Warlock's Storm [Completed]

Chapter Nine - Meet Adam, Meet Sonya

Tyler looked around his apartment after Sam left later that evening. It had been a few days since he'd had lunch with Samantha at Diane's Restaurant. The group of rowdy teenagers in the restaurant had been a searching squad of Warlocks from the Witchfolk World. The leader happened to be Adam, an old friend of his. It also happened that Tyler was a slightly more powerful Warlock, which was a pretty big relief to Tyler. When they'd made eye-contact, immediate understandings had taken place. They didn't even need to think aboutit before seeking privacy in the bathroom.

"Is that her?" asked Adam.

"Who do you mean?"

"Don't play stupid, Tyler. The girl. Is that her? She needs to be taken care of." Tyler knew his old friend didn't mean it in the same way he might.

"I haven't heard anything about anything. Fill me in. I might be able to help you if  I know what you're talking about."

"Yeah, right." Adam rolled his eyes. "Okay, I'll play along if it'll make you feel better. Everyone knows, Tyler. She's the girl the Darkfolk have been waiting for all of these years. At least that's what most of the Witchfolk think. Lilith has called for calm, but small factions are starting to break off, deciding that it's better to be safe than sorry. What's one human life, compared to whole worlds being destroyed? We need to be looking out for the common good."

"I haven't heard anything about all of this. You know what happens when you're removed from the Witchfolk World with restrictions on your magic? Out of the loop, that's what happens. So, what led you here? Should I be keeping an eye out for this mysterious human girl?"

Adam narrowed his eyes at Tyler, trying to get a good read on what he was all about. "Witchfolk strongly suspect that you have something to do with all of this. Word is that your mother paid you a visit and brought you back with the girl. You can play innocent all you like, but my group isn't the only one looking for you. I just had a better sense of where to find you. So, you can help me, or I can just kill the girl out there and call it a day."

Tyler was tempted to immediately put a disorienting spell on his friend. But decided to appeal to his sense of reason instead. "They removed her powers, Adam. She's just a human. She doesn't pose a risk to anyone."

"It's not worth the risk."

"It's worth the risk to me."

"Really? Do you realize what the risk is? It's having my world destroyed by a bunch of Darkfolk that have a powerful Witch to back them up. And that is not worth the risk. Not even a small one." Tyler nodded. He understood where Adam was coming from, but he couldn't let him hurt Samantha.

"I'm in love with that powerless girl. I can't let you hurt her." He said a quick disorienting spell, followed by a powerful suggestion, "The girl you're looking for isn't in this town. You're looking in the wrong place. Head south." Adam had looked at him for a moment.

"Okay, I hear what you're saying,Tyler. I'll take the boys south. Thanks for the tip." And with that, Adam had left the washroom. Tyler had followed him to the door and watched as he gathered his friends and left the restaurant. It had been in that moment that he realized he hadn't been taken his job very seriously, or at least, not seriously enough. He had been charged with protecting Samantha, and he needed to get to it. It had been lucky that a Warlock less powerful than Tyler had shown up at the restaurant.

From then on, he'd been telling Samantha that he was studying for school, but he'd actually been looking for strong spells in his best books to block any kind of searching spells other Witches and Warlocks might be using to find Samantha. He assumed word would be spreading about her and her dangerous abilities. He'd put up some powerful wards around the entire apartment building. Nobody would find them while they were at home. It gave him peace enough to sleep through the night, knowing she was safe.

He had also put blocking wards around the high school to repel any search spells. He rolled his eyes as he thought about what he must have looked like prowling around the highschool well into the night - even though it was actually still light outside. He was glad nobody happened along. With the daylight periods getting longer up here north of 60, he'd had to wait until one in the morning to ensure nobody would happen along.

And now he knew a hard truth that he hadn't known before. He knew that the Council had lied to him. They were supposed to remove her powers. As in, she wouldn't have them anymore. At all. Yet after tonight it was clear that she still possessed them. He had briefly explained this to himself by assuming the Council hadn't performed strong enough incantations. But if that had been the case, it would have taken many months, or even years, for her powers to return. It had only been a week or so since they'd returned to this peachy new reality.

The only explanation was that they hadn't removed her powers at all. It seemed to him that they had erased her memory and created a reality in which she would be happy. A happy reality would not require Samantha to use her powers. It seemed to Tyler that the Council had underestimated Samantha's powers. Her abilities seemed to be based on her desires more than her anger. A gross miscalculation by the Council to be sure.

The questions was, why would they let her keep them? He could only imagine that they wanted to be able to use Samantha's powers for themselves at some point. They must be letting her powers lay dormant so that she could learn how to use them all over again. Given this reality, they must be hoping that she would have a better experience the first time she used her powers. To be specific, that the first time she used her magic, it wouldn't be to kill someone.

The idea was not a bad one, on the surface. The only problem was that the Council had left Samantha almost defenceless in a world open to both Witchfolk and Darkfolk. As word spread of her existence, which it obviously was, her safety became more and more fragile. It would be easier to know what to do if he had someone to talk to about this. Should he tell Samantha about her powers? Tell her everything? Or should he allow things to progress as the Council had wished and keep working forwards?

His head jerked as he heard a knock on his door. It wasn't Samantha's knock, it was much more confident ... more forceful. For some reason, it was the kind of knock that put him on edge. He walked towards the door with some caution.

"Hey, Tyler, it's okay to open the door. It's just me and Sonya." He recognized Adam's voice. How in the world has Adam found my apartment? Tyler wondered. And then he realized, with some shock, what had happened. His bloody disorienting and suggestion spell hadn't even worked. Well, isn't that just fantastic. Either I'm not as strong as I thought, or he's stronger than I thought. Great. He felt grateful that Adam had led the squad of Warlocks away... at least, he hoped that was what Adam had done. Sonya was an old friend as well. The three of them used to hang out quite a bit, until he'd been sent away.

He opened the door and saw the two of them standing there. They looked like the coolest kids in high school would fall over themselves just to stand beside them. Cooler than cool. "Nice duds," Tyler said.

"Yeah, well, you know," said Sonya.

"You're such a dick. I can't believe you tried to just send me away with those weak-ass spells," said Adam.

"You kinda caught me off guard," Tyler said in his defence.

"Brutal," scoffed Adam. "You should have been prepared. You're lucky I was in charge of that unruly squad of would-be assassins. I used them to help me find you, and then I turned them over to the Council. I had to prove my point to them... and it worked. Sonya and I have been sent to help you out.... uh, you obviously need it." Tyler scowled at his friend, and then he laughed and grabbed him into a bear hug.

"That is the best news I've heard today."

"Just today? Thanks a lot," said Adam. Tyler pulled away and leaned over to hug Sonya.

"How'd you guys find me?"

"While you threw your lame spells at me, I threw a few right back at ya. Mine were obviously better," Adam said with a wide grin. Tyler sighed and rolled his eyes. He'd been played by Adam... hard.

"It's great to see you Sonya. It's been a while."

"It's nice to see you as well." Tyler invited them into his apartment and filled them in on every detail. Well, all the details that mattered... and yes, the return of Samantha's powers were included.