Disclaimer: Still don't own Carmilla (the series), or any recognizable characters.
Something was decidedly... off... about the Summer Society House.
It was hard to say what had first tipped her off to that, but by the time they reached the fourth floor of what Laura was sure had only been a two-story structure from outside, she was certain of it. "Uh, Danny...?"
She was pretty sure she saw the redhead wince slightly. "I know. Just... Not here. Not yet. Okay?"
"I guess..." Just as long as there would be an explanation at some point. There were so many things going on, so many mysteries, so many secrets... She just wanted something to be explained. Was that so much to ask?
The universe certainly was giving the impression that it was.
They emerged onto the fifth floor, this time from behind a painting. Laura took a moment to look at it, frowning. The Summer Society having a painting depicting a battle hanging on their wall wasn't exactly a surprise, if Danny was an accurate representation. That said battle was taking place between an oddly ethereal-looking man with delicately pointed ears wearing shining armor of silver and gold, and what she could only guess was a troll...? Well, that was. Her gaze lingered on the hideous beast, its slavering jaws frozen in a snarl of defiance as it tried to get around the curiously silvery sword - was it supposed to be made of something other than steel? - before she turned away, burying a shudder... not that she could have said why, aside from it was late and she was tired. "What's with all the fairy tale imagery?" she asked as she followed Danny down the hall. There were occasional pictures on the walls, but these seemed to be of past members. "I thought sororities went in for more Greek stuff."
"We're not exactly a sorority," Danny replied evenly, not looking back.
"You're not exactly an 'outdoor social club for all girls athletics', either," Laura shot back, which was what Danny had been happy to let her think they were.
Danny winced again, more obviously this time. "Well, we are that," she said slowly. "Just... not only that. Sorority's closer, but even that falls short." She stopped at a seemingly random door, opening it and taking a quick look inside before stepping in. "You'll have to excuse the mess; I wasn't expecting company."
Laura followed her in to find one of the most pristine bedrooms she'd ever seen. It was somewhat cramped, with little room to maneuver past the single twin bed, desk, bureau, and bookcase... but everything seemed to be neat and organized to her, with nothing on the floor. "...mess?"
"I planned on doing some cleaning tomorrow."
"I don't think anyone but Perry could find anything to clean in here," Laura told her, raising an eyebrow. "And remember whose roommate you're talking to, here." Living with Carmilla helped one understand exactly what a mess really looked like.
Danny laughed quietly. "True enough." She didn't relax at all until the door was closed behind them.
Laura noticed. "It is okay that I'm here, right?"
"Technically, we're not supposed to have visitors after 10 pm, but exceptions are always made for anyone who needs prot- uh, help."
It was her turn to wince, only partially due to the correction. "I just don't wanna get you in trouble..." She was also willing to concede that shielding someone from their undead roommate likely fell under the category of protection, no matter how she personally felt about the word.
Danny waved that off. "You won't."
"Good." There was a brief, awkward silence. "So... the painting?" she prompted.
"I think that was a donation from an alumni about... twenty, twenty-two years ago? Something like that, anyway."
"Ah." Well, that made some sense, at least. "Interesting choice, I guess."
"It's supposed to represent the conflict between Summer and Winter."
Lacking any better options, Laura sat down on the bed. "...okay?" She paused. "There aren't any winter-based groups on the campus, that I know of." Even the sports teams didn't seem to go in for any skiing or snowboarding, which was a bit odd, now that she thought about it.
"There aren't. We never would have allowed it."
She started. "What does that mean?"
Danny was silent for a long moment. "You should leave this alone, Laura," she finally said, quietly. "Dealing with the missing girls and Carmilla being what she is... That's got to be hard enough to wrap your mind around. Adding us to the list won't help at all."
There was another, longer silence as Laura stared intently at Danny, who was avoiding her gaze by staring out the window... which certainly seemed to be looking down at the yard from the second floor."No," she decided. "I want to know. All of this - the Summer Society - is important to you. So I want to understand it better."
Danny melted a little. "You may regret that," she warned, turning to face Laura.
"I might," she agreed. "But I'd definitely regret it if I never asked."
"...okay."
This silence stretched on until Laura realized she was going to have to break it herself. Alright, questions it was. "So...?"
Danny sighed. "There's one thing you're going to have to accept first, or there won't be any point in going on."
"That being?"
"Magic... is real."
Laura blinked. "What do you mean by that, exactly?"
"Just what it sounds like. Magic is real. Not the stage illusions of so-called magicians, not fantasy worlds like Harry Potter. Magic is energy, to be drawn in and shaped by the caster. More than that, though, there's an entire world that exists alongside the everyday life of mankind. Powers, nations, monsters, wars, feuds, alliances... everything. Vampires, faeries, werewolves, monsters... You name it. The Summer Society was established a long, long time ago to try and protect humanity from those threats, when we could." Her lips thinned, and an inwardly-directed anger seeped into her voice. "And we got so lost that all we could think of was competing with the dudebro Zetas."
"That's not your fault," Laura said instinctively. "And... wait. Established by whom?"
"We're gonna have to disagree on that point." Danny sighed. "I... can't answer that question."
She blinked. "You don't know?"
"No, I do. I mean I literally, physically cannot."
"What?"
Danny looked at her for a long moment, then, with a serious expression that didn't match her light tone, said, "Like I was saying, magic is real. One example would be a geas."
"A wh-?"
"G-e-a-s. A kind of magical compulsion, though that's something of an oversimplification. One hypothetical example would be, say, if I wanted to tell you anything about our founder, but was under a compulsion not to discuss it with anyone outside of the Society."
Her head was starting to hurt. "So... everyone in this hypothetical scenario would be jumping onboard blind?"
"Oh, they'd be warned about the limitations ahead of time, as well as what was expected of them. But it would also be quite rewarding, and offer them the chance to make a positive difference in the world. And, of course, those girls we find that have a magical heritage of their own are always encouraged to join, both for their own protection, and to have somewhere that they'd fit in, and could be themselves." She paused, then added, "Hypothetically."
"And... the Alchemy Club?"
"Oh, I can talk about them. Not that there's a lot to say. They're students and faculty that engage in alchemy." She shrugged. "The only noteworthy thing that they've done of late as far as I'm concerned is offering up the footage of the parties that tipped us off to Carmilla's involvement in the kidnappings."
"So... Is magic something everyone in the Summer Society can do?" There was a part of Laura - a small voice in the back of her mind - that couldn't believe this conversation was happening, let alone that she was sitting there, discussing it all so calmly. But as new as she was to Silas, she'd still seen enough weird to know that ignoring it was not a viable survival strategy, and her only chance was to arm herself with as much knowledge as she could.
Still, that part of her thoroughly sympathized with Perry and her desire for normality, at that moment.
"It's not a requirement, no."
"What about Elsie?"
Danny frowned thoughtfully, leaning against the wall. "She may possibly have had some potential within her," she said at length. "A lot of people do, and never realize it. Any ability she might have was never unlocked, though. Probably why she was targeted."
The ache in Laura's head was swiftly giving way to a dull throb. "I don't get it," she complained. "I thought the Summer Society was supposed to protect people, yet the kidnappings have been going on every twenty years for as long as there's been a Silas, if not longer."
"I know." And she was visibly unhappy about it. "That's what I was talking to Mel about when you arrived."
"Mel?"
"Our President."
"Oh." A pause. "So?"
"So... Like I said, there are powers out there, in the supernatural world. Treaties. Evidently, in exchange for establishing this... outpost, for lack of a better term, as well as our protection efforts being unhindered, our founder agreed to look the other way when it came to the abduction cycle. Only she - or a duly authorized representative - would be able to change that, and give us permission to act." Her gaze fell to the floor. "And she's been gone for so long..." Danny said quietly, the sadness and deeply pained longing for something she'd never known filling her voice.
She sounded so forlorn that Laura needed a moment before she could speak. "But you've been helping me," she pointed out.
"Research. Investigating." Danny shook her head, still looking at the floor. "Not the same at all. And if we did find out anything, or figure out where they'd been taken to... If I tried to fight them anyway, it would... end badly."
"But... Our plot to trap Carmilla...?"
"That would be to protect you. Provided I don't try to step outside of those limitations, I'll be fine."
She rubbed her forehead. "But-"
"Laura," Danny interrupted, "you need to get some sleep. We can talk more in the morning."
Sleep sounded so appealing just then... "What about you?" she protested weakly, unable to resist when Danny came forward and prompted her to lay down. She didn't even bother undressing beyond kicking off her shoes.
"I'll be fine," Danny assured her, then gave her a kiss on the forehead. Judging by the lack of new pain, that was allowed. "Sleep, now."
Laura wanted to ask about the sudden pain that had interrupted their last kisses, really she did. However, no sooner had her head touched the pillow than she was falling asleep. She barely even registered the blanket being pulled up over her. She simply snuggled into the comfortable sheets, finally, blessedly, getting some much needed sleep.
For all of maybe ten minutes.
She wasn't sure what had woken her up, and certainly there wasn't a part of her that wanted to be awake, just then. Nevertheless, she was. Before she could just shut her eyes again and go back to sleep - and she really wanted to - she became aware of a soft golden glow in the room. Struggling to focus - her still aching head was not helping with this - she finally noticed a tiny ball of light hovering several feet above the bed. And... was there a tiny little person in there? She managed to sit up for a closer look.
It promptly zipped away from the bed, taking up a position near the door.
She really, really just wanted to lay down and go back to sleep. Was she that curious about this possible hallucination?
She sighed. Who was she kidding? Of course she was.
With a groan, she slipped out of bed, barely remembering to put her shoes back on, and staggered toward the ball of light.
Which abruptly darted away again, zipping through the door.
"Oh, come on..." she whined. This was so not fair. What was that thing?
...unfortunately, that just raised her curiosity even higher. She sighed, opened the door, and followed it.
The golden ball lead her back to the staircase and down two floors - she was willing to bet that any windows would still be looking out the second floor, as seen from the outside - and down another hallway. She was too exhausted to take in any details - she could barely even remember what Danny's room had looked like - but when she got to the door at the end of the hall, that made her wake up just enough to take notice.
It was thicker than any other door she'd seen in the whole building, and far more ornate, with intricate silver filigree inlaid at the edges, especially on the corners. There was a golden rose in the center of the door, and holding her hand up to it, she could actually feel a humming energy within it. The door was also locked; indeed, the handle didn't move at all, even when she rested her whole weight on it. There may not have been an actual sign that said 'Authorized Personnel Only', but that was certainly the vibe she was getting from it.
Unfortunately, the golden ball had gone right through that door, too.
For a long moment, she just stood there staring at it, biting her lip as she debated whether or not to just go back to bed. There really wasn't any reason not to... aside from curiosity and stubbornness.
Goddammit.
"Um, please open up?" she said to the door. (She was tired enough that talking to a door didn't seem at all unusual.) "I need to get inside." Curious or not, the Summer Society was being nice enough to let her stay the night, if not longer, so she wasn't going to just force her way into any private areas, so if it didn't-
The door noiselessly swung open.
She stared at it in dull surprise until her sluggish brain registered that, yes, the door was now open. She stepped into the room, trying to find her target...
...and stopped when she noticed that, while the ball of light was nowhere to be found, Danny and another girl were, and they were both looking at her in surprise.
Not particularly happy surprise.
"Laura?" Danny asked, confused. "How did you...?"
"Where'd it go?" Laura countered, her voice thick with sleep enough that it took Danny a few seconds to understand what she'd asked.
"Where did what go?"
"The... thingie." When that didn't seem to clear anything up - though Laura felt she'd been perfectly clear - she added, "Little, golden, ball of light thingie?"
That was apparently enough. "A pixie," Danny said with a sigh. "Sorry about that. They sometimes get inside, and-"
"Yeah, whatever," the other girl interrupted harshly. She strode across the room, drawing Laura's attention before she could try and figure out just where she was, now, and stopped only a few feet away, crossing her arms and giving her a hostile glare. "How did you get in here?"
Laura shrugged, having no idea why that was such a big deal. "I said 'please'."
"The House opened the door for you?" Danny asked, sounding astounded. Upon receiving a blank stare in return, she realized, "You... have no idea what we're talking about at all, do you?" Laura wordlessly shook her head. "Of course not. Why would you?" Danny muttered to herself. "Mel-"
"This is not acceptable, Lawrence," Mel interrupted.
"There's also no point in getting angry with Laura when she was lured down here by a pixie and opened the door by being polite," Danny countered. "Does she look like any kind of threat?" She gestured toward Laura, who was swallowing a yawn as she looked sleepily from one corner of the ceiling to the other, trying to find the elusive pixie.
Mel stared at her for a long moment, then huffed out a sharp breath, hostility seeping out of her posture. "Even so, this presents us with a problem. This room is supposed to be secure. A pixie shouldn't even be able to get in here, let alone a random journalism student."
"It went through the doors."
Laura's words were unexpected enough that it took Danny a moment to process them. "What?"
"The... whatsit. Pixie. Whatever. It went through every door we came to." Giving up on trying to spot it near the ceiling, Laura started taking in the rest of the room.
It wasn't huge, maybe a little smaller than her dorm room (including the bathroom). There was a solid, circular wooden table in the middle, with four chairs. (She whimsically decided they were at compass points.) There was a dull, lifeless emerald-colored sphere sitting atop a four-foot tall marble pedestal, pressed up against the center of the far wall; it looked, to her, like a gazing ball that should be on someone's lawn. Above it, there was an oval weapon display, wooden with a red crushed velvet interior, with a golden, ornate-looking war hammer mounted there. That was it. She was just awake enough to wonder why it was such a big deal that such a fairly empty room be kept secure.
"That's... not possible," Danny objected. "Pixies can't do that."
"It did," Laura insisted stubbornly, trying to shake herself more awake. Enough so to at least focus on what was going on. I need sugar, she thought randomly, then pushed the thought aside. "You said it was a pixie."
That left Danny at a loss. She shot a helpless look at Mel. The Summer Society president frowned. "Are you telling me the truth?" she asked Laura.
The freshman was coherent enough now to realize that there was an odd cadence to Mel's question that her words hadn't had previously, and if she focused the way she had on the door... Sure enough, there it was, a light tension in the air, humming like the space between the tine of a tuning fork. "Yes, I'm telling you the truth," Laura said, trying not to feel insulted. The humming chime continued unabated. "Something woke me up, there was a tiny little ball of golden light hovering above me, and it just phased through all the doors or something as I followed it down here."
Mel stared at her for another long second, then settled back on her heels, looking troubled. The humming tension faded away. "It could have been a spell of some kind," she finally mused, still not sounding happy, but it was at least not directed at Laura, anymore. "To be able to get through the wards around this room, though... It would have to have been sent from someone pretty high up."
"And it wasn't either of us," Danny agreed. "Gail's not even in the building, anymore. Jenna hasn't gotten back from patrol, yet... Not to mention the question of why anyone would go to so much trouble."
Mel frowned pensively - Laura idly wondered what she would look like if she actually smiled for once - and slowly replied, "We may not be able to figure out 'why' without discovering 'who'... and to do that, we may need to learn 'how'." She sighed. "Who are you, Laura Hollis? And why are you here?"
Laura had no idea how to answer that. "If you mean here at Silas... I applied, and was accepted. For some reason, my school's guidance counselor was convinced this was the best fit for me." She shrugged. "Not that there were all that many colleges nearby to choose from..."
Mel stared at her intently for long enough to start making her nervous, then picked something up off the table that Laura hadn't noticed. "I wonder..." she mused absently.
Danny raised an eyebrow. "What are you thinking?"
"That she got a warded door to admit her by asking it nicely. There must be a reason." She held up the object in her hand, allowing Laura to finally get a good look at it: a translucent milky-white crystal, small enough to easily fit in the palm of her hand. It might have been moonstone.
It wasn't. Not unless moonstone could abruptly explode into brilliant white light when it came near a person. Mel hadn't even brought it within six feet when the glow became painfully bright, visible even through her closed eyelids. Laura was dimly aware of pained noises coming from the other girls, and the sound of the rock hitting the wall after being flung away.
It took a minute or so for everyone's vision to return to normal. If nothing else, Danny reflected dryly, Laura was almost certainly wide awake now. "And that was...?" the freshman in question demanded, grumbling.
"It's... part of the security system, I guess you could say." How much would she be able to get out before the geas clamped her lips shut? "It's configured to measure... potential." Which wasn't quite accurate, but she knew better than to try and explain their defenses in detail to someone who didn't belong.
"I think it's broken, then," Laura said, rubbing at her watering eyes and shooting the crystal an annoyed glare. She walked farther away from it - and consequently, further into the room - stopping near the gazing ball... or whatever it was. There was something...
"That's never happened before," Danny admitted. "Even when the Council's all together." Mel inhaled sharply, eyes wide.
"You've been saying that about a lot of things, tonight," Laura said distractedly, staring down at the green sphere in front of her as if trying to figure something out.
"That's true," Danny acknowledged, most of her attention given over to analyzing Mel's reaction to her words before. Just because she'd-
She froze.
She'd mentioned the Council. By name. Which she should not have been able to do. Not with an outsider, and Laura was not one of her sisters. Tentatively, expecting to be silenced at any moment, she added, "That was one tools left for us by the Queen."
Nothing. Not even a vague twinge.
She exchanged wide-eyed looks with Mel. "What the hell?" she whispered to the President, who could only shrug helplessly.
Laura wasn't listening. "What is this?" she asked absently, still looking down at the sphere.
"It helps control the building's defenses," Mel said slowly, which was also something they shouldn't have been able to tell her.
"It's... wrong," Laura said, frowning down at it.
"They've broken down in the Queen's absence," Danny said, struggling to understand. The defenses may have unraveled, but the geas never had.
"Not right..." The words were little more than a murmur. Seemingly without any conscious thought, her right hand drifted up to rest atop the sphere. "Be right," she commanded it sternly.
It may not have been the most grammatically correct sentence ever... but it was undeniably effective. There was an audible thrumming as the building nearly vibrated with energy, barriers and shields flaring to life in a way none present had ever seen before. In the space of a second, it went from practically inviting an invasion to being one of the most heavily structures on the planet.
Because Laura told it to.
She shook herself out of her trance to find Danny and Mel staring at her with twin looks of surprise on their faces. No, surprise fell short; this was pure, naked shock. "What?" she asked, starting to feel self-conscious. "What did I do?"
"You... How... What...?" Danny couldn't even string together a coherent sentence.
"How did you DO that?" Mel demanded. "No one's managed that in... well over a century."
"How did I do what?" She didn't have the slightest idea what anyone was talking about, and after the night she'd had, she was becoming agitated. "Make sense, dammit!" Was that really so much to ask? She sighed in frustration, shaking her head... and froze as she noticed something she hadn't been able to see from where she'd been earlier near the door. "What is that?" she asked through abruptly gritted teeth.
As utterly baffled as she was, Danny still had the wherewithal to follow her gaze toward the portrait hanging on the wall. "That's... our founder," she managed. "Queen-"
"No."
Danny blinked. "What-"
"No." Laura's fists clenched in sudden anger. "What are you trying to pull, here? I've been pretty patient with all the magical nonsense, but making that look like my dead mother? That is going way too far!"
"Your moth-" Mel couldn't even finish, shock making her actually choke on the word.
"It's... not an illusion, Laura," Danny said cautiously. "That's what it's always looked like."
"No!" She shook her head in denial, hair flying back and forth. "I don't believe you! My mother loved me; she wouldn't do that to me!" Before anyone could react, she ran out the suddenly open door and sprinted down the hall. After being frozen with shock for a few moments longer, Danny managed to run after her, but by then, it was too late.
Laura was gone.
Had Laura been thinking rationally, she would have run back up to Danny's room and barricaded it shut. She had, after all, gone to the Summer Society house for a reason. And even if they were a lying bunch of liars...
Instead, trying to stave off an emotional breakdown by clinging to her denial as hard as she could (even though Danny had never lied to her before- No! No thinking like that!), she wound up running right back to the place she'd fled from in the first place.
She was gasping for breath by the time she tore open the door and flung herself inside, barely getting it closed before dropping to her knees, lungs frantically straining to get oxygen back into her body.
It took her a moment to register the lights being flicked on.
When she finally did, a quick look around the room showed that, sure enough... "You're here," she wheezed out.
"Been here a while," Carmilla said from her spot near the window, leaning against the closet and absently playing with a lighter. Still, she looked almost... concerned, as she watched Laura struggle to catch her breath. "Where were you?"
She didn't want to think about that. "The Summer Society," she ground out, silently willing Carmilla to drop it.
Naturally, the vampire did no such thing. "Spending the night with your girlfriend?"
"She's not my girlfriend." Even Laura was mildly surprised by the sheer amount of anger in her voice... until she remembered why it was there.
If nothing else, she managed to break through Carmilla's detached, philosophical mood. "Whoa, easy there, Cupcake. What's with you?"
"They're liars," she snapped, somehow not especially surprised when she noticed tears sliding down her face onto her arm as she leaned against the closet, knees pulled up against her chest. "My mother died when I was little. She loved me. She would never have abandoned me!" She looked at her hand, saw it was shaking. She was trembling. Even after noticing, she was helpless to stop it.
She heard the sound of something metallic being set down, then Carmilla was there, crouching down in front of her. "Cupcake..."
"She wouldn't!"
"Laura."
She blinked, startled out of her dark, whirling thoughts by Carmilla's uncharacteristic use of her actual name... and the surprisingly gentle hands cradling her face. "I believe you," she said simply.
"...wh-what?"
"I believe you," Carmilla repeated. "I can just barely remember what it was like, having a mother who loved me. I get why someone trying to taint those memories is getting to you like this."
Laura couldn't help a quiet cough of laughter at finding commiseration in the unlikeliest of places. "Thank you," she said softly.
Carmilla nodded in acknowledgement. "Come on," she said, her hands moving to Laura's arms and tugging her upward. "Let's get you to bed."
Laura allowed herself to be pulled to her feet, though only Carmilla's grip kept her there, emotional exhaustion teaming up with the already present physical variety to try and knock her senseless. "God, do I even have time for that before classes, anymore?"
"You're taking tomorrow off," Carmilla informed her. Dimly, she was aware that she should be objecting to that - and she definitely should object to Carmilla helping undress her - but she simply didn't have any energy left; she was utterly drained. "Whatever Xena did, she should feel guilty enough to cover for you."
Laura could only manage a disgruntled noise at the mention of Danny... then realized to her surprise that she was somehow already in bed. When had that happened?
"Well, that's what I was saying about her all along," Carmilla said, smirking. "Get some sleep, Cutie."
"...stay?"
Carmilla froze. "Excuse me?" she asked with the air of someone who'd just heard the ice underneath her start cracking.
Laura tugged weakly at her with one trembling hand. "Cold." She was, too; she was so wrung out she couldn't feel anything... except the hand that was touching Carmilla.
Carmilla hesitated, looking more uncertain that Laura had ever seen her. In another time and place, she might have enjoyed the sight. Now, though... "If you're sure..." she said slowly.
Oddly, she was. Yes, Carmilla was a vampire. Yes, she might want to eat and/or kidnap her. But Laura was in desperate need of the comforting she seemed uncharacteristically willing to provide. She simply didn't have the energy to be afraid of her. "You won't have to steal my pillow this way," she offered, voice barely even a whisper.
Carmilla chuckled, seemingly despite herself, and slid under the covers next to Laura, settling an arm around her and pulling her close. "What am I going to do with you?" she murmured.
She didn't get an answer. Laura drifted off to sleep almost immediately, for the first time all day feeling... safe.
