Taikang Road, Shanghai.
Irina
I've always loved coming to Shanghai. The vibrant people walked from all corners of the street. The smells of the food from the vendors littered the streets. The huge neon signs that hung and gleamed in the nighttime with Chinese words I have never been able to decipher. Today the smells were different. I could smell magic in the air. The pervading smell of magic filled the air. It filled the air, making it crackle with the unknown and the familiar. I sniffed out the magic to the Tzahin district. A place very much like New Orleans artist's corner. I saw a flash of green hair. I stifled a smile. There was only one person I knew with that distinctive shade. Raena. Along with the Twin Dragons. The source of magic was very distinctive. Katherine.
Although she was nowhere to be found. I walked over to the group, the trio was meandering around looking at everything with a measure of wonder that people always had when first experiencing Shanghai. "How does a person whose element is water manage to blow up part of a street?" Julio asked.
I smirked as I came up behind them all, I knew immediately who he was speaking of. "Very carefully," I said, watching as they all turned in surprise.
"I see two Dragons, one fae, and absolutely no one that looks like they could've made a portal to Shanghai," I said raising my eyebrows.
Hulio and Julio exchanged glances. "Katherine made a portal for us before she headed back to school," Julio said looking at me with a wary glance.
My lips turned up in a smile, the last time Julio and I had met we had been fighting werewolves and I had nearly stabbed him with icicle daggers. Since then I noticed he had been overly wary of me.
"Katherine is back in school? And how did you three manage that?" I said watching as all three said "Iris" at the same time. I smiled wider. "She can be really persuasive when she wants to be," Julio said.
"Oh, I remember," I said thinking of the mermaid fondly. Over the years since the quest to the mortal bloom, Iris and I have had our share of adventures leading to a sort of friendship between us.
"I know all about her and her persuasiveness. The real question is what brings you three to Shanghai." I said narrowing my eyes, and hoping their reason wasn't what I thought it was.
"I think you already know the answer." Raena said her eyes somber. I glanced at her and the two dragons and sighed. "What could possibly have happened that would make you see the portents of doom?" I asked sadly.
"We're here to confirm a rumor," Julio said cautiously.
"What kind of rumor?" I asked suspiciously watching the two dragons who looked shifty all of a sudden.
"One of that life-altering kind of rumors," Raena said rubbing Hulio's arm. "When we caught up to Katherine, we were attacked by a horde of ninja's led by the warlock—"
"Thaddeus? Thaddeus Shale?" I asked already picturing Thaddeus's scowl. "You know him?" Julio asked raising his eyebrows. "Sort of. He's kind of infamous for his use of hordes of ninjas. They aren't actually real. They were created by him. He uses them for all sorts of purposes. The last time I saw them was his new year's party, but that was a couple of years back."
"Like I was saying. Thaddeus attacked us with his ninja's we fought them, then Katherine and he fought, and then when everything had calmed down, he told us of potential hunters that may or may not be after Hulio and Julio." Raena said.
"That wouldn't surprise me. Dragons have been hunted for as long as they have wandered the earth. There have always been those who seek to use Dragons for their nefarious purposes. Sometimes to conquer other enemies and sometimes for dinner."
"Things that we would have been better off knowing earlier," Julio said scowling.
"It sounds like this time around it's for our flesh," Hulio said.
I grimaced. "I can take you to them," I said rolling my eyes. There goes my whole day.
"That would be lovely," Raena said brightly taking my arm and spinning me around in the direction of where the other witches lived. I walked down the street and took a sharp turn into the alcove between two stores that hid another awning into another shop that had an emerald green sign displaying the words "Witches Brewery".
I took a deep breath and entered the door that chimed as we entered. I stepped into what looked like a Chinese fortune teller shop. Opening the door led to a room cloaked in darkness a single round table with a silver tapestry over it. A milky white ball sat in a bowl of beads swirling smoke within. I smiled and tapped on the table twice, before stepping back. The wide curtains that covered the room pulled back revealing a gilded silver door. Hulio and Julio glanced at each other before looking apprehensively at the door. "After sixteen years of living with witches, you think you'd get used to crap like this," Hulio said, Julio, nodding in agreement.
Raena glanced at me before she stepped forward pushing the door and stepping inside the bright white light that shimmered behind it. I'd been to see the portents of doom before. The witches were five in number and all ranged different ages and shapes, their eyes milky white. Eyes that seemed to see everything and nothing all at the same time. Every time I visited their abode it was different sometimes it appeared in the middle of a forest. Once it was on top of a glacier and there were other times on top of Mt. Everest. Today we were underneath a lane of cherry blossoms in the distance there was an oak bridge over a koi pond. "So very dramatic as per usual," I said as I walked down the lane.
"Irina of the ice. We had not foreseen you would welcome us with your presence." I stopped walking and glanced to the right where three women stood. One had long raven hair and wore a long white dress that went all the way down to the floor. In the middle a blonde-haired girl who wore a short pale pink dress and the third had long red hair and wore a violet dress that went down past her knees.
"Huh. You don't look like the witches I normally see." Irina said her eyes searching at them all.
"That would be because we are not the witches five. They are in fact on holiday." The three women said, speaking as one. Their voices seemed to echo all over the room and pierce the very hearts of the people who heard them. I started to have a bad feeling in my chest that I knew who these women are.
"Who are you then?" Julio asked his eyes narrowed.
"And why have you taken the Witches Brewery for your own?" Raena asked.
"We three are the muses of old come back to life. We have taken nothing but what rightfully belonged to us." They said their eyes were silver when we first saw them turned a sharp burning yellow as they looked at us. "We know why you have come here." They said turning their gaze to Julio and Hulio who looked hugely uncomfortable at suddenly being the center of their attention.
"What Thaddeus Shale has told you is true. You have been hunted since the moment you were cursed. While you guarded the Mortal Bloom the witch's curse shielded you from their gaze, but now you are no longer protected. Now they will come. Hunters of old they are, and hungry they have always been for Dragon meat. But there is a slight chance for you to survive. No team of Hunters is perfect and this one is full of strife and Discord. Hunt down Isadora Asgeir and Gabriel Herou. They are your only chance for survival."
"And where exactly are we going to find these people?" Hulio asked.
"They will be found by the star-crossed lovers of Vemos. The former princess Lauranna and the true heir to Vemos along with Dorian Gray. To find them you must ask the former owner of Hunter's Bar, Marcus." The three muses said before they and the surrounding trees disappeared leaving the single room with the one table. Irina turned to look at the two dragons before glancing at Raena.
"Marcus is not going to like this. Not one bit."