Well, this chapter's cool, I think, so I won't say anything about it--don't wanna spoil anything. Just enjoy, okay? ;).
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After Blake had left the room, Terrance waited for a minute before leaving himself. “Stay here,” he told Maya.
“But June-”
“There’s nothing you can do to help her, let us handle it. Stay…” He closed the door, with Maya inside, and quickly went down to the laboratory. It was empty, no one was here. Still, the flames were still burning, as if the alchemist preparing the potions hadn’t left. Terrance ignored it like he had before. He wasn’t afraid of the potions, nor of the alchemical devices with their strange glass arms and bulbs to keep liquids boiling for hours without letting them vaporize. He was used to those, he knew what they were… but he didn’t know the recipe. A mystery he had to solve.
Without a moment’s delay, he moved to Coldflower’s desk and took the large tome that held her secret somewhere deep inside. He was only halfway through, and understood only the slightest bit of the recipe. Why it called for blood of a wolf or silver dust, he had no clue, nor why it was vital to keep it boiling until just before drinking. It was something he had never seen before in all his years of being an alchemist, and it made him suspect there was more to the recipe than mere alchemy. Alchemy, infused with bloodmagic, would make a strong combination, but a dangerous one as well. So why take the risk? Why not use normal alchemy?
He couldn’t figure it out, and it frustrated him. He growled and, in a fit of anger, lifted up the large tome and threw it away. It flew through the smoke and fog, and landed on the floor not too far away, where it kept lying still, taunting Terrance.
“I can read you,” he muttered. “Just give me time. Time is all I need…”
But he didn’t have time. How long would it be before Coldflower would be back to defend her secret? And how long did June have? If she lost her importance to him, Nikolai would surely kill her. Why he hadn’t already though…
“Evangely,” he whispered in stunned realization. Quickly, he reached into his pocket and took out the black Oleyrean orb. “Evangely!” he yelled at it. “Come out, you bastard!”
The orb sparked orange deep beneath the surface, and it quickly grew to a blaze that raged inside it. A deep voice echoed inside Terrance’s head.
“Hello Longeway. You wish to converse?”
“Yes, I wish to converse,” he hissed. “I wish to converse your head off!”
“Something has angered you. What is it?”
“What do you think?”
A dry chuckle. “Surely not the fact that we have outsmarted you once again?”
Terrance growled. “So you are behind this. I knew it. After all, why wouldn’t Nikolai just beat June to death to show the others she isn’t Joanne? Because you told him not to, right? Because you don’t want her harmed.”
“Perhaps…”
“Don’t give me that! We both know June is important to you—you’ve made it all too clear that she can’t be around me. She is important to you, Archie, you might as well admit it!”
The voice in his head waited for a moment, then said, “It is true she holds a value to us and our associates.”
“So you have Nikolai steal her away from me?”
“The purpose was not to separate Miss Bailey from you,” said Mr. Evangely. “However, this is a consequence we are not mournful over. We merely told Nikolai to keep her unharmed during all that is coming.”
“During the prophecy?”
There was a slight pause before he answered, “Perhaps…”
“You aren’t telling me anything, are you?” Terrance growled.
“We see not the need to tell you, for you will merely use this information for your personal gain. We will come out short.”
“Damn right you will! You think you can just take June away from me—you’re mistaken, Archie. I’ll get her back, even if I have to go to Hell and back!”
The dark voice laughed. “We will be waiting for you there. We are not afraid of you, Longeway; you are merely a thorn in our side, a minor inconvenience that needs to be removed. And so we will, when our plan has gone into fruition.”
“And the plan?”
“Do you believe we will tell you?”
“You’re only dodging the subject,” Terrance said, “because you know you cannot lie. Not without permission of the big boss—isn’t that how it works? You have to follow the rules too. So tell me, what is the plan? You can’t lie…”
He waited for an answer, but Mr. Evangely kept silent.
“Tell me!” he yelled.
“What exactly is it that you want to know?” the Devil’s Legate asked, some sort of amusement in his voice. “The prophecy? The preparation?”
“The plan,” Terrance hissed. “How does Nikolai fit in your plan?”
“He is a vital piece, a key figure. The werewolves of Oakes were living peacefully, they did not possess the spirit to fight—Nikolai rallied them! He came to the pack and took control, he told them of the prophecy so that they would make their preparations. He brought the alchemist and the scroll.”
“And you couldn’t have done that yourself?” Terrance asked.
“No, for I cannot lie.”
A moment long, he stared in confusion at the fiery orb in his hand. “Lie? What lie? What would you have lie about?”
Mr. Evangely laughed. “The prophecy. The werewolves do not know the complete prophecy; it is incomplete.”
“Incomplete? What is missing?”
“And in the ground, a bond will be forged, a bond that will defy blood, death and time, an Immortal bond that will last forever,” Mr. Evangely quoted.
“An Immortal? A-A new one?”
“Why did you think this prophecy is of importance to us? Did you believe we care about a city and its inhabitants? The priests and their Cathedral are not of our concern, it is the Immortal that we wish to create. A chance like that does come by often, and it is one that we wish to use.”
“A-And Nikolai…”
“He will perform the ritual to gain his immortality. This is the deal he made a long time ago; he will become Immortal, and he will serve us. As we said, he is a vital piece in the prophecy.”
“But…” Thoughts raced through his mind, nightmares of Nikolai with the power of Joanne, a terrible demon that would wreak havoc on a giant scale. Terrance shook his head. “No… I won’t let that happen. I will not give you the chance to let that happen.”
“You believe you can stop us?”
“I know I can,” he growled.
“How? There is little you can do now. Nikolai is not within your reach, and neither is Miss Bailey.”
“The alphas are—I can tell them of our conversation.”
“You have no proof to show them, what reason will they have to believe you? And even if they did, why would they help you? We will aid the werewolves in their victory over the Cathedral. Without us, all will perish in the fight…”
“They wouldn’t serve the Immortal Fox, and I’ll be damned if they’d serve the Immortal Wolf!” Terrance yelled. But the voice in his head was not impressed; it laughed.
“You already are damned, Terrance Longeway. And your time is running out. If you consider interfering with this prophecy, if you even think about ruining our plan, we will be there to stop you. We will be there to kill you. The ritual will proceed as planned, and for once, you will not come out the victor, do you understand us?”
“I understand you,” he growled. “But you’re a fool if you even think that I’m going to sit idly by as you create a monster. I will get June back, and I will stop you. Got that, you Goddamn son of a bitch?!” Furious, Terrance grabbed one of the bottles on the desk and smashed it. “And if I ever see you again, I’ll make sure to trap you, to kill you. But not before I made you beg for mercy…”
“You do not possess the knowledge, nor the skill to trap us.”
“I don’t? You shouldn’t forget that I have studied bloodmagic as well, Archie. I may not be an expert, but I have learned one thing for sure. Everything that bleeds, has a soul. And if it has a soul… it can be hurt. So I will come after you, with weapons, with silver and with magic—and I’ll find out what hurts you, even if it takes years,” Terrance ranted, his face red with anger.
“How are you even sure we have a soul?”
“Because of this.” Terrance reached into his pocket and took out a small, black book. “Joanne’s notes on the Amadean prophecies… and on you.”
“On us?” Mr. Evangely asked, genuinely surprised.
“You didn’t know that, did you? I suspect no one knew—after all, Joanne was a smart girl, and she knew lots of ways to encode her notes. She wrote down a conversation with you, the last one she ever had. Do you remember the one, about June? Where you told her not to harm the girl, or you would mangle her soul in more ways than anyone could imagine—more than had been done to you?” Terrance snorted. “It got her attention. And she may not have used this information for herself, but… she knew I could use it. Just as her neat notes on June.”
“Miss Vixen kept notes on Miss Bailey?”
“She was rather surprised June meant so much to you, and she read through every prophecy she owned to find out why. I’m not done translating that part yet, but when I am… I will make sure you will never get to use June for that. Trust me, I will.”
“We will kill you,” Mr. Evangely warned.
“I don’t care. I’ll make sure we’ll both burn in Hell. Goodbye, Archie.”
Without waiting for anything else the Devil’s Legate might say, he broke off the connection and let the orb fade to black. He was still growling as he put it away and turned around to glance at the tome on the ground. “Father’s secrets, my ass,” he muttered. “The scroll comes from Hell and so is this thing…”
He took it from the ground and put it back on the desk, but didn’t start reading—not yet. After all, Mr. Evangely had told him a lot of his plan already. More than was necessary. About Nikolai, the whole prophecy, creating a new Immortal. A ritual. Why would he tell him all of that? Just as if… he was stalling.
Terrance gasped. “Maya!”
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There it is. Awesome, right? Or are you getting tired of the cliffhangers?
What did you think of angry Terrance vs. calm Mr. Evangely?
We're getting closer and closer to the end, isn't it cool? :D
-VdC