Revelations, with a chance of Rain

## Content Information

Iva:   "Are you busy?"

        "Because we need to talk."

Seb: "What's wrong now?"

Iva: "Everything as usual. Actually several fucking things."

Iva:  "Anyways, this concerns your plan with me for SGA."

Iva:  "And Joseph..."

Seb: "My *plan* with you for SGA?"

Seb: "I asked you to run because that bitch Quist,

         is trying to make MHU a DRY campus."

Seb: "You know what that means, right?"

Seb: "And what about Joseph??"

Iva: "You still remember how to open the rooftop after-hours? We'll talk there."

Seb: "omw"

Iva had entered Carter Hall, long after hours. Her college ID still worked on the door, and most people didn’t give her a hard time about her being around. The events of the job fair were fresh despite, having to suppress them enough to get through her midterm earlier today. She wanted to recreate that marking on the arm, but she didn’t stop at her house long to reproduce it. She also had a hunch about something with Sebastian, but she was reluctant to ask.

Getting to the rooftop was easy if you know the way. Going up the stairs was the wrong way. She found the pathway to the rooftop after pushing a panel to the custodian’s storage room, which was never locked.

A quick heave and she lifted herself through the vent to the roof. Normally, it would be good etiquette to close the pathway behind her, but she was expecting someone first and left it partly opened.

She found herself on top of the roof, looking at the cloudy skies. Her eyes shined golden for a second while she was in deep thought.

Maybe after a couple of minutes had gone by, the partly opened vent could be seen being pushed open all of the ways as Sebastian skillfully pulled himself up and out of the vent. Thankfully he was flexible, otherwise, he would have had to really overexert himself.

Seb dusted a few particles of dust off his shoulders. “You know, one of these days maybe they’ll learn to lock the custodial closet. But until then…” Running his hand through his hair, Seb flashed Iva a smirk. “You wanted to talk?”

“Yeah, I do.” She seems distant and sudden. None of the “Yeah, fucker or little shit.” quips that usually occur, mostly because of his taunting. “Something’s been bothering me, but earlier today, it really disturbed me..badly.”

Iva proceeds to explain the details of the job fair that afternoon. The part she was focused on was the fact that Joseph was being dragged forcefully by a shady job table, and her efforts to pull him away from the group were being disregarded. There was a frustrated growl there with a mutter about Joseph having the survival instinct of a lemming.

“Three things about the encounter were concerning.” Iva’s eyes narrowed, “The fact that those guys called me out in a threatening manner.” She was careful not to mention that she wasn’t human, “The second thing is that there was smoke on Joseph’s jacket when he was being handled and like his sleeve was looked burnt when the man finally let go. The final thing...”

“The man grabbing Joseph had a marking on his arm, similar to that of Elliot Quist.”  Iva finally looked at Sebastian, looking completely serious. “That was the main thing that bothers me. I wanted to ask if you know anything about that marking...or if those men had anything to do with that woman? You worked with her in the SGA, I figure you have some idea what that marking is about before I go to an outside source.”

Sebastian’s grin had been long gone, and his eyes were serious, looking off to the cloudy skies as he was listening to what Iva was recounting at the job fair, the one he couldn’t attend because of *other* pressing matters. But it was at the moment “Joseph’s” name was mentioned that caused Seb to snap his eyes back to Iva.

“Who’s arm??” It wasn’t normal for Seb to lose his cool, but he had to be sure he heard her right, and whether or not she’s just implicated Joseph as being one of the witch hunter cult members. But.. why would they have killed one of their own? He had a million questions racing across his mind at the moment.

Iva sighed, realizing that Sebastian missed the mark in his emotions. It didn’t help that she was shaken up by the affair. “Calm down. The men from that job table that I told you to seem shady, one of them grabbed Joseph and dragged him over there and held him there while the other made some non-existent, bogus, job pitch.  It was those two with the tattoo. . .Joseph’s jacket sleeve was steaming and burned from where one of those men grabbed him but his arm was okay for the most part. “ The woman clarified her description a bit more.

Sebastian blinked twice, his demeanor changing on a dime. “Wait, the job fair that took place today? I couldn’t make it, had something to take care of.” He began to rub his arm, looking alarmed at the news of the attack on Joseph. “Did you or anyone else get a good look at the guy who burned Joseph? Or the bogus job pitch guy?” Sebastian’s tone lowered and sounded concerned as he stepped closer to Iva.

“Yes, I did get a good look. They covered their tracks somehow during their exit.  When we alerted security, they couldn’t find a trace of them.  No one even saw them leave or have a table in that location. The most glaring detail was that tattoo, I’m asking about. ” Iva had met Sebastian’s approach with a cold stare, “That tattoo, the one I saw. I saw it on Quist during my outburst in the study hall. Do you know something about it?”

It was at this point that Sebastian knew he couldn’t keep this from Iva for any longer. “That tattoo you’re talking about…” He didn’t meet her gaze, looking to the ground, he searched for the right words that wouldn’t end up making him sound insane, or lying. “It’s a tattoo that belongs to an ancient cult, one that hunts witches, magic… Yes, Iva. Magic is ***real***.” As he punctuated the last word, he felt the first droplet on his head, and then the second one on his palm. Sebastian looked up and saw a million little droplets slowly coming down.

The steady droplets caused Sebastian to cover the top of his head with his hands. “I’m not sure about you, but I didn’t bring an umbrella. Can we move this conversation somewhere else?” He motioned to one of the canopies that were left open by the astronomy club that used it earlier in the evening.

Her eyes look forlornly at Sebastian, looking shocked over the revelation. As the first droplets fell on her face, “Magic is real…” Iva’s words trailed off. She appeared to be in a state of processing and deep thought. As the rain started to build up, Iva finally said in an abrupt nonchalant chortle. “Ah well, don’t I know it.”

While the other person was processing that sudden change in her tone, Iva just pats Sebastian’s shoulder as she walks past him, “Let’s go. We’ll continue there.”

Sebastian nods, walking side by side with his friend. As they reached the canopy, Sebastian moved over to where the plastic chairs were stacked off to the left, pulling apart two and plopping one near Iva, and placed his chair beside the first one, plopping down himself. “If you have any further questions, now’s the time.”

“Well, come clean. You’re capable of doing magic.” Iva asked with a relaxed look. “What are you then? A wizard, witch, jinn?”

Sebastian looked up at her and took in the lackadaisical tone. There’s something missing. That something was being shocked. “There’s a lot of different names for it. And yes, I can do magic. There’s something… different about you too Iva.” Sebastian chose his next words wisely. “I can do magic, I can do a lot with magic, like find out when people are lying to me.” His gray eyes looked in Iva’s direction. “Why aren’t you shocked when I mentioned magic? What’s your connection to it?”

“Connection? Well, I don’t know about the connection. I’m fully aware of magic, among other things. It’s been part of my life, for good or ill.” Iva relaxed in the chair, looking at the rain falling in front of the canopy.  There was no point in hiding it. If they were to work together on this, she had to let him know. “I guess if there is any connection...it’s mostly because I’m not human and I’m a creature whose connection was created by a divine curse from eons ago. ”

With those words, she leaned back while her hair transformed right in front of Sebastian into snakes from her twisted ponytail. The snakes shook the rain off themselves, before lifting their heads up at Sebastian, with shining eyes.  “Does this answer your question?”

Impressed. That’s the only word he could muster as he sat beside Iva and saw in real-time as her dreads turned into sentient snakes, like right out of Greek mythology about a certain beautiful gorgon. Sebastian nodded as he brought his hands together, red, crackling energy began to form as he began chanting in Latin underneath his breath. This lasted for a few seconds before the chanting ceased, as did the light show. “Did that answer your question?” He responded in kind with a question of his own, signature smile in place.

“It does, you little asshole. I had a feeling too.” Iva chuckled with a relaxed look. “So, this anti-magic cult is a bit of a problem for a lot, not just you.  I can’t let something like that stick around. They threatened Xander and me, so now it’s personal. . . I guess I have to be serious about this SGA thing now.”  Iva kept her head full of snakes. She hasn’t shown Sebastian about her snake form due to the fact that she was wearing jeans, and that’s an experience for another time.  However, there was a more pressing concern. One tiny bit of mystery that needs to clear. She took a moment of silence as she tried to find a subtle way to ask.

“...you know, what? Fuck it, just going to ask, and you’re not going to like it.”  Iva said forlornly, despite being impressed with the show of magic, ”Was there a reason why they were targeting Joseph?”

At that question, the smirk that was on his lips instantly fell. That awful, familiar feeling of guilt crept back into his stomach and he looked out towards the rain straight ahead of them. It felt like there was a deafening silence that lasted an eternity, just the distant sound of the rain hitting the rooftop of the building. Sebastian’s mind was racing a mile a minute as he searched, hard, for the right words to describe why Joseph met his tragic and untimely demise. But nothing was coming to him. Taking a deep breath, Sebastian finally looked over to Iva and said what could best be described as just sheer guilt.  “...Because of me.”

“...As it rains, it pours,” Iva said with a sobered look, hearing the rain hit the rooftop harder to the point that her words were audible. She was familiar with that grimace from the other person talking to her. All the while, she had taken out a rolled-up cigarette, filled with its own hemp blend, out of a tin case she got out of her pocket. She lit it after putting it in her mouth, taking a slow inhale as it lingers between her lips. One of the snakes grabbed the stick, taking out of her mouth to let her exhale,

“While I have to understand the responsibilities of being SGA president, I have a belief or understanding the problems of the student body, and doing one’s best to resolve as much as one could. . . I believe that includes some of your problems too, Mr. Vice President Blythe.”

The snake carrying the weed stick in its mouth, like a dog carrying a stick, held it out for Sebastian to take, “Now, tell me *everything*.”