Echoes

by Chambers, V. J.

  The potion hadn’t worked. At least, that was what Sawyer kept thinking. But the truth was, it probably wasn’t the potion’s fault. After all, they had used the potion on other things. There were a number of objects in Helicon that had been altered by muse magic.

  The fact that it was perpetual summer was something that the elder muses made happen. Sawyer and the others had used a bit of the potion on one of the trees in the forest, and it had immediately dropped all its leaves and turned into the wintry tree it would be without the intervention of magic.

  They had used the potion on one of the jumbo tomatoes in the food enclave, and the tomato had shrunk to be less-than-jumbo size.

  Sawyer himself had poured the potion over a fabric that was enspelled to change color to match the wearer’s eyes. It had turned back into a greenish grayish color that was the color of no one’s eyes, and it refused to change thereafter.

  So, it wasn’t as if the potion didn’t work to suck the magic out of things. It did.

  But it apparently hadn’t sucked the magic out of Nora.

  They had a big discussion about it, weeks ago. Maddie was convinced that it was a sign that Owen wasn’t using magic on Nora. Instead, Maddie thought that something had happened to Nora when she had acquired all of Nimue’s powers.

  Last November, Sawyer, Nora, and Maddie had gone to the mundane world at the request of Owen. They hadn’t been sure that he wouldn’t hurt them, but they had decided to take the risk. Turned out, Owen had devised a plan to trap Nimue, and he needed Nora to make it work. It involved siphoning all of Nimue’s power into Nora. They had tried it. In the middle of it, there’d been too much power going into Nora’s body. To save her, Owen had channeled the rest of it into himself. But the fact remained, Nora had received a lot of magic, a lot of power. Maddie thought that whatever she’d received, it had changed her.

  Sawyer had argued that was all well and good, but it didn’t explain why Phoebe was behaving so strangely. Maddie had said that maybe Nora and Owen together were controlling Phoebe.

  So the four of them had managed to get Phoebe to gulp down some of the potion. They’d hidden it in a glass of wine and given it to Phoebe at dinner before a council meeting one night.

  There had been no effect on Phoebe whatsoever, except for the fact that when she tried to sing later, her voice hadn’t been nearly as on pitch as it usually was.

  Apparently, the potion had stripped away her muse powers for a bit.

  Lute said that was fairly typical. After all, that was what he and his friends had used the potion for originally, when they got it from Hecate.

  So, it wasn’t the potion.

  Something was still wrong with Nora.

  Lute’s fingers worked on Sawyer’s shoulders. His voice was at his ear. “What are you thinking about?”

  Sawyer opened his eyes and looked up guiltily into his boyfriend’s face.

  Lute sighed, letting go of Sawyer. “Nora, huh?”

  Sawyer scrambled to turn around so that he was facing Lute. “I can’t help it.”

  Lute nodded. “I know that.”

  “Something’s wrong. No one’s doing anything about it.”

  “Well, no one has any ideas right now,” Lute said. “I know everyone’s still thinking about it. I know I still think about it. I mean, even if I wanted to think about something else, you’re always thinking about Nora so…”

  Sawyer cocked his head. “Are you okay?”

  Lute nodded. “Fine. Totally fine.”

  “Because you sound a little bit… I don’t know, jealous, maybe?”

  Lute drew his eyebrows together. “I hardly think that’s fair.”

  “I want to reassure you.” Sawyer reached out to touch his boyfriend. Ran his fingers over Lute’s jaw. Ran them down his neck, over his shoulder. “You’re the one that I want. I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you.”

  Lute smiled a little bit. “I know that. And I feel the same way. What we have is special. But sometimes I can’t help but worry a little. Before both of us were together, we were both dating girls.”

  Sawyer shrugged. “Yeah, but before I was dating her, I was dating a guy. Not that it matters. When I look at you, I see you. I don’t see a gender.”

  Lute studied his knuckles. “Yeah, I know it’s like that for you. But you know, if we’re being completely honest, sometimes I still find chicks attractive.”

  “I’m not worried about Nora because I find her attractive,” Sawyer said. “Wait. You find girls attractive? Like which girls?”

  “That’s not the point. The point is I don’t always feel secure is all.”

  “And it’s my fault, because I’m paying too much attention to this Nora thing and not enough attention to you?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  Sawyer wasn’t sure what to say. He drew in a long breath and let it out slowly. “I know I’m preoccupied. I know that things between us this year are different than the way they were last year. I know you were feeling insecure because we haven’t exactly… gone as far as we could have—”

  “No, I’m not worried about that anymore. We talked about that. Whenever we’re both ready, we’ll do that. But for now…”

  “I’ll try to do better, Lute,” Sawyer said. “I really will. But you have to understand that until I can solve this problem with Nora, I don’t know how I can help from being distracted.”

  “I do understand that,” Lute said. “I do.” He got to his feet. He wandered over to the hammock and sat down on it. “Have you ever consider the possibility that Nora’s right about Owen? That maybe he really has changed? That maybe he’s not so bad anymore?”

  Sawyer stared at him in utter disbelief. He held up his hand and wiggled the stump of his finger. “He cut off my finger, Lute. No, I haven’t considered that.”

  * * *

  “Is there any reason that it wouldn’t show up?” Maddie said. She was sitting in the tent of one of the healers. The healing enclave was to the north of Helicon, and Maddie hadn’t been here since she was a small child. Muses didn’t tend to get sick all that often. But when they did, the healers used muse power to fix them. Maddie wasn’t exactly sick right now, but things weren’t right. She didn’t know who else to talk to.

  “Well, dear,” said the healer, “there’s one obvious reason why it wouldn’t appear.”

  “I mean besides that,” Maddie said. “Any other reason?”

  The healer sat down opposite Maddie. “Why don’t you walk me through exactly what happened again. Be thorough.”

  “Well, there’s not much to tell. I did what I always do at the end of every month. Every month, I go ahead and speed my aging up in the shower, and usually, you know, it happens.”

  Muses were able to halt their aging. Maddie wasn’t trying to stay at the age of nineteen forever or anything. But it was handy for purposes of birth control. Generally, what she did was halt her aging at the beginning of the month, and then at the end of the month she sped it back up again. At that point her menstrual cycle would happen all in a flash. That meant that during the rest of the month, when she was intimate with Agler, it was impossible for them to conceive.

  However, this time around, it hadn’t seemed to work so well. She hadn’t gotten her period.

  “I see,” said the healer. “There are, of course, a number of reasons why a woman would not have her normal cycle for a month. It’s not uncommon for women to skip now and then. Do you find that you are normally irregular?”

  Maddie shook her head. “No. No, not irregular. Every month, I go to the showers, I speed up my aging, and it happens.” She was feeling frantic.

  The healer patted her on the knee. “There, there. It’s going to be all right. Even if you are pregnant, you have a lot of options open to you. You can halt your aging right now and wait as long as you would like in order to have the baby, even years if that suits you. Or, as you know, you can simply wait nine months, then speed up your aging, have the baby somewhere in
secret, and leave him or her in the babies and toddlers enclave to be raised by those muses. This does not have to affect you or your creativity.” The healer smiled at Maddie.

  Maddie gulped. “So you think that I am. You think I’m pregnant.”

  “There’s no way to be sure,” said the healer. “Probably the best thing to do would be to go on for the next month as if everything is normal, and then wait and see if you get your cycle next month.”

  “Wait a month?” Maddie said. “You mean, there’s no other way to know?”

  “Well, you could begin to age normally right now. You may notice some signs or symptoms. If so, that would indicate that you were pregnant. Of course, if you aren’t pregnant, then you could be vulnerable to become pregnant, so you should take extra precautions while you’re waiting.”

  “Symptoms?”

  “Yes. There could be some nausea. Some extreme tiredness that might develop.”

  Maddie made a face.

  “Of course, should you experience the symptoms, we would be able to provide a remedy for you. And we do however, recommend that women halt their aging at least at the beginning of the third trimester. There’s no reason on earth to lumber around that huge for weeks on end. Very uncomfortable.” The healer chuckled.

  Huge. Very huge. Fear coursed through Maddie. If she were pregnant, she would gain a massive amount of weight. She would be the size of a house. No, no, no. This couldn’t have happened. “But it’s possible that… that I’m not, though.”

  “Of course it’s possible,” the healer said. She was smiling.

  Maddie wanted to wipe that stupid smile off her face. “Possible,” she echoed.

  “Only time will tell,” said the healer cheerily.

  Maddie’s stomach turned over. She didn’t want to wait. She wanted to know now. She didn’t think she could stand waiting.

  Later, as she left the healers enclave to walk back to the tweens and rebels enclave, she wished she had someone to talk to. But ever since her last conversation with Nora, it seemed that Nora had been even more pointedly avoiding all of them. Maddie missed her friend. When she did see Nora, she was inevitably in the company of Owen. The two of them were attached at the hip.

  What was she going to do? She couldn’t be pregnant. She couldn’t have a baby. She was way too young to have a baby.

  On the other hand, she didn’t really relish the idea of dumping the child in the babies and toddlers enclave either. It wasn’t that the baby wouldn’t be well cared for there. The muses who spent their time there were uniquely suited to taking care of children. They were inspired by doing so, they expressed their creativity that way.

  Maddie knew that growing up there, the child would be happy and well cared for. She also knew that she would be able to monitor the child in make sure that everything was going okay. She could still watch the baby grow up.

  But it didn’t seem right to her. She knew that Nora had been left in the babies and toddlers enclave. Nora didn’t know who her mother was. It was some muse, but that muse had never claimed Nora. Nora didn’t talk about it much, but Maddie knew that it bothered her.

  Nora always seemed far too fond of Maddie’s own family, which Maddie herself found supremely dysfunctional.

  Her family. Ugh. Her mother would be so angry if she found out that her grandchild was being raised in the babies and toddlers enclave.

  No. That option was entirely out. She couldn’t do that.

  She wasn’t ready to have a baby. She supposed that left the final option halting her aging and remaining pregnant until she was ready to actually have the baby.

  But that option wasn’t the best option either. It meant that Maddie would be pregnant for years. And while pregnant, she would have to behave like a pregnant woman. That meant no drinking. For years.

  No, that wasn’t an option either. When she finally made it back to the tweens and rebels enclave, she went back to her tent. She felt horrible. She suspected that she might be a little nauseous. She was halting her aging, but maybe the symptoms were somehow getting through. She debated going to the bathrooms and throwing up.

  But no. If she threw up, it would make it more real. She had to convince herself that she wasn’t nauseous—not at all.

  Agler was in the tent, plucking out some music on his guitar.

  When she saw him, she turned around and walked out. She didn’t want to be near him at the moment.

  Agler came out after her. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” she said. “Nothing at all.”

  * * *

  “Let’s go,” Nora was saying. She was standing next to Owen, who was sitting on one of the benches surrounding the main fire pit.

  Owen grinned at her. “By all means, go ahead if you don’t want to stay.”

  Nora put her hands on her hips. “Well, I’m staying if you’re staying.”

  “You don’t have to, you know,” Owen said. This was beginning to become absolutely ridiculous. No matter where he went, Nora was there. He could barely go to the bathroom these days without her following him.

  Upon first arriving in Helicon, he’d been quite pleased with the fact that he and Nora had been able to become close again so easily. But these days, he was getting sick of seeing her constantly.

  He liked having her on his side. In the end, she would lend quite a bit of credence to his ideas. But at this point, she was starting to annoy him. He half wished he could still control her brain. Then he could have just made her run off.

  Nora sat back down. “I know I don’t have to. I like being around you, that’s all.”

  Owen sighed. He smiled tightly. “That’s so sweet.”

  She smiled back at him. “I’m glad you think so.” She kissed him.

  Owen kissed her back. Gods, how was he going to get rid of her?

  “I don’t see why you want to stay for the council meeting,” Nora said. “They’re always so boring.”

  “Excuse me for wanting to know what’s going on in Helicon,” Owen said. “The council meetings are important. We can watch our government at work.”

  Nora rolled her eyes at him. “The council is hardly the government.”

  Owen smirked. Even she could see that Helicon had practically no leading body.

  Nora leaned close. “You know, it could give a girl a complex the way you’re always trying to get rid of me.”

  “I’m not trying to get rid of you,” Owen said. He kissed her temple. “I can’t stand to be parted from you either.”

  On the other side of the fire pit, Phoebe Rain stood up. She raised her hands above her head, and the chattering of the gathered muses slowly dwindled to silence. “The council of Helicon, land of the muses, endowed with power through the will of the gods and the creativity of the human race, existing to bring creativity and light to the universe, is now in session. As head, I call this meeting to order.”

  Everyone gave her their attention.

  Phoebe smiled at everyone. “I’m so glad to see you all here tonight. This council meeting will be brief, as we only have one order of business. The council recognizes Coeus Dust.”

  Coeus stood up. He and Phoebe were a couple. He was the head of the engineering enclave. He was a sturdy man with big hands and thick shoulders. His hair was thinning, but he had a young, unlined face. He jammed his hands into his pockets. “I’m going to make this announcement. I want to say, first of all, that this is not my own opinion. This has been voted on by other members of the engineering enclave. I, as their representative, must simply pass on their wishes.”

  Owen thought that sounded a bit strange. The thing was, Coeus wasn’t a representative at all. Heads of enclaves were generally volunteers. Sometimes, no one volunteered, and—in that case—the head of the council would appoint someone. It wasn’t like a mundane-world democracy, in which the heads were voted in or anything like that. Sure, if there was competition for a spot, they’d settle it with a vote. But there was never competition. Being the head of a
n enclave was a thankless task. Lots of work. No self-respecting muse wanted to do it. Muses were too busy creating and having fun.

  Owen leaned forward, interested.

  Coeus continued. “As you all might know, the engineering enclave has taken on more and more tasks outside of the purview of its charter for quite some time. We have been asked to work on menial tasks such as cleaning, setting up, and tearing down of various events. It has also become our job to get other people to help us with these various tasks. We been thwarted in that on many occasions, most notably by the philosophy enclave.” At this, Coeus turned and glared at Themis Branch, who was head of the philosophy enclave.

  Owen couldn’t help but smirk a little bit. So that feud was still running, was it? The engineering enclave and the philosophy enclave had no love for each other. They were always at each other’s throats.

  Themis Branch jumped to his feet. “Now, hold on. I don’t know what kind of business this is, but it seems to me that it’s a thinly disguised attempt to say bad things about the philosophy enclave. Which is typical for the engineering enclave and for Coeus Dust. He’s prejudiced against us, because we don’t produce anything tangible. But—”

  “Themis,” Phoebe interrupted. “You have not been recognized. Please wait to speak until after Coeus has finished.”

  Themis’s his jaw twitched. He sat back down.

  Phoebe turned back to Coeus. “Please continue.”

  “Thank you,” Coeus said. “Now, as I was saying, the engineering enclave has been forced to do things that are not its job for far too long. Frankly, we’re sick of it. And we’re done with it. From now on, the engineering enclave will do nothing more than engineer things.” And he sat down.

  There was a bewildered silence, as the muses all turned and looked at each other, trying to figure out what it was this meant exactly.

  Techne Lift stood up. She was the head of the science enclave. “May I speak?”

  Phoebe nodded. “The council recognizes Techne Lift.”

  Techne furrowed her brow. “Forgive me for saying this, but I was given to understand that if the engineering enclave was putting up decorations for an event, then it actually was engineering. After all, someone has to engineer how to make sure everything stays sturdy.”