Chapter 16 - Shield and the Staff

The girls insisted that they had to sit on the carpeted floor and hold hands in order for it to work. Joe sat in front of Frank, with Temperance to his left and Constance to his right. There was a large, lit candle in the middle, its flame flickering slightly as the room filled with the soothing scent of lemon grass and orange blossoms.

"Alright, let's close the circle–"

"Wait," Frank said, cutting Temperance off. "I've got a few more questions."

Joe agreed. Listening to all the fascinating lore about the girls and more importantly, themselves, he had almost forgotten about the rest of the strange events concerning the twins.

"Let's get them out and sorted then," Constance sighed wearily.

"Last Friday, a student named Brandon stabbed himself on the back of his palm in the cafeteria until he was bleeding," Frank started slowly. "The head of your security team had to take him to the hospital because apparently, he was muttering your name while he hurt himself, and afterwards," he nodded pointedly at Temperance.

She frowned, thinking back to the day in question. Her frown deepened as she slowly started to recall the details. "Brandon wanted to buy us coffee," she murmured, staring into space. "He insisted on it, and we turned him down because we don't drink coffee–"

Joe saw the wince on Frank's face when he heard that. It was a painful confession for his coffee-loving brother to hear.

"Ever?"

"Never," Temperance confirmed. "It messes with our systems, a genetic problem, and I asked him to piss off because he was irritating. He went to the nearest empty table, took his pen out, spread his fingers flat on the table surface and started stabbing himself…" she closed her eyes and shuddered at the memory. "It was awful."

"I remember wanting to get there and stop him," Constance whispered. She had a glassy look in her eyes as if she was trying to recall a muddled memory. "But all I could do was just sit and stare. There was a lot of blood on the table after he was taken away…a white handprint on a red background–"

She trailed off, staring back at her sister who looked just as… lost. They both blinked and broke off the staring contest at the same time.

"I don't remember what happened afterwards," Temperance shook her head confusedly. "Did we even go to classes?"

Constance ran a hand through her hair in a gesture of frustration. "I don't know."

Joe exchanged a silent glance with Frank. Their reaction seemed genuine to him. His instincts were telling him that they could trust these girls. It was quite possible that the influence of the other pair of twins may have been in the play for a lot longer than Constance and Temperance even realised.

"If we could ask him to check the footage from the cafeteria and see if one of the Phillips girls was there at the time…" Frank said out loud, completing his thought.

"After this." Joe nodded. "What about Claire Stanford?"

"What about her?"

"She was another friend of yours, wasn't she? Any idea how she may have come across the drugs she overdosed on? According to what we've heard and been told, it's next to impossible to get to that stuff and she never had a substance abuse problem."

"No," Constance shook her head, looking exhausted. "We know nothing about that. We were just as shocked to find out about that too."

"Although her boyfriend seemed devastated at the news," Temperance said, curling her lips. "He looked like a zombie walking around even after she recovered–"

"Maybe that was because she got expelled?" Constance asked her sister. "I mean, no more convenient sneaking off for makeout sessions–"

"Who's her boyfriend?" Joe broke in.

"Don't know his name. The protocol only allows us to know Arthur Gray. He's the head of our security," Constance shrugged. "I'm pretty sure he was one of the ground patrol guys of the team. He's always on the prowl whenever I see him."

"Was this a disclosed relationship?"

"Oh, no," Temperance said quickly. "He would have lost his job, you know. We found out by accident. We just didn't see the point in making waves. They seemed happy even though they kept it well under wraps."

Joe looked from the twin to Frank to find him rubbing his forehead. That could have been an angle the spy missed. As Temperance said, the security details were not allowed to cross boundaries where they worked. Even if Claire Stanford wasn't one of their protectees, Lincoln College was effectively his field of operation. Having an affair with one of the students would have gotten him summarily dismissed from the security team.

"One more thing for him to find out then," was all Joe said, feeling just as tired as his brother looked.

"Are we done now?" Constance asked hopefully.

"I'm sorry, not yet," Frank said, apologetically, earning twin groans. "Uh, when you were doing all of this research to help your sister, did you come across an online dealer that goes by the handle, 'The Broker'?"

There was a moment of absolute incomprehension before Constance slapped a hand against her mouth, her eyes going wide. Temperance blinked. "What?"

"The Staff and the Coin, sis."

"Yeah, so?" Temperance frowned, still unsure. "That never went anywhere, did it?"

"No, it didn't," Constance shook her head. "But I told you there was something wrong about that entire deal, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but–" she cut herself off then, and stared at her sister's look of alarm. Then, after a long moment of confused silence, she finally put two and two together. "Oh!" she gasped, her wide, silver gaze darting back and forth between Frank and Joe. "What did we do?"

"How do you even know?" Constance's cry came out muffled through her fingers.

"Secret Service screens your correspondence," Frank explained. "That handle triggered an alarm. It's used by a group of black market arms dealers–"

"Oh, my God!" they both exclaimed simultaneously, horrified. "We didn't!" Temperance shook her head violently.

"We'd never!" her sister looked ready to weep.

"We just sent out a request to all our friends asking for information about those two items, in fact, Sierra told us about it," Temperance hurried to explain. "She had a book and she showed us the sketches. We were desperate for something at that point–"

"But we never saw any reply from them," Constance interjected, doing her best not to fall apart. Joe could see that their shocked reactions to the news were genuine. He was relieved that they haven't gone down the path of treason, not knowingly at least. "We made an account and made the request in the chat room. But then Willow told us about you guys and we never really went back there again."

"It's a good thing," Joe said gently, hoping to calm the twins down. "The Broker wanted you to help them spy on your dad's work. I'm guessing they got suspicious when you two never replied. They deleted the account and all traces of communication after that before the Secret Service could track them down."

"He's right. As long as you haven't agreed to make any deals, you're fine," Frank added. "You haven't had any further contact from them afterwards, have you?"

"No," Temperance said, her tone firm. "To be honest, I'd forgotten the entire thing until you brought it up. Willow said we don't need any of that–"

Frank, his ever-suspicious brother, cocked his head to the side. "How did she know about us?"

"She sensed you," Constance said softly. "She may have been keeping tabs on you for some time too. She shared the signatures of your auras with us and told us that you were coming."

"That's how we knew you," Temperance added, smiling. "Except she never knew what you looked like or that you're a couple of government spies–"

"Hey–" Joe laughed. "I'd say we're more like private spies, we don't work for the government. Oh, I just remembered the other thing. Um, do you know anything about the ones who tried to shoot a porno in the gym?"

"Lord help me!" Temperance rolled her eyes to high heaven, barely hiding a snicker. "Who gave you all of this information?"

"The dean, Mr Thornton. He's convinced your group is responsible for all of the strange things going on in this college. He wants all of you out."

"To be fair to him, after we listened to all he had to say, we kinda agreed with him," Frank added. "Not to mention your own protective detail is trying to figure out whether you've been selling out state secrets."

There was a long pause before Constance broke the silence. When she did, there was a clear note of self-recrimination and guilt in her voice. "Guess we've been focused on Willow for so long, we let a lot of things slip right under our noses. We never realised how far Sierra and Sienna have slipped into Old Ways… the dangerous ways. It's no excuse, just an explanation–"

"And, no," Temperance said quietly. "We've never ever traded any sort of state secrets. We love our dad, we would never do anything to cause trouble. Our parents and the entire family line had been in positions of leadership and power for as long as we can remember. We've been raised to respect the responsibilities that come with it, and not to abuse the privileges we have always known and enjoyed."

"Bret Wilson, Sophie Delaware and Tina Williams, those fledgling movie makers got their asses kicked out because of a dare," Constance picked up when Temperance looked at her. "They had a weird, very passive-aggressive, one-upping match going on with the social club of Alexander Technical College," she broke into a sideways grin. "Check Lincoln's Social Studies Weekly and you'll see for yourselves what I mean. It's a completely unrelated thing and we had nothing to do with it. Contrary to the pattern, we and our friends are not responsible for all the madness that's been going around here."

"That's good to know." Frank grinned back.

Constance spread her arms and gestured to both of them. "If you're done with interrogating us, shall we get on with this, boys?"

"Sure," Joe smirked, slipping his hand into Constance's waiting palm, just as Frank did. "For now."

Temperance relit the candle that had died during their discussion with an exaggerated finger wriggle and a wink. The flame came to life with the refreshing aroma of the herbs that soon filled their entire room. She then completed the circle by clasping hands with them and started to chant in a soft voice.

It wasn't English or any other language Joe recognized, but it had a musical cadence to it that relaxed him and calmed his mind to the point he almost felt sleepy as he listened. Her voice got quieter as she came to the end of her chant and the space above them exploded into a riot of whimsical colours the moment she trailed off towards completion.

"Whoa! Wow!" That was all his stunned mind could articulate as he stared up at the vision floating above them. It was as if Temperance's chant had summoned a cloud into their midst; a strange, mystical cloud that had two distinctive parts.

One was connected to the two of them, that much was clear. It rippled between him and Frank, shining pure bright white. He could see flashes of gold and silver mingled in the white light, drawing his attention. As he concentrated, those flashes revealed themselves to be some sort of strands - a network of strings interwoven into an intricate tapestry that sparkled when the light from the cloud glanced off of its delicate surface in all directions.

Maybe it could have been a trick of the light, or maybe his bedazzled mind was seeing things - but he thought the complex shapes of the silver and gold strands depicted a magnificently carved shield and a staff with a skull at its top.

"All-Mother and Her Graciousness," Constance whispered, awestruck. "That is one beautiful aura. We never saw it this clear when we first saw it–"

"It really is," Temperance agreed just as softly, almost reverently. Then she frowned. "But do you see what I see, sister? Ours has got a problem–"

That made Joe drag his eyes off their own and focus on the other part of the cloud. It was beautiful in its own way, he had to admit. The girls had a very soothing bond. Their auras were a combination of earthly browns and forest greens cradled in a breathtaking vortex of stormy greys and cerulean blues. He could almost hear the sounds of chirping crickets, the soft breeze dancing around among the trees and a distinct crashing of waves against a rock formation. Their entangled auras were an intriguing representation of mother nature, he realised, just like their special affinities.

What had worried Temperance was the slight marring - the scars - that seemed to have etched themselves into the otherwise undisturbed surface of the cloud. They looked like cuts or even scratches at first glance - unhealed wounds that bled a sickly grey substance at spots, making it look like their combined aura had fallen into some kind of sickness.

"Why does it look like it's been… injured?" Frank voiced his thoughts in a hushed tone.

"Because it is," Constance said evenly. She was angry and the look she shared with her twin said that they knew exactly what was wrong with it. "And I know who's responsible for this."

"Sierra and Sienna?" Joe guessed.

"None other," temperance snapped. "These irregularities, the wounds, are intrusive thoughts that are not our own," she glared at their aura as it rippled and wavered, its calming shades darkened due to the subtle but very present sickness. "Those two bitches have been planting suggestions, all along, Constance, we never even noticed–" she muttered through clenched teeth, beyond enraged.

"Looks like they've been infecting you for a while," Frank observed. "Some of the cuts look fresh while the others are really dark," then he looked back down at the twins. "Guess they haven't gotten to ours just yet."

"They can't. Not with that blazing shield protecting both of you from any and all magical influences aimed at you…" Temperance murmured, looking up to stare at the tranquil cloud that had settled over them.

Huh, Joe thought, so I wasn't seeing things that weren't there then.

"And I'm pretty sure that's the Staff of Cailleach–"

He exchanged a glance with Frank. There were just too many questions and every time one of the girls just casually threw something in like that, it boggled his mind to realise that they knew next to nothing about themselves. But all of that had to wait until they dealt with the immediate issues.

"Can you guys fix your aura? Clear off that stuff–" Joe asked, hoping against hope that they could. The twin had to be completely free of the clutches of Sierra and Sienna first before they could do anything else.

"Damn right we can," Constance said fiercely. "The bracelets will make sure that we're protected afterwards. Gods, I'm so angry I want to throttle them–"

"So do I." Her sister agreed.

"How exactly have they been influencing you, can you tell?" Frank said softly in a subtle attempt to distract the twins from plotting murder.

"We'll know just as soon as we get rid of this," Constance said decisively. "Are you ready?" They all clasped hands at her signal, completing the circle. The candle flared brightly for a moment before settling down to flicker serenely in the slight breeze. "Okay then," she said, nodding at her sister. "Let's begin."

They both broke into chanting then, letting the unfamiliar words flow in a rhythm that sounded more like a battle song than the soft lullaby Temperance chanted earlier. The words had power and Joe could feel it wrapping around them before rising up to merge with their auras. The bleeding wounds slowly started to heal and the greyness dissolved as the chanting grew in volume and pitch. The final few words of the spell were shouted out in defiance and their voices echoed inside their room in eerie waves. Absolute silence reigned after the echoes faded, taking the final bits of invading influence from their auras in their wake.

The candle flickered a few times, caught in an invisible wind current, before dying out.

Joe looked up just in time to see a fully healed and restored green-blue cloud of the twins' aura flash brilliantly above them before fading away from his sight. Their own bright white aura disappeared soon after, leaving the room dark and empty once again.

"It is done," Constance murmured, withdrawing her hands and breaking the circle.