TANSTAV part 29

Chapter 8 part 3

At about 11 a.m. I woke up.  I groggily opened my eyes, and saw Xen setting the table, her back to me.  Quietly, I started to get up, and sneak up on tiptoe.  Hey, I can never resist that sort of thing.  I was about a foot away, when Xen spun around and demanded, "When were you planning on telling me about Calla's other vision?!"

Needless to say, the query caught me slightly off guard.  After a moment of nervous hesitation, I asked, "Why'd she tell you?"

"She didn't mean to," she replied.  "It happened to be in her thoughts at the exact moment when I accidentally looked her in the eyes."  She sighed.  "Tristan, why didn't you tell me?"

"I was afraid to.  I didn't want to upset you.  And we already had that thing of you being potentially captured on our hands."

"And you didn't think that I'd be upset when I found out?"

"Well, actually, I was kind of hoping you wouldn't.  Find out."

"Oh, I would have, one way or another," she said, smiling grimly for a moment.  Then, serious again, she took my face in both hands, and forced me to look at her.

"Tristan, don't do that.  Don't try to hide the truth from me.  That hurts me even worse than if you'd just come forward with it right away.  I love you.  If something bad's going to happen to you, I want to know about it."

"But what about if I'm trying to hide your birthday presents or something?" I protested, after a moment.  Somehow, I'm never able to keep up the seriousness of situations for long.  It's a gift and a curse.  However, it did the trick.  Xen smiled.

"Okay, in that kind of situation, then I give you permission.  But only then!"

Then, staring me in the eyes, she demanded, "Promise?"

"Yes, dear."

"Tristan!"

"Yes, I promise.  Cross my heart, liver and kidneys, and hope to be smashed if otherwise."

Satisfied, Xen's hands transferred themselves from my face to the back of my neck, as she hugged me.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"From what I saw, her vision sounds pretty bad.  She thinks it means you're going to die."

"Hey, her last vision didn't turn out like she thought.  Sure, I don't like the sound of it, but I'm not going to let it affect me too much.  I hope.  Where is Calla, by the way?"

"Hiding in her room.  She's scared that you'll be mad at her for accidentally showing me."

I sighed.  You'd think after so many weeks in my company, she'd know she had nothing to fear from me.  Then again, her life had been pretty screwed up until now, so maybe she couldn't help having a little paranoia.

I went to her door, bearing some of the French toast Xen had made.  I knocked: DUM-dum-dum-DUM-dum!  After a small, hesitant second, I heard the reply: dum DUM!  I opened the door, and held out the French toast; Calla timidly took the plate.

"You're not mad?"

"Nope.  It was inevitable."

"I'm sorry I didn't hide it better.  I know you didn't want her to worry.  She doesn't want you to die."

"Kid, we'll worry about it when it happens.  Now, eat. You're about to shrivel up like a broom straw."

Smiling at the impossibility of my simile, she tucked in.

Upon analysis, we at the station discovered that the blood sample on the palette knife was O negative (which means the person could give some to everyone-how sweet!), belonged to a mage, and whoever it belonged to had no prior records, since we couldn't match it with anyone in the files.  In short, a whole lot of nothing.  Sure, I didn't expect a name and address, but it would be nice if we could get something to go on!  It would also be nice if we could get some better forensics people, and could solve world hunger, but we can’t have everything.  I paced the lab, racking my brains for answers.  Calla and Xen, who had accompanied me, sat at the table where the evidence was placed and watched me silently, though I could tell they wanted to know the answers just as much as I did.

How does this fit together? I asked myself.  If Jessup's not the one who kidnapped those people, who did?  And what was he doing there, if not kidnapping the senator?  And why would someone who could kidnap a senator want a homeless Fonin, anyway?  How-

"Something's not right about this."  Calla's voice interrupted my thought process.  I looked up, and saw that she was holding the surveillance tape, frowning.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"There's something in here," she replied.  "It's blocking out part of the tape.  If I can just-"

Placing her hand on top of it, she made a pulling motion, sending in part of a spell at the same time-and something came out of the tape, clinging to her hand!  It was a clump of magical aura, red and black!  Calla pulled, and tugged, until finally, she had a gigantic handful.  She scrutinized the tape, which she held in her other hand, and gave a nod of satisfaction.

"There, that's better."

I was temporarily dumbfounded (no comments from any of you wise guys reading this).  Then, regaining my composure, I went forward, and scooped Calla up in a bear hug!  At first she went stiff with fright, but upon realizing I meant her no harm, she relaxed.  Then, setting her down, I snatched up the tape, and hurriedly put it into the player.

This time, a few minutes before 8:30, something definitely happened.  Jessup was lying on his bunk, staring up at the ceiling, when suddenly, who should appear in his cell but our old friend, Mr. Shadow.  To my surprise, when Jessup looked up and saw the shrouded mage standing there, there was no delight, or even anticipation, on his face.  He looked surprised; maybe even a little frightened.

"Who are you?" he demanded.  "What-"

The shadow man waved one of his cloak sleeves, presumably his hand as well, and the demon was cut short.  His eyes were suddenly glazed over, and he got up from the bunk.  He slowly walked over to the shadow man, who grabbed him by the wrist.  Then they vanished, soundlessly.

For about five minutes, the tape showed an empty cell.  Then, finally, both the demon and his captor rematerialized.  Jessup still had that glazed-over expression; the shadow made a gesture with his sleeve, and the demon slowly staggered back to his bunk.  He sat down, and stared fixedly at the shadow man.

"You will remember nothing," the shadow hissed at him.  "You will think you have done nothing but lie there all morning, napping."

Slowly, Jessup nodded.  Then he lay down on the bunk, and shut his eyes.  The shadow glanced up, and though he was wearing a hood, I could tell he'd seen the camera.  He gestured at it, and then vanished.  I presumed that was when he'd put the spell into it concealing part of the tape.

Everything was becoming clear to me.  Whoever that was must have taken Jessup, and after hypnotizing him, made him step on the grass, in order to set up a blind!  Unless, of course, this was another trick by Jessup, to throw me off the track; I wouldn't put it past him.  But as I've said before, I think I'm a pretty good judge of character.  This time, it hadn't looked like he was faking things.  I looked at Xen and Calla, and I could tell they saw the renewed determination in my eyes.

"Calla, can you do something else for me?"

"What?"

"Can you touch this knife, see if you can tell who the person is whose blood is on it?"

"I-I'll try."

Reaching out, she picked up the knife, touching one finger into the by-now dried blood, and began to concentrate.  She didn't have to concentrate long.  Her eyes widened, and she looked me in the eyes, showing me who it was.

I said, "You have got to be kidding me."