10:1
Hello. Yeah, you. Over there. I can feel you lurking. Figured I’d say hi.
Gwen brushed her finger over the bridge of her nose and squinted into the far distance.
Now, I know, I’m not, she made air-quotes, real and you are. Or am I? Are you?
Yeah, welcome to being me. Gwendolyn Joy. She held out a hand then lowered it. No. Don’t answer. You can’t. You can feel at me but that’s not super helpful in conveying actual thoughts.
Me? Why am I talking to you? Well, because you are there and paying attention. Right now. Which means I can feel you. Right now. Like a lot of times I can’t because there’s a lot of noise in here. She pointed at her head then circled her hand over her heart. And mostly I forget after I feel others like you because, again, noise. And you have to be there. For me to feel.
Confusing? I get it. I’m confused and I understand it. Sorta. Mostly.
If you are watching us – first of all, creeper. Second – seems like a good time for it. Feels like things are about to get interesting. End of the world interesting.
“Hey!” Dempsey’s raised voice carried from ahead. Gwen turned to look that way then back to stare towards the horizon again.
Crap! Gotta go. They’re moving. Nice to meet you. Maybe again. Probably again.
Gwen turned and stared at Dempsey hard. She’d have planted her hands on her hips for emphasis but cloak. So she just tapped a foot, raised her brows, and hollered. “I heard you. Just fine. I’m coming!”
“Yeah,” Dempsey hollered back. “Whatever.”
With that incredibly awesome comeback he turned and started back to walking. Gwen frowned in the direction she was pointing. Why was she staring into the sun? Ugh.
Gwen hurried to catch up to the group. She shifted the cloak to idly rub her breastbone with her hand where there was a dull feeling. Felt like a snapped wire. It was a feeling she was used to. Happened a lot. A lot a lot. Since she was a little.
She’d come to take it in her stride because what else could she do? Chase after the echo of every missed connection? Like she wasn’t scattered enough, distracted by the wants and needs everyone she came into contact with projected like a cloud of perfume, wreathing themselves in a miasma of desire that attracted her like a fly to stink.
Throwing the thought to lay in the path of forgotten thoughts she left behind her like the refuse strewn trail left behind a retreating army, Gwen clutched the cloak she recovered from Roanne in The House close to her chest and hurried her steps to catch up with her friends before they got to Leo’s.
The girl they rescued – recovered? reclaimed? – from The House walked between Prairie and Siobhan towards the back of the group. Dempsey strode behind them with his head on the swivel to give the stink eye to buildings and people alike. His broad shoulders half blocked the group of three, but if Gwen tipped her head to the side she could see the young woman between her two friends.
Roanne’s shoulders were hunched forward and it looked like her arms were crossed over her chest. Dempsey’s shirt dwarfed her small frame. Petite Prairie looked larger than her. She didn’t tower over the young girl and really, probably, Roanne was taller than Prairie’s diminutive frame, but her protective huddle made her seem so very small.
Gwen’s fingers tingled with the need to approach the girl and smooth out her pain. But the understanding that sometimes pain was necessary held her hand.
Pain could hamper but it could also protect. Like a child who touches a hot stove. The ensuing pain that lingered long after the bad touch embedded the danger in their forming psyches, making it likely they’d refrain from touching another one. Consciously. The Creator knew that people touched hot stoves all the time, often because they weren’t thinking or they tripped or whatever but if they were focused on their actions they avoided touching hot stoves again. Physical and metaphorical ones.
Gwen narrowed her gaze on Dempsey’s broad back. Like that. Right there. Total stove. Much burn. Avoid.
She shook her head. Where had she been? Oh, yeah. Erasing the phantom pain of touching a stove robbed the person of the lesson learned that would protect them going forward. It was a fine line Gwen walked between wanting to alleviate pain and leaving the lesson burned into a person.
Everyone thought she was all sunshine and lollipops and unicorns dancing tangos…
The image of a pink unicorn and a purple rhinoceros – what? Real unicorns had curves! – pushed through her mind, distracting her momentarily. She shook her head and focused back on the thought of lessons learned.
Regardless of wishing the world was more sunshine, lollipops, and dancing rhinos than abused kids handcuffed to radiators and people afraid to go into a Guard lockup because the world taught they might never leave the space, the life lesson of necessary pain held her hand.
So she drew a sharp breath through her nostrils, wrinkled her nose at the ensuing sting in her sinuses, curled her fingers in the cloak then loosed them, and took her place at the back of the group next to Dempsey. He slanted a glance down at her and she lifted her chin, pointedly looking at Siobhan’s back. Kim and Patti loosely orbited the three, Patti fingering her cudgel as she marched forward with an unwavering stare while Kim rested her hand on a fire creature walking on her left.
Ivan and Ben strode at the front of the group, heads swiveling intermittently to track the sidewalks and street and the traffic on both. Just behind them Abe and Dan bracketed Rapunzel. They were not overtly guarding her but then again they weren’t overtly not guarding her.
Gwen shook her head at the name. Rapunzel. Someone’s parents really wanted them bullied in middle school! Sure, Blondy over there was probably considered super cool in grade school or maybe Kindergarten but as soon as she hit the age where any deviation from the norm was picked at that name was just an invitation to having your head flushed or your hair pulled or…
Yeah, kids were cruel. If anyone knew that it was her.
Her Magick came in early, when she was still in middle school. And not only had that meant hearing the awful stuff in too many kids’ hearts – whether the sorrow of not fitting in, the awful desire of wanting to fit in, or the deep anger that lead some to try to beat on those who didn’t fit in – but also being unable to control the drive to help which lead to too many instances of her touching inappropriately – her therapists’ definition at the time – or curling up in a ball with her head in her hands when the emotions overwhelmed her. Hers and all those of all the other kids’ battering at her.
Damn. Gwen shifted her mind off the memories, pulling up the image of tangoing unicorn and rhino and smiling softly.
Once she had all the bad shoved down she eyed the long tail that swayed behind the woman between Dan and Abe. Had to give her credit. She’d seriously doubled down on the whole Rapunzel thing with that braid.
Leo’s came into view down the way, straddling the y-intersection where the street forked off into two. It loomed there, familiar as a favorite pair of micro-plush pajama bottoms with monkeys on them.
What? Didn’t everyone have a favorite pair of micro-plush pajamas with monkeys on them?
As they drew closer the faint pink of bricks peeking from the fading white of the paint on them became clearer. Gwen tracked her gaze over the flower boxes, the green of the leaves and red of the flowers within a welcome burst of color against the black of the boxes and the subtly pink exterior of the building.
Standing at the top of the short stone stair was Jeff, arms crossed as he leaned against the wall next to the double door with its mullioned glass panes. In front of him, their backs to the street, Roanne’s parents stood two steps down looking up at Jeff as he spoke to them.
Jeff’s eyes tracked up as the group approached. The motion drew the eyes of Roanne’s parents. They pivoted to look in the direction he stared.
How did they know to be there?
“I sent a runner for Roanne’s parents before approaching you,” almost like she’d heard the question, Rapunzel said as she broke away from between Abe and Dan then dashed past Ivan’s side to approach Leo’s and the couple standing on the stairs.
Phillip, Roanne’s father, still wore the brown tweed vest over a white button-up, but he’d opened the buttons of the vest so it swung open, giving him a more casual look than he’d had when he, his wife, and Rapunzel first approached them in Leo’s about Roanne’s story and disappearance.
Maybe not casual? Maybe the unbuttoned vest was a manifestation of the anxiety roiling in him, the emotion so strong it hit Gwen like a sledgehammer to the face. She flinched and almost raised a hand to her nose. That’s how strong his emotions were.
The anxiety mellowed as his gaze went over Rapunzel’s head, between Ivan and Ben, past Abe and Dan, and like a magnet drawn to True North settled on the young woman walking in the cluster of Kim, Patti, Siobhan, and Prairie. His lips moved. Gwen was too far away to hear what he said but it must have been something about Roanne as Catherine, his wife, looked up with a stark expression, her mouth dropping open and her gaze darting erratically as she shoved her ash blond hair from her face, holding it up and back at her hairline.
Gwen was hit by Catherine’s hope. It hurt less than Phillip’s anxiety, but it still hit hard enough Gwen braced before she staggered back. Dempsey shot a hand out and curled it around Gwen’s arm, steadying her. She waved off his concerned expression when he looked down at her but didn’t shove his hand off.
The big broad digits wrapping her arm conveyed a sense of solid support that felt pretty good. And the stolid emotions sitting quiet inside of him went a way to smoothing her out. Felt nice for someone to do it for her for once.
“Wanna move up?” she mouthed to him.
“Yeah.”
Gwen swallowed down a protest as Dempsey released his grip on her arm and started forward. Her lower lip formed a pout which she quickly sucked back as she hastened to keep up with him. As she moved she formed a barrier over her Magick, blocking out the worst of Catherine and Phillip’s emotions.
Rapunzel turned around and beckoned. Roanne pushed away from the cluster of Gwen’s friends and went running the short distance to the stairs. Her bare feet pattered on the cobbled sidewalk and Dempsey’s shirt rustled around her as she ran. Catherine and Phillip met her halfway, Phillip grabbing Catherine’s arm when she stumbled down the stairs.
The family met in a clash of arms and cries. Catherine wrapped Roanne in a hug so tight it was possible she’d absorb her daughter. Phillip wrapped his arms around his wife and daughter and lowered his head to rest it against Catherine’s hair. From where Gwen stood she could see tears glistening on his cheeks before they were hidden by Catherine’s head.
For one mikro Gwen let the wall around her Magick lower a scant inch and she breathed in the relief and love pouring from the small family. She blinked hard against her own tears and tucked her lower lips over her upper while she sniffled. Dempsey looked down at her, a question in his eyes.
Gwen uncurled her lips, shrugged, and pointed a shoulder towards the family. “It’s beautiful.”
Dempsey kept his gaze steady on Gwen’s face. “It is.”
Gwen gave him a watery smile and sniffed. “I think we should probably go inside.”
“Okay.”
Dempsey turned his gaze from her and looked at their friends. “Collect Rapunzel and let’s go inside.”
Gwen sniffled. “So bossy.”
Dempsey gave a visual shrug. “Yeah. And?”
“Nothing. Let’s go inside.”
Ivan walked up the stairs and offered Rapunzel, who remained standing at the top near Jeff, his arm. She eyed it for a moment and then lay a tentative hand on the crook. Ivan reached around her and opened the door. Jeff grabbed it from him as Ivan lead Rapunzel inside. He held the doorfor the others, waiting until they were all inside and then closing it behind them.
Dan and Abe made a beeline for the corner they usually sat in adjacent to the door but behind a dividing wall. Patti walked over to the bar then pulled Sass out of her house on Patti’s belt and held the mouse in her palm. There was some back and forth between them. Straining Gwen was able to make out a sing-song communication between Patti and the mouse as she sauntered in the direction Dan and Abe went.
Gwen watched from the corner of her eye as Patti and Sass stopped their song-versation and Patti lifted the mouse to sit on her shoulder. Sass held on to Patti’s hair as Patti stepped behind the bar and started filling a tray with glasses. Siobhan headed over to the bar, leaning over it from the customer-side to grab the tray from Patti and head towards their group’s table.
Gwen detoured and grabbed a pitcher of water and another of ale Patti pulled for the group. Dempsey followed her lead and headed over to grab another two pitchers from Patti. With nothing else to grab Patti exited from behind the bar and trailed behind Gwen and Dempsey as they carried their burdens across the floor and behind the dividing wall.
A fire crackled merrily in the far end of the space as well as in the bracketing wall. It made for a cozy environment and offset some of the chill created by the isolating design of the wall cutting them off from the rest of the barroom.
Rapunzel was planted at the farthest point of the long oval table with her back to the fireplace in the front wall. Dan sat next to her with Abe perched on a high stool behind him.
There was an empty chair next to Dan and in front of Abe. Dempsey headed for it, setting his pitchers down and easing his large frame into the dark wood chair. Kim sat next to him with her back to the side wall fireplace and Ben sat next to her with Ivan beside him at the apex of the oval’s curve and opposite Rapunzel. Gwen plopped herself down in the empty chair next to him, next to Siobhan. Prairie sat next to Siobhan with Rapunzel next to her.
Seeing there were no other empty chairs, Patti grabbed a high-backed stool similar to the one Abe sat in and planted it in the space behind Prairie and Siobhan. By doing so she cut off the path to the exit on that side while Abe’s position did similar on the other side of Rapunzel, effectively blocking in the short blonde.
Rapunzel sat with her back very straight and her hands folded on the table in front of her. The glow of the fireplace behind her turned her hair into a nimbus, the loose hairs catching the light and dancing on the waves of warm air that cascaded out into the room. She drew a long breath through her nostrils that pushed her chest out and then blew it out, relaxing her shoulders. She sent a look around the table, stopping to make a visual map of each of the faces turned towards her.
Gwen cocked her head slightly to the side and lowered her emotional barrier, reading the nervousness and excitement under Rapunzel’s surface calm. Above all though she read determination and a deep, deep pool of command unlike any Gwen had ever sensed. Even in Ivan, pretty much a template for community responsibility and dedication, Gwen didn’t sense what she felt in Rapunzel.
Who was this chickadee? Actually, that wasn’t a bad place to start.
“You said your name was Rachel?” When Rapunzel turned her gaze back to Gwen, pinning her with her stare, Gwen crossed her arms and leaned in. “When you introduced yourself with Roanne’s Mom and Dad you said your name was Rachel. You lied.”
Rapunzel nodded. “I lied.”
“Well, that establishes a baseline, I guess. Why?”
Rapunzel eyed her down the long length of the table. “Are you reading me?”
Gwen narrowed her eyes and channeled her inner Dempsey, asking in a gruff tone. “Should I be?”
Rapunzel shrugged. “Maybe. I lied because I wasn’t ready to reveal myself.”
“And you are now?” Dempsey picked up the question.
Rapunzel didn’t respond immediately. Instead she tracked her gaze over everyone around the table, her eyes darting as she adjusted to look at Abe and Patti as she made her visual circuit. Then she took a deep breath and let it out through her mouth. “Yes. I think it’s time.” She pinned Gwen with her steady stare as she expanded on the answer. “I wasn’t sure about you before.”
“So, the whole thing with Roanne was a test?” Dan leaned back in his chair, draping his arm over the back and twisting so he had Rapunzel firmly in his sights.
“No. A child’s abduction should not be used as a test. Although your actions and choices did speak well of you.”
Ben pinned her with a sharp look. “Were you watching us?”
“No. Not in the sense that I had eyes on you. I had another way to get the information.”
Dan rubbed the space between his nose and mouth with his free hand. It happened to be the one with Hope across the knuckles and it made an impression. “The House?”
Rapunzel gave a short nod. “The House as you call it.”
Dan lowered his hand to his chin and pressed on. “What is The House?”
“That’s a good question but not the right one to start this conversation.”
“Okay,” Siobhan straightened her flower crown then lowered her hand to stare at it before putting it back on the table where she spread her fingers and braced the tips on the wood. “Which is the right question?”
There was a moment’s pause where Rapunzel didn’t answer although she did show the grace to meet Siobhan’s eyes. It was Dan that offered, “The world is ending.”
Rapunzel retained her eye-lock with Siobhan for a mikro before shifting to look at Dan. She moved only her head. Her body retained its straight-backed alert. “Maybe. Probably. All signs suggest as much.”
“Signs?”
“Signs.”
Well, that was informative.
“If I reveal too much it will do as much damage as The Others do.”
The Others. Gwen was pretty sure she’d mentioned some others before but hadn’t expanded. Beyond that slip about “Geppetto’s strands” or something. So, some guy whose parents also appeared to have hated him was maybe involved. Maybe.
Siobhan’s lips flattened out. “Then why even approach us?”
“Because you need to step up. Be proactive instead of reactive. For that you need some information. We’ve decided the risk is worth the potential benefit.”
“We?”
“That’s part of what I need to tell you.” Rapunzel reached up and shoved her bangs back. “I really thought I had this. Hold on.”
Sitting forward in her chair she pulled a stack of note cards from the back pocket of her jeans. She sat back and shuffled through them, her gaze tracking the words on the cards.
Ben narrowed his eyes. “Are those notes?”
Rapunzel held up a finger while continuing to scan the notes. “Yeah. One mikro!” She drove her fingers through her bangs again without letting up the reading. “I swear I was thoroughly prepared. Coached in fact,” she added in a distracted tone. “What do they say about the best plans?”
“No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy?” Dan offered.
Rapunzel slanted a glance at Dan. “No. Though,” she shrugged, “that’s a good one.”
“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry?”
“Yeah. That one.” She stacked the cards then tapped them to order the edges before laying them down and folding her hands on the table. “Here’s the thing. I’m precluded from revealing a lot of facts because they’d break your brains.”
“You’d be surprised what our brains can handle,” Ben drawled.
“No. Not really. Don’t matter how smart or resilient you are. There are some things that would actually break your reality.”
Siobhan leaned in. “Our reality?”
Rapunzel twisted her mouth to the side and sighed. “You caught that?”
“Yes.” Siobhan raised her brows. “As Ben implied, we are, in fact, smart.”
Rapunzel’s droll, “That’s still to be determined,” startled a grin from Ben.
“Lady, I could like you.”
Rapunzel met his grin with lifted brows. “Sir, I hope to say the same of you.” She lifted her shoulders on a shrug that reflected in her expression. “Jury’s still out though.”
This elicited a snort from Patti. Kim was less amused. “Seriously who the fuck are you and what makes you think you can come at us like that?”
“I told you.” The woman heaved a sigh. “I’m Rapunzel.”
“Does your caregiver know you are out without supervision?”
“Ha ha. Says the woman who just exited a landscape inside a house where they fought a gigantic wolf from a fairy tale?”
“My caregiver knows I’m out without supervision.” Kim quirked a smile then turned serious again. “You need to give us more than a weird ass name and hints about knowing shit about our lives. And apparently world. Which is ending. Maybe.”
Rapunzel looked down at her notes. Shuffled them. Muttered something which Gwen strained to hear. “Why was I picked for this? I am apparently miserable at it.”
She looked up and met Kim’s intense stare then shifted her attention to the others around the table. “You have questions. I have answers. I just need a mikro to figure out how to equalize the discrepancies between what you need to know and what I can tell you.” She wobbled her head to the side and back and then tipped it in the opposite direction. “Potentially a mero. Or an hora.”
Ivan frowned. “That’s all very mysterious and vague. And tells us absolutely nothing.”
“Ain’t it, though?” Rapunzel grinned at Ivan. He kept his bedrock expression. “The mysterious, that is.” Her grin shifted to a forced smile closer to a grimace which was all together not reassuring. “I’m not sure where to start.”
Dan shifted to look at the pile of cards in front of Rapunzel “Can I see those? Maybe I could help.”
“Nice try, Slick.”
Dan shrugged. The corner of his mouth quirked up, shifting his toothpick. Gwen started at the piece of wood. When had he—? No. Not important.
Siobhan folded her hands, mirroring Rapunzel’s affect. “I find it best to start a story at the moment the world in it changes or the character in the story does. So, what is the catalyst of change in your story?”
Rapunzel shifted to look at Siobhan, tilting her head. “Our story. Collectively. But that’s good. What is the catalyst of change?” She screwed her mouth to the side. “As you are probably aware that are people with Magick in the world.”
This statement was met with various d’uh looks. Kim rolled her eyes. Ben lifted his brows, frowned at Rapunzel, lifted his brows again and stared at her with narrowed eyes. The look questioned her intelligence. Dan just kept his gaze steady though he did shift his toothpick from right to left which was almost as good as a shout from the taciturn man.
Rapunzel continued like there’d been no pause. “But there are a lot of things about how that works that you don’t know.”
Ivan crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Test us.”
The laugh Rapunzel emitted was very forced. Super forced. Cringeworthy it was so forced. “That’s a test you’ll fail as you haven’t done the reading assignment considering you don’t have the books.”
Dan shifted his toothpick back to the right. “I have a lot of books.”
“Books was,” Rapunzel waved a hand, “metaphorical. But,” her gaze shifted, her eyes tracking right to up to left before focusing on Dan, “I’ll allow you do have actual books and you probably even have some theories regarding the things not written in them. That’s actually a pretty good start. What do you know of how the world came to be?”
Ben looked at Kim and mouthed, “She’ll allow?”
Kim gave a wry grin then focused back on he woman as Patti asked, “What? What does that have to do with The House or the world ending or even you telling us your parents named you after a fairy tale character?”
Rapunzel turned to look at Patti. Her voice flat, she answered, “The fairy tale character was named after me.” She waved a hand. “But that’s seriously putting the cart before the horse.
Prairie leaned forward, her expression open, while Patti leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest. Siobhan kept her hands folded neatly on the table, her expression suggesting she had all the time in the world to listen. Dempsey stretched his legs out under the table and dug his hands into his jean pockets. He kept a steady gaze on Rapunzel, his expression neither intent nor relaxed, just kind of receptive.
A quick read on him gave Gwen the impression his expression wasn’t for show. It was nice to read someone whose interior and exterior matched.
Meanwhile a subtle movement from behind Rapunzel and Prairie drew Gwen’s attention. Ben leaned very subtly behind Rapunzel and caught Kim’s eyes.
Gwen shook her head and scanned the empty chair next to Kim. When had he moved? Ben lowered his lids, directing Kim and Gwen’s attention to how his fingers were slowly creeping under Rapunzel’s arm and heading towards the stack of cards in front of the woman. Kim rolled her lips and looked down, the corners of her mouth curving on a grin as she slanted a look up at Rapunzel who had turned to look at Dan.
Do it, Kim mouthed. Like Ben needed any encouragement towards mischief. His fingers brushed the edge of the pile and then Rapunzel snapped a hand down on top of the cards without looking away from Dan. “World? Came into being? How?” she pressed.
Ben withdrew his hand very slowly from under Rapunzel’s arm then slunk back to sit in his chair. Gwen followed the movement with her eyes. No one else seemed to notice as they were all staring intently at Rapunzel talking to Dan.
Dan leaned back in his chair and draped an arm over the back of it before reaching up to pull his toothpick from his mouth and place it in the breast pocket of his tac vest. Oooooh, Serious Dan.
“Depends on your philosophy and world view. Some say it started with a bang that released a cloud of energy that eventually coalesced into the world. Scientists have done studies measuring the amount of Magick in various elements of the world including the earth, air, plants.” He waved the hand of the arm draping the chair’s back. “But because Magick is inimicable to technology the data is questionable.”
Siobhan leaned in at this. “Alchemists have approached that from the side of Magick. It’s an interesting study. They pretty much agree the world is permeated with Magick. Considering alchemists live to argue with each other its telling that they agree on that.”
Dan picked up the conversational thread. “Various members of various cults attritube the creation of the world to a creator or creators depending on their dogma. Some groups split the difference, saying there was a creator or creators who made the Big Release.”
Gwen snickered. Siobhan slanted her a glance and nudged her in the side with her elbow.
“Big. Release.” Gwen made an explosion with her fingers. “Big.”
Siobhan snorted and whispered, “Hush, you.”
Gwen raised her fingers and mimed buttoning her lips. Dan looked at her with mild censure. “Done?”
“Big,” Gwen pinched her fingers together next to her cheek and then threw them out in a sharp explosion. “Release.”
Dan shook his head, sighed, and lowered his chin to hide the grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. Then he looked up at Gwen with eyes hooded by his lowered lids. “Done?”
Gwen slowly lowered her fingers below the edge of the table. “Done.”
“Great.” Dan turned back to Rapunzel. “The Big Release is what some call the emission of energy that coalesced into the world.” He looked around the table, assessing people’s expressions. “Bored yet?”
A chorus of “No”s answered. Then Ben waffled his hand. “Maybe?” to which Kim grinned and lowered her head, then mumbled, “A little?” She pinched her fingers to show the measure of her attention slippage. At Dan’s narrowed gaze she added, “Attention slippage. Ignore.”
It spoke to the length of their acquaintance that Dan needed no further explanation. He lifted the hand of the arm resting on the chair’s back and brushed it over the back of his head as he turned back to Rapunzel.
“There are others that think Ancient Aliens used technology to either form the world or to terraform an existing one they discovered. Should I continue?”
The corners of Rapunzel’s lips twitched. Gwen didn’t even need to read her projections to feel her amusement. “Feel free to keep enlightening me, Professor.”
Dempsey shifted in his chair. “To what purpose?”
Rapunzel turned her head to look at him. The shift reminded Gwen of a curious bird, body completely still and pointed forward while its head shifted this way and that to take in the world. “Does there have to be one?”
Dempsey uncrossed his arms, shifting the left from the bottom to the top before kicking back further in his chair, projecting the air of complete relaxation. The impression was furthered by his drawling, “You asked for an explanation of how the world came to be. I’m curious if Dan has hit the point you want yet or if he should shift in another direction.”
Rapunzel looked down at the pile of cards covered by her hand then slanted a sheepish look at Dan. “I admit I was buying time to order my thoughts but Mr. Dempsey is right to ask. There is a purpose behind the question.”
She brushed her bangs back with her free hand. They instantly fell back into her eyes. She blew them out of the way. They fell back into place. Heaving a breath she speared her fingers through the hair, brushing it to the side and holding it there as she looked to the side.
“I’m trying to figure out if I have to start from Alpha Data or can build on what you know or the theories you have.”
“Are any right?” Dan asked.
“Damned close.”
“Which one? Or ones?”
Based on the way the others leaned forward to hear the answer it was clear everyone at the table wanted to know.
Rapunzel released her bangs nd tapped her temple with her forefinger. “Smart. It’s ones.” She leaned back and countered on her fingers. “There was a release of energy. From another world. It didn’t form on it’s own. It was molded.”
Ivan frowned. “How do you know?”
“Because I’m one of the ones that molded it.”
Enter The Woods 