Oracle

Part 30

Maria and Timothy fell through the door into Maria's apartment, Maria casting a spell to lock the door behind them. Tim cast a privacy spell to keep their words from being overheard by anyone who might be trying to listen in, magically or with technology. They hadn't been followed this time, both dragons knew it but they still had to take precautions against people watching out for them. Especially with the Ram skulls after Tim at the moment.

"I call that a successful mission," Maria smiled tiredly at Timothy. "A small hitch, but we got the message to Justice." When she had passed him the envelope, it hadn't only been a photograph within, but a letter enchanted to look like a blank piece of paper. They were expensive things and once they had been read once, the ink on them would disappear. A reply then could be written back which would be magically duplicated on a bother charmed piece of paper. A way to communicate when talking and other forms of communication could not be trusted.

If John got wind of what they were planning, it would not matter how fond he was of any of them. He would have their heads on spikes as warnings to the others in his control. No one escaped the city once they were under contract.

"Are you sure Justice was the one to ask?" Tim asked, cradling his still hurting arm, mildly annoyed Maria had referred to him getting injured as a 'blip'. Tim's arm was hurting badly as the poison worked through his system. It wouldn't kill him, no poison could against a demon's immune system, but it hadn't been meant to kill him. It had meant to slow him down. "I thought you said Leo had been trapped in the Rook for longer," he commented as he sat down on the floor and leant against the sofa.

"Leo..." Maria shrugged, not in pain. She stood and stretched out before moving over to the kitchen to make some salt water for the man. While for humans salt water would do little, for dragons it did actually help them heal better. Something Tim needed to do while there was still poison moving through his veins. "To my understanding, Leo is happy with his place in life for the most. If I remember correctly his condition means he can't really be in sunlight for long anyway which would make the escape harder."

The lights in the Rook were dim for more reasons that atmosphere. Leo's pink eyes were extremely sensitive to light and with his skin being photosensitive, he could barely stay an hour in the rain during daylight without getting sunburnt. If Justice worked at the Rook because he didn't have to be on show for the customers and set of his body dysphoria, Leo worked there for physical issues.

"So he's actually human and not some fae in hiding?" Tim tilted his head. "I thought I smelt magic on him when he was holding my wound together. Thank you for that by the way. You could have greeted the little seer after patching me up," he grumbled unhappily.

Maria shrugged, passing him the salt water while opening a beer for herself and sitting down on her sofa. "You weren't exactly dying on me, Timmy. As for Leo," she pulled an uncertain face and waved her hand from side to side thoughtfully. "I'm 80% certain he's only human."

"That's low Maria. I would have thought you'd ensure you knew a bit higher than that," Tim frowned. Dragon shifters weren't used to being uncertain about someone's species. "Then I can't say any different," he mused as he thought back over what he had smelt and noticed about the albino man. Except he hadn't really been paying attention, too much in pain.

"I thought so," Maria chuckled. "He was human when he started working there, according to his medical records, but this city is a good place to hide if you have something extra in you. Plus, John is very fond of Leo, despite him being a standard personality type in John's workers. He keeps the man looking young, something he doesn't do for all of them. There is a chance John is turning Leo in the background," she mused.

Like many supernatural creatures, the fae were able to turn humans into their kind. It was just least heard of because normally they only turned children or teenagers. John was not your normal fae though and Maria had done a lot of research into the city's fae owner. The most common way, which almost any fae could do, was a steady supply of fae magic to the human. Eventually, the human would just become part of the magic and their bodies and souls would start producing the magic by themselves. Which was how children kidnapped by changelings and courts were normally turned to fae.