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ZygfrytHer skin prickled while she walked with Alcander, leaving the body and Eleanor's examination behind. Something was happening, threads of power that nudged at her mind. Teajay's lips narrowed - that thing in Blythe, its exerted will laying like a weight on the universe while it pressed and pulled at someone else's mind. The thing's power sent shivers up Teajay's back, not out of fear, more like an unexpected winter's chill. She shook her head, and tried to pull herself out of the sensation. Things seemed...closer, lately, with the thing that called itself a demon, like its thoughts were brighter in Teajay's mind, but now wasn't the time to worry about Blythe and her passenger. She pushed the feeling away, but the moment she turned her attention from one set of supernatural feelers, another sent lightning-sharp crackles through her mind.
She felt it before she saw it, even before Alcander had finished shoving the dumpster away from the wall, like standing too close to a live wire. Teajay looked down, following the scrabbling of Al's boots, then the line of his attention.
Find the truth
The jolt in the back of her mind almost felt like a physical shove, and Teajay staggered, clamping her hand on the edge of the dumpster to keep her balance. She swallowed, her throat suddenly thick, her tongue unfamiliar and unwilling to form words. In her mind, she could feel...something, whirling around the length of sharp steel, like the memories she would feel when she was Outside, but something altogether more insistent.
Follow the lines
Teajay gasped and tried to form words, to ask Alcander for help. Nothing came out, her breath coming in sudden, sharp rasps. She lost her grip on the dumpster, fell to one knee on the cold asphalt. Her eyes swam - what was this? The words pounded against the inside of her skull, a command scraping the edges of her consciousness raw. Her hand moved, almost without her awareness, and in the skin of a second her fingers had wrapped around the dagger's hilt, pulling it toward herself, cradling it against her chest.
She stopped breathing, the ragged scraps of an indrawn breath spilling out of her in a ghostly wave.
One fist held the figure by the front of its jacket, already overbalanced on the edge of the rooftop. Behind their eyes, not malice, only a kind of satisfied determination. The other held something hard and sharp, the winter chill making the handle sharp against wind-chapped skin. So much had led to this, so many hours of study, so many dead ends and lost paths. But they had gotten this far, they would finally know secrets no mortal had ever even begun to understand.
Nobody had gotten this far, nobody had seen how the pieces truly fit. The centuries had burned down to this last nub of time, and they were the bright, final candle. The flame that would unlock a new world.
The tip bit through wool, through cotton. So close now...
The memory, the view playing across her eyes wavered for a moment, and Teajay seized what control she could. With a cry, she twisted at the waist and slammed her own wrist against the corner of the dumpster, hammering against it hard enough to make the whole thing ring like a deep bell. The dagger flew from her suddenly nerveless fingers, pinging across the asphalt with a scraping sound that rang more like glass than steel. For her part, Teajay fell back, catching herself with her arm and scrabbling backwards, toward the wall and away from the dagger. She pulled in air like a drowning woman, great gulps of the frigid, fetid alleyway coursing down her throat with each steam-engine breath. She kicked again, and felt something fold against her back, the moment strange enough to press the smallest bit of the panic away from her mind.
"Shit," Teajay managed after another few breaths, and looked behind her.
Cardboard on the ground. A few bottles, a blanket, a tarpaulin. Socks and a single shoe. And to each side, scrawled on the back of dumpsters and the brick of the building, the same phrase. Written in marker, in wax, in things that Teajay did not want to think about right now.
Follow the lines
Follow the lines
FOLLOW THE LINES
"I heard it," Teajay said, her tongue now under her own control, "The...I think it was the dagger," she swallowed again, "Or something about it. I couldn't turn away from it. I...what the fuck is going on?"
Another facet of the...vision? Dream? Commandment? floated through her mind, and she looked up at Alcander.
"The roof," Teajay said, trying and failing to get her feet under her, "Al, the roof. Something happened on the roof, we have to get up there, now!"
She felt it before she saw it, even before Alcander had finished shoving the dumpster away from the wall, like standing too close to a live wire. Teajay looked down, following the scrabbling of Al's boots, then the line of his attention.
Find the truth
The jolt in the back of her mind almost felt like a physical shove, and Teajay staggered, clamping her hand on the edge of the dumpster to keep her balance. She swallowed, her throat suddenly thick, her tongue unfamiliar and unwilling to form words. In her mind, she could feel...something, whirling around the length of sharp steel, like the memories she would feel when she was Outside, but something altogether more insistent.
Follow the lines
Teajay gasped and tried to form words, to ask Alcander for help. Nothing came out, her breath coming in sudden, sharp rasps. She lost her grip on the dumpster, fell to one knee on the cold asphalt. Her eyes swam - what was this? The words pounded against the inside of her skull, a command scraping the edges of her consciousness raw. Her hand moved, almost without her awareness, and in the skin of a second her fingers had wrapped around the dagger's hilt, pulling it toward herself, cradling it against her chest.
She stopped breathing, the ragged scraps of an indrawn breath spilling out of her in a ghostly wave.
One fist held the figure by the front of its jacket, already overbalanced on the edge of the rooftop. Behind their eyes, not malice, only a kind of satisfied determination. The other held something hard and sharp, the winter chill making the handle sharp against wind-chapped skin. So much had led to this, so many hours of study, so many dead ends and lost paths. But they had gotten this far, they would finally know secrets no mortal had ever even begun to understand.
Nobody had gotten this far, nobody had seen how the pieces truly fit. The centuries had burned down to this last nub of time, and they were the bright, final candle. The flame that would unlock a new world.
The tip bit through wool, through cotton. So close now...
The memory, the view playing across her eyes wavered for a moment, and Teajay seized what control she could. With a cry, she twisted at the waist and slammed her own wrist against the corner of the dumpster, hammering against it hard enough to make the whole thing ring like a deep bell. The dagger flew from her suddenly nerveless fingers, pinging across the asphalt with a scraping sound that rang more like glass than steel. For her part, Teajay fell back, catching herself with her arm and scrabbling backwards, toward the wall and away from the dagger. She pulled in air like a drowning woman, great gulps of the frigid, fetid alleyway coursing down her throat with each steam-engine breath. She kicked again, and felt something fold against her back, the moment strange enough to press the smallest bit of the panic away from her mind.
"Shit," Teajay managed after another few breaths, and looked behind her.
Cardboard on the ground. A few bottles, a blanket, a tarpaulin. Socks and a single shoe. And to each side, scrawled on the back of dumpsters and the brick of the building, the same phrase. Written in marker, in wax, in things that Teajay did not want to think about right now.
Follow the lines
Follow the lines
FOLLOW THE LINES
"I heard it," Teajay said, her tongue now under her own control, "The...I think it was the dagger," she swallowed again, "Or something about it. I couldn't turn away from it. I...what the fuck is going on?"
Another facet of the...vision? Dream? Commandment? floated through her mind, and she looked up at Alcander.
"The roof," Teajay said, trying and failing to get her feet under her, "Al, the roof. Something happened on the roof, we have to get up there, now!"