Nicole Silvestri
New Member
Errand Girl of Light
A week in the life of an errand girl of the House of Light in March 2014.
Monday
07:11
"Niiiicoooole." The voice whispered close to her ear.
"Hmmmm?" She moaned contently, turning towards the voice, but not opening her eyes.
"I have to get up. I've got a lot to do today. Bills need to be paid, orders filled, some paperwork that needs to be filed before tomorrow, we've got two new potentials to interview..."
"Can't we stay in a little longer?" Her arm flailed in the direction of the voice, trying to grasp the speaker, finding only air, but eliciting a giggle.
"You can stay in longer, but I need to get up. We don't all get to set our own schedule, love."
"You're the manager, you set everyone's schedule, including your own."
"Technically true, but I've an organisation to run, and if I don't do things on time, everything's going to fall into chaos."
She sighed in playful mock exasperation. "If you didn't have me in your life, you'd die from a lack of chaos, neat freak." Her hands found a pillow and threw it in the direction of the voice.
A thumb, and another giggle. Then lips pressed against her own. "I'm lucky to have you in my life then, but I still need to get to work now. We have three people out on mission I need to monitor today, and I can't let them down. Let me know when you're ready to get up and cause chaos."
Nicky heard the door close as the speaker left the room. "Neat freak..." she mumbled with a smile.
14:06
Walking through Darkside always made her a little nervous. She was glad when she could finally put her box down on the reception desk - or what passed for it.
The nurse behind the desk - half demon judging from her scent - smiled up at her brightly. "Ah, thank goodness you are here, we were almost out of bloodbind bandages."
The waiting, with nothing to do but look around at the shabby hallways and the equally shabby visitors while the nurse went over the content list on the box and made notes, quickly made her uncomfortable. "I'm also here to see if there's any patients we can help with," she interjected hastily.
A few minutes later, another nurse - vampire - guided her past bedrooms, quickly rattling off details about the patients and conditions. She processed it all quickly, comparing, drawing connections, judging which cases the clinic could handle itself, and which cases nobody could handle.
"This fae you've got in room 12, I'll ask my sister to come look at." The nurse frowned. "Your sister is a doctor?" She chuckled. "My sister is a fae."
"Then this man in room 4, he's got a serious case of possession, sedate him and tie him up, I'll take him back to the House. And this werewolf..." she sighed, "he'll die if we move him. Maybe Eboni can still help him, I'll ask if she can come here."
On her way back out, the receptionist shook her hand. "We appreciate your help. It's hard enough for us to get medical supplies, but magical supplies are... invaluable. And so few here in Darkside are willing to learn the healing arts. Ehm... the woman in room 3...."
She shook her head. "Is lost. Just make her comfortable." The nurse already knew, ofcourse, but would not relent. "But.. can't you at least try..."
Nicky sighed and looked around the shabby clinic again, hearing the patients in their rooms. She wished she could take them all to the bright rooms in the House. Don't become a cynic, she reminded herself. "Fine, ready her for transport."
17:53
"I think there are vampires in the sewers." Ofcourse there are vampires in the sewers. What matters is if they're just schmucks who got vampirized....
A shadow leaped at her with an inhuman scream. Stupid. The sound warned her. She put a bullet in his stomach, spun around, hit him in the back of the head with Sæla's hilt, and put another bullet in his back as he fell. Just schmucks who got vampirized. Another shadow leapt at her.
A few seconds later, three vampires lay moaning and twitching around her. She approached one. It looked up at her fearfully.
"Please. Please don't kill me. I didn't want to become this way. I didn't want to... to feed on people... I had no choice! Please!"
Okay, that stung. Nicky hadn't had a choice in becoming what she became, either. She sighed and looked at the wretched human form before her. Even the vampires that didn't became downright monsters usually still ended up... very morally dubious, to say the least. But there were rare exceptions....
"Fine. Get up, come with me. Those bullets won't kill you, what you are now. If you mean what you say, I'll show you a safehouse. For vampires. They'll teach you how to live without feeding on people."
She didn't wait for his answer, but turned and approached the next one. "What about you?"
The third leaped at her again. This time the bullet she fired lit up the tunnel like a shooting star. As soon as it hit her attacker, he burst into flame, burned up in mere seconds.
Five minutes later, she was guiding the last surviving vampire through the underground tunnels. Poor schmuck, I hope you don't make me regret this.
21:39
"You've worked as a cleaner, haven't you, mistress Nicci?"
She smiled sideways at the elderly cleaning lady who was helping her clean up the kitchen, not stopping her sweeping motions. She didn't really need her eyes, her magical senses told her enough, but it was common courtesy to look at people. "Yes, how did you know?"
"Oh, just the way you move, the way you regard the work. I may not be a seer anymore, but I still see things."
She snickered a bit self-consciously. "Yeah, I've done just about every menial job you'd expect a girl to do to get herself through college. Housekeeper, waitress, hostess, check-out girl, mail delivery. Even tried my hand at being a stripper, for a week. Never got through college, though."
"Hah!” the lady snorted. “So did I, once. Lasted a bit longer than a week, too."
“Congratulations, got me beat,” she chuckled. “And you were a seer, too, were you?"
"Yup, not anymore though. Fell in with some bad people, made some bad decisions. Ended up losing my powers. Then I tried to get back into normal life, but I guess the secret world is sort of like prostitution. Once you're in, it's hard to get out anymore, even if you've no longer the goods to play along."
The comparison drew another chuckle, but she sensed there was more coming, so continued sweeping in silence as she waited for the rest.
"So I ended up working here, it lets me live something of a normal life, at least. You wait 20 years, and you'll realize how valuable that is."
Nicci grinned. "I realize that now, miss, that's why I'm cleaning."
The older woman nodded as only elderly women can. "Touché."
Tuesday
08:36
"Nicky? I'd like to start the training now."
She looked up at the muscular man standing before her, a questioning look on his face. Then she saw the group of waiting students behind him. "Oh! Yes! Ofcourse! Just help me push this aside."
She jumped over next to him and started pushing the strange contraption out of the way, the man doing as asked and helping her push, still looking curiously. "What were you doing?"
Nicky shrugged and grinned. "Well, I thought we needed an obstacle course for our trainings, and it'd be cool if the whole thing was like, foldable so we could quickly set it up and fold it back into the walls, or change the layout every time so the students never know what to expect.
The man frowned. "An obstacle course?" Nicky nodded cheerily. "Yeah, like the militaries have! You know! I often need to maneuver difficult terrain in the field."
He considered this a moment. "And you want to set it up in the training room? Wouldn't it make more sense to have it outdoors?"
"Well, yeah," she admitted with a shrug, "but we're right in the middle of London, there's not much room for an outdoors obstacle course."
"We could just have it outside the city and drive there whenever we want to train there." Nicky raised an eyebrow. From anyone else, she would've expected sarcasm or mockery contained in that sentence, but he was merely stating a fact.
"Oh... right....." she pouted a bit sheepishly, but quickly regained her enthusiasm. "I've a plot of land above my bunker just outside the city! We could use that!"
"That sounds like a better plan to me." The man nodded as they finished pushing the makeshift obstacle into a corner of the training room. "So can I start the training now?" But Nicky was already dashing out the door.
11:21
"Please, you must understand. I just need to find my daughter."
Nicky shook her head exasperated and let out a long sigh. "You must understand. Your daughter is long dead. She's crossed over. To find her, you only need cross over as well. All you're doing here is hurting girls who look like her."
"Please. I must find her. She was taken from me. She's just a little girl."
It's no use, Cole. There's not enough humanity left in her to understand anything but that. Her spirit is fixed on that, and that alone. Just like we do not remember much else except how to fight.
Nicky knew her spiritual companion was right, but she didn't like it. Still, there was nothing else to do.
"Alright, I will take you to your daughter, take my hand."
She extended her hand. The wispy shape before her seemed to hesitate, then floated forward to envelop it. Somehow, Nicky sensed some feeling of joy and gratitude from the ghost, making her feel all the more guilty.
Streaks of lightning flashed from her hand, all throughout the ghost's form, as her magic disrupted the very fabric of the astral substance the ghost was made up of. In less than a second, it was completely disintegrated, its parts scattered to the ether.
"If I destroy their ghosts like that... do their spirits go to... wherever they're supposed to go?"
We do not know, Cole, the voice in her head replied gently, we have never gone there either.
16:08
"So, miss.... Silvestri? Kindly explain to me why we should continue to allow your organisation to operate inside our city."
Miss Silvestri smiled humbly, though inwardly she was rolling her eyes and sighing. Another one of those overzealous Templar bureaucrats. "As you'll clearly see, we are a stabilizing factor in London, not a destabilizing."
"Be that as it may, you have closer ties than we'd like to a certain... rival association of ours."
Her personal theory was that the sudden emergence of so many bees had given the Old Guard a massive inferiority complex, which they compensated for by acting overly uptight and important against everything bee. "Ealdwic is a free zone."
"For visitors, yes, you however, are training an army under our roof."
She blessed herself for not being a Templar agent. She didn't need to deal with them daily, nor was her ass on the line. This was all just ritual. "We train to hunt down supernatural threats, we would be quite suicidal opposing the Templar. We also provide free healthcare and contribute to the security and medical supplies of several local aid organizations. We help keep the city safe."
"We are quite capable of securing our own backyard, miss Silvestri. Already there are too many little clubs like yours, considering themselves independent, thinking they can set their own rules."
All bluff. All bark and no bite. The Templars wouldn't do a thing to remove them, the agreements were old. But once in a while some of them felt they had to make a showing. Just to affirm they were in charge in London. "Ofcourse not, but all the work we take off your hands here means you've your hands free for more important things." Like harassing us.
She moved on to the piles of paper in her hands. "I have here a list of supernatural threats we banished from London just this year, as well as some people from within your own organisation that with our help were discovered to be breaking your laws..." The right combination of flattery and veiled warnings, and this'd be over soon. Just keep smiling.
19:41
"Mistress Nicci, please! You can't change that ward!" She ignored the staff member's desperate pleas. "I certainly can."
"We've had that one for centuries, and its placement has been perfected over the last dozens of years!" She cast him nary a glance. "Magic's developing quickly right now, got to adapt."
"But you didn't even know magic existed until last year, mistress Nicci!" He sounded exasperated, but it didn't deter her enthusiasm. "Exactly, so I adapt easily."
"But what if you break our defenses?" He was wringing his hands now. A new voice chimed in: "You are kind of a babe in magic still, babe."
The staff member looked relieved at the woman joining them. "Miss, please tell mistress Nicci she can't just change that ward like that."
The witch studied the ward for a moment. "He's right, love, you can't." The staff member sighed in relief. Nicci frowned.
"You've got to move it the other way, and tune the spell to resonate with... that one!" The staff member looked in horror as the witch pointed. Nicci's frown deepened. "That's nonsense."
Now the dark-skinned woman frowned. "I've been doing magic since before you were born, honey." "Well then, perhaps it's time you tried something new."
"You think you can outsmart me?" "What'll you do, turn me into a frog?" "I might..." "Witch." "Pup." "Is that supposed to be an insult?" "Was that?" "Maaaybe." "Are you flirting?" "Maaaybe." "I love you." "I love you too."
The staff member gave up and walked away rolling his eyes as the women fell laughing into eachother’s arms and proceeded to debate on how to modify the wards.
Wednesday
09:43
"Who... who are you? Where am I?"
"You're in the hospital. You're safe now. Can I get you anything?" Nicole made sure to keep her demeanor cheerful so as not to worry the patient.
"I think... what happened?"
"We removed a rather nasty parasite from your brain,” she answered gently. “It had... eaten a large part of your brains. We weren't sure there was enough left to regenerate."
The woman in the bed reached for her head. "My.... brain was eaten?"
Nicole shook hers. “No, we regenerated most. I'm glad to see you've recovered enough to wake up. You were in coma for weeks. Do you remember anything?"
The patient visibly struggled to remember. "I was... going to brush my teeth and... something jumped at me... out of the sink..."
"That's great! Your memory's still intact. Do you remember who you are?"
“Who… who I am? My name is…”
Nicole looked at the patient encouragingly, as the patient looked back at her confused.
"Who... who are you? Where am I?"
Nicole made sure to keep her demeanor cheerful so as not to worry the patient. "You're in the hospital. You're safe now. Can I get you anything?"
12:39
"Another hundred pillows? Didn't you have that many last time too? You sure go through pillows quickly."
"We use them in the training room! They tend not to last long," she blurted out. A little too defensively.
The vendor caught her tone and laughed heartily to defuse the tension. "Hey, I don't care what you use em for, I'm not going to complain about more business. So, what else do you need today?"
She gave him a list of mattresses, linen ware and furniture the House had gone through the past month, helped him load it in, then drove on to the next vendor on her list.
She could just have the items delivered, but Nicky rathered enjoyed the rare occasions she got to drive a truck. Maybe a little too much. A few streets from her final destination, a cop pulled her over. She grumbled to herself. On her bike, she would've just outran him.
The cop appeared at her window, obviously surprised at the sight of the young woman. "Good afternoon, miss. I pulled you over because you were driving rather recklessly, swerving left and right. Where are you headed?"
She flashed her most innocent smile, and that was very innocent indeed. "Just delivering some items for a local charity, officer. I'm sorry for my driving, I'm a bit new at this, but we couldn't find anyone else, you understand. There are so few people in this city willing to do anything to help the less fortunate."
As she spoke she pulled back her sleeve, showing the prayer beads and cross around her wrist. She could practically see the officer struggling with himself.
"You can be proud of me," she said as she hopped out the truck at her destination ten minutes later, "I didn't get a single ticket."
16:40
"Nicole? Nicole, come in! Is everything alright down there?!"
With effort, she pushed the giant insect body off herself and straightened her headset. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just covered in dead bug. Ewwwww."
"What's going on? What did you find? Did you find him?"
Nicky jumped onto her feet and quickly scanned the tunnel for more threats, then signalled the three students to close in around her. They quickly formed a tight triangle, brandishing their magical swords, or in Jayden's case, a whip.
"Yeah, we found him. These bugs got him, there's a nest down here. They wrapped him in one of their cocoons, which ironically stopped his bleeding, but he's paralyzed or in shock or something. What should we do, just evacuate or should we wipe out this nest before we go?"
"Can we? If it's too big, perhaps we should report its location."
Nicky laughed, though it was more a nervous reaction than out of any joy. "Oh, we can, dear. Just send Yami down here with.... Lex, Justine, and Arthur. Have him bring his flamethrower."
"Since when do you make the tactical decisions and give me orders, dear?"
This time Nicky's chuckle was one from actual joy. "Since I'm the one on the ground? Or in this case, below the ground?"
"I could come join you, you know. Maybe I should."
Nicky sobered and looked at the body at her feet. "Yeah... yeah, you should. The sooner we get him medical attention, the better. We'll wait for you outside. See you soon, love."
22:52
Nicole rushed around the corner, and saw two of the staff struggling to contain the escaped patient. They were armed with battlestaffs to disable an opponent non-lethally, and well trained - she should know, she trained them - but this patient was giving them trouble even without any weapons of his own.
She ran up, acting the defenseless nurse trying desperately to calm the patient. "Please, sir, we only wish to help! Please go back to bed!"
The patient moved towards her threateningly, but still hesitated to just knock her out of the way. "Let me go! Let me out of here!" he bellowed, raising a muscular arm.
At a slight nod from her, both of the staff moved in again, drawing the patient's attention away from her. Three quick strikes, and he was paralyzed on the floor.
She leaned over him and forced him to look her in the eye. "We helped you. We will not tolerate you endangering our staff or our patients." She hissed the words ferally.
His eyes looked bewildered and afraid, in contrast to his demeanor. "Let me go! You monsters!"
"He just suddenly went berserk, even snapped right through his restraints," one of the staff standing over them remarked, "it's almost as if he's possessed."
"No, he's not possessed. He's traumatized. I know that look." She lifted herself back up. "Go down into the basement and get the anti-magic chains. Cynthia will be here soon to sedate him."
Thursday
07:57
She checked the cartridges in her pistols as her partner materialized her bow. "Make sure to pick them all off at a distance. It's hard to beat these things in melee, they're incredibly strong."
Her partner grinned at her confidently. "Well you're pretty strong and I can take you." Nicky quirked her mouth. "Me?"
"What, you don't think I can take you?" Nicky couldn't but blush under that grin. "I didn't say that."
"In case you haven't notice, I'm preeetty good with a bow and arrow." She manifested an arrow out of anima, slowly aiming it at Nicole.
Nicole swatted the bow away. "And what if you didn't have it, hmm? I'd still have superhuman strength."
"Well, I have skills and training." She did look very good in her martial arts outfit. Nicole held up a hand. "I have claws!"
"I'm smarter than you." The girl stuck the tip of her tongue out in her characteristic manner.
Nicole pulled her close. "Well I'm faster than you."
"Yeah?" she said challengingly. "Prove it!" Nicole had a hard time not kissing her. Instead she just said. "Oh, I will."
The two of them entered the simulation room.
13:35
The man didn't particularly stand out, but her magic senses picked him out immediately. She walked up to greet him, knowing he'd have seen her coming for a long time.
"Yo, mon." He offered his fist for a fistbump, which she answered with a grin.
"You Nicky, yah? From the House 'o Light?" She struck a pose and nodded. "Aye, I am."
He peered over his sunglasses, as if studying her. "You new, aint cha? But we know all about you. Been a busy little bee. Don't s'pose I can persuade ya to change colors? You know we pay a lot better. Just think of all the fancy stuff you could buy. Clothes, jewelry, rare materials for your craft, powerful talismans, high-tech stuff for your bike. You like that kind of thing, don't cha?"
She lifted her head up challengingly. "I like green."
"Had to try, mon, had to try. So, you know the deal, yah? For our continued cooperation, you need to take care of a few things for us."
She shrugged nonchalantly. "You know our conditions."
"Ofcourse, mon, ofcourse. Just clean up a couple 'o monsters an bad guys for us so we don't have to waste our agents on it. Expenses, you know? Here, I even gave you a list of things to choose from. Any of these you can take care of would be greatly 'preciated." He held a small chip out, which she allowed him to drop into her palm.
Another fistbump and he was off again. "Pleasure doing business with ya, look aftah yourself." She looked after him with a grin. Yeah, that had been surprisingly pleasant.
18:09
"Do you have any idea what you've done?!" It came out like a growl. The man she had pinned underneath her looked up fearful, yet deviant. "I summoned a demon."
"And had you been any less lucky, it would've torn you apart." He shook his head, arrogantly. "I read the book carefully, I knew what I was doing."
She slapped him in the face. Her claws left bloody streaks across his cheek. She couldn't help it. He reminded her too much of some arrogant frat boy.
He now looked at her more hesitantly, but still defensive. "And who are you to say I can't?! There are no laws against binding demons!"
She growled. "Actually, there are. You just don't know anything about the world those laws exist in, or the authorities that enforce them."
Now his look was what Nicky judged to be appropriately fearful. "So, what, you're such an enforcer? You're going to kill me now? To keep this secret?"
"No, but I am asking myself why I shouldn't turn you over to the Templar. They'd beat some discipline into you." She pressed her fingers down on the back of the man's neck, and his body went numb.
"What... what did you do?" His voice was now fully fearful as Nicky stood up and walked to his summoning circle. "I paralyzed you. I'm taking you back to the House. Hikari can judge if she thinks we can teach you what you need to know, or if we should turn you over to the societies."
She looked at the circle for a few moments, changed a few lines, then let her power flow in. A portal opened to the familiar hellish landscapes.
She turned to the succubus in the corner of the room, and keeping a gun trained on her, dispelled the barrier holding her with a touch. "Go back to your own world. Send Wicker my regards."
20:13
"Did he really think I wouldn't notice that?" She spun around, parried her attackers blow, and kicked his feet out from under him.
He fell on his butt on the wooden floor. She grinned, put her mop against the wall, and extended a hand to help the student back up. "Nice try."
He got to his feet a bit sheepishly. "Well, you're always telling us to try and get a hit in on you when you don't expect it, mistress Nicci."
She nodded. "Yes. It keeps me sharp." His two companions walked up, the female one chuckling. "I told you she'd notice."
"Mistress Nicci? Why are you cleaning?" That was the other male student. "Because the floor was dirty," she answered simply.
He hesitated. "Yes, but... we do have a cleaning staff." Nicky grinned and recovered her mop. "Oh, and you think they're lower than you? Servants to be ordered around? That cleaning is beneath you? Perhaps I should make sure you get assigned some extra cleaning duties."
The student had gone a little pale. "Nono, ofcourse not, mistress Nicci. I know we should strive to be humble. But you..."
"Are just another girl who works here. I can't order someone else to do something I wouldn't do myself. Deciding someone else should clean the dirty floor because it's beneath you, is just as bad as deciding someone else should deal with the injustice in the world because it's 'beyond' you. It's excuses so you don't have to act."
She didn't know if that made sense, but it sounded wise, and had him blushing furiously. "That's not what I mean. I mean you're one of our best fighters. We have less skilled fighters out there right now, risking their lives, and you're here cleaning a floor."
Nicky sighed. This was something she struggled with, too. "And what kind of person would I be if I did nothing but fighting? What happens to someone whose life is reduced to a single activity? Specially if that's violence. I'd soon be the monster we hunt." She spun her mop around and winked. "Certainly not the cheery girl I am now."
The female student grinned and pushed her two companions to continue their way down the corridor. "We like you as you are, mistress Nicci. Just keep on cleaning."
Friday
10:22
"Good morning, sir! I see they took the chains off you! No longer trying to wreck our hospital?"
The recovering warrior seemed to appreciate her humor. "Nah, I remember how you guys pulled me out, now. I figure even if we're not on the same side, you're not too bad."
"We're ALL on the same side in the fight against darkness, sir." She said as she felt his wrist.
"So we are," he agreed, "too bad too many are too concerned with their petty politics. But like I say, you guys seem alright. Better food than I'd get in our hospital." He chuckled.
"I'll pass that compliment on to my sister, sir."
"Your sister cooks here? You do that, then." He nodded. "See, that's another perk of being here; our hospital doesn't have such pretty nurses either."
She bowed in a mockery of grace. "I'll pass that compliment on to myself."
He laughed. "I'm sorry about that, earlier. The last time I woke up in a strange hospital, it turned out to be an interrogation center."
Nicole winced. She'd seen the scars on him during the medical examination.
"So, are you actually a nurse?" he continued. "You sure pack a mean punch for a nurse."
"No, sir, not really," she admitted. "My mother is a nurse though, and so's my girlfriend, so you could say I know the ropes."
"Girlfriend, huh?" The old paladin looked at her, frowning. "She must be one lucky girl."
"I'm sure she feels the same way, sir."
15:06
"Thanks for coming, this one is a little beyond me."
"A class 4 wraith is beyond anyone except bees or those with equivalent powers. Orochi only faces them with elite squads with highly specialized equipment. Even a single bee is, honestly, outmatched. But I came prepared and with help."
He looked at her puzzled as she rolled out her sleeping bag. She smiled at him. "I'm saying there's no shame in asking for help on this one."
"Yeah, I know, just... what help did you bring? And what are you doing? You planning to sleep here?"
"The best way to fight a wraith is in the spirit world, my body will be a weakness against it." She rolled herself in the bag and swallowed the potion. "Guard my body, 'kay? Shouldn't be long."
She woke up to a world in shades of grey, wavy in front of her eyes. Standing up, she looked down at her own sleeping body.
"Lýsa? Sæla?" Two small spectres detached itself from her body and materialized as spectral weapons in her ghostly hands. "We are ready, Cole."
"Terra? Eboni?" She felt the presences at the edge of her mind. "We are here, Nicky." "The spell is holding just fine, babe. My magic will be supporting you from here. You should start to feel it... about now."
Nicky felt the rush of power through her astral form. She could swear it purposely stopped to tickle her, which elicited a grin. "Then let's do this."
19:31
"I know it's scary. I know you didn't ask for this." She held onto the girl's hand just firmly enough to instill confidence, and just gently enough not to appear threatening.
"But there's nothing that can be done. This is who you are now. If you stay here, you'll endanger the lives of your family."
The girl looked up as if she wanted to protest, but no words came. She had no arguments, just the fear and defiance in her eyes. Nicky could almost hear the thoughts behind them.
"It's not fair!" "It doesn't make any sense!" "I can't just leave everything!" Not real counter-arguments, just a refusal to accept.
"It's not as if you don't have any choices," Nicky continued gently, "you've gained lots of extra choices, in return for the ones you've lost. What you do with your abilities is completely up to you. You don't have to accept the choice I'm offering. Just give me a chance to show you it's the best choice."
"Look at me. Look past the tattoos, the magical jewelry. I'm just a girl. I'm still the same silly girl I was before I got my powers. I make my friends waffles in the morning, laugh with them over silly Youtube videos, or take them on vacation trips to Japan. I go shopping in London and buy a silly hat and wear it all week because I feel like it. I call my sister back home for hours to exchange stories and gossips."
"Yet I've power beyond what most can imagine. I've vanquished demons, beaten small armies, fought demigods. The only reason I'm still a normal girl beneath it all, is because the family I made there. People just like me. We keep eachother normal. So that we don't become defined by our powers, zealots or tools for a cause."
Nicky smiled her open, girlish smile that she knew endeared her to many, straightened and extended a hand, and looked at the girl expectantly.
23:47
She slipped silently into the dark room, orienting on her magic senses, and began rummaging through the closet as quietly as possible. Not quietly enough; the shape in the bed stirred.
"Nicole?" it moaned, half-asleep. Maybe her scent had given her away. "Go back to sleep," she whispered, changing her clothes.
"What are you coming back from so late?" the voice sounded more awake now, and concerned. So much for not waking the room's occupant. "Party."
"Oh...." she heard the body shift in the bed to look at her, futily as there was nothing to see, "flirt with any hot girls?" She nodded, just as futily. "A few."
"Any of them offer to sleep with you?" She chuckled. "A few."
"Bring any of them home?" Nicole turned to the bed and lowered her head in front of the dark form. "Yes, she's outside the door, waiting for me to announce her. I think you'll like her. She's looking forward to meeting you. I told her you were a real animal in bed."
A pillow smacked into Nicole's head, then arms dragged her down onto the bed. "You like doing that, don't you? Going out to flirt, acting the promiscuous partygirl, then coming home to me to tell me about it?"
"Maybe..." Nicole was glad it was too dark to see her blush, "I never had much trouble getting lovers, short-lasting romances, but I was never able to hook one willing to stick with me long term... so..."
"That's not true," the voice interjected, sleepily again, "you hooked me. And in a nightclub, no less." The tiny form curled itself up against her. "I love you, Nicole, I'll always be yours. Just be mine."
She wrapped her arms around the warm body and planted a kiss on what felt like an ear. "Always."
A week in the life of an errand girl of the House of Light in March 2014.
Monday
07:11
"Niiiicoooole." The voice whispered close to her ear.
"Hmmmm?" She moaned contently, turning towards the voice, but not opening her eyes.
"I have to get up. I've got a lot to do today. Bills need to be paid, orders filled, some paperwork that needs to be filed before tomorrow, we've got two new potentials to interview..."
"Can't we stay in a little longer?" Her arm flailed in the direction of the voice, trying to grasp the speaker, finding only air, but eliciting a giggle.
"You can stay in longer, but I need to get up. We don't all get to set our own schedule, love."
"You're the manager, you set everyone's schedule, including your own."
"Technically true, but I've an organisation to run, and if I don't do things on time, everything's going to fall into chaos."
She sighed in playful mock exasperation. "If you didn't have me in your life, you'd die from a lack of chaos, neat freak." Her hands found a pillow and threw it in the direction of the voice.
A thumb, and another giggle. Then lips pressed against her own. "I'm lucky to have you in my life then, but I still need to get to work now. We have three people out on mission I need to monitor today, and I can't let them down. Let me know when you're ready to get up and cause chaos."
Nicky heard the door close as the speaker left the room. "Neat freak..." she mumbled with a smile.
14:06
Walking through Darkside always made her a little nervous. She was glad when she could finally put her box down on the reception desk - or what passed for it.
The nurse behind the desk - half demon judging from her scent - smiled up at her brightly. "Ah, thank goodness you are here, we were almost out of bloodbind bandages."
The waiting, with nothing to do but look around at the shabby hallways and the equally shabby visitors while the nurse went over the content list on the box and made notes, quickly made her uncomfortable. "I'm also here to see if there's any patients we can help with," she interjected hastily.
A few minutes later, another nurse - vampire - guided her past bedrooms, quickly rattling off details about the patients and conditions. She processed it all quickly, comparing, drawing connections, judging which cases the clinic could handle itself, and which cases nobody could handle.
"This fae you've got in room 12, I'll ask my sister to come look at." The nurse frowned. "Your sister is a doctor?" She chuckled. "My sister is a fae."
"Then this man in room 4, he's got a serious case of possession, sedate him and tie him up, I'll take him back to the House. And this werewolf..." she sighed, "he'll die if we move him. Maybe Eboni can still help him, I'll ask if she can come here."
On her way back out, the receptionist shook her hand. "We appreciate your help. It's hard enough for us to get medical supplies, but magical supplies are... invaluable. And so few here in Darkside are willing to learn the healing arts. Ehm... the woman in room 3...."
She shook her head. "Is lost. Just make her comfortable." The nurse already knew, ofcourse, but would not relent. "But.. can't you at least try..."
Nicky sighed and looked around the shabby clinic again, hearing the patients in their rooms. She wished she could take them all to the bright rooms in the House. Don't become a cynic, she reminded herself. "Fine, ready her for transport."
17:53
"I think there are vampires in the sewers." Ofcourse there are vampires in the sewers. What matters is if they're just schmucks who got vampirized....
A shadow leaped at her with an inhuman scream. Stupid. The sound warned her. She put a bullet in his stomach, spun around, hit him in the back of the head with Sæla's hilt, and put another bullet in his back as he fell. Just schmucks who got vampirized. Another shadow leapt at her.
A few seconds later, three vampires lay moaning and twitching around her. She approached one. It looked up at her fearfully.
"Please. Please don't kill me. I didn't want to become this way. I didn't want to... to feed on people... I had no choice! Please!"
Okay, that stung. Nicky hadn't had a choice in becoming what she became, either. She sighed and looked at the wretched human form before her. Even the vampires that didn't became downright monsters usually still ended up... very morally dubious, to say the least. But there were rare exceptions....
"Fine. Get up, come with me. Those bullets won't kill you, what you are now. If you mean what you say, I'll show you a safehouse. For vampires. They'll teach you how to live without feeding on people."
She didn't wait for his answer, but turned and approached the next one. "What about you?"
The third leaped at her again. This time the bullet she fired lit up the tunnel like a shooting star. As soon as it hit her attacker, he burst into flame, burned up in mere seconds.
Five minutes later, she was guiding the last surviving vampire through the underground tunnels. Poor schmuck, I hope you don't make me regret this.
21:39
"You've worked as a cleaner, haven't you, mistress Nicci?"
She smiled sideways at the elderly cleaning lady who was helping her clean up the kitchen, not stopping her sweeping motions. She didn't really need her eyes, her magical senses told her enough, but it was common courtesy to look at people. "Yes, how did you know?"
"Oh, just the way you move, the way you regard the work. I may not be a seer anymore, but I still see things."
She snickered a bit self-consciously. "Yeah, I've done just about every menial job you'd expect a girl to do to get herself through college. Housekeeper, waitress, hostess, check-out girl, mail delivery. Even tried my hand at being a stripper, for a week. Never got through college, though."
"Hah!” the lady snorted. “So did I, once. Lasted a bit longer than a week, too."
“Congratulations, got me beat,” she chuckled. “And you were a seer, too, were you?"
"Yup, not anymore though. Fell in with some bad people, made some bad decisions. Ended up losing my powers. Then I tried to get back into normal life, but I guess the secret world is sort of like prostitution. Once you're in, it's hard to get out anymore, even if you've no longer the goods to play along."
The comparison drew another chuckle, but she sensed there was more coming, so continued sweeping in silence as she waited for the rest.
"So I ended up working here, it lets me live something of a normal life, at least. You wait 20 years, and you'll realize how valuable that is."
Nicci grinned. "I realize that now, miss, that's why I'm cleaning."
The older woman nodded as only elderly women can. "Touché."
Tuesday
08:36
"Nicky? I'd like to start the training now."
She looked up at the muscular man standing before her, a questioning look on his face. Then she saw the group of waiting students behind him. "Oh! Yes! Ofcourse! Just help me push this aside."
She jumped over next to him and started pushing the strange contraption out of the way, the man doing as asked and helping her push, still looking curiously. "What were you doing?"
Nicky shrugged and grinned. "Well, I thought we needed an obstacle course for our trainings, and it'd be cool if the whole thing was like, foldable so we could quickly set it up and fold it back into the walls, or change the layout every time so the students never know what to expect.
The man frowned. "An obstacle course?" Nicky nodded cheerily. "Yeah, like the militaries have! You know! I often need to maneuver difficult terrain in the field."
He considered this a moment. "And you want to set it up in the training room? Wouldn't it make more sense to have it outdoors?"
"Well, yeah," she admitted with a shrug, "but we're right in the middle of London, there's not much room for an outdoors obstacle course."
"We could just have it outside the city and drive there whenever we want to train there." Nicky raised an eyebrow. From anyone else, she would've expected sarcasm or mockery contained in that sentence, but he was merely stating a fact.
"Oh... right....." she pouted a bit sheepishly, but quickly regained her enthusiasm. "I've a plot of land above my bunker just outside the city! We could use that!"
"That sounds like a better plan to me." The man nodded as they finished pushing the makeshift obstacle into a corner of the training room. "So can I start the training now?" But Nicky was already dashing out the door.
11:21
"Please, you must understand. I just need to find my daughter."
Nicky shook her head exasperated and let out a long sigh. "You must understand. Your daughter is long dead. She's crossed over. To find her, you only need cross over as well. All you're doing here is hurting girls who look like her."
"Please. I must find her. She was taken from me. She's just a little girl."
It's no use, Cole. There's not enough humanity left in her to understand anything but that. Her spirit is fixed on that, and that alone. Just like we do not remember much else except how to fight.
Nicky knew her spiritual companion was right, but she didn't like it. Still, there was nothing else to do.
"Alright, I will take you to your daughter, take my hand."
She extended her hand. The wispy shape before her seemed to hesitate, then floated forward to envelop it. Somehow, Nicky sensed some feeling of joy and gratitude from the ghost, making her feel all the more guilty.
Streaks of lightning flashed from her hand, all throughout the ghost's form, as her magic disrupted the very fabric of the astral substance the ghost was made up of. In less than a second, it was completely disintegrated, its parts scattered to the ether.
"If I destroy their ghosts like that... do their spirits go to... wherever they're supposed to go?"
We do not know, Cole, the voice in her head replied gently, we have never gone there either.
16:08
"So, miss.... Silvestri? Kindly explain to me why we should continue to allow your organisation to operate inside our city."
Miss Silvestri smiled humbly, though inwardly she was rolling her eyes and sighing. Another one of those overzealous Templar bureaucrats. "As you'll clearly see, we are a stabilizing factor in London, not a destabilizing."
"Be that as it may, you have closer ties than we'd like to a certain... rival association of ours."
Her personal theory was that the sudden emergence of so many bees had given the Old Guard a massive inferiority complex, which they compensated for by acting overly uptight and important against everything bee. "Ealdwic is a free zone."
"For visitors, yes, you however, are training an army under our roof."
She blessed herself for not being a Templar agent. She didn't need to deal with them daily, nor was her ass on the line. This was all just ritual. "We train to hunt down supernatural threats, we would be quite suicidal opposing the Templar. We also provide free healthcare and contribute to the security and medical supplies of several local aid organizations. We help keep the city safe."
"We are quite capable of securing our own backyard, miss Silvestri. Already there are too many little clubs like yours, considering themselves independent, thinking they can set their own rules."
All bluff. All bark and no bite. The Templars wouldn't do a thing to remove them, the agreements were old. But once in a while some of them felt they had to make a showing. Just to affirm they were in charge in London. "Ofcourse not, but all the work we take off your hands here means you've your hands free for more important things." Like harassing us.
She moved on to the piles of paper in her hands. "I have here a list of supernatural threats we banished from London just this year, as well as some people from within your own organisation that with our help were discovered to be breaking your laws..." The right combination of flattery and veiled warnings, and this'd be over soon. Just keep smiling.
19:41
"Mistress Nicci, please! You can't change that ward!" She ignored the staff member's desperate pleas. "I certainly can."
"We've had that one for centuries, and its placement has been perfected over the last dozens of years!" She cast him nary a glance. "Magic's developing quickly right now, got to adapt."
"But you didn't even know magic existed until last year, mistress Nicci!" He sounded exasperated, but it didn't deter her enthusiasm. "Exactly, so I adapt easily."
"But what if you break our defenses?" He was wringing his hands now. A new voice chimed in: "You are kind of a babe in magic still, babe."
The staff member looked relieved at the woman joining them. "Miss, please tell mistress Nicci she can't just change that ward like that."
The witch studied the ward for a moment. "He's right, love, you can't." The staff member sighed in relief. Nicci frowned.
"You've got to move it the other way, and tune the spell to resonate with... that one!" The staff member looked in horror as the witch pointed. Nicci's frown deepened. "That's nonsense."
Now the dark-skinned woman frowned. "I've been doing magic since before you were born, honey." "Well then, perhaps it's time you tried something new."
"You think you can outsmart me?" "What'll you do, turn me into a frog?" "I might..." "Witch." "Pup." "Is that supposed to be an insult?" "Was that?" "Maaaybe." "Are you flirting?" "Maaaybe." "I love you." "I love you too."
The staff member gave up and walked away rolling his eyes as the women fell laughing into eachother’s arms and proceeded to debate on how to modify the wards.
Wednesday
09:43
"Who... who are you? Where am I?"
"You're in the hospital. You're safe now. Can I get you anything?" Nicole made sure to keep her demeanor cheerful so as not to worry the patient.
"I think... what happened?"
"We removed a rather nasty parasite from your brain,” she answered gently. “It had... eaten a large part of your brains. We weren't sure there was enough left to regenerate."
The woman in the bed reached for her head. "My.... brain was eaten?"
Nicole shook hers. “No, we regenerated most. I'm glad to see you've recovered enough to wake up. You were in coma for weeks. Do you remember anything?"
The patient visibly struggled to remember. "I was... going to brush my teeth and... something jumped at me... out of the sink..."
"That's great! Your memory's still intact. Do you remember who you are?"
“Who… who I am? My name is…”
Nicole looked at the patient encouragingly, as the patient looked back at her confused.
"Who... who are you? Where am I?"
Nicole made sure to keep her demeanor cheerful so as not to worry the patient. "You're in the hospital. You're safe now. Can I get you anything?"
12:39
"Another hundred pillows? Didn't you have that many last time too? You sure go through pillows quickly."
"We use them in the training room! They tend not to last long," she blurted out. A little too defensively.
The vendor caught her tone and laughed heartily to defuse the tension. "Hey, I don't care what you use em for, I'm not going to complain about more business. So, what else do you need today?"
She gave him a list of mattresses, linen ware and furniture the House had gone through the past month, helped him load it in, then drove on to the next vendor on her list.
She could just have the items delivered, but Nicky rathered enjoyed the rare occasions she got to drive a truck. Maybe a little too much. A few streets from her final destination, a cop pulled her over. She grumbled to herself. On her bike, she would've just outran him.
The cop appeared at her window, obviously surprised at the sight of the young woman. "Good afternoon, miss. I pulled you over because you were driving rather recklessly, swerving left and right. Where are you headed?"
She flashed her most innocent smile, and that was very innocent indeed. "Just delivering some items for a local charity, officer. I'm sorry for my driving, I'm a bit new at this, but we couldn't find anyone else, you understand. There are so few people in this city willing to do anything to help the less fortunate."
As she spoke she pulled back her sleeve, showing the prayer beads and cross around her wrist. She could practically see the officer struggling with himself.
"You can be proud of me," she said as she hopped out the truck at her destination ten minutes later, "I didn't get a single ticket."
16:40
"Nicole? Nicole, come in! Is everything alright down there?!"
With effort, she pushed the giant insect body off herself and straightened her headset. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just covered in dead bug. Ewwwww."
"What's going on? What did you find? Did you find him?"
Nicky jumped onto her feet and quickly scanned the tunnel for more threats, then signalled the three students to close in around her. They quickly formed a tight triangle, brandishing their magical swords, or in Jayden's case, a whip.
"Yeah, we found him. These bugs got him, there's a nest down here. They wrapped him in one of their cocoons, which ironically stopped his bleeding, but he's paralyzed or in shock or something. What should we do, just evacuate or should we wipe out this nest before we go?"
"Can we? If it's too big, perhaps we should report its location."
Nicky laughed, though it was more a nervous reaction than out of any joy. "Oh, we can, dear. Just send Yami down here with.... Lex, Justine, and Arthur. Have him bring his flamethrower."
"Since when do you make the tactical decisions and give me orders, dear?"
This time Nicky's chuckle was one from actual joy. "Since I'm the one on the ground? Or in this case, below the ground?"
"I could come join you, you know. Maybe I should."
Nicky sobered and looked at the body at her feet. "Yeah... yeah, you should. The sooner we get him medical attention, the better. We'll wait for you outside. See you soon, love."
22:52
Nicole rushed around the corner, and saw two of the staff struggling to contain the escaped patient. They were armed with battlestaffs to disable an opponent non-lethally, and well trained - she should know, she trained them - but this patient was giving them trouble even without any weapons of his own.
She ran up, acting the defenseless nurse trying desperately to calm the patient. "Please, sir, we only wish to help! Please go back to bed!"
The patient moved towards her threateningly, but still hesitated to just knock her out of the way. "Let me go! Let me out of here!" he bellowed, raising a muscular arm.
At a slight nod from her, both of the staff moved in again, drawing the patient's attention away from her. Three quick strikes, and he was paralyzed on the floor.
She leaned over him and forced him to look her in the eye. "We helped you. We will not tolerate you endangering our staff or our patients." She hissed the words ferally.
His eyes looked bewildered and afraid, in contrast to his demeanor. "Let me go! You monsters!"
"He just suddenly went berserk, even snapped right through his restraints," one of the staff standing over them remarked, "it's almost as if he's possessed."
"No, he's not possessed. He's traumatized. I know that look." She lifted herself back up. "Go down into the basement and get the anti-magic chains. Cynthia will be here soon to sedate him."
Thursday
07:57
She checked the cartridges in her pistols as her partner materialized her bow. "Make sure to pick them all off at a distance. It's hard to beat these things in melee, they're incredibly strong."
Her partner grinned at her confidently. "Well you're pretty strong and I can take you." Nicky quirked her mouth. "Me?"
"What, you don't think I can take you?" Nicky couldn't but blush under that grin. "I didn't say that."
"In case you haven't notice, I'm preeetty good with a bow and arrow." She manifested an arrow out of anima, slowly aiming it at Nicole.
Nicole swatted the bow away. "And what if you didn't have it, hmm? I'd still have superhuman strength."
"Well, I have skills and training." She did look very good in her martial arts outfit. Nicole held up a hand. "I have claws!"
"I'm smarter than you." The girl stuck the tip of her tongue out in her characteristic manner.
Nicole pulled her close. "Well I'm faster than you."
"Yeah?" she said challengingly. "Prove it!" Nicole had a hard time not kissing her. Instead she just said. "Oh, I will."
The two of them entered the simulation room.
13:35
The man didn't particularly stand out, but her magic senses picked him out immediately. She walked up to greet him, knowing he'd have seen her coming for a long time.
"Yo, mon." He offered his fist for a fistbump, which she answered with a grin.
"You Nicky, yah? From the House 'o Light?" She struck a pose and nodded. "Aye, I am."
He peered over his sunglasses, as if studying her. "You new, aint cha? But we know all about you. Been a busy little bee. Don't s'pose I can persuade ya to change colors? You know we pay a lot better. Just think of all the fancy stuff you could buy. Clothes, jewelry, rare materials for your craft, powerful talismans, high-tech stuff for your bike. You like that kind of thing, don't cha?"
She lifted her head up challengingly. "I like green."
"Had to try, mon, had to try. So, you know the deal, yah? For our continued cooperation, you need to take care of a few things for us."
She shrugged nonchalantly. "You know our conditions."
"Ofcourse, mon, ofcourse. Just clean up a couple 'o monsters an bad guys for us so we don't have to waste our agents on it. Expenses, you know? Here, I even gave you a list of things to choose from. Any of these you can take care of would be greatly 'preciated." He held a small chip out, which she allowed him to drop into her palm.
Another fistbump and he was off again. "Pleasure doing business with ya, look aftah yourself." She looked after him with a grin. Yeah, that had been surprisingly pleasant.
18:09
"Do you have any idea what you've done?!" It came out like a growl. The man she had pinned underneath her looked up fearful, yet deviant. "I summoned a demon."
"And had you been any less lucky, it would've torn you apart." He shook his head, arrogantly. "I read the book carefully, I knew what I was doing."
She slapped him in the face. Her claws left bloody streaks across his cheek. She couldn't help it. He reminded her too much of some arrogant frat boy.
He now looked at her more hesitantly, but still defensive. "And who are you to say I can't?! There are no laws against binding demons!"
She growled. "Actually, there are. You just don't know anything about the world those laws exist in, or the authorities that enforce them."
Now his look was what Nicky judged to be appropriately fearful. "So, what, you're such an enforcer? You're going to kill me now? To keep this secret?"
"No, but I am asking myself why I shouldn't turn you over to the Templar. They'd beat some discipline into you." She pressed her fingers down on the back of the man's neck, and his body went numb.
"What... what did you do?" His voice was now fully fearful as Nicky stood up and walked to his summoning circle. "I paralyzed you. I'm taking you back to the House. Hikari can judge if she thinks we can teach you what you need to know, or if we should turn you over to the societies."
She looked at the circle for a few moments, changed a few lines, then let her power flow in. A portal opened to the familiar hellish landscapes.
She turned to the succubus in the corner of the room, and keeping a gun trained on her, dispelled the barrier holding her with a touch. "Go back to your own world. Send Wicker my regards."
20:13
"Did he really think I wouldn't notice that?" She spun around, parried her attackers blow, and kicked his feet out from under him.
He fell on his butt on the wooden floor. She grinned, put her mop against the wall, and extended a hand to help the student back up. "Nice try."
He got to his feet a bit sheepishly. "Well, you're always telling us to try and get a hit in on you when you don't expect it, mistress Nicci."
She nodded. "Yes. It keeps me sharp." His two companions walked up, the female one chuckling. "I told you she'd notice."
"Mistress Nicci? Why are you cleaning?" That was the other male student. "Because the floor was dirty," she answered simply.
He hesitated. "Yes, but... we do have a cleaning staff." Nicky grinned and recovered her mop. "Oh, and you think they're lower than you? Servants to be ordered around? That cleaning is beneath you? Perhaps I should make sure you get assigned some extra cleaning duties."
The student had gone a little pale. "Nono, ofcourse not, mistress Nicci. I know we should strive to be humble. But you..."
"Are just another girl who works here. I can't order someone else to do something I wouldn't do myself. Deciding someone else should clean the dirty floor because it's beneath you, is just as bad as deciding someone else should deal with the injustice in the world because it's 'beyond' you. It's excuses so you don't have to act."
She didn't know if that made sense, but it sounded wise, and had him blushing furiously. "That's not what I mean. I mean you're one of our best fighters. We have less skilled fighters out there right now, risking their lives, and you're here cleaning a floor."
Nicky sighed. This was something she struggled with, too. "And what kind of person would I be if I did nothing but fighting? What happens to someone whose life is reduced to a single activity? Specially if that's violence. I'd soon be the monster we hunt." She spun her mop around and winked. "Certainly not the cheery girl I am now."
The female student grinned and pushed her two companions to continue their way down the corridor. "We like you as you are, mistress Nicci. Just keep on cleaning."
Friday
10:22
"Good morning, sir! I see they took the chains off you! No longer trying to wreck our hospital?"
The recovering warrior seemed to appreciate her humor. "Nah, I remember how you guys pulled me out, now. I figure even if we're not on the same side, you're not too bad."
"We're ALL on the same side in the fight against darkness, sir." She said as she felt his wrist.
"So we are," he agreed, "too bad too many are too concerned with their petty politics. But like I say, you guys seem alright. Better food than I'd get in our hospital." He chuckled.
"I'll pass that compliment on to my sister, sir."
"Your sister cooks here? You do that, then." He nodded. "See, that's another perk of being here; our hospital doesn't have such pretty nurses either."
She bowed in a mockery of grace. "I'll pass that compliment on to myself."
He laughed. "I'm sorry about that, earlier. The last time I woke up in a strange hospital, it turned out to be an interrogation center."
Nicole winced. She'd seen the scars on him during the medical examination.
"So, are you actually a nurse?" he continued. "You sure pack a mean punch for a nurse."
"No, sir, not really," she admitted. "My mother is a nurse though, and so's my girlfriend, so you could say I know the ropes."
"Girlfriend, huh?" The old paladin looked at her, frowning. "She must be one lucky girl."
"I'm sure she feels the same way, sir."
15:06
"Thanks for coming, this one is a little beyond me."
"A class 4 wraith is beyond anyone except bees or those with equivalent powers. Orochi only faces them with elite squads with highly specialized equipment. Even a single bee is, honestly, outmatched. But I came prepared and with help."
He looked at her puzzled as she rolled out her sleeping bag. She smiled at him. "I'm saying there's no shame in asking for help on this one."
"Yeah, I know, just... what help did you bring? And what are you doing? You planning to sleep here?"
"The best way to fight a wraith is in the spirit world, my body will be a weakness against it." She rolled herself in the bag and swallowed the potion. "Guard my body, 'kay? Shouldn't be long."
She woke up to a world in shades of grey, wavy in front of her eyes. Standing up, she looked down at her own sleeping body.
"Lýsa? Sæla?" Two small spectres detached itself from her body and materialized as spectral weapons in her ghostly hands. "We are ready, Cole."
"Terra? Eboni?" She felt the presences at the edge of her mind. "We are here, Nicky." "The spell is holding just fine, babe. My magic will be supporting you from here. You should start to feel it... about now."
Nicky felt the rush of power through her astral form. She could swear it purposely stopped to tickle her, which elicited a grin. "Then let's do this."
19:31
"I know it's scary. I know you didn't ask for this." She held onto the girl's hand just firmly enough to instill confidence, and just gently enough not to appear threatening.
"But there's nothing that can be done. This is who you are now. If you stay here, you'll endanger the lives of your family."
The girl looked up as if she wanted to protest, but no words came. She had no arguments, just the fear and defiance in her eyes. Nicky could almost hear the thoughts behind them.
"It's not fair!" "It doesn't make any sense!" "I can't just leave everything!" Not real counter-arguments, just a refusal to accept.
"It's not as if you don't have any choices," Nicky continued gently, "you've gained lots of extra choices, in return for the ones you've lost. What you do with your abilities is completely up to you. You don't have to accept the choice I'm offering. Just give me a chance to show you it's the best choice."
"Look at me. Look past the tattoos, the magical jewelry. I'm just a girl. I'm still the same silly girl I was before I got my powers. I make my friends waffles in the morning, laugh with them over silly Youtube videos, or take them on vacation trips to Japan. I go shopping in London and buy a silly hat and wear it all week because I feel like it. I call my sister back home for hours to exchange stories and gossips."
"Yet I've power beyond what most can imagine. I've vanquished demons, beaten small armies, fought demigods. The only reason I'm still a normal girl beneath it all, is because the family I made there. People just like me. We keep eachother normal. So that we don't become defined by our powers, zealots or tools for a cause."
Nicky smiled her open, girlish smile that she knew endeared her to many, straightened and extended a hand, and looked at the girl expectantly.
23:47
She slipped silently into the dark room, orienting on her magic senses, and began rummaging through the closet as quietly as possible. Not quietly enough; the shape in the bed stirred.
"Nicole?" it moaned, half-asleep. Maybe her scent had given her away. "Go back to sleep," she whispered, changing her clothes.
"What are you coming back from so late?" the voice sounded more awake now, and concerned. So much for not waking the room's occupant. "Party."
"Oh...." she heard the body shift in the bed to look at her, futily as there was nothing to see, "flirt with any hot girls?" She nodded, just as futily. "A few."
"Any of them offer to sleep with you?" She chuckled. "A few."
"Bring any of them home?" Nicole turned to the bed and lowered her head in front of the dark form. "Yes, she's outside the door, waiting for me to announce her. I think you'll like her. She's looking forward to meeting you. I told her you were a real animal in bed."
A pillow smacked into Nicole's head, then arms dragged her down onto the bed. "You like doing that, don't you? Going out to flirt, acting the promiscuous partygirl, then coming home to me to tell me about it?"
"Maybe..." Nicole was glad it was too dark to see her blush, "I never had much trouble getting lovers, short-lasting romances, but I was never able to hook one willing to stick with me long term... so..."
"That's not true," the voice interjected, sleepily again, "you hooked me. And in a nightclub, no less." The tiny form curled itself up against her. "I love you, Nicole, I'll always be yours. Just be mine."
She wrapped her arms around the warm body and planted a kiss on what felt like an ear. "Always."