Chapter 16

  Kaitlyn Carter

  Kaitlyn Carter bounced out of bed when she awoke early the next morning. She threw open a window, inviting the rain and thunder into her bedroom. She pranced onto her balcony to gaze with blurry vision at the flickering lights of the everstorm.

  Elmer Sky was outside her door on watch, snoring happily in his blue velvet suit. He had made a cozy chair out of puffy clouds! She let him be. She spun back into her room, donned her glasses (now with elastic band!), her sandals, a cotton knee-length dress with blue and red fractal patterns, and of course her lab coat. She bundled her hair up into a messy bun, for she had work to do.

  She disturbed the Theians camping out in her big rainbow entrance hall when she skipped through. It was Shlushluth, Thlytri, Flitch, Jan. They stirred themselves groggily awake, greeting her belatedly as she passed.

  She stopped by Eric’s room and found Amelia Shape outside. She had nothing to report except some complaint about the excessive curiosity of the Theians. Excellent!

  “I suppose I’ll be off for a coffee,” said Amelia, speaking as though this were a prospect nearly too grim for contemplation. “Would you like anything?”

  “Hot ch-chocolate!” Kate declared with an upraised finger before proceeding up to her lab.

  Once in the lab, music blasting and hot coco steaming, she got to work. She had discovered that inventing was pretty fast work when the inventor could create any tool or material necessary, on demand, to exact specifications. In fact, it made her realize that most of the time she normally spent ‘inventing’ was actually consumed in locating and acquiring the necessary parts/tools/equipment. But with drops and imagination, she always had exactly what she needed. Copper wire? Crystal lenses—crafted just so? Tiny bolts with matching nuts and washers? Easy!

  It was amazing! It was like this was how it had always been meant to be!

  And it was fast. She hashed out a prototype within two hours. It didn’t quite work as intended, not unless the intent was to give Heidi seizures, which it definitely was not! But it was a fine start.

  A message came for her as she stood pondering the prototype. What, exactly, had gone wrong? And why? This was actually her favorite part. It would be boring if every invention just worked right the first time, all the time. But now she got to play detective! She could analyze, deduce, figure it out. It was a mystery! And a mystery, like her dad used to say, was just a sort of adventure for the mind.

  The message was in grey text. That guy! Kate couldn’t quite remember if she’d liked this one or not. The gods were a mixed bag, that was for sure!

  AC: Greetings.

  AC: I have been watching you.

  KC: 8|

  AC: I believe I can identify your error.

  KC: my what?

  AC: Your error in the construction of that device.

  KC: well you better not spoil it!

  AC: Spoil it?

  KC: and I’m not supposed to trust you anyway!

  AC: That is wise.

  AC: I can see here what Jeronimy did yesterday.

  AC: You are too trusting.

  AC: And you should have known that sparking the ignition coil would set off a chain reaction in the arda.

  KC: the what?

  AC: The arda. The crystals.

  KC: the McFinnium? I DID know that!

  AC: If you knew it was going to explode, then why did you do it?

  KC: I don’t know! I don’t remember because it didn’t happen! Eric stopped me!

  AC: Interesting.

  AC: In any case, not accepting instructions from those decided to kill you is a sound decision.

  AC: But perhaps you will accept suggestions.

  AC: Or hints, if you will.

  KC: well sure!

  KC: as long as you don’t spoil it!

  KC: waaaiiiit a minute

  KC: >:|

  KC: why do you care?

  AC: As I said, I have been observing you as you constructed this device.

  AC: It is something that few could have done.

  AC: Even I would not have thought to render the attraction field omni-directionally.

  KC: oh, EVEN you?!

  KC: 8o

  AC: Not in the first iteration.

  KC: ;D

  AC: Look at this.

  The Chained God sent her a ten-line equation that CHIME had difficulty rendering into text. That was fine; it just added another layer of puzzling to the challenge!

  She got right to work, scrawling it on her whiteboard and trying to figure out where it fit. It was clearly a derivative of the standard gravitational torsion flux equation. Was the Chained God trying to tell her she wasn’t paying enough attention to gravitoelectromagnetism?!

  Another hour slipped away. Kate and AC ceased, for this period, to be hero and god. They became conspirators, investigators, explorers. The Chained God knew things that Kate did not. But he also had been wrong to suggest that he could easily build the gravity goggles all on his own. There were peculiar gaps in his knowledge—gaps that Kate could fill.

  By the end of that hour, the third prototype was practically complete. And this one, Kate thought, would work!

  KC: I think we’ve got it!

  ? AC: Excellent.

  KC: is it, though? Aren’t you trying to kill us?

  AC: When you requested that I do not ‘spoil’ anything, you meant that you desired to discover the solution on your own.

  KC: of course!

  KC: that’s the fun!

  KC: it’s like a mystery

  KC: like Sherlock Holmes

  AC: This Sherlock Holmes. Tell me about her.

  KC: him ;)

  KC: he is a brilliant detective!

  KC: fictional, alas

  KC: he is famous for solving mysteries by using observation and extrapolating from seemingly insignificant details

  KC: but he was also a scientist!

  KC: and you’re a scientist too?

  AC: Yes.

  KC: a scientist god

  KC: that’s cool!

  KC: I would never have thought of that because gods are supposed to like know everything

  KC: but that means they could never be scientists!

  KC: kind of sad for those omniscient gods actually

  KC: I think it’s good to not know everything

  AC: I am not sure that I agree.

  AC: I cannot think of anything I would choose not to know, given the choice.

  KC: hmm, I don’t think that’s the same thing ?:\

  KC: but if you knew everything then everything would be pointless!

  AC: It is a moot point.

  KC: I agree!

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  KC: I do not know everything, and neither do you

  KC: right?

  AC: Correct.

  KC: the task of a scientist is to find answers to questions and solutions to problems

  KC: right?

  AC: I would add that the acquisition of knowledge is a worthwhile pursuit in itself.

  AC: But yes.

  KC: fair enough!

  KC: and if you are trying to solve a problem in one way, but that way is not working, then as a scientist you must gather more data as well as consider alternate solutions!

  KC: right?

  AC: Of course.

  KC: one must always consider alternate solutions, RIGHT?

  KC: it being the case that none of us has access to all the data

  AC: Certainly.

  KC: and a scientist should never ever be so set on one theory or proposed solution that they pursue it to the exclusion of other possible solutions, ESPECIALLY when it is not working!

  KC: AM I WRONG, AC?

  AC: It’s Acarnus.

  AC: Are you going somewhere with this?

  KC: I am ;)

  KC: we’re all still alive down here, Acarnus

  KC: all us heroes

  KC: killing us might work eventually, but it hasn’t worked yet!

  KC: and are you really, REALLY sure it’s the only way to do whatever it is you’re trying to do?

  KC: because my man Isaac would probably say, ‘that isn’t how this story goes’

  KC: and it doesn’t really seem like you or most of the other gods really want to kill us anyway

  KC: and I think YOU are also nicer than you let on, and you don’t actually want to kill us either

  KC: so just think about it

  KC: ok?

  He didn’t say anything after that. Kate put the finishing touches on the goggles, which included coloring them black, which she thought Heidi would appreciate. They were bulky, more of a helmet than just a pair of goggles. Maybe they could be integrated into a real helmet for protection, but Heidi could do that herself.

  Kate thought about the Chained God as she took the gravity-goggles to the copying machine, downloaded the blueprint into her medallion, and sent it to Heidi via another of the mysterious devices in her lab. The Chained God had told her how to do that. Now Heidi could make the goggles, if she had drops.

  Why was he called the Chained God? What was he chained to? Why had he been so interested in Sherlock Holmes?

  Eric dropped by, bleary and yawning, his clothes crumpled and his hair a mess. He was not a morning person. But Elmer Sky was with him, and Elmer was an every-time-of-day person. Elmer’s appearance in a room was always a lot like balloons arriving suddenly in the midst of a dreary activity.

  “By Jove!” he exclaimed upon entering the lab. “It certainly is clean in here, wouldn’t you say Sir Eric?” He gave Eric a friendly jostle with his elbow.

  “Sure,” said Eric. He blinked around, taking in all the residual mess of her morning project. “Busy morning?”

  She proudly held aloft the completed goggles. “F-finished!”

  “What, already?” He yawned again. “Nice.”

  “The Ch-chained God helped me!”

  “God damn it, Kate.”

  “I was c-ca-c-careful this time.” She tried to keep the defensive tone out of her voice. She set the goggles back down. “I did n-not b-blow up. And they w-work.”

  “Well, cool. Seen Frisby around?”

  She had not.

  After that, they had breakfast together with Elmer and Amelia and the Theians. It was there that the Theians and Elmer began speaking of Absolem, Guardian of the Cloud Moon.

  “Right!” Elmer declared once he had heard enough. He sprang up from the cushion on which he had been sitting. “Let’s have at it, then!” He preened his moustache and gazed dramatically into the distance.

  “Finish your breakfast, Elmer,” said Amelia, unfazed by his outburst.

  “We must go see him!”

  “After breakfast, dear.”

  Eric, much more awake now with a coffee in his hand, said, “Why the hell would you want to see your Guardian?”

  “He’s n-not b-ba-b-b-evil,” said Kate. “I think I n-need to w-wa-wake him up. Or so-something.”

  Eric looked doubtful, but the prospect of flying again took hold of Kate. She remembered, all at once, the exhilaration of flight. It had been a little dangerous, yes. But it had been so much fun.

  “Could you fucking stop?” That was Eric.

  Wind filled the grand entry hall in which they sat and ate. It howled from nowhere, spilling their drinks and scattering their breakfast foods across the floor in swirls. Elmer laughed, the Theians clung to the floor with their sticky feet, and Amelia sat in a transparent bubble that shielded her from the wind, calmly continuing her breakfast.

  It stopped almost as soon as Kate realized it was there. The gale faded away to a slight breeze, then to nothing.

  Elmer clapped in applause. “Marvelous!”

  Eric wiped hot coffee off of himself, muttering something.

  “D-did I d-do that?” She didn’t wait for an answer. Of course it had been her. “W-we should g-go, Eric! It’ll b-be fun!”

  “Fun?” He said it like he had never heard the word before but suspected he wouldn’t like the meaning when he found it out.

  “Fun!”

  And it was fun, the most fun she had had in what seemed like a long time, even though she had to modify the flying machine so Eric could ride along, and even though Eric grumbled and grouched throughout the whole time they were preparing to go.

  But by noon they were off! She and Eric lay side-by-side on a modified flying machine that had taken almost all of her remaining drops to create. They were a lot heavier, so the wings had to be a lot bigger. She flew it, not Eric. Eric was just along for the ride, and he wasn’t having a delightful time—not at first, anyway.

  The Theians flew with them, as before, and Kate made a brief stop at their nearby village to pick up Mormo and some others who wanted to make the journey.

  Amelia and Elmer came along as well, which made Kate feel a lot better. She hadn’t seen them fight the Ladies or anything, but apparently they were really strong! Strong enough to get rid of two Ladies of Skywater, anyway. Amelia had brought a book and chair. She sat in the chair and read the book all while inside a box of light that flew alongside Kate and Eric. She occasionally looked around, especially at the storm overhead. Sometimes she turned a page or made a comment to Elmer.

  Elmer Sky had selected “the fucking Superman approach” according to Eric, except that Superman had never left a rainbow behind him like a long banner when he flew. Also, Superman had never been a short, fat, funny mustachioed man in a bright blue suit and top hat. Elmer swooped and curled around them, laughing as he trailed his rainbow.

  His name was Sky. She, Kaitlyn Carter, was the Hero of Sky. Did that mean she could do that too?! She made a note to ask him about it.

  Eric got used to flying soon enough, and he even began smiling when they dove from the heights of a cliff or soared over fields of roving many-legged windmills. He put his headphones on after a while, and Kate bothered him until he made a second pair with a split adapter so they could both listen. It was some electronic music, which was just fine. And once the music was on, it seemed like flying was the easiest thing in the world.

  She wondered, though, about the gods and what Fiora and Acarnus had said. Kate thought she liked Fiora. Fiora had wanted to know if Kate and Eric were together! Her Lady was Lady Hearts, so maybe she was the goddess of love and healing or whatever.

  Kate had never for a second thought of her and Eric like that. But she could understand the mistake! She did like him. He was cool and funny and reliable, and he cared so much about his friends and his adopted sister. And Kate thought they had got some good bonding in recently, what with fighting off Lady Chains with Heidi, her healing his arm, then him saving her from that jerk Jeronimy, then making the music together for a door (it was electric!), then escaping Ladies Fire and Shadows…

  But Eric was with Liz. She had seen them holding hands at the top of Skywater Citadel! That warmed her heart. Adorable! She was more than happy to fly and laugh with him and jam to music.

  A couple hours into their flight, Kate received a message from Princess Zayana of Meszria.

  ZA: Kaitlyn Carter?

  Kate hastily excused herself from Eric’s music and handed him the controls. “Who is it this time?” he asked, feigning exasperation.

  “It’s a p-p-princess, Eric!” He looked doubtful, but Kate was too excited to care. “Here!” She scooted over and shoved the piloting joystick toward Eric, which sent their little plane into a steep swerve that might have crashed them if Amelia hadn’t helped out with some floating shapes of light.

  KC: Zayana!

  KC: :D

  KC: it’s me!

  ZA: I see that I made faulty assumptions. I was under the impression that you were a Daimon.

  KC: a what?

  ZA: A daimon. Like me.

  KC: oh! Is that what your race is called? The gods?

  ZA: We are not gods.

  KC: I figured. Pretty weird for a princess to be a god!

  ZA: I am so foolish.

  ZA: I paid no attention when they said they found another Narrative.

  ZA: I had no interest in Acarnus’s scheme.

  ZA: I never considered that you might be involved.

  ZA: And I was...occupied elsewhere.

  KC: ?

  ZA: Do not worry, Kaitlyn Carter. I will put a stop to this nonsense about supplanting you and accessing your door.

  ZA: Lickety-split.

  ZA: And then, we will have much to discuss.