Sisters

“What do you mean, ‘getting in will be a pain’?” Senka asked.

“The gnomes haven’t had the best luck with other powers,” Lynn explained. “They’ve only been completely free to run their own affairs for the last century or so. And they’re really not keen on letting outsiders gain any influence again.”

“So they’re selective on who they let in, is what you’re saying?” John said, earning a terse nod from the blonde.

“Harker and I have a well respected researcher vouching for us, but his word isn’t enough to bring all of you,” Lynn remarked. “I’m not sure if he could pull things for even one more.”

“Guess that means we’ve got to sneak in,” Beth plainly said.

Lynn shot her a withering look. “Do you really think it’d be that simple? There’s only one way in and out of the Kingdom and they’ve got a strong military presence there.”

“So what? We’re just shit out of luck?” Aeolia grumbled.

“I’m going to venture that your gnome friend can’t come here with Harker’s body, correct?” Vivian asked.

“Even if Harker’s condition is stable, getting him out has the same problem as getting in,” Lynn answered. “Along with the added question of what we were doing.”

John frowned. “Is what you were doing illegal there?”

“Maybe,” Lynn replied after a moment, her voice hesitant and John shot Beth a warning glare to keep her from jumping at her sister’s less than spotless career choices. It was hardly the time for more sisterly spats.

“I didn’t do a deep dive into Detreye’s laws,” Lynn continued uninterrupted. “Or into what the academy considers outside of bounds. Martius wasn’t acting like we needed to keep things quiet, but Harker getting knocked out might raise questions that the establishment won’t like. Keeping things quiet is a good idea.”

“We do want to keep Phantom Reach in the dark as much as possible,” Vivian muttered. “Can you contact Martius? See if Harker reacted in any way when Kiera channeled him?”

“If there was anything to note, he would have,” Lynn replied. “Where’d you guys put my stuff? I need the small crystal disk I had in my pocket.”

“I’ll get it,” Aeolia said, shrinking down and flying out of the room after Senka opened the door. A moment later, she flew back in, dropping the requested item into Lynn’s hand.
When she caught everyone waiting for an explanation, she said, “Like I said, the gnomes aren’t too keen when it comes to interacting with others. That includes importing mundane human tech. Doesn’t stop them from taking the idea though.”

She lifted the disk up to her mouth and flicked it with a finger, causing a high pitched hum to emanate from it. A few moments later, a worn voice came from the crystal.

“Lynn, what is it?” Martius tersely asked. “And, no, Harker’s condition hasn’t changed if that’s why you’re calling. Well, aside from a minor uptick in his mana output for a short moment, but it hasn’t happened again. Might have just been sensor error.”

“That happen about an hour or so ago?” Lynn pressed, unable to suppress the somewhat excited tone in her voice.

“Around then, yes,” Martius answered, his confusion coming through clearly. “How did you know?”

“Because it turns out these guys are operating in the town I set my sister up in, and she and her friends ran into them,” Lynn growled out, her narrowed eyes glancing over to John.

‘I don’t think I’m going to be in her good graces for a while,’ he lamented.

‘At least she’s being civil and putting the greater threat above her somewhat irrational desire to keep Beth safe,’ Senka consoled him.

‘For now,’ John thought back. ‘But once we get this stuff sorted, how likely is she to pack up and try to relocate Beth to Antarctica? I really don’t want to fight her.’

‘Let’s hope we can improve our relationship with her before then,’ Senka intoned as Martius finally responded to Lynn.

“Really? And they’re all well?” the gnome inquired.

“Yeah, but that’s not why I’m calling,” Lynn quickly said. “They picked up the girl we connected Harker to, and it seems she’s somehow cradling his mind or soul.”

“Wait, really?” Martius exclaimed, the sound of metal and paper moving about coming through the crystal. “How is the girl? I can’t imagine she’s all there holding another person’s mind.”

“She’s kind of out of it,” Lynn explained. “Awake but in a dazed sort of state. Uncommunicative but able to do simple tasks.”

“Yes, that makes sense,” Martius muttered over the line. “Too much for a single mortal soul to handle. At least she’s not in a coma like Harker. Gives me some hope we can reverse things.”

“Speaking of that, can you get a pass for her?” Lynn asked.

“That isn’t likely to happen,” Martius said after a moment. “I had to use most of my goodwill with the academy board and the governance council to get you and Harker in. Not to mention stretching the truth of what I needed your assistance with. Asking for more is likely to bring scrutiny we don’t want.”

“Then what do we do?” Aeolia interjected.

“I assume that is either your sister or one of her friends, yes?” Martius asked.

“One of her friends, and a survivor of one of the blood hunts,” Lynn explained tersely.

“I see,” Martius muttered after a moment. “How many are with you?”

“Six. My sister, her four friends and the girl,” Lynn answered.

“And are there any with connection to the blood stealers not present?”

“We’re missing four who helped us in the fight yesterday, but they’ve got other obligations that are keeping them tied up,” John said.

“Six is probably pushing things too far already,” Martius said. “Ideally, I’d like to have all of you in the lab, but six should be enough to get decent readings and an accounting of events. From the instruments on our end, things seemed to get interesting.”

“Wait, I thought you said you couldn’t even get one pass,” Vivian spoke up.

“Indeed I did,” Martius remarked. “But there are less legal ways into the Kingdom.”

“So we are going to sneak in?” Beth asked smugly, shooting Lynn a shit eating grin.

“Wait, how exactly do you plan to pull that off?” Lynn quickly asked.

“I have some contacts that can help,” Martius answered. “Did you think all of my dealings were completely clean, Lynn? Progress is something that can be stymied by the overly cautious and paranoid. Do you think this disk was made just from hearing about phones? No, the inventor procured some for study.

“Now,” the gnome continued. “It won’t be an easy task. The main ways into the Kingdom are heavily regulated, but contrary to the dogma, there are other paths that exist, though they aren’t the easiest to open.”

“You can just open pathways in?” Vivian asked.

“‘Just open’? No,” Martius replied. “It’s a rather complicated process, but there are points in the fabric of reality that are thinner than the norm and there are ways to pry them open. But here and now is not the time to get into things. I need to contact some people and it could take some time. I do advise you to gather anything you think could shed light on things and be ready to move. Oh, and to avoid suspicion, it would be for the best to dress like you’re supposed to be there.”

The crystal went quiet and Lynn returned it to her pocket after a moment of staring at it.

“So,” Vivian broke the silence, “what constitutes ‘best dress’ for Detreye?”

---

They spent another hour in the back of the diner, hashing out the likely plan.

“So once we get a location to meet these smugglers, they’ll send us in, then we just have to act casual and make it to the lab, right?” Beth summed things up succinctly.

She caught the slight twitch of Lynn's eye and knew her sister was about to criticize her in some way. She always had that tick though usually there was a bit more buildup before it reached that level.

'Guess this is a bit bigger than the time I stuck all her clothes to the ceiling,' she thought with a bit of melancholic fondness. It wasn't long after that their parents had died.

"That's the basic plan, yes," Lynn said in a measured tone, one Beth recognized as her holding back from blowing up at her. "Since we've got that all sorted and we're stuck waiting, I think we can all head home. I'll call when I hear back from Martius."

Beth caught the emphasis Lynn had placed on the word 'home' and knew she was going to drag her there kicking and screaming if she had to.

"We do have to make sure we have all the things we'll need for the trip," Vivian mused.

The rest of her lovers nodded in agreement and Beth sighed, knowing there wasn't going to be a way to dodge Mt. Lynn's eruption. They were all being stiff and awkward around each other and even she knew it was because they were avoiding revealing the full extent of their relationship from Lynn.

A part of Beth knew that if Lynn knew these weren't just her friends but that they had fucked her just last night, things would be even more explosive so she was glad that fact remained hidden.

'Sucks we can't be open about things,' she complained. 'I get one taste and I'm cut off...'

They all filed out of Mason and Cammie’s back room, but before Lynn could usher Beth to however she got to the diner, Vivian flagged her down with a question. Before Beth could hear what the redhead wanted, an unseen weight settled on her shoulder.

"How are you holding up, princess?" Aeolia asked quietly, her voice just audible over the noise of the people eating their lunches.

Beth shrugged. "I haven't been whisked away to some tower with a dragon, so there's that."

If her boyfriend and girlfriends were going to keep using the pet name, she was going to milk the references.

A tiny pair of lips kissed her cheek and Aeolia said, "If she does later, know you've got a whole squad of knights on the way."

Beth smiled as Aeolia flew off, probably back to Vivian as Lynn approached.

"Let's go, Beth," was her terse command and Beth slumped after her, feet **** to separate from the other.

A moment later, the sisters were out of the barrier and Beth followed Lynn to a simple black sedan. Silently she got in and Lynn began the drive back home.

The crushing quiet continued as they drove and Beth soon found it too much. Before she could break it, however, Lynn did.

"Let's not start in the car," she said. The silence resumed and Beth rankled under the order but followed it.

'Don't fuck things up and have Lynn **** me into endless sleep or anything,' she thought as she **** herself to look out the window, the surroundings growing more familiar. 'If I can fight twisted plant monsters, I can keep things good with my sister. But maybe I should try to think of how Vivian would handle things.

'Just keep calm,' she imagined her redheaded girlfriend's advice to be. 'Yelling won't get you anywhere and might make things worse. Explain things as plainly and clearly as possible.'

She was taken out of her imaginary pep talk when Lynn threw a small vial into her lap filled with a pale orange liquid.

"What's this?" Beth asked, eyeing the potion warily.

"Something to make you look sick," Lynn answered. "You said the Order might be watching our place, so this should help to establish that you were out because you were sick."

"And you just have 'instant sick' with you all the time?" Beth inquired, still cautious.

"Well, it's meant to make you throw up, but half a dose will make you queasy enough," Lynn explained.

"Maybe you should have led with that first," Beth muttered. "What if I downed the whole thing without asking you? Don't think puke goes with the interior."

"Because I knew you'd ask about it," Lynn replied and Beth picked up a note of sadness in her tone.

Beth let out a little grunt, not liking how her guts were already beginning to squirm, and downed about half of the potion. She gagged slightly at the taste, a mix of eggs and carrots, and felt it settle heavily in her stomach.

A moment later, her gut twisted like it was going through a spin cycle and Beth let out a pitiful groan. Sweat began to bead across her forehead as she suddenly felt like the temperature shot up dramatically.

"Ugh, this is a little more than feeling queasy, Lynn," Beth managed to say, each word an effort to say.

"Well, no one will question you when you look like you're about to double over," Lynn said. "And you can take the antidote once we get inside."

The car lurched to a stop and Beth grimaced as the deceleration made her gut do flips, ones far removed from the kind she experienced the prior night.

She was aware of Lynn getting out but found she had no energy to extricate herself.

"I'd say you're milking it, but I know just how much this can knock you out," Lynn said as she opened Beth's door and undid her seatbelt. "Come on, lean on me."

Beth let out a sickly sound and **** herself up, limply flopping against her sister. With some actual effort, the Gryff sisters made their way into their home. Lynn half dragged Beth to the disused couch and set her down before fishing out a light violet vial from her coat.

"Take it all," she softly said as she uncorked it and handed it over.

"Don't have to tell me twice," Beth muttered as she downed the whole concoction. It had a pleasant, minty taste and a cool relief washed over her as it countered the first potion.

After taking a moment to make sure everything was right with herself, Beth turned her attention to Lynn.

"Well, let's hear it," she sighed.

"Oh, hear what? Me yelling at you for ignoring my rules and getting involved with the Abyss?" Lynn asked, a tired edge to her voice.

"Yeah," Beth answered unsure, not expecting this turn of events.

"I think we're beyond the point where that would do anything," Lynn remarked as she sat down in the chair opposite the couch. "So instead, here's what we're going to do. You are going to stay put when I escort your 'friends' to Detreye then we're going to find a new place to live, far away from here."

A wave of hot indignation flowed through Beth at the idea of running and abandoning everyone, but she managed to keep from initiating things. Instead she let out a breath and stared unflinchingly into Lynn's eyes.

"No," she firmly said. "I am not going to abandon them."

"Beth, be reasonable," Lynn exclaimed with an exasperated sigh. "There's no reason to fight."

"These guys going around and killing people isn't enough of one?" Beth retorted. "How about the fact they killed Aeolia’s family and friends. Is that enough?"

"You can't just jump into a fight for someone you've known for what, all of a week," Lynn countered.

"What about you?" Beth shot back. "You've only been working on this job for about the same time. And don't try to 'It's different' me because you were getting paid."

"I was never going to be in the line of fire doing what I was hired for," Lynn retorted.

"What if they reversed the signal, or Kiera turned out to be fooling everyone? And these Reach bastards attacked?" Beth asked.

"I was a Kingdom away, one with a semi-isolationist policy," Lynn said exasperated. "If they could pull something like that off, then there's no hope for any of us. Anyway, we're getting off topic. You're staying put and that's final."

"I already told you, I'm not going to abandon my friends," Beth reaffirmed. "Why can't you just let me…"

"Let you what?" Lynn snapped, shooting out of her chair. "Let you run right into danger? Right into the HQ of a bunch of blood stealing cultists! I don't want to lose you like Mom and Dad, Beth!"

Beth blinked, never having seen Lynn as frazzled as she was right now. Her sister paced in the space between the couch and chair, running a hand through the few loose pieces of her hair.

“So I’m just supposed to sit on my ass and just let the world go by?” Beth shot back, unable to keep herself from firing back, especially with Lynn playing the parent card. “You know that’s not what they would want!”

“What they would have wanted doesn’t matter!” Lynn shouted. “They got themselves killed and I don’t want that to happen again!”

“You don’t get to decide that!” Beth responded in kind, launching herself out of her seat. “And don’t talk about Mom and Dad like that! At least they were helping people.”

“What do you think I’ve been doing? Making poisons for some shadowy underworld types?” Lynn incredulously asked. “Every job I’ve had was about helping people.”

“Then why aren’t you listening to the rest of what Mom and Dad taught us?” Beth screamed, tears beginning to spill from her eyes. “They would have wanted both of us to make an impact in the world, right? ‘Always try to leave things better than when you found it’, remember that?”

Their parents' mantra seemed to suck some of the wind from Lynn’s sails and she sputtered for a moment before retorting, “Don’t try to turn their words on me. It’s not like you were living up to that.”

“Well, maybe I would have if I was allowed to actually interact with the Abyss and use my magic,” Beth shot back bitterly. “Which is what I’m trying to do now. Come on, Lynn. You know what these guys are doing. We managed to beat one of them already and we’re not exactly the best fighting **** yet.”

“Trying to sell me on this with ‘we just managed to beat one guy when there were six or more of us’ isn’t going to cut it, Beth,” Lynn sighed. “Why can’t you just…”

“Just what, not use the talents I was born with?” Beth cut her off. After taking a moment to take in a deep breath of air, she continued, “Do you remember the first time you used your ability?”

The suddenness of the change in topic left Lynn unable to reply fast enough so Beth answered with her own remembrance.

“I was what, five, and Mom came back from one of her jobs. Can’t remember why I was so excited to see her, but I jumped on her,” Beth said sadly. “I didn’t want to let go and my mana agreed. Once Mom figured out I was sticking to her, she had the biggest smile and spun us around. I lost my grip a second later but she caught me.”

“I remember that,” Lynn said softly. “You’re laughing distracted me from my homework.”

“Wouldn’t be the last time,” Beth remarked with a smirk.

A momentary silence passed before Lynn said, “I was about five too. Dad was giving me a bath and I splashed him. Hard. But he looked so proud of what I did.”

Lynn exhaled loudly. “I get what you’re trying to say, Beth. But I don’t want you getting into danger. I don’t think I could handle losing you too.”

“Then you’d know what I’ve felt,” Beth said in a small voice. “You go away for weeks or longer on your jobs and you never tell me what you’re hired to do. What if you end up crossing some evil group and end up hurt? Or worse? I’d never know what happened because you don’t let me know what you’re doing. You don’t trust that I can handle things or make the right friends to help me. Sometimes it feels like I didn't just lose Mom and Dad. I lost my sister too."

“Beth,” Lynn softly said, but seemed unable to find more words. Seeing that Lynn had no retort, Beth turned to head for her room.

“I’m going to dig out something to wear for this trip,” she said, and left her sister with whatever thoughts she had.

Thanks again for reading this little story. If you liked the chapter, please hit that thumbs up, and if you want to support my writing, check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ScrapCrow. Get access to my chapters before they’re published here and join my private Discord.