The forest was supposed to be dangerous, constantly shifting and changing. The place where all of the dangerous creatures of Vallo and that suddenly appeared in Vallo liked to congregate. It just also happened to be where Kady felt pulled to her magic so staying out of it wasn’t about to happen. She’d had nothing, no access at all to it when she’d first arrived in Vallo, but she’d been able to feel the magic all around her. A great taunt, showing her pieces of what had been stripped from her because of idiots choices and fucking with things they hadn’t fully comprehended.
And then it had come back, stirring in her veins but not quite settling like it had done before.
Sometimes her spells worked, most times they puttered into nothingness, none of the magic flowing as she did the handmovements associated with her brand of magic. The success rate was always better in the forest though, so that was where she went day in and day out since it had started to sputter back to life.
She tried out the movements to a blasting spell that she’d mastered years before, gritting her teeth as it barely gave off a puff of air. Kady dropped her hands to her sides, shaking them off as she muttered internally, trying to brush off another failed attempt. She’d give it one more go for the day and maybe talk to Strange if she couldn’t manage it this time. Maybe he would have an idea for what was going on.
Another twist of her hands and the magic shot out, blasting through one of the trees ahead of her, the force of it knocking her back a step. Yes. That had felt better, more like what her powers were supposed to feel like when running through her veins.
Her celebration was shortlived though when she realized she wasn’t alone in the small clearing any longer. She had no clue what it was that she was looking at but the fact that it seemed to be constantly bleeding and looking like they wanted to tear out her throat.
Kady tried the same spell again, cursing her incredibly twisted fate as it sputtered again before she started to run. Fuck.
Kady.
Julia was sitting in her apartment, reading a book when suddenly she felt her friend's sudden spike in adrenaline and the anxiety that went along with it. She jumped up, dropping the book on the couch, and without knowing what she was doing, she closed her eyes, attempting to focus on whatever it was she'd just felt.
When she opened her eyes again, she was in the middle of the woods, and Kady was running past her as some creature launched itself into the sky, following her. Out of reflex, she cast the same spell at it that she'd cast at the Deepstalkers, which did surprisingly little other than draw its attention on her. She cast it one more time, with more force, and it made some terrible noise before turning and flying in the opposite direction.
Rather than wonder about it, she spun around, looking for Kady.
Had Julia just appeared in front of her in the middle of nowhere?! How was that even possible? Her friend wasn’t a traveler. She shouldn’t have been able to do that. Was this some sort of trick of the woods? But no, when she glanced behind her she spotted Julia trying to force back the creatures that had come out of nowhere.
“How the fuck did you get here?” Kady demanded as she headed back toward her friend--ex friend--whatever.
And where had the thing gone? Because Kady doubted that it was finished with them.
"I don't know," Julia answered honestly. "I could feel that you were in trouble and I just sort of focused on that and then I was here." That was as much explanation as Kady was getting because it was all Julia had to offer.
She looked her friend over, refusing to qualify that with an ex, and she seemed okay. "Are you alright?" she still asked. The creature had matched the description she'd read on the network, but she was more concerned with Kady at the present time. This was the first time she'd seen her since arriving in Vallo, and she wasn't sure of how the reception would be, that uncertainty keeping her emotions on edge.
Julia had felt that she was in trouble and had just appeared there? What kind of bullshit answer was that? Kady rolled her eyes. Of course that was all she was going to say about it. She didn’t know why she had expected more. There were so many other questions to ask--like how she had felt her or why she was even able to do that, but Kady settled for biting out:
“Just peachy.”
She didn’t trust the woods though, certain she could hear more of those things moving about in it and on their way toward them. “Can we kumbaya later? We need to get out of here.”
Kady was right, there was no reason to stick around, with just the two of them. And she had no idea if Kady had magic here or not or if she was actually from the point in their timeline that Julia had initially assumed.
"Yeah, let's go," she said, though she didn't think she could just teleport the both of them out. "You know where the way… shit."
The creatures were back, it looked like three, no four, flying straight toward them. "Go!" she shouted, "I'll hold them off." But then that was useless, cause they broke formation with such speed that it would have been impossible, because suddenly they were surrounded on each side though the creatures hadn't moved to strike yet. Were they taunting them?
"Okay, new plan. You have magic?" Julia asked.
This day just kept getting worse, which really was pretty on par for how most of Kady’s days had been. Though Vallo had seemed a little bit nicer than what she was used to. Disgusting birdlike-humanoid creatures attacking her in a forest was much more on par with what she was used to. Doing so with Julia by her side even more so. Except when Julia was off, abandoning her for whatever sole focus she was currently obsessed with.
“It comes and goes.” Kady had no idea if it would work or not then. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for why it did or didn’t. Just dumb luck.
“I’ll hold my own though.” Best as she could anyway.
"Tell me about it," Julia said, because she had magic, but the stronger stuff? Like knowing Kady needed help or stopping time so she could heal Skye? Yeah, she had no clue how she had actually managed that.
"Hey," she said, glancing over at Kady. "We got this."
And then one of the creatures flew toward her, somehow sending a damn fireball in their direction. Julia acted without thinking, casting to repel it. "Holy shit," she muttered, sending back a blasting spell. These were going to be a lot tougher that the deepstalkers.
The earth underneath them started to move and Kady let out a string of curses. Of course these fuckers had an array of nasty tricks up their sleeves. As if their appearance wasn’t enough of an annoyance, they had to have multiple abilities as well? She sent her own blasting spell at two of the creatures, thankful that this one decided to work, knocking the things out of the sky and careening toward the ground. She doubted that was going to be enough to stop them.
Kady did not think they had this. Not one bit.
“Can you use however you got here to get us out of here, Jules?” Because four against two--one of them not quite magical at the moment--didn’t seem like good odds. And as much as Kady bitched about life, she still wanted to live it.
"It comes and goes," Julia said, moving closer to Kady. "I don't know how I did it," she admitted. "Together?" she asked, casting at the same time Kady did, figuring it could only help to work collaboratively. And it would have, but these bastards wouldn't fucking die, seemingly only temporarily stunned by the hardest hits. And always bleeding. The hell?
And suddenly the creatures weren't holding back and Julia didn't have time to talk, casting and fighting back hard, but they were easily outnumbered. If she didn't act they were fucked and it was her adrenaline, this time, that allowed her to grab Kady and get them out of there, landing in the middle of her apartment in Morningside, the first safe place she could think of.
And even in her relief of being out of the woods, of that having worked, she still looked around to make sure none of those things had tagged along. Satisfied they hadn't, she let out a long breath. "Figured it out," she offered, before turning her attention fully to Kady.
“You did.” Kady looked around, feeling far more uncomfortable now that they were out of the woods. It had almost been like old times, especially along with the threat to their lives, but now all of that space that had built between them was creeping back in, wanting her to keep Julia at arm’s length.
“I should get back to the Sanctum.” Fill in Strange on what she’d seen. “Probably stay out of the woods until whatever the fuck those things are disappear.” She didn’t have fancy teleporting though and glanced around, nodding toward the front door once she spotted it. “See you around.”
"Kady… wait," Julia said, her heart sinking as her friend looked to bail immediately. "I'm sorry. I fucked up. I wasn't there and I should have been. But is this really what you want?"
“I don’t know what I want.” Kady shrugged. Well, no. She did know what she wanted but Penny not being dead and tied to the Library wasn’t something that was going to happen. “The apology helps but it doesn’t erase any of it. It still sucks and I’m sure your reasons were good or whatever, but it still sucks. A lot.”
"Yeah," Julia said. "I was finding out where this power comes from and trying to get magic back but none of that should have kept me from being there for you. And I can't change that it happened, Kady, because I would. But I'm here now. I'm not going anywhere now."
She looked at her friend, the wariness in Kady's eyes probably matching the level of regret in her own. She knew better than to force the issue, but that didn't mean she didn't want to step forward and hug the woman in front of her who had been through hell the past few months.
It really was nice to hear, but Kady had heard similar before. From so many people over the years, promising to do better, to not forget about her or push aside. It was difficult to trust anyone saying it when it had blown in her face time and time again since she was a child. She wanted to believe it but Kady also didn’t want to end up hurt again. So she chose cautiousness.
“You’re here now.” But would she be there tomorrow? Or the next day? Or next week? Kady wasn’t so sure. “I guess we’ll see if that holds up this time.” She took a step backward and then another, shrugging her shoulders. “I’ll see you around. Thanks for the help.”
And then she headed out the door, intent on getting back to the Sanctum.