Chapter 47.1 - A Scene in Clouds

Jax, Arx, and I exchanged uncertain glances before turning once more to the panicking young woman.

“Uh… still right here,” I replied.

Her head jerked at the sound, tilting upward as though blindly searching me out.  “Where?  All I can see is some kind of… fog.”

“Fog?  What fog?  Did that rumble shake yer wits loose?” Jax asked with a purposeful stride forward.  “We’s right—”

Abruptly, Lynnria jumped.  The instant Jax had gotten to within an arm’s length of her, you would have thought a firecracker had gone off at her feet.

“Mercy’s ass!  You scared the… the poots out of me.”

“Oh, that’s cute,” Arx murmured.  “Is that how she normally swears?”

“I think it depends on her audience,” I replied honestly.

“Can see us now, can ye?” Jax asked with a considering frown.  Snapping in the young woman’s face a couple of times, she turned to me.  “Might need to heal this one.  Cracked her nut on that table, I think.  Gone funny in the eyes.”

“My eyes are fine, thank you.  You all just appeared out of nowhere,” Lynnria explained defensively—and with a considering rub at her back.  “I wouldn’t mind a heal, though.”

Arx sniffed.  “Who wouldn’t?”

I grunted in agreement.  My heal was pretty much a shot of pure dopamine to everyone besides myself.  That aside, I had developed a certain feel for how much Life was required to patch up a person, and my gut was telling me Lynnria’s needs were practically nil.  She was just a little bruised.

“Is the fog gone?” I asked.

Lynnria nodded.  “Yes.  It vanished the instant you three appeared.”

“Well, that’s clearly related.”

“Indeed,” Arx muttered, thoughtful.  “Back up, Jax.  I want to see if it comes back.”

The redhead, never exactly thrilled to be getting even sensible orders from anyone but me, dragged her finger-loop sleeved arm guards up her hips to rest her hands at the narrow of her waist before casting a glare up at her sister.  Maybe it was because that was quite literally the only scrap of clothing she was wearing, but there was such an unconscious sensuality to the move—as if she could not help but to stimulate her own flesh at every turn—that it sent a thrill up my spine.

Jax’s glare snapped to me, transforming in that instant into a keen interest.  She had sensed my gaze immediately, and a noticeable and perhaps sympathetic thrill rolled down her own spine, beautifully displaying her forward assets to fullest effect.  Without really even trying, she had managed to snag my attention.  And for Jax, there could be no greater victory.

I could not help but smirk, and with a sigh, I inclined my head, acknowledging my defeat.

A thoughtful tip of her tongue moistened her lips before she finally acquiesced, and she took a few gloating steps backward.

The moment her body crossed the plane of the entryway rug, Lynnria let out a soft gasp.  “How did you…?!  The three of you just… just puffed into clouds!”

Reflexively, the three of us looked down at ourselves, then exchanged glances yet again.  Nothing had changed from our point of view.

Jax slowly tore her attention from me to favor the youngest of us with a pitying look.  “Yer napper’s what’s in the clouds, lass.”

Lynnria folded her arms in front of her chest.  “I’m not crazy!  You are clouds.  Maybe that was why my grandfather didn’t see us.  Did you think of that?”

“I’m not saying I don’t believe you, Lynnria.  But I think things might be more complicated than that,” I mused.  The old man had not heard us either, after all.  “Still.  One person stands alone on the rug, and poof? Everyone else is smoke?  Why?  What could be the point of that?”

I had been on that rug before.  And with Lynnria.  She had not been turning to vapor every time she walked away.  This represented a definite change.

“You know what?  I’m coming down.  I want to see this.”

Turning, I began to walk toward the stairs, then hesitated on coming to the first set.  I had yet to check its trap patterns, and I really did not want to find out what they were.  With a firm nod, I bypassed it and headed for the other side.

“Whoa!  A bunch of mist up above just started… stirring around or something,” Lynnria reported.  “And not in any way natural.”

“It’s moving when I move?” I confirmed, slowing.  “How so?  Do you see any significant changes?  Hidden symbols?  Clouds highlighting areas of the room?”

She shook her head.  “No, nothing like that, but they’re starting to—wait!  Stop!”

I froze mid-step, having just rounded to the right-hand side of the mezzanine.  “What?  Did you see something?”

“Well, I thought… It almost seemed like the fog was going to form into something, but then it fell apart.”

Slowly, I began retracing my steps backward.  “This better?”

“Yes… yes, whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.  Keep going… wait.  Too far.  Go back.  There!  Stop.”

I paused awkwardly on my back foot.  “Okay?  What do you see?”

She ran a claw uncertainly along the back of one of her pointed ears while she considered her answer.  “Um… not really anything?  The clouds drew together a whole lot, but I can’t see any shapes or patterns in it.  And that’s the best it gets as far as I can tell.  Anywhere else, and the fog starts to spread out again.”

“Yer noggin be full of fog,” Jax grumbled.  “Tell us sommat we can use, lass.”

Lynnria shrugged.  “I don’t know what else you want me to say.  I guess the clouds might look like… stuff.  If you squint.”

Jax sighed and scrubbed her face tiredly with her hands.  “Oh, aye.  ‘Stuff.’  That be as helpful as a dried cum-sock in a nursery.”

I decided it was probably for the best not to think about that one too hard.

Shifting gears, I began with a few leading questions.  “Okay, what else can you tell us about how the fog behaves?  Does it move constantly, or only when we do?”

She squinted in concentration.  “Right now, everything is pretty still along the edges, but the center part keeps swirling around.  It’s weird though.  Almost like it’s breathing.”

She held her clawed digits in front of her and began tracing a swirling path through the air.  It was slow, but there was a definite back-and-forth periodicity to it.  And notably in sync with a certain Dolilim’s impatient pacing.

“Jax, hold still.”

“Master,” she cooed, obeying happily and without argument.  And purely by coincidence, just happening to freeze in a pose closely resembling the nearby statues—as if anyone would ever stand that way without a clear purpose.

Try hard.

“Huh.  It stopped.”  Lynnria edged closer to the lip of the rug and began blowing and waving her arms about.  “Doesn’t move with the air at all.”

Jax’s arms flopped down in annoyance.  “Why would it?  There ain’t no fog save what’s in yer eyes.”

“Lets back off from the insults for now,” I said.  “Being antagonistic isn’t going to help us solve this.”

“I ain’t said nothing but what ain’t so,” she shot back, defensive.  “The fog be in her eyes.  Moves with us.  Be what she said her ownself.”

Uh huh.  As if I don’t know a double entendre when I hear one.  Or a triple negative.  “Okay, then.  What should we do about that?”

“Ye already found one good spot.  Maybe they’s others, and we gots to move about to find ‘em.”

“That’s more like it,” I said with a bob of my head.