"Do you honestly think I hadn't considered that?"
The door to the Grand Magus' office swung open, and Vera Stone strode into the temple where a handful of disciples had just finished their second round of cleaning for the day. She was trailed by Kepler.
"Look, Vera…"
"That's Grand Magnus."
"Sure," replied Kepler, catching the other woman's arm in an effort to pull her out of earshot of the disciples. "All I'm saying is that no one, the Council included, would begrudge you a couple of days off. After all, it's well documented that Egregore has a nasty withdrawal period."
"It's fine, Bitsy. I'm fine," Vera said. "But what's not fine is that the person responsible for ripping out the hearts of over two dozen people and stealing my inventory has vanished without a trace."
"Which is exactly why you should go home, get some rest, and let me handle things for a few days."
"Absolutely not."
As Kepler placed her hands on her hips, Vera mustered a smile through a throbbing headache she'd never admit, "I appreciate your concern, but I assure you that I have enough magic in place to make this whole thing like a prolonged hangover, nothing more. I am more than capable of doing my job."
"Fine," Kepler said, turning to leave as Vera stalked off in the opposite direction toward her office.
An hour later, Vera found herself sitting at her desk struggling to concentrate on the same page of ancient Sumarian she had been attempting to read since Kepler left. She hadn't been entirely lying that the physical effects of withdrawal from the Egregore were like three straight days of the after effects of one of the infamous parties hosted by the Order's Brazilian chapter, but the mental effects were much more than that, and much harder to describe.
Though the connection to the Sons of Prometheus hive mind had been a deeply invasive and uncomfortable experience for her, the absence of it made something deep within her want to seek out and grasp that same kind of honest, intimate connection. It was counter to everything she had done, mentally and magically, for self-preservation.
A tentative knock at the door interrupted her thoughts and her feigned reading.
She glanced up to see Hamish Duke holding a tall glass, and then immediately returned her attention to the book on her desk. "What do you want, Mr. Duke?"
"I wanted to bring you this before I left for the evening," he said, setting the glass tentatively on her desk.
She regarded it and him for a moment. "Much as I've previously appreciated your talents, I don't think that's a very good idea tonight."
"Soda water, lime and a very specific combination of bitters," he said nudging the glass toward her. "It's an old bartenders' remedy for hangover symptoms."
She raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Wolf hearing," he said.
"Right," she replied, rubbing her temples.
Turned towards the fireplace, took a tentative sip of the drink before muttering, "Thank you."
She stared at the fire for a few minutes, knowing that despite how much he may want to slink away, he wouldn't leave without her dismissal.
"Well," she huffed, turning back to face him. "Don't just stand there…" She gestured towards the couch. Hamish's usual smirk was missing as he perched on the edge of the couch, and while his serious expression should have pleased her (this was no time for games after all), it only served as an irritant to her already frayed nerves.
"I'm still mad at you, you know."
Hamish nodded, "I know."
"The entire temple, hell the entire university could have been destroyed due to your foolishness."
Ignoring the pounding in her head, Vera stood, moving from her desk. "It's all fun and games, right? Centuries of it. You steal from us, we steal from you, maybe someone else comes in to liven things up and keep us on our toes now and then."
After emphasizing her last point with half-hearted jazz hands, she sat down on the other side of the couch with resigned sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose, her eyes closed. "I don't have the time or quite frankly the energy to deal with the unintended consequences of your impeccably timed magic heists."
Her words stung. Lilith had been one of those consequences.
"We never intended -" he began.
"Hence my use of unintended consequences," Vera snapped, a bit more harshly than she had intended.
"Right," he sighed, slumping a bit as he angled himself to face on the opposite end of the couch. "And you're right, in the grand scheme of things, we're probably just...I don't know...perpetuating some nihilist cycle that both the Knights and the Order are trapped in - who knows, maybe it was preordained by some medieval vampire wizard who hated us both."
Hamish laughed bitterly and ran a hand over his face, the sheer weight and ridiculousness of it all finally getting it to him. Lilith was gone, maybe forever. Randall was alternating between moping and trying to get the others to attempt magic way out of their league to get her back. Jack had locked himself in one of the bedrooms at the den dealing the miserable after effects of drinking the Egregore. And Vera was….staring at him, the whisper of a grin on her lips.
"Vampire wizards don't exist."
She looked away, staring off at some unknown point on the other side of the room, as the grin fell away.
"What is it?" he asked.
"It's the damndest thing," she said, the bitter edge of her voice betraying a sad smile. "This...process of unraveling oneself from the Promethean hive mind is, by and large, an annoyance with the right magic in place."
Hamish nodded. Jack had theorized that Vera's magic, combined with having only consumed a small amount of the Egregore, would make her withdrawal process much easier than what he was currently enduring. "But?"
"There's a level of honesty - radical honesty - inherent in that kind of connection that's hard to separate oneself from."
"I'm being honest with you."
"I know," she replied, still not looking at him. "Which is why, despite my own better judgement, I'm going to ask you something."
Hamish straightened up slightly, unsure of where she was heading with this line of questioning. "Okay."
"Was the timing of the...theft intentional?"
"As insane as it sounds, we really hadn't thought about how it would affect Rogwan's regularly scheduled appearance. Honestly, that almost felt like a convenient distraction…" He trailed off, noticing the odd expression on her face and recalling the hours leading up to the heist. "That isn't what you're asking."
"No, it isn't," she moved to get up from the couch and quickly added. "And I've changed my mind. This isn't important, and I have work to do. Thank you for the drink."
Returning to her desk, she downed the rest of the drink wishing she could handle something much stronger right now. Keeping her focus on the book, she heard him stand.
"If you're going to be here a while, I could make you another," he said.
"No," she said, meeting his eyes for just a moment. "I'd prefer to wait until I'm up for the real thing."
"Good night, Vera."
This time Vera didn't look up. The prospect of watching him walk away was far too complicated for her liking.