18th April - day 0
I should have gone to breakfast with Selene this morning. Dad's just asked me if he can help with my training. What's he going to do? Be a target? I've already got the hunt with Sarah to look forward to.
Pen to paper, I know it's stupid and childish of me to feel like he's intruding on my time with Selene. Especially after I shouted at him earlier.
I'm on PHO now as Berenike, they've decided to give me a tag for 'apprentice of Selene' something about not allowing punctuation in names. I also spoke to Mr and Mrs Dallon to make sure that they both know my name, and that they can call me.
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Day 3
Sarah 'died' three times during my hunt. I'm not sure who was more upset by that, myself or Sarah. On the plus side, dad 'died' twice after he laughed at Sarah, and they switched places. I really need to work out how Selene teleported Sarah and Dad out of the way.
I know that Selene once said that the lesser fae lived here. But floating lights? Fairies? I'm sure one of the things that almost killed dad literally walked out of a tree and tried to drag him in with it.
I managed to catch a unicorn, but Selene made me burn the body, apparently they're unsafe for mortals to eat. That means Sarah.
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Day 4
Dad's just taken Sarah home, and Selene sat me down. Apparently I did well yesterday. Who knew that not dying was doing well on something like that.
Ok, maybe I was a bit hasty earlier. I've just had a long talk about all the dead heroes from Ancient Greece, the ones they don't talk about. Along with the people they failed to save. I get it, I can't save anyone if I'm dead.
I wonder how many of those heroes were people Selene knew personally. At least I can hunt alone on this world now.
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I pause as I reappear at home with a flying squid thing I managed to bring down after only a couple of hours hunting. From her cave I can hear wailing. Carefully I make my way into the cave and down the steep incline until my ears pop.
As I get closer to the bottom, the distorted wailing turns into wracking sobs, so I hurry up, and make my way into a cave at the bottom. There I see Selene slumped on the floor in a puddle of light.
I only hesitate for a second before I hurry over and crouch down next to her with my hand on her back. "Selene, are you alright?"
Selene grabs the front of my chiton and sobs, "They're dead, I tried calling and calling, but they're all dead. There's no proof that we ever existed. Catlin looked, she went to your library and looked. Some of them should have survived, but they're all gone."
Gently, I pick her up and teleport us to the surface and hold her while she cries. Is this going to be me one day, crying because the only thing left of my people are my memories?
"I'm here Selene, and I'm not going to leave you if I have any choice in the matter."
I end up holding Selene for hours as she ugly cries, and I use my telekinesis to prepare the fire and food for the night. Though gathering water from the stream is almost beyond me. How many times has she held it together until I leave so she can fall apart?
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I'm putting a lumpy loaf of bread and mystery meat stew into Selene's hand when I feel the resonance of the little boy from the hospital.
"Hello? Darien wasn't it?"
"You answered."
"I did."
"Nobody ever answers."
"I can't promise to answer ever time."
"Why?"
I have to think about that for a few seconds before I say,"Sometimes I need to do other things, like helping other people. You wouldn't want me to let someone else be hurt because I had to talk to you, would you?"
I turn my full attention back to Selene when when Darien doesn't respond.
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Day 14
Selene's starting to do better, as in she's talking about things other than lost heroes and gods. Even if her stories of Artemis, and her long string of one night stands, have often been amusing. As a side note, that was quite a surprise to learn; Virgin didn't mean never had sex, it meant never tied to a man as a wife or mistress.
It's starting to get late, and I don't think Selene's yet up to cooking for herself, let alone hunting for herself, so I'm going to stick around until she can do both.
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Day 23
Selene and I went hunting in the next world, and we've just got back with a large deer. I'm not sure that she's really recovered from her bout of grief, but she's better enough to send me home. I just hope that I have just been reminded that she has been dealing with grief for longer than any modern countries have existed.
Taylor, please forgive me for writing in your diary. However, I feel that you should have a written record of how much staying with me has meant. I've already told you over the last day, but I'll say it again. Thank you. I didn't realize that talking about my past would have such an impact on me.
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After another scintillating morning at the union building. I stop outside my door as Lacey is talking animatedly to Sarah. A few seconds later I notice that Mike and two new faces are all playing cards separately at a table with only three chairs.
When it doesn't look like Lacey's going to be finished any time soon, I walk over with my spear tapping on the floor. "Hey everyone."
Sarah looks up and catches my gaze, "You heading off to get lunch?"
I nod, "I was. I was thinking about a pie."
Mike calls over, "Count me in, the stew yesterday was delicious."
Sarah looks at Lacey, "Sorry Lacey, duty calls."
Lacey glances up at the clock in frustration before stalking back to her office as Sarah walks over. I glance over at the table, "Any of you think I need another bodyguard?"
Mike waves his hand in a negative, "Nope, not it. I was here last time Lacey got fixated and drove poor Donald into retirement."
I frown, "Donald?"
"Our last treasurer, and a certified accountant. Still checks our books every year." Something must have shown on my face as Mike quickly adds, "I was kidding. While he complained about all the questions, he was already overdue for retirement. But we didn't have anyone else that could do the job. Youngsters like Sarah and Jose here wouldn't remember him though."
I look at Sarah, "Youngsters?"
Sarah nods, "Pa got me a job on one of his mates trawlers when I left school. Did it for 3 years till I broke my arm. Worked the docks while it healed and started paying my dues when the arsehole replaced me a couple of days after the cast came off. Probably a good thing too, as the Pretty Lady never came back to port one day three years ago"
Everyone goes silent for a few minutes and Jose crosses himself. Quietly, I ask, "Does that happen often?"
Sarah sighs as she looks at the men, before saying, "It is more likely on fleet boats than on crew owned boats. But we see two or three ships going out and never coming back every year."
I shake my head, "Why do people do it then?"
Sarah grimaces and her eyes go distant, "Because it's like shitting diamonds. If you can hack it for 10 years you can retire. But only if you're willing to go for the money makers. Even if you don't you can make a good living, especially since they stopped using dragnets after Leviathan sunk a few fleets near Madrid."
Mike nods, "Aye, it's like the Greenland, Iceland, Ireland oversea route for shipping. Nobody ships across the Atlantic anymore, and if the state would just do something about that bloody container ship, and open up the deep channel, we could have some of that pie ourselves."
Sensing the beginning of another 'in my day' rant starting, I look at Sarah, "We should go before it gets too late."
Sarah holds out her hand and I teleport us downstairs quickly. As Sarah opens her mouth to say something, I levitate a massive steel pie tin from the piles of old equipment.
"I wonder why we've got all of this stuff?"
Sarah points at something at the bottom of the pile, "While you were in your room yesterday, Mike said that the Union used to rent the building next door, and ran a Union kitchen out of it. That was until the dues stopped covering the rent. That's one of the big ovens from there. Sad thing is, we could probably buy it for pittance now, but there's no money in the docks to pay for it. I almost wish I'd lived here during the heyday of the port."
I stare at the oven wistfully, "I could probably get rid of the wreck now. But it would be too little too late. Dad said that they'd finished the freight line to Portland, so even if we did fix the channel it wouldn't matter. I still might one day, even if we never get the mining business back."
"Why not do it now?"
"Knowledge is power. Especially for us. I don't know what to do if it breaks up, or I lose it into the channel. Where would I put it? There's just so much I don't know."
"You're not like most teenagers I've ever met, and I've not been out of school that long."
I sigh as I start looking for cracks in the world, "High school taught me that reprisals come fast even if you're doing nothing wrong. Then I met Lung and found out just how big the pond is. Since then, Selene has both shown me how far I have to climb, as well as the fact I can get there."
As we start moving through the worlds, Sarah shakes her head, "Taylor, I seriously think you're underestimating yourself."
I shake my head, "If I'm wrong, that's it, I'm sort of dead and gone for at least another 20 years. And that's assuming that Selene's right about me not actually dying. A claim that I really don't want to put to the test ever. I should have died while I was fighting Lung the week before last… Christ, is it really only that long? It feels like so much has happened since then."
Sarah laughs, "Taylor, it's been months for you."
I shake my head, "No, I mean on Earth Bet so much has happened. I met Lung and survived, started homeschooling, got caught up in a bank robbery, met Selene, met Glory Girl, got a cape ID and made friends with New Wave, and now the Empire and ABB are fighting each other. Yet I come into the Union building, and I've spent the morning programming."
Sarah nods, "I can see that. Not sure how you've kept all of that straight in your head though, I forgot that I was supposed to see ma and pa for dinner last night."
Rather than answer the question, I instead say, "I'm going to be hunting something larger than rabbits today, as I want to leave more than a portion of food for Selene."
Given that I don't want to run the risk of being attacked by one of those porcupine wolf things, we pass the world that my camp used to be on, and stop at the next world. Sarah nervously asks, "Would you be able to teach me how to hunt like you do? Only I haven't had any work for a while and it would help me offset my roommates bills, and my upstairs neighbor has a few kids, and I know they've been skipping meals so the kids don't have to."
I look at Sarah and the words just stick in my throat, "I…I…" Shaking my head I say, "No, I can't. I'm sorry. I don't know enough to teach you."
As Sarah's shoulders slump, I quickly add, "But that doesn't mean you can't hunt with me, and I'll try and explain what I'm doing. But to start with, a lot of what you need to do is keep meditating and start sewing and doing things with your magic."
I lift up my sewing, that I've managed to remember to keep doing all morning.
As I start scanning our surroundings, Sarah asks, "How do I start sewing then?"
I pause for a second, though I don't drop my alertness, "Haven't you been using telekinesis automatically already?"
Sarah shakes her head, "Nope, not once."
Teleporting us to the top of a nearby hill, I say, "Telekinesis is one of what I'm going to call the, 'I want' type of powers. To start with, you'll only be able to do it because you really really want to. My cleaning and repair powers are like that too. Once you've started doing it, you probably won't be able to stop, which is where the sewing and meditation come in. Teleportation is also an I want sort of power, but you can also learn it by using a conscious awareness meditation. But this isn't like cape powers, where they get the power and then they learn how to refine it. You need to work for every single bit of ability you have…"
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I'm just trying to work out how I'd write a news story scraper that takes a URL and pulls out only the text of the story without using the existing metadata for the RSS feed. My train of thought is broken when I feel Victoria's resonance in my chest.
"…school's just finished, do you fancy meeting up? I want to drag Amy off to the boardwalk, but she wants to check in at the hospital."
I scowl at the screen for a second before I respond, "Sure, let me get changed."
"Don't bother, this is just friends going out, not a cape thing."
I hesitate, "Um, if I'm not in costume, I'll probably need to have a bodyguard along with me. Especially for the boardwalk."
"Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, just perks of being dad's daughter during a gang alert. I told you about Skidmark didn't I?"
"You did, gotta go as Amy's trying to walk off. Have you been to Arcadia before?"
I think for a moment, "Ah… yes, I have. I tried to get an academic scholarship, but dad earnt too much. We might have some left over steak pie if either of you want me to bring some. I made it fresh at lunchtime."
"Sure, I really need to go."
I smile and set the computer to shut down as I grab my bag. As I open the door to my room, I stop in surprise, as instead of just the four guys doing bodyguard duty, there's another dozen guys hanging around the other tables, and a load of paper plates dotted around too. A second later I walk across the room to dad and Lacey's office and poke my head through the door.
I smile as I watch dad's pen making some notes on a sheet of paper next to him as he's reading some paperwork. When it starts writing on his desk I cough a laugh, "Um, dad, I think you're supposed to keep your writing to the paper."
Dad looks up in confusion, then swears at the pen, "Damn it, that's the third time that's happened. I have no idea how you do it Taylor."
I float my notebook out of my pouch, "I hold my notebook and my pen at the same time. Anyway, I'm just heading out to meet up with Victoria and Amy, then we're heading to the Boardwalk."
Dad opens his mouth to say something, and Lacey says, "Danny!"
Dad closes his mouth for a second, and then says, "Ok, don't forget to let Sarah know, and try to contact Selene if you have any problems you can't handle."
"Um, sure, I will. Thanks dad."
Lacey smiles at dad before looking at me as she says, "There's a chip in mug by the pie tin. The money in it is yours as you did the cooking."
I look at Lacey blankly, "Huh?"
"You cooked a big pie, and people chipped in to help cover the cost of ingredients. Normally it wouldn't even come close, but I figure it will be a nice bit of spending money for you."
"I, um, Sarah helped. She knew how to build the oven after all."
Lacey shrugs, "Split it then, it don't matter much."
While she's talking dad pulls out his wallet and takes out a few notes, "Taylor, I forgot to give you our allowance over the weekend."
I rub the back of my head, "Um, I just figured money was tighter than normal."
Dad shakes his head, "Don't forget, it was your college fund that took the hit. Oh, and I'm going to be on the road most of the day tomorrow."
I nod, "Thanks dad, and I can make my own way here. Not like I'm using the busses."
With the money disappearing into my pouch, I make my way over to the chip in cup. While I split out the money, I also use my power to put the last bit of pie on two separate paper plates and clean out the tray with my cleaning power. As I'm walking over to Sarah, with her shiny new stick and a pen that she's trying to draw with, I slip a couple of plastic forks into my pouch.
"Hey Sarah, I'm heading to Arcadia to meet some friends, and then we're going to the boardwalk."
Sarah immediately snaps the pen with her magic, and winces, "Shit…"
Laughing, I wave my hand and the pen fixes itself, "Guess you need to learn how to fix it then."
Sarah nods with a sigh, "I guess I do, and I'm not asking Selene for help with that one."
I smirk as she starts to gather her bag, "What, you don't want to spend another day with your arms tied behind your back while she shouts, 'Come on, you know how to catch things, catch them!'"
Sarah rubs her shoulder where a stone caught her particularly hard, "Yeah, at least I figured out how to undo the knots. And, hey, she also got me this stick."
I sigh, "Training spear. You did ask her for lessons on how to hunt too."
Sarah shrugs, "It's not like I'm afraid of hard work or anything, and she really likes the pizza oven."
Closing my eyes, I picture the only part of Arcadia I clearly remember after I blew through the scholarship exam, and missed the means tested scholarship cut off by two points. Two more points and I'd have never stepped foot in Winslow.