************** School 1
Renee Dubois, Patches --now in a Princess dress with her Patchy cloak on over the top-- and Docker emerged into a walk path midway down its length. The adults were wearing premiere quality clothes, dress for her and Tux for him. His getup included dark shades and an earpiece that made him look like a bodyguard moving more in front of than with the mother and child. Her dress was upscale and included a faux mink fur wrap. Renee held a brightly colored paper bag which held a small gift.
The walk path moved from a vehicle sized dock on the roadside, a plastic parking area that closed in a single vehicle with an airlock connection to the path. The path itself was enclosed in clear plexiglass, feeling like it should be in some aquarium's 'shark encounter' rather than outdoors.
They approached the airlock leading to the grounds of a manor. The ironwork decorative walls were dwarfed by the forty foot tall plexiglass enclosure walls. These clearly did not cover the top, but were sufficient to block out the more common carriers of infection. Small turrets on cornices were sufficient to discourage birds from crossing to the streets or come from them. Larger turrets suggested other kinds of discouragement.
Danny stepped aside to allow Renee to approach the scanner at the door of the airlock. She waived her forged id across the badge reader. Suze held her card up for the reader, and then Danny.
"Mrs. Renee Dubois, Suze Dubois and security services member Danial Hilbert. Credentials recognized. Please insert a hand for pathogen check."
Danny grimaced more at the name he'd been forced to use than the pain of having blood sampled as part of his 'security detail'. The 'Path' had been sparse with details, but it had been clear that only one of them needed to be sampled as the diseases were quick to pass between any members of a group traveling together for more than a few minutes.
The system was a machine intelligence, the programming focusing on each step of the task but in this case not on whether the persons arriving had a vehicle leave to match their arrival.
The door opened and they were ushered into the manor and out the reverse where the birthday party was taking place.
They entered the long reception line where groups of parents and children were waiting to be welcomed by the birthday girl. She was isolated despite being in the middle of things, with three security personnel visibly around her keeping space, her wheelchair holding her upright in a standing position. She greeted guests with difficulty, her gestures a little too wide. The line moved forward in starts, no group wanting to be too close to the ones in front or behind.
This little girl was likely the key to this whole thing.
******************
In the same manor, in the back rooms various performers were getting ready. Grue and Oracle had been through their identification checks and were putting their things aside for their 'act'. Legacy had extended his card while the guards waited and waited.
The left guard looked to Lisa. "This one with you?"
She nodded while taking off her travel jacket, leaving the sparkling magician's assistant dress she was wearing to distract the guards. "He doesn't talk much. Good for the act, not so much for the rest."
"We need to verify the tattoo." He added.
Lisa moved her arm across to unfasten just the arm covering over Legacy's right arm, her own temporary tattoo glowing in the light of the guard's reader. With his forearm exposed, the flare of the tattoo was visible despite the blonde hair --almost fur-- on the arm.
The guard chuckled. "He really fits the costume." He added with a monkey sway in place. "Oooh ooh, aah aah!" His imitation fell short on Legacy as the boy eased through the checkpoint.
"Always a critic." The first guard noted to the second.
That worthy was shaking his head a little. "What kind of name is John Yaya anyway?" He shrugs and passes back their forged ids.
"Party begins proper in thirty minutes." The coordinator notes. "Get your costumes in order and check in for your locations." Her sniff at Oracle lingering look at Grue in his smart magician outfit. Her glance took in the balloons they had all been holding, but swapped out for the id checks. "I know just the place for your … trio. Close to the gifts and clear sight of the birthday girl. She loves magic!" The clipboard notation made, she turned to other performers.
***************
Chitter was in a tree with a full warband of his squirrels. The size of the manor's back yard along with the plethora of trees made it easy enough to scamper up on as soon as the portal closed. "This seems like boresville."
Below him Purity in her dark pantsuit as a security guard ignored him apparently as she scanned the area. Sun glasses and earbud complemented her severe bun. "It will be hopping quick enough if your squirrels don't keep out of sight, let alone you."
Her eyes rolled as she noted him idly shaking his tail from the branches above.
"What is one more squirrel in a tree?"
She deadpanned back. "A six foot tall, talking squirrel?"
"Like I said." He chirped. Monkey Joe on his shoulder nodded sagely. "I wonder what Imp is up to?"
*****************
The Mexican standoff continued as I watched through the plexiglass wall to where the doctor, the aide and the trigger happy guard conferred with the suit. They had left the TV on, showing Scion's work around the globe --albeit on mute.
It was getting a little old really, but then something new caught my eye.
It was a red balloon floating on a piece of string and weighted down by a washer, bouncing slightly in the air conditioning. No door had opened that I saw. No other person was in the room.
I snickered slightly and the doctor looked at me and blanched when she caught the reflection.
Spinning, she pointed at the balloon. "The fuck!" She looked back at me as the others looked at the balloon.
The guard lunged for the controls to burn me in the holding cell and came up short as Imp appeared in front of him.
"Boo!" She grinned, threatening him with a Taser sparking.
As all eyes turned to her she saluted jauntily and…
What was I looking at again?
The doctor and guard looked at each other, confused, stumbling back into their conversation.
My eye caught on a red balloon…
A familiar voice whispers close to the wall. "This shit never gets old."
Imp appears, waving at the four of them as they catch the reflection in the plexiglass.
What was I looking at again?
******************
Scion finished the most dangerous of the weapons. He would have been done earlier had they not exposed smaller weapons hidden in things in the water, and later on the secondary in orbit. There might be other weapons outside of his original parameters, but these hosts had lost their will to oppose him after he wiped out the long metal boxes with hosts in them on the water surface.
His attention turned again to the presence of shards acting in this world. Odd, there were more of them now. They were grouped within an eyeblink on the eastern coast of the continent mirroring the dispersal point on the primary.
Something else, one of these shard hosts was holding connection to multiple shards, if only in a shadow of the strength each normal connection was. The Coordinator? Here?
How very strange.
His change in course was noted, the vehicles shadowing him scattering as he reversed direction.
****************
"Mr. President, the cape known as Scion has completed disarming OUR nuclear capability in near earth orbit as well as anything larger than a man portable nuke across the planet. He's changed course and heading this way." The chief science officer --or at least that is what the President thought of him when he cared to-- went on to note that the travel time would only give them minutes to ready themselves."
"What about my granddaughter?" He spoke up from the table, fingers not quite steepled.
A huff. "Sir, what about her?" His hand gestures to the map. "It depends on whether he is here to talk, glare or irradiate us! We have no prior actions to profile here other than a dislike for nuclear devices."
Making a disgusted sound, the President nods at his aide. "Get me Earth Bet on the line."
Unnoticed, a figure with a camera lense of a phone peeking through fingers stood camouflaged to the colors of the bookshelf and couch. She filmed his interactions within the Oval Office, holding still in a way that Shadow Stalker could. Only by using Glam's shapeshifting to push material through walls filled with electronics and the borrowed Blanket Portal to reappear on the other end of the tendril of material forming the coat could they have reached the position undetected, within inches of the camera covering both entrances to the room.
************
Danny was standing of to one side --near to his charge Renee as he was still posing as security-- at a small table where Renee sat with a glass of wine while the children played games at the request of the birthday girl.
Renee was sad, thinking of how she would have dealt with a child of misfortune herself --fearful of how little Taylor would be in her own strength as well.
"Renee, we have some time here. And it might be the last chance I have to expound on suspicions I've had for some time." Danny spoke quietly, but with a tone that caught her ear.
She nodded slightly, as they were undoubtedly under some supervision here.
"The first item in this chain of logic is a little tenuous. That made it hard to piece together. My wife, Annette lived in upstate New York before we met, she was orphaned at eighteen by the attack on New York. She was already attending college here and moved to the Bay permanently on relocation funding provided by the PRT in ninety-four, having triggered herself but hiding her powers during that time. She won't say which of her parents was a cape who died. But she waited in the basement of her home wondering if he would take her as well. Behemoth figured prominently in her studies and we met in a required class in literature focused on William Yeats." He paused.
Another guest walked by, a safe distance away from the tables as marked by lines on the ground. Straying too close to other tables was a social faux pas, one that could get you detained for 'indecent proximity' here.
"Behemoth attacked again on the night we suspect Taylor was created, her fear turning into something more as Jakarta burned. She went into month early labor with Taylor in June of ninety five, while Moscow burned."
Renee found her shock palpable with her hands shaking on the flute of wine. "That would make her a third generation cape." she whispered, not daring to look.
Danny chuckled, "That isn't the point here. Pertinent, but along another axis of discussion. You see Annette associated 'Behemoth' with another name, 'Malkuth', the tenth Sephiroth or the Kingdom. Earth."
Glancing at her glass with a raised eyebrow, Renee swirled her white wine as she watched Danny in the curve of the reflection. "I don't understand, but do go on."
"It was the class on Yeats, and his vision of the Golden Dawn and the source material, the Kabbalah."
A slight frown. "I thought you said you weren't Jewish, Daniel."
He smirked. "I did. But I never said Annette wasn't. Her maiden name isn't Rose, but Rosenbaum. The coincidence doesn't stop there of course. Along with Malkuth, Earth, there are others on the Path. The Moon, also known as the ninth Sephiroth Yesod or the Foundation --who Annette pegged as the Simurgh. She really started sweating when Taylor brought Simmie into her Blanket Space."
Yeats on the Kabbalah
Renee took a swig of the wine. Dry. Not really good with cake. "And I suppose that Leviathan figures into this as well."
"It does make a matched set. The eighth Sephiroth Hod, Water or the Splendour. According to my updates, he invaded Blanket Space within moments after we left it. And the Simurgh tamed him. I have a video feed showing a new water feature surrounding the house."
Her shiver wasn't feigned. It caught the attention of one of the Hygiene Attendants who came close enough to scan them both with a Flir camera --checking their temperatures from a socially acceptable range.
The veiled person in green ceremonial scrubs bowed their head and left with a murmured "Good Health." Scrub was what the common folk called them.
They in turn nodded, as Danny's path had cautioned them to avoid this state's secret health police.
"I've heard you mention Earth, Air, Water --is there a fire?"
Danny scanned the area once again. It was almost time for presents. "I think our young lad Legacy is more than a growing electric monkey boy. Do you remember how Lung died?"
"In extreme clarity thanks to the video." She sniffed.
Danny nodded. "They never did find his head. Both his name, Ryu and his cape name suggest a hint of the truth. Ryu means Dragon. And Legacy is something that comes after…"
This time Renee spit a bit of wine out in shock, having to wipe herself with a napkin to avoid coughing and having every Scrub in sight on them. Her glare at him suggested he had said something he shouldn't have.
"And then there is Paroketh, the Veil separating the lower part of the Tree of Life from the upper, the Spirit realm. Paroketh is also known as a Portal ritual, and Annette thinks that is Blanket herself." He pauses as she is more composed now, though she put down her wine. "The last step on the Golden Path is the sixth Sephiroth Tiphareth, which is the Spirit itself. She thinks that is Scion, as this is the source of all power and the fundamental magical symbol."
"Danny, that is a pants-wetting line of discussion you have dropped here, apparently only to me." Renee noted.
"To you and Dragon, since she is listening in. Probably the Halbeard as well." They both snorted at using the appellation started on PHO for Collin.
At this point, the games of toss were completed, and the children degloved as the toys were put through an auto wash cycle in a pony sized robot's guts.
The birthday girl had been watching the guests. Few of the little girls and boys present had any animation, most of them by now fearful --and rightly so-- of any social gaffe that might call the Scrubs down on them.
The only one not fearful of her own age wore a cloak of patches, a quilt that would hardly stand up to all the cleanings and soakings --so it must be special to her. Lila herself had little to be happy about beyond 'living' another year. If her grandfather had not held his position, his power, the Scrubs would have had her in Hospice years ago to prevent her passing on her genes to progeny and weaken another generation to more disease.
So when Lila pointed this girl out to bring up her present first, it was in hope that something of that fearlessness would pass to her.
The bag was examined again, for poisons and electronics and anything sharp. And then it was passed to her and she removed the colored tissue paper to find a kind of Raggedy Ann doll, or something close to it. It was a plushie. Red hair. Blue boots and darker blue denim coveralls --shorts!-- with a peach shirt. Pink and blue skin in patches, a green heart in scrub green on the front, a teddy bear unstuffed as a cloak and hood with soft white teeth of the bear's mouth framing the doll face. The bear head hood had its own eyes and eyebrows, the doll face one red jewel and one normal doll eye staring out of the shadow.
It was a little ugly.
Home-made.
Shabby.
It was everything little Lila felt about herself compared to the perfect little companions her parents found for her.
She hugged it close despite her mother already reaching for it to quietly put it away until it was socially acceptable to trash.
She hugged it.
And it hugged her back.
****************
I felt the tug in my cell and held my stomach. It wasn't the worst one I felt, but it was strong for having not felt any tug at all for what seemed like days. I doubled over for a moment. Okay, so it was closer to hours.
I looked around as my four captor/interrogators smirked at my pained look.
"So there are things that cause you pain." The doctor noted the time.
"It hurts me when I heal someone. But I don't know how I could heal someone here without touching them." I note, standing upright again.
The chorus bleated like sheep. "Who?", "How?" and of course one of them lunged for the 'burn' button again.
The guard's look of surprise and horror when the button didn't function was funny. When the panel below the button collapsed inward and sparked, all four of them stepped back warily.
About that point the hatch in the wall I'd come in through from my right started cycling to the open state.
Imp's horned helmet poking in and her voice saying in a bad Ahnold voice "Come with me if you want to Leave!"
My surprise face --Blanket style-- had my jaw on the floor. "I thought the quote was 'want to live'?"
Imp harrumphed. "I know what I said, and I mean 'leave'. You wouldn't die from these morons but someone is bound to be coming along with a more lethal method than spray on barbecue anytime now." Aisha held her arms out, her chin up. "Now suit up over my costume and we can forget these idiots."
I flow into a suit of armored cloth --Endbringer material-- around her, including her helmet and face for she is squishy even if they forget why they are shooting.
She is driving for now because she knows which way we are going.
"Or they can forget us." Imp giggles as she cycles the door shut.
*Inside the observation room.
"The button is broken!" The guard wails, his main raison de etre gone.
The suited man sighs and swats him. "Forget the burn button you idiot, sound the alarm!"
The doctor is examining her clipboard which is prominently a scrawled doodle of a human with horns giving her the finger with both hands. She looks up to note the alarm button is also disassembled and hanging out of the wall by partially cut cable after the first time it is touched.
Reaching for her phone, it is gone. The others slap for their phones, empty pockets all around.
The suit reaches for his wallet and finds it gone as well.
As a group they look up at cameras to find them sprayed over in black paint. The door is missing its handle on this side, tape and some form of foam in the works.
"She is gone and we are trapped." She sighs. "No amount of banging on doors will change that." The only undamaged technology in the room is the TV remote. Setting down the clipboard, she picks it up and turns the volume up to twenty. That alone will signal there is something wrong, and if nothing else it will keep the focus off of her.
Wait a moment.
"Weren't there four of us in this room?"
It wasn't until several hours later they found the missing aide, duct taped to a wall in a supply closet just down from the facilities that she had gone to some few minutes before the escape.
***********
"Where are we going?" I ask Imp as we head through doors using keycards taken from the doctor or possibly the suit.
"Upstairs." She huffs.
I resolve to add to her strength some more. I haven't been suited as a wearable on anyone as this material and it weighs far more than I realized. I healed her tired muscles.
Running easier, Imp grumbled a thank you.
"Why not just port out of here to Blanket Space?" I wonder.
She shook her head, still taking the stairs two at a time. "Ask your dad. He says we can't leave until you confront the Golden-Doodle."
I pause. "Those words, I don't think they mean what you think they mean."
"Comm is in my ear. Turn it to 'on'."
I focus attention and do so.
*Ah, here she is right on cue.* My dad's voice comes.
"What are you doing here, all of you!" I ask, for the first time realizing I can feel other sparks here in this part of Blanket Space that is tuned to Earth Aleph. Dad, Oracle, Glam, Shadow Stalker, Chitter a metric ton of squirrels. Renee?! My brain just stopped processing the others as of that point, though I knew there were more.
*We are the cavalry here. Or at least the ones running the choreography of this dance.* He notes. *Let me guide you two to our location.*
"Why?"
*Because we seem to have caused a ruckus.* He notes.
**************
Lila stood up from her chair for the first time unassisted. Her arms were straight, her spine straight. Her legs shook with effort to hold her weight.
Her security detachment fanned around her as the Scrubs came running.
"Excessive temperature detected!" The lead Scrub yelled. "Contain and hygenically delete."
"Countermanded. Stand clear, you cretins! She is not sick. Just look at her!" Lila's mother growled, thumbing her own weapon clear. One did not become part of the elite and live through it without knowing how to defend oneself. Her security detail made it clear they knew that if she was 'cleansed', her staff would follow.
Olivia felt her adrenalin peak as the little girl who had given the doll that had apparently healed her daughter casually backhanded the Scrub trying to stab her with their 'knife of charity'.
The man went down like a sack of potatoes.
Her cloak was not ripped. Or shifted.
She hadn't even been pushed by his weight.
"You are from Bet … a cape." she whispered.
Patches slapped her domino in place over her eyes and nodded. "I am." She pirouetted to face outward giving a glare at the Scrubs who were beginning to sidle around away from the part of the circle she was in.
"Did you heal my daughter?" Olivia pulled her daughter closer one-handed. It was more of a hug than she'd been able to give Lila since finding out her own genetics had caused the disease she was burdened with --had been burdened with.
"That would be Blanket that did that." Patches put a thumb to her chest. "I am Patches, her side stitch." She was without her blonde curls and full face mask, her skin shown clearly. There may be repercussions later.
*************
As the guests faded away from the birthday girl and the enclosing circles of security and Scrub alike, Danny helped Renee up and escorted her at a stiff walking pace toward that group.
Danny fended off two Scrubs with ease, his Tuxedo resisting their efforts as the material became more like Endbringer stuff at his command.
Renee's dress did something similar but was hardly a factor as she punched the Scrub trying to grab her with a firmly planted hook.
"You can't be married to a boxer for that long without knowing how to throw a punch." She grunted.
Danny tripped another trying to grapple with them before they reached the security line.
"Mama!" Patches cried out, her movement seen only as a multicolored afterimage of the cloak and the muffled thump before the Scrub trying to stab her mama was tossed across the field, beyond the tables.
*************
Purity was noting the chatter on her comm as she looked up to find the branch above her empty of squirrels and Chitter himself. "It's ti… Where did he go?"
Grumbling in off-color German complaint, she glowed bright white and lifted off to just above the tree height. Turrets began orienting on her, so her first shot was the closest to pointing at her. Instead of stopping and starting on another, she played her beam across the rooftop to the outer wall, burning off the turrets atop each juncture without pause. Dipping the beam down to the iron gates she blasted the airlocks leading to the street in one step.
*************
The contingent of Scrubs coming out of the house itself found themselves assaulted by an equally large force of furry rodents … wearing green vests. And little green caps with feathers. All except one in miniature brown robes. They went down like wheat cut by a scythe.
"Friar Tuck, hold that one. Merry men, tie them up. One, two, three, four… eight?" The masked man in front of them with a renaissance shirt and furred vest --and giant freaking squirrel tail!-- seemed mildly confused.
"He said I would only need seven zipties." He looked at the eighth and fished a pair of cuffs from her belt. "Eh, needs is as needs does."
A flick of his hand made hers drop the knife she tried to swing on him from underneath her prone form. The gesture held her arm steady as he cuffed her one hand, then the other.
"Now, you don't want to be crying out or reporting us, for then it would be known that we've touched you." He pulled the woman's veil aside to brush his hand along her cheek and lean in. "And. I. have. Cooties." Smeck on the cheek.
The woman's eyes rolled up as she passed out.
The other seven got licks from the squirrels and were left shivering in distress.
**************
Renee reached their target, the girl and her mother. "Olivia Bi…"
Olivia's voice cut her off. "Did you do this?"
"It is related. This is a response to an attack your father signed off on." Renee let that sink in.
Olivia stiffened. "So you think you can hold us hostage…"
Renee barked a laugh, followed by a head shake. "Hah! Oh hell no. We figured healing with Blanket's help would keep you from doing anything to stop her healing the rest. And using what she can to stop your plagues. If you prevent it, your family --the president-- will be seen as hoarding off world healing for
his family."
Olivia lost some of her stiffness, thinking of the other kids who were ushered to the Hospices --never to be seen again. Nodding along. "What do you need from us?"
Danny fished a note from his pocket. "Call your dad and relay this."
*************
*Blanket, please port yourself and Imp over to my location. We have an accord of sorts.* Dad's voice came over the comm.
I stopped our run down the endless halls underneath the city and did so, the short port taking almost no time.
The
almost part was what let me see Two angelic figures, one white as snow and the other sea blue standing on the ground extended from my home in there, a torrent of water circling the place. There was a fresh new golden glow starting above them that I didn't catch. It was somehow brighter than my little sun, lighting up the whole upper hemisphere.
"Dad, there is something going on in Blanket Space!" I say, but he shakes his head.
"Later for that." He holds out a box of vials, still smoking with the cold of their storage. "These are samples of every known form of the plagues these people are so afraid of. I want you to link to Panacea and have her use her power through us to counter them, make a self-recreating cure that will seek out these and any form of them."
"Dad! Amy won't go for that!" I waffle.
He hems and haws. "She ah, won't have a choice. My power and yours together. Mine can direct anyone wearing something of the same type as I am, in this case something made by you. You are already on both worlds and it is my will that is directing her power to do that already." He sheds a small tear. "She can hate me forever if she wants, but you are asking for forgiveness not permission."
In that moment I understand why dad doesn't use his power. It is a horrible temptation to just wish people to act a certain way. And his limitation is hardly a limitation at all!
It doesn't take long. And I realize Amy is already free from his control and listing out in depth the amount of ice cream I owe her for this, measured in metric tons.
That connection through Dad slams shut as I automatically hug her through my link, knowing that doing so stops all mastery.
"That was close there, you almost left one half-cured." Dad shivers.
The froth coming out of the box is poured out on the ground.
"Chitter, can you spread this out please?" He notes.
Alex nods hard enough to make his tail waggle. The squirrels rush through the puddle and run off in various directions. "They can pass it along to the local squirrels and birds, doorknobs and such."
"Have them target the Scrubs. They need to do some good in this world, involuntarily as it is." Danny adds. He turns to Purity, who has come in. "Can you puncture the quarantine walls to make sure there is cross contamination?"
Purity lights up again and lifts a dozen feet up. Her beams are precise shots, cutting holes across the length and breadth of the city, angled down a little so the last portion of the beam breaks the walls to the outside at man height.
"Patches. Break off a few bricks and dip it in the foam, toss them outside the city limits into the 'badlands'."
She begins tossing her missiles clear and we are not surprised to find Olivia back, passing a phone to me --no dad.
"Daniel Hebert speaking. Yes, her father. Yes, we did." The one sided conversation is a bit confusing.
***********
Inside Blanket Space, the glow continued to fill the emptiness. Below the house, The great eye opened, squinting at the glow.
Scion was here.
Below him, two of the clusters were waiting. These are from the main experimental space. In here, without the myriad other shards distracting him with links to hosts, Scion found himself noting the differences. These clusters were not linked to him, that much he could tell before. But the lines from these constructs went in multiple directions, twisting and turning. This looked much like his partner's work, but with shards he found unfamiliar.
The question arose, are these shards from his partner at all? There had been a solo, an unpaired contact eons or moments before the approach. It was so hard to quantify the time between, stretching across the interstices of dimensions.
This place was like that in a way. Another form of possibilities across the dimensional weft instead of along the gaps between.
Without a thought the ease of it had his true form begin leaking through. Just a little at first, and then more. The avatar swelled and bulged from host-like to doughy to amorphic with just a hint of an eye shape.
**********
Grue and Oracle were escorted to us from where they'd been detained before they ever got to go out onstage. Danny's paths had sacrificed their part in things to distract the larger number of Scrubs set to raid the party. It was only their verifiable good health that kept it from getting bloody. That and Oracle being able to double speak their own keywords making them assume she was an informant for them herself.
**********
I belched from a sudden feeling of pressure. Like taco night near the end of the movie, full.
Confused, I turned to dad to question.
"Glam and Shadow Stalker have recorded the discussion between President Obama and his Aleph counterpart, as well as the further talks on the phone to his daughter Olivia. All according to plan."
My raised eyebrow said it all.
Dad shrugged. "They are not used to Strangers and have no Thinkers to speak of."
I felt a tug and Shadow Stalker came out of a portal looking gobsmacked. Her clothing was something out of the Matrix in trenchcoat cut, but showed an off patterned blue floral print on the bottom and the image of books across her upper body --even the face and hair. She too, had foregone the more costume bits.
I glanced closer at her, realizing she had no cloth over her face. She winked and rubbed a finger down under her eye, smearing the makeup job Glam's power applied.
"How did you keep them from seeing your eyes?" I asked.
Glam's mouth formed in a collar. "She kept hers closed and I watched enough to aim the camera."
Sophia snorted lightly. "It was a breeze."
Emma's whisper dispelled the 'cool' factor, "She was sleeping through most of it."
Emma's face formed more fully, her eyebrow raised. "And speaking of sleeping, you aren't going to be doing any in Blanket Space with all that glowy crap. What gives?"
"I'm sure I don't know what you…" My eyes dropped back into my head as I glanced into Blanket Space…
What I saw was beyond unexpected.
The upper half of Blanket Space was filled. FILLED.
Yellow cloudy material at the edges, solidity and a more metallic gold to the center --a blue eye bulging in the distance, making the place appear bigger than it had ever been before.
The gigantic Hebert house with its fresh island of extended yard showed small below my field of view, the sun appearing tiny in the distance. Two angelic figures showed in the backyard, one willowy and white with floating wings in formation behind it, the other with wings made of water and a masculine feel to his stance.
And below the yard, the rocky outcropping beneath showed another angelic figure standing easily feet upward to the rock in a mirror stance to the others, in the shadow. This figure had eyes flowing red with lava, his wings like gravel and dust behind it.
Simurgh, Leviathan and … Behemoth?
Further down in the more familiar dark expanse something else moved. It was a green eye, not nearly as big as the one in the gold yellow mass above, but similar in feel. It was looking back at me.
One eye back in my Blanket form I address the elephant in the room.
"There are three --I repeat--
three Endbringers in Blanket Space. And they are not the biggest guests to the party. Something huge and yellow-gold is dominating the top half and there is a not-quite-as-mind-bending-large eyeball looking out of the darkness below the house." The fact I got that out in deadpan was proof of how shocked I was.
I had wrapped around through fear and panic right back to calm and collected --if a little wound up.
Dad's voice helped me calm down, and it was with mild shock I noted his power smoothing my thoughts to order.
"Scion has moved to your Blanket Space." He sighed a little. "Fold Space."
His eyes went black from pupil outward, then the pupil flared with green light. A tear as black as night dripped down one eye.
Dad's voice changed to childlike, harking me back to Alia in Dune.
"Where do you place the blanket?" the creepy chuckle laughed. "A. bed. on."
This time my eyes rolled from me to Blanket Space to back again faster and faster until I lost consciousness.
The Simurgh enjoys the ability to communicate without using the channels that on Bet fed in a constant stream of thought/emotions from everyone on the planet.
