Chapter Fifteen
Neith
Anyway, just because you’re used to being alone doesn’t mean that you like it.
“You guys go ahead, I’ll catch up,” I tell the others.
“Alright, Nene,” Van says. “Don’t get too distracted.”
“If I’m not with you in like fifteen minutes tops, then come and find me because I’ve gotten distracted,” I reply seriously.
Van grins, “You got it.”
I smile and then turn around and head back the way we came while the guys disappear down the hallway that leads to the portal.
I decide that since I’ve taken a detour anyway, and I have to walk past the kitchen to get to the basement, that now would actually be a good time to ask Ethel.
Who knows when I’ll remember to do it otherwise.
“I thought you had left, dear?” Ethel asks as soon as I step back into the kitchen.
“I did, I just had a quick question, and wanted to ask you before I forgot,” I explain.
“I will answer it to the best of my ability,” she replies.
I smile, that’s a fancy, Ethel way of saying that she won't necessarily answer my question.
“How long has Zephyr been stuck in the basement?”
“He is there of his own free will, and for his safety,” Ethel replies. Reconfirming what she has already said. Before I can say anything else, or ask the question again, she continues, “He hasn’t been here for that long. He arrived just before your last visit.”
Huh, that’s not what I thought she was going to say.
“Thanks, Ethel. I’ll see you soon,” I say as I head toward the door and my original destination.
“Be safe,” she calls out after me.
“I always try,” I reply.
It’s the best I can do. I can’t promise anything.
I stop outside the wall where the basement door appears.
“Zephyr, I still don’t know if you can hear me when I talk to you like this, or if House is the only one that can, but I wanted you to know that I’m really sorry about what I said last night, I didn’t mean to offend you,” I start, and then jump as something nudges my foot, I grin as I scoop up Bitey, “Hey, Buddy, I wondered where you got to I haven’t seen you since last night either. ”
Bitey nudges my hand and asks for pets. I think he’s more of an occasionally we see him kind of creature, rather than a creature who is under our feet all the time. I guess, although he behaves like a dog, he has the ‘leave me alone unless I decide I want attention’ attitude of a cat.
He wriggles, and I put him down again, trying not to laugh as he does his weird shuffle run back down the hallway. Fuck knows where he keeps disappearing off to, but he’s obviously happy, and that’s all that really matters to me.
I turn my attention back to the wall. There’s been no response from Zephyr, so he’s either mad at me, can’t hear me, or asleep.
Still, I feel the need to try one more time. “I also wanted to let you know that we’re going to be gone for a few days, but we will be back soon. I didn’t want you to think that we’d just up and leave you without saying goodbye.”
I wait for a few minutes for a response, but I still don’t get one, and we really do need to get going. Sighing, I turn back around, and I head in the direction of the kitchen and Ethel again.
“I thought you had already gone again, dear?” Ethel asks the moment that I walk into the kitchen.
“I did. I didn’t want Zephyr to think that we had gone for a long time and hadn’t said goodbye or something,” I explain, and she hums in response. I have no idea what that hum means, so I simply carry on talking, “Do you know where I can find a pen and a piece of paper?”
A drawer to the left of me opens, and Ethel says, “You’ll find what you need in there. I’ll let Zephyr know that you’ve written him a note.”
“Thank you,” I say gratefully.
I quickly write out a note, saying what I said to the wall, and telling him where we’re going. I’m not sure why it doesn’t feel odd that I want him to know where we are, and most importantly, I want him to know that we’re coming back.
It’s really important to me that he doesn’t think that we’ve abandoned him.
I do really want him to hang out with us more, but I couldn’t ask him that last night because I was too busy embarrassing myself to ask him. So I add that into the note too.
It still seems weird to just leave him.
“Ethel, will you make sure that Zephyr doesn’t feel too alone?” I ask her, sounding unsure in the request.
There’s surprise in her tone as she replies, “Yes, of course. I’m sure House and I can come up with some things to keep him occupied.
He’s quite good at poker, and we haven’t had a game for a while.
He gets rather absorbed in his predicament and trying to find a way to fix it.
It would be nice not to risk opening the basement in order to have a game, but since he can now apparently come up here, it will be a nice change.
It’s been a good few years since we’ve had a game. ”
The kitchen cupboards open and close, which I’m going to assume means that House is happy to help, too.
“So he was here before I was then, but I thought you said that he hasn’t been in the basement for that long. Didn’t you also say that he’s only been able to come out of the basement recently? Is that because Ransom put the wards up, or could he literally not leave the basement?”
“I cannot tell you,” Ethel replies simply. “I can tell you that I knew him before he was using our basement as a refuge.”
Well, at least that kind of explains the poker comment.
“Yeah, I figured,” I say, and then, because I feel like I’m feeling too much when it comes to this situation, I don’t ask her anything else about Zephyr despite my burning curiosity, and instead say, “I’ll see you when we get back, Ethel, House.
Send the portal for us if something happens here and you need us back.
I’m assuming that you guys can do that?”
“Yes, we can. I’m sure that we will be fine,” she reassures me. “Have fun.”
As I leave the kitchen, I wonder if Zephyr himself would fill me in on the particulars of his situation, but considering I offended him yesterday, I think it’s going to be a while before I can ask him something like that.
I have no idea how long I’ve taken, but no one has come for me, so it can’t have been fifteen minutes.
Just in case, I jog to the other side of the house where the portal room is.
I’m ready to head to Scotland. Hopefully, I’m not going to embarrass myself there, although the chances of me not embarrassing myself are pretty slim to be fair.
The Voices murmur in agreement.
Assholes.
“Hey, is everything okay?” River asks as I rush through the door to the portal room.
“Yep, all good,” I grin. “Let’s go.”
“I checked the weather forecast, it’s pretty fucking cold, and it’s going to be snowing, we’ve got a bit of trek before we get to the point where we can cross over into clan lands, so I would suggest that everyone wraps up warm,” Griff tells everyone.
“There’s a room down this hallway that’s full of winter jackets and shit, right?” River asks.
Doc nods, “Yeah, come on. Let’s see what we can find. I’m relatively sure that since it’s House, there will be things in our sizes.”
Thankfully, he’s right, and we’re soon all wrapped up like burritos. I’m actually almost too hot, which I suppose makes sense since we’re still inside.
“Alright, let's hurry up and get through the portal. I’m sweating,” River grumbles, echoing my thoughts, as he pulls at his collar.
To be fair, he hates wearing clothes at the best of times. I can only imagine that bulky jackets really do piss him off.
“So it just works like a normal portal?” I ask as I stare at the swirling vortex before me.
“Kind of,” Raiden replies. “It’s different in the sense that we don’t have to calibrate it before we want to go anywhere, which tends to be a lengthy process.
We just have to say where we want to go and then step through it.
It’s also different because we can call it back to us to bring us home.
As far as I can tell, it can appear anywhere, in any of the realms. Except of course, Trieneliea, I got curious and tried it. It doesn’t work.”
I grin. Trust Raiden’s brain to immediately go to whether or not it could take us to Trieneliea and actually try it.
“Let’s go already,” River says, shifting from foot to foot. He’s already wearing fewer layers than the rest of us, choosing to only wear a t-shirt and a jacket and not adding a sweater, a scarf, gloves, or anything else really.
Raiden grins and steps up to the portal, “Just copy me.”
I watch, making sure I’m paying close attention, so I don’t end up completely in the wrong place. Raiden says the name of the road that Griff told us is the closest point that we can use to portal into, and then simply steps into the swirling vortex and disappears.
I hope no one happens to be driving down the road that we’re portaling onto right now because Raiden appearing out of nowhere would have just scared the shit out of them.
River practically runs through the portal, shouting the road name as he goes and making me shake my head at the pure chaos of it. After that, we all head through pretty quickly. Baz walks through like he’s walked through thousands of portals, and to be honest, he very well could have.
I know a little bit about what it’s like not to remember anything about a portion of your life, but I only don't remember anything before I was five, and to be honest, there are probably quite a few people who don’t remember anything, or at least remember very little, from before they were five.
I can’t imagine how frustrating it is not to remember anything for decades of your life.
“Fucking hell, it is cold,” Reed mutters as we all gather on the side of the thankfully deserted road.
“Snow,” I mutter in awe.
I love snow, I always have. I like the way that it quiets the landscape. How everything feels softer, gentler.
It’s magical, and by far one of my most favorite types of weather.
Of course, it probably helps that I have never minded being snowed in for any length of time, because I have always preferred isolation over anything else. Now my isolation includes the guys.
Is it technically still isolation if there are people with you?
I’m pretty sure it is because we’re isolated from everyone else.
“So how far do we have to head down this road?” Baz asks as he pulls his jacket tighter around himself.
Griff winces, “We’re not going down the road. We’re heading that way.”
“You mean we’re heading across the vast and snow-covered wilderness into what looks like absolute nothingness?” Van asks, his eyebrow raised slightly.
Griff nods, “Yes.”
“Awesome,” Coen grins.
Coen has never been one to shy away from an adventure. If anything, he prefers to run headfirst into it. It’s quite honestly one of the things I love most about him, that and when he gets all growly with me.
That’s hot.
“How far do we need to walk?” Doc asks, giving a golden-eyed raised eyebrow look as he picks up that I’m turned on, I simply shrug and wink at him, making him smile as we start to head in the direction that Griff leads us.
“Probably about five miles,” Griff replies.
Doc nods, “Okay, not too far then. How long have we got until nightfall? I imagine that it’s going to get even colder when the sun sets.”
“From what I’ve read and researched, I think we’ve got enough time to walk there,” Raiden says, looking at Griff to confirm.
Griff nods, “Yeah, I think we should get there with about an hour to spare.”
“Can we fly?” Coen asks as we trudge through the snow. “Don’t get me wrong, I love the snow, but it would be so much quicker to fly.”
Thankfully, the snow is not too deep, but it is deep enough to hinder our progress and slow us down. I look around at the others. Alright, I take that back, it’s deep enough to hinder and slow me down because I have considerably smaller legs than the guys. Well, that’s not fair.
The Voices snicker.
“We can’t fly or use any magic because they’ll detect it before we get to their border, and then we risk having to defend ourselves, and I would rather that we didn’t have to do that.
It could take a few moments for them to realize who I am, and I don’t want to risk someone getting hurt before that can happen,” Griff explains.
“Got it,” Coen replies. “I guess walking it is. At least it’s not raining, the snow is pretty even if it is cold.”
“Please don’t jynx it,” I groan.
River grins, “Don’t worry, beautiful, it’s too cold to rain.”