#one chunk around the door is yellow from just getting spackled or whatever and needs painting

[broodygaming]

Starting on flooring at our new property! It’s so overwhelming and every time I feel like I’ve done a lot I look up and realize it looks like Nothing hahaha. Oh well. Wish me luck! Got days and days of this ahead of me.

[writingonjorvik]

The B Team Druids - Chapter 13 - The Chosen

Tides of Favor

When Carrie came too again, she couldn’t feel her head. It spun numbly, images struggling to rightened as she opened her eyes. She knew her head was still attached to her body, but for a moment, the two failed to connect to each other. 

She spent a long time ​staring up at the ceiling. It was a cream color, filled with dots from the spackled plaster. As her eyes grew weary, dots appears in a mirade of colors. Yellows and reds and blues flashing through the uneven surface. Carrie wondered where the lights were coming from and where her head had gone and what in the world was happening right now.

"Stay."

The world tilted. A thing call gravity returned to Carrie's senses as she realized her body couldn't just float away. The world had rules, laws, order. Slowly, her mind started putting that order back together.​

Raven appeared, sitting beside the bed Carrie found herself on. She extended a cup to Carrie's mouth, before slowly feeding it to Carrie's limp body. "Rest." She took in a deep breath, demonstrating a long, drawn gasp. Carrie repeated it. Raven nodded. "Repeat. Drink."

There was soup in the cup. More of a stew with all the bits and chunks floating in it as well, but all cut very small. Carrie didn't even think of chewing for a long while. Didn't even remember what chewing was for much longer, just that she ought to have been. An odd word, chewing. She knew what it was for yet she did. Her head spun, hurt, stung, bite, burned, bled--

"Not this." Raven tapped Carrie's forehead, suddenly the thoughts going still. "Not well. Don't think."

Carrie obliged. She focused on the dots again. She let Raven feed her. She let the world be.

After a while, more laws found their way back into Carrie's mind. Memories trickled in like raindrops through the treetops. Carrie remembered who she was. She remembered her family, her home. She remembered Ash and Raven and Saoirse and Bree and Ari. She remembered walking through dreams and walking so far that she found an break in the world.

And then everything was whole again.

Sitting up, Carrie looked at Raven was was sitting patiently by the bedside. Her arms were folded over a dark orange tank top that stood in dark contrast to her dark complexion. Carrie realized it was the first time she had seen Raven without that heavy jacket on. The color flattered her bright amber eyes.

“What happened? What was going on? Why couldn’t I--”

Raven held up a hand for silence. She turned to her phone, tapping the screen before rocking back as an automated voice played. “Ask fewer questions. You walked for too long, too far from your body. The two are struggling to come back together.”

“Did you find Meteor?”

Raven nodded.

“Who was it? I saw her. She had a grey horse, she was on that hill nearby--”

Again, Raven raised her head. She lifted her phone, typed for a minute, before letting the automated voice speak again. “Fewer questions. Right now you need to rest. Don’t think on it. You were very close to a rift, we don’t know what that will do to you, or your mind. Meteor is fine. I will tell you more soon.”

“Promise?”

“Another nod.”

Carrie fell back on the bed. “Thanks.”

The next day moved like tar. Carrie was confined to the bed, waiting on Raven’s approval to leave. She thought it would never come.

In the meantime, she got visits. And small updates. The events in Silverglade were being worked through. And by worked through, Carrie came to understand it meant erased. Unless someone was part of the Keepers, slowly memories were being altered, fixed as Elizabeth put it, until the attacks were nothing but a little nightmare. A swarm of bees had come through, that was all. Nothing to worry over.

The thought of it made Carrie a little sick to her stomach, seeing it all vanish in the blink of an eye. 

A few people had been spared from the wipe. James, who had his memories played with enough. The Baroness and a few of her staff. A handful of Jorvik Rangers. Not enough to justify things, but Carrie had little say from her sick bed. She would have had little say anywhere, but here it felt particularly punctuated.

Saoirse and Linda visited last. Linda was overly grateful, thanking Carrie so many times over she failed to count. Carrie smiled as the tension seemed to ebb away from Linda, and Saoirse as well. Her thanks were silent, but Carrie could feel them tenfold as the two left, some peace of mind at last.

“How long have they been together?” Carrie asked, turning to Raven.

Raven took in a deep breath. She counted on her fingers, before shrugging. “Seven months.”

“So since before all of this started happening?”

Nodding, Raven fidgeted with her phone. Her expression was tense, but the healer remained silent as ever.

“What now?”

It took Raven a moment, but she pulled out the app on her phone. “You rest.”

“You didn’t need your phone to say that,” said Carrie.

She shrugged, typing again. “You need to rest. We will deal with everything else in the morning.”

“Aren’t you worried though?” Carrie pushed. “We know enough about my powers now, so what now? Do we form this pact with Jon? Are we ready? What do we do?”

Raven sighed, standing up. She set a hand on Carrie’s shoulder. “Rest,” she emphasized again. With that, she left, turning the light out as she went.

Carrie didn’t sleep much that evening.

Heroes

“Carrie, I think it’s time you meet someone.” Linda held the door to the room in Linda’s apartment. As Carrie looked up, Linda rocked her head. “Well, two somebodies.”

Raven drew her scarf up over her mouth as Carrie sat up straight, watching the doorway. A moment later, a young woman with dirty blonde hair stepped into the room, waving briefly. Alex waved. “We already met.”

Carrie smiled back. “Yeah. Silverglade.”

“You guys helped us a lot. I can’t thank you enough,” Alex answered, taking a seat beside Raven, who slid away silently as far as she could to the other side of the chair.

“Oh that’s right,” Linda added, her eyes lighting up. “Aideen, it’s been a busy few days, hasn’t it.”

“You could say that,” Carrie agreed, rocking back on the bed. Still recovering, it would be a while before she was at her best again. But she was getting there.

Linda leaned back out the door, talking to someone outside. She shook her head, but Carrie couldn’t make out what they were saying. After a moment, Linda leaned back in. When she did, a new figure walked in. She was a little taller than Carrie, with feathered brown hair that fell to her shoulders. Hazel eyes with golden rims watched Carrie, before waving. Linda introduced, “Carrie, this is our friend, Amelie.”

Amelie walked across the room, holding out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Something in the woman’s eyes made Carrie cock her head. Something familiar, deep inside her core. She held her hand out, shaking. “Same.”

As they did, something tingled through Carrie’s arm. She felt the shock of it course through her mind, the dream plane she’d been traveling through flashing in her mind. As she pulled away, she watched a golden light fading from Amelie’s hand. Carrie’s eyes widened. “You’re her.”

“Um?”

“Aideen’s champion,” Carrie finished.

Amelie’s eyes widened. She leaned down, staring intensely back at Carrie. “You know about that?”

“I— A ghost told me.”

“You talked to Jon Jarl too then. Goddess, I thought I was losing it. Nobody tells me anything about my powers,” Amelie confided, before blushing as she turned back to the Soul Riders. “No offense.”

“I’m sure Elizabeth is just trying to be thorough,” Linda replied, smiling. “Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out together.”

“Right.” Amelie nodded, but her face hid a pain Carrie could see a flash of this close. Amelie turned back to Carrie, before cupping her hands. Between them, she filled the cup with light, radiant and brilliant. As the lights flickered in her hands, she looked Carrie in the eyes. “We need to talk some more.”

The Ghost King

“You did that?”

“With a little help,” Amelie replied as they walked through the newly opened archway into the king’s tomb. “I think it’s been warded since then. I don’t know how to do it.”

“We could practice. Together,” Carrie offered. Amelie whipped her head around, eyes wide. “I mean, if you wanted—”

“I’d love that! Could you take me there too then? For your practice?” she asked. “Your dream world.”

Carrie shrugged. “I guess.”

The air hung around them as they found themselves at the pool chamber of the tomb. Another door stood open, one Carrie had seen sealed by the moon on her last visit. An empty table waited on the other side.

“Champion of Aideen! You returned!” Jon Jarl’s voice boomed, sending dust loose from the ceiling. His ghost fragments and reformed before them, pulling Carrie’s attention to the pool. “How may I aid you?”

“We need to talk about her,” Amelie started, wrapping an arm around Carrie’s shoulders. 

Jon Jarl turned to Carrie, his form tilting as he thought. “Do I...know you? Oh! The Lesser Champion!”

“That’s not a nice name,” Amelie retorted with a scowled.

Carrie laughed, pulling loose of Amelie’s grip. “It’s ok. We’re still figuring it out.”

“Indeed, dreamwalker. I did not recognize you outside the Twilight Haven,” Jon answered.

“Is that what it’s called?”

“It seems a fitting name. What can I help you will, Champions of Aideen?”

“Why do I— we, have these powers? These are different from the rest of the druids, and no one will talk to us about them,” Amelie asked, holding up her hands to let the glow overtake them.

Jon Jarl floated down, studying the light. He rocked back, before saying, “I do not know that it is wise for me to speak on this matter if others withhold it. There have been others who have...not been able to handle this gift.”

“Others of her, but not others of us,” Carrie corrected. “You said you’d never met someone with my powers, but I’m connected to Aideen too. If you told us, then we could stop people from getting hurt, right?”

The ghost didn’t respond.

Carrie huffed, looking at Amelie for help. Her friend looked rather defeated. Carrie turned back, stepping up to the pool. “Can you tell us what Aideen’s powers were?”

Sinking into his pool, Jon Jarl fragmented once more before floating back to reveal his pool. A great expanse of celestial water ebbed beneath. It looked like a fragment of the plane Carrie had been to in her first dream. Jon Jarl rose his palms, the water ebbing up. “Aideen has many secrets. Some the dead must keep. Others the living. This one I will impart.”

A bubble floated before them, flattening out into the shape of a disk. Jon Jarl went on, “There are many tales of Aideen’s gift to the world, but I will tell you something about her true presence. When Aideen landed, she road with her four arms raised, in each a holy relic. Her Light, Her Sword, Her Book, and Her Harp. Each was a gift on which the druids founded their orders, of which the Soul Riders were bound.

“From each, Aideen drew great power from the world. Her Light could create anything out of its brilliance. Her Sword could rally any army, mortal or beast. Her Book let her view any plane and any truth in this world and all others. And Her Harp could cure any ailment, or curse any foe.”

The bubble fractured, before dropping back into the pool. Jon Jarl looked between the two. “The rest is for you to interpret, but I may say no more.”

Lisa

Carrie, Raven, and Ari waited at the Dews’ farm. Somewhere nearby, Amelie and the Soul Riders were freeing their friend from Pandoria. Carrie had dipped in and out of the Twilight Haven to see through the cracks breaking open across Jorvik, peering in like she had with Meteor.

“You think she could help your voice?” Ari asked.

A tension struck the air as Raven withdrew herself to Ghost. Ari turned back to Carrie. “She has to talk about it sooner or later.”

“That’s not really our call,” Carrie said.

“It’s going to come up, particularly with Lisa back,” Ari said. “You know which circle Lisa is the Soul Rider of, right?”

“Star?”

“Just like Raven. And that means the Harp is going to come up,” Ari replied, rolling her eyes. She turned to fidget with her nails.

The Harp. Aideen’s Harp. Carrie knew Linda and Bree were looking for it, but with two of the Soul Riders missing, Carrie knew their priorities. Carrie looked over at Raven, knowing the question in her mind betrayed the trust she was working so hard to build with the healer.

“She tried to play it.”

Guilt panged Carrie’s heart as Ari started, even if she hadn’t asked. Ari didn’t seem to notice. “Everyone knows only Aideen’s chosen ones or whatever can play that. It’s holy. It burned her throat from the inside out because of—” 

“Hey, Ari,” Carrie cut in. “Shut up.”

Ari rolled her eyes, her highlights shifting orange. She glanced over at Raven, who was staring daggers back at her. Ari shrugged. “What? You know you fucked up.”

Raven lowered her head, stalking back to Ari. Magic swelled in her palm before pushing it against Ari’s chest. Something black ilked from her hand before a white light washed over Ari. A blister the size of a quarter appearance and vanished on Ari’s throat.

Withdrawing, Raven pushed her magic in her throat. “I did not burn because I could not use it. It burned because I sang the wrong song.”

“Only the Soul Rider can use that,” Ari replied with a cough.

“She can sing life. I can sing death.” And with that, Raven returned to Ghost. She dropped her hand, turning to Carrie. She typed in her phone, the robotic voice replying, “I’m going to the Weeping Willow. You can come. We’ll deal with this later.”

The words from Jon Jarl’s tomb weaved in Carrie’s mind. A fragment, a distillation of Aideen’s power. Carrie turned to a bright red Ari, thinking about her friend’s other powers. The Sun Circle opened portals, but Carrie had seen far more illusions like Ari’s in the Circle. And Jon said Aideen’s Harp healed and hurt. Two fragments of the same circle.

And Carrie’s mind began to spin.

 The Rescue

“Bring him back.”

It wasn’t a question as Amelie stepped on the barge. Carrie locked her eyes Amelie, staring back into those golden rimmed eyes as Amelie had done when Carrie offered to practice their magic together.

Amelie wrapped her arms around Carrie, before stepping onto the ship. “We will.”

What was this? Why did she care so much? The last they had seen of Justin he was— Carrie refused the reality. She wanted to believe something of the old Justin was there, something she could salvage, something of their moments before the world has turned upside down.

Something together.

The barge was already across the bay. Carrie’s heart pounded as the four young women on the desk and their horses faded from view. It would be fine. They’d find him. They’d bring him back.

And then her body fell as she sent herself running across the water to catch them in the sunset haze.

 A Sisterhood

“Are we ready?”

It had been a long time since Carrie had been able to ask that. A long time working through...everything. Raven’s wound, Bree’s attention, Saoirse’s fury, Ari’s hurt, her own insecurities.

But now, the five of them stood alone in the only place Carrie knew to take them; Jon Jarl’s tomb, as grim as it was. This was the first place she had been drawn to, so close to where she’d met Saoirse and Raven for the first time. And now it felt right.

“We aren’t a sisterhood,” Bree commented.

“Not like the others, no,” Carrie replied, looking between the other four. “But we are a sisterhood. And maybe this is how we get answers.”

The ghost king was noticeably absent for this, despite his initial suggestion of it, what seemed like years ago now. Carrie watched his pool, before turning to her friends. “Look, I don’t know the answers, but someone has to find them. Amelie and the Soul Riders are out there trying to stop Garnok, but they’re too busy to answer the questions that really need to be answered. And without the Book of Light, we’re not going to get those any time soon. Unless we do something.”

“Us?” Raven asked through her raspy voice. Still unhealed, waiting to be able to restore it herself.

“Yes, us,” Carrie insisted, noticing Ari and Saoirse, notably respectful to each other. Still working on that. “We can do this. Are you with me?”

“I am,” Saoirse said first, holding out her hand. “I’m no’ Alex, bu’ I am a damned good druid. I’m in, for whadeve’ ya need me for.”

Raven’s answer was curt. “I am.”

“Me too!” Bree added.

With a huff, Ari nodded. “I expect us to start getting answers then.”

Carrie beamed, holding out her hands. As the others linked, Carrie leaned back into her power. She felt her body falling, and then the others. But as they tipped, she felt them stuck, here and between. Magic coursed through them, ebbing out of the tomb and into their joined arms.

“Sisters bound beneath the Light,” Carrie whispered, her own power ebbing out of her as the words came to her like instinct.

“Blood and bound to serve Her Storm.”

“Life and death to serve Her Song.”

“Truth and mind to serve Her Story.”

“Magic to create and serve Her Stand.”

Carrie’s mind dipped deeper into the Twilight Haven, deeper still until she could see the starry plains of Aideen’s realm. Magic poured through her, awoke through her, tore through her to fill her and then expanded out into her friends.

“My Legion To Serve The Book.”

 Justin

Beat, wheezing, bent, Carrie dropped to her knees as she made it to the ancient stone ring at the heart of South Hoof. She had never ridden so fast and hard in her life, and now as she watched Justin wobble away from the tree, she felt her heart ache. She had felt him, his magic, reaching through the world. When she saw Amelie, dogged and tired, Carrie knew her friend had seen the same.

Justin turned, meeting Carrie. Something broke across his face, tears showing first, and then the relief off his shoulders. Carrie staggered the first step, stumbled the second, and broke into a run on the third.

She grappled him, pulling him close. She squeezed hard. “I don’t know what this is, but I will not let you go.”

An embraced reached back at her. “I don’t want you to.”

Carrie gripped harder, before pulling back. She looked up in his greyed eyes, the grey streaks in his hair. She tipped her head to the side, something soft and exposed pulling at her heart. In that moment, everything seemed right and whole in the world.

She didn’t notice as the others moved to handle the situation, to talk to Rhiannon about Justin’s powers, about any of it. She let herself hold that moment for as long as it was there, and found Justin looking back and letting her.

“I’m not sure I’m...here yet,” Justin admitted, looking away.

“There’s no rush,” Carrie answered, following. “As long as you need. And as many lasgne’s as you want.”

Justin’s eyes lit up, a smirk trying to come out on his face. “What?”

“I mean, if you’re not worried about me butchering the recipe, your dad gave it to me after you got, well, arrested,” Carrie teased lightly. When the smirk broke across his face, she felt relief flood her.

“I’d like that. But I’m going to help too. I can’t let you completely butcher it,” Justin answered, a gentle squeeze back in Carrie’s hands. He held her gaze, nodding. “As long as it takes.”

Carrie found herself in the Twilight Haven when he pecked her on the forehead, blushing with three shades of embracement as her body collapsed on him and a frantic Amelie left explaining as Carrie burned crimson.

 Pandoria

“You sure you want to do this?” Amelie asked as Carrie eased herself on the cot set up beside the gate.

“You need a guide,” Carrie answered, not hesitating as her Soul Riders sat beside her. “I know I’m not affected by the magic when I’m in the Haven. Raven will be here to pull me out if things go wrong.”

They were at a campsite, not far from a gate Evergray had found. Amelie been to Pandoria before, but to disastrous effects. Anne was still trapped and Amelie, even with her magic, had nearly been killed. Worse, Fripp was...things were looking pretty shit.

“We’re not risking another attack,” Carrie said with finality, and before Amelie could argue, Carrie was on the other side. She stood up, patching Ash as the mare greeted her, and then walked to Ember. The stallion knickered to greet her as well, pushing a hand in her palm.

Climbing on behind Amelie was simple. The ripping feeling as she was pulled into the plane between Jorvik and Pandoria was not, but she endured it.

But Pandoria was another story.

Magic ran wild and it was all Carrie could do to hold herself in the Twilight Haven. Even here, magic slipped out between the planes, pulling at Carrie as she clung to Ember. The Starbreed ebbed magic, pooling it up into Carrie and helping her. So did the magic in her friend.

As they took their first steps into the plane, Carrie slid off. One hand still on Ember, she turned as Amelie spoke loudly, “If you’re still here, Carrie, this isn’t the island we were at. It don’t think it’s even connected. Can you help?”

Pulling out her phone, Carrie typed one handed. A moment later, a text message buzzed on Amelie’s phone as Carrie started into a jog down the bioluminescent lighting of the pink reality before her.

 Fripp

Carrie sat with Lisa, Bree, and Linda in Fripp’s chambers. While Linda had spend days pouring into the tomes about runes and portals and Pandoria, Carrie and Bree spent their time searching for answers on Aideen.

“Any luck?” Bree asked, turning to the table with Carrie.

“No,” Carrie huffed, shutting the book. “There’s nothing about her other relics, just the Light and the Harp.”

“Are you sure that’s what Jon Jarl said?” Linda asked from across the room.

“Yes,” Carrie answered absently. “He said she rode with four arms and four—”

“Relics, I got that,” Linda replied, pulling down a book on Pandoria’s creatures. “But Jon Jarl wasn’t always loyal to Aideen. Maybe he got it wrong.”

Bree leaned over the table. “That doesn’t explain Carrie’s powers, or Amelia’s being a fragment, or how we got our new powers, or abouttheritualwehadinthecave, or—”  

“What ritual?” Lisa asked, leaning back.

“They said they made a Soul Riders’ Pact,” Linda explained. “While you and Amelie were helping the Willow.”

“Linda, you know we did,” Carrie insisted as Lisa walked over, magic flickering off her fingertips from healing the blue squirrel. “You felt it. I know you did.”

While Linda remained silent, Lisa stepped up. “Can I?”

“Sure.”

Lisa placed a hand over Carrie’s heart. Carrie could feel magic ebbing through her, pooling through all her being before pulling out. Lisa frowned, stepping away. “She feels like Amelie, Linda. Same, and different. Why?”

“We don’t know, and we don’t have time to figure it out. We need to rescue Anne,” Linda said, buried in her book.

Carrie sighed, turning to Bree. As long as the Soul Riders were in danger, she’d never get her answers.

 The Truth

“Amelie, this is it! I think I finally—”

“Carrie, I can’t right now,” the phone replied over the phone. “We’re going to Pandoria and I need to focus on this.”

“Amelie, this could be bigger than anything we’ve even imagined. It’s bigger than the Soul Riders, than the champions. We could—”

“Carrie, really. I can’t. I have to go.”

Something felt hollow in Carrie at the answer. She dropped her shoulders and nodded. “Right. When you get back, we can talk about it then, right?”

“Yeah, sure. We can talk about it when we get back.”

“Be safe.”

“Be smart.”

And the phone call ended. Carrie rocked back in her seat, looking up at the board in front of her. Strings hung from each other as they connected a puzzle spent too long piecing together, and still, only half of it was there. Carrie let out a sigh. “This could change everything.” 

 Anne

Carrie wanted to hate the figure being brought into Saoirse’s home. She wanted to loathe the blonde haired girl as Lisa and Raven doted on her, their magic spent healing her, poking at the pink, crystalline scars over her face.

She couldn’t and she knew that. Anne hadn’t killed Elizabeth. They both had as much of a bone to pick with her killer, for their own reasons.

Alex and Saoirse had gone off in the hours after to burn off some of their feelings. Linda was supposed to be supervising this, and with no messages about information to the contrary.

The druids were silent. Valedale was silent. There was nothing to say. Evergray and Avalon had been trying to arrange an event in her honor since they had gotten home, but for so many people, there was nothing to say. It didn’t feel real.

Amelie sat, back to the wall, across from Carrie. She had been locked in silence for a while. Carrie leaned over. “Are you ok?”

“We was supposed to tell me what it meant,” Amelie muttered, swallowing back tears. “I can’t fucking believe— Aideen, how could she— why did she had to wait like that?”

“She didn’t know,” Carrie offered, though she knew it was weak. “We can find out. I think I have th—”

 “Midsummers. Litha.” Amelie got up, as distant as Pandoria. “I need to talk to Evergray.” She wandered out without another word, and Carrie felt the silence ebb in.

“Right. Midsummers then,” Carrie muttered, setting her head back on the wall as she let herself fall into the Haven.

The B Team Druids’ story will continue in The Lucky Six Campaign.