Magi and Djinn World Tour- Student of the Dark Arts
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Chapter 13: Cult Following
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John paced with a staff from the Magician's embassy as touchy on letting this go on. Adam had been the bystander of a vampire attack, and a low level turned one at that!
"Only lower caste creations of the original might have actually killed this man." John went on as any good Sherlock, while Zee stood by and waited fir something to fall into their laps. Raku and the students had been sent home earlier than permissible. The pompous Magi; Finley Jenkins, had come to have the headmaster a chat.
Whisked into the middle of a crime scene, Raku was shoved out into the car where Chas waited with a vegan pastry and his own explanation.
However, the boy's face was what struck them. He looked lost, dead. He'd seen the body as it was moved on in a bag by the crew meant to have the coroner ay Operation" with it. Yet, his eyes seeing through to the bite marks…as John didn't have a cover for the kid this time as to what that meant.
Amber asked if she could come over to cheer up her friend and apologized for having them both get hurt, John even denied that to happen because of any such curses…saying too many factors were at play. Raku went back with Chas, dead eyed as a dying man in all black.
Amber was weeping a bit but understood, seeing to Michael as he went on about Jack…
Jack….
John shot up and went to call one more person.
Jen instead, rung him as soon as he was dismissed from the office.
~ You bloody think this is fun, is it?? We're stuck, John! Well, I am. Your son is askin-
~ John, right. Jack, and the one thing you don't want to talk about right now.~
John sighed, heading for the front gates as they were both present and pissed.
"We can't revert back."
Jack and Jen told the magi. "Raku is depressed or something abd Ignito said because he fortified it, without that lad to fix this, Jen will be this age as will I still exist, until someone cheers your student up again."
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Stomping up the steps, Chas waited to open the door while Raku sat in the House of Mystery and went over some old books in the House's possession.
John groaned and three a hand down his face as Jack popped in, Jen pushing at them both.
"We have some new recruits." John grinned anxiously as Chas crossed the room with a wooden spoon from his supper set up. He'd not even made a single spud or biscuit, and John was already hammered as hard as could be.
Well, in face.
"There is no way we can stay like this; I think that Zee would better know a way –
"We tried, yet she's trapped inside the school. All teachers including John are going to be interrogated. It's not right –
"We're a threat, the students will be next, I can assure." John leaned into the wall and checked up on any messages from Zee. "She's back at her hotel. I think there is a shot at finding out more."
"You're going to expose the crooked monster by yourself, John?? The boy –
"I read an excerpt from the myth. He was sexually manipulated under Lil's watch by a vampire lord. You saw his eyes shift?"
"HE'S in shock, regardless. He could use his guardian-
"And that school was a shot he wanted. I will take part in catching the bastard and make no mistake, Chas." John raised a finger to object, "Raku won't lose his wish. I promised him and his familiar."
~ Did you…~
John's eyes shot back around those golden windows. Within them were reels In time. Time of a dark castle and a red-haired monster with teeth meant to claim. That was right before Raku had become Roku, when that vamp had failed at its tasking of corrupting the god Azag's son.
~He weeps, yet you will not tell him. Tell him that a high-level monster is loose when he knows this. ~
"Low level, actually-
~ Your beast walks among them! It may remain small and innocent, yet where up into the trees did thoust child climb? Where was the place so destined for he to meet ?? You think little of the factors at play that are so obvious…a distraction-
John looked over the shifting Spook. " It, wasn't to do damage."
He gasped. "It was to prove something…a warning."
~ A sign, Constantine.~ Smiled the aspect. ~ ~ A sign that the battle was never won. Recall one; the fire bird and how she never fully…erased, it. The character of that boy's past. ~
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Raku found it. The very myth he wasn't allowed to look upon. His story, of death, life and rebirth printed in ink that only those powerful enough could view in it. John didn't have any issues with that. He was immune to such booby traps. Raku opened a page as his book of Manifesto flopped out beside it, the boy going slack as his consciousness resided partly in those pages.
He felt every touch, every whip of her tail and the cool career of kindness from those that had tried to save him from his demon watchers.
~ I would never let you leave my throws, not without the mark of my kin, child…~
Raku moved past that, to the day he'd nearly become sick forever. Tainted, had it not been…
Her jealousy.
Lothos was worse that Al – Andalusi, the Puppetmaster, or Lady Jorogumo when he'd seen her as Roku. Courting her for her beauty, only steal off with her loyalty.
He was a perfectly wrecked comparison of what Roku had been.
Meek.
But no wiser.
Cautious, yet kinder.
This was something not unknown, yet Lothos's evil soul was a part of WHY Roku existed, he'd birthed the boy's alternate and had shared in the blame. As if a gene passed in through transfusion or something surgically altered by alchemy.
Lothos knew it too, and now…
Raku gasped, his book shooting back into his chest as he lived to read those pages, now a face of madness upon them as he shook and wept.
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He could read the aura clearly, the red headed child swung her bag over her shoulder as she climbed the tower stairs to where a trespasser had made the tip top, his gear ridden home.
Aged, gnarled fingers and pale flesh was gaunt as she saw him, her ears perking out with a grin. "Atti??" She egged gleefully, " Guess what? I know who he is! We took care of it. It was, well…messy of Cornelia to go on and nip the headmaster's pet, wasn't it?"
"What have a told you, child. He rests."
Atticus Grey, reimagined, pointed to a wall and a coffin of blood red there. Seeping through it were bits of hair and more blood. Grimacing, the young red head shook her head, before replying. "Is he at his peak, yet?? I had this job to be granted my wish. So… What is that boy on about, is he really a hidden relic of the ancient sect of Azag – Adar?"
"The king of all Time's Curious Creations. He is, indeed, special. Or was." Atticus combed his beard with hands of ash. "Dear Anberlin, child….you are to see that he comes to us to recognize his greatness under a new teacher. The lord of death and decay will pave way to our wishes, by that boy's will."
"I want back what they took. My brother, I know the council did it. I'm glad that our vice – mate is dead and buried. How sad? Think not." Snorted the freckled child as she tossed her eyes, eyes of no doe but a demon. A fae underling in charge of seeing to his coronation. "Raku is a trinket to our real king. Once he's underfoot, the djinn capped as before, you and I might be eternal. Sir."
"If we do as he says, Amber, my child. What if your little puppy, witchilng?"
The red headed classmate frowned and scratched her ear. "That Marcus, fella? I was told to make sure that he caused a romp around school and was pitted against the magi to keep him away. If this Jack and Jenny pair is off to an impressive start, what can we do?"
"We can make it so that they can't work. You must charge the djinn child, have him confess that he will give up his time to you and not them. Impress, but better."
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Zee wasn't just in the room after all was said, John came too. Raku and Chas were all cozy with a movie and a secured bunch of wards to keep demon's out. The detective in that child was for once, quelled by classic British cinema.
"I'll look into the past of this room, John. Not a chance I'd leave it. No worries."
"And I'll be right here. Tell me what you see."
The last he'd done this was with Zed as another John. A rather chatty one that looking back, he'd rather have listened to.
His enemy in that world was like this one, Atticus the crafty buzzard would entice a queen to wear a shoebox on her head in exchange for immortal life. If he had promised anything or had been given a chance to gain his life back after rotting away, then something here was very, very amiss.
" I see….a girl, dark hair. She…watch out!"
"Zee!"
She pulled back. "The student, that thing…" She was driven to shock as John tugged her to look up at him. "What did you see in there, lov? Tell me…"
"A cloaked, shadow…taking a girl away…and she didn't…she didn't resist it."
No chance there was a set if subtitles.
"We need to see into…exposing the unknowns this time, any ideas?"
She nodded, thinking of a way, anyway. "The ability Raku has, but I won't ask. I have that ability as well –
"You're not powerless, Zee, but… It takes more magic not to have the spell backfire." John bit his lip. "Take a second. I can think if another way. That looked like it hurt." Jokes aside, he knew that it was not a demon, not a low level influenced one.
The master must have been under his skin. Raku was frightened by whatever that bite set had been; John had seen that look when he'd had a nightmare about Lilith.
She had said to him as he recalled her face inside that illusion, that pinned down reality that Ignito thought would be bold for his young master's tutor to embrace- Lilith was like a virus. You had to ride her out, yet you felt her intermittently throughout your rest.
A fever or lust that the boy had fought and won against, which was why she tried as hard as she could to break anyone close to him.
The Wizard Greggory or Ardius previously. He was turned into the small personal aide by Lilu's curse.
Lord Azag.
Lord Dreamwake.
Prince Veravakumu. The same daemon that Roku had cursed to control him, to turn the guardian from his duties.
Prince Rokuro or Prince Richard Ainsley.
Queen Lorelai Ainsley, the reincarnated now, Sakurano Ayane.
King Richard the Lion Hearted; Princess Lori's great - great grandfather of the Solaris sect of the Aurora. He was said to have divined the coming of the Chosen, his light of the golden dawn was earned as the first chosen of that line until he saw Roku and was filled with dread of his arrival, the fall of his line.
Golden, he had not been because of that witch. Because she envied any to snatch life from her beak. Of child and man, she knew not nor cared any.
Raku was created by his incarnated rites as Tammuz. Azag too had resisted her, only to find that every generation paid for the strix's anger tenfold.
Now, who was this? A creature of the night had targeted Adam, as if Adam had known some gory details about why he ….
John looked to the desk. "Hold on a second." John held up a finger. "Adam…"
He placed a hand where Zee could take It as she asked him why, why was he so entranced by that desk?
"Adam had something. And it wasn't just to warn us as to why …"
He checked the desk drawer and soon enough, a seal. Magic.
"It failed to get that. Zee? Have an eye on that door. I'm going to unlatch, whatever…" John let his breath come in a second, third, puff.
Hands moved as the lock jimmied; the rattle of the desk being no issue. The thing took some power to open as John enacted an old spell without words, just hand motions.
~ Wrong position on the forefinger.~
John seethed as Ignito left a finger to the desk drawer. It slipped back, the latch, undoing.
~ Wish granted. You're welcome.~ Chuckled the spirit as it whispered and vanished off.
"Bloody show - off…" The rest of the door jutted, and it brought with it a cascade of papers – symbols of an occultic red and green as the spell took its time. The lighted pages fell, the magic no longer branded, as below them was a spiral bound notebook. And a second, if not only, the Forbidden Myth, a volume that even John had never seen…so tiny?
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Raku looked at the clock, sighing. Chas was asleep in the seat across from the boy. The movie had ended as the credits rolled across the screen. The room was ominously dark, not the sort you'd want to turn on the lights to and not be scared…
Raku stayed curled up on the sofa as he ignored the fact that he was, a little.
"Ignito? Kuro?"
Raku looked behind his side of the sofa. No. Ignito was someplace else. This, why did he feel so small…?
John was investigating Adam's murder. He should have woken up Chas, yet a human feint in fear was to respond with hunger, as he swallowed and stood up as easily as a sandpiper in the wrong silt.
Hunger, so Raku went to scrape a homemade treat from the jar that Chas always had at his height. Raku was short for the age he'd chosen. His true self would grow, it had to.
The cookie tasted dry, so Raku partook in a glass – also easily taken down to not upset the sprog of a boy. Raku took his treat to the tv room and Chas now was too busy snoring. Raku shook his head, non – dairy milk glass in hand as he did as any that needed a break, and he sat. He bit into his almond laden cookie and chewed it pensively, wondering if he'd be taken from school until the case was shut.
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The boy flipped through a few streaming channels and yawned. His hunger abated, his fear lessened by a human indulgence, the boy would not need to ask for…
He shut his eyes as the scare continued behind closed eyelids, and this time.
There was no cookie to make it all feel better.
Only the cackle and caress of two demons while John's body burned, and Raku…
Raku was forced to be the one to set the older magi up on a pyre.
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John held his skull as the telepathic hurt made him feel a rash on his skin. "Are you ok, John?"
"The boy's stress is broadcasted to me, Ignito?" He turned to the humming spook as it flitted here nor there. "What's the meaning of this? How –
~ You've never known a child. Go to him, bring this rubbish along with you, and your lady. ~
John groaned as Zee grabbed the papers and the two books. Raku's story was in one of these. She'd have to see why Raku was so anxious, hives from a connection like that was a bit of a dilemma…John would need to rethink on how he'd tell Raku, about an organ of a sort. Every volume was a part of Raku's make up. His clarity, his ego, his courage and fears.
Whatever was Adam doing with that? John knew Adam, it had to be that something had occurred, something….
John flashbacked to a little tic he'd missed. Why had Raku been allowed so easily? Was…
Suddenly, he felt unwell. "Zee, take the papers. I'll lock up."
"John –
"I'm fine, this is…more so an old friend trying to convey a bit of meaning before his death day." John answered. "Something is above this college, a rat in the rafters. He couldn't tell us, and Raku may have been the one these cowards wanted – he used Raku, and I want answers."
"You need to go to him, you're bright red!"
Zee held up her phone as his reflection through the glass had John let out a wail.
Boils. Magic.
However, it was…treatable.
He wished for once, that he'd listened to Ignito's rotten advice, before the man bolted for the exit. Key in hand, Zee ran even faster than usual, afraid that John could be hit by some car like some mangy dog. A senile one, as he brought out the very worst in her, once more again...
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