Fantasy Secret World: Chrestomanci & Cosmic Flare

[Cosmic_Flare]

He sighed. “I suppose you’re right. We’ll have to postpone this interrogation for some other time. I didn’t realize Magenta hadn’t told you anything.” He walked to Aurora, taking her hands and whispering something into her ear. Her body fell forward against his, and he caught her. Laying her down on the ground, he sighed and stepped back.

He put his hands behind his back, looking at the two divinities. “Maybe you should tell me what you do know, and I can fill in from there.”

 

[Cat.Chrestomanci]

"We have been told absolutely nothing about any this. That man simply sauntered off once he had fixed the room that had been destroyed," Bellamy replied, unable to keep the irritation out of xer voice. "You must have excellent communication skills if you managed to not tell one another anything about the situation before deciding to convene here for this little interrogation." By now, xe had stored up quite a bit of energy in xer limbs, ready for something to go wrong now that xe had thrown provocations into the room at their gracious hosts. Perhaps it was the instinct to flee that had suddenly changed to the instinct to fight or perhaps it was a sort of resentment that injury to xer and xer partner could have easily been avoided were it not for the secrecy of the sorcerers.

"What Bellamy meant to say was that it would be best if you started from the beginning," Marcus intervened. "What was that second presence that resides in the young woman for starters?" While he was not exactly sure as to the nature of xer animosity, he could certainly detect the resentment that she exuded.

 

[Cosmic_Flare]

King turned back to Magenta as she spoke, giving him a frown. Magenta, despite being one of the youngest sorcerer with his level of skills was also the most irresponsible sorcerer. He did as he pleased, going to and fro and performing spells without the guidance or permission of the Wick. Because of this he was often in trouble or with a supervisor, who often turned out to be King. King seemed to be the only superior Magenta would listen to for whatever reason. King’s ugly stare made Magenta look away, his body sliding further down into his chair.

“He did, did he? I apologize profusely. You have my word that Magenta will be reprimanded for this. In the mean time, an explanation is in order.” King turned to them as he leaned against the long table, beginning the long story.

“A short time ago, though it seems about 20 years ago, if she really is the eldest as she claims,” he gestured to Aurora as he spoke, “a man who went by nothing but ‘Z’ decided that he would take the fate of the world into his hands. After a tragic accident during his childhood, he grew up hateful and malicious. We had encountered him before, since he was capable of a small amount of magic, and us sorcerers assumes her would be no trouble, but that later changed.

“Once he grew into his extraordinary amount of power, he became concocting a spell that would place within four beings a great force of evil. He sacrificed the life of four others to achieve his goal and created beasts with vast amounts of magical power and enhanced capabilities. This girl appears to be one of those creatures, which means the others will show themselves soon.”

 

[Cat.Chrestomanci]

"But why is it that Wick never notified either the Nest or the Island," Marcus prompted, raising an eyebrow. If they had known that there were four dangerous monsters roaming about freely like little time bombs, ready to destroy the world at large, would it not be important to share the information? It was like hearing news of a tsunami heading for a coastal city and not warning the inhabitants until the tides were already upon the beaches, ready to swallow everything into their watery depths. Irresponsible at best but much closer to catastrophic or even premeditated. No matter how he spun things, it would not be an easy conversation with the High Divinity, not to mention that Bellamy would be less than willing to support a softened story.

"Have you tracked down any of the other three? If you knew about her existence, why had you not searched for her previously? Would you have taken responsibility if she had killed anyone?" Although, who was to say that she hasn't already, he thought to himself. "Two of my kind were placed in danger because of a lack of information," he continued, keeping his tone civil.

Was it hubris on their part? Did the sorcerers think themselves so far above the rest of the hidden world that they believed they would be able to contain the disaster before it drew the attention of the divinities, alchemists, and other groups? Did they think that they were so strong that they would be able to prevent her from doing serious damage when and where she did appear? If that was the case, it was a misplaced faith. She had obviously nearly destroyed a cafe and eliminated the patrons despite the fact that there were two divinities in the vicinity who were competent combatants.

 

[Cosmic_Flare]

A frowned wrinkled King’s face. “I was under the impression the High Divinty was aware of the danger. We had notified them before, but at the time the matter was but a trifle. There was no evidence that what Z had created would even work or that it would be as powerful as he claimed it would be.”

“I doubt you guys were told anything.” Magenta’s voice spoke for the first time in a while, gaining King’s attention. He legs were propped up on the table, his hands holding his head as he leaned back in his chair.

“What makes you say that?” The elder sorcerer held now an expression of concern, though his eyes betrayed no emotion.

“I was there when they reported to the Flame,” He looked to the divinities,”our High Sorcerer, and he shrugged it off. He said something about being able to handle it if it became too dangerous. Honestly, I didn’t think it was such a big deal either, but when I saw her in that cafe...” He trailed off, as if he was unsure of how described what he saw.

Nothing came in defense of their leader from King, his head down as he contemplated something. The Flame was quite old, and quite wise, but sometimes he overlooked small details that were insignificant upon first glance, but terrible after examining them a while. He had once before allowed an accident to occur due to some laziness on his part. It wasn’t a bad as this event, but still brought concern to the other sorcerers who helped run the Wick.

He rubbed his chin, finally rising. He stood there a moment, then turned to Bellamy. “We haven’t searched for them. We tested their abilities when we first discovered them and they were nonexistent, or I suppose dormant, and therefore we decided to let them go. We haven’t been keeping tabs on them either.” He looked up to the ceiling, rubbing his hands together. “Yes, we would have taken responsibility. I thought we had notified you, but the Flame is very busy. He may have forgotten to mention it to the other leaders. Please excuse him because, as I said before, we had looked quite deeply into this matter, and at the time the children showed no sign of magic.”

 

[Cat.Chrestomanci]

"If the High Divinity had, indeed, been informed of the entire case, then things would have been investigated thoroughly and we would have continued to watch over the subjects even after testing their magic," Marcus replied flatly. If there was one thing about the High Divinity, it was that he was uptight and always followed procedure, making sure that all of the i's had been dotted and all of the t's had been crossed. The stringent adherence to procedure had been displayed earlier by the young divinities in the cafe. All leads would have been followed if any threat had been reported, regardless of what dismissive opinions the subordinates had.

"The only reason that he would have stood aside would be if your leader had explicitly ordered the divinities to stay out of things, in which case the alliance would have been severed." Marcus inhaled, opening his mouth as though he wanted to say something more but decided against it and ended up swallowing his words. It was no use arguing with these people, especially since they were in the Wick and surrounded by sorcerers who could quite easily turn on them.

The High Divinity was quite old and upheld traditions that many found to be antiquated; however, when push came to shove, they were useful. If the divinities had been in charge of this case, things would have gone quite differently. The children would have been checked on regularly to observe any changes in behaviour or abilities. There was no use in worrying about what had happened in the past, the only thing they could do was continue and try to secure the future.

"Since you observed the children, I would presume that you still have their names and the ability to trace them in addition to ability files and pictures. We will be taking the case off of your hands, seeing as you were irresponsible enough to allow things to escalate to this degree." He was already thinking of how he would present the case to the High Divinity without the old coot ordering the alliance to be terminated. It was going to be an incredible headache even with the assistance of administrators with the sort of manipulative eloquence that could deter a war, which is essentially what they would be attempting.

Bellamy's hand had balled into a fist. So the reason that they had been attacked was simply that the sorcerers couldn't be bothered to take time out of their day to warn any of the other groups as to the nature of the situation? Was there no loyalty in this so-called alliance? Xe turned around and exited the room, throwing the doors open with unnecessary force. It was all too much for xer. How could adults be so dismissive of these issues? Xe scanned the windows for any latches or the like that xe might utilise to exit the building.

 

[Cosmic_Flare]

King listened, nodding his head as he stared deeply into the carpeted floor. Magenta did the same until the seraphim’s last statement. “Take it off our hands? Ha! You think you can just keep this to yourself now that it’s true? The Flame might have messed up but some of us actually care it the safety of the world. You’re not getting anything.”

“Magenta!” King snapped his fingers, and Magenta became quiet. He sighed heavily. “While Magenta is being very rude, he’s partially correct. We can’t give you anything without permission from the Flame. And we cannot simply let you ‘take this case of our hands.’ This involves everyone now, and it’s much too big of a problem for the you to tackle by yourselves.”

 

[Cat.Chrestomanci]

"There is no use in keeping the information to yourself when you choose to do nothing to protect innocent people, is there?" he inquired with a raised eyebrow. "Would you rather wait for something to happen as your leader finally gets around to releasing the information when he couldn't have been bothered to send a simple warning out as to the dangerous nature of the children he had overlooked in the past? How many people might be harmed in between when you send in your request and when it is actually responded to?"

He wondered whether he was actually getting through to them or whether he was just wasting his breath. They evidently did not find this to be an issue of particular importance. Were it not for the presence of Bellamy and Darius that afternoon, there would have been a trail of dead bodies left in the monster's wake. Would they have taken responsibility for the lives of the Mundanes that were lost due either to oversight or simple laziness? In the end, it was their call. If Marcus was unable to gather any information from the sorcerers, he would have to inform the High Divinity and they would have to work something out.

Bellamy, meanwhile, was looking around the unfamiliar hallway. Xe had never been inside the Wick before and did not know the architecture, but xe stared at the windows, looking for a latch, clasp, or some other feature of the windows that might indicate an ability to open and create an exit for xer to leave through. The sickening cracking of bones could be heard echoing throughout the area as black wings broke through the skin on xer back, tearing the fabric of xer blouse and blazer. Xe ventured toward a nearby window to examine it for any means to open it but did not know what to expect, since xe had never been here before. It was not a building xe was familiar with, unlike the Nest, where xe had extensive knowledge of the architectural elements.