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“Alex, Sweetie. I need to do a protection spell on your wedding venue, is there any chance you could teleport me there? I promised Morgan I would try not to cause any more chaos before the ceremony, and well, I’m not sure I trust myself on the bus,” Grandma asked.
Alex who was attempting to watch a marathon of Bridgeton, didn’t even say anything just clicked their fingers and sent Grandma to the venue.
**
Grandma appeared inside the front door. The venue was in darkness, she walked over to the light switches on the wall and flicked just a couple on, just enough to see by. The large hall was fully decorated apart from the floral displays which were due to be installed first thing in the morning. But the whole place felt like the world was holding its breath. There was potential in every inch. Grandma basked in the feeling. Just then there was a sound from the corner, like someone knocking over a chair. When Grandma looked there was a young girl, probably 15 or so trying to creep towards an open window. Presumably how she got inside in the first place.
Grandma waved a hand and the window shut with a bang. “Now who are you?” she asked pleasantly.
“A-anna,” stuttered the girl. “I-i-I’m sorry, I just needed somewhere to sleep. I can’t go home.”
“Oh Anna,” said Grandma. “Don’t you worry, I promise all your troubles are over now. You can help me.”
“I-i-I can?” asked Anna, having the sense to look terrified.
“My grandchild is getting married here tomorrow…” started Grandma.
“Really? Congratulations…” said Anna, trying to edge towards the door without looking like she was. Grandma got closer.
“Yes. And I’m going to do a protection spell. The thing is, the best setting agent for that kind of spell is human blood and I was just going to use my own but… well magically I barely count as ‘human’ anymore. And here you are, Cthulhu provides.” As she spoke she got closer and closer to Anna, and drew a dagger from a hidden pocket in her dress. “Even if you get to the door my dear, it is very, very locked.”
Anna stopped moving. “Are you going to kill me?” she asked in a small voice.
“Of course,” said Grandma. “But I have no reason to make it hurt.”
**
“Hey Alex,” called Morgan as he arrived back at the apartment.
“Hey,” Alex called back.
“Where’s Grandma?” asked Morgan sitting next to Alex on the sofa, they made a face at the Bridgeton marathon on the tv.
“She asked me to teleport her to the venue,” said Alex eyes fixed to the screen.
“Why?” asked Morgan suspiciously.
Alex shrugged.
“How is she getting back?” asked Morgan.
Alex shrugged again.
“Alex, could you please go pick her up?” asked Morgan with a sigh.
“But I’m watching,” complained Alex.
“You’ve seen it before,” interrupted Morgan. “And if you don’t go get her and she does something to upset or delay the wedding you’ll have to explain it to your Mom.
Alex sighed. “Fine,” they clicked their fingers and disappeared.
Morgan cackled and picked up the remote. “Ha, no Bridgeton marathon for me!”
**
Grandma put the finishing touches to the last rune. They were drawn in blood and placed at equal distances around the room.
“Well I love the aesthetic, but it doesn’t really go with the theme,” Grandma said to herself. She clasped her hands in front of her sternum and bowed her head. As she whispered some words from a very dead language an eldritch energy crackled around her and the blood runes briefly glowed green before melting into the walls as if they had never been there. The dead body in the corner caught fire and burned away, not even leaving ash or so much as a scorch mark behind.
“I know you’re there, you might as well come on out,” said Grandma into the dark empty space of the venue.
The woman who had been hiding in the shadows stepped forward. “Mother,” she said coldly.
“Martha, you are looking well. That is a nasty scar above your eye though,” said Grandma conversationally.
Martha didn’t respond.
“You can’t sneak in here to spy on me and then give me the silent treatment when you get caught my little firebird. It’s petulant,” admonished Grandma.
Martha visibly flinched at the pet name. “I’m not here to spy on you. But I did see you, casting a spell. Where did you get the blood?”
“I believe her name was Anna,” said Grandma pleasantly. “Poor little waif too afraid to go home. Probably needed some kind of ‘hero’ but all she found was me. Still, nothing bad can happen to her now. Nothing worse at least.”
Martha looked horrified. “You’re a monster. I can’t believe even Morgan was stupid enough to release you with the ability to do magic.”
Grandma chuckled. “Morgan didn’t ‘release me’ at all. They have merely given me the, extremely limited, ability to magically project into this reality from my prison until after the marriage is completed. Meaning I can do a few parlour tricks. Nothing showy or reality ending sadly, but enough for the simple protection spell you just saw me lay. And enough to dismantle the entrapment spell you tried to lay. Sloppy work by the way, I taught you better. I supposed you popped in to check on it?”
“Why would you want this wedding to go ahead,” said Martha, confusion and frustration evident in her voice. “What could you possibly gain from it?”
Grandma looked genuinely shocked. “Morgan’s happiness, are you so surprised that is a concern of mine. Our differences aside I care about my family”
“Your whole being is dedicated to utterly destroying all of reality. Ending every life, billions upon billions of souls destroyed as if they never even existed. That includes Morgan, me, and every member of my family that has ever, or will ever, exist. No, I don’t think you ‘care’,” said Martha as her eyes flared and tiny flames danced on her eyelashes.
“Temper, little firebird,” said Grandma with a smirk.
Martha briefly lost control of her powers and for a split second her whole body was aflame and she rose a tiny distance off the floor. “You don’t get to call me that anymore!” she shouted, before she caught hold of herself and the fire suddenly snuffed itself out and she dropped back to earth with a thump.
Grandma’s smirk widened. “It’s not about what I ‘want’, Martha. It’s about what is and what will be. We are nothing but grit in the eye of something so huge and unknowable that we will never hope to understand it. But I see no reason not to let Morgan have this before the inevitable end.”
Martha cast her gaze briefly around the large room, decorations and seating cast in shadow and gloom. “This is wrong, that monster can’t love anyone, and Morgan has always been… misguided, but this? I can’t…”
“You can’t control this,” said Grandma gently. “And that’s okay, Martha. You don’t have to control everything. You shouldn’t control everything. Family least of all.”
“It isn’t about control, it’s about what’s right,” argued Martha.
“It’s about how the world perceives you,” counted Grandma. “It’s about you being a ‘hero’. And everybody who doesn’t fit in the mold that you decided was the ‘right’ one is forced to fit like Diego and Chad, or discarded like me.”
“That’s unfair,” said Martha, “you forced my hand, I couldn’t let you… I can’t let Morgan…”
“Make a notorious super villain, the notorious super villain, your child-in-law? Did you know Alex is planning on taking Morgan’s name?” asked Grandma with a smirk.
“That’s not…” started Martha.
“It is,” insisted Grandma. “Lie to yourself if you must, but don’t lie to me.”
Martha was lost for words and seemingly stunned for a moment.
“Of course, I could help, if you wanted?” said Grandma slowly. “Were I free? I could make Morgan and Alex forget about each other.”
Martha shook her head, “Stewart has killed memory altering heroes and villains before. They could easily recover lost memories.”
Grandma smiled, “So it’s something you’ve looked into trying? But no matter, I’m not talking about using a ‘power’ to suppress or hide a memory. I’m talking about using magic to remove the memories from the web of reality. To burn them to ash. There would be nothing left for Alex to recover. You know I can do it.”
“You’d offer this, for your own freedom. After trying to convince me you care about Morgan?” asked Martha.
“I have my own reservations about Alex, also this won’t really hurt Morgan. You can’t miss something you never knew you had, can you?” Grandma said with a shrug. “Besides the choice is yours. How much are you willing to pay to have control of Morgan?”
“You know, that is a very interesting question,” drawled Alex slipping out of the shadows behind Martha. Martha’s eyes widened comically. A large bird shaped plume of fire enveloped her and she vanished.
“You know that girl has been snubbing magic since she was a teenager, and then thinks she can use it to supplement her powers without anyone noticing. Because fire creation and control lends itself so well to teleportation…” said Grandma sadly.
“You know, Morgan never asked me to put you on the do not kill list,” said Alex leaning in to threaten the older woman.
“I should hope not!” replied Grandma, responding by leaning further into Alex’s space. “If you are going to try to kill me, bring it on.”
Alex was momently stunned into silence. But they recovered quickly. “Do you think I couldn’t?”
“Well right now you can’t. I’m not really here remember. This body is just a magical construct, I am still in the pocket reality. If you destroy this body the spell would just make another one. Until you get married and the spell ends, then I’ll be gone. If I were really here,” she gave Alex an assessing look. “I don’t know. You have more power than me, undoubtedly. But I think I know a few more tricks than you. It would be, what is it you call it? ‘A good fight’ at the very least. Hey, let me out and we can find out.” Her smirk was upsettingly close to Morgan’s.
Alex took a step back. “And what if I just tell Morgan that you’re conspiring with their Mother to destroy their mind?”
“Well it sounds bad when you say it like that,” said Grandma leaning back on the wall. “I wanted to see if Martha hated you enough to let me out. Apparently not, you probably will take that as a challenge, must try harder, sweetie.”
“So you weren’t going to destroy all of mine and Morgan’s memories of each other if that bitch let you out?”
“Oh yes, I absolutely was, a deal is a deal. Doubly so when blood magic is involved. Then I would have trapped you in a pocket reality like the one I’m trapped in. Then I would have sat back and waited to see how much damage the two of you did to the fabric of reality trying to get back to each other. It would have been very interesting, to say the least.”
Alex gritted their teeth. “We wouldn’t have remembered each other, Morgan didn’t get their planning skills from you did they.”
Grandma rolled her eyes and sighed heavily. “Super powered people, I swear to Cthulhu, no idea how the web of reality works, you just get handed a bunch of powers without having to learn the theory. Memories can be destroyed, gone forever, unrecoverable, that’s easy. But experiences don’t just effect the mind. Important events and people scar your soul. If I, or anyone else for that matter, took your memories of each other eventually you’d feel something was missing. You’d go mad trying to get back what you’d lost. You or Morgan or both would tear the universe to pieces, maybe even enough to wake the dreamers and usher in the end of all things.” She crossed her fingers and smirked.
“Morgan doesn’t have that kind of power…” said Alex hating the tone of doubt edging into their voice.
“Morgan has a poorly maintained cardboard box full of magical ‘trinkets’ they've stolen from various temples and museums over the years. A couple of those things, used correctly, in conjunction, could easily do as much damage to the walls of reality as your ‘powers’. That’s just what they have in their apartment right now. Martha looked down her nose at magic as ‘borrowed power’ since the day her superpowers manifested and she became obsessed with heroes and the tier system. Magic at its core is nothing but the ability to out stubborn the natural order.”
“And Morgan is the most stubborn person to ever exist,” interrupted Alex.
“Exactly, and they’re my blood meaning they have natural magical talent.” agreed Grandma. “But, honestly, it was never really very likely Martha would let me out. Even to keep you out of the family photo album. She knows me well enough to know I’d have some kind of plan. Even if she has been underestimating Morgan their whole life.”
“Your plan wouldn’t have worked anyway,” argued Alex. “Morgan doesn’t love me like that.”
“What?” asked Grandma, looking hard at Alex.
“Look, I’m not an idiot. I know I’m Morgan’s best friend and that they care about me. But this whole marriage is just for tax reasons. I haven’t impacted Morgan’s soul or anything. They’d be fine without me, especially if they couldn’t even remember me,” said Alex avoiding eye contact.
Grandma scrubbed her face with both hands. “You know sometimes even I doubt Cthulhu’s holy mission. I start think that maybe, just maybe, there is enough in reality to justify it continuing. That we are not just the fever dream of entities we can never hope to understand. That this isn’t just all some cosmic joke. Then you say that and I know, there is no hope, and that the blessed void cannot come soon enough.” She shook her head. “Tell Morgan, or don’t. I doubt they will be surprised if you do. I have never lied about my goals to anyone. Morgan knows better than most what I am. Can we go home now? You’re no fun anymore.”
Alex frowned, “I really want to kill you.”
Grandma shrugged, “I’m sure you say that to all the… well everyone. You’re a little predictable to be honest.” She patted Alex on the shoulder. “But you should try to get some sleep Sweetie, you’re getting married tomorrow.”