Solomon Ch. 7

Solomon: Chapter 7

Jacob woke to find himself refreshed, but a bit melancholy. Adam's death was fresh in his mind as soon as he regained consciousness. He was a magician, he told himself. People close to him died. It was a part of the job, and he had to get past that. Yet Adam had been like a father to him for almost six years. It was understandable when Jacob found a few tears leaking from his eyes.
No time for that, he chastised himself. The untimely death of his mentor made it even more imperative that he finish organizing the cabal, preferably today. They only needed two more pactmates and between himself and Silver they still had plenty of candidates.
Jacob showered and got dressed. He decided to let his hair air- dry before putting on his hat. He had just tied his tie and was reaching for the phone when it rang.
"Hello?"
"Hello Solomon. This is Felicity."
Jesus that was creepy. It was not inconceivable that a large portion of Felicity's renown as a Fateweaver stemmed from people always wondering if her actions were coincidence or magic. Jacob was hoping that this particular instance was coincidence, as he was stubbornly refusing to give this girl any more credit than she actually earned from him.
"Felicity. You caught me just as I was about to call Silver."
"I know. I'm calling because I would like it if Aidan and I accompanied you and Silver today. We are going to be working together a lot after this, after all."
Jacob did not like this idea. But it was very hard to come up with a valid reason not to go along with it. Reluctantly, he agreed. "Fine. I'll call Silver and tell him what's going on."
"Silver has already been informed of this. He will wait for you at his home and the two of you can meet us at ours."
She was a pushy little one, wasn't she? Before Jacob could respond, Felicity took preemptive action.
"We'll see you soon. Goodbye."
Jacob rolled his eyes as he hung up the receiver. He decided to call Silver anyway.
"Hello?"
Shit. It was Annie.
"Um," began Jacob. "I need to talk to Silver."
"Yeah? Well who's 'I?' I don't just let anyone get a hold of the kid."
"It's-" he almost said "Jacob," but caught himself. "It's Solomon. Can you put him on the line?"
"Oh? Tall, dark, and socially inept from yesterday. How you doin', cutie?"
Jacob was not dealing with this well. There was much sputtering and stammering. Christ, he thought. That has to be her fae blood. I've never been this bad. With that thought a beacon in his mind, Jacob suddenly found himself able to articulate.
"I'm doing fine. How about you, Annie?" It's all in how you approach it mentally, he thought smugly.
Annie seemed a bit surprised at his sudden composure but she recovered nicely. "Oh I've been better. People keep calling for Silver, boys and girls. It's enough to make a girl feel a tad jealous."
"Next time I call, maybe I'll ask for you then, but I do need you to put Silver on if you can. This is kind of time sensitive."
Annie giggled, actually giggled into the phone a little bit. "Okay, I'll put him on. But you better follow up on that phone call bit, buddy."
"Solomon?" Silver's voice was a relief to Jacob. His morning had been going far too wrong.
"Silver. I just talked to-"
"Felicity, yeah, I know. Creepy kid. She said she had to go very suddenly because you were about to call me and she 'wanted to make an impression.' So you're meeting me over here?"
"Yeah, but meet me outside. No offense to Annie, but there's some serious shit that you don't know about yet that we'll need to discuss. I can't risk her distracting me until after we get this cabal thing taken care of."
Normally, Silver might have poked fun at how quickly Jacob had warmed up to Annie, but he could tell whatever his friend was worked up about, it was serious enough that it would be inappropriate.
"Sure thing, Solomon. I'll be waiting. Let's get this done."
Jacob grabbed his hat and headed over to Silver's. He made it there in record time to find Silver sitting on the stairs of his porch, wearing black jeans, a white "Styx" t- shirt, his Chucks, and a light jacket. Silver was able to see the dazed and slightly shell- shocked look that Jacob was unaware he was wearing.
They immediately started walking to Aidan's house at brisk pace. Silver wanted to know what had gotten Jacob so frazzled. "Sol what happened? You look like Hell."
Jacob laughed for a good minute and a half, leaving Silver staring at him confused.
"What the fuck, dude? Are you losing it on me?"
"It's just," said Jacob, wiping tears from his eyes. "You have no idea how appropriate that is."
"Solomon what are you talking about? What is going on with you, man?"
"If I look like Hell, Sil, it might be because I'm carrying a little bit of it with me. Adam was killed last night. Murdered by a demon. I did something I've never done before. I made sure the demon wouldn't hurt anyone else anytime soon, but not in the way you think. I've bound its spirit into my own body. I'm carrying around the Executioner of Hell right now."
Now Silver was worried that Jacob really had gone crazy and it showed plainly on his face. Jacob thought that was fair. To be honest, he wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't lived through it. Deciding to forgo words, Jacob held out his right hand and materialized the oversized axe. Hellfire flames sprung up along the axehead and blazed in his eyes when Jacob closed his hand around the haft.
Silver's eyes grew wide with panic. "Okay, okay, I get it! Put that away, Jesus! Anyone could see us out here!"
The axe vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Within instants there was no evidence here had ever been an axe in Jacob's hand.
"Convinced?"
"Yes. Please don't do that again."
Jacob shrugged. "I'll try not to."
They walked on. Silver continued his line of inquiry as the entered Aidan and Felicity's neighborhood. "So Adam's really dead?"
Jacob's face was cold and impassive. "Yeah. He really is."
"You gonna do a service for him?"
Jacob nodded. "It'll take me a couple days to get in touch with all of his contacts, but once we get the cabal put together I'll give him a proper send off."
They found themselves at the house. Felicity and Aidan were sitting on the front steps. Aidan was wearing a red windbreaker jacket and black jeans. Felicity had on white pants and a purple sweater. It was Felicity who rose first and spoke.
"Good morning Silver and Solomon. It's good to see both of you. Who are we going to be visiting first?"
Silver checked his list. "I was thinking. . .maybe Timothy Frost?"
Jacob nodded. "That'll work. Tim Frost is an Icer. If he gets out of line I'm sure that between Aidan and myself we can take care of him. Although from what I remember of him, it's possible that we might well have to kill him. He's a cocky little brat."
Silver shrugged. "Can't make an omelet without melting a few ice sculptures?"
Aidan laughed, Felicity looked slightly confused but decided not to ask.
Jacob narrowed his eyes at Silver. "Aren't you the same kid who got mad at me for even mentioning that we might have to take out Lucinda last night? And yet you're making jokes about murdering Frost."
Silver put both his hands in front of him, palms out. "Look, that was different. You've slept with Lucinda for God's sake. Honestly I don't even like Frost that much, but he'd be bloody useful to have around. That's the difference here."
Jacob sighed. "Whatever. Let's just get going. How far is it to Tim's?"
"A few blocks. He's in the apartments to the west of this subdivision," Silver explained. "Basically the same distance as Lucinda's apartment complex, but in the opposite direction."
It took the four of them about fifteen minutes to get to Frost's first floor apartment. Silver knocked on the door.
"Frost? It's Silver. You there?"
The door opened to reveal Timothy Frost. Frost was nineteen years old. He was dressed in blue jeans and a plain white tee shirt. His thick, shaggy, blond hair looked like he'd forgotten what a comb was long ago. Jacob knew a bit about Frost. He was young, he had talent, he was overconfident, he was reckless, and he was more than a little stupid. He didn't even blink at the sight of four magicians standing at his door, though to be fair, Felicity couldn't have looked like much of a threat.
"Silver. What do you want?"
Polite, too. Jacob had forgotten to list that virtue.
Silver decided to cut straight to the chase. "Tim. We're organizing a cabal. You're either in or out, right now. If you say no we've got a Fateweaver to bind you to an oath of secrecy that'll expire when we do get the thing thrown together."
Frost snorted. "Are you out of your fuckin' head, Silver? A cabal? And who's this bozo in the hat? He looks familiar."
Fuck you and your poor taste in haberdashery, thought Jacob. But he said "Solomon. We've met before." He even extended his hand to the asshat.
Tim didn't shake the offered hand. Instead he opted to sneer at Jacob. "So is this the fate-y that's gonna bind me to secrecy if I say no?"
Jacob's eyes flickered to Felicity, who simultaneously made eye contact with him. She moved her head a fraction in an almost imperceptible nod. She really was a sharp kid. Jacob was glad she was on his side. At least, he thought her plan was the same as his. If it was, then he was really glad she was on his team.
"Yes," Jacob said. "That's me, the resident Fateweaver."
Tim shook his head. "Forget it. I'm not interested in your little cabal."
"Then you'll swear not to tell anyone about it?" Silver was hopeful, but he didn't think the chances of Tim agreeing were very good.
Frost smiled a wicked grin. "I'm not going to agree to any oaths until I know what this information is worth to you. I'm sure somebody will find it valuable."
The anger was plain on Aidan's face. "Fuck you! You have no idea what you're about to start here!" Jacob had to place a hand on the younger boy's shoulder to pull him back from hitting Tim.
"Tim, c'mon," began Silver, but he was cut off by Frost.
"No, you come on. Now I happen to know of a band of rogue magicians who are intent on starting a cabal. This information is of great value to certain individuals in the magical community. What if someone let slip that you were gathering a group of magicians big enough to challenge the Baron? It could really do some damage. I'm afraid if you want silence you're gonna have to make it worth my while."
"How about this," Jacob offered. "If you take the oath option, we'll let you live?"
Frost's eyes shimmered briefly as he used magesight to identify their auras.
"You brought a Fateweaver, a Bloodletter, and an unpowered little girl with you, Silver? Not the best bargaining team. I offer you a counter- proposal: You sweeten the deal for me and I don't subdue you and collect the reward the Baron has posted for the capture of challengers to his territory."
That meant that Felicity had been thinking the same thing Jacob had. One of the things Fate magic could do was disguise a magician's aura. It could create the appearance of a different specialty or even mask the presence of magic altogether. It appeared Felicity had decided to make the group appear less threatening. Now Jacob was sure that he was lucky to be on her side.
"Tim," warned Jacob. "This is your last warning. Submit to an oath or die."
Frost laughed at them. "What you have are two support magicians and one utility. No one that has the sort of offensive magical power I'm capable of." He sneered again. "Do you even know how magic works, hat- man?"
"Yes," answered Felicity. "But apparently you don't." With that, she released the spell masking their auras as flames sprung to life in Aidan's palms. Silver and Jacob each stepped to either side of the doorway, making sure they didn't get in the way of either Aidan or Frost. Felicity, too retreated to the wall, standing next to Jacob.
Frost's eyes widened. "A Pyro? Silver, you're smarter than I thought!" With that, he chanted and rapidly moved his arms, forming a solid wall of ice in front of him just in time for Aidan to slam his now burning fists into it. With a violent chopping gesture, Frost froze the water that melted from Aidan's attack and flowed onto the sidewalk, solidifying it into an icy slick. The tactic had its intended effect, causing Aidan to lose his footing and fall onto his back. Frost dissolved the ice wall and tumbled out of his apartment. He stood and threw both arms out to the side, gathering chill around him.
While Aidan was regaining his footing, Jacob leaned over an whispered to Felicity. "Are we going to have any problems with bystanders? We're doing this in an apartment complex parking lot at 9 am on a Saturday morning. Consider this the last test of your magics."
Felicity grinned at him and whispered back. "Due to a series of bizarre coincidences, this area should be completely deserted and unobserved for at least half an hour more."
Jacob was genuinely impressed. "If you honestly pull that off, I'll never question your abilities again."
Both of them returned their attentions to the battle.
Frost was holding his own against Aidan, but Aidan was clearly the more skilled magician. Tim's edge came from the 6 years of martial arts he had under his belt. By using his ice magics to augment his hand- to- hand combat, he was keeping Aidan from pulling off any really huge spells that would spell instant death for the Icer.
"Shouldn't we do something?" asked Silver, anxious.
Jacob shook his head. "This is his fight. This kind of duel between two magicians, ones with opposing elements, is a sacred tradition. The winner must win and the loser must lose of his own merit."
Aidan took a risk, letting Frost hit him with a hard, ice- encased punch to the jaw so that he could get a more complicated spell gesture completed. The gamble worked. A stream of fire erupted from Aidan's hands, carrying Frost across the empty parking lot and dropping him in a crumpled and smoldering heap on the asphalt.
Breathing heavily, Aidan walked over to the moaning, shattered form of Timothy Frost lying huddled on the ground. He kicked the wounded magician until he was facing up at Aidan. The Pyro leaned in close.
"This is what happens to people who try to blackmail my friends. Remember that in your next life."
Aidan traced a complicated shape in the air. The ground under Frost exploded with fire. In an instant, Tim Frost was nothing more than ashes in the wind.
Aidan came back over to his three friends. "Silver," he said. "Your next prospect better not be such a fucking asshat."
Jacob was inclined to agree.

Word Counts:
-This post: 2633
-Total so far: 14739

NOTE: I'm really not happy with this chapter. It will unquestionably undergo significant rewrite in December.