The Buzzing (Worm/The Secret World)

You responded with a rather meek voice.

"Yeah... hum... sorry?"

Wriggling under your father gaze you didn't really know what else to say.

"So you are a Cape... Why didn't you tell me, Taylor?"

You could lie to him, to protect him from the truth to try to shield him from the things at the corner of the eyes but as you looked at his disappointed and hurt face you know that if you did that and, however unlikely, he found out the truth... or, you thought with dread, the truth found him. Whatever relation you had... it would be broken.

"Taylor, answer me, please."

Small sparks of anger could already be seen in his eyes as you were late to respond. He was probably guessing you were giving him the silent treatment. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath before finally answering him with certainty.

"No, I am not."

"Are you ki..."

You instantly cut him off before he explodes...

"Dad, stop... just... it's... I don't know how to even begin explaining it to you dad."

...Just to finish in a whisper as you let your shoulder fell. His brow furrowed in confusion as he looked at your defeated form, he decided to simply sit on the bed next to you as his left arm wrapped around you. He spoke carefully, gently squeezing your shoulder as he did so.

"Okay, little Owl, take your time. I'm here now, just find the words, okay?"

You nodded as you let yourself fell into the fatherly embrace. Trying to find words to explain the unexplainable. A minute passed, it became two, then five then you simply stopped caring.

"Since the Locker, I can... hear something, it's like... hundreds of bees permanently buzzing around just at the edge of my hearing... it was... just there, I suppose? I mean it's not like it appeared when the Locker happened... more like it had already been there and I just started picking it up."

You started to explain before falling silent at the obvious strangeness of your statement.

"Picking it up?" He probed gently.

"I... it's just a mad story dad, I don't know if you will believe me, if I didn't live trough it even I wouldn't believe myself."

"Taylor I saw you shooting blue pillars of flame from your mouth and eyes in the basement, I don't think you can surprise your old pa more than that."

Was his response as he looked at you with a dry smile, you couldn't contain the strangled laugh, that came out of your mouth, at his statement.

"Dad just don't joke about that, please. So yeah, I started hearing the buzzing and I had those strange urges, to go left and not right, take this door or follow this road and not the other..."

Your father hand tightened his hold on your shoulder and even if he tried to not show it, there was a little hint of dread in his eyes now. You shook your head and rapidly finished your answers.

"... I never listened to them Dad! It was just there, nagging me and wanting to help. It freaked me out a little too... but after a while I guess I just learned to manage?"

He noticeably relaxed before nodding to you to continue.

"Then came Friday, I just went to get out of school fast and then... one of the bullies catch me and... hum... Imayhavestarteedabrawlinthecorridorsorry."

You spoke so fast you were not even sure to comprehend what you just said, however, your father, after blinking at you for a second, started to grin.

"Oh, I heard about that, pepper spray on a young man degenerating into a giant brawl between second and third years? Blackwell called Monday after they finally sorted the mess you made."

"Oh." Was your very eloquent response, as your cheeks became bright red.

"Don't worry I told her to shove it, very politely mind you, since there was no one seriously hurt and that you were indisposed and couldn't move out of your bed. We still have an appointment later this months though..."

You laughed nervously as your father ruffled your hair in good humor, that was already one more day you didn't look forward too. You coughed to try to cover up your embarrassment before continuing your tale.

"I didn't really want to return home so I decided to go to the library and then the buzzing it just became so much clearer and stronger... and I just grew curious... I mean for the first time I could almost touch it so I followed and..."

You voice dies as you looked alternatively at the ground, your father and the closet where a sword was hidden. The concern on you father features returned tenfolds as he tightened his hold on you as if wanting to protect you.

"I'm not going anywhere, little Owl."

He spoke reassuringly

"Okay... just... don't interrupt me, okay? it's already mad enough as it is..."

"Okay."

So you told him, of the circle of trees, the call from the Ash tree, how you found yourself reliving the memories of a long-dead priestess of Khépri and the battle at the Sun Gate of the City of the Sun God, how creatures of Mythos the jinns fought side by side with the Marya and a Roman legion.

How they bleed and die to gain time to complete a very complex magic ritual to entomb the entire City in the desert. Of you waking up at the edge of reality as you could comprehend it, of the things at the corner of the eyes of the white woman and the black man.

And you told him of the bees, the bits of Knowledges downloaded into your skull, the magic swords in your closet and the hieroglyphic ward in your basement.

You spoke for a long time, as your father silently listened, growing paler and paler as your tale unfolded itself.

Finally, you fell silent. And no sound was heard for a long time.

"And... you... you went trough all that... and you didn't say anything to me?"

You looked incredulously at him before responding.

"What could I say? Hi, Dad, I saw a thing that defeated the very purpose of reality being punched out by a Roman legion, a bunch of genies and a group of Egyptian priest?"

"Yeah... sorry... Just... it's a lot to take in alright." There was a pregnant pause as he took his head in his hands. "So you are not a cape but, someone with this... Anima? and with bits of knowledge of an Egyptian in your head..."

"Well, I think everyone has it, I just have a lot more I guess... I mean the Anima part... not the Egyptian part hum... I guess?"

"I guess she says... And let us not forget the magic sword in the closet."

There was another moment of awkward silence as you waited for him to finish.

"I have to let it sink in, just have a day or two to think about it okay? In the meantime just... stay there and don't do reckless things, like magic or whatever."

You nodded with a hesitant smile on your mouth at your father response.

"Why?"

The unpronounced question hanging in the air for a second before your father responded softly.

"You are my daughter."

He hugged you fiercely for a minute before rising from the bed and walking in front of the door. He suddenly stopped arm in the air.

"Oh, by the way, can I see this magic sword of yours?"

You cracked a smile. (choose one)
[ ] Show it to him and let him touch it, the sword had a very positive effect on you after all.
[ ] Show it to him but don't let him touch it, showing is fine you guess, but you don't know the effect taking it in his hands would have on him
[ ] Don't show it to him, you don't know if it is safe for him period, it's a magic sword.

You could still disobey him and don't take a day or two of rest. (choose one)
[ ] He's right, take a day you are rather depleted.
[ ] He's right, take two days and don't take any risk.
[ ] Don't listen to him.

You should probably plan what you would do after your forced rest. (choose one)
[ ] Go to the library.
[ ] Stay home and experiment in the basement.
[ ] Stay home and look up the news.
[ ] Take a stroll in the city.

You opened your closet and took the carefully hidden sword from it. You couldn't really help yourself but grin as you drew it from its scabbard in one slow move like in the movies, your father whistled both at your theatrics and the sword itself.

"Well... okay, it's a sword alright. And you can make it shine?"

"Yeah but, it needs me to push Anima in it and well you just said..."

"Alright, alright, can I touch it?"

You pondered that for a second before settling on the fact that you didn't really understand the sword effect.

"That may be a bad idea, I mean it's still a magic sword and well, I don't know if it's really safe... I mean not like it isn't, I don't think it is dangerous, but well, you never know right?"

You smiled awkwardly at your lame explanation as the deadpan face of your dad screamed "Really? Really..." at you. He sighed loudly before turning back to head downstairs.

"Nevermind... Just don't touch it for now... And no rituals nor magic for today... Stay there and rest okay. Goddamnit Annette, she's too much like you."

Deciding to listen to your father, as you were feeling quite exhausted, you passed the rest of the day in your bed reading, looked around on PHO and overall lazying in the house. Your father stayed with you the entire day since he took a few days off to take care of you. Both of you religiously avoided speaking about anything related to what happened and what you told him but, you still picked up his sideway glance every now and then.

Tuesday, February 1

You felt refreshed after a good day of pure laziness. Your father insisted for you to rest another day but, having a ward with an unknown effect in the basement didn't exactly sound safe to you, especially with your father around. So you insisted to actually return in the basement again for examining it, he accepted only if he could be with you despite the possibly hazardous environment.

And that's how you both found yourself looking at a circle of hieroglyphs written on the floor with the help of a yellow marker and gently crackling with energy.

"I didn't touch the... what did you call it? A ward? So I didn't touch it since you fell unconscious... on... me... Taylor, what are you doing?"

Your father said as you poked the circle with a wooden stick. You sheepishly looked at him and babbled something unintelligible. Your father facepalmed before speaking again.

"Taylor, I didn't quite catch that..."

"Well... I tested if it wasn't a trap? I guess?"

There was a moment of silence as the deadpan gaze of your father made your blood run into your cheeks.

"Taylor, you said you had bits of Egyptian knowledge in your head... Do they not include something like reading and writing?"

Your face went nuclear. You didn't think about that, didn't you? You let go of your stick with a mumbled excuse and started trying to read the circle.

which proved to be difficult when you tried and failed to add the good bits of Knowledge together to make the hieroglyphs comprehensible. And you couldn't quite manage that without a second difficulty, finding where the message began and where it finished.

You wrecked your brain trying to reproduce your step in doing the ward, but, you were in a literal trance and were barely conscious of your own move as you created it. After more multiple hours of you reading pairs or trio of hieroglyphs that didn't actually quite add up with the others, almost at the point of throwing your arms in the air in defeat, you decided to do it the other way around.

If you couldn't recreate it, maybe you could try to defuse it?

And there it actually clicked, fragments assembled themselves as you suddenly understood how the ward used the Anima circuit to do its bidding. Completely immersed in your work you started to poke the ward with small surges of your own Anima.

Basically, you were using your Anima as a sonar to locate the activation node, since the activation node was always between the first and last hieroglyphs, to render the overall internal structure more robust, finding it would make you able to read the ward.

As you found out, the node was quite easy to locate, since in your trance you didn't actually care about redundancy or security and just slapped the ward down on the ground. Unfortunately, you didn't quite grasp more than a basic redundancy node as security before the rest of that branch of knowledge dispersed, well that would do for now...

"Okay dad, I think I found out so... "Oh heart and guts of my friends of different ages, do not rise against me in the morning light, do not oppose me in the zenith light and do not show hostility against me in the dusk light"... It's a ward against... What, ghost? Freaking ghost?!"

You said in astonishment as the Knowledge of this particular ward solidified itself in your mind. Your father walked up next to you slightly confused and worried.

"What do you mean against ghost? And what did you just said before that?"

Frowning you responded to him, not understanding the problem.

"I translated the ward?"

"No, Taylor, whatever you said I didn't understand a single word. Sure it's not this "Knowledge" that messed with you?"

Uh... It was a possibility... well you actually translated it for him this time around and he looked at you with a sly smile even if there was still a hint of worry in his eyes.

"That's... really cheerful, heart and guts? Damn, you are sure it is not some weirdo Egyptian necromancy? I played enough RPG in my days to know that would be bad."

"Daaaaaaaaaaaad." You whined as the red came back on your face. "It's not like that!"

"Okay little necromonger, but I would feel safer if you could shut it down, okay?"

You looked at the ward on the ground, you know it's weak, as it was simply written and not engraved in the ground. You could probably shut it down with a carefully charged Anima pulse.

"Yeah, I think I can do it."

You started to push Anima into the node and made it going counterclockwise to shut it down. You very quickly found out why your mind said to not push too much to quickly when you did just that.

"Oh, cra..."

There was a small explosion and you were on your back, you could hear your father groaning next to you.

"Taylor?"

"Yeah?"

"No more magic for today. Okay?"

"Okay."

It was slightly dazed by the experience that you noted into a small notebook your discovery of the day, very small progress but, still progress.

You still had a few days to do what you wanted without being restrained in time by school. What should you do? (choose two)
[ ] Take a day of rest, being lazy never killed anyone but, being overworked did.

[ ] Go to the library, time to find out more!
>[ ] City of the Sun God.
>[ ] The Roman and Marya.
>[ ] The Jinns.
>[ ] The graffitis.

[ ] Return to the copse of the five trees and investigate. It was there the buzzing was the strongest maybe you could pick up again?

[ ] Go do some shopping, Wards are stronger if they are engraved, that would probably help you assemble other bits of Knowledge.

[ ] Experiment with the sword. You know, well think, it's safe to use but you want to be sure.
>[ ] Name it (write in)

[ ] Find a manual of swordsmanship. You have a sword, you should learn how to use it.

[ ] Design yourself a training regime. Your physical endurance is lackluster, if you bump against the things in the dark you need a good cardio.

[ ] Look up the news, alway's good to be informed.