Chapter 31 #4
“Aasta says bottle him,” Marty gasped again as she used the staff to keep from falling. “I can’t hold…him…”
And then Thoth twisted his mind through the gaps of Marty’s field and escaped.
Marty cried out in pain when a wave of glittering presence pulled from the blackness rolling about the pavers. Two shadows unfurled, one limping and broken, the other having a sparking stillness. “No,” Marty sobbed, and Lev grabbed her, keeping her from running to Aasta.
Something prickled over me, icy and cold. You will not ruin us again…
I shuddered at the rasping cold spiraling through me, the simple words ringing both in my ears and in my thoughts.
It was Aasta. It had to be. This presence carried despair where Pluck had hope, guilt where Pluck had companionship, and my shadow sidled closer to me, his worry twining in mine as a hazy shape billowed up behind Marty, enveloping her and eddying in a protective cloud.
It is Aasta, fizzed in my mind, Pluck’s shock eliciting a flicker of amused chagrin from the shadow in question as the familiar shape of my onetime mentor coalesced before Marty.
Not only was it Aasta’s words that reached me, but I could sense her emotions as well, her presence zigzagging through mine with a painful harshness compared to Pluck’s gentle fizzing.
How…I thought, my confusion twining with Aasta’s guarded hope. “How can I hear her as well?”
“Because you are not shadow or weaver,” Pluck said, his familiar fizzing stronger than the rest. “You’re something more, something that can hear the universe echo in all shadows.”
He was right. I could hear it echoing in both Pluck and Aasta—and as I gripped my lodestone, the beginnings of an idea began to take form.
One weaver, one field. That had been the norm.
But I wasn’t normal anymore, and I could hear the universe echo in both Aasta and Pluck.
A field created from the echo of two shadows would be twice as thick, twice as tight.
It might be strong enough to hold Thoth.
We could catch him, not in a bottle that could be opened, but in moldavite. If we could hold him there long enough for someone to break the stone, he would never coalesce again.
Pluck’s fear flashed through me as my idea melted into Aasta’s mind as well, a haze of warning until Aasta smothered it in a rasping demand. We would do it.
But we’d have to catch him first.
“Pluck! Aasta! A field!” I shouted. Inhaling, I brought forth a mass of dark matter between my hands.
A trill of sensation rippled through me as first Pluck wove his presence through the weft of dark matter, and then Aasta.
I heard the universe singing through them both as the field formed and Pluck pulled it from me, throwing it at Thoth.
It settled over him and sank in, snaring him.
Again. The thought might as well have been from the universe itself as Pluck put his entire will behind it. I inhaled to bring more threads of dark matter into existence to strengthen it, and both Pluck’s and Aasta’s thoughts wove within mine, making a field even Thoth couldn’t slip through.
Smaller, Pluck thought. Tell Aasta we have him. Make him smaller.
But Aasta could hear him through me, and the field holding Thoth began to shrink.
Nooo! The howl dug at all three of us, gouging great rents in our wills as Pluck and Aasta spun the snare tighter, smaller, thicker, working together to keep him from taking solid form and breaking free again.
Heady with an old anger, Pluck’s thoughts twined with mine.
Aasta’s guilt and frustration swirled through us both as we dropped all three of our thoughts into the stone, dragging Thoth’s with us.
Ice froze my fingers as dark matter poured through me, singing with the echo of the universe, stunning me with the depth of time.
The angry knot of Thoth’s mind tried to escape the sparkling lattice, yanked back by Pluck’s and my determination and Aasta’s guilt-ridden resolve. Together, our thoughts held him.
We have him, Pluck fizzed, his thoughts garbled and rent from Thoth’s anger as the shadow rebelled, agony thundering in my head as Thoth turned a great glittering eye of hate to me. Petra, get out! Hold the net from the outside as I break the stone. You must leave!
But I didn’t know how, and I groaned, feeling myself pulled inside out as Thoth latched on to my thoughts and drew me deeper into the stone with him.
Tell them to let me go, or I will rend you for eternity! Thoth raged.
I shuddered, my psyche curling in on itself.
I was somehow both trapped within the stone and standing upon the pavers, holding it.
He had possessed me, and I could do nothing as Thoth gouged at my will, leaving it bleeding but not broken.
Outside of myself, I could feel my hands shake as I held the moldavite so hard that the edges bit deep and blood smeared the brilliant black stone.
“Petra, let go.”
The low, comforting voice was familiar, and I looked up to see Pluck’s angular face, green eyes fixed to mine. “I can’t,” I rasped, and he smiled, fingers prying at mine as he took the stone from me. “If I let go of the dark matter, the field will fall and he will escape.”
Let go of your thoughts from the stone, not your hold on the universe, he thought.
Phase. Move your thoughts from the stone.
Your mind is not in the stone, only your thoughts.
You are already outside it. You only need to phase your perceptions of reality out between the spaces of the stone’s reality.
How…
A comforting, warm presence wove through me, suffusing my entire being. Phase your thoughts through the mass of the stone, Pluck said, twisting my thoughts sideways and inside out.
She cannot! Noooo! raged in the back of my mind as Pluck shifted my thoughts.
I couldn’t tell what to let go of, but Pluck I trusted, and I felt tears of agony start at the corners of my eyes as Thoth raked his anger and frustration through my mind until with a ping, everything tilted sideways and my thoughts were free from the stone.
“Now!” Cameron shouted, and I gasped, suddenly falling. My butt hit the stone tile and a wave of dross billowed up and away, burning until it evaporated.
I blinked, staring up at Pluck standing above me. In his grip, my amulet glowed a black so deep I could not focus on it. Satisfaction poured from Pluck, flooding my mind and filling the gouges.
Finish it. The words iced through my mind with the painful grip of an ice cream headache.
It was Aasta, the shadow’s thoughts raspy and harsh as she stood beside Marty.
The weaver held one of my dad’s sticks in a death grip, her eyes wide as if she was unsure we were safe.
And as I saw my moldavite lodestone in Pluck’s grasp, I wasn’t sure, either.
It was hazing at the edges. Shadow spit, it was starting to vibrate, a high-pitched whine coming from it as Pluck’s fingers grew indistinct, phasing in and out as if trying to match some harmonic.
Or alter one, I thought as Pluck’s grip clenched, his fingers phasing right through the stone until the vibration peaked—and the stone shattered to dust, taking Thoth with it.
“Hey!” Dana yelled, her voice echoing off the walls of the garden, and Pluck eyed her as he blew the last of the dust from his hand. “What did you do that for! Damn it all to hell, he needed to account for what he did!”
“He did,” Pluck said, infuriating her even more. It was death to the immortal. Thoth could never coalesce again, divided into millions of shards of glass dust that were already scattering to the wind.
“Huzzah!” Lev shouted, and Cameron jumped, clearly startled since she gave him a smack. “We got him!” the man exclaimed, undeterred as he grabbed the marshal’s hands and swung her around in a big swirl much to the disgust of Dana, who had to lurch out of their way.
“Is it over?” I said as Benedict extended a hand, his fingers lovingly gentle as he pulled me to my feet. My voice sounded as it always did, but I felt as if I were someone else.
“Seems so.” Benedict’s arm went around my waist, and I leaned into him. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“Maybe,” I said, watching Herm scoop up the broken pieces of my dad’s stick. “Aasta’s thoughts are giving me a headache.”
Apologies, the shadow rasped, making it worse. Marty was with her, and the shadow’s disbelief that Thoth was gone was slowly evaporating into a joyous understanding.
“I’m so sorry,” Cameron said, her annoyance at Lev’s exuberant howl evolving into a smile. “Thoth is gone, right?” she asked, clearly not sure, and Pluck nodded.
Herm harrumphed as he came closer and handed me the broken stick. “And we have a new weaver/shadow pair,” he said, gaze going to Aasta and Marty. Dana was talking to them, and Cameron frowned.
“Excuse me,” Cameron said as she rocked into motion. “That woman would blame God for too much sunshine.”
Herm chuckled. Giving me a respectful nod, he followed Cameron to congratulate Marty and Aasta.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Benedict tugged me into him, and my eyes closed as I soaked in his warmth.
“Ask me tomorrow,” I said, and he chuckled. The reddish wood felt odd under my fingers, sort of spongy. Frowning, I squinted at it, eyes widening when I realized my fingers had sunk halfway into it. Something was wrong with the wood!
The wood is fine, fizzed through me, and my gaze shot to Pluck. The shadow shrugged, embarrassed, and my lips parted. It wasn’t the stick that was spongy. It was my fingers. They were phasing. They were half in, half out of reality.
I stiffened, the motion catching Benedict’s attention. “What’s wrong?”
“Um…” I stammered, gaze going to Pluck. He had shown me how to phase my thoughts to get them out of the moldavite. And now my fingers were phasing for real?
Ah, sorry? fizzed through me, and my heart thudded. They were solid again, but what if it kept happening?
Beaming, Lev gave my shoulder a hard whack. “Well, you did it, Grady,” he said, ignoring Pluck’s dark glare. “You got your new weaver/shadow pair. How come you always have to do everything the hard way?”
Herm laughed, and I slipped my arm around Benedict, leaning on him as we all started for the gate. “At least this time she didn’t blow up a building,” he muttered.
“Or a military base,” Lev added. “Flood the city with ten years’ worth of dross. Upend the status quo.”
Pluck hazed at my side, making my ankle cold.
His thoughts, though, were at peace, and the sensation was better than having sipped tequila all day.
I felt good, even if I was likely going to have to play buffer between Marty, Aasta, and Dana.
“Benedict, I would knock my own mother down for a coffee.”
Silent, Benedict slipped an arm around my shoulders. He sighed, his entire body melting into mine. “Coffee sounds good.” He looked up. “Herm? Marty?”
“Hell yes!” Lev exclaimed, and together we walked out of the garden and into whatever came next.