Inked Emissary

Chapter 7: Adversus Spark

  For some reason, Mitchell didn't mention Sparks the next week. Stiles phoned Malia every night even though his life was falling into a steady routine. He would go to work, come home from work. The shadow of college was looming ever closer.

  In that week he was able to grow closer to the Pack, well John, Mitchell, Sarah and Thomas.  The last two especially became his friends. They would often stay up late laughing and talking about the most random and pointless things but it was warm and comfortable. He also got to know Malia more, talking over the phone was sort of awkward but they managed and would end up talking for hours. When Stiles went to sleep sometimes he would see her face instead of the Nogitsune's and he knew he was falling for her. Which was soppy and something he'dd expect from Scott.

  Mitchell took Stiles to his office a few times in the week. He pulled all sorts from some place, teaching Stiles how fully exploit herbs and plants like mistletoe and wolfsbane. He taught Stiles how to mix herbs for poisons and healing. A mix of abscess root, barberry and just the right amount of wolfsbane and mistletoe made a very strong mix that would help a werewolf's already accelerated healing to increase still. Much to Stiles' surprise, wolfsbane was used in very small quantities in all of the healing remedies that the emissary taught him.

  Although Stiles enjoyed the lessons, they were incredibly interesting, he had to question them. He didn't see how they would help him with controlling the Spark in him. So he asked.

"Um Mitchell? Why are you teaching me this and not, I don't know, something to do with Sparks?" Stiles asked.

"All in good time Stiles," Mitchell said, not looking up from the mixture he was crushing with a pestle," there are many reasons that we are doing this. One is because you can benefit from this knowledge with your mixing with the supernatural. Two we can get to know each other and that will help you relax in my presence for the next part of your learning. Thirdly, I can't be an emissary forever and there is a chance that you can take my place, if I continue to like you. So, there is plenty of point to this, and as a bonus, it is fun."

"Okay," was all Stiles said after the rapid fire explanation.  All he could think about was the fact that Mitchell liked him enough to offer him the chance to take over from him as the emissary of the Borden Pack.

***

  In this time Mitchell also tested out Stiles' limits seeing as Sparks were a thing of myth and there weren't detailed analogies of their powers.

  The pair found that Stiles had an immunity to wolfsbane, although it tasted vile, and he could cross a line of mountain ash. Stiles hadn't had his full powers before the Nogitsune and since he hadn't had reason to cross the ash and so the feeling that he got was surprising. As he crossed there was a few green sparks, the same colour as the wolf that was entwined with his soul, or his familiar as Mitchell said. At the same time Stiles had felt a rush of power that turned his stomach and left an unpleasant feel in his gut. When he asked about this Mitchell said that that wouldn't be the feeling for most of his magic only when his was fighting against another source.

***

  Scott snarled down at the omega werewolf beneath him. His face was distorted by his wolf side and so was that of the blue eyed wolf under his clawed fist. He didn't understand where all of the supernatural creatures were coming from. 

  First had come the wendigos, a whole family, then two kanima and now the wolves. This was the fourth and all of this had been in the last few weeks. Why was this happening?

  Scott's new beta Liam came crashing through the trees to come to a halt beside the pair on the forest floor.  Liam was just getting over his anger, something that had been a big problem when Scott had been forced to bite him. Now he stared with concern at the werewolves snarling at each other in the leaves.

***

  Deaton looked down at the unconscious man at his feet, chained to an iron girder that acted as a support for the room. Wendigos and  kanima as well as other wolves were bound in similar manners around Derek's basement.

"Why are they coming Deaton?" Scott asked the druid.

"I don't know, it's as if the Nemeton's power has been awakened but that is impossible," the vet replied.

  Deaton was a wise man and the whole Pack knew that and so his unease made them very uneasy. Even Malia standing in the background had an odd sense of foreboding, she had half a mind to tell Stiles but that would make him come running back to Beacon Hills when he needed to be in Greenwood to complete his training.

***

  Two weeks later

  Stiles looked down at the big book in Mitchell's hands. It was the same book that Mitchell had shown him the first time that they had met. The emissary had something about finding more about his Spark abilities.

  Mitchell gave him a foul tasting concoction that he had brewed from a recipe in the book. It was meant to increase the energy of the magic within Stiles.

  The potion thing worked after about five minutes, well Stiles felt it working. He could feel the flow of magic in him, sense where it wanted to go and how to direct it. The feeling was so unlike that which the mountain ash had induced, it was invincibility.

"Stiles, the potion has awakened the awareness within you, it is meant to help you channel your powers," the weather-worn emissary said to him.

  Stiles just nodded, knowing what he had to do. He let the power surge to his fingertips and twist into brilliant green flames. The teen saw Mitchell's eyes widen and he felt ecstasy at the control. He then closed his palms, extinguishing the flame and started his concentrating on the whirling power he felt in the air and earth. He knew that it wasn't magic, somehow, but water vapor in the air and droplets in the ground and he felt akin to it. He drew on the water and it swirled up out of the carpet and condensed from the air. That made Mitchell gape.

  As Stiles let the power leave him he looked up to see Mitchell staring at him.

"What?" Stiles asked self consciously. 

"You were possessed by a Nogitsune which are very powerful entities so it would explain," Mitchell muttered to himself more than to Stiles.

"Explain what Mitchell?" Stiles asked, afraid, excited and annoyed all once.

"Well Stiles," Mitchell started," there are three varieties of Spark; Elemetum, which just means elemental, is a Spark variety that have control of one element, they are the most common Spark, the Spark that is know most about. And I am saying common but keep in mind that all Sparks are incredibly rare as you already know. The second type, slightly rarer, is the Quam, meaning "more than one", this Spark can control two elements. Finally and rarest of all comes the Adversus Spark. Adversus means opposite or adversary, Adversus Sparks are so incredibly rare that there has thought to be maybe fifty in history and if you think of the trillions of people that had lived that is a very small number. Adversus Sparks can control two opposite elements; air and earth or fire and water. They are so much more powerful than other Sparks, the woman that was the first Spark was thought to be one. And you are too Stiles."