Magi and Djinn World Tour – Student of the Dark Arts
/
Chapter 16: London Bridge
/
~ As old as this city. As old as the day; there, the gargoyle slept, locked away. ~
~It wasn't until one day, I gave it a purpose to serve its new ruler. ~
/
~ Floating whispers told stories of a deadly virus that had plagued the riverbed. Children lat next to their vomiting siblings, while mothers and brothers were locked away – this was not their time, do you recall? ~
~You hold….no such power over me! ~
~I have a right to wake, and you too? Have you forgotten? What is below another Great Empire….is a city. A city HE cherished unto the day of his racing fire. When they STOLE it form the dragon's claw –
~Out….out of my dreams….do not taint those memories….~
~You are weak, my prince. I am stronger than him. I can defeat the corpse bringer. I can –
/
Raku rolled over to the alarm at his ear. He was in his bloody bed…he'd not stayed in the House? Rolling further to the side, classes started again today. He'd put his work down the night before even after it was still bright out. Amber had contacted his cell. He'd slept through supper…was….
He heard the knock at his door and gripped the covers defensively. "Yes?"
Raku saw John, not Chas.
"Raku, lad….tossing and turning. You might have to stay in the House….are you a tad red –
"I'm fine." Raku sniffled, turning his fsce to his school bag nervously. John didn't pry, he instead opened the door as Jack and Jen were only getting up for a meal in the kitchen.
And to hog the bathroom sink.
"Still no…?" Raku bit his lip. "Sorry, I…I didn't sleep well."
John nodded. "I can see, so don't lie about it to us. I'm not the profesor until we're through those doors. Ready to eat?"
"I…" He rubbed his eyes. "Yes, I'll have something sweet." He blushed at the request, John glad the boy still had his appetite. Being psychically vandalized wasn't fun. He had Zee put up wards here too, yet something had carved a mark of red into them like blood spatters. He ripped it off before the boy saw. Jen and Jack did the same quickly, as Raku trudged out and held back a small yawn. "You still to me look fev –
Raku held a hand over his face, eyes shut at a tomb.
With the flash of silver and grey. Screaming mothers and the wails o –
"RAKU!"
The boy nearly felt ill, he…that wasn't true! He didn't want to …
The child pulled at his skin. It hurt…
He winced.
"No way…"
"When he's sick? No powers?" Jack shook his head at the sight of a scared child in long clothes and a fearful glance at his own hands. "Hu….man?" No, no!
Raku was tugged forwards as he felt faint. Something was wrong. Why was he so weak?
"He was visited, then. I'll contact Zee for us."
Jen was…what was she talking about….
~Screams that we caused, together. Like the virus itself that gave us wine. The stuff of the gods – even they could not taste. We h –
"Possessed? Is he gonna be fine, John?" Jack was the most concerned, seeing as he came from John's alternative youthful aspect of a purer side. Chas yawned on his day off, then gawked as Raku was led through the door to the House. John carried the kid, limp as a strand of hair in his arms as the bride of a mad creature from the bowels.
"He's breathing, right? Can we join you?" Jen whimpered. John nodded. "I'll need the barrier maginified until Zee brings herself over. He can't go in today. There is no way –
"Your cover, then? I'm supposed to be the custodian, and Zee is at class as we speak. John, let the children and I –
"No. This…" John saw no bite marks, nothing but the feeling of cold and…
"Why…what…." He threw his hand up as the kid was already on the sofa via something levitating there. "Ignito…."
~I, was kicked. By a brother not forged in blood, yet bloody sacrifice. When you let me into the world of that school, I felt it. I was shaken and it made my entire existence stutter and fail him. For that….~
"What is this?" John huffed out. "Who's using a psychic attack? From what –
~A tower. ~
Raku said, lips as ice. ~London…under the water…the gate….close it...~
John fell silent and his feet then moved and books floated too him by Ignito finally acting right. Right now, anyway. "London, the tower. Below that, was death. All of it…so, something is still inside –
~Is it not blocked off-
"By a portal." John snapped his fingers. "What else is he seeing?"
~Coughing….so many, tears….sorry….I…I…~
John was afraid to see what that "L" was, so he took to the door. "I'll check what I can. Chas will see to the wards for me until Zee runs back to us."
~Would it not be wise to tag team this moment? ~ Ignito asked, his head turned a bit while the blonde magi didn't know what to say. Not to a character that resembled Lord Roku without half of a soul.
"I'll do it, Johnny." Jack insisted. "That, and Jen and I can run like rabbits around the bloke that is controlling our student."
John didn't want that, but what choice other than asking Ignito for another favor?
"Fine, one of you." He told the pouting brats. "I'll contact Jennie as long as she's not far off. Jen? Stay with him. Jack will need to go to class."
"What??" Jack gawked at the other magi. "No fair! She's not the one be bullied by a puppet!"
"And YOU started that fight by picking one, lad." John told the youth. "So, I'm making the trip half way, then letting you work alone, as usual?"
"Until your replacement shows, yes." John smirked, the small smile on Ignito's face faded as Raku groaned in pain once more.
~Should it stop, or another concern emerge, you will know my cry as well, Constantine. ~
"Make it count this time, Ignito." John replied, the knob in his hands as he waved with Jack on behind him. "I won't forget to keep an open channel for my mental voicemail."
/
Amber was in class, face at her phone as the text told of a little hiccup. Jack entered at the bell as soon as Zee had to stand in for a lesson. John was off fixing a gate. Any odd job would do, though he had reason to think that Jenny was going to fly into action. The tower stood atop, Big ben to rest for many more years, until….
Jenny flung herself by and it, made a peep.
DING
DONG
DIING
DOONG
The bell; silent as the time before it could even swing, was moving.
Gears went round, John ran to the base as the guards all there were knocked out. Magic spells. This wasn't right.
"It's letting us know, I think –
"We're being summoned." John sniffed, opening a newly constructed passage at the back of the farthest wall. The water at their feet was further off. John swallowed as Jenny huddled in close.
/
Amber texted after class too. Michael continued to watch as Jack tried to interrogate his classmates about attack before on their headmaster. There was nothing, not a peep.
Michael moved on until he was in the boy's rest rooms. Sitting there in shrouds, was a cloaked form.
Death.
/
The boy scrambled outside the rooms, his panting far easier since that was true. He wasn't alive fully, not until they did what needed to be done.
/
Raku's brow was coated in sweat as Jen kept a cloth there, before fixing a new one up. Ice only worked for so long. ~Not a fever, a dream. ~
"Is he more human because of whatever is after us?" Jen asked the aspect, though it remained silent to her words.
/
"Where are our manners?"
The door opened with a creak. Gears turned and John saw a similar sight, and faces.
Atticus Grey, who looked ten thousand years too young.
And beside him, red hair…
/
Raku scrunched his eyes shut, fighting back a scream as Ignito watched to see if there were others in the room. No. this, this was a curse from afar. He vanished, knowing what witchcraft it was.
A book, that was not returned to its facilities on time.
/
"I enjoyed having the pleasure in another lifetime to meet the great Constantine. But, he, is no king…. That boy is aware, yet you face a being far more capable and…the true Roku, before the red dragon's rise to power."
His accent was of the Slavic royals. For he was….red eyes, red smile with blood dripping to his chin as he fed. The feast was not of farm stock.
It was, the entire village.
/