Jason Kaur adjusted his vest to his pullet proof vest over his pin stripe button up. He looked at the three other men sitting in the back of the VXB-170 each decked out in heavy armor. His gaze turned to his smart watch displaying their GPS position compared to their target. He grabbed his HK 416, slid back the slide to check the chamber, and then looked back to his watch once again in a bout of nervous ticks. He frowned recalling the past eight hours. After not receiving a call from his friend about his investigation in the rural country side of France on a case of weird murders Jason pulled some strings with the local Mage association members, gathered up some French police officers that were also working for the Mage association, then high tailed it out too Charles Herbert's location that they picked up by his phone.

"Mon duie," the driver said as he came too a sudden stop. "Monsieur Kaur, there is uh… a large thicket up ahead."

Jason brought his eyebrows together with confusion as the known landscape is supposed to be free of any hedges or trees. He stood up and peered out the front window of the VXB 170 to see that it was much larger than a thicket before them, no before them was something far more jaw dropping, before them was a grove of Hazel, Yew, and in the center was one Rowan tree. This grove covered what Jason would describe as two acres worth of land and they were so densely packed is looked impossible for the armored vehicle to safely move into the thicket, "Christ Charles, why didn't you call me for back up?"

"What was that Monsieur," the driver said looking at Jason with a confused expression.

"Sergeant I need you and your men to disembark here," Jason said walking over too the vehicle's door. He opened it and looked at the men. "I will brief you outside on what we are looking at."

Jason stepped out and looked at the sheer size of the thicket with admiration as this is the third time he has seen it in person and this is the largest he has ever seen it. Jason looked over his shoulder at the five men that got out of the vehicle and he tucked his carbine into his chest, "Gentlemen, what you are starting at is what you should consider hell on Earth, should you get near. That is a rare form of magic these days passed on through the family crest of Druids. I will lay out the ground rules for you, especially if you want to live for sun rise in four hours."

Jason looked at their confused faces and sighed, "One, do not understand any circumstances approach that thicket, the maximum distance before it reacts is ten meters, judging by the Yew trees it would gas you with poisonous spores, trust me I have seen it happen."

"Wait are you saying that thing is alive," A man barked out with fear in his voice. "We should burn it down then!"

"No," Jason barked out of instinctual fear. "TRUST ME, you don't want to get anywhere close with fire. Yes that thing is alive, it is an Ent Familiar, an ancient familiar you don't want to mess with. That is Charles' guardian and it will pull out an unbelievable arsenal of defenses to prevent you from even getting near Charles unless it recognizes your family crest. Three things to remember, Don't touch it, Don't approach it, and God's forbid Don't you dare harm it or Charles."

"Now you will keep a maximum of fifteen meters between you and the thicket as you all look for the house," Jason let his HK416 hang as he rolled up his left hand sleeve and let his family crest appeared before them. "I am going to go find Charles."

Jason approached the giant menacing thicket and as he got closer he saw the Hazel and Yew branches pulsate once, twice, then they opened up to a tunnel of branches moving out of his way guiding him towards something. He paused and looked at the branches and he saw the Ent had buckled down for a defense he has never seen before, hundreds of vines were intertwined with the branches and the vines were covered in abnormally sharp thorns. As he traveled about a meter and a half in he saw the destructive power of these vines as there was a poor rat squeezed to death in the vines. Jason came to an opening where the trees let up and in the center was a destroyed car covered in all forms of moss and lichen and a Straw man. The Straw doll turned as Jason approached it and Jason recognized it as Charles' common familiar. The Straw doll walked away and stood at the base of the Rowan tree. Jason looked at the base of the Rowan tree and the roots began to part way for a moss covered form laying on the ground, "Charles!"

As soon as Jason knelt down he froze in place as he saw the Rowan tree grow a weird formation on the side of it and it closely resembled a face. Jason held up both of his hands and held up the crest to the tree realizing the Ent just showed something that it has never done before and this made him nearly shit himself out of fear.

A noise jostled him from his fear and he looked down to Charles being revealed from his moss cast. There was eight fresh pink scars on his back and one puncture wound where his liver would be. He knew the Ent probably repaired everything vital that was damaged but the wounds are ridiculous, he should have called for help, no, Jason should have came to help him regardless of what he would have said. Charles moaned once more as he barely opened his eyes, "Stop looking at me as if I am dying."

"You might as well have if you didn't have this guardian angel watching over you," Jason growled at his friend as he waited for Charles to sit up. "Jesus I should have been here."

"Yeah well," Charles Herbert sat up with bits of moss clinging too him. He looked up and was in awe of the defenses his Ent set up and then paused at the almost human like face it forced into the bark of the tree. "He has never done anything this big, nor made a face in the tree."

"Almost reminds me of your adoptive family's Ents," Jason chuckled as he stood up and offered his hand to Charles. He sat there thinking of the Larnach family up in North Scotland and Charles' adoptive family that gave him their family crest and the defective Ent that he has. "Cmon let's get you up and telling your Ent to go back to sleep before it drains you dry of magic."

"Right," Charles stood up with the assistance of Jason. He rolled his shoulders and Jason watched as the man extended his hand too the Rowan tree. The tree grew a small twig out of the side of the tree and when it was done growing the twig looked like a walking stick about a third of a meter long. The Ent climbed up Herbert's arm and came to rest in between his shoulder blades where it slid into a hole in his back. Jason felt a leaf fall on his shoulder and he looked up at the Rowan tree as the leaves browned and fell. He watched as the tree went through an entire fall and winter cycle before withering away into dust. "Hey Jason, hate to ask but, got any extra clothes?"

"Yeah in the truck," Jason nodded too the withering hazel and yew plants as they revealed the truck they came in on. "Get dressed and meet me inside the house, and pray we don't find what you have on the last two houses."

Jason watched his friend walk through the collapsing grove that was generated from his Mana and the Ent combined. He stood there for a few minutes just thinking of how Charles Herbert could easily become an unstoppable villain, should the situation arises. He stood there for a few more seconds before turning away and making it towards the house. Jason watched as the French officers entered the building two to a stack and begun their sweep. Within a few minutes Charles has caught up and the lead French officers came out, "We found nothing, the house looks perfect."

Jason frowned then turned to Charles whom carried the same expression but still looking at the French Officers, "The living room?"

"Nothing," The officer scratched the back of his head. "It looks like the family left the place looking immaculate."

"May I look," Charles asked with a tone that bled doubt. Jason un-clipped his side arm casually as he knew all too well that when Charles had doubt in his voice, something was wrong.

The French Officers stepped too the side and Charles lead the advance into the living room and the Officer was right, the room looked perfect, but too Jason's eyes too perfect. He walked over too the wall where the headlights of the VXB-170 shown through the shadows looked all wrong, like they were being seen through a filter. Jason placed his hand on the wall and he suddenly realized Charles was right to doubt the view of reality as Jason was looking at his hand resting slightly through the wall, "Charles, illusionary magic."

"Look for something out of the ordinary," Charles said as he started to scour the liquor cabinet looking for something. "A rune most likely, the familiar I fought had a few on their heads."

"Runes," Jason started his own search of a dresser. He rattled item by item looking for a rune of some unknown descent. "What kind of runes, Gaelic, Icelandic, Slavic?"

"Kind of hard for me to know when they were trying to kill me so I had to destroy them before investigating them," Charles moved on too the TV stand. "All I can recall is they glowed purple."

"Well that is a lot of help," Jason got too the bookshelf and the first book he removed showed him a purple glowing mark on the back of the bookshelf. "Charles, I think I found it. Help me tilt this."

Charles came walking over and tripped on the rug halfway through the room. He caught himself then placed both hands on the bookshelf. The two of them grabbed hold of the wooden bookshelf, counted to three, then tilt the wooden shelves forwards throwing all the books and ornaments on to the ground revealing a giant Norwegian rune. Jason drew his pistol and slammed it against the rune breaking it apart and within seconds tranquility lane disappeared into nightmares of another world. The illusion faded away as if a flame was put against it revealing words written in a dried crimson, "Blood."

Jason looked down too the ground and his stomach dropped as the bodies began to appear. He looked at the overly ritualistic nature of the killing before them. Jason frowned and he looked at the center of the room where five heads sat with their mouths open and stones forced into their mouths. The scene was so grizzly Charles looked away and moved toward the window, "They are children."

"Yes," Jason stepped over a dismembered torso and was careful not to touch anything or smear the runes pained in blood across the ground. "Ancient Gaul writing, human sacrifice, the common five body set up as the last murder rituals. They came through here again."

"But they used children for this one," Charles growled. "Why, what purpose did this give them."

"I wish I had the answer to this," Jason looked at each head and noticed they were all facing north. He dug into his back pocket and drew out a leather bound book, a pen, and he looked at the compass on his watch. The arrow on his compass pointed to north, and each head was facing true north. He looked over his shoulder at Charles and he frowned. "Charles you alright?"

"I think I am feeling ill," Charles spoke not looking away from his corner.

"Want to talk about it," Jason said as he looked back too his note book. He started to recreate the words in his notebook then the placement of the heads, then a rough drawing of the ritual itself.

"I am just thinking of my kids," Charles mumbled. "Those bodies, they look about seven to eight years old, the same age as Amalie and Victor, and how I just want them to be normal and live a normal life."

Jason paused from his drawing and closed the book around his pen. Charles rarely mentions his on the job so what happened her must have rattled him. He looked over his shoulder and at the blonde haired man. He opened his mouth to say something but his words were stopped dead in their tracks when he spotted red markings on Charles' right hand, "Charles, what is that?"

Charles looked down at his hand with confusion he tried to think of what was on his hand. Jason stood up and walked over too his friend as his stomach turned as they both knew what it was, Command Seals. Jason looked at Charles with his jade green eyes and then back down too the Command Seals. The Command Seals crimson color stood out on his hand and the design was that of what he would call an over stylized Gothic Bow and Arrow. Jason looked back to his friend's fear fill eyes and he cleared his throat, "The Grail has deemed you worthy, we have to tell the Mage's Association about this, we are going to prepare you for this war and you will win my friend."

Charles said nothing as he looked at his hand then Jason, and the man couldn't tell what was going through his mind, but whatever it was, Jason would never know.