Chapter 13

**Noch**


“Alright. Glad to see you all here.” I smiled as I looked around my office. I had sent a burner note out to everyone that wasn’t next to me or within shouting range that it was time to hold our meeting.

Nelia and Arasule had almost flown in at exactly the same time. Ara kept shooting glares at Nelia, inconvenienced at being put in the same room as a healer. Nelia on the other hand ignored the crazy old bat flatly, which seemed only to rile Ara up even more. When Ara didn’t shut up when I told her to, I simply said that she can stuff her prejudiced comments up her metaphorically wrinkly butt or get kicked out of the whole plan. She shut her pie hole after that but I could practically see her mental ramblings being visibly broadcasted over her head.

Thyrion was there already sitting behind a vial rack, ducked down low so that no one would see him. And so far, both Ara and Nelia could either just have chosen to ignore him for now, or it was working.

Fog came in not long after Ara and Nelia had sat down, and leaned against one of my walls.

I smiled at the gathered group. I was sure that Jasnine and Raska would also have loved to be here, but they were out on a few much needed bounties. They will surely have one hell of a surprise when they finally come back.

“Just so we are clear on who does what. Ara, are you ready to try and take the spell apart and track the caster?”

“Got everything I need. Now all we need is her.” She replied.

“Nelia, you have to check the effect that it will have on her body and keep her stable until we can get the thing off of her.”

She nods. “All set and ready.”

“And Fog,” I said, eyeing him. He lifted an eyebrow at me when I didn’t say anything straight after that “is there for moral support.” I grinned evilly.

He gave me a frown that said that he didn’t think my comment was a very funny joke. “Fine, you’ll be setting up a barrier to weaken the link between Merianna, Thyrion and the caster. Thyrion can be the moral support.”

I heard a small noise of protest from where he was hiding himself. Ara and Nelia’s heads shot to the source of the sound and then Nelia shot up out of her chair and poked her head over the vile rack. She gasped when she saw his face.

“Thyrion?!!!” She squeaked out and a blush crept up on her neck.

He looked miserably up at her from his spot. “Hi Nelia.”

I had almost forgotten that Nelia also had a crush on Thyrion. Merianna was ridiculously perplexed about the fact that Thyrion actually liked her more than her sister, but grew to genuinely like the bastard. Yes, they liked the same guy. It was very entertaining to watch the two of them in the beginning when they met Thyrion. And who can blame them, the guy looked like a black haired 50 out of 10 super underwear model with the charms of the devil himself. And let’s not leave out the part that he is a real true blue bad ass that can stop a Troll in its tracks with a glare.

Nelia had accepted the fact that he liked Merianna with grace, but that didn’t stop her from blushing every time she saw him.

“Get lost you coward! We don’t need you here!” Ara growled from her spot as she continued to glare.

“Now Ara, that is no way to treat the guy that has been trying to keep your favorite girl safe and divulged some new information that could possibly save Merianna’s life.” I said matter of fact. Fog, Ara and Nelia looked at me with wide eyes.

“New information?” Fog asked, lifting an eyebrow.

I nodded solemnly. “The one that had him,” I nodded at where Thyrion was slumped, “in the bind and Merianna’s soul in his hands is a Warlock. One that is notorious for murdering witches and was banished to a sealed realm a few thousand years ago.”

Fog grabbed a hold of the chair that Nelia had vacated and plonked down on it. “What is his name?”

“I’m sure you can guess that one old friend.”

“Orbus…?” He asked softly as if dreading the name. Orbus was definitely not on the list of our most liked people. Not many other Dark Warlocks can hold the same reputation as he did.

I nodded and Fog ran a hand down his face. He was there when I tracked the Warlock down and banished him to that realm. He was a tough bugger but not tough enough. Though, his fanatical ideals were the ones that made him truly dangerous.

Ara was still scowling but frowned furiously. She had heard about what had happened and what kind of person Orbus was, and back then she wasn’t even part of the Order yet.

Nelia had no idea what to make of the situation. “Does the fact that it is that one particular person have an effect on what we still have to do?” She asked.

“Yes and no. Yes, because somehow in some way he was able to get out of the Fergeril realm. And how on earth he was able to get out of there without being ripped to literal shreds baffles me. He must have had help, and whom that ‘help’ might be is a whole barrel of wraiths all together.”

“Do you still need me to track the source of the spell?” Arasule asked, looking ready to take on an army.

“Yes, it’s obviously likely to be Orbus and then again it might not be, considering he’s not a solo player since he clearly had help getting out of that realm. So I would rather cover all the bases than sit with a problem later on.” I said leaning against one of my tables.

Arasule nodded. “And just because the culprit is a Dark Warlock doesn’t change what I have researched on removing the spell. I’m ready to deal with whatever it is when she gets here.”

“Good, because I can say for once that we have almost no idea what to expect from this. In that realm anything from human souls, demons to corrupt angels, oracles and lesser deities is sealed in there. Literally anything could have come out of there along with him.”

Thyrion finally lifted his head fully from behind the vials. “All the more reason to get Merianna here and to get that spell off from her.”

Just when I was about to open my mouth to comment on that, a bright flash suddenly brightened up the room and then the angelic was standing in the middle of the office looking completely out of place.

“Hezerial!” Nelia cried out in excitement when she saw her sister's guardian. He smiled back at her but his serious expression didn't stay away for too long.

“We have to get her here as soon as possible.” He said in all seriousness.

I blinked at the angelic. I would need to get used to his popping in and out at random intervals all over again. And here after the brat died I had finally settled into a habit of not having surprise visits at the strangest of times. Thyrion was faster to react to that statement though. “Has something happened?!” He asked, jumping out of his corner.

Hezerial turned to him and replied with all seriousness. “Her memories are affecting her dreams a lot more now. She is barely recognizing her own face when she looks in a mirror. I think it won't be long at all now before she starts having random flashes of memory when she walks down a street or drives down a road.”

Thyrion turned pale and leaned heavily against the wall behind him. Clearly he knew what this meant. “Why is it happening so fast? It has never happened this quickly before.”

Hezerial frowned and seemed to think for a minute. “A little while ago she told me that she had been having vivid dreams for months before now. It seems like she kept a journal about them.”

Thyrion looked up at the angelic with wide eyes. Then he narrowed them and speared his look right at me. “If we are doing this, I would say that today would be the best time to bring her in. I don’t know if this means that the spell is losing its grip or that something else is amiss, but I don’t want to take the chance.”

I was actually planning on bringing her in today anyway, but I wasn’t about to tell the overprotective husband that right now. I just nodded and turned to address the rest of the group. “In the afternoon while she’s driving home, we’re going to set the scene in action!” I clapped my hands together and everyone started moving around at once.

I had a pit of uneasiness growing in my gut since I first spoke to Thyrion, hopefully this isn’t one of those gut feelings that usually tells me when things will go sideways soon, and very badly sideways. Hopefully this gut feeling will be one of those that will go away once Merianna is safe and back at the Order causing her usual old amount of amusing chaos.

Looking around the room at Ara, Fog, Nelia and Thyrion vacating the office and moving to their stations, I couldn’t help but send up a useless prayer at whoever might be listening. *Please keep them safe*… *Please let everything work out*…