that someone's lookin' out for us, that someone loves us

[slavophile]

( After searching the hunters' phone, decoding barely cryptic cypher, and triangulating what he realizes are coordinates, he brings everyone together. Timing is crucial.

The summer solstice is that evening.

Isaac, Bonnie, Gloria, Mia, Danny, the twins, and Hope are in William's room. )

It's the Astronomical Clock.

( "The abstract art?" Lizzie asks, remembering her meet-whatever with Danny in front of that very landmark.

Hope, Josie and Danny found the same. With the twins' begrudging acceptance of Jo's informative text (and not much more scolding, maybe it's coming), the plan comes together. With the summer equinox being about the incoming nourishment after action, then this is the local yearly ritual. )

Witches will be there in droves. In plain clothes, but there to reaffirm and grow their power. That is the hunters' target. What I don't know, is if this is a blunt assault. I downloaded schematics. This looks on the outside like an act of terrorism.

( So. Bomb. )

Every hunter we find is low on the totem pole. The higher ranked hunters run the ops. There will be civilians and civilian hunters. Low-ranked boy and Girl Scouts. It's dangerous.

( Which is why their answers are few and far between and why Cooper's double agent act only gets him so far. )

What do you think?

Comments

[jockwitch]

( At first, part of the illusion reveals itself, only her view down one corridor, but it's not long before it feels like the spell is siphoning from the twins, and not the other way around, like it only strengthens. Lizzie fails at dropping the siphon (10), and she may need to be yanked free. )

[undermyfeet]

[Josie doesn't do much better (9), and she has more magic to drain, feeling some of her pilfered magic slipping through her fingers and into the spell itself.

Fortunately for them, they're not alone. Danny picks up on something being wrong and reaches for the back of their shirts, doing his best to only touch the material and not their skin. And then he yanks backwards, trying to break the contact (12).]

[jockwitch]

( Just enough to break contact. The girls will feel weaker but no less powerful. Josie hasn't lost that extra juice, only used it to better power a powerful spell. Lizzie tries to get her wits about her again. )

[undermyfeet]

[Danny does his best to brace them both, looking between the two of them, concerned.]

What happened?

["It was siphoning us back." Josie shakes her head as she tries to resettle. "They were prepared for us."]

[jockwitch]

They know we're Gemini. They know us and that means they know you, too, Danny. We need to get him out of here, Jose.

( William's voice perks up. "Josie, Lizzie, Danny, what is your status inside the Clocktower?" )

Drained and expected. They were waiting for us.

( "Who, the hunters? Mia says there's a labyrinthine spell." )

[undermyfeet]

Not the hunters. Someone else is making a move.

[And he's starting to get pissed. He places a hand on both of the twins' shoulders, closes his eyes, and tries to break the spell himself, letting his anger at the situation fuel him (17).

Josie catches on quickly, and tries to help but she's still feeling a little woozy from the drain of the spell (13).]

[jockwitch]

( Whomever is keeping the spell up, it's drained them, too, or maybe they just don't need to keep it up much longer as it drains away quickly, revealing them to be inside the great hall again, with a lot less people around them. Witches Josie nodded to, and a few others.

Were there ever tourists today?

"The witches!"

Standoff. The Czech coven and the hunters. And the kids in the middle. )

[polydeukes]

[Josie and Danny both immediately bring up their hands, seeing that they're in the middle of things, looking wide eyed and confused. They're running out of time, and they don't have time to win a fight and get out of here.

She turns to Danny, and nods.]

You need to go. Now.

[He glances between the two of them, and with a quick "Be careful," he disappears from view and darts towards the stairs to head up to where he needs to be.]

[ostensively]

( It's a flight of stairs, a ramp and one more small set of stairs that brings Danny to his birthright. But, he's not the first one there, no that's this woman. Who's hands are out, the green, blinding night connecting before she yells, "No!" and she falls backwards and collapses. )

[undermyfeet]

[His eyes widen and because Danny is a good, he charges forward to check her vitals. Her heartbeat is still thudding under her fingers, but she seems to be unconscious.

Then he glances around, trying to see what he can make of the spell she was doing (12).]

[ostensively]

( A. They were not supposed to die. Tying their life force was supposed to tether them to the magic in the absence of an immortal. She could only play so much of her hand, especially when Original vampires and Bela Talbot are involved.

B. The supernatural teenagers were not in her plan. How could she know they'd take a graduation trip? Bonnie Bennett and Isaac Lahey had to be sidelined. But, her nieces or whatever, were mucking up her plans. Something is off with those Gemini twins. It overpowered the spell's failsafe.

C. Never send hunters in to do your own dirty work. She stayed on the sidelines long enough. This is her only chance until winter.

The bomb and the spell are a distraction, giving her enough time to reach an end goal years in the making. She did not start Monroe, that was Gerard Argent, but she was able to point Monroe in the direction of the witches. And with her went her international armies. Her generals. Her incompetent barely not-a-civilians.

An opportunity presented itself when the Knightsbridge's connection to their magic faltered. It waned, merely existing for months on end while the other heir fell off the face of the grid.

She needed him to be in the same city, and Prague presented itself perfectly.

Well, as perfectly as it could. She had drop-ins and saviors and resourceful heirs. And blundering hunters. She used their blundering to her advantage, she thought. Scare them and scare the witches. Turn them on each other while she slipped upstairs.

Gemini witches overpowered the dark object holding the labyrinth together. And the hunter's clear but brittle connection ended with it.

With magic as pure as this, she needed to be as delicate as she could. But, they made it impossible. This magic is rightfully hers. The Knightsbridge Coven and the Colony need a real leader. Knightsbridge has been bastardized. It's ancient. It's word of mouth and it's stories and traditions.

It's time to modernize the old ways. Call her a consultant nobody hired. Somebody has to do it.

That is the last time she leaves something as prodigious as the damnum essentia in the hands of two hunters who've been bested more than once. After the first time, she strengthened their minds, linked them with her. Felt the pain of every mess up, but continued on with their collective strength, and their eyes.

She'll have more clean up to do. There is the vampire blood in her hunters' systems. An army of an idea for later, the ones not burned or taken by Elijah and Bela.

Ambition is a tricky thing. It can also be your downfall.

Pride goeth.

✵⁂❉

Danny's entirely unfamiliar with the runes, the candles, the exploded pieces of clay. But his 12 buys him that it's elaborate.

Sierra's (17) brings her back, but she doesn't move. She's not alone. Someone is checking her pulse. She feigns exhaustion turning into confusion as she turns on her side and coughs, but to Danny, this woman is just moving slowly and reacting to something.

She sighs.

All that work. All that planning. And then she looks around her, sees Danny and with a (13) deception attempt: )

Who are you?

[undermyfeet]

[It's been a long day, and Danny isn't as sharp as he can pass himself off as being sometimes (10). He turns to the woman next to him, and rests a hand on her shoulder gently.]

Easy. Something in the spell went wrong. My name's Danny Brighton. I ... I just wanted to see if you were okay.

[He shouldn't be so trusting. Something knows that, one way or another, something went wrong here. But he's still just a kid, reaching out to another witch.]

[ostensively]

( The children really are our future.

Sierra's more weary than even she knows so the story she spins seems more off the top of her head, like she has nothing to hide anyway (4). )

I got out of the maze, I knew I had to, something must've been causing it and by the time I got up here, the spell was collapsing.

[undermyfeet]

[Something about that doesn't ping right (11), but given that he doesn't know anything about what Coop revealed about their being a witch working with the hunters, his brain doesn't jump to that.

He just assumes that she's woozy, coming out of a bad spell.]

C'mon.

[He holds out his hands to her.]

Let's get you out of here.

[ostensively]

( It's risky, going with him, and he suspects something. She weighs her options quickly before letting him help her up to her feet. )

I just realized you're a strange kid and I just rambled to you about some spell collapsing.

[undermyfeet]

[He tosses her an easy smirk.]

Could have been worse. Could have been mouthing off to a security guard.

[Because he's sure those are going to show up eventually.]

But I'm a witch too.

[ostensively]

Of course you are. I'm lucky you found me and not a security guard. Could you imagine explaining that?

( ... )

Speaking of, let's get you out of here.

[undermyfeet]

[Danny nods and starts to head back down the stairs, sneaking a little bit ahead so that he can try and listen ahead to see if anyone was coming (18).]

Were you here for the solstice?

[ostensively]

( Seeing as the kids split up and Hope is licking her prideful wounds, the Saltzman's are indeed searching for him. He can hear faint talk of keeping Hope from going off the deep end and finding Danny. )

It's silly, but, every year I come here because it helps me feel closer to my heritage. Even though, I'm not from here. Something about the clock.

( Sierra, continuing to fake that she needs to be held up, hears this as well (15). )

You're Danny, right?

[undermyfeet]

Yeah.

[He nods with a small smile.]

I'm part of the Knightsbridge coven.

[ostensively]

( It’s foolish, how easily Danny let’s slip this kernel of information. I’m the witch world he’s infamous, but not deservedly so. Bonnie Bennett should’ve taught him better about the kindness of strangers. )

My coven doesn’t have a name, or, a coven really. I practice with a small group.

( Unless she’s tasked with Colony business to keep up appearances. )

What are you doing in Prague? - I just mean, your accent.

[undermyfeet]

On vacation.

[Which is true enough.]

Wanted to get away for a little while. Stumbled into a bit of a hunter problem.

[ostensively]

Without their gatherers, I assume.

( Oh, she forgot, didn’t see. )

I’m Maura, by the way. Maura Walsh.

( Since they’re being formal.

Not being formal, the search party they come upon as they make it down the ramp.

Lizzie sees him first.

”Danny.”

She hesitates, seeing the strange woman under his arm.

Josie doesn’t do better in her reaction, something inherent within her (15) distrusts her outright. Whomever’s magic is within her, it’s telling her to be wary. Is she connected, or is this a glitch? )

[polydeukes]

[Josie stops short of them on the stairs, trying to make sense of the swirl of feelings within her. One hand comes up to rub against the center of her chest, before trying to shake it off.]

You okay?

["Yeah, this is Maura. She was trying to stop the spell." Because that's what she said, right? He can't one hundred percent remember.]

[ostensively]

( Shit. A (7) gives her the barest of understanding with what Josie has going on. But it’s something hostile and familiar. Which, with a 7 makes zero sense. )

It stopped itself I think. We left a mess back there.