Some days Sabrina wished she didn’t feel emotions. They were heavy things that weren’t so easily overcome, lingering when they were well past their welcome. But she’d learned there wasn’t really any way of getting rid of them, that they were too finely ingrained inside of everyone even if they didn’t always make sense. She’d gone through a range of them after Roz had talked to her and told her what was going on, ranging from fury to a simmering anger to relief and now the hurt that seemed to be lingering.
Was it stupid that she was still feeling hurt over her friend not telling her anything? Maybe. Sabrina didn’t know and part of her didn’t care. Hadn’t her therapist told her not to try and bottle her emotions up? If she was feeling hurt then she should be hurt. If she was angry then she should be angry. Even if she didn’t particularly want to be.
She knew her feelings weren’t on Roz though. They were her own to deal with. Or at least that’s what she kept telling herself as she walked up the steps of the Sanctum with a box of cookies in hand. ‘Congratulations you’re not being sued anymore’ had seemed like way too much to put on a cake. So cookies worked as a good dessert substitute right?
Sabrina sent a text to alert Roz that she’d arrived and waited for her friend to open the door.
After the previous week, Roz’s battery was still in recovery mode. It wasn’t just the legal issues she had to contend with, it was reactions from friends, and of course Margeaux taking the opportunity to try and use the whole ordeal to get Roz ousted from her position as Head Girl. After what seemed like a never ending meeting with the head of the school, it had been decided that the laws around psychic abilities were too murky, and the situation Roz had found herself in had been caused by good intent. She would keep her position, but staff would be watching closely. At least the look on Margeaux's face as Roz left the office with a smile had made the meeting worth it.
But she was home now, and she didn’t have to keep up an act. After raiding the library, she had set herself up in the living room with a stack of books, a cup of tea, a blanket, and Phoebe. She knew Sabrina was coming over so she had prepared another cup of tea for when she arrived, just in case.
When the text came, Roz moved Phoebe off of her feet with several apologies as the lynx grumbled at her, and headed for the door. Roz pulled it open and stepped back to let Sabrina into the Sanctum. “Hey,” she said when Sabrina came into view. “Come in.”
“Hey, Phoebe,” Sabrina greeted the lynx as she followed Roz inside the sanctum. She handed over the box almost immediately after stepping over the threshold. “I wasn’t sure what to get but figured cookies are always welcome.”
She didn’t really know what to say to after that and closed the door behind her as she tucked her hands into her pockets. The Sanctum practically buzzed with magic, differently than how the mortuary had, and different than how Pandemonium or the forest did. There was strings of the void in it, of the darkness that she’d fought as well, something ancient and otherworldly that no one was really supposed to comprehend. It left her feeling a little off-kilter or was that just the awkwardness she felt being around Roz right then? Whichever it was, Sabrina didn’t like it.
“Was school okay?” she settled on asking.
She accepted the cookies with a slightly awkward thanks. She was also feeling the tension, and had mixed feelings about it, unsure of how to start. So she lead them into the living room where Roz had been hanging out. There were a number of seating options in the area and Roz motioned for Sabrina to take her pick. “Do you want tea? It’s from Dr. Stange’s shop, it’s pretty good.” it was bringing a warmth back into her body that had apparently been missing today.
When Sabrina was set, Roz sat back down into her spot on the couch and Phoebe made herself comfortable beside her again.
“It ended okay, I guess. Margeaux tried to use her family's attempted lawsuit as a reason to oust me from the Head Girl position. I spent several hours in the administrative offices today. But it didn’t go the way Margeaux wanted.”
Sabrina had declined the tea but settled down on one of the chairs, tucking her legs under her as she got comfortable. “They don’t tend to just let things go, even when you think they do,” Sabrina murmured in response to the Margeaux thing. Aidan hadn’t and Sabrina had really thought he’d given up after they’d both graduated from Geliara. “You might want to keep watching out for her.”
It would probably just be petty stuff, but that could add up and be annoying in its own right. Especially if the Vorerra teacher kept backing the other girl up. “I’m glad they realized you should still keep the Head Girl position though.”
Sabrina knew Roz had worked hard for it and had earned it and would do good things with it if allowed.
Roz arched an eyebrow to Sabrina’s response. She wasn’t sure how to take that. Sabrina could be referring to Aiden, but that was supposed to be done, right? “What does that mean?” she asked with genuine concern. “Are they still bugging you?” She was going to do exactly that though, it would be crazy of her to not keep an eye on Margeaux at all times. “I plan to, especially if she’s Aiden’s successor.” or whatever you wanted to call it.
“I wasn’t sure they were going to.” especially when the issue with Nick had gone the exact opposite way. Maybe there had been a lesson learned from that, or maybe it helped that the incident had happened nowhere near Geliara property and had ultimately not had any major issue.
Roz reached for her tea cup, leaning back in her seat, “They’ll be keeping an eye on me though, so I need to be careful I don’t get pulled into anything.”
“Aidan is being a pain but that’s hardly new.” He’d been a pain since last year, upping it once Nick and Roz had appeared in Vallo, but Sabrina had thought it had finally ended when she hadn’t dealt with him all summer. “He’s in one of my classes and auditioned for this semester’s play so we’re now doing that together too. He’s more of an annoyance than anything.”
She wasn’t sure his mother actually knew what he was doing but she wasn’t about to ask Avelina in order to find out. The less she spoke to anyone in Vorerra the better going forward.
“Margeaux will probably try to poke at you to get pulled into something then.”
“It’s like he’s stalking you or something.” she said, making a face of disgust. She doubted he was actually stalking her, but definitely taking advantage of the situation in a creepy way. Roz hadn’t even realized he was into the theatre. But he was dramatic, so maybe that checked out.
Roz nodded in agreement with Sabrina’s assessment. “Probably. She’ll try. This isn’t my first round with high school bullies, at least.” It was just the magic part that was new for her, but she’d figure it out.
As annoying as it all was, she felt optimistic about things, even if she was drained. But it wasn’t quite done, she knew that. Sabrina didn’t come over just to talk annoying Vorerra teenagers. She didn’t need to be a Seer to know that. “You have something else you want to say though.” It wasn’t a question, just a neutral statement of fact.
If it shifted into that with Aidan then she was going to take it to the proper channels. Police, her dad, let Maze do what she’d been wanting to him. But hopefully it wasn’t going to take that sort of turn. Roz was right though. There was more that she’d wanted to say. It was just taking her some time to figure out exactly how to say any of it.
Maybe it was best to just come out with it. “Why didn’t you tell me about what was going on? It feels like you wouldn’t have even told me about any of it if you hadn’t needed me to be a character witness. And I’m not sure what I did that we’re not talking to one another about these sorts of things?”
She’d tried figuring that out since Roz had told her, but Sabrina couldn’t think of any incident in the last few months that would have her best friend keeping things from her. Hadn’t they just enjoyed that weekend getaway together? And she’d helped her with her speech for the Head Girl position? They might not be living together any longer but Sabrina thought she’d been keeping up better with her friend there. At least compared to back home when she’d been trying to balance high school and the academy. But apparently she hadn’t been.
She had expected that question, or at least something similar. Roz had debated telling Sabrina. She’d gone back and forth on it. But ultimately she had decided that she didn’t want to drag more drama into any of their lives. Especially when Sabrina was starting university, and Roz was in her senior year. “The robbery was at the Sanctuary. I didn’t want to drag you into it. I didn’t want to drag me into it. So I told them what I knew, and let them handle the rest. They have Atreus and Kratos. Vorerra didn’t stand much of a chance unless they planned on unleashing their entire coven in a full on assault. Which wasn’t what they were going to do. ”
Roz just shook her head, annoyed, but at the whole experience, not Sabrina. “I wasn’t involved again until they came at me with the lawsuit.”
She took a sip of her tea, trying to figure out how to word how she was feeling. “It wasn’t about not involving you because I didn’t think you could handle it, or because I wanted to do it on my own. It was about not getting involved at all. Nick is working hard at Dorian’s, you were starting university. I was running for Head Girl. Things were finally getting as normal as they could be.”
Normal wasn’t real. It was something Sabrina had learned a long time ago, even if she’d needed it repeatedly beat into her head on occasions. Maybe it was because she’d grown up living two lives--the one in the mortuary full of magic and the one outside its doors where she’d always had to keep a secret. Even after her friends had known the truth, there had just been more truths to uncover and everything had gone to Heaven anyway. But she knew what Roz meant too.
“I don’t get why they sued you at all then.” Not if all Roz had done was reveal a vision she’d had. Sabrina didn’t really understand any of it to be honest.
“Ms. Mills thinks it was mostly a distraction, or a way to try and rattle the Sanctuary. That’s their real target. Technically there are laws around the use of psychic powers and how they’re used on private property. There’s too many psychics here for there not to be. But it’s psychic powers, so the laws are also murky at best. They weren’t wrong, exactly. But I didn’t take it far enough for them to be right either.”
Roz was really only an easy target as he geared up to try to get the Phoenix back. “This can’t be repeated.” She said to Sabrina, knowing that they were safe to speak freely inside the Sanctum. “The Phoenix they’re after was stolen, I think. Then dropped off at the Sanctuary. I don’t think they have legal documentation of obtaining it, past that it was essentially abandoned on Sanctuary grounds. It might have ties to an underground zoo or some kind. I don’t know if Vorerra owned it or not, but apparently it’s valuable enough that they want it.”
She also had no idea how it legally worked when an animal was abandoned or surrendered to a Sanctuary. Did it count as surrendering if it was just left? She didn’t know, she was keeping her nose out of it unless Regina said she was going to be needed for something else.
That definitely made all of it even crazier, but Sabrina wasn’t about to say anything about the phoenix being stolen. She had no idea how the laws worked for sanctuary animals or any of it, but hopefully Regina could help Atreus like she had Roz with all of that. The whole thing just seemed to be even messier than she’d originally thought it was.
Hopefully Roz’s involvement in all of it was over. Even if Sabrina doubted that it would be the last time Vorerra tried to interfere in her life any longer. They weren’t exactly hiding their more nefarious nature.
“Hopefully Regina can help sort out all of that mess,” Sabrina settled on saying. Not that she doubted the woman, pretty certain there wasn’t anything the “Evil Queen” couldn’t manage.
“Hopefully,” Roz said with a nod. “I think they’re used to getting what they want, either through intimidation, money, or power.” Roz didn’t think they were going to get what they wanted this time, but she also didn’t have many hopes of there being any repercussions. The most she could hope for was everyone getting out largely unscathed. Save for the legal bills.
“At best they’ll be forced to pay Regina’s legal fees and everyone moves on with their life.” she said with a shrug. “It could have been worse if we didn’t have a lawyer who isn’t scared of them.” She imagined there were a number of lawyers who wouldn’t touch a Vorerra case, no matter what it was, for fear of repercussions. “I do have to do more training,” she added with a frown, “But in the end I guess that isn’t really a bad thing.”
Roz was probably right about that. Vorerra did seem to have a lot of people in their pockets. It made their kids annoying, creepy and extremely entitled. Which while not a good look, it seemed to have been going well for them before the last year or so. Hopefully between this and the eventual consequences at Geliara earlier in the year would have more people standing up to them.
“Training for your visions?” Sabrina could see that being a stipulation for the case against her ending. She knew her friend’s visions came when at a whim, and while she had to touch something, that didn’t always mean she would see something.
Roz nodded again, looking down at her cup of tea. For some reason it annoyed her that she was required to do anything it all. But in the end she had to admit that becoming better with her abilities could only be a good thing. Even if it was being forced on her.
“Yeah. Mental wards, I guess. To be able to stop visions, I think. But maybe I got that part wrong. It’s probably just all Vorerra could swing. Persephone Poldma, the Outlander? She’s somehow known to the courts and I’m supposed to start taking more lessons from her.”
“Not the worst thing to work on if you’ve got yourself in Vorerra’s sights either,” Sabrina reasoned. Better to have those kind of wards in tip top shape if there was a chance of them messing with you.
She’d heard of that Persephone and seen her on the network once or twice but didn’t know her much besides that she was from Adam’s world. “At least it’s someone they probably didn’t pick then?” She doubted that the other woman was friendly with the coven.
It wouldn’t surprise her if every Outlander was at least partially in Vorerra’s sights. They were probably monitoring who came through and the powers they had, if any. Even if they weren't obvious about it.
“They offered that.” she said, clearly annoyed by the memory while using her fingers to make air quotes around the ‘offered’ part. “That they had a few psychics on staff who were excellent teachers.” Vorerra had more than a few, and she had no desire to let any of them get closer. “But that was dropped quickly. An Outlander who was registered with Vallo is more neutral, and the courts went with that.”
It was all worked out now, and Roz waved her hand as if to brush the whole thing to the side. “It’s done now. It’s the Sanctuary that’s up next. I don’t think it will work though. They were probably hoping intimidation would get them further.”
Maybe at one point that would have been a nice option to have, but not after what they had tried to pull. At least the courts had been reasonable. “I just hope they don’t manage to get any sanctions passed against the Sanctuary if they can’t show where they got the phoenix from.” Because that could be a gigantic mess and affect so many things.
Regina was good at her job but Sabrina had no idea what the laws were for taking in animals. Not native ones anyway.
“At least your part of everything is over.” Hopefully anyway.
“But yeah.” she said, circling it back around to Sabrina’s question. “There it is. I wasn’t trying to keep you out of things. I was trying to keep all of us out of things. If Regina hadn’t advised me to stay silent when we contacted her to set up a meeting, I would have said something to you.”
Other than that, she didn’t know what else to say about everything that had happened, was happening, and might still happen. “So now I’m just going to focus on school, and the Equinox celebrations.”
If there was one thing Sabrina had learned over the last year or so, it was that trying to keep people out of things to protect them in one form or another always ended badly. It made things worse, adding more crap to what was already going on. But that was something everyone needed to learn for themselves and there really wasn’t anything to do about what had happened besides continue on from it.
So she nodded. “School and the equinox sounds like good things to focus on. I’m…” She wasn’t sorry for how she’d reacted so an apology didn’t seem like the way to go. “I’m around if you need anything but I should get going to rehearsals. It’s hard to do a two man show when one of us isn’t there.”
When Sabrina mentioned reherals, Roz stood up to see her out. “Opening night soon. I’ll be there.” she said with a smile. Roz was familiar with the plot of the show, how much work went into it, and how much time Sabrina was putting into it. There was no way she’d miss it.
Things felt a little more at ease. It was a start, at least. They’d find their way back to them, maybe the events around the Equinox would help with that. There would be no shortage of things to do when they both weren’t required to be somewhere specific. “Good luck at rehearsals today.”
Sabrina definitely felt lighter than she had when she’d arrived. Not quite back to normal but it was a definite start in the right direction for the two of them. She doubted the lingering weirdness would last. Not after everything else the two of them had been through.
She hugged her friend before stepping outside the door. “Good luck with school tomorrow. Don’t let Margeaux bother you.” And with that Sabrina teleported off.