The Silent Circle (boyxboy, PAFP)

Ah. Now that was the complicated question, especially given that Lucas himself wasn’t one-hundred percent certain what the Supremus’ reasoning had been on this. But, sorcerers who had only been doing magic for four years, were generally not in a position to question one of the most powerful practitioners on the planet, and Luke, talented as he may have been, was no exception to that rule. Those who had been using magic most of their lives, who had been breathing in that energy and shaping it as their will dictated for decades, sometimes centuries (in the cases of the particularly powerful) had access to insights, knowledge, and secrets that few others could even dream of.

“The sorcerer who ordered that you not be mind-wiped isn’t just my superior, she’s the Supremus. As in, leader of the Circle and, arguably, its most powerful member. Her name is Dianna Crawley, and she’s been the Supremus of the Circle for over eighty years now. The most magically gifted among us have a lot of advantages, and one of those is long life. I don’t pretend to fully understand her reasoning behind insisting that I enlighten you about the magical world, but I can make an educated guess,” Lucas replied slowly, as if picking his words carefully as he thought about how to do this. He wanted to explain this part in a way Evan would understand; But he would need the Liber Speculum to do it.

Lucas moved his right arm from where it had been resting on the table, extending it out toward the living room and making a sort of “come here” gesture with his hand. A split second later, and the nondescript book that had been sitting on the couch amidst his mess came floating through into the kitchen, coming to a hovering stop in front of Evan. It hung in the air for a moment, strangely present, almost as if it was inspecting Evan himself, and then it fell to the table, the impact muffled by its leather binding.

“This is the Liber Speculum; The Book of Mirrors,” Lucas told his roommate, reaching across the table to open the book at random. Once he’d done so, however, the pages it opened to proved to be utterly blank. “It’s not a book in its own right, you see, but rather... Well, it’s sort of like the magical equivalent of Google, I guess you could say. For example, say you wanted to read all about alchemical transmutations,” at this, Lucas leaned over and tapped one of the blank pages. Except, it wasn’t blank anymore.

As Evan watched, the pages suddenly began to bloom with color; Ink spreading across the paper rapidly, forming words, then sentences, then paragraphs, all accompanied by detailed illustrations of steps one would take in some kind of alchemical procedure. There was an intricate drawing of a figure in a robe mixing ingredients into glass vials that looked strangely like scientific test tubes, another of that same figure waving a hand over the resulting mixture, and a third, final illustration of the contents of the tube changed into some sort of reddish liquid. Lucas took a moment to stare at Evan to confirm that the other man could see what was on the paper; When he had, he let out a breath, his theory becoming stronger by the moment.

“The Liber Speculum is thaumaturgically connected to each and every book in the Circle’s library. Ask it about a subject related to magic, such as what the hell thaumaturgy is, for example, and, so long as there’s a book on that subject in the Circle’s collection, it will automatically find the correct book and transpose its contents for however long you need it to,” Lucas explained, moving his hand back and letting Evan look at the book for a minute. When the other man looked back up, however, he would have seen a somewhat melancholy look on Lucas’ face as the red-head crossed his arms on the table and leaned forward again a little.

“I did tell you that magic is hereditary, and it is, but it’s not black-and-white. Just because your parents don’t have the Gift, doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t. You know more about genetics than I do, I’m pretty sure I slept through most of my biology classes back in high school, but think of it like a recessive gene. It can go whole generations without surfacing, but, suddenly, when two parents with that same recessive gene have a kid, it finally comes out of hiding. For those people, the magic in their blood is sufficient for them to learn and use magic, but it tends to be dormant, inaccessible. A specific ritual, which we call Awakening, is required to activate the latent energy and grant full access to their abilities,” he carried on, speaking a little faster as he found the words coming to him. He’d been thinking about this a lot last night and this morning, given what the Supremus has ordered him to do. This was the only explanation that made sense.

“I’m not one-hundred percent certain about this, Evan, but the Supremus wouldn’t have insisted that I try to recruit you if you were fully mundane. What’s more; If you were completely mundane, the Liber Speculum would be blank to you no matter how many times I tapped it. I strongly suspect that you do have the Gift, but it’s essentially in hibernation inside of you, and there it will stay unless an Awakening is performed. Well, there’s one other way, too, but that method has an unacceptably high amount of risk attached, unlike the Awakening, which is totally safe. It’s your choice, of course, and you don’t have to take the leap right now, or even soon. Take all the time you need, and ask whatever questions you need to ask. I’m not going anywhere,” Luke assured Evan, giving the other man a somewhat uncertain smile. He knew this was a lot to take in, but he suspected Evan could handle it, given a little time to think about it all. And, if he had more specific questions about magic, the Liber Speculum would be more than equipped to answer them.

Amused, but not surprised, when Evan pulled out a notebook and started to write down some of what Lucas was telling him, the man just grinned and shook his head when Evan asked if he minded. “Go ahead, write down anything you need to; Though it’s “Liber Speculum”, not “Liber Spectrum”. If it was the latter, it would be the Book of Vision, or, quite literally, the Book of Pictures. We call it the Book of Mirrors because it mirrors other books when active,” he replied, leaning forward to tap the book again, causing the writing and images on the page to dissolve, replaced a moment later by paragraphs from a totally different text.

At some point while Evan was writing things down, Lucas realized something; He was enjoying this. While he’d had opportunities to study and practice with other young magic-users in the Circle before, he’d never really had a chance to share this part of himself with someone he actually knew well and liked. The lower tiers of the Circle could be... Extremely competitive, to put it mildly, so friendships there were quite rare. His mundane friends, with the exception of Evan of course, had absolutely no idea that Lucas was anything more than a weirdly smart slacker who somehow managed to stay in school despite never studying. Being able to tell Evan about all of this, being able to show him how much he knew and how hard he’d worked to learn it? It was more satisfying than he’d ever thought it would be.

“Like I said, there’s no rush, man. The Supremus didn’t give me a time frame, and so long as you don’t start going around screaming about magic and secret societies to anyone who will listen, the Council won’t care how long it takes,” Lucas reaffirmed, his face breaking out into another grin when the other man asked if he could see some more of what the red-head could do. “There are a few fundamental rules of magic; You can’t create biological life, and by that same dint you can’t bring back the dead, you can’t alter the fundamental nature of things; I can turn most metals into gold, for example, but I can’t turn wood into gold, or vice versa, and a few others like that, but we’ll go over those more thoroughly if and when you decide to accept the Awakening. For now, let me show you my particular focus, give me a second.”

At this point, Lucas got up and circled back around the table to head into the living room, retrieving a hunk of clay from a plastic bag that had been sitting on the ground in front of the couch. He brought it back into the kitchen and reclaimed his place at the table, setting the clay down inbetween himself and Evan.

“We used to be called Golemancers, because magic-users who had the same interests as me used to create big, hulking guardians made out of stone and metal to protect them and their fancy wizard’s towers, back in the day,” Lucas began to explain, even as he quickly began to shape the clay with his fingers. Oddly enough, it didn’t seem to stick to his skin or even the table, like normal clay would have. ”Now that spooky towers in the wilderness are out of style, we’re generally referred to as Artificers, or, in some areas, Lifeweavers,” he continued working as he spoke, the formerly shapeless hunk of clay rapidly taking on a crude approximation of a dog with flappy ears. Lucas didn’t bother going for the artistic here, stopping once he was satisfied that it was basically dog-like.

“Artificers are basically the engineers of the magical world. We create enchanted objects, maintain permanent enchantments like wards, and a number of other functions. My favorite discipline, though, is animation,” Luke said, grinning up at Evan for a moment before brushing his fingers against the head of the little clay canine, and, with a whisper of will, sending a spark of life into the object.

Similarly to the aluminum elephant from the night before, the clay dog shivered for a moment, reminiscent of a pebble being dropped into a still pond... And then its tail started wagging. The clay dog looked up at Evan, head tilted in a distinctly dog-like fashion, and barked once at him, the sound small and tinny given its size. Lucas smiled happily down at the creation as it turned around to look at him, noticing its own tail in the process and starting to chase it, unsuccessfully, leaving it spinning around in circles on the table, crude jaws snapping playfully.

“This is just a quick example. Normally I would put more effort into making him look more realistic, rather than just a dog-shaped bit of clay. Like I said before, you can’t create biological life, but you can imbue inanimate objects with a spark of your own life energy,” he informed Evan, mentally shrugging and accepting the fact that he was enjoying himself. There was nothing wrong with finally being able to share this with an actual friend, after all.

OOC: So the long-term idea is that something very nasty has taken an interest in Evan for a reason that isn’t yet clear to either him or Lucas. What do you think about that same thing Awakening Evan against his will before he can decide on his own to start learning magic?

The dog leapt back, startled, when it was first splashed by the small amount of water Evan had dripped onto the table, but it quickly got over its surprise. As it considered, Lucas folded his arms over the table and lowered his head to rest on them, watching the dog with the same fascination as Evan. He’d always loved this sort of magic. Padding forward to investigate the water, the little creature lowered its head, as if sniffing the substance. Apparently determining that it was safe, the canine wasted no further time in leaping forward onto the wet surface, happily getting itself wet and rolling around in the small amount of water with all the enthusiasm of a real dog. As a direct result, however, the clay of its creation grew wet; And apparently whatever had stopped it from sticking to Lucas’ hands and the table didn’t prevent the clay from running, which is quickly began to do.

Before the canine could actually start to literally drip apart, Lucas reached out again to tap it on the head, taking back the animating spark. The dog instantly froze, reverting to its previous state as a dog-shaped lump of clay.

“And that’s one of the problems with making them out of clay, unfortunately. I’ll put a little more work into him, maybe tonight. Get him looking like a proper dog, and not like a five year-old’s version, before I re-animate him. And then I’ll probably transmute him into some kind of stone so he doesn’t fall apart when wet,” Lucas decided, making a quick gesture as well, as if grabbing something out of the air. As Evan watched, the moisture that the clay dog had acquired actually began to flow out of it from the top down, the darkness of the wet clay receding into its belly, legs, paws, and then finally back out onto the table in the form of loose water, leaving the now-inanimate object totally dry.

“Not at first,” Lucas said in answer to Evan’s question about disciplines, “If one was to accept a certain hypothetical offer and start out on this path, they would be formally inducted into the Circle as an Initiate. Initiates have certain restrictions put upon them, for their own safety as much as for anyone else’s; Basically that would mean no unsupervised magic. It’s kind of like ordinary college, really; You start with your general ed, and then move on to your major later. Each Initiate is taught the very basics of the Art by an Adjutor or Primus, and, once they’ve reached a basic understanding of all of the fundamental aspects of magic to the satisfaction of their teacher, each Initiate is then raised to the status of Tertius, or Third. Each Tertius continues to learn from an Adjutor or Primus, but they’re given more autonomy and allowed some limited magic use outside of the Circle. Once you reach the next level, Adjutor, or Second, then each member has the opportunity to choose a specialization to begin to study.”

“The disciplines themselves vary wildly. I’m studying Artifice, like I said, but there are around sixty Adjutors in the Circle right now. There are four or five other aspiring Artificers besides me, while some of the others are studying Elementalism, which is literally the study of elemental magic. Still others are focusing on life magic, which has to do with magical healing, accelerating biological growth, and establishing affinities with animals. One Adjutor I know chose to study Chronomancy; Time magic, basically, though that’s an extremely difficult discipline to learn. There are a lot of others, too, but we can talk about them all later, or you can just look them up in the Liber Speculum if you want. There are only three forbidden disciplines in the Circle; Necromancy, which allows one to control, animate, and steal power from the dead, Demonology, I think you can pretty much guess at what that is, and blood magic, the practice of using human life energy, usually through blood, to fuel your spells. Beyond those three, pretty much anything goes,” Lucas continued to inform Evan, enjoying not only the opportunity to share this with him, but also the chance to be the teacher instead of the student for the first time.

It was at this point that Lucas noticed that Evan was looking a little tired, and, given what he’d gone through today and the night before, he decided that it was probably best if they stopped here for the moment. He certainly didn’t want to give Evan an information overload right out of the gate; Though he may have already done that, given how eagerly he was answering the other man’s questions.

“I could talk about this all day if you let me, but you look beat, E. Maybe you should try to get some sleep? I need to go talk to the Council about what happened to you today anyway, make sure it will never happen again,” Lucas pointed out, rising from his seat and grabbing his Coke can, draining the last of the soda in a few quick gulps.

OOC: Awesome! Lucas’ wards will protect Evan in the apartment, so it will happen whenever Evan next leaves the apartment. He’ll have to fall asleep at some point, maybe in class or at the library, and that’s when the baddie will make its move. And I know, Lucas is having an absolute blast at this point, especially because he’s never been able to share this part of himself with someone else he actually likes.

Eyeing Evan as the other man prepared to leave, Lucas took a moment to be impressed by his roommate’s bravery. A lot of people wouldn’t have been willing to leave the apartment after the pseudo-zombie attack he’d suffered through less than an hour ago. He wasn’t complaining, of course; It was much for the better than Evan was capable of moving past that scare this quickly, it boded well for a possible future in the Circle. Possessed people weren’t likely to be the only or even scariest thing he saw, if he chose to continue exploring this new world.

“Just tell her that you followed your roommate to a cult meeting last night and then today got attacked by your entire biochem class. I’m sure she’ll forgive you,” Lucas suggested brightly and with an innocent smile, unable to help himself from making the crack.

He smiled again and nodded when Evan asked if he would see Lucas when he got back. “Sure, though I may be a little while. I’m hoping they’ll have some answers already on what happened today, but the Council makes the rest of the Circle look positively open and transparent by comparison. I’ll get back as soon as I can, and I’ll text you if I’m going to be really late,” he said, grimacing a bit at the thought of having a long, drawn-out conversation with his superiors. They would probably take this opportunity to bring up his screw-up from last night, too; Letting Evan follow him to Whiteridge Hall wasn’t something that was going to be just forgiven and forgotten.

”Oh, and Evan? I don’t think anything else is going to happen to you today, but, on the off chance that I’m wrong, go to Mrs. Thorne for help. She’s the red-headed librarian who’s always reading old literary classics, I’m sure you’ve seen her. She’s one of ours. Again, just in case,” Lucas advised, figuring that forewarned was definitely forearmed, in this case.

Internally, Lucas was more concerned about a repeat of the earlier fiasco than he wanted Evan to know. Part of the problem with dealing with creatures from Chaos was that they were, as their home plane would indicate, chaotic. With a few notable exceptions, most Chaos entities acted with erratic unpredictability, often to the point of seemingly no logic at all. Some creatures plotted and planned for years, only to throw their plan out the window when it actually came to it. Other times they would attack twice in the same day, even if that meant that the victim was on guard after the first attempt. You just couldn’t tell, with those creatures. Hence, safety; Whatever the reason it had chosen to come after Evan in the lecture hall today. Lucas was unwilling to assume that Evan was safe for the time being. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t. But, as much as he would have loved to convince Evan to stay in the apartment, he didn’t want the man to start feeling like he was a victim of something. And the library was fairly safe, right? Chances were there would be other Circle members besides just Mrs. Thorne in there, as well. Yeah, it would be fine.

Totally fine.

OOC: Gotcha, but there’s no need to forget the stone; Wards have limitations. They’re designed to block hostile magic, not all magic; And the Awakening isn’t inherently hostile, so the wards won’t activate to stop it on their own. The thing that’s after Evan is tricksy that way.

A test of its reach proved successful; It had the slack necessary to communicate rather more effectively than it had in the lecture hall earlier. Interesting, how, despite their overall resilience, the human mind could be so very fragile, and that was where its mistake had been; Their brains had been unable to withstand the presence of such a being as the one that had tried to use them. Direct control, and communication, was impossible, given its current situation. Therefore, it had to attempt another tactic entirely, and execute its back-up plan; Indirect communication.

Rather than speak to Evan through others, and rather than risk the man’s brain by influencing him directly, it could connect them via the human’s dreams. A simple matter, if it was free and at its full power, but complex in this instance due to the complications forced upon it. It would not have much time, if it had to resort to taking matters into its own hands. Or at least what passed for hands, in the realms of Chaos. Some people would call them claws.

The dream coalesced around them, bringing Evan’s subconscious into focus as he fell into a deeper sleep. It was shaping up to be some kind of dream about the man’s childhood home, if it had to guess, but that was not a place that would put the human at ease. It needed Evan to feel relatively safe. So, with that in mind, it shifted the narrative, influencing the dream into a more soothing shape; That of the human’s apartment. Plants, cats, and interfering sorcerer roommate and all. The dream sharpened, clarity blooming like a rose in the mortal’s mind. No longer a dream, but merely a simulacrum of reality. The usual haziness of the dreamscape would not apply here for Evan.

“I think I might owe you an apology, Evan. I hope you’re not too mad at me.”

The words had come from someone who was sitting on the couch in this version of the apartment, opposite the room to Evan, who had entered the dream near to the front door. It was a boy, maybe ten or eleven, with dark hair, bright blue eyes, and a curious air about him, head cocked slightly as he looked at the man, as if evaluating him. A child he may have resembled, but there was something off about him, an ageless, infinite quality, a cold light in his eyes that hinted at a lifespan far in excess of his current appearance.

“I really didn’t mean to scare you, you know. I tried to talk to you through them, but it didn’t go very well. I’m sorry about that. But we do still need to talk. I need you to do something for me, and you’re the only one who can.”

The apartment wasn’t quite right in this dream; Things were changing all around them. One moment, Evan’s plants looked green, healthy, and normal, and the next, they had turned to stone. A minute after that, they were green plants again, but were also dripping with quicksilver. Colors faded into entirely different colors, affecting the carpet, the walls, the ceiling, the furniture, the pictures. Everything except for Evan himself and the boy on the couch slowly but surely changed, seemingly at random, their very nature seeming malleable. The cats and Lucas were no exception; One moment they were there and normal, and the next, they were either gone, or had changed places, or looked entirely different. It was...

Chaotic.

“You have to accept the offer, Evan. You need to be able to use the Gift if you’re going to free me. You can’t do it if you’re mundane, and no other sorcerer can take your place, it has to be you. Say you’ll do it? Say you’ll help? I’ll be so grateful, you know. There’s so much I can do for you, when I’m free and grateful. So many things I can change for the better. That’s what I’m good at.”

It didn’t have much time left before it would be too weak to force the choice. Evan had to agree, here and now, or it would have to take action.

But it wasn’t just the boy’s words that were trying to convince Evan; It was a feeling, worming its way into his subconscious. It took hold of that piece of the man that was beginning to actually want to learn magic, and it nurtured it, made it bloom and grow, temptation clawing its way up out of the dark recesses of the human’s mind. The curiosity he felt was at the heart of it, the creature fanning that candle into a burning flame. The slow approach first, and, if he resisted (a distinct possibility given how little of its own power it could actually utilize right now), then it would have to go for the hard sell. One chance to make the decision himself; And then it would make the choice for him.

OOC: Evan can succumb to temptation if you like, or he can refuse, and it will just Awaken him by force.

The hard sell it was, then.

The boy’s eyes narrowed, not with anger, per say, but rather a distinct irritation, as if Evan was a nuisance to him. The slow but constant transformation of the apartment sped up almost instantly, until the world became a kaleidoscope of changing colors, shapes, and materials. Evan’s plants began to sprout tentacles and eyes, the walls melted down into glowing magma, the furniture grew legs and arms, the dream-version of Lucas seemed to wilt in on himself, transforming into some kind of small green creature, the cats grew as large as houses. Raw, elemental chaos at its finest, shaped to shapeless perfection by the will of a Greater Demon.

“You’ll change your mind, mortal. You always do, such fickle beings that you are. You already know the spell that will free me, you’ve known it all your life. Now, all you need is the power to cast it. And remember, Evan; It’s considered quite ungrateful to refuse a Gift.”

The Lord of Change reached out from its prison, summoning every scrap of power it could muster, and sent that power flooding through the mortal. Energy seared through Evan’s veins, blazing open pathways that had hitherto been closed. Awakening was, as its most basic, a magical jumpstart. The Circle would have used precautions, enchantments to make it easier, safer, more comfortable, but there was no time for that here. Subtlety was its usual calling card, the careful manipulation of events from the shadows, but it had little choice now. Brute force had become necessary.

The mortal would never be the same again. The ebb and flow of the world’s magic would be open to him now, and he would feel it wherever he went. All the power of the world at his fingertips, and he had tried to refuse it, arrogant child that he was, thinking he truly had a choice. In the dream, Evan caught fire suddenly and without warning, but the flames didn’t hurt him; Instead they burned everything around him. The energy built, and built, and built, until finally he just had to let it out by any means necessary, the expulsion of magic shredding everything around him into base particles-

“Okay then, you stubborn boy, I suppose I’m going to have to do this the old fashioned way.”

And, without further ado, the dream shattered into a million crystal shards, fading out one by one. There was a shock of something cold and wet, followed by the acrid stench of smoke. When Evan finished waking and opened his eyes, he would have been greeted by the face of Mrs. Thorne, the librarian’s bright green eyes glaring disapprovingly down at him. She was holding a bucket that was still dripping with the water she must have just splashed Evan with, if his soaked face and upper body were any indication.

“Well now look what you’ve done. It’s going to take the entire Circle to clean this up!” she snapped, gesturing around...

The library was a smoking ruin, the entire building having collapsed into rubble. The books were either ashes or illegible trash, half-burnt pages scattered all over what had once been the lower floor. Smoke was still rising from a number of sources, though it seemed as if the fire had been stopped in its tracks at a certain distance, because across the now-ruined library was a small section that was totally untouched. Everywhere was another sign of the destruction; The matchstick-like burned wood pieces that were the remains of the furniture, the collapsed bookshelves, half-destroyed themselves, the holes in the floor where the flames had eaten away at the floorboards. The devastation was clear, though there wasn’t a single body that Evan would have been able to see.

“You’re very fortunate that I managed to teleport everyone else out of here before you went supernova, Mr. Hoffman. Everything else can be restored, but if someone had died... Ah, no matter. No one perished, thankfully, though I’d like to have a word with whoever Awakened you and sent you out I nto the world without knowing how to control your own powers. If it was Mr. McAllister, I swear, I’m going to shove my stilettos so far up his ass...” Thorne muttered to herself, extending a hand down to Evan and giving him an imperious look.

“Well? Are you just going to lie there all day, or are you going to get up and observe the damage you caused?”

Mrs. Thorne made a distinct “tsk-tsk” sound, rolling her eyes at the young man’s panic. Standard initiates, still thinking in the same old terms of the reality they were accustomed to. They always panicked when they blew up a building or shredded a few innocent bystanders by accident. If she had to endure one more guilt-ridden novice, crying their silly millennial tears, she would probably have to shred a few innocents herself.

“Calm yourself, Mr. Hoffman, it’s hardly the end of the world. Come with me. Unless of course you’d prefer to stand around feeling sorry for yourself,” Thorne ordered dismissively, turning on her heel and striding toward what had once been the main entrance to the library. She didn’t even bother to check if Evan was following, but he didn’t have much choice at this point; Every other way out was blocked by charred rubble.

The Circle had already gathered by the time they made it out.

Figures in every-day clothes stood in a perfect circle around the library, each one spaced a few meters apart. The circle stretched around the corner on either side, beyond Evan’s line of sight, each sorcerer eyeing the building with varying degrees of amusement, annoyance, or just plain old interest. Kevin was there, off to Evan’s right, as was Kassandra, the green-haired girl from the night before. Just beyond her was an identical green-haired girl as well; Twins, most likely.

“It took a good twenty minutes to revive you, Mr. Hoffman. Plenty of time to raise a perception veil to keep the mundanes from panicking. I must take my place in the alignment; I believe Mr. McAllister’s place is just beyond the right corner of the building. I would go to him, and try not to distract any of the others. We wouldn’t want a room to be inverted when we’re done, now would we?” Thorne suggested, gesturing sharply to Evan’s right. And, without a further word, she stalked over to a gap in the circle, spinning around to face the building once she’d reached it.

As one, the Circle members raised their arms, some of them closing their eyes, others silently mouthing words of some kind, and some both; And the magic began to flow. Evan could feel it now, shifting and moving all around him, like a the heat of the sun, only localised... It would take only a moment for Evan to realize what that magic was doing; Because the building was now repairing itself.

Dust, rubble, and charred wood rose into the air in graceful arcs, burned materials seeming to recover right before their eyes as they flew back into their original places. Walls rebuilt themselves rapidly and neatly, the char of the wood and stone fading away like someone was wiping them with a particularly absorbent cloth. Pillars rose back up in record time, stone, both in chunks and dust, flowing together to reform the structure. Shattered glass rose up into the air, reformed itself into panes, and then zipped through the air back into their window frames once their part of the wall had been restored. Even the books were recovering. Torn and burned pages gathered together by book, the blackened paper smoothing out and restoring itself to a crisp white, rebinding themselves and flying back into their original places in the swiftly reconstituted shelves. The library rebuilt itself from the ground up, all damage soon to be reversed, all evidence of the firestorm soon to be erased.

Lucas himself was, as Thorne had indicated, just beyond the corner, so Evan would spot him quickly when he came around. The red-head didn’t see his roommate at first, however; His eyes were closed, his focus entirely on the working before him. No one sorcerer could manage a feat of magic like this, save perhaps the truly legendary mages of the First Conclave, but, working together, the Circle was able to do what no one member could have. When Evan approached Lucas, however, the younger man opened his eyes and focused in on Evan.

“Hey, E. Give me a second; This is complex as hell,” he grunted, arms splaying out as he wrangled with a particularly stubborn piece of warped copper piping that just did not want to reshape itself. Moments later, however, the work was complete; The library reconsituted in its entirety. Indeed, the only evidence that anything had happened at wall was the total lack of plantlife in the small garden surrounding the building, which had before been blooming with various flowers and ferns.

“Excellent work, everyone. Those skilled in botanical magic, report to your assigned Primus for assignments on regrowing the foliage,” a voice emanated from everywhere and nowhere at once, sounding cautiously pleased.

Lucas dropped his arms, gave himself the briefest of moments to take a deep breath, and then turned to Evan, closing the distance between them with a concerned frown, checking him over thoroughly.

“God, I’m so sorry, Evan. I never imagined something like this could happen, thank all fuck that you had my wardstone, or you could have... Do you have any idea how the building was destroyed? What happened in there?” Lucas asked quickly, placing both of his hands on Evan’s shoulders, more to assure himself that the other man was alright than anything else. He clearly had no idea that it was Even himself who had destroyed the structure; Mrs. Thorne hadn’t exactly had an opportunity to announce it everyone yet, if she was going to at all.

OOC: A proper Awakening is meant to be safe, controlled, and fairly painless. Being jumpstarted by a demon, on the other hand, is a bit like charging a car battery with a nuclear reactor. Thus; BOOM!

Oh. Oh, God. He’d been right, then, about what had caused that possession fiasco in the lecture hall earlier that day; But being proved right was a freezing cold comfort, just then. If Evan had caused what had happened in there, then he was Awakened. Magic hummed within him just like it did in Evan, and there was no going back from that. Lucas grip on Evan tightened when he asked if the red-head could make him forget now, like he’d offered before, and Luke’s expression altered into something that could only be described as a distinct misery.

“Evan... I’m so, so sorry, but... No. I mean, yes, I could wipe your mind, but... You’re Awakened now, the pathways inside of you are fully open. Magic will come when you call, whether or not you can control it, and if I make you forget, then you’ll never learn how to use it properly. We can’t reverse it now that it’s done, which is why I wanted to make absolutely certain that you were ready before you decided whether or not to go through with it. People who have the Gift but don’t know how to use it... Well, if you choose to ignore it, to forget and walk away, then chances are what happened to the library could happen again; You’ll lose control. And there might not be a sorcerer around next time to save everyone, if you do,” he explained, his tone a little shaky. Brutal honesty was the only choice he had, at that moment, because it was a brutal truth.

Why was this happening to Evan? What had he ever done to attract the attention of a demon powerful enough to forcefully Awaken him from afar? Because if that demon had been on Hudson’s campus, the Circle’s wards would have detected it instantly.

Lucas squeezed Evan’s shoulders again, ignoring any of the other Circle members who might have been staring on at the two men. He was feeling absolutely terrible about all of this. If only he’d been less of a stupid, lazy idiot and put up a simple perception spell on himself the night before. All of this could have been avoided “This wasn’t your fault, E, and we can make sure it doesn’t happen again. I know this is way too much to deal with right now, but I’ll be with you every step of the way, I swear. We can figure this-“ he went on, only to be interrupted by the approach of several people who were clearly not going to just watch.

“Mr. Hoffman. We should probably talk,” the woman in front stated, her voice calm and slightly musical in its inflections.

Lucas’ eyes widened, and he immediately inclined his head. He also removed his hands from Evan’s shoulders, though he didn’t step back from the other man; Indeed, as luck would have it he was standing slightly between his roommate and the Supremus, and he didn’t mind that at all. It wasn’t as if he could have done much to stop her whatever she wanted to do, of course, but it still made him feel a little better to be able to feel at all like he was protecting Evan..

“Supremus,” Luke muttered, more to tell Evan who this was than as a gesture of respect. He had absolutely no idea what was going to happen next.

“I don’t often apologize to anyone for anything. I’m too old for that. But, in this instance, I feel I must at least say that I am sorry for how events have transpired, Mr. Hoffman. It was always my intention for the choice whether or not to join us to be yours, and yours alone. But fate has taken that choice from you, it would seem. What’s done is done, however, and I have no time to coddle you, I’m afraid. The next logical step, of course, is to determine exactly why a Lord of Change has taken such an interest in you,” Dianna Crawley said to the young man, her iron-gray eyes gleaming, though her emotions were totally masked.

Lucas inhaled sharply when Dianna mentioned a “Lord of Change”. Oh. Oh. That was really, really, REALLY bad. He was going to have to double his wards. Triple them, even. He’d assumed it had been a regular Demon that was after Evan, not a fucking Greater Demon. Lords of Change were nasty to the power of quadrillion, and then some; And they were damn good at magic, too. This was so not how he’d imagined this year going; Just twenty-four hours ago his biggest concern had been how long it would take him to make Primus, for God’s sake!

The Supremus gave Evan a thin little smile, the kind that she generally reserved for particularly annoying problems. This was no exception. Sorcerers like Dianna Crawley didn’t live as long as they had by involving twitchy, emotional mundanes like Hoffman in sweeping magical affairs, especially when those affairs involved the minions of Chaos. Lucas was the only one who could the newly-minted sorcerer in line. Or so she hoped, at least. Naturally skilled in magic though Lucas was, he wasn’t exactly the most qualified to help Evan through this little crisis of his... But she didn’t have much of a choice. Trying to assign another Circle member to teach Evan at this point would not have gone over well, of that much she was certain.

“What does it mean? It means that you are going to go home, get some rest, and then begin learning the basics of the Art, just like every other initiate in the Circle’s history. There is a Lord of Change that is doing its best to convince us that you are special somehow. I intend to prove it wrong; You are no better or worse than any other who has ever been inducted into this institution. Let older and wiser heads deal with the demon. You now have the full might of the Silent Circle behind you, Evan Hoffman, an advantage most would kill to have; And I was binding Greater Demons before your grandmother was born,” the Supremus told him, a core of steel in her tone, her mouth twisting into a darkly amused little smirk.

Then Dianna Crawley turned her head to look at Lucas, who stiffened noticeably. For several long moments they were both silent, and then the red-head nodded sharply.

“As you will, Supremus. I will indeed double my wards and then begin instructing Evan in the basic principles of the Art. Also I will not push him too far, and I will not put him in any more danger by allowing him to go anywhere without me,” he said, sounding oddly stiff and formal, a veiled “fuck you” to his own superior. Repeating it all aloud had been for Evan’s benefit, he didn’t want to keep more any more secrets from his friend than he already had.

Dianna’s eyes narrowed at him. There was a reason she hadn’t said any of that out loud, but Lucas seemed determined to stay in Evan’s good graces, however much of those were left.

“Very well. You may go,” the Supremus allowed, giving Lucas a look of warning that few there could have missed. Then she turned around to speak with the people who had followed her over to Evan, saying something about lowering the perception veil in the next hour or so.

“E, let’s get out of here before anyone else tries to give you a lecture over something that wasn’t even your fault,” Lucas muttered to his roommate, irritated at the entire Circle just then. He understood that Evan would just have to suck it all up, to a point, but basic human empathy was still a thing last he checked, and the Supremus was acting more like Evan was an annoying sideshow than an actual person.

Luke suspected that Evan was not going to be pleased at the prospect of not being able to leave the apartment without him. Lucas couldn’t say he was entirely thrilled about it himself; It meant that he would have to attend all of Evan’s classes with him. Ugh. Even the thought of all that science stuff was threatening a headache... But, if it kept Evan safe, so be it. There was no way Lucas was going to let anything happen to the other man, not when it was his fault in the first place that Evan was in this mess. Unless of course the Lord of Change had been fixated on Evan since before last night... But there was no evidence of that. No, it was Lucas’ carelessness that had caused this. He wasn’t going to let that carelessness bring any more harm to his roommate.

OOC: So I’m thinking fairly soon, maybe after two or three more posts or so, we can do a bit of a timeskip forward a week or two, to give Evan some time to sort through this all and so he can start learning the basics. Thoughts? ^.^

Actually managing a smile at Evan quietly asking him if he was okay, Lucas slowed down a bit, allowing the other man to catch up to him, so they were walking side-by-side. Evan really was too good for all of this. Even in the midst of his whole world imploding in a distinctly unpleasant manner, he was still worrying, at least a little bit, about Lucas. In a world of ambitious, arrogant, self-aggrandizing sorcerers, Evan was a breath of fresh air. Oh, sure, not all the Circle members were like that, there were several that Lucas actually liked, but for the most part it was all about personal ambition. He somehow doubted that Evan would have that problem, no matter how far down the path he went.

“You don’t have to worry about me, E, I’m good,” he assured the other man as they walked, automatically falling back into the old role he’d played when he was growing up back in Detroit; Everything was fine, even when it wasn’t. Don’t complain, don’t rock the boat, and don’t make things harder than you have to.

“You’re right, it’s not ideal, but when is it ever? You gotta roll with the punches. Besides, I don’t mind spending more time with you. I like you,” he replied, easily and honestly. “Your fucking science classes, on the other hand,” he added ruefully, “are basically my personal version of Hell. The closest thing the Circle has are Alchemy and Sacred Geometry, and I pretty much suck at both of those. I’ll live, though, don’t sweat it.” He was not looking forward to having to listen to mundane professors drone on about D.N.A., or cells, or whatever it was that they droned on about in biochem-related classes.

Alchemy was the closest thing to mundane science that Lucas liked to get, and even that was a struggle for him. Transmuting those metal paper weights into gold for his family had taken him months to master, and it was a theoretically simple procedure. The red-head excelled with magic that called for imagination, focus, raw power, and creativity. Magic that was based on logic, math, and geometric principles, on the other hand? Bleh.

When they reached the front door to the apartment building, however, Lucas stopped them about a meter away from the door and turned to Evan, though not before glancing around to see if anyone was in the immediate vicinity; Just a few pedestrians, and no one was paying attention to two young men standing on the short stairway up to an apartment building. He didn’t say anything at first, instead stretching his arm out toward the door and making a short ”come here” gesture. As a direct result, the door clicked, and then slowly swung open. With another gesture, this time a gentle pushing motion, he caused it to shut once more.

“One of the first tricks any sorcerer learns is basic kinetic manipulation; Using magic to push, pull, or otherwise move an object. All it takes is an effort of will and an intent. I want you to try it,” Lucas said, knowing full well that Evan would probably be reluctant after what had happened in the library. If he was going to start learning magic, however, he needed to grow comfortable with using it; And the sooner Lucas started him out, the sooner that would happen.

“All you really have to do is focus on the door, and want it to open. The gesturing helps focus the energy, though it’s not technically required. There’s no grand trick to accessing the magic inside of you; Your intent is all that really matters. Will the door to open, and it will. Can you give it a shot for me?” he asked, his dark eyes gleaming in the golden afternoon sunlight, the same light that almost made his hair look like real fire. Every journey began with a single step.

OOC: I’m making most of it up as I go along, drawing from a lot of different sources (Magicians, Harry Potter, DnD, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, The Order, among others), but sure, I’ll come up with some more basics for Evan to learn!