Poisoned Vines

## Blurb

A Tangled, Noxious Web...

Alastair Stone has just had a bombshell dropped on him about Aldwyn’s latest plans—but that particular problem will have to take a back seat to a more pressing one.

Verity has disappeared.

She never returned home following a weekend visit with her half-siblings in central California, and no one has any idea where she is.

Fearing an accident or other mundane mishap, Stone and Jason soon discover to their horror that something far worse is going on: Verity is out there somewhere, and she’s deliberately hiding herself from everyone she cares about.

When they return to her half-siblings’ home town to investigate what might have led her to flee, they slowly begin to uncover a treacherous web of deceit, cursed magic, and old grudges that go back to before she was born.

A web with a vengeful, hate-filled spider pulling its strings from the most unexpected possible place.

To return Verity safely home and end the curse, Stone must seek help from the last person he would ever want to ask, and put his very sanity at risk to vanquish the spider.

And even all that might not be enough.

## Plot

Alastair and Trevor Harrison meet to discuss Harrison’s revelation that Aldwyn had found Calanar. Harrison lays out what he’s learned: that someone foreign and magically powerful had shown up in Prensyrrus, sworn allegiance, then immediately challenged the city’s leader, winning his place. He then foiled an assassination attempt and retaliated by killing the former leader. From his actions and physical description, Stone agrees it has to be the dragon.

## Quotes and One-liners

Stone: “Most of those Talented wankers can’t find their arses with both hands and a GPS.”

Stone on Aldwyn: "He’s nasty, but he’s not dangerously mental.”

More on the Talented: "...a bunch of powerful mages with their heads so far up their arses they can perform their own colonoscopies.

“Shut up and make with the mojo, Doctor Strange.”Gina Rodriguez

Stone musing on Lydia: She's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead.

They speculate on Aldwyn’s motives and next moves. Stone concludes that Aldwyn simply wants the power, not to actually rule Calanar. He predicts that, once Aldwyn works out how to access the magic from the Earthly plane, he’ll return. This would be the best outcome for Calanar, but potentially devastating for Earth, especially since all the dragons would likely want to access Calanar’s magic, as well. And if its power was enough for them to resume their native forms… The pair leaves it at that for now, since they have no actionable information to work with.

A couple of weeks later Stone gets a text from Hezzie, asking if he’s heard from Verity. This sets up a series of I queries that reveals that no one – not even Jason – has heard from her since she went to her half-siblings’ place for a visit. She’s not answering calls or returning texts, and the tracking app on her phone is turned off. When the group gets together, Stone has Jason call Verity’s sister Elena, who tells them she’d left there two days prior.

Elena agrees to check local police and hospitals while Jason says he’ll have Gina get on the case and try to track Verity down. Stone heads to Sybil’s Apothecary to fill Hezzie in and get a tether object to do a ritual to find Verity. Unfortunately, despite his best effort Stone can only tell from the ritual that Verity is alive, and possibly blocking him, not wanting to be found. He and Jason make plans to go to Miles and Elena in Los Robles to look for answers.

Verity’s half-siblings meet with Stone and Jason and, at Stone’s request, run through everything they and Verity did during her visit. Nothing seems off, though Verity did ask to visit with Lydia, the siblings’ mother and the woman who killed Verity’s mother. The woman is catatonic, and Verity spent only a few minutes in the room, saying the evil woman who’d ruined so many lives wasn’t there anymore. Since part of their weekend activities included a tour of the winery, Stone asks if he and Jason can also have a tour. Again, nothing is off, until Stone asks to see some older vines Elena mentioned had gone bad and were producing bad-tasting grapes. Later, on the drive to the family home to stay the night, Stone tells Jason that something is very wrong with those vines; they’ve been magically corrupted.

While freshening up and waiting for their dinner with Miles and Elena, Stone suddenly has a thought. While there is only one public portal in California, Verity does have access to a private one in Los Angeles. Stone calls and leaves a message for Bron Broome, hoping Verity has contacted her for use of the portal. After dinner, Stone takes Jason back to the winery to get another look at the corrupted vines. They, or whatever is affecting them, are making him feel queasy and uneasy. When he focuses on the nearby key line, he loses his footing and has to fight not to vomit. The ley line is also corrupt.

The next morning, the pair join Miles and Elena on a visit to the nursing home to see their mother, Lydia. She appears completely gone from her mind, as he was told. He’s about to examine her magically when her doctor arrives. Jason, impatient to get back to finding Verity, says they’re done and heading back to the Bay Area. In the parking lot, Stone gets a call from Hezzie. Verity has sent a letter to Bianca, a shop employee. All it says is that she’s fine and for everyone to leave her alone.

Jason and Stone drive to the apothecary shop and they and Hezzie examine Verity’s note for clues. She apparently mailed in from Santa Fe, then popped through a portal to remain hidden. The major question is why she mailed it Bianca, who is an employee, not a friend she hangs out with. Stone gives Hezzie some plant and soil samples from the vineyard, hoping she and Marie Thérèse can determine what’s corrupting the grape vines. He’s convinced that whatever spurred Verity to hide began there. He contacts Eddie, who he’d asked to look into corrupted ley lines. He hasn’t got much of anything useful, except that is would take some serious magic to corrupt even a small portion of a ley line.

After a call to Ren Huxley to ask her to use her resources to locate Verity, Stone returns to Los Robles to examine the corrupted grapevines further. While there, he discovers a dilapidated but warded shed and breaks in to check it out. Miles surprises him, and Alastair explains why he’s there. Once Miles calms down, he lets Stone continue his examination of the shed, and is floored when he finds a hidden stair to a subterranean room. The door has a blood lock which, fortunately, Mile’s blood opens. The place was clearly Lydia’s alchemical and ritual workspace, though everything is covered in dust. Except Miles finds an area on a worktable cleared of dust, as well as a dust-free, almost-empty potion, and a paper full of strange, unreadable notations. With Miles’ permission, Stone takes the potion and paper, as well as some books and Lydia’s coded journal. The pair fill Elena in, and it’s apparent she also had no idea the hidden room was there. The siblings gently remind Stone that the priority is finding Verity, and he agrees. But he has a nagging suspicion the vine corruption, secret room, and Verity’s flight are related. The three visit the Oak Hollow facility again, so Stone can examine Lydia, but he finds her exactly as represented - utterly vacant.

Alastair visits Eddie and Ward the next day, but they have nothing new. He gives them the books, paper and journal to examine, but they, too, caution that Verity is the priority. Gina has a bit more when she, Stone, Jason and Amber meet. Lydia is from Poland (and one of her books was in that language), and once she married Sebastian and moved to the winery, its more benign name was changed to Stormshadow. Some time later, the only other vintner in the area died unexpectedly, and Stormshadow bought the business for a song. Over time, more explainable deaths occurred, suspicious only because there were so many. The entire town hated and feared Lydia, and weren’t sympathetic when she lost her faculties. Since then, the number of deaths in the area dropped noticeably, though one of Oak Hollow’s employees died recently from choking on something.

Alastair reports on his findings at the winery, including that, while Lydia is obviously incapable, *someone* is using her sanctum for something unpleasant. Ren Huxley calls to report that Verity’s presence in New Mexico has been confirmed through credit card pings and security video. She says Verity looked anxious on the footage and, when she send it to them, they agree. Gina points out that the big question is *why*. Jason says he’ll contact Verity’s mundane friends, and tasks Gina with the Changelings. Alastair will contact her mage friends to see if she’s been around or in touch.

When Stone takes the potion vial to Hezzie, she tells him that Marie Thérèse examined the vine and soil samples Alastair supplied. The magic, she says, is bad – as in, human sacrifice bad – and had to have been going on for decades. If Verity stumbled on it, that might be why she had to run, but why not ask for help? Otherwise, Hezzie has no other news; none of Verity’s friends have heard from her.

A few days later, Marie Thérèse calls Stone and warns him to be very careful. The potion sample was, indeed, a similar magic to that corrupting the vines – curse magic, an ancient and dangerous, vile form. She has no idea who could be doing it, since bad mages rarely advertise the fact. After her call, Stone, gets another, from Eddie. Verity has shown up at Caventhorne.

Stone bolts to Caventhorne, where Eddie says Ward is keeping a covert eye on Verity, who is in disguise. She’s studying books on curses, which was what caught Eddie’s attention and prompted him to pierce her illusion. Alastair disguises himself as well, and goes into the reading room with her. Under her disguise she looks well, but anxious. After some internal debate, he goes to her and drops his disguise, and asks her to please tell him what’s going on. She reacts with abject terror, just before a flash of magic that renders Stone unconscious.

When Stone wakes shortly after, Eddie and Ward tell him that Verity had zapped them, as well. But, they were able to see her initial reaction to Stone – as if as soon as she recognized him, she un-recognized him and reacted as if to a threatening stranger. The same happened to both of them. She seemed to know them, but a second later, asked who they were and zapped them. She apparently left immediately. Stone realizes it’s the curse, making her forget anyone she comes in contact with. He tasks Eddie and Ward with trying to find anything relevant in Lydia’s notes, while he goes to tell Jason and the others, and Marie Thérèse, what happened.

No one has anything more, so Stone makes the decision to contact Thalassa in the hope that she has experience with curses. She invites him to New York and they indulge in their new ‘frenemies with benefits’ status. But she has no information on curses. Dragons consider them as unsavory as necromancy. More, curses can’t affect them, so they don’t bother to learn about them. Only Kolinsky might have, and he’s out of touch.

Alastair plunges back into researching with Eddie and Ward, but they’re getting nowhere. One thought comes to Stone’s mind, one person who is likely to be versed in curses. The idea sends him on a bender at the Dragon, dreading what he’ll have to do. The one person he knows has personal experience with curses is his appalling grandmother, Nessa Lennox.

Next day, Alastair leaves a message for Nessa, then takes a walk into Holmbury-St. Mary to visit with Aubrey. The caretaker is not a fan of his plan to see Nessa, and urges him to be careful. Nessa’s return call comes while they’re talking, and she agrees to see him that afternoon, for Verity’s sake, not his. Stone wonders if he’s walking into a trap, but Nessa guarantees his safety.

Acantha intercepts Stone at the Windermere portal, though he doesn’t recognize her in her new body at first. She gets a few digs in before another acolyte arrives to escort Stone to his grandmother. Nessa looks over Lydia’s notebook and the scrawled notes on the paper he’d found. She can’t read the notebook, but she says the curse on the paper is the Curse of Lethe, designed to make the target forget any friends or loved ones she encounters. Worse, if someone were to confront her with the facts of the curse, it would set off a chain of damaging events in her mind, rendering her a vegetable – like Lydia. She says only the person who laid the curse can reverse it, or tell him how to do so. She also confirms that a curse could well be responsible for the corrupted grapes and ley line in Los Robles. She warns Stone to be careful; whoever did this is powerful.

Alastair meets with Jason and Gina and tells them what Lydia gave him about the curse, and that Verity almost certainly had to have eaten or drunk the potion. He and Jason head to Los Robles, stopping first at the restaurant where Verity and the Kilgallen’s had dinner the day before she left. They rule the place out as a source of the curse. Next, they meet with Miles and Elena and arrange to question the staff on duty when Verity was there for a tasting. Again, no one at all seems suspicious. Then Stone remembers that Elena mentioned that Verity was drinking a vending machine coffee when they visited with Lydia. Elena says a staff member had to given it to her, since the machines were kept in a secured employee break room. They need the security footage to find out who gave Verity the coffee.

Gina makes the drive down and the three of them plan to break into the Oak Hollow facility. Using illusions and invisibility, Stone gets them inside and into the security room, where Gina finds and downloads the surveillance files from the day of Verity’s visit, and a few days prior.

Back at the Kilgallen’s rental, the three scan through the footage. They can clearly see an unknown man give Verity the coffee while she waits for Miles and Elena. But when they switch to the footage from the break room, the feed goes to static for a few moments, starting at about the right timestamp for the man to have been in there at the machine. It resumes again after he’s left.

Unable to sleep that night, Stone wanders to the kitchen where Gina finds him. She says something weird has turned up on video from Lydia’s room, from a week prior to Verity’s disappearance. They review it to see a nurse pinching and force-feeding Lydia to get her to eat. A quick image search reveals that she’s the nurse who choked to death shortly before Verity arrived. But Stone catches more. When he asks Gina to grab a still from when the nurse leaves the room, Lydia’s usually blank eyes are focused and narrowed, and she has a malevolent smile on her face.

Stone wakes Jason to show him the footage, and the still shot of Lydia. They’re all appalled at the idea that Lydia might be conscious in her unresponsive body. Stone speculates that, while it’s clear she can’t do anything herself, she could have found a way to communicate with an accomplice – a doctor or nurse with extended access to her. And, if she is aware, the curse could actually be her doing. He points out that the paper from the sanctum looked disordered, as if the person had been conducting automatic (psychic) writing. Gina’s part done, she heads back to San Jose.

Stone and Jason fill Miles and Elena in, and of course they’re horrified that their mother might be aware in her unmoving body, and that she might still be carrying on her malevolent ways. They confirm that they’ve seen the nurse who gave Verity the coffee, though they don’t recall his name. Then, they clear up something Jason had been bothered by – how Lydia could possibly act against Verity so quickly. But the siblings say they did mention Verity coming on a visit to Lydia, more than a week prior. Stone asks them to put together a list of anyone with access to Lydia, but to otherwise stay out of it and away from Lydia, for all their safety.

Alastair makes a run to New Orleans to get a ‘forget’ potion from Marie Thérèse, so their target will be unable to remember them questioning him. Jason got the list of names from the Kilgallens, and had Gina narrow down the possibilities to a nurse named Paul. He’s currently on night shift, so the two of them head out to interrogate him. Paul, however, remembers Verity and giving her coffee, but becomes alarmed when he can’t remember who gave it to him in the break room. Someone had used mind magic or a potion to do the same thing Stone did next – make him forget.

While bringing Miles and Elena up to speed and cautioning them again to stay away from Lydia and watch their food and drink, Jason makes an offhand comment about wishing they could get into Lydia’s head. Stone excuses himself and spends a couple hours in his room, agonizing over choices. When Jason insists he talk it out, Stone says he might be able to go into Lydia’s mind, though he’s never done it before without Verity’s help. But the consequences could be dire. If Stone isn’t careful, or underestimates Lydia, he could end up like her. A call from Miles interrupts them: Elena has collapsed and is in the hospital.

The doctor tells them and Miles that the problem is Elena’s heart, despite her lack of history and healthy status. Stone is convinced it’s not natural, so he and Jason go to Elena’s office at the winery, where she’d collapsed. Jason finds a winery-branded water bottle, and Stone confirms it has traces of magic, quickly fading. He says they need to get back to Elena, so he can ward her room. Then, he’s out of options; he has to go into Lydia’s mind for answers.

Stone travels to Marie Thérése again, for a potion to aid and protect him in entering Lydia’s mind. When he returns, he and Jason devise a plan to get Stone alone with Lydia for an extended period. Because so much rests on them not being interrupted, Jason calls Gina to come back down and run technical interference. Stone has also brought an illusion generator that he plans for Miles to power with his magic, to make sure no one sees what’s really going on in Lydia’s room. Jason is upset that Stone is risking his mind which, since he’s immortal could mean an eternity in mindless limbo. Alastair reasons that his mage heritage and immortality work in his favor – he’d be back, eventually. He instructs Jason to contact Gabriel and Harrison if the worst should happen, as those best able to help him.

The group – Stone, Jason, Gina and Miles – sneak back into Oak Hollow, leave Gina in the security room to manage camera feeds, and enter Lydia’s room. Stone sets Jason as mundane security and Miles to power the illusion generator, then combines his blood with a drop of Lydia’s in the potion and drinks it. He finds himself in a raging watery maelstrom, but settles his mind and finds himself in a wine cask aging cave.

Stone and Lydia trade insults and cutting observations, trying to find each other’s weakness. Alastair finds himself imprisoned by noxious vines while Lydia tirades on about unfaithful men, and regaining her power. Stone, remembering nothing here is real, gathers his strength and pins Lydia, telling her he has nothing to lose; he’ll die to free Verity. Lydia succumbs and the details of the curse flood Stone’s mind. He exits while she’s still trying to kill him, to find Jason telling him they have to leave. Alarms are going off in other rooms – Gina’s work. Stone grabs pen and paper to put down what he learned.

There’s a mad scramble to get everyone out, but Stone has the answer – mostly. He was interrupted. He says he’ll arrange for Eddie and Ward to grab Verity so he can lift the curse. Unfortunately Lydia’s co-conspirator is still a mystery, and a threat. Stone makes sure Miles understands that his mother is aware, but mad as a hatter. Once Verity is safe, decisions will have to be made about what to do about her.

Over the next few days, Stone uses Marie Thérèse’s pick-me-up potion to burn the candle at both ends. He, Eddie and Ward check and recheck his notes and draw up the ritual to break Verity’s curse, using a Zoom chat Gina sets up. Miles stays in Los Robles, where Elena is making a full recovery. Eddie’s contacts have grabbed Verity in her hidey-hole in Bulgaria, put her into a magical sleep, and are transporting her to a portal in Athens. Eddie orders Stone to get some sleep so he doesn’t mess up the ritual from fatigue.

At nearly noon the next day, Eddie’s call wakes Stone; Verity is waiting at the Athens portal. He, Ward and Stone set up the ritual in the Encantada house, Jason and Hezzie arrive to watch, and Verity is transported in, asleep, to the middle of Stone’s circle. The ritual is successful and Verity wakes, and best of all, remembers Stone and all the others. They spend time catching each other up on events, and Verity is aghast that Lydia is behind her curse, and even moreso that Stone took the risk of entering the insane woman’s mind. Unfortunately, she can’t identify Lydia’s accomplice; she only heard his voice on the phone explaining the curse to her, though the voice was familiar. They discuss Verity’s efforts to hide, Stone hoping her subconscious will work out the man’s identity while she’s otherwise occupied. But then Miles calls. Lydia has died. Dr. Flynn has just called and summoned him to Oak Hollow.

On the drive down, Stone wrestle’s with guilt, assuming his trip into Lydia’s mind did damage that killed her. When they get close, Verity calls Miles, but it goes to voicemail. They decide to head to Oak Hollow, assuming he’ll be there. The receptionist tells them that Miles had left an hour earlier, as had Dr. Flynn. Lydia’s body was taken to the morgue at the local hospital, so they go there, but no Miles. Verity tries Elena, but she doesn’t answer, either. Verity gets permission to see Lydia’s body and, despite growing suspicions, it really is her. Verity gets an odd look on her face and Stone is about to question it when Jason’s phone rings. Ren Huxley reports that a fingerprint on Elena’s water bottle came back as belonging to a Noel Franczyk, but the name means nothing to any of them. Ren sends a photo, revealing that Franczyk is Lydia’s Dr. Flynn.

They debate why Flynn would help Lydia to curse Verity, but Verity poses a bigger question: who killed Lydia. She sensed nasty magic around the body and is certain Lydia’s death wasn’t natural. If it was Flynn, then why? Jason contacts Gina to get Flynn’s address while Stone drives them to Miles’s house. Miles isn’t there, and a check of Elena’s house shows she’s gone, as well, though there are no signs of struggle. Gina calls with Franczyk’s address, and information that he did have medical training and a sophisticated alternate identity as Flynn. He’d been expelled from his medical residency for cooking drugs.

An initial search of Franczyk’s house turns up nothing until both Jason and Stone realize the layout of rooms is off. They find another room hidden by an illusion – Franczyk’s alchemical workspace. Stone is studying Franczyk’s notebooks and whiteboard when Jason points out samples of the corrupted grapevines from Stormshadow. Stone suddenly realizes what the calculations and rituals in the notes point to. He says he knows where Flynn/Franczyk is, and he expects Miles and Elena are there, as well.

As they drive to Stormshadow, Eddie calls with information on the symbols on Franczyk’s notebooks – they belong to a small European cult of alchemists that use and sell plants and other things from corrupted magical areas. Stone speculates that Franczyk got wind of the corruption at Stormshadow when Miles sent samples out to find answers. Lydia must have sensed his magic when he visited her in his Flynn guise, and somehow roped him into cursing Verity. But his true purpose in the area is the vines. The ritual Stone read is nasty, and it’s possible that sacrificing Miles and Elena is part of it.

A green miasma looms over the area of the corrupt vines when they arrive. They run into the field to find a forty-foot ritual circle and four figures chanting to raise the green corruption.  A fifth figure in the center is chanting at two people hung on an x-like structure – Miles and Elena, both still alive, so far. Holding an impatient Jason back, Stone and Verity study the circle and the ritual. The five figures are leeching the corrupt energy from both the vines and the ley line, and have bottles ready to contain it. But they’re also infusing the energy into Miles and Elena to corrupt them, as well. Verity explains that the rarest and most valuable reagents in dark alchemy are human body parts. Parts infused with the corruption here would make them invaluable. They plan to kill Miles and Elena and dismember them.

Stone orders Jason and Verity to deal with the other mages and get to Miles and Elena; he’ll get the circle down and deal with Franczyk. Before he can act, though, the circle is suddenly disrupted. Vines of plants and magic seize the four chanting mages and drag them underground. The structure holding Miles and Elena comes to life, dropping them to the ground. It grows and morphs into a vine-covered giant, the green energy coalescing in it. Franczyk tries to escape, but the creature shoots vines at him, tripping him. Stone shorts fireballs at the thing, getting its attention, and orders the others to get Verity’s siblings. Franczyk again tries to escape and Stone shoots another fireball, catching the creature on fire. It drops the part of it that’s burning and grabs Stone around the legs with a vine.

Verity and Jason have the others out of danger and return to help Stone, Verity with fire magic and Jason with one of the torches nearby. The creature is fully ablaze, now. It drops Stone and shoots vines at – and through – Franczyk and tears him to shreds. The green energy is coming out of the thing, gathering in a cloud. Stone yells for the others to take cover. He shields Jason and Verity protects Miles and Elena just before the creature explodes.

Stone incinerates what’s left of Franczyk, as well as the remaining parts of the circle, while Jason gets the car and Verity tends to her siblings. Later, Stone leaves the group to confiscate Franczyk’s library and alchemical potions for Caventhorne. He also skims the man’s personal journal, finding most of his assumptions had been true. The cult had planned to further corrupt the vineyard and force Miles and Elena to sell. He’s still not sure what Lydia enticed him with to curse Verity, but he’s not concerned. He returns to Miles’s house to find the pair awake, though tired and sick, and tells them all what he’s learned.

The gang meet at the Dragon for pints to debrief and celebrate Verity’s return. She tells them that Alastair’s warning about Sebastian’s death sent Miles to his doctor, where he discovered he has thyroid cancer. It’s early, treatable, and he expects a full recovery. The pair also gave Verity an interest in the winery. Stone had given Eddie and Ward the materials from Franczyk’s lab, as well as – with Miles and Elena’s permission – the contents of Lydia’s sanctum. The pair had then had the place filled in and buried.