Magi and Djinn World Tour – Student of the Dark Arts
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Chapter 30: Storyteller Horror – Your Life is my Fine Wine to Sip
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~ The reason that no story teller will tell you ever what the origin of all woes is and where it ends, is due to the reason that woe is forever – while all life, is extended to the great beyond, and therefore, it can always be known to escape the suffering of the living in some manner. The four passages of spirit are of air, water, fire and earth. Why then is ether not at the centre of these unparalleled forces? Well, the question is in the direction. Each direction is directly linked to what are the first elemental markers. Like the Titans of old, or the fae and the spirits of wood and older arts, these godless beings are daemon. They exist as guides and to watch over time while its inhabitants thrive. ~
A sea of hands went up as John moved to open his next question, until the door there; there in it, peeped Zee as a teacher out in the hallway. Simply, put, she was breaking code.
"Mr.…Constantine? Err…you're requested?"
She was being less formal and gar too stiff, which was a red flag all on its own. "Stay and read chapters forty-five and I'll be right back." John let his students understand their roles as he made his exit seamlessly; the characters were all young but bright, he could trust them to want their education to thrive here. Those like Raku, who was supposed to be out during "spell waves" on the field at gym about then...
Raku was not athletic, he was a brain, a strong mind as his aspect of wisdom deemed him; when he'd won Athena's role, it mimicked that of a hermit at first. Having him go back to a magic - lessons' type of school was a big step and John knew Raku was adjusted better than his first days. He craved comfort and attention yet had the habit of pushing back. He had turned before due to Lilu, so his PTSD was trusting others with his heart.
Zee pulled John by her eyes and nudged her neck for him to come along, yet in the opposite direction of the faculty rooms.
"Zee? The room –
"I…we have to leave."
John's mouth fell open, a sharp whisper popping out. "Zee?" He pulled out at her arm as her breath hitched, his spirits dropped and then with brows arched, his deepened for the reason behind her own lowered ones.
"What. Tell me what you've heard."
"Raku…" She sighed out, being the most painful thing as he took her hand and ran for the door.
"Where??"
"I don't know. He…he, they said he ran from the boy's restroom and then –
"Had to be a trigger from then." John knew that Lpthos wasn't the only monster down these halls.
He'd orchestrated a new Marcus, a new time for an alternative Lilith to swoop in as the boy's mentor. This was just replaying an old scene as John didn't bst away from going out into the streets to search fir his student.
By the windows inside, Atticus was busy tapping his fingers to the glass. "Ready, yet?" He smiled to the reflection, as it warped to Lothos's cackling face.
~ I've been ready fir thousands of centuries to repay a dept. You're to stay. John will be handled by my wolves.~
Amber was there in the background as Jack looked at his cell in the next corridor. They were…working together, like they'd assumed. He had to warn Chas. Jack left and made sure he wasn't seen by a soul, only he had been as Marcus grabbed the cell and pressed off. "You and I should talk."
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Raku was in his uniform and sweating like a mortal boy. Not a god, he'd said to everyone – then, why?? Why push him to defeat the obvious truth? Was it wrong to ask fir anything but that??
He wouldn't go back. They were cursed and he wasn't safe. He didn't bring his cell. It was in his locker. He found a small set of buildings to crawl between as the boy tried to access Ignito's world.
He fell back, blocked from it. ~ Human is what you want to be, then no extra perks I'm afraid." The face in his midst crawled out not as the Lothos in firm, but a red furred wolf with black orbs and a lolling tongue.
Demon. Raku reeled his wolves. The dark, light and the senile fool he'd been as the delusional dragon lord.
~ You can always pick up the pieces. Reclaim your rites, this plane lacks order. I see corruption in every realm, and this one…it leads me to it. For son is greater in man, as we hath overcome –
"I was never with you." Rasped the child as he stayed off his knees, though they wobbled. ~ Have you the skill to attack if ye deny? Azag would truly think you a whelp of his line –
" You need not speak of my father! Every word of it is poison, it always was…Lilu added to that, the pain of knowing I couldn't stop…" Raku took a breath as the hand on his shoulder scared him truly. They cane at his throat and CHOKED.
He grabbed back, drool at his lip and teeth biting down. The wolf reverted as the face from behind was in shadow yet clearly an illusionary dopple of the incubi.
~ Take it back, that power. It was right only for you. I craved no other…~
The demon let the uniform tear at his chest as the kid's arms were constricted above his head. His chest puffed out, that breathing now erratic as he refused to shout. To get a mortal killed. " I…can fight you –
"WHY do you not? A deep part craved it, what I was willing to show. Lilu ruined our time together, craved it as well. John? Do you think he won't? He runs to you, little wish granter. He wants you!"
Raku waited with eyes twisted closed as the nail bit towards his belt and let it snap. Those razors were not to cut into flesh. His was as stardust. It had no traces. " You don't stop me? What sort of hero is so weak, but a child you always were…in face, in body –
"I…have one! A form where my youth is not… dead! You used that to keep me locked up! You brainwash-
"Language that did not exist in our time." The nail bit as it pressed to the child's navel, causing white, not red blood to drop past his hip bone. Still clad in his uniform, the top was ripped, the pants were last…
Raku's lip trembled as he felt powerless without them. His alters, his aspects of power. He…
What was he but human to experience this humiliating defeat?
"As a prince, this is a crime to your kind. As a student, I cannot be caught if you were the one to harm yourself."
"W…what?"
Raku was let go as his body shook, the phantom hands letting go as footsteps replaced the dark miasma of the storm he'd had brewing.
Raku chambered for the earth, shouting into it as his eyes lit amber. "No…no…you…you…did this….wrong….all wrong!"
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John saw gusts as Zee ran ahead. There was a whirlwind of trash diwn the street. People were going over, the police not running from it to protect them. "Bobbie or two? Come on!" John dragged his tie and suit along to see that Raku had finally come unbound.
Here, in the alley behind him in the dark was the grin only of Lothos as the laughter had the boy breaking as any meta would when losing their thoughts of safety.
John ran over, the silver tins of cat food and rancid bits of old slippers from a dumpster kept him a few steps back. He reached out, and then it didn't make any sense.
It made perfect sense. Fuck it all!
"RAKU!! I'M GOING TO GET Y –
"STAY AWAY!! GET AWAY!!"
John pulled his hand away as Raku didn't want anyone too close. The furious whirring winds picked up, creating what looked to be a trash bound tornado. It hit the walls, making the child inside cry out. It was his ability. He had lost control. For the first time in a while, this wasn't good news.
"Raku…lad…I'm not –
"YOU….you couldn't save me….no one can! I'm wrong…all wrong….get rid of it…I can't take it!~
The amber wonders started to burn as fires started to process up like will o whisps. The authorities started up their radios as John needed to get the kid to calm down or…
Or, what?
Expulsion?
Termination?
A new cage, here on earth.
Zee as sge stared, did see what John might have, yet she surrounded herself with a barrier and kept walking. "It's ok…were not going to let them hurt you. I'm here, John is…-
"GO AWAY!! I CURSED YOU! YOU CAN'T HELP!!~
Lothos in his glee vanished, the wall if brick and grey revealed as a time wave hit.
Time, stopped.
Had. John and Zee were still moving.
Raku wasn't.
In the midst of their worries, a face revealed itself as she walked up past Zee and John with her long dark hair, eyes and face. ~ Handle this, you could not. I shall assist.~ Astarte was a goddess of war yet she could end disaster as well by A's allowance.
"You were never meant for the realm of the suffering, dear child…"
"Sarah…" Zee swallowed. "I'm…he's-
"Not a word." Sarah Santiago was Astarte and Raku's aunt in the deep past. Isa Rothschild was away, and she couldn't reach the boy as often as she had in his first time as a God's son beside Azag.
"Come. All of us." She let the Magi, witch and the djinn child follow as she then gave a glare to Zee and John. " Tainted." She seethed. "Then, wait." She pulled out of her palm a flower of the celestials in a brilliant healing blue. To it, the thing took shape as the form of two vials of a cool blue liquid.
"Drink."
Zee took the first vial as John did as well, knowing a goddess was about to rid them of Lothos's curse for a while to talk.
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After the vomiting of a mortal possessed had ended, they were back at the abode of Chas. The house was reworked to keep the gods in, but not the incubi.
"He found way. Yet, he can't get inside without-
"Without a puppet. He had just one. Raku fought, and Ignito pushed him outside of the barrier. It was breaking."
"RAKU!" Lil Jen ran over as the older Jenny Sparks looked over Astarte's cool demeanor and her marine's gear in full. "US of A, then?"
"A, cover." Sarah told the meta. "I'm a goddess from the Old Kingdom."
"New, for now." John sighed. "Any word on Jack?"
Zee stood up and gasped put loud.
"I'm going back –
"Zee." John stopped her. "Take Jen. ."
Jen pushed off the wall and motioned for the sorceress to follow. "Come on, we can take um." Zee nodded, having no poor reception this time since she was Lothos free. "The potion will bare as poison to those that taint you again. It will work for a time and I will gladly hand you the recipe."
"Thank you –
"Then boy, once he is awake…Will not be returned to his work on this earth."
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Oh, that's not good. But recall, after this arc was Sun and moon and they WERE still together so….? It's a big reveal! Anyway, find out!