Black Warrior

by Jolie Jaquinta

  Chapter 3 – Checkup

  Winter emerged from the household teleporter with a start. The casual way they took magical transitions always took him by surprise. And, although dry land was his natural habitat, it was not the one he was used to. At least he remembered this time to wear more clothes than was his habit and he wasn't chilled to the bone on top of it all.

  Lilly's lab was the same layout as his mothers. It occupied a floor in the same tower as hers, but a few levels lower. Unlike hers, it was neat and orderly. Both had the inner wall filled floor to ceiling with arcane jars. These contained the souls rescued when Romitu invaded the demon realm. They had yet to find a practical way to return them to life and sanity.

  The echo of the door chime had barely faded when Lilly herself appeared. “Good morning, Winter”, she said. Winter knew that her absence of pigment, which left her with very pale hair and skin, and red eyes, unnerved most people. But, given the wide variety of life under the sea, this was far less disconcerting than her general lack of expression on her face and in her voice.

  “Strong currents with you”, he said, reflexively. She raised an eyebrow and he corrected himself. “Good morning.”

  “Your mother said you thought you might be experiencing symptoms of past life leakage”, prompted Lilly after a pause.

  “Yes”, said Winter, standing there awkwardly. He really didn't know what to do or say. He usually fell back reflexively on his mother's training in the Elfin art of reading body language while on the surface. But Lilly's stance was as blank as her face.

  When the silence dragged on a bit more, Lilly blinked a few times as if remembering something. “Please come this way. I have some seats you may be more comfortable sitting on.” She moved to one corner of the room near the window. There were a few bookshelves there and a pair of chairs.

  Winter sat in one and looked out the window. Directly opposite were the high graceful arches of the master tri-form arch. The original was an ancient work wrought by the mysterious Grey Elves who it was said created all of humanity as some grand experiment. But the foundations of it were built on older works going back tens of thousands of years. It was all beyond him.

  “I've started having dreams again”, said Winter.

  “You spoke of dreams once before to me”, said Lilly. “These were of a screaming entity crying and clutching at you. Are these the same?”

  Winter blushed. “No, not like that.” He shifted uncomfortably. “They seemed more like an ocean current that for some reason I knew intrinsically was wrong, and that it was somehow connected with... him.”

  “Othr?” asked Lilly. Winter nodded. He was reluctant to say his name, for some reason.

  Lilly moved her hands through the air. Patterns glowed and shifted. Winter's eyes widened as images leaped up in his mind. Dreams, visions and nightmares raced before him. Views of the ocean engulfed him, racing with Balanoptera, swimming with Cindarina and then suddenly stopped.

  Lilly cleared her throat. “I'm sorry”, she said. “Let me start over.” She paused to compose herself. “Winter”, she said, looking at him directly. “I would like to take a pattern of these dreams. To do so I need to access your memories. This will involve a simple seeking pattern to establish the range of dreams, another to categorize them and a phrase to isolate those that diverge from normal and more likely to have come from an outside Will. Those extracted will be recorded in these crystals here. Afterwards you make take them with you or destroy them if you are not comfortable leaving them here. Do you consent to this?”

  Winter grinned weakly. “I guess your normal subjects don't get much choice”, he said, looking over at the stacked soul jars.

  “No, they don't”, said Lilly. “But I should have remembered. Magister Devonshire specifically asked me to assure you that she would not have access to them.”

  Winter's smile became more genuine. “Thoughtful of her.” He sobered a little when Lilly didn't return the smile. “Yes”, he said, “I consent. No point otherwise. That's what I'm here for.”

  “Very well”, said Lilly. “It will probably be easier if you close your eyes and do not focus on any sensation. Don't think of anything in particular. I wish to see if I can derive what is analytically different, not just what you think is different.”

  “OK”, said Winter. He did as he was asked and settled back. The affect was different this time, more subtle. It was like he was truly remembering things. His mind flitted, unbidden, over thoughts and memories, images and scenes. And with them, so did his emotions. They seemed random, for the most part. But as time passed, the sequences started taking on the disturbing nature that he had been worried about. Experiencing them awake, they were much clearer than recollected dreams.

  Storm winds blew over the surface of the ocean, tousling wave’s crests with spray and sea foam. The grey water heaved in great swells several times his height. The sun shone, moon like, through a thick layer cloud. It shifted to the waves pounding on an equally grey shore. The shingle rocks repeatedly shattered by the storm. Cold rain fell on twisted and stunted vegetation. A promontory rose up from the shore to a tall mountain silhouetted against the racing black clouds. High up on the summit something jutted up, and it almost looked like a body hung from it.

  And then it was over.

  He opened his eyes with a start, and found he had been clutching the chair with a fierce grip. It felt as if he should be covered in a cold sweat, but there was nothing but a gentle breeze on his skin. He looked to Lilly, but she was focused on several glowing crystals levitating above her palm.

  “Did you see it?” asked Winter. “Is it him?”

  Lilly let the crystals settle in her palm before answering. “Most interesting”, she said. “You were right. These dreams are out of character. I do not believe they are being generated by your own Will.” She looked up at him. “But I am certain they are not coming from any past lives of your Soul. The seal there is as intact as when I first examined you. There has been no tampering. Even doing an active probe did not perturb anything. The source of these dreams is something else.”

  “But what?” asked Winter. If it wasn't his father trying to break through his Soul and control him, who could it be? He had no enemies that were unaccounted for.

  “I do not know”, said Lilly. Winter looked crestfallen. “But, based on some other research, I can prepare something that can monitor you and look for deviations in your Will. With that as a trigger it can do a scan to see if it can isolate where the perturbation is coming from. Would you like that?”

  “Yes”, said Winter, quickly. “I'd really like to know who is doing this. Do you think it could be another old enemy of mother's?”

  “I couldn't say”, said Lilly. “Magister Devonshire had a very colored past. And her position as chair of the Academy makes her a target as well. But it seems an awfully indirect way to pursue a vendetta.” She considered him for a while, gently brushing the crystals. “These images. You find their occurrence disconcerting, but their subject matter is not disturbing, yes?”

  Winter shrugged. “I guess so. Wind. Waves. The Sea. These are not things that are unfamiliar to me.”

  “This makes a relation to Magister Devonshire also unlikely.” Lilly shook her head. “My theory is that it is directed entirely at you.”

  “Great”, said Winter. “I thought I finally got rid of all my enemies and a new one pops up.”

  “I would not conclude it is an enemy”, said Lilly. “Yes, the message delivered may be strange. Many times when people try to communicate something to me in other than straightforward terms, I find it strange and disconcerting. But in most cases their intent is benign. This may be true in your circumstance. Although it may not.”

  Winter furrowed his brow. “Other than this watcher-tracer thing, is there anything else I should do?”

  Lilly passed the crystals to him. “Consider the message. By touching the crystals and concentrating, you can review their contents. If this is intended to hav
e meaning for you, weal or woe, then you should be able to work it out.”

  Winter took the crystals. “Thank you”, he said.

  Lilly nodded. Then, after a pause said “You're welcome.”