“So that’s why I wanted to tell you about it alone,” Flick announced to Virginia Dare, just after explaining the entire situation with Jophiel and Elisabet, as well as the more recent revelations, as the two of them stood out in the forest a bit away from the camp. “Now that the spells stopping us from talking about it are gone, I wanted to… to tell you myself. So we can talk about it without talking around all the other stuff that no one’s allowed to know.”
With a faint smile while her eyes remained contemplative, Dare replied, “You mean the fact that I’m your grandmother, so I might feel especially outraged at what those two want to use you for.”
Biting her lip, the younger girl nodded. “Yeah, that’s about the size of it.” She hesitated then, looking to the woman directly. “Sorry we couldn’t tell you about it before. But, I kind of figured that if anyone was going to understand magic stopping us from talking about something, it would be you.” She ended that with a kind of sheepish half-smile, trying to break the potential tension.
Raising an eyebrow at that, Dare was quiet for a moment before heaving a long, low sigh. “A part of me wants to confront them, yes. For whatever little good that would do. But, on the other hand, as you said, they could have done much worse. And their intentions are… if not totally pure, at least along similar lines as our own. We don’t always get to pick our allies, and it sounds as though their goals and ours are at least within similar… ahhh, zip codes, as it were.” Lifting her hand, she laid it on Flick’s shoulder and squeezed. “If this Jophiel has already taken a few steps from ‘only Seosten are worthy’ to ‘Seosten and humans are worthy’, it feels like a better idea to keep pulling her toward ‘all species are worthy’ rather than shoving her off the bridge entirely just because she’s not quite to the end of it yet.”
“That’s a… a good point,” Flick agreed, looking over to the woman while reaching up to put a hand over the one on her shoulder. “I also thought you’d be mad that they weren’t doing more to get Gaia out of the Crossroads prison. I mean, part of me is kind of mad about that.”
“Yes, well…” Dare hesitated before murmuring, “there is a bit of that. But on the other hand, I highly doubt even a full Committee member could simply release Gaia, given everything that’s happened. If they were to push too far, they would blow their cover with both the Committee and their own people. As much as I want Gaia back, I can’t blame them for being more cautious.”
She looked to Flick pointedly. “They have already helped you in aiding Sean, after all.”
Quickly nodding, Flick confirmed, “Yeah, they were the ones who helped get Apollo in so he could start helping Sean stay… you know, sane.” She hesitated then, before adding. “I… I could go in with him, you know. I could possess Apollo and let him pull me in to talk to Sean.”
“You could,” Dare agreed, glancing to the girl curiously. “Are you going to?”
“Yes.” Flick spoke instantly before pausing with a wince. “Soon. I just… want to have something to tell him about how we’re going to get him out of there. I don’t want to tell him that we don’t have any ideas. I feel like that would make things worse, somehow, you know?”
“Felicity,” Dare started, then hesitated. Her voice turned softer. “Sometimes it’s good just to know someone is thinking about you, even if they don’t have all the answers. If you want my suggestion, go with Apollo. Visit Sean. Just the fact that you’re there, that you take the time to visit him, could make a world of difference in his… psyche. Having Apollo to talk to will help, of course. But one of his friends showing up? That’s even better. Even if you can’t get him out.”
“Good point,” the girl agreed softly before kicking at the dirt. “I guess I also feel bad. I mean, we can’t help him except for this. We have no idea how to get him out. And I feel like… we escaped and he didn’t. I don’t know how to look him in the eyes with that. I can’t tell him that we can get him out, only that we’re trying. And we’re not even doing that twenty-four seven. I’m… I’m having fun with Avalon, Shiori, and the others. He’s in prison constantly, and I’m just… every time I think about him and remember that we don’t know how to get him out, I feel like a… a traitor because I’m not burning down the world to try to get him out. I feel helpless. And then sometimes I don’t feel helpless because I stop thinking about it, and that makes it worse when I do think about it.” She was half-flailing by the end before folding her arms tight against her stomach. “I feel like a shit. I should have found a way to get him out of there by now.”
“I wish I had a better answer for you.” Dare’s voice was quiet, as she stepped around in front of Flick, adding a second hand to her opposite shoulder and squeezing with both. “I wish I knew how to get him out of there, just as I wish I knew how to save Gaia. But we don’t have those answers yet. You, however, have the ability to let your friend know that you’re still thinking of him, that you’re trying. Do that. Be there. Let him see and hear you. I think you’re truly underestimating just how much that can help when he feels alone and lost.”
With a tiny smile, the girl nodded. Then she embraced the woman. “I know. I… you’re right. See?” She leaned back and winked at her. “You’re already giving good grandmother advice.”
“I think that falls more along teacher advice,” Dare mused, “but I’ll take it.”
The woman turned then, starting to walk through the trees, with Flick following. “For now, I’m less interested in impotently ranting about what I’d like to do to Jophiel and Elisabet if they hurt or manipulate you, and more interested in hearing about what you’ve learned from them so far.” She glanced sidelong to the girl, adding, “Or what they plan on teaching you. After all, if they want to be helpful, even if it is for their own purposes, there’s no reason not to take advantage. Learn everything you can from them. If it helps convince the Seosten leadership to ally with humanity, great. If it doesn’t… well… you won’t be alone out there, I can promise you that. But even if you were, I’m pretty sure those Seosten would end up being pretty surprised about what you pull off.”
Another brief smile came to Flick’s face, and she walked faster to move alongside the woman. “Speaking of surprises, you should’ve seen Harp–I mean, Gwen’s face when Aylen turned out to be the person she’s been looking for all this time.”
“I can imagine,” Dare murmured thoughtfully. “What about Aylen’s… mothers? Do they know anything about this connection with Arthur?”
“We don’t think so,” Flick replied, walking literally through a tree and out the other side using her wood-traveling power. “But I guess we’ll find out in a few weeks, since we’re supposed to meet them, and her other grandfather.
“I just wish I knew why she keeps snickering whenever someone asks if her grandfather thinks it’s weird having a Reaper in the family.”
*******
“Okay, Chambers, new rule. You have to deal with at least six of the gigantic conspiracies that you’ve tripped into before you’re allowed to find any more of them.”
The words came from Avalon, as she stared intently at the girl in question. The two of them, along with Shiori, were sitting on a small sailboat out in the middle of the lake. Flick had brought her girlfriends out here to talk about everything, and was sitting across from them, looking a little sheepish.
“It’s not my fault things keep jumping into my lap!” Flick protested, face flushed. “Besides, most of these are things that have been going on for a long time, I just stumble across part of them.”
Shiori used her foot to poke Flick in the leg. “Are you okay, though? I mean, if Elisabet and this… Jophiel put all those spells on you, did they really get rid of all of them?”
“Wyatt, Athena, Sariel, and Gwen went over us,” Flick replied with a quick nod. “They said we’re clear of any unknown magic as far as they could see. And trust me, they were thorough. Especially Wyatt.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Good,” Avalon replied shortly, head tilting a little as she watched the blonde girl.
“Are you… upset?” Flick asked hesitantly, biting her lip as she watched her reaction.
With a long, quiet sigh, Avalon shook her head. “No, Chambers… Felicity. I’m not upset or angry. I’m a little… disappointed that I didn’t realize something else was going on. And I kind of want to yell at them for not saving Gaia, but… but logically I get it. And for the record, I would’ve understood even if it took you a lot longer to tell us the truth. You’re allowed to have important secrets. Especially ones like that. Because… because I know if I was in their situation, I’d want to make sure you were safe, above everything else. That’s what they were doing by putting those spells on you. They were protecting each other. I get that. And you were making sure you could rescue Sariel. I get that too. I’m not going to be mad at you just because you were in an impossible situation, and I’m not going to be mad at them for doing something I could see myself doing if it meant protecting you from a potential enemy.”
Her words were perhaps slightly undercut in seriousness by the fact that Porthos climbed from the girl’s pocket to her head and made chittering noises of agreement. The little metal lizard ended by jumping from Avalon’s head to Flick’s quickly raised hand, landing in her palm before dashing along her arm so he could reach up and pat her cheek.
Shrugging, Shiori gestured toward Avalon. “She said it better than I could, but yeah, that. We get it. And she’s right, those two might have really different ideas about the whole… enslaving other species for the good of the universe thing and all that, but in this case, they’re protecting the person they love. I can get mad at them for a lot of things, but not that.”
With a tiny smile, Flick stepped over and embraced Avalon first so that Porthos could jump back to his partner’s shoulder. The two girls exchanged a brief kiss before Flick did the same with Shiori, quietly murmuring, “You guys are pretty awesome, you know that?”
Grinning despite herself, the Asian girl drawled an easy, “You ever wonder why awesome is good and awful is bad? Wouldn’t it be better to be full of awe instead of just some of it?”
“Okay, fine,” Flick replied deadpan, “you’re awful.”
With a snicker, Shiori blurted, “Yay!”
“You’re both awful,” Avalon informed them both, rolling her eyes before settling into a slight frown. “But I do want to know what Jophiel and Elisabet can do about Gaia. I… understand that they can’t get her out. But they have to be able to do something. Tell us what kind of spell they’re using to keep her asleep, let us know who is in charge of her, any ideas about where they have her, anything. They have to know something. And they have to know that getting Gaia back is the best chance we have of being strong enough to actually make the Seraphim listen to any alliance ideas.”
Flick and Shiori exchanged brief glances, the former nodding. “I mean, you’re not wrong. There’s others that are stronger, but Gaia’s got her whole ‘I puppet your technology’ thing that might make them think twice about bringing their ships here.”
“Not to mention,” Shiori added, “there’s lots of Heretics that will listen to her because of everything she’s done for them. And she’s the one who knows the most about who and where all the hybrids that are probably still pretending to be loyal are.”
Slowly nodding in agreement, Avalon murmured, “So, they have to know something, anything that might help. Even if it’s not useful right this very second. I want to eventually succeed at saving Gaia, not just make myself feel better by trying something immediately that fails.”
“We will, Valley,” Flick promised while putting a hand on her arm. “We’ll get her back.
“I just hope we can do it before whatever Fossor wanted her out of the way for happens.”
******
“Knock knock.”
As she said those words, Avalon rapped her knuckles against the side of a tree in the forest while looking up into it. Her other hand was taken up by the plastic bag that she carried.
In one of the branches above her head, Aylen leaned over, face appearing as she blinked a couple times, clearly having just woken up. “Oh… uh, hi.”
“Do you mind if I come up?” Avalon asked, lifting the bag. “I brought food.” She felt awkward. This kind of outreach was usually more Flick’s thing. But she’d gotten to know Aylen a lot better than the other girl had while Flick was gone, especially after finding out her secret.
Nodding quickly, Aylen started to ask if Avalon needed a hand. But the girl was already on her way, taking a few steps back before running up and jumping to plant her foot against the tree, using that to reach a lower branch. From there, she made her way rapidly and smoothly up before settling in beside her.
“I guess you’re fine then,” Aylen noted dryly, shifting over on the branch a little to give Avalon more room before returning her attention to looking out over the cabins and lake in the distance. As she did so, Sovereign landed further out on the tree, giving a soft scree that drew Porthos out of Avalon’s jacket. The two exchanged a flurry of sounds, before the little lizard looked to Avalon for permission.
“Go on then,” the girl motioned with one hand. “Have fun.”
With a chirp, Porthos darted that way, clambering up onto Sovereign’s back before the flying cyberform took off into the air.
The two girls sat there in comfortable silence for a minute or so, neither needing to talk. They just watched as Sovereign flew with Porthos riding. Finally, Avalon spoke up with a soft, “How’re your mothers doing with all this?”
“I don’t know,” Aylen admitted. “They’re still off on their… uhh, mission. I’m not really sure exactly what they’re doing, but they said it’d be another few weeks. It was an emergency.” She glanced over to the girl beside her, adding, “If this was an emergency, I could get them here right now. They’d drop everything. But I don’t think it is, so I don’t want to take them away from what they’re doing. I mean… Arthur’s been… gone for this long, and we don’t even have all the bones or anything, so–”
“Bones?” Avalon echoed, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh, yeah.” Aylen gestured over toward the cabins. “I talked to Ha.. I mean, Gwen. She said we need to find all of Arthur’s bones before we can do… uhh, whatever it is I’m supposed to do. She’s got most of them, but apparently there’s still some out there.”
“Do you think they used some of his bones to help make the Heretical Edge?” Avalon suggested. “If he’s so powerful, maybe his bones are powerful. And if you were going to try to free your… your grandfather from that, maybe freeing him is what releases Arthur’s bones. That could be how you’re supposed to bring Arthur back.”
Aylen blinked at that, head tilting a little. “I… huh. Maybe, I didn’t think of that. But Gwen and that… um, Mercury guy said the Seosten didn’t want to just kill me because they were afraid that might be what wakes up Arthur.”
“They probably don’t know what you’re supposed to do,” Avalon pointed out. “They’re erring on the side of caution because they have no idea what could happen to make him come back.”
“Point,” Aylen conceded before letting out a long breath as she tilted her head up to the sky above, visible through the tree canopy. “Maybe that is it. I dunno. It’s strange though, right?”
“Definitely strange,” Avalon agreed before adding, “Though strange is normal anymore. Here.” She lifted the bag, offering it to the other girl. “I thought you could use it.”
Aylen took the bag, blinking once before reaching in to retrieve a small glass box with holes in it. A rat was there, breathing slowly as it was clearly alive, but sedated. “What–you… brought me…”
“I knew it was getting about that time,” Avalon murmured, feeling a little uncomfortable. “And I didn’t think you’d been out lately. If that crossed a line or something–”
“No,” Aylen quickly interrupted, shaking her head. “No, it’s okay. I just meant… thank you. Most people would not be bringing me something to kill just like that.”
“You kill to eat,” Avalon replied flatly. “How is that different from any non-vegan or vegetarian out there? If you eat meat, something died to feed you. This isn’t different, you’re just… not exactly eating it.”
With a tiny smile, Aylen retrieved the rat from the box. Taking a breath, she hesitated before carefully asking, “You’re sure you’re okay with this? I can wait until later.”
Shrugging, Avalon assured her, “Don’t worry about me.” She reached into the pocket of her jacket, retrieving a wrapped sandwich, which she began to pull the plastic off of. “I brought my own.”
The simple words and actions, completely dismissing any thought that there was something wrong or strange with what she was doing, made Aylen’s smile grow a little. She glanced down at the tranquilized rat before smoothly breaking its neck. A rush of energy flooded the girl, put off by the animal’s death. She gave a soft gasp and slumped slightly from the rush. She could… feel the creature’s life, could… see a flash of memories from its life, short as it had been. It was tiny and incredibly quick, but it was still a wave that washed over her.
Avalon’s hand was on her shoulder, keeping the other girl steady on the branch. “You okay?”
“Um… yeah.” Aylen blushed, sitting up a bit more. “I’m good. And thanks.
“I guess if I’m supposed to wake up Arthur, being close to Avalon isn’t a bad start.”