13.3.2114 0130 h.
Ravencroft Manor
Raven was at home, relaxing. Naia was in bed, and Chris was
in Africa. She had caught up on her email. Now, after a check of
the house, it was time to paint.
She was doing a sweep of the house, from top to bottom,
looking at various traps, triggers, and security devices she had
installed over the decades. Raven reached the basement. She
looked where she had hidden the power cell to the Minyan
Regenerator- and it was gone!
Raven came the closest to both rage and panic that she had
been for thousands of years! She searched again- no telltales
indicating a break-in had been disturbed, and there was no trace
of the perpetrators, other than the power cell missing! Furious,
she went to the pit.
Once there, she broke out Schuyler's tool kit. Finding the
appropriate scanner, she began to look. To her surprise, she got a
return! Narrowing the scan, she tracked the return. Finally, she
fixed its location. It was coming from 30 feet behind her! She
turned- and, sitting in the center of the pit, was the missing power
cell!
Picking it up, she saw the charge indicator lights showing that
it had a full charge! "This was empty, and now it's charged! But
how?" she growled, confusion filtering through her rage.
"We did it, Mom." a voice came from the gloom. Raven was
taken completely by surprise by the voice, because it was that of
her dead daughter, Karen!
"Kay, is that you?" Raven called.
"Yes, Mom, it's us." Both Kay and her twin brother Ky
[short for Kyle] appeared out of nowhere in the room, about ten
feet away from Raven. Karen looked fine, but Kyle was pale and
shaking. Kay was supporting her brother as they stood there.
"Are you all right?" Raven asked her children.
"I'm fine, Mom." Kay said.
"But I'm not." said Ky. His voice was very weak, almost a
whisper. "We got you a new power cell, because you could need
it. But, the Minyan defenses are far stronger than we anticipated.
Rumors about their technology are not exaggerated."
"We got the cell, but, Kyle took a hit. The ship can't fix him.
We figure he has about ten minutes left." Kay said evenly.
"I'm going to call your father. He needs to see you." Raven
quickly paged her husband's comm unit, sending the urgent
signal.
Thirty seconds later, Chris materialized in the pit. "What's
going on, Raven? I was in the middle of a meeting in Mombasa
when..." he trailed off when Raven indicated Kay and Ky. "Oh,
my word..." he breathed.
Quickly, the twins brought him up to date. Together, Raven
and Chris went to hug the twins. "We always wondered what
happened to you." Chris said quietly.
"We're sure you wondered a lot about us." Kyle whispered,
squeezing Chris' hand weakly. "I love you, Dad. We took your
lessons to heart."
"We were never malicious when we stole. It was always for a
higher purpose." Kay said. "Mom, Dad, you have to get back
away from us- especially you, Mom. When we die, we have
charges in us to destroy our bodies. Ship will take care of itself-
we set it to go on random precession when we die."
"What ship is this?" Raven demanded.
"Harry Tophet's Chronocraft. We took it after he physically
died, and have been using it ever since. That's how we got into
the Black Hand." Kay said. "Kyle's dying now. We love you,
Mom and Dad, we always did and always will."
"And we love you, too. Goodbye, Kyle." Raven said, her
voice choking with emotion.
"Goodbye, Karen. Thanks for the visit. We will always love
and miss you." Chris managed to choke out.
Kyle went limp in death. Seconds later, Karen did as well.
The two had always been linked, all their lives. Raven and Chris
moved well clear, then, with a flash, the bodies were reduced to a
pile of ash.
"As one goes, so does the other." a voice came from above
them. They looked, and Andrew, the embodiment of Death,
stepped from the wall. Raven knew he came out from the panel
that showed him holding Elisondra, their daughter who had died
when she was still a child. With him was his and Raven's
daughter, Laurel, the healer. She went to Chris while Andrew
went to Raven.
"I'm so sorry you had to go through this twice, but now you
see why I couldn't tell you how they died earlier." he said,
hugging Raven.
"Why? Why did they do this?" Raven wept, indicating the
power cell.
"Because they perceived that you would possibly need it
someday, and it would take too long to charge with the
technology you have here, so, they got you a fresh one, even
though it cost them their lives." he said quietly. Off to the side,
Laurel was comforting Chris, calming him down.
Raven came to a decision. Pulling free from Andrew, she
went to the charred spot where the ashes were. There, she
summoned up the creation magic that she could sometimes
control. A purple sphere surrounded the ashes, then moved in,
sweeping them up. The sphere condensed and solidified into a
purple urn, holding the ashes. Raven then went to the section of
the wall where she had sketched Kay and Ky. She concentrated
fiercely, and the urn went to that section of wall. There was a
flash of light, and the wall changed. Instead of a sketch, there was
now a fully-painted portrait of the two, arms around each other,
with their free hands each holding the urn, which was set in a
small niche.
"Come on, Raven, we need to talk. Laurel will see Chris
back to his work." Andrew said comfortingly.
"Go with him, love." Chris called, his voice breaking. "I'll
see you when I get back home."
Raven and Andrew talked for hours, allowing Raven to get
rid of her grief. It was frustrating to her that Andrew did not have
any answers as to why they did what they did. They only stopped
once, for Raven to call Sophie to come over and take Naia before
she woke up. Sophie sent Timothy over to get her.
After Raven had calmed down, Andrew said to her, "Oh, yes,
I have something for you, from Guild Central." He reached into a
pocket and pulled out a small spice bottle, with a replicator in the
base. When he opened it, a familiar aroma reached Raven's nose.
"Is that what I think it is?" Raven asked.
"Yes. Somebody felt that you and Chris could use some
comfort food, so, he gave me this to give to you." Andrew said.
"But how could anyone pry Gus's secret sauce spice out of
his hands?" Raven wondered.
"It was easy- if you know who Gus really is. You know him."
"Who is he?"
"You met him, officially, three times while you were at
Guildhall."
"ANU?" Raven yelped in surprise. "You mean Gus is really
my grandfather?"
"How else could he influence things at the Guild without
being obvious? By being at the social center and dropping hints,
that's how!" Andrew and Raven shared a laugh at the thought of
one of the greater gods of the universe working as an Italian cook
in a restaurant!
"Well, my father has retired to growing roses in Arizona!"
Raven laughed.