“Miss Chambers? Miss Chambers, are you alright?” Professor Dare gently squeezed Flick’s shoulder. “The vision is over. I know, it can be overwhelming at times. Whatever you saw--”
“I’m okay,” Flick quickly blurted, looking around the lighthouse after snapping out of what had appeared to be a long daydream following the Heretical Edge vision. Her gaze passed over the rest of the first year students, all of whom were watching her curiously. “It’s fine, I’m fine.”
Dare watched her for another moment, as though unsure if she truly was okay. Then she shook that off and turned it back to the rest of the class to keep talking about what came next, and just what sort of people they would be trained to be over their time here.
While she was speaking, Flick managed to look over the others. Most were lost in their own little worlds, though Avalon and Shiori met her gaze and gave little nods of their own. And she felt a little mental squeeze of acknowledgment from her little sister, riding shotgun inside her. The four of them were the second group back. Sands, Sarah, Sean, and Columbus hadn’t made it yet. But they would come later. It had been made clear that they would arrive in three separate groups. Flick, Tabbris, Avalon, and Shiori were the second.
By that point, Dare had just noted that Deveron should have been there to escort them on a tour to their rooms and such, had failed to arrive. Sands and Scout immediately volunteered to do the tour, and after a momentary hesitation, Dare agreed to that. And with that, they were sent off on their way.
“Well,” Flick murmured under her breath as the group left the lighthouse and began to make their way across the grounds of the school. “Here we go. Again.”
Sands, turning to look that way, blinked. “Sorry, did you need something, uhhh… what was your name again?”
“Flick,” came the response. “And nope. I just can’t wait to see how cool this place really is.”
******
“Hey, Professor?” Shiori called out to the elderly man, approaching the spot where he stood out on the front steps of the main building. “Can I talk to you for a minute? It’s um… it’s important.” She murmured the words, looking self-conscious and nervous as she hugged her arms tight against herself.
Isaac Acosta, standing nearby, raised both hands. “Can’t you see we’re a little busy, babe? I was here first, you know?”
“Now, now, Mr. Acosta,” Pericles gently chided while reaching out to pat the boy on the shoulder. “It’s quite alright. I promise, I shall show you the constellations you were so curious about. After all, the stars aren’t going anywhere. Or if they are, we''re in much bigger trouble.” With that gentle bit of teasing, he nodded to Shiori. “Of course, Miss Porter. Let’s take a little walk and we can talk about whatever you wish. Mr. Acosta, I shall return as soon as possible.”
Standing there, Isaac watched the two of them walk off, folding his arms as a look of annoyance crossed his face. “Well ain’t that just typical? I… I…” Slowly, the boy looked around. He wasn''t standing outside the school building anymore. He was in what looked like a storage room of some kind. Seeing that, his eyes rolled. “Oh come on! You assholes didn''t have to pull me out of there. He was going to come back after the bitch whined at him about being homesick or whatever. We can still finish this. What the fuck is--”
“Sorry,” a different voice interrupted, “Manakel and Charmeine aren’t here right now. We’ll get to them.”
Hearing the voice, the boy abruptly spun to find himself looking at someone entirely unexpected. “The fuck-- Avalon?! How did--” Only then did what she actually said penetrate, and his eyes widened. Without another word, he grabbed for the flail at his side while lunging that way. But he’d barely taken a step before two hands grabbed his arms, yanking him back and stopping him from grabbing his weapon.
“Hey, murderer,” Flick murmured into his ear, “sorry, not this time. As for how, you can thank Shiori for dropping the teleport stone in your pocket.”
“What--what the fuck?!” Isaac blurted, head snapping around to see who had grabbed him. “Chambers--you--wh--”
Avalon stepped forward, casually taking the weapon from his belt and tossing it aside. “Things are going to go a little bit differently this time, Isaac. We have a plan, and you''re not part of it. But you know, the things you have in that head of yours, they might be useful.”
Isaac, still reeling from confusion, snarled nonetheless, “I''m not telling you a damn thing.”
“Oh, that’s okay,” Flick assured him. “You don’t have to say anything.” And with that, she possessed the boy.
As soon as he felt her in his mind, Isaac reacted violently. But his mental screaming and flailing meant nothing. Soon, his consciousness was smothered, shoved down out of the way into a hole where it could sleep for as long as this took.
Well, that was fun, Flick silently noted. But I really don’t need to hear him talk anymore. What do you say we get everything we can out of his memory?
Uh huh! Tabbris agreed readily. But umm, can we do it without looking at the stuff he wants to do?
Oh, don’t worry, we don’t have to look at any of that, Flick assured her. And Isaac here won’t be fulfilling any of those wishes.
In fact, I’m pretty sure he won’t be doing much of anything at all.
*********
“So, I know you’re a Silverstone and all, but you do know that tonight is kind of a big deal, right?”
For a moment, there was no response to Zeke’s words. He squinted at Flick, reaching up to poke her in the arm. “Hey, you listening to me? I said--” He reached up as though to knock the rock with googly eyes and a plastic sword off the top of her head. “Are you liste--”
A moment before his hand would have smacked Herbie, Flick caught his wrist in a tight grip, to his surprise. “I heard you,” she replied simply. “I was just ignoring you. And don''t worry about my rock. Trust me, he deserves to be on this hunt just as much as anyone else here.” A slight smile crossed her face, she released her grip on the boy while quietly adding, “After all, he’s a hero, you know?”
Rubbing his wrist while staring at the girl, Zeke frowned. “The fuck are you talking about?”
Avalon, stepping up behind him, spoke casually. “She means that what she does with her own rock on her own head is none of your business, Leven. Everyone knows you''re just nervous about going on this first hunt, so go talk to your own team and leave the rest of us alone.”
Zeke looked back and forth between them while still rubbing his wrist. For a moment, it looked as though he was still going to argue. But finally, he gave an annoyed grunt before pivoting to walk back to his own group, muttering something about Garden traitors and Silverstones getting along together.
Both girls watched him go, then turned back to meet each other’s gazes. Flick took a moment to make sure no one was looking at them, before mouthing three words. ‘They made it.’ She had felt the spell trigger again, four more times. The rest of their immediate team had arrived.
Avalon, in turn, simply nodded once. By that point, the rest of the team had gathered around them. Sean was looking down at his hands, opening and closing them while shaking his head in wonder. Reaching into his pocket, the boy took out his phone and used the front-facing camera to look at himself. “Well damn,” he muttered while running a hand through his hair. “Hey there, you.”
Sands and Scout, standing on either side of the boy, elbowed him lightly just as Professor Katarin approached, clearing his throat. “Ah, if you’re done admiring yourself, Mr. Gerardo, We can get started here. You know, if that’s alright with everyone else?” He looked around, as though waiting to see if anyone would object. When no one did, he grunted. “Good. The Headmistress has a few things she’d like to say, before we go off on your first hunt.”
With that, Gaia stepped up and began to speak. Her words washed over Flick and her companions, none of them particularly listening, though they remained silent. Avalon, Flick, Columbus, Sean, Sands, and Scout exchanged glances throughout the headmistress’s speech. Though none spoke, an entire conversation passed between those looks. A conversation that continued, equally silently, as the welcoming talk ended and they were led up toward the Pathmaker building, with Deveron bringing up the rear behind them.
“You’re pretty quiet, Chambers,” the team mentor pointed out. “I would have thought you''d go right back to lambasting me for not spending every minute training you guys.”
Flick, in turn, offered him a shrug. “You’re gonna do whatever you want.” Pivoting, she walked backwards to give him a look. “Maybe not training us is your way of training us. Making us rely on ourselves or something. But for the record, if that’s your plan, it’s a stupid plan.”
Soon, the group was up in the transport room and ready to move through to get into the hunt proper. They sat through the briefing and explanation about how the communication badges worked, and the promise that if anything went wrong, people would be right there to help. All resisted the multitude of things they instinctively wanted to say, and set off together to appear in the woods across the lake from the cabins where the Chamrosh (and what previously would have been a surprise) would be waiting for them. With Deveron waiting nearby and pretending to be disinterested, the group went through planning out what to do based on what they supposedly knew. Then they split up. Scout and Columbus stayed together on the edge of the lake, while Sands and Sean moved along the right side, and Flick moved with Avalon around the left. Silently and carefully, the pair split off. Columbus used his goggles to keep track of Flick and Avalon, advising them of when to move, while Scout did the same for her sister and Sean.
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Lying in the bush while watching the cabin ahead of them, Flick carefully took a small coin out of her pocket. As she focused on it, the privacy spell appeared, and she quietly whispered, “Welcome to the party, guys.”
Sands, crouched with Sean, murmured, “You already take care of psycho dipshit?”
“Yes,” Avalon confirmed. “We took everything he knew, then had him tell a few people that he was thinking about leaving, that he couldn’t handle being here. He asked Professor Dare to take him back to the Bystander world to see his parents, that he was homesick. She did, and as far as she or anyone else knows, he ran off and hasn’t been seen since.”
“And where is he really?” Sean asked.
Flick and Avalon exchanged glances, before the blonde girl quietly replied, “Let’s just say they’ll never find the body, and he’s not gonna hurt anyone else.” Shaking that off, she focused. “Anyway, how do we want to play this? Who wants the Amarok this time?”
“I wouldn’t mind running around without getting tired,” Columbus replied from his spot next to Scout. Thanks to the privacy spell, Deveron didn''t hear a thing despite being nearby (and paying far more attention than he appeared to be). As far as he was concerned, the only thing Columbus had said was to quietly ask Scout if she had seen anything odd on her side. “From everything you’ve said, it’s pretty damn useful.”
“Definitely has its moments,” Flick confirmed. “You already finished with the rest of it?”
“Got most of it done while we were sitting through the whole ‘welcome to your first hunt’ spiel,” he replied. “Between Sarah and me, we’re all set back here. Shouldn''t be that hard.”
“Don’t get cocky,” Avalon warned with a grunt. “We still have to do it without letting anyone else know anything’s up. That''s the hard part. This all gets a lot more complicated if anyone suspects anything. You know what happens then.”
“Yeah,” Sands piped up. “We get asked a lot of questions we can''t answer. So let’s get to this already and finish the easy part. I’ve got an itchy mace, and I didn’t get to be up front and center with these things last time, until the big puppy came out. Speaking of which, was it weird talking to us while we were past-us?”
“Little bit,” Flick confirmed. “Speaking of which, don’t forget you have to play nice with your dad.”
“We will,” Sarah agreed. “We won’t give anything away.”
“Good, now let’s get down to business. And remember,” Avalon warned, “no using obvious, flashy powers you couldn’t possibly have yet. Keep it reasonable.” She looked to Flick then, who stopped the privacy spell. Once Deveron would be able to hear what they were actually saying, she announced, “Chambers, get closer and lay down as many of your mines as you can around the cabin. Near that side window there, up around the back door, and on the far side. Take your time, we’ll cover you. No one rush. Scout, Porter, watch those heat signatures. If they move, speak up.”
Deveron finally spoke up. “Ah, you sure you want to send Chambers that close to those things?”
“Aww, I didn’t know you cared,” Flick teased. “Don’t worry, I’m okay. We’ve practiced stealth stuff. And Scout looked up a silencing spell before. They won’t hear me.”
There was a momentary pause before Deveron asked, “When did you practice stealth?”
“Oh, you know,” Sean replied, “when we were having all the team exercises you didn’t attend.”
In the silence that followed, Flick produced one of the aforementioned silencing spells and used it to keep herself from being detected. Then she crawled carefully toward the cabin while the others watched her back. One by one, she laid down the mines as Avalon had instructed. Within, the Chamrosh gave no reaction, obliviously going about their business.
Finally, she was done. Which meant that it was Sands’ turn to use a silencing spell and move forward. The girl used her mace to carefully create stone walls around the cabin, just beyond the mines that Flick had created. The Chamrosh, upon leaving the building, would be hit by the mines and trapped right behind the temporary walls.
Once that was done, Avalon spoke quietly. “Scout, on the count of three, take a shot at the heat signature through the front window. As soon as the rest of them burst out, wait for them to get hit by the mines. When they’re reeling, Mason will drop the walls. Gerardo and Mason will hit them hard on that side, while Chambers and I hit these ones. Ready?” She waited for affirmation before counting down. “Three… two… one.”
*****
Some time later, the team sat together in front of Professor Katarin in the man’s office. Headmistress Sinclaire and Professor Dare stood nearby, watching curiously, while Katarin addressed the six of them. “The way you went in with a plan and dealt with the Chamrosh was impressive enough on its own. But to adapt so quickly to the arrival of the Amarok, that was something else. And then… when you were attacked by those Garden students…”
“What did happen there, precisely?” Gaia asked, her voice betraying no particular emotion. “To be completely clear, we are all very relieved that the situation did not become much worse. But those Garden interlopers did not seem to manage much of an attack, despite their attempted ambush. It’s very curious, just how thoroughly they failed.”
Columbus shrugged. “Like we said, we''ve been doing some team training. And part of that was anticipating ambushes. We didn''t know where all the targets were, so I set up a couple trap spells nearby. Just in case they decided to come after the sniper and her spotter. The Chamrosh, I mean. Catching those assholes with them was basically just… blind luck.”
“Blind luck,” Professor Dare repeated, shaking her head in wonder. “Now that''s an understatement. You were ambushed by three older students from Eden’s Garden, and your trap spells managed to knock them out before they could actually do anything. For a group of first years this early on, that’s… quite remarkable. A testament to your mentor?” Her eyes moved to glance toward Deveron questioningly.
“Sure,” Flick cheerfully replied, “he''s been really helpful. Seriously, he’s definitely taught us a lot.”
Clearing her throat, Avalon asked, “What’s going to happen with Trice and the other two?”
“They are being held in a secure room for now,” Gaia replied. “We will likely send them back to Garden in exchange for some favor or another, with a warning about what happens when their students come after ours. I know it’s not the solution you might hope for, but there are certain rules we must follow. Much as I would like to hold them longer, the Committee will insist that they be traded back. After all, Eden’s Garden and Crossroads are ostensibly on the same side. We prefer to keep relations as… reasonable as possible.”
Katarin grunted. “That and our leaders can''t wait to rub the fact that our first year students kicked the pants off their much-more-experienced ones.”
Gaia offered a faint smile. “That is a part of it, I’m sure.” Her eyes narrowed then. “Yet I will have my own conversation with the three. Believe me, the six of you will have nothing else to worry about from them.
“I will make certain of that.”
******
“Okay, Chambers, you got me up here,” Koren announced several days later, squinting around the girls’ dorm roof. “What’s the big emergency?”
“It’s no big deal,” Flick replied, producing a small coin from her pocket and tossing it that way. “I just wanted to show you this.”
Koren, in turn, caught the coin before freezing. She stared at the image in it, going completely silent for almost a minute, before reeling backward with a loud gasp. “Hooooly shit! What the fuck? What--where--huh?”
“It’s okay,” Flick gently assured her, quickly taking the girl by the shoulders. “You alright? The coin just gave you your memories back.” She frowned. “Or… injected the memories of your future self into your past self. I’m not sure how it--”
“What the hell is going on?!” Koren blurted. “We’re back in Crossroads? You--wait, this is before--You guys are--you’re using time travel?! You--what?”
Avalon, stepping into view along with the rest of the team, shook her head. “It’s a little more complicated than just using time travel. We’re taking the place of our younger selves. Or we did, anyway. Believe me, it was a… last ditch plan. The memories in that coin are of you up until shortly before the thing that led to that emergency. It’s the best we could do, sorry. There wasn’t time to have everyone exchange places with their younger selves, and after what happened… some of you weren’t around anymore to do that anyway.”
“And what was that? And how did you guys even do any of this?” Koren demanded. “What emergency? And what do you mean some of us weren’t around? What--what?”
“That’s a long story,” Flick muttered. “We’ll get into it. Suffice to say, this was our only chance. But right now, let’s tell you what we’ve been doing.”
*****
“So, it sounds like you''ve been having fun,” Koren announced an hour later, once she had been brought up to speed about what they had been doing at the school itself. “What about Ammon and… all that?”
In answer, Flick held up her phone to show the girl camera footage, taken from a cell phone that had been set on a shelf inside of the gas station where Ammon had once murdered Denise and the would-be robber. “Senny and Twister got here before any of us. They were ready. Twister even managed to take a video for posterity.”
Sure enough, in the footage, before Ammon could even approach the counter, Asenath appeared behind him and injected the boy with something in a syringe. He collapsed, and she zipped him out of the room in a blur while the clerk, Denise, had her back turned.
A moment later, the man in the raincoat approached the counter. But once more, Asenath was there. She leaned in to whisper something to the man, causing him to hesitate and look over at where Twister was holding the camera for a moment before he retreated out of the building.
“She’s got Ammon locked down tight,” Flick finished, tucking the phone away. “He’s in a soundproof room and gets knocked out with gas any time she has to deliver food to him. We can deal with him later. Fossor’s probably losing his mind trying to figure out what happened to him, but we’ll handle it.”
“And if he approaches you to find out if you know anything?” Sean prompted, giving her a curious look.
“I’m a terrified, clueless little girl,” Flick replied. “Who is really pissed off if he brings up my mother again. When. When he brings up my mother again. He won’t be able to help himself.”
Koren exhaled. “Okay, so Pericles is alive. Does that actually help us? You know, with the whole fixing that big emergency thing. Not to be a bitch about it, but you know. The more things we change, the harder it''s going to be to predict what happens. And that’s a pretty big thing to change.” Hurriedly, she explained, “I mean, I’m not saying saving him was a bad thing. Just--I just--”
“We get it,” Shiori assured her. “Believe me, we definitely get it. But saving Pericles was the right thing to do. Besides, it means that he''s still on track to join the Committee. Which gives the reformists the edge in voting. Not that it’s going to change anything soon, but it''s something.”
Avalon nodded in agreement. “We can make things better in general too, but don’t forget, we have a mission we have to focus on.”
“Yeah,” Columbus muttered, “and what a fun one it is. Find everyone Godfather has infected and fix them. Cuz that’s not a tall order.”
“At least we have the spells to deal with it,” Shiori reminded him. “Thanks to Grandfather and Bastet.”
“And a few others,” Flick put in. “They’re the whole reason we have this chance.”
Koren spoke up then. “Speaking of others, what about Theia and Pace? You had them sent back to Eden’s Garden with Doxer and Trice, just like that?”
“Not exactly,” Sarah replied with a small smile.
“We might’ve paid them a little visit first,” Flick explained. “While everyone else was asleep and the adults were still negotiating with Eden’s Garden. And used the same sort of memory coin on them. They have their memories back. So they’re spying on Manakel and Charmeine. If those guys make a move, Pace and Theia will let us know.”
“You have spells to restore everyone’s memories like that?” Koren asked, with a raised eyebrow.
“Not everyone’s,” Flick lamented. “Just… some. We have to be careful with it too. Just in--” Abruptly, she gasped, reeling a bit. Around her, the others reacted the same way.
“What?” Koren blurted, looking around at them. “What is it? What’s going on?”
“The spell,” Sarah informed her. “We felt it again. The one that says one of us came back.”
“Uhh, what?” Koren frowned, confused. “You said you guys were the only ones that were sent back like that. I mean, you guys, Twister, and Asenath. It was just you ten, right? What does that mean?”
“Yes,” Avalon confirmed. “It was supposed to be just the ten of us. And yet, we just felt the spell trigger again. Which means someone else was sent back too.
“And something tells me they aren’t here for the same reasons we are.”