[Log - Backdated to Bonesville] Mind Games - Kash, River, Corbie, Molly

[st_eampunk]

Takes place after this



It wasn’t that Molly was out of her league with the magic, she wasn’t. This was something that she would have handled easily on her own in Chicago. What she needed help with was the second component not connected to the mind. While it was delicate working in a mind, especially a child’s mind, and she wanted help with that; the last thing that she wanted to happen was to screw him up. The artifact definitely needed extra help with it. There was no way she could do both. Not to mention, even with Kash’s help in training, she would be more of a hindrance than a help if anything would go to hell and knowing her luck, it would.

She’d heard bar talk in the Inn and she wasn’t sure if it was just talk or actual fact of the skillset. Whichever way it panned out, Molly was sure that River Song would be more help with the artifact than she would, so she’d sent a message to her, Kash and Corbie to meet her in an abandoned building in the village. They would need to be filled in without being overheard and it was the best place that Molly could find to do that.

As Molly waited, she laid out a copy of the old map from the book she’d found on a big dusty box – her makeshift table. It was supposedly to the catacombs under the church where the artifact needed to be returned. Molly didn’t want to destroy it, she wasn’t sure how it would affect the kid, what the connection was to him until she could see the tendril in his mind. So, the next best thing would be to bury it deep. The catacombs had ‘urban legends’ attached to it and who knew what was real and was bullshit, so she’d told them come prepared for anything. The artifact had been in another book, well actually more than one because Molly couldn’t believe the crap in the first one and had to make sure there was more than one account. There had been. Even that hadn’t prepared her for actually seeing it. It was certainly different, but it didn’t look like it would have caused as much trouble as it had.



After their little adventure in the mist, Kash had let the twins, Percy, and Pike know what was up and where they should look for his body if he didn't contact one of them. It was strange, too, to know there was a threat and not call them in on it. But he satisfied himself with knowing they were still in the planning stages and if he thought they were outclassed, he could always call in the cavalry. It didn't stop him from oiling up his armor and putting it on. Anyone who gave him strange looks got told it was a Halloween costume.

When he arrived at the building, he caught sight of Molly poring over documents and in the semi-darkness her light blonde hair looked almost white. His heart skipped at the sudden onslaught of memory, and it took him a good thirty seconds to swallow back the heart-wrenching urge to kiss the back of a red-skinned nape. He made his way to Molly's side and glanced at the thing on the table. It looked like Percy's version of Raishan's head and he snarled at it on general principle. "Well, that's ugly."

If River had been surprised to get the call it hadn't been apparent, and it still wasn't as she made her way to the meeting place. She wasn't wearing armor, but she WAS armed. Her blaster was in a holster one hip, there was at least one knife tucked in an inconspicuous location and in the pouches on her belt she had the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, and a few other minor odds and ends like lock picking tools and a snack.

Don't knock the snack - it had come in handy more than once.

Coming on Kash's heels she caught the last of his words and paused to look at the thing for herself before speaking.

"Looks a bit like my third husband.. or was it my fourth?" Her tone doesn't make it clear if she's joking or not.

What exactly did one bring when going on a jaunt you didn't know you were going to live through? Corbie wished this was the first time she'd ever had to answer that question, but, well. Summerdown.

So she came as prepared as she had a mind to be, which involved chalk, pencils, and notes with copies of various diagrams and symbols she knew how to use but didn't have memorized just yet. If anybody was expecting her to do any fighting they'd be sadly mistaken, but she could do wizarding. Some wizarding, anyway.

This wasn't exactly the time to be afraid that maybe she'd fuck up and get somebody killed, though. She had power, she had some training, and she was clever. Surely there really was something she could do to help.

The head thing brought her up a little short, though.

She blinked slowly at the thing and left her commentary at, "Kinky."

~*~

There was a small feeling of relief when the others joined Molly and Kash. She was sure that the two of them could handle returning the helmet and helping the kid, but she also knew from experience that more help in these kinds of situations was always a good thing.

It didn’t take Molly long to explain the connection between the helmet and the boy, nor what she hoped to accomplish. The ‘map’ of the catacombs beneath the church were in Kash and River’s hands. “I don’t know what you’ll find down there when you put this back.” Molly handed them the picture of the helmet. “He keeps it near him in the church, but I can put an image in his mind that it’s still there when you have it. That’s easy, what’s going to be hard is when he realizes the power isn’t nearby It will throw anything at you, especially if either of them perceive it as a threat.” Yes, she was very aware that she made the helmet sound like it was alive. It was second nature to her with her father’s sword. Thankfully, the helmet wasn’t like Bob.

As they walked to the church where Stephen was, Molly promised Kash that if she and Corbie found the ties too complex or needed help to disconnect him from the object, she’d call him. Molly was more concerned about leaving imprints on his soul from their meddling than the tendrils. She was very good at deconstructing wards and this shouldn’t be that much different.

"Hang on," Kash said as they approached the church, and gestured the group of them into a shadowy alley. He pulled out his medallion, and, resting a hand on Molly's shoulder, spoke the incantation to death ward her. Here, two realms removed from Exandria, the black-light glow of Vesh's magic had dwindled. It was still present, still popping and sizzling at the edges of the gold glow of Life that swept over her, but he didn't worry that using it would trigger Vesh's appearance. "Death ward," he told her and then did the same for Corbie. "If you die, you won't." He glanced over at River. "You'll be in range of my healing spells."

“Okay.” She paused when they reached the entrance and she quietly opened the door. Her voice lowered, “last time I followed him, he had the helmet in one …” Before Molly could finish that thought, Stephen walked out of a room in the back, but thankfully her reflexes were quick and she veiled all of them. Stephen didn’t see a thing out of the ordinary and Molly kept it that way until she could create an image in his mind.

The odd sensation of being in a veil dissipated around them, but to Stephen instead of the four strangers suddenly appearing, he saw what he would expect to see. A nun, a priest, a caretaker and another parishioner – or rather what Molly thought that he would expect to see if he were at her church.

“The helmet should be over there.” Molly gestured toward an alcove with her chin. “He won’t see you guys take it.” Then she turned toward Corbie with a soft voice. “Come on, I gave him an image to see, not us, the quicker we get this over with, the better.”

"That death ward only works the first time. So if you get dropped, stay down until I can get to you," he told Corbie and Molly, then jerked a chin at River. "Let's go. You grab the helmet and I'll lead." He needed both hands for casting and fighting. With her blaster-thingy, she probably didn't.
River had been in too many situations like this with the Doctor to ask unimportant questions, instead she ducked into the alcove Molly had indicated and when she returned was placing the helmet in a canvas bag that could be tied to her belt. Then she nodded at Kash to lead the way and with a glance back at the others, followed him to the entrance to the catacombs. Once inside the sea breeze became a musty, earthy smell and the stone walls dripped damp as any underground area at sea level would, River suppressed a shiver remembering the maze of the dead and found her flashlight to light their way.

"Good thing I'm not afraid of the dark."

Corbie was trying very hard not to consider the many possible troubling implications of the 'if you die, you won't' spell that had just been cast on her, or even that a spell had been cast on her without being about to say yeah or nay about it. Not that here and now was the place for drawn out debates about ethics and thaumaturgy and religious doctrine, so she'd suck it up and leave it for the time being.

Quite literally. She took a deep breath, mumbled a quick prayer to her Lady, and followed after Molly. "Don't gotta tell me twice." Quick was good. She didn't want to find out what 'if you die, you won't' meant.

~*~
Molly watched as Kash and River retrieved the helmet. She hoped it would go smoothly, but knowing the odds when she was on a mission with Harry, they would likely get their asses handed to them. The best they could do was help Stephen. Molly thought that it was the influence of the helmet, like the Denarians whispering what he wanted or needed to hear. That was her theory going into this, it might blow up in her and Corbie’s face once in his mind.

As they approached Stephen, Molly leaned in to whisper to Corbie. “I’ll project an image so that he won’t see, but we’ll need to move fast to get into his mindscape. I can’t do mind magic and keep the projection going. Once inside can you manipulate what he sees and I can let the image down.” Molly assumed that Stephens concentration would be on keeping them from breaking the connection once they got going but until then, distraction was a good plan.

Corbie was doing her best not to get freaked out. She knew--she'd had it drilled into her--that a wizard had to be able to concentrate like they were made of stone. If she were distracted, her magic wouldn't do what she needed.

She knew her theory. She'd been taught oneiromancy, some anyway. She could visualize, and she was clever. Molly already knew Corbie wasn't as experienced as she was. And at the heart of it, they had to help this kid. She had to do what she could. Even if dreamwalking was dangerous as shit and Felix had warned her away from it.

"From the inside.. yeah. I'm not gonna promise anything fancy," she said. "But I'll do my best."

Molly gave her an encouraging smile before giving Stephen the image of the helmet still in the alcove and an empty church around him. It was an easy enough illusion to maintain before going into his mind. "Okay, let's do this." She knew that Stephen wasn't a bad kid, she recognized insecurity and not knowing how to handle the power that you suddenly find yourself having. She pulled on all of her kinetic energy since there weren't ley lines to connect to and stepped into Stephen's mindscape.

While Molly's center in a soulgaze might look like the bridge of the Enterprise, Stephen's mindscape looked like the inside of a home. Molly found herself in what looked like a family room. There was a sofa, side table with comfortable seating chairs for guests in various places around the room. If Molly had to guess, it was a pretty good representation of the home where Stephen felt the most comfortable. The only difference was that it seemed to be a mashup of a room and an Escher drawing. Yeah, this was going to be a bit more complicated than she thought. But the good news was that in the room there were plant like tendrils wrapping and growing around the contents of the room. While that might not seem like a good thing, it proved that there was a physical connection that they could try to break through as they reached Stephen.

Corbie had heard about Felix's mental construct of Melusine and the shared construct of the Khloidanikos, but she'd never heard of anything so... disorganized as this. Was something like this what her own head had looked like, before she'd been taught anything? Oh, baby...

It did mean, though, that if he fought back--and she prayed to the Lady that he wouldn't, because it was still his head even if he didn't know quite what to do--they weren't completely fucked right away. Hopefully.

It was her turn to do magic, now, and she took over the illusion, gently nudging their surroundings with her power. She tried to balance the touch of her magic between firm and gentle, as soft as she could manage. No time anymore to worry if she could do this well or not, she had to just do it.

Molly could feel the moment that Corbie took over the illusion and she began to get to work on the tendrils. She had no idea what was going on in the physical world around Stephen, she just hoped that they wouldn't be interrupted by someone. Getting kicked out or having to leave quickly, especially in the twisted, warped mindscape would not be fun.

"Right, time to get to work. Corbie, there will probably be resistance once I start pulling and untangling the tendrils. It shouldn't be much but keep an eye out for anything." Molly gave her fair warning before beginning to pull on the tendrils. She reached out with her magic and rather than cut through them, Molly began to untwist them, hoping to subtly begin the transformation.

It worked, until it didn't and Stephen or the ancient magic connected to the helmet began to notice the disconnect and saw it as a threat. The tendrils that Molly had carefully undone began to weave and mold themselves into a plant creature that began to stalk her movements. She didn't even notice it until one of the tendrils whipped out and cut at the back of her leg.

"Son of a bitch."

Plant spiders. Fucking plant spiders

~*~
It was a very good thing that she wasn’t afraid of the dark as the power of the helmet felt a danger in the connection between the boy and it. The tendrils were becoming tenuous and that couldn’t happen. It wasn’t going to be discarded as it had been the last century. This boy was powerful and the magic in the helmet knew it as they both resisted the changes, Stephen and the helmet worked in tandem against the outside forces.

In the dank and dark of the catacombs, reality began to bend and warp, much more than it had before. In the darkness ahead of them, just outside the reach of the light there was a thump, thump, thump that became louder as it drew closer. If their eyes adjusted to the gloom of the catacombs, just in front of the flashlight they would be able to make out something white. Added to that, there were distinct sounds of snikt as metal swords were being drawn by a forgotten army.

"So much for stealth."

Not that Kash was ever especially stealthy in full plate mail carrying his shadow spear and sentinel shield, but they'd been found, sure enough. And if they'd been found, no sense pretending they weren't there or using a torch for light. With a glance to his side where River was, Kash muttered, "Time to throw a little more light on the subject," spoke the words of his light cantrip, and instantly his shield blazed with light.
"Handy," she tucked her flashlight into it's place and came out with not her blaster but the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. It whined and glowed blue for a moment and she frowned as she traded it for the blaster this time. "Not living whatever it is."

Into the blaze of light stepped an army of skeletons carrying the weapons that they had with them when they'd died, swords and shields. They weren't truly the dead risen from the graves beneath the church.but the bend of reality to be wielded by powerful magic. To those seeing them, they were very real and very dangerous. Combatants that couldn't be killed as they were already dead. But they could be destroyed. One just had to hope that they weren't like a Hydra. One destroyed, six in their place.

The leader of the skeleton army, raised his sword to halt his brethren. They halted at his command and eyed their opponents, waiting for the signal to move forward. With a flourish of his sword to signal them, almost as one, the first of the line moved forward in their attack.

For a few heartbeats, Kash's stomach turned. He had an uneasy relationship with undead on the best of days. Today? Not one of those days. Moving into range, he gripped his symbol and channeled to Destroy Undead. For this, especially, he tried to focus on the magic of Life, channel Life, rather than Vesh, but as ever, the glow of magic around the skeleton army was limned in black that seemed to fight it for control.

The ancient magic hadn't been prepared for such a skilled attack from their opponents. It wouldn't underestimate them again. While half of the skeletal army lay scattered on the ground among their brethren, the others began to emit a hazy yellow glow around them as they continued to advance. The glow only lasted for a moment and could be easily mistaken for a trick of light, except that it wasn't. Their swords were lowered in preparation of battle and when the young mage, for that's how he was viewed by the magic within the helmet, cast the same spell, the skulls were perceived to smile with hidden knowledge. They continued to move forward, for they had adapted so that ancient magic would continue to survive into the next millennium and beyond. With each new attack they and others that followed would learn, adapt and advance.

If she wasn't a lady she might swear. Don't laugh she's absolutely a lady.

Right this second she was a lady who was adding things up, and as the second cast of Kash's spell failed to stop the advance she actually did swear, quietly though. Under her breath.

"Smart buggers," learning the way Cybermen did how to protect against an attack. Science wasn't quite the same as magic so she pulled out her blaster and fired at the closest few in quick succession to see if they had shielded against everything or just his spell.

The ancient magic wasn't expecting anything but a magical attack. It should have, it had lived through ages where magic wasn't practiced, but when the young mage attacked, it assumed the woman was magical, too. The last of the skeletons were decimated by her blaster, however the magic, learned and adapted for its survival. Lucky for Kash and River, its attention was suddenly focused elsewhere. He could feel a magical presence pulling at the tendrils wrapped around his 'lifeline'. The bond wasn't as strong and it would have to deal with the weakening and return to strengthen. The boy was more important than the nuisance warrior and mage.

~*~

Corbie's options were limited if she wanted to focus her attention on not getting them kicked the fuck out--Lady she didn't want to find out what happened in that situation--but with Molly thrown off by the sting and potentially open to attack she had to do something. She sent a nudge through the ground beneath them, shoving the plant abomination back before it could attack Molly again.

The focus that Molly had lost with the attack was back with laser precision thanks to Corbie's efforts. The attack also pissed her the hell off. The boy was scared and lashing out, that she got, but the ancient magic that was behind it, did it with malice and glee. It was using the boy like the coins used their hosts and that got Molly's knickers all twisted up. Before she went into protection mode even more than before, she tossed off a thanks to Corbie. Her efforts doubled after that, moving in and she took no prisoners. When she got closer to the center, closer to the scared boy that Stephen was, Molly reached out to him. She changed her appearance with an illusion so her tattoos were missing and she looked more like the daughter of a Knight of the Cross would be expected to look. "Hi, don't be scared. I'm here to help you with what's been going on. I know it's scary to suddenly find yourself being able to do stuff no one else can. Like a superhero suddenly getting powers."

"Are you an angel?" Stephen thought maybe he was getting a visit from one at the church.

Molly didn't want to lie so she evaded with the truth, "my father works for God and angels guard where we live." Well they did since the war and her father's hospital stay. That counted right? That seemed to do the trick and she could feel the tension ease from their surroundings. The mindscape was the same but a little less frightening and twisting. She wished that she could send thoughts to Kash and River to let them know backlash was coming their way. The ties were cut and the ancient magic wouldn't be happy.

Well. That was a story Corbie would have to ask about later. But for now, she kept quiet and unobtrusive, keeping an eye on their surroundings. The straightening out of the environment was encouraging, but they weren't out of danger until they were the fuck out of here. Technically, yes, from this position they had the ability to do whatever they wanted to this boy... but it was his mind. It was like any other dream. If you 'woke up' enough to take control of it, and intruders were likely screwed.

The dangers were well known to Molly and she kept an eye out for any backlash from the ancient magic as the tendrils continued to separate. Stephen seemed to be okay with intruders and Molly thought it had more to do with being used to another presence there than it had to do with it being her and Corbie. "I'm appearing to you like this in your mind because I wasn't sure you were ready to see me in person."

Molly felt Stephen tense at that and quickly went on to reassure him. "I'm here for you to help but the choice has to be yours. If you don't want to, then I'll let you alone, but if you're tired of everything. Of how you feel, of the nightmares that you have because you can't remember if you did something or dreamed it, I can help you with that. What you can do is amazing and you're really special, but you need someone to help you control it. Someone you can talk to face to face. I'll start you on that road, if you want."

Stephen wasn't too sure but he was tired of having dreams that felt real and he couldn't tell them apart from reality when he woke up. "Okay. I'll give it a try. But if I want to stop you have to stop. Deal?"

"Deal." Molly didn't even hesitate in agreeing. She knew they'd have to get out of there before the ancient magic made one last attempt with Stephen's acceptance to hold onto him and throw their asses out. "See you on the outside" She'd said it to Stephen but it was meant for Corbie.

~*~

When the skeletons didn't rise and nothing else came out of the dark at them, Kash turned to River and said, "They must've got their hooks into him. The sooner we can do our part, the better." They'd made it exactly ten steps when from behind him, he heard the pile of bones rattling and re-assembling themselves.

He turned around to face the direction they'd come. "Sonuvabitch." A skeletal dragon stalked them. It stared them down, using its Frightful Presence attack. Kash felt it trying to take hold, but shook it off. "Looks worse than it is," he called to River. A lie, but one that might help her resist being paralyzed with fear.

Fuck this noise. Kash grabbed his symbol and called down a Fire Storm. Ten sheets of roaring flame boxed in the dragon. It tried to duck aside, but there was nowhere for it to go. On all sides, the fire licked at its form, charring the bone, but it didn't stop the advance.

River didn't hear him, she didn't see the dragon. Instead the noise she heard was a quiet clicking and when she turned there were the Silence coming out of the dark. She didn't even hesitate to fire her blaster at the one in the lead, then the next but there were more filling the shadows.

Great. Flanked by things he didn't know but River needed to fight more than a bone dragon and a bone dragon. He got his back to hers the best he could and cast a Flame Strike. Cubic sheets of flame disappeared, replaced by a a forty foot column of flame and radiance. The creature gathered itself and leaped sideways, avoiding the worst of the blast. Kash cursed and then raised his shield against the incoming strikes.

You always fought the things that scared you first, didn't you? And the SIlence scared her, she wouldn't remember that when they were gone, she wouldn't even remember them but deep inside her where she was once a frightened little girl the terror would survive.

She glanced at Kash and he seemed to be handling himself well so she focused on the Silence, ducking behind an outcropping for cover as she fired. They fired back but missed hitting anything vital, glancing back at the stone entrance to the crevice where the artifact needed to go she was pleased to note that they were getting closer. And that nothing seemed to be coming from behind them.
She fired again and two more Silence fell.

His ties to the child, his power, grew significantly weaker and the ancient couldn't get it back. The anger and frustration built, but it couldn't go anywhere, but it would simmer and wait. He would find a power again. It was a vow. For now, his anger and frustration had a target, the focus returned to the two in front of him. As he began to burrow deeper into their fear, to pull their deepest monsters to the surface, he felt the snap of his ties to the child and he silently howled in anger. In between one breath and the next, the Silence fell and the skeletal dragon went up in flames only ashes remained. The vow burned, the ancient would regain its power and he would find the blonde that broke its ties. Or her descendants, no matter how long it took.

~*~

Molly had kept the illusion going of how she'd appeared to Stephen in his mindscape when they met physically, so that he'd be more comfortable in their presence. When he looked over at Corbie, Molly had explained that she was there to help, like her. Rather than leave him with the assumption that they were angels, she'd carefully explained that they were magical. "You ready to learn how to control your power?" She asked him with a grin. "It's pretty cool when you learn you can do stuff and it's also scary. Corbie and I are going to help you over the scary parts, so you can have more of the cool times."

Stephen's gaze had flicked between the two girls, not really sure that he trusted them, but they'd offered to help with the missed time and the scary feeling that something had happened that he'd dreamed about. That was more than the spirit behind the helmet had. "I guess so."

She looked at Corbie, "ready to pass on the knowledge of control and how to not use it when people piss you off?" Yeah, Molly was still struggling with the last part herself.

Corbie in all honesty wasn't sure how comfortable she felt with mentoring anybody this soon into her magical career. She was so new, and she knew so little.

But as far as the part where you didn't use your power to fuck up other people? That didn't take having magic to talk about. That was something anybody who'd been beaten or bullied or used could speak to. It was a heady thing, to go from having no power to having a lot of it, and if Gran hadn't grounded her right away with every blood curdling story about warlocks she'd ever heard, then Felix had done it with the story of what he'd done to Isaac Garamond.

But Stephen was just a kid. She didn't have to get into that much. But she had no trouble with the idea of impressing upon him that using his magic against people who couldn't handle it was no better than punching someone smaller than you.

"I'm ready."

~*~

The banishment spell died on Kash's lips unspoken, but he whirled, looking for the source of the flames, heart leaping into his throat. But no...not Z. He swallowed the grief that came with it, stowed it away and kept looking. Seeing nothing, he upchinned at River. "You see anything?"

"Just you handsome," because obviously now was the time to flirt with the man who didn't actually understand flirting. "And the deep dark hole where this thing will live out its days."

She unhooked the sack holding the artifact from her belt and moved cautiously toward the alcove before tucking it inside. "You wouldn't happen to have a spell for bricking this thing in would you? My blaster is handy but it doesn't do tidy cave ins."

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled, not bothered by her flirtation, since it was going nowhere, but not willing to let her know that.

He moved over toward the alcove to see what she was looking at, ran his hand over the wall, tapped on it. "If you can chip off the brick, I can mold it into the stone." It might possible to get it out, but it would take a hell of a wizard to do it.

She likely knew it was going nowhere, and didn't care. Flirting was a bit like breathing for her. Besides it was fun, he reminded her a bit of the Doctor with his grumpy non-flirt response. It made her a bit homesick if she was honest. Not that she had a home strictly speaking. A bit TARDIS sick?

She checked her blaster settings, turning down the yield and power a bit so that they didn't end up in a massive cave in and aimed for a bit of wall, it rapidly became a bit of rubble.

"That thing is handy," Kash observed as she reduced the brick to so many shards. When she'd finished, he took hold of his symbol and cast Stone Shape, directing the stone to mold around and mesh with the artifact until they were very nearly indistinguishable from each other. He backed away then, and told her, "We're good."

"That thing is pretty handy as well," she pointed out moving away from the alcove and making her way back toward where they had entered the catacombs. "Something tells me the others succeeded."

"That thing doesn't do anything. It's a focus." If he seemed sharp it wasn't her. He didn't want anyone thinking Vesh could be accessed and used. They'd die.

He jerked his head toward the exit and said, "Best we go and find them."

She arched a brow at his tone but didn't comment, snappish men where not new to her, nor were ones with secrets.

"I'm right behind you."

~*~

It had been a couple of days since they’d left Stephen and Molly felt responsible for him, not in the helmet ancient magic way, but in the Harry felt responsible for her way. She hated that she wouldn’t be able to see this through and help him navigate the waters. Molly wasn’t about to do that. The Inn didn’t give her a choice in a lot of things. Hell, life didn’t give her a choice in a lot of things, but this, she would be damned if she’d leave Stephen to face this alone.

Unfortunately, she didn’t know what to do about it since she knew firsthand that once time was up in the other world, you got kicked out. She didn’t even know how much time was left. It also wasn’t like he would be on his own. His aunt was there and taking care of him. She would be there for him, but she wouldn’t be able to understand the challenges of keeping the power in check and not giving in and taking the easy way.

What he needed was a little angel on his shoulder. Molly blinked. Damn, she was good and she hadn’t even meant to be, but it was perfect. It wouldn’t literally be an angel and some would argue it would be a little demon. She didn’t want to think what her dad would think about getting an idea from a Denarian. She’d leave just a little bit of her soul to live in his mindscape to be Jiminy Cricket and to help him.

She’d told Stephen what she was going to do, if he agreed of course. It would have to be their secret, no one could know what she’d done, not even his Aunt. Leaving a bit of her soul was very complicated magic, but that wasn’t the real reason. Molly was literally leaving a bit of herself and like leaving nail clippings or hair, it could be very dangerous to her. She had no idea what it would do to her if something should happen to Stephen or to his ‘angel’ in this world. Would it have repercussions on her at the Inn or even if she went back home? What would happen to Stephen when if she became the Winter Lady? What would happen to the soul if his mind or body rejected her? Everything was a crap shoot, but it was one that Molly was willing to try, if Stephen was. Her soul would grow back, so that was the least of the issues

Stephen wasn’t just okay with the idea, he was very excited that he would have someone to talk to. He understood the importance of their secret and they made a blood oath, each cut their hands and mingled their blood. Molly had done it for effect for Stephen, but it had the added bonus of Molly’s blood merged with his, which would tie her soul even tighter to him.

“Okay. Ready?” Molly smiled, her cut hand reached up to gently touch the side of his head. “I’ll go into your mindscape like before and do the spell there. It will be over in a minute and you might not feel anything at first. I’m not sure how long it will take for it to take hold.” She told him honestly.

“Yep, let’s do this. I’m ready, I swear.” He closed his eyes and waited, not sure what to expect.

Molly entered the familiar territory of Stephen’s mind and marveled at how much the twisted rooms had calmed to reflect a more normal house now. She wasn’t sure how much the former had been the helmet’s influence or how much it had been Stephen’s. It didn’t take long to get to the ‘heart’ of the mindscape and Molly began the spell. The pull of the bit of her soul leaving her, felt like an icepick at her temple. That wasn’t expected, but Molly easily ignored it. You did what you had to do to get the job done. You could deal with the pain and exhaustion later.

She felt another’s presence, a familiar presence and turned to see a version of herself. “Well, that’s not creepy but kinda cool at all.” Molly muttered. “Do you feel a connection with Stephen?”

The other Molly nodded, “yeah, we’re good. The blood tie worked, I can even read his thoughts and not just his emotions. Let’s see if this is gonna work. Hey, Stephen. You okay with me as a passenger along for the ride?”

“Hell yeah!” Came the immediate response that both Mollys could hear.

Molly snickered, “I think my cussing might have rubbed off.”

The other Molly smirked, “or mine did.”