Spellcaster series #5: The Sage

Nightmare Daycare

TRISTAN

Heidi bent down and held the captain's broken arm to heal it. Captain Bells watched in awe as it returned to its normal, healthy state. We had regrouped at my residence to debrief. Vicky and Heidi went on to explain their meeting with the interim Sage who showed up unexpectedly.

"So Sam, huh?" The Captain spoke after a while. "What's our next move?"

"To be honest," Heidi replied, "I'm not sure. We didn't get to dig up Michael's grave as planned. As of now, we still have no proof."

"Actually, we do," Vicky pulled out her cellphone and showed us a picture of an empty grave that belonged to 'Michael J. Locke'.

I turned to her questioningly. "Is that where you've been this whole time?"

Vicky nodded and slid her phone back into her pocket. "I've been looking for Sam's weaknesses to use against him while keeping a very low profile from his djinns. My findings eventually led me to Heidi and getting her butt kicked by Sam."

"I was letting him win," Heidi rolled her eyes. Then she pondered for a bit before her doe hazel eyes flickered to me me, hopeful as her lips stretched into a wide smile. "We can use take him down with this. All we have to do is find the djinn that is attached to Michael, destroy it and go after Sam."

"You want to use his own son against him?" I thought for a moment. "That is an angle but we can't underestimate Michael. Not again."

"There is also something else that the Captain didn't catch while she was digging through his past," Vicky added, "Sam has been using the help of a djinn to control all the other djinns by bending them to his will. As I have suspected, it's a djinn called Haernith."

I stared at her, suddenly feeling chills down my spine at the mention of the name. Heidi and Bells darted their gazes back and forth questioningly.

"Are you certain?" I asked again. Vicky nodded.

"Haernith," she explained to the other two, "is Synto's right-hand. He once caused so much destruction that he had to be locked away during Lord Voltaire's human years. Voltaire had to face him as one of the human soldiers during the Battle of Laknir, a mountainous region miles outside Orchidville. It was during this battle when he almost succumbed to his mortal wounds before being turned into a Vampire."

The last words hung in the air as we let the silence wrap around us. Bells looked uneasy, being caught in the midst of all this. Heidi cleared her throat.

"So we look for Haernith, then. How do we know what he looks like?"

"He is a djinn with three horns on his head, in his true form," I answered. "However, the summoning of Haernith is not easy. It can only be carried out by a highly-skilled necromancer and requires a public sacrifice of a loved one. So if Sam actually did summon the djinn, we would have known it."

"Alana Locke," Bells blurted, her brown eyes flickering to me. "Sam must've used Heidi's execution as a guise to sacrifice her."

Vicky pressed her temples with her fingers and shut her eyes. Then she opened them again and her red irises bore on me as she spoke, "Looks like we need to stop Sam before we're too late. The coming of Haernith is a means to an end."

"Then we'll unite the Spellcasters and Vampires as much as we can to take down Sam Locke for good. You know, like what we've done to Dean Ryans," Heidi chimed in.

"Sam is Dean's teacher," Vicky warned. "His skills in dark magic dangerously surpass yours. He can use your own knowledge against you."

Heidi seemed unfazed by Vicky's words. She returned her gaze, hazel eyes steady. "That's not stopping me from ending him myself."