{"sf1_id":550407,"sf2_id":"r17E2YPm","title":"Soul of Fire - Chapter 1","author":"Kolare","words":4503,"posted_at":"2013-06-13T05:49:00.000Z","tags":["Dragons","Novel","On going story","Unicorns"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/550407-soul-of-fire-chapter-1","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/r17E2YPm","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/cf/19/cf19591d-386e-4f5c-b581-b8293eda4ca6","description":"In which we meet Molly, Arthur, Balthiss, Emoss, Silvia, and Erin (who is being born.)\nIn which the best laid plans of dragons go awry...","content":"Chapter 1\n\nSilvia buried her face against the ragged stuffed toy. It might have been a rabbit in an earlier\u0026nbsp;\n\nlife or perhaps a bear. Its color was just as hard to determine. She lay upon the pale threadbare\u0026nbsp;\n\nsheets and pulled the remnants of the blanket closer. On the other side of the thin wall she could\u0026nbsp;\n\nhear the banging and the screaming as the two adults fought.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Where do you get off, Molly, pulling that kind of stunt?\"\n\n\"Stunt? STUNT? You call this a stunt? It takes two to tango and two to do what we did, Arthur.\"\n\n\"You told me you were on birth control, you never said anything about another kid! When were you\u0026nbsp;\n\ngoing to tell me, when do I get a say in this?\"\n\n\"How dare you. You sure don't seem to mind when you wake me for this at two in the morning, or when\u0026nbsp;\n\nyou are gone for months at a time. And keep your voice down, Silvia is in the other room.\"\n\n\"No. NO. This isn't happening tonight. I don't care how far along you are, we're getting that taken\u0026nbsp;\n\ncare of.\"\n\n\"Don't you dare raise your fists this time, Arthur.\" Silvia shook as she heard the now familiar\u0026nbsp;\n\nsound of a hard fist hitting drywall and breaking boards. She knew the sound all too well, it\u0026nbsp;\n\nseemed to her that it was one of the more common noises her father made.\n\n\"You already have one, what do you need another for? Why are you doing this to me?\"\n\n\"Me doing this to you? Bastard. Like you have to listen to people whispering behind your back about\u0026nbsp;\n\nhow you are an unfit parent. Like you have to gain weight and carry a child. Like you get up every\u0026nbsp;\n\nmorning throwing up, shaking from chills, only to try and eat something because your own child\u0026nbsp;\n\nneeds nourishment. Yes, Arthur, I thought about all of that when I decided to become pregnant\u0026nbsp;\n\nagain, with YOUR child, and how it would make your life miserable, how you w-\"\u0026nbsp;\n\nHer mother's voice was cut off by a sharp slap, this time of skin on skin. Silvia tried desperately\u0026nbsp;\n\nto stuff any part of the toy she could into her ears. Only a few days, she promised herself, he was\u0026nbsp;\n\nonly ever home a few days...\n\nIt was the quiet of his voice that scared her the most. \"Enough. I'm going for a drive, a drink,\u0026nbsp;\n\nand a smoke. Probably in that order. When I get home, then we are going to settle this.\"\n\nOther familiar sounds followed: The heavy, oil stained work boots of her father trod down the hall\u0026nbsp;\n\nway, his keys ringing against the little metal bowl on the inside of the door where he tossed them\u0026nbsp;\n\nevery time he came home, and the rattle of the whole front of the apartment as he slammed the door\u0026nbsp;\n\nhard enough to crack the pane of glass in the upper half. Silvia knew that her father would be gone\u0026nbsp;\n\nfor at least the next two hours. It always took him a while to get drunk.\n\n\"Light.\" She whispered. A pale silvery light flickered around the lone silver charm on the bracelet\u0026nbsp;\n\nof her left hand. It wasn't much, but it allowed her to see where she was going. She slipped off of\u0026nbsp;\n\nthe cot she lay upon and snuck carefully out of the broom closet sized bedroom and into the hall.\u0026nbsp;\n\nIn all her nine years she had never heard Molly and Arthur fight like that. She was worried about\u0026nbsp;\n\nher mom.\n\nHer tangled mousey hair stuck out in wild curls in every direction. The tiny light threw her shadow\u0026nbsp;\n\nlarge behind her, making it seem as though a medusa were lurking in the shadows. Silvia, at her\u0026nbsp;\n\nadvanced age, knew there were such things as monsters. After all, one had just left. She crept to\u0026nbsp;\n\nthe door of her parents' room and looked inside.\u0026nbsp;\n\nHer eyes glossed over the queen sized bed, the battered dressers, even the sliding glass doors that\u0026nbsp;\n\nlead out to the balcony (which overlooked the apartment pool), as she only had eyes for her mother.\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe two were spitting images of one another, albeit separated in age by twenty years. Mother and\u0026nbsp;\n\ndaughter both shared the same grass green eyes, but only her mother's were presently casting tears\u0026nbsp;\n\ndown her cheeks and into the carpet. \"Mom?\"\n\nMolly was kneeling on the floor, hands and arms limp beside her. She seemed to be asking the\u0026nbsp;\n\nceiling fan for guidance. \"Yes, baby?\" her slender hands came up to try and wipe away the tears.\u0026nbsp;\n\nAll she managed to do was wipe salt water across her cheeks. She would have better luck stopping\u0026nbsp;\n\nthe wind. Her gaze went from her daughters face to her wrist. \"Honey, douse the light. You know we\u0026nbsp;\n\ncan't... not on this side.\" She looked fearfully out the sliding glass doors, before pulling\u0026nbsp;\n\nherself up and shutting the curtains.\n\n\"When are we going back?\" Silvia tapped the little charm and whispered, \"Extinguish\" and the light\u0026nbsp;\n\nobeyed.\u0026nbsp;\n\nMolly laid her head upon the glass, eyes searching somewhere between her reflection and the moon.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"I don't know, baby. I had to come back. This child is part his. He has a right to know.\" She\u0026nbsp;\n\nrested her hand upon the swell of her stomach. She looked every bit of her nine months pregnant.\u0026nbsp;\n\nSilvia swept the room with her gaze and found the hole that Arthur had punched in the wall. \"He\u0026nbsp;\n\ndoesn't want another baby.\" She sounded older than she had a right to be.\n\nMolly pushed away from the glass. \"Guess you heard all of it, then.\" As Silvia nodded, she let the\u0026nbsp;\n\ncurtains blot out the night. \"Kiddo, if you learn anything from all of this...\" her gesture took in\u0026nbsp;\n\nthe room but Silvia guessed she meant more than just the furniture around them, \"Anything at all...\u0026nbsp;\n\nJust keep in mind that love doesn't always turn out this way. Okay babe?\"\n\nArthur drove as though on autopilot. Even years after this night, he could not tell you why he\u0026nbsp;\n\npicked this particular bar over any other to stop at. Understandable, it was hardly recognizable as\u0026nbsp;\n\nit was. Rather than a chance meeting or an unplanned stop, he had been here before. Many times, in\u0026nbsp;\n\nfact. He parked the battered old Ford in what felt like a good spot (one he had parked in many\u0026nbsp;\n\ntimes, it allowed him to back out easily while too drunk to drive) and pulled his billfold out of\u0026nbsp;\n\nthe center console. There were three or four other cars in the lot, all parked several spaces away\u0026nbsp;\n\nfrom any other cars. The street lights on the cross streets flickered rhythmically but never\u0026nbsp;\n\nmanaged to penetrate the cross street.\n\nThe front of the bar was all brick, not a single window allowed the light from inside the bar to\u0026nbsp;\n\nspill to the street. A partly functional sign over the door called it \" ARRYS' BILL \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;S\", once it\u0026nbsp;\n\nmust have read Harry's Billiards, but the other letters were only a hollow on the sign where there\u0026nbsp;\n\nhad once been glass neon tubes.\n\nThe bouncer in the tiny entry vestibule did not even look twice at Arthur, but nodded to him curtly\u0026nbsp;\n\nbehind three hundred pounds of sculpted muscle and mirrored shades. The black T-Shirt he wore\u0026nbsp;\n\nclaimed his other job was in \"Attitude Adjustment\". Once the outside door closed, the only light in\u0026nbsp;\n\nthe small room was a pair of dim yellow bulbs that cast the whole room into odd orange relief. It\u0026nbsp;\n\nmade the bouncer look even less human. Arthur passed through quickly.\n\nOnce through the second set of doors the lighting got worse, if possible. Music pulsed and thumped\u0026nbsp;\n\nfrom somewhere. Too quiet to make out distinctly and yet just loud enough to be present. Providing\u0026nbsp;\n\na topic of conversation if needed and cover for the silence if not. Every few moments the soft\u0026nbsp;\n\nclick of a cue hitting other billiard balls could be heard as games of unhurried pool were played\u0026nbsp;\n\nin the far end of the bar. The brighter light there did nothing to cut the gloom.\u0026nbsp;\n\nDecades of cigar and cigarette smoke lingered in the air. It was dense enough to take the edge off\u0026nbsp;\n\nof the light and give anything more than twelve feet away a slightly fuzzy outline. Empty tables\u0026nbsp;\n\nand chairs (each table with its own ash tray) were liberally sprinkled through the room, but not in\u0026nbsp;\n\nany easily identifiable pattern. The entire back wall was taken up with the god to which patrons\u0026nbsp;\n\nsat and sacrificed their hard spent hours. Alcohol of a dizzying and frightening array lined glass\u0026nbsp;\n\nshelves backed by the largest continuous mirror Arthur had ever seen. Artfully placed track\u0026nbsp;\n\nlighting illuminated the shrine, casting particular pools on the more exotic and expensive liquors.\u0026nbsp;\n\nA counter of stained and heavily stained wood marked the location where supplicants came forth to\u0026nbsp;\n\npick their poison. Almost lost between the two was a man who stood just over five foot two. Black\u0026nbsp;\n\nspiked hair that faded to a slight graying near the temples dropped suddenly into a forehead that\u0026nbsp;\n\nmight make a battering ram jealous. Dark eyes flanked a nose that looked like it had been broken\u0026nbsp;\n\nbadly and set worse at least once. If the rest of the face was ugly, the pocked and scarred jaw\u0026nbsp;\n\nline was worse. His lips were lost behind a cigar the size of a roll of quarters. Blue smoke\u0026nbsp;\n\ntrickled from his mouth as his hands moved across the bar. Heavily scarred fingers covered in\u0026nbsp;\n\ncoarse black hair over olive skin belied a life of hard work.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Arthur. Been a while.\" Before Arthur could take a ripped and patched bar stool, the bartender had\u0026nbsp;\n\nplaced a thick coaster down and dropped a frost rimed glass filled with something a shade darker\u0026nbsp;\n\nthan liquid gold. \"Just get back? Did you finish hauling for that job out in Denver? Thought you\u0026nbsp;\n\nwould be gone at least another week.\"\n\nIf Arthur seemed surprised that the bartender knew his schedule or his preferred drink, he didn't\u0026nbsp;\n\nshow it. Neither did he pay any attention to the sole other occupant at the bar, a man with a row\u0026nbsp;\n\nof empty glasses before him and his head down against the wood. \"Yeah, I lost a tire on the way\u0026nbsp;\n\nback too. A damn re-cap blew in the right rear. Just your regular train wreck of a week.\" He\u0026nbsp;\n\nmechanically picked up the glass and took a long drink. \"Balthiss, right?\"\n\nThe bartender grinned even wider. \"Yeah. I'm flattered you remember me. I would have thought you\u0026nbsp;\n\nwould be home with the wife, you know, getting reacquainted.\" Something between the leer and the\u0026nbsp;\n\ntone of voice let Arthur know exactly what he thought Balthiss was talking about.\n\n\"Yeah, real insult to injury there.\" Arthur looked down at the now empty glass in mild surprise.\u0026nbsp;\n\nWhen had he finished the drink? It mattered little as by the time the glass had touched the\u0026nbsp;\n\ncoaster, Balthiss had replaced it with a full one.\n\n\"Do tell.\"\n\n\"Molly is pregnant again. Nine months along now. How the hell did I miss the signs? I mean, I've\u0026nbsp;\n\nonly been gone two or three months...\"\n\n\"You seem concerned, Arthur.\" Balthiss reached down and picked up a whiskey glass and chipped part\u0026nbsp;\n\nof an iceberg into the glass before straining a generous pair of fingers over the rocks. \"On me.\"\n\n\"Thanks.\" Arthur chased the beer with the whiskey and sat playing with the ice for a moment.\n\nBalthiss picked up something from his side of the bar, hidden down by the odd bits and pieces of\u0026nbsp;\n\nequipment that a good bartender acquires in their line of work. A turn of the wrist and a small bit\u0026nbsp;\n\nof slight of hand later, he had it cupped in his palm as if lighting it off of the end of his\u0026nbsp;\n\ncigar. Instead, he drew smoke heavily into his lungs then exhaled it in a strong jet against the\u0026nbsp;\n\nobject in his hand. As the smoke hit the bauble it flared a coal-red. The glow lit his face\u0026nbsp;\n\nbriefly. \"If it were me, I would be angry...\"\n\nArthur looked anywhere but at Balthiss's hands. \"I am.\"\n\nWhatever Balthiss was holding gave off a soft pulse of light. It stayed red now, even when he\u0026nbsp;\n\nstopped bathing it in smoke. Balthiss rubbed it momentarily against his lip, then began to polish\u0026nbsp;\n\nit with his thumb. \"Hot under the collar, so to speak...\"\n\nArthur worked the buttons of his collar loose and pulled at the fabric. \"Yeah.\"\n\nBalthiss squeezed the stone then whispered to it, lips close enough to brush the stone while he\u0026nbsp;\n\nspoke, \"Is it even your child?\"\n\nArthur snapped the glass to the table so hard a fracture shot up the side. \"I don't think it is my\u0026nbsp;\n\nchild. The timing is all wrong. I'm away from home so often, how could she have gotten pregnant?\"\n\n\"How dare she...\" The words were even less audible than the last, but they had their intended\u0026nbsp;\n\neffect.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"HOW DARE she do this to me.\" Arthur dug through his pockets trying to find a pack of cigarettes.\u0026nbsp;\n\nWhen he failed to turn up anything more than a book of matches Balthiss pulled out an all black\u0026nbsp;\n\npacket and drew out a black cigarette. He offered it to Arthur who took it, his hands shaking.\u0026nbsp;\n\nBalthiss produced a little silver lighter that took some coercion to light. Somewhere after the\u0026nbsp;\n\nsixth or seventh attempt he managed to light it for Arthur. \"After All I do for her, she goes and\u0026nbsp;\n\ngets herself knocked up. Like I can support her and the one we already have.\"\n\nBalthiss looked from Arthur to the lighter with some small satisfaction then flipped it over and\u0026nbsp;\n\npressed the bottom of the lighter. A sound like a shutter click followed the motion and he\u0026nbsp;\n\nmurmured, \"Freeze.\"\n\nArthur froze, cigarette leaving a smoke trail as he had started to gesture with it. Balthiss could\u0026nbsp;\n\nsee he was really building up to a rage. He turned to regard the only other visible patron.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Emmoss,\" he tossed an unshelled nut at the dirty hair on the bar. The nut hit the other man and\u0026nbsp;\n\nrolled off the bar. \"Get your lazy lump off my bar. It's time. Do you have enough Power to do it?\u0026nbsp;\n\nWe are only going to get one good shot before the Brotherhood guesses what is going on.\"\n\n\"Wot, doan' 'Oi get to droun' my sorrows too? Why's it always got to be 'Emmoss, do this', an'\u0026nbsp;\n\n'Emmoss, get your lump up and bewitch this...'\", His accent was thick either from his birth place\u0026nbsp;\n\nor his blood alcohol level. It was hard to tell.\n\n\"Shut it. You've got about two minutes before that cigarette burns down far enough to get his\u0026nbsp;\n\nfingers and you'll get to deal with stunning him on your lonesome.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Foine. Dunno why it can't be you, though.\"\n\nBalthiss pulled a particularly warped bottle from under the bar. \"If you want to get paid, you'll\u0026nbsp;\n\njust get it done.\" He tapped the bottle as he spoke. \"Then again, I can just pour this out...\"\n\n\"NO!\" Emmoss jumped up and moved down the remaining length of the bar at a jog. \"Don' be 'asty,\u0026nbsp;\n\nBal. Just ... we're glacial, mate. I'm doin' it now, see?\" He approached Arthur from behind and\u0026nbsp;\n\npulled the collar of his shirt a little lower. \u0026nbsp;\"Ah, 'e still has the mark from th' last time.\u0026nbsp;\n\nShould be cake.\" Emmoss leaned down as if to kiss Arthur on the neck but stopped before he touched\u0026nbsp;\n\nhim. He exhaled against the skin and a trickle of smoke rolled out of his lips. A flick of his\u0026nbsp;\n\ntongue and Emmoss sent smoke rings against Arthur's neck. Instead of breaking apart and fading out,\u0026nbsp;\n\nthe rings collided with Arthur and sank in. \"Possession is nine-tenths of th' law...\" He laughed\u0026nbsp;\n\nand fixed Arthur's shirt. \"Now, do 'is memory and we'll send 'im back. I'll hitch to him when th'\u0026nbsp;\n\ntime is right and we'll 'ave the kid.\" The smile the two shared showed far too many teeth.\n\nMolly put the last of the dishes into the sink. Silvia sat at the table finishing a glass of milk,\u0026nbsp;\n\nplaying with the water left behind by the cold glass. She twisted her fingers and gestured away\u0026nbsp;\n\nfrom herself and her charm glowed as the water fled before her. Without turning around Molly called\u0026nbsp;\n\nto her daughter, \"What have I told you about using wild magic this side of the Veil? Hmm?\" She\u0026nbsp;\n\nturned just in time to catch the guilty look on Silvia's face.\n\n\"Sorry mom.\" She put the glass down, empty now.\n\n\"Oh baby. I'm sorry. Listen, we can go back tonight. How about that?\" her gaze flicked to the hall.\u0026nbsp;\n\nHer eyes counted the locks on the door and made sure each was still in place.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"That sounds fine. But let me get bun-bun first.\" Silvia hopped down from the chair and raced into\u0026nbsp;\n\nthe back part of the apartment to get her stuffed toy.\n\nMolly pulled a pair of long silver hair sticks out of the junk drawer in the kitchen. She put her\u0026nbsp;\n\nhair up into a bun then slipped both in place. A violet gemstone hung from one, twinkling in the\u0026nbsp;\n\nkitchen light. \"Don't forget your shoes, Silvie.\" She exited the kitchen and passed into the\u0026nbsp;\n\nbedroom. She went to the sliding glass doors and unlocked them, pushing them apart and stepping\u0026nbsp;\n\nback. The night was muggy and warm. The air currents battled briefly as the colder air in the house\u0026nbsp;\n\nlost the fight to the night breeze.\n\n\"Right, I'm ready mommy.\" Silvia was clutching her stuffed rabbit and a pair of well worn shoes in\u0026nbsp;\n\none hand, the other she slipped into her mother's hand. She felt Molly start briefly. \"Mom, you're\u0026nbsp;\n\ncold.\"\n\n\"It's nothing baby. Now, hold on tight.\" Molly closed her eyes and held up her free hand. She\u0026nbsp;\n\nlifted a finger as if she were going to ring a door bell, then drew her hand downward.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Translocate.\"\n\nA number of things all happened at the same time. The hair stick with the gemstone began to glow\u0026nbsp;\n\nwith a nimbus of violet light. As her hand moved through the air, it left behind a smudge of violet\u0026nbsp;\n\nsmoke. Between the outlines of the smoke a slightly different version of the apartment was visible,\u0026nbsp;\n\nbut outside the smoke the same apartment they were in could be seen. Molly let out a soft sigh of\u0026nbsp;\n\npleasure. They were going home. She gave a sideways flick with her hand as if she were throwing\u0026nbsp;\n\naside a curtain and the rend in the Veil opened wide enough to pass through. Molly squeezed\u0026nbsp;\n\nSilvia's hand and smiled. \"Almost there. I can smell the garden from here, can't you?\"\n\nBalthiss plucked the lit cigarette from Arthur's fingers and blew on the glowing ember. It winked\u0026nbsp;\n\nout like a candle flame. \"Humans.\" he shook his head. Treating the cigarette like a pen he drew a\u0026nbsp;\n\nmark in ash above both of Arthur's eyes then poked him in the middle of the head with the\u0026nbsp;\n\ncigarette. The lines sank into his skin as Arthur's eyes lost a little color, becoming slightly\u0026nbsp;\n\nglassy. \"There. He'll be blind to the Veil again and the memory block is ready. Now, let's get this\u0026nbsp;\n\nmeat stick back into his t-\"\n\nA small brass rod began to vibrate on the bar. A number of red and green lines lit up along the\u0026nbsp;\n\nside of the rod. They scrolled across the rod like a ticker marquee and caused Balthiss to curse so\u0026nbsp;\n\nexplicitly that the spot on the bar under the rod caught fire. \"We're late. Maybe too late. She's\u0026nbsp;\n\ntranslocating. She was supposed to stay until the next day. I'm going to kill that idiot magus.\"\n\n\"Bal, 'e told you, 'is view of the Winding Path is obscured. It were a best guess.\"\n\n\"Not good enough. We're going to lose the kid.\" He picked up the remote for the TV in the corner.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Deal with Meat Boy. We might need him still. Get him on the way. I doubt he'll get there in time\u0026nbsp;\n\nto stop her, but it's all or nothing now. We can't let that child get back to the Hidden World.\" He\u0026nbsp;\n\npointed the remote at the TV and snapped, \"Astral Occularis.\" The picture changed from a sports\u0026nbsp;\n\ngame no one was watching to a view outside the apartment in question as though seen through a round\u0026nbsp;\n\nlens like a fish eye.\u0026nbsp;\n\nMolly and Silvia started walking towards the rip. Molly put her hand out and caught the edge. She\u0026nbsp;\n\nrested her weight against it briefly. A flicker of pain from her pelvis gave her pause. The\u0026nbsp;\n\ncontraction stole her attention briefly. Her brow furrowed and she pushed it from her mind. She had\u0026nbsp;\n\nto concentrate to keep the rip open. She didn't want to stay in the apartment any longer than\u0026nbsp;\n\nnecessary at this point.\n\nArthur got back into his truck. He couldn't remember how much he had had to drink and he reeked of\u0026nbsp;\n\nsmoke. He rammed the gear shift into reverse and laid down two fresh black lines as he spun the\u0026nbsp;\n\ntruck into the street. The only thing he could remember from sitting there and drinking alone was a\u0026nbsp;\n\ngrowing feeling of rage and a curious nagging feeling that there was something he had to\u0026nbsp;\n\ndesperately get back home to stop. As the truck lurched to a stop facing the right direction, he\u0026nbsp;\n\nslammed the gear shift into drive. Tires screaming, he launched the truck down the road.\n\nMolly stood up and smiled down at Silvia. \"Sorry, Mommy just had a cramp, that's all.\" She pulled\u0026nbsp;\n\ngently on her daughters hand and took a step through the rift.\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe view on the television was now showing the bedroom, the rift, and the two humans. Balthiss\u0026nbsp;\n\nsnarled and snatched the brass rod off of the counter. He cocked his arm back and threw it as hard\u0026nbsp;\n\nas he could at the TV. The brass rod elongated as it flew, turning from rod into javelin. It hit\u0026nbsp;\n\nthe glass and pushed through it as if it were tough plastic. \"BARRIER!\" Balthiss screamed, just as\u0026nbsp;\n\nthe view on the TV winked out.\n\n\"Whelp, guess we won' be able to tell if that worked unless Mr. Meat gets there.\"\n\nBalthiss turned very slowly to Emmoss. \"If I didn't need you to possess Arthur, I would be killing\u0026nbsp;\n\nyou right now.\"\n\nEmmoss jerked away from the bar and Balthiss. The dark beady eyes had burned away and left gold\u0026nbsp;\n\norbs in their place. \"Bal, your mask...\"\n\nSilvia's view was not nearly as obscured as her mothers, having been on the side and facing the\u0026nbsp;\n\nedge of the rift. Her gasp caused Molly to quicken her pace. She didn't see what her daughter saw:\u0026nbsp;\n\nthe form about the size of a beach ball that had been until that very moment loitering outside on\u0026nbsp;\n\nthe balcony, invisible, suddenly become visible as it ejected a slender brass object. As the brass\u0026nbsp;\n\npierced the ball, it burst like a soap bubble and foul smelling greasy smoke dispersed into the\u0026nbsp;\n\nnight air.\n\nMolly's momentum had half carried her through the rift when she collided with the barrier. For a\u0026nbsp;\n\nbrief moment nothing happened. Then in painful slow motion she saw an ugly red pulse flash across\u0026nbsp;\n\nthe barrier. In her mind it was slow enough she could see the symbols etched onto the barrier and\u0026nbsp;\n\neven could tell the properties of the barrier. It gave her a fleeting idea of who or what had cast\u0026nbsp;\n\nthe spell. Those thoughts were driven from her mind when the pulse hit her. There was pain and\u0026nbsp;\n\nsuddenly she was knocked back from the rift. She staggered but tripped on the carpet and fell\u0026nbsp;\n\nheavily. Her only thoughts were for the safety of her unborn child. Unfortunately for her, such\u0026nbsp;\n\nnarrow focus cost her the attention she was using to keep the rift open and it snapped shut.\n\n\"MOMMY!\" Silvia's scream split the night. She looked briefly at the barrier, hanging red and ugly\u0026nbsp;\n\nwhere the rift in the Veil had been a moment before, then back to her mother. The carpet was\u0026nbsp;\n\nbecoming wet beneath her feet. \"Mommy, what, no!\" Silvia threw her arms around her mother and began\u0026nbsp;\n\nto cry.\n\nMolly wrapped her arms protectively around her belly as the pain moved from her behind, down to her\u0026nbsp;\n\npelvis. She felt her water go and knew what was happening. As she had joked about with her doctor,\u0026nbsp;\n\nthis was not her first time in the rodeo. \"Silvie,\" she kept her voice as quiet and calm as she\u0026nbsp;\n\ncould. \"Get the phone. Call an ambulance.\"\n\nSilvia pulled her right hand free, the charm dangling from the bracelet on that wrist. \"L-\n\nlevitate!\" She pulled her hand towards her, still sobbing softly. A thumping and bumping sounded\u0026nbsp;\n\ndown the hall as something hit the wall and seemed to bump and drag against the wall until it found\u0026nbsp;\n\nthe open bedroom door. A wireless handset phone arced through the room and fell beside Silvia. She\u0026nbsp;\n\nsnatched it up and dialed 911.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Well, 'es there. They, 'owever, are not.\" Emmoss was seated at the bar, a far away and vacant\u0026nbsp;\n\nexpression on his face. Now and then his fingers twitched in what looked like spastic little jerks.\n\n\"Get my rod. Start going through Arthur's memories of before you slipped in. Maybe something was\u0026nbsp;\n\nmissed.\"\n\nEmmoss nodded, then furrowed his brow. \"'Old on. This is odd, yes, 'ello, I see you... who...\"\u0026nbsp;\n\nEmmoss began to smile again. \"Wonderful. Seems we got a noisy neighbor who is currently giving our\u0026nbsp;\n\nMr. Meat a right 'orrible time about what 'e musta done to Ms. Meat. Seems an ambulance was\u0026nbsp;\n\ncalled... and picked up the missus. She is 'eaded now to St. Pearls. Got your rod. 'Ere, I'll send\u0026nbsp;\n\nArthur. We can take a short cut.\" He shook himself hard like a dog does after a bath. He ran his\u0026nbsp;\n\nhands through his dirty hair then slipped them into his coat. \"Unless you 'ave an objection.\"\n\n\"No, by all means. After all, Arthur has my focus. If I tried that with Wild Magic, we might end up\u0026nbsp;\n\nin the wrong place entirely.\"\n\n\"Did I tell you about the time I tried that? Wound up in Belgium. Spent a week 'iking until I could\u0026nbsp;\n\nget back to Civilization...\" Emmoss drew a pocket watch from his coat. A pale green flickered to\u0026nbsp;\n\nlife around the watch as he drew a line in the air with his finger. \"Translocate.\" The other side\u0026nbsp;\n\nof the line opened onto a roof somewhere. \"And I 'ad the 'ardest time getting all the pine tar out\u0026nbsp;\n\nof me coat. Must have 'it every tree on the way down that bloody mountain...\"\n\n  \n  \n  \n\n"}