Timor's mind was abuzz with unprocessed thoughts, all of them swarming around like mechanical flies in his brain. There were so many threads he could pick up from, so many things to test. Capacity to electrical resistance perhaps, or strength of muscle even. His mind skipped over the more mundane routine tests and honed in straight onto the fantastic. Of course Braylinn's curiosity and willpower had to be tuned down for now. It would be temporary, until the adjustment period was over. And then, like a radio volume control dial, it could be retuned back to it's normal setting. Timor hadn't factored in the feelings of his own son, no, he was thinking about ways of achieving this new heightened level of control. Could he slip something into Braylinn's food? No doubt it would be substances of a magical nature – they were much more difficult to acquire, but the payoff would be that they were much more difficult to detect and to resist.
All of those thoughts accompanied him, as he slipped off his clothing and stepped into the shower, washing away the second skin of the basement below. As he lathered his hands with white soap suds, Timor cleansed away every trace of unholy dirt from his body. The peach tiled bathroom ran thick with the silver mist of hot water, and the antique water taps fogged over with condensation, so that there were no reflective surfaces in sight to act as mirrors. The shower had been a recent instalment. Until a few months back, the bathroom had consisted of a large bath tub with clawed feet, along with a sink, mirror and a row of wooden shelves that sported an array of bottled substances, all differently coloured. It had been a simple task to extend the copper piping- there even had been no magic involved.
Timor began to hum to himself. He decided he was clean enough, so was about to turn the water off, when he sensed something, a presence. Better keep the water on for a bit longer, methinks... Timor selected an unusually jolly ditty to hum. The mist was too thick for human eyes to penetrate, no matter how much they scanned the room. So he relied on his other senses to feed him information. Sound and smell. Not much sound could be made out above the roar of the water, so he turned it down a bit.
There! There was a faint clink, and intake of breath. Without a second thought, Timor's arm flung out, and a wave of energy send the intruder flying until he was pinned against the wall. The water stopped, the mist cleared, and Timor emerged with a towel wrapped around his body and paranoia written deep into his eyes. Steadying his breathing, Timor saw that it was only Braylinn, and he let the magic go, so that Braylinn collapsed into a crumpled heap on the tiles.
"Oh, it's only you."
Wait...only Braylinn?
His mind rewound, retracing everything he'd done. Yes, he distinctly remembered locking the door. So what was his son doing here being a peeping tom?!
"Why are you here?" He asked in a calm tone of voice. "Didn't I tell you to wait downstairs until after I'd finished in the bathroom?"
Mind racing furiously, Timor realised that the boy must've broken the lock on his door. And that just made his heart speed up ever so slightly. He hadn't tested Braylinn's strength yet, but now, having dismissed it as something mundane, but now, that task leapt to the top of his agenda. Towelling himself dry, Timor stepped unworriedly towards his bed, where he had laid out some clothes to wear for the meeting. There was a white shirt, with a light blue tie beside it. Dark blue trousers and a matching jacket completed his suit. Timor slipped the clothes on, at his own pace, and then moved to the mirror, where he brushed his hair, flicking it to one side, so that when it dried, it would set that way. A smartly dressed man made the town.
"I do hope that you won't prove too troublesome for me, son," he said as he straightened his tie and collar. "Could you just get my shoes for me – second wardrobe, fourth pair."
Just then, a scream pierced the morning air. Running footsteps followed a second later, and in the space of ten seconds, the house was thrown into a frenzy.
"A dead body, Miss Lily!?"
"Where?"
"Who?"
"Ohmigod ohmigod, I can't believe this, ohmigod!"
"Please, Miss Lily! Someone go down there and see what the fuss is about."
---
Lily, having been warned by her father to not go near the Nex household for some time, for some unexplainable reason, had of course, decided to venture there out of pure curiosity. The last few days had been such a blur for them all. The sudden loss of Braylinn had only just began to work it's way into the community. No longer would his beaming face be seen in class, no longer would the herbalist have him by his side. Braylinn would be a huge loss to the community.
The first day had been horrific. Only a handful of students had turned up – the rest were either in shock, or here to get the gossip. Rumour had it that two monsters had been seen on the same night of his death, a dragon, and a shadow beast. No, she didn't know more, but yes, she had found his body...hadn't she? Her little button nose wrinkled at that thought. She and her father had been out that night, looking. And then...nothing. Just static. This was something she couldn't explain. She felt as if she was on the edge of something big, a gaping chasm, yet she couldn't probe any further. Any further, and she'd tumble, tumble deep into the abyss, and be swallowed up by darkness so absolute that not even angels sent from the grace of god would be able to pull her out.
And whilst the townspeople clamoured, milling around like sheep, her father demanded that there be a proper burial. Oh there had been some parts found...but not everything. And dragons of that nature didn't take flesh, did they?
Lily was aware that there was going to be a meeting called today, but she'd been hoping to be able to see Mr Nex before it, just to pay her respects. On her way there, she'd taken the path through a woodland, on the other side of the one Braylinn had died in. here, the woodland was protected by the creatures of the forest. Shafts of light pierced the leafy foliage, kissing the tips of the bluebells. She picked a few of them, along with her namesake, the aromatic lily, and took a path that wound it's way to the back of the Nex estate. The babbling brook marked the borderline between the mansion grounds and that of the forest, and it was here where she found the servant. The rest, of course, consisted of screaming, running, and hyperventilation.
"Oh dear lord, it's Bailey!"
"I thought he'd left!"
"Ohmigod!"
Lily was taken to a chair, and a steaming mug of cocoa was pressed into her trembling hands. All around her, the servants ebbed and flowed in disarray, not really sure of what to do at all.
And then Mr Nex burst in on the scene.
---
"Get back to your basement now!" He hissed to Braylinn, no more niceties in his eyes. They were cold and hard as steel, and there was nothing fatherly left in them at all. Without even bothering to see if his son would comply Timor strode downstairs to take charge of the new situation, before it got any worse. On entering the source of all the commotion – the kitchen – he was present with a scene of chaos and disorder. The sight of Bailey's mangled body upon the kitchen tiles halted him, both physically and mentally, for a second. The servants took Timor's silence for grief.
"That damn shadow beast," he spat with thick emotion. He'd lowered his head, refusing to meet the gaze of anyone and his hands were balled up into fists. "The night Bailey gets to be free..." He couldn't even finish the sentence.
Lily took a sip from her hot drink, whilst the tears rolled onto the wooden surface of the table. "What is happening to us?"
"I...I don't know, I really don't," Timor said with a hush.