Of course, the first step to taking these people to see the Roundabout was to actually figure out where the place was. After all, the entire point was that it would jump around and stay hidden, never remaining in one place too long. If Ruthers had had any idea that there was an entire school dedicated to teaching Necromancers out there, let alone that Jacob was the one who founded it, he would’ve turned the entire planet upside down looking for it. To say nothing of what the Seosten would’ve done if they knew we were teaching humans and other species to work together. Our best strength was in not being known. It was the big thing keeping the school safe.
Humans and other species working together, that was one of the main things I’d wanted to make sure carried through the entire life of the Roundabout school. Beyond the Necromancy itself, beyond the long-term plan of how to stop the Fomorians from destroying all life in the universe, beyond all of that, if we didn’t teach everyone to work together, it would’ve failed.
We. I kept thinking we, but I wasn’t really that much of a part of it, was I? It was my general idea, sure. But I had skipped forward over basically all of it. The school, the one I wanted to create, had been on its own for centuries. I had checked in now and then, the longest time being during that vacation ‘rift,’ but I wasn’t actually running the place. That was Laein and the others she had hired through all those years. In some ways, it was more her school than mine. I had the plan, she did the work. She put it into action during all that time that I was bouncing around the rifts.
But that was also the point, wasn’t it? That just fed into what I was thinking before. I had come up with the plan, and Laein, an Alter, was the one keeping the school running through all that time that I was gone. She built it up, with various versions of me checking in through the timeline now and then, as much as I could. We were both vital to its existence. We worked together to make the school what it was. And maybe, maybe now that I was back here for good, we could take the school that Laein and the others had worked so hard and so long to build up, and use it to do some real good in the universe. Maybe we could use it to finally end the Fomorian threat.
That was getting a bit ahead of myself, though. First things first, we had to find the school itself. Fortunately, Laein and I had planned ahead for this, so I had a few options, ways of contacting her or finding one of the secret beacons in the Roundabout. Assuming they were still following the plan we had established, there were eleven different beacons, only one of which would be active based on what day it was. But the thing there was, the beacons weren’t just activated in one simple order. There was a whole trick revolving around adding up the letters in the day, like Monday, June Seventeen would end up with the number nineteen when those letters were all added together. Then you’d subtract the first two digits of the year, before adding the last two.
So, if it was 1995, you’d subtract ten (one plus nine) from nineteen for nine, then add fourteen (nine plus five) for twenty-three. So to figure out which beacon was in use, you’d count up through them, repeating as needed to get to twenty-three. The first beacon was one, the second was two, and so on. So in this case, twenty-three would lead to the second beacon, since going all the way through all eleven beacons twice was twenty-two, then one more was twenty-three. And the way it was all set up, if you tried to check for the wrong beacon, it wouldn’t just not tell you where the school was. It actually sent up a warning flare for the school to be on alert and go into lockdown.
If all of that sounded like the sort of system my brother would help come up with, it was because he did, during that whole vacation thing. Actually, he wanted a much more complicated way of locating the school, but we talked him down to something a little more manageable. After all, at the end of the day, it was just like I’d said before. Our biggest advantage would always be in not being known. If it got to the point where someone was actively trying to find us, and knew enough about it to go as far as breaking that beacon code thing we were using, we were already in deep shit.
Of course, I could also just summon the Cryptseeker and go from there. But that ship very deliberately wasn’t always kept where the Roundabout was. It had its own hiding places. So my best bet was to use the beacons. Which was what I did, after taking the time to work out that today was Monday, March 11th. So much for getting back just a few days after I left. Oh well. The point was, that added up to seventeen. The year was 2019, so subtracting 2 (2 plus 0) from seventeen was fifteen. Adding ten (1 plus 9) put that up to twenty-five. That took us all the way through the eleven beacons twice (eleven times two being twenty-two), and then three more to the fourth one. So, I used the spell for locating beacon four, while everyone else (especially my brother) watched intently.
Was it weird that even after everything that had happened and all that I've seen, I felt an absurd amount of performance anxiety with everyone staring at me as I went through that process? It didn't help that we had put in some pretty severe countermeasures if I did this wrong. Obviously, I had ways of bypassing those even if I screwed this up. But still, it could turn into a whole thing, and I really didn't want to look bad in front of these people. Childish as that might’ve seemed.
Thankfully, that didn't happen. I went through the multistage process of contacting the beacon, identifying myself when it sent back a demand for that, then giving the proper code when the request for that came. Only then, after all that, did I get an actual location. And even then, it came in code. It was latitude and longitude coordinates, but the latitude had the number of letters in my first name (Felicity, so eight) added to it, and the longitude had the number of letters in my last name (Chambers, so also eight) subtracted from it. Then there were some nonsense letters and numbers that didn’t mean anything at all in between the two numbers to make it look like one long string. All of that just in case the message was intercepted somehow.
Once I went through the whole process of decoding it, the coordinates pointed to the western area of Peru, near a place known as Comunidad Campesina de Chambara, which I thought was some sort of farming and wildlife community. Anyway, the Roundabout was apparently about fifteen miles slightly northeast of that. For a moment, I wondered how long they’d been in that area. And about how many other places the school had already been in across all those years.
But in the end, I shook that off. Now wasn’t the time to get caught up in that sort of thing. I just looked up from my phone, where I’d been putting the translated coordinates in, and let the others know where we were going. Once I did, Calafia grunted. “That’s technically still in the part of the continent that’s Crossroads-controlled. But very close to Heitsi-eibib’s claimed territory.”
“Who? Or, alternatively, what?” I asked, glancing back at the maps app on my phone. “And how much of South America is his, her, or their territory?” Did they know about the Roundabout?
“Heitsi-eibib,” Calafia repeated. “They’re a shapeshifter trickster who has been around for… well, since long before Crossroads was a thing. Legends say they can turn into any sort of creature or person, any shape or size. Which fits well with their weakness-locating power.”
“Their what now?” I asked immediately, glancing toward Puriel reflexively, considering how familiar something like that sounded. Was it possible Chayyiel had some sort of Bonded?
It was Percival who replied. “The longer they watch someone, the more they understand them. That includes learning the extent of their strengths, weaknesses, skills, even areas they tend to spend time in. Just by spending enough time looking at their target, Heitsi-eibib can figure out how to hurt or kill them. And it’s easy for them to watch someone by shapeshifting into a bug, or just a random person that the target won’t pay any attention to. Even a lover or family member.”
“Which they can also effectively pull off masquerading as, thanks to getting that information,” Sophronia put in. “It works both ways. The shapeshifting allows them to get close enough to their target to observe them so their information power can work, and the information power feeds them what they need to make the shapeshifting an effective disguise. Any codes or pass phrases the target might’ve set up with the person they’re replacing are fed right to them.”
“They are not,” Puriel informed us in a low, contemplative voice, “in any way connected to Chayyiel. Whoever they are, whatever their origin, they existed on this world before my people came here, and they have made it quite clear that they will not accept any intrusion onto the land they’ve claimed. Believe me, we have… tried repeatedly. This Heitsi-eibib is the very best assassin I have ever known, and that is not a short or simple list. Their information-gathering power seems to see through Seosten possession immediately. And… well, not only do they know how to force one of us to eject from a host, they also have ways of targeting us even while we are possessing someone. Which is why my people elected to leave their territory alone.”
Stolen novel; please report.
“And how much territory was that?” my dad quickly asked. “You said Peru was very close to it.”
It was Calafia who answered. “If it’s the same as the area we leave alone, that would be most of the continent besides the northwest area. It was too dangerous to have any regular presence further in.”
“Indeed,” Puriel confirmed. “The decision was made, after quite a bit of conflict, to allow Heitsi-eibib to have that territory without pressing in. As long as they stayed in that area, my people would not attempt to evict or control them. It was seen as not worth the effort to control.”
“Yeah, that seems like the smart move,” I murmured. “Though I’ve gotta admit, part of me is surprised your people didn’t go for a violent solution. Live and let live isn’t… I mean, in my experience, that’s not really how your people do things if there’s any other choice at all. A single person forcing you to stay out of three-quarters of South America? Sure, they’re a badass, very dangerous assassin and all that, but you have actual spaceships with missiles and big lasers.”
As everyone turned a bit to stare at me, I found myself flushing with embarrassment, awkwardly kicking the floor. “Hey, I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they didn’t raze the continent! That’s very good, super good, absolutely. Genocide awful. I am totally one hundred percent on the ‘glad South America still exists in one piece’ train. I was just saying, I’m surprised they didn’t go to extreme methods to deal with that, if this assassin person actually hurt them. Hell, it sounds like they actually killed some Seosten. It just didn’t seem to be in-keeping with what I know about those people for them to just walk away from that and let bygones be bygones. I’m glad they didn’t do something horrific in retaliation, but still just a little surprised, you know?”
I might’ve continued right on babbling like that, but Puriel held his hand up for me to stop. His expression was slightly grim, with pain in his eyes that I immediately felt guilty for having any part of. When he spoke, it was in a deliberately calm, measured way. “Your judgment of my people is… quite understandable. We are not, to put it mildly, the best at being told we cannot go somewhere or do something. But we are also, in many ways, pragmatic. There was no real benefit to burning that continent from orbit, and it is home to quite a few powerful creatures. Creatures that could live and grow in that place before emerging at times to be… targeted.”
“You mean for your army of human weapons,” my dad put in bluntly. “If Crossroads and Eden’s Garden ever actually succeeded at ridding the world of all the Alters, there wouldn’t be any more for them to get powers from, or to get used to killing from. Your people needed places like South America, where those beings could live and breed relatively regularly. You needed that place to be a source of… of supposed monsters for the Boschers to kill. That’s why your people decided to leave it alone. As long as it was what you needed, who controlled it didn’t matter.”
“Sometimes pragmatic reasons can cross with moral ones,” Puriel replied simply. “But yes, that is the official reason that was given to me and my superiors for not more actively pursuing the assassin. A reason that was supplied by my subordinate who had been assigned the task of dealing with that situation. She stated almost precisely what you did, though in even prettier words. It was a reason I, and those above me, could accept. But then, Sariel was always quite adept at that sort of thing. I couldn’t begin to guess how many of our darker impulses she has been responsible for curtailing by pointing out a less wasteful way. Not that it always worked.”
There was a lot I wanted to say to that, especially the revelation that Sariel was responsible for South America not being razed to the ground. Hell, it made me wonder how much she knew about this Heitsi-eibib person. Obviously, she didn’t need to know them to have wanted to stop her people from genociding a continent, but if she had been put in charge of finding and ending that threat, maybe she’d actually gotten to know more about them. I just-- I was curious about it. Not that I was lacking in reasons to talk to Sariel, but this was another one to throw onto the pile.
And okay, maybe part of that was me being very curious to find out more about the Sariel who had existed after I met her in Egypt, but before I met her again in Salem. That was a hell of a lot of time, and… and I just really wanted to find out more about her. I wanted to actually get to know what sort of person she had been while she was still part of the active Seosten presence here on Earth. I wanted to get to know who Sariel had been, and who she was now, beyond my sister’s mother. After… after what happened in Egypt, I wanted to get to know the real Sariel.
Belatedly, I realized everyone else had stopped talking. All four Committee members, Puriel, Spark, Tabbris, Miranda, my dad, even Percy and all three of Cerberus’s heads, were staring at me in total silence. They looked uncertain. And maybe at least a little bit worried about me.
Well, Yardbird noted with far too much cheer, that could be because we’ve been standing here staring at the floor, mumbling under our breath for the past thirty seconds. That tends to draw attention.
Wincing, I cleared my throat pointedly and waved that off. “Sorry, I guess I was lost in thought. I um, I’m ready to go if you guys are. But I should be the one to teleport us there. We--err, have some pretty dangerous defenses against anyone else showing up uninvited. And that’s just the ones I know about. Laein… err, can be a bit enthusiastic, and she’s had time to get creative.”
“Yes, well,” Percivial put in with a smile, “I think we’ve heard all about how dangerous people connected to you can become with enough time and motivation. So we’ll defer to your lead.”
Boy did it ever feel weird to have him say that, let alone for the other three Committee members to immediately agree. Between them and Puriel himself, they were all patiently waiting for me to make the next move. And I… froze. I knew what to do next. I just had to teleport everyone to those coordinates. But I was a bit overwhelmed. And how dumb was that? I was supposed to take charge here. They were treating me like an actual adult, like someone who knew what I was doing. They were waiting for me to take them to my school, the place I founded. But all I could do was freeze up like a child being put on stage in front of an audience for the first time.
Flick. That was Yardbird again, of course, but it also sounded like more than just her. It sounded like the entire Flique. Or maybe the better way to put it would be that it felt like the entire Flique. They’re treating you like an adult because you are. Not just because you’re basically nineteen years old, but because… after everything, they see you as an adult too. You aren’t one of the students anymore. We aren’t. We can do this. It’s time to go back to the Roundabout and see what’s going on there, and we’re taking these guys with us. It’s time to show them what we helped build. And prove that it’s the right thing to do. This was your idea, the Necromancy school, how to use our power, how to stop the Fomorians. It’s time to show these people that it was the right idea.
She-- they were right, of course. I took a deep breath, pushed my anxiety and uncertainty down, and gestured. “You should all get a little closer. And whatever you do, when we get there, don’t be aggressive or overreact. Just let me do the talking. They might be a little surprised to see… uh, some of you.” That came with a quick, pointed glance toward Percival and the other three.
So, everyone came closer as we stood there in that vet office. I had a second to hope Aylen, Abigail, Wyatt, and Gwen had already found Avalon and Dare and explained what was going on. With any luck, this part would be as simple as visiting the Roundabout and getting a chance to see how it looked these days, before meeting up with Marian and recruiting her to go save Gaia. It could end up being that easy, right? There didn’t have to be some big distraction or problem to stop us from finally getting Gaia the hell out of that prison and back with us where she belonged. All we needed was Marian, Dare, and the Reaper blood. Then we could use that spell to find the prison. And then… well, then the real fun would start. Especially since we couldn’t take the Committee people with us for that part.
Pushing that thought aside, I focused on those coordinates. Having a picture of the place would be nice, but I didn’t actually need it by this point. I just thought about the area and willed myself, and everyone close to me, to be there. It was that easy.
And there we were, just like that. My eyes opened, and I started taking in the view around us, along with the others. We were standing partway up a low hill that was one of dozens all around us. The hills were thick with vegetation, mostly thick grass, shrubs, and a few scattered pine trees. There was a taller mountain just a short distance behind us, and a long, narrow valley below, with a river running down through it that had clearly bountiful farmland on either side. And there, just slightly to the right, was another mountain at the very mouth of that river. About halfway up that mountain, overlooking the river and feeding into it, was a waterfall. And just above that was an enormous open cavern, a hole right in the middle of the mountain that stretched from one side of it to the other. There, lined up all along that open area overlooking where we were, I saw hundreds of ghosts staring down at us. Behind them was just the slightest glimpse of architecture, mostly hidden in shadows back there inside the obviously gigantic cave.
“Well,” I started, “looks like we found them. Come on, let’s go see the Roundabout.”
“Just so you know, I’m already sad I wasn’t there to see Ruthers’ and Litonya’s faces when they found out about you being Jacob in the first place,” Percival announced as we began to walk that way.
“But if I miss their reactions to finding out what you named this place, I’ll never forgive myself.”
Joke Tags: Flick If You Don’t Bring Up The Joseph Bell/Invidia Situation So We Can Get Some Answers Soon The Readers Are Gonna Riot
