Day 16 (The Recovery)

(( CHAPTER 8: THE RECOVERY ))

Jacob's eyes opened slowly, and at first Alyssa wasn't sure he was actually seeing her. "Come on!" she whispered urgently. Everything around her was still. Silence reigned, where moments before there'd been noise and chaos, now there was quiet and order. It unsettled her almost as much as the noise had. At least then she'd known what to do, or even that something needed to be done. Now, though, she didn't know what should be happening. Her since of righteous fury had evaporated, and with it her sense of purpose


"We win?" Jacob mumbled, nearly silently, and Alyssa would have jumped for joy if it wouldn't require she drop his head in the process.

"Yeah, we won." She said. "Storm's over." Looking around, there were few signs that the storm had even been there to begin with. Corpses of the Sightless, already decaying, and the dark trail of blood the one survivor had left were the only things to attest that there had been a struggle at all.

Jacob stood up shakily. "I don't know what the hell that thing did to my head, but thanks for pulling it off of me." he dusted his shirt off, shook his head as though to clear it. "I remember it hurt like hell, though."

"Glad to help." Alyssa said, somewhat awkwardly. What could you say to the person whose life you'd just saved? The situation was normally reversed, and she wasn't sure she liked her newfound skill. It had saved, them, though. She found herself thinking easier, as though a weight had lifted from her mind. The chaos had infused itself into her very brain, she felt, and now that she'd banished it without she'd also banished it within.

Part of her knew, though, that this was not the case. Though the weight may have eased, it was still there. She didn't know how she knew, but she knew it wasn't over.

"Let's get the hell out of here." Jacob mumbled, echoing her thoughts.

Driving.

She could empathize with the Road Men. Hell, if she tried she could probably be one. She didn't really feel a link to a particular vehicle the way the Road Men tended to, but she had all the other attributes. She was tough, she was fast, she had the sight. That she was a woman was unimportant - it was just a title, after all.

Most of all, though, she loved the road. The drive soothed her, the constant hum of the machine taking them further from the epicenter of the horror of her day. She rested then, eyes closed and body reclined in the seat.

"It's not over." Jacob reminded her. Of course it wasn't. It didn't make sense, of course - with the Chaos Storm averted, whatever the Sightless had been up to had doubtless failed. It should, in fact, be over.

"I know." she replied dryly. "What happens next?"

Jacob shrugged, the motion minute so as not to disturb his driving. "Can't say. Last time there was a storm, it wasn't the end of things. It was the beginning of the end, though. You could tell, they'd been angling toward that storm. They had some kind of insane backup plan, but it fell apart when we kept coming after them."

There was a pause, and he spoke up again, and she wished he hadn't. "That was a long time ago, though. There were more of us then."

That made her look up. "Not so much now?"

He shook his head, again with only the barest of movements. "Not so much, now. There used to be a lot of Gifted, back before. We had a lot of hope. But I think these armies are a lot stronger than anyone gives them credit for. If you listen to Savant, there's been a lot of the Sightless lately. And there's not a whole lot of us." he sighed, slowly. "We're doing a good thing, here. I just don't know how much it'll help."

"I don't care." Alyssa said, some of the flame that had burned within her earlier returning. "I'm just going to take down as many of them as I can."

This got a smile out of Jacob. "I like the way you think." Then: "I'm with you. However much we have to go through, I'm with you."

"Thanks." she said, with meaning.

The rest of the ride continued in silence. All along the trip, traffic lights worked, lanes closed for construction were actually closed for construction, and the only emergency vehicle was a policeman administering a sobriety test to some unfortunate driver.

Home.

Her memory, when she thought back on the day, was sketchy. This very morning, she'd been going with Jacob on a simple routine mission. It'd been perhaps a bit sooner than she'd thought, and they'd been coming more frequently lately, but it was nothing to worry about. Only it had been; Sightless stalked her there and later, and tried to bring chaos to her world. Now she could see the dawn coming again. She'd perhaps dozed off on the ride, as she felt rested enough for someone who'd been up for nearly twenty-four hours. It had been a long day, and she still wasn't home. They were headed back to the Chamber, she knew; the council would be expecting a report. Given how somber they had seemed as they'd headed out, they'd probably be delighted by the news of their success.

Uncertainty coiled within her suddenly. What had Jacob said, as they'd left the city where the Chamber was housed, the city she could now see on the horizon? He'd said the storm that the council had chosen her and Jacob to attend to was likely to be the least threatening. Instead, it had been guarded by five Sightless, one of which had nearly killed Jacob. What if the others hadn't been as lucky as she had?

Luck had nothing to do with it. She was stronger than she'd been even earlier that day. She'd felt it - her first Sightless encounter had been in the morning, and by evening she'd felt like she was moving easily four times faster, striking even harder. She'd felled one in a single hit, had she not? No, she wasn't lucky. She was getting better at this. As horrible as it was, she was getting better at it.

She reassured herself - the council had known what it was getting into when it had sent her. They had known she'd be up to the challenge, and so it was likely they themselves would be up to their own.

Even within her own mind, the reassurances seemed hollow.

Jacob turned, and Alyssa noticed that the city she'd seen on the horizon moments before was now all around them. The road wasn't familiar, but Jacob knew where he was going, as always. They parked in front of what seemed to be an old courthouse, and Alyssa rolled her eyes as she stepped out of the car.

"You're kidding me, right?" she said as he ascended the steps. She'd never been able to figure out where the Chamber was located, because Jacob had always taken different routes. It couldn't be at this courthouse, though - she knew for a fact that the inside was bigger than this place.

Jacob simply shrugged and walked on as Alyssa muttered under her breath. They passed through the wooden double doors and found themselves in the familiar interior lobby of the Chamber.

Savant was there. That he'd been seemingly waiting for them earlier today was touching if somewhat unusual. That he was there now was disturbing. He'd apparently appropriated one of the library's tables to work at, and had moved it complete with books to his busy corner. He was penning something furiously as they came in, and at first he didn't notice them.

She could tell something was wrong, though. The carpet bore several stains, as though wounded had passed through. The infirmary was close to the entrance. It stood to reason that the operation hadn't gone completely without injury, though. It still bothered her.

"Alyssa!" Savant said, looking up from the book at her eagerly. "You've returned!" He turned back to the book, scribbling furiously. "That certainly seems to fit the theory, yes."

She shrugged, torn between asking what he was talking about and not wanting to wait for him to finish explaining. The book he was writing in seemed to be of his own creation, though it looked very familiar to her. She supposed she'd seen it in the library before and put it from her mind.

Savant turned back to them. "Go see the council, Yael will be waiting for you. It's not good news."

With this enigmatic and disturbing warning, he turned once more to his work.

Alyssa sighed, and Jacob started walking ahead again towards the Chamber. Wanting to be there to hear the news herself rather than trying to get a shaky vague secondhand report from Savant, she followed.

Yael sat in her usual seat. Her hair was ragged, her skin burnt in places. Sweat still seemed to cling to her face, so whatever she'd been up to had been more than exhausting. Gideon was in even worse shape, a gash on his face still bleeding and appearing more burnt than not. Alyssa hadn't seen Katherine that day, so she didn't know how the councilwoman had appeared before, but she seemed to be the least hurt of them. She was leaning back in her chair, eyes closed. Richard had his arm in what seemed to be a very hastily improvised sling. Chad's seat was empty entirely.

"Jacob! Alyssa!" Yael stood up, the relief evident on her face. "We were afraid we'd lost you both, come in, come in, are you hurt?"

Jacob shook his head. "No, councilwoman, I am not. One of them got hold of my head and induced pain, but I have suffered no permanent injuries."

Alyssa found herself marveling at his sudden formality. He'd nearly been killed and, from the looks of it, so had the council, but to Jacob this was business as usual.

"I am also uninjured." She said, trying not to sound as stiff as Jacob had, and suppressing the urge to ask the council what on earth had happened to them.

Yael nodded and closed her eyes, whether due to relief or simply exhaustion she couldn't tell. Finally, the councilwoman re-opened them and spoke again. "Gideon and Katherine encountered a chaos storm at their location. There were three Sightless there, and after a hard battle, our side was victorious."

Alyssa restrained herself from saying anything. There had only been three, and it had been hard? Perhaps Jacob was right in that the powers of the council were not what they once were. If Katherine and Gideon had been sent to a place where they'd encountered three, what had the council thought Alyssa herself might fight? Perhaps only one? What did it mean that they'd found five?

"Richard arranged transport for Chad and I, but he insisted to come with us." Yael continued. Jacob's gaze, Alyssa could tell, moved straight to his former partner. Neither he nor the councilwoman appeared to notice. She continued; "At our site we also fought three Sightless, but when they were dispatched we were confronted by a Soldier of the Unknown."

Her voice faltered, and silence rushed in to fill the void. Alyssa said nothing, and Jacob's gaze was solidly back on Yael.

"He struck down Chad. Richard was fast but not nearly enough, and I could only slow the monstrosity. We were desperately outclassed, and we barely escaped with our lives. I fear that, for all we risked to return Chad here, he may be too far gone for us to heal."

She looked over Alyssa and Jacob. "We mis-read the signs. The storm bound for you formed in another location, one we had not foreseen. So though Katherine and Gideon stopped the creation of one storm, Chad and I failed in our task, and another formed without any of our agents to stop it. I am afraid we may have failed altogether."

Alyssa swallowed hard. It was a good thing Jacob insisted on giving the briefings, as she wouldn't want to have to tell them what had happened to her.

For a brief moment even Jacob seemed dumbstruck, but he regained his composure faster than she would have. "Madam councilwoman, it is my regret to inform you that you are incorrect. There was indeed a storm at our location. We did prevent its full formation."

Yael blinked. "This is stunning news indeed. I'm heartened to hear that one of their plans was stopped, and dismayed to know that there were four storms, one of which we had no warning of at all." she sighed. "We will have to talk of this, decide what to do next. Something will have to happen." her eyes closed.

Alyssa knew Yael well and respected her. Next to Jacob, she was probably the person Alyssa most trusted. At that moment, though, Alyssa could tell that the councilwoman was out of ideas.

"I dismiss you." she said, finally. Alyssa heard clearly now the sadness which had been masked before. This time it was mixed only with resignation.

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