Closed Dear God!

Walking. Praying. Breathing. A perfect trifecta for the soul. It was hard to believe that tomorrow would be the last day of the school year, but it would be. The first half of the year, she prayed for this day incessantly. It could not get here soon enough for her... then. But that was before Simon. Just the thought of even his name at the moment brought warm tears to her eyes. Being separated from him was going to make breathing near impossible for two months. People separated from their mates all the time and managed to survive it, so she felt it better than likely she would as well, but who knew for sure. People also died of broken hearts everyday, too.

Dramatic? Yes. But it was what she was feeling right now, and AngelFyre had learned a long time ago she moved through her grief over anything much more quickly and easily when she acknowledged it and accepted it. The last thing she wanted in the world was to be a blubbering mess when it came time to say her goodbye to Simon at King's Cross station. It would be much preferable to get the majority of it out now. The boy had never seen her ugly cry before and he was not going to anytime soon. Probably. Hopefully. Dang it to h-e-double hockey sticks!

Aimlessly wandering, completely lost in her thoughts, her attention was piqued when she thought she heard Colin's name for her, in his unmistakable brogue, carried to her on the breeze. She stopped and listened now curious. It sounded not like a calling out to her but more as if he were praying as well. Prayer was sacred and private. She would leave him to his own thoughts, but then she heard him refer to her like a sister.

AngelFyre knew she should move on, but she found she could not. Sister! In the span of twenty heartbeats she had gone from completely broken-hearted to a heart overflowing. She leaned her head against the trunk of a rowan and cried even more, but not from sadness. A brother. A foreign concept to her. But thinking about it, thinking about Colin in particular, it felt like a well trodden path; not foreign at all. They had always clicked on a level that AngelFyre found to be soul-twining. As with Simon, she knew her destiny was interlocked with Colin's as well, but she had no idea how that would look. Colin, she suspected, may have a similar inkling, but they had yet to really talk any of it out.

There would be time. That she did know.

Wiping her face free of her tears, she looked around for him. As she had been thinking, he had continued his prayer. She heard him come to the end of it.... his Eyes of Sky. As her heart ached, his would as well. Their time would be long, but was now short.

Much to say. Much to feel. Better maybe to just be.

Searching, she spied him on a ridge not too far above, closing a book. Clearing her throat and swallowing to steady her voice, she started the climb up to him. "You but speak my name and here I be. That is some power you have, my kilted friend. Some power, indeed."

A voice spoke as Colin enjoyed the late evening before the last day of school. It was a familiar voice, and even with his eyes closed, he could tell who the speaker was! "Fyre Angel?" He opened his eyes and looked up into those of his friend. He grinned broadly, showing off all his fangs. He sat up straight, intrigued by what she'd just said. "A power?" How could that be? "You came up here? I was thinking about you, lass, but --- whoa!" Colin scootched to the side so AngelFyre could next to him if she chose.

"I come here a lot! Tis a nice place to just think. Not thinking like in the library or something. You know, school thinking, but --- er --- something else thinking?" He cocked his head. "Heheh! That didn't even sound right!"

Colin fell silent for a long while, then leaned back on his arms again. It was so wonderful just being with a friend. Someone he could just sit and vibe with or someone he could talk with for hours. But today, his heart felt moved towards talking, and his expression turned intense and thoughtful. He stared into AngelFyre's eyes, as if searching for the quality of understanding what he'd decided to tell her. There were so many things that needed saying --- now! Things that shouldn't wait. Things that should have been said before.

Colin spoke at last: "Fyre Angel. You're my friend. And I think much more than just a friend." He scratched behind his ear absently. "Out of almost everyone here, you're one of the few people I can tell --- everything to. Jarael of course. And Gingersnaps. I---" He trailed off for a moment. "I --- I really should have told you this before. Um. You know I've come to think of you as like my own sister, right. Well."

Colin fidgeted a bit. This was never easy to talk about! But here was one person who would surely understand. He let out a long sigh. "First, there's something you need to know about me. I haven't told many others, only really close friends. Um. You see," he said, looking back into AngelFyre's eyes, as if to gauge her true thought from the reaction of her eyes. "I --- I'm a Werewolf, Fyre Angel. I got bitten last summer, just before coming to Hogwarts. A 'wolf attacked my sister and brother and me. I --- I had to defend them! So I fought it, and it bit me."

He lowered his eyes, waiting for AngelFyre's reaction. He hoped that she would, like Sophia and Quinn, accept that part of him. He whispered to himself: "She sees things, it'll be okay lad."

@AngelFyre McCubbin || Mentioning: @Jarael Morningstar | @Sophia Nelson | @Quinn Root

Colin was so glad Fyre Angel's steps had been led here this evening! Whether she knew it or not, she had a gift for saying the right things at the right time. He'd just laid open his heart to this girl for the second time. And even though he saw --- and was momentarily terrified by --- her look of disgust; that fear was instantly quelled by the mere touch of her hand on his. That alone put Colin at ease. But her words filled his heart! Her concern was not that he was a werewolf, but rather than he had suffered the attack, and for the wellbeing of his brother and little sister.

Her attitude towards the attack strengthened his heart and the cloud that had settled over it was blown clear by her words. He couldn't help but look into her eyes with a broad smile and a twinkle in his own!

With his free hand, Colin held out the fang necklace he wore for her to inspect. "Yeah --- I knocked this right out of his jaw with a stone! I thought I'd killed him for sure. But I didn't. I fought him as hard as I could!" Colin leaned in close, his eyes widening. "I found out that you can down a werewolf if you kick him real hard in the crotch!" Colin laughed and leaned back a little. "He squawked, and when he went down, I started bashing his head with a rock! I'd only knocked him out. The next day me and Liam had to go to London to catch the train. Ciarán found that the 'wolf had been retrieved --- maybe by the person who sent him. She also found his fang and my seanmamó had it made into a necklace."

He let out a long breath. "I'm really glad I told you, even though there's not a lot of time to talk everything through before we have to go home! I reckon those will have to wait!" His smile broadened when she brought up Lady Chandra the Wise. And just as suddenly his expression turned to one of awestruck wonder. Colin blinked at her with his mouth agape as she said he should be the lord and she the general.

Does she --- know?

But Fyre Angel didn't let him ponder that for long, as she peppered him with questions. He smiled again as she took a genuine interest in his condition. "Lassie, lassie!" he said as she released his hand. "Just being as you are is doing more than enough for me! I reckon if more people reacted like you and Sophia, we --- werewolves --- wouldn't have to suffer so much alone. But, aye, the school knows. W--- I get a potion, wolfsbane, to take for the week before full Moon; and yeah, 'wolves do turn every month. It hurts like hell, both ways! But I have to go into a special place where I can turn and not hurt anyone else."

Colin shook his head a little as tears began to roll down his cheeks. He began to shiver. Not as badly as before. "And --- and sometimes there's a voice. A --- a woman's voice. And music. I can hear it over the sounds of my own agony as I shift. She's playing a fiddle and telling us a story. It's such a sorrowful music she plays, and I don't know what the story is. Her voice is familiar --- like I know who it is, but can't connect it with the person." He rubbed his eyes with the sleeve of his robe. "Sometimes I try to get close to the sound, but it always comes from behind a closed door. I can't open it. I --- I howl with the music."

He looked up again into Fyre Angel's own teary eyes. "I'm glad you came here so I could tell this to you. When I see her again, my Jarael, I'll have to tell her. I hope she will understand, too! Fyre Angel, my heart would break if she rejected me!"

He sat in silence for a long time. Just being with AngelFyre was a comfort to Colin. Not for the first time he thought that Simon was truly blessed that she loved him so!

After a while, a memory stirred in Colin's mind. He tilted his head inquisitively: "Fyre Angel? How did you --- know? If I've learned one thing about you, it's that you don't say thoughtless words. When you said you should be the general and not the lady, but that I should not be the general but rather the lord --- how did you know that is what I'm to be? My Da's our clan chief. One day, I will be chief after him."

Colin gave her a sly wink. "This isn't the first time you've done that kind of thing around me, you know." He thought for a moment, then asked: "Do you remember? The three kinds of people my seanmamó spoke of? I know you're not the fool, and I know you're not the poet, FyreAngel..."

@AngelFyre McCubbin || Mentions @Jarael Morningstar || Mentions @Hjørdis Jensen

She leaned over in wide eyed amazement as Colin held out the long fang for her to look at more closely. She had noticed he always wore it and had often wanted to ask him about it, but as much as the two seemed to get about each other, their time to really have any private discussions had been non-existent the past few months. There were things one knew. There were things one thought they knew. And then there were things one was just plain curious about. Already in this brief discussion, they had hit upon all three of the above. And they were not even done yet!

She laughed out loud, her terror fleeing at his recounting of his werewolf encounter the moment he told her that he had learned one way to take down a werewolf was with a swift kick to the groin. He was laughing too, but she blinked at him and said, "Thank you for the pointer. I will bear that in mind in case you ever need to be stopped in your tracks," but she said it in such a way that he knew she was absolutely joking.

But then the conversation's tone got more serious once again as he told her of how he came by the fang by the use of a rock. Colin thought he had killed the werewolf, but it turns out he had not. He rather skipped over some information in this part of the telling that caught AngelFyre's attention in particular. She listened to him finish his miraculous tale, and she was even more awestruck by his bravery and quick thinking.

"Gee, Colin. What a story. And I am so sorry to learn that it hurts so awfully much each time you turn. You would think there would be some kind of magic that could help mitigate that for you. Take heart, my kilted friend. Maybe there is some wizard somewhere working on that very thing." She looked up at the sky for a moment before broaching the two things in his story that captured her attention.

"A couple of things if I may? And if time is too short to answer them now, I understand, but just know this about me. My memory is long and I am tenacious as any badger should be, just ask Simon. That boy certainly knows how relentless I can be," and she laughed good naturedly. "But seriously, I am curious about two things. You said the next day the body had been "retrieved--- maybe by the person who sent him". First question, how are you so certain, if the body was not there, that it was not, in fact, dead? Maybe it awoke and left on its own steam. Second, even if dead or alive and it was retrieved, why would you assume the werewolf was sent?" She was looking him straight on now. Of all the things he had told her, that was the most disturbing to her because it meant that Colin thought it might not be an accident or happenstance of fate, if she understood him correctly. He thought it was done on purpose. "Do you have reason to believe someone is out to hurt you and your family, Colin, and if so, why?"

On the heels of asking those questions, her mind flew to his tale of hearing the fiddle and the woman's voice during the moments he was changing. She was not certain what to say about that in that moment, but there was a niggling in her lizard brain that told her that may have some import. If so, she had nothing on it at the moment other than the vagueness surrounding it. She closed her eyes and told herself to remember it. It could be important later.

When Colin mentioned Jarael and started to weep, it now made more sense why he had been so agitated over the subject when seeking out help from his friends. That day on the bench in the Courtyard, AngelFyre strongly felt there was something about his connection to Jarael, and she remembered having the feeling that there might be something different about Colin. Now she knew what that 'different' was, and it made since why he would be even more trepidatious about her feelings once this was learned about him.

Hearing his heartbreak broke her heart and she reached over to embrace him again. "Colin, I wish I could tell you it will all work out exactly like you want it to, and it very well might, in time, even if not in the timeline of your liking. But what I told you that day in the courtyard is true. There are feelings for you on Jarael's side of things. Believe that."

She hugged him close as his shuddering began to wane, wishing she could do more. She was soothing him, or trying to anyway, while her mind was thinking back to the night in the Library when Simon was telling her about being a dhampir. Had he felt the despair and trepidation about telling her that Colin now feels about telling Jarael? How awful that must have been for him. And such a waste as well. Their connection was strong even then, even before it had been expressed. Surely he must have known it would be okay, but maybe he really did not. Based on Colin's agony now, AngelFyre wondered how much we all put ourselves through by not admitting feelings to begin with.

She also wanted so badly to be able to share her own experience with learning about Simon's dhampirism and how there was just nothing the boy could have told her that would have scared her away from him, but it was not her secret to tell. It was Simon's. "I know this sounds easy for me to say, but do not look for trouble where there is none yet to be found, Colin. It is a waste of your spirit and loving energy. Just be hopeful and enjoy the connection you do have with your Eyes of Sky. The rest will happen as it happens."

As he was calming down quite a bit now, the two separated and sat again for a time in silence. When he spoke again, he took her breath away. "Colin, my lad, you and I need about a week to talk about the things we could talk about, I swear," and she chuckled while shaking her a head a bit, looking over at him most solemnly. "You give me too much credit for 'knowing" things, but that is something I definitely want to speak more about with you. I do indeed remember well the three types of folks, and you are right..... I am definitely not the first two," she said with a wide grin and a wink. "I do suspect there may be something to the third, however. Even so, I had no clue, honest, that you are in line to be the leader of your clan. I was just joking around with you that in our Corridor battle, it was you who by rights should have led the troops. Now here you go adding yet another completely fascinating layer to the story of you."

She sighed deeply and threw herself back into the meadow flowers, looking up at the sky. "I take it back. A week will not be enough to learn of you. Good thing I am a patient lass. The wait will be blistering."

Interacting with @Colin McCoire

"Yeep!!" Colin's laughter stopped abruptly and his eyes widened when AngelFyre teased him about stopping him in his tracks. It took a moment to determine if she were serious or not --- but her voice held no malice that Colin could detect and he was soon laughing along with his friend again.

Colin wondered, and not for the first time, at his friend's capacity to be curious. So much like his own! He stared into AngelFyre's eyes. Colin lowered his eyes and nodded slowly. "You see things, lass. There's no denying." His green eyes smirked. "Sometimes Fyre Angel you see hidden things. And sometimes you see --- the obvious. Aye. The hidden: no, I don't think he was dead. I'm not a great ancient warrior from out of the old tales, lass! No Cú Chullainn with the battle madness on him! It was a lucky blow that knocked his fang out --- I don't think I could have hit a werewolf hard enough to kill him." He paused a moment before giving her a wink. "Maybe if I aimed that stone a little lower, right?" Colin laughed at the thought of such a shocking way to kill a werewolf! "The truth is, it was late and getting on towards dark. I was bleeding and Aidan and Ciarán were more worried about getting me back to the house! I reckon he could have woken up --- with a whale of a headache! --- and loped off on his own. But ---"

The early summer sky was so beautiful in the late evening! Still so blue --- he stared off into the depths of it as a smile played across his eyes. Colin sighed. "The obvious: there was --- no, I'll not tell thee."

Colin reached over and grabbed his satchel. He rummaged around in it until he found what he was looking for. He kept the thing with him, often looking at it throughout the year. It was a piece of grubby and folded parchment. He held it up between himself and AngelFyre. "Not much to look at is it! Just a bit of odd shaped parchment --- square except for this side that's kind of curvy."

He unfolded it. He traced the curved cut of the one side. "Here lass. Thoo can read it." He placed the object on his satchel between them, smoothing it about a bit. He seemed hesitant to hand it to her, as if he might pass some dire curse if they touched it together. He lifted his hands from the object, then carefully folded them in his lap, looking up into her eyes. He implored her to tell him it was fake or a prank or simply blank and he was making it all up in his head --- anything but what he knew it must be.

"It's funny," Colin said, utterly mirthlessly. "Me Seanmamó was so proud of me! I mean, she said I was the dog's bullocks and everything, not even for fighting off an actual werewolf. But rather for --- b-being a werewolf."

The Letter:

Reducio

McCoire Castle --- that's the place. Find the black haired boy and kill him. Eat him if you desire. He is Marked and must not survive. S____, make sure those idiotic Wolves of yours get the right brat. Even they should be able to smell the difference between black hair and blond hair.

And don't forget: they must do it before he gets to Hogwarts. No point in even trying once he's there.

A.A

@AngelFyre McCubbin

The look on Colin's face when AngelFyre teased him about now knowing the secret to take him down if his woofy self ever got out of line was priceless. As if. And she laughed a little more. "You are quite safe, laddie. I cannot imagine ever having to use such a move on you, but just remember this," and she was smiling impishly as she pointed to the outside corner of her left eye with her index finger. "I will likely see the need for it coming long before you ever make the move that would necessitate it, so I will either be long gone ... or flexing my knee in preparation. Just saying," and she laughed a little more.

Sadly, however, the laughter would soon be non-existent between them, no longer carrying on the breeze and across the meadow as Colin patiently, and most thoroughly, answered her questions about his suspicions. It was true, then. Colin did believe the attacker to have been knocked out only, not killed. And worse still, he gave her the the most remarkable look when she asked if he had reason to believe he and his family had been purposefully targeted for that attack. She had been praying silently that she had surely misunderstood him when he was telling that part of the story, but sadly no.

As he remarked once again on her knack for 'seeing' things, even if she saw the obvious along with the not so, her throat began to constrict and she could have sworn her heart skipped a few beats when he sounded as if he were going to reveal some dark secret, but then he backed off from it, remarking that he would not tell her. Confusion exploded in her brain momentarily before it registered that he was not going to tell her because he was going to show her. He rummaged just a brief amount of time through his satchel before pulling out a folded parchment. He unfolded it and looked it over for a moment before holding it up so she could look it at it.

It was a truly odd piece of parchment. As Colin stated, it had a flat side and a curvy side. And there was a a handwritten message on it, done in a very elegant hand. It looked like a calligraphy script from centuries ago, but she knew the parchment itself could not have been that old. How did she know? The message itself.

It chilled her to the bone. She had only been able to read a couple of lines before Colin smoothed it out and and set it on his satchel, but those couple of lines were more than enough. In modern layman's terms, it was a hit contract. And it was a hit on Colin himself.

She supposed she should have been frightened. She knew her parents would be losing their minds over the things she was now having to learn of this world. A world they were completely clueless about actually. How does one break it to them that the love of her life is half vampire? How does one explain that one of her dearest friends is a werewolf and lives under threat of a hit contract upon his head? Quite honestly, there were still moments when AngelFyre was not altogether uncertain she was actually in a coma and this whole year of "magic school" and Simon were just the result of her incredibly over active imagination. And when those coma fantasy moments hit her every once in a while, she quickly prayed none of it was a coma or fever dream.

She wanted.... she needed.... Simon to be real. Looking to Colin, now, she realized without a doubt that she needed him to be real, too. This sort of thing was why she was here, was it not? I mean, she, along with the whole student body, was required to take the Defense Against the Dark Arts curriculum. Magic was no joke, and the world in which it existed was no joke either. So, fright was not her initial response to the parchment and what it ultimately meant. The gathering of information was what was important now. Knowledge was power.

Anger. That would be the emotion. A white, hot, righteous anger was bubbling inside.

"Colin, do you have any idea who the "S" is referred to in the body of the note and/or who A. A. might be? And why? Why would you, specifically, be targeted? Any jealous uncles or cousins in your clan who may not want to see you ascend to take over after your father?"

She was beginning to shake, but it was not because she was cold or because she was scared. Again, it was anger. She swallowed hard, reading the last lines again and again. "Are you going to be safe at home? Will you somehow be more exposed at home than here? Your family is magic, are they not? I assume preparations have been made to make certain you remain safe, yes?"

And because the need to do so was overpowering, she leaned over and hugged him tight once again.

Interacting with @Colin McCoire

Colin sat facing AngelFyre, his legs crossed and his satchel with the horrible letter between them. One thing he loved most about his friend was the care she took in considering any thing she did. Colin knew he was impulsive. He was the kind of boy who, if someone said 'I think we should...,' would shout 'sure! let's do it! come on!' before they ever finished saying '...go into the Forbidden Forest and find a dragon to play with!'

This was a mystery that needed solving, and Colin knew he'd need help. He closely examined her face as she read, noting how her face instantly shifted from the levity of giving him a swift kick to the sobriety of picking apart a thing that threatened her friend. There was something about her. She could See, as his Seanmamó would say. Not with her eyes, although there was nothing wrong with them! And not just with her heart, although he felt she could do that even better than him! No, this girl --- she could see with her mind.

And Colin watched as AngelFyre's mind considered what it was Seeing. He wondered about his friend. He knew some things about himself, like where he got his poetic instincts from and some of his magical talents, some of his behaviours. He and Liam were a lot more like his Da and his Uncle Colin in many respects. His little sister Ciarán, too. Moira and their younger brothers took after Ma much more. But he also wondered about AngelFyre --- did she take after her Ma or her Da? Or did her Gran have the gift of --- Colin gasped and his eyes opened wide as a sudden thought rose within his heart, and his mind considered it.

But almost as suddenly as the illumination lit his face, the shadow covered it again. Colin sighed, as one resigned to his fate. The letter was a heavy burden and Colin felt he had so few options. So few answers to the questions he knew must be asked. All was darkness in his heart again, every thought tainted by deep shadow.

Colin stared into nothing, for once truly lost among the tangled and disordered thoughts that accosted his mind. He sometimes felt like someone was trying to bring him down from within. But AngelFyre spoke at last and pulled him back towards the light. He only shook his head sadly. "I dunno. Jealous cousins or uncles?" He shrugged. "Probably! If there are, either they've been smart enough to keep it from me, or I've been too dim to see. 'S' and 'A.A.' --- could be anybody. I --- I've been reading this old book. Actually, I found here at school! It was in this classroom that looked like it hadn't been used in a century! Mirador was going to have some kind of duelling practice, and I got there first and went exploring. I found this old book, and guess what! It had my name on it! Colin McCoire! It's mostly bits of poetry and notes and things, almost like a journal. There's lots of names, too. I haven't seen 'A.A.' in there yet, but there's loads of 'S' names!"

AngelFyre leaned over and hugged Colin fiercely, tipping his satchel over and spilling several things out! One of the books that slid out, his prayer book, opened to certain page. Colin could only sneak a quick glance as his friend drew him in closer and asked if his family were all magical. If he'd be safe. If his family had made any plans.

"Aye lass! We're all magical. I know there's some squibs, but I don't think there are any halfbloods and no muggles at all. Safe? I've already been attacked once..." Colin trailed off as he sank into his friend's embrace.

A sudden thought came into Colin's mind. "Hey! FyreAngel! I wanted to ask you this anyway, because you're a good friend and all. Well, more than a friend, I hope. More like a sister, really. But --- why don't you come over to our house for a few days? Moira's getting married and all. She's my older sister." Colin rolled his eyes dramatically. "Sophia and Hunter and Kim are coming too. I'd love to show you that book. Maybe you can see something in it I've missed. Because --- well, you know..." Colin smiled and whispered: "The Gift you've got."

@AngelFyre McCubbin