first cocktail, waving at the bar for another. ”We gotta long night ahead of us.”

---

Lynn and Theo were on a mission together and the odds couldn’t be more stacked against them. They had to carry an unbelievable burden alone, a burden that would normally break any who tried to carry it, a burden that was so heavy a single misstep could break they’re precious cargo. Their destination could be seen, far across a treacherous passageway filled with moving obstacles that could send them crashing down to death and ruin.

“You ready,” Lynn turned towards Theo, her eyes bright and seemingly had a twinkle to them. The rest of Lynn’s face showed all too well the burden she bore.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” Theo said as he looked down at Lynn, his eyes also alight.

“Yes you can, deep breath before we enter and hold it until we’re on the other.. other side,” Lynn joked as she took a step closer, “follow my lead,” Lynn smiled a happy smile, “and we’ll get through this, together,” Lynn took another step forward, the two nearly pressing into each other.

“Okay?”

“Okay”

With the confirmation Lynn began to navigate the shifting terrain ahead of them. She would take a step left, forward, right, back, to the left, and back forward. Every other step Lynn’s head shot back to ensure Theo was navigating the labyrinth okay and each time she’d see his smiling face following her. Eventually the two passed through the challenges they faced and emerged victorious into the cheering arms of their group. Lynn held up the drinks in her hand, and Theo followed her lead and did the same. Whatever bar they were in was packed tonight, and the two had just navigated their way from the bar back to the group.

Octavia was the first to emerge to claim her bounty. She grabbed two drinks before she backed herself into Bianca and began to dance on her while handing her a drink. The next was Jordan. His sweater was no longer on his chest. Instead he had a random button up that no one remembered how he acquired, or when, but it did strangely smell of fish. He grabbed two drinks, bringing one to Alex who had acquired the missing sweater and was actually having fun and dancing with the group. Lynn was now out of drinks to pass out, and she took a big drink from her cup.. Zeri and Summer walked up together and grabbed their drinks from Theo, giggling as they did. Their faces are red, but happy. Theo took a drink of his own and laughed.

“Are all nights out like this with your friends,” Theo asked as he took a step towards Lynn.

“If you want to find out I’ll just have to keep texting you to invite you to the next one,” Lynn smirked back as she twisted herself playfully. She looked over to Bianca and Octavia and shouted, “Bianca, treat her well. I want to be invited out again,” Lynn blew a kiss her way.

”You think I'd fumble someone so amazing?” Bianca laughed, words slurred from all the alcohol, winking back at Lynn. She had her drink in one hand, practically downing it, and the other wrapped around Octavia's waist as she danced along with her.

”C’mon, Lynn, have some faith! I ain't ever treated anyone badly. And anyway…” Bianca grinned, face leaning in close to Octavia's. ”I want invited out again too.”

The music suddenly changed, and an absolute banger began to play. It was an emo night party at whatever bar they were at, and it had drawn a crowd. The crowd swelled with excitement and everyone began to dance. Lynn smiled up towards Theo, “can I have this dance?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Theo giggled as Lynn pulled him into the center of the dancing mass.

“They are painfully cute,” Octavia faked a throw up sound before, “how about we give them their space and take off soon? I could show you my place.”

”Disgustingly cute,” Bianca laughed, watching Lynn and Theo disappear… She was confident her friend would be fine. She moved in closer to Octavia, body pressed close and lips moving towards her ear. ”Sounds good to me… I'd offer mine but you'd have to meet the whole family, we'll save that for next time. I can't wait to see yours- especially your bedroom.”

Octavia looked over to Jordan, and saw that Alex was being carried on Jordan’s back, arms wrapped lazily around the front, and Summer leaning on his side, and was too wobbly to walk herself Jordan caught Octavia’s eyes and he simply mouthed a ‘I’ll get them home’ and Octavia nodded in response. “Well then, let’s get to the tour of my place. There’s a lot I want to show you there.” With that Octavia led Bianca out of the bar, Jordan led Summer and Zeri out of the bar to get them home, Sypha emerged from the crowd with a random woman and the two headed for the door. This left Lynn and Theo as the last two of the group left at this crazy night out.

The two danced, talked, drank, and talked some more over the next few hours. The more Lynn learned about Theo the more she realized she liked the man. Not just on a physical level, he was truly nice, sweet, and genuinely made Lynn laugh. And the more she learned about Theo the more she wanted to play this a lot slower. She did not need to rush in as fast as she was used to. Lynn could get to know the man more, and more, and truly see if she could find love. If she rushed in tonight Lynn felt like this would end up like the plethora of men and women she liked. Nothing more than a bright fire of passion that burns out quickly. Lynn was determined to not make that mistake. This time it would be different, this time she would take her time with a guy, this time she would be happy.

“Want to take the party back to my place,” Theo said with a smile that was so inviting.

Lynn simply nodded her head yes, and the two were off.

[Blizz]

Amara was not having a good day today.

She sat in her car, seat leaned back with windows up while her radio blared a song on repeat, loud enough that she couldn’t hear other cars pulling out of the parking lot she had been sitting in for the last hour. She just stared up into empty space while her thoughts left the world. One moment, she was there in the car. The next, Amara felt more like a passenger in her own body, staring down at herself while her foot slipped further out the door.

Why’d it have to be today?”

Amara heard the song cut off and start over, and blinked her way back a little. Her fingers curled up and she could feel the blood stir in them. She needed to distract herself, that would help.

She pulled her phone out and sent a message to all the different group chats that formed to keep the coven from tearing itself apart: I’m bored as shit. What’s everybody doing?”

A few minutes later, Amara received a direct text: I’m at the boardwalk trying to clear my head. You wanna come with?

Sure, why not. On my way,” she replied.

Amara drove off and stepped on the gas.

---

About five minutes later, Amara pulled up to a parking lot and then took a stroll down the side of the boardwalk.

Where r you

Turn your head like ninety-degrees to your left, Adora texted.

She had her hand up from her bench.

Amara turned and saw her there, walking over and falling into a seat on the other end of the bench.

”That was a fuckin’ disaster today, huh.”

Adora put both of her hands on her knees, staring at Amara for a second before saying, ”… Who you tellin’?” Adora laughed, ”It’s like people just want attention when we’re trying to get shit done.”

Adora sighed, ”At some point, I was like ‘Looks like we ain’t getting shit done today’,”

”Yeah, well, we got something done,” She said, rolling her shoulders and leaning forward. ”We just could’ve got a lot more done if people didn’t fuck around. I like fucking around as much as the next person but- I mean, shit. Time and a place, you know?”

Adora pulled a knee up and wrapped her hands around it, ”It’s people saying dumb shit that’s the problem,” Adora shrugged,
”Though, with Lila’s idea, we can quiet the dumbasses. Dunno how it’s going to work on us outcasts though.” Adora shrugged,

”Same way it worked back in the day. Drake had his group, we had ours, the scholarly fuckers had theirs,” she said. ”It worked because it had to. It’ll work now, and it’ll give people more room to take some damn initiative.”

”I hope so. We can’t work like this.” Adora shrugged, ”But, let’s talk about something else. There’s gotta be more to Amara King than the Coven. What are you up to?”

Having my skull hollowed out by a hivemind, not much.

”Nothing. Not these days, anyway. I’m not really doing much of anything that isn’t coven business right now since it’s our lives on the line.”

”Like you don't do anything to decompress?” Adora scoffed with a smile.
”Sounds like you need a hobby because dealing with them twenty-four-seven will make you want to eat a bullet.” Adora laughed.

”Wouldn’t be the first time I ate a bullet,” Amara half-joked. ”I’ll “decompress” when this is done.”

Adora shrugged, before looking out to the ocean for a moment before saying, ”I get that. But it ain't healthy. We’re in deep shit right now but you gotta find something to keep your head above water.”

”See, I know that,” She admitted. ”And if we had some kind of tangible progress we could look at, I might be getting hammered with Sully right now. But we don’t, we’ve barely gotten anything done. I haven’t done shit around here in years, I don’t even remember what there is to do, that isn’t shooting ghosts.”

”To be real, nobody knows what’s going on. Nobody has any real leads. Nobody has any idea. I know Auri is desperately chasing anything tangible, I honestly can’t blame her at this point.” Adora shrugged.

”And until we get our shit together, it is going to stay that way.”

”…Well.”

Amara stared out at the ocean.

”Shit.”

She paused, and thought for a second. ”Wanna get unreasonably drunk or something?”

”Fuck it,” Adora grinned, ”Why not?”

”Fuckin’ good. Know any good places around here that aren’t Sully’s Chalice?”

”No clue,” Adora shrugged,
”I usually drink by myself.”

”Oh. Huh… Wanna grab something from a store that doesn’t suck, then? I don’t live around here.”

“Sure, I’m down. There’s a liquor store a few blocks from here that’s good,” Adora replied, standing up and brushing sand off her jeans, “Could grab some snacks too while we’re at it.”

Adora gestured for Amara to come along before she shoved her hands into her hoodie pockets.

“You know, I wasn’t kidding earlier,” Adora said after a few minutes of silence. “About finding something to keep your head on straight. This whole thing… it’s a grind. Can’t let it wear you down too much, or you’ll end up tearing your hair out. And trust me, you don’t want that.”

Amara shrugged. ”I need ways of doing that more than a lot of people, I get it, trust me. It’s just that right now I think I’d rather have those ways be ones that actually do something for us. Something productive.”

“I hear you sis,” Adora said. “But sometimes, the most productive thing you can do is take a step back. Clear your head. Then maybe you’ll see something you missed.”

She led the way down a few quiet streets until they reached a small, unassuming liquor store. Adora pushed open the door and headed straight for the liquor aisle, grabbing a bottle of Fireball without hesitation. Then some Grey Goose, and grabbed some chips. Before paying for it all and rolling out.

Stepping outside, Adora said, “My place isn’t far from here,” she said, glancing at Amara. “You wanna ride with me or you got your own car?”

---

Following Adora’s car, Amara pulled up to her place, stepping out and locking her car with a beep. She took a look around for a second. This part of town felt familiar, but she hadn’t ever been here.

The front door to Adora’s house opened, as Adora waved for Amara to come inside.

She walked inside. ”So… Back at the meeting you had those clones of yourself. Did Sloane do that?” Amara asked, clearly forgetting how to turn her brain off.

”Yeah, it's her little counterfeit,”
Adora began, ”She let me have it after that whole thing at her apartment. She wants them back though.”

”’Course she does.” Amara closed the door behind her. ”It probably takes a while to make one for something that strong… Unless she cared enough to make multiple.”

”Maybe she did,” Adora shrugged. ”I don't care enough to ask her, to be real.” Adora had the drinks and snacks laid out on her coffee table… Along with several shot glasses and cups. She grabbed the Grey Goose and poured two shots…

… Then gestured to one.

Amara picked it up, and knocked it back without hesitation. ”...Yeah, that fucks.”] She nodded, appreciating the booze already. Good stuff.

Adora took her shot, and shuddered, ”Really put hair on your coochie, don’t it?”

”Yeah, no joke. I could drink half that bottle right now… Fuck,” she exclaimed, helping herself to another shot. ”Let’s get fuckin’ drunk.”

Adora passed her the whole fucking bottle, ”Yes, let’s make it easy for Father Wolf,” Adora smiled, before it went flat, ”Okay that was bad taste.”

”Nah. If anyone did get in here and make a move on one of us…” She paused and inhaled a fifth of the bottle. ”Then I’ve got five dead people on standby 24/7. My phantoms’ll take them out.”

Adora reached for the bottle, as she said, ”Does that ever freak you out- You don't have anything, right?” She said with an awkward smile..

”Any what? Magic? Yeah, they kind of are my magic, I’m Adjoined to all of ‘em. All infinity times infinity of the fuckers.”

”No, I mean diseases,” Adora facepalmed, ”You put your whole mouth on this.”

”...What? Noooo. God, no.” Amara cackled.

”Just making sure!” Adora says, taking a few gulps, nowhere near as much as Amara, and putting the bottle down. ”Where was I? Oh yeah, that ghost thing never creeps you out? I mean it's probably tame compared to what we been through.”

Amara’s face twisted a bit. ”Ehh… You get used to it after the tenth time they drill a hole through the back of your skull to make more room. The Army’s a lot bigger than Shimmer, there’s no point in doing anything about it. They Adjoined to me when I was born so… I’ve had plenty of time to think about it.”

”Wow, that’s scuffed,” Adora flopped down on her sofa, and then slid the bottle of Grey Goose over to Amara, ”... You can have more if you like.”

Amara grabbed a shot glass and sat down. ”Might be scuffed. But, I mean… Ain’t much you can do about it. Not like you can seal it into anything,” she admitted, knocking back the glass.

”I mean have you tried?” Adora asked.

”A lot of me tried. There’s one of me in every universe, and they’re all Adjoined to the Army too. If one of them could seal it, I’d know.”

”... Maybe it's not about sealing, maybe it's about breaking the bond. Like with Luca,” Adora shrugged, ”But don't ask me, I’m talking out my ass.”

Amara shook her head. ”Nah. Thing is, the Army exists in different universes at the same time. Like… A lot of ‘em. Unadjoin me to it, it’s like cutting off a hydra’s head. They just come back and get their claws in me again. I literally wasn’t even walking before they got me.” She fixed herself another shot.

”Wasn’t even tying my fucking shoes before I knew I was gonna be like them one day.”

”Yikes, let’s talk about something else?” Adora asked.

”Yeah, sure. Like, uhhh… What? How’s that new Trinity Ring actually work?”

”Technically the Triplicate Ring,” Adora raised her hand with the extra ring. ”One of Sloane’s creations, basically lets me create two clones I can do whatever with.”

”Huh. Are they any stronger than you? Like the real rings?”

”Ain’t tried it, but they are identical,” Adora said.

”Cool. Cool…” Amara wasn’t really good at this like she used to be.

”Okay, better question. After everyone packed up and went their ways, what happened back here? What’d I miss?” That would, hopefully, be a better conversation than small talk.

”... You’re asking the wrong person,” Adora shrugged. ”I left pretty much immediately after Stiggy was defeated. The only person I had contact with in the Old Coven was Kari… But I blew her off.”

”Yeah, I don’t remember Kari at all. Never met her. I think. I mean St. Portwell. First we save the world, then Nazis come back? Then Emily fucking Reed? What the hell went wrong?”

”I don't even know the answer to that, sis,” Adora shrugged yet again. ”What has the world come to?”

”Hell. Fuck if I know,” Amara said. ”Think I’d rather be back in the PRA shooting ghosts than here, feels like that was a hell of a lot easier. At least then, you knew what the fuck you were fighting.”

Adora was silent.

”... But did you know what you were fighting for?”

”Depends on when you asked,” she admitted. ”Eight years ago? Maybe. Five years ago? Yeah, sure. Year and a half ago? Nah, fuck if I knew anymore. Three my badge right in the director’s face. He can go fuck himself. You climb up enough, you’ll see shit you couldn’t before.”

”Well, if you don't mind me asking…” Adora leaned forward then asked,
”... Like?”

Amara paused for a second, looking off into nothing for a second. ”There was this one time, a whole group of cursed people wanted to make their own little society. Kinda like Leon’s cult, only not a cult. All of ‘em Afflicted, and their lives just sucked because of it.”

Amara took another shot. ”Weren’t even hurting anyone, they just wanted a way to live a life that wasn’t shit, but the curses they had gave them magic, and as a whole they were pretty damn dangerous if you pushed them far enough,” She sighed. Then leaned back against the couch. ”We had to kill ‘em all, because one agent of ours got on their bad side and paid for it. It was just self-defense, but before I knew that, we were told they were “highly dangerous paranormals.” They didn’t even stand a fucking chance against us, most of them didn’t even fight back.” They just ran.”

”Sounds like what they did to us, Adora began, ”But with less death.”

”Something like it. When you’re a big enough deal in the paranormal world that people talk about you, you either learn how to protect yourself or someone snuffs you out. They got away with setting that church on fire because they had guns and we didn’t. That’s it.“

”What you’re saying we should get strapped?” Adora laughed, pulling the bottle to her mouth and siping it.

”That’s exactly what I’m saying. I don’t care how long takes or how hard it is to get all these fucks in a row, most people with magic coming out of their asses aren’t bulletproof. Emily Reed isn’t, and I know Liao isn’t. Seen that myself.”

Adora started laughing, ”... I don’t know! You seen how the meetings went! I don’t think giving the Coven a bunch of guns would end well.”

Adora did a finger gun and ‘looked down the sights’ and said, ”Someone says something outta pocket and then pow!”
”Someone says something outta pocket, and they’re dealing with it like adults,” Amara corrected. ”Because if I put a gun in their hands and they start acting like kids, they’re gonna get the fear of god put in ‘em. Doesn’t even have to be everyone, just the ones who actually get in fights. Drake knows how to shoot already, Linqian’s just close enough to being questionably bulletproof that she could do with a gun…” Amara knocked back a shot.

”We ain’t kids anymore, there’s barely twenty of us left. These fucking dumbasses forgot that quicker than me, and I’m the one with fucking magic dementia.” The alcohol was starting to kick in.

”... Wait, what?” Adora raised an eyebrow.

”You heard me. Magic. Fucking. Dementia. Or magic alzheimers, I don’t fucking know. It’s not like it’s ever been a secret.”

”Talk to me, baby,” Adora said, ”The whole shtick with magic is that there’s a lot of weird shit that comes with it. Are you like losing your mind…?”

”Nah, nah- The Army of One’s fucking- It’s fucked up, right? Billions of years ago, I died alone, you know? Not some other version of me, but me.” Amara got another shot of the Gray Goose.

”What they don’t tell you in Surprise-Magic-Exists-And-You-Never-Knew School is that everything’s a pattern. Constants and shit, there’s other versions of everyone that are all different, but then there’s always that one thing or two that doesn’t change no matter where you go. There’s damn near zero fucking differences between all the mes that are still alive, and every time some bitch named Amara King is born? She’s a fighter, get’s adjoined to a hive mind of dead ghosts of her own damn self, and dies for something she thinks is worth dying for.”

She stared up at the ceiling, all the words just started coming and wouldn’t stop. ”And then- Then they take the mes that die and turn them into more ghosts. They hollow every single one of me out, day after day, every time I lean on ‘em, Adora. They- Fuck…” Amara stopped herself and cracked open the other bottle they hadn’t touched yet, and inhaled a fifth of it. When she sat the bottle back down, her face was a scowl.

”They just… It takes and it takes and takes and takes and takes. That’s what the Army does- It keeps going because war and fighting are all it understands, because when one of me died alone, she got so fucking pissed off at the universe that she was too angry to stay dead. So she found another me and Adjoined to her. Then it just kept going.” And every time I have to use their power, a little tiny piece of me gets taken away and replaced with it.”

Adora leaned forward, as the room went silent.

”... Maybe I should have turned on some music,” Adora broke the silence, before adding, ”That’s heavy. Like. Real deep shit there - actually, have some more to drink.” Adora pointed at the Grey Goose.

”... But, i get it. Thousands of versions of you all dying the same damn way, feeding into this... ghost army? Have you ever thought about not using it? Like, I know you have to sometimes, but maybe... I don’t know; take a step back. Let some of us handle things instead.”

”Look around us, it’s just a bunch of headless chickens so far. And yeah, sure, they’re getting better about it and their heads are coming out their asses,” Amara acknowledged. ”But… Fuck, Adora. Most of ‘em stopped knowing how to protect themselves years ago. I don’t exactly have a choice.”

”... And not a single one of them would give a fuck if you lost yourself protecting them!” Adora shouted, baring her teeth, before sighing and lowing her hands with her eyes closed. ”... What I mean to say is, it’s like with Luca; what good would surviving Father Wolf do if you or he gets killed by your Casper?”

”If I get killed, it gets shut out of Shimmer. The ghosts don’t waste what they’ve got on places where they’ve got nothing. If I just sit on my ass and do nothing, what’s the point of coming back at all?”

Adora facepalmed, ”... Okay, I know you said the other Amaras tried stuff and couldn’t find anything - but there has to be something that can help you. You can’t just cross it off because some MF that’s you - but ain’t you - said so.”

Amara leaned forward. ”You’re not- Look. Look. You can’t just seal the Army, it’s in every world where I’m alive, all at the same time. You unadjoin me to it? It just reaches back in and grabs me again. It’s not just one me that’s tried, y’know? It’s thousands, and thousands, and thousands of me that tried. And I know that because I remember everything they remember. The thing about me having magic dementia is that when they take something, it makes room for more ghosts to fill my head up. I’ve seen shit from other worlds, and I’m dead in them. One of me even tried sealing a god inside her, while trying to push the Army out. Didn’t work.”

”Oooookay, I got that,” Adora said, with a wide and very forced smile on her face as she put her hands together. ”... What I’m saying is that there has to be something that can help with your memory problems. Or SOMETHING that can off-set the side effects. Do you get what I’m saying? Maybe you don’t need to seal The Army; maybe there’s a piece that you’re missing.”

”Like what?” She asked, just a little exasperated. ”I’ve been dealing with this since I was old enough to walk. The PRA knew more about this sort of thing than me, and they had nothing. What are you suggesting?”

Adora shrugged, ”Now, let me just say I’m no magical expert, but there are tons of different weird ass artifacts, right? Maybe there’s something that can help you keep your memory? Maybe someone can make something?”

”I- Shit, I guess? I’ve tried it before. This one smug prick in the PRA gave me this fuckass crown and told me it healed memories. All it did was set my head on fire…” Amara sighed. ”Hell, you know anyone good enough for that?”

”I don’t know but maybe Jack or Britney does,” Adora shrugged.

She leaned back. ”Yeah. Maybe…” She knocked back another shot. ”…Fuck, I normally gotta be a lot more drunk to get into this shit. Sorry.”

”There’s nothing to be sorry over, you have a problem, it’s that simple,” Adora said with a nod of her head.

”Yeah… But we’re supposed to get stupid drunk and we’re just bitching and moaning… You think Greenwood would kick our asses if they saw us like this?”

”They seem cool… they’re probably more inclined to whoop up on Layla if I had to be honest with you,” Adora shrugged.

”Heh… Yeah.” She laughed. ”I bet they got the craziest fucking weed. Lord, I should’ve been Adjoined to a weed apparition instead.”

”You know, they fuck with me; I can hit them up,” Adora leaned back and laughed.

”Fuuuck. That’s what we need. You’re fucking great, thanks.”

Adora smiled.

”... I’m lovely, yeah,” Adora laughed, before she pulled out her phone and called Ruby. ”Good thing I got her number at the flower shop...” Adora mused out loud.

A few moments later, Ruby picked up.

“... WAAAAAAAASSUP!” Ruby loudly shouted through the phone, and Adora rolled her eyes.
”Hey, Rubes, wassup,” Adora began.

“Nah, sis, you gotta say it with style like WASSUP!” Ruby said laughing.

”What are you up to right now?” Adora asked.

“Nothing… me and the crew are about to head to the camp,” Ruby said. “Party off that meeting with the leftover pizza… We gotta get Sully’s ass first.”

”I got you,” Adora said, before putting the phone on speaker. ”You remember Amara, though? Ya’ll met at the Flower Shop Pow-Wow?” Adora gestured towards Amara.

“Yeah?”

”Well, she has a request for you all,” Adora laughed.

”Hey! Greenwood! Which one of you motherfuckers has the good grass?” She asked. ”I’m one step away from being drunk as fuck, who’s in a mood to get drunk as fuck with me?”

“Sis, siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis….” Ruby said, “We got all that good shit… Come party with us.”

Ruby laughed, “I’ll drop the location to Appie here… Be there or be square.”

”You know I’ll be there!” Adora laughed.

”I owe you bitches my fucking life. Thanks.”

“See ya there, babe,” Ruby said with a laugh. “We’ll be expecting you.”

She paused for a moment.

“... Don’t disappoint us.”

Then hung up.

”Well that was unnecessarily dramatic,” Adora said with a shrug.

Amara pointed a finger at the front door, and a phantom appeared out of thin air. ”She’s driving.”

A few moments later, Adora’s phone pinged, and it was the location of the Greenwood party.

”... Whatever you say, champ,” Adora said with a smile.