Field of Quartz

[Trillian]

Sand, shiny and with flecks of gold and white. Wren was well-read enough to know most sand was silicon dioxide. Quartz. The use of rocks and crystals in his spells made beaches and deserts magical places. When he was struggling to make sense of anything, he would flee to a beach, sit and think while looking out over the ocean.

It was a colder day than usual and he shivered, his cotton shirt and pants unable to keep the wind out as it tugged on his clothes and whipped around his hunched form. Other beachgoers had long ago left; only the resolute had stayed to watch the sun go down, tracing orange lines of fire across the sky.

He couldn't do it. He couldn't go to war with Tess. Even before she'd singled him out for that sexy dream he'd been resistant at the idea of fighting her. She was too powerful and he didn't have a circle. Also, he didn't want to go to war. He was no soldier. Nobody had asked him if he wanted to fight. Or if it was right to fight. So he'd just left, taking his things one afternoon when all was quiet and just walking out the door.

Moving down the driveway he'd felt an oppressive sense of shame but once he was farther down the street it lifted. He organised himself a small, cheap apartmnent and then hopped a bus that he'd meant to travel all the way to the boardwalk in but he got off two stops early and walked down to the beach.

The sun was still streaming red across the sky when he saw her silhouette. Black against blood red as his eyes struggled to make out detail. When she moved he understood who he was looking at, and he wasn't surprised to see her here.

She'd come for him. He knew that with a kind of confidence that didn't come from arrogance. He slowly got to his feet, picked up his sandals, and made his way over to her, shivering. He stood before her, the beautiful white-blonde woman named Tess.

[Black Philip]

She decided to wear black, and pulled out something long and flowy. The dress was tied around the middle with a gold belt that gave her a Grecian figure. She'd chosen sandals since she was going to the beach. She hadn't known that's where she'd be going until just a moment ago. She'd felt him leave the parlor. The demon witch's magic could no longer keep him from her. Although her hold on him was far from complete, and so in order to pinpoint him she'd need to do a little magic.

Thesdea Thane pulled out an oversize map of the city and laid it out on her hard wood floor. Riley ran across it, yipping and yapping and wanting pets. She shoved him away for now, but followed it up with a quick, "good boy," before continuing to prepare her magic. Candles were lit, sage burned, and very soon she was swinging a large crystal over the map. It was quartz, with a silver chain attached, and held the shape of a teardrop. It was a fairly standard witch accessory, and one she'd had since childhood. She used the vial of his semen to focus the crystal to him, that and her desire. She needed many things from this long lost lamb, and she hoped by the time Black Philip joined this world that Wren would stand by her, her man and partner in crime. Black Philip had promised to spare a man for her. There wouldn't be many choices in his new world. She felt something was wrong with the scrying.

"Music," she realized, and she pointed at her radio. Black Velvet began to play, and Tess began to dance, swinging the crystal all around the room as she spun. The map lay forgotten. The candles went out, and yet still she twirled. The song was her guide, and she even closed her eyes. She trusted in the magic; her magic. Brael had shaken her confidence, but she was still the most powerful witch in town, or she would be once she gloated over Sabrina's corpse.

She was thinking of that image, and didn't realize Riley was standing in front of her again. She tripped over him, making him yelp and landing face first on the map. "Fuck," she cursed, but quickly rose to check on her dog. Another limb had popped off. No matter. She sent the black necro energies needed into her beloved pet, and once again he was good as new... just not living. "There, all better," she said petting the undead dog. "Mama is sorry," she admitted, and Riley's cold tongue licked her hands. She looked for the crystal and realized it had landed on Glitter Beach. She felt him there, or that he would be there soon. She knew she needed to leave to not miss him, and kissed the top of Riley's head. "Good boy," she said, attributing her tripping over him as what ended up making the spell work. She grabbed the crystal, the bone tusk, and her bag of tricks and left the apartment in a rush. Her hair had been freshly combed from the shower, smelling of pear and jasmine. She knew she looked good, and kept the song playing on her headphones as she took the crosstown bus that would drop her off at the beach.

She reached it without incident, and felt him approaching. This was good. He was coming to her. She danced to the song one more time, using her dress as a prop, throwing the black silk all around as she spun. When his image finally came into view, she laughed brightly.

"I've been waiting so long to talk to you," she said with a pretty smile. "Come closer." 

[Trillian]

After his gaze took in her form - clothes and body and face - he listened as she rewarded him with a statement, opening a line of communication instead of throwing threats his way. It gratified him in the half a second between her statement and her beckoning him to draw nearer. Wren shook his head minutely; from here he could feel her darkness. It was roiling inside her, menacing and beautiful and powerful and sexual and evil. If he touched her, he would burn. Everything good in him would burn. A part of him wanted to touch her anyway, but it was only a small part... for now.

"No," he said, denying her with words as well as action. It shouldn't be so easy. "I'm already too close."

He should walk away. He should turn on his heel and walk away and let her do her worst at his back. She was so much more powerful than him; she'd already surrendered herself to a greater power and was channelling it through her body, a conduit waiting to be extorted. Standing in front of her he could feel her aura like electricity. She would kill him if they battled. It was one of the reasons he hadn't wanted to fight in the first place. He ignored what the other reasons were.

[Black Philip]

"We've been closer," she teased, slowly walking towards him. She laughed and examined him. He was as handsome as she remembered, and the conflict inside him was agonizing. She loved it, and it drew her towards him like a moth to a flame. She wanted to see what led to this. What pain lived inside that handsome skull. Her own eyes were large and innocent, but even Wren would no longer be fooled by them.

"I need you," she said. She didn't tell him for what he was needed, and tossed her hair about as she considered how he might infer her words.

[Trillian]

Her teasing elicited an embarrassed blink from him and his cheeks flushed at her knowledge of him - and his knowledge of her. He was still shaken by the goat that took over at the end but his body remembered enough of the sensation of having her that it responded to her now with brief twitches and tingling skin.

Or was that the cold? It continued to bite into him even as she closed the distance between them. Her next statement had him uttering a soft, breathy laugh. He didn't believe she would need him for anything beyond being a compound in one of her spells. The wind pulled at her dress and danced with it while it clawed at his clothes and battered him, howling in his ear and trying to drown the constant wash of the ocean - which it couldn't.

"That's not enough," he said. She was asking him to give himself, to hand over his dignity, his pride, his sanity. He would give her one more chance to say the right words and then he would extract himself from this insane conversation. It was insane of him to even be here talking to her.

[Black Philip]

"Why are you pretending to be afraid of me," she asked, tone a great deal more serious. The temptress was replaced by someone much more matter of fact, although the way the wind blew through her hair she looked even more beautiful this way. She slowly began to walk towards this druid, master of the earth. Black Philip had told her druids were proud, powerful and strong, and that the earth held many secrets worth learning. They made poor servants mostly, as their love of the earth, of nature, of balance and mercy guided them away from the goat's charms. However, this one had less of those things it seemed. He had them for sure, buried in his conflicted soul, but unlike his kin he was curious about the darker things in the world. Yes. That had to be it. She was sure she was reading him correctly.

"Admit it Wren," she said, that same down to earth tone as before. "I'm driving you crazy aren't I?"

Behind her the setting sun was the color of blood, and framed Tess as it's goddess.

[Trillian]

"I'm not afraid of you," he admitted, knowing she would be pleased about this, but he shared why he still balked at her. "I'm afraid of who you serve."

She couldn't promise him that he would be separated from that. She'd pursued him in his dreams and then handed him over to her master. He wouldn't mean anything to her and she couldn't promise him that he would.

He shook his head. No, she wasn't driving him crazy. It was the battlefield with the thing she'd handed her soul to that he refused to participate in. That was driving him crazy. He'd left the safety of the parlour to stay away from this fight, this battle of epic proportion. The corruption inside of him - the one that had tasted power and had sacrificed a life to get more of it - that was the piece of him that responded to her.

But it was too small a part for him to accept her right now. Her beauty was obvious but beauty was everywhere. In the sun itself, as it framed her. In the grains of sand where she stood. But not in her heart.

"I won't fight you," he told her. "But I won't join you, either."

[Black Philip]

Tess was caught off guard about his attack on her patron. However, was fear really an attack? It seemed more like respect, and her startled expression returned back to a sultry one. She should’ve known the babe would put up a fight. That made it more interesting when she finally took him. She kept moving towards him slowly.

“So let’s not fight, and I don’t have his book for you to sign.”

She was looking at his body. Did he know she wanted him too? Could he feel her desire, the heat of her flesh? “All I went for now is to talk.”

She was close now, but finally stopped. He’d need to come the rest of the way.

[Trillian]

Her seductiveness had a two-fold effect. His body remembered having her and wanted more. His mind recognised her histrionics and warned him it was only a ploy. The physical response had an urgency to it that his intelligence couldn't recreate. Apparently knowing that she leant towards the dramatic and the seductive wasn't enough to temper his thirst for her.

He kept his ground, locked in place, observing her movements as she approached him like he was a flighty deer. She stopped within reaching distance, if he extended his arm he imagined his fingers might brush against the material of her dress, the skin of her shoulder, the curve of her breast. He licked his lips and pulled them in momentarily before giving her an opportunity he hadn't intended.

"So talk."

[Black Philip]

Tess prided herself on how in control of a situation she normally was. The cemetery, the semen, even with Brael, she'd never felt like she didn't know how to respond, or how to move or act. Now, she was lost. Her patron wasn't whispering the answer. Wren wanted her to talk, but about what? She'd promised him that it wouldn't be about her patron, and she'd hoped by now they'd be naked on the beach, touching one another's bodies and feeling each other's warmth. What could she say that would make him happy, make him trust her, make him want her? She had no answers! She stuttered through a few "ugh's" and "um's" before sitting on the ground, and gesturing for Wren to do the same.

"When you do what I do," she said with a fair amount of nerves. "Small talk is hard. I just... want to feel normal for a change. I want to talk to a boy, who I like. Can we leave the conflicts alone? Can we forget who I serve, and how we met, just for now?"

She didn't wait for a yes. She barreled right on. "I grew up in Philly. Where did you grow up?"

She laid down on the sand, eyes now looking up at the stars. She wanted to use Wren's chest as a pillow, and shared those thoughts with him mentally in the form of a perfect image of their bodies laying together.

[Trillian]

He sat with her because the wind was cruel and the ground offered a little shelter. Slight as it was, it was better than being battered while standing. Tess' body acted like a windbreak and he could feel he was doing the same for her. Together they protected the other from the elements.

Poetic.

He understood about small talk. He wasn't the most socially adept of people. His upbringing had either seen him following commands or giving them. It had felt good to slice out a little power of his own, for himself, something that wasn't shareable.

He didn't reply to her request that they ignore their opposing positions but did respond to her question about his origin because she'd revealed her own.

"Ireland." He had so little of the accent it was almost indistinguishable from the American, until he was speaking the ancient tongue through his magic - then his hard Rs and rolling vowels would sound. Now that she knew of his home country, he thought she might be able to identify the lilt of his words. He'd done his best to keep it suppressed, not wanting to be reminded of the pain of being banished.

[Black Philip]

She started to relax on the beach, sitting with Wren and just listening to him talk. Ireland wasn't that far from Scotland, and she thought of her Scottish clan that had come to America. She wondered if at some point, far in the past, and as people migrated, they'd come from the same people once. It wasn't impossible. She'd heard Ireland was beautiful, although she'd never been. She'd always been working towards a purpose. She hadn't even chosen this city herself. Black Philip told her to come here. She wondered what it was like to have choices, and so she asked Wren about one of his.

"Why did you leave Ireland and come here," she asked, sounding nothing more than curious. The moon was rising, and the sun was now orange, purple, and reds fading over the horizon. Soon it would be night, and it was getting cold. Tess looked cold. Her skin had goose flesh and her fingers lightly shook. The witch could have simply used her pyrokinesis to keep warm, but she had something else in mind.

[Trillian]

“I didn’t have a choice,” he said softly, mirroring her thoughts on choices and revealing that he wasn’t as free willed as she'd assumed. Of course he did have a choice, as she had, an impossible choice that would mean death. Between death and leaving Ireland, he'd chosen the latter.

He saw her shivering and knew what it meant. She wasn’t the enemy... not his enemy, not now, anyway, and he followed his instinct to keep her warm. He had no extra layer to offer her so he shuffled closer and wrapped his arm around her. His knowledge of intimacy with her made it feel natural.

“I was banished.”

He’d kept his shame a secret but believed she'd understand. At the very least she wouldn’t judge him. She'd been through (and done) far worse.

[Black Philip]

I was banished.

Those three words changed everything for the young witch, as she felt him embrace her. He was warmer than her somehow, and she arranged herself to make the embrace easier. They were spooning now, and she played with his hands as he told her of his banishment. Perhaps that was the conflict she sensed earlier? Oddly enough, he didn't seem very conflicted currently. She wanted to probe deeper, learn the reason why, but she couldn't bring herself to ask him just yet. She decided it was her turn to tell him something he didn't know.

"I left Philly because my parents are both dead," she said, quickly adding, "and no I didn't kill them."

She felt considering everything he knew about her it was prudent to point this out. She was partially lying though. She didn't kill them no, but she felt responsible for both of their deaths. She'd slaughtered innocents to serve her master, and never thought twice about it. These two deaths however weighed heavily on her.

"My clan disowned me, and they're all in Scotland now anyway. I've lost my tribe."

This was something she felt a banished person could understand, even if they had different journeys getting there.

[Trillian]

As they lay on the sand Wren couldn't help but think they would be more comfortable in a bed, but he wasn't about to start leaping their 'let's talk for a bit while in public' to a private setting. There were people around; and while he didn't think that would stop her if she didn't want him to walk away from her, he was also not ready to be going home with her, or taking her to his.

He bent his head so his lips were at her nape. "I'm sorry," he said gently, not wanting the wind to whisk his words away before she heard them. He imagined his breath would warm her frigid skin. She felt so cold against him. Neither of them were dressed appropriately for sundown.

When she told him about her clan disowning her, casting her out, losing her tribe, his arms tightened around her, pulling her closer to him. He closed his eyes and buried his face in her hair, sighing. It was after a moment he gave her more information.

"I belonged to a druid circle in Ireland. They cast me out, too."

Their situations were similar but she'd gone much farther than he had. How easily he could've pursued his course of action and been the villain of his circle's story. He already was - his regret and apology hadn't been enough for them. They'd judged him harshly and stripped him of the only family he'd ever known. Some of them had wanted to take his life but they'd been shouted down. How different it could've been if he'd fought back. Was that what Tess had done? Fought back?

"You're freezing. We should go s-somewhere else." He almost tripped over what he wanted to say.

[Black Philip]

She didn't need him to be sorry. Her life had a purpose. Black Philip had made that clear for her. He gave her order, structure, power. All he'd asked for were a few souls, and a little mischief. Maybe one day Wren would understand that. Maybe one day they could serve a purpose together. She felt for him as she heard he was cast out. They were really so alike. She wanted to tell him that, but she feared he wouldn't agree. She feared he'd regret this time they shared. She wanted more time, and was happy that he wanted to go somewhere else with her. The problem was where should they go? She didn't want to take him home and just have sex with him.

That isn't to say she didn't want to have sex with him. She did. It wasn't that simple though. She liked that they were talking about their pasts, and themselves. It's something she almost never got to do.

"Can it be a bar," she asked, her need for a drink pretty strong right now. "I also got some killer weed in my bag. Indica dominant hybrid grown in blessed soil and just a touch of fae energy. It's really strong."

He was a druid. They smoked, right?

[Trillian]

He shifted around, releasing her and sitting up. The wind was still biting him through his clothes but it wasn't as aggressive as it had been just moments ago. Like a tantrum, it had begun to blow itself out. He leant on one hand, the other hand removed from her waist and dangling by the wrist off his bent knee.

"I don't drink or take drugs," he said, the comment coming out of his mouth by habit than any conscious desire. As soon as it was out, though, he wondered why. It was the circle's rule. Clean living, clear mind. He was already confused. Nothing he drank or smoked was going to addle him further. "I've never taken drugs," he amended, "or consumed alcohol."

He didn't tell her he'd never stepped into a bar, either. He thought she'd work that one out on her own.

[Black Philip]

No wonder he always looked tense. He wasn't getting laid, and had never been drunk or stoned. Well she'd fix that. She was actually happy for the wind and setting sun. She didn't know what the weed policy in the city was, they were now the only people on the beach. She'd actually managed to keep a low profile with the human cops, other than when she stole the Birth Tusk.

The witch reached into her purse and pulled out a fat joint, rolled with thin paper, and a homemade filter. A light, almost pink, red lighter appeared and she took a drag, holding it in for several seconds, and then blowing it out her nose. She made it look as easy as pie. Tess passed Wren the roach, and lighter.

"You're gonna cough like a bitch, but don't worry everyone does at first."

They smoke the whole thing, and then she thought she should take him to a bar. It was going to be a fun night.

[Trillian]

Wren took the thing off her after seeing Tess' demonstrate the smoking technique. He thought he might surprise her; he'd breathed in smoke from fires, using them to meditate.

Copying what she'd done, Wren sucked in from the joint as much as he was able and held it in. It tasted strange, like grass or weeds. He supposed that was how it had earnt its nicknames. His lungs protested what he was doing though his willpower was far greater than the spasming they wanted to do. When he went to blow it out through his nose though, he lost the fight and began coughing and choking. The potency of his coughs made his head spin. Or was it the smoke? How fast did it act? She'd said it was strong.

He handed it back, still making small coughs.

[Black Philip]

She was surprised, he lasted that long. If he'd blown the smoke out of his mouth she guessed he may not have coughed at all. She took back the Mary J, hitting it again for a much longer time. Wren already looked a bit loopy, and she had to remember this was his first time. She thought about putting the joint out. They could finish it later, but who was she to deny him if he wanted more? Wren was a big boy, in more ways the one. She chuckled at the thought. She rose though and plotted a course through the beach that led back to the boardwalk area.

"Come on," she said, holding out her hand for him to take. "Let's finish this on the way and find a bar. I promise not to get you too fucked up. Her free hand crossed her fingers.

[Trillian]

One toke was enough. He didn't think he was so greatly affected by it but he could feel enough of its influence to deduce it was very different from regular smoke inhalation. Campfire smoke just made him lightheaded. This one gave him a strange kind of calm as well. The coughs had subsided and he stood with Tess, taking her hand.

He forgot his decision not to have more and took the spliff when she passed it back to him. He puffed and blew out smoke like an expert on his second try, then offered it to her in return. As he followed her he thought she was like that movie star, the one whose dress flipped up. Marilyn Manson or something like that. He pictured her with differently-coloured eyes and holding a guitar. Unexpected.

The vantage point as he followed her was like that internet thing with all the photos of fantastic scenery with the guy trailing along behind and the girl reaching back (and sometimes looking back). Tess was one of those. Movie star. Model. Witch. How could someone so angelic-looking be so very dark? Dark angels. They were a thing. He was pretty sure Tess wasn't one of those.

"How did you and Goaty even meet?" he asked as they made their way across the sand.

[Black Philip]

She began to feel the mellowness from the joint, and the familiar relief, from the whispering madness of the void, elevated her mood. Smoking was one of the only things that helped. Sometimes Black Philip would silence them for her, if he needed her to concentrate. She was glad for the burning herb that danced betwixt her fingers with a practiced hand. She passed it back, happy to see him not take one and be done. Wren was definitely high. He had a semi vacant stare that she recognized from others, and she laughed a bit, not at him, but at how cute he was.

She wasn't expecting his question, and it was strangely grounding. She put out the joint with a quick bit of magic, and placed the remaining half behind her earlobe. She didn't know where to start. It was kind of a long story, and Tess was bad at remembering things. The weed wasn't helping with her cognition, but Wren was probably so high he didn't notice the pause. The sun was fully set now. The wind had given way, and it was actually a pretty night. She reached for Wren's hand, hoping he'd hold her's as they walked.

"He came on my eighteenth birthday," she explained. "He was a goat at first but then he was a man. He asked me for my service, and I told him no thank you."

She looked at him like she'd pulled the rug out from under him. She'd said no at first. In fact, she said no twice. It was on the third visit from Black Philip that Tess agreed to do his bidding. She decided she couldn't wait to know any longer.

"Why were you banished," she asked, her tone full of curiosity. There was not judgment. There was only kindness.

[Trillian]

Wren gave a slow blink at Tess saying no to Goaty. He knew what his next question would be, but then it drifted away when she asked him about his banishment.

"I stole another Druid's powers," he said. "He wasn't very nice."

Wren paused for what he thought was a second but it was a full minute and a half.

"Do you have sex with Goaty?" he asked, forgetting that he was going to ask when and why she decided to say yes to being his servant.

[Black Philip]

Tess was too stoned to realize the usefulness of what she'd just learned. Wren had stolen power! That was no small matter. She found it strangely hot. They reached a little beach bum bar, which Wren accidently looked perfect for. It had an outside section that was empty now due to the cold, and she would move them inside. It was empty save for a bartender in a Hawaiian shirt.

"Two Baybreeze," she requested, waving her hand over the mortal to convinced him she'd paid. There was a booth near the back, and she moved them towards it, sitting next to Wren as opposed to across from him. His next question offended her, although she was stoned enough not to lash out.

"No," she said after a while. "I think he watches sometimes when I have sex with other people, but that's normally a work thing. He's more of a father figure than anything."

It was a candid profession but a true one. Black Philip had done more for her than her mortal father.

[Trillian]

He liked the look of the bar. Wren watched Tess' gesture and thought that was an interesting trick. The drink in his hand was a pretty colour and he admired it on the way to the table. When Tess sat beside him it was only natural to wrap his arm around her.

Father figure. It took him a long time to respond. "Witchy Daddy issues?" Wren asked, then giggled at his own clever hilarity.

[Black Philip]

She was fairly disarmed, and Wren had shown himself to be open to her before. She kept this in mind when he dared suggest she had daddy issues. She had gained power and glory, and served the great goat because he was wise and powerful. She looked at him just a little cruelly, also remembering in the second before she replied she'd gotten him high. Fine. He could slide on this one.

"How did you steal another Druid's power," she asked, turning the conversation back on Wren. She still looked flirty and fun, but there was some part of her that had awoken. She reached out to feel her patron, and found him not around. It felt so empty. She laid her head down on Wren.

"Try your drink," she said, ignoring her own for the moment. Wren's chest was more important than booze.

[Trillian]

Even through his haze he could tell he'd upset her with his inappropriate comment and some of his sensibility seeped through. He blinked at her cool stare and licked his lips, preparing an apology which took longer than it should in his addled brain. Before he could spit it out, she spoke again.

"Ritual," he said, seeing the shift inside of her but unable to identify what it was. When his attention was diverted to his drink, he obeyed, taking a sip of it. It was yummy so he took a longer sip before setting the glass down again, liking the weight of her head on his shoulder. "You're a bad influence," he said, not sounding particularly upset about it.

Damn, he'd meant to keep that thought to himself.

[Black Philip]

Tess felt warm, and safe here, and she didn't even mind being called a bad influence. After all, she was a servant of the devil.  She smiled at that, and both felt more connected to Wren on a personal level, but also to Black Philip. She didn't need to sense him every moment to know he was there. Wren had somehow made it all better. She picked her head up and kissed him, playfully at first, but with more intensity as it went on. She pulled away and giggled.

"I'm not the only one," she teased, trying her drink. She got about two thirds of it down before placing it on the table within Wren's reaching distance. A ritual? She had heard of grand ascension rituals, where minor demons became major ones, where commoners become gods, but she hadn't seen anything on as small a scale as he deserved. There was a certain annoying little witch bitch named Cinnabon, or whatever. Perhaps this was useful knowledge.

"I can take power through necromancy," she shared. "I did it to the cat."

She hung her head with guilt.

[Trillian]

The kiss had him licking his lips to recapture the sensation of it. He made a soft sound when she pulled away and again when she hung her head. Wren tutted her, waggling a finger between her and her glass, as though it was her drinking he disapproved of. It was neither her drinking nor what she'd done to the cat.

"No, no, your cat gave you a singular energy. Dark magic, death magic, rotting underground magic. Souls and all that demon stuff," Wren made a flapping dismissive gesture. "What I took was..." he made a bundle with his hands, as if shaping something grapefruit sized before spreading his fingers wider and wider. "That... I've never seen anything so beautiful."

His circle had called him corrupted but he remembered his initial reasoning, the thing that had urged him on. A powerful druid who was going to be killed anyway... what a waste of powers and discovery. It made more sense to remove it from him. Okay, Wren's actions had caused him to die but he'd been about to die anyway. He grabbed his drink and took a few gulps, finishing most of it before setting it down and wiping his lips with the back of his hand before he reached out to take one of hers.

"It's big, and it compounds, and it's inside of me but I haven't unlocked it. I'm twice as powerful. I thought you knew. I thought that... you targeted me for that... not for, you know... I'm not so sexy. I'm like... nature man. Boringest ssssuperhero."

[Black Philip]

Tess was intrigued as Wren explained his power. She had never heard of magic like that before, and she wished she could see that great power. He was right that all she could do was take a single life force, and while it powered her magic for a time, it faded away as the soul died within her. It was sad. What he had done, that sounded beautiful. She found him so adorable, and he also suffered from blindness it seemed. He was literally sex on a stick, and she didn't understand how he didn't know that. Most of the men she met were half as attractive, kind and sweet, yet she was more attracted to Wren because he didn't think he was those things. What had her mother called it? She was so young at the time it was hard to remember. Humbleness. Wren was humble.

"Nature man," she teased, raising an eyebrow and giggling. "I saw conflict in you, and power, but I really just felt connected to you. I visited your dream, true because I needed something, but mostly because I wanted to see you again. I liked the way you felt in the back of the van. It made me curious about you. Do you feel that connection?"

She leaned in, and could smell the alcohol on his breath. They both smelt like weed, and if anyone else was in the bar they would likely look with judgement. Tess didn't care. She was used to being judged by lesser people. Wren was the opposite of lesser.

[Trillian]

He smiled when she repeated his hero name. There was both conflict and power in him, yes, and he'd felt that connection as well, but he'd identified it as physical attraction. Tess had been more there than the others, more vivid, brighter.

Her admission to visiting his dream because she'd needed something stirred up the memory of his conversation with Sabrina - about how Tess could use something of his to influence him. She'd taken his seed and could've done her own rituals with it. The memory brought back a percentage of the violation he'd felt at the time. He frowned and pulled back, staring at her. Was this all one-sided? Was she playing him? He couldn't read anything in her expression other than heat.

"Did you use what you took from me in a spell?" he asked, wondering if he was under her influence now. It would certainly explain a lot; why he'd not wanted to fight her, why he'd felt dissatisfied living at the Parlor, why he'd left and come here and why they were together now.

He heard the sound of water from a tap falling into a sink, the scrape of a brush cleaning, the soft sound of glasses chinking lightly together as the bartender took care of the washing up and put the glasses away. Very few people were in this bar because they were here between busy periods. Still, they didn't have the place to themselves. He could hear the murmur of a couple of other conversations around him. He didn't bother looking at them, though.

[Black Philip]

Tess hadn't been thinking when she mentioned invading Wren's dream. If she had, she would've been more cunning. Now he was asking questions, and they were ones she suspected Black Philip wouldn't want her to answer. However, she liked Wren. She didn't want him to leave, or think badly of her. She placed a vexed finger on her lip, her eyes bleeding uncertainty.

"Not yet," she said truthfully. "Although what I took is a part of something greater."

She wasn't lying, but hadn't told him exactly what his seed was being saved for. She wanted to tell him. She wanted his help, but guessed that right now he'd said no. He wasn't ready yet.

[Trillian]

Wren nodded, not really understanding what great thing she was going to be doing with his semen.

He didn't want to talk about this stuff anymore. It was too incestuous. They all knew the same people and while she was wanting to fight and destroy them and they felt the same way about her, he didn't want any part of it. Standing by her side was different to sleeping in her bed, right?

"Do you want more of it?" he asked, then giggled.

[Black Philip]

She wasn't prepared for that kind of statement. She actually blushed, and considering Tess's dirty mind that was an achievement. She turned to him, and decided that yes she did. She moved in and kissed him again, but only as a precursor to her answer. She was glad they hadn't ran straight to bed. It somehow would've ruined him for her. Now, he meant something to her. The bar was closing, and the poor bartender had been charmed long enough.

"I thought you'd never ask," she said, moving to lead him away from the bar.