Tymely News
Work In Progress #15: She Seeks Peace #7 (October 21-25)
“I don’t get it.” Evie’s big brown eyes wobbled with doubt and glistened with imminent tears, “You say my friends are gone, but they’re right there!” She pointed at empty space, then adjusted her pointing finger to some empty air beside the Hunter, “You say Crayton is gone, but he’s here, too!”
– Excerpt from She Seeks Peace.
She Seeks Peace is volume 4 of Ashen Blades.
You can read a short description of She Seeks Peace to learn more or you can read short summaries of each day's writing on Mastodon
Here's links to the rest of my blog entries on She Seeks Peace, in chronological order:
Chapter 32: No Sanctuary
The upstairs portion of the The Last Sanctuary turns out to be nothing but mummified corpses and they head downstairs, finding the great hall a little different.
First, the fire is much smaller and there's a sort of nest of orange monk robes laid out, where someone has been sleeping. That's surrounded by little, hand-carved wood figures that are very artistic.
The bear statue has had a pair of glasses drawn on with charcoal and one whole wall is covered in charcoal drawings. They start primitive at one end and slowly transition to being very well made, hinting at a progression over time.
The incense is all gone, presumably all used up. The weapons and tools are rusty, but still serviceable, with sings someone has been looking after them.
Near the tree is a chopping block with an ax and carving knife (it's a magic tree that rapidly grows back, by the way, providing limitless wood for the fire).
The room smells of a child. The Hunter moves closer and sniffs the nest, confirming they sleep there.
They're surprised to hear a child ask, from behind, "What are you doing?"
The Hunter turns to look, but no one's there.
The child points out, from behind, "I'm not there."
Whirling again only causes the kid to giggle from all directions.
Yet again from behind: "Who are you and what’s that rittle furry thing on your shourder?"
Note the spelling. The kid pronounces L's as R's, using a Chinese accent.
The Hunter turns Mashu'ra around on her shoulder, so he can watch her back.
“You just gonna ignore me?” The child asks from every direction at once.
Tiring of the game, the Hunter closes her eyes, focusing her mind entirely on smell and magic. As it turns out, the kid is using a technique very similar to the Hunter's shadow-stepping spell, but instead of a mix of Smoke and Void magic, to make shadow, the kid uses Void mixed with Life, forming a ghost-walking spell.
The Hunter gets an idea where the child is next to appear, based on smell and magic, grabbing their clothes. The result is four years old, with brown eyes and a shaved head, in a child-sized orange robe.
Introductions reveal her name is Evie and it soon becomes clear the girl can see spirits and doesn't realize they're dead, because she asks "Who's the man in the gray suit?" and points at empty space.
They don't know, so she asks him and says he's "Crayton Simmons." The Hunter is shocked by the revelation that Simmons is so very close, yet so far away.
Evie points all over the room at people her guests can't see, naming them, including a mixture of Western,m Chinese and Russian names, though the name 'Will' turned into 'Wirr', which will probably confuse, not that it matters.
Eventually, Evie asks why they're there and Mashu'ra tells her they're supposed to take her to her family. She gets excited about it finally being time for "her adventure".
Like a child with a short attention span, she looks at the Hunter and asks if she ever speaks.
The Hunter nods and an amusing exchange happens, in which the Hunter intentionally baits Evie with the only phrase she can say, until she's annoyed the girl, getting her to ask, "Is that the only thing you can say?"
The Hunter nods and Evie grumbles, "That's annoying. You're annoying!"
The Hunter is quite pleased at this outcome, because she tries very hard to be so.
Evie briefly tries to erase the Hunter's curse, but fails, because it's "rearry strong".
Chapter 33: A New Lens
The Hunter leaves the Sanctuary with Evie in two, surprised to see that the courtyard hasn't changed, but the scene across from it has.
The rope bridge now crosses a creek instead of a deep chasm. The Hunter doesn't know it, but the Sanctuary connected them with an area near Alice Springs, Australia, because the magic of the Sanctuary sensed that was vaguely near where they needed to go.
The Hunter leaves the courtyard and steps onto the sandy bank of the Todd River. The background is desert scrub brush, including sparse grass, low brush and hardy trees.
She looks back, but the Sanctuary and rope bridge are gone, leaving her in a very short panic, thinking she's lost Evie.
Evie steps out of thin air beside her, amazed by everything she sees. After asking lots of questions, she wishes she could draw it, even though she left her "drawing warr" behind.
The Hunter gives her a clipboard with some paper and a box of crayons that came form the hat.
Evie draws the most violently-rainbow variation of the landscape, using every color she can, because she's never had colors to draw with before (she's used to charcoal).
After that, she draws it again, using more appropriate colors, and produces an image like unto a photograph, despite using only crayon. She makes a gift of it to the Hunter.
She wonders aloud what's next and Mashu'ra is forced to admit he's not sure, so Evie asks her grandmother, reveling the fact that the spirits of the monks followed.
After a pause (our heroes can't hear Evenlyn speaking), Evie says, "Yeah? I can do that."
She raises her arms and pours a mixture of Spirit and Void magic into the air, causing the landscape first to waver like a heat haze, then melt into a puddle like overheated crayons!
Mashu'ra and the Hunter get violently sick and she retches. Rolling on her back, she looks up at some monks, Evenlyn included, plus Simmons, standing over her and discussing her illness.
The magic reverses and the melted landscape flows upward, into the shape and form of a hill they're now on top of, which give them a nice view of Alice Springs (though they still don't know where they are).
There's a brief conversation in which Mashu'ra asks Evie to warn them before she does that again.
Evie settles in to draw, while the Hunter starts to cry, because seeing Simmons ripped her half-healed wounds open again. Evie notices her sobbing and hugs her (the Hunter's protective spells curiously don't stop that, indicating her mother refused to intervene).
Evie starts a discussion about the Hunter's tears and Mashu'ra tries to explain that she just lost a friend. Evie doesn't understand and they begin a long conversation about death, but the Hunter suspects Evie will not understand, because unlike everyone else, she doesn't perceive the divide between the living and the dead.
Chapter 34: No Home
Close to an hour late, Mashu'ra has made no progress getting Evie to understand the concept of death and he tries saying, "Ghosts can’t be touched by the living."
Evie proves him wrong by shaking the hand of the unseen ghost of Simmons, though she unknowingly uses a little magic to pull that off.
Mashur'a gives up, "You’ll understand when you’re older."
They decide to enter the city, but just as Mashu'ra is saying he'll be fairly quiet, he vanishes, whisked away by Lara summoning him.
Evie gets an explanation from one of the ghosts haunting them, most likely Simmons, though the Hunter only hears half the conversation.
The girl leads the way into the city, following directions given by her grandmother.
They arrive at a brick house and Evie knocks. A gruff-looking man answers, but smiles at Evie.
She asks if his surname is "Warrace".
He corrects her by saying "Wallace" and says yes.
Evie hugs his legs and says, "I ruv you, cousin!"
I've had a lot of fun with Evie's Chinese accent, so far, because it makes some of her words amusing and this struck me as one of the cutest things she's said so far.
The man pries her off and looks to the Hunter for an explanation, but Evie explains, "She can’t say much of anything, due to a magic curse."
The poor man looks at the both of them like they're insane and slowly back into his house, before shutting the door and presumably calling the police.
The Hunter grabs Evie's hand and takes here away from the place, while Evie asks if she did something wrong.
In the hunter's mind, it's more a matter of what she hadn't done wrong.
Again, one of the spirits explains, but this leaves the Hunter vaguely disquieted, because she isn't sure what they're telling the girl.
Meanwhile, Lara is in the New York branch office of the Order, helping with the cleanup and moving operation, while she waits.
She steps into Verda's office, noting the woman's bloodshot eyes, because she's hardly slept since Wrath exploded in her face.
They discuss Verda's fresh case of PTSD for a short while and Lara offers a little advice: Verda should go out and kill some weak demons, to do some good and reassure herself that she's not useless.
Verda agrees to try it.
There's also a brief internal momologue from Lara about her own experiences with PTSD (after she was rescued from Hell by her husband) and the way that very specifically didn't happen after she died and was transformed into a vengeful fey spirit, because fey don't get traumatized by death and instead seek revenge.
Verda asks if Lara has heard from Mashu'ra. The answer is no, so Verda suggests Lara try summoning him again, even though only three hours have passed; she wishes Artemis were around. That's a little hint that Verda would feel safe if Artemis were present, because she once killed Wrath.
Lara summons Mashu'ra into her body and relays recent events to Verda, who is very interested in The Last Sanctuary, which has been effectively sealed from the inside for 200 years.
Verda speaks of sending witches in through the "back entrance" to assess the place and get it running again.
Lara tells Mashu'ra she's on her way to Australia and releases him.
The scene ends with Verda asking if Lara needs a flight arranged.
Lara decides against it: “Nah. Shooting Wrath into space gave me an idea I’ve been looking for an excuse to try…”
What she's referring to will be revealed, later.
Getting back to the hunter and Evie, they've tried three more distant relatives of the Wallace bloodline, who (sadly) want nothing to do with her, though they were polite about it and her childish enthusiasm is starting to fade and she grows slightly older (I mean this literally, not figuratively) with each rejection.
They bump into a young woman in the street that's eager to talk to them, because they're obviously foreigners.
Evie learns a few new words/phrases, including 'American', 'Australia' and 'the world', each requiring explanation and the Hunter produces a globe from her hat as a visual aid.
This leads the woman to make a joke, "You the magician or the little one’s lovely assistant?"
Amused, the hunter leans into the idea and pulls Mashu'ra from her hat, grateful he's back, because she doesn't entirely trust the ghosts to give Evie current and correct information, even though Evelyn, at least, is oddly up to date on where her family is.
She does a ventriloquist-like act, allowing Mashu'ra to talk in her place, which actually works a little too well, drawing attention.
Meanwhile, Evie is confused, thinking the world and the globe are the same thing.
After an explanation of the difference, Evie shakes the globe and is very much relieved when it doesn't result in an earthquake.
The Hunter grows uncomfortable with the crowd she's accidentally drawn and leads Evie away.
When they're alone, Mashu'ra asks if they'd had any luck and Evie bursts into tears, because she feels like she has nowhere to belong.
The Hunter hugs the girl and finally realizes she's grown attached, much to her frustration. She'd intended to get the job of delivering Evie to family done, without emotional involvement.
Mashu'a comforts Evie. The Hunter also cries.
Chapter 35: Family
Evie and the Hunter are guided to several more homes of distant relatives by the ghost of Evelyn, but none of them works out, because the people in question have no room in their life for a random relative they didn't know existed.
They decide to quit for the night and Evie is directed by the ghost of Simmons to the local branch office of the Order.
They meet Riley Wallace, the man in charge of the place. On hearing his name, Evie runs to him and after a short explanation, he hugs her. Riley admits he saw Evelyn in a dream, months earlier, in which she asked him to look after a girl.
He wasn't sure about the dream, but his own grandmother (a witch) advised him to do as he was told, so he prepared a room in his home for her.
It's a rather emotional moment when he tells Evie she has a home. Evie is so happy, she cries profusely and thanks him.
Chapter 36: Brekky
Lara is on a sub-orbital spaceflight, in the form of a missile, the quickest option she knows to get to Australia.
At the apogee of her flight, she admires the incredible view of both the Earth and the stars.
She falls back into the atmosphere and changes form, to give herself a heat shield, sacrificing some skin to handle the friction of re-entry. Lara survives the friction burns and turns back into a missile for a while, performing a retrograde burn (reverse thrust) to slow herself down.
When the conditions are right, she turns into an eagle and flies to the ground, where she re-takes human form.
Her arms are badly burned and she's low on energy, so she lays down to relax and accidentally falls asleep.
Three aborigine men find her, two you fellows and one old guy. They saw her come down like a shooting star and even watched her change shape.
The first hypothesis floated is that she's an angel, like some catholic guys once mentioned to them.
Next, they consider the possibility that she's a monster.
The old guy eventually decides that no angel or monster would look English and finally settles on a correct answer: she's a witch, a kind of magic foreigner woman.
They still debate what they should do, but ultimately decide to help her, because she's less likely to harm helpful people, on top of it being the neighborly thing to do. They gather herbs and treat her wounds.
When she wakes, she's fully healed (mixture of medicinal herbs and her own regenerative magic). The local men have gotten a fire going and they sit on the opposite side of it, eyeing her. Not stated, but they put the fire between themselves and her as an extra measure of protection.
She thanks them and gets up to go, but her stomach growls and they kindly offer her brekky (Aussie slang for breakfast).
She's given a handful of live bugs to eat, including a fat caterpillar. Not wanting to be rude, she actually eats everything, though it all tastes disgusting.
The two young guys roll on the ground with laughter, while the old one produces a can of beans, a small cooking pot and a can opener, which he's been hiding behind himself.
He asks, “Would ya like some beans, mate? After what ya just ate, I can imagine ya’d like something normal to help ya forget.”
Lara can't help but laugh at their practical joke, while the old guy opens the can and dumps it in the pot.
Chapter 37: Home at Last
The Hunter waits for Evie to wake as morning arrives. Evie sleeps in a bedroom setup by Riley, wearing pajamas that feature a little, black-furred, helicopter pilot kitty, flying through a sky filled with violently-colorful stars and rainbows that offend and wound the Hunter's sense of fashion.
Evie goes from having the body of a prepubescent twelve year old to that of a fifteen year old, having matured a bit more in the instant before she wakes.
The Hunter helps her dress, because she needs assistance with certain feminine undergarments that hadn't previously been necessary. Riley stocked the closet of the bedroom with clothing ranging in age from infant to adult, because he didn't know the age of the girl he was to care for.
They step out of the bedroom, where Riley makes breakfast in the form of fried eggs. Evie tries an egg and pukes ten minutes later, demonstrating her digestive tract is setup the same as the Hunter's.
Riley and Evie talk and the Hunter gets up to leave, because she's finally certain Evie will be safe and secure. As the Hunter waves and opens the door to go, Evie finally comes to understand loss, in the form of losing a friend.
She begs the Hunter not to go and even offers to let her see Simmons if she'll stay, an obvious attempt at emotional manipulation.
A bargain is struck through gesture: the Hunter will stay for one day, then she leaves, regardless.
The spirits brow-beat Evie for her behavior and she apologizes to the Hunter for manipulating her feelings.
Eventually, Evie brings up the subject of death, because she wants to understand.
To address the subject, Riley takes them to a cemetery and the grave of his parents, who died in a car accident the year before.
He explains that their bodies are buried there and why (mostly cleanliness).
As a result of the conversation, he mentions "passing on" and Evie asks for an explanation of that concept.
Riley explains his views of the afterlife and a primitive variation of eternal joy vs. eternal punishment.
Evie asks why her friends haven't passed on and Riley suggests she ask them.
Riley and the Hunter step back, while Evie does exactly that, for quite some time. Evie begins to cry at what she learns from them.
She returns to her living companions with a guilty expression and explains they haven't passed on, because she won't let them (it's a mixture of their own unfinished business, needing to see Evie safe and happy, plus her magic anchoring them to the living world).
She's deeply troubled by the idea of letting go of her friends.
Tags: writing, work-in-progress, ashen-blades