"No need for airs and graces in this late hour of need. Baron will do, we are all friends here. All children of Mother Arcana. The barrel is in the basement, procured specifically for you so help yourself. Eat, drink and be merry. Tomorrow will be a harder day" Ever the host with the most and a master of procurement it might have seemed as preparation but to Nick it read as I knew you would come, what other choice do you really have.
"My most beloved friend the kids don't want to hear Brahms, play us something jaunty and uplifting to raise the spirits... figuratively..I don't even remember being young anymore." He simply fell to silence to Jason's instructions and explanations and nodded along confirming that alas immortality was met with ire from those that perished.
"Jason is right and I can safely say you have no equal in necromancy in your generation, Nicholas"
"Flattery might get you far but there is no need" Nick felt uncomfortable, visibly so.
"I don't flatter when I comes to the skills of my apprentices. You wield your magic with the quiet refinement of a conductor, poised and passionate. Although I hear your apprentice is well on track to surpass you" Baron spoke matter of factly, when you lived as long as he had and made it your trade to read people's wants and desires you could tell the air around John whispered of something that was...beyond the average adept. "Dare I say it's as if the young man was always meant to be here with you" What a fascinating young man.
"It is the duty of the apprentice to humble their master. If you excuse us" Nick all but pushed John up the three flights of stairs.
"I'll get some tea ready for the young man" Baron leaned on his elbows on the piano and looked to Jason. "You think they're bonking? They must be. Pretty blond thing like that looking at him all adoringly, he'd be an idiot not to act on it" He knew people, their desires, centuries of rinse wash repetition. Baron grabbed the phone and dialed a number that had no area code, nor the correct didgits.
"Hello old friend. Put your wife on the phone" he waited for the female voice to come through. "I just met Nick Nolan's new apprentice. Do you think they're bonking." he asked Rose Occult who also had the pleasure of knowing such things. "Yes that's all I called to ask"
Nick's room no longer looked like much of his room having had other inhabitants over the years but on the desk Nick+Pandora was carved on the left leg where almost none would see, except if you were like John setting up to sleep on the carpet. Two young loves that might have never met if he had not ended up staying with Rose Occult for a season.
"We can wedge pillows between us don't be stupid. I doubt there will be much sleeping." They shared tents before, slept keeping watch, John's odd modesty was not well received.
Nick worked to unpack his very few items of clothing choosing the dresser and leaving John the small wardrobe.
"He is right you know. You're doing very well to develop into a fine adept and I couldn't be prouder of you. It's why your stupid decisions cut deeper." He didn't bother to turn to look at John there was no need to. He knew John well enough to know his expression.
"I hope when the years pass that it won't take a missing person for you to write to me. I fear I got a bit attached to your silliness. It's a reminder, this place, of the years passing. Ah, don't listen to a middle aged man remeniche. " Nick waved off the brief moment of sentimentality.
"It's the curse of growing old living in memories" Baron was leaning on the doorframe holding a tray with a pot of tea and a cafettiere.
"You are always welcome to write, not quite so young-man. It's you that never visits, we are always here" Baron corrected Nick's narrative of a mentor that didn't write unless he required something. "I respect that you close doors permanently but although it's no longer your home you have always been welcome to come and stay a while."
Barons hand touched the doorframe and a blue ish haze filled the room almost projecting a memory of long ago,dozens, hundreds of people in fast forward in and out and moving around until a young man with long greasy hair practising sigils on the floor with headphones attached to a cassette player. It was still difficult to not see Nick as that young man with poetic language and polite soft manners listening to his melancholic music. The image walked backwards, his hair shortened just a few inches and he'd walk forward again, the first time Nick walked in to claim the room setting down a battered duffel bag and unpacking just two pairs of shoes and clothes that lacked duplicates. How his first port of call was to step on the desk chair and then on the desk to dust the shelves of the bookcase for his six books. Time moved faster, posters went up, a record player was added and the row of six books now 11, now 17, now 35, mirages of the greasy haired no longer teen sat at the desk, on the bed, on the floor, reading, reading, reading, reading, a girl with white hair down to her bum and Nick dancing in the middle of the room, Nick back to reading reading....reading. The last day where his belongings were packed and Baron hugged him goodbye handing him a old doctor's bag and a pat on the back sending him off to the world, whatever naivety that clung to him on the way in no longer in his face on the way out. Jaded. Disilusioned. Wiser.
Letters appearing on the wall in Nick's handwriting , numerous at first and as the years passed less and less, in his last two his apprentice J.C mentioned. The rest of the letters barely legible but the sections pertaining to John...
....I will be unreachable for a fair while, I have taken in a new apprentice and will shift my primary focus to his acclimation in his new duties and life. Blond, British, thinks fast on his feet and unconventional in his thinking. With your permission I will give J.C your contact details should he require materials I am aware you hold in your library.
The last letter that unblurred a paragraph read..
...I would be for ever in your debt if you consider offering J.C but a crumb of your vast knowledge in Demonology,he is determined and driven and I have no doubt he will be a great asset to you if you chose to give him your time.
"Don't listen to the old fool. It is the apprentice that decided to sever ties I still miss his stupid herbal essences shampoo wafting through the halls and his melancholic half naked men lamenting about life" Baron insisted that Nick while no longer a priority in correspondence could always come knock on the door.
"Was this neseccary?" Nick asked as the memories were not exactly welcome. He saw no point in this blatant display and violation of his privacy.
"A little, yes. I decided that I am so impressed by your boy I will in fact make time in my schedule to teach him a little something something about dealing with demons. If you find Frederick.And it is important that John knows the truth, I might have had hundreds of apprentices but all of them were chosen for being special and fascinating and never forgotten. Even if they lament otherwise" Baron rested the tray of hot drinks on the desk.
"I wasn't lamenting." Nick seemed annoyed that his private conversation was overheard. "It is natural to think of the future when I see my old teachers and to want to hope that my apprentice won't disappear when he becomes my peer. A continued spirit of collaboration requires willingness from both sides."
"Jason! He has become rather catty in his mid life I owe you a dollar" Baron shouted down the stairs and would head off to help his apprentices make dinner.
"I don't understand him, what purpose does it serve showing you all this. As if you never seen a picture of my youth, as if my youth matters to you" Nick huffed and patted John's shoulder.
"Pour me a coffee will you. I will grab our beetles" The screeching pair of beetles currently ever so quiet in their matchboxes.
