kore_logs | two ladies, an angel, and a library

Fortescue walks in Shadow to the library, from her new temporary residence. Dilandau's second disappearance, on top of everything else, has made her feel wary. But nothing of her nerves shows in her casual posture, as she finds her way inside. It's been a while since she was in the library.

"Hello," she calls. Jazz is on her shoulder like a black parrot, peering curiously around him.

With a flare for the dramatic, Mina was fashionably late. Although she'd found a somewhat steady peace with Balthazar, she didn't know what to expect from the sorceress. Her dealings with magic users in the past had been...mixed. Some welcomed her, as a practitioner of Cruac magic with arms wide open. Others...well...she'd escaped more than one hanging in her life.

She arrived wearing her favorite three piece suit, complete with a deep, purple button-down and matching tie. Mina wore a ring on each of her fingers and an earring in her right ear. Leftover from her pirate days.

Her fedora was missing, however. Still buried in the rubble of her old bedroom.

"Good evening, darlings," she said grandly.

"Right here!" Balthazar emerges from between the stacks at the sound of Fortescue's voice. He has a battered romance novel in hand and looks sheepish about it. Possibly it will take his mind off the chance for impending disaster, though.

"Evening. Is he much of a mouser? Something's been nibbling on a stack of magazines in the back." He nods at Jazz, and then turns as Mina appears.

"And hello to you, as well." His smile is warm, if weary. "Fortescue, this is Doctor Barrett. Doctor, this is Fortescue. And Jazz."

"He is, actually. Jazz? Care to take a look?"

Fortescue nudges him off in that direction, and Jazz pads away while sniffing the air. The ex-alley cat already seems eager to have something smaller to chase, even if, for the moment, he just feels he's being set loose to get him out of the way. It's an old routine for them.

Romance novel or no (and she tries her best not to smile about it), she gives Balthazar a firm hug before turning to Mina and offering a handshake.

"Delighted to meet you in person, Doctor Barrett."

Mina gave Fortescue a firm handshake. She rather liked a woman who shook hands, actually. Although she couldn't tell if that was a product of personality or of changing times.

"A pleasure," she replied, letting go and tucking both of her hands into her blazer pockets. "Circumstances aside, of course."

Mina was still badly burned from the last earthquake. Although her ribs had healed completely, Kindred had difficulties healing wounds caused by fire. And one particularly nasty burn was visible just above her collar.

"Balthazar speaks rather highly of you."

After the hug ends, Balthazar tucks the novel into his coat pocket and pulls out a chair for each of them, before sitting down, himself. He's listening to them interact with quiet curiosity, half wondering why he didn't introduce them before. They do seem like they ought to get along well.

Belatedly, he realizes he hasn't told Fortescue what they've been up to and clears his throat mildly. "Mina expressed an interest in learning magical healing. It's so instinctive for an angel I've been struggling to teach it. I was hoping perhaps you could help us bridge the gap."

Fortescue's head cants to the side, thoughtfully, as she listens. "Well, I'll certainly try. I'm not a Divinity, and my own abilities run about the opposite of healing, to be perfectly honest. But I do have some affinity for energy; perhaps that could help."

Energy is energy, though she isn't certain how far she can bend the rules of her own magic. She's willing to find out.

"Can you use other types of magic?" she asks Mina curiously.

Mina's chest puffed out ever so sightly. Old pirate habit. She didn't think twice about it.

"Yes," she replied. "Back home, I practiced Cruac blood magic." Cruac was something of a contradiction, really. It was magic all dedicated to the lifeforce. And could only be practiced by the dead. There were three branches of the practice, really. Abilities related to prophecy. Which were of little interest to Mina. Abilities connected to craft. Which she only cared about where it could protect others. And combat abilities.

Those were a personal favorite.

"And," she added hesitantly, "I don't suppose Balthazar warned you about my little...passenger."

"That's what I thought," Balthazar nods at Fortescue. "Mina's a doctor; she understands the healing process perfectly well. It's the point where will and action intersect that's a challenge."

Glancing and Mina, he shrugs awkwardly. "I didn't mention that, no. I thought perhaps you'd rather explain."

Though she's sure that her own Blood magic and the kind Mina's talking about are different, she can't help but feel just a tiny bit excited. When your branch of magic is illegal to practice, it makes it hard to find others like you; Fortescue's never met another Magus, outside of the battlefield. And even if the two kinds of magic are vastly different, this still means that she knows someone else that can do magic in the Cape. That's a comforting thought.

"Passenger? Do you mean as in a... possession?" Fortescue wonders.

"I prefer to think of it more as a parasite," she replied. "I have my own agency. Just someone else's pride to deal with."

Truthfully, Mina still didn't fully understand everything about what she was, now that the Queen was a part of her. She tried to make it up as she went. With all the swagger and bluster of a pirate prince. But she could never quite fool herself.

"Are you familiar with the Fae?" she asked. "I have one living in me."

"A very old and powerful one," Balthazar adds, "to judge from what I can feel of her. I thought it wisest for me to stay out of the way. Fae are complicated."

That's just his opinion, of course, but what he's seen of Mina's passenger bears it out. He's watching Fortescue's reaction now, aware that she's had some unpleasant dealings with beings she calls elves, but not certain how similar these would be to Mina's Fae Queen.

Fortescue's head cocks slightly to the side, thoughtful. "The elves have stories about fae. Some of them believe that fae created magic. But I think those stories are just to frighten little elflings into their beds on time."

It seems much more likely that some elves remember their Guides, and consider the Guides to be fae. But as Blood magic is taboo, and only Magi and some scholars know of Guides, the fae story and belief has held.

"If the stories are similar to what your reality is, then I can't imagine having one as a... parasite... is very pleasant?"

"The Fae of late Chicago deal in bargains and contracts," Mina explained, loosening her tie a little bit. "When I arrived here, there were five of them engaged in a contest to 'win' the city. To do it, the rules required that they leave humans alone and use the Kindred as their pawns. One of them--she called herself the Queen--decided that the best way to win the city was to infest the Kindred with her different aspects. One of my associates became what is known as the Crone. Another became the Huntress."

She wasn't going to bother with labels for Anna. That relationship was complicated.

"As for me," she said, "my niece was in a bind. She needed a magical solution. The Queen offered to help her, if she took on an aspect of the Fae. She agreed. I had the misfortune of being in the room at the time. So when my niece was gifted with that final aspect, it ended up being split into pieces. Lucky me got a part of that."

To demonstrate, Mina took off her blazer. She hung it on the back of her chair and closed her eyes. Instantly, her skin began to shimmer and glisten, like it was made of diamonds.

"You know, I rather like it when you do that," Balthazar admits softly, watching the sparkle. "It's impressive. I think I prefer it when it's deliberate, though, rather than a sign I've gotten you angry."

Not that he's necessarily afraid, but he's more prudent with powers he doesn't understand than some of his siblings might be. It's why he was allowed to care for his garrison's arsenal.

She can't help but chuckle at that, though she listens to Mina's story with rapt interest. Privately, she hopes the Guides and Behemoths are nothing like that. But she really has no way of knowing, aside from the fact that the most they have to do with elves and humanity is, seemingly, forming symbiotic relationships that usually fade after a certain time.

"It is impressive," Fortescue agrees, smiling. "I take it, since you're mentioning her, that she has a significant amount to do with your magic?"

Mina herself preferred it when she could deliberately control the Queen. It was a pain in the arse having a blatant tell when her temper was about to get the better of her. And there was nothing more undermining than suddenly sparkling in the middle of a heated debate.

As the glimmer faded, she started to roll up her sleeves, ready for work. Mina had a nasty, P-shaped scar on her left arm. A souvenir of a very bad burn from a branding iron.

"My magic is my own," she told Fortescue. "The Queen just...sometimes...complicates things."

Balthazar thinks the glitter is quite pretty, but he knows enough about Mina by now to hazard a guess that telling her she's delightfully sparkly when she's angry is probably not smart. At least not if he wants to continue to get along with her.

He eyes the brand for just a moment as it's revealed, a faint frown flitting across his face, but his attention returns to Fortescue and Mina quickly. "When we practiced before, she was able to cut the blood flow along my arm enough to turn my fingers numb. I'm sure with practice she can heal, it's just that we're both likely to get frustrated in the process."

"I understand. And what with things the way they are in the Cape, the faster the better."

Fortescue nods and considers what she's heard so far, head canted, unconsciously, to the side for a brief moment. It would be much simpler, if she could simply summon back all of the wisdom bestowed by her tutors. They would know what to do. She looks to Mina again. It's hard to imagine exactly what the feeling of Mina's magic is, from a mental perspective. But then again, that's what she's here for. To illuminate. She simply hopes that she can.

"When you regulated the flow of blood, did that start to feel comfortable or was it still difficult for you? That's certainly a part of it. You just need to focus on the system around the veins. Perhaps you can use the blood as a bridging point? Something to get the system as a whole into your mind, and the energy of it? You could look at healing as accelerating that energy, or adding to it, once you can connect with it."

Mina frowned thoughtfully, recalling her little experiment with Balthazar. She folded her arms, an unconscious gesture to cover up her scar. "It's very easy for me to work with anything connected to blood," she said. "I know the systems of veins and arteries backwards and forwards, as a surgeon. And since I practice Cruac magic, I am capable of channeling my blood into my spells. But dealing with the bodies of others...magically speaking...is very new to me."

Which was her roundabout way of saying that, no, it hadn't started to feel comfortable.

"I suppose it was remiss of me not to ask this before, but I'm not completely clear on what you mean by Cruac magic, Mina. I don't know whether Fortescue is familiar with the term or not, but perhaps you could explain?" He's a little sheepish, since they discussed her abilities before, but he breezed past the unfamiliar term, assuming he'd learn as much as he needed to know from context.

"As you work on it, I'm sure that will change," Fortescue notes, of her comfort level. That Mina is a surgeon and very familiar with the human body is something that she can, hopefully, use as a bridge between her usual type of magic and healing magic. She shakes her head at Balthazar's comment. "I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the term at all, either. It's not one of the terms in my world."

"Cruac magic," Mina said, smiling a little bit. She rather enjoyed giving the explanation. Usually to one of the newest acolytes. Then again, under other circumstances, she'd find Fortescue an ideal candidate.

A thought she elected to keep to herself.

"Cruac magic," she said again, "is one of the two branches of magic unique to the Kindred. It's ritual based, requiring a sacrifice of vitae--vampire blood--in order to work. There are dozens of rituals one can learn. Some combat-based, some circling around prophecy, some a bit more...productive."

Being a fan of the 'show, don't tell' school of thought, Mina's fangs flashed out and in a second, she'd slit her wrist. Deep, dark black blood pooled on the surface of her skin. "Laufsblað."

From the cracks in the tiles along the floor, thin, green vines started to twist up, growing at an alarming rate, forming the beginnings of a topiary wall of hawthorn.

Balthazar predicted these two would get along well enough. He's pleased to see that assumption holding true thus far. He raises an eyebrow when Mina bites her own wrist, but her reasoning is clear enough as she utters the spell. He steps close enough to touch the winding vines, careful not to get stabbed by thorns.

"Well, if I'd known that, I'd have had you help with the garden..."

Literal blood magic.

The worlds are full of many surprises, it seems, and Fortescue is taken aback for a brief moment. Her own discipline is called Blood magic only because of old superstition, and a healthy regard for how it affected you to practice it. It has very little to do with plants — that's the realm of a Divinity. That it inspires growth, she finds interesting. That's much of what base-level Divinity healing is about.

"And there aren't any rituals for healing?" she wonders. Though it wouldn't surprise her if the answer was no. Blood magic does affect the human body, as well, in one of its branches. Adversely. "When we were small, my sister tried to teach me to use the same magic she could. She was able to knit skin back together. I never got anywhere with it, but I do remember what that kind of force felt like. Perhaps you could try what you did before, and I could try to impart it to you?"

Learning to fill a room, passively, with your energy is one of the first things you learn to do in Imperium, as it makes you less likely to implode something on accident. But Fortescue hasn't thought of it in quite some time. This, though, could be an interesting application, as long as she can draw on the correct magic.

Mina watched the vines continue to grow. They shot upward, like a film moving too quickly, knotting and braiding themselves together. The thorns grew sharper and blacker. More menacing. Because no matter how hard the Kindred tried to embrace life, there was always a touch of death to them. No matter what.

"My ancestors didn't develop rituals for healing," she sighed. "The Kindred answer to healing is usually just forcing a pint of vitae down the injured person's throat. Wonderful solution, if you can leave an area. That won't do here."

"I take it that method leaves lasting effects on the patient," the angel murmurs in Mina's direction. Balthazar doesn't seem to mind the thorns, but he'll take the expansion as a warning to step back and sit down again.

Looking back at Fortescue he nods slowly. "Even among angels, talents aren't universal. Ultimately, I've done a bit of everything, but I'm more of a tinkerer with spells and weapons and dimensional gates than anything else."

"I suppose that would have been too convenient of them," she jokes quietly, smiling. "Still, growing life of any sort could be a springboard for healing."

When Balthazar mentions dimensional gates, Fortescue raises a brow slightly. Now there's a familiar term. She's curious, but perhaps those questions are better left to another occasion.

Mina's interest was also peeked at the mention of 'dimensional gates.' Seemed like a handy trick to have when one was, oh, say, trapped in some inter-dimensional science experience with a lot of idiots. But she supposed, surely, he must have already tried to use his abilities to get out of this hellhole. She would, if she had the opportunity.

"Yes," she said. "Well. If a human drinks vitae, their natural healing is accelerated. They'll also spend a month being stronger and more durable than before. And they'll stop aging for that month. The downside is that they become addicted to vampire blood and the vampire that supplies it. We call that person a 'ghoul.' Much easier to make a ghoul than to perform a ritual. Less time-consuming too."

He hasn't tried, technically, but he's had a good look at the walls of their cage and found them too risky to breach. In any case, he doesn't know anything the archangels don't.

"I can think of some very kinky uses for that ability," he tells Mina candidly, "but I can see why you'd want to use it sparingly."

Fortescue is unable to contain a smirk at Balthazar's comment, but at least she doesn't snicker. Perhaps she's getting better at containing herself in non-work-related company. ...perhaps.

"Sounds like some vampires might find it quite useful."

Those without scruples, concerning humans, perhaps.

Mina was good-natured enough to laugh. But Fortescue's concerns about a certain lack of scruples were very, very well founded.

"Back where I came from," she said. "Chicago. In the 1930s. We didn't have anything like this." She gestured to the communications device the scientists had so kindly given her. "Our only means of fast communication was through a network of ghouls that were put into place."

She had no idea how many of them had been willing and how many had been pressed into service. And she didn't want to know.

"Those ghouls were the reason why the Fae attacked our city."

He does so enjoy people laughing at his jokes. Balthazar just barely manages not to look smug, listening attentively once more. He frowns a little once again at the story, though, rubbing his chin.

"You come from a complicated world. Both of you, I think."

"Politics," Fortescue agrees wryly. "What would we do without it?"

Other than sleep better at night, at least figuratively speaking. She shrugs.

"There's an elven faction in my world, the Inveterates, that use humans in a similar way. Though it's mostly through mind control, via magic. It sometimes damages the short-term memory, in the most severe cases, but the side effects are otherwise minimal. Most of their human soldiers in the war are used in this fashion."

Mina raised an eyebrow at that. "Politics indeed," she agreed.

She wouldn't clutch her pearls (her metaphorical pearls, anyway) and plead innocence. She had, from time to time, used a human being or two to her advantage, even if she did champion their cause, for the most part.

To say nothing of mind control, which was a favorite tool of hers.

She turned to offer Balthazar a blithe smile. "But complicated is so fun. After all, I've met your family."

Have a skeptical look, Mina. "Are you saying my family is fun? Because I might beg to differ."

They certainly are complicated, though, he admits. He thinks he's comparatively simple, by himself.

Fortescue quirks a smile. "You do have enough of them for a sports team," she jokes quietly.

In all honesty, Mina felt that the angels put the 'fun' in 'dysfunctional family.' Even if she was a bit fond of some of them, particularly Gabriel and Balthazar.

Funny how things changed.

"Or a jury of peers," she added.

"...yes, well. We're nothing if not judgmental." He shakes his head at Mina's observation, a hint of bitterness in his voice. He banishes it quickly, though, with a clap of his hands.

"So! Did you two want to practice, or would you rather I buggered off and let you talk shop for a bit?"

Fortescue glances to Mina. It's her learning experience; she's just along to contribute what she can. Which is hopefully something substantial.

"Preference?"

Mina considered it a moment. "I don't like to do things by halves," she finally said, slowly and deliberately. "When I throw myself into work, I like to do so for as long a stretch as possible. And I fear we might be interrupted by the sunrise. Which would be very unfortunate for me."

And uncomfortable.

Balthazar nods in understanding. "That suits me well enough. As I said, I can't afford to be away from my brothers for too long just now. I'll leave you, then. You both know where to find me if you need me."

Fortescue clicks her tongue, and Jazz comes running out of the shelves not too long after. There's a gathering of fluff around his mouth, but the black cat is otherwise impeccable as he jumps up onto her lap.

"Good luck," she directs at Balthazar, on the wry side. She doesn't envy his position. "I'm sure I'll see you both soon enough."

two ladies, an angel, and a library

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject