13 The Prodigal Son Returns

Jesse was always one to do as he was told, it was his job, after all.

Was.

But now he had been dishonourably fired for doing the right thing, the irony was lost on him for that, but he didn't care much right now. Now he was on his own personal quest to find Tobias. He didn't care much for being told that he would find his own way back, he didn't believe he would, something was telling him to search for him, something told him he wasn't safe.

"Where would he go?" He asked himself as he walked the harsh streets, pulling his coat as close to his body as he could, but the cold air hit his face, his eyes watered from the wind blowing in his direction.

Being an Elemental would have been useful at times like this so he could his own personal fireball to keep his hands warm.

Then it hit him. "The pub." he mumbled to himself through frozen lips.

He trudged through the inch high snow filling the streets until he saw the welcoming amber glow of The Stone's Throw, and luckily for him it was still open.

he hiked into the bar, the warm air hit him immediately and he let out a rightful sigh of relief.

"Shut that damn door, will you? It's cold enough in here as it is." the bartender growled.

"Oh, yes." Jesse did as requested.

The bartender took a break from stocking up the fridges with beer bottles to face Jesse. "Oh, Jesse, it's just you."

"Just me." Jesse repeated.

"That desperate for a drink?" He grabbed a glass and filled it with ice, but was stopped by Jesse waving his hand.

"Not tonight, I doubt I could afford luxuries anymore."

"Didn't get a promotion?"

"I lost my job entirely."

The bartender gave a solemn look. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. You've clearly had a bad day, have one or two on me." He put the glass down and filled it with Jesse's favourite brand of Whiskey.

Jesse couldn't help but smile at his generosity and sat down to take a sip. "That's very kind of you."

The bartender winked and went back to filling the fridge with bottles. "So, if you didn't come here for a drink, what did you come here for?"

"I'm looking for someone."

"Aren't we all?"

Jesse set his drink down after the warming sensation of the Whiskey filled his throat. "That kid, Tobias. The Soothseeker, has he been here?"

"Oh, him? Yeah, he was around here causing trouble again."

"Do you know where he went?"

The bartender grunted when he pushed on his legs to help him stand up. "Your boss took him, well, ex-boss… Sorry."

Jesse's eyes widened. "What?"

"Not too long ago, the boy was up to no good and High Sage Booker took him to The Astoria."

Jesse jumped from his seat. "Did he know he's a Soothseeker?"

"Well, yes-"

But it was pointless finishing his sentence, Jesse had already ran out of the door in such a haste, he was almost a blur.

He had no idea what he was going to do, or how he was going to do it, but his gut instinct was right, he needed to get into The Astoria to get Tobias out, and quickly.

He tapped a sigil on the back of his hand, it glowed a dull pink once more, he opened the decrepit looking entrance door and silently entered the vestibule.

He ran through the corridor, luckily the sigil made sure his shoes hitting the floor didn't make a sound, though he was cautious to take a note of his surroundings to make sure he wasn't being watched or followed.

Once he reached the end of the corridor he checked Alisha's office first, as he thought, it was empty.

By process of elimination he wandered to Atlas' office and knelt down, peering through the keyhole, he couldn't see much, but he could make out a figure walking around, he pulled back for a moment and pressed his ear against the door so he could hear.

"Alisha! You had better answer your damn phone otherwise there will be Hell to pay!" Atlas growled down the phone to her, obviously leaving a message then hurling his phone at the wall once he left the voicemail.

"This is just an observation, but you have anger issues." Tobias couldn't help but be snarky.

"You shut up! You worthless excuse for a piece of human garbage!"

"You both ain't getting any use out of me so why not let me go?"

"Because," Atlas scolded. "you aren't to be trusted."

Tobias huffed. "That stereotype is so outdated, just like you."

Jesse winced at what sounded like flesh hitting flesh.

"Your smart mouth is only going to get you killed, boy." Atlas growled as he grabbed another pair of handcuffs from his desk drawer, he slung it on the radiator and snapped the other handcuff on Tobias' wrist before undoing the Binding handcuffs.

"There. You're no longer bound and just stuck there. Now, tell me what I want to know."

Tobias smirked. "Didn't you hear me the first time? My magic doesn't work the way you think it does. It doesn't work like yours."

Atlas threw his palm against the air, a smoked tendril conjured from his sleeve, struck out and smashed itself against Tobias' face, he howled in pain.

"You're right, my magic is useful."

"Then why are you keeping me here?" Tobias spat blood from his mouth onto the Navy carpet.

"I'll get those eyes of yours to work, even if they'll be working from a jar on my desk. Now, tell me how the future will play out. In our favour?"

Tobias sunk his head onto his chest and closed his eyes, slightly shaking his head.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Anything you'd like to share?"

"I could really use the bathroom."

"Not that, you idiot. Anything useful."

"Now that I've said it all I can think about is that I need to pee."

Jesse heard what sounded like a plastic bottle being thrown to the ground, followed by Atlas grumbling "Five minutes."

Jesse scrambled from his knees and dashed towards a nearby hallway, hoping that they would go to the kitchen area to make some tea like he hoped he would.

He was right, Atlas sauntered in the opposite direction and through a door leading to the kitchen.

He took a deep breath and ran back into Atlas' office before the door closed and saw Tobias attempting to unzip his jeans with one hand, he had a bright red mark across his face where he was obviously punched, as well as a bloody lip from the Necromancy tendril.

"Tobias." he whispered as he deactivated the sigil on his hand by tapping it again.

Tobias flinched and dropped the bottle, a smile grew on his face then faded. "It's not what it looks like."

"I know what happened. I'm here to get you out."

"I'm kind of stuck." Tobias jangled at the handcuffs.

Jesse nodded and looked around the desk. "Do you know where he put the keys?"

"In his pocket."

"Ah," Jesse sagged. "Then we have a problem."

"Don't you have a sigil to help me out?"

"I haven't made one that can break metal."

"Can you do it now?"

Jesse stared blankly at him. "Do you have any idea what it takes to create a sigil? No, I can't create one here and now."

"I'm not cutting my hand off, if that's what you're getting at."

"..."

"You were hoping I'd agree to cut my hand off, weren't you?"

"It was an option but now I feel awkward for suggesting it."

"What?!"

"Keep your voice down, we don't have long before he comes back."

Jesse looked around the room for anything that could help pry his hand out of the handcuffs, a crowbar, butter, anything, but the only thing surrounding him was mountains of books stacked around.

"You're not going to like this."

"Oh no."

"It's going to hurt."

"I'm not cutting my hand off."

"No, I can get your hand out but you'll have to break some bones to get it out."

Tobias watched him, trying to gather whether he was being serious or not "That's the only way you can think of?"

Jesse nodded. "The pipes are too large and sturdy to break off and the handcuffs aren't cheap flimsy ones that break after a bit of tugging, but you could slip your hand out if you broke a few bones."

"I really don't want to do this."

"He's losing his patience and getting angry. He's going to kill you if you don't get out of here."

Panic was clearly settling on Tobias' face, his olive skin now had a pale complexion. "Alright. Just make it quick."

Jesse dug into his pocket and pulled out a pencil, he put it in Tobias' mouth so he had something to bite down on instead of screaming. He tapped the sigil on his hand once more, when he saw the pink glow he held the handcuffs tightly and on the count of three he pulled hard at them.

Tobias chomped down on the pencil and pulled his hand in the opposite direction, his hand was beginning to burn as the metal tightened around, that's when they both heard a loud snap, followed by several cracking noises. Tobias chomped down on the pencil so hard it snapped in his mouth and screamed an ungodly noise.

Jesse kept pulling and the handcuffs "It's almost off, worst parts over. Hang in there."

Tobias looked to be in extreme pain, his face contorted into pure agony, but he nodded and with one big tug, yanked his now broken hand free from the handcuffs, he cradled it and swore under his breath.

He was free but neither of them were out of the woods yet, they still had the task of getting out without being seen.

Jesse led Tobias to the door, he hesitated for a moment. "Do you remember the way out of here?"

"Along the hall, take a left down the corridor and take the first door you see after the painting of the fat guy." Tobias hissed.

"Good. When I open the door you run. Do you understand?"

"Yeah."

Without warning Jesse swung the door open and shoved Tobias out to run ahead.

Jesse followed up closely behind him, they managed to take a left at the corridor, but they were met with a roar.

"I knew you were a traitor!"

Atlas.

They didn't look behind and kept running, as long as they could outrun Atlas they'd be fine, their legs were burning as they kept sprinting.

Suddenly the corridor began to fill with black smoke behind them, Atlas' tendrils snapped out and narrowly missed Tobias' back, hitting the wall instead and leaving a small crater where it struck.

Another tendril snapped out, and another, and another, but they kept running.

They almost reached the painting of a fat man in a suit with an awful hairpiece, they were so close.

A tendril whipped out and swiped Jesse's feet from under him, he hit the ground hard and bit his tongue, blood poured from his mouth, all he could taste was iron.

Tobias kept running and managed to reach the door and stormed out onto the streets.

Jesse scrambled to his feet and glanced back. Atlas was gaining speed.

He stroked his inner wrist for a moment then slapped the faint sigil on the palm of his hand.

It sent out a shockwave that could match a small bomb.

Atlas was thrown off his feet and onto his back, his magic weakened by the blast, unfortunately, so was the building.

The foundation began to shake and dust poured from the walls.

Jesse took the moment of confusion to pick himself up and run, he just kept running as fast as his feet could carry him.

He could feel the cold air against his skin, using the sigil had almost drained him completely of magic, he was weak but his adrenaline was pushing him to run.

He finally made it out, he didn't have time to look back, he could only run forward.

Tobias had waited in anticipation for Jesse, once he whizzed past him, the two of them ran back to the Circus.