Author stuff: There are no thoughts in my head other than Bernadette Banner released a video about her spinning wheel and her learning to spin it. Her learning to spin FLAX, of all things, is such a me thing to do. I never like doing things the easy way, I gotta go with the EXTREMELY COMPLICATED way that leaves people going: "Why?"
Anyway, if you like historical fashion and stuff — and seeing an absolutely adorable guinea pig — please check her out. I use her as a research reference for a lot of different things. Most of which I never end of working in to the fic I'm writing on. But her videos are always fun and interesting. Please think of checking her channel out.
It isn't that much, but it's a good start
Chapter 2 - Is it in your nature?
Stuart's palms and the backs of his knees were sweating. He regretted drinking all that coffee and agreeing to this. His fingers were trembling slightly and the only thing he could do was stuff them in his pocket.
He was only supposed to drive the getaway car, well the getaway van. But he had his duties to uphold, being one of the few to know the whereabouts of the exiled Akiridion Queen and King to be. Duties, might he add, that had been forced on him by Varvatos Vex — who'd been tasked with distracting some old lady. Stuart had no idea who she was or her connections to all of this, and he didn't think he wanted to.
He really wanted to just go back and sell enchanted spicy tacos to kids on school nights. Kids like the ones doing the rough part of the mission.
His eyes darted over to the building the others had all entered. And then back over to Krel.
Krel was clicking away at his laptop. From what Stuart could tell, he was mostly hacking into the nearby cameras and erasing the footage of the others getting into the building.
It was child's play. Personally, he'd mastered it years ago. Since he was exiled to Arcadia for… well, everything.
If he really wanted to, Stuart could do the hacking bit. It would have been easy, but Krel knew what he was doing. And he could do it just as well as Stuart did — well, though he was loath to admit it, better than Stuart could.
Stuart let out a shaky breath, wiping his hands on his cargo shorts. He took a seat at the van floor right inside the car door. It rocked to the side, but Krel kept working. He'd moved on from the exterior cameras to… something else. He couldn't see what it was from this vantage point.
"How's it going?" he asked.
"Group One got in," Krel said.
"Group One?"
"Aja and the others. Jim is Group Two."
"Has he checked in yet?"
Krel shook his head, his eyes still trained on the screen in front of him. It made Stuart squirm. That… wasn't natural.
"He has been very quiet."
"Do you think that's a good thing?"
"I don't know."
Stuart's tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth while he mulled over what he wanted to ask next. He… he should just ask.
"So, where did you learn to do all this?" he asked.
"All… what?" Krel said, his eyes briefly flicking away from the screen to look at him. A frown burrowing deep into Krel's face.
"Hacking into magically charged electronics."
"I got bored and realized that music synthesized with the coding. It was all experimentation over the last… four delsons. It took me longer than I thought it would."
Stuart… blinked. That was abnormally fast. For anyone of any age.
"So," he said slowly, "since the Were-Troll asked for our help then."
Krel nodded.
"I'm really interested in the technology the Avalonian wizard uses. It's… different."
Stuard frowned.
"What d'you mean, 'different'?"
Krel shrugged.
"I'm not sure. It's old in many ways but it's also something I've never seen before."
"You think you'll be good enough to handle it? I can step in if you need any help."
For the first time since Jim had asked for their help and they'd accepted, Krel paused in his work. He looked over to Stuart. Even with his shoulders squared and his head held high, exhaustion pulled at his eyes and limbs. But, Krel smiled. It wasn't a big smile, just enough to break through the worn expression on his face.
"Thank you, Stuart," Krel said, "but I can handle this."
"Alright. If you insist."
Author stuff cont'd.: Some backstory and understanding who the team is trying to save. And hints of the backstory around... everything. This chapter and the next few were added in out of order bc I hated where certain things left off. And I wanted to explain so much, but needed more conversation for them, so things go flip flopped around. Thank goodness they could.
Also, you're going to get a different narrator for each one until we get closer to the end. Why? Bc I wrote it that way and it was the way the scenes wanted to be written.