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!
