Visions of a Fractured Past

Once the mother and son hug had run its course, John took a step towards the door but paused when he felt Vivian's magic radiate from just beyond the wood. It was hard to make out, like how a candle was only warm when right next to it. And it was far too weak to be Vivian herself, leaving John to assume she had put up a circle.

John cleared his mind, letting Arcane Sense activate in full. He could now make out the shape of the redhead’s magic, and true to his prediction, it was one of her arrays. For a moment he traced the outer circle before following the flow of power through the more simple parts of the construct.

Dampening Ward Array
A simple application of kinetic energy that disperses any sound.

"Huh," John intoned, catching Brenda's attention.

"Is something wrong, sweetie?" she asked.

"No. Vivian threw up something to give us privacy," John answered, pulling the office door open. Floating just beyond the frame at face height was the softly glowing array crafted from shinerdust.

It quivered for a second before it began to break apart, immediately letting John and Brenda hear the light din down the hall. The dust didn't fall to the ground, instead flowing back towards the living room.

"I need to get one of those for work," Brenda said with an impressed tone. "Where's it going?"

"Probably back to Vivian," John presumed. "She must have had a sequence to deactivate the ward and send the dust back to her."

"When you say it like that, it makes magic sound like some kind of computer program," Brenda noted. "Which makes it seem not so fantastical and slightly more at the same time."

"How'd you come to that?" John asked as they began to walk back to the others.

"Well, it sounds simple, just write some code and get an effect," Brenda said. "But that effect is changing reality in some way. Blocking sound without needing something solid, or the like. It's a bit humbling."

"I guess it is a bit big," John mused. "But with the right math, we managed to split the atom. And I don't think anyone on The Manhattan Project had magic."

"Comparing what magic can do to the A-Bomb isn't that great of a comparison, sweetie," Brenda laughed.

"Eh, it fits," John shot back. "Yeah it can be used for destruction, but it can also be used for good. Just matters who's doing what with it."

Any further talk on the subject of magic compared to nuclear power was halted when they reached the living room. A few pizza boxes lay open on the table, their contents nearly depleted. The quartet of goblins, along with Beth, were watching a very turned down TV, some 80s action movie playing.

Aeolia remained at her vigilant post watching the still **** girl. Vivian looked like she had been seated next to her if the empty chair next to the couch was any indication. The redhead herself was a few feet away, collecting the stream of dust as it flew back to her.

"See the pizza got here," John remarked in a lighthearted tone.

"Yes, a good while ago," Vivian replied. "I thought you two would like your privacy, so I put the ward up. I guess you Observed it?"

John nodded and Brenda said, “It certainly was a nice gesture. Makes me wish I could use it at work.”

Vivian flushed under Brenda’s smile and praise and said, “It was the least I could do. I hope you don’t mind us turning on the TV. Teri’s people were kind of entranced by it. Beth’s description of it didn’t help.”

“I figured it would help break the ice and get over the language gap,” Beth retorted, getting up from her spot. “Who doesn’t like a good action flick?”

“Is that one of John’s shirts?” Brenda asked as the short girl approached. Sure enough, one of John’s school shirts had replaced Beth’s ruined one, though the white button up was closer in size to a dress on her petite frame.

“Um, yeah,” Beth answered hesitantly as she stopped next to John.

“I suppose it’s only fitting for a girlfriend to borrow her boyfriend’s shirt,” Brenda said with a teasing smile.

Beth and Vivian both blinked and John said, “Mom figured out we were all seeing each other.”

“Only half of it,” Brenda admitted. “I only thought it was you and Aeolia, Vivian. Easy enough to figure out when the one I hadn’t met kisses my son before going into battle.”

“At least we won’t have to dance around the issue,” Vivian sighed.

“If we’re done with this down time, maybe we can discuss what we’re going to do about her?” Aeolia cut in with an annoyed voice, jerking her head down towards their **** guest.

John heard Teri say something to her warriors before she got up from the TV, Kitai draped over her shoulders, and walked over to them.

“She’s still the same,” Teri said. “Her presence is barely there. At least her physical condition hasn’t deteriorated after the healing you did stopped working, John. Means her body is on the mend. But her mind or soul may be beyond us.”

“So she just gets to check out without paying, huh?” Aeolia spat, jumping down from her perch and assuming her full height.

“Aeolia, we don’t know if she’s even with these guys,” Vivian admonished her. “Or if she was, whether it was willing or ****.”

“I can think of one way we can learn more,” Aeolia said, turning her gaze to John. “Think a dark mana powered Observe on her will work?”

“Never used that on a person or the like,” John said, eyeing the bluenette.

“Maybe it would be smarter to start with the bracelet?” Vivian offered as a compromise. “We know that it's a safe option.”

“Actually, we can start with something else,” John realized with a start. “I got the name of their guild from Bill. Phantom Reach. Think we can search that up on the Auction?”

“Couldn’t hurt,” Vivian answered, her phone already pulled from her pocket space. John grabbed two slices of pizza, handed one to Brenda and took a bite of his as the redhead typed up the search.

“Found something,” she reported to the rapt attention of the gathered. “Says they’re a mercenary group but I can’t find anything on them for the last few years.”

“Lines up with something Bill’s Observe said,” John muttered. “Their current goals lined up with his desire to hunt down people. Sounds like this blood letting might have been going on for a while.”

“Maybe,” Teri pipped in. “Or whoever’s in charge went to ground for a time before starting this up. Both have dark implications.”

“So tracking them down this way is a bust,” Vivian said, stowing her phone. “Looks like Observe is the only option we have.”

John nodded and Teri pulled the bracelet out of her satchel and handed it to John. He fiddled with it a second. ‘It’s funny. Observing this might be the first domino in all of this. Would they have found me if I hadn’t? Maybe, she was still around after all. I could have Observed her, or done some other bit of magic and got found out that way.’

There was a debate raging in him, over whether to reveal that he had Observed the charm and made himself a known entity. One part of him deemed it irrelevant as nothing could be done about it, but another felt like not revealing it was a betrayal of everyone’s trust. In the end, after recounting everything else to his mother, keeping this in the dark simply rubbed him the wrong way now.

“Before I do the thing, I’ve got to say something,” John began. “Early on Monday, hell, I was still on the bus, I cast Observe as I tripped and I hit this charm. She, or someone with the same charm I guess, was on the bus with me.”

“Why would they be at your school?” Brenda asked aghast.

“Probably to keep tabs on the Warden,” Vivian guessed.

“And that they maintained their secrecy really doesn’t make the Order look good,” Aeolia remarked dryly.

“I mean, Moira was only level 17,” John said. “And we don’t know what her level was before.”

Looking at the bracelet, he continued, “Maybe the memory this thing holds will give us an answer.”

John summoned his knife, drew in the needed dark mana and cast Observe upon the bracelet, slipping into its memory.

---

“Come in, Kiera,” a gruff voice spoke above the necklace in a dimly lit room.

Timid footsteps echoed through the chamber and a soft, hesitant voice asked, "You wanted to see me, Boss?"

"Indeed I did," the boss answered. "I've figured out how best to use your gifts."

"W-what am I doing?" Kiera inquired.

"We've gone undetected so far, but that's no reason for us to assume we can keep it that way without being vigilant," the man said. "So I'm going to have you keep an eye on the Warden. And any other Abyssal going to that academy."

"Do, do you think that's safe?" Kiera questioned in a weak voice. "What if they sense me? These are the people you're trying to avoid, right? I'm not…"

A fist hit the table with moderate ****, silencing the girl. "I know what I said before. But that was more to the effect of not making any scene to the locals. We need to know if the Order or anyone else is acting suspicious or on high alert. Can't do that if we don't have eyes, ears and other keen senses in places where they think they are safe. And I have something to give you a little security."

The world shifted as callused hands closed around the chain and lifted it up, bringing a nervous looking blue haired girl into view. She straightened her posture slightly as she peered closer.

"This will make sure any attempt to scry you will give them false information and alert you to the act. And if that happens, let me know and we'll deal with it as appropriate."

---

John blinked and found himself back in his living room, everyone looking at him expectantly.

"Well, it's not a smoking gun, but I got a bit of info," John reported, looking towards the girl. “Her name is Kiera, or at least that's what her boss called her."

He fired off an Observe at her. "Still blank."

"Guess that means it was a fake name," Aeolia surmised with a scowl.

"Maybe," Vivian muttered. "But if her sense of identity was wiped away, knowing her name may not restore it to her sheet. You could call me 'Cindy' but it wouldn't change that I see myself as 'Vivian'."

"Nothin' else useful?" Beth asked as she bit into a piece of pizza.

"Just that her mission was to mainly keep an eye on Moira and gauge her temperament. The boss figured if they could spot any stress with her, it could mean the Order was on to them, or at least on alert."

John looked at the sleeping girl, his mind replacing her relaxed form with the timid figure he saw through the bracelet.

'She doesn't really fit with the image of a mercenary band that's going around killing people for their blood,' he thought. 'Maybe she was **** to work for them. Do they have someone she cares about hostage?'

No answer could come from Kiera in the state she was in, and there was only one way to get around it.

"I'm going to Observe her," John announced, the tone of his voice leaving no mistake which version of he skill he was going to use.

"Finally, going to get some real answers," Aeolia said.

John took a moment to settle himself, not totally confident that this move would reveal more substantive information. He had a feeling if dark Observe worked on people like it did on objects, he was about to get a new perspective on an event he was a part of.

'But nothing ventured, nothing gained,' he thought as he drew in the dark mana. With a breath, he cast the skill at Kiera.

---

Painful pressure pushed against Kiera's head and she held her head in a vain attempt to ward it off. She didn't know what was happening, but the dark aura all around her was one she had caught faint echoes of whenever Flora used that weapon.

Dimly aware of others near her, she tried to get a better accounting of them, despite the crushing **** compressing her and the haze of shadows that clouded her vision.

That's Bill, and Flora and Boss,' she blearily noted. 'Is this the place they're trying to reach?'

She hoped not as she feared what the actual flavor of the place would do to her if her reaction to a remote viewing was this bad. The slowly becoming familiar presence of whoever was linking to her hovered near her and a twisting guilt joined the physical discomfort at the notion he would get hurt or found out by anyone.

'The guilt grew when she sensed who was next to her so-called allies. Her 'classmate' who she'd sent to the wolves. By following her orders she had condemned him to ****. A small part of her had been happy that he had fended off Bill's attack; that small spark had been smothered by Bill's insistence on hunting his prey.

'And I didn't have the guts to say no,' she thought, sinking further into guilt. 'I deserve this, don't I? I could have said no. I could have kept that someone tried to scry me secret. I could have tried to fight them.

In the end, her only moment of defiance was not giving away the man that had connected with her somehow. And even then, he was pulled into this hellscape.

Kiera was pulled out of her self-pity when a lean figure stepped out of the haze far to her right and began to probe the Latebloomer with red lances of lighting. Each arc caused a phantom spark of pain to shoot through her but she kept her attention on them, taking whatever small amount of penance she could.

Suprise managed to break through her guilt spiral as he began to fight back against the dark figure, managing to **** it back a step and to cease its attack.

‘He beat it?’ she thought in wild amazement as the shadow moved to examine the triumvirate beside her. The red arcs shot towards them; this time she felt no pangs of sympathy or guilt, only growing fear over the fact she was next in line. And with the shadow closer, the oppressive pressure increased as well, like she was plunging deeper and deeper into a dark sea. If she had to breath in this place, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to.

She tried to brace herself as the shadow finished its pass over her ‘comrades’, but instead of stopping, it passed right by her, its focus on the man she had brought with her. He straightened his posture, a wave of defiant confidence roiling off him, giving Kiera a moment's respite. That moment was ripped away when the shadow launched its lightning at her passenger, searing pain ripping through her body.

Her jaw clenched as she fought the pain as best she could, a reassuring pulse from her unnamed ally letting her keep her calm despite the lancing agony creeping through her body. She saw a few red bolts fly from her neighbor and for a moment believed he could fight the shadow. That hope was dashed when stronger bolts fired from the shadow, tearing into the unnamed man with greater power.

Kiera’s jaw snapped open in an unheard scream as the pain reached unbearable levels, every inch of her body feeling like it was both on fire and being ripped to pieces. The waves of pain were interspersed with flashes of her past, each playing before her eyes before vanishing into darkness. Spying on the Latebloomer at the diner, him sitting next to her on the bus, Bill forcing her to keep tabs on him, her bland disguise staring back at her in a mirror, the strike of a backhand, the extended hand of the Boss, his kind smile hiding his cold cunning.

Memories flashed by faster and faster as the pain faded into numbness, then a wave of righteous fury burned beside her, creating a spark of warmth before everything faded into nothingness.

---

John flinched back, the light of the living room suddenly too bright for his eyes. He felt winded and his brow was damp with sweat. And everyone was looking between him and Kiera with various levels of concern. He noticed she was slightly stirring, though her movements were slowing down.

“Sweetie,” Brenda said in a fearful voice, “are you ok?”

“Yeah,” John wheezed out, blinking away tears that had begun to fall from his eyes. “She had a harder time during that vision thing than I did."

“Yeah, I could feel it,” Teri remarked in a quiet voice. “All of it. The fear, the guilt.”

“Jesus Christ, I didn’t want her to relive that,” John exclaimed, horrified that he had **** the recollection of such an event.

“I don’t think she got the full blast of it, it felt more like a nightmare,” Teri said, likely trying to soothe some of John’s guilt. “And it isn’t like you knew she’d experience it again.”

“What was it, exactly?” Aeolia asked quietly, far less heat in her voice than there had been.

“The same vision I had, from her perspective of course,” John recounted, having already given his point of view on it while they recovered in the barrier. “It was more painful for her, like she was being squeezed. And that odd person that was just sort of hovering near her was some kind of third party that was kind of astral projecting himself to her. And when the shadow attacked him, it hurt her. Badly.”

John took a breath and continued, “It felt like she was being ripped apart, and if the flashes of memories were anything to go by, it likely wasn’t just a feeling. I think her memories were ripped away. I know the shadow looked at some of my memories, so it isn’t too much of a stretch to assume that’s what happened, given the aftermath.”

“So she’s really just an empty head now?” Beth asked.

“That might be the case,” Teri answered. “None of us can say for sure. But, since it seems she reacted to John’s memory viewing, and that he could even get that may mean that some or all of her memories are still in there.”

“Which leaves us with a question: what are we going to do with her?” Vivian asked. “If she doesn’t recover on her own to the point of being able to take care of herself, what do we do? And what if Phantom Reach comes looking for her?”

“Not like we weren’t on their radar before,” Aeolia bluntly said as she began to pace. She let out a sigh and continued, “John, did you get the feeling that she was on board with what these guys are up to?”

“The opposite,” he answered. “It’s really weird to feel someone else's guilt towards yourself. The impression I got was she was, maybe not **** into working for them, but left with no other option but to die. And she didn’t have the guts to choose the latter. Something she was beating herself over.”

“Right,” Aeolia said. “So, any ideas? As much as I don’t like the Order, they’re probably in the best position to care for her without abusing her. Indoctoration, maybe, but she’d remain in one piece.”

“Moving her would be a problem,” John said. “Can’t exactly just roll up to wherever they have their HQ and go, ‘Hi! Found this **** girl and think you can help her.’”

“What if we don’t have to get them involved?” Beth wondered. “I could always call my sister.”

“You mean the one who’s trying to keep you out of the Abyss?” Vivian pressed.

“There’s someone’s life on the line,” Beth argued. “I’m not going to hold off and not call someone who could help. Even if she freaks out over all this.”

John pulled the shorter girl into an embrace. “Don’t think any of us are going to let you stand up to her alone. She can’t be scarier than what we faced today.”

Beth leaned into John’s side and said, “Maybe not, but that might not stop her from throwing acid at you.”

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.