Captain stood closer to Jackson and Jerry as she stopped between them and those talking to the teens.
A slightly pleased nod that Kaitlin was feeling better, a raised eyebrow at the young lady's question - at least she acknowledged it was rude, a faintly grim look between her and Jackson as Kaitlin discussed "the world the way I need it to be" and how she had been using her abilities.
Quietly looked over her notes, holding her tongue, breathing getting slightly tighter. There were words for what Kaitlin had been doing, and none of them were polite. These types of abilities would also make her a target for those with even less care for the repercussions of altering the minds of others to their will, to get what they wanted. This explained why the information everyone got seemed weird and a lot more, but Captain still didn't like having this information.
Voice on the edge of neutral and intentionally numbed, Captain asked as she stepped back from the teens, "What numbers are we looking at? People you're trying to affect, numbers of times that has happened?" with a nod towards the bloodied handkerchief.
There was a lot more she wanted to ask, most of the 'what did she think gave her the right...' and 'what are you willing to risk for what you think is the way the world should be?' variety, but she couldn't let those emotions reach her, not yet. There were protocols to for this that would be a lot more useful and feel better, eventually...
Kavax put a claw to his face and shook his head.
"Little lady, do you realize that the mere fact that you can do that kind of magic on that kind of scale renders this whole Pack romance spat completely irrelevant?"
Smoke trickled from his nostrils as he reminded himself that this was largely a kid who didn't realize that what she was doing was tremendously morally wrong... or at least he hoped she didn't.
"Forget deciding which pack you two end up in. You need a proper magic instructor and serious protection yesterday, before some unscrupulous evil cult finds you, kidnaps you, and either blackmails you into joining over the lives of your family, or just sacrifices you to summon a demon or something."
This reminded Carlos of a Twilight Zone episode.
Hopefully I don't end up like a jack-in-a-box when this is done.
He listened as she spoke and wondered what could have given her those arcane powers, there was a list running through his head and most of them were written in red. Hearing Kavax chide them he gave the dragon a little look, "They're kids. I'm sure we've all been guilty of using our magic in different ways... I know for sure I have." But in the end he relents, the fact that there may be cults or worse, government organizations who would use them was a terrifying prospect.
"Jessica has a great idea, would letting go a little at a time help? Can this really be a romance if everyone was bent back like a puppet? Take it from me, I've had my share of horrible relationships, and they mostly all started on the pretense of magic." Or having to kill them because of magical beings, but let's leave that part out.
The girls eyes widened. "No, look, it's fine, I can keep it up-"
Ethan hugged her. "It's fine. Explain to them."
"But-"
"It shouldn't matter, if it's just them. But Jack, could you move back out of hearing for a minute?" The male werewolf looked confused, but nodded and stepped back a good distance.
"I wish I could, but it's all or nothing." She looked uncomfortable as she tried to explain. "See, I made a change that I can't let go yet. If one person remembers what 'should' be, then everyone else does, and I lose my grip. As to how many, it's everyone in the packs, and a few humans."
She squirmed uncomfortably. "Look, I know this is bad, OK? You can't just mess with people like this. I know that changing how things are is wrong, but I'm not doing this for our relationship, exactly. But I had to. I really did. You see..."
Ethan sighed, and lifted his shirt. A large bandage part soaked in blood was just below his heart. "I died. There was a freak accident. I'm weird, in that both silver and iron can hurt me, but not as bad as a normal wolf or fey. I'm not really either one. Turns out a spark plug has silver and iron wire in it. I can't handle both. It killed me."
Katherine added, "But it's healing! It's healing like it would on a human, though, but it's healing! If I can hold the change, that he's alive, he'll heal enough that I can let go." She looked at the hunter pleadingly. "But you can't tell anyone. If they remember it'll break the change."
Captain sighed slightly as the young man disclosed risky information she didn't need and had told them she hadn't wanted. The relevant information explained a lot - small mercies, at least they hadn't used an outside necromancer. Some are lovely, but there were enough layers on this to risk someone who might not be.
While pleased they recognised the moral quandary this situation has, her anger had not yet fully abated. Captain's posture and tone were still neutral-numb. "Hopefully you won't need this in future, but 'freak accident with components that killed me, but is now healing', along with the parameters Kaitlin gave would have sufficed. Listing out specific vulnerabilities puts you and potentially us at risk. That aside, we need to start planning the least risky options, so: how long have you been sustaining this, how long have the nose bleeds been going on, and what are the chances a professional could take a look at the injury? While...understandable that you would do this, this type of magic risks killing both of you and others in terrible ways. A prognosis and timeline on the injury would give us more options or we might need to plan for the worst even if hoping for better."
She was used to being the bearer of bad news, and 'you may be killing each other and others you love' wasn't the worst she'd had to deliver, but it was up there. Still, Captain hoped she had framed it in a way that they could see further cooperation would only improve their chances and that it was clear to them that even angry, even though the magic use wasn't one she could truly support, Captain had no ill will towards them. With her own agenda, Captain still wanted this to go well for them. She tried to keep her thoughts from the options she would have if she could bring in her subordinates, especially the ones from before... but that wasn't an option at this time.
Kavax nodded.
"Yeah, this is a pretty clumsy way to go about it. We might well be able to offer a better option, depending on the circumstances. I guess my question to add would be... just how dead were you? All the way dead, or only mostly dead... er, that is to say, had you lost brain function for more than a minute yet? That can matter a lot. Much easier to fix only mostly dead."
"That was from a movie, wasn't it?" Jessica asks Kavax, as her head spins over the revelation that Ethan had died and the reality warping was to keep him alive.
She looks at everyone, suddenly embarrassed. "And that's not really relevant right now."
She starts to empathize with them. Wanting to hold onto life by any means necessary; enough of her told herself that they were disrupting the natural order and had to be stopped. She pushes that aside and reminds herself of her old mortality.
"This, what you're doing-- could it really work?" She spares a glance to Mr. Garcia, wondering if he'd know.
"Pretty dead," Ethan said slowly. "Although if we're taking the Princess Bride for medical advice, I'm not sure it's the best plan..."
"His heart beat was tachycardic and he'd stopped breathing, with his heart peat becoming weaker and his blood pressure was rapidly dropping, but he was still alive at the time. Just...not for long." Katherine paused. "I want to be a doctor, so I've taken a few courses and first aid training and the like."
Ethan frowned a little. "We were changing my bandages - it's hard to do it myself, and we didn't want to be spotted - and we think there's fragments of something stopping the wound healing right, like it should for a werewolf. A normal cut heals normally. So this one healing slow...I dunno. How long does it take to heal a hole in the heart?"
Dead?
The story started adding up, and Carlos wasn't sure about how the story would end though.
Looking toward Jessica he shrugs, "Stranger things have happened so I wouldn't discredit it entirely." He taps the side of his glasses, "In fact, we've seen weirder things." The hunter gives a grin to Kavax and Jessica, "No offense of course."
He slowly approaches the two, "I know a little bit about magic, would you want me to take a look and see what we can do? If it was possible to fix that hole, and survive without the twisting magic... Would you be okay with dropping the spell?"
Kavax snorted thoughtfully.
"I'm not so good at repairing damage, but if it's foreign material still in you that's the problem, I can probably selectively annihilate it."
Captain nodded slightly as she listened to the teens explanations, considering them alongside her notes. At Ethan's question, which Captain took literally in her current mood, she looked up as she organised her thoughts.
After Carlos and Kavax made their offers, Captain nodded and added, still sound neutral-numb-textbook, "Either are possible option, with risks to consider with adding in more magic. Generally on what little I can see and guess from your description Ethan, there are a lot of factors to consider, but with the medic teams I've led, I'd expect, without magical supplementation to healing which alters the timeline one way or the other - probably looking about twelve weeks with rehabilitation and non-strenuous activities starting 6-8 weeks post-op. Any remaining components you're reacting to plus any shifting and - while I'm sure you've done your best - lack of professional oversight will lengthen that...but I'm going to guess this has been going on considerable amount of time. How long? And how long after did you start getting nose bleeds?
Jessica started feeling hopeful with all the talk of what sounded like (to her) normal medical procedures. If Ethan was in good hands, then Kaitlyn could stop screwing with reality. But something nagged at her. "Um, how is it possible that you had a spark plug go through your heart? As far as 'freak accidents' go, that's... really specific that it could kill you."
"It wasn't a set up," Ethan said with a sour face. "I was working on my car. I screwed up, and the block, uhhh...exploaded. I got hit by a bunch of stuff. It was just the spark plug turned out to be the one thing that could hurt me. I never even knew they used silver in them, until then."
"It was three weeks ago," Kaitlyn (definitely not Katherine) said, looking at Captan Rose with a bit of awe. "If you can make the wound heal, I can drop the spell. It'll confuse people for a bit, but if the reality if he's not dead, and there's no wound, it will be fine." After a moment, she added, "I get the nosebleeds all the time, but they happen more when I use this. Headaches and odd migraines too."
Carlos cracks his knuckles, then immediately wags his hand through the air, "Bad habit."
He looks at the others, "I'm wiling to try and see what we can do. I won't know what we will need until we look." Approaching he rummages through his bag for something that may be a help.
"Do you mind if we take a look here?"
He pulls out a small bundle of sticks, holly and greenery and proceeds to start grinding them together and tying them, creating almost a magical dowsing rod.
Ethan nodded, and headed back towards the cave and out of sight of Jack to allow Carlos (and anyone else who follows) a better look at the wound. Underneath the bandage it's a deep, penetrative wound that has scabbed heavily, but still weeps blood. The smell of disinfectant is quite strong, and there's no clear sign of infection, but the flesh around the area is still very red and inflamed.
Carlos' makeshift dowsing rod 'jerks' a little in a couple of spots, suggesting something foreign is still in the wound as you all suspect.
Jessica steps back to give Carlos space to work.
She chews on her lip as she considers all that they've learned, and whether it could be that simple as healing Ethan to let Kaitlyn slowly release her spell.
A stray thought nags at her, so she asks out loud, "So, what's the deal with the ambrosia in the mead? I was sure it would have something to do with... all this."
"The what?" Kaitlyn asked in obvious surprise.
Ethan grunted. "Is that why it tastes so nice? I have no idea what Ambrosia is, though, sorry."
Kaitlyn considered for a moment. "Isn't it a kind of British dessert? Who puts that in a drink?"
Jessica exchanges a glance with Mr. Garcia. "It's, um, the food of the gods. I mean, literally. The British probably named their dessert after it. Mortals. Emile said someone named Albert makes the mead. Is he related to you?" She looks at Kaitlyn, since she'd already spoken with Ethan's parents.
Kavax nodded as Carlos positively identified that there was foreign material left.
"Well, I'll see what I can do to get rid of it. A bit nervous about how this will interact with what the little lady's doing, but that wound isn't going to heal right with the metals still in it."
Kavax stepped over to Ethan. "Fair warning; this might hurt a bit. Or maybe a lot, depending on whether it interferes with the other magic going on. Probably less than getting that injury in the first place, though."
He then began to intone in the jagged, harsh, unnatural tongue he used for magic, which a couple of the hunters had heard before. Once again, it was clearly not a language known to any here (save perhaps Androleteira), but yet the meaning was painfully clear.
"Entropy and Destruction, annihilate unclean intrusions. Spare the flesh and blood, iron cold and silver pure burn away."
"Its funny, the smell of disinfectant is still around. I wonder if the magic has been maintaining it." He informs the others, "Seems like something is still lodged in here."
Hearing the talk about ambrosia he laughs, "Different kind señorita." Focusing back on the rod he feels it pull, "Whatever is in there is still in there Kavax."
The hunter steps back and gives Kavax some space.
"Let's see it."
Captain considered what Kaitlyn (definitely not Katherine) said, mixed feelings about the look in the girl's eye.
Following into the cave, Captain briefly added to Kaitlyn, "Those symptoms will need to continue to be tracked. Hopefully they'll ease when this is finished, but things like that don't always..."
She raised an eyebrow at the mentions of ambrosia - outside influences could still be involved and further information on the packs and their possible connections could prove useful - but kept most of her wary focus on Carlos and Kavax's magic use.
"Albert?" Kaitlyn asked. "He's an old werewolf from England. I don't really know much about him, honestly. He keeps to himself. Mom always sounds sad when she talks about him." She nodded to Carlos. "We just put fresh antiseptic on the wound. Normally, infection isn't an issue for us, or at least most of them aren't. But given the circumstances I thought every little could help."
The girl nodded to Captain. "I use to keep them in a diary."
It occurs to Kavax at the last moment that vaporising toxic metal within the boys body when he's already injured is probably not the best move he can make, medically speaking. There probably isn't a huge amount, but the issue is the reaction he's having to it - spreading that reaction through his body would be...bad.
Instead, Kavax focused on the things that don't belong. They were not where they were supposed to be. Not here. Not now. They needed to be elsewhere.
So shall it be.
Ethan gasped for a moment and the wound began to knit closed, fast even by werewolf standards.
Jessica files the information away about Albert, thinking that before all this is over she'll have to have a chat with him. Even if his mead isn't involved, the fact that he has some sort of access to ambrosia stirs her angel half.
She turns her focus to Kavax's spell. If his magic and Kaitlyn's reality warping interacted poorly, she wasn't sure what to do -- expect perhaps to just move as far away as possible from whatever happens. But thankfully, his spell seems to have done the trick.
"That's promising. So, how do you feel?" she asks.
Carlos watches, "Alls well that ends well right?" He knew it wasn't so simple, "Well good to know that you're not just relying on magic, it's never a good crutch... Believe me."
Starting to wonder about the mysterious ambrosia, he had no idea how this tied to the other problem of the lovers and the borrowed time.
"Can you point this Albert out to us?"
Ethan nodded. "It feels better, yeah." He considered. "Not that I could really feel it before, but it felt wrong. Now it's feeling righter, I think."
Kaitlyn nodded as she examined the closing wound. "Albert's usually easy enough to find, sure. It should be easy enough."
Kavax stepped back. "Not much more I can do to help now. Not even sure exactly where it was I sent those metals, either. Probably the Void, or something like that."
Jessica looks back and forth between Kavax, Ethan and Kaitlyn. "Okay. Should we then see about letting go? Gently, if possible?"
Carlos warily looks and nods.
"We have to at some point right? And we're right here."
Jessica holds up a hand. "You know what, maybe I should-- I mean, let me just, ah, take a look here." She rubs her hands together and tries to open up her senses again, but this time focusing on Ethan and trying to keep the screaming, twisted reality out of her vision.
Kaitlyn glanced at the wound as Ethan re-shirted himself. "Are you sure? Shouldn't we wait longer? Maybe there's some damage in the muscle that we can't see as easily. Maybe I should keep it up a bit longer?"
Ethan smiled and hugged her. "It's fine. I'm healed. It's safe, I promise."
Kaitlyn looked worried, but nodded. "Like I said, there's no way to change this slowly. The best way I can explain it is I make thing true. It can't be a little bit true. Either a thing is or it isn't. So, either I'm keeping him alive or I'm not. Let's try." She paused, and looked at Ethan. "Well?"
Ethan looked down. "Nothing. Seems fine."
"Huh."
Jack appeared rapidly. "Why do I suddenly remember that Ethan was dead?"
Ethan paused. "S***."
Captain gave Jack a small sympathetic smile, before turning to the teenagers. "As the magic was maintaining separate memories, rather than erasing them, some disorientation as it fades is to be expected. With any luck, the more unpredictable risks won't come into play - them remembering is unlikely to undo what you and Kavax have done - but we need to start heading back. Both to get both of you under your Packs medical supervision and to lessen the others confusion. We still to discuss how you both want to resolve the Law issue, but I imagine the others will have other things on their mind for a bit.
Jessica lets out a breath that she didn't realize she was holding when there didn't seem to be a giant crash. Jack's confusion was apparently the only sign that reality was snapping back to normal.
"Well, that was much more painless than what I was afraid of." The Captain's suggestion that they start heading back was a good one. "Yeah, we should see what they're all doing now. Hopefully Kaitlyn wasn't holding back a werewolf civil war or something as well."
She just about moves to be back at the party instantly, but holds herself back at the last moment. She wasn't sure she wanted to be alone with all the werewolves, and taking people with her was just too risky.
She does, however, use her wings to again cross the stream so she doesn't get her shoes wet.
He waited.
He waited some more.
Something is going to happen, it just has to. This can't be that easy...
Eventually he opened his eyes, thankful for the sunglasses hiding his unease, "We aren't dead either it seems." The humour was a little morbid but it fit his mood. "This... I don't think it's this simple. Did anyone else know you were dead? Anyone who could possibly have a vendetta or anger or---" Seeing the kids light up he stops his questions for now, but keeps them in mind.
Jack appeared rapidly. "Why do I suddenly remember that Ethan was dead?"
Jerry, who was waiting outside with Jack, and not entirely aware of the goings on in the cave, had followed him. "What are you talking about? He's not dead."
Kavax just looked over at Jack and shrugged.
"Maybe. So? Isn't dead right now, isn't a flesh-eating undead, I don't see any problems. This is a weird world sometimes. Not too long ago I helped kill a theater. This is on the low end of weirdness for me."
Jack rubbed his jaw. "I mean, I can see he's not dead. But I can also remember Emelia getting a call about his heart being injured, and then her putting the phone down because everything was fine. The world turned sideways and now it turned back and I reckon some kind of explanation is in order. But you can bet the Alphas aren't going to accept, 'it's all fine, totally fine, no one's dead now'." He looked at Kavax. "Even with building slaying."
Kaitlyn winced at that suggestion.
Kavax let out a few puffs of smoke, looked back and forth a bit, then shrugged.
"Turns out the little lady here is a sorceress, of the 'downright scarily powerful' variety. Which means that the next thing we should start worrying about is getting her some proper education on how to use that power without giving reality the kind of pretzeling that is liable to cause large-scale catastrophes. That and a squad of beefy, toothy bodyguards to keep her from getting snatched up by the kind of folks who want to cause large-scale catastrophes."
Jessica winces hard when she hears Kavax blurt out Kaitlyn's powers to Jack, who had just earlier demonstrated he got whammied by them. She spins around from where she had started to head back to the feast. "Really? I thought we were going to try to keep this quiet. Do you really want to tell all the packs about her?"
Kavax looked sideways at Jessica.
"If they're remembering, I don't think this is staying secret no matter what. Better to clear it up before someone gets the wrong idea and starts with the witch-burning."
Jessica scowls at the way Kavax looks at her. She doesn't realize it, but her wings are back and framing her form. "No, you're the one who just talked about the wrong people wanting, what'd you call it? 'Large-scale catastrophes'? The more people who know, the more word's going to get out."
He listened to the two sides before stepping in, "I think Jessica has a point but we cannot hide this. If they think it's some sort of gaslighting or enchanting, the only people that have shown up recently have been us." Taking a stick of gum out he glances at the cartoon comic wrapped before putting it in his breast pocket for later, "Worse, we were hired to come in. This could easily become a full scale war if they think there's some manipulation going on."
As she walked back down the path towards the river crossing, she responded more directly to Jack, trying to be reassuring, but still more matter-of-fact than warm as she was before, "It isn't uncommon when covered memories return to find it disorientating-to-distressing, especially as the now-reality tends to conflict with both sets, but that should pass soon. You seem to be handling it well."
She made her way, speaking as her mind turned, "The next thing we need to worry about is getting medical supervision. Once there, Kaitlin and Ethan can explain in more detail to the Alphas and they can take the appropriate steps from there. While I agree with both ideas that this will need to be explained in detail to the Alphas and that all of this cannot remain a secret, it doesn't need to be to entirely out there. Once you talk the Alphas, unless I think you two are leaving out something absolutely needed for your and your Packs wellbeing, it's your information and I'll respect your choices on discretion - though I'd appreciate if at some point we could get both of your points of view on how to resolve the Law issue."
She glanced back towards the other hunters, but kept walking, "Jack, Kaitlin, and Ethan can correct me if I'm wrong, but while conflict is a possibility, remember before the race earlier, magic was openly discussed as it is in many communities. I've never heard of any Pack 'burning witches' or any other type of spellcasters, but I have heard of them protecting them - to the point in some parts of the world, half-werewolves are commonly called witchwolves. The only harm I've heard of were in self-defense or retribution which I think is unlikely in this cause. While there are always some security concerns, most outside organizations won't attempt recruitment of a werewolf still aligned with a Pack anymore and most Packs and Clans already know the groups that don't care about the Ugam agreements who would force the issue - or worse. Local-scale can be a bigger concern than large scale.
She looked up and around as she continued on, "Last time I was in a werewolf-controlled forest, there were steppe eagles. At least one of them was a witch who married into a Pack who would track in any visitors, not sure what type. I'd never had known if I hadn't met her daughter and caught her looking up so much on our way back into their lands, but there were stories of others used similar tactics. This kind of magic can pull, and that concerns me far more than any of the Packs. It's a risk, this stuff always is, but if you turn-the-worst-to-best luck continues as you have been so far, these are all just a passing worries that will sort themselves out. We just have to be cautious.
Jessica stares at the Captain for a beat. "Yeah. So, um, do you want me to go on ahead? See what's going on with the packs?"
Captain Rose didn't see a new issue, but there was an old one - the situation between the Alphas remained as unresolved as it had been. None of this would seem to have an impact. If anything, it'll add to the confusion.
Jack rubbed his chin. "I, uh, I'm pretty sure there isn't going to be a war. A lot of confusion. A lot of 'what the hell is going on'? But most of them don't want a war. We've never burned any witches, either? Killed them, sure, when one was trying to control us as guard dogs or the like - it happens - but at the end of the day, all the tension was about where these two lovebirds will end up. The whole 'dead but not dead' thing will probably cause some confusion, and maybe add some fuel to his folks being possessive." Ethan winced.
Kaitlyn added, "I don't think I qualify as a witch, if that helps?" Ethan and Jack looked at her. "Well, I don't do any magic. All I do is change a single truth in the universe." She considered what she'd said. "I mean, when I say it like that..."
"...it sounds much worse," Jessica whispers to herself.
"If we could get Ethan's parents to see her ability as a benefit, and if she agrees to move to that pack, we could try for that angle."
Kavax scratched at his chin.
"Honestly, if the Packs don't have anyone who knows much about whatever kind of magic this is, the answer might be to find someone out there who does, and isn't evil, and have her spend some time out there learning how to harness her power better. Ethan could come along as a bodyguard, maybe a few others too. Can't say if I know if there even is any practiced magician of the right kind out there anywhere, though. Not exactly the kind of thing folks advertise."
"It's one solution," Jack said diplomatically to Kavax's suggestion as Kaitlyn looked down - Werewolf hearing meant she'd clearly heard Jessica's comment, and wasn't inclined to argue that twisting reality itself into a screaming pretzel was probably worse than casting Fireball. "Is there anyone else like you, Kaitlyn?"
The younger werewolf looked uncertain. "I don't think so. I tried to research what I am, and you get some stories and books about reality warpers. They show up in comic books a lot, too. But I might be looking in the wrong places. Or looking for the wrong terms."