The Strangers of Precedent

Hecate woke long before dawn, almost comforted by the darkness outside after the incident with Ripper a few weeks before.

And she gave him a name, not the name, of course, but who knew how he was going to use what she gave him?

She dressed and left for work, still rolling over those problems as she walked the path.

It wasn’t completely Bobbi’s fault for getting possessed. Ripper was an older demon than Hecate and far better trained in making deals. Syren had just enough experience to know better, and Singe was…

Singe was too straightforward to be convinced of anything outside of his plans. He’d confirmed that when he refused membership.

She still couldn’t forgive Bobbi for letting Ripper into their midst, and for what? What deal could be worth risking the rest of them?

Hecate had let him into their midst though. She was the one who sent Shifter off in exchange for questions, and Shifter was everyone’s little informant, at least around that particular group.

She punched one of the thicker trees, lodging her fist in the trunk. She pulled most of the splinters out as she made it into the school grounds, ready to ignore her own problems in work.

And the work mostly worked, at least for an hour or so focused on making sure everything was just right and swept up. She generally stayed to the outside, with the insides of the buildings being another’s job, though she did have keys just in case.

“Whatever comes only has as much time to prepare as we do,” she reminded herself, “And perhaps by then we’ll have our librarian-to-be in our number.”

Or lose the vampire. Shifter may have done irreparable damage to Syren, so who knew what would happen to her? If Thoth and Frank didn’t figure out their relationship, they may all be in grave danger.

“The best part of this place was that I didn’t have to deal with anymore of my kind,” she complained to the rosebush, “But no, they had to find me before anyone from—”

“Is that a griffon!?” someone asked. There must have been a shapeshifter testing their limits around the courtyard. Dealing with students was pointedly not her job, but she warranted a stare. She’d seen griffons before, though where she’d met them called them irfin.

The front half had violet-black feathers and the long beak of a vum irfin. The back half, with a tail pointed up and deep black feathers also fit the breed.

That was a true irfin, and its rider caught her staring.

“You there,” they said in a language Hecate had only heard from herself in past centuries, “Why were you watching me?”

Hecate backed away. She hadn’t left Raosi at a good time, and she doubted their memories of her were fond at this point.

People were watching her and the irfin. People weren’t supposed to watch her so closely. Crimson hair like her own wasn’t supposed to look out of place among this crowd, but of course a creature even mages thought mythical would stride up toward her.

She tripped backwards as the beast trampled her rosebushes.

“Those were important.” she complained.

“You speak Raosi?” the rider asked.

She hadn’t even realized, but that was what she usually spoke while muttering to herself.

“Yes,” she admitted, “What brings you here?”

With that they rode past her. She was almost glad to be ignored.

“What language was that?” Bobbi asked, coming up next to her as she watched the irfin leave into the near forest.

“Are you not going to ask about the griffon?”

“I’ve been nearly eaten by vampires and fully possessed by a demon in the past six months, so nothing’s surprising. That was not a language I’ve heard before, and I know a lot of languages.”

“A lot?”

“It’s a hobby,” she justified, “So what language was that?”

“Not one I expect to be useful for you,” Hecate answered.

“Well all languages are useful, even if you aren’t likely to meet another speaker, but it looks like you speak their language well enough, so I know at least one speaker.”

Hecate continued to watch the irfin.

“I’m fluent in English, so you have no concerns.”

“I mean, I’d like to know the language,” Bobbi said.

“And I like my privacy. If you don’t respect that, then you are a hypocrite.”

Bobbi seemed to shrink a little.

“I respect it.”

“Good.”

She stared the small woman down until she finally left with the rising of the sun. The irfin and its rider similarly took the cue to ride into the air and disappear to another world.

“What secret did you carry that you come all the way here to avoid being tracked?”

She’d heard of the method before. Go to another world for a short time to avoid being tracked when carrying important messages, but she’d never ridden an irfin with the intent to carry a message.

The next time the rider appeared, Hecate was much more alone outside. This time her curiosity won over self-preservation.

“When do you intend to return?” she asked.

This time the irfin and rider backed away from her. She felt better in that moment. She put a vowing hand up.

“I have not, and will not, intentionally share anything that may harm Raosi or any of its kingdoms.”

“Your accent is Veciran,” they said, “Who taught you.”

“Several books, read in the city of warriors itself. You sound Ribisian.”

“I’m from Vecira.”

“Then do you work under the Scholar?” she asked.

“All messengers work under the Scholar.”

“Does that mean you’re a messenger?”

They walked past her again.

“Don’t trample the plants. I need them usable.”

They went around the plants as they left.

She noticed eyes—felt eyes—watching the Raosi as they moved through the forest to get to their next stop. No students were watching, which meant something much more sinister.

“There is a potential problem,” she admitted to Thoth. “That’s already happened twice.”

“We have too many of those,” Thoth closed his book, “What would it be in this case?”

“A Raosi is using us as a stop while carrying a message.”

“And what is a Raosi?”

She was glad for the reminder Thoth didn’t know everything he made himself out to.

“One of the seven high races.”

“Could Ms. Fayner be one of them?”

Hecate laughed.

“No, she’s too pale to be Raosi, and too small. They’re all around my size.” she put a measuring hand next to herself.

“Definitely not Bobbi then, so what is the concern of this person coming here? It’s a free country.”

“A free country with vampires roaming it,” Hecate said, “Do you know what could happen if a vampire consumed Raosi blood?”

“No…”

“Neither do I, but it can’t be good. They’re physically the strongest of the high races, by a wide margin, and they wouldn’t know what a vampire is.”

“Then tell them. If they’re that strong, they should make quick work out of them, save us the energy.”

“I would not advise having me talk to them.”

“You’re the only one with understanding of this matter,” Thoth insisted.

“They’re from Vecira,” Hecate revealed.

Thoth made a gesture for her to keep going.

“I have history in Vecira, obvious history with how I look.”

“What did you do to Vecira?” he asked.

Hecate shook her head.

“I ran away.”

Thoth’s eyes widened. Whether or not he understood, he would at least accept that this was a problem to worry about.

“Tell them about the vampires. There’s no other way around it. Assuming Raosi smell like food, the brotherhood has probably memorized their route. They’ll have an ambush prepared for next time.”

“That’s a lot of credit you give them.”

“Better too much credit than an underestimation. We can’t risk them causing danger to the student body.”

Hecate nodded.

“And don’t tell anyone else about this if you can help it, I want damage minimal.”

Hecate made a sealing motion around her lips, and left the premises.

The third occasion happened far too soon. Hecate swallowed her fear and walked up toward them.

“There’s something you must know—”

“I don’t have time,” the Raosi said, moving forward. This wasn’t going to end well.

“There are vampires on this world, in this near area in fact, and they may feed on you, be cautious.”

“I don’t have time for caution.”

The irfin sped into a gallop in the same direction as usual. Hecate wiped her hands clean of the affair. She’d given a warning, and if they couldn’t fight off a hoard of vampires, could they really call themself Veciran?

They could if they were just a messenger. Not everyone from Vecira learned to fight.

She focused harder on sweeping up the leaves.

The screech had her running before she understood what was happening.

The irfin was down, with a giant tear in its wing. Where was its rider?

“It’s her,” a voice said from the shadow before several voices covered it with hushes. She walked in their direction, spotting a group in once extravagant clothes that had been made shoddy, holding down a bleeding Raosi. They turned to her, hunger in their eyes.

Hecate held her hands up.

“Remember you still can’t feed on me.”

One in a shabby dress grabbed Hecate’s arm, gripping too strongly for her to pull away.

“Not so tough now that we’ve fed, are you?” she pulled Hecate to watch the others feed from the Raosi.

Hecate gave the other arm a shake, letting her dagger fall out of the bone spiral she’d had around her forearm for years.

She stabbed her captor in the arm to free up the other arm enough to get the second dagger out. Then she stabbed the vampire woman through the heart. It wouldn’t be enough to kill something like her, but it would serve its purpose.

“They’re under my protection,” she said, pointing the daggers at the stunned onlookers. “You don’t want to know my vengeance.”

They all rushed her. She stabbed the first one to make it, leaving her with a nasty scrape on her forearm and one less dagger.

The next two grabbed her arms, but the one on the scraped arm immediately pulled away upon making contact with her blood.

She used the freedom to swing with her dagger at the other, but it was interrupted by another one taking the shot, pulling the dagger with them as they went down.

“You’re out of weapons,” the vampire on her uninjured side said. She swung her arm again so the blood touched his face. He screamed as he pushed away.

She looked over them all.

“My protection,” she said again.

She pulled the daggers out of the ones on the ground before picking up the Raosi.

“Tell your allies that next time I won’t be merciful.”

The ones still standing quickly ran away from her. She stomped on the ones on the ground to make sure the message got through.

Once she returned to the irfin, she saw, beyond any doubt, Bobbi petting its beak like it was an old friend, the irfin’s head on her lap.

“What are you doing out here?”

There was no one accompanying her either. That was two non-humans Hecate had to keep from vampires now.

“It screeched, so I ran over here, and the rider was gone, so I figured it was smarter to stay with it than get lost when there could be vampires anywhere.” Bobbi finally noticed the well-consumed Raosi, covering her mouth.

“Are they alright?”

“No. There were vampires. Is there any damage to the irfin aside from the wing?”

Bobbi looked the irfin in the eyes.

“Are you okay to take them?”

After a few clicks, Bobbi stood up, with the irfin following her lead.

“You can put them on, it’ll be okay.”

Hecate was glad to relieve herself of the weight as she set the Raosi on the irfin’s back. She moved to grab the rein and nearly had a chunk of her hand bitten off.

“I can’t help if you don’t let me guide you.”

“I can follow you,” Bobbi said.

“That doesn’t help with the irfin.”

Bobbi took the reins without any protest from the creature.

“We’re going to follow her so you and your rider can heal up.”

Irfins didn’t respond to many but their masters, especially not one so small most of the time. What was so special about Bobbi to warrant such a privilege?

“Follow me.”

As Bobbi posted up the irfin, Hecate handled the Raosi’s injuries, leaving them on her couch.

“I take it our patient is rather lucky,” Bobbi said as she stepped in.

“They were attacked by vampires,” Hecate countered.

“Yeah,” Bobbi said, “But they’re alive. You saved them.”

“A team effort.”

They probably would have bled out if Hecate had to wrangle the irfin on her own.

“You have an uncanny effect on animals,” Hecate said.

“Well, I actually used to ride horses. My former foster parents ran a ranch. I still have an open invite to come and help with all the animals there.”

“And how similar is a horse to an irfin?”

Bobbi shrugged.

“They’re riding animals, I assume, so they’re trained to be on the move, and work with direction, though they’re usually picky about it.”

Hecate nodded.

“Were you warning him about the vampires before he rode away?” Bobbi asked, “I saw you talking to him, and I caught vampire, because you used the same word.”

Hecate nodded.

“Vampires have different abilities depending on the race of their blood source. It’s why your vampire is able to move through walls on djinn blood, and probably why the brotherhood is so interested in you.”

“My vampire?” Bobbi asked, “Do you mean Vlad?”

Hecate’s eyes widened. The closest Drake had come to permitting someone to use his first name was Singe calling him by first initial after explaining what Drake meant in his culture.

“When did you start calling him that?”

“What? Vlad? He said he liked it when I called him by that name, so it’s what I’ve been using. Maybe I should only use it in private, but that feels weirder.”

“You must be special to him,” Hecate said, “What does he call you?”

“Bobbi, like everyone does, except for Thoth and Professor Monstro, but they call everyone by their last name.”

Hecate nodded. She’d certainly heard Frank make exceptions, but they were few.

“Are you comfortable here after last time you came to my cabin?”

Information had been gathered, and now she needed one less source of scrutiny.

“Sure, yeah. You’re one of them too, aren’t you? A De—”

Hecate held a fist up, closing Bobbi’s ability to finish her sentence. Bobbi watched her with slight fear.

“I’m already risking something by having a Raosi in my home. You don’t need to share all my secrets.”

Raosi didn’t call them Demons, of course, but plenty would recognize the term. The last thing she needed was Raosi knowing where she was. It was bad enough the demons knew.

“Is it bad for them to know what you are?”

“Your interactions with my kind haven’t been pleasant, and they terrorized this one’s home for centuries. Grudges that old, especially justified, don’t disappear that easily.”

Bobbi stepped closer, trying to give Hecate further scrutiny.

“Why do you have so many problems with what you are?” Bobbi asked.

“I could ask the same of you, given all that you hide. Tell me, does your vampire have any idea what you might be? You’ve told him more than you’ve told anyone.”

She’d pushed just enough into Bobbi’s memories to scare her, and it did its job. Bobbi backed away.

“I’ll be back to check on the griffon—”

“Irfin.”

“Once I’m out of classes tomorrow.”

“Excellent plan.”

Hecate took the next day off so she could stay and watch over her patient. She hummed a Veciran tune, unable to say aloud so many words that weren’t true to her, but the story stayed fresh.

The song spoke of a Raosi meeting a pale stranger on the road and offering them a ride. The Raosi asked questions of the stranger about who or what they might be, each time a different race, and the stranger responded in riddles. The final stanza spoke of how to tell your companion was a demon, which the stranger clearly was.

“And finally I know your kind, for all you’ve said are lies, and your lies are made of truth,” the Raosi finished.

“You know the song,” Hecate noticed.

“It’s hammered into every messenger’s skull. How to know which race you speak to.”

Hecate nodded. She’d chosen a dangerous song to remind her patient of.

“I assume you’ll leave now that you have enough consciousness. Vecira can surely heal you better than anything I have here.”

They leaned up to get a look at her.

“What is your name?”

Hecate stopped her expression from turning to fear.

“Do you really have the time to ask that?” she asked.

The messenger reached into their pocket, with a sudden look of terror.

“Your weapon is on the table next to you.”

If they knew she was here, then they’d never appear here again, and she’d be safe. She’d live with injuries if that was the case.

“You speak like a Veciran, and you refuse to give your name.”

“I am called Sarah. You may call me that.”

“I’ll call you traitor.”

So that’s what she was now. The term hurt no matter how much she’d expected it.

“I told you when we first spoke. I have done nothing to intentionally harm Raosi, especially Vecira.”

“Liar!”

They stood up, pointing their weapon at her. She held herself from the instinct to pull out her daggers. She didn’t want them calling her a thief too.

“You know my kind can’t lie as boldly as that.”

They stumbled past the couch to be closer to her in the kitchen, still pointing their weapon at her.

“You aren’t completely your kind. It’s why your height didn’t give you away.”

She had made a point of not sharing that knowledge when she was in Vecira. There were only three people she’d trusted with her heritage, and there was no way of knowing which of the other two shared it.

“Did the scholar record that?”

Finally a shallow stab, near her collarbone.

“Did you set your vampires upon me? I heard you speak of them while I was recovering.”

She’d mentioned Drake too many times.

“Do you think I’m enough a fool to bring you to my home if it didn’t mean your life? Surely I wasn’t described so insultingly.”

She blocked the next attempt with her hand, accepting the pain it caused.

“What the hell!?” Bobbi asked from the doorway.

“Run,” the messenger said. “She’s dangerous!”

Bobbi didn’t understand the language, but she had to understand a warning.

“I know a goddamn threat when I hear one,” Bobbi said, not taking the bait. Why couldn’t she be a coward?

Bobbi calmly walked to where the irfin was tacked and released it.

“Your master is well,” she said, “Take them where you were going.”

The irfin rushed through the doorway to Raosi, then it saw its master was in a fight.

Hecate had imagined the pain of an irfin’s talons many a time, but she’d never done it justice.

The creature scraped down her chest as it pushed her off, the knife pulling out of her hand as the messenger stood their ground.

“No!” Bobbi screamed as irfin and rider left the cabin at full speed.

In moments, Bobbi was at Hecate’s side.

“Are you okay? Sorry—shit that’s a lot of blood.”

Hecate pushed herself back up, leaning over so now her skirt and floor were getting covered in blood.

“It is,” Hecate confirmed, “It is a lot of blood.”

“It’s probably going to get infected too,” Bobbi said, “Those claws were hardly sanitary.”

Bobbi talked too much for seeing someone bleed enough to be permanently injured.

Hecate pulled herself up by the counter.

“I’ll be fine in a few weeks.”

“A few weeks?”

“Cuts this deep don’t heal very fast. I’ll survive, but it will hurt.”

“Are you not going to go to the hospital?”

Hecate shook her head, already adjusting to the pain.

“You should have asked that in the first place. No, I won’t be going to a hospital. They would be too confused by me to actually offer treatment.

She pulled her sleeve back to reveal the swirling growth of bone around her forearm, then pulled her hair back to reveal the diadem protruding from her forehead.

“What the hell?”

“They’d try to remove these, and my bone is stronger than their tools. Everyone’s time would be wasted.”

Hecate leaned back on the counter.

“You should have run like they told you to,” she said.

Bobbi’s involvement would change their response, inevitably.

“I’m sorry about the irfin, but they were trying to kill you.”

“Incapacitate me,” Hecate corrected, “Though the blows would be the same I suppose. My kind are immortal, and theirs hold a grudge.”

“So you were just going to take it because your people fucked theirs over? Were you even involved?”

Hecate nodded.

“That’s not why I’m worth harming like that. I visited Vecira, lived there, for years before coming to Earth, but when I left, I ran.”

“From what?”

“From many things, but most importantly I ran when Vecira was in trouble. By their consideration, I broke my vow.”

“What vow?”

Hecate shook her head.

“That is unimportant. The reason you should have left is because on my own, the message would have been to avoid earth, or any area on earth following the description of where we are, because the Demon of Vecira still lives, but with you here…”

“With me here?”

“With you here, the Demon of Vecira lives, and has manipulated someone who controls animals to do her bidding.”

Bobbi snorted.

“You couldn’t order me around.”

“I could,” Hecate revealed, “But I have better things to do than control a confused girl, morals aside.”

Bobbi’s expression seemed insulted.

“Don’t worry, I’ll need to plan for when they inevitably come to destroy me so I cause less damage. For that plan, I need you to prove I’m not controlling you.”

“And how am I supposed to explain that?”

“By getting your wish: I’m going to teach you Raosi.”

“What?” Bobbi asked.

“And I expect you to be a quick study considering your bragging about polyglottism.”

Bobbi nodded.

“When? How?”

“After I recover. I’ll figure out how then. Now leave me alone. I need solitude.”

“While you’re bleeding?”

“Yes, while I’m bleeding, if you please.”

Bobbi backed away.

“I’m telling someone about this.”

“Tell Thoth, and let him know I need a few days off.”

“Okay!”

Hecate waited for more commentary, but luckily none came as Bobbi left the house. If Hecate were less injured, she would insist on walking her out to keep her safe.

“Given that reaction,” Hecate muttered, “I’ll never be able to return.”

Thoth watched it all go up in flame. His new home, just like his first.

“Not again.”

“Knock him cold. Otherwise he’ll come back like a cockroach,” Dick said. Thoth had helped this man, let him be their face to protect all their kind, and this was how he was repaid.

“Why do we have to kill him?” Syren asked, her voice stinging far worse than the smoke in Thoth’s eyes.

“Fine, my dear, we’ll give him the option to survive if he wants.”

“He doesn’t care about you, Syren.” Thoth insisted, “Please, you’re smarter than this.”

Syren shook her head.

“Smart enough not to trust you.”

With a knock to the head, Thoth saw no more than nightmares and memories.