Walking out of the dining hall, John and Hope exchanged glances after putting some distance between them and the previous room.
"Did you find it strange as well?" John whispered, knowing any loud word could be heard in the school.
"A little." Hope nodded, replying in the same tone. "It is strange, talking to Josie despite knowing that something like a magical curse may threaten her life."
Yeah, I know that feeling more than you can imagine. John thought to himself, continuing his act that he worked hard everyday to keep up. "I know what you mean. Having to worry every time about what you can say so as not to let a word slip, right?"
"Yes, just like you described." Hope's nostrils flared as she exhaled profusely. "Let's hurry up to Dr. Saltzman's office. It's getting late and the sooner we talk to him about this the better." She said, increasing her pace.
And since both teenagers were holding hands, Hope walking faster induced John to match her pace, with both their figures now traversing the corridors in rushed steps.
…
"Here we are." Hope announced, letting go of John's hand as she approached the door and raised her hand.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
"Dr. Saltzman " Hope called out, knowing well there was someone in the room since both she and John could hear a soft breath coming from beyond the door.
And, just like they expected, a voice responded to her call after a short moment.
"You can come in."
Giving a quick look at John by her side, Hope turned the knob and pushed the door open, revealing to both of them the sight of the headmaster's office.
Despite the night outside, Alaric's office wasn't illuminated as it should be to allow a better sight. Instead, it was dimly lit by a single lamp that rested over the man's table, allowing just enough illumination for him to look at the documents scattered over the wooden surface.
Just from looking at him, it was obvious the headmaster was tired. There were dark circles under his eyes and the sheer smell of coffee was permeating the room, with the scent of alcohol so well hidden by the caffeine that only John successfully smelled it in the air.
The curse situation must be really taking a toll on his mind. John thought, closing the door behind him while Hope went ahead.
When Alaric noticed that it wasn't only Hope paying him a visit, he blinked a few times in surprise; it was an attempt to wake himself more as well.
"Hope, John, I didn't expect you two at this hour of the night." Despite being obviously tired, Alaric still offered a welcoming smile while also resisting the sudden urge to yawn. "Come, sit down." He gestured for the chairs before his desk.
Seeing the two teenagers following his words as they found themselves comfortable on the seats, Alaric leaned his back on his chair. "So, how can I help you both? I presume it must be something serious for you two to come now and not tomorrow at a more appropriate time."
When faced with the question, the two teenagers shared a look. They had forgotten in deciding who would be initiating the conversation with Alaric before coming here.
However, since all of this started with him acquiring the book from Penelope, John decided to speak up first.
"Well, Dr. Saltzman… we recently, not even an hour ago, learned of something that is of great interest, both to us and you as well." John said, crossing one of his legs over the other. "But before that, we probably have to explain how we got that information first of all."
"Okay…" Alaric slowly nodded.
Looking over Alaric's table, John easily spotted what he was looking for and reached out to grab it. "Dr. Saltzman, do you know who gave this to you?" He showed the headmaster a seemingly normal pen.
With his eyes focused on the object, Alaric took a silent moment to think over it before nodding. "Yes, Penelope." He replied. "If I'm not wrong, she handed a lot of those to whoever remained in the school during the winter break, giving it as a Christmas gift."
"Correct." John said, taking a deep breath. Sorry, Penelope. Maybe I lied to youabout snitching you. "However, what you don't know about these pens she gave away is that all of them are magical pens used for espionage."
"What now?" Alaric blurted out, surprised.
"Well, it's not your fault for you to not notice. However, if you were a witch and you looked into this pen with your magical sense, you would notice that there is a magical structure–a spell–within the pen." John put the pen back over the table. "I know this because some time ago, Penelope handed me one of these pens and I wondered why she was giving me something like this since we are not exactly friends and she didn't seem to make friends with me as well. So, the suspicious part of my mind won over and I decided to take a more thorough look at it and voila, espionage pen."
As John's words echoed out of his mouth and Alaric listened to them all, the headmaster didn't say anything in response for some time. He just quietly looked at the two young students of his, processing the words.
Shit, I'm getting uneasy by this silence. John thought, fidgeting on his seat. Now I'm getting a little scared of what will come to Penelope.
After some time, the silence in the room was interrupted by a long breath coming from Alaric, the action attracting both teenagers' attention.
"Right now, despite me being extremely concerned about this network of espionage set by one of my students in my own school, I noticed you haven't come to my office with it as the main reason. So, what do the two of you want to share with me that is more important than this?" Alaric seriously asked, forcing himself to stay calm.
This time, Hope decided to answer. "The pens used by Penelope send everything that was written or drawn with them to a notebook. John acquired it from Penelope, with it having hundreds of pages about many things from almost everyone in the school. The only group that would be the exception are the kids, basically everyone else was included in the book."
"I get you are affirming that because both of you read it?"
"Yes."
This time, Alaric frowned upon her words. "Why didn't you destroy such a book? Why read it knowing well it might contain secrets of your colleagues and professors?"
"I was curious." John replied, getting a glare from Alaric. "I know, I know. Not the right thing to do, but right now, I think otherwise considering what we learned from it."
"And what could it be?" Alaric tilted his head to the side, his tone interrogative.
"Among the many things written, there was a specific phrase you wrote that caught our attention." John replied. "One about a curse afflicting the twins."
As John's words scattered in the air, an unsettling silence followed as Alaric's gaze became tense. His whole demeanor shifted, not even the signs of sleepiness and tiredness were visible in his features anymore. All of that disappeared, indicating that the words from the boy were enough to wake him up fully.
Detaching his back from the chair, Alaric leaned forward. His elbows and forearms rested over the table and his fists closed. "So you know about it."
"… Yes." John answered after a short moment.
By his side, Hope silently nodded.
Looking at his two students, Alaric took a deep breath. "What did you read in this book from Penelope about it?"
"Just a few words." John replied. "They were as follows: 'Nothing, Caroline found nothing again. Six years, that all we have left to save my girls.' These were the exact words we read."
"They were also poorly written." Hope added, getting Alaric's attention. "As if the person writing it wasn't fully aware of their senses. The handwriting was sluggish and as if they wanted to erase it, there were lines scratched all over the words."
Alaric furrowed his brow. "I don't remember writing any of this. I probably was… drunk."
"From what I could speculate from the words written before and after this phrase, it seems you wrote it between one week to one day ago." John said.
Just then, a bit of realization hit Alaric. "Then, that makes sense. A lot of sense, actually." Alaric sighed, his previous demeanor before the boy's revelation returning as signs of tiredness resurfaced in his eyes. "Monday night… Caroline updated me on her quest to find something that could possibly help us with this situation. And they weren't good. It was our most promising lead in half a year, and all she found was nothing that could help the girls. I got stressed with it and got carried away… drinking a little more than I should."
"I can tell that." John commented. "The room reeks of alcohol."
"Hm, that's surprising." Alaric casually commented. "So you can still smell it. Every two hours, I have been preparing a mug of coffee to hide the smell of alcohol and override it with time. That's impressive, not even the werewolves did notice it."
To further confirm Alaric's words, Hope sniffed the air, but the only smell she could discern was that of the strong black coffee within Alaric's reach.
"My senses have been constantly improving, as I may have mentioned previously." John said, not bothering to access his memories to confirm that statement. "Anyway, this isn't the focus now. What it truly is: What is this curse that afflicts your daughters? Why are you being so secretive about it?"
"You don't need to know." Alaric promptly replied, shaking his head. "This is a matter both of you shouldn't concern yourself with. It will be only a burden you will have to carry, so forget it, okay?" He said, looking directly in the eyes of both teenagers. "It will be better for you and me if you remain in the dark about it."
"Well, that's too late now." Hope was against that idea. "Now we know something is wrong with the twins and we can't just… sit by and do nothing. We want to help."
"What she said." John chimed in in support of Hope's words. "Also, if we know what it is, we could somehow help in finding a way to whatever afflicts them, so why not let us in the light about it?"
Alaric changed his sight from Hope to John. "When I first met you, I thought you could actually help with it. This thought sprouted from the fact you can actually see magic." The headmaster said, interlocking his fingers. "However, I gave up on that since I didn't want to put such weight on you."
That actually surprised John for a moment. However, when thinking about it, he understood where that thought from Alaric came from since he had a general idea how the curse worked.
It was a magical curse and he could see magic, thus he could potentially inspect the twins thoroughly to find anything that could with Alaric and Caroline's investigation.
And since such words fell on his lap, John would make use of them to convince Alaric.
"Whatever it is, Dr. Saltzman, I would be more than happy to help with. And if you think I can even offer help because of my abilities, I guess it's even more reason for you to agree to let us help."
Hearing John's words, Alaric bit his lip to force himself to think consciously and not let the emotional side of his mind take the decision. It was a case of pain enlightening someone's mind.
The headmaster weighed the pros and cons, every possible situation his mind could think of right now was evaluated by him.
This process took some moments, with the room entering a state of quietness once again as just the breathing from the three individuals could be heard.
But when Alaric came to the decision, the silence was broken by a long sigh of his. "Tsk… I guess it is. But at the same time, I wish to not let you two carry this burden at the same time. So…" As his words hung in the air, Alaric thought for one last time about this choice before coming to a decision. "Ah, whatever. If I regret it later, it will be because I was trying to help my daughters. I can live with that." He said.
In the end, despite his wish to think of it rationally, his decision was taken with the emotional aspect considered as well.
Meanwhile, after observing Alaric agreeing to let them help with this situation, both John and Hope released an inner sigh of relief. Then, they waited for Alaric to explain to them the situation.
Rubbing his forehead then his eyes, Alaric gathered his thoughts and couldn't help but fall into his chair. "All this time, I guess it has been okay for us to have this discussion, right?"
"I didn't sense anyone trying to peer into the room. There isn't any student or professor besides us anywhere close to this room." John said, knowing what Alaric wanted them to say.
"Just for further guarantee, I can also cover us in a magical field. It will impede any sound from escaping the room." Hope suggested, the magic into her veins already moving in accordance to her will.
In agreement, Alaric nodded. "Do it, please." He said.
Hope didn't need more than that before proceeding. With a simple gesture of her hands and a few words escaping between her lips, the literal magic happened.
Although Hope could sense it since it was her magic, John was the only one who could see it. He watched with fascination a magic sphere surging between her hands, expanding rapidly to cover the entire space of the room as the magic aligned itself with the walls, making it perfectly distributed around the room.
Clap!
Giving a loud clap with his hands, John was amazed as the observed barrier around them reacted to the sound he produced, perfectly countering it so it wouldn't go beyond the room.
"You gotta teach me this later." John whispered to Hope
Nodding, Hope diverted her focus to Alaric. "You can say whatever you want now, Dr. Saltzman. No one will hear you."
"What a somber thing to say." Alaric chuckled, trying to humor himself in the situation. "Ah… okay. Let's talk about it, the curse that has been haunting me ever since the girls have been born."
Patiently, John and Hope waited for Alaric to continue.
"As you both must be aware, or at least Hope must be, Josie and Lizzie are daughters of a gemini witch. My… former fiancé, Josette."
"I know it as well." John nodded. "You mentioned her in the town's files and I looked up her name. The twins… they were magically carried out of her belly into Mrs. Forbes to ensure the coven's survival after Kai Parker's mass murder of his own clan."
Just from listening to the man's name, Alaric's knuckles turned white as he closed his fists. "Correct. And so, since they are part of the Gemini Coven, despite it being basically extinct since the girls are its only alive members, the girls still inherited everything that comes from being a gemini witch."
"Which is?" Hope asked.
"As you may have guessed from the coven's name and might've read somewhere out there, twins are kind of a main aspect of the coven. A sixth of its members were twins when they were up and about and they had a strong tradition in the coven related to them." Alaric let his words sink in before proceeding. "Everytime twins are born into the Gemini Coven, they will one day be the leaders of the clan. It is an unbreakable rule of the coven, one that ended up being enforced by the very magic running through their veins."
"What do you mean by that?" Hope asked.
"I will explain." Alaric said. "Although we refer to it as a curse, only me and Caroline have been calling it that way. However, for the Coven, it is a ritual called 'The Merge'. This is a ritual that is bound to happen between twins of the coven, and it is ensured by their own blood to take place when the twins are 22 years-old, with them choosing to do it earlier if they so wish. In this ritual, the leader of the coven is chosen, with the new leader coming out with double of their former strength."
"Okay." John nodded in understanding. "Then, what makes you think of it as a curse?"
"During the ritual, only one of the two twins comes out alive." Alaric directly replied, his expression not shifting due to how many times he had thought of this. "During the ritual, the twins have a battle of will, magic, mind and everything that makes them what they are, not considering only the physical aspect. Everything else is put on a battle to see who will prevail, with the winner consuming the consciousness and magic of the loser, leading them to die."
Following Alaric's words, an eerie and somber mood consumed the room. Hope, in shock with the revelation, had an unfocused gaze as her hands gripped tight the arms of the chair.
Differently, John just quietly looked at the floor. The words, when said by Alaric, still hit him in a way despite knowing everything from the beginning. Because despite Alaric's unwavering expression and steady tone, he could see and feel the emotions hiding behind the veil of the man's eyes, the panic and desperation of a father trying to save what he loved the most in the world: his daughters.
"If…" Hope's lips parted, a mutter coming from her. "the gemini coven–its core at least–is gone, isn't there a chance for the curse to not exist anymore? I mean, technically there isn't a coven anymore, there isn't a need for a leader, so no need for this ritual."
"Ah… You know, Hope. You know it just as well as me that magic doesn't work like that under these circumstances." Alaric said, bitterly smiling. "I had this hope as well at the beginning, but very quickly Caroline and I knew we shouldn't hold onto it. So, we decided to search for solutions. We have a time limit, six years. If we don't find a better solution for them in the next six years…" The man went silent, unwilling to express his thoughts now.
However, John caught onto something Alaric said. Something he already suspected what he meant, but he needed the man to say it himself.
"What do you mean by a better solution, Dr. Saltzman?" John asked, his words attracting Hope's attention as well. "Do you already know of a way to help the girls?"
"Help is far from the word I would use for this solution." Alaric breathed deeply. "There is a way to prevent the Merge. You must cut your connection to the Gemini Coven. But this isn't something as easy as saying 'I am not part of this group anymore'. No, for this kind of connection, it needs a more drastic change."
"Which would be?" John urged the man to answer.
However, Hope responded in his place. "A species transformation." She said, looking at Alaric in realization. "By having one of the twins transform into a different species, the collective idea of the Gemini Coven would identify they are no longer witches. This would be enough for their connection to be severed and then without one of the twins, the curse in them would be rendered ineffective since now, for the Coven, they don't have a twin anymore. They are by themselves in this aspect."
"Exactly." Alaric nodded, confirming Hope's words. "But I will be honest with you two about this, this will be the last option chosen. Something I am willing to wait for them to be 21 years and 364 days old before deciding it."
"Why?" John asked, genuinely curious.
"I have been in this world for far longer than I should, John." Alaric said, his tone severe. "And despite my will to help vampires, I don't wish for this fate upon my daughters. I know what becoming a vampire implicates, I have been one for a short time and have been observing people become vampires for decades now. Can you imagine what kind of transformation Josie or Lizzie would suffer if they were vampires?" Alaric's eyes fell onto Hope, with him knowing the girl would probably have a better idea of what he meant. "I will only take this choice if the world doesn't grace me with another solution. For if they wish to be immortal, let it be out of their own will and not because the idea they might have to kill their sister is weighing on their mind."
Listening to Alaric's words, John ended up being out of them in order to react. "I see…" Was all he said, the young man finally realizing how much Alaric was still against the idea of vampires despite showing goodwill towards them.
With neither of the teenagers saying a word, Alaric pursed his lips. A faint sense of relief from taking a small weight over his shoulders softening his features.
"I've just told you two something I have kept hidden my entire life," He quietly said. "with me making sure not a word of it escapes to my daughters' ears ever since they were born, scared of what they might do if they learn what they might face in a few years. By telling you this, I hope and am begging you two to never, ever, discuss what we talked about here today with anyone but between you two without my permission. Can I trust you two with that?"
"Sure."
"Yes."
Both teenagers promptly replied, not even the idea of denying this to Alaric.
"Good." Alaric said, seemingly more relieved. "Well, do any of you two want to say anything else?"
John nodded. "I had decided with Josie to study her siphoner physiology this weekend. During that, I will try to find anything using my abilities that can be related to this curse and will report back to you."
"I will ask Aunt Freya to deliver every book we have in our archives about curses." Hope added her own words. "I won't be specific and I know she won't ask me for further information if I simply deny. We have books older than most of the countries of today, there must be something in there that might help. There must be."
Listening to the words of his two students, Alaric felt something different.
Maybe it was because of how long only he, Caroline and a few others had been on it for so long, with no answer appearing, that slowly his hope had been dying.
He had gone through countless grimoires, Caroline had visited dozens of countries and his few other helpers had been turning entire places across the United States upside down in search of solutions as well, but after almost two years, they found nothing. Not even a single clue that they could still follow.
When faced with such results, the man that has been gone through hell and monsters started to lose the only thing he was attached to now–hope; and he knew that.
Every day he woke up, Alaric knew that the choice he didn't want his daughters to make was the most plausible one. He wasn't like Caroline, who had infinite hope and faith they would find a solution somewhere there. Through the years, he had been too pessimistic, because that's what his life taught him to be. After countless losses and years grieving, all life taught him was to not expect things to go right.
But now, strangely, despite not facing anything that could directly solve his daughters' problem–not a solution or a clue–Alaric, for the first time in months, felt a tiny bit of hope returning to his life when he looked at his two students determined to help him.
It wasn't much, to be honest. But for someone like Alaric, it was enough to brighten his days a little more.
"Thank you, both of you." Alaric said, resisting with all his strength the urge of his eyes getting watery. "Thank you for helping us."
Seeing how the man was reacting, John offered a gentle smile. "Well, though Hope will deny until the end of her days, she and Lizzie are frenemies and we are friends with Josie, so it's just right for us to help, right?"
"Yeah, I will deny that." Hope nodded, following along the shift in the conversation's tone. "But, as Dr. Saltzman said, the choice of immortality… mustn't be done under such circumstances. For Lizzie and Josie to not face that, I will help the best I can."
Chucking at Hope's words, Alaric nodded in understanding. "Again, thank you. Whatever be the end of this situation, I will forever be grateful to you two."
"No problem." John said, the mood not feeling as tense anymore. And just as he relaxed, a thought crossed his mind. "Right, I have a question to ask."
"Go ahead."
"Regarding Penelope, what will be her punishment for, you know, espionage?"
Being reminded of that, Alaric slowly nodded his head to indicate the boy was right. "Yeah, I will have to think of it." He said. "Although I am not compelled to punish her so much due to her actions leading to where we are now, she still defied many of the school rules, so…"
"So?"
"How about one month of detention, with her clearing some of the classrooms?" Alaric suggested.
"Change clearing the classrooms to her helping in the library." John said, a smirk blooming on his lips. "I might have an idea."
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A/N
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