8. Immediate Danger (Pt. 2)
August 5, 2009
Two days before the Ares Incident
Dominic
Keep an eye on how you're feeling. If you start feeling faint, or dizzy, you can always tap out.
Terra
I will. [ Self-monitor, that is. The stakes are too high for her to quit on a whim. She squeezes her brother's hand. ] Don't worry about me.
Dominic
[ Impossible. He grips her hand back, but leans in and mutters: ] Just remember that you don't have to do this.
Terra
[ The haggard faces of the DSC agents in the observation room tell a different story. ]
Terra
[ A few hours ago, London HQ went under total lockdown. She and Dominic were shuffled off to a saferoom with the other low-level employees whilst her mentor, Agent Béchir, was called to the DSC's fabled "secure facility." The rumour was that an enormous overground rift tore through Locket Downs and shorted out all of their monitoring equipment in their Toronto outpost. It wasn't until Felix came to collect her for this portentous interview that she learned of the DSC higher-ups' much more complicated and dangerous theory. ]
Terra
[ The DSC wouldn't ask a sixteen-year-old intern to step in unless they had exhausted all of their options, as Felix had explained to her and her alarmed brother on the way to Iceland. She'd needed no convincing. What was the point of her training and her gift if she couldn't use them when it really mattered? ]
Terra
Yes, I do. Someone has to figure out what really happened, and if not me, then who?
Yasmine
[ Stepping over from the intercom table. ] There's nothing to be alarmed about. We believe it will be brief and perfectly safe.
Dominic
[ Of course. Which is why Agent Kepler has been stationed in here for the last six hours. ]
Director Lennox
[ From her chair at the intercom table. ] Alistair, why don't you escort Dominic to the waiting room? His sister will join him as soon as she's done here.
Alistair
Yes, ma'am.
Dominic
[ Before Agent Torvald can lead him away, he pulls Terra into a tight hug. ] I'll be right next door.
Terra
[ She closes her eyes and grips his back. Her bottled-up tension shows in her taut fingers. For once, she doesn't bristle at his mothering. ] See you soon.
Dominic
[ As he's ushered out, he casts a frown back at Terra and the forlorn little figure through the observation room window. ]
Yasmine
All of this, you've done before in our lessons. It's only a new environment. [ She presses a clipboard into Terra's hands, and pools the metal links of the shard in the girl's palm. ]
Terra
[ With her brother out of sight, some of her confidence recedes. She touches her necklace, a small piece of sea glass suspended on a braided cord. Her first time doing fieldwork, and her first time scrying a living subject. In an unfamiliar country, no less. Normally, she’d tell herself “it’s not the end of the world,” but… ]
Terra
[ She squares her shoulders, draws in a sharp breath through her nose, and meets Agent Béchir's eyes. ] I'll get the information we need. [ And I won't disappoint you. ]
Terra
[ Shard in hand, clipboard clutched to her chest, she pushes through the heavy metal door. ] Soren?
Soren
[ He sits up, eyeing the new arrival with a hunted look--which evaporates into surprise, when he sees that she's not much older than his sister. ]
Terra
[ They watch each other for a moment. Shoulders hunched protectively, he looks small and alone in this sterile white room far from Canada. She knew he was younger than her, but now that she's on the same side of the glass, those handful of years feel huge. ]
Terra
I'm Terra. [ The soles of her flats click against the concrete. ] I'm just going to scry your magical signature, if that's alright with you. It shouldn't take long.
Soren
[ He frowns at the researcher—Terra. She’s the only “girl” he’s met, and the logical candidate. But is she supposed to “help him” on purpose, or by accident? ]
Soren
[ She's not much taller than he is. He eyes the door behind her... then the one-way mirror. His fingers stretch at his collar. ]
Terra
[ According to Felix, Soren hasn’t spoken so much as a word to the agents, so his silent, wary regard is more or less expected. But she can’t help wondering what he’s thinking. ]
Terra
[ She sets the clipboard and the pocket watch on the table, pulls out the chair opposite with an awkward squeak, and quickly sits down. ] You don't have to do anything. Just, er... sit there.
Soren
[ The object she sets on the table draws his attention immediately, for two reasons. The first is that it's a pocket watch. Point for Ellie. The second is that it shimmers with a light of shifting hue. Terra's necklace sparkles in that same light, as if pocket watch and pendant each reflect and refract the other's aura. ]
Soren
[ But, as has been the case his whole life, he's not sure who else can see it. Maybe that's part of the test. ]
Soren
[ Raspy. ] What's that?
Terra
[ She looks up at these first hoarse words, jostled out of her routine. ]
Terra
Oh, er. This is an overground shard. It doesn't do anything, exactly, but I wanted to have a look at it with you in the room.
Soren
[ He purses his lips. ] …Okay.
Terra
Alright then. So.
Terra
[ An awkward pause. ]
Terra
…Try not to move too much.
Terra
[ With that preamble out of the way, she shuts her eyes. ]
Terra
[ When she opens them, she is standing on a beach. The beach is small, strewn with shells, and shaped like a crescent. Gentle ocean waves, iridescent in the light, roll along the pink-striped sands. A low, verdant mountain cradles the hidden stretch of coastline, and its footpaths and far reaches are swathed in mist. The candy-bright colours and the softened fringes give the beach a dreamlike quality. ]
Terra
[ Her form is mostly unchanged, once her brain asserts she's got one—A-line dress for work, sensible flats, pocket watch in her hand. But violet flames peel freely from her silhouette and curly hair, and her necklace is gone. ]
Bird
[ A tiny svelte hummingbird, violet and teal like the pendant, flits about her head. ] Well, this is a bit outside our bailiwick.
Terra
[ She breathes in deep, filling the diaphragm of her mind with magic-touched air, and relaxes. ] Is it? I guess we're scrying a person instead of, I dunno, a cursed amulet. But the principle's the same.
Bird
So true! I suppose it makes no difference to us, then, whether we're in London, or a magical bomb shelter in Iceland.
Terra
Urgh. [ It's quite faint, but she can still feel the hard seat of the chair beneath her thighs. If she concentrates on it, the radiant beach dims. She shakes her head to dislodge reality. ] Can we please not think about that right now? We've got a job to do.
Bird
[ Perching weightlessly on Terra's shoulder. ] Suit yourself.
Terra
[ They are not the only ones on the beach. The shadowy figure she’s meant to be investigating is directly across from her, about the length of the table away. Before she has the chance to focus, a blinding lighthouse beam sweeps across her. ]
Terra
[ The light is coming from a gaggle of sparkling silhouettes at the base of the mountain. She can pick out Felix's emerald flame, Yasmine's purple mist, and the stone-hewn stare of Director Lennox. The most distracting of them all is a human-sized tower shining a bright beacon in her direction. Now that she's aware of it, the piercing scrutiny of the light is impossible to ignore. She wrinkles her nose and waves her hand to dissipate the shine. ]
Bird
[ Hiding herself in the flames of Terra’s hair. ] Dr. Sebastian is so nosy.
Terra
[ Begrudgingly: ] He’s on the clock, too. Probably has to listen in a bit.
Bird
A charitable interpretation.
Terra
Let’s just ignore him.
Terra
[ She concentrates, and her shining audience disappears. The last to go is the sweeping beam. Its phantom heat lingers on her skin. It would only take an idle reminder of his existence to summon the all-seeing tower back into her space. ]
Terra
[ With that out of the way, she focuses on the last remaining figure. ]
Soren
[ A diminutive shadow, a gingerbread cut-out of a boy. Soren's astral shape is clearly human, but blurry and indistinct, with none of the defining nooks and crannies and lights of a psychic's magic. He would look identical to any other normal person, except for one curious feature: where the feather of white hair sits at his temple in the real world, there is a tiny cinder of residual colour-soaked flame. ]
Soren
[ The light is faint, and oddly difficult to make out. ]
Bird
What is that?
Terra
I don't know. [ The flame is so out of focus she has to squint. ] If it weren't for... whatever that is, I'd say he hasn’t got any powers at all.
Bird
Is the pocket watch doing anything?
Terra
[ The pocket watch looks like it always does when she scries it: an ordinary thing of battered pewter, with wisps of sky-blue magic that waft away from its surface in little gusts. In Soren's presence, it remains as inert as always. ] Nope.
Terra
What about you, anything off?
Bird
[ She swoops in an elegant loop-de-loop. ] Right as rain.
Terra
[ Sharply. ] No, wait, look there!
Soren
[ The shadowy shape of his head shifts, following the bird's trajectory. ]
Terra
[ Awe mingles with a trace of unease. ] He's watching you.
Bird
[ She circles the shadow and hovers at eye level. ] So he is. Now that's unusual.
Terra
I think he's perceiving the presence of an overground shard. An active one, anyway. [ Which is unnerving—and promising. ]
Terra
[ She tilts her head, trying to get an angle on the smear of light at his crown. ] I need a closer look.
Soren
[ But as soon as Terra attempts to focus on it, the rainbow light is lost in a powerful spotlight of plain white light from above, making it impossible to discern any detail. ]
Terra
[ The sudden glare pierces her eyes. She flinches. ] Ow.
Bird
Terra! Are you alright? What was that?
Terra
[ Blinking furiously. If these were her eyes in the material world, they'd be watering. ] Someone doesn't want us peeking.
Bird
Soren doesn't?
Terra
I'm not so sure that was him.
Terra
[ Through splayed fingers and narrowed eyes, she concentrates on the smudge of magic again. The white light glances off the flame from above, like sunlight on a shiny car. ]
Terra
Hm… Can we try something? [ Without moving her head, she indicates the air just above his crown. ] Fly up there a moment?
Bird
[ She flits just above the figure’s head, intercepting the ray of light. ]
Soren
[ The spotlight refracts through the bird's glass body, dispersing and resolving itself into a multitude of distinct images, silhouettes that vaguely resemble a young boy. The one closest to Terra has a colourful flame at its temple, but another figure draws more alarming attention. ]
Soren
[ It would be impossible not to notice this figure, approximately human in shape and ablaze, lit up like an aurora. Its indistinct form gives the impression of clawing at its throat. From the figure's eyes, nose, mouth, streams every colour from alizarin to zaffre. ]
Terra
[ Transfixed, horrified, she lowers her hands. The little figure look like it's in pain. ]
Bird
Oh.
Terra
[ In grim agreement: ] Oh.
Terra
[ They're on the right track. It's clear which of the refracted outlines she should examine. She lingers in her spot on the sand. ]
Terra
[ With a calming breath, she steels herself and crosses the beach towards it, passing the innocuously lit, mismatched forms. Their faces are trained on the glass bird. ] Do you remember what Felix said the theory was?
Bird
[ Bobbing in an imperceptible breeze, shining like a prism. ] About the rift opening and then erasing itself?
Terra
Not exactly. It didn't erase itself. [ She stops in front of the bleeding figure. ] His sister, a seer and a higher power, undid it, to protect her brother. The white light we're seeing? I think that's her.
Terra
And this is what she was trying to hide.
Bird
Wait!
Bird
[ The second she soars away from the light, the Sorens wink out of existence. ]
Terra
[ Inches from her fingers, the leaking colours disappear. ] Oi! What was that, we’re in the middle of something!
Bird
[ Fluttering in the space where the shade’s contorted face used to be. ] Do you think this is the best approach?
Terra
What other approach is there?
Bird
You could talk to him. Just a thought.
Terra
[ A scoff. ] This is much easier. Trust me. No one's gotten him to talk about what happened. [ Or about anything at all, except for the two words he said to her. She stalks back to the first figure. ]
Bird
[ She dives in front of Terra, diverting her. ] You don't even want to try? Don't you think that'd be less intrusive than picking apart his aura?
Terra
[ She flaps an irate hand. ] This isn't a game. Yasmine told us to figure out if he could have opened the rift, and I'm going to do that.
Bird
[ Recovering into an elegant swoop. She flutters near Terra's shoulder. ] Have you considered what the DSC might do once you find out?
Terra
[ She pauses, and levels a baleful glare at her helpful fairy companion. ] Now you sound like Domi—
Dr. Sebastian
[ A voice crackles from over the intercom. ] Ah, ah, ah. Remain seated, if you please.
Terra
[ The beacon floods the beach. Dr. Sebastian's voice reverberates from the tower, from the beacon, and in her eardrums. She thuds back into her body and opens her eyes crossly—to see a hand an inch from her face. ]
Two days before the Ares Incident
Dominic
Keep an eye on how you're feeling. If you start feeling faint, or dizzy, you can always tap out.
Terra
I will. [ Self-monitor, that is. The stakes are too high for her to quit on a whim. She squeezes her brother's hand. ] Don't worry about me.
Dominic
[ Impossible. He grips her hand back, but leans in and mutters: ] Just remember that you don't have to do this.
Terra
[ The haggard faces of the DSC agents in the observation room tell a different story. ]
Terra
[ A few hours ago, London HQ went under total lockdown. She and Dominic were shuffled off to a saferoom with the other low-level employees whilst her mentor, Agent Béchir, was called to the DSC's fabled "secure facility." The rumour was that an enormous overground rift tore through Locket Downs and shorted out all of their monitoring equipment in their Toronto outpost. It wasn't until Felix came to collect her for this portentous interview that she learned of the DSC higher-ups' much more complicated and dangerous theory. ]
Terra
[ The DSC wouldn't ask a sixteen-year-old intern to step in unless they had exhausted all of their options, as Felix had explained to her and her alarmed brother on the way to Iceland. She'd needed no convincing. What was the point of her training and her gift if she couldn't use them when it really mattered? ]
Terra
Yes, I do. Someone has to figure out what really happened, and if not me, then who?
Yasmine
[ Stepping over from the intercom table. ] There's nothing to be alarmed about. We believe it will be brief and perfectly safe.
Dominic
[ Of course. Which is why Agent Kepler has been stationed in here for the last six hours. ]
Director Lennox
[ From her chair at the intercom table. ] Alistair, why don't you escort Dominic to the waiting room? His sister will join him as soon as she's done here.
Alistair
Yes, ma'am.
Dominic
[ Before Agent Torvald can lead him away, he pulls Terra into a tight hug. ] I'll be right next door.
Terra
[ She closes her eyes and grips his back. Her bottled-up tension shows in her taut fingers. For once, she doesn't bristle at his mothering. ] See you soon.
Dominic
[ As he's ushered out, he casts a frown back at Terra and the forlorn little figure through the observation room window. ]
Yasmine
All of this, you've done before in our lessons. It's only a new environment. [ She presses a clipboard into Terra's hands, and pools the metal links of the shard in the girl's palm. ]
Terra
[ With her brother out of sight, some of her confidence recedes. She touches her necklace, a small piece of sea glass suspended on a braided cord. Her first time doing fieldwork, and her first time scrying a living subject. In an unfamiliar country, no less. Normally, she’d tell herself “it’s not the end of the world,” but… ]
Terra
[ She squares her shoulders, draws in a sharp breath through her nose, and meets Agent Béchir's eyes. ] I'll get the information we need. [ And I won't disappoint you. ]
Terra
[ Shard in hand, clipboard clutched to her chest, she pushes through the heavy metal door. ] Soren?
Soren
[ He sits up, eyeing the new arrival with a hunted look--which evaporates into surprise, when he sees that she's not much older than his sister. ]
Terra
[ They watch each other for a moment. Shoulders hunched protectively, he looks small and alone in this sterile white room far from Canada. She knew he was younger than her, but now that she's on the same side of the glass, those handful of years feel huge. ]
Terra
I'm Terra. [ The soles of her flats click against the concrete. ] I'm just going to scry your magical signature, if that's alright with you. It shouldn't take long.
Soren
[ He frowns at the researcher—Terra. She’s the only “girl” he’s met, and the logical candidate. But is she supposed to “help him” on purpose, or by accident? ]
Soren
[ She's not much taller than he is. He eyes the door behind her... then the one-way mirror. His fingers stretch at his collar. ]
Terra
[ According to Felix, Soren hasn’t spoken so much as a word to the agents, so his silent, wary regard is more or less expected. But she can’t help wondering what he’s thinking. ]
Terra
[ She sets the clipboard and the pocket watch on the table, pulls out the chair opposite with an awkward squeak, and quickly sits down. ] You don't have to do anything. Just, er... sit there.
Soren
[ The object she sets on the table draws his attention immediately, for two reasons. The first is that it's a pocket watch. Point for Ellie. The second is that it shimmers with a light of shifting hue. Terra's necklace sparkles in that same light, as if pocket watch and pendant each reflect and refract the other's aura. ]
Soren
[ But, as has been the case his whole life, he's not sure who else can see it. Maybe that's part of the test. ]
Soren
[ Raspy. ] What's that?
Terra
[ She looks up at these first hoarse words, jostled out of her routine. ]
Terra
Oh, er. This is an overground shard. It doesn't do anything, exactly, but I wanted to have a look at it with you in the room.
Soren
[ He purses his lips. ] …Okay.
Terra
Alright then. So.
Terra
[ An awkward pause. ]
Terra
…Try not to move too much.
Terra
[ With that preamble out of the way, she shuts her eyes. ]
Terra
[ When she opens them, she is standing on a beach. The beach is small, strewn with shells, and shaped like a crescent. Gentle ocean waves, iridescent in the light, roll along the pink-striped sands. A low, verdant mountain cradles the hidden stretch of coastline, and its footpaths and far reaches are swathed in mist. The candy-bright colours and the softened fringes give the beach a dreamlike quality. ]
Terra
[ Her form is mostly unchanged, once her brain asserts she's got one—A-line dress for work, sensible flats, pocket watch in her hand. But violet flames peel freely from her silhouette and curly hair, and her necklace is gone. ]
Bird
[ A tiny svelte hummingbird, violet and teal like the pendant, flits about her head. ] Well, this is a bit outside our bailiwick.
Terra
[ She breathes in deep, filling the diaphragm of her mind with magic-touched air, and relaxes. ] Is it? I guess we're scrying a person instead of, I dunno, a cursed amulet. But the principle's the same.
Bird
So true! I suppose it makes no difference to us, then, whether we're in London, or a magical bomb shelter in Iceland.
Terra
Urgh. [ It's quite faint, but she can still feel the hard seat of the chair beneath her thighs. If she concentrates on it, the radiant beach dims. She shakes her head to dislodge reality. ] Can we please not think about that right now? We've got a job to do.
Bird
[ Perching weightlessly on Terra's shoulder. ] Suit yourself.
Terra
[ They are not the only ones on the beach. The shadowy figure she’s meant to be investigating is directly across from her, about the length of the table away. Before she has the chance to focus, a blinding lighthouse beam sweeps across her. ]
Terra
[ The light is coming from a gaggle of sparkling silhouettes at the base of the mountain. She can pick out Felix's emerald flame, Yasmine's purple mist, and the stone-hewn stare of Director Lennox. The most distracting of them all is a human-sized tower shining a bright beacon in her direction. Now that she's aware of it, the piercing scrutiny of the light is impossible to ignore. She wrinkles her nose and waves her hand to dissipate the shine. ]
Bird
[ Hiding herself in the flames of Terra’s hair. ] Dr. Sebastian is so nosy.
Terra
[ Begrudgingly: ] He’s on the clock, too. Probably has to listen in a bit.
Bird
A charitable interpretation.
Terra
Let’s just ignore him.
Terra
[ She concentrates, and her shining audience disappears. The last to go is the sweeping beam. Its phantom heat lingers on her skin. It would only take an idle reminder of his existence to summon the all-seeing tower back into her space. ]
Terra
[ With that out of the way, she focuses on the last remaining figure. ]
Soren
[ A diminutive shadow, a gingerbread cut-out of a boy. Soren's astral shape is clearly human, but blurry and indistinct, with none of the defining nooks and crannies and lights of a psychic's magic. He would look identical to any other normal person, except for one curious feature: where the feather of white hair sits at his temple in the real world, there is a tiny cinder of residual colour-soaked flame. ]
Soren
[ The light is faint, and oddly difficult to make out. ]
Bird
What is that?
Terra
I don't know. [ The flame is so out of focus she has to squint. ] If it weren't for... whatever that is, I'd say he hasn’t got any powers at all.
Bird
Is the pocket watch doing anything?
Terra
[ The pocket watch looks like it always does when she scries it: an ordinary thing of battered pewter, with wisps of sky-blue magic that waft away from its surface in little gusts. In Soren's presence, it remains as inert as always. ] Nope.
Terra
What about you, anything off?
Bird
[ She swoops in an elegant loop-de-loop. ] Right as rain.
Terra
[ Sharply. ] No, wait, look there!
Soren
[ The shadowy shape of his head shifts, following the bird's trajectory. ]
Terra
[ Awe mingles with a trace of unease. ] He's watching you.
Bird
[ She circles the shadow and hovers at eye level. ] So he is. Now that's unusual.
Terra
I think he's perceiving the presence of an overground shard. An active one, anyway. [ Which is unnerving—and promising. ]
Terra
[ She tilts her head, trying to get an angle on the smear of light at his crown. ] I need a closer look.
Soren
[ But as soon as Terra attempts to focus on it, the rainbow light is lost in a powerful spotlight of plain white light from above, making it impossible to discern any detail. ]
Terra
[ The sudden glare pierces her eyes. She flinches. ] Ow.
Bird
Terra! Are you alright? What was that?
Terra
[ Blinking furiously. If these were her eyes in the material world, they'd be watering. ] Someone doesn't want us peeking.
Bird
Soren doesn't?
Terra
I'm not so sure that was him.
Terra
[ Through splayed fingers and narrowed eyes, she concentrates on the smudge of magic again. The white light glances off the flame from above, like sunlight on a shiny car. ]
Terra
Hm… Can we try something? [ Without moving her head, she indicates the air just above his crown. ] Fly up there a moment?
Bird
[ She flits just above the figure’s head, intercepting the ray of light. ]
Soren
[ The spotlight refracts through the bird's glass body, dispersing and resolving itself into a multitude of distinct images, silhouettes that vaguely resemble a young boy. The one closest to Terra has a colourful flame at its temple, but another figure draws more alarming attention. ]
Soren
[ It would be impossible not to notice this figure, approximately human in shape and ablaze, lit up like an aurora. Its indistinct form gives the impression of clawing at its throat. From the figure's eyes, nose, mouth, streams every colour from alizarin to zaffre. ]
Terra
[ Transfixed, horrified, she lowers her hands. The little figure look like it's in pain. ]
Bird
Oh.
Terra
[ In grim agreement: ] Oh.
Terra
[ They're on the right track. It's clear which of the refracted outlines she should examine. She lingers in her spot on the sand. ]
Terra
[ With a calming breath, she steels herself and crosses the beach towards it, passing the innocuously lit, mismatched forms. Their faces are trained on the glass bird. ] Do you remember what Felix said the theory was?
Bird
[ Bobbing in an imperceptible breeze, shining like a prism. ] About the rift opening and then erasing itself?
Terra
Not exactly. It didn't erase itself. [ She stops in front of the bleeding figure. ] His sister, a seer and a higher power, undid it, to protect her brother. The white light we're seeing? I think that's her.
Terra
And this is what she was trying to hide.
Bird
Wait!
Bird
[ The second she soars away from the light, the Sorens wink out of existence. ]
Terra
[ Inches from her fingers, the leaking colours disappear. ] Oi! What was that, we’re in the middle of something!
Bird
[ Fluttering in the space where the shade’s contorted face used to be. ] Do you think this is the best approach?
Terra
What other approach is there?
Bird
You could talk to him. Just a thought.
Terra
[ A scoff. ] This is much easier. Trust me. No one's gotten him to talk about what happened. [ Or about anything at all, except for the two words he said to her. She stalks back to the first figure. ]
Bird
[ She dives in front of Terra, diverting her. ] You don't even want to try? Don't you think that'd be less intrusive than picking apart his aura?
Terra
[ She flaps an irate hand. ] This isn't a game. Yasmine told us to figure out if he could have opened the rift, and I'm going to do that.
Bird
[ Recovering into an elegant swoop. She flutters near Terra's shoulder. ] Have you considered what the DSC might do once you find out?
Terra
[ She pauses, and levels a baleful glare at her helpful fairy companion. ] Now you sound like Domi—
Dr. Sebastian
[ A voice crackles from over the intercom. ] Ah, ah, ah. Remain seated, if you please.
Terra
[ The beacon floods the beach. Dr. Sebastian's voice reverberates from the tower, from the beacon, and in her eardrums. She thuds back into her body and opens her eyes crossly—to see a hand an inch from her face. ]
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