Alfred must have somehow made it back to his bed in the guest bedroom for that's where he woke up the next morning. His head was pounding like a hammer on a nail; it nearly felt like one nasty hangover. But this wasn't a hangover from alcohol, this was a magic hangover and if Alfred's opinion it was the worse of the two. His entire body ached from his the tips of his toes to the top of his head while the area around his arm where the fire contract now was stung something fierce. Upon his attempt to sit up Alfred saw that the mark had been bandaged up for the time being while the skin outlining the bandages was red and somewhat swollen. What a party last night had been.

"I see you're finally awake, but after last night I'm not surprised you've been unconscious for this long." Alfred turned his head to see Arthur standing in the doorway, Reginald faithfully at his side.

"How long have I been out for?" Alfred inquired curiously, pushing a hand though his disheveled dark blonde hair.

"Most of the day, it's almost two o' clock." Arthur explained.

Alfred couldn't believe how late it was. In his skepticism he grabbed his pocket watch off the bedside table, clicking it open to discover Arthur wasn't lying about the time. Alfred closed the watch and flopped back down into the bed, groaning and layering his forearm over his stinging eyes. "Shit… I'm still hurting all over… is that next ceremony tonight?"

"Yes it is, the ceremonies must be preformed one after another. But this one isn't quite the same as the other one; it doesn't give you that burning sensation you felt last night."

Alfred moved his arm, looking up at Arthur hopefully, "So this one doesn't hurt as bad?"

Arthur bit his lower lip, looking away from Alfred's hopeful sky blue eyes and shifting his meager weight to the other foot. "Well it's… it's not really… well…" Arthur was struggling to find a way to sugar coat it, but it was obvious that that was an impossibility.

Alfred groaned again, putting his arm over his eyes. "It's still really painful, isn't it?"

Arthur nodded his head, "Yes it still is, but it's not painful in the same sense."

The wizard seemed reluctant to tell Alfred anything else and merely told the younger man that he would find out exactly what he meant soon enough. And so Arthur went off in solitude to prepare himself for the ceremony while Alfred went off to wrestle with his thoughts. There wasn't much for him to do seeing as how reading didn't really suit his fancy and knitting like Arthur did was far to girly for his tastes. He was weak and still exhausted from last night's ceremony, but he knew if had a drink he would feel a lot better and maybe even be more so prepared for the upcoming ceremony.

So off he went in the woods, stalking through the shadows of the trees as silently as a wood mouse in search of something to feed off of. He sniffed the air, searching for the scent of something like a deer, but nothing of the sort was carried on the wind. There was scent however, just not one of any animal. When Alfred lifted his nose to the air again and took a whiff the scent that came back to him was definitely human. Alfred wasn't desperate enough to drink human blood today, so he would merely linger in the shadows until they passed and Alfred could go back to looking for a deer.

He made himself comfortable in the crook of some winding roots to wait for the men to pass, mindlessly tracing circles in the dirt covered ground with a twig. "How's everything going where you are?" Alfred picked up on one of the men saying.

"Pretty good, at least the village is finally starting to recover from that shadow hound attack. I'm almost done repairing the roof of my house." Oh, so these men were from the village that Alfred and Arthur had saved just a few short days ago.

"That's good to hear. My house was mostly okay, but one of the windows was knocked out. I'm still waiting for a new window to come in."

"Be thankful that it's the warm season otherwise your poor family would freeze."

"Yeah definitely." Boring, idle conversation. Nothing interesting here. Alfred was about to tune out their little conversation when something one of them said caught his interest like a fish on a hook. "So did you hear about the big news?" Alfred perked his ears, curious about what could be so important in such a small village.

"No what?" The other man replied curiously.

"You know that famous priest, the one who performs all the exorcisms and vampire slayings?"

Alfred's breath hitched softly in the back of his throat. They couldn't be talking about the same famous priest that instantly popped into Alfred's mind. There were a thousand famous priests in the world. What were the chances of the two being the same? "You mean Father Braginski?"

"Yeah that's the one." Oh… of course. Why did the universe have to hate Alfred so very, very much? "So anyway, I heard that he's making away across the country and he's going to stop at villages offering help and blessings even help with supernatural problems too." Alfred stomach twisted and his throat felt tight. He protectively wrapped his arms around his knees and hugged them close to his chest as if he was trying to keep out the word from his little bubble.

"Do you think he'll come to this village?" The man asked in astonishment.

"I hope so! Maybe then finally all these supernatural attacks wills stop happening." Alfred screwed his eyes shut and did his best t try and block the men out. He waited quietly in the crook of that old oak tree until the men disappeared in the distance along with the sound of their conversation.

This couldn't happen. It just couldn't. Alfred buried his face in his knees, breathing in deep calming breaths lest he loose himself like he did a few nights ago. If what those men talked about actually did happen what would he do? Alfred had promised Arthur that he wouldn't use his newfound magical abilities bar revenge against the man who slandered him so violently. It was something that was much easier said than done.

Suddenly, carried on the breeze, the scent of deer filled Alfred's nose. The sighed heavily as he hauled himself art from between the tree roots; dusting off his pants as he did so. There was no use hindering himself with the thought of events that may not even occur; not when there was fresh food to be had. Alfred went back to lurking through the shadows as he followed the scent that would ultimately lead him to dinner.

~~** Scarlet Magic **~~

It was sunset by the time Alfred returned to the house- his slight thirst completely quenched and his strength returned- where Arthur was outside setting up next to the small river that ran alongside the property. Reginald was coming out of the house, a basket clenching within his jaws and appeared to be filled with candles of a royal blue hue. Alfred casually stuck his hands in his pockets and sauntered his way over to the wizard.

"So… I'm guessing tonight's ceremony is about water, right?" It really didn't take a genius to figure that one out.

"Well it seems you detective skills are quite sharp." Arthur replied back in a somewhat sarcastic tone as he accepted the basket of candles from Reginald and began setting them up along the circle.

Alfred sucked his cheeks in so his lips puffed out as he looked to the ground and gently kicked a small pebble that sat nearby. He wondered, what would be the consequence if he used his magic for the revenge he had originally sought to use the art for? Arthur had thoroughly stressed that it wasn't a good idea- that much was apparent- but that exactly about it could be so horrible? Alfred felt bad about asking, but still curiosity got the best of him and it was exactly curiosity that killed the cat. "Hey Artie?"

"I'm not going to respond to that. If you'd like to talk me address me by my proper name." He corrected, putting down one of the candles and drawing a marking in the dirt near its base.

"Okay… Arthur," Alfred stressed the correct way of saying the name which only earned him an eye roll from the man in which it was given to. "What uh… what exactly happens if someone uses their magic for something bad…?"

Arthur stopped what he was doing, hesitating for a few moments before he finished up putting one more candle down, quickly scrawling another symbol near its base. He got up from his kneeling position, groaning softly at the stiffness in his joints before he stood straight and looked at Alfred, his green eyes smoldering with intensity. "You're just far to curious for your own good aren't you? It seems as if someone like you is the type that ends up learning the hard way. The kind of person who puts his hand on the stove without thinking of the possibility that it could burn. Magic is a living thing, Alfred, wizards just merely control it, but no living thing can be controlled to perfection. The magic knows what you're doing with it and as such if you do something that it doesn't like it will break you. You seem like a nice lad, but you're not the sharpest tool in the shed. I'd hate to see you end up deranged and senile before your time just because you want something as trivial as revenge."

It seemed like every time Alfred brought up the subject all Arthur did was tell him the same thing, that he wasn't bright and that the magic would break him if misused. There was something else behind it, but no matter how much Alfred prompted him Arthur wouldn't break out of that protective shell he seemed to build up around himself. "… There's more to it, I know there is. You may say I'm stupid and all that stuff, but I'm smart enough that there's something going on in that mind of yours. I don't know what it is, but I know it's definitely something."

Arthur burned a hole through Alfred's skull with those smoldering eyes of his before he turned away from Alfred, knuckles clenching to white at his sides. "And why is it any of your business?" He replied back, voice as sharp as a blade. "You have got the most oblivious person I have ever met. Can't you realize that it's a sensitive subject for me and it's something I rather not discuss?"

Suddenly a low growl rumbled next to where Alfred stood and he looked down to see Reginald at his side, glaring up at him angrily. "What did I tell you? Don't ask him." The dog hissed out under his breath. Alfred quickly remembered the dogs warning and for the safety of his special parts he gave up trying to provoke Arthur from his shell.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be so annoying but… you're just a mystery to me. There's something about you that I just can't figure out and it bothers me…"

"… I think it's best we leave it that way." And with that last statement Arthur returned to his work choosing to completely ignore Alfred until the evening came and the next ceremony took place.

~~** Scarlet Magic **~~

The moon was high in the sky when Arthur came and retrieved Alfred and led him outside to where he had drawn the circle and set up the candles that were now flickering and dancing in the cool night time breeze. There was a comforting factor about the darkness of the night to Alfred since his kind thrived in the darkness. Hopefully the gentle feeling of the breeze on his skin would help aid him through the ceremony.

It went as it had the first time. Arthur once again gingerly dipped his fingers into a bowl of royal blue ink and wrote the symbols around Alfred's right upper arm this time explaining that it said 'Here I sign myself to water; my soul is to its waves.' Alfred sat in the middle of the circle once again and waited anxiously as Arthur's hand touched his bare shoulders. The words of the unknown language rolled of the wizards tongue like rain on a window pane before it was silent and Alfred screwed his eyes shut as he braced himself for what he knew would come next.

The circle burst into an explosion of blue light and following soon after Alfred found himself engulfed by the pain that followed. Arthur wasn't kidding when he had told Alfred it was a much different kind of pain for this ceremony. His skin didn't burn and his veins didn't feel like they had been caught in the blaze, but his breath was taken from him. It felt as if he had been plunged into the icy cold water of the sea making his skin tingle with millions of pins and needles. It felt as if those same freezing waters were seeping into his insides; filling his lungs and stealing away his breath. His chest tightened and squeezed as he desperately gasped in attempts to regain even just one small gasp of much needed oxygen. He clutched at his throat, hugged his chest as it continued to tighten to the point where he felt as if he would burst.

And soon the pain melted away and little by little Alfred's breath returned, his chest heaving as he gulped down lung-fulls of oxygen. He didn't have the chance to speak with Arthur after the pain had faded away. Everything around him just swirled together into one giant blur of shadowed colors. Darkness crept in into the corners of his vision and before long it consumed and once again pulled him down into the dark clutches of his unconscious mind.