2 relatives on an adventure of sorts (Artemis)

The Hale family mansion was a pretty excessively big place even with about a half a dozen individuals living in it. None of them could even remotely keep track of what all the others were doing. Not even Arianna, who was really good at knowing what her relatives were doing. Too good sometimes. It was creepy how good she was at getting into their thoughts. As for Ailill, he wasn't one to try. Hence why as of now, wasn't even aware that some of them weren't home. Where was everybody? Had they gone out to dinner or something? Ailill pressed his mind for any sort of memory that would let him know of their whereabouts. Nothing came to mind. Well then. Perhaps he had the place to himself for a little while. What to do, what to do?

Ailill couldn't really think of anything. Not like anything he did around here worked around others being here anyways. This one here generally spent his days reading, studying, lounging around, experimenting, working on things and occasionally helping out around the house. Well, the days he was actually here. Maybe he could work on that one idea he had thought of last week now that he knew he would not be interrupted while working on it. With aunt Arianna and her two sons not home he could concentrate entirely on it.

Wait. They couldn't all be gone, could they? Ailill decided to look around for the other residents first. He had a sneaking suspicion he wasn't alone in here after all. The mage wandered down one hallway, then another, and another, and heard not the sound of a guitar playing. This was usually the time of day that Brandon would be jamming to the sounds of his own instrumental work as he called it. The lack of music indicated that he indeed wasn't here. Someone still was though. Ailill looked out of a window into the backyard and saw Mirshann frolicking about with her weird dog thing. They would probably be out there for a while.

He started to walk back to his room when he saw an open door. Ailill walked up to it and looked inside. Inside the room was his cousin, Milla. The one cousin he knew the least. He tried to sneak past the room without being noticed.

Milla had only been back for about 3 days. But the last two days had been very eventful. One doesn't just reappear from the 'dead' after a bit over 9 years and doesn't get teary eyed. But to be fair, Milla did pretty well under she ran into her mother. Arianna almost immediately broke down into tears and they hugged. She was mainly surprised that her 'baby' was still alive after being thought dead for so long. It was around that time that Milla broke down herself and started to cry. She spent most of that day with her mother. They mainly talked about what happened the past few years and her father. Then she spent all of yesterday with her brothers and touring the mansion to learn what changes happened. It was nice to know that her mother finally redid the kitchen. Although when she joked about the kitchen blowing up to get the remodeling she was just left with a blank stare and her brothers just moved on from that. The touring ended with her room, which had been left completely untouched.

She currently sat on her bed. She laughed to herself at the amount of 16 year old girl remained in the room. Heck, even from the posters of boy bands to the painfully girly sheet on her bed. There where still a lot of magic artifacts in the room. Before she gained her powers she did hold a major influence over these trinkets. Although they did remind her of her mentor, who she learned was dead. It did pain her a bit since Milla at the time had no magic powers it was honestly pointless. Heck even now she had yet to tell her family about her new powers. Heck calling them her powers was even a loose representation. She just kinda pointed which direction in which the leyline to travel.

Milla just sat in her room, lost in her thoughts. She had turn down her family's offers today, it made them sad but she did want to just relax for a bit. She also thought of what she should redecorate her room into. It wasn't until she heard a floor board creek that she snapped out of her trance. Her head shot around and she saw a bit of someone walking by. Milla got up and found her cousin, Ailill walking away. She honestly never talked to him much, even though they both liked artifacts. But maybe this was a second chance. Milla ran up to her cousin.

"Hey Ailill! wait up!" said Milla catching up to her cousin.

"Long time no see."

Ailill Hale had tried to get away without being noticed by his cousin Milla, but found out his efforts were in vain upon hearing her shout out his name as she came running after him. He quietly groaned a bit at this prospect that he now faced and turned around to face her. "Oh, hey Milla. Nice to see you. How are you today?" he asked of his cousin whom he barely knew. She had been gone for many a years. There had apparently been a rumor that she had actually been dead, though she clearly wasn't as she was standing here in front of him all alive and such. He wondered if she wanted anything other than a greeting from somebody she had not seen in like a decade or so. Give or take a year or two. She seemed excited to see him. He wasn't sure why. They had barely known each other before she disappeared.

"Nice to see you?" said Milla a bit surprised.

"Ailill, I've been 'dead' for 9 years. The best you have is nice to see you? You know I haven't been here for a long time. Usually people are bit more happy or surprised when that happens." said Milla, a playful tone in her voice.

"I-I know we never usually got a long much... heck I think most of our interactions in the past where just fighting over who got to play with what magical artifact. But hey, I missed you, I missed everyone, heck I even miss the siblings that tried to kill me." said Milla. For some reason she founmd it kinda hard to talk to her cousin, they weren't exactly close and so far Milla had kept her new magical abilities hidden which added to the stress.

"Hey since I am now back from the dead and I know we never exactly got a long to begin with. Do you want use this chance as a way to start over and get to know each other better? With out us fighting over magical artifacts this time?" asked Milla. Yeah she said that she wanted to take today just to relax but there where things she needed to do. Like redesign her room for one. She wouldn't mind having someone tag along at least. OR maybe she could actually do something with her cousin.

"What do you want from me? I'm not very good at greetings. I barely ever say good morning to anyone. I just walk into the kitchen, grab something to eat and leave without saying a word pretty often." he truthfully admitted to her in response to saying he should be happy about seeing her for the first time in years. Really, he had no emotional response to it at all. He was just completely casual with his comments and generally not interested. He knew not as to why there were no emotions behind his voice as he spoke to her. Seems there was just no investment to him available.

"Oh, is that why you left? To avoid dying?" Ailill remembered the days where his cousins were in a constant power struggle. If he remembered correctly there had been six of them locked in a brutal combat ridden affair and of them, only three of which survived. Milla here survived by escaping. Brandon had just given up on it entirely and Aaron was left victorious to win nothing worth the efforts. The real prize was endless mental fatigue. How rewarding.

Milla started talking of this idea of hers of the two of them doing something to get to know each other better. Have a real family bonding adventure. Ailill was skeptical of this offer of hers, but was willing to hear her out. Not like there was anything better to do anyways. "Okay, may I ask, what did you have in mind?"

"Well I was poisoned, if one of the butlers didn't find me and agree to help me escape I probably wouldn't be standing here right now." said Milla bluntly. It was true, she was found just in time to be administered an antidote. The hard part was actually getting away, the poisoned weakened her for a few weeks so she took the butler with her and enough money to last her a lifetime. She probably should return the money, there was still quite a bit left.

"Hmmm... I actually have no idea... never imagined I would get this far. You always kinda spaced yourself away so I thought you would just brush me off. And I don't think you are going to want to hear about what life I had in japan. And I doubt you want to go and look at stuff to redecorate my room with either. So do you want to go hit up a magic shop and see what artifacts they have for sale?"

"So you really have nothing better to do other than redecorating that you don't want to do? I wouldn't even bother with these so called magic shops. It's mostly just people trying to scam others and the few legitimate stuff they have isn't worth anything. If you really want to find anything of value you have to go looking for it yourself. It's something I've done quite often and have been pretty successful." he told her in a manner that could easily be considered to be rude.

Did he even have an alternative to her idea? Ailill racked his brain for ideas. He was having to ask himself if he even knew what he was doing. He had to ask himself if he even wanted to know this woman. Sure she was his cousin, but did that even matter? Was he just going down the route of just being mean for the sake of it? No, he shouldn't think like that. Instead he thought of something else. "If you really need something to do then perhaps you could try helping me with an experiment. I don't know if you'll be able to help, but you could try, if you want." he said to her rather nicely.

"I don't know, they can have some amazing finds, you just got to ask to look at the right thing. And I can only stand the influence of 16 year old girl for so long." said Milla with a smile. Heck her magic powers were from an object she found at a magic store in Japan. It did bother her that she couldn't find the store the following day and when she asked around no one knew what she was talking about. Also her powers weren't like how people would describe their personal powers. Milla didn't really seem to control it. She just kind of just pointed and stuff happened. Or at-least that's what it felt like.

"Experimenting? Wow I haven't actually don't that since I was trying to train under Marie... it's kind of a shame I never had any actually abilities, it made it kind of impossible." said Milla jokingly.

Within a matter of minutes the pair arrived at the back of the mansion, in one of the rooms that was prepped for magical experiments. With it wasn't for Ailill she wouldn't of found her way here. Everything was different then how she remembered for some reason. But Milla was currently scanning the walls, looking at books that were set aside and strange creatures floating in glass jars. The room overall was really impressing.

"So what's up first?" asked Milla. Milla did sense something strange though. Their was a strong leyline in the room, which was strange. Usually leylines where under the ground and travel through it. It was strange one seemed to bend to pass through a certain room. She wondered if Ailill was researching leylines. Although Milla doubted it. No solid proof of leylines had been printed and were still vastly considered to be myth. Heck Milla thought they where myths up until leylines began to travel through her.

"Yeah. Experimenting or whatever you want to call it. Basically I'm testing something out that there's not much available information on. Something even the most daring of mages would be discreet about. Sounds exciting, I know, right?" he concluded as if he were trying to sell her on this whole thing as something truly amazing. "So if you're interested then follow me." he told her before turning around and heading off to the lab. Ailill barely even checked to see if she was even following. He wasn't even aware that she was until she started talking about her past record of the act. He was left curious when she mentioned that she had been trying to train under Elena Marie. That was a name he knew well. Though she didn't seem like the type to teach anybody anything of importance. The way Milla was talking, she hadn't.

They arrived at the lab and he opened the door for both of them. "Right this way." he said as he opened it. Inside there was a bunch of stuff. Some of it felt out of place, but the Hale family were a strange bunch. Shelves full of books lined the walls. Most of them were for research, but a few were just there to be read for entertainment purposes. Sometimes they would have to wait and would read them to pass the time.

Milla wanted to know what this experiment of his that he had mentioned was. "Well." Ailill started to say before pausing. He wasn't sure how to put it since he knew not how much of the technical stuff she knew. He didn't want to state something that would go completely over her head and wind up taking forever to try and explain it. "Not sure how to put this, but." he paused again before continuing. "According to some folks, there are a variety of strange natural energies all about the world that even we magical folk know little to nothing about and I'm trying to see if I can get a reaction using a few things. Basically if there's anything that this device here-" he indicated an ornamental urn of sorts that had been enchanted several times over to detect and collect energy "will hopefully do something."

"You are trying to find proof of leylines?" said Milla. She was honestly surprised something like magical leylines would interest her cousin. He seemed like the type who would try and improve the current. Milla guessed she pegged him wrong. She walked over to the urn and scanned over it. Milla could feel the leyline being pulled towards the urn. He was actually pretty close. Milla could feel the leyline bending around the urn. That being said it felt weird. It gave Milla a feeling she didn't like. Although something popped into her mind.

"Oh! Sorry, I just remember reading about the theory when I was training under Marie. Heck all I was able to do was read. I was actually kind of scared I would become an archivist to stay relevant in the magic world." said Milla covering her tracked. Honestly she had no interest in leylines and didn't read up on the known knowledge until she was able to attune herself to the leylines. But she understood what he was trying to do.

"You are trying to absorb magic with out a source to collect from. You are hoping to pick up on something. Have you thought about using an organic host?"

"Huh. Ley-what now?" he said in confusion due to her near instant outburst in response to him explaining what he was trying to do? Wait, did she actually know something about what he was working on? Interesting development this here was. "So, what are these here leylines you be talking about? Mind sharing what information you know?" he asked of now suddenly interested in hearing from her. "Because, if you see. If these leyline things you're talking about are by some coincidence-" he paused. Oh coincidence. How he hated that word. Ailill wasn't the type to believe in mere coincidences. All those years spent researching had led him to believe that anything remotely coincidental was just something that needed to be looked into some more.

"Anyways." he started again but once again stopped. Ailill was unsure of how to go about this now. Milla didn't seem to know anything that was of too much use to this here experiment. He felt the desire to just dismiss what she had said until she suggested something to add to it. Using an organic host instead of a device that had been designed to gather energy? That sounded absurd, but then again, maybe she was on to something. "Use an organic host? So, do you mean one of us should volunteer for it? I'm certainly not doing it, and considering the nature of this experiment, if you do it you'll probably die, again." he informed her. He could tell she was interested in finding out more about these leylines through this experiment, but it wasn't worth getting one's self killed over it.

"Well from what I read, they are exactly what you explained them to be. They are large collections of natural energies that flow through the earth like a ocean current. Well... that's what is speculated. No one has ever found proof and I was never able to track down the origin of the theory." said Milla, hopefully sounding like she knew less then she actually did. Even though the whole family war thing was over with Milla wanted to keep her final trump card hidden. The fact that her magic didn't leave any sort of magical signature was a plus and made it twenty times easier to hide. She just had to avoid using it around people and no one would ever know.

"Wait what! No, if these leylines end up being a reality if we channeled it through one of us we would end up dead. Leylines are large pools of magical energies, our bodies would probably explode if we tried to channel it. I was suggesting the use of a homunculus or a golem." said Milla.

Listening to Milla attempt to explain what these leyline things she had mentioned amount to little. She appeared to know nothing beyond the possibility that they might exist. How disappointing to hear. "This is going nowhere." he thought. Did she really know nothing more about the subject they were discussing, or was she keeping information from him for some strange reason. Ailill wanted to test the full scope of her knowledge on the subject. He didn't like the thought of her possibly withholding vital information from him. It could prove dangerous, and it would be upsetting.

Ailill was about to activate the specially designed energy device after quickly checking to see that it was in proper condition when she interrupted him to tell him something. She warned him of how dangerous it would be to actually use an organic host for this process. It was something he was well aware of, but was still considering doing. "One problem." he spoke up. She suggested using something else instead like a homunculus or a golem. There was just one problem with her proposal, and he went on to inform her of it. "We don't have any available." he told her bluntly and then continued. "So if we're going to go through with this here experiment in the way you suggested, we're going to have to go on a little expedition to find ourselves a test subject. What do you say lass, you in?"

Looked like Ailill was dead set on this experiment. Not even Milla's feint lack of knowledge threw him off, not even a bit.

"No where are not hunting down some poor soul to use for a possibly dangerous experiment." said Milla, slightly offended by the suggestion. The fact that he even suggested it disgusted her. Although she had the feeling Ailill would just continue on even if she left. So Milla walked to the center of the room where the vase was and moved it, sitting on the table it was on just a moment ago. Milla could feel the leyline and she probably could prevent it from emerging without alerting her cousin.

"Alright, I'm ready, just be careful."

"We're not?" he asked rhetorically. Milla had flat out refused to go along with Ailill's suggestion of hunting down either a homunculus or a golem to use for this experiment, even though it had been her idea to use one in the first place. Ailill was a bit aggravated by this sudden change of mind on her part. He had made absolutely no progress with this experiment so far. Honestly outside of her mentioning the existence of leylines, she was being no help whatsoever. Ailill was starting to regret ever allowing her to assist him in this.

Ailill was about to give up on trying for now when she walked over to the device and moved it aside to take its place. "What are you doing?" he asked incredulously. "You just told me one of us attempting this would kill them. Are you trying to get yourself killed, again?" he asked her thinking she was being stupid. "There is no being careful with this. That's why I was taking precautions. If things start to go bad, there's perhaps nothing I can do about it. If you die, it's your own fault. Now I ask you, you sure you want to go through with this?"