Clean Sweep Ch. 23 (DC Comics) (Patreon)

(Every character depicted in the story below is a consenting legal adult over the age of 18)

A/N: Magic lessons!

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Its funny how quickly one can settle into a new normal. A couple weeks ago, Cole had been struggling to make ends meet while keeping his head down and avoiding the wrong sorts of attention. He’d been absolutely terrified of the government finding out about his abilities and kidnapping him in order to run experiments on him in some light-forsaken laboratory somewhere.

Then, in the span of a few days, Cole had found himself saddled with a half-demon familiar, half a million dollars, a magical voyeuristic house, and a promised mentorship to THE Zatanna Zatara. His life had flipped upside down and everything had become topsy turvy in what felt like no time at all.

But now it had been another week since he’d had that conversation with Zatanna in his old apartment and everything was… settling down somewhat. That wasn’t to say anything had returned to normal, however. Rather, it was more like Cole found himself in an entirely new normal to get used to. But he was nothing if not adaptable.

Aside from finalizing the end of his old lease, Cole had spent most of this past week just sort of hanging out with Mystery and Raven. Yes, they had plenty of sex between the three of them, but there’d also been loads of other stuff. Like meals, and even just moments of relaxation, and of course Cole keeping up with cleaning Mystery’s insides.

… The latter of which always led to more sex since Mystery loved to ‘reward’ him for keeping her in tiptop shape. And of course, once Raven found out that he and Mystery were having sex again, she wanted to be involved too and could get rather pouty if she wasn’t included. Not that she’d ever outright say anything, but Cole could feel through their connection whenever she was displeased.

All of this was to say… the past week had been exactly what he needed to come to terms with how things were going to be from now on. And yet, much like Zatanna had said, Cole wasn’t going to be able to spend the rest of his life confined to the House of Mystery. He wanted to get out there and experience new things. He wanted to maybe use his magic to help people, like Zatanna did.

Of course, Cole didn’t think for a moment that he would ever be a member of the Justice League or anything like that. But he certainly wouldn’t turn down private lessons from a member of the Justice League, that was for sure!

And so here he was, stepping outside of Mystery for the first time in several days. Raven is beside him and both of them are keeping an eye out just in case a follower of Raven’s father is somehow lying in wait. But there’s no ambush… after all, that would require them to be able to track the House of Mystery, and Mystery assured him that would be a tall order.

Ironically, they’re stepping out of one magical house and walking across the street right to the gate of another. After all, it wasn’t like Zatanna Zatara was going to live somewhere mundane or normal. No sir! She’d invited Cole and Raven to attend to her at her family’s ancestral home… a place she’d called Shadowcrest.

Cole had to admit, the mystical mansion lived up to it’s name. Even though it’s bright and early in the middle of the morning, Shadowcrest still manages to give off a bit of a foreboding vibe up on its hill in the distance. Or maybe that’s just his own nerves talking.

Gulping said nerves down, Cole reaches the closed gate and makes his way to the box he sees off to the side. Pressing a button, he clears his throat.

“Uh… hello Ms. Zatara? It’s Cole… and Raven. We’re here for the lesson?”

There’s a long enough pause that Cole shoots Raven a concerned look, prompting the half-demon to just shrug as she blinks back at him owlishly. Not like she knows anymore than he does, after all.

Fortunately, before it can get any more awkward, a familiar breathless voice comes over the box.

“Cole! You’re early! Come in, come in! And do just call me Zatanna, please!”

Early? Cole glances at his watch. It shows they’re right on time, barely only five minutes early. When did she expect them to show up if not around now? Either way, the gate opens before them, allowing him and Raven to begin the long trek up Shadowcrest’s winding driveaway.

Only, Cole barely gets half a dozen steps before Raven’s shadow magic coalesces under his feet and lifts him off the ground. She begins to float as well as they hover forward. When he raises a brow at her, Raven just flushes.

“Apologies Master. I would have simply teleported us closer, but I can feel that the building ahead is warded against such things… the shadows of this place are not very friendly.”

Heh, fair enough. That was why they couldn’t just open a door from the House of Mystery into the depths of Shadowcrest either, apparently. The latter mystical mansion might not be as extradimensional as the House of Mystery, but Shadowcrest still moved around enough and was magical enough to clash with Mystery’s boundaries. Basically, they couldn’t get too entangled without damaging one another.

With Raven’s magic, they make good time up to the front door of the mansion. Cole is even more grateful for the shadow platforms Raven has created, especially when he sees that the long winding driveway turns into a long and winding staircase that seems like it goes up and up forever.

The whole place is definitely bigger than it’s supposed to be, that’s the impression Cole gets, but floating gets them to their destination all the same and he reaches out to use the door knocker… only for the door to swing open and a still-breathless Zatanna in full costume to be on the other side.

“You made it up those steps way too quick-!”

Her eyes dart down and she cuts herself off when she sees the shadow discs under his and Raven’s feet. Cole half-expects her to chastise them for abusing magic or something… but instead, she just slowly nods.

“Never mind. Using your familiar in such a manner… a clever way of conserving your strength to be sure. Well done, Cole.”

Cole flushes a bit at the praise, glancing to Raven… who despite not being directly addressed, is preening all the same. Still, he can’t just take all the credit. Hell, he doesn’t deserve any of the credit.

“It wasn’t my idea. Raven thought of it all on her own.”

Zatanna just shrugs.

“That’s even better. You should encourage that sort of initiative taking… so long as she doesn’t go off the reservation or anything.”

Then, as if remembering the previous misunderstanding and how she almost attacked Raven for being a demon, Zatanna shoots the other woman an apologetic glance.

“Not that I’m saying you will of course, Raven.”

But Raven just smiles serenely.

“It is fine. As my Master, Cole will order me as he must. My actions today were guided by a belief that he would have commanded me to ease our travel to your abode if he were not distracted by more important matters.”

Cole doesn’t groan… but it’s a near thing. Raven calling him ‘Master’ was still something he was getting used to and he was admittedly a little bit nervous about how Zatanna would react to it. But… she just smiles brightly and nods.

“Good! That’s what I’m talking about Cole. You’re blessed to have an intelligent familiar like Raven here, honestly. She can more readily anticipate your needs and act on your behalf. So long as the two of you are firmly in sync, of course!”

In the end, Cole can’t think of what to say to that so he just nods. After a moment of awkward silence, Zatanna claps her gloved hands together.

“Alright, come along you two, come along. I have everything prepared, don’t think I don’t. I’ve been hard at work and I think you’ll enjoy this lesson quite a lot! Though… I also hope you don’t mind that we’re starting with the basics.”

Cole is quick to shake his head at that.

“I don’t mind that one bit. Everything I’ve done so far has been completely by instinct. It’d be nice to know some of the basics about magic and all that stuff…”

Zatanna perks up and has all the more pep in her step as she leads them deeper into her family home. Cole tries not to stare too much at her ass as they walk. Or her legs in general. Eyes up and forward… though it’s rather unfair she dresses like that even in semi-private company like this…

Eventually they arrive at their destination… a little classroom complete with desks and a chalkboard of all things. He sits down and Raven takes a seat beside him while Zatanna moves to the board and whirls around to look at them, her hands planting on her hips.

“Right then… let’s start from the beginning.”

What follows is actually a pretty interesting lesson, Cole has to admit. Zatanna starts by going into the details of how some people get their magic. Some are born with it, others are granted power by mystical entities, both good and evil, and still more find ways to grasp at power for better or worse.

Raven gets her magic from a mixture of two sources. There’s her half-demon heritage of course, but the magic she truly relies upon the most was something she trained in all her life in the dimension of Azarath at the feet of her mother and other mystics.

Zatanna, meanwhile, has more in common with Raven than Cole had first thought. She’s actually a half-breed herself… specifically, she’s half-human but also half something called a ‘Homo Magi’ by way of her father.

Homo Magi, to hear Zatanna tell it, are effectively a separate but parallel line of evolution. They’d come into being alongside Homo Sapiens and continued to exist all this time. It was interesting… and it begged the question.

“What am I then? Am I a Homo Magi as well?”

Pausing in the midst of her lesson, Zatanna tilts her head to the side as she considers Cole for a long moment.

“Well… there’s only one way to find out. May I?”

Correctly deducing from the hand she’s waving in his direction that Zatanna wants to cast some sort of spell on him. Shrugging, he gives her the go ahead with a simple nod. Cole trusts her after all… he wouldn’t be here in her place of power if he didn’t.

“Laever sih egatireh!”

Cole watches as Zatanna’s magic swirls around him for a moment, trying to find purchase. He blinks when it almost seems to slide off and he can see both the concentration and consternation on her face as her brow furrows and her nose wrinkles. Despite being older than him, she looks rather cute when she’s frustrated…

“Hm…”

Shaking his head clear of such thoughts, Cole arches a brow.

“Is there a problem?”

“My magic… its running into a bit of a wall. Hold on, let me try again.”

“Laever siht s’eno egatireh!”

She definitely puts more power into it this time, focusing all of her considerable might. Cole can tell because there’s a single bead of sweat on Zatanna’s forehead as she pants a bit. Until finally, she pulls back again.

“Alright… I was able to glean something at least. You’re definitely Homo Magi, Cole. Full-blooded Homo Magi in fact.”

Cole’s eyes widen. Really? He had never gotten any inclination that his mother or father were magical, deadbeats that they were. In fact, if either of them had magic, he’s confident they wouldn’t have been the way they were… no, they would have been worse.

So to find out he’s ‘pure’ Homo Magi when even someone like Zatanna is only half is… a little strange to him. Not nearly as strange as how difficult it was for her to be able to read that much in the first place.

“There’s more too, but I can’t quite see it. Your magic is resisting mine…”

Cole grimaces at that but before he can apologize, Zatanna holds up a hand and cuts him off.

“Don’t apologize, it’s not your fault. You’re essentially self-trained… one of the things I’ll eventually teach you is how to properly control your magic and even restrain it so that you don’t fight harmless spells like this one, but that’s still far in the future. Until then, you can’t blame yourself for this… it just means you’re an exceptionally powerful magus.”

Raven nods from the side.

“Master is the most powerful. This is only reasonable.”

Cole flushes and rolls his eyes, feeling a little embarrassed by all of the praise. Frankly, unearned praise at that. He’s just about to ask if they can get back to the lesson when a male voice suddenly rings out through the mansion.

“Zataaaanna! Where are you? You know this place is a damn maze for me!”

Immediately, Zatanna goes pale and curses under her breath.

“Constantine… shit!”

Cole just furrows his brow, a little confused. Why would anyone have access to Shadowcrest if Zatanna didn’t want them here?

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A/N: Remember to Vote, leave a Like, and let me know what you think!

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Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_zAFyX4t6VrlKO759WFe4vpwBJZMF9WX1hdCN_IKOUk/edit?tab=t.0