Welcome to my Home (Richard & Rebecca)

[Akirapryde]

Welcome to my Home (Richard & Rebecca)
Welcome to my Home
Rebecca Room in the Hollow

The flames of the fireplace as well as those on the candles slowly rose and fell as the sound of breathing set their rhythm. The large French doors were wide open allowing the sounds of nature to engulf the room. Rebecca set on the floor in the center of her living room with her eyes closed. She set in a cross leg position as she focused on her breathing and tried to push the demons that fueled her rage to those dark places in her mind (Meditation Roll: Wits + Composure + Sounds of Nature (2) + Her Wooden Cross (1) = 2 Successes). She set there perfectly still as her mind wondered around her room. She didn’t open her eyes as she allowed her mage sight to see for her. She had become so comfortable seeing through her mage sights.

She had finally managed to get her room fully decorated the way she wanted it. She loved the way the space finally looked. The high vaulted ceiling and high windows allowed plenty of light to fill all three rooms in her living space. Her kitchen was fully stocked with all that she needed for those nights that Simon decides that dinner should just be pie or cake. It had taken her much of the past week, but she had managed to get all of her new furniture and appliances in to her living space. But what she loved the most was the large chandelier that hung over the main entry way. The crystals filled the room with so many different colors.

With all of the flare and flash of her living space, she added a heavy touch of country western to remind her of her Texas roots. It wasn’t easy for her to make this blend together. It took her a while and several trips before she had the best possible blend of her roots and the representation of her fame. There were times that she nearly went mad trying to make the images of her mind become a reality. Thanks to her attention to details and drive for perfection, she was able to finally take the images in her mind and create her living space. In the end, she reached that perfect balance between the two.

As she found balance in her room, she was trying to reach that very balance in her heart and mind. This was so much harder for her than it was to bring balance to her room. She had taken Richard’s comments to heart that she was out of balance. And she knew where the causes of this lack of balance dwelled. There was so much of her past woven throughout her anger. Her heart raced as she thought of the events of last week. So much had transpired since last week and this was her first time to actually sit back and think about all that had happened.

There was the rare opportunity for her Cabal to take out that other Cabal through a single highly coordinated magic attack. Rebecca learned a powerful and well deserved lesson from that attack. The plan was well set up, but Simon jumped the gun and acted before anyone could support his actions. Because of his rush, the enemy Cabal was able to counter his attack without Rebecca being able to do anything about it. Their well created plan fall apart in that moment. Rebecca had been able to explode the Van and Richard and Kira were valiant in their efforts to kill the enemy Cabal’s Time mage. However she, the Time Mage, survived. Because they were unable to kill the Time Mage, the enemy Cabal was able to slip from their sights. ‘Timing’ Rebecca thought softly as she remembered the details of that failed attack.

While the attempt failed, this failure led to a surprising meeting with the Consilium. It appeared that the other Cabal had gone to them to level a complaint against her Cabal for the near successful take down. The idea was almost laughable as a smile slowly crossed Rebecca’s lips. Her mind pondered the how a Cabal during conflict could run to the Consilium because they got the crap beaten out of them. However at the Consilium Rebecca learned another valuable lesson about herself. She hated the idea of letting control go to someone else. ‘No not just anyone one, but a guy,’ she thought. She couldn’t completely explain the reasoning why, but the idea of Richard having so much control over her made her skin crawl.

Of course it didn’t help that she was truly outraged over what was going on. Those mages had sent a psychopath after her Cabal which led to the events in Denver. Sure she had her own hand in that nasty mess, but they had set Meatball upon her and her Cabal. Then they hired Vampires to steal Simon’s phone which had led to another exchange that turned near deadly. She knew that they did. Lastly, they had sent one of their own in to her home. This guy nearly killed her and now he was dead. Rebecca paused on that for a moment. While she couldn’t stand the idea of Richard being her leader, she wouldn’t deny that he was growing on her. ‘Like a large weed’ she playfully thought maintaining her smile.

She couldn’t imagine someone hurting Richard or Simon for that matter. They were quickly becoming like family for her. She was raised with one core principle, Order above Family. She was starting to understand why this was so important. Richard and Simon put their lives in her hands each day, just like she put her life in Kira’s hands. If someone were to murder either of them, Rebecca would stop at nothing to get revenge. ‘Was this other Cabal so different that the idea of revenge was out of the question,’ she pondered as she continued to meditate.

One of their own was dead and she had pulled the trigger that killed him. ‘Why wouldn’t they be after revenge,’ she questioned herself. They might have the Consilium fooled, but they didn’t fool her.

Rebecca drew in a deep breath as the flames grew higher and burned brighter. Rebecca allowed her magic to hold its influence over the flames as she felt its heat on her skin. She could hear the fire around her burning. The logs in her fire place were being consumed by the fire as the candles cheered on the consumption. However Rebecca was learning that fire unto itself was not simply destruction. Thanks to her time with Simon, she learned that fire was much more than just destruction. Fire was energy.

It had a life force unto itself and desired to spread and live on. Thanks to Simon, she was able to learn about fire spirits. She learned how fire was alive. It breathes, it grows. She already knew how fire could easily spread and grow if not kept in check. She understood that its desires were to grow and spread. To spread and consume everything in its path. However it was not doing this out of malice intent. When she was hungry, she would make something to eat. This was no different for fire. She paused on that thought as her mind pondered how it must feel to be so hungry that no amount of fuel could end the hunger. She felt an almost connection with the flames around her as she listened to the cracking of the logs in the fire.

Richard had spent the morning thinking about his cabal’s latest encounter with the vampires. Rebecca had once again found herself on death’s doorstep and that had him seriously concerned. His cabal was already was already at a disadvantage because they did not know who their enemies were when the same could not be said for those working against them. Richard decided his friends needed a quick way to escape a dangerous situation quickly. He had ready about teleportation in the past but did not know if it was something he was strong enough to accomplish yet. It took him over an hour but he finally managed to teleport himself a few inches and then a few feet. When he was confident that he had the principal idea down he went looking for Rebecca. He had not seen her for a while so he knocked on her door. As he waited he wondered if they would be able to work together to create an artifact that would allow each member of the cabal to teleport themselves back home in an emergency. No answer. Richard knocks again.

Rebecca was lost in her own mind as she felt the flames around her. There was a sound that wasn’t originating from nature or the flames around her, but Rebecca didn’t pay the sound any mind as she continued to focus on the origins of her current rage. As she set there, she drew in a deep breath causing the flames to slowly grow with her breath. She felt the cleansing warmth of the flames draw closer as they grow around her. Without warning she heard that sound again, ‘it's a knock’ her conscious whispered into the shadows of her subconscious mind. “Yes” Rebecca said softly as she returned from her meditative state. “Please come in” she added a few moments later.

Rebecca rose up from her place in the middle of the floor as she kept her eyes closed. Through her mage sight she saw Richard walking in to her room. Rebecca turned to face him, “please remove your shoes” she said showing her clean white socks. Rebecca stood in the center of her white marble floor with a smile on her. Behind her, a pair of large French doors were open wide allowing the sounds of nature to flood into the room. A fire burned in the fireplace with Rebecca’s bedroom seen through the fireplace. Her kitchen was in perfect order just like the rest of the living space. “Welcome to my home,” she said pleasantly.

Richard took of his shoes and looked around. This was impressive. Richard had always preferred the city and ask the comforts that came with it. New ideas popped into his head for things he could do to his own room. As he removed his shoes he realized the floor was hated. That's crazy executive, he thought. He smiled just the same and wondered about doing the same thing to the rest of the house. "How did you do all this?" he asked.

Rebecca smiled as she walked over to greet her house guest, “well remember when the house said it could make any room however we wanted it with enough raw material” she said as she walked towards the breakfast bar that separated the kitchen and the living room. The three stoles that were lined up in a perfect line next to the breakfast bar each matched with the decor of the entire space. She laid a hand on the breakfast bar as she cornered the end of the bar and walked into the kitchen. “Well I drove to Lowe’s and bought a few hundred dollars’ worth raw material and designed the space you see now.“ she said motioning to a sketchbook on the breakfast bar near the wall. Resting neatly at the end of the counter/breakfast bar near the wall was her sketchbook with a black charcoal pencil resting on top.

As walked over to the refrigerator she continued, “The furniture came afterward. But the best part is the heated water and floors. I did some late night studying researching how the Romans used heated water in their own bath houses. Once I had a working design I talked with the house and again got the raw material from Lowe’s for the house to make it.” She paused at the refrigerator and turned to lean up against it. With a broad smile on her face she explained “Everything you see is powered by the earth not by magic. I designed a Binary Cycle Plant. This allowed me to both make power for my space as well as bring in hot water to heat it. I can control the temperature through those valves” she said pointing to the six knobs on the wall next to the fireplace. By reversing the flow of the water, I can even cool my space during the summer.” she walked over to the kitchen side of her breakfast bar and pulled the sketch book towards her. She flipped through the pages till she found her drawing of the power system she motioned for him to take a look.

The drawing wasn’t a work of art and a number of places where she made corrections could be seen. However the drawing was pretty clever using roman area technology to create this system. “Originally when I wanted to create this system it was for a non-magical heated hot tub. And it grew from there to what I have now. The power generation came when I realized that I didn’t need to use the power of the house to power my space. I had all this extra energy from the geothermal source and I thought why not take the load off the house and use what I have here.” It was clear that she was very proud of what she and the house created. She left the book for him to look at as she returned to the refrigerator.

“None of this was possible without Kira” she explained as she opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of orange juice. As she walked over to one of the cabinets she smiled, “can I offer you some?” Then almost as an afterthought she cut herself off, “oh I almost forgot” she said pulling out a simple little bluetooth device from her pocket. “Kira and I made two of these. This was really the key of the whole thing. It allows us to have conversations with the house without having to cast two spells each time. We made two, one for her and myself” Rebecca explained as she pulled out a pair of glasses from the cabinet.