Lainey and the Magicians (First Draft)

Chapter 15

 Lainey turned to face Nathan and Grace in the middle of the darkened woods. The wind whistled through the thin stalks of trees that enveloped the entire area which blotted out the presence of the stars. Grace tapped her foot back and forth as Lainey cut through the wind as she paced ahead of both of them. She pulled out her gun out of her holster and pointed it at Nathan. Did she have evidence that Nathan was a spy?

 Lainey thought back to the sequence of her interactions with Nathan. First, she had met him subsequent to being beaten. Second off, he had been obsequious to her will while they had dealt with the angry mob and he had been disabled before the fight really began. He didn't use any magic during that fight at all. Was he a deeply embedded spy of some kind, meant to play on her emotions to make her vulnerable to the tricks and twisted games of the Magicians? Third off, he had said that he served Piopold who had an interaction with Lainey in the Alternative Jopiline before she had been sent to the past. Piopold seemed somewhat trustworthy since he had allowed Nathan into David Lars' anti-magician program.

 Also, why did Nathan's mother live in the Underground Jopiline? She was an old woman who happened to be one of the seven Time Representatives and she had been adopted by a young couple after the US army broke them out of the horrific concentration camp. She couldn't have been Nathan's real mother. She didn't speak with a Minapon accent. Her accent was a crude German accent with soft points of American that would sneak in like a viper every now and then. It could have been possible that she had lived in Ireland at one point with her parents and gained an affinity for the local culture of it which didn't transmit to her speech.

 If anything, the interactions would probably be inside a mostly German and English community. How long did the old woman live in America? Why would she lie about Nathan being her son? Not once did Nathan call her mom when they were indulging in a feast at her table, but why would Jasmine lie? Was it just a simple term of endearment? Also, Nathan had to pay his debts to the Collector thus to the Pilician too. Speaking of that, he had a tattoo of emeralds on his throat and he had a hooded face of a Rider concealed by a four-leafed clover.

 This reminded Lainey of how she had still gotten tattoos a few years ago even after her parents had found the tattoo of a snake holding poker cards in her hands that she had got at the time when she was having a reckless week in Vegas when she was 12 years old and made her get it lasered off. She had found mediums who had allowed her to get illegal tattoos who aimed to always wipe their memories after they'd given underage people tattoos so they wouldn't be able to confess to any police officers about it. To conceal her identity further when she had left the Magicians, she had destroyed the remnants of the last tattoos.

 "Grace!" Nathan yelled. Grace's eyes had a death glare. "What happened to innocent until proven guilty?" Lainey rolled her eyes. That was a funny joke, but the vipers of the Magicians could be charismatic like...Emerald. Lainey wouldn't think of Emerald. She thought back to her argument with Nathan when they compared Emerald to Satan, but she hadn't responded to his last point. She agreed with him partially, but Emerald deserved a second chance. No. She couldn't think of this. It was betraying her sense of morality. Her sense of justice.

 "I have probable cause to think you might be a spy of the Magicians. During the fight with the mob, you didn't use any of your magic to fight back. If you had done so, people wouldn't have been put in the hospital! Why didn't you use any of your magic?" Grace asked.

 Nathan threw his hands up in the air. "I knew the Timeline was going to be changed anyway because of Jasmine. She sort of adopted me a few years ago and I knew she could fix the injuries of the people through her position."

 "You took advantage of a woman who cared for you!"

 "Don't you remember when I ran over to the counter and got her medicine?"