Forgotten Magick

Chapter 2: Destiny. pt 3.

The Assassins Mission.

Morgana groaned as she took hold of her phone to read the message she had received, to her dismay it read ‘I need you in the forest, the young Prime and the young Alpha have been seen together and they seemed friendly. I need to know what is going on with that.’ Morgana sighed heavily before sending out a simple ‘Yes Sir’ he quickly responded with ‘I’ll have some one come by in an hour with a debrief file, be ready.’ Morgana responded with another quick ‘Yes Sir’ before turning her phone off.

Morgana made up her bed again, headed towards the kitchen, and started a fresh pot of coffee since she now had to sober up. There was now much to do. Morgana knew that one surveillance mission like this could last days at a time so she needed to pack intelligently, not too heavy in case she needed to move large stretches of land, thermal clothing so that she didn’t have pack for all sorts of weather conditions. Morgana started to compile a list of things she should pack as she started a very cold shower, she then thought about weapons. Obviously, on surveillance missions, she wasn’t allowed to kill but she needed to be able to defend herself in case something went wrong.

Morgana let the ice-cold shower wake her up and clear any further fog from her mind, she then hurried to braid her hair and get dressed. A simple outfit, thermal control leggings and long sleeve shirt, black, and sleek. She then hurriedly went down her mental list and packed; a few day worth of canned tuna, granola bars, and a bag of freeze-dried berries. Next she packed a couple more articles of clothing, a blanket, binoculars, and a stainless steel collapsible walking stick. It had a lot of uses to it, it was sturdy and the end of it was rather sharp. Morgana could use it for spear fishing or self defense, she also packed a bunch of nylon rope so she could secure herself to a large tree branch rather than go through the hassle of trying to find shelter. The weather was forecast to be clear and stable for the next few days, so she wasn’t worried about the elements too much. Lastly she packed a Lifestraw water bottle, water sources in the forest wasn’t an issue the river ran right in the middle of everything the problem was the potential bacteria and pollutants.

About an hour worth of prep work later Morgana was ready for her mission, with her bag slugged over her shoulder Morgana made her way downstairs to the shop and grabbed her black wind breaker jacket on the way down. She took a seat at the front counter and waited, it wouldn’t be long until her father's men would make their way over to brief her and hand over the files. No later than five minutes two men in black suits came to the front door, Morgana got up and unlocked the door for them. “Johnathan, Henrick, good to see you again!” Morgana said trying to be polite, but she couldn’t hide the slight in her voice. Why couldn’t she just be left alone? “You know, you’re lucky you’re the boss’s daughter. Otherwise I’d check that attitude of yours!” Henrick, a tall and burly red-haired man, had threatened her. Morgana couldn’t help but laugh “If I wasn’t the boss’s daughter I wouldn’t be here! I wouldn’t know about the Order and who knows, maybe I’d even be going to The University of British Columbia for mechanical engineering! But that isn’t the life we lead Henrick, now give me the file and brief me so I can go and get this job done.”

Johnathan, a tall blond lean man, put a patient hand on Henrick’s shoulder, pulling his friend back before the two started throwing fists. Johnathan cleared his throat and presented the file to Morgana, as she took the beige folder from the man he pushed his square glasses up the bridge of his nose. He kept his tone factual and logical as he began “about three weeks ago Prime Celeste of the Eternal Moon Coven was spotted preforming her regular rejuvenation ritual at the border of their territory, the day was particularity windy which caused her scent to be carried over to the wolf territory that neighbors them. We have reason to believe this is because Alpha Seth Lycagrus had begun to behave oddly.” Morgana raised a brow as she started to read the personal information pages for her targets “oddly how?”

Johnathan gave Morgana a sly smirk before continuing “Like a husband looking for his missing wife. The normally vibrant, charismatic, and energetic young Alpha had suddenly become much angrier and somber. Like he had fallen into a pit of madness and despair.” Morgana took a seat behind the store counter and continued reading as she asked “So she did a love spell of sorts while she was doing her ritual?” Johnathan shook his head before answering “well ma’am, the thing we need you to find out is if they are mates. We have a strong suspicion that they are, little over twenty-four hours Celeste had returned to the river. Another ritual, but so was he. Neither were hostile, in fact we don’t even believe she knew he was there, but he was watching her. His tail would wag from time to time whenever she spoke to her familiar or laughed at something. In other words, he was clearly infatuated with her.”

Morgana nodded her head thoughtfully before speaking “so father wants me to go find out if they the witches are making a move to reclaim their dominance by recreating the Alpha Guardian and Luna Supreme with a love spell, or if this is the genuine thing. Am I right?” Johnathan nodded his head as well “Exactly Miss Walker, we need to know how prepared we need to be for this. How big is this threat really? Should we simply let a small civil war between factions take care of themselves for us, or do we need to activate Protocol Von Schonenberg?” Morgana swallowed a small lump that formed in her throat. She had watched her father develop that specific protocol, it was sick, it was basically witch g******e. It was a protocol that every hunter was trained for, it was one of the three deadliest protocols they had; Protocol Von Schonenberg, Protocol Von Goethe, and Protocol Van Helsing.

Morgana took a deep breath and sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of her nose she closed the file before stuffing it into her bag. “Alright, mission understood. Tell my father I’m heading out, I’ll be back or I’ll call him when I have have solved the mystery.” Johnathan nodded as he turned to Henrick and motioned for him that it was time to leave. Henrick gave Morgana one last dirty look, which Morgana returned, before they had left. Morgana enjoyed Johnathan more than anyone else in the company, he was professional and to the point. He never wasted her time and understood her feelings towards her whole situation, unlike most of the hunters who joined The Order she was not given a choice as to whether or not she wanted to be a murderer. Morgana may have made her peace with who and what she had become, that didn’t mean she was happy or excited or enthralled by it. She was simply trying to avoid her father's wrath.

Morgana put on her wind breaker and slung her bag over her shoulder, she then finished locking up the rest of the store before heading out the back door. Morgana then got into her car, a black 2009 Jeep Wrangler, and headed out towards to forest on the outskirts of the city.

After three hours worth of driving, hiking, and planning later Morgana made it to the clearing that the two were last spotted at. Morgana knew that they would come back here, it was the only place where they could have some privacy on neutral ground. The question was a matter of how long it would take them to meet up again.

A few hours a later night had fallen over the forest and Morgana had found a rather large and sturdy branch to tie herself down to, before she could get too comfortable Morgana heard the rustling of tall grass and two male voices. Morgana grabbed her binoculars and looked down wards, there she saw the Alpha and his Beta. Morgana grabbed a pen and the file, Morgana was pretty great at reading lips so as they spoke Morgana wrote down each word. Based on what she was seeing it seemed like the wolf was in fact under the impression that he was mated to the witch.

After having watched the two for a while an unexpected occurrence happened, it had seemed that who ever had provided the initial intelligence hadn’t done their job properly. “God damn interns… Dad really needs to stop sending interns on these recon missions, they never stay until the end… I can’t believe the witch actually crossed into the wolf territory, AND she left.. What? What is that? Move you big canine half breed dumbass! No! No! Not in the jacket, f**k, what was that?!” Morgana cursed quietly to herself. Whatever it was it looked like a medium-sized black square and a very small jar. After the two had left Morgana put down her binoculars, grumbling to herself, she really couldn’t stand the interns now.

Morgana backed up into her tree branch again, tying herself down to make sure she didn’t fall out of the tree in her sleep. She was sure that after so many years of training her Marshal would have been downright furious to learn that she had died by falling out of a tree. “That would be actually really funny come to think of it…” She mumbled to herself as she thought about the vein on her father's head bulging and throbbing as the news was delivered to him. However, as comedic as the thought was Morgana valued her own life too much to even try such a thing. She thought about how perhaps one day she would be free of her fathers wicked obsessions, free of The Order, free of her blood shackles. That’s what was keeping Morgana going over the years, the thought of freedom and normalcy, though the price of her freedom was high and Morgana wasn’t sure if she had the resolve to do it. To exterminate an entire group of people, multiple groups of people, just so that she could be free of her father.

Morgana grabbed her cellphone and started to comb through all the pictures she had, there weren’t many, but, as she looked at the years of having to bind herself and cut her hair reminded her of the madness she’d have to endure for the rest of her days. Sure the price was high, but Morgana thought about it all; she wouldn’t be the first person in history to pay such a heavy price. After staring at the photos of her younger and angrier self Morgana thought it would be better for her to get some rest, there wasn’t any telling how long she’d have to wait for the two potential star-crossed lovers to re-unite. She bundled herself in her blanket and decided to call it a night, early to rest was early to shine and she would not make the same pathetic mistakes as all the other recon interns or specialists her father had on the payroll.

The next day came as the early morning sun shone brightly over Morgana’s eyes, a first the bright light stung her retina’s but after she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes the stinging went away. From her spot in the tree she could see so much, she saw the early morning guard patrolling both sides of the clearing though neither side dared to step foot past the tree lining. It was time for more intelligence gathering, this part was part of the job no one else in The Order tried. It was far too risky, but no one else in The Order had been trained quite like her.

Morgana took advantage of the large and sturdy red wood trees of the forest, leaping from tree to tree like an agile feline. She was as silent as a mouse, as quick as the wind, and as vigilant as a hawk. She was to high up to be spotted and she had covered herself in scent masking spray that was designed to make her smell like the forest flora, this way the werewolves wouldn’t see or smell her as she spied on the various grunts.

She first went over to the wolf side of the territory to see if there were any developments on the Alpha’s mood and behavior, when she crossed over onto the wolf territory she slowed her pace making sure not to make too much noise. Morgana had left most of her things on the tree she had camped out on, bringing her binoculars and her pen and paper to write down the conversations.

It wasn’t very long before she found her first group of grunts, a small pack of warriors of 3. Morgana scoffed as she noticed how lazy they seemed to be acting, she probably didn’t need to go through the trouble of masking her scent. She shook her head in disbelief for a moment before looking in on them, taking out her stationary to write down the conversation being held. It seemed as though the Alpha had recovered from whatever was ailing him, the grunts were talking about how the Alpha had been back to his cheery self yesterday after he had returned from the clearing.

They also spoke about how he had made rounds and spoke to everyone in the pack, the grunts were talking about how it was possible that the Alpha had simply come down with a cold of sorts. Morgana chuckled to herself as she muttered “so even the mighty Alpha suffers from man colds…” Morgana noted that. Even if the detail seemed insignificant she knew her father wanted every single weakness he could potentially exploit, and she knew her father could probably cook up a sick plan with this information.

Morgana was about to leave, figuring she had gathered enough intel from the grunts, but just as she was about to leave grunt #3 started talking about a suspicious scent. “I know the Alpha probably just cam down with something nasty, but, I think he found our Luna. Hear me out. I walked by the Alpha’s room today while he was leaving and I could a smell of some one else, it’s that or he’s started using a different kind of soap that’s really florally smelling.” Grunt #1 scoffed and smacked Grunt #3 behind the head before exclaiming “if that’s true then why would he be hiding her? Did you see her? The Alpha hasn’t been marked yet and let’s be honest, I don’t take Seth as the type to wait to mark. The poor guy’s been lonely for so long now, I really doubt he’d be so secretive about someone as important as our Luna. Now, I think it’s time to put these Luna rumors to rest. We don’t need to make our Alpha feel any worse than he does about not having a mate.”

Morgana smirked as she watched the older grunt give the younger one a hard time, if their theory about a love spell was true they were in for a hell of a time. Her father had taught her about the manipulative and sinister ways of the witches, according to him they were power-hungry and controlling people. It made sense, Morgana could only imagine what being given the power to manipulate the physical world could do to a persons psyche. She was sure that if they wanted to witches could more than likely take over the world, controlling people's minds and hearts. Though it begged the question if they could, why haven’t they?

These were the questions that divided Morgana and her father, Marshall was a man who ran on paranoia and hatred but Morgana couldn’t help but question those fears. If witches were that powerful why were they in hiding? If werewolves were so dangerous why were they in hiding? Even in their small numbers, Morgana was sure that they could do irreparable damage to humans, and yet they stay secluded deep in the forests. Morgana started to get caught up in her thought spiral again, it happened every time she started questioning her upbringing. Morgana quickly put those questions to rest, she wasn’t here to philosophize the conflict between humans and blessed she was here to get a job done.

Morgana decided she had gathered enough information from the wolves, she then started to make her way over to the witch territory. She leaped from branch to branch, feeling the wind brush against her face and breath life into her. It was a freeing feeling. It was the only thing she was thankful for from her father, thanks to her intense training she was able to do absurd parkour tricks and flips as she flew through the forest. It was fun. Though the fun and games ended as she crossed over to the coven territory.

There she found more grunts, these grunts were a little more vigilant than the wolves. Over on this side of the border, Morgana needed to be a bit more careful with her positioning, though her scent wasn’t an issue with these grunts it was their intuition that she needed to be careful of. They had a sort of six sense that allowed them to detect any foreign person who touches the sunlight that shined on their territory, she needed to be careful to stay in the shadows. Thankfully the giant red wood trees provided more than enough cover for her.

When Morgana finally found herself in an optimal spot to perform her espionage she crouched down behind thick foliage, making sure she had enough sight to be able to notate the conversations being had. To Morgana’s dismay, there wasn’t much talking happening. Silently she cursed, these grunts were far more dedicated to their posts. Morgana then had a thought, the Alpha had been unwell for a few weeks at that point. It was possible that the security on the wolf side had wained in the absence of their Alpha seeing as the Beta of the pack would have had to take over and the Beta’s mate would have taken over those tasks. The pack doesn’t function well when the Alpha is out of commission.

Witches on the other hand had more fall back, the High Priestess or Supreme didn’t handle security. It was always handled by the strongest grunt in the coven, that way if the figure head fell ill she could be taken care of in peace. Morgana had seen the top grunt they called Malik a few times in the past, the man was a beast, it wasn’t super surprising that the witch grunts were far more on task than the wolves. Morgana would even go as far as compare Malik to her father, he was that fearsome.

Morgana was weary that she would get any information about what was going on with the Prime but she stayed regardless, she knew that if she was patient that she would eventually get something. No detail was too small. After a couple of hours of nothing Morgana’s patience was rewarded, shortly after the changing of the guard Morgana was gifted with two young bucks that had yet to feel the wrath of Malik. After they were sure they were alone the two started to talk. “Prime Celeste really needs to stop going out on her own like she does. She does realize that she’s our next in command right? Like what does she do when she goes out on her own?” said one grunt voicing his displeasure, Morgana took note of the fact that the Prime enjoyed going out by herself. Perhaps a k********g of sorts could be organized during her alone time.

“Stop it. You know how much she does for us, you know how powerful she is right? Like even with out formal combat training, Prime Celeste could probably put all of us on our asses in a matter of seconds! I heard she knows blood magick, she could force the entirety of the coven to our knees if she really wanted to!” said a particularly small and enthusiastic grunt. The older one rolled his eyes and responded “I get that Jason I do but… What if she gets attacked by a were-wolf? A..a.. What’s it called… Rogue! A rogue! What if one of those bastards come onto our land while she’s alone, she mistakes them as part of the FrostFang pack and tries to do the whole diplomacy thing! They don’t do diplomacy! Hell I even doubt the FrostFang pack does diplomacy! She maybe powerful but she’s too soft..” The smaller grunt laughed before saying “all Supremes are, their jobs aren’t to be hard hitting war machines. That’s Malik’s job. That’s our job, so that our Supremes can stay soft. Soft and caring and compassionate and graceful.”

“That’s all well and good Jason, but Prime Celeste doesn’t have a consort like Malik. She doesn’t have some one to be brutal for her. Besides when she takes over as Supreme, Malik is going to retire with Zena. Who’s going to take over for him?” said the older grunt, the younger one looked up at the older one with a c****d eyebrow and asked “Jacob, are you in love with Prime Celeste? You’re the only person, other than Malik, who’s this concerned about Prime Celeste.” Morgana rolled her eyes, this wasn’t what she was here for. She didn’t care about the fact that a grunt had a crush on the Prime, she wanted to know about the Prime and her behavior.

The older grunt didn’t say anything to the younger one after the question was posed, Morgana chuckled to herself. As much she was here for other information, from where she sat it felt like she was watching a soap-opera. The smaller one spoke up again “well I’m not sure what to tell you my guy, you aren’t of bonding age yet and.. Well, while I was walking to the barracks from the coven house last night I over heard Prime Celeste and Mrs. Greendale talking. Mrs. Greendale had a vision about Prime Celeste’s coronation, I don’t think you’re her consort my guy. Mrs. Greendale said something about a ‘handsome young man’ standing next to her, it was her consort. Your 18th birthday isn’t until AFTER the coronation. I’m sorry dude…”

Morgana’s eyes widened in excitement, THAT was that information she was here for. It seemed like the fates were on her side on this mission, placing all the necessary people in the places she needed them to be with out her intervention. Morgana quickly wrote down the information about the vision, not wanting to forget a single detail. Perhaps it wasn’t a love spell, perhaps it was exactly what her father feared. The forgotten magick of old was returning to their world, the powerful Alpha Guardian and the unstoppable Supreme Luna. Still a rumor about a vision isn’t much to go off of, and if Morgana returned with only that as her proof she would never hear or feel the end of it.

The two grunts got rather quiet after that, it seemed like the older one was rather depressed at the news. Maybe once the young man figured out the Primes consort was a werewolf thing would get interesting…

After Morgana got the intel she needed she headed back to her original tree, on one hand, there was an Alpha that had the scent of someone unfamiliar on him, and on the other hand was a vision of a powerful union. The last thing Morgana needed to confirm was if the union was genuine, and who knew how long that would take. All she knew was that werewolves were impatient when it came to their mates, and witches were clever. If the Prime had been notified of her consort, it would take little time for her to figure out it was the mate bond.

Morgana gave the couple the full day to think it over and figure it out, by tomorrow if she was right she would have what her father wanted and she would have her peace again. So she hoped, but, in reality the more Morgana thought about it the worse her mood became. If they really were the rebirth of the forgotten magick that meant her supposed destiny was growing near, and she was to fulfill her birthright. Morgana had still not come to peace with the price she was being asked to pay, and even still there was no promise that when her destiny was fulfilled that she would be free of Marshal Walker. If anything, If she did well enough she might even be tasked with more.

“This is f*****g stupid…” she muttered to herself as she landed on her cozy branch, when she was comfortably sat she pulled out the file from her bag and her stationary from her pocket. Morgana started paper clipping the pages of notes she took to their respective personal information pages, lost in the deep moral conundrum. Morgana thought surely her life was more important, she contributed to society! She wasn’t hiding in the woods, hiding away from the rest of the world and selfishly hogging their abilities. Morgana thought about all the good these creatures could do for the rest of society, for the world! Her father had even once told her that they could make food grow in the winter, and if that was true then surely the witches of the world could solve world hunger? Surely, she who contributed to society with her shop, her money, and her taxes was more worthy of life and freedom than the selfish blessed!

Morgana threw her head back, wanting to let out a loud groan but not wanting to attract attention to herself she settled for an exasperated sigh. She gave her eyes a quick rub, shaking her head she muttered to herself “stop that Morgana, you’re thinking like your old man… Don’t turn into the monster that snuffs out everything good and bright…” that was almost like a mantra for Morgana. Every time she found herself thinking or acting like her father, she would tell herself this to remind herself where the ugliness within came from. “God… Mom I wish you were here.. I wish you could tell me what to do..” Morgana whispered to herself some more, she hoped and prayed that this was only a love spell. Morgana couldn’t lie to herself, she wasn’t a killer. Despite her rigorous training and excellence on her tests she had never actually taken the life of anything before, perhaps a deer or a moose on the occasional hunting trip but never the life of an intelligent being.

The thought almost petrified her, in all truth Morgana wanted to cry. She hadn’t asked for this life, she hadn’t asked to be handed this legacy. She hadn’t asked to be so alone in the world, he only ally and source of warmth snuffed out like a campfire in the middle of the frigid winter.

Morgana shook her head again, trying her best to clear her thoughts from these turbulent emotions. To distract herself, and seeing as she had more than enough time, she got comfortable some more on her branch before pulling out her phone and opening a digital book. It was a good time to catch up on some reading she had neglected.