By the gap in the walls that faced towards summer, Erica waited, trying to stay patient.
Des had warned her, via Alison, that she was incoming with a mystery that Niko needed to see. For safety’s sake, they all wanted two sets of eyes on it as much as possible.
Also for safety’s sake, both Suzi and Theo were with Niko. Alison had seen nothing of note on a fast run to the Gate and a slower exploration of the area, but they were all on high alert anyway.
It was inconvenient that they couldn’t give Niko a reason and had to stay casual about it, Theo joking that JC would be furious if she didn’t keep an eye on him while JC was away, and couldn’t give him a warning that he was going to have a puzzle to solve as quickly as they could arrange it. They could work around that, though, and it was worth it to keep their biggest secret safe.
She saw movement, and focused on it, though it was surprisingly difficult to keep track of a black cat moving at a fast but sustainable jog in the middle of the day. Des had her sarong wrapped around something she was holding close to her body with both arms. Despite that, she kept looking down at it, and Erica could see signs of discomfort: her ears kept halfway flattening when they weren’t swivelling to track sounds nearby, her tail was swishing back and forth in agitation and slightly fluffed out.
Once Des slowed to a halt next to her, without even her usual affectionate mrrrp of greeting, Erica gestured at the bundle and tilted her head questioningly.
“Wai’,” Des said. “No’ wan’ re-wrap.”
Erica shrugged, and reached out to wrap both hands around the bundle. Des released it to her, and immediately started to groom herself with hasty motions, licking at her hands and lower arms and rubbing at her face and ears.
Erica had checked where Niko was before coming to wait, and led the way there now.
She hadn’t quite puzzled out why her mental map of the island and her certainty of her own location on it seemed to increase every day. She had a suspicion, though: science was beginning to understand that there was a deep mutually-beneficial symbiosis between some fungi and some green plants, producing an underground mycorrhizal network that allowed communication and interchange of resources. The lush growth on the island could be due to the controlled and stable conditions, but she wasn’t sure that was all. If there was in fact a mycorrhizal net, it wasn’t impossible that she was tapping into it overnight when she rooted in place and became drowsy. Her conscious mind hadn’t detected anything odd, aside from the basic fact that she spent a fair part of the night kneeling while her skirt tendrils dug themselves into the soil and she experienced what passed for sleep these days, but that didn’t mean the information hadn’t crept in on other channels.
Niko had been working hard on invoking buildings.
The fountain stood at the exact centre. A couple of hundred feet from it, evenly spaced in a circle, Niko had identified the intended locations of six buildings that were common functional structures. A similar distance further out was a neatly-spaced ring of twelve cottages. So far, Niko had finished only two from the inner ring but he was about halfway on the cottages. It was a safe bet that he was still working on that and could be found simply by looking at the next location around the ring.
Erica was just as happy that her mental map got them there with no time wasted. There was something weirdly distasteful about the way the thing wrapped in Des’ sarong felt, sort of squishy and too flexible and yet firmer in places. She could understand the mad grooming binge.
Suzi, perched on the roof of the most recent cottage, waved, and climbed down the side hand over hand—her slim fingers fit into the hexagonal gaps in the white marble mesh walls, though probably with little room to spare.
The three of them went inside, and found Theo perched on the front edge of a white-and-black desk chair, watching Niko look through options on the mirror that was resting on the marble-topped desk itself.
Theo, without looking back, said, “Niko? Company.”
Niko raised his head and turned around to look at them. “Hi, guys.” His forehead furrowed. “You don’t look happy.”
“Kayla fel’ Ga’e open,” Des said. “Very quick. Then we foun’ this.” She gestured to the bundle Erica held. “Zach froze. Squirmy, quick, has camo. No’ know wha’ is.”
Niko digested that for a few heartbeats. “Kayla felt the Gate very briefly, and then you found an unknown thing that is squirmy, fast, and camouflaged. Zach paralyzed it.”
“Yes.”
“Bring it over here.” Niko strode over to the dining table. Theo rose to join them. One of Theo’s tentacles wrapped itself around Suzi’s waist, drawing her close and keeping her anchored; Suzi glanced down, and shared a quick smile with Theo, before both turned their attention to the table.
Erica set the bundle on the white marble surface, and unwrapped it warily, while Des hovered, fingers hooked into claws.
The weird thing did nothing, though. Occasional tremors ran through it, possibly attempts to move, but for the moment Zach’s sting remained effective. It just lay there, the colour a muddy blotchy combination of golden-yellow and honey-brown with gradually-fading areas of black and green.
“Smells fae,” Des said uncertainly. “A li’l, anyway. Mos’ly no’.”
“It smells fae?” Niko echoed, examining the thing without touching it. “It isn’t contamination from being in contact with faelings?”
Ears back, Des leaned down and sniffed at it, then inhaled deeply with her mouth open, yellow lips drawn back from those rather feline teeth. Erica had seen her do it before. She assumed their cat had gained a vomeronasal organ, enhancing her ability to pick up scents.
Straightening, she shook her head. “Know my smell an’ Zach an’ Erica. Is thing’s own smell. No’ much smell, but has other smells, no’ fae. Sor’ of... me’al? An...” She frowned, visibly searching for a word—probably for a synonym she could say comprehensibly. She was getting better every day but those hard D and T sounds still eluded her. Erica wished she could help, but then, she lacked any voice at all. Callie’s promised sign language lessons would probably be almost as useful to Des as to her. “Mois’? Mol’y?”
“Moldy?” Theo said. “Moist?” Niko, meanwhile, looked around the room. Erica spotted his backpack on a chair and fetched it for him; he thanked her with a quick smile. It was surprisingly heavy, Erica observed. What did he have in there?
Des nodded but made a see-saw gesture with one hand. “Ol’ we’, no’ now. Like... like very ol’ books from basemen’.”
“Musty, mildewy,” Niko said, setting his backpack on the edge of the table so he could rummage inside. Des nodded quickly. “It has low scent, and what there is is a mixture of fae, metal, and musty once-damp paper. That is an extremely odd combination. It is possible to create something that looks alive, using fairly advanced wizardry—I can’t do it, but I’m aware of the theory. Descriptions don’t usually include the scent, but there has to be substance to form into the correct shape, and I’ve seen at least one description that involved using non-sapient living tissue as a foundation. Using anything that has even the beginnings of consciousness doesn’t work well, apparently, but something like algae or slime mold is different, and it has advantages over non-living tissue. I wonder whether that would leave a musty mildew scent in the final product.”
“What about the metal and the fae scent?” Suzi asked.
“I’m honestly not sure.” Niko produced a white leather case, and withdrew something that looked like a fairly large magnifying glass, at first glance. It quickly became clear that it was not, since it had several rings of different-coloured metals around the outside, and Niko adjusted one before taking a look at their mystery. “As I said, it’s not something I do, and I don’t remember everything I read about it. But I’m quite certain that nothing created by wizardry should have a fae scent. For the most part, even though both are using the same energy, they’re mutually incompatible. Wizardry is... artificial, in the sense that it’s a process of artifice and study. Fae abilities are intrinsic, natural in the sense of deriving from innate fae nature.”
“Wizards do, fae are,” Theo said.
“That’s a concise way to put it.” The more he adjusted rings and looked through the glass at the unknown thing, the deeper the creases between his eyebrows grew.
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“Is that any part of why fae and wizards apparently aren’t supposed to get along?”
“There’s no ‘supposed to’ about it. There have been wars, and the larger ones have spilled over and caused serious disruption in human culture locally or, rarely, worldwide. I doubt the fae escape consequences, either. Faelings, unfortunately, tend to get caught in the middle. Mostly because mediums usually try their best to stop it, and it’s very common for faelings to have ongoing connections to mediums, but other friend or family connections can come into play.”
“Right. So if a wizard made this, it’s pretty unlikely that any fae or faeling should ever have been in contact with it. But it smells like fae, even though there’s no reason to think it’s been in contact with any faeling on the island. Which leaves... what?”
“I have no idea. I’m willing to take Des’ word for it, but it’s a very strange combination. You came across it on the way back from the house fae? How far from the Gate?”
Des tilted her head to one side. “Mrr... know places, no’ how far. Maybe... kilome’er?”
“And which direction was it going?”
“Ou’. Away.”
“And none of you have ever seen anything like it here before.”
Erica shook her head firmly. She’d spent enough time exploring the island to have a very good idea what was out there. So did Des. Chickens, pigeons, bees, earthworms, fish, and that was it.
Des echoed the head-shake. “Emma, she’s house fae, she saw. Never seen before. Faelings fin’ an’ catch everything an’ ask house fae a’ cook. If ever on islan’, house fae woul’ know.”
“Immediately after Kayla felt the Gate open very briefly, you found a thing that is potentially a strange kind of magical construct. How long did it have to make it that far?”
“Mrr... fif’een minu’es? ’Wen’y?”
“It moves rather rapidly, then. Well, I can confirm that this is not any kind of genuinely living creature. There is definitely wizardry involved in its creation.” Niko put the odd magnifying glass away and dug around in his backpack again. “I tried to bring anything I might need but it was a little hard to guess what circumstances might arise. I have tools that would give me much more information much more quickly, but they aren’t here, and I’m not sure what equivalents Phrixos and Nestor have. Or whether they’re trapped or locked just to them, for that matter.”
“If it isn’t alive,” Suzi said, “then what is it for?”
“That is the million-dollar question. Constructs have built-in programming. It can become quite sophisticated when done by an expert. Arctos mentioned created servants on his island—I imagine they’re extremely complex, as these things go. The programming on this one is, probably, simpler. I think we can assume that it was not sent by a friend, since it was slipped through in a brief opening of the Gate without permission or any attempt at contact first.”
Erica looked at Theo, and mimed dialing a phone, then raising it to her ear.
“Maybe they had no other way to contact us?” Theo said for her.
“The Gate has the equivalent of a doorbell, which will send an alert to the mirror. That hasn’t happened. It was also a high-end and deliberately stealthy hack, because it did not set off the alert that the Gate had opened. We weren’t supposed to know. Des, did you have any indication that it might be dangerous or aggressive?”
Des shook her head again. “Jus’ movin’ along.”
Niko pulled out a pair of thin white gloves that didn’t match any material Erica knew; they had coloured symbols on the backs. Only then did he touch the strange thing, flipping it over carefully. Erica had to give him credit for being sensible and taking precautions, instead of acting like the protagonist of a sci-fi movie and prodding it with his bare hand.
“No mouth. A single eye. No other external sensory organs. No limbs. Hm. I think I need to dissect this and see what’s inside, but... how far behind were the others?”
Des shrugged. “Going a’ Ga’e a’ see if anything there. Then here.”
“Why?” Suzi asked.
“Because,” Niko said, “I honestly have no idea whether this thing will start leaking something noxious if I cut into it, and Jace can deal with that safely no matter what. Unless I misunderstood something?”
Theo shook her head. “We don’t know everything we can all do yet, but that’s accurate. It’s possible for a sharp edge to break Jace’s skin, although less easily than regular skin. But anything slides right off or at worst can be rinsed off cleanly.”
“Of course you don’t know everything you can do yet.” Niko sounded distracted, his attention all on his examination of the mystery creature. The greens and blacks were nearly gone, the mottled yellow and brown taking over. “It’s been, what, less than two weeks? What makes you think such a massive deep-level comprehensive change completes itself in a matter of days? I would expect at least another couple of weeks before it settles completely. No more dramatic transformation or anything like that, but as I understand it the cushioning effects of the innate anti-trauma mechanism fades out at about the same rate as the last of the changes wind down.”
“Interesting idea,” Suzi said. “But I suppose there isn’t much difference between finding abilities and gaining a few more. We’re extremely grateful for that anti-trauma thing, although it would be nice to eventually find out more about it.”
“I suggest you ask Riley. She’s helped enough faelings through awakening to have direct experience. What I know is strictly references from books, and wizard books about faelings are not always the most reliable, along with being generally rather impersonal. For the moment, we need...”
A stronger ripple ran through the body of the tadpole-thing, and the narrow end twitched. The second twitch incorporated more of it.
Before the third, Erica braced herself and picked the thing up, her long equal-length fingers wrapping around it. With any luck, if it were dangerous at all, it would be less able to damage her, with her biology now so altered. Part of her mind was certain it would feel slimy; even though it didn’t, she couldn’t quite shake the impression.
The writhing promised trouble holding it, though.
“Nee’ place,” Des said urgently. “Very har’ hol’ on.”
Suzi’s hand went to her navel, and she started to draw out a long strand of silk, then hesitated. “Will wrapping it even hold it? A net might work better but that will take me a minute. Have you got it okay, Erica?”
Erica nodded. It was unexpectedly strong, but she was stronger, and her fingers spread wide enough to leave it little opening.
“I don’t know whether Zach will be able to sting it again,” Theo said. “Presumably he’s going to run dry eventually. Are you going to be able to dissect it while it’s moving?”
Suzi turned in place and had Theo hold out both hands, more than shoulder-width apart, so she could use them as anchors to start hastily building a net. The tentacle not around her arched over Theo’s shoulder and stayed still, giving her a third. Theo might not have conscious control over them, but when her conscious and subconscious minds wanted the same thing, it was almost the same.
The net was somewhere between a human-style net and a spiderweb: strands ran between Theo’s three offered anchors and Suzi’s left hand, forming a rough square but also an X through the centre, and Suzi was now working from the centre outward in a spiral, the strands an inch or so apart. The still-wet silk bonded immediately to its somewhat-dryer counterpart. Working one-handed slowed Suzi considerably; Des gave the tadpole thing a worried look, then took the corner Suzi was holding, though her other hand stayed ready to dig into their captive. That let Suzi work much more quickly.
Niko shrugged. “I might have something with me that will stun it for a short time. I’ll have to check. So help me, once Riley and all get back, I’m borrowing that key and making a run back to my island.”
*Ali? Are Kay and all with you yet?* Erica asked, tightening her grip on the increasingly-squirmy creature.
*Close, I can faintly hear JC and an unfamiliar female voice.* A heartbeat’s pause. *Emma? Okay. I’m not seeing anything here at the Gate, but then, I don’t really have the senses for that. I mean, I think I might have gotten a vague sense of Kay and all being not too far away, or something like that, but even if I’m developing something new, that isn’t going to help with trying to find traces of something coming through.* Another pause. *Stop being ominous, Zach. You found something, sure. How many could possibly have come through? It might have been just the one.* Pause. *What do you mean, no it wasn’t?*
*Niko wants Jace to help dissect the one we’ve got,* Erica said. *Can’t be affected by anything that might leak, that kind of thing. Can you send Jace back now?*
*Niko wants Jace? Where?*
“Jace isn’t going to come to this particular building,” Suzi said, still weaving her net as swiftly as she could. “Probably they’ll go to the house or the fountain. Maybe we should relocate there? A dissection in the kitchen might be a bit gross, but there’s the dining room or something.”
Niko nodded. “Fair enough.” He made sure everything was safely in his backpack, and even slid the mirror in with care. “Don’t worry, it won’t break or scratch easily. Magic mirrors of whatever kind tend to be tough.”
Suzi reached the outer border of the net with the inner spiral. “Done. It’s not completely dry but it should hold anyway. Erica?”
Erica held the squirming thing against the middle of the net, and Theo and Suzi between them gathered all the edges together. Suzi used more silk to join the edges, sealing the tadpole creature into a net bag of sorts. Erica shifted her grip to the silk, which gave her a much more secure way to hold it. That didn’t mean it wasn’t fighting the silk, just that as long as the silk held, it was going nowhere.
“Let’s hope it can’t dissolve silk or something,” Theo muttered. “I could use a dip in the fountain anyway. Let’s get back there and maybe we can find out what’s going on.”
“It doesn’t appear to have any form of weaponry,” Niko said. “It’s unlikely that it was meant for assault or sabotage. I think the most likely purpose is probably information-gathering.”
“Is a spy?” Des said, ears flicking back. She picked up her sarong, sniffed it, and her nose wrinkled; she tossed it over her shoulder instead of putting it on.
“That’s my current suspicion.”
If Zach had told Alison that there was more than one, that was worrying.
They left the cottage as it was, and hastened back towards the fountain and house, Theo holding Suzi’s hand, Des helping Erica keep a hyper-alert eye on their captive. Erica hoped it wouldn’t take JC long to join them.