Chapter 12

Mia held the small laser light to Sage's forehead shining it at an angle. As she intensified the light she slowly began to see the strange symbol on Sage's brow... "I see it."
Sage let loose a shudder, this was really happening.
"Let me get a look," Rowen moved to stand beside Mia. Sage sat in the swivel chair Mia kept at her desk, "Hmmn..." he frowned looking puzzled, he shrugged, "You ready?"
Mia nodded, then realized the question was not for her. She gazed at Sage who was shaking like a leaf. She gave him a warm hug or reassurance. Sage gazed up at her fearfully, "Mia, will you let Rowen do it, and you hold my hand?"
Mia blinked, Sage had whispered the request to her softly... a tone of pure desperation and fear in his voice. Mia pulled away from him slowly and gave him a small nod, "Rowen, I think you memorized the procedure slightly better than I did."
Rowen actually cocked a grin, "Yeah.. I figured we had better get it right..." he frowned at the mark again, "Lets do this."
Mia took Sage's hand gently within hers and felt his fingers tighten around her hand, their palms cold and sweaty. Rowen now held the laser light, he began to say a strange assortment of words, mostly in Latin, some in Arabic... Mia didn't quite understand why the languages were mixed, but she was amazed at how well Rowen spoke them togther. He held his hand over Sage's forehead. Mia felt Sage's hand tighten around hers as his face grew paler. Something was happening.. Mia could feel the tension building in the room...a certain energy surrounding them. A few papers flew from her desk, Rowne kept chanting in the foreign language his voice crescendoing to a pitch loud enough to be heard over the noise... yes there was noise... it sounded like the gates of Hell were crashing open.. It sounded like a tornado... Sage's head was jerked backward his eyes closing an odd thing was happening. Mia gasped as she saw the symbol trying to rise... but it was as if it was fighting itself. The symbol would be pulled back onto Sage's flesh every time it peaked. Sage was hyperventilating. His hand clutching Mia's with more ferocity than she could take. She wanted her hand back he was crushing it. Finally it all stopped, the gates of Hell closed... There was a silence like the eye of a storm. Mia sat dumbfounded still holding onto the limp hand, Rowen stood flushed and dazed looking breathing rather hard and looking shaken, "It didn't work."
"Then what the hell happened?" Mia asked in a soft voice. She pried her hand away from Sage's and reached over to lean his head forward. His skin was chalky and his eyes were dark.. They opened hesitantly to peer at Rowen and Mia.
There was a knock on the door.
"Come in guys," Rowen said, he sounded defeated, "It didn't work."
"Well it sure as hell did something," Kento said his hair looking wildy disarrayed, "Stuff started blowing everywhere!"
Rowen was shaking his head, "I don't know. It looked like it was working! It should have worked! But the symbol kept being.. The symbol..." Rowen held the light to Sage's sweaty brow once again, "There's something odd about it Mia..."
Rowen opened the book Mia had brought... he flipped through every symbol there was at a rapid speed, so fast one wouldn't think he had even glanced at them, "There's no symbol like that in this book... and this is everything... I think.."
"What Rowen?" Mia looked at Rowen curiously, "I don't understand how the mark couldn't be in there!"
"Maybe because it's not just a mark.. Maybe there are marks..." Rowen frowned over his new hypothesis, "What if the symbol we see on his brow is really a mark placed on top of another one?"
"No," Sage said stiffly, he began to cough. The others waited patiently for his spasm to end, after he cleared his throat, "Only Shivoni has marked me... Shivoni would not have marked me if someone else already had... and she'd be able to tell if someone tried to overshadow her own bind. It would trigger her to come to my aid."
"But Sage... now that she's gone, maybe she can't sense it as well as she could have," Rowen said, "Or maybe she did, but now she's too far away to matter. The bind's starting to slip up Sage."
Sage made a face, "I haven't been... There has been no one to mark me! I mean, I think I would notice.. A bind takes time, and contact."
Rowen's feautures had worked itself into a deeper frown as he continued to brainstorm, his brain working at a mile per minute. His eyes darkened. He opened the book again, "Sage, point out Shivoni's signature again."
Sage frowned and took the book from Rowen, after a few minutes he was pointing, "That one.."
"Mmmhmm," Rowen gazed at the tulip-like shape... then he began to thumb through the book for another page. He looked rather frustrated, he held the book in one hand and pulled Sage with the other. He went to Mia's computer and began opening programs, and had Sage sit on the stool beside him.
"Uh-oh, Professor Rowen is at it again," Kento snorted.
"What are you up to Rowen?" asked Ryo coming to stand beside him.
"I'm gonna try out Shivoni's signature with one's of other witches and see what I can come up with..." Rowen's sharp gaze was locked on the computer screen.
"I guess this means yet another late night for us, aye Rowen?" Mia came to stand behind Rowen and take his shoulders in her hands. Rowen only nodded with a groan, "Oh my bed.. How I neglect it!
"Sage, I'm gonna need you to hold really still, I'm gonna try to scan that signature onto the computer," Rowen typed something into the computer, then felt along its back for something. He perked as he located the shape and proceeded to unhook the end piece of the laser light he and Mia had used to view Sage's mark. "Mia, is the cord thingy...whatever over there..." lack of sleep was clearly affecting Rowen, he waved his hand absently, and began to search for the cable.
Mia opening the first drawer at the computer desk and located it right away. She tapped Rowen's shoulder and he nearly jumped, "Thanks..." he plugged the cord into the light and then the light into the CPU. "Ok, close your eyes and hold still..." after a moment, "Damn it... Oh.. Ok, now hold still."
"I can't hold still forever.."
"I know that, shut up!" Rowen snapped he slowly began to run the light over Sage's forehead scanning in each bit of information piece by piece, after a minute or so, "Ok, you can move. But stay here, I want ya to take a look at this thing.. Maybe it'll be familiar to you."
"Ok."
Rowen tapped his fingers on the desk impatiently waiting for the image to load, "Come on... come on..." The image slowly began to appear starting from top to bottom on the computer screen, and Rowen immediately enlarged it so Sage could get a better view.
Sage stared at the strange symbol in silence, "That's what's on my head?"
"Yes," Mia said softly, she ran a gentle hand through his hair, "Look like anything familiar?"
Sage stared at it a little longer and shivered, "No... what is it?" his voice shook, "And how did it get on me?" He raised a hand to his forehead and rubbed at the area absently.
"That's what we're going to find out buddy," Rowen said glancing at Sage's horrified look with concern, "Don't worry about it, I'm sure it's not hurting you."
"But how did it get there?" Sage's voice cracked in his frustration and fear, "You can't just mark someboy you can't... It's not that easy..."
"Sage, calm down," Mia soothed, "Maybe Shivoni..."
"Shivoni didn't do this..." Sage shuddered, "Damn it. I hate this!" He lie his head on the computer desk, Mia rubbed his back, "Sage, you should get back in bed, honey."
"Mia's right," Cye said softly, he took one of Sage's arms, "I'll help you into bed."
Sage slowly yielded to Cye's tugging and stood up, "I don't need an escort," he said moodily, he jerked free of Cye's hold.
"I'm not escorting you Sage, I'm simply walking with you so that I may enjoy your good company," Cye said with a smile. Cye, always the peacemaker, forever the caretaker. Sage shrugged and allowed Cye to take hold of his arm again and walk him out.
As soon as both Cye and Sage were out of ear range, "Ok, anything else we find out about this thing, we keep from Sage," Ryo said firmly. He leaned down between Mia and Rowen to spy the strange symbol on the computer, "You guys are gonna need a lot of help. Now I don't know much about computers, but you can print out a couple of those designs and we can try them out the old fashion way."
Mia smiled at Ryo warmly, "That's a wonderful idea.. In fact, Rowen, why don't I take over at the computer, and with Ryo helping me out, I won't need you..."
"Mia, three pairs of eyes are better than..." he caught the look Kento was giving him, "What the...? Oh... oh, ok. I could really use the sleep, I need to go to school tomorrow."
He and Kento left the room quickly barely concealing their grins.
Both Mia and Ryo watched them leave with curious looks on their faces, "What was that about?"
Ryo shrugged, "I dunno."