Chapter 27
"Your love for Gloria will be tested. The press will come for you and will want to know where you stand, and either you both stand with me or you stand alone. The life you've been given, or the life you make."
~*~
Cameras flashed and clicked as the witch stood at the podium.
"Ms. Wardwell, can you please tell us what the stance of the Others is currently?" a reporter asked, hand raised in the air. This press conference was more of a circus than it usually was, and everyone was shouting to be heard.
"I have spoken to the heads of the other alliances and we are holding firm to our stance that this was an isolated incident between two individuals. There is no need for protests, riots, or any violence. This was a violence between two people with differing views. Nothing more at this time," Rhiannon spoke with strong, short sentences and she commanded respect.
"But can you say for certain that the incident happened because of views and not as violence between a regular person and an Other in an act of discrimination?" another reporter shouted in the split second of silence that followed.
"That is for the courts to figure out. As of right now, we are treating it as an attack on an individual and not on our people," Rhiannon spoke without fear. She spoke without much emotion at all besides certainty and confidence. How many times had she given a speech like this? Rhiannon had been the head of the spellcasters for decades, had been part of the peace talks when the monarchy fell and had been a part of writing rights into law for all Others.
If anyone could face the press, she could.
"Have you spoken with the Prime Minister about all of this?" a third reporter asked.
"I am having dinner with the Prime Minister this week to discuss the ramifications of the incident and see how we can grow from this experience," she said. "I suspect it will be a fruitful evening,"
"Ms. Wardwell-"
"I will take one more question," Rhiannon said to the crowd.
"Ma'am-"
"What would you say to Mr. Cook?" a reporter shouted over the rest.
"What would I say?" Rhiannon was taken aback for a moment. "I would say... We'll see you in court."
Rhiannon started to step away from the podium and the crowd surged towards her, trying to get more answers or a badly lit picture for a tabloid headline. Rhiannon held up her hand and they all stopped where they were, their feet stuck to the floor and their whole lower bodies frozen in time. "Gentlemen, ladies, respected guests, I will be leaving now. I wish you well," she said with a humble smile as she walked out the door.
As soon as the door closed behind her, she released the spell and she heard a few people stumble and exclaim. They should learn to let a lady leave when she wishes. Maybe they wouldn't be stopped with force if she were able to simply leave without being harassed.
~*~
"What the hell, Gloria?" Alex asked from across the room. He'd risen to his feet, and everyone else slowly rose as well.
Gloria wiped her hands on her pants. "I don't know!" she gestured towards Alex, "Every time I've been trying to use my powers with you lately, it zaps both of us and I don't know why."
She turned to Midshore. "I've used magic with him before, when I was teaching him to grow plants, and this never happened. It was nice, actually, and now I can hardly even touch him. What's going on?" she asked, frustrated.
Midshore looked between them, then looked away for a moment while she thought. "This is a very unique circumstance, but I’ve been thinking for roughly an hour why your magic feels so strange, Alex. I believe that your powers are polar opposites, like the opposite ends of a magnet. I haven't seen it before, it's very rare. Live long enough and you'll see that people's powers are on a spectrum, like a color wheel. It's possible to have the opposite of a power, just like a picture in negative. Your powers are too different to cooperate.
"I suggest that you don't use any powers on each other or in tandem as it could be very unstable, even for a practiced spellcaster," Midshore hypothesized.
"But- that-'' Alex looked disappointed. "That actually makes a lot of sense."
"But the plant magic worked fine!" Gloria exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air.
"I can't explain that one, I'm sorry," Midshore said. "Gloria, I think you should go back to base, just to be safe. I'll teach Alex and Aquila and we'll see you this evening,"
Gloria rolled her eyes and picked up her sweater. "Fine, I'll see you guys later. Don't burn the house down." and she swiftly walked out of the door and left.
The group watched her leave, confused and disappointed they had to lose a member of the group.
"No time to think about that right now, we need to get back to training," Midshore clapped her hands to get their attention. "Have you guys heard of spellcaster marks? Every spellcaster gets them, they happen whether you want them or not, but you can guide them to grow as you like. I have the color under my eyes and my colored tattoos, Gloria has her orange hands, and other people have other forms of marks. Give it some thought, because they're going to come in whether you like them or not, like wisdom teeth. I'm surprised you don't have any yet, Alex. You're certainly old enough to have started to grow them."
"I didn't know that's what they were..." he said. "You say I can grow it as I want and can dictate how it shows?"
"Yes, I can help with that, if you like. Aquila, what about you?"
"I, um, yeah. I have marks too, but I cover them because they're kinda strange. Is that why so many Spellcasters are tattooed? They're their marks?"
"Yes. Some spellcasters form their marks into art. It's a long process, but worth it in my opinion, unless you like the ambiguous look."
~*~
Thursday couldn't be gone fast enough for Seneca. He could almost ask if Gloria could come and visit for the weekend, or if he could talk to her on the phone again. Or see her face. He missed her, and he wanted to feel normal again. Shed all of the weird stress that he felt from his housemates, forget about classes for a little while, and just be himself. Seneca and Gloria. Gloria and Seneca. As the world intended it to be.
Just two hours before his bedtime. He'd be able to go to sleep and then it'd be Friday, and Friday night he'd be able to talk to Gloria. It'd be great.
His phone started buzzing. It was never a good time when his phone buzzed; no one he knew or wanted to talk to ever called him. Nora, his grammar teacher, was fully aware that she should text if she wanted to tell him something, so it had to be either the school, his mother, or an old friend he didn't want to talk to ever again.
Checking the caller ID, it was his mother. He rolled his eyes and answered.
"Seneca, darling, how are you?" she asked after he said hello.
"Oh, I'm fine. I had food poisoning the past few days but I'm feeling better now. It'll get better. School's going well, no trouble there."
"What did you eat?" she asked him, concern in her voice. "Do you want to sue them? We could get our money back, or have them close their doors."
"No, no." Seneca said with a grimace as he paced his room. "I already got my money back, and I just won't order from them again. It's really not a problem. What did you call about?" he asked.
"I would like you to have dinner with me on Saturday, if you're available," she said.
"You want me to have dinner with you?" Seneca quoted back.
"Sorry, I should rephrase that. Would you have dinner with me on Saturday? We haven't connected in a while. Not in person anyway and it's been awhile since you saw your brother. And J would love to see you, I'm sure."
"I'm sure that your boyfriend would love to... see... me..." he said with skepticism. "Is this about what Randal Cook did to Ember? We really don't need to talk about this, it doesn't involve me at all..."
"But it does," His mother interjected. "There are grumblings that you may not be my son, which is unfounded, and that my son would rather leave his family behind for an Other. Gloria is a great girl, but-"
"You're talking about me choosing Gloria over my family?" Seneca interrupted. "Gloria is family, mom. You know that. She saved my life. Her mom killed the king and I'm picking up that you don't approve of Gloria?" he was starting to get angry. Maybe he should have a cookie or something.
"What I'm saying is that you and I should strengthen our connection. The media is going to start looking into our family more and more. They're going to know that you and Gloria are a couple. They're going to know all about how ingrained she is in the Other community. If we show that we are a unified front, we can cover all of our bases-"
"Of course she's ingrained in the Other community, she is an Other!" Seneca raised his voice. "You just want the optics to look good for you! You want to make sure that the Others will think of you as a friend and won't chop off your head or something. Mom, why don't you like Gloria?" he asked.
"Seneca, you're being very stubborn about this," she said, trying to stay calm. "I'm trying to protect the two of you. Make you too public to harm. I want to make sure you're safe and that the wrong people won't think they can target you because you're close to both me and the Other community. Please, it's just dinner-"
"Mom-" Seneca said through gritted teeth. "I really don't think it'll come to this. Gloria and I have no desire to be in the limelight. We're private people who aren't interested in politics. There's no need to publicly show ourselves. If you want to look like you're an ally to the Others, just go out to dinner with Rhiannon and Ember, they're the best sources of publicity you have."
"Seneca, you're stuck in the middle." his mother said bluntly, putting away the sugary sweet voice and becoming the leader he knew she really was. She wasn't a politician, she was a rallier. She gathered forces through deals and quid pro quos, not laws. "Your love for Gloria will be tested. The press will come for you and will want to know where you stand, and either you both stand with me or you stand alone. The life you've been given, or the life you make."
She hung up after that, and Seneca plopped onto his bed. Objectively, it wasn't hard for him to choose which family he'd choose, he’d choose Gloria, but how could he lose his mother over this? Was it really going to come to that?
How was that? Which way do you think Seneca will lean? Do you think he'll lean towards keeping hold of his mother, or will he aim to distance himself and choose Gloria instead? There are pros and cons to each choice. One thing's clear, poor guy needs therapy.
Bloopers!
^ Thankyou, laptop, for being able to handle the pretty lighting. These landscapes are so pretty because of it.
^ Here we see Rhiannon Wardwell looking a bit too icy for the situation, but I loved the shot. Rhiannon was made by forum user Kamio, who periodically runs bachelor challenges. That's where I met her, and I wish her all the best!
The spellcasters had to have a short sleepover at the little science cabin because I take these screenshots by chapter and not by occasion, thus I lost the light and had to wait for the next day.
^ Midshore decided to moonbathe and I had a tiny heart attack thinking she'd died or something.
^ The spellcaster trio got to have some good chat time, Gloria and Alex (not pictured) read, and I honestly don't know what's going on with the lighting in that room. It lights like I'm missing a wall, but there are no missing walls! and then it lights correctly at night?! So confusing.
^ Uncalled for hugs!
^ You wouldn't understand, Mom! I mean- Midshore!
^ Midshore, you're doing an excellent job including Alex in this conversation.
^Do you seriously have your phone out while I'm talking to you about important stuff?
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