Beginnings & Endings (2014-01-11)

The explosion which shattered the quiet of the morning could be felt beyond the neighborhood, and, to those with the ability to sense it,  on levels beyond physical reality. No "gas explosion" would send ripples through the spheres as the one that shook the fabric of reality when the Emerson Mansion erupted.

Willa looked at Liam as they turned the corner and saw the inferno. "Grams said the Emerson Mansion was a hermetic sanctum."

Liam frowned, pointing to a spot along the side of the road. "Best not to park too close. The sirens are closing in."

Two figures emerged from the fires, scurrying from the building like rats abandoning a sinking ship. They were mostly unseen and apparently not injured. Making their way rapidly from the scene, they descended the hill along the opposite side of the road from where Willa parked the subaru.

Liam's attention was arrested by the two people descending from the scene. His vision seemed to take in a sight beyond Willa's perceptions. She glanced toward the mansion as the first of the emergency responders arrived in a cacophony of flashing lights and sirens. Splitting her attention between what Liam was watching and the activity up the hill, she frowned.  There were others up above the conflagration who weren't emergency personnel.

Are those men watching the blaze? she thought, trying to see them through the heat haze.

Connor noticed the gaze of the man across the street from them. He matched his pace to Lee's, as she was his first concern, but something about the man triggered a spark of recognition. Who is he?

Lee braced herself on the car's bumper, her grip on her bo staff as tight as an iron clamp and her breath coming ragged. Her eyes did not see the ground before as she leaned forward to brace her free hand on her knee. She saw only the image of her paternal grandmother, her dying gaze focused upon Lee with startled recognition as the building burned around them. She still heard the voices of her spirits imploring her to go, escape, survive. To have come so far only to meet with death and loss; her mind would not accept it.

Willa's frown deepened as she realized that none of the police, firemen, or spectators had yet to notice the two men across the street from the mansion. The men seemed completely calm, almost disinterested in the scene, yet somehow attentive and deliberate. Their heads seemed to turn in slow motion and their gaze shifted from the mansion down the hill to her. No, not her, across the street. She looked over again, realizing that their gaze fell upon the same subject as Liam's, the woman at the car across the street.

"Liam!"

Liam's attention snapped away from the spirit-walker and he looked at the witch. "What?"

Willa jerked her head in the direction of the strange men. "See them?"

Liam's eyes narrowed as he studied them for a moment. "Yes..."

Connor's skin prickled and he turned his gaze up the hill as more emergency vehicles blasted past in a flurry of light and sound. He saw what the two people across the street saw, and he knew trouble had found them again. He wished he knew the name of this trouble, names had power, but he thanked his lucky charms that he at least knew where the immediate danger was from. He swore under his breath and looked back across the street. The flow of probabilities swirled about the two across the street from them, clashing with the less preferable outcomes he could sense from the figures up the street. Whomever these newcomers were, they were their best chance at surviving the next 24 hours.

Lee looked up as Connor tapped her shoulder. She followed his gaze and the motions of his head. It didn't take her long to realize there were both friends and foes about. She knew his expressions and could trust his judgement in these situations; that knowledge and trust had saved them before. She pushed off the bumper and straightened. "We need to go."

"Yep." Connor wasn't wasting his eloquence at the moment.

"Hey," Lee called, and the two people across the street looked at her. "Coming?"

Willa looked at Liam. "To where?"

"Faerie Ring Park." He held out his hand. "Keys."

She nodded, tossing him the keys as she dashed around the car and across the street as the oriental woman opened the back door of the other car. Liam jumped into the subaru and started the engine as he speed dialed Willa.

"You lead," Willa said into the phone as she thumbed it to speaker.

"Okay," Liam said over the phone, and backed the subaru around.

Connor started their car and turned it about to follow. He glanced up the hill and scowled. "They're going to follow."

"Of course," was Liam's comment as they turned around the corner. Lee noted that the car the unknown duo drove encountered no obstructions as they pulled around the emergency responders and followed.

"Any idea who they are," Willa asked to the company in general.

"No," came three responses in concert.

"Where are we going?" Connor kept his attention on the road and his eye on the subaru.

"A park in the hills: an area where the gauntlet is thinner and is just strange enough to discourage most muggles from staying around it too long." Willa grinned at Connor's snort. "Do you prefer sleepers?"

"Muggles will do," he replied, taking the turn onto I40 a bit more aggressively than was necessary.

Their pursuers stayed back, but Lee could track them, her spacial awareness allowing her to intimately know the distance, speed and direction of their motion. As they turned off the highway and onto a smaller, two lane road, she began to focus. As they wended their way into the mountains at a rapid but not treacherous speed, Lee expanded her awareness, feeling the fabric of space, and stretching it subtly behind them. With each turn and bend, she increased the length of the road. Sweat trickled down from her temples as she sensed the pursuing vehicle falling further and further behind.

Liam's voice came over the speaker phone as they passed a car heading down the road they were climbing. "I feel sorry for them, that's going to be a really long ride."

Lee grinned. "You sense my efforts?"

"I'd do the same if I didn't have to keep my attention on driving."

Lee nodded, and returned her full attention to the distance lengthening rote, her hands moving in ki gung small gestures. "They are not trying to counter me."

"Then either the driver is the one who understands correspondence, or, if we're lucky, neither of them can manipulate space."

Connor felt the correctness of the statement. "Lucky... they can't."

Willa eyed him. "How do you know?"

Connor grinned, "Gut instinct."

Willa shrugged. She'd heard stranger explanations of "knowing" in her time.

Finally, Liam pulled off the main road and onto an infrequently used gravel road into the forest. He parked at the far end of the gravel loop, as near as he could to the path leading further away from all things man. He pulled his day pack from the back seat as the other car stopped and Connor turned off the engine. "The ring is just up the path; that's our best spot to do work."

Willa slid out of the car and jogged over to her subaru as Liam tossed back her keys. She threw open the back hatch and grabbed her witch kit, while the other two followed Liam up the path.

"I know you," Connor said as they strode out of the narrow path into a small clearing, "You're Liam Gregory, the X-athlete."

Liam nodded. "I can't return the compliment."

Connor snorted, "Probably not. You've been a sure bet for years."

Liam raised an eyebrow. "You bet on X-sport competitions?"

Connor grinned, "Amongst other things."

Liam set his pack on a picnic table and began to rummage in it as the others quickly surveyed the clearing. "How far behind are they?"

Lee frowned a moment, considering the question. "Assuming they can't drive faster than we, or counter my magick, thirty minutes behind."

Connor rolled his dice in his hand, listening to their clicks. "At most."

Lee nodded at him, then turned to the two strangers. "Who are you?"

Willa set her own day pack on the table. "I am Willa Stone. My family has protected this area for seven generations."

"Liam Gregory; I go where I am needed." He pulled a small, leather pouch out of his pack and carefully removed a silver knotwork incense burner from the bag. Cradling the egg shaped knotwork in the palm of his hand, he held it out toward (Chad) and Lee. "It would be faster if we share what we know. We have little time."

Lee and Connor looked at each other, nodding briefly, and extended their hands to touch the silver egg. Liam whispered his call to the spirits to grant them wisdom, and their memories of the past few hours seemed to pour from them into the egg, rise and swirl like smoke, and then as they breathed in, the mixed memories were inhaled. Liam waited, allowing the new recollections to sort themselves out in his mind. Lee, though surprised by this method of sharing thoughts, remained steady and centered herself. (Chad) shuddered, stumbling back and breaking his contact with the egg as he struggled to make sense of what he saw.

After a minute, Liam lowered the egg. "I see." He looked briefly at Lee. "My sympathies."

Lee nodded her acknowledgement, but said nothing.

Connor settled his thoughts. "So, what's the plan?"

Willa frowned, looking at the three of them. "I'm in the dark here."

Liam turned, stepping closer to her, and blew the remnants of memory smoke into her face, causing her to cough and stumble back against to the table to steady herself. He looked back at the others, "She isn't adept at mind magicks."

They waited as Willa recovered her senses and glowered briefly at Liam. "You could have warned me."

"Would a warning have helped?"

"No," she huffed, and settled her hip more firmly against the table. "Plan?"

"We have allies here, where the gauntlet is thin. I'll try to gather them." Liam looked at the others. "I suggest defensive tactics - we don't know who or what these men are."

"Save that they are wearing clothes about a hundred years out of date," Willa commented dryly, "That doesn't sound like MiB."

"Their clothes weren't black," Lee stated, collecting her impressions from the shared memories of the men, "one dark burgundy, and the other charcoal, but not true black."

"How much time now?"

Lee frowned. "My spell fades faster than I planned... fifteen minutes."

"Then I better get moving." Picking up his pack with his left hand, Liam slung it over his shoulder and took a long, slow breath. Then, walking purposefully away from the center of the clearing, he simply faded from view.

"That never gets old," Willa said, before looking at the other two. "Fourteen and counting..."