“What do you mean, Dre? Are we just supposed to sit around for now?” Raphael asked, sitting on a stool behind the counter. Andre’s family ran the little occult shop near the French Market and he’s been helping out here ever since his dad got a sore back. Mr. McCarty still manned the store most days, saying something about refusing to stay bored and locked up in the house, but Andre would fill in on the other days to make sure his dad was able to rest.

“Guess so,” Andre sighed in frustration, dragging a rag across the counter before tossing it into some basket. “Basil said he's 'putting a pin' on the plans or whatever, so we’re staying here for now. I call that bullshit, but who the fuck knows.”

“Do you think it has something to do about what happened with the selkie and all?”

“I don’t know man, maybe? What else would it be? I was thinking of tracking him down later after I’m done here. I tried to meet up with him earlier but he had already left to go see Lady Amastacia,” Andre explained with a sigh.

“He goes there an awful lot, don’t you think?”

“Don’t be stupid Raphael, everyone knows how he’s always been close with that family. Plus, Basil wants to lead the coven one day. It’d be best to stay close to the current head.”

“I’m just saying it’s still kind of weird. I know Lady Amastacia’s the high priestess and all, but she’s not really leading anyone right now.”

“Hey, watch what you say about her,” Andre shot him a look and he held up a hand in surrender. "You want someone to hear you bad talking her?"

“I’m not saying nothing rude, I’m just saying if he wanted to get close to whoever’s in charge, he’d make nice with Mrs. Deschamps, wouldn’t he? Since she’s the one sort of taking charge and all.”

“I guess, but Basil knows what he’s doing. It’s best to not question and just stay on his good side, you know?” He said with a shrug.

“Yeah, I know,” he said, propping his foot up on a shelf behind the counter.

“Besides, plans’ll probably get back up and running pretty soon after the holidays. Basil isn’t one to sit still for too long, especially with how long he’s been wanting this.”

“Yeah,” Raph nodded. “You’re right.”

"We just gotta stay low for now and wait for him to let us know what's next. I don't know about you, but I'm gonna enjoy this break. I've still got a mark from that damn kid," he cursed, toying with his shirt collar. "Hell, we should just be happy Basil's found himself in a good mood lately."

"Seems like you were right about telling him about that kid for sure."

"Yeah, but I didn't think he'd react that well to the news," he muttered. "He should've been pissed still that we lost the skin, right? I mean, I'm not necessarily complaining but that's suspicious, don't you think?" Andre turned to Raphael as he questioned the details of what happened that night. Andre definitely had a point. Basil was posh and proper to anyone as long as it didn't mess with whatever business he had going on. Like the Amastacia's, he had old money and even though he didn't stand on board of the coven he was still well respected, albeit a little feared by some. The man craved power. Before that night, Raphael had never experienced what Basil could truly do. Sure, he had heard rumors here or there and Andre always warned him against them somehow messing up but he still didn’t know. There was never a moment that Raphael had felt so powerless, even as a witch. Not until that night.

***

"Well, I do hope you have an explanation for showing up empty handed." Basil stood tall and away from the two of them as he spoke. If he hadn't known better, he'd almost think he was more interested in watering his plants than why the two of them had failed to bring him back what he had asked for. The two of them stood in the opening to the Atrium as Basil cared for his plants, muttering something about the caretaker never giving them quite the amount of attention that they needed.

"We may have ran into a bit of a," Andre started to say but paused as Basil glanced over in their direction. He cleared his throat and adjusted his shirt collar. "We ran into a complication," he said finally and Raphael could tell that he was nervous. Hell, they both were.

"A complication," Basil repeated him, setting down his fancy little water mister and adjusting the sleeves of his dress shirt. They must have caught him as he was getting ready for bed because instead of being in its normal bun, his hair was loosely draped over his shoulders. He looked less put together than normal but that didn't make him any less intimidating.

"We lost the fish-" Andre started to say but Basil cut him off.

"Excuse me?" His voice was sharp and laced with disgust at the slur.

"I, uh, we lost the selkie," Andre corrected himself and Basil nodded for him to continue. "We traced her back to this town and found out that she went to the witches there for help. They were a bit stronger than we had thought," he explained. Basil hummed and finally turned to face them. He eyed them, his golden irises starting to glow in the dim lighting. Raphael felt himself freeze and his joints locked up as he looked him in the eyes. He sucked in a short breath when he realized he couldn't move. He could barely see Andre in his peripheral but knew he was stuck just as he was.

"What was the name of the town?"

"Safehaven," Raphael heard his own voice say but he wasn't the one controlling it.

"Who were these witches?"

"There were two of them: college students," Andre answered this time and Basil nearly barked out a laugh.

"You were bested by children?" Basil asked, looking almost impressed.

"The boy wasn't normal," Andre said. Basil raised an eyebrow, eyes glowing brighter as he motioned for him to continue and turned to a little table he had set out. He picked up a pair of gardening shears and started work on pruning one of his flowers as he waited. "He had your eyes," Andre finally said and Basil stopped what he was doing. Raphael immediately regained control of his body, his knees buckling as his weight settled.

"What did you say?" Basil's voice was low. He slowly turned his head and pinned his eyes on Andre.

"He had golden eyes, just like you."

***

“I think you’ve gotten all the information you’re gonna get from them here,” Jean’s voice chimed in her mind and Flora sighed, picking up a few things to purchase. The conversation between the men may have lasted all of ten minutes before it seemed like they weren’t going to get anything more useful. If anything, what she heard just filled her mind with more questions. She wanted answers that she didn’t know exactly how to get and she felt too invested already. At least she had some information, even if it was just their names and Basil.

“Alright, we’ll head out,” she thought back to him before grabbing Estelle’s attention and walking to the counter to check out. Flora threw a polite smile at them as she paid for her items before leaving with Estelle.

“I wonder what plan they were talking about,” Estelle said after they were outside. “Do you really think Mr. Everleigh is the one behind it all? Not to be a Devil’s Advocate, but he’s got standing already and he doesn’t seem like the type to be up to something like this?”

“I don’t know, honestly,” Flora said. “I mean, he’s got to be a part of something at least or they wouldn't have mentioned him."

"I guess so," Estelle said, folding her arms as they walked. "It was Kleo they were talking about, right? I mean, you said that one of them confronted him while the other was stalking you so I just assumed."

"Yeah, I think they were talking about him," Flora nodded, thinking back to what they said about telling Basil about the kid. "The real question is, why would Basil care to learn about Kleo?"

“Could be the same reason he spends so much time checking on Lady Amastacia,” Estelle pointed out and Flora just felt uneasy about the thought that came to her mind. “You know, I don’t mean to point out the obvious possibility but I think it could be a fair observation.”

“I know where you’re going with that, but stop,” Flora said firmly. It didn’t feel right to pry into the history of her friend, especially when he himself had no clue about any of it.

“Come on Flora, it would make sense,” Estelle insisted.

“I suppose it would, but we don’t have any proof,” she threw her hands up. “This isn’t some harmless riddle or puzzle we’re trying to solve here. What if we make this assumption and I tell Kleo and turns out, we were wrong?”

“But what if we were right?” Estelle stopped walking and pulled Flora towards a bench for them to sit. “Don’t you think your friend would want to know who their dad was?”

“I don’t know Estelle,” Flora answered honestly. “He’s already going through so much with figuring out his powers and just accepting the fact that his mom hid all of that from him for so long. I don’t want to add more to his plate just based off of a baseless assumption!”

“So are you just going to keep it to yourself then? I don’t see him taking it well if he finds out you hid something like that from him. I know I wouldn’t.” Estelle looked at her in disbelief and Flora just shook her head.

“If I come to know for sure that Basil is his dad, I’ll tell him then,”

“How do you plan to figure that out?” Estelle asked, voice sounding almost disappointed. Flora looked her in the eyes and opened her mouth to say something, but she didn’t know the answer.