Much to talk about, that was definitely one way to put it. I had so much that I wanted to get into, especially about the time I’d spent with her in the past as Jacob, that I had no idea where to even start.
Oh wait, yes I did. I knew one thing I wanted to say before literally anything else. “He’s dead,” I started immediately. “You know he’s dead, you know that, right? He--he’s gone, he’s gone forever.”
Only after I said all that did I realize that I hadn’t actually said a name. But Gaia knew. Her gaze softened, and she reached out to touch my face. “Yes, I know Fossor is dead. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there to help, and to… celebrate when it was new. But something tells me it will be quite some time before thoughts of his demise will cease being cause for celebration.”
“You can say that again,” I muttered. There was more I wanted to get into there, but it could wait.
As Gaia brought Koren and me into the temporary quarters she’d been given, I looked around the moderately-sized room, eyes passing over the couch and chairs, fireplace in the corner, plush white carpet, and two doorways. One led to a bedroom, while the other went into a small kitchen. The suite might not have been anywhere near what I thought someone as important as Gaia should have had, but it wasn’t a dirt hovel either. It was big and immaculate.
Big, immaculate, pristine, and empty. That was the problem. That was what was throwing me off. This wasn’t Gaia, it had none of her personal touches, nothing that was just her. No books, no spell tools, nothing like that. Well, of course it didn’t, she’d been here for less than a day. She’d spent just enough time here to sleep. But that knowledge didn’t erase my certainty that this suite didn’t feel like Gaia’s room at all.
To be totally honest, I had no idea why I was even thinking about that, considering everything that was going on right then, and all the things I really should have been talking with Gaia about. Especially the part where I was finally able to talk to Gaia, the present day version anyway, for the first time in over a year. Why did I give a shit what the room she was just temporarily staying in looked like? Was it just because it was so mundane and unimportant? Was my brain fixating on that because it was easier than thinking about something like the fact that the entire world might be invaded by the Fomorians if something bad really had happened to Dare after all?
While I was still working my way through it in my head, Gaia gestured for Koren and me to take a seat. Once we did, perching on the edge of the couch, she summoned a pair of mugs with coffee and passed them to us. Her voice was soft, and quite certain. “I’m very happy to see both of you. Though, sorry that it couldn’t be under more casual circumstances, even now. You're worried about what could have happened to Virginia, and why she hasn't made contact yet.”
The other girl and I exchanged glances before nodding. Koren spoke first. “It's really bad if she's not on Earth, right? I mean, I read that spell could be okay for a few days, even if it’s not, uh, very good for it. It could last that long. But if she's gone any longer than that, it could get bad.”
My head bobbed. “What she said. They can’t find her, they can’t communicate with her, or even find out if she’s actually on Earth. I-- we were hoping you’d have a secret, special way to find her that no one else knows about.” Even as I said that, I was flinching. “I mean… I’m sorry, this is so wrong. You shouldn’t have to be involved in this, after you just-- I mean now that you-- damn it, you need to be resting, not jumping right back into dealing with some end of the world bullshit.”
Gaia raised an eyebrow, perching lightly on the edge of one of those armchairs. Her body language made me realize she didn't want to be comfortable. Or more to the point, sitting back like that probably wasn't actually comfortable for her at all. Not after spending a year trapped in that tube. She wanted to be up on her feet, moving around. My eyes flicked across the plush carpet, seeing the spot where she had worn it down by pacing back and forth so much. She wanted to be up and moving even now, but was stopping herself because she was concerned that we might see that, and end up getting even more worried about Dare. She thought we’d see her pacing around and think it meant she was afraid of what was going on with the woman too.
All of that passed through my mind before Gaia spoke again. “I believe one could say the same thing to you, Felicity. After all, you’ve just returned from quite the trip of your own, haven’t you?”
A slight blush touched my face as I shifted on the couch before giving a little nod. “You knew he was me ever since I first inherited Manakel’s Necromancy, didn't you? You've been working to keep that secret from everyone, even me, ever since. You and Sariel both. You--” I grimaced a little. “You had to do a lot of work. I mean, I was learning all about Necromancers, so how could you really stop me from hearing anything at all about Jacob, the guy who, if what other people keep telling me is true, happens to be one of the most famous one of those in the whole world?”
Before answering, Gaia put a hand out to the nearby table and gently adjusted the lampshade on the light there. Then she focused on me. “I will admit, it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world. But it does help that Ruthers held such a burning hatred for Necromancers in general, and for Jacob in particular. If Fossor didn’t exist, I do believe he would have hated Jacob more than anyone, even your mother, to be honest. When I suggested that everything related to Jacob should be removed from the curriculum, and even from the school library, to avoid giving… him any real attention at all, Gabriel practically jumped at the opportunity. That was decades before you came to the school. By the time you showed that power… as I said, it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world, even at that point. But it was just barely possible. With quite a lot of help from Sariel.”
Koren quickly spoke up. “So, hold on, you guys met in the past when Flick was in disguise, and you did all sorts of stuff as Jacob and Gaia, even met that Laein chick-- and boy is she a lot, for the record -- but you never even knew she was, I mean that ‘he’ was one of your students from the future? Or, wait, you did know that? Otherwise, why would you have hidden all mention of Jacob from the school?” She looked from Gaia to me, then back again. “This is really confusing.”
“I was aware that Jacob was one of my future students in disguise,” Gaia confirmed. “But not who, or from how far in the future. I didn’t wish to know, for fear of changing that future to something worse. Once I did find out who this Jacob was… well, I was glad, to say the least.”
She smiled warmly my way, our eyes meeting. “I spent so long wondering who Jacob could really be, looking at each of my students and wondering if this one would express an interest in Necromancy, or inherit that power. There were several students whom I spent quite some time believing could be him. Then, when the truth finally came, when I saw that Felicity had inherited Manakel’s gift, I knew, once and for all, that she was him. And I could not have been more proud. A century and more of imagining every face possible behind his, and in the end, it was yours, Felicity. The daughter of the founder of the Rebellion, of course. I should have known.”
My face was burning with embarrassment, while I shook my head. “I just-- it’s no big deal. I mean, really, the Jacob who earned most of that fame and stuff is the other me. Err-- wait, you did hear about that part of the story, right?” I added that while looking at Gaia anxiously.
“I did,” she confirmed. “I have been given what you might call a crash course in current and past events. I’m very sorry that there was a part of you who had to live through so much, for so long. Have… has he made any sort of contact with you yet?” Even as she asked that, the woman saw the look on my face and realized the answer. “No, he hasn’t. And you have no idea why not.”
Boy, she really did know me. I couldn't help but flinch just a little, feeling a lump in my throat that I swallowed away before giving a little nod. “I don't know why he still hasn't checked in or anything, no. I mean, there has to be a reason, right? I keep thinking he might resent me somehow. He's the one, the part of me, that had to stay in the past and live through all that. I don't know if he… you know, blames me for it, or maybe there's some weird thing about us not being able to be in the same area at the same time for some metaphysical reason, or he's just been busy. But I keep thinking if it was me, and it is me, I would’ve found a way to check in.”
It was Koren who spoke up, before Gaia could say anything. “It’s been four and a half thousand years, a lot could’ve changed about him-you that makes him more him than you. But come on, he set up the whole thing to get Bob out of Crossroads, to take Crossroads out of Crossroads, and thumb his nose at the entire Committee, especially Ruthers, while he was doing it. He might be a bit different, but he’s still you in there. If he hasn’t checked in, it’s gotta be for a really good reason, and he’ll do it when he can. You’ve gotta trust him-you to know what he’s doing, right?”
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Gaia’s head inclined, a small smile finding its way to her face. “Yes, that is… more or less what I was going to say.” She looked at me, our eyes meeting as the woman continued. “Give this other self of yours a little trust. When it’s time for you to meet, I’m sure he’ll be right there with you. He is, after all, the one who lived longer than… almost anyone on this planet aside from some of our Seosten… friends, and a few select others. And he is the only one, as far as I’m aware, who did so with so much knowledge of the future. I trust that he knows what he’s doing right now. So should you.”
They were right, of course. I took a breath and let it out slowly. “Right, yeah, I will. I’m just really anxious about it, I guess. I’m anxious about everything. I keep-- hey, where’s Avalon? I thought she stayed with you last night.” I was actually a bit surprised that the girl wasn’t glued to Gaia.
With a soft chuckle, Gaia replied, “She and Aylen have taken a walk. After all, Miss Tamaya, if that is what she still chooses to go by, has been apart from Avalon for much longer than I have. They deserve some time together as well. Besides, I asked them to step out so we could talk. After all, there are parts of this conversation even they cannot be privy to, for everyone’s sake.”
“Dare!” I remembered belatedly, having been so caught up with finally being able to talk to Gaia that I briefly forgot one of the main reasons we were there. “Can you contact her, or find her?”
“Not--” Gaia started before pausing to consider. “Not exactly, I’m afraid. But,” she went on, even as my heart sank, “I can tell you that things will work out. Ahem, when I say that, I don’t mean it in a patronizing, think positive sort of way. I mean it in a factual way. Over the years, I have, as it happens, taken great care to investigate the barrier spell, with help from my old… teacher. We have discovered ways of testing its strength, of identifying when, and if, it is weakening. Virginia has been pulled away from this world before, and we discovered ways of identifying those moments. I ran those tests this morning, and every indication is that Virginia is still here on Earth. She is still connected to the spell. It has not noticeably weakened, or been particularly strained at all.”
Well, that made me blink a couple times, before my stomach slowly unknotted itself. My mouth opened, but I couldn’t make myself say the words that came to mind. I couldn’t make myself ask. So, it was a good thing I had Koren right there with me, since she asked with no hesitation.
“Are you sure? I mean, you’ve been out of it for awhile. I mean--” She stopped, looking at me as a visible wince crossed her face. “I don’t mean you don’t know what you’re talking about, I just-- damn it, come on, you’re supposed to help stop me from blurting things out like that, Aunt Flick!”
“Hey, I was thinking the same thing,” I admitted with a weak shrug. Then it was my turn to flinch. “I mean, yeah, we know you know what you’re doing, Headmistress. Just, how sure are you?”
If she was offended by the question, Gaia didn’t show it. She just smiled easily before replying, “Quite certain, I assure you both. I would hardly have said anything of the sort if I had any real doubt. As far as I can tell, through numerous tests, the Fomorian banishment spell is just as safe and intact now as it was a week ago, a month ago, or a year ago.” She paused then before amending, “Well, I suppose depending on how strict one is being about the definition of ‘one year,’ it was actually in more danger then than it is now, when the two of you learned the truth.”
The two of us winced at the memory of that day, before I exhaled slowly. “Okay, so, we’re sure it’s safe for now? Whatever Dare’s doing, I mean, even then, we still need to find her, don’t we?”
“I believe if she required aid, specifically our aid, she would have said so in the message she sent to Tiras,” Gaia noted carefully. “Beyond that, I’ve performed several spells to check her, ah, condition, and she seems well enough. As far as magic can tell, she is not in immediate danger. I don’t know where she is, or what she is doing, but she’s alive, uninjured, and not imperiled in any direct way. Between that, and the fact that the barrier spell is not about to weaken or fall, I believe the best thing we can do is wait and see. Virginia happens to be a very capable person.”
Right, right, of course she was. I knew that. Dare had been doing this sort of thing for a hell of a lot longer than I had. She knew how to protect the barrier. And, now that I let myself think about it, she also knew that protecting the barrier was more important than saving Gaia. It just was. If she needed our help to make that happen, she would have asked for it in that message. There was absolutely no way that she would avoid distracting us, just to save Gaia, if she needed our help with her situation. Keeping that barrier intact went far beyond keeping Gaia safe, or anyone else really. And it definitely went beyond any pride she might’ve had. The fact that she didn’t ask for help had to mean she could handle it. Or, at least, she truly believed that she could. Which Gaia’s spells agreed with.
“Hey, speaking of Jacob,” Koren put in while I was thinking about all that, “I’ve gotta ask, Headmistress, did you know the lighthouse was a spaceship the whole time? Did you know the Crossroads pocket universe was actually Jacob’s Archive?”
“I can promise you, with one hundred percent certainty, I had no idea,” Gaia informed us. “Nor am I certain how it was hidden from me for so long. That is one thing I will be certain to ask Jacob when he does show himself. That and a great many other things.”
I muttered an agreement, then just sat there in silence for a few long seconds, absorbing the realization that we didn’t have to panic after all. I had been so amped up, so worried and ready to go running off to jump into yet another in a long line of desperate life or death fights so we could rescue Dare that… now I had no idea what to do, or how to react. Seriously, I was happy she was safe, even if we didn’t know exactly what was going on there (and I definitely wanted to find out), but I really didn’t know what to even do.
Oh wait, I did know one thing. Now that the terror of what was going on with Dare was at least somewhat set aside, there was something I’d been meaning to do the whole time. Pushing myself off the chair, I stood in front of Gaia and cleared my throat. “Ahem, uh, so, if you have any real objection to me hugging you right now, you should probably speak up pretty quickly.”
Another soft chuckle escaped the woman, as she picked herself up from the edge of the chair. Honestly, I was pretty sure she was happy for the excuse to stand up. Again, I really didn’t think she wanted to sit still, or be cooped up. “Miss Chambers,” she informed me in what was very obviously an intentionally prim voice, “the day I object to a hug from two of my best, most industrious students is the day you can assume I have been taken by a very unsubtle Seosten.”
With an audible snort, Koren joined us. “‘Two’ of her students, she says. I think I know which of us is pushing up the score on that front.” Her foot lightly kicked the side of my leg. “Just happy to ride your coattails, Aunty. And hey, from what I hear, the other you actually has coattails to ride.”
My eyes rolled before I stepped over to embrace Gaia. I hugged the woman somewhat gingerly at first, worried about how frail she looked. But she nipped that right in the bud, making a point of squeezing me tight enough to take my breath away. Then she reached out to pull Koren into the same embrace, making the other girl squeak a little. Gaia’s voice was as calm as ever, but I could definitely feel the emotion underneath the words. “I missed you both. I missed all of you.”
We stood there like that for a minute, and honestly, I could’ve stayed for a lot longer. This was Gaia, she was home, she was back, finally. I had so much I wanted to tell her about. Now that I knew the world wasn’t about to end, I wanted to get into everything that happened while she was gone. Even if she already knew the major points, like how she’d known about Fossor’s death, or what happened when we took Rahanvael back to their homeworld, I still wanted to talk to her about all of it.
So, I did. Or we did, Koren and me. Eventually, Avalon and Aylen came back, and they helped talk about all of it too. All of us spent hours right there, just talking. Mom came in after a while, and brought lunch with her. That was when I realized it was the first time I’d seen both my mother and Gaia together like that. Seriously, Gaia had been gone for a long fucking time.
In any case, we spent a long time in that room, with the crowd gradually growing through the day. More of Gaia’s students, her friends, kept showing up to talk about what happened all year. And when we stopped being in that room, it wasn’t because we were done talking. It was because all of us could tell Gaia couldn’t stand to be trapped in there anymore. So, we took a walk. There was a whole herd of us, heading through the station. We took her down to the living dome area where the houses for all the students were, and let her see how we’d been living.
Eventually, it just became a party, without Gaia needing to be the center of attention. Which, I was pretty sure, was just how she wanted it. The party spread through the small neighborhood-like space, with music blaring, people dancing, singing, playing games, some impromptu combat and power exhibitions. Some people even asked me to summon ghosts to hang out. So, I obliged. Like I was gonna refuse to let my ghosts have fun too?
Standing back, near one of the trees in the yard of a house down the street from the one I was still technically supposed to be living in, I watched as several students started approximating fireworks in the artificial sky. Beside me, Vanessa and Tristan were taking a moment away from the party, the latter speaking up. “Everyone keeps saying we can’t go out too much until things calm down a bit with the Loyalists. So, what the hell are we supposed to do next?”
“Next?” I glanced that way, exchanging a brief look with his sister before giving the boy a shrug. “To tell you the truth, I think what we’re supposed to do next might be the hardest thing I’ve had to do in a really long time.
“We might just have to try to relax for a little while.”
Joke Tags: Boy It’s Lucky For Them That Dare Standing On The Desoto Land That Ended Up Attached To Lord Tabbris’s World Counts As Being On Earth For The Banishment Spell? Huh?
