"Hey…" Tenderly, John whispered in Hope's ear.
Listening to his voice, Hope fidgeted slightly in his embrace. "Yeah?"
"I wanted to make one thing clear. It is about our relationship."
"And what is it?" Hope had her eyes shut, trying to enjoy the last remnant sensations of her sleep.
"I wanted to formalize our relationship through more… formal ways."
Wriggling herself, Hope was able to turn around in John's embrace, facing him now as she looked up at him. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I had thoughts, ideas on how we should officiate our relationship." John moved his fingers through her hair, caressing her scalp. "Probably on a date. I would take you to a restaurant, chances on a fancy one or something more casual but tranquil and reserved. The idea of an amusement park or a traveling carnival crossed my mind as well."
"I don't even remember exactly the last time a carnival crossed over Mystic Falls." Hope commented.
"As I said, they were mostly thoughts and ideas rather than real plans." John lightly snorted. "I know you prefer normal things, so these were my ideas."
"Correct." Hope slowly nodded. "And then what?" She curiously asked.
"I would take us back home in a special way." He replied. "What I had in mind was to take you through the skies, show you how beautiful the world is from up there." John paused, letting his words sink in. "And then…"
"And then…?"
Instead of continuing his thoughts, John teasingly smiled. "Hm, I will hold that thought for now."
"You are kidding me, right?" Hope asked, her face serious.
Looking at her expression, John smiled broadly. "Half and half." He said, tucking a few strands of hair behind her left ear. "Teasing you is good, but I wish to keep this idea a secret for some time."
"You sometimes are infuriating."
"It's part of the package." John kissed her forehead, then leaned his forehead on hers. "How long do we have to simply stay put before we have to rush to prepare ourselves for the day?"
"Considering how much you eat on breakfast-"
"And how much time you take on the showe-Ouch!"
Hope slowly brought the hand which just pinched the boy's ear down. "As I was saying… we don't have long. Five minutes, give or take."
Hearing that, John smiled widely. "I guess that's enough time to play a little, don't you think?" He asked, his hands under the blanket moving alongside her curves.
"Hmph, you are insatiable…" Hope said, but her words and following actions weren't of protest.
[Scene Break]
The day passed flawlessly, with no great event taking place from morning until now, the end of afternoon.
Classes happened without problems and noon break was peaceful throughout the school. Even now, the atmosphere of the school was a quiet and cozy one despite the still chilly air of winter.
Fully enjoying this mood, sitting lazily on a comfy armchair he had settled on a corner of the library, John leafed through the pages of a thick book in his hands. By his side lay a couple dozen books, waiting to be read. On the other side, over a small prearranged table was a cup of hot cocoa with a scattering string of steam coming off its surface.
Just by looking at him, anyone would have the urge to feel at peace and tranquil, to throw away their troubles and simply relax.
That was at least how Dorian thought as he arranged the books in the library.
"You know, there is only a single day in the year I take a break." Dorian calmly said, knowing the boy could hear him despite a certain distance between them. "But looking at you, I wish to go to my room and take a nap."
Slowly turning his page, John nodded. "The weather certainly is perfect for that." He said, his voice somehow reaching the librarian despite him not shouting. "As soon as I regain my ability to sleep whenever I want, taking naps is certainly something I will do often." He reached his hand out, picking up the cup.
"Where did you even get that armchair?" Dorian asked.
"From the main hall."
"That's why I thought it was familiar." Dorian casually commented. "What did Alaric say when you asked to move it?"
"…He agreed." John said, his answer taking a bit much to come. "Just told me to get it back later."
"Good." Dorian nodded, continuing on his work as he took a couple books wrongly placed back to where they belonged. "I thought it was strange to not see you here earlier as soon as classes ended. Were you enjoying the honeymoon mood you have with Hope or doing something else?" Dorian asked with a bit of humor in his tone.
In kind, John chuckled lightly at the man's words. "I went to the town, bought a chip for my phone to get a number for myself. Well, Hope did. I just had to fill the papers."
"I see." Dorian said, no more words coming from him as he focused on finishing the arrangement in the library.
Meanwhile, John continued to leisurely read his book, trying to add some more knowledge about how magic operates in his mind.
It's not unexpected that the Augustine society weren't the only ones to study vampire physiology and try to comprehend it through normal scientific methods. John leafed to the next page, his brow furrowing after some time. Unfortunately, this book lacks a lot. By restraining themselves to normal experiences and not abusing vampires' physiology to run inhuman experiments, and also their lack of knowledge on magic as an energy, they aren't capable of explaining many things, and even the ones they are capable of seem lacking. The boy sighed, his interest in the book in his hands decreasing. However, the study on how a Vampire's Compelling works is truly impressive. Reaching the end of the book, John closed it.
Differently from a few previous books, he didn't immediately put this one aside and picked another. Instead, the young man settled it on his lap and quietly passed his eyes over the room. He was obviously looking for something, or more exactly, someone to help him try out something.
Unfortunately, there weren't many people at the library this afternoon. Besides John and the librarian, Dorian, there were only other half a dozen individuals present, all of them busy with their own books and incapable of helping the young man with his idea.
However, as if the world decided to gift him, someone had just stepped into the library, someone John slowly turned his head to when he noticed the presence.
As he passed through the library's entrance, with a gullible and honest smile stamped on his expression, the black young man waved and greeted almost everyone he passed by, showing how friendly and social he was.
Even when greeting Dorian, the boy acted respectfully and amicably towards the librarian as he asked if the library had received any works and books of his interest.
Looking at him, John pondered for a moment before nodding to himself. Yeah, he's gonna work. And I think it's time I "meet" him.
"Hey, Milton."
Milton Greasley, who was getting excited as he received a nod from Dorian about the library getting some new graphic novels, suddenly had his attention taken away as he listened to someone whisper his name.
His enhanced sense of hearing also allowed him to easily track the origin of the voice, with Milton having his eyes fall on a figure by the corner of the library as he casually looked at him.
"Hm, hey." Milton waved at the boy, a little surprised at who was calling him. "John, right?"
"Yep." John nodded, taking a sip from the hot cocoa in his cup. "I know this might be abrupt, but mind helping me a bit?"
Despite being a bit surprised by the unexpected question, Milton stiffly nodded. "Um, sure." He said, turning towards the young man. "But only if you stop calling me Milton."
"But that's your name."
"Yeah… mommy dearest messed up a little in that part. Thought that inheriting the name of my great-grandfather would be a good idea." Milton chuckled weakly, approaching the young man. "Call me MG, it stands for my name and surname. Everyone calls me that way."
Smiling, John nodded his head. "Okay, then. MG." The boy said, putting down the cup at his side.
Along the way to approach John, MG fetched a nearby unoccupied chair and placed it in front of the boy. "So, what you want my help with?" He asked, sitting backwards on the chair, with his arms over the back of the wooden structure as he looked at John.
"This." John raised the book off his lap. "I want help in better understanding something I read here."
Before the boy put it away, MG briefly read the book's title on its cover. "Vampiric Physiology: Intricacies of the Predator Species." He spoke out loud. "Sounds like the name of a cliché monster story."
"It does, doesn't it?" John grinned in accordance. "However, its very direct name is not the reason why I called you here. What I want your help with is to understand what exactly happens when a vampire compels someone."
"Hmm… isn't it that easy to understand?" MG asked, not seeing much complexity in the action.
"Is it?" John asked, raising his right eyebrow.
"Well, it's just hypnosis, right?"
"Far from that, my friend." John straightened his back, not staying in a lazy posture anymore. "Even if I didn't read this book, I would still be skeptical about how your ability to compelling others work. For example, how do you explain the fact you can compel or hypnotize people who are unwilling? If you are not aware, you can't do that to those who are unwilling to be hypnotized. That is, your ability to be compelling basically forces them to open their minds to you." Tapping on the book's cover a couple times, John had the young vampire's attention dragged to it. "In this book, it is said such a feat is achievable through very much possibly and obviously, magic."
"Okay…" MG slowly nodded, easily comprehending what John was saying but a little surprised to hear it for the first time. It wasn't exactly the goal of young vampires to know how their abilities worked. "And how does magic make it possible for me to forcefully hypnotize someone?"
"Glad you asked." John quickly opened the book, right on the page he wished to show to MG. "In the experiments done by this small group of doctors in cooperation with a vampire, they were able to deduce that when a human is met with a vampire trying to compel them, their prefrontal cortex stirs a little. Like…" John purposefully didn't end his words, waiting for MG to finish for him.
And thankfully, the boy from Maryland didn't disappoint him. "… It is opening?"
"Correct." John nodded. "Or more exactly, it numbs that part of the brain. It is quite incredible, don't you think? The part of your brain responsible for self-control, decisions and morality is numbed."
"And that is why we can hypnotize people? Because their brains are numbed?" MG asked, not sharing the same enthusiasm as John.
In response to the boy's questions, John tilted his head from one side to the other. "Yes and no. There is more." Leafing through the pages again, John found the one page he wanted to go very quickly. Besides having memorized the entire book, the book itself wasn't a thick one, with barely a hundred pages in it. "You may think that if your prefrontal cortex is numbed, you are not only susceptible to a vampire's hypnosis, you are susceptible to anyone's words. Because if your decision-making is numbed to the point that you simply accept whatever a vampire tells you, orders that can go even against your natural fear of death, why wouldn't someone's words be obeyed as well while their brain is in such a state?"
As he listened to John's words, MG read the words printed on the opened page and he understood what the boy in front of him meant.
In summary, the subject, despite being put into the submissive state of mind by our guest – Mr. Tao – wasn't obedient to any of our orders or words. The conclusion we have reached despite numerous tests and experiments, is mostly a guess. Since vampires are creatures of magic, we must suppose that what we can't comprehend and come to conclusions about their abilities of compelling other living beings is a result of magic, an energy that we very unfortunately are not capable of detecting, much less studying, through traditional technology and scientific methods. What also supports such an idea is…
There were more words after, but to the topic in discussion, nothing that MG needed to know now.
He lifted up his head and looked at John, now knowing exactly what the young man wanted to know.
"Okay… what do you want me to do?" He straightforwardly asked, looking into the golden eyes in front of him.
Closing the book and putting aside, John leaned a little forward. "Try to compel me. You can do that, right?"
"I do. Never practiced it much, but it's almost an instinctual action to us." MG corrected his posture, taking on a serious tone as his eyes leveled with John's.
But despite looking directly into the rings of gold, MG wasn't capable of noticing the change in them. Through his eyes, he wasn't able to see how the eyes staring back at him changed and how the world they viewed was not the same as he looked at.
As his nostrils flared and the air escaped his lungs, MG inwardly nodded to himself as his pupils shrunk. "You are going to listen to my words…"
…
"There he is…" Hope muttered as the boy she was looking for through this entire time came into view.
Her steps led her deeper into the library, towards an isolated corner of the room.
There, Hope could see her boyfriend, thoughtfully looking at some papers piled up on his lap and muttering something that she started to better comprehend as she approached him.
"I guess even without seeing a human with no vervain in their veins under a vampire's compelling, I can assume how the magic would affect their brains." He muttered, scratching the side of his head. "Replicating it certainly isn't impossible. It's magic, after all. However, it certainly is a little complicated."
As she stood a couple meters from him, Hope repeated his words. "What is complicated?"
A little surprised, John raised his head. By his reaction, it seemed he was very immersed in his own ideas to not even notice her approach. "Hey… how long have you been there?" He reached his arm in her direction, inviting her close.
"Just got here." Hope stepped in, letting his arm around her waist as she leaned on his body. "What are you doing?" She looked over the papers, picking up one to read the words written on it.
"Ah, nothing much. Just trying to better understand how a vampire's ability to compel works." He casually answered, observing her read his papers.
While he said that, Hope narrowed her eyes as she read the paper. What was written intrigued her a little.
"This is interesting…" She muttered, sitting on the arm of the chair. Her eyes quickly passed over the words, consuming the knowledge in them. "You really think that's possible?"
"Witches imitating a vampire's compelling? Totally." John nodded, fetching a few other couple papers and handing them to her. "The problem is how complicated it is."
"Certainly seems so." Hope agreed, her eyes still focused on the papers.
Supporting his chin with the back of his hand, John appreciated the beautiful face of his girlfriend as she read the papers. "Thanks to MG and later with the help of Mr. Williams, understanding the mechanisms of compelling was quite easy. Of course, we weren't able to see how the magic involved in the act was able to alter the prefrontal cortex since apparently I can't be compelled and Mr. Williams is on vervain, but I was able to see the rest of the process."
Quietly, Hope looked at John. "You can't be compelled?"
"It seems so." John nodded. "I asked MG to try to compel me, but for a bunch of reasons, I can't. That's good, actually. After all, I am going to what can be called a nest of vampires."
"Certainly it is a relief to hear that." Hope reached her hand to her back pocket, fetching a small veil from it. "I had prepared a bit of veil for you to consume."
"Worried about me?" He asked with a wide smile.
"Of course I am." Hope let her fingers run through his hair, her movements tender. "God, if something happened to you there, I would ask my family's assistance and march into that city."
"Warmonger much?"
"Well, war and fights certainly are things running through my veins considering who my father is." Hope said, a snort escaping her. "But since that's a problem I don't have to worry anymore, I feel more at ease."
"You can always go with me if you worry as much."
"No, I prefer to stay." Hope refused the invitation immediately. "I don't like that kind of place. Not to mention that my presence would put everyone there on edge."
"Right, because you are the Tribrid and a Mikaelson."
"Not wrong." Hope shrugged, a quiet smirk on her lips. "But putting that aside, let's go back to what we were talking about and explain this part to me." She pointed at the papers. "How exactly do I send a 'magical wave' off my brain?"
"Well… I am still figuring out that part." John thinned his lips in slight frustration. "From what I observed, when MG tries to compel someone, his mind–or a part of it–works as a catalyst to send the 'spell' which is the compelling."
"And how does he do that?"
"That's the tricky part. I can imagine how he does that and I've seen it, but replicating it is difficult. After all, it's one thing to cast spells with your mind and another through it. You can imagine the precision needed to do it."
"I do." Hope nodded, seriously. "Any mistake and you might have an aneurysm, and you aren't a vampire with healing factor to survive it."
"They don't even have to worry about it. This part of their brain works like an organ, the process is automatic." John let out a sigh. "If they really had to do it manually, we would have way less vampires nowadays than you can imagine. After all, this is an ability that allowed them many possibilities to spread around the world."
"I guess you are right." Hope nodded, lifting one page to look at the one under it before looking at the one she just lifted again. "But still, it's impressive what you did here. Well, at least I'm."
"My, that way you will make me blush." John exaggeratedly acted bashful.
Hope smiled then laughed at him, shaking her head at his antics.
While the couple enjoyed themselves with each other's company and talked about the studies of the young man, someone walked into the library–Dorian.
He walked steadily, with a small wooden box in his hands. When he noticed the couple, he smiled. Though not very expressive about it, he was happy to see the students of the school finding happiness.
"Still here?" He asked, walking down the stairs to the lower level of the library.
"I sure am." John nodded. "I was reviewing the things we learned."
"Well, you sure learned more about an interesting topic. I am certain the group of researchers responsible for that article would be more than happy to work alongside you to know more about that." Dorian said, stopping by the boxes of glass and putting down the one in his hands near it.
Observing Dorian's movements, John got curious at what he was holding. "What is that?"
"Oh, this?" Dorian patted the top of the box. "A small artifact we had in the archives. There are a bunch of things we have that we don't know about their origins or what exactly they do, so we let them stay there until we are sure they don't present any danger to the students. This here is a small dagger that Dr. Saltzman decided it's time to put to show." Opening the box slowly, Dorian put his hands in and slowly brought out the item hidden in it.
When he retrieved it, the light over him glimmered over the edge of the blade, showing how perfectly it had been faring against the test of time.
Its hilt was slightly adorned with drawings, with a small bluish and white stone on the pome of wood.
Observing the blade, Hope tilted her head to the side to appreciate from a different angle. "It's beautiful."
"It is, isn't?" Dorian agreed with a nod, lifting it up against the light.
Snorting at the man's action, Hope looked at her boyfriend, who had said nothing about it. But, it was at that moment that she noticed. Different from her and Dorian, a stern expression stamped his face.
His brow was strongly furrowed, eyes narrowed at the blade.
Not expecting this reaction from him, Hope weakly shook her boyfriend with her hand. "John?"
"Hm?" Feeling his body shake, John left his stupor. "What?" He asked.
"What do you mean 'what'? Why that look?" She asked. "You were staring at it like you were seeing more about it than us."
"Ah, well… I kind of saw more than you." He muttered, his eyes going back to the blade. "It may not seem, but the amount of magic in it is exorbitant."
Hearing it, Dorian's hold on the artifact was more cautious now. "How much are we talking about?"
"It reminds me of you a little." John looked at Hope momentarily, then his eyes fell on the blade again. "Enough that I fear for what would be left of the entire school if it suddenly went all out."
"Okay…" Dorian nodded in comprehension. "Emma certainly didn't mention that when inspecting the artifact."
"It seems to be cloaked by a spell, a very strong one. But as you know, my way of viewing magic is different from traditional witches." John commented, his eyes not leaving the dagger. "And as you could guess by my words, the magic I am seeing now is of the spell itself. It seems that it works to make it look less than what it is."
"Wait a minute, wait a minute." Hope said, her eyes closing on the dagger as well. "Are you saying that a single cloaking spell contains that much magic?" Her own words made Hope surprised. "Then, what is it hiding?"
"We will learn at a later date." Dorian said, cautiously putting the dagger back in the wooden box. "I will notify Ric about this discovery. But first, I have tk take it back to the archives, where I don't mind if it suddenly explodes." He closed the box and picked it up, walking away from the library.
Observing Dorian, or more exactly the box in his hands, John still had his eyes narrowed as it seemed his sight pierced the wood surface of the object.
Okay, I guess I found the first of the three seals. John thought, somberly.
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A/N
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