17. An Enlightened Homecoming
SEVENTEEN
AN ENLIGHTENED HOMECOMING
Under the canopy of stars, across oceans and continents, there is an invisible network imbued with ancient earth magic. Ley lines make up the hidden map that traverses the earth, connecting people and places to time and the tides.
Only a few magical creatures possess the ability to navigate between the lines. Their gifts allow them to travel vast distances with speed and unerring precision. It might not surprise you to learn that their skills are always strongest when they are journeying home.
–EXCERPT FROM THE MUDPUDDLE MANUAL OF NATURAL MAGIC
Maida dozed in her seat. She was comfortably reclined and swaddled in a fleece blanket with her seatbelt on. Outside the tinted windows of the luxury passenger van, the world sped by. Her lids fluttered open and promptly shut again.
She saw the outlines of two men sitting in similar seats in front of her. But Maida’s mouth was too dry to call out to them, and her brain felt too scrambled to form coherent words.
“She’s waking up,” one of the men said. She rubbed her eyes, willing them to focus.
The men swiveled their seats to face her. From the look on their faces, they were worried.
She recognized Will Porter first. He was wearing the same colorful jacket as the last time she’d seen him, at The Bunny Hole. When had that been? Or had she just dreamed it?
She hadn’t seen Dr. Dvita in a very long time. He had been her pediatrician. She’d been sick so often as a child, he’d moved into their house.
This has to be a dream.
Maida turned her head to gaze out at the countryside streaming by. All the reds and greens and yellows of the autumn trees melted into one long variegated band, like a colorful marbled ribbon. She imagined the landscape would taste like a caramel apple if she could stick out her tongue and lick it.
“I told her to close her eyes,” Will said. “She put up quite a fight.” His voice echoed too loud inside her head. Maida placed her hands over her ears and closed her eyes again, wishing she could wake up from this strange dream. She had plants to re-pot.
A moment later, they turned off the highway. The woodland colors faded to the spongy blues and grays of sea and sky. Maida glimpsed familiar signs by the side of the road. Places she knew from her childhood. She closed her eyes again.
“Porting can be a shock to the system, even when someone is completely prepared for it,” Dr. Dvita said. “Let’s give her more time to recover.”
What was Dr. Dvita doing in her dream? Not that she minded. She’d been fond of the short, pudgy man. He always dressed in white, which suited his egg-like roundness. She’d dubbed him Dr. Dumpty. He had such a reassuring presence.
The doctor looked exactly as she recalled him, from his white lab coat, to the smoky-lensed glasses resting just below the bridge of his nose. She smiled groggily at him.
“There you are! Good afternoon, Miss Maida. Welcome home,” the doctor said. He leaned forward to check her pulse and handed her a chilled bottle of water.
“Will Porter was just catching me up on everything that has transpired in Primrose Court and California over the past few days. I should have liked to have tried the donuts at that shop in Laguna.”
Maida bolted upright. She remembered. She wasn’t dreaming after all.
Her eyes filled with cold fire as she glared at Will. “What the Hecate, Will? What were you thinking? You kidnapped me!”
He winced.
“I know. I’m sorry. We needed to get you somewhere safer. Whoever broke into your apartment won’t give up that easily. They must know about your connection to the Mudpuddle.” Will glanced at the locket. “Your father’s house has wards.”
“And by wards, do you actually mean private security guards and surveillance equipment?”
Maida felt for the locket on her chest. Sure enough, it was still nestled there, pressing its warmth into her like a pet. She could almost feel the house’s heartbeat as she stroked it.
Will must have drugged her. She was still hallucinating. There was no other explanation.
“I’m sorry I have to ask this, but how much of our conversation from The Bunny Hole do you remember? Do you feel okay?” Will reached into a large paper takeout bag and pulled out a fistful of French fries. He shoved seven of them into his mouth and turned to the doctor for some reassurance.
“Short term amnesia is a common side effect of porting,” the doctor confirmed, cheerfully. “Perfectly harmless. Not to worry!”
Maida considered the question. Her head still felt fuzzy. “I recall you saying something about showing versus telling. Then I must have blacked out,” she guessed. “What time is it? How long have we been in Boston? And why is the doctor here?”
Will, on his second fistful of fries, held up his pocket watch while he finished chewing. “We left The Bunny Hole almost fifteen minutes ago. I had my driver pick the doctor up just in case you suffered any ill effects from porting.”
“That’s impossible! It can’t have only been fifteen minutes.” Maida checked her watch, which was not synced with local time, but it agreed with Will’s assertion.
“That’s what I meant by showing you!” Will said. “I’m a porter. I can open portals between places and carry others through with me. It’s my magical talent, if you will.”
“Will’s gift is exceptionally rare,” Dr. Dvita confirmed. “There can’t be more than a dozen other fae porters like him.”
“Fae? As in fairy?” Her mouth was hanging open. She glanced back at the doctor.
Dr. Dvita nodded indulgently.
Will fished a sandwich out of the bag next. He devoured it in less than three bites. “Excuse me for being such a glutton. Porting uses up an incredible amount of energy. I need to eat a ton to regain my strength.” He stifled a burp. “I really wish I had those donuts right now.”
“You’re fae…” Maida couldn’t help but notice Will’s ears. She’d always thought they were a little pointy. But that could be a coincidence. Was she stereotyping?
“Only half fae.” Will polished off the rest of his French fries. “Who knows what else. I’m a proper magical mutt.”
“Don’t worry, dear.” The doctor smiled reassuringly.
“I know it all seems absurd right now, but it’s early days.
You’ve only just been granted enlightenment.
In another day or two, magic will seem perfectly natural.
The magical mind’s ability to expand and embrace the true nature of the world is nothing short of a miracle. ”
Maida gulped some water and attempted to assimilate all this new information.
The oddest thing about it was that it wasn’t all that difficult.
On some level, she had always known magic was real, hadn’t she?
She just hadn’t known to what extent. She’d felt obliged to question it.
Questioning magic was a given. It’s what you do.
Will eyed her with suspicion. “Why aren’t you freaking out more?”
Maida shrugged. “What would be the point?”
“Hang on a minute…” Will pulled out his camera and handed it to the doctor. “Take a picture of us? I want to record the moment. Arthur was so wrong. He was sure you’d be bound for Bedlam in a wheelbarrow if we told you the truth.”
“Where is Arthur?” Maida stared at Will accusingly. “Is he still at the donut shop? You didn’t just leave him sitting there alone, did you?”
“I bought some donuts to tide him over and left a flight voucher for him,” Will said, somewhat defensively. “He’ll be back by tomorrow morning. I got him booked on a red-eye.”
“Why would you make him take a red-eye?” Maida looked horrified.
“It was the best I could do on such short notice! I pay out of pocket for the flight vouchers, I’ll have you know.” Will pouted.
“You couldn’t have brought him back here at the same time?” Maida hated the thought of the solicitor just sitting there, all alone, waiting for them. How long had he waited before realizing they were gone?
“I’m not strong enough to carry two passengers at once.” Will foraged in the console beside his seat for a bag of jelly beans and a candy bar. “Especially when one of them is a massive stag shifter the likes of Arthur Hart. What if he accidentally shifted en route?”
Stag shifter? Had Will just said those words. What did that even mean?
“Speaking of shifters…Can we talk about the elephant in the room?” Will wrinkled his nose as he picked the black jelly beans out of the bag.
“What?” The doctor looked worriedly at Maida. “You don’t mean to say that she is an elephant shifter? Why didn’t you say sooner! Perhaps we should pull over?”
“I didn’t mean elephant like that.” Will rolled his eyes.
“The elephant in the room is that Maida’s not an elephant shifter, or any kind of shifter so far as I can tell.
But I don’t think she’s a witch either. Yet she clearly has come into her magic.
Look at that aura of hers! I’m just not so sure exactly what her magic is. ”
“Does it matter?” Dr. Dvita asked.
“I should think so.” Will raised an eyebrow. “How will she figure out what she can do, if she doesn’t even know what she is?”
“How long did it take you to figure out you were a porter, Will?” Dr. Dvita asked.
Will pursed his lips. “Years,” he finally admitted.
“She’ll do just fine.” Dr. Dvita patted the back of Maida’s hand. “I’ve always suspected that if and when your magic manifested, it would be something really special. Just like you.”
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” Maida felt her cheeks growing warm. “I can’t open portals or morph into an animal form. There’s nothing particularly magical about me.”
But even as she said it, she remembered the way she’d been reading minds, and how lucky she always got at thrift stores and tag sales. Whatever she was looking for, just seemed to turn up.
Good luck locating a four slice used toaster hardly seemed to be on the same par as porting.
“Try to think,” the doctor said. “Has anything unusual happened lately? Perhaps since you found that locket? Sometimes an object like that can be the catalyst.” He gestured to the necklace.
“Maybe…” Maida said, thinking about the frog in her bag now too. Had she been wrong to assume that was a coincidence?
Dr. Dvita curled back into his chair, tucking his head between his shoulders. She noticed the curious way he retracted his limbs and tucked himself in when he wasn’t speaking to anyone. Suddenly, she had a hunch.
“What kind of shifter are you, Dr. Dvita?” she questioned.
The doctor chortled. “What do you know? You’re catching on quickly!”
“Maida, it’s considered rude to ask someone like that,” Will muttered under his breath.
“I don’t mind, I don’t mind at all.” Dr. Dvita’s beady black eyes twinkled. “But I do think it would be better to show you than tell you.”
“Really?” Maida gulped. When she pictured a human turning into an animal, she imagined werewolves. In books and movies the metamorphosis was a painful process that involved flesh tearing and bones breaking. She had no interest in witnessing that. She was far too squeamish.
“It’s really no big deal.” The doctor removed his glasses and gave them a quick polish. “Just say the word. I’m happy to demonstrate.”
Maida glanced over at Will, who shrugged, nonchalantly.
“Okay then.” She nodded, gravely. She took a deep breath and folded her arms in front of herself, bracing for the demonstration.
“Relax, Mayday,” Will said, passing her a handful of jelly beans. “It’s not scary. It’s kind of cool, actually. Just watch.”
She wasn’t even sure of the exact moment that it began.
Much to her relief, the doctor’s transformation did not involve any agonizing undulations.
There wasn’t a single shout of pain. Time just seemed indefinite for an instant, the way it always does in the last few moments of a sunset when the sun sits on the horizon.
One moment, Dr. Dvita, the man, was sitting across from her in the van.
The next moment, the air around him began to crackle and pixelate.
With a barely audible poof, he dissolved into a million tiny pieces.
Molecules. Atoms. Possibly smaller. For an instant, all his energy simply hung there, suspended in the air.
It shone in the flashes of dappled sunshine that strobed through the windows of the moving van.
“How is it possible that I can still see his smile?” Maida exclaimed.
“It’s because he’s shifting in slow motion. He’s showing off for you. Not many shifters have as much control as the old doc.” Will stuffed a candy bar in his mouth.
Without warning, the doctor’s particles began to move in chaotic clouds. He came apart and flew back together again. His essence dipped and bobbed overhead, buzzing like a swarm of bees. With another poof, they vanished.
“Where did he go?” Maida asked, breathlessly.
“He’s right there.” Will pointed at the large tortoise that was now taking up the doctor’s seat. The thick-shelled creature sat snuggled in the doctor’s coat. Most comically, he had the doctor’s smoke colored glasses balanced on the end of his beak.
Maida blinked at him, and he blinked back at her.
She looked from the tortoise to Will and back at the tortoise. She repeated this process a half dozen times before the doctor effortlessly shifted back into his human form.
“Thank you for showing me that, Dr. Dvita,” she said.
Now she truly believed. Magic was real. Whatever lingering doubts that might have still been ailing her, the doctor had cured.