Averia Willow had mixed feelings about technology though it wasn’t due to the traditional problems most magical people had with it. If you gave her a cellphone with a lot of plastic she would use it. The fact she managed to smuggle an extra laptop into the shopping cart was a real joy.

She glanced at Kravos who was handling a bunch of iron pieces and wielding them together through his strange ‘mad science’ magic. She watched the gremlin (who absolutely hated to be called one) mess around with wires that needed to be carefully placed into the small metal models.

They called them drones, but the term ‘golem’ rang in the back of her mind. She wasn’t exactly sure what the difference was, but there was a lot of strange magic or science at work.

Her own fingers kept clear from the iron and steel tools as those arcane metals weren’t nearly as dangerous or deadly to her than her father… but they still stung.

It was why she felt a bit nervous around certain pieces of technology that had a bit too much iron in much the same way a normal human would feel nervous about holding a hot metal pan with a cloth or glove that had a couple of holes in it.

She glanced at the task she had been left to as even the Kazult girl had been able to help out with trying to put together those little iron contraptions while she had been left sorting through the large basket of clothing trying to find something ‘normal’ for tonight’s challenge.

“So what is your plan?” Averia asked, glancing at the old fashioned egg timer.

One built by gear and cogs that you needed to twist to set as only a frail plastic coating protected you from the iron bell as Agatha Willow had insisted on having iron within its construction. She would find a few pixies to torment the Council Member who claimed that they didn’t need a digital egg timer.

“Scout around. Set them up and hope for the best?” Kravos spoke unsure himself “What exactly is this whole ‘trial’ supposed to be?”

“Rite of Challenge.” Nadel spoke as the Kazlut girl was busy trying to copy down what he was doing for this iron drone project “Traditionally the challenger sets the location. The one challenged gets to pick the tools… though in this case the challenge is probably a fight to the death.”

She watched him pull out the odd gas lantern that had a flame that… didn’t exactly act like a normal fire. It was an odd sort of proof of this… alien magic set out for all to see. That the term ‘eldritch’ implied something that none of them really understood.

There was an odd mixture of life and death mixed in between the flames as even Nadel tried not to gaze upon the flames as the alluring siren call sang to her as much as it did to the half-elf. Yet it was the contrast which stayed their hand along with the odd almost sickening feeling when they prepared to reach out with their domains to touch it.

It wasn’t their flame. It belonged to Kravos and whatever ‘Pact’ he had to ensure that they would suffer if they tried to steal it from him. Still such a relic would have been jealousy guarded by Agatha Willow and hidden away in a safe.

Kravos used it to light his magical blowtorch.

Nadel had compared it to ‘Grabbing a golden brick and hitting it against someone’s head. It was rare, expensive, valuable… and he’d still hit it against your head as if it was a common brick.’

The everdancing green flames wielded the pieces of metal together for his insect like models. They lacked the spark of magic… traditional magic while the Gremlin laced wire, circuit, and glass lens into their iron frames.

A dozen small constructs that Kravos had drew bazar lines of ink upon. She could feel something from them, but it was hard to explain as it was… like trying to describe air. You couldn’t see it, feel it, taste it… but you knew it was there.

Each tiny iron spiderfly thing rested as Nadel had a copy of ‘Golems through the ages’ resting in her lap. She found this project more fascinating that the other projects he had been working on as a few Council Flunkies were less than happy to be on Garlic Juicer duty.

Still the iron egg timer ticked reminding them of the ‘big project’ resting outside of the house.

Averia glanced outside to the makeshift containers forged from plastic gutters as the odd multitude of cleaners, chemicals, and some odd powder had caused it to start smoking technicolor rainbow smoke that nobody was supposed to breathe in.

No humans at least as a few of the Fae Folk had made the mistake. A centaur was left having a talking debate with a truck (and losing), two fairies were lying in a coffee pot after having emptied most of their stomachs in a potted plant… and one Tree Nymph was left lying in a stupor inside the greenhouse as she kept trying to catch ‘all of the pretty lights’.

The last one was immune to most human drugs due to the fact she was a tree spirit.

That left Averia to sort through various articles of clothing trying to find something that ‘Kravos Graveson Lynch’ would wear or something that would pass as ‘acceptable’ to the challenge being issued.

She tossed aside more of the clothing in a pile as she glanced at her old crush. In some ways this wasn’t the person she had fallen in love with before.

The gnawing hunger and desire for power had been replaced with a dull apathy. The rush to test himself against any foe was now replaced with a weary fear and paranoia… the thrill to challenge himself had been grinded down…

Yet he was still there.

She recognized that spark in his eyes when he spoke about something he cared about. That odd twist of imagination still tried to carve out new ways to apply the craft. Even now there was a twisted madness… or genius to his plan as he may have resigned himself to the challenge, but he didn’t plan on dying.

That Kravos planned on winning as the Gremlin chuckled with a malevolent glee that reminded her that he planned on winning even if it meant he had to be underhanded.

She pulled out a red cloak and inspected the material feeling it in between her fingers. She had no idea who had donated the red cloak, but it was large enough to wrap around an entire person with ease. Maybe she might need to adjust some of its length, but she tossed it inside the ‘acceptable’ pile.

Old Kravos probably would have gone with black robes and skulls on it. Something to give off an intimidation vibe to make up for his lack of magic… something to try to firmly display his status as a Heir of the Hill even if most ignored him due to his lack of magic.

The new Kravos had accepted his absurdity and wore it like a cloak… or suit of armor. It was this stance that ironically brought more attention to him as he didn’t try displaying his presence… he didn’t try asserting his domain… he just tried to stay hidden and forgotten.

Even if a wizard tries to hide the existence of magic. When it came to fling fireballs they were as loud and boisterous as even the knights of old shouting ‘Deus Vult’ as they swung their swords down upon their foes.

They hid because it was required… and became a force of personality, will, and power when revealed. It was why they hid in towers or hidden cottages far away from civilization, yet forced people to seek them out and grovel before their doorstep.

Kravos hid every hint of power behind the mundane. His personality was almost forgotten until you remembered to challenge it. His will… She didn’t know too much about it, but she had heard the stories of his actions during the Night of Trial.

How he danced in between groups hunting him down as he turned them to fight one another while skipping away and laughing at their folly. How he disappeared from sight and mind until he wanted you to notice that you had been tricked, but couldn’t do anything about it.

He played the dance and games akin to the trickster Fae of old, always within sight, but just tauntingly out of reach before you stumbled into the pit he dug beforehand.

And she found that hot.

Even now he had that Fae like smile as he slipped on the red glove that had a sort of presence she couldn’t place. Trying to describe it was like trying to describe how you felt when air grew thinner making it harder to breathe while the world pressed down around you.

Not a force of presence… more like a… lack of it. A lack of your own presence.

The flames twisted and danced towards his fingers like a flame spirit longing for its contracted partner to call forth the flames. To feed its gnawing hunger and laugh as it was displayed in force once again for all to stare in breathless awe and wonder before its power.

“Do you have the programs running?” Kravos spoke as the flames crawled up to his fingers and rested there like glowing lights “We don’t exactly have a surplus of ink Futurm.”

The gremlin continued tapping away at the keyboard “Cameras are working boss. I got the programs set up, but you gotta keep it steady. Normally I have a lot more imps to deal with the other drones.”

“Why don’t you just animate them through golem craft instead of…” Nadel paused before motioning to the odd laptop with wires connecting it to the tiny metal golem.

Averia glanced up at her work as this was another difference between Kravos and most of the magical community. Some like Nadel had learned to accept technology to a limited degree like the use of cellphones… but most of them didn’t like it.

Most would force others to use technology for them and even then it was treated like a choir they had been forced to endure.

In fact Kravos seemed utterly confused and had to repeatedly ask if they were serious about the magical community’s stance on technology.

The Magician liked technology. He used it buying small technological trinkets and gadgets while even demanding an internet connection with laptops as part of his supplies. The fact argued far more for laptops and internet connection rather than access to the more magical stories with Willow’s Hill caught the council off guard.

In fact technically speaking… what he bought was far cheaper than what the Council had been expecting… even if it was harder trying to deal with it. The various amounts of chemicals had required other people to purchase them in order to not raise a few eyebrows around ‘concerned’ mundane citizens.

“Because I don’t know how.” Kravos replied “Even then we are trying to stay within safe limits rather than trying to touch the ‘Eldritch Line’ which I doubt your Council would enjoy me doing.”

“As if you could twiddle your fingers and make this thing dance to your tune.” The gremlin spoke in a mocking laughter

Nadel glared at the little creten as he had been allowed to stay alive because he was given safe refuge so long as he stood upon the Willow Estate… and that was only because Kravos found the little monster too useful to get rid of for now.

The witch adjusted the goggles on her face and began speaking in the art of latin her parents had taught her. It wasn’t exactly her preferred aspect of her Domain, but the animation of metal wasn’t too far from their preferred craft.

Especially as the alien green flames practically called out to them.

The witch placed her hand upon the metal ‘head’ of the golem as magic slowly interwoven itself with the object. The small electronic light flickered to life as the various images and screens on the gremlin’s machine changed to show a live copy of what the small golem was seeing.

The two natives of Willow’s Hill tried not to let their open awe show as they stared at the laptop screen marking the tiny golem as ‘Scrap 5’ as the golem flicked open its wings and started to hover.

It didn’t fly mind you as the wings stood still… Yet they created some sort of force that kept the golem afloat as it moved around to a corner of the room before nestling itself inside the corner.

The gremlin tapped a few keys “Let’s keep the weapon command offline for now.” There was a hint of annoyance in his voice “Are you sure this part is a good idea Boss?”

Kravos glanced at the objects as she could see him trying to think it over for a few seconds “Who’s command do they follow? How do you command them? Would I be able to give them a signal or an unspoken command to activate their weapons on a certain target?”

Averia couldn’t help, but shiver thinking of flying iron insects that could just jump out from nowhere and try latching onto your face. In fact she started feeling a few similarities between these things and the ‘face huggers’ from that one science fiction horror movie her father had enjoyed watching.

“They would follow my command…” Nadel spoke glancing at the laptop “But I could tell them to follow the commands given by the machine.”

Kravos thought about it for a few seconds as the half-elf had no idea what a bunch of tiny metal insect golems were supposed to do… but she guessed if you filled them with explosives they could latch onto someone’s face and blow up.

In fact that sounded pretty horrifying.

“I could make it so that they would follow your own command by thought.” Averia supplemented as the gremlin and magician stared at her “Nadel would probably still need to animate them, but I could make a basic contract to bestow the ability onto you.”

“The price?” The gremlin practically spat.

Averia smiled, “A favor for the future or more specifically a date.”

There was that odd mix of emotion practically displayed openly on his face again. There was an actual interest as he did seem tempted by the open invitation. Then there was that odd scrunch as he seemed to be against it for some odd reason.

The look of confusion, debate… unease.

Averia Willow had worked so hard to survive up to this point and without the various binding and restrictions she was supposed to be able to act more freely and make up for the stupid mistakes of her younger self!

Kravos had memory problems, but had he remembered more of her blunders than the moments they had shared together?

She felt her heart race pounding like a drum until he finally said “I have no idea if they’ll let me out of the house again… or if I’ll be able to date anytime soon. I still have people trying to kill me trying to figure out how to break in after all.”

It wasn’t a rejection at least.

A glance at Nadel showed her that the Kazult woman had been thinking the same thing even if she tried to hide it better. The coward had been unwilling to risk admitting her feelings in fear of being unable to spy on him and trying to steal his work like she was doing right now.

“Also probably illegal.” The gremlin whispered just loud enough to add more doubt to Kravos’s mind “I mean you know…”

The words were left hanging there as Averia felt like grabbing the closest sharpest piece of iron and shoving it into the imp’s left eye!

Her anger caused her to act without thinking as she spoke “”You could ask for the date to be put on hold... I mean I would accept the offer even if you had to cancel it…” Averia struggled with the words as now unease tainted her voice “Or if something forced you to cancel.”

She had been far too awkward near the end… and far too loose in her binding agreement as her tongue now felt like it was two sizes too large to fit within her own mouth. Pixies would have mocked her for how many loopholes she had given in her contract!

Yet she had said it… leaving herself wide open because this was Kravos who she had been speaking to.

The Magician held out his hand with a sigh as for some odd reason he didn’t expect that he would be allowed to date her?

Still the offer was extended which meant he was willing to do it… that there was an interest which she had to capitalize on before the wretched gremlin could poison his thoughts again!

The half-elf shook his hand and tried not to wince as she felt the almost electrical surge jolt her hand as she could feel the… the spire magic force the Pact. The only people who left a jolt this strong could be counted on one hand.

Still she was Fae… half-fae if you had to be technical as she could feel what the others couldn’t touch. The almost odd alien intelligence that brushed against her hand before somehow crawling into her mind.

By the time she opened her eyes the contract she should have been making had already been completed in just a handshake. A sense of relief filled her heart as a look of confusion filled his eyes… but from more of an unexpected surprise and possible relief.

Then with a flick of his finger the golem flew down from the table and operated through the unspoken command. The half-elf glanced at the laptop watching the feed of ‘Scrap five’ zooming in and out as she could tell he was sorting through what he could do before finally nodding in satisfaction.

The Gremlin on the other hand was annoyed at being outdone by ‘A witch and a Half-elf’ much to her personal satisfaction. Anything that annoyed the Gremlin was good news in her book.

“What about me?” Nadel asked as Averia knew what the witch was asking for “I mean for my services?”

The magician took a deep breath before he shrugged “I could enchant a scarf for you?”

Averia nearly coughed, unsure if it was a gasp of disbelief or a laugh as Nadel Kazult was trying to ask for a date, but too nervous to actually say it outloud. Was it pride, fear, or something else? The Nadel Kazult she knew would have just sat that and accepted it!

The door opened up from the meeting room as The Stitch Witch spoke “Take it.”

Everyone glanced at the room once again as The Stitch Witch closed the door… technically everyone on the Council was inside that room trying to sort through the large lists of contracts to burn should Kravos fail this night… but it felt odd that The Stitch Witch had been able to hear what they had been talking about before… enforcing her opinion.

“Just… just give me a moment to get it okay.” Nadel spoke unsure of what to do.

Kravos just nodded as the egg timer continued ticking down.

Only a couple more hours until sundown.

Nadel returned to The Witch… no… The Magician’s Hill as she took a deep breath unsure of what to do… of what she… felt?

Her family had worked hard to have her keep two sets of memories jostled about in her head in order to prevent their family from accidently (or magically) being bound to any of the Heirs of the Hill.

She didn’t disagree with them even. The half-elf felt far too… close for her liking. Nobody else seemed to have noticed the new sudden ‘history’ being filled in after the Night of Trial… except for Kravos, but he went about it with the same amount of subtlety as the lunatics with guns from that night.

It was why she didn’t mind his memories nearly as much as there was a sort of open acknowledgment of it. Averia Willow on the other hand… Nadel didn’t know if she knew… if she had been pulled under the same sway?

Either way Nadel Kazult didn’t like it. She didn’t like how they had a history that allowed the half-elf girl to leverage so much influence over her. Okay yes she was a bit of a loner as a child due to her family’s situation... but it felt like an intrusion of her memories.

That the half-elf girl had injected herself into her past because back then she would have wanted a friend and the half-elf wanted useful servants. That there was now a persistent feeling of having interacted with her… talked with her… that Averia Willow was trying to make Nadal Kazult owe her something.

Forcing the mental blocks she felt more like herself again… even if part of it shifted as she felt the touch of the scarf against her fingers once more. It was just an old scarf that held no value… and too much.

Walking through the iron gates of the Willow Estate three feelings passed over her… the first was the unconscious breath everyone held as they expected to feel the almost suffocating pressure and presence of Agatha Willow asserting her dominance over them the moment they stepped onto her property.

It only got worse the closer you got to the house… but there was no presence or pressure now. Kravos simply lacked the knowledge on how to force it… and if rumor was to be believed he hadn’t even established a domain.

The unease that had been replaced by the slow ease of confusion as she couldn’t help, but rub her fingers against the scarf as if it was a safety blanket. She could feel the memories of another lifetime played out in the back of her mind.

The small part of her mind that knew it was fake… yet was enamored by it. That sense of understanding… that closeness… her… feelings that left her feeling conflicted.

The scarf was just a cheap thing bought at a store because it was cold one day as it snowed. She bought it because she needed something to keep the snow off her neck and to help keep her face warm. She paid for the scarf with her own money because it didn’t cost too much and kept it because it still was useful.

Now?

There were new strings attached to it. Somehow that stupid engraving had been made with the letters NK as she could remember Kravos having bought it. That he had fumbled with it a little trying to add her name to it letting her know that he didn’t care.

That he didn’t care who her parents were and as the two outcasts of magical society they could be alone… or be alone together.

Stupid foolish thoughts… but nice ones that she couldn’t find herself discarding.

Ones that kept drawing her closer to the house feeling annoyed with Averia flirted with Kravos. The anger she felt with the gremlin tried to sabotage his relations with them… her own complicated feelings as she knew he didn’t know her, but trusted her… while she… didn’t know what she felt.

Taking a deep breath she pulled out the key to the house… the key she never had until after that night and unlocked the door. She could feel the brush of magic and air against her skin as the trap that had been set against the door had been disarmed.

In some ways she needed that obvious booby trap to calm her down and remind her what was real and what wasn’t… that she was relying upon the insanity of the situation to keep herself sane wasn’t lost to her.

The rest of the Council stood in the living room and watched The Stitch Witch work with her needle and thread adding a minor addition to the red cloak that had been selected for Kravos to wear.

A tiny bit of lining across the edge of the cloak. A few alterations to ensure that it didn’t drag against the ground, but could fully cover the Magician who would be wearing the cloak… yet there were no letters, symbols, or markings upon the cloak despite the open (and ignored) insistence made by the various council members who weren’t smart enough to stay quite.

Holding up the cloak in the light The Stitch Witch examined her work as Nadel felt a cold sweat break out as she recognized the cloak. It was dull and seemingly mundane… but it had been woven out of something that had enraged The Stitch Witch as she kept it as a reminder of danger.

Something that she had cursed someone who had foolishly tried to steal the cloak as the thief had begged for Agatha Willow’s protection from… the one curse that not even The Witch of The Hill could protect against.

And she was giving it over to Kravos.

“Why?” Nadel found herself asking herself.

To her surprise The Stitch Witch answered “Because they think you are harmless. They believe the lie you play as you pretend to be something less than a threat. We need a reminder to know that you are dangerous no matter how ‘nice’ your smile may seem.”

Kravos was handed the cloak as Nadel could hear one of the Council members asking why she said that. To them they hadn’t heard Nadel’s question… but The Stitch Witch didn’t care about them as she was answering Nadel’s question.

Agatha Willow’s adopted son wasn’t a threat to The Stitch Witch… A bad joke perhaps, but nothing to be feared… and yet she was openly admitting that Kravos Lynch The Magician of Red was something they needed to remember as a threat.

Her throat felt dry as she walked over to the magician. There was no recognition in his eyes as he saw the scarf. There was no feeling in his gaze… no… understanding. Even Averia seemed a bit heart broken even as she knew the importance of the scarf.

The cheap scarf Nadel had bought that never had a meaning. The one that had too much meaning from a childhood romance that never happened.

She was so out of it that by the time they had left the house and entered the backyard she hadn’t realized that he had been pouring items into the mixture until her charms flared.

She hadn’t paid too much attention to the sock he had tested into the mixture… how the cloak was seemingly dunked and lifted from the mixture without a single drop dripping off it.

How she handed him the scarf before remembering she needed to write down what the empty vials lying on the ground had been filled with... or how the oil-like surface that rested within the welded together gutter box filled her with unease. The sheer void of presence was perhaps the worst part.

It felt like she was suffocating and trying to breathe only for her lungs to burn. That each pained gasp of air burned as her domain, her very presence seemed to flicker out within it… like a single dying light before the void of night itself.

A sheer anti-presence.

Then to her shock the feeling went away causing her to gasp for air! Sweet air filled into her burning lungs like a drowning woman finally hitting the surface of the water to feel the air against her skin. Each cool gasp of air soothed the pain in her lungs as her vision slowly returned seeing a frightened Kravos standing before her.

Her back was lying against the ground. Her mind struggled to remember what had happened…

He held out his hand as no sound came out.

She needed it.

She needed…

She clasped his hand and it burned yet she refused to let go. Her mind struggled to free itself from whatever had just happened as she could feel the old agreement of the Pact burning before she finally let go.

She gasped for air one last time as sound seemed to return along with a burning pain in the back of her head… yet for the life of her she couldn’t understand why it felt like a good pain of all things?

Memories held back rushed forward clashing against one another as Nadel struggled to make sense of her own thoughts and mind. Her body just simply held as it clung to him refusing to let go. The looks of confusion, the whispers… none of it mattered.

Only once she could calm the storm within her mind did she finally focus on what she was doing and that's when her cheeks burned in embarrassment as Kravos was sitting down with her lying in his lap. He didn’t seem to know what to do as she had an almost vice-like grip on his hand.

Words were being spoken… questions asked… and then the silence was cut as The Stitch Witch spoke “She placed an object tied to her domain within it. While it is better now, this mistake had nearly proven to be quite costly to her.”

The Stitch Witch held the old scarf as it was the same old scarf she had worn… but… it felt different now. No it felt different now in more than one meaning. The old soft scarf rested around her neck as Kravos seemed slightly embarrassed now that he saw the NK inscribed on the side.

How she rested against his side felt more like they had been dating… that they had been used to sitting like this instead of two strangers being physically close while emotionally distant.

More than that… it was how he muttered ‘Stupid Memory Curse.’

That made her both feel better and a little bit uneasy. The scarf felt far more protective than any charm or magical object that she owned as she could practically feel it as a part of her domain. In some ways she wasn’t stronger… but more… protected if such a word could be applied.

“So what was it supposed to do?” Nadel asked, trying to hide her embarrassment.

Kravos tried not to look at her as he replied “Mr Knight. Could you try using that sword of yours to cut the sock? I want to make sure everything worked out?”

The Damascus Knight frowned at being commanded to use his blade, yet he couldn’t exactly refuse as that same sort of… anti-presence still lingered. It sort of hung in the air as if threatening to make his presence lesser if he tried to refuse.

So he grabbed a nearby axe and ran it across his fingers. She could feel Kravos tense up as he stared at the Damascus Knight utilizing his control over the domain of steel. How the axe looked far better than it had seconds ago… as if it had been forged by a professional smith instead of a mass produced lump of steel.

Then with one mighty swing he hurled the axe down upon the half-worn out sock with a hole at the bottom of the sock. They had expected almost anything to happen from the sock being embedded into the ground, stuck on the axe, or sliced clean in half.

What they didn’t expect was the almost metallic ‘Tang’ sound as the axe sounded as if it stuck metal. The look of disbelief from even the Damascus Knight as the axe was deflected by the sock as if he had hit a metal helmet instead of some woven cloth.

He along with everyone else turned to stare at them in disbelief as The Stitch Witch simply stood in the background unsurprised by what had happened. The slow dread knowledge of some of the watchers glancing at The Stitch Witch wondering how she knew this would happen?

Then in that all to unassuming way Kravos tried to play stupid “Its magic.”

It sounded so stupid as if he had no idea how magic actually worked… yet she felt the cloth secure that it would protect her. That she could have that axe swing at her neck and the axe would have a better chance at breaking before her scarf would be cut.

They continued asking questions one over another as Kravos tried his best to deflect… to let them assume certain things while never actually admitting that they were right or wrong.

She blinked wondering how she had never seen it before. How he carefully chose his words and lied out loud to The Council while pretending that it was costly. Pretending that it wasn’t that special as he started suggesting things that might be able to harm it which she knew wouldn’t work against it.

More than that it… it was just how he ignored The Council as he saw one of The Stitch Witch’s puppets take the sock while everyone else was distracted. How he spoke while keeping his eyes on The Stitch Witch as she inspected the sock… and checked it to her own creation.

The sock didn’t have a hole because it was worn out. He had made the hole for her.

“Why did she take it?” Nadel asked in mild fear.

Kravos shook his head “She was cashing in her favor today… now I don’t owe her anything.”

Nadel glanced at the new red cloak “Expect for the cloak.” He stared at her in disbelief “It belongs to her.”

It was at that moment she felt a small business card stick out of the scarf. Kravos pulled it out and examined it before muttering a small curse as the message simply read ‘You wanted protection and you didn’t grant me a gift when becoming the owner of the Hill. Consider the gift granted, yet the favor you owe has yet to be repaid.’

Nadel had to admit she had never seen such nice cursive writing… or how there was a sudden realization and look of horror as he bitterly cursed ‘Fae Trickery and nonsense’ as she couldn’t help, but laugh a little.

Life was still complicated, her feelings were a bit messed up as Kravos kept doing new strange exotic things that made no sense… and yet she felt secure in this bundle of insanity.

Her family was right.

These memories were dangerous.

Even more so... because they were so hard to resist.

Futurm sat inside the church basement as his fingers danced across the laptop keys. The house had too many people for his liking and far too many Fae lovers. While he was supposed to have safety due to rule of hospitality you couldn’t trust’em.

He knew the stories all too well. Simple contracts twisted against its meaning. Taking a sip from the water given to you only to be bound in chains. Give a name and have your will stolen.

With a click of his tongue the imp (he wasn’t some imaginary gremlin) tapped the feeds he had installed into the house. The Boss had even helped him out set it all up as he knew the need for proper warning and information gathering.

Yes ‘Information gathering’ because it isn’t spying when the sightless crooks stole a room in your house to set up their meetings while kicking you out of your own home.

Perfectly justifiable to spy on the lying little jailers as they talked about things while burning twisted contracts by a Heretic. It made his claws itch knowing that a place like this had a Heretic operating out in the freakin open for so long!

The door popped open as the preacher stepped into the room. Not one of those annoying preachers who did the whole ‘begone foul demon’ bit while demanding coin to make their building fancier.

No he was the Crusader type… and Futurm meant it in both the best and worst terms.

Tall blok, spoke with an ascent, and the moment he saw the imp could walk on ‘holy ground’ the tall preacher figured he wasn’t a demon… and then went to the preaching route. While he wasn’t a fan of the preaching he couldn’t say ‘no’ to a debate when the blok provided beer.

The preacher placed the cold bottle of beer onto the end table “Spying on the Council again?”

“It ain’t spyin if they ain’t lyin.” The imp replied as he popped the cap off with a claw “If they say they’ll help, then you can expect their next line is ‘I didn’t say which side’ when they toss you into the fire.”

The preacher sat down and glanced at the camera feed while Futurm was busy working on the drones. He took another sip from his beer as their crazy nonsense magic was messing with his systems. Drones moving about without commands or showing ‘personalities’ from some twiddling words and fingers.

What was it with humans always wanting to have ‘personalities’ in machines? Wasn’t the whole point of having mindless machines to remove the whole bothersome ‘salvery issue’ especially when you made the machine to be disposable?

Futurm wouldn’t care as he had already been preparing them for their three jobs. Say what you want about Boss’s penmanship skills, but he knew how to tinker and expand with the grace of the Eldritch.

The Preacher pointed one of his butter stained fingers as one of the screens “Told you they knew one another.”

Now the imp frowned “Lies and slander. Trust me preacher, if Boss had a dame back home we would have known about it.” He shoved his own hand into the bowl of popcorn and munched on it “Closest he got was two hundred years ago. Nice dame, good legs, but made the mistake of picking a fight with Nicka’li.”

The Preacher raised an eyebrow “Funny… he doesn’t look two hundred years old.”

The imp chuckled at how naive these wizard folk were. They had books on Eldritch. They had a very popular blok who wrote a lot on Eldritch and yet not one of them decided to use their heads to check out the library?

Even rough guesses were better than going clueless!

“Time travel and Para’dax.” The imp replied “Besides it’s obviously fake… he’s trying to trick them while pretending he’s fallen for’em.” Or thats what his boss should be doing “Besides its all illegal due to second law anyway.”

The preacher glanced at the bible “I suppose that is one stance on sex before marriage.”

Unfortunately the imp had been taking a sip of his beer and now was trying to dislodge the cold ale from his lungs. For a human it might not be as bad, but that stuff burned when going up and down the wrong tubes!

“No!” The imp spat hitting his chest “Free will theft and all that. Those aren’t their memories! So that’d be taken advantage of’em and that’s if the Fae dame hasn’t been fixed of her whammy!”

The preacher took a long sip of his beer “You still think the Elf Lord brainwashed her into thinking he’s her daughter?”

The imp nodded his head “Well he was hunting for heirs until sunrise.”

Four pics. Two changed to different girls. It didn’t take a genius to figure it out.

“Avera Willow has messed with a lot of exotic types of magic.” The preacher admitted “But that doesn’t change what is going on between him and my daughter.”

The imp glanced up at the bald russian man. Good blok, brought beer, and could actually admit he lost a debate. Seven out of ten on annoying crusaders I’d deal with again.

“Still by your own admittance the magician of red still retains his original memories. My daughter has let him have his space while admitting that both of them have changed.” He spoke in a dignified tone only priests seem to be able to pull off “If they choose to enter into a relationship it will be of their own free will.”

Taking another sip he placed the beer down “And memory serves he had the interest of three girls. So even with ‘unwanted memories’ it would still be by his own free will to choose who he dates.”

The imp was left speechless as that was the problem between arguing with a crusader. Sometimes they said things that while you knew the right answer… the answer they gave wasn’t wrong.

Only crusaders would end up meeting eldritch entities and immediately assume that ‘God’ had sent them to help teach these creatures about the holy bible… and have some success against all reason.

The preacher continued glancing at the screens while the imp worked to finish the uploading and modifying the old programs. There would be a lot more changes needed to adjust for the new clothing, but the great thing about paranoia is that it did most of the leg work needed when the enemy came knocking.

Already he was running the drones through the programs as he checked to see how well they operated and much to his annoyance… they were running a lot more smoothly than they had any right to be. There were always minor issues that needed to be adjusted, but the pseudo-intelligence granted to the drones seemed to be auto adjusting to compensate for these problems.

“I told you she was good.” The preacher spoke without a hint of shame.

Futurm scowled as he started trying to gain access to the security cameras at the meeting place for tonight’s little ‘duel’ which certainly wasn’t going to be an ambush… because you can trust evil people who kidnap other people to keep their word.

The Preacher was a little bit distrubed at how easily he had barreled through their antique security system (seriously? Council_Rules) before taking a look at their very lacking security cameras.

Lots of blind spots and empty hallways… the building’s wifi system was still working so he could stay here and use a piggyback program to operate the drones instead of having to get within range of vampire biting range.

“Still say we should be bringing sunlamps.” Futurm muttered watching the fanged freaks

One vampire had tried looking cool only to brush up against a curtain before nearly catching on fire. His entire arm went up as if it had been soaked in kerosene or something! He was pretty sure that The Boss could tinker up some power source and unleash a good old burst of manufactured sunlight to incinerate them all.

“It is not bright lights or solar radiation.” The Preacher spoke in mild annoyance “It is sunlight itself… how the dawn banishes the dark and causes those to lurk in the dark to hide so that mortal life can continue without fear.”

“Until the lion gets hungry.” Futurm muttered “I’ve seen how many predator animals eat things out in daylight. Doesn’t stop Mr Crocodile from trying to take your leg!”

A bit of muttering with something along the lines of ‘Strength in the face of the blind’ or something. The Imp had already heard about the three blind men and the elephant tale about people being both right and wrong as they simply lacked the greater picture.

He always hated that story.

Still searching through the cameras the imp kind of found himself a bit disappointed. Yes it might have been racist… or was it speciesist?

He found the rather large lack of style to be annoying as Dracula could look intimidating, cool, frighting, and a whole host of various things… what vampires should not look like a bunch of young Elvis Presley impersonators wearing black jackets.

The type you saw in those stupid musical broadway plays. Seriously he half expected them to break out in song any minute now.

“So what’s to stop them from ganging up and beating my Boss to death with badly tuned guitars and microphones?” Futurm asked as there were a lot of vampires and far too many blind spots in his cameras

The Preacher coughed “Politics, magic, and tradition… as Heirs of the Hill if they demean themselves by trying to cheat a public established duel then there is a good chance they could lose their magic.”

The imp rolled his eyes as you could buy magic if needed. Even if these dolts had some sort of bloodline system it wouldn’t be too hard to hire a rent-a-thug to plow their car into the other contestant before they stepped out of the parking lot.

The Preacher frowned “Though if you must be skeptical it is because Agatha Willow made it tradition… by violently killing anyone who interferes. This is a prideful woman who would take great offense at anyone who saw fit to challenge her authority.”

“Meaning the Hill’s her along with the will on how to reclaim it.” The Imp spoke with a mild nod to his head “Still doesn’t change the details since the dames aren’t her.”

The Preacher took a long sip from his beer before placing it down “If she did it thinking she couldn’t win in a fair fight… then what’s to stop the other thirty three council members from thinking they could pull off the same trick?”

Now the imp grinned as that he was familiar with. A little bread and circus to establish rule was a lot easier than making everyone else who hated you think that it would be easy to slit your throat.

Finally one of the cameras found their target as it was the only dame in the room. Odd one at that as she wore a black cocktail dress and looked completely at ease in her surroundings. The other dame on the other hand…

Futurm started tapping keys before he found the matching picture “Preacher… Averia is supposed to be Agatha’s daughter right?”

The preacher nodded as he saw the picture “Apparently she does exist.”

A woman in a green dress tapped her foot impaitly. The dress had been stained with blood and dirt despite the attempts to wash it away. In her hand was a rather impractical looking knife, but the look in her eyes would make you think twice about saying it to her face.

The woman in the green dress matched the description of ‘Crazy Knife Girl’ which his boss had told him about.

The preacher took one long sip from his beer before replying in an all too smug tone “Doesn’t look like brainwashing… unless she can be in two different places with two different bodies.”

“Grace of the Spire…” Futurm muttered under his breath “Why can’t you folks keep anything simple?”

The Preacher’s smile fell as he looked a lot less smug “Because that is Agatha Willow… apparently she found a new body.”

It was then the woman in the black cocktail dress lifted up a cardboard sign that read “Yes you creepy little gremlin. I will kill anyone who tries to interfere even if they are my own men. Do not insult my name or craft again.”

It was then at that exact moment the camera feeds died.

“I’m going to need another beer.” The imp muttered