Jordan hops and skips into Adam’s room. “I did a drawing!” she announces.
Adam pauses his work and takes a look. She certainly did a drawing. It’s mostly stick figures and a really zealous use of crayon, but he gets the general idea.
“It’s me as Princess Peri,” Jordan explains carefully, pointing a finger to each figure in turn. “Here’s Milembe an’ Harper from my class.”
“I gave ‘em princess glow-ups too. An’ here’s you, an’ Space Bug. We’re gonna go to space an’ do space princess stuff in this one. I did another drawing with Keri an’ me an’ she’s havin’ me try on diff’rent outfits. An’ I wanna do one with Jaycee as a princess ‘cos I think she’d be good at it, an’ William as a knight, but that’s boring ‘cos he is one, right? Maybe I could make him a prince an’ Jaycee a knight. Whatcha think? Oh, an’ I’m gonna have ‘em ridin’ dinosaurs, 'cos horses are boring. Ya can’t ride a steggysaurus though, 'cos they got spines. I think a try-Sara-top should be good.”
She peers at Adam. “Whatcha doin’?”
Adam has his own paper and pencil sketches. He’s diagramming out affective machinery - Concordance gadgets. And he explains, because it’s helpful to clear his own thinking, and because maybe he can put it in a way that will entertain his little sister.
“We got a ‘passkey’ to a place called the Negamatrix. It’s a bad place, but it lets us go different places and get around some kinds of barriers.”
Jordan oohs. “So you are gonna sneak into a place. But you’re a good guy so it’s gotta be a bad place. I get it. I get it.” This to her is indeed exciting.
Adam smiles. “Well, I can navigate it, because I have a Shard. But others don’t. So here’s a gadget I built awhile back. It sort of filters through feelings around you. You feel something intensely, and it’ll kind of capture it and store it, like a camera but for emotions. Then I have a thing here that latches onto um, astral cords or threads of emotion. Like a fishing line or a grappling hook. Right?”
Jordan bobs her head enthusiastically. She understands these things too. Adam, reassured, resumes.
“So you feel something… and then this part here latches onto threads of connection, and drags you through the Negamatrix to wherever your thing is strongest…”
He shows her the picture he drew of the final product. “I call it a Void Key. It’s gonna help people teleport to places they need to be, even if they aren’t an Agent.”
“Do I get one?” Jordan asks excitedly.
Adam smiles gently. “Probably not.”
As Jordan winds up to fire a pouty face at him, he quickly cuts her off. “The Negamatrix is a bad place, Jordan. I need you to do princess stuff closer to home. With the rest of us away so much, the city needs you. Okay?”
“I think you’re tryna’ take advantage of my good an’ generous nature.” Jordan does indeed pout at him, but she doesn’t complain any more.
Keri and Jaycee are hanging out again. This time, it’s Jaycee who’s doing food prep. Keri is obsessively doodling in a notebook. She’s working on something she hasn’t had a chance to do in awhile, namely superhero costumes.
Jaycee isn’t making anything elaborate, but she’s making plenty. Inguday tibs - Ethiopian sauteed mushrooms, atakilt wat - a spicy mixture of potatoes, carrots, and cabbage, and a smoothie made with mango, papaya and lime juice called a spris.
Jaycee knows for a fact William isn’t around. In fact, she sent him out on errands that sounded very important, but are mostly to keep him from coming back any time soon.
With things simmering and blending and generally in a good state, she finally turns and looks at Keri. “Hey. Uh. I wanted to talk to you about… about what you’re going through.”
Keri looks up from her notebook with a stony expression. Vulnerability doesn’t come easy to her even under normal circumstances. After her breakdown at the house, her guard is up. Jaycee knows she’s going to have to be delicate. She starts with praise.
“I didn’t really process how much the Dominican Republic idolizes you. It’s gotta be a heavy weight. But hey, two things about that. First. I saw you out there in space, and whether you measure up to those people, I dunno - maybe nobody can - but listen. You were a hero to the people we saved. You took care of things.”
She sees Keri’s face soften in appreciation, and decides she’s got her opening.
“Second, you’re doing something I ran away from. I don’t mean that I’m a hero. But…”
She checks in on her food prep as she speaks, not sure how to look at Keri as she says what she says. “My mother’s name is Ife. My father, Lucius, met her on an archaeological dig in Ethiopia. One thing led to another and here I am, ha ha. Turns out, when ma isn’t digging up relics, she’s a uh…”
Jaycee takes the blender off the base and pours out some of the smoothie to buy herself time. “She’s a member of the royal family.”
She turns and smiles anxiously at Keri. “Making me, I guess, a princess.”
This connection was revealed by Lucius in “31.3 - The Sword in the Scone” – Ed.
Keri sits up and blinks in shocked surprise. “No shit?”
Jaycee’s smile is weak. “No shit. And you know what I did about it?”
“What?”
Jaycee hangs her head. “Nothing. Nothing at all. Just like I always do.”
She plates some food, carries it expertly to the table where Keri’s waiting, and sets it down. “William. You know, he asked me out once. He’d saved my life - that’s how he became a Grail Knight to begin with. We got to talking. He took his shot. He was so graceless about it, though. Or so I thought at the time. No sense of romance to it, just, y’know, hey, let’s start dating. I forget exactly what he said, now.”
She lets out a half-hearted chuckle. “I blew him off. Harder than I meant to. And then I learned that my father was a Grail Knight too. Suddenly William was coming round more to see my dad. I felt - something. I became his personal trainer. I thought, I suppose, I could teach him some manners if he was already listening to me.”
Keri’s eyes light up. “I see it now. You have a crush on him, but you turned him down.”
Jaycee slaps the table with both palms. “Yes! And it hasn’t been easy. He’s yoked - my God. Just looking at that man gets me - well, anyway. But, what I thought was tactless and graceless and all that? He’s just so earnest. He’s like a big, beautiful, muscular puppy. And I messed it all up for myself. No - no, that’s not true. I told him at the time that I wasn’t interested. And that wasn’t really true, even then. The truth was… I wanted him to ask, but not like he did. I wanted him to do it properly. I still do. And he can’t read my mind, and it’s wrong of me to wait for him to do that. I should just tell him.”
She looks intently at Keri. “So you see, I admire you, because even when you labor under the weight of peoples’ expectations for you, you’ve still stepped up. You’re doing it. I can’t make my family proud. Can’t live up to my heritage. Can’t even tell a young man about my feelings. I saw those things as burdens, but they could have also been opportunities. I was so intent on getting to be myself that I missed the chance to be more.”
Keri takes a long breath, and smiles in deep sympathy. “Good news, hon. It’s not too late for some of those opportunities. I’ll help you out if you want. And you are so good at supporting me, and William. I don’t think either of us would have made it without who you’ve decided to be. If we’re not supporting you when you’re ready to grow, then you need to call us out. Okay? Whatever you need, you ask, okay?”
Jaycee sighs in relief, and looks down with a sudden grin at the food. “First thing I need is a verdict. Eat up, let me know what you think.”
Keri reaches eagerly for a spoon.
William is practicing his swordsmanship on the top of the Love Bug. Space Bug is watching with bemusement.
Finally the bug calmly draws a blaster, points, and fires. William, tuned up by his constant training, doesn’t even need to think to block the energy beam with Excalibur. He pivots on the ball of one foot and in a swift motion slices through the blaster in the bug’s hands. The entire action takes about a second.
Two halves of sparking high-tech weaponry fall apart, and William points the tip of the blade at Space Bug. “Want to explain what that was for?” he asks calmly.
“Was curious why you use a sword when we have blasters,” the bug explains calmly. “You’ve answered, demonstrated, clarified.”
William ahhs. “Well. This isn’t just a sword. If it was just regular metal, maybe a blaster would be better. Now the question is, what are you going to use when you don’t have a blaster any more?”
In answer, Space Bug draws a second, smaller blaster.
William briefly considers bisecting that one as well, but that would be rude. He settles for smiling, and returning to his practice.
Space Bug pockets the blaster again, but continues watching.
William finally speaks up between swings and thrusts. “I think I finally get you.”
Grunts and the heavy breathing of exertion break up his words. “You’re alone. You act out. You don’t know - know any better. You’re not bad. You just - need to survive. We confuse you. But you’re curious.”
He lowers the sword, gulps down some air, and finally exhales to steady his heart rate. “In the past, people like me - the Grail Knights, people who bear this sword - we’d hunt monsters. Monsters are creatures that act on instinct and need. If you’re hungry, you eat. If you’re sleepy, you find a safe place to rest. But monsters would eat people, or destroy their homes.”
Space Bug nods in quiet approval. This is indeed how the world is supposed to work, it looks like.
William leans on the blade and takes in more air, then mops his brow with a hand towel. “I think you don’t know any better, but you know you don’t know. You don’t do bad stuff because you enjoy being bad. It’s just what you know. But you watch us, and learn other ways to be.”
“You want me to wield a sword like you?” Space Bug asks at last, tilting their head.
William laughs and laughs, and dries his face with the towel. “I don’t… think that’s going to happen, sorry. Not really what I meant either. Maybe I’m wrong about you. But you’re interesting to learn about too. I guess I thought you might be like me.”
Space Bug examines their limbs briefly, then stares at William. “Like you? Is there resemblance, similarity, concurrence?”
“When I was younger, my parents moved to Halcyon from Sheffield. It’s a city, across the ocean east of here.” William points. “Everything here was new and different. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. Who I should hang out with. I acted out. Got into trouble. Messed around with some bad people. And I paid for that mistake, and I learned to do better. Made friends. Made something of myself.”
He holds up Excalibur, turning it about in his hands and staring at it. “And then… the sword chose me. Someone like me.”
Space Bug thinks about this, and thinks, and thinks. Finally it speaks.
“I think I have also moved from Sheffield.”
Adam puts out the call. One by one, his friends answer.
Keri has tweaked her costume. Jaycee has packed a rugged rucksack full of supplies, now that she knows the sorts of things in store for her. William still travels light, but he’s got a couple of tools in his pocket. Space Bug has replaced their broken blaster with a stronger, meaner-looking one.
Outside the Love Bug, Adam hands out Void Keys - now contained in physical shells, looking like brass skeleton keys - and explains the idea behind them.
“Right now these are all connected to my master key,” he explains. “When I travel, you’ll all come with me. Once I know it works, I’ll unlink them, so each of us can travel independently.”
Keri accepts her Key. “Where are we going?”
Adam gestures at the Blockhead ship. “We aren’t traveling on the ship. We don’t have to any longer. But we’re going to follow the emotional associations it has. We’re going to find the Blockheads that stole the missing Shards from Earth. We’ve got two threads to follow. My feelings about their attack on me, and the physical ship here. What do we think? It could mean walking right into a fight.”
William clenches a fist and grins. “Ready for anything.”
Jaycee nods in agreement.
Space Bug gives four thumbs up.
Adam raises his Void Key, and the others raise theirs in answer. In a flash, five keys activate, and five people vanish into darkness.