Orphan At The Edge Of The World 135 Crawling Chaos 33

Staring out the window with a haunted look in his eyes, Orison said, "I dropped some books, very mean books. Another me sneezed around the same time. Ultimately, one side's soul was popped like a overfilled balloon while the other one died of a brain aneurysm. The second or third time, depending on how you count it, I was vaporized in a magical explosion I initiated to take a powerful enemy with me.

"You were with me on the last round... Not even sure what would be considered the killing blow but I was pretty much a dead man walking, crawling at any rate, by the time we got where we were going... What did happen there by the way?"

Zeke gripped the steering wheel with whitening hands as he shrugged. "I remember thinking purple, because ice cream doesn't have bones. The last relatively clear though I had was throwing you over to the counter to order our meal for us... I mean, tossing you over to the device. You were kind of impaled on one of it's p.r.o.ngs I think. I'm pretty sure that's what it was. It's not what I saw but that is one image I won't share even if it was true.

"Seeing you weren't able to read the menu, a kind jellyfish came over to help you complete your order... I'm not sharing the crazy because that's what I believe happened. I'm just thinking maybe it can help you figure it out."

Orison said, "I think what happened was that one of the creatures that followed us in was weak enough to trick into doing what needed to be done. If that's true, there's a person out there who might be nuttier than a fruit cake or completely normal but remembering what it was like to be full dark thirty. Those are the better possibilities."

Neither one of them said another word until Zeke instructed the young mage on how to do what he called an 'anonymous donation to the hospital'. He didn't want to talk about how he knew back door procedures to get people medical treatment but it only cost a couple hundred bucks to get the cooperation needed and a couple of names dropped that kept that cooperation quite. After letting Zeke know where Neil's office was, they lapsed back into silence again.

When Zeke pulled into a blind spot behind a condemned building, Orison was confused until the ex-soldier half dragged him into a hug. It was strange and awkward but after a half minute some dust or something got in Orison's eyes. It must have been something in the air because Zeke's eyes looked a little irritated too. A half hour or so later, they repacked a more manageable emotional load away while Zeke pulled a clean t-s.h.i.+rt over the top of his teaser suit and Orison rinsed the top of his head off with some water.

On their way to Neil's, the young mage said, "I know this is breach of protocol but I'm kinda surprised. You don't seem like a person able to, you know, let it out like that."

Zeke said. "I'm not. I hurt some good people learning how to. Well, I guess they aren't actually hurt anymore, right? That's one good thing. Count the blessings and all."

The closer to Zeke he became, the more Orison wondered if what made him interested in recruiting the guy wasn't so much the parts that resembled Claudius but the parts that resembled Gan that weren't so easy to see. The reluctance to get close but the fierce loyalty and care for those that made it over the wall weren't things a person would typically know just by talking with someone for a few minutes but when the conditions were right, it could be felt, the potential noticeable.

Knocked out of his thoughts by the sight of a familiar car parked outside of Neil's building while Zeke looked for a place to park, Orison had the ex-soldier stop and let him out. Less than a minute later, the young mage walked into an office that the door was already open on. Inside, an angry Smiley with a bruise on his jaw was taking a baseball bat to Neil's foot. Judging by the whimpers and blood, it had already been done a few times.

As Smiley turned and locked eyes with Orison a smirk crossed his face. "Are you the brat that sicked the Tong on me? Dumb move, kid."

Unknown to him, the young mage's eyes were pus.h.i.+ng off so much spirit essence glow, they were spiting it.

Though his men wished they were elsewhere, Smiley wasn't the least bit intimidated. "So what kind of creepy crawly are you then?"

Orison didn't answer. He responded with as powerful a spike of will driven intent as he was capable before seeing it bounce off the man and head straight back at him. In more of a reflexive intuition than any conscious act to do so, the young mage sounded himself with his s.p.a.ce and lunged at Smiley. The arrogant man's smirk never faded even as he saw himself sinking into the person shaped cutout of reality.

A moment later, inside of Orison's s.p.a.ce, the gangster let himself be chewed on for half a second before activating some kind of curse. Faster than Orison could comprehend, he was impossibly inside himself before the laws of existence invalidated what had happened. The no longer smiling Smiley was back inside where he was minced within moments, shocks and splashes of dark magic dissipating into the turbulent outer rim of the young mage's s.p.a.ce.

Before they could run, the young mage locked them in place and took his time filling the accompanying goons' heads with murderous intentions towards their fellow gang members. Greed, envy and l.u.s.t made for a fertile breeding ground for such seeds to sprout with little effort on Orison's part. The most difficult was convincing them to take credit for Smiley's demise but once he linked it with expectations of fear and obedience, they tuned to it quickly. When he let them go, he only hoped they'd last long enough to do real harm before they turned on each other.

Zeke came barreling in to see that the action was over. Looking disappointed, he turned to shut the door so the young mage's healing ritual could be done without witness. It actually ended up taking some effort. Neil's ankle bone was all but powder and tenderized meat. The most fortunate thing was after the last hit Smiley delivered, the detective had returned to the semi conscious state that he had at least been in once before.

Tempted to be angry at the Tong for its perceived failure, Orison had to remind himself that it was a group steeped in tradition and heritage. That almost always equaled slow and filled with nearly unlimited ennui driven observation. It took an extinction level event to light a fire under a dinosaur like that. Now if it was something within established procedure, it would move like greased lightning.

"Are you okay, Mr. Jones?" A child's voice said through the door.

Orison said, "He's fine now. I'm just helping him with a sprained ankle. Those guys shoved him around a little... Are you Jimmy?"

Defensively, the child's voice on the other side of the door said, "Who wants to know?"

The young mage nodded for Zeke to open the door. To keep the kid's eyes from fixing on Zeke first, Orison waved at him. It took some persuading to keep the boy from yelling for help or running but eventually he even managed to get Jimmy to 'help' Neil while he and Zeke went to clean up the 'mouse remains' splattered by the bat Orison brought back out.

Orison used said bat to break the mini trainer and as Jimmy looked at him wide eyed, wondering why he randomly destroyed something, a lash of spiritual force struck into the poor boy from the broken trainer. With a child unconscious, things got a little trickier when the other two 'J's showed up.

The oldest ran up to Orison threateningly and said, "What did you do to my little brother!?"

Equal parts anger and fear, James stood in front of his brother protectively. The young mage briefly wondered how the relations.h.i.+p between the two became so twisted that his older brother would steal his girlfriend but when it came to girls there didn't really need to be a reason.

Sighing, Orison shrugged and said, "I think he pa.s.sed out when the mouse's remains got scooped up. I'm not really sure."

Jacob stood by the door, ready to scream or run for help as James smacked his little brother's face a few times, telling him to wake up. Dazed, Jimmy came to but he wasn't up to moving on his own volition yet and when James lifted him up, he locked eyes with Zeke. The boy's pupils shrank to dots and his legs turned weak, slumping to the floor.

Imagining who knows what horrors were on the other side of the door, Jacob screamed as he ran down the hall.

The young mage rubbed his head and said, "Do you mind stopping your friend from bringing down the whole building. We're Neil's friends. I can't believe someone nearly as old as me acting like such a chicken from just looking at somebody."

Red rushed to James's face as he turned to Orison and said a little breathlessly, "I ain't no chicken!"

"Then prove it by keeping Jacob from riling everybody up for no good reason. We're trying to get Neil's ankle taken care of here and now G.o.d and everybody are going to be poking their noses in here," Orison said.

James stood back up and shakily said, "I'm not leaving my brother here alone with you."

Orison rolled his eyes and waited for 'the adults' which would be there any minute whether James told them nothing was wrong or not.

"What are you doing to Detective Jones and that kid!?" the first rabble rouser said.

Before other voices could join the first as more rubberneckers came out, Orison said, "I just ran off Smiley and his crew. Where was your outrage then? If you were too much of a turtle to poke your nose into people's business then, where would you find the guts to start shouting at someone who has the ability to send him packing? F***ing idiot!"

Suddenly tired of trying to play nice with a bunch of people who suddenly got brave because of numbers, he added, "Go home before I have this building condemned and evict you onto the streets. The person I'm trying to help here is one of the few reasons this building wasn't already shut down. I can f***ing change that!"

Whether it was the touch of supernatural convincing in his tone or the evil looking mound of muscle, the crowd started dispersing, evaporating the nerve of the few more outspoken ones. When Jimmy and James's parent came running in like they were getting ready to ford the lake of fire for their children, Orison felt like he finally understood something. People can act like they don't care and do dumb things but tragedy and outside threat have the potential to bring out the best in people.

He clearly remembered that the boy's parents half hoped they'd get abducted for a few days sometimes but when it came down to it, they were good parents when it mattered. n.o.body was perfect and this family was more flawed than most but they did stick together. At least until an older brother broke his younger brother's heart.

Voice thick with subdued anger, fear and worry, the father asked, "What happened to our son?"

Thinking about it, there was no way Orison was going to be able to take Jimmy with him at his young age without a lot of head and heartache, which meant a large chance of him being exposed as supernatural. Orison had to do what he could in as little time as possible to help prepare them. He desperately hoped that whatever Zora had seen that lead to this outcome meant that Jimmy would be future Jimmy in young body. Other outcomes weren't as pleasant.

"Have James leave and close the door. This involves things too big for kids but Jimmy didn't really have a choice," the young mage said as he scrambled to mix a story of lies and truth together as fast as he could.

The father stayed as he ushered out his oldest son and wife. She wanted to stay but the man explained that if it was something d.a.m.ning at least one of them could be spared for the children's sake if nothing else. Reluctantly, she stepped out.

Orison spun a tale of cult activity among crime organizations. Smiley starred as a villain and his own son as a victim circ.u.mstance. He demonstrated a touch of something that could be played off if really scrutinized but convincing enough to keep the man off balance for the moment while they waited for Jimmy to wake up. It didn't end up taking that long.

As the boy's eyes opened up, Orison took the lead before the father could and tested the waters. When the boy exhibited signs of knowing things from his future self but disa.s.sociated from them, the young mage realized what a huge mistake it had been to follow the last part of the instructions instead of finding his own solution. It belatedly occurred to him that they had just wanted to find a way to save Jammers and hadn't given a whole lot of thought to the logistics of anchoring the familiar to a child version of his master. That meant there was no option BUT to take the boy with them.

Orison looked sadly at the boy whose life he had likely just ruined and said, "There's one bad path you can take or I have two options I can offer. You can try to hide him and the burden of a gift he now carries which will inevitably be impossible, bringing untold dangers your family can't even begin trying to avoid. I can place him in protection with a group of people who have experience keeping gifted children safe or you can entrust him to Neil and I can offer a.s.sistance to Jimmy through him. Be aware that Neil can't stick around either but at least he's someone you know."

Jimmy spoke up to fill the silence as his father stood in emotional indecision. "I need to go with them, dad. I- I can give you the winning-"

Orison fixed Jimmy with a stare and shook his head, then honed his will onto Jimmy's dad and said, "Your youngest son has to go into witness protection with Neil. He'll take good care of your boy. Here's ten thousand dollars. Take your family and get them to Pecan Grove in Knightsville, South Caroline...Leave TODAY. Once you're there, approach a girl named Zimbia and ask to be introduced to Granny Georgia. She's a woman who specializes in helping mundane families who are attached to gifted in the greater supernatural community."

Orison gave an address and some more minor instructions which he wrote down before removing subtle compulsion. He sent Jimmy with his father to go pick up what odds and ends the boy might want and let him have some time to say goodbye... It was a new low point for Orison but he'd warned future Jimmy. He hoped that past Jimmy would be able to understand but how could he expect a child not to resent being separated from his family, no matter what memories of the future he might possess.

Neil stirred towards the end of the speech. The detective took it in stride and collected his meager belongings as well without seeming like he was holding a grudge. He had planned on taking option two but with the way things had played out and a decent grip of how the world worked, he took it the way he'd taken every other bit of ill luck in his life. He sighed, took a shot of whiskey and started formulating his life around the new problem.

The lighter heart he had came to Neil's apartment with was once again burdened with guilt and pain. The sound of Jimmy's soft sobbing in the back seat was like timed ice pick strikes to his self confidence. He was so wrapped up in that feeling that they almost drove right past Rose Cliff before Orison called for them to stop. Odd thing was, there was no ward. After asking around for a bit, he found out that the owners of the botanical garden and several of their friends moved three days prior. Confused and even more depressed, he rallied the group after a somber late lunch, early dinner.

Right as they were leaving town, a vaguely feminine raspy voice whispered to his soul, "Think no more of Flora for now, Father. She is here with me, so too are the circle and the rest of her spiritual kin not of you. What little tragedy may exist within that is not your burden nor blame. Offer the corruption to me if it pleases you. I have use of it if you do not."

With some trepidation and hoping it wasn't a mistake to do so, Orison took out the capsule and let out a shaky breath as it disappeared into the air.

"Please don't shake anymore of my faith in myself by betraying the trust I want to place in you. If you really see me as a father then that is all I truly desire from you in return, daughter," Orison practically begged from his heart.

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