The initial shock of having been indefinitely suspended was wearing off, and Nick knew he was going to have to face the mortuary, and Sabrina, sooner rather than later. But as he looked around he realized he was close to the Sanctum. Maybe Roz would be there, and he could see if she had any idea of how to handle this or his girlfriend.
Because he was still at a loss with everything having happened so fast. Back home, getting in trouble at school wouldn't have been so surprising, but since arriving at Vallo he'd been focused on moving forward.
Sure, fight club had been a stupid idea. But Nick relished the chance to continually prove to Aidan that he was a better warlock, and a better fighter. It shouldn't have surprised him that they got caught, and it really shouldn't have been a surprise that the kids of the Vorerra coven had led a charge to place the blame entirely on him.
So he was a mixture of angry and anxious as he stepped into the Sanctum, calling out for Roz, because he remembered what she'd said about not going wandering around the place on his own. He wasn't even sure she was working, he just hoped she was.
An unfamiliar presence stepping into the Sanctum could be a terrible mistake, if one was not careful.
Stephen didn’t mind showing it to the public, offering tours and the use of the space for coven meets - and he’d always been generous enough to offer a room to those of the magically inclined, letting them peruse the books and lay their eyes on the showcased artifacts (no touching without permission). Wanda was usually in the know of what was happening due to her assistant status here, and her senses were so attuned with the archaic magic woven into the walls that anything off was a clearly registered blip in her radar.
It wasn’t Kady. Definitely wasn’t Roz, as whoever it was seemed to be calling out for her so likely a friend of the Sanctum’s part-timer. That meant Wanda didn’t have to be on the total defense about it, but obviously she had plans to investigate - which meant she quite literally poofed from her spot in the kitchen (she and the demon were going over ingredients for the latest baking venture) to where this new guest stood.
Well, more accurately she appeared behind him in a way that could be quite creepy. Silent, waves of scarlet fading from her teleport trick, but her eyes continued to hold that red glow. “Roz isn’t here,” she spoke abruptly. “Can I help you?”
"Unholy shit," Nick cursed, eyes wide as he spun around only to discover the woman who had appeared before him had glowing red eyes. That was different. Calm down, Scratch, he chided himself even if the woman's appearance had been a surprise. He took a deep breath and then apologized. "Sorry… I was just hoping Roz was here."
Maybe it was the way Wanda had snuck up on him, or the fact that his entire plan on figuring out how to deal with everything had hinged on talking to Roz first, but Nick suddenly felt completely deflated. "Uh, if she does show up can you tell her Nick was looking for her?" he asked. "Sorry, she told me not to venture too far in here by myself."
He wasn't sure what he was apologizing for at the end, just that he had the distinct feeling he shouldn't have entered the Sanctum.
Her intention was admittedly to spook him a little, and in that she considered herself successful - but she also found herself feeling a tad guilty about it. Wanda’s eyes converted back into their usual soft baby blues yet her stare was a narrowed one of scrutiny as she assessed his presence. If he was a friend of Roz’s then she supposed he was harmless.
“I think she may come by later,” she responded after a moment, the ghost of that Sokovian accent layering her words. Her arms came up to fold over her chest. “Did you think about messaging her before coming in here unexpectedly?”
Having been drilled with questions earlier by various people at the school, Nick really wasn't in the mood to go through that again, and he didn't even know who he was talking to. Though Roz had told him people lived there, so he had just wandered into a house. "No, sorry. I just realized I was nearby and I thought it might be good to talk to Roz before…"
He didn't know who he was talking to but he could guess she didn't care about his day. "You know what? Forget it. It's been a long day. Sorry for bothering you. I'll talk to Roz at home." Whenever he went home.
If Wanda focused - which she did, after willingly reeling back the antagonistic aura she’d been exuding since he entered - the distress he bled was noted, and felt. He didn’t seem much older than Roz, and there was a magical zing to this Nick that made her senses tingle.
He was harmless. Clearly going through something, but harmless.
“You can wait for her with me,” Wanda offered and nodded her head towards the end of the hall. “My name is Wanda. I live here. I was also in the middle of making something to eat and if you help me with it, you are more than welcome to it as well.” Perhaps he could use the distraction considering his claim of having a long day. “It’s a pie, if you’re curious.”
Nick was never one to turn down food. "What kind of pie?" he asked, perking up. Because yes, that would help after the long day. "There's got to be some perk to being kicked out of school, right?" he asked.
He may not have normally shared that, but he hadn't talked to anyone since leaving Geliara. Though he very much doubted Wanda wanted to hear about it. And really, she might change her offer now, he hadn't thought of that.
"Nick, by the way. Roz and I are from the same place, along with Sabrina." He didn't know if Wanda knew Sabrina but it definitely wouldn't surprise him if she did.
Kicked out of school. Wanda’s brows did a light shift up, and she opted to tuck away that token of information for the moment. Maybe she could coax out a bit of backstory once they got settled into the kitchen - the hallway to it seemed a bit windy, but that was the Sanctum for you. Old, imbued with an archaic kind of magic that took her some time to decipher and feel accustomed to.
The kitchen was spacious, the dark decor matching the rest of the interior of the building. Out on the island were already various ingredients and a few kitchen tools - rolling pin, glass bowls, portioned out pieces of butter, flour. Blackberries and sugar. It was her valiant attempt in making a homemade crust with homemade filling, and while she supposed she could take the shortcut and just spontaneously create it, the idea was silly. Kind of like she was cheating.
“I know Stephen and Sabrina help one another out sometimes,” she mused aloud, rolling up her sleeves - everything was about to be thinly veiled in flour, best to prepare herself. “And Roz has mentioned you before, I think? Sabrina’s boyfriend? Oh - and pass me the portioned out flour and sugar, we’re going to dump it in a bowl.”
Nick followed Wanda into the kitchen, taking it in before doing as Wanda asked. Stephen and Sabrina helping each other out tracked. "Yeah, that's me. Roz didn't happen to mention the night we couldn't sleep and I swapped the measurements for salt and sugar while making pancakes, did she? Because she won't let me live that down."
He grinned, then noted they were making blackberry pie which sounded delicious. And he was in no rush to deal with anything so this was a welcome and worthy distraction. "Roz and I are closer now than we were back home, actually. We both showed up in the snowglobe, found each other about a month in. Before, she was just Sabrina's friend from her mortal school."
It was a bit more involved than that, but mentioning that they'd teamed up to fight the pagans would be a long story, and a reminder that he had died at one point. Not exactly small talk and still a bit much for him to even think about.
"So you live here?"
The place was a bit off putting, really, but he lived in a mortuary and didn't have any room to talk. Still, he added, "It's different."
Truthfully, Wanda wasn’t above a little bit of cheating when it came to culinary practices here - a wiggle of her fingers (jazz hands, as Peter referred to it) triggered some of her telekinetic prowess, turning on the oven so it could start re-heating. The next show of things being moved with her mind was another set of portioned out sugar and flour floating in the air and being poured into another bowl, this one with the blackberries and a splash of water.
“Mix your bowl - it’s the crust,” she instructed once all the important parts of the process got moving, then settled comfortably on one of the stools. “And yes, I do live here. Stephen’s the owner. Or guardian, I suppose both terms are interchangeable when it comes to him. We’re from the same world.” They were merely acquaintances back there, having fought together and attending the same funeral. Vallo was what really pushed them to get to know one another. “I’m sure with some guidance you won’t mix up salt and sugar with me here. I have to ask - if you don’t mind - why did you get kicked out of school?”
That was the reason for him trying to find Roz, was it not? Something happened, and that something was fresh and sounded very dire.
Nick could mix the contents of the bowl up, impressed that she was making crust from scratch. He focused on that for a moment, deciding how to answer her question. In the end though it was all too raw and so she got a rather candid answer out of him. "I was an idiot. This jerk wouldn't leave Sabrina alone, no matter how many times she told him she wasn't interested. He goaded me into this magical fight club thing. Where I kept beating him, by the way." That may have been a stupid thing to focus on, but it was true.
"Today we got caught and he pretty much had enough say to get everyone to say it was my idea, I organized the club, and so I'm suspended indefinitely pending further inquiry." At that, Nick slowed his stirring because he realized he'd gotten worked up and was taking it out on the future pie crust.
"Basically, they're really well connected and it's their word against mine."
Wanda wouldn’t correct his stirring. Vigorous force was necessary and he seemed to be doing an excellent job at that. There was some butter she sliced up, and she gestured at the sink to turn on and fill a cup with water. All the while she listened, an eyebrow quirking up higher and higher as he explained what happened.
A magical fight club. At school.
“I assume he’s related to one of the covens?” The sliced butter and water was brought over by a telekinetic wave and carefully placed inside the bowl Nick had. “And this fight club - do you not have witnesses to what happened? Others to corroborate your side of things?”
"Vorerra," Nick groaned. "Any witnesses I have turned against me, but really it's kind of hard to prove that I didn't start the club. It's just that nothing's happened with them. You can't have a fight club on your own."
But part of his frustration was definitely in allowing himself to be caught up in it in the first place. "They're so well connected, and I'm this outsider troublemaker or whatever, and all I really wanted was for him to know no means no."
It was a good thing the contents needed to be stirred forcefully cause he'd started up again.
Ah, that common. Wanda had some experience with that one, back when one of their members was plagued by what they called mind maggots - Stephen was the one that set up the arrangement to where they offered assistance, and there was no small talk with them. They were very straight to the point and also gave off a suspicious vibe, like there were bloodstains all around them they couldn’t see.
“That is a coven I would have a difficult time trusting,” she admitted, setting the bowl of blackberry filling onceit was mixed properly with the other dry ingredients. It needed to sit and thicken. “You can stop stirring now - start creating a ball with the dough?” Once it was properly kneaded they would flatten it with a rolling pin, cut out a piece for the bottom and one for the top layer. “I think the best you can do at the moment is let them proceed with the investigation. While that coven has connections, I’m sure they don’t have a lot of fans either. Fight Clubs tend to have willing parties involved, don’t they? Otherwise they will just be accusing you of outright attacking him, multiple times, during… scheduled times?”
That case against Nick had to be dropped, or the consequence had to be lessened in severity - it seemed like it would fall apart easily.
That seemed optimistic. Nick wasn't used to things working out for him, outside of ending up in Vallo to begin with. Well, that had started in dark Vallo but the move over had been positive. But this entire mess was a different story.
So he focused on creating a ball of dough, wondering if she was also being a bit optimistic in entrusting him with the pie crust. There was a reason he never attempted to make one from scratch.
"Maybe," was all he said, though it was more doubting the situation than her. "So what kind of magic do you have?" he asked, because he'd witnessed it a few times now and was curious, but also really in need of a subject change.
Wanda was supervising him with the dough, just to make sure he didn’t go too hard with it. Then a generous splatter of flour was spread over the island, and she motioned him to drop the soon-to-be pie crust on it. “Chaos magic,” she answered simply with a shrug. Before she had been hesitant to call it such despite Stephen’s existence, and now that she had those memories of Westview - of Agatha - it wasn’t something she could deny. “Never called it as such before. Now - flatten the dough a bit, we’re going to use the rolling pin for the rest and cut out layers for the top and bottom.”
Later they’d line the pie dish, pour in the blackberry filling and then put a blanket of dough on it. Wanda seemed confident it would come out as a decent first try at it. “What about you?”
"I don't know," Nick admitted. "Our powers came from the Dark Lord, but that ended…" He didn't mention that he had become a human cage who'd entrapped Lucifer within him because that seemed a bit much. "Then back home we were worshipping Hecate now. But I'm a warlock and I don't really worship anything here?"
He hadn't needed to.
"And there's so many types of magic here," he added, the enthusiasm in his voice growing as he rolled out the dough. He was paying careful attention to that though. "I was dual-enrolled at the University so I'm just going to switch to full time there."
A pause. "So what's chaos magic like?"
Warlock was a new term for her. It sounded like something right out of Billy’s - ah, what was the word? Fandoms? Wanda gathered that it meant a male witch but it’d be rude to assume the definition given on how diverse the magic was here. “I’m thinking that anything involving someone with the title of Dark Lord is heavy?” she inquired, head cocked to the side. “I have never worshipped anything on my end. I was never really into magic until here.”
Until Stephen described what she could do as chaos magic, anyway. There were several texts in the Sanctum to learn from, and they had done some research and training but she was always very reserved about the concept. “But chaos magic is - unpredictable, I suppose. Where I am from it was supposed to be a myth. I got it by chance. If I want something hard enough, I just… change reality? Make it happen?”
It sounded too easy and to an extent, it was. It was also highly dangerous if gone unchecked. There was no discipline behind it at first, and Wanda was trying to create that for herself to keep those around her safe.
"It is," Nick replied, falling silent for a moment. He didn't talk about home much, outside of people he knew from home and the immediate circle Sabrina had created, where he felt safe. But he felt comfortable with Wanda. "It's kind of a mess, but basically I was like a human trap for him, for a bit. Kept him caged…" Within himself. Because that was normal. "It wasn't fun. Anyway, we lost our source of power after that. My coven, that is."
Which made sense. What sort of Dark Lord would imbue power into followers who'd turned against him?
He shrugged. "Home is sort of a mess. I'm okay if I never go back."
As she suspected, a heavy topic. Wanda may have lightly winced at the thought. And she could see the appeal to Vallo as opposed to home - while she didn’t exactly share the sentiment (there was always going to be a part of her that would want to find Vision), she understood it.
“If getting kicked out of school thanks to a magic fight club is less of a mess than home,” she started with a chuckle, swatting at him gently to move aside and let go of the rolling pin. The dough was flat enough and it was time to cut out the pieces, put everything together and shove it into the oven for the final process - the actual baking. “Then this is the better place for you. Okay, now we’re going to cut the layers out and line the pie glass. Once this is done and we know it doesn’t taste awful you’re more than welcome to take some home with you.”
"Thanks," Nick said quietly, not at all bothered as she swatted him out of the way. He smiled at the idea of taking some home, and just as the pie ended up in the oven he got his first message from Sabrina. He explained the magic markers to Wanda, and let the pie bake as they kept talking.
He expected Roz would be by at anytime, but for now he was sufficiently distracted.