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1830 London

Be warned: the wolf wears the wool of the injured sheep.

When she joined the Coven she never thought it would amount to this: picking up a few broken pieces with a band of former criminals and a few Fledglings that had returned after the fight was done but here she was, sitting on a the roof of a new morgue gluing clay shingles while Grind held the ladder steady. "Everything ok up there m'lady, we wouldn't want you gettin hurt now would we." She laughed inside at her seemingly ridiculous situation, "I'm alright Grind, just putting in the last one, be down in a sec." She finished the task, handed the hammer to Grind and climbed down making sure not to stomp on his rough stained hands. It had been 9 months since the 'Vampire Incident' as they called it and while all of their physical wounds had healed, their minds were still reeling. When they first returned from the cursed castle they almost immediately began construction of a brand new building. Over the consecutive month a total of 13 Fledglings had returned, a fraction of what they had before. They planted a young apple tree in the graveyard in memory of Drysi alongside numerous others with names of the fallen Coven and Mother's huge spruce. In amongst the trees stood stones of somebodies who once were. Natalie sometimes cried at night at the memory of her lifeless face and the blood on the walls. On those nights she would go into the graveyard and sit beside the tree and stare at the moon wondering why Ashallalah would do this to her. Sometimes she would sit there till the moon was replaced by the faint glow of the rising sun. Then she would get up and go inside of the brand new Coven to her actively growing throne and read. She was proud of this new building, it was larger than the last with a common area and 2 wings, the Hall of Mold and Maddock Wing, both of which had about 20 bedrooms each. At the center of it all sat an elaborate podium with the bracelet of creation, Arsh'teig, generating a powerful barrier that kept out all evil. It took blood, sweat, and tears but with the help of magic and old fashioned hammer and nail they managed to once again create a safe haven for all believers and followers of Ashallalah.

When snow began to pepper the streets of London one of the other Fledglings, Mary Ashland, had a dream of a little boy that was crying, alone in a dark place. He was murmuring under his breath with sharp erratic words. She noticed she was sitting on a box of sorts and stood, taking steps toward the boy. His head whipped up to reveal fear ridden eyes. "H...help me please!" He cried to her as tears streamed down his dirty face. She started reaching for him "Where are you?" "Help me!" "Where are..." Before she could touch his arm he was pulled away into the darkness that was actively collapsing around her. "WAIT!" She cried into the void as consciousness slowly returned "I WANT TO HELP YOU!" Her eyes opened to the unblinking face of Jeremy "the court wizard" Everyone knew he could do anything but simple card tricks and common sense but still called him The Wizard out of kindness. "You were screaming." She blinked once trying to process what happened, she blinked twice out of confusion. "Why are you here Jeremy?" He thought for a second "Sleepwalking...you were loud." She groaned and rolled over "Don't worry, I'm fine." Jeremy nodded once then backed out of the door, shutting it so as to not make a sound.

Grind was promoted to first assistant of Natalie and played a strong role in maintaining the building and keeping everyone in check. Equipped with a special magic staff that required no past magic experience to use he was something of a friend and guardian of the Coven. Reddick was given the job of king of the library. He would lend out books to his subjects as a benevolent king would. In his current mental state this was all he would be able to do without hurting himself or others, and he enjoyed it immensely. The rest of the duties were delegated to the 15 Fledglings. Today was Mary's day to go into town to do the shopping. The market was busy and parting through the crowd was like cutting butter with a soggy mackerel but Mary didn't seem to even notice, her mind was on the kid from her dreams. She hardly noticed when a strangely dressed man tripped over her foot and fell, dropping his basket of food. "Oh, i'm so sorry..." desperation in her voice as she bent down to help him pick it all up, it was only then that she got a good look at him. He was a large man built like a fighter or wrestler, he wore a long dark blue coat with 3 brass buttons, and at least 3 different vests of varying sizes and colors. His face was initially obscured by a wide brimmed leather hat with fur around the center. When they eventually stood she saw that his face was boyish but intense dark eyes and a mischievous smile. "Thank you m'lady." "oh of course, it's quite alright." "You know," he continued, "you are the first person to see me today, a new record time haha..." Mary's brow furrowed "What?" he waved it off "eh, nothing probably shouldn't have said anything..." as he started to walk away she stopped him by putting her hand on his shoulder " were you invisible?" he nodded without turning around "I practice magic too..." he turned around to face her "Oh? Which God do you draw from?" he spoke, tensing himself for an attack. "I practice for Ashallalah." she answered, concerned she was about to get killed. When she saw that his face had relaxed "Ah, I assume that is your equivalent to Miroslav our God of light and life?" It was only then that she caught a hint of a russian accent. "Yes." "Good," he flashed a poppy shaped pin on the lapel of his strange coat, "then maybe you can help me after all...follow me..."

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