Discovery in the Bayou

[Caelitus]

Her excitement was beginning to get a little out of hand, dragging him down the street was one thing but demanding to go on a road trip to catch a hunter of all things.

"Ok, I can see there is no talking you out of finding this hunter. I can't stress enough how dangerous such an endeavour will be. We don't need a computer to find the "Hidden Motel" it's not too far from here I'll take you there but you have to slow down a little or you are likely to get yourself killed, and quite frankly I'm not about to let a young mage get killed."

She still looked eager to get moving and solve the little mystery she seems to be at the hearty of.

'I hope I don't regret this, or get myself killed.' He thought to himself.

He led her around back of the house to a locked garage. Unlocking and opening the garage, the glinting red of the car inside shone in the daylight. He hopped in and eased the car out of the garage which closed as a large gust of wind pulled it shut. The young mage jumped into the passenger seat and began fiddling with the radio. He revved the engine of the 500 horsepower mustang and sped off towards the freeway.

[Liana]

She fiddled around with the dial switch on the radio, until she found a station that was acceptable. Ah "classical music."

"Who said we were going after the hunter? That man who died, I think he was staying at the motel. He gave me this piece of paper right before he died."

She un-crumbled the piece of paper that had been in her pocket. "See it has the logo for the motel we are driving to." She then cranked the radio, and closed her eyes.

She had a million thoughts racing through her head. She knew for a fact the man who had died was staying at the motel. It was like he was trying to tell her something important right before he died. That there was something important that she must see in the motel. But if he wanted her to see something then why did he tell her to stop looking for what she seeked. And what was see seeking? She realized that the motel might be a trap. But her curiosity was getting the best of her.

She turned to the mage "the motel is probably a trap so we better not just walk into it. Maybe we should do some scouting first."

As they neared the motel. A million thoughts started through her brain. It sounded like several million people were screaming all at once at her. None of it was making sense and she knew if it didn't quiet down she would pass out again. She could feel the warm trickle of blood dripping from her nose. She turned and looked out the window hoping the mage wouldn't notice. She quietly wiped the blood away and she closed her eyes and focused on the hum of the car and the lulling of the classical music.

As they pulled into the drive she hoped the mage had formulated a plan.

[Caelitus]

Pulling into the drive of the motel, he could feel the air start to take on almost a hum. He parked the car and turned to his young companion. "You're right it is a trap, I would suggest you stay here. I'm going to go and spring it." He smiled as he got out of the car and headed towards the front door of the motel.

'Broad daylight, not the best time to be walking into something like this.' He thought to himself. He glanced back towards the car, 'It's just far enough away, she should be okay there while I deal with everything inside.'

Scattered around the parking lot was a couple of other cars, a few people standing near them watched as he approached the front door. Vincent glared at them, and they glared right back. He could tell they weren't Mages but they definitely didn't like him being there. They came around behind him and followed him into the lobby of the building.

Inside, the four gruff looking men headed to the right after following him in. The front desk stood to the left with a rather nervous looking young woman standing behind the counter. To the right was what appeared to be a restaurant/bar. He walked to the counter and looked right into the woman's eyes. 'Something about this doesn't seem right,' he thought.

"Hi, I'm wondering if you have any rooms available." He asked the woman. She shook her head and ran off towards a room marked "Manager"

'Great,' He thought as he headed towards the bar. Just as he entered the bar area he felt the hum get stronger. He walked into the dimly lit bar and straight to the bartender. He glanced around the room. About two dozen large men sat around the room, and a half a dozen smaller men sat in a corner trying to avoid eye contact with him. 'Theres the mages, but these other guys could be just as dangerous.'

"Can I get a double of Scotch?" Vincent asked the bartender as he dropped some money on the bar. The bartender nodded and handed him the drink which he down in a mouthful. He whispered to the bartender, "You're going to want to get out of here in a minute." The bartender nodded and gave him a knowing wink.

Vincent put the glass back on the bar and started walking to the corner where the six mages sat huddled. One of them waved his hand and two of the large men stood directly in his way, the larger looked at him, "Where do you think you're going?" Vincent looked into the big man's eyes, they appeared glazed over. Vincent smirked at the man, "I go wherever I please, and your wall of mind controlled muscle isn't going to stop me."

The second man raised a large fist and swung hard towards Vincent's head. Vincent ducked the punch and opened a palm towards each of the two men standing in front of him. The sound of rushing wind exploded forth and the two men flew across the room, each falling into a table, breaking them on contact. "You don't want to do this, trust me." He said to one of the six men sitting in the corner now watching him intently. He could feel the mage rooting around in his head, looking for something. Six more of the men stood up and headed towards Vincent with a clear intention of violence. "Okay now I'm getting mad."

Vincent stared at the six men who headed his way, and opened his fingers towards them. Lightning flew forth from his outstretched hand and leapt from one man to the next until all six of the men lay dead in a heap on the ground. Vincent started walking towards the corner where the six mages sat huddled. Three of them, started shifting nervously in their chairs. The one who was watching Vincent started to look visibly distressed, and waved his hand again towards the rough bar patrons. The rest of them got up from their chairs and started charging at Vincent. Vincent flicked his finger towards the bar, the rushing of wind again filled the room as bottles of liquor started flying towards the men barreling down on him. The bottles smashed against them covering them in alcohol. Vincent pulled a cigarette and lighter from his pocket and lit the cigarette and blew on the flame of the lighter. A stream of fire exploded forth engulfing the men, who began falling to the ground screaming. Vincent snapped his fingers, the screams of the men started to get louder and louder until the rest of the men fell to the ground clutching their bleeding ears.

Vincent started walking towards the six mages in the corner. one got up and tried to make a run for the door. Vincent held out a hand and the man fell down as if he ran into an invisible wall. "Now are you going to play nice, or am I going to have to do something uncomfortable to you?" Vincent said as he took a long drag of his cigarette. The one mage still was glaring at him, Vincent could still feel him rooting around in his head. Another of the mages stood up and yelled a rudimentary spell and held out his fist towards Vincent. A fireball flew forth towards Vincent. Snapping his finger Vincent took control of the fireball and sent it back at it's creator. The fire engulfed him instantly, and fell down into a heaping pile of ash.

"I'm done playing with you." Vincent took a deep breath. The fires around the bar all went out and the five remaining mages looked at him and started to clutch their throats, unable to breathe. one by one they fell into unconsciousness for lack of oxygen, when the last one collapsed to the floor, Vincent exhaled. He put his cigarette into an ashtray. He headed back to the front door and waved towards the car. 'You can come in now.' He thought towards the young mage still sitting in the car.

[Liana]

She contemplated joining him in the hotel. But he had asked her to stay in the car. Her head was pounding, and she knew it was best to stay in the car. After a few minutes of waiting in the car, she realized that she could sense the death and destruction coming from the hotel. It made a chill run down her spine.

She had been so focused on what was happening inside her brain that she had been ignoring the outside world. Just as she heard Vincent tell her it was okay to join him in the hotel. What happened next neither of them were expecting. A person had sneaked to the side of the front door and Vincent walked right into the tire iron to his face. He fell to the ground with his face becoming a bloody mess. She watched as the man kicked him a few times for good measure. She wanted to scream but knew that she would be no good to Vincent if she was found. And for the first time in her life she prayed; that he would get up and he didn't. She used her other sense, and knew he was barely holding on. She also knew if this biker man wanted him dead he would be dead. So she entered Vincent's brain. She could see all the turmoil it was going though and he was in a constant state of conscious and non consciousness. The best thing she could do for him now was to help him sleep. His powers had been used and left him vulnerable. This vulnerability left his mind open to suggestion. It was quite easy to convince him to drift into a dreamless sleep.

Realizing that if she didn't leave the car she would be as stupid as the biker man who failed to notice her. She she quickly and quietly slipped out the car and into the woods that bordered the hotel. She found a hiding spot a few feet away from the car. Crouching down in this spot she had a perfect view of the hotel. The "biker dude" in the meantime had made a phone call and a lady who Arianna presumed to be the receptionists at the hotel came out. the women who was pale and didn't happy at all helped the "biker dude" carry Vincent into the hotel.

Arianna realized that she needed to formulate a plan and decided to wait till it was dark to carry it out. She knew a power she failed to mention to Vincent was going to come in handy. She hoped it worked as a child she only had heard whispers of what happened to her foster parents on nights that they had particularly bad to her. She hadn't understood it then, but on learning she was a mind mage it made sense. She was going to cause a ruckus with hallucinations. She could see the faces of all those people Vincent killed and she was going to use that to her advantage. She was sure "biker dude" and receptionist chick would not appreciate seeing there dead friends. And she knew they would eventually fall asleep.

After several hours of waiting she did a mental sweep of the hotel. She could sense three sleeping brains and decided that now was the time to act. She fell into a quick sleep and started to picture the men who died. She projected the images into the "biker dude" and receptionists minds. She knew that she just needed to start the images and they would barrel role into something bigger. Just as she was coming out of her sleep she noticed that she wasn't the only conscious person around. She smiled to herself and sent him a quick message telling him she was coming to get him.


She did a mental sweep of the hotel but it was unneeded for she could hear the screams of the "biker dude" and receptionists for they were in there own personal hell. She followed Vincent's brain activity into the hotel and up the stairs to a locked door. She had come this far and decided to kick the door open. Just as did a run into the door it opened. And she fell flat on her face.

[Caelitus]

Just as he waved his arm towards the car, the blinding pain flooded his senses. Grasping at consciousness, was almost futile. He felt pain in his ribs as he was kicked repeatedly. He knew he had to warn the young mage still sitting in the car, he tried to tell her that five mages were still alive and very dangerous once they woke up. His thoughts drifted in and out and became a muddle. Unable to focus the single thought he wanted convey he felt her enter his head. He clawed towards her, tried desperately to warn her. Then darkness.

Images flooded his brain, the bar room full of people, each and every one flooded into his head. He felt panic overwhelm him, he clawed again for the surface, if he could reach consciousness all would be well. His eyes opened to a dark room, screams were coming from somewhere else in the hotel. Vincent realized it was Arianna who caused the projections. 'Damn girl trying to use magic without control, no wonder this happened.' He thought as he stood up. The throbbing in his head continued to pound away. He headed for the door, he had to make sure those other mages weren't waiting in ambush. As he opened the door the young woman came flying through into the black room. Light flooding in from the hallway illuminated her as she lay sprawled on the floor.

Vincent reached over and picked her up, "Come on, the less time we spend here the better." He lead her down the stairs and back into the bar. Blood and carnage that filled the room only hours earlier, was all cleaned up. "So now what do you propose we do?" He said turning towards Arianna.

[Liana]

All she wanted to do was sleep. She turned to him "well I'm guessing the room I wanted to check out has been cleared out. We can just go back to your place, it's probably safer then here, considering we managed to piss off quite a few people." And with that she headed to the car. Once in the car she fell into an instant sleep.

For the second day in a row she awakened in the same bedroom. She climbed down the stairs and found Vincent in his library. "so I was wondering if I could get that training now?"

[Caelitus]

He followed her to the car, as she sat down her breathing became slow and steady. 'Asleep already, that kid is tired.' He thought to himself. He got into the car and turned the rear view mirror to get a good look at his face. His hair was matted down with blood and dried blood covered his face. "Damn I look like shit. Time to get home and get cleaned up."

Driving quietly along the interstate he replayed everything in his mind. Who were those mages, and why did they attack someone far stronger than themselves. Couldn't have been the hunter, but something still didn't feel right. Pulling into the garage he was no closer to figuring out anything than he was before. Turning the car off he hopped out and went to the passenger side to pick up Arianna and put her comfortably in the spare bedroom. Vincent left the room and went to take a long hot shower, his mind still muddling over the events of the day.

All cleaned up, Vincent went to lay down in his own bed drifting straight to sleep. As first light entered the room he hopped up refreshed and headed downstairs to make a fresh pot of coffee. Vincent decided to drink his coffee in his study, he sat down and pulled out a book from the shelf. The book was an ancient dusty tome, he opened it and read lazily as he drank his coffee. By the time he had finished his fourth cup of coffee he heard Arianna coming down the stairs. Coming into the room, she asked him, "so I was wondering if I could get that training now?"

He looked up from the characters and scribbles in the book he was reading. "I was just thinking about that, and I did a little reading on your specific arcana. Before I can help you with learning and focusing your skill, I need to set some ground rules. First you are going to be in my head a little for training purposes. I've got some memories and thoughts hidden away. You will not dig into them, I will give you things to dig into but some things are off limits. I need to be able to trust you in this. Second, you need to trust me. Honestly you're lucky you found me instead of a lesser learned mage. So if I say something you have to listen to it. We will be from here on out Master and Apprentice. If you agree to these two ground rules, then you have my word and bond I will help you and assist in your training." He watched her closely as he spoke, concern on his face. Mages attacking other mages, it didn't bode well, hopefully Arianna could help. Most of all he hoped he didn't get her killed.

"So if you still want to go forward, I need to know what you can do, how far do your skill go right now." He tried to look as unconcerned as possible, 'I hope we both don't wind up dead.' He thought as he tried to hide that thought deep in his mind.

[Liana]

"So I can't guarantee that I will look into your mind. I can promise that it's not on purpose though. I'm happy I found you to. I saw some bad things as a child and I'm pretty sure that most people would use my powers for there own personal gain. I'm working on trusting you. Believe me it's not something that comes naturally to me. Believe me if I didn't trust you even a little bit I would have been long gone."

She smiled at him. "Don't worry!"

"Honestly most of the spells I did yesterday I was pulling out of my butt. Anyways I compiled a list of things I did. My emotions sorta guided me. But I don't want to get angry or worried or freaked every time I want to cast a spell. So maybe we can start with that. I sorta relaxed mind before I came down here, so maybe we can start away."

And with that they started training.

By the time there first training session was over Arianna was exhausted. "I'm going to shower and then bed, goodnight."

After a long hot shower she crawled into her bed and waited. After awhile she heard the door close in the room down the hall. She relaxed and started mediation. Once she heard the sound of snoring from the other room. She quietly got out of the bed and tiptoed down into the room that he used as an office. She quickly got through the set of barriers that he had set up. And started to riffle through his desk. She found the book that he had been looking at when she had come in earlier.

She opened the book and started reading the weird scribbles and characters. She knew she shouldn't be able to read it but she was able to. She sat down on the floor and became fixated on the book.