A Meeting and a Message
7th of July 2006 A.D.
"Are you OK?" you ask your dad rushing in for a one armed hug. Probably not a good idea to sheathe your sword without a warning given that it looks like stabbing yourself in your heart. As he gingerly puts his arms around you you realize what the problem is. "Oh, my back, one of the vampires got me a a little but it hardly hurts, I heal
fast now."
"Now?" he asks softly and you let out a relieved breath. "There is no anger in his voice, a lot of worry sure, but you had expected that." The flickering balefire eyes peering at him, at Harry, at his teacher and at the corpses of every single vampire are probably not helping.
"That's a long story," you shake your head a little leaning into his shoulder. The minty smell of the polish he uses in his armor reminds you of all the other times he had come home. Then you remember metal is a really good heat conductor, you're probably freezing him inside his armor. "Oh...um... sorry I'm cold now. "
Also you just lost
another jacket and you are not sure the T-Shirt under it is salvageable. Mom is going to freak out if you go home looking like this.
"It's alright I know some of it," he says quietly.
"How?" you ask surprised. Dad is a lot of things, but able to make sense of weird magic powers at a glance is not one of them.
He looks around at Harry and the elder wizard, nodding a little at the latter before replying. "I had a visitation. I was not told much and nothing that you do not already know because that is forbidden, but enough to set my mind at ease."
"Like from an... angel?" The word almost gets stuck in your throat as your your heartbeat hammers your chest. Calm down Molly, you knew this thing was important, you knew.
"Pardon my intercession Mighty Bearer of Cleansing Flame, but did not the one named Lasciel find you of note, one of the same nature as these messengers, though Fallen from their tasks?" Usum interjects.
"Yeah." Speaking of things you aren't going to talk to your dad about no matter how much you might want to. The shadow's presence is not your secret to share. Instead you ask. "What did the angel say?"
Your father stops a little, thinking back so he would get the words right. "Uriel said you found an old treasure and took it up in a place of darkness and cold, that it is a weapon and a crown which has lain long in an even fouler place but which could not be twisted from its purpose. It seeks to do your will upon the world for good or for ill. There was something else, but which he asked I say to you alone."
"Wow... that's wow. I did know all that, I could
feel it, but it's really good to have confirmation you know." You wave a hand at the twisting balefire aura and the eyes looking every which way.
"That's
your daughter?" the old wizard asks shaking his head a little. "See that Hoss, don't let anyone tell you God doesn't hav' a sense of humor."
Dad glares at him a little over your head, but you can't help it you laugh and laugh until the pain in your back finally gets you to stop. It's not really
that funny, but he does have a point and you are just relieved to see your dad again, to have won the fight and killed the vampires and whatever those
things were.
"What... what were those...?" you start to ask, but Harry cuts you off.
"We need to get off the street, the Reds might try to hit us again and with you glowing like that who knows that kind of eyes we'll draw."
"If only someone had thought to put up a veil," the older wizard says with a mischievousness gleam in his eye. Now that he mentions it you can kind of feel a faint hum of magic in the air just the edges of your anima, bending and scattering the light before it can escape.
Harry kind of ducks his head a little. "I'd introduce all of you both to Ebeneezer McCoy, my teacher and the finest wizards I know, but he's already done that better than I could." He nods in the direction of your dad. "You already know Michael, this is Molly.., the one I talked to you about."
"Ayup and ain't that a right mess," the old man says, turning serious on a dime. "That's usually the way with auld powers, even when they're being helpful. They come in their time and not in ours."
"Er, thank you for the help," you say. You are not sure what the proper form of address is for a Senior Council member, but you have seen enough of this one to know that he isn't inclined to stand on formalities with the vampire corpses still bubbling away into junk three feet away.
"Call it an even balance," he shrugs. "I'd have also called is a damn fool thing to do before I saw you fight, but you know what you can do better than I did so it's just a regular fool thing. Fighting Outsiders is always that."
"Even when you do it?" Harry asks, getting his own back a little and looking more relaxed.
"There's no fool like an old fool as my joints keep reminding me every morning," he replies without missing a beat. "Come on let's not be jabbering too much in the middle of town, veil or not." He heads off towards the cars with no evidence of any trouble in his sure stride.
You are quiet on the way back to Harry's though your mind is anything but. It's good to have dad in the car with you, good to know he will be there to help, but any arguments you make to McCoy, to the White Council will have to be your own. Should you just focus on not being a danger or something more? Apparently those things and creatures like that had been the reason for the Seventh Law and some of the most dangerous foes the White Council faced and you had cut them down sure as Amoracchius and unlike your dad who goes where the Spirit leads him you are beholden to no choices but your own. How would the White Council take an offer of aid? How would your parents?
Well OK you know the answer to that last one for sure one. Mom would have kittens and dad would be really worried, but should that stop you? Harry's Spiderman line may have been as corny as a super-sized bucket of popcorn, but it had not been wrong. You have a lot of power, so where are you responsible to use it.
What do you argue to Ebeneezer McCoy?
[] Simply that you are not a danger and that you can no longer wield mortal sorcery and thus not under the mandate of the Seven Laws
[] Offer to help as you can in the war the Council is fighting, you have no qualms that the Red Court is an evil that must be defeated at all costs after what you have seen today
[] Write in
OOC: For the record Harry is thinking about how to make the case to Ebeneezer himself, but at this point it would be out of character for Molly to just leave it to others to deal with what is her fate and the consequences of her actions. Between her resolve to take responsibility earlier and being an Infernal Exalted which inclines her to 'master of my own fate' that is what it comes out to. What arguments you make is up to you guys. Oh and that second hand message from Uriel is part of the five dot Mentor Background you guys bought for Michael, the rest of it will come out when he can speak to you in private. 
