LJ Idol Week 11 Part 2: If the Creek Don't Rise
Ariadne sat at her desk and tried to force herself back into thinking about work. It was so hard now that her eyes were open to a whole new world.
She hated to admit it, but some part of Ariadne’s mind was still anchored in disbelief. It was all a little too pat, her feeling melancholy and a bit hopeless and then running into someone like Chiv. However, even on that first night last week, the great majority of her was ready to hear what the man with the bat wings had to say. He’d told her he had a feeling that if he went to the park that night he would meet someone that would make something portentous fall into place. And while, yes, something that vague did seem too good to be true, the park was pretty full of people and Ariadne just didn’t feel threatened at all as they walked the well lit paths and spoke.
The man’s name, improbably (and according to him, unimportantly) was Chivalry West. He quipped that his mother had a much greater than average interest than usual in the renaissance and left it at that. He’d come to the capital city years ago for college, which he said hadn’t worked out. But instead he’d discovered magic and gotten wrapped up in that world. Disappointingly it didn’t pay the bills for him, but it did allow him to influence others in ways that helped him pay the bills, or so he said. But what he stressed the most was that it also came with a moral obligation to use it to make the world better, and he happened to be in a position where he needed help.
“Let me show you,” he had asked that night, and then he’d reached for her hand. “Just imagine letting your walls down- letting your guard down, and if you can share just a little bit of your aura with me, I can show you a few things about how magic is influencing everyone around us.”
Her first impulse was to pull away, but her second stronger one was to offer her hand, and not only welcome whatever he was looking for, but sort of imagine providing him with a burst of energy. He took her hand and she was just finding his palm to be much rougher and more calloused than she expected, about to ask him what was supposed to be happening when. . .
She had an overwhelming sense of energy surging up at her from the earth, and down into her head from the sky and through her hand to this person she’d just met. The surge was so great, her knees buckled and she would have collapsed had Chiv not grabbed both her arms to hold her steady.
She had the impression of him in her mind reaching for a rope of energy that she tried to hand to him, and then suddenly instead she’d thrown a deluge of energy at him. In this impression, it was like he pulled a shield out of somewhere that blocked most of what she showered him with, but he was able to hold onto just a strand. This he concentrated on for a bit and then tossed above them into the sky, where it dissipated and when she pulled her hands off his arms and straightened herself up again she realized the park had gone completely silent. No one was moving but the two of them.
“Whoa,” Chivalry said. “You apparently have the ability to access a lot of energy. You’re going to need to work hard on technique to control that. You’re probably going to have a wicked headache later tonight. But,” he brushed off his left and then his right shoulder, “That’ll hold everyone around us for a good couple of minutes. Come with me and see what some of these other people have going on.”
With the world stopped, they’d walked into the fancy restaurant on the green and he’d shown her manifestations of magic on others. A bedraggled pair of white-ish feathered wings on a young woman who seemed preoccupied at a table full of sorority sisters dressed for a night out. Predatory looking shadowy ears and a tail on an older businesswoman who was leaned across a table talking animatedly with a younger man. She caught a glimpse of her own wings in a mirror that night, too. They were short and dark, with slight iridescence on their feathers. A bit like crow's wings crossed with some kind of parrot.
He had explained that most people with a magical connection didn’t even realize they had such a thing. That for them it might only manifest as a bit of extra cunning or charisma or luck when they most needed it. But that once you became aware of your connection you could usually see evidence of the connections others held. “It’s not as simple as angels and devils among us,” he’d said, “Except that it kind-of is.”
After they discussed a few of the people quickly, with an emphasis on how hard it was to tell what kind of intent any of them might have for their magic, he’d grabbed her hand again just in time for her to experience a terrific lurch only to find the two of them standing back in the middle of the path where they’d been when everything stopped, with the world humming around them again. And Ariadne’s sinuses had felt weirdly raw, kind of like they did just before she got a terrible headache. Indeed she’d woken the next morning with a headache like one she might expect after a night of serious partying.
Like the rest of life, this magic thing was frustratingly vague and came with very few instructions so far. When Chiv had sent her on her way again that night it had been with the reassurance, “Hey, this is likely going to be just as fine as anything else that ever happens to you. You know, given that the world doesn’t suddenly get a lot worse.”
“New friend,” she’d thought to say, but hadn’t, “The year is 2020. This is a dumpster fire with no end in sight. Are you kidding me?”
She’d met up with Chiv a few more times since that night. He was working toward something that he thought was important, she could tell, but he didn't seem to trust her enough to provide any details. In just a few meetings she had started to refine her grasp on the energy she seemed to be able to access. But she couldn't really use it for anything yet. He seemed more interested in her observations about who held power in different ways. He really seemed to think that she they would be able to help each other on some kind of project that involved someone she already knew.
She forced her eyes back to the bill analysis she was working on. She found it unlikely that a program attorney at the Department of Agriculture who worked on aquaculture issues was going to have any magical connections in her everyday life.
Suddenly, her boss appeared in her doorway.
"Ariadne, have you finished that analysis yet?" he asked. His southern drawl would have been a little comforting even without the smile that seemed to somehow reach his eyes. "I know you've got a lot going on," he continued, "But legislative affairs has to make some tight turnarounds during session."
"It's close," she said, but he continued talking right over her, so she curtailed her explanation.
"It wouldn't do to get too wrapped up in thoughts about power other than the estimates that financial put together for that analysis, you recall, right? I just wanted to stop by and make sure you were clear on that," he said. And then he turned and moved away as quickly as he'd shown up.
Ariadne was clear on that, always had been. But she had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, because as he'd turned she caught a glimpse of three things behind his searsucker suit-clad self; an extra pair of vulpine looking ears folded back alongside his head and a long and ghostly catlike tail that twitched manically from side to side. She'd always thought him a powerful figure, but hadn't realized until now what kind of power.
"Sure, Chiv, sure," she thought as she tried to calm herself down. "Everything's going to be just great."
She hated to admit it, but some part of Ariadne’s mind was still anchored in disbelief. It was all a little too pat, her feeling melancholy and a bit hopeless and then running into someone like Chiv. However, even on that first night last week, the great majority of her was ready to hear what the man with the bat wings had to say. He’d told her he had a feeling that if he went to the park that night he would meet someone that would make something portentous fall into place. And while, yes, something that vague did seem too good to be true, the park was pretty full of people and Ariadne just didn’t feel threatened at all as they walked the well lit paths and spoke.
The man’s name, improbably (and according to him, unimportantly) was Chivalry West. He quipped that his mother had a much greater than average interest than usual in the renaissance and left it at that. He’d come to the capital city years ago for college, which he said hadn’t worked out. But instead he’d discovered magic and gotten wrapped up in that world. Disappointingly it didn’t pay the bills for him, but it did allow him to influence others in ways that helped him pay the bills, or so he said. But what he stressed the most was that it also came with a moral obligation to use it to make the world better, and he happened to be in a position where he needed help.
“Let me show you,” he had asked that night, and then he’d reached for her hand. “Just imagine letting your walls down- letting your guard down, and if you can share just a little bit of your aura with me, I can show you a few things about how magic is influencing everyone around us.”
Her first impulse was to pull away, but her second stronger one was to offer her hand, and not only welcome whatever he was looking for, but sort of imagine providing him with a burst of energy. He took her hand and she was just finding his palm to be much rougher and more calloused than she expected, about to ask him what was supposed to be happening when. . .
She had an overwhelming sense of energy surging up at her from the earth, and down into her head from the sky and through her hand to this person she’d just met. The surge was so great, her knees buckled and she would have collapsed had Chiv not grabbed both her arms to hold her steady.
She had the impression of him in her mind reaching for a rope of energy that she tried to hand to him, and then suddenly instead she’d thrown a deluge of energy at him. In this impression, it was like he pulled a shield out of somewhere that blocked most of what she showered him with, but he was able to hold onto just a strand. This he concentrated on for a bit and then tossed above them into the sky, where it dissipated and when she pulled her hands off his arms and straightened herself up again she realized the park had gone completely silent. No one was moving but the two of them.
“Whoa,” Chivalry said. “You apparently have the ability to access a lot of energy. You’re going to need to work hard on technique to control that. You’re probably going to have a wicked headache later tonight. But,” he brushed off his left and then his right shoulder, “That’ll hold everyone around us for a good couple of minutes. Come with me and see what some of these other people have going on.”
With the world stopped, they’d walked into the fancy restaurant on the green and he’d shown her manifestations of magic on others. A bedraggled pair of white-ish feathered wings on a young woman who seemed preoccupied at a table full of sorority sisters dressed for a night out. Predatory looking shadowy ears and a tail on an older businesswoman who was leaned across a table talking animatedly with a younger man. She caught a glimpse of her own wings in a mirror that night, too. They were short and dark, with slight iridescence on their feathers. A bit like crow's wings crossed with some kind of parrot.
He had explained that most people with a magical connection didn’t even realize they had such a thing. That for them it might only manifest as a bit of extra cunning or charisma or luck when they most needed it. But that once you became aware of your connection you could usually see evidence of the connections others held. “It’s not as simple as angels and devils among us,” he’d said, “Except that it kind-of is.”
After they discussed a few of the people quickly, with an emphasis on how hard it was to tell what kind of intent any of them might have for their magic, he’d grabbed her hand again just in time for her to experience a terrific lurch only to find the two of them standing back in the middle of the path where they’d been when everything stopped, with the world humming around them again. And Ariadne’s sinuses had felt weirdly raw, kind of like they did just before she got a terrible headache. Indeed she’d woken the next morning with a headache like one she might expect after a night of serious partying.
Like the rest of life, this magic thing was frustratingly vague and came with very few instructions so far. When Chiv had sent her on her way again that night it had been with the reassurance, “Hey, this is likely going to be just as fine as anything else that ever happens to you. You know, given that the world doesn’t suddenly get a lot worse.”
“New friend,” she’d thought to say, but hadn’t, “The year is 2020. This is a dumpster fire with no end in sight. Are you kidding me?”
She’d met up with Chiv a few more times since that night. He was working toward something that he thought was important, she could tell, but he didn't seem to trust her enough to provide any details. In just a few meetings she had started to refine her grasp on the energy she seemed to be able to access. But she couldn't really use it for anything yet. He seemed more interested in her observations about who held power in different ways. He really seemed to think that she they would be able to help each other on some kind of project that involved someone she already knew.
She forced her eyes back to the bill analysis she was working on. She found it unlikely that a program attorney at the Department of Agriculture who worked on aquaculture issues was going to have any magical connections in her everyday life.
Suddenly, her boss appeared in her doorway.
"Ariadne, have you finished that analysis yet?" he asked. His southern drawl would have been a little comforting even without the smile that seemed to somehow reach his eyes. "I know you've got a lot going on," he continued, "But legislative affairs has to make some tight turnarounds during session."
"It's close," she said, but he continued talking right over her, so she curtailed her explanation.
"It wouldn't do to get too wrapped up in thoughts about power other than the estimates that financial put together for that analysis, you recall, right? I just wanted to stop by and make sure you were clear on that," he said. And then he turned and moved away as quickly as he'd shown up.
Ariadne was clear on that, always had been. But she had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, because as he'd turned she caught a glimpse of three things behind his searsucker suit-clad self; an extra pair of vulpine looking ears folded back alongside his head and a long and ghostly catlike tail that twitched manically from side to side. She'd always thought him a powerful figure, but hadn't realized until now what kind of power.
"Sure, Chiv, sure," she thought as she tried to calm herself down. "Everything's going to be just great."