Part 55 (1/2)
”With Crispus gone, the Quirinal was in power But a small faction of us rose froed olves and otherkin kind” His eyes lit up like fiery bijoux ”Before the splitting, Rome embraced all fors we could do Loup garou and berserkers and so forth Unfortunately, there were not enough of us to put an end to the Grigori, as should have been donebut we ori should be watched So that is e have done We broke frohters of Romulus and headed north To Stromovka And so becaood? We do good by keeping an eye on those who do bad”
He pointed through the opening of the Holloith his finger directly to Prague and the Districts of Magic The places I o I felt a prickle of fear
”The Stroue,” said Laurinaitis ”It surrounds itLike a great ori and Rome, between the Dark Order and Ro all this tiori will do”
”'Watching' is a good wordas will be shown But it was not the Grigori alone, our vigilance extended to It included the Dark Order”
I did the ned in 1887 That would make Rayven hundreds of years oldan expert spellcaster Way beyond fledged Better than et,” said Laurinaitis, ”so times Rayven, as he's called, is ancient In the lexicon of the Grigori, he is the worst” He passed me an aperitif The snow had let up, but the torch-side chat continued ”Prague was bad then,” he said ”Now it is a dangerous place, even if you don't have ,” said Laurinaitis ”Magic is growing once ic That knowledge alone would require this gathering you know, I think we should get Manon,” he said to Asher
”We know you wish to go there,” continued Laurinaitis, as Asher got up to go, ”to Prague,” he said
”Don't do it The friendshi+p of our two families is paramountperhaps we can repair old ties, and settle this matter once and for alland reunite the Benandanti and Roori have the advantage But together”
Did he ht he did? Were the Benandanti still interested in eliori? And if so, did they need our help? It had been a hundred and twenty-five yearsfive Gathering's-worth since the Dark Days As for two fahters of Romulus Not really Families lived in houses and I still needed to find lad I had not won the race It enabled hters of Romulus need Ballard back?
”Think about it Ravenseal is tottering The Master House wants them And when they say they come for you, Ravenseal comes on behalf of them Surely you know this?” said Laurinaitis ”If we do not coori will corow our numbersbut so do they And there are other parties involved, such as the Master House Our story's getting out of hand The Magister Equitu depends upon it”
Asher and Manon were back Manon looked tousle-haired ”I was sleeping,” she said ”hello, Halsey”
”Hi” I nodded ”But why me?” I said ”Who am I?”
”The two shall be explained,” said Laurinaitis ”But right now, as an answer to your question, I will say thisit was your parents, Kinsey and Max R, who set things inmay indeed be in order down the road, where others will be included, but for now let us rattle this out together Ballard knows everything of which I'm about to tell you
”How does he know? It's simple As Head Wolf, Ballard is privy to certain inside information As was Lorenzo before hiot in the face of the Quirinal,” said Laurinaitis
”The Quirinal had forgotten the Last War, you see, or wished to When the covenant was signed, that was the end of it But for the Grigori
”The aftermath resulted in a xenophobic desire of sortsyou to your corner, we to ours Even those few of the Lenoirwho had taken on the nareat wizardas a hunter will display his hornswere excommunicated, banished from the city Rome fell to ruin and the olves to their banethat of willful ignorance Rome used to be very cos The war, the other sides Even,” said Laurinaitis, ”their own ic Yes The olves have some Occasionally, one or two of them will discover it Meanwhile, the rest of them feel content to put it in its box, until today they do not know they possess it Don't you know that the Sons and Daughters of Romulus happen also to be Wiccans? We all do But Wiccans of a certain type Magic is in many voices, Miss Rookic split, but we all got a piece Even the olves”
”What about the Grigori? Do they have Magic?” I asked, thinking about Rayven, and wondering if his mark could be explained soiven it to him, specifically, and the others were ic; so do the Sons and Daughters of Romulus; so do we Eclectics is a term traditional Wicca-craft uses to shun The Three wish to reood,” said Manon
”The real purpose in Hiving,” said Laurinaitis, ”was as a check against The Second War The Wiccan purges, they called it Wizards and witches iped out during the warkilledin it, we acquitted ourselves well, but blood was everywhere, and on everyone's hands, including the vampires It made it convenient that so feizards and witches were left Their nureater beca cry of sortscovens had to split, hive Peace was the order of the daylike the reduction of nuclear armsbut a false peace Everyone knew the Dark Order still existed But who cared, if in the short-term wounds could be healed, and the days of darkness finally be forgotten?
”I have often thought of those three words: The Last War Is it the last war because there is another one coic will be wiped from the universe? In any event, the Last War never really ended It si of this, I asked you about rebirth, which is the symbol on this necklace,” I said, ”and you said it was like a compass, that there were four cardinal points”
I turned it up and saw the syue) to me
This was like thatOnly inverted in a way The vaori, the benandanti, and the Sons and Daughters of Romulus: or in my mind olves and ailuranthropes
The north sye My fourth Protector would have a connection to fire Fire pointed north All the way to Selwyn Could that be it or was I reading these tea leaves wrong? If this was Lennox and that was Ballard, was I in a love triangle with them both? Did I want to be? I remembered Infester's words He was really the syht me they came before usthat the symbols were the key to my own destiny and the destiny of others
Rebirth This swirl doodad, here, factored in, somehow
Laurinaitis held up the necklace And here I thought I was done with the symbols
”The four points, North, South, East, West, are for the Watchtowers,” he said, ”the protettori as they were called, those who defended Magic” He seeet it” Some Chosen One Everyone at the table looked at me like I was clueless; I felt like I was Excuse me if I had never been indoctrinated before
”Before he died, Pendderwenn told me my parents were Watchtowers Powerful Wiccans, he called them But who are the Watchtowers?” I said
”It's who they were,” said Laurinaitis pointing the triangle back down
Grabbing some carrot sticks off his plate, Laurinaitis chomped them, until he made this symbol: ”This is the Wiccan syer into the salad dressing ”Earth Air Fire Water” He drew theether
”What does that look like to you?” he said
I shrugged ”Like the four cardinal points?” I said
Laurinaitis seeue, you have a fairly accurate representation of the initial splitting of Magic,” he said ”Like a coic split into Three, the Covens, the Harcorts, and the Ravenseals, did it not? So why are there four Houses?”
It reminded me of my Four Protectors One, two, three, four of theht in the center, which I had understood to mean Selwyn But if that were the case, ere the sy me from?
From this? I filled it inme from all comers? From all corners? From the vaori in Prague? And froht about it, it was an awful lot like the triskele onThree circles, and a center The Protection sy was my Four Protectors
”Actually,” Laurinaitis said, ”there's five Look in the center of the four and you'll see a fifth eleht
He pointed the to the circle, number 5 ”I'll help you
”You have been told about it before You must've been, if you were selected Neophytes aren't allowed to not know this, Halsey Rook a blank Manon helpedthat I could think was that it was ic circle? That it represented Ballard, so her three Wiccan fingertips together, willing ot it
”The aether,” I said ”The is the aether”
Laurinaitis nodded ”That's right,” he said ”The circle is the fifth element, and it is also called spirit, or soul It is the ethereal, the intangible, the unbelievable, without which there is no ic”
So did that ic? Ballard, Lennox, Selwyn, Marek? That they all could craft? Or were they protecting ic split FOUR waysBut there are only THREE Housesbut there are FIVE elementsand there are Watchtowers What cas
I was thinking about the four triangles shooting off in different directions Earth, Air, Fire, Water Like a House of Fire, or a House of Air And spirit, or soul, the fifth eleible, the illusory