Solomon Ch. 3

Solomon: Chapter 3

Jacob made his way down the street, taking a longer route than was strictly necessary. It was his habit to do this anyway as a method to avoid being followed, and with Master Adam's lesson so fresh in his mind, he wasn't likely to ignore any precautions anytime soon. After taking about half an hour to complete what would normally be a five minute walk, Jacob found himself at the apartment complex he needed to be at.
He walked in and made his way to the apartment he was interested in. He knocked three times, waited two and a half seconds. The door was opened by a young woman with spiky-dyed black hair and a lackadaisical expression on her face. She was wearing a black leather jacket over a ripped and safety pinned Ramones t-shirt, red hot pants and fishnet stockings. She was heavy on the mascara and leaned lazily on the door frame. She smacked her bubblegum loudly and quickly scanned Jacob head to toe, an expression of detached bemusement emerging on her face as she noticed his top hat.
"Well well. What's got you all dressed up tall, dark, and sexy?"
Jacob was flustered. He blushed and stammered for a few moments. A hint of a smile crossed the girl's face as she watched Jacob try to formulate a coherent thought.
"Take yer time, sweetie. Really." The girl smirked as the hint of a blush began creeping onto Jacob's cheeks.
"Silver," Jacob finally managed to stammer out. "I need to talk to Silver."
The girl chuckled once and turned her head around as she shouted. "SILVER! YOU GOT YERSELF A GENTLEMAN CALLER!"
Moments later the so-called "Silver" walked into the hallway. He was not an especially tall person, nor particularly short, though he was of slightly above average height. He had the sort of features that made him seem a few years older than his seventeen years. His hair was a particular shade platinum blond that led most to believe it was the source of his nickname. He walked to the doorway, hands in the pockets of his faded blue jeans. He wore a black "Whitesnake" t-shirt listing dates and cities from their most recent tour. His dark blue eyes lit up when he saw Jacob standing there.
"Oh! Hey Solomon," he said slipping into a pair of black Chuck Taylors that had been placed by the door. "What's happening?"
"Solomon?" said the girl with a barely detectable snort. "That's one Hell of a name. Parents must have really loved you." And with that, she turned and headed back into the apartment, walking to what was presumably her room and closing the door, but not without winking at Jacob before she did.
Jacob felt the blood rush to his face as the girl spoke and he was relieved that she had decided to leave. He turned to Silver as his composure returned to him. "I thought we might take a walk for a while, Silver. What do you say to that?"
The younger magician shrugged. "Sure, sounds fine to me. Anything in particular?"
Jacob glanced to either side of himself before answering. "I'd rather wait till we've been moving for a while to talk about it, actually. You know how it is."
Silver's demeanor changed as he heard those words while he was putting on his jacket. While his face and body language still conveyed the same sort of general cheeriness as they usually did, they was definitely a more serious edge. "Yeah, I know how it is," he commented.
Silver followed Jacob out of the house and closed and locked the door behind them. "What would you like to talk about until we're more in the clear?" he inquired.
Jacob wasn't sure. So he started talking about the thing foremost in his mind.
"Is your . . .roommate always like that?"
Silver began his answer as the two of them made their way down the stairs.
"Heh. Yeah, Annie's a real charmer, isn't she? She's single too, but a bit too old for me." He grinned at Jacob. "You interested?"
Jacob turned a little red. "That wasn't what I meant at all," he mumbled.
Silver's grin only widened. "I'll keep my ears open. If she asks about you I'll make sure I put in a good word."
Jacob rolled his eyes and playfully punched Silver on the arm. To tell the truth, he was kind of interested. Annie was good looking, no mistake, but he wasn't quite sure whether she'd been flirting with him or teasing him earlier. Still, his curiosity was piqued.
"So how old is she, then?" Jacob said, attempting to sound casual.
"Oh ho ho," said Silver. "So you are interested, then? Well she just turned twenty a couple of weeks ago."
Only two years difference, thought Jacob. But there was something much more important that had to be asked before he could even entertain the idea of considering her.
"Is she one of us?"
Silver paused and slowly a look of discomfort crept over his face. The two of them kept walking in silence for a full minute.
"Silver?"
"Kinda," said the adolescent, his voice thick with reluctance.
"'Kinda?'" echoed Jacob. "What the fuck 'kinda?'"
Silver looked wounded. "Look, I wasn't thinking about this when we started talkin' about her, okay? When you live with someone you forget stuff like this!"
Jacob was now more intrigued than anything else, though a little bit of anger and confusion were in there too. The mixed emotions had an interesting effect on his tone of voice: His voice came out wholly friendly and inquisitive.
"What sort of thing do you mean, dude? At this point I'm more curious than anything."
Silver managed a weak smile. "You're gonna be pissed at me, Sol."
"No," Jacob shook his head. "I'd be pissed if you had set me up on a date and revealed some shocking information after we'd done something. But this is me asking you, man. I'm not gonna get mad about your answers. Probably." Normally, Silver was a very mature person, especially for his age. But sometimes he'd show his immaturity. Especially when he started to panic. All he generally needed were some calming words and reassurance to get back on track.
Silver shrugged. "Alright, alright. She's faekin. Second gen, unpowered but aware."
Now Jacob understood. Any mortal who got tangled up with faekin romantically was likely to draw the attention of the Good People, which was often not such a good thing. Then again, she was unpowered, which meant she couldn't perform any magic. Being aware, however, meant that she was able to perceive magic even though she couldn't perform any of her own. And she was second gen. That meant one of her parents had been a changeling. One more question, then.
"Do you know which parent was fae?" asked Stephen.
"Father, I'm pretty sure," answered Silver.
That was good. A female child from a male changeling, especially an unpowered one, wouldn't be nearly as interesting to the fae, and consequently, less likely to draw their attention to him.
Jacob smiled at Silver. "Put in that good word for me after all."
Silver grinned back at him. "Will do."
The two had been walking for quite a while at this point. Jacob decided that they had moved far enough for him to discuss why they were really out.
"Okay, Silver, let's talk about why I came to you today."
Silver dropped back into his jovial serious face again. "Yeah," he said, smile still present but not as aggressively cheerful. "I figured it wasn't just my inescapable personal magnetism that inspired this sudden urge to hang out with me."
Jacob chuckled. "Adam's made a few things very clear to me me recently. I think we need to establish a cabal soon, Sil."
Silver frowned. He has seen this coming, but it was still a serious thing to propose. A cabal would, among other things, afford them greater protection against some of the more malevolent supernatural elements. However, some of the jumpier magicians and magical factions, especially older ones, got nervous and occasionally downright belligerent when youngsters started forming cabals. It was a difficult proposition to judge, one where the pros and cons had to be weighed very carefully.
"How many members were you thinking, Sol?" asked Silver.
Jacob shrugged. "Seven's a good number. You can get a lot of power out of seven."
Silver nodded in agreement. "So let's see who we have here." He started counting off on his fingers as he rattled off names of potential members. "There's Viv, Frosty, Ter, Marko. . ."
"Mort, Lucy, Robbie. . ." Jacob added.
Silver snorted. The sound of disdain seemed utterly foreign coming from the normally perpetually positive boy.
"Robert Alderman, Sol? Come on, he's not even powerful enough to necessitate concealing his name. Do you really want that bonded to you in a pact?"
Jacob shrugged. "We'll call him a backup, right? We can only approach people that we really trust with even the idea of this, much less membership. I don't want anyone who wouldn't like it knowing what we're about before we get the cabal fully formed and functional."
Silver gestured a sort of vague arm wave. "Well we've got over seven candidates already, especially counting us. I'm sure some of them will say no."
"Yes," Jacob nodded in agreement. "So tomorrow you talk to your contacts and I'll talk to mine."
"Sure," Silver responded. "But just promise me you'll hold off on talking to Alderman for the time being. I'd really like him to be backup if at all possible."
"Fine, whatever." Jacob was somewhat annoyed by the kid's disdain for Alderman. The fact that he was completely right only made it worse. "But assuming we get the five other people we need, how are we going to forge the pact? We don't know anyone who's got any semblance of skill in fate magics, much less something of the power grade we're going to want."
They walked on for a while longer, each puzzling over the problem. By this time their aimless walking had taken them to a local park. It was about three in the afternoon and being mid-October, there were few people out. It wasn't quite cold -- not really -- just yet. It was just the kind of weather that didn't inspire picnics. Every once and a while another pair or small group of people would amble by them on the trail. And then there were, of course, the ever-present joggers.
Suddenly, Silver snapped his fingers. "That's it!"
Jacob raised an eyebrow at the teen. "What's what?"
"I know who we can get to work the pact magic!" Silver seemed to be thrilled to have thought all of this up.
"Well," said Jacob, growing impatient. "Out with it!"
"Okay, so there's a relatively new magician on the local scene. He's a pyro, calls himself Aidan. But his younger sister, she's supposed to have this really awesome gift for fate magics. She calls herself Felicity"
That was appealing. Almost too good to be true.
"And you are acquainted with these two at all? Remember, this is serious business. We can't just go asking every newbie we see to join up. We need to know we can trust them first."
Silver shrugged. "Aidan and I have talked a few times; I'm still getting to know him. I don't know much about Felicity. I'll tell you this, they're new enough and strange enough that they're in far more need of allies than enemies. I feel like they can be trusted."
Jacob narrowed his eyes. "There's something you're not tell me, Silver. I've known you long enough now to know. You've got mannerisms that say 'This plan has flaws!'"
Silver sighed. "Well they are a bit on the. . .young side."
"How young, Silver?"
Silver cringed.
"Out with it," demanded Jacob.
"They're. . .well Aidan's fourteen and Felicity is ten." Silver attempted a sheepish grin.
Jacob just shook his head. "Silver. Your plans are the transvestites of the plan world. At first glance, everything looks great. On any closer inspection, though, it becomes immediately apparent that something is undeniably and horribly wrong."

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Word Counts
-This chapter: 2046
-Total: 5437

Getting better. This chapter wasn't as far over 2000 words as I might have liked. But still, progress is progress.