This job has so far gone - not great, to be honest, but what else is new there? One of the most distrubing things is actually how well it has gone, how easy Sefton's found it. It's the longest operation he's been UCO on for a long time, and he worries if he should be worried about how easily he's dived into the world.
Costain has been out for weeks - one of those chance misfortunes when a minor mistake happened to coincide with someone looking the wrong way at the wrong time, and suddenly he had to pull out completely. Kevin had been lucky - and Tony had been nearly heroic in the sacrifice - that his own cover wasn't blown. He'd kept his head down, neither avoiding nor blowing up the fall-out, and then he actually found his in, and the job continued on.
("It's your job now, Kev," Costain had finally said when they could make contact again. "You say when to call it.")
So now he was First UC - he was the only UC - on a dangerous mission to bring down one of the most powerful OCGs around. But he knows he's also the only UC in the entire force with the skills required to do so, so he didn't call it even when there was a voice inside him telling him to get out now!.
His team were relying on him. And he knew he might be getting in too deep, but he keeps telling himself he just needs to go a little bit deeper. Especially when he realised how much Zhao was relying on the power his familiar was giving him - when he realised he just needed to break the tie with that cat and he could shift everything.
The opportunity finally arrives on a day that Zhao has decided to fill with meetings with other magical OCGs - other covens as they call themselves, that he wants to keep Kevin away from.
Sometimes he does bring his apprentice along to negotiations - not as an apprentice, but as the menacing soldier that Kevin's getting better at pretending to be. But when the meetings are with other witches, Zhao liked to be on his own with his familiar, keeping his apprentice out of view; to keep the illusion that all the power in this particular organisation came from Zhao himself.
So with an entire day distracted, Zhao's trusted apprentice has had the run of the workshop to himself, and after a long day making the appropriate preparations, Kevin retired to his own quarter.
The ritual is intense. Painful and dangerous in ways that Kevin has been trying to hold back from. But magic requires sacrifice, and he's alwayys known the only way t face a witch is to embrace the power for himself. So he goes all in - blood and sweat and other bodily fluids - until his mind is spent and his body spent, and even the chanting is painful in his mouth and throat.
...until he can feel the pull, and he realises it's working.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2023-10-15 09:45 am (UTC)Costain has been out for weeks - one of those chance misfortunes when a minor mistake happened to coincide with someone looking the wrong way at the wrong time, and suddenly he had to pull out completely. Kevin had been lucky - and Tony had been nearly heroic in the sacrifice - that his own cover wasn't blown. He'd kept his head down, neither avoiding nor blowing up the fall-out, and then he actually found his in, and the job continued on.
("It's your job now, Kev," Costain had finally said when they could make contact again. "You say when to call it.")
So now he was First UC - he was the only UC - on a dangerous mission to bring down one of the most powerful OCGs around. But he knows he's also the only UC in the entire force with the skills required to do so, so he didn't call it even when there was a voice inside him telling him to get out now!.
His team were relying on him. And he knew he might be getting in too deep, but he keeps telling himself he just needs to go a little bit deeper. Especially when he realised how much Zhao was relying on the power his familiar was giving him - when he realised he just needed to break the tie with that cat and he could shift everything.
The opportunity finally arrives on a day that Zhao has decided to fill with meetings with other magical OCGs - other covens as they call themselves, that he wants to keep Kevin away from.
Sometimes he does bring his apprentice along to negotiations - not as an apprentice, but as the menacing soldier that Kevin's getting better at pretending to be. But when the meetings are with other witches, Zhao liked to be on his own with his familiar, keeping his apprentice out of view; to keep the illusion that all the power in this particular organisation came from Zhao himself.
So with an entire day distracted, Zhao's trusted apprentice has had the run of the workshop to himself, and after a long day making the appropriate preparations, Kevin retired to his own quarter.
The ritual is intense. Painful and dangerous in ways that Kevin has been trying to hold back from. But magic requires sacrifice, and he's alwayys known the only way t face a witch is to embrace the power for himself. So he goes all in - blood and sweat and other bodily fluids - until his mind is spent and his body spent, and even the chanting is painful in his mouth and throat.
...until he can feel the pull, and he realises it's working.