Due to the tendency of some readers to leave multiple reviews (Tobeyfan :P) and a conveniently placed break, here's the next chapter! Again, it's kind of short but I think it works.
Oh and a little disclaimer (and also an apology, sort of…): I recently (and by this I mean two months ago) discovered the fantastic BCC series Doctor Who (I know I'm really slow to get into these things…) and I have been watching it in what little free time I have these days. I'm thinking of possibly writing a Doctor Who story. Any Whovians out there willing to be a beta for a new fan? I'm only about halfway through season 2 so, NO SPOILERS PLEASE!
Chapter 11: Family Ties
The head of the spike buried itself in the log with a heavy thunk.
Too much wrist, too loud….wrong… Norava gritted her teeth and tugged another spike from her necklace. She rolled the metal between the first two fingers on her right hand, the whole time, never taking her eyes from the pockmarked piece of wood that was her target, never blinking. She could see everything: every splinter, every crack, every ring in the stump before her. Her eyes missed nothing.
She crouched, drawing the spike back behind her left ear. She chose her spot, her eyes effortlessly picking out the weakest point on the wood. The place where the rings were warped, where two cracks joined… She flung her arm in a wide arc, flicking her fingers at just the right moment to send the dart flying. It sunk into the wood a hair's breadth below its predecessor. There was less of a sound this time. Norava showed no satisfaction.
"'Eagle-eye', you called me." She said, finally blinking. "'Never missed a target once I knew how to throw…'… Once you taught me." She let her arm fall to her side. "My eyes miss nothing…"
A breeze rustled through the trees around her; she registered the movement of every leaf. A bird hopped past her peripherals; she knew it was a sparrow. A squirrel darted by; even without seeing it directly she knew the pattern of fur on its back.
Norava bristled as the wind set her hair dancing. "I could see everything… so why couldn't I see through you?"
Nothing offered an answer.
Her rage swelled within her. "Still no answer? Still can't see?" With a cry, she yanked a handful of spikes from her necklace and furiously flung them at the log. All of them hit the target, turning the old piece of wood into a twisted metal porcupine.
"WHY?" She screamed at the air. "WHY CAN'T I SEE IT!"
The woods around her were silent; nothing dared disturb the fire-haired woman. Her ragged breaths were the only sound for a long time.
Finally her shoulders slumped. "How long have you been standing there?"
Wisemann stepped out from behind a tree. "Long enough to hear most of that…" he said, not at all fazed by her ability to perceive his presence. "But not so long as to know why."
"You know why." She said, still not facing him.
He nodded sadly. She noticed the shift in shadows as he took a step forward. "It wasn't your fault, Norava… you can't keep thinking that it is…. You'll just make yourself crazy…"
She tensed noticeably, screwing up her eyes in pain. "I was one of the closest to her. And I still didn't…. didn't SEE…"
"No one saw it Norava." He said gently. "Jayco didn't even see it. Not even your eyes could have seen the darkness hiding in her heart."
Norava took a shaky breath. He was right of course. He usually was. She straightened up and turned to face him offering him the smallest of smiles that he returned kindly.
"This might be an especially inconvenient time… but… I wanted to ask your opinion of something…" He pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket and walked forward to hand it to her. She unfolded it slowly. One eyebrow rose.
"'The pursuit of knowledge never ends; we can only keep looking in hopes it will be enough…?'"
Embarrassed, he snatched it back. "Sorry wrong one… here." He fumbled with his pockets until he found and handed her a different sheet.
She unfolded it and stared at the page. He watched her carefully. For about a minute, both were silent. Somewhere deeper in the woods, a sparrow possibly the same one Norava had just seen, sang a single, harsh note. Norava slowly looked up at the professor. The look in her eyes was the only answer he needed.
Becky closed the door to the library.
Sarvavi turned away from the window at the sound. "Well?" She asked.
Becky sighed, seriously considering just banging her head against the door until it stopping spinning. "What just happened back there?" She asked the warrior. She'd taken Tobey back to the infirmary, warning him she'd be by later about the robot and taken off before he could articulate a question about Sarvavi's behavior. "Tobey's human." She said walking to the table where she had sat with Wisemann barely an hour ago. "He's lived on Earth longer than I've been there…"
"That's just the thing isn't it?" Sarvavi interrupted, stepping away from the window. "He's only supposed to be eleven years old and yet… now he's thirteen…" She reached the table and leaned against it, gazing thoughtfully at the far wall. The sunlight streamed through the window behind her, painting a halo of light around her figure. "It must be that damn flux… but how…?" She bit her lip, her brow furrowed.
"Are you saying, that Tobey crossed the… that flux too?" Becky asked as she walked to the other side of the table. "How? When?"
Sarvavi was lost in her own mind and ignored her. "Unless…. Maybe, just maybe…. They were stuck in it for awhile, suspended in time somehow…. It would have only felt like seconds to them but it could have been months… years even… and then…. Then…." She looked up suddenly, eyes glowing. "Yes!" She shouted, making Becky jump. "Maybe something else came along…. Something that knocked them free and sent them hurtling to Earth…. Yes! You!" She pointed excitedly at Becky as she said this.
"You would have knocked them free… that would explain why you're both the same age instead of the proper ages…" She was positively glowing. She seemed, happy. As if figuring this out were finally bringing closure to an issue that had been with her a long time.
"Sarvavi…"
"I just can't believe it…! She's still alive!" Her smile was wide and crooked.
"She..?"
Sarvavi threw her head back and let loose a laugh that cut through the dusty air. Her beaming smile rivaled the sun.
"I knew I wasn't the only one left!" She had been completely transformed: her eyes sparkled, color shot to her cheeks, her forehead smoothed out. If she hadn't known better, Becky would have guessed she was only 16. There was no hint of that deep-rooted anger Becky had come to learn was from her loneliness.
"Clairén survived!" Sarvavi cried.
"What about Theo?" Becky cut in, desperate to get caught up on the situation.
The smile faded slightly. "He said he needed some time alone to process." Sarvavi said. "I told him his son is… not quite who he was expecting. He's… hesitant to dive right into his life. He doesn't want to shock him."
"And… what about Tobey…?" Becky asked cautiously.
Sarvavi shot her a sideways glance. "He doesn't need to know… not until he's ready."
"So you'll just lie to him instead?" She asked, a little rudely.
The warrior sighed. "Becky, would you want a parent you'd spent your whole life without, a parent you weren't even aware of suddenly thrust into your life and forced into a role they weren't ready for?"
"Well yes, but you won't show me them."
Silence descended.
The warrior stared at Becky for the longest time, her gaze impossibly deep and equally unreadable. Becky knew those words had hurt but it all seemed so unfair. Tobey had found his "lost" family and he hadn't even known he belonged here. So where was hers? When would she get to see them?
There was no answer in Sarvavi's eyes. Only a door that remained closed no matter how hard Becky pounded on it.
Finally Sarvavi looked away. She shuffled several blank sheets of paper lying on the table into a neat pile and pulled an ink pot and a pen towards her.
"So… how did you know his mother's name?" Becky finally asked, in an effort to break the stifling silence.
The smile returned but with a mere fraction of its former brilliance. "Clairén was... is my sister. She met Theo when our mother took her to Cogitatio, the nearby Thinker city." She kept her gaze down, as if her work required intense, unwavering focus but she was still just shuffling papers.
"Your sister?"
The warrior nodded. "She fell for Theo. She used to tell me that the moment she laid eyes on that boy, she knew what love was…" Her voice wavered slightly but a small smile tugged at her mouth.
Becky smiled too. "So they married?"
Sarvavi let out a hollow laugh. "No. His parents forbade it so they met in secret. The same night they met they…" She paused here as if embarrassed to continue.
Becky only grimaced and nodded, glad the warrior had chosen to omit certain details.
"Anyway, Tobey was born several months later… in absolute secrecy… Theo and myself were the only ones present at his birth… not even our local midwife was there." She picked up an empty pen, fiddled with it nervously for a second, and then replaced it on the table. "But they still couldn't be together… Clairén couldn't let him… she begged and pleaded and pushed until he returned to the city, promising not to breathe a word to anyone."
"Why, didn't she want to be with him? What was the problem?"
Sarvavi took a deep breath. "The problem is… Theo might not be his father."
"What?"
"While Clairen was in the city, a very prominent Lord was visiting. A Lord who… rather enjoyed the company of ladies much younger than he was…" Her gaze had hardened mercilessly, as if she'd like nothing better than to find this Lord and kick the life from him.
Becky had a sinking suspicion. "Wait… you don't mean…?"
Sarvavi nodded grimly. "It was Inexpert."
Becky's mouth went dry.
"Clairén never knew… there was no way to tell. Both times matched up, he didn't have any distinguishing features from either of them. Clairén never forgave herself for that mistake. She didn't want Theo or her son to suffer for it as well. So she had to lie to her parents, her friends, everyone but me out of shame. And she had to push him away. She used to visit Theo occasionally. Always in secret, never for long."
Sarvavi swallowed hard. "And then… it happened… that day…"
Becky felt her heart skip slightly. "What happened?" She asked, suspecting she already knew the answer.
"I don't really know…. no one does…. It just came out of nowhere… a giant ball of fire in the sky…" Sarvavi stared up at the fiery sunlight streaming through the window. Her knuckles had gone white where she gripped the table. "And just like that… it was all gone…"
Her gaze fell to where the sun burned into the tabletop. "I was alone… but now…"
Becky reached out and placed a hesitant hand on her arm. Through the cloth of the shirt, she registered something hard and warm under her palm. Something that was definitely not skin. Then her vision went whitish-gold. A soft, melodious voice spoke in her mind:
…the one born of a Sensor and a Thinker…..This child will change everything… the spirits have told me… they will be of great importance… do not let them fade…
The voice and the light faded as Sarvavi looked up in surprise and her eyes darted down to where Becky's hand lay. She gently shrugged Becky's hand away.
"He's my nephew no matter who his father is." She said matter-of-factly. "Now that I've found him, he's my responsibility."
Becky took a breath to steady her voice before she spoke. The melodious voice still echoed in her head. "Good luck with that…" She told the warrior. "Tobey can be quite a handful."
"For any non-Eychanten, yes." Sarvavi replied. "But I assure you, I probably understand him better than even he does."
Becky shrugged. "You sure? I don't even understand him and I've known him almost six years…"
Sarvavi looked up, her gaze hard. "I won't let him fail." She said with such intensity that Becky was taken aback. "I'll keep him safe no matter what." She dropped her gaze and pulled the stack of blank papers towards her. "He will train with you occasionally. Your lessons will overlap."
Becky rolled her eyes. "Great…"
"Likewise," The warrior said, drowning out Becky's heavy sigh as Becky sank onto the bench. "There will be things I will only teach him. Occasionally you may need to keep yourself occupied…"
"I think I can manage that…" Becky replied, her thoughts drifting first to Ronan, then Wisemann.
"Speaking of lessons…" Sarvavi said, picking up Single Variable Calculus. "It's time for your test."
Becky sat up. "Hold on…" She plucked the book from Sarvavi's hands and quickly flipped through it, pages flying under her fingers, eyes darting back and forth. Three seconds later, when she reached the end, she slammed the book down on the table. "Alright, fire away."
Sarvavi stared at her curiously. "What did you just do?"
"I read the book." Becky replied.
Sarvavi's eyebrows came together. "How...?" She looked from Becky to the book and back again. Then she crossed her arms. "On page 255 what is the…"
"A parabola of the differential equation y= x2+ 3x + 23 graphed with its derivative and its integral." Becky said immediately.
Sarvavi gave her a thoughtful look.
"Sit tight." She dashed off into the recesses of the library with a flash of red light. She reappeared a second later holding a book easily twice as thick as the last two she had given Becky combined.
"Here." She dropped the thick tomb on the dusty table, making Becky jump in surprise and cough.
"What is this?"
Sarvavi said nothing but glanced meaningfully at the cover of the book. Becky leaned forward and read: Surviving Lexicon: A practical guide to military survival and combat tactics.
She flipped open to a random page. Complicated diagrams of trap building and notes on identifying poisonous plants stared dauntingly back at her.
"You've got to be kidding me…"
"You are a soldier in Lexicon's army now." The warrior told her. "These skills will not only prepare you for battle, they will save your life."
She tapped the dusty cover, leaving her fingerprint in the dust. "Tonight's assignment is Section 5: Fire-craft, Tools, Camouflage, Tracking, Movement, and Combat Skills. Reading and detailed notes. You have a lot of catching up to do." She began to walk back towards the shelves. Becky rolled her eyes once and closed the book. She pulled a blank sheet of notes towards her and filled a pen.
"And apprentice." Sarvavi called over her shoulder from where she stood by the door.
Becky glanced up.
"No speed-reading. I want you to really absorb this information."
Becky shook her head in disbelief. She opened the front cover, looking for a table of contents that would point her to her assignment. The inside of the tomb was a light magenta color with a thin golden border. Becky was about to flip to the first page when something caught her eye. She leaned in closer to the cover of the book.
Written on the edge of the inside cover in tiny gold writing were the words: Researched, written, assembled, complied and published circa PY 1248 by Her Majesty Royal Guard General and Royal Spirit-Dreamer, Sarvavisa Eychanten Enovator.
Becky glanced up but found she was alone in the library. Sarvavi had already gone.
There actually is a giant book of survival skills called: The Ultimate Guide to U.S. Army Survival Skills.
All the survival tips I mention will be from this book and yes they will all be real (or adapted slightly).
I just realized that Sarvavi's little rant about the time-flux sounded very tenth doctor-ish… at least that was the image I got when I read it again... maybe I've been watching that show too much…
