━━ ( 旋風 ; ☁️ ) ━━

𝕿HE SKY WIZARD had a habit of avoiding violence or anxieties. not only out of peacemaking, but out of escapism and fear. fear of getting hurt, fear of hurting others. or, on most occasions, violence or finding enemies didn't entertain him. he found them pointless. violence was an odd thing. today, though, he couldn't avoid any of it.

a recapitulation: hide manor and the need for information. the harbinger, the bugbear, and the changelings. the harbinger of chaos, eris stark, and the bugbear, waverly reverie hide, were . . . business partners to say the least. forced business partners. the changelings were their forced counsel. the janus order assigned them tasks to collect weapons, forge disguise, and steal information. that is what they set out to do. but they never did it for them, they did it for themselves and what they believed in.

at the same time that the harbinger fought a former champion to steal the shield of arcane, the bugbear and their two other siblings set off to find a certain wizard that would aid them in knowing the lady pale's physical status.

the "three twins" were known throughout the underworld of government criminals and lore, but not many knew of their enchanted villainy's true potential. this caper for the sky wizard's knowledge was nothing in their eyes.

all the man did was simply sit in his usual seat in the café, and these three children snuck up behind him and put him in a weird embrace. and then he got teleported. and now he was sitting in a chair, in a dim room, with a lamp shining upon him.

"after ages, we've finally found you, wizard," the shortest twin began. they wore a white button-up with a loose tie, brown skirt, and heavy boots. less formal than anticipated, but at least it wasn't a bad outfit. all these children seemed to have something similar on.

this twin had pointed ears. in fact, all three twins did. pointed ears and moondrop pupils and hair of greens and blues. they were most definitely lunar elves.

"i was reading," stellan retorted, annoyed, holding up his copy of odes by mr. mason. "only halfway through. and you left my espresso. can we do this later?"

"we're on a tight schedule here, sir," the tallest twin sheepishly admitted. he wore his family's crest on his collar. "just tell us about our lady. we'll leave the less important questions for free time!"

"i'm not talking."

the third twin giggled. "he already knows the script." bit creepy, stellan thought. but he had been interrogated for others' benefit before, many times, actually - he was spiteful either way.

and yes, there were three twins. not triplets. these children were known as the three twins throughout magical society, and they held a high status as destroyers-of-government and of wealth. three twins of hide, the terribly-raised children.

his deadpan remained, but his eye contact didn't. he looked around the room, not finding any sign of old ruin. the janus order, he assumed. the janus order of changelings had evolved in technological endeavors greatly throughout the ages, and stellan had taken note of it every time he checked upon it in the shadows.

finally, he was caught, but not for the way and reason he expected.

"hey!" the shortest snapped their fingers in front of his face, which slowly reacted to stare at them once more. "we're here on a job, you nitwit. tell us of our lady's status in the underground."

"she's getting impatient of your team's incompetence in releasing her," stellan shrugged, turning a page in his book.

"be serious."

"waverly, c'mon. i know mother's mad, but temper won't help your favor," the third said.

stellan looked up at the three. "you have a mother?"

"yes! she's. . . a bit strict, but she's cool! a follower of argante! she's an alarie, too," the tallest smiled, a bit genuine. "do you?"

"no."

"oh. sorry."

"it's alright, needn't to apologize."

"felix, please," waverly groaned.

as random as the situation was, stellan remained calm and seemingly dull. he kept on with his observations of the room and surroundings, though, picking up vibrations in the air as the three teenagers bickered. he'd have to admit, he was a bit scared. not for himself, but for what this order of changelings kept on doing for the world's networks just for the pale lady. and he was sitting lame in the middle of one of their most prominent bases.

he was sure they knew of what the pale lady had done to him somehow. him and family. he found himself uneasy at how these people could use that against him. he had to find a way to counter it. gears were turning in his head, each piece as fast as they could.

right past his head, a stiletto was fired and stabbed into the iron door leading out of the room. looking back, the waverly child shot it. although the youngest, the wizard could tell they were the most lethal and dedicated out of the three, if it wasn't that obvious. their tenseness under absolute pressure was almost pitiful to see.

"out, you goddamn mooncalves," waverly addressed their two other siblings. and naturally, they did.

"a child assassin?" stellan licked his finger to turn the page of his book. "nothing new of morgana's followers."

waverly's back remained turned away, the elf still facing the door. "don't even dare to say her name in such vain."

"she was no saint."

"neither are we. neither are you." the elf turned back around and set their fists down on the table. their voice's seething toned down, barely restrained to a whisper. "wizard, tell me of her status."

"no."

"you're a simple one. not very entertaining."

"at least it's a blatant, honest answer," the wizard shrugged. "abide by your elders."

"y'know, the harbinger always tells me that, and it never works."

"that's because her plans and motives are vapid." stellan turned another page.

waverly massaged their nose bridge. "now that's something we can agree with. but we don't have time for this. please, just at least bullshit your answer."

"wait, what?"

"as long as my mother doesn't kill me, we'll both be fine," said the child. "i know you don't actually have your answers ready, yet. your readings aren't finished. they take weeks to prepare, and i'm well aware that master fortuna arrived just days ago."

"smart kid," stellan hummed. "this is more of a favor rather than a threat, then?"

"yes, actually. no one's outside recording the interrogation. i'm the only one who is. it's that classified. but i need answers straight from you; your voice. so make haste, the other changelings are gonna come in. this is in high demand, they're desperate, clawing for some voice of savior."

he sighed. "very well. you owe me."

"mere honor. i'm not completely unfair."

waverly needed answers, and so the sky wizard gave them. pressure on children had him almost sympathize, and the amusement waverly had about the changelings was of great validation. the wizard knew the hide lineage, waverly's own, didn't exactly worship morgana, although they had high respect for her. they just didn't respect her changelings. even if a bit classist, the changelings were notably dirty schemers. he relayed careful words, and waverly carefully weaved them together with their own intel.

they let him walk out without a trace.

waverly could finally ( somewhat ) relax, sighing to themself as the sky wizard disappeared within a flash of lightning. another job done, four more to go for the rest of the day. this sudden surge of pressure on the conjuror child by her mother wasn't only surprising, but taxing. way too taxing. but they couldn't complain, they needed to keep going.

it was all a way of survival. lies and tactics weren't their only skills, nor were their expertise in murders. even if they were coughing blood, they'd keep going to prove their worth. maybe that was why mother favored them.

shuffling papers and files in the room, waverly used simple alteration spells to change texts to their liking and evidence. they sensed steps at the door.

the steps stopped. they could tell whoever was out there was trying to take a sneak peek.

"come in, eris stark. give me a report. you're acting stupid." with their french accent slipping out, waverly scoffed, taking the mysterious figure by surprise. eris stark was back from a mission.

waverly could sense a humorous defeat within her. the little conjuror had a magical talent in sensing inevitabilities, mishaps, damage, and negative emotional residue. they loved every bit of it, especially when it came to eris. the harbinger of chaos was such a poser. she was such a sore loser, always arrogant and misguided in stubbornness.

to waverly, she was nothing. just a pawn. easy labor. at least she tried, but waverly despised her anyhow. she returned the same feelings.

"acting stupid?" eris sauntered in, clearly pissed. "i've been on a mission and i'm exhausted, i was just resting at the door. we all get exhausted."

"human." waverly leaned back in their chair. they watched eris hang up her jacket on the coat rack. "i forgot you were human for a minute. you're more like a mindless soldier... a quipping one."

"i'll take that as a compliment," eris said, leaning on the doorway. "it's what the lady pale wants. i found her former champion and the museum's curator's daughter as i was holding onto the shield."

"you lost it. how dare you."

eris hissed. "i'll get it back. it'll be easy. they've been planning this for a while, they want me dead, as per usual. daytime is a risky part of our hours, putting me out there was a mistake on your behalf."

waverly rolled their eyes. "i've been under orders to relay missions in simple mornings, and i turned out just fine. you don't understand how easy it is to hide in broad daylight, you're ancient."

"i'm what?"

"out of time and prosperity. i'll make it fancy and regal, just for you, miss."

"i'll wear your bones as jewelry, nightmare."

"same-old, same-old," waverly shrugged. "for a maiden of the middle ages, you're not particularly loquacious. did your village not have resources? was it not thriving like an eternal fairytale?"

eris dashed up to waverly's desk, on the verge of piercing them through the chest with one of her chains' pointed ends. the blade thinly scratched the conjuror's blouse fabric. their nonchalance remained.

"my village burnt down to flames by a certain somebody, you twat," the harbinger seethed. "you promised me that somebody's head and heart!"

waverly directed the blade away from their chest with their magic, soon holding a hand over their torn blouse and sewing it back together with a small hex. they smiled, never genuine.

"awh, didn't your papa tell you that promises are empty little things?" the conjuror jested, slowly wrapping a hand around one of the wrist-locked chains. their hand began to glow lavender, sweet and yet deadly. "mine did. and now, you're in a magically bound oath that would kill you and the memory of you if you broke it."

"the torture of even having walking parents," eris spat, swatting the conjuror's hand away as the pain began to intensify.

"you are so intense, eris stark."

"i hate your real accent."

"get the shield back or i'll steal it back for myself, by myself," ordered the conjuror. "my mother would exile you to nerezza's sanctum as a caged fossil if she found out you weren't competent."

"and, yet, i'm becoming her favorite. i'll meet you at the manor." the harbinger took her coat from the rack and stormed out.

satisfied, the conjuror continued their work, arranging runes and a story for their mother to enjoy about morgana's condition. all celestine alarie, sapphire of the elves wanted was answers, and her child would be willing to give them to her, real or not. impressing their mother was a difficult task and waverly had to be careful.

they walked over to the bookcases of the office, skimming through titles and journals written in a variety of languages. elvish, ancient mandarin, early gothic forms, magical heirlooms — so many of these things were forcibly learned at a young age, and although costing great toil and time, waverly was at least thankful for the provision of culture. they already had to learn four languages when they were days born ( french, english, elvish, and latin, of all languages ) to be somewhat acceptable to their family. it was good for the head, their father commented. kept you sharp like the stilettos waverly played with as a child.

the conjuror had already been done with the fake records by now. they had time to spare until the next few tasks they had been ordered to execute, so they found some old diaries. art and writing were pastimes of waverly's, and this included observing them. they collected old records, journals, diaries, and grimoires they found on magical missions, hoping to obtain a good ounce of knowledge in absorption and history.

they obsessed over history. strickler gained a soft spot for them because of that, and they could sense it. the evidence of the soft spot was radiating from the two-faced villain, and waverly loved taking advantage of it to get what they wanted, like money or resources. the man was the leader of the janus order, anyway.

the diaries waverly had chosen were found on a trip to the other realm, an existence between physical and celestial that housed raw magical essence that the alarie clan founded, waverly's mother's clan. this other realm was a secretive place, one where waverly found mental diaries of helio fortuna constructed into solid volumes after his death.

so, basically, his recorded life and mysteries were in their hands. the other realm was truly a privilege to walk upon.

waverly's mother had mentioned lord helio before. master celestine was well acquainted with him in ages past ( she was ancient, you see. her beauty remained unharmed ), one that twisted and tangled his heartstrings in more ways than one. she led him to morgana le fay, and he met his demise upon speaking to the pale lady when defending mortal life.

he had this staff, and waverly inspected diagrams of them within his diaries. they'd been interested in them ever since they found them, and for good reason. my, my, this staff was quite a wonderful artifact. it currently held residence with two people: gemma song and lady evangeline zhang, waverly knowing of both. gemma was a witch and student that tried out for the school's romeo and juliet production that eris made fun of. evangeline was a well-known arsonist criminal within the european council of enchantment due to almost burning down london. such contrasting people, waverly would think, but at least they knew where they were.

honestly, the team that was the three twins didn't really need a staff of solar magic at the moment, but it'd be such a fun steal. very shiny, very capable when in the right hands. at the moment, they had been discussing alliances with a ghastly catalyst who was formerly morgana's apprentice, said catalyst having the ability to manipulate light through absorption and opposing use of shadows. maybe the twins could use her to their advantage with the staff...

( if waverly only knew that former apprentice was lying to them about her loyalty this whole time. she planned to destroy them, you see. she was a very good liar. )

waverly continued their read, skimming through pages with a rare relaxation in reading about the blood this helio shed.

"山卄卂ㄒ'ᗪ ㄒ卄乇ㄚ 丂卂ㄚ?" raven seemed to ask her phone, sitting down at the bookstore fireplace. "at the meeting?"

"lina's wanted posters are spreading all the way from bristol to shanghai. they got a reward of at least one-thirty-five thousand yuan. the council found out about london and paris." natrix's voice rang through the phone. lina and cassian sat on the other chairs, indulging in takeout sushi as they listened. "this is fucking hilarious."

"language," lina spat.

"hypocrite," natrix replied.

lina's mood continued to sour as natrix kept on talking. they were at a congregation at a renowned exorcist council, all the way in dalian, china. they flew over with zoe's company two days before, leaving raven to hang around the bookstore quite often.

( douxie was also at band practice with ris, tala, and makisig, with cherith tagging along as extra audience along with tala's siblings, the bautistas. this left the zhangs and raven alone, once again. )

the european council of enchantment was after lina for committing a few crimes with her pyromancy centuries ago. they really did know how to hold a grudge.

"c'mon, now," the shapeshifter chuckled. "it's not like the shenzhong council wants to trade you in for money, we're not like that. they're just concerned with the overuse of fire."

"how so?" lina asked them.

"the elders have been muttering on about you having an abundance of yang energy or something 'cause of the immense flames. they don't want you sick."

the fire witch blanked. "i don't know what that means."

"if she actually had an abundance of yang energy, she'd be dead by now. she never got treated or anything," cassian quipped. "it's an imbalance."

"yeah, i know. i literally help people with problems like that."

"didn't ask you," cassian scoffed. after a pause, he asked, "...you're a shaman?"

"or something." natrix's face appeared on screen, still a bit pixilated. looked like they were in a bubble tea shop, the phone placed in front of them at a table. "finally, we got decent bars. anyways, raven, zoe wants to talk to you."

as raven continued to talk to family, lina and cassian continued their mostly-decent meal. ( at least it was sushi? lina had a feeling that cassian didn't really like anything fried, so sushi was a good option. plus, it was late. ) she still wasn't exactly used to having cassian around, but he was growing on her. a little.

discovering that she still had family around was nothing but surprising. the zhang bloodline didn't completely die out — it had lina stunned. maybe if cassian was more likeable, she'd be more happy about it. he was a supposedly empathetic person, though. like what ris said a few days back. lina was aware of the heavy complexity cassian must've had within him. she didn't want to push anything, but she was still curious. she wanted to know him better, like a more grounded sister.

they kind of did get along, at least. he wasn't a total prick.

"if i was really wanted, i'd have more than thousands under my name," lina sighed, dramatically between bites. "is it because i'm a woman?"

"lina," cassian deadpanned.

"it's an honest question," the sister retorted.

her brother rolled his eyes. "just eat your sānwènyú."

the mandarin cassian spoke felt familiar, not the words but the voice. she had heard his mutterings before, maybe when they were young, reminded lina of her mother. ( cassian was a lot like zhang mingxia. the sister would never tell tell him that out loud, though. he seemed to despise his parents already. ) lina wished she knew her mandarin better, to speak to him.

back in camelot, she struggled trying to learn more of it when natrix tried teaching her. she wanted to connect to her roots like them, to be able to connect and embrace with her rich heritage. growing up somewhere that was not ancient china made it difficult. she could barely memorize pinyin and only had actual free time to learn more mandarin in the recent century. it made it much easier for her to understand natrix, at least. natrix often spoke in mandarin, along with some korean as his mother was fluent in only mandarin ( to speak to their father and travel through zhongguo ) and older forms of korean, her native tongue. the shapeshifter claimed it to be good practice at home, to speak and immerse themself in the language.

lina practiced often whenever natrix was around. cassian caught notice of this. he was silently impressed, as he often was with natrix. sure, they exchanged petty banter, but it was petty and meaningless. cassian had natrix in high regard, not that he would admit it. natrix was there when he was not. a brotherly figure to lina that helped her through her time in camelot and beyond. cassian felt indebted to them, in a sense. they were a good person at heart, even under their acidic nature.

raven ended the call with natrix and zoe, having lina and cassian say their goodbyes over video. "so you're a criminal too, ev?"

"please," lina facepalmed, "shut up."

"you're the one that tells me to not get into any mischief," raven sighed, mirroring lina's dramatic edge from earlier. the sprout took another skewer of takoyaki from one of the takeout containers and had a bite.

"it has consequences, grassling."

"you're right, she does make weird nicknames," her brother said. he received a glare from lina right after.

hearing the chimes at the door ring, the three turned around to find stellan. for some reason. he still wore his messenger bag by his hip, and he looked as tired as ever. they hadn't seen him all day.

"where were you?" cassian asked.

"where were you?" stellan returned. "i got napped away by one of your little enemies this morning—" he gestured to raven— "and i passed by the harbinger upon being released in their headquarters' corridor. she was a bloody mess. i think i know who did it."

"cassian did steal the shield of arcane from her," lina explained. "we've tracked her around arcadia. what were you up to?"

"studying the geological formations beneath the hearthstone. i used an invisibility spell and i got coffee. how's the shield?"

"preserved, but clearly damaged in certain areas. eris doesn't know when to be careful." cassian handed him the disguised bracelet that stored the shield.

stellan nodded, holding the bracelet up for the light to catch. "raven mentioned changelings supplying eris. me being taken to a janus order station ties it together."

"what 'enemy' tried to interrogate you?" raven asked.

"one of the hides."

"what?" the sprout stood from her seat. "they're the ones stealing intel all over the town?"

"yes." stellan set down the bracelet. "i assumed you knew."

"you assumed wrong . . . felix hide's usually really nice. parisa's weird. waverly's just grumpy. man, even kids get dragged into this crap."

"it's nothing new," cassian said, crossing his arms. "just be wary."

the four remained silent for a moment. in only a few minutes, they had some new information to arrange. raven slowly chewed on her takoyaki, watching the other three stay quiet. new threats emerged within their sights a bit too often. from the harbinger to the janus order, to even the hide and alarie lineage pointing blades at their necks, all in favor of morgana le fay. it was a massive headache.

douxie, ris, and cherith wouldn't be happy coming back to know this. oh, well. they had to tell them the truth. first the trollhunter, then gemma and raven joining him, and, now, this.

awkwardly, raven broke the silence, pointing to the takeout boxes. "you want some?"

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