Vacation III (The Aftermath)

(( CHAPTER 12: THE AFTERMATH ))

The city was a disaster, but not an unmitigated one. The archway through which she'd forged her passage had vanished behind her; thankfully she hadn't opened up a permanent passage between order and chaos.

It wasn't exactly as she'd pictured it. For one, there were no cars on the street anymore, not even Jacob's. The Sightless had vanished along with him, seemingly. Nobody at all was there, and the silence was overwhelming.

The traffic light in the intersection a block from her suddenly turned on and began blinking red, a sign that, hopefully, things were over. She looked upward and saw that what had previously been malevolent storm clouds were now ordinary, and beginning to dissolve. She found herself wondering how long she'd been gone.

“Why?” she heard a familiar terrible voice say. She turned to see the limbless monstrosity, John to his friends, on his knees railing against the sky. “Take me back, damn you!”

“Bad day?” Alyssa offered.

John was on his feet in a flash, hissing at her. “You! It took even you, but they will not have me back. I wish you had stayed in that place!” He spat at the ground.

“Wasn't to my liking.” she replied, and started walking down the street. Jacob couldn't be far, assuming he hadn't also been claimed by the storm.

“You dare turn your back to me, your greatest enemy!” the Sightless practically screamed at her. “I could strike you down where you stand!”

Alyssa nearly laughed at this. “If you think you're my greatest enemy, John Slayton, then you haven't been paying much attention to your bosses. They're not too fond of me.”

He cursed in some language she didn't understand. “Do not speak my true name!”

She made an impromptu song involving his true name and where he could stick it, walking all the while.

He followed her, and she frowned and stopped, facing him. “Are you going to try to kill me or what? Because I'll level with you, I've had one long goddamn day and I'm just not in the mood. So either try your best or let me go.”

John leered. “I follow you because I must, and for no other reason. Were I to bow to my own will, I would gladly welcome death in an attempt to harm you.”

“Well knock it off, okay? I've got a chamber to get back to.”

He stood still for a moment, gritting his teeth. “I would if I were allowed.”

She stared back at him. “What, you want my permission to get lost? Why can't you just stay here or go somewhere else?”

She could tell this question infuriated him. His teeth ground, he stomped his feet and seemed to struggle for a moment with answering. “You have bound me! You took my name from those to whom I pledged, and thus I am now stuck with you.”

She stared. “You're in an awful talkative mood. Why?”

He hissed. “I must answer you truthfully and in full.”

She pondered. “So if I told you to go climb the tallest building in this city and fling yourself off, you'd have no problems with it?”

He stomped his feet. “You mock me! You steal a disciple of chaos from the Unknowable, and you would throw it away! If you gave such an order I would follow it with a happy heart indeed.”

She shrugged. “I hate to make you happy, but you really don't have a use and to be perfectly frank I can't stand to be near you.”

He laughed, a brittle cackling that would have sent shivers down her spine had she been the same person she was earlier that day. She'd seen too much, though: A single Sightless was no match for her now.

“If you honestly believe me to be of no value then do as you have suggested and release me from this wretched life”.

There was something he was trying to not tell her, she could tell. “What are you hiding?” she asked.

He spat. “Your accursed questions! Falter but a moment and I shall rip out your throat!” He ground his teeth again, as though to force the answers she sought to stay inside, but failed. “Our kind have taken your friend and partner.” he answered simply and starkly.

She blinked. She felt too weary to react, but she knew the feelings were welling up behind her facade of shock. Let them build up, she thought. At least then she'd be feeling something again when they finally burst.

“Where is he?” she asked.

John laughed. “I am of use, you see! I do not know where he is, but I can lead you to him.”

It was her turn to feel the need to spit on the ground in front of him. “I'd rather not follow you. Anywhere.”

“Your choice, slaver.” he replied. “Lead me to my death, then, for I care not.”

A thought had occurred to her. “As much as I hate it, you're going to follow me for now. I know some people who would be very interested in talking to you.”

The abomination cursed again, and Alyssa found herself cruelly happy that it was angry again. She hadn't liked the tone of its laughter. She started walking, trying to get her orientation.

The city she'd but hours ago traveled was unfamiliar to her. Jacob, with his infallible sense of direction, was gone. She wasn't sure it was a good idea to lead a Sightless back to the chamber, but it seemed to be truly bound to her. There was a lot, she suspected, that someone like Savant could learn from it. Plus it could be of use finding Jacob, if it came down to that. First, though, she had to figure out how to get back there.

The city did not increase in familiarity, and she felt her frustration begin to mount. She knew that her thrall was likely to pick up on it soon, if he already hadn't. She thought she'd heard subdued chuckling from him, though there was the insanity factor which could have contributed to his outbursts.

Why hadn't Jacob just told her where the entrance really was? They'd always gone some sort of bizarre way. Occasionally the door would be in an alleyway, other times in a garage. Though she'd be able to recognize the old courthouse through which they'd entered last time, she didn't know how to get to it. She certainly didn't want to ask her pet monster for directions. Not only was he unlikely to know, but it would have meant she'd tipped her hand to him.

She stopped for a moment, realization hitting her. All this time, she'd assumed that because they'd gone through different routes once inside the chamber to reach the lobby, that the parking structure and the alleyway and the courthouse were all in the same spot. But what if they weren't? She thought back to the way Jacob had smirked at her when she'd objected to the courthouse as a location. It made sense for a place like the chamber to not be accessible through mundane means like an ordinary door. Perhaps, then, it wasn't. Maybe it was certain doors, then?

She slowed her pace, trying to concentrate. Ever since coming back from the world of chaos, she'd found herself attuned to the mostly orderly world around her. She could feel the presence of John behind her, which was part of the reason she hadn't feared to turn her back on him. She couldn't feel any doors that seemed out of place or different, though.

Maybe that wasn't it at all. Maybe she already knew how to get into the chamber, she thought with sudden inspiration. She walked purposely toward a building with a wooden door and stopped in front of it, tagging along an alternately muttering and giggling John.

She closed her eyes, and pictured the lobby of the chamber, to which the courthouse had led. She remembered the florescent lights, the other doors, Savant's table and books piled in a typically disorderly fashion. Committing every minute detail to mind, she opened her eyes, opened the door, and stepped through.

Disorientation. For a moment she felt like she was back inside the storm, as though she'd never escaped. Her sense of direction was lost, her sense of self suddenly uncertain.

Then she was there. The lobby, buzzing lights and all. Behind her, John fell unceremoniously to the floor, cursing incoherently at Alyssa as he picked himself up.

“Alyssa!” Savant stood up suddenly from the messy table he'd claimed as his own. He'd spotted the Sightless and was already bringing his arms up in a warding gesture, but with a pause he dropped them, shaking his head. “Wow. We send you into what ends up being the lion's mouth, and you walk out with a cub. How did you bind him?” He walked up to her, pushing the Sightless roughly to the side as though it were inconsequential. Alyssa nearly laughed, then.

“I learned his name, somehow that swapped his alliance. Though not his feelings.”

John spat again.

Alyssa paused for a moment. “I figured the operation shouldn't be a total loss – do we still have those cells I saw when I first came on?”

Savant nodded. “Yes, they're still working. What do you mean, not a total loss? You saved that whole city!”

She turned to John. “Go lock yourself up.” she ordered. Cursing her name and swearing a very bloody and gruesome revenge, he stomped off.

Finally, she could let her guard down. She sat abruptly in the nearest chair, sighing deeply. “They got Jacob. I didn't see it happen, but blindey apparently knows about it.”

Savant shook his head. “I'm so sorry, Alyssa. The other sites we thought would be hit were, but nowhere as bad as yours. They were after you, and everything else was a diversion.”

“I gathered as much. The Soldier mentioned something like that.”

Savant's eyes widened. “They sent a Soldier against you? You're very lucky to have survived.”

She shook her head. “I beat it. Savant, is something wrong with me? Yesterday I was normal. Gifted, sure, but among you guys I was normal. Then I discover I can take down a few dozen Sightless, bind another to my will, and to top it all off kill the worse the Unknowable has to offer, all in a matter of a half hour or so.”

Savant hugged her in a very paternal fashion. “You're fine. You're just the chosen one of prophecy, is all.”

She laughed. “I thought that was Yael.”

Savant shook his head. “Yael's a wonderful person and a good leader, but I don't think she's the one. For you to have defeated a Soldier you'd have to have mastery over both order and chaos.”

“You just decided this now? I thought you wrote the prophecy.”

He shrugged. “I leave things vague for that reason, so I can change my mind and still be claimed a visionary. Also, nice to see you found your own way in. When I last talked to Jacob, he was beginning to think you'd never catch on.”

She smiled weakly at the mention of her missing mentor. “I just needed the right motivation.”

She stood up then. “I've got to find him. If I don't get some rest soon, I'm going to just pass out the next chance I get, but I've got to get to him first.”

Savant nodded. “Shouldn't be too hard. Was his car left behind in the city?”

She shook her head. “No, at least not that I saw.”

“Good, it means they took it. They'd probably have to if they wanted to have any sort of chance against him at all. As long as his car was undamaged, he could stand up to pretty much limitless punishment. That'll work for us, because all you'll need is a mental image of the car and the door will take you right to it.”

She nodded and turned toward the door to the lobby. Even here, it didn't seem out of place. “Who made this thing, anyway?”

Savant shrugged. “Nobody knows, so that probably means I did it and didn't mention it to anyone, then forgot. Though Jacob always liked the theory that there's nothing special about the door, that all doors work like that. Ordinary doors just seem ordinary because you expect them to go to what you see through them.”

She smiled. “Jacob, I'm going to get you back.”

Image of the car firmly in mind, she opened the door and stepped through.

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