The Eldritch Trials

Chapter 17: Something like a plan

Mac

It's late by the time we make it back to Soren Manor. The intelligent people (me and Shane) wanted to go back to my mom's apartment but the practical people (Jade) talked to everyone else and agreed that Soren Manor is a better place to stay for now considering there's more room. Shane grumbles a lot about that but he's overruled. Gale apparently didn't want to stay however, in the end, he concedes since our mother is staying as well.
Our mother and Anita get on fairly well, apparently, and Anita set her up in a spare room for the present, and she's wasted no time getting me ready a room. She gets Jade one ready as well, even though nobody's clear on why she's here.
Shane evaporates almost as soon as we reach the manor, and Jade and I decide to let that go on the grounds that he might need to talk to my mom and we can't protect Alec from him forever. We also need to fill in Gale on what we found out, and check his mood.
We find him in his room and he grants us entrance waving a hand theatrically then closing and locking the door.
"Well?" he asks, folding his arms.
"September," Jade says, "Shane's gone to tell the others."
"We have till then—it all comes undone?" Gale asks.
We nod.
"Hell," he sighs, sitting down on the bed, "Surely Angel will see reason?"
"Have they even found him yet?" I ask.
"No, and it's hard to get the regular police to take the search seriously, but we tried," Gale shrugs, "I left not long after—our dad," glaring at me, "showed up. Last thing I heard —Alec—was suggesting that possibly we could skip Angel entirely if he had a kid that would be more reasonable and Shane was yelling 'is your only plan kidnapping people's children' and throwing things at his head."
"Sounds about right," Jade grunts.
"Okay, I know this is macabre but here me out—what was the provisions for the amplifier if the first male heir died ? Just of natural causes? What then it's over? I can't think back right now but I can't imagine that hasn't happened," I point out.
"Of course it has, hence the wording, the next male of the line, ergo if Angel were to die, then it would go to you, or if you had died in infancy as planned then it would go to Gale," Jade says.
"Okay—valid," Gale sighs, "I mean, it sounds of kind of bad but he did try to kill Mac so—why aren't we just killing him then?"
"Assuming we could locate him in a reasonable amount of time and do that —we don't actually have enough time to get either of you to redo the seal. Only once did we make it from, whatever, the mortal world, through the labyrinth in six months on foot and it was nearly impossible," Jade says.
"Yeah and I'm not as physically able as I was then," I sigh, "No, I'm not keen on taking a life just so we can fail anyway."
"And more than that if the seal breaks while we are down there we'll more than likely die, the tunnels will collapse, that's kind of the idea to prevent people from breaking seal intentionally," Jade explains.
"But it hinders us now, all right, so what I'm hearing is even if Angel cooperated he's waited way too long. No mind control spell or anything like that would get that seal reset, not in the time we have," Gale says.
"Correct," Jade sighs.
"Once it breaks we can reseal it—it's just not fun," I say, looking at Jade who shrugs, "We literally have before. And we've got plenty more people on our side this time."
"Besides which fact the amplifier IS helpful, we can still use it to once the seal is broken it's still incredibly powerful," Jade says, "And as much as none of us like him currently Alec CAN wield it just fine and he's as anti-apocalypse as the rest of us."
"Okay, so, then, bottom line, we need that amplifier back, and Angel off the streets and being reasoned with, right?" Gale confirms, "That's our goal right now, and then we try to redo the seal when it explodes or whatever in a few months."
"Correct," Jade says, "Pretty much our most productive course of action would be to get that amplifier back. He's proven he's a hazard with it and willing to kill."
"Can he beat you with it?" Gale asks, looking between us.
"Probably," I say.
"He's a skilled warlock, and I'd rather avoid an all out fight with him wielding that. Probably collectively, all three of us, plus the adults and anyone else we could get to help, could overpower him. But it's not like he's going to stand still and ask us all to hex him at once," Jade says.
"No, and he didn't hesitate to kill me. I'd really rather avoid a confrontation till we have a plan," I say.
Gale nods.
"Okay, we've all been up for over twenty four hours at this point, we aren't doing any good," Jade points out, "We need to rest we'll think more clearly in the morning."
"Okay," Gale nods.
"We'll talk in the morning, I'm sorry about—," I gesture broadly, "But we will work things okay? Together."
Gale nods.
"Did you take those pills like your mother said?" Jade asks.
He nods.
"Feeling okay?" She asks.
"Made my stomach sick a bit but—I don't know," he shrugs.
"Yeah, it's been a bad day, wake someone up if you can't sleep," Jade says.
He nods.
"Night," I say, he doesn't respond. I guess I deserve that.