Errand
Day 1 to Day 2 Evening
Andri’s finger was fidgety on the virtual keyboard while his foot rose and fell to the ground nervously. In his other hand he held a half-finished glass of neat whiskey. He had concluded that his blackout was a bad combination of Hazumi's ‘message’ and exhaustion. Andri fully intended to make it worse.
But first he had to deliver his message. He'd actually contacted the Academy about Lazarus’ home address only to be politely informed that the teacher was abroad. Which Andri thought was fucking wonderful because now it was not only the middle of the night but he also had to deal with it over the phone. No matter how he looked at it, it was utterly inappropriate.
Andri downed the whiskey and dialed the number. He enjoyed the emerging stars at the edges of his vision while waiting for the phone to wake its owner and then started, rather unceremoniously. “Hello, it's Andri from the academy. I have a message for you from Hazumi.” He managed to say her name and not ‘your lover’. It wasn't the man's fault he felt like crap. Nor was it hers, he supposed, for giving him an (accidental?) lobotomy.
The ringing wrenched Lazarus out of his sleep. Who in the hell was calling him at this hour of the morning? Rolling over he snapped the phone open and his eyes widened at the statement. Then they narrowed. With a flick of his hand he opened the laptop sitting on his night stand and his hand flew across the keys as he started the process of accessing student files for the academy. “If this is a joke I promise you that I will make your life incredibly painful for this. Tell me the message.” Lazarus realized as he typed that his right hand was shaking on the keys. Damn it. Hope was a potent thing.
“That goes without saying, your name carries that weight.” Andri turned the glass in his hand watching the light slide off the decorative channels in the crystal. There was a pause as he imagined executing his vague plan to press Lazarus into helping him hunt down Lucien. But there was an edge to the man’s voice that spoke louder than his threat. And it also resonated with the feelings Hazumi had imposed upon him earlier. It made him soft. It wasn’t always easy to be a pawn in the game of the powerful.
“It’s rather simple.” He gave in and refilled his glass. “Which I suppose would be disappointing. She just said “I’m not dead yet”. I’m afraid that’s all I’ve got for you.” He omitted the “love” part. There were limits after all. He thought he heard Ashley giggle in his head but that might have been the whiskey.
Lazarus eyes narrowed in response to the comment. “I hope you aren’t lying to me Andri because I’m going to be in Loom in the next six hours. You’re on my list of people to visit and I’m going to know if you are fucking with me. That would be a bad thing for you. Assuming you aren’t.” Lazarus tone changed immediately. “Thank you for telling me, I imagine that you went out of your way to call me and I appreciate it. You just have to understand how dangerous toying with someone like me is. I hope you’re telling the truth.” Tapping something else on his computer Lazarus finished making the flight arrangements. “Was there anything else I should know?”
When he heard the second threat Andri grinned in the headset, remembering how different the man had been in Hazumi’s memory – all soft and lovable. There didn’t seem to be any warmth for himself in the man’s words, though he supposed that only showed how much Hazumi mattered to him. He wondered if he should confide in the man about his own reasons for wanting to find the Essence… but there was still some inhibition left in him despite the alcohol. Andri really didn’t like talking about personal matters unless he really had to. He didn’t really have to.
“Don’t worry, master, I wouldn’t even dream of messing with you.” There might have been a hint of a smile in his tone but then it receded. “I have my own reasons to want her back. Nothing sinister, btw, before you think of threatening me again. I’d love to talk to you about it when you get here and maybe we can find a way to help each other.”
Closing the laptop with a swift motion Lazarus fully exited his bed and crossed the large cold room in his bare feet like a stalking cat before he flicked the light on. It was quite early; he’d barely slept at all which was okay. The dreams had been just that. Dreams. “Indeed. Well I shall be back in Loom soon. We’ll talk soon Andri.” With that Lazarus snapped the phone closed and started out of his room searching for his apprentice. There was little time before they were due to leave. The townhouse in Loom would have much of what they would need.
Andri let the phone slip out of his hand and dropped his head on the pillow. If sleep managed to find him, it would be a welcome guest.
The next day was a patchwork of failures and disappointments stitched together with fatigue and the sense of impending doom. He had to wonder if it was due to his own condition or Hazumi’s - was it his emotions or a mix of both. And in fact, if she was suffering herself, what were the chances of his own survival?
He called Mel to update her on the hunt and apologise for not being able to tell her sooner. Getting drunk was his choice of defence, even if it didn’t paint him or his profession in a very good light. But then he supposed, his original proposition itself hadn’t either.
He had sat in a Starbucks contemplating over a cup of coffee when a
song wove its way to his ears. It wasn’t immediately relevant, talking about some gangster boy who ran away as soon as things got serious but then it peaked into comparing the lyrical hero with the boy when it came to his romantic relationship. It inevitably reminded him of Kanna. She was in the same boat as him yet he had steadfastly ignored her calls since they both got bitten. His fist balled as the song reached its conclusion.
That wasn’t it.Next thing to go wrong was when he tried to talk to Ashley later that day. She seemed unusually unresponsive, even for herself, and when he tried to activate her he was struck with her scream and with crippling pain that made him double over and spill his coffee all over a stranger's shoes. When he finally convinced the well-meaning passerby that he was okay, he went straight to the walk-in clinic closest to the Academy.
He should have guessed that his exam would follow the same miserable streak.
“Your body is hyper-reactive.” The grey-haired doctor concluded after a brief examination and a look at his blood test results.
“My body?” Andri asked quizzically
“Your ‘essence’!” The doctor waved a hand irritably and the way he spat out the word left Andri with the feeling that the doctor wasn’t too keen on modern medicine.
“Oh.” He said simply.
He sometimes felt like he knew more about the technicalities of the human soul than most medical staff these days. After all, his life often hung on the line with knowledge as his only advantage over demons’ and angels’ inborn skills. Now what the doctor was saying suddenly clicked.
“What that means is that you’re very susceptible to change and influences of any kind, even more so than most--”
and that the disease will spread much faster than normal and it’ll be harder to stop or control it than usual. Andri thought, tuning out the doctor’s voice. It meant that his human essence was weak and would more likely go down without a struggle. They’d had a few lectures on chimeras and how unlikely they were to survive the initial infection, especially it it happened at the same time for more than one essence. Back then the whole process and all the graphs and biology behind it seemed hardly worth remembering.
It wasn’t what he wanted to hear. But it certainly put things in perspective. It explained why Hazumi had paired him with Ashley and forced her to serve him despite her reluctance. The merging of his essence with hers meant that he was almost invulnerable as long as the shard was bound to him. However….
“...likely that the influences of both your tool and the demon will cause a shock to your system greater than your body can handle. Perhaps you should consider giving up on your job and going to a rehabilitation facility where they can keep an eye on your transformation. They have those for the Academy folks, don’t they?”
Andri stared at him blankly. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing but he was too tired to react to it. Besides, smashing the man’s nose would help nobody.
Getting up he scooped up his jacket, thanked the doctor for his time and went out the door.
Collaboration with Merlin
Television II
Day 2, Afternoon
It was the time of day when light and darkness grabbed each other’s hand and danced along the buildings and trees to show people the wonders of the Surface.The low sun was streaming down the streets along with the crowd of humans rushing to catch the subway home. It painted everything in vivid reds and yellows and brought out long, thick shadows. Everything had texture then, every leaf and every crease in a stranger’s jacket, every window winked back at the sun and every piece of asphalt warmed the pedestrians with the warmth it had collected. Blackbirds and robins competed while the incoming winter reminded of itself in the taste and smell of the air.
It was her favourite time of day. The time of day she usually spent on Sleepy Hills, camera lively in her hands overlooking the city and its inhabitants. Yet today Tokarin couldn’t enjoy it.
She was feeling supremely weird - dizzy, confused, probably how it would feel if her powers were awakening now and not inborn. She was walking down the street with the camera around her neck and everything she saw looked new, interesting, almost unfamiliar. New buildings where they shouldn’t have been any, parks that were no longer there, old cars, different birds… It was as if her mind was overlaying two images at the same time. Photographers used to do that once, she remembered. Double exposure.
She groaned. How could her home town - ok, not home “town” - but home “world”, look so unfamiliar? Sure, she didn’t know everything, but this was her neighbourhood and even when she used to live in Heaven she often peered down to observe Loom. It shouldn’t be this confusing!
Oh! Wasn’t there a great ice-cream shop just there--
The angel groaned loudly and grabbed her head.
Of course there wasn’t, it was probably gone for decades now! Why did Seraphs strive to recover lost memories when it was such a nuisance?! It was bad enough already that she could see the future, she didn’t need to see the past as well! She wished Aria was here to explain things properly. And to make it stop.
What was even worse was that she remembered Solus now. She remembered him very well. He had been her mentor and her friend,... and a little more…. And even though she knew it was her own memories she had seen, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she had intruded on two people who wanted to be alone that time. Well, one of them was herself and the other she had never met but…
Correction, she had met him. But he was completely different a month ago (or 261 years into the future) so that it didn’t count. Fuck! This was annoying her so badly! It hurt to keep her eyes open and it hurt to be alone. How could you miss someone you know nothing about?! What
was this loneliness?!
It was suffocating. She’d never felt so acutely, painfully
alone. And she didn’t like it.
So she looked into the future, hoping that that would set her mind straight.
And, surprise, as soon as she did a sensation assaulted her.
Something flying towards her at great speed.
Or falling?
Straight at her.
Toki’s body reacted on poor instinct.
Her wings snapped up over her head accidentally knocking a man over.
Not a second later something landed on her wing with a muffled thud and slid down...
laughing?
Screams erupted.
Or maybe they just registered late.
The man was shouting at her.
A woman was shouting - and crying - far above.
Someone
else was shouting
next to her.
There was something moving, shifting in her hands. And making yet more noise.
“Eh…?” Toki asked feebly, looking at the thing with confusion.
“A baby fell from the sky!”
“What the hell?!”
“The angel caught it, look! It’s alive!”
“Film her, film her! This way, Tim!”
“Oh my god, is he okay?!”
“It fell from that window!”
“Eh?” Tokarin repeated dumbly.
There was a baby in her hands. A dozen cameras in her face. And utter chaos in her head.
Based on the true story of poor ol' Joseph Figlock and his ward.
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