No update for story this weekend. I’ve been sick and between work and a class I’ve been taking, I’ve spent most of my time in bed.
The next chapter will be as scheduled 2/18.
Tag: serial fiction
47. Interlude
Jennifer languished in the warm water of the gym’s shower, allowing it to wash over her. It was relaxing to simply exist, without thinking or obsessing over everything she didn’t know. Her workout had been enjoyable – she was now spending a little over two hours at the gym each night. She felt stronger than she had in years, especially for a woman her age.
As she stepped out of the shower, she could hear her phone vibrating in her gym bag. She forced herself to have patience, drying herself and dressing before looking at the device. Several missed calls and text messages, all from her team. For a moment, it brought her immediately back to that first day – when she had stepped out of her morning shower and found so many missed messages and calls about Cassandra’s flight. The similarity of the situation sent a shiver down her spine. She pulled up a website immediately, checking to see the most recent videos from the Stream.
She watched the battle with the fire giant closely, awed at the power on display. Cassandra seemed to focus mostly on a supporting role, healing fallen companions. Cassandra had rarely liked taking the lead on things, even as a child. She watched the battle end suddenly with the young girl from their world falling into a trance and communing with the giant, which she identified afterward as the fire god. And then the truly shocking moment – Lexie, looking directly into whatever was capturing the video feed, saying, “What the fuck is that?” She pointed, acknowledging for the first time that there was something there- something physically present where they were.
She had seen what was recording them.
The office was in turmoil over the events, but Jennifer didn’t call a meeting immediately, much to their shock. “It’s the middle of the night,” she told the staff that anxiously greeted her as she returned to the office. “And even if it is a new development, there’s still nothing we can do but watch. Let the others sleep for now, and we’ll discuss this at the morning meeting.”
Despite that, Terry arrived minutes later, carrying two mugs of coffee. He set one on the desk for Jennifer – black and sweet, just the way she liked it. Leaning against the wall, he rubbed a hand through his short hair. Jennifer took a sip of the coffee he had brought her, and raised an eyebrow at him. “Did you just wake up?”
“Yeah,” he said. It seemed he was about to say more, but then he shook his head and took a long pull from his own cup. “I’m surprised you’re not treating this as more of an emergency. I thought you’d want all hands on deck.” She smirked at him and he groaned and took a very long drink from his own cup, nearly emptying it. “I could be sleeping.”
She traced the rim of her mug with a fingertip, glancing at the Stream on her desktop monitor. “I think I’m just happy that there is something that is physically there and recording. Or at least confirmation of it.” She paused for a moment and added. “But even with that confirmation, I already know we won’t be able to do anything.” Terry frowned but said nothing. With a sigh, Jennifer sat back and took a sip of her coffee again. “I don’t think we’ll be the ones to figure this out. We’re going to need luck, or a miracle, or an intervention.”
She had been right in her assessment, and the team didn’t make headway at all. All they could do was watch. There was a lot of excitement about the Stream when those that were being watched attempted to mess with the recording devices. “Scry balls,” Vincent called them one day.
“Scry balls?” Jennifer asked. She had seen them called the same thing on the internet, but wasn’t sure where the term came from.
Vincent nodded. “In the game Dungeons and Dragons, there is a spell called Scry that allows you to spy on someone from a distance. It’s kind of like that…” Jennifer shrugged. It was as good a name as any for the mysterious objects.
When Cassandra caused the cave in, Jennifer found herself screaming at the monitor in frustration at her daughter’s stupidity. Her yelling was so loud that poor Larry jumped up from his sleep instantly, growling, his head swiveling to look for danger. Startled at the uncharacteristically aggressive sound coming from the old dog, Jennifer immediately made soothing noises, and seeing no immediate danger, he hesitantly wagged his tail and whined. She sat down next to him, petting him, hardly able to watch the events unfolding in the Stream.
When the door to her office burst open, she didn’t look up immediately. She flushed, wondering if she had really screamed that loudly, wondering what she had been yelling. Or if maybe someone had come with news about what was happening in the Stream, something she had missed in those critical moments following the cave in… she felt something in her chest clench in panic for a moment as she wondered if Cassandra had died. “Ma’am?” a voice said hesitantly from the doorway.
She looked up to see Vincent, his eyes wide, his face pale. It did not calm her at all. “What is it?” she asked, her voice deceptively steady.
“There’s a…” Vincent paused. His mouth worked for a moment, as though he were confused about what to say next. Finally, he settled on, “We have a visitor.”
Jennifer frowned. “A visitor?” she asked, confused. “Who is it?”
“It’s best if you come see for yourself.” Jennifer stood and followed Vincent down the hall. They made their way to the entrance of the building. Before she fully stepped out of the hall, she could spot a few members of her team, standing tensely with their guns drawn. She wondered what kind of visitor merited this reaction, and her head swiveled to see what they were staring at and…
She blinked, and took a half step back. Her hand reached absently for a gun she never wore anymore, and she had to stop herself and force her fingers to clench into a fist.
It wasn’t human.
As Jennifer stepped into sight, it seemed to unfold, or perhaps to stand straighter, raising itself to its full height – easily three or four feet taller than the average man. All the guns aimed at it lifted, trained on its head. It lifted four arms into the air, palms out.
Something of the appearance reminded Jennifer of an insect like a praying mantis – it was long and lithe and had too many limbs. The arms it lifted didn’t seem to be much differentiated from the legs it stood on – spindly limbs at the end of which were small, long fingered hands. The skin was brownish, with bright yellowish green spots. It wore clothes, which almost seemed so ludicrous that Jennifer could have laughed. It didn’t have the large grabbing legs of a mantis, but the head had a similar triangular shape and large, glittering black eyes.
Those eyes focused on her as it rose up. “I wish to help,” it said, it’s voice a high pitched trill. It spoke perfect English, with a strange and punctuated accent, but English none the less.
“Help with what?” Jennifer asked, stepping forward and gesturing for her team to lower their weapons.
“Help your captured people. Help your planet,” the creature said.
Jennifer paused. After a hesitant moment, she gestured for the creature to follow. She didn’t want to lead it to her office and give poor Larry a heart attack, so she took the creature to the employee break room that they had set up. The break room was large and spacious and had plenty of chairs and tables, and her team could also join and listen, and keep their weapons ready if needed. As she led the way, she pulled Vincent close and whispered for him to get everyone up and at the office. She gestured for the individuals that had their weapons still at the ready to move into the break room first. Even without direct orders, they took positions at the corners of the room to fully cover every angle.
Jennifer stepped in and sat down at one of the tables close to the center of the room. She gestured for the creature to join her and rested her linked hands on the table in front of her.
The creature stepped in and paused for a moment, staring at the chair that sat across from Jennifer. Obviously feeling that it would not be comfortable sitting in such a thing, it gently pushed the chair out of the way and settled onto its thorax on the floor, lowering itself into a crouch that brought it comfortably to eye level with Jennifer.
“What… who are you?” Jennifer asked at last.
The creature’s head swiveled gently as it took in its situation before focusing its eyes on Jennifer. “I am here to help,” it said again.
“Then explain yourself, and explain quickly.”
“I am from another planet.” Someone muttered “No shit” under their breath, but neither Jennifer nor the alien acknowledged it. “My world was subjected to something very similar as what your world is going through now. What you call the Stream.”
Jennifer frowned, not understanding fully. “What do you mean?”
“It is a long story.” Jennifer could see that more of her team were gathering outside the room – some entered, and some lingered at the door or out in the hall. Those that stayed outside took turns peaking in, wide eyed in shock at their first sight of an alien visitor. She nodded to the creature to begin. “I will start by saying that I did not come here of my own will. The aliens that brought me here are the ones that are responsible for recording your people, and they hold several humans on their craft as we speak. I managed to escape to the surface of your world, in the hopes that I could help you to divert the crisis that fell upon my people.”
“They’re keeping humans?” Jennifer frowned. “The people from Flight 5071. Where are they keeping them?”
The alien gestured toward the ceiling vaguely, and Jennifer understood it to mean very high above.
“But our people have been on the alert for an… extra-terrestrial ship. It was one of the possible theories that many had about the source of the Stream. How has no one spotted this craft?”
“They have advanced technology… and some degree of magical prowess.”
Jennifer started to open her mouth to protest at the term “magic” being thrown in so casually, but paused. Her own daughter was being recorded using magic on a nearly daily basis now. She had been pulled into another world by a means that was certainly magical. If these aliens were here and recording and sending that record to be watched… Was it so strange to think that they could use magic too? It hurt her head to think about it. “Magic,” she said finally, tersely. She thought about the scry balls and their invisibility. Perhaps that was how they kept their ship out of sight, wherever it was. “You said they came to your world too? They aren’t the same as you?”
The alien shook its head. “No.”
“And what crisis did they cause your people, exactly?”
For a moment, the alien’s head tilted down slightly – from the shift of its features, Jennifer felt distinctly that it was frowning. “They destroyed my planet.”
Jennifer grimaced, not liking the answer. “Tell me what happened.”
The closest approximation that Jennifer could make to the alien’s name when it introduced itself was Polypt. Very similar to the Graces, Polypt had been pulled into another realm. However, magic was a known element on Polypt’s planet, and being pulled into this realm wasn’t completely unheard of to them – it was part of an ancient pact made between those worlds, and it was considered a great honor. Those who were Chosen on Polypt’s planet were summoned to perform a great service. In fact, many of Polypt’s people trained their entire lives, hoping to be worthy of being Chosen.
But it was Polypt who was Chosen, somehow. Despite being a normal individual that had never trained for the task, Polypt had found herself in this other realm. It had struck her as initially strange – something had clearly gone wrong with the summoning. But Polypt had made the best of the situation and had decided to devote herself to the duty. Unbeknownst to her, her entire journey was broadcast for her entire planet to see.
As a chosen Priestess, Polypt’s duty was to clear the other world of something she described only as an “encroaching dark.” She made friends that she traveled with, she focused on strengthening her magical abilities, and she helped to fight back the encroaching dark. And just as she had come close to finally saving the world … she was approached by the aliens responsible for the broadcast, responsible for interfering with the summoning and sending her.
They gave her a choice: she could stay and save the world she had settled into, but her home world would be destroyed. Or she could return to save her home – and know that she left the other world to its doom. She had anguished over it, but knew that she couldn’t allow her home to be destroyed, so she had chosen to return. The aliens had the ability to bring her back. She had left that other world that her people had made a pact with so long ago, she had left her friends to fight their own battle, to possibly die.
And despite her choice, the aliens had destroyed her home anyway.
“The magic required to pull an individual spatially from one location to another further location is very powerful. It leaves a distinct signature that they can track, and usually exists in a predictable pattern. From what I have been able to learn, they use that to track down species that have a bountiful enough planet for them to harvest resources from. They interfere with the transference spell, so that they can bring the individual back to the point of origin. They spend the time studying the planet, its resources and technology, in order to ensure a smoother acquisition. I suspect the broadcasts and the world’s reaction to it are also a source of entertainment for them,” Polypt said, her tone turning bitter as she spoke.
Jennifer frowned. “What are they called? Do they have a name for their species.”
Polypt gave a strangely familiar gesture – a shrug. “I never learned. I just called them Bastards.”
“I see.” Jennifer frowned. She glanced around the room, and the faces that surrounded her – some disbelieving, some pale with terror, some determinedly set and angry. “So they watch our people like a television program, and then after presenting the victims with a moral dilemma for their own entertainment, they destroy the world and harvest it for resources. And then they move on to the next place where they can interfere?”
“Yes,” Polypt said simply.
Jennifer leaned back, staring hard at Polypt for a time. “When you escaped to the surface… was it on a ship or a craft that could take you back to theirs?”
“Yes. It was not very big, but I can take perhaps a small handful of individuals with me. If they are not expecting me to return, we might able to infiltrate and destroy their ship.”
“No. We need to infiltrate and save the people of Flight 5071. And then we can destroy the ship.” Polypt looked hesitant at that, but Jennifer placed a hand on the table in front of her. “That is non-negotiable. We’re saving our people first.”
Polypt nodded. “I understand. But I will remind you, that it is our love and devotion to our own that they enjoy using against us most. It was how I destroyed my own world… and perhaps another, that I will never see again.”
Jennifer nodded. She stood, and left Polypt under the guard of several members of her team while gesturing for the others to join her in the meeting room. She knew they were in for a long discussion on what do and who would go, but she also already knew that she was going to go herself. No one was going to talk her out of that.
42. Lucas
Raella was upset when she heard about how each of us had met with our gods. She seemed to take it personally, as though she should have been invited to join us when we communed with them. Which would have been impossible since it all happened in separate rooms at the same time, but that didn’t stop her anger. She sat us all down and interviewed us on our interactions, taking copious notes and asking a million questions, especially needling us to remember the details exactly as we experienced them.
It was interesting to hear about each of their experiences. T’Keran had greeted Cassandra in total darkness, allowing the full power of a thunderstorm to build and crash around her, whereas Cenastrum had greeted Asterollan in a plane of bright blinding light, with an overwhelming voice that had reverberated in the very air around him. T’Keran had explained Shadawn’s powers to Cassandra and had insisted that they break the seal and destroy him. Cenastrum had done much the same, and gifted Asterollan with the sword I had seen him pointing at Peyton. At Raella’s request, he summoned and dismissed it several times, something that he could manage without grasping for his magic.
Myrapen was the only other god that had mentioned giving all of their powers and diminishing, and I wondered if that meant that Cenastrum and T’Keran actually reserved some power for themselves. Lexie’s interview was shortest – she had stepped into a plane of fire and Myrapen had greeted her and given her the last vestiges of her power, stating that she kept nothing to maintain her. She asked the girl to relight the eternal flame on the island we had visited once we were done destroying Shadawn.
Only my god had revealed their origins as beings from another world that had ascended to godhood. As I described everything that I saw and had learned, Raella made little gasps of excitement and scribbled furiously in her notes. It was very distracting, but also kind of amusing to watch.
She was also upset to know that Peyton had kept her dreams of Shadawn a secret, though her excitement over everything else she learned far outweighed her anger about that. “I wish you had told me,” she kept repeating. “Perhaps we could have worked out a way to block his influence. And you’ve just lived with your magic being blocked this whole time!”
Peyton sat, frowning at the ground, looking sufficiently chastised. After a moment, Raella added, “I am impressed that you’ve been turning him down this entire time though. Tell me about these dreams.” It had started as a voice, Peyton explained, back when we were still at the University, but sometime after we left and before we had reached the canyons, she had started to see him in her dreams. He had approached her, impressed with her strengths and abilities, and tried to convince her to be his first Chosen.
“At first I had hoped that I could somehow learn more about him by pretending to be interested. That was about the time that my magic became inaccessible.”
Raella nodded. “Cenastrum must have been observing the entire time. So he did have reason to believe you might join Shadawn’s cause.”
Peyton nodded and sighed. “To an outside observer, yes. It would have looked like I was ready to work with him. And in the end, I didn’t even learn that much about him. I didn’t even know his name until I heard Asterollan shouting it at me.”
“Well, we cannot change the past. But perhaps we can appeal to Cenastrum to lift the block. We need you at your full power.” Raella frowned, shuffling the notes she had been taking. “We’ll need everyone at their best if we’re really going to fight Shadawn.”
“So you’re not against us breaking the seal?” I asked.
“It isn’t the wisest plan,” she noted. “After all, what happens if Shadawn kills one of you in battle before we perform the seal? We need four graces for the seal to work.”
“Do we though? I mean, if the gods have pumped so much divine energy into us, maybe three will be enough,” I argued. She sighed, not looking entirely convinced. “I don’t want to die. I don’t want Peyton to die. I don’t want Lexie to die.”
“What about me?” Cassandra groused from where she was sitting on her bedroll, listening in to everything as well.
“Right, not you too. Nor, strangely, the backup battery.” Cassandra raised an eyebrow at my comment and glanced over at Asterollan, who had taken to brooding in a corner since our confrontation in the front hall. “I want to be able to survive this. I want to fight so that we can live.”
Raella sighed again. “There is also the matter of the rest of us here. We can go and help you fight Shadawn, but I don’t think we’re as powerful as any of you now, and if one of us dies, we also lose the ability to seal Shadawn. After all, we’re the ones that cast the spell.”
I frowned, crossing my arms as I considered that. “Could we learn this spell and cast it on ourselves? Or does someone else have to cast the spell at us?”
Raella narrowed her eyes, bringing her finger up to her chin as she considered that. “That may be an option.” She glanced over at where Chase and Jon were working at cataloguing some of the tomes they were finding. “I will admit that I am reluctant to bring one of the University’s finest young minds into a deadly battle.” After a moment she gave a brief nod as though her mind were made up. “I will put my mind to this and find a way for you to cast the spell yourself. It is better to have multiple contingencies in place, after all, if we are to do this.”
I was a little surprised that she was willing to even give us the chance to fight. I was almost certain that she would shoot the idea down immediately. “Thank you, Raella,” I said.
“Yes, well,” she said, her tone slightly huffy as she looked embarrassed by my sincerity. “We should all get some rest. We’ve still got to get to the seal. It’s at least two more days of travel, maybe three depending on how much pushback we get from these Underlings everyone fears.”
I nodded and settled in for the evening, but couldn’t sleep. I was comfortable enough with Peter nestled in beside me, but the memory of the verdant jungle stayed with me. Meeting my god face to face and all the information that had been thrown at us during and after kept my mind buzzing. Because of that, I heard Peyton when she rose and ventured out into the front hall. I sat up, staring after her, and heard Peter trill a soft query at my movement. Then I stood to follow her. I stopped just inside the partially closed doorway and watched her stare up at the statue of Gno as though she were in a trance.
As I watched, the All Seeing Eye blinked like it was no longer made of stone, and I found myself gripping the edge of the door tight in my hands.
“I heard you calling,” Peyton said, her voice soft.
“I know the truth in your heart,” a voice whispered back – it sounded like the rustling of dry paper, and it was hard to pinpoint exactly where it came from. I shivered. The cloak of the statue seemed to shift, as though brushed by a breeze. “Cenastrum shows no pity and no remorse, but I know that truth is not simple, not a matter of black and white justice. I would not punish a curious mind.”
Peyton was silent for a long moment, staring into the eye as it blinked again. She seemed a lot calmer than I would have felt staring into the thing. “Were the Wryseans working for Shadawn? Because he never mentioned them,” she said. “Or was it an actual god, wanting freedom?”
“It was Holtrin,” the voice whispered. “He is not pleased to have been locked away for so long. Few of us are. We long to touch the world, to shape it again, to watch…”
Peyton shook her head, her long coppery hair glinting in the dim light. “Wouldn’t killing us release Shadawn and allow him to destroy everything?”
“There are those of us that believe Shadawn is an imposter that will be easily disposed of.”
“And what do you think?”
“I think we have not learned from history. Few do, even amongst gods.” The eye narrowed and seemed to drift down closer to Peyton, studying her. “I will remove the blocks that Cenastrum has placed on you. I grant you my power, and I grant you my gifts. You will act as my Chosen.”
Peyton stared into the eye, unflinching, and once again I found myself respecting her resolve. “What gifts will you grant me?”
“Knowledge,” the voice whispered, drawing out the word. “The being known as Lucas Kearney will strike the death blow. He has been granted that ability. But he can only do it once, and the timing must be perfect. You will know when the time is right. You will guide him.”
“Lucas?” Peyton said. For a moment I shifted uneasily thinking she had seen me, but I realized she was only responding to Gno’s statement.
“As my Chosen, you must learn to master thought, for all thoughts will flow to you. Clear your mind, and compose yourself. You have a short deadline for mastery. But I will put my trust in you, and grant you my power.” Peyton lit up suddenly, grasping at the magic she hadn’t been able to touch since Cenastrum had blocked her abilities. The light around her didn’t look significantly different, beyond being a little more sepia toned.
In a blink, the eye was back in place above the book, and the statue’s robes were still again. It was silent. And then Peyton said, “Lucas?” again, and turned to stare directly at me. I was startled, seeing that her eyes glowed vividly in a bright purplish hue – and a third glowing eye appeared, hovering immediately in front of her forehead – the All Seeing Eye. She dropped her magic, and the eerie glow of her eyes dropped, and the floating eye disappeared as well.
I stepped out from behind the door, nervously running a hand through my hair. “Sorry, I saw you get up and…” I mumbled, starting to explain. But Peyton was staring at me hard, her eyes wide in shock.
“I can hear your thoughts,” she said softly.
“Oh?” I paused for a moment, and realized that aligned pretty well with what Gno had said he would gift to her. Don’t think about how beautiful she is! my mind screamed at me, but it screamed it pretty loud and clear and I knew instantly that she heard from the faint flush that rose along her cheeks and the slightly amused smile that pulled at her lips. “Well, fuck,” I said, and turned around to go back to bed. Peter trilled happily as I settled back into my bedroll.
Having decided there was no need to keep secrets anymore, Peyton told Raella what had happened immediately upon waking the next morning. Raella seemed frustrated to have missed something that she may have been able to easily witness, and set about interviewing both Peyton and me about what had happened in the night. We also tested the limits of Peyton’s mind reading abilities – apparently the ability was omnipresent, like Asterollan’s truth compulsion, but not deep. “It seems to have a range,” she said thoughtfully. “I can’t really hear what the soldiers out front are thinking. And it’s nothing too invasive. It seems to be surface level thoughts.” She frowned, glancing around at us. “Some of the thoughts are in your own voices, but other thoughts… like whoever has Axel F stuck in their head right now…”
“Oh. Sorry,” Lexie said, grinning sheepishly.
“What is Axel F?” Raella asked, frowning at the two of them.
“It’s a really catchy song,” Lexie said.
Peyton grinned and nodded. “It is pretty good.”
Raella set about teaching us the modified sealing spell as well, though she insisted that we do it without reaching for our magic. Even without any true power behind it, I could feel something like a strange pull, as though something inside of myself was made of metal and something outside of myself was a powerful magnet. The sensation gave me a headache, and I felt slightly nauseous. Then I got to sit and watch the others learn the spell, and could figure out the moment that they mastered it when their faces paled and they rubbed at their temples.
Watching Lexie practice made me feel a bit sick to my stomach. I glanced around and found Asterollan, who was sitting further back from the group, and tapped him on the shoulder awkwardly. “Could I talk to you in private for a bit?”
He raised an eyebrow at me, but nodded and followed as I pulled him back behind some shelves out of sight. “What is it?” he asked as I nervously shifted my weight from foot to foot, unsure of how to voice my concern.
“You can’t just be a backup battery,” I finally said. He was much shorter than me, and in the cramped space behind the shelves I felt like I was unnecessarily towering over him. I hunched my shoulders as I spoke, not wanting to seem like a bully, although in all likelihood he was a lot more capable of kicking my ass despite the height difference. “Lexie can’t die. She’s just a kid. If this all goes sideways and we have to sacrifice ourselves… it just shouldn’t be her.”
Asterollan gave me an appraising look and nodded. “You’re right.” I had expected a little more pushback, and he must have read the surprise in my face, because he suddenly looked annoyed. “Do you really think I’m so dishonorable I’d say that a child must die?”
“I mean… maybe?”
Asterollan gave me a flat stare, his lips thinning slightly in a grimace. “I will do the right thing, Lucas. You needn’t have asked.” I nodded as he walked away, feeling a bit awkward but also relieved. At least Lexie would be safe. Stepping out from behind the shelves, I could see Peyton smiling at me, and flushed, feeling a little annoyed that there couldn’t be secrets around her. A strange series of emotions flickered across her face before she flushed deeply and looked somewhat sheepish, and avoided making eye contact the rest of the morning. It left me feeling a little bad, like somehow it was all my fault. I focused on keeping Axel F running through my head instead.
Late in the afternoon, after we were sure we had all mastered the sealing spell and after Raella had compiled all the notes she could wish, we prepared to leave. Raella, Jon and Chase packed up several crates of books that were in good enough shape to transport and set them in the front hallway, and Raella also stored all the notes she had taken at the temple in with them. Their plan was to improvise a cart of some sort to haul them back on the return trip. There was something kind of compelling about the idea – the idea of returning. We’d only be coming back if we survived. And to do that we had to destroy a wannabe god. And when we did return, what would our lives be then?
With no way to return home, we’d have to build new lives in this world. Find out how we wanted to live, and what we wanted to do. I knew that my first course of action would be traveling far to the north and finding the heart tree that my god had told me about. I had a promise to fulfill there. But what would I do then? I wondered if I would continue the course of my life – Lucas Kearney, accountant in a fantasy land. Certainly someone needed a treasurer or bookkeeper. Or maybe I would try do something completely different with my life. Learn to do something else. Learn to be someone else.
As we started walking away from the temple of the god of knowledge, I glanced back and could just barely see the crates inside the door, waiting for us to return. I promised myself I’d read one of those books when I got back.
As I turned to face the path ahead, I caught sight of Peyton flashing a knowing grin at me, and I flushed deeply and focused on clearing my mind again.
Allotted Skip Day #5
Because I am a bum!
Will post as scheduled next on 9/10.
12. Lucas
Sometime around the beginning of our fourth week, as the glow of the compass spell and the image of the last Grace faded, Raella quietly said, “She’s been walking much of the time we check on her, and the figure is getting larger day by day. She’s approaching our borders.” I had noticed that the figure had shifted slightly away from me, but if the glowing figure had been growing larger, it had happened too gradually for me to tell. I hadn’t thought anything of it until Raella had pointed it out.
Zolambi looked disturbed at this assessment. “What could that mean? Do you think she’s fleeing danger?”
Raella tapped a finger to her chin pensively, considering. “It could mean that. It could mean any number of things. Perhaps she has learned to cast and has heard that elves are mages as well, and wishes to learn more. She could just be coincidentally traveling to another place within human lands that is closer to our borders. Regardless, it will mean that we won’t have to travel as far into foreign territory to retrieve her. And if she is in danger, or seeking us out on purpose…”
“Then it’s time for us to leave,” Greyjon said.
Raella nodded. “We’ve got a plan for this. We need only pack the supplies. We should be prepared to leave at dawn.”
At dinner that evening, Master Zern visited as we sat in our own little dining area, and gifted each of us with normal looking knapsacks that could hold more than expected. “Like a bag of holding,” Lexie said in awe after Zern had explained the gift to us. She held her bag up and looked into it.
Peyton had also curiously reached into hers, but shook her head slightly. “I can feel the bottom, so I doubt it has the same capacity or rules as a true bag of holding.” She poked at the insides of the bag and I could see where her hand pressed out against the sides, although it was an odd effect because she was leaning her entire arm in up to the shoulders. It made it look like her hand ended a little above her elbow. She seemed to realize that the others were watching her curiously, and quickly pulled her hands out of the bag, folding it in her lap. There was a slight flush to her cheeks. “A most generous gift, Master Zern. Thank you so much,” she said, once again all poise excepting the telltale pink of her cheeks.
“You will be doing so much more for us,” Zern noted with a warm smile.
“Will we be returning here after we find the last Grace?” Peyton asked.
Zern shook his head. “No. After finding her, you will be traveling on to the seal. Owing to the difficulties of the past several hundred years, the seal is no longer within elven lands. You will initially be on a diplomatic mission to see if we can reach it. Raella shall be in charge there.”
“So straight on to saving the world then,” Lexie said, her artificial cheer only barely hiding the nervousness we all felt.
“And once that’s done? Will we be expected back here again?” Peyton asked.
I noticed that at her question, Chase and Greyjon both looked carefully at the table, as though something about the question made them nervous. There was a moment of hesitation, but then Zern said, “When it’s all done, you will be free to go where ever you please.”
“For now, we have many preparations, and you should pack whatever you don’t wish to leave behind,” Raella said, effectively ending the conversation.
As soon as we were alone again, Peyton and I exchanged worried glances. She opened her mouth to speak, but I glanced over to Lexie, who had returned to eating her meal. Peyton frowned, and directed a forkful of meat into her mouth instead, chewing thoughtfully. Lexie picked a dinner roll apart slowly, seeming to consider each piece carefully before popping the bread into her mouth. “I caught it too, you know. You guys don’t have to treat me like I’m dumb,” she said once she had swallowed. She put the bread back on her plate and looked up at us. “What’s going to happen to us once we do what they want?”
Peyton sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know,” she admitted.
“Should we be trying to run away?” Lexie asked. Her eyes were wide with worry, but she managed a level of calm I couldn’t imagine having at her age.
“I don’t know,” I said, echoing Peyton. “But we should go with them far enough to find the other person from our world and help them out too. The four of us are going to be in this together.”
“Yeah. I guess the four of us are kinda like family, being from the same world.” I wasn’t sure if I would use the word family, but I had the feeling that would feel truer the longer we were together. Lexie returned to eating her meal, seeming satisfied with my answer and her reasoning.
The knapsacks made packing easy. We each had three sets of clothes that had been gifted to us, but I still packed the clothes I had arrived in as well. I also took my wallet, phone, and keys – useless, but strangely sentimental. I shoved them into the very bottom, knowing I wouldn’t need to reach them anytime soon. I also took some personal care items wrapped carefully in a small face towel, and finally packed away my sneakers as well. Although more comfortable, I suspected the unusual style would give me away as a foreigner of some sort. If we were going to be traveling in public, it was finally time to get used to the leather boots.
I glanced around the room, wondering what else I would need to take with me. As far as personal belongings, that was all I had to my name here. Assumably the food and traveling supplies were being arranged by Raella and the others, as well as anything else we could need. I paced my room for a moment, like I used to pace hotel rooms before checking out, nervously wondering if anything would get left behind and lost. It was still light out, and felt too early to sleep, but I wondered if I should try anyway. I have no idea when I’ll be in a bed next, I realized. I should sleep in one while I have the chance.
Instead, I walked out of the room.
My thoughts raced. I could maybe defend myself in a physical fight if I needed to, but I still hadn’t managed any sort of casting. How dangerous was the world beyond? I had felt so stifled at the idea of being in the tower as a prisoner at first. And now I was terrified at the idea of leaving and traveling out in the world. I thought of every monster I had ever encountered in a fantasy game. Would there be giant rats? Giant spiders? Giant… giants? There was any number of mega-fauna in a game.
And not just giant creatures. What about living plants, or ghosts, or demons?
I walked up the stairs. I had heard that Master Zern’s quarters were in the upper floors of the tower. Just around the bend from the floor Peyton and Lexie stayed on, I ran into the barrier again.
I frowned as I absently rubbed at my nose, wondering if it had stayed up the entire time. They had allowed us to roam freely since the initial tour, but I realized I had never tried to go to the top of the tower after that. I tried to picture in my memory the spacious room where we had been summoned as I placed a hand on the barrier. I very lightly put my fist against it, wanting to punch it. There had been a time when I was younger and angrier that I might have. But what purpose did that really serve?
With a sigh, I turned and walked back down the stairs slowly. I decided to leave the tower, and breathed a quiet sigh of relief when I was actually able to exit at the bottom. The barrier being present up top had put me a bit on edge, almost making me feel as much like a prisoner as I had the first night here.
I decided to make my way out to the stables. Partly, I wanted to go and familiarize myself a bit more with my horse. But I also knew that Peyton spent most of her evenings there as well.
I didn’t spot her at first as I entered, as they had many animals handled here, but as I stepped further in to where my horse was kept, I passed by Peyton in the stall with her horse. She was feeding it from her hand, murmuring quietly to it as she did so. I leaned against the entrance to the stall and studied her. She had a very angular face, with high cheekbones and a long thin nose. She also had a very strong jaw and chin for a woman, and even without make up, she had enviously clear skin.
Sensing my presence, she glanced up at me and smiled. “Hello Lucas,” she said. I nodded in response, feeling a bit too tongue tied to respond properly. We didn’t spend a lot of time together one-on-one, and it still sent my mind reeling just thinking that in our own world she would never have any reason to speak to me, and I would never have the guts to speak to her. She glanced out at the fading light of the day. “Should probably head back to the tower soon and try to sleep early. Could be the last time we’re in a proper bed for who knows how long,” she said, echoing my earlier thoughts. I nodded again, my mind drifting back to everything else I had been thinking earlier as well.
She continued rubbing a hand along her horse’s neck, and frowned at my extended silence. “Are you okay?” she asked, sounding sincerely worried.
I considered all the things running through my mind. I didn’t want to share all of it – maybe it was insecurity, maybe it was just that I didn’t think she’d really care. So I settled for saying, “I was just thinking about how many giant animals there are to kill you in fantasy games.”
She smirked. “I had my suspicions that you were a full on nerd, but you really don’t say much.”
“Well, you know. Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.”
“Hmm. Who said that originally?”
“No clue.”
She chuckled, but then kind of grew contemplatively quiet herself. “You know… if Lexie and the other one don’t know, we’ll never be able to find out where that quote is from.”
I considered that for a moment, and wracked my brain trying to remember the source of the quote. Finally giving up, I said, “Well, we’re in a new world now, so maybe it’s mine. I said it here first. Maybe we should just claim all those little nuggets of wisdom as our own? Publish an entire book of quotes, attribute them to ourselves.” I grinned, and with an overexaggerated dastardly tone, added, “No one would ever know.”
She gave a brief laugh, and then seemed to consider the idea further and descended into a fit of contagious giggles. I found myself laughing along, though I found the idea more sad than funny. But maybe that was the funny part. Then shaking her head, she dusted her hands off on her pants and whispered good night to her horse. She turned to face me, practically glowing in the light of the setting sun, the copper in her auburn hair glinting. “I’ll walk you back to the tower, if you like?”
Seeing how beautiful she looked, thinking about her laugh, I felt slightly taken out of the world again. Something like this would never happen to someone like me. It had to be a simulation. “Oh, no, you go ahead. I’ll head back later. I came down to check on my own horse.”
“Fair enough. Goodnight, Lucas,” she said, “Don’t stay out too late.” And then she walked past me and out of the stables. I watched her go, rubbing at the side of my head, then walked over to my own mount’s stall and started to brush her out. I didn’t have a lot of experience with taking care of a horse, although one of the stable hands had shown us before and I had watched others do the same things. Regardless, Drifter, the mare that had been assigned to me, was very patient with my ministrations.
I went back several minutes later, took the last bath I was sure to have for awhile, and settled into my bed. I stared at the ceiling that I had become used to over the past few weeks.
I didn’t get a wink of sleep.
I heard movement out in the dining area and Lexie’s muffled voice enthusiastically thanking Alissa for the food and I groaned. It had been an awful night of feeling like I should drift off at any moment, without that moment ever actually arriving. There were no windows so I couldn’t see the lightening of the sky, but I knew that it was happening even if I couldn’t see it. I could just feel the coming day laughing at me. But I couldn’t clear my mind. It wasn’t just the dangers of the world, but what was going to happen to us if we completed our mission. Or if we’d even be able to complete our mission if I never learned to cast. Or what would happen in this world if we chose not to complete our mission. I had wondered what kind of person the fourth Grace was. I wondered how uncomfortable sleeping in the woods would be, especially after riding all day on horseback. I wondered if Raella teaching history was as boring as learning history back home.
Finally, I forced myself up and splashed some water on my face and went to go eat breakfast. Peyton raised an eyebrow as I sat down at the table. “Didn’t get much sleep, I take it?” she said.
I grimaced at her in response and shoved a sausage into my mouth to chew it silently. She did her best to suppress a smile and continued to eat her own breakfast. “Wow, you look like shit, Lucas,” Lexie said cheerfully after she swallowed her own food.
I gave her a long, flat wordless stare.
After breakfast, we said our final goodbyes to Alissa and Quince. Alissa presented us with some new clothes and said we might want to change into them before we left – more comfortable travel and riding clothes. “Since part of the mission is a bit diplomatic, I’ve also given Raella some more presentable clothes for you to wear at a royal court,” Alissa said.
“You’ve been so kind to us, Alissa, Quince. Thank you for taking such good care of us, and for everything you’ve done,” Peyton said.
For a moment, Alissa seemed to want to say more, but then Quince placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled at us. “You’ve been the ones that have been kind to us,” he said simply.
“It’s been an honor,” Alissa said, her eyes bright with tears.
After that, we left for the stables.
They had a wagon and our horses saddled nearby. “First, we’ll perform the compass spell to get our bearing,” Raella said, all business. They arranged us and began casting, the light of magic springing up around us. Once again, the fourth Grace was walking, and did seem to be slightly larger in size. She was still mostly south west of us. Greyjon mounted his horse as soon as the spell was finished, as did Zolambi. Raella and Chase climbed into the wagon and sat up front. “We do have your horse ready for you,” Chase said cheerfully to Lexie, gesturing to the animal tied to the back of the wagon, “But I figure you’d be more comfortable riding in the wagon?”
“Oh yeah, definitely,” Lexie said, giving her placid mare a wide berth to hop into the back of the wagon. I watched Peyton easily mount her horse in one fluid motion, patting it on the neck and whispering in a low voice to it as I clumsily pulled myself up onto Drifter. I wondered how sore I was going to be by the end of the day.
“Well, if we’re ready then,” Greyjon said. Zolambi was very quiet and very pale in the morning light, and though his face was calm his horse was skittishly shifting back and forth, like it could sense his nervous energy. I wondered what it was like for a former slave to knowingly return to the land that had enslaved him. “Let’s be on our way,” Greyjon directed, and started out at the head of our procession.
mehryment 