Witchy Days BC Ep 29: Hospital Visit

The hospital was located in one of the more populous neighborhoods, but all was quiet when they got there. So quiet indeed that no one was at reception.

“This is a good thing,” Terra pointed out.

“You could say that. Whether they know I’m a familiar or not, these people tend to start questioning when you bring cats into hospitals,” Bartholomew huffed. “If anyone sees us and gives trouble, just tell them I’m a therapy cat.”

“Very ethical…” Terra side-glared at him.

“No, but we’re on a time crunch.”

“Ok, here it goes,” Lawson performed the spell. Normally, those were much more difficult, but since the person they were looking for was currently in the building, it worked like a charm. “He’s on the third floor.”

There were several hospital rooms on the third floor and Lawson confidently walked over to the one in the corner. Knocking on the door carefully, he wasn’t sure what to expect and neither did Terra.

To their surprise, a familiar but slightly tired voice called out. “I’m dressed, you can come in.”

Walking in, they found their classmate fully awake and already immersed in some book. He looked up in surprise upon seeing them.

“Oh, hi guys! Didn’t think I’d see you in here. Especially at this early time.”

“Julius! You’re ok!” Lawson exclaimed happily. “We were worried about you, man!”

“We only knew that you survived, but that you were in a critical condition,” Terra elaborated.

“Yeah, that’s true. These past weeks weren’t great,” he grimaced and Terra noticed how pale (even by his standards) Julius was. “It’s been an uphill battle. But turns out all this time I’ve been spending around dangerous potions and harmful ingredients paid off. According to the doctors, I have developed partial immunity to many harmful substances. Guess it’s a good thing my would-be murderer chose poison as their weapon of choice, huh?”

“You could say that again!” Terra breathed a sigh of relief. Even though he still had more recovery ahead of him, Julius was joking, which was always a good sign. She was expecting much worse from this trip.

“So, what brings you two here? Are the others also here?” he asked.

“No, it’s just us,” Terra told him. “The others actually don’t know about you being ok.”

“Wait, they think I’m dead?” he narrowed his eyes. “Oh… I see. That’s actually pretty reasonable. Do you have any idea who did it? I assume it wasn’t one of you, since you look happy to see me living.”

“Dude! You really think we would do it?!” Lawson grimaced, but Terra found the young man’s approach to the situation funny.

“It’s ok, we get it. We’re suspecting it to have been Atherton, since he was literally being controlled by Rodion Voronov through magical means – and had no idea about it until we all found out.”

“That guy! Boy, do I hate him. Rodion, I mean, not Atherton. Although I’d love to hear more about that situation,” Julius prompted.

“Well, it’s like this…” Terra did her best to fill him in with as much information as she could in a short amount of time. “What we don’t understand is, why is Rodion doing all this? And why is he in such a hurry?”

“In a hurry, you say,” Julius frowned. “Well, he might have reasons to be. If he is what I think he is. Lawson, I think you know a bit about my family. About why they were so involved in the dark arts.”

“You’ve mentioned they were monitoring things,” Lawson admitted. “To be honest, I don’t completely understand how.”

“Yeah, it’s a bit complicated and long-winded, but basically, they were from families not dissimilar to Voronov’s. Heavily involved in the practice of dark magic and other troublesome stuff.”

“Wait, how come you’re talking about it so calmly?” Terra was confused.

“Oh, when I say they were involved in it, I’m referring to past generations,” he sighed. “Then, several tragic deaths, curses, and a family line getting completely eradicated due to deals with questionable entities put things in perspective and the Caldwells quit that lifestyle. We just didn’t quit learning all about it. With these things, it’s best to know what you’re dealing with, otherwise you end up like us. I do wonder if my family will ever get uninvolved with that stuff truly – wouldn’t be surprised if what happened to my folks was a result of some ancestor’s dumb decisions. But back to the topic – my folks were monitoring what goes on in that community. Because don’t let anyone fool you, there are plenty of dark magic fanatic idiots here in this city and in other places.”

“I’ve heard as much,” Terra nodded.

“Good. And make no mistake – they are idiots. They all think they’re real smart and can get immense magical powers through shady rituals, but they all screw themselves over in the end. I’m sure Voronov is doing the same right now. You say he’s acting crazy and like he’s on a timeline? I suspect he did something. And now he needs to fix it before it blows up in his face.”

“Do you think it has something to do with the Northeney disaster?” Terra asked.

“You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if it does. I’ve actually been reading up about the event. The way the spell kept spreading and had to be contained? It’s suspicious. The better decision would’ve been to send someone else into the island to try to undo it. We don’t know enough about what really happened, but I can’t shake the feeling the people in charge of handling the issue made it worse.”

“Worse in what way?” Terra prepared for bad news.

“From what we know of the disaster, it seems a lot of people died there through magical means. That creates a lot of bad energy, dark energy if you will. You send someone to clear it up, powerful fairies perhaps, they can clean up the spill of that energy. Not easy, but it would result in the least damage. You lock the place off and let it simmer, gathering more and more dark energy, and you basically have a magical equivalent of an unattended pressure cooker,” he went on.

“Wait, are you saying whatever happened in Northeney isn’t really resolved and can ‘blow up’?” Lawson sounded concerned.

“I hate to say it, but in theory – yes. In fact…” Julius paused.

“What is it?” Terra urged him to speak.

“Well… my folks noticed a significant increase of negative energy coming in from around the area Northeney would’ve been had it not been locked off,” he explained. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be related, but the fact that Rodion Voronov paid my family a few visits and was highly curious about their discovery tells me it probably is.”

“He visited your family. And then they disappeared,” Terra stated the facts.

“Yes, but I don’t think he did anything to them, despite his many faults,” Julius admitted. “His questions and interest were seen as a troublesome thing by my parents and they only increased their studies and investigations into what was happening. The ritual they were trying to perform would’ve told them useful information, but it was a poor idea to attempt it with so few people involved. And like I mentioned, my family doesn’t have the best karma and luck as a result of past choices.”

“I’m sorry this happened to you, nevertheless,” Terra apologized.

“I’m sorry about it too, but the only thing I can do now is keep on studying and hoping I’ll do better. Maybe they’re alive somewhere. Maybe not.”

“Is that why, even while recovering from being poisoned, you’re up to your neck in books?” Lawson asked, nodding towards the tomes near him.

The other man chuckled. “I’d say yes, but the truth is, I’ve been bored out of my mind in here. The nurse offered to get me a TV, but most modern TV programmes seem to be developed by brain-dead individuals and I start feeling my own brain cells die after a few minutes of watching them. Books are much better. Although, I’m almost done with all of these. You don’t happen to have any I can borrow?”

“Oh, no. But you know what, we’ll try to visit again soon and I’ll bring you a couple of books. You’ll probably go through them in less than an hour, though,” Terra observed.

“Hah, I probably will. But I would still appreciate them.” He moved to lie down a bit more. “I shouldn’t complain, really. I’m comfortable here. Could’ve been worse, I could’ve been in Northeney, with my luck.”

“Because it would be a very bad thing to be there?” Terra clarified.

“I’d imagine so,” Julius nodded. “Too much dark energy, being blocked off from everyone else, plus the lack of knowledge of what’s happening. Also, I imagine Voronov wants to do something with the place. I wouldn’t be surprised if his family is responsible for the disaster, at least in part. My best guess would be his late father. Although, I wouldn’t be surprised if other families were involved. Maybe still are…”

Julius was by now horizontal and the two of them realized that they probably took up quite a bit of his energy.

“Well, thanks for talking to us. And once again, we’re really glad that you’ve made it,” Terra rose up to leave.

“Same, man. Don’t scare us like that again, cool?” Lawson followed suit.

“Oh, it was pretty fun. The nurse here is pretty friendly, but I think she’s got ideas about me and I hate to let a person down,” Julius shrugged. “It was nice spending time with friends.”

“We’ll try to visit soon,” Terra promised, hoping any of them will be in a condition to visit anyone in the next few days.

As they left Julius’s room, Terra tried to find the positives in their visit. They knew the young man was ok and they cheered him up by visiting. That much was good.

But the information he gave them made her feel awful. Something bad was coming and it had to do with where her brother and his girlfriend were stuck – and there was nothing she could do about it. At the same time, someone she considered a friend and possibly more was in the hands of people who wanted a key to that terrible place and she had no way of giving it to them. And if she did have the key, would it even be a good idea to give it to them? This seemed like asking for more trouble.

“You ok?” Lawson noticed her expression. “I know you’re worried and Julius didn’t exactly cheer us up.”

“No, but he gave us some useful info. Unfortunately, that useful info sucks, with all things in consideration.”

“I hear you. But we’re working on it,” he have her a hug. “Think of it this way: we know that whatever the reason is for Rodion to want to get into Northeney, this reason has him sitting on an uncomfortable hot stove and it’s making him do stupid things. Like sending those kidnappers.”

“You think it was stupid of him?” she asked.

“Of course! Now, he has revealed himself and his cards, whereas before, he could still pull the ‘I’m not the bad guy here’ card,” Lawson explained his reasoning. “He’s bound to make more mistakes.”

“One can hope,” Terra sighed. “I have to take this call.”

“Mom? Is something wrong? Did something happen? Xander, Dad, who?” she started gushing to Sylvia.

“Woah, woah, hold your horses, dear. We’re fine, I’m just calling to check on you. Are you ok? You sound out of breath,” Sylvia noticed.

“Yeah, I guess…”

“You’re worrying me, Terra,” Sylvia’s voice came through with urgency. “Ok, spill, what’s happening over there?”

“What’s happening? Oh, Mom…” Terra sighed. “I feel so out of it. It’s like, every time I think I’m getting somewhere, it turns out I’m wrong and then something worse happens.”

“I’m listening,” her mother reassured her.

“Well, Matthew got kidnapped, Frankie… I don’t even know where to start with him, I yelled at Boris and even though it felt warranted at the time, I feel bad about it now. Oh, and that stupid compass I was supposed to find is not here.”

“Not there?” her mother repeated. “Then why are you even there?”

“I don’t know. Sage and Toris were sure it would be here, but now that we took a look at the collection it’s not, and Boris is sure nothing like it was ever here. Oh, and the jerk who kidnapped Matthew totally wants it and doesn’t believe us that we don’t have it,” Terra spilled everything. “In addition, he’s got two more people kidnapped. At least. That we know off.”

“He sounds like a dick,” Sylvia hissed. 

“I’m sure he considers himself a charming fellow,” Terra groaned. 

“So, what are you going to do now?” her mother asked. “Are you coming home or…?”

“I don’t know! I can’t just go home when things are like that! Besides…” she wasn’t sure how much of Julius’s info she should mention to Sylvia without completely freaking her mother out.

“I understand, baby. You can’t just give up.” Besides, Sylvia knew there was more to her bad mood than Terra was letting on. “So, he’s demanding the compass. I bet there’s a deadline for you?”

“Yeah, it was 48 hours last night. Now it’s less.” Time was running out and she was all out of ideas. There was no way she could track the compass down for Rodion in that short amount time. It could literally be anywhere!

“Terra, breathe,” her mother’s voice came through the phone just as she sank down to the floor, feeling the exhaustion of the past few days. “From what you’re telling me, it doesn’t sound like this idiot is behaving very logically. So you’ve got to beat him with that.”

“Is Bartholomew there with you?” her mother asked.

“He’s here,” she pulled the familiar close as he came over to calm her down.

“Good. He better be watching over you. But what I’m saying is this – he’s sure you have this compass, even though you don’t. You should use this. If you have something he wants, you have the negotiating power.”

“Even if he has our people?” Terra was dubious.

“Especially then. From what you’re telling me, he’s desperate. That’s good. Tell me, does he know what it looks like?”

“I doubt it. He probably doesn’t even know it’s a compass. In fact, he thought he had it for a while, until he realized he stole the fake collection. Because it wasn’t magical enough, apparently. Took him far too long to realize it, if you ask me.”

“Hmm,” Sylvia purred. “So, he really isn’t too bright.”

“No, he isn’t.” Terra came to a realization. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it was more than they had before. “Mom, I love you! Gotta go!”

“I didn’t even say anything, baby.”

“You did, though! I think I know what to do,” she got up, with Bartholomew rubbing against her legs in a comforting manner and ended the call. “Barthy, we need to get Toris to help with the magical side of things. And we should probably go talk to Boris. We’ll need him to work with us on this, after all, if Rodion is to believe the ruse.”