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[powerof_water]

Months ago, when the Circle had decided that they needed the Master tools in order to strengthen their magic and come into their full strength, Adam had fully supported the decision and even volunteered to use his summer break to search them out. If he’d known then what he knew now, if he’d known that the crystal skull that resonated with so much power Adam could sense it buried beneath the sand was so tied to Black John that it brought him back, he never would have agreed to go. There was such a thing as too much power, after all, and that skull had been too much even for a full coven and the delicate rituals that Melanie and Diana had devised to cleanse it. Even now, searching for the real Master tools, Adam didn’t know if it was such a good idea. What if they found them and Black John took them or, worse, manipulated Cassie or Faye into using them against the Circle and the rest of New Salem?

There wasn’t enough time to think it through for Adam’s tastes but he trusted Cassie and trusted her visions: even the original Circle had looked to Cassie’s family as the strongest of the twelve. But was trust enough? Was it enough to know how things would play out once they put forth change and altered the future? Adam couldn’t say.

What he could say, though, was that they needed to act fast. Faye was working with Black John to bring the Circle down and there was a storm brewing offshore that would wipe New Salem off the map and take a good chunk of the rest of New England with it. Black John had already killed four people, five if Cassie’s mother didn’t shake off the funk she’d been in since he came back and Adam knew it would only get worse if they didn’t do something. It was on Cassie’s suggestion that they went back to Number Twelve and started digging behind the fireplace. She looked shaken and rightly so; her grandmother had died here, her mother had been scared catatonic here…it was a lot for anyone to handle. Adam wanted to reach out and touch her, comfort her, but they’d made a promise that he wasn’t willing to break, not even in a situation like this.

Adam could feel the hum of power, true power, the second Cassie lifted the box from the fireplace. It was old, solid and when she lifted the lid, he could see the gleam of the real Master tools, not the replicas Diana had used as coven leader. The silver cuff looked heavy, the diadem sparkled like a crown of stars and the garter was made of leather that was miraculously still supple after hundreds of years.

It wasn’t his right to touch them, he knew, but Adam couldn’t help but reach out for the garter and graze his fingers against an object so old and so powerful that maybe, just maybe, they’d stand a chance against Black John and his dark magic. The power that whooshed from the artifact knocked him back and when he came to, there was the grit of sand against his skin and in his mouth. Sand? He’d been blown all the way out of the house, down the cliffs and onto the beach? It was one hell of an artifact, then, and cemented his belief that Cassie had been right about locating the Master tools; no fake would have had that much stored power without some kind of ritual to sustain it.

The power was too much for him and while it was probably dangerous to leave right at this moment, he told the others he needed to get air and would check outside to make sure nobody had come upon the burned-out house. It wouldn’t necessarily hurt to do a perimeter check, especially considering just how dangerous things could become if someone got their hands on the Master tools and intended to use them for evil and he stepped out of the half-burned door with closed eyes, taking in a deep breath in order to calm himself. He didn’t expect much, considering how the ocean was roiling and unsettling him; having Water as a chosen element was more of a liability at the moment than an asset.

But things didn’t seem right. He opened his eyes and saw plush carpeting and the trappings of a hotel, not the eerie and unsettled calm of Crowhaven Road before a killer storm. Confused, Adam turned back to the door and turned the knob, frowning when it appeared to be stuck. That didn’t make any sense, he’d just come through it, hadn’t he? He tried again, bracing himself as he tugged the door and while it yanked open, there was nothing but a storage closet and not the exit back to his own world.

Of all the times to discover new magic, this wasn’t it, and Adam muttered under his breath in frustration as he tried closing the door and reopening it, yielding the same result. The Circle needed him as much as anyone else - a Circle of eleven was crippled and unprepared to face Black John’s threat and it was only twelve, a full Circle, that even stood a chance. There was no way that he could be here instead of there unless...unless it was by design. If Black John wanted to disrupt their power base, he’d done it, and now he had an even bigger advantage than before.

Adam dragged a hand through his hair and took a deep breath, taking inventory of what he had at the moment to start making his way back. This was a kind of magic he wasn’t familiar with, some sort of magic that transported a person across vast distances, and unraveling the exact spell that was used would take time that he simply didn’t have. He kicked the door one last time in frustration and took a little satisfaction in the way the wood cracked beneath his boot but it didn’t really damage the door or make it give way to a path home.

Really, all it served to do was make him concentrate on the pain in his foot instead of the dire situation he’d found himself in and Adam wasn’t necessarily sure that was any better. He was of the very-uninformed opinion that it was not.

Comments

[vampire_shield]

Bella alerted to the sound of wood protesting somewhere in the hotel and, more curious than worried, followed the sound at her normal speed, arriving somewhere after the first blow but before the last.

"Are you locked out?" she asked, stopping far enough back to not startle the guy. "I might be able to help you get the door open if you are."

[powerof_water]

"I seem to be?" Adam said, turning to face the girl. It was all he could do to not let his mouth drop open because while he'd known beautiful girls in his relatively-limited experience, he was fairly certain he had never seen a woman as beautiful as the one in front of him.

She was unnaturally beautiful and, more importantly, not someone he recognized. He was so used to the insular nature of the Circle that it took him a moment to respond.

"Sorry. Yes, I would like the help if you want to try?"

[vampire_shield]

Bella nodded, grateful that practice meant she was getting better at not looking so jerky in her movements when she tried to move and walk like a human. Or, she didn't get as many looks while she did it, so she assumed she was getting better. Counting off a second before each step, she stopped in front of the door handle and tried to open it.

Nothing.

She offered the guy a small smile that looked a little sheepish. This wasn't the first time something similar had happened. "Sorry. It's not budging. Is this the door to your room here? At the hotel, I mean."

[powerof_water]

"No, I just came out of it from...you said this was a hotel?" Adam looked around and the idea of a hotel seemed to make sense, with the plush carpeting and the decor. It was a good deal different than Cassie's burned out house in New Salem, that was for certain.

"How did I get in a hotel? I just came from an abandoned house in Massachusetts. It doesn't make sense that I would be in a hotel."

[vampire_shield]

"And I walked into the front door of my cottage in Forks, Washington and ended up just over there," Bella smiled, pointing at a door across the lobby. "The people at the front desk can probably explain it better than I could, but it's sort of an alternative world. Connected to the one we came from, but separate at the same time."

[powerof_water]

"I would say it doesn't make sense," Adam said, laughing a little from the sheer absurdity of it, "But I live my life full of things that don't make any sense. I'm more willing to take your word for it since I just walked through that door myself. Can you go back? To Washington?"

[vampire_shield]

That made Bella laugh, a soft, wind chime sound. "I always tell people that I'm good with weird. I think that amounts to the same as being surrounded with things that make no sense, so we have that in common." She considered his question. "No easy answer to that one. I can go back to Washington, though its not the same. It's sort of deserted. There are some here, though, that can come and go from their world into this one and back again without any problems at all."

[powerof_water]

"And then there's me, who can't get a door open," Adam said, looking at the door again and trying to decide if it was worth it to attempt magic. There wasn't the pull of the ocean here the way there was in New Salem and he wasn't sure how strong he would be or how successful.

"I'm Adam, by the way." He wasn't always the best at introducing himself since he was so used to keeping the company of those who didn't need that introduction.

[kuno_ichi]

"Yeah, that doesn't really help."

April had stepped up a safe distance away and was presently peering at the door kicker with clear sympathy. Life had been pretty busy at home lately, what with Dad being back and the world almost ending (again), but she'd finally found time to pop back into the Nexus. She'd been on her way upstairs to see if she could find Isaac when she'd noticed the telltale frustration of somebody trapped in the hotel.

"Sometimes it lets you through if you do something special," she suggested, hefting her backpack higher onto her shoulder. "I fought with my door for hours until a friend suggested a knock. But that doesn't work for everyone."

[powerof_water]

Adam turned to look at the girl before looking back at the door, tilting his head and examining it with a new outlook. Maybe force wasn't the right way and he should try to coax it open instead. He reached out and jiggled the door handle before pushing it in and, again, nothing.

"I guess I could knock, then, if that's what it wants," he said, knocking quickly in a series of staccato raps. "Come on, door. Work for me."

[kuno_ichi]

"Shave and a haircut does it for me, on both sides," April continued, watching as the guy did as she suggested. "I heard some people use a key, but I've never seen it, and I've got some friends who get through just by thinking about it. I don't know what the difference is between them and us, sure wish I did."

[powerof_water]

"I guess the door doesn't seem to like my knocking or thinking, which leaves the matter of a key," Adam said, peering at it. He didn't know how he'd go about finding said key but he found Black John's skull by just looking around so there was precedent.

"I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Adam," he offered, extending a hand to her to shake.

[kuno_ichi]

At that point, April was more used to battling angry aliens than the formalities of introductions, and she looked at Adam's extended hand before awkwardly thrusting out her own to shake with a tense little laugh. She really needed to spend more time with boys who weren't green so that she could get used to this stuff.

"April," she said as she drew her hand away. It felt out of place after and she couldn't figure out where to put it. "Sorry you're stuck. Did you just get here?"

[powerof_water]

"Just a few minutes ago," he confirmed. "In through the door and now the door doesn't want to let me back over to the other side. Why, who knows? I live a life of inexplicable things, I guess this is just one more of them."

It touched a little close to the truth but Adam guessed he was vague enough for right now.

[kuno_ichi]

"Must be a lot of inexplicable things if you're this cool about it already," said April, duly impressed. She'd definitely seen more than her share of weirdness before she'd found the Nexus, but she'd still been pretty freaked out at first.

"So, do you want the tour or something?" she asked with a vague motion into the room. "I've got time."

[powerof_water]

"A tour would be great," Adam said. At least this was something to take his mind off the door problem. Sometimes with distance came clarity and he hoped that would be the case with this particular problem.

"I guess I don't have anything else to do right now, since I'm stuck?"

[freezedout]

Isaac's standing there, arms crossed, while he watches the guy kicking the door. Sure, he's prone to his own fits of anger and he's definitely clawed and kicked at a couple of doors in his time, but it's nice to be on the other side of this. "Trouble?"

[powerof_water]

"The door is stuck," Adam explained, pulling at it one last time before looking at the guy somewhat helplessly. It was frustrating and just plain weird that it wouldn't open again but, then again, he suspected magic was probably involved. He hadn't had the time to really investigate that particular theory yet, though.

"I just came through it, so that seems impossible, but yeah. It's stuck."

[freezedout]

Isaac wishes for a stuck door. Because if he got stuck at the Nexus, at least he wouldn't feel like half the coward that he does now. He shrugs, like it's kind of half his fault and gives the door a poke with his index finger. "I could probably open it up, but you'd be going to Beacon Hills."

[powerof_water]

"I am not sure I know where that is," Adam admitted, running a hand through his hair. "I am guessing it's probably not in Massachusetts, huh?"

Adam hadn't really traveled much beyond New Salem and only that in the last few months. He had never really had a desire to leave home or the Circle and this little trip is not exactly a wanted one.

[freezedout]

"Pretty far from it, yeah," Isaac agrees, leaning up against the nearest wall like his body-weight is the only thing that's going to hold it up. "California," he provides, but doesn't add that a person can find themselves in all kinds of weird shit if only they step through the door. "So what's in Massachusetts you're so eager to get back to?"

[powerof_water]

Adam wasn't sure if he should share it. While he was fairly open about being pagan and the holidays that he celebrated as a part of that, he kept the idea of actual magic very close to his chest. It could be dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands.

"Just some friends of mine are in trouble and I don't like the idea of leaving them behind, you know?"

[freezedout]

Isaac is pretty sure he's even said those exact words at least once. It's actually kind of messed up hearing it from someone else like that. "What kind of trouble?" he asks, his attention definitely won now that they're talking about things that could go wrong.

Massachusetts or California, there's always a mess somewhere.

[prayimdead]

"Give it a rest, man," Daryl advises from his perch on a nearby chair. "Ain't gonna happen unless this place decides it wants to let you go. 'S a bitch that way."

If anything, Daryl ought to know that first-hand. He's been stuck here some seven or eight damned weeks. Yeah, others have come and gone, but for some reason the hotel thinks he ought to stay here. Not that Daryl is itching to go back to the prison and a world filled with walkers, but he's got obligations. He's got the group.

[powerof_water]

"I'm beginning to think you're right," Adam said, trying the door one last time before giving up. He guessed this seemed like a safe enough place to be stuck but the Circle needed him and with only eleven, he wasn't sure that they stood a chance against Black John. It needed to be a full Circle.

"Do you know from experience that it's not going to open up?"