by Gareth Otton
“I need to get home to get Yia-yia,” Leon said, exploding out of his seat and looking like he was going to race out of Stella’s office.
“Rushing won’t help anyone. We need to decide what we’re doing next.”
“She’s on her own, and I wouldn’t put it past them to come after her for this. I’ve never told you this because I didn’t know how to bring it up, but our family has a history of going against the Eidolon Council’s orders and being punished for that. Your mother ran away because she didn’t like the restrictions placed on her, and when my grandfather tried to stand up for her, they killed him for it. They also killed your mother, at least we think so. Now with both of us showing ourselves off like this and defying Eidolon law, they will wipe our family out of history to cut their losses. It won’t matter that Yia-yia had nothing to do with this, she is going to be targeted as well.”
Stella was silent as she absorbed that information, struggling to keep her mind calm. However, her priority was calming Leon down before he rushed off without thinking. She could deal with those other revelations later.
“I still don’t think it’s a good idea to rush off, but I never said we’ll abandon your grandmother. We just need to be smart about this. For starters, taking the world’s most powerful dreamwalker with you will speed up the process and give anybody who might be watching second thoughts about trying something stupid.”
Leon hesitated, still eager to rush into action, but finally relaxing as he settled back into his chair.
“My God, Stella, this is too much. I never expected this when I came here.”
“I know,” Stella answered, feeling guilty for drawing Leon into the craziness of her life. “I never wanted this for you either. I should have known better than to ask you to stay. If I hadn’t then—”
“That’s not what I meant,” Leon interrupted. “I’ll never regret getting to know you. I just… I’m just a little stressed and I’m not used to dealing with that. Just give me some time to get used to it, please.”
“Of course. I think that—”
Stella was interrupted by a knock on her door. Asking Leon to be patient, she called out, “Come in.”
The door opened and Trevors poked his head inside. His eyes widened when he saw Leon and he backed up.
“Sorry I didn’t realise you were with anyone. I just wanted to pop in and give you this before the day started. I can come back later.”
“No, Trevors. You stay and I’ll go,” Leon said, climbing to his feet again. To Stella he added, “I’m going to find Tad and ask him about making a quick trip. I wont to be able to relax until I know she’s safe.”
Stella wanted to calm him down a little more first, but at least he was going to bring Tad now. While she was still a little worried about the two of them running off together into potential danger, she also couldn’t ignore everything she discovered about Tad recently. Since he’d merged with his new ghosts, he had changed again, becoming something so much more than she ever imagined. He was always a bundle of surprises, and right now she didn’t think there was anyone in the world who would want to go against him after seeing what he did outside the Senedd. Besides, after kicking himself for not seeing Jacob’s true nature earlier, he was more on his guard than ever.
“All right, go. Just be careful.”
Leon promised he would and then left the room, squeezing past an awkward-looking Trevors who waited for him to leave before stepping into the office and closing the door.
“Sorry about that,” he said. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. I just wanted to get here before Denise arrived for her shift and hijacked you for the day.”
“It’s not a problem. You said you had something to give me?”
Trevors nodded and handed her a white envelope with her name on it. She didn’t need to open it to guess what was inside and shook her head.
“This better not be what I think it is. If you think you’re going to leave me high and dry when I need you most, you have another thing coming.”
Trevors winced as she guessed correctly, and the enormous man looked like he was about to cry.
“I can’t work here any longer. Surely you see that. With the way I’ve been acting, I’m surprised you even have a problem with it. I’ve been expecting you to demand my resignation for the last couple of days.”
“Jesus, I should have spoken with you sooner. No Trevors, I do not accept your resignation. I need you here to help me with the fallout from that shit-show on Wednesday.”
Trevors was shaking his head, looking panicked.
“No, I can’t. I’ve… Stella, because of me my men are dead. An entire team were wiped out because I was too bloody stupid to see the truth. I let my feelings get in the way of what I knew I should be doing and I—”
“Harry was a cancer,” Stella interrupted. “I knew that a while back and I should have done something sooner. With everything that happened four months ago, he took advantage of your vulnerable state of mind and lured you into his way of thinking. I’ve always known that wasn’t you, Trevors. You’re a better man than that, a better man than Harry made you.”
“No, Stella. I have to own my actions. The truth was, I believed for a long time that he was right, that you weren’t the right person for this job. The things I did to those poor ghosts, the things I have been doing… Stella, I got my men killed and I can’t live with that.”
Stella stepped around her desk until she was standing in front of him and she placed her hand on his shoulder, forcing him to look up from his seat.
“That’s why you need to stay. I won’t lie, your actions led to the death of your men. But you would disrespect them if you ran away rather than trying to make that right. What would you do if you left? Would you feel better about this? Of course not. Your pain would eat away at you and probably drive you into an early grave. Trust me, I’m speaking from experience. I’m responsible for more deaths than I care to think of, you know that. Between Pendine last year and failing to anticipate the events on Wednesday, those deaths you are attributing to yourself could just as easily be attributed to me. I understand the power of guilt better than anyone, I saw what it did to Tad when he was throwing himself into fires to escape it. But I also know that giving into that guilt is not the answer, using it to make you a better person is.
“If you want to honour the memory of the men who died, then help me take this right. Stay here, fight so this never happens again. The Dream Team is already falling apart, and I don’t know what to do on my own. We both know bigger things are coming and I can’t afford to start over from scratch. Will you please help me?”
Trevors was silent for a full minute, simply staring at her as new tears fell. Finally he wiped them away with the back of his hand and he nodded in acceptance.
“Good. Take the rest of today off, get your head on straight over the weekend and do what you need to do to come back on Monday stronger than ever. You owe it to them and you owe it to me to make this right. Come Monday, it’s a fresh start. We’re putting our history behind us and we’re working together like we should have been doing from the beginning. Together we will make this Dream Team what it needs to be to face what’s coming. Can you do that?”
Again Trevors nodded, standing before verbalising his answer.
“I can. I won’t let you down again, I promise.”
◆◆◆
Stella stood in the corner of the garage watching Mitena work.
The young woman was absorbed in her task and hadn’t noticed Stella’s arrival. Stella was happy to leave it that way because she was enjoying the spectacle of watching a master of her craft at work.
Mitena knelt on the floor, bent over the corner of the garage as she used chalk to sketch the layout of one of the most complicated dreamcatchers Stella had ever seen. Rather than just a complicated web within a circle, this was nine circles all held within a larger circle, each holding their own complicated web within that. It was a tangle of lines that formed a beautif
ul piece of art, but Stella knew that each line had a meaning. The more complex the meaning, the more thought that needed to go into it. Watching Mitena work made Stella realise once again just how much this young woman was a genius.
She wondered if they’d have caught her and Kuruk if Mitena never had her change of heart. Somehow she could always adapt and apply her genius to these dreamcatchers, creating ever better and more powerful designs. No matter what brief Stella brought her, Mitena always made it work.
“What does this one do?” Stella asked when Mitena leaned up and stretched her back, looking over her design with a pleased smile. Mitena jumped and yelped, making Stella laugh as the young woman placed her hand over her heart and shook her head.
“Oh my God, Stella, you frightened the shit out of me.” She was smiling as she said it and asked, “How long have you been there?”
“Only a few minutes. I was enjoying watching you work. So out with it then, what will this one do?”
“This is your escape tunnel,” Mitena answered proudly. “If you ever get locked in here again, this is how you get out without having to worry about the people outside. You see the circles here,” she said, pointing to the circles within the larger circle. “They’re keyed into the wards surround the building and—”
“Wards?”
“Oh sorry, that’s just how I think of the dreamcatcher’s I’ve been putting up this morning. They are warding dreamcatchers that keep things out, both dreamwalkers and ghosts this time.”
“And that one will bypass those?” Stella asked, not liking that.
“No. Not bypass them, well yes… Let me explain. This works in tandem with those. It’s not like a back door, but more like a private tunnel that is still protected but will lead you to a specific place.”
“Okay, I think I get it. So when all the wards are active and we are in a lockdown, you can only dreamwalk out of here from that specific spot to a specific place?”
Again Mitena shook ahead in disagreement.
“No, it doesn’t work like that. This isn’t for dreamwalkers, though they can use it too. This is for everybody who needs to flee this place in a hurry. See this empty spot here,” she said, pointing at a small circle about the size of a pound coin that had been left empty. “This is where you can place a small dreamcatcher that I will inscribe on a coin. We’ll need to take that coin to Dream to activate this design as we need something to power this, but once it’s active, you can imagine anywhere you want to go, and the dreamcatcher will take you there, almost like dreamwalking.”
Stella took a second to absorb that information, then stared at Mitena in amazement.
“Are you telling me you’ve just recreated the ability to dreamwalk in my garage? And anyone can use that?”
“So long as they have the right dreamcatcher token, then yes, I don’t see why not.”
Stella burst out laughing, which made Mitena frown. Stella held up a hand to show that she meant no offence and tried to control herself.
“I’m sorry, Mitena, I’m not laughing at you. I’m just amazed at what you can do and at the things we have to get used to these days. You just told me you created a teleportation pad in my garage and you said it like it was the most normal thing in the world.”
Mitena grinned when she realised she wasn’t being made fun of and slowly nodded her head. “Yeah, I suppose that’s exactly what it is. I never looked at it that way though.”
Stella shook her head in amazement at what the dreamcatchers could do. Every day people came up with new ideas for them. A vision came to Stella’s mind of a future where dreamcatchers had replaced the technology of their civilisation and humans could do things they had never even dreamt of right now. It was such a strong feeling that Stella half wondered if it was an actual vision of the future.
Staring at these beautiful designs that could do so much, Stella sympathised a little with Jacob’s message. The Merging was a massive opportunity, not just for the Borderlands, but for all mankind. After what happened on Wednesday and the law passing yesterday, that future might be a little longer being realised. But maybe if these dreamcatchers were used correctly, they could still make something of this.
Suddenly Stella remembered Tad telling her about Tony’s idea that they turn this into a business. She dismissed it at first, thinking it was just Tony being Tony and that they should always keep giving dreamcatchers away. However, she realised they had already stopped doing that as the government had decided who got the protective dreamcatchers and who didn’t. That didn’t sit right with Stella, and she wondered if maybe they should start publishing Mitena’s designs so that everybody could take advantage of this opportunity.
Of course, seeing a design and being able to recreate it was something else altogether, and Stella realised there would never be a substitute for Mitena in some cases. Stella wouldn’t even know where to begin to recreate the design she saw on the floor. So maybe there was a business in manufacturing these designs, and maybe Tony had a been more right than any of them knew.
As Stella imagined that bright future and thought about her place in it, she found herself mulling over a question she had never considered before; whether her current career was still the right choice for her.
For so long it had never been in doubt. She was a police woman to her core, and she thought nothing could change that. But that was before she met Tad, before she saw miracles, and before she discovered her heritage. Suddenly she looked at her own future in a new light and wondered just what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.
Leon had called her a Justice, saying that her eidolon powers were based around that central concept. She had thought on that a lot since he told her and thinking of it again now she realised that it was exactly why she had gone into law enforcement. She wanted to get justice for children who were caught up in similar childhoods to her own. But, if the last year had taught her anything, it was that there was more to the world than she could ever imagine, and maybe there was more than one path to pursue justice.
Maybe she would never leave her career in law enforcement, but before she could think better of it, she hedged her bets a little.
“Mitena, have you ever thought about starting your own business? Because I think I have a proposition for you.”
40
Friday, 2nd December 2016
16:59
Tad leaned back in his chair, eyes forward but not seeing anything. He felt like he couldn’t breathe, and he loosened the knot of his tie and undid the first two buttons on his shirt. It wasn’t much relief. It felt like his entire world was closing in and he was about to black out.
The court room was growing quieter after the judge had made his decision, and people were filing out. Tad could hear reporters shouting in the distance, wanting a quote from him but being kept away by security guards. He ignored them as he ignored everything else. All he could do was sit in a chair and wonder where it all went wrong.
“You have to look on the bright side,” Nicholas whispered, the eldest of the trio of lawyers Tad had dubbed the Three Amigos.
“Brightside? What could possibly be good about this? He just completed the process they started months ago. They’re taking my daughter away forever. There’s nothing good about this,” Tad said, his words gaining volume with every sentence until he was almost screaming at the man.
It said a lot about Nicholas’s character that he didn’t stand up and flee as the man the media dubbed the most dangerous man on the planet screamed at him in obvious rage. Instead, he calmly sat there and waited out Tad’s temper.
Of course, the lawyer knew Tad would never hurt him. For all that the media portrayed Tad as a dangerous animal after his earthquake shattered hunreds of windows in Cardiff Bay, the lawyer knew Tad well enough to know he wasn’t capable of hurting him. Tad hadn’t changed that much.
“The bright side is that you’re not sitting in a jail cell. You heard the judge, he made it clear that you’re lucky to get off as light
as you did. You broke the law and committed fraud at best and child abduction at worst. The only reason you’re not in jail is because of Jen’s parents wishes, even if you couldn’t prove them, the good work you have done for the Dream Team, the Prime Minister’s reference to your character, and the obvious fact that you are trying to do the right thing. You should be thankful you’re not being marched away to a maximum security prison with dreamcatchers all over the walls.”
When Tad didn’t answer, Nicholas stood up and straightened his jacket as he collected his papers and prepared to leave.
“Tad, while in your custody Jen broke her back, ran away multiple times, was exposed to the dangers of the Dragon nightmare as well as other nightmares when you trained in the Brecon Beacons. Yet again, she was involved in this most recent situation. The truth of the matter is that there isn’t a court in existence that would grant you custody of that child, and I think you know that. I’m sorry we couldn’t be of more help.”
With that final message, Nicholas walked out of the room, leaving Tad alone at the table.
His words hit Tad harder than he cared to admit and only added to his melancholy. Therefore, he didn’t even think of leaving as he tried to figure out what to do next.
He was tempted to dreamwalk to Jen right now and finally pull the trigger on his plan to run. However, at the same time Nicholas’ words echoed around his head.
Was he right?
Tad couldn’t deny that Jen had been in danger countless times whilst in his custody. Maybe she would be better off without him. This wasn’t the first time he had such thoughts. When she’d first come to live with him, he struggled not to argue with her constantly. He thought she hated living with him and had considered giving her up as that was best for her. But then the Merging happened, Jen broke her back, and in the process he realised that she didn’t hate living with him, she was just terrified for him. But terror had led her to merge with Maggie, had led her to yet more psychological damage as Maggie took advantage of her, and had ruined Jen’s life forever by breaking her back.
