Hybridization

"Honestly, it was kinda freaky to see that happen in real time to someone else. It is one thing to be told about it but that was… unnatural." Val talking about Renee.

Kurt opened the door and let Renee and Jay inside. "Hey guys, come on in." Penny was already there, sitting in the living room with Val and Kristi. "The food should be ready in a few more minutes." He told them while Val got up to come greet them.

"Hey Renee, hi Jay. Can I offer you something to drink?" She asked. "We have beer, vodka, whiskey, wine… why are you staring at me like that?"

Renee couldn't take her eyes off Val's black furred ears, tail and feet. Since when did Val have those? And Kirsti had scales covering much of her exposed skin. "Yo-Your ears… I thought you were human." She ruffled her wings against each other out of nervousness.

"Renee, none of us are human or even one race in particular." Penny said while standing to walk over with Kristi. "All of us except for you and Jay are half breeds of one sort or another."

A sudden feeling that was halfway between revulsion and distrust started making its way into Renee's feelings as she took in this information. Objectively, she liked the people that were standing in the room but in light of this new information, she couldn't help but feel…

"And there it is." Jay said. He immediately summoned a trifold pamphlet out of his ring and handed it to the gargoyle. "Here, read this really quick. Don't ask questions, just read it from cover to cover."

Looking absolutely baffled, Renee began reading the small glossy booklet while standing right in the entry way while Jay moved off to join everyone else at the counter. Kurt switched from looking at his pot of chili to seeing how their merchant friend was progressing and was rewarded with a different facial expression every time. Jay just joined the girls and mixed himself a simple drink of aged rum and club soda to sip while he watched with everyone else.

After a few minutes, Renee shuddered and finally looked up to see everyone else staring at her. "Well… This is strange." She admitted after a couple false starts on what to say. She felt… violated wasn't the word but it wasn't far off. She now knew there was something deeply wrong but couldn't pin down the exact feeling.

"Oh, care to share?" Jay said and pulled out his notebook and a pen. "What is strange exactly?"

Renee considered for a moment, still not moving from her spot near the door. "Well, I liked you guys. You are all very nice, and I enjoyed working with you and getting to know you. Then I find out you are all half breeds and this sudden… I don't know, revulsion? A yucky feeling suddenly came over me. Then he makes me read this and now that feeling is gone but I still remember it but can't tell why."

"Hmm, very interesting." Jay commented while scribbling in his notebook.

"Yeah, interesting, sure." Kurt said while moving the pot to the counter and pulling his corn bread out of the oven. "More importantly, Renee, would you like to come in and join the rest of us?" He waved at the counter with drinks and the table that was set for dinner.

"Umm. Sure?"

Val saw her hesitation and tried to reassure her. "Don't worry, we don't blame you. It's something we have been meaning to address for a while now."

Once she had joined them at the table, Renee remembered that she still had Jay's pamphlet and went to hand it back to him. "No, you go ahead and keep it. It was a draft, and I wanted to be sure it would work before I ordered more to print." He explained.

"What does it say?" Kurt asked after filling a few bowls and passing them out.

"It is pretty much a summary of one of the divine accords that I found information about." Jay said while accepting his bowl and plopping the corn bread right in the middle of the chili. "While I was able to break the stigma with my support teams, it took a lot of verbal explanation to achieve."

"Like telling them that there was divine interference designed specifically for this?" Kristi once more had a speculative look on her face.

"Not really." Jay took a spoonful of food and hummed in satisfaction after taking a bite. "Hmm. Very good, Kurt. No, Kristi, it was more like I had to read the quotes from the books and ledgers I found that detail the matter."

"Then what is in the pamphlet?" Kristi was staring intently at the folded paper that Renee hadn't set down yet.

After she got a nod from Jay, Renee passed it around the table, starting with the curious dragoness. "It is actual quotes from those journals and ledgers. It's all been translated in exacting detail too." Jay filled them all in after they flipped through the sections. "This is the fourth version. I had a few failed attempts before I found how much info I needed to include. It turns out I had to translate more than just the words for it to make sense."

They chatted about how it was so strange a divine working like that was so easily broken but Jay reassured them that it wasn't that simple. He explained that their spells and grand workings were ones of scale. It would be hard to break this spell for a lot of people all at once as there was a certain amount of group think and mob rule that would resist the breaking of the stigma.

In any case, the pamphlet was part of a plan for Jay to spread the information, but have it consumed at an individual level. He figured that if he could spread the information widely and get a large enough part of a population to break out of the spell, then eventually it would dissipate on its own.

Jay suspected that there was a sort of threshold or limit on how many people needed to believe in the stigma for it to be actually effective. He also noted that there were a lot of exceptions to how it worked. Most humans didn't believe, likely due to them being the neutral base for many of the altered humans like vampires, undead, lycans and others. The effect also seemed to dissipate in some of the younger generations and be absolutely ineffective on some other races like jinn.

"While all this is fascinating, and something I am sure you will have us deal with in the future, shouldn't we get back to the task at hand?" Kurt asked. He found the topic interesting, albeit mildly infuriating, he also figured it wasn't his place to try and break down the workings of beings that he couldn't comprehend. Yet. Couldn't comprehend, yet. He had to remember that.

"Ahh, yes." Penny set down her glass of wine and pulled out her tablet. "Renee had a little altercation with the enchanter's guild the other day. In doing so, the guild has overreached and attempted to extend their authority a little too far."

Kurt grumbled as she turned the tablet to them and played the security camera footage. "It's like the East India company all over again." That got a few looks, but Jay was the one to back him up on his assessment.

"You aren't far off. They do have a significant amount of political and military power. Many of the places they operate defer to them as a pseudo government." The demon said. "Plus, there is a certain amount of 'might makes right' in some of these places. According to our other sources, they are also the prime suspect in several disappearances of young enchanters in several places."

"So, it's time for a little retribution?" Val offered.

"And some fact finding. This is latest development is our casus belli so to speak." Jay confirmed. "Penny, if you would?"

Penny stopped the recording and looked at her tablet and began listing some things off. "Renee has been selling your items for a while and has fended off the guild on several occasions when they sent someone to intimidate her…"

"Well, most were handled by my cousin. His usual MO is to threaten to take them of a ride over the railing if they don't leave." The Gargoyle cut in.

"Right, regardless, they have still sent people to try and intimidate you." Penny continued. "This time it was them waiting for you to be alone and trying to muscle you into a situation. They attempted to subvert the authority of the Order while doing so which is what gives us enough justification to counter them."

"And how do we proceed?" Kurt just wanted to know the plan going forward.

"Let's go back and visit that shop where the guy offered you a contract." Penny said. "He seemed rather interested in getting you to sign it. He was even more interested in you signing it with him."

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Kurt got up and went over to his junk drawer. "Oh, yeah, he gave me his card. Where did I put it." He rummaged around until he found the little stack of business cards he had gotten and found the one he was after. It was the third one in the stack, after his banker's and Frank's cards.

"Here we go. Hassan of the Order Stabilitas central outlet." Kurt read off the card and found it amusing that there wasn't anything else on it, no phone number or email info, just name and location. He handed the card to Penny, and she put it in a folder she had summoned from her ring.

"Great. So, what I think we need to do is bait him into letting you read through the contract, and we can see what is going on." Penny said.

Kristi shook her head. "No, we need to tempt them with more than a low-level employee. Especially after the bullshit they put Renee through." She looked to their gargoyle friend and got a warm, fang filled smile in return.

Penny frowned and began tapping on her tablet. "So, what do you suggest?"

"Well, they want to know about this supplier of Renee's, I say we leverage that. We can wait until we know they are watching-" Kristi began outlining her ideas but was once more interrupted.

"Just pick a day." Renee moaned. "They have people watching my shop all day, every day lately. Oh, sorry, keep going." She said when she realized that Kristi was still talking.

Kristi nodded. "Right, so we just go in, and be none too quiet about making a delivery. Then when they try to confront us, we play along just enough to get them to bring in someone important for us to bait into a trap."

Jay seemed rather taken with this new idea. "What kind of trap?"

"The same one they already tried." Kurt offered. "They will likely try to flex their authority on me, and I can play along just enough to make them dig their own graves."

"Then you swoop in and save the day, making it official and nice and legal for the Order." Val finished off.

Considering for a moment, Jay smiled once again. "I think this can work. Let's get together tomorrow for a strategy session and then we can cement our plan, backup plan, and so on."

He then stood up along with Penny. "We should get going now. I think I want to follow up with Rupert and see how he is settling into his new place."

Kurt and the girls saw him out the door and returned to Renee. "Staying around for a bit or headed back?" Val asked while Kurt and Kristi began to clean up after dinner.

"I think I will get going. I think I need to call it a night before I can't get to sleep from nerves." Renee answered. "Thank you for dinner and I will talk to you soon." She left to a chorus of 'By Renee' and 'Have a good night.'

Penny followed shortly after, saying that she would get back to them in the morning about the rest of their week. They had only gotten back to the house a few days ago and had been given some light duty to recover. Mostly it was paperwork for the girls and Kurt working on his enchanting.

Rupert and Tig had moved out the day before when Radis had found them a nice little house on a couple acres down in Georgia. The move was rather easy since they had the storage ring and they refused any offers to help them. They had both expressed their gratitude in housing them for the several days that it took to close on their new home.

"Well, that went better than I had expected." Val said while helping to dry some of the dishes. "I had no idea the stigma was so… invasive."

Kristi looked up from where she was putting leftovers into containers. "What did you expect? You have seen how your mother's clan treats hybrids like us when you lived there."

Val rolled her eyes. "Well, yeah, I know that, but it was strange to literally watch it happen real time. Like she didn't know we are hybrids and then she did and then she read the paper. It was weird to watch it all switch from one extreme to another in like two minutes."

Kurt was busy scrubbing at a burnt bit of corn bread in his pan while he answered. "Yeah, I agree it was strange. The only time I think I saw it not matter was with Alec and Na. So far, all the other para's I have met ha- oh fuck this."

Finally having enough of scrubbing, Kurt cast his cleaning spell, targeting the supposedly non-stick baking pan. The pan glowed for a moment before returning to its usual grey-brown color. "Hm, that's better. As I was saying, every other para I have met that knew about my lycanthropy has acted either disgusted or at least un-trusting."

Kristi seized on that information. "Have you met many other paras? I though you lived mostly among humans."

"After I got out, of the Army that is, I traveled around a bit." Kurt began while passing the pan to Val to dry off and put away. "I tried going to Verdant with my parents, but all the other elves there really didn't like me. Then I found a para community in Nevada but couldn't quite fit in and it was obvious I wasn't welcome."

"Almost makes me thankful that I lived among the humans when I was cast out." Kristi said with a heavy sigh. "They didn't really seem to care what I was, only that I helped out. But the few dwarves that lived out in those remote towns didn't care for me. I had thought it was because I was a dragon, but I now know better."

Val hung her towel up and leaned against the counter. "Speaking of dwarves, how is it you get along with Alec so well?"

Kurt shrugged. "Probably the whole familial bond that overrides the stigma."

"But you aren't related…" Val mused with a head tilt and an ear flick.

"No, not by blood but by arms." Kurt said, his smile going a little hard at the corners of his mouth at the reminder of some bitter memories. "We went through some shit together and I think that by the time he found out I was a hybrid, he didn't care anymore."

"More like he was to stubborn to let the stigma affect him after he took a liking to you." Val said and hopped over to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Come on, let's go watch a movie."

"Wait, I thought we were watching Red versus Blue?" Kristi interjected. She had been enjoying the series and its particular brand of comedy.

"Can we take a break on that one?" Val asked. "We can still do a comedy, but I think three days in a row is a little much for that show."

"Well, we can do another comedy if you want. Maybe some classics like one of the Mel brooks films or maybe something like an adventure movie?" Kurt offered.

They worked their way down to the basement and Kurt fired up computer while they browsed the files he had stored. Eventually it was decided that they would watch a heist film and picked one of the Ocean's movies. In the end, it didn't matter what movie it was, just as long as they watched it together.

*****

"Hello there."

"General Kenobi." Kurt replied reflexively only to see the wolf that represented his animalistic side tilt its head in confusion for a moment. "Never mind, it's a niche reference." He began walking toward the cave, expecting the wolf to follow along as usual.

The wolf stared for a moment before huffing slightly. "Be that as it may, we have things to discuss."

Kurt stopped a moment later when he noticed that his wolf hadn't moved, other than tracking him as he walked. Feeling slightly embarrassed, he turned back and once more approached his wolf. "So, this isn't another visit to learn?"

"Learn? Hmm, maybe we will learn something, but it will be from each other and not the murals." His wolf replied before sitting on its haunches. "I wanted us to talk about what happened at the compound."

Frowning, Kurt asked the first question that came to mind. "Why did you wait so long? It's been like, five days." He would have expected this talk to happen sooner than nearly a week after the event.

His wolf once again tilted its head and looked at him with a questioning look. "What?" Kurt asked, feeling like he was missing something.

"You know I don't summon you here, right? Other than when the Origin summoned you, it's all on your own."

Kurt, in fact, did not know that. "Then how do I come to this place?" He had always assumed he was summoned there at specific times.

"You come here on your own. When your mind is able and when your instincts push for it." His wolf answered.

Sitting down next to the giant wolf, Kurt thought about that for a few moments. He hadn't felt any conscious pull to commune with the wolf or even to study the murals in the past. But it wasn't uncommon for his latent instincts to alert him of things, and he had to admit that he was beginning to appreciate them a bit more.

He wondered if there was something in his subconscious that he wasn't quite aware of. That little thought led him to consider giving active meditation another try. He had learned it in the past from his father but never really found a use for it like most pure blood elves did.

"I can see that had raised some additional questions for you." The wolf said after he was silent for a few minutes. "What I wanted to talk about was when we merged after getting hit by that spell."

"Yeah, I remember." Kurt muttered. "It was a very strange feeling."

His wolf bobbed his head. "Indeed. It was also strange for me since that would normally be a time for me to seize control, but I didn't want to. I felt that there was more to be gained from working together and honoring our agreement."

Kurt snorted. "I appreciate that."

"It's true. Over these past few weeks, I have come to appreciate our shared existence." His wolf was staring intently at him, like it was trying to communicate without words. It felt like…

"It feels like a pack." Kurt realized. "When we accidentally brought the others in to join the hunt, it reminds me of that."

"Indeed. But it was definitely more controlled. Far less… savage than if we had all cut loose and gone feral. It feels like the old times, before the packs were broken."

"Is it magic?" Kurt suddenly asked. He remembered a few fictions he read that referenced 'pack magic'.

With a very lupine shrug, his wolf answered. "In a way, yes. But it's not like your magic, not actively controlled. It's a sort of passive magic, similar to the natural laws that protect the home or that bind family."

Kurt perked up at that. "That seems oddly similar to what Jay is working on. Ancient magics that override some of the newer spells, even those of the gods."

"Natural magics have a way about them. They can be manipulated but are also beyond control. They are well known but follow no rules. In a way, they are the epitome of 'that's just the way it is'." His wolf seemed to be well versed on the subject.

"How do you know this? I thought you were just a genetic memory that based itself off me?" Kurt was once more both curious and suspicious. This wasn't the first time his wolf had shown more knowledge than he thought possible.

Apparently, wolves could and would roll their eyes. "What part of genetic memory don't you understand? For a rather brilliant man, you can be an absolute idiot at times."

"Well excuse the fuck outa me." Kurt laughed. "Please, do elaborate oh great one."

The wolf seemed to smile at that. "That's more like it. I am a fragment of the Avatar and by extent the Origin. Everything that happened to our kind also happened to me in one way or another. But where they did things that humans normally do, I only watched. When I did things that werewolves do, they watched. It was a very give-take relationship where both halves only had a little input from each other."

"I see. So, you know of things but didn't necessarily do those things." That made sense to Kurt. It was how he had felt things were, him always driving when his wolf was in the background. "Then what happened the other night?"

"We merged. Well, we merged to a certain degree. I wouldn't call it a fifty-fifty split but there was definitely more of me than ever before." His wolf looked off into the trees. "It was how things used to be. Long ago, before the last hunt."

Kurt and his wolf sat in silence for a few moments before he finally spoke. "Well, since we are bringing back some other traditions, let's keep this one too."

His wolf startled at his words before its lips curled up, exposing its brilliant white teeth. "That is a deal."