11:12
Ivan dropped and Ivan rolled as he was flung out of the black hole hanging a few feet up from the ground. As soon as he was on his feet, he looked around.
He had to take a hearty step to the left as Gwen and then Siobhan came flying out of the air. Lunging forward he was able to grab Siobhan by the back of her jacket before she collided with the earth. Gwen was not so lucky.
She landed on her chest, her breath leaving her with an oof. Dempsey immediately limped over and yanked her from the ground, his hands around her arms. She dangled in the air for a moment while Dempsey did a visual inventory of her features. Only when she jutted her chin forward and gave him the stink eye did he lower her to her feet.
Once she’d taken two big steps away from Dempsey, she ran her hands down her legs before leaning into her knees and heaving a few deep breaths. Ivan waited until Siobhan got her feet under herself and then gave him a nod before he stepped away and looked around again.
First he noted they were back in the warehouse at Smythe and Sons. A good thing they hadn’t appeared in a random public place. Doubly good they didn’t appear in the swamp near The House like they so often did. That was a hike they didn’t need to have to take with Bria’s comatose form.
Second his thoughts settled on making sure his team was safe. If he maybe was looking for a specific member, well, he wasn’t going to tell anyone. He’d go to his grave insisting they all mattered equally to him. Unless she—No. Not going there. Team. Safe. Check. Now.
His gaze settled on Patti sitting with her knees up and a dazed look her face as she stared into space. He didn’t take a deep breath until he found Prairie kneeling beside the supine figure of a young woman with dark hair and pale skin who appeared to be asleep.
Limping over to Prairie, he ran his gaze over her form. Once he decided she was intact he shifted his attention to check for the last members of their group.
Dan stood close to the hole in the air, peering intently at it like it held the mysteries of the world. Which it did, if not all of them. How had Abe managed to open it? Had they ever done anything like that before? The way Dan studied it Ivan was thinking no. Or not that Dan had seen.
Before he could consider it further there was a whoosh and Kim came flying through the hole. Dan reached out to grab her but she lofted away like she was floating. Which she probably was. Her elementals seemed to be pretty quick to make sure she suffered as little damage as possible.
Kim drifted towards the ground, landing with a run before shifting her attention back to the hole. “Abe?”
Ivan looked around the group, counting heads. A sinking feeling hit him as he realized Abe was not with them.
Last he’d seen Abe they’d been flinging themselves at the manifestations of ARFA, or what he assumed were manifestations of ARFA based on their previous encounters with the three figures. He very much recognized Aria from their dance and the Harp’s appearance, despite or perhaps because of how it shifted, was impossible to mistake.
Prairie would know best if the older woman was the grandmother they’d encountered when rescuing Roanne but that confirmation could wait. Right now they needed to figure out how to get Abe back. There was no way – and he meant no way – they were abandoning anyone.
That thought in mind he reached for the black hole that still hovered in the air. Dan reached over and hit his arm with a book, drawing Ivan’s glare.
“I’ve already tried. One way only. And it bites.”
“Bites?”
Dan held out a pencil which appeared to have been sheared in half. “Bites.”
“Oh.” Ivan pulled his arm back but retained his position next to the hole. He leaned forward to peer into it, making sure no part of him cleared the boundary of its edges. Turning, he looked at Dan, “Ideas?”
Dan lifted his book but before he could say anything the surface of the hole rippled and then Abe’s limp form came flying out, cassock flapping and hair flopping as their head fell forward on a limp neck. Ivan dove to catch them before they hit the ground. He looked down at them and blanched.
Their skin was black. Black as a chalkboard. Black as a night sky when there was no moon. Not only black. Black with tiny golden words lying so close together they looked like lines.
He looked over at Dan. “Dan!”
“Yes.”
Instead of saying anything Ivan looked down at Abe and their darkened skin then back at Dan then back at Abe again. Dan’s eyes widened, a big response from the usually taciturn man, and he leaned in. After a moment they leaned back. “Ink.”
“Ink?”
Dan nodded and shifted his toothpick. “Ink.”
“It’s bad, right?”
“Not good.”
“Prairie!”
Prairie looked up from the brunette woman. Seeing Abe in Ivan’s arms she hurried over. Instead of commenting on Abe’s inked skin she fell into triage mode, quickly assessing Abe’s vital signs.
If her fingers lingered a moment longer than normal on the darkened line of Abe’s jaw was it really any wonder? Ivan was fairly staggered, and impressed, that she maintained her professionalism in a real ‘what the fuck’ scenario. After a mero or more in which she checked pulse and breathing she looked up at Ivan.
“They seem physically fit, but I can’t get a response from them.” She drew in a deep breath and let it out while frowning. “They show every indication of being in a coma.”
And completely subsumed by ink. But that was left unsaid.
Dan made a noise that drew Ivan’s attention. “Not as important as Abe but what are we going to do about this?” He indicated the hole with a sweep of his chopped off pencil. “I thought it would close on its own but it isn’t.”
Ivan shrugged. “Can you Magick it?”
“Tried.”
They both contemplated the hole. Ivan examined it from one direction. Then from another. Then he stooped and looked at the bottom of it, like it was going to provide any more data than the sides. It was just a hole. In reality. Which was bound to be a hazard.
“We could put cones around it. Get a guard member to watch it.”
Dan waffled his hand. “Not ideal.”
“No. But if you can’t–”
Ivan cut off as the surface of the hole rippled. He took a big step back and flicked his wrist to engage his shield. To the other side of the hole Dan braced, book pages flipping. Nothing happened for a moment but Ivan knew to not relax his guard. His gut said something was happening. Best case scenario it was closing on its own. Worst case–
Aria’s head jutted from the hole. She looked directly at him, shook her head slowly, then pulled back. As she receded from view the hole shrank in from all sides, the black going from a gaping maw to a pinprick in about three mikros. And then it was gone completely.
Ivan looked at Dan. Dan looked at Ivan. Then Ivan looked at Prairie. “Get out of here?”
Prairie nodded. “I suggest going to Lady Mary’s Home. They are equipped to handle both Magicker and Null coma patients like Bria.”
“Makes sense.” Ivan walked over to Bria. He looked between Abe in his arms and the supine women, then cast a look over his shoulder to Dan. “A little help.”
Dan stepped up. “I’ll take Abe.”
Ivan looked down at Abe then shrugged and carefully shifted their slight weight over to Dan. He stooped next to Bria and slid his arms under her shoulders. Turning his head he looked over at Prairie. “This will be okay?”
“Just support her–” Prairie stopped mid-sentence, almost mid-word. Her eyes were impossibly wide as she looked at Bria. “Ivan. Step away. Now.”
“What?”
“Now!” Ivan’s back stiffened at the snap in Prairie’s voice. And then like any sensible man he started to respond. He turned back so he could ease his arm out from under Bria’s shoulders and lay her gently down. And stiffened as he saw what had raised Prairie’s alarm.
Brambles that appeared to be made from smoke wrapped her lower legs, making indents in the white cotton of her nightgown. In the mikros Ivan stared transfixed they crawled slowly up her legs, past her thighs, and along her waist. He shot a look at Siobhan. “Plants!”
Siobhan ran over and laid her hands on the brambles. Then fell back as Bria’s body rose from the ground, bumping her on the ascent. Rather than scrambling back, which might have been the immediate knee-jerk, she flung herself forward and over Bria’s body.
The brambles began to glow then pulsed. It took less than two mikros for the glow to be intense enough that Ivan had to shield his eyes. He did so with one arm while stumbling forward to add his strength to Siobhan’s to keep Bria from rising any further.
Close as he was to her even closing his eyes didn’t protect them from the light flaring from the brambles. He tucked his head to the side and gritted his teeth and hoped that after this, because there would be an after, his retinas wouldn’t be burned out.
Between he and Siobhan they were able to force Bria back to the ground. The brambles heated against his skin, their pulse intensifying, and then there was a flash of light intense enough to go right through is closed eyelids and straight to his brain.
He fell back or maybe he was pushed by the intensity of the release. His eyes opened of their own volition and while to an extent his vision was blurred he was still able to see the brambles explode into a cloud of black dust.
Bria jerked upright, the force of her movement knocking Siobhan and he back more in surprise than anything. Her eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open. She swiveled her attention from Siobhan to Ivan back to Siobhan then looked beyond them with an expression mixing confusion and surprise.
There was a gasp from behind the screen of people clustered around Bria and then Dan let out a grunt. Almost as one everyone pivoted to see Abe wrapping their left arm around Dan’s neck so they could look around with wide eyes.
Seemed like there was some choking happening, but Dan didn’t seem inclined to let Abe down. Instead his gaze ran over and then back over Abe’s face. And then their arms. He even shifted his shoulders so Abe’s cassock fell back from their legs. Abe stiffened and stared at Dan.
Dan shot Ivan a look then went back to looking at Abe’s face. It only took a moment for Ivan to figure why as he watched the ink obscuring their features recede, flowing from their hairline down over their brows, their nose, their mouth and then their chin before gliding down their neck and disappearing into the high collar of their cassock.
Abe reared their head back and stared at Dan. “Do I have something on my face?”
They lifted their right hand and glided it over their cheekbone. Then pulled it back and looked at the fingertips. Shrugged.
Dan shifted his toothpick left to right, then slowly lowered Abe to their feet. And that was about that.
“Where am I?” Bria’s voice drew Ivan’s attention back to the woman sitting on the ground. “Am I conscious?”
Her gaze shot around, coming to rest on Siobhan who remained hovering close to her. “And can I hear your thoughts?” She frowned. “Yes. Yes, I can hear your thoughts. Definitely I can hear your thoughts. Why can I–” she paused, cocked her head. “Oh.” Then she scrunched up her face before taking a deep breath through her nostrils. “I think I’d really like my mom. Can you please? Please? My mom?” She pressed her hands to her cheeks. “I really need my mom.”
She stiffened and stared at Siobhan. “You are thinking too much. You are all thinking too much!” Her gaze darted around the group but she stopped on none of them. “No! Too loud!” She pressed her hands to her ears, then to her eyes, then to her ears again. Her voice rose in volume. “Stop! Please! Too loud!”
Her head snapped to the side. She pinned Gwen with a fierce stare. “You feel bad for me? That’s nice.”
She was all but yelling now. Her gaze darted around again. “Please. I need a mero.” She pressed her hands to her eyes again. Her breathing hitched then speeded up. And up. It sawed between her parted lips. “Just a mero.”
Dropping her hands she stared at Patti. “I need you to shut up!”
She shifted her attention to Siobhan. “And you! Shut up!”
Siobhan dropped back on her heels and cocked her head. She nodded and her expression went blank. Like she was genuinely trying to quiet her thoughts. Ivan followed her lead, doing his level best to think of the color white. White. Nothing but white. A sea of white. White.
Bria turned her gaze to Dan. Stabbed a finger in his direction. “Especially you! You are very loud!”
Dan’s expression was almost humorous.
No. No laughing. White. Just white.
Bria looked at Ivan. Her mouth fell open slightly. And her breathing slowed.
“White is nice.” She smiled and her face relaxed but then from one moment to the next she tensed again. Her breathing accelerated until Ivan felt his own head get light in sympathy. “You don’t understand. I can’t read minds or hear thoughts or whatever this is. I’m a Null.”
She gulped, then repeated in something just above a whisper. “I’m a Null.”
Enter The Woods 