4.44 First Blood

Orazia takes her witchitude very seriously, spending much of her free time crafting potions. Izalee told her she must look after the less capable members of her family, and she intends to do just that.

Currently she's trying for a potion that will get Acheron to sleep better... and she's already had some breakthroughs, they're all just too dangerous for long-term use. They need a lot of work.

She assumes his troubles are caused by sensing the minds of others as he slumbers, but it's only a theory. Acheron will not confirm nor deny it. He is just as much a mage in training as she is, and spends a lot of time practicing with her, but even when they are together he seems closed off to himself.

"I need to use the alchemy supplies," Acheron says, interrupting her thoughts.

Orazia smiles at him. "What for?"

Acheron presses his lips together in a thin line, thinking too hard before he answers, "You spend whole weekends in here. No one ever asks what you're doing."

Orazia shrugs. "That's true. But no one else but you in our house has the ability to imbue potions with the magic they need to work. If anyone would be interested in what I'm doing, it would be you."

I don't have time for this, Acheron thinks. He knows what he's supposed to do, but he has not seen all the moments that lead up to doing it. Much like he's seen a life with Claire, without ever seeing how he survives meeting her. "I just want to try something I was thinking about."

Orazia's smile turns to a small frown. The insistence in his voice when he told her he needed use of the alchemy supplies suggests he's in trouble, but he's trying to play it off as casual experimenting. Trying to get more information out of Acheron is like trying to brute force out of a Chinese finger trap, though—the harder one pulls, the more constrictive the trap becomes—so she backs off.

"Alright," Orazia says, stepping out of his way. "Suit yourself. The room is all yours. I wanted to take a closer look at Izalee's latest letters anyway."

Acheron waits for the door to close behind Orazia, then gets to work mixing up a translocation potion. Though he shares ancestors with Loki and Rain, and Eris, he doesn't have their psionic teleportation powers, their ability to just think about a place and go there, and so Acheron requires more carefully crafted magic to get the results he wants.

Acheron cuts the timing almost too close. Dysen is heading for the door when Acheron walks up to him and hurls a bottle full of glowing liquid at his shoes.

The glass shatters, and the released magic swirls momentarily around Dysen before its sparkles fade.

"What was that?!" Dysen demands to know, but Acheron only backs away, with no intention of answering. "Some kind of prank? I'm not in the mood."

 Dysen leaves the house, slamming the door behind him. Acheron smiles to himself and turns back towards the stairs, back towards the alchemy nook, but Orazia is standing there, arms folded.

"Prank?" she makes the word a question, many questions.

"Yeah," Acheron mutters, as he moves to walk past her.

"You're behaving very strangely, even for you."

"Orazia..."

"Yes?" she coaxes.

Acheron winces. Whatever he wanted to say, his rational mind has caught up with him. "I can't talk about it..."

He returns to the alchemy table and works quickly, hands trembling. He'll need a second potion for himself to connect and teleport to the one he threw on Dysen.

Fairuza and Rock are hanging out with Lauren when Dysen catches up to them.

"I want to know what you got Molly involved with," he lays the issue down without preamble.

The other three teens look at each other, then back at him. Rock's eyes widen with curiosity, Lauren's narrow with suspicion. Fairuza's gaze darts quickly away again.

"Lauren, tell me what's going on." Dysen tries again, his tone more demanding this time.
 
"I don't know what you're talking about, tough guy." Lauren sneers, responding to his posture as it becomes more tense.

"She has ties to some smuggling operation, Fairuza," Dysen explains, turning to his cousin in the hopes she can talk sense into her friend so he doesn't have to. "And I don't know what else."

Lauren laughs at him. "Sorry, I WHAT?"

Fairuza finally looks back up at Dysen. "Can I talk to you a second?"

Fairuza takes her cousin aside, out of earshot of the others.

"Please stop making a scene," she begs him.

"What the hell?!"

"Rook will not be happy Molly told you about anything."

"Who?!"

"The... the boss," Fairuza says lamely, as she itches at her face, looking uncomfortable. "I think it may be a code name, not sure."

"What?!"

"Shhh! I don't want my boyfriend to know. Please."

This has gone places Dysen never expected. "Maybe you'd better tell me what exactly I'm not supposed to let him know."

"I don't know why I started stealing," Fairuza mumbles, shame evident in her voice. "I accidentally met this crime boss Lauren works for. He probably wouldn't have given me the time of day if not for..." she looks around, making absolutely certain no one is listening in, "if he wasn't a vampire, curious about other supernaturals around."

Dysen tilts his head, stunned to silence. He's not sure what the bigger news is... the 'stealing', or the 'vampire'.

Fairuza continues, a rushed flood of words, "He says he uses the funds to help innocent supernaturals get away from trouble. At first I was worried about Lauren and curious about how things went down, I was just a spectator, but then I wasn't! I get this sick thrill from stealing. I'm messed up, Dysen. I don't know what to do."

"Let me have a chat with this vampire."

"I can't get him by phone. I have to talk to Stan—"

"You want me to keep your secret from your dad or not?"

This time it's Orazia who interrupts Acheron. 

"Beeswax... sunstone dust... red valerian... red toadstools..." she shakes her head, "You're making concentrated sunlight, and a teleportation elixir. Why?"

"I can't tell you."

"I'm worried about you."

"I'll be out of your hair in a few minutes, 'Zia."

"I don't think so."

Acheron collects the liquid, freshly imbued with magic, in a bottle... just as Orazia completes her spell. Acheron senses immediately that something has changed about the very walls of the house.

"Dammit!" he raises his voice at her.

"I can't break through your mental defenses to force you to tell me the truth, but the wards I have set up won't let you leave unless you tell me what I want to know. So make your choice. What's it going to be?"

Acheron glares at her. "What about school on Monday?"

"I think you want to leave before then."

"Then I guess these wards come down!"

Orazia frowns at him. "You're not skilled enough to break my wards."

"Like hell I'm not!"

"Your choice then. If you mess up, my magic really will be able to force you to tell the truth."

The most common way to fight magic is with more magic, but doing so is always dangerous. Casting on another mage's spell exposes Acheron to the energies put in place by the other. Anything less than precision—

The wards fall haphazardly.

Acheron smirks at Orazia, then begins weaving a second spell.

"Wait!" she cries. "Where are you going?"

"To ruin some vampire's day!" he snaps.

The silence hangs in the air a moment as both teens looked shocked by the admission.

The Foundry isn't open at this hour, but Fairuza knew a way in.

"Rook's office is there," she whispers, though it looks like nobody is around to hear her.

Tabira sleeps in a crypt behind her father's tiny office.

Only the most powerful vampires float when they sleep!

Dysen is startled to see Molly in Rook's office...

...and Molly is surprised at the sudden appearance of Dysen and Fairuza.

Torian Rook is not surprised. "I sensed your presence and decided to not prevent you from entering."

Orazia struggles with Acheron, preventing him from activating the translocation elixir. "I know concentrated sunlight is an effective weapon against vampires, but I didn't let myself think you were actually going to face one! What's the matter with you?! You botched taking down the ward, now answer me!"

Acheron finds himself compelled to. "I have precognitive visions! I see possible futures and right now there's one I need to prevent that involves a vampire! He's already got Fairuza under his sway committing thefts for his organization and he'll manipulate the rest of us if he gets the chance but he won't get the chance because this timeline leads to us getting discovered by Supernatural Control because Dysen won't listen to me so I have to change the end myself!"

"Wha... why didn't you tell anyone else?!"

"Because in every timeline my mother finds out I have these powers, she gets killed by faeries or witches or vampires or worse! Now please don't tell anyone or make me tell anyone because I can't seem to keep my mouth shut right now!"

Dysen has some choice words picked out for Torian Rook, and Rook has the 'join me' speech of evil ready and waiting, but neither werewolf nor vampire get what they want because a meddlesome wizard poofs into the room with them and throws the concentrated sunlight at Torian Rook's face.

Or, uh, shoes again. Right.

Some days are just bad days!

Orazia was teleported along with Acheron, but she didn't have time to give him a fair warning.

"I... did not mean to kill him..." Acheron says, in just as much shock as the other four teens.




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Etc.: Rookie mistake.