Who: Zee & Regina What: Contacting the 'other side' for answers on Lina When: Tonight Where: Crypt de Mills Rating/Warnings: Fairly low Status: Complete!
Regina preferred privacy. It was why this dreary crypt with all its underground tunnels and passages was her sanctuary, her own brand of magic breathing through the walls, living in the Earth. Listen closely and one might hear a hundred little thumpthumps; the sound of beating hearts, locked away in her vault. Trinkets and knick knacks on the wall, all serving some kind of purpose - for a spell, a ritual, a potion. Stacks of books piled on the floor, pillar candles on every surface. Her most recent addition to the collection was a grand mirror, positioned as some sort of centerpiece of importance on the wall. That leaked some sort of odd energy. Like there was a third presence just watching them but all it reflected was exactly what was there.
“And you’re sure about this,” deadpanned the Queen, motioning Zee to sit. A table that was smeared in herbs from a previously crafted potion, two chairs for them to get comfortable in. A flare of her fingers caused every candle around them to ignite. It was a bit dank, considering there wasn’t any electricity that ran through these walls. They’d settle for the elements. “I’ve been able to get in contact with my mother on the other side, but…”
That one, in particular, involved having the murder weapon and the murderer present. And the brewed poison to attract the spirit in question. All rituals and spells were subject to a little spice; things altered and manipulated. It wasn’t impossible. Regina knew her craft. One thing about Rumpelstiltskin was that he was a very thorough mentor, the only silver lining out of all that. “Again, I know you went through something very…” What was the word? “Traumatic.”
Honestly, Zatanna didn’t know how this would turn out. If it was a gamble, it was her last hand of cards, and she could not see the shapes to know whether it was a flush or instead cards to otherwise cast away - summoning the dead, opening a window with a view to the other side, was no easy feat. But she trusted Regina to help her - she had been a solid, steady presence in the Guild since its inception. The job would get done - safely, she hoped, as she had brought her own preventative methods. Salt, blessed space so as not to attract anything negative they might not want seeping in from the great beyond, runes crawling all along her skin.
The magic of this room was palpable. It writhed on the air, like a living thing. She smelled ozone and cracked earth. Zatanna nodded; she closed her eyes and reached - the gossamer connection, locking in, something she could see behind the lids in a shimmer of gold. Concentrating, and she felt the thrum of her own pulse in a steady rhythm echoing in her ears; such a familiar sensation.
“I am sure,” she promised. “It will help with peace of mind - even if we find nothing, that is still an answer. I brought a few things of my own just in case, but tell me what we need to do.”
They could all use a peace of mind, couldn’t they? A definite answer, something that let them know how final the situation was. It could either bring them closure, or hope. “Well, it’ll be a challenge,” she expressed with cold-cut honesty, exhaling a breath to sigh it out. “The original ritual calls for the murderer and the item used for the murder - but none of that applies.” No, not for a sacrifice that appeased chaos. The concept of the entire thing was unsettling. Unstable. In the pit of her stomach, Regina felt the beginnings of dread.
“So, I had to get a tiny bit…creative.” Which involved being sneaky out of necessity, and she’d been frequenting Romany’s shop ever since her magic came in. Bottles, herbs, black mirrors and all sorts of things. There was a bit of a friendship there, and the woman just so happened to be the deceased’s boyfriend’s sister. Regina stood only to open a wooden chest, and out from it came four talismans - crimson in color, embedded in silver. Lina had used them when she and Zee attempted the sealing that had gone very wrong. “Pulled a couple of strings and borrowed something that used to be hers - it’s a link to her, something from her world, and also connected to things of the otherworldly nature. So this, a poison to attract the dead - and a person who understands the nature of what happened.”
Talismans were set on the table, and another motion of her fingers - poof! A puff of violet smoke, and once it subsided there was a pewter kettle with small, matching chalices. All of it already brewed - it’d been waiting in her kitchen. “Anything you’d like to add to make sure this goes as smoothly as it can?”
There were a few things. Zatanna had consulted her books before arriving - she had many, an infinite number it seemed; likely she could not read them all in her lifetime. They were helpful and dangerous, beautiful, just like blades honed to thin, precise perfection. So she at least knew where to look. “Klahc,” she said in reply to Regina’s question, and the powdery stick appeared in her hand. Then, she added a circle, something protective, something drawn around their space to keep them safe. A shimmer and a glow.
She felt it. The bubble of magic, like thin tension stretched over water. Then, the required candles. Lit with a murmur of erif, flickering flames. Last step, incense - cinnamon, sandalwood, frankincense.
“That ought to do it,” she stated. “I wanted to add more protection. To prevent...well, shall we say, unwanted spirits from crossing over.” Likely, they could both agree that was the last thing the OC needed right now.
Reversed verbiage, how fascinating. It was always interesting to see how others performed their own brand of sorcery; what made their magic tick and flow, the key words and gestures to conjure something from the ethereal planes. “Nothing against a little extra protection,” agreed Regina, wine-red lips briefly tightening into a line. “I’m all for keeping spirits where they belong - on the other side.” And not amuck, breaking things they shouldn’t.
The tea kettle steamed a bit and quickly she poured the poison in each chalice. It smelled off, obviously not for human consumption, and the next bit was to position the talismans in each cardinal direction on the table - north, west, south, east. “We can use a chant to summon the power of these amplifiers. And then we can focus on her, what you felt, what you witnessed.” Considering the original ritual called for the murderer, they could focus on the cause of death. That slumbering entity that caused the seven days of darkness, the chaotic storm. Regina stretched her arms across the table and held her hands out to hold. “We’ll be keeping this between us, I assume?”
Zatanna reached forward, placing her hands in Regina’s. A way to confine this ritual to their space - and she could also feel the magic too, the power that the other woman exuded, the shared connection to that invisible pool of magic that ebbed and flowed in the universe, something that those who lived and breathed the mystic and arcane could dip their fingers into. It was similar to what she felt skittering over her skin when she was around Stephen, but yet...different somehow. Interesting.
“Depends what we find out,” she smiled wryly. “I would like to share any news with her boyfriend. I don’t...” Zee paused, biting her lip. Clearly thinking of Ed, for one thing. He seemed like he had a lot on his plate, and besides that, he was young. She knew he and Raven tended to get prickly when they weren’t involved in everything, but they were still children and they just couldn’t be involved in everything. “I think some are not handling things well and perhaps for them it would be best to keep this under wraps.”
Then she straightened up a little, determined and resolute. “Tell me when I need to solely focus on her.”
Sounded reasonable to her, and she’d put every bit of trust with Zee’s reasoning. Regina was simply here to help; she didn’t feel right making any definite decisions on who knew what, and the woman across had been more involved in the situation to make better judgment calls. She only helped whatever answer they received was a favorable one. Something to lift the veil of sadness that had been cast since the sun had risen.
“We’ll begin, then,” she decided. Candles lit, the aroma of incense filling the air with wisps of smoke, mixed with the scent of liquid venom brewed for this purpose. Their fingers connecting formed a link, a flow of power that’d pass through them. Under her breath she uttered a set of words - chaos words, they were called - and when she closed her eyes, each talisman lit. One white, one red, one black, one blue. “Focus on her. Focus on what caused it all to happen.”
In her mind’s eye Regina could envision the black skies, the cold feeling of emptiness, those sparks of obsidian and violet lightning. It was all some kind of magic unleashed, merciless and unforgiving. And the longer they focused, winds picked up inside - a whirlwind above them; colors of lavender, silver, black, a portal widening. Her eyes snapped open and her gaze went up.
For this, Zatanna didn’t have to reach very far back in her memory. That night was still there, in sharp focus, a clear picture - the sealing spell gone wrong, and the prickly, icy dread she’d felt down to the meat of her bones when her voice had been taken. The gleam of the gold and the instead of sealing, the Lord of Nightmares had been summoned - used the vessel to speak, to express displeasure, and certainly lashed out with enough devastating emptiness and coldness to push them back. Or to spurn Lina into further action - that sacrifice she’d made, no, it wasn’t difficult to picture that at all. Zee hadn’t been there for it, but the feelings about everything were fresh - they’d settled to a simmer, and this was just stirring the pot and bringing it all to the surface once more.
In. Out. In. Out. She breathed calmly, deeply - seeing red, gold, a flash of white hair sapped of its usual fiery hue. In. Out. Focus on her. Focus on what caused it all to happen. Everything was there, churning - its own sea of chaos, tide beginning to rise. Zatanna looked up too, noticing the portal as her hair whipped about her face in inky black strands that had fallen loose. She did not bother to fix it, was only concerned with what this all meant. With what this even was.
“Is it pulling her back to us?” she asked, not wanting to get her hopes up. But the barriers held strong - the space around them had been blessed, sealed, protected. Nothing was getting past. And hopefully nothing was being pulled into that void from here either.
How nostalgic this almost was - it was tempting to lose focus, to think about when she tried summoning her very own mother (there was still baggage about that, heavy but buried deep), but Regina was resolute. “No,” she said, brows furrowing, her hand tightening over Zee’s. “Spirits come through this, this is a portal. Their link to this world. But…”
The spell was working. She remembered being able to sense Cora, know that she was there, and also know that she didn’t want to talk to her youngest daughter. This was...different. There was power, yes - from the spell. But as for a presence, an inkling that someone else was there? There was nothing. Candle flames had been snuffed, several books opened with the pages fluttering with the gateway’s unruly winds. Magic and wind spiraled, and all Regina could see in this wormhole to the ether was a pit of darkness “Try calling her. See if that does something, because I don’t sense a thing.”
For a second she almost wanted to add and don’t kick the table, but she assumed Zee had more self-control than the Handless Wonder.
No danger of Zatanna kicking the table. She was still, at first quiet as a cemetery - but then she took another breath, letting it out slowly as she attempted to shift her focus, putting out feelers. They stretched, she listened and waited, but all she could sense was nothingness too. Still, she continued to try.
“Lina - “ Her concentration remained steely, as she called for the one they meant to communicate with for peace of mind. “Su ot kaeps,” backwards, a command, still nothing. Just fingerprints of darkness, left here and there and everywhere - the cold touch of a realm beyond this one, yes, that portal had opened. The door was wide, access granted. But there was nothing but a faceless sea, stretched out before them. “I can’t sense anything either,” she was forced to admit to Regina, though her hold didn’t break. The wind whipped past them, around them, a storm of it that ruffled papers and blew tendrils of smoke to and fro, whispery trails that disappeared into the ether, but there was no other presence. “That has to mean she is not actually...dead?”
Regina gave it a couple more minutes, but the extension of time didn’t seem to matter - the way for communication was wide open, the spell had worked, Zee had attempted to summon her forth but both were meant with silence. Nothing to see, nothing to feel. Eventually the portal sort of sparked and in a clash of crackling magic, it closed, the winds ceased, and the talismans dimmed until they were plain red again.
Those candles, originally snuffed, ignited again.
“When I summoned my mother in the dreams from the dead to speak with me,” she began after a heaved sigh, muscles relaxing, and she let Zee’s hands go so she could lean back against the chair. “She didn’t come through. She didn’t really want to talk with a crowd present - or to me, specifically, but I felt her. I knew she was there. And eventually she did come.” And possessed a very pregnant Snow White to show her images of the past, but that was irrelevant. “This? Nothing. It worked, but…nothing was there. She wasn’t there, so considering the circumstances…”
Dark brown eyes went to the empty space of air where the portal opened. “I’d say that’s a good sign.”
Relaxing too, Zatanna gave the reignited candles a curious glance, the wisps of magic tapering off - the room gave off the scent of smoke and fire and brimstone, something very distinctly arcane, and she could still almost hear and sense the hum of the portal above them even though it had closed. It rang throughout her bones, a buzzing sensation that would soon wear off in the aftermath.
“If there was nothing to sense, then yes...” She chewed her lower lip in thought. “I would say it’s good news, and she did not pass through to the other side.” So Lina didn’t die, but that sort of begged the question. “Then where is she? Do you think she is fighting her way back to us?”
That was a possibility too. There were an infinite number of worlds, of potential existences. Wherever Lina was, whatever galaxies she was spiraling through, she could find her way here once more. She could.
A damn good question. One that they didn’t have a definite answer too, unfortunately, and it only brought more inquiries to the surface. Nails drummed against the tabletop in thought. “Well, considering we’re officially open for speculation…” At least one question was answered in all this; the one that proved she wasn’t dead, not exactly. “I’d say wherever it is, she is. And that could mean a lot of things. She can either be stuck somewhere, fighting her way back, or that thing won’t let her go unless another trade is presented. It all sounded like it was an exchange; ask a god, something ageless for a favor and it’ll want something in return.”
Regina saw the situation this way: the scales were tipped, and something needed to give to restore the balance. A negotiation was made. Magic, power - it was all energy exchanges. Give energy, receive energy in a different form. It all came at a cost. Big or small, but in this case, it was a big cost. “So I guess it...just depends, and we don’t know anyone that could answer that question for us. Unless it’s something you can see in the cards, or in some other way.”
It sounded logical and, Regina was likely correct, the scales had to be equalized - Zatanna even heard it firsthand, during that fateful night. Existence that summons oblivion must return to oblivion. When that happened, when Lina paid the price, balance was clearly restored. Zee always seemed to have this thing about her, however, where she did her best to find cracks and loopholes in order for the benefit of her loved ones - and it didn’t always work out, as evidenced.
But that came from a skill of turning those cards, and knowing that nothing was ever set in stone. It was a way of life for her, a way to make her choices and go down the paths she did. “I suppose we’ll find out? Knowing what we know now...”
Just like that, she summoned her tarot cards, kept in a silk bag. And carefully, she began to arrange them on the table for a reading.
Out of the two, Zee had the knack for the divination tricks. It wasn’t Regina’s cup of tea, exactly, though she delved in it some - especially here, using black mirrors as a medium - but it never stuck. And if she needed to visually seem something nowadays, well…
There was Sydney, the poor darling, who somehow made it across worlds still cursed into the confines of that grand mirror. She’d keep the son of a bitch there. He’d suffer for turning on her for the grace of the Ice Queen, and right now she made sure he didn’t make a sudden appearance when guests were over - she didn’t want him to be rude.
That burning gaze of hers flickered back to Zee and she held back a sigh. “I suppose so. Find out more before we give the boyfriend the news. Hope’s a beautiful but dangerous thing; it’ll either strengthen you or tear you down. We just...have to be careful, if we do approach this more aggressively. Because it didn’t seem all that nice to begin with.”
“No, it didn’t,” Zatanna agreed, and she had to suppress a shudder at the remembrance of that voice - when it had used Lina to speak, and boom across the way. Very creepy, and the Mistress of Magic actually wasn’t creeped out by much. “We will tread carefully. I don’t consider the cards absolute anyway, but rather...as a tool to shape and guide the future. They are simply one option.”
Expert, spell-crafting hands doled them out and arranged them in perfect order, an order that she specifically understood. Then she began to turn them over, studying them with a crinkle of thought in her brow, explaining as she did.
“The upright Chariot means triumph,” she said. “I take it as a good sign too, alongside the reversed Devil which actually does not represent anything bad. Instead, it simply means detachment. Breaking free.” More card turning, the last one... “This is the Star, upright. It means hope.”
Her eyes sparked with interest. Perhaps even a bit of that hope itself.
Regina’s tongue clicked, both finely plucked brows raised. “Hope it is, then.” Mouth curved into a ghost of a smile because, perhaps, the entire concept was also contagious. Some news was better than no news and maybe it’d lift Neal’s spirits too - knowing that it wasn’t over, not yet. Accommodations for Henry had been a good distraction for him; all that energy was poured into making sure the transition was seamless for their son instead of drowning himself in one of those horrid places he liked to frequent. The kind in which cockroaches were patrons too.
“I’ll let you decide what you want to do with this information,” she said, the mood in this crypt suddenly a bit more...lightened. “Though I’d at least like to tell Romany. The least I can do after I asked her to get me these.” Those talismans were gathered and they felt tingly to touch, the inkling of darkness lurking, all of them representations of dark lords (or so she heard). “You’ve a minute to spare for a drink? I think we both earned it.”
“Of course, I completely understand wanting to tell Romany.” And, of course, Pete by extension. Likely, Zee would also tell Leliana since it was her who even came up with the idea in the first place, plus she’d been curious. And Stephen too. At the mention of a drink, the magician gathered her tarot cards and carefully placed them back into the drawstring bag; her expression was one of distinct relief. Yes, bring on the alcohol.
Candles were put away too, incense snuffed out along with the flames. “I think that sounds perfect,” she smiled, genuinely, one of her first in quite some time. “Lead the way. I’m in the mood for something strong.”