It was Tristan who spoke first after Sariel’s pronouncement about us being on Earth. “Uh,” the boy started slowly, “I think my spiffy new perfect memory is interfering with my previously pretty decent hearing. Because I could’ve sworn you just said–”
“Earth?!” Vanessa interrupted her brother, her own eyes as wide as I was pretty sure mine were. She grabbed her mother’s arm while hurriedly pressing on. “We’re on Earth?! As in the real, regular Earth? Not an alternate reality or something? Wait, was this transport actually a time machine? Did we go back in time? Is this prehistoric Earth? Are we about to see dinosaurs?”
“Dibs.” Tristan had his hand up. “Dibs on taming the first dinosaur. I called it, you all saw me. Heard me. Whatever. Dibs.”
“Oh, my beautiful boy.” Turning that way, Sariel leaned over to kiss his forehead. The two of them were about the same height, while Vanessa stood a few inches shorter (though still a couple inches taller than me). Which meant that Sariel could easily put both hands on the side of his face while informing the boy, “There are no dinosaurs to tame. Not on this world, in any case. We have not time-traveled. We are on Earth within the correct time period. April 22nd, 2018. That… is the correct time period?” That last bit was added with a slight frown.
Wincing, I nodded slowly. “That means… oh God, I’ve been gone since February 24th. Almost two full months. Oh damn. My dad, Avalon, Shiori, the others, they’re all gonna… wait!” Eyes widening, I looked toward the twins. “If we’re back on Earth, maybe one of your phones’ll actually work.”
“Hey, yeah,” Tristan started before making a face as he held his cell up and shook it a little bit with a frown. “It’s dead, and I know it was charged right before we left. Apollo helped me plug it into the ship.”
For a moment, Sariel was silent. I thought she was thinking at first, before realizing that the woman was just staring at her son in open wonder and amazement. She’d lost herself there for a few seconds, just watching her now-much older little boy while holding both of her girls close.
Finally, the woman gave a sharp shake of her head as though snapping herself out of it before speaking. “In a prison transport like this, the system was probably set to drain the power of, or simply destroy, any communication device that was sent through it without authorization.”
Making a face at that, I muttered, “Well, that’s incredibly inconvenient. But where are we, exactly? More specifically than just ‘somewhere in an Earth desert’, I mean.”
It was Vanessa who replied, gesturing back out of the transport. “There were Carnegiea gigantea out there,” she explained simply, as if that answered the question.
“Vanessa, I love you,” Tristan started, “but there are definitely no giant cars out there.”
Rolling her eyes, the blonde girl reiterated, “Not giant cars. Carnegiea gigantea. You know, saguaro cactus? The big cacti with all the arms that bend out and up like this.” She demonstrated by raising her arms up, bent at the elbow as if she was surrendering.
“Right, right, those ones!” Tristan nodded rapidly as though he had the slightest idea what that meant, before his nod transitioned into a back-and-forth shake. “What’s your point?”
Giving a long, slow exhale that blew some of her loose hair up, Vanessa squinted at her brother before explaining. “The Sonoran desert is the only place in the world where the saguaro cactus grows naturally. If we’re on Earth in the current day, then that’s where we have to be.”
That one I could actually chime in on. “Sonoran desert, that’s the one in the Southwest US, right? Arizona, California, northern Mexico, that area.”
Vanessa nodded. “That’s the one. Though saguaro cacti only really grow in southern Arizona and parts of Mexico. You can kind of find it here or there in California a little bit, but I’m pretty sure that we’re in Mexico or Arizona. And I–Mom?” She blinked over, apparently just noticing the way that Sariel had been staring at her, at both of the twins. “What’s wrong?”
“Wrong?” Sariel echoed, her voice cracking a little as she shook her head. “No, baby.” Her hand rose, tenderly brushing over her daughter’s face. “Nothing’s wrong. Nothing could be wrong. You’re beautiful. You are amazing. You…” There were tears in her eyes, and the woman blinked them away quickly before giving a little shudder. “All three of you are my… my children. It doesn’t seem real. It doesn’t seem…” She hesitated before shaking her head, muttering something in another language under her breath that I couldn’t follow.
For a moment, the three exchanged glances, before Tristan spoke up. “Mom, we’re right here, okay? We’re not going anywhere. We’re real, we’re right here. This isn’t a dream or anything.”
“I know,” Sariel replied simply. “I learned to recognize an implanted vision of being rescued after the first few times that Kushiel used that trick. That’s when she switched to telling me that you were dead. Of course, sometimes she still wanted to try it, so she’d erase my memory of that, and see how long she could keep the ruse going. Or just erase my memory of the capture entirely and give me a few hours with my family before snatching it away all over again.”
Somehow, through the incredible blinding rage that little bit of horrific information inspired (along with a renewed vow to kill that bitch if given the chance), I was able to think of a relevant question. “Wait,” I blurted out, “they actually managed to erase even a Seosten memory?”
“Temporarily,” she replied. “It never lasts very long. But for that brief time…” The woman trailed off for a moment, looking away before shuddering. That haunted look came back to her eyes, and I thought of what that must have been like for her to go through, apparently repeatedly.
Tristan’s voice was dark, all of his general amusement gone. “We’re gonna kill that bitch.”
“No,” Sariel quickly snapped while shaking her head. “What we are going to do right now is get out of here. It’ll take Kushiel and the others time to follow us here. They’ll have to go through all of the proper checks and security to pass through the barrier the normal way since we took the established transport. They probably won’t even bother being in a hurry about it, since they have to know that it will be too late once they get the message from the troops that retreated. But they’ll send someone else to check on this place and to see what they can scavenge soon enough. If your communicators aren’t working, we may have to hike out of here on foot. Normally, I could simply prepare transportation spells, but I’m not strong enough to even start them yet. And even when I am, doing something like that from scratch can take… quite a while. Especially for all of us.”
“If we go on foot,” I pointed out, “anyone that the Seosten send to check on this place might find us. Actually, scratch that, they’d probably find us, sooner than we could get very far.”
Tabbris quickly piped up then. “We might not have to go anywhere at all, you know. If the tracking spells that Wyatt put on you were good enough to last that long and activated again now that we’re within range, he might have a rescue party on the way right now.”
Raising an eyebrow at that, Sariel remarked, “I detected no such spells on you.”
“Yeah,” I replied flatly while looking down at myself, “that’s because he’s really good at hiding them. Believe me, even I don’t know what he’s got stuck on me or where. He enchants something with a tracking spell, sticks it on you, then makes it invisible and intangible so you don’t even know it’s there. For all intents and purposes, it’s not. Except for the part where he can still use it. And don’t ask me how he makes it stay in place despite being intangible. It shouldn’t work. But it does. For him.”
Whistling a bit, the Seosten woman spoke. “This… Wyatt sounds like a powerful sorcerer. He must have practiced his craft for many centuries to accomplish such feats.”
Meeting her gaze, I replied, “He’s my half-brother. And he’s been doing this for about thirty to forty years, I think. Give or take a little bit.”
Boy, it was fun surprising an ancient and powerful Seosten who used to portray a literal god. She stared at me for a moment, mouth opening and shutting briefly, before speaking again. “Zedekiah,” the woman announced. “You say Wyatt. But you mean Zedekiah.”
Blinking at that, I nodded. “Yeah, that was his… that was his original name, when he was a kid. Before Ruthers kidnapped him and Abigail. Koren, back then. Now her daughter’s name is Koren, and she goes to Crossroads with the rest of us. It’s… complicated.”
Letting out a long, low sigh, Sariel nodded. “It usually is.” Her voice was low, with more emotion in those three words than a lot of people could work into an entire diatribe. She looked to me then. “Felicity, I… I should like to meet this… Wyatt and speak with him. And Abigail.”
“Trust me, I think he’ll have a lot of questions for you too,” I assured the woman. “They both will. But first, we have to either get out of here, or hold out until Wyatt gets the reinforcements here. If, you know, the spell is actually still active. That’s the downside of not being able to find the spell at all. There’s no way to know if it’s working.”
Sariel started to nod at that before pausing. She looked around briefly, a frown touching her face before the woman added, “Give me a moment, I’ll find the prisoner manifest so we know who else is locked in these pods. It would be foolish to open all of them without knowing who we’re dealing with. But we may be able to release enough trustworthy allies to help us either make our way to safety, or hold out against whatever forces the Seosten send until your brother arrives.”
Vanessa‘s head bobbed quickly at that. “And while you’re doing that, I can contact Dad and let him and the others know what’s going on. They’re probably really freaking out right now.”
Reaching out to run a hand through her daughter’s hair once more, Sariel smiled. “Tell your father that I love him, and that we will all be together again soon. And tell him to be careful. Kushiel will be looking for ways to retaliate against the loss of her prisoners.” Pausing then, she added, “And, please be careful only to connect your mind to his without fully transporting yourself. I know that you would be safe with your father, and it is… selfish, but I don’t want to lose you again so quickly. It is already difficult enough to accept that it will still be some time before our family is truly reunited. Being without Haiden after all this time…” She swallowed hard before shaking her head. “As I said, it is selfish. But I want to spend time with you.”
It was Vanessa’s turn to reach a hand up, taking her mother’s before squeezing it. “Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll still be here. I promise. I’m not going anywhere. And when Dad gets back, we’ll be a real family again. All of us. Even Uncle Apollo. And Aunt Larissa.”
Sariel seemed to cringe inwardly a little, though she was still clearly trying to hide her reaction from her children. “Apollo,” she murmured under her breath, the pain in her voice seeming to reach even the others, who exchanged brief glances until the woman shook it off. “Yes. Tell them–tell your father that we are safe, that I will not let anything happen to any of you.”
Nodding firmly, Vanessa gave her mother one more tight hug. The two embraced like that for a few long seconds before reluctantly parting. Then the girl moved to sit on the floor. She closed her eyes, seeming to focus for a moment before abruptly tipping over. Her body fell limply against the floor.
“Wow,” Tristan remarked with a raised eyebrow. “It happened a lot faster that time. Uncle Apollo said that the hybrid thing would let us get stronger a lot faster by killing Seosten, but wow.”
For a moment, I thought that Sariel was going to ask about Apollo. It seemed to be right on the tip of her tongue as her mouth opened. But at the last second, she seemed to change her mind, instead asking, “This… hybrid-Heretic thing… how precisely…”
“It’s a long story,” I informed her. “Mostly it involves a Djinni altering the Edge to allow half-humans to become Heretics. That’s the short version.”
The Seosten woman stared at me for a moment, head tilting a little before she gave a slight nod. “Of course. That was… an eventual goal of your mother’s, I believe. Was she–”
“She didn’t do it,” I replied flatly. “The others fulfilled that goal for her. She’s still… still with Fossor.”
Swallowing hard, Sariel met my gaze, her expression softening. “I’m sorry,” she announced in a quiet voice. “Your mother–” She stopped, hesitating before finishing with a soft, “Your mother deserves to be free. I give you my word, I will help make that happen.”
With that announcement, before I could figure out what to say to it, the woman turned back to the console. Her fingers danced across it rapidly as she went through the menus, trying to work out who was within each pod, and how to release them.
Meanwhile, Tabbris moved over to me, taking my hand with both of hers. “Mama,” she announced with a broad smile. “Mama’s there.” She pointed to her then, as if I hadn’t seen the woman for myself. “Mama’s really there.” That infectious, dazzling smile grew even more just from saying the words, and she dropped my hand to instead give me a tight hug.
Returning the hug, I grinned right back at her, and at Tristan. “Yup. There she is. Told you we’d get her back.” I was so happy for them. Part of me thought that I would have been jealous about their reunion with their mother, but I was just happy. Seeing the way that Sariel was with them, seeing how much they all meant to each other, it made me feel a little sad about my own mom. But mostly I was just overjoyed to see them together. Or at least, mostly together.
Then there was the thought of my dad. We were on Earth. We were actually here. Pretty soon, I’d be able to see my dad again. I’d be able to see Shiori and Avalon again. My girls. I’d see everyone again.
Even Scout. And I’d have to tell her that her sister and mother still weren’t back yet, that we’d come without them. Not that it had been on purpose or anything, but still. That part wouldn’t be quite as good, though just being able to tell her in person that Sands and Larissa were okay would be amazing.
Overall, I really couldn’t wait to get out of this damn desert.
Tristan spoke up then, interrupting my drifting thoughts. “What I wanna know is where exactly this transport was supposed to go, and why it was aimed for Earth in the first place.”
“Perhaps, Mr. Moon,” a new, yet familiar voice spoke up from the entrance of the transport, “that is a question that we should be attempting to work out together.”
Sariel was already spinning around, one of those pistols coming back to her hand before she lined it up… then stopped. “Gaia,” she spoke simply, her voice cracking a little.
Yeah, Gaia was there. And she had company. Deveron stood on one side of the headmistress, with Professor Dare on the other. Behind them, I could see Wyatt fidgeting and bouncing on his toes to see past. His eyes sought me out, but his expression was unreadable. He looked anxious, and maybe even a bit angry. And… guilty, somehow? Actually, come to think of it, they all looked a bit off.
If she cared about the gun that was pointed at her, Gaia didn’t show it. Her voice remained even. “You would be Sariel of the Seosten, then,” she announced. “Tristan and Vanessa’s mother. That would be where they disappeared to then.” Her eyes glanced down toward the girl in question, before her flat, even tone finally cracked. “Vanessa, is she–”
“She’s fine,” I said quickly. “She’s just using her power to tell Haiden–her dad–that we’re safe.”
“And are you, Miss Chambers?” Those assessing, deeply intelligent eyes found mine once more, as Gaia seemed to stare straight through me. “Are you… safe?”
For a moment, I just met her gaze in silence. Then I realized. Her questions, the way she was staying back, Wyatt’s expression, even Deveron and Dare seemed a bit wary. “You know,” I announced as it hit me, “You know that I was possessed.”
“Was?” That came from Professor Dare, her eyes narrowing a bit as well as showing a little bit of another emotion: hope. She had clearly been more distraught and upset than I’d even been able to tell, because there was a noticeable reaction right then, at my implication.
“Uhh, yeah.” Biting my lip, I started, “It’s a really long story. But–actually, the short version is… here.” Reaching back, I took hold of Tabbris, slowly pulling her in front of me. From the corner of my eye, I saw Sariel move forward as well. Gaia, Dare, Deveron, and Wyatt or not, she was not going to let her little girl be in even the slightest hint of danger without being right beside her.
“This,” I informed them while rubbing the girl’s head, “is Tabbris. Sariel’s daughter–her other daughter. Sariel sent her to me when I was younger to secretly possess me. She’s been protecting me from being possessed all this time, and other things, like erasing spells that people were trying to use to track or hurt me, and… more. Probably more than she’s even told me about. I only found out about her right before that whole thing with Charmeine. She’s the one that helped me escape that trap, and helped me get back to that hotel in time to help the others.
“The point is, I’m here and I’m free today because of her. She’s my little sister. She’s my partner. And we’re a team.”
I saw actual visible relief in Gaia’s face, as her eyes darted down toward Tabbris before returning to me. “Good,” she announced. “I am… very glad to hear that. And there is clearly a lot–” She glanced toward Sariel. “–a lot to talk about.”
Deveron took a step forward then. It looked like he was about to say something, but Gaia interrupted. “But I’m afraid that will have to wait. We don’t have time to discuss this any further. Nor do we have time for any of the numerous emotional reunions that are needed right now. They’re coming.”
“What,” Tristan quickly blurted, “Kushiel’s forces?”
“No.” Dare’s head shook. “Worse, the Committee.”
That made me do a quick double-take. “What?”
Gaia corrected, “Several members of the Committee, at least. It seems they were alerted to your presence here as well, somehow. They will be here very shortly.”
Sariel quickly blurted, “They cannot find these pods.” Her hands gestured around the transport. “Even those who are not compromised by my people will kill everyone they find here. They are, after all, not human.”
Gaia paused at that, head tilting a little as she seemed to focus for a second before speaking again. “Come off the transport. It has very little power remaining, but I believe there is enough left to send it to a safe location. Unfortunately, it will be a very… rough ride. Too rough for anyone not in a stasis pod.”
I might have marveled at Gaia’s ability to both intuitively know that, and apparently actually use the transport that easily. But then again, this was the same woman who had waved a hand and taken control of the Meregan transport device all the way from Earth. So… yeah. Totally believable, in that case.
Taking a step forward to leave the transport, I found myself pulled into a tight hug. Or rather, three tight hugs. The first came from Dare, who looked like she really wanted to say something and was annoyed that there wasn’t time for it. Then Deveron took his turn, followed by Wyatt. Both of them seemed reluctant to let go, and I was pretty sure that it was only the impending arrival of several members of the Committee that made them stop.
“Knew you guys would find us out here,” I informed them, giving Wyatt a wink. “Best bodyguard big brother in the world.”
“How did you–” Dare started, then stopped herself, as hard as it clearly was. “Later. They are coming.”
Together, we moved off the transport, with Tristan carrying his sister. Gaia waved a hand, and the thing vanished. Which left us standing there in the middle of the empty desert, aside from the bodies of the soldiers that had been left behind.
“There’s another problem,” Deveron announced, from right beside me. His hand was on my shoulder, like he was planning on physically preventing me from disappearing again. “Them.” He nodded to Tabbris and Sariel.
“Not a problem on our part,” I replied, extending a hand to my partner.
She started to reach for me, but Deveron quickly pulled my hand back. “Wait,” he blurted.
“Dev,” I took his hand in mine, looking at him. “It’s okay. She’s been protecting me all this time. I told you, we’re partners. She’s my sister. She’s family, Deveron. We work together. We’re a team.”
He still looked uncertain, frowning a little before clearly realizing that there wasn’t enough time to debate it. His eyes found Tabbris, and he nodded. “Okay.”
As the man released my hand, Tabbris took it instead. A second later, she was back inside me. I saw Deveron and Professor Dare exchange a look that told me we were still going to have to talk about this later, and that, once again, it was only the fact that the Committee was about to be right on top of us that made them hold off arguing for the time being.
“Unfortunately,” Sariel spoke up then, “I cannot possess either of my children. Normally, I would have spells prepared to avoid detection. But… I am not exactly prepared.”
Wyatt was clearly about to say something then, but Gaia spoke first. “There is one place you may hide where they will not detect you.” With that, she extended a hand to the other woman.
“Gaia, no!” Dare quickly interrupted, taking a step that way.
“Virginia,” Gaia chided her, “It’s okay. If Sariel meant us any harm, we would have been in much worse shape a very long time ago.” Her eyes never left the Seosten woman’s, and she kept her hand extended. “I trust her.”
Her words were greeted with silence. Everyone seemed frozen. I had no idea how that would have gone, except that in that second, a glowing green portal appeared nearby.
The Committee. We were out of time.
Sariel’s hand snapped up, catching hold of Gaia’s. Then she disappeared. And in that second, an Olympian-level Seosten was possessing Gaia Sinclaire, an event that had probably been the wet dream of the general Seosten leadership ever since she had been made headmistress, if not longer. But there was no time to think about that either, because our company had arrived.
“Well,” Gabriel Ruthers started, as he, Litonya, Teach, Geta, Sophronia, and Calafia stepped into view from the portal.
“What do we have here?”
And here’s the start of the new arc! I can’t thank all of you enough for sticking around with me as long as you have, and I hope you enjoy this next arc. It promises lots of reunions and… maybe some other things as well. 😀 Like a few answers, for one thing.
If you’ve got a second, I would very much appreciate a quick click right here to add a vote for this story on Top Web Fiction. I don’t link it enough, but it really is important. So thank you, if you take the time to do that.
Also, don’t forget about our joke tag contest. It continues until this Friday, and all you have to do is email me at ceruleanscrawling@gmail.com, assigning 3 points to your favorite, 2 points to your second favorite, and 1 point to your third favorite. For those of you who need a reminder of the nominations, here is the list:
1: ‘Gaia Casually Manipulating The Meregan Teleporter Is Like A Tiger Casually Strolling Into Space-X And Piloting Their Rocket.’
2: ‘Damn It Flick Turn In Your Protagonist Badge You’re Not Allowed To Actually Communicate With People.’
3: ‘Whoever Asked If I Would Ever Reuse Joke Tags – There You Are.’
4: ‘Fear The Power Of Me Finding Out (IE Being Told) How To Use Commas In Tags’
5: ‘Entirely Too Few Answers’
6: ‘Something Something Dirty Joke About Harper Looking For Arthur In Avalon’
7: ‘Avalon/Shiori/Flick Relationship Development Be Damned. Let’s Talk About This Sick And Twisted Love Affair I Have With Cliffhangers.’
8: ‘Meanwhile – Shiori And A Reluctant Avalon Are Telling Choo A Heavily Rewritten Three Little Pigs Story Involving Ninjas – Lasers – And One Sorry Wolf’
9: ‘Somewhere Snidley Whiplash Is Looking At Ruthers And Going ‘Maybe Tone Down The Obvious Evil A Bit Dude’
10: ‘Normal People: “Flick You Can’t Possibly Piss The Seosten Off More Than You Already Have.” Flick: “Hold My Beer.”’
11: ‘I Swear To God‚ If I Had Forgotten To Tag Tabbris In THIS Chapter Too‚ I Might’ve Cried.’
12: ‘I’m Pretty Sure At Least Half The Readers Just Went ‘YES WE’LL FINALLY GET SOME GOD DAMN ANSWERS’ So You Know Something Has To Immediately Explode Next Chapter.’
Tags for this chapter right here are: Calafia, Edward Teach, Felicity Chambers, Flick, Gabriel Ruthers, Gaia Sinclaire, Geta, I Demand Fanfics In Which They Really Did End Up Back In Dinosaur Times., I Feel Like Dare Only Said The Committee Was Worse Because She Has No Idea Who Kushiel Is., Litonya, Sariel, Sophronia Leven, Tabbris, Tristan Moon, Vanessa Moon, Virginia Dare, Writing Vanessa And Tristan Banter Is Just The Best‚ Guys., Wyatt Rendell
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Crossposting preview comments from SB:
Ok, there’s so much love emanating from Sariel that I’m half expecting her to turn into a magical girl.
And if you gave her a literal version of that turn emotion into mech suit thing Lincoln joked about Joselyn having I’m pretty sure she’d get Fafnir Mark Sein. She’s currently defined by love, and enduring for the sake of that love, so if she turned that love into a mech she’d get the machine that treats getting stuffed into a black hole as a quick time-out then tags back in.
—
Kushiel just got a bit more disgusting. Kind of surprised memory effects worked on Sariel of all people.
Wyatt is good enough that SARIEL can’t find his tracking spells? Given that he’s taken using to alarms triggered by loss of tracking Jophiel is going to have a problem – if she blocks his tracking effects when she sends Flick to do something, that’ll set off an alarm, if she doesn’t she’s busted.
Sariel was deeply involved in taking Wyatt and Abigail I see.
Ooooh, Vanessa has decided Larissa’s AUNT Larissa. Mason/Moon family blob: Canonized.
Oh god Tabbris’s introduction was ADORABLE. Very quick, but adorable.
So where did Gaia get such a high end technopath power?
Holy shit Gaia had Sariel possess her.
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Bear in mind that this is Sariel giving Flick cursory once-overs and presumably quick-and -dirty tests, not a thorough examination. We’ve never seen how well Wyatt’s numerous spells would stand up to an in-depth magical look at the people he puts them on.
Based on Sariel’s “he must be centuries old with great skill” reaction, a number of them will probably stand up pretty well to most thorough tests. But someone with enough experience who isn’t underestimating his skill could potentially find workarounds.
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That “then” from Deveron has me worried about what precisely he means by it. Was it strictly in terms of needing to hide Sariel or Tabbris? Or is he going to have a low opinion of the willing possession concept once they get a chance to talk it over? He and Dare (understandably) don’t seem to be fans at the moment.
I suspect it’s the second. Not having someone not take well to the willing possession/partnership concept would mean passing up some excellent narrative options, and Deveron is one of the more plausible and interesting choices.
Plausible because he’s been aware of Seosten possession antics for a long time, and seriously screwed over by them, so he’s liable to have a well established grudge with Seosten in general. Interesting because Flick cares about him a lot while he’s highly invested in protecting her. If he thinks he needs to split up Flick and Tabbris things get complicated.
Columbus is the obvious other choice for rejecting the symbiosis, but it feels too obvious, plus Tabbris will have a lot of points with him for helping Flick take out Charmeine.
There’s pretty solid reasons for the remaining team members to have no issues:
Avalon: WoG that Tabbris reminds Valley of her younger self, plus Tabbris has been protecting Flick.
Scout: More than smart enough to instantly figure out Tabbris is totally harmless unless you’re Flick’s enemy. Larissa put Tabbris there, and Tabbris’s mom saved her that night on the boat. Scout is far more likely to volunteer to hide Tabbris if they need to spoof a possession detector on Flick than to reject Best Fallen Angel.
Sean: On one hand, he was stuck rooming with Charmeine. There’s trauma there. Buuut Tabbris was key to ending that sitch, and Sean HATES people who think they have immunity: Pushback. Tabbris very thoroughly disabused the Earth side Imperial Seosten of that notion.
So assuming someone on the team has issues with Flick and Tabbris sharing a body it’s probably Deveron.
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I agree with everything you say here. To add to it:
Avalon (& Miranda and Koren) have a little experience with human/Seosten partnerships already, and their problems with the situation all seem to be from Theia’s many psychotic, evil prior actions rather than the actual concept of symbiotic possession. Since it will be clear that Flick is still in charge, I can’t see them having a problem with Tabbris. On another obvious note, Abigail is going to be far more worried about Tabbris being a child soldier than about Flick being possessed, and Seller will likely follow her lead.
Assuming the speculation about Sariel having something to do with Ruthers kidnapping the twins is correct, Deveron’s going to justifiably hate her, even if he is reasonable enough to also appreciate a lot of things she’s done as well. That’s an enormous, personal reason for him to have an issue with Seosten. He’s reasonable enough that I can’t see him ever having a problem with Tabbris, but he could totally object to the possession.
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“Vanessa noded” noded -> nodded
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Thanks!
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“Well,” Gabriel Ruthers started, as he, Litonya, Teach, Geta, Sophronia, and Calafia stepped into view from the portal.
“What do we have here?”
I feel like this is literally what a bully would say and I cant wait for the reunions!
Thx for the chappie!
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Thanks for reading it!
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> I Demand Fanfics In Which They Really Did End Up Back In Dinosaur Times.
When the roar died down and it stopped feeling like the entirety of the world was shaking itself apart, I became dimly aware of Tabbris huddling behind me. Probably too stunned to jump in like usual. Honestly, we were all too stunned to do much of anything.
“Welp.” Except, apparently, Tristan. “I take it back. Flickster, you get the first one. Yanno, show us how it’s done.”
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Flick would probably just possess the dinosaur.
“You know,” Tristan complained, “When I said to show us how it’s done, I didn’t mean for you to use powers that we don’t have yet.”
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Tristan does in fact have possession ever since he killed some Seosten off-screen during the fight in the lab. He got it along with the rest of the Seosten powers, like recall. But he hasn’t shown the possession on-screen yet.
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As Prince Pondincherry said, the twins do have their possession powers. Killing Seosten back at the lab allowed them to gain their full Seosten power set. Hybrids who kill an Alter of their own non-human side get everything.
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lol, that’s great.
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I figured someone had to try to meet the demands of our scrawling overlord as quickly as possible. Even if it’s a bit small. 🙂
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I Feel Like Dare Only Said The Committee Was Worse Because She Has No Idea Who Kushiel Is.
This tag, I just can’t help but imagine a slow transition to horrified disgust when the news finally breaks or at the group’s silence at the question of why so many of the female Seosten are pregnant.
At least the Commitee would only kill the Seosten.
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Well, the Committee is *immediately* worse — if the Seosten showed up, Our Heroes could fight them openly as Strangers, and any Heretic attracted by the ruckus would help them. Even the compromised members of the Committee would have to, in order to keep their covers intact.
If, OTOH, the Seosten-Compromised sub-committee of the Committee shows up solo, they can probably curbstomp everyone present and disappear them to some safe storage spot until Kushiel comes to collect them.
If it’s a mix of the “regulars” and “compromised” members of the Committee (as appears to have actually happened), things get mixed — the “regulars” would probably prevent the others from disappearing Gaia&co, but Sariel and the Seosten prisoners would be, at minimum, locked up for further study, and Flick and the twins would be taken into custody for in-depth examination and debriefing (which would probably reveal Far Too Much). And Gaia doesn’t yet have what she needs to unmask the compromised Committee members, and *certainly* doesn’t have the firepower to take on several of them.
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I’m really happy that this story takes the time to explicitly go through the emotions the characters are feeling after big events like the reunion last normal chapter. Honestly, the actual reunion bored me a little, and a lot of stories would have stopped there and left us to fill in the blanks for ourselves. But here we get little things like Sariel’s wonder at Tristan just being there and doing things. It’s great.
Sariel could have done a possession stack with Flick and Tabbris too, but of course there was so little time and it’s so weird for Seosten to be able to possess each other that nobody thought of it. And this way we got to have Gaia extending trust to Sariel, which is great. Also, now Sariel is in Gaia’s head, which should be really helpful as they try to talk their way out of this one.
So it seems we have even numbers of sympathetic and antagonistic Committee members. Not that that matters overly much here, but it is interesting. I still wonder how much Geta and Teach know about the Seosten Empire. It wouldn’t surprise me if soldiers and military equipment like the ones here had been on Earth when the Seosten were more open, but it also wouldn’t surprise me if neither counselor recognized them.
The Committee is actually much worse than Kushiel in this situation. If Kushiel’s forces showed up, the four powerful Heretics, Sariel, and the kids could just kill them all. The Committee is far too strong for that and must be handled with subterfuge and diplomacy.
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Personally I’m quite glad that Sariel isn’t in any of the kids heads, Tabbris especially as the youngest. We know from Tabbris that overwhelming emotion can leak and bleed over from the Seosten to the host.
Sariel is messing up being reassuring in some cases while not sharing head space with anyone. And she hasn’t gotten to her time with Manakel or Charmeine yet either. With her in Gaia’s head I really doubt that the headmistress isn’t getting some of the turmoil from across the possession link.
Possible yes, but oh my I really doubt that Sariel possessing Tabbris would be a good thing until she can actually clamp down to prevent leaks.
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That is an extremely good point. Along with my “tactical value” argument, I’m now convinced that Sariel possessing Gaia is absolutely the best possible move in this situation.
The funny thing is that if they somehow came to blows here (which definitely isn’t going to happen), the good guys would absolutely win. The three good counselors are quite strong, and Sariel-possessed Gaia is likely nearly on the Committee’s level.
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wasn’t it said that only lies and heretics with the powr can posses seosten? i thought that was what scared the seosten into hating lies… so flick couldve stacked into sariel but sariel can’t stack into flick cuz tabbris is there already
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I’m fairly certain it’s been said somewhere that close family members can possess each other.
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Closely related Seosten can possess each other – thus the difficulty in child birth. But Sariel and Tabbris can possess each other.
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“I learned to recognize an implanted vision of being rescued after the first few times that Kushiel used that trick. That’s when she switched to telling me that you were dead. Of course, sometimes she still wanted to try it, so she’d erase my memory of that, and see how long she could keep the ruse going. Or just erase my memory of the capture entirely and give me a few hours with my family before snatching it away all over again.”
Now if you’d write an actual interlude about this and describe it in visceral detail, we’d be hitting Wildbow-Levels of cruelty and despair. Seriously, Cerulean, what is WRONG with you?! D:
Are the cliffhangers not enough suffering for your audience? T_T
On the other hand: “Dibs on taming the first dinosaur.”
Tristan deserves a fist bump for this. And I’d read fanfics about it as well. >D
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Hey, at least I just referred to it in the past tense rather than writing out an entire scene of Sariel believing that she was reuniting with her family, only to have it cruelly snatched away and revealed to be Kushiel fucking with her.
Not that I wouldn’t do that, mind. I just haven’t.
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I know that this is actually the Roman Emperor, but I really want him to be named after Japanese geta.
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>“Vanessa, I love you,” Tristan started, “but there are definitely no giant cars out there.”
Rolling her eyes, the blonde girl reiterated, “Not giant cars. Carnegiea gigantea. You know, saguaro cactus?
Could’ve just used the common name from the get go, Vanessa… :V. Almost no one outside of certain circles uses the scientific name.
>”Temporarily,” she replied. “It never lasts very long. But for that brief time…” The woman trailed off for a moment, looking away before shuddering. That haunted look came back to her eyes, and I thought of what that must have been like for her to go through, apparently repeatedly.
A true pity she’s not dead already. At least everyone may get another shot at it relatively soon.
>Meeting her gaze, I replied, “He’s my half-brother. And he’s been doing this for about thirty to forty years, I think. Give or take a little bit.”
Boy, it was fun surprising an ancient and powerful Seosten who used to portray a literal god. She stared at me for a moment, mouth opening and shutting briefly, before speaking again. “Zedekiah,” the woman announced. “You say Wyatt. But you mean Zedekiah.”
Heh, the millenia old infiltrator is flatfooted by the prowess of someone a mere fraction her age.
> And in that second, an Olympian-level Seosten was possessing Gaia Sinclaire,
UNLIMITED POWAHHHHH!.jpg
:V
Great update Cerulean.
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