Chapter 6: the story

The house is mundane, just from all the lack of magic. It’s a cute little curbside two storey house and no one turns to look when Nicholas bangs on the windows and screams.

It’s warded, or charmed, or something, Nicholas doesn't know. He can't leave the building, not through a door or window or even breaking a wall down by swinging progressively heavier furniture at it for three hours.

They might not even be in Chile anymore since he can’t see the floating island through the windows and he doesn’t remember how long he was knocked out for either. The man could have moved him pretty far.

The man is clearly another Lambros, maybe even from the main family, he looks so much like Stavros.

"I am Stavros," Lambros explains, sitting across the room at the dining table because Nicholas screams at him when he gets too close.

Nicholas is curled up on the furthest end of the couch, knees tucked up and shoulders hunched. "Fuck you."

"I'm an older Stavros," Lambros continues with all the force of an obnoxious Stavros trying to force an argument he knows he's going to win only out of sheer stubbornness. "You're dead, because Adam was a traitor."

"Adam's dead because you’re a traitor," Nicholas snaps back.

"Actually, let me start from the beginning," Lambros dismisses. "Okay, so there was a high mage dickhead and you wouldn’t stop fucking around with him…"

---

The story goes like this; High Mage Xia starts killing the other high mages and a resistance rises up against him. Nicholas fights alongside his wife and his friends and gains a reputation for his clever spellwork – until he faces Haochen Xia himself.

Luca is born to parents who are killed when he’s still young enough to not remember them. He’s taken into hiding in the mundane population because Haochen Xia is using heritage children’s blood to gain access to family magics and grow stronger.

Luca is a teenager when someone identifies him on the street since he’s the spitting image of his father. Luca escapes the attack by breaking the block on his magic but loses his adoptive mothers. Luca is taken to the castle to learn but faces trial after trial, constantly upsetting Haochen Xia’s plans and gaining attention both good and bad.

The story ends there, halfway and unfinished because Stavros dies protecting Luca.

---

"Does Luca like transfiguration?" Nicholas asks, eyes wide and leaning forward, now sitting across from Lambros at the table. "What class does he like best?"

"I'm-" Lambros cuts himself off, looking exhausted. "Okay, I love Luca too but listen when I'm explaining how Haochen Xia can create a hive mind with all the people he possesses."

"Why do I care about a war? I'm already dead by then," Nicholas scoffs. "Now how cute is Luca? Because my baby boy must be very cute."

Lambros takes a deep breath and just lets it be. "Luca is very cute – he does that thing you do when you tilt your head and your hair flops over."

Nicholas coos, reaching out to the air like he's squishing someone's face.

"So Haochen Xia takes over the high mage council when Luca is a year-eleven -"

"Does he win?" Nicholas demands.

"What – does Haochen Xia win-?"

"No, does Luca win the duelling tournament you mentioned?"

"Nicholas," Lambros groans. "Nicky please, please can you focus right now? This is important. You need to listen. I can tell you everything about Luca later, okay?"

"Okay," Nicholas sighs theatrically and then side-eyes Lambros. "Fine. I just…you know, as his honorary uncle I thought you'd be a little more inclined-"

"I'm trying to stop you from dying!" Lambros snaps. "You are going to live until you're fucking three hundred, Nicholas! You're going to have all the cute babies you want and Haochen Xia is going to be dead and not hunting your bloody son so focus!"

Nicholas purses his lips and looks away, bored.

Lambros grits his teeth. "Yes, Luca wins. He manages to defeat all the people Haochen Xia planted to try and kill him – which is why you need to listen."

Nicholas sits up straight. "Well why didn't you lead with that?"

"Vlakas,” Lambros hisses, resorting to greek. “Nicholas, I'm going to slap you-"

---

Nicholas smashes the plate over Lambros' head and dives for his pocket when the man is still stumbling. Nothing. There's no apprentice wand.

"What did you do to my wand!?" Nicholas cries in outrage.

Lambros crash tackles him to the floor and Nicholas spits out curses as he struggles but honestly, his Stavros can take Nicholas any day so fighting one who's larger, heavier and now with magpol training wasn't the best idea.

---

Nicholas is standing in the kitchen, breathing heavily and about to throw a tantrum because it's been days since he was kidnapped and Lambros looks so similar, acts so familiar that it would be so easy to just pretend.

Lambros stands opposite Nicholas, his hands out soothingly. "Luca looks just like you, you know. He also plays Loops as a striker."

"It doesn't help," Nicholas chokes out, eyes burning as they turn shiny with tears. "However many stories you have - it doesn't make me forget Adam is dead. That you killed him."

"Adam is-" Lambros cuts himself off with a grimace. "Come on, Nicky, don't cry. I hate it when you cry. Please be angry again."

Nicholas sniffles. "I want to leave. You told me the story, now I want to leave."

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"Soon," Lambros reassures softly. "Soon, okay?"

"You liar," Nicholas mumbles. "My Ross uses that voice when he lies to me."

Lambros says nothing.

"Are you ever letting me go?" Nicholas demands.

"I'm…debating hiding you away somewhere safe," Lambros answers honestly. "But then, you know, I'd have to bring Raffy along too and that's taking some planning."

Nicholas starts crying. He's getting really sick of crying.

---

"What are we doing?" Stavros hisses as Rafael drags him towards the quiet courtyard near the forest and then into Thoth’s make-shift kennel. They practically took every shortcut down here, including the mirror one that no one likes going through because you come out damp. "Is something wrong with Thoth?"

"I put a tracking spell on Nicholas, a bit after the first attempt," Rafael says, dropping Stavros' arm to cross his own. "I - because the other more common spells aren't working."

Stavros looks around the converted classroom. "So you'll cast it in here?"

"I don't know if I should," Rafael mutters. "It's…a bad one."

"Dark magic?" Stavros scoffs dismissively. "Show me the spell, I'll do it." He starts putting his hair up into a ponytail with the band he always has on his wrist, expecting this to get messy.

"It is Dark but that's not the problem," Rafael explains. "It's strong enough to get around most warding but it was made to hunt down run-away brides…and it's going to hurt Nicholas."

"Do it," Stavros says immediately because no one else is doing anything worthwhile.

Nicholas' parents are losing their minds at their son being snatched away and the magpol are back to investigate – only a few days after they left the forest and being just as useless. People have approached Rafael, mostly his study group, and some heritage have had polite conversations with Stavros, trying to get more gossip.

Rafael only frowns.

"Hurt how?" Stavros gives in. "Like when he stubbed his toe once and complained for the next three days?"

Rafael shrugs and scratches at his short brown hair. "More like when he fell off the rings playing Loops, broke his shoulder blade and he passed out, so you had to catch him mid-air and then ran him to the hospital wing in a panic."

Stavros still remembers Nicholas screaming. "That's…fine."

Rafael raises an eyebrow.

Stavros tries again, with more hollow confidence. "That's fine. Nicholas is a big boy, he can take it. Do the spell, find him in a couple minutes, stop the tracking, go get him. Easy."

"The counter curse needs to be applied to the person," Rafael explains. "So it's going to hurt until we get to him. And it's Dark magic so we can't exactly just leave it to the magpol to go, it would have to be us, and we don't know how to teleport – which we would have to do because Transverse travel is logged. And what if there are strong enough wards to keep us out regardless?"

Stavros sighs. "Okay, that's plan K."

"We're already on plan J," Rafael reminds him.

"Raffy, let’s just pretend it isn’t all going to shit, okay?"

---

Nicholas is lying on the couch, head tipped so far back he's staring at Lambros upside down. "Hey, remember that time I caught you jerking off and you were doing it wrong?"

Lambros is standing hunched over a map spread over the dining table, jaw clenched, hands flat on the table otherwise he'd strangle Nicholas.

"Hey," Nicholas drawls, propping up one knee and flinging the other leg over casually. "Remember that time you kissed Danny and he threw up on you and then you got the stomach bug as well?"

"Nicky," Lambros begins.

"Hey," Nicholas chuckles. "Remember-"

"Nicholas, I don't like hitting kids but trust me, I'm going to enjoy punching you in the fucking face," Lambros grits out. "I forgot how annoying you could be."

Nicholas hums smugly. "Hey, remember when-"

Lambros lurches around the table and Nicholas throws himself off the couch, sprinting upstairs where he grabs the small bookcase prepared earlier and shoves it down the stairs at Lambros, who catches it with a grunt.

Nicholas panics and flings himself off the step, landing on the slanted bookcase, then all three of them go tumbling down together.

Unfortunately, Stavros has always known how to take a hit and Nicholas ends up being the one with the sprained wrist – which Lambros pettily refuses to fix.

That's fine, the pain just fuels Nicholas.

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