Magi and Djinn World Tour- Student of the Dark Arts
/
So, this is a coming to terms sort of synopsis but later on in the next arc, it returns to the present where after Ami faces her enemies in Tokyo Knights, Raku is called back to a place of his birth to discuss his inheritance. This will likely cross over to different areas of cultural and mystic origins including Djinn life in modern times. Right now, Raku is coming to terms with his abusers. The two that changed him were Lothos and Lilith, so it's like a kill bill check list if Lothos gets sucked into the kid's tome as a punishment for abusing the universal law of cosmic order.
/
Chapter 36: Part of Your World
/
Astarte had all of the Constantine allies and Raku, forced through the door to Chas's flat. John was seated with a book splayed out in front of him, his eyes down at it as Raku saw the aura cast and put a hand to his lips.
"Uh, John…I…-
"Johnathan is now under the Eternal's grand protection. As are, all of you."
/
John and Chas didn't look right about her words, yet fir a moment, Raku had recalled a time when he'd face greater authority figures. Abi had been one, as had Autur at one point been a different female of a modest nature. She now clung to her savior, hoping the past would not come to an end so soon…
"I, want a moment." Raku stepped past his aunt until his eyes were peering down at the seated exorcist. He leaned in as the stench of alcohol had since left the man's coat. His hair looked a mess while he was drained near repentance of the demon's curse.
~ I call out to those that wpukd do – as unto I, a god with the power to take pain from the mortal word.~
Astarte watched in horror as John's body went into a flash of light, his glowing wounds were ceased by Raku's spoken spell, though it was true.
Raku staggered backwards as Jack went over with Jen to catch the boy.
"Stand away, both of you." Astarte commanded the twin faces.
"Why? He's-
"He'stolen a curse from his mentor's body. It is an influence that may infect anything that it touches. Why?" She growled at John as his body stretched up. Arms out and behind his head, he smirked at the goddess with an all knowing stare. "You'll not be interacting with my pupil or myself. I think it best –
"He's been cursed with your pain….Constantine….I will not allow this." She huffed. "Raku, we will go to the Eternal realm to remove –
"I'm going to eradicate more than one curse." Raku told his aunt. She also stunned back as the boy was supposedly much older than seventeen or so. "No, you…you are not well in control of that sort of corrupted …" She bit her lip. "If he us not here, hanging you by a hook, John….by the time I should return, you will not reject my offer again."
"Threaten us plenty." John snorted at the Queen of war times. "Sarah, you're a terrible mentor if you keep shying away from your students emotional well being, lov. In fact, Anna chose that brute because she couldn't be loved enough in turn, am I wrong?"
Astarte walked to the door and slammed it back as the whole wall rattled.
John let his head drop forwards as Ru nearly gained by the mask he'd kept on to make himself feel right at home. It was far from it. Lothos would now call to him. Seek him out to dine upon as an unnatural resource of magic and manna.
"She didn't very well enjoy your stunt." Jen frowned as Jack helped Raku to sit down in the living room side chair. Chas went to see about a cup of tea, yet John got up and ushered both to the outside landing.
/
" We have to say something, John." Chas told his best friend.
"I can't be so willing to do what sge did to im, mate. Astarte is a beast. She'll have her way if we turn around slowly enough. Raku can't listen. But…Lothos is closer than ever, and something tells me that I'd like to speak to that headmaster one more time."
"You'll be in hot water if you do." Chas warned. "Raku's got your bite now. It's as if Lothos has what he came to take all along."
"You know what he did, don't you." John asked the other, darkly. "The abuse wasn't uncommon to a caregiver of royal blood, yet Lilu needed him to be tainted to have what sge was well after since their first contract. Lothos also wanted a nip, ywt there must be a reason why he was never banished for long.."
"Maybe the magic that Roku had was stronger, kept him bay until he was set free from the first curse."
John smiled and was glad that Chas cared to go over the source material.
"The kid would fight back. I saw what he did and we can't let him out of our sights until the real mystery is solved. That soiree at the lady's school?"
"COVER." John frowned. "He's going to feed on every last one, then make them his pawns. Take over the coty. That sort of chestnut." John shrugged. "Maybe wkth Raku's magic he'll have a do over and try to make him a vampire servant again –
"Why did we dismiss her then?? She was going to –
"Becoming a god." John shook his head. "Raku wants to be human, yet all his life he was told not to try at something below his class of being. He's a person, a warlock. A reincarnation, sure, but has anyone ever treated the lad like a…teenager? Aiden understood that, so I'm taking from his book. The boy needs a home, a family. Not a high commander and a throne."
"Ignito would bring the flames if you ever said that any louder, mate." Chas tried to imagine the aspect as a fearsome Spook. Reaching over with hands of shadows and web light appendages to strangle them all to death. All to make a king out of that poor kid.
"Then, we can always try to teach him what we know. That normal is sate too."
"Is it, Chas? Up there, he'd be a target but guarded. He'd be with those that know the stories he's read as a lad and wouldn't have to feed off of the same energy daily of human joys and woes anymore. Just, he'd be almost but not entirely right with himself, I think. What could he not have here on this pitiful planet earth? What could life on a bloody cloud teach him at this point; that he'd not warp time and space to be so unrealistic as the rest of those hypocrites? A pattern of himself as I see it, they wants both. The trick here is, if he rejects that power, even to trick the demons….would they even need him anymore?"
/
John would follow.
Raku did himself the luxury of waiting, knowing the Count Vladimir tale if a maiden being in a trance. Lothos was not as cliché. Kinky. But that was really the gist.
He instead knew to sneak out a block from the flat out the window. That the her on it was not as secure while Lothos was paving his way to have the boy meet up with those cult followers. Sacrifices and the like were predictable. He had no desire to think otherwise as the night stayed dead. The city, only a few drunken pubs open as everyone else cast a set of shutters to stay shut.
England was not as London in her entirety. In San Francisco, he'd had the most welcoming people only due to whom, while at school here, everyone was sort of like him. Lothos couldn't steal their laughter he had to stop his former sitter if it was the very last thing he'd even have to do.
The next few blocks would be the metro, yet Raku would walk it was only nine minutes extra ti the academy if he booked it. No one would catch him in the stray blanket of the night. The wind stayed calmly, no shoving or ominous roars.
No they were well past that as Raku came into contact with steps leading to the back doorway of his school. In he went, once a hushed thing and now, as if he'd never been there to begin with.
/
John drove as Chas had called Zee to watch over the kids. She'd been half into her new prime time series about serial cases and international terror. Something Wally had told her about it made the characters very relatable.
~ If you take Raku home, I can stay with the kids before the vamp gets all teste.~
" He's already a cranky mummy." John snorted. "A little too impatient at the moment to see the town. I couldn't stay locked up indoors without the sun in my eyes."
"You don't believe in getting a tan, Johnny." Chas grunted.
"I believe in keeping my levels in check and not turning into a pile of ash. Not like Lpthos is about bloody be if he lays a finger on my student. Zee? We're counting on you."
~ What about…you know?~ She seethed regarding…that. ~ That bite may be healed. But won't I be a threat too? You had your curse lifted, and if Raku fights back…is that why he went?~
" He's got history with the bloke." Chas sighed. "Here, park by that tree." He pointed over the dash to a space that was near a shrub fir cover. "We'll see you when it's done."
~ Be careful, John.~ Zee responded worriedly. ~ You may be ok to cast spells, but don't overdo anything I wouldn't. If I have to miss my next episode thanks to –
"Bye for now, lov!"
He cut the call short as Chas shook his head while John shrugged, knowing fir the record his history with his other ex – pupil. "What?? She was pitying me!"
"She cared enough to be spot on to observe year's flaws better than you ever could." Chas scoffed. "Don't exert yourself. Just like stepping again after being in bed all year. Baby steps."
"We don't have time to cope with the loss of my sense of humor, Chas." John crept up to a window that was still lit inside. The….positioning was distinctly around the side, first ….no. second floor.
"That's-
"Shush. You know, then let's not dawdle."
"Fine."
The men went to the window as John undid a bolt to have them peep into the pane, only to see that the lamp was a few feet from the desk itself.
"The headmaster shouldn't be after hours. Suppose we-
"No." John scoped out the space, knowing this wasn't a coincidence. "Someone's been here before us."
"They ran the other direction, of course." Chas agreed with a nervous chuckle, nonchalantly. "Then, what about…where they are, now?"
John tipped his head to a sound, a groan as Chas caught himself against the ledge. "Damn! What was –
"Hush it…bullocks. I think…we've wandered into a mouse trap."
"Where then is the rat?" Chas whispered. The men tip toed towards the sound. The wardrobe in the room was groaning?
Chas shuddered as John reached out, seeing that it wasn't locked tightly enough.
A grey, slimy body of human death forced its way onto the floor as seeping through it were maggots that had already made their claim. John threw a sleeve over his mouth and shut his eyes. Chas bit back a cuss as another sound, a chuckle at the sigh of a bell's chime made the men look next to the lamp that was carelessly left alone.
"Ah, you!"
"Whoopsie – does it. Did I slip my mask off twice, Constantine?" Her face morphed, as did her Faunus horns and tail to become more a devil. A short one with red pig tails and a demon's hooves and wings and….tail.
The worse of all those parts. Her dark black gloves and her leather skirt shorts and corset that covered her flat chest had Constantine fight back an inward laugh. "He sent you? Well, this is a bigger let down than I'd imagined it would be, lov.
"You think you know the story. From him?" Scoffed the bratty demoness.
"You are a faunus. Why that?" Chas pointed at her wings as she rolled her eyes with a hand to her hip. "I've converted. Or was meant to long ago. My true title was as you see, a fae being that was subjected to the crimes of my keepers. The only way to escape…was to do its bidding…in time, I was given a new name." She went along and observed the dead human body as the lamp got a bit brighter to reveal the corpse's features.
Chas gasped, while John had to sneer at the imposter witch.
"Is, you killed him. Cut him clean apart, whoever you are? Not Amber, then what should we call a traitor in the flesh, eh?" John stood back as her eyes lit yellow to green. "I'm not finished talking, Johnathan!" She giggled as a cackle had the windows lock tight, the room filling down slowly a strange miasma. John unleashed one spell to shield them from the smoke screen .
"Ung! Well, how rude. I'm as you didn't have to guess? I'm called "Absinthe, " after the sleeping poison that turns dreams into your worst nightmares. It was a gift, from Lord Lothos's ancestor. He was the one whom gifted my alliance to his son. It was too much to see him swooning over that brat, Raku! Will he ever –
"WHERE ARE THEY??"
/
Slipping down the hall, his cloak was hooded long enough to stay up. Raku looked for any such lights or a secret passage, yet this hall as clear of those things. The only way out was forwards, so on he went.
The darkness was then soon lit as he passed by a glass pane; a myriad of blue and green, red and yellow and orange and purple , black. All the colors of every level the students could earn credits. The courses. The classes he'd taken here had helped in one matter and Raku knew what he had to do.
What could put his nightmares to rest.
The wall did finally open, as cliché as it was. The lantern in his eyes was dragged away to show the face of a haggard looking young Atticus Grey. "Ah, you are, expected."
/
Raku took to the barely lit tunnel, yes. In the wall. Tens of steps led them to a dungeon like corner of the world. Well below the school grounds, were catacombs.
Raku felt death and the screaming back in his face as he focused on where Atticus was taking him. "The lord of this….you yourself, should treat this day as any other. Moreover, I won't be dismissed. He may only do so."
It was no lecture, it was a warning. Lothos had revolved and given the man life for blood shed to feed the vamp.
"You'll be the guest, so –
"He's not going to keep his promises." Raku said, stopping Atticus on his heels. The man swing back around as he leaned over the boy with hair so very thin. He was reverting. He needed this as well. Raku had to get to some way…to make him look like a fool.
"You, don't know anything. You couldn't possibly know. He was lamenting about you…only YOU."
Raku didn't move, yet his breath, the breath of an aging man in peril…he was very old if Raku didn't stand and do as he was told.
"Come. Time is already wasted for us." The man straightened his back as he walked, while Raku swallowed and kept his feet moving. Moving in the direction of something far less expectant.
/
Absinthe was a small faced doll, a tease. John called her out as she attacked Chas, only to see him rise and wipe the miasma from his jacket. "Try again, missy." He snipped.
"What???" She stomped her heels as the fae being grew impatient. "I'll bury you in darkness….feed on these uninvited guests, my creatures!" She laughed maniacally whole flitting like a bird up atop the bookcase. The straps of miasma grew arms, feet, as they crawled and moaned for fresh souls.
"BULLOCKS!" John got up onto the desk as it began to sink into the muck of black and purple sludge. "You won't keep us out of the way! You're a slave to that monster, why not fight it??"
"Years of staying tame " The girl moved a set of gloved fingers to her throat as John smeared at the Lothos and his kind all the more.
He swallowed his pride a second, wondering if she was no better than what Raku had almost become. If not for Lil'a jealousy.
"I could free you. Let him die, save your soul. You're a child at heart and so is my pupil."
"He, is a god." Huffed the fae. "You need to address that boy as one, or he will vanish into mist because of your "nay saying."
"He's a boy. A human in the skin…..of someone else's enemy. That, isn't fair." Grunted John as he spit out a spell. The little pixie demonic yelped as John shot a fire bolt at the door's exit "Chas!"
The other kept moving while John was right behind.
The "banshee scream" of Absinthe was, vocal. They kept leaning for the walls, to even more narrowed halls and down the first steps. Down, down in the darkness, no more past eleven.
"Last floor. They're below the school."
"Are you familiar from your days here as a lad, Johnny?" Chas gasped a breath as they shut a big iron door while it locked from behind. Magic sigils bolted them in as John felt silt and earth under his boots. "Dirt? Is this a dungeon?"
"Worse than that even." John walked by the torchlight halls as Chas caught up.
" Atticus took a bunch of my companions here that we had swayed to join; there, in the chamber just…"
"John, what happened between you and Atticus that night? Come on, mate. It might save Raku's life."
"We summoned, something horrid before the portal was shut. And I was expelled with the rest. Yet. Funny…I ran, I didn't let them finished because I was the one that gave one of my mates time to go look for help. It was how he was carried out. The ceremony was halted."
"What ceremony??"
"A sacrifice of your blood to remain alive forever. And we were the little lambs that believed he could teach us to ride the ranks as sorcerers, he told me I had promise. Now, I think…"
"He's had a connection to the occult even back then, so you think he knew Lothos and that was the contract he made…"
"To bring s similar bugger into our world? Likely the point of all that." John replied under his breath as the sound of voices echoed down to their level of the lowest chamber. "Going up then , it is." John had Chas follow him up a ladder as they didn't make a sound yet. Yet the voices….
Were like before, as John made sure to find a good hiding spot to watch their performances.
/
Getting long and have setup for next chapter all ready. Find out!