._Ravina Loki's Raevan

[Ravina Loki]

A Suitable Place
April 29th, 2017

She awoke with her alarm achy, stiff, and just a little chilly. The sun was up and the birds were singing but Anya paid neither much mind as she got up and started prepping for her day. She dug the list she had written out of her bag with her hairbrush, frowning at the former while working her long locks with the latter. She had so many options open to her, so where to start?

"Mmm..." She flicked her eyes to the numerous methods that called for burning and/or chanting, realizing the park perhaps wouldn't be the best place to conduct these counter curses. "Unless..."

She floated down from her perch and let her skin soak up the mid-morning sun. Before she did anything regarding her list she'd scope out her current base of choice. It'd be good to get a lay of the land and the sun would provide a little nourishment along the way. She'd need her strength for what she was about to under go. But just as important she'd need a good place that was away from prying eyes, safe and preferably as soundproof as possible. Here and there along the path she diverted into the brush, looking at how the trees and shrubbery grew and trying to find a clear, open space between them so as not to risk starting a massive wild fire. She thought she was once told or heard that trees in close proximity to one another were a natural sound barrier, but the thought was vague and she was uncertain, but not unwilling to test that idea out all the same. At the very least a solid wall of trees and bushes would make her hard to spot. That alone was plus enough.

Anya made her way through the park until she reached a multi-way split in the road. A multiple pronged sign pointed in each direction and gave each destination a name. Blinking up at it, she was pleased to see 'Grill Spot' marked on one of the sign posts. Just what she had been hoping to see! The Widow went to check the spot out, finding exactly four upright grills, a roofed patio with no walls, a concrete floor and a decent number of picnic tables both under the cover of the patio and out in the open. There was even a fire pit! Better yet, the trees and bushes around the spot were tall and close knit and made it so this place could not be seen from the main path. And if the taller grass was anything to go by, no one had come by here yet to prep it for the summer picnic season.

It's perfect. Now she could get started!  

[Ravina Loki]

Meanwhile...
April 29th, 2017

Sleep had been hard to come by last night. Any Zeke had gotten had been short, poor, and fraught with far too many bad dreams for him to want to sleep anyway. Eventually however his body would give in - he was exhausted after all in every sense of the word - and it'd be back to square one again. Toss, turn, turn, toss; then awaken with a start to look around the room with frightened unfamiliarity until it all sunk back in again.

Finally the time came when he awoke as though he had been out all night partying - sunlight streaming through the windows and making his eyes water and burn, headache, dry mouth, lethargy. But when he realized that it was daytime, really daytime, Zeke shot out of bed and all but launched himself down the flight of stairs to get to the first floor as quickly as possible.

"You know...It's entirely possible she's waiting for us to go to bed before she comes back."

Brad's words from last night after their long search and numerous attempts to reach Anya had failed. He had looked at Zeke with a kind of reserved consideration as he slowly spoke those words but the vet had seen the worry and stress setting in on the older man. He had been hoping too.

"She's upset and I don't think she'd like to face either of us after all this, at least not right away."

It had been a solid idea. Rational. Possible. Plausible. Brad was as good at coming up with those as he was at calming Zeke down after the vet had melted down and told him everything that had happened. Naturally the architect had been alarmed by the whole situation but he had focused first on getting his boyfriend out of the distressed zone he had bodily thrown himself into. Anya, he had reasoned to Zeke while putting a cold pack on his brand new shiner, wouldn't go far. She was angry but the farthest she had ever gone before when angered was her room. They'd give her another hour or so to cool off and if she hadn't come back by that point then they would go out and search. The Widow had plenty of local haunts and was sure to be at any one of them.

Zeke had nodded and agreed but that hour had dragged on and the vet had found himself toeing the line between calm and distressed all over again. He paced, he wrung his hands, and he told himself that Brad was right until finally the allotted time had passed and they were both hopping into Brad's car.

"We'll leave the light on for her and in the morning we'll...We'll all talk."

Zeke sped through the house before stopping dead at Anya's bedroom door. His heart was pounding in his chest and head while simultaneously caught in his throat. He wanted to just burst in and confirm that she was there but he knew he couldn't and damn well shouldn't do that and why. Slowly he raised his shaking hand and knocked, waiting as the sound died and silence filled the air. He tried a second time, then cleared his throat.

"Anya? I'm coming in."

The door creaked as he opened it but it needn't open all the way before his heart sunk. Her bed was empty and the room vacant. A little whine made its way into the back of his throat but before it could get any farther Zeke pivoted and opened up the door to Anya's workshop to the same result.

Outside. Maybe she's outside.

Warm sunny days like this were the best for the morning sunbathing the Widow liked to do. Zeke cut through her room to get into the backyard, looking behind bushes and even up in the trees for her.

No such luck.

He went back in and searched the rest of the house but there was no Anastacia waiting for them.

She didn't come home last night.

The thought alone put a sickly churn in his gut even as rational thoughts came pouring on in after it. She wasn't missing as in kidnapped or something, no! No, Anya had simply stayed the night at someone's house. That had to be it. She was close to enough to a number of Raevans and plenty of them were Durem residents. She could have easily begged or snapped at them to not give away her whereabouts, sure. Hell, she could have been smuggled in through a bedroom window rather than going through the front door so as not to alert that particular Raevan's Guardian!

He could have laughed if the little needles of doubt wasn't making his stomach flip.

But if not a Durem resident...then she could have easily gotten picked up by or happened upon a Gambino Raevan on a trip to Durem. It'd be way farther than she'd ever been when angry before but then again she had been really ******** angry at the time so in some strange way it made sense to Zeke. It was believable at the very least.

But then again...Who could she be with right now? The Raevan in question might not be one she knows, rather one she just so happened to have come across between home and wherever she had gone. There were far too many options and narrowing them down could either be difficult or alarmingly easy.

Mounting the steps, Zeke went back upstairs, with Brad giving him a wondering tilt of his head to which Zeke replied with a shake of his own as he reentered their bedroom.

"I have an idea, though." He smiled weakly and held up his phone when he picked it up from the nightstand, already pulling names and their respective numbers into one big group text as he sat down on the bed. "Someone's bound to have seen her. And if not on the street then she must have spent the night at someone's house. Plenty of local folks and who knows, maybe she ran into Iorek or Cesc or another one from Gambino and got all the way out there."

"Worth a shot," Brad gave a tired rumble and pecked Zeke on the cheek. "I'll go make some coffee; let me know if you hear anything back."

"Mm." He finished adding in every Guardian and Raevan with a listed number he had and started typing the message. As he wrote, he found he felt a little better. This was a sure thing.

And if he was wrong...well...the word was going to be out. With an added picture everyone was certain to know what she looked like and would know her in an instant.

Even if she tried to deny it.

He hoped she wouldn't.

This is a group text going out to everyone associated with the Lab. My Raevan, Anastacia, has gone MIA as of yesterday afternoon after an argument and didn't come home last night. I think she might have gone to someone's house to blow off some steam but I haven't been able to reach her. If you've seen her or know where she is PLEASE call me!!! And...If she's with you, please tell her I'm sorry.

His phone gave a tiny 'boop' and then the message and photo were off in a million different directions. However, he opted to neglect three in particular - Jeremy, Laz, and of course Kyou. The two former were obvious with their ties to the latter who needed - and deserved - to be spoken to about this, rather than informed via a shared message.

This wasn't going to be easy to put in any way, but Zeke steeled himself, took a breath, and dialed the doctor.

"Hi, Kyou? It's Ze--Yeah it's me..."
 

[Ravina Loki]

Black Salt
April 29th, 2017

She began with a trip to the supermarket in order to collect the necessary supplies. Many of the counter curses she had found involved a lot of herbs, which the grocery store had in spades. In fact, they had a whole wall dedicated to the subject, which was a little staggering for the Frei when she got to it. Bay, clove, peppermint, spearmint, thyme, basil, mustard seed, pepper, turmeric, rosemary, sage, saffron...

"Oh. Oh no. I am not paying that much for this." She put the saffron back. $24 for a bottle that was just a thin tube with some tiny petal-looking things inside and a whole lot of air in between? No thank you. She looked at what she had slipped into her basket, then at her list. Onion and garlic could be gotten at the produce section so that would be her next stop. First however she needed salt. Two kinds of it. The first was right there with the rest of the herbs and spices - coarse white sea salt. She opted for the bigger container, figuring the size and quantity would be worth the couple extra dollars in the long run. The second, however, did not seem to be present.

"Black salt...black salt..." She looked over the wall of dried herbs again and even went a little farther past them on either side just to be safe. Nothing. Frowning, the Widow pulled her phone out and looked it up online. The first hits listed her missing item as a rock salt used in South Asian cooking, but that couldn't be right. Scrolling down the page, related searches had what she was looking for:

'Black Ritual Salt'

"Two parts sea salt to one part cast iron skillet scrapings, finely ground black pepper, OR fire pit ash. Well alright then, I have that last one in spades."

She was smart indeed to get the sea salt in the big container. Content, she departed for produce, ignoring another call from Zeke as her phone rang in her bag.

---

An hour later Anya was back at her camp, going through her items and checking off her makeshift grocery list. Various herbs, check. Onion and garlic, check. Salt, check. Pack of cheesecloth, check. Water, check. White candle, check, even if it was a small, unscented thing. She had even splurged on a pair of scissors, a box of plastic cutlery, a box of matches, and a pan so small she wasn't sure what anyone would or could cook in it regularly. No matter on that, it would serve her purposes just fine. All in all she was set but after everything was said and done it did leave her funds looking a little shabby. If she needed anything else for these she'd have to be frugal.

One of these will work. I know it will. She was right on track to her 8pm deadline.

The first counter measure she decided to try was the simplest - the black salt. The book she pulled it from said that to free oneself from foul witchcraft or a curse one simply had to cast black salt into a fire to burn. From there anything performed against the caster would cling to the salt and burn away in the flames. It did not give measurements, but with her two to one recipe thanks to Google Anya decided to measure the ingredients out by teaspoon.

A little goes a long way, she told herself as she scooped two spoonfuls of salt into her pan and went to get one scoop of ashes from the fire pit. She mixed the ingredients together until the salt and ashes had combined into a murky grey blend of the two.

Okay so I just...start a fire and toss it in. Easy. Dry wood and leaves from the surrounding bushes and some unburnt bits from the firepit made for good kindling. The first page of a free paper she had picked up on her way out of the supermarket would serve as a starter. As she got the fire going in one of the grills she looked back over her paper again. Nothing listed about chanting or words to say or anything of the sort. Just toss it in and...wait, she supposed.

Anya also supposed it wouldn't hurt to think of her burden being burnt along with the black salt. Maybe it'd help it along, make it go all the quicker. She was willing to try at least.

When the fire was fully burning the Widow readied herself. She scooped her black salt out of the pan and held it in her palm. If the ashes stained her skin so be it, that would be a small, temporary price to pay for this ritual working. Making a fist around the salt, she held her hand out over the flames - high enough where she wouldn't burn herself - and closed her lavender eyes tight.

"I'm cursed through no fault of my own. Someone chose to curse me before I was born in order to keep a part of me at bay because they thought I would be dangerous because of it." She squeezed her hand and felt the granules dig into her skin. "Ridiculous."

She reeled back and threw the black salt into the fire, opening her eyes as it started to hiss and spit, pop and crack. The flames turned a bright orange and Anya made herself close her eyes again in order to imagine the curse as a big black shadow rise from her shoulders and into the flames where it screamed and died before her.

Then she waited.

And waited.

And waited more.

Slowly she reopened one eye, then the other, and frowned at the flames that had gone back to a normal red-orange color again.

She didn't feel any different. She looked down; she hadn't grown either.

"Dammit."  

[Ravina Loki]

Naturopathy
April 29th, 2017

Although her first attempt had failed Anastacia was not going to let that deter her. She had a list more of things to try and while one had failed another was sure to be the answer to her prayers. Rinsing out the pan of the salt and ash mixture of her first try, the Frei considered her other options.

"Mmm...The herbs maybe."

Many of the counter curses she came across in the library involved herbs in some way. Apparently not only did they make human food taste good they were also wonderfully helpful in magic. Many of the ones she had bought also overlapped as far as WHAT they could be used for magically which she felt was helpful and nice to have working for her. Two methods that stuck out she could even do at once for a little overlap there too, even if the second method literally wasn't her cup of tea.

"What I want is to be cleansed, to end the curse by breaking it, to release myself from it, and have success with this so...Bay, basil, rosemary, peppermint, spearmint, thyme, cloves, garlic, and onion is what I definitely want."

She started pulling bottles out of her shopping bag, looking at labels and setting aside the chosen few on a picnic table. The onion and garlic were freed from their plastic produce bags and set down next to them - a big purple onion selected for its pretty color and a single white garlic bulb. Two cheesecloths were set aside from the package she had bought as well. If one method could be done with wet ingredients or dry she'd be silly not to try both!

Anya fed her little grill fire to bring it back to life and got to work. She filled her pan halfway with water and set that on the grill to boil while she prepped her first cheesecloth. This one would be the dry burn, no water involved at all. Measurements had once again been lacking in the library books so she stuck with her teaspoon's worth of each herb in turn, except for the bay leaves which she opted to use only one of in the bundle. Setting those aside to soak in the sun - because the books had mentioned the sun and moon granted certain powers to spells including strength thereof - Anya turned to her garlic and onion and got busy cutting those apart.

It was a difficult task to start with before she tossed aside her plastic butter knife in order to use her wings instead. Sure the 'cuts' were more like 'stabs' and the pieces were hardly equal in size or thickness but she figured that didn't matter much. Inclusion was far more important than size.

"Okay now a couple pieces of onion and a clove of garlic, a pinch of salt for all that does, and then I gather the cheesecloth together and tie it off." She wrinkled her nose at the smell of the onion and garlic permeating everything - her fingers and wings now included - but did as she had written. A little yarn made for a quick and easy tie and there she had it; one bundle down one to go.

By this time her water was boiling so she moved the pan away from the fire as best she could so it wouldn't boil over. One spoonful at a time she added each ingredient in turn, ending with a couple pieces of onion, a whole clove of garlic, and a pinch of salt. She mixed it together and let it all simmer, keeping a mindful eye while she put some distance between herself and the pungent aroma coming from the pan.

She couldn't say she was looking forward to drinking the remainder if the smell was any indication of the taste, but again she told herself that it just might be the one to work so she had to suck it up. A few moments of a bad taste in her mouth was the price well worth to pay for releasing her curse should the bundles fail in the meantime.

When she felt that everything had simmered enough Anya took the pan from the flames and brought it over to the table to prepare into a bundle. Getting everything out was difficult with her plastic spoon so she left a little behind to float in the water, figuring whatever was left would add that much more oomph to her tea. When she was done tying off the second bundle her fingers really were stained with the juice leaking out of the cloth, a green-ish color that looked like it was going to stay fast in the creases of her fingertips no matter how hard she scrubbed later.

Ah well, she had accepted that small price to pay. The Widow gathered up both and carried them over to the grill, pausing a moment as she tried to decide which one to toss in first. If she was going to overlap the magic she figured she might as well go all the way with it and tossed both in at the same time. The dry bundle went up immediately while the wet one hissed and smoked. The fact it was going so slowly made her feel better about it's effectiveness and so she tried imagining her curse leaving her body again.

"I was cursed before I was born and I want it gone." Anya reached out over the smoke billowing from the fire with both hands as if beseeching it. "Please get rid of it! Take it away from me! Do whatever you want with it, just take it and let me grow!!!"

She held the pose until the bag had burned up, little pieces of smoldering cheesecloth rising in the air and burning out before they touched the sandy ground around the grill.

"...Please?" She watched a larger scrap float up and then slowly come to rest at her ribbon's end. A tremor ran through her, but nothing that signified that her curse had been lifted or that she was suddenly growing. "Please, please, please, pleeeeeeease..."

She floated on the spot, shaking, balling her hands into fists at her sides. She bit her lip, trying to contain the frustration that was starting to make her temple pound.

"Fine. That didn't work. Next..." She turned toward the picnic table and the pan that rested upon it. Floating over, she gingerly touched it to make sure it was cool enough to handle then picked it up. It still smelled awful even when cooled down but without a moment's hesitation Anya raised the metal to her lips and took a big gulp.

Her regret was immediate.

"Urgh!" Sputtering and coughing, Anya grabbed the gallon of water she had bought and rinsed her mouth out as best she could. Then she dumped the rest of the contents of the pan on the ground and grabbed her list. Taking up the pen she inadvertently stole from the library, Anya scratched out everything that she had written about eating, drinking, or otherwise ingesting the various tinctures she had read about. "No, no, no, no, NO!! There is no way in hell I am going to do that again!"

Throwing both down again, the Widow Raevan spat on the ground and made a face. God she could still TASTE it!!!  

[Ravina Loki]

Contemplation
April 29th, 2017

Despite marking off each and every edible counter curse and swearing them off Anya still took it upon herself to suck on a dried mint leaf in the time between her previous attempt and her next one. The oddly cooling leaf did wonders to clear her taste buds of the concoction she had downed a mouthful of. But even as she successfully got rid of the foul taste she sat there stewing and mentally kicking herself for trusting someone who suggested drinking a lukewarm mix of several different herbs and spices.

Guaranteed to work my rune. She scribbled over the pen marks she had made in her paper previously until every word was obscured behind black loops and jags. Ugh, she let her desperation make her inconsiderate and stupid, but she wouldn't be so quick to jump before looking at the next one. Looking down her now shortened list, the Frei considered her remaining options.

"The candle? Maybe..."

'Take a white candle and anoint it with your blood. Place the candle in a bowl filled halfway with salt water. Light the candle and let it burn. When the flame of the candle hits the water, the curse will be destroyed.'

She chewed her mint leaf, frowning. Blood? She had none she could reach - the curse seemed to have taken any ability to bleed from her now that she thought about it. How many times had she been scraped or hurt and not bled where others had? That one was out then--

"Unless I could use something else?" Sweat was a no for the same reason and she didn't want to have to maim herself for a little skin. "Maybe my hair?"

She raised her hand and ran her fingers through her long locks, pulling a few loose strands out in the process. She held them up before her eyes.

"That could work." Sweat, blood, hair...Did it really matter so long as it was her own? She didn't see why it would. Her hair was as much a part of her as her blood, just easier to get to. It was worth a shot anyway. She fished the little candle out of her shopping bag and slowly wound those strands around it. She was glad she went with the smallest single candle she could buy - it wouldn't take as long to burn as the others had even if those had looked a bit more magical with their long tapers than the stumpy one she bought. Time was of the essence here, especially with Zeke's phone calls becoming even more frequent and incessant now. Ugh that man.

But she considered time as she finished her current task, shading her eyes from the sun as she looked up at the midday sky. Maybe she was doing things at the wrong time of day. The sun was powerful in magic, so said her research, but the moon was somehow more so. Or maybe it was just nighttime in general, something about the dark and shadows that filled a spell with more mysticism. She didn't rightly know. All the same, she had to frown at the notion. She really didn't want to wait and had hoped to keep her makeshift deadline of tonight to have this curse gone.

But maybe that's why the other spells didn't work. I wasn't doing them at the right time. Maybe the sun...I don't know...squanched the magic because it's the kind that only works when it's dark out. Some stupid unspoken rule of magic or something.

Anastacia had to consider it a possibility. And if it was possible, she'd have to try. The only downside was now she'd have to wait and she hated waiting.

Do I? Should I? She considered what she had left for money. She could theoretically try these spells all day long but replenishing her spent ingredients would cost her. If she needed something else after the fact she'd be screwed then. She also didn't want to have to resort to petty theft - getting caught would bring its own world of unneeded troubles her way. And with her luck going the way it was already she just knew that would happen, so she really did want to avoid it if at all possible.

I'll wait. I'll just...Go for a walk I guess. Kill some time, get some fresher air...maybe I just really need to clear my head...  

[Ravina Loki]

The Candle
April 29th, 2017

Anya returned at sundown with a clearer head, a fuller rune, and a stronger resolve. The walk had done her good and had been exactly the thing she had needed. She had gotten the chance to destress and had even strayed to a nearby beach to soak in the sun and salty air for a couple of hours. It did wonders.

I'm ready to try again. She looked over her camp with renewed certainty, striking out to her hiding place to fetch the things she needed for the candle ritual. She got the fire started again in a different grill and pulled together her needful things.

Two parts salt to one part water should do it... Using her cellphone as a makeshift flashlight the Widow hmm'd and mmm'd as she read the recipe over again. Like with the other counter curses she had tried it seemed magic users were allergic to definite measurements and forced her to wing it. Maybe I should have taken a cup of ocean water back with me.

She got the water and salt together in the pan and got that slowly warming over the small fire. She didn't know if the water was supposed to be heated or not, but supposed that if she wanted to do this good thing for herself and do it right she might as well put as much good energy into it as she could. That made sense to her and for Anya, warmth was always a good thing.

When the water started to boil she took it off and let it sit to avoid having her candle melt the moment she dropped it in. She held the hair-wrapped little stub of a candle in between her palms, squeezing it tight as she quietly prayed for this to work. Between squeezes and unspoken prayers she murmured once again what had befallen her before her birth and was to be undone.

"So please, please work. I know I have other options to try but if the curse can be broken with this spell then I would be so, so happy. So grateful too."

Anya waited for the ripples the candle made being set into the pan to subside before she struck another match and lit the wick.

"OHH!!!" Immediately the strands that had been left closest to that point ignited and filled the area with the acrid stench of burnt hair. Anya recoiled from the picnic table, covering her nose with her hands and trying in vain to rub the stink of it out. Does my hair really smell like that?! God she had never known something could smell so awful! Even that stew of herbs and spices hadn't smelled as bad!

The candle flame flickered and Anya kept watch over it from afar for a time, shifting between watching it burn and sniffing a handful of her hair. A short time later, however, she became restless.

"This is a slow-go counter curse I guess." The instructions had said to let the candle burn until the flame hit the water. Magic or not this particular try was going to take some time. And while Anya had a clearer head her patience and lack there of was not something so easily fixed by a simple jaunt around town.

She could do more while this counter curse brewed.  

[Ravina Loki]

Real Magic
April 29th, 2017

She really wasn't sure about this one. Out of all the things she had looked into and been willing to try, this one had to be the dumbest sounding one of the lot.

But maybe that was the key. The spell least considered or deemed laughable at best was the one to actually work. Maybe she should have started with with this one and saved herself the massive headache.

Ah well, Too late for that now, literally. In the time between leaving the candle to burn largely unattended and now Anya had spent the last few hours trying out other things on her list. Different herb blends made into tiny bundles and burnt or buried or even just shaken all about before being undone and having their contents released to the wind. Tiny pictures - what they meant, she didn't rightly know - scratched into the sandy ground with a stick and then hmm'd and mmm'd over until she blew them away with a breath. Even tying a few other sticks into a vaguely human shape and offering it to the grill to burn; she had tried all this and more to no result and now her headache was back.

The candle was as slow as ever, burning lower and lower but still a league away from the water's surface that was now probably ice cold. Anya tried not to look at it too much - she found that doing so over the last hour made her temples pound more and the urge to just smack the damn thing off the table was increasing at an alarming rate. But she couldn't do that. It could be the one, even if it was slower than molasses in January.

I can't believe it's come down to this. Overhead heat lightning lit up the sky with increasing frequency, blasting the area with white light and throwing remaining shadows into striking, jagged shapes. The first bolt had scared her to the point that she had jerked and erased one of the odd shapes she had found in one of the books by accident. But now they had become commonplace and in truth she was grateful for their - albeit brief - light. Her phone's battery was in the red and she had to save what she could in between the incessant calls and texts from Brad and Zeke. Plus something about the lightning itself just made her feel more right about this one.

It was a sign. It had to be.

Draw your sigil...What IS a sigil? Anya squinted at the page, frowning, furrowing her brows. She had no idea what it meant but the word 'sigil' was awfully close to 'Sigel' wasn't it? Perhaps it was where Kyou got the idea for the name of that particular Raevan stage of life, even! So I...Draw a Sigel. No...I draw myself AS a Sigel!

She tore the blank space left on the page from her list and picked up her pen. At each flash of lightning she worked on her self portrait adding two curved lines below the little u's she made for her breasts. She shortened her ribbon, increased her wing size, and posed her hands on her newly formed hips in a victorious defiance to the odds. The Widow even went so far as to draw herself smiling with a big C-shape for her mouth. She'd have reason to look the part after all! When she was satisfied she held the drawing up and let the lightning do its thing with making the paper all but glow with each flash.

If there was power at night then surely there would be power from light at night, especially if that light was lightning.

Anya neared the grill.

"Cast your sigil into the flames and as it burns speak your desires in reverse! Let the new words formed from the old give life to your spell with the sigil acting as its first breath!"

The embers in the grill glowed red, dimmer now and waiting. Overhead another bolt arched across the sky and seven heartbeats after came a burst of thunder so loud it felt like her very rune was vibrating in the aftermath of it. Maybe she had simply started shaking. She raised her drawing over the grill as the trees started swaying in a sudden gust of wind. It almost pulled the paper out of her fingers, but Anya held fast and whipped her Sigel in.

Flames burst from the edges of the paper and burned inward, blackening and curling the paper. The ink on top started to boil before being burnt away. With a toss of her head the Frei looked up at the sky and reached for the lightning that arched overhead. In her right hand she held another paper and started to read:

"Erew yeht gnorw woh enoyreve ot evorp nac i taht os worg em tel! Tnemnosirpmi tsujnu sti morf ecnesse ym eerf! Esruc ym kaerb!"

The wind howled, the thunder boomed. The sky light up white-purple and rain blinded her arachnid eyes as the downpour started. It was icy and sudden, soaking her through in a moment's notice. But even as she hissed at the feeling and she felt the urge to run she held fast. She stretched her arms farther, floated higher, and screamed the words over and over as she fought to be heard over the storm that set itself upon her.

"Erew yeht gnorw woh enoyreve ot evorp nac i taht os worg em tel! Tnemnosirpmi tsujnu sti morf ecnesse ym eerf! Esruc ym kaerb! Erew yeht gnorw woh enoyreve ot evorp nac i taht os worg em tel! Tnemnosirpmi tsujnu sti morf ecnesse ym eerf! Esruc ym kaerb! EREW YEHT GNORW WOH ENOYREVE OT EVORP NAC I TAHT OS WORG EM TEL! TNEMNOSIRPMI TSUJNU STI MORF ENCESSE YM EERF! ESRUC YM KAERB!!!"

She was blinded. By rain, by light, by her own doing as she closed her eyes. But then there was a crack and Anya shrieked and took wing when a large oak bough came crashing down behind her. Splinters rained down after it but then went airborne as the wind whipped through and carried them off to god only knew where. Anya watched as nature did as nature did and took everything with it. Leaves were ripped from trees and from underneath brush and sent blowing across the clearing. The ground became muddy under the weight of the rain coming down upon it.

Her candle was submerged. Her fire was fighting, struggling, and then finally defeated to where even the smoke from the remains was unable to lift itself up.

Anya watched, frozen and wide-eyed, wondering if this was her doing. She found herself voiceless, unable to do naught but try and keep herself anchored, stabbing her wings into the nearest tree and digging her nails into its bark. She grit her teeth as the world seemed to be exploding around her; hoping, wishing, praying.

Please be the one!!

---

When she regained her hearing she discovered she was panting from exhaustion and exertion, gripping the tree she had hidden all of her things in. The storm was over but it lingered as a ringing in her ears and clinging, uncomfortable all-over dampness that flattened her hair and made her skin break out in goosebumps. Slowly Anya opened her lavender eyes - but at what point did she close them, she could not say - and took in the world around her.

It was almost as if there hadn't been a storm at all. The world was quiet, filled only with the sounds of water dripping off of leaves, the Widow's ragged breathing, and her own heart. She rose to her normal height - and like her eyes being closed, she had no idea as to when she had gotten so low to the ground - and slipped out into the clearing, shaking and in disbelief.

"Did it...?" She startled at the hoarse croak of her voice, putting a hand to her throat and pressing it there. The fire was out completely with the remains of what had been keeping it burning up until that point all over the ground in front of it in a big, wet heap. Looking toward the picnic table, the pan was on the ground and the candle was lying a few feet from it in a puddle. Her phone somehow remained on the table top but when she neared it the screen suddenly glowed bright and then went black. It was finally dead. "Oh."

In the blackened screen Anya could just make out her figure in the dark. She reached for her phone then stayed her hand. It shook, but now not from the awe of the storm. Now it was of pain. Now it was of sadness.

Now it was of anger.

"GODDAMMIT!" She grabbed a fistful of her ribbon below her bosom and yanked on it hard before throwing it down to the ground again, whereupon it curled as Anya sank down too. Why? Why? Why didn't it work?!

It had the most promise! The storm, the words, it all felt so right in the moment! Anastacia felt sick and she curled forward until her forehead touched the ground, where she proceeded to rub it in as she shook her head back and forth.

"It's not fair!!!" Her words were sobs now. "It should have worked! It's magic! I did the magic like the stupid book said! Like they all said! And nothing worked!"

From somewhere deep inside came a cry unlike all the others. It shook her to her core.

"It should have worked. I...I did it. I did it all like the books said to. Magic can be undone, curses can be broken...So why didn't mine...?"

She sniffled, forcing herself up to take hold of her phone. She tried to turn it on but her fingers kept slipping off the button and screen. When she was finally able to hold it fast nothing happened. The battery truly was dead.

Anya threw it with all her strength. It ricocheted off a tree and came to land next to her fallen bag. Its canvas was soaked and some of the contents were no better off - the yarn was a loss, her needles scattered, the file--

The file. She stared at it with her mouth agape before she launched herself toward it, scrambling through mud and wet ash and mostly burnt bits of wood before her fingers were full of grass and that was being thrown over her shoulders. The last foot was a skid on her front and her fingertips brushed the manila cover before she thrust herself the extra few inches and ripped it wide open.

Magic. Magic could be undone. Spells unwound. Curses could be broken. Things could be made right...but only if you had the right kind of magic.

How could I be so dumb? She pulled wet pages apart and threw the unnecessary bits to the ground. How could I think that some bullshit I found in a library could break something Kyou cast? That stuff's not REAL magic. That's...That's...

The last page of the first form Zeke had ever signed, sealing himself as her Guardian. The one with all the pertinent information about her predicament and the events that led up to it. She held the paper so close to her face her nose grazed the page and she sped read so fast the words were all largely a blur but then! Then she saw it.

In the corner, in very, very small print. So small she had missed it in her first, harrowing reading.

She didn't know what the top symbols were or what they meant.

But Anya knew a page number when she saw one.  

[Ravina Loki]

Confrontation

Participants: Anastacia and Dr. Kyou
Location: Lab 305
Type: {PRP - GROWTH QUEST}
Status: Underway

--- Summary ---
Desperate for answers, Anastacia breaks into the Lab!