ROOT: Awakening

"Elaine..."

"That's my name, don't wear it out." The elegant woman replied while maintaining her arrogant smirk.

For a brief moment, Evan tried to figure out how the woman was able to get the drop on them like this without them noticing. Even if she was wearing her mana suppressor, they should've sensed her well before they even entered the house. However, he immediately got his answer when his eyes locked onto the purple-haired woman standing next to his sister.

'Damn 'dark magic' users. I forgot that Michiko could conceal people's mana whenever she feels like it.'

"What are you doing here?" Elizabeth spoke up, the dark-skinned woman was now standing with her arms across her chest. To be honest, the 'earth magic' user wasn't in the mood for this. She was hoping to simply spend the rest of her day relaxing. But now, she was about to get wrapped up in whatever nonsense her sister was surely about to make them do.

"What?" Elaine tilted her head in fake confusion. "I can't just pay my darling brother and sister a visit when I'm in town?"

Before either of the twins could respond to that, the purple-haired woman stepped forward, quickly closing the distance between her and Evan.

"Well, well, well...look at you~!" The woman, Michiko, smiled as her eyes inspected the young 'wind magic' user's body from head to toe. "It's been what, a year since I last saw you? Man...look how big you've gotten."

'Oh god...' Evan tried to ignore the lustful gleam in the woman's eyes. Unfortunately for him, the youthful-looking woman placed her hand on his right arm and began running it up and down the musculature of his bicep and shoulder.

"You've certainly filled out quite a bit. I guess that I need to give Quinton his props. You used to be a total twink, and now you're kind of a hunk. Not bad. Not bad at all...."

'Gross.' Elizabeth tried to repress the urge to gag.

Elaine simply rolled her eyes. Not even the least bit surprised that her best friend was pulling a stunt like this. "Michiko, if you're going to lust after my brother, can you at least not do it right in front of me?"

"Sorry, sorry." The woman turned around and rubbed the back of her head. "I just couldn't help myself."

"Anyways, what are you doing in my house?" Evan directed his gaze back towards his sister.

"Your house?" Elaine said with a slight chuckle. "Last time I checked, Dad's name was still on the deed."

"And I pay all the bills here." The man retorted.

"Yet, you do almost none of the cleaning." Elizabeth shot back at her brother.

"Shut up!" Evan rolled his eyes before getting back on topic. "So, are you going to tell us what you want from us?"

"What makes you think that I want something from you?"

"Because every time you drop in on us like this, we end up wasting our time running around doing errands for you." Elizabeth countered.

Elaine conceded to her sister's point. "Well, you're not exactly wrong about that."

The woman then stood up from her seat, taking a moment to stretch out her limbs before making her way over to the fireplace. Despite her delicate facial features, Elaine MacNamara's body was anything but. The woman had a physique similar to that of a world-class track and field athlete. Slim, but well-toned.

"Anyways, let's get down to business. There are two reasons why I'm here."

"And those are?" Elizabeth inquired.

"First, I need Elizabeth to make me a new dress." The woman began to explain. "I'm doing an award show next month and I need something that will dazzle the crowd."

"And the second?" Evan asked.

"I also came here to tell you that you'll both be going to the big fundraiser next month. You know, the one that takes place every year. It'll be in Gastonia this year, and I can't make it."

"I'm sorry?" Elizabeth quirked an eyebrow. "Don't Mom and Dad usually send you since they can't be bothered to show up?"

Elaine nodded. "Yes, but due to a scheduling conflict, I won't be able to make it. The award show is that same weekend, and I don't feel like flying all the way across the country just to stand around and rub shoulders with a bunch of people that I've already met. Besides, you know how Grandpa always wants someone from our family to be there for the sake of appearances."

"Nope!" Evan immediately denied the woman's request. "Get someone else to do it!"

"Yeah, I don't want to go either!" Elizabeth backed up her brother.

"Too bad! To be honest, I was originally going to send Ethan, but he has a habit of disappearing whenever I'm looking for him. I even went to the station in Raleigh to tell him. But apparently, he's taken some time off from work. And he isn't answering his phone."

'Lazy bastard.' Evan and Elizabeth thought in unison. Leave it to their oldest cousin to strategically vanish just in time for them to get saddled with his responsibilities. How that man managed to become a Deputy Chief was a complete mystery to them, especially when you consider how notoriously lazy he was.

"Anyways, this isn't up for debate. I already asked Dad and he agreed with me. So, if you don't want to go, you'll have to take it up with him."

Evan couldn't help but drag his hand across his face. "You can't be serious..."

"Stop complaining." Elaine responded while rearranging a few of the pictures on a nearby shelf. Most of which were family photos of the three siblings, along with their parents. As well as some of them depicting their other family members. "Besides, it'll be good for you guys to get out there and meet some of the people that will be at the fundraiser. A lot of the people who attend are from the other big sorcerer families, plus some businessmen and politicians who know about sorcerer society. It's a good opportunity to get some much-needed networking done."

"More like a good opportunity for you to dump all of your extra work onto us."

"True." Elaine said with a grin. "Oh yeah, you're also going to be taking those four agents with you. What were their names again? Cyrus, Valerie, Maria, and Frederick? Even if Station Nine is already going to be pulling security for the event, Mom wants you to have extra protection just in case."

"And how exactly do you know about those four?" Evan asked while making no attempt to hide the suspicion in his tone.

Elaine pretended to look offended. "Oh, please, you two should know by now that you can't do anything without me finding out. Did you guys forget that I also used to be a DPA agent? It's not exactly hard for me to keep tabs on my old unit. Especially since Lucas's wife, Theo, and Robin are still there."

Evan and Elizabeth already knew that any further arguments would fall on deaf ears. It was pretty clear to the twins that there was nothing they could do to get themselves out of going to this event since their father had already given his approval. Besides, despite their displeasure at how this was playing out, they both knew how important it was for them to be there.

The annual fundraiser was where a lot of the big sorcerer families mingled and discussed the future of sorcerer society. Although it was never exactly a huge event, there was no shortage of notable personalities who showed up. And most of those personalities also had a lot of sway in how things were handled. Such as the DPA itself, sorcerer-related laws and regulations, cryptid trading, and a whole slew of other notable areas.

"Ugh...fine." Elizabeth finally said with no shortage of irritation in her tone. "It's not like we can get out of it anyway."

"We'll do it, but you owe us!" Evan declared as he pointed to his older sister. "I want something in return for doing this!"

Elaine laughed. "Oh? And what did you have in mind?"

Evan paused for a moment as he tried to come up with something. And after a few seconds, he finally came up with what he believed to be adequate compensation for his time. "Fifteen thousand dollars, for both of us."

"Done." Elaine accepted without missing a beat.

In the back of the room, the young man who hadn't said a word this entire conversation smiled. 'I'm surprised he didn't ask for more. Rich kids, I swear.'

With the negotiations now complete, Elaine decided that now was as good a time as ever to get started on the other reason why she came here.

"Anyways, let's get started on my new dress. I want to at least have the design done before I leave today."

"Aww...you're not going to spend the night?" Evan smirked jokingly. "You'll have to sleep on the couch, though. I'm in the process of turning your old room into an office."

"Why do that when I can just use your room instead?"

"Over my dead body."

That remark was met with a gust of wind being blasted in Evan's face. One strong enough to blow the previously mentioned pictures off the shelf and onto the floor. One thing of note was that Elaine easily created that gust without moving a muscle, a feat that Evan would have a hard time doing.

"Be a dear and pick those up, will you? We can't have this place looking like a pig sty."

"Fuck you!"

With that, Elaine and Elizabeth activated their mana and flew up to the top floor of the house, leaving Evan with his sister's two companions downstairs.

"I'm going to go get dinner for everyone." The young man said before unlocking his phone and looking up what restaurants were nearby. "Elaine said that she wanted Italian food, right?"

"She did." Michiko replied to the man, to which he nodded and began making his way to the door. "Oh Nick, can you grab me some sweet tea on the way back? You know the one I like, right? The big bottle with the pink and green label."

The man now identified as "Nick" gave the youthful-looking man a thumbs-up as he walked out the door. Thus, leaving Michiko and Evan alone in the living room.

Now that no one was around, the purple-haired woman gave the young 'wind magic' user a knowing smirk before getting close to him.

"So...since we still have a bit of time before dinner...you wanna head upstairs and, y'know...?" Michiko said as she wiggled her eyebrows in a very suggestive manner.

Evan would've been appalled by what the woman was saying if he hadn't already been expecting it. Even so, the fact that she would make such a brazen suggestion while his sister was present was no less shocking to him.

"You're disgusting." The man replied while putting some distance between the two of them.

An expression of fake shock quickly grew on the woman's face. "Whoa, whoa, what's with all that attitude? You weren't acting like that the last time we-"

"I was fourteen, and it was a mistake."

"Funny, most people don't make the same mistake on four separate occasions."

In Evan's defense, he didn't really have a good response to that. So, instead of playing the woman's childish game, he decided to just activate his mana and fly off. Unfortunately for him, the woman did the same thing.

"Alright, fine. Forget I said anything. But since I'm already here, I need you to help me with something."

"With what?"

"I'll tell you when we get to your room."

"Seriously?!"

"Not that, genius! I'm working on something for Elaine's next album, and I wanted to get some input since you know about all this high-tech stuff. But...since you obviously seem to have it on your mind, I guess we can also-"

"Go away, pedophile bait." Was the last thing Evan said before disappearing into the upper floors, only for Michiko to continue flying right behind him. A shit-eating grin plastered all over her face.

'Playing hard to get, huh?' The woman thought jokingly. 'Oh well, I have the rest of the night to bust his balls. No point in pissing him off before we've had anything to eat. Might as well save the rest of the fun for later.'

-(o)-

Character Profile: Elaine

Name: Elaine Irene MacNamara Paredes

Alias: Skye, Sky Queen, The Popstar

Gender: Female

Age: 29

Birthday: November 7th

Birthplace: Charlotte, NC, USA

Height: 69in

Weight: 140lbs

Hair: Black

Eyes: Green

Race: Black/White

Magic: Wind

Occupation: Singer, Actress, Songwriter, Model, Record Producer, DPA Agent (Former)

Stat Chart: S

-Physical Strength - 3.5

-Intelligence - 4.5

-Magic Amount - 5++

-Magical Control - 5+

-Magic Sensing - 5++

-Special - 5+

Fun Fact:

-National Rank: 2

-World Rank: 9

-Alma Mater: Queens University of Charlotte

-Current Bounty: $15.5 million

-Favorite food is fried shrimp