Author's Note:
If you haven't yet, I recommend you read the other parts of this series. I intend for this to be something like a seven chapter story. (I like it when stories have beginnings and endings, rather than Days of our Lives style.) Please Vote and leave any helpful comments, also known as Story Fuel! Enjoy!
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Headmaster Askelpios cranked up the Victrola and set the needle down. A lovely string concerto began to play. Just because the presence of supernatural Minions precluded the use of electronics was no reason to live like savages. He turned to the gathered assembly of Masters. "I fear this year's crop of Ascended magicians is even more problematic than the last. My new Apprentice Timur, he leaves much to be desired." He sipped his cognac as he allowed Gregor to speak. "I could have told you that when I had him. In fact, I did. Not even a real Russian. The light just does not shine brightly in him. This succubus he drew in, she's quite powerful. What did he end up naming her?"
The old English Headmaster swirled his glass before answering with disdain. "Kitten. Yes, Kitten. He's entirely too focused on her sexuality. I keep trying to instruct him to keep his wits about him."
"He may need to be Divested," said the little Shaman. Bellahrim harrumphed in disapproval. "It's a little too soon to be speaking of that! I'm sure we should let the Headmaster have a chance at tutoring this young Sorcerer about how the world works. In any event, the succubus is not really the one you want to see cut away, is she?"
"As always, your perception is well founded, Oracle," intoned the Headmaster. She waved off his flattery with her thick fingered hand, rings on all fingers. "I don't need to be a Seer to know that old Deer Shaman wants her Totem dead."
"It's chased away my Giselle!" Gregor cried, whirling on the Oracle. "She's run off to the far side of the island in terror! I can hardly reason with her! She spends day and night in the rocks back there, nervous and spooked. It's affecting my own powers."
Kaori, the only other woman in the room of Masters, had to jump in at that point. "If I was a steppe antelope Totem, I would also want to hide from a Dragon totem. But that is more Giselle's problem, not the American's."
"Ah, but it's all of our problems, don't you see?" Asklepios pointed at them with his glass. "It is obvious that this 'Dragon Totem' is a fraud. There is no such thing. Totems are always expressions of the natural world. It is axiomatic."
Bellahrim's eyes twinkled. "Are you saying there is no such thing as dragons? Because many say the same thing about magic. Can you prove there aren't dragons out there?"
"I can certainly prove that we have never had a 'Dragon Totem' here at the Abbey. It is unnatural. A usurper worming its way into our institution."
Kaori shrugged as she sipped her tea. "Paracelcus had a Unicorn, disguised as a white horse. Merlin had a Dragon."
"Merlin? MERLIN?" Gregor was growing even more agitated. "Are you saying this little slip of a girl, this American, is the next Merlin?"
"She is quite talented. As her first mentor, I saw her master the Twelve in less than a year. Something more in line with our head Sorcerer here. But fine," the Oracle said, spreading her hands in surrender. "Fine. She's no Merlin. But did I not forsee she would be a powerful magician? Did I not forsee greatness?"
Asklepios scoffed. "You saw greatness in Connor as well. Tell me, how is your new Oracle doing?"
"He's just fine, thank you. His Spirit is a delightful chap, a Lutheran monk killed during the Reformation. Seems to be a Spirit of moderate power. Connor is exactly where he should be for a newly Ascended Oracle.
Kaori counted off the students on her petite fingers. "So, a perfectly average Oracle, no slight intended. A below average Sorcerer who may or may not be able to handle his demon, and an above average Shaman who, by all accounts, has kept her Totem under control quite well, yes?"
"That beast attacked my Larrida! With intent to kill!"
"Because YOU attacked HIM," the little Asian wizard admonished. "Cause and Effect, Headmaster. You're lucky he didn't melt you down as well. Besides, where was the real harm? Your succubus regenerated within a day. No worse for wear."
Gregor was beside himself. "I stand with the Headmaster. That beast is a danger and must be Divested and destroyed!"
"And I stand opposed," Said Bellahrim, with iron in her words. "As Kaori just said, Cassie is the strongest of the three new students. And she brings a new, wonderous source of magic to our table. And you would destroy it, just because you do not understand it? Gentlemen, we don't have the luxury of picking and choosing students anymore. Magic is fading as technology blooms."
"That is also axiomatic," Asklepios acknowledged glumly.
"The times when these halls were filled to bursting with dozens of students? Gone. Not since when that damned Victrola was new. Each decade, fewer and fewer magicians, with weaker powers. We need her. We need new magic. So here it is. You want to destroy it, or send it away. I want to embrace it, to study it. Let's leave out the fact that destroying the dragon would not be a trivial thing. Why destroy it when you can use it?"
Kaori cocked an eyebrow. "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer? Better to have the American and her dragon here, than out in the world. Let us study our potential enemy for weaknesses before we blindly strike."
The Headmaster took another sip. "Wizard, your words sound... more rational than her unbridled optimism, I grant you. But I still feel letting this beast go unchecked is a mistake. What say the rest of you?"
In the end, the other three Masters in attendance were conservative old men, They favored a wait and see strategy. It was decided that Cassiopeia Kosa and her new black Dragon should be allowed to train at the Abbey, where they could be monitored.
"Connor! Connor! She went in, she's in the bath!"
The young Oracle shrieked a little as his Minion burst through the door. Literally.
"Christ, Johann! You want to turn me into one of you? Aw, now look, you've gone and mussed the door again." He got up from his desk, scrolls forgotten for the moment as he got a towel to wipe up the ectoplasm dripping down the wood door to his room. "Leaving bits of yourself all over the place."
"I apologize for that, but you did say to come fetch you quick when she went in the bath, and she just did!" The ghost actually clapped his hands together. "I can't remember being so excited!"
"Yeah, I'm aware," Connor quipped as he put away his books and runebones. The set of human bones inlaid with rune symbols were used by Oracles to divine future events. He was only just learning the knack of it, but three times today when he had thrown them, they had come up in the paired pattern of the Lovers. That spoke well for their first forays into this type of astral projection. It was going to be a time for lovemaking.
Connor lay down on his bed, breathing his way into a trance. He could do this so quickly now. Once he was in the zone, Johann came over and lay down on top him, superimposing their souls. Then when the ghost sat back up, Connor's spirit came up with him. Channeling was like reverse possession. Instead of the ghost riding the mortal body around, the mortal rode the Spirit. Connor felt numb now, no feeling of touch at all. The world was now washed out in shades of gray. "Take us up, Father." Johann rose up through the ceiling, slowly so as not to leave more ectoplasm to drip down on to Connor's unconscious form. They had discovered the attic soon after the Ascension. A vast storeroom of antique crap and cobwebs, it had an old timber floor sectioned out in such a way that you could tell where the rooms below started and stopped.
Johann gently floated them face first through Cassie's ceiling. She had a double room, with the second one specifically modified for her dragon Wrath. They had installed a wide double door leading out on to a reinforced balcony so he could take off and land. They saw the pretty Shaman pacing back and forth in her room, muttering to herself as she practiced the hand gestures for a spell over and over.
"Don't see her Smaug friend about, do you mate?"
"No, that spawn of Satan is nowhere near here. I can sense when he is close."
"Look, we've been over this already. The dragon's not Satanic. In fact, none of this is."
They continued to watch her practicing her somatic exercises. "Forgive me, my friend, but after five hundred years I can assure you, EVERYTHING is about Satan."
"It's really not. There's more going on than just Heaven and Hell, you bloody Lutheran monk!"
"What do you know? You're Anglican, so you're almost Christian, I suppose."
Connor lost his patience. "OK, hold up, mate. She's a bust tonight. Take us up and out, and let's go over to Timur's." Johann complied, moving down two rooms to Timur's quarters. He had attempted to put up a protective spell that was made to keep out astral scrying just like this. The bathrooms had thick, heavy runes that blocked Johann out as securely as a stone wall stopped Connor. The Masters had similar wards throughout their wing of the Abbey. But Timur's was shoddy. Either he put them up, or more likely he made his succubus do it. The four walls were thinly covered in runes, although there were a few weak spots they could have exploited if they needed. However, since the lazy rune maker had not bothered to do the floor or ceiling at all, they were wide open. Johann could just go up and over the runed walls with ease.
