NaNoWriMo ’11 (Part 5)

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Kim had still been dreaming when the burning erupted in her chest. Dream Mithra had been marrying Dream Zooey Deschanel and Dream Kim had felt a pain in chest, and then the real Kim had rolled over and started screaming. Her whole body was sending off warning signals, hitting every nerve until she was a writhing mess. She pulled at her shirt and then grasped her neck as she tried to breath, and her pants tangled in her legs, and she rolled off the bed, landing with a thump onto the floor. At this point someone must’ve come in, because they were shaking her, but she couldn’t see a goddamned thing. There was someone there, only, no, no they weren’t. They’d reached in, they’d just taken her, she didn’t want to be taken, and she slammed her fists against the chest of someone, the blow reverberating back into her arms. She heard someone mutter an ‘ow,’ and she struggled to understand what was happening. She was in her room, but she was in the warehouse, and that was Geoffy trying to help her, then who had her now? The woman. The image was entirely too clear, her lean, pointed face and all her teeth smiling at her. As understanding permeated her confused dream state, she blinked and sat up, allowing someone to take her by her limp arms. When reality was once again restored, she was sitting at the kitchen table, her mother making a pot of tea and her father wrapping his arms around her shoulders. She stuttered out what she’d seen, and her mother nearly dropped a glass running to call Aremana. Apparently he already knew–who would run a warehouse full of magical artifacts and then not put something in place in case this exact thing happened–and one of the two men she worked with was taking care of things at the warehouse. The staff was indeed missing, and suddenly expectant eyes were on her.

“We can’t allow her to run away with it,” her mother explained very quietly. “Not if you’re still connected to it.”

The pain was still deep in her ribs, as if someone was stretching her apart. Kim could only nod.

“You should call to it, dear. See if it will come back to you.”

Her mother squeezed her hand, and Kim closed her eyes. There was so much pain inside her, the loneliness, the dejection eating at her insides, and the actual physical discomfort of it being carried away from her. It wanted her, and she was afraid to admit that she wanted it.

Very quietly, like a whisper (like a prayer), she whispered his name.

It appeared with a flash of light in her hand, and everyone in the room jumped back. The fire didn’t even singe her fingers, and she felt calm again. The pain dissipated, leaving only a dull, throbbing headache to remind her of the ordeal. After that, her parents said very little, and Geoffy only stared at her. They led her back to her bed and set the staff against the wall beside her. When the lights turned out, she stared at it, feeling its presence all too comforting, and cried herself to sleep.

—

While Cadmos tucked his daughter into bed, Hui-ying checked in with her employer. She wasn’t exactly in a good enough mood at the moment to refer to him as a friend.

“Of course I’m not encouraging the connection,” she said after she explained what had happened. “Only what else could I do? You didn’t see what it was doing to her.”

He gave an unconcerned hm. “How’s the boy?”

“You mean Geoffy?” She frowned and glanced over where he had curled back into bed. “Scared, mostly. I’m surprised you ask. You’ve been pawning him off on me so much lately I thought you were trying to pretend he didn’t exist.”

Anselm sighed on the other end of the phone. “I prefer to focus on my work.”

“Don’t pretend to be so noble, Anselm. We both know your ‘investors’ could get you blackballed or worse. Which, by the way, what the hell happened? Hortense wasn’t at the door?”

“She said no one walked past her. I also caught her playing some kind of idiotic Internet game earlier today, which is strange since I’m fairly certain her computer isn’t hooked up to anything.”

“So this woman–”

“Bedelia,” he interrupted. “That’s the name she gave me.”

“So she just strolls into the gallery, grabs her staff, and then trots back out again without anyone noticing.”

“The wards noticed. I can’t help but point out that your daughter noticed.”

Hui-ying rubbed the bridge of her nose. The middle of the night after her daughter had woken up screaming in response to a priceless artifact being stolen out from underneath them was not her favorite time to be doing this with Anselm.

“Tomorrow,” she said. “We can deal with all of this. Right now, I’m off to bed.”

She hung up before he could retort. After turning out all the lights and saying goodnight to Geoffy once again, she went to check on her daughter. Cadmos stood outside the hall, just closing the door.

“She’ll sleep,” he said. “It seems to calm her.”

“That’s what worries me,” she said with a sigh. She wrapped her arms around her husband, pressing her face against his neck. “What if it doesn’t turn out alright?”

“It will,” he promised. “She is ours and we will protect her.”

They took comfort in each other and awaited the morning dawn.

—

Kim allowed Aremana to take the staff from her the next day. It was the busiest she’d ever seen the warehouse. Both Bartholomew and Handel were securing every lock and every ward, while Hortense strutted back and forth, trying to figure out where the woman had slipped in. Mrs. Zhi and Aremana cleared a space for the staff and began placing a lot of very small, very delicate equipment around it. Geoffy and Kim sat against the far wall, watching everyone work. Kim had made sure to wear the necklace her father had made for her that day. She felt unsafe every moment it was off of her. She still wanted to tell Mithra everything that happened, but it was nice having Geoffy around. She didn’t have to explain things to him, and he completely understood what magic was. Mithra still got weirded out if she tried to bring it up, even when her own fascination got the better of her.

“That’s it,” Hortense said, stalking into the warehouse. “I have no idea how she got in here. Not a single person was here last night but me. Why don’t you put cameras up like I ask?”

Aremana did not look up from what he was doing. “I hate fiddling with those thing. Also half of it’s always static.”

Hortense gave a frustrated cry and stamped her foot before marching over to where they were sitting.

“That girl’s mojo is all over the place too,” she muttered. “She wasn’t exactly being subtle. Do you guys want anything?”

They shook their heads and off she went, probably to go over everything for the fourth or fifth time. It appeared to be a direct insult to her that all of this had occurred.

“You’re feeling okay today, right?” Geoffy asked as they sat a while longer.

“Maybe not okay,” Kim replied. “Better. Kind of numb.”

“Probably shock. Interrupted sleep patterns.”

“I don’t need my head examined.”

“Sorry.”

She relented, sitting back. “Definitely stressed.”

“Yeah,” he muttered. “I can see that.”

“Kim,” her mother called from across the room, waving her over, “can you come here?”

It was a bit like seeing a dead body examined. Even after it had all gone quiet last night, Kim could still feel a gentle pulsing from the staff. In the morning even that had stopped. Strangely it was as if it had folded back inside itself, the same way she was starting to, like leftover trauma from last night had left it dead and quiet and unwilling to come out again. With all the delicate gold equipment perched around it, it was exactly like a medical examiner. Some of the equipment she could not even recognize. One piece looped upward like a drill, while another held nine different magnifying glasses different lengths from each other. Another was spider-like, a blue jewel perched on the top of its frame. Aremana was getting increasingly frustrated with all of them.

“Darling,” her mother said, taking her by the shoulders and setting her right in front of the staff. “You said something last night to call it back to you. Do you remember what it was?”

Vaguely, she understood that she had given some name to the thing and had once more begun referring to it as ‘him.’ She could not recall the information.

“It could be some kind of trigger word,” her mother murmured. “Or a summoning command.”

She shook her head. “It was a name. I gave it a name.”

She watched her mother try to remain passive. It was a struggle. “You can’t recall what it was?”

Kim really did try. She found herself reaching out to the staff and asking what was it?

“Oh,” she murmured. “Myrddin. That’s what–”

She jumped when Aremana’s hand slipped, crunching beneath it the set of glasses. He cursed and removed a handkerchief from his pocket, wrapping it around before blood could form.

“Are you sure?” Mrs. Zhi asked, watching her compatriot.

“Yeah,” she replied. “I thought–”

“Thank you, dear. Why don’t you go sit down with Geoffy while I help Anselm bandage his hand.”

Kim was pushed away back towards her chair, and she watched the adults retreat for a moment before returning to Geoffy’s side.

“What was that about?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” She sat down beside him, pulling her legs up to her chest. “I have a feeling it’s not good.”

—

Bedelia cursed, nursing her wounds in the makeshift tent she’d created. He had burned her! The nerve of him, treating her like she was some sort of common thief in the night! When she found his physical body, she was going to scratch out his eyes and cut off his fingers and string out his insides and make a nice delicious stew of his meat!

It didn’t matter that he’d never really liked her. It didn’t matter that she’d always had to fight to keep control. He was hers and she was taking him and she would find him again, oh she would find him. Even if it took another thousand years, she was going to end this little game.

—

A million other things stirred. There had always been people who sought power, and there had always been people who sought him. She had only been the first because she had still been searching. Soon they would all know. They could already smell it, they could see it in the distance. They would come for him. They would fight for him.

There is a place deep in the hard to reach corners of the universe. It is blackness, it is dead night, it is dark matter, it is the things we cannot see or understand but know is there, watching us. This is where the horrors lay, the monstrous beings that are sleeping, that will one day awake and with one sharp cry wipe out life in the universe. There is a girl that sleeps among them. She is very small, always quiet, and she has found solace here. It is the only place for her to rest. Her sleep is over. She is opening her eyes. She can see from the dark corners into the world, and she knows where you are.

—

“I don’t get it,” Kim said. “Myrddin’s a real person?”

Her mother had taken them into her office and shut the door. Geoffy at least was as confused as she was, and they sat together as Mrs. Zhi gave them a history lesson.

“He’s more or less known historically,” she was saying. “There’s some dispute whether he was actually a part of the occult, but he’s remembered by a different name. He was the template for the creation of Merlin.”

They stared at her. Geoffy managed to utter a, “What.”

“There’s lots of variations on his story, but all we really know was that he was a prophet living in the sixth century.”

“But Merlin’s not a real person,” Geoffy said. “He’s just a made up story.”

“The tales of King Arthur aren’t entirely accurate, no.” Mrs. Zhi reached into a file folder and found something. “That doesn’t mean some of it isn’t accounts of real things.”

The pictures she laid out were of a rusted old spear and a dagger.

“Rhongomyniad and Carnwennan are often left out of the stories these days, but these are probably they.”

“So,” Kim said slowly, “You’re saying inside of that staff is the fictional wizard Merlin.”

“I’m saying that Myrddin predicted his death, which was witnessed by many people, and there are still sightings of him up to a hundred years later. Whatever he is, he’s ended up in a chunk of wood and appears to be picking hosts.”

“Then what do we do?” Kim asked.

Her mother frowned, pulling out another file to sort through. “I’m not sure. It’s an amazing find, yes, and there’s little proof of Myrddin as anything but a historical madman, so if that’s what it really is, this raises a lot more questions. I wonder if that woman would be willing to tell us anything.”

“Mum.”

“No, right, it’s best not to invite her presence. Surely Anselm knows someone who can–”

“Mum,” Kim said again, leaning forward, “is that it? There’s not really anything else to do but keep looking.”

“I suppose…”

“Then can I leave? I’m really exhausted.”

Mrs. Zhi looked to her daughter and softened. “Of course, dear. Geoffy, you can stay here or you can go back with her.”

He opted to stay, which relieved Kim somewhat. She was tired and wanted to take a nap and then she was going to call Mithra, and it would be alright if he came along for that, but mostly she was pleased to be by herself. Her mother dropped her off and then paused.

“Do me a favor,” she said. “Stay inside today. We have no idea where that woman is or what she might do. Let’s be safe.”

“Of course, mum,” Kim said and kissed her goodbye. She hadn’t planned on going out anyway. More than anything all she wanted to do was curl into her nice warm bed and forget this had ever even happened.

—

Mithra came over in the afternoon. Kim had napped from her return all the way through lunch and was still lazily propped up in her bed, laptop sitting on her legs. She told her everything and showed her the Googling she’d been doing on Myrddin.

“So now this crazy woman’s after you?” Mithra said, leaning over her screen. “That’s scary.”

“It’s not like she came after me.”

“But that was because she thought she could get away with it. Now she knows she can’t.”

Kim stared at her friend. “She’s after the staff.”

“And she might do something to it, and it’s already affecting you now.”

“I hadn’t–” She sucked in a breath. “Maybe she knows how to get rid of it. Maybe I can convince it to go back to her.”

“You should probably stop calling it ‘it.’ You know who he is.”

“Stop saying things!”

“Sorry!” Mithra relented, curling her legs beneath her on the edge of the bed. “Anyway, your mom probably knows all of this. She’ll come home and tell you exactly what to do.”

Kim plucked at a thread on the comforter. “I don’t think so. Not even the professor knows what’s going on, and this is what he does with his life. Mum said she’d call people–”

“There,” Mithra said. “Someone’s got to know! This thing hasn’t existed so long with Merlin inside of it only to waste into obscurity.”

“Yeah. That’s probably right.”

“And it’s not like your parents would leave you completely unprotected.”

“Right.”

“And you’ve got me!”

Kim smiled. “What exactly do you plan to do against an evil Welsh witch?”

Mithra shrugged. “Admittedly not a lot. But I’m always good for moral support.”

She laughed, feeling a tiny bit relieved. Of course her parents were going to take care of her. And how could that crazy woman find her anyway? She would be staking out the gallery if anything, and the only one there at night was Hortense, who apparently could take care of herself. Everything, she decided, would work out for itself. She knew it. It had to. She’d only have to endure a little longer.

—

Indeed, Bedelia seemed to have disappeared following the incident Saturday night. By the end of the week, it felt like a dream that hadn’t really happened. Kim still felt nervous out of the house or away from the gallery, and her mother didn’t let her go out very much, but slowly the fear and stress at the thought of another attack was fading away. Instead she was worrying about things like tests and papers. In a few weeks they’d have Thanksgiving break, something she found nearly pointless but appreciated nonetheless. It almost would’ve been okay, if it weren’t for that Friday, during chapel.

Kim had been sitting and not really listening, as always. Mithra leaned in to whisper something to her, when she’d suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck. Her eyes watered, and she tried to stand to leave, when it hit her like a punch to the stomach. She doubled over, cried out, and fell to the floor. Suddenly everyone was gathered around her, students and faculty alike. Someone grabbed her, and that was when every nerve in her body screamed all at once. That was when she blacked out.

She woke up in the infirmary, her father by her side. The pain was still there, and her limbs felt weak and lifeless, but other than that she was fine. The school dismissed her for the day, her father promising them they were on their way to a doctor’s office, but instead he took her home and let her lay on her bed while he called her mother. The staff was untouched, as far as they could tell and seemed as dead as it had all week. If something had happened, they were completely oblivious. Kim closed her eyes and tried to see what had triggered it, but the staff was quiet to her.

Mithra called her later, but there was little to say. Eventually Mrs. Zhi came home and doted over her daughter for a while, but at the end of the day, Kim just wanted to be left alone to sleep.

—

Even after that, things stayed quiet. The only notable event was a new addition to their class. Her name was Morgan, she had a purple streak in her dark black hair, and Mithra liked her immediately. They sat with her at lunch, and mostly she and Mithra talked. Kim was feeling less and less social these days. Morgan mostly just nodded and added agreement while Mithra talked. She appeared to mostly be absorbing, which Kim could sympathize with. The first week in a new place hadn’t been great on her, and Morgan was coming in the middle of a semester.

In private, Mithra admitted it was nice that she had someone to tell things to, which Kim agreed with. So while Kim talked about the insane magic she faced, Mithra told her about girls she liked before and when she figured it all out. They spent their days laying around, sharing things they found online and curling up in front of the TV. Kim found herself with headaches and strange dreams, but if it meant there were no more attacks she didn’t mind.

Her dreams always took place in the same place. There was a forest of ancient trees and occasionally there was a pond. The moon was always fat and full and shining down on her, and sometimes she lay in the grass and there was someone there with her. She couldn’t see a face, but sometimes there was the brush of fingers and a gentle laugh and the scent of someone she might’ve known but couldn’t remember. Mostly it was the quiet tranquility of her forest, the sounds of wind blowing through the leaves or the scent of dark soil or the feel of the cool earth.

—

Kim felt strange for not seeing Geoffy so long when she’d accidentally sucked him into her life so quickly. She took Mithra with her to stop by the gallery, though Hortense wouldn’t let her through the door. Geoffy was attending public school, possibly because Aremana couldn’t be bothered, and he walked back with them, telling them of his adventures there. Mostly he was bored by the people and the teachers, but he had attempted conversation with a few people. It was by chance that they ran into Morgan leaving the convenience store.

“Hey,” Mithra called to her as they passed. “What’re you up to?”

Morgan held up the bags she was carrying out. It was home from there, but with a little needling in Kim’s side she was suddenly invited along. They were only going to Kim’s to watch movies and veg out, so it wasn’t too much trouble. By now they were friendly with the neighbors, so her father had been forced to throw a cloth over the skulls, and her mother had hidden the more explicit references to their practice. If it had just been Mithra and Geoffy, appearing normal wouldn’t have been so important to Kim, but Morgan put her off. She pretended she wasn’t annoyed that Mithra did her best to curl up beside Morgan or flirted nervously without actually giving away that she was flirting. She tried to focus on the movie, but they were holding their own private conversation and giggled loudly every few minutes.At some point in the middle of the movie she got up to get more popcorn and wasn’t all that surprised when Geoffy followed her.

“So,” he said, gesturing back to the living room, “that’s weird.”

She shook her head. “I’m glad it’s not me then. I thought I was just in a bad mood.”

“I actually meant to ask you about that. Still weird?’

“Yup.” She pressed the settings on the microwave and settled into a chair. “Not as much bursts of weirdness.”

“Good,” he said.”My uncle still hasn’t found anything. I wish he would.”

“Mum’s come up short too. Right now I’m hoping it’ll get bored with me and move on.”

“Let’s hope.”

Once the popcorn dinged, they returned to the living room, where Mithra tried not to look suspicious. Morgan looked peacefully oblivious, which amused Geoffy somewhat, but Kim nudged him with her foot.

They didn’t end up leaving until late. Mithra’s parents picked her up and took the others home as well. Kim was disappointed that she didn’t get to talk to Geoffy more, but she was pleased to be alone. She put on her pajamas, spread out on her bed, and pulled out her laptop. Her own research had been going poorly, mostly because finding legitimate information on magic online was next to impossible. There were other sources she could go to. It’s not as if she hadn’t made friends in the past.

Eventually she tired enough to justify turning out the lights, and she fell into a restless slumber.

—

Indeed, Hui-ying had pulled all of her contacts to find information on Myrddin. Anselm was looking as well, but she couldn’t help but notice how his search was pointed more towards the staff itself. She was currently on the phone with Brynn, who lived and worked in Wales.

“Yeah,” Brynn was saying. Hui-ying could too easily imagine her strawberry red lips forming a large smile, and her dark red hair pulled into a messy braid. It was late there, but she did all her work and lived in a small cabin near the site they’d been working at for years. “Ever since we hired a necromancer, it’s been ten times easier. Just raise a few spirits and–bam–they do all the talking for you.”

“Necromancers are tricky to work with though,” Hui-ying replied. “I had to fire the last one I worked with. I couldn’t trust him with the skulls.”

“Terrible I know. This one’s alright. He wears a lot of black, but who doesn’t these days?”

“So you’ll let me know if you dig anything up?”

“Of course. I’ll see what we can get out of them tomorrow.”

“Thanks,” she said and ended the call. She sighed loudly, running her hands through her hair.

Besides the three scholarly essays she’d managed to drum up from a friend, there was nothing beyond what she already knew. He was a myth, mixed in with other myths and incredibly hard to extricate. No one was being any help, and if she didn’t figure this out then–

Then she couldn’t help her daughter. And that wouldn’t do. There were a million things she’d expected to not know anything about. Boyfriends, driving, drugs or sex or rock n’ roll or even all three she supposed. An ancient myth-filled staff bonding with her wasn’t on the list. Of course she’d get sucked into the lifestyle. It was the natural course of it. She’d just hoped it been less forceful.

There was still so much to do. There was an entire backlog of items and Hortense was still going over every little crack in security and she had to get home to take care of things there. She wished Cadmos did less work at home, but it was important to him and she wanted him to be able to do what he needed, but Hakimi was getting the short end of this. At least she had friends. As poor as Geoffy’s circumstances were, at least he was able to help Kim in a way they couldn’t.

It was getting to be too much for Kim though. She could tell. It would only be a matter of time before it all fell apart.

Part 6