Tommyinnit's Tome Of Magic

Chapter 14 - Baking a cake

Tommy awoke with a sharp gasp, he looked around and realized a man was standing over him. He had a hand pressed against the wound and with a single movement the injury stitched itself together again.

He was back in Time's building, his head throbbed with pain, the man over him allowed him to sit up and placed a hand on Tommy's forehead. A warm feeling ran through him and the pain became alleviated.

"Good to see you awake" the other man said he wore a mask over his face that covered everything but his eyes. Bits of red, black, and yellow mixed into its color.

Tommy scanned the room, it was one he had yet to see, he was sure this was Time and Stag's home by the photos on the wall. There was one particular one that lined the wall of the room.

Karl was there and stood beside a man taller than he was, a ravenette with dark blue eyes. They stood in some mansion, positioned in a dancing pose. As if the photo was taken mid-dance. But by who? Callahan?

The brunette's hair was just as fluffy as usual, he wore his hoodie that he often saw hanging on the wall. Except it looked different instead of a purple base there was a deep seafoam green instead.

The swirl in the middle was no longer a light blue-green instead it was medium purple. The hood stayed pretty much the same, really it became a bit more vibrant. The sleeves remained the same purple and yellow, and cyan and red.

He knew it was Karl because most pictures were of him and other people. In this picture he wore a beautiful purple mask that lined the face curved out and up.

The man with him had a white mask that covered half his face, it matched his shirt and contrasted his black shoes. At the bottom of the picture was a small love note. It was addressed to "James my beloved" he read aloud.

Ponk had already left the room since his job was done for the time being. "He was my first lover," Karl said from behind him. Tommy turned with a smile, he was dressed in his full patterned swirl coat and fancy shirt, pants, and boots.

He sighed slowly, "it was a masquerade party made to be a trap, i was the only one to survive the incident" he said gazing longingly at the two in the frame. He said survive a little weirdly but if he did it might've been a mess up in his tone.

Karl sighed again and gestured for Tommy to follow him out of the room. He stayed for a moment longer reading the final sentence. The paper looked very old, maybe older than Karl actually was. It was dirty and worn and some of the ink had rubbed off.

It was still readable but old. 'We shall meet again in another life.' it sent a shiver up his spine.  What was Karl hiding? Why had he said survived weird? Who really was the guy in the picture? And why in the name of the gods is that paper so old?

When he stepped outside he realized why they never had his mask removed, three villains sat in the main room. When Thanatos saw him he shrugged. "He looks fine to me, can we go now?" he asked Zephyrus who was now frowning at him.

The older man ignored him, not bothering to give a reply as he turned to Tommy. "What happened?" he asked worriedly.

But before Tommy could reply, Time handed him Stag's file. "This happened. There's one for everyone but you three, which I find highly intriguing". Zephyrus took and opened the file with his two companions looking over his shoulder like nosy kids.

Icarus got bored and walked over to a  basket of fake fruits. He picked one up and went to eat it. "Icarus, those are fake" Tommy remarked, the villain shoved it back into the basket and leaned back like nothing happened.

"I knew that," he laughed awkwardly. Time turned to Tommy, "if you're hungry you can take Icarus to the kitchen to cook something" he smiled. The two talked amongst themselves about the issue. Thanatos gave good input into it as well.