Chapter 11 – Repercussions.
Rachael woke feeling sore, cold, and still very much drained. Stone was not conductive to getting decent rest, and something else was still effecting her. She sat up, looking around for Chris, to check on him and make sure that he was alright. But he was nowhere to be seen. Panic started to claw at her. What the. Where had he gone? What had happened to him?
He is resting. I have placed them somewhere safe. The process is not yet complete.
“He should be healed by now. Your magic is that powerful!” Rachael replied, anger rising within her. What was the Core up to now. She did not feel like being toyed with. “And the integration is complete. I felt it.”
True. He is indeed well, and the magic and soul integration is, as you say, complete. But that is only part of the process. You agreed to take responsibility and pay the price. So consequences must be faced, and the debt paid.
The Core had her there, and it did mean that Chris would be safe for the time being. Well, from outside influences.
You fled your duties child, after all that was done for you.
That she also had. Was the Core going to punish her for that as well? Could things get any worse? At least the last few years had been nice, all things considered. Rachael didn’t regret the decision. Things would have gone much worse if she had tried to keep it up.
You were too young, and the time not right, for the job I had assigned you. I made a mistake. I am not infallible. Your are powerful, well now you both are, but you are not suited to this age. It will only end in tears. So, once you have faced the consequences of your actions, you will join her, till your time arrives.
Rachael was confused. What did that even mean?
It is part of your debt. You will understand in time. Now go, and return here when you are done. Do not tarry, I allow you only a small window.
Then the fatigue lifted, the Core signalling that she was free to go now. Rachael sighed. Little had she realized back as a child what she had agreed to. She stood up and looked around. Blood stained the ground around her, and the creature’s battered remained still lay where she had pummelled it into the floor. Her fists and arm ached in response, reminding her that she had actually damaged them in the fight. Awakening her power, she focused her healing magic into the wounded areas. The very basis of it had been a skill that Trish has taught her, and one that she had then taken and adapted in different directions after that. The wounds started to close, the bruising fading. The scars would remain for a few weeks, before they too would fade. She still hadn’t quite worked out how to make the healing process flawless from the start.
Of the weapons and armour that Chris had worn and used, there was no sign. Hopefully the Core had sealed them along with him. They really did suit, though she did wonder what had happened to the rest of it. There would have been a full set, though some of it may not have fitted so well in his current form.
She will get the rest of it eventually. It has been bonded to her, something quite ancient.
Okay, so she wasn’t quite free of the Core at the moment, nor would ever be probably. Ah well. She would hold up her end of the bargain.
Rachael carefully made her way across the temple, stopping at the entrance. It was raining. Not just a little bit either. While it was still daylight hours, the sky was masked by deep black clouds, a torrent of rain coming down, soaking the land and forming pools across the basin. She had checked the weather forecast before they had left, and there hadn’t been any predicted for days.
Correct. It has been four days. Some things take time.
That... was not good.
Again correct. Make haste child. We will talk again when you return.
Rachael was certain that she had heard some amusement in the Core’s ‘voice’, which would be a first. It had long been an emotionless entity. Was it possible that it could actually evolve and change? She shrugged, and then took her hoodie off, stashing it just inside the temple. While most of her clothes wouldn’t be too bothered by the weather, exercise gear is made to sweat in after all, the hoodie would just become a sodden mess. There’d be stuff in the car she could use when she got back to it. If it was still there that was. Steeling herself and hoping for the best, she ran out into the rain, getting soaked instantly. At least the rain wasn’t cold.
If there was thing that she had become good at over the last few years, it was running. It helped her stay in shape and being fit made her magic a little easier to use. Ignoring the water streaming over her, she ran across the basin, weaving her way past all of the slowly growing pools, and up to the path that led up the side of the cliff face. Barely hesitating, she continued up the path. There was enough space for her and she was certain of her footing. Yes, she was using a little bit of magic, the power flowing through her body to enhance it, a technique Trish had called Personal Supplementation. Outside of combat she found it difficult to use, being one that she lack finesse with, but right at this point in time she found it coming to her a lot more naturally.
As fit as she was, the climb still took a lot out of her, and she was panting by the time she reached the top. Stopping to catch her breath, she looked back down, the basin now shrouded in a fine mist, as if it was trying to hide something. While she hadn’t seen any others, something seemed odd about that temple. Her breathing steady again, she pushed the thought to the back of her mind, and resumed running.
There is something to be said about the meditative and focal aspects of running. Placing one foot down after the other, the pounding of your feet against the earth. Rachael raced along the path, retracing their steps, not that there was actually any other way to go. The road weaved it’s way through the forest, the trees thinning as the temple was left further behind, Chris with it. She would be back, there was no doubt that. The Core’s words worried her though, and for once she truly had no idea of what lay ahead in her future. Then finally she broke past the last of the trees, her feet returning to the familiar feel of asphalt. The presence of nature receded, and soon enough she was running back past the overgrown ruins of buildings collapsed by the severe earthquake, if it was actually that, the rain still just as intense as before. It was starting to get a lot darker, the day now approaching evening.
She slowed down once she was a few blocks away from the edge of Old Town. She wouldn’t be taking her car back to the house, at least not without having to provide some elaborate stories, and she didn’t have the time to be weaving said tales. The red and blue flashing lights with accompanying orange ones that she could see in Agerslows were a pretty good indication that her car had been found by the Police. Not that she had done anything wrong, rather she assumed that her flatmates had logged both her and Chris as missing. Probably Sunday night, after they didn’t return that night. They may have even assumed that they had been missing since Saturday night, since that was the last time that they had been seen. Now it was Thursday. Jogging till she reached the border, she then stopped at the edge. If the cops were anything like, well, everyone else, then being near the vicinity of Old Town would be making them agitated and ill at ease. They wouldn’t be looking in this direction and would be keen to leave once they got the opportunity. If she was careful she’d be able to avoid them, and the rain and light levels would definitely help with that.
Walking carefully, she moved in the direction of her car. A cordon had been set up around it, orange road cones with the stripey black and yellow barriers, and a few orange hazard lights. Didn’t really serve much purpose here, but it was likely standard police procedure. Parked on the curbside, facing away from her, was the police car, it’s lights flashing. Rachael could make out the silhouettes of two officers inside, but beyond talking, she had no idea what they were actually up to. She briefly contemplated trying to recover some stuff from her car, but decided that it wasn’t worth the risk, not that she actually needed anything from it anyways. From what the Core had been saying, she guessed that she probably wouldn’t be needing anything of her old life at all. Turning to her right, she walked along the road till she was out of view of the police car, and then started running again. At the rate it was going she’d have run a full marathon and then some by the time this was all over.
Rachael knew exactly where she was going, the orange glow of the street lights lighting the rain soaked footpaths and illuminating the droplets as they fell. She ran at a measured pace, the ground passing by beneath her. She never thought she’d ever run for this long in this type of weather, but here she was. No one paid her any attention, the curtains on the houses drawn, families going through their evening routines, cars whizzing by with their drivers trying to get home as fast as possible, while the rare person that she did pass just hurried along their way, doing their best to stay dry, something that had not been an option for her today.
She stopped when her home came into view. Sorry, former home. There was no police presence here, not that she had expected any, but it did avoid any additional complications. Peter’s car was parked outside, but there was no sign of Paul’s. The kitchen and lounge lights were on, as was the lights in Peter’s bedroom. Both her room and Chris’s were dark, as they should be, not being there and all. Millie’s room was on the other side of the house, so she couldn’t tell from here where her best friend was. Millie was the only reason that she had come back, and probably the reason why the Core had sent her back. She had no interest in letting the others know that she had returned, albeit temporarily, ignoring all the complications that doing so would have caused.
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Her heart felt pained. She was going to be leaving all of this life and all of these people behind, and it was going to hurt them all. She should never had been here in the first place, but she had no regrets. She had made her choice, spent time with her best friend that she would not have otherwise had, and met Chris. But now the time was up.
Double-checking to make sure that no one was watching, not that they’d be likely to see anything anyways with the torrential downpour that had somehow managed to sustain itself, Rachael made her way over to the house and close to her window on the second floor. She had briefly considered waiting till everyone had gone to bed, but given the circumstances, there was a chance that that opportunity wouldn’t arise, nor did she necessarily have that time. Besides, she’d always wanted to try this. Her room was the one right above the front door of the house, and as such, it had a small porch roof under her window. The porch roof of course had a small section of gutter, which was at the moment overflowing and not really serving its purpose, and hence there was a section of rainwater pipe running down the side of the house beside it. While it was only made from a rigid industrial plastic, she hoped that, combined with the personal enhancement magic, it would hold her weight long enough for her to climb up. Once on the small section of roof, getting into her room would be easy, after all, locks were never an issue for her.
Channelling the magic, Rachael climbed up. Her grip slipped a few times, and the pipe groaned under her, but it held. Sporting only a few cuts and scrapes from the ascent, she clambered onto the roof. Not wasting any time she used her magic to flick open the window latch from the outside, and pulling the window open she climbed inside, dripping water everywhere. Closing the window behind her, she pulled the curtain, and then walked over to the door to turn the light on. Grabbing her towel which hung on the back of her door, she started to dry her hair.
“Oh my gods, you’re soaked! Where have you been?”
Rachael sighed. Why do things never go to plan. Ever. She turned to find Millie sitting up in her bed, looking like a drained shade of herself, like she hadn’t eaten or slept properly in the last few days. In all likelihood she probably hadn’t, and it was all her fault to.
“First it was the Goth girl in my bed. Now you’ve taken up camp.” Probably not the best response she’d made.
“Don’t give me that!” Millie snapped. There was anger and relief in her eyes, and tears were forming. “Where have you been for the last four days? We’ve been worried sick. We’ve even called the police to try and find you.”
Rachael sighed again, and continued to dry her hair, which she knew she wasn’t going to succeed at, delaying her reply.
“So I noticed. They’ve set a cordon around my car, so I had to take the slower and wetter route back.” She gave up on her hair, wrapping the towel around it, and then went to her draw, fishing out another towel as well as a fresh set of clothes, the black and red exercise gear and matching underwear and bra.
“I’ve been unconscious for the last four day, as has Chris,” she then continued as she stripped off her wet clothes. Millie’s eyes went wide with shock, either because of what was said or what she was seeing. Probably both. Rachael feigned ignorance and proceeded to dry herself down, which had been the original plan for when she got back to her room. She was going to get soaked again, but for a brief time she would have some respite. “We ran into something unexpected, and the past has come back to haunt me.”
“You were out with Chris?” Something in Millie’s voice said that she was having trouble believing or understanding what Rachael was saying.
“Yes. He wanted to find something in Old Town, and I wanted to go with him.”
“What?!” Millie almost screamed it.
“Shhh. I’d rather you not draw any more attention to us please.” Rachael walked over to Millie, still naked, and sat on the bed beside her, pulling her into a hug. Millie broke into a cry, unable to hold her emotions back any longer.
“I thought you’d died or something,” Millie said between sobs. “I don’t want to lose you. Everything’s been off since Saturday. First you weren’t at home in the evening, then on Sunday morning we found the Goth girl sleeping in your bed. Then on Sunday night when you didn’t come back, and Chris was also missing, and no one was answering their phones we started to panic. Not to mention we found a bloodied top in the bedroom. We though something terrible had happened to you! Peter was worried that Chris had done something unforgivable to you!”
“Heh.” Rachael couldn’t help give an amused grin. She had expected that they’d draw those conclusions, even though they knew that Chris was nothing like that. “He hasn’t done anything like that at all. But...”
“But?” Millie pulled back, eyeing Rachael suspiciously.
“But let me get dressed first before I continue. It’s cold in here.” Rachael stood back up, and finished drying herself off, before she then dressed herself again in the clothes that she had put aside, Millie watching her suspiciously. In any other circumstances, she would have been eagerly eyeing her up.
“You’re putting tights back on again...” Millie eventually commented once Rachael was dressed.
“You don’t like it?” Rachael teased. It was ill placed, but she couldn’t help herself.
Millie gave her ‘that look’. “You’re planning to leave again, aren’t you?”
Rachael sat down on the bed again beside Millie. “I have little choice. My past has caught up with me.”
“Rachael, what is going on. Tell me the truth.” Millie looked at her, pleading.
This was going to be hard for them both. Rachael stared at the wall for a little bit, formulating what she was going to say as the rain made an almost soothing patter on the roof. It was nice to be out of it for a little bit. She then reached out her hand, forming a small flame that danced around her hand.
“It’s been a very long time since I showed you this, and back then you thought it was just a cool trick. But it’s not. It’s very much real, though also incredibly rare. Only a small number of people can use magic, real magic, and it has always been a part of my life.”
Rachael snuffed out the flame, then replacing it with a small ball of light that floated between her fingertips. “I’ve always had to hide it, and that hurt, and made life difficult, even when I got called to the source of magic. I got intertwined in it’s world Millie, ever since we went on that overseas trip, and when I left home for that job it was because I got called to serve.”
She then turned to face Millie directly, letting the magic fade. Millie looked sad, the realisation awakening in her even though she was trying desperately to ignore it.
“But I hated it, and I ran away. I’ve loved these last few years, spending it with you. I’ve had a lot of good times, and just as many frustrations I guess. It’s been good though. But the past has caught up with me, and Chris has paid part of the price. He’s become entangled in it all, through no choice of his own.”
“He almost died Millie, and it was my fault. He means a lot to me, and I almost lost him.”
Rachael sighed.
“I made a life long committent. One that I cannot escape. So, I have to return. I was allowed back to face the consequences of my actions, and part of that was seeing you again. But my time here has ended. I will be returning to Old Town, and most people cannot enter there. I guess for all intents and purposes we’ll be a missing case that never gets solved.”
“I’m sorry.”
Tears started streaming down Millie’s face. “Don’t say that. It isn’t fair. Returning and telling me all this is only going to make it harder!”
“I just wanted to give you some closure. I truly am sorry.”
“Screw closure. And what am I to say when I’m asked?”
“Nothing. They have no reason to come back and ask you.”
“Stay. Or take me with you.”
Rachael shook her head. “I can’t Millie. You have no affinity for that world, and I’d just break your heart.”
“You’re doing worse now.” Millie shifted position, looking away from Rachael, and stared at the wall. “I wish you’d never returned.”
Rachael frowned, her heart heavy. She knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but words like that were just making it all the worse. She truly cared for Millie, even if she’d never be able to give her what she wanted. Perhaps she was right after all. Should she not have come back? But whatever she was feeling, Millie would be feeling it a million times worse.
“I’m sorry,” Rachael said again quietly as she stood up. “I didn’t want us to part like this, but it is my fault.”
“...”
“You owe me Rachael.”
Millie got up, her pretty face streaked with tears, her eyes tinged red. Stepping up to Rachael, she pulled her in close, locking lips with her. The kiss was long and passionate, something that they had only done on the rare occasion, but Rachael could feel Millie’s desire and desperation in it, and she hurt. She embraced her in response, letting Millie have this last moment.
Time’s up.
Rachael felt, rather than saw, a warm light envelope her, the warmth of Millie’s embrace replaced by the touch of magic. When she opened her eyes again she was floating within the warm light, unable to make out any of her surrounding, and alone.
“Can’t we do anything for Millie?”
No. She has no affinity for magic, just as you said. Though she is a master of such stories, she will never be able to be part of them, a cruel twist of fate. It is part of the price that you have to pay. You returned to her world, but you could never stay.
Tears welled up unbidden. The Core was right, and she knew it, but it didn’t lessen the hurt.
“Where am I?”
What you would call stasis, or suspended animation. Frozen in time. The exact where is irrelevant. You will both sleep till it is your time. As to when that will be, only fate knows.
So that is what the Core had meant about her time. Not only was she going to lose her friends, she was also going to lose everything that she knew about, her past, her entire world. If she ever woke again at all. What if her time never came?
Fear does not become you. You must pay the price for your actions, but it is not as bad as you think it will be. Not to mention, you still have her.
Rachael could feel the magic weaving itself around her and within her, blanketing her in its warmth, her awareness slowly slipping away. She hoped that Chris was alright, and looked forward to being able to see him again. Or her. Not that she needed to hope. She knew instinctively that Chris was fine, and just sleeping, now that the same magic was touching her as well.
Sleep now child.
Rachael closed her eyes, everything slipping away as the deep slumber took her over, one last thought coming to her before it too faded away,
Who had been responsible for the second Pyre?
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Millie spent the next few hours crying, pouring her heart out, her soul torn by the loss of her best friend and lover that she was never able to have. She knew that Rachael had always kept her at a slight distance so that she would never hurt her, even though they had shared a few intimate times as well. Bittersweet memories. Teases of things that could never be. She understood why though. Rachael had been hiding so much. Why Chris though she didn’t quite understand. There was something strange about him too.
She was also left with the doubt that perhaps none of it was real, that she had dreamed it all up, Rachael disappearing in the middle of their kiss, enveloped in a warm light that was nothing but foreign to her.
Rachael was right though. No one asked, and she was filed away in the unsolved cases. Chris was assumed to be the one responsible for whatever happened to Rachael, as that was probably the easiest answer for them, but he was also never found, and his record filed alongside hers. Rachael had never said in the end what had caused the blood and tear on her top.
Their flat broke apart soon after and everyone left. Millie too, unable to stand the loneliness and memories. She went back home to stay with her parents, abandoning her job, giving herself time to recover. She poured herself into her worlds, her escape and solace, still clinging to the hope that one day perhaps she might find Rachael again.
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Six months later the Demon King started his second war against mankind. Most died.
Which was followed by the Shattering and the birth of magic into the world.
Against all odds, Millie survived. Though she was not one of those who gained magic, she did become one of the first Channellers.
[[Arc 1 end.]]