Ch. 48
Imported from SF2 with no description.
--Wendy--
Everything ached. It had gotten dark. I wasn’t at the top of that hill anymore. Somehow I had ended up in the cave. I could tell from the flickering firelight on the walls. Morrigan rested her hand on my head, and I felt a strange sense of warmth from within. A gentleness that hadn’t been there before. She said something, but it didn’t really make sense. As groggy as I was, I could only guess at the meaning. I followed her as she led me to sit beside a fire. Tempest was there with Claire, and the two were talking, albeit slowly and with obvious difficulty, judging from Tempest’s occasional pained winces, and Morrigan’s gentle chiding of her daughter.
I didn’t know how exactly I’d gotten there, but as I pulled out my tablet, I sighed. The fall had cracked the screen, all I saw was a wash of colors and lights. He’d be worried. Wouldn’t be long until he came after us. Though I imagined he’d have the sense to wait until morning. Still, he had Penance, it wasn’t as if he couldn’t find us. We’d work our way back to him, or he’d get to us, either way.
I wondered if he’d scold me for it, or if he’d just be too relieved things were okay.
My feet were a mess. As it was, there was probably no way I’d be up to travelling before tomorrow. Maybe not even then. I wondered if it would even matter. Still, Claire was making progress. She seemed happy, her eyes glittered in the fire light as she talked with Tempest.
It felt like something was missing, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of it in my groggy state. I was still so exhausted. Being there was strangely soothing, like a warm blanket, or a soft bed, and before I had another thought, I felt my eyelids sliding shut.
Things were going to be just fine.
--Morrigan--
“That’s it. Focus inward. What do you feel. What do you see?” I asked, as my daughter meditated in front of me. I could feel her mind, she had managed to slow her thoughts, still them one at a time over the course of the day.
“Blue… like the ocean. Like the ocean.” Claire replied… Claire, it wasn’t a bad name. A little too on-the-nose for me, but she liked it, and that was good enough. “Endless deep. Around me, within me, above me.”
I pushed, against the wall she was building, and felt the weakness, felt it buckle with the hard edge of thought, the way she winced, pulled in air through clenched teeth. But it was stronger this time than before.
“Too stationary.” I said, calmly, my hand on her head. “Try again. But think like the ocean, the way it moves, wave after wave. Float on it. Feel it support you… each wave building on the last. ”
So it was that we practiced, again and again. One lesson building on the next, as I tried to teach her to shape her consciousness. To give it form, and substance. To look beyond the dance of fire, and instead to see why it stood the way it did.
Annabelle declined the chance to stay and rest, but it was just as well, she was with friends, the trio were thick as thieves these days, and I knew she wasn’t good at staying still. She reminded me a lot of my daughter. She felt a lot more open this time, and actually promised to come back soon.
It didn’t feel like she only meant it because she’d have to lead them back down the mountain. It was strange to hear her say anything in a way that seemed nice. Gwen had done her a lot of good.
She closed her eyes again, breathing slowed as she listened to the world around us. The quiet crackling of the fire. Tempest’s breathing. Wendy’s slow slide down the wall until she curled up on her side, asleep once more. Poor girl. She had done her best, but even I could see this task had been too much for her.
“Wave after wave…” I repeated slowly. “You aren’t stopping anything. You’re just pushing it a little to the side. You aren’t where it wants to be. Move one direction, and push it the other.”
It had taken time, but this time, I felt it. I didn’t need to ask what she saw. Blue white shifting shimmering glittering. It pulled to her left, drawing me with it, the force of my next attack striking it flush, but being drawn away from her, only barely grazing her. She was grasping the concept, and beginning to make it her own. It had taken me ages to even figure it out. She was right to come to me, but I marveled at the depth of her ability. To grasp it so quickly. If she could keep it up, she’d be able to block far more than a psychic feedback loop with it.
“Good!” I praised. Genuine. Sincere. To her, it felt like it was the first time, to my regret, I realized it might have been. She stared at me for a long moment, and shook her head, slowly. “No?”
“Not yet. I feel like I’m on to something… like I can almost touch it, almost see it. But I don’t … Not yet. Again, please?” Claire asked, gently. It was unlike her to be so committed to anything, she had always been such a flighty girl. I was proud of who she’d become while she was away.
We practiced like that for hours. Her focus honing into a quicker and quicker defense, despite her growing fatigue. I could begin to feel her headache, the way it was forming from her exertions. But she didn’t give an inch, and our practice began to take a harder edge, my attacks much more directed, much more rapid, until they were unrelenting against the barrier she had built.
Finally, we both let up, and she sighed, stretching as she looked up at me. “I think I got it.” She said at last. “Took me long enough.”
I chuckled at that, and nodded. “He really means a lot to you, doesn’t he?” I asked, as she closed her eyes again, began to focus anew. “You never did anything with this much dedication before.”
“And more every day. He taught me the value of hard work. I’m going to prove to him I was paying attention. I’m ready. Don’t you dare hold back.” She replied, meeting my gaze as she stood up Something in her eyes, something about the way she stood was suddenly intimidating. A presence, a pressure that hadn’t been there before. Wherever her mind was, she gave me a look I had never known from her.
I hit her with everything I had, and felt it, the rotation, the pull. The intensity. She wasn’t waiting to receive it. She actively reached out and pulled it. The rotation wasn’t simply left or right. It spiraled, and was almost tangible with its intensity. My psychic assault thrown to one side, down against the ground. And in the opening that presented, her growing pressure reached towards me, in one sudden motion.
And then it was gone, and she stood proudly, my daughter who had in that moment surpassed every expectation I had for our training. What took me months of dedicated work, she grasped in a day, and made her own in two. Whatever training she had gone through before, it was as though there were an immense foundation built within her. I was awed at the resilience, at her strength and tenacity.
“That, my dear, was exquisite.” I said, my hand coming to rest on her shoulder as she panted and caught her breath. Whatever force I had rolled off of her like rain off a stone, and she stood proudly on the other side of it, as though it were nothing.
--Tempest--
Watching them train was like nothing I had ever seen. Morrigan’s presence was tangible, powerful, but wild. I could feel something lurking about it, unrestrained in the backlash. Claire was calm and reserved. Focused and almost flawlessly disciplined. Mother and daughter were night and day. I suppose our master could take credit for it. Claire understood what her mother was saying, I had to guess at the meaning of it. Something about the rotation, waves, I couldn’t really keep up with it. It was something only they really knew.
But I knew triumph when I saw it. I knew the tangible feeling of Morrigan’s psychic lash being jerked away from her, the feeling of Claire’s awesome fury honed to a pinprick sensation radiating off of her in one broad arc. I wondered who would win in a fight, but I couldn’t help but feel it wouldn’t be anywhere near as one-sided as it might have been before.
Claire’s retaliation had been a master stroke. Their final exchange, left her mother visibly startled, almost afraid, for one brief moment. I was glad to not be on the receiving end of things.
Wendy hadn’t moved much from her spot, sighing at the cracked screen of her tablet, as she watched the sky darken. She was worried. For good reason, I knew. Master was impulsive, and if he thought we were in danger, he’d do whatever it took to get to us. But I knew he was also a lot smarter than he had been when we first met. He’d find us, yes. But he’d do so with a care.
I was a little surprised when Annabelle didn’t come back that night, but I realized that her part, her role in it all was done. Once she got Wendy back to us, it only made sense that she was on her way back to Gwen. We could find our own way back, it wouldn’t even be very hard, all considered. Once we got to the peak, we could see all the way down to the lake.
I’d need to thank her, for everything. But that could wait. If only for a moment, if only for just a little bit, I needed it to wait.
It had been far, far too long since I held Claire in my arms. She seemed embarrassed as I nuzzled against her soft fur while her mother stared at us, but she didn’t push away. I didn’t push further. Not tonight. But she knew as well as I did that it would be very soon. Neither of us wanted to wait, I could tell by the subtle sway of her hips against me.
We had both missed the feeling, the warmth and closeness… and she was once again new to me, a lover to explore fresh, even before the time apart was considered.
I wondered if she could feel my hunger for it. For her.
I knew her mother could, judging by the sudden inability to meet my eyes.
She’d have never admitted it, but I could see, past the embarrassment, there was a curiosity there. I could have laughed. The pecha didn’t fall far from the bush. I wouldn’t tease her about it, though. With Claire in my arms, I understood all too well what it was to feel the absence of warmth and love so needed. And I did need her, just like that. If only for a while, just to have her in my arms again.
I know our master was looking forward to having her back, too. He’d have to wait, though… this time, he’d have to wait.
-- Wendy --
There was nothing for it. We’d have to wait until morning. Claire’s training took the whole of the day. I wondered what they were even doing. There was a lot of resignation early on, Claire was a grumpy student, and her mother seemed like a stern taskmaster. I could tell they were exchanging psychic blows, but only from the pained expression on Claire’s face.
She ignored me entirely. Focused on her mother, on why we’d brought her here. I didn’t know what to make of it, but in the mood I was in, it didn’t really matter. I was worried. I wondered where her trainer was. He may well have started on his way. I hated not knowing, not being able to tell him. But we’d be on our way back in the morning, and maybe, just maybe it would be easier getting back.
I hadn’t seen Annabelle all day. I guessed that she left as soon as her part was done. There wasn’t anything for it, but I knew I was just being a grump about it. She did everything we asked, and more. We couldn’t have done it without her, but I supposed we didn’t need her to find our way back. Let well enough be, I reckoned.
I was grateful for the rest, to be honest. I knew I needed it. Muscles I barely knew I had ached in ways I had never felt before. I lanced and drained the blisters on my feet, just to ease the pain of the pressure. Maybe I’d regret it later, but the relief I felt in the moment was too much to deny. I let them dry out by the low fire Claire’s mother kept, and eventually managed to fall back asleep.