Visions Across the Veil

by Gretchen S. B.

  "What is the timeline on this?" she asks, unsure of what else to say

  "Less than a month."

  Not enough time for her to prepare a third option. Either hide or be killed. She is not one to go into hiding. Narcissa did it once when she was very little when her parents were killed right in front of her from where she hid in a closet. She was sent to live with her aunts who didn't know how to handle the young girl. She told herself once she was strong enough she would never hide from evil again. Now Lloyd is telling her to do just that despite knowing how she feels about hiding.

  Then she realizes: if she does pass, she will finally be reunited with her love. She can be with him for eternity in mere weeks. It is a lot to think about.

  "Do you have any other information?" she asks, trying to be as intellectual about this choice as possible. She can’t even muster up shock at the fact that she might die soon. She was one of the strongest MPs in the United States for a very long time. That tends to come with a target. Even after she moved to Canada she was still at the high-end of the power spectrum, despite having moved up here as a sort of retirement. She is one of three top trainers in the North American Kingdom and the only female. But she is slowly seeing fewer and fewer young MPs for training as she phases herself out of the process. She tried to make a powerful young MP into her protégé, but Lucia isn’t interested in anything beyond her own needs and desires. Narcissa thought she would have years to mold the young MP into what the Magical Practitioner community needed but if what Lloyd says is true that might not be an option.

  She focuses on her husband's face, looking him in the eyes. "Either way, whether I go into hiding or I die, I only have about a week or two to rid myself of as many earthly possessions as possible."

  Lloyd looks at her confused, his head slightly tilts to the side.

  "What I mean is there are things like your journals and magic books. Those are not things that I can carry with me and should be passed on to a white MP that can use them. They’re not things I can take with me into hiding and I don't want to leave here in case it falls into the wrong hands. Those kind of things need to be passed on."

  Her brain is whizzing. She’s inventorying all the things she needs to get rid of. Luckily she has slowly been removing all of the important things from her life so should she pass and no one find her for a while, her magical equipment wouldn't be ransacked.

  Her husband gazes upon her sadly. She’s always been the more pragmatic one.

  "Are you sure you want to get rid of the things you carried around for decades?" he asks slowly.

  Narcissa is nodding even before he finishes his sentence and squeezes his hands. "Yes, regardless of the outcome it is time to pass on that knowledge and now that I'm thinking about it, I know the perfect white MP for your notebooks. She is a little busy, so I'll have to give it a sense of urgency in order for her to come and collect them. But I believe she is the perfect choice. As for the rest of it I can mail it off to various destinations, as I have a giant book of addresses in the shed. Luckily, Bandit is here so he will be able to take me to around to help me get this done."

  Lloyd watches her in awe for a few moments. "I can't decide whether your plan is ingenious or you're avoiding making a decision."

  Narcissa brushes off the comment and smiles. "Both, I'm afraid. This needs to be taken care of first and then I will decide. You know I'm not one to hide from a fight."

  He squeezes her hands tightly again in his. "There is no need to rush on my account. I will wait for you as long as it takes. Don't go running headlong into death on my account."

  She feels her eyes sting a little at his words. She knows Lloyd will wait as long for her as she would for him. They’re soulmates through and through and both of them knew it almost instantly upon meeting. There will never be anyone else for either of them.

  "I know, my love. I know." The second part is barely above a whisper and she watches as the world around her slowly moves out of focus. Her husband was never able to stay in her dreams for long, but this time her heart hurt with how soon he is leaving.

  "I love you, Narcissa. I have to go now. I wish I could give you more than a vague warning," he laments as she feels his hands almost dissolve around hers.

  “I love you too, Lloyd," she calls into the fuzzing landscape around her, unsure of whether he actually hears the words. But he doesn’t need to hear them in order to know how she feels.

  A moment later her eyes snap open and she sits slightly leaned over on the bench with Bandit squatting in front of her, looking slightly worried.

  "Are you all right, Narcissa?" His voice is wary. Somewhere between worry for her health and worry that she’ll snap at him for interrupting her.

  She pats the arm that rests on her left knee. "Don't worry, Bandit. I'm fine. I must've dozed off but that was clearly in my best interest because my dear Lloyd actually came to visit me. Can you imagine? He was lurking around waiting for me to fall asleep." She inserts an amused tone that she doesn’t feel.

  Her mind is whirling with the information Lloyd gave her. The end might be near for her if she doesn’t go into hiding. Something in her yells that she can’t tell Bandit. Knowing him, he will immediately call Buck and the two of them will pack her up and ship her off somewhere and she won’t get to put her affairs in order. She loves them both dearly, but they can be shortsighted in their thinking. While she would be thinking of the regional Night World and what would be needed for them to succeed against an unidentified threat, their only concern would be her and her safety. They are more protective of her than they are the current Lady of the Dead, whom they have grown to adore over the last ten years.

  Shaking her head at the thought process before she goes too far off the rails she makes her mouth expand into a tight smile. "It's a good thing you're here. He and I discussed it and we both agreed it's time for me to de-clutter the house. Much of my knowledge needs to be passed on to the next generation of MPs. With you here to do the heavy lifting everything can simply go to the post office without any fuss."

  The worry lifts from his face, but only partially. There is amusement to his voice. "So I'm your errand boy as well as your house boy now? Is there a sexy uniform in my future?" He stands with a smirk and puts his hand in front of her to help her up.

  Taking his hand she shakes her head. "I certainly hope not. No one wants to see that."

  Her response is met with a chuckle as the two of them, hand in hand, walk back towards the house.

  "Hold on a moment," she says as they step back onto the patio.

  He looks down at her from his more than one-foot height difference and silently lifts one eyebrow.

  "I'm going to start making phone calls from my base of operations in the shed. Most of the stuff I've collected over the years that needs to be passed on is in there, since I can do more heavy warding over the small space versus the entire house. Would you do me a favor and grab my phone from where it's charging in the kitchen on the rim of the China cabinet and bring it to me in the shed please?"

  Bandit leans down and plants a delicate kiss on her hand before letting it go. "Of course. Then I will get back to those unruly cabinets of yours that you should have had us look at several visits ago before they got as bad as they are. We might end up visiting a hardware store later today."

  She waves off his fussing and heads towards the shed in the back, left corner of the yard.

  Chapter 2

  Over the years she put so many wards and spells on the building that it is almost impossible to break into. Anyone wanting to break in would have to exert a great deal of effort and she would have noticed people lurking in her backyard way before they'd be able to break through it. The small pale yellow shed also has a lock, for more practical burglars. She still has the key in the pocket of her skirt from when she was in there this morning.

  She loves this shed. It is better than the shack her aunts and grandmother practiced in when she was young
. It was made to look like a very small barn with a slightly rounded roof and quaint squared windows that she had of course covered on the inside. The barn is deceptively small. It was made to store lawnmowers and that sort of odds and ends. In truth, on the inside it is the same size as a decent bedroom. Not that she uses it for guests, but it means she has a large workbench with high back bench seating on either side and counters along three of the four walls. The fourth wall is full of shelves.

  Upon first glance she knows the place looks almost like chaos, stuffed to the gills with magical bric-a-brac. In actuality, she knows where every single thing in this room is. It is the one downside to training young MPs. They move things and put them in bizarre orders and it takes her several days after they leave to reorganize everything again. Narcissa closes the door behind her but doesn’t lock it as she normally would, knowing Bandit won’t be far behind her. She moves to the far wall that looks like a display of ingredients in a glass-fronted shelving unit. While they are real ingredients one could use, there is a keyhole in the back of the front cabinet that opens the cabinet itself away from the wall. In the back of the cabinet are the books she doesn’t share readily with her pupils. They are the important books, the ones that can’t fall into the wrong hands. With these books are her husband's journal and his spell book.

  Lloyd was a powerful white MP. While he was stronger than the average Magical Practitioner, he wasn't as strong as she was.

  Looking at the books, she knows his spell book would be of good use to the strongest white witch in the Northwest. Harper Janine, or HJ as she prefers to be called is one of the strongest white Magical Practitioners Narcissa has ever seen. But the woman is the shyest and least confident of four sisters who all are powerful in their own right. Though she is by far the strongest of the four, she doesn’t display all of her skillset for fear of standing out.

  Along with Lucia, Narcissa has tried to coax HJ into reaching her full potential. While the white Magical Practitioner is more open to things than Lucia is, she still doesn’t like displaying her abilities for all to see. Lloyd's books should go to her. There is no doubt in Narcissa's mind and she already thought, years ago when she first met HJ that this would be the first perfect candidate for Lloyd's tomes. She never got around to shipping them off. Now seems like the perfect time.

  Several items to Lucia, if she can’t convince the younger woman to come for one last visit because shipping will be a bear. Once that is done, a moving box full of items, maybe two will be sent to Harold and Rex, the other two strong Magical Practitioner mentors in the Kingdom. The things she will be sending them don’t necessarily have a set home, but she will send with them notes letting the men know that if they know of a home those items need to go to they should be sent on with their discretion. She trusts both Harold and Rex not to hoard information, unlike she had over the years, and to strengthen the generation of MPs behind them.

  A knock from the door burst her concentration from the two heavy books she is carrying away from the hidden bookcase. Narcissa doesn’t scramble to cover it as both the pirates have seen, and probably read through several of the books on that hidden case. It makes no difference to her if he sees where she keeps them.

  He swings the door open without waiting for any kind of invitation, scanning the room and frowning. "This place gets messier every time I see it. Seriously, I understand why Lloyd thinks it's time to de-clutter." All joking leaves his eyes as he sees the back hidden bookcase open. "Well, this can't be good," he mutters as he closes the door behind him and his large legs eat the distance between the two of them. Bandit sets down her now-charged cell phone next to where she’s laying the books. "Are you really considering getting rid of the good stuff?"

  Narcissa doesn’t look up from the heavy dark brown leather cover facing her. She traces the binding and gold inlay on the front cover. "Yes, I'm sure it's time. I use them less and less as I get older so there's no point to hoarding them and not passing them on to people that may need them later."

  Something about that statement seems to get Bandit's attention and he leans on the counter making sure his face enters her line of sight. "What is it you see, MP? I haven't heard you use veiled statements like that since the strata enforcers came through and massacred a strata of Magical Practitioners in New Orleans. What is it you feel coming?"

  He’s right of course. Both he and his brother have become accustomed to her bad feelings about something on the horizon. When the strata enforcers, the magical police, for lack of a better word, for the Magical Practitioner counsel came through and dispatched their own brand of justice on a group of Magical Practitioners dabbling heavily in black magic, she knew it was coming a month in advance. She didn’t know exactly what would happen, as it was before she was put on the Council by a year or two, but she knew something big and unpleasant was coming. That was when she knew it was time to move. She packed up everything even before she found a house or knew where she was moving to. Sure enough, while on the road in a moving van, Narcissa got word that a dozen and a half Magical Practitioners were killed by the Council's secret police force and the strata enforcers were sticking around to make sure the black magic hadn't spread any further; she had shuddered at the news.

  While Narcissa herself is a gray MP and firmly entrenched herself in knowing everything that could be known and done as a gray MP, she doesn’t want to chance being caught in the crossfire because collateral damage isn’t unheard of for the strata enforcers.

  Sighing, she splays her hand over the cover of the book before finally moving her gaze to look into Bandit's eyes. "All I know is something big, bad, and inescapable is coming. I don't know what it is though; it is a new feeling, so I haven't had a chance to delve deeper for more information. It will affect more than just me, more than just the MPs; it's going to affect us all and getting the information out to people who can fight it now, when they have a chance to learn it and fight, is the best course of action for all of us. While I might be powerful, I'm not getting any younger and I'm not out there in the thick of it like I used to be."

  She can tell from Bandit's expression he isn’t entirely satisfied with that answer. He is clearly debating whether or not to push the subject. It is something both Buccaneer and Bandit have been struggling to come to terms with. Though the two of them have been around hundreds of years and watched hundreds of people live and die, they seem particularly reluctant to the idea that Narcissa herself is getting up in years. While she knows intellectually they understand the end of their friendship is coming soon, most likely sometime in the next decade, they have been fighting that knowledge with all their might.

  Before he can attempt to pry more information from her, she continues, "These are going to a very strong white MP in Washington State. She is the youngest of four girls and is by far the strongest among them. The sisters, their mother, her aunts, and all the offspring live on a large family farm out in Carnation. For generations that family has not birthed a male child. They're very practical magic-esque, actually. She could make use of these books. She is the strongest white MP I have met in person in some time and while she isn't totally confident in her powers, I think reading Lloyd's story, since he came from the same mentality, would be good for her. So I'm starting with her first then moving on to Lucia. If she can't come up here I might have you bring down all of my books that I want to give to her for your next visit."

  The last part makes him frown. "Are you sure you want to give vital information to Lucia? Don't get me wrong, I like her, and she clearly has some magic chops, but she isn't always a 'for the greater good' kind of practitioner."

  Narcissa tries not to smile that Bandit has the same assessment of the strong MP she does. She knows the younger woman has great strength and power and potential within her if only she would apply herself in more than a monetary-gain perspective. "I can't think of anyone else who would use them. I'm not sending everything to her. Harold and Rex are getting the bulk of it. But I think
she definitely needs to get a portion at least. I also hope someday she'll surprise all of us and think about the greater good. I do think her two male counterparts, Barrett and Marco, do think about the greater good and I can't imagine anything I would give her she would keep secret from them. The two of them have always been more civic-minded than Lucia has. I’m laying my hope in that bringing out more good in her," she responds honestly.

  Bandit looks at her questioningly for a beat as he processes what she said. "It's not like you to be unnaturally optimistic, Narcissa." He smiles at the end.

  Rolling her eyes Narcissa smacks his arm lightly. "Now get out of here so I can call the white MP and get all of this rolling. I'd like to get everything shipped off in the mail while you're still here, so I don't have to worry about carrying all the heavy boxes myself. You and I both know Buck isn't coming for probably another two months so it's now or never." She smacks him again for good measure.

  Bandit smirks and holds up his hands, palms facing her and backs out of the shed. "Alright, alright I give. Let me know when you need me for the heavy lifting. I have my phone on me and I'll come check on you in an hour or two to see if you need help. Just know I plan on taking you out to dinner tonight because I'm certainly not going to have you cooking the entire time I'm here. Think about where you'd like to go, or if you want to go to lunch instead." With that, he walks out of the shed, shutting the door behind him.

  Love for the pirate heats in her chest. She loves Buccaneer and Bandit dearly. The two of them were the only constant in much of her adulthood, other than magic. She loves them as fiercely as they love her and she knows if she chooses not to go into hiding, but to stand up and do what she can to put a dent in this ‘big bad evil’ that is coming, her death will hit them the hardest by far. She knows right then, as her eyes moisten a little, that she can’t tell them how what is coming affects her directly. If she chooses to go into hiding, she’ll have to phrase it in a way that won’t make them fear for her. She doesn’t want them worrying about her; there is enough going on without their attention being divided. Wiping her eyes before the tears can fall, Narcissa reaches out and grabs her phone, scrolling down her directory until she finds HJ's number.