Arcane Meeting (End)

--- Jon ---

“Well, this was admittedly more… eventful than I was expecting.” Ms. Delacroix told them once her, Noah, and him were loaded up in her car, Pix passed out in his arms.

“Sorry about that…” He apologized, because that whole mess with the Scarecrow and her keeper was a misunderstanding on his part and he had no idea what the shopkeeper had to deal with after that… display. (I really thought I knew better than just jumping into things…)

“Don’t worry about it.” Noah smirked. “The only person you really bothered was Val and well, she’s a bitch, so she doesn’t count.”

Ms. Delacroix reached across to the passenger seat and swatted her relative across the back of his head. “Don’t give him the wrong impression of her.” The shopkeeper glanced at the rear view mirror as she turned to address him. “Val is a bit rough around the edges, but her heart ‘s in a good place when it comes down to it.”

“Say that after getting hit by her bat.” The younger Delacroix argued.

“She’s also a very intelligent practitioner who is very good at what she sets her mind to.” The elder Delacroix continued unimpeded. “She just happened to want a bat that can kill most monsters she comes across.”

“Reasonable.” He admitted, given how that’s why he still had his axe with him even if it wasn’t all that enchanted. (Though if I really am stuck hunting that monster the Pale Lady told me about, I might want to fix that.)

“I guess the guy who brings a knife to a demon fight would think that.” Noah scoffed. “What the fuck was that about?”

He couldn’t help but grimace at that, having been expecting the question (but still…) “When that Scarecrow thing got so close to the kid I, um, I kind of overreacted…”

“That’s… not necessarily a bad thing.” Samantha told him. “While I personally wouldn’t pick a fight with an actual Demon, doing so to protect a kid isn’t the worst reason around.”

“Yeah,” Noah agreed before immediately pointing out, “Though that doesn’t explain where he learned how to fight like that.”

“My Ma ‘s ex-military.” He answered, rubbing at the back of his neck. “She wanted to make sure I could take care of myself.”

“Uh, I’m pretty sure the stuff you were doing isn’t what they teach soldiers.” Ms. Delacroix told him with just a touch of nerves.

“Training changed when they added Deviants to the mix.” He shrugged, not wanting to explain how the skills she’d taught him had been refined against the wall of Corrupted he’d thrown himself against to protect Camp Bet. (Besides, it’s technically true.)

“I guess that makes sense.” Ms. Delacroix accepted. “I mean it’s not the weirdest thing my mom’s taught me.”

“Yeah, but she’s also been around since the Association was founded.” Noah seemingly reminded her. “And you’ve heard what kind of mad house that place was under Mem’s control.”

“Point.” Ms. Delacroix admitted.

(Interesting…)

It wasn’t long after this they arrived back at The Witch’s Wares, and Ms. Delacroix told him, “Don’t run off just yet and I’ll bring those books down for you to pick one.”

“Alright.” He nodded as the elder Delacroix went into the back of the shop leaving him with the younger.

“So, you’re a bit of a weird one.” Noah commented without much prelude.

“Uh, I guess?” He agreed, knowing that he was a bit of an odd one compared to most.

The younger Delacroix watched him for a moment. “You going to take part in this whole ‘Halloween Haunt’ thing? I mean given how you fought the Scarecrow…”

“Maybe?” He answered a little unsurely, because on the one hand he wanted nothing to do with that mess, but on the other this sounded a lot like the thing the Pale Lady was trying to direct him towards when she offered him that bounty.

“Well, if you’re going to be hunting those creeps I hope you’ve got some form of backup other than your summons, because those things are a lot nastier in person than the Sanctuary reports make them out to be.” Noah told him.

He considered that for a moment, before nodding in agreement.

After all, even if it’d been just him and Pix for most of his fights in Blackwell, that didn’t change the fact that he’d gotten a fair amount of help from Ying and Quartermaster Rogers in the later fights. And that was of course excluding all the aid Miss Edna and DeSade had given him as well, even if they hadn’t fought next to him as often as the other two.

Noah nodded back. “Well, given the show you and the Scarecrow put on, I’m sure you can find someone who is willing to let you give them a hand. Just try not to get yourself killed, Sam’s taken a liking to you and I’d rather you not die on her.”

(“You’re kind of dead at the moment.”)

“Eh, as long as I get back up it’s not that big of a deal.” He shrugged with a grin. (Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it.)

Noah gave that a laugh before shaking his head. “You’ve got balls, I’ll give you that much.”

“Sorry, it took me a second to find all of these, but I’ve got a few books you might be interested in.” Ms. Delacroix told him as she came back from the back of the shop.

“See you around Jon.” Noah taking that as his cue to leave gave him a wave before heading back the way Samantha had come from. “And remember what I told you.”

The elder Delacroix gave the younger a curious look before seeming to dismiss it as made her way back to the counter and laid the books out for him to go over.

“Alright, going through what I can give you that’s a bit above your current level, I’ve got: ‘The Layman’s Shaman’ a basic guide to working with nature spirits and what they can do. ‘Divining Divination’ which while a bit dry is a deep discussion about how Divination works and how to use it to gather information. ‘Ritualistically Learning Rituals’ which is an entire textbook on how to use rituals to make your other spells stronger. And lastly ‘The Kindly Necromancer’ a book revolving around helping the dead move on and various funeral rites across cultures.” The shopkeeper listed pointing to each book as she went.

He frowned at that last title. “Wait, isn’t Necromancy a dark art? Aren’t those supposed to be really restricted?”

“Eh, the darker stuff is yeah.” Ms. Delacroix admitted with a scrunched up look. “But honestly this is a bunch of the lighter stuff, like helping the dead move on, keeping them calm, or outright banishing them through magic. Things that honestly any Arcane dealing with any kind of Deadman should probably pick up at some point.”

(Meaning they probably have nothing in common with those books on Necromancy DeSade gave me.) Which was relieving in its own way, given what he’d seen just glimpsing through those books. (Though those books on Demons might prove useful given everything going on…)

“So what’ll it be?” The shopkeeper asked him.

He looked the books over and largely dismissed the book on Necromancy since even if they were nicer he already had more advanced books in the stuff DeSade had given him.

Next, while a fair part of him was tempted by the book on rituals, he himself had never really cared for the idea of ‘more power’. Meaning while it could be interesting from a theory standpoint, it wasn’t really him from a practicing standpoint.

Of the four Divination sounded the most useful, especially given how it could help him should something like what happened with Kenneth, or even Rosalind before that, ever happen again. Though given how he had that compass he paid so much for, the actual value of the book was put into question.

Which left him with ‘The Layman’s Shaman’. A book that did intrigue him, given how it was supposed to allow one to interact with the ‘spirits of nature’, and he himself had always felt most at home in more nature filled locations. (And if it lets me make friends with them, that’d be another point to the ‘power of friendship’.)

That was the idea that sealed it for him, since he couldn’t help himself around anything that proved that magic could be a force for kindness and compassion rather than violence and hate. (And I need as much of that as I can get.)

Decision made, he picked the book up and told her, “I’ll take this one.”

“Hmm, was expecting you to go for rituals or necromancy.” Ms. Delacroix confessed. “Then again, if you got a Fairy as your contracting confidant, then I guess Nature is a big part of your deal, rather than power or dark secrets.”

“I don’t really care for more of either.” He shrugged, getting a wry grin out of the shopkeep.

“Fair enough.” His fellow magic user nodded. “After all, the world might just be a better place if more people saw it like that.”

“Maybe.” He agreed, knowing that his opinion was a rarer one than it should’ve been.

After a moment, Samantha shook her head. “Either way, it’s getting late and I just wanted to thank you again for helping me out with this mess.”

“It wasn’t too much trouble.” He assured her, knowing he’d had much worse nights.

“Well, stay safe out there.” Samantha told him as he turned to leave. “You now know what kind of things go bump in the dark around here.”

“You too.” He waved over his shoulder. “It was an interesting night if nothing else.”

Stepping out onto the night street, he couldn’t help but hold Pix just a little closer as the shopkeeper's words reminded him that just because he wasn’t in Blackwell, that didn’t mean he was free of the troubles madness and magic loved to leave at his feet.

Slowly his eyes drifted to the half moon hanging in the night sky, a subtle countdown to when nightmares would roam the streets unbidden save for those willing to fight them. “An interesting night indeed…”