Themis wondered if Professor Crowley knew just how close she treaded to danger. She could feel the tension in her shoulders, the energy she expended to keep from snapping at the other witch. Her assessment of Samuel was insulting. It wasn’t as if most people had the patience or the mind to grasp what Samuel did. Themis couldn’t resist turning the tables, her tone just on the correct side of snide. ”But you can’t puzzle him out. Could it be your lack of knowledge that makes you so uneasy, Professor Crowley?” She didn’t make the effort to hide her smirk, but the other woman was lost in the fog, literally and metaphorically.

She dismissed the words, but couldn’t shake the impression they left. She had more access to Samuel than most, but even she was in the dark about his activities. She had almost believed he was going to reveal his plans a few nights ago, but she couldn’t push him for answers. She had promised him that she wouldn’t dig into his dealings, but that did nothing to disprove Crowley’s assertion. Themis resented the idea that she could be blind to any part of him, but that was the work of her pride. Samuel was an enigma, but that only drew her in. It hadn’t occurred to her to be uneasy around him.

It had occurred to her to hex her colleague if the witch didn’t start giving her plain answers. It was never something she would act on, but the thought pleased her all the same. She was quickly paid back for her rude line of thinking. Perhaps it would have been better not to know what Morrigan Crowley had to say after all. “The red grail.” The term meant nothing to her, but speaking it brought a shiver of recognition. Some part of her knew the words without learning them. She recognized everything her colleague mentioned. The clawing hunger that had nothing to do with food, the ravenous need and drowning wave of power. What was described was hedonism, in its most dangerous form. And she embraced it willingly; would do so again. “It’s violent. The pull of it.” She didn’t know why she would confide a thing like that in the witch across from her, but Themis had to know, had to speak to make sense of her experience. “I’ve never experienced anything like it. It -,” Her brow furrowed as she looked for a way to share what she now knew to be true. “I could feel magic everywhere. I could taste it.” What she didn’t add, And I fear I will never feel so alive again.

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   Morrigan Crowley

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Morrigan bristled at the retort but with a look into Lyra's face, she determined that there was no way to make her see what she saw. "You are mistaken about my reason," she said obstinately. It was not what she did not see that made her wary, it was what she deciphered; she would not be convinced to see someone as harmless who was not, to spare Professor Lyra's feelings. Nor would she rouse herself to sympathy. With an annoyed expression, she closed that venue of conversation by standing up and turning away.

Lyra's description caused an unpleasant sensation in her chest and stomach, and she suppressed a shudder. "The grail is one of the more dangerous principles to examine. As I have touched on, no ordinary library or book will hold its secret history. Although there are physical sources, I do not have them in my possession. We have to traverse the transmundane so you can begin to understand the path ahead, and so we can reveal the true nature of that scar."

She glanced up to the ceiling, as if the obscured light behind the fog might tell her the time of day.
"Traversing dreams and the spaces between is a form of travel best attempted at night. You may return at midnight, if you wish, and I can take you there."

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Themis blinked, not sure she understood the other woman at first. Her answer was some sort of dreamwalking? Even as a lover of the stars, Themis had never attempted walking among them. She wasn't sure she thought it was possible. But she wouldn't say no; couldn't if this gave her a better understanding of the magic and the man that had staked some claim in her. There could be no other answer, "Then I will be back at midnight."

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Lou made magic!

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