The Seventh Stone

The Seventh Stone

## Blurb

*A father's sins.*

*A son's wrath.*

*An enemy's revenge.*

When a shadowy, sinister organization begins killing apprentices, Alastair Stone is determined to track down the people pulling its strings. But Stone’s life quickly spirals into chaos when a young man contacts him—claiming to be his son.

As he pursues the trail of the murderers and struggles to deal with this new upheaval in his life, Stone has no idea of the dark, carefully-laid plan unfolding behind the scenes. An old nemesis is back, more powerful than ever and determined to finish what she started many years ago.

And this time, she's set her sights on not one Stone, but two.

## Plot

Alastair Stone receives a call from an elderly practitioner, Myra Lindstrom. Her apprentice has gone missing and, since Stone has garnered a bit of a reputation, she hoped he could help. The girl had received a paper with a mysterious symbol on it, just before she vanished. Stone goes to Myra’s house but, sadly, a tracking ritual shows that the girl is dead. The symbol is nothing Stone recognizes, either. Myra mentions she’d heard of another witch whose apprentice was killed a few years back. Stone urges Myra to work with the police, while he investigates the symbol.

## Quotes and One-liners

Alchemy: With magical chemistry, carelessness could leave you with a nose twice its normal size, green skin, or warts the size of Chihuahuas.

### SEGUE TO THE PAST

*Two years prior to Myra’s Call, Blake – aka Trin Blackburn – is once again plotting to kill Alastair Stone. She survived Burning Man, but needed extensive healing, plastic surgery and magic. Her Evil boarder was gone, but she’s made a deal with an extraplanar entity – a demon, Razakal – for healing and help snaring Stone, in return for giving Razakal Stone’s power. Razakal is visible only to her, and speaks in her head, but he is always with her, via a strange tattoo on her arm.*
While doing a ritual to track and mark Stone for death, she accidentally finds a young man in LA, who looks suspiciously familiar. Intrigued, and sensing an even better trap for Stone, and payoff, Blake does her research:

*Twenty years prior, Stone had a brief relationship with Jessamy Woodward of Ohio, in the UK on a university break. Pregnant, she was largely shunned by her fundamentalist parents and became a single mother. She’d never told Stone. Eventually, she married Bobby Tanner and had a second son with him. Bobby and Stone’s son, Ian, never got along. It got worse when it became known that Ian was gay. Tired of the beatings both he and his mother got from Bobby, who was also fire-and-brimstone religious, Ian ran away at sixteen. Neither parent tried to find him.*

*Blake approaches now nineteen-year-old Ian when he’s about to be beaten by a bunch of toughs whose boss he owes money. She takes them out (ashing one when Ian isn’t looking). She tells Ian she’s been looking for him, and knows his father. She reveals her magic to him, and tells him he is a mage as well, as is his father, Alastair Stone.*

*Blake characterizes Stone as the worse kind of arrogant, sanctimonious prig – a bully like Bobby – who would be appalled at Ian’s lifestyle (he’s a prostitute). But she can teach him magic, so he can never be bullied again. Ian is wary, but can’t turn down the opportunity. Blake conducts a blood ritual to ‘formalize’ their master/apprentice relationship, but in reality, she seals the boy to Razakal.*

*Not long after, Blake arranges for Bobby to see ‘Jessamy and Stone’ meeting clandestinely. In the resulting argument, Jessamy falls and hits her head and, while Bobby didn’t directly cause the accident, he did wait to call for help until after she’d died.*

*It takes several months for people in Ohio to track Ian down, during which time Blake has been teaching her eager student black magic – the best kind, because it’s more powerful, and has the side benefit of being something Stone despises. His mother’s church does eventually locate Ian and tells him his mother has died in a home accident. Blake feeds his suspicion that Bobby killed her and encourages him to confront the man.*

*Ian travels to Ohio and uses a disguise and made-up story to get Bobby to let him in. Ian drops the illusion and confronts Bobby over his mother’s death. Bobby denies it and threatens to beat Ian up. Ian restrains him with magic, prompting Bobby to get even more irate and out of control, calling Ian an abomination. Ian’s control slips and Bobby grabs a gun. But Ian is faster. He gets a hand on Bobby and ashes him, becoming a black mage forever.*

*Eventually, and mostly because Razakal is getting very hungry and impatient, Blake decides to set her Manchurian Candidate loose on Stone.*

### BACK TO THE PRESENT

When Stone returns to his house, the phone is ringing. A young male voice says, “My name’s Ian Woodward. I think you’re my father.”

Stone is suspicious, of course, but arranges to meet the boy primarily because he claims his mother is Jessamy Woodward, a semester-break fling of Stone’s from his university days. There’s no question that Ian resembles him, and he has an old photo of Stone and Jessamy together at the Dancing Dragon. Ian tells him that Jessamy is dead, possibly at his stepfather’s hands. He says he doesn’t want anything from Stone, just to get to know him. Their meeting is interrupted by another call from Myra – her apprentice’s body has been found. Ian seems ready to go back to LA, but Stone convinces him to stay another couple of days so he can take care of Myra’s issue, and then they’ll meet again.

Myra tells Stone that the detectives who interviewed her asked whether she or her apprentice were involved in the occult, implying the circumstances of the girl’s death were unusual. In addition, Myra received a threatening note from a group calling themselves *Portas Justiciæ,* the Gates of Righteousness. They threaten more deaths unless Myra gives up passing on her blasphemy to apprentices. There’s a strange symbol on the note that Stone can’t identify.

Ian reports back to Blake that it seems Stone is inclined to believe he is his son. Blake reinforces what an arrogant, promiscuous ass Stone is. Ian, though is inclined to just kill him and be done with it. Blake says the end will be better when he really gets to know Stone for the bastard he is – killing him will be sweeter. After Ian leaves, Razakal appears and warns Blake not to draw things out too long; he’s hungry.

A call to Leo Blum gets Stone more details on the apprentice’s murder. She’d been hanged, and a strange symbol carved into her back. He tasks Eddie Monkton with researching *Portas Justiciæ,* while also waiting for a callback from Jason. He also gets tacit permission from Captain Flores in San Jose to visit the crime scene. When he reaches Jason, he asks him to look up any information on Jessamy Woodward Tanner, though he doesn’t mention Ian and only tells Jason he’ll fill him in on why later.

Alastair meets Ian for lunch and, while their discussion in awkward, he convinces Ian to give him a sample of blood on a napkin for a fast, ‘experimental’ blood test a ‘friend’ of Stone’s can run. Ian plays along, still pretending to know nothing about magic. He tells Blake later that he wasn’t happy to have to give Stone blood, but she assures him the results will be worth it.

Jason gets back to Stone with confirmation that Jessamy did have a son named Ian, and that she’d died accidentally, though local rumors placed blame on Bobby. He confirms that Ian had run away at sixteen, and neither parent searched for him. Stone leaves things at that for the moment, and turns his attention to the blood ritual. The result is unequivocal; Ian is his son.

Stone leaves voicemail for Ian and, in the meantime, visits the abandoned strip mall where the apprentice was found. He finds impressions of fear and terror, as well as something else he can’t identify, as if perhaps many people witnessed the girl’s murder. A homeless man in the area tells Stone the place used to be a church, of the intense, fire-and-brimstone kind.

When Ian gets back to Stone, his cynicism and even mockery are evident, but Stone arranges for them to meet again for lunch. He tells Ian the test was positive, and if he’d only known about him, things would have been different. He admits he doesn’t know if he’d have married Jessamy, but he would definitely have made sure she and Ian wanted for nothing. He asks Ian to give him the chance to prove he’s not the kind of man Ian apparently thinks he is. He tells Ian to find a more permanent place to stay – Stone will pay for it – and to come to Encantada for dinner. He has more he needs to tell the boy.

Stone has the opportunity to witness the interrogation of the man charged with the apprentice’s murder. In the process, he realizes the man is under magical oath – that *Portas Justiciæ* has one or more mages in its ranks. Meanwhile, Blake advises Ian to act surprised and disbelieving about magic and, further, if Stone tries to teach him, to act like he isn’t getting it. Aside from stringing Stone along, it will also infuriate him that his own son is a magical idiot. It will also disguise Ian’s black mage status.

At dinner that night, Ian tells Stone more about his miserable childhood. After, Stone assesses Ian’s magical potential, and she’s he could be *very* powerful. He breaks the news to Ian that magic is real, and demonstrates. He explains that Ian would need training to reach his full potential. While parents don’t typically teach their own children, in this case, their relationship is virtually nonexistent. In addition, Stone says there may not be anyone else powerful and knowledgeable enough to do it other than himself. Ian leaves, telling Stone he needs to process all this.

During his check-in with Blake, Ian is reminded that Stone is a manipulator, and that he is the reason his mother died. Blake and Razakal keep reinforcing his anger toward Stone. Razakal cautions Blake to keep an eye on the boy and, when she is too flip, reminds her of the consequences of disrespect.

Eddie gets back to Stone with Portas Justiciæ information. An obscure Catholic sect, they were considered heretics even by the church, and carried out atrocities in the name of eliminating witchcraft. They symbol on the note and the apprentice’s body means witch/abomination. That makes it even stranger that one of their people would be under magical oath.

Later, Ian is nonplussed when Stone tells him there are no oaths or pacts involved in apprenticeship, just agreement to follow the rules. Blake had demanded both oaths and blood from him. He stays with the plan, though, and pretends to not ‘get it’ when Stone tries him out on magical sight. Ian is frustrated by having to play dumb, and Stone by Ian’s apparent block of some kind.

Ian tells Stone he needs a couple of days to take care of some things. Meanwhile, Jason reports that the murder suspect, Rivera, has been released to home monitoring. He uses and illusion disguise and pays the man a visit. Rivera resists answering questions, his oath helping prevent him. But when Stone restrains him with magic, he calls Stone an abomination, and gestures as if he’s trying to banish him. Suddenly, Rivera goes into some kind of seizure, just as Stone spots through the window a shadowy figure fleeing. Stone does what he can to stop the seizure, then has to leave in a hurry himself when the man’s son arrives.

Once again, Ian expresses doubts about the plan to kill Stone, wondering why all the build-up. Blake warns him that he agreed to obey her. Still, she presses about Stone being Machiavellian in his ability to deceive and manipulate. Nevertheless, Ian’s gut is telling him something is very off.

After hearing the story of Rivera’s seizure, Jason reassures Stone that he’s not responsible for what happened. And, once Stone resolves to try to infiltrate the church, Jason dissuades him. If a mage is involved, they’d probably detect Stone. No, Jason - mundane and a PI – is a much better choice. He tells Stone he’ll check in once he’s found something out.

On Ian’s next lesson, he finally sees Stone’s aura, including the silver band almost no one else can see. But, inexplicably, he fails on a second attempt. Jason reports that Rivera is on life support and no longer a threat, and he’s gotten a line on where the New Life Church meets and plans to attend a service in the morning.

The next afternoon, Verity visits and tells Stone that she and Hezzie have managed to brew an elixir similar to the one Garra used on her minions, the one Jason’s been wanting. But she’s not sure she wants to give it to him. Two small vials took most of Viajera’s blood to produce, plus there is the issue of Jason *wanting* it so badly… Jason, meanwhile hasn’t reported in from New Life, and they’re both becoming concerned. Verity does a tracking ritual and finds him, and feels that he’s badly hurt.

They track Jason to an apartment building under construction. He’s severely beaten; Verity doesn’t think her healing power will be enough to save him. He’s barely conscious, so she offers the elixir. Jason takes it and begins to heal and strengthen quickly. Later, he relates the story of his mission.

He’d gone to the service and everything seemed fine, other than the sermon being particularly fire-and-brimstone bloodthirsty. Jason thought he’d fit in fine, and was even invited to a men’s group meeting after. It was heading there with one of the other men when he was incapacitated somehow, taken to the vacant building and beaten. The men beating him said they knew he was working with witches, and wanted to know who. They didn’t kill him only because he wasn’t a witch himself, and that would be murder. But they did leave him for dead. They also stuffed a note in Jason’s pocket to whatever witches he’s working with, warning them to stay away from *Portas* or more will suffer.

Verity tells Jason that only one vial of elixir is left and making more is virtually impossible. Stone resolves to have Capt. Flores check into New Life Church, and make sure word gets out into the magical community to be wary. Then he tells them that he has someone that he wants them to meet. He doesn’t tell them more; just arranges for them to come for dinner tomorrow.

At dinner, Stone introduces Ian and, once over the shock, Verity in particular seems to like him. She even shares Stone’s Rocky Horror story, since it involved Ian’s mother. Ian seems quite comfortable, as well, so Stone gives Ian homework: get together with Verity and talk magic and apprenticeships. Verity has a unique magical style, and can explain better how different styles work for different people. They arrange to meet the next day. After the pair leave, Stone reiterates that Ian’s magical achievement (or lack) has nothing to do with him being happy to have his son in his life, which once again sets Ian thinking.

After talking to Ian and hearing his constant questioning of the plan, Blake consults with Razakal and decides it’s time to move on Stone. There’s no point in waiting longer. Meanwhile, both Jason and Verity counsel Stone to relax with Ian and let him move at his own pace. In fact, is he sure the boy wants to be a mage? Verity also counsels Ian at their lunch, telling him he has options – whether to be a mage, what type of mage, etc., and that Stone won’t explode, disown him, or whatever. Ian says Stone is nothing like what he expected. Verity asks if he’s afraid Stone will react badly that Ian is gay. She assures him that won’t happen. Verity is bi, and Stone’s girlfriend, as well as having another girlfriend in San Francisco, and Stone has taken it in stride because he loves her and wants her to be happy. Ian is deeply disturbed that his view of Stone is all wrong.

Jason and his new assistant, Gina Rodriguez, come up with several more instances of women killed that fit the *Portas* MO, going back a decade. Later, Verity expresses her concerns to Stone that mages are completely ungoverned. There is no ruling body, no one to stop mages from abusing their power. Few, aside from Stone, even care, and he’s only one man. Alastair makes it clear that neither mages at large, nor he, would welcome a governing body poking into mages’ affairs. He tells Verity she’s free to examine possibilities, but he’ll have nothing to do with it.

Ian ghosts both Stone and Blake for a few days, but finally speaks with Blake. She says they’re close, and he needs to get back to Stone and play good son. Increasingly, Ian has an inner voice countermanding his doubts and any positive thoughts he has about his father. He does get together with Stone for a lesson, and again Stone’s behavior belies what he’s been told. He asks if Stone and his mother ever got back together. Alastair tells him no, he hadn’t seen Jessamy since she returned to the States after their brief liaison. Ian gets a severe headache, and is aware enough to realize it happens any time he believes Stone over Blake. As the conversation moves on, Stone realizes part of Ian’s reticence is because he’s gay, and Stone’s talk of having an heir bothers him. Alastair assures him that his choices are his own and have no bearing on how Stone feels about him.

Back at Blake’s, it becomes clear that Ian is drawing his own conclusions and about to go off-script, so Blake magically enforces his oath to get him back under control. She gives him orders to bring the plan to its conclusion. Neither she nor Razakal can wait any longer.

Another murder occurs, and Stone interviews the girl’s mentor, the owner of an occult shop in Campbell, named Bella Price. He interviews Bella and learns the girl was a new apprentice who had been more of a fan of the occult until Bella became aware she had power and took her on. On his way home, Stone gets a call from Ian suggesting they get away for a bit, away from distractions so they can both focus on his magical training. Stone is pleased, and tells Ian he’ll make arrangements; a friend has a hunting cabin near Big Sur they can use. They’ll head down tomorrow and spend the weekend.

Verity, meanwhile, invites Ian to join her in San Francisco to meet her employer, the tattoo artist, Scuro. After she introduces them, Verity scrams, pretty sure they’ll hit it off. They do, but during the ‘talking’ part of their evening, Ian asks Scuro about tattoos that move, thinking of Blake’s weird body art that seems alive. Scuro says no, his magical skin art doesn’t do anything like that.

On the way to the cabin, Stone and Ian chat, and everything Alastair says makes Ian more uncomfortable with the situation. He’s under Blake’s – and Razakal’s – spell, however, and can’t help reporting in where they’re headed so Blake can get into position for the big finish. Razakal’s voice (in Ian’s head) rides him hard. Razakal has devised a new plan of his own, and hopes to harvest not just Stone’s power, but Ian’s and Blake’s, as well.

Scuro calls Verity, because Ian’s question about moving tattoos bothered him. He tells her he found out those tattoos indicate someone sworn to a demon, or some extradimensional entity. Red flags go off in Verity’s head. She calls both Stone and Ian, getting no answer. Then she calls Jason, explains her thinking, and they decide to head up to the cabin, thinking Stone will forgive them if they’ve overreacted.

When Stone and Ian are practicing moving rocks on a level lawn near a cliff, Ian is extremely distracted, a contentious argument going on in his head. He doesn’t want to harm his father, but Razakal wrenches his oath and forces him to act. Ian suddenly blasts Stone with unrestrained magic, throwing him off the cliff.

Jason and Verity arrive just as Stone, damaged and bloody, levitates up over the cliff edge in a blind rage. He levels a killing blast at Ian, who is suddenly near catatonic. Verity deflects the blast and talks Stone down, telling him Ian, now unconscious, is being controlled. Nearby, Blake knows things have gone south and is about to storm out, but Razakal calms her. He’s playing his own game.

Verity, Stone and Jason get Ian to the cabin, where he’s unresponsive but in distress. They discuss events and conclude an enemy has taken control of Ian, but who? He seems to be under magical oath. Verity, with her more organic touch, cocoons the magic controlling Ian away from his mind, then inserts herself as Ian’s connection to the world. Through her, Ian apologizes and tells them Blake forced him. The name means nothing to Stone, but when Ian/Verity elaborates about events at Adelaide’s house and Burning Man, Stone realizes the enemy is Trin Blackburn.

Incensed, Stone slips away and heads for where he now knows Trin will be. He bursts into the vacation home she’s hiding in and a battle ensues. Blake can’t help but banter, and tells Stone Ian is lost, promised to another entity he can’t fight. Stone nearly has her, but Razakal secretly intervenes, blasting him.  He’s only out briefly, but Blake is gone, and Jason and Verity get up in his face about going off alone.

Back at Stone’s place, Verity spells Ian so he can speak through her. He tells them of Blake’s plans, how she lied and manipulated him. But her plan failed and she’s in the wind now, and she won’t fail to strike again, especially with Ian bound to whatever entity she made a deal with – she has to succeed or die.

Next day, Ian has to face that he tried to kill his father. But, when he insists on helping to take Trin/Blake down, Alastair has to insist he stay behind; Trin or the entity she promised Ian to could invoke that pact, and he’d be forced to attack him. The trio go off to Trin’s apartment, but she’s not there. Meanwhile Ian contacts Trin, who doesn’t know his oath has been blocked. She tells him her location, and he’s off to find her and take her down. Razakal privately gloats, because his claim on Ian is still intact.

Once it becomes clear that Ian has gone to confront Trin alone, Stone prepares a tracking ritual. Because they share blood, it should have been easy, but Stone is being blocked by something. He sets about resetting his circle while Verity and Jason go to Ian’s apartment for a tether object. Ian, meanwhile has arrived at a burned-out mansion. Trin takes him by surprise and renders him unconscious.

Stone takes no chances with the second ritual. He not only uses the necklace Verity brought, but a good quantity of his own blood to track Ian. But, again, it threatens to fail (Razakal is blocking until Trin is ready with Ian), causing Stone to pour more and more power into it until the tracking thread suddenly zeroes straight in on Adelaide Bonham’s old place (Razakal has stopped blocking). The wreck of the mansion is where Stone and Trin first met, and he first defeated her (Stone and a Hard Place).

Ian wakes from whatever drug Trin gave him to find himself chained to a table in the middle of a ritual circle in a derelict basement. Trin tells him to relax, that Stone will arrive soon and she’ll keep her promise to her ‘associate’ and give Ian to it. Ian tries to free himself with magic, but Trin has drained him of power to the barest minimum. Stone relates the story of his first encounter with Trin as they speed to meet her, including that it resulted in his first apprentice’s death.

At the Bonham house, the group splits up to cover the huge place, with Alastair taking the direction of the kitchens; he’s certain he knows where Trin will be. Jason and Verity are lured astray by an illusion, and Verity falls through a hole in the floor, breaking her ankle. She urges Jason to go on; she’ll heal herself and follow. If Trin has set traps, she knew they were coming. She also has Jason drink the last elixir.

Stone makes it to the basement below the kitchen, spotting a red glow. He texts the others his location and is about to close in when he’s trapped in an illusion of blackness. Trin taunts him, then drops the blackness to show him a perfect reproduction of the scene from ten years past, but with Ian on the table. She returns the darkness to finish preparing. Stone could blast blindly, but he might his Ian, or bring what’s left of the house down. He texts that he needs a diversion, then begins baiting Trin, making her angry.

Stone shields as Trin fires a blast of magic at him, then acts when a sudden BOOM sounds nearby. He blows Trin through a wall with Calanarian force, then follows. She detonates some kind of bomb, launching Stone into the air. Some of it gets through Alastair’s shield, peppering him with shallow cuts. She’s transformed, now, looking and moving like some kind of red monster. Stone buries her him rubble, but she breaks free. He’s about to make a move when the ceiling drops on him.

Jason, bolstered by the elixir, rescues Ian, then demands the kid take power. Ian objects, but Jason insists. Ian is amazed when he powers up without harming Jason. Alastair has gotten out of the rubble and he and Trin are flinging power at each other, Trin now looking like a weird amalgam of herself, Razakal’s human form, and his monstrous real form. Trins seems to have the upper hand until Ian shouts, calling for whatever is working with Trin.

Razakal appears in his handsome form and Ian is about to give himself up to save the others, when Stone spots the red energy conduit between Razakal and Trin. He blasts it, destroying Razakal’s anchor to the Earthly plane. Trin is felled, and Razakal quickly begins to lose power. Stone reads the spirit the riot act, telling him he’d better flee before he loses enough power to become a victim on his home plane. That’s what all this has been about for him – power he can use to subdue others of his kind.

Stone makes a new deal with Razakal: the spirit stays away from Stone and his friends and family for eternity, and Stone lets him go with what power he has left. Magnanimously, he also offers him Trin – not just her power, but bodily. As Razakal accepts, Trin begins pulling the house down on top of them. Razakal snares her, reducing her to nothing but bones, and disappears. As Stone begins to lose consciousness, he’s aware of Ian and Verity shielding them all from the collapse.

Two days later, Stone and Verity pay a visit to the man who they now know killed the latest apprentice. Verity neutralizes his magical oath, and Stone coerces the man into telling him who ordered the killing, then turning himself in. The man doesn’t know her name, but her description is familiar to Stone. He goes back to Bella Price’s shop and confronts her. She’s a full-blown *Portas Justiciæ* fanatic, considering all mages, including herself, abominations, and her work for *Portas* is amends for her sins. Stone tells her to spread the word – *Portas* is done in the area. One more death, and he will hunt them down and enforce his order, with prejudice. The next morning, Stone reads in the paper that Inner Eye burned down, with the owner inside.

Stone takes Ian to visit Ethan Penrose’s grave, feeling a kind of full-circle moment. Ian worries out loud that Stone is ashamed of him being a black mage. Stone tells him there are ways to work back to white, but Ian confesses that he ashed Bobby Tanner. He’s floored by Stone’s mild reaction, until Stone admits ashing his twin Sister (Necessary Sacrifices), a story he’ll tell Ian more of later. For now, he says he’ll find Ian a new master; it’ll be for the best. Ian, for his part, tells Stone he wants to take the family name.