Dear Readers; Here's the next part to my story. It's a little small, compared to my other stuff. It's also more personal (minus the magic). I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: This is a work of Fantasy Fiction with Male to Male Sex and Love Relationships. If you are under eighteen years of age, you should not be here. You have been warned.
Searching for My Angel Part 1 by dymondbolt
Lil Jackson wasn't going to let me get away without telling the whole story. And that made me a little uncomfortable. When I talked with Terry Blue, I felt like he was an older brother. When I talked to Lil, I felt like I was discussing my gay sex practices with my mother. Eww.
But She was an Elder of our magical community and she had the duty and right to know when part of her magi family was going to Honor a Haunting.
The day before I had a client come in to work, who had specific requirements on a set of microphones he wanted us to make for use in his business. The first thing that got me interested in him was the way his presence seemed to fill the room. As I rose to greet him, I tested his aura.. He was Mundane! He didn't sense what I had just done and he took the seat I'd offered with a smile. His name was Philip McGregor and he had a thriving business Investigating Hauntings. He'd received a degree in Psychology with a minor in Parapsychology. His work seemed to be one of the few run by mundane people that got results. Of course I avoided mentioning my family's background in that field. But when he came to the reason why he needed a better microphone than the ones he'd been using, I decided to invite myself along.
He told me about his little brother Bobby. And about the day Bobby died. Mac ( that's what Phil's friends called him) was fifteen at the time and heavily into baseball. Bobby was just nine and loved watching his big brother play baseball. That particular practice came right after their teams loss and the coach had them practicing two hours later than normal. Bobby waved goodbye to Mac and Mac waved back. But when Mac got home and discovered Bobby was still not home, he knew something was wrong. Mac's parents hadn't worried because they thought Bobby just waited with Mac. But when they saw Mac by himself, they also knew something was wrong. His mother started calling all of Bobby's friends, while Mac and his father took the car back along the route Mac and Bobby usually take to get home from the baseball field.
It was a hit and run. Bobby was hit so hard his bike was hidden in one bush and he was in another. For all of Mac's being a mundane, he was the one to tell his dad to stop. He said he caught a glimpse of something shiny in the bushes. Bobby's reflector on his bike. Mac found the body, too. Luckily for Mac, Bobby just looked like he was asleep. No fear or pain was on his face. No one ever found out who hit Bobby. Mac nearly cried telling me the story. He still loved his little brother.
But his parents had been seeing little Bobby play around the House and it was just killing them. The didn't get any solid contact. Just him playing or asking for a soda at odd times. They didn't know why he was coming bsck. They thought he had moved on.
Mac was upset cause Bobby never appeared when Mac was there. He wanted to hear what Bobby was saying when he did appear to Mac's parents.
That was when I revealed my connection to a group of the Magical Community that had dealings with Honoring of a haunting. I didn't let Mac know we could do magic. But the group was known to get results. Just not always the way the people who were still alive and in possession of the property wanted. It helped that we never accepted money. Of course that's when they turned to people like Mac. We had heard about him. He was one of the good guys. Just sensitive enough as a mundane to be able to communicate with Ghosts, if they wanted to speak. But he couldn't force them to do anything. Though some things worked if you were magical or not.
But to his credit, Mac never tried any of them, except with the mean Hauntings. The ones we weren't called in on. We had faster methods of clearing out evil spirits. And they lasted.
When I mentioned the Honorings, he got a weird look on his face. That was the name of our group. Our people had never actually met his people. Funny how that works.
But Mac said He'd be willing to ask us in, if I was going to be involved.
Talk about pinging my Gaydar.
I tried to tone the feeling down with the idea that he just wanted to get the microphones cheaper and still get my group to help. He knew we never accepted anything for our help. It was part of our service to the community. Even Magical people get Hauntings. And most don't have a clue as to how to properly Honor one. If you don't, they get angry. Then it becomes harder to get them to stop pestering the living.
First off, there had to be a valid reason for disturbing a soul who was walking a different path. And there had to be a request for help from the living. Those who see the Ghost and have a reason to want to release it into the Light, must ask for help performing an Honoring and a Release.
And the most important part is the ability of the Celebrant Magi to actually Perform an Honoring of a Haunting. But they also had to have enough training to then be able to research the circumstances that resulted in the ghost's demise. They would then know the proper way to treat the situation.
Sometime the Homeowners had a hard time squaring away the idea that if the ghost wasn't doing mean things they should just treat him as part of the family.
Most thought "Hey! It's our house. Make him go away."
My family's Faith and our individual Mage abilities came from the same Source. And the respect we have for the world and the energies/spirits in it kept us from automatically favoring the living. It got to be like counseling for the whole family, when a Haunting was being looked into. But with the added ingredient, the fact that you couldn't do a proper intervention on a Ghost without some heavy Mage abilities.
Our people who served the community, were low key, not secretive. Most people had an ingrained ability when very young to see many of the spirits in our world. And most people are taught to ignore those spirits by the time they start going to school. For the most part, no real problem for the normal population. The majority of spirits are unable to make any real effect on our world. They reside in the realm of creating a mood in the area or changing the living people's attitudes.
It's when the spirit world starts to physically or emotionally effect our world, that those people with the true abilities have to step in and resolve the situation.
So getting back to my embarrassment and Lil.
Did I mention that Lil Jackson is the sweetest little old lady you could ever meet? There was a Thanksgiving day dinner about six years ago, when I showed up late. At the time I had a full, thick( and long ) beard and shoulder length red hair. As I came into the dinning room, everyone was already seated and they had already said Grace. They were just about to start passing around the food when I came in. Well every single person at the table proceeded to remind me that I was late, My beard was awfully long and that I should get a haircut. That was about fifteen older Adults barely saying hello to me before they start telling me they don't like the way I look. Now for people who are sensitive to energies most of the world don't know exist; they sure had the ability to ignore the fact when they start picking on someone. And I was angry by the time the fifteenth person said the same thing in a different way. I could have blown up and yelled at them to stop pickin on my beard and hair, because thats what they had been doing. But then with all the emotion and them realizing too late they might have been in the wrong, and me yelling at guests at Thanksgiving, It would have been my fault for hard feelings for that particular Holiday. Thank God I calmed myself enough to say in an even voice "If I hear one more comment about how long my beard or hair is, I'm going to get angry." Now I still wasn't in the clear. If that had been the last words on the subject, I still would have left a bad taste in my relatives mouths. Lil, God love her, piped up and said " Oh my God, Every one of us around the table just made a mean comment about your beard or hair, Honey. And so did I. I'm sorry Blue. Come over here and sit next to me, Darling." Then the whole table started apologizing and talking with each other again, like a normal Thanksgiving. A chair appeared from somewhere and I did sit next to her, after I thanked her and gave her a kiss. She is my mom's best friend. She's the one that brings something really tasty to the party, and near the end you find her washing moms dishes for her. Mom was always embarrassed, but she could never get Lil to stop. I knew she was quietly very proud of that attitude that Lil had.
But to sit with Lil, when she took on the Mantle of Elder and still wanted to make sure everything was alright with me and the family; was a little bit like I was still a teenager while being related to a sex therapist. In the back of my mind I could hear that little German Sex Doctor Lady start saying "And how long have you not been able to get a complete errrection?"
I guess I felt that way because she had picked up on my attraction to the guy who had the haunting.
She specifically asked if I "was going to pursue a relationship" with him after we resolved his Haunting?
I'm still pretty amazed she can smell that on my soul. I guess it's like a spiritual wet spot, or something.
I can't do it yet.
I told her " If I do, you'll be the first to know".
Apparently she had met him once before and she said he was a Hidden Latent.!!
I had encounters with Latents before. They were people who had the ability to work Magic and Sense the Forces around them. But they didn't have family or friends who knew a Mage that would Apprentice them. Most of the time Latents were so visible and disruptive, they were Silenced if no one would take them as an apprentice. But Silencing was different from Hidden.
I asked her why this was the first time I had ever heard of a Hidden Latent?
Lil said " We don't like Magi at large to know that Latents are able to hide their abilities by them selves."
I said " Why? It's just another ability?"
Lil frowned and said " No. It is most definitely not. It is a reaction to someone either abusing them or magically suppressing their memories. And doing so with out any knowledge of their ability to do so."
I said " A Latent abusing a Latent."
Lil shuddered and said " Someone who has been able to slip through the cracks and has been able to use some of their un-taught talent to harm someone else. It's possible they suppressed memories, only for protecting themselves from what they see as harm that trained Magi caused to them. Many a silenced Latent are able to break free from the Geas in later life and they don't set off the alarm cast with the Geas. They remember the event and become bitter. I have Elder Documents that are held in strictest confidence, even after thirty years, that show at least eight Silenced Latents have caused harm to young Magi before they were caught. If they had been Apprenticed they would have been happy with their life. But the Masters who taught us all have become lazy in the past fifty years. Instead of immediately gaining another Apprentice when releasing one to Journeyman status; they wait three or four years to take one on. My brother was one who had to be compelled to accept an Apprentice in the sixtys. He had been a Master Level Mage for over ten years, before he took one on."
Usually Masters take on Apprentices within two or three years after attaining that level.
Lil had paused and said what I was thinking. " I know. Selfish. My brother had that worked out of him by his first three Apprentices. He still does the proper work, to train a Magi. Actually his third Apprentice was a Hidden Latent. And the Monster who harmed her was revealed to the mundane community as a serial rapist. His Magi talent was cut out of him psychically . Very few people have ever heard of that. I hope that this situation and your involvement with Mac stays run of the mill. We never had a real reason to interfere with Mac's talents. He's been productive in his own way. Everyone sees him as Mundane. You picked up on the fact that he's gay and never saw his Latent ability. Why would we interfere."
I was blushing right then for a few reasons. How did she know I hadn't detected any Magi talent in Mac? And how did she know I was developing an attraction for the guy? She knew I was gay. I was fine with that. She had even tried to set me up with a nephew of hers. (Cute guy, but not my type). And how did my Aura ping not reveal his talent?
Lil must have seen the question in my eyes and relented. She said " When was the last time you sat by a Koi filled pool and just sensed their movement?"
My frown said something to her. She said " Surely your Master had you meditate in front of a Koi pond or fish tank?!"
Then I was embarrassed. My Master was not the youngest of Magi. I said " Master Terrence Sellik."
Lil had forgotten. She said " Oh. You were his last Apprentice. And you had to Journeyman yourself to Karen Tyne. She probably thought you'd gone through that training like she had."
I said " He wasn't well the last year."
Lil said " Well even if you had gone through that part of the training; nine times out of ten, Magi miss the shield that wraps around a Hidden Latent."
Lil sipped her tea and said " Most take on the thought that they are fish. so they get missed. Say 'I am normal' enough times and those who can read your mind believe it. Or some make themselves think they are glass. And so the idea of substance to their Aura disappears. You probably pinged his Aura and it said 'Nothing to it', end of story. When next you meet your young Hidden Latent, just drop your surface shield for about five minutes. Of course don't do that in the House where the Haunting is."
I smiled. I knew all of the precautions to take when Honoring a Haunting.
She saw that and smiled herself. " Well. Then softly sense something right in back of him. Slowly sweep your senses back and forth. His own shield will falter a bit when it doesn't detect an active shield of your own. Then you will see some truly beautiful work. A strong passive Natural shield. It will look like a textbook case. Sellik did use the Eggs, didn't he."
I was shocked. I said " Of course. He was a good Master and teacher. He just wasn't well."
Lil said " For all the Magic we use, we're still human. We all miss a thing or two. " She smiled and said " Don't you miss out on this young man. He is kind and loving. And if you can find another Master interested in training him, even this late in the game, I will approve the Bond. It just can't be you. I see good things between you two."
I blushed again. Magi Mundane matches rarely work. I was getting the go ahead to reveal the truth to someone who I was developing a serious attraction for, and a pep talk besides. I said " Thank you, Auntie Lil."
She stood up and came around the big desk and said " Ok you better get going. Say hello to your parents for me." I hugged her and we kissed each others cheek. She softly said " Love you.
I told her " Love you too. I'll see you at Thanksgiving."
She said " Promise."
I took a little while to actually call Mac that day. I set up a get together at a Pizza place near his parents home. It really didn't sound like a date. But It sure felt like it. Even with the screaming kids. I had to pick a time when two soccer teams were celebrating a win. The place had the biggest sized Pizza I had ever seen. Mac was a big guy but we refrained from getting the giant sized pizza. It was a cool Non-date Date.
I'll tell you about it next time. It's funny. That night I dreamed of wings. Maybe my Angel isn't too far away.
The end Part 1
SO? I guess I already said I have more to tell. Send feed back anyway. Thanks for ready my story.