Taylor fell on her behind, exhausted beyond belief, her staff forgotten beside her, looking up at the sky and listening with a half-smile as the people around her realized what exactly happened. She turned her attention towards the gigantic Elder Dragon, that seemed to hang up in the air, motionless for an eternity, before a gigantic explosion originating from it buffeted the airship they were on, and it began to fall to the ground while parts of it began to turn to dust.
Taylor would forever curse whoever came up with the idea that attacking an Elder Dragon in the air was a great idea. During the battle, it took not a little of her focus to make sure neither she nor the people around her fell to their dooms either because of the harsh winds so high up or because of the Elder Dragon of Death bombarding them with globs of death, acid and who knows what.
Still, she was well aware that a not significant amount of the people on the airship, and on the other airships, fell down, losing their lives. It galled her that she could be so cavalier about the loss of lives, but over the years in her fight against increasingly stronger enemies she realized no plan was perfect, and mistakes happened. And those mistakes often lead to people dying.
She knew it; she understood it and but she didn't like it.
Closing her eyes, resting after hours of desperate battle, she relaxed the tight hold over her magic, letting it and her entire body finally relax.
It was a mistake.
The moment the tight reins she held over her magic were let go, she immediately was assaulted by the transcendent stench of the Elder Dragon as it released waves after waves of magic from its dying body.
Gagging and shivering, as the disgusting magic flew through her, she began to wrestle with her magic, trying to purge of the putrid death magic that seemed to be enveloping her entire being. Taylor wondered for a second if this was happening to everyone, or it was happening to her because of her sensitivity with magic?
Anise always told her that her ability to sense things with her magic was unprecedented…
But that thought quickly left her head as she continued her battle against the dead dragon's magic, while people around her began to celebrate.
While protecting herself, she decided might as well look deeper into the magic coming off the dragon that was still falling.
Looking at the magic, at first glance it was disgusting, putrid, stinking of death and decay, but as she continuously divested herself of the magic, purging herself of the dangerous magic, she felt that there was more to it.
Heedless of her exhaustion, feeling as if she was unto something, Taylor began to peel away the death magic layer by layer, looking deeper and deeper into the dragon's magic.
Finally, after an eternity of effort, in her mind's eyes, she could see the pure magic that was the foundation of the dragon's disgusting magic, magnificent in its simplicity and wondrous in its capabilities.
It was purer than any magic she ever sensed, yet she could feel a deep echo of something powerful in it. As she watched the pure magic pulse around, with each pulse weakening and vanishing into the world, she felt an indescribable panic.
Losing access to this beautiful manifestation of magic would be horrendous!
As if overcome by instinct, she reached out with her own magic and scooped out a small part of the pure magic, shaping it into a ball, then taking it into herself.
The moment the magic entered her, she felt at the same time elation, and terrible pain, but she grit her teeth, used to pain, and slowly but surely began to integrate the magic she gathered into her own.
Taylor didn't know why she was doing it, or even how, but she felt it was important, and she was so exhausted and somewhat delirious that she knew if she stopped halfway, she would definitively die.
So, she forged on taking the minuscule magic, compared to the gigantic amount that flew from the dead body of the Elder Dragon, strand by strand, molecule by molecule, and slowly added it to her own magic.
Minutes or even hours later, she added the last speck of the wondrous pure magic, and then her magic and body relaxed again.
She let out a long sigh, then fell back on the deck, lying on the cold, dirty floor of the flight deck without a worry and an enormous smile plastered on her face.
Taylor didn't know exactly what she had done just now, but the feeling she was getting from her magic was several times more powerful than before, and there was some kind of new quality to it that she had never felt…
She would experiment with it later, but for now, a well-deserved sleep…
With that, Taylor Vaporblade, Hero of Shaemoor, Magister of the Durmand Priory, Mistress of the Elements, and Destroyer of Zhaitan fell asleep on the flight deck of the airship amidst the chaos of celebration, dust, dirt, and left-over gunk of Zhaitan's attacks, with a content smile on her face.
… watching young Taylor use magic is like observing a painter paint, a potter create or a woodworker carve their latest masterpiece. Simply astounding.
She simply has no idea what is impossible, so she simply does things she wants to heedless what generations of wise men have written in books thicker than castle walls.
Teaching her, seeing as she absorbed knowledge, is one of the best thing that happened to me in recent years.
I just hope her determination and zeal for new knowledge would never leave her. With her, I can feel that Kryta's and even Tyria's future is in safe hands.
Now, about your issues with…
- Fragment of letter from Countess Anise, Master Exemplar of the Shining Blade to unknown 1325 AE
2011. January 17th – Earth Bet
Danny looked at the woman in front of him as the surrounding mist swirled around, ignoring the laws of physics. While at first glance she indeed looked like Annette, the hair, the eyes, even the shape of the mouth, were painfully familiar.
Yet, something in the back of his mind, and his power that still somehow hasn't managed to get a grasp on the person in front of him, was still making him doubtful.
He didn't really want to vocalize it as he knew, his doubts originated from one thought:
Why would Taylor want to come back?
The woman, Taylor, in front of him just stood there, idly looking around as if she hadn't seen her room for a while, her eyes staying on a few things more before moving on. He was about to ask her everything when she suddenly raised her hand and waved it around as if chasing away an errant fly.
The round, presumably some kind of portal behind her froze, its pulsating movement stalling. The rainbow-colored material that made up the portal lost its color while the mist in the room retreated towards the portal, slithering like incorporeal snakes.
He watched astounded as the mist that previously filled the room vanished within a second, leaving the room as it was after his deep cleaning, only this time Taylor was in it. Though it was starting to get annoying that his power couldn't get hold of her.
It seemed as if she was some kind of blind spot for his power, as every time he tried to mark her, the 'signal' of his power simply slid off her.
Finally deciding that staring at her was enough, he gathered his courage, bolstered by the alcohol in his bloodstream, and spoke up.
"Taylor… is that really you?"
She gave him a small smile, but her eyes were stone cold. He couldn't see an ounce of warmness in them. Though was that because he hadn't expected to see them or she was really like that, he couldn't say.
"Yes, it is really me," she answered, then glanced around once again. "Cleaner than I expected…"
He opened his mouth to tell her why that was, but then closed it because he just couldn't find the words that would adequately describe what happened over the last two weeks. Thankfully, his daughter spoke up again.
"What's the date?"
That threw Danny for a loop for a second, then he realized that his daughter, teen-aged daughter, went missing, then returned two weeks later as a grown woman.
"The 17th of January," then when he saw Taylor opening her mouth, he continued. " and 2011."
Taylor nodded, then closed her eyes for some reason.
Not wanting to interrupt her, somehow still thinking that it was a hallucination (the swirling mist and rainbow-colored smoke supporting those thoughts) and if he were to act wrongly, the dream would vanish and he would return to the sofa, alone and more miserable.
"That works even better…" muttered Taylor, after a few seconds of contemplation, then opened her eyes and looked at Danny. And this time, he could see a little warmth in her eyes.
"How about we go to the living room and talk there, instead of standing around?"
He didn't have the gumption to do anything else but nod. Thus, he watched as his daughter walked from the middle of the room, her every step radiating strength and confidence, then when she left the room he shuffled after her, his legs still shaken from the shock of her return.
Sitting in the living room, he watched as Taylor sat in the only armchair while he retook his spot on the sofa, ignoring the puddle of brandy and shards of glass on the floor. Though he did wince when he saw Taylor looking at it. Of course, that look morphed into awe as his daughter simple flicked a finger and the glass shards simply rose into the air, then within seconds reformed into the shape of the glass while the brandy rose from the floor like some kind of liquid snake and returned to its position in the glass as if nothing happened. Then the glass floated out to the kitchen, and through his power, he could see the glass come to rest on the kitchen table.
Taylor shot him a look, but instead of asking about the alcohol as he was pretty much sworn off alcohol in the wake of Annette's death, she spoke up, once again idly looking around.
"Shouldn't you call the police that I've returned or something?"
"Err… I didn't call the police."
That managed to shock Taylor out of her calm demeanor.
"What? What do you mean you didn't call the police? I was missing for two weeks!"
He winced but answered dutifully, though he avoided looking into Taylor's eyes.
"I thought… I thought you'd run away, so I didn't want to stop you. Then I found the notes, and-"
"What notes?"
"About the school?" he replied hesitantly, confused by the question.
There was brief bewilderment on Taylor's face before realization lit it up for a moment before it returned to the previous calmness.
"Oh, yeah. I did that…" she shook her head wistfully, then looked at him with piercing eyes that seemed to stare deep into his soul. "So, no police?" He shook his head. "What about the school?"
"I told them you are sick, and you will return when you are better. They didn't really ask too many questions," he answered truthfully, watching his daughter's face.
Hearing that, a beautiful smile lit up her face.
"Excellent. That will make everything so much easier!"
Danny watched as, after that exclamation, Taylor fell silent again, as if contemplating something. He knew he had no right to question Taylor about anything after what he had done (or really, not done) and what he had found about the school, but now that he managed to work through the idea that Taylor had returned, several burning questions inside him wanted out.
Taking a deep breath, swallowing his first instinct to yell at Taylor (for leaving, for scaring him, and then hug her and just start apologizing) he cleared his throat and began speaking in an even tone, hoping not to upset her.
"Taylor… where have you been? Why do you look so old? And what the hell was that mist stuff?"
Taylor looked up from her contemplation at him and stared at him for a few seconds before she began speaking.
"The mist stuff was the Mist, dad." Danny could hear the capitalization. "It exists between worlds and dimensions, and it is the origin of everything that ever existed, exists, and will exist. And I used it to travel back to Earth Bet from the dimension I'd spent the last few years. Which explains why I look older:" Here she cracked a small smile. "I'm actually older."
"A different dimension? How the fuck did you get to another dimension?" exclaimed Danny, bewildered by the information.
Taylor, however, remained calm. "Yes, a different dimension. So far away from Earth Bet that the planet's name wasn't even Earth, though it was Earth-like." Her calm here turned into annoyance. "I vanished from my bed because an annoying goddess decided she needed some insurance."
"What?"
She shook her head in exasperation. "It doesn't really matter. Simply put, I vanished from here, woke up in the other dimension, and took me a few years to figure a way back."
"That makes no sense," admitted Danny, as a wave of exhaustion swept over him.
The stress of his situation, Taylor's arrival, her almost nonsensical explanation exhausted him beyond description. Despite that, he fought to keep his eyes open, as he still feared if he were to go to sleep, he would wake up to an empty house.
However, Taylor seemed to notice this. "How about we sleep on it, and we can talk tomorrow when you are not drunk and exhausted?"
Noticing the slight disapproval in her voice, he slumped, not having the energy to argue anymore, and nodded. He then stood up, Taylor mimicking him, but before his fears and cowardice could overwhelm him, he took a few quick steps and enveloped the very surprised Taylor in a hug.
Danny felt her hesitation, and for a second, he was afraid she would reject him, but then she returned the hug and for a moment, he felt as if everything was alright in the world. He held the hug for a minute, afraid to let go of Taylor when he heard her mutter.
"Let's get some sleep, dad…"
Hearing those words, the exhaustion he kept at bay by sheer force of will returned with vengeance, and this time he didn't have the strength to resist.
His last words, before the darkness enveloped, were everything was:
"Please, don't leave, Taylor…"
Then nothing.
Taylor watched as her wreck of father fell asleep while muttering in her embrace and couldn't help but sigh. She concentrated briefly and Danny's body levitated into a vertical position, and she began walking towards his room, still amazed at how clean the house looked.
Back before she arrived in Tyria, she was the only one who had done any kind of cleaning in the house, even if it was superficial, and now it looked as if the house had been cleaned by a professional crew. Everything was sparkling, everything was in its place.
Maybe her father was a clean-freak when drunk?"
She had seen weirder things…
Silently chuckling at the memories that thought brought forth, she carefully situated her father in his bed, covered him in an old blanket, then thought about a second, and snapped a finger. A blanket made exquisitely from the best cotton woven by the residents of a norn village she had saved over her travels as thanks to her (showcasing her victory over some kind of owlbear mutated by Jormag's power) appeared out of thin air, then slowly fell on top of Danny.
Taylor made sure that he was properly tucked in, then left the room, carefully closing the door behind her. She stood there for a second, wiping away unshed tears from her eyes.
She waited so long for this exact moment, and couldn't even express what she was feeling.
On one hand, she was extremely happy that she managed to return with only missing two weeks, as time didn't exactly work (or in some cases existed) in the Mist. And that her father was here, waiting for him, his drunkenness notwithstanding.
On the other hand, seeing him brought back all the terrible memories. The neglect, the apathy…
When she first arrived in Tyria, her only aim was to return to Earth Bet, to her house, to her father, and to resume her life as it was. But as the years went by, and she experienced what she had experienced, that need to return slowly but surely began to dwindle.
The only reason she had undertaken this journey was that currently no emergencies were happening around the world, and she promised herself that it would only be a quick visit. Visit her mother's grave, see what happened to her father, maybe shop around a little for souvenirs, then go back.
Back to her friends, her family…
But now that she was face to face with Danny, she knew it wouldn't be that easy.
First of all, she expected that the time progressed at the same speed in both dimensions, so, if she was honest with herself, she didn't really expect her father to be alive by the time she arrived. It was quite a surprise to show up in her old room (albeit sparkling clean)…
Now, she had one more mission on Earth Bet.
Convince her dad to leave this rotten world behind and join her in Tyria.
Granted, not everything was daisies and sunshine in Tyria, but at least there, she would be able to protect him without pesky governments butting in, or people calling her out for killing somebody…
Taylor shook her head, sighed, then instead of heading for her room for some rest from the emotionally exhausting conversation that the next day would bring, she turned in the other direction and headed for the basement.
Walking down the stairs (that did not creak) she stopped before the basement door and snapped her fingers once again. This time it wasn't a blanket that materialized, instead, several small glyphs in the air before they were replaced by small ball-shaped air elementals in quick succession.
"Stay invisible and patrol around the house. Touch no one."
The air elementals bobbed up and down in the air, signaling their understanding before they swirled around her, then vanished into the air. Though she could still sense them perfectly as they began moving around the house in a pattern she used when in an unknown location.
Nodding to herself, Taylor turned the knob on the basement door and began to descend. She idly noted that the basement was also hit by the same force that the rest of the house was, as she spotted several boxes, odds, and ends missing while everything else was in perfect order without a speck of dust covering them.
She walked up to the brick wall, raised her right hand, and waved at it while flexing her magical muscles. Watching the bricks melt away, leaving a perfectly cubical hole in their way, still caused her a small thrill.
She then reached into the air, her hand vanishing up to her wrist for a second, before she retrieved a very magical-looking cube. The cube was around ten inches on each side, perfectly manufactured from crystals and magical metals by her smallest friend.
Taylor then placed the cube into the hole she had created, made sure it fit perfectly, and tapped the face of the cube facing her with one finger, letting her magic activate the enchantment on the artifact.
The cube then slowly pulsed with white-colored light, then as the pulsing sped up, the entire cube began to shine in white. She watched as the magic collecting in the artifact then creeped out of it and began to cover the wall, then the floor and ceiling, and she knew it would continue until the entire house was under its effect.
Satisfied, she waved her hand again and watched as the previously melted away bricks returned to their positions, as if nothing happened.
Turning around, she began to head upstairs, while also raising her left arm, where a small metal band could be seen. Without her doing anything, the armband flashed weakly and a small rectangular holographic screen appeared on it.
On the screen was the constantly filling out blueprint of the house and the surrounding.
Walking with autopilot to her room, Taylor watched as the artifact scanned the area and filled her little personal device with information, then when she saw everything was proceeding as expected, she turned off the device then sat down on her rickety old bed, a nostalgic smile on her face.
She quickly summoned her favorite picture from the shelf, noting that it seemed somebody changed the frames, but as nothing happened to the picture in it, she didn't really care much.
Taylor spent a minute or so just staring at the picture, then as the picture vanished from her hand, she settled into a meditative position and began her trusty breathing exercise instead of sleeping.
She knew her arrival would cause waves, as thanks to not having exact coordinates, she had to somewhat brute force her way to Earth Bet. Back on Tyria, if she were to do the same, several groups would be on her and her portal before she even stepped through. Not that they could have done much against her, but still…
Here, however, only the powerful Thinkers or Tinkers could have noticed her arrival, as when she stepped through the portal she sensed exactly zero magic on Earth Bet.
Still, it was better to be cautious than dead with a dagger in your sleeping body, so instead of sleeping, she chose meditation.
Taylor slowly relaxed, extending her senses, and began to immersive herself in her meditation…
Soon, only her almost silent rhythmical breathing and her father's small snoring could be heard in the house, while the sounds of the nightlife of Brockton Bay washed over them.
"Taylor!"
She opened her eyes upon hearing the yell coming from her father's room while taking in the morning sun as it shined through the meticulously clean windows.
A second later the door to her room smashed open, and in the door stood Danny, unconsciously clutching the blanket she draped over him last night, his eyes wide, and breathing erratically.
"Taylor!"
"Good morning, Dad. Did you sleep well?" she replied with a small smile. While her memories of her father weren't the best, it was still nice to see him.
Instead of answering, Danny dropped the blanket, bounded over to her, and enveloped her once again in a bear hug.
"Taylor, I thought I was dreaming…" he murmured, but then he simply started crying. Taylor returned the hug with one of her arms while using the other to awkwardly pat his back.
"There, there, dad. I'm back, and everything is alright."
They stayed like that for a few minutes before Taylor extricated herself from Danny's death grip and convinced him that they should start their morning.
After they had finished with breakfast, they returned to the living room, with Danny sitting on the sofa and Taylor in the armchair, eyeing each other. Danny with dread and Taylor with curiosity.
The way he behaved and some other idiosyncrasies, for example, the cleaning made Taylor think that something else happened while she was away.
They sat like that for a while, in silence, only the background noises of the city and the sounds of an odd car driving in front of the house disturbing it.
Finally, Taylor had enough and spoke up.
"So, Dad, I'm sure you have a lot of questions and I do, too. So why don't we talk about it?"
Danny looked hesitant for a second, but then he seemed to steel himself and nodded.
"Alright, Taylor. Why don't you start?"
She smiled at him and began.
"Okay. How about an easy one? Why is everything so clean?"
Danny seemed to shrink into himself, and Taylor looked on bewildered. It took him an entire minute to answer. Even then, the voice that came out of his mouth was almost silent, and he refused to look into her eyes.
"When you left, I looked for you everywhere, and then… and then… something happened."
"Something?" Taylor asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes," came the hoarse reply. "I blacked out. At least I think I blacked out, then I woke up with this… power," he finished, finally looking into her eyes.
"A power? You are a parahuman, dad?"
"Yes, I'm. At least I think so."
"Huh, fancy that…" murmured Taylor under her breath, then smiled at Danny. "So, what is your power?"
The reply was much more confident. "I can track things in my range. Including dirt…"
Taylor perked up at hearing that, slamming her fist into her open palm. "Ah, so that's what I was feeling!"
"What? You felt it?"
"Yes, when I arrived I felt something trying to do something to me, but my protections prevented it." She answered, then thought for a second. "Plus, it felt a little slimy…"
Taylor watched as Danny seemed to process that until she saw a literal light bulb go off in his head.
"Wait a second, Taylor. Does that mean that you are a parahuman?"
"It took you so long to ask this?" replied Taylor sarcastically, but before Danny could answer, she continued. "But yes, and no. I have powers. Probably more than I could make use of, but I'm not a parahuman."
"That makes no sense!"
"It does if you stop thinking with Earth Bet common sense," answered Taylor, her voice unintentionally slipping into lecture mode. "I told you I went to a distant dimension, and it was nothing like Earth. So, couldn't it possible that there are other sources of power besides whatever the hell is granting power to the parahumans?"
Danny looked at her, going through what she had just said, before nodding.
"I suppose you are right and there are other power sources out there. What kind of power do you have if you are not a parahuman?"
Taylor smiled at him, raised a hand, conjured a bunch of sparks that glittered around her, while also swirling in a mesmerizing dance.
"Magic."
Watching the older man gaze at the spark with an open mouth was pretty satisfying. Back in Tyria, everyone was aware of magic, so she was looking forward to astounding the residents of Earth Bet with magic.
Danny closed his mouth, swallowed, and gave her a brief glare.
"Magic doesn't exist, Taylor. I mean, you may think that it's magic, but I'm pretty sure there is a scientific explanation for what you are doing."
Surprising Danny, who was probably looking for some kind of negative reaction, Taylor simply stopped the spell and laughed a little.
"Of course, there is an explanation! But it doesn't matter how you explain it, it's still magic," she answered, still grinning. "I can still do everything from levitating a glass of alcohol to conjuring glitter to vaporizing mountains." She leaned forward and lowered her voice. "By the way, I don't recommend doing the last one. People get touchy about mountains…"
"What?"
"I mean, I left them a perfectly nice lake. I don't know why they kept complaining. It's not like they used that mountain for anything…"
Danny raised a hand to stop her from talking while using his other one to massage his brows.
"I don't even want to know, Taylor." He sighed, then looked back at her, scowling at the unrepentant grin that Taylor was sporting. "So, magic… It can be explained, but it is still magic?"
"Correct. Certain things are still mysteries, but the basics are very well understood in Tyria."
"And Tyria is?"
"The world where I was for the last few years."
"How many, exactly?" asked Danny curiously, but his answer was just a coy smile from Taylor.
He sighed again, then asked another question.
"Then what can you do?"
"Technically? Anything I fucking want. It's magic," answered Taylor with another grin. "But realistically, I'm master of the elements, with some mastery in the illusional, healing, and enchanting arts. And I, of course, dabbled in everything else. My teacher was very thorough."
Danny blinked in surprise. "What does mastering the elements mean?"
Taylor sat up straighter and began speaking. "It means I can control all the elements." A small ball of fire appeared above her head, blazing with amazing heat, colored white with only a small shell showing some red coloring. "Fire." A small globe of water appeared next to the fire, rotating around its own axis, bubbling a little. "Water." An almost visible tornado appeared next to the two examples of elements, spinning at extreme speeds. "Air." And finally, a small clump of earth appeared next to the other three, which immediately began transforming into a perfect dodecahedron. "And earth."
The elements slowly floated down from above her head and began to circle her palm as she raised one hand. "Plus, all the sub-elements. Lightning, ice, lava, mud, and so on…"
"That is…"
"Powerful?" asked Taylor playfully, staring at the elements as they began spiraling in front of her, randomly transforming into different shapes. It was a basic control exercise for elementalists, but it seemed to impress her dad.
"Yes," replied Danny, while swallowing nervously.
Taylor nodded, clenched her fist and the elements vanished into thin air as if they had never existed. She looked at her father and smiled. "There is a reason I'm considered a hero around the world in Tyria." Her smile turned into a scowl. "And not like the heroes here in Brockton Bay. I actually did something to merit that designation. And I even managed to accomplish this without wearing my underpants outside my pants."
"What exactly did you do, Taylor?"
Her scowl vanished, replaced by an enigmatic smile.
"Oh, nothing much. Fought a little, defeated a few people, killed a god, so you know, the usual…"
It took Danny a few seconds to parse what Taylor had just said.
"Excuse me? Did you say you killed a god?"
"Yes. Asshole wanted to plunge the entire world into war. So, we had to stop him."
"I see. That makes perfect sense," replied Danny, nodding with the air of someone who understood nothing.
Taylor just shrugged. "I will tell you the story later, but for now we need to decide what we should do."
Glad that she had changed the topic, Danny looked at her expectantly.
"About what?"
Taylor waved her hand at herself. "About this. I can't exactly go back to school like this, not that I want to. Though I could whip up an illusion to cover my body, but…"
Danny watched as Taylor rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she began debating the merits of using illusions to return to the school. He wanted to ask about the bullies, but in the end, he felt it was better to stay silent. Plus, it was not like he had a better idea…
Then Taylor snapped out of her wondering and continued to speak as if nothing happened. "But I don't think it's a good idea. I'm a little too old to hang out with teenagers, plus, I would definitively try to kill Emma and her friends within five seconds of her opening her mouth."
Ignoring how casually she mentioned killing someone, Danny asked a question that had been bothering him ever since he had found the notes about the bullying.
"What exactly happened to Emma? You were practically sisters, for god's sake!"
Taylor just gave an elegant shrug. "Beats me. Never figured it out. But now it doesn't really matter. I'm an adult, they're children."
"If you say so, but we still need to do something about the school, honey. They might not care for a few weeks, but sooner or later some will wonder where you are."
Taylor looked back at him thoughtfully, going through the myriad of plans she had created before returning to Earth Bet, finally selecting one of them. She gave him a mischievous smile, then spoke up.
"You're a parahuman, right? Then why don't we go to the Protectorate, tell them what happened, and ask them to smooth it over?"
Danny blinked at her in total surprise.
"Just like that?"
"Yes, just like that. There is no police record, so we only need to deal with a small school. I'm sure the government is up to that task," replied Taylor sarcastically.
"And you are willing to join the Protectorate?"
"Why not?"
Taylor, of course, left out that she hadn't planned on staying long, so any membership in the Protectorate would be temporary at best. But her father wasn't ready to hear that…
"I worked for worse people over the years…"
"I don't know what to say, Taylor."
Taylor stood up and looked deeply into her father's eyes.
"How about you think about it and do some research while I go do a few things?"
He looked back at her, still a little confused at her willingness to simply join the governmental organization. "Like what?"
"Like visit mom. I missed her."
"Oh."
They remained silent after that for a few seconds, each of them remembering Annette.
"So, stay here and think it over. Maybe do some research on the net."
Danny nodded as he watched a high-quality jacket materialize over Taylor's body, along with the same pair of boots he saw yesterday.
Taylor, meanwhile, continued to speak. "Also, don't leave the house without me. My arrival may have been picked up by some people, so I set up some protection last night."
"Then why can you leave?"
"I can hide myself from prying eyes. You can't. Magic is cool like that."
Taylor saw Danny wanted to say something, but in the end, he decided against it. Instead, she simply turned around and headed for the door.
"I will be back later!"
With that, she left her father on the sofa, alone with his thoughts.
It took her merely a few minutes of air travel to arrive at the cemetery, following the old memories that stayed alive in her mind, thanks to the magical skills she had developed over the years. Touching down not far from the entrance, she undid the invisibility that hid her flying form, then with measured steps, she began heading for the grave of her beloved mother.
As soon as she stepped through the gate, she stretched her senses as far as she could, making sure nobody was watching, and when Taylor saw she was alone, she flexed her power and began to affect the surroundings.
If someone would have been there, they would have seen the grass becoming clearer, weeds vanishing, wilted flowers on other graves perking up, gravestones regaining their shines and almost pristine forms, as a lone woman slowly walked through the multitude of graves until she reached one particular one.
There the woman fell to her knees, and spent some amount of time either staring at the gravestone, heedless of the cold ground, or speaking softly, before standing up, patting the top of the gravestone, and leaving with a sad smile and tear tracks on her face.
The theoretical observer then would have been surprised to see not a few seconds after the woman left, another woman, this one clad in a suit and, for some odd reason, wearing a fedora, rush into the cemetery, looking around in a flurry of activity.
Then, after a few minutes of looking, they would see the second woman leaving in a hurry, vanishing behind the first corner.
Before returning home, Taylor made sure to release a drone, courtesy of Taimi, that would allow her to find an internet connection and use it without people figuring out where she was. The drone would hide somewhere, scan the airwaves, or find a physical connection point and figure out a way to communicate with Earth Bet technology.
When she vanished from Earth Bet, she was a teenager and knew very little about the world no matter what she thought, and now that she had returned as an adult; it galled her to do anything without the proper information.
Granted, the internet wasn't perfect, but it was better than going in blind, especially if she was going to join (temporarily) the Protectorate. She only needed enough time to gather a few things, mostly entertainment media and a few libraries' worths of books, and convince her father to return to Tyria with her, so she didn't want to spend that time at odds with anyone.
Though from personal experience, she knew that was an empty wish. No matter what she did, or where she went, trouble would find her.
Not that there was much on Earth Bet that could threaten her, but better safe than sorry.
After making sure that the drone would be okay, she continued flying towards her home on Earth Bet, wondering what Danny had decided…
Danny stayed seated on the sofa after Taylor left. Reeling from all the information that his daughter dumped on him. With the understanding that it definitely didn't even scratch the surface…
He didn't know how long he sat there, going over everything that was said or not said.
Trying to make sense of magic, and Taylor, because she had changed.
While he would be the first to admit, he wasn't the best dad, and over the last year before her disappearance, they interacted less and less, but he could still say that he knew his daughter.
But the woman who sat across from him that morning was almost a stranger to him. He could barely read her, and he suspected what he could see was what she allowed him to see.
It was disconcerting to see that the daughter that two weeks ago was simply a gangly teenager returned as a fully realized woman, confident in herself and in her place in the world.
It saddened him that it was clear there was absolutely nothing he could provide to Taylor that she couldn't get for herself. He even suspected that if it wasn't for Annette, she wouldn't even come home.
Probably well deserved, but still…
He only returned to the real world when he heard the front door open. He looked up at his daughter, noting the dried tear tracks, then spoke up.
"Let's join the Protectorate, Taylor."
Taylor raised an eyebrow.
"Really? Just like that?"
"Yes. My leave is almost over, and I doubt I could return to the Union without outing myself within minutes. Resisting the need to organize and clean things is troublesome."
Another eyebrow joined the previous one.
"It's that bad?"
He waved his hand dismissively.
"Not really. I can resist it, but over time it gets really annoying. I can sense everything around me, and if it is not clean or organized, my power starts to annoy me." He shook his head in exasperation. "I'm hoping the Protectorate could help me with it. I've been already considering calling them before you got back, but now that you also want to join, I see nothing stopping me."
"All right. But what about the Union? Or the ferry?"
He sighed, averting his eyes.
"For now, you are more important than anything else, Taylor. But I'm sure I could leverage my power for some concessions from the Protectorate and PRT."
He watched as Taylor eyed him for a few seconds before she nodded.
"Excellent. Then let's get some lunch into our bellies, then call them. The sooner we can get it over, the better."
He stood up, offering a smile to Taylor, inwardly still conflicted but majorly relieved that Taylor was there and talking to him, and wasn't rejecting him, then walked after her into the kitchen, looking for sustenance.
