Stronger Together chapter 151 (Patreon)

After about two hours of constant wind magic drills I had to call it.  My control with this spell was shit and I was pouring way too much  soulfire into it, even casting the smallest breeze for this long had me  feeling weak and dizzy. If I kept going I'd probably drain my soul and  cease to exist. Harry had long since retired to a chair off to one side  and was reading a book, occasionally glancing up to give commentary.  When he saw me stop he smiled and clapped his hands once, standing up  "Ok, good work today, keep practicing when you can, feel free to head  back over if you need some extra tutoring but Barb should be able to  take it from here."

I laughed at his casual dismissal  rolling my eyes because I knew he was kidding "Yeah, yeah, you talk big  but I know you wouldn't dare kick me out. I might take Yang with me and  then you would be out a free babysitter." He gave a knowing grin and a  shrug, unable to argue that one. "Anyway I figure we should check in  with Bob about this prophecy nonsense when we're down here. Even if we  beat the big dogs we're going to have to deal with the source or we'll  get flooded with wolf themed assholes until even we can't handle it  anymore." We were badasses but enough ants can even kill an elephant. We  needed to shut this shit down before the problem got any worse.

I  didn't bother to go anywhere and just sat down in another chair nearby,  this place was pretty big but sound carried underground and Bob had  definitely heard me. It wasn't like he actually had vocal chords anyway I  should be able to hear him just fine wherever I was in the room since  he was either using telepathy or projection to speak. Sure enough the  eye lights of the skull flickered to life, and when he spoke his voice  sounded like it was within a foot or two of me as usual. "Well if it  isn't my favorite male apprentice. Have I thanked you yet for your  amazing gift? I've been skimming these romance novel files non stop and I  can't get enough."

I was curious about Bob's reading  speed actually. In the books someone had compared him reading to making  friends since the characters were similar thought constructs to Bob  himself, did that mean he actually got to live a book like it was a  movie? That sounded amazing, and would probably take quite a while per  book. I wished it was a gift I had myself. I waved off the thanks "No  problem man, glad you're enjoying yourself. I take it you heard what we  were discussing?" Bob listened to everything said down here, but it  seemed polite to confirm it.

The eye lights danced in  their sockets "Oh, sure, and the answer is somewhat complex. Prophecies  come from multiple sources and in multiple flavors. I somehow doubt the  prophet themselves is as you put it, wolf themed, but they may be  connected to an entity in that particular category. Do you know anything  about the prophecy?" I was a bit disappointed but to be honest it  wasn't Bob's fault. He might be a spirit of intellect but expecting him  just randomly know things about other people's secrets was pretty  unreasonable.

I tried to think of everything Dalton had  mentioned about the prophecy "Well, I know it's about a werewolf child  who will be some sort of messiah. Other than that something in there  seems to point to Connor which as you can imagine is less than ideal. So  there aren't any prophetic wolf gods or werewolf seers?" Expecting  everything to be that neat and tidy would be pretty ridiculous I  supposed, still it was a shame we couldn't get a solid heading here. I  hadn't been kidding with Harry about wanting to take care of this before  it spun out of control.

Bob's eye lights rolled in their  sockets "No. Lycaon might be in touch with one of the Greek seers but  honestly it seems unlikely. Cassandra is pretty much a cat lady at this  point and the current Oracle of Delphi is twenty two year old valley  girl. Apollo tends to like them blonde and vapid, mostly because he's  half in love with himself. Pretty much every seer in the Greek  wheelhouse has some connection to Apollo since he's the god of prophecy.  He's pretty possessive of his girls so any male getting a prophecy is  fairly unlikely."

I raised an eyebrow at that first part  "Wait, isn't Cassandra dead? The Trojan war was centuries ago, no way  she managed to stick around. Also I though Delphi was just ruins at this  point? How would it still have an oracle?" I wondered if maybe there  were nevernever counterparts to all the old legendary places that were  still active. Everything was somewhere in the nevernever so it would  certainly make sense. "Also could we maybe send someone to speak to the  Oracle then? Raven would probably be out because she's part demon,and  Kara is part god, but maybe Yang or Barb?"

Bob's eye  lights somehow rolled even harder "In order, no Cassandra isn't dead,  Apollo isn't that merciful his curse forced her to remain young and  beautiful forever, because if it's not unnecessarily and weirdly double  edged it's not a real greek curse right? Secondly the Oracle of Delphi  is the official term for whatever beach bunny is bouncing on Apollo's  disco stick. He established the temple so he could lock them up and  people would ignore all the sex noises, assuming the girls were  'receiveing visions'. The prophecy is just a side effect of getting  nailed by a god or oracles. Also no, getting mixed up with the greeks if  you don't have to is never a good idea."

He made a  pensive sound "That said, there may be another option. The nevernever is  a big complicated place, parts of it are...more symbolic than others.  Because of it's nature as a place of belief and dreams certain themes  can be found gathered in certain places. In this case since wolf  mythology tend to share certain similarities certain parts of the  nevernever can be considered gathering places for them. The spirits of  bestial rage that inhabit the Loup-Garou congregate there, being changed  all the time by their own legends. But then, that's just the kind of  place the nevernever is."

That sounded pretty promising,  though I admittedly wasn't sure how we were going to find the place. The  nevernever, as mentioned before, was immense. Pretty much infinite as  far as humans were concerned actually, and even though it connected in  different places they were pretty much random. No one knew how the  Ways...worked. I froze and turned to stare at Harry. Harry knew how they  worked. Or at least he could know. His godmother had a stone his mother  had left behind for him. The sum total knowledge of all of her research  on traversing the nevernever, something she had been so good at it won  her the nickname "le fay".

If Harry contacted Lea now he  could get the stone early and use it to get us to...what was the name of  this place anyway. I flicked my eyes back to Bob "Say I had a way to  get us there, could you tell me what the place is called in a way that  would allow us to reach it based on hearsay?" Knowing the way there  would mean nothing if Bob knew a different name and we never realized we  had directions. Plus I had to convince Harry to summon Lea, which I was  almost positive he wouldn't do in the house with Maggie. Not that I  blamed him for that.

Bob seemed to understand what I meant  at least a bit "It doesn't really have a consistent name, most places  in the nevernever don't unless they belong to someone so powerful they  were able to make a name for themselves back when the gods were in their  heyday. Olympus, Asgard, Shangi-La, the usual mystical treasure lands.  This place is less showy, it's not really owned by anyone per se, but  most people call it some variation of The Wild Place. I think the fae  call it The Wild Wood, actually, but pretty similar."

Seeing  I was unimpressed by the lame name Bob went out of his way to caution  me "This is a place of primordial hunger and rage, Cam. Don't  underestimate it. As you know the nevernever is shaped by human  consciousness to an extent. The Wild Wood hasn't changed noticeably in  recorded history. That's because the part of humanity's mental landscape  that defines it is so deep and primal that even generations of science  and logic haven't eroded it. That creeping dread you feel when you walk  down the street at night? The feeling of being watched and hunted? The  Wood is born of those fears. It's ancient and terrible."

That  actually did sound both ancient and terrible. I really didn't want to  go there. When Bob brought it up I figured he meant like a club or a  dining hall. I hadn't even guessed that it might be a horrifying dark  forest full of crazed beast spirits and dreadful nightmare monsters. "So  how will going there help us figure out what's going on with Connor? No  offense but it doesn't exactly seem like we can stop someone there and  ask directions to the giant wolf head hall of prophecy? And shouldn't we  wait until after they leave to head there?" I didn't really love the  idea of leaving giant wolves and sociopathic Romans loose in my town.

Bab  made a conciliatory noise "It's fine, time doesn't pass the same in  certain parts of the nevernever The Wild Wood is so far away from here  and so deep in the human psyche the time there flows much slower. As for  why you should go? Because we don't know exactly what the prophecy is.  If the worst happens and  the wolf cub gets snatched we should probably  know what they're going to do with him, not to mention if there's some  deadline or something it would help predict when they might strike or  where they'll be. Prophecies usually have coordinates embedded in them.  Place as well as time. It's more esoteric than someone would normally  talk but it's usually there all the same."

That  actually made sense. Which was annoying, because that meant I was going  to have to go to the wold themed boogeyland of the supernatural to get  answers. Joy. I sighed dispiritedly and looked at my mentor "If we're  going to this place you're the only one who can get us there. We need a  guide and you have access to a powerful resource in terms of transport  through the Ways. Even if you aren't aware of it." We would definitely  need to find somewhere else to summon her, but calling Lea to get  Harry's inheritance was still our best bet to make it to this place.

He  seemed confused "Is this some kind of weird 'you're smarter than you  know' apprentice confidence thing? Because as flattered as I am I can't  use my detective skills to find paths through the nevernever. Unless you  mean-" he pointed at his head "because she says she has no clue. The  Ways change along with the nevernever itself. This Wild Wood might be  pretty static but the closest reaches of the nevernever are fae  territory and those have changed a lot since she was last at large. Plus  she said she spent most of her time on earth anyway since the bearers  of her coins were from here and didn't love the idea of setting off on  possibly never ending journeys into the unknown."

Which  was fair, but not what I meant. "Nope, not what I was talking about.  Not that I don't have confidence in the two of you, but I was thinking  something a bit more literal. When I say you aren't aware of it I meant  that you have access to an object of sorts that will help." He just  looked at me, confused, then glanced around the basement questioningly. I  smiled slightly, enjoying the opportunity to play the mysterious seer.  No wonder prophecy was so popular in the old days. "Tell me boss, have  you ever asked your godmother if your mom left you anything?"