"New counter point: if you had they might have assumed that you were there to kill Felicia, though this might be a sub-category of them being on guard if you were there instead of a couple presumed-unaware witches. Besides, having the option of them assuming you are working for their side for a bit longer is more tactically advantageous." Pause. "Not that I find it particularly comforting."

With some practice, Beatrix did manage to consistently use her power.

"I prefer manipulation. This is too blunt. Waiting for her to get back doesn't make it any easier."

"Rex... I am not, in fact, as calm as usual, but this sounds motivated more by the fact that you are sitting here waiting."

He taps his hands on the steering wheel.

"I can wait. I don't have to like it."

Meanwhile...

... Felicia has worked up the courage and knocks on the door. They can do this. They are the chosen ones and everything.

The door opens a smidge too quickly.

"Hey."

"Hey, is Kor home? Could you bring him out for a bit?"

"Sure, whatever."

The door slams shut.

The door eventually opens just a crack, and one eye peers out suspiciously.

Felicia gives him an uneasy smile. "Hi, I am Felicia, Theo's girlfriend. Do you mind if we talked for a minute?"

"Okay. Talk."

"I mean, could we go out and go around the block or maybe grab a cup of coffee or something and talk?"

"Is Theo alright?"

"That's what I wanted to talk about," Felicia says channeling her worries.

He closes the door behind him, walking ahead of her.

"What happened?"

She very aware and weary of the distance between them, the house and Dawad.

"That's what I have been trying to figure out. Theo, I love him, but... I don't know a better way to say this, but I often find myself too concerned about him and his life."

"Yeah, he's pretty concerning. He didn't piss off the wrong person, did he?"

"Maybe?" Which sounds like a definitely. "Uh, I have a friend that is the son of a police officer. And," Felicia looks around, "I have reason to believe Theo have been around more than one crime scene."

"You don't think he's done anything wrong, do you?"

"I mean, even if it is just morbid curiosity, that's not really reassuring, right? And I know he gets to fight and more than one of his friends died recently. That doesn't spell out safe environment." She looks away and says in a small voice. "I just want him to be safe."

"I'm sure it's fine. He's- he can take care of himself, you know? He's resilient."

"That isn't the same thing as being safe." She says hugging herself, despite the warm day.

He turns away, hands in his pockets.

"I can't help you. Theo does what he wants."

"I know that I must sound like the nosy girlfriend. Believe me, It took me a while to work up the courage to come here. But this isn't about controlling him, it's about helping him staying off a path that's potentially self-destructive, like friends do."

"He wouldn't want me to tell you."

"So you know?"

"He's not on your side, Felicia. Be careful, okay? You shouldn't get involved in all this."

"Not on my side?" She replies slowly.

"He's dangerous. You don't want to know."

"Thank you for saying so."

She hugs.

And in his ear she whispers.

"I know. And I can protect both of you."

He vanishes.

She can still feel him, though, and he makes no attempt to interrupt the hug.

He reappears.

"How? What about the others?"

"I got my powers and then me and Theo talked, and he agreed to turn good. We figured out that Hayden is too opportunistic, Liam is too angry to easily talk with, and Dovan needs to eat mortals."

"You don't think we could find a way to feed him?"

"I am sorry. We suggested breaking into morgues or something, but couldn't figure out something sustainable."

"We could kidnap Hayden."

They couldn't, and Theo knows that.

"If we convince her, then Bartok will-"

But Bartok never listens to what's good for him.

Well. That's that.

"Okay. Let's go."

She doesn't need to be told twice. "Follow me." She leads him back to the car.

Theo has already started the car when they get in.

Felicia makes sure that Kor gets in the car before going in herself.

Kor sits down.

In that case they will be able to leave, tense and very weary of their surroundings, but no apparent trouble follows them home.

Their home is as they left it. Theo immediately gets to work setting Korbrant up in the guest room.

Beatrix - who stayed home because she drew the short straw - is glad to see them back safe and sound.

"So, our party got a new minion! A rogue for our three sorcerers and warrior. Better balance overall."

"Aha."

Trix shrugs. "So, what's the plan?"

"About Kor? I think, it's as you said, he is now a party member. Though, if he doesn't want to go on missions he doesn't have to."

"There are more mundane concerns, about him leaving with us. And we can't keep adding formerly-evil roommates. And Kor is still technically evil, he apparently can switch sides with little effort, but that doesn't necessarily mean no problems. The whitelighters might still make a fuss over Theo, after all."

"True. If they make a fuss over Kor one of us can still platonically witch-marry him. It's like marrying for a green card, but with eternal damnation instead of deportation if it doesn't work."

"...Better to ask Theo how to best explain that option."

"Theo is actually worse than Fernanda for this."

"She said to ask Theo for input, not get him to explain it himself."

"Anyway, no making our... guest feel uncomfortable. And nothing on the front of how to make people not-evil without marriage?"

"Not at all. A lot of demonic creatures. Most ways to deal with them is killing them, and when something else is presented as an option it's mostly because our ancestors hadn't figure out how to kill them."

"I am glad that mind alteration is not that trivial. But wow."

"Yeah, no pray-the-hell-away camps for demons."

Her sisters make a face.

"Anyway. We will see how receptive Kor is to being consensually converted later. Keep him safe with us. Use his talents if he agrees to. What else?"

"...He and Theo are not really, uh, they didn't grow up learning skills that weren't about killing."

"So enroll them in assassin's school. Or get them both to learn ways to pay the rent."

"Get them both to learn how to be healthy, stable, sane and happy members of society."

"In this economy?"

"Stop the zingers for a minute, Trix."

"Okay, okay," she raises her hands in surrender. "But this feels like a discussion that involves their input a bit too much for me to be comfortable with."

"We can, and should, just figure out the problems and then offer some solutions. I don't think Theo is likely to think on his own that they should- I don't know their level of education, but I doubt he will think of continuing it."

"True. Maybe the whitelighters can offer some suggestions too. This is not the first time a witch tried something like this."

"They should have some data, yeah."

"Well, we do have magic now. It can't be that hard?"

...

...

"Let's... try not to acquire more demons to convert. At least until we have a better plan to host them."

Theo comes downstairs, sans Korbrant.

"Looks like he's good for now. Did I miss any hot gossip?"

"Only the hottest that we won't ever tell you."

"How is Kor doing?" Felicia says, patting the space on the couch next to her.

"He's moping about the others, but he'll get over it. We just need to give him a mission to focus on."

"Do we have something in mind, already?"

"There's our former masters. They'll be coming after us, and we need all the defenses we can get."

"It just can't be easy. Any plans before we break out the book of shadows?"

"Countering their powers over time already gives us an advantage, but they're still strong enough to take any human, and they have powers over electricity that I don't completely understand. I can help a little with that, but they might also bring other projects with them."

"How many do you expect them to have around?"

"Last I heard there was only one other, but he's supposed to be a trump card. No clue on how far they've gotten on that. And they might have made more since."

"Any clues on what... components this trump card is made of? And a trump card to what? Us?"

"To the forces of Good. Including you. They were trying to resurrect some kind of ancient evil, and we were earlier attempts."

"Why invent resurrect-" Pause. "okay, they are evil in the most literal sense of the word."

Beatrix pats her on the back.

"Is hybrid creation a typical... step, during resurrection attempts? That you know of?"

"It's not resurrection the way you're probably thinking. They need a host body, and regular humans can't handle it. They tried. Trouble is, they don't want to risk using a demon. He was a warlock who killed demons, and putting him in a demon's body might not bring him back with his powers."

"Do you think there is a way to sabotage that? And what is special about the warlock's powers?"

"I know less about his powers than I do about his body count. He was a serial killer with at least thirty-seven victims, all killed in ways that the locals couldn't explain. We only know it was him because he made some enemies among the witches. As for stopping them, either kill the host, kill them, or hope there's some other steps to the ritual that we can prevent."

"No exorcism option that you know of?"

"Not that I know of."

"Maybe we should focus on what we can do, instead of speculating. Uh, how much time do we have to prepare?"

"I don't know for sure. I know that they've found what they think is the perfect host. There's supposed to be a mythical weapon that can kill it, so if we just find that, we might be able to put a stop to this."

"Is it weird that I am glad we have the option to stick a magic pointy thing in this bad guy?"

"Anything else you might know about that weapon?"

He tells her what he knows: its rumored location (the French countryside, where it was believed to have been used to kill him the first time), its makeup (mostly iron, and some magic), and the restrictions on its use (it can only be wielded by a witch).

Could a non-witch transport it? How complicated it would be to go to France to retrieve the thing?

The rumors don't have much to say about transport, and the difficulty of obtaining it comes mostly from its mythical status. Presumably it exists, as Theo's former masters took it seriously, but he doesn't have any obvious leads.

Worth doing a non-zero amount of research, but any further investment will be conditional on what low-hanging fruit they find.

"We can look into options for sealing or banishing him in case we're too late."

"Yes, we can. Do you know why they are focusing on this one guy?"

"The host, or the parasite? I don't know more about this monster than I've told you, and as for the sucker who's going to get possessed, I know even less. He'll have to be part demon too, though, like the rest of us."

"Weren't you almost the sucker?"

"I would have been a much better host. Their loss."

Felicia pulls him into a hug.

Hug.

He's shaking a little, but any doubts or anxieties don't show on his face.

Trix and Fernanda can make themselves scarce.

Felicia keeps hugging him. "How are you feeling?"

"Great. I'm suddenly a good person, against my will, and I think I'm still one of the least good people out there. You probably should have just killed me."

Hug. "No, I should not have. You might be struggling with being good, but I will be there to help."

"I wanted so badly for it to be. I wanted them to use me to revive him."

"Why?"

"Destiny. I knew I was meant for something great. They needed me. It felt good."

"You deserve much better than being used like that."

He clings to her.

"Guess we'll find out."

Felicia is good to be clung to. "I already know."

Upstairs, Korbrant is hovering while Trix and Fernanda take a look at the book.

"You're going to help us?"

"We will."

"It would be a lousy destiny if you can't help people." Fernanda mentions while trying to find something in The Book of Shadows.

The book does have an entry on the bosses Theo has described.

The Dread Doctors

Physicians and scientists who have combined early modern medical science and magic to give themselves eternal life. Their motives are unclear, but they appear and just as quickly disappear, taking test subjects with them. Cannot be killed as mortals can, or vanquished by any known spell/potion.

It doesn't offer much.

Nothing on the topic of things that they have tried and failed? How many encounters with them and who encountered them? Nothing. Musing about their eternal life and if it's ethically shareable?

Annoyed sigh.

Any way to find out about the thing The Dread Doctors want to bring back?

The book provides.

The Beast of Gévaudan

Believed to have been an anthropophagic animal, the beast in France killed over 60 people rom 1764 to 1767. Although the destruction of the beast was credited to  mortal Jean Chastel, it is believed to have been a witch who crafted the weapon that killed it.

All that is known of the weapon (variously a rod, sword, or spear) is that it contained iron and rowan.

The Beast was believed to be an unusual variety of demon, supposedly using shadows in its environment to transform into a large, bestial shape used to commit the murders. It is suspected to have other powers related to the use of shadow, including teleporting via shadow.

Okay. Any spells that could help them locate it or replicate the weapon? Or other ways to destroy it? Maybe something to ward against its shadow powers?

The book provides.

To Find the Beast's Bane

Reveal the path to the bane
That grants the beast naught but pain
To prevent his monstrous reign
We remove this bloody stain

And what happens if Fernanda tries to cast that?

The pages of the book begin to blow as though in a wind. It glows a bright blue, and coalesces into a floating ball of light. It bobs up and down above the book.

Okay, does it take any action? Maybe it will point her towards france? Or does it work on a map or anything? What happens if she pokes it (with a pen)?

Waiting for a reaction, she finds none. It bobs in place in front of her.

What if she takes a step away from it?

It rockets forward, stopping just short of touching her. It continues bobbing up and down, but now it gives off sparks.

"Is that supposed to happen?"

"Who knows?" Trix reaches out to touch it.

Fernanda puts her hand down and instead pokes it with her little-finger of her non-dominant hand.

Sparks fly from the orb with greater fervor, somehow not making contact with anything in the attic.

Except Trix and Fernanda. The sparks travel up their arms as they make contact.

This isn't exactly quiet.  The ensuing thunderclap when the girls touch the orb can be heard by everyone in the house, if not further afield.

Theo is on his feet as soon as possible.

Fernanda looks down on herself and Trix to see if they are injured. Also, checking to see if the orb is still there.

Trix finger-combs her hair a bit. "Hey, meet our orb. We are trying to teach it new tricks. A trick. Not even fetch. Just find." She might have been a bit affected by the sudden adrenaline surge.

"Right, I can see that. It's wagging its tail and everything."

The orb has no tail to wag, but now that the sparks have faded, it seems to be swirling around Trix.

"Sit. Stay." Trix tells the orb.

The orb stays.

Felicia (who also rushed upstairs) notices this. "Did the orb just obeyed you? Maybe it will respond to verbal commands."

"Find us the weapon." Fernanda tells the orb.

"Go, fetch."

The orb moves, ever so slightly, at Trix's words. It begins to float along towards the door.

"So we're following the orb?"

"Apparently!" Beatrix says following the orb through the still open door.

"Okay. Just hold a second, maybe you should see how obedient this thing is first? Tell it to stop."

"Sparky, stay. You know, we don't know how long this thing lasts."

"We also don't know if it will float about where everyone can see."

Sparky stays.

"If it's anything like most witch magic, mortals can't see it."

"Do you know any friendly mortals who can test that?"

Shrug.

"We could call Lan?" She turns to sparky. "Can you get inside this box?" Pause. "Get inside this box?" She points at a open jewelry box in a nearby pile.

Sparky bounces into the box with a thud.

"Fine, call him for a quick check. Do we have a plan for if he can see it?"

"We tell him that's a trick of the light or something. Or tell him about magic."

"To Lan?"

"I honestly think that he will appreciate more than anyone else in the neighborhood."

"Should I hide? I don't know what attic guests are supposed to do when you have real guests."

"You are not supposed to hide. If we need a cover story we can say that you and Rex are our new roommates after something personal happened between you and your previous ones."

"Yeah, please try to feel comfortable."

"Korbrant and I stay here. I don't want to give him any more questions to ask."

"Good idea."

"Okay, lets make the phonecall."

Sparky has nothing to say about that.

"Fernanda, great to hear your voice. Did you find any good skeletons in the family closet?"

"You know what? I wouldn't be surprised at this point. But anyway, how is your schedule for the next hour or so?"

"Schedule's clear. Is this a social call?"

"What do you mean with social?"

“I was trying to slyly reference the part where your sister and I hang out in her bedroom. Sounds like a no. Do I get to sneak you into a crime scene?”

"Not today. But thank you for offering."

"You found something so cool you just had to show me? I'm running out of guesses. I should probably just come over, huh."

"Curb your enthusiasm, but yes."

"You're no fun. Fine, I'm on my way."

Korbrant and Theo wait upstairs.

And the triplets dig out a box of old childhood memories that in theory is their cover to call Lan over.

Eventually, there's a knock at the door.

Felicia peaks outside, to be sure is Lan.

Indeed, she can find Lan pacing, mumbling "Be cool" to himself.

Huh. Okay, she will put her best smile and open the door. "Hey, Lan!"

"Felicia, just who I wanted to see! I was promised something exciting. Should I guess? I'm gonna guess."

He steps past her.

"Is it a pony? The state of Alaska? My very own, brand new car?"

"The state of Alaska?" Felicia says following him. "And we just wanted to settle you a dispute between Fernanda and Trix, who are too stubborn to give it up."

"Alaska's pretty cool, it would make a pretty good present. It's probably unethical to displace people just to give it to me."

Lan joins Fernanda and Trix. He winks at the latter.

Trix blinks back. "Hey, Lan, how are you doing?"

“So I heard you guys wanted my help with something?”

He raises an eyebrow suggestively.

"No that something. Not yet, at least. I want you help me convince my stubborn older sister about the truth."

"This is getting out of control. We just found a bunch of things from our childhoods - some of which are actually yours - and then we got into a disagreement over a story."

“I’m game. Bring on the nostalgia.”

They bring out a box (they transferred the light to a different, bigger box), and it is indeed full of nostalgic items. The triplets open its contents, watching Lan's reaction closely.

"No way, you kept this?

Stiles launches into a story about the provenance of a particularly busted toy as he turns it over in his hands, completely unaware of the light.

"More like it kept itself, but we were surprised too." They try to not look too relieved. "Remember this?" She points.

"How could I forget! That was about the only time I go Fernanda to laugh. And I tried every chance I got."

"Aha! I knew it." Trix says sounding smug.

"I have laughed more than once because of Lan."

"Holding it to laugh later while he isn't looking doesn't count."

"Your laugh obfuscation is noted on the record. Anything else you've been covering up all these years?"

"We were not that secretive little kids. And I only obfuscated my laughing because you tried too hard."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, I'm uproariously funny and you didn't want me to get a big head about it. Do you mind if I take some of this stuff? I didn't have much to remember you guys by when you left."

Felicia hugs him. "Sure? We called here to see if you wanted anything."

The hug is much appreciated. Lan recounts a few other stories, and eventually leaves with accumulated nostalgic items.

Felicia gives him a final hug goodbye. "We should invite him more. I think we left him lonelier than I antecipated."

"Maybe. Anyway, we should go upstairs and continue the search for the weapon."

Upstairs, Theo and Kor await. Apparently, Theo decided to take the time to organize the attic. It's not exactly a completed process. It actually looks worse now.

Felicia shoots her sisters a glancing look and no one comments. "That went alright. He didn't see the light."

"Good news. Ready to head out?"

"We are, does Kor want to stay or go with us?"

"If it's alright with you guys, I might just stay here."

"It is. You can eat anything from the fridge if you are hungry." Pause. "Do you need help with cooking or anything?"

"I don't burn toast! I think I can handle it. Actually, do you have any bugs? Bugs would be great."

"Honestly, I can't take you anywhere. Felicia, do you think we can get something from the garden for him?"

"We can, as long you know what is safe to eat."

"Yeah, I know what's safe for me. Are there any chores you need done while you're gone?"

"We have shore wheel behind the kitchen's door. Though, don't do grocery shopping or anything that involves money. Or just sit back and relax if you rather."

"And if you use dishes and silverware for your bugs, please clean then very well."

"Presumably, he would need to clean everything he uses very well if you want to avoid cross contamination. But this is ridiculous, plenty of people eat bugs, and just the act of talking in person transmits bits of saliva-"

"Sshhhhh." Trix puts her index finger on Fernanda's lips.

"I can skip the bugs for now. Do you have fruit?"

They do. Felicia shows him where. And where to find other things.

Then, finally, they go.

Theo stays close to Felicia. Let Trix and Fernanda worry about their glowing ball of light. He wants to spend time with his wife.

That is a suitable arrangement. "Do you have something on your mind?"

"I treated you like crap, and every time I think about it, I feel sick. If I'd been Good all along, I wouldn't have wanted to hurt you like that. I hate knowing that. I hate not knowing whether I would have felt guilty if it worked."

Felicia stops to hug him. "You didn't go through. And you took a step to be better. That's the important part."

"Did I? It feels like a different person made the choice to give in, and he didn't want to."

"If another person did the good decision to change, doesn't mean that all the past bad decisions were also his and not yours. And he must have wanted enough, to at least going along. I do think that's enough. But it's understandable that's something harder to deal on the inside."

"I'll feel better once we stop them. I don't want anyone else to make the same mistakes I did."

Sparky continues to lead Trix in the direction of the weapon. The poor thing is not very smart, and so Trix must carefully nudge it into moving at an appropriate speed.

Trix will keep telling it is a good boy and keep following.

Fernanda decides that... she will just deal with Trix's jokes, since they are a coping mechanism. The important thing is finding the weapon.

The ball of light flares, and its light touches Fernanda-

-a woman her age, cutting through a moving crowd of people on a busy sidewalk. By the sounds all around, they're in a city- cars everywhere, she can hear them moving past, hear them honk- black hair, dark eyes-

-Fernanda sees her fire a crossbow bolt into someone's neck-

-and then she's back in her body, seeing her sisters and Rex.

Fernanda reports this vision. Describing the woman, "any chance she is someone you know?"

"Doesn't sound familiar. Was she hunting something specific, or was it more like patrolling the radius?"

Fernanda says reviewing the memory. "The former. She came off as having intent in her pursuit? And I personally thinking she was standing a bit too much for more passive patrolling? Or even for hunting a specific target, but she was making her way very directly to a point."

"Criticizing someone's stalking skills before even meeting them? That's low Fernanda."

"Anyway... we should figure out where that takes place."

"The perspective was too narrow for any landmarks, huh?"

Elders. Of course they don't have any actionable intel. What would be the point of that?

"Me and Felicia can get started by looking at crime statistics in major cities. Fernanda, you write down every detail you can remember. Anything might turn out to be relevant. Trix-"

He pauses, as he realizes he's handing out orders, and looks to Felicia.

She tries an encouraging smile.

"What are my orders, commander?"

-well. As long as his wife doesn't think he's over-stepping. (His wife!)

"Honestly? Be yourself. Felicia and Fernanda are at their best when there's a plan, but I'd just be slowing you down. Figure something out."