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[color=c4df9b]"Now that I think of it, I have reason to believe that I'm the one that consumed the stash of narcotics that day... Mmm. Makes perfect sense,"[/color] said Alexander.

[color=darkgray]“Just don’t let Shane hear that. He might narc you out,”[/color] said Ezra. [i]Or use them all,[/i] thought Ezra as his slight smile became pained as he turned away. Unlike Ezra and his cigarettes, Shane barely even bothered to hide his drinking anymore. It wasn’t a big stretch to think that the former supercop turned shut-in was attached to a few more vices. 

[color=MediumOrchid]”Artifacts?”[/color] He heard Tuyen say from beside him, bringing his attention away from blitzed beagles and back to the matter-at-hand. [color=MediumOrchid]“There’s a chance that one of those might be magical, and what they’re looking for. I would appreciate it if you took me there.”[/color]

[color=CE6857] "The Irish girl used the secret passage. It'll behoove us to do the same, since the witches and their dogs went in the direction of the gallery,"[/color] said Georgie before Ezra had a chance to respond. He gave her a slightly disparaging headshake, although less because she boiled their half-sister Aileen down to just being “the Irish girl” and more because she said the phrase “secret passage”. It was obviously just a service hallway, designed to allow servants to easily move throughout the house to perform their duties without interrupting the family or any of their guests, and was a totally normal thing for people to have in their home. Still, it was the best way to go to avoid any unwanted confrontation. 

[color=darkgray]“Georgie’s right. One moment,”[/color] said Ezra as he walked over to where he had embedded the knife in the wall and pulled it out of the singed plaster. He reapproached Tuyen and gestured to the door with his hand, the bracelet hanging from his wrist glowing orange as he started to channel a spell. [color=darkgray]“After you.”[/color] 

He had walked only a few feet after Tuyen before he fully considered what Georgie had said. Ezra stopped and turned sharply on his heels, holding out a hand to stop his younger sibling who was surely following them. The knife in his other hand began to glow orange as he warned her, [color=darkgray]“If you’re going to come with, stay back and stay out of her way.”[/color]

Ezra followed Tuyen through the passageway, keeping quiet except to tell her to go straight at the split as he finished transforming the simple kitchen knife into a Masterpiece. As their expert stepped out into the hallway near the study, Ezra remained with his back against the wall of the secret passage, his head turned ever so slightly so he could keep Tuyen in his periphery while staying mostly hidden. 

The girl seemed to have a cool confidence to her as she whipped a notebook at a hellhound and called out to the four hooded figures. Ezra had seen her use her shadow to deck one of the doggies earlier, so he knew that she wasn’t all talk, but Tuyen was still heavily outnumbered. Maybe she was more powerful than she had come off as, or maybe she was just cocky. Either way, Ezra felt his stomach sink at the thought of just watching her get piled on by a bunch of meddling home invaders and their stupid dog, too. He touched his chest as a wave of orange travelled through his channeler, up his fingers, and into his chest as he cast Prodigy on himself again and became the perfect knife thrower.

[color=darkgray]“I’d told them to get out,”[/color] he muttered to himself. With one fluid motion he turned out of the secret passage and whipped the knife down the hallway. The blade flew perfectly straight, as if he had been practicing chucking kitchen knives his whole life, and buzzed straight past Tuyen towards the cultist who was distracted with rubbing their head. Unless there some interference, he was certain it would hit them right in the chest. Ezra didn’t wait to see if the strike landed as he slid back into the secret passage and listened for a scream, hoping that an unseen assailant taking one of them out would force the others to reconsider taking on the lone Tuyen—or at least weaken the strength of the pack pitted against her.