Useless as a mage, Silvia Copse finds herself so upset that she goes and gets black out drunk at the bar. So drunk that she can't tell up from down, she picks up a man with red eyes, white hair, and skin of ice.
What does a useless mage do when the...
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"Silvia," a voice she knew, and dark magic, though weak. Lorenzo?
"Silvia!" a more urgent voice snapped her eyes open, and she lifted her head to her father who had her cradled in his lap.
The sun was up behind his head, and he looked like shit, with bruises on his face and his mage clothes tattered. His normally neat long hair was tangled with dried blood, pushed forward over his shoulder. Thel had said they'd tortured him, and he looked it. It took her a second to sit herself up, but she recognized their allies around them immediately. Remus Shade was standing in all blacks with Luna Aurion's stark white hair blowing in the wind not far from him. Both had their eyes cast toward someone else.
It took her a moment to remember Neil had been in no better shape, and she jumped back into her father as Neil hissed and his dark energy pushed out from him. It fell back to him in a weakened roll, but he remained hostile as Damien Arc held him back from the others. Something dark flashed in his eyes as Neil met hers, and she realized he was cognizant despite it being daytime.
"Don't touch my property, Lorenzo de Fleur," Neil rasped, barely strong enough to do anything but lean on Damien's arms.
"You've lost, Neil Arc," Lorenzo growled.
"I never lose, you piece of shit," Neil spat, continuing to pull on Damien's arms. "Let me go Damien! Do you not know how to serve your master? Or are you turning on me too!"
"Neil," Damien said in a sigh. "I'll never turn against you. Whatever punishment you suffer, I shall join you in. I'm just as responsible for not keeping you from this."
"Piss off, mage!" Neil hissed, pushing him away but not getting very far. Damien's arms were steel around him. "You've never been one of mine! You conned me to murder my people, and if I had any say about it, I'd have you lying next to my father in that grave!"
The word's struck Damien, but he remained still in his detention of Neil. She had to give it to the man for not just abandoning him at that point. Why was he still acting though? It could only mean that there was someone they'd missed. One final orchestrator, the mage who had been pulling the strings. If they took Neil into custody, they would throw him in the cells at the complex, and there he'd be able to reach the man.
For that, Silvia held her tongue. That piece of shit had slaughtered so many of her family when the Shields had turned on the Copses and the Cascades. Still, they had no proof that the man in charge had orchestrated in. A group of mages could have easily gone rouge without their general knowing. Neil needed concrete proof, and if the man came to him and spilled that information, they'd have it. Vice was around here somewhere, and she imagined he'd have Neil's back, so she allowed someone to lift her.
"Let's get you to the complex," Forest said to her, but he was too weak to be carrying her.
It took her a moment to figure out that she was in Lorenzo's arms, and Neil sputtered more curses at the man as Lorenzo turned a spite-filled smirk on him.
