Sunday: 06/16/2030:
I wake up to Grandma rubbing my back. Realizing that it is morning and that we had an ever-living tornado come through our property, I sit bolt upright and rush upstairs to find the house waylaid. Every single window on the first floor was damaged or destroyed, with the sunroom being completely shattered with all the furniture thrown outside into the yard. The kitchen, except the windows, was largely fine, though the cabinets were open, their contents strewn all over the floor and counters. The living room and den were mostly fine, though the TV was a total write-off as the 55-inch screen was busted. Going up to the second floor, I then find our pets in Grandma and Grandpa’s room. “Gratia Maiores! Gratia Ælura Regina Bellatorum! Y’all are ok.” “We are. But where are the others?” “Lyral, Grandma, and Grandpa are down in the basement. I lost track of the others during the storm. I couldn’t stop it!” “What have you heard about the rest of the town?” “Rest of the town?! I’ve hardly finished looking at the rest of this house!” The office has only some water damage to the floor and one broken window, the crafts room is mostly fine, and the dining room is much the same. Going up to the third floor, I see that my room is fine except for a crack in my desk window. The spare room is the same. I go into my brother’s and my parents’ rooms and the ceilings, and the overlying attic are just gone, with the insulation hanging down and everything. I fall to my knees in shock and I just cry. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I failed you all!” Lyral comes up and finds me kneeling between the two destroyed bedrooms. “What is it?” “She took them from their rooms! She tore the roof off their rooms! It’s like they were taken in their sleep!” My shock and sadness turn to rage. “Mother of Shadows! You have made an enemy of the Heir of Tximista-Gudari!” “Calm down!” “Calm down?! The house is a mess! Mom, Dad, and TJ are missing! To say nothing of what else in town was damaged or destroyed! And I haven’t even seen the fields yet, so I don’t know if our harvest for this year is a bust! I’m so mad!” I go back downstairs and outside to get a look at the yard. Our yard and garden is gone except for my rosebush and a gnarly scar runs across the corn and soybeans. “Just wonderful!” 😠The barn is mostly intact and the distant neighing of my horse brings me relief, if only to a limited extent. She runs to me, and I hop onto her back and begin looking for our other animals, calling to them and running around the edge of our property. On this run, I find the outbuilding where the combine and other machines are housed. The south-facing wall is ripped off, and the 7-ton combine was dragged out into the nearby bushes but is otherwise intact. Moving back towards the house, I find that our family’s cars are still on the property, banged up, but generally intact with only a few broken windows and mirrors. Seeing that our property is reasonably intact, I begin calling out to my missing loved ones.
“These repairs won’t be cheap. Easily thousands of dollars.” “Hey, Grandpa.” “Hey. You ok?” “As much as a girl with missing relatives and a wrecked house can realistically be.” “I’m sorry. I just don’t know what else to say. I’ve also been calling out to them. Lyral and your grandmother, too. I’m sure they’ll be fine, wherever they are.” “I hope.”
I put Fengma in the paddock and I noticed that our farming tablet wasn’t in its usual place by the door in the feed room. “Grandpa?” “Yeah?” “You know where the tablet is? It’s not in its usual place.” “I don’t know, actually.” “I thought- no, I know I put it away here yesterday.” “Weird.” “I think I see Buck and Kyle coming over. Let’s see what they want.” “I’ll be right there.” I leave the barn and see Buck and Kyle driving up in their truck with some materials and tools. “I’m so sorry about y’all’s house. Anything y’all need, we’ll help y’all.” Kyle’s expression was sullen. “What’s wrong, Kyle?” “We can’t find Billy!” “What? He’s not home?!” “He disappeared! During the storm!” “How? Is your house damaged?” “Only Billy’s room.” My jaw dropped. “TJ and my parents are missing, and their bedrooms were peeled open, too!” “The others are losing their ever-living minds. Silo is combing our land, looking for Billy, as if he got lost and is still hiding somewhere.” “Do you know if anyone else’s property was damaged or if anyone else in town is missing?” “I don’t know, but nothing else on our property was damaged or destroyed. You think this has anything to do with what happened while y’all were at the beach?” “While we were having lunch, I heard two screeches from what was probably the anomaly that poisoned Billy first when he touched it and then when Lyral destroyed it.” “All the way from VA Beach?” “Yeah. At first, I thought it was weird, but then I had a nightmare that night about just what happened last night.” “This is what she meant by ‘You will pay for withholding Our Champion.’” “By taking our children!” “Yeah, but why take your parents? They never did anything.” “Before we went on our trip, Mom said she dealt with some weird dark ice in the trees. She said a creature grabbed her arm and left a cold mark on it and then she destroyed the anomaly and warned others not to touch it.” “And your Dad?” “Yesterday, you remember when TJ ran home covered in scratches from that bramble bush?” “Yeah, and your Dad went with him to destroy it.” “And he did, but not before it scratched up his wrist.” “During that storm, I heard an evil voice in the wind. She was chanting in some weird language. Grandma knows enough Latin from high school to tell that she was enacting some sort of curse and something about the ‘old gods.’” “‘Scatter her kin to the four winds.’ Those who were attacked and touched by the dark forces were effectively target-painted and thus more easily taken by her. Where, I don’t know. I’ve already called out to them with no response. Wherever they are, they might be unconscious or held captive. I’m most worried about Billy, being mortal and all.” “Hey! Y’all come in and help us with this debris.” “We’re coming!” We go into my kitchen and start clearing all the broken glass into garbage bags and removing the water from the floor and counters, which I throw outside. The bags of broken glass and ruined debris are placed in the back of Mr. Crawford’s truck, and he drives it back and forth to the local dump, with us bagging more stuff during his trips. Luckily, most of our furniture isn’t ruined and after thoroughly inspecting the foundation, Grandpa determines that the basic structure of our home is in no great need of repair. “How much will it take to replace all the busted windows?” “Remind me again what kind of windows they are? What brand?” “Pella, I believe.” “Probably no more than $3K.” “There’s also the matter of the vehicles that are crumpled like tin cans.” “State Farm will cover that, and their homeowner’s insurance will cover the windows and the roofs over those bedrooms.” I can hardly think about repairs with our people missing and in possible danger from a nameless force of evil.
Going through my bedroom, I find my iPhone and upon opening it up, I find a bevy of texts and missed calls from my friends.
I type into the group chat:
I go back downstairs and find them all airing out the wet furniture. “Hey.” “What’s up? Your friends text you?” “Yeah. 美雷 and the others invited me to lunch at her family’s restaurant. May I go?” “I don’t see why not. Seems like you need a break.” “In more ways than one.” I go back upstairs and change into something comfortable and wait in the driveway for 美雷’s Mom’s van, trying to think of what I should say to my friends, to help them understand. Minutes later, they arrive. “你好吗， 龙太太？” “我很好， Lindsay. I’m so sorry about your family and your home. Lunch is on the house.” ”谢谢， 龙太太。” I hop in the van and she drives us to the 武皇后. “Have any other homes or businesses suffered damage?” “No, rather surprisingly. In fact, nobody else saw anything more than heavy rain and strong winds, though there was this strange green glow in the sky.” “There was no indication of severe weather, just a common storm.” We arrive at the 武皇后 and order a big lunch. Luckily, the restaurant isn’t too busy. The six of us sit in a booth over towards the front window. “So, what happened?” “The night started with a typical thunderstorm, and we went to bed. Then, TJ wakes me up at, like, 2 in the morning, telling me that a tornado is coming towards us and to set the animals loose. We did and after that, I realized that he and my parents were not down in the basement with my grandparents. I heard an evil voice in the wind, conjuring this tornado. I tried to fight back, but she was too strong. Just this morning, I found his and my parents’ bedrooms with their roof and attic sections ripped off. They must have been taken in their sleep.” “Is this related to the strange weather lately?” “And there was this weird ice in the trees a few days ago even though it was nowhere near freezing.” “Then, some hunters went to the police with some story about the Green Cheetah being attacked and scratched up by a dead bramble bush in the woods.” “Possibly, but this tornado only hit mine and the Crawfords’ house. She took Billy in addition to my family members. Where, I know not.” “What will you do?” “Honestly, I don’t know, Henry. For what it’s worth, I’m just glad nobody else in town lost loved ones or property.” “The fact that it only hit yours and the Crawfords’ houses is certainly strange and reeks of a dark power.” “How bad was the damage to your property, Lindsay?” “Easily in the thousands, but we’ll manage.” “Why not take out the whole town, just out of spite?” “Maybe Lindsay was doing something to prevent that. You know how the Immortals have spells and even a secret language, according to rumor.” “So, how have y’all been lately since school got out?” “Well, the tea shop is doing great, and we got a lot of customers yesterday.” “How was your VA Beach trip?” “Pretty good. Had good food.” “Did you find anything cool in the caves?” “I found this crystal flower among other gems.” “You have the coolest vacations, Lindsay.” 😄 “If there’s anything else you need, just text us and we’ll be there for you.” “Thanks, y’all.” A group hug ensues as we finish our lunch and after a few hours of talking about cat memes and Tolkien memes, Henry’s mom drives us back home. “Bye, Lindsay. Hope you find your family soon.” “Thanks, Mrs. Lancaster. Bye.”
I leave Henry’s mom’s car and walk back up my driveway. Grandpa and Buck see me come inside. “Hey, kiddo, how was lunch?” “It was fine. On the house.” “Oh, how are your friends doing?” “They’re fine. Their businesses are doing well. I told them about our missing people. They even said they’d be there for me.” “Well, then, those are some good friends, Lindsay.” “Yep.” I find Kyle sitting on the floor in TJ’s room, the hole in the ceiling having been covered up with a couple layers of construction tarp. I conjure light from an electrical current arcing between my hands. “Hey. How’s everything going?” “Great. We were able to clear all the debris off the floors and put plastic covers over all the broken windows to keep the bugs out after we cleaned up the broken glass. How was your lunch?” “It was nice. According to the others, no one else’s house was hit. Strangely, no one else reported a tornado or anything stronger than a common thunderstorm.” “How’s that? Something directed only at your family and mine. Because we offended this dark mist? Strange that she didn’t go after the whole town out of spite.” “The others said something similar during lunch. That something was stopping her from targeting other mortals.” “Thank goodness for whatever it was. Was it you?” “Last night, I was chanting back to her, invoking the ancestors and old gods. Even Lyral was trying to stop it, but the Dark Queen overpowered both of us. It was bedlam outside that night.” “Dark Queen?” “After the camping trip was shut down, I had confrontations with the Enemy in my dreams. She claimed that she was the Queen Mother of All That Goes Bump in the Night and all that stuff. I defeated her in the dreamscape when I placed a spell of protection upon our property. However, I once heard the voice of a different woman, a crying woman. She called me ‘sister’ and cried out for help, but she was quickly silenced by the Dark Queen, like she was a prisoner of sorts.” “Do you know her name?” “No, sadly. On the night before our trip, I had a vision of a planet outside our solar system, tidally locked, by all appearances.” “Why would she show you a random planet? Is she an alien and that’s where she’s from?” “I don’t know why she showed me that in particular. I don’t think she would’ve called me ‘sister’ if she was an alien.” I look up to see a big clump of insulation fall out of the attic rafters and drift onto the floor between Kyle and I, forcing me to shut off my arcing current to avoid a fire. “Ugh. I hate this stuff.” “Me, too. At least it’s not made with asbestos.” “Or fiberglass for that matter.” We head downstairs where Buck and Silo are getting ready to go home for dinner. “Well, it looks like the insulation needs shoring up.” “Ready to go home, son?” “Yeah. I’ll see y’all tomorrow.” “Bye, Kyle.” The Crawfords go home, and we go down into the basement to eat dinner in the temple. Lyral heads up our saying grace, and then asks me how lunch with my friends was. “It was good, and the Longs said, ‘lunch was on the house’. I told them about the tornado and the fact that I tried to fight it. After that, we mostly just laughed about LOTR memes.” “What did they think?” “Apparently, nobody else other than us or the Crawfords said they experienced anything more than a common storm. Maybe it was our chants or my prayer to the Æther that stopped her from blowing away the rest of Montpelier.” “Best you do not mention the tornado to anyone else other than the Crawfords. Don’t need to be drawing unwanted attention or others thinking we’re crazy if it’s the case that no one else saw a tornado last night. I know that your friends would never betray our secrets.” We finish up eating our dinner, extra cod, rice, and sweet corn. “Are we sleeping in the temple again?” “Probably. I don’t feel comfortable in our rooms or anywhere with windows.” With that, I go upstairs and get in my closet. I dig out my sleeping bag and bring it and a pillow downstairs into the temple close to the font.
“Lindsay? Come in here for a while.” “Sure, Grandma.” I go into the second-floor closet and enter the open door to Grandma’s prairie room. I find Grandma in her true form sitting in the high grass, the light of the simulated moon illuminating her large barn owl wings and backlighting her curly, olive brown hair. I switch to my true form as well. “What was the most difficult enemy you’ve ever faced, Grandma?” She seemed initially taken aback by my question but recovers quickly. “Oh, back in 1984, I faced down a couple of really nasty bank robbers. They wounded me but lost the fight. That was in the Bank of America branch in Ashland. They seemed unlike any petty mortal mischief I ever faced before or since. I heard rumors of a terrorist group that was seeking to gain control of and monopolize magic for their own purposes.” “A terrorist group? Seeking magic? In 1984?” “Again, it was only a rumor. As far as I know, the Immortal Council’s official explanation was that the group was eradicated back in the early 1990s by the FBI and ATF and any official records of the group’s existence or activities regarding magic was covered up by order of the President.” She takes off into the air and I follow her hundreds of feet off the ground. “Want to conjure something?” “Why not?” She conjures up a Force 10 gale that ripples over the long prairie grass while I conjure lightning in the clouds. “What do you think happened to them, Grandma?” “I don’t know, Lindsay. What do you think?” “If they haven’t responded to our calls, they must be unable to answer because they’re being held prisoner or because they are unconscious. I’m most worried about Billy since he’s mortal and can die. What if Billy’s dead? That would be horrible since he’s the baby of their family. Poor Binky.” “I don’t know what to tell you regarding Billy, but I’m sure the others are fine.” “Ancestors, let Billy be unharmed. Let him be alive, wherever he is.” We descend back to the ground and sit by Grandma’s collection of treasures, mainly pearls and silver mixed with olive wood and owl feathers in a collection of dream catchers and wind chimes as well as jewelry and tableware. “I’m not certain, but I have a tiny feeling that young Billy is going to be ok.” “I hope you’re right, Grandma.”
“Goodnight, guys.” “Goodnight, Lindsay. Sleep well.” I lay down in my sleeping bag close to the temple font, with Xena and Spock curling up next to my face. I rub their ears and they knead my long silver hair with their tiny fingers, purring me to sleep. I sink into the folds of my sleeping bag and find my dream-self back in the magical version of my property. I hear the song of the apple trees and see an orchard full of these gold and silver trees reflecting the light of the moon and stars. I call out to the lady’s voice: “Who are you? You called me ‘sister’. Do you need my help?” I then hear the voices of three I never expected to hear. “Lindsay! We’re fine!” “Mom?! Dad?! TJ?! Ancestors be praised! Where are all of you?! Where the heck is Billy?! Is he still alive?!” “I don’t know, sis. I haven’t even woken up yet and I just know I’m not in Virginia anymore.” “Neither are we. What’s this about Billy? Billy Crawford?” “Yes. The tornado tore out Billy’s bedroom and they haven’t been able to find him. I think he might have been killed or taken prisoner by the Dark Queen. She did say we would ‘pay for withholding her Champion.” “How so?” “Billy was poisoned by that dark tree and that’s what he said he heard after he was saved by Lyral.” “She must have planted it just outside their property line.” “How did she overcome the protection spells I cast? Those spells should have stopped her!” “She must not have been alone in conjuring the storm. Probably had servants with her.” “If you want to find us, look for the hidden temple in the Forest.” “A hidden temple? In the woods? Why did you never tell me about this before?!” Their voices fade and I am left alone in the orchard. Then, I hear the voice of the purple light from my nightmare. “You are coming to us soon, Ælura Fulmena. To the oldest, the fairest, the most perfect land in all Creation, far across the Universe.”
Previous Episode: The Storm.
Next Episode: Remnants.
