After they get through a few more letters and then dinner, Haochen drags them off to a countryside manor in the Czech Republic. Luca and Nicholas meet the mage that Haochen is having discussions with and get a lot of cheek-pinching and cooing from the woman. Wei stays in the back to escape it all.
"Pity," the woman says in a heavily accented Czech, so heavy actually that Luca doesn't really register it until the conversation has already moved on and it would be strange to bring it up again.
Haochen and the mage have a short conversation in straight Latin of all hollow smiles and niceties before she leads them to a short hallway with three rooms and leaves in a hurry.
Haochen's peaceable expression drops back into his neutral, sharp-eyed glare and his hand comes to rest on the short string of jade beads hanging from his belt, the focus glowing slightly as he checks for eavesdropping charms and such. Haochen also politely ignores Luca gripping his wand out of reflex but Wei observes closely.
Nicholas runs around ducking into the rooms with Luca peeking over his shoulder, finding a double bed on the left, a single in the middle and twin singles in the right room. It's all absolutely ostentatious but almost dead silent with no one to be seen and apparently not in bright enough colours. Nicholas hums about being tempted to change it up but they're only staying for a day.
"The Confederacy branch here is giving her followers a bit of trouble," Haochen explains as he finishes his check. "It's late regardless so I'll be meeting her in the morning. You three head to bed. Nicholas, do not sneak around unless I give you the go-ahead. Wei, you'll go with him when the time comes because Nicholas doesn't understand the difference between valuables and amusing trinkets."
Luca splutters. "Wait, you brought us here to steal things?"
"It's very clear she won't join me but she's stalling. I might as well get something useful out of this wasted trip," Haochen says casually.
Nicholas slings an arm around Luca's shoulders. "Technically Wei will be the one stealing, I’ll just be beside him when he does it, so I think it's fine."
Haochen nods to Luca. “You’ll watch the both of them. She’s hardly a challenge for me or Wei, but she’s well-known for her cursed wards and those are best prevented rather than cured.”
Luca purses his lips. “I feel like this is something you need to tell me beforehand so I can be on guard."
"You're always on guard,” Wei points out despite barely knowing Luca.
“Properly on guard,” Luca clarifies.
"Sci~ssors, pa~per, rock!" Nicholas yells and throws out paper.
Luca, just instinctively reacting, does scissors. Wei also does paper and he doesn't know what he's playing for but he wants to win. Haochen elects to not participate until he knows what the terms are and then he can decide if he wants to win.
"You and me to a room then," Nicholas tells Wei, not minding whom he’s rooming with, probably because he thinks they’re all friends now. "Grab your bag, I want the left bed near the window."
Luca is going to protest the rooms but Nicholas has already taken off excitedly to explore his new space.
Wei follows easily enough because this is a new place and he's wary of the woman trying something, especially with the way Haochen is reacting – which makes Nicholas an excellent meat shield because he's very loud and liable to wake Wei if something happens.
Haochen, of course, takes the left room with the biggest bed. Luca sadly troops into the middle room.
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Luca knocks on the open door and waits for Haochen to call him in before he enters. Luca closes the door behind him, cutting out Wei’s explanation to Nicholas of how the warding inside the manor’s walls work, and also how the two of them are indeed able to fill the entire building with water without it spilling out, yes Nicholas, but why would we ever want to-
Haochen sits at the grand desk, pale blue outer robes spilling over, opposite the bed and overlooking the manor ground and the sparse trees outside through a crystal-clear window that must be charmed to be that shiny. He doesn’t look up from the letters he’s reading, paper and pen set to the side to take notes.
Luca doesn’t bother to be polite either, he knows Haochen only tolerates niceties when they serve a purpose like lulling an opponent into a false sense of security.
Luca sits on the bed, hands clasped together between his knees and staring at the silky black hair that spills down Haochen’s back. “We…should talk.”
“Nicholas was injured and I made amends,” Haochen says carelessly, but nothing he does is ever careless. “Was I wrong about your target? You weren’t subtle but perhaps I misread the situation around that unfortunate creature reform centre that exploded a few months ago. Or maybe I misunderstood the activists pushing particularly hard at prosecuting some staff from the centres?”
Haochen’s voice dips into mockery at the end, both for Luca being so obvious and -if Luca is reading him right- about the reform centres themselves.
“You know exactly what they do there, you buy from them,” Luca says harshly. “It’s torture.”
“Heartbreaking,” Haochen muses. He sets a letter aside and opens a new one.
Luca takes a deep breath and lets it go. If he thinks of the man as Wei, it’s a lot easier to ignore him saying things like that. “After what you did to help, I think we can at least negotiate to share some information. Or rather, you have influence and I have information,” Luca corrects. “You want to be the greatest even if that means you have to kill the other high mages to get there. I’m after…well, let’s say our interests are currently aligned.”
Haochen pauses and looks over his shoulder. “You don’t know me,” he says and sounds amused.
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“You know I’m from the future,” Luca argues. “I know how you die. I know you when you’re nothing, broken down in madness, into simple desires. I would say I’m the only one who knows you.”
Haochen sighs and stands up, lifting the chair and setting it down again facing Luca. He sits, shakes out his loose sleeves and settles. "Dear Luca," Haochen offers politely even as his eyes are hard. “If you truly knew me, you’d know I don’t like to waste my time.”
“I have an offer,” Luca confirms but then pauses in worry. “Actually first, about that story earlier…you’re considered a Dark mage, right?”
Haochen blinks. "I'm not."
Luca blinks back. “There is zero need for you to lie right now. I’m just asking about side effects, not a list of your wrongdoings – which I already know by the way.”
"Dark magic needs to be actively planned out, to essentially recreate the spell of another track in an artificial way.” Haochen explains.
That's why the consequences are so often a swift execution, because on top of the old heritage wanting to lynch anyone who so much as looks at their sacred magic wrong, the Dark magic has to be fully understood and could never be an accident.
“Quite frankly, it's difficult to cast Dark spells,” Haochen continues when Luca is clearly not understanding his point. “It takes a lot of research and a talent for spellcraft. Nicholas is a prodigy, it's just unfortunate he thinks that's best used to..." He gestures vaguely. "Be a teenage boy."
Luca’s brows furrow. “Difficulty doesn’t stop someone like you. You're renown for your intelligence and talent in magic - the youngest high mage in all of human history.”
“Ah, but Dark magic takes too much time, and it's not efficient because you have to fight it. Why would I recreate a spell if I could just create one that doesn't also include the added difficulty of being another track? Or even pair two spells that I already have in my arsenal.”
Luca purses his lips.
“I see you don't believe me,” Haochen muses. “Don't get me wrong, I have cast Dark magic. I am not beholden to rules so easy to break, of nature or otherwise. But I would argue I'm less of a Dark mage than Nicholas is.”
“He isn't!” Luca snaps immediately.
“Luca, please, you can be assured I won't run off to the mage police and tell them about the awful child-sized Dark mage I keep in my manor.”
Luca looks away with a grimace. "You say that now but as soon as I piss you off, you'll conveniently forget you said that.”
“I don't think of myself as a man who goes back on my word," Haochen admits.
Luca says nothing for a long moment. “You're not.” He hesitates and then explains, “If you're already regularly using Dark magic, it cracks the door open to other tracks. When Nicholas said he didn’t know the bubbles spell was Dark, he was being honest. It all comes easier."
At least that's what Jordan said when Luca took him aside and nervously asked about Nicholas, because Jordan has been keeping an eye on the matter throughout the years since Nicholas told his parents about it. Luca watched Jordan do a regular test a while back, and the man admitted that so far it seems fine - better even.
Nicholas told Luca after the bubbles story that -apart from the Ayad family putting pressure on the Confederacy- it was argued that he used the exact NatCom spell, not a redesigned one for InCore, so it couldn't be Dark magic. It left people scratching their heads but since Dark is so taboo and barely anyone even knows how to go about doing it, it slipped by. Half the school thinks he set up the situation as a joke.
“Did you observe that in Nicholas?” Haochen asks in interest, leaning forward. “Does it skew towards the track he uses most Dark magic in?”
“Don't say that like he's throwing around Dark spells every other day," Luca argues. "It's - it's one spell, okay? Sometimes on special occasions he...that's not important. It's only one.”
“Does it skew?” Haochen demands.
“No - I mean, I don't think so?” Luca stutters, holding up his hands. “I'm not the one who's keeping track. I was hoping you would know these things.”
“It must be Jordan Ayad researching his son,” Haochen muses. “I'll have to pay him a visit.”
“Don't go near him,” Luca cuts in. “I'll...I'll ask and then get back to you. But you really haven't noticed that?”
They pause as they hear Nicholas’ cackling laughter and Wei yelling at him to get over here, it’s coming down! There’s a loud thud, and then spell light coming through the edges of the door. A large puddle of water seeps in before being sucked away. A high-pitched, building shriek, and then cries of victory from Nicholas and dark, smug laughter from Wei.
“Like I said, I rarely dabble in Dark magic,” Haochen explains.
Luca darts a glance to the door. “I’m sorry, what did you want Nicholas and Wei to find?”
Haochen waves a dismissive hand. “I’m not fussy.”
Luca purses his lips but leaves it for now. “Everyone knows you're a Dark mage though.”
“I don't hide the fact that I cast Dark magic when needed, and therefore suddenly I'm a Dark mage. In truth, I've performed perhaps five spells in public.”
“But you go mad from it."
Haochen only raises an eyebrow. "I go mad? Define mad. And was it for Dark magic use in general or a particular spell? Does Nicholas also show signs of madness?"
Luca pauses. "I...that might not true, it's just what everyone was saying. Well, mostly Denvers leading the charge, and that's actually something I want to talk to you about because you're going to have a lot of trouble going up against her. And Denvers is going to cause a lot of collateral damage doing it."
Haochen sits back and laces his finger together on top of a knee. "And what do you get out of it?”
Luca huffs out a sigh, planting elbows on his thighs. "I want to kill Denvers. Help with Niaa would also be nice but I'm not expecting much."
"Two high mages, such ambition." Haochen smiles. It's not a nice smile. "And what is the plan? Storm in there, pretend you’re a cousin, act incredibly suspicious and agitated? I suppose that did work for you this time.”
Luca ignores the jab. "Two only for now. Niaa was involved with the reform centre, he'll be easy if I can borrow your publicity since it’s already a sinking ship – I’ve made sure of it. Denvers is well-liked and too smart, that's the problem I'm having."
"They won't dare prosecute Niaa, no matter the public opinion even if you do manage to dredge up sympathy for the animals," Haochen rejects, starting from the beginning because now he’s interested enough to want details.
Luca leans forward, a frown on his face. "But you will. You're protecting the magical blood, no matter the form. People would celebrate you for exacting justice. You can't stand by while good blood dies, isn't that your tagline?"
"It's my belief. We're stagnating, with mediocre mages, or children with talent and no idea how to use it like Nicholas." Haochen scoffs. "Of course, if Niaa is picking up the useless diseased ones, I don't particularly mind."
"Niaa tries to get his hands on you," Luca explains, slumping back. "Had Rafael for...years, was harvesting creatures only to heal them and cut them open again. He made potions that turned mages into chimeras. Tried to get me too, because he knew I had some of your soul. Wanted to use it to defeat you and drag you off because mage parts are even stronger than a creature’s."
"I assume he didn't get far.”
"I killed him," Luca admits, which doesn't quite encompass how tragically Niaa died but it's enough for now. Luca isn't proud of what he did.
"I can agree to Niaa since that would fit well with my public image," Haochen muses. "Now Denvers, how did she upset you?"
"This isn't about me," Luca mutters. "She just...plays games. I thought she was an ally but then she sold me out to you, sent me off strapped to a bomb." Luca looks away and stares over Haochen’s shoulder at the window. "It, uh, took out a city. She blamed you for it but...then slaughtered half the resistance to use them for a ritual to attack you."
"Sound tactics."
"You would say that.”
Haochen thinks for a long moment and Luca doesn’t mind. Wei does the same. For someone so intensely ambitious, almost rushed, they’re in the habit of thinking everything through properly even if it does usually take them only a split second of calculation.
Of course Haochen wasn’t anything much at the end, and this version is so different, but there’s enough of Wei that Luca is confident. Wei always liked a challenge.
“We need to make plans,” Haochen murmurs, eyes narrowing.