Hunter walked out of his building to see Circe waiting for him inside a car. The sprite stood still with a raised eyebrow.
"Waiting for an invitation?" Circe asked.
Hunter walked over to the car and slid into the front seat.
"Alright, let's get you to school, baby boy," said the light red-haired woman.
"Err ... No. Don't ever call me that again," he stated.
"As you wish, baby girl," she said as she starts the car and began driving.
"I take it back, call me baby boy all you wish."
Circe laughs.
"You know," the teal green-eyed boy started. "When you said you were going to take me to school today, I thought you were going to just open a transportation portal, because of how much faster it is to driving over there," he said.
"You don't like this?"
"I do, I do but I gotta ask, why? You could easily use a transportation portal to be anywhere you want and yet, you're driving."
"You're right, I could use a transportation portal to be anywhere I want to be, but in a world where almost everything is possible, where it feels like we're living in the sky, little things ... like driving for example, brings us down. You've lived with non-mystics, haven't you? Most of them have gone on to live fulfilling lives without even so much as knowing about the existence of mysticism. So yes, while we as mystics are capable of doing almost anything, we must come back now and then to not lose our humanity."
"Hm ... I hadn't thought about it like that," Hunter said.
He understood what the yellow-eyed woman said the more he thought about it. Agencies like the Public Safety and Demon Control Agency were created to protect people without powers but how can you help people if you don't know or understand their problems?
Circe pulls up in front of the Metropolitan School of Mysticism. "This is you," she said.
"Yeah, thanks for the ride."
"It's no problem. Call me fifteen minutes before your last class ends so I can come to pick you up."
"Okay. Again, thanks for the ride." With that, Hunter hopped out of the car and made his way to the school's gate. Before he got inside, he turned back and waved goodbye to the light red-haired woman with a smile plastered on his face which the yellow-eyed woman mirrored. The smile fades away once the sprite turned his back to her.
She runs her hand through her head as she thought back to what her mother had told her during the event not too long ago.
...
"Mother?" Circe said as she walked into the garden where her mother was plucking up a plant from the ground. "Can you believe it? This garden grows some azare flowers, I thought they were extinct after the fire at our compounds several years ago. You remember that don't you?" asked the councilwoman.
Circe remembered, and it was more than a millennium ago. What worried her was why her mother brought it up. The councilwoman had lived for several millennia but she was barely a rambler. She always chose her words with careful consideration and something as simple as some rare flowers suddenly sprouting should not come as a shock to her. It had to be something else in that sentence she was talking about ... The fire!
Circe's eyes widen but thankfully her mother's were not on her to see them do so. 'This can't be good.' Circe thought to herself.
"You asked for me," Circe said trying to avoid the question.
"Ah yes," Hecate said rising and turning to face her daughter for the first time. "You look beautiful my dear, who are you here with?" She asked.
"Hunter ... Heffernan," said the yellow-eyed woman already dreading her mother's response but much to her surprise, the councilwoman did not seem to care. "The young man who stood in front of the council? He is very handsome," she noted.
Thanks to her immortality, the Queen of witches appeared to be the same age as her daughter. She placed one of her hands on the side of her daughter's face before speaking again. "You have such beautiful eyes," she said.
Circe felt her heart drop and heard her thoughts stuttering. 'D- Does s-she knows?'
"Anyways," she said turning away from her daughter. "I wanted to tell you the reason I gathered everyone here today," said Hecate.
"Aren't you going to announce it anyways?"
"I am. I wanted you to be among the first to know. It is something concerning you after all."
"Oh?"
"Yes. You remember The Devites, right? They were also killed in the fire."
Circe tried her best to appear calm as she spoke. What about them?" She asked.
The yellow-eyed woman already had a feeling what her mother was going to say but asked anyway hoping for a different answer. The Devites were a special few witches who could use dark magic. The dark witches were the councilwoman's most notorious army and very few names strike fear into the hearts of man as much as the Devites in the Middle Ages.
"I'm bringing them back." She said it like it was the most normal thing she could think of.
Circe raised an eyebrow. "When you say you're bringing them back --"
"I mean more of a reboot than a revival. You know how much I despise reanimation," she said.
At that moment, the light red-haired woman realized she was wrong about her assessment that her mother could never make an announcement that would shape the future of the mystic world without Hunter Heffernan in it. This was huge and it was going to be a wrench in her plans.
The tension was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. Circe decided to try and lighten the mood a bit. "I'm surprised you used the word 'reboot'," Circe said.
Hecate laughs. "I surprised myself even."
The councilwoman walked towards her daughter and placed both her hands on each of her daughter's shoulder. "I've found witches who can use dark magic ... Just like you. I want you to be their leader and guardian, just like you were meant to be for the old Devites."
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