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 Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 7:48 pm
Cody followed Dari out to the car. Dari had a good head start, though, because he'd had to politely excuse himself and escape his aunt. "Baby, you alright? Mom didn't say anything horrible, did she?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 7:53 pm
"No, no, I'm fine," Dari laughed. He reached into the back seat of the car and slipped the book into the pocket behind the driver. He then pulled his phone from his front pocket and went into his bag to fumble. "You know, I should paint your mom something. She's being awfully sweet to me." He grabbed his phone from amongst the junk beside the jars and looked at it. Having no messages, he turned it to vibrate and tucked it back into his pocket. "I just wanted to have it with me."
He stood and close the door, then wrapped his arms around Cody's waist and swayed slightly. "She just told me how glad she is I joined the family. I got a little worked-up." His eyes were indeed still a bit wet.
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 8:04 pm
Cody held Dari for a moment. "She's not half as glad as I am," he said, rubbing Dari's back with a hand. "Susan told me she has a plan for us to escape after cake," he added. "But it involves family photos." He kissed Dari's cheek. "I don't think she actually has a plan. She probably just wants pictures. Not very sneaky."
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 8:07 pm
"She told me we're gonna be here all day. Hence the phone." He grinned and leaned in to kiss Cody briefly. It still felt weird with the possibility of family looking on. "So let her have pictures. Let's have fun. I love your family." Well, most of them.
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 8:15 pm
"All day?!" Cody immediately pouted. "Well... I guess we won't be making a quick getaway." He kissed Dari briefly, and took his hand. "Alright. Let's go have fun."
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 8:37 pm
Dari smiled widely and let his head tilt to one side. "Yeah. Come on."
Good. So today would be nice after all.
- - -
Lori had been sent out on his own at first. When it became clear that a powerful entity was involved, he had gone out in search of it, and he had found it. He needed a team. He needed an entity team.
So he had called the boss, and the boss had set up a meeting.The group had convened in one of the large meeting rooms with Lori as a virtual guest.
"Anyway. I found the entity pretty easily when I entered from the human side. It recognized me as fae, so I think he's fae as well. He doesn't like humans, and he doesn't like the developers. Reports of roots entangling people straight up from the ground seem accurate, and we may need to memory blast these people if it gets too out of hand. I think I've convinced him to stop for now."
"What is he?" Toby asked, "Aside from fae."
"A guardian spirit. These are his woods. He must be... ancient. He only looks ten or so. It's pretty incredible."
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 8:50 pm
"Roots...tying people up?" Maia stared at the screen. Accurate reports? She blinked, and looked to Toby. She paused when Lori named the species, and considered her lessons with the elf. "So he's spoken with you?" she asked. If he was targeting humans, they'd have to go.
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 8:53 pm
"Entanglement in general, nothing harmful, save a couple of dangerous collapsed foundations" Lori continued, and then nodded. "Yes, he's spoken to me. He'll only tell me his name is Reese. He doesn't trust outsiders, but neither would you. He's feature-bound. This forest is his, 'my trees,' 'my forest,' you know the drill."
"So what do you suggest?"
"A larger team. This might be more complex than we thought. The developers have permits."
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 8:59 pm
An ancient spirit using a common name. Maia nodded in understanding. So he was like a kelpie, albeit a harmless, land dwelling one. "Can we set up the forest as a nature preserve?" she suggested. "Say it's habitat to an endangered species, or something?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 9:03 pm
"That's why we're going to need a team," Lori said, sinking a bit. "They have the permits. It's already been posted as free land-- not free, but open for development, you know what I mean. They've gone trough all of the paperwork. Federal paperwork. They've already been building for quite a while now, and ripping things down. I don't think they're going to just leave."
"So you want a team for the people, not for the entity," A human agent spoke up.
"No, not exactly. A team for the people, and entities for the entity.Both sides are going to need some convincing. It's going to be difficult to work anything out. We might need an illusionist if it comes down to it, or a memory bang."
Toby sighed. Someone's life generally had to be in danger for the bureau to clear a memory erasure.
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 9:16 pm
Maia took Toby's hand and gave it a squeeze. "Two teams? One will work with the human side, and one with the entity?" Hopefully with no need to compromise. If the humans developed the land outside of the forest, maybe the guardian would be happy. "Did he respond well to you? Want me to talk to him?" Maia asked.
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 9:21 pm
"No, I think it needs to be the same team. No crossed wires. Maybe you and Toby, maybe Dari, I don't know. He might not like the illusion spell. I just need people who appear human. People pretty low down on the bias portion of the exam. No humans."
"How fast will you need them?" Toby asked.
"Asap. Reese already pointed out that you aren't here yet. I just met him earlier. He's rather powerful? And I can't stress enough that a human will get us nowhere."
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 9:30 pm
Alright, no humans. Maia gave another nod. She looked to Toby. "Do you think we can be ready tomorrow?" she asked. "Lori, see if you can find Reese again." Just how powerful was this entity? She'd only heard about guardians in lessons; she'd never seen one. Certainly never seen one in action.
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 9:35 pm
Toby nodded. "Sure. We'll get out to you as soon as we can, Lorien."
"Sooner, if possible," Lori said. He rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, no, he'll be easy to find if he isn't pissed at me."
"Forest-Michael?" Toby asked.
"Basically."
"Alright. We'll let you know when we're on our way to your location."
"Thank you," Lori said with a nod.
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 9:58 pm
Oh, a kid who could hear you from anywhere in his forest? That intrigued Maia further. "Be safe, Lori," She said. Who knew what the developers would do, if the entity got out of hand? She didn't want Lori alone for too long.
She looked to Toby. "I guess we should get packing," She muttered.
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