17 Suns

--- Jon ---

“Everything okay?” He asked as his ma moved around the apartment fully dressed for work rather than their usually training.

“Yeah, no, I got called into work early today.” His ma told him, as he put together a quick to-go breakfast. “Since we’ve only got two weeks left until the next quarter they’re holding a meeting or some crap to make sure we all start wrapping up our paperwork for this one. Normally I’d skip it but they’re saying it’s mandatory since I haven’t been here a whole year.”

“That sucks.” He nodded, pouring his ma a cup of coffee. “You’re usually pretty on top of everything, so you’d think they’d let that kind of thing slide.”

“You’d think.” His ma agreed, downing half of her coffee the moment she got it. “Then again, I think they also want people to start prepping for October early. Since this is a high Deviant town, and the Halloween season tends to draw out the worst in people, they may be expecting a rougher time than most.”

“But isn’t that still like two, three weeks away?” He frowned, sealing his ma’s breakfast container. “The police didn’t start prepping until the season had actually started back in the country.”

“Well, like I said it’s a high Deviant town.” His ma shrugged. “This city has an estimated two thousand Deviants, so there’s no telling what kind of trouble everyone’s used to dealing with when they all cut loose on top of the usual crime.”

“I guess…” It still sounded like overkill to him, especially with a Sanctuary base in town, but he also wasn’t used to living in a place with more than twenty suspected Deviants, let alone two thousand. (Then again Blackwell had a magic forest, eldritch god, zombie infestation, and about a dozen tears in reality to deal with… Eh, I doubt it’ll be as bad as they’re making it out to be.)

“Either way,” His ma continued, breaking him out of his thoughts. “You going to be okay by yourself for the day?”

“What?” He blinked before shaking his head. “Oh, yeah. It’s the weekend so I’ll probably just run a few errands for the house or something after getting in my morning workout.”

“Alright, well just call if you need anything.” His ma told him as she started making her way to the door.

“Same for you.” He called back. “Love you.”

“Love you too, kid.” His ma waved from the door, before leaving him to his own devices for the day.

(Hmm, actually if I’ve got morning training to myself…)

---

“This looks like the spot.” He nodded, pretty sure that this was the forest clearing he’d let Pix play around the week prior.

Said fairy looked around before nodding with an affirmative trill.

Cracking his neck, he took his amulet in hand before focusing magic into the mark on his back of a wolf howling into the sky. The familiar cool warmth pooled into the mark, before climbing up his back and making its way down his arm, a rippling black visibly pulling the Contractor’s mark to his hand. Once the mark reached its destination he threw his hand forward, causing a burst of light to shoot out of his hand before coalescing into a wolf he was slowly growing familiar with.

Wolf hit the ground at a mild jog before coming to a stop as she looked around the clearing. Eventually the Wolf turned to him with a curious tilt of her head.

“Hey, Wolf.” He greeted, petting her as she walked up to him.

Wolf pressed her head against his hand in her own greeting, before giving him another curious look.

“Right, well, I figure if we’re going to be working together, we should probably know what we’re all capable of.” He explained his reason for summoning her.

Wolf watched him for a moment before tilting her head.

“Mm, for example I mostly use Script Craft and Potions as far as magic goes.” He offered, “One of those things is enchanting magic effects into objects such as this.”

He pulled his knife out and threw it towards a tree. Once the knife was a fair distance away he flexed his hand and triggered the enchantment causing the knife to slowly come to a halt in midair before reversing course and returning to his hand.

When he turned his attention back to Wolf he found her staring at him with what was clearly a look of amazement despite her canine features.

“Oh, that’s nothing compared to Pix.” He assured Wolf as the little fairy began to preen as she hovered in place. “She can fly, make plants grow, mend things, heal people, and cause simple illusions.”

Wolf’s amazed expression steadily grew alongside Pix’s ego, as he listed everything the little fairy could do with magic.

“How about you Wolf?” He asked, shifting attention towards his newest (packmate.) “I can already tell your magic thanks to your markings and everything, but I don’t actually know what you can do.”

His canine companion seemed to consider this for a moment before taking a stance of sorts and lowering her head as she took on a tense expression. Magic began to visibly gather around Wolf as the wind began to swirl all around her, slowly gathering into a small cyclone before-

Wolf blurred out of existence before suddenly appearing on the other side of the clearing. From there she blurred once more as she began to dash all around the clearing in a flurry of movements before coming to a stop in front of him.

“Huh, that was… Acceleration?” He guessed, as his eyes spotted the faint cuts through the dirt marking Wolf’s zigzagging path through the clearing.

Wolf nodded proudly before seemingly thinking about something and nodding once more as she resumed her previous stance. Only this time instead of blurring out of existence Wolf howled into the air causing her gathered magic to sprint away from her before coalescing into a pale wolf-like figure.

He watched the figure for a moment, noting the way it seemed significantly less animate than Wolf herself, barely moving as it stood still before shattering into particles of light.

“Hmm, so you can make clones?” He asked, watching the particles of magic fade into nothingness.

Wolf tilted her head to one side and then the other in a wolfish sort of ‘so-so’ gesture.

“So, it’s something you’re working on?” He translated, earning a nod from his canine companion.

(Makes sense I guess. Even here where magic is common and dissected by scientists and users alike, cloning spells are few and far between from what I know.)

“If you want, I can try looking into that if you want?” He offered after a moment. “I mean, I’m not sure how well it’ll translate from a human to a wolf, but maybe it’ll be able to help you with whatever you’re trying to do.”

Wolf gave an appreciative whine as she brushed against his legs.

They continued on like that for the remainder of the morning, sharing what all three members of their little (pack) were capable of, at least until Wolf let him know she had to return to wherever she was summoned from. (I should really look into that…)

“Alright, well stay safe okay?” He told her as he reached for the connection between their magic systems.

Wolf nodded before gently headbutting his leg as if to say, ‘you too’.

He couldn’t help but smile as Wolf faded into light as she was returned back to her home.

As the light faded he turned his attention to his other Contract, a little fairy who had fallen asleep on his backpack shortly prior.

“Alright, it’s time to get going.” He told Pix, as he gently picked her up and set her into the larger pocket of his backpack, where he folded a spare shirt he carried around into a makeshift bed for the little fairy.

Once Pix was settled in, he checked the time as he started making his way out of the clearing. “Hm, should have just enough time to swing by the Witch’s Wares before I need to watch Kenneth.”

Scene Consequences

-Wolf’s basic Skills and Abilities have been learned. (Though she may have kept a few to herself just in case.)

-Grown a bit closer to Wolf.

---

“Out of curiosity, how much experience do you have with concepts outside your affinity?” Samantha asked upon seeing the book he wanted to purchase.

“I know Heat, and a couple of its derivatives.” He admitted, seeing no reason not to.

“So only the basics of the basics?” The older magic user confirmed. “Because learning concepts you don’t have an affinity for can be a bitch and a half kid.”

“One of my mentors made sure I knew how to work out concepts for myself, even if he didn’t actually teach me any.” He explained, figuring this was another one of those tests where Samantha might be trying to limit him to things he wouldn’t hurt himself with. (Which is nice of her.)

Samantha frowned at that. “Mm, the few people I’ve seen teach magic usually try to teach you two or three different concepts when they’re teaching that stuff. Just to make sure you can actually do it.”

“Yeah, that mentor in particular was very big into the sink or swim style of teaching.” (Literally.)

“You know that style can leave a lot of holes in your knowledge, right?” Ms. Delacroix scowled. “What’s more that’s usually a sign your teacher is half-assing it, because they can’t be bothered to do the job right.”

“Oh, that wasn’t a problem with De Sade. He hates the idea of not doing a job right the first time.” He defended, knowing full well that any holes in De Sade’s teaching style had been more a result of the fact that the older man had had only a week’s worth of time spread across a month to fit as much as possible into Jon’s thick skull than anything else.

The high difficulty and even higher chance of failure was more because if he failed than he wasn’t worth De Sade’s time as far as the veritable dark lord was concerned.

“Still, I don’t need you getting yourself killed with my products because some asshole taught you wrong.” Ms. Delacroix warned him.

He opened his mouth to respond, before pausing as his phone began to ring in his pocket.

“Uh, sorry.” He apologized, taking the phone out of his pocket as Ms. Delacroix waved him off. “Hello?”

“Hey, Jon,” Ms. Valentine’s voice rang out from the other end. “Um, sorry to call if you’re busy with something but I, uh, I kind of need to know how much longer it’ll be before you can pick up Kenneth?”

“Um, I’m just wrapping up the last of my errands. So, I should be back at the apartment in… the next hour or so.” He explained, accepting the book from Delacroix.

“Alright, um, sorry to rush you, but something’s kind of come up and… do you think you can get here any faster?” Ms. Valentine asked, her voice clearly strained.

“Um, sure, I can probably knock it down to, in the next half-hour if I hurry,” (and run instead of taking the bus.)

“Thank you Jon.” Ms. Valentine sighed; relief clear in her voice.

“It’s no problem.” He assured her. “I’ll see you here in a minute.”

“Alright and thank you again.” Ms. Valentine told him before hanging up.

“Um, sorry but I’ve got to run.” He told Ms. Delacroix as he made his way towards the exit, sliding the book into his bag next to a sleeping Pix.

“You already paid so it’s not an issue with me.” The store owner shrugged as she turned her attention back to the book she’d been reading before he’d shown up.

Scene Consequences

-Purchased ‘Arcane Affinities for an Arcane Apprentice’

--Can be used to learn the General Concepts: Magic, Fire, Ice, Wind, Stone, Electricity, Light, and Shadows. (Note: These may take longer to learn than Concepts Jon has a true affinity for.)

--At Occult Lv. 10 can be used to learn ??? Perk if not already known.

---

Walking out of the stairwell he started making his way down the hall he and his ma shared with Valentines to the other family’s apartment.

Despite having to run the entire way -something that was proven a good idea given the traffic jam and car accident he’d seen when cutting through the streets- he still managed to make it back to his apartment building in the half-hour he’d promised Ms. Valentine.

Unfortunately, he felt he may’ve still been a little too slow when he found the front door of the Valentines’ apartment kicked open. (Oh no…)

His hand immediately made its way to his knife, drawing it from its sheathe as he pushed the broken door open and creeped his way into the apartment, not willing to call out until he was sure (whatever) had broken the door was really gone.

It didn’t even take him three steps into the apartment to spot the blood on the carpet, and it didn’t even take one more to see where it was coming from.

“Ms. Valentine!” He rushed to the unconscious woman’s side, checking for her weakened pulse as he tore his backpack off. “Pix out now!”

The little fairy peeked out before spotting what had sent him into a frenzy and flying out of the pack where she began to circle around Ms. Valentine trilling in a panicked tone of her own.

“Knife wound to the side, possibly through the liver or intestines, definitely nicked something given how much blood there is.” He listed clinically, as a part of him he’d spent the last two weeks trying to bury began clawing its way to the surface.

“Pix. take my keys, go back to the apartment, and grab one of the healing salves from Blackwell.” He told his partner, tossing her the keys to his apartment as he pulled out his cell phone and dialed 911.

Rather than questioning why he wanted the salve rather than just letting her mend the wound, Pix nodded and flew out of the apartment keys in her arms.

“911, what’s your emergency?” An operator answered after a few rings.

“I’ve found my neighbor stabbed through the side and bleeding. Victim’s name is Sarah Valentine. I talked to her on the phone approximately half an hour ago, she’s currently unconscious.” He explained to the operator as adjusted Ms. Valentine’s position to something that would hopefully alleviate some of the shock symptoms as he applied pressure to her wound. “I have first-aid training and certification and am currently applying pressure to the wound. That said, there’s enough blood on the floor that I’m fairly certain something has been nicked and that she’s still going to need EMS.”

There was a slight pause as the operator processed everything he had said, “Understood, an EMS had been routed to your location, but we have you placed at an apartment building, what floor are you currently on?”

“Fourth, left side of the elevator, the door that’s been kicked in.” He answered as Pix flew in carrying the salve he’d sent her for.

“Do you have any knowledge of who may’ve stabbed Ms. Valentine?” The operator asked as he accepted the salve.

“None, the apartment was empty when I arrived.” He admitted, before using his shirt to pull the knife out of Ms. Valentine and applying the salve with his free hand.

“Understood, please stay on the line until the paramedics arrive.”

“Got it.” He nodded, placing his phone to the side as he turned to Pix hovering nearby. “Heal it halfway, enough to stop the bleeding but not close the wound.”

Standing he dropped the blade as if whoever had stabbed Ms. Valentine had pulled the blade out and dropped it in shock at what they’d done.

Leaving Pix to it, he made his way to Ms. Valentine’s purse, noting the fact that whoever had stabbed her had left her wallet and keys, before pulling out her cell phone and thanking the fact that she hadn’t put a password on her phone.

Dialing a number, he had memorized, he put the phone to his ear and began looking through the apartment as it rang.

“Hey, Sarah what’s-”

“Ma there’s been an incident.”