Drake took a deep breath before walking into his apartment, he didn't even get this nervous when he was about to perform, but somehow facing his apprentice's wrath scared the hell out of him.
"Hey, Drake" Kris smiled from her position as she sat cross-legged on a chair-reading her encantus.
"Hi"
"What? No sarcastic comments? You feeling okay?" she asked putting her encantus down on the table, and walking up to him, placing her hand on his forehead.
"I kind of need to tell you something" Drake said looking directly into her eyes.
"You're not going to leave me are you? Because you swore to me Drake! You said that you wouldn't ditch me as your apprentice, and if you go back on that now-" she ranted, but was cut off when he put a hand over her mouth; he was getting a headache at this rate.
"Just, shut up a minute, I'm not going to leave you" Drake explained still with a hand over her mouth, "I'm working for some one at the moment"
Kris started mumbling underneath his hand before he decided to take it off, "That's great, is it for another show?" she asked finally being able to speak again.
"It's not for a show, I'm working for a sorcerer" he explained, taking interest at looking at the floor.
"Oh, okay, then who are you working for?"
Drake mumbled something but Kris wasn't quite able to catch it.
"Excuse me?"
"I'm working for Maxim Horvath" he confessed.
"WHAT!" she yelled, but he clamped his hand on her mouth again.
"Shut up! Just calm down for a minute" he slowly lifted his hand away.
"Drake, how did you get involved with a Morganian, and Maxim Horvath none the less!" Kris practically yelled at him, making him wince at her tone; she had never shouted like this at him before, and he would never have expected it from his apprentice.
"I don't know, it was a spur of the moment thing" he said nervously, "I've tried getting out of it but he's of the 775th degree! I'm only in his service because he'd kill me!" Drake argued back.
"What if I talked to him?" she asked grabbing her long black coat, and walking towards the apartment door.
"NO!" he put a hand on the door and spun around to face her; "he can't know about you, he can't even know you exist!" he pleaded with his eyes.
"Why? Maybe if I-"
"NO!" he yelled again, "If he knows I have an apprentice, then you'll get dragged into this as well, just… promise me you'll stay out of this. It's probably best if you don't stay here either, because he knows where I live" he said placing both bejewelled hands on her shoulders.
She looked at the pleading look in his eyes and caved; her master had never seemed so helpless in the time that she had known him, "Fine, just be careful, I don't want those abandonment issues that your master gave you," she sighed and went for the door again.
"Wasn't planning to darlin'!" he shouted after her in his usual persona.
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With her encantus in hand, she stood on top of a skyscraper. She wasn't stupid; Kris knew full well what was going on. She had read all about Horvath, Balthazar and Veronica in her encantus. She knew if her master was working for Horvath, then that meant he was looking for the grimhold, and that meant so was Balthazar; so she decided that she would find the grimhold, to find Balthazar and help him (she was a Merlinean after all) and maybe by doing so she could release her master from his service.
She found the page she was looking for, and cast the grimhold tracking spell, and waited until dark clouds appeared in the sky, signalling to her where the nesting doll, and possibly Balthazar was.
She walked on top of a steel eagle that was fixed to the corner of the skyscraper, and placed a hand on it. The steel made a small rippling motion, before the bird separated itself from the Chrysler building, and landed on the ledge, its wing lowered so she could climb on its back. She might be an apprentice, but she was very advance in her learning, nearly reading and completing most of her encantus.
The eagle dropped her off at an old subway turnaround, which she wasn't sure if she had tracked it to the right place, but she could feel magic radiating from the place so she thought she'd take her chances, and knocked on the door.
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"Dave you need to focus more, the plasma bolt is a sorcerer's most powerful offence, you'll need it to defend yourself against other sorcerers, now focus!" Balthazar repeated while he drank a cup of tea, he was really starting to get on Dave's nerves.
Dave tried making another attempt of a plasma bolt, when he heard a nock on the door, "Becky!" he took his padding off, and threw them in a pile, before sprinting up the stairs.
"Dave no, you need to train, you haven't got time to be hanging around with girls" Balthazar shouted after him, as he followed his apprentice up the stairs.
Dave ignored his master and opened the door, but instead of finding Becky he found a young woman that looked the same age as her, but she had brown hair with electric blue streaks, and wearing gothic clothing.
"Err, can I help you?" Dave asked puzzled.
"Is Balthazar here, I really need to talk to him" she asked hurriedly.
"How did you know I was here" Balthazar asked, standing next to Dave.
"Well, I figured that if Horvath was out of the urn, then you would be as well, and that you'd probably have the grimhold, so I used a tracking spell, and followed it here" she finished.
Balthazar pinned her by the neck magically to the wall and took another step towards her, "How do you know about the grimhold" he almost growled.
"Please, im not after it I swear, I'm a Merlinean for crying out loud! I only tracked it to find you, because I thought I could help"
"Balthazar, put her down" Dave said, placing a hand on his master's shoulder.
"We can't trust her" he said tightening his hold on her neck.
"Please" she gasped clutching her throat.
"Don't you think if she was on Horvath's side, she would have attacked us by now?" Dave tried to reason with him.
Balthazar thought about it for a minute before dropping her to the ground, "Fine" he sighed and walked back down the stairs to Dave's lab.
"Sorry about him, he's a bit cranky" Dave said as he helped her to her feet.
"Just a bit?" she laughed as he helped her down the stairs.
"Okay, a lot cranky" Dave smiled and led her over to a chair.
"Who are you?" Balthazar asked, eying her cautiously.
"My name is Kristine Stevens, im of the 345th degree, my master is Drake stone and that's why I came here."
"So you are a Morganian, I knew it!" Balthazar started walking toward her when Dave held up a hand to stop him.
"Let her finish" Dave mumbled.
"I came to you, so that maybe I could help. My master is in trouble, he's working for Horvath because it's the only thing that's keeping him alive at the moment, as soon as Horvath gets the grimhold, he kills my master, and I cant let that happen, so I figured if I help you, then my master has a better chance of staying alive!" she explained hurriedly in case Balthazar made another attack.
"I think she's telling the truth Balthazar" Dave said stepping towards Kris.
"So, Drake is actually on our side?" he asked.
"Both Drake and I are Merlineans, and we're both on your side, he just got mixed up in the wrong crowd."
"Fine" Balthazar sighed, "you can stay for now, but if you interfere, you'll end up in the grimhold" he said walking over to a chair and sitting down.
"Deal" she smiled and hovered in the air cross-legged.
"Dave, put your padding back on, you need to work more on your plasma bolt" Balthazar sighed and picked his cup of tea back up.
Dave grunted and walked back over to Merlin's circle, trying his hardest to make another plasma bolt, but they were all as bad as his first attempt, mainly most of them attacking him which defeats the object of trying to conjure a plasma bolt to begin with.
"Dave, why don't you try imagining what it looks like in your head first, you've seen Balthazar make one right?" Kris asked getting to her feet and walking towards Merlin's circle.
"Yeah, I remember him making one" he nodded.
"Just picture what that looks like, exactly how you saw it, now picture that same energy in your own hands, will it to happen, just imagine that spark of energy in your hands and then picture it growing" Kris said demonstrating as she made a plasma bolt and shot it into the brick wall.
Dave nodded and closed his eyes, picturing the plasma bolt in his head, and willed it to happen, making a bright spark appear in his hands.
"Now, hold it!" Kris yelled, "Picture it getting bigger, think of it gaining more energy, pull more particles into it and make it bigger, when you feel that it's a good size, release it."
"I got it, I got it" Dave mumbled making his plasma bolt bigger until he finally released it, and it made contact with a table, blowing up all of the papers that were on top of it.
"I did it!" Dave shouted taking his padding off, and hugging Kris, "Thank you!"
"Hey, that was all you" she smiled, "You just have to work on your aim more."
"What happened to not interfering" Balthazar glared at her from his chair.
"I was only helping Dave-" she tried to reason.
"I told you not to interfere, you know what the deal was" he said standing up and walking over to them, his voice laced with authority.
"What is your problem with me? I've said nothing since I got here, I've sat and played the good little sorcerer, I give your apprentice a little advice, and your acting like im trying to corrupt him!"
"I have a problem with you, because you can't be trusted!" Balthazar yelled back.
"Balthazar-" Dave started.
"You have a problem with me just because Horvath betrayed you all those years ago, that doesn't mean that im about to betray you as well, and I swore that I'd help you!"
"Kris-"
"I have a problem with you, because your master is a Morganian!" Balthazar shouted, but regretted his words when he saw her face drop.
She looked at Dave and then walked towards the stairs, not bothering to look at Balthazar before she left.
"Balthazar, you shouldn't have said that to her" Dave said walking up to him.
"I know" he replied looking at the floor.
"Oh!" Dave said noticing the time, "Becky's going to be here soon and im standing in a puddle of pop, I need time to clean."
"No, we haven't finished training yet"
"Balthazar, I've waited ten years to see this girl, do you have any idea what that's like?" Dave asked.
"Fine, but we finish this later" he said walking up the stairs.