Friday, November 27, 2020

Chapter 10


Northern Range
Cloud Lake
Western Shore, looking west




Jay stood very still, trying to focus on the person who meant more to him than anyone else, trying to determine if she was watching him. "I can see them," he told Fiona in a voice not much louder than a whisper.


He wanted to ask if they were dead or alive, but Kenley Dirac was one of them and to ask Fiona if her mother was dead was utterly heartless.  He didn't think he could get the question out of his throat anyway.  He settled on asking, "What does that mean?"

"I don't know.  Don is dead.  My mother...no, she's alive.”



Dr. Dirac was wearing a dress with a neckline low enough to show moon tattoos across her chest.  He was certain she never had moon tattoos across her chest before. She looked at him and Fiona with an expression that seemed utterly sorrowful.  What had happened to her?  Had pulling apart the shape of space and perhaps the time that went it pulled something apart in her as well?  

As for his uncle...why was he with one of the world's great physicists?  Okay he was dead. Who he showed up with might mean nothing at all or maybe he'd just left one big party on the other side.  That couldn't be right.  Kenley would not have attended that kind of party.



Fiona stepped forward, hands clasped, and said, "Mom?” 

Dr. Dirac didn't reply or move.  

Uncle Don walked across the threshold into the sunlight and smiled at him.  "Jaegar," Don said warmly as if greeting him on a visit to the park for lunch. 



Jay decided that he wasn't going to try to figure out the rules on conversing with non-human people which included using a name the old man never used when he was alive. "Hello Uncle Don.  I'm surprised to see you since I thought you were dead. What's up? You know anything about dragons, or where Gabe might be?"


"He might be in a city in a place called Twelfth Street," Don replied helpfully.  "Camilla might know."

Well of course she would.  Why not?  Uncle Don didn't acknowledge Fiona at all, and Dr. Dirac hadn't said to word to either of them. Jay wondered if she could even speak. "That's good then," he said calmly. "Thanks. Nothing about dragons and we're stuck with Gabe and Camilla. You know which city?"


Uncle Don stepped back. He looked concerned.  That was it? Ask his mother? Go find a city?


Dr. Dirac suddenly turned her blank face toward him and smiled, and for a moment happiness overwhelmed him.  How could he possibly question her about Gabe?


He glanced away and looked out across the lake at the mountains.  She would not have deliberately done something this devastating for Gabe's sake.  He wasn't that irresistible.  Was he?  A theory they'd been working on together for years had been implemented for Gabe's sake? If something had happened that happened to help Gabe, it had to be an accident.


He stopped brooding uselessly and turned to her.  "Dr. Dirac, you've been there for me since I was a little kid and I know what you were trying to do. What's happened?  What's Gabe got to do with it?  Is there something you want me to do?  Can you talk to  me?"


She took a long stride toward him and in that moment he clearly recognized his teacher and the physicist he'd known and loved.  "Find a way here, Jay. We look for Twelfth Street." She crossed her arms and gave him the kind of look she used when he was nine and she was teaching him something difficult.  "Ask, and come."



Here he was again, as he'd been his entire life, he was presented with something he didn't know how to do or didn't want to do, but she'd never asked more from him than he could give her. If she wanted him to do this, she would give him the tools to do it.

He heard Fiona move around in the leaves behind him and say in a forlorn voice, "Mom?"

Uncle Don said, "I can't hold this for you anymore Kenley."




She swung around, turning her back on them and walking away and the weird tattoos swung right to left down her spine with every step she took. 

Don joined her and they walked over the brown pavers under the tiled ceiling past the chairs toward the doors in the wall.   

Jay started to follow them and once again Fiona reached out and stopped him. “Don’t,” she said in a shaking voice. “Even if you can go where they’re going, it may kill you to get there and you’ll never come back.”



Don disappeared behind the elevator doors.  Dr. Dirac chose the door to the left that opened onto a big rock.  She walked into the rock and, like Don, vanished.  


In the utter quiet that followed they looked at each other, blank, until Fiona said, "I'm not giving up."


So there it was.  Was he going to abandon this girl on the shore of a lake after a confrontation with dead people?  If he did, would he bring the dragons down on him again?  Kenley hadn't mentioned dragons. She had asked him for help and given him an address he was sure led to a street on the other side of the universe.  If he abandoned Fiona, he would be abandoning Kenley Dirac too.

It sure would have been nice if they'd given him a damned map.


Fiona was crying now.  

“Look,” he said, “I don't know what to do but I’ve got to go home, check in and get some things before I run off trying to figure this out.  Come with me and we'll go over this shit and see if we can come up with something rational to do about it.  I’m not going to leave you here by yourself.”  
 
She didn’t answer.  She just nodded.


He started toward his car and then stopped and looked back.  

The ceiling was vanishing along with the table and the vase of flowers and the two red chairs. Only one of the three doors remained - the one Dr. Dirac had walked through. The elevator had already disappeared. By the time they turned onto the harbor road he was sure the whole thing would be gone. Had could that be? It had been solid to the touch, not an illusion. They were literally bringing chairs here from somewhere outside this world.



Fiona sat in the car and looked straight ahead through the windshield and clasped her hands.

Jay opened the door, trying to think of something encouraging to say.  "Look, we may literally disappear if we do what your mother said and come to her; I know what that means.  I need a reason why I'm going off the grid and I think I can come up with it. If we're going to question Camilla about Gabe, you'll have to take a run at that.  I won't do it.  I'm not questioning her about Gabe."

"No problem," she said quietly.  "I can do that.  I may not be able to build doors across dimensions, but I'm an expert in creating very convincing lies."

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous7/16/2020

    Oh wow, what a chapter. It seems like the perfect culmination of the past three or four (seemingly unrelated) snippets, but at the same time, it somehow opens up more questions than it has answered. 'The city'? Twelve? And JAEGAR? Is that really Jay's full name? xD Also, what *are* those eerie, human-looking-but-not-really-human creatures? I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't completely in love with the soft magic system you're so steadily weaving into your story, but I'm equally curious to learn a little more about the rules it follows... hopefully I'll be able to do so alongside the characters! They seem to be well on their way down that road already and there's no turning back at this point, is there?

    As for other impressions... the scenery in this chapter is breathtakingly beautiful and I'm still trying to figure out if it's all just one set or if you've been putting together different screenshots to achieve the look. Either way, gorgeous! And speaking of sets, I live for these rooms from other dimensions that just casually appear out of nowhere! Now there's one way to put The Sims 2 Build Mode to good use! xD Also... Can I just say how utterly beautiful Dr Kenley Dirac (or, well, the creature that's impersonating her) is? Because wow, just wow. I've been wondering how this famous physicist looked like ever since you introduced Fiona to the story, always hoping that I'd catch a glimpse of her in a flashback or somewhere on an old photo... but seeing her in the flesh is so, so much better! ...Even if 'in the flesh' might be a bit too generous a term to use here. But hey, if she was real enough for Jay and Fiona, she's real enough for me! ;)

    Though perhaps she was a little *too real* for the two teens, judging by their reactions... Poor, poor Fiona. You know, the whole time I was reading the chapter I felt like Fiona was holding it together incredibly well (maybe even excessively so!), considering she was looking at her dead mother and all... and I found it odd how the focus was more on Jay than her... little did I know that you were getting ready to deal that sucker punch right in the feels! (both Fiona's AND mine!) Gosh, I was so not prepared for that teary breakdown at the end! I just wanted to reach through the screen and give that poor girl a hug. Well played, my good author, well played. ;) And Jay, it was such a bizarre situation to be thrown into, but he handled it with such maturity, I can't help but feel really proud of the kid. I'll admit, he started out as being far from my favorite character in the cast, but the more I'm seeing of him, the more I'm warming up to him.

    I'm anxious to see how all of this will unfold and what new (mis)adventures these youths will get up to in future chapters! As always, you have me on the edge of my seat! ^^

    - Esotheria

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    1. Duplicate response - my original got accidentally deleted - but I wanted to leave my reply up here. Embarrassed...

      Thank you so much! Creating this thing one chapter at a time, navigating through what seems unrelated, using characters that don't seem exactly right, it's been a challenge so far. For example you're right, I thought that encounter should be from Fiona's point of view but finally decided I couldn't write it the way I wanted to if I had to deal with her reactions. I think it would have worked either way but it felt better using his POV.

      Fiona is a tricky character for me and I'm always careful about assuming she'll behave or think like other girls her age. This is a quest for her and she believes she has unique skills to tackle it. She may be arrogant and overconfident - her sister believes she's not as good as she thinks she is. Also, she doesn't want to believe her parents are dead. The Lady Spider told her that her mother was alive when she was kidnapped. The fact that Jay can see her mother gives her hope. She absolutely believes in herself and is convinced she can do this. Jay is a surprise. She thinks she needs no one. She's not thrilled to find out that may not be true.

      Yeah, Jay's real name is Jaegar. He's been an annoying obnoxious pretty mean kid, but he's tired of being compared to Gabe and that weariness and resentment and feeling of failure are changing him, making him more empathetic and compassionate. He's growing up into someone no one would expect.

      That's all one set. I had to fiddle with it quite a bit and move things around to get the shots I needed, and the damned horizon thing drove me absolutely crazy, but I did it with one set. I struggle with sets so one is all I can realistically manage.

      I'm glad you like Kenley. I want to introduce Fiona's father too.

      Again, your support means so much to me. Your work is an inspiration and I have things you've created that I intend to use. Thank you!

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  2. Wow what an encounter! Shame they weren't given anything more than a few words that they have to decipher. Still there meeting with them is something and better that nothing I suppose.

    I feel like Fiona and Jay and becoming a bit more friendly with each other now. Maybe they both need a friend and at least they won't go through this alone.

    Great update! :)

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    1. Hey thank you! Fiona is used to dealing with ghosts and tried to warn Jay that they probably wouldn't get much they would understand. Her mother may not be a ghost and Uncle Don seems motivated to try to help so the words may mean something important.

      Jay still feels like Fiona is getting the better part of the deal since ghost-hunting doesn't seem to lead him anywhere useful. She's hurting though and he kind of sympathizes. Fiona isn't an interested in helping him, and didn't think she would need anyone, but now that he's there she's finding it much nicer to work with someone that try to do this alone. Team building, slow but getting there.

      Thank you!

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  3. Still hooked as I work through the chapters. I like the emotion in this one. Intense!

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    1. Thank you! It was hard to write about Fiona's reaction to seeing her mother, and then to having her mother ignore her, then to contrast that with Jay's.

      Blogger was giving me problems and it's worse than it used to be, but for the time being I feel like I'm stuck with it until I can figure out how to use Wordpress. Frustrating.

      Thank you thank you!

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  4. You really captured the otherworldliness well in this chapter. The way some questions were answered, and some not, made it both a heartbreaking reunion for the characters, but also made the whole scene wonderfully mysterious and frustrating. The notion that the characters are so close to answers, but to not get them, worked really well and sets things in motion nicely.

    I really enjoyed the attention to Kenley's tattoos. The fact that she has them now but not before she disappeared adds to the mystery of what happened. I suspect at this stage that it's got something to do with why she won't be able to return to the world of the living, as Luca revealed earlier. I really liked the description of how the tattoos on her back moved as she left.

    Again, I really feel sad for Fiona; she gets to see her mother again, but can't interract with her. Yet, Jay gets to speak to her, although briefly. Must be devastating for her.

    Loved the pictures in this one as well! The autumn trees are stunning, and I love the way the nature reflects in the water. The second picture is interesting, because I thought at first that you had created some really cool shadows in front of the room opening. Then, I realised that it was terrain paint, but you used it in such a way that it created this really cool effect. As if the room was bleeding out into the nature somehow.

    Happy to see where this is moving! I'm excited to see if they can find Gabe. I think a scene where Jay and Gabe meet for the first time would be really exciting to read (and to write, I bet!) / Ani

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    1. Thank you!

      This one was difficult to envision, to build and to write. It was hard to create something that wasn't medieval or fairyland. It's Don's place basically so it was the sort of nice lobby area with an elevator. That worked for me.

      If Kenley had only a very limited amount of power or energy to connect to whoever showed up, she was forced to recognize the one she needed. It's not clear to either Jay or Fiona whether she even saw her daughter, and she may not have. It was all Don could do to set it up and bring her there. Kenley isn't dead. If she was it wouldn't have been hard for her to talk to her daughter. Fiona was devastated but very focused and practical - she was instructed to find a Lombardo so she assumes that's the tool her mother has to use.

      Jay has no idea what's going on and would walk away and hope for the best if his mentor wasn't involved. He feels sorry for Fiona though, and for Jay that's a whole new emotion.

      So far Jay would rather not meet Gabe. Neither of them is certain that's necessary, not yet. For Jay it would be like meeting the bad god his mother has been worshipping her whole life. He wouldn't look forward to it!

      Thank you so much for your wonderful comments!

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