Ehlana and Ethan:
***RESTRICTED UPDATE***
Cassie and Michael had their Dark Magi
Master confrontation and fight today – their Monday – with Vasya
Dementyev. While they had expected the
battle with the eighty-year-old patriarch of the Dementyev clan that is the
true power in Russia, the timing happened thanks to opportunity while the other
Dark Magi in Vasya’s family were elsewhere in the country.
We do not and will not get over-confident
as Cassie and Michael earn new successes over their opponents while also being
proud of them – and the rest of us that have helped out with making our plans
and coming up with tactics that continue to work to defeat Dark Magi
Masters. In this specific case, Vasya
ranked near the top of the scale for his power and he attempted to use it in
some different and horrifying ways against Cassie and Michael. Other differences from previous
battles-so-far included that Cassie and Michael had to deal with some security
goons that Vasya used against them and a couple of dozen ‘innocent’
non-combatants – though they worked for him and weren’t nice people either; so being
innocents isn’t really an accurate description.
There was a fair bit of collateral property damage that was caused by
Vasya to his own office and a wing of his estate, and that couldn’t be fixed or
hidden, but Cassie and Michael did at least help to put out the fires after
they eventually managed to leave Vasya powerless. That result was the same as for some of the
other Dark Magi they’ve defeated, but getting there was more of a challenge for
Cassie and Michael because Vasya chose more indirect attacks on them for a lot
of their fight and that made it tougher for them to lock on and drain him of
his power. In this case, Vasya’s power
drain happened a little at a time and their entire fight lasted hours while
Cassie and Michael needed to get creative with their power drains and some
shields. They each sustained a few
injuries too and used up an enormous amount of power, but they co-healed each
other after the fight and are fine now – if very tired.
The rest of their visit with Vasya included
a time-phased question-and-answer time after he recovered a bit from the shock
and loss of his power; Cassie and Michael have already passed along core
network connections to the Dementyev family computer systems that Mom delved
into for quite a while today too; and then Vasya and everyone with him were
given memory wipes so that none of them will remember what happened to them.
That’s pretty much the basics for this
fight, but let’s also add that Vasya is – or maybe was by now – the head of his
family, and while he’s limited the familial competition as the Hathornes have,
he does have a son, two grandsons, and a cousin that we know about so far; so
our battle with them is really just beginning.
His son, Matysh, will likely succeed Vasya, and the only thing that we
don’t know as this update is being written is what will happen to Vasya from
here. We will hope for the best for him;
and accept the consequences of our actions if he doesn’t find his way to the
Light before it is too-late or he isn’t given time to change.
That’s all for now, but we’ll add any new information
if we learn more.
***END OF RESTRICTED UPDATE***
We are expecting some rain here and there
this week, so thanks to a mostly-sunny day with a high of seventy-two; we made
this a play day with our friends – including for parts of our academic adventures! Tai Chi by the river with Mom and Dad was a
bit chilly, but we followed that up with a hot breakfast and then we had fun at
school even when we wrote a history test this morning that some of our
classmates were not as excited about or happy with the results. The top school news isn’t directly about us –
though Ethan and I will be affected by Naomi’s absence next week while she’s
with the Grade Eight class on the trip to Washington! They are in the final prep stages for their
adventures in politics; and we wish that we could go with Naomi this year
instead of waiting for our turn next May.
There aren’t really any details that need to be included here, but that
story is news at school along with the gossip that includes dating and one
break-up ahead of the trip that is likely entirely-related to ‘being free’
while away from home and on that adventure.
As for the rest of our own day, we biked
the trails after school; there was a football scrimmage at the park for the
boys; and the girl chat time we had while they were busy included talking about
some of those dating issues along with discussing best clothes to take on the
trip and the entertainment options being scheduled for our friends while they’ll
be in the Capital. Ethan and I were on
our own when we came home from the park; Mom had dinner nearly ready by then,
so we enjoyed that meal and then took care of the clean-up. We were tempted to go and play at the lab
after that, but ended up going for a walk with Silkie; working in the office
with Mom and Dad; and doing a Magi lesson with Mom. She sent us upstairs at a bit after ten o’clock,
but we put in more work hours thanks to a time phase. We actually need to do better on doing fewer
time phases while in the middle of our current growth spurts, since that is
affected by those extra hours, but then Ethan feels differently about that than
I do anyway; since he’d be okay with catching up to Naomi sooner instead of
later while I have the opposite issue with Aiden and getting further ahead of
him!
That does have me thinking about time
phasing for other possible applications, but while expecting mothers might
appreciate shorter pregnancies; the unintended consequences would need to be
seriously studied before trying something like that – not to mention how
challenging it would be to explain the arrival of a baby just days or weeks
after becoming pregnant! ;^)
Seriously, though, I am wondering about
incorporating time phases with other Magi power uses – just as Cassie has
combined it with phase-shifting. Ethan
just offered a joke about time phasing while throwing farm equipment around,
but when you think about the story behind that joke, a Magi on the scene might
have been able to use a time phase to slow down what was happening long-enough
to have prevented Lee from getting hurt at all.
Let’s not get into the mind-bending required to work that out, since
there would be a lot of factors to consider in that scenario that could end up
worse than what actually happened to Lee that day, but if you really must go
there; think splinching a la Harry Potter if either Lee or parts of the combine
weren’t fully included in that hypothetical time phase!
Rowen, Tim, and Michael – if you’re reading
this someday in our future and that thought is retroactively scaring you
because of some fun you previously had with Cassie; keep in mind that our
sister is brilliant and can work out all of that sort of thing in a fraction of
a second and you were never in danger from what you were all doing together!
;^)
Moving along, Ethan and I opted for bath or
Jacuzzi time after coming upstairs; our bedtime twin chat and computing has
taken a while; and now we’re pretty much ready to crash and nap. There isn’t anything else that we need to
write about tonight and I don’t feel like getting into any world news
commentary or rants; so that only leaves the Cassie and Michael update. They had some business meetings for their
first day in the St. Petersburg area; there was a charity dinner and
fundraising open house that kept them busy all evening; and now they are
already getting started on their local time Tuesday that is going to include two
regional site visits with one for a charity community project and the other for
a sustainable farming co-op project. We’re
interested in that farming operation because they’ll be using some of our
newest crop seeds that we hope will grow well in colder climates with short
growing seasons. Details are available
elsewhere in the archives; so I won’t bore you with details that most of our
journal readers would find boring.
Then again, we are ready to sleep now, so
while I won’t write about any of that; I can try to put myself to sleep
thinking about it; so we’re out of here!
Until next time, live with love, fellow
Magi of the Light!
