"But if the planet was planning revenge because we burned landfills, why did it wait so long?" Alex asked.
"I don't know – maybe it was keeping the possibility on standby. Just in case we did something else fucked up."
We both paused.
"Do you realize what's happening?" Alex asked.
"Yeah. We're buying into his theories."
"Yeah."
I closed the manual. We both reached for the last cookie at the same time. I raised my eyebrow at him then casually glanced down at my protruding belly.
"Oh, fine." He growled in defeat. "I'll go get the other box."
I finished my cookie slowly, repeating a calming chant, keeping Shawn's manual from terrorizing my mind. A flicker of light caught my eye. One of the candles had suddenly flared up.
I smiled in response and said as I heard Alex approaching, "See – maybe the planet is on our side."
"What does it mean?" he asked, keeping a wary eye on the flaring candle.
"I think it wants us to burn the document."
"Agreed."
Alex held the papers up while I touched the edges lightly with the flame. I heard laughter inside my head. "You do this," I handed the candle to Alex. "I'll be right back."
Before he could protest, I had tuned into the athame – now kept at my side in its own sheath, and was facing Arianna. "Did you cause that candle to flare up?"
She smiled. "Yep."
"I didn't realize you could use magical powers outside of here – it's actually kind of concerning. Can all of the Shades do that?"
She leaned in. "
I
didn't know I could do it. I think maybe because we have spent enough time together. I know your body as well as you know my spells."
"Oh, lovely." It was a problem for another day. "I need one more spell from you."
When I returned, the document was almost done burning. Before it could totally dissipate into the air, I held my hands over the ashes and began chanting. I was attempting to bring bad luck to Shawn and his organization. Every little bit helped.
"Satisfied?" Alex asked.
I answered with a big yawn. "For now."
"Hallelujah."
I began crawling around the circle, blowing out candles. The buckets and dirt could wait until tomorrow. I glanced at him. "Do you believe in God, Alex?"
He shrugged. "Practically my whole family is staunch Catholic. I grew up with religion in the forefront, common sense in the rear."
"So I'll take that as a no?"
"You should take that as an 'I don't believe in religion', but God is a different story." He turned the tables. "What about you?"
"I have begun to realize, that my parents were somewhat Wiccan in their beliefs. Nature was their God. We celebrated a lot of the religious holidays only because they were derived from pagan traditions back in the day."
"But you admit there is something more to life than just the Earth and humans."
"Sure." I held up the half-eaten toffee-nut deliciousness. "There are cookies!"
Alex rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean…"
"What?" I played with him.
He cleared his throat, picked up a candle, and held it like a microphone. "There is magic in the air…"
"Stop!" I laughed. "And don’t quit your day job."
"Why? My day job sucks."
I crossed my arms and let out a squeak of protest, since his day job mostly consisted of me.
"Well, I mean – look at the perks." He looked at me. "Oh, that's right. There are no perks." He winked at me.
I picked up one of the smaller buckets of water, and before he could react, doused him with it. "Just 'cause Susan's not here, doesn't mean I need to be concerned with your 'perk'."
"You little…"
I squeaked again and ran. I didn't get far; a few steps later I tripped over a pile of dirt which was obscured from my view by my bulging midsection.
Thankfully, Alex caught me mid-fall, hoisting me back on me feet. "Damn, Katie. You've gotten heavy."
I steadied myself. "Wow, you are just full of compliments tonight, aren't you?"
"Yep – I certainly have my way with women. Come on; let's get you to bed before I get my ass kicked."
I took his arm, letting him lead me in. I looked back. The ashes of the burned document were still there. I waived my hand, and weaved a small net of wind, scattering the ashes into the air and out of my view.
Ready or Not
The next week flew by. It had barely felt like a couple days when Alex announced our departure for the following week. I had spent every waking moment in a not-so-awake state, conferring with Arianna, my newly appointed second in command. Together we built a team of strong Shades, each with a specialized power. Every one of those Shades had a second team consisting of at least two, sometimes more, other Shades as backup. Moreover, I was given knowledge willingly by almost every Shade inside the athame. There were a few who refused, but I didn’t push them. I had enough to learn as it was.
Today was fire day. I had prepped as best I could by ensuring Alex knew where all the fire extinguishers were, and that they had been recently inspected. I took several with me to the most open field I could find, well away from the Chakra and anything even remotely flammable. I even took the liberty of removing all my clothes.
Once inside, Arianna explained I would need a fire Shade and a former Gaia to help.
"Why a Gaia too?" I asked as we floated down the stairs. The Shades were calm today, lazily floating about, giving me a sense of security that no hijackings were going to occur. I glanced up at the crevice in the cave that always gave me an uneasy feeling. Someone was in there still, but she was inactive, staying well out of sight.
"Because the element of fire, although considered to be the purest element – resistant to pollution – also relies on the magic of the other elements to be effective. Usually fire elementals have some abilities with the other elements, and could even potentially take over as Gaia if necessary."
We approached two women sitting on a small island in the lake of the cave.
Arianna sat me down with them. "This is Aideen, a Gaia, and well, we don't know this one's name." Arianna gestured to the other woman. "She doesn't talk much, and doesn't speak any of our languages anyway."
"What's the
craic
?" Aideen asked with a strong Irish accent as she shook my hand.
"I'm sorry, the…?" I was never any good with accents.
She rolled her eyes. "Effin' yank. What I mean to say is 'what is up'?" She managed in her version of an American accent.
"Oh. I'm good." I turned to the other Shade and extended my hand to her. She shrank back.
"She nae like to touch." Aideen informed me.
"Sorry." I waved at her instead.
She narrowed her eyes back.
"Well, I'll leave you three to it, then." Arianna said with a nod, disappearing into the water surrounding our small island.
I shook my head as I watched her gaseous form sink into the depths of the pool. "I will never get used to this place."
Aideen shrugged. "Ye kin only piss wit da cock ye got."
I laughed, "I don’t know about you, but I’m sort of lacking in that department."
The fire Shade spared a horrified glance toward Aideen and her phrasing. It was only a split second, but I caught it. She could definitely understand us.
"Ok, let's start. I've done fire before, but only on a small scale."
"Aye. No wonder. Ye got to use air to fuel it, if ye want to make something of it."
She started her weaves, forming a small fireball that floated in between the three of us. She gestured with her hands, more so than I'd seen anyone do. When the ball of fire was steady, she held it in place with one hand and started another weave of air with her other hand.
"It's like knittin', ye know. Make yer weaves, but use a needle to fuck with it." Her free hand constructed a tight, narrow wind tunnel, no bigger than her hand. With her brows furrowed and tongue creeping out the side of her mouth in concentration, she gently poked and prodded at her fireball. Each time she did, it either grew in size or intensity. Just as the heat grew to be so much we all three had to lean away from it, Aideen reversed her wind tunnel and the fireball shrank.
"Now –ye can tie it off."
I watched her force her weaves around each other in tight knots. Even though she still had to expend a small amount of energy, the fireball for the most part was self-sustaining, and required little concentration.
I couldn't resist, I reached behind me into the pool of deep water, used a little energy to gather a small puddle in my hand, then forced it at the fireball, effectively extinguishing it and soaking my two partners all at once. Aideen laughed, but the other freaked. She changed into her gaseous form and flew straight up and then in circles, faster and faster until droplets of water shot out, drying herself as effectively as the spin cycle of a washing machine.
Aideen leaned toward me. "She's one dem fires, ye know? Doesna like water."
After enough spinning that would have caused my stomach to empty, the fire Shade resumed her place in our circle, giving me a pointed stare. I could almost see flames in her eyes. Trying not to burn bridges, literally or figuratively, I apologized with another wave and friendly smile.
She crossed her arms.
"Okay," I tried brushing the incident off, "let me give it a try." I copied Aideen’s weaves and accomplished the fireball in no time at all, then attempted the air needle. At the first poke the ball nearly blew up in our faces. It took more precision than I cared to try. But I did, and after several hours I had the control I needed. If we weren't so ethereal, we'd all be sweating from the heat.
Aideen showed me how to mix earth with fire, effectively creating a type of lava, slow moving and deadly.
The fire element took over, and gave me a detailed show of the different types of fire and how to create them. Her flames changed from yellow-orange to red to blue depending on their intensity. Then she manipulated, or dispersed, the gasses and vapor created by the fire.
Even Aideen seemed to pick up a few pointers from the lesson. The fire Shade, either still bitter about my water or pretending she didn’t understand us, effectively ignored all of my questions. Didn't matter; I had gotten what I needed from her.
Finally, she resumed crossing her arms and shrank back as far as our little island would go.
"I think she is done." I looked at Aideen.
"Aye."
I looked up at my walls protecting the platform that led to control of my body. No forms floated around the walls for the time being, or even on the stairwells. Still, I needed Arianna to escort me back, to watch my back while I entered the platform, but she was nowhere in sight.
I turned my attention back to Aideen.
"So, when were you a Gaia?"