Minerva Gold and the Wand of Silver Pt. 19

Minerva stood and then looked around for the Ministry Man.

"Oh my," she whispered.

The Ministry Man's skin had gone from desiccated to merely sallow. His bright, bright blue eyes looked uncomprehending up at the heavens. He whispered. "I can't be, I can't be, I can't be..." he breathed. Gina, kneeling beside him, frowned.

"What are you on about?" she asked, scowling. Minerva knelt beside him, biting her lip.

"If that thing fed on pain," she said, slowly. "Then...maybe it gave him respite from time to time? Pain just becomes boredom eventually, doesn't it? So, he's worried he's just dreaming this."

"Pff," Gina said, shaking her head. "Boredom's the worst pain there is."

Minerva frowned. Gina's flippant statement...it hit a chord deep in her body. It goes on and on and on... she thought. How long would it take before pain became boredom, and how long would it take before boredom became an even worse agony?

"I'm not sure if he's ever had a respite," she said, quietly. Then, smiling slightly. "How are you feeling?"

"Oh, I'm thrummed with enough healing spells that I can take on the whole world!" Gina said, lifting her good hand and giving her a thumbs up as Minerva took her wand and then stood. The purple sphere they stood in rolled a bit to the side as everyone else started to get to their feet.

"Shall we open the door?" she asked.

Everyone nodded.

Minerva felt a knot of energy flick away from her as she flipped her wand and shield dropped. The warm, rich scent of the forest beyond reached her nose and she almost sobbed in relief - to smell anything but that stink...she shook her head and then turned to face the others.

"All right. We're in the Gloaming. We don't know what - if any - creature we're in the domain of. So everyone stick close to me and we'll make our way out of the Gloaming and into somewhere a bit more hospitable," Minerva said, nodding slightly. "If you see anything odd, you call out. If you hear anything odd, you say it. And...we leave behind the guns. They won't do us any good down here."

Everyone nodded.

Kat and Greogry, though?

She kept her gun. Minerva noticed. And she didn't remark on it.

Minerva and Kat worked together to create a platform for the MInistry Man and Gina. Gina grumbled the whole way as she was laid down, and then the two platforms floated between Kat and Gregory. Gregory kept his hands on his MP-18 as looked around himself, shaking his head slowly. "So...uh, Minerva..." he said as they started to walk through the woods - following a winding deer trail that cut past trees that felt only half there. "What is the Gloaming, exactly?"

"The Astral Plane is the name for, uh, the plane of existence magic comes from," Minerva said, quietly. "But just as our universe is larger than just the Earth, the astral is bigger than the part of it near our, uh, Realm. The Realm is where we're from. Below it is the Shallows - that's where most of our astral travel takes us. Beneath the Shallows are the Gloaming Depths, which connect to the Shallows of all the other Realms. We're...not sure how many there are. They're mostly theoretical at this point." She squared her shoulders slightly. "Then there's the Deeps. That's where no one has come back from. Because once you're in the Deeps, even if you get to the Gloaming, how are you going to find your way back to your Realm?"

"So, what happens to us?" Gregory muttered.

"Well, we-"

"Weird! Weird!" Kat exclaimed.

Everyone turned to look at what she was looking at.

There was a great silver deer, standing in the brushes. It watched them with intent, piercing eyes. And wrapped around its throat, like a fluttering sash, was a scrap of scarlet cloth. It turned and bounded away as they looked at it. Harry frowned. "It's a chaser," he said, firmly. "A fae creature, trying to draw us off the path."

The scarlet, though...the silver...

Minerva had seen that shade before. But where? She frowned as the others started to go - and then her eyes widened. "No," she said, quietly. "No. It's not..."

Everyone looked at her - but Minerva saw the beast was already getting smaller. "Come on!" She said, then surged forward into bracken. Into underbrush. She felt thorns tug at her and she waded forward - the others hurrying after her, Harry calling out.

"Minerva, wait!"

Minerva knew she was right. She also knew she had no time to explain. The silvery deer seemed to be further and further away with every second - but then she rounded a tree and would see it, just there, just at the edge of sight, bounding forward. Her friends kept on her heels, Kat panting, ragged, Gregory swearing under his breath, Melissa snarling and hissing as her tail became ladened with burrs. Minerva felt her thighs burning, and...felt a fear tingling in her belly.

What if she was wrong?

What if it was just a trick of the light that made that silver fur seem so remarkably familiar? What if the scarlet was just the red of her blood, spurting in some future. She tripped on a root, fell forward, stumbled, crying out. She fell and rolled, and came to a skidding stop in a low delve. Mist roiled around her and the deer stood above her, brilliant and silver. It spoke to her, then, in a quiet, lilting speech.

"Dia duit, Minerva. The only covenant that ever mattered to me." The deer bowed its head, then stepped aside, and revealed a stone arch, a flight of stairs, made of crumbling old stone. "Do not look back."

The deer was gone, nothing but mist. Minerva stood as Kat came skidding down the delve, coming to a stop on her feet beside her. "Minerva, I-" she stopped, seeing the door. She turned back, shouting up to Melissa, Harry, Gregory, Gina. "It's a stairwell!"

"How do we know it's too our Realm?" Melissa asked as she carefully picked her way down. Gina and the Ministry Man came floating on their hovering gurneys beside Harry and Gregory, who guided them down with their hands.

"Because it was Titania," Minerva said, firmly. "That silver deer. She had the same silver as Titania. She spoke to me, she knew me."

"Titania?" Melissa asked, then looked at Gina. Gina pouted.

"She's my family's servant," she grumped.

Then Kat exclaimed. "Oh that Petunia! I could kiss her!"

"Ahem," Gregory coughed.

"With your permission, of course," Kat said, grinning fiercely.

"She sent her!" Minerva said. "I-" She stood as the ground shuddered. "Did you feel that?"

The entire forest had gone very silent. Very still. As if every animal in the place was being as still as they could manage. Minerva opened her mouth - then grunted. It felt rather hard to speak, all of a sudden. Something had smacked her back. She blinked, looking down at herself and blinked as she saw the multi-bladed prong, emerging from her belly, dripping with her blood and her gore. She gaped, then grunted as she was wrenched off the ground. Screaming pain exploded through her and she clutched at the shaft of metal - only to find thorns piercing her palms. Agony screamed through her as the entire rest of the party screamed in horror and shock.

She didn't know what stood behind her, but she felt it twist the bladed thing it had thrust through her. The agony was overwhelming - and the world around her was growing dark...

The roaring in her ear and the thunder flash of gunfire made her wince. Then she hit the ground and saw Kat standing atop something long limbed, black robed, hideously human despite its distorted proportions. She heard a hissing snarl - and then more roaring. Melissa rolled her onto her back, hissing.

"Stay with me, Golding! Don't you fucking dare die on me!"

Warmth warred with cold as a wand pressed to her. Minerva tried to breathe. Couldn't.

She closed her eyes.

Blackness.

They opened again. She was in someone's arms, her body shaking, her head lolling. Screaming, hissing shrieks came behind her. Her eyes half closed.

"Don't you dare fucking die on me!" Kat growled. "Harry! Shoot the fucking thing! Unload the entire fucking-"

Her eyes half closed again.

"Baruch ata Adonai..."

Her eyes opened. She was looking at familiar stars. She felt so cold. Kat looked down into her face, tears streaming down her face. "Minerva!"

"Eloheinu melech ha-olam, ha-gomel l'chayavim tovot she-g'malani kol tov..."

Minerva closed her eyes.

***

Petunia tapped her foot on the floor, her thumbs twirling over one another. Kat stood at the window, watching outside. The ornate wireless set out on the sitting room table murmured quietly, the voice wheezy and raspy - the Prime Minister was known to be in poor health.

"We shall use these powers, these remarkable magical abilities, in light now, rather than in shadows. For centuries, they have worked with our Empire's many servants. From the days of the Cerberus Order to the spy network of our earliest Kings, magicians have ranked as heroes to the crown and to Britain to match our bravest sailors and our boldest soldiers...now, they get the attention, the praise, the valorous glory they have earned many times over. This is the dawning of a new era of peace and healing, one that-"

Kat turned it off.

"MacDonald is such a windbag," she muttered.

The clock continued to tick quietly in the sitting room. Petunia shook her head. "There's just one thing I don't understand," she said, quietly. "...what the hell are you!?" She turned her head to look at Harry, who was watching the wireless as if it owed him something. Harry blinked, then lifted his gaze to Petunia.

"Huh?" he asked.

"We all felt your soul," Petunia said. "And well, we were all too busy, now we're all too..." She paused. "Well, forgive me for being crude, but since Minerva can't, I have to ask: What are you?"

Harry flushed. "Magisters can extend their life," he said, quietly. "They can do it in many ways. They can take days from others. They can make elixirs and potions. They can store their souls somewhere else." He squared his shoulders, then blew out a sigh. "Or they can...trick the world in another way. The ritual tied me and Mr. Villamont together, when I was very young. Now, my soul and his are...inverted and placed elsewhere. In a place beyond where time and death look."

"You're...undead?" Petunia asked.

"Not quite-" Harry started.

The door opened and Titania stepped in.

"Ladies, gentlemen," she said, inclining. "Come with me."

The three followed into the flight of stairs, walking up to the bedroom. The window was open a crack, letting some relatively fresh air breeze in. Laying in the bed, Minerva's eyes were closed, her hands collapsed over her chest, which rose and fell slowly. Titania stood to the side as Kat walked in, then knelt beside Minerva.

Minerva's eyes opened a crack. She whispered.

"Kat?"

Kat smiled at her. "You scared us," she said, quietly.

Minerva blinked again. "What?"

"It was a servant of whatever it was we escaped," Harry said, quietly, shaking his head.

"A right bastard, they said," Petunia added.

"Petunia," Minerva said. She reached an arm up, weakly. "You...saved us." She brushed her fingers against Petunia's cheek, gently. Oh so gently. Petunia cupped her cheek, sniffing slightly.

"I tried," she whispered.

Minerva closed her eyes, her face twisting. "Gina?"

"She made up too, she's fine," Kat said. Then, quietly. "Minerva, I...oh Minerva..." She buried her face against Minerva's hand, nuzzling her. "I don't know how to tell you this."

"What?" Minerva asked. Then, dazedly. "Why can't...I feel my legs?"

Then.

"Oh."

***

The sunlight dappled across the Blythe grounds as Minerva scowled at the stairs before her.

"I can-" Petunia started, but Minerva frowned, gripped the wheels of her chair, then gently rolled herself towards the stairs. They were gentle enough, and she had managed a shorter flight of stairs earlier - these went down a few extra feet. Her forearms burned as she heard Kat's entire body tense while Petunia bit her knuckle. The trick was to keep complete control of the wheel with every step. She eased forward, released, gripped, eased forward, released, gripped, and with every single step down, her teeth clenched as she felt the rattling impact with every single step.

Then...

She was down with a clunk. She released her wheels, her palms aching, while Kat and Petunia hurried down the stairs. They stood to either side of her while Minerva's arms trembled and she let out a nervous bark of laughter.

"That hurt," she said.

"You'll get callouses," Kat said, nodding, her hand going to her shoulder, squeezing gently.

Minerva leaned back in her seat. Once more, the strange dislocation of her injury hit her - and she felt the confusing welter of emotions. There was anger, yes. Sorrow. Annoyance. But a lot of it was just...surreal. It still didn't feel quite like her life yet, even a week later. She pushed the wheels and then grunted and pushed one forward, and the other backwards, swinging herself around to look at Kat and Petunia. Petunia was looking like her normal guilty self. Kat just gave her a smile and a nod.

"I think getting up will be a little harder," Minerva said.

Kat snorted.

The three of them continued on their constitutional. At first, Minerva had been pushed the whole way. Her body had still ached, despite the best healing she had been given, and her arms had felt too weak. Now, she pushed herself along, the wheels clicking and clacking as she rolled down the cobbled path that wound through the grounds around the Blythe household. The fae kept the place well tended and neat, with blooming flowers and quiet, respectful trees.

Of course they did.

They had too.

Minerva sighed softly, while Kat said: "You are taking it better than Gina."

"Of course I am," Minerva said, amused. "I have a better role model." She glanced at Petunia and flashed her a smile.

"I still don't understand why you can't get fixed like my leg," Petunia said as they came past a large willow. The shade was pleasant, and the air was cool, and Minerva's hands hurt - which was reason enough for her to slow, to stop. "But you and Gina can't get a new..." She waved her hand. Minerva looked down at her legs. The blanket that covered her thighs remained a twitch lower than one might have expected, even with her legs still. She reached down, tugging it back to see the gauzy, smokey hue of semi-transparent limbs. Her legs, her belly, a little bit of her stomach and a part of her lung looked as if it had become smoked glass - transparent enough that one could see the light through it, but thick enough that they were clearly there. She let the blanket down.

"Well, no one has been eager to explain it," Minerva said, quietly.

"You can say that again," Petunia said. Her irritation flashed in her eyes, while her voice remained prim and proper.

"Don't be too mad at them," Minerva said, before Kat could speak up. "They've been busy."

Busy was an understatement. The destruction of the Arx Magica's finest and highest had sent shockwaves through the British government and wizarding life - and the revelations of magic and magister society had sent even bigger shockwaves through the mundane life. Every day, newspapers, both mundane and magical, screamed their heads off about new revelations, new riots, new discoveries. The Empire was terrified and the mysterious vanishing of a General and a few highly placed politicians had only ratcheted up things...

Until, of course, the Labor Party had released the news.

Stonehenge Ritual Gone Wrong!

The newspaper article had only some of the facts, but even those were damning. A hole ripped into the Far Astral. An ancient and terrible evil awakened, its attention drawn to the material world and only pushed back by the efforts of brave men and women in the Ministry. Hubris and folly and utterly sanctioned actions was the line that had leaped out to Minerva, the line that made her smile. But while it was good to see Ars Magica be utterly humiliated in the press and forced to answer very uncomfortable questions before government, that didn't mean that Minerva and her friends had gotten off free and high.

The police had been around the Blythe estate, asking questions. Percival had been around as well, asking even more pointed questions, and actually to Gina, rather than being rebuffed by Melissa. Percival, at least, was no longer wearing the silver lightning bolt of a Blackshirt, and from what Gina had said, he was even madder at Ars Magica than he was at Gina.

Which is saying something! Gina had said, cheerfully.

"Well, explain it now," Petunia said, huffily. "And remember, use the words us mundanes can understand."

Minerva nodded. "The astral realm is where magic comes from. Magic...affects patterns. When you heal someone, you're restoring a body to their pattern, or you're changing the body away from the pattern and holding it in place with raw willpower until the pattern, finally, changes with it. Well, when you are injured in the Astral, doubly so when you're injured by something of...power and potence..." She made a face. "Like, say, the weapon of a Pain Elemental's chosen avatar." Her hand went to her belly. "Then it means that the pattern itself is being ripped apart. I've been healed, I have organs, I have legs, I have a spine. But the pattern remains damaged, and it will remain damaged for..." She trailed off, thinking. "For quite some time."

"Has anyone ever had their pattern revert?" Petunia asked.

"Well, there were some legends that long enough lived wizards did recover," Kat said. "But most people who took pattern damage...they were not the kind to live exceptionally long." She snorted. "It is also being a rather modern problem. Before, most who were injured thus in the Astral Plane did not survive long enough. Healing magic is better these days."

Minerva chuckled. "For now? I'm...going to take life as it is. And I'd vastly prefer this to the alternative."

"Really? You...want..." Petunia asked, while Minerva lifted her eyes up to look at her, then smiled wryly.

"The alternative offered to me in this case was dying, darling," Minerva said, her voice dry.

"Oh. Right." Petunia said.

Kat tensed. A moment later, Minerva heard why: The faint sound of leaves crunching under footfalls came their way. Kat's hand dropped to her belt, where a pistol was holstered, a deadly German piece that she had gotten from her big box of guns and had not seen fit to return. Minerva folded her hands over her lap, sat up, and watched with exactly zero surprise as, around the corner, came a red skinned, spade tailed, contrite looking Merlin. He was dressed in a natty suit, with a trilby hat and a cane, which he was using to keep his balance as he sauntered through the woods. The cane, Minerva was sure, had been a broom until a few moments before.

He drew up short, then smiled. "May I speak?" he asked.

"Oh you might," Kat growled, but Minerva reached up, placing her hand on her wrist. Stilling her.

Merlin spread his hands. "Alone?"

"Oh you have to be kidding!" Kat exclaimed. "You want us to leave you alone with Minerva?"

"I mean her no harm, I just-" Merlin started.

"Kat," Minerva said.

"Please say you are about to tell me to shoot him," Kat growled.

Merlin tensed. His tail stilled.

"No," Minerva said. She gripped her wheels, then rolled herself forward. "Let's find somewhere private." She smiled, slightly. Kat frowned. Petunia looked even more unsure - if that were possible. But neither of them gainsaid her. They just watched and waited and, Minerva was sure, immediately made plans to sneak after and keep watch on her as she and Merlin came to a clearing. Rolling off the path made her arms work harder, but not overly harder. Merlin stood in the sun, his back to her, his cane on the ground. His tail lashed from side to side as he looked up at the sky.