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Story Summery

This continues the story of Lelend Le Noir, or as she now goes by Selina L. Schmidt for personal protection from the past. The magical world had gone public and now a new major segregation of races has started to occur between, The Upper Magical Class, The Lower Magical Class and the normal human. While the human's that are magical act as the negotiators between the groups. In the mist of this Sosuke and Lelend had a falling out, and many other changes had occurred in 40+ years. Moving from New York City to Boston after her career in law starts to pick up and starts a firm with Edward Hane and Kaiden Knight. But Harvey Payne has had his own sticky situation and after a strange occurrences of losses of jobs for different circumstances, he lands at the rather developed and eccentric firm Hane, Knight and Schmidt looking for a job. People change over time but some friendships can never be lost.

Readables:

Excert From Arc 4: The Rebirth
Case 79, Part 3: To The Future

There were six at the table. It was always six, this posse. Not one couple alone, not the two "best friends" couples one always sees going out to dinner, but three couples, each pairing plainly visible to anyone looking.

The first couple was so obvious as to be pathetically adorable, the aging but not yet old couple that looked like a pair of newlyweds, Kaiden Knight and Bree Vitelli. The second pair was obvious in the way they gazed at each other, but seemed suited oddly; that was Jarvis Niola and Azdrea Akila, an apparent pairing of the high school solo weirdo and the pretty girl everyone liked.

The third was even more blatant than the other two, for it was the couple that had obviously been married for years – had it really only been two months since the wedding? If Harvey Payne and Selina Schmidt – they were out of the office at the moment, so perhaps that should have been Selina and Harvey Schmidt – didn't possess the shocking twinness, psychic ability, and sentence-completion factor of any couple married for twenty years, no couple did.

Champagne was being poured around the table, a bottle of Taittinger, at Harvey's insistence, for life was too short to drink bad champagne. "Happy Valentine's Day, everyone" he pronounced, raising his glass to all five seated with him. "And the doctor's going to give me an ultrasound first thing in the morning."

"Hear, hear." That was from Kaiden, with acknowledging murmurs around the seats. "Good luck, Lina."

"Thanks, Kaiden. I'm looking forward to it. A certain amount of vomiting is amusing, but there has to be a limit. So I think I might have a baby on the way."

"Excuse me," a voice cut in timidly. That was Jarvis. Azdrea was working overtime at helping him break through the shell he'd built around his lycanthropy. "I think another toast's in order." He stood up. "To Knight, Schmidt, Payne – the three best names on any door in Boston."

"Eight more weeks," Selina sighed as Jarvis sat. "And I hope Natalia and her overlords don't let the door slam on their asses when Chong Sandberg finally get moved out of the building." She rose, glass in hand. "To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mist, and may each and every one of us always give the devil his due."

"A bit morbid, don't you think?" Bree asked.

"Not really." Selina slid back into his seat. "It's not my line to begin with – it's stolen from one of the greatest authors of the last century. It's fitting. Six of us from Haine, Knight and Schmidt here, another dozen or so also out the door, more bailing from the remains of it every couple of days, and Akain, Defour being pitched out of our offices –"

"And our roof and elevator," Harvey added.

"And our roof and elevator. Let us not forget the roof and elevator. Absent friends – a fitting description of Natalia, I'm afraid. I'm not sure any of us are likely to see her again anywhere except across the aisle in court."

"Or the devil," Kaiden added. "To give her, her due, she made Knight, Schmidt and Payne possible. And probably helped speed up two weddings."

"And got us together," Azdrea added, reaching to squeeze Jarvis's hand. He blushed, as everyone around him pretended not to notice.

Selina spoke, ostensibly to her water glass. "Absent friends, lost loves… Natalia might fit there, too."

Bree turned to look at her husband. "You and Natalia?" She raised an eyebrow.

Azdrea shook her head, dark violet hair glistening in candlelight. "God, no, Bree. It's just an old thing in the old firm. Natalia had an affair with someone in the office back when. I don't think her husband ever knew."

Harvey turned his head to look at Selina, whose eyes were staring at an unfixed mark in the distance. Harvey knew how to read Selina, and recognized that nonetheless, Selina was paying strict attention to what Kaiden said.

It was merely confirmation of something Selina had always suspected. There'd had to be a reason for Natalia's visceral hatred of Harvay from their first meeting, and nothing explained that better than meeting your ex-lover's sister newest, and far younger, lover. In their case, newer, far younger, and with competing legal skills. Natalia had loathed Selina's taking Harvey under her wing, her obvious grooming of him as the "new" face of the firm. It probably galled Natalia no end that Harvey had taken Selina's name socially; it merely solidified the connection to Harvey to Selina's career as well as her fortune.

Azdrea continued. "It broke up some time around when I came on board." She was looking at Selina now, and Selina returned her glance. Azdrea could be subtle, and Selina had long known that she realized she could read her. So Kaiden's falling for Azdrea had broken him up with Natalia, had it? That was no surprise, either. "Old story, Bree. Just some old memories Kaiden, Selina and I have."

Kaiden nodded. "Even some old age can't make some things get out of your head."

"If anyone ever wrote the history of Haine, Knight and Schmidt,"Bree asked, "would it be a comedy or would it be a documentary version of 'Peyton Place'?"

"'Peyton Place' was a documentary novel," Selina told him. "It's about a couple of thinly disguised real towns in New Hampshire. And Haine, Knight and Schmidt probably held a lid on more scandals than that book and the sequel thrown together. If you add in our school years, I think we could have beat down those Beverly Hills, 90210 brats."

"And the TV series. Both of them. " Kaiden spoke firmly. "All water under the bridge now. Even Natalia. New firm ahead of us. New lives. New series. It's all good."

The waiter came to their table with a tray of appetizers that began circulating. Selina ruminated for a moment before choosing something that resembled chicken livers wrapped with bacon. It was something he hadn't seen since his childhood, but then, everything old did become new again. He took a few more items – were those fried won ton? – and passed the platter to Carl.

The restaurant was becoming somewhat more crowded as couples of various ages began taking up smaller tables, and as the unattached in flocks began occupying tables for four and looking about for something or someone to do for Valentine's Day. Selina had been among those groups once – as a young couple with one of her past husbands, and as part of various on-the-town groups during law school. She could have had a private dinner with Harvey, but somewhere between Thanksgiving and Natalia's announcement of the firm's buyout, the six senior members of Haine, Knight and Schmidt's litigation division had simply clicked as a group. It was strange to realize that she had not only a best friend and some colleagues, but a husband and two couples who were very close friends. It wasn't how she had envisioned her life even three months before, but it was undoubtedly satisfying, amazingly so.

And despite the words in Harvey's proposal, the sex had been anything but lousy. There had been those undisclosed, somewhat fumbling, prior occasions between them, of course, but now Harvey had proven himself to be much more accomplished in bed with Selina than he had seemed to be in the past. Perhaps the fact of their marriage had something to do with it, or else the fact that Natalia was no longer a looming and unacknowledged part of Harveys life. The self-proclaimed Alliumphobia with all manner of issues had turned out to be the most satisfactory lover Selina had experienced, and she'd had better than minimal experience throughout her life. Apparently marriage really did change you.

"Hello, Kaiden, Harvey. Selina." Speaking of giving the devil his due, or just of the devil, there was no mistaking that gratingly emphatic accent.

"Natalia." Natalia Defour was there, in a somewhat more stylish, less Brooks Brothers, suit than Selina had ever seen him wear before. The tie and pocket square were less flamboyant than Harvery's but Selina could tell that they were equally expensive and probably from Hermes. With him was a much younger man; much younger, in fact, than Selina. Selina blinked again. Oh, God, no, it wasn't…"

"Selina, I believe you remember Norman Wilson. He was the ADA at Harvey's trial. One of our new senior associates at Defour, Sandburg. Perhaps not quite your equal yet as a litigator, but he seems to have a flair for business litigation. Once he finishes his courses in Mandarin, we have high hopes for him helping me with our Asian market partners."

Kaiden, Harvey and Jarvis eyed Wilson with barely-concealed contempt. Azdrea reserved her death-glare for Natalia. Selina was more magnanimous though certainly no less sarcastic than ever. "I'm sure Mr. Wilson will be quite a decorative addition to your newly relocating offices. Do enjoy mentoring him in everything you know better than he does, whatever that is. Mr. Wilson, Nat can be quite charming. Just don't let her bite you when she goes down… to your office."

"Selina Schmidt," Natalia hissed indignantly. The Natalia Defour hiss didn't have half the power it once had seemed to.

Norman Wilson. Newer, younger, and not nearly as legally talented as Selina Schmidt. Or as Harvey. And something told Selina that Nat had helped Wilson set Harvey up at the solicitation trial. He'd spit things out to the jury about Selina and Harvey that only someone from Haine, Knight and Schmidt should have known. Revenge was going to taste even better than dinner.

"That's Selina Payne, have the ring and everything Nat, and I'll take your dulcet tones as the obvious congratulations they must be for my having married Harvery. I believe I cleared out my belongings too quickly for you to congratulate me at the time, but as soon as your office has finished its move I'll be hauling them back where they belong and you can leave my wedding presents at my desk. We registered with Tiffany's. A tip, Mr. Wilson – just because you're sleeping with a senior partner doesn't guarantee your safety at a law firm. Nat kept trying to prove that to me repeatedly before we evicted you. If you can't outsmart them, you won't ******** them. And I don't think you're the sort Nat marries. She likes hers more Back Bay and more closely shaved – in fact, the only beards Nat likes are the ones she marries."

"How dare you –"

"Very easily, Nat. Check the names going up when the janitors pull yours down from the office when you leave. Happy Valentine's Day."

Natalia and her companion walked off indignantly as Selina returned her attention to the rest of his table. "Sorry about that, everyone. My bad."

Jarvis chuckled. "Your name's on the door, not mine. Nice job, I must say."

"Admirable," Azdrea proclaimed.

"That's why I married you," Harvey told him. "What you can do with that mouth will never cease to amaze me."

Selina's lips parted, but words failed to materialize. When her brain realigned, she managed, "Thank you for that stirring endorsement, Harvey. Ladies and gentlemen, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."

"To the future, everyones successful weddings, my pregency test tomorrow, and Harvey who has never lost a trial." Selina's husband nodded triumphantly to everyone at the table.

"Once again," Kaiden sighed, "to Knight, Schmidt, and Payne as well. And possibly to our absent friends remaining absent."

"Lost loves," Harvey replied. "Don't need 'em, don't want to find 'em."

Selina slid her hand over to Harvey's. "I think we can all drink to that."

And the remainder of the table chorused, "Hear, hear."

Hm, sounds interesting.
And big =O
Two worlds kind of collide, the human and the magic world, that won't be easy.
Won't the humans start feeling like they're 'incompetent' or something because most of them can't use magic?

Pages? *wink wink*

Me wants to read biggrin

Good luck then.

And I don't live in the US, and I really hate guns xD

Hmmm just my attempts of writing out something out here......don't mind me


Arc A: The Lost Come Home
In a world where things are never what they appear but the general population continues to live life never knowing of what lives beyond the world. Knight, Haine and Schmidt at one point had been the world's most renounced legal firm the world had ever seen, but after a series of falters. The great empire crumbles down to a single small firm located to a single double occupancy building in the heart of Boston. The other occupancy being a small secret government organization that deals with the paranormal and extraterritorial under the guise of a tourist office. When Selina Schmidt starts to unlock the lost memories from her past by coming across the team solving a mysterious murder case.
Arc B: The Downfall of DESI 42
The Original DESI based out in Las Vegas has started to show suspicious signs of change and not change for the good. When revealing heavily advanced technology to the public which starts being the revolutionary cure for essentially everything. But when Jack McCoy gets called down to the home base in Nevada, and comes back a woman. Needless to say they start to get suspicious. When DESI: Boston gets itself involved they come to find something they never expected to be at the souce: Their own organization. But worse yet Harvey has gone missing without a trace.
Arc C: The Voyage To Universes Starts and End
When Harvey's returned back to Boston, his team isn't exactly going to welcome him back with open arms. Harvey and four others from his team and the office travel off to the end of the universe. When they return Selina's latest fiance turns out to not who he seems to be, in better terms an intergalactic criminal wizard who has now has his subtle hands onto taking over the entire world.
Arc D: Outlaws
When Harvey and his group return they come back to a world in shambles of what it used to be and worse yet, their on the world's most wanted.
Arc E: Count Down to The End
Arc F: The End is The Start of New Tomorrow
Arc G: The Resurgence