"We counter those with our own places," I interrupted. "The Chakra, the forest in Indonesia Micah and I planted, and Easter Island."
Damn, I thought, I really need to check in with Ahi.
She nodded. "But what about the knowledge part of it?"
I smiled. "What you've been working on in Cato's library."
"Right." She smiled back. "We'll finish up scanning and organizing by the end of the week. It is all of Cato's research, plus a few generations of research before him, at our fingertips. Alex has a dozen iPads on order. Once they come, we'll be able to access scientific data on each of the elements, paranormal theories and practices, ceremonial traditions; anything you can imagine you'll need." She finished her sentence with a frown.
"What?"
"It's just…"
"What?" I asked again.
She grimaced. "We spent the remainder of our available funds on the iPads. We can go a while affording the necessities from here on out, but we'll be in debt because of it." She stopped, taking me by the shoulders. "Don't tell the guys yet, okay? I don't want any jokes about women and their spending habits."
I raised my eyebrow. "This is serious, Susan. I don't think they'll joke about it."
"I know." Her shoulders slumped. We continued our slow walk; the Chakra loomed in sight down the path. "Anyway, I was going to mention the knowledge we have doesn't feel…complete."
"What is missing?"
She shrugged. "To be honest, I don’t know. Spells, mostly. Your mother was really into that, you know."
"You knew her?" My eyes widened in surprise.
"No, but…"
"What?" I stopped her, my hand on her wrist.
"As I was going through some of your stuff, to make that book for Bee, I came across your baby book. Have you ever seen it?"
I paused, thinking. "Not since I was maybe ten."
Which gave mom eight years to add to it.
"There are plenty of spells in there, folded and tucked into the pages, some written directly on the pages. I didn't want to pry too much, but would you mind taking a look? There could be some very useful stuff; like the incantation you did to help Micah find you on Galapagos."
I nodded.
"Maybe, like – tonight? I could stay with Bee until you're done."
I tightened my lips, now she was pushing her luck.
"Please? Coffee's on me tomorrow morning."
I rolled my eyes. "You're in charge of the budget. The coffee is always on you."
She laughed. "Yeah, better take advantage while you still can."
"Seriously, Susan – coffee better be the last cut you make." I started forward again. "I'll go without toilet paper before I go without coffee."
She laughed again. "So…you'll do it tonight?"
"Yeah, I'll do it tonight. But if Alex comes visiting, no funny stuff in front of Bee."
As if Micah and I hadn't already done it.
Susan held one hand in the air. "I swear to guard her and defend her against harm, sickness, and all types of romantic gestures."
"Damn straight you will." We walked into the living room of the Chakra through the sliding glass door.
Picking Bee up out of the sling, I handed her to Susan, who turned toward our room and the nursery, humming "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". I turned for the door heading down to the basement, not quite ready to face my past.
Chapter 40
Shanxi, China
His mother named him Ahn, meaning 'peace and good health'. With a name like that, how could he not become an emergency responder? Right now, entering the burning city of Linfen, he wished his mother had picked any other name. He forced himself forward with the hordes of other orange-suited firemen sent in from the neighboring county of Xiangfen.
Contain the fire at all costs. Their superiors had left no room for interpretation with their instructions. Linfen burning, along with a series of other coal mine fires over the summer, decimated the country's energy sources. In the southern Himalayas, ancient glaciers melted. Further north, encroaching deserts threatened the livelihoods of 400 million people. China was on the verge of becoming a third world country.
Already, whispers of the 'Mandate of Heaven', a traditional Chinese philosophical concept, caused the general population to question the legitimacy of their ruler. Linfen was the lynchpin; if the devastating news of what happened got out – the already shaky regime would collapse. Ahn shivered, even in the heat. China would collapse, and, if his roommate’s prediction was correct, China's downward spiral would cause the collapse of the world's economy, scaring human stability right off the face of the earth.
Ahn followed his team leader into the heart of the city. Smoke from coal fires ignited in the mines poured into the valley. If not for the oxygen masks, the team wouldn't have made it out alive. The team leader ahead of him treaded carefully, pointing out dead bodies as he went so no one would trip over limbs. Very few bodies had burned. Most of these people died of smoke inhalation. Ahn swallowed hard as he passed a mother cradling her baby, both covered in perpetual gray, a telltale trademark of the Linfen population.
Ahn thought about his field trip to Linfen while still in school. He remembered polluted air hanging over the city like a thick blanket. Every time he inhaled he tasted coal dust residue.
Once the coal fires started, Ahn imagined the hills surrounding the town were immediately engulfed, trapping residents within the inferno. Anyone who managed to avoid the flames quickly succumbed to the deadly smoke. It lingered, trapped inside the smog bubble over the town, as evidenced by the numerous bodies in the street that exited the valley. Losses were staggering and, as of yet, innumerable. Their mission today was containment, not rescue.
Panicked shouts on the other side of the valley drew the team's attention. Another team had frozen in place as the ground began to lurch and shake below them. Ahn spotted his roommate, always a head taller than anyone else. Suddenly, the unstable ground collapsed into a fiery sinkhole, flames springing up where his roommate had once stood.
Horrified gasps, muffled by masks, surrounded Ahn, but no one rushed forward to help. In fact, Ahn was the only one to move. And he moved quickly, running right back down the road they had marched in on with their suits of orange.
Chapter 41
Lilacs
The eerie echo of Susan's nursery tune stayed with me as I descended the staircase into the basement. The long hall was dark and empty. Consisting of the infamous lab, along with personal storage and work rooms, there was no reason for anyone to be down here this time of night. I halfway wished there were. Anything to distract me from my past.
I took a deep breath, and walked down the hall, counting the doors.
"Fourth door on your right," Susan had said.
Twinkle, Twinkle little star…door one.
How I wonder what you are…door two.
Up above the world so high…door three.
Like a diamond in the sky…door four.
The unfinished song hung in my head as I opened the door.
The smell of lilacs wafted out, like the ghost of my mother, waiting for me here all along. I hesitated. Would she be proud of the things I'd done? Or disappointed? After all, I had put myself in the position to be kidnapped, not to mention raped. I had run away with my baby, wreaked havoc on an entire civilization and let's not forget the multiple disasters I had caused along the way. She would have a word or two to say to me, that's for sure.
I flipped on the light and sought out the source of the flowery smell, quickly pinpointing a cardboard box in the corner. I ripped the box open and pulled out a bag of potpourri. Then another. The box was filled to the brim with them. At some point after her death, I had begun decorating profusely with potpourri, surrounding myself with her smell. I held up the two small bags as tears stung my eyes.
A noise behind me caused me to turn.
"Are you okay?" Micah asked from the doorway.
I didn’t answer.
"What are those?"
I hesitated, fighting down the lump in my throat. "Po…po…" I stuttered, not able to get the word out. "Lilacs."
Memories of her came flooding back. Sunday brunch at a new restaurant every week, sweaters I'd sneak out of her closet to wear, college applications she’d leave in the fridge – my usual stop after school. I crumpled to the floor, hugging the bags to my chest as if they'd fill the hole there.
Micah caught me before I hit the painted cement. I sobbed into his shoulder, wetting his t-shirt with my tears, gasping and hiccupping and snorting. "She…she'll never see her granddaughter. She'll never hold my baby!"
Micah stayed silent stroking my hair.
"She can't give me advice…can't weigh in on a name." Micah's tee was twisted in my fists now, the potpourri bags dropped on the floor. "Why wasn't she ever marked with the Athame?! Maybe then she could keep teaching me. Maybe I could let Bee see her face."
I took a deep breath, pushing away from Micah while attempting to compose myself. "All that's left of her are her stupid lilacs." I kicked one of the bags away from me, perching myself on a sturdy box. I looked up at Micah. "Well, say something."
He sat on a box next to me. "I told you, I like Bee's name."
I laughed, then sniffled, wiping my nose with the back of my sleeve.
He rummaged through another box and came out with a small hand towel. "Here."
The towel unfolded as he handed it to me, and I paused with the woven picture suspended in front of us. We both froze, then said together, "Lilacs!"
My nose still running, I grabbed the hand towel and put it to good use before Micah could retract it. "I guess I went a little overboard with the lilacs."
He put his arm around my shoulder. "That's what you do best, baby."
"Lilacs?"
He looked down at me from the corner of his eye. "Going overboard."
"Oh, right." I slumped into him, too tired to even get offended.
"Susan told me what you were up to," Micah said. "Need help?"
"If I still have to…"
"What Susan wants, Susan gets. Come on, I'll help you look for your baby book."
He began sliding boxes around, ripping some open. None had labels. "Photography equipment," he announced, then shoved that box away.
I sighed, glancing over at the box. Much of it was now outdated though it had only been a year and a half since using it. I took out some of my old couch pillows, buried my nose in them and breathed in the scent. They still smelled of home; honey, ginger, and—if I tried hard enough—I could almost detect a whiff of the fresh bread from the bakery down below. I laid the pillow back down and closed the box. I'd have to go through it all and separate out what I didn't want to keep. Most of it would end up going – hardly any of it fit into what my life had become.
"Here," Micah announced. "Is this it?"
I turned. He held up a hardcover book, with cream colored pages and tied closed with a pink, glittery ribbon. I walked closer, seeing the large pink and purple castle, surrounded by perfectly groomed trees and glistening butterflies, on the cover. At the top in large, bold letters read 'A Magical Arrival'.
"Yes, that's it." I ran my hand over the letters. "Do you think she knew, even back then, that I'd be like this?"
"She probably knew it was highly likely, given that both your parents had abilities."
I took the book from him and found a seat on the cold, hard floor. "Earlier, you said something about a Gaia's abilities not surfacing until menopause."
"Yeah." He sat down next to me. "You were a very rare exception. Because a Gaia's powers are largely emotion-based, Cato thinks the traumatic experience of losing both your parents might have helped with early onset."
"Early onset – like it's a condition." I rolled my eyes.
"It is a condition. An innate condition, which is why what Shawn is doing is all wrong. He shouldn't be collecting power. It's not natural."
"Cato did."
"Only over a very long period of time. And his power was never really that stable." Micah rubbed his hand over his face, then glanced at the book in my hands. "Are you going to open that thing or are we gonna sit here talking about Shawn all night?"
I opened it, mumbling under my breath, "You brought him up."
Right away, a folded piece of paper fell out into my lap. "What's this?" I opened it, and answered my own question. "Instructions. For circle casting."
Micah nodded. "A basic ritual necessity. What else is there?"
I flipped through the pages. Another folded note was stuffed in between my birth certificate and handprints. It was spells of protection. The next folded page I came across held healing chants.
I handed them off to Micah who held them in a neat stack. In between a record of my doctor's visits was an account of herbs and their uses. Out from our family tree were a list of crystals and charms, their uses, and where my mother hid them. All items I still had with me, or at least I was relatively sure I did.
"She knew these were things I would never throw away. Look…" I pointed to the page. "Sewn into Patches, my old bunny. Sat on my bed up until, well – until you took me."
Micah nodded. "I remember packing that ragged thing up. I was tempted to incinerate it."
I gasped. "You wouldn't dare…"
"Come on, let's find this stuff."
Once again, we sifted through boxes. In the third box I hit gold.
"Patches!" I pulled him out from between my bed’s decorative pillows and hugged him to my chest.
Micah walked over, bent down and sniffed the stuffed animal. "It smells."
"Does not." I scowled.
He took out a knife from his back pocket. "Want me to do it?"
"No." I held Patches tighter. "You'll just make a mess out of him."
He offered me the knife, handle side out. I took it, and laid Patches face down on the floor. I couldn't bear his beady little eyes looking up at me while I cut into him. "I'm sorry Patches."
Lifting up his plaid shirt, I cut into the small rabbit. His torso was the only part of him big enough to hold the charm my mom described. Except maybe his head, but there was no way my mom could expect me to cut into that. Incision complete, I stuck my finger into the stuffing and came out with a purple crystal.
"Pretty," I said.
Micah nodded his head, agreeing, then looked down at Patches, "Now can we burn him?"
"Heathen." I cradled the bunny in my arms. "I'm sewing him up and he's going to Bee."
Micah’s nose crinkled. "No way."
"Okay, okay, I'll wash him first."
He crossed his arms. "Fine. After he passes my inspection."
"Fine."
"Okay," he bent over and opened another box. "You find the rest of her stuff in the book and I'll keep looking for the charms."
I sat down again, setting Patches down beside me, careful none of the stuffing came out. I kept a wary eye on Micah. A few more handwritten pages and notes from the book contributed to a fairly insignificant stack of papers.
"It's not much…" I commented, holding up the stack for Micah to see.
"She was no Cato, but this is actually quite a bit."
"Still…this was her life's work?"
"No Kaitlyn, you were her life's work." He walked over and hauled me to my feet. "Come on; let's find the rest of the crystals."
Chapter 42
Surprises
The next morning, Susan and I stood over the computer, watching as my mother's notes scanned and were systematically filed away.
"How's Alex?" I asked.
She didn't look at me. "He's not doing well. I had to send him on a short errand – get him away from the Chakra for a day."
I remembered when Cato forced Alex to torture information out of one of the Chakra's defectors. I'm still not sure he had recovered from that either. "He's not built for tragedy," I mumbled under my breath.
I gave Susan a sympathetic glance, only because she would deal with th
e fallout this time. "Are we going to have a funeral?"
She shook her head no. "Each Elemental that comes here puts their final wishes on paper before they can start training." She folded her arms across her midsection. "You know – just in case."
I nodded.
"Uri wished to be cremated here, ashes spread in a place of our choosing. There is no one to notify back home."
Eerily similar to me, I thought. Had I made the wrong choice all those months ago during my saining, would they have done the same? A cremation with no one to notify?
"There'll be a ceremony later."
I nodded, looking around for something to distract from the sullen mood. "Oh, I almost forgot. Do you want to scan this, too?"
"What is it?" Susan took it, flipping through the notebook of Mama's translated songs. "More spells?"
"Mostly. I got them from one of the elders on Easter Island. She was an Earth Elemental."
"Were there any Gaias on the island?" Susan asked.
"I don't think so. When I asked, they said no Gaias had ever come from the community; only Elementals. Maybe it is why they managed to stay hidden from The Seven."
Until I got there, bringing hell with me.
"I've never seen these before." Susan reached the end of the notebook. "And I've been through every scrap of paper Cato had squirreled away on these shelves."
"They came from an isolated community, working their magic without the influence of the Seven," I said.
Susan looked up at me. "It looks powerful."
I raised an eyebrow. "It is."
"Have you talked with them since you left?"
I shrugged, "I tried, yesterday. Couldn't get through to…well…anywhere on the island. Communication systems must still be down."
"Keep trying – I'd love a chance to compare notes with them."
I nodded my head.
Susan snapped the book shut. "Yes, scan these in too." She handed the book to the Water at the computer, then turned back to me. "Mind if I keep the notebook for a little while after, to browse?"
"Browse away," I said. "I've got them memorized, for the most part."
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