When Stella was anxious, and Stella was often anxious, she would press her nails into her skin, hard. She did this because it was an action that could be done almost without notice, and Stella always liked to appear in control. That, and no matter how hard she pressed, even if she drew blood, on Stella nothing left a visible mark.
But Bambi knew, because Bambi could see inside her mind, not the feelings but the thoughts and the actions that went with them. That facade of control Stella had even sometimes fooled herself. She needed it, and so Bambi let her have it. Stella had found her own way to survive in this world and Bambi didn’t want to ruin that no matter how much her inability to help pained her. If she could think of a better way she might have tried it, but Stella’s mind was like a jenga tower that had been glued together. Pull out one block and the whole tower comes with it.
They’d met up at a bar again, just after breakfast, and a different location this time. As usual, it was one Stella had chosen. Stella knew all the bars and exactly what each one had on it’s wine list. This one was situated in Marblewood, surrounded by nice views of rolling paddocks. It had been set up in a converted barn. The architect and designers had kept most of the rustic feel. A large stone fireplace, that was lit year round for atmosphere, took up significant portion of one wall. Above it, hung several antlers from different breeds of deer. Giant, comfy leather couches, draped with cow hide encircled the fire. But whoever had rebuilt this place had also taken advantage of the views and swapped enough of the wall for full-length windows to give the place lots of natural light. It somehow managed to strike a perfect balance between upmarket and down to earth at the same time. Likewise, their wine list, most of it supplied by Stella’s import business, had a little something for everyone, from boxed wine to rare whiskey rescued from shipwrecks off the bottom of the ocean.
The place was called The Broken Whistle, named as such because it’s primary purpose, other than being a watering hole, was to provide a stage for locals and visitors alike to show off their musical talent. Several instruments were available to borrow but if you didn’t play an instrument there was also the karaoke machine, talent was not required. If you did happen to have some talent though, the bartender was known for occasionally shouting a free drink in return for a song.
The bartender was the alluring component of this place, at least for Stella. She was a pretty thing, somewhere between Bambi and Stella’s age, with pale pink hair, shaved short on one side and roughly plaited on the other. Her eyes were a large vibrant green and she was always in a chipper mood. Several silver piercings ran up the side of the ear not hidden by her hair. Her name was Athena Rabbit, but most people just called her Bunni.
“What can I get ya?” Athena asked with a smile as she leaned forward over the bar toward Stella.
Bambi supposed it was perhaps a good thing that Stella had picked this place after all because the moment Athena, or ‘Bunni’ to Stella, leaned over the counter, all of Stella’s anxious thoughts vanished and her mind was taken up with one thing only. It was something Bambi would have preferred not to have been privy to but often she had very little choice in the matter. She’d never had any trouble reading minds, it was shutting everyone else’s thoughts out when she wanted quiet that was the hard part. When she’d been a child populated places had caused her quite an amount of distress. It had been so deliberating that visits to the market had sometimes left her curled up on the ground in a ball, but as she’d grown she’d learnt how to least to limit the range of what she had to hear to a narrower field, and she’d found if she focused heavily enough on one mind she could tune most of the others out. It took some energy but she’d gotten skilled enough at it to take jobs in the city, working as a negotiator, usually between different business partners or two firms wanting to strike a deal that benefited them both. Equal terms of an agreement were easy to propose when you already knew exactly what each party wanted and what they were willing to trade for it. She worked with businesses mostly rather than individuals. Environments where things were more professional and less personal, at least in theory. She was good enough at her job that she had plenty of choice in which clients to take on and which hours to work. That suited her nicely what with the other work she did with Murphy and Stella, the unpaid but very necessary work.
A glimpse into Athena’s head revealed the feelings between her and Stella were mutual and this was far from their first liaison. Curiosity more than satisfied, Bambi distracted herself by reading the minds of the other customers in the bar. None of them were particularly interesting but that suited Bambi just fine. She wasn’t looking for excitement and the mundanity of their thoughts calmed her own soul. She settled into to listening in as one man with a newspaper near the fire considered if he should buy a new bull, while Stella and Athena chatted.
They didn’t chat for long and then Bambi let Stella order something for the both of them. Stella knew the wine and always ordered something she knew Bambi would like. Once their drinks were served Athena, who knew how to read the room well, retreated out to the back room, where she was no longer in earshot, and started on unpacking some of the deliveries that Stella had brought her earlier. Bambi could still read her thoughts from here.
In a low voice, barely more than a whisper, Stella leaned in to Bambi and said, “I keep having premonitions, invasive ones. Ones where I pass out and wake up on the street and everyone’s looking at me. I need to spend a few days meditating or they’ll get worse.”
“Why don’t you do that then?” Bambi searched her brain for an answer but Stella spoke before she’d found it.
“I would but there isn’t enough time. I can see that much. And it doesn’t help that Murphy keeps giving me tasks to do, just far enough apart, and some of them are weird. It almost seems like he’s trying to keep me distracted so I won’t look too far ahead.”
Bambi considered that. It was possible that Murphy was trying to prevent Stella doing something specific to ensure certain events occurred but if he hadn’t told her about it then it was possible it was something that both Stella and Bambi would want to do. For the most part their goals were aligned and Bambi did trust Murphy, at least a little more than she trusted Stella’s decision making. Stella was young and impulsive. Murphy was, well who knew how old Murphy really was, centuries at least, maybe even a millennia or more, but it still put her in an awkward position. She didn’t like being left in the dark. She did acknowledge that sometimes it was necessary, but she didn’t like seeing Stella in pain. Unplanned premonitions were often very powerful, and extremely tiring, both emotionally and physically. Premonitions were like pressure in a bottle for a psychic. Stella managed them by going on long retreats, often in the confines of her apartment, where she sat and explored the future, sometimes without eating, drinking, or even moving for days. No other psychic could have done it, only Stella’s healing powers allowed her access to that sort of process. It was the combination of the two that allowed Stella to be such a powerful psychic without going mad. Bambi wasn’t sure how that worked. Stella was also the only healer Bambi knew that didn’t require regular food for her magic to work. Stella could heal from almost anything, laws of energy conservation be damned. Bambi had once wondered if Stella was just so magically efficient that she could live off the energy in oxygen alone, except as it turned out, not even drowning could kill Stella. Only time would tell if aging too was something she could escape. If it was then Stella was effectively immortal, much like Murphy was but in a very different way.
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Beside her Stella was quietly swirling and sniffing her wine.
Bambi didn’t ask a question this time. Instead she dove right into Stella’s mind to find what she wanted to know. What had been in her premonitions?
She saw Murphy with his head separated from his body.
It wasn’t the image she’d been expecting and for a moment it scared her something wicked, but Bambi considered herself a logically minded individual and so after a moment to regather her own thoughts she pushed onward. There were more premonitions, with similar results. All ended in Murphy’s death. And she could tell at the look on Stella’s face that this was causing her some amount of distress.
“Stella...”
“You see? You see what the problem is?” Stella whispered quickly under her breath. “It’s the knife, the knife can kill him, properly kill him. I have to get it back.”
Bambi looked deeper trying to figure out what the probability was, Stella usually knew roughly. She was relieved to find it wasn’t high but nor was it as low as she’d hoped either. About 20% maybe. If it was an invasive premonition it usually meant it was tied to a singular decision point too.
“You’re fixating,” she told Stella calmly. She took a sip of her own wine, more an attempt to convey reassurance that everything was fine than because she wanted a drink. Right now the biggest issue was Stella’s state of mind. The wine was nice though, refreshing and fruity, it almost suited the hour. Bambi usually only ever drank at this sort of time if she was swapping time zones but Stella really did have a knack for picking a drink to suit the mood.
Stella scowled at her. “I’m not. I’m not. I sent Coal after that knife because it’s going to be useful later for him, but I didn’t know at the time what else it could do, or what putting it in his hands would actually mean. I need to get it back.”
To protect Murphy now and in case we need to use it on him later.
Stella didn’t say that out loud but she thought it and the thought was immediately followed by regret and hope that Bambi didn’t hear it because even if that was ever necessary, Stella knew Bambi wouldn’t let it happen. In her panic Stella tried to fill her mind with other thoughts but Bambi missed nothing. Stella’s inability to rest and use her powers in a directed manner had left her in a vulnerable state and as useful as that was for Bambi now, it wasn’t good for either of them in the long run.
Bambi ignored Stella’s thoughts of harming Murphy, a backup plan wasn’t so wrong logically speaking but Bambi was sure if the group’s trust ever required having one then their work would be done for good and the world would probably be screwed. The reason she didn’t worry about it now though was because everyone occasionally entertained thoughts like that once in awhile and Stella’s mind was particularly out of sorts at the moment. Murphy’s plan be damned, Stella needed rest. Not just from Murphy or even from worrying about Coal. As Bambi had dipped further into Stella’s mind, she’d picked up on someone else’s handiwork there. Small things but it bothered Bambi just the same. Another mindwalker and Bambi could guess who.
His name was Gabriel, an occasional lover of Stella’s, one she went out with whenever he was in town, which thankfully wasn’t often. Stella lived like that, no consistent relationship, rather she had several. How could anyone really have a proper relationship given the nature of the work they did? Bambi had almost managed it once, with Murphy, but she had learned over time, and Murphy had learned over a much longer period of time, which was weirdly about the same amount of time for them both, that despite still loving one another, their relationship couldn’t be a normal one. Normal people lived together and aged together and loved continuously. They promised exclusivity. Murphy promised moments. Wonderful, different, exciting moments but each one non-consecutive and short-lived. In some ways it wasn’t really much different than one of Stella’s flings.
This one Bambi did not like at all. It wasn’t because he was a mindwalker or even because he was quite a good one, for despite his skill there were none who could compete at Bambi’s level. But unlike Bambi, Gabriel held no qualms with manipulating people’s thoughts without consideration for the consequences to anyone but himself. Furthermore, Gabriel was a brute and Bambi could tell that despite there being no bruises, that Gabriel had exercised that brutality on Stella only a few hours prior. A part of her seethed on the inside. She would have liked to make Gabriel tie a rock to his feet and walk off the docks. She could have. For her, something like that was as easy as taking candy from a baby, even against one as powerful as Gabriel. But if she’d done it, Stella would never have forgiven her for it and Stella’s trust was just too valuable, not just to her, but to their mission.
Once years ago, during their first year travelling together Bambi had come back to their shared apartment after work to find Stella in tears, crying about how she didn’t want Bambi to take away her memories. At that point Bambi had never manipulated Stella’s mind, only read it, and she’d had no plans to do more than that, but in a vision Stella had seen the possibility that she might and it had upset her enough that in response Bambi had made her a solemn vow to never ever alter a thing inside Stella’s head and she intended to keep it. But at the same time, to herself, she’d sworn to protect Stella as best she could. Stella just didn’t always make doing so easy.
“You are fixating Stella. Ignore Murphy. Go home and get some rest, catch up on the future. If Murphy complains send him to me. Meditate a few days and then figure out the decision point with the knife. There’s no rush on that yet, I can see well enough to know that.”
Bambi decided quite firmly that anyone, Murphy or otherwise, who tried to interrupt Stella for the next few days would be answering to her. Gabriel at least had the sense to fear Bambi but she dare only use that when absolutely necessary, least he take his frustrations out on Stella later when Bambi wasn’t around. Stella sometimes sought him out without mentioning it to Bambi. There was only so much of someone’s life you could direct. When the day came that Stella wanted him gone though, Bambi would only be too happy to oblige.
Stella slumped over her wine, another sign of how tired she was. It took longer than usual for her to figure out her posture had slipped and correct it. Bambi frowned. Stella was no good at relaxing, even when she was tired and the only reason Stella even seemed to notice that her posture had slipped now was because Athena had returned from out the back which made Stella immediately very self-conscious about how she looked.
Reading her mind, Bambi could see that even Athena had noticed Stella’s tiredness but she wasn’t judging Stella negatively for it as Stella feared she would, rather it seemed Athena had the urge to walk around the bar and wrap Stella in a hug. And while Bambi wanted to do the same, and both of them cared for Stella, it was in quite a different sort of way. But Stella had trouble accepting that sort of comfort and so Bambi refrained from offering it. Meanwhile, Athena considered it would be inappropriate to hug her customers, at least where others could see. So instead Athena offered another sort of comfort, one that Stella just happened to find perfectly acceptable.
“Would you like another wine?”
Stella looked up with a fresh glint of energy at the prospect of something new to taste. But while she was pondering the options, trying to figure out what was new that she hadn’t tried yet or hadn’t had in so long that she’d forgotten and so the taste would be new again, something else happened.
Stella’s body went stiff and then suddenly limp. Her eyes rolled back in her head. She sucked in a sudden breath. Bambi only just manged to catch her and stop her falling off the stool. Athena looked horrified. Stella was having one of her visions.
Stella’s body tensed again as as her mind raced. Mentally, Bambi stayed back as far as she could. She did not wish to interfere in a premonition. But she remained close enough to observe much of Stella’s vision for herself.
This one was about Coal. He was standing in his house near some kind of red vase, coated in thick layers of ice. A ghostly mist surrounded him, moving almost as if it had an intent of its own. It plunged its way into his body. For awhile there was fight and then it ended. Coal’s body dropped to the ground. Dead.
Stella came to and she was still for several seconds.
It was Athena’s words that drew her out of her spell. Athena who only knew Stella to be a healer and nothing else asked, “What happ-”
Stella was out the door before Athena could finish asking her question.
Bambi went after her, wiping Athena’s mind on the way out, of Bambi’s own presence and what had just happened. Athena would still remember Stella’s visit but Bambi wouldn’t be there, and when she thought of how it had ended, it would be with Stella receiving a phone call and having to dash out. Which was conveniently what Stella was doing when Bambi found her outside the bar in the stony parking lot. She was rapidly dialing a number on her phone.