It was just an average evening for the nephilim. He’d kinda gotten into a routine since coming to Evermore, work on the club with Mikael from Monday until Friday and then Saturday night he would just take the evening off to enjoy himself. That could be seen in many different ways but tonight it was entertaining himself in a local bar down the street with a couple of glasses of whiskey and talking to a few of the regulars. Aeryn was generally a talkative and approachable person who could pick a conversation with anyone and before long the whole bar was throwing banter back and forth across the room.

This was what he enjoyed most about people, the way they could all come together in a certain way of solidarity. There was soft music playing in the background which set the atmosphere well and every so often when a good tune would come on, the whole place would sing along like it was a concert. Aeryn didn’t know the name of the guy he’d been talking to about anything and everything for the past hour but that was the joy of heading out to socialize, you never knew who you were going to meet or what they may be like.

They were about halfway through a drunken rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody when the power cut. The whole place was plunged into darkness which only elicited an annoyed grumble from everyone in the place. The nephilim stretched up from the booth he was sitting in to see if he could see what was going on and just as he did so, for a brief moment he thought he saw a glimpse of a shadow like light moving across the room. But when he blinked, it was gone. Confused he shook his head a little, was he seeing things or should he be panicking? Because that was the same thing he had seen surrounding people that fateful night on the Isle of Skye.

And before he had the chance to react he heard a blood-curdling scream and smashing glass before the lights flickered on. Aeryn jumped to his feet and moved towards where the scream was coming from, but before he could make his way across the room the whole place descended into chaos. People who were drinking and singing amongst themselves happily suddenly looked at one another with a sense of rage in their eyes and then one woman lunged across the room towards someone else.

Aeryn’s natural instinct was to throw himself in the middle of the two of them who seemed to be trying to claw at one another ferally. Aeryn felt a horrible sense of deja vu come over him but there wasn’t time to be dwelling over things when literally everyone around him was launching themselves at one another like they had no control over their own senses. The nephilim kept getting between the fights, trying to break people off of one another but nothing seemed to stop them coming. He backed up a little until he bumped into someone behind him. As he turned his head his eyes met that of another dark-haired male who also seemed to have the senses about him and was attempting to stop the fighting on the other side of the bar “Any idea what the fuck is going on?” Aeryn yelled over the sound of the bar brawl.

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There wasn’t a lot of time to stay and gather his thoughts about what happened, his brain was in overdrive and not in a good way, filled with memories of what he had seen that night on the Isle of Skye and worrying about what all this meant. He had seen it with his own eyes twice now, people unable to control their own actions and doing things out of some crazed state rather than their own control. He was pretty sure now that it wasn’t some freak virus or spell on Skye, it was a targeted attack and it seemed that very grudge had followed the Ailward faction to Evermore, coincidence? He didn’t think so. He gave a heavy, throaty cough as his lungs tried to expel all the smoke he had inhaled, so much so that even with his accelerated healing he was feeling a little dizzy.

Before long he had made it over to where Scorpios was standing and he eyed the Initia female in his arms and grimaced, he could already tell this was going to be fun to deal with and there were many avenues his mind was going down. He wasn’t really sure who was best equipped to handle her, he definitely didn’t have the means to keep someone with fire controlling abilities contained and nor did your average police member either. He swallowed as he pondered it “I’m tied between taking her to the Initia ambassador or contacting my friend on the Ailward guard” he commented thoughtfully, technically by the laws of the city they should be turning her over to her own faction to be dealt with but Aeryn knew a lot of the time those problems seemed to just get swept under the rug.

They didn’t have very long to make a decision though and before he could actually make any call to get out of there they were already being approached by officers who eyed the two of them and then the woman on the floor. Aeryn ran a hand through his messy tousled hair, the officers were already taking statements from people around them, though they weren’t getting any straight answers he was sure because everyone had these dazed unsure looks on their faces. The good news was that everyone’s story was going to add up because no one could recount anything and the one other person who probably could was passed out at the dhampir’s feet. The Nephilim glanced over at Scorpios with a grimace, he wasn’t confident these officers were in the know on the supernatural secret which meant they were going to be in serious danger if they took this woman with them “Play dumb” he mouthed over to the other male as he was taken to the side.

It was easy for him to explain the situation as though he had been one of the people completely clueless to what happened, the talked about singing the night away in the bar and then a fire started and that everything was generally a blur until he saw a family in danger and helped them to get out of the building just before it had been completely engulfed. He didn’t mention the fire Initia because technically he hadn’t gone anywhere near her, he just hoped Scorpios had a decent explanation to give for the strange happenings. One the humans would buy for long enough to let them go so he could grab the Initia before she woke up.

Aeryn didn’t really have a lot of experience with dealing with politics and differing opinions, he’d spent the majority of his life alone and on the run, he didn’t complain about that because those were the cards he was dealt and someone had to take responsibility for keeping the world safe from the stone of El’Ar. Thanks to his century spent unconscious, the stone was currently thought lost to the world and many of the hunters who chased him to the ends of the earth were now dead and therefore unable to resume their search. He wasn’t naive enough to believe that was the end of it of course, but for now, he had the luxury of staying in one place. Evermore city. So he was learning the way the city worked, who you could trust and who you couldn’t, how people dealt with conflict here, it was very different from the way he was used to.

So searching for the right thing to do wasn’t exactly easy for him, normally he dealt with things by himself and didn’t involve anyone else, he had his code of honor and he stuck to it but here, here he could get a lot of people in trouble if he took a misstep, something he suspected Scorpios might know a little about from the few comments he had gotten from him throughout tonight “I imagine the guard are going to be very eager to know more about what happened, all of this began with them after all” he didn’t have time to explain to the dhampir what he meant by that and that this wasn’t the first time he had seen people behaving like this but he would revisit that later. Honestly, the whole thing had him a little shaken, seeing people lose their own freewill not once by twice now, that was terrifying and not knowing who or what was causing it was even worse.

After he was done with his recount of the evening he glanced at the family from earlier, well they definitely know about the supernatural, which meant they definitely knew the secret needed to be protected. He nodded slightly to them in encouragement and hoped his story would add up with theirs and therefore he wouldn’t have the police hunting him down for more questioning in a few days time. He made his way back to where Scorpios was sitting with the woman from earlier laying against him in quite a tender position. He eyed him for a moment and when he spoke he chuckled “Already in the process of burning the image from my mind” he responded as he jerked his chin to imply they should get out of there before any more questions could be asked, he leaned down and picked the Initia up in his arms, carrying her as the two of them headed down one of the side streets away from the incident.

“I’m gonna hope like hell they do but” he shrugged his shoulders a little “If they can’t we’re all out of decent option” he sighed softly, definitely not the way he saw himself spending this particular evening but at least no one had been seriously hurt thanks to quick actions and thinking. He pulled out his phone from his pocket and dialed the number for Marianna, a guard he had saved on the Isle of Skye the night it had fallen, pressing the phone to his ear when it connected he spoke “Hey, remember that favor you owed me?” he heard an audible sigh on the line before he launched into the explanation of what happened, he had the strange desire to pace up and down but refrained because of the Initia in his arms, he finished off the conversation “You’re gonna want to bring something fireproof, she’s about as wild as wild gets” he ended the call and looked over at Scorpios for a moment “All of this has me incredibly concerned” he admitted with a slight lower of his head “Evermore was supposed to be a safe place to restart but I fear something is following the Ailward faction” he nodded slightly processing the thought for a moment, he didn’t have the answers as to why.

“The things I do for this damn world” he commented as he nodded in agreement, he was right, if the guard weren’t going to take her off their hands then they were going to have to get pretty creative. Aeryn always had this habit of getting himself into situations like this, ones he often didn’t know how to dig himself out of though every time before the solution had either been to eliminate the threat or to run like hell. Neither of which were really things he wanted to do today, running, while possible, meant leaving behind the first city he had actually felt attached to and wanted to fight for, plus it left a crazy vengeful Initia on the streets of Evermore. Killing her, while not completely off the table, broke the peace treaty in the city and could potentially start a war. There really was no winning. “You wouldn’t be wrong with that assumption” he spoke honestly “But every time before there wasn’t a fragile idea of peace to protect” he explained and pressed his lips together.

The phone call went about as expected, he already knew the Ailward faction was invested in anything strange happening in the city and he happened to know the reason why. He was sure the other ambassadors of the city were wondering why the guard seemed so personally invested in what was happening and also why they seemed to want to keep it as quiet as possible. He couldn’t really blame them, knowing what he did, he wouldn’t want everyone in the city to know what exactly happened either. The Ailward had just managed to comfortably settle themselves in Evermore, the last thing they wanted is suspicions they brought all these weird happenings to it “Well I don’t think a load of innocent people deserved to die” he responded on the other side and shrugged “But I also highly doubt they’d be attacked for no reason either” he commented and bit his lip.

“I was there” he spoke completely ignoring Scorpios’ question for now “The night that their Isle fell into the sea, I was there, long story about how and why but I saw what happened and it looked pretty much the exact same as it did tonight” he bit his lip thinking about how people had been too far gone by the time he awoke and how he hadn’t really been able to stop anyone back then, he had managed to save one guard and fly them to safety and that one guard was his way into the Ailward faction now. “So of course they’re interested in knowing more about this because I think whoever took the Isle down is using Evermore for round two” he pursed his lips for a moment considering the best course of action. But they couldn’t babysit this Initia forever either “I think we should be careful about how much information we share before we figure out more, so we keep the story to the Initia and little more, just that she went after the family.

It didn’t take long for his friend of the guard to make her way across the city and she pulled up alongside them, taking one look at the Initia passed out in Aeryn’s arms and rolling her eyes as she made a comment about not being able to stay out of trouble. He grimaced as he looked down the redhead and signed “Yeah well this one was about to break the peace treaty and we both know how important that is” he commented before he set her down in the backseat of the car that pulled up and took a long breath because he knew questions came next.

Aeryn had a strange relationship with the Ailward guard, after he woke that night on Skye it appeared he was destined to keep running into them. Marianna was the one who had asked him to take her to Evermore city and after he dropped her off it seemed pointless to immediately leave. He had taken to the city and actually enjoyed living here but so had the Ailward faction. Evermore had become their new base of operations and he had run into many of the guards since. He knew they were following him at times, knowing about the stone of El’Ar that he and his sister had protected for centuries he was sure that had an interest in making sure it stayed secret. Which he appreciated but it still annoyed him no end that they felt the need to follow him around. They owed him a favor, many favors he’d say and so tonight he was hoping they wouldn’t let him down and would be able to take a single rogue Initia off their hands.

He had been apprehensive about sharing his story of Skye with anyone for fear that they might question why he was there in the first place. The stone he wore around his neck had all but been forgotten by the world in the 100 years he was comatose and he didn’t intend on ruining that now. Thankfully, Scorpios seemed more interested in the Ailward side of the story than the reasons Aeryn was there “It seems unlikely to me that two different people would be able to wield that amount of power” he spoke lowly as he glanced over at the dhampir “I’d put money on the same person and from the looks of tonight, they’re not done” but they could talk in more depth about all of this once they didn’t have a potential eavesdropper with them, one who had just tried to murder an entire family. “Do you think she was set up?” he didn’t think they could control all those people but put her in the right situation to be able to hurt a lot of people? That seemed fairly possible.

Marianna wasn’t a particularly loud and proud guard, she was one of the silent ones who worked in the background to make sure everyone was safe and the two of them had talked at length in the time they’d known each other. They were friends of sorts. He watched her reaction when Scorpios introduced himself and chuckled taking her aside to give her a vague explanation of what happened tonight. How they had been in the bar and then the place had gone up in flames, in the panic everyone ran outside but he and Scorpios had remained behind to make sure everyone got out where they found the Initia holding the family. Watching the look in the Nephilim’s girl’s eyes, she seemed skeptical of what Aeryn had to say but before long she opened the door to her car and instructed him to place her inside. He did so and then stepped back “I’m gonna assume you have the means to keep down a homicidal flame keeper” he spoke bluntly but it showed concern for the guard’s safety, she laughed and told him she could take care of herself before she got in her car and drove away,

After a moment he turned back to Scorpios and bit his lip slightly “There’s no way in hell I’m going to be able to let this go until I understand what the fuck that was” he spoke it shortly “My place isn’t too far from here if you wanna join, I’m gonna look through everything I have so far, we have to figure out what that was before more people get hurt” he wasn’t sure what a Nephilim and Dhampir could do about it but he couldn’t sit around and do nothing.

Aeryn nodded slightly as Scorpios mentioned the city and the Ailwards having hell to pay “As if taking out half their ranks in one swoop wasn’t enough” he commented shaking his head slightly, the dhampir was right, if someone able to make guards take down an entire island was targeting Evermore, then they were all in a lot of trouble. And seeing what he did tonight, made him worry that this was only the beginning “The real question is why” he commented thoughtfully, if they could find a motive behind why the city or specifically the Ailwards were being attacked then maybe it would become easier to find the person responsible. Someone who it seemed didn’t even need to physically be involved to cause absolute chaos. His gaze drifted towards the dark-haired male and he shrugged slightly “Seems awful suspect that she knew this exact place and time would get her what she wanted” which meant he was betting on the latter, she knew it was going to happen and she took the opportunity to attack. “If she had control then the next question is whether she was a pawn in the game of someone else or that family know something they shouldn’t” which also made him aware the two of them probably now knew something they shouldn’t.

After he finished talking to Marianna, he felt some of the weight off his shoulders but it was only going to last so long, he hated mysteries and not fully understanding what was happening, it set him on edge and made him wonder how long it would be until the same thing happened again. “They’re going to question her and then no doubts because of the treaty she’ll be turned over to the grand master” at least he hoped that was the case, otherwise the Ailward faction might set off actual hell in Evermore. “I don’t think we would have been able to contain her the way they can and I don’t think I can handle any more death right now” he grumbled slightly because it always seemed to follow him around for some reason. “The quicker that Evermore figure their justice system out the better in my opinion” he commented with a shake of his head. Though he was sure the Initia were more than capable of ensuring it never happened again.

“I don’t like getting involved either but it seems like I keep being at the wrong place at the wrong time” which meant he was going to get dragged into it either way, he had the strange feeling he wasn’t supposed to have intervened tonight and would have angered someone in doing so, which meant he was involved now whether he liked it or not “Well I get the feeling whoever did this isn’t going like that we interrupted it” he commented as he looked back at Scorpios. Whether they wanted to be or not, they were in this together now. He nodded when he said to lead the way, starting to walk down the route which led back to his apartment, he tucked his hands into his pockets as they walked in silence just taking some time to take in what happened tonight and what it could all mean.

Aeryn pulled a face as he glanced over at Scorpios “And it seems like they’re willing to hurt quite literally anyone who gets in their way” he pursed his lips for a moment, tonight wasn’t made of a specific demographic of people, it was your average people in Evermore frequenting the known supernatural bars. “They did choose the places which tend to cater for supernatural clientele though, maybe this is about species rather than affiliation” there were humans there too of course but these bars were known for providing extra service to the supernatural like blood for valkyr and dhampir. “Yeah you’re right, though maybe not tonight, they’re probably traumatized” he widened his gaze a little thinking about that poor young child and how scared they must have been tonight. “But you’re right, some of this seemed random but that didn’t at all” they were piecing together all of their thoughts but he knew this wasn’t the kind of thing you just managed to solve.

“She’s tougher than she looks” he spoke with an amused look remembering how un damsel-in-distress like Marianna had been when they first met, she had let him get her off of Skye of course, but she definitely wasn’t the kind who couldn’t take care of herself. She had also demanded that he take her to Evermore so that she could go and report back to the guard what she had learned, they’d kept in touch since there which meant he always had a segway into the guard if he needed it. “Yeah exactly and you’d have to use chains so she couldn’t burn them and even then she’d probably find a way to burn the house down” Aeryn knew the Ailwards had cuffs that could nullify supernatural abilities though, it was how they managed to arrest rogues and hunters. “Which is saying something” he grimaced slightly knowing there was a rehaul in the works but it seemed too far away when compared to the dire situation they were beginning to find themselves in.

“I don’t know, if he can do all of that without even needing to be present, who knows what he could do to two people alone” though he would really like to meet this bastard face-to-face and take him out for good, so many people had died and he was starting to suspect the pieces all lined up. It didn’t take long for the two of them to eventually round to the street his apartment was on and when they arrived he didn’t hesitate as he walked up to the door, slipped his key into the lock and lead the two of them inside. He was glad for the warmth “That bathroom is on the second door to the left down the hall if you wanna clean up” considering both of them were covered in strangers and their own blood that seemed like a good idea. He headed into the kitchen and ran some water so that he could splash it on his face to clean off some of the grime and blood on him.

Aeryn felt chills go down his spine when he heard Scorpios say he had witnessed murder first hand, the Nephilim could say the same thing, people who were trying to kill him for the stone of El’Ar usually ended up dead. He simply couldn’t allow anyone to get their hands on something so much power and he did what he had to, to protect the world. Didn’t feel good about it though. “Or it’s some kind of defensive mechanism, thinking if he gets to them first then he can protect himself” those were usually one of the two reasons someone would be driven to do something so terrible. “So he wants rid of the supernatural in the world and he doesn’t care much for if humans get in the way” he swallowed slightly and bit on his lip “That sounds pretty terrifying when you say it out loud, not going to lie” it was clear this wasn’t just some random event, this was targeted and very scary.

“Makes sense why he’d go for the Ailward first thing, if you have a problem with the supernatural, there’s a bunch of them in one place, plus if he managed to take out one of them then” he dragged his finger across his neck in a gesture to imply what would happen and resisted the urge to shudder from how bad it all sounded. “The parents knew something, there’s no way they couldn’t have” he hadn’t caught everything the redhead had been saying but it had indeed been targeted and while he didn’t understand the full motivation he could tell it was a hatred for those two people “Poor kid is probably gonna be scarred for life” he spoke softly, that was why he had always avoided ever even thinking about having one of his own, a life like this wasn’t fair to bring another person into. “I would have very much liked to get some sort of straight answer on why but I also quite like having hair and eyebrows” he joked with an amused shake of his head.

“Pretty much” Aeryn responded and laughed but then he didn’t think he was just going to be able to forget about it either so he was stuck in this state where he knew he had to take some responsibility for what he saw tonight “But then if we don’t look into it, then next time it could be us going all terminator” he added and grimaced, that was the thing, whoever it was might have failed to mind control everyone there tonight but what about next time when they tried again? Would they be able to expand the reach of it? Aeryn feared the answer was yes. “You’re right we wouldn’t, could have been anyone in that whole mess” though if someone wanted to murder a bunch of people there were certainly easier ways to do that. “Yeah, not sure what exactly we’d find but maybe one of the locals saw something” he did feel better after cleaning up a little, just to wash the blood and dirt off his face, he wanted a shower too but that could wait till later “Well I can also solve the alcohol shortage too” he pulled a bottle of bourbon out of the cabinet and gave the other male a look in questioning if he wanted one. “Don’t suppose you have any Diviner friends?” he asked with a thoughtful expression “I was thinking maybe we could see if there were any magic signatures left at the bar” he commented with a shrug, probably grasping at straws at this point honestly.

It was clear that there was some connection between the person doing this and the Ailward Guard but it was also evident that anything they knew about it was going to stay under wraps, one thing was for sure, if the Ailward did something to anger this person they weren’t going to want anyone to know about it. It was pretty close to them he was sure, considering the number of people who had been killed on Skye which they can’t have believed for a second was just an accident, they were mourning but they must also be planning too right? “Seems like an awful dramatic reaction to fear, too calculated you know” though people could do really dangerous things when they were scared he would agree with that “I’d hedge a bet he knows they have the best chance of stopping him, I mean they’re pretty powerful” take out the strongest first and then everything else was easy from there perhaps. “Well it’s a good life until you end up in the middle of something you don’t understand and don’t have the first idea how to protect yourself” he shrugged slightly, he’d seen a lot of humans scarred with fear from the way they discovered the supernatural.

Aeryn didn’t have many people to care about in his long life, he spent the majority of it on the run which meant leaving everyone behind before he could get himself too attached, his sister was always out there but she was never quite in reach thanks to the curse placed upon them which meant they would die if they were in the same place. Plus Willa could take care of herself. The one person who had given up their normal life to come and run with him ended up finding a bitter end which in turn made him hesitant to ever let people in again. There was something about Evermore that kept bringing him more and more people to care for, though it was slightly unsettling how quickly people had managed to worm their way into his life. “People do crazy things when they’re scared for those they care about, including lie” he pressed his lips together, well they had to ask the question, they had saved them so perhaps that would owe them some answers. He chuckled and subconsciously rubbed one of his eyebrows when he spoke about getting them tattooed “Do you think they’d be able to maintain the same level of density?” he laughed because he’d always had quite thick eyebrows.

“It is a great film yes, however, I would not put it in the list of films I would love to live the reality of” there were just some films that were better for entertainment than they were for imagining yourself in that world and this one definitely qualified. “Exactly, so we think he can’t control people who are immortal for some reason but I wouldn’t want to rely on that being pure fact” he pursed his lips “That’s gotta take so much power though” he scratched his head for a moment thoughtfully “Do you think that all the death recently might be able to power something like this?” really he didn’t know enough about how diviner power worked to say for sure but all these weird happenings in the city plus the fall of Skye 2 years ago all seemed to feed into this cycle of death and destruction which just seemed to get worse. Hearing Scorpios had a distant diviner friend made him nod his head “I’ll attempt to reach out to some I knew over the years but I don’t really have any roots anymore” he admitted with a sigh as he passed out the glass to the dhampir and then took a long sip of his own one “Ouch...do I even wanna know?” he asked with a curious quirk brow.

Aeryn gave a slightly sarcastic laugh when he said the person behind this was probably a little off their head and shrugged “Well I think that much is a given” he responded with a shrug of his shoulders “At this point it seems like maybe they don’t even care for the consequences at all, maybe they plan on going down with everyone else” which was a terrifying thought because someone with such utter disregard for life wouldn’t be able to be reasoned with or rationalized. “Kinda scary to think about, someone that calculated and powerful with no weaknesses” and they definitely seemed to know what they were doing, sending everyone in different directions, picking powerful people off one by one no doubt, instilling fear and panic and distrust. “But if you want everyone dead, surely there are easier ways than this” to him it seemed like there was an element of a sick game here, like someone toying with their food before they ate it. “Humans are more resilient than most given them credit for” which is why there were still loads of them around in a supernatural world and why the world felt the necessity to keep the supernatural secret.

“Everything feels more complicated than a simple favor, doesn’t it?” he commented it thoughtfully, the more he thought about everything going on the more he wondered if little parts joined up to a bigger picture. Every agreement a faction made, every strategic move, every storyline on the news. Everything revolved around Evermore and what made Evermore special was it’s tailored approach to the supernatural. It was interesting how despite the dire situation they were talking about and how bloody and nightmarish tonight had been, they were able to make jokes and act a little lighthearted with one another. He supposed that was a good way of coping with the unbelievable, making light of it “Yeah I don’t think I’d suit those ones with narrow lines, I’d probably look constantly surprised” he chuckled and shook his head slightly heading over to his cabinet and pulling out a few newspaper clips he had kept on strange happenings in Evermore along with some journals he had managed to get on incidents of mind control over time.

“These might not be useful at all but they’re all I’ve got, I guess I was trying to use the news stories to connect a pattern, cause if we can figure out the pattern maybe we can guess where and when the next one will take place” he was convinced that some of them had to be calculated, rituals with diviners who all stabbed one another in the heart, that was symbolic he was sure. “Well I theorized it being a loop, imagine if you could use death and pain as a power source, it would become a cycle, use the power gained from death to cause more death until it builds so much that you can do anything” he bit his bottom lip “No Diviner text ever has documented the ability to affect freewill though” because that went against all-natural balance and magic at its very nature was balanced. But then again, no Diviner text documented a stone able to turn people into super-powerful immortal beings either. “Damn, you broke the faction rules?” he grimaced slightly, that had to be a harsh sentence, especially for a dhampir because they were highly reliant on their dojos.

Someone who was dealing with that kind of power had to know that someone could come after them which made Aeryn certain they would have planned everything ahead which certainly meant ensuring anything that could make them weak was kept away like Scorpios said “And even then, to figure out someone’s weakness you have to know who the hell they are” he grumbled slightly because that was the worst part of it to him, there wasn’t a face to blame or confront, just mystery piled upon mystery until it was too foggy to see the truth from lies. “She won’t be the only person out there who wants someone to get hurt in the city, if he’s picking off vulnerable people and influencing them…” he trailed it off because he didn’t like where that thought was heading one but. “Especially in numbers, I’ve seen the supernatural underestimate them time and time again and every time they regret it” even without powers they had managed to make themselves powerful.

“No one likes owing someone else either” he chimed in thoughtfully, a debt was a thing you carried around with you like a weight and only when you could pay it back would that weight ever life, there were some that were easier to carry, such as the smaller ones or ones owed to friends and people you cared for but others were heavy enough to drag you down. So if someone was offered the chance to pay off a debt and be free of it they might take that chance very quickly. “Believe me I can probably guess” he commented with a grumbling tone as he focused his eyes on the papers he spread across the table, it was easier said than done to collect anything of real truth when it came to supernatural events which was why there wasn’t all that much but perhaps not much would be enough in this case.

“Well most people just saw them as random things that happen in the city, people get hurt sometimes, that’s not exactly a secret, especially when the supernatural was involved” most rogues were dealt with by their corresponding species or the law enforcement of Evermore if that was possible. “But I noticed it was the same pattern as Skye, people waking up after doing something atrocious having no recollection of doing so, there’s been fires, fights, weird-ass rituals” he passed a clipping which showed a news story about 8 diviners who had all died by stabbing one another in the heart and bit his lip. “So the more havoc and pain caused, the bigger the events get, it started with single people, then it was smaller groups and now we’re talking about entire bars of people” he wasn’t sure he wanted to say the rest but it was pretty evident what he was implying, before long it would be entire blocks and then what was to stop it from becoming the whole city.

Aeryn didn’t need to hear any more about it, he knew dhampir kind were all about protection, especially when it came to humans so he could make a pretty good guess what Scorpios was trying to say “If only life was actually as complicated as following the rules to the tee” he responded with a shrug, he was a protector of sorts too and he had killed to protect it.

Aeryn nodded, Scorpios was right, these kinds of people eventually tripped over their own ego when they thought the game was all but won and they just needed to find that person before they could call checkmate, though it made him grimace wondering how many people might get hurt before they managed to put an end to it. He scoffed “Yeah cause it’s not enough to make everyone’s life miserable, you have to brag about it too” he glanced over at the curly-haired male and shrugged a little “They’re something he wouldn’t see coming I imagine” everyone had this tendency to just count humans out because of their lack of supernatural strength or powers but he had seen some seriously scary things done by humans “Or perhaps he just doesn’t care for them at all” either he was biased towards the humans or didn’t consider them a threat “Either way I think it’s a dangerous oversight for him” he commented it thoughtfully.

Aeryn gave him a warning look when he said he wanted to see him looking completely strange with drawn-on eyebrows “Never gonna happen buddy” he responded as he looked down at the papers he had placed out on the desk. He had been on and off this investigation for a while now, it was kinda what he did, look for the little clues around him and start putting them together, that was how he had always remained one step ahead when it comes to the stone he protected “Especially not in a city where the supernatural tend to just get away with most things” he pondered it softly as he glanced over at the paper showing the article about the Diviner ritual “I imagine anyone who skipped breakfast might have been glad” he sipped at his own drink and sighed “Whoever did this has to be completely sick in the head, I mean he doesn’t seem to give a damn who gets hurt, women, kids, animals” the word monster was at the tip of his tongue but he held himself back.

Aeryn had a concerned expression on his face because if he was right and these events did all correlate together then it showed an evident trend of getting worse over time which only made him more concern “I mean the holidays are sure to cause big gatherings right? Christmas light switch on, markets, mass spending in the shops, it could literally be anywhere” frustratingly because he just wanted to find a way to get one step ahead of this guy for once “The only pattern I’ve managed to scrape so far is that someone involved always seems to be supernatural” he almost grumbled it out because it didn’t feel like much of a lead to go on honestly, especially because it could be coincidence given how many there were in the city. “Well then I’m sure you had your reasons” people didn’t break their own rules for fun after all, he had made some really tough choices in his years and some haunted him to this day “The world isn’t as black and white as some would like to make it out to be” he stated it matter of factly as he nodded slightly at the other male, he would never be one to judge.

“True, though that is a pretty morbid thought” he commented with a wrinkle of his nose, he knew the whole theory of every action having a reaction and balance finding it’s way in the world but he wasn’t sure he was comfortable accepting that greed and intolerance were just simply parts of the world you could do very little about. He had spent pretty much his entire existence fighting against them after all. “I’m sure there must be people out there trying to” he responded with a thoughtful nod, there had to be right? “But everything seems so random and disconnected at the time that I don’t think it’s an easy task to match up the similarities” it had taken him this long to get this far and he was sure he was missing countless related incidents and perhaps the ones he did have weren’t related, it was very difficult to track changes so subtle but deliberate in the world “But there’s not much harm that can come from asking the public to help, at least some way they can forward on information” like a hotline they had in the movies or something.

“Also possible” he commented under his breath, the media only really reported on the things they thought would sell newspapers, he wasn’t sure what side they would even be on when it came to all this and he suspected it was safer to err on the side of caution “Not to mention that if the big leagues have word on this they might try and keep it under wraps” he commented softly, they wouldn’t want to cause panic in the city after all, so they might avoid making big publications about it until they were sure what they were facing. Aeryn shook his head slightly as Scorpios talked about the strange faith that Diviners could have “Honestly everything about Diviners confuses me, there’s so many branches of magic and ways to get power that it almost feels exponential most of the time” which is why something as terrifying as the stone of El’Ar even existed.

Aeryn nodded a few times, if there was any good time to strike and mass test this thing it was going to be in the run-up to the holidays when people’s minds were on other things and large numbers of people would gather. “I hate going to parties” he commented with a grumble shaking his head slightly, he wasn’t liking where this was going but if they were going to get to the bottom of this they were probably going to have to chase every lead from the ground up “I’d say so, especially when I know the kind of crime that ranks in this city” rogue supernatural weren’t exactly uncommon after all. “You’re right, no use exhausting ourselves tonight when there’s not much more we can do” it had been a bit of a shock of an evening, honestly, but he was determined to make some headway on this, he wasn’t going to be able to rest properly until he did “I’ll see you tomorrow at the bar then, let’s say midday?” he nodded slightly running a hand through his hair, he needed a shower and sleep badly.

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