Cursed: Immortal

Chapter 8: Visions

~Scarlet~

For the next week I did not leave Ian alone even for a second. I moved myself into his room, taking only a few things that took too much effort to summon by magic. The school thought he had a rare sickness that only affected mages, making it impossible for him to attend class for fear of 'infection'.

So I'm playing babysitter, and he's slowly going crazy. There are only so many movies and video games one can play before going completely crazy, after all. Even the practice sessions for his self-control are going badly, because he keeps getting flashes of the future at irregular intervals.

The bracelet Morgana gave him works well enough, but the visions were unexpected most of the time. I started walking around with a wooden stake no bigger than my pinkie for him to bite on while he thrashed. Some were harmless, lasting only seconds, and others were painful, to say the least.

Ian is becoming increasingly frustrated with recent turns of events, and his moods are becoming erratic. He even stopped playing video games, mostly because I confiscated them after he crushed four controllers with his bare hands in one day.

"Okay, this is about as much as I can handle, Ian. You need to talk to me! Just tell me what's wrong, I want to help you." I reach a hand out to him cautiously, but he looks away.

"I don't want you to help me! Nothing can help me! You know how many times I've seen myself die in the past week? Twelve, you know why? Because my own father either kills me, or someone I can't see. I don't know what to do, and your mother won't get out of my head."

"You mean she's been talking to you this entire time?" collapsing on the couch, I hold my head in my hands. Nearly two weeks indoors is beginning to take its toll on me, I need sunlight to be able to function, as most mages do, and it's the largest source of energy that magical beings can harness. The stones of the castle once held their own power, but it has long since been depleted.

"Not all the time, just often. She's extremely annoying," he says loudly, most likely to Morgana. Sighing, I lie down, pointedly staring away from him. There's nothing I would put past her, especially not when she's this interested in what Ian is doing. Sometimes I can pretend to be a normal teenager, because my mother can be as frustrating as anyone else's parent.

"Are the visions getting any more manageable, even slightly?" I look up at him as he sits on the coffee table. He takes my hand and makes circles on my palm with his thumb absently.

"They're definitely more spaced out, and I don't feel as sick any more when they happen," he says, and finally looks up at me. "Why can't I do what you do?"

"Because your parents don't have elemental affinities. Your mother is the First Mage, meaning that she was the first human to ever harness and wield magic. Hades is technically a god, seeing as he controls all of the dead souls. The Ancient Greeks were certainly the least creative race, but they had his personality down to pat," I shrug, and try to pull my hand away, but he grips it with all of his strength.

"Are the myths true then? Does he have brothers and parents with supernatural abilities?" he grips my hand, and holds my gaze, trying to see if I'm lying or not.

"Most of them were based on fact, but to be honest, most of the old 'gods' were actually just people who had a bit too much exposure to magical fields or zones of power. Hades' family did really exist, but many of them died or went insane. Your father is not the first Lord of Death, but he has held his title for a long time."

"And my mother? Does she have a family?" his eyes betray his need for a family, any other person to share how he feels.

"Not that we know of, but many mages look to her as a mother, or a guiding light. The Greeks made her into the Goddess of Witchcraft, and that seems to be her main domain. Thought she claimed to hold dominion over the moon and all light. Probably because it went with the territory of being a god in those days." He looks at me in a way I would usually expect to come before saying 'bullshit'.