Magi and Djinn World Tour- Student of the Dark Arts-

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Chapter 26: Ring Around the Subject of Freedom

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Kakurenbo - style quack to come. Enjoy!

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"He got caught." Amber sniffed and closed her telepathic link to a devil imp that her master had warned of such a disadvantage.

"Well, your prey is guarded in his tower." At the other end of the room; the very one that Zee could have lost her life in, Atticus was pickling up bits of broken glass on the floor. "What now, sire? Shall we go as we are and demand that child return to his classes?"

"Yuou think so very little of what lies ahead, Grey." At the window, Lothos pulled at his chin with a thought. John was his toy, as was that boy. The tug and pull had to quit, yet in order for powers to flow freely from those tiny hands…

He grinned as a wolf. "That boy, Michael? Invite him tto meet, and we shall tell him, just why his hunch was correct. Whether or not he saw the dark wolf, Ignito very well tests my corrections on that utter…" The grin was a grimace.

"Ignito, sire?" While younger as a man in his prime, Atticus surely was oblivious or just risking his servitude to get what he wanted, anyway that he could. "Who might that be, the familiar phantom that child –

"A very old, ancient relic come to life. It seeks to be a king maker, while we three know what truly makes a king a tyrant at all."

"Raku is a ….you said wish – granter?" Amber's Faunus ears perked up as her alternate self was also like that imp in the cage. Three faces, many delays.

"A genie!"

"No, genius." Shook the vampire of his long head of fiery locks, " Record keeper, time lord extraordinaire!" He grinned again. "A power – source born of noble blood turned rotten. Fire scalds the barer, and in the past, Lilu and I made sure he could never harness it without our say."

"Fire?"

"Of limitless creation; a gift of time's realm by Lord Azag. A former time legend and djinn lord. They say his other kin took to the new location of his castle in the sands. Though, rumor." ( spoiler for new arc later!)

"Never heard of that bloke." Amber crinkled her nose, unimpressed. "What did he do? Start the bleedin' big bang?"

"Nay, he's descended from the Sumerian deity of creation and life, Tammuz. The boy' mother was also a witch with a heritage connected to the ancestry of King Solomon, the demon summoning sorcerer. The creator of the Keys of Solomon and, a special breed of magi that wielded a power of Story teller. This man was a brute, then again? Lili outsmarted him when he'd lain with her."

"Very raunchy history you got there. Were you fixated as ever on her love life when she dumped you for a twelve year old?" Amber's horns revealed her demon's energy as she snickered while getting an eye roll from both adults. "Such as, the very first power – source was only documented as being Horus, the sky prince in Egyptian lore."

"Lot of lording over lords –

"Quiet. Go on, sire."

Amber huffed ad went to sweep up the bed so that she could dramatically fall and smother herself in it like a teen in a sitcom. Atticus did not bother; he was too fixated on this story to wait.

"When there were others, Lilu wanted Raku, the possibly incarnate of a portion of Azag to be her living well of energy. So? We stole him, sucked him dry until he stopped resisting and then? She decided to tell him "that you are my creation, go out and make more of what you are so that my kind shall never go hungry." A power- source after Raku was his son, Richard Ainsley, and before that, the mother Lorelai. He likely killed her though –

"Wait? That little toddler murdered a woman?? Full grown?"

"Yes, and others." Lothos answered as the memory made him quite giddy. "In fact, after he was sentenced to the pit to sleep and wait for his escape, he tried to claim a boy. A teen by the name of Richard Grayson. When Richard grew up and had supposedly stopped my lord by keeping him locked away with a promise, the man's son and daughters got to be the new Chosen, or those in charge of their fates. The power- sources, today are a rarity a gems yet to be discovered. The fact that the boy is alive, he….may be the living last."

"Power source….special, until sacrificed to become fodder for magical beings. Not, unlike yourself, sire."

"Correct, which is why he cannot escape now that Lilu has no say. The way to subdue the last time was through his innocence. This time, it may not be so easy with Johnathan spewing his encouraging messages. It sours the blood badly!" Whined the red lord.

"I want him, and whatever it takes, John will be licking my heels as a hell hound back in the realm of my forefathers once it is ours again."

"You lost your rank."

"I have been as you saw, quite dead." Deadpanned the vamp, dryly. "Off, shoo. I must speak with my contracted partner."

Amber huffed as she went to the next room and shut the door oud enough to show her displeasure.

Atticus was already removing his jacket as the vamp's lips had waited long enough to bite themselves.

"Here, servant."

"Yes, as you command of me." To his eyes he searched as the pull by the tie was a choke of air, and then a snap of it off. "Bed. I'm not feeling on par with my usual stand and deliver; I want to taste it all before I'm satisfied with your service to me…" He lusted greatly in the past, why not make it a modern crime?

The demon winded his meal as the two were no match. Amber put on headphones while they both copulated to gain the other's manna, and the other, the blood that was owed.

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John paced his way to the door before Zee reached out to stop him. "Big mistake. Going out there? What the hell happened with you and Ignito?"

"The fact he's not beside the lad, that is a bother to me." John muttered with a ragged exhale. "Zee, there is no way to get Chas's line. I don't-

"I do, unlike you. Best friend?" Zee dig out her cell as Jack waved back. "O didn't forget to keep an I on the adults, sorry. You both were in quite a ripe pickle. It had me in stitches, actually-

"Bullocks, mate." John groaned, a hand over his face. "Why are you such a smart arsenal, again?"

"I'm you, or…some part of it." Jack chuckled. "Let it go. I need to stay here now because I'm the only one not infected by the biting nippasaur."

"You make this Lothos sound like a real pervert, can't blame us for trying…"

John got on the line as Zee dialed.

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Lothos's message wasn't the black wolf. In fact, right as the opposite. Ignito had sent that spirit to warn Michael of his father's benefactor from the shadows. Poor boy though, he was too taken with this petty revenge since day one. Raku was not all innocent, nay. Far from, and Lothos knew that.

Michael went to his class while awaiting the subdued boy prodigy. The new classes hammered into more of his free time so much that isolation was necessary to get ahead. A day passed, and then a second. A note came through, then a call. Raku was out ill. His records showed a poor constitutional state, though that didn't blow well past the boy's father.

John and the other teacher, the janitor. The only ones present though after all that time were the red-haired Amber and the janitor that was so smitten with pretty faces. By the next morning, those faces didn't come in until the following day. They were pale, out of energy or went often to the floor during wand practice. The only thing after was that the day after THAT?

Complex as it was, refreshed. The rumor was that an epidemic was going around or that a weird spa in the city had everyone getting ill there.

They couldn't find the spa, so the idea was lost. The same occurred until Michael's father was called back in after the week was up.

"He's not to be missed. Where is the residence of Mr. CONSTANTINE…"

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John just couldn't take that Jack was out and he was stuck. No notes, no books. Raku was faring no better. His meditation had finally turned him into a drone, his smile withered. He only read, did incantations and reminded John of Raven for another reason.

Oh, the locking himself in his room thing. Very original…

"Chas." John had decided that Raku couldn't leave his side of the House, yet he could. He though was forbidden from going into the house. "The curse on me is dormant. Zee says the same. Jenny?"

John turned to Jen as she'd tossed a scone to toast. "Any marmite –

"No." Chas shook his head. "Johnny, you got back here at the cost of what could happen. What do you suppose will happen if you can't fix this mess? I found out something brutal today; Raku's principal knows the address. I didn't dare spell it out, so –

"Fuck it…" John scratched his cheek. "I'm going there. Lothos feeds on fear, the only thing I can do is know he can't hit me any worse than I've already been hit."

"Is that your final answer? That he will go easy on you because you're his mate, now?? He rapes anything that moves according to that story!"

"I had tongue nearly with a Scottish demon snake – bear." John frowned. "He's a spoiled little man in my eyes and I'll expose him. You'll understand, and Raku…"

"That nog needs you to listen to his word not to go after it. We will find a way, but….isn't there some protection spell? A damned old un – doing for the curse?"

"On my body, not unless it is killed. Can it be, is the question."

"Ignito says you are too loud."

From the door over, Jen was upset. "Quietly." She put a finger to her lips.

John instead stopped her with a secondary question. "Would you like to come along for an intervention, dearie? Raku can't make it. Neither can your Jack."

She took a pause before bobbing her blonde skull.

"Let me first grab my coat. You really are hopeless, John."

"As is this entire mess I've bound us to deal with. Not until we know what's what at that school."

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The day was set as two staff attendees, John, Jen, the standing headmaster , and –

Was…

John saw a silver haired male and knew instantly that he'd be trouble.

High official types.

He swallowed his pride down as one more stepped through those doors.

The madness only lasted.

Atticus.

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Madness it is! Find out!

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