Author's Note: I know it's been a long time coming. I'm sorry. No good excuses really—busy, lack of inspiration, etc. I know where the story is going now, and I'm working on getting it there, if you'll bear with me. Without further ado…I give you In the Closet.
In the Closet
Disclaimer: The characters in question belong to Diane Duane. I own only the plot.
Chapter 15: Questions and Answers
Nita and Kit wandered back to her room, frustrated. Their meeting with Nelaid was less helpful than they had hoped, but Nita supposed it really would have been too much to ask for him to know the exactly where the kernel was just now and to be able to account for its location for the last umpteen thousand years. Really, it would have been too easy.
When Nelaid had given him as much information as seemed forthcoming for the moment, an attendant had appeared to lead Nita and Kit to lunch elsewhere in the garden—under a sort of gazebo—with Lady Miril, Roshaun, and Dairine.
Lunch was tense, though Lady Miril did her best to keep everyone's spirits up, but there was only so much one person at a table for five could do. The table had been set out for six, but Nelaid seemed to have no interest in joining them. Dairine and Roshaun didn't seem terribly interested in discussing whatever it was they'd spent the morning working on. Nita didn't find herself with much of an appetite, so the only part of lunch she enjoyed was when Lady Miril asked Dairine if she had been practicing the cathaw and when Dairine had to admit she hadn't been, Lady Miril suggested that Roshaun perform for their guests this evening, if there was time.
Nita and Kit had exchanged a satisfied look at the expression on Roshaun's face; he looked like he was trying not to be exasperated, but was, with his features half-frozen. He'd replied stiffly that they had more important matters to attend to than that.
"Tekeh, there's always time for music. The stress has made your nerves tighter than a lythro string. It's impossible to make careful decisions under such conditions." Her tone brooked no argument and for a wonder, Roshaun did not attempt any further one. He didn't even leave the table, but rather waited for his mother to make her own excuse for leaving before announcing that he and Dairine would be getting back to work.
So that was how Nita and Kit found themselves back in her room, trying to see what they had to work with.
"Well, he did open up the authorization for more information on Wellakh for us, but what we're looking for just doesn't seem to be here," Kit said, this time in the chair while Nita was sprawled out on the bed with her manual.
Nita sighed, laying her manual open on her stomach and resting her hands on the cover. "We know more now than we did this morning, but we don't know nearly enough. Nelaid doesn't have the kernel, and furthermore, has never had it. Seriously, what sort of Planetary Advisor leaves the planet to fend for itself?"
Kit shifted in his seat. "To be fair, it's not like he's left the planet or ignored the problems or anything. They just do things differently here. He didn't seem to think the kernel was anything that needed interfering from him—or us for that matter. I don't think he likes the idea of us messing around with his planet's software." He sat up a bit, stretching his arms over his head. This was already feeling like a long day and they hadn't done nearly as much as they needed to. "All we can do is keep reading and hope something turns up."
"If we do find it, we'll probably have to have Roshaun with us. It won't be real keen to let an outsider manipulate it. There might be some sort of obscure mention of it in the new material that's opened up," Nita admitted, though they'd been looking.
"I was also thinking we could look at locating spells, see if we can find anything that would help lead us to it," Kit added.
"You want to work on locating spells, and I'll start going back through all the synopses of interventions here?" she offered.
Kit nodded and got up, moving to sit on the bed with her, resting his back against the headboard. "Sounds like a plan." He gave her calf a squeeze and she looked up at him from where her head was at the foot of the bed.
She raised herself up on her elbows. "Behave. I hate Dari being right about anything, but we do only have today and tomorrow to straighten things out here before we have to get back home. Once we're home…we've got all the time in the world."
He grinned at her. "All the time in the world until Dairine tells your dad and I'm not allowed to be alone with you anymore."
She laughed, exasperated, and sat up. She leaned forward and tugged him forward by his lovely pink tunic. She kissed him soundly, and felt him kissing her back. Their mouths were slightly open, and their tongues caressed one another. Nita had her free hand in the hair at the back of his neck. She could feel the earthiness of his mind, solid, there, wonderful. She moved herself forward so she was pressed against his chest, letting go of his shirt.
Kit's back was against the headboard and Nita was pressed against him. He wrapped his arms around her back, biting her lower lip gently, tasting her, reveling in the feeling of her mind and body. Her mind was so alive—filled with growing things, living things, blue and green and so completely there.
They broke the kiss off finally, breathing rather heavily, and both a bit pink in the face. They couldn't help grinning. Nita moved herself to his side and joined him against the headboard so they were half sitting up, hip to hip, and her head was on his shoulder. "Better?"
He nodded, grinning, and putting his arm around her. "Much better. Now I'd be happy to check out the locating spells while you hunt through Wellakhit interventions…"
She smiled at him wryly. "Do you have any idea how many interventions I'm going to have to look through to find something remotely promising?"
"Better get started then."
And so they got to work, leaning against one another and digging into their manuals. Nita muttered to her manual, trying to narrow the scope of the summaries she was looking at. She knew that neither Nelaid nor Roshaun had ever used the kernel, and Nelaid had said he wasn't aware of his father or grandfather having done anything with them. Great. That just left…thousands of years of interventions to look through. Over the next hours she was able to comb through them, managing to isolate the results her manual showed her to interventions by Roshaun's family line. Kit continued reading through different types of finding spells that they could do, but none seemed right for what they needed to do.
They were still at work when there was a tap at their door and Nita called out for whoever it was to come in. The door opened, and they didn't immediately see anyone. Leaning over the edge of the bed, they saw Spot scuttling across on his legs. The sentient computer reached the foot of the bed and gave a tremendous spring and landed on it. The two wizards watched in amusement as Spot seemed to bounce for a moment, as though testing the mattress with his many legs.
"What does Dari want?" Nita asked, looking at the computer and wondering if it had had another upgrade. It looked even sleeker than she remembered.
"Dairine will be here in five minutes." Spot examined Nita and Kit with its eyestalks for just a moment before disappearing with a pop of displaced air.
Kit snorted. "She sent Spot on ahead to make sure we wouldn't be making out when she showed up?"
Nita smiled wryly. "Apparently we must have scarred her delicate sensibilities."
Dairine and Roshaun came along a few minutes later, striding through the door Spot had left open on his way in. Dari was carrying Spot in her warms. Nita wasn't real clear on how the computer had opened the door to begin with. They settled themselves in the chairs at the breakfast table without bothering to greet Nita and Kit.
"We're on our own for dinner tonight—it'll be delivered to our rooms. Have you two had any luck?" Dairine asked.
Kit explained what they'd learned from Nelaid—not much—and how their search through the new material that had opened up was going. "What about you two?"
Dairine shot him a scathing look. "Since you told us to wait until you had more information before figuring out if we were walking into a trap, we decided to work on something else instead." They had spent the afternoon trying to work on plans that would stabilize and improve Wellakh's social and political climate. It was certainly as important as dealing with the drought, even if the changes were going to come more slowly. Then again, things didn't seem to be progressing well on the drought front either. All the same, if there was a wizard out there misusing the kernel, trap or no trap, she wanted to get out there and find him, her, or it.
Roshaun summoned his version of the manual, starting to look through the interventions as well. Roshaun tried to authorize Dairine's manual to access the complete list of past interventions, but he didn't rank high enough to—apparently that was a privilege reserved for Nelaid. She had to be content with looking for a finding spell that might stand a chance of working.
"What about the one we used on our Ordeal?" asked Kit. "It took no supplies. You just had to visualize what you wanted to find."
"It's worth a shot," Nita said dubiously, "but what would Wellakh's heart look like?"
The young king closed his mind, as if concentrating. "Wellakh's heart would be…" His breathing slowed and it was felt like a long time before he spoke. "…Thalis. The planet's history has been fundamentally impacted by our star. More so than most. What if…" His eyes opened suddenly and he started looking through his version of the manual with a surprising intensity, as if he knew what he was searching for.
The rest of them watched, curious. Had he actually found something?
Roshaun expanded the view of the entry he wanted. It wasn't as detailed as he would have liked, but it was promising, very promising.
Nita and Kit started to read it, converting the dates. The intervention Roshaun was looking at had taken place nearly a thousand years ago. The Sun-Lord had taken a trip to the sun and not returned. That wasn't surprising; in what they'd already read through it sounded like it wasn't uncommon for the rulers here to die trying to do something with the sun. But it didn't say this one died. Just that he was gone.
Roshaun spoke quietly. "It says that someone had attempted to tamper with the soul of Wellakh, and that it was the Sun-Lord's job to protect it at whatever cost to himself—because the people could not survive if the planet's soul was gone."
Kit looked at him closely. "So you think he took the Wellakh's kernel and brought it…"
Nita nodded, leaning in to examine the entry and looking for more information. "It's possible."
The room was quiet then, except for Dairine's flippant response. "Then I guess we'd better go get it."
Nita looked at her sister incredulously. "You think it's just going to be that easy?"
"You go to manipulate the kernel, Roshaun has to go because Thalis won't recognize you or speak to you, I'll provide the power, and…" She frowned at Kit. "I don't know what you'll do yet. Maybe you can make sandwiches."
Nita's mind was still reeling, and she found the entry Roshaun was looking at in her own manual. The wizard wasn't dead, just missing. And there have been no mentions of the soul, the "spark" of Wellakh since. Couldn't it really be that easy? She shook her head Since when did going inside a start to find and alter the kernel of a planet sound easy?
Just then the palace was rocked by a large earthquake. Nita and Kit steadied themselves against the headboard, and Roshaun was rocked in his seat.
After a few agonizing seconds, it stopped. There didn't appear to be any more damage in the room than a single decorative vase that has fallen over, though everything had shaken. "You okay, Neets?" asked Kit.
She took a deep breath and let it out. "Yeah, fine." As New Yorkers, they hadn't exactly had much experience with earthquakes. "Dari, Roshaun?"
"I am fine," Roshaun said, straightening himself out and looking over to see if Dairine was okay.
"Yeah, I'm fine," said Dairine, looking at Spot and checking him over.
Kit looked over at Roshaun. "Do you have those often?"
The young king shook his head. "No, we don't. I must see to everything else and make sure everyone is unharmed." He stood, putting away his manual and heading for the door. The three Earthlings were on their feet and following him almost instantly.
There wasn't much damage to the palace—fortunately while the quake had felt like it lasted a long time, the damage wasn't as severe as it could have been. But one thing was clear. Wellakh was not behaving like itself. First the drought, and now earthquakes? Something needed to be done, and soon. As they proceeded down the corridor, looking for Roshaun's parents and generally checking that things were okay, reassuring the staff that everything was under control, an aftershock hit.
Nit and Kit braced against each other, and Dairine bent her knees in a sort of crouch as if it would help keep her stable. It didn't last long and wasn't as big as the first quake, but it was still disconcerting.
It didn't take long to find Nelaid and Miril trying to maintain some order and soothe the servants. They were demanding explanations. Ordinarily, they'd demand nothing, but grimly go on with their work. But to have these quakes on top of all the present trouble? And aliens here to fix it? It was getting to be too much.
"Silence," Roshaun said, in the Speech, commanding it, and receiving it. "Listen. See to it that no harm has been done. Soon all will be well. By evening tomorrow, order shall be restored. Do your part to restore it now by going back to your duties."
The crowd of servants scattered, slightly in a daze. Roshaun slumped a bit against Dairine, breathing a little heavily. Psychotropic spellings had a hefty price.
Lady Miril looked at Dairine. "Did he speak truly?" she asked, glancing at her son with concern and coming over to touch her hand to his forehead.
"I hope so," Dairine said fervently. "We think we know where the kernel is. We're going after it in the morning after we've all had time to rest. It will help if there's a world gate we could use tomorrow morning. We're going to have to travel pretty far."
"Come, let us go somewhere private," Nelaid said. He led them towards one of the most extravagant studies Nita had ever seen. The furniture was all done in leather, or something similar, and was as soft as anything she'd ever sat on. Large carved tables and smaller ones were stationed throughout the room over ornate rugs.
"Have you truly found the answer?"
"We hope so," Nita said. "We think…we think one of your ancestors put the kernel somewhere for safe-keeping. We're going to get it out, and fix it." She sat in one of the chairs, and Kit leaned on the back of it, close by her.
Nelaid looked at them all impassively. "So that's it then. You don't think it might be better remaining where it is? Where it has been safe for centuries?"
Kit looked at him sharply. "We're here because clearly everything isn't fine and dandy as-is. If it were, we wouldn't be here."
Roshaun straightened in his chair, recovering his energy. "It would appear our esteemed ancestor left Wellakh's spark in Thalis's care for safekeeping."
"You think you know where it is, so you'll waste a great deal of sheer energy just going to see if it's there, and then what if you're wrong? Or right? Will you have the energy to do what needs to be done?"
Nita felt her face get red and her temper start to crackle. "We're here to help you. We'll get it done. I'll go into a lucid sleep tonight and see if I can find it so we have a better target for tomorrow. It should be easier this time since now I know where to look." She blinked. "Now I know why it never felt any closer last night, no matter where I went. North, west, east, south, none of it would have brought me any closer to the sun."
"I had a thought about the energy for the world gate, so that we don't wear ourselves out," Kit said. "If anyone here can manage to retro-engineer the subsidized gate we used to get here, it would save us a lot of energy."
Dairine was quick to respond. "We can do it, but if we use the subsidized gate to get us to Thalis, we won't have it to get home with later after we're wiped out from the wizardry."
"I think it's more important that we worry about having enough power for the Wizardry at hand and worry about getting back to New York when it's time to get back to New York," Kit said.
"The Powers don't waste, Dari. Do you really think that they sent you a subsidized world gate just so you and Roshaun can visit each other?" Nita retorted. "I think they sent it for this."
Dairine scowled at Nita and Kit. They were right, probably anyway. It didn't mean she had to be happy about it. "In the interest of not wasting energy, you'd better do your lucid dream and find that thing before we take the gate apart."
Nelaid raised a hand for peace between the two sisters. "Do what needs to be done. If there is anything I can do to assist, inform me at once. I will see what needs attending to in the aftermath of that quake."
Miril nodded and followed him. "I do hope no one was hurt too badly. There may be a delay in getting dinner to you, but it will come. If there's anything you need…let me know." She moved out of the room gracefully, though her concern was evident on her face.
Roshaun looked around at the others. "I can easily re-engineer the world gate. It will take time though. How soon can you be sure of the kernel's location?"
"I don't think it's just a physical place we need to go to, but…also a metaphysical one, if your ancestor who brought the kernel there is still there. We may need to set some extra parameters in the spell to account for it," Nita said, remembering the time she spent on Allahu with Kit.
Kit looked down at her, nodding. He remembered. "It was easier when Ponch could walk us out of trouble…or into it."
Their general plan was simple enough. Nita would do a recon mission through her lucid dreaming to see if she could narrow down the location of the kernel, and Kit would provide whatever support she needed. Meanwhile, Roshaun and Dairine would make the necessary modifications to their subsidized world gate. The four of them discussed the mechanics of what they'd need in their spell for the morning until after dinner (which they ate in the study as they worked)—life support, time frame, everything that needed to be factored in. They worked while they ate, discussing little else.
And surprisingly, Nita found herself yawning by the time they were done with dinner. They had the basic outline of the spell for tomorrow, though there was still a lot of work to be done. She and Kit trudged back to her room fairly beat.
He shook his head. "The spells that computer brain of hers comes up with still gets me sometimes, you know?"
Nita nodded. "Yeah. It feels way too early to do any sort of sleeping but…working with the runt really takes it out of me."
Kit agreed whole-heartedly.
Nita looked down at her Wellakhit clothing. Today had felt so long, but she was comfortable enough. She'd wear it for her dreaming. Who knows, maybe it might give a little luck? She climbed in bed and got under the covers.
"Is there anything you need me to do?" asked Kit.
"Just the same as before," she said.
He settled himself in the chair next to her bed, pulling it up close. "I wish there was more I could do right now. It doesn't seem like enough to just sit here."
"You're not just sitting there," she said, getting up on her elbows. "You're going to make sure I'm okay while my mind goes kernel hunting. And you're here with me. I seriously wouldn't want to be here, doing this, without you this weekend."
He reached out and squeezed her hand. "It's just…I feel like this intervention is a big exam and I've been studying the wrong chapters. I can't help you look for the kernel or manipulate it once we find it. And I'm not totally wild about the idea of chucking ourselves at the sun tomorrow." He glanced down at his knees and gave a wry half-smile. "And I'm still dressed in pink."
She looked at him innocently, "I don't know, I think you can pull it off." She chuckled. "Just be glad Carmela won't see you in it."
"Oh god help me if she did. I'd never hear the end of it."
Still leaning up on her elbows, she turned over and kissed him. She couldn't help but wish, just a tiny bit, that they could just kiss and, you know, not have to save the world this weekend. But that thought was fleeting. Kit, Life, and wizardry all went together for her. Where would she be without him?
As they pulled apart, he said, "Happy kernel hunting."
She closed her eyes and activated the chain of the Speech for her lucid dreaming. She waited, and failed to fall asleep. She tried rolling over. She tried lying on her side. She sat up on her elbows, growled in frustration, and deposited the pillow down by her feet with a sudden movement of her arm. She rearranged herself with her head at what had been the foot of the bed, while Kit tried to stifle his laughter as the sheets got tangled around her. He finally lost it and just burst forth with it.
She looked up at him, annoyed.
"Sorry, Neets, can't help it," he said, not sounding the least bit sorry.
If he were within arm's reach she might have slugged him, but getting off the bed after battling with the sheets would simply be too much effort. She started attempting to untangle herself.
"Here, you go brush your teeth or something and I'll straighten it all out."
Nita, shrugged and realized she hadn't brushed and left the room to go do so. Kit meanwhile made up the bed and fluffed the pillow up a bit. When Nita came back in the room, she threw her arms around him in a big hug and got in bed. It was time to give this another shot. She looked at him, sitting up in the chair by the bedside with his manual open in front of him and smiled. This time she fell asleep.