a/n: Writer's block.
Disclaimer: Nope.
Title: where even saints
Words: 549
Summary: There goes the neighborhood. Circa-SYWTBAW.
"Huh." Tom leaned against the doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched Nita, Kit and a pale smudge of light go down the street to continue their ordeal. "I was wondering when we'll be getting any in the neighborhood."
Carl, sitting by the table with a number of books out, made a sound to show he was paying attention. He flipped through several pages of his copy of Eretz something or other, stopping every few lines to confer with his manual that had gained another inch in width since their meeting with the kids had started. "Where did he get the sapphires…" Carl looked at the black star sapphires that now sat in a nice wicker basket on the table. They sparkled lovingly in the midday light.
"Were we ever that short?" Tom wondered. He closed the door and nudged Annie away with his knee. She'd been discretely trying to make an escape. "No, you've already terrorized Ms. Clancy's cat enough for today.
"And that car!" Carl dove further into his research. "How are we going to put that back?"
Peach landed on the discarded stack of last year's Cosmopolitan. "With magic," she cackled.
Without looking, Carl expertly thumped the side of Peach's beak. She took off in the air and circled around his head, cawing about needing a union representative.
"That won't be the only thing you'll be needing if this all goes wrong…" Tom muttered. His earlier cheer evaporated and a chill went down his spine. But if the Powers think the kids can handle It, thought the part of him that had spent the last two decades learning the Art. But they are kids! argued the human part of him, the Advisor who had seen children with hope in their eyes willingly walk to their deaths. Always the children…
But you were also a child when you took the Oath. He remembered being twelve and feeling the first rush of slipping between the cracks in space and time, wielding the words of the Universe on his clumsy tongue at threatening shadows. It had felt like a game until it wasn't anymore.
Tom sighed and he ran a hand over his face. "I'll start contacting others for the meeting." He took a seat next to Carl, and opened his manual, mentally checking the power levels in the area, and what local circumstances could mess up any personal translocators or worldgates. Messages sparked to life on the pages as he alerted the other Advisors.
"Bit nice," Carl said absentmindedly, "to have some in the neighborhood." Parallel ring of glowing Speech surrounded the bowl of sapphires. There was a small 'oomph' of displaced air as they were returned to their original spot. "Would be nicer if the Universe wasn't in danger of some kind, but that's how it always is."
Peach landed on his head in a dramatic swoop. "The children are our future."
Carl raised his eyebrows. "Was that a premonition or the obvious?"
Peach regarded him with a solemn air. "Depends on the raise."
"And the kids?" Tom asked. "What of their futures?"
Carl touched the back of his hand. Peach hopped down to the table and she ruffled her scarlet-and-blue feathers imposingly. "I'm not a miracle worker, Thomas Swale, but the children are."