November 7, 2003 – 21:00Frank jumped and went to the window facing the front yard.“Are you serious?”“Yeah, but I don’t think they’re looking for us. Looks like there was a shooting down the street or something like that, but there are a lot of people in the park watching what’s going on and we can’t find a safe spot to land. Too many police cars and people crawling on the street.”“Hmm maybe I can pick you up somewhere, but I drank quite a bit,” said Frank, repeating what she said to his family.“Can they land in the backyard? The backlight is on a motion sensor, but I can turn it off if needed,” said Louis, which Frank repeated to Coralis.“Let me check,” said Coralis, flying toward Louis’ house, Sebastian following her. “Yeah, it’ll be fine. We’ll knock on the patio door.”“Does he need to turn the light off?”“Yes, please.”“Wait, do they fly on a broom for real?” said Natacha when Frank ended the call.Coralis and Sebastian circled the backyard and landed next to the garden she
November 7, 2003 – 22:30“There is a lot of truth in what Sebastian just said and it’s probably exactly what happened. Gods from above know how many traitors want Blue and me out of their way. Blue, I heard about the summon and I urge you, do NOT surrender, not yet at least,” said Andrew.“You know they will send the entire cavalry if I don’t and Frank would probably be the one who ends up paying the price. I can’t do that to him.”“We’ll find a way, we know you didn’t do it,” said Stephanie.“I see you’ve got company.”“I’m with Frank’s family for his aunt’s birthday.”“I’ll be brief then. I was with you at the warehouse that night, I know you didn’t do it. When Blum called me, I remember seeing cameras outside of it. Even if these cameras have been tampered with, we should be able to prove it and argue that it was a setup. We will then need to make sure that ALL five elders are present so that Alfredino and Phraton can’t have a majority.“That way you can appeal for time to clear yo
November 14, 2003Before she could leave the meeting room, a furnace appeared behind the elders. Rolland stood and grabbed the casting iron lying on top of it. Its tip was shaped like a small straight line. With his other hand, he took the can of silver that was next to it and sprayed silver on the casting iron tip.Watching Rolland make the preparations to bar her EBEE tattoo, she felt relieved. She would no longer be attached to the EBEE. She would be free.“It has been brought to our attention that you recently took a mate. Do you understand that mates are a distraction in our line of work and a potential weapon to be used against us?” said Rolland as he approached her with the casting iron.“I understand,” she said, looking at him as she wondered if he meant it as a threat.Rolland pressed the casting iron three times on Coralis’ skin, where her EBEE tattoo was. The three burned lines formed what looked like a triangle. Lines all intersected with each other, except that a line wou
November 23, 2003“If you must know,” she said, forcing herself to speak sweetly, “he does not reside in London. He is busy with work and I am obviously occupied away from him.”Behind her calm demeanour, she was raging. She knew that Rolland had something up his sleeves by letting her stay at her London flat instead of locking her up in a cell. She wanted to kill the guard and fly to Frank, but she knew doing that would make it worse for them. She had to let them think she was playing their hand, no matter how hard it was. She missed him.He let go of her cloak and she jumped down on her back porch. Once back inside, she activated a custom mute-ball before calling Frank. Her pager went off as soon as she put her hand on her phone. It was her contact from MI6.“Blue Thunder on the line.”“It’s been a while since we talked, you and I.”“Given the recent events, can’t say I missed you, no offence.”“Can’t say I blame you. A report recently came to us from Clear Valley, which contradicts
Once upon a time, Sethbe, the son of a spirit god, had an affair with Mathilda, a Light Priestess, which resulted in a child. War was raging between the children of the gods: between those of darkness and those of light. Sethbe and his brothers, Liedte and Zienkhe, were overseers in the darkness. They could not have people know about the child. Mirrhia, a loyal servant of the brothers, took the child and disappeared before anyone realized birth happened. She made a quick stop to the family temple in the middle of the Egyptian desert, to present the child officially to Ghar, the brothers’ creator, protected by the watchful eyes of the temple guardians. With the baby tucked in her arms, she then left into the night, without a trace.August 8, 1980 Anita picked up Coralis in her arms and climbed up the stairs to take her to bed. In her eyes, Coralis was the best thing that ever happened to her, better than the night she accepted Donny as her husband and mate. She dropped her in her sma
October 1st, 1989 Coralis and Nadilla sat quietly in Ms. Wagner’s office. Head looking down, sometime shooting furtive glances at each other. They thought they were in trouble, once again. Coralis closed her eyes for a moment, thinking of what could have possibly led them to the administrator’s office this time. Maybe they were going to move them again, even if their social workers said that they would have to stay there until the trial was over, at minimum. They arrived to this group home about a month ago, along with some other children. She didn’t punch a kid nor instigated any sort of conflict. She kept to herself, barely talking to anyone. She couldn’t think of any reason that would explain why she and Nadilla had to sit at the administrator’s office, on a Sunday morning. “You think they want to punish us because we are not talking to the social workers here?” said Nadilla in a low voice, just loud enough for Coralis to hear it. Ms. Wagner’s office wasn’t small. In one of th
July 15, 1990 Coralis and Nadilla were excited. They were getting ready to go shopping for their school supplies. The previous month, they had received by mail the list of what they would need for school. The list wasn’t long, but there were so many books listed on it, that they were hoping that none of them were heavy: they had no one to help carry them to school or across the mall. As promised, Vallia met with them a few times during the year. Coralis wasn’t sure if that really helped, because she simply ignored the other kids to avoid getting into conflicts. The trial and the weeks prior to it were a little more challenging, but Roberto gave her something to suppress her emotions during that month: it wasn’t healthy, but they couldn’t risk any accident at the courthouse or with the authorities. He made sure that Vallia met with Coralis when the potion wore off. Ms. Wagner wasn’t too keen about letting a 10-year-old girl go shopping alone with a 9-year-old, but Roberto had filed
August 26, 1990 It was 5:00 when Coralis’ alarm went off, but she was already awake. She barely slept. She was as excited as she was anxious about where she would be ending the day. Nadilla had already left for her school. She hadn’t been able to call her, so she had no idea how she was doing, if she liked it. She was hoping that she would be able to write to her. They had realized that even if Nadilla was able to send her a letter as soon as she arrived, odds are that Coralis would already be gone by the time it gets to their group home, so they decided to check if it would be possible to send letters to someone in another school. They had been apart a few times in the past, but not for the last couple years, so it felt odd to be without her cousin. She missed her. Martha said that she would pick her up at 6:00. Coralis was ready and waiting at 5:40. All of her belongings were with her. She didn’t know if she was going to come back or stay on the school ground for Christmas holiday
November 23, 2003“If you must know,” she said, forcing herself to speak sweetly, “he does not reside in London. He is busy with work and I am obviously occupied away from him.”Behind her calm demeanour, she was raging. She knew that Rolland had something up his sleeves by letting her stay at her London flat instead of locking her up in a cell. She wanted to kill the guard and fly to Frank, but she knew doing that would make it worse for them. She had to let them think she was playing their hand, no matter how hard it was. She missed him.He let go of her cloak and she jumped down on her back porch. Once back inside, she activated a custom mute-ball before calling Frank. Her pager went off as soon as she put her hand on her phone. It was her contact from MI6.“Blue Thunder on the line.”“It’s been a while since we talked, you and I.”“Given the recent events, can’t say I missed you, no offence.”“Can’t say I blame you. A report recently came to us from Clear Valley, which contradicts
November 14, 2003Before she could leave the meeting room, a furnace appeared behind the elders. Rolland stood and grabbed the casting iron lying on top of it. Its tip was shaped like a small straight line. With his other hand, he took the can of silver that was next to it and sprayed silver on the casting iron tip.Watching Rolland make the preparations to bar her EBEE tattoo, she felt relieved. She would no longer be attached to the EBEE. She would be free.“It has been brought to our attention that you recently took a mate. Do you understand that mates are a distraction in our line of work and a potential weapon to be used against us?” said Rolland as he approached her with the casting iron.“I understand,” she said, looking at him as she wondered if he meant it as a threat.Rolland pressed the casting iron three times on Coralis’ skin, where her EBEE tattoo was. The three burned lines formed what looked like a triangle. Lines all intersected with each other, except that a line wou
November 7, 2003 – 22:30“There is a lot of truth in what Sebastian just said and it’s probably exactly what happened. Gods from above know how many traitors want Blue and me out of their way. Blue, I heard about the summon and I urge you, do NOT surrender, not yet at least,” said Andrew.“You know they will send the entire cavalry if I don’t and Frank would probably be the one who ends up paying the price. I can’t do that to him.”“We’ll find a way, we know you didn’t do it,” said Stephanie.“I see you’ve got company.”“I’m with Frank’s family for his aunt’s birthday.”“I’ll be brief then. I was with you at the warehouse that night, I know you didn’t do it. When Blum called me, I remember seeing cameras outside of it. Even if these cameras have been tampered with, we should be able to prove it and argue that it was a setup. We will then need to make sure that ALL five elders are present so that Alfredino and Phraton can’t have a majority.“That way you can appeal for time to clear yo
November 7, 2003 – 21:00Frank jumped and went to the window facing the front yard.“Are you serious?”“Yeah, but I don’t think they’re looking for us. Looks like there was a shooting down the street or something like that, but there are a lot of people in the park watching what’s going on and we can’t find a safe spot to land. Too many police cars and people crawling on the street.”“Hmm maybe I can pick you up somewhere, but I drank quite a bit,” said Frank, repeating what she said to his family.“Can they land in the backyard? The backlight is on a motion sensor, but I can turn it off if needed,” said Louis, which Frank repeated to Coralis.“Let me check,” said Coralis, flying toward Louis’ house, Sebastian following her. “Yeah, it’ll be fine. We’ll knock on the patio door.”“Does he need to turn the light off?”“Yes, please.”“Wait, do they fly on a broom for real?” said Natacha when Frank ended the call.Coralis and Sebastian circled the backyard and landed next to the garden she
November 7, 2003 – 17:00Natacha and Rachel both stopped reading to stare at Frank in disbelief.“Are you serious?” said Rachel.“Stephanie just said that she wasn’t a witch, neither was Sebastian,” said Natacha.“Oh wait, you said they were something else, right?” said Rachel, looking at Stephanie. “That explains why Frank looks like he’s worried out of his mind.”“They’re mages, but it’s not the only reason I’m worried, something happened today,” he said while taking the letter he received earlier out of his back pocket and handed to his sister. “Can you read this?”“Other than what they have been up to today?” she glanced at him before returning her attention to the letter in her hands. “Uh, yeah, but it’s pale… DAMN! You don’t think she did this, right? Please tell me you don’t believe that crap.”“She told me she didn’t do it when I spoke to her earlier and I believe her.”The doorbell rang and Linda got up to answer it.“Why did you ask me if I could read it?” said Stephanie, st
November 7, 2003 – Noon“No! No, that’s not right, she didn’t do it,” said Frank, handing the letter to his mother.His hand was shaking as he handed her the letter. Molly was looking at him, worried. She grabbed the letter from his hand and frowned.“Son, what is it?” said Molly, flipping the letter from one side to the other. “There is nothing written on it. Why are you saying that she didn’t do it?”Frank looked at his mother, frowning too. He took the letter back, and this time, he saw words appearing.“This is odd. It’s like the letters Audrey received from her school. I’ll have to ask her about that.”Frank read the letter to his mother.“OH MY GOD!” said Molly, bringing her hand to her mouth.“This isn’t right. I’m sure there is stuff she didn’t tell me from when she went missing, but she wouldn’t do something like that, at least not without a reason.”“Perhaps she was framed. A lot of people are after her. Blue is seen as a dangerous threat by her people, but I know she is har
November 4, 2003 – 23:00“This is indeed an interesting idea you have. You know the UK also wants me 6 feet under, right?”“I am aware yes, but according to our records, you live in the UK, so I can reasonably assume you know your way around the city.”“I should not be admitting that to you. If dear Vladina is planning something against me, I do want to take her out myself before she comes for me, so what you’re suggesting is worth consideration. However, I will be out of the country until Thursday night. I can’t get caught or seen by your agents, and I don’t want to walk into a trap. You would need to follow my plan.”“Valid concerns. Blue, if you decide to do it, you can use me to transmit information to him. Agent DeMarco, if my girl does it and you’re not respecting the plan she gives you, deals are off.”“Understood,” said Dimitri.“Here is what I am going to do. For the next 2 days, I will be doing my research. In 48 hours, I will communicate the game plan to our contact. Get yo
November 4, 2003 – 16:30Coralis and Sebastian were near Chongqing, in China, walking out of a meeting with their coach, and three team officials through holographic communication. They had warned them that they weren’t going to renew their contract at the end of this year. With the current political situation that was making them busier fighting off the radical groups, they had to retire from flyball and focus on keeping their mates safe.The team officials tried to convince them to renew for another 2 years, but they understood their situation. Both of them had recently taken a mate and were targeted in this witch hunt. Even if the war ended before the season ended, they would probably always have people after them, given their line of work outside the field. Their priorities had shifted.They still had some time before the game started, so they decided to join their teammates at a shifter restaurant nearby. Just before they pulled the front door open, Coralis’ phone rang. It was Fr
October 31, 2003 – 06:00“Why?” he said, frowning.Coralis sighted when she saw the confusion on his face. He looked disappointed.“I’m not saying I won’t complete it ever, but it’s just not the time, for more than one reason.”“I won’t change my mind about you if that’s what you’re worried about,” he said, remembering what Sebastian had told him.“I know, I’m not doubting you,” she said, putting on her underwear before going to the table to fill a cup with coffee. “I remember what you said on the field and afterwards.”“You want to be sure you won’t change your mind?”“It’s not that either. I can’t change my mind about you, we’re past that point,” she said softly, lifting her branded finger. “We’re in the middle of a witch hunt, where everyone everywhere is persecuting anyone they think is summoning demons and shit like that. You walking around with what looks like a tattoo representing our world and linking you to a witch isn’t safe.”“I didn’t think of that, but from my understandi