Heretical Edge

Another Look At The Present-Day Roundabout

Stepping through the door of the old record shop was like going back in time. It was literally a vinyl record shop, which these days was practically unheard of. And yet, as he heard the tinkling bell overhead and took in the scent of all these classic albums, fifteen-year-old Daran Traek found himself smiling. The boy was too young to have been around when vinyl was a regular thing. Hell, he was born at the very tail end of the popular use of CDs. Still, he had always felt a kinship with the ancient way of playing music, even though it was basically dead.

Or maybe he felt that kinship because it was basically dead. Daran was, after all, a Necromancer.

Okay, so he was a Necromancer-in-training. Either way, he had that connection to and affinity for dead things. And even before Daran (and his sister) had known for certain that they had inherited the Necromancy gift from their long-missing uncle, they had been hearing about the Roundabout from their family. It was a very important secret, one they couldn’t talk to any outsiders about. Not that Daran and Nova interacted with many outsiders. Up until their Necromancy gifts had manifested, the two were homeschooled and mainly only played with one another, or with close family members or friends of the family who happened to be part of the secret.

The secret, the one that their family and those like them had been holding onto for so many years now. Centuries altogether. The Roundabout had been established as a school all the way back in like the sixteen hundreds, though groundwork had been laid here and there for centuries before that. So yeah, they had been around for awhile. And the fact that the Roundabout was a secret to basically all of the big players out there in the world was just… wild. Of course, it wouldn’t have been possible without some help from some other big players like Professor Trivia, but still.

With those thoughts running through his mind, Daran began to look through the shop after raising his hand to wave at the suspicious old woman behind the counter who was staring at him, apparently just waiting for the fifteen-year-old boy to start trouble. At his wave, she used a cane to pointedly smack a metal sign on the nearby wall warning that, ‘if you damage it, you buy it.’ Which seemed fair enough, but he had a feeling that anything he said would be turned against him, court of law or not. So he just gave her a thumbs up and turned to peruse the records carefully.

The bell over the door dinged again, and Daran didn’t need to hear the heavy, annoyed sigh from the older woman over by the counter to know just who had come in behind him. Sure enough, his thirteen-year-old sister loudly called from the doorway, “Dare, come on! Haven’t you found the music yet?”

“I just walked in here thirty seconds ago, Nova,” Daran reminded her while rolling his eyes. “Did you already find the stuff you were supposed to get?”

“Duh,” the girl shot back while moving up beside him. She held up a shopping bag full of assorted items. “I’m not a slowpoke like you.”

“By which,” a tall, humanoid ghost in a chauffeur’s outfit announced while appearing nearby, “she means I was sent ahead to browse the shelves and inform Miss Traek of precisely where to go.”

Sticking her tongue out at her personal ghost companion, Nova sniffed. “Is it my fault for thinking ahead and sending York? Anyway, what’s the holdup? You just need some old records, right?”

“If Mister Traek requires,” the ghost in question put in, “I shall aid his search here as well.”

Daran glanced sidelong toward the clerk, or owner, or whoever she was. The Bystander Effect meant the woman couldn’t see or hear York, the ghost chauffeur. And she probably didn’t need even more of a reason to want them to leave, which he really couldn’t afford to deal with before finding what he’d come for. So he pointedly didn’t look at the ghost man before turning back to the records. “Just give me a minute, I’ll find the right one and we can get out of here.” That last bit was added mostly for the benefit of the older woman, letting her know that they would be leaving soon, after giving her a sale. Which, from the looks of this place, she very much needed.

Sure enough, after searching through another couple stacks, he found what he was looking for. A mostly-pristine copy of the Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill record, from all the way back in 1986. The sticker labeled it as forty dollars, which was a bit more expensive than they might have been able to get it online, but not too bad.

Giving the relieved woman a couple twenties from his pocket, Daran led his sister and her ghost partner out of the shop. His own ghost, an enormous troll who went by the name Kirby, stood nearby and cheerfully spoke up once they appeared, “Oooh ooh, is it done? Can we do the goodbye-hello ritual now?”

“Just the hello part,” Nova reminded him. “We did the goodbye part yesterday at the wake.”

“What she said. And yeah, we’re ready,” Daran confirmed, after giving the supplies that Nova had picked up a quick glance. “Let’s get back to the portal.

“Before Mister Amhren decides to leave without us and makes us take the long way back to the school!”

*******

Fortunately, their teacher and chaperone for the trip into Boston had not actually left without them. Soon, the siblings and their ghost partners were back at the Roundabout. Safely within the bone-shaped walls of the school in its current hidden location (the school moved a lot to remain completely undetected), Daran and Nova raced one another through the campus, passing several buildings on their way. Buildings where they lived, slept, attended classes and other training, and generally spent all their time in the months since their acceptance into the school.

But at that moment, their destination was a pavilion on the far side of the campus, nestled between the smaller of two libraries and the main computer lab. The pavilion was situated directly next to a small walkway bridge that passed over a stream. A good portion of the Roundabout was still metal ‘ground,’ but some parts were covered in grass and other natural features, like this small park-like area.

The pavilion was also a very sought-after place for studying and relaxing. But the two of them had reserved it ahead of time specifically for this. As such, only two figures were waiting for them. The first was one of their fellow students, a Relukun (wood person) named Hosh, and the other was the current Attending Headmistress, Margrave Laein.

As soon as she saw them arriving, Margrave Laein pivoted to face them with a bright, welcoming smile as she spread her arms. “How wonderful to see you two back already, just in time!”

Daran almost fell for it. The small, pink-skinned figure’s smile was infectious, and he found himself returning it while taking one step forward, then another.

Halfway through the third step, he thought better of it and threw himself sideways while his hand snapped out to catch hold of Nova to drag his sister along with him. Which was the exact moment that a blast of concussive force erupted from the hidden spellform on the ground right where they had been. Even with the last-second dodge, the two were still knocked backward to land in a sprawled heap.

“Next time don’t be on time, be early!” Margraeve Laein was standing over the two dazed teenagers, pointing at them dramatically. “You never know who might have been compromised while you were goofing off! One time you’ll show up and it’ll be a real bomb, not just a bit of a shove spell! Do your due diligence, watch your surroundings, be aware of where you’re going! Pay attention! You get survival training from me, not cuddles and pats on the bum! What happens if you fail and die horribly?”

Without hesitation, the siblings chorused, “We don’t get out of it that easily because you’ll bring us right back as ghosts and put us to work cleaning up the mess we made with our carelessness.”

“That’s right,” Margraeve Laein confirmed with a quick nod. “We’re not playing games out here, we’re constantly under threat.” She paused briefly before giving them a smile that was both mischievous and genuinely proud. “You saw it coming, didn’t you? At the last second.”

Blushing slightly, both of them nodded, which made their headmistress beam. “Excellent! See, you’re learning already. A few months ago you would have blundered straight into those spells. Give it another year and you’ll actually be ready for some field work.”

That said, she summoned a couple other ghosts with a wave of her hand, leaving them to help Daran and Nova to their feet while turning to walk back to the pavilion where Hosh was still waiting. “Now come! It’s time for the hello part of our goodbye-hello!”

The reminder made the fifteen-year-old boy gasp as he looked around quickly, afraid the record he had bought would be broken. Not that it would’ve been that bad since magic could put the thing back together, but still. Fortunately, both that and the bag that Nova had bought were held in the waiting, outstretched hands of York and Kirby. They had known what was coming even before he realized.

In the pavilion were the objects that had already been arranged for this ritual. There was an old record player, a set of novels from various points of the past hundred years or so, several toy cars-- wait, model cars, Daran had to remind himself. If the subject of today's ceremony had heard him call them toys, there would have been hell to pay.

Beyond that, there were a few other odds and ends. He set the album he had purchased on the record player, while his sister began arranging her own keepsake items around the pavilion.

Meanwhile, in the very center of the cement circle, an intricate series of runes had appeared on the metal floor. The spellwork was copied from what Daran and Nova had drawn onto the paper that their teachers had provided. That itself had been copied out of their textbook, and painstakingly checked both by them and their teachers to be certain that it was correct.

Once everything was set, the two Necromancy students, their personal ghosts, and their headmistress all stood just outside of the pavilion. Margrave Laein bounced up and down on her toes, that shock of white hair flying back and forth erratically. “Are you certain you did it right?” she demanded with a feral smile, as though just as eager as an early student to see what came next. That was one thing both of them had noticed in their time here. Whenever these rituals, these spells using actual Necromancy came up, the headmistress was as giddy as a school child. She never seemed to get tired or bored of it. And why would she? They were using actual Necromancy!

The two students emphatically confirmed that they had followed the instructions precisely. They knew that the headmistress didn't want them to simply claim it was right without knowing for certain. She was a tough teacher, but a fair one. If they had said they weren't certain, she would have gone over it with them bit by bit. She loved Necromancy, and particularly loved to teach it. She could be a bit much sometimes, but she still taught them a lot.

The ritual didn't actually start until another half dozen of their classmates came to join them, along with a few teachers. Students here at the Roundabout were organized not by age, but by how far along you were in your studies. Whether you started as a child, or in your elder years didn't have any effect on how fast you ranked up or allow you to learn Necromancy faster. You moved to the next rank when the teachers and headmistress determined you were ready to do so, and no sooner.

Nor was there any stigma about being an older student with younger classmates, or for taking longer to move on to the next rank. The culture of the school was very much against that. Not to mention, the way Margrave Laein worked, if she had caught any of the students pressuring others to move on before they were ready in any way, she would have made them wish they were never born. For all her diminutive size, the headmistress could be very frightening when she wanted to be. That went double if she thought people were treating magic, especially Necromancy, frivolously. They could have fun with it, but if she thought they were being careless, gods help them.

Under the watchful eyes of their classmates, teachers, and headmistress, Daran and Nova briefly exchanged glances and nodded to one another. Together, they began to go through the ritual. They had practiced it over and over again leading up to this, to the point that they could have done it in their sleep. Still, both of them felt nervous under all this attention. The last thing they wanted was to screw up in front of everyone.

But, taking it step by step, infusing the spell form with power gradually while reading off the command words, the siblings eventually made it through. At the last word, there was a clap of thunder. That wasn't supposed to happen. At first, Daran felt his heart jump into his throat. Then he realized it was just Margrave Laein adding a little drama to the proceedings. She did that sometimes.

No, they had done the spell correctly. Which became evident a moment later as a ghostly figure appeared in the pavilion directly above the spellform. As soon as it did, there was a scattered bit of applause from the few other students and teachers who had been observing.

But Daran and Nova weren't really paying attention to that. There had been a bit of elation that they had succeeded at the spell. Then they both realize what that meant, when they processed who they were looking at. Together, the siblings silently walked up to the pavilion. Their hands found one another and squeezed as they put themselves right in front of the figure they had summoned.

“Hi, Grandpa,” Daran found himself saying. The words were echoed by his sister as the ghost turned to face them.

“Dar! Nove!” The ghost form of their grandfather, a tall, winky figure with heavily-lined skin and gray hair that was very thinning on top, gave them a broad smile. It was the sort of smile they remembered from years past, before he had been so sick. Gilbert Conley, their mother’s father, had been a minor Adjacent, unaffected by the Bystander Effect and technically able to use magic. But he’d had no real talent for it. And he had been unable to bond with any Alter despite multiple attempts. That was simply how it went sometimes, from what the two had been told.

Either way, Gilbert had lived longer than most humans would have, passing away recently at the ripe old age of one hundred and twenty-nine. Magic had helped extend his life. But when he began suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's, there was a little that could be done. Even magic could only accomplish so much. Even Professor Trivia had been unable to completely cure him, though that help at least had allowed the man to become coherent enough to tell them that he was ready to move on. He was also able to say that he trusted his grandchildren, who had been born with the full Necromancy gift that skipped over his generation, to bring his ghost back.

It wasn't exactly the same thing, of course. The man himself had died, and his ghost was a piece of him that was left behind. It was his personality and memories stamped into the magical energy around him at the time of his death. That was why this ritual was known as the goodbye-hello. They had said goodbye to the original man the night before at the wake, and today they were saying hello to his ghost, the part of him that had been left behind.

But there was another bit to the ritual as well. It wasn't simply bringing their relative’s ghost to the Roundabout. There was also the matter of all those objects they had brought to the pavilion and set up. The siblings glanced around to be certain, and immediately smiled. The objects, the record player, the album, the model cars, books, all of it was just as translucent as their grandfather. They had succeeded. They took his favorite things, things he loved throughout his life, and made them ghostlike as well. Now all of them could be interacted with by their grandfather, or any other ghost. They gave him things he could interact with even if he didn't have the energy needed to become tangible. Those objects would remain ghost-like forever.

But one thing was certain, he definitely had the energy for it right then. Their grandfather's ghost rushed forward, flying right over to them before scooping the two up into his arms while they yelped. He lifted them off the ground with a loud bellow of a laugh, congratulating them on bringing him over.

What followed was a minute of absolute bliss. Daran and Nova originally knew their grandfather as the cheerful, music-loving jokester of a man that he had been throughout most of his life. But the Alzheimer's had really affected him in the last couple years of his life. Seeing him now, as a ghost, acting the way they remembered from their childhoods, made them forget about all of those hard days.

Together, they went over the books, record player, all of it. Their grandfather was delighted by all of it, and kept showing off how he could touch everything so easily. He had adapted to being a ghost immediately. Which made sense, considering how much experience he had with them. His family had always been connected to the Roundabout, even as civilians. They were part of the secret. His own great-great grandfather had been one of the first students at the Roundabout. He was deceased now (and his ghost had moved on), but his picture was up in several of the classrooms. Though his family was one of those who chose to live in the regular world, they still helped and participated where they could.

All of which meant that he had a lot of experience with ghosts, even if this was his first time on the other side of it. And he was having a great deal of fun with his grandchildren now.

“Yes, yes, of course they're quite impressive.” Margrave Laein put in after a couple minutes of that. “But you know very well how this goes. We have to be certain it's you and you haven't been corrupted by anything else.”

That was why the other students and teachers hadn't left yet. They weren't there only to observe, but to help deal with the situation if it turned out that this was some other being masquerading as Gilbert Conley. It wasn't common, but it had happened before. At least, according to what Daran had heard. One particularly cunning creature had managed to masquerade as a family member spirit for a month before revealing itself by murdering one of the other students.

Now they had a whole system set up for completely verifying a ghosts identity. All the siblings could do was sit back and watch. This didn't involve them. They couldn't be part of it.

Fortunately, after almost an hour of that, the headmistress was satisfied. This really was Gilbert Conley.

Once that was done, she immediately announced, “Well, I suppose we don't need to cover Part A of orientation. You are aware of what you are, what this place is, and what we do.”

Ghosts who were summoned from outside the Roundabout ‘family’ went through a much more in depth and lengthy orientation. They had to be taught everything about what was going on, basically. But since Grandpa Gilbert already knew all of that, they could move to part B.

“I'm staying,” he immediately announced before Margrave Laein could launch into the spiel about how he was under no obligation to stick around if he didn't want to. “Don't even think about it. I wanted to be a part of this place, a real part, my whole life. And now I get to be here with my grandkids? I'm sure as shootin’ sticking around.”

Those were the rules that their founder and true school head had established all those years earlier. Ghosts who were brought back had to be allowed to leave if they wanted to, to move on whenever they chose. No one, ghost or Necromancer alike, could be forced to stay here if they didn't want to.

Though, of course, there were certain things that had to be done to their memories if they chose to leave. Knowledge of the Roundabout couldn't be allowed to get out into the open. Professor Trivia made certain of that.

As soon as the headmistress verified that they had succeeded at pulling their grandfather’s ghost, Daran and Nova were surrounded by those few classmates who had come to help, along with their teachers. They were roundly congratulated and cheered. This was a big moment for them, in more than one way. It was their first time doing the ritual.

Eventually, however, the siblings were left to take their grandfather to the nearest quarters, where he could meet everyone else like him. York and Kirby were already regaling the man with stories about his new peers, and recruiting him into a poker game.

On the way, Daran glanced sidelong at his sister, giving her a quick smile. She returned it briefly before crossing her eyes and sticking her tongue out at him. Because being mature for longer than half a second was completely impossible.

But that didn't matter. They were both happy. They had brought their grandfather's ghost back, had completed the goodbye-hello ritual, and now he was here with them. Which also meant they would move up to the next rank in their classes.

And someday, when the time came, they would both be ready to stand side-by-side with their fellow full Necromancers, each with an army of ghosts in front of them, to save the universe from the threat of the Fomorians.

***********

Continuing Non-Canon Of Jacob And Gaia Romance

They shouldn't have survived. They had been facing an utterly overwhelming Fomorian force, one that obscenely overpowered them. Their tiny vessel should have been torn apart in moments. The fact that they had managed to dodge such a fate, that they had survived and escaped with the ship and their lives intact, went against all reason.

It also meant that Jacob and Gaia had been a bit hopped up on adrenaline. That brush with death, with the potential of something so much worse than simple death, had left them with a whole different sort of energy. Energy which, for whatever reason, hadn't managed to dissipate in the two days that had passed since that whole thing.

Energy which led, that morning, to Jacob standing in the kitchen behind Gaia with one arm around her waist. His other hand was holding her arm as he helped the woman stir a pot of spaghetti noodles. Both of them were swaying back and forth to music that was playing softly in the background. It was music that neither understood, with lyrics and instruments from an alien world. But they enjoyed the relaxing sound anyway. Gaia had discovered how to turn on the ship’s stereo. Which was a word Jacob had to teach her, adding more uncertainty to just how his amnesia worked. He could remember things about the future, like that word, but no details about himself, how he had ended up here, or plenty of other specifics. All of that was a blank. Hell, he remembered things like ‘TikTok’ which apparently had something to do with moving pictures set to music rather than a clock. That part Gaia still wasn’t certain he wasn’t pulling her leg with. But either way, those things he recalled, but he couldn’t name his own mother if his life depended on it. General knowledge about his time period was there, but specifics about himself, his life, or why and how he had been sent back to this time were all missing.

Watching the long strands of pasta growing softer in the boiling water, Gaia murmured, “You say preparing such a meal is truly this simple in your time? Go to a shop, purchase one of those boxes along with the metal container of sauce, fill the pot with water with the turn of a knob, press the button to turn on the box-fire, and cook them that easily?”

“Just like we’re doing here,” Jacob confirmed easily. His hand gently brushed over her wrist, tickling lightly before he added, “Picture a building as large as the hangar bay of this ship, the one we showed up in. Then add in row after row after row of shelves with boxes, cans--the metal containers, bags, and everything and anything that could hold food. People walk through them with metal carts on wheels that they push and fill them up.”

“Are you certain you should be telling me this?” Gaia lightly teased, once she had caught her breath after the feelings that came up when the man’s fingers tickled her wrist. “Knowledge of the future can be quite dangerous.”

“Something tells me you won’t be able to do much just because you know about supermarkets,” Jacob replied while moving his hand to reach past her. He turned the knob there to turn the stove (one that was so very different than the stoves she was familiar with) down to its lowest setting. “There, now we just need to drain it, then add the hamburger and sauce.” An already-browned and crumbled pile of meat had already been added to a nearby pan full of red sauce and was lightly simmering.

Soon, they had done just that, draining the water from the pot. They filled several plates with the pasta, covered them in sauce and meat, and sent a message through the ship’s computer to summon Laein for hers. Ever since the younger girl had helped with the Fomorians, she had been free to roam the ship. She had proven her loyalty and earned that much.

Besides, it wasn’t as though she would be able to do anything untoward without Gaia knowing.

As for the last living occupant of the ship, none of them trusted Fahsteth any further than they could have thrown the ship itself. He could sit in his cell and wait until they were done. Then one of them would take him food.

Though to be perfectly honest, there was a part of Gaia that wondered why they were even bothering. It would have made much more sense, in her mind, to eject that creature into space. But Jacob remained uncertain whether he was important to the future, and equally uncertain whether such a thing would even actually kill him. His mechanical parts kept him alive through many other things. It was just as likely that he would manage to survive a trip through space and end up becoming someone else's problem. Which was absolutely not something Gaia wanted to be responsible for.

Although, on the other hand, if she truly wanted to make certain he was dead, she had her ways.

But no, for now, he didn't matter. What did matter was spending this time with Jacob. The man may not remember anything about his life, but Gaia could say for certain that whoever he devoted his attention to in the future was an incredibly lucky person.

It was very wrong to feel jealous of someone she had never met or even heard the name of, and the idea that such a person might not exist had been thoroughly dismissed. Jacob was entirely too special for that. No, he had someone.

Although a part of Gaia couldn't help but hope that the someone he had was her. It wasn't impossible, of course. He had been sent back from the future. It was possible, given the way time travel was supposed to work, that he had always been intended to meet her and develop… this.

Maybe this was the true reason he had been here in the first place.

There was no way to know for certain, not at this moment. But Gaia had already told herself one thing. She wasn't going to worry about that right now. She wasn't going to dwell on it. She was simply going to enjoy the time she had with Jacob, and take whatever else happened as it came.

To that end, after setting the plates down and taking her seat, Gaia caught the man by the hand and squeezed it. When he looked at her, she gave him a soft smile, then leaned in to gently touch her mouth to his. It was a very soft kiss, yet one that still sent a shock through her. All of this, since that first kiss in the wake of their survival against the impossible Fomorian odds, had made her feel things she hadn't in quite some time indeed. It made her feel… alive.

Once they found their seats, Jacob tapped his fork against the plate a couple times thoughtfully before meeting her gaze. “Do you mind if I ask you something a bit personal?”

Gaia gave a soft snort at that. “Jacob, my dear man, I do believe we've long since gone past the need to ask such permission. You may know anything about me that you wish. Although at some point in the future, I intend to collect your debt on such answers. When your memories return, when it is possible to speak without so much potential consequence, there are many things I wish to ask you as well.”

Jacob coughed and glanced down, a slight blush crossing his features before he gave a quick nod. “And you deserve answers to all of them. You deserve more than I can even say.” His hand, the one that wasn't holding the fork, moved to touch her fingers. “I just wanted to ask about the shop you used to run. When you brought up the supermarket a minute ago, it reminded me about that. You seem happy whenever you talk about that old shop. I was just wondering how that happened.”

The question made Gaia smile, though she remained thoughtfully quiet for a moment. Swirling the spaghetti on her fork, something the man had taught her, she took a bite and savored the taste. The fact that food like this was so simple to acquire and even more simple to prepare in the time that Jacob came from was an extraordinary thought. And it helped her find the right words to answer him. “I enjoyed having what people needed. I saw it as helping them, and solving problems for them. Having those little shops, because there were two, one before I gained my power and one after, made me feel like I was someone that people could come to when they had problems. My first shop was more of a general place, various odds and ends. I liked to think that anyone who came could pull something out at random and it might be something they needed. Even just something they liked. Some called it a junk shop. I saw it as a shop of wonders. Children enjoyed looking through my bins looking for treasure. Sometimes I put a couple more expensive things in the cheap bins just to see the way their eyes would light up.”

Something crossed the man's face at that, as though her words had made him, if not remember anything specific, at the very least remember a feeling. Something she had just said clearly tickled his memory. He interlaced his fingers with hers and took a bite of his own dinner before speaking again. “Yeah, I think that fits with what I knew about you. You do enjoy helping people. Even when you were… even when he made some poor choices, you did it because he thought that was the best way to help people get justice.”

“And it became something worse,” Gaia confirmed. She refused to shy away from accepting responsibility for her time as an enemy of Arthur and Camelot. She had done terrible things, and made terrible choices. They were choices she would spend the rest of her life working to make up for.

Perhaps, with any luck at all, at some point in the future she would be able to tell her brother that she was sorry. But now, she would simply continue to work to ensure that there were actions behind the apology.

Jacob brushed his thumb over her palm tenderly before clearing his throat. “And then your second shop focused more on potions and such, didn't it?”

With a light chuckle, Gaia nodded. “Potions and medicine that I called potions. I learned a great deal about medicine from my teacher. I learned ways of helping those in need, those who were sick or hurt. They came to me, to my shop, because they needed help. They would tell me what was bothering them, and I gave them a way to feel better. It was simple, and I enjoyed it. Especially when they brought their children to me. Seeing a child who was… hurt and being able to take that hurt away was… I’m not sure I’ve ever felt more like the person I was supposed to be than in those moments.”

Once again, she saw flashes of emotions, the memory of emotions, or possibly the emotion of memories, pass over the man's face. Then he lifted her hand and kissed it gently. “I have a feeling you will excel at anything you do. And the people you help in the future will be as lucky as the ones you helped in the past were.” He gave her a wink. “Your brother, when he comes back, is going to have quite a lot to live up to.”

That made Gaia laugh despite herself, and she tugged the man's hand over to touch her lips to his fingers while shaking her head. “You silly, ridiculous man. He is King Arthur, he will have nothing to live up to save for his own legend. And he is perhaps the only person in history capable of doing that.” Her expression softened and she pressed her lips to his fingers again lightly. “But thank you. You are a silly, ridiculous person. And I am much better for knowing you.”

They continued to eat like that, while she told him how she had found herself running that first shop. It had been an empty building when she found it that first time, but she had seen its potential the first night she stepped into the place. The old man who owned it had allowed her to spend the night sleeping there. She had been on the run for months by that point, staying ahead of the… evil thing that she had escaped from. At first, she only expected to spend that single night in that building. But while she was there, covered in blankets and staring around at the walls, she fell in love with the place. She saw what it could be, imagined the space filled with knick knacks, tools, toys, any number of things for any number of people.

She looked at the empty space and saw what it could be, and then she turned it into that thing. She hunted and traded and worked for everything that was ever put in that shop. She built it up from nothing. That first shop was her way of building not only a business, but a life. A real life after all the time she had spent as a prisoner, or running for her survival. Putting the shop together had been like organizing her mind. It made her feel like a person.

It took longer than their meal time to explain all of that, and the associated feelings. Laein showed up to grab her food, lingering just long enough to seemingly realize she didn't want to interrupt before heading out again. Whatever she was working on seemed to involve attempting to use some combined Necromancy spells she knew to contact the Earth. So far she hadn't had any luck with that. Jacob had said he was going to wait a bit before offering to help her. He wasn't sure it would work at all from this distance, even with both of them. But it had more of a chance that way. He just felt like the girl would be insulted if he offered too soon. Besides, none of them, Laein included, were certain of who precisely they could contact that would even be able and willing to help with this specific situation.

And honestly, by the time they made this spell work, found someone, and that someone managed to pull something together, they very well could already have made it back to Earth under their own power. But at the very least, doing this made Laein happy and kept her pretty busy. And who knew, maybe a similar situation would pop up in the future and she would already know the solution.

Once the two of them were done eating, they took Fahsteth his food while Gaia continued to talk about her old shop. Fortunately, the cell they were keeping the men in was soundproofed, so they didn't have to listen to him while putting the food into the tray to be sent over into the room. He had already made his annoyance and anger quite plain, along with his extensive knowledge of nasty words from many different languages. They didn't need to hear anymore. Ever, as far as Gaia was concerned.

They also fed the man’s adorable armored pet raptor, which was being kept in another room far from him. The thing was bonded to Fahsteth with his power, but they had been working on that. Gaia knew a thing or two about that sort of enforced bond, and they had been working on some magic that should be able to free the creature from his control. It was slow-going, since she didn't want to hurt the poor thing. But, of course, she had plenty of free time now. And more than enough motivation to separate the animal from Fahsteth’s power. Not that she had any idea what the animal would actually be like then, but still.

Once everyone on the ship was fed, Gaia had finally stopped talking about her first shop. Realizing how much of the conversation she had been dominating, the woman blushed slightly and stopped to look around. They were standing on the observation deck, looking out at the stars. They weren't in Jump at the moment, and the view of deep space around them was mesmerizing. For a couple of minutes, the two of them simply stood there and stared. Their hands found one another and interlaced. She held Jacob’s hand, staring at those distant stars and planets, thinking about all the trillions of lives spread throughout what they were looking out. Lives that were in such precarious danger thanks to the very creatures that this ship had so recently and dramatically escaped from.

If nothing else, being out here on the ship, seeing those monsters for herself, and being given this extended tour of what these stars looked like far from Earth had made Gaia think about just how much was at stake. Whatever else happened, whatever her future became, she knew that the Fomorians had to be stopped. No matter how difficult it was. They had to be ended, not simply as a threat to Earth, but to the rest of this wide universe. Those monsters couldn't be allowed to continue killing and destroying everything across those other worlds. Those people deserved to live as well. They deserved their own chance to have nice little shops, or whatever made their own lives fulfilling.

After those minutes of silence, Jacob squeezed her hand and spoke in a soft voice. “They really are a threat to everything out there, aren't they?”

Gaia smiled just a bit, unsurprised at this point that the man had known what she was thinking. They seemed to be in sync that way. Although to be fair, it probably hadn't been difficult to guess where her mind had gone. “To everything and everyone,” she confirmed. “No matter what happens, they must be stopped. All those people out there, all those lives, they need help. They can't survive against those creatures we saw. Those things will kill everyone.”

“No, they won't,” Jacob replied while shaking his head. “We won't let them. We know what the threat is. It's big enough that even when I lost all my other memories, I didn't forget that. And I know we can find a way to stop them. Necromancy, I know that's important. It's part of why I was sent into the past. The… the details aren't there, but still. I know we can stop them.”

The two figures stood in silence for another moment, contemplating that. But they knew that the time would come soon enough when they would be thrown back into such horrific danger that these moments would feel like a distant dream. They knew that they needed to savor what they had now, while they could. Moments like this had to be embraced and held deep in their souls. They were fuel for when the danger inevitably returned. The next time they were fighting for their very existence, moments like this held tight in their memories would show them what they were fighting for in the first place.

For a very long time, Gaia had wandered the Earth, searching for a place to belong, a place to become the person she wanted to be. Nothing had felt quite right. She had always believed that something was missing, that she wasn't where she needed to be. And yet, strangely, being right here, so far from Earth, had felt more right than anything else had since Camelot.

It wasn't about where she was, it was about who she was with. Jacob was the man she was supposed to be with, the man she was supposed to help. She could feel that deep down. This wasn't just about their budding relationship, it was so much more. This was about how she could help him reach his full potential, and how he could help Gaia reach hers. This was about how much they could do for one another.

This was about Gaia and Jacob helping one another become the people who could stand in the front lines opposing those monsters. It would take far more than just them, but with work, with effort, and with the aid of one another, they could help.

Jacob spoke again in that soft voice. “It looks like you're having very dramatic thoughts right now.”

With a slight chuckle, she lifted his hand to touch his fingers to her lips gently. “Oh yes, very dramatic thoughts indeed. But right now, there's only one thought I want you to have. Can you guess what it is?”

He was indeed able to guess, stepping around in front of her before his hand brushed her cheek. His mouth found hers, and for a moment, all those serious thoughts melted away.

Yes, this was certainly a memory she would be holding deep in her soul.