The Great Hall

"I already had the raving lunatic on my bro's heels today. I think the quota's used up." Pixie snorted. "Me and Nix were out for a walk and bam, along comes Artisan, which is cool, but he brought along a little stalker without noticin'."

'A certain C-word?' she inquired curiously, lifting her head and tilting it towards Pixie. 'Didn't know Artisan was so irresistable.' Amaya teased, giving Pixie a small prod.

"He wasn't the 'I wanna get in your pants' kinda stalker. He was the 'I'm gonna kill you in your sleep' kind." She shrugged, pulling an unconcerned face. "The dude asked me to join him. Apparently thought I'd be good at that sorta thing."

"Hey, help me kill your brother, yolo." she mocked, covering her mouth with her hand to conceal her laughter.

Pixie snorted, ducking her head as she attempted to hold back her amusement. "Yeah, that's about the gist of it."

'Why didn't you just punch him in the face or something?' she pointed to her throat quickly. 'Here would've been a perfect spot to make him shut up too.'

She shrugged. "Phoenix and Artisan were there, too, it wasn't really my place to call the shots. I'm no natural leader. I just kinda do my own thing, but Phoenix would've been annoyed if I had then."

'Annoyed for standing up for your family?' A frown neatly lined Amaya's forehead. 'The hell?'

"She likes knowin' the facts. She's a true Claw at heart, she likes to know the whys, whats, wheres, all that crap." Pixie shrugged, brushing it off.

'If there's a threat, destroy it.' Amaya answered logically, pressing a thumb to her chin. 'Ain't no questions about it...' She of course couldn't understand the necessity of understanding, only the need to survive.

"Oh, Nix knows that, course she does. But knowledge is a big thing for her, remember?" The way Pixie said it clearly meant she didn't approve.

Pixie hurried into the Hall, barely using the walking stick in her hand. New strength surged through her bad leg, strength that, by all rights, shouldn't even be there.

Damn Phoenix and her damn ideas and her damn trusting nature. One day, it was going to get them both killed.

She stood near the door and swept the Hall for her brothers (preferably not Crest; Lord knew he wouldn't be sympathetic).

Artemis strolled inside, trying to think of the best way to try and impersonate crouch to get information from the death eaters about H.

As soon as she spotted Artemis, Pixie pounced on him with surprising agility, hand latching onto his elbow. "Yo, bro, good to see you! Just the guy I've been lookin' for!"

Artemis fell over in surprise, "oh.. Hey pixie.. It's good to see you."

She released him only to hold out her hand to help him up. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you, dude." Pixie didn't seem worried in particular, just... slightly concerned.

"Thank you but... Why?" He asked as he was helped up.

"Alright, you know how me and Phoenix were gone for a while?" She raised her eyebrows, dropping his hand to lean on the staff, but the motion was more casual than needed. "It was 'cause she heard a rumour she wanted to check out. A real weird-ass one, but it's true and it helped, I guess."

He sat down, listening to her intently, maybe it was about H. "What kind of rumor?"

She sat opposite him, leaning forward conspiratorially. "It was about this dude, okay. He could work magic like nobody's business, fix your problems, that kinda thing. Well, you know Nix and Wolfy, and then I've got my messed up leg, so we thought we'd take a look.

"Turns out, this dude's legit. Only, there's a catch."

"I'm putting my money on entirety of servitude or a soul right?" He asked with a dry humor.

"Actually, no. It's all free of charge." Pixie looked surprised, and she'd been there. "Only thing was, it was some kind of ancient magic, that depends on movements of stars and planets and whatnot. What he could cook us up was active at full moon only - which, for Phoenix, isn't a bad thing at all."

She was clearly enjoying the storytelling, leaning forwards and gesturing with her hands. "So, we asked what he could do for us. He said that he could keep Phoenix from going rogue while she was a wolf, and that I'd get my leg back fine, until sunrise." Pixie inhaled another breath. "There's still another 'but' in here, by the way. And I don't think Nix knows about it yet."

"That being?"

"These spells have an expiry date." Pixie finally allowed herself to breathe again after all the talking. "And I dunno what's gonna happen when it runs out. Quite honestly, Artemis, I'm terrified. It's in us already, what if it screws things up royally with what it's changed?"

"Would you like me to investigate what happens?"