Miriam D'Onofrio (lady_miriam) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2019-10-02 14:54:00 |
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Entry tags: | #december 2017, caius, caius x miriam, miriam |
Who: Caius and Miriam
When: early afternoon, Sunday, Dec 31st
Where: the D’Onofrio house
Status: Complete
The past few days had been beyond trying. Besides the destruction from the fog and the mysterious creatures it had brought with it, there was still Reagan’s situation to obsess over, and then a whole host of mundane work to do. New Years Eve was always a big deal at the marina, and Caius had been organizing and planning for the celebration for weeks, concurrently with Christmas preparations and all the other day-to-day nonsense that had to be dealt with. Most years it was kind of soothing, making sure everything was in place and running smoothly. It appealed to his perfectionism. This year? It felt like a hassle and a burden. He could at least be grateful that there hadn’t been any damage to the marina from the fog-beasts. Caius wasn’t sure if that had just been luck or protection from his father’s wards, but it was still a relief.
With everything going on, Caius hadn’t gotten a chance to see his mother except for briefly at the hospital. That had been chaotic and stressful too. He’d slept in some since he would be up to all hours of the night coordinating the festivities, but he gave himself some extra time for a visit before he had to go to the marina. Caius drove to Overlook to his parents’ house and let himself in. He’d called ahead and made sure Miriam knew he was coming so he wouldn’t disturb her, and once the door was shut and locked up again, he started to walk through the house to look for her.
Normally Miriam would be waist deep in the New Year’s preparations herself, but at this point most of the planning was done and all that was left was the execution of it all. Her role at this point was to attend the festivities, to be seen and do the social schmoozing that came with her husband’s position. Miriam was good at the planning, but even better at the soft skills, though this year she just wanted to stay home and relax. The past week had been exhausting both mentally and physically and she deserved a break. But that would have to wait a few more days. Things would die down in the first week of January and then she could rest.
She was in the kitchen when she heard the front door open and called out to Caius a moment later. His visit in the hospital had been short and she’d been a little bit out of it, partially from the drugs, but mostly from lack of sleep. Now that she was in top form again, she wanted to hear how he and Reagan were doing, but more importantly, she wanted to know if Anthony had said anything to him about what happened to her. The trick would be finding out without asking outright. Though it was mid-afternoon, Miriam was pouring herself a cup of coffee. “Would you like a cup?” She asked when Caius stepped into the room.
By the time he reached the kitchen, Caius had shed his outerwear, tucking his gloves into his coat and peeling it and a scarf off. He gave Miriam a grateful smile as he draped it all over one of the tall chairs by the kitchen island. “I’d love one,” he said. “It’s colder than hell out there.” Caius approached his mother and put a hand on the back of her shoulder as he leaned in to plant a kiss on her cheek. “How are you feeling?” he asked, backing up to give her room. Caius leaned against the edge of the counter and looked her over. She was up and moving around like she was fine, so he took that as a good sign.
“It’ll be even colder tonight,” Miriam said with a soft laugh, though she tensed when his hand landed on her shoulder. There was only the slightest twinge now, but she kept expecting that original piercing pain she’d felt when the monster’s claws scraped across her skin. “I’m much, much better,” she said. “All stitched up and your father’s got me on something for the pain.” The meds the doctor had sent home had been fine at first, but then her behavior had become erratic, so she’d opted for something a little less conventional. So far it seemed to be working. “How are you? How’s Reagan?” She had the vague feeling that he’d told her at the hospital, but she’d been a bit out of it. That whole day had been a blur.
It was definitely going to be a cold one, which was why Caius had arranged for as many outdoor heaters as he could find for the festivities at the marina. He could regulate the temperature of his own immediate vicinity pretty well even when he was distracted, so he never got too cold, but getting close to zero degrees was never comfortable. He didn’t notice how Miriam tensed. He watched her make coffee and loosely crossed his arms over his stomach. “I’m doing all right. Just tired and busy with everything,” he said with a sigh. “I’m happy the holiday season is almost over, I need to focus on Reagan’s problem. But I’m glad you’re feeling better. We’ve still got a decent supply of healing salve, if you want me to bring some.” Caius probably should’ve thought of that before he came over, but oh well.
“I think your father has a decent supply, but I’ll let you know if we start running short,” Miriam said, handing Caius his cup of coffee. Even if she knew Anthony wouldn’t likely give Caius the opportunity to help, she appreciated the offer. “Have you found any new leads on Reagan’s problem?” That was how Caius had referred to it, so Miriam followed suit. It was one of those things that she wanted to check in on, yet all she could do was talk. Why was it her son’s problems were always magical in nature? Sometimes she wondered if he’d have them if he wasn’t a witch. A great many benefits came from the power he held, but it also seemed like the greatest source of trouble in his life as well.
Caius knew that Anthony’s magic didn’t really trend toward healing, just like his own, but if his father was satisfied with what he had and it was helping, Caius wasn’t going to butt in. The stuff that Anthony had given Miriam might have even been Reagan’s, who knew. She’d gifted it around enough. He murmured a thanks as he accepted the coffee and took a grateful sip, then he had to sigh a bit. “No,” Caius answered, unable to keep from sounding a bit dejected by that. Defeat wasn’t something he wanted to show to either Reagan or his father, for obvious reasons, but gods he was so weary. The never-ending parade of bullshit had to stop sometime, right? “I’ve almost exhausted every resource I have available for research. I want to ... talk to Dad about it more when things are calmer overall.”
“I thought you’d talked to him already.” Miriam knew Caius didn’t like turning to his father for help, but Miriam knew that sometimes you had to set your pride aside to get the results you wanted. If Anthony knew of any options, even if they were less than ideal, she knew Caius would consider them. Sometimes she thought he might kill if Reagan needed him to. It was a worrisome thought and she hoped it was a line he’d never even have to consider crossing. “You know, your father doesn’t know everything. He thinks he does, but just because he doesn’t have a solution doesn’t mean there’s not one out there.”
“A bit, but I want to revisit it with him in more detail,” Caius told his mother. Part of him had a lingering suspicion that if he didn’t keep pushing, Anthony wouldn’t do anything to help. Caius didn’t know if he could, but multiple magical minds on a problem was better than just one. He still didn’t fully understand his father’s feelings about Reagan, but Caius needed his help now, that should be all that mattered. Miriam’s comment drew a little chuckle out of him, along with a brief but genuine smile. “You said it, not me,” he murmured, and took another swallow from his coffee mug. “But I know. There has to be a solution somewhere. We’ll find it. Reagan’s just suffering until we do.”
Miriam believed she had the right to speak honestly about her husband, at least to her son. As his wife, she thought she knew Anthony better than anyone else and if that wasn’t the case then she didn’t really care to find out. If there was another woman, well… it wouldn’t end well for either of them. But that thought hadn’t crossed her mind. Her thoughts were on Reagan’s problem, how she was suffering from a loss that so few people could even contemplate. Miriam took a sip of her coffee, both hands wrapped around the mug, enjoying its warmth. “What is it like?” she asked after a moment. “Can you actually feel the magic within you?” Was losing it like losing an arm? Or your sense of taste? She tried to imagine what it would be like if she could no longer feel things out with her mind. Would she miss it? She knew the answer was yes, even if she rarely used it, and from what she knew Reagan used her powers regularly.
Caius’s thick brows lifted a bit at the question. Miriam had never asked him much about his magic, leaving all of that sort of thing to Anthony. He had just figured that if his mother was curious about any of it, she would ask her husband instead of her child, but maybe he’d been wrong. Caius took another sip from his mug and gave his answer some thought. “I haven’t known anything different since puberty,” he pointed out. “But yes ... I feel like I can feel it, all the time. Just like, a constant low hum in my body that I know I can grab hold of and amplify and project outward, if that makes sense. Certain things make it feel stronger and like it takes up more of me. I can feel it in others too, if they have it. I can’t imagine not having it anymore, honestly.” It made his heart break for his new wife. He knew how much he’d struggled without his memories of her, he couldn’t imagine how badly it hurt not to have something so intrinsic taken away.
Though Miriam had always been curious about magic, Anthony had always been rather tight lipped about his abilities. It hadn’t seemed appropriate to ask Caius when he was younger and still learning himself, but at this point she didn’t see a reason not to. He could shut her out just as easily as his father, but she was pleased to get a real response from him. “Can you feel other types of people? Or just witches?” She asked, then elaborated. “I knew a boy once, a man now, who could start fires with his mind. He wasn’t a witch though. He had no magic, not that he knew of anyways.” It was easy to assume he was a fire witch and didn’t know it, but Miriam doubted that was the case. He’d been like her, just different.
Caius thought of the possessed teen boy in the trunk, how he’d been able to see the demonic influence there with the help of the Obscurities. He decided not to share all those details with Miriam -- knowing he could practice dark blood magic was one thing, knowing that her son was half-possessed himself by spirits that he had to work to keep control of would likely cause her too much worry. They gave him some special gifts, though he wasn’t sure if he could just pick out people with unique abilities without a lot of effort on his part. “I can only feel witches,” Caius told her with a slight nod. “I know some spells to reveal demons and the like, but it doesn’t come naturally. I’ve read plenty about psychics with abilities like that, but don’t know that I’ve ever met one in person.”
Miriam listened, but didn’t bat an eye at the last statement, preferring not to correct him just yet. She couldn’t tell Caius before talking to Anthony and she was certain that would happen eventually. He wasn’t the sort of man to let something like that go. “Can you force someone to tell you?” She asked, raising a brow. “Not physically, but…mentally?” She knew she was probing and he would probably pick up on it too. For that reason she began to formulate a reason for her questions, just in case it came around to that, though she honestly had a right to know. She was married to a witch, a powerful one at that, and while she trusted him not to take advantage of her, she wasn’t a hundred percent certain what that meant.
It was a strange question, and Caius’s brows flexed together again as he studied his mother. He didn’t want to outright lie to her, because he could force someone to tell him something if he wanted, amongst other things. It was a new power for him though, and he wasn’t sure he wanted very many people to know he could do that. Especially the people he might need to manipulate some day. But there seemed to be a reason she was asking, and that piqued his curiosity. “In certain circumstances, yes,” Caius told her. It was true even if it was vague. “Why? Do you need some information extracted from someone?”
“No,” Miriam laughed lightly, though she did tuck the offer away for a later date. “I just know a lot of witches and I feel better knowing what I’m dealing with. I don’t think any of them are out to read my mind, but, you know, Brianna McCarthy’s new to it all and I wasn’t sure if it was something she could do by accident.” Miriam doubted it was something anyone could do by accident, let alone Brianna McCarthy, but Caius hadn’t indicated how difficult it might be, so she feigned ignorance. “If she could, I’d want to know if there was a way to block it. Or something like that.”
The mention of Brianna specifically sent a weird little chill up Caius’s spine. He’d gotten the grimoire back to her, but he still didn’t know if she knew she’d been mentally influenced. Or what she would do about it if she found out. Caius wasn’t afraid of her, but James McCarthy might be a ... challenge, should he want to make an issue about it. “It’s definitely not a beginner’s skill,” he assured Miriam with a small smile. “Unless it’s a gift she’s already got, it takes an experienced witch and lots of sacrifice to learn how to do it. I don’t think she’s any sort of threat. As for blocking it ... I think you would have to be an accomplished witch yourself to do that.” He took another contemplative sip of coffee.
Miriam nodded as she pondered that. It wasn’t the first time that the world felt unbalanced, that she’d been put in a position of weakness and felt helpless to do anything about it, but that wouldn’t stop Miriam from trying. If witches had an advantage in life, she could benefit from being surrounded by them, so long as they didn't use her against her will. Miriam didn’t think they had, but now she wondered if she would even know. It was unsettling to say the least. “So not something you’d have used to get an extended curfew,” she teased, hoping for some levity.
Caius chuckled deeply and shook his head. “Definitely not,” he said. He recognized it as a joke, but the idea that he could’ve pulled off that kind of magic as a teenager was truly laughable. “I only just learned how to do it recently, so ... I promise I haven’t used it to get what I wanted for Christmas or anything.” He studied her as he took another slow sip of coffee, his dark eyes sharply curious. “Are you worried you’ve been manipulated?” he asked in a softer tone. “By Dad, maybe?” Caius didn’t want to think Anthony would use mind magic against his wife, but he honestly wouldn’t put much past the man. His feelings about his father were such a weird balancing act of admiration and wary caution. Miriam wasn’t stupid, maybe she felt the same.
Miriam had long suspected that the reason Anthony didn’t want her knowing much about magic was that he didn’t want her to know what he was capable of, as if she didn’t know what kind of a man she’d married. She was by no means naive. She’d always assumed that he used magic in his dealings with other people and was fine with reaping the benefits. She just didn’t like the idea of magic being used against her personally, which was maybe a touch hypocritical, but oh well. “No, not yet,” she said with an air of resignation and acceptance, as if she knew this was likely a long time in coming. “I don’t think I’ve ever given him a reason to, but… I suppose it depends on how stubborn I decide to be. And how determined he is.”
That ‘yet’ was a bit worrisome. Caius had always had an egalitarian view about relationships -- at least relationships that mattered, like his and Reagan’s. They held no secrets, they didn’t consciously try to manipulate one another, they kept things as equal as possible. But they were both witches, and Miriam was not, so Caius could see how his parents might have a different dynamic. Seeing as how Reagan was no longer a witch ... but he didn’t need to think about that at the moment, so Caius pushed it away. “He can be damn determined,” he murmured, feeling an unexpected wave of empathy for his mother. It couldn't be easy, being married to Anthony D’Onofrio. “There are some charms I know of that can alert you to mind magic,” he offered. “I can’t promise they’d shield you from power like Dad’s, but they could at least alert you that something was happening.”
Even if Miriam decided to tell her husband everything he wanted to know, this option appealed to her. Not because she thought he would do it, but because if he did take advantage of her, then she wanted to know. “It’s not that I don’t trust him,” she told Caius, aware that it probably sounded like exactly that. “But something like that would… It would make things a little more equal. So long as he couldn’t sense the charm himself.” Because that wouldn’t do at all. All she needed was some way to know she’d been messed with, then she could figure out where to go from there. Miriam looked at her son and wondered if, or when, he would ask her what she was trying to hide. Maybe it was safer not to ask, then he could truthfully plead ignorance. “What would it take to do something like that for me?”
The gears in Caius’s brain were already turning, thinking of ways to conceal the magic from his father. Anthony was incredibly astute, and he intimately knew what Caius’s magic felt like. Maybe something with some layers to mask it ... “Is there a necklace or something you wear often?” he asked Miriam. He was more intrigued by the process of getting it done than why she might want it in the first place. Caius had so many things in his life that were absolutely private, he tended to respect that in others and not to pry. If she wanted him to know, she would tell him. “I’m thinking if I put some layered enchantments on it ... the loudest one could be for protection. Plausible, since you were injured.” Caius nodded a bit at Miriam’s body.
“My mother’s ring,” Miriam said, thumbing the ring on her right hand. She didn’t always wear it, but she wore it more than anything else, other than her wedding right and it felt wrong to put the charm on that. “When you say loud, do you mean if he’s looking for it? Or would he just instinctively know that it had magic bestowed upon it?” If he was going to know regardless, then she could say that Caius had charmed it for her. The only downside was that it would tie this back to her son and the last thing she wanted was for him to face his father’s wrath over this. “I don’t want him coming after you over this.”
“Magic always leaves behind a unique resonance, like a fingerprint,” Caius explained. “If other witches are sensitive to it, or tune in on purpose, they can feel it. Dad knows my resonance, so he might pick up on the change, but he shouldn’t be able to tell there’s more than one charm on it. How could he blame me for being a good son and putting extra protections around you?” He offered his mother a faint smile -- it was probably something he should’ve thought of before she even started this line of questioning, but Caius generally assumed that Miriam was magically well-guarded at all times. She’d been hurt though, and that gave him an in. “I can handle him, don’t worry about me ... I must admit I’m a bit worried about you now though,” Caius murmured, watching her face closely. “I won’t pry, but if there’s anything I can do ...”
“So long as he won’t be able to sense the underlying spell,” Miriam said, more worried about how this might come back on Caius than herself. She was curious now about how it might work, if the ring would go warm on her finger or give her some other signal that she was being mentally manipulated. Even if she couldn’t stop it, it was better to know it was happening than to be blind to it. “I’m probably blowing this all out of proportion,” she said with a soft laugh. “Something happened recently that I don’t want to talk about, but your father’s going to insist. I should probably just tell him, but… I don’t know. I suppose I’m just being stubborn myself.” There was very little she desired to keep from Anthony, but this was hers. She’d been alone in this since she was nine years old and even marrying a witch hadn’t changed that. He couldn’t relate to her, just as she knew she’d never relate to him. She loved him, but they would always be different in that respect.
Caius’s brow ticked upward a bit as she piqued his interest even more. He was definitely curious, but this was his mother, and if she didn’t want to discuss what the Thing was, he would respect that. “At least you can know that it’s your actual decision to talk about it,” he offered, hoping that would be some peace of mind. Caius held out his hand for the ring. “I probably can’t do it tonight, but I can get it back to you mid-tomorrow,” he told her. He wasn’t concerned about Anthony sniffing out his involvement, not really. It was a small thing, and something that could be explained away as a general protection charm. There were surely other mind-manipulators out there, after all, some of whom would likely benefit greatly from stealing Anthony D’Onofrio’s secrets from his wife. Anthony didn’t have to know that he was the actual threat. “You’re all right though?” he asked her, a little quieter.
If Miriam had a soft spot, it was her children. She’d do anything for them, fight anyone for them, and hardly ever asked for something in return. Asking this of Caius felt like she’d asked him to go move a mountain for her, even if she realized it was probably a small thing in the way of spells. That and the fact that he hadn’t pried was the reason she decided to tell him. Or rather, show him. She took the ring off, offered it in her palm, then let her hand fall away as the ring held there in mid-air. “I’m fine, sweetheart,” she smiled softly. “I’m just glad I didn’t take out all the kitchen windows.” Shattering glass was practically impossible to control. She could break it easily, but the pieces tended to fly where they wanted to no matter how hard she tried.
Caius’s brows flew up as he stared at the small hovering ring. It was such a tiny thing, so innocuous, but it had huge repercussions. He’d always thought that his mother was a normal human -- a wonderful person, of course, and a great mother, but not someone with innate supernatural talents. She and Sera were “normal.” But this ... this was not normal, and it was obvious that she was doing it easily all on her own. Caius reached out and touched the ring very lightly with his index finger, but didn’t pluck it out of the air just yet. “This is what you don’t want him to know?” he asked, his eyes coming back to Miriam, a touch of awe in his eyes. “How does it work? How’d you learn to do this? And when?”
“I’m fairly certain he knows,” Miriam said, smiling a little as she watched her son poke at the ring. She thought about making it dance around him merrily, but that would’ve been showing off. “After the creature attacked me, it startled me here in the kitchen. I lashed out erratically. Your father wasn’t here to see it, but I think he’s put the pieces together.” Now he was likely just biding his time, waiting for the right moment to bring it up. The anticipation of the conversation grated on Miriam’s nerves. “I learned as a child. I understand you can do something similar, but I don’t know if it feels the same. It’s like I have an extra set of hands, except they’re stronger. The limitations are mental, rather than physical.”
While magical telekinesis wasn’t one of Caius’s favorites, he could still do a bit of it, so he understood the hands metaphor. He was willing to bet it felt very different. His gaze was still on the hovering ring, but they ticked to his mother’s face once or twice as she spoke. “As a child?” he asked in a murmur, realizing that this was something his mother had always been able to do. If she’d kept it a secret from Anthony for that many years, Caius was impressed. He couldn’t blame his father for wanting answers, but he wasn’t going to try to get in the middle of it, he would just do the favor his mother asked for and leave it at that. Caius gingerly plucked the ring out of the air and fingered it a bit. “You have to know I’m ridiculously curious,” he admitted with a little grin. “But if you don’t want to talk about it ...”
“I don’t mind talking about it,” Miriam smiled warmly. She found it much easier to share things with someone who was open with her and Caius had told her something she was almost certain her husband would have preferred she not know. She could not explain to her son how complicated her relationship with Anthony was, nor did she want to, though she knew he would likely understand. Anthony was the sort of man that commanded power and respect. She loved him and admired him, but worried about the lengths he might go to to get what he wanted. And some of that came from knowing her own limits, lines that she’d crossed that she should probably be ashamed of. She had her secrets, just as he had his. “What do you want to know?”
If anybody understood having a complicated relationship with Anthony, it was Caius. The man probably didn’t have any interpersonal relationships that weren’t complicated, but the ones with his son and his wife were likely especially fraught. Caius couldn’t imagine being married to the man, and he’d often wondered if Miriam actually knew what kind of monster he could be. But then again, her son could be one too. “Come and let’s sit,” Caius said, lightly resting his hand against Miriam’s upper back to guide her toward the table. She was still injured, and he wanted them to be comfortable. Once they were settled, Caius gazed at her curiously. “How’d you learn to do this?” he asked. “Was it innate and you gained control, or did you start from scratch? Who taught you? And why?” He stopped there to give her a chance to answer.
Miriam let Caius guide her towards the table and took a seat before attempting to dive into his questions. There was a lot to answer, some of it Anthony already knew pieces of, but Miriam hadn’t seen reason to share with her children. But she couldn’t tell Caius about her abilities without telling him the rest of it, or what she knew at least. “I taught myself, but I think someone was trying to teach me, or… I should back up a bit,” she said, frowning at her inability to get her story in line from the start. She wanted to be organized in her approach, but she’d never had to go about this before and she wasn’t as prepared as she would have liked. “When I was six years old, I was taken. I disappeared on my way home from school. I returned when I was eight with no recollection of where I’d been while I was gone. I had scars on my temples and a fear of water that I didn’t have before. Your father knows all that. I wasn’t the only child to disappear and return, though most of them didn’t come back. It was over the course of the next year that I became aware of my abilities. I got in a fight with my mother and blew my bedroom door off its hinges. It was weeks before they gave me another one.”
Having lived in Point Pleasant his whole life, Caius had of course heard about the children who had gone missing and then reappeared later with no memories of where they’d been. He just hadn’t had a single clue that his own mother had been one of them, and it came as a shock. He stared at her, listening raptly with his mouth hanging slightly open. Caius had already gone through that stage in maturing where he realized his parents were full human beings with their own histories and lives that had nothing to do with him, but he’d never suspected anything like this. “And there was no sign of it before that, that you can remember?” he asked softly, fascinated. She obviously had been cared for by someone during those two lost years, was it related to the emergence of telekinesis?
“I was only six, but I feel like I would’ve remembered that,” Miriam said with a little smile. It had come as a surprise to her when she’d been able to move things with her mind and then it had taken years of work to get to the point where she was now. At first it had felt brought on by emotion, but now it was rare for her to have such outbursts. The last thing she needed was to start moving things every time she got upset or angry. But fear and pain were harder to control, definitely not something she’d practiced against, and she’d not been prepared for the creature in the fog. “When you lost your memory, I wondered for the first time if your father had the ability to bring something like that back. If it wasn’t gone forever. The doctors said I had suffered a trauma, but once I knew about magic I wasn’t so sure. I’m not the only one who couldn’t remember, but I’m not sure I want to either.”
Caius thought a six year old would’ve remembered having those kinds of abilities too. Children were impulsive and emotional, he was sure a toddler Miriam would have thrown toys across the room without touching them or something if she could. Which made him think that whoever had her when she’d disappeared had done something to her. But that felt like a deep rabbit hole that he wasn’t prepared to dive down just yet. “If he can access buried memories, he didn’t do it for me,” Caius muttered with a touch of sullenness. Maybe Anthony would go to greater lengths for his wife, who knew. Caius tried to shake that bitterness off and focus. “But maybe yours would be easier to access. Not because of a curse, but just the human brain doing what it does to protect us. ... do you know many of the others?”
“I’m not saying he could do it,” Miriam clarified. “I honestly don’t know what he’s capable of. Because I’m not a witch. And I couldn’t possibly understand.” She pursed her lips against the bitterness, the subject old and always sore. Maybe if Anthony had been a bit more open about what he could do, then she would have been as well, but that was neither here nor there at this point. “No,” she sighed. “There are a few here in town, but I’ve never reached out to them. And even if I did, I couldn’t exactly ask if they’d developed psychic powers after they came back home. Not without showing my own hand. It would’ve been different if I could read people’s minds.”
“If it’s any consolation, I don’t know the extent of it either.” It might have been funny, if it wasn’t so sad, how Caius recognized the emotion in his mother’s voice. Maybe it was some kind of cold comfort that Anthony held out on all of his family, and not just his son. Well, Caius had known for years that his father didn’t value Sera as much, but his own wife? But there was no use wasting energy dwelling on it -- Anthony would never change. He felt a new sort of sympathy for his mother though, and like they were connected in ways he’d never thought about before. “If you can name some and you’re interested in pursuing it, I could probably find out some things,” he said, giving Miriam a wry little smile. “I can be persuasive. And then make them forget. This is ... this feels big, Mom. Like you were part of something worth looking into.”
“I can get you some names,” Miriam said with a small smirk. She didn’t want to encourage him to use his mind control abilities on someone else, but she couldn’t think of a better way to inquire about their past without bringing up her own. “If we do this, you have to remember they could have powers of their own. And I have no way of knowing what that might entail.” She knew Caius could take care of himself, but people put up all kinds of barriers when they were feeling threatened and some outright attacked. “It feels weird to even talk about it after all this time,” she smiled softly. “We just have to be careful. I know you will be, that you’re used to dealing with something like this, but… If someone took me, and did something to me that resulted in this, I don’t want them to know what I’m capable of.”
Caius wasn’t at all concerned about a group of psychics, no matter what might have been ‘awakened’ in them, or what have you. He could more than handle himself. “Understood,” he told his mother for the moment. “I’ll treat it with the care it deserves.” If she could get him some leads, he could track some people down independently, no one had to know it had anything to do with Miriam. It would be something to look into after all of this mess with Reagan was cleared up, at least. She was his priority, no matter what. Caius glanced at his watch and finally tucked the ring into his pants pocket. “I’ll have this back to you as soon as I can,” he told her. “I need to get to the marina soon though for arrangements ... is there anything else I can do for you while I’m here? You should be taking it easy, Mom.”
“I am,” Miriam smiled. “I’m doing better, I promise. If we go out tonight, it’ll just be to make the rounds.” She said ‘if’ as if there was any doubt that she’d be there. Even in her injured state, Miriam couldn’t imagine handing off her responsibilities to someone else. It wasn’t just that they made her feel useful, but that she doubted anyone else could do them as well as she could. “You and Reagan should come find us when you have a moment. We can have a little toast to the new year.”
Caius gave her a bit of a dubious look -- she didn’t really need to be out in a drunken crowd in the freezing cold -- but he knew better than to think he could talk her out of it. She would be with Anthony, so she would be protected from the idiotic public, but still. “Bundle up, okay? It’s gonna be a bitter one,” he said as he stood up. “We’ll definitely find you for a toast.” Caius leaned in and kissed Miriam’s forehead. He picked up his empty mug and took it to the sink and rinsed it out, then grabbed his coat, his mind already spinning ahead to everything he needed to do before dark. “Love you, Mom, I’ll see you later.”
Miriam smiled when Caius kissed her forehead. It was the kind of gesture she’d done to him countless times until he’d gotten too tall for her to do it, unless he was sitting. Not that he’d wanted to be coddled in such a way, but she was his mother and she could do as she pleased. Now their roles were reversed, she’d asked him for help, and she didn’t know what to make of it. But he was one of the few people in the world that she trusted and she could thank their bond for that, so different from the bond he had with his father. “Love you too, sweetheart. Try to have some fun tonight.” She knew he’d be busy, that was just the nature of his business, but hopefully they could all enjoy the holiday. It would be the last celebration for a good time to come.