“We owe it to Garrett to finish this,” Albert said vehemently. “He's a martyr in the cause of law and order and reason, against anarchy and chaos! In his memory, we can't give up! He wouldn't want that!”

Dextra was inclined to agree that Garrett would not want them to give up, but she suspected the reasons would involve revenge more than principles.

Someday, maybe, she could stop seeing Garrett's body in her mind, his face frozen forever in a tangle of terror and pain and ecstasy. It would help quite a lot if she had any idea what could cause that, without a mark anywhere on his body, nothing but ordinary rye and cola in the glass on the coffee table. It had been ruled a heart attack, a freak incident for a healthy man in his forties.

Grudgingly, she could accept that the retaliation against the Fellowship’s attempts at undermining Christian was a proportionate and rather poetically-fitting response, although it was upsetting and embarrassing a lot of people. Cordell, she knew, had his credit card reported stolen and didn’t know until he tried to use it to pay for a business dinner in an expensive restaurant for himself and others, and he’d been furious; she knew because he’d called her and asked her to come and pay, with the promise to pay her back with interest as soon as he could sort it out. The hint of schadenfreude that had elicited, she’d kept to herself. So far, she’d escaped the epidemic personally, but the mass disruption was hard to avoid.

Obviously, Margaret’s grandson, the one who was barely a witch but known to be good with computers and who was now living in the Terevan house, was ultimately behind it, but there was no clear trail and any complaints would have to include what his motivation had been, so there was little they could do legally. It was going to be the last straw falling into an already precariously-balanced scale, and the Fellowship as a whole was going to abandon the project as too costly for too little reason. She’d been expecting that, certain that Christian was much too obstinate to cave in under pressure like that.

But what of Hayley's insistence that Christian Terevan had good intentions? Garrett had died not even a full day after sending the viper assassin, and his killer went on with his life playing innocent, pretending that he was all about altruism and empathy. That was on a completely different scale.

“We certainly need to remove this child,” Cordell agreed tersely. “How are we supposed to relax, knowing he's allied to something that can and does kill, leaving no mark, no sign of presence at all? And that he's willing to use it? This time it came after someone who could reasonably be considered a threat, but who knows what definition of 'threat' he may have in a year's time, or ten? If power corrupts, then what happens to someone with the power to kill competition or anyone who annoys or challenges him, and never be implicated?”

I've heard that we judge others by ourselves. Does Cordell fear the Terevan child doing what he would do, in that position? “But what will we do this time?” Dextra asked logically. “We need to be even more careful that it not be traceable back to us. This protector can clearly kill anything we can send, and he's evaded other traps. Where does that leave us?”

“We'll come up with something,” Albert insisted.

“Well, it will have to wait before we put it into action, with Seth Terevan there. We need time to plan carefully and double and triple check that it's impossible to escape and cannot be traced to us.”

“Agreed,” Cordell said. “Plan now, implement later once the plan is clearly formulated.”

“That's what I said,” Dextra muttered, but didn’t really expect anyone to pay attention.

“I'm going to do some research,” Albert declared. “I remember something I came across, a long time ago... something even liminals and elementals dislike. This protector may be good, but it can't kill a thousand opponents at once, and it can't get answers from something with no mind, only stimulus and response reflexes.”

“Sounds promising,” Cordell said. “See if you can find it, although without Garrett, we're definitely below optimum when it comes to summonings. We'll see what we can do if you can find the information. And meanwhile, we all need to be both watching our backs and looking for alternative ways to ensure our safety permanently. He is absolutely out of control and there’s no one else to do anything about it, so it’s up to us.”

* * *

Chat with FireRaven

Waiting for acknowledgement...

DCC Chat connection established

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<FireRaven> Hello. :)

<TechWitch> *hugs* How goes, Lenore?

<FireRaven> Too quiet, I'm bored. I gather the same isn't true at your end. How are you and Mark and Christian doing?

<TechWitch> *sigh* Surviving. Christian's grandfather and his naga friend are here. I'm running around like crazy. Once we put together all thoughts on potential allies who might be able to deal with the mess in Scotland, including from Gran and Jade, we concluded that an 8 or 9-tail would probably be the best bet. Guess who volunteered to welcome said kitsune properly?

<FireRaven> Ooh. That’ll impress one, and I know you know all the ins and outs.

<TechWitch> Yep, but I still have all the prep work to do. It's going to take some time and effort. Of course. I’m having a little trouble finding sources for everything I need for kitsune tea blend, but I’m still looking and I have possible leads. The cookies will be relatively easy. I found a really pretty cut-glass punch bowl in a thrift shop that will work for washing hands. At least spring water instead of tap water is no problem.

<FireRaven> Um, I realize this is important, and Jade taught you really well and you’re good at being methodical and all, but if you offend a kitsune that strong...

<TechWitch> ... then I'm in real trouble, yes. On the other hand, of every possibility we could think of, this one has the best chance of success. Jade wouldn’t be encouraging us if she thought it would get me in trouble. It's not as bad as all that, and I like the odds a lot better than I like them if they were to try summoning an earth dragon or something and asking it to help.

<TechWitch> Kitsune may be tricksters, but you know they love being flattered, and an 8-tail in a good mood can do pretty much anything she wants. Including cleaning up the mess in Scotland. Right now, if it would make Chris feel happier, I'd take bigger risks than this.

<FireRaven> He's still in really bad shape?

<TechWitch> He's seriously depressed. No more talking about giving up, but he's wrapping himself up totally in witchy stuff. Normal for Chris, but this is different. I think he's doing it to try not to think. Seth is trying to pin down someone from the Fellowship to tell them to back off, but they're doing the same thing they've been doing to Gran since I moved in here:

<TechWitch> he's getting answering machines and stuff, mostly, and when he reaches someone, they keep saying they're just too busy right now. He's annoyed, to say the least, but that's not helping him anymore than being annoyed has been helping Gran get ahold of any of them. And just to complicate matters...

<FireRaven> Uh-oh.

<TechWitch> Someone found a body, in a snowbank, near the edge of an industrial area. Some guy who wasn't missed until he was found, with what appear to be fingernail scratches rather deeply in a few places and it looks like he had sex. No obvious cause of death, just blood loss too trivial to have caused the heart failure that killed him.

<TechWitch> The cops are wondering if that's connected to a handful of other men who've been reported missing, never found alive or dead. All the same kind of thing: they generally have records of consistent abuse and violent behaviour. Not much of a loss to the world, but I suppose it's their job to look into it anyway. This one, I'm told, wasn't supposed to die. Chris isn't the only one stressed out enough to make mistakes.

<FireRaven> Knowing that, you can still...?

<TechWitch> I'm perfectly safe from her, I promise. She'd never hurt me. *evil grin* Well, okay, she might hurt me, but she wouldn't do me any actual harm.

<FireRaven> *rolls eyes* *laughs* Whatever makes you happy. Good luck with the kitsune-calling thing and with getting the Fellowship off your backs. You'll have a lot of people praying for you.

<TechWitch> We can use all the help we can get. I don't know how much longer I can keep pulling Chris out of it, and it'll get worse again once his grandfather goes back to Scotland. Mark's no help, he's too busy being angry and trying to keep his temper, or at least his actions, under control, and, well, obviously it hasn't been entirely successful.

<TechWitch> Seth is trying, but he's not the same Chris they left, and he hasn't had enough contact with them for them to really understand the present Chris.

<FireRaven> Erf, not good. Wish I could help.

<TechWitch> Keep praying for us. Good wishes from witches can’t hurt. Oh, man, it's 5:30 already? I promised Lexa I'd go to work with her tonight. Chris needs some time alone with Seth.

<FireRaven> OK. Later. *hugs*

<TechWitch> *hugs back* Later.

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DCC session closed