So, here we are on Chapter 12 of my Campione fic.

Hmmm? What's that? Did I purposefully manipulate things to have my story about my Scottish Campione updated on Burns Night? Why yes, I believe I did. Viva long-term planning.

My writing schedule is on my profile! Check there for when the next chapter comes out BEFORE asking in a review or a PM!

As always, Read, Review and check out my other stories!

Disclaimer: I do not own Campione!

"Godō" - Regular Speech

'My Everyday life…!' - Thoughts

"God Slayer!" - Heretic God/Powered Up Campione speech

"Fire!" - Magic/Authority Use

Chapter 12: Black Prince and Raging Tides

The Next Week

Street, Oban, Scotland

Jean frowned as she felt the distinct sensation of a Mage using their power nearby. She had been rather tolerant of the people assigned to keep an eye on her on behalf of various Magic Associations, but being stalked wherever she went was a bit much.

It wasn't all of them, just this one particular person. Each person's magic felt different, so picking out a single person using magic around her was rather easy. All told, Jean had seven watchers, with three of them being from organisations controlled by one of her siblings, Luo Hao, Voban and Alec. The remaining four were from Ireland, Iceland, Sweden and Russia. The Japanese watcher had been pulled out a week ago.

All of them were in their late-teens to mid-twenties, all of them were physically attractive and all of them were female. This had been a change from the previous week, according to Rebecca. They had all been older men and women.

Deciding to head this behaviour off as soon as possible, Jean headed towards the Royal Hotel before cutting through the small side-street between it and the Clydesdale Bank next door that led to the Hotel's car park. She then hid herself with her own spell of concealment that Rebecca had taught her a few days earlier and waited.

A minute or so later, there was a scuffle, followed by a yelp. When two hazes reappeared, Jean was sitting atop a young Chinese girl dressed in jeans, a t-shirt and a midriff-length coat. The shock in the girl's eyes was plain to see.

"Now then," Jean said delicately, "your name, if you please."

"X-Xie Yue." The girl stammered. She couldn't have been older than seventeen or eighteen, Jean's own age.

"Which is your surname? Xie or Yue?" Jean asked.

"Xie." The girl replied with a gulp.

Sighing, Jean stood up and helped the Chinese girl to her own feet. "Let's go somewhere more comfortable and talk."

She led the confused girl to a nearby café and ordered some hot chocolate for the pair of them. Once it was served, she sipped the hot, sweet liquid gratefully.

"Now then…I take it you are the person spying on me for my sister, Luo Hao?" she asked after a moment.

"Yes, your Majesty." Yue said with a nod, "Her Eminence directed me to come to this country and observe you a week ago."

Jean thought through what she knew of Luo Hao. She was one of the more ferocious of the older Campione of this generation, having unearthly skill in several branches of Chinese martial arts, earning her the title of Ruler of the Martial Realm. She was also skilled at Daoist magic and had slain several Heretic Gods over the length of her 200 year reign as a Campione.

"Can I ask why my sister is so interested in me?" she said carefully after a moment, "I have only been a Campione for just over a month. I would hardly be much of a challenge for her to defeat."

"I do not know Her Eminence's mind on the matter." Yue answered slowly, beads of sweat trickling down the back of her neck, "We do not question the Ruler of the Martial Realm, Your Majesty."

"Fits what I've heard of her." Jean mused, "OK, look. I understand that you have orders to watch me whenever I'm out of my house. I really do understand that part. What I do not want is to be constantly stalked by you and your fellow spies whenever I come to Oban on business. Check in on me every now and again by all means, but not on a constant basis. I value my privacy and take violations of it poorly. Am I understood here, Xie Yue?"

"Crystal." The girl choked out in mild terror.

"Good." The redhead nodded. She gave Yue a once over before giving her a gentle grin. "Whoever chose you to come here had excellent taste in women; you're just my type. I'll leave money for the chocolate. Make sure you finish it before you leave. Wasting good hot chocolate is a sin."

With that, the Campione left a five pound note on the table and left the café, leaving behind a very confused (and blushing) Chinese Mage.

Later

Jean's Home

"You likely confused the hell out of her." Rebecca said with an amused snort, "Luo Hao wouldn't carry money on her; she's like the English Royal Family in that regard, never carrying cash on her. The fact that you flirted with her must also be confusing for her; Luo Hao is almost completely ignorant of male/female relations and treats everyone the same way, unless they're a worthy opponent."

"I really wish that the fact that I'm a Campione didn't make every mage I meet quiver in their boots." Jean grumbled. She was in the kitchen, cooking dinner. She insisted that she do her fair share, "The poor girl looked as if she was about to faint when I was only mildly threatening."

"Again, Luo Hao is very different from you, my King." Rebecca said from the kitchen table, "If she says something threatening in any way, shape or form, it's usually followed up by a solid punch or two, just to drive the point home."

The redhead sighed again. "OK. Right. And now I just have to leave it to simmer for a few minutes."

"You're quite the good cook." The Hearth Witch complimented.

"Home Economics is useless for ordinary cooking, so I got an old friend of the family to teach me some recipes." Jean said with a shrug as she set a timer and sat down at the table with Rebecca, "Have you heard from your family since I drafted that letter?"

"Not a whisper, which worries me." Rebecca replied, "My Great Aunt isn't one to take a letter like you sent her lying down, even from a Campione."

"Sounds like a lovely person." Jean said sarcastically.

"She is very much used to having her own way, at least within the Piper Family." The Witenagemot Witch said with a shrug, "No one in the family has dared to go against her until now."

Jean nodded and went back to the cooker to finish the meal. It was a homemade soup, with servings of French Sticks and a glass of white wine each. Jean didn't have any great fondness for alcohol, but she didn't mind a glass every month or so.

After they finished, Jean looked at Rebecca seriously. "I think it's time we talked about Alec's Authorities. Your contacts in the Witenagemot have shown that he won't wait much longer to try and boot me out of Britain."

"True." Rebecca said with a nod. She and Jean headed into the sitting room to talk. It had a beautiful view over Oban Bay, as well as the Promenade section of Oban.

"Lord Alec has been a Campione for over a decade, since he was seventeen if I recall correctly." The hazel-haired witch started, "The aspect that all of his Divine Authorities take is that of a [Thief] as I told you on Iona. The first and most well-known of his Authorities is [Black Lightning], acquired when he defeated the Fallen Angel Ramiel, the Thunder of God. It grants Lord Alec Godspeed, the ability to move faster than the eye can track. He can even use it to create afterimages for distractions. What is worse is that he can use a powerful technique unique to Campione known as [Manifesting an Avatar]."

"And that is what, exactly?" Jean asked.

"All of your Authorities have symbols, such as Poseidon's trident, right?" at Jean's nod, Rebecca continued, "Well, [Manifesting an Avatar] allows a Campione to draw on the full power of an Authority by transforming their body in some way to better accommodate the power of that Authority. Usually it has something to do with the name or symbol of the Authority in question, thus the name. In Lord Alec's case, he transforms into black lightning itself, which removes the stress factor from his body and lets him move at the speed of lightning. He deals damage when he strikes people with his lightning body, but only at the level of a regular mage, so it's all but useless against Campione and Heretic Gods. It does have an attack mode, called [Black Thunder], which can devastate the land around him. Using it means he's cut off from that Authority for about half a day or so though, so don't expect him to use it unless he has no choice."

"Great, so he can zip around like a fly." Jean muttered in discontent, "None of my own Authorities are built to counter that….no, maybe one can…continue."

"The others are more problematic." Rebecca told her frankly, "From the defeat of the Three Furies, Tisiphone, Megaera and Alecto, he received [Judging Furies]. This allows him to set up a territory whereby all destruction, curses and spells rebound upon their caster, so long as the summoned Furies can see it. It takes several minutes to activate it, so you don't have to worry about him pulling it out of nowhere in the middle of a fight, but he can set these locations up beforehand, so be wary of him leading you to areas like that. He can create multiple 'vengeance territories' as well so it's something to worry about."

"Does he have nothing that he can use as a direct attack other than [Black Thunder]?" the Scottish Campione wondered.

"Thieves rarely attack directly, my King." The English Hearth Witch pointed out, "In some respects, Lord Alec is a worse match up for you than Lord Salvatore was. At least in his case, you had a clear cut battle to fight. With Lord Alec, he will only commit to a battle as an absolute last resort. Even then, he will try to control the circumstances of the fight to ensure that it is as much to his own advantage as is possible. Your own personality is a poor match to Lord Alec's own, as you prefer to be blunt and to the point as much as possible, while he is more subtle and cautious."

"In other words, we're incompatible by design." Jean snorted in wry amusement.

"It would seem so." Rebecca agreed, "In any case, the third Authority that Alec possesses in called [The Labyrinth], acquired by slaying Minos, otherwise known as the Minotaur. It allows him to create an immensely complex maze that can easily trap Heretic Gods or Campione. While inside it, he can move to any location that he wishes to and knows every nook and cranny of the place instinctively. The maze can be destroyed by an attack of sufficient power. Should he want to leave the maze, he can create a black calf to act as his familiar and maintain the maze in his absence."

Shaking her head, Rebecca continued, "Reports sent to me by Princess Alice tell me that Lord Alec is currently using [The Labyrinth] to entrap some Heretic Goddess or other just off the coast of Japan, so we don't have to worry about it for the moment. Even if he disables it right this moment, it takes an entire month before he can use it again. It's actually a very good thing that he can't use it against you."

"Huh? Why?"

"In Minoan religion, there was one god called the Earthshaker, a man representing the sun and the bull." Rebecca replied, "It was likely one of the aspects partially absorbed by Poseidon when he was created and added to the Olympian pantheon. The bull is the pre-Olympian Poseidon and there's a chance that Alec could use [The Labyrinth] to negate or temporarily usurp your Poseidon Authorities, or at least [Earthshaker]."

Jean scowled at this revelation. "Yeah, really not happy that he might be able to possibly no-sell my best Authorities like that. Still, hopefully he can't counter me while keeping that goddess locked up."

"I honestly don't know what will happen in this situation." The Hearth Witch confessed, "On one hand, an Authority is the power of a god, so theoretically it should be possible for it to be used in two places at once. On the other hand, there haven't been any reports of Alec using [The Labyrinth] in two places at once and Lord Alec is containing a Heretic Goddess within it at present, so almost all of its power should be being used to contain whoever he is trapping."

"I hate coin toss chances." The Scot grumbled.

"The fourth Authority Lord Alec possesses is [Faceless Queen], usurped from the Goddess Melusine, a European goddess of fresh waters in sacred springs and rivers. He can summon a giant female figure that can soar in the sky on wings and swim through the seas with her mermaid tail. Rumours in the Witenagemot say it can shatter a tower of steel with its strength and conjure spears to use as weapons. It is intelligent and will follow Alec's orders as well." Rebecca continued.

"That sounds…intimidating." Jean remarked.

"Yes, but it has a very large weakness." The hazel-haired Witch said with a grin, "The moment that its face is seen, the summoning is undone."

Jean stared at her friend in disbelief for a moment before shaking her head. "These restrictions and limitations of Authorities are so bizarre."

"True." The Hearth Witch admitted, "But useful nevertheless. The final Authority that Lord Alec possesses is called by two different names. Some call it [Weird Greed] and some call it [Wandering Avarice]. In either case, the Authority comes from the Christian beast known as Behemoth."

Jean frowned. "I know of Behemoth as a demon, a walking pot-bellied elephant. An infernal watchman who also presides over the gluttonous banquets and feasts. He also has some renown as the official demonic singer, at least according to the Dictionnaire Infernal and the Lesser Key of Solomon."

It was Rebecca's turn to be surprised. "Why would you read those two books? I thought you were an Atheist before all this?"

"It annoyed the dorm mother, who was a snobby and opinionated catholic." Jean replied with a shrug, "Besides, I was always of the opinion that there was no such thing as useless information. Looks like I got proven right."

Even though she tried to hide a smile, the Hearth Witch knew she was being unsuccessful.

"Be that as it may, it gives you the idea of why both names for this Authority may be appropriate." She said once she controlled herself, "[Wandering Avarice] creates a 20-30 meter radius black hole that sucks in and compresses anything in the area it is summoned. Lord Alec can escape it using his Godspeed due to how slow it is, so if he's forced to use [Black Thunder], he will likely not use this Authority. He has also been known to use it as a trap in [The Labyrinth] and he can alter the size of it."

"OK, definitely in the stay-the-hell-away-from list." Jean shivered. A black hole?! What the hell?!

"Keep a good hold of him and you won't have to worry about him using it." Rebecca suggested, "Anyway, he's likely to try more negotiations before resorting to a battle. He really dislikes fighting, especially without a good enough reason."

The redhead huffed. "If he does dislike fighting, he's certainly not going about it like that. Breaking into people's houses, insulting them as he pleases…"

"Well you can prevent that once I have my Hearth set up." Rebecca said, "Once that's done, I can key you to my wards so you don't destroy them every time you leave or enter the house and you can set up your own wards on top of mine around the island so Lord Alec will bounce off them when he tries to pull his usual walk-through-the-wards act. Barriers cast by a Campione will resist the intrusion of a Campione."

"I notice you say 'resist' rather than 'stop' or 'repel'." Jean noted.

"Regular magic cast by a Campione is more powerful simply because a Campione can afford to spend a lot more of their magic reserves during the initial creation of the barrier." Rebecca explained, "A ward or barriers cast by an ordinary spellcaster are, for comparison's sake, a centimetre thick. If cast by a Great Knight or Paladin, it'd be two or three centimetres thick. A Campione's barrier would be at least a foot thick, more likely two or three feet. A Campione's magic resistance parts ordinary wards, even those cast by a great Knight or Paladin, almost instantly because in magical terms, a Campione is an irresistible force. The wards simply flow around and off them like water from a ducks back."

"And so the wards cast by another Campione are thicker and thus harder to part." Jean finished, understanding the theory, "It's like walking through thick treacle, but still possible."

"Exactly." Rebecca beamed. She loved it when people were quick on the uptake, and one thing you certainly couldn't describe Jean as being was slow.

"So how long until my irksome brother comes to make more supercilious demands of me, do you reckon?" Jean asked after a moment.

"Oh, a couple of days. At least." Rebecca said with a shrug, "Lord Alec is the most patient of the younger generation of Campione, but Lord Voban is far more patient than he is. When he's irritated, Lord Alec can act as rash as a teenager on a hormone rush."

Elsewhere

Xie Yue knelt on the floor in front of her mirror, sweating as if she were in the Sahara Desert at midday. Reflected in the surface of the mirror wasn't her own image, but that of Luo Hao, the Ruler of the Martial Realm.

"So then, this rumoured Eighth Campione is indeed a reality, rather than a fiction?" the Campione asked quietly.

"Yes, Your Eminence." Yue replied swiftly, "She used a basic invisibility spell and saw through my own somehow. I never had a chance at following her."

"As this one would expect. This new generation is full of interesting Campione." The High Priestess of the Holy Cult of Five Mountains mused, "And you say she was interested in you?"

"She…she certainly flirted with me, Your Eminence." Yue replied nervously. This was certainly a conversation she never thought she would have with her leader!

"Hum. It would seem that your odd fascination with your own gender will prove useful here." Luo Hao muttered, "You are to approach the Eighth Campione and inform her that I wish to have a match with her within the year. Make use of your feminine wiles if need be."

"With…with respect, Your Eminence, Lady Jean is in the middle of preparations to do battle with Lord Alec. I doubt she will be receptive." Yue said, cringing slightly. Those who crossed or contradicted a Campione and got away without being blasted to smithereens were few and far between.

"Oh?" Luo Hao drew the word out slowly, "And what would my fellow Campione be fighting about?"

"M-my understanding of the situation is that Lord Alec has demanded that Lady Jean leave Britain." The Daoist Mage replied, "Lady Jean has refused to follow those orders and is preparing to fight him if need be."

"Hoh. I can well understand not wishing to have a fellow Campione in my lands, yet I can also imagine the indignation I would feel were it I in the shoes of the new Campione." The Chinese Campione mused aloud, "Very well. Continue your watch and inform me immediately of the result of the clash between them. Young Alec is one of the four Campione which were able to soil my clothing with dust, so a fight with him should be a good test to see if she is worth my time."

"By your will, Your Eminence." Yue bowed her head in supplication.

"Very good." Luo Hao nodded, "Should you complete this task to my satisfaction, I shall allow you to join the Eighth Campione's fledgling organisation, should you wish it."

"Your Eminence?!" the Chinese girl looked up, startled.

"Do I look foolish, girl?" the Ruler of the Martial Realm snorted, "I am very much aware that your choice in bed-mates leaves you at the mercy of those who are conservative in my organisation, which is sadly a lot of them. You persevere, quite admirably in fact, but you are not happy here. I may be a tyrant, but I have no wish for someone who is unhappy to remain that way. Follow my will and you might find something better than what you currently have."

"Th-thank you, Your Eminence." Yue stammered in shock.

The world's strongest martial artist nodded once before her reflection vanished. Yue staggered to her feet and tottered over to the chair nearby, dropping herself down in an ungainly heap. She grabbed the bottle of water and drained it dry in several gulps before resting her head on the cushioned back of the chair and closing her eyes.

'That was nerve-wracking!' Yue thought as she went over the conversation with the Devil-King in her mind, 'Every time I speak to her, I feel nothing but primal fear! Whose bright idea was it to join Luo Hao's organisation again? Oh, right; it was my family's.'

As a member of the Xie Family, which had been proud Daoist Mages for untold generations, she had been offered to Luo Hao as a disciple (at the tender age of ten) in order to appease her for some slight they had somehow caused her. Initially, Yue had been happy to leave her stifling family, full of unreal expectations and suffocating stifled 'proper behaviour.'

That had changed within the first month. The organisation that Luo Hao had founded a hundred and fifty years ago, the Holy Cult of Five Mountains, was even more stifling and conservative than her family had been, which she thought had been an impossibility. Her preference for her own gender hadn't made things any easier, as to most conservative men, women were for breeding and housework, not necessarily in that order. Her being a lesbian made them feel threatened somehow.

Men were so stupid.

This assignment was a reprieve from the constant sneers and put-downs that she suffered daily. The female disciples didn't join in with the men, but they also didn't stop the males from doing anything, aside from when one man had tried to 'make her see that she needed a man.' That time, they had kicked his ass.

'Could I do it? Could I become the lover of a Devil King? A Rakshasa Raja?' she thought as she bit her lip. Jean Campbell was certainly attractive enough and the newest addition to the Campione ranks had shown interest in her; hell, she'd even complimented her!

As far as she knew, the only other person in the Scottish Campione's organisation currently was an English Hearth Witch, formerly a member of the Greenwich Witenagemot. Not exactly much in the way of firepower, but the rumours said that this Hearth Witch had stood beside the Eighth Campione against her first Heretic God, as well as holding her own against trained Knights before being overwhelmed. Not someone to underestimate.

No rumours said that Rebecca Piper was the Campione's lover, and the few times that Yue had seen the two out in town together, she hadn't seen that kind of vibe between the two of them. Good and close friends, yes. Subordinate and King, yes. Lovers, no. At least, not yet.

The hazel-haired witch had occasionally snuck looks at the redheaded Campione when she wasn't looking and Yue knew speculation when she saw it. Either the Englishwoman was so far down the river denial that she was in Egypt or she was waiting for something to happen before approaching the Campione. Given the woman was English, and thus a prude, Yue was willing to bet that it was the former, but the latter couldn't be eliminated either.

She stopped in her mental tracks and snorted. If the Eighth Campione wanted her, she'd be taken regardless of her will on the matter. Just from her skim over the history of some Campione in the past, she recalled a good dozen, male and female, who had taken a harem of their choice in bedpartners. A good example in modern times was King Kusanagi. All of his mistresses were young, talented, powerful and beautiful, with the technical exception of Lucretia Zola, but she looked as if she were in her mid-twenties, so the age part was a bit moot.

'Honestly though, I can think of worse fates that to be made a bedmate of Lady Jean.' Yue thought with a sigh. Just as she had been attractive to Jean, the Campione had been attractive to her.

Standing up, Yue looked at herself in the mirror. She was tall for a Chinese girl, with a whipcord-lean body, firm abs and modest, but perky, breasts. She had her long black hair in a braided ponytail that reached down to the base of her spine and she had been lucky during puberty to avoid any acne or boils. The benefits of living a mostly-ascetic monk-like life in a secret mountain temple in the hinterlands of China, including a mostly vegetarian diet.

Yeah…she was attractive. And going from the least popular mage in an organisation of thousands to the number three in an organisation just getting started sounded like one hell of a promotion to her.

Nodding to herself, she decided to at least inform Lady Jean about her current mistress' desires the next day. She didn't have too many chances to impress the woman, and from what she had gathered of her personality, Jean Campbell would vastly prefer to have things stated up front and honestly, rather than having to parse cryptic words and contexts for the meaning behind them.

The Next Day

Jean's Home

"Say what?" Jean looked at Rebecca in mild disbelief.

"What is Asperger's Syndrome?" the Hearth Witch repeated her question.

The two women were in the sitting room of the house, watching TV, when Rebecca asked that question out of the blue.

"You're a librarian and you don't know what Asperger's Syndrome is?" the redhead asked incredulously.

"My charges were spent Grimoires, spellbooks, reports on Campione battles and potion recipes." The Englishwoman retorted with a blush, "Not mundane books or dictionaries. I don't think I've touched a dictionary since Mother stopped home-schooling me."

"You wouldn't find it in a dictionary, at least not one published ten or so years ago." Jean shrugged, "It might be in a more modern one, but I didn't take English in my last two years of High School, so I haven't checked. Asperger's Syndrome, or to give it its full title, 'High-Functioning Asperger's Syndrome', is technically very, very minor Autism."

"And…?" Rebecca prodded.

"I'm going to have to start from the ground up, I see." The Scotswoman sighed, "OK. The best way I've heard to describe it to someone who hasn't heard of it is like this: you do know what dyslexia is, right?"

"Yeah, that learning disorder that makes it really hard to learn how to read." Rebecca nodded.

"Not just words though; numbers can be affected too." Jean nodded, "At a very basic level, Asperger's is social dyslexia. A condition where the person who has it finds it hard or impossible to do basic, everyday things like reading the expression on somebody's face, reading body language, understanding social situations and taboos. That sort of thing."

"Good god."

"Uh-huh." Jean nodded seriously, "Autism and Asperger's are very idiosyncratic; meaning that it varies greatly from person to person. There is a list of common symptoms, but they aren't always recognisable and because they vary from person to person, it's difficult to find it unless you're looking for it."

"So it isn't just the social thing?" Rebecca asked in fascination.

"Hah. I should be so lucky." The redhead snorted, "No, it isn't. Someone with Asperger's or Autism very commonly are bound by routine. Like following a set route on a walk, every single day of their life, not changing it. Or following a set routine when they wake up, almost religiously. If a routine breaks because of someone or something out of the person's control…yeah, it can be frightening."

"You as well?"

"Oh yes." Jean nodded fervently, "Haven't you noticed that unless I'm fighting a Heretic God, Campione or idiot mages who kidnap my friends, I tend to follow the same general routine once I've settled into it?"

Rebecca was startled. "Now you come to mention it…"

"Yeah. Ironic thing is, if someone with Asperger's or Autism sees the need to change their routine, they can change very quickly, often suddenly and without warning from an outside perspective." Jean snorted, "That makes us better than ossified institutions like teaching and medicine. Fossils, the lot of them."

"Anything else?" Rebecca asked.

Jean shrugged. "People with Asperger's or Autism can commonly have OCD, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, ADD, ADHD, Savant Syndrome and can also have a number of hypersensitive/hyposensitive senses. We commonly also have something similar to a lesser version of savant syndrome, whereby they are obsessed with or highly knowledgeable about a certain subject. For example, one of the more famous films that have someone with Autism or Asperger's is Rain Man. That wasn't a very realistic, as the scriptwriter dumped a bunch of autistic traits into the Autistic character Raymond's character. He was able to make immense mental calculations far beyond the human level. Some very famous people in history are said to have been Autistic or Aspergic. The inventor of Pokémon, for example, is said to have Asperger's."

"Wow…I had no idea." Rebecca shook her head in disbelief, "Is it…hard?"

"To have Asperger's?" Jean mused, "Depends. Asperger's is technically just a part of the autism severity scale, since 2013, at least. Back in the Eighties, it was very new and no GP wanted to diagnose it, either out of disbelief or out of fear of criticism from his peers. I was diagnosed when I was six. When my parents died, I didn't know what all the fuss was; I just knew that my routine was being majorly disrupted and I was upset that mama and daddy weren't coming to stop people crying around me.

"Growing up with Great Aunt Ella was good. Old ladies tend to be set in their own routines, so she absorbed me into hers." Jean grinned before grimacing, "School though…urgh. Mainstream school sucks, just so you know. Kids can tell when someone is different and kids are also very cruel. As are teenagers. I had to keep everyone at arm's length so I could learn their body language and tells before I let myself socialise. It didn't work sometimes, but it worked often enough to convince me to employ it frequently."

"It worked? Seriously?"

"Well, to a point. You can't learn someone's facial expressions and emotional tells fully without interacting with them." Jean conceded, "And everyone has different tells, so you have to do that for each person, which sucks considering Oban High School takes the kids from the far islands and from the greater amount of the local area. Each year is divided into classes of 25 to 30 students, which can change at any point due to people moving away, people moving to Oban and other stuff. Then there's the idiot teachers. What a nightmare. "

Seeing Jean start to brood, Rebecca was actually glad when her temporary border ward registered that someone had crossed it. She held up a hand as she closed her eyes to link with the observation spell, opening them a moment later.

"That Chinese girl is heading this way." She said with a nod at the front door, "Do you want to Campione her?"

"No. She's scared of me enough, I think." Jean shakes her head as she stood up, "I'll meet her outside."

Walking over to the door, she opened it and leaned against the doorjamb and looked out over Oban Bay. The scene was breath-taking, one she was sure she would never get tired of. She loved her home country immensely. The sea, the mountains, everything. Whenever she left Scotland, for whatever reason, she became unusually uncomfortable, to the point that she was rather snippy with people that even minorly irked her. Here, she was able to relax.

Rìgh Rubh'a was a small island on its own at the bottom tip of Kerrera. It was connected to the main isle of Kerrera by a small metal and wood walkway, which anyone who couldn't fly had to take to access the island. It was out of sight behind the largish grove of pine trees that shielded the seaward-side of the house from the winds during autumn and winter, as well as from Kerrera, for whatever reason.

The concrete path past the helicopter pad (the previous owner had used the place as a vacation home and had flown down in his own private helicopter) led straight from the walkway to the front door of the house and Jean heard the click of heels on it as Xie Yue rounded the bend in the path. She was dressed slightly differently from the previous day; her jacket as open, exposing her t-shirt, which was unbuttoned slightly to show off some of her cleavage, and Jean was reasonably sure that the Chinese woman was wearing a push-up bra as well. Her jeans were tight and showed off her legs and she could see the barest hint of makeup on the girl's face.

Even with her Asperger's, it didn't take Jean long to join the dots. Yue was laying out the honey trap for her.

'And what a nice honey trap it is.' The Scottish Campione thought, automatically appraising the girl, liking what she saw. Physically, the Chinese girl was hitting all of her buttons; lithe, fit, graceful and slightly exotic. It remained to be seen if Yue could score some points on the mental front. Jean didn't really like terrifying people.

"Yue. It's a bit of a surprise to see you again so soon after our little talk yesterday." Jean greeted the girl in a soft voice.

"My apologies, Lady Jean." Yue replied as she came to a stop and lowered her eyes submissively, "I am here on orders from my mistress, so this could not be helped."

"Orders…? Great, now what?" Jean muttered, "Fine, come on in. Enter and do no harm and no harm shall come to you."

The second ward that Rebecca had placed, on the house proper this time, was an intent-based ward that didn't allow someone inside the house that didn't swear to do no harm to the inhabitants of the house before entering.

"I do so swear." Yue said with a nod. The house glowed amber before the magic faded, accepting her oath.

The Campione led her into the house and into the living room, where Rebecca had turned the TV off and was sitting waiting for the two to arrive. Jean motioned Yue to sit in the armchair, while she sat next to Rebecca on the sofa.

"I take it the pair of you know each other?" Jean enquired with a flick of her fingers between the other two females.

"We met once when she came to Oban." Rebecca said quietly as she eyed the Daoist Mage warily, "Yue Xie, a very fine student in the Daoist arts and a rather skilled martial artist. Seventeen years old and a trusted agent of Luo Hao, the Ruler of the Martial Realm."

"Rebecca Piper, former-Assistant Librarian to the Greenwich Witenagemot." Yue shot back, "Nineteen years old and well respected for her knowledge of the contents of the Library, you're a scion of the Piper family, one of the lesser families that helped to found the Witenagemot. One of the most powerful Hearth Witches to have ever lived."

Jean eyed the other two for a minute. Why were they competing like that?

"Ahem. So Yue, what is it that my sister wishes to discuss?" she said to break the uncomfortable silence.

"Ah. Yes, of course." The Chinese Mage nodded, "Her Eminence Luo Hao bids me to greet you in her name and wishes to fight with you once your fight with Lord Alec is resolved."

Jean facepalmed wearily. "Great. This'll make three Campione!"

"At least she's considerate enough to allow you to resolve your business with Lord Alec first." Rebecca consoled her King, "Miss Xie, I take it your orders are to inform your own King when my King is finished fighting Alec?"

"That is so." Yue confirmed.

Rebecca frowned as another person passed the outer ward line, a mundane this time. "We have another visitor. A normal human this time."

When the knock came, it was a postman, who had Rebecca sign for a large package, which she took to the main room and squeaked in delight when she opened it, revealing five discs carved out of granite or some other hard rock. The lettering on them was a mixture of Greek and Ogham script and Jean felt a great deal of magical power emanating from them.

"The warding stones! My warding stones!" the Hearth Witch cooed over the rock discs, "Now I can set up my Hearth!"

"Care to share with the class, Rebecca?" Jean asked dryly.

The hazel-haired witch flushed as both Yue and Jean looked on in amusement. "These disks are the keystones of my Hearth. Anything within their boundaries is considered to be my Hearth. In a very real sense of the word, they are my Hearth made manifest. I have to plant them in five specific places; the north, south, east and west points of the land deemed to be my Hearth, as well as one in the kitchen, the traditional centre of any Hearth."

"There appears to be a letter in there also." Yue pointed out.

Rebecca picked up the letter gingerly and opened it. After scanning the contents for a moment, she sighed. "My Great Aunt has had me cast from the family for 'shaming the Piper Family in front of the Witenagemot and the Harper Family.' Urgh, so she was trying to marry me off to Maximillian Harper? Gross! He's old enough to be my father!"

"You've been disinherited?!" Jean asked in horrified disbelief. Yue was also shocked. In her family, being disinherited was so dishonourable that most who were thus banished committed suicide rather than live with the shame.

"Pretty much." Rebecca said as she folded the letter up and shoved it angrily inside her pocket, "Great Aunt Eleanor isn't the head of the Piper Family, but she is domineering enough to make Grandfather cave in on this issue. Cantankerous old hag!"

"Do you still get to use your surname?" Yue asked softly.

"Sadly, no. I'll have to fall back on my father's name from before he married into the family. Even Eleanor cannot stop me from using that." Rebecca smiled grimly, a trace of unshed tears in her eyes, "Call me Rebecca Gardener from here on out."

Later

Streets of Oban

Jean walked along the street calmly, but her mind was in turmoil. She was furious with Rebecca's family for doing this to her. They had cast her out and the only reason, according to Rebecca, that her clothes, magic research and her other belongings hadn't been burned was because of one of the little-used sub-clauses of the Piper Family's contract upon their entry into the Witenagemot specifically stated that such a barbaric act wasn't permitted and would result in fines and dishonour for the Piper family if they tried it.

What was more, Princess Alice had sent her ectoplasm clone to Rebecca and told her that she had sent a letter informing the family that they were being watched to make sure they didn't try to do that either. Apparently Eleanor Piper had almost blown a gasket at that.

Jean had left Rebecca behind at the house to set up her Hearth alone. She could tell that the proud Witch could use some alone time to vent her frustrations, cry and work her craft, in that order, so she had grabbed Yue and skedaddled to the ferry.

She had parted ways with the Chinese Mage at the Oban Ferry Terminal and had started to walk around town, with no destination in mind. She had hoped that the exercise would burn off some of the anger she felt, but apparently that famous Redhead Temper of hers was not to be denied.

Jean snorted. The number of times she had been discriminated against by a teacher because she had a bad temper and was a redhead had been ridiculous. For whatever reason, the teachers seemed to think that she 'overreacted to the taunting of her peers' and she 'needed to accept blame where blame was due', as well as 'learn when to turn the other cheek', which basically translated to acting as the class verbal punching bag. Screw that.

'It is the right response in a mature situation, but when confronted with a situation with immature man-children and little girls in women's bodies, turning the other cheek merely lets the other person slap it.' She thought with a sigh.

"Something troubling you?" a familiar voice said from behind her and Jean stopped dead. Turning her head, she saw Alec, the Black Prince standing there as if he owned the damn place.

"I really could do without being aggravated by you right now, brother." She said calmly, "My ire has been stoked and I do not wish to take it out on you."

"I'm afraid that's pointless. Today you will either agree to leave Britain or I will remove you by force." The Englishman replied blandly.

"Why are you so bent on removing me from here?" Jean growled in frustration as she turned around to face her brother-by-adoption, "From what I hear, you're almost always gallivanting around in foreign climes, rarely staying here long enough to argue with Princess Alice."

"A Campione's home territory is sacrosanct." Alec replied, his arms crossed lazily, "A new Campione springing up in a land already claimed by a Campione is only relinquished by the older one if it's distant enough, such as when that barbarian Luo Hao relinquished control of Japan when the new Campione, Kusanagi, arose due to the distance involved. Scotland and England, however, are too close for me to do so."

"Walk with me." Jean said and whirled around, striding towards McCaig's Tower. The shell of a tower dominated Oban's skyline from atop Battery Hill and was usually empty at this time of year due to the lack of tourists. She heard Alec sigh in frustration and start after her.

The twenty minutes it took for them to reach the tower ate away at Alec's patience; she could tell that easily when they arrived. She pointed out at the view presented by their position in the Tower.

McCaig's Tower was just a shell of a tower, left incomplete when the man funding the building of it died. The interior was a garden these days and there had even been weddings held here.

"This view, Alec. This view is one reason why I refuse to leave." Jean said softly, "I love my home. I love my country. The thought of leaving it permanently is abhorrent to me. I will not leave the home I have dwelled in for my entire life just to suit your whims."

Alec gazed dispassionately at the vista before him before shrugging. "I can understand that, but Britain is also my home. I will not leave either."

"I'm not asking you to." Jean scoffed, "I don't want England, I don't want Wales, I don't want Eire and I don't want Northern Ireland either. I merely want my home country; Scotland. I could care less about the rest."

"A Campione who is a patriot? How bizarre." Alec said in obvious amusement, "Would you be able to fight Saint Andrew if he became a Heretic God, I wonder?"

"I honestly do not know." Jean admitted. The thought of fighting the patron saint of Scotland was an uneasy one for her. Considering he was well known as a fisherman, he likely had aspects as a lesser sea god in addition to his status as one of the Apostles. Other tales had him summoning a healing spring with the butt of his staff that could even restore sight to the blind, prophesising future events, dream messaging and, in the distant past of Scotland, he even inspired Óengus mac Fergusa, the King of the Picts, to victory against the Angles (English), starting the cult of Saint Andrew in Scotland and reputedly making the blue sky and white clouds of the 'good-omen augury' into Scotland's flag.

"I think I could, but it isn't an easy question." She continued, "I mean it's almost as bad as the thought of fighting Saint Nicholas!"

Alec blinked at that before shaking his head. "Fighting Father Christmas…are you serious?"

"It would definitely put me in the naughty list." Jean joked before becoming serious, "In all seriousness, I have no idea if either Saint Andrew or Saint Nicholas can even BE Heretic Gods, but if they emerge near me or if Mother Pandora asks me to, I will eliminate them."

"Why are you so hung up on being that woman's daughter?" Alec asked in irritation.

"I'm an orphan." The redhead replied with a sigh, "I lost the last of my family only a couple of months ago. I may have put up a strong front for everyone, but I was lonely. I recognised that in Mother Pandora as well, which was why I accepted the fact that I was her daughter. I got a mother again and she finally had one of her children acknowledge their relationship with her, which made her happy. For me, those are reason enough."

"I see." The black-haired Campione sighed in exasperation, "You are going to be obdurate, aren't you?"

"The one being stubborn to the point of intransience here is you." Jean replied coolly as she turned around to face him fully, "I have stated what I want and the only reason I see that you aren't even considering it for a second is because you think it'll make you lose badass points with the other Campione. And you want to fight me."

"No, I do not!" Alec denied irritably, "I am not a barbaric brawler like the rest of you!"

"Given the fact that ALL Campione are 'barbaric brawlers' who enjoy the thrill of combat, your argument falls flat." Jean replied dryly, "As I said to you before; deny it all you like, but you are a Campione and are thus a battle manic. Denying it like you do just makes you seem foolish to the rest of us."

A scowl came over Alec's face. "I think we have both exhausted the limits of our ability to negotiate with words."

Auras of power began to form around the two Campione as they started to prepare for battle.

"Yes, I believe we have." Jean agreed as she cracked her knuckles, "Honestly, I would rather avoid fighting you, but you are the aggressor here, so I really have no choice but to teach you some manners."

"You should learn to respect your elders." Alec informed her.

"You're six years older than me at most. Hardly a great gap." Jean scoffed, "Besides, respect is given where respect is due, and those who desire respect from others should be the one to give respect to others in the first place. Thus far, you have shown me no respect whatsoever. You do not respect my right to live in my own country, you do not respect the privacy of my own home and you disrespect our mother. Those are ample reasons to teach you respect for your family."

Stretching out her hand, the Scottish Campione chanted, "Faithful blade of steel and sea! Come, appear before me!"

The cutlass of Davy Jones appeared in her outstretched hand and she pointed it at Alec. The sun's rays hitting the blade were dazzling and made Alec flinch back, eyes narrowed as the glare hit his eyes.

"A sword? Ah, this must be one of the Authorities you gained from Davy Jones." He said with a nod, "We shall see what good it does you if you cannot even hit me with it. Thunder, descend!"

In a blink, he vanished and Jean leapt back as he zoomed through where she had been standing only moments earlier, scarring a line across the grass and stones. Alec reappeared at the end of the line, wincing slightly. Apparently Godspeed put a lot of stress on his body. Good to know.

The redhead charged him while he was still recovering, slashing at him with the cutlass. Needless to say, she didn't succeed in hitting him with it as he streaked away. That wasn't a problem. She was getting a feel for his capability with his Authority rather than seriously trying to hurt him.

Alec was not manoeuvrable in his human form when he used [Black Lightning]. He moved too fast for it to be fully controllable and the stress it placed on his body prevented him from using it for extended periods of time. Quite why he wasn't using his manifested form was beyond her, but she wouldn't complain about him doing so.

"How…how did you avoid my first blow?" Alec rasped from where he had stopped, next to the wall on the other side of the Tower.

"I possess the gift of [Divine Sensing], brother." She replied as she dismissed her sword and turned to face him again, "It allows me to track the presence of Heretic Gods as they descent from the Domain of Immortality to the mortal world. It even gives me an idea of how long it will be until they descend. When it comes to Campione, I recently discovered that it allows me to track an Authority so long as I am aware of the God or Goddess that it was derived from. Ramiel, Behemoth, Melusine, the Erinyes and Minos; I know all the gods you have slain and that means that I can track their activations and usage within a certain radius of me. I am sorry that you wasted so much power on the four [Judging Furies] vengeance zones five miles away a couple of hours ago, but I think I'll decline to fall into your trap."

The black-haired man looked irritated that he had wasted so much power. Then a thought occurred to him. "Wait, so you knew that I was coming?"

"I didn't actually." Jean riposted, "I haven't heard of any time limitation on your [Judging Furies] Authority once it is set up, so you could have been setting them up for a future encounter with me."

"Humph. You women really are the worst sort of people to deal with." The Black Prince muttered. This meant that due to Jean's [Divine Sensing] ability and Alec's inability to maintain or control [Black Lightning] to a decent degree without [Manifesting an Avatar], she could probably dodge most of his blows.

There was only one choice.

"Be thou faithful unto death! And I shall give thee the crown of life!" he stated methodically.

The human form of Alec vanished, leaving a collection of black lightning that scorched the grass he stood on. Although it was black, Jean found that it was so bright that she couldn't look at it head-on. She could definitely feel a lot more power in Alec's form now than she had before.

"So this is the result of manifesting an avatar…quite impressive." She said, "I may not be able to follow suit quite yet, but I might have something to counter this."

Closing her eyes, she started to chant, "Oh Golden Trident, come forth and Serve your Master, in the-"

Jean was cut off as she was slammed into flying through the air by Alec. The lightning washed off her magic resistance like water off a duck's back, but the physical impact wasn't mitigated in the least. She flew through one of the empty arch-windows and sailed halfway across Oban before she regained her senses. She really needed a flight Authority or spell for this sort of situation.

"Oh Golden Trident, come forth and Serve your Master, in the name of the Storm!" she snarled before Alec could interfere again. In a flash of golden light, the [Tríaina] appeared in her hands, the prongs jagged like lightning.

"Aeolus, King of the Winds. Lend me thine power and make a platform of the sea breezes to carry me forth." Jean chanted. It was hard to do, as she wasn't over the sea, but being in a coastal town gave her enough leverage to get around that. A cushion of air formed around her and she sped towards the sea, conscious of Alec gearing up to strike her down again.

The Scottish Campione winced as Alec's Black Lightning form smashed into the barriers of wind around her. The sound was almost deafening, but thankfully the winds absorbed both the lightning current and the physical impact both. Alec didn't quite get that part, as he retreated and struck thrice more, each time harder than the last.

Then they were past Kerrera and over the open ocean. Jean took a breath and dispelled the cushion of wind she was riding upon, falling towards the surface of the sea as she fully invoked her second Authority from Poseidon for the first time.

"Gods of the Four Winds, bow to my power. Brother Zeus, ready thine lightning. By my decree, my sea must be cleansed of my foes! Lightning strike and thunder roar! Sky darken and waves rise, it is the time of my enemy's demise!"

As she chanted, the clouds turned thunderously dark, the wind picked up and rain started to fall all across the coast of Argyll. Alec looked around as he felt the immense amount of power Jean was exuding as she unleashed her Authority.

'A wide-range Authority of some sort.' He thought, 'What a troublesome woman.'

A certain deer-affiliated boy in another universe sneezed at that point.

With a crack of thunder, a bolt of lightning soared down and struck the falling Campione, blinding Alec with the brightness of the light, even although he was lightning itself. When the light faded, he looked at his fellow Campione to assess her.

Jean Campbell floated in mid-air above the ocean's surface, a nimbus of crackling electric energy surrounding her. She was literally glowing like a firefly as she opened her eyes. On her forearms, a pair of bracers had appeared, golden and emblazoned with the symbol of the trident, as well as swirls, indicating wind and water, and jagged lines, indicating lightning.

Jean let out a breath before narrowing her eyes at the bolt of black lightning that was Black Prince Alec.

"My turn."

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Next Chapter: Descent on Black Wings

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Authority Expose!

[Scaffold of Fire]

The user becomes wreathed in fire, the same flames that Joan of Arc was burned to death with.

Incantation: Flames of a false charge, rise to protect me as your penance for slaying me. Noble Flamme!

Conditions for Use:

- It can only be invoked when the user is falsely accused of a crime.

- Use of this Authority causes severe dehydration in the user, so it has a time limit of ten minutes.

Effects:

- While wreathed in the flames, all fire-based attacks are utterly useless against the user.

- The user is granted powerful pyrokinesis abilities while this Authority is active.

- The user is granted an increase to the power of any other Fire Authorities or Fire Magics while this Authority is active.

- Any regular metal that comes near the flames will start to melt rapidly. Magically-reinforced steel will not, nor will Divine Steel.