Months passed and Raith found himself happier and happier. He started to take classes to get into shape, spelling people to give him free lessons. He took Zumba and Kickboxing to get in shape, He started going to a shooting club for the fun of it and to survive if his magic failed him. After month six of being a witch passed, he felt like an entirely different person. His magic was still meager, but it was growing. Rituals were the only way he could do bigger things, but he found that potions and spell bags could amplify his magic and anchor it for greater effects. Mixing herbs and blood and salt in tiny baggies may seem weird, but it did wonders for his magic.
Speaking of magic, he started to feel things after about month four. Energy and warmth, the presence of the Elements going every which way. A park he walked in had a spot filled with power. He could even sort of tell when young Fledglings were hiding in plain sight, their auras were too potent to be human. They felt cold, dark and more spiritually aligned. He said nothing, they were incognito for a reason after all... but still, it was a good sign of his magical growth that he could notice such things. it meant he was more connected to the craft.
In fact he did so good with magic, something changed. When his first year passed, and the second Winter Solstice passed, he realized something huge.
"I have no more to learn from my grimoire... I need more to learn from." Not at all sure where to go, he lay on his bed, one he stole with a spell. "Hmm... wait, I am a dunce. the House of Night, Vampyres worship Nyx, and she's Hecate's mother in so many myths. That has to be it, they have to have magic to study from. Humans work at the High Council's House of Night.
How do I get the means to get in their, I mean this HON does not take in humans... hmm... maybe...wait, I did hear that a vampyre died, or well was killed. And I felt that powerful barrier spell being cast, so much power it shook the air with malice. Hmm, but I also felt it go down. Maybe I should offer my own power and prayers in a healing spell, or maybe invoke Hecate in a healing spell for their community...
Yeah, that sounds great. I should go now, it's a full moon so they are bound to be doing some kind of ritual..." With that he hurried away, after gathering his supplies, making a Bee line to the House of Night. It was two miles away, and the air was chilly. He got there fast enough, and was stunned to see the gate was open. "Unexpected, but cool." Pleased he took in one deep breathe, combing power from the air, before muttering a simple spell. "Not seen, not heard. Not a whisper, not a word." The shimmery heat of magic washed over him, and he became less than shadow, his everything muted.
With newly silent steps, he hurried into the House of Night, however he stopped as he sensed a thick veil of loss in the air. Something was wrong there, he couldn't put his finger to it.
'I cannot be touched, I have to be careful... less the spell break.' Only, the moment he stepped into the school, he noticed that the students were gathering at the epicenter of darkness. A pine tree, one that felt... powerful in a natural and unnatural way. 'What is that?' He thought, mildly afraid.
Unable to stop himself, he hurried to past the students, dodging people until he found himself standing at the tree, but outside of the obviously set up circle complete with a table set to Nyx. He felt the power of it before it was even cast, including in the four Fledglings standing in each Elemental spot. Their power radiated from them, waves upon waves, but none as powerful as the young stunning black girl that felt like summer and the goddess like blonde that felt like an actual goddess. He wanted to talk to them, to learn of their powers, but someone turned on the music, instantly invoking the Muses.
Memoirs of a Geisha, the music playing, was haunting and beautiful. It was then that a girl, Indigenous in appearance and also stunning with more power than he had ever sensed, lifted her arms and let her body move gracefully to the orchestra. Then a young male vamp voice joined with the music and the night, creating magic. Raith did not focus much on the words, drinking instead the passion and presence he and the girl created by their raw connection to the world.
The Priestess stopped and Raith saw that she was covered in mystical marks, none he had ever seen anywhere but his Grimoire. However the immaturity of her essence told him she was a child, a Fledgling... it was strange to see one with such power or such marks. The man she stopped by, the poet, was tall and heart-stoppingly handsome dressed all in black, which complemented his dark hair and intensified the blue of his eyes.
"Hello, Priestess," he said softly.
"Hello, Consort," She replied.
He saluted her formally, bowing deeply with his right fist closed over his heart; then he turned to the table. When he came back to her, he was holding Nyx's ornately decorated silver goblet in one hand, and a ceremonial knife in the other.
"You'll need this," he said, handing her the knife.
'Oh so this requires blood magic, and I sense something in their auras... maybe a cleansing circle?' Raith thought.
The young priestess lifted the dagger over her head. "Wind! Fire! Water! Earth! I salute you!" She said, turning the blade from east to south, west, and north as she called each element's name. Raith already feel the power of the elements building around them, eager to answer my coming summons. Then she slashed across her Consort's palm, blood and power oozing through out the world as the elements sensed the offering.
"In Nyx's name, I thank you for your sacrifice tonight and for your love and loyalty. You are blessed by Nyx and beloved of her Priestess." And then She bent and gently kissed the back of his bleeding hand.
He fisted his hand and saluted her again saying, "I am now, and always will be, loyal to Nyx and to her High Priestess."
The girl took my goblet of blood-spiked wine and walked over to stand in front of a clearly gay boy, pale with pretty doe eyes. He lifted his yellow candle and smiled at her.
"Wind, you are as dear to me and familiar as the breath of life. Tonight I need your strength to cleanse the stagnant breath of death and fear from us. I ask that you come to me, wind!" This ritual was in fact a cleansing spell, which was helped as the boy held out a yellow candle. The moment it lit, the two were surrounded in a mini-tornado of exquisitely controlled wind. The boy drank of the bloody wine next, solidifying the power of air.
She moved to the uber powerful black girl. "Fire, you warm and cleanse. Tonight we need your cleansing power to burn the darkness from our hearts. Come to me, fire!" The wick of the girl's candle burst into glorious flame all by itself as the world was filled with warmth and the light of a guiding hearth fire. The girl too drank of the wine.
Next she moved to the West, where another beautiful blonde tasting of water stood.
"Water, we go to you dirty and rise from you clean. Tonight I ask that you wash us free of any lingering taint that might want to cling to us. Come to me, water!" The girl lit her candle and the rush of waves against a beach and feel the coolness of dew felt like was against his skin. I
Lastly, she moved to the Goddess like girl, who was looking pale and tense as she held the green candle. There was a pause, and in that pause Raith realized he sensed no Earthen connection in the blonde...
The Priestess turned, her eyes sharp.
"I need to invoke earth next. We all know that. But there's a problem. You all saw that Nyx gifted Aphrodite with an affinity for earth. And she did. But it turns out the gift was just a temporary one because Aphrodite was keeping the element safe for the one who really represented earth, Stevie Rae."
As soon as I said the last name, there was a fluttering movement in the big oak and the night-darkened boughs that spread over our heads, and then a pretty curly haired blonde with RED MARKS dropped gracefully from the branch above them.
"Dang, Z, it took you long enough to get to me," she said. Then she walked over to Aphrodite and took the green candle from her. "Thanks for keeping my place warm."
"Glad you could make it," Aphrodite said, and stepped aside so that Stevie Rae could move into her place.
Stevie Rae took the earth position, turned, and shaking her curly blond hair back from her face, grinned out at everyone while the intricate pattern of vines and birds and flowers that made up her scarlet tattoo blazed as brightly as her smile. "Okay, now you can invoke earth."
Raith almost fainted, sensing death, darkness and immense earthen magic in her. She was a force all her own, and he knew he wanted her safe, something about her felt right. Same with Aphrodite if he was being honest.
Naturally all hell broke loose then. Sons of Erebus shouted and started forward toward the circle. Vampyres were crying out in shock, and some girl started screaming.
Z the priestess, turned to the newly named Stevie Rae. "Earth, come to me!" Aphrodite like Stevie Rae's candle, and in an instant the scents and sounds of a summer meadow instantly surrounded them. "Here, have a drink." And the girl took a huge gulp.
Z turned and jogged back to the center of the circle, where the poet was gawking at Stevie Rae. Z raised one arm over her head. "Spirit! Come to me," The air filled with potent Spirit power and boom the world felt like a maelstrom of force as the elements connected in the form of a thick silver light linking them in a circle. A wave of power washed over him, almost shattering his spell of invisibility. He had barely the means to keep it in plaec.
"House of Night, listen to me!" Everyone fell silent when they heard the power of the Goddess magnifying Z's voice. "Stevie Rae did not die. She went through another kind of a Change. It was hard for her, and it almost cost Stevie Rae her humanity, but she made it through, and now she is a new kind of vampyre. Nyx never abandoned her, though. As you can see, she still has her affinity for earth, a gift given to her, and then given to her again by Nyx."
"I do not understand. This child was a fledgling who died and then was resurrected?" Another vampyre, one he recognized as Shekinah THE High Priestess ofa ll Vamps, had stepped forward and was standing near Stevie Rae, staring hard at her.
Stevie Rae spoke. "Yes, ma'am. I did die. But then I came back, and when I did, I wasn't the same anymore. I'd lost myself, or at least most of myself, but Zoey, Damien, Shaunee, Erin, and especially Aphrodite, helped me to find myself again, and when I did, I also found I'd Changed into a different kind of vampyre." She pointed to her beautiful red tattoo.
Aphrodite stepped forward, actually moving into the glowing silver thread that held their circle as one. The thread gave, allowing her to walk through to Zoey.
"When Stevie Rae Changed, I did, too." Aphrodite lifted her hand and with a quick swipe, she wiped off the blue crescent that had been outlined there. Raith heard several gasps as she continued. "Nyx Changed me into a human, but I'm a new kind of human, just like Stevie Rae is a new kind of vampyre. I'm a human who has been blessed by Nyx. I still hold the gift of visions Nyx gave me when I was a fledgling. The Goddess has not turned her face from me." Aphrodite lifted her head proudly.
It was then, as she said this, that magic old and powerful radiated. So much so that Raith almost passed out, he fell to his knees, holding his head. 'This darkness, imbued with hated and impatience. Why can I only sense it now... it's under that Tree, something under it is calling out for freedom. It's a primal force, inhuman and so much stronger than even this circle... what is it?'
Passively he felt his spell shattered but no one noticed him as his heart and head and soul was battered by the dark waves of magic. He missed a lot, but he did hear screaming and tasted violence. His senses had never been bombarded like this, it was a hurricane of force from all sides, and his newly awakened senses could not take it...
Not until he felt a surge of Earth and Darkness so powerful it literally sent him onto his back.
'Raith,... RAITH!' Hecate's voice called to him, barely making him conscious. 'You must leave, follow Zoey to safety... GO!'
Her words shattered his near seizure and he slumped onto his feet, just in time to see a literal angel lifting his hands up as several bird-human hybrids appeared in solid form rising from the ground. They, like their master, radiated darkness and hate... only, he sensed something else.
Sadness and fear... and he knew there was more to them than anyone knew...
"No time!" He called out, turning and rushing toward where the circle was heading with the Earthen Red vampyre being carried with literal freaking arrow in her chest. He caught them as they were at random section of wall.
We're there!" Aphrodite said. "Get that damn door open now!"
"It is already open," said deep voice. A mountain of a man was standing beside a cracked trapdoor that seemed to appear magically in the bricks and rock. A young crying boy and a blonde dog was with them.
"If you're with us, you have to be against them," Zoey said, jerking her chin back toward the House of Night and the Sons of Erebus who filled the school grounds and who were not making one move against Kalona.
"I've made my choice," said the warrior.
"Can we please get out of here? She's looking at us!" Jack said.
"Zoey! You've got to buy us some time," Aphrodite said. "Use the elements-all of them. Shield us."
"I can help!" They all jumped, seeing Raith for the first time. "I'm a witch, I follow Hecate. I can cloak us all, focusing your elemental magic." Gathering his strength, he repeated his spell as before while breathing in the element's magic. "Not seen, not heard, not a whisper, not a word." And like that, they all vanished as the elements amplified his meager magic. He stumbled though, feeling a massive drain on his life force.
Zoey nodded with wide eyes. "That helps, It's less draining... come with us, to safety."
Then thunder rolled in the suddenly cloudy sky and with a crack! a shard of lightning sizzled down, hitting a tree a few yards in front of them.
In the midst of that chaos, Raith heard the sound of "mee-uf-ow!", and saw quite a few cats waiting for them.
"The tunnels." Stevie Rae's weak voice seemed to slice through the night, even the draining Raith could hear her clearly. She looked dead as turned to her. "We have to get to the tunnels. We'll be safe there," she said.
"Stevie Rae's right. He won't follow us there, and neither will Neferet, not anymore," Aphrodite said.
"What tunnels?" Darius asked.
"They're under the city, old Prohibition hiding places. The entrance is through the depot downtown," Zoey said.
"The depot. That's a good three miles or so away, through the heart of the city," he said. "How are we going to-?" His words broke off as we heard terrible screams coming from all around us outside the House of Night. Bright balls of fire were blossoming in the sky like terrible, deadly flowers.
"What's happening?" The Dog boy asked, moving closer to the Air Fledgling.
"It's the Raven Mockers. They have their bodies back, and they're hungry. They're feeding on humans," Aphrodite said.
"They can use fire?" Shaunee asked, looking supremely pissed.
"They can," Aphrodite said.
"Like hell they can!" Shaunee started to lift her arm, and Raith felt heat begin to swirl in the air around her.
"No!" Aphrodite yelled. "You can't call attention to us. Not tonight. If you do, we're finished."
"You've seen this?" I asked.
She nodded. "All this and more. Those who don't get underground will be their prey."
"Then we get to Stevie Rae's tunnels," Zoey said.
"How?" It was here that he noticed they were surrounded by quite a few red fledglings..
"Don't worry. I know how we move without being seen. I've done it before." Zoey smiled wearily at Stevie Rae. "We've done it before." My gaze took in Aphrodite. "Haven't we?"
Stevie Rae managed to nod weakly.
"Yep, we sure have," Aphrodite said.
"So what's the plan?" Damien asked.
"Yeah, let's get with it," Erin said.
"Ditto. I'm getting a cramp from smooshing so close to everyone," Shaunee muttered, obviously still pissed she couldn't fight fire with fire.
"Here's the plan," Raith started. "Zoey and I can keep you all masked, my spell mixed with your lots power will keep us safe. Three miles will be hard, but all of usdoign this we can be safe. I can help heal Stevie Rae, which is a priority."
Zoey nodded. "He's right. "Now let's go. Stay together. Hold hands. Darius, lead the way," She said to the mountain man.
They moved out into what had become a city of living nightmare, The Raven Mockers were everywhere. Before they'd reached the halfway point near Cincinnati and Thirteenth Raith started hearing police and fire sirens, along with gunshots,
Within a block of the abandoned Tulsa depot, it began to rain a cold, miserable misty wetness that chilled them to the bone. As soon as they found the Depot, they hurried into the basement of the abandoned Tulsa depot, gaining entrance easily by swinging open a metal grate that looked deceptively well barred. As soon as it went dark, the spell and his concentration shattered the cost of the magic hit Raith hard.
The world span and within seconds he was on his knees before the Mountain caught him and everything went dark, all in a matter of seconds.
'Come to me Raith, it is time we speak again.'
And like that, Hecate's voice pulled him out of one reality and into another.
Chapter end, tell me what you think in the reviews.
Long but fun!
Love, your Ninja Overlord,
Mika.