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<blockquote data-quote="Ulfgeir" data-source="post: 7809286" data-attributes="member: 7015719"><p><strong>Book 5: In Love and War</strong></p><p></p><p>Lots of stuff happened in the year following the haunting at campus. Most of my friends had now finished school and moved out from the dorms. I was the only one left, that was still studying. Well, that was unless you counted Antonio, but I gathered that he didn't do much studying, but rather picking up girls at the university. I swear, if there was a degree in sex, he would have a PhD in it. Well, all those one-night stands works for him, but it is not my style, not that I haven't had any, even if that was before I met Yukimi. Not quite sure why though that he and Imogen had moved in together in a house. Speaking of Imogen, how in the name of the Goddess had she learnt how to do magic? I hadn't sensed any talent in her when I soulgazed her earlier. She had joined the White Council and was now an apprentice to Maria Feodorovna, an Russian Wizard of the old school. She was apparently supposed to be very strict, yet fair. I think that had Imogen developed her powers without any training, she would very very quickly have become a warlock, if what I saw when I soulgazed her was any indication. She still might though. Not sure why Imogen hadn't told anyone else that she was now a wizard, but that was her decision.</p><p></p><p>I know now that nothing had happened between Lisa and Imogen. It pained me to see Lisa hurt like that. More than once I had had to comfort her when she was crying from unrequited love. Imogen was apparently trying her best to be an ice queen. Wonder if she could ever love anyone? Lisa on her hand had become a full warden now and no longer needed to be Ramirez apprentice. I must say that I was both very proud of her for her success, but also a bit frightened. I had a distinct feeling that the White Council wouldn't approve of my relationship with Yukimi. Given that I had started to learn evocation magic, and had gotten more powerful through training, the White Council now wanted me to join them as a member, and they wouldn't take no for an answer. Yukimi wasn't exactly thrilled about it, but I really didn't have much of a choice. I really really hate politics</p><p></p><p>Star had moved into a fancy apartment of her own, and filled it with musical instruments and sheet music everywhere. Very nice indeed. She had broken up with her boyfriend Nick, and had as far as I understood it had numerous short flings with members of the Boston Symphonic Orchestra where she worked. Tim had also broken up with his Danish girlfriend and now spent lots of time at the Trimountain Arcane where he had gotten a regular job. Mirou on his part had patched things up with Natalie, and had started a business. As far as I knew, he was quite successful, and he did brag a bit about the people he rubbed shoulders with. Well, he seemed to enjoy life with the high and mighty. And that left Karl, who had been quite scarce lately. Not sure why though. He and Peggy still hung out together. Guess you could say there was some animal attraction between them.</p><p></p><p>In the city the war between the various gangs had escalated, and there had been lots of high-profile murders. Murders that had gotten the FBI really angry and they had come out in force to wage war on the gangs. In the wiccan sorority, the other girls had started practicing lots of magic. I had tried to steer them away from the darker stuff that would lead them into trouble. But of course they weren't listening to me. They had made me into some kind of honorary member, but I got the feeling that they really didn't want me there at all. Just that they couldn't kick me out as that would be too obvious. The theatre had had its ups and downs. For awhile we had gotten lots of competition from the theatre that Jason started, but they closed down when it was found out that it was used for money laundering. Sadly, Nina left the theatre as she moved to another city. I am not sure how it came to pass, but the others at the theatre wanted me to take over as director after her together with Gerald. Of course it was an honour and looks good on the CV, but it made my life much more hectic and stressful as I was now doing my final semester at school.</p><p></p><p>I knew things would be bad when I had another mystic dream. This time at least I didn't wake up up screaming in horror. In the dream I saw the sun set behind two large trees. In the air between was a broken crown. The leaves of the trees were covered in blood, and looked strangely familiar. Most of the tree trunks was covered by a thick mist. On the ground was a large flat black stone, covered in blood. On the stone was a gun and a severed hand that had lots of tattoos on it in some weird writing. I guessed it was Russian. The grass on the ground was scorched, and I saw a FBI-badge lie there. Then I saw the body of a young girl hanging in one of the trees. She was bald, and lacked one leg. I knew she was dead. In front of me stood a bronze bowl filled with water and rotting plants, mostly leaves. The bowl had been covered with some kind of Arabic writing.</p><p></p><p>I spent most of the day afterwards in the library trying to research the symbols I had seen in order to find out the meaning. I was quite certain though that the trees was the two sacrificial trees that we had encountered before. That made me shudder, as they were pure evil. I wanted nothing to do with them if I could help it.</p><p></p><p>In the middle of the night after that dream I got a call from Imogen who wanted everyone to meet. She claimed it was very important. So we decided to meet in the morning at her place. We were all there except Karl and Mirou. It turned out that Imogen and Antonio had been at the hospital during the night and Antonio's sister had died from her cancer. But there had been some kind of strange man there, who Imogen had identified as a Black Court Vampire. Antonio had apparently met him last year. The man had looked at them, and then pointed to Antonio's sister and said something about her life for his life. That didn't sound good at all.</p><p></p><p>I described the dream I had had, as I figured it marked the start of something unpleasant. Star made some weird illusion that showed what I had seen. She then borrowed Antonio's phone and filmed it. Not sure why though. Antonio wanted me to describe the girl I had seen in the dream. He looked quite concerned, and then called the hospital. The colour of his face literally drained away when they told him that the body had already been sent to cremation, and that he should talk to their legal department. Oh dear Goddess, we all feared that his sister had risen as a vampire, and vanished.</p><p></p><p>We decided to do some research into what was going on. Tim called his contacts in the police. Apparently the two Mexican gangs had lost lots of ground recently, instead the Russian and the Chechen Mafias had taken over. Antonio said that that corresponded to something he had heard the night before that the Mexican gangs were scared of some external threat, and were collaborating sort of. Star said that she had received a summon to her faerie court for some official business. We managed to find out that the vampire that Antonio had met before was called Abraham of Worms, and that he was supposedly born in 1362 and had died in 1458. He had been a Jewish magician, who had been taught by some Arabic magician. Antonio didn't go into any details about how he had met the vampire, but it seemed that Antonio and Mirou had somehow screwed up.</p><p></p><p>I decided call my friends in the paranet to see if they knew anything, but they hadn't heard anything that would indicate any supernatural trouble, other than that the faeries were planning something. I talked to Lisa if she knew anything about the vampire, but she didn't know anything . She and ten other wardens were apparently coming to town for something big. She wouldn't tell me what though, but said she would tell me once it was over. I decided to ask Yukimi later on, given that she was a contemporary of the vampire, but I would have to keep that a secret.</p><p></p><p>Imogen trid finding more info at the library, but had no success. Antonio set out to try ask the local fae what they knew. I gathered that the wyldfae were confused to say the least.</p><p></p><p>Later during the day, I got a phone call from Lisa, who wanted me to get in touch with a guy called Semyon Laguonov. He hung around the local paranet, and was sometimes acting as a driver. He was supposed to meet with Lisa and her fellow wardens, at a specific time and place. I just had to coordinate it. When I called him, it sounded like he had a party going on in the background. He did sound a bit worried though when I told him how many people he had to pick up. I had met the guy before. Not quite sure what he was but he wasn't mortal. I had the feeling that he might be a shidhe or a changeling like Antonio.</p><p></p><p>At school, I passed a TV-set that was on and showed the news. Something really strange had happened down in Houston during lunch. Apparently there had been some kind of killing spree in the middle of a shopping mall. 225 persons had died. There had been lots of explosions, and people dying without any particular visible cause. There were some confused reports on dead people walking around. The police was mysteriously silent on the matter. There was something about this report though that gave me the chills. It didn't take a genius to realize that there had been some supernatural involvement even though it was classified as a terrorist act. It seemed that no weapons had been found, and that some sources said that it all started when two persons attacked a third person, who some described as a dark-haired woman.</p><p></p><p>When I came home, I found Yukimi sitting on my bed. She was crying violently and it took quite some time for me to calm her down. It was as bad as I had feared, she had been the mysterious woman who had been attacked in Houston. Her two younger siblings; Beatrice and Azzo had found her, and had attacked with full force. Yukimi had done all she could to defend herself, and had just barely gotten away.</p><p></p><p>During the night, I had another dream. It was almost the same as before, but this time, there were three dark trees, and the sun had now already set. The girl that had hung in one of the trees were now gone. Instead there was a mausoleum between the trees, and the fog glowed from beneath with a cold blue light, making everything appear ghostly. On the black stone where there previously had been a gun and a hand, now only the hand remained. The FBI-badge that had been on the ground had now almost melted, and the enamel on it had peeled away. The bronze bowl now only contained rotten leaves. When I woke up, it felt like I had been asleep for a long time and that the dream felt distant.</p><p></p><p>Poor Yukimi, she was at a loss, and didn't know quite what to do. It seemed that her family could track her down quicker and quicker now. She feared that they had gotten hold of blood or something from her, and that that was how they could track her. Or they had just gotten a lot better. The question though, given her ability to switch bodies, was whether they were tracking the body or her soul. If I had been them I would have assumed that she had taken a new body. Especially since she just got away.</p><p></p><p>During the morning Semyon and Karl came and picked me up, so I could guide them to Lisa and the other wardens. Lisa was quite happy to see me again and gave me a big hug. She was apparently in charge of this mission, and all the other wardens were quite young. They needed to go to a place near Forest Hill station, and told us to keep back and wait. While we waited, I talked a bit to Karl and filled him in on the latest stuff, he had been home in Sweden meeting his family, that was why he had been so scarce. Ten minutes after the wardens had went in, we could hear lots of explosions, and then car-alarms went off all over the area, before the electronics in the cars were fried. I could tell that it was some major magic going on. A few minutes later, eight of the wardens came running with nine kids. Lisa were not among the wardens that came. I was quite worried to say the least. The wardens were all injured, and the kids looked like they were in very bad shape.</p><p></p><p>The wardens quickly ushered the kids into the cars, then some of them joined the kids and then told Semyon and Karl to drive away as quickly as possible. The kids appeared to be in shock. I tried talking to them to calm them down while we quickly drove to the place that the wardens indicated, which was an old church where we were met by a priest who took the children inside. Two of the wardens stayed with the children, and we headed back to get the others. When we came back the area looked like a war zone. People in black cloaks were engaged in a magical fight with the wardens. Semyon ran over one of the cloaked persons and then stopped the car in such a way that the skidding car hit another. He shouted to the wardens to get in the cars. The remaining wardens get an unconscious Lisa into the car I am in. Her whole left side had been badly burnt. Luckily her face was unhurt. We drove back to the church. I asked what had happened, and got the answer that they had gone up against a full coven of 13 witches. Two of the wardens died in the assault. The wardens had taken down ten of the witches, but had been hard pressed, and would probably have lost had we not come. When we get to the church the priest tells us that Lisa needs get to hospital. We quickly drive there, and then get the doctors to start treating her. No matter how much I would like it, I couldn't stay at her side, or I would risk causing the sensitive machines there to fail. Was bad enough with just Lisa being there, but as long as she was unconscious it would be relatively safe. The best I could do was to call the White Council and tell them what had happened, and then pray that they could help.</p><p></p><p>After the visit to the hospital, Semyon asked me and Karl to come to his part. I told him that I wasn't exactly in the mood and that my girlfriend was visiting. He just smiled and said to bring her as well. Once I was at home I talked to Yukimi about what had happened. She said I should go to the party as she had some things she needed to do, and that she would see me later. So I went to the party, and found that almost all of the others were there. Star took it upon herself to be the disc jockey. Mirou seemed to fit right in with the other guests as most were rich brats. I talked a little bit to Imogen and told her that Lisa was in hospital. I didn't stay long at the party, but it did succeed in lifting my mood a bit.</p><p></p><p>When I came home, Yukimi wasn't there. I found a note saying she would come with breakfast. She did indeed fulfil that promise, and then asked me to skip classes during the day so we could spend as much time in bed as possible. I gladly obliged. Lets just say that multiple orgasms are the best way to stop worrying, and that my fluffy handcuffs and other such toys that I had purchased over the last few years were well worth what I had spent on them. Yukimi definitively rocked my world.</p><p></p><p>In the afternoon, Yukimi said that she would take me to a restaurant. When we got to the restaurant, which was a fine restaurant indeed, the table was made for three. Yukimi told me that there was someone she wanted me to meet. She introduced the person who came as Eibon Blackstar. He or she was wearing fancy clothing and a mask, making it difficult to tell whether it was a man or a woman. I could tell that the person had used some kind of illusion so the rest of the guests at the restaurants didn't notice. Eibon spoke with a very soft voice. I gathered that it was probably a man, and that he had known Yukimi for a very long time. They had met in Japan in the 16th century. He was with the White council, and they had set up a deal a year ago that he would come in and be my mentor and that he would help protect me. The council would in a few days, come and make an official request about it. No problem, I just needed to play along and appear surprised. After the meal, Eibon opened a portal to Nevernever and left. I think Yukimi might have been his apprentice, but I was not sure. </p><p></p><p>The day after, I tried finding out more info from the hospital to learn how Lisa was doing, but the only information I got was that she had been transferred to a private hospital earlier during the day. Talked quite bit with Yukimi about the current situation and my visions. She did know about the black court vampire. Apparently he was more known as a wizard while he lived than as a vampire. Isabella's father apparently had had dealings with him, as Abraham knew stuff no one else did. He had been gone since the 18th century and had been rumoured to live in Egypt and was a bit of a loner. As far as Yukimi knew he had never turned anyone before into a vampire. So why now, if that was indeed what had happened?</p><p></p><p>Yukimi was a bit surprised when I talked to her about what had happened to Lisa and the wardens. She said that there hadn't been a full coven of witches around for some time, not since the one she had manipulated during the winter ritual. I had sort of suspected it, but it was still a bit of a shock. And it was another thing that the others must never know as long as either me or Yukimi was alive. I asked her if she gained the memories of the previous host whenever she changed bodies, but she said she usually didn't, so she had no idea of what had happened at the wiccan ritual that had gone wrong earlier, and had caused everyone who had spent time in the sorority house to be affected.</p><p></p><p>We got interrupted in our discussions as Karl called. He had just learned that Star was going to fight against a troll king in a formal duel, and that she was married to another king. Oh crap. That had the potential for huge consequences, so I reluctantly headed over to the library where I poured over everything I could find about trolls. Trolls counted as faeries and duels were apparently very common among them. After a few hours a thought I had a reasonable idea of what would happen. I met up with Karl, Mirou and Antonio before the duel where we talked things over. Karl of course went as a wolf. When we got to the trolls in the subway-system, Star was told by their guards that she was responsible for us according to the old laws. I had no idea what that meant, and Star couldn't translate them even if she knew them. These were laws that were older than the Unseelie Accords. That was very interesting, and something I needed to learn more about. Star had filled us in that her husband was sick and that she would use some magic to disguise herself and take his place in the duel.</p><p></p><p>The trolls that lived in the subway were bigger than the trolls that Yukimi had used back in Nevernever, and I think then might have been a few hundreds. Most of them were warriors as far as I could tell. Star, in the shape of the troll king, together with eighty warriors went down a long winding path deep under the city, The rest of us accompanied them to be witnesses to what would happen. In the tunnels we glimpsed shapes moving around. It looked like giant rats with glowing eyes, but they were much to big to be rats. They had to be something nasty from Nevernever.</p><p></p><p>We reached a huge underground cavern, with lots of entrances to tunnels. The cavern was lit up by a number of large braziers burning some foul oil. The trolls that were with us were almost twice the size of the trolls waiting in the cavern. The other ones looked a bit like gorillas and were about four or five yards tall, but extremely muscular. I could tell that the warriors we had with us were nervous, as the other trolls outnumbered us at least three to one, and there was no telling how many more were hiding in the tunnels. Things could get real ugly down here. I tried to recall the way we had come in case we would need to run.</p><p></p><p>After some talks from the heralds on each side, the fight itself started. The other troll was ferocious and attacked Star with a number of violent attacks who were hard pressed until she managed to kick over one of the burning braziers so it hit the other troll. This mad it absolute filled with rage, so it stopped using its wicked claw like weapons and managed to grapple Star instead. She took a fierce beating, but managed to shrink herself down in size so she could get out from the grapple. From out of nowhere she suddenly drew a big iron-like sword, she then resumed her hulking size. She hit back hard against the troll, and managed to beat it after some tense fighting, and finally beheaded the other troll.</p><p></p><p>Then in the corner of my mind I saw Karl run towards a smaller more human-looking individual amongst the other trolls, and then jumping up and catching something in the air. He landed in front of the troll, and dropped a brass knife and growled at the troll who were visibly shaken and turned and ran. Karl and Mirou followed the troll. The situation was definitively tense and the trolls with us Quickly ushered us away. Seemed they were very concerned for the health of Star who looked like she had been badly hurt.</p><p></p><p>When we got back, we noticed that somehow Karl had gone missing, while Mirou had managed to rejoin us. The swamp trolls had followed us for quite some time but finally left off when we reached the territory of the other trolls. Mirou wanted to go and try to find Karl. I did a quick divination-spell and could ascertain that he was still alive and coming our way. Star had in the meanwhile gone inside a guarded palace of sorts. After a while Karl came. He turned into human form again, and then asked if there was anything dangerous about being bitten by a black court vampire or drinking its blood. When I asked him why he wondered, he said that he had fought one back in the cave but that she had turned into mist and gotten away. That sounded bad. As far as I knew, Karl was in no danger and I told him that. He was quite relived to hear those news.</p><p></p><p>After a while, Star came out as herself again. She asked me to come with her and to take a look at the king. She had to veil me though as the guards would not allow me to pass otherwise. So it was with some trepidation that I accompanied her. Luckily the guards didn't notice. When we got in, Star removed the veil and told the other wives to the troll king that she had called in an expert, namely me. I now learned something I didn't know before; they young wives were quite attractive in a way, but as they get older they turn into crones. This was another piece of information I probably shouldn't tell anyone else.</p><p></p><p>The troll king lay in a coma, and it didn't take me long to figure out why. He had been poisoned. I managed to find a small wound on the underside of his arm, where a rusty iron nail coated in some nasty substance had pierced his skin. I borrowed a piece of heavy cloth so I could extract it without touching it. After showing it to the trolls, and letting them find out the poison which turned out to be something from the Nevernever, I touched the nail itself to see if I could get any readings from it. My head was instantly filled with a vision not unlike the ones I had had recently.</p><p></p><p>I saw the same three trees as before, but the sun was starting to rise. The crown that hung in the air was now whole. The clearing between the trees was filled with mist, but I could see three persons clearly. A young beautiful woman with a gown of blood stood beneath the oak tree in the forest, under the tree that I knew to be the sacrificial tree near the library was a a somewhat older woman, her lower body was that of a snake, and then beneath the third tree were an ancient crone with a iron jaw. Behind the trees I could make out another tree persons. Two women and a man. The woman standing to the left was standing higher up as if she was more important. The woman in the middle had short hair and carried a long staff. The other woman was quite short and wore a cloak that obscured most of her face. Her hands glittered like stars as she seemed to be casting some kind of spell. The man to the right of them was really tall, and also quite fat. I could see a huge two handed sword hanging on his back. In the front I saw a rotting hand lying on the stone tablet. On the ground lay an iron bar covered by a dirty grey piece of cloth. Where the FBI-badge had previously been were now barbed wire, and the bronze brazier were filled with thorny plants.</p><p></p><p>I collapsed to the ground as I got the vision and did not wake for almost half an hour later, but it felt like I had been sleeping for a really long time and I felt very weak. When I woke up, Star once again veiled me and we left the King's chamber leaving the troll women to do what they could to heal their king. Hopefully this had been the right thing to do, and we might have gotten some allies.</p><p></p><p>Back outside we talked to the others,and when Karl said he had fought a black court vampire, Star said that she knew that the swamp trolls were allied with a clan of vampires.</p><p></p><p>By the time we got home, it was much later in the morning. I was absolutely exhausted when I got home. Luckily Yukimi was there to take care of me. We talked a little bit of what had happened before I fell asleep. In the morning, well almost at lunchtime, Imogen called me. She was apparently suffering from cabin fever and needed to get out after having spent lots of time studying. That was something I should have been doing as well, but well lets just say I had had other things on my mind. We decided though to meet for lunch, and Yukimi would come with me as well. There was something weird about Imogen this time though, but I was kind of glad when she left to go and talk to Tim.</p><p></p><p>Yukimi and I decided to spend the beautiful day walking around in the sunshine and visit one of the parks down town. When we were sitting there, holding hands and kissing, it was as if time slowed down before Yukimi quickly put up a magical shield surrounding us. Just in time as some foul black stuff hit the shield. I could literally see how the grass just died where the black goo hit. I then saw how a man and a woman came walking toward us, casting spell after spell that hit Yukimi's shield. I veiled myself and quickly got away as Yukimi lured the couple away from the park and towards some alley with no people around. Still, a number of people had just died near me and then been turned into walking dead. By the Goddess, that was absolutely frightening. From the alley, I could hear and see a number of explosions, and then everything was quiet. My heart was racing, and I looked around. Had Yukimi survived? It didn't take long before the police and the FBI surrounded the park to take control of the situation. I decided discretion was the better part of valour and headed home. On my bed was a note saying that Yukimi had to leave and that she had spent too long time here. She had to hide again. I spent the afternoon being a nervous wreck from the events in the park, watching the news where they reported from the alleged terrorist attack in the park.</p><p></p><p>I did manage to find out though that Lisa had started to recover from her injuries from the previous raid. She had been taken to a private hospital and had been drifting in and out of consciousness. I really needed to go and see her later on. Sometime in the evening, I got a call from Imogen who wanted us all to meet at Frank's Diner. Reluctantly I agreed to come. There was after all safety in numbers.</p><p></p><p>When I came to the diner, I saw that everyone except Mirou was there. Wonder where he had gone. Star was dressed in some weird metallic harem clothing. I mean sure, the way I dress tend to stick out so I shouldn't be saying too much, but why did she have that kind of clothing. Imogen was acting like she was on speed and couldn't sit still for more than a minute and kept talking all the time. I tried asking her what was going on, but she wouldn't answer. She suddenly decided to sit down in my lap. Just when Star commented that I already had a girlfriend, and Imogen stood up again, then all electricity in the diner broke down and it was pitch dark. My first reaction was to veil myself and move away from where I had been and then use my Sight. I could see that Imogen seemed to be the cause of the sudden darkness as as lots and lots of magical energy swirled around her in a chaotic pattern, and it looked like her body was somehow submerged inside another pitch dark silhouette that most certainly wasn't human. After a what seemed like forever, but probably didn't take more than a few seconds, we had light again as Star had taken on a fire-form. Karl had shifted into wolf-form as well, and Imogen had veiled herself. Semyon had run out and tried starting his car that was as dead as every other piece of technology in the the vicinity. Luckily there were no other guests at the diner, and the cook seemed to be oblivious to what happened. Someone lit some candles, and then everyone resumed their normal shapes or dropped their veils when we could ascertain that nothing was attacking us.</p><p></p><p>Guess that the cat was out of the bag now. Imogen said that she had been studying, and even though she didn't say what,I think everyone now knew she had been studying magic. Apparently Antonio, Tim, and Semyon had been messing with the various gangs in town. Not sure I wanted to know what they had been doing but I had a feeling nothing good would come out of it. Karl on his part had apparently been involved a lot with a local motorcycle gang that had some shady dealings. I told Imogen that I needed to talk to her in private, so we went outside, where we saw just how large area her magical outburst had affected. As I was beginning to tell her what I saw when I used the sight, another soulgaze happened. That shouldn't have been possible normally, but now she had changed so much that she was no longer the same person as last time. This time, I saw her standing in a pavilion in a Japanese stone-garden, but opposite her were a person that was filled with darkness and emitting the feeling of something old, immoral, evil and very powerful that was brutal. I still got the feeling that it was her against the world, but this time it was also her against herself, and things could turn out very badly. She responded by saying I appeared to be hiding something, which I was, but then everyone hides something. The question is what they hide and why. And that she thought I had some big decisions to make.</p><p></p><p>By this time, the diner closed due to not having any electricity, so we had to leave. Imogen was getting more and more skittish, and I could feel the energy fluctuate around her. She decided to veil herself and then suddenly we heard a scream as something, probably Imogen, crashed into walls and windows in the nearby buildings. Wherever she went electricity went out. Karl set off to the nearest payphone to call a tow-truck for the non-working vehicles. I decided to join him, as I didn't want the attention sticking around might cause. Besides, I was quite tired. Damn it, I would have to get a new phone again.</p><p></p><p>The day after, the news were filled with lots of things that I really didn't like. They figured that the city was under a series of terrorist attacks that had started in the park the day before, and then continued in the area around the diner, and then following the streets going towards the FBI-building, every piece of electronic equipment had started malfunctioning. The pumps in the local bath house had been fried so the whole building had been flooded, and lots of fires had sprung up near the diner. The FBI-building itself had been subject to what they described as number of bomb blasts. I prayed that my friends weren't involved in this but I feared for the worst case scenario. If it wasn't a war on the streets already, it sure would be now. Maybe I should have gone with Yukimi earlier when I first learned who she really was?</p><p></p><p>One strange thing on the news caught my attention, and that was that they claimed that the FBI had caught the terrorists from the attack in the park earlier. Something didn't feel right about that. Most likely they had just caught some members of a gang or something, and then decided to pin it on them. Because if they could capture two wizards with the kind of power that they had exhibited, then FBI would somehow have been way too competent, compared to how they used to operate. I didn't even want to think about the idea that Isabella's siblings had let themselves be caught as it were much too scary to think about.</p><p></p><p>I spent the morning doing some research on just how it was that Isabella's family could track her. It had to be something different from how I performed my magic. Of course given how long she had lived, then there would have to be lots of things that they could use as the symbolic link. I doubted that she had managed to take or destroy them all. If I could just find out how they did it, then maybe we could stop it. For a brief moment I wondered if the only solution would be if she took a new body. Of course doing so would probably be a death-sentence for the person whose body she would take. Dear Goddess, give me some guidance.</p><p></p><p>Around lunchtime, I got a call from Mirou, who wanted me to accompany him to Imogen's house. Something bad had apparently happened. It didn't take long before he came around and picked me up. He looked quite nervous for some reason. Karl and Star, was already there when we got there. Both Imogen and Star, looked like they weren't feeling very well. As I had feared, they had indeed been involved in the stuff yesterday. Imogen and Antonio had gone to the FBI-building, looking do cause some mayhem, while Star had been responsible for the fires around the diner as she had gotten infected by Imogen's madness. According to Imogen, she and Antonio had gone through the Nevernever and there come to some kind of icecastle, where they had been chased by some wizard with a sword. How in the name of everything that is dear had Imogen managed to without any proper training open a portal to the Nevernever? The Wizard had chased them down into a labyrinth. When they tried escaping back to our world, Antonio had somehow gotten stuck in the Nevernever.</p><p></p><p>Imogen had on her way home met the wizard that was her mentor, and she had not been impressed. The mentor had apparently caused Imogen to fall asleep, and she had woken up in a hospital. There she had seen seven of the witches that was in the coven that Lisa and her fellow wardens attacked. One of them had woken up and Imogen had had a brief chat with that one before the wardens had come in and sedated the woman again.</p><p></p><p>Now, for the more pressing problem of where Antonio was. Since he lived in the house together with Imogen, I had no problem finding a suitable symbolic link. Imogen assisted me as best as she could, and it didn't take that long before I found what I was looking for. He was no longer in Nevernever, but instead back in our world, and was as far as I could make out alive and in good condition. When I tried finding out where he was, things got a bit weird. As far as I could tell, he was in Vancouver. What was he doing there, and more importantly how and when would he get back to Boston?</p><p></p><p>When I had finished the ritual, the found that we were alone in the house. Mirou and Karl had gone outside to talk about something, and Star was gone. She had left with the gas-stove on, and not told anyone. That could have ended badly. None of the others knew where she were but we did suspect that she had gone to the FBI building, despite Mirou having told her not to earlier. Karl muttered something about Star and a lamp. When Imogen asked him what lamp, he gave some lame excuse about some special flashlight. I don't think that was what he intended to say. Dear Goddess, I hoped that didn't mean what I thought it meant; Was Star a genie? That would explain a lot, and it would make Star so much more dangerous. Might be a good idea to read up on Arabic mythology. How would you stop someone like that if you had to?</p><p></p><p>Mirou had to leave for some meeting, so it was up to the rest of us to figure out what to do. As we were trying to do that Antonio called Imogen and let her know he was ok. Karl decided that he was going to try and find Star, and that he would have the best chance of doing that as he knew more how she thought. Given what Imogen had said about the hospital she had been at, I figured that Lisa would be there as well, and I wanted to see how she was. Imogen offered to follow me there. She was supposed to be studying, but apparently didn't feel like it.</p><p></p><p>At the hospital, which basically was just an old house, we were met by a young warden who at first didn't want to let me enter before he had soulgazed me in order to make sure I was actually a practitioner. I wasn't exactly thrilled about it but there was nothing else to do. After some deliberation, he let us in on the condition that Imogen followed me, and we were guided to the room where Lisa was. Outside the room I met Eibon again, but neither of us let anyone else know that we had already met, he gave a brief nod before accompanying us into the room where Lisa was. She was really badly injured, but awake and in stable condition. It would take some time before she would be well again. She was very happy that I came and visited her, but not so happy to see Imogen. I really hope Imogen hadn't broken Lisa's heart.</p><p></p><p>I asked Lisa if there was anything I could to for her, and she wanted me to see if I could find out anything about the witches in the coven that they had attacked, as there was something not right about the whole thing. I looked at Eibon who just nodded, and he led me to a room with eight beds in it, leaving Imogen together with Lisa. All beds except one was occupied by a young woman, more or less injured and apparently sedated. When I asked Eibon about what they had learnt so far he didn't answer, but when asked indicated the girl that Imogen had spoken to earlier.</p><p></p><p>With Eibon's permission, I set up a divination-ritual,making very sure not to actually enter the girl's mind. It turned out to be the most difficult ritual I had ever done. I saw a scene where the girl walked into some French-looking café in what was obviously some major city, and sat down next to a window looking out on the street, with the light falling on the face of the girl. An expensive-looking car stopped outside, and a woman came out from the back seat. She was a short-haired blonde, and I thought I recognized her form my previous vision. She was dressed in a classic suit, and appeared to be talking to someone in the car. She walks into the café, sits down and talks to the girl. I couldn't hear any sounds, so I had no idea what they talked about. The woman took out two large envelopes and gave the girl before leaving. When she came out to the car, a large short-haired man stepped out of the car. I could see that she now had a wand with some kind of button on top, and she were wearing some expensive-looking jewellery. In the front of the car was a driver that I could not see, and a young man, who turned to the woman and handed her another envelope before they drove away. Inside the café, the girl, who I somehow knew were named Laina, opened the envelopes. In one was a large amount of money. In the other was a folder with various documents, including and an address to a house. I recognised the address as the one that the witches had occupied. There were also papers form a real-estate agent, a receipt for a rental car, and a requisition-form for material. I told Eibon what I had seen, and also about the visions I had had lately as they felt connected.</p><p></p><p>Just as I were finished Imogen came in, and wanted to leave. Eibon gave me an envelope with some documents in and just said to be ready on Monday, which was in two days time. When I got home, I read the stuff. I got invited, sort of, to a council-meeting in Edinburg. I wasn't sure if I should be honoured or scared out of my wits. I had the distinct feeling that not attending was not an option. I really had to get home and devote myself to my neglected school-work, but I couldn't shake the feeling that there were something I needed to do, and that time was running out.</p><p></p><p>The news was of course filled with weird reports of a fifteen meter tall burning woman attacking the FBI headquarters. That had to be Star. Why had she done that? Luckily no one got hurt. The day after it was time for more violence. Someone dressed as a Mexican bandit, complete with dynamite sticks, had been riding downtown on a camel, and then later on all hell had broken loose at a motorcycle club in the outskirts of town. It was reported as gang warfare, but there were some stuff that looked very troubling indeed. First the presence of large wolves, and two of them looked awfully familiar, then someone looking like Mirou had killed some of the attackers using a large sword. Please let me be wrong for once. Some of the attackers had tried to escape in a demolished van, and then had opened fire on the Police roadblock using machine guns. I think they call that suicide by police.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ulfgeir, post: 7809286, member: 7015719"] [B]Book 5: In Love and War[/B] Lots of stuff happened in the year following the haunting at campus. Most of my friends had now finished school and moved out from the dorms. I was the only one left, that was still studying. Well, that was unless you counted Antonio, but I gathered that he didn't do much studying, but rather picking up girls at the university. I swear, if there was a degree in sex, he would have a PhD in it. Well, all those one-night stands works for him, but it is not my style, not that I haven't had any, even if that was before I met Yukimi. Not quite sure why though that he and Imogen had moved in together in a house. Speaking of Imogen, how in the name of the Goddess had she learnt how to do magic? I hadn't sensed any talent in her when I soulgazed her earlier. She had joined the White Council and was now an apprentice to Maria Feodorovna, an Russian Wizard of the old school. She was apparently supposed to be very strict, yet fair. I think that had Imogen developed her powers without any training, she would very very quickly have become a warlock, if what I saw when I soulgazed her was any indication. She still might though. Not sure why Imogen hadn't told anyone else that she was now a wizard, but that was her decision. I know now that nothing had happened between Lisa and Imogen. It pained me to see Lisa hurt like that. More than once I had had to comfort her when she was crying from unrequited love. Imogen was apparently trying her best to be an ice queen. Wonder if she could ever love anyone? Lisa on her hand had become a full warden now and no longer needed to be Ramirez apprentice. I must say that I was both very proud of her for her success, but also a bit frightened. I had a distinct feeling that the White Council wouldn't approve of my relationship with Yukimi. Given that I had started to learn evocation magic, and had gotten more powerful through training, the White Council now wanted me to join them as a member, and they wouldn't take no for an answer. Yukimi wasn't exactly thrilled about it, but I really didn't have much of a choice. I really really hate politics Star had moved into a fancy apartment of her own, and filled it with musical instruments and sheet music everywhere. Very nice indeed. She had broken up with her boyfriend Nick, and had as far as I understood it had numerous short flings with members of the Boston Symphonic Orchestra where she worked. Tim had also broken up with his Danish girlfriend and now spent lots of time at the Trimountain Arcane where he had gotten a regular job. Mirou on his part had patched things up with Natalie, and had started a business. As far as I knew, he was quite successful, and he did brag a bit about the people he rubbed shoulders with. Well, he seemed to enjoy life with the high and mighty. And that left Karl, who had been quite scarce lately. Not sure why though. He and Peggy still hung out together. Guess you could say there was some animal attraction between them. In the city the war between the various gangs had escalated, and there had been lots of high-profile murders. Murders that had gotten the FBI really angry and they had come out in force to wage war on the gangs. In the wiccan sorority, the other girls had started practicing lots of magic. I had tried to steer them away from the darker stuff that would lead them into trouble. But of course they weren't listening to me. They had made me into some kind of honorary member, but I got the feeling that they really didn't want me there at all. Just that they couldn't kick me out as that would be too obvious. The theatre had had its ups and downs. For awhile we had gotten lots of competition from the theatre that Jason started, but they closed down when it was found out that it was used for money laundering. Sadly, Nina left the theatre as she moved to another city. I am not sure how it came to pass, but the others at the theatre wanted me to take over as director after her together with Gerald. Of course it was an honour and looks good on the CV, but it made my life much more hectic and stressful as I was now doing my final semester at school. I knew things would be bad when I had another mystic dream. This time at least I didn't wake up up screaming in horror. In the dream I saw the sun set behind two large trees. In the air between was a broken crown. The leaves of the trees were covered in blood, and looked strangely familiar. Most of the tree trunks was covered by a thick mist. On the ground was a large flat black stone, covered in blood. On the stone was a gun and a severed hand that had lots of tattoos on it in some weird writing. I guessed it was Russian. The grass on the ground was scorched, and I saw a FBI-badge lie there. Then I saw the body of a young girl hanging in one of the trees. She was bald, and lacked one leg. I knew she was dead. In front of me stood a bronze bowl filled with water and rotting plants, mostly leaves. The bowl had been covered with some kind of Arabic writing. I spent most of the day afterwards in the library trying to research the symbols I had seen in order to find out the meaning. I was quite certain though that the trees was the two sacrificial trees that we had encountered before. That made me shudder, as they were pure evil. I wanted nothing to do with them if I could help it. In the middle of the night after that dream I got a call from Imogen who wanted everyone to meet. She claimed it was very important. So we decided to meet in the morning at her place. We were all there except Karl and Mirou. It turned out that Imogen and Antonio had been at the hospital during the night and Antonio's sister had died from her cancer. But there had been some kind of strange man there, who Imogen had identified as a Black Court Vampire. Antonio had apparently met him last year. The man had looked at them, and then pointed to Antonio's sister and said something about her life for his life. That didn't sound good at all. I described the dream I had had, as I figured it marked the start of something unpleasant. Star made some weird illusion that showed what I had seen. She then borrowed Antonio's phone and filmed it. Not sure why though. Antonio wanted me to describe the girl I had seen in the dream. He looked quite concerned, and then called the hospital. The colour of his face literally drained away when they told him that the body had already been sent to cremation, and that he should talk to their legal department. Oh dear Goddess, we all feared that his sister had risen as a vampire, and vanished. We decided to do some research into what was going on. Tim called his contacts in the police. Apparently the two Mexican gangs had lost lots of ground recently, instead the Russian and the Chechen Mafias had taken over. Antonio said that that corresponded to something he had heard the night before that the Mexican gangs were scared of some external threat, and were collaborating sort of. Star said that she had received a summon to her faerie court for some official business. We managed to find out that the vampire that Antonio had met before was called Abraham of Worms, and that he was supposedly born in 1362 and had died in 1458. He had been a Jewish magician, who had been taught by some Arabic magician. Antonio didn't go into any details about how he had met the vampire, but it seemed that Antonio and Mirou had somehow screwed up. I decided call my friends in the paranet to see if they knew anything, but they hadn't heard anything that would indicate any supernatural trouble, other than that the faeries were planning something. I talked to Lisa if she knew anything about the vampire, but she didn't know anything . She and ten other wardens were apparently coming to town for something big. She wouldn't tell me what though, but said she would tell me once it was over. I decided to ask Yukimi later on, given that she was a contemporary of the vampire, but I would have to keep that a secret. Imogen trid finding more info at the library, but had no success. Antonio set out to try ask the local fae what they knew. I gathered that the wyldfae were confused to say the least. Later during the day, I got a phone call from Lisa, who wanted me to get in touch with a guy called Semyon Laguonov. He hung around the local paranet, and was sometimes acting as a driver. He was supposed to meet with Lisa and her fellow wardens, at a specific time and place. I just had to coordinate it. When I called him, it sounded like he had a party going on in the background. He did sound a bit worried though when I told him how many people he had to pick up. I had met the guy before. Not quite sure what he was but he wasn't mortal. I had the feeling that he might be a shidhe or a changeling like Antonio. At school, I passed a TV-set that was on and showed the news. Something really strange had happened down in Houston during lunch. Apparently there had been some kind of killing spree in the middle of a shopping mall. 225 persons had died. There had been lots of explosions, and people dying without any particular visible cause. There were some confused reports on dead people walking around. The police was mysteriously silent on the matter. There was something about this report though that gave me the chills. It didn't take a genius to realize that there had been some supernatural involvement even though it was classified as a terrorist act. It seemed that no weapons had been found, and that some sources said that it all started when two persons attacked a third person, who some described as a dark-haired woman. When I came home, I found Yukimi sitting on my bed. She was crying violently and it took quite some time for me to calm her down. It was as bad as I had feared, she had been the mysterious woman who had been attacked in Houston. Her two younger siblings; Beatrice and Azzo had found her, and had attacked with full force. Yukimi had done all she could to defend herself, and had just barely gotten away. During the night, I had another dream. It was almost the same as before, but this time, there were three dark trees, and the sun had now already set. The girl that had hung in one of the trees were now gone. Instead there was a mausoleum between the trees, and the fog glowed from beneath with a cold blue light, making everything appear ghostly. On the black stone where there previously had been a gun and a hand, now only the hand remained. The FBI-badge that had been on the ground had now almost melted, and the enamel on it had peeled away. The bronze bowl now only contained rotten leaves. When I woke up, it felt like I had been asleep for a long time and that the dream felt distant. Poor Yukimi, she was at a loss, and didn't know quite what to do. It seemed that her family could track her down quicker and quicker now. She feared that they had gotten hold of blood or something from her, and that that was how they could track her. Or they had just gotten a lot better. The question though, given her ability to switch bodies, was whether they were tracking the body or her soul. If I had been them I would have assumed that she had taken a new body. Especially since she just got away. During the morning Semyon and Karl came and picked me up, so I could guide them to Lisa and the other wardens. Lisa was quite happy to see me again and gave me a big hug. She was apparently in charge of this mission, and all the other wardens were quite young. They needed to go to a place near Forest Hill station, and told us to keep back and wait. While we waited, I talked a bit to Karl and filled him in on the latest stuff, he had been home in Sweden meeting his family, that was why he had been so scarce. Ten minutes after the wardens had went in, we could hear lots of explosions, and then car-alarms went off all over the area, before the electronics in the cars were fried. I could tell that it was some major magic going on. A few minutes later, eight of the wardens came running with nine kids. Lisa were not among the wardens that came. I was quite worried to say the least. The wardens were all injured, and the kids looked like they were in very bad shape. The wardens quickly ushered the kids into the cars, then some of them joined the kids and then told Semyon and Karl to drive away as quickly as possible. The kids appeared to be in shock. I tried talking to them to calm them down while we quickly drove to the place that the wardens indicated, which was an old church where we were met by a priest who took the children inside. Two of the wardens stayed with the children, and we headed back to get the others. When we came back the area looked like a war zone. People in black cloaks were engaged in a magical fight with the wardens. Semyon ran over one of the cloaked persons and then stopped the car in such a way that the skidding car hit another. He shouted to the wardens to get in the cars. The remaining wardens get an unconscious Lisa into the car I am in. Her whole left side had been badly burnt. Luckily her face was unhurt. We drove back to the church. I asked what had happened, and got the answer that they had gone up against a full coven of 13 witches. Two of the wardens died in the assault. The wardens had taken down ten of the witches, but had been hard pressed, and would probably have lost had we not come. When we get to the church the priest tells us that Lisa needs get to hospital. We quickly drive there, and then get the doctors to start treating her. No matter how much I would like it, I couldn't stay at her side, or I would risk causing the sensitive machines there to fail. Was bad enough with just Lisa being there, but as long as she was unconscious it would be relatively safe. The best I could do was to call the White Council and tell them what had happened, and then pray that they could help. After the visit to the hospital, Semyon asked me and Karl to come to his part. I told him that I wasn't exactly in the mood and that my girlfriend was visiting. He just smiled and said to bring her as well. Once I was at home I talked to Yukimi about what had happened. She said I should go to the party as she had some things she needed to do, and that she would see me later. So I went to the party, and found that almost all of the others were there. Star took it upon herself to be the disc jockey. Mirou seemed to fit right in with the other guests as most were rich brats. I talked a little bit to Imogen and told her that Lisa was in hospital. I didn't stay long at the party, but it did succeed in lifting my mood a bit. When I came home, Yukimi wasn't there. I found a note saying she would come with breakfast. She did indeed fulfil that promise, and then asked me to skip classes during the day so we could spend as much time in bed as possible. I gladly obliged. Lets just say that multiple orgasms are the best way to stop worrying, and that my fluffy handcuffs and other such toys that I had purchased over the last few years were well worth what I had spent on them. Yukimi definitively rocked my world. In the afternoon, Yukimi said that she would take me to a restaurant. When we got to the restaurant, which was a fine restaurant indeed, the table was made for three. Yukimi told me that there was someone she wanted me to meet. She introduced the person who came as Eibon Blackstar. He or she was wearing fancy clothing and a mask, making it difficult to tell whether it was a man or a woman. I could tell that the person had used some kind of illusion so the rest of the guests at the restaurants didn't notice. Eibon spoke with a very soft voice. I gathered that it was probably a man, and that he had known Yukimi for a very long time. They had met in Japan in the 16th century. He was with the White council, and they had set up a deal a year ago that he would come in and be my mentor and that he would help protect me. The council would in a few days, come and make an official request about it. No problem, I just needed to play along and appear surprised. After the meal, Eibon opened a portal to Nevernever and left. I think Yukimi might have been his apprentice, but I was not sure. The day after, I tried finding out more info from the hospital to learn how Lisa was doing, but the only information I got was that she had been transferred to a private hospital earlier during the day. Talked quite bit with Yukimi about the current situation and my visions. She did know about the black court vampire. Apparently he was more known as a wizard while he lived than as a vampire. Isabella's father apparently had had dealings with him, as Abraham knew stuff no one else did. He had been gone since the 18th century and had been rumoured to live in Egypt and was a bit of a loner. As far as Yukimi knew he had never turned anyone before into a vampire. So why now, if that was indeed what had happened? Yukimi was a bit surprised when I talked to her about what had happened to Lisa and the wardens. She said that there hadn't been a full coven of witches around for some time, not since the one she had manipulated during the winter ritual. I had sort of suspected it, but it was still a bit of a shock. And it was another thing that the others must never know as long as either me or Yukimi was alive. I asked her if she gained the memories of the previous host whenever she changed bodies, but she said she usually didn't, so she had no idea of what had happened at the wiccan ritual that had gone wrong earlier, and had caused everyone who had spent time in the sorority house to be affected. We got interrupted in our discussions as Karl called. He had just learned that Star was going to fight against a troll king in a formal duel, and that she was married to another king. Oh crap. That had the potential for huge consequences, so I reluctantly headed over to the library where I poured over everything I could find about trolls. Trolls counted as faeries and duels were apparently very common among them. After a few hours a thought I had a reasonable idea of what would happen. I met up with Karl, Mirou and Antonio before the duel where we talked things over. Karl of course went as a wolf. When we got to the trolls in the subway-system, Star was told by their guards that she was responsible for us according to the old laws. I had no idea what that meant, and Star couldn't translate them even if she knew them. These were laws that were older than the Unseelie Accords. That was very interesting, and something I needed to learn more about. Star had filled us in that her husband was sick and that she would use some magic to disguise herself and take his place in the duel. The trolls that lived in the subway were bigger than the trolls that Yukimi had used back in Nevernever, and I think then might have been a few hundreds. Most of them were warriors as far as I could tell. Star, in the shape of the troll king, together with eighty warriors went down a long winding path deep under the city, The rest of us accompanied them to be witnesses to what would happen. In the tunnels we glimpsed shapes moving around. It looked like giant rats with glowing eyes, but they were much to big to be rats. They had to be something nasty from Nevernever. We reached a huge underground cavern, with lots of entrances to tunnels. The cavern was lit up by a number of large braziers burning some foul oil. The trolls that were with us were almost twice the size of the trolls waiting in the cavern. The other ones looked a bit like gorillas and were about four or five yards tall, but extremely muscular. I could tell that the warriors we had with us were nervous, as the other trolls outnumbered us at least three to one, and there was no telling how many more were hiding in the tunnels. Things could get real ugly down here. I tried to recall the way we had come in case we would need to run. After some talks from the heralds on each side, the fight itself started. The other troll was ferocious and attacked Star with a number of violent attacks who were hard pressed until she managed to kick over one of the burning braziers so it hit the other troll. This mad it absolute filled with rage, so it stopped using its wicked claw like weapons and managed to grapple Star instead. She took a fierce beating, but managed to shrink herself down in size so she could get out from the grapple. From out of nowhere she suddenly drew a big iron-like sword, she then resumed her hulking size. She hit back hard against the troll, and managed to beat it after some tense fighting, and finally beheaded the other troll. Then in the corner of my mind I saw Karl run towards a smaller more human-looking individual amongst the other trolls, and then jumping up and catching something in the air. He landed in front of the troll, and dropped a brass knife and growled at the troll who were visibly shaken and turned and ran. Karl and Mirou followed the troll. The situation was definitively tense and the trolls with us Quickly ushered us away. Seemed they were very concerned for the health of Star who looked like she had been badly hurt. When we got back, we noticed that somehow Karl had gone missing, while Mirou had managed to rejoin us. The swamp trolls had followed us for quite some time but finally left off when we reached the territory of the other trolls. Mirou wanted to go and try to find Karl. I did a quick divination-spell and could ascertain that he was still alive and coming our way. Star had in the meanwhile gone inside a guarded palace of sorts. After a while Karl came. He turned into human form again, and then asked if there was anything dangerous about being bitten by a black court vampire or drinking its blood. When I asked him why he wondered, he said that he had fought one back in the cave but that she had turned into mist and gotten away. That sounded bad. As far as I knew, Karl was in no danger and I told him that. He was quite relived to hear those news. After a while, Star came out as herself again. She asked me to come with her and to take a look at the king. She had to veil me though as the guards would not allow me to pass otherwise. So it was with some trepidation that I accompanied her. Luckily the guards didn't notice. When we got in, Star removed the veil and told the other wives to the troll king that she had called in an expert, namely me. I now learned something I didn't know before; they young wives were quite attractive in a way, but as they get older they turn into crones. This was another piece of information I probably shouldn't tell anyone else. The troll king lay in a coma, and it didn't take me long to figure out why. He had been poisoned. I managed to find a small wound on the underside of his arm, where a rusty iron nail coated in some nasty substance had pierced his skin. I borrowed a piece of heavy cloth so I could extract it without touching it. After showing it to the trolls, and letting them find out the poison which turned out to be something from the Nevernever, I touched the nail itself to see if I could get any readings from it. My head was instantly filled with a vision not unlike the ones I had had recently. I saw the same three trees as before, but the sun was starting to rise. The crown that hung in the air was now whole. The clearing between the trees was filled with mist, but I could see three persons clearly. A young beautiful woman with a gown of blood stood beneath the oak tree in the forest, under the tree that I knew to be the sacrificial tree near the library was a a somewhat older woman, her lower body was that of a snake, and then beneath the third tree were an ancient crone with a iron jaw. Behind the trees I could make out another tree persons. Two women and a man. The woman standing to the left was standing higher up as if she was more important. The woman in the middle had short hair and carried a long staff. The other woman was quite short and wore a cloak that obscured most of her face. Her hands glittered like stars as she seemed to be casting some kind of spell. The man to the right of them was really tall, and also quite fat. I could see a huge two handed sword hanging on his back. In the front I saw a rotting hand lying on the stone tablet. On the ground lay an iron bar covered by a dirty grey piece of cloth. Where the FBI-badge had previously been were now barbed wire, and the bronze brazier were filled with thorny plants. I collapsed to the ground as I got the vision and did not wake for almost half an hour later, but it felt like I had been sleeping for a really long time and I felt very weak. When I woke up, Star once again veiled me and we left the King's chamber leaving the troll women to do what they could to heal their king. Hopefully this had been the right thing to do, and we might have gotten some allies. Back outside we talked to the others,and when Karl said he had fought a black court vampire, Star said that she knew that the swamp trolls were allied with a clan of vampires. By the time we got home, it was much later in the morning. I was absolutely exhausted when I got home. Luckily Yukimi was there to take care of me. We talked a little bit of what had happened before I fell asleep. In the morning, well almost at lunchtime, Imogen called me. She was apparently suffering from cabin fever and needed to get out after having spent lots of time studying. That was something I should have been doing as well, but well lets just say I had had other things on my mind. We decided though to meet for lunch, and Yukimi would come with me as well. There was something weird about Imogen this time though, but I was kind of glad when she left to go and talk to Tim. Yukimi and I decided to spend the beautiful day walking around in the sunshine and visit one of the parks down town. When we were sitting there, holding hands and kissing, it was as if time slowed down before Yukimi quickly put up a magical shield surrounding us. Just in time as some foul black stuff hit the shield. I could literally see how the grass just died where the black goo hit. I then saw how a man and a woman came walking toward us, casting spell after spell that hit Yukimi's shield. I veiled myself and quickly got away as Yukimi lured the couple away from the park and towards some alley with no people around. Still, a number of people had just died near me and then been turned into walking dead. By the Goddess, that was absolutely frightening. From the alley, I could hear and see a number of explosions, and then everything was quiet. My heart was racing, and I looked around. Had Yukimi survived? It didn't take long before the police and the FBI surrounded the park to take control of the situation. I decided discretion was the better part of valour and headed home. On my bed was a note saying that Yukimi had to leave and that she had spent too long time here. She had to hide again. I spent the afternoon being a nervous wreck from the events in the park, watching the news where they reported from the alleged terrorist attack in the park. I did manage to find out though that Lisa had started to recover from her injuries from the previous raid. She had been taken to a private hospital and had been drifting in and out of consciousness. I really needed to go and see her later on. Sometime in the evening, I got a call from Imogen who wanted us all to meet at Frank's Diner. Reluctantly I agreed to come. There was after all safety in numbers. When I came to the diner, I saw that everyone except Mirou was there. Wonder where he had gone. Star was dressed in some weird metallic harem clothing. I mean sure, the way I dress tend to stick out so I shouldn't be saying too much, but why did she have that kind of clothing. Imogen was acting like she was on speed and couldn't sit still for more than a minute and kept talking all the time. I tried asking her what was going on, but she wouldn't answer. She suddenly decided to sit down in my lap. Just when Star commented that I already had a girlfriend, and Imogen stood up again, then all electricity in the diner broke down and it was pitch dark. My first reaction was to veil myself and move away from where I had been and then use my Sight. I could see that Imogen seemed to be the cause of the sudden darkness as as lots and lots of magical energy swirled around her in a chaotic pattern, and it looked like her body was somehow submerged inside another pitch dark silhouette that most certainly wasn't human. After a what seemed like forever, but probably didn't take more than a few seconds, we had light again as Star had taken on a fire-form. Karl had shifted into wolf-form as well, and Imogen had veiled herself. Semyon had run out and tried starting his car that was as dead as every other piece of technology in the the vicinity. Luckily there were no other guests at the diner, and the cook seemed to be oblivious to what happened. Someone lit some candles, and then everyone resumed their normal shapes or dropped their veils when we could ascertain that nothing was attacking us. Guess that the cat was out of the bag now. Imogen said that she had been studying, and even though she didn't say what,I think everyone now knew she had been studying magic. Apparently Antonio, Tim, and Semyon had been messing with the various gangs in town. Not sure I wanted to know what they had been doing but I had a feeling nothing good would come out of it. Karl on his part had apparently been involved a lot with a local motorcycle gang that had some shady dealings. I told Imogen that I needed to talk to her in private, so we went outside, where we saw just how large area her magical outburst had affected. As I was beginning to tell her what I saw when I used the sight, another soulgaze happened. That shouldn't have been possible normally, but now she had changed so much that she was no longer the same person as last time. This time, I saw her standing in a pavilion in a Japanese stone-garden, but opposite her were a person that was filled with darkness and emitting the feeling of something old, immoral, evil and very powerful that was brutal. I still got the feeling that it was her against the world, but this time it was also her against herself, and things could turn out very badly. She responded by saying I appeared to be hiding something, which I was, but then everyone hides something. The question is what they hide and why. And that she thought I had some big decisions to make. By this time, the diner closed due to not having any electricity, so we had to leave. Imogen was getting more and more skittish, and I could feel the energy fluctuate around her. She decided to veil herself and then suddenly we heard a scream as something, probably Imogen, crashed into walls and windows in the nearby buildings. Wherever she went electricity went out. Karl set off to the nearest payphone to call a tow-truck for the non-working vehicles. I decided to join him, as I didn't want the attention sticking around might cause. Besides, I was quite tired. Damn it, I would have to get a new phone again. The day after, the news were filled with lots of things that I really didn't like. They figured that the city was under a series of terrorist attacks that had started in the park the day before, and then continued in the area around the diner, and then following the streets going towards the FBI-building, every piece of electronic equipment had started malfunctioning. The pumps in the local bath house had been fried so the whole building had been flooded, and lots of fires had sprung up near the diner. The FBI-building itself had been subject to what they described as number of bomb blasts. I prayed that my friends weren't involved in this but I feared for the worst case scenario. If it wasn't a war on the streets already, it sure would be now. Maybe I should have gone with Yukimi earlier when I first learned who she really was? One strange thing on the news caught my attention, and that was that they claimed that the FBI had caught the terrorists from the attack in the park earlier. Something didn't feel right about that. Most likely they had just caught some members of a gang or something, and then decided to pin it on them. Because if they could capture two wizards with the kind of power that they had exhibited, then FBI would somehow have been way too competent, compared to how they used to operate. I didn't even want to think about the idea that Isabella's siblings had let themselves be caught as it were much too scary to think about. I spent the morning doing some research on just how it was that Isabella's family could track her. It had to be something different from how I performed my magic. Of course given how long she had lived, then there would have to be lots of things that they could use as the symbolic link. I doubted that she had managed to take or destroy them all. If I could just find out how they did it, then maybe we could stop it. For a brief moment I wondered if the only solution would be if she took a new body. Of course doing so would probably be a death-sentence for the person whose body she would take. Dear Goddess, give me some guidance. Around lunchtime, I got a call from Mirou, who wanted me to accompany him to Imogen's house. Something bad had apparently happened. It didn't take long before he came around and picked me up. He looked quite nervous for some reason. Karl and Star, was already there when we got there. Both Imogen and Star, looked like they weren't feeling very well. As I had feared, they had indeed been involved in the stuff yesterday. Imogen and Antonio had gone to the FBI-building, looking do cause some mayhem, while Star had been responsible for the fires around the diner as she had gotten infected by Imogen's madness. According to Imogen, she and Antonio had gone through the Nevernever and there come to some kind of icecastle, where they had been chased by some wizard with a sword. How in the name of everything that is dear had Imogen managed to without any proper training open a portal to the Nevernever? The Wizard had chased them down into a labyrinth. When they tried escaping back to our world, Antonio had somehow gotten stuck in the Nevernever. Imogen had on her way home met the wizard that was her mentor, and she had not been impressed. The mentor had apparently caused Imogen to fall asleep, and she had woken up in a hospital. There she had seen seven of the witches that was in the coven that Lisa and her fellow wardens attacked. One of them had woken up and Imogen had had a brief chat with that one before the wardens had come in and sedated the woman again. Now, for the more pressing problem of where Antonio was. Since he lived in the house together with Imogen, I had no problem finding a suitable symbolic link. Imogen assisted me as best as she could, and it didn't take that long before I found what I was looking for. He was no longer in Nevernever, but instead back in our world, and was as far as I could make out alive and in good condition. When I tried finding out where he was, things got a bit weird. As far as I could tell, he was in Vancouver. What was he doing there, and more importantly how and when would he get back to Boston? When I had finished the ritual, the found that we were alone in the house. Mirou and Karl had gone outside to talk about something, and Star was gone. She had left with the gas-stove on, and not told anyone. That could have ended badly. None of the others knew where she were but we did suspect that she had gone to the FBI building, despite Mirou having told her not to earlier. Karl muttered something about Star and a lamp. When Imogen asked him what lamp, he gave some lame excuse about some special flashlight. I don't think that was what he intended to say. Dear Goddess, I hoped that didn't mean what I thought it meant; Was Star a genie? That would explain a lot, and it would make Star so much more dangerous. Might be a good idea to read up on Arabic mythology. How would you stop someone like that if you had to? Mirou had to leave for some meeting, so it was up to the rest of us to figure out what to do. As we were trying to do that Antonio called Imogen and let her know he was ok. Karl decided that he was going to try and find Star, and that he would have the best chance of doing that as he knew more how she thought. Given what Imogen had said about the hospital she had been at, I figured that Lisa would be there as well, and I wanted to see how she was. Imogen offered to follow me there. She was supposed to be studying, but apparently didn't feel like it. At the hospital, which basically was just an old house, we were met by a young warden who at first didn't want to let me enter before he had soulgazed me in order to make sure I was actually a practitioner. I wasn't exactly thrilled about it but there was nothing else to do. After some deliberation, he let us in on the condition that Imogen followed me, and we were guided to the room where Lisa was. Outside the room I met Eibon again, but neither of us let anyone else know that we had already met, he gave a brief nod before accompanying us into the room where Lisa was. She was really badly injured, but awake and in stable condition. It would take some time before she would be well again. She was very happy that I came and visited her, but not so happy to see Imogen. I really hope Imogen hadn't broken Lisa's heart. I asked Lisa if there was anything I could to for her, and she wanted me to see if I could find out anything about the witches in the coven that they had attacked, as there was something not right about the whole thing. I looked at Eibon who just nodded, and he led me to a room with eight beds in it, leaving Imogen together with Lisa. All beds except one was occupied by a young woman, more or less injured and apparently sedated. When I asked Eibon about what they had learnt so far he didn't answer, but when asked indicated the girl that Imogen had spoken to earlier. With Eibon's permission, I set up a divination-ritual,making very sure not to actually enter the girl's mind. It turned out to be the most difficult ritual I had ever done. I saw a scene where the girl walked into some French-looking café in what was obviously some major city, and sat down next to a window looking out on the street, with the light falling on the face of the girl. An expensive-looking car stopped outside, and a woman came out from the back seat. She was a short-haired blonde, and I thought I recognized her form my previous vision. She was dressed in a classic suit, and appeared to be talking to someone in the car. She walks into the café, sits down and talks to the girl. I couldn't hear any sounds, so I had no idea what they talked about. The woman took out two large envelopes and gave the girl before leaving. When she came out to the car, a large short-haired man stepped out of the car. I could see that she now had a wand with some kind of button on top, and she were wearing some expensive-looking jewellery. In the front of the car was a driver that I could not see, and a young man, who turned to the woman and handed her another envelope before they drove away. Inside the café, the girl, who I somehow knew were named Laina, opened the envelopes. In one was a large amount of money. In the other was a folder with various documents, including and an address to a house. I recognised the address as the one that the witches had occupied. There were also papers form a real-estate agent, a receipt for a rental car, and a requisition-form for material. I told Eibon what I had seen, and also about the visions I had had lately as they felt connected. Just as I were finished Imogen came in, and wanted to leave. Eibon gave me an envelope with some documents in and just said to be ready on Monday, which was in two days time. When I got home, I read the stuff. I got invited, sort of, to a council-meeting in Edinburg. I wasn't sure if I should be honoured or scared out of my wits. I had the distinct feeling that not attending was not an option. I really had to get home and devote myself to my neglected school-work, but I couldn't shake the feeling that there were something I needed to do, and that time was running out. The news was of course filled with weird reports of a fifteen meter tall burning woman attacking the FBI headquarters. That had to be Star. Why had she done that? Luckily no one got hurt. The day after it was time for more violence. Someone dressed as a Mexican bandit, complete with dynamite sticks, had been riding downtown on a camel, and then later on all hell had broken loose at a motorcycle club in the outskirts of town. It was reported as gang warfare, but there were some stuff that looked very troubling indeed. First the presence of large wolves, and two of them looked awfully familiar, then someone looking like Mirou had killed some of the attackers using a large sword. Please let me be wrong for once. Some of the attackers had tried to escape in a demolished van, and then had opened fire on the Police roadblock using machine guns. I think they call that suicide by police. [/QUOTE]
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