I really, really love Necromantic and Nature magic, it is a great way to develop his powers, make them distinct and feel within the limits of his powers. This chapter really sets a great tone and makes a witch feel dangerous but also great at support.
Getting to Phoenix was even easier than going to Las Vegas. Aaron wore the spell bag he crafted for the Kids of Hades to mask his own presence, making it impossible for Monsters to find him in any way especially given his weak aura of power and magic. He knew that, from the spell's description, even a lesser god would have trouble finding him. A powerful god or goddess, like his patroness, could sniff him out in a heartbeat but other than that it would be easy sailing. He was now a target for monsters, magic's cost, his blood would have the power to be tasty to monsters... or so he guessed.
The moment he left the train station, he closed his eyes and prayed. "Hera, you asked me to find a demigod, you are going to have to give me a way to find them, otherwise this is pointless."
He felt a powerful presence, cold and warm all at once, a Queen's grace and a mother's love boiling together. "Follow the pull of your heart." And like that, he felt it, a magnet pull on his chest, not unlike his salvation spell only less drastic.
With that powering him, he hurried along the lines of power, moving towards the power he felt. After about thirty minutes, he felt a strong aura, a magical presence of pure warmth. It wasn't like any magic he had sensed before, any power he had ever come across. Something about it, it was nearly Percy's level, almost god like, and very active. The power was rich, complex and twitchy as if the aura itself was alive not just it's owner, it's creator.
"Curious, what could they be, what kind of Demigod?"
And so he hurried on, speeding up his pursuit until he reached an alley, where he saw the source of the power. It was a small kid, Hispanic, with dark skin and pointed ears and curly hair digging into a trashcan, likely for food. He looked elf like, dirty from being clearly homeless, but elfin nonetheless. Focusing, Aaron saw an eruption of volanic energy, a swirling mass of reds and oranges and yellows, only mellowed out by a dark green sapping strength. He knew the boy was deeply depressed, suffering a great loss, one of the aural signs he learned of in Persephone's Grimoire and it's instructions on how to read Ghostly energies.
Readying himself, Aaron moved closer. "Hello there."
The boy popped up, shaking with wide eyes. "Who are you?"
"Aaron Mathews, I was asked to help you by someone very important..." he kept his tone soft, low. "Can I get your name?"
The boy scowled. "Like I trust a random kid, you might be a perv!" He turned to run, but before he got far, Aaron threw out his hand and released a tiny pulse of magic.
"Carcere stulti!" The spell, Fool's Prison, was one he never cast without a spell bag, but with his own magic, he knew it would work. The stress was intense as the boy panicked and started to squirm.
"What did you do?"
"A binding spell, to keep you fast, now let's talk kid." He got closer, but as he did fire erupted from the boy's hands and hair, Aaron recoiled with eyes wide. "How did you do that?"
The boy cringed, tears in his eyes. "I don't know what you mean, maybe you imagined it." His fear was palpable, terrified so deeply that he seemed ready to faint or cry. The kid was clearly traumatized.
"Kid, I saw you make fire... your aura is unlike anything I have ever seen." He got closer and kneeled, the kid was tiny. "Kid listen to me. I swear by Styx, I am no enemy of yours at the moment."
The Sky thundered, but the kid's eyes widened with some level of understanding as his natural instinct kicked in. "Sticks? What does that mean?"
"It is a binding spell, an oath that holds me to my word on a sacred, soul deep level." He had learned a lot about Styx in his Grimoire, the River was so powerful it was referenced a lot in the book. What he learned made him respect the River goddess' power more than most Olympians. "I am your friend, not your enemy. Your instincts can tell you that I right, that my word is valuable. All Demigods can feel that sort of thing."
The boy nodded slowly. "I... I can feel that you are right, but what is a demigod?"
"A child of a god, and No I am not one. I am just a witch, a servant of a goddess. I was asked by Hera, the Queen of the Greek gods, to find you, bring you to safety. I am not sure why you specifically, or her since she hates demigods, but I don't ask those kind of questions. Now, why don't we sit down... maybe I can buy you some food?"
As if to make a point the boy's belly groaned, and he turned away, blushing. "That would be nice."
A few minutes later they were eating a nice meal at a local restaurant, Aaron had placed a spell pouch to hold the Mist in place with a spell. That kept the locals from listening into their conversation. "So, can I get a name?"
"Leo... Valdez."
"Nice to meet you, Leo." Aaron smiled at Leo, trying to ease the kid a bit. "So, tell me, Leo, why are you homeless? No judgment, I was the same about eight months ago. I ran from my abusive foster family."
"Same,..." The kid sighed, looking lost and forlorn.
"Did you mortal parent know of your gift?"
The boy scowled. "It is not a gift, I hate it, it killed my M-" He stopped, eyes wide, tears in them before turning away.
Aaron grabbed the boy's hand. "Leo, you have a gift, one that is primal and elemental and so hard to control, unless you intentionally attacked your mother, you are not to blame."
"You weren't there, you have no idea."
"Then show me." Aaron grabbed the boy's hands with both hands. " Focus on your memory, and show me. I will see your memory, and I will make my judgment then." Shaking, Leo nodded and Aaron recited another spell, this one to read the memories of souls summoned by necromantic magics so you could help them cross over. "Videam, dolor interior et vanitas, tenebrae cor et mentem maculant, veniat in lucem!"
There was an instant shoc to fo power, like lightning connecting the two of them, a purple charge and before he knew it, he dived into Leo's most agonizing memory.
Mom's workspace was at the very back of the shop. It was kind of creepy at night, because they were the only ones there. Every sound echoed through the dark warehouse, but Leo didn't mind as long as he was with his mom. If he did wander the shop, they could always keep in touch with Morse code taps. Whenever they were ready to leave, they had to walk through the entire shop, through the break room, and out to the parking lot, locking the doors behind them.
That night after finishing up, they'd just gotten to the break room when his mom realized she didn't have her keys.
"That's funny." She frowned. "I know I had them. Wait here, mijo. I'll only be a minute."
She gave him one more smile—the last one he'd ever get —and she went back into the warehouse.
She'd only been gone a few heartbeats when the interior door slammed shut. Then the exterior door locked itself.
"Mom?" Leo's heart pounded. Something heavy crashed inside the warehouse. He ran to the door, but no matter how hard he pulled or kicked, it wouldn't open. "Mom!" Frantically, he tapped a message on the wall: You okay?
"She can't hear you," a voice said.
Leo turned and found himself facing a strange woman. At first he thought it was Tía Callida. She was wrapped in black robes, with a veil covering her face.
"Tía?" he said.
The woman chuckled, a slow gentle sound, as if she were half asleep. "I am not your guardian. Merely a family resemblance."
"What—what do you want? Where's my mom?"
"Ah … loyal to your mother. How nice. But you see, I have children too … and I understand you will fight them someday. When they try to wake me, you will prevent them. I cannot allow that."
"I don't know you. I don't want to fight anybody."
She muttered like a sleepwalker in a trance, "A wise choice."
With a chill, Leo realized the woman was, in fact, asleep. Behind the veil, her eyes were closed. But even stranger: her clothes were not made of cloth. They were made of earth—dry black dirt, churning and shifting around her. Her pale, sleeping face was barely visible behind a curtain of dust, and he had the horrible sense that she'd had just risen from the grave. If the woman was asleep, Leo wanted her to stay that way. He knew that fully awake, she would be even more terrible.
"I cannot destroy you yet," the woman murmured. "The Fates will not allow it. But they not do protect your mother, and they cannot stop me from breaking your spirit. Remember this night, little hero, when they ask you to oppose me."
"Leave my mother alone!" Fear rose in his throat as the woman shuffled forward. She moved more like an avalanche than a person, a dark wall of earth shifting toward him.
"How will you stop me?" she whispered.
She walked straight through a table, the particles of her body reassembling on the other side.
She loomed over Leo, and he knew she would pass right through him, too. He was the only thing between her and his mother.
His hands caught fire.
A sleepy smile spread across the woman's face, as if she'd already won. Leo screamed with desperation. His vision turned red. Flames washed over the earthen woman, the walls, the locked doors. And Leo lost consciousness.
When he woke, he was in an ambulance.
The paramedic tried to be kind. She told him the warehouse had burned down. His mother hadn't made it out. The paramedic said she was sorry, but Leo felt hollow. He'd lost control, just like his mother had warned. Her death was his fault.
Soon the police came to get him, and they weren't as nice. The fire had started in the break room, they said, right where Leo was standing. He'd survived by some miracle, but what kind of child locked the doors of his mother's workplace, knowing she was inside, and started a fire?
Later, his neighbors at the apartment complex told the police what a strange boy he was. They talked about the burned handprints on the picnic table. They'd always known something was wrong with Esperanza Valdez's son.
His relatives wouldn't take him in. His Aunt Rosa called him a diablo and shouted at the social workers to take him away. So Leo went to his first foster home.
The spell broke and Aaron felt tears covering his face. Without hesitating he moved over and pulled Leo into the biggest hug. "I am so, so sorry Leo." He held the boy, who sank into his embrace. "It was not your fault... it was her fault, someone else, a goddess... Gaia, I think... though I cannot be sure why. Likely you have a future, a destiny, one that she could not allow to happen. You are a victim, her victim, as much as your mother was, and for that you are never to be blamed. Okay?" he pulled away, and smiled at Leo. "You're my little brother now, my family, a member of my coven and I will make sure you are safe, happy and given a chance to thrive as you have been denied."
Leo looked at him stunned, then confused, and finally hesitantly happy as his instincts picked up the veracity of Aaron's vow. His smile was beautiful. "I think I'd like that... where do we live?"
"At Camp in New York, but I travel for work and quests. You can always join me, as my brother and a member of my coven. I will teach you combat, magic and you can work on your powers, all of them, and we will give you the means to never be used or fearful like that again. Okay?"
The boy beamed. "Okay... "
And just like that, Aaron adopted the small boy, in his heart and mind and soul. As he did this, Aaron grabbed his grimoire and opened to a page he had feared to spend too much time at before. "Would.., would you like to say goodbye to your mother, to see her one last time?"
"Please, I would give anything!"
"Let's go then, and watch what good magic can do... and what power your new brother has at his disposal."
"""
From her Temple, Hera sighed, contrary to popular belief, she was not without mercy or care. She had felt deeply for Leo Valdez when he lost his mother, she was the Goddess of Motherhood, she felt the boy's love for his mother and the ache of her loss. She knew what she took from him by openly siding with him, and some part of her regretted it. She had tried to train him, to ready him to be a hero, but in doing so she allowed him to lose a part of his spirit.
The mortal witch, making waves, and Persephone's declaration of his goodness and strength of humanity, were largely what inspired her to use him to help Leo. She owed the boy that much at the least, Hera never failed to pay people back. She cost the boy his mother, so she would give him a brother instead.
That the prophecy of the Seven was shifting, changing and breaking as Aaron grew in power, only added to her desire to help Leo. In either case, with Aaron's help he would become a greater hero and protect his and her family. She won in any case, and in that she was content...
Her debt was fulfilled... to Leo anyway. Now she just had to pay back Aaron, she just wasn't sure how to do that...
She would figure something out she was sure.
Chapter end, tell me what you think in the reviews.
This was a joy to write.
Love, your Ninja Overlord,
Mika.