Chapter 84: Art Class

The three guardian elders had met in Andreas' office in the early morning hours when a thick mist still hung heavily in the woods. It had been six days since anyone had seen or heard from Marius, and he was meant to be keeping them updated on the human girl's status. Assuming the odd link that he had with the girl had finally driven him mad and off land, one of the council's best trackers had been unleashed to bring him back in. But as of yet, there was no trace of him.

This mysterious disappearance of Marius had Andreas on edge, as Marius' inside connection to August's mental status was the stability the guardians had been counting on thus far. Until now, they had been able to anticipate Graeme's next move. Now that inside connection was lost.

"Tell the tracker to keep looking," Andreas snarled as he paced back and forth behind his desk. Even the ever-calm Pearce appeared slightly on edge. "Zosime should have the girl's genome fully analyzed this week. I don't know what good it will do, but maybe there will be some useful insights into the human's abilities," Andreas continued.

"Zosime's cocktail might just work on her," Pearce suggested, eyebrows raised. Auden giggled deviously in response.

Andreas gave them both a sharp look as he kept pacing. "We are not trying anything like that unless there is a reason. And we are waiting on the genome."

"Or a pretty little light on the board," Pearce reminded him. "I assume Kai is watching it."

"Yes, and when he is away, the live is recorded so he can go back over it," Andreas mumbled, stopping to light a cigar.

"Was Lucas sure the witch received the mate mark?" Auden piped up.

Andreas glared at the small, wide man who was sitting on the edge of one of the chairs, fidgeting like a nervous oversized beetle.

"You think Lucas would mistake it? It is obvious. Since Woodside's bonfire, I have heard whispers about our new Luna myself! Graeme and her participated in the bloody ritual for fuck's sake," he spat. "Damn you, Marius."

"Did I not warn you about them going to a bonfire?" Pearce asked for Andreas to glare at him. "We should have taken measures to prevent it from happening."

"Who would have thought she would actually participate in a full moon ritual? Would you have foreseen it? A human?" Andreas replied venomously.

"It was a risk," Pearce responded simply.

"Why do you keep calling her human? She is a witch," Auden spat, but the two others ignored him.

"Everything is a risk at this point. Marius has been our insight. How could he abandon us when we need him most?" Andreas muttered, the suppressed rage making itself visible more and more in the tension around his eyes.

"Perhaps something unfortunate befell him," Pearce tried to maintain a semblance of calm with the even tones of his voice.

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"Marius?" Andreas scoffed. "I'm not prepared to entertain that possibility yet. The tracker keeps searching," her ordered again, pointing aggressively at his desk.

"But if Marius masked his scent…" Pearce started.

"The tracker keeps searching," Andreas' voice had dropped to a threatening depth, and his eyes were hard as he glared at the men in front of him.

"A scout found something else… troubling this morning," Pearce said carefully. "It is about Eliade."

———

Later that morning, August found herself surrounded again by eight and nine year old mythical creatures, and her mind suddenly went blank. What was she doing here again?

"Why don't you all start by telling August your names and what you're interested in learning?" Greta suggested beside her.

One by one, the kids introduced themselves. Clementine, Alice, and Plum wanted to learn drawing and painting; Sawyer and Fern were interested in photography; Alexander admitted that he had been wanting to do graffiti but had nowhere to try it out (much to Greta's surprise and evident horror, which made August laugh); and Bear said he didn't know what he was interested in, but his parents made him come anyway.

Greta approached the last boy yet to introduce himself, placing a hand on his back as she turned to look at August. "And this is Sage. What are you interested in learning about, buddy?" Greta turned to look at the boy who had piercing emerald eyes and long, shaggy black hair. He gazed at Greta for a moment before putting his hands up to mimic taking a picture.

"Photography, that's wonderful," August smiled with her words, causing Sage to shift his eyes to her. "We can work on all of these things—even the graffiti, Alexander. And they all have some basic things in common that we can start with today before we figure out a better space and materials for all of you."

August went on to explain how to create interesting compositions, passing around her sketchbook and camera so the children could see the arrangement of visual elements that she was describing.

"Even in something like graffiti, you have to have a sense of the space you need to fill and how it will catch someone's eye," August explained. "That's composition. With photography, you can experiment by taking hundreds of pictures with your mind as a guide. With graffiti or painting, sketches work well as practice. You can start with a rectangle."

She passed out rectangle cardboard frames she had made the previous night. "Think of this as the space you want to fill. Every single inch is important, whether it gets filled or not. Imagine it as your canvas or wall or photo."

After having the kids explore Greta's backyard and woods with their rectangles, zooming in and out with the cardboard pieces while imagining compositions of trees and bugs and flowers and each other, August dismissed them for the day.

"If you'd like, next time we meet you can bring any art you've done in the past.. I would love to see it! And we will let you know when that will be," August turned to Greta for assurance, and the peach-haired girl nodded approvingly.

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