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The face showed to the world was not the one he wore now. For all that he was helping others, giving guidance when they came, the detective was stretching himself far too thin. Some part of him had wanted to avoid this place, to give it a wide berth for a few days, but he never had known when to leave well enough alone.

If he was going to-

Jeremiah shook his head and cleared his thoughts. He had picked, of all places, the fairy fountain to practice. His umbrella was set aside, his back to it while he let out a breath and focused. In his mind he was thinking fire, the kind of inferno that would raze a forest but then he was pulling that back. It was too much. A fire, a bonfire from his youth. The fire had swirled and circled up and crackled in the air.

His fingers were spread out and he made a sweeping gesture towards the fountain. For a moment it seemed like his lack of focus meant nothing but then fire sparked in a spiral over the stagnant water of the fountain. It raced across the surface until it met it self again, Jeremiah's eyes glinting and the light making them glow.

It was still a cold fire, that he had not been able to shake, but it burned brightly.

The fire went out immediately, as if the oxygen that supplied it was pulled from the air. Jeremiah's fingers twitched.

"My apologies," he replied, tone carefully light, "I wasn't aware there were a wealth of tutors on the subject."

The cold resonated, prickled at his senses, but Jeremiah pushed it away.

"Probably not, no," he answered, thinking about the other self he had seen. The weight of the everything having eaten him. "... things do change, though." Would have to or he would-

The detective bristled underneath the criticism but hid it well, even as his fingers twitched and his head tilted to look at the other. "Command?" he couldn't help himself. "And how would I do that? As if it's one of my officers?"

As much as he was ill at ease, he was genuinely curious. It was an odd contradiction of feelings.

Jeremiah's skin crawled at dear boy, worse if he bothered to think about it owning a dog.

(He didn't. Resolutely did not think about it. That poor dog.)

"So like my officers then." There was a wry smirk, the detective's shoulders rolling and his eyes flicking back towards the burning man and then his hand. Magic, in his mind, was something- Something he could not put words to, something ineffable, but if it was merely something to be commanded, to lead instead of work with or ask ...

He raised a hand up, taking a breath, and focused. There was no breath, no attempt at cultivating an image in his mind. It was a smart snap of fingers, a chill fire coming to life in the air above his hand. Certainly felt easier to do than what he had been doing.

"Testing the waters," Jeremiah replied sharply, never one to go big immediately. It just was not his style.

(That was a lie. It absolutely was but he behaved himself, kept himself in check, because if he did things like that-)

The fire dispersed with a wave of his hand, his expression set to something neutral because, really, this was beginning to feel like he was a younger man - a teenager or child - listening to his father explain how a hunting rifle worked. Then expecting him to go out hunting immediately.

A breath was released, shoulders straightened. Jeremiah would not back down from this. Blue-green eyes cut to the burning man briefly before he turned back to the dark water. Command it.

Easy enough, wasn't it? There was no gesture this time, nothing beyond his fingers twitching at his sides and briefly turning to a fist before it smoothed away. The water's surface started to quiver, ripples spreading out, before it started to rise. It was in bubbles, only part of it coming up, and he frowned.

That would not do.

All of it, he thought.

The water rippled again and surged up to meet the parts of it that had already been pulled into the air. It hovered a couple feet above the fountain before he continued to push it up higher.

Jeremiah's eye twitched very subtly, blue-green eyes glowing faintly a moment without him realizing it. Of bloody course he would say hold it. Between dear boy, the line of the burning man's shoulder, blue-green eyes to whatever counted as eyes in that face, and the tone-

It was hard to not imagine-

"I have," he admitted after a moment, choosing to not bother trying to hide it. Somehow he expected to be found out if he lied. "Quite a lot recently."

This wasn't-

Jeremiah's focus faltered for a moment and the water lowered before he was turning his attention back towards it. His eyes narrowed and he pushed, commanded it just a little higher than before because of the momentary distraction.

"That there's more players in this than I know about or even realize."

"You did say you didn't want to see me removed so early in the game," he commented. Jeremiah was being mindful of his words. The mention of pieces gave him pause but he pushed past it. "I'll take advantage of the resources at my fingertips to learn what I can because this is no longer something I can be blind in."

Not with Michael's death, not with his broken deal, not with any of it. Jeremiah was going to have to make a choice about what he was going to do sooner rather than later.