AotS Chapter 45.em - Making Light (Patreon)

Acceptance of the Self

Book 1: Attunement of the Hearts

Chapter 45.em - Making Light

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Ellie

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[ - Monday, September 16, 2019 - 1:03pm - Anderson House - ]

My breathing is deep. My body is still. My mind is focused.

I sit with my legs crossed on the couch in the Anderson’s living room. Claire sits beside me, breathing deeply and evenly. Vielet sits in the armchair to my right, likely trying to do the same thing I am: cast the light spell that Claire’s just demonstrated for us.

Maddie has the four steps that Claire gave us written out on a sheet of parchment paper in flowing english script in our mind, and they read them out to me as I go through the motions for the second time this afternoon. lulu sits behind Maddie in headspace, playing with some My Tiny Equine toys that she generated earlier for funsies.

Step one: ground yourself, Maddie intones. 

In my head I picture roots growing down from the soles of my feet into the earth, burrowing all the way through the Earth’s crust then wrapping themselves around the massive source of energy found at its center. At the same time I slow my breathing and try to relax my body as best I can. Once my tether is secure, I imagine opening myself up to the flow of energy traveling between me and the Earth’s core along my root construct. Green tinged energy surges up through the roots and into my body, washing through me physically and mentally. “Balancing and healing up all the little everyday wears and tears in your aura,” Claire had said.

Step two: gather and store enough energy for whatever you want to do, Maddie instructs. 

Once I feel like my body and aura have been cleansed sufficiently, I direct my attention towards the space between my open hands and will the green energy that’s surging through me to start pouring into the spherical space defined by my slightly cupped hands. A torrent of energy flows up my legs and torso and out my arms into my small orb over the course of the next few minutes; I allow myself to really feel the power coursing up through my body from the ground below and compacting itself into the swirling sphere between my palms. 

Step three: form the sigil for the spell you want to cast in your mind, Maddie says. 

This is fairly simple for us, since we already have a familiarity with the light glyph that Anne used last week, so we focus on that symbol appearing in the middle of our glowing orb of energy. It’s a vertical line bisecting a wide triangle that’s half as tall as it which ends at a small circle with a small pointed beak at its apex. The whole thing is inside a big circle, and there are two slightly diagonal lines crossing the vertical line about half way down its length.

https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/029/988/526/large/mitch-ahrens-lightglyph.jpg?1599241046

Step four: cast the spell! Maddie exclaims. 

Here we focus on bringing our hands closer and closer together while concentrating and shrinking the magic between them and forcing it out through our sigil. When ready, we whisper quietly: “Luz!” and clap our hands together: imagining all that earth energy transmuting to light, and when we open our hands there’s a tiny, barely noticeable mote of green light between them, that vanishes a second later. 

Holy fuck! Maddie shouts internally.

Pretty light! lulu yells excitedly. Do it again!

“Luz!” Vielet echoes from the right side of the room. She claps her hands too and opens her eyes to see... nothing. “Damnit,” she swears quietly to herself.

Poor girl, Maddie thinks.

“Holy shit, way to go Ellie!” Claire enthuses beside me as I fully return to my senses. “I can’t believe you got something visible on your second try! Vie, don’t feel bad at all, this is insane prodigy stuff right here, and it’s probably because she has an unfair advantage in the form of a magical girl headmate.”

Vielet grins. “Are you kidding? This is awesome! Ellie just did real, actual magic right here with basically one day of training! And I’m going to learn it too? That’s fucking amazing!”

Claire smiles at her. “I knew I liked you, kid,” the witch says.

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Madelaine

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Vielet ends up getting picked up by her parents around 1:55pm. Ellie hugs Vielet goodbye after Dawn, and then I switch in and repeat the process, because I really do care about Vie, and I want her to know that. Then Vielet heads for the door and beyond, where her parents’ orange minivan is waiting. 

About five minutes later the vampires arrive, in the Sombersets’ little black honda fit and Maurice’s blue pickup truck, and they come with four disguise identities all ready to go. 

Ellie continues fronting while we stand at the south head of the table next to Dawn, listening to the adults hash it all out. In headspace, lulu is playing with her My Tiny Equine figurines on the smooth black wooden floor of the viewing tree, in front of the line of chairs before the viewing screen. I sit back in my navy blue loveseat, keeping my attention focused on the adults’ conversation.

Jay and Aiden stand on the west side of the table, facing off against Deirdre, Audre, Maurice, and Trevor on the east side. Claire stands at the far head of the table across from Dawn and I, where her artifacts are still set out. We’ve got dossiers on the four disguise identities that Deirdre, Audre, and Maurice have found for the group, complete with official-looking legal documents and everything, spread out across the rest of the table.

“So, hrm. There’s three ladies and one guy here,” Jay observes as he looks over the dossiers. He glances around at Claire, Deirdre, and Aiden. “I count two guys and two gals among us, however.”

Maurice and Audre nod while Deirdre snorts.

“Look, it’s hard enough getting one new identity when you need a clean break from your past fifty years of mistakes,” Deirdre says. She mimes shooing away Jay’s concerns with her right hand. “These are the only four people that the office had documents ready to go for, and let me tell you, they cost a pretty penny.”

“Send us the bill, we can probably reimburse you for half at least,” Aiden cuts in before Jay can reply.

Deirdre scoffs. “Don’t worry your poor little heart about it, we’ve got generational wealth out the ass.”

Aiden seems mildly surprised, but he doesn’t protest. 

Instead he looks to Jay, who asks warily, “So what kind of ‘office’ is this exactly that has random identities on hand?”

Deirdre shakes her head. “Classified information that you do not need to know, lest you become involved in it. Suffice to say these identities came from people who ran from their pasts and never want to look back,” she explains. Then, after a moment of reflection, she adds, “Probably. Or they got into trouble with the clan and we took them out. Either way, unlikely to come looking for their papers.”

Aiden sighs. “Gotcha,” he says.

Jay coughs. “Listen, I don’t know if this is going to work...” 

“Of course it will, I’ll take one of the women and you take the bloke,” Aiden cuts in.

“But the dysphoria-”, Jay starts worriedly.

“Is something I can handle for a handful of hours if it means getting Sky and Eve back,” Aiden finishes firmly.

Jay frowns at him. “Why can’t you and Audre switch though? Or you could stay back here and keep an eye on the kids even.”

“I don’t recommend switching,” Claire says, “Audre has a lot of physical advantages that Aiden does not, if you catch my meaning. Same with Maurice. I think Audre’ll be far more effective as our invisible agent.”

Aiden nods, putting a placating hand on Jay’s shoulder. “Like I said, I can do this and it will be fine. Besides, you need me in there. I’m a professional liar, baby.” The taller dad kisses the shorter dad on the forehead affectionately.

“If you say so,” Jay replies warily. He gives Aiden a side hug nonetheless. “Are you sure you don’t want me to? I have literal decades of experience pretending to be a woman.”

“Absolutely not,” Aiden replies without a second thought. “This will be an interesting experience for me, I haven’t really experimented with my gender since college. Getting to take a stroll on the other side of the spectrum will be at worst a mild inconvenience, because I don’t have decades of trauma around being seen as a woman.”

Jay rolls his cool blue eyes. “You’re vastly overestimating how much this would hurt me, but I appreciate the sentiment nonetheless. I’ll let you do it on one condition,” He holds up a warning finger.

Aiden smiles down at him. “Of course love, anything.”

“You have to promise me you’ll treat yourself kindly and not push down emotions unnecessarily. This might hurt a bit more than you’re expecting,” Jay says.

Aiden stares into Jay’s unwavering eyes. “I, alright,” he says at last.

“Alright well! Since you’re going to be the most disadvantaged by this change, why don’t you go first, what girlie do you want?” Claire asks, sliding the papers nearest her over so they’re facing Aiden.

The cyan haired Anderdad sighs, then puts his hands on the table and leans forward to examine the options.

“Let’s see, Cassandra Upperwood, Mara Cartest, or Amy Cost...” he mutters under his breath, reading off the names of the three available women-aligned identities.

“You might want to go with Amy, she’s the tallest of the lot, and a scientist to boot,” Deirdre chimes in. “No need to add severe height dysphoria to everything else you’re going to be experiencing. Plus she’s a bookish nerd like you.”

Aiden turns his attention to the right-most profile, scans it for a few seconds, then frowns. “She’s only five seven, she’s the tallest?” 

I catch Audre hiding a smile with a cough. “Ahem, yes,” the willowy vampire says, “she's the tallest, though I suppose if you want you could probably get away with making yourself five eight or five nine even, they won't be measuring you."

Aiden grimaces, but picks up the papers related to Amy and stacks them in front of himself on the table. There are at least five pages of notes on the woman’s previous life, as well as legal documents like birth certificate and license.

Jay gathers up the papers for the masc identity, one Roberto Rodriguez, and follows his husband’s lead by piling them in front of himself on the table and poring through them.

“Alright, that leaves us,” Claire says, holding Deirdre’s gaze levelly for a moment before they both turn to look at the papers on the table. “Are you more a Mara, or a Cassandra?”

Deirdre frowns, looking down at the choices before her. 

“Says here she goes by Cass sometimes,” she mutters, leafing through the scant few pages they have about how people who used to know the real Cassandra might expect her to act, her likes and dislikes, hobbies, interests, etc..

“Hmm,” Claire says, looking over similar papers for Mara, “looks like Mara’s supposed to be a bubbly thirty-something with a love for photography and a previous career as a veterinarian. I think I can handle that.”

“Cass was reserved and private, worked as an accountant. Perfect for me,” Deirdre says.

“Well, that settles that,” Audre says, clapping her hands together. “So when exactly are y’all gonna change into these new bodies?” She looks to Claire with a raised eyebrow.

The witch brushes a few strands of black hair out of her face, focusing her gaze on Audre.

“I was planning on us activating the transformations one hour before the scheduled new hire event start time, so around one pm tomorrow. That’ll give us some time to get used to the bodies so we can act natural while we’re in public,” the witch replies.

Audre nods. “A good plan,”she says. “Now, tell me about this charm bracelet.” She holds up the unclasped colorfully beaded silver bracelet and starts to drape it over her wrist.

“Not so fast!” Claire exclaims, agilely leaping around the table, apparently to try and snatch the bracelet away. Audre’s suddenly clutching it tight to her chest however, and Claire’s lunge misses: the vampiress had moved with a speed I wouldn’t have thought possible if I hadn’t just witnessed it.

Damn that was fast! Ellie comments.

Yeah no kidding, I reply.

Claire looks momentarily surprised, but quickly schools her expression and steps back. The two women are almost equal in height, with Audre being ever so slightly taller at 6’3” or so, and Claire holds Audre’s gaze steadily.

“As you said, we have certain... advantages,” Audre says with a playful smile.

Claire grimaces. “So I did,” she says drily. Then she holds out her hand expectantly. “Listen, that is an enchanted item that requires significant charging under the full moon before it’s ready to use, and it only lasts about a day if worn non-stop,” she says in a carefully controlled voice. “Please don’t put it on until we’re ready to test it for real.”

Audre looks at the bracelet with interest, but nods. “Very well,” she says quietly.

“Does it just activate the moment you put it on?” Dawn asks curiously, leaning forward with her hands on the table.

“...No,” Claire says reluctantly, “but I didn’t want to risk her triggering the activation mechanism.”

“What activates it?” Audre asks.

Claire sighs. “The latin word ‘Evanesco’, while you’re wearing it.”

“Evanesco...” Audre mutters.

“See!?” Claire exclaims, “if you’d put it on you would’ve triggered it just now!”

The vampiress frowns. “Well I’m not going to do it now,” she says. She places the bracelet carefully back down on the table.

Claire lets out a sigh of relief, then the red-eyed witch moves back to the head of the table and clears her throat. 

“So, as I said, this bracelet only works for about a day of nonstop use. It turns the wearer completely invisible, but that’s it. You can still be heard, felt, smelt, and tasted,” she explains. “Though personally I’ve only tested the first three. Haven’t had a chance to get freaky invisibly yet.” She wiggles her eyebrows at Jay and Aiden, who exchange pained glances with each other. The older vampires seem unfazed by the comment, while Trevor smirks, Dawn snickers, and Ellie grins.  

“I’ll leave it up to you to decide how you want to approach this,” Claire continues unphased, addressing Audre now. “You could slip in through a loading/unloading gate, through the employee entrance with the rest of us, or through the air ducts if you’re feeling like a real spy.”

Audre snorts with amusement. “I think I’ll go in on the ground floor, probably from the opposite side of the warehouse as y’all so we can search the place for Eve and Sky from both sides. A loading dock would suit me just fine.”

Claire nods. “Sounds like a good plan,” she says. She turns her attention to the Sneakers of Speed, and adds, “I’ll be wearing these as they’re extremely difficult to control and take practice that we don’t have time for right now.”

There are nods all around, and Claire moves on to handing out the little black felt baggies with invisible earbuds in them. “The four of us going into the new hire event will need these. Audre and Maurice you can use regular earbuds. The bracelet affects clothes, fyi, so anything you’re wearing that’s not unreasonably baggy will be cloaked along with you,” Claire comments as she does so.

Dawn leans forwards a little bit with a perplexed expression. “So, I have to ask, if the pride pins are going to turn you into different people, are they also going to make Deirdre human?”

Claire shakes her head, though the vampire in question looks noticeably uncomfortable at the idea.

“This changes your outward appearance only,” she explains, “and it won’t dispel the curse slash blessing that keeps vampires going. I know it’s a bit counterintuitive, maybe think of the spell like a sculptor that takes what’s there and rearranges it a bit? It won’t touch what’s ‘under the hood’ so to speak. That would take much more powerful magic.”

“Ah,” Dawn says, “gotcha.”

“Good,” Claire says, “Now, I’m going to keep the pride pins with me until we actually use them. And don’t worry, I’ll use a little arts & crafts magic today to make them suitable for the lot of you.”

Aiden raises an eyebrow. “Suitable how?” he asks.

“Well I’ll give you a rainbow one obviously, and Jay and I get trans flags,” Claire says, “Deirdre, which do you want?”

Deirdre looks a little surprised to be asked. 

“I suppose the demigirl one is close enough to true for me,” she says after a moment of thought.

“Perfect!” Claire says enthusiastically.

“Great,” Maurice says gruffly, “so what’s next?”

“I think next it’s time for some calm before the storm, maybe we can relax here for a bit and get to know each other better before we go risking our lives for the sake of our loved ones?” Aiden suggests with a hopeful expression.

The vampires exchange glances, and I catch the slightest of nods pass between Maurice, Deirdre, and Audre.

“Very well,” Deirdre says, “down time might do us some good.”

End of

Chapter 45.em - Making Light

[author]

Greetings esteemed colleagues, peers, and readers all!

We’re excited to dive in to writing the next few chapters. And we hope to get them out slightly faster than we have been!

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