Paul
Now they were truly blind.
They had no magic to protect them from bumping into the worst of the Wilderness without his Pathfinding and Cassie asleep. By complete and utter luck, they didn’t encounter anything dangerous after riding on Kenta’s hair tank for hours. The Kaminoke kept them moving the whole time at a respectable pace, not knowing whether the Tracker was hours behind or minutes.
They dozed through the journey, crossing random landscapes in night and day, passing in or out of red and blue bubble halls through purple interlocks, taking Terminals or opening Nodal Gates as they came.
Paul crossed his fingers each and every time. He’d be revealed as an imposter if his random choices led them to a blocked node. By his understanding, nodes and Terminals weren’t connected by a signal but an idea. Either color of bubble hall could interrupt the conceptual link between worlds. Next time they threw out their Portal Ring, it might simply refuse to open. Yet, it seemed the whims of fate had other plans.
At one point, their chosen Node spat them into a lake. Or that’s what they thought at first.
Lea floated from her perch, eyes blinking open as her hair billowed in the current. While Paul’s density pinned him to Kenta’s hair construct, Wendi, Daniel, Rana, and Cassie drifted away with each passing moment. Minnows swam through their company in schools.
“What is going on?” Lea said, which was an impressive feat underwater. No bubbles erupted as she spoke. In fact, her chest rose and fell in regular breathing.
Filtered sunlight fell on the scene as if diffused by a layer of water. Grass swayed like seaweed. Trees stood like coral. A snake swam like an eel from cover to cover. Turtles and trout soared above a wolf doing the dog-paddle.
Wendi stretched and yawned. “Dogfish? I’m dreaming.”
“It must be an ambient magic effect,” Rana said as she reoriented.
The devil girl did a zero-gravity summersault. “You mean magic is making the air act like water instead of gigantifying crabs and sunflowers like Danny told me about?”
“If only we could stay to study it,” Daniel said, waving his arms to right himself as he marveled at his first experience of buoyance. “We might learn how it’s done.”
“Whatever this is, we have to keep moving,” Kenta reminded them. “And try not to wake Cass.” Tendrils of the Kaminoke’s hair grabbed Cassie and Paul, reeling them into the center mass. With his mane unbound by the strictures of the surface, Kenta swam like a hundred-limbed octopus.
Rana propelled herself with frog kicks, coming around to grab Lea and zip after Kenta. Wendi put Daniel over her shoulder and chased the others with tremendous breaststrokes. The frog girl seemed adept at swimming, while the caprid girl fought water resistance with overwhelming brute strength. The Kaminoke kept pace with them despite his heavier load.
By some miracle or incredibly heavy sleeping, Cassie wasn’t disturbed.
The sensation of water gradually faded over the next few miles, the air becoming less dense further from the ‘lake’s’ center. Paul once thought he saw a shark in the distance, but nothing that dangerous came near by the time they’d exited the magical space.
The luck of the Wilderness, as Rana would say.
Dry as if they’d not been submerged, they resumed their sleeping positions on Kenta’s hair tank. Sleep, however brief, found Paul.
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And all too soon, Paul woke, stress keeping him from deep rest. He slid open his helmet’s visor, and light spilled forth. The clock function Daniel had programmed into his Shew Stone said Kenta’s shift had another hour remaining. Though Paul scanned the horizon with his telescope every other minute, he saw nothing significant until they came across the slug trail.
A path of sizzling acidic slime twenty feet across cut the face of the land. It pierced the horizon in both directions. Which way had it gone? Trees and rocks were half-melted all along the edges of the trail, and the muddy goo of liquefied organics in the trench bubbled with mortal peril.
This wasn’t the first time they’d dealt with the dangerous traces of more powerful Wildlings. Paul and Kenta woke Lea with soft voices. She levitated them across with her eight floating caramboles—supporting the hair tank evenly from below so as not to wake anyone else.
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“If we’re really lucky,” Kenta said, “The Tracker won’t be able to cross this.”
Lea set them down, and they rolled away on the tank treads. “I doubt it will be that simple,” the drowsy Libra girl stated, eyes half-lidded and unable to sit straight. She crashed into the foam bed Rana had made for her, desperate to squeeze in a few more minutes of sleep.
Daniel and Rana were next up, starting a private conversation, as evidenced by eye movement and silent expressions. Paul tried not to guess at the topic. The young angel sat on an unconscious Wendi’s open palm while Rana squatted opposite him by a sleeping Cassie.
“We’re taking this public?” Rana finally said something they could hear.
“I’m tired of secrets,” Daniel responded. “How is she?” As strange as it seemed to Paul, he must be referring to Cassie.
“You forced her to sleep—Think she’ll wake up happy and cheerful?”
“You don’t know she won’t.”
Rana rolled her eyes, then touched her fingertips to Cassie’s face. “Rapid eye movement. She’s dreaming.”
“Good,” Daniel said. “Regardless of the outcome of her first attempt, we’ll explain everything to the others. Let’s get all the negative reactions out of the way while she’s asleep and present a unified front of support. She’ll need it to overcome a four-year condition.”
“No,” Rana said, “Further.”
Daniel looked surprised, “You mean the problem predates the Eastwood Event?”
This caught Paul’s attention—Pharos’ invasion of his mindscape and anything related remained a sore spot in his psyche. Paul’s Progenitor had uncovered a lesser demon whispering poison into his subconscious and excised the enemy. While he’d worried the others had been infested by a similar parasite, Cassie’s preexisting condition shouldn’t be related.
On that reasoning, he chose not to voice his concerns.
“I never noticed her having problems when she slept by Nyctea,” Rana said, referring to Cassie’s owl harpy adoptive mother. “However, whenever her guardian went away on a mission, Cassie would stay up all night. I’ve known about the nightmares since the night we left the Facility—I caught her wandering after you fell asleep.”
“Cassie has been having nightmares?” Paul broke into the conversation.
“In a minute, Paul, when everyone’s up,” Daniel said.
“I’m up!” Wendi said as she stretched.
“How could we sleep with such chatter?” Lea said, “And what’s this about nightmares?”
“How much did you all hear?”
“The Kaminoke don’t spy on other people’s business, Dan,” Kenta replied.
Daniel returned to the seriousness of the situation with a half-smile. “I’ll start from the top. For possibly her whole life, Cassie has dealt with chronic insomnia due to recurring nightmares. Besides being difficult for her personally, this will affect our escape from pursuit—”
“—We’re toast if she can’t recharge her power,” Rana stepped in to add emphasis.
He nodded and resumed, “—Fortunately, we have a backup; Cassie can refuel herself with blood. Up till now, Rana has been shouldering the duty. It’s fair we share the responsibility now the load is heavier. We’ll want her in flying condition at least every eight hours until we get out of this. Paul and I would if we could, but since that’s out of the question, we need more volunteers.”
Wendi’s free hand shot up, “I’ll do it! I want to help!”
“That’s good to hear,” Daniel grinned, “But if your skin can resist my magic, I’m worried if her teeth are sharp enough. Kenta, do you have a few drops to spare?”
“You need to ask? It’s not a problem for me.”
“Great. Although, I don’t think it’s safe for one person to give more than once a day. Lea, could you serve as a backup if all else fails?—If you’re comfortable with this, of course.”
All eyes turned to Lea, who had an unforgettable look of surprise on her face. She was not confused or angry but impressed.
Come to think of it, Paul thought, What just happened?
Daniel had included Paul in saying they couldn’t give blood, implying Paul’s approval of the situation. Then Paul had been complicit with Daniel’s plan through his silence. The young angel had turned a potential argument into ‘no big deal.’ Except, this was a very big deal. It caught Paul by surprise, made all the worse since he’d known about Cassie’s nightmares.
He’d no idea she’d been suffering to this extent, though. She’d never told him what she dreamed of, how bad they were, or how often she’d them. He’d never pressed for answers. The fact Cassie hid such a major factor of her life from him made Paul feel a twinge of betrayal, even jealousy she’d trusted Rana above him.
Paul kept his thoughts to himself, knowing the immediate consequences of any words he might have said. There was no derailing Daniel’s train of thought without crashing the train, which would be bad. He didn’t want to hurt Cassie or make her suffer, no matter his hurt feelings. Daniel’s way seemed the best to prevent that.
Before anyone could question Cassie’s deception or Rana’s involvement, Daniel had aligned himself, Rana, Paul implicitly, and then Wendi to form a majority. He then provoked Kenta’s pride to get a swift affirmation, presenting the whole thing tied in a bow to Lea—‘Go along with this or be the odd one out.’ He couldn’t use her social magic, so he’d used peer pressure. He and Rana had steamrolled all possible objections by putting things in terms of group survival. Daniel hadn’t allowed Lea the chance to voice emotions like betrayal and anger.
Not that Paul knew how Lea felt, as she and Cassie had drifted apart since Radio World. However, he could see Lea was fully aware of Daniel’s play; so taken aback by the role-reversal, she seemed on the verge of applause.
Instead, Lea replied, “I am slightly concerned about the effects my blood might have on her, but if she is willing, I shall consent.”
“That settles it.” Daniel gave them a guileless smile. This had definitely been planned from the beginning. “Now we can—”
“Which way, Paul?” Kenta asked as they approached a Terminal.
Aggravated by having to tell another lie, he chose at random and prayed they got lucky. “The World Gate on the right.”
On the other side, staring them in the face, lay a beach and ocean. Paul couldn’t believe it. After all those times he’d wished for luck, it’d finally happened.
“Great job,” Daniel smiled his way. Kenta, Lea, and Wendi also voiced their appreciation. Paul wished he could hide under a rock. “We can’t cross the water without Cassie, so we’ll have to wait here.” They’d have to pray the Tracker didn’t catch up before then.
Luck must truly be with them as, at that very moment, Cassie awoke.