Chapitre9 :

° Disclaimer still in the prologue.

° Thanks to those that took the time to review my story. It made me really happy.

That was when he took his first look at the two letters that would save Ethan's life and gave them seven years of freedom…

Ripper could only stare at them, wondering about their presence on his bed. He was sure they weren't there before, and if his parents had known about it, they would have told him about them in the first place. So that excluded his 'parents' having any knowledge about those letters. Curiosity getting the better oh his suspicions, he approached his bed and searched around his bedroom for any clues that would suggest a trap.

As nothing came to his attention, he decided to take a look at the letters. There was something about those that was tickling his senses; he focused his attention back on them, but this time using his magic. What he saw shocked him, a pulsing web of magic was surrounding them glowing green and gold, like a net.

He was going to open them feeling nothing threatening coming from that magic, but as he reached for their contents a rustle was heard coming from behind him. Jumping back he looked once more at his surroundings focusing to where the sound came from, but like the first time he saw nothing.

Berating himself for his scare and nervousness, he was going to turn back to his bed when he saw a pair of red eyes observing him from the top of his closet. He just had the time to contain a cry that would have alerted his 'parents', when what had been watching him decided to make itself known and came flying to his shoulder.

Laughing at himself for being scared of nothing, Ripper watched the owl that seemed to be totally comfortable on his shoulder. He smiled and tentatively moved his hand to stroke its wings with care. As he carefully continued to stroke its feathers, he watched the bird's appearance; it was ebony black with red eyes making him look beautiful and majestic.

In awe Ripper looked at its eyes and saw intelligence that he was sure normal owls shouldn't have, and felt compelled to ask. "Are you the one who delivered those letters? And are they safe to open?"

The owl answered with a hoot and an affectionate nip to his ear. Smiling, Ripper said. "I will take that as yes."

Turning back to his bed he reached for the letters once more and remembering something, looked at who they were addressed. The first one, no surprise there, was addressed to himself, but the second one was addressed to Ethan!

With hope and eagerness he tore his letter open and revealed an invitation to a boarding school that taught their students to master their magical potential, and a list of supplies and books, written on parchment. Knowing what he would find in the second letter, but needing the confirmation, Ripper opened it as well. He was right the second letter contained the exact same information as the first one, except for the receiver's names.

For the first time since he magically bonded with Ethan, a glimmer of hope warmed Ripper with happiness. All he needed was the signature of his 'parents' stating that they agreed to let them go to that school and they would be free for seven years, not having to return to this house. As his fingers reached back to the owl's feathers, he began to think about how he could trick his 'parents' in signing the letters.

Since the night they combined their magic to heal Ethan, Ethan taught him how to use and control it. They had had to be really careful while Ripper was learning, because their magic was really different from one another, and only one mistake could lead them to be caught. Ripper's magic coming from order was easy to manipulate as it was always flowing peacefully through him, making it easier for him to control. That was why he hadn't been aware of his magical potential; it had never surged from him as a child in magical accident like changing the colour of his toy… It was the contact with Ethan's magic that revealed his, bounding them at the same occasion.

Unlike Ripper's, Ethan's magic came from chaos; it was volatile at best, tricky and dangerous. It was always in movement and as a child Ethan had done a lot of mischief to control the surges. He had played a lot of tricks to the people surrounding him but never harming anyone; it was a mean for him to liberate his magic, when he was loosing his control.

It was also the reason their magic connected, chaos magic needed to anchor itself to order magic, if the one hosting the chaos magic didn't want to go insane or arm others. Though they were more than connected; their soul had merged with each other; Ethan had told him that it was because they were soul mate. They were bound to each other for eternity, and would become lover in the future.

Ethan explained once that their magic was extremely rare and he had a feeling that was why they were invited to that school, that and they must have traced their magic the moment it had touched and connected with each other. After all Ethan wouldn't reach his eleventh anniversary before two years, and if he had read the letter well you needed to reach your eleventh year before coming to the school, it was a requirement.

So why would they send them letters, if not for the rarity and power of their magic, he would be on his guard because he just knew that they were going to try to manipulate them, but it was their only hope and he wouldn't let it pass.

So he needed a plan, looking at the letters that were in his hands and the owl on his shoulder, he wondered how he was going to trick his parents in signing their agreements on his and Ethan's letters.

The one thing he knew for sure; was that he had to reveal to them his magic now. He thought about all the spells he had learned under Ethan's teaching and he couldn't help but smile. All he knew based on Ethan's knowledge were trickster's spells and it was exactly what he needed.

Knowing what he needed to do, Ripper used a spell on one of the letters and smiled at the result. It was perfect, and being a demonic spell, his 'parents' had no chance to notice the hoax. So now with two letters addressed at his name; he went to show them to his 'parents'. He thought that in this case, the simpler his plan was, the more chance it had to work.

At this time of day, Ripper knew that his 'parents' would be working in their office. So thinking about his plan one last time, he went to see them. As he thought, they were sitting at their desk, rummaging through some books and papers for something he didn't want to know. Watching them for a moment, he was surprised that they weren't aware of his presence; he hadn't been discreet at all when climbing up the staircase. Curious about what was so important he looked at the book his 'father' was reading and he wasn't surprised to see that it was about Ethan's species of demon. So they still were searching for new weaknesses to torture him, anger came across Ripper at the thought of Ethan being in pain, and he had to suppress the rage that was wanting to burst out of him.

Clenching his jaw, he took a breath and once he thought himself calm enough, he smirked and cleared his throat loudly. Jumping of their armchairs at the sudden noise, Ripper's 'parents' turned sheepishly their heads in his direction. Happy of his little if immature vengeance, Ripper went to them his head held high with pride, to show them his letters.

At first they were completely shocked, they had never seen Ripper used his magic, not even doing one spell; they never saw it coming. They had heard of the existence of this school by the council, but never thought that their 'son' would be invited by its Headmaster to do his schooling. Not knowing what to do about it, they asked Ripper to do a spell or something and show them that it wasn't a trick.

Ripper was happy to see that his plan was working, but he wasn't going to make a mistake now by showing them his real potential though. He wasn't stupid, all he needed to do, was to let them test his magic, and for that he could easily hide the intensity of his power. Making himself be your average wizard would enable him to interest the council enough, to send him to the school without them keeping a close eye on him. In other word, he would be free of them!

The test was ridiculously easy to fool, he only had to focus on toning done his power as he touch what looked like to be a piece of parchment. The result was showed by a change of colour, the darker it became, the more power you had. He had to restrain himself from the need to laugh he felt coming; it was reminding him of a bloody pregnancy test. Finally the parchment turned to a blue, not too dark, nor too pale that showed his success in hiding his real power.

His 'parents' were disgustingly happy with the test's result, seeing it as the potential to rise in the council's ranks it could be. Not loosing an instant, they reached for the desk's phone and contacted the council's leader. "Mr Travers, we have great news!"

The goal of a promotion in head, they went on to convince their leader of the usefulness their son would prove to be the council, once his magic was mastered. For once, they showed arguments beyond reproach during their discussion, and their leader could do nothing but agree with them. After all a wizard in their rank, even of an average power would be particularly efficient against demons, they couldn't pass this opportunity. That was how Ripper's 'parents' received their leader's consent on signing the letters.

They were so happy about the prospect of rising in the ranks, that they signed the letters without really looking at them. Had they look, they could have notice the strangeness of having to sign the exact same letters two times, but they had always been more bully than thinker and they never notice the deception.

Seeing as they only had a few days before he had to take the train to his school, they send him the next day to go do his shopping for his things and books. Though there was a problem to his parent's plan that he didn't think about; he had no idea to where he had to go to do this shopping.

So it was with mix feelings that Ripper went to see Ethan that night, and it had been going so well to this point. He couldn't accept that because he didn't where to go to buy his school things, his plan could fail. His last hope was Ethan; maybe he would know where to look.

As Ripper was deep in his thinking he didn't saw that he had stopped before the young demon's cage looking at nothing. After being motionless for a few minutes, Ethan began to worry and with great pain he made the effort to reach for Ripper's hand. He couldn't speak anymore after this afternoon of tortures; he had shouted his voice off.

The contact to his hand made Ripper jump and with a sheepish smile, he quickly went to heal the little he could of Ethan's broken body. His voice hoarse but working after the healing, Ethan smiled his thanks and asked; "What is going on Ripper? What has you so deep in worry, that you wouldn't notice you had reached the cage?"

Warmed and comforted by his voice, Ripper sat in front of Ethan on the ground and explained everything about the letters, the trick he played on his parents, the agreement of Travers… "Once I went back to my bedroom the owl was still there, and when he was sure he had my attention, he hooted with his head bend toward the letters. I asked him if he was waiting for my response as I was waving those letters in his direction and he hooted once more before flying to my shoulder. So I stopped the spell on your letter, letting your name reappeared and gave them to him. With a nip to my ear in way of goodbye, he exited by the window and went back to the school, I'm sure. I have never seen a bird so intelligent before and I hope to see him again, once went to study to that school!" Ripper said excitedly.

Ethan laughed at Ripper's joy and asked him. "So what have you so worried? Those letters couldn't have arrived with a better timing…"

Ripper acquiesced but explained that he didn't know where to go to find their books and things for school, and he was afraid that his ignorance would cost Ethan's life. Seeing tears building in Ripper's eyes caused by his frustration, Ethan rushed to tell him where to go and how to reach the alleyway from there because even if he had never been there, his parents told him in the hope that a letter reach him before his death.

After that they had to laugh at Ripper's panic, he should have known that the demons were more aware of the magic community than the council itself. After that they made sure to made an escape plan for Friday early morning, it had to be perfect, because they didn't have the right to make an error. It was Ethan who came with the perfect plan but once they made sure that every details would be working; Ripper had to return to his bed as he had to wake up early this morning, if he wanted to have the time to do all their shopping.

The wake up call that morning had been hard and difficult, the healing was taking more and more of their magic to do less and less effect. They knew that they didn't have any more time to loose and that it was their last chance, but it was going to work, Ripper was sure of it; he felt it. And that was on that thought that his taxi came to stop in front of the pub that was serving of entry to the alleyway.

Paying the fare, he got out and looked at the pub; all he could say about it was that it wasn't that great for a magical establishment. He had been imagining something else, but when you think about it, it was the point of entry to a magical community; so it made sense that it wasn't made to be appealing, they needed it to be inconspicuous.

Finally he went in and the interior was as rickety as the exterior, but he wasn't there for the architecture after all and he was in a hurry. He looked at his surroundings searching for the entry when he spied a group of four boys looking to be his age, going in the direction next to the counter. He followed them to what seemed to be a dead end formed by a wall, Ethan had told him to ask the owner of the pub to show him how to go to the alleyway, but he thought it would be better to ask those boys. Maybe they would be able to help him find his way or something.

That's when one of them noticed him and smiled asking him if he needed help, making the other three looked at him. He smiled back at them all and with a sigh of relief he told them that yes, he needed to go to the alleyway for his school shopping but he didn't know how to enter it. The boys looked at each others and with a nod the first one came to him and asked. "Is it your first time in a magical community? And where are your parents, they should be there with you?"

"Well yes it's my first time, and… my parents were too busy…" answered Ripper nervously. The boy stared him in the eyes like he was searching for a lie and then with a big, warm smile said. "Well you're lucky! We are here for our school shopping as well; come with us and we will help and show you around."

"Are you sure?" He asked them happy and relieved, but not believing his luck.

"Yes we are!" They all responded at the same time. There was a moment of complete silence before it was broken by peals of laughter.

Once they calmed down, they took Ripper by the arms, revealed the entryway and pulled him with them, laughing along the way. Ripper could honestly say that it had been one of the best days of his life. He had learned all he could about the magical community and school from his friends; it had nearly taken them the day to buy everything. He had taken great pleasure in using his "parents" money to buy his and Ethan's things. He had to tell his new friends that he was buying for a friend as well, but that this friend was ill and couldn't come with him. That had been a stretch of the truth but not really a lie, and it was for Ethan's own protection as well; so he didn't really felt guilty.

When the time had come to say their goodbyes, and they had to separate; they promised themselves to stay together on the train, and he promised to present them Ethan. Waving them one last time he took the taxi he had just called and went back home his mind full of happiness and laughter.

That night he had to restrain his need to go to Ethan to help him heal and speak, they had decided to stop their meeting to avoid the risk of being caught. Ethan had still to endure three days of torture before they could use their escape plan and he pried to every god that would listen to him that Ethan would have the strength to hold on till Friday.

Author note:

° To Carlough and Rage, I hope this chapter will please you as well!

° To subtleshadeofgrey, you will have to be patient but I promise he will make his enter soon.^^ I hope this chapter continue to please you too!

° Review…