[center][hr][img]https://txt-dynamic.static.1001fonts.net/txt/b3RmLjcyLjg2OGQ4OC5SWHB5WVNCV1lXNWlkWEpsYmcsLC4w/artefak-typeface.clean-typeface.png[/img]	[img]https://i.imgur.com/LrnVXzD.png?1[/img][hr][/center]

[color=darkgray]“No, no, tell the officer that won’t be necessary. It wasn’t James' way and it won’t be mine.”[/color]

Ezra heard the front door unlatched and quickly darted around the side of the house, careful not to pass by the windows of the dining room, as a trail of cigarette smoke followed behind him before quickly dissipating. As far as he knew, he’d kept his little habit secret from the family all of these years and he wasn’t about to be outed now just because they were all hovering around him like a bunch of blood-sucking mosquitoes. He poked his head around the side to see it hadn’t been one of his siblings coming for some inane request or storming out of the meeting in a huff, but Leonidas who had opened the door. He sighed and returned to his phone call, the voice on the other end asking him a question.

 [color=darkgray]“Yeah, not the first time it’s happened, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Look, I’m in a meeting right now. Have her wait at [i]Café, Oh Yay[/i] and I’ll take care of it as soon as I can. Oh, do me a favor and give Cherry a heads up. Let her know that I’ll cover whatever the girl wants. Thanks, Arnie. No, you did the right thing. I got to go.”[/color]

Ezra leaned his head back against a pillar and took a long drag. Well, today had just got even more complicated and he hadn’t even had lunch yet. He took a moment to collect his thoughts. He wasn’t in the slightest bit dressed for the chill December air but enjoyed the momentary escape from the family nevertheless. His keys were in his pocket. He could just hop in his Civic and leave...and go where? The moment he was out of Araminta he’d start looking like that statue of the WWII soldier that James had commissioned. He had tested it, naturally, after his family started reporting their strange condition. It was real, and until it was fixed he was stuck.

Ezra shivered. It was time to rejoin the siblings. He turned to walk back around the house when an alarming sight immediately had him twist back around the side of the house, the cigarette dropping out of his hand and dying on the icy grass. A chill ran down his spine. His eyes must’ve played a trick on him, because he swore he’d just seen Leonidas open the front gate for the two kids that his family was having a meeting with. He poked his head around the corner. They were dressed differently, but there was no question that it was the same two people. He didn’t know what it meant, but he had a sinking feeling in his stomach—he didn’t need supernatural experience to know that sudden doppelgangers was never a good thing.  

As the doubles went for the front door, Ezra popped a mint into his mouth and headed towards the side entrance. It was used primarily by the kitchen staff when they had dinner parties to bring in supplies or by James to escort out whatever mistress he was hiding from his then-wife. Now, it was being used by Ezra to sneak into his own house because a pair of teenagers had thoroughly startled him. He walked over to a knife block, slid a chef’s knife out of its cradle, and slowly turned his head towards the cough that came from behind him. The actual chef, whose actual knife that was, gave Ezra a confused look as he stood over the stove where he had been portioning a finely crafted bisque.

[color=darkgray]“Smells wonderful. Sadly, lunch will have to be delayed. Oscar’s guest won’t be with us long,”[/color] said Ezra, pulling the knife the rest of the way out of the block with an audible [i]shink[/i]. [color=darkgray]“Clean up and take the rest of the day for yourself.”[/color] 

Before the cook could give any protests or questions Ezra was out of the kitchen. There was an orange glow around his wrist as the broken wire puzzle/makeshift bracelet twisted and melded itself back together as Ezra cast a Configure spell. In a matter of seconds the knife in his hand, that also radiated the same orange light, shrunk down to about two inches. He hid it in the palm of his hand, careful not to cut his flesh with the still sharp blade, as he turned down the hallway. He could now hear the raised voices coming from the dining hall, followed by what sounded like a wave smacking the shore. 

Ezra doubled his pace, rounding the corner and stepping into the dining room. His family appeared to have been knocked to the sides of the room and their clothes were soaked; the fire Ezra had so ever lovingly brought back to life had also been murdered by the tidal wave. The original teen couple shifted forms. The girl clapped her hands, ripping open a purple tear in reality next to herself as Alexander lashed out at her with green chains that he seemed to simply materialize from nowhere. It momentarily caught Ezra off guard, the seemingly unflappable man’s jaw going slack for a moment, before he pulled himself back together. Ezra slid the tiny blade forward and cast Configure again to increase its size, simultaneously flourishing his hand out to the side as the weapon quickly grew from the about the length of a toothpick to a chef knife shaped longsword. 

[color=darkgray]“Okay, I believe this meeting is over,”[/color] he said with a calm air of authority and a withering stare at the four intruders. He lifted the blade. It was already at its maximum size, but they didn’t know that. Ezra kept channeling a Configure spell, increasing and decreasing the size of the weapon by such a small fraction it was unnoticeable. It gave the oversized chef’s knife the bonus of constantly glowing a radiant orange light, Ezra’s attempt to bluff the home intruders into thinking that the blade was more dangerous in his hands than it really was. [color=darkgray]”Get out of my house.”[/color]