Part 1

Caelienn had to force herself not to let any tears escape. But it was nearly impossible to do. In the first place, she had failed the one person she had been close to calling a friend. After the demons started filling in on the area, as well as a generally problematic demon in particular, things had very quickly become a disaster. And now the young woman stood beside one of the princes that had come to pay a visit as he was placed in a stasis by a young pair of elves. And there was nothing she could do to change that.
She held almost too tightly to the flowers in her hands, swearing to herself that she’d make sure this didn’t happen again while she was around. She didn’t want to lose anyone else for gods knew how long. No, not again. Not like this. It was far too painful to look at Drell at the moment. In part, it was because he looked like he was merely sleeping, and would wake up in a few hours or so. But Caelienn knew much better than that, she could sense it. Drell was in a death-like state now, and it was going to be hung over her for the rest of her life, and possibly into future lives if she and others ever remembered this life.
Before the elves’ spell could be completed, she placed the collection of flowers on Drell’s chest. Hopefully the stasis crystal would preserve her magical signature for the time it took for him to wake up, and he’d know that she would always think of him. Maybe if Caelienn was lucky—though she had serious doubts about that—he’d wake up again while she was still alive and not hold what happened against her. If she was even luckier, he wouldn’t say anything regarding the fact that she was a half-breed. As it was, she already knew she was going to face more scorn from her loathsome step-mother.
________________________________________________________________
There was little else for Rose to do as she lay in bed trying to sleep but reflect. More often than not, it only brought back painful memories, but she could never seem to stop it. Many nights had been spent mulling over past mistakes and her various failures. There was simply no counting how many times she’d made some kind of bad choice or failed at something in her lives. Too many times in just her own lives—not to even mention those where she hadn’t yet become herself—she had seen something go wrong. No doubt that Cari often mulled over her own separate mistakes.
She curled up in Shaun’s arms, a few tears escaping. It was going to be a long night with more tear-stains on the sheets. Of course she knew there was no point in thinking about those things. But there was just no stopping it from always happening. And tonight, she had the dubious pleasure of going over the memory of how everything just went downhill in Caelienn’s life in the first place. Caelienn hadn’t even lived for three decades when it happened. The painful memories were the reason she didn’t like having been half of Caelienn these days. She hated those memories above anything else. They were memories of failure and mistakes.
She’d much rather deal with her face acting up than this. And she hated always ending up bleeding before stopping. There were times where she did more than create holes in her cheek or nearly dig until she reached bone. It was agonizing. But at least she could heal those scars. The scars of her past were never so easily dealt with.
________________________________________________________________
Cari was hardly certain where to begin at the moment. After over four years of working—nearly four and a half by now—she was finally finished with her beginner’s guide to the use of magic and several other books that detailed a wide arrangement of spells. Much, if not all, of the beginner magic that was often more just perquisite to higher level spells and rituals, she breezed through without a second thought. And even after that, she still found it no more difficult to get the hang of things than before.
After a while, she developed a certain penchant for creating illusions to mess with others and often practiced making them more believable as time went on. Unfortunately, the moment Shane discovered these pranks, he made her end them just so she didn’t risk mentally scarring someone who didn’t deserve it. It seemed that it actually happened more just a little bit when someone was doing something of that sort with others, as Luna had attested to in the past from her own experiments.
But that wasn’t quite the end of her fun, as she took whatever spell she could get her hands on and worked to morph it into something more than a little usable. It just as quickly became the new source of amusement when she was bored out of her mind. And thankfully, Aster actually wasn’t one to wish to curb her amusement at any given time like Shane. Though it was a little disappointing considering who was whom in the entire dynamic. If anyone would have let her keep going, she would have figured it was Shane. Apparently, however, he took up more of a fatherly role for her and Rose after Caelienn’s return, which just so happened to include some amount of discipline.
Right now, however, she was pouring over a book of ancient spells and rituals that had been very recently written when Caelienn had been ‘out to play’, as some of her friends had put it. She still wasn’t entirely sure how everything worked in regards to her relationship to Rose and Caelienn, but she certainly wasn’t complaining, either. Rose was the one who had more of the complaints regarding being half of Caelienn, anyway. Cari was ecstatic to find she was a part of something much larger than she’d ever realized. That, and the fact that she could have access to spells that probably hadn’t been used in several millennia.
Due to some very obvious complications, Caelienn was rarely actually let out to go about her own merry way. It certainly wasn’t anything to do with the comfort levels among her friends, as they sincerely didn’t mind as long as the woman didn’t start fighting for one reason or another. It seemed that the woman, while genuinely kind-hearted once one really got to know her, was indeed very temperamental and a little aggressive. Though no one could really blame her for wanting to test her skills further, to confirm whether or not she’d lost any of her touch after the spell that caused the problems in the first place.
Cari was eternally embarrassed at all of Caelienn’s interactions with her children—she really hadn’t understood anything of modern life. Eventually and after several more than awkward scenarios with everyone, of course, she had finally gained some understanding of the functions of modern life. Though there was certainly still no shortage of events that left her a little more than bewildered at the same time. If it hadn’t been for the fact that she was a part of Caelienn, Cari would have found it absolutely adorable and endearing. Sadly, this was very much not the case.
She flipped through the pages of the book with excitement. There were so many spells detailed that she really wanted to try. So many spells, and so little time. As it was, deciding was difficult. What should she try first? She really didn’t know what to begin with.
Though before she could do anything, the door to her little office was opened and she sensed Aster come in. She sighed and set the book down before turning and smiling. She stood and walked over to kiss the woman a bit. There was something about seeing her lover at any given time that felt extremely nostalgic, though she couldn’t explain it. She supposed that it was probably some kind of connection to her life as part of Caelienn, when the true nature of their relationship was nearly forever a secret.
Aster responded, but pulled away far too soon for Cari’s liking. “So how is that novel coming,” she asked with a small smirk.
Cari suddenly paled under the other woman’s gaze. “The, uh… Yeah, that’s…”
The amber-haired woman just sighed and crossed her arms. “Cari, your editor is expecting something next week. He isn’t going to be happy if you have nothing complete.”
Cari just rolled her eyes. “My mind has been elsewhere,” she said. “With all these spells I have access to? What did you expect to happen?”
“Well, you need to get something done,” said Aster.
A moment of silence passed between the women and Cari suddenly let out a wide grin. Though Aster had to admit that her grin looked suspiciously like that of a hungry wolf who had just found its next meal. Something was turning in her mind, and it probably wasn’t a good thing. At least, it looked suspiciously like one of those feral grins that indicated it was going to drive someone up the wall just trying to keep Cari under some semblance of control. Because when she got an idea in her mind, trying to keep it from taking any kind of fruition was pretty much pointless, as she’d end up rambling on and on about it until someone let her do it.
“I don’t like that look in your eyes,” she stated blatantly.
The brunette half-breed chuckled almost madly. “I have many a millennia worth of memories to pull from. And with as much as I’ve been through, I could write hundreds of books. And I’ve been dying to start a new project, anyway.”
Aster crossed her arms. “If you take on any more projects right now, the others won’t get done.”
Grey eyes widened and Cari raised her hands a little, though not in the least bit as if surrendering. “No, this is a single book for now,” she explained quickly. “I just have this idea that I want to get down. Once I get this done, I’ll finish up the other series’.”
There was another pause before Aster could speak. “Oh, no,” she said almost reprehensively. “You don’t have the permission to write out Caelienn’s life. You would have to ask everyone first, and you don’t have the time for—“ At Cari’s continuous feral expression, she dropped off where she was. “Time magic? Really?”
“I have a deadline to meet,” said Cari.
“I’m surprised you haven’t ruined your computer yet,” said Aster. “Or at least the clock on it.”
“Otherwise I have less than two weeks,” said Cari. “Look, I’ll pick out something more suitable for teenagers. And it’s not from Acceana, either.” She rolled her eyes some. “I know I have three other books to finish writing. I wasn’t even planning to ever write about that. Not only would I have to ask everyone’s permission, but I really don’t relish the thought of delving into all those memories so… consistently.”
Aster just sighed after another pause. “Alright,” she said in resignation. “Just promise me you’ll get some sleep.”
Cari chuckled and leaned up to kiss Aster again. “Love you, dear.”
She paused, then waved the curtains on the only window in the room closed before stepping a bit closer and pulling Aster in. After a kiss, Cari moved to suck on her lover’s neck, eliciting a few gasps and moans along the way. She smirked against the flesh and sucked some more. She pulled Aster in even closer so that they were pressed together entirely. But she pulled her mouth away from Aster’s neck and gently pushed her against the nearest wall before kissing her again.
Aster pulled back as much as she could, blushing darkly. She never once minded kissing, but Cari really needed to start writing again. When Cari pulled away some with a pout, she sighed. “Alright, you need to get to work,” she said. “I don’t want to know what that man will do if you don’t have anything…”
The brunette simply chuckled and went back over to her desk. She closed Caelienn’s book and sat down. “Yeah, he’ll be pretty pissed.” She paused and sighed. “I wish…” She didn’t finish that train of thought aloud. There was no going back in time and changing anything. “Well, better get started. Make sure I come out for dinner.”
There was a moment of pure silence before Aster walked over and placed a hand on Cari’s shoulder. “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.
Cari shook her head. “There’s no point… It’s that time when Caelienn was young…”
Aster quickly got the gist of what was being remembered. “Oh… Cari, you know he’ll heal—“
“Yeah, but when?” Cari interrupted. “Another several millennia? I’m tired of waiting so long!” She took a deep breath. “We don’t even know where he is. For all we know, he could be at the bottom of the ocean!” She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, just trying to keep herself from bursting into tears. “Damn demons…”
Aster pulled Cari into a hug. “I know you hate them. But try not to let it consume you. Isn’t the one who did that already dead?”
The memory played back in Cari’s mind as if it were yesterday, and she watched as the demon named Anaya burnt to ashes and blew away in the wind. “Yeah, she is.”
The youthful witch sighed at Cari’s bitter tone and reached over to turn Cari’s music on. A very familiar song began to play, and she sang along with the electronic voice that had been singing it for decades. If there was any song that could soothe Cari, or anyone else, for that matter, it was this one. It wasn’t in English, of course, but that never mattered. The meaning it held transcended the language barrier. She had in the past wondered if the one who wrote the song knew of the connection that spanned the space-time continuum. But she’d eventually stopped thinking about it, as she didn’t think she’d ever really know the answer.
Cari felt herself relax as the song played on. It was like something out of a music box, and it made her think of more precious memories. There wasn’t a day that went by that she didn’t think of the tune. She couldn’t sing for crap, but it didn’t stop her from humming to herself. And given the chance, she would play it on either the ancient lyre or her guitar. In fact, the first time she’d even picked up the guitar in the music store downtown with her dad, that was the tune she’d started without even realizing it. She’d wondered if that had been foreshadowing everything that would happen in a subtler than subtle way.
Memories of Caelienn singing that same song came to mind fairly quickly, as well. Sometimes Cari wished she could sing well, but she knew it probably wasn’t going to happen. Rose was the one who could sing, and she wouldn’t want to take away that talent, anyway. The older half-breed was rather happy to let her keep that one. She was fairly content to have a talent for instruments, and really didn’t need any more than that. No, she definitely wasn’t jealous when it came to that. There was never any need to be.
Eventually, she sat straight again and smiled a bit, calmer than before. “Thanks, I think I needed that…”
“It’s going to be alright, I know it,” said Aster. She kissed Cari’s forehead and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. “He’ll wake up when he’s meant to, and we’ll find him when we’re meant to. Don’t rush what’s written.”
Cari just nodded for a brief moment. “Yeah…”
“And as much as I know you don’t really need any more stress, don’t forget the schedule we’re on,” said Aster. “So you really need to relax some. I know it can’t be easy, but it’ll pay off come next year.”
The half-breed woman grimaced. “Yeah, and not everyone is entirely happy about it, either… Talk about potential for damage control.”
“We’ve dealt with worse before, and you know it,” said Aster.
Cari gave a weak smile. “True enough.”
________________________________________________________________
For the most part, the park was silent near the duck pond. Anyone else was elsewhere doing whatever they were doing on the cold day. The duck pond was something of a safe haven for those who wanted some peace and quiet, and especially so during winter. Although why it had been the duck pond chosen and nowhere else like near the emptied out pool, no one was entirely sure. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that technically, no one was allowed into the pool area at the moment with it being winter. Either way, the pond was mostly quiet, and it was just as well.
It had been quiet until one crazy snowball fight going on in the area had started. In truth, though, it was really more like a war. It started with Katlin making the first throw. She was aiming for Russett, who really should have been paying closer attention instead of snapping at Tate for something idiotic. He reacted with a well aimed snowball of his own—or at least until she used Jason as a shield. That hadn’t gone well. Jeanne and Gwen got in on the action extremely quickly, and it just escalated. Before they knew it, the snowball war had erupted and Drake was left to play with Trish.
There had been much switching sides at first, but now they were very clearly defined. Jeanne thought it most wise to team up with Jason, which was a very bad combination in the first place for everyone else. Gwen felt it would be much safer with Kite in the end, and had quickly devised a plan to win the war. Carl had eventually sided with the twins, and Russet thought it would be a good time to stick with the other pyromaniac and young scientist-to-be. Katlin had also taken sides with Kite and Gwen. Tate and Skylar, not knowing what else to really do, sided against Russett just on principal.
Kite took cover behind the wall of what may as well have been ice at this point, for as packed as it was. “My soul, corrupted by vengeance…” he growled, packing a snowball together.
He had not wanted to take part in the snowball war that had erupted at first. When it started, he was quite content to just let the others be in favor of some good old reading. Granted, he was reading a book for his English class, but it was still reading. In about two weeks’ time, he was going to have to have a book report ready to turn in. Any kind of disturbance from that was the absolute last thing he needed or wanted. Experience had taught him that waiting for the last possible moment just never worked out. Even a calming potion didn’t help him much.
Unfortunately, what he wanted was hardly what he got. Then again, it wasn’t unusual for these people to drag more or less innocent bystanders into something like this. He really wasn’t surprised his reading had been disturbed for this. As it stood, his reaction had been a fairly strong on in the first place. When Jason responded by shoving snow down Russett’s coat, Jeanne had taken aim at Carl, who hit the still uninvolved Kite when trying to get to her. He had almost responded with fireballs, instead. In the end, he should have simply known better than to go with them in the first place.
But no, he had wanted to get some fresh air. And of course this happened.
Kite glanced up over the wall before ducking back down as a snowball came flying over. He stood again to begin his own assault. Unfortunately, that really didn’t get much of anywhere. Carl had deemed it a worthy time to start his own assault, as well. Within a minute, Kite quite literally had a face full of snow and was attempting to wipe it off almost in vain. Eventually, he ducked down more successfully for a reprieve in being made target practice. Oh, how he wished he had the blond werewolf on his own side at the moment. The young man was absolutely ruthless during a snowball war.
“Hath endured torment to find the end of the journey,” he grumbled on, “in my own salvation and your eternal slumber…”
“Kite, you’ve got that quote stuck in my head,” the young half fairy all but sighed, throwing a snowball of her own and hitting Carl straight on the nose. The werewolf dropped down presumably to regroup.
The red-head glanced over to the presently stocking up Russett and Katlin. He had been surprised that the blond with red highlights hadn’t decided to stick with Jeanne. Putting her together with the twins was even worse than any given duo from them. Because even if it was Jason and Katlin plotting something together, someone was going to be in some serious trouble. It didn’t compare to Jason and Jeanne teaming up, let alone Jeanne and Katlin, but it was still bad enough to give someone the absolute shivers. Jason liked claiming to be the most sane, but Kite had some serious doubts about that.
He snagged one of the snowballs Katlin made and took aim very quickly before ducking back down. “I blame Genesis.”
Gwen simply rolled her eyes and made a few more snowballs. “Right… Blame a fictional character. That always works…”
There was a short moment of silence as Katlin began to fling the newly made snowballs at presumably Jason or Jeanne. “It’s probably Garnet’s fault”, she said. Before she could say more, a snowball from Tate hit one of her shoulders. She gave a small fox-like growl and aimed back. “I don’t think it’s possible for someone to be even more obsessed than her.”
“The saddest part is Mama’s been obsessive for over thirty years,” said Kite. “How that’s even possible…”
“Hey, she’s your mom,” Katlin snickered.
The half sprite shot her a glare. “Like you’re one to talk?”
Katlin laughed fully now. “Oh, I know Mom’s a sociopath. It’s just your mom who’s video game obsessed.”
The teenager was about to give a retort, but something caught his eye. Or rather, the lack of two little kids caught his eye. He looked around to see if he could spot either Trish or Drake, but they were nowhere in sight on his side of the makeshift battlefield. That was not good. He checked around the wall of snow for the two, but he still didn’t see them. For that matter, he couldn’t even sense them around at all. Clearly, they had managed to wander off. How Trish managed it at such a young age, no one really knew, but she was all too good at disappearing acts. And it was Hell trying to find her at times.
“Time!” the red-head snapped. Everything fell silent. “Who was supposed to keep an eye on the kids?”
Skylar’s head popped up over the other wall cautiously and he glanced around. “Dude, don’t tell me they ran off somewhere…”
Jeanne frowned and looked to her twin. “Those two…”
“Disappeared on us again,” Jason concluded. “We’re going to have to find them soon, otherwise we’re going to be in so much trouble…”
“I thought Katlin was babysitting them today,” said Carl. He looked over at the clearly squirming young adult.
If one had listened close enough, they would have sworn Katlin cursed under her breath. “Drake probably followed Trish,” she stammered. “And Trish is way too good at disappearing. That part is not my fault.”
“Yeah, but now we’ve gotta find them,” said Russett. “Otherwise we’ll have several very pissed parents to deal with… And I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not facing them without those two after the last time this happened.”
Katlin quickly shifted into her fox form and sniffed around the ground for Drake. Trying to locate Trish at the moment was going to be fairly futile, as she had found out in the past. When the four-year-old girl wanted to hide from others, she just did. It wasn’t supposed to be possible, but weirder things had happened in the past. So Katlin was much better off following Drake’s trail, instead. It was so much easier to find him. Sure, he was fast when he wanted to be, but he was also only two years old, and was neither half wizard or half fairy. Finding him was just that much easier because of that.
Everyone quickly took to searching for the youngest of the group, though Skylar and Tate were more or less useless for the task compared to everyone else. As it was, the snowball war had lasted for a good while, and that left a lot of time for Katlin’s cousins to hurry off somewhere else in the park or even the forest. With any luck, they’d stuck to the actual park. But knowing just how things around the city, itself, worked, that just wasn’t going to happen. Why Cumberland was inherently crazy, no one really knew. All the same, the fact stood that, while it was supposed to be a more traditional—if diverse—place, it had attracted a lot of less than so-called normal people.
After a few minutes, Carl picked up a scent and shifted into his pure wolf form. He could have used his bipedal form due to the possible necessity of there having to be someone to make sure Skylar and Tate kept up, but he wasn’t too keen on freaking other park-goers out. And a white wolf-man would do exactly that. They weren’t so likely to freak out over someone taking on their fully wolf form, even if it had only been a few months that everyone knew about magic. So right now, four legs were a lot better than two, and he could simply carry one of the two most normal people there on his back, presumably while someone else dragged the other along.
He gave a low howl of sorts to get the others’ attention.
Russett made his way over to his friend and looked around a little. “If you smell a squirrel or something—“
For a brief, attention deficit moment, Carl really wished the dark-skinned man would leave the squirrel comments out of things. “It’s not a squirrel, I can promise you that.”
“Oh, well, then lead the way, Fido.”
Carl bristled and growled at Kite’s comment. Why did the teen have to have Garnet’s snarky personality? He heard a very satisfying thwack and just assumed Gwen had made her opinion of the comment known. With such the case, he decided he didn’t need to say anything about it. “Come on,” was all he said before simply following his nose.
Katlin trotted up to Carl to help lead the others. Really, she had to be the one to find the kids. Of course, she was definitely going to need some help, but she was the one who had been put in charge of watching them. And if she didn’t find them quickly, there was going to be a serious problem. She was the one who got distracted by the idea of a snowball fight, and she had made the first throw. If anyone was to blame, it was her this time. And she really didn’t want her family upset with her because of that. Even though Trish was notorious for this in the first place, she was still supposed to be a responsible enough adult to look out for them. This really did not look good on her.
The snow was even heavier in the forest, were it at all possible with all the trees around. But they managed alright, and it made things even easier for them because of the tracks there. Even though some people did like to take excursions into the woods at any time of the year, most of it happened during the spring to late autumn or until it started snowing. Not many people wanted to risk any of the dangers of a snowy path. Unfortunately, Trish was also not most people and Drake was consistently her partner in crime.
The half shape-shifter darted up ahead after a bit, careful not to slip on the incline. “They’re close,” was all she said.
Jeanne quickly joined her girlfriend and sighed a little in relief, scanning the immediate vicinity as she went. “Oh, thank God…”
There was a bit of rustling and slight crunching of snow. It was still more or less fluffy around them despite melting and freezing again, and the kids were very light. Jason turned quickly and grabbed onto the first bit of a puffy purple coat he could see. A small whimpering noise was heard as he gently pulled the bundled up girl out from behind a large tree. It was almost so large that he hadn’t seen her at all. Trish was way too good at hiding for anyone’s good. But at least she’d been found.
Kite gave a small, withering sigh and followed over to find Drake and pick him up. “Well, now we can go back to the pond,” he said, trying to keep the young boy from biting him in frustration at being caught. He glanced over to the others to see Katlin still looking around. “Hey, we found the kids, we can go.”
At this point, Carl had returned to his normal form. “There’s something else around here,” he said.
“Yay, adventure!” Trish cheered, grinning from ear to ear. Drake repeated her.
“Uh, no,” said Gwen. “You two already ran off on us. We’re going back to the actual park.”
“Hey, it might be important,” said Tate. “What if someone’s hurt?”
“Yeah, they might need help!” Skylar agreed.
There were a few seconds of silence before Russett spoke up. “You know, they actually have a point…” He looked over to Katlin, who had gone farther into the woods, sniffing out some kind of trail or something.
Katlin didn’t bother to look up, but still spoke. “Kite, can you check the earth and see if there’s something—“
The red-head acted before the older girl could finish her request. “Sure,” he interrupted. He gave the area a good once-over and placed a hand on a nearby tree. While he knew there was still a little racism against half-breeds, he had to admit that being one had several perks. Tracking people and other things down was made exponentially easier. This was especially true if the half-breed had magic. Needless to say, it didn’t take Kite long to pick something up, as well.
“Hey, what’s up?” Russett asked.
“There’s a gap in the ground,” said Kite. He stepped away from the one tree and probed around more. “It’s right below us…”
Gwen sighed and began to look around for anything suspicious. When something came up, there was never any real backing out with any of these people. And even she had to admit to liking some adventure. There was never a real, dull moment around her friends, and she liked it that way. The lack of so-called sanity could be a bit irritating, but it was general consensus that it was so much more exciting than having more normal friends.
There was definitely something underneath them, too. “Maybe it’s some kind of reservoir,” she suggested. “There’s got to be an entrance somewhere around here, then.”
“Well, I’ve got a dumb question,” Jason interjected. “How are we supposed to find it without digging up the entire place?” He was not going off on some wild adventure in the forest just to find some place that may actually have no way in or out. No, he would much rather just take the two youngest back to the pond and not worry about it. They attracted trouble like magnets in the first place. He got a regular fill of ‘adventure’ as it was.
Katlin began to dig in an area in the snow. “It’s called magic, you know. It does a lot of things.” She padded the bit of earth she exposed, but moved on to another spot. “Any luck, it’s like a groundhog’s home. Multiple exits.”
By this time, the others had joined in looking or helping clear out snow in various spots, and Jason could really do nothing to stop it. He sighed some and began his own search for the supposed entrances. Trying to talk sense into these people at times was nearly impossible. Though he supposed that it was all just as well, regardless of the trouble they usually found in the end. If it weren’t for these adventures, life would have been boring. And as much as he liked getting a break from the weirdness, he wasn’t about to adopt a boring and repetitive lifestyle.
At some point, Carl had dug through the snow in a very discreet spot to find what looked like part of a steel door. He gave a small howl to draw the others over to him, back in his wolf form. After the brief pause, he kept digging around the area to clear it away. It looked as if there was something there that probably wasn’t supposed to be unless it was part of an entrance or exit. And he was definitely curious enough to check it out. With any luck, this was the door they were looking for. He wondered what lay beneath it.
Jeanne ran a finger along the edge of where the steel became covered up by the dirt and began to pull it away. “There’s no latch…” she sighed after a minute.
“I could fix that,” Kite put in, summoning a few embers around his hand. It was clear he was annoyed. “I could fix that right now if you want.”
Jeanne shook her head. “That’s called property damage, and you know it. I think just plain magic will do the trick.” She placed a hand on the metal before he could give some kind of retort. There was a very faint glow around the edges, and she eventually pried the door away to reveal a stepladder. “Shoots and ladders, anyone?”
“And that’s called breaking and entering,” Russett said, though he was half amused with her solution.
She gave a small shrug. “Too late to complain now. Who wants to explore first?”
“I volunteer Russett,” said Tate. He gave a sharp, “Owe!” as Russett more than likely made his opinion of that vote crystal clear.
“Dude, really not cool. I’ll check.” Carl shifted into his bipedal wolf-man form before anyone could protest and proceeded to climb down into the dark room. A few seconds later, he reached the bottom and looked around. He couldn’t claim to have absolute perfect night vision, but seeing in the dark was of no issue. “I don’t see or smell anything suspicious,” he reported. Still, he was going to stay in his current form just to be safe.
The others sighed in a bit of relief and followed suit, with Jeanne the last to go down. Jason had kept Trish close and Drake was now being held onto by Russett. Deciding it might be best, and making sure there was someone creating light at the bottom, Jeanne closed the door as she descended. It wouldn’t be too difficult to get back out in a pinch, anyway, if something went wrong. But despite the danger, she had a very strong feeling they’d be alright. There was still an element of danger from the unknown, but this still felt like the right thing to do at the moment, breaking and entering notwithstanding.
“Ok, now where?” Tate and Skylar chorused.
Jason pointed in the only direction they had to go in right now. “Forward, march,” was the only direction he gave.
Katlin let out a small laugh. “Yes, Sergeant.” She had taken her normal form again, and had a ball of bright static energy floating in front of her. She started forward and looked around at the very basic layout of what must have been a hall. “They could do some decorating…”
There was a short spell of silence as they walked until Gwen hurried forward, in front of everyone else. “There’s something here besides gadgets and gizmos,” she said quickly. There was a determined expression on her face.
The others didn’t argue and simply followed after her. Any one of them with actual magic could say the same after a bit of searching around. There were a lot of gadgets and gizmos deeper into what was clearly some kind of building, like a lab of sorts. But there was definitely more than just that—there was some serious magic floating around along with some organic life. That meant that there were people down here doing something, which only intensified the kids’ vast curiosity. There were a lot of possibilities regarding what was going on down there, and they were definitely going to find out. Had they managed to stumble onto something that should be revealed? Was this one of The Agency’s more well kept secrets, or some other group of people entirely?
Gwen kept leading the way, searching for the most direct route to the main source of the magic as they came to forks in their path. She could feel something simply calling to be found. It did more than just tug on her own curiosity. It was more like a psychic compulsion that was going to lead her too whatever they were supposed to find, as if it was now time for someone to find whatever was down there. Had she the time to think about it, she would have called it almost unnatural. But she didn’t bother in favor of trying to discern exactly what was down there in the first place. She could bother with the naturalness of it all later on.
Eventually, she stopped as they reached a door. She frowned and placed a hand on it. The compulsion here was the strongest. “Make sure you’re ready for whatever you see,” she all but ordered.
She slowly opened the door to peek in, and her eyes widened at what she saw there. There was no movement in the room, and it was mostly bare of just about everything one might expect in a lab room. In the corner, though, was a large slab of cyan-colored crystal. But Gwen, most likely just like everyone else there, knew that it was definitely no normal crystal. There was a lot of power within that crystal, and it was strong. She quickly surmised that it was the crystal that pulled her towards the room. The only thing she didn’t understand was why it had pulled her towards it.
With a breath of relief, she opened the door further and walked over to the crystal. When she got close enough to get a good look, she turned back to the rest of the group with an expression of pure shock.
Kite quickly joined her to investigate whatever about the crystal that had made Gwen react the way she had. Of all the things he had expected, finding that the crystal held a man with flowers on his chest was not one of them. Still, he took a good look at the man, who and whatever he was. The power of the crystal obscured him from magical probing to find out anything. The half-breed teenager wasn’t even sure he could identify how old or young the man really was. It was like the crystal was meant to hold someone in a complete stasis. But the only ones who had achieved that were elves, and they hadn’t really mingled with the rest of the world much yet.
Still, he looked at the man to see if he could identify anything from all he’d learned about the past from his parents and their friends. The man looked about average height. His eyes were closed, but for some reason, Kite imagined them being a soft, light blue. The man’s hair was black as night, though, and seemed to be about shoulder-length. Of course, what drew Kite’s attention was the man’s clothes, which he found resembled the clothes Caelienn had appeared in, if only for a man, instead. The only conclusion he could draw at the moment was that whoever this person was, he had probably been from some time closer to when Caelienn had actually come from. The only problem was that there was no way to confirm it unless they could actually get the man out of the crystal without hurting him.
“Wow, he’s really gorgeous.” Katlin was suddenly beside the two teens, getting as good a look at the man as she could. Her face was a show of wonder. “I wonder who he is…”
At that point, Gwen had calmed a little. “If I could get through the crystal’s magic, then I might be able to tell you. But…”
All of a sudden, before anyone else could respond, someone else was in the room with them. “You children are on private property,” the person said. The man watched as they swerved around to look at him. “I’m going to have to ask you all to leave.”
Trish tilted her head some and pulled away from Jason to walk closer to the man. He had a lab coat on. “Who’s that man?”
The scientist paused a bit, but scowled after a second. “That is—“
“Due respect, doctor, but why do you have a man in a stasis crystal used by elves?” Gwen interrupted. She didn’t look too happy.
All of a sudden, the man’s eyebrow’s shot up closer to his receding hairline. “Stasis crystal, you said?” When she nodded, he found himself even more intrigued than before. “What do you know about that? As far as I was aware, cryonics were far from being perfected…”
The half fairy shook her head. “No, it’s not cryonics, exactly. I don’t know much about it, but Dad says that elves use this on people when something happens and a person’s life is in danger. But since elves still don’t—”
Russett cleared his throat. “Everyone already knows that elves still prefer their private communities, Gwen.” He turned to the man. “You don’t work for The Agency, do you?”
The professor frowned again. “No, we don’t work for them. Do you?”
“A lot of our parents do,” said Russett. “How bad are you floundering for answers on this situation you have now?”
“We’re still studying the crystal,” he admitted grudgingly, sending the young man a glare.
Carl looked between the handsome man in the stasis and the scientist for a moment before speaking again. By this time, he’d felt it safe to return to his normal form again. “Well, now you know what it is. I’m going to guess you haven’t tried to get him out yet.”
The middle-aged man sighed in defeat. Clearly, he wasn’t going to get them out of the underground building, especially with them apparently having ties with The Agency. He supposed it could be worse. None of them actually worked for The Agency yet, themselves.
“Actually, we have,” he corrected. “But nothing has worked.”
“Ever think to ask for help?” asked Jeanne. “If you haven’t been able to do anything, maybe The Agency could—“
At this, the man tensed up. “They’d take all the credit,” he said quickly, a little irritable.
“Not as much as you’d think,” said Russett. “But since not many people really know much about them, it’s easy to think so.”
Gwen grew impatient quickly, on top of annoyed. “When it comes to someone’s life, you find a way to help them as soon as you can!” she snapped. “I thought that was the obvious thing to do!”
There was a moment of silence before anyone spoke.
“Dude, she has a point,” said Katlin. “If someone’s in a stasis, there’s a reason. Swallow your pride and ask for help if you need it. Besides, if elves did this, you’re going to need one to undo it.”
The doctor was about to speak again, but was interrupted when a rather panicked woman suddenly appeared, out of breath, with her hand on his shoulder. “Dr. Landers, we have a problem!” She glanced to the kids and her eyes widened more. “Who the hell made today Show-Up-In-Underground-Labs Day?!” she shrieked, even more panicked if it was possible. “I can’t take much more of this!”
Dr. Landers quickly turned back to the woman. “What’s going on now?”
“Someone left a door open!” snapped. “And this short woman got into the one lab! She got exposed to some dangerous chemicals and—“
“Professor, calm yourself,” he said. “Panicking is going to make things all the worse.” He turned back to the kids.
“I made sure to close the entrance after we came in,” Jeanne immediately defended. “I was pretty sure letting wild animals in was a bad idea.”
The man turned back to his coworker. “Lead me to her, then, and I’ll help take care of this. Then you can lead these kids—“
“Oh, no!”, said Russett. “We’re staying with you. I, for one, wanna make sure you don’t screw anything up with helping this woman. That, and we could easily go tell our parents about this.”
“And I’m pretty sure Mama would just love to take you into court if you mess up,” Jeanne half bluffed. She knew very well that while Aster would be more than willing to do something, she would not be happy about it. “And when you deal with lawyers, you want them on your side.”
There was a brief moment of silence as the doctor looked between everyone. He really didn’t want to risk jail time for an accident, and this was definitely going to get him that if it was handled wrong. “Ok, ok, make sure you stay with us, then,” he relented.
The panicked professor just said nothing and quickly lead the group through the halls and past several doors before finally stopping and opening up one. Presently, there was a short woman with cropped red hair laying on a medical bed with several scientists working around her. They all looked to be working calmly, if urgently. But the air was extremely tense, and the stress now around them could be cut with a knife. The young woman did not look well at all. How long ago had she been exposed to whatever chemicals she’d found?

To Be Continued