24 Suns

24 Suns

--- Jon ---

As he stumbled out of bed he found himself with a pounding headache, as if there was a jackhammer in his skull and as he wiped away a bloody nose he knew exactly who to blame.

(Can’t he just leave me alone…) He grimaced, forcing himself towards the kitchen, feeling a craving for coffee.

(Might as well make some breakfast while I’m at it.) He decided after turning the coffee machine on, hoping that focusing on something other than his migraine would cause it to give up on its attempts to kill him. (Not that that ever stopped anything else trying to kill me.)

As he picked up a butter knife to make some toast, he heard a sound that was too big to be Pix from deeper in his home. Seeing that Brutus was still in his bed rather than moving around, he shifted his grip on the knife knowing that while it wasn’t particularly good for cutting, (I can still gouge someone’s eyes out with it.)

Silently he got into a position hidden from the hallway but still close enough to grab whoever was making their way down the hall.

“Morning kid.” His ma greeted as she rounded the corner, causing him to quickly move the knife behind him and shift his grip back to something more passive.

(Right, forgot that she actually came home last night.) He’d been so exhausted after the last week that he’d gone to bed shortly after she’d come back to the house. “Mornin’ you doing alright, or does the station have more work to throw at you today?”

“Yeah.” His Ma yawned, before cracking her neck. “Still got a bit of work to do down at the station thanks to all of this mess with the Dealers, but since Kenneth has been found my priority case is finished, so it’s not really my problem with the special units they’re putting together.”

“Surprised they aren’t trying to make you help out with that given, you know.” He made a general gesture towards his ma as he started pulling things from the fridge.

“Yeah, no.” His ma laughed with a shake of her head. “This isn’t like it was out in the country where they need all hands for this kind of thing. The city is big enough that they’ve got a fair number of officers from all stations willing to help with a gang bust this big.”

“Politics and funding.” He nodded in understanding, knowing that since more and more of the city’s police budget was funneled into Sanctuary, the various stations had to share big ‘wins’ to keep any of the stations from being decommissioned due to a lack of funding, which would just make everything harder for everyone. (Especially in a city with this many gangs.)

“Pretty much.” His ma sighed with a nod of her own. “Still at the very least this means I shouldn’t have to work through our mornings once I get everything sorted at the station.”

“That’ll be nice.” He smiled, because even as busy as he’d been and understanding why she was still so busy herself, (it’ll still be nice to spend some time with ma.)

Scene Consequences

-Ma Whitaker’s training has returned to the event wheel.

---

Wolf looked around as her summoning lights faded from the air around her before giving him a curious look.

“Hey Wolf.” He greeted, running a hand between her ears. “So here’s the deal, now that Kenneth is safe I wanted to try focusing on a big project. Something to help me get my mind off of everything, and that’s when I remembered there was that one spell you wanted me to help you out with. Your ‘Wolf Pack’ thing?”

Wolf nodded her tail wagging with a bit of excitement at the idea of improving one of her weaker powers.

“Yeah, um, it’ll probably take me a while to figure out how to help you, but I figure there’s no better time to get started than now.” He told her, pulling out some of the books on spellcrafting De Sade had given him. Namely the ones he was absolutely sure weren’t made of human skin.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

That warning did little to tamper his canine companion’s excitement, which gave him a certain level of his own even as he opened the book he’d gotten from Blackwell’s resident Dark Lord.

---

About two hours into his and Wolf’s research session he got a phone call from his ma.

“Hello?” He asked answering, setting a bookmark in place as he passed the place Wolf’s enthusiasm had finally keeled over to boredom and she’d passed out taking a (well deserved) nap.

“Hey, I was calling to let you know that Ms. Valentine wanted me to pick her and Kenneth up from the hospital once I get off work.”

“That’s great.” He smiled, glad that things were soon to be back to normal for the Valentines.

“Yeah, except for the fact that there’s still bloodstains on their carpet.” His Ma reminded him.

“That’s not so great.” He admitted with a grimace, before telling her, “I’ll take care of it before they get here, just give me a heads up when you’re on the way back so I can get everything out of there.”

“Sure thing, kiddo.”

---

“Okay, so I think I’ve figured out the foundation of your ‘Wolf Pack’ spell.” He told his canine companion as he began mixing baking soda and hand sanitizer with cold water.

Wolf gave an excited bark, that he took as a ‘Really?’.

“Yeah, though admittedly I still need to work through the ‘concept’ part of the formula, but I’ve got a few ideas on what’ll work there. From there I should be able to map the whole thing to one of my scripts, or maybe an enchantment if I can find the right container…” He explained before shaking his head as he began to drift a bit. “Either way, once I have a spell version of it set we should be able to tweak and modify it into something more usable for you.”

Wolf nodded before making several curious sounds and canine gestures.

“Mm, that’s hard to say.” He admitted, pouring a few cupfuls of the solution into an empty spray bottle. “While De Sade’s books gave me a decent idea of how to modify an existing spell, and watching you use the spell definitely helped, I won’t actually know how we can modify it until I’ve got a working version of it. And that’s assuming my working version is close enough to yours for you to work with from the get go.”

Wolf made a reassuring sound before rubbing her head against his leg, and he couldn’t help but smile at the gesture.

“I’m glad you think so, but believe me when I say this is nothing compared to what Miss Edna or De Sade can do. By now they’d both have a working spell and several modified versions of it. I’ve still got a long way to go before I’m a ‘good’ practitioner.”

Scene Consequences

-Thanks to Wolf’s assistance and De Sade’s books, gained 3XP to Occult.

--*Skill Level Up* Occult Lv. 6 (0/14)

-Unlocked [Wolf Pack] spell research.

--In order to learn this spell, we must first learn a relevant Concept and apply it in some way.

First Spell Hint: Moon>????????? + Script Craft*

*A/N: We can use any spell craft for this and several valid concepts, this is just the most obvious combination going off what we know.

---

“You guys didn’t have to do all of this.” Ms. Valentine told them, as the rest of their neighbors welcomed the Valentines back.

“Yeah, when I told you to get the place ready I wasn’t expecting you to throw a whole party.” His ma agreed, gesturing to the table he’d set up with snacks.

“It wasn’t any trouble.” He assured both of them. “And well, I figured after everything a few good memories here wouldn’t hurt.” (At the very least it should make it easier dealing with the fact Ms. Valentine almost bled out three steps from where I’m standing.)

He felt that that last part could go unsaid.

“I’m surprised you managed to clean this place so well.” His ma admitted once Ms. Valentine had been dragged off by Mr. Petrovich.

“You’d be surprised what you can work out with a bit of hand sanitizer and baking soda.” He shrugged, trying very hard not to think of how many bloodstains he had to wash out of his clothes when he couldn’t afford to just burn and replace them.

“Still it was nice of you to do all of this.” His Ma told him.

“This is nothing.” (It’s not like I had to hunt down every last Dealer and burn their bases down around their heads.)

He shook his head at that thought, not liking how violent it was.

“You okay kid?” His ma asked with a touch of concern.

“Yeah, just got a headache.” He (lied) told her. “I’ll be fine.”

Scene Consequences

-Grown closer to the neighbors.