Havermouth, Present TimeThe aether was always unpredictable. Sometimes Meguitte would find herself swimming through a silver sea, at other times she would float through a sky of shimmering threads. There had been times when the aether was completely dark, and she relied upon her other senses to guide her. It was a non-physical plane of existence and one that in theory should hold no threat to those who passed through it – provided that they did pass through it and did not lose connection with their physical selves. The only time she had ever encountered someone in the aether had been when she’d been casting with them – as she was now.She was not surprised when Leighton joined her, but Connery did not. Whilst he was a skilled magic user and could access the aether, he wielded the magic as a tool, rather than it being part of who he was. Even under the effects of the hallucinogenic, Connery would not surrender control enough to astrally travel into the aether, but rather he reached fo
Trayrock, Present TimeThey were not the only people who realized that the roads were blocked with cars, and that the only way out was on foot. The 4WD shook with the press of bodies around them as the people of Trayrock abandoned their cars and ran. Twice Aislen saw Heath struggle to open the door, the desperate people on the other side shoving it closed so as not to be slowed by it. Finally, Heath forced the door open knocking someone over, and stepped out, dragging a startled Phillip Salem out with him.The roof pinged with items falling from above as there was another explosion from the city spraying debris like rain. The sky was so thick with smoke that it was as if night had fallen early. The streetlights tried to light but flickered under the power surges caused by the buildings collapsing.Aislen looked at the child she held. Boy, she decided mostly by the length of the lush dark curls and the train on the t-shirt, but she didn’t want to assume. She pulled back the collar of i
Trayrock, Present TimeThe vehicle slowed, the engine changing tune, and then stopped completely. The late afternoon had taken on the golden glow of just before sunset. Through the windows of the vehicle, the landscape was breathtaking, the elegant smooth-barked white trees with their heavy canopy of green leaves filtering gold sparkles and dappling the road they framed in patches of sunlight and shadow.If she had been home, Lyric would have brought a cup of tea out to Arthur’s bench and sat in the last of the day in peaceful contemplation, just being present in herself, watching the birds and insects, and perhaps a brave rabbit.But that was then, and this was now.“What is it?” She asked Niarthen as she lifted her head from his shoulder. The door slid open, and the driver leaned in and spoke, and Niarthen answered. The guards immediately began to rise from the seats, picking up the prisoner’s by their elbows and guiding them to the door.Isaiah protested the movement, casting a loo
Downstream from Havermouth, Present TimeTheir little party set up camp just down the river from Havermouth, not far, in Lyric’s judgement, from the Edison’s farm. She stood just outside the little dome that she and Niarthen would sleep in that night and searched the trees for distant lights in the direction that she guessed the farm would be.“Mia Persuma Inillium?” Niarthen came up behind her and put his arms around her. She wondered if he’d been visiting Sapphire again. She had not seen him go, distracted by the business of setting up the camp for the night. It happened occasionally that they would be separated, and normally it did not bother her – she knew that he would find her, or she him. But now, his disappearance held more significance.She hated Sapphire with a passion that was entirely unfounded, based on nothing more than instinct and a sketch.“You look deep in thought. Are you troubled over earlier?” Niarthen asked, oblivious to her thoughts.The decimation of Trayrock,
Outside of Trayrock, Present Time“It’s old, but it’s holding in there,” Jules decided as he and Cameron inspected the shed. “If they’d kept up with the pointing, the roof, and maintained the south-west wall better against the wind, it would keep going indefinitely. It’s a shame really that they let it go.”Cameron raised his eyebrows at his father. “As if we Edisons haven’t done the same dozens of times.”Jules tsked with a wry smile. “Farming is a business, unfortunately. No room for sentimentality. If you don’t have a use for it, you have to put the money where it’s going to do the most work for you. Still,” he touched the weathered wooden support beam. “It’s always a shame to see an old girl like this on the way out for lack of care.”“We can stay here,” Cameron called out to the rest of the group. “We’ll get a fire going and see what we can use to make things a bit more comfortable.”“On it,” Jules began to search the shed.The rest of their party didn’t enter so Cameron went out
Trayrock, Present TimeThe sounds of war never changed Samuel thought as he took to the sky. There was always that break between the peaceful before and the roar of noise that announced the arrival of battle. Screams from below chased him as he sought that balance of height and vision. He kept one eye on Ember whose flaming wings and hair made her a target whereas, against the rising smoke that bit at the back of his throat and stung his eyes, he disappeared.Below, he watched as the Emissary and her mates divided between two vehicles, the drivers heading towards the bridge, the path slowed by the panicked flight onto the streets by the civilians of Trayrock.“We should have carried the Emissary,” Ember was unhappy with the situation. She had to yell over the screams below and the sounds of the battle. The approaching army’s heavy artillery had already struck several buildings – targeting points in order to drive the people of the town towards the approaching army, herding them like s
Outside of Trayrock, Present TimeAislen hadn’t realized just how mentally noisy Trayrock had been. Since the Mer had attacked, it had been like the volume had been turned down, again, and again, and again. Every time it got quieter, she would feel a shiver of cold cross over her skin because she knew what that meant. A large group of minds rendered silent. So large a group that even the incoming minds of the Mer did not fill the space left in their passing.She reached out over, and over, in the hope of finding Tiffany, but there were just too many heads still – the Mer thoughts were incomprehensible due to the language divide, and the people of Trayrock’s thoughts were scared, panicked, and mentally screaming. She couldn’t find anyone in the soup of thought… She knew, though. She had known straight away, perhaps even realized it at the very moment that Tiffany had died, feeling that severing of connection. Tiffany was dead.Talen held her as she recovered from the hysteria induced v
Outside of Trayrock, Present TimeHunting rabbits was just plain fun, the way they scattered and bounced and changed direction in a flicker of an eye. Rhett had always enjoyed it as a wolf, the feeling of power seeing the whites of the rabbit’s eyes as they freaked out and fled, and the enjoyment of his own strength, speed, and skill as he chased them down and closed his jaws over them.Chasing down the rabbits in human form with his mates was a moment of much-needed levity. Even Aislen and Cameron were laughing as they made their kills, giddy with the endorphin release.It was a relief to see them both shrug off their moods for a brief respite. Cameron’s anger had burned brightly - but it had burned itself out, Rhett hoped. Aislen’s sadness over her mother was complicated and heavy, and Rhett knew that it wasn’t going to go away quickly. Aislen held onto her feelings far longer and far harder than Cameron did, but after his dad’s concerns over her pregnancy due to her hysteria, he wa