Sisterly Reflection

The sound of the small stream reached Beth’s ears before she could see it. And a few meters closer, she could sense Lynn’s mana dead ahead.

‘Kinda wish I had Teri’s magic right now,’ she thought as she and Anita drew closer. ‘Would make this a hell of a lot easier.’

The trees thinned out a bit, giving Beth and Anita a clearer view. The ground sloped down gently into the depression the stream snaked through and Lynn sat on that gentle incline, staring down at the water.

“What do you want, Beth?” Lynn asked in a dull voice before they took a further step closer.

“What, can’t a girl be worried about her big sister when she’s acting all moody and weird?” Beth fired back.

“It’d be the first time,” Lynn remarked, twisting around to glare at them. “Look, I’m just a bit stressed and need some time to decompress. Martius being a headstrong idiot was just the tipping point.”

“Yeah, don’t buy that,” Beth said and marched her way closer before sliding down the embankment, stopping on a dime right next to Lynn before she plopped down onto the soft ground. “Are we going to play twenty questions or can we skip the bullshit?”

Lynn let out a bitter laugh. “I think we’re a bit late for that kind of relationship, Beth.”

“Fuck that,” Beth said bluntly. “We’ve probably got another hundred years left. Plenty of time to fix things. I think we can become real chatty bitches in a decade or two.”

That finally drew a good reaction from Lynn as the blonde let out a snorted laugh. Beth grinned at her little victory and stared at Lynn intently, searching for any more cracks in her melancholy she could break through.

“You aren’t going to find the answers on my face, Beth,” Lynn said after a moment before sighing.

“How do you know that?” Beth cheekily asked. “I could have picked up mindreading.”

“In a week?” Lynn countered. “Doubt it.”

“Fine, no mindreading, but I did pick up this,” Beth admitted before pulling out one of the crystal balls Estelle gave her. With a twitch of her hand and a pulse of her mana, she set the sphere into motion, quickly spinning it up to speed. With a deft flick of her wrist, she threw the ball at the stream. It hit the water and began to carve a path upstream, a thin spray of water shooting up as it plowed through the current before its momentum failed and it sank into the water.

The display did get Lynn to perk up, and for a moment, Beth felt like she was years back, showing off her abilities for the first time. The dim memory of climbing up a wall like a gekko became suddenly more illuminated and Beth could clearly recall the happy and excited expression on Lynn’s face that day.

“How did you manage that?” Lynn asked, pure curiosity overwhelming her depression.

“We’re not really sure,” Beth answered. “Estelle thinks I’m tapping into some natural energy to boost things more than just spinning them would do. Not going to complain about not really knowing how it works.”

“Estelle?” Lynn inquired as she made a pulling motion with her hand. The water rippled unnaturally and a tendril stretched out from the stream, the ball cupped in a flowing current.

“Right, you haven’t met her yet,” Beth muttered as the tendril dropped the ball into her waiting hand. “Thanks. Estelle’s a witch we met up. Friend of Cammie’s. Helped us with something.”

She was going to keep it vague. It wasn’t her place to reveal Kiera’s abilities or Estelle’s full relationship with them. She was sure she would get an earful about either.

Lynn stared at Beth for a moment, the tell tale look of a question about to slip past her lips but then her expression relaxed and she sighed.

“I know there’s more to it, but you’re not going to answer any of my questions without me doing the same, right?” Lynn asked.

“I mean, I can't answer everything, but if you’re offering a one for one, I won’t complain,” Beth cheekily responded.

“Of course you can’t.” Lynn shook her head. “Alright, you want to know why I’m in a funk?”

“Reason I’m here, Sis,” Beth replied, her expression softening. “You realize how weird it was that you hadn’t tried to confirm you were coming over today?”

Lynn sighed. “Was I that predictable?”

“You texted me nearly every day,” Beth said flatly. “The only times you didn’t was when you were too deep into work, like right before I called you last time.”

“Right,” Lynn sighed. “Guess I have been a bit distracted. Getting the tracer up and running is proving harder than we expected.”

“Didn’t you have it working before?” Beth asked.

“We had something, but the method had too many variables to be effective and is not something we can use anymore anyway,” Lynn explained. “Harker’s no longer connected via his curse so we can’t use him as a link anymore but the data we got from before is letting us synthesize a fake connection. It’s not perfect yet, so we’ve been getting a lot of static. And that means I have to refine the various compounds we’re using to run the machine. Every blip of static is another revision.”

Beth flinched in sympathy. Hard worker she was not, but if she knew just how crushing multiple failed attempts at something could be, the numerous scrapes and bruises from mistimed jumps spoke for themselves.

“Yeah, that sounds like a pain,” she said. “I can see how that’d take up your brainpower.”

“Glad you can see my pain,” Lynn dryly remarked. “Now, it's my turn to ask something. Who’s that girl that was with you?”

“Anita?” Beth asked, craning her head back towards the woods. The gnoshroom girl hadn’t followed closer. In fact, she seemed to have given them space for this. ‘Got to remember to kiss her senseless later.’

Getting her head out of the gutter, Beth answered, “So, that’s a bit of a story. So, there were these mushroom dryads, and one of them got caught up in some of the magic Estelle and her, I guess boss is the best way to describe Nephele, did and poof, she’s sort of humanoid now.”

“Why is everything complicated with that guy?” Lynn muttered under her breath.

Beth snorted. “I’m pretty sure John asks something like that at least once a day.”

Lynn’s expression took on a serious edge and she looked at Beth with intense eyes. “Are you happy?”

“What?” Beth asked, blinking in confusion at the sudden question.

Lynn sighed again. “I don’t have the ‘brainspace’, as you put it, to deal with bullshit right now. I’m asking are you happy with what you’ve got going with John and those other girls.”

Beth looked at Lynn much the same way she would have when caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

“Don’t look so shocked. You guys aren’t subtle,” Lynn said, a hint of annoyance in her tone.

“I’m more surprised you haven’t tried to melt John,” Beth remarked.

“I gave him the shovel talk already. But you haven’t answered my question,” Lynn pressed.

“Of course I’m fucking happy. You really think I would stick around if I wasn’t?” Beth hotly protested.

“I think you’d raise hell if they made you mad.” Lynn smiled wistfully. “Which is why I didn’t melt John.”

“I think you’re being a bit sexist by not wanting to melt the girls.” Beth smirked. “Senka’s more of a horndog than John is most times.”

“You really aren’t doing a great job at talking me down from the melting thing,” Lynn dryly said with a smirk.

“Maybe cus I know how much of a hardhead you are and won’t be able to change your mind about it,” Beth cheekily shot back.

“Sounds like someone else we know,” Lynn retorted with a laugh.

Beth let out a laugh of her own then looked at Lynn with a gleam in her eyes. “See, already better. Won’t even need a decade at this rate.”

Lynn let out a hum of acknowledgement and looked up at the sky. Then she sighed.

“The issues with the tracker aren’t the only things that are weighing me down,” she admitted. “And, in a way, you guys are to blame. I tried to get romantically involved with Harker. It didn’t go well.”

Beth’s good mood evaporated. And Lynn’s focus on her relationship with John and the girls suddenly made a lot of sense.

“Fuck. What happened?” was all Beth could say, shifting closer to Lynn.

“Well, I didn’t come out swinging with a ‘hey, want to hook up?’ if that’s what you’re thinking,” Lynn answered. “I asked him what he was planning to do once we’ve got all this cleared up and probed how he felt about romance in general. Let’s just say he’s not at all interested in anything like that.”

Beth winced. “At least you didn’t try to come on to him,” she said, trying to point out the bright side.

Lynn let out a bitter laugh. “Yeah, lucky me.”

“Wait, you said this was our fault,” Beth said. “Are you jealous of us?”

Lynn gave Beth a dry look. “Not exactly.”

“You totally are,” Beth countered, a teasing grin forming. “You got jealous that I got some and you haven’t.”

Lynn waved her hand at Beth and an orb of water shot out of the stream and splashed Beth in the face.

Beth sputtered before she sent her mana to her face, increasing the slickness of her skin and causing the water to slough off under the sheer **** of gravity.

“You deserved that,” Lynn cooly said as Beth glared at her.

“Probably,” Beth relented easily, her expression softening. “But, really, was I wrong? Hell, we weren’t really out in the open when we went to gnome town and it still got to you, right?”

“Don’t go calling Detreye ‘gnome town’ in front of Martius. He might get offended,” Lynn warned with a slight chuckle. “And as much as I hate to admit it, yeah. Not a lot of time for dating when you're working like I do and getting the hints from you guys just… hit me, I guess. But only when things calmed down.”

“Of course you would only have this crisis once work dialed down,” Beth muttered. “You really need to learn to relax.”

Lynn let out a dry laugh. “You don’t think I know that?”

“And,” Beth continued with a forceful voice, “I’m going to make sure you do. If I can start taking things seriously, you can learn to take a load off.”

That got Lynn to let out a true laugh. “If you can figure out how to make me relax, I’ll never question your dedication to anything again. Hell, before you showed up, while I was stewing in my overworked misery, I couldn’t stop thinking about work.”

“Tough case, huh?” Beth muttered before she grinned at her sister. “Nope. Not going to flank on this one, Sis. Operation ‘Get Lynn to chill’ is a go!”

“You’re impossible,” Lynn said, a small smile on her face.

“Impossible is what we do here in Pruzonia,” Beth cheekily retorted.

“I think you need to work on your slogan,” Lynn shot back. “Sounds more like something an Alice in Wonderland adaptation would use.”

“I’ll let Vivian know my suggestion has a thumbs down from you.” Beth grinned.

Lynn sighed but a smile tugged at her lips. But then her expression turned into something more neutral.

“As nice as this break has been, I’m sure Martius has things set up already,” she reluctantly said. “Back to work.”

Before Lynn could get to her feet, Beth grabbed her arm.

“Hold on there, it’s Pruzonia siesta time. Got to observe the custom while you’re here,” Beth grinned at Lynn as she tugged at her sleeve to remain seated.

Lynn sighed, a faint smile on her lips. “Well, if it’s the way things are done here, I don’t want to piss off the locals. Guess I can wait it out.”