A Second Generation Whateley Academy Story

Born in Fire

by

Astrodragon

Part Two

Thulia's workroom, then her home, after leaving Rob.

Thulia had managed to hold herself together while Bruce delivered Rob back to the cult, immersing herself in the work needed to dismantle the portal they'd been using to distract herself from the screaming fit she'd rather be indulging in. Fortunately, the disconnection was a fairly straightforward task; several times she'd had to pause and get the rage she was feeling against the cult back under control. Bruce had kept quiet, giving her worried looks when he thought she wasn't watching, for which she was thankful. She didn't want to talk about things right now, she just hoped he hadn't seen her hands shaking at times.

Once the work was all done, and the only remains of her link with the cult's base a quiescent circle of dull red runes on the floor, she shut down her workbench with some rather too-emphatic gestures and turned to Bruce. "I'm going home to rest."

He nodded, picking up his beer cooler as he followed her, as she gestured at the portal leading to her home, causing the circle to flare into being, before following her through it. She carefully ignored the folded robe that Rob had left behind when she scanned him.

Once home, she didn't have to pretend anymore. Walking quickly over to her bedroom, ignoring Bruce's attempt to say something, then slammed the door behind her. Bruce winced - it was a good job that door was solid, he'd half expected it to shatter - and settled down in a chair near to the door with a deep sigh.

Alone at last, she cursed the Cult and everyone who knew them, in a diatribe that would have impressed Bruce if he'd been there. Not just verbally, the thought of what they'd done, and were going to do, to Rob made her punch the wall more than once, hard enough that the polished rock was cracked, and her hands were throbbing with pain. She didn't care, it helped to relieve the stress of the last few weeks, and felt a lot better than just trying to pretend everything was alright. The screaming helped too. Finally, she threw herself on the bed and allowed herself to cry properly, deep wracking sobs that just kept coming until she was curled up into a ball of pain and pity.

She didn't know when she'd finally fallen into an exhausted sleep, waking bleary-eyed to find the glow of morning brightening the window. With all her time in her workroom, she'd lost touch with the cycles of her home. She didn't feel much better, the self-recrimination a sharp and jagged edge to her thoughts, but at least now she was a bit more under control. And she knew what she had to do. Pushing herself to the edge of the bed, she managed to stand up and walk over to the door. Seeing herself in the mirror as she did so didn't exactly show her at her best - her eyes were still red and sore-looking, and the dark rings around them made her look even worse, not to mention the tangled mess her mane of hair was in.

She found Bruce outside, asleep in a chair. She gently shook his shoulder. "Bruce?"

The Imp jerked awake, looking up at her with concern written all over his ugly face. "How are you?"

She shrugged. "Not good, But coping. Have you been sitting there all night?"

He nodded. "Seemed like you might need me, so..."

"Thanks. Anyway, it's a new day and we have things to do." She tugged the top of her robe and sniffed. Yuck."First, I'm going to take a shower. Second, food. After that, we have plans to make."

The shower felt good, the steam caressing her and helping to wipe away some of the dark thoughts, and getting clean made her feel a bit better in herself. She didn't bother to dress, just shrugging on a soft wrap to go and eat in. Bruce had prepared food while she showered, and for that she was grateful. She'd never have managed without him, especially over the last few weeks. Neither of them spoke until they'd consumed the food, then Bruce sat back and looked at her.

"OK, you said something about plans?"

She toyed with her wine glass as she got her thoughts in order. "Last night... no, last night was bad, but it's past." She managed to resist the temptation to cry again at the memory, as she continued "But it made me realise what needs to be done - what I need to do."

Bruce didn't comment, but his look obviously wanted her to continue.

"We're going to rescue Rob from the Cult. It's all my fault, the whole thing, and I'm going to make it right. I owe him that much. My responsibility is to fix things, and I'll do whatever I have to do to make that happen."

Bruce stayed silent, looking at her face. From the emotions she wasn't making much attempt to hide from him, he could clearly read between the lines, and while some of her determination was due to the feeling she needed to correct her bad judgement, he was pretty certain there was a lot of concern for Rob on a much more personal level. It hadn't exactly been hard for him to spot it before. He knew Thulia much too well for that, although he hadn't been certain it would last. It looked like the opposite, the time Thulia and Rob had spent together with the Cult looming over them seemed to have brought them together in a way he hadn't expected before the experiment began. He wasn't sure how this would go, or what would happen next, but he was certain that her family wouldn't approve - well, maybe Tanau, but the rest of them were a very conservative bunch. Still, even putting that aside, he couldn't argue with her on the need to do something, with his greater experience the Cult had disgusted him even more than it had her. Besides, given the feelings Thulia had been expressing, she would need someone to at least temper her ideas into something a bit more practical and less risky. She had a rather cavalier way of treating risk at the best of times, and right now she was even less likely to make sensible decisions.

"OK, just tell me what I can do to help."

Thulia's Home, the next day

Thulia shoved her pad across the table and scowled at it "We're going to have to go back to Earth."

Bruce looked up from his notes. "That's not going to be easy, you know."

Thulia was still looking frustrated. "I know it won't!" she snapped. "But working around that contract is tricky, I think I have some angles that will work, but they require us - or me, at least - to be on Earth. I can't set it up from here. The worst is, it's going to cost money, and we haven't got much. I never really intended to make much profit on the deal, it was all about funding my experiment, so after all the costs there isn't enough left to pay for the sort of trip or support we're going to need."

Bruce took a look at the notes she'd made about what they'd have to pay for. "Hmm. You've only priced in a portal to Earth, not a summoning and such?"

Thulia shook her head. "Don't need a summoning, I don't have enough demon in me to make it necessary, and the human inheritance helps. The body I'm using is completely physical, so once I'm there, I'm fine." She quirked her lip. "The one thing I wasn't sure about when I designed it, was if my link to the Heart of Fire would still work, but thanks to Rob we know it will. So that's a big cost saving. And as a bonus it lets me do some things I wouldn't be able to do if I'd been summoned."

"That's nice, but we're still going to need money."

Thulia shook heer head and looked downcast. "I know." She gave the deep sigh of a teenager admitting she had to do something she really didn't want to. "I'm going to have to ask my parents if they'll lend me the sum I need."

Bruce snorted. "After they wouldn't fund your experiment? Now they'll lend you money to fix the problems it caused?"

She blushed. "Well, it's a lot less than the experiment cost, so... maybe?" She gave him a hopeful look even though she knew it likely wouldn't happen.

Bruce just gave her an extremely cynical look, even for him. She had a feeling he was right, but she had to try and explain why she needed the money.

Thulia looked across the room at her parents and winced inside. She could already tell from the way they were sitting that this was not going to be a good conversation, she could almost taste the conflict in the air, and the tension was a cold knot sitting in her stomach.

Half an hour later, her feelings were anything but disappointed. She'd started by trying to explain that she needed some more time on Earth, to finish up some things and to explore a bit more of her human heritage. In retrospect that had been a bad idea. In her enthusiasm of trying to get a longer stay arranged, she'd forgotten how her father felt about humans and her own heritage. Let alone the suggestion she should go and explore it on her own.

His angry reply started with her father lecturing her about how she was far too young and inexperienced to go and conduct such an experiment, let alone on Earth. Quite ignoring the fact she'd completed the experiment successfully - well, granted, it wasn't quite survivable, but the theory was quite sound. He'd then started in about how, in any case, she was far too young to have got involved in dealings with the Intermediaries. She tried not to let the snarl she was feeling by now show on her face - she knew that she had been old enough, but obviously that meant nothing to her father. He was mad at her, again.

Then her mother had started in, all emotional blackmail about how worried she'd been, and how she feared it would all harm her, and shouldn't she be concentrating on her proper studies. She'd only managed to sit through it all without screaming out loud by what she felt was a supreme act of self-control.

But that was nothing compared to what happened when she informed them that she had unfinished work and needed to go back to Earth to deal with it. Her father had exploded - well, not actually exploded, though she felt that might have been better - in rage, and for some minutes she just sat there, hunched down as he shouted at her before at last, she decided that enough was enough. She had work to do, she had Rob to save - although she wasn't stupid enough to mention that in front of her father, he was already practically frothing at the mouth - and abruptly stood up and yelled back.

"That's enough!"

She was actually surprised at the volume of her scream, loud enough it stopped her father's diatribe in it's tracks. She held onto her anger, using it to stop the trembling she felt herself wanting to give in to.

"I am NOT too young, my experiment was a SUCCESS, and I don't need to listen to you yelling nonsense at me! I still have responsibilities, and I'm going to be adult enough to deal with them myself. And I can do it without your help - not that you'd actually help me, you'd just yell at me again."

She stood there glaring her father down, and his face went an odd colour as he stared back at her.

"How DARE you speak to me like that!"

Trying to keep herself under control, something she was barely managing, she finally let her feelings at her father's controlling attitude show. "I'm sick of your constant need to control me like I was a child! I'm old enough to take care of myself now, and I don't need you!

She swung around and stormed out, leaving her father gaping at her back and her mother looking like she had no idea what to say. It didn't matter, she would deal with her family issues after she'd rescued Rob. She felt like she wanted to be sick, but she couldn't do that here.

Thulia's Home

It had taken her half a day to calm down after the family meeting, and she was still occasionally growling and considering throwing things, as she sat down with Bruce to work out how to carry on her rescue.

"He wouldn't help! He wouldn't even THINK about helping me." She felt physically sick again, but managed to push it back down.

Bruce managed to keep his face straight. "So, you finally told him what he could do with his orders?"

"Yeah, I... hang on, finally?!"

Bruce nodded, serious for once. "It was only a matter of time, your father was never going to change being a control freak, so I've been expecting this."

"Oh." She sat and thought for a bit. She'd always sort of accepted her fathers' attitude - after all, he was her father - but reflecting on Bruce's words, she had been getting more and more resentful. This had just been the final explosion.

"So, how are we going to get the money we need?"

Thulia was fiddling with her pad as she connected it to the site she'd been considering.

"Well, I can see two options right now. Grandmother did tell me about a few, but - well, I don't want to use them unless I have no other choice."

Bruce wisely kept his mouth shut - given what Tanau was, he could guess what she'd suggested, and why Thulia would very much prefer not to use them. Especially with the way she seemed to be feeling about Rob right now.

"So, what's the other option?"

Thulia grinned in triumph as she finally reached the site she needed, turning the pad so Bruce could see it.

"Remember when we got all that contract stuff and documentation from the Broker? Well, one of the things he included was extra stuff concerning the services and so on that, they offer. Maybe he was hoping we'd pay for extra services. This site buys and sells stuff, and some of the clients are on Earth and pay in a currency we can use! So all we have to do is find a buyer who wants something we can provide, and needs it now, so they'll pay straight away."

Bruce examined the pad, still looking doubtful."What if they want stuff we don't have?"

Thulia grabbed the pad back and started to explore options. "Then we get it, of course!"

Bruce nodded slowly. "Oh, of course. Right."

Thulia frowned. "It's not as big a list as I'd like."

"What do they want to buy?"

She ran her finger down the list. "There's actually quite a lot we could sell, given time, but either it would take too long to get it, or they don't want it urgently. We need something we can get quickly, and that they are bidding for right now." She looked at Bruce. "And you were right about the sexual services. Perverts! That doesn't leave so many options. But..." She pushed her pad over. "These, I can get!"

Bruce blinked. "But we don't have any..."

She interrupted him. "No problem, I'll go hunting in the morning, and we'll have them for sale the next day."

Bruce shook his head in worry. He knew what she was planning on hunting, and the problems involved, and it wasn't going to be nearly as easy as Thulia was assuming. Worst, the limits on hunting meant he couldn't help her.

"Are you sure there isn't something else we can sell? Something safer to get hold of?"

"This is the only decent option. So we'll go for it."

Bruce's deep sigh showed how he felt about her decision, but her mind was made up, and it was her decision after all.

Thulia's Home, Plane of Fire, sometime after leaving the Cult's Lair

Bruce looked on with more than a little worry as Thulia finished checking out her bow. Unlike her usual robe, she was wearing what the imp privately called her 'battle bikini', basically a pretty minimal metal outfit. She argued that it was much simpler to get the blood off afterward, as well as a lot easier to move around in, but Bruce had suspicions she just liked the way it made her look. To be fair, it did provide decent armour, at least over the relatively small parts of her it covered.

"So, you're going out to get some Jednorog horns?"

Thulia nodded, as she finally finished with her bow. "Yes. They pay a good price for them on Earth, and I can use the money to set up my plans without my parents knowing."

Bruce frowned. "I hope you'll be OK, those things are dangerous, and the hunting rules don't allow you to use magic or any proper weapons."

Thulia just grinned as she slid the bow over her shoulder. "Bow, arrows, knives. That's all I had when we started hunting them when I was 12."

"Yeah, but back then it was a group of you."

"Why Bruce, don't you have any confidence in my ability to off a few animals?"

Bruce muttered darkly about 'big, aggressive animals with bloody sharp horns, who aren't going to be distracted by your outfit', which she studiously ignored.

"And anyway, I have an advantage now."

She concentrated, pulling more power into herself, first her wings and tail manifesting, then the full armoured form she'd designed just in case she'd need it. Flexible armoured plates covered most of her neck and shoulders, running down the small of her back to protect her spine, and more grew over her belly and down the insides of her thighs. Not too many or too large to impede her movement, but giving a very helpful extra protection to her more vulnerable parts. The scales on her tail thickened, forming a hard, almost spiny, ridge that wouldn't do anything she hit it with any good at all. Finally her claws lengthened and grew more dangerous.

"See, Bruce? And best of all, as it's me, not a tool, it's legal under the hunting rules."

Bruce still looked terribly unconvinced about her preparations, but just sighed. He knew he wasn't going to win this particular fight.

Since her family wasn't prepared to let her have the amount of money she thought she was going to need to set things up for Rob's rescue, she had to get it for herself. The risk was acceptable.

Thulia eased herself a bit more over the top of the ridgeline to get a better look at the herd. She'd been carefully staying downwind, but Jednorog had good eyesight, so she didn't want to give them something too obvious to notice. Currently, they were steadily cropping the crimson grass that surrounded the small forest, only one of the herd occasionally raising its head to look around. There were a number of stallions around the periphery, and their horns were her main target - larger and more valuable than those of the females.

She carefully wriggled her bow out, as she worked out her plan of action. Despite what she'd told Bruce, she knew hunting them on her own was dangerous and usually considered stupid, almost suicidal, but their horns were the easiest way of getting the money she needed fast. Anything else would take too long - she was taking far too long already, and her experience with Abraxus made her fear what he would be doing to Rob to make him swear to serve him. The only other quick way of getting money would be one of her grandmother's suggestions, and she didn't want to go down that route. Unless this hunting trip failed, and in that case, she'd decided she'd do whatever it took to get Rob's freedom. After what she'd done to him, she owed it to her.

Thulia pulled her bow back, the last of her arrows vibrating slightly under nearly 1200kg of force before she held her breath for a moment and released it. It hit her target behind the shoulder, but her final Jednorog target was a big tough bull, and while it staggered under the impact as the arrow tore a bloody path through its body, it didn't fall. Thulia cursed quietly and drew her knife. She was going to have to get the final horn she wanted the hard way. Dropping her bow, she loped down the slope towards the animal.

The Jednorog's head swung around, eyes red and bloody foam on its mouth as it turned and headed straight for her. That was what she'd been anticipating, and as it closed she slid to one side, her knife carving a deep gash along its side as it thundered past her, allowing her to roll back to her feet. Just as well, as despite its new wound the animal turned with surprising speed for something so large, and this time approached her with more caution, head lowered as its horn pointed straight at her.

This time she held her foot-long knife against her forearm, hoping to surprise the animal as it headed for her. She had a momentary hope it was finished, as it stumbled once during its charge, but the beast recovered immediately. She tried to slide past it again, hoping for a slash at one of the neck arteries, but the thickly muscled neck foiled her, and instead, she slipped slightly, having only managed to wound it again. That slight slip was enough, as the horn stabbed out like lightning, impaling her shoulder before it withdrew, her blood running down its spiral pattern as she tried not to scream.

She couldn't waste any time worrying about her shoulder, as she slipped the knife into her other hand, gripping it so hard her knuckles were white as she tried to put aside the pain. Balancing on the balls of her feet as she tried to work out what the beast would do next. Predictably it attacked, and as it got close, she relaxed her leg muscles, her body slipping to one side as the horn lunged through where her stomach would have been. She knew she couldn't keep doing this - if nothing else, that shoulder wound would slow her - and so as she recovered from her dodge, she leant back into the beast, and rammed the knife up under its throat as hard as she could. Jegnorag were notoriously tough creatures, but a foot of razor-sharp blade forced up by muscles that could lift a car slid up through flesh and bone and into the animal's brain. It shuddered and collapsed, forcing her to dodge once more to avoid being pinned under it, as she stood there panting as it gave a final shudder and expired.

She almost collapsed in relief, but this wasn't the place to give in to that. Tiredly she wiped the blood off her blade, and then pressed a hand to her shoulder, shivering in reaction as she felt the torn flesh. The magic of the horn prevented a proper heal, but at least she could stop most of the bleeding. Then all that was left to do was cut off the horn and head back home.

Thulia almost collapsed against her door before mustering the power to open it. Everything hurt, and even the small amount of power needed to open the door felt like lifting a small mountain. Then she limped in, to be greeted by an angry and worried Bruce.

"What the hell, Thulia!" He gave her another, more worried, examination. "Just how much of that blood is yours?"

She let her weapons and the bloodstained bags she was carrying slide to the floor, as she looked down at him with an exhausted smile.

"Only some, it's mainly from the beasts. Anyway, I healed the worst of the damage before I headed back."

Bruce shook his head, as he slid an arm around her, which she gratefully sagged into, almost collapsing into her arm as the shock started to hit her. "OK, first we wash that blood and muck off, then I can see what the damage is." He glared at her again. "You know those horns are magical, the damage from them won't just heal with a spell, it takes time."

She nodded, allowing him to help her to her bath, as he started to undo and remove her now-battered armour. "I know. It's OK, only a couple of real wounds, and they'll heal pretty quickly. Anyway, I'm not planning on anything energetic in the next week."

Bruce gestured to the bath, as he kicked the bloody clothing and gear to one side. "Wash." Then he looked at her again. "No, just get in, I'll wash you. Then I'll get some bandages and we'll get you patched up properly. I hope it was worth it."

She nodded, gesturing to the smaller bag. "Six prime horns. That should give me all the funds I need to do what has to be done on Earth. Oh, and dinner." She looked at him with a tired smile, trying not to show the pain she was still in. "It had to be done, Rob needs our help. And we're running out of time."

Bruce turned his face away, pretending he was busy as an excuse not to let her see his expression. While it had been obvious to him back at the Cult's base that Thulia had been developing an attraction to Rob - and one which it seemed had only gotten stronger after Rob manifested as a girl - he was worried about the way Thulia seemed to be ignoring her own safety and concerns for someone she really hadn't known for that long. Granted, she was a teenager, but even so, she was being reckless. Maybe after he'd got her clean and fixed up he should talk with her Grandmother. Perhaps she could persuade Thulia to temper her plans with a bit more caution, though he wasn't holding out much hope of that.

The Broker's Office

"So, Thulia, you have more business with us?"

She nodded. "Yes, Broker, I would like to make use of your facility for selling items."

The man looked thoughtfully at her. "I see. Did you wish to sell, or put your items up for bid?"

"To sell, Broker. I've had a look at the items wanted on your site, and I have some that I would like to move quickly."

"You realise that you'd probably get more if you asked for bids?"

"I understand, but I want to do this and get the money." She lifted the box she'd brought with her. "I have six fresh jednorog horns, all from prime males. There is an offer out for the immediate purchase of these."

He paused for a moment to examine something on the pad on his desk. "Yes, quite correct. We will of course need to verify the items."

She nodded. "Of course."She stood and placed the box on his desk. "I would appreciate it if you could do that as soon as possible, and inform the buyer accordingly."

"As you wish, Thulia. As long as you are prepared to accept the fixed bid they posted, we can arrange the sale as soon as the buyer agrees to the purchase. We will of course deduct our normal fee when they pay. Do you want us to send you the funds?"

She shook her head. "Not immediately. I have some purchases to make through you, so perhaps a credit would be more useful?"

"That should be no problem. I will try and get back to you in a couple of days."

Thulia kept her appearance of calm as she left, even though inside she was a bundle of nerves. This should be straightforward, but she was depending on it so much.

Chicago, Earth

Deborah Hanson raised an eyebrow when she saw the caller ID on her phone. She had some buy orders out with that particular organisation, but she hadn't expected any quick contacts. Maybe for once, she was in luck.

"Hello, this is Deborah Hanson."

"Good morning, Ms. Hanson. I have some good news for you. We have just come into possession of some of the items you were looking for and wanted to confirm that you were still interested in immediate purchase."

"Which items exactly?"

"The horns, ma'am. We have a job lot of six, new and of prime stock. We have of course validated them, and they are available immediately. The buyer will accept your bid price, however, if you don't want them we will put them on the open market."

Deborah thought hard for a moment. "Please give me a moment." Her fingers danced across her keyboard as she checked that the customer who needed these items was still a valid purchaser, and smiled when she realised he was. This would make a considerable sum for the family, a cash injection which they could use right now.

"Yes, we are prepared to pay the amount we bid. I can arrange to complete the financial arrangements by tomorrow if that is satisfactory?"

"Perfectly, Ms. Hanson. I will have the items packed up ready to ship, we will send them on by the usual method once we receive the payment."

Deborah smiled as she flicked her phone off. She hadn't expected to be able to close this particular deal so quickly, the items were often hard to come by, and because of that, her buyer was offering a considerable sum. She wondered idly why he needed these particular things so urgently, but then that wasn't her problem. The Family had a long history of providing hard-to-get items and services, after all, and this was just one more deal.

Earth, the Rollright Stones, night

Thulia looked around as she passed through the portal to Earth. This was the first time she'd seen it - she'd decided that the tunnels of the Cult's base didn't count - and it was all a very new experience. The Broker had seemed surprised when she'd informed him she just wanted a portal to get to Earth, and then asked if he could provide any help in setting up here. The look he had given her rather suggested that the two requests weren't usually made together. Still, her credit balance was currently good, and he'd arranged for her to be met at the portal and to be helped to find the necessary things like accomodation. She'd paid for that service without complaint; the important thing was to get Rob safe as soon as possible, she didn't have time to wander around Earth like a tourist.

The portal had left her standing in the middle of a rough circle of crudely-shaped stones, each of which glimmered faintly to her magesight, and judging by how dark it was, at night. The pale light of a crescent moon shone across the grass, and despite herself she couldn't help looking at it. So pale, so delicate, the films didn't do it justice. The air felt cool and damp, a combination she wasn't familiar with.

"Welcome, Lady Thulia."

She stopped looking around at the sound of a voice - yes, it was all new, but she wouldn't act like a tourist, she'd promised herself that - to see a man standing waiting expectantly.

"Ah. You are here to meet me, I assume?"

He nodded, gesturing to Bruce and herself to follow him.

"Indeed, welcome to the Rollright Stones. These are one of the portal sites we commonly use here. My instructions were to take you to the house we have arranged for you, and to check everything is satisfactory."

She nodded, trying to act as if this was such a common event for her as not to merit any notice. Bruce gave her an amused glance but played along with heras the man led them to a vehicle.

"I'm afraid it's about an hour's drive, but while these stones are convenient for our magic, they aren't close to any of our suitable accommodation."

She looked at the car and tried not to sigh. She would much rather have flown herself, but as she didn't know where the house was, that would have been a problem. Still, she'd seen lots of these vehicles on their films and TV, it would be interesting to finally travel in one. At lease she could trust the man, the good thing about the brokers was their trustworthiness. The bad thing, of course, was their fees.

Outside London, a shabby but inconspicuous rental

"So just why are we hanging out in a seedy rental near London, rather than going back home where it's nice and warm?"

Thulia gave her scaly companion a long-suffering look, knowing he was just complaining for the form of it.

"Because I need to do something to get Rob free from those scum. And I can't do anything directly against them myself, or use magic, my contract forbids it. But if I don't use magic, there are some options that exploit a possible weakness, so we're here for me to use human tech. And have access to some of the resources I'll need."

Bruce gave her a look that clearly said 'you are SO full of it', and she wagged her finger at him.

"Yes, I know what the contract says. And the oaths are on my magic, so I can't use any magic to slide around it. But I've been evaluating the wording very carefully, and there are several possibilities. I've been looking at some of these superheroes they have here, and I think there are a few who'd make a convenient helper."

Bruce gave a derisive snort."Be honest, patsy."

Thulia looked a little defensive. "Hey, I'm only going to help them do the sort of thing they do all the time. Just a little setup to point them in the direction of the Cult base, there's nothing in the contract that says I can't help a little bit of innocent law enforcement. It's my civic duty!

Bruce remained unconvinced. "You aren't a citizen here, so that's a lousy argument."

She just shrugged. "It's good enough not to set off those clauses in that contract, so that's good enough for me."

Bruce had been watching her make notes for a while before he got curious. "I don't suppose you're going to let me in on what you're planning? Just in case I can, you know, help you?"

Thulia pushed her mane of hair back from her face with a distracted gesture as she gave her sidekick an apologetic look. "Sorry, Bruce, I got a bit carried away. But I do have a plan now, all we have to do is make it work."

Bruce walked over to look at her notes. "OK, so since I assume a direct assault is off the cards, how are we going to go about this?"

Thulia gazed off into the distance for a moment. "Oh, I'd love to assault them and turn their precious island into a smoking hole in the ground. Or a volcano. A volcano would be good..." Then she shook her head to clear it of the appealing vision of erupting magma immolating the Cult's base. "But sadly we can't, so a bit more subtlety is needed."

She pointed at some of her notes. "Now, as we can't do anything directly, I'm going to use one of the local superheroes to get into the base. I've got three likely candidates, but this one - Manx - is the most promising. She specialises a lot in stealth, so she seems to have the best chance of getting in and out. Once she's in, she can find and rescue Rob."

Bruce looked thoughtful. "OK, but there are some obvious questions. How do we persuade her to go there, and why would she look for Rob?"

"Well, I can't just tell her - that's too direct for my contract to accept. But the Cult gets supplies by one of these small boats a few times a week, so what I'm planning is for Manx to find out about them, and hear them talking about the boy they kidnapped. With any luck, she'll follow up on that, which gets her to the island, and she'll be on the lookout for a captive. OK, Rob isn't a boy anymore, but as long as he's done what I told him, he's probably in that cell again, so pretty obvious a captive that she'll try and free."

Bruce thought about that for some minutes. "That might work. But how are we going to arrange for their guys to conveniently tell her about Rob and what they are up to?"

Thulia smiled widely. "We can't, exactly. Making them do that would be too direct. So what I'm going to do is point her at where they will be, I'm sure there is some excuse or fake lead that will take her there, and then I'll use a spell so she hears what I want her to hear. It's stretching the rules a bit, but it isn't actually breaking any."

Bruce was getting worried again. Thulia was energetically setting up her operation, but there were still some gaping holes in her plan, and someone needed to worry about them, he wasn't convinced Thulia would.

"Thulia..." she turned to look at him, raising a questioning eyebrow."Look, let's assume Manx rescues Rob and the two of them get out of the base. Then what? It's an island, how are they going to get off it?"

"Oh..." Thulia stopped typing on her computer and stared off into the distance, lost in thought for a few moments. "I'd thought they could take one of those boats back?"

Bruce shook his head firmly. "Lots of problems with that. First, there might not be a boat there. Second, even if there is one, Manx might not be able to operate it. Third, it's quite possible that they find out about an escape before they can get to a boat, in which case they'd have to fight their way onto it - and even if that works, the Cult might just take the boat out in order to keep hold of Rob."

Thulia opened her mouth, then closed it again. She was looking stubborn about her original ideas, but Bruce's objections were good ones. He used the pause to carry on with his arguments.

"Look, what we need is some backup plans, to get them off the island and safe if the boat isn't available."

Thulia gazed off into the distance again. "That's sensible, Bruce. But we do have limits. We can't do anything directly until they get off the island. So what we need is some way to help if they can't get to a boat."

Bruce nodded. "Yeah, but that's the awkward bit, without being able to act directly."

"Yes, I know. I can't see any way around that, but there are a couple of things we can do. First, while we can't actually go over the island itself, we can keep it under observation from outside the boundary. That way at least we can see what's going on, and if there are problems then we'll know what they are." She turned back to her computer, typing rapidly. "Let me see... I remember them having all sorts of interesting stuff for sale or rent to us, I guess they wanted us to spend more money with them." She kept searching, then grinned in triumph. "Look, they do have surveillance birds available! We can rent one and the controls for it then set it to circle the island and keep an eye on it."

Bruce came over to look at the screen. "So what's available?"

"Well, for coastal work... they say they have seagulls." She turned to Bruce. "What's a seagull?"

A little while later Thulia had put in a request for a properly possessed seagull and its control gear, and the pair were considering the next part of the problem.

Bruce was looking thoughtfully at an aerial view of the island, courtesy of Google Maps. "Thulia, if you escaped from their base, and you weren't able to get to a boat, what would you do?"

The girl rubbed her chin. "Well, I certainly wouldn't just stay there! You know what the Cult is like, no-one in their right minds would stay to be captured again."

Bruce nodded. "Exactly. You'd try and get away, even if you had to swim, right? Not a good choice, but better than falling into the Cults' hands again."

"Yes, and the seagull would be able to see them doing that. So we need to set up for a rescue if they do try and swim for it. Once they are in the water, they are off the island, so we can do stuff."

"One little snag there. How do we get them out if they're in the water?"

Thulia considered that. "Hey, once they are off that island, there's nothing to stop me from opening a portal near them and just collecting them, right?"

Bruce sighed. "Thulia, they will be in the sea - you know, that big mass of cold water they have surrounding the island?"

"Oh... well, why can't I fly over them and pick them up?"

"And if you miss? We don't know what condition they are in, and what if it's dark? Humans can't see as well in the dark as we can. And I should point out, if anything goes wrong and you end up in the water, you can't swim!"

Thulia frowned as she thought more. "Ok, then how about this. We put a harness on me, and I drop through the portal, grab them, and then you haul me back?"

"That... actually, that might work. If you miss, I can haul you back and we can try again." He looked around the room. "We'll need something to use to anchor the harness too, just in case."

Thulia looked around at the room. "That we can do. A big lump of rock or something should serve. And we have space on the floor to make a big enough portal, we don't need to power it up until we need it."

"You're going to have to order some more stuff off that Amazon website again."

Thulia shifted uncomfortably on the rooftop. All the movies she'd watched had shown this to be an easy way of keeping an eye on things; the reality was proving a lot harder and more uncomfortable. She sighed, wrapping her wings more tightly around her. They didn't stop the rain trickling down her neck or slowly soaking her, but the feeling was comforting. She fortified herself by the thought that if this worked, Rob's rescue would be in hand. It helped put her mind off the sort of weather Earth had.

Finally, after what felt like far too long a time, she spotted movement near the window she'd been keeping under observation. While the person responsible was being stealthy and wearing a costume that made it harder to see her in the deep twilight, Thulia's night vision was far better than that of a human, and she'd been waiting for this. She smiled to herself, and her fingers moved in an odd series of gestures as she activated the spell she'd placed earlier. Now to see if Manx believed her recording.

Manx shifted a little on the warehouse windowsill to make listening to the conversation easier. The echoes were a bit odd, but she was listening to a group of men talking in a warehouse, so that sort of effect wasn't unusual. She couldn't quite see the men in the room, even to her exceptional vision they were just blurs, but the conversation was fascinating.

"OK, look. We need to get this stuff over to the island tonight. Or the boss is going to be mad, and you know what he does when that happens."

"Yeah, OK. It's just the weather is terrible."

Well, Manx could agree to that. The wind was getting stronger, gusts making the rain slash cold wetness across her with dispiriting regularity. A typical summer evening, she thought cynically. At least, it made it unlikely she'd be spotted, although the broken greys and blacks of her costume were pretty good camouflage anyway. Luckily the noise of the rain against the walls didn't seem to be interfering with her hearing what was going on, from the way they were speaking the men had no idea anyone could be listening in, they weren't trying to be quiet.

"Last time he made us come out in weather like this it was that kid he'd got hold of last month. What's so important this time?"

'Kid?' Manx thought. 'Captured?' That sounded interesting - and nasty. She pressed her ear a bit closer to the window.

"Hey, how should I know? Last time he wanted all that stuff from the Reading job, maybe, this time, there's something else in the boxes. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Get the stuff shifted onto the boat, and we'll head off at 11, it'll be dark enough by then."

Manx smiled to herself. How nice of them to give her all the details. That mention of a job in Reading had sounded a little familiar, though. She'd check it out when she'd followed them to their boat.

Thulia smiled again as she saw Manx - she was sure from the costume that it was Manx - move from the window-ledge to a point where she could keep an eye on the doors. Staying quiet, she kept a firm hold on her impatience, until shortly after the door opened and a group of men emerged. She'd seen them before, they were the ones who'd been on the boat from the island. They headed off in the direction of the docks, and after some seconds Manx slipped stealthily after them. Good, the first part of the plan was done.

That part of her work finished, it was time to head back south and get ready for the second part of the operation. She didn't expect anything to happen for some hours - the boat had to reach the island, Manx had to infiltrate the base and, hopefully, find Rob. If anything did come up, Bruce was monitoring it all, but she still wanted to get back and take that over herself. So she was currently flying as fast as she could, even if it was a miserably wet night not at all suitable for a respectable girl to be flying in. The darkness didn't worry her much, and every so often she looked down at her cellphone to check her course. She was quite impressed with Google maps and the human GPS system, it made finding your way around so much easier. Especially as she was keeping low; she didn't want to get involved with the humans' air traffic, and so far the only thing she'd seen had been a helicopter in the distance. Fortunately, the humans were sensible, and their air traffic was illuminated. If her need for speed hadn't been so important, she might have felt guilty she was flying with so little consideration for others, but under the circumstances that wasn't a concern for her.

It was the best part of 180 miles from Bridlington to their base near London, and even at her best speed, it had taken her over an hour and a half. Her wings were sore when she finally landed stealthily behind the house, and she was more than happy to get out of the miserable weather.

She made her way to the main room, where Bruce was sitting cross-legged while he monitored the seagull they'd acquired. She walked somewhat soggily over to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Oh, hey boss. Have a good flight?"

She looked down at the grinning Imp while water ran down her body from the hair plastered wetly to her, trying to make sure none of it dripped onto the ritual circles they'd carefully drawn on the floorboards. "Do I look like it was a good flight?"

He grinned even wider. "Not really. Could have been worse though."

She gave him a look that implied serious, imp-mangling violence in Bruce's future. "And just how could it have been worse?"

"It's summer. Think how it would have been in winter."

She shuddered a little as she imagined that. At least she was familiar with water, but this 'snow' stuff they talked about sounded serious nasty stuff that she wanted no part in.

"Great. Well, their summer sucks. No wonder they wear so many clothes all the time. I'm going to get dry..." With that, she stalked out, heading for the bathroom as she started to strip her soaked leotard off, studiously ignoring Bruce's muffled chuckling.

It was a dark and stormy night, which made it even more unusual to see a seagull wheeling above and behind the trawler as it headed out to sea, rather than being sensibly tucked up in bed with his mates. Not that there was anyone out looking in this weather, the crew staying warm inside the cabin, out of the weather. In any case, they probably wouldn't have noticed the gull's perfectly normal glowing red eyes.

Thulia held the control for the bird between her hands, fingers slowly stroking across the symbols etched into the stone. Her eyes were closed, her vision blank to the room as she saw the world through those of the possessed seagull.

"How's it going?"

She kept her attention on the boat as she absently answered Bruce. "So far so good. It's not far from the island, and I got a glimpse of Manx, so she's along for the ride."

Bruce opened his mouth to ask the obvious question, then closed it again. Either Manx would rescue Rob, or she wouldn't, and asking Thulia now wouldn't do anything useful.

"Well, the boat's arrived. It's too far to see what Manx is doing, not in this light and with that costume she has on."

Thulia's voice was frustrated, but there wasn't much that could be done. She hated the feeling that she was helpless to do more for Rob, the worry about what the Cult was doing to him was almost a physical pain inside her.

"So, we assume she follows the men and sees what's on the island. We just need to keep monitoring until something happens."

Thulia nodded. "Yeah. I'll keep going for a while, you can take over later and give me a break."

"We have something."

Thulia's eyes snapped open at Bruce's words, a hope rising unbidden inside her. She'd been taking a short rest from their constant overview of the island. Ever since her pawn had arrived, they had been keeping a possessed seagull circling just outside of the boundary imposed on her, hoping for something to happen.

"What?"

Bruce cradled the stone he was using to control the reconnaissance gull carefully. "Some sort of disturbance, close by the entrance to their tunnels."

Thulia nodded as she carefully eased the stone from his hands, the seagulls' beady eyes glowing crimson for a moment as she took control of it. "I can see...yessss!!"

"It's Rob?"

"She's escaped, and with the hero I sent after her. Come on, come on both of you, run for it..."

"Thulia, if we need to do that rescue you have to get ready."

The girl nodded, passing Bruce the control again as she slipped out of her gown, grabbing the harness they had prepared. No point in dressing, if she needed this she'd be in the water anyway. Finally, she checked the circle, getting ready to power it up and create a portal as soon as they needed it.

"How's it going?"

Bruce passed her the control again so she could look through the seagull's eyes once more. "They're making a run for the sea, as far as I can tell. Doesn't look like they are heading for the boats, we might need that portal."

Thulia kept the gull circling in slow lazy circles, watching avidly as the pair made carried on running, then moaned as she saw the pursuit chasing after them.

"Come on, run! Jump off that damned island - get clear, then I can rescue you..."

Despite her heartfelt pleas and instructions, the pair jerked to a halt as they reached the cliff edge.

"Noooo! Don't stop, jump! Dammit, Bruce, isn't there any way she can hear me?"

"You know there isn't, you can't do anything on the island itself. "

Thulia watched in frustration as the scene unfolded, cursing with a vocabulary that impressed even Bruce. "Why couldn't we get a proper weaponised seagull?"

Bruce sighed deeply. "Because what you're doing is already pushing it further than we should, that's why. But it may not matter. Looks like someone else is taking an interest."

Thulia bit her lip as she watched the assault shuttle roar in over the sea. She HATED being so helpless, but Bruce was quite right - it was simply impossible for her to move onto or over the island as long as Abraxus was alive. She tried to take her mind off the worry of what was happening by the hope that whoever was in that shuttle wouldn't leave him alive.

Thulia was still worrying about Rob when the shuttle lifted off and Bruce finally stood down their possessed seagul.

"I don't understand why she flared up like that, it was way more power than she should be channelling at this point."

Bruce thought about it as he started to put their equipment away. "Well, she was being attacked, Maybe that had something to do with it?"

Thulia was still worrying her lower lip. "I don't know. I really wish I had some readings of what happened. It could be a sign of something serious, and I have to leave him in the hands of these...amateurs... who know nothing about what she is now!"

"Well, as far as I could tell, she was still breathing, and they took her off on a stretcher, so far so good. But it's not like we can just go and ask them how she is, if we want to find out how she's doing we need to do some investigation."

Thulia thought for a while as Bruce finished packing up the gear they'd got ready in case a rescue had been needed. "OK, I have an idea. We don't need this place any longer, we just needed the space for a portal and all that junk. So we'll close down here, and use one of their hotels to stay close to this A.E.G.I S. Organisation in London - that was what the symbols on their craft meant, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. We can check again in a day or so, they may put something about this on one of their news channels. That would be a help."

Thulia nodded firmly. "Then we do that. I need to know what happened to her"

A rather seedy hotel room in London

"I need to talk to Rob, I have to know how he is!"

Bruce looked over at her, a concerned look on his face at the desperate tone in her voice as she paced around their room. While they now knew that Rob had been rescued, they still didn't know much about her current condition. All they had managed to find out was that he was on the Hospital floor of the A.E.G.I.S. building, which hopefully meant he was alive, but in what shape she was in they didn't know, and not knowing was agonising to Thulia.

"You realise that place they have is shielded and guarded? We can't just walk in, and if we did they'd hardly let us in to see her."

"I know, I know!" Thulia slammed her hand down on the table, which gave a worryingly loud creak of protest."There has to be a way."

Bruce rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Well, if we can't get in physically, maybe we can find a way to communicate with her? At least then we can find out if she's OK."

Thulia sat up straight. "Bruce, that's brilliant! You've just given me an idea..."

A few hours later, Bruce found her making a candle. Holding a metal pot in one hand while she carefully heated the wax inside, he watched as she waited till it was liquid, then put it down as she stabbed herself in the wrist with a claw, then waited as some of her blood trickled into the mixture.

"You're adding your own blood?"

She nodded. "I'm going to cast a communication spell on the candle, the blood makes it me, or enough for the spell to work. When it's lit, it will allow me to visit the person using it in the flame."

Bruce looked at the impressively complex spell diagram she'd drawn out on the table and took her word for it.

Thulia swirled the pot, mixing the blood in with the wax, then put it down in the diagram and started to chant quietly. When she'd finished, she carefully poured the wax into a mould, before putting it aside to set.

"There. Now, all we need to do is get this to Rob somehow."

"That's not going to be so easy."

Thulia nibbled at a claw in frustration. "I know, we can't just send it to him, they'll probably detect the magic on it. What we need is someone to take it to him. Who has access. That's going to be hard."

The pair sat and thought for a while before Bruce coughed. "I was just thinking. We know he's getting visitors, right?"

Thulia nodded. "Yeah, his sister has been going in the last few days....of course! That's it, Bruce. We meet her and ask her to give Rob the candle."

"And what if she won't do it?"

Thulia frowned. "I'm just going to have to tell her why, wont I? And hope she agrees. If she won't... well, then we'll need to find another way, maybe after they let her out."

A.E.G.I.S. Headquarters, London

Thulia had rapidly come to the conclusion she didn't like London. The crowding of people was simply crazy, she'd never even dreamed you could have so many people packed together like this. She was just thankful Bruce had persuaded her to take a taxi here, the way these humans drove their vehicles around was suicidal.

It wasn't much better when she was dropped off and had to get to the A.E.G.I.S. building. Even just crossing the road, she'd nearly been run down by a maniac courier on a bicycle, even though she'd been sure she was crossing the same way as the locals. It was a relief to get inside the building.

She looked around the ground level of the A.E.G.I.S. London HQ with interest as she let herself recover from the chaos that was London. She'd read about human superheroes, of course, and even seen some on television, but she hadn't really known what to expect. Actually, it was a bit disappointing - most of the floor was taken up with displays and merchandise, which was being enthusiastically perused and purchased by the ever-present tourists, the rest of the area with some reception counters. As far as she could see, not a superhero in sight. She felt quite underwhelmed. At least the illusion spell she'd prepared was working properly; no-one seemed to notice that she was wearing a robe rather than the amazingly varied display of clothes and colours adorning the rest of the visitors, and as long as a group of them didn't compare notes, they would each see her as wearing something appropriate. It wouldn't work on the cameras, but as long as she remained anonymous while she looked around, they didn't matter. She'd pay for the spell having to work against so many people with a splitting headache later, but the anonynimity it gave her made that an acceptable price.

Well, she hadn't expected to find Rob down here anyway - while the public information on the building was vague, things like the medical facilities and such were supposedly on the upper floor, which made sense. And there were obvious lift shafts and access to said upper floors. What made that frustrating were the powerful and comprehensive wards and protections against someone like her. They had obviously been built up over time by someone who'd known what they were doing, and she wasn't going to be able to slip past them. Given their solid coverage, she suspected that any other ways in were guarded at least as well. Which meant Plan B.

One of the people Rob had talked about when they'd been together was his sister. He'd told her quite a lot about her, and she thought she knew how to find her. The problem was how to meet her somewhere where they could talk - she wasn't sure how mentioning Rob would affect her, after all, she would know what had happened to him. One of the samples she'd taken from Rob before his manifestation had been some hair, so a few strands of that should help find his sister, the link between them should be strong enough for that. It had brought her here today, but it looked like she was higher up in the building. So her best chance was to wait for her to leave and then make contact with her. Thanks to Rob telling them something about himself, Bruce had got hold of a photo of Ceridwen Jones off the internet, which with any luck would be accurate enough to help spot her.

Leaving the building, she looked around for somewhere to wait, finally settling on the coffee shop opposite. It would allow her to linger and keep an eye on the A.E.G.I.S. building, and keep an eye on her scrying spell. With any luck, she would be able to spot Rob's sister when she left, and then it would just be a matter of following her. How easy that would be she wasn't sure - it had seemed easy enough on the movies she'd watched, but Bruce had pointed out that following a single human through the crowds might be harder than it looked. She hoped not, it was hard enough for her to deal with the throngs of humans crowding the streets without having to follow someone through them, but she had to try.

It was another exercise in survival crossing the street again, fortunately without mishap, and a few minutes after she'd entered, Bruce turned up. At least with his help the attempt to follow Rob's sister would be a little easier. He sat down opposite her, close enough that he could glower and scare off any attempts by people to sit by her or talk to her. The last time she'd sat down alone in one of these places, she'd been pestered by a number of young males, and she didn't know of a good way to get rid of them, short of just walking away. Since her plan required her to stay here for a while, she'd brought Bruce along to glower menacingly at any such attempts.

Fortunately for her nerves, they didn't have to wait very long before her amulet showed her the girl was now on the ground floor, and she nudged Bruce, the pair of them watching the main door. She smiled as she saw a girl closely resembling their photo step out.

"We're in luck."

She looked down at Bruce, as he continued. "She's heading this way, maybe she wants a drink."

Thulia nodded, biting her lip as she willed Ceridwen into the coffee shop, and finally sat back in relief as she did just that.

Ceridwen found an empty table in the Starbucks and settled down into it with a sigh of relief. The last few days had been hectic, to put it mildly. She'd been visiting her new little sister; while she couldn't do much for her, she knew she appreciated her presence after what she'd been through. The doctors had come to do some more tests, so she'd decided to take a break to get a coffee and catch up on all the emails and texts she'd been ignoring for the last couple of days. So she sat back in the soft chair, sipped her latte, and started to go through all the messages on her phone. Suddenly vanishing for a few days had left a surprisingly high number of messages, and she couldn't exactly tell people the truth.

Bruce nudged Thulia as she sat there watching Rob's sister. She gulped, then finally stood up, her posture tense.

"What if she says no?"

Bruce gently pushed her towards the girl. "It'll be OK."

Thulia stepped forward hesitantly, then stood up straighter. She could do this. She had to do this.

"Excuse me, are you Ceridwen Jones?"

Ceri looked up in surprise at the soft voice. Why would someone be looking for her here? Then her eyes went wide as she took in the odd pair standing looking at her. The man was fairly nondescript, short, wide, with one of those faces that were so ugly they were sort of attractive. It was the girl that caught her attention. Not so much her slender figure, or the face that looked too lovely for anyone for a model, it was the fact she could have been her new little sisters' cousin. There was a very definite resemblance there, although - she peeked quickly - the girls' ears were normal, and rather than red a wave of ebony hair tumbled down her back. She wasn't stupid, she'd listened carefully to her sister's story, and given the way she looked there was only one person this could be.

The girl smiled, almost shyly. "Yes, I'm Thulia. May I sit down?"

"Uh..sure.." Ceri looked worried. "How did you know...?"

"That you'd worked out who I was?" Thulia smiled nervously as she eased herself into a seat opposite Ceri. "Your face did rather give it away."

She'd hoped that sitting down would make her seem less threatening, but from her posture, Ceridwen was still looking as if she was about to bolt and any moment.

"Please, I don't mean you any harm. Quite the opposite. "Thulia bit her lip, looking more agitated. "I'm here because I need your help."

Ceridwen examined the girl sitting opposite her. She looked nervous, almost scared, and she couldn't understand why. For some reason that made her less worried about what she wanted - from her posture and tone, she needed something and was scared she wouldn't get it. Despite the obvious threat - talking with Rob had made her realise how powerful this girl was - she was intrigued enough to find out more.

Thulia looked at the young woman, wishing she was more familiar with humans. She still wasn't sure if Ceridwen would help her or not. She licked her lips and decided to show her sincerity. Hopefully, the woman would understand her action. She looked straight at her, finger moving in a magical symbol.

"I swear on my power, I am not here to hurt or harm you or yours."

Ceridwen's eyes widened a bit as the girl drew something in mid-air between them, something that she could actually see glowing for a moment before it faded away. The words were formal, and she let herself sink back into her seat again. If Thulia was a magical being - as she was pretty certain she was - all the stories she'd read said she couldn't swear such an oath lightly. So... she'd see what she had to say. Even so, she was still suspicious.

"OK, you must want something from me, or you wouldn't be here, right?"

Thulia twisted her hands together. "I just need to know - is Rob OK?"

Ceridwen was surprised by the pain in the girls' voice. "Well, I guess she is or will be soon. Oh, and she's calling herself Morgana now, not Rob."

That brought an amused snort from Bruce, and she looked at him a bit more closely. "If this is Thulia, then you must be Bruce, right? My brother - sorry, Morgana - talked about you" The man nodded, as she examined him again. "Aren't you supposed to be green and scaly?"

That finally brought a small smile from Thulia and a long-suffering look from Bruce. "Well, we're both in disguise - I thought people might notice otherwise."

"Notice him just because he's green and scaly? In a Starbucks in London? Please..." The two girls both grinned at him, which just brought another patient sigh."Anyway, back to your question. Morgana is safe, she's in a stable condition, but I couldn't honestly describe her as fine. Not after what happened to her on that island."

It took her a while to go through what had happened after Thulia had been forced to leave, and the expression on Thulia's face, and the way she was almost trembling as she recounted what had been done to Rob, convinced Ceridwen that whatever she was, she was genuine. Either that or she was a sublime actress. Her voice was almost a wail as she finally gave in to her emotions. "But I didn't have any CHOICE... all I could do was to arrange for that superhero to find out about her."

Ceri nodded in sympathy as she placed her hand over Thulias and squeezed it gently

"Look, from what I hear it wasn't your fault. And if it was you that set Manx after her, you saved her again."

It took Thulia a minute or two to compose herself, she was trying her best not to break down sobbing, she still needed to explain to Ceridwen what she needed to do.

"I wanted to see her, but that building is shielded. I can't enter it without setting off all sorts of alarms." She took a deep breath as she did her best to recover her composure. "That was the other favour I had to ask of you."

Ceri looked puzzled. "Uh...I can't get you in - I'm only allowed in to see Morgana."

"That's what I need." The girl rummaged in her purse as she brought out a short candle. It looked odd; nominally Ceri supposed it could be called red, but it looked more the red of solidified blood than the paler red of wax. She reached out and took it carefully. It felt warm against her fingers, and she gave it a suspicious look.

"This won't hurt my sister, will it?

"Oh no!! Ask her to burn it, and look into the flame. It will just allow us to talk for a little time, that's all." She passed the woman a sheet of paper "This tells her what to do."

Ceridwen rolled between her fingers again. "You just want to talk to her?"

"Please. I need to talk to her so badly. It's all my fault what happened to her."

"Ok, I'll pass it on to her." Ceridwen hoped she wasn't being foolish, but the look of relief on the girl's face was so genuine she really couldn't see this as some sort of plot. In any case, Morgana was in a shielded room in A.E.G.I.S., a simple candle could hardly be a threat.

Thulia sat up straight in her seat as she spoke formally. "Ceridwen Jones, I owe you a favour. I will not forget that."

Ceri shook her head. "That isn't necessary, I'm doing this for my sister."

"Nevertheless." Thulia stood gracefully. "I have to leave. Thank you, Ceridwen."

Thulia had managed to keep herself together during the ride back to their room, although Bruce had kept an arm around her the whole trip, worry on his face as he felt her trembling. Once they were safely inside, she stopped trying, tears running down her cheeks as she gazed blindly at Bruce. "I left him there to be a prisoner, tortured... how can he forgive me for that?" she shuddered, hiding her face in her hands as Bruce gently led her to a chair and sat her down. It took quite a while for her tears to stop, and she was still moaning softly when he decided it was time to say something.

"Look, you weren't responsible for that, the Cult was. And if you hadn't warned him, he'd have signed his soul away, and then Manx wouldn't have been able to rescue him."

"But what his sister described..."

Bruce pulled her close. "Look, she'll be OK, she's a tough kid. Use the candle, talk to her. See if she blames you or not before you start convincing her she does."

"But what if she does blame me?" She blinked a tear back, her voice stuttering with emotion.

"Then we take the price of that from the Cult. In blood. And if she doesn't blame you... we still take the price for what they did to her from the Cult. In blood." Bruce's smile showed an alarming display of fangs.

Thulia looked at him closely, then took a deep breath to centre herself and nodded firmly. "OK."

"Now, we'd better get you cleaned up and looking more like a pretty girl Morgana will want to talk to, right?"

She nodded, still not wanting to say much, but Bruce was right. If she contacted Morgana looking like this, what would she think of her?

Thulia's Hotel room, that evening

While Thulia had suggested a time for Morgana to contact her with the candle, she wasn't sure if she could manage it, so she'd been sitting cross-legged in her circle for hours. Which wasn't helping her nervousness at all. What if she blamed her for the torture she'd been put through? Finally, she felt the tug of magic, the symbols in the circle brightening into a red glow as she sensed the pull of her candle. She took a deep breath, and stood up, adding her magic to the spell, as the air around her turned luminescent and golden, pleasantly warm like a real candle flame.

Seconds later, she could see Morgana facing her. She couldn't help herself, she pressed herself against the girl, hugging her, trying to stop the tears running down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry!"

Morgana heard the pain in that simple statement and didn't try to speak, instead, she pulled Thulia tighter, returning the hug. The two of them stood there for some moments until Thulia finally pulled her head back so she could look at Morgana's face.

"You don't blame me? Ceridwen told me what they did to you."

Morgana sighed, and gently pushed an aberrant lock of hair back from Thulia's face. "Stop being silly. Ceri told me all that you did for me - Thulia, you saved me! I was going to give myself to them, and you arranged a rescue for me - how could I blame you for that? It all worked out OK, thanks to you."

Thulis bit her lip. She'd so hoped Morgana wouldn't blame her and hearing it made her heart leap. "Well, yes, except for me turning you into a girl!"

Morgana just smiled and pulled her close again. "True, I'd have been happy to stay a man. But then I'd never have met you, would I?

Thulia gave a little purr and settled against the girl once more. Morgana held her, then looked around with a puzzled look.

"How are we doing this, anyway? Where are we?"

Thulia slid her arms around Morgana's waist, almost surprised that felt so comfortable.

"We're inside the candle flame, of course. It's not a spell I can do easily, but after what I did, you're my blood sister now, so it's easy."

"Blood sister. I rather like the sound of that. If I ask how we're doing this, you're going to say you can't tell me, aren't you?"

Thulia smiled a trifle sadly, then reached up, caressing Morgana's cheek very softly.

"I'm sorry, I promised to teach you, but I don't think I'm going to have the time. Your sister told me they are sending you away to school. And I have to go away myself - we don't have schools like you, but I have studies and duties I have to attend to."

"Yeah. I don't have much choice. But they did promise I'd get to learn magic there, so...next time, you can explain."

Thulia opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again, thinking before she replied, a hopeful note in her soft words. "After all I've done to you...you want there to be a next time?"

Morgana just nodded slowly. The radiant smile she got in response told her that this had been the right answer.

While the girls had been talking, the light surrounding them had been growing fainter. Thulia frowned as she finally realised. "The candle is dying, we don't have much time."

She looked into Morgana's eyes, then slid her hand behind her neck, pulling her close as she kissed her deeply, holding the kiss until the flame gave a final flicker as the candle died, and Morgana was left standing there with just the memory of soft cinnamon-tasting lips pressed to hers. She smiled, touching her lips with a finger, before picking up the remains of the candle.

Thulia blinked as the spell broke. She'd known a candle spell wouldn't last for long, but right now that didn't matter. Breaking the circle with a gesture, she almost bounced out of it and grabbed Bruce in a hug, one which the imp hadn't been expecting. Still, from the expression he'd glimpsed on her face, it was a good hug.

"So.., it went OK?"

Thulia finally let him go, nodding happily. "Oh yes! So much better than I'd feared. She doesn't blame me!! I was so worried...."

Bruce chuckled and patted her on the shoulder. "See, I told you he was a sensible guy... er, girl."

Thulia giggled, and almost danced across the room to collect her robe. "She wants us to meet again! When she's all settled at her new school. Yes!"

Bruce smiled. It felt good to see Thulia happy again, the last few months had been full of stress and pain, seeing her like that had weighed on him. Of course, soon she was going to have to explain just what she'd been up to to her family, but for now, he would let that be something for the future.

Thulia's Home, about a week later

Thulia was glad her grandmother had suggested she used a robe she didn't need to keep for her visit to Hell. It wasn't so much that it smelt, but there was a nasty aura clinging to it; despite the fact it looked clean, it felt like it had been dipped in something awful, and as soon as she was alone she ripped it off and tossed it away. She shivered, the greasy feel of evil still seeming to stick to her, as she headed for her shower, determined to scrub it off if she had to take most of her skin with it. She really couldn't understand how Tanau managed to visit the place, her grandmother was a lot tougher than she'd realised.

When she finally emerged, her skin still sore from the scrubbing she'd given it, Bruce had destroyed the robe. Wrapping herself in a soft robe, she finally sighed as she settled into a chair.

"Thanks for getting rid of that, Bruce. I don't need a reminder of that place."

"So, did you deal with him?"

She looked up at Bruce and gave a smile. It wasn't a very pleasant one, but it was extremely satisfied. "Now, Bruce, you know we did nothing but witness justice being done, that's all."

The smirk on the imp's face said it all, but there was a need for distancing herself from what had happened. While her contract of course forbade any retribution on Abraxus for his recent actions, merely witnessing the Blind Lady taking her due had no connection. Especially as no one in the right mind would meddle with her judgements. But it was sensible to be careful, just in case.

"Feeling better now?"

Despite the shadow cast over her by her recent trip, she nodded. "It's just a shame I can't tell Morgana about it, I'm sure she'd be pleased."

"Well, at least you know. And he won't be coming back."

She stretched out, enjoying the feeling. "No, he won't. Such a shame."

"So, what happens now?"

"Hmm. Well, the last thing I need to do is make sure Morgana is safe at the school they were sending her to, behind its wards. Once that's done, I have to go home."

Bruce made a face. "Yeah, that's not going to be fun, is it? After you did all this without your father's agreement, and after that bust-up you know he's not going to take this well. And that's before he finds out about Morgana..."

She shrugged. "I don't care, it had to be done. For Morgana's sake, and for my own. So we may as well stay till Morgana is safe, it won't make a difference now. I'll worry about dealing with my father later." She knew she was only putting that off, but she was determined to make sure Morgana was safe first.

London, a cheap hotel room

Thulia sat crosslegged in front of her favourite scrying bowl. The room was dark, the only light coming from her flickering hair. The water in the bowl was a faint pink, thanks to her adding some of her blood to the water, but she wasn't just depending on that. The bowl itself sat in the middle of some complex spell circles, and above it hung a small crystal containing some of Morgana's blood.

She wasn't looking into the bowl so much as the glowing display shimmering in mid-air above it. She'd been rather impressed with the human's navigation systems, and deciding a version could be hacked for her own use, she was currently watching a small icon travel across Google Maps display of New Hampshire.

The speed of the icon had slowed significantly now it was closing on where she thought Morgana's school would be, and suddenly it blinked out. She sighed, waiting for a moment just in case, then finally stood up and stretched.

"Well, that's it then. She's arrived safely and is behind their wards."

"Think she'll be OK there?"

Thulia looked down at Bruce and shrugged. "She should be, their wards are well done." She looked at the now-quiescent bowl and gave a deep sigh. "I'd rather be keeping her safe myself though."

Her sidekick grinned as he started to put away her tools. "Hey, sure she will. Remember, we looked up this Whateley place. And you said yourself their shields were very good indeed."

The girl frowned, nibbling on her lower lip. "I know, but..."

"Look, you don't need to worry about her. She's only going to High School, right? What's the worst that can happen? Anyway, we have to get packed up, your studies start soon. Assuming we can sort out all the issues with what you've been doing, of course." He left unspoken the sheer chaos that Thulia actually trying to keep Morgana safe would have added to the looming problems.

Thulia rubbed her forehead. "The one good thing with worrying about Morgana is it took my mind off that mess. I really don't know what's going to happen, but I have a feeling it won't be good."

Bruce paused in his work to look up at her. "Maybe it would be a good idea to ask Tanau to come along when you speak to your parents? She might be able to help them see things differently."

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt. I hate this, I know my parents are being stupid, and my father is, well, acting like he always does, but they are still my parents. I'd rather sort things out."

"And if you can't?"

Thulia gazed sadly at the wall of the shabby room. "Then I guess I'll have to go it alone. I won't grovel for forgiveness, what I did was right. I'd just like them to realise that too."

To Be Continued