Aunt T

Asher made it to the shop.

Miranda

I heard and I'm OMW.

Aunt T

Can you scout around the hospital first? I have a feeling.

Miranda

Think he's going to go for Mom?

Aunt T

I do.

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Asher

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Terri was upstairs resting, with Cheddar watching over her. O’Leary sat in a chair, fingers working against his temples as a Fruit by the Foot dangled between his lips. Asher stared at the glyph-free, naked bat; he had the spell now, knew what to do, but he wouldn't risk Green again.

“It won’t hurt me, because it’s in your mind now.”

“That’s what you said about imprinting.”

“If it was imprinting, I would’ve been right, but it wasn’t.”

“I still don’t fully understand the difference between imprinting and etching. Why did I have to be etched?”

“O’Leary or Cheddar might explain it better, but it’s about how fresh your mind is.”

“What do you mean, fresh?”

“That we’ll have to fight for every new shadow spell you learn.”

“Oh, that’s all." Asher sent a pulse of sarcasm with the words along the bond."Green, that’s a lot! That fight was almost the end of us.”

Green hopped to the front of the store and flopped with a mental shrug. “Is what it is, but you should finish the bat, because we can’t stay here forever.”

He was right; more shades had entered and left the store and it was becoming more difficult to predict their patterns, but what was their next step? Where should they go?

“Xroad, I’m guessing, but that’s where your dad is, and they train fledglings there.”

His dad? Asher’s breathing increased; what would he say? The brain fed cocktail of excitement and nerves threatened to overwhelm him, but a single thought pushed through to the surface — “What about my mom?”

“What about her?”

“Well, I can cross people over, like I did with O'Leary; the Awaken spell. Shouldn’t I…. I mean, we could all be together again.”

“Your call, but I’ll say this — you’ve seen that life isn’t easy bellyside, and what you’ve seen only scratches the surface.”

Asher nodded, while moving over to the small table; he set the bat on its surface, pulled out his phone as it vibrated, and scrolled through the messages. “Wheeler’s texting me again.”

O’Leary looked up, “I have a couple too, but we can’t trust him.”

“He seems to want to help. I know what you said, but…”

“There’s no but, buddy. I saw it — Wheeler went Sith.”

“Okay, but even Vader came back to himself in the end. Maybe Wheeler did too. Maybe that’s why he’s trying to help.”

“I want to think that too, but….” O’Leary let out a sigh. “I wish I could show you what I saw — what I felt." He shook his head. "No, what I feel — even now.”

“I don’t need to understand everything, and I trust what you’re saying, but let’s not forget our Wheeler could be in there still — Okay?”

O’Leary grunted.

It was as close to winning the argument as Asher was going to get, so he slid the phone back in his pocket. “Hey, do you think I should bring my mom over?”

“Mrs. Ardern?” O’Leary ran a hand through his hair, giving the back of his head a quick scratch. “Yes.”

“Won’t it cause problems?”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

O’Leary shrugged. “Maybe, I don’t… feck.” He let out a deep sigh.

“What?”

His mouth chewed the words for a few moments before spitting them out. “Cheddar would probably know.”

Asher nodded, but he had the answer he wanted. He was going to get his family back. “If you can’t think of a reason, that’s enough for me. Let’s go get her.”

O’Leary nodded, but his head froze mid drop. “Not a good idea. She’ll be at the hospital, and that’s like cycle central.”

Asher quirked an eyebrow.

O’Leary sighed. “I don’t know what it means, just that it is.”

“Helpful.” Asher regretted saying it soon as it left his mouth. O’Leary must be so confused with all the memories locked in his mind, leaking between cracks.

“You’re telling me.”

“I didn’t mean that.”

“I know.”

“Okay, I’ll take Cheddar. You stick around, watch Terri, and maybe she can help you unlock some more doors.”

“Not a chance.”

“It makes the most sense. Cheddar can help me navigate the shades and you need to figure this out.”

“I don’t care. I’ll help you navigate.” O’Leary near growled. “You’re too damn trusting, and I’m not leaving you alone with Cheddar.”

“And you’re paranoid.”

“With good reason.”

Asher noticed O’Leary’s gaze drift to where Green watched the front door. “I know.” He reached out a hand and placed it on O’Leary’s forearm. “I’m here when you want to talk, buddy. Oh, and I’m sure Green is as well.”

“I am.”

“Thanks, and I know I'm being paranoid, but I’m still coming with, so finish the bat or borrow your aunt’s sword and let’s go.”

“Oh, she’d love that.” Asher got to his feet, eyes on the bat. “Okay, fill up our food satchels and we’ll head out soon as I’m done.”

O’Leary nodded, then got up, grabbed Asher’s shoulder satchel and the new backpack Terri gave him, and headed up the stairs. “Okay, Green, I’m going to give this a shot.”

The spells were always present in his mind, like the cage of his hockey helmet. The bars were there, but you only really noticed them when you focused on them. He held the bat out in front of him and called up the symbols in his mind. There was something maddening unnatural about how natural it felt as symbols appeared along the bat, layering one atop the other.

“Asher stop! Take a break.”

Green’s voice shattered his focus. The bat was only about half complete. “Why’d you do that? I was making progress.”

“Look at your hand.”

Asher looked down — his hand was mostly colorless; only a few specs remained. He hadn’t noticed his fade, because enchanting the bat had entranced him. No wonder this part was easy; without Green, he would have cycled — how many others had Lady Wraith claimed this way? “Thanks.”

“He got through to you?” O’Leary’s arms were on his shoulders; Had he been trying to shake him?

“Yeah, thanks. I’m okay. I didn’t feel you at all; I was in some sort of…. I don’t know, like in the zone.”

“We didn’t know if ripping the bat away would cause more problems. Cheddar suggested Green use his mental speak.”

Asher saw Cheddar wave at them from the top of the stairs.

“If it hadn’t, I was going to try that next.” O’Leary pointed down at the bat and passed Asher a candy bar.

“How long was I….”

“A while, but that was pretty good,” said Cheddar. “Quick, even for someone with a bit of experience.”

“Terri?” Asher asked.

“Still down,” O’Leary said.

Cheddar looked over their shoulder, “I, I, I should get back. I’ll make sure she’s okay. Her leg is healed, so are her ribs. Now she’s just sleeping. You should sleep too, Asher.”

“They’re right, you should.”

“I’m fine.” Asher needed to get this done and Awaken his mom before Terri was up; she might stop him. “I just want to finish this up.”

O’Leary nodded. “Green and I will watch him.”

Asher got some food into him, then turned back to the bat. This time he stopped after every glyph to check how far he’d faded and took a bite to keep himself fueled. It took longer, but he got the bat done. “Okay, we ready?” He gave his new weapon a few practice things.

“You’re sure about this?”

That was disturbing; maybe Green’s asking again was a sign this might not be the best idea. “Yeah, I am.”

“Yeah, let’s get moving. We’ll keep to the gutters.” O’Leary shrugged to Asher’s questioning eyebrow. “Something Cheddar taught me.”

Asher wanted to poke him for giving credit to Cheddar, but left it alone. “Okay, gutters it is. We avoid shades, get in, and get out with Mom.”

The three of them lined up beside the door, waited for a shade to leave, then followed them outside, timed the sidewalk crossing, and hit the gutter at a jog. Green kept to the sidewalk, shade dodging with ease.

Green cautioned them about letting their energy reserves drop below half, and it was a long jog, so they would stop at least twice to refuel, but as city blocks faded behind them chatter was kept to a minimum; focused as they were on the task. Asher noticed spell spiders more frequently now, not in waves like when he fractured, but they skittered out of cracks in the pavement, or along the base of buildings; he found he appreciated them as they broke the constant gray-scale filling the world.

“Stop.”

Asher lashed out, grabbing O’Leary’s backpack and yanking back.

O’Leary leaned into the pull, stumbled, but kept his feet. “Hey! What?”

Asher held a finger over his mouth, shrugged, and pointed with his other hand to Green.

He kept his voice low, but Green spoke to them both. “Howler in the alley. Get over here against the building.” Asher and O’Leary, dodged the few shades, crossed the sidewalk to the wall, and pressed their backs against it. “Thinning shades is a good sign there might be a howler, so I’ve been on the lookout for a few blocks now.”

“Yeah, Cheddar told me about thinning shades and howlers when we were coming to get you,” said O’Leary. “Didn’t see any, though.”

“I think I saw a painting at Shady Pawn,” said Asher. “They didn’t look very scary.”

“Not quite.” Green hopped up to the alley’s corner, glanced around, then came back. “Okay, there’s just one. Look, but be careful.”

O’Leary and Asher looked at one another, but O’Leary led them forward to the building’s corner, knelt, and looked around. “Oh, that ain’t right.” He pushed back, clearing the way for Asher.

Asher mimicked O’Leary, kneeling before slowly looking into the alley. It didn’t go very far, ending with a tall fence and two large garbage bins — a dead-end situation. The howler was tough or stupid to put their back to a wall in a world like this, but it laid on the ground, turned away. Asher made out the small, white and black shaggy forms, but there were two howlers; no, it was one, but the misty one layered and shifted atop the other as if tethered. They shifted, growled, and shook as if their mouths chewed on something, but then the shade head, eyes red, twisted back to meet Asher’s gaze, its teeth bared in a growl. Asher jerked back around the corner. “Shit.”

“What?” said O’Leary.

“I think it saw me.”

Barking mixed with a mournful howl carried from the alley.

“You think, eh?”

“This should be fun,” said Green.