Dear Readers - I am releasing tomorrow's chapter early. My son has a nasty cough - and I suspect I'm in for a rough night, so rather than deliver late if I catch up on some sleep in the morning, I decided to deliver early.
Havermouth, Present TimeSigrid trailed her hands along the walls as she drifted her way out of the hospital. Every now and again, she would touch something, and she would catch a moment of past violence from when the Van Helsings had occupied the hospital.“Zombies and Van Helsings,” she complained to Tom who followed directly behind her, so close that he almost trod upon her heels, his hands on her waist as if he did not trust her to walk in a straight line without falling. “Useless. I need to see the future and not the past.”“Don’t even think about it,” Greg told her as they stepped out into the car park.“Mmm,” she grimaced at him but did not push the subject as just then, her hand brushed over the top of a bollard and she saw the field of white tents that had been there with the Van Helsings. “Past,” she dismissed the vision irritably. “I need to see the future.”“You can keep complaining about it,” Tom said slightly smugly. “But we don’t control your power, nor you, apparently.
Havermouth, Present Time“Here,” Sigrid said as they made their way towards the MegaStore. “This should be one of the points.”“What points?” Tom asked. He exchanged a look with Dan however who noted it down on a map of the town that he pulled up on his phone.“We will have to walk in the other directions. I think,” Sigrid twisted looking around her. “Yes. They come from two, maybe three directions. It’s hard to tell whether they approach that way or split off when they get here. I guess it does not matter, the result is the same, they squeeze the town in like a fist. They are hunters, used to controlling schools of fish in the water. They think of all directions that the people can go and attack simultaneously from above, below, and all sides. They use the river as a barrier here, knowing we cannot flee into it.”“So, what is this point for?” Greg prompted.“We don’t want to be hostile, in case there is a peaceful resolution that we can make,” Sigrid looked up at a tall tree, and the
Havermouth, Present TimeInside the warehouse had undergone extensive renovation, with the removal of the majority of the shelving units the space was vacuous, echoing, and intimidatingly large. To the rear, the remaining shelving units were being arranged to frame in a smaller area for sleeping screened for privacy by stacked cardboard boxes.“Isn't it interesting that the things that were left behind, considered valueless to people at the moment, are the same things that had the highest price tags and that people dreamed about owning before?” Stella watched Sigrid’s face as she looked around the warehouse. “The TVs, the computers, the expensive headphones, tablets, printers. The fancy kitchen appliances and smart home systems. They're all still here, untouched, whilst the cheaper things, the cans of soup and veg, the socks, the sanitary napkins and band-aids - they're all gone. Now the curved screen TVs are more valued for the cardboard boxes they're packed in than the device itself.
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