Reuben: 1/26/97 (11/4/96)
It was still raining the next morning when I got up. Again, no power, no coffee. I was going to hate this, I decided. We cobbled together breakfast out of what we had in the refrigerator and I returned to the library to read more on life patterns. I was on the verge of understanding what one of the more esoteric tomes was saying, but I couldn't quite get my brain around some of the concepts.
I read for a few hours, interrupted only when the telephone, which had been dead up until then, rang once, then was dead when Kasee picked it up. Daedelus walked in around 11 AM.
"Back from hiding?" I asked.
He gave me a nasty look. "This is not my idea of fun. Look, is Blake still a problem?"
"Well, not precisely." I explained Blake's grisly death as best I could.
"Right. Let me run back to New York and let them know where I am, and then you can tell me what else I missed."
I followed him back out into the living room. In the middle of the room, a large, glowing rectangle outlined a pastoral wooded scene. He stepped through and walked to the right, out of view. In a moment he was back, stepped through, and the rectangle collapsed, leaving us in the living room with only a hint of a smell of musty pine needles to tell that a portal had just existed.
Kasee came in and between us (well, mostly Kasee), we filled Daedelus in on what had happened over the past two days. When we were done, I suggested it was time to retrieve Cab and Mary of New York. Daedelus agreed and built another portal and brought them through.
As the second portal faded, Mary walked over to the window and looked at the rain and the rising floodwater, which now were higher than our front door (we'd sealed it earlier in the day to prevent leaking). She stared at the rain for a few minutes then closed her eyes and shouted, "I hate rain! I Hate Rain! I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE IT!"
Suddenly, it wasn't raining. As if someone had turned a switch, bright sunlight shone through the windows.
"Oh boy," I said. *Dog, care to go outside?*
*I'll get my fur wet,* came from my bedroom, petulantly.
*Somehow I don't think so. Look outside.*
An inquisitive head poked out of my room, and I said, "Come on." We both headed up to the attic, and stepped onto the roof. There wasn't a cloud to be seen; the sky was a deep, beautiful blue. The floodwaters were still there, though. I waved as someone went by on New Bern Avenue in a motorboat.
"Uh, Dog, what the hell have we gotten ourselves into?"
*I don't know, but I wouldn't get Mary mad if I were you.*
"No shit."
----
Later that afternoon, after I had made dinner (I pulled a chicken from the refrigerator and Eric cooked it using forces magic - funny how nothing in that refrigerator is spoiling), Dog and I watched the news in front of his "television." One of the spirits turned to the other and said, "Let's go to Bob for the weather. Bob, what is going on out there?"
"Thanks Flip. We don't know what is going on, quite frankly. We can't say for sure, since all of the satellite receiving stations have been knocked out by the recent weather, but as near as we can tell from anecdotal reports around the world, there are no clouds anywhere on the planet right now..."
Oh boy. I was going to suggest that either Cab or Renee have a talk with Mary - I didn't want to play with that grenade.
---
That evening, Reuben, Renee, Kasee, and Daedelus gated to Forteau's house to see if he was back in this world. We arrived at his front porch, and I opened the front door, which was unlocked. "Hello? Mr. Forteau?" No reply. I walked up to his bedroom where we had left him, and there he was, face down on the floor. That's bad. I rushed into the room.
"Renee! Get his feet!" I grabbed his shoulders, and we placed him on the bed. He was still alive, I could tell that much. He was very pale, his breathing was shallow, and his feet and hands were clammy - all the classic symptoms of shock. I stabilized him, and got his circulation back to normal, then asked Renee to help me heal him back to health. Between us, we generated enough power to heal an elephant, I think.
Mr. Forteau blinked, took a shuddering breath, then suddenly sat up. "Where is it?"
"Um, where is what?" I asked.
"The weather machine! Where is it?"
Renee spoke up. "I'm afraid we don't have it, Mr. Forteau."
I broke in. "You see, there was some disagreement about the final disposition of the weather machine, and..."
He stopped me with a wave of his hand. "Wait. You." He pointed to Kasee. "Go and get me some tea. Then you," he said, pointing at Renee and me, "will continue the story."
We moved to the sitting room, Forteau walking slowly but steadily. When Kasee returned with his tea, we launched into an explanation of what had happened before, during, and after Halloween. Forteau got a very tired look on his face, and shook his head every time Master Porthos' name was mentioned.
"Well," he said when we were done, "It seems to me you have some important questions which need answers. First, who is this Ogre person? Second, who is the mysterious 'hairy' buyer for the weather machine, and third, who is this Yarkis?"
I mentioned Maxwell Blake, and Forteau looked thoughtful. "I seem to recall hearing about a branch of the New World Order called Internal Affairs. It is possible that the late Mr. Blake was one of them."
Renee then mentioned that it had been raining. A lot. Forteau only shook his head and said, "Well, you did involve Porthos." Forteau also mentioned a group of radical environmental shapeshifting Verbenas he had heard of shortly before he became...incommunicado.
It looked like we were coming to the end of the interview, so I asked one more question. "Mr. Forteau, how can we best ward the Chantry from outside influence?"
He looked me up and down. "Well - you have contacted the Chantry spirit, haven't you?" At my blank look, he looked exasperated. "Didn't you read the tass letters?"
I smacked my hand to my forehead and said, "Shit shit shit shit shit. I'll look at it when we get back."
He stood up and said, "You need to go back and get some answers to some basic questions."
I knew when we had been dismissed. I nodded to the door, and Daedelus gated us back to the Chantry. I had a lot to think about. Dog turned his "television" down and I went to bed early.
Last modified: Thur March 20 16:45:00 1997 by tabrady