Xaviers!

Since Sam told him about what Isolde had said about meeting a dwarf. He couldn't help wondering if it was the same one, if this Isolde had another page from the book...

Sean cast a spell to locate the werewolf. As he did so a rough sphere of runes orbited his hand. Magical energy sparked from the circle up his arm.

It seems a cliche, but at present the clearest tug Sean can get is towards the woods surrounding the grounds.

Sean follows the signal towards the woods.

"Wonderful," Sean said feeling, perhaps fittingly, ill at ease with tracking a werewolf through the woods.

The pull remains fairly steady at first as he walks between the trees, but as he gets closer to his destination it starts to waver, pull in different directions.

Sean looked around trying to find a sign of Isolde's passage though the forest before choosing a direction to follow. Hoping that his skills as a woodsman hadn't rusted too badly.

"Who would have thought tracking an apex predator would be so difficult," Sean said quietly to himself.

The trail seems easy enough to follow, but in time he starts to see familiar sights repeating.

He may well be going in circles.

Sean sighs as he closes in on an area he remembered going through. He begins carving a small circle into the ground. He has no materials from Isolde to make a calling and he's not even sure he could get one to work if he did. So if she's hidden nearby he can possibly reveal her instead using a more mundane spell.

"Sightless starlit seers see what cannot be seen," Sean chants methodically and the circle glows. "Gift me your sight to find the wolf."


The circle glows orange then suddenly white hot as too much energy pouring in. Sean stabilizes it after a moment and it returns to its original color before the enchantment takes effect. In the back of his mind he wish he knew why his spells had been so.... temperamental as of late. Why before the energy was a trickle and now it was a flood with every spell.

A voice comes from behind and above Sean.

"Why do you need to find me so badly?"

Sean broke the spell and turned towards Isolde's voice.

"You might have information I need," Sean said, "About a dapper, possibly evil, dwarf."

Oh, this sounds so totally ludicrous...

"And why would you be seeking that one out?"

A tall, well-muscled woman jumps down from a tree, her hair dark and wild.

"I wanted to know if he gave you a page from a book," Sean said not wanting to say too much just yet.

She narrows her eyes at him.

"Once."

"That was a long time ago."

Isolde would probably notice it. Something was off about Sean his shadow was darker than it should be, the weave of magic around him was... wrong in some undefinable way like Sean didn't quite fit into reality as a mortal mage should.

"You lost it?" Sean sighed trying to not look intimidated by the Isolde.

Yet, despite all of these things Sean seemed unaware of them. His body language saying that he was nervous around Isolde and putting on a strong face to hide it.

"I did not have a chance to keep it. I had to run."

"You're not the first to ask me about it. Russoff was quite curious as well."

Damn...

"A shame, would have been interesting to examine it," Sean said, "Russoff?"

"A boyar in Pasul Tihuţa. He had an axe to grind against the voivode."

"Quite a trick, since the voivode in question had been dead since before I was born."

At the very least Sean knew his myths, but boyars and voivode weren't things he was familiar with.

"That's where the Borgo pass is, isn't it?" Sean asked, "The path to Dracula and that's... that's all I understood unless you were talking about. Wait, was the er... Voivode Dracula?."

"A voivode is a warlord-prince," she says, noticing his confusion.

"Vlad the Third, prince of Wallachia. Or the Son of the Dragon, as you know him. Oh, how Wallachia wished he stayed in his grave."

"And this Russoff tried to fight him?" Sean asked. "Did you fight with him?"

"I considered Russoff a dangerous fool for what he was pursuing. His whole family line wound up cursed."

"Cursed?" Sean asked.

"Like me, but not. Worse than beasts."

"And Dracula did this to him?" Sean asked.

"No, seeking the Book of Sins did this to him."

Sean felt a shiver of familiarity, but nothing came to him. He paused for a moment trying to decipher the feeling.

"The Book of Sins? Sounds rather melodramatic," Sean said using humor to defuse feeling ill at ease.

"It's had a few names. I think the plainest is just 'The Darkhold.'"

"And who are you to go asking after the pages and the dwarf?"

She looks him over, sniffing for a moment.

"...you're from one of the old families. Like the Montesis."

"The page lacked an instruction manual and the dwarf stayed only long enough to gift it to me, unfortunately," Sean said then attempted to change topics realizing he'd said perhaps too much, "I have no idea. I was found on the steps of a church. I was adopted from there by my mutant parents."

"So I am to call you Nobody, son of No-one?"

"If you wish," Sean said wryly. "Though Sean would probably be preferable for both of us, aye? People tend to look at you oddly if you don't have a name."

Despite believing it to be true Sean's name sounded like a falsehood or perhaps a white lie. There was blood to his scent, yet no wounds. Everything together made Sean something of a conundrum. Everything was wrong and yet there was no obvious cause or reason why.

"What a strange little cuckoo you are..."

"...you should burn the page."

"That's the nicest way I've been called mad yet," Sean smiled, "Why would I burn it?"

"A cuckoo is a bird who lays its eggs in the nests of others. When the young hatch, they toss all the other eggs out, and the clueless mother raises it as her own."

"And you should burn it if you don't want to find out where your blood comes from the hard way."

"Ah, well I haven't murdered my non-existent siblings, but I catch your meaning," Sean said, "I've already read the page and taken notes on it, used the knowledge to enhance my spells. Burning it will not do anything."

She sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose.

"...I should kill you, but I doubt the Headmistress would appreciate my reasons."

"If I end up murdering everyone I'll be sure to let you tell everyone 'I told you so' first," Sean said dryly, "The knowledge from this book cannot be so evil that it will corrupt my actions so completely."

"A drunkard can't have just one drink."

"And having a few drinks doesn't make me a regular at the pub," Sean said.

"You are weak to it. All the old families are. Oh, they were sorcerer kings and queens in their days but the blood remembers, and the blood craves what it lost."

"And how do you known all of this?" Sean asked.

"Because I've been alive long enough to see what happens to most of them."