July 10, 2005
Coralis walked out of a meeting with six of the seven CMMA remaining elders and saw a missed call from Frank.
"Everything okay?" said Coralis when he answered.
"Yeah, nothing bad. Mom woke up this morning wanting to invite the family for brunch, arguing we needed to start gathering again for Sunday brunches like we used to. I mean, we still went to Mom every once in a while for brunch, but life being what it is, now we mostly gather on some holidays. Think you can make it?"
"Probably, I'll be leaving Winnipeg soon. At what time does she want us there?"
"Noon. Are Erik and Henry still coming today?"
"I'll be there, but I might be a little bit late. They are still coming, yes, but later in the afternoon."
"I'll see you next meeting," said Whazk before taking off.
For the past few weeks, the Shadow Elementals agreed to help the CMMA elders clean their territory. From twelve elders, the CMMA was down to seven and refused to appoint new ones until they knew for sure they had eliminated all of those working against them. Besides Jourmol, an active CMMA agent under General Tobly, Whazk and Blue Thunder were the ones to usually attend meetings at the CMMA headquarters.
Thirty minutes past the time Molly wanted them to arrive, Coralis hovered above her apartment, searching for a spot to land.
"I'm there, but I see some cops by the park closest to her apartment," communicated Coralis to Sebastian and Audrey through mind-link.
"Of course, there is! It's as if the cops know where to appear whenever she's around," said Frank.
"As the older brother, I should remind you that she's out of jail… but I guess she's not if she's still considered like a dangerous fugitive and I can't even believe my own words."
"Now you understand why I will not allow her to register on any witch registry. Maybe I wouldn't care so much about it if no one were looking for her, but I know all too well that it doesn't matter how well-intended the registry is, and we both know that she'll always be seen as a dangerous fugitive even if she never was guilty of what they think she did."
"I saw Vic this week. Her family is also against the registry. Her dad doesn't want her and her mom to register if it becomes mandatory. Even if no one would be looking for Sebastian and Blue, I wouldn't want them to register, and neither should Audrey. I don't trust it," said Stephanie.
Coralis landed behind a dumpster in the back of a store. She spotted a camera above a backdoor pointing toward the dumpster so she carefully walked away from it, remaining invisible. She saw a car parked nearby and crawled underneath to shift into Cheetah, before heading to Molly's.
Ten minutes later, she scratched on her backdoor and mind-linked Sebastian and Audrey.
"Finally," said Frank as he let her in.
"I don't know what the cops are doing in the area today, it's probably for a domestic fight or something like that," said Molly.
"People don't seem to question black cats in the area, but I might just ward your rooftop for next time," said Coralis after shifting back.
Everyone was in the kitchen, and Molly waved them back to the living room.
"I wonder if it'd have been better to have let the world think they burned Blue Thunder back in April," said Louis.
"No, it would have made things worse. If elemental news outlets had spread the word that Blue Thunder and Alejandro Salinz burned at the stake… those who were sympathetic toward humans would have turned against them out of anger, which is what the fanatics wanted… the local werewolves would probably have revolved and gotten involved into a war that would have gotten them killed while them escaping gave our people hope, that if they get captured, they can escape," said Sebastian.
"He's right, everyone talked about it at school. Everyone was angry when she got captured and sentenced to death. Many said that if Blue burned, their family would join the anti-human group. What she said after that had a huge impact," said Audrey.
"You addressed it publicly afterwards?" said Linda.
"I had to make a statement, especially when people started thinking I had been captured again or got killed in a house fire."
Sebastian searched his hologram to find the statement she made to their people.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, folks of the realm, I am speaking to you today to address some rumours circulating about me. As you can see, I am alive and well. I did not get captured again and I did not die in a house fire.
"Contrary to what it seemed, humans weren't to blame for my capture in Sri Lanka. I have been betrayed, and so was Alejandro Salinz, but not by them. If we are to survive this war, we must not close ourselves to other factions and we must not give in to false narratives. Lies are being told to us and our true enemy isn't the one we see."
"You have a lot of influence among your kind," said Raymond.
"Won five Silver Cups with the flyball national team, that gave me an audience," said Coralis.
"It isn't just that anymore. That statement helped, yeah, our kind listen to her, but had she let people think she burned at the stake, it would have been too late by the time she made it," said Sebastian.
"Finding out they intended on using silver bullets before burning us made our decision to escape before they carried on their sentence easy. It would have cost too much energy to transform the metal of the bullet, and the risks were too high. Audrey, what you said to me through mind-link at the time did have an impact on our decision to escape to finish our mission instead of going through with the burning and leaving from there."
Later in the afternoon, Erik and Henry arrived at Coralis' to prepare for a Fart in the Sea mission in the United States following a tip received from Dimitri. They didn't know how he was still able to get them from fiscal but decided against questioning him about it.
"Gus isn't coming?" said Coralis.
"Date night with his new boyfriend," said Erik.
"Since when do you guys miss a mission for date night?" said Frank.
"Since the werewolf boyfriend's family is away on vacation and they're meeting in secret, something like that. Gus said it's now or probably never and we'll be fine without him if sis comes with us and Sebastian oversees from a distance," said Henry.
"Don't worry, I'll stay here and make sure to bring them back alive and in one piece. You'll even get to watch," said Sebastian.
While the four elementals were busy planning their night mission, Stephanie ordered them food.
"I never thought I would ever say this, but to improve communication between us, it might be a good idea to share a mind-link," said Sebastian.
"My brain still hurts from all the mind-links I have with the Shadow Elemental members, but what's two more at this point? Going on a mission in the US as hunted witches, we need to up our game if we want to make it back alive."
"Yeah, I think it's time we do that. We should have done it a long time ago, to be honest," said Erik.
Coralis went to her room to retrieve her copper knife, and Sebastian went to the kitchen to get the needed ingredients.
"I can't believe the three musketeers weren't all connected by mind-links yet," said Stephanie.
"Wasn't it the posse, now?" said Henry.
"I guess it's acceptable from those who don't know the musketeer reference," said Stephanie.
"Well, Charlie probably knows them all," said Frank.
"Are you watching the news?" said Alejandro in her mind.
"No, we weren't. What happened this time?"
"The rogue Paladin killed Elder Phraton."