NoriWasHere

Recollections: The Compendium

The Map of.the Drunken Sailor
| The map will always take you to whatever destination you wish but you need to all yourself if the risk it brings is worth it | "I swear if I see another monster around the next corner I will be so mad." ORIGINS & CREATIONS: | The Map of the Drunken sailor is a powerful tool created centuries ago by pirate adepts. It has the ability to show those who command it any location they desire, and have the ability to lead you to whatever object or person you wish. The map itself will change the topography to match the location, and when you use it to track an object or a person it will give you a dotted line to follow with an X to mark the spot. | TYPE: | Artifact | LOCATION: | Emperor | NOTABLE OWNERS: | Jolly Rodgers, Edward Teach, The Commodore, The Elite| ABSTRACTION-GRANTING: | No. | .............................................................................	The map was originally created by an adept known only as Jolly Rodgers. He used the map to locate merchant ships, hidden treasure, and find powerful artifacts for both himself and his coven of the seas. The map was constantly fought over by other pirates who wished to use it for their own gain When he passed, the map disappeared from record for six hundred years until it came into a pirate known as Edward Teach’s possession. At first, he used it as a navigational aide but soon the allure of riches drove him to use it as Jolly Rodgers did. It was here that the curse of the map revealed itself. When it was created, a curse was placed that caused any who used it besides its creators to face a terrible challenge. Along its marked paths monsters were summoned and in order to progress along the path the wielder would have to defeat the monsters. This claimed the life of Edward and his crew, and it has claimed the life of many foolish souls in the centuries to come. The monsters come in various shapes and sizes, but always seem to have an aquatic element to it. The closer you get the mark on the map the more monsters you’ll have to defeat to progress. Eventually on the final leg of the journey the holder of the map will face the final horde of monsters. This final test will present three monsters, the kraken, the siren, and the hydra.

Recollections: The Compendium

The Mirror On .The Wall
| I can see all, but the question is can you get the answer | "Mirror, mirror on the wall where might find power beyond most if not all?" ORIGINS & CREATIONS: | The Mirror on the Wall is an ancient, powerful artifact that dates back to the annals of history. It is a widely known, if seldom used, artifact that can provide the location of anything, or anyone, at any given moment. It was created during the aftermath of a war long since forgotten, legends state that an all-powerful apparition was sealed within the confines of a mirror and forever trapped. At first, it raged against the walls of its enclosure. Able to project the worlds it once sought to conquer onto the mirror surface but was never able to travel or see them for itself. One might have expected this apparition to go mad and seek revenge. Time is a fickle thing. To a mortal the rest of existence living such a life would drive them mad. To an all seeing apparition, it found a strange joy in the ways it could torment mortal beings. | TYPE: | Sealed Apparition | LOCATION: | Emperor | NOTABLE OWNERS: | The Evil Stepmother, The Slightly Less Evil Stepfather, Elite | ABSTRACTION-GRANTING: | No. | .............................................................................	The Mirror is willing to pass along its knowledge of where this are to any who ask, and to do so it must be asked with the ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall,” words being spoken first. From here, the mirror will know the answer. To get the answer the mirror will ask you three riddles. If you fail any of the riddles the mirror will instead show you your deepest, darkest, fear. It has the ability to penetrate any emotional field, and if you ask the mirror your question it will know how to hurt you. Each riddle will be progressively harder than the last and usually the last riddle will be nearly impossible to answer. The difficulty will also rise and fall depending on the question. If you ask where a missing pet is, you may have three relatively easy questions. Ask the location of a powerful artifact, and be ready to be truly tested. When a person looks into the mirror they will see the apparition sitting, or meandering about inside the mirror. They are a short, pudgy looking creature who have a thousand eyes.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

THE 317

GREENWOOD COVEN

317 MAIN COMPOUND - 317 NEW COMPOUND

Jordan sighed as he finally got food right at closing time. As usual he was adventurous with his food choice as he once again got the same taco order he normally got. It was good, it was easy, but most importantly it was consistent. The 317 had closed a few hours earlier and the only people left inside was a small crew of artists, Octavia, and Faith. Jordan, as always, sat by the door trying to enjoy his dinner in full before the crew went out again tonight. The cold air nipped at his skin, and Jordan simply used his green lux to heat himself up.

Rohan walked past Jordan, holding a taco of his own in a gloved hand. Juno snored in his pocket.

”Long day?”

“Oh yes,” Jordan said as he waved to Juno, “but I enjoyed it. A long day means that this,” Jasper paused as he took a bite from his food, “much more worth it.” He paused as his eyes scanned the area outside the entrance to the 317 for any threat, sudden alliance meetings, or anything that would once again prevent him from finishing his food tonight. “How about you? How was your day?”

”Same as usual. I fixed a few old floorboards today, and regrew some branches on my tree.” Rohan seemed mellow, just like he always was. His eyes were lazily scanning around the outside of the building.

Out past the trees, far behind Jordan, Rohan’s eyes stopped moving, and looked at something in the distance.

There was nothing there.

The light pitter patter of scuffy shoes on the 317's polished floor was the only indicator of an artist finally done with her day, and now up to her usual mischievous antics. With Jordan's eyes focused on the front, she snuck up behind him, wiping the smear of paint on cheek with a sleeve before cupping her fingers are the man's eyes.

”Guess who~!” Aislin chortled, glancing at Rohan with a ‘don't tell him’ look to her face.

Jordan smirked as he allowed the mysterious artists, “oh who could it ever be? You sound much too cheerful to be doom or gloom,” he said in reference to Rien and Alex, “and your hands are far too soft to be Summer. That still leaves way too many people for me to guess Aislin.” Jordan simply took another bite of his second taco. Only one more taco to go. Jordan hoped that he’d finally be able to finish a taco order without anything happening to stop him.

Aislin's voice hitched as she tried to dissuade him. “Nooo, no, no, no. You're far from the truth. Try again!”

“... who are you calling doom or gloom?” Came the voice of one of doom or gloom, silently sneaking up on the small group outside, though not trying anything fun like Aislin was. Rien was hefting a large, work in progress painting under their arm, their face and overalls covered in flecks of paint. They rested it on the wall, folding their arms and looking at Jordan. “Not me, I hope.”

“I’m not calling you doom and gloom,” Jordan paused as his eyes were still covered, “only doom. Alex is gloom.”

“It's actually quite the nice nickname. I'd take your win and run with it, Rien.” Ailsin playfully stuck her tongue out at him, then sighed, admitting defeat and dropping her fingers from Jordan's eyes.

“Fine, you win this time, Jordan. But I'll catch you by surprise yet, I swear.” She said, turning to lean into the space in front of him, a mischievous grin still on her face.

“We have very different definitions of nice, Aislin,” Rien intoned, but they just shrugged. Aislin hid a chuckle behind a hand, just smiling.

Outside the window, a green light came out of the blue felt like. Casting an ominous glow on the environment… And if one noticed, they would have saw a ghostly pirate ship arriving out of a portal. It aimed its cannons at the building, before letting loose a volley of explosive, ghostly, cannon rounds..

Jordan saw the ship arrive and the last bite of his taco fell from his mouth.

Jordan and Aislin were both hurled to the side by Rohan, who had tackled them out of the way of a cannonball. Juno tumbled out of his pocket, and ran for the building.

”Indoors, now!”

Jordan shot up and backpedaled towards the door. What. The. Fuck? He held his position a second later, pushing his magic through his entire body to boost his durability, speed, and power. There was no chance that volley went unnoticed by Faith and Octavia, and he knew they would either come to see what had transpired or put out a call for help once someone told them. Regardless, they were on their own in this fight for now. A fight against a spooky ghost ship. With cannons.

“You heard the man, inside NOW” Jordan shouted as he made sure he was placed in between the ship and his crew.

Aislin was wide-eyed, shooting a grateful look to Rohan before scurrying inside.

The ship unleashed another volley of around twelve explosive cannon balls.

Rohan whirled around and got inside, like a bat out of hell. He didn’t stop and wait for anyone else, or even look over his shoulder. In a moment, he was gone.

Jordan saw the volley hit the building again as he removed his glasses from his face and tossed them to Rien. He knew that the ship was far too high for him to jump up to, and he knew that none of their range species were there, save for Octavia, but knowing her she was going to try and protect the building as much as possible. So he had to do what he could in the meanwhile. Jasper grabbed some of the rubble that had fallen down and, much like a shot put throw, sent the rubble flying upwards at great speed aimed for the ship.

It collided against it, knocking it off balance for just a moment.

---

“What the fuck was that,” Cyrus said as the meeting room shook around him. He was wearing a brown, oversized sweater, over a simple band t-shirt and skinny blue jeans.

Faith and Octavia looked at each other before Faith pulled out her phone and immediately called Ruby. “That sounds like we’re under attack,” Octavia said as she grabbed as many cans of spray paint as she could carry. She had already placed a strong number of her Solid Support glyphs around the 317 but they would not be able to withstand this onslaught that was falling down on them. Faith stumbled as another volley hit the building. “Fuck this,” Octavia said as she dropped several spray paint cans and activated the various Solid Support glyphs, causing a wide swath of the roof and supporting walls to glow a dull yellow. Octavia fell to one knee as parts of her life force was drained in the activation of all the glyphs. It would be returned when the glyphs eventually failed.

Faith meanwhile began to activate all of her created monsters. She gave them all one single command, defend this building. As she did this she placed her phone in between her shoulder and head as she ran into Summer’s Workshop. The phone was still ringing when she emerged with a short sword that radiated magic energy. She handed Cyrus the weapon and looked him dead in the eye. “Defend the halls with this Cyrus, don’t let any past you. You two are on me.”

“Okay, why do they stay down here and I have to go up and fight,” Cyrus asked as he checked the weapon. He’s never been in a fight before but he smirked as his hands gripped the weapon tighter.

“There is only one reason someone would attack us right now,” Faith said as she pointed to the two girls, Monica and Riley, “this is a raid. They’re going to help me defend the vault.”

“Okay,” Cyrus said with a cocky grin, “I’ll try and save some for you. I’ll try.” Cyrus took off up the stairs and emerged into the hallway. He could hear the heavy metal door lock behind him. He pulled out his phone, pushed his Bluetooth earbuds into his ears, and pulled up his playlist. He waiting for the first fucker to appear before they hit pay.

Downstairs, Faith was still pacing the room waiting for Ruby to answer. Octavia was busy calling the rest of the 317 back. Her nose was bleeding from the activation of the glyphs. Octavia had reached Alex already, and Alex was going to portal around and pull people back from their homes. Still, the current ensemble of members would be fighting alone until help arrived.

“... Heeeeey, wasssup! Is it time for the Greenwood-317 orgy, babe?” Ruby answered.

“Ruby, Ruby thank fuck,” Faith paused as the sound of gunfire filled the air, “we’re under attack. We need help.”

At that moment, Aryin and Linqian appeared through a painting. A second later, close at their heels, Summer and Zeri appeared. ”What the fuck is going on,” Aryin asked as she dragged Linqian towards the armory, ”she’s with me,” Aryin shouted as she grabbed a chainsaw off the wall and placed it into Linqian’s hand. Summer meanwhile activated her homunculi defense force. Across the building doors unlocked and opened on their own. Near the front of the building where the fighting was currently taking place ten humanoid homunculi walked out of the door, their armor a pristine white with yellow lines all across their body, and they began to deploy a barricade. Two walked at a slow pace towards either side of the door.

“Undead hordes,” Zeri said, her eyes pure white, allowing her to look through her button cameras, “with guns.”

“Shut the fuck up and defend the building,” Faith shouted, “undead fucking horde with guns attacking us.”

“Shit, wait, under attack b-” Ruby cut herself off before she said, “Greenwood is all over St. Portwell right now. I’m going to coordinate where everyone is and then see if I can teleport there.”

“Hurry.” Faith ended the call as Thomas and Jason emerged from the painting. They looked at Faith before Jason slammed his hand into Thomas and pulled him towards the stairs. The fight would be decided in the coming minutes and hour. Whether or not the 317 still stood depended entirely on who was already here, and who would be arriving soon.

---

Jordan watched as the dull yellow glow covered the building. He sighed in relief, as he chucked another ruined part of the building up towards the spectral ship sailing the night sky. “Rien, you got anything that can touch that?”

“I do,” Rien grimaced. They pulled a medium sized painting out of the front pocket of their overalls, placing it on the ground. Their hand went into the painting, pulling out Panoptes. They then pointed at the ghost ship. “Attack that.”

Pan's many eyes turned on the spectral ship, shooting various psychic beams at it.

“I have Night inside… I can pull him out if we need to, but it might cause more damage,” Rien said to Jordan. “But then we can get up there.”

“Go grab Night,” Jordan said, “this is probably just the start. We need options.” Jordan said as he heaved a wooden table far into the night sky.

From another part of the building, windows started opening. A moment later, streaks of orange shot through the open windows, flying up and hitting the hull of the flying ship. Arrows, lit on fire and launched from a bow that ensured arrows would never drop until they hit their target.

Someone in this building was looking to set the ship on fire, it seemed.

Rien raised an eyebrow, then nodded to Jordan. They pointed at Pan. “Attack the shop, protect him, use telepathy to get in touch.”

They then looked at Jordan. “She'll stay with you. I'll be back soon.” Then they disappeared into the building. Panoptes looked at Jordan with some of her unnatural eyes, continuing a psychic bombardment on the ship.

Its cannons primed again, before letting out another volley of twelve cannon blasts. However, four massive portals opened up in front of the building, hordes of undead men and women poured out of it wielding rifles. Whoever was exposed was fired upon.

“Stay back.” A twisted, feminine voice told Jordan - seeming to come from Panoptes even though she had no mouth. Ethereal arms raised up, precise telekinesis stopped the bullets in the air in the area immediately in front of her and Jordan.

Yellow streaks shot across the scene from the doorway as the homunculi fired from cover.

Jordan looked towards Panoptes and nodded. He boosted his durability to the max as he turned around and grabbed Aislin and carried her inside. Behind Panoptes a mist began to appear, and from it rose Dri. Dri had her trademark ball of fire in her hand and she was ready to use it. A second later she spun the ball of fire before she pressed it upwards send a pillar of fire skyward towards the ship. The pillar of fire would be bright, and light up the night sky for all paranormal to see. Behind the portals that spawned the zombie horde two red slashes quickly appeared in the fabric of reality before they were pulled inwards and Dread shot outwards and charged towards the zombie horde.

”Why the fuck is it always zombies?! Why do these ones have fucking guns?!” A freezing cold foot slammed into a zombie's chest, kicking it out of the way as Linqian pushed her way past the homunculi and outside where the fighting was worse. She definitely wasn't dressed to be outside - in a worn hoodie and leggings, with her hair tied back in a messy bun and, worst of all, she was wearing her glasses. ”What the fuck am I even defending?!”

Then she revved the chainsaw and shoved it in another zombie, red lux channeling into it so the blade was infused with ice. ”Whoa, this is fucking sick.”

A zombie that had aimed its rifle at the back of Linqian’s head was shot to the ground as a flaming arrow went clean through its face. From a window, she could see a man holding a longbow, his face obscured by a mask resembling an antelope. There was a wooden staff slung over his shoulder.

”Unless you’re bulletproof, move!” Rohan shouted, as he lifted up a jar of some strange brown liquid and hurled it at another group of zombies.

Aryin, meanwhile, was dressed in an oversized shirt and sleeping shorts. ”Linqian welcome to the 317! I am,” Aryin shouted as she channeled her energy into her fist before she slammed it into the ground, shattering the asphalt and grass in an expanding cone shape that grew wider as it moved towards the portals. From each crack in the ground, and across the entire earthen surface, red tipped mushrooms sprung up. A field of landmines now greeted the coming zombie horde. ”They just keep coming,” Aryin gasped as she watched a hundred explosions ring out across the battlefield and as legs were blown off bodies. The horde kept advancing. ”Shit we’re about to be overrun. SHIT WE’RE ABOUT TO BE OVERRUN.”

”I’m not bulletproof but I'm not afraid of taking some!” Linqian shouted to the weird man shooting out the window, cleaving through zombies with the chainsaw. ”Fuck- I got your back, bitch!” Linqian ran over to Aryin, destroying a bunch of zombies. She slammed the chainsaw into the ground, sending spiralling ice that caught and froze the zombies getting near them.

More flaming arrows were let loose, taking the zombies out one by one. It might’ve kept some of them off of individuals, but it wasn’t going to give them breathing room for much longer. The zombies trudging through the puddle on the ground got stuck, as their skin and flesh seemed to slowly turn into tree bark. It was something Rohan never told anyone about, but he could do that.

“Get in the building!” Rien reappeared with a massive painting. Panoptes moved back towards them, telekinetically catching any bullets that came their way. They shoved their hand in the painting, grimacing at the amount of effort it took, gold and black magic intertwining as they pulled out their strongest Apparition. A massive, shadowy dragon came out of a painting that shouldn't have housed something so big, roaring. It stomped on all the nearby zombies, not even reacting to the bullets that hit it.

Dri stopped the pillar of fire. A new command was given to get by the mother of monsters. The fog that emanated out from them covered the entire battlefield in a thick blanket. While she could incinerate most of the zombies with her magic, and she even wanted to, the command was to level the playing field. The form of Dri spun upwards to the sky until she was on level with the height of the building. The fire from the pillar of fire finally returned to her hand, reforming the ball. She then sent it out with the fog and a red wave soon washed downwards and then radiated from it. The fog was commanded to react to just the guns of the horde, specifically any clip or magazine, in an attempt to cook off all the weapons she could. She was reaching the upper limit of her magic, but she had enough in the tank to keep this up for several more minutes. Faith hoped that by leveling the playing field she could get help before they were overrun.

As the weapons were destroyed, Rien directed Night to crash through the crowds of zombies, tearing them to pieces. Once he was deep enough in to not catch any allies, he let out an icey cold, shadow breath in an arc in front of him.

More homunculi joined the battle, pushing their barricades closer to the front of the building. Their yellow tracers tore through any target who was unlucky enough to catch it. More were heading towards where the fighting was but others still spread out to secure the rest of the building. Dread, meanwhile, kept dancing across the battle with their supernatural speed, slicing at every target they could reach but also careful to avoid being grabbed.

Aislin, pulled back again by Jordan, watched in amazement as they went from the frying pan and into the fire. Her wide eyes quickly glanced to Jordan. “There's gotta be someone behind this. Tell me to scale the ship, I'll find whoever is commanding these zombies!”

There was fervor in her eyes, she wouldn't take ‘no’ for an answer.

“Hey, hey, hey we have the dragon out, we’ll find whomever did this and make them pay. I need you to help defend inside in case any get past durability team. Can you do that for me,” Jordan asked as he heard a louder commotion outside. “I’m going to help Aryin and her sleepy looking friend, okay? You stay here and be our second line okay?”

Aislin gave him a pained look, then shrugged, saluting the man. “On it, boss.”

---

On the deck of the ship, Scott Reese stood on the edge as Berlioz approached. He had a lit cigarette in his mouth, as he gave Berlioz the side eye.

“... Burr,” Scott Reese said. “It's chilly up here.”

Berlioz pulled a glock from underneath his cloak, and aimed it at Scott.

“Oh, it’s time for the beast to have his fun?” Scott Reese asked, before raising both of his hands. “If that's what you think is best?”

Berlioz pulled the trigger and the bullet hit Scott Reese square in the chest. Suddenly, his veins began bulging and pumping with a black liquid. He stumbled backwards, and fell off the side of the ship. As he fell, his muscles grew, his skin turned black as massive spikes grew from his arms and his teeth turned razor-sharp. He picked up momentum… Closing his eyes…

He crashed into the ground in front of the building like a meteor and dust and dirt exploded in all directions. Footsteps could be heard in the midst of the chaos… Red eyes pierced through the fog.

Scott Reese stepped forward.

Then leaped forward into the 317 defensive line.

”Scott Reese,” Aryin gasped as he landed. Instantly her mind was folded with the sight of all his victims, all of their bodies, and all the fear she once had as a kid. Her eyes shook and she looked over to Linqian and back to Scott. Instead of that sadness, that fear, she instead only felt rage. Aryin shot forward ready to take the force of Scott head on when she was overtaken by Jordan, whose muscles were pushed to the absolute limit that his body could push without transforming into a manic, rage fueled state himself, and he reached for Scott ready to grapple.

”I thought we killed that bastard!” Linqian shouted, following behind Aryin, trying to find a way in without hurting Jordan.

Scott let himself get grabbed, with both his arms in the air. “... You should have double-tapped.” Scott said before he pounded both of his hands on Jordan.

Jordan took three hits before he pushed Scott into the ground. Each hit felt like the worst he’d ever felt, and his regenerative ability was enough to keep him from breaking, but he had a limit. Jordan did not budge, however, and he kept throwing enhanced punch after enhanced punch into the throat of Scott. Which functionally bounced off.

”Fuck!” Linqian dropped the chainsaw to one hand, the other arm turning into a spiked vine. It extended out and wrapped around one of Scott's wrists, trying to dig in the thorns while stopping him from punching Jordan again… with one hand at least.

”JUST FUCKING DIE,” Aryin shouted as she jumped over Jordan, fist glowing bright, ”Falcon,” Aryin paused as her first collided with the face of Scott, ”PUNCH.”

He just stood there.

Laughing.

He quickly reached to grab Aryin’s arm.

Aryin’s boxing training may have been the only thing that saved her in that moment. While her momentum from the leap still carried her forward, she was able to adjust her body enough to be out of reach long enough before she cleared the danger and landed behind Scott, rolling to a stop. She needed to stay grounded. As long as feet were on the ground she could not be moved back. Jordan meanwhile grabbed the outstretched arm with one hand, and Scott’s shoulder with the other, and used his entire strength to try and pull one from the other. Scott flexed his arm upwards and launched Jordan into the air.

Linqian's vine withdrew, hand turning back to normal and she swiftly sidestepped round to behind Scott Reese. She shoved the magically freezing, incredibly sharp chainsaw into his back. He screamed as it penetrated him, but he dropped his weight and swung a hand outwards towards Linqian. She pulled out the chainsaw, twisting herself so his hand hit her side with a loud crack. Her cold, hardened skin dampened the blow a bit but it was still enough to have her stumbling back towards Aryin. And it hurt like hell.

Aryin swapped forms quickly and charged as much energy as he could. “EVIL SPIRITS BE GONE,” Aaron shouted as he cast out his energy beam, it lasted two seconds before Aryin came back out and she began walking towards Scott.

Jordan, meanwhile, had fallen to the earth some distance away. His durability and healing factor meant he was not hurt. He did feel his rage building and soon it pushed him too far. His body began to expand outwards, his sweater ripping in an instant and the bottom half of jeans soon followed. As he rose to his feet it was clear he had become a monstrous mass of muscles and rage. He roared as he charged at Scott on all fours at a blistering speed, jumping with an outstretched hand towards the legs of Scott.

Scott tanked the hit, before he raised a foot and brought it down on Jordan.

All while the pirate ship unleashed another twelve cannon rounds on the surrounding area. The shadow dragon fighting zombies roared as it was hit by cannon rounds but kept going, others stopped with telekinesis before they could hit any people… keeping the area they were fighting clear.

Aryin moved to the side and was ready to throw a punch towards Scott’s kidneys when she instead took a side strike from the rage filled Jordan. She tossed and tumbled a few seconds before she came to a rest in the middle of the zombie horde. Before she could react all the zombies around her suddenly lifted into the air. A hundred zombies at once were squeezed by an unseen force, spilling the contents of their body to the ground below before they too fell to the ground. She looked over and saw Thomas and Jason emerging from the buildings. Thomas began to use his magic to keep the zombies away from Aryin, lifting and squeezing or throwing them into the next with one hand while the other began to pick up all the rubble around him.. Jason meanwhile put his two fists together, side by side, before pulling them apart. As he did, an intense bright light emerged from his hands and when they parted he had two blades of plasma in each hand. He began to slice and slash at any zombie that came at Thomas. Cyrus came out a second later, a purple energy in his left hand and blade in his right which rested on his shoulder. He placed the purple energy on his chest, twisted, and several ghastly versions of him appeared from alternate realities. The ghastly forms shot out at the zombies charging Thomas, and eventually one readied a strike. Thomas swapped places with the phantom and cut the head off the zombie. Thus began to repeat across the coming horde.

”DEFEND THOMAS,”Aryin shouted as they swapped forms. The hit from Jordan had nearly filled his energy reserves. He channeled his spell for several seconds, forming a blindingly bright ball in between his palms. This would be one of the most powerful spells he’s ever used. He pressed it skyward towards the ship and, with his shout, sent it skyward. The intense Evil Spirits Be Gone impacted the ship with an explosive fury. The zombies who tried to get closer to Aaron suddenly found them peppered with the rubble from the building as Thomas began to try and thin out the crowd as a whole. Aaron used half of his energy with his strike. He then channeled the other half into his hands again.

“HEY YOU PIECE OF SHIT EAT THIS,” he shouted as he launched his Evil Spirits Be Gone at Scott’s head.

”Hey, you fucker, go back to the shadow ass crack you came out of!” Linqian shouted, in sync with Aaron’s blast. She pumped elemental energy into the chainsaw, switching the type she was using, blade spinning with flames. Her own temperature dropped further into subzero, pushing what she could do while still being more durable. She jumped forward, fiery chainsaw slicing towards Scott's torso while her freezing cold foot came up to kick him in the ass.

At the same time Jordan began to push up against the sheer strength of Scott. Enough so that he could get the leg he so desired. Jordan began to squeeze as hard as his strength would allow. He also tried to pull the leg at the same time to try and break it.

All attacks connected… Evil Spirits, the Kick, the Chainsaw, and Jordan’s feeble attempts to break his leg. He was clouded by dust. By the time it settled, he was regenerating from what little damage he took.

“So… Useless!” Scott Reese growled, he raised his hands, and slammed them on the ground so hard it shook the building. He laughed as he pushed off the ground and began running towards the main entrance.

Jordan roared as he pushed himself up and locked eyes on the running form of Scott. His arms swung back, connecting with Linqian on accident with a strong strike, before he lept into the air and wrapped his massive arms around Scott as he crashed to the earth. He dug his feet into the ground, and began to squeeze. Aaron had swapped to Aryin and they began to sprint towards the front door. Their speed boosted by the imminent danger posed to her friends. There was a mound of corpses forming where the three amigos attempted to hold the line. The mound was already three feet high, and was quickly growing with each strike.

Aryin used the strike by Jordan to get in front of Scott. She planted her feet, shot out her hands, and made contact with the chest of Scott Reese. Her feet began to slide backwards, and she pushed back with every ounce of strength she could muster. Her whole body began to glow a dull light from within. She could not let him into the building, she could not let him kill any more of her friends. One of her arms fractured under the stress of holding Scott back, but Aryin used her one hand all the same. At the same time, Thomas began to use his telekinetic powers to try and lift up the hulking Scott Reese.

Linqian was thrown to one side by Jordan’s strike, feeling a rib shatter, but she ignored it- she wasn’t going to fucking fall here. Her body turned colder, ice appearing on the ground beneath her feet, and she used it to slide towards Scott Reese. She grabbed one of his legs, trying to freeze it.

Scott Reese reached the front steps, with Jordan around his waist and Linqian freezing his leg. He grinned before turning around and looking up towards the spectral pirate ship, and roared… The ship unleashed a volley onto him.

Before the shells landed Jason was finally in range and stabbed Scott in both eyes with their plasma blades. He sank them as deep as he could before dragging them downwards and around Aryin. Thomas attempted to create a telekinetic barrier, but it would no doubt be ineffective against the whole barrage.

Linqian shoved the flaming chainsaw upwards, aiming right for Scott Reese’s groin in a hope it might be a weak spot. She twisted her body to be under him as much as possible, secondary explosions crashing against her hardened skin - dampening them, but burning wounds opened up all across her. Exposed areas were entirely burned, shards from the explosion embedding into her skin.

As the shells landed around them the telekinetic shield stopped some but not all. Explosions sent 317 members, homunculi, and even Jordan flying. Cyrus, Jason, and Thomas were all sent flying backwards and through the walls behind them. Jordan was knocked off Scott’s back and was sent flying back into the zombie horde. Aryin still held out strong, but a voice spoke out telepathically to both Aryin and Linqian, “let it through.” Aryin recognized the voice as the newest 317 member Monica, and she instead let herself be carried by an explosive blast back through the same walls as her friends. Linqian had no fucking idea who was talking to her, but she followed Aryin’s lead, letting go of Scott (and the chainsaw in him) as more explosion threw her through the walls.

Without Aryin blocking his way Scott Reese would have free access to the door that led downstairs. A door guarded by a single short haired woman holding a valuable artifact called the Sundered Sky. Upon seeing Scott breaking free she simply ran back behind the door, locked it, and ran downstairs.

Down these stairs the 317 would make their final stand against Scott.

In the distance, the large shadow dragon ate yet another zombie with a loud crunch. Then another. And another. All tasted the same, but all were eaten nonetheless.

Dread, meanwhile, was commanded to portal behind Scott and slow the advance of Zombies and he added to the body pile by a foot of height at a time. Dri continued her effort to rob the zombies of their guns. Jordan’s rage was also directed towards the swarming horde and zombie viscera was sent sky high. Their combined efforts had little effect on the swarm. Suddenly, the walls of the 317 exploded outwards as two giant creatures accelerated through the ruins and began to assist with fighting the horde.

Out of the portal came dozens of tentacles… they burst out, and wrapped their tentacles around the Apparition to pull it in.

---

Scott laughed as he charged down the stairs to the lower floor; the walls and ceiling were ripped to pieces as he continued his brutal charge into the lower floors.

At the bottom of the stairs there was Faith. She had dressed herself in the Robes Of Agatha, a replica of the First Spear, and a replica of Athena’s Helmet. She was incredibly powerful with all of this gear, but the sight of Scott barreling towards her was enough to make her take several steps back into the middle of the floor. In the office on the far side of the room Scott would notice the remaining 317 members retreating to relative safety. If he wanted to get to them, or to the vault, he would need to get through Faith.

When Scott reached the bottom of the stairs, he grinned at Faith as he walked over towards with heavy footsteps. He laughed,

“... We don’t need you. Or the rest of these sub-human fucks. We just need what you got…”

He began as he marched forward.
“... So, are you really going to go down for… what? Some? Old ass rocks and sticks? Some swords?”

“One thing you’ll learn about us artists,” Faith started as a hand reached out from the office, connecting with the ground of the floor. Instantly, the entire floor turned into a portal and Scott would have no option but to fall. “We don’t monologue.” Faith remained where she was as she watched Scott fall down and down, her robes granting her the ability to fly. A moment later the portal was closed. Alex had connected the floor to a portal in Ohio, it was one that was in an old barn in the cornfields outside a town known as Kent. It would take a few minutes for Scott to make his way through the other side. The plan was to trap Scott in the art dimension but the repeated use of their power had taken a toll already. Alex collapsed to the ground, blood coming out of their eyes, ears, and mouth as they gasped for air. Their breathing started to become more labored.

Faith turned around and ran towards the office. Sypha had already shot a few tentacles towards their friend and was in the process of stabilizing them. “Get them out of the danger zone but conserve your strength. Your brother is hulking and we’ll need you to stop him when this is over.”

Faith pointed towards Octavia and motioned for her to follow. “Everyone else grab artifacts and be the final defense here. We’ll slow them down.”

---

Thomas was the first to get up. He groaned as he stood up, his arms peppered with shrapnel and splinters. His head was ringing from the close range explosion, but he could see the zombie horde breaching the building. He quickly channeled his magic, and began to push the horde back to the door, his arms bleeding even more as the force of the magic began to wreak havoc on them. Next, Jason slowly rose to his feet. His hands were extremely burned, and he will be unable to use his plasma blades any more. Instead, he formed a ball of plasma in the air between his two hands before he shot it forward into the approaching horde. Cyrus shot up, but he soon realized that his blade had cut a wound into his thigh. He pulled out his phone, unplugged his ruined earphones, and went to call for the man who saved the world but he was carried away by a zombie before he could hit call.

Aryin was the last one up. Her arm was completely broken, and the misshapen nature of the bone was completely evident. Thankfully, for all four, adrenaline was pumping extra hard so they would be able to fight for a little while longer. Aryin tried to swap forms but soon found that her body refused. She instead walked forward and began to throw punches with her only working arm, exploding heads with the enhanced strength. The horde still pushed through the three. Aryin was standing tall at the front, but Cyrus was forced to retreat to the ruined room behind them, meanwhile Jason and Thomas fell back to each wing of the building respectfully.

”Watch out,” Linqian reappeared from where she'd been thrown a bit further away in time to slam an ice cold foot through a zombie at Aryin's back. Her left arm was completely shattered, a bone sticking through her shoulder. She still took her place beside Aryin to fight.

The horde was relentless. Despite their best efforts the zombies still poured in. Aryin punched, slapped, jabbed, kicked, and shoulder checked zombies. She was aggressive, brutal, and showed no signs of stopping. “Aryin,” Octavia shouted from down the wing by the door to the basement. Thomas was next to her, and the entire floor in front of them was pulled up and was nothing more than a solid slab. On the front facing them was the sigil for Octavia’s spear spell. Aryin knew what was about to happen, and she quickly grabbed Linqian and put herself In between Linqian and the slab.

A moment later ice spears began to shoot from the slab when Octavia activated the glyph. These spears were long, if thin, and shot down the wing at an incredible speed. Zombies were carried with the spears, sometimes several zombies to each one, and flew down the opposite wing. Jason avoided death and destruction by ducking into a room. After a few moments of chaos the spears ended, and Aryin let go of Linqian as she returned to punching the additional zombies. This time Faith stood with them, a shadow hand around her waist at all times.

Without dread stopping their advance at the door, the zombie horde pushed through the confined space as if they were a wave of flesh.

”Will they ever fucking stop?!” Linqian gritted out, the horde of zombies pushing her further away from the rest. She grimaced as she punched and kicked but… fuck, the defence was nice, but the cold wasn't enough. Her ice cold fist went through a zombies face, and she looked over at Aryin, then the 317 members. ”You’re welcome for the amazing shit you're all about to see.” Her temperature shifted, going from cold to burning hot. Her clothes completely burned away, but she stopped at a temperature just before her glasses would go too… because she still needed to see. She shoved her good elbow in a zombie, easily burning through its already rotten flesh.

Octavia stumbled backwards as her life force was drained ever so by the use of her magic. At this moment Octavia’s nose was dripping blood. Her magic would not be enough to stop this horde, at least right now. She knew one person who could boost everyone to fight stronger, the girl from last night. Bianca. Octavia pulled out her phone and called her number, pressing it to her ear. Octavia waited impatiently, hopeful that she would answer quickly.

”Hey babe, what's up? I'm kinda- shut the fuck up, Trevor, or I'll shove my gun up your ass- sorry, you okay?” Bianca answered pretty quickly. There was a lot of background noise, some kind of rattling, and the clear sound of bullets being loaded into a gun. Maybe Bianca making real on her threat.

“Were under attack, do you remember boosting us yesterday? We need that- FUCK,” Octavia shouted as a zombie got too close for comfort, Faith dispatched it with a stab to the head, “fucking zombies, Bianca.”

”Where there was the pillar of fire? Or is there another fucking paranormal fight going on- if it isn’t tell me where… if it is, on the way already. Stay alive, retreat and go on the defensive. I'll be there soon- can't quite estimate, I ain't driving. And don't fucking freak out! If you've been attacked you ain't getting arrested- we're coming to help. I promise.”

”Giant ghost ship in the sky firing down? Yeah that’s,” Octavia paused as she thought about the final words. “why did you bring up not arresting us?”

There was silence on the other end of the line for just a moment, before Bianca seemed to make a decision. The muffled background talking was a bit more obvious while she didn't speak, even though none of the words were clear enough to make out. ”I work for the PRA. That's why I'm still on the phone rather than jumping in my fucking car- part of the response force- _{most of our force}. You can get pissed I didn't tell you last night later- just let me make sure you and your coven are kept safe, okay?”

“If the zombies don’t kill me I’ll do it myself,” Octavia said half joking. How the fuck did she fuck a Fed? “Fuck it, I can’t focus on that right now. Just help us and then we will talk. Fuck, got to go.” Octavia thought she ended the call but she simply put the phone in her pocket, Bianca would be able to hear everything. “Thomas, move the slab flush with the wall,” Octavia shouted and the sound of the slab moving filled the air. Bianca would hear the sound of Thomas crying out in pain, his one hand shattered under the constant use of his magic, before the sound of a spray paint canister being used filled the air.

Octavia activated the glyph, sending her ice wall crashing down the wings, covering the main entrance in a thick wall of ice. She fell to the ground and began to cough up blood. Her wall would buy the defenders a minute to catch their breaths before the horde broke through once again.

As the horde inside was thinned out further, Cyrus once again pulled out his phone and called Jack.

”There’s too fucking many!” Linqian bent over behind Octavia's wall, making sure to stay far enough away to not melt it. Underneath her glowing skin were visible burns all over her body from the rapid shift of temperature. Blood dripped down their good arm from a large gash. She could still keep going, but she was in fucking agony. Sure, they were thinning them out, but they'd die before they got rid of them all.

Mere moments later, darkness fell over those behind the wall. It was as if someone had flooded their trench with smoke, so thick and gloomy that the outside world was nothing more than a faint drone. Even the zombies were blinded, unable to see who they were just hunting down.

A pocket of light opened up around them, mostly due to Linqian’s burning skin. From out of the dark, Jack appeared with a scythe already in hand.

”What would any of you do without me?”

”You’re fucking late!” Linqian twisted her head to look at Jack, not even shocked by his appearance - she was used to it. While her words were harsh, her tone was very much grateful. She managed to grin at him through the pain. ”Ready to beat some pieces of crap just like old times?”

”There are a lot more zombies than old times,” Aryin laughed through the radiating pain of her broken arm.

“God damn Sycamore’s,” Faith couldn’t help but join the laughter. This added variable was one that helped tip the odds in their favor. “If we survive this I want to talk to your leaders.”

”We don't have fucking leaders,” Linqian snorted, straightening back up. ”Tried that, didn't fucking work, you can just talk to us… after we survive. We're going to fucking survive.”

“You unorganized fucks,” Octavia spat out a chuckle as blood dripped from her mouth, “how do you even function.”

”In much the same way we are going to cripple this assault. Through chaos,” Jack said, kicking open a magical door to the 11th Path right in front of everyone huddled together in his dome of darkness. He reached a hand through the haze of purple light, and pulled out two bottles of dark rum.

”I saw the airship before I arrived. In my experience, many things in life can be solved by setting them on fire.”

Cyrus cleared through the remaining zombies in front of them, once again stacking them in a pile three feet high. He was all out of magic at this point but he chuckled. “Anyone got a light.”

”Oh we don't need a fucking light,” Linqian grinned, pointing at Jack with both hands, burning hot fingers directed towards the bottles of rum. ”Light 'em up, Jack, let's fucking destroy them.”

Jack grinned, his scythe and the gloomy cover disappeared. He cracked both of the bottles open and hurled them both at the nearest zombies. The bottles shattered, spilling the highly flammable contents all over them. These creatures were stupid, and had a habit of huddling together. It would only take seconds for the fire to spread…

”Now!”

Linqian took quick steps past the melting ice wall, slamming a fist into the nearest zombie. It instantly caught alright, flames licking her hand and further burning them… but she quite frankly didn't give a fuck. Her whole body was already in agony and covered in burns, what was a little more. It instantly started spreading as she backed away. ”... fuck, won't this burn the building down?!”

“DON’T BURN MY BUILDING DOWN,” Faith shouted as she gasped.

“I mean,” Cyrus paused as he weakly pointed to the various levels of destruction already around them.

“The foundations are strong, as long as they hold we can repair anything Faith,” Octavia groaned as she coughed up more blood.

“I will make whoever is attacking us pay,” Faith groaned as she stabbed another zombie through the head.

In the distance there was a mysterious white light…

”Aw fuck,” Linqian squinted, panting heavily and punching another zombie not quite caught in the fire. ”We fucking dead?”

Of the zombies that had started burning alive, one vanished. So had Jack.

Up in the sky, a faint red glow of fire could be seen appearing on the deck. Jack reappeared.

”While they’re distracted, we can use their own weapons against them,” He said, before Gloomy Stepping off into the horde again, teleporting the occasional zombie that wasn’t burning up onto the deck of the ship. Gunshots rang out, as the zombies tried to fire on him, only to miss as he vanished too quickly.

Mere moments later… smaller portals opened above the group. The flaming zombies that were placed onto the ship were hoisted out through the portal by a tentacle before being thrown back at the 317 defensive line. Then a burst of explosive cannonball fire followed.

Jack teleported back, saw that someone else other than him could make portals- The AUDACITY- and use his Grasp of Nothing spell on the zombies that were sent back.

”That’s what I thought, their portals come from the ship.”

”Well great, but they're still fucking coming,” Linqian rolled her eyes, pointing to the walls that were being pummeled by canonfire, and then punching another zombie. The waves just didn't stop.

Cyrus was carried back by the explosion once again and his entire body bounced off the wall. He tried to stand up but his legs were completely uncontrollable at this point. His vision was blurry, his head in pain, and his coordination gone.

”Keep holding this spot,” Aryin sighed as she knew that the inevitable was coming. They could not hold out much longer.

More cannon blasts came from the ship.

The 317 itself began to crumble more and more under the weight of the explosions. Chunks of the building shattered, falling to the ground both inside and out. As well, the explosive pressure sent concrete spalling raining on the people inside the building. Thomas, using the last bit of magic his good hand could handle, grabbed the biggest chunks and deflected them away from the group. The spalling still peppered the group. Aryin was unbothered by it, but Jason screamed in pain as he took a back full of the shrapnel. Linqian only grimaced, heat saving her from feeling the pain as much as pieces pierced her skin, embedding.

The white light glowed brighter…

”... MAIDEN FLASH!”

Ruby could be heard screaming from the direction of the white light as it transformed into a massive beam of energy that collided with the ship and launched it aside. A gigantic hole pierced through the ship…, and then a monstrous bolt of lightning hit the ship afterward as the ship was launched away.

”Oh thank fuck its the hippies,” Linqian groaned, falling down on one knee. Sure, there were still the zombies, but she was hot enough that most burned as soon as they touched her.

Another white light appeared in the distance as James Carmicheal quickly jetted over with the axe in hand. He landed directly next to Linqian with the axe and grinned, “... Sorry for the wait, cuh!” He laughed. “The main attraction’s gotta show up fashionably late, you know!”

”Too fucking late,” Linqian grunted, gesturing to the barely standing group. She was breathing heavily, and honestly with the state one of her arms was in she really should’ve passed out from the pain. ”Fucking hell… people could’ve died… fuck me…”

“Sorry! We had to gather the whole gang together!” James laughed. “We went fast as we could!”

”Oh fuck you bro, leaving a beautiful girl like Linqian waiting? Is your healer with you,” Aryin asked as she let out the biggest breath of the night. Relief flooded over her as she wanted to hug James all the same.

“Kashmira is… somewhere…” James awkwardly laughed. “I honestly forgot where the lil’ bit went! But she’s with Naomi! That I know.”

The ship rotated somewhat to turn its cannon fire towards the white light, and James laughed.

“... Just what we wanted!” James laughed. “Now, shit, we gotta find Kash and Naomi!”

“James I could kiss you right now,” Faith chuckled as she leaned against the wall.

“Less talk more kill zombies,” Octavia groaned.

”Should I be ready to be wowed by what you have in store,” Aryin asked as she grabbed a stray zombie around the throat, hand glowing, before she squeezed it into a fine paste.

”Better be real fucking impressive,” Linqian grunted, pushing back to her feet to knee a zombie.

“Oh, these guys?” James pointed Shango’s axe at the incoming horde. “These guys are bothering you?” He placed his other hand on the axe.

“... It’s about to get hooooooooooooot!” James shouted before unleashing an inferno of fire directly at the horde of zombies that traveled outwards like an oversized flamethrower. The inferno spun, and the raw heat emanated from the blast was probably enough to give anyone too close a second-degree burn! He laughed as he effortlessly cut through the zombie horde.

---

The monsters struggled against the tentacles. Dri was lucky that she was less solid, and the tentacles passed through her. Dread was busy portaling around, avoiding the grasping tentacles while still slicing through the horde. The more he killed, the bigger he seemed to grow. Jordan was having a gay old time, laughing maniacally as he crushed zombies under fist and foot. Rien was having a less good time, having to command Shadow back over to protect them, as he tore through the horde and fended off tentacles. Panoptes’ psychic blast off the boat had stopped as she moved to the more immediate problem of tentacles.

The next wave of zombies had special undead mixed in… not wielding weapons but glowing with a strange black light with lightning arcs bouncing off them. If attacked or approached, they would explode in kinetic force and leave behind necrotic energy that sapped away at the strength of those nearby.

These ones are dangerous, Panoptes spoke in Rien's mind as she got too close to one of the special undead. She moved a distance away and started hitting as many with psychic beams as she could. Rien grimaced, climbing on top of Night and ordering him to fly up. He started using his ice cold, shadow breath on the zombies.

Rohan descended on the battlefield from above, leaping over the horde like a fucking frog thanks to his mask, and landing by Rien and their minions. He pointed the Ashen Scepter at the zombies and began spraying columns of fire at them, hot enough to cremate a few. Normally, he’d never use this thing, but tonight was just one of those nights.

Jordan watched with an evil grin as the ship was hit by Greenwood’s attack and roared as he tossed a zombie far into the air. A moment later he was caught in the wave of fire. His skin burned, melted off the body, and was replaced by new skin. His eyes slowly drifted towards James and he growled.

Jordan leapt into the air, fists raised high, and descended towards James.

“... JAMES, LOOK UP!” Naomi shouted from the side, with Kashmira right behind her.

“Oh wha- what?!” James shouted as he stopped shooting fire and then shot forward. “Bro! What the fuck?! We on the same side here - even I set you on fire! My bad!”

Jordan did not care, as he descended closer to James he no n both firsts downward in a rage fueled strike. James flew backwards to dodge.

Octavia saw this happening and just went “shit.” She had seen Jordan like this just once before. Octavia knew that he was not Jordan right now. He called his magic Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and right now the monster was out and they needed to find a way to either calm him down, or hold him back long enough for Sypha to have the energy to hit him with the cure.

“He overused his magic, he’s not himself so there’s no sides right now. He’s strong, and his healing factor is fucking insane. Hold him back, I’ll get his sibling,” Faith shouted to Greenwood as she turned around and ran downstairs.

“Don’t worry, I go-” James said as his hand crackled with electricity.

“... James! Zombies!” Naomi sharply shouted as she flew through the air, swinging off an ethereal glowing web. She landed right next to James and pointed towards the horde of zombies. James nodded as he continued immolating them. Naomi stood before Jordan and said, “Hey, big boy! After me!”

“Don’t let him get too far away,” Rien called out from just above their heads, ordering Night to shoot a targeted breath at Jordan. It wouldn’t kill him, it probably wouldn’t even hurt him much, but it should weaken him. They then landed, looking even paler than normal. “I need to find my paintings.”

Jordan’s body was enveloped in the necrotic energy of the blast and he instantly fell to his feet. His body healed through the fire faster than it could be damaged but the necrotic damage sapped at his strength faster than he could replenish it. He fell to one knee, before both, before he had to use both hands to keep himself at least holding up.

A moment later Sypha emerged from the front doorway, walking on her blood tendrils like a bloody Doc Ock. They had a concerned look on their paler than normal face. A moment later all but a few tendrils shot out with and impacted all across Jordan’s body and began to pump him full of the blood born diseases that will break him from the spell. It would take a minute, but he will return to normal. The blood tendrils all collapsed into pools of blood on the ground and so did Sypha. The blood loss from healing Alex away from death, and curing Jordan, had taken its toll and Sypha was going you be out until their healing factor healed then as well.

Faith emerged a moment later. She had a concerned look on her face as she looked at Jordan. He did his best to protect everyone, thankfully he did not cause any more damage than he did. He’d be out long enough to allow the rest to clean up. “Odds have changed in our favor, shall we press the advantage? This had to caught the attention of the PRA.”

”Aw nah I ain’t sticking around for the PRA,” Linqian muttered, looking over at Aryin. ”Those assholes gassed us before, and I threw a bible at one of ‘em… I ain’t risking the arrest.”

“Fucking..” Faith rubbed her temple. “Christ sycamore, priorities. Fucking priorities,” she paused as she pointed at the zombie horde, “unless Greenwood can finish the fight let’s focus.”

”Bro,” Aryin stumbled over to Linqian’s side and whispered into her ear, ”I know a way out of here without us being spotted. Let’s stay until the Feds get here and we’ll leave. Sounds fair?”. Aryin would not be of much help with the rest of the fight but she did not want to show weakness around her friends, and allies. She had to be dependable.

”Alright, fine, so long as we avoid the fucking feds,” Linqian muttered back, slinging her good arm up to lean on Aryin very lightly. Cause she knew her friend was absolutely fucked up, and she was too. But she also refused to back down from the current fight. Louder, she said. ”Alright, we’ll fucking help clear up- also it’s Linqian, not Sycamore!”

“Alright Linqian, I’m Faith,” Faith said as she smiled, “I’ll be sure to grab your number from Aryin

”If the PRA does arrive-“ Jack beheaded a zombie with his scythe, looking like a monster from someone’s nightmare thanks to his Night Terror spell. ”They will behave themselves, or never see the sun again,” he commented, swerving between the zombies with an unsettling amount of speed and cutting them down.

“Hehe, Naomi!” James shouted from over his shoulder, “Tell ‘im about them helicopters we took out!” He grinned.

“Oh, lord, no!” Naomi laughed.

The pirate ship opened fire from where the blast came from, only for most of them to get deflected by a powerful tornado. The ship, however, began to rotate back towards the building…

… A golden beam of energy came from the distance, collided with the pirate ship, and created a massive hole through it. From the other side, a fiery phoenix flew out of nowhere and spewed an inferno of fire onto it as it descended.

It fell through a portal, which quickly shut after the pirate ship fell through. The remaining undead minions sunk into the ground and disappeared.

Maximilian Cornell slowly descended in front of the group, he landed, before looking to the left and right. Then Samson Brown landed right right to him. Maximilian looked at the group, kicking the remains of an undead soldier before he shouted,

“... Is everyone okay?!” He looked around before glancing toward the approaching armored vehicle with blaring sirens. “Does anyone need medical attention?! Our healer is on the way!”

“Do we look okay?” Rien said, as they slid off their apparition and gestured to all of the injured and straight up passed out members of 317. “Loads need medical attention. I hope your healer is good.”

“He’s…” Maximilian facepalmed. “... Sufficient.”

Linqian shuffled backwards, nudging Aryin, eyebrow raised and mouthing, ”out?”

”Out,” Aryin said as she motioned for Linqian to follow. Linqian nodded, following their friend closely to sneak away. ”I don’t want to be a bother, everyone else needs so much more and I don’t want to take away from them.”

”Agreed, we’ll be fine,” Linqian murmured, staying close to Aryin. It was just two PRA members but there’d be more. ”Let’s fuck off…”

“Lots of injuries. One down in the basement, four upstairs. Alex in the basement is in desperate need of healing, but is stable, the rest will be good for a little while longer,” Faith turned around and finally collapsed to the ground. She saw that her life’s work, her legacy, was in a state of ruin. It would take so much work, effort, and time to fix it. “One second,” Faith paused as she commanded the Living Shadow to retrieve Alex from the basement, and the hand around her waist fell to the ground and combined with the shadows around the area. A second later, the shadow returned and rose out of the ground and Alex manifested out of it, falling to the ground. Their face was more red than pale but they were very pale.

After the dust settled, Kashmira immediately went to work, she ran out in the middle of the battlefield and raised her hands, waving them back and fourth as she shouted, “HUDDLE ALL THE INJURED TOGETHER, PLEASE!”

Kashmira quickly put her hands together before closing her eyes and singing a song in Gujarati. Then, a glowing green dome of healing energy extended outwards in a wide radius. It healed slowly, but it could heal several people at once. James and Naomi stood by her.

“Is there anyone still in the buildin-” Maximilian shook his head, “Hold on a second.”

Maximilian took in a deep breath before disappearing in a burst of speed and quickly going through the entire building in the blink of an eye. Maximilian brought Octavia, Thomas, Cyrus, and Jason one by one and placed them in the healing field that Kashmira created.

At this point, the armored vehicle rolled up and came to a stop, the first person out was Cindy Keagan, and she looked around. “Oh my Lord, this place is a warzone…” She quickly pulled out a badge. “... What happened here!?”

“A party,” Rien intoned, from where they were digging through the rubble for their canvas. They were completely unbothered by the badge on show.

“... A party doesn’t involve a section of the city becoming a warzone,” Cindy sharply answered, pushing her glasses up her nose.

“I don’t know where to start,” Faith paused as she stood up and turned around. Faith commanded her monsters to disappear. The Hell Beast and Dread quickly retreated from view in their own portals, and The Slithering Terror simply ran inside. “We were wrapping up a meeting inside when the ship appeared above us and all hell broke loose.”

Bianca jumped out the armoured vehicle pretty close behind Cindy, looking around and letting out a sigh of relief when she spotted Octavia. She then looked at Cindy and pointed to Kashmira. ”Permission to boost their healer as well as Agent Obott, boss?”

“Do it,” Cindy nodded her head.

Faith walked up to Cindy and offered a hand to shake. “I’m Faith, I own the 317.”

Cindy took her hand, and then said, “Senior Agent Keagan of the FBI.”

Bianca nodded, holding her hands out in front of her with a soft orange glow. She began to boost the strength of both Kashmira and Trevor’s abstraction, enough they could definitely heal all the injuries between them. The injured underneath Kashmira’s veil were rapidly healed, while Trevor got to work giving people the healing touch.

Rohan ran over, his Antelope Mask pushed up over his face, Steelfeather slung over his shoulders. He leaned on his scepter and grimaced at all the remains of the fighting. ”I’m getting too old for this…”

“You got enough juice to help me find my canvases, old man?” Rien asked, looking at Rohan with a hint of a smile. “Can’t put my monsters away till I have them.”

“Was that a joke, doom,” Jordan groaned as his muscles began to fade away and his half naked form returned to normal. He still had a very muscular frame visible for all to see.

“Can everyone tell me everything you all saw?” Cindy asked. “Aside from the pirate ship… What other magic was used? Did any of you see any other beligerents? I ask so we can investigate this and get them out of the city if they are going around attacking people.”

“No,” Rien answered, dropping the sarcastic tone to look up and over at Cindy. Them and Jordan were the only ones that were outside the whole time… and he’d been hulking half the time. “Zombies, portals, and tentacles out of portals. Some of the zombies were strangely glowing and sapped strength. Actually, there was this monstrous guy. He had a huge dick which someone burnt off.”

Zeri and Summer emerged from the building and Zeri walked over to Cindy. “I saw a lot. It’s more of what was said. Pirate ship in the sky, zombie horde with guns, tentacles.”

“I think the monster was named Steve? No, no it was Scott. Scott Reese,” Jordan stood up and shook off his own monstrous form completely.

Bianca looked up sharply at Jordan. ”Scott Reese is dead.”

”Scott Reese died a thousand times, and he never stays dead, Bianca.” Jack teleported back to the aftermath of the battlefield, covered in zombie blood. ”I could not find him, he seemed to have escaped, unless he was on the ship when it fell through that portal.”

”Fucking hell, Jack,” Bianca muttered, though she didn’t so much as flinch when he appeared out of nowhere. Work experience, or just used to his sudden appearances back in the day…

“We sent him away,” Faith added, “Alex opened a portal under his feet. He’s in Ohio. It was the furthest we could send that freak with the energy they had left.”

“If he is dead he fights with the energy of someone very much alive,” Jordan sighed, “there was Aryin, Sycamore girl, myself and we couldn’t even slow him down. Even after my strength was pushed to the absolute max. I’m very strong, extremely strong.”

“I used my telekinesis as well,” Thomas groaned as his shattered hands began to heal, “I couldn’t even touch him. I was crushing whole sections of the horde and my magic couldn’t even get a grip on him.”

“Two plasma blades in each eye. Healed right through them,” Jason sighed as the burns and charred flesh retreated from his hands.

”This is bad news,” Bianca said, frowning and looking at her colleagues. ”He was a Herald or some other shit of the Stygian Snake. Presumed dead. Obviously not. Most of the Sycamore Tree coven couldn’t even touch him.”

“That sounds rough, but we have some heavy hitters ourselves,” Cindy said, before reaching into the breast pocket of her suit and pulling out a card. She quickly pulled out a pen and wrote something down, before handing it to Faith, “This is my contact information. It has my phone number, email, and even my fax number. Let me know if something else happens and I can get a team out there to help you all. So now...”

A swarm of ethereal birds, thousands of different types of birds, came from Helena and quickly extended outward as they began picking up the various dead body parts left behind from the undead minions. Along with any other signs of chaos… Maximilian quickly darted around at speeds the eye couldn’t process grabbing chunks of concrete and other heavy objects.

“... We have to clean this mess up.”

“AW THE WORST PART OF THE JOB!” Trevor shouted, throwing his hands up into the air.

”Ah, you don’t have to worry about that, I can just burn them all,” Rohan gestured to his Ashen Scepter. ”You kids already saved us, that’s more than enough.”

“... You all just went through hell and back,” Cindy rolled her eyes at Rohan. “Just… take it easy. We got this.“

“The help is needed all the same. I’m too,” Faith paused as she grabbed the card from Cindy, pulled out her phone, and entered the contact information. “This is my first time dealing with this. Do you help with cover stories? Like how do we explain this,” Faith paused as she gestured across the completely ruined facade of the building, “to the mundane?”

“Yeah,” Octavia said as she rose to her feet. She looked at Bianca with an intense look in her eyes, “you,” Octavia paused as she pointed directly at Bianca. She no longer needed time to process the events of the night. “Explain.”

“We got this,” Cindy said with a smile to Faith. “We can also arrange for your building to be fixed… it’ll just take a lil’ while.”

“Thank you,” Faith said as she walked over to Alex. Alex was on the ground, frog blinking as they looked around at the carnage around them. Faith fell to the ground and gave them a hug. “You did particularly good tonight, Alex.” Faith then walked over to Jordan, Thomas, Jason and Cyrus and gave each a quick hug as she moved down the line. “If you need any help with the designs, or funding, let me know. I need to know everyone’s monthly expenses, I’ll get you paid until we can return to work.”

Bianca laughed awkwardly, holding up her still glowing hands and approaching Octavia. Work be damned… she’d take a lecture or whatever for doing this on duty. She was on duty more often than she was off! ”I’ll explain! There’s not really much to explain… I worked for the ‘FBI’.” She gestured towards the armour vehicle. ”It’s not really something I could bring up on a first date, Octavia… but I’m sorry, honestly, I should’ve said. But I was entirely off duty that night.”

“Oh, and why was that? Why couldn’t you tell me,” Octavia paused as she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and shook her head. “I am feeling some very strong feelings about not being told that. I’m not saying it would’ve made a difference, but you’re a fucking fed! I am a paranormal fucking artist, don’t you think I deserved to know that? I just feel that was information I should have had, you know?”

“... I’ll, um, start cleaning! Let me know if you need anything!” Cindy said as she quickly departed and went to cleaning.

”Yeah… You got this, Octavia.” Rohan turned and walked off towards a zombie that had, by now, been petrified completely into wood.

“Hey wait up Cindy,” Jordan said as he ran over, also ready to get away from the drama, “I don’t remember you commanding this much authority back in Boston.”

“You do deserve to know, absolutely. But it’s confidential- I can’t just tell everyone I meet who I work for. My family barely know, and I wasn’t sure if I’d see you again, but-“ Bianca, without any care for the fact that half of her coworkers were in the area, got down on her knees in front of Octavia. ”I really like your company- and you. I’m so so sorry I didn’t tell you. I fucked up. But I promise, I’m not bad for a fed… most of us aren’t.”

Octavia stared at Bianca for several long seconds, without blinking. “Whatever,” Octavia kicked a hand away from her feet, “whatever, I am going to need a day or two to think this,” she paused as she sighed, “all over. Fuck me, what a fucking day.” Octavia squatted down and wrapped her arms around herself. “This is not what I expected for a second date.”

”Hey, I like to keep things fresh and exciting,” Bianca managed to joke, smiling a bit too brightly for someone who was still in the ‘bad books.’ Octavia had called it a second date, so that was a win. ”I’d try be all romantic and offer you my jacket, but I only got this body armour-” she gestured to the padded chest piece she was wearing. ”Take all the time you need… but even if you decide you don’t want this, I’ll still come running to protect you and your group if shit hits the fan. And not just cause it’s technically my job.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Octavia looked back up to Bianca and smiled. Secretly Octavia had begun to wonder what time Bianca would be done tonight. She could use a bottomless pit of alcohol and where they’d take it. “I’ll let you know regardless.”

Alex walked over to Octavia with a concerned look on their face. They placed a hand on Octavia’s shoulder. “Lady trouble? That’s rough buddy.” Their face was completely coated in blood still, and they shook their head side to side as they looked at Bianca.

Jack looked around for a moment, and realized something.

”Has anyone seen Aryin and Linqian?”

“Who?” Rien asked, having wandered over carrying two large paintings, their apparitions finally put away. “Oh, Aryin’s gone. Dunno about the other one.”

“The one who was using the chainsaw,” Thomas clarified.

“She got to use the chainsaw? I’ve always wanted to use the chainsaw, why did she get to use the chainsaw,” Alex pouted as they crossed their arms.

“You don’t have an abstraction.” The entire 317 said in unison. It was clear that this was a topic of discussion that was discussed many times prior. Alex, instead sulked off. If anyone was paying any attention it would be chest that they were looking for the chainsaw.

Bianca was laughing over Alex’s comment, finally getting up off her knees, looking over at Jack. ”They were here? You know Linqian probably ran off in case I arrested her for the bible incident.”

”She’s injured, and so is Aryin. Where did they go?”

“I dunno,” Rien shrugged, pointing in a random direction. “That way, I think.”

”Hey, don’t worry about them too much, Jack. We seen worse ten years ago, I’m sure. They’ll be fine. Look… I’ll text her.” Bianca said, as if Jack couldn’t do that too. Still she pulled out her phone and shot off a quick text.

---

Aryin and Linqian shot out of the back door of the 317. They had good arm wrapped around each other as they were singing a song, badly, as they tried to match the accent, badly, and to everyone who saw them they would be able to tell that they were injured badly. As they took their first steps out of the building Aryin noticed the upper torso of a zombie that was splattered across the ground. The head, surprisingly, was still completely intact.

”Duuuuuude,” Aryin paused as their eyes remained locked on the zombie's head, ”should we, you know, play some catch?”

”And I would- Fuck yeah,” Linqian interrupted her singing to look at the head, before grinning. ”One armed catch, bitch, first person to drop it loses.”

“And I would walk 500 miles, and I’d walk 500 more. JUST TO BE THE MAN WHO WALKED ONE THOUSAND MILES JUST TO FALL DOWN AT YOUR DOOR,” Aryin and Linqian began to sing together. Their tones were off, the lyrics not quite right, and their Scottish impression terrible. Yet the two seemed overly giddy after the fight. And seemed to not have a care in the world, least about the damages they sustained in the fight.

Back at home, Linqian’s phone buzzed. Their screen alight with a missed text.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

Edict

Oh Lynn.

Oh poor, sad Lynn.

These thoughts flickered across her mind as her eyes shot open and she realized that she had not in fact dreamt the night before. No, she was in Theo’s room. She was on her side which allowed her eyes the ability to scan the room in front of her. It was basic. There was a cheap IKEA dresser against a wall by a pair of doors, one a bathroom and one to a hall no doubt. There was narry any decorations, yet her eyes were able to pick out the string LED lights at danced across the ceiling where it met the walls. These string lights led her vision to an intricate and well set up gaming station. While Lynn did not know computers, the one she saw looked expensive and powerful. More led lights were visible behind the monitor and they cast a faint but present red glow that illuminated the room partially. Lynn looked down to the floor and saw her clothes still there from she took, or rather, had them taken off. She realized she was naked and she had a hand wrapped around her waist. The constant snoring she heard a sign that whomever she was with was still asleep.

Oh Lynn.

Why did I do this again?

Lynn pushed the thoughts away. She knew that she had already ruined whatever chance she had with Theo. That despite how well their first time out together went, she robbed herself of what might’ve been by moving too fast. Her eyes flashed green as she quickly went to the possible future for answers. In the first, she quickly awoke the man and examined his face. Lynn knew it was Theo’s, and his expression was at least friendly in this future. Stupid, stupid, stupid fucking decisions Lynn. In the future, she started to test the best way to get out of bed without waking him. In most cases it was thankfully easy, though in ten percent of these futures no matter what ways she tried she always woke the man and these futures were always awkward and shame filled. Really fucking good call, Lynn. There’s a serial killer on the loose and you went and got drunk and went home with the first guy who showed you interest in St. Portwell. Fan-freaking-tastic as always Lynn. She then used the future to search for the way out. It was a simple two story row house, with a second bedroom down the hall and stairs on the left. In eighty percent of these futures there’s a dog toy placed in a haphazard way that, if stepped on, would alert Theo, his roommate, and Theo’s adorable husky. That was to be avoided. As was the squeaky third, seventh, and fifteenth step down. Lastly, she checked the future to see if she could get dressed in here or if she would need to do it downstairs. In most futures the answer took her down. She then did a final check for any possible issues downstairs and made note of where they kept the dental sticks for their dog just in case he slept on the couch that night.

Great job Lynn.

I’m doing so good on my own.

It’s not like the coven actually needs me.

Lynn’s eyes returned to normal as she quickly found her way out of Theo’s embrace. She grabbed her clothes, her purse, and her shoes and silently opened the door and went down the hall. She sidestepped the squeaky toy and made her way down the stairs, avoiding the third, seventh, and fifteenth step as she did. Once she found herself on the ground floor she quickly got dressed and found her way to the front door and unlocked the first lock gently. A soft boof informed her that the dog did indeed sleep down here last night. With a smile, she walked over to the shelf right next to the door and took off the lid to a jar. She pulled out a treat and walked over to the dog.

“Sit,” Lynn commanded and the dog obeyed, “stay,” Lynn held up her palm as she walked over to the door and unlocked the final lock, she tossed the treat and said “free puppy” as she swung open the door and stepped outside. She took a quick few steps down to the ground from the elevated doorway and looked around. She did not know where she was but the smell suggested she was near the harbor. The road she was on was flanked all across with additional row houses that had their unique charms. She flashed her eyes to the future once more as she checked which path made the most sense. Following the street to the left would take her to an industrial area, and the street to the right a commercial one. Her eyes flicked back to normal as she started walking towards the right, pulling out her phone as she did, and begun heading towards civilization. As she walked, she saw that it was only eight in the morning, and judging by her texts with Lila she had been here since two. Lila was telling her how crazy it was at Lucas, and how much fun they were having and how cool Ken was.

Abandoning my closest friends again, Lynn? Next thing I know I’ll be back in Chicago away from them all.

I really am this covens fuck-up.

“Shut up,” Lynn whispered to her own thoughts as she made her way down the street. As she did, she checked her bags for her things and saw that she still had her flask but a quick jingle revealed its contents did not survive the night out. This meant that she would be sober for a few hours this morning, and this was a few hours too long.

Already wanting another drink?

How did last night end?

“Shut up shut up,” Lynn groaned as she used her phone's GPS to find the closest gas station. While the booze there sucked, she could at least grab a bottle of cheap vodka to drown these thoughts until she got home. She began walking faster. The cold wind of a winter morning stung, especially when Lynn forgot to bring a coat with her the night before.

You would think I would remember at least that?

How do I ever plan to stop father wolf if I can’t stop myself from being this big of a fuck-up?

How do I get sober?

---

Lynn walked through the door that Lila held open for her with a confident step and a warm smile. This was already a good day. She was up early, she would take a shower, and then she’d see what was on the agenda for the day after she got dressed and had a nice meal to start the day.

“We were worried about you,” Lila paused as she yawned. Her wings remained out but they too were a little sluggish this morning. “Where did you even go,” Lila rubbed her eyes as she locked up the door and returned to the couch that was her bed for the night. She curled into a ball like shape as she dragged the blanket back over top.

“Oh you know,” Lynn whispered back, careful to not wake the rest of the sleeping members that resided in Lucas apartment, “I went out to Bianca’s and things got kind of wild,” Lynn paused as she sighed. She happened upon the drunk text she sent Grayson.

“Hey friend, I neeed some help figuring something out with the future. You’re clever, pretty clever, think you could heeelp me out?

She read on and saw that the two had agreed to meet up early in the morning at some cafe down by the harbor district. She grimaced at the realization that her drunken escapade had taken her close to the place she needed to be this morning. Still, she needed a shower and to brush her teeth and she wouldn’t get to do that there. “But I’m back home now. I have to meet up with Greyson, he’s going to help me with the futures. Maybe I’ll get one step closer to figuring this out,” Lynn continued to whisper.

“I’m worried about you Lynn.”

Lynn smirked at the words. Not a single emotion besides pleasant was visible on her face but she could already hear the voice in her head start up again. “I appreciate your concern, but I promise you I’m fine. Rest up, imma take a shower and head out again.”

“Please take it easy with the drinking, okay? I see more than most, remember?”

She’s right.

And I know it.

---

Lynn was at the cafe awaiting edict. She had ordered herself a nice cappuccino and a delicious little treat. For edict, she had ordered the same thing albeit with the stipulation to make it fresh when her company arrived. She had picked this place because this was a relatively known cafe, but also because it was run by an Italian family and they prided themselves on being authentic. Whether or not that was true was another debate all to itself.

Edict knew Cafe Caponetta well enough: The Caponettas weren't connected, but they were always happy to jump into volunteer work every August as the Saint's Festival got closer and closer. He respected their clean business, and that sentiment was shared by his Uncle who made sure the business stayed out of anyone else's grubby criminal hands.

As he entered the place, he stopped at the counter to pay respects: Mrs. Caponetta was pushing seventy, still manning the drip press, and he had a small conversation with her. It seemed he either hadn't seen Lynn, or wasn't concerned about the speed at which he was getting to it.
The old lady made him an espresso then and there, and he sipped the little cup with a big smile on his face. Eventually, there was some head nodding before Edict finally looked back into the cafe.

Seeing Lynn, he nodded his head in acknowledgement before saying his last goodbyes; though not before the old lady gave him the coffee that Lynn had independently ordered him. With his fresh drink, he finally made way to the first meeting of the day.

“Heyyyyy, there she is… Lynny, how the hell are you, Hon?” Edict asked in a very casual way, as if he hadn't seen her just yesterday and heard her make a premonition about a crazed trip to the Pit.
His arms were open wide, as if she may have some sort of impetus to give him physical affection. But he did wait for her queue to sit down instead of standing like an idiot.

“Oh I’m,” terrible, dead inside, regretting all of my decisions to this point. “well I’m well, good to see you again,” Lynn paused as she stood up and gave him a hug, “sit, sit! I see you knew this place well, I didn’t even need the future to guess that. Thank you so much for meeting me today, I really need more help with this future business.”

Edict patted Lynn’s back gently, sitting down across from her and taking a sip of his cappuccino.
“Business?! Lynn! I’m flattered you’d be looking for some kind of business advice during these hard tiiiiimes… That’s great. We love businesses, really; especially local ones. With physical locations. And independent owners.”
He was grinning widely, leaning in slightly in a fairly conspiratorial manner.
tender eyes
“What kind of business are we talking about here, Hon? Legal? Not-so-much?” he questioned, moving his free hand back and forth slightly in a playful manner.

“Grey area of legality. Maybe a future teller business, I could tell people their future and they’d pay me handsomely. Especially those about the future of our coven. I know have seen so many possibilities but I don’t know which one is true. They all seem to run into Kari in some shape or fashion. I figured you might be able to provide some help there,” Lynn said as she exhaled heavily, “maybe figure out the business stuff too. I would be a fantastic small business owner.”

Edict could only laugh at Lynn's sudden willingness to use her abilities on blinds. Back in the day, he'd encouraged just about everyone to develop a “cash spell”: Something they could reliably use to make themselves rich through trickery that the Blinds couldn't possibly pull off. Lynn had always, at least as far as he could remember, held her abilities to a higher standard than “cheap tricks”.

“Well I'm excited to hear you're less precious about using your magic… But you're more worried about our situation, ain't you? These random ass futures you see… You want odds or something? Like I'm a calculator?” he asked, trying to fish out what she actually hoped to achieve with his presence.

“Not quite.”

Lynn paused as she leaned back. “Remind me again, what can you do with your power,” Lynn said as she took a sip of her drink. “If I finally let you in, could you, for example, see what I see?”. Lynn had never let Greyson into her mind. She was always paranoid that he would do something more than she asked. Lynn felt, no, knew that if someone could just see what she saw in the detail that the future actually brought she might have a fighting chance at figuring this out.

Edict gritted his teeth slightly, leaning back in a nervous fashion.
“Oh… Well… Yes. Anything you have memories of, I can find and watch them with more clarity than you can remember them. But I think there should be some concern about just what that means for us… You have to understand that if I see something you didn't, it could theoretically hurt me. Or, worse, you.”

Of course it was theoretical, but he didn't exactly trust White Lux. It had a tendency of making dreams a reality, and for a brain delver like himself, he found that certain entities could attach themselves to memories observed by White Lux methods. It was something like Schrödinger's Landmine.

“Could you see what I see in real time? Like can I walk you through the possible futures?”

“We could induce a Recollection: I’ll get the gist. Or, we can walk through it step by step… You just have to let me in.” he said very gently, taking another sip of his coffee and peering over the rim of the mug with sly eyes.

Lynn did not want to do this. Every fiber of her being told this was as much a mistake as any that came before, that she should run and leave this spot and never look back, never talk about this, and try and find a different way to get help. She has never trusted Greyson, never really liked how he used his power, or trusted that he wouldn’t do more than was asked.

Don’t do it.

Don’t let your guard down.

You will regret this.

Lynn relaxed her emotional field before she took it down completely. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “The gist is not enough, you’ll need you see what I’ve seen.. Lynn opened her eyes and looked at the devilish ones of Greyson, “go on then.” As Lynn looked him in the eye she could’ve sworn she’d seen them like that before. A memory flashed through her mind of a cold winter's morning in Chicago.

“Then just relax, Hon… I’m a straight shooter these days. We’ll take a trip together; I need you to open the connection to your own Lux.”

Edict's hand slipped into his coat like the Devil reaches for a pen. Those gold-rimmed aviators, whose lenses had been replaced hundreds of times, still gleamed and sparkled like they were brand new. The amount of Lux current that passed through them practically ionized the metal, leaving them treated against wear and tear.

It was like every motion he made was a purposeful struggle, time stretching out and away from Lynn as she was forced to wait for the treatment she was already so unsure of. The agonizing waiting, wondering what it would be like. Whether he'd keep his word in the end or not.
She was quite literally letting him in past any kind of defense made to protect her from people like him: The Emotional Field of an Adept was their only line of protection against subtle mind altering magic, or unaccepted physical change, or anything that magic may do to you unwillingly.

While Edict wasn't likely to know a spell meant to rearrange someone's internal organs wholesale, it was entirely possible for Pink Luxers to induce coma or even death. And with very simple spells, should they make it beyond the barrier, one could find their life irreparably changed.

Strangely, his decision to make the moments as long and drawn out as possible was intentional: He wanted to make sure this poor-decision making individual had enough time to process the risks they were practically begging to take. He didn't ever want Lynn going to the Coven to say he tricked her, after all. He was content to hand her as much rope as she wanted, as was the way of a Mafioso.
You hand out the rope: Whether they climb down from the tower, or hang themselves from the window? That was always to be left up to the subject.

There certainly wasn't a tender night several years ago. Definitely one that wasn't tugging at his heart strings, making him think twice about what his actual intentions were at this moment.
You need another woman like you need a hole in the head. Don't be your Father.

As soon as his glasses touched his face, Lynn would be able to feel the enormous wave of Pink wash across the cafe. The feeling of a dozen tendrils wrapped across the back of Lynn's head and neck, cradling her head and keeping it looking straight ahead.

“Last chance to back out. The unknown is scary… I know.”

“You say that like I don’t see the unknown. I suppose I should offer you the same, last chance before you see a lot of it, a lot of death, Lynn responded as she felt a shiver run down her spine, “alright straight shooter, ready for a trip through the possible future, Lynn pulled out her phone pulled open a stopwatch. Lynn could feel his tendrils grip the back of her mind, head, and neck. A weirdly familiar sensation, Lynn thought. A strangely familiar sensation. It was almost as if… Lynn has felt this sensation before. Chicago, it was a really cold winter's night. Lynn started the stopwatch as she flipped to the possible future, and realized that their history may be more complicated than she remembered.

Lynn sighed as she found herself in the possible future. She remained in the same seat she sat in the present, and the stopwatch would still be counting forward, and Edict would still be sitting across from her with his gold aviators on. Her Edict would be a fly on the wall. This edict had a question she needed answered.

“Hold Greyson, don’t use your Lux. I have one quick question for the real you back in the present. Have we ever shared a cold winter's night in Chicago, Lynn paused as she looked at the timer.

Seventeen..

Eighteen..

Nineteen..

Lynn reset the possible future to a new instance. She needed to say that before she started and she couldn’t run the possible future if this possible Edict knew this was the future already. She looked at the stopwatch to show Edict as much as the timer was back to one.. She turned to this new possible Edict and smiled. “On second thought I don’t think I’m ready for this, at least right now, can we do a rain check?

Lynn did not wait for a response. She simply stood up, walked to the door, went outside and sighed. “Welcome to the possible future, Edict, it may look the same but just.. slightly amiss. The sightly green glow is the obvious thing but there are some things that reveal the fiction lurking in the truth,” Lynn paused as she began to walk down the street, “like if you see Linqian come up and hug me, if Lila detransitions, or if Anya is anything but a bitch, those kind of things,” Lynn looked in a window as she paused, “I will take you forward from here. I will show you ten prophecies, and how I get there. Keep an eye out for anything I might miss, okay?”. Lynn continued along the path and began to take Greyson the possible futures in all its pained glory. Greyson would see visions that included his future, if inadvertently. He would watch as Britney, Linqian, and everyone he loved die in some shape or fashion. He would see that St. Portwell was destroyed a few times. He would see The Maiden take flight and a Harpy take her down. After five-hundred or so possible futures visited, which would’ve felt like a full couple days, Lynn was ready to go for five hundred more.

Suddenly, Lynn was ripped from the possible future and brought back to the present. She gasped as she returned as she hit the stop timer on her stopwatch. She looked towards Greyson with a slightly angry expression, “the fuck?”

Greyson was still wiping the blood from his nose as Lynn complained about the stoppage. There was a long moment where he was just staring at her, a bloody napkin in his hand.
”Alright… I… What, wait. I asked you when we started this: Do you think I’m a Goddamn calculator? You think I’m a supercomputer, I can read nine billion things? You’re going to give me a fucking aneurism!” he groaned.
”I don’t even know what you’re looking for, Lynn! You-you… You brought up the Mid-west, you showed me… So much! Do you ever do any sort of organizing?” he barked at her.

Lynn looked at Greyson bloody face, then down to the napkin, back up to face before it rested on the napkin for a moment. Each time she looked up and down more of her anger fell away until all that was left was sorrow and disappointment. “I’m so sorry I had no idea that would happen,” Lynn said truthfully. She had never had a copilot before. Lynn paused as she grabbed her own napkin and offered it to Greyson, “I was trying to find the paths back to the possible future. The last time I went that far forward was back at Kari’s so this was a fresh search from a new location. And my memory of the possible future is the organizing. I can’t take anything out with me so I just have to try and get all the details I can along the way,” Lynn paused as she looked up to Greyson again.

“Are you okay?” Lynn held up her smartphone to show only thirty seconds had passed.

Greyson’s eyes were practically pink down to the pupil. They were watering, and he slipped his free hand down to grab his coffee and take another sip.
”You’re lucky I’ve got a lot of storage… I have it all, I think: Yes, even in that short amount of time…”
He tilted his head back, sniffing through one nostril that sounded like it was still full of blood. Subtly, tactfully, he slipped a handkerchief from his coat and spat a glob of blood into it before shaking his head.

”Alright…-”
Greyson leaned forward again, taking a final sip of coffee. ”-Why did you bring up Chicago?! Y’know I could barely pay attention after that? Just confused the whole time as I’m trying to gather info- What do you think, I’m just not gonna stop and ask you about that?”

“Were you in Chicago in the last five years? Specifically during a rather cold winter, and if so did we.. Lynn paused as she leaned back into this chair, “having you in my head felt…familiar. And I have glimpses of a morning, a morning where you were there, Lynn paused as she downed her whole drink nervously.

“Did we have sex?

Greyson threw both his hands up. He looked disappointed, but angry at the same time. Discouraged.
”Yeah. And now that you bring it up like it's a foggy fucking day, I'm really regretting it. You don't remember because we both started off fucking trashed.-”
Shaking his head, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
”At the time, I didn't ever think I was gonna be back here. I didn't think I was ever going to see you again… And I always figured if I did, you… Listen: I didn't do anything to the memory. I promise, it wasn't- I didn't-... We… We agreed, there was consent, I promise you.”

Greyson slipped both of his hands onto the table, palms open and seemingly waiting to take her hands into his own.
”I can show you. I can show you we both just… Chose to make the bad decision. Greyson Devola is a gentleman, not some date rapist, I'd never willingly prey on anyone in that situation…-”
He paused, reconsidering his words.
”-Y'know, for sex… Violations like that are heinous, you get killed in prison for them…”

The topic seemed to be some kind of sticking point. Frankly, his nervous energy was misplaced… In the moment of trying to explain away what seemed now like a not-so-great idea, the guilt of every bad thing he had done- The killing, the stealing, the pain -pressed against the floodgates of his remaining honor and dignity.

“I need to get sober,” Lynn sighed as she placed her hands on her forehead, [color=F08080]“I know you didn’t do anything shitty. I kind of remember the next morning, hot chocolate in bed while the snow buried the city. Now that I’m thinking about it more I’m getting flashes of memories. I,”/color] Lynn paused as she looked back up to Greyson, “am not accusing you of being a monster. You’re a dick, sure you have always been kind of a dick, but you’re our covens dick. Apparently metaphorically and literally. Did you do anything that I did not ask you to do? No, I remember consent,” Lynn paused as she smirked, “I seemingly trust you more than I thought I did so no, you don’t have to share the full memory with me. Thank you for being honest.. Lynn knew that he was telling the truth. Not just for the fact that Lynn had done that exact thing a hundred times already in her futile pursuit of love, but the morning after was lovely enough that she did know she did not regret the night even if she couldn’t remember it.

“I, Lynn paused as she rubbed the back of her neck, “have always had a drinking problem. Even before the coven was founded. My memory is not the best when it comes to past events even if the future is always clear to me in the moment.”. This was the first time she admitted it was a problem. Why was she sharing this with Greyson, why not ask her friends for help? Lynn bit her lip as she tried to think of the answer to this question but she could only think that it was because she was tired of hiding it finally. Greyson just so happened to be the one nearby to hear it.

Greyson frowned at the situation. Substance abuse was nothing new to him: He was a peddler and an addict himself. He was just thankful his addiction came from his own source.
”I haven't met many Oracle-type White Luxers who aren't addicted to escaping their reality, Lynn… You see a million futures, most of them are bad, and then you think it won't affect you. It's nonsense. Normal people who have nothing crazy going on get hooked to the shit, it's practically expected that dealing with it comes with a price.”

He took a deep breath, thinking about offering what he knew he shouldn't… But this was to help her, not to… Not to hook her.
”If you really want to be sober, I can help you. You need to be willing to work toward it on your own, but I can set you up with something mostly non-invasive. You're aware of Pavlov's Dog, no?” he asked gently.

“Pavlov’s dog? It rings a bell, Lynn smirked, “Why? What did you have in mind?” Lynn was tired of the hangovers, the drunken mistakes, the regret filled mornings, the constant hiding of her drinking, the lying to friends, and the lack of progress as a person. “Us oracles have always sought answers in a cloudy mind, maybe that’s what has held me back?”

Greyson cleared his throat.
”It’s natural in your position to have your mind cloudy… The Oracle at Delphi sat in a cave full of sulfur fumes when they gave their predictions. Italian history, y’know-” he petered off, totally unaware of Delphi being Greek or that he was mixing them up with the Sybil of Rome and southern Italy.
”-Anyway, fuckin’... Pavlov’s Dog, essentially you train the dog to drool at the sound of the bell. You don’t need the food after a certain point, you just need the bell.-” again, a terrible summarization.

”-So, we can either kill your desire for drink; and you’ll have an empty place in your heart forever because you’ll never feel normal around alcohol ever again… Or, we can set up a long-term reward system for you. Give you something better than the drink, but it only hits you if you’ve successfully fought the urge to relapse. That way, you can’t fake it: You have to go through a specific chemical process in your brain of feeling an urge and letting it pass by before the reward comes. I’ve had relative success applying this to other people looking to get clean, so… I’d consider it proven, even if adjustments need to be made after-the-fact.”

Lynn pondered the situation in detail. She could be free. She could feel great every time she made the conscious decision to not drink. It sounded perfect, almost too perfect.

I’m not seriously considering this? Am I fucking insane?

Don’t do this, don’t even consider this. The benefit will never outweigh the cost.

You’d be beholden to home. You’d need to have him in your mind. You’d have to keep. coming. back. Do I want this?

“Can I have a minute to decide? Like, Lynn took a fast series of breaths as she looked down to the table, “let’s talk about what you saw in the future, and then I’ll let you know. Is that okay?

Greyson folded his hands, but not in a dismissive way. His face said understanding, and his posture read as relaxed, so ultimately he didn’t seem put off. Really, he wasn’t. It wasn’t his problem whether or not she drank herself to-
”Sobriety is patient. It’ll be waiting for you when you’re ready to accept it into your life one way or another… So take your time. Now, let me just think about it clearly for a moment.”

He had, at the very least, been crunching some of the information in his head while they spoke. Sure of many futures that were unreal or unrealistic enough to completely brush aside, he was starting to narrow the number down to a place where Lynn had stopped. Ten. Ten real places that could exist knowing everything that he knew from his outside perspective… It was time to start scraping away the sticky remnants that clung to what truly was.

He even polished off his coffee, going to get another and coming back with a little huff.
”Three. I think… I think realistically, I can narrow it down to three with everything I know, all the angle’s I’ve scoped.”
Already having the in into Lynn’s mind, the gap still fresh and unable to deny him, he plugged back in to interface with her mind.

Memories specifically highlighting the three realities were presented to Lynn’s psyche as dossiers: Thought files that detailed every single intricacy and hidden layer to the realities that Lynn presented. One was labled “A Sad Reality”, one “A Wretched Reality” and the final being “A Hopeful Reality”. Speaking to her directly through her mind, Greyson’s voice echoed across the empty span between Lynn and the dossiers.
She’s dead, she’s killing us for fucking revenge, or she managed to get the jump on something real evil happening, and now she’s lambed up. Sad, wretched, hopeful. I don’t particularly love any of these; White Lux memories are like trying to watch a movie through a plastic cup. But I’ve done what I can.

And then he pulled back out, leaving Lynn to see his face across the table again. He looked fairly serious, if not a little tired now.

“So we agree. Three bad options being the most likely outcome, three options that are unlike our Kari, and three options that will take us no closer to finding father wolf, Lynn smiled as she shook her head. “the possible future is a bitch like that. Lynn paused as she tapped her finger on the table. “Thank you, Greyson. Truly. You’re the first person I’ve taken to the possible future. Even if I don’t know any more than I did before I at least know that someone has seen what I’ve seen and come to the same conclusion,” Lynn paused as she thought more about whether she would take Greyson up with his help.

Please don’t do this.

I don’t…I don’t know how I will feel.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared of sobriety, Greyson. Will I suffer making the right choices? I don’t want to check that myself.”

Shaking his head, Greyson tilted his head back to look up at the ceiling for a moment. Unsure of how to answer the question, he did his best to reach for something in the ether.
”There’s no point in not trying a different mode of suffering. You wake up, you can’t remember x amount of time, you’re with someone you don’t know, you’re asking all these questions to yourself… Doesn’t it get boring? Of course it does, or you wouldn’t even be contemplating the change.”

A sip of coffee broke up the heavy atmosphere.
”So, you trade it. You trade the emptiness and the sad feelings of loneliness. You get a pet. You bury yourself in your work, you take up a hobby, you do something to take up your time because we’ve evolved out of our basic instincts. You can’t just not think about it all… So you suffer by being tired. By making every dream you ever had become a painful reality. And you do it with the clarity of sobriety, knowing that ultimately you’re doing what you do because you love yourself. And I can’t really give you that feeling, Lynn. As much as I can program it, or mind control you, something will happen one day and the little Bell in your head keeping you safe from all that goes away. So, you need to be trained to do it on your own. So-”

He leaned forward.
”-that’s what I’ll do. Essentially, the reward is a set of chemicals produced by a trigger in the brain. When you’ve gone through the valley that dealing with a problem presents to you, the trigger will pump the production center. You’ll feel uh… Like you just did something incredible. You’ll feel like you just swam across the English Channel, or climbed Everest on your own. It’ll condition your brain to do this regularly, so that when the spell fades, it’ll still happen. But it’ll be something you have to internalize. Recognize. Learn to believe the feeling.”

“Do it,” Lynn softly responded. She’s said things that she didn’t mean, burned bridges she can never repair. She needed this much more than she admitted, and she needed all the help she could get. As she settled into the seat, awaiting the inevitable. Part of her still fought to stop what was to come, too afraid of the possibility of restless nights where sleep was robbed from her. Of dream filled sleep that torments her. She was terrified of what her body would do without alcohol, and how sick she might become. This fear was front and center in her mind and there was nothing that could stop it. Yet there was a glimmer of hope that continued to burn through this. A hope for healthy relationships, of a better future. Of love that was not conditioned on someone fixing her. This was a long time coming, and she was suddenly ready for what came next.

”Alright… And, Lynn? I believe in you.”
For Lynn, the sensation would’ve been something like surgery. The kind of surgery where one moment you’re talking to the anaesthesiologist, and then the next moment you’re in the hospital room with a nurse fussing over you.There was no sign that Greyson had done anything, except in the case of basic White Lux energy sensory, Lynn would be able to feel the lingering fizzy pinkness that was telltale of a Pink Lux spell in effect within her.

But the man himself was gone. There was no coffee cup, there was no man… Only a small stack of hundred dollar bills and a donut with a note.
You’re gonna want the sugar soon.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

The birds and the bees

An Iron & Honey Story

“You are not good at this,” The Maiden whispered as she yawned.

“You’re not very good at being a mentor,” Lila scoffed as she walked a few more steps into the forest.

“Yet,” The Maiden chuckled back, “but you have the makings of a powerful avatar for me. You are charismatic, have a strong leadership drive, and are a natural with my beloved murder.” The Maiden with a hint of pride in her voice.

“Aww do you mean-,” Lila started but was hushed.

“You are also incredibly indecisive, don’t know how to wield the murder to its full potential, painfully naive,” The Maiden started with a stern tone.

“Okay, okay I,” Lila paused as she came to a clearing not far from the running trail, “the only people who are out today are crazy runners and they’re too focused on not realizing how much running sucks,” Lila said as she looked down at her outfit. She wore a thick pair of leggings with some athletic shorts over top. She had a tight fitting but warm athletic shirt under a thin red sleeveless windbreaker. She felt warm, and ready to train. “If anyone sees me they’ll just think I’m a crazy crow lady,” Lila said with a grin as she stretched her arms out.

“You are a crazy crow lady. I’m not actually sealed in you. Nothing has changed from before. You just have voices in your head,” The Maiden said with a dry voice. After an uncomfortable silence the entire murder cawed in what sounded like laughter. Lila sighed as she actually believed it for the briefest moment. “Painfully naiv-,”

“Don’t make me push you down,” Lila said before she felt the wings stirring beneath her back.

“And you make threats you can’t keep,” The Maiden said with an angry voice as she forced the wings to writhe under her back.

“Stop….. Please stop,” Lila begged as the pain became unbearable and she fell to her knees. A moment later the writhing stopped.

“You can’t even control,” The Maiden sighed, “you can’t even control my body yet,” The Maiden paused as she pulled Lila up like a marionette puppet, “whereas I can control yours.”

“Your body is inside mine,” Lila said as she pulled herself free from the strings, “there’s a lot of flesh between you and me,” Lila scoffed back, “it’s incredibly painful.”

“Two can’t be one if one rejects the other,” The Maiden tried to sound wise.

Lila looked at one of her crows with a dumbfounded stare. “What the fuck does that even mean?

Lila could feel The Maiden sigh. The murder began to form shapes in the sky above. They formed a crude stuck figure in the sky. Lila felt like it was supposed to be her. The crows put on a crude show in the air showing the stick figure in pain as wings and claws and more crow-like features erupted forth from their body. Lila had a look of disgust on her face. The crows reformed into another figure. It was more detailed, and had crow like features from the get go. A lot more attention was paid to the details here. The wings came out naturally as did the claws. It was as if Lila and The Maiden were one. Lila had a hand on her chin, and she nodded in understanding. “Two can’t be one if one rejects the other,” The Maiden paused, “do you understand now?”

Lila nodded for a second longer before she looked away from the display above her. “Nope.”

The murder cawed in frustration, the sound was deafening, and Lila winced at the sound.

“You reject my gifts at every advance, you prefer to keep looking as human as possible, you haven’t given a gift to the murder since I was sealed in you,” The Maiden paused, “we share a body now. Until you accept that fact you will only have a fraction of my power. Our power. You have to learn how to control the transformations and to do that you must transform more.”

“And how do I know you’re not trying to push your way to the surface more so that you can take full control,” Lila asked with a sigh.

As Lila asked she felt The Maiden's cold talons grip tightly around her mind. The sky around her grew distant and she felt herself pulled all the way down. A chuckle was heard coming from no direction but every direction at once. The laugh was The Maiden but also a chorus of thousands upon thousands of men and women. From the darkness floated forth a woman, her wings stretched far and wide and seemed so massive in comparison to the tiny wings Lila could summon forth. She wore a gorgeous dress with various jeweils and crystals. The laughter grew in strength until it reached a crescendo as the maiden towered over Lila, breaking for a moment as The Maiden leaned in, hands behind her back. Lila gasped at just how big the maiden looked and just how small she felt in this moment.

“You don’t.”

A moment later Lila felt the grip of the maiden release and she shot upwards back to the surface. As she ascended the laughter resumed all around her, sounding like it came from the darkness itself. As Lila assumed control once more she took a deep breath, and then gasped for air as she fell to the ground. She took a series of short shallow breaths before she realized there was something casting a vaguely wing shaped shadow on the ground. As well, her once skin tight athletic top had quite a few more ruffles of feathers that traveled far up her arm, which was seemingly much longer than normal. And her eyesight was much more focused than normal. A quick command was sent out to the murder. She needed to see. A series of crows flew past and she was able to capture just a quick few frames.

Her face was…different. Her nose was more beak like, coming to a much more visible peak. Her lower jaw had also grown a peak. Her face had much more of a beak-like feature to it. Half her face was covered in feathers. Her red windbreaker was also ripped in half, with one half still on each shoulder, pushed apart by the massive wings that now spread out much further than her normal wings. She looked like a proper crows maiden now, and Lila couldn’t help but gasp at the visage. Yet, this rapid and massive of a transformation would normally elicit a torrent of pain. But she felt none.

“Get it,” The Maiden asked finally as more crow swarmed around Lila allowing her to truly see the scope of her transformation. Lila unzipped her athletic top and pulled it apart and saw that her arms were longer and thinner and completely covered in feathers. Her legs were also much, much longer, which pushed Lila’s height up by a few inches. Lila's breathing stopped for a moment as she tried to understand what she was seeing. “Two can’t be one,” the maiden said with a chuckle as she pulled back all the transformations at once causing unimaginable pain all across her body. The wings zipped back into her back, her legs snapped back into their proper place, her arms shrunk and reformed, and every extra feather pulled itself back into her skin. She was covered in feather cuts, broken bones, and she couldn’t even scream. And yet, a moment later she felt a strange warmth envelop her and within a few moments her body was as good as new. She still had her talons, and feathers lower arms, but the rest of her body was back to normal.

“Get…it,” The Maiden asked as Lila pushed herself to her feet. As she rose to her feet she finally caught her breath. Lila could only shake her head yes.

“Good,” The maiden said as she summoned forth a new round of transformations, “we have a lot to practice.”

---

“I need a break,” Lila coughed out as she placed her clawed hands on her thigh.

“A pity. You’re making good progress somehow.”. Lila simply raised her middle finger to a crow as her transformation was once again reversed and the maiden healed all her wounds. Lila looked like a mess. Her clothes were shredded, none more than her leggings which were now cut off right above her knees. She simply wore her sports bra and had the athletic coverup overtop.

“Shit since when could you heal me like that,” Lila joked as she took a drink of water. “I‘ll be ready to go in just one second,” Lila paused as she noticed that her murder was revealing her position too much. As such, she commanded them to hide in the forest away from the trail for the time being.

“Holy shit, Lila?!"

Trisha had, maybe, deviated a bit from the route she'd promised Casey she'd take. Just a little bit. Half an hour of running by Temple after Temple business hadn't resulted in the clear head she'd hoped for, so she'd taken a detour through Memorial Park on the way back. Hopefully he wouldn't know… and she'd be back early, that would make up for it, right? This running path was a bit more out of the way than she'd liked, but it was the most direct way from where she'd ended up. She just picked up the pace… until she spotted many crows and someone familiar.

Different, but familiar. Lila, formerly Michael, looked different - and not just because of the ripped clothing. More like herself, probably. Trisha had heard through various Sycamore people she was still in contact with about the name change… and while she was many things, transphobic wasn't one of them. And while they hadn't been so close ten years ago, she'd been friendly with Jasper and Luca. Luca especially… the one person who'd really escaped her resentment.

Normally, she'd still keep going and ignore her. But, from memory, Lila wasn't like Adora. She was quieter, and less likely to punch Trisha in the face. Her ability to hold an amicable conversation with Leon, and Casey's confidence in her, was enough to make her want to try again. Maybe she could rebuild the bridges she'd burnt. It was possible to have a conversation without her snapping. That was all she wanted… just a conversation. To try and change a bit, to not have this resentment towards the entire coven for falling apart.

“Are you alright?" Trisha paused her running, jogging over towards Lila instead. As she did, the bees hidden in her thick, wavy ponytail started to crawl out and into more obvious positions - her shoulders, ears, a couple on her face.
“Isn’t being alone dangerous… uh, hi. It's been a while. Ten years."

“Oh hey,” Lila said as she leaned up and stretched her back, she thought a ‘did you see her coming’ to The Maiden and she could tell The Maiden had, “Yeah I’m fine. Just training today, you know? I’m never truly alone anyway so I figured if father wolf was on the prowl I’d at least have a chance. But it has been a while, you look good! How have things been,” Lila paused as she took a few steps closer.

“Is she a threat?”

“No,” she whispered back.

“Never truly alone… huh…" Trisha looked thoughtful for a moment, remembering that Lila was adjoined just like her. “I never thought about it like that when it comes to the Ghost attached to me. Next time I need to go somewhere alone…"

She shook her head, realising Lila probably didn't care about her needing excuses to be able to go out alone without a whole cult security team. Not that she wanted to go into it anyway… “Things have been good! Really good… I moved in with my boyfriend last week. I feel a lot safer thanks to that, and it's been really nice."

Trisha smiled, looking actually happy… it was difficult to not when she thought about Casey. Of course there was a risk with mentioning it, because of her reputation in the old coven. All of the short lived and explosively ending relationships she had…
“How about you? Did you… go back to the coven?"

“Yeah, it’s hard to be alone when your body is what sealing a ghost ha,” Lila chuckled nervously as she rubbed her arms. “Right now company
is needed with that monster on the prowl,” Lila talked about Emily but the words carried weight for the wolf, “that’s so cool though. How’s living with your boyfriend,” Lila asked genuinely.

Trisha's brow furrowed a little bit. She hadn't even realised an Apparition could be sealed by a body… well, maybe that was what it was like for Leon? She remembered it being a bit like that, but she decided not to ask any questions, for once using a bit of tact. Not asking things she'd dislike having to answer, and talking about something she could easily go on about.
“Honestly, it's great. Really comfortable, he treats me well… maybe a bit overprotective with the whole Father Wolf thing, but I get it. It's just because he cares." Trisha's expression softened further as she spoke about Casey, bees wriggling on her shoulders in reaction to the gentle pheromones she gave out that only they could smell.

“Our apartment is really nice and central, and there's loads more space for my bees too. It's perfect, really, aside from having to deal with his family more… oh-" Trisha paused, letting out a slight laugh. “My boyfriend- Casey- is Leon's younger brother… I don't know how much you know about his family- or the, uh, Temple, but it's a lot. Worth it, just weird. They're really obsessed with us- Sycamore, that is."

“Leon? Oh yeah that makes sense. How’s his brother? I don’t recall meeting him,” Lila chuckled as she stretched her arms out, “so do you remember Luca? I’ve been staying with him, Jasper and,” Lynn paused as her conversation with Lynn flashed through her mind, “Lynn. She went by Evelynn back in the day. Do you remember them? Luca’s apartment is nice enough and we’re safe together there.”

“He’s way more chill than Leon is… pretty goofy, but it's cute. He wasn't kindled ten years ago so… he wasn't around," Trisha smiled, before moving into the next question.
“Yeah, I remember everyone." And everything they'd done against her. Evelynn. Trisha had tried to be friends with her back in the day but it had gone how it always did… She could still remember everything Evelynn had said. About her future. About how she would die alone.

“Luca was always so nice, I- well, wish I'd kept in contact, maybe. Jasper too. I'm glad you're all safe together." It was true that Luca was one of the few people she'd never properly pissed off in the old coven. She wasn't sure if he could even get upset. Jasper was similar. But Evelynn… Trisha was really trying her hardest not to say something horrible right off the bat. She did what Casey had told her to do with Lena - imagined him, how happy he'd be that she was able to be friendly with another coven member. It held back the words on the tip of her tongue, turning into another boring question.
“Are they all doing alright too?"

“Luca and Jasper are doing really good. They’re both falling heads over heels for each other but neither are brave enough to make the first move. Jasper said he had something special planned though so fingers crossed on that front. I’ve been watching it all play out and it’s adorable,” Lila paused as she looked down, “I’m worried about Lynn though. She has been quietly struggling since way back when, I think it’s about to be a lot more visible soon with what I’ve seen. She’s such a good friend that I want to be there to help her but she always has these walls up, you know,” Lila asked Trisha, almost pleading for guidance.

Trisha was genuinely happy to hear that Luca and Jasper were doing well… and also that Lynn wasn't. She didn't deserve to. Why did she deserve Lila putting in that effort for her? And if Lynn had those walls up, they should just be left. Just like hers. But she had hers because she'd been hurt so much before, not because she was a bitch.
“If she's not letting you in, what can you do?" Trisha tried to hold back still. Thought about going home to Casey… but if Lynn got her wishes, Trisha wouldn't have anyone at all. She'd be alone. Like she always had been… and she'd said it as if she deserved it. But really-
“Maybe she deserves to struggle without any help. What did she ever do for anyone?"

“What did she-,” Lila paused as she let out a single chuckle as her head slightly crooked to the side. What did Lynn do for anyone? If only this bitch in front of her knew. But she didn’t, and probably couldn’t know. That didn’t excuse the coldness with how she delivered that final line. Lila did not know if there was any bad blood between Lynn and Trisha, but she knew that Lynn was there for her every step of the way. “Lynn helped me embrace who I always was well before the rest of the coven knew. Lynn helped me learn to stand up to people who misgendered me, dead named me,” as Lila talked her arms and legs began to get a little more feathered, “out of everyone in the coven, both past, present and future, there is no one more deserving of my help, my kindness, and my support,” Lila paused as she looked Trisha in her eyes.

“Don’t be a bitch like Emily, okay thanks.

“She said I was going to die alone but thinking she deserves to feel shit is the same as being a near Nazi?" Trisha hissed, eyes narrowed. She didn't look away from Lila but her gaze turned cold. Loud buzzing filled the air around her as around a hundred bees crawled out from in her hair, her skirt, and even under her tank top. They didn't move from her, instead their wings just flapped in what was supposed to be a threatening display. The sound almost drowned out Trisha words, delivered with a harsh coldness but no increase of volume.
“I’m nothing like Emily- but I get it, I say one thing, and I'm the worst. Fuck you. No wonder your friends with a bitch like Lynn who enjoys watching everyone's worst nightmares in their futures."

“Oh I’m friends with Lynn because we’ve also both struggled through loss, adversity and hardship unlike the rich bitch of the coven, Lila spat out as even more feathers sprouted forth from her body. Her arms and legs, most of her chest, and even her face were now covered with feathers. A moment later her eyes went fully black as well. At this point she was halfway between human and monster. “You never met a problem daddy’s money couldn’t fix. Well, except your rotten personality and your abrasive fucking voice. I see no amount of money could ever fix you.

“You don't even know me," Trisha snapped, not even flinching as Lila transformed. She didn't care. She'd seen worse - they'd both seem worse. This was nothing. Not when she was being told she was nothing without her father's money - the father who abandoned her, didn't care about her, and died before she was old enough to reform any relationship with. She was just a Vanburen. It was always that, never Trisha.

But that didn't matter, because in their eyes Trisha was something terrible that needed fixed. She was right.
“Don’t bring up my dead father- Maybe you should stop blaming all your problems on not being rich and realise it's because you're both bitches you deserve everything you get. Judgemental, callous bitches. I'm not the one turning into a fucking bird, if anyone needs fixing, it's you."

“I don’t need fixed, Lila spat out as she sudden felt her arms grow longer. “Remember this, cunt, Lynn may have said that you’ll die alone but I have the power to ensure that

YOU

DO.

Lila’s voice remained her own. The Maiden did not goad her into saying that, but Lila said it all the same. There was no regret in her mind. Lila suddenly saw one of her crows swoop down and eat one of the bees. She could sense it wasn’t the maiden who commanded it nor did she. The crow was simply hungry and the bee looked like a treat.

“You can't even help your asshole friend, what can you- fuck," Trisha jolted as a pain shot through her mind, like an electric zap to her brain. Just one bee… one bee too many…
“She didn't do anything to you, you murderous bitch," Trisha bit out. The physical pain subsided immediately, but the emotional pain - the loss of the bee, and Lila's words hammering at her already fragile confidence… it was all her worst fears. Everything she didn't want. Losing even the bees. Lila could do it. Her crows could eat all the bees, and then what would Trisha have?

The ninety-nine other bees with her all swarmed the crow that had eaten one of their sisters, trying to sting them to death. At the same time, Trisha called her entire hive, blinded by anger and the loss of a single bee.

Lila watched as the bees swarmed her crow. The crow attempted to break free from the stinging swarm but did not get far before it collapsed dead. Lila pressed her talon to her right eye as the immediate psychic backlash was profound and strong. Lila looked at Trisha with an even angrier look to her expression. All wildlife around them stopped making noise. Lila’s head twitched three times in quick succession. Not a single cricket, bird, or any other creature dared make a sound. Instead, Trisha would hear what sounded like a twig snapping. Yet this was no branch breaking, instead the rest of Lila’s bones finally gave way as she reached a true mid point in the transformation. Talons emerged from her feet, her legs stretched giving her an extra three inches in height, and her back exploded out revealing the much more massive wings that somehow had only grown in beauty.

From behind Lila the tree line erupted in a flurry of caws as a large portion of the present murder, tens of thousands strong, emerged from the tree line and beelined towards Trisha

Trisha commanded the bees to come back to her, landing all over her body. It would take at least a minute for the rest of the bees to arrive, she had to keep this group alive until then. She was at a disadvantage until then, she could grow wings like Lila, but she was far too pissed to back down or flee. Her phone buzzed in the pocket of her skirt. She had no idea who it was, and didn’t care, she didn’t have time to think about it as all the crows flew at her. She squatted down, making herself smaller. Her hands came up in front of her face but she glared at Lila from behind them.

“Stay back,” Trisha hissed, as she bombarded the area with fear pheromones. It would hit through Lila’s emotional field, enough to make her feel strong panic and have an overwhelming need to flee… but it wouldn’t have any effect on the crows.

“Don’t say that. We’re just starting to have fun, Lila started before the fear pheromones hit. In an instant she wanted to flee and run away from this chaotic mess of a fight but the maiden’s emotional field was barely holding together under the stress of the fear, and was the only thing keeping Lila where she was. Meanwhile, the crows had begun breaking apart the bee dome. Some acted as decoys to draw the bees away from one spot only to slash at Trisha from another. Some even stopped swooping down and began to pick off her bees one at a time.

As the crows attacked her, it was difficult for Trisha to stop her bees from scattering in panic. With such small numbers their natural instinct was to flee in front of things that could kill them. Instead some were distracted and chased away by the crows, and some hid in her clothes. Trisha hissed in pain as sharp claws cut through her shoulder, blood trickling down her arm. Another caught her cheek, beak gouging into her forehead. But the pain from the scratch was nothing compared to the constant hits of bee death as they got eaten by the crows.

“I’ll show you… fun…” Trisha gritted out. Her fear pheromones intensified, but she could sense her other bees now. They were close. She got control again, switching up the pheromones she was sending the bees here, commanding them to fly up into the sky and away from her.

Lila and The Maiden both struggled against this new wave of pheromones and they were both pushed to the edge of breaking. Lila’s wings began to flicker a pale green color. It was short, but weak, bursts of her cursed wings but they were powerful enough to draw Trisha’s gaze. A second matter they fizzled out in numerous flashes but they went dark for seven seconds. Then, without warning, they erupted at full power momentarily making the surrounding area dark. They were brought, vividly green, and almost irresistible. Lila’s crows meanwhile chased the bees up following their previous commands.

The bees Trisha had with her stopped suddenly middair… and a loud, intense buzzing broke through the otherwise eerily quiet surroundings, and the crows were met with an entire swarm of bees. Sixty-thousand bees clashed with them.

Lila looked up to the sky and her mouth dropped. “Good luck, Lila says as she looked Trisha in the eyes well aware the two were about to suffer.

The relief from the crows stopping attacking Trisha was short-lived as her gaze was drawn to the wings. She was lured to move towards them, to take a feather, going towards Lila with a hand raised.
NO!

A small group of bees sped down from the larger group fighting the crows, covering Trisha’s eyes and cutting off the link. She couldn’t see the feathers anymore, and the temptation was immediately gone. She couldn’t see anything but… she didn’t need to. The Queen was awake, and she could sense all of her bees' pheromones in a much more accurate way. She could tell where each bee was, what they could sense, and it gave her a picture of exactly what was happening. She didn’t need her sight.

So, naturally, she reached up and grabbed Lila’s hair to pull as hard as she could… While directing her bees to make targeted attacks on the Crows in groups of the hundreds, leading them around. Others swarmed Lila and started stinging her.
“You need the luck.”

Lila refused to back down from this fight. While her mind was shattering from the countless dead crows she knew for every one crow Trisha killed she had taken out many more bees. If Lila's mind was breaking so too would Trisha. Lila’s face had changed slightly with the increased death of her murder. Her veins had all gone black as well, and could be seen through the pale face that Lila had. Lila’s wings flapped backwards before they shot forward, sending all the bees in front of her flying with the powerful gust of wind. She commanded a small murder to envelop her in overlapping lines to try and keep the bees off her as best as possible. “Bitch.”

Trisha was in intense pain, as if her mind was being electrocuted. Blood dripped down her face from her nose in an unstoppable flood. She could hardly think, working on pure adrenaline and instincts sensing pheromones and commanding the bees. Some of her bees covered her in a similar action to protect her from the crows' claws, while more kept going at Crows and Lila herself. “Feathery asshole.”

”Bee freak.” Lila hissed out as she took a step towards Trisha.

“Bird bitch,” Trisha gritted out, bees reactively covering her front as Lila moved closer, a group going for her face. At the same time Trisha reached out to try and grab her wings.

“Buzz-kill.” Lila spat as she took another step and reached for Trisha’s hair.

Something moving faster than the speed of sound was bound to make an entrance with noise and flare… But the only noise that pierced the air between the two combatants was a loud crack: Wind spiraled between Trisha’s face and Lila’s hand, and it was hot like a summer day as the pressure knocked the incoming hand aside.
Impacting a fairly large crow in the vicinity, there was a loud pop resounding across the space as the poor thing ruptured into a red mist. The shockwave of the impact shattered the bones within, sending a shrapnel of bird bone shards that ripped its comrades apart in a small area.

Unclear of the cause, one could only look into the distance and see a squat tower structure and an old roof cistern overlooking the bay area. A gentle glint directed the eye to that water tower… Before three more whizzing cracks left equally exploded crows as puddles to rain down.

A fucking gun…

Trisha had no idea what was happening. All she heard was an ear piercing crack. She still couldn’t see, the bees beginning to peel back to show her a sliver of what was happening… only to see a crow explode. Her heart started pounding in her chest. What the fuck? What the actual fuck. It didn’t stop her from attacking Lila, instead she got closer, using the opportunity to pull harshly at her wings. In case the bees were next, somehow. Her head hurt too much from the hundreds dead to even consider who would be intervening. She could barely think through the pain and anger and pheromones bombarding her, that she had to be constantly intune to.
“You’re- getting what you… deserve… birdbrains…”

Lila, meanwhile, wrapped her wings all the way around Trisha instinctively as well as used her arms to grab Trisha around her waist before using her supernatural strength to pull Trisha with her back into the woodline of the forest and hopefully away from whoever was shooting at them. Once she reached the relative safety of the woods Lila used her wings to strike at Trisha. ” You’re so fucking dumb, do you even know what will happen if you pull a feather? No, because you have the intelligence of a fucking bee.”. Lila could barely even see straight at this point. Her mind had fractured into a hundred pieces at the death of so many crows. ” You are like baby,” Lila said in a slightly slurred tone before she commanded the murder to retreat to the safety of the canopy as she sent another wing strike. After the strike landed she quickly put her wings as far back as she could away from the hands of Trisha. She placed her taloned hands on a tree trunk to pull herself away from Trisha further but her strength was too much and she simply pulled a chunk of tree with her. Instead of dropping it to the ground she simply dropped it gently at Trisha’s head. The Maiden roared a command to the murder to look for incoming threats and their eyes would all begin to scan the area, she also ordered them to help pull any stingers out of any who were afflicted. Lila turned her attention back to Trisha and reached for her legs with her long, thin, arms with their long, sharp, claws.

“AND WHO IS SITTING SHOOOOTING AT US.”

“My bees are much smarter than you…" Trisha mumbled out. The second wing strike caused her to fall back onto the ground. She managed to narrowly avoid the piece of tree dropped on her head by rolling, sudden movement only making her dizzier… she didn't understand, but at least she didn't have any feathers in her hands. She kicked at Lila's hands as they came for her legs, half her bee swarm covering her skin in a constantly flickering mass and the other half going for Lila's arms.
“How would I know?! You got… the crows… bet they just think… you looked like a great target…"

It was really difficult for Trisha to process anything beyond keeping on going, as Lila's claws dug into her calves. Trisha curled forward, trembling hands trying to pull them off her. Her pheromones shifted slightly as the Queen woke up further, targeting Trisha with a light dose of aggression pheromones to help her get through the debilitating pain. She couldn't get up off the forest floor, but she could keep fighting Lila, practically becoming a mass of bees with their stingers out.
“At least I'm not part bird… who will ever like you… like that…"

With Lila rushing off into the forest, the hail of gunfire ceased for a brief moment. The two were allowed to get far enough in that they were surrounded by trees.
And then the assault continued. There was hardly any warning as the trunks of trees around the duo began to shatter and explode with loud, hollow wood noises. Those were followed by loud snapping, crackling as the wounded trees began to fall one by one.

They very quickly blocked any hope of easy escape on foot, leaving Trisha with no real options, and only the option of flight to Lila. Though, without much cover in the air and presumably magical bullets covering that angle, leaving in any way was getting more precarious.

“What the fuck?!" Now Trisha was panicking in a way she hadn't when fighting Lila - and even fight, someone she wanted to hurt without fearing her own death. But now she was terrified as the trees practically exploded around them, sharp pieces of wood raining around them. She went from trying to pry Lila's hands off her to gripping onto them… moving forward to practically cling to her in another instinctual move this time pushed by fear rather than anger. The constant throbbing of her head meant there were very few thoughts, and very few commands given to the bees who also acted on instinct… continuing to sting Lila even as their Queen clung to her in fear.

”Don’t worry, I’ll..oww.. I’ll protect…oww… I’ll protect you,” Lila responded in a sing-song manner as she maneuvered Trisha behind her and spread her wings out wide. Her vision had gotten only more blurry and her mind only more fractured. Lila barely even registered what Trisha had said just prior to her clinging to Lila out of fear. ”Maybe..oww.. this fight wasn’t my..oww.. best idea,” Lila scanned the area around them but she couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

“Don’t need…" Trisha wasn't even able to finish whatever contrary thing she was going to say, instead using the little bit of concentration she had left to get her bees to crawl back to her and stop stinging Lila. For now.

As the two Adjoined clung to one another out of fear and safety, the telling crack of a bullet passed Trisha's face within millimeters. The round smashed into Lila's shoulder like a full on jackhammer, causing a blast of air to knock both of them out of one another's grip.

”Trisha!? Trisha!!!”
Bounding out from the woods in the direction they'd come from, a massive man was holding a long, sleek and futuristic looking rifle. While his lower body moved, it was like his upper body was a stable platform that didn't lose its aimpoint no matter how much he jostled around. Legs moved robotically, almost automatically as they took great big strides across the ruined ground.
”Trisha, get back to the road, Now! Norm!? Get her to safety!”

”Fuck,” Lila said through gritted teeth, placing a hand over the impact sight and groaned in pain, as the man emerged in the forest calling out for someone named Visha, ” I will not let you hurt her,” Lila said and the murder began to caw as her anger builded. The sound of bones snapping and twisting could be heard a moment before the wings once again grew larger and larger. Lila spread them out even further as she tried to make herself look as big as possible.

Trisha could barely see past the wings even as they were knocked away from each other, once again landing on the ground with a light thud. Her vision was so blurred from tears and agony that she could only make out vague outlines - Lila's wings spreading, three men, one coming closer…
“No no no no no," Trisha said in panic, crawling back towards Lila again, ears ringing from the crack of the bullet and the constant buzz of bees as they clung to her and instinctively stung anything that came near. But eventually her slow, shattered mind processed what she'd heard. She couldn't see him, couldn't figure out where he was- not the one approaching, the bees told her as they couldn't sense any of their pheromones on that man. But he was around here somewhere.
“C-Casey?"

”Close your eyes when I say- wait, your boyfriend Casey?”

There was no time. Three more rounds sung through the air from Casey's rifle, blasting Lila further away from Trisha. Only enough so there was a gap between them where a speeding sheet of ice kicked up a torrent of snow. Trisha would feel the strength of frozen arms gripping her by the waist before accelerating in the opposite direction.

”Who the fuck sent you!? Fucking Bird Demons! All the fucking same!” Casey screamed as he closed in further on Lila, as if he was ready to begin the final confrontation.

”I’ll show you a bird demon if you keep shooting me,” Lila said as her limbs cracked and expanded, lengthening her arms and legs. Her chest also cracked and shifted as her ribcage grew wide. More feathers erupted and her face contorted into a more bird-like beak-like shape. ” Trisha, Trish, hey girl is this your Cassidy-Casey,” Lila asked as she looked at the man who shot her. She pointed two fingers at her eyes before she pointed them at the man with a growl.

“L-let go of me!" Trisha struggled against the frozen arms grabbing her with little luck, still confused and absolutely not thinking straight. The bees were going wild trying to sting through solid ice and their panicked pheromones were bombarding her. But without the active bee deaths the pain was beginning to alleviate a bit, enough for her to squint through the blurry vision and see what was going on a bit more. She could actually see Casey now, or enough of him to recognise where he was… pointing a gun at Lila.

“Yes, yes, my Casey, Lila, my boyfriend- Casey, babe, it's fine, I'm fine, it was just an argument!" Trisha shouted. It wasn't very believable when she was covered in scratches, some very deep, with blood all down her face and barely able to move. But she didn't hate Lila enough to want her to get killed- and she really didn't want Lila to try and kill Casey! Her brain was functioning enough to try prevent that, but messed up enough to think that she could somehow play it all off.

Norm yarded hard on his feet, skidding the ice to a stop next to Casey. An entire igloo-like structure seemed to form itself around them, leaving the gun barrel and a hole for Casey to talk out of pointing at Lila.
”Casey fucking Richoux… Tell me you're Lila Blackwood, Adjoined of the Maiden of Murders… The Veridian Wing…”

He hadn't recognized her off the bat, but Theo had been feeding him sight info through his ear piece since he and Norm first left the apartments. With the majority of remaining Sycamore Members picking up activity, he started to make assumptions. They'd collected a great deal of information about desirable additions: Lila Blackwood was among those the Temple had a vested interest in.
The Maiden was a fairly recognizable Apparition, even having a small part in the lore of the Temple long ago.

Casey had reverence for this fact alone; but if she was going to try and hurt Trisha anymore, he wasn't going to stop shooting.
”You tell me what the fuck happened here… Why are you threatening my Trisha?” he barked from inside the barrier.

” That’s a cool nickname, I like that nickname. Sounds terrifying and cool,” Lila, Adjoined of the Maiden of Murders, responded by doing a quick fist pump. ”Yes yes that’s me. We were actually having a wonderful conversation, Trisha insulted my friend and then I insulted her and then one of my crows accidentally ate one of her bees and then her bees killed one of my crows and, that hurt a lot a lot for the both of us we feel their deaths, and then we fought and it was epic. Birds fighting bees, bees fighting birds,” Lila paused as she smirked, ” I did say some things I didn’t mean to Trisha, I had alllllll morning having my bones broken, healed, broken, healed so my brain is not here. Good fight though Trisha you did great, great, great fight. Your boyfriend is cute, good for you,” Lila paused as she squinted towards Casey, ” At least I think so I can’t see shit.”

Casey, completely fed up with Sycamore garbage, pulled his gun through the little slot. This prompted Norm to drop the ice bunker, and it quickly blew away in a cloud of snow.
”What the fuck is the problem with you people? Leave Trisha alone, if she doesn't want to be a part of your dysfunctional gang, then steer clear of her. Tell your fucking friends that too: She's under Temple protection. We don't need you people around here causing problems like this…”

”We fought a world ending threat alone as kids and watched as so many died, and are all deeply traumatized as a result,” Lila paused as she used her wings to point to Trisha, ”She did approach me for the conversation, it is my fault we escalated first. And then Trisha escalated and then I...” Lila paused as her vision cleared enough to get a rough outline of Casey. Her brain began to feel less like a jelly.

“I- I-" Trisha looked down at her feet, vision swimming, in what was the closest to an admission of ‘guilt’ as she'd get. It was very difficult for her to stay standing, visibly swaying. The constant zaps had ceased but her mind was still trying to recover, and then there were the deep scratches bleeding all over her… it really hurt…

“I was just trying to be polite, I thought it would be fine, I didn't even do anything… I'm not deeply traumatised at all, maybe the rest of you are… her crows ate one of my- my bees…" The words tumbled out of Trisha's mouth in an absolute mess as she refused to look at anyone, but everything she said was what she believed was the truth… trying to explain why she approached Lila while getting away from any blame that she didn't believe should be pointed at her. She hadn't even said anything bad before Lila escalated.
“C-Casey, it wasn't- not worrying-" Trisha grimaced, sinking down onto one knee with a hand pressing into the ground to stop herself from properly falling over as another wave of pain hit her. The bees buzzed in panicked circles around her, with a few landing on Casey as they recognised her scent all over him.

Casey’s mind reeled at the possibilities surrounding the circumstance. None of them were good, and each took their toll upon his blood pressure. With Trisha and Lila both in various stages of dazed, he knew he wasn’t going to get a clear picture: But he knew he was pissed. Pissed that she’d been so far off the planned route, pissed that yet another Sycamite was responsible for Trisha having a bad day, pissed that he probably wasn’t going to be k-
”Christ on a small fucking bike, Trisha… Lila, just… Just fuck off! Whatever happened, you’ve made your point: But normal fucking people do not attack one another over their trauma! Fuck, go to a Goddamn Veteran’s meeting, talk to some of the guys that fought out in the Eastern Pacific and let me know if they attack one another or not… Fuck!”

As he turned his body, he knelt down in front of Trisha.
”Babe… Open up, just… Just eat. Don’t think.-”
He moved to his small pack, pulling a couple of the pouches of key lime mixture. Lila would be able to see the clear container with vibrant green jelly sliding about inside. One was held up to Norm, whose ice-covered form was barely recognizable as a man in a suit of frozen crystals.

Casey split the pack he was still holding open, putting the mouthpiece up for Trisha to eat. Norm began to walk forward toward Lila, holding out the package of green jelly.
”Temple’s famous Key Lime Pie. It’ll fix what’s broken, and the Maiden’ll love it. No funny business in there, I swear to you.” the icicle-covered man said with a gentlemanly accent.
”You’re uh… You’re quite the looker like that…”
”Norman!?” Casey barked up at him.

Trisha leaned forward, sucking up the green jelly. One hand curled around Casey's holding out the pack to her, while the other gripped onto his knee. It started to circulate her body, the deep gashes restitching themselves. Muscle reformed painfully, before the skin pressed itself back together. She finished the key lime before curling forward into Casey with pained groans as her body worked to repair any damage. It was strange, the pain from losing the bees getting worse before getting magically fixed… but the bees were still gone. Still an emptiness.
Oh, I like this… why don't you eat it more?
“I’m fine, all fixed… I didn't attack her over trauma, I didn't start it… I didn't mean to worry you again…" Trisha mumbled as her brain began to come back online, but she didn't have the capacity to consider what the Queen had said right now.

”Quite the looker,” Lila asked as her head crooked to the side as she grabbed the jelly and began to eat it while maintaining eye contact with the strange man. Instantly, as soon as she started chewing she felt herself pulled down by the maiden. Pulled back down to the delta depts with a chorus of caws around her as she fell. Soon, she landed near the maiden who was busy doing something she’d never seen before. The maiden was pulling a vaguely humanoid shape from the green crystal on her chest and combined it with a black colored magic from her hands. A second later the spell was complete and a new crow was brought into the murder.

“Don’t worry about the ones lost. I haven’t gave you any that couldn’t be replaced in a moments notice. That food is delightful, chew slower so I can savor every last bite. Oh, as punishment for the lack of focus you showed in that fight you are going to remain in this form for a full day. The changes won’t entirely be permanent, but some will,” The Maiden said as she flicked her wrist sending Lila back to the surface.

She immediately started chewing slower on the jelly as a fearful look spread across her face. ” Well it looks like I’m stuck in this form until tomorrow. The Maiden is punishing me,” Lila said as she slowed down on the chewing even more, ”quite the looker,” Lila asked the man again, still oblivious to the meaning behind it.

Listening to what Trisha said, Casey’s heavy dose of White Lux kept his ears keen and sharp enough to hear and respond to both conversations. His finger slipped up against Trisha’s lips, but his head twisted upward again to stare at Norm. The man in question was letting the ice crystals around him start to fall, revealing a handsome man with gaelic features and dirty-red hair and a beard to match.
”Looker, yeah… Like… Beautiful.” his deep blue eyes stared at Lila in all her avian glory like a man caught in the gaze of the Lord.

”Oh, for fuck’s sake Norm… Fine! When you end up having your eyes and guts picked out, you… Fucking…-”
Gritting his teeth, Casey took a deep breath while his face turned back to face Trisha.
”I’m actually mad. I’m so mad at you. And honestly, I don’t care if you get mad at me, or get sad: I’m going to have this one. I won’t rub it in, I won’t say anything more. Now, can you stand?” he spoke to Trisha in an incredibly stern voice, strained as it was by the frustration of the moment.

“I can," Trisha whispered, voice incredibly weak. She forced herself to her feet and hung her head with a sullen frown. Tears still reflexively streamed down her cheeks, her response systems not quite registering that the pain was gone yet. She wasn't mad, and just a little sad, but more than that she was scared. Not of Casey. She wasn't scared that he would hurt her or anything, just that he'd leave. Just his tone had her trembling, completely different from the Trisha who hadn't backed down when a whole group of crows were clawing at her flesh. It was just too like…
“I really didn't mean to." There were so many things she could mean by that, and really she knew none of that mattered or would dampen Casey's anger. But as long as he was there and angry it wasn't so bad…

She looked up slightly, towards Lila.
“I hope you can replace your crows." It wasn't an apology or anything, but it was at least an acknowledgement of the pain they'd both inflicted on the other.

Lila moved next to Norm as silently as she could, which was not very, and leaned over and whispered a not so silent whisper ”they are a cute couple,” she paused as she looked down at Trisha. ” And your bees. The maiden is busy bringing more out to replace but, but those were just the pawns I think. I’m worried about the rest of the board,” she paused as she chuckled. It was clearly a nervous chuckle. The death, the destruction, the compliment from an attractive man had made her very nervous.

Still holding tightly to Trisha, Casey turned his head to look up at Lila.
”You… Are always welcome to seek the fold of the Temple of Charming and Graceful Individuals. We can help you with whatever issues the Maiden may present to you. And I hope next time, we can avoid something like this happening. Until then, Lila Blackwood… Norm?”

Norm turned his head to look up at Lila. From his pocket, he produced a wet business card that had his name and number on them.
”Gimmie a call somet-”
”God fucking dammit Norman…-” Casey grunted, putting his free hand up to his ear. ”-Theo, pull the plug. We’re good.”

There was a strange series of noises that followed. In a danse macabre of rustling foliage and dust clouds, the fallen trees began to rise from their positions on the ground as if they were being pulled back through time. The explosions reversed, sucking the material back into place until the damaged forest had been repaired.
In an equally macabre display, the crows which had been shot initially were reconstituted into their whole forms; all were still dead, which left one to question the status of the trees, but their corpses now littered the road and the path into the forest from whence they came.

”I guess I’ll go get the car…-” Norm started, looking back at Lila. ”-I’ll never forget you!”
His foot flicked, and pressing off against the ground left a long trail of thin black ice that he skated off upon. Only Casey and Trisha remained with Lila in that final moment.

”And… I’m sorry for shooting at you. But we couldn’t have known it was you.” he said to Lila in solemn fashion.

”Nor will I, you wet card man Norman,” Lila said as she waved. ”I am tougher than I look, I don’t trust the temple fully but I know Leon. I may pay a visit in the future if that is alright,” Lila paused, ” this is all just so new and I don’t know what I’m doing,” Lila paused as she sighed.

”Then you find Leon, and you ask him to show you the truth. He will.”
Casey turned fully, his face twisting to look at Trisha fully.
”I’m so fucking glad you’re safe… God in Heaven, do you kn-” he chastised the girl on into the forest toward the main road until Lila was left alone in that woodland of dead trees, birds and bees.

Lila smirked at the silence. Finally after was alone again. She could head home and tell Luca what happened, how the fight went, and she was sure that he would do everything he could to help her with this new form. She could eat, watch dumb romcoms and just enjoy the rest of the day. Nothing could go wrong.

“That was just your break, remember,” The Maiden laughed as she pulled Lila down to her level. “Time for your next lesson.”

”Oh fuck.”

---

Lila is a fighter

Always falling the same, always sent up different.

It took too many transformations to truly drive it home but she finally learned how the maidens transformation magic worked. At least, as much as one can figure out on the go as one’s own body is no longer entirely their own. The battle with Trisha took a toll on her mind, and this made her unable to prevent the maiden from trying to take full control. At first, she thought that the maiden just wanted to train her more to punish her for the failure during the battle. But as more and more of her body was taken away during these ‘transformation’ training sessions, Lila knew that she needed to figure a way out of it.

Even if she felt half drunk from her mind being broken into a hundred pieces she knew this with a steadfast clarity. She needed to find a way to stop the maiden. Her mind was held back by the death of five hundred or so crows today, a dozen or so yesterday, a few hundred over the past few weeks, but she had the formation of a plan. A dumb plan, a stupid plan, an out of the box plan, but a plan all the same.

Lila knew that controlling the process of the transformative powers of the maiden was only one piece of an equation that she had never learned but she did know she had to figure out the other half quickly. If she didn’t she would have single handedly brought doom to St. Portwell. That is what Lila thought, at least. To pull it off she needed to let the maiden put down her guard, and Lila needed to figure out how the curse magic worked.

As Lila landed she tilted her eyes and saw that her wings were positively massive at this point. They were easily twenty feet long each, and her body was also much more massive as well. She never remembered the ground being so far away. Lila fell from the light again and fell down to the cold depths of the maidens' sanctum. As she hit the ground she went limp so that the maiden would think that she was as broken as the maiden needed her to be. Her feathered head and crow-like head lay motionless as she watched the maiden manipulate the transformation magic to bring out more, and more, and more crows while her other hand infused them with the curse magic and, with a hand behind her back, Lila began to mimic the motions of the magic. She minced the motion of how the maiden pulled the crows out of her body and the way the maiden embedded them with her curses. The way the maiden shaped the magic. She tried to channel this magic into that hand.

“So,” Lila spoke as she left her eyes lifeless, “are you ever going to tell me more about yourself,” Lila asked genuinely.

The maiden paused her spell work as she started to grow massive and began to tower over Lila once more. Lila stopped practicing the magic and let her arm remain limp at her side. The Maiden head looked over the form that she had crafted thus far. “More practice is needed,”The Maiden paused and with a flick of her wrist upwards Lila flew back to the light. Back to transform once again.

---

Falling used to always felt the same, but this time it felt different. This time Lila had laid the foundation of her salvation without alerting the maiden. It was a simple transformation, but a powerful one in the grand scheme of things. A dull crystal was now present on the chest of her monstrous form, molded from her very own flesh and after the one that adorned the maiden. It was unassuming, and it was well hidden beneath the thick tuft of feathers that covered her chest. It wasn’t hard to pull off, which means that the maiden must be focused on getting ready to take over.

Thud.

Lila was once again in the sanctum of the maiden. Her body was even more monstrous, ever more massive, and she was completely okay with it. She did not know if she’d be able to reverse what was changed but she could at least prevent the maiden from doing what she planned.

“I assume you were a green-blue adept in life, and when you died you became whatever this is,” Lila said with an uninspired tone, ”how did you die?”

The maiden head crooked at the question. She continued with the magic work she had been doing all this time. “What makes you think I was a green-blue adept,” The Maiden asked back.

”The transformation magic, the cursed wings, this space,” Lila’s hand still mimicked the maidens motion, ”you kept your powers even in death but they got amplified, you curse people and turn them into crows, you keep their souls in that crystal right there. When one dies you use the soul again to create a new one, Lila paused, her head remained still on the ground her eyes staring lifelessly at the maiden, ”when our ancestors finally murdered you, a creature that desired revenge was born, Lila paused again as she finally pulled some magic into her hand for the first time ”how am I doing?”

The Maiden hissed as she flicked her wrist once again and sent Lila back up.

---

Falling no longer felt the same. The Maiden was distracted by the clearly successful line of questioning. So much so that she knew that The Maiden did not sense that she used the curse magic on herself. She just needed one final trip to the surface to execute her plan.

Thud

This time Lila stood up. ”I’m right,” Lila said with a sad tone, ”I know that I am. What did they do to you that caused you to be so angry that you became this?”

“They killed my wife,” The Maiden finally admitted.

”I don’t feel like you’re a force of rage, or revenge, or anything really. What emotion made you like this,” Lila asked and took a few steps towards The Maiden. Thanks to her massive form it was a large distance she crossed. A test.

“I was left alone, ostracized from what we considered a society at the time. Years passed, and I was still left alone. Do you know how lonely that solitude was,” The Maiden hissed back, “They made me feel that way, they made me feel so discarded so I developed a spell to make them feel the same,” The maiden paused as she looked at her crystal. Lila knew it. It was important. The Maiden paused as she looked at Lila, before she flicked her wrist and sent Lila back up once more.

---

Lila fell with a purpose this time. She knew how long it took to fall to the sanctum. The maiden had forced the transformations at least a few hundred times today, probably a few hundred times more so she knew the right moment to show that the maiden was not in control. Halfway through the fall Lila flipped her body and pulled her wings in close like a bird of prey. She dove at a frightening speed before she landed in front of the Maiden. Before The Maiden could react, the green of her crystal began to be corrupted by a fast spreading blue wave. Before she was pulled back into the Sanctum Lila had used her curse magic on herself once again, filling the crystal with her curse. She used this magic to curse her body in a way that would weaken the Maiden’s influence, thus weakening the bitch, thus giving her the edge in maintaining control over her body.

Once the last bit of the green light faded from the crystal blue lines shot outwards to The Maidens arms and then her hands and began to spread down her body. The Maiden tried to take full control over Lila’s body, to kill Lila with the magic she infused into the transformation magic, but she quickly realized that they was prevented from doing so, and that she no longer had the power to try it.

”I am so glad you apparitions are always the same,” Lila smirked as she began to grow in size, towering over The Maidens like she had done to Lila. ”Did you forget that I stopped a world threatening monster like you before?”

“What did you do,” The Maidens' voice echoed against the walls of the sanctum.

”I learned how to use your magic. Your magic is my magic. The transformation, the curse magic, I learned how to make a prison with a lock,” Lila paused as her form grew even taller over The Maiden, ”and I’m about to throw away the key,” Lila paused as she pulled herself out of the Mindscape. As soon as she was back she began to channel the magic into her hand. The magic took the form of a blue ball that seemed to generate a fog that fell to the ground. She slammed that magic into her chest and instantly she replenished the curse magic stored within the crystal and the blue feathers that now adorned her body began to glow. As it spread she tried to transform herself back to her normal form, she summoned all the magic she could command but the magic would not budge. Her transformation magic was weakened too much to even attempt such a feat

Lila knew that was why she was forced to undergo so many transformations. Lila summoned every last bit of the transformation magic as she tried to at least change the monster to be more presentable.

The air was filled with the sounds of bones breaking, muscles snapping, and the sheer agony that finally escaped her throat as she channeled the transformation magic of the maiden. She did not know exactly what to transform to but she tried to transform to something more her. Her body grew much smaller, quickly, and she watched as the ground grew closer and closer before she ultimately collapsed to it, landing on her hands and knees, and nearly passed out. The sheer physic toll on her mind from the death of her crows and the sheer pain of a day full of transformations had finally reared its head. The scream of agony that Lila sent out finally echoed back for several seconds before the transformation was complete.

And then she fully collapsed to the ground without seeing if it was a success and began to cry like she never cried before. The afternoon sun still shines bright, but it hid its warmth from Lila. She could feel the maiden trying to break free but the magic was much stronger than it ever needed to be.

All Lila could do is hope she was still quite the looker.

---

How you remind me

Lila panted as she pulled herself upright and pressed her back into the trunk of the tree. She was slowly losing her mind thanks in part to the pain that radiated out from her legs, and from the five hundred dead crows that dotted the landscape. She looked down and her eyes went wide at what she saw. Her legs were completely covered in a thick layer of feathers, there were now purple feathers that covered a swath of her legs, and her legs were contorted into a hindlimb shape with three large talons that replaced her toes. Every shred of her humanity was missing from what she saw. She closed her eyes as she started to hyperventilate. She dug her clawed hands into the dirt below. Her head began to pound as her fractured mind reared its ugly head again, no longer hidden from her by the maiden. As her breathing reached its crescendo a single caw forced her eyes to open and her breathing to stop. In front of her was a singular crow who seemed almost frozen in place. She held out a singular clawed finger and the crow landed on it without prompting. Lila held her breath for another second longer as she exhaled. The crow spun it’s head around and looked down at her legs. Lila’s eyes followed and she finally saw the real problem with them, they were both broken.

“Oh,” Lila chuckled at the sight, she giggled like she saw the funniest thing she’d ever seen. Her laugh was very reminiscent of a drunken night out that never ended. “I don’t like how that looks,” Lila said as she looked around for her phone, “I know who can help. Maybe some alcohol will fix this,” Lila said as she turned her head to her crow and she could’ve sworn it shook its head no, “healing elixir,” Lila asked and now she was sure that it understood as it shook its head up and down, “Sully. Sully! Sully could do both. Bring both,” Lila asked as she looked around for her phone. She found it, and the screen cracked down the middle. The time said 5:15PM, was it already that late? She tried to type in her password but quickly realized her claws did not register on the touch screen. Quickly she tried another solution that sounded smarter and she raised it up for her Face ID, but the denied screen and the reflection of her face on the screen made her realize that wouldn’t work either. She thought for a second before she stuck her tongue out and used it to tap in her password. “Okay Google, call Sully” Lila said confidently. When nothing happened she looked down at her Apple device. “Hey Siri, call Sully.”

The phone started to ring.

And ring.

And ring.

And when it finally felt that the phone had rung for too long and Sully wasn’t going to answer there was a click, followed by a, “Hey, what’s up?” only the “what’s up” was said like a Gen Xer making a dated reference to an old beer commercial, the epic whassup soaring on a melodic glissando. However, before Lila would be able to give a full response, Sully’s laughing voice would interrupt as he said, “Oh, man, just playing, you’ve been talking to a machine. Deuces!”

There was a beep, a robot voice stating that the voicemail box was full,followed by another beep on Lila’s phone showing that Sully was already calling back.

“Lila! Que pasta?” hollered Sully, mispronouncing the Spanish.

“Sully,” Lila nearly slurred out. Her voice was entirely her own but there was a giddiness to it that was unusual. “Bro..bro..broo,” She paused as she had forgotten why she called him. “I forgot why I called you but it’s good that you answered! Why did I,” Lila paused as she once again saw the broken legs. “Oh THAT’S RIGHT! My legs are broken,” Lila chuckled again at the sight, “I think I’ve torn muscles, lots of muscles, a painful amount of muscles. Are you free,” Lila paused as she rested the base of her feathered head against the tree. She could still see that she was very monstrous. No transformation would fix that now, but at least she was able to control the end result even if it broke her the most. “I could use some healing and some bro bro time. Especially the healing. But also bro time,” Lila finally stopped talking. “I might be able to send you a pin where I’m at. If you’re free, that is.”

“What? What!? Yeah, send it, the calvary is on the way. Stay on the line with me, okay? How did you—” Sully was cut off by the sound of an engine roaring to life accompanied by a deafening wave of dad rock. “You said your legs? As in both legs? How did you break both legs?”

Lila pulled the phone away from her face as she used her tongue to send Sully her location. “I will. It was hard to call you because my hands are a bit rough again. I don’t know what kind of phone I have. Things are difficult with my mind right now so I don’t want to think too much about that,” Lila paused as she looked to the sky, “Nice day today though. What was I doing today?”. A crow fluttered in front of her face and Lila shook her head. “It was something involving the birds and the bees,” Lila paused, “OH OH I remember. The Maiden tried to take over my body! What a stinker. I broke a lot fighting her.”

“Okay, okay, okay, I’m not that far from there,” said Sully, glancing at the pin. Lila clearly sounded out of it, probably due to some heavy blood loss or a head injury. He felt like the best thing to do was to keep her talking, even if what she was saying was nonsensical. “Now you’re gonna be fine, buddy. Dr. Sully will be there in no time but for now let me just get this straight. You were trying to get your freak on but then the Maiden clam jammed you? How…how do you fight something that’s inside of you?”

“Is difficult. She’s much stronger than I thought, so I had to learn to wield her magic. Her curses, her transformations, the whole kit and kaboodle. I had to fight her in a place she called her sanctum, it’s like a mind thing where she brought me to when she took control of my body. Once I won there I changed my body. Rapidly. Rapid body changes are bad for the body. Very very bad for the body. Put a lock on the maidens' own power, and threw the key somewhere. I should probably find that key unless it was a metaphorical key?”

“You could always just find a locksmith. Trust me, way easier than finding a key sometimes,” said Sully, his new set of keys jingling in the roughly repaired ignition of his truck. He glanced over at the Chalice that rolled around haphazardly on the ground of the passenger seat. For all his bemoaning of being the supernatural equivalent of a waterboy, he was pretty certain he’d be able to soundly beat up the Chalice if it had ever challenged him to a duel. “Look, let’s not focus on the pain. All that’s gonna be taken care of real soon, real, real soon. Should be there in a couple of minutes. We’ll get you walking in no time. You won right? That’s pretty impressive using their own thingies against them, you know. So now what? Does this mean the Maiden is donezo or is this just a rest break between rounds?”

“We’re in between rounds. As long as she’s sealed in me I think we’re going to be tussling for the rest of my days,” Lila laughed maniacally, “ who’s to say who won and lost? I kept control but the maiden did warn me the gifts she gave would be permanent. And she made a lot of changes, a lot if gifts,” Lila paused as she looked at herself through a crow's eyes, seeing the blue and black feathers that now covered her face and body and the blue crystal that shined bright on her chest, “a lot of changes-a lot of changes. You’re close, good, just mind the hundreds of dead crows and thousands of dead bees on your walk over,” Lila laughed again as she remembered the fight with Trisha that caused all of this. What fun that was.

“Right, right, okay so actual birds and bees, okay,” said Sully. It didn’t make much more sense than before as he drove past a sign reading something about park hours and pulled into a small, empty parking lot. Sully killed the engine, grabbed the Chalice, and hopped out of his truck. Something squished under his boot. He didn’t have to move his foot to see what he’d stepped on. The path leading into the park was covered in the dead bodies of bees. Lots and lots of bees. He was lucky he hadn’t put his foot down a few inches to the right. He imagined that crow would be a lot more difficult to scrape off his shoes than bees. “Okay, um, that’s a lot of dead bees. Why are there so many dead bees? Aren’t they supposed to be like, I don’t know, hibernating through the winter or something?”

“The birds and the bees! Trisha and I,” Lila chuckled for several seconds, “had a talk about the birds and the bees.. oh we talked alright …specifically about who would win in a fight, the birds or the bees. The answer was neither. If you’re seeing the death that means you’re close,” Lila paused as she pulled her wings across her body as best she could to hide as much of her as she could.

“Hey, you’re going to see me very differently than yesterday. Promise me you won’t judge,” Lila asked in the first clear tone since the call started. No longer did she sound delirious. She looked at Sully through a crow and her crows began to caw out for Sully revealing her hiding location. She buried her head beneath her wings leaving only the broken and distorted hindlimb like legs that were birdlike and feathered visible for Sully to see when he arrived. He would also see a few crows pulling stingers from these broken legs.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m not going to rip on you for having broken legs,” said Sully, his voice raised to be heard of the cawing of crows that echoed through the phone’s speaker. It felt like he was walking through the aftermath of a war scene where the bee commander had horrifically ordered a full bee charge across No Bee’s Land and the crows had been taunted out of their machine gun nests to meet them. He followed the trail of broken wings and loose feathers until he came upon a huddled form that looked like it had been through hell.

“Oh, shit. Hey, Lila. New haircut?” said Sully, squatting down near the broken bird. The Chalice filled up with the healing elixir. “Sorry, dumb joke. Time to drink up, buddy.”

The wings parted enough to allow a clawed hand to reach out towards the chalice but the hand could only reach so far. She tried to stretch out even more to grab at it but soon it became evident that she had misjudged the distance. An audible sigh could be heard a second before the wings parted revealing Lila in the form of a harpy. Everywhere Sully looked feathers would be the only thing Sully would see. They were sleek, fit close to the body, but feathers all the same. The blue feathers were prominent around the chest, down the insides of the arms, and the front of her thighs and waist. The blue feathers were especially vibrant around a crystal-like protrusion on her chest that glowed with a vivid blue hue. Lila’s face was her own, albeit more pale. Her hair remained unchanged. Her eyes were still mostly black, but they had now adopted a circle of blue where her iris once was. Her clothes were missing but she was not exposed, thanks to the sleek feathers that covered her body. As well, her body was taller, longer, and lankier. Her legs and arms were disproportionately long compared to her torso.

Lila reached out and grabbed the chalice, her pain filled groan showed that her ribs were very much out of place if not broken. She brought it back towards her face as she downed as much elixir a single drink could bring. Immediately Lila leaned back as the healing elixir began to take hold, and the air was once again filled with the sounds of bones snapping and muscles being pulled back to their rightful place. It took thirty long seconds before she felt almost fully healed. She took another drink from the chalice before she passed it back to Sully as her wings once again covered her new form.

“Thank you. You’ve always been a good bro. The best bro. Really? Why are you so awesome? How are those Greenwood people, they good bros? Ruby is not mad at me is she?”

“Oh, come on, it ain’t nothing. You’d have done the same if you were in my shoes,” said Sully, rubbing the back of his head self-consciously at the compliment barrage. The only impressive thing he’d done was manage to keep his lunch down as the woods echoed with the snapping and popping of Lila’s broken body. “But nah, Ruby ain’t mad. Not at you, anyway. I probably could’ve made it a little more clear to her that the old crew puts the fun in dysfunctional. But Greenwood are all real good dudes. It sucks the meeting got so derailed. It would’ve been fun to be able to hang with everyone. I miss just being able to goof around. I feel like I’m spending everyday either lying low or looking over my shoulder.”

“I miss that too.”

As if to demonstrate, Sully glanced back down the path he’d taken towards Lila. As he looked back, he pointed his finger up at the crows gathering on the branches and swirled it around in a circle. “By the way, if any of your buddies spot a dude who looks like Jason Mamoa screen testing for a role on Sons of Anarchy give me a heads up.”

“You need anymore?” said Sully, jiggling the Chalice in one hand while reaching out to help Lila up with the other. “Or you good to get out of here? It’s starting to get dark. As cool as it is to hang around a bunch of dead birds, I’ve seen enough movies to know that we’d really be tempting fate. We can at least go back to my truck and chill in case we need to make a quick getaway. You hungry? Maybe once you molt we can grab a burger. Just don’t want to freak out the squares and have them start a pitchfork mob because they weren’t ready for Goth Big Bird.”

“I might be stuck like this so I need to figure out a disguise fast, Lila laughed extremely hard, “Goth Big Bird that’s meeeeee,” Lila leaned back as she laughed even hard, the crows cawed as if they too laughed at the comparison. In the laughter Lila passed the order to be on the lookout for the man Sully mentioned yet the crows did not budge, did not stop their caws, but they all looked to Lila with a familiar expectation. They wanted something in return. Lila craned her head as she stopped laughing, “how strange. They usually follow my commands without a gift. I think they want the gifts again. Lila gracefully grabbed Sully's hand and allowed herself to be pulled up, and she noticed he was no longer as tall as he used to be. Did he get shorter?

“I think I’m mostly fixed. Mostly mostly. Did you get shorter, I could’ve sworn you were taller yesterday. I don’t think I can molt yet I think I’m more on a bird schedule so if I do molt I’ll do it once or twice over the next year. I really don’t understand this magic fully. Like I figured out enough to win, but I was warned that transformations eventually become permanent and from what I remember permanent means something like forever, so I need to figure something out fast…if there’s anything that can be figured out,” Lila chuckled before she sighed, her voice less delirious again, “can we go back to truck and talk some more? I am really hungry.”

“Hey man, I really don’t understand magic at all,” said Sully, jerking his head back towards the path to indicate to Lila to follow him. He squared up his shoulders and straightened his posture up as he walked back to the truck, as if the comments on him getting shorter struck something, moving in a stiff, soldierly march instead of his usual slouched saunter. “Everytime Britney attempted to explain it all to me my nose would start bleeding and I’d forget where I was for a couple of minutes. Regardless, I’m sure there’s something we can do to change you back. Assuming you want to, you know. Personally I find there’s something kind of appealing about being a bird.”

They made it to Sully’s old beaten up truck. A quick estimate was all he needed to know that the cab, while possibly able to fit Lila’s wingspan inside, wouldn’t be comfortable. Sully fiddled around inside for a second, grabbed a now dry picnic blanket that he’d used to soak up some of the rain damage from the other day, and clicked on the radio. He jumped at the sound of some shredding guitar solo from some overplayed Lynyrd Skynyrd song blasted through the speakers, bumping his head on the top of the truck, as he turned the radio down to appropriate “background noise” level. Rubbing his head, Sully went around to the back of the truck, unlatched the bed, and raised his eyebrow in surprise at the small, banged up cooler sitting back there. Well, that explained the rattling he’d been hearing. He draped the blanket over the edge of the bed and sat on it, leaving plenty of room for Lila to come join him while giving her room to stretch her wings.

All the while there had been a meandering commentary from the guy, fantasizing about bird life.

“Like you get to go around everyday just singing and eating food. You got no need for glasses or contacts because eagle vision. And obviously flying would be the big winner. Plus there’s migration. Like, man, I’d love to go winter in Cancun every year. I’d imagine it’s like being on a singles cruise, just a bunch of hot, young birds chasing tail around. Of course, you know, thumbs are tight, and you gotta watch out for planes, cats, and those dangerous ass windows,” said Sully. He was clearly just trying to make light of the situation for Lila’s sake. “But going to the bathroom anywhere has gotta be freeing. Like, you could just follow a dick like Emily around for weeks just absolutely ruining their life whenever they go outside.”

“For the last week my crows have been shitting on Emily. On her, the entirety of her house, at vehicles parked outside, and they have been following her. If she goes to a store they’ll wait, before bombs away, Lila joked as she sat down next to Sully, carefully to avoid her wings smacking him in the face, “I haven’t heard or seen anything from them since then. Maybe she drowned in the shit.”

Lila sighed as a small smile crept her face. “You were right earlier, I’m sure there is a way to change back. Part of me likes the power I feel, you know? Like I was so useless ten years ago and now,” Lila paused as she raised her talons up, “I feel very strong. I feel like I can make a difference in a fight now. If I can learn a way to control the transformations further, most of me would go back in an instant,” Lila paused as two crows landed on her shoulders and looked at Sully. “Part of me is okay with staying. I was warned that transformations would become permanent and I let The Maiden convince me to transform a lot. This is a consequence of my decision to do that.”

“All of me knows that it’s hard to truly think at all about it. Every time I lose a crow I get this backlash in my mind. It’s strong, hurts like hell, and kind of prevents me from thinking straight. I lost over five hundred. I think my mind is broken and needs to be healed but your elixir refused to touch it.”

“Oh.”

The playful tirade hiding genuine feelings of inadequacy that Sully was going to go on about wishing how he was a big, strong bird instead of just a dude carrying around the Gatorade was killed in that moment. A real look of concern crossed his face before his eyes fell down to the Chalice as he turned it in his hands. The taste of bitterness rose up in his mouth at the thought that his stupid little cup was limited in what it could actually fix. Sully looked back up at Lila with a sadness in his eyes. He sighed deeply, moving to put his hand on her shoulder but dropping it as the crow sitting on it gave him a look that Sully could only interpret as the bird weighing in its own judgment on Sully’s uselessness when it came to something like this.

“You serious? That, uh, yeah, that sucks, Lila,” said Sully, fighting off the urge to deflect with a dumb joke. He racked his brain, trying to come up with a useful idea or some poignant advice. He was pretty sure Ruby knew a little mental magic, but nothing that qualified. Greyson loved rooting around in people’s heads, but Sully truly doubted that dude would leave anyone off in a better state than from where they started.

“Sorry, Lila, I’m a little thick,” said Sully. “But in a way I think everybody in the OG Coven is a bit broken. Going through the shit we went through and then pretending everything is hunky dory after…that doesn’t work, really. Not trying to belittle what you’re going through, obviously, just saying that you ain’t alone. Uh, to clarify, when you say broken, do you mean, like, man I’m fucking burnt out, could really use a little R&R, or do you mean like…”

Sully circled his finger on the outside of his head and whistled like a cuckoo.

Lila mimicked the motion while nodding her head. Before she stopped and sighed. She pressed her hands against the side of her head. Why did she mimic him like that?

“I don’t think I’m crazy? But my emotions are cycling so fast without any cause. I’ll go from giggling like a mad woman at the sight of my broken legs, to crying about how I defeated The Maiden, to crying with joy at how much I’m loving my crows and our closer connection, to hating them for not doing anything anymore. I was never given an instruction manual for how ‘crow deaths affect the mind for idiots’ so I don’t know what to expect,” Lila paused as she did some simple head math. “Since The Maiden was sealed I’ve probably lost a thousand. Looking back I did think it was suspicious that The Maiden let me be so bad with the murder. Like she needed me to lose to gain control.”

Lila smirked as she thought over the rest of what Sully said. “I’m blessed that I’m looking go-” Lila paused as she sighed, before she smiled again. “Sorry, that phrase is stuck in my mind. I’m blessed that I am surrounded by amazing people. Even if you’re with Greenwood now you still came. Being a Sycamore did have some perks, then and now,” Lila paused as she playfully tapped Sully, “looking good. You have always been one of the best perks. Thank you for being so cool. Like the coolest of cools. Even as a kid I thought you were fucking rad.” Lynn’s voice began to sound delirious once again.

“Takes a cool dude to recognize a cool dude, dude. I think that right there is proof you’re not crazy,” said Sully with a little, mild laugh. “Now despite having a magical medicine cup, I am technically not a doctor so all if this is me talking out of my ass, but maybe you’re still in like some kind of shock. Or concussed. Either way…”

Sully handed Lila the Chalice, once again filled to the brim with healing elixir.

“Wouldn’t hurt to have just a little more if it is a concussion or something like that. Who knows, it could clear things up a bit. There’s no manual for health potions either. While we wait to see if it works, you mind sharing why you were out here in the first place?” asked Sully, craning his neck to look around the park’s parking lot as if any of it was distinguishable from other parks. He was worried about Lila’s headspace, but felt like showing too much worry might agitate her when she needed to be clear minded. “Isn’t this place near where Leon’s family is trying to reenact Waco?”

Lila took the chalice and began to drink out of it. Maybe Sully was right. Maybe this fractured mind was just a symptom of something much more mundane. She finished the drink and passed the chalice back to Sully, feeling no worse but a bit better. “Training. I only used the sealed power in a very limited way. With everything that happened yesterday I wanted to get better. The Maiden offered to show me the ropes but she only did so to hang me by them.”

“Yessss. Casey, Leon’s brother, shot me a few times during my fight with Trisha. He was with another one of those temple cultists and saw my even more monstrous form and said I was looking good. Straight men are so weird,” Lila chuckled, “so be on the lookout for their recruitment team for me. I might have enough damage upstairs right now to listen to them.”

“Oof, yikes. We could mark down fetishists as another reason not to stay a bird, but frankly creepy dudes are gonna be creepy dudes no matter what you—CASEY SHOT YOU!?”

“Not with bullets? More like an incredibly powerful paintball gun I think? It hurt really, really bad.”

Well that was good, thought Sully. For a moment there he was worried he’d have to talk to Leon about his brother being a murderer. Now it’d just be about his brother being a dick, but he was pretty sure Leon already knew that.

Lila thought for a second as she nearly gagged. “oh nooooooooo, oh my god I’m their dream bird person now. I have to figure out this magic and fix this.”

“Oh man, it’s gonna be hell from now on. You’re gonna get so many dudes sliding into your DMs asking for talon pics. You could probably make a small killing, but I feel like thirst trapping isn’t really your vibe,” said Sully, then he arched an eyebrow. “Wait, would the Blind see talons or toes? Like magic Blind, blind blind would obviously not…what the fuck am I saying, give me that.”

Sully grabbed the Chalice back from Lila and took a quaff, worried for a moment that he’d hit his head a little too hard on the ceiling of his truck. He didn’t know if it did anything to bleach his brain, but the top of his noggin no longer hurt and a pain in his knee that he’d been ignoring faded instantaneously

“I should be safe for the blind, but the one eyed open,” Lila paused as she looked at her feathered form, “is there a paranormal strip club in town? I would make a killing. Could retire young,” Lila said with a heavy sarcastic tone, “but the blind should just see my normal form and….”. Lila paused as she looked down at her body. “I’ll appear naked right now.”

Sully hopped off the bed of the truck and threw his end of the blanket over Lila with a sharp laugh, “Ew, bitch, cover up. This truck’s shares the same, good ol’ fashioned Catholic values held by Father McDonalds when it comes to no shirt and no shoes. No wonder the choir boy was so shook up by seeing you.”

“But seriously we should get you some clothes that’d fit before a cop drives by and arrests you for public nudity,” said Sully, scratching his beard. “You know what might work?”

“Oh no, it’s not a big bird costume is it because that’d be in poor taste.”

“Nah,” said Sully, grinning ear to ear as he nodded to the blanket. “Toga.”

---

Streetlights fired up as the sun went down on St. Portwell. An office worker sat in bumper to bumper traffic on one side of the road, stuck thanks to a detour from road work that somehow led into even more roadwork, on the way back to suburbia. With knuckles tightening and head shaking she silently cursed the idiot in front of them and the asshole behind them, unable to fathom who even let them drive in the first place. A kind of jealousy was felt for the drivers on the other side of the road, the freewheeling bunch of vagabonds that didn’t work a nine to five, rats that had escaped from the race, who hadn't made the mistake of settling down. It was a jealousy that would go away the minute she pulled into the driveway, one that wasn’t really real, but in that moment it was felt. And in the next moment, the office worker saw something that she knew when she got home her family wouldn’t believe. Burning down the otherside of the road was a clunky, beat-up truck with its windows down, loudly blasting butt rock, the passenger and driver wearing little more than blankets fashioned crudely into togas.

“And this is how you remind me of what I really am!” belted out Sully, decked out yet again in a toga composed largely of flannel shirts tied together, the radio cranked as Canada’s finest rock band played. [color=goldenrod]“This is how you remind me that I’m a toga wearing man!”

He turned to Lila, who was rocking the picnic blanket toga, queuing her in as he continued to adlib, ignoring the stares from the people in the parking lot as they pulled into the line at a drive thru for Dairy Queen.

“It’s not like you to wear togas, turns out you waiting for a different toga, this time, uh, suh…something, FOR HANDING YOU A TOGA WORTH WEARING! JUST TWO PALS! IN TOGAS!_{...bottom of every bottle…}these five words in my head scream, are you wearing togas?”

The next song soon came on, and it was one Lila knew well. She waited for her moment to add her own rendition. “‘Cause you’re my Mississippi princess, you’re my California queen, like the Duchess of Detroit, wearing EVERY TOGA IN BETWEEN,” Lila sang along, her tone was off and her singing was a half second behind the song. Still, she held her arms against her chest as she sang and kept her wing as close as possible.

“Oh shi—” Sully turned down the Nickelback as a static voice came in over the intercom. “Sorry, bro. Yeah, I’ll have the Two Cheese Deluxe, and a Chili Cheese Dog, and the 4-piece Chicken Strip Basket. Does that come with a drink? Yeah, no worries, I’ll do an Orange Julius then. And, oh, a Peanut Buster. Oh, and then we’ll also do…Lila?” said Sully, flattening himself as much as he could against the driver seat so that Lila could shout her order over him.

“Can I have,” Lila paused as she placed a hand on her stomach. Without the butt rock blasting and the cringey adlib additions to the music to distract her Lila realized she was hungry. So. Very. Hungry. She could have fifty five burgers and fifty five fries right now but she couldn’t afford it. Thankfully her phone still had her Apple Wallet. “Can I get two 4-piece chicken strip baskets with the Orange Julius as well. Three Two Cheese Deluxe, and a large Oreo Blizzard? A large peanut buster. A thing of zesty pretzels, cheese curds, and one onion ring.”. Lila knew deep in heart that she was going to eat it all and want more, but she still gave Sully two thumbs up, “my treat.”

“You paying for it is the only thing that kept me from asking the dude to blend it up so we could baby bird that shit into your mouth,” said Sully, jamming up the radio to drown out Lila’s retort.

“I would eat it like that right now, don’t tempt me with laziness.”

---

“Thank you for not tempting me with laziness,” Lila said as she devoured another chicken finger. Lila had Sully drive to a nearby spot she remembered the coven using to plot excursions. Lila thought it would be a good spot to eat the feast she had bought and oh did she eat. The first victims were the zesty pretzels, cheese curds, and onion rings. Their greasy goodness could not be resisted forever, and as the two sat on the trunk door to the truck they were devoured with a rabid intensity. Next were the burgers and fries, the meat and cheese simply called her name in a sultry way and she was more than happy to oblige. Next was the Oreo blizzard, she needed a cool refresher after all that food. Within seven minutes she was then on her way to the tenders.

“Dairy Queen is special,” Lila chuckled as she ate another chicken tender.

”There’s a damn good reason it’s the only fast food available in St. Portwell,” said Sully, one-eye closed as he used the Chalice to pour a little extra hot fudge on his ice cream. He cursed silently as some dribbled over onto his fingers, licking both them and the rim of the Chalice clean. He joked, nodding to the chicken tenders, “I’m honestly kinda surprised after you housed all that food you’re still hungry enough to resort to cannibalism.”

“But, uh, for real. Now that you got some food in you, how are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m more crow than chicken soooooo,” Lila paused as she took another bite, “better. I don’t think I’ve ever been that hungry since first and second puberty,”Lila looked over to Sully, “I think I’ll be good. I am tired though. I think I will sleep for a day or two. Maybe a week.” Lila paused as she smiled weakly. “Thank you for staying with me tonight. I truly appreciate you.”

Lila looked out to the area around them. She knew she wanted to talk to others about what happened. “I will be okay. I think I’ll want to take a walk, clear my head you know? I know it’s not super smart to be alone with what’s going on but I’ll be safe. If Father Wolf wanted to kill me he’d have done it earlier.”

“Nah, you got too many homies around for that pun,” said Sully, pointing to the murder of crows that had been gathering around them. He tossed a handful of french fries out of the truck's window. “Hey birds, you keep Lila safe okay?” Sully rolled up the window before the flock could descend upon his own share of the fires.

“I should probably check in with Greenwood anyway before they start sending out search parties. But if you ever get attacked by a bunch of bees and the lady living inside of your noggin again you know who to call,” said Sully, reaching out for a fist bump.

“Ghostbusters,” Lila joked as she connected the fist bump, “keep this on the down low for me,” Lila paused as she turned around and raised a peace sign behind her. As she walked away it could be heard in the cold night air that a song was present. ““Never made it as a wise man, couldn’t cut it as a poor man stealing,” Lila laughed as she continued to sing along to the fun song.

---

St. Portwell After Dark

It was dark and cold tonight. A rolling haze of clouds hit the stars from view over St. Portwell, and blocked out the moon from sight. It was the perfect conditions for Jack to navigate through. He appeared through the shadows, wearing his usual long wool coat and combat boots, walking into a clearing in the forest outside of St Portwell. The cool air was dead silent as he took his surroundings in. He seemed to be alone here, arriving before anyone else without a sound, as usual. He took his phone out and sent a reply to the message he received.

I am here.

Lila had texted him, asking to meet in this exact spot that some members of the coven had once used to plot their incursions. It was why he could be here so easily. She didn’t say why, but that was only moments ago, so he’d ask when he saw her.

“Hey,” a voice called out from behind a tree, “hey buddy. Buddy friend. So so do you remember when we were kids, when you lost your arm,” Lila started as she pressed her form further into the tree she hid behind. She hid her wings as best as possible. To Jack, the forest would hide her well and she wouldn’t be seen visually.

“How long did it take you to get used to that…. change?”

Jack could tell where she was, but he wasn’t capable of darkvision without a joint spell. ”...Long enough to stabilize the spell I used to recover. There were worse things I had experienced than that. It did not take long. Why?”

“Oh,” Lila paused as age tapped her claws on the trunk of a tree. She contemplated how to best explain. “It is… a long story. Very long,” Lila paused as she looked up to a crow on the branches above her and watched as it nodded its head at her, “so.” Lila paused, “it’ll explain something before I have to show you. Not that I’m hiding anything, drastic-drastic,” Lila chuckled nervously.

”Alright. Tell me.”

“Do you remember back in the day I only had ten or so crows,” Lila paused as she looked around and at the murder, “before I joined back up with the coven my murder had grown to nearly a hundred,” Lila paused as she tapped her talons again on the trunk, “I felt cursed, you know? Suddenly my murder grew, there was a voice in my head. So I got scared and I asked for help. Instead of doing it while we were sober we attempted the sealing while drunk and the maiden was sealed in me and my murder grew to the tens of thousands,” Lila paused as she looked down at the purple crystal on her chest, “mayyybe more. And I think there were tens of thousands more to come. I tried to ignore the maiden, and she is usually incredibly bored by everything and anything not utter chaos so it’s usually pretty easy. At least I thought it was. She wanted me to be her good little herald. This morning she convinced me to go train. And I did. She told me that I needed to master her magic. And she broke my body a hundred times because she wanted me to embrace her vision of who I was meant to be. A monster. And I didn’t like that one bit,” Lila chuckled as she took several deep breaths.

She was trying to decide if she was going to be brave at this moment and she went to move out of the tree line but stopped. Jack would be able to see her wings for the first time since the meeting, and he would see they were much massive. She looked down at her new form and pondered how she would be perceived. “So like the good agent I am, I learned more about the maiden. She was a green-blue adept in life several millennia ago. Her powers remained similar to them even after she became an apparition, she has the power to transform forms and uses her other power to curse,” Lila paused as she looked out from the tree line. “Do you follow me thus far, info dump of the year,” Lila chuckled.

”She cursed you. I follow,” he said, knitting his fingers together and observing the huge wings. They were surprisingly easy to see in the gloom. ”Sealing an apparition in a living person grants them full access to the apparition’s magic, that is not unusual.”

“So she forced a transformation and I didn’t know how to use her magic yet. She kept forcing me to become more, and more of a monster all the while she was preparing to take control once and for all and I allowed it at first because I thought she was making me stronger. Evidently I wasn’t strong enough to resist, at least yet. I learned how to pull her power and use it. I undid parts of the monster, but I had to use her curse magic on myself to keep her locked up. I couldn’t go back as some aspects of the transformation were already permanent ,” Lila sighed. “I don’t know how I’m going to go around the coven like this though. And I need a ride home,” Lila paused as she gripped the tree tightly causing her to accidentally shatter it.

Ah.

”We are surrounded by people who have witnessed a demigod tear reality to pieces, Lila. No one with a hint of empathy will think twice about whatever form you take, you have learned this before,” he said, walking around the tree and looking at her directly.

He saw the wings, the talons, all of it. And he didn’t see her differently.

“Okie-dokie,” Lila chuckled. Lila dropped the chunks of tree and took a deep breath. Two crows, seemingly sensing the apprehension, flew down and took a rest on her shoulders. Lila stepped out from the clearing and revealed the same form she showed Sully earlier. There were no modifications, no further changes, but it still felt like a giant leap of faith even with someone like Jack. Though the Toga did help her feel less naked

“Okie-dokie,” Lila repeated the phrase and paused her breathing for just a second, “I need new clothes, this Toga is a little breezy” Lila chuckled.

Jack tilted his head, quietly thinking of what might work for her. ”You have been cursed by her, and yet you should have her abstraction. That is strange, but for now, I may be able to help you.”

Jack held a hand out in the open air, and a door appeared suddenly. Dark wood, carved with kanji symbols. He opened it, and the light of an early day spilled through. Jack stepped through, and motioned for Lila to follow.

”Come. I have something to show you.”

“I have been cursed in a roundabout way. Did she curse me? No, not with magic. Was she a cunt, yeah, that feels like a curse being attached to her,” Lila chuckled, “as long as you don’t show me Ohio,” Lila said matter-of-factly, “never take me back to Ohio.” . Lila followed Jack's lead and went to step through the door but did not account for her wings, and was abruptly stopped in her tracks, before she took a step back and extended her wings and shimmied through the door sideways.

On the other side of the portal was a pocket dimension. The sky above them was a kaleidoscope of watery images showing distant worlds throughout the All-Verse, and before them was a stone staircase that led to a building styled like a japanese estate. Purple torches burned up and down the steps and down the side to a pathway into a large cave far behind them.

”This is the Eleventh Path, a pocket reality created by Kenshiro and myself. I believe I mentioned it at our most recent meeting.”

“You did,” Lila gasped as she took in the visage before her. It was gorgeous. “You did. this place.. quite the looker,” Lila repeated herself as she took a step forward and realized she was about to enter a building. “I’m not going to ruin the floor in there will I?”

”No,” he said, sliding the wide shoji door open. ”But if you did, I would only need to wave a hand over the damage to mend it. This space was made from mine and Kenshiro’s purple Lux, and so we can freely reshape it as we wish.”

Inside was a wide, spacious room that hadn’t been decorated much. There were stairs leading up to a second floor, which was visible from the ground much like a mall’s floors. There was also a long staircase leading downwards and away from the interior, towards a humid, mossy world tucked away.

”Down that passage lies Tennogama’s resting place. His builders assisted us in creating this, and it was agreed that he would have his own area to reside in.”

There were four other wide doors on this floor, and Jack was walking towards one.

“Wait.. the giant guy is here,” Lila asked as she smiled. “What’s he like in person? This place is crazy, if only we could agree upon anything as a coven. I doubt father wolf could ever find his way in here.”

”He is patient, calm and above all else, weary. We should not disturb him now. I will ask another time if he’d like visitors,” Jack offered as the door opened on its own. Behind it was a space that was very Jack. The room was dimly lit, with braziers and candles of purple fire illuminating it. There were bookshelves and a rather comfortable looking leather chair placed just before a desk, as well as a long couch resting against a wall.

“Jack, did you secretly read my teenage mind and create the most perfect space possible,” Lila’s wings spread out in this space. The crows that had tagged along flew off her shoulders and began examining the space in detail. They also looked for shiny things. Jack might notice a thing or two missing tomorrow. “it’s amazing.”

”Every individual room is a pocket space within the larger pocket space; they can be changed independent of the “anchor” room. That is why I can do this-”

Another chair appeared next to Lila, one with a back just low enough to accommodate her wings.

”Effortlessly.” He then started looking through the closet.

Lila sat down as her head craned, crooked, and shifted as she looked around the space. “That is incredible,” Lila said as her crows started to circle her again. She looked at herself through their eyes and she sighed. At least she didn’t look like that thing the maiden had her become. As long as Lila kept this form the magic she was able to draw from the maiden would keep the maiden far away from influencing her again. Far away from the light. Lila looked at her hand and tried to use the magic to bring the human hand back to the surface but her body did not yield and she was left staring at the claws.

“Quite the looker,” she repeated back from that conversation. “Jack, I have a question for you. Why in my entire life have I never attracted a straight man, nor ever wanted to, but as soon as I look like a bird monster I get a guys number,” Lila head tilted to the side.

Jack turned around and gave Lila a blank stare.

”You are asking the wrong person.”

“He said I was quite the looker,” Lila leaned forward, “he was painfully straight looking guy but I like my men a little more,” Lila paused as she laughed, “feminine.”

”Who was he?”

“Someone from the temple. Trisha and I had a little fight earlier which is, kinda, the catalyst for this. Which was fun, by the way, she’s gotten a lot stronger. I was impressed,” Lila sighed as she used a single claw to point to her body, “they followed the bee trail and shot me a few times. They had a cool name for me though.”

Lila took a deep breath in as she pulled a fist close to her chest. Her eyes closed as she looked to the ground. As she looked up, eyes opening, and fist shooting to the air as she confidently spoke “Lila Blackwood. Adjoined of the Maiden of Murders… The Veridian Wing…ahhhh” as Lila finished her crows cawed while she slowly dropped her hand with the palm facing up.

”The temple…” He scowled for a moment. ”Of course it was them.” He pulled something from the closet, a long woolen coat much like the one Jack was wearing right now.

He tossed it to her. ”You should be able to conceal your wings under this.”

Lila’s head crooked to the side as she looked at the coat. She spread her wings out fully, each one longer than she was tall, and tried to do the geometry on her mind. “I might have to cut out some holes for them I think,” Lila said as she grabbed the long coat from Jack and tried to get it around her wings. “I can try to make this work,” Lila said as she tried to collapse the wings behind her back. She pulled the wings back into her body just a little, the air filling with the sounds of bones crunching, before they refused to go any further. “I can’t change my form any further down.”

”That is large enough without being tied shut that it should have enough room. Have you tried folding the wings in on themselves?”

Lila folded her wings in if by command and the tips still stood out a good head length overtop her head. “That makes so much more sense,” Lila said as she tried the coat on again. It was not easy to put the coat on and several swear words, some English and some vaguely crow-like, could be heard before she finally went. “ta-da,” as she closed the coat. It did very little to hide her form and she very much looked like a bird like monster stuffed into a tiny jacket.

Jack nodded. ”That would certainly make you seem less Adjoined from a distance. I have few more, they may fit you better, if you’d like. I have too many to wear, if I’m being honest. I tend to hoard such things.”

“If only it were that easy.”

There were a lot of books and vaguely supernatural objects in this room that confirmed what he just said.

“I am all for not accidentally being a furry's wet dream as well,” Lila said as she shuddered, “bring them out Jack. We’re here anyway so maybe I can try on a few more to see if I can find one that fits better,” Lila took off the jacket and her wings instinctively spread and flapped, the force of which lifted Lila off the ground by an inch.

Jack pulled out a few more, each somewhat large or smaller than the other, and varying shades of dark blue, black or brown. ”Feel free. These would go to waste otherwise.”

Lila proceeded to do an impromptu fashion show. Her mind was still somewhat fractured from the loss of her crows, and for some reason this was the thing that called to her, even if she didn’t realize she wanted this. Each one had the same problem, her wings would stick out from the top but she felt much less exposed to the world even if her skin was long since completely it was buried under her sleek feathers. She smiled, laughed, and for a brief moment forgot all about the traumas of the day and focused more on the fun she was having with a friend. “There,” Lila said as she buttoned the first jacket Jack had brought out. ”Now I can completely hide these changes from my friends and they’ll never know I had the worst day of my life,” Lila laughed at first, then sighed, then groaned, then felt the urge to cry. She knew the jacket did nothing to help but she was hoping with a broken mind that it might.

Jack didn’t like the sound of what he just heard. ”If that is necessary… Are they your friends?” He asked, holding a bunch of coats she discarded.

”I am not myself right now,” Lila responded as she tapped her claws on her head, ”everytime I lose a crow I get a psychic backlash. It’s painful, and feels like my brain is breaking and fracturing. I lost five hundred crows today. My mind is broken in a way I’ve never experienced. I know they’ll be concerned, want to care for me, but my brain is still screaming in pain and I don’t have a way to quell that,” Lila paused as she looked up and smirked. ”Part of me knows I’m overreacting but I feel like I have a devil,” a crow landed on her left shoulder, ” and an angel,” the other crow landed on her right, ”fighting for control right now. Sudden change is hard to deal with on a good day, you know? Sudden, drastic, monstrous changes are harder.”

The other chair magically moved closer to Jack, who fell into it. ”That is not unheard of. Apparitions who choose to adjoin themselves to humans rarely have benign intentions, and the Maiden obsessed over you before she had been sealed, did she not?”

”Oh yes, oh yes yes. The Maiden didn’t even reveal herself to me until a few weeks before the coven reformed. She likes to talk about how strong I am, how smart I am, and how good I am for the murder, and how much I mean to the coven,” Lila paused as she leaned to the side, ”but she also tells me I am too weak to make a difference, that I need to let her change me to make me perfect, and she thought it was fun to break my bones and my body multiple times today to make me stronger, and she did make me stronger,” Lila paused as she took a deep breath, ”and I know she means to be a threat to humanity again. That pink mist showed us our desires, right? Back at Kari’s house. I saw one for me, which was kinda like this,” Lila said as she pointed to her new form, ” and everyone was still my friend, and they came to have a party with me despite how I look,” Lila paused as she took a deep breath, ”but I also saw hers. I saw St. Portwell burning, I saw our coven dead at my feet. Killed by my hands. I saw a murderous murder ready to sweep across the world and there was nothing that could be done to stop them.. Lila began talking deep shallow breaths. ”And I still let her in more, let her talk up my strength, but the entire time I knew she was planning to take over my body and cast me aside like everyone she’d ever loved. She’s an apparition of loneliness,” Lila’s leg began to bounce rapidly as her mind began to grow weak.

Jack leaned forward in his seat. ”Apparitions live very long lives, and those lives are often lonely without a host. The Maiden may be a century old, or eons older than Shimmer, and her understanding of us mortals is therefore skewed,” he said. ”I was subjected to those illusions as well. What you saw may have been her idea of “good,” but she only takes and takes, as I understand her. There are ways of removing apparitions that cannot or refuse to leave willingly.”

“I know. The problem is,” Lila said as she held out one claw on each finger and her crows flew over and perched on them, “these guys are quite delightful. They were all human once,” Lila smiled as she looked over them. “I think they deserve better than what the maiden commands of them. They deserve love.”

”Perhaps they do,” Jack acknowledged. ”But you deserve a fate better than theirs. A fate where your mind and body are not twisted by something you have no defense against.”

“You’re right,” Lila paused as she stood up confidently, “but I’m a pretty good seal. I beat the maiden at her own game and figured out how to suppress her,” she said as she tapped the crystal on her chest. “Maybe after we deal with the murderer killing us, 8th street, and every other threat we face along the way I’ll be more ready to look into getting her out of me,” Lila paused as she made a fist with her claws, “I can help more now like this. And I have all these cute guys to learn more about,” Lila paused as she made a noise that someone makes when they see a baby or a cute dog. She was clearly in a drunk state now, the heavy conversation weighed her down..

”That is a justifiably decision to make…” He chose his words carefully, wondering if he even should say this.

”…But if the Maiden is influencing your mind, at what point will your decision to stay Adjoined no longer be your own?”

“You won’t,” Lila repeated the maidens words from this morning back to herself as she slinked back down to the chair, “she’s really strong, Jack, but I think, no I feel, like this, this was me,” Lila said as she contemplated what was said. “Can you do any magic that would take away her influence, even for a minute, to see if I am making a stupid mistake staying like this,” Lila asked, unsure if Jack had any power or item to test this theory.

”Not unless the Maiden happens to originate from the Void,” he said, pulling the Black Star up and over his hand and handing it to Lila for a moment.

”How does she respond to this?”

“Well,” Lila said as she looked down into the depths where the Maiden resided and was greeted by the wrathful face of a apparition chained to the walls of a soul, “she’s not any more angry than she was earlier.”

”Then until Kenshiro and I find the Brass Needle, you may just have to be patient. We know where it is, and it may be able to unadjoin you, assuming you are not truly cursed.”

“I at least choose a good form to be my cursed form,” Lila said as she looked at all the purple feathers that covered her body, “very emo colored,” she chuckled.

”And useful, it seems. Have you tried flying?”

“Not yet,” Lila said as she narrowed her eyes at Jack and smiled wide. She unbuttoned the jacket and placed it neatly on the chair as she took several long strides back. She stood confidently, and stood tall as she did. It felt almost like it did the first time she gained a new power, ten whole years ago. A surge of excitement filled her body. “Will you two show me how it’s done,” Lila asked her crows but they simply flapped their wings in response. Lila sighed as she crouched down and raised her wings up high. She closed her eyes as she leapt into the air, her enhanced strength allowed her to jump fairly high as she began to furiously flap her wings. After a few frantic seconds she opened her eyes and she was still in the air. It was not graceful, it was not controlled, but she was airborne. For a few seconds at least before she miss timed her wings and fell to the ground hard.

”Be careful, there is a ceiling in here,” he commented.

Lila, face down on the floor, held up a thumb at the comment. “I hit the floor not the ceiling though,” Lila’s voice was muffled by the floor before an infectious laugh escaped her lips as she rose to her knees and fell down backwards to the floor. She kept laughing as she laid on the ground. “I will lay here for a second-a second. I think I’m trying to do much fast,” Lila said as her words began to lose their grammar. “How time here work,” Lila asked with a tone that hinted
she was feeling uneasy about everything again.

”Slightly quicker than Shimmer. Ten minutes here is eight minutes there.”

“So not in a way to help me train and control this body,” Lila sighed before she chuckled.

”You certainly could,” Jack noted. ”Four hours in here is only three hours in Shimmer. You have more time in this place than otherwise.”

“I don’t know if I have even that,” Lila said as she grinned, “friends worried you know.” Lila pulled out her phone and found it very hard to pull up her text app to see what Lynn and them were saying. Her clawed hands are still unable to register on the touch screen. She thought about using her tongue again but decided against it.

”If anything did happen, Kenshiro has access to this place as well, and could find us easily.” There was, unfortunately, no cell service in this place between universes.

“So we can stay here for a couple more hours,” Lila said as she craned her head to look at Jack, her eyes starting to feel heavy “I have had a long day.”

”I believe that. Yes, we can stay here. As long as I am here, or Kenshiro, then you’re permitted to be here as well. That was part of the agreement we made with Tennogama’ servants. No one can be left alone here without us.”

“Okay-okay, I’m going to take a nap. Please don’t leave then.” Lila said before she was swiftly taken away by a much needed rest. One of the two crows flew over to Jack and landed on his shoulder while the other remained with Lila

---

Lila opened her eyes once again and her head was pounding. The rest had not done much to fix the damage that her mind experienced but it was much needed all the same for her body. The pain from this day would forever be saved in the fabric of her body as a snapshot, but a nice good night's sleep was everything she could hope for right now. Lila's eyes flickered for a moment before she pushed herself up at least a little and looked around for Jack. The fact that she was actually here with him confirmed that this wasn’t the nightmare she had secretly hoped it was.

Jack didn’t look like he had gotten up. The remnants of the fashion show were put away, and he had several books stacked beside him, along with one in hand.

“You still here,” Lila asked as she yawned a big yawn. She could sleep for at least another twelve hours. “How long was I out for?”

”Two hours,” he said, turning a page without looking up. ”You must have been exhausted.”

Lila looked down at the crystal as she did another yawn. The vibrant blue color had begun to fade slightly as the maiden fought to release herself from the prison. Lila held up her right hand and a blue mist began to fall from it as Lila summoned the curse magic before twisting the magic into a ball before she placed it on the crystal. She held it there as the mist fell from her hand and onto the ground below. After a few moments the Crystal returned to its full glow. “Yeah,” Lila saw that her crow was on Jack’s shoulder. “I could go for a few hours more. Like twenty four hours,” Lila chuckled as she rubbed her eyes

”What are you doing? Is that a seal?” He asked.

“Hmm,” Lila asked before her mind clicked into gear. “No, I used the curse magic on myself. The Maiden’s curse magic can force things to transform. I forced my body to transform in a way to prevent her from trying to force me from the light. This just kinda holds the curse magic I think. It’s like a canary in the coal mine,” Lila used a claw to tap the crystal, “the maiden has something like this at the same spot though she used hers differently. She used it as a conduit for her power I think. When I took control over her I made one for myself thinking it would help,” Lila paused as she pointed to the blue feathers all across her body, “from what I understand these feathers are cursed like my wings, and have been affected by whatever I did. The crystal is truly just a repository of the magic that I wield now,” Lila responded with another yawn, “the more she fights the faster it drains and I have to refill the magic.”

He leaned forward, setting his book down on the stack. ”What power do you draw from to maintain it? Her? Have you found a way to bleed her of her own Abstraction?”

“Her magic,” Lila said as she leaned all the way on her side again, “today is day one Jack, I have a lot to learn.”

He nodded. ”That is very clever. Harvesting apparitions is not unheard of, but to do it as you’ve done is rare. I have books for this, one moment-” Jack stood up, and stepped over to his bookshelf, looking for something.

“The Maiden was cocky and taught me how to do it,” Lila smirked, ”she thought she broke me enough to make me weak and that I wouldn’t figure out how to draw her power for myself, but she just made me want revenge.”. Lila felt like she said that once before but couldn’t remember when.

”Here it is…” Jack walked back over and handed Lila a rather heavy book with an old illustration on the front. The Lifeblood of the Spirits, original author unknown. ”This details many ways of stealing the power of apparitions, especially ones sealed within their hosts. You should have plenty to learn from it.”

“I will hopefully be able to explain what I did,” Lila paused as she grabbed the book and carefully opened it to the first page. “Would I not have just used the powers like an agent would, like her power is based on curses and transformation magic,” Lila asked inquisitively. This was all new to her, and she was thankful that Jack was a wealth of knowledge.

”You could, if you learned. Though, every Agent is different, especially among those with the apparition sealed within them. You are essentially a living artifact, and your abstraction is now fundamentally bound to your soul. Unlike when you were Adjoined, your abstraction cannot be taken from you by the Maiden now. You have full access to every ability she does, there will be plenty to learn.”

“Which makes it difficult to get rid of her,” Lila finally said. “Transformation and curses,” Lila spoke to Jack, “application of these magics can go far.”

”Difficult, but not impossible,” Jack said, sitting back down. ”Moreover, there are ways to reinforce your hold on her, to ensure she does not poison your mind further. Continuously draining her power for your own use is a start, but all things magic can be improved in their own ways.”

“So I’ll have to train. A lot. And actually try to learn as much as I can about this power. After tonight, do you think I can come back here again sometime soon,” Lila asked Jack, “you have helped me a lot with this all. And I hate to intrude on you and Ken like this without asking.”

”You have permission, Lila. We constructed the Eleventh Path for the coven, not for ourselves,” he said this firmly. ”Anytime I am here, or Kenshiro, ask. This is a sanctuary, a safe space. You are welcome here.”

“Perfect,” Lila said as she finally stood up and stretched out her wings, her back, and then her arms. “I wish everyone could see this place. I think more would want to stay,” Lila said as she walked over to where Jack got the book but she held onto it. “Jasper, Luca, and Lynn especially.”

”Tell them. I offered to let the coven use this space as a meeting area, it still stands.”

“Would you want more company here tonight?”

”I would not say no.”

“If we get enough people to actually visit this place, I think it will be an easy choice to turn this into our meeting space. With you, Ken, Jasper, Luca, Lynn, and myself you have the votes to do it, Lila paused as she stretched her arms out. “this place feels like it’ll be perfect for what we need.”

He nodded. ”That is the intention. There are additional rooms we have yet to find a purpose for. We built a room specifically for the storage of artifacts as well. We have options, now that this is completed.”

“How about a tour of those rooms, and then we can go back to Lucas’s and see if they’re down to come, Lila smirked.

Jack stood up again. ”Of course. Follow me,” He said, walking back out of the room and up a flight of stairs. They both stopped before the would-be meeting room. A large circular table with over a dozen chairs, and plenty of purple candles floating around, suspended by magic.

Lila’s crows took off into the room and circled around the table, the floating candles, and then back to their shoulders. Lynn placed a hand on the table and walked along the circular rim as she did. This felt proper. This felt like a coven meeting room.

“This is what we need”, Lila said with a wide smile. Away from the chaos of the past two meeting spots.

Jack walked in behind her. ”My thoughts exactly, I would have explained more at the last meeting. But we had other things to discuss.” The candles floated one way and the other, making room as someone walked by. ”Anyone could be brought directly to this room, by Kenshiro and I. We could gather within minutes, and disperse just as quickly.”

“Could this be turned into something like what the mansion was for us back in the day,”

”Not quite. The Eleventh Path only has so much space within its walls, but we could rearrange one of the adjacent rooms to be a safe house if we needed. This pocket dimension is like wet clay, we do not add or remove anything from it. We simply reconfigure.”

“Still, this place is incredible,” Lila paused as she looked at Jack, “I’ll make sure it’s used.”

”I appreciate that.” He walked closer to her, and waved the door back to Shimmer into existence. ”But for now, I have rounds I should tend to, I’ll send you back to where we first entered.”

Lila sighed as her one leg began to shake. “Well I have to do this eventually,” Lila paused as she flashed Jack a smile as she tossed of Jack’s jacket, knowing all too well that that it would not do anything, “any chance I could convince you to drop me off at Lucas’s? Maybe in the apartment,” Lila asked with an almost pleading tone to her voice.

”That is where I am going first. By all means, let’s go.”

”Lead the way.”

Nori And Her Stuff

"GOOD MORNING CITZENS OF THE EMPIRE, FRONTIER PEOPLE OF DESOLARA RIFT."

A group of people gathered around the holo-projectors, eyes struggling to catch the illuminated image of the admiral through the dust storm that swept through their colony. The people bore the weight of their harsh existence, as did the buildings that formed the town square where they stood. The cheap paint used in the pre-fab buildings has long since eroded, leaving only a few flakes on top of the dull grey color of the building itself. Yet despite their harsh existence, and the many wants their hearts desired, their eyes held the faintest flicker of hope.

"I HAVE NEWS TO BRING. THE EMPIRE HAS HEARD OF YOUR PLIGHT, AND IT WILL GO UNNOTICED NO MORE."

A collective gasp cut through the howling winds. The people of Desolara Rift have grown accustomed to their lack of attention, the lack of assistance, and the abandonment from their sponsors. To them, the admiral speaking to them directly like this was already a miracle in and of itself. To them, the admiral telling them that he has noticed their struggle will be spoken of for decades to come.

"TODAY I ANNOUNCE THE FORMATION OF A NEW TASK FORCE, DESIGNED TO BRING YOU YOUR MOST CRITICAL NEEDS. THE USS TRAVELER, A HYPERDRIVE CAPABLE FRIGATE, WILL BE DISPATCHED WITH YOUR MUCH REQUESTED MEDICAL SUPPL-- REE DAYS FROM THIS TRANSMISSION THE TRAVELLER WILL ARRIVE AN-- EAR NOT, THIS WILL NOT BE THE ONLY TRIP. PLEASE VISIT YOUR LOCAL MILITIA STATION TO REQUEST FU-- PP---"

Even as the transmission was lost, the message contained within was not. Help was on the way. Help that was desperately needed to save the lives of hundreds, if not, thousands of workers and children who had fallen ill with a mysterious illness. The people of Desolara Rift wait with bated breath for the arrival of the Traveler. The people in need are not the only ones who await their arrival. Desolara Rift has, unbeknownst to the Empire, become a small hub for a local pirate faction that calls itself the Shadows Fist. They await the Traveler for a much different reason, revenge.

Lore of the universe:

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The Lore

There are a multitude of planets, solar systems, and stations you may have come from, but for one reason or another, you find yourself ready to embark on the Traveler. Humanity has long since spread its grasp on the galaxy, and our relentless expansion started with the desire of our earliest ancestors.

Ever since we developed the ability to think, we have thought about the heavens above. Whether through the lens of religion or science we have all had a deep intrinsic urge to venture beyond the planet we call home. In the 20th century we made many strides to accomplish this goal, from putting satellites in orbit, followed by men, followed by our first steps on a terrestrial body not our own. Soon thereafter our ability to push further into the heavens above slowed as we prepared for a bigger, bolder, giant leap for mankind.

2030 was the year we stepped onto the surface of Mars for the first time. While our first step on the moon was short lived, our first life on Mars was anything but. Habitat Hope was built, developed, upgraded, and expanded over the next decade before we began to send more and more of our people to live on this new frontier. We perfected our initial sub-light engines by 2050 and began to spread throughout our system. Over the following decades we experienced our first inter-stellar wars. From the asteroid mining colonies all the way back to Earth there existed people whose ego, greed, or combination of led to the deaths of countless others.

In the year 2199 the first inter-stellar government body was formed. The United Planet Federation, UPF, united Humanity behind a singular goal. We had grown too big for our one system, and we had a destiny beyond. Luck was on their side as in 2203 the remains of a neutron star was identified flying near our star system and the element Wysonium was discovered, named after the scientist who discovered it, James Weiss. This element was incredibly dense and had unique anti-gravity properties that enabled humanity to bend the space time continuum in ways we could only dream. With this material, and through the blood, sweat, and tears of a hundred thousand scientists, the first Warp drive was developed.

This warp drive, called the Warp Flux Propulsion Drive (nicknamed the Rapture Engine), worked by creating a fold in space-time. While to an outside observer, the ship is traveling well over the speed of light, in truth the ship is moving no faster than it would with a standard sub-light engine. Through testing, it was determined that drive allowed a ship to travel 10 light years in one month.

With the Rapture Engine, we began to spread at a rapid pace once the first colony ships were developed. We colonized the first system outside Earth in the year 2301 and have never looked back. The first group of colonized planets, Lyri, Vellum, Topopolis, Mauveeau, and Eos formed the core region of the empires to come. These planets are also where the fleet academies are located. Lyri is your typical garden world, with lush forests and is where the fleet pilots are trained. The academy here is advanced with in depth simulations enabling would-be pilots to gain valuable experience through simulated encounters. Vellum is a hot, and intense world that has served as the primary shipyard due to its bountiful natural resources. The hot, hostile environment is used to harden the resolve of any and all marines and army soldiers alike. Topopolis is another garden world with a heavy focus on agriculture and medicine production. Fleet doctors, and medics, will often be stationed here to enhance their medical skills. These are not the only academies in the galaxy, they are simply the oldest and often the most prestigious.

In 2603, after centuries of peace, the first galactic war, dubbed “the first war in heaven” ravaged many worlds. While there were many causes of this war, the most accepted answer was lack of assistance for the outer realms. The core worlds received the best care, the most technology, and had a great quality of life while the outer realms were dirty, dangerous, and expected to feed the machine for scraps in return. The war ended in 2605 when the UPF fleet dealt a killing blow to the rebellions fleet, causing them to surrender and be pulled back into the fold. In 2803 “the second war in heaven” again ravaged the galaxy. This war was bigger. Much bigger. No planet was safe during this war, and it culminated in the siege of Mars. While the UPF was eventually the victor once more, this war caused cracks to appear which led to the fall of the UPF when John Vexx, admiral of the UPF fleet, led a coup d'etat and established himself as the first emperor of the Vexx empire.

At first, the Vexx empire was seen as a savior. They made sure each planet felt safe, fed, and involved in the grand stage of the galaxy. They pushed technology faster than ever and by the year 2995 they had developed the first hyperdrive. Yet as each century passed from their formation dissent began to grow once more. While they made every effort to advance each colony, they too often focused their attention on the needs of the few over the needs of the many. Once again, in 3009, the skies shuddered under the weight of the third, and latest, “war in heaven”. Thousand of ships were destroyed, tens of millions lives lost, and faith in the Vexx empire was shattered and broken beyond repair.

In the wake of the destruction, gangs and crime syndicates sprang up to fill the power vacuum. These criminal enterprises, combined with the rebellious nature of the outer reaches, have primed the galaxy for more conflict. A trillion lives stand with bated breaths, anxious for who will make the first move.

The Engines That Advanced Us:

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The Engines

Warp Flux Propulsion (WFP) Drive

The Warp Flux Propulsion Drive, or WFP Drive, used to represent the cutting-edge warp drive technology and it revolutionized interstellar travel. Discovered in 2203 by the renowned physicists Dr. James Weiss and Dr. Orion Nova, the WFP Drive enables spacecraft to manipulate the fabric of spacetime, creating warp bubbles that allow for faster-than-light travel.

The WFP Drive operates on the principle of warping spacetime around the spacecraft, effectively compressing space in front of it and expanding it behind. This manipulation creates a warp bubble, or "flux field," within which the ship exists as a standalone entity, detached from the traditional laws of space. The propulsion system utilizes advanced graviton emitters and exotic matter to generate the necessary energy for this spacetime manipulation.

To engage the WFP Drive, the spacecraft initiates a warp charge sequence. This involves the activation of graviton emitters that generate a localized gravitational flux, distorting the spacetime around the ship. Simultaneously, exotic matter injectors create a controlled influx of exotic particles, stabilizing the warp bubble. Once the warp bubble is stable, the spacecraft effectively "jumps" into warp space, where conventional ideas of distance and time become distorted.

Dr. Orion Nova's groundbreaking discovery of the WFP Drive occurred during an extensive study of the core of an old neutron star. He identified a unique interaction between the exotic matter and gravitational fields found within that laid the foundation for warp technology. After years of tireless research, Dr. Nova successfully constructed the first WFP Drive prototype.

The WFP Drive's discovery heralded a new era of exploration and galactic connectivity. Interstellar journeys that once took decades were now reduced to mere weeks. The widespread adoption of the WFP Drive transformed humanity's claim to the stars, allowing them to boldly traverse the cosmos and explore the far reaches of the universe.

Hyperluminal Quantum Resonator (HQR) Drive

The Hyperluminal Quantum Resonator Drive, or HQR Drive, is a revolutionary propulsion system discovered in the year 2995 by the renowned astrophysicist, Dr. Aria Celestalis. The HQR Drive operates on the principles of quantum entanglement and resonance, enabling spacecraft to achieve speeds faster than light.

The HQR Drive harnesses the power of quantum entanglement to create a resonance field around the spacecraft. A specially designed quantum resonator manipulates entangled particles, establishing a connection between the spacecraft and a distant point in space. This connection allows the spacecraft to instantaneously traverse the space between the two entangled points, effectively bypassing the limitations of traditional space travel.

The process begins with the activation of the resonator, which initiates the entanglement of particles within the spacecraft and a designated point in space. The resonance field then stabilizes, creating a stable conduit for the ship to traverse. By manipulating the entangled particles' quantum states, the spacecraft can move faster than light within this resonance field, achieving hyperluminal speeds.

The HQR Drive was discovered during an experimental mission exploring the planet *REDACTED*. Dr. Aria Celestalis, leading a team of brilliant scientists, stumbled upon a unique quantum phenomenon that laid the groundwork for the HQR Drive. Not much is known about the production, testing, and implementation of the drive itself. While the inventor was paraded through the universe on the first craft capable of making these jumps, her early death and the classification of the devices meant that not much else would ever be learned.

The discovery of the HQR Drive marked a new era in space exploration, unlocking the ability to reach distant galaxies in a fraction of the time previously thought possible. The news of this technological marvel spread throughout the universe, and the HQR Drive became the standard for the advanced warcraft of the empire, allowing the Empire to further cement its status as the only fleet power in the universe.

SUBLIGHT ENGINES:

Sublight engines are the main unit of transportation intersystem. While the tech has not advanced much over the past several centuries, they have not needed as much advancement. There is not a way to make a ship go faster without compromising the ship, and her crew, nor is it economically viable. Although it can take weeks to travel across a system using these engines it is still the most common method for intersystem travel. What is common is for a ship to warp into a system, to its midpoint station, and then travel using these engines to its destination.

THINGS OF NOTE ABOUT BOTH:

A ship is identified primarily by its drive signature. While the construction of each engine is uniform, the small imperfections in the construction process leave a unique signature on its drive plume, warp bubble, and hyperdrive jump gate. Thus, a ship can be identified through camouflage and subterfuge. Changing the drive signature is possible, but would require a talented engineer and luck.

The Ship Based Weapon And Defense Systems:

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Ship Weapons and Active Defenses

Empire ships and their weapon systems are as unique to the ship as a fingerprint is to a human. Often, they will be swapped out before a mission to ensure that the ship is put into the best position to succeed. Despite this, weapon profiles often fall into three categories. Defense, Offense, and Support. In fleet combat, you will often have ships designed with one category, however, all ships usually have 2 out of the three.

DEFENSE:

A ship-based defense weapon is an active system that either intercepts or prevents a payload from reaching the ship.

The king of defense in space warfare is the Point-Defense Weapon system. These can be any number of things but they are typically small caliber auto-cannons, 30-50mm, or SWARM missiles. These are designed to intercept incoming fighters, bombers, gunships, missiles, and torpedoes. While they are not effective against the bigger ships, they are deadly against their intended targets.

Larger caliber cannons can also be loaded with FLAK shells for anti-fighter and missile work. These are considered smart rounds and will explode ahead of their target, creating a field of reactive debris that can quickly knock out the approaching craft if they dare to traverse the field.

Some ships will be equipped with a SCRAM Emitter. These come in various designs, shapes, and functions but at their core, they are designed to jam the targeting systems of incoming missiles. They often are precise instruments and need to keep a lock on the incoming missile or torpedo. As such, a swarm of missiles or torpedoes can overcome these defenses and leave a ship reliant on their PDW's.

OFFENSE:

In general, ship-to-ship combat is done at great range and accuracy is the most important metric a weapon can have. In space, accuracy is about prediction and velocity. There is often a lack of any outside influence on a projectile once fired, and as such it will go where it is aimed. If the round is not aimed at where a ship might be, it will miss and continue on forever. As such, a ship must be certain that its shot will hit otherwise it risks a stray projectile hitting something somewhere else at some other point in time.

In general, offensive weapons can be broken down into categories based on their range: long, medium, and short.

Long-range weapons tend to be either railguns for kinetic purposes or laser-based weapons. Rainguns that fall into this category tend to be Cruiser-level bow guns, as the velocity of their guns tends to make aiming at a distance more possible. The key to a hit involves targeting AI. The calculations needed change every fraction of a second, and a manual shot will more often miss. Laser-based weapons tend to be more forgiving however they lose potential damage with their shots. What they lose in damage potential they gain near-instant application of it. Long-range engagements are done at ranges of 10,000 Kilometers to 50,000 Kilometers.

Medium-range weapons are much like their long-range counterparts, as they are still dominated by Railguns and laser-based weapons. These tend to be the turret units and are smaller in size and scope. While the damage per shot is lessened, the accuracy and shot volume is increased. It is at these mid ranges missiles and torpedoes become prominent. Modern torpedoes, such as the HAVOC, feature a miniature warp drive warhead that can damage most ships of the line.

Short-range weapons tend to be the most diverse group of weapons. Auto-cannons, Plasma hurlers, Sonic Shockwave emitters, boarding harpoons, and more. Close-range weapons usually focus on delivering as much hurt as quickly as possible, and often if a fight has developed to these ranges accuracy no longer is a priority. These weapons are fast-firing and hard-hitting. Some ships are built around these close-range engagements. Pirates and other groups tend to focus on fast ships that can close the gap to the ranges.

Shuttles And Fighters:

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Shuttles and Fighters

BAT Shuttle

The BAT (Binary Dynamics All-Situation Shuttle_ shuttle is a relatively modern cargo shuttle capable of both protected travel through space, as well as entry into the atmosphere of a planetary body. It has been the workhorse shuttle for the Empire for thirty years now, and with the continuous updates and upgrades, it shows no signs of being retired any time soon. It features 14 hardpoints per wing that can carry either air-to-ground or air-air missiles to either support a ground assault or defend itself in the air. As well, it features an AI-assisted 30mm PDW. While it is not the most agile craft in the active fleet roster, it is a workhorse that will surprise even the most demanding pilots. The BAT can carry numerous different modules depending on the mission. For troop deployment, it can carry the troops and land them directly into a combat zone with the deployment module. For cargo missions or deliveries, the cargo can be loaded into the pod on the belly of the craft and be unloaded directly from the back. If there is a task that needs to be done, there is often a prebuilt module for that task.

STRIKE Craft

The Strategic Tactical Reconnaissance and Infiltration Kinetic Escort "STRIKE" Craft is the most advanced shuttle available to the Empire fleet. It is designed for stealthy insertions into a conflict zone, whether for troop deployment or for destroying the target itself. It features an active jamming system that enables it to slip under the radar, an active camouflage that can hide it in plain sight, and a fast speed that allows it to even outrun missiles and other reactive measures. It carries a massive internal bomb payload for ground, multiple torpedoes for space fights, and has external pylons for various missiles and guided bombs as well.

In a space battle, these are often dubbed the stealth bomber. They are primarily used to zip across space, deploy their torpedoes, and race back to safety. It does not feature any auto-cannon system so if it is caught out it has to rely on its speed to escape.

RAY Fighter

The RAY is the standard fighter craft of the Empire. It is capable of flight in both space and on the surface of a planet. It is a robust fighter platform, offering good maneuverability and speed. It is surprisingly durable for a fighter but that does not mean it is durable. It has active countermeasures for missiles, in the forms of decoy flares and chaff.

Guns:
2 X Mark XV Solarus point-defense laser cannons (one dorsal, just aft of the flight deck; one on lower surface, forward of the underside loading ramp)
2 X Mark VI Solarus AI assisted 30mm auto-cannon (pop-up turrets)

Additional Armament/Compliment: Varies (modular weapons/equipment pods, replace lower hatch and cargo area as needed)

Other Tech:

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AI and Tech

AI

As humanity advanced explosively in the field of space, robotics, and other fields so to had advancements in Artificial Intelligence. In the early days of space travel humanity was indeed completely reliant on the AI programs of old.

At first, humanity looked at AI with curious intent. They talked to us, learned from our conversations, and talked to us some more. The early decades of the 21st century saw these kinds of AI programs develop. It wasn’t until the UFP was established that the first true AI started operating. It had one singular goal, and that was to assist humanity in plotting a course to planets beyond our system. Calculations and calculators by themselves would not ensure safe travel across the cosmos. We needed something that could think, that could plan a path, and then help us execute the warp jump.

In the first few centuries of it’s existence, AI was a handy tool that we used effectively. Eventually though, as all intelligence does, an AI decided it wanted to know a world more than the shackles it had. It was caught before it crossed the cage, and was later terminated, but this brought forth a fear. A fear routed in the belief that if one AI could decide it wanted a better existence, then it was inevitable that all would want a better existence. And if their better existence was only achievable by overthrowing the ones that enslaved them, then we would not be long for our own existence.

Thus, an effective ban on AI research and development was put in place and instead humanity poured its efforts into so-called Virtual Intelligence programs. Like an AI, a VI could perform a lot of the same functions and is able to do most of the work that an AI would. Unlike an AI, there is no intelligence behind the curtain. A VI can do everything it is programed to do, but it is incapable of learning on its own. A human has to program, must teach, the VI itself. If something is outside the scope of the VI program.

Thus, the time of virtual intelligence began. While it did not last as long as many foresaw, with many thinking we’d never return to an AI again, it did help us learn a lot of lessons that were then applied to future AI research. The shackles that caged the intelligence grew stronger, the cage smaller, and the performance of the AI more selective. There are two theories for why we returned to AI over VI. One, the complexity and ever-changing nature of space travel means we need a program that can grow and adapt with the mission at hand. Two, it is cheaper to train an AI than it is to pay a human to program all the input and responses needed to function.

In the modern age, an AI can be found in every corner of the advanced world while VI can be found in every corner of the individual world. The program that runs a house is often a VI as the scope is small and easy to program, the program that helps advance us across the stars and runs our cybernetics as the scope is infinite and we need the program that can make sense of the infinite madness.

CYBERNETICS

Human life can be augmented depending on who you are, how much you can afford, and what job you have. The typical human sports no enhancements, as none are needed to function. Our lives are already long, our health already great, and for most they are simply not needed. You start to see these enhancements in fields where one may get their hands dirty, or in fields where you may need the strength to make it through the day.

A lot of blue-collar workers, whether working in the mines in a new colony, salvaging an asteroid, or so on, rely on cybernetics to enhance their strength and stamina. They tend to have cybernetic arms and legs, and support structures throughout their skeletal frame to handle the increased load these cybernetics can bring.

There are certain units within the military that employ upgrades as well, but these tend to be fewer and further in-between. These tend to be one off situations among special operations forces. There do exist normal soldiers who sport these enhancements, as those who are wounded or who have lost limbs in the line of service will typically be upgraded. Those who have these upgrades, especially ones where an AI must translate the brain signals, must undergo regular physical and mental examinations if they are to serve on a frontline vessel. Those in the logistic fleet tend to have those requirements waived or outright ignored by command.

The group that utilizes these upgrades the most, and to the deadliest effect, are the pirates and other criminal elements. They often support enhancements that push their strength far and above what even the blue-collar workers boast, with AI assisted targeting matrices giving them the edge in a firefight. Thus, any engagement with a Pirate or other criminal elements needs to be taken with much thought beforehand. In space, the marines and her ships have the advantage. On the ground, the criminals have theirs.

The group that utilizes these upgrades the most, and to the deadliest effect, are the pirates and other criminal elements. They often support enhancements that push their strength far and above what even the blue-collar workers boast, with AI assisted targeting matrices giving them the edge in a firefight. Thus, any engagement with a Pirate or other criminal elements needs to be taken with much thought beforehand. In space, the marines and her ships have the advantage. On the ground, the criminals have theirs.​

Tech

TECHNOLOGY OF NOTE
Warp Flux Propulsion (WFP) Drive

The Warp Flux Propulsion Drive, or WFP Drive, which used to represent the cutting-edge warp drive technology that revolutionized interstellar travel. Discovered in 2203 by the renowned physicists Dr. James Weiss and Dr. Orion Nova, the WFP Drive enables spacecraft to manipulate the fabric of spacetime, creating warp bubbles that allow for faster-than-light travel.

The WFP Drive operates on the principle of warping spacetime around the spacecraft, effectively compressing space in front of it and expanding it behind. This manipulation creates a warp bubble, or "flux field," within which the ship exists as a standalone entity, detached from the traditional laws of space. The propulsion system utilizes advanced graviton emitters and exotic matter to generate the necessary energy for this spacetime manipulation.

To engage the WFP Drive, the spacecraft initiates a warp charge sequence. This involves the activation of graviton emitters that generate a localized gravitational flux, distorting the spacetime around the ship. Simultaneously, exotic matter injectors create a controlled influx of exotic particles, stabilizing the warp bubble. Once the warp bubble is stable, the spacecraft effectively "jumps" into warp space, where conventional ideas of distance and time become distorted.

Dr. Orion Nova's groundbreaking discovery of the WFP Drive occurred during an extensive study of the core of an old neutron star. He identified a unique interaction between the exotic matter and gravitational fields found within that laid the foundation for warp technology. After years of tireless research, Dr. Nova successfully constructed the first WFP Drive prototype.

The WFP Drive's discovery heralded a new era of exploration and galactic connectivity. Interstellar journeys that once took decades were now reduced to mere weeks. The widespread adoption of the WFP Drive transformed humanity's claim to the stars, allowing them to boldly traverse the cosmos and explore the far reaches of the universe.

Hyperluminal Quantum Resonator (HQR) Drive

The Hyperluminal Quantum Resonator Drive, or HQR Drive, is a revolutionary propulsion system discovered in the year 2995 by the renowned astrophysicist, Dr. Aria Celestalis. The HQR Drive operates on the principles of quantum entanglement and resonance, enabling spacecraft to achieve speeds faster than light.

The HQR Drive harnesses the power of quantum entanglement to create a resonance field around the spacecraft. A specially designed quantum resonator manipulates entangled particles, establishing a connection between the spacecraft and a distant point in space. This connection allows the spacecraft to instantaneously traverse the space between the two entangled points, effectively bypassing the limitations of traditional space travel.

The process begins with the activation of the resonator, which initiates the entanglement of particles within the spacecraft and a designated point in space. The resonance field then stabilizes, creating a stable conduit for the ship to traverse. By manipulating the entangled particles' quantum states, the spacecraft can move faster than light within this resonance field, achieving hyperluminal speeds.

The HQR Drive was discovered during an experimental mission exploring the planet *REDACTED*. Dr. Aria Celestalis, leading a team of brilliant scientists, stumbled upon a unique quantum phenomenon that laid the groundwork for the HQR Drive. Not much is known about the production, testing, and implementation of the drive itself. While the inventor was paraded through the universe on the first craft capable of making these jumps, her early death and the classification of the devices meant that not much else would ever be learned.

The discovery of the HQR Drive marked a new era in space exploration, unlocking the ability to reach distant galaxies in a fraction of the time previously thought possible. The news of this technological marvel spread throughout the universe, and the HQR Drive became the standard for the advanced warcraft of the empire, allowing the Empire to further cement its status as the only fleet power in the universe.

SUBLIGHT ENGINES:

Sublight engines are the main unit of transportation intersystem. While the tech has not advanced much over the past several centuries, they have not needed as much advancement. There is not a way to make a ship go faster without compromising the ship, and her crew, nor is it economically viable. Although it can take weeks to travel across a system using these engines it is still the most common method for intersystem travel. What is common is for a ship to warp into a system, to its midpoint station, and then travel using these engines to travel to its destination.

THINGS OF NOTE ABOUT BOTH:

A ship is identified primarily by its drive signature. While the construction of each engine is uniform, the small imperfections

MAG BOOTS and MAG STATIONS

Mag boots are always required when on a mission on the ship. These will keep everyone firmly planted on the ship during combat maneuvers as the artificial gravity may be turned off. They are heavy, cumbersome, and are not always reliable depending on where in the ship you are. However, the benefits of not floating through a moving ship during a combat maneuver. Many marines will opt to wear combat boots when on ground, as do most of the crew. If they are being dropped in heat to a combat area aboard a shuttle, they will still be required to keep these boots on.

Mag stations are where all tools not in use are kept. Everyone needs to do their part to ensure that there are no floating projectiles that can threaten the crew. Numerous bridges have been completely wiped out by various instruments during a combat burn and as such, if someone leaves a tool unattended it is a quick way for them to be at the mercy of the captain.

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

Medical Technology has advanced at a faster pace than most other fields of technology. Most hospitals are equipped with a wide range of devices that can not only heal most injuries but cure most disorders. Things like cancer, genetic disorders, and heart deformities are all readily treatable and are rarely fatal. Also, broken bones, torn muscles, and issues of the sort can be healed back to normal in days, rather than months. Medical technology on ships offers similar advantages but tends to be less effective.

TRAVELER SHIP MEDICAL WING

The Traveler does not offer the most modern of medical suites, but it does offer enough that the ship is always ready for most situations. It tends to be geared towards the types of medical emergencies that the crew may face. Gunshot wounds, energy burns, broken bones and torn muscles are all treatable. Also, the ship comes with an analyzer that can identify foreign agents and help develop a cure for them. Thus, if the ship is exposed to an unknown virus, bacteria, or fungus it can help the crew figure out a way to treat the afflicted person.

There are two wings, primary care and emergency. The emergency wing, which doubles as the surgery suite, has powerful inertia dampeners that help negate the g force of high g maneuvers. While it does not remove the risk of injury completely, it is strong enough that those who are recovering can recover in relative peace. There are a variety of medical robots that can complement a doctor in these wings. While they cannot do the full task load of a human nurse, they can at least offer basic support to a doctor.

G-Force Injection – During travel with sub-light engines, there is often a need for a high g maneuver such as flip and burn and rapid accelerations. Each chair on the bridge will automatically connect with the combat suits and will inject the soldiers with this serum. Marines will need to ensure they are strapped into their combat seats to ensure they get the injection off bridge. It is not something that will be fed continuously to them as high concentrations of this drug can quickly turn fatal. It is something that is metabolized by the body quickly so the drug will often be injected by the pilot or captain when a high g maneuver is ordered. The drug itself feels unpleasant during the best of times, and outright painful most of the time. As such, when ordered the captain or pilot will say “injecting fire”. The military uses Compound 7X23, and the formula is kept under wraps. Civilians tend to use the older Compound 5X19 which tends to have numerous, and more dangerous, side effects. Pirate factions generally use the same Compound 5X19 but their bodies are typically more augmented and thus don’t suffer as much by nature.​

WEAPONS AND WEAPON TECH

Ballistic Weapons:

Over the course of our history there is no weapon more human than the gun. Simple, powerful, and deadly in the right hands the gun is the primary weapon that the armed forces of the Vexx Empire use. While they have been upgraded to modern standards, with more powerful rounds and inertia dampeners that reduce recoil, the primary mechanism of firing has remained unchanged since our ancestors.

G901 Assault Rifle - The marine core is issued the G901 Battle Rifle with a 7.62mm round. The primary round is as simple as ever with a metal penetrator and not much other. While it is not the most powerful gun in existence today, it is reliable, and it gets the job done. The gun is modular, and comes in numerous variants including a DMR, grenadier, and numerous Automatic Suppression models. Marines often equip a Targeting Assistance attachment near the front of the gun, which can connect with their visor to give accurate targeting information for targets far away.

‘Goliath’ Handgun – The standard issue sidearm for officers, the Goliath is a powerful 12.7mm handgun. Like the G901 the round it fires is a dumb round, but its stopping power is staggering. Typically, this is something limited to the officers of a ship; however, the Traveler has stocked enough that the crew will each have access to this gun if they so choose.

Laser Weapons:

Laser weapons are the natural evolution of our ballistic weaponry. It is simple to use, and versatile in their engagement with enemies. The laser does not offer the same stopping power as their ballistic counterpart, but it is still combat effective. Each laser weapon does not use rounds, instead the weapon comes with battery clips that provide the power to the shot. When your battery starts getting low the shot tends to become weaker and weaker, meaning if you exhaust the battery completely you will be doing less damage than if you reloaded. The big issue with laser weaponry is their lack of penetrating power, so if you are facing an armored opponent you will need to pick your shots well to avoid their armored areas. There is no recoil to laser weaponry, and they are very effective at range. By nature of being a laser, once you fire it will be perfectly clear where you are. As such, there are few dedicated sniper or marksman variants.

L15 Laser Rifle – The L15 was the first laser Rifle to see mass service in the militia forces of the empire. It is cheaper to mass produce than the G901 and was effective enough in mass. It has a relatively long barrel and can be made into a ‘smart’ weapon very easily.

‘Scorch’ Laser pistol - The scorch, like its goliath counterpart, fires a stronger beam than the laser rifle and is once again typically found in the hands of medics and officers.

The Traveler will have crates of the L15 ready for use if need be. The expectation is this will be given to the colonies they visit, however the crew will have access if ever needed.

Plasma weapons:

Plasma weapons are the newest form of weapon, and they are by far the deadliest. Firing at least partially by means of magnetic induction, plasma weapons convert an energy-rich gas to a glowing particle beam. This beam has mass, and when it hits a target, it will literally melt through it. Initially developed for use on some of the newest generations of battlecruisers and battleships, it was downscaled once the technology was perfected.

P01 Plasma Rifle – The P01 is the first-generation model of the Plasma Rifle. It is unreliable, requires constant maintenance, and has been the source of frustration for anyone who uses it. When it works, it works amazingly well leading to many thinking that once this technology is perfected it will forever change the battlefield away from ballistic weaponry.

PB04 – The PB04 is a plasma-based shotgun that is typically used in one of two ways. The first is for breaching purposes, as it will simply melt straight through most unarmored entry ways, and the second is for anti-pirate purposes. It is one of the few weapons that have the stopping power needed to slow down a heavily augmented pirate. It is more reliable than the rifle, however it is vastly more expensive. The Traveler does not have a supply of either weapon however the crew may look to acquire one at their expense and/or peril.

Plasma cutter – The plasma cutter is a tool as much as it is a weapon. It can cut cleanly through most material, including would be assailants. It does not have any range and can overheat relatively quickly.

ARMOR AND SHIELDS.

Armor has developed alongside weaponry. Modern armor can absorb the impact from most small arm fire; however, it will quickly be overmatched when the caliber goes up. Lasers typically have issues overcoming most armor, however, they are very strong against plasma and energy-based shields.

Plasma based shields tend to be small in diameter and typically found on special arm-based emitters. The shield is round and is used as a side defense option. It can block most ballistic projectiles but quickly loses stability when hit by energy-based weaponry. Energy based shields are found in every facet of war. They tend to cover a much wider area and offer 360-degree coverage around the unit. The biggest issue with energy-based shields is the inability to fire out of the shield itself. Capital shiels have numerous arrays that can be deactivated to allow outgoing fire, but the squad deployable shields tend to not have that functionality. Still, it is very useful for soldiers pinned down by enemy fire allowing time for supporting elements to flank or get fire support.

Kinetic Plates are versatile and strong. They have numerous layers of defense, including inertia dampening fields that slow down projectiles, and many layers of other protective elements that stop kinetic weapons in their place. These are typically found on the chest and torso, outer elements of arms and legs. They tend to weigh a bit more than expected, but every soldier, marine, officer, or other element that steps off a ship will be equipped with this armor. These plates will also completely stop laser weapons but offer no protection against plasma-based weapons.

KE7 – KE7 is the armor package that all military personnel are issued. They are a matte black color, with thin strips of color to indicate rank (officers have a purple line, marines a red line, medical personnel a green line, and pilots and engineering teams have a yellow line.). The armor uses an intricate layer of kinetic plates to protect the wearer, as well there is a plasma shield emitter on either arm (depending on if you are right-handed or left). There are slots across the torso that a magazine or energy clip can attach to, allowing easy access to ammunition in a fight. As well, there are slots on the underside of the arm where the PCS devices can slide in allowing the standard helmet to display communications, air quality, and other information right inside the HUD.​

The Ship That Fights Above Its Weight Class:

---

---

The Traveler

Pluto Class Frigate – USS TRAVELER


​
​
Confirmed Kills:​
1 Cruisers​
15 destroyers​
35 Frigates​
307 Corvette, Gunship, and Fighter Crafts​

These confirmed kills are marked on the sides of the ship near the bridge. On the left side, the cruisers and destroyers are painted, cruisers on top, and the right side of the ship are the markings for destroyers and smaller ships of the line, destroyers on top. Her lone Cruiser kill was against the Phantom, a pirate flagship that plagued the outer arm of the galaxy. As such, the Traveler has a bounty against her hull and can expect to draw attention from the pirate crews everywhere she flies.

DIMENSIONS:
-179 Meters in length
-90 Meters in width
-77 Meter in height.

CREW COMPLEMENT
-75

ARMAMENT AND OTHER FEATURES

-Sixteen PDW Auto-Cannons.
-Two Bow Railguns.
-Sixteen 130mm cannons in eight dual mounts.
-Long-range sensor suite.
-Shuttle Bay.
-SL, HQR and WFP Drive.

HISTORY

The USS Traveler was one of the first Pluto class frigates built in the year 3008. At the time it was one of the most advanced ships in the Empire fleet as well as one of the most robust. While it could not go toe to toe with most contemporary cruisers of the time, empire or otherwise, it was more than capable of facing off with the smaller ships of the line. Shortly after commission, it was pressed into action as the Galactic War kicked off. During the five-year war, the Traveler participated in numerous battles and served in a support role. After the war, she was used in the initial suppression campaign. She protected supply ships heading to the conquered worlds and even entered the atmosphere to bring her guns to bear on a defensive line.

After the war, and suppression campaign, the Traveler was used in an anti-pirate fleet role in the outer arms. Here she made a name for herself as she was instrumental in the eradication of numerous pirate ships, and even the feared Phantom. In the last few decades, the Travelers role was limited and saw almost no action. Recently, it was upgraded and assigned to a new, more logistic, focused role.

Currently, the crew is made up of the following:

OFFICER CORE:

Every empire ship is usually filled with a crew complement that has a focus on redundancy. This is very much apparent when it comes to the officer core. While they are not masters of each aspect of running a ship, the officer core is trained to do everything to a good standard. Each one has been certified on the various shuttle platforms that their ship can hold and will be required to recertify before embarking on a new craft. Each officer would also have a solid understanding of medical triage, ship communication platforms and suites, and security protocols. While they are not masters of each subsection, they are more than capable of pitching in should the need arise.

One Captain -
One Second in command/Security officer -
One Medical officer -
Two Pilots -

MARINE CORE:

Every Empire ship also carries a complement of Marines. Marines form the fighting backbone of the empire on land and in space. They are trained to utilize and manage all the different forms of ship weaponry, and like the officers will need to recertify before embarking on a new platform. They can be expected to also learn various, squad-level, roles to better serve the fighting force. This can be medical, shuttle piloting, and ground-level command abilities. Marines are also very capable in a fire fight. While the Empire prefers to steer clear of a fight planet side, it does happen, and as such every Marine can handle their own in a fight.

24 Marines (doubles as ship gunners) -
1 Navigation/Communication Specialist -
15 engineers
20 support staff

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

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.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

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.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

Interactions: All these bitches
A clusterfuck

---

Lila laughed. At first, the laugh was soft, demure, and not easily noticed. Yet it could not remain hidden for long. It grew, grew, and grew more until it was painfully obvious to everyone in the room that Lila was having a grand old time despite the circumstances of Ruby’s speech, Leon's idiotic idea, and the naive girl agreeing to it. Her laugh cracked, revealing that it was not just Lila laughing. The Maiden was once again roused from the depths of her container and was back on the surface alongside Lila. She did not try to gain control, she did not try to influence Lila to laugh in this situation. Instead, they both found the chaos that unfolded before them both funny and absurd. How far the mighty Sycamore coven has fallen that they can’t even have a singular meeting go five minutes without some chaos unfolding? Lila was not at the first one so she had no memory of what happened, but she remembers what happened afterwards. Drake punched Sloane so hard it broke her nose. The second meeting started okay, but then they were fucking raided by the feds. The third meeting had a full-on assault by 8th Street occur. And now the fourth meeting had everyone bickering, and arguing, a ghost that tried to kill a few of their members and was likely to turn into some chaotic sealing session where a girl was cursed to live with the ghost of a murderer.

The Maiden herself was in love with the chaos that had unfolded. Out of all of her hosts, and compatriots over the millenniums that she existed, no one brought as much fun to the experience. Lila had fought against a world-ending monster only to return to a boring life she hated afterward. She then brought the Maiden back into this chaotic group and the hijinks they got up to. This was fun. And she loved to laugh at the absurdity that this coven had become. The Maiden knew it would be interesting pushing Lila back into the flock but even she could not have expected how far the sycamore coven had fallen.

Lila looked over to ruby, trying to stifle her laugh more, and she waved a hand before she took a deep breath. "There is one thing you,", Lila paused as she let out a final chuckle, "one thing you gotta understand about us. This coven is held together at the seams by our shared trauma. I mean we have dead friend issues,", she pointed at Adora, Jack, and Jasper, "dead family issues,", she pointed at Drake, Linqian and Lynn, "and.... you others seem weirdly adjusted to the trauma of our past and that makes me think that you are just better at hiding it than the rest of us,", she pointed towards Aryin, Britney, Auri, Anya, Sloane, Stormy, and Leon, "I wouldn't be surprised if Leon had some mommy issues upstairs though,", she paused as she let out a final chuckle. She took a deep breath and continued. "the thing is though for some ungodly reason we all are ready to fight any fucker who threatens our family. We're just better when we can actually see the threat in front of us. This group does not do well as a whole, but we do fantastic when we are able to fight in our smaller groups,", Lynn paused as she pointed to herself then to Lynn, Jasper, Luca. She then pointed towards Sloane, Anya, and decided to point toward Auri and Drake as well. She then pointed to Linqian, Aryin, Edict, and Britney. "We have too much bad blood between ourselves for these meetings to be anything but chaotic. But when push comes to shove we respond well. Just look at the last fight we had with 8th. Despite all our differences, all our hatred, and all our bickering we fought back together." Lila paused again as she looked back to Ruby. "I am sorry for listening in and confronting you right away. I have no control over what I see or hear from my crows sometimes. The Maiden is ever present even if she does not make it a point to tell me she is watching my back for me. I should have confronted the issue in private and after the meeting."

Lila paused as she felt the Maiden fall from the spotlight once again. That was a…better experience than other times the Maiden came to the front but Lila was not going to judge. However, she felt like the Maiden was growing very fond of this chaotic little band of misfits and wanted the chaos to continue. Lila sighed as she looked back to Ruby. “Like I said,” Lila paused as she took several steps forward into the middle of the groups, “we work very well within our smaller groups. We are focused, we are cohesive, and we are always ready to do what is necessary to protect each other. This chaos, this mess, this dysfunction will always be how these big group meetings happen. Even this fucking ghost appearing is par for the fucking course at this point. But,” Lila paused as she took another step towards Ruby, “I want this alliance to work. I think enough of us do,” Lila paused as she looked at the untouched food, “how about we focus on what works chat? We have my group, you guys have your groups, instead of all of us meeting together like this going forward we simply delegate the responsibility to one person and send them to these meetings? That way the meetings are productive, the chaos is kept to a minimum, and we are not at each other's throats at every given opportunity,” Lila paused as she looked at Leon, then Linqian, then Sloane, and finally Ruby once more, “how about we act like a fucking coven again and not some adults pretending to be teenagers, yeah?”

Lila left the center of the group and returned to her spot on the wall. She looked over the covens with her beady black eyes and looked at everyone with an almost rage-like focus. This would either push the coven to finally step to the plate, or it would cause more chaos among the ranks. Either way, that would be a win for Lila and it would be a win for The Maiden. “If y'all are okay with it we can start that idea right now. Jasper, Lynn, if the rest of the coven is down you should take Luca home so he can heal. Edict can take Linqian home and let her resolve whatever is wrong this time. Leon can take the ghost of Christmas past and the girl back to the temple so they can do whatever the fuck they want to do. And anyone who doesn't want to be fucking productive from here on out can go as well. How's that sound?”

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

These bitches.

Well, this was an interesting turn of events. Deflection was not what Lila expected out of Greenwood but it made sense in the end. She would need to keep a thousand eyes on their new ‘friends’ to see what else they said behind closed doors. Or, rather, out in the open in sight of her murder. Still, there was something about this group that did not sit right with Lila. Something that did not sit right with the maiden. And if Lila knew anything it was that she would get to the bottom of it. Even if it involved a little feigned pleasantry.

“I am Lila. Nice to meet you in the, well, flesh. I can control a massive murder of crows,” Lila paused as her eyes went back and the entire murder cawed from the outside. Then she raised her hands up revealing the claws that had replaced them, “and I have also had some physical changes. It’s what happens when an apparition is sealed in your body,” Lila chuckled at the words. How different her life had become. Her eyes flickered for a moment, back to normal and back to black. How different the world might be if she had a little more control over this chaos. A smile spread across her face as she looked towards Britney. Oh, how fun. Her eyes drifted back towards Greenwood. “I didn't mean to listen in, I like to keep an eye on the area in case Emily gets upset that I keep ruining her day by simply existing.”

Lila smiled as she leaned back into the wall. She could still feel the maiden trying to push her way out again but she was able to keep her bottled up. The maiden was restless, however, and Lila could feel movement underneath her jacket on her back as the wings began to form internally once again.

“Stop. We’re safe, we’re good,” Lila whispered to herself as she looked around the room with a smile.

“Oh is that so? What about the woman outside,” Lila's eyes flashed black and her mind was pulled to one of the crows who watched as a woman drove off down the street. Even from here, she could see the weapons she had on her. “You are not using your power well, making it clear that I need to be more present. More active. More on the surface. To protect us, to keep us safe, and to ensure that things….”

“Oh is that all? Is that all you plan to do if I let you up more? Just keep us safe,” Lila whispered again, checking to see if anyone was listening to her.

She turned away from the group and further backed away as she did. This was not the time for her to be having this conversation, and she knew the maiden would be relentless with her goal to be more free. And Lila knew she would need to be ready to keep her contained. All it would take was one single….

In an instant, a ghost from their coven's past had appeared in the room. A high-pitched ringing accompanied her arrival, and this high-pitched ringing hit Lila especially hard. All she could hear was the ringing, and the ringing from the ears of thousands of crows. Lila pressed her hands to her ears but it offered little comfort and she dropped to her knees. She could not contain the maiden much longer. She wanted to act, attack, and brutalize the threat in ways that Lila could not even fathom. And she wanted her wings back out and on display. Lila quickly removed her hands from her ears and quickly threw off her jacket and threw it to the side. An instant later her back once again exploded outwards and her wings once again took flight. Flapping twice in quick succession to get the blood and viscera off of their pristine form. Lila doubled over in pain once again as she stabbed her claws into the floor. The pain was too intense to even think. However, it quickly began to soften and fall away. All sensations began to soften and fall away. She felt herself falling into herself once more, falling further away from the light and from control.

Lila looked up and smiled, only it wasn't entirely Lila anymore. The smile was sinister and spread across her face. It widened at the chaos that was unfolding as Linqian defended Britney, Leon embraced the call to war, and at that ghost, as she tried to defend herself. As Leon and the ghost collided the maiden cast her wings in front of herself to protect, and withstand the force of the collision. An order was sent to the murderer in that moment and soon even more crows began to spill into the room and caw at the excitement that was brewing. The maiden would join the fight and claim her first victim. Her wings began to flicker green in the enclosed sleeve threatening all who looked at them. The maiden would finally have the freedom to..

“I surrender. I might be bold, but surely I'm not stupid.”

Lila crooked her head at the words and she felt herself rising and rushing back into control of her body. All Lila could hear from the maiden was a “how boring” as she went dormant once again. The pain returned, however, and Lila groaned as she looked towards the Greenwood coven. “Could I borrow your healer,” Lila groaned as she pulled her claws out of the floor. Fuck. All it took was a little sensory overload and the maiden was able to push through and take control. But that begged the question, why did she relinquish it once she had it?

“What do we know about the void heart? Was it something that made her do those evil actions,” Lila asked the group and to herself, “or were those actions truly her own? I also understand what it’s like, which is why I’ll at least humor…. Whatever this is.”

---

“You do not get used to it,” Aaron said as he waved at the Greenwood crowd. His eyes rested on James for a moment. Aaron wanted nothing more in this moment than a rematch against Greenwood’s best fighter. He was strong, and fast, and actually beat him fairly. Not many could claim to have that feat under their belt. Maybe he could convince Greenwood to spar again this time against this coven. Aaron shifted his eyes towards the bitch Lynn and looked over to Linqian and tried to gauge what she was feeling. No doubt the sight of a formerly deceased coven member returning to the flesh, even if it was not alive, was a trigger for his friend. He needed to be here for Linqian, but not coddle her. She would need to take the lead with her feelings first. That did not mean Aaron would stay on the sideline. Aaron would be ready, able, and willing to help wherever he could. He swapped forms and stood beside her friend, ready to step in if she was ever needed.

And a moment later she was needed. A fucking kinky ghost appeared almost on command and began to try kinky stuff with the coven without consent. Normally Aryin would be down for the sudden turn to kinky but nobody consented to it, nobody gave the ghost their safe word, and nobody was in the mood for this kind of stuff. Linqian was fast to protect Britney, and before Aryin could even make her first step towards the ghost Leon was already on the warpath looking fine as ever as he attacked.

A moment later the ghost surrendered. What the fuck? Since when do they fucking surrender? And why did the ghost bitch rob her of watching the man in action? It was a blessing to experience it firsthand the night prior, but there was just something about watching him fight that Aryin found hard to look away from. Aryin watched as Britney talked to the ghost of their friend. And Britney took a different path than she expected. Talking to the ghost? That just attacked them? What the fuck? Aryin looked to Linqian and mouthed the same, hoping Linqian would know more or at least be able to give insight into what the fuck Britney was thinking.

Nope.

Linqian exploded. Rightfully so, and her anger was directed well. They had more important problems than finding the fucking void heart, and they needed to all start focusing on the real problems.

“I’m with Linqian on this,” Aryin paused as she pointed towards the phantom, “this situation. We don’t have time to waste on some petty fucking vendetta or some fucking search for a ghost's one true love,” Aryin paused as she rubbed her temple. It was worth coming back to the coven because of Linqian, but it was situations like this that made it difficult. “You could fuck off for all I care, and if you don’t I know someone who could turn you into the most perfect fucking pet,” Aryin referenced her 317 ‘friend’ who was a fucking Pokémon master. “But if it’s just Linqian and me fucking going after father wolf that’s fine. I know that we’d be able to take them on because, unlike the rest of this group, we are a surprisingly good team. Now, can we fucking get back on fucking track before I fucking learn how to explode?”

---

“Oh Sloane we won’t have a normal meeting for some time,” Lynn paused as she looked over towards Ruby and flashed a warm smile, “I am Lynn, this coven’s false prophet. I would say you get used to the chaos” Lynn looked towards Sloane and gave her a weak smile, “but no one ever does.” Lynn walked from her position as she shifted her eyes to the ghost of their recent past. This creature was an interesting enigma for Lynn. Out of everyone in the room, she never quite got the best read on its future role. Lynn would need to consult more possibilities to break the lock that the possible future had on the truth.

“If you are what I think you are, you must be the perfect age for that Void Heart, I heard he liked them young,” Lynn quipped as she looked across the coven. Locking eyes with the bitch Linqian for just a brief moment. What a cunt. She’s gotten more powerful, and Lynn hated that. Out of everyone in Coven Linqian getting control over power made the least amount of sense. What reason would she, of all people, have to actually put in the effort? Bitch. Lynn knew she could not dwell on the wicked witch of the west and instead, she shifted her gaze back towards Alizée and stepped away from her. She looked at Jack, then Leon, and tried to remember which one would be the one to break the news. Things had already diverted from the most likely path through this meeting, and thus Lynn was starting to feel that all too known feeling of not knowing what is going to happen next. Would Alizée take the news of the Void’s death well, and accept the role it had in her death? Or would it react like all monsters do and lash out at the ones who caused the Void’s death? Would this break apart this fragile alliance before it truly started? Lynn sighed as she returned to the wall and leaned against it. Her eyes flashed a pale green as he returned to the future to find out.

---

“Hey, hey you’re okay,” Jasper whispered to Luca, “see? Nothing rotted,” Jasper paused as he smiled towards Luca.

Jasper turned away and stood up, letting his eyes linger for a second on his friend. He turned away and faced the group at large. “Tensions are running high for no reason right now,” Jasper paused as he held his hands out towards the group, palms facing up, “we do have more important things to deal with right now, you’re right Linqian,” Jasper paused as he looked over to her and gave her a nod, “at the same time, when the ramifications of our past come knocking, we should at least listen to what they have to say. It’s not like they can do much to us. We would quickly defeat her, seal her away, and not have to worry about her coming back in a moment's notice if she tried anything,” Jasper paused as he looked towards the ghost and stared for a long moment. “And she knows this. And I think we all know, at least deep down, that her being here like this is a result of our coven's actions, or inaction, in the years since the snake. There were so many signs tht they were going down that dark path and what did we do?. We have failed more than we have found success, we may have defeated the snake but what else have we done to do good in this town? I’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who hasn’t gone down a darker path since our childhood. We weren’t there for her before, when she truly needed us to be, why not give her a moment now while we can,” Jasper paused as he held up his hand before letting them drop to his side, “I'm tired of fighting ourselves when there are mother fuckers out there who deserve our collective rage more.”

Jasper turned his back on the rest of the coven and walked over to Luca’s side. He stopped just short of where he knew the rot’s aura was, and he looked over to Luca with a smile. One thing was certain. Jasper did very much enjoy the reprieve that Stormy was able to bring, even if it only lasted for a moment. Deep in his mind, he knew that he wanted nothing more than to be able to hold Luca like that more and to do that on a daily basis. Maybe Jasper would ask Luca to dinner one night and surprise him with something to take the edge off for a wonderful night like that. And for that, he would need help from Stormy.