I stare down the length of another tree trunk as I try to decide if my cut is going to be parallel with the grain, or slightly off again. Not that it matters for larger, or shorter, planks, but for what we're planning to make I need to ensure the grain doesn't pass through the board. That and it's just good practice. If only I had something to show where my cut's actually going to go, rather than needing to eyeball it. I suppose I could make some string out of flax and levitate it, but one of those laser levels they show on TV would be better.
Hang on, Laser is just light and I can make light…
My thoughts abruptly trail off as Victoria's resonance buzzes angrily in my chest. "…help me! I can't find anyone!"
I frown as I follow the resonance, as I thought Victoria was meditating. As I teleport to her, I find myself standing at the bottom of Selene's valley except there's no field on one side, and I can't see the forest that borders the lake dad's cabin's built by.
A second later I register the crying, and I look down beside me and spot Victoria crouching on the floor with her head buried in her knees. Kneeling down I put my arm around her, and hold her until she calms down while singingly soothingly like mum used to do for me when I was scared.
Eventually Victoria looks up, "You came, I couldn't find you."
I smile at her, "I'll always try to come when you need me. Now, why don't you tell me what happened."
"I. I was trying to meditate while you were shouting at the tree, and, and then you stopped shouting so I kept meditating until I got bored. When I opened my eyes you, you'd disappeared, an, and so had everything else."
I smile broadly as I realize what's happened. "Well done Victoria."
Victoria looks surprised, "What?"
I sweep my hand around in front of us, "This is your inner world."
Victoria looks around in confusion, "But this is just home."
I shake my head, "It used to look like this before Selene started living here. See, the ground by the cave is more sloped than it is outside, and there's no field of crops over there. I showed you my dad's cabin didn't I, why don't we see if the forest and lake are still there?"
Victoria nods, and clings to my arm as I climb the hill that should allow us to see the forest, and eventually the lake. Instead, when we reach the top of the hill, the lake is right there and, hidden from where we were by a low rise, is a large forest of tree stumps. Scattered amongst them are a few saplings and green shoots.
I suppose it makes sense, as I've always teleported us to the lake shore rather than trying to walk through the forest.
Victoria shivers beside me and asks, "What happened to all the trees?"
"If it's anything like my inner world, the trees were your memories. I'm not sure what the grass is, but everything in here is part of who you are."
Victoria looks at me wide eyed as we start walking down the hill, "Really?"
I nod, "Really, it's easy to check, we can just have a look at the trees."
"Even the cave?"
I nod, "Yes, even the cave."
"The cave can be scary. It makes scary noises."
I nod, "It's just the wind blowing across the mouth. I'll make you a pipe when we get back and you can practice with it."
"Will I ever meet Selene?"
I nod, "One day, I'll need to go away for a while to get the stuff she needs. But Big Sarah will be here to look after you."
"Can I go with you? I want to see my other home."
I ruffle Victoria's braided hair, "Once you can make the trip on your own. I won't be leaving until you can keep yourself at home without me helping you. Anyway, here we are."
Victoria looks back up at the hill, "That was quick."
I smile, "This is your inner world, we travel as fast as we want to, and time always seems to flow faster when your distracted. Isn't that right?"
Victoria flushes and ducks her head. Probably remembering a few times when I told her to come back from playing before noon, and she didn't notice the sun. "Come on, I know Selene is big on the self discovery and working things out on your own. But I think you need to know something about memories in here. In my inner world, I can touch a tree and reach into it with my magic to view a memory. You should be able to do the same here. Try it with one of the saplings first."
Victoria looks around before running over to the biggest sapling she can see and slapping her hand on it. As she does, I frown at the scattered stumps of red crystal scattered throughout the devastated forest.
Victoria looks sick as she wanders back, "Tay, how do I get rid of memories I don't like?"
I sigh, "You don't, you just learn to deal with them. What did you see?"
Victoria looks away, "Um, I just woke up and I messed myself."
I hug Victoria, "Do you know what I feel about that memory?"
Victoria shakes her head, "No?"
"Relief and happiness. That's the moment that I knew that we'd managed to save you. Now, why did you just call me Tay, you never do that."
"Um, I don't know, it just felt right."
I look around us at the tree stumps, and then I spot a couple of green leaves poking out of the center of one of them. "Victoria, see that stump over there. The one with the couple of leaves poking out of it. Why don't you try doing the same thing with that."
I watch as Victoria nervously walks over to the leaves and pokes them. As I watch the leaves rapidly grow into a tree that nearly fills the stump it grew out of. At the same time a smile graces Victoria's face, and she takes her hand away from the new old tree. "I have a kitten, and you gave it to me? You weren't in the memory, I was talking to Ames, Amy. What is a kitten?"
I sweep my arm across the trees at all the little leaves that have appeared, "These are all of your memories. Well, they might be all your memories, there could be others elsewhere. The point is, as you touch each one you'll see what's inside it. Now, you can explore these on your own, for now we need to get you back to the outside world so that you can fetch water."
"Do I have to? It's so heavy, and the stream's so far away."
I nod, "Yes you have to, Big Sarah and I both take our turns. And today is your turn."
"But why don't I ever see you doing it?"
"You have seen me doing it, when I showed you how to fill the basin with the bucket."
"But it's not fair."
I smile, "Then come up with a better way of doing it. What do I keep saying about magic?"
Dully Victoria says, "Magic helps you do things you already know how to do."
I gently put my finger on her forehead, "Exactly. Now getting out of your inner world is the same as getting in, but backwards. So try to figure out what you did, and…"
Victoria stamps her foot, "But I hate meditating."
I laugh, "No you don't, you hate this type of meditating."
"Yes I do!"
"So you hate our spear practice too?"
"What? No! That's not meditating."
I shake my head, "It is, that moment where all there is, is the two of you and everything just comes together? That's a moving meditation."
"But, but…"
"Meditation isn't just about sitting still and naval gazing. It's about letting everything else go and just focusing on the now. The one I had you doing to find this, was originally to help deal with unwanted emotions and troubled thoughts. I had a lot of those when I started doing it. What I found was a place to do exactly that. I've been doing another meditation to help me sense the world around me. That one looks the same as this one, but instead of looking inward, you're instead trying to focus on the world around you. But I've gone of track, you need to get back outside your body and get the water."
Victoria sags, "Aww, but I like it when you start talking like that. I learn so much, like the fact that sound has waves like water."
I almost correct her, before I see that sparkle in her eyes, "No, we can talk about physics later. Water now."
As Victoria reluctantly sinks to the floor, I thank my lucky stars that I left all my old school books with Selene, as they've been useful for making sure I'm not making stuff up.
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It's been around a week after Victoria first found her inner world, and I'm currently trying to disentangle myself from her so that I can head back to Earth Bet to pick up some iron.
I've almost disentangled myself, when Victoria shoves the last page of my diary into my hands, "Give this to Amy for me please."
I sigh and look down at the page, on one side is a drawing of the valley, and an arrow point at the cave that says 'Home'. On the other side is my list of projects and a scrawled out letter to Amy.
I sigh, "I'll do my best, but I might have to hand it to one of the staff at the PRT, as she might be asleep."
"But it's daytime."
"Victoria, do you remember what I said about time passing slower there?"
Victoria sounds sulky when she says, "Yes."
"It is so much slower that we have only been gone a few hours. A few hand spans of time."
"I know what an hour is."
I smile, "I know you do, but I didn't know if you knew how long it was. Now remember to do your chores and reading with Big Sarah, can you do that for me?"
Victoria opens her mouth, and then pauses before she says, "I'll try. I remembered what you said about promises."
I smile and look at Sarah, "Sarah, there's plenty of fresh meat in the cave, and we turned a lot of it into jerky. Remember to hide the carrots, otherwise Victoria will eat the lot of them…"
Sarah laughs, "Taylor, you're worse than my sister. I've been here for a month, and I helped you hunt the last animal."
"I know, it's just…"
"Taylor, you're supposed to be the teenager, and I'm supposed to be the adult here. Not the other way around. Go on, I'll be fine."
I kiss Victoria on the forehead and step back before I start climbing the canyon.
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As soon as I appear back in Brockton Bay, I teleport to outside the PRT building. Somewhat surprisingly, the front door is unlocked and there's a person sitting at the reception desk. Though it seems to be the only area that's lit.
Pushing open the doors, I walk in and I'm half way to the desk when the receptionist looks up, "Berenike, new costume?"
I look down at the badly woven chiton I'm wearing, "Uh, not really, my civilian clothes got ripped and I didn't want to risk damaging my costume so I made a new chiton."
"How long did it take you to make it?"
I frown as I think back, "Um, about a month, yes about a month of making thread and weaving. Don't look at the bottom though, as it's all lumpy. Not that the top's much better."
I feel Miss Militia's resonance in my chest, so I say, "One moment." Before I focus on it.
"…The verification code for today is Alpha one Charlie Foxtrot two seven zulu. How are you doing?"
I say to the receptionist, "Miss Militia says that the verification code is Alpha one Charlie Foxtrot two seven zulu. That was right wasn't it?"
I can hear the smile in her voice as she says, "Yes it was."
At the same time the receptionist says, "Thank you."
I smile, "I'm doing ok, though I don't have long to talk, as I've left Victoria back at home, and she's still mentally a child at the moment."
Miss Militia says, "I won't keep you then."
While the receptionist looks confused, "What do you mean?"
I grimace and stop focusing on Miss Militia's resonance, "Sorry, Miss Militia also asked how I was doing."
The receptionist nods, "How can I help you Berenike?"
I lift up the letter and I'm about to say something when it occurs to me that the PRT might know about the tanker in the bay. "Um, I was just going to ask if Amy Dallon, or Panacea, was awake, as I have a letter from her sister. Also, could I take a notebook?"
The receptionist shakes his head, "I'm sorry, I can't tell you anything about any of the guests using our out of town suites."
I nod, "That's fair I suppose. Well, Amy told me she was staying here, so would you be able to ensure she gets this. And the notebooks?"
The receptionist takes the letter with frown, "I can pass it along, but I really cannot tell you about any of our guests, as they are dealt with by a different department. The gift shop is actually open 24 hours, so if you want to browse it, I can turn the light on from here, though I can only take card or exact change."
I glance over to the gift shop, "Why is it always open?"
The receptionist smiles, "Because not every cape that comes in is willing to trust our hospitality. We have a selection of nondescript clothing in there too, just sweatpants, t-shirts, and hoodies, but it's enough to ditch the mask."
I nod, "I'll have a look in a moment. Before I do, do you know if the cargo ship in the bay is owned or not?"
The receptionist shrugs, "I don't, but I can look it up while you're shopping."
I smile and head over to the gift shop as the lights turn on. I end up picking out a Vista coloring book, a Vista secret diary with a simple lock, a pack of Wards themed coloring pencils, two Miss Militia diary/organizers and a color switching pen, along with a plain back ballpoint, all for marginally less than $20. Granted, I could have probably got more pages in Walmart or at the bookshop, but they're not open.
As I hand over my allowance, the receptionist says, "According to PHO, the ship is free and clear for salvage. However, the cost to get the equipment in plus the permits and surveys needed to perform the salvage so close to the city outweigh the value of the ship and containers by quite a large margin. There was a link to a feasibility study. Does that help?"
I smile, "It does, thanks. And keep the change. Oh, and if you want to let Miss Militia know that I'll be available to talk in around an hour. And please pass on that letter, it's important to Victoria that her sister gets it."
"Wait, before you go, I have a message asking if you'd be willing to take a doctor back with you."
I look the receptionist in the eyes, "If Amy Dallon has a doctor that she trusts with her sisters wellbeing, then she can tell me their name, and I will take that doctor with me if I come back without Victoria. Apart from that, the PRT has an appointment to see Selene on Wednesday. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go."
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Before he can say anything else, I teleport to the street outside the union building and look out over the water into the darkness. In the distance, against the ever so faintly lighter sky, I can just about make out the shadow of the cargo ship nearly half a mile out into the bay, it's prow sitting on the old lighthouse island. To the south I can see the faint lightening of the sea where the new lighthouse warns off larger ships.
The green and red buoys look quite pretty in their seemingly random pattern, though I know from experience that they form a sometimes narrow path around the ship and to the few working wharfs in the docks.
As the sky continues to brighten minutely, I visualize a doorway, and make sure not to actualize it this time, before I step through and appear a hundred yards short of the wreck and 20 yards in the air. A couple of quick teleports has me out of the water and on top of the bridge of the ship.
Soaking and shivering, I kneel down on the cold metal and allow my magic to unfurl from me as I fall into the conscious awareness meditation. It's surprisingly easy to feel out the shape of the ship given all the steel in its construction, as well as the steel in the containers.
Once I've felt out the entire shape of the ship and containers, I try to hold it all in my magic, only for it to, go all spiky, like iron filings on a magnet. I raise the level of magic in my inner world to early spring, and still I can't quite grasp the ship.
Depths of Tartarus, I don't have time for this. Selene is risking her existence to keep the planet hidden, so I can't afford to keep going so slowly.
Holding out my hand I grasp my spear and teleport to the center of the ship, then I let my magic go and allow it to rise to the height of summer. As it does, the cracks between worlds become easily visible, even to the naked eye, and I grasp the entire ship in my telekinesis.
It then occurs to me that I need to make sure I don't phase it into the ground in the jungle, so I visualize the entire thing floating above the water. As the ship rises out of the water with a massive sucking sound, I latch onto one of the cracks between worlds and pull.
As I do, the ship drags behind me like an anchor in sand, but I'm not limiting my magic in power, even if I'm keeping it limited to the length of the ship. I've not even finished moving into the jungle before I've latched onto a crack in the next world they're so obvious at the moment.
After that the canyon opens up beneath me, and I plummet towards the sea at the same time as I carefully ratchet back my magic until I'm barely holding onto the entire ship. I think I lose some of the containers near the prow, but that's a small loss compared to the rest of it.
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As the ship comes to rest on the world before the shore, I teleport to the top of the bridge and take a moment to look around. All around the ship, its presence is warping the world. Making it more, desolate and solid. From my vantage point I can see animals fleeing in all directions, most of them without any form of physical body.
Once I've got my composure back I call out "Selene, goddess of the moon. I've got an entire cargo ship, and most of the containers that were onboard."
A couple of seconds later, Selene responds with a hard tone of voice, "Berenike, I need you to crush it into the smallest ball you can. Then make a cave around 10 feet tall and half as wide in the middle. Once you've done that, call me and I will return. When I do, you must transport the ball to the shore and hide your presence as soon as you've done that. I will be using our connection to find you, so it imperative that you stay there until I've taken the ball away. Do you understand?"
I swallow hard, "I understand."
"Berenike, I'm not being hard to hurt you. You need to understand just how dangerous this is. You don't know enough to survive at your level of the dream for any length of time, let alone out here in the sea. If I can't get away before the sleeper catches up with me, Berenike, you might not survive. Once I leave, no matter how you're feeling, you must retreat behind the barrier."
I swallow hard again, but manage to keep my voice firm as I say, "I'll do it. I'm still going to do it."