Isolde sat listening to Hamish in rapt attention.. The fire crackled, shooting sparks as a log broke in half, settling into the flames. As he spoke of the easiest methods of assassination, her ears perked up. She leaned forward, intrigued. All else disappeared from her sphere of noticing.<br/><br/>“A blade coated with a drug or poison can speed things along.”  He said and these words seemed to echo in her head. Isolde was quickly sorting through her knowledge in her Book of Shadows and missed something Hamish said, but when he trailed off, she paid closer attention to his next words.<br/><br/>“Poisons are not as useful for the actual killing part but they can paralyze a person, put them out of commission. But a blade to the right area is the surest way.” He went on to describe bullet wounds and sniper bullets. Isolde shivered as she thought of the losing battle to save the young Italian officer.<br/>Isolde found that she couldn’t quite remember all the details of that last day at the clinic. Once again, she missed some of what Hamish was saying until she heard,<br/><br/>“With Darcy, I’m not certain we would want to risk the lowest decimal of a percentage to miss the kill.”<br/>This time Isolde honed in on his explanation for making bombs and how to fill them full of toxins. She filed this information away until a later time. She had an idea but would want to think about it before running it by Hamish.<br/><br/>“I know very little of your cousin. What can you tell me of her? What do her powers allow her to do? Anything you can think of can be helpful here.” Hamish asked, as Chaya came forward to fill her cup with hot fragrant tea.<br/>Isolde smiled at the young girl. What trauma she’s seen to cling to Hamish as she does. The adoration for him shone through her eyes although he didn’t quite seem to see it.<br/>“Thank you, Chaya, for all that you do for me and all that I seem to remember of you while I was ill. You have a gentle, healing touch. When this war is over…. Well, I believe there will be goodness and mercy arising in your life.” Isolde said, with a soft touch to the back of the young woman’s hand. She smiled at Chaya, a bright, sincere smile that elicited a response that lit the girl’s entire face. Her sweet face pinked at the compliment as she simply moved back to the shadows close to Hamish.<br/><br/>“My cousin,” Isolde remarked thoughtfully, taking a careful sip of the bitter hot brew. She blew across the top of the liquid to cool it down. The delicate China had radiated heat to her hands while she held it under her face. “ My cousin, the Ice Queen, what can I tell you of her? We are of a powerful line of witches, both of us immortal, meaning, we can die but will be reborn with all of our power and memories intact. We were raised and schooled to practice benign magik, only to be used to protect the innocent. That means, our spells would hold no personal gain and we wouldn’t harm anyone. Hamish, our powers are those that will rival and often conquer demons so there is always the temptation to align ourselves with darkness.<br/>Somewhere along our long line of lives, I fall in love with demons for the sake of love and Darcy began to be seduced by power. More and more she used her magik for personal gain. She used people and discarded them like soiled tissues if they could advance her to her goal. One of the biggest deterrents to using magik wrongfully is the law of retribution. The evil will visit us with a three fold curse. In Darcy’s case, her soul has become blacker, until the point that she wants all the power that Hell has to offer. With arrogance like that, she thinks she can bring down Heaven and Hell.”<br/><br/>Isolde shook her head and sipped her tea.<br/><br/>“Her arrogance is her downfall and we can use that to our advantage. What you said about a blade and poison must be our plan of action against her. There can be no risk that she will survive. She can heal herself, most wounds anyway. She must be decapitated and her body burned separately from her head or else the magik in her bones would fuse back into one and like a phoenix she would be reborn. In my Book are some potions that could coat the blade that would stop her. If we could break into the clinic, there are many of the ingredients that could be used to create the highest level of toxicity through these potions, especially with a spell to strengthen their effects.<br/>Oh, and the blade that must kill her has to be of iron and blessed by an ancient shaman.”<br/><br/>Hamish’s face went serious at this news.<br/><br/>“But I have such a blade with my Book of Shadows. It is in the drawer by the bed. It is an atheme that I use for ritual and spell casting. Never in my life did I think that holy iron would be used to shed blood but it will stop Darcy. We just have to get close enough to her for that. I can get close enough to her. In her arrogance she will want to brag of her conquests, to seduce you and to persuade me. Once in position, then I will kill her myself. Her insanity must be stopped. Hamish, there is an epidemics of people who are alive yet seem to be without freewill. In the documentation at the clinic, this is being referred to as the Zombie syndrome, for the subjects are like walking dead. You and I know that zombies are things of folklore. I have examined these people and I’m telling you, this is the work of Darcy’s dark magik. She is amassing an army that will make Hitler’s Third Reich look like a preschool class.”<br/>Isolde had become passionate and the afghan had fallen from her legs. When the cooler air from the room washed over her, she smiled and settled back in the chair.<br/><br/>"First things, first. The book and the knife and then I will regain my strength. You can train me to work closely with you so that when the day of battle with Darcy arrives, I will have all the skills necessary to vanquish her."