Vanya's Journals, Entry 61Between entries, you glance upwards across the table at "Sally", and notice she seems confused. "What's wrong?" you ask her.
The woman shakes her head. "I don't understand," she mumbles. "I should've shown up in her story by now..."
"Perhaps you're from an alternate timeline?" you suggest curiously.
Regrettably, at that moment, Dr. Thian Russ walks in, and Sally motions for you to be silent. Nodding in assent, you look back towards Vanya's Parasol journal and continue translating. Two weeks after Kenzon had sent us to live at Jade's apartment, there still hadn't been any sign of the killer. As we lacked any real purpose or project, we occupied our hours in the same ways we always had while we'd been confined to Katie's home. Unfortunately, without her PEA, without my books, and without my being able to access the outside world, it really was far more boring than it'd been before, especially for Katie. Before, Trebor had visited her regularly, but now, he didn't even know where she lived.
Every weekday, Jade would get up early, cook something to eat, and then fix herself up for work. She wasn't overly modest, nor much of a morning person. Sometimes she stumbled out of her room half-dressed, and once, she wasn't dressed at all... before she remembered to her extreme distress and embarrassment that she had guests in her apartment. Despite how disorganized she is, I still haven't seen her late for work, and that made it easy to plan ahead for things we could do after she left.
Early on, Katie tried to get me interested in a "TV series", or "televiewer series". It's basically like a book you watch on a televiewer in 3D instead of imagining it in your mind. While it was fascinating for the first few hours, I quickly grew tired of it, which was something that Katie couldn't understand. It just wasn't interesting for me to sit in one place while I was spoon-fed a story. I liked to imagine things by myself, and the shows on the televiewer contained far too many Parasol references for me to really understand what was going on. To Katie's credit, she understood my explanation and stopped trying.
Eventually, Katie and I started working on my spells again, more out of boredom than anything else. We didn't have nearly as much room in Jade's tiny apartment, so we had to be more careful, but for hour after hour, Katie patiently tried to teach me Guiding Wings, the first spell she'd shown me: "deovaang liagen". It was far more difficult than my shield spell, and I couldn't seem to get a good grasp of it. I managed to complete the spell properly
once, and only once, but as soon as I'd tried to turn around to see what my "wings" looked like, the spell broke, and though I worked just as hard ever afterwards, I never got it to work again.
At long last, Katie gave up and said I ought to start on a simpler one: "Shadow Cloak", which was a lower-level spell. Her first demonstration of it was impressive, although it wasn't nearly as spectacular of a spell as the others she'd shown me. It did little more than hide the caster, creating a shadowy form where the person stood. In near-darkness, Katie became almost invisible, but as she moved into the light, she become a sharper and sharper silhouette, until she was even more noticeable than if she'd never cast the spell at all.
Unfortunately, it proved difficult for me to use Shadow Cloak as well. Katie tried to explain why it was so much more difficult: my god, Armok, hardly has any presence on Parasol at all. He has a little, but only from the portals people have created to and from Everoc's universe. The gods are fighting a supernatural war in the cosmos over the entire universe of Everoc, and Armok is losing: the gods of Parasol and Ballpoint are crowding him out, and with the demon Sankis backstabbing him from his own universe, it's becoming even more difficult for him to maintain his power. It's part of why Katie had such an easy time casting her spells while she was on Everoc. While she can still cast her spells here on Parasol, it's hard for me to cast mine at all. Armok simply doesn't have much power here.
I spent the first week trying to learn it, alternating between trying to learn to pronounce the words, and praying to Armok. At one point, she suggested I switch to
her god, Winteos, but I refused. I figured there must be a reason Armok had engraved the runes on the jade spearhead. I kept with me always as a talisman, and I still have it with me even now. "Armok is having a hard enough time already," I'd told her, "I'm not going to make it more difficult for him." She raised an eyebrow at my loyalty, especially considering Armok is the god of blood... but I perservered, until finally, late one night, I managed to say it correctly: "
Armok, scata clontas!"
My legs vanished in a deep red, velvety smoke as I stared at them, dissolving rapidly, the effect spreading up my body, down my arms and to my fingertips. As the spell matured, it faded to a deep crimson, the color of blood, and finally to black. When I stood in the light, I could partially see through my own arms, and I experimented with it, walking around carefully so as not to upset the spell. I soon found to my delight that I could move my arms around at will, even though that breathless "mana drain" feeling quickened its pace.
Katie was applauding, and I hardly heard her, absorbed in the magic of it all, dashing about Jade's tiny apartment and seeing just how invisible I could become when hidden in darkened places. I never managed to become truly invisible, but when I hid in the dark, I was at least far more difficult to see... so I considered it a success.
But that was it, for a time. Katie soon got bored even of teaching me magic spells, and started worrying about Trebor instead. She misses him terribly; sometimes she cries at night before she goes to bed, worrying he'll find some other girl while she's away, and by the time we get out of this place, it'll be too late to get him back. I empathize with her: I used to feel the exact same way about Urist... and sometimes, I feel the exact same way about Reudh. At times like this, I sit next to her and put my arm around her, hugging her and telling her it'll be okay, just like she did for me back on Everoc when I got my package from Urist. She still sometimes wakes up with nightmares... I didn't realize just how often she had them until I was sleeping in the same room with her, but she often wakes up crying, or hyperventilating. Even though she refuses to talk about it, I have a feeling it has to do with 48D's battle... but I have no way to be sure.
Jade noticed that Katie seemed off, one night at dinner, but misunderstood the reason. "It'll be okay, I know how you feel," she'd said sympathetically. "I bet I can come up with a way around it, though."
Katie only gave a dejected nod, but after a moment, did a double take and looked upwards from her food, surprised not only that Jade would be so understanding and empathetic, but that she would even suggest such a thing.
Unfortunately for Katie, it turned out that it didn't have anything to do with Trebor at all. "It's from being cooped up in here for too long," the woman went on. "You just need to get out into the sun once in a while. I'll talk to your father at some point tomorrow and see if we can get him to let you up onto the roof for an hour or two. The sunshine and fresh air up there should do you some good – it always does for me."
My friend pursed her lips and lowered her head again towards her soup, but not before shooting me a look that clearly meant, "I knew that was too good to be true." It was no secret that Jade loved being outdoors... and certainly no secret that she fantasized about becoming Katie's adoptive mother, despite openly denying that she was in any way romantically involved with Kenzon.
Later that night, after we'd retreated to our room and changed into our nightclothes, Katie and I sat across from each other on our beds, talking quietly just as we always did. It was a sort of bonding time for us, and we had a lot of heart-to-heart talks there. A lot of times, we talked about things we didn't usually feel comfortable with bringing up. Tonight was different, though... what I had to say sounded pretty ridiculous.
"I'm going to get your PEA back," I finally managed in a quiet voice.
Katie looked over at me in surprise. "Are you serious?? Did you forget what happened last time we disobeyed my dad?"
"Look," I said, trying to explain my thoughts. "It's not like the killer is going to be watching everywhere for me, and if he's trying to hunt me down, he'll be watching Kenzon, not me. I'll just leave after Jade goes to work, Kenzon won't be at home, and... I can do whatever I need to."
"It sounds like it might work," she replied cautiously, "But what if he
does find you? What if he attacks you?"
I had a solution for this, too. "I'll wear the armor Mr Frog made me, and I also have the spells you taught me. I'll be fine."
"You can't go anywhere he might expect you," Katie warned.
Nodding, I scooted up on my bed and slipped my legs under the blankets, covering myself up to my shoulders. "Don't worry, I won't."
Finally, she gave in. "Thank you, Vanya," she whispered, biting her lip with emotion. "You're an amazing friend... you have no idea how much this means to me." She paused, thinking. "Are you sure you'll be able to find a way into my dad's apartment and back here in time with the PEA? What if he catches you, or you aren't here when Jade gets back?"
"Don't worry, I'll find a way to get everything done that I need to," I assured her, although I personally wasn't so convinced.
I was somewhat vague on this last, because in actuality, my plan wasn't to get Katie's PEA at all. It was to confront Trebor. Over the previous two weeks, a plan had been forming in my mind, and while I thought I might eventually head to Kenzon's apartment if I could, first off, I was going to seek a little help from Lydena.
~~~
The next morning, Katie and I were up at sunrise, just as we usually were. Jade didn't suspect a thing: She stumbled out of her room wearing pajama pants and a brassiere, ate her breakfast, got herself dressed and fixed up, and left for work, just as she always did.
"Are you ready?" Katie whispered.
I nodded in response. It was a Friday morning, just over two weeks since Kenzon had sent us here, and we still didn't even know how to leave our own building. I'd escaped from harder situations before, like escaping from a fortress's prison, or worse, escaping Ballpoint's outposts, so it didn't really worry me. What
did worry me, however, was the confrontation I was going to have with Trebor... and with this nagging me at the back of my mind, I went to my room. As quickly as I could, I stripped out of my everyday clothes and put on the Ballpoint-gray armor that Mr Frog had commissioned for me just over a year before. I seriously doubted he had any idea of where I was now, but it was interesting to wonder what he was up to.
After I'd finished pulling on the boots, I got up from the bed, straightening, and checked my pouches. In one, there was a little gorlak doll, little worse for wear – I'd kept it safe all this time to remind me of the monster I'd been, and to try to keep from ever becoming it again. With a slight frown, I put it in the duffel bag I'd been storing my belongings in – I didn't know if I'd return, and it didn't need to come with me. In another, there was Jack Magnus's cap, which I hadn't used to hide my ears since I'd arrived at Parasol. In a third pouch, I found Reudh's comb, pristine silver with a star of sapphires embedded in its surface, and I smiled as I knelt and put it in the bag with everything else. Finally, I pulled out Urist's crystal jade spearhead and let it lay in the palm of my hand, studying the little runes etched in its surface. They no longer glowed as they had the night Armok had carved them there, but they were still clearly visible: "
Vanya, my favored daughter... Your struggles amuse me. Fight well, my conduit." Closing my fingers around it, I shut my eyes, praying to Armok for protection as I slipped it into one of the pouches at my waist. Picking up my vampiric daggers, I slipped them into their sheaths before straightening and leaving the room.
"Be careful out there," Katie warned me as I walked through Jade's apartment, feeling anxious and afraid. "Don't go anywhere the killer would expect to see you, and make very sure you're not followed."
I hardly heard her, nodding listlessly as I unlocked the front door, turning the doorknob. "I'll be okay," I assured her, though my faltering voice betrayed my worriment.
I was the one Trebor wanted, and I thought that if I could just reason with him, I could make him stop attacking me. I've lost a sister too – twice. I
know how it feels, and I've also been through blaming it on someone else: Urist. There had been a time when I would've liked nothing more than to hear something bad had happened to him, but I'd gotten past that, and as painful as it had been to blame myself, I'd realized in the end that it was for the better. I hoped that I could help him understand that too. If I couldn't, well... I had a theory that he wouldn't try to wound me in a public place where his identity would be revealed. It seemed like it would be stupid of him to do.
Somehow I hadn't pieced that theory together with the fact that the first time Katie and I were attacked, we were standing in the middle of Parasol's Mall.
After I'd left the apartment, I was completely unsure of which way I should go because I'd never really seen the rest of the building. I eventually decided to just choose a direction and start walking. The dimly-lighted hallways were floored with a cheap brown carpet, while the walls were of stucco, and seemed to wind their way almost at random through the interior of the building. Despite this, it wasn't long before I'd found the outer wall, and finally, the elevator. It had solid, metallic doors, unlike the other apartment complexes I'd been to, and when the car arrived, I discovered it didn't have any windows, either.
When I'd entered the elevator, the doors closed themselves behind me with a hiss, and I started to feel my calm slipping away, as though I'd left it in the hallways. I hated small, enclosed spaces, and a tiny metal box suspended in midair from a cable really, really wasn't somewhere I wanted to be. It'd been so much easier with glass windows from floor to ceiling, like at Rubywood. Trying hard to forget my claustrophobia, I scanned the little panel of buttons with my eyes until I'd found one labeled with the silhouette of a shuttlecar. I pressed it, and felt the floor jerk around me as the car began to ascend. I almost stumbled and fell because I hadn't expected it: the other elevators I'd ridden in must've had some form of gravitational control, because I'd never been able to notice their acceleration. It seemed Jade's building was more cheaply built, and I was beginning to appreciate the amount of money Kenzon's business had raked in.
The elevator door opened to a dim, narrow, elongated room furnished with cheap sofas, and sported the same brown carpet and stucco walls as the rest of the building. The only exception was a shuttlecar platform at the end, which boasted a waiting shuttlecar.
It wasn't much longer before I had my hands on the console, speeding off into the Parasolian sunrise and watching Jade's building drop behind me into the distance, one word running through my mind: Foresthill. It was where Lydena had said she'd lived, on floor 56. I hated lying to my best friend, but if Katie got her PEA and told Trebor where she was before this was taken care of, I was sure he would kill me. The only way I had to find Trebor was through Lydena, so I hoped she wouldn't mind me arriving so early in the morning.
~~~
"Vanya?" Lydena stood just inside her door, looking at me curiously. "It's only nine in the morning... is everything okay?" Dressed in a flowery red dress, she seemed fully awake, but also appeared to be somewhat put off to be receiving a visitor so early. It had taken me some time to find her door, but with the names of the tenants so clearly printed beside them, it hadn't been difficult to find her apartment, even without knowing her's and Cor's last name, which was now revealed to be "Tasnobaar": Lydena and Cor Tasnobaar.
"Everything's okay," I replied, nodding. She didn't seem to be quite as friendly with me as she'd been with Katie, and I wondered if it had anything to do with Trebor, or perhaps the fact I was an elf.
She hardly gave me a chance to talk, running her eyes up and down me almost suspiciously now. "Is that a Ballpoint suit?" she asked curiously, drawing ever so slightly back into her apartment. "Where is Katie? Why didn't she come with you?" Faced with the unknown, she was all about the facts. "Trebor's been worried about her lately. She won't respond to any of his messages, and he thinks she's avoiding her," she added informatively.
"Katie's why I'm here," I explained quickly, trying to get it all out before she interrupted me again. "Mr. Kenzon – Katie's father – is trying to keep us out of sight for a while until
whoever is after her goes away." I watched her closely as I spoke this last, but if she knew anything about the killer's identity, she kept it hidden. I continued, "I'm trying to get a message to Trebor, actually. I was hoping you could tell me where he is, or perhaps ask him to meet me..." My thoughts raced, and I hurried to try to set up the meeting before she could interrupt. "Could you ask him to meet me outside the Vynalus Forums sometime today? I have some important things to talk to him about, related to Katie." This was a lie, but I was hoping it would coax him out into the open. The Vynalus Forums, where the award ceremony had been held, always had people milling about... and more importantly, there were armed guards.
"Yes, of course," Lydena agreed, appearing somewhat lost for words as she pulled a PEA out of a case at her waist. "I'll ask him to meet you there on his lunch break, at two in the afternoon."
My heart thudded in my chest as I thought of what I would be facing in little more than four hours. "Thank you, Lydena... this means so much to Katie and me."
Lydena's emerald eyes flicked up at me fleetingly, and she smiled with a mischievous air, seeming to relax. "We're breaking the rules to help Katie and Trebor get together," she mused thoughtfully as she tapped at her PEA. "It's actually pretty fun when you think about it. She really
does like him, doesn't she? I
knew it, ever since Trebor told me about how she'd asked him to come visit her more often. Her lips curled into a mischievous grin, and she leaned forwards secretively, saying in a soft voice, "Trebor told me he loves her, but don't tell her that."
Hearing that, I felt certain I was right. As far as I knew, it was probably the only thing that had kept Trebor from killing me while Katie was there. "I won't tell her," I promised, and then added, "I have a couple other things to take care of before then, so I have to go. Thank you again!"
She nodded in acknowledgement, smiling as she backed into her apartment, still tapping at her PEA. "All right! Trebor doesn't think too highly of you, Vanya, but I think you're all right. Don't let him know I told you that, though!"
"I won't," I said, and as her apartment door closed behind her, I turned, starting back towards the elevator. I wasn't going to go straight to the Vynalus Forums, especially not with five hours to spare. If I wanted to have a fighting chance against Trebor, I would need an edge... and that meant talking to Solnay.
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Topic: [34.11] Spearbreakers - It shudders and begins to move (Read 2282190 times)