The breakfast went about as expected. He just sat there and ate quietly while the rest discussed numerous everyday topics at length. Sometimes he would respond when someone spoke to him directly, but for most of the morning he just listened to them.

  "Al, would you mind helping me with something outside?" his father demanded in the form of a question.

  "Sure," he muttered before following his father into the backyard.

  The apple trees on the property were ripe with pickable fruit. Peak harvesting season would pass in the coming weeks, and with how things were looking the fruit would most likely end up rotting on the ground.

  His father quickly lit a cigarette before opening his mouth to speak, "How many spells?"

  "Four in total, but I could've finished it in one."

  Pietro took a quick drag on the cigarette before pointing to his heart and then his head.

  "Go for the heart or the head. I can count on one hand the number of mages that could heal themselves in time should you strike them in one of those locations."

  Was his father giving him pointers? He appreciated it, but it still felt strange to have a conversation where he wasn't receiving insults from him. It felt nice even if the topic was the optimal way to kill his opponents.

  "The head I get, but why the heart?"

  "Healing yourself is incredibly difficult even for skilled healers, so they'll succumb to shock and lose consciousness long before they would even get the chance to fully repair such a complex organ."

  So magical healing had a limit. Considering the complexity of the human body it made perfect sense. If he could just strike the heart, then his opponent would be dead by all accounts. It would all come down to his speed and accuracy, but he felt confident in his ability to do it.

  "Remember this well, Al, you can't leave anything up to chance if you wish to succeed."

  It was live or die. He had to take the initiative and end his opponent before they even became aware of him. Monterey had been weak, but plenty of the others would be strong. It didn't matter if it was the amount of power they had or the skill they wielded it with, either way he would be at a disadvantage from here on out unless he could corner them somehow.

  "When we head into town later today, I want you to split off and hunt down one of the Autumn witches on your own."

  That wouldn't fit into Jane's plan at all. They were supposed to hunt them during the night and erase all evidence of their passing. Killing one the Autumns with magic in broad daylight felt completely idiotic.

  "I refuse! Jane wouldn't want me going off on my own."

  "Al, if you corner them when they're out with their younger relatives or even their children, then you're the one holding all the cards."

  Of course. If the target was a parent they would most likely protect their children rather than themselves, and the children could be used as a future leverage too. He could even threaten them openly and use their fear to get them somewhere isolated.

  "I'm guessing you've got some way to make it seem like I'm still with the rest of you then, right?" he asked his father.

  With a swift motion Pietro invoked his power causing a nearby shadow to extract itself from one of the apple trees. It rose to its feet and became three dimensional before his very eyes and began mimicking his every motion.

  "I will make it look like you and have it trade places with you once you've left line of sight, but after that it will all be up to you."

  "I'm going to need to change into some better clothes if this is going to work," he muttered to himself before running back inside the house.

  Once he was back in his room he began rooting through his suitcase for anything of use. A dark hoodie and a pair of sunglasses wasn't particularly inconspicuous but it would do for his purposes. That way his victims would only see part of his face while his father's spell was off somewhere pretending to be him going about life as always.

  "Are we actually considering the possibility of using the children of the Autumn clan as leverage?" his shadow whispered from the reflection in the window opposite the bed.

  It made him feel awful even thinking about it, but it was better than taking any sort of risk. People were irrational when they believed their children were in danger, and the emotions of a concerned parent was an exploitable weakness.

  "We don't even know them so is there even a reason to feel bad when we're planning to kill their relatives anyways?"

  "Yet we are clearly experiencing some distress just thinking about the fact a child may end up dying by our hand," the shadow said with a deep sigh.

  It was a very real possibility. A threat was only potent if it was believable. He had to be fully willing and ready to actually put a child to death if this was going to work. If he wavered they might end up getting the upper hand on him. This was war and hesitation meant death.

  He slowly put on the hoodie and slid the sunglasses in his pocket. If he wanted to have the life he dreamed of then he had to be willing to crush the dreams of another. It was the law of the jungle and the weak were always devoured in the end.

  The switch happened sooner than he had expected. He had went in the coupé with his father and stayed behind when the doppelganger exited the car in his stead. If he was lucky not even Jane would be able to tell a difference. After all, the shadowy figure beneath the illusion was eerily similar to his own soul.

  Once twenty minutes had passed he pulled the hood up and put on the sunglasses before exiting the vehicle. The town was bustling with life and he could feel people glancing at him every once in a while as he walked.

  If the given name matched up with some species of tree it meant he had most likely spotted an Autumn. He listened in on all the conversations around him as he moved through one store after the other on the market strip.

  The market was the main attraction in Arthur's rest and it was filled with all sorts of historical hallmarks. There was a large boulder on display smack dab in the middle of the market, which some claimed was the stone that Arthur had pulled the sword from. While plenty of legends surrounded Arthur, most agreed that they were no more than myths created in response to the actions that man took during his short life. But seeing as magic existed there was a very real chance in his mind that some of those myths may be true.

  So far he hadn't seen a sign of any Autumn witches, but it would only be a matter of time. That much he was sure of. He could probably even make them reveal themselves if he managed to strike up conversation with one of them, but he would have to find someone that matched the profile in his head first.

  "Owie!" someone cried out after bumping into him and falling over on the ground before him.

  He had barely felt it as they ran right into him, but as he saw the young girl struggling to hold back tears in front of him it became clear that he might as well try something.

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  "Do you always go around running head first into ordinaires without looking?" he asked the kid in front of him.

  Their eyes lit up upon hearing the word. They must have thought they just encountered another emerged on the street, but little did they know they may have just fallen into his hands if they were unfortunate enough to bear the family name of Autumn.

  "What's your name kid?" he asked them as he helped them to their feet.

  "Cherry! Like the tree!" she declared proudly.

  Kids really were profoundly stupid. He was pretty sure that there were all kinds of initiatives out there that tried to tell kids that you shouldn't trust strangers. Clearly the people behind those initiatives were doing a very poor job.

  "So who are you?" she asked him as he looked around to see if anyone was watching them.

  Once he was sure no one was watching them or listening in on their conversation he spoke up.

  "Just a boring old mage, but how come your parents aren't with you?"

  "I was going to the aquarium with mommy and auntie, but I lost them and now I can't find them..."

  He couldn't have her burst into tears seeing as that would attract all sorts of attention, but it also gave him an idea. Maybe this would be a perfect opportunity to convince her mother and aunt to walk right into an ambush.

  "They might be at the aquarium so why don't we go there together and look for them?" he said with feigned kindness in his voice.

  "Okay," she sniffled as she wiped away the tears forming in her eyes.

  He took her hand and began walking towards the aquarium by the harbor. Being situated right by the coast had resulted in Arthur's rest having one of the biggest harbors on Avalon. The place was home to countless privately owned vessels since sailing had always been a popular activity among the residents of the town.

  The aquarium itself was a monstrosity of steel and glass. It had been made by a now infamous architect whose obsession with modern design bordered on insanity. It looked somewhat like a bloated and misshapen dome covered in panes of glass reflecting all the colors of the rainbow.

  He paid the entry fee in cash and stepped inside the aquarium with Cherry hot on his heels. As a young boy he had enjoyed the aquarium quite a bit. Something about marine life just spoke to him. Could be that the abyss of the ocean naturally resonated with the abyss within his soul.

  The girl immediately rushed towards the clownfish tank with eyes filled with wonder. With all her attention on the colorful fishes in front of her it was the perfect opportunity for him to prime his spells with power without her noticing.

  "Did you know sharks breathe through something called ram ventilation?" he said to the girl.

  "What does ram ventilation mean?" she asked him as she turned around to look up at him.

  "It means they push water through their gills as they move in order to breathe, and if they can't move or there's no current then they just drown."

  "I'm the same in a lot of ways because if I stop moving forward I too will drown," he said coldly.

  The kid froze up. His sudden shift in tone had scared her, but it was just what he needed. If her survival instincts were any good, then she would know not to make a scene.

  "I've been called a warlock and if overseer is to be believed, then people like me are a bit like sharks."

  He flashed her the most menacing smile he could muster. If he made use of what her family had no doubt taught her about warlocks, he would have a much easier time turning her into a hostage.

  Giving her a chance to run off would no doubt cause all sorts of headache so he quickly prepped the nihil. If he could erase her ability to run away or scream, then he would have made the perfect hostage. And so he directed the nothingness towards the very concept of her free will.

  "Nihil."

  As the wave of nothingness passed over her it practically turned her into an automaton. Her eyes gazed off into nowhere and all she did was breathe in and out like a machine. He kept pouring a tiny bit of power into the spell to maintain it and let out a satisfied sigh. The hostage was now under his control.

  "Cherry!" a woman shouted.

  He quickly moved over next to cherry and put a hand on her shoulder before turning around to spot the person the voice had belonged to. There were two women of average height with dark brown hair marching in his direction.

  "That's close enough," he said to them.

  "If the spell worked as planned then Cherry will only do what I say."

  It was a bluff. He had suppressed her free will so she would most likely do what anyone told her to, but they didn't need to know that. The women's eyes went wide as he threw them a leering grin. If he made himself menacing enough they would most likely fail to properly assess the situation they found themselves in.

  "Remember that there are plenty of ordinaires around us and trust me when I say overseer won't be stepping in."

  That was only half a bluff, but if an overseer did step in he could always reveal his identity and point out that they had no part in a conflict between clans.

  "Let go of my daughter, now!" the mother commanded as the power within them surged.

  "Try anything and I might just tell your daughter to swallow her tongue and stop breathing," he hissed as he stared down the terrified and furious mother.

  There had been no reaction from Cherry when he said that, which confirmed that he would most likely have to address her directly to command her. Killing her felt unnecessary in his mind seeing as she was just a kid, but if it came to it then there was no room for hesitation.

  "Sister! Calm down, we're clearly dealing with a warlock and if you draw any more attention he might just do it," the other woman said in an attempt to calm the mother down.

  The aunt turned to look at him with a burning spite in her eyes. She was most likely going to be a bit more level headed than the mother and would probably be the superior negotiator of the two. That made her the more dangerous adversary of the two.

  He wouldn't be able to use the nihil to deflect their spells if he wanted to keep Cherry in her current fugue state, which meant he had to keep them from slinging any spells. If they had any spirits with them it would complicate the situation further, but if Jane had given him accurate information it would mean that their spirits were bound to them personally and would only act if they directly commanded them to.

  "What are your demands, warlock?" the aunt asked him.

  He had to start with an unreasonable demand so they would accept the already unreasonable demand to follow him to a more isolated location.

  "Break the bonds with your spirits and surrender yourselves to me."

  "That is outrageous!" the mother exclaimed.

  "Cherry, would you please..."

  "Please don't be hasty!" the aunt shouted at him.

  "Oh! Do you perhaps have a promising suggestion for me then?" he quipped.

  The woman swallowed heavily before speaking up once more.

  "How about we continue this negotiation somewhere else?"

  Now they were getting somewhere, but he needed to extract more information before he took them to their future gravesite.

  "I see! You want me to walk into an ambush that you're setting up by having your spirits communicate with the other members of your clan."

  "It doesn't work that way! The spirits only act when we command them to and they rarely possess the ability to communicate with anyone other than their master," the mother said with barely contained rage staining her every word.

  "Very well then, I know a place and the two of you can walk in front of me while I keep the leverage next to me."

  "That is acceptable for now..."

  The aunt really was the better negotiator, but he was the superior manipulator by far. They all stepped out of the aquarium with the two women staying three paces ahead of him as they walked. He slowly directed them towards an abandoned quarry by the cliffs just outside of the town proper.

  It suited his needs perfectly because the area was well out of earshot and would give him plenty of space to use his magic at its most destructive if he had to.

  There was no sign of humanity except for the white mounds of crushed limestone covering much of the ground around the quarry. The owner of the quarry had been selling the limestone to different producers of high quality cement, but the operations had ceased when the owner had died of a heart attack about five years back.

  He sat down on a large stone near one of the mounds and looked over at the two women opposite him.

  "Step back about ten paces," he said as he kept Cherry close by tightening his grip on her shoulder.

  The women moved back until he gave them a satisfied nod and then went back to staring daggers at him. He cautiously deactivated the nihil and tightened his grip further as Cherry's free will returned. Her initial struggle ceased the moment she realized that there was no chance of escaping his grasp.

  "Mom!" she cried out in terror.

  "Let go of my daughter at once if you wish to live, warlock!"

  He had them right where he wanted them. All he had to do now was shock them enough to create an opening, and if he had to he would just use Cherry as a human shield. No reasonable mother would risk killing their own daughter after all.

  "It's two against one! And there's no way you will be able to stop us from killing you," the aunt declared stoically.

  He prepared the nihil and held it at the ready to protect himself and shot them a big old grin.

  "Now why would I be scared of the two of you when I only used Cherry to get the two of you somewhere more isolated."

  He could see the cogs turning in their heads, but it was clear the mother was far too blinded by rage to come to any reasonable conclusion.

  "You will learn what fear is when I get my hands on you, warlock!"

  She raised her hands and he could feel the power surging within her. Any moment now she would charge him or launch a spell at him or command a spirit to tear him apart, but he couldn't let himself worry if he was going to win.

  "See, I'm the guy that defeated Garuda in one on one combat."

  The mother charged at him with flames dancing around her fingertips, but her sister had realized it was a trap. Too bad it was a little too late.

  "Sister don't!" she cried out as the mother ran towards him in a straight line in some insane bid to save her daughter.

  "Nihilate."