1.09 – The Vehicle Has Been Modified

Xironi rummaged through her dresser drawers, spilling clothing on the floor. “Where did I put it?” she mumbled. Her fingers touched hard plastic at the back of her top drawer, and she pulled it out. “Ah ha!”

Esca floated over Xironi’s left shoulder, and at the sight of the object she let out a sound like a penny whistle. “My gyroscope!”

Xironi grabbed Esca out of midair and popped open a panel on her top. She inserted the tiny jumble of rings and weights into the robot, closed the lid, and tossed her back up into the air.

Esca resumed hovering, and green lights flashed around her rim. “Thank you, Miss Xironi! My space control hasn’t been the same without my gyroscrope.”

“Well, let me know if it goes wonky like it did last time,” said Xironi. “I’ll get you a new one when your upgrade comes in. I checked their shipping website, and it should be in tomorrow or the next day.”

Leaving Esca to float happily around the room, Xironi took her knapsack down from a shelf and began packing. Unexpected hazards always arose when travelling to other worlds, and she had learned long ago to be prepared. She packed warm clothing, cool clothing, and her focus wand. She hardly ever used the wand, being more comfortable with her bare hands, but if they ran into something unusual, like a gravity well, it was best to have the wand handy.

As she worked, Xironi’s mind drifted to other things. Like Carda. He was so sweet. Blustery and loud at times, but sensitive and gentle underneath. Not like Rayn. Xironi frowned and jammed a sweater into her knapsack. She had dated Rayn for six months. He had been the most popular guy in high school, good-looking, rich parents, and with his own car. Even back then, Rayn had been into classic cars.

Rayn had been interested in Xironi because everyone was interested in Xironi. She had entered the Strider Academy as a sophomore, and always wore hats and long dresses to school to conceal her ears and tail. This set her apart immediately. But once word got out that she had ears and a tail, the whole school fell over itself to get her to be friends with them and show them. Rayn had been the best one of the bunch, and after she showed him her ears, they started dating.

But as time went by, Xironi learned what Rayn Mistral was really like. He had a black temper that frightened her, and he was hopelessly into himself. Occassionally he showed glimpses of a kind person beneath his spoiled-rich-kid image, but these became less and less frequent. He partied hard and drank too much. Xironi broke up with him when she caught him going through her locker, looking for evidence that she was cheating on him.

Xironi had not had the nerve to date since. She dropped out of the Academy at the urging of her grandfather, because Octavius had become head of the school, and he planned to make changes to the way the school was run. Then her grandfather had her start watching Carda. Arthur Heartlight had had his suspicions that Carda was the next Strider of Chronos, and had Xironi keep him posted on any unusual powers that Carda displayed.

And now here she was, preparing to go on a cross-world trip to find a medallion that would prove Carda’s power without a doubt.

She summoned a tiny green tongue of flame to her right hand and used it to open a hole in the air. Through it she saw the kitchen, and Lucas puttering around his alchemy set, making dinner. “Hey Lucas,” she said, “could you pack us some food for the trip?”

He looked up and spotted the portal. “Oh my, floating lips,” he said. “I’ll never get used to you striders and this house. Sure, I will.”

Xironi closed the portal. She hefted her knapsack and considered increasing its interior size. The trouble with that was that although the space inside was larger, the additional mass added more weight. Sure, you could fit a car into a knapsack, but you couldn’t drag it around afterwards. Gravity just didn’t play nice with space.

“Hey Xironi?” called Carda.

“In here,” she called back.

He appeared at the open door of her room, holding her necklace by its chain. “You left this downstairs.”

“Oh, thanks,” she said, reaching for it.

Carda held it out, and his right hand touched the pendant. He froze.

“Oh, thank goodness!” Echo exclaimed, rushing forward and snatching the necklace from Carda’s hand. “I was so worried!”

“I know it’s important to you,” Carda replied, smiling.

Echo looked up with relief as she fastened the necklace around her neck again. A tear trickled down one cheek.

“Hey, no crying. I’m here for you,” Carda said, gently reaching forward to brush the tear away with his right hand. As he did so, a minor shock of temporal energy discharged into Echo’s face. “Oh, sorry! I’m still learning how to control this…”

Echo’s eyes unfocused. “That’s all right, I… I… Oh no.” Her eyes snapped back to the present. “Carda, this isn’t right. I’m not supposed to be here.”

Carda was taken aback. “What?”

“This timeline we’re in… it’s not supposed to exist!”

“Not supposed to— Echo, what are you saying? You and I—”

Echo’s eyes were wide and tragic. “You and I aren’t supposed to meet for another two years, Carda.”

Carda shook his head. “Come on now, you’re starting to sound like Indal, all this talk of seeing the future—”

Echo grabbed his shoulders and stared into his eyes. “Carda! What is my name? My REAL name?”

“Your name?” Carda frowned. “It’s… it’s… Why can’t I remember? I’ve called you Echo for so long…”

“Echo. How appropriate,” Echo sighed. “My name is Alatha. Alatha Semaeri. Remember it… and forget about me. For now.”

Carda drilled his gaze into hers. “What!?”

“You and I are here because of an accident. I was never supposed to come into your life, Carda. Xironi was. The timeline is slowly correcting itself, but there’s still a fragment of it that still exists, but shouldn’t. Now listen carefully, Carda… When you find that fragment, this is what you have to do—”

Xironi had snatched the necklace from Carda’s grasp as his vision snapped back to reality. “Don’t DO that! You scared me to death!”

“What happened?” Carda asked, feeling disoriented.

“You touched my necklace and zoned out for a good minute! I couldn’t snap you out of it!” Xironi’s voice and face told volumes. She was incredibly freaked out.

But then, if he was here, where had he just been? It was fuzzy, but it became clearer the more he pondered it.

The necklace. Something about the necklace was important. But he couldn’t remember why…

“Xironi, this may sound strange, but I need you to do as I ask, okay?”

“Okay,” she replied, worry still etched into her face.

“Take that necklace to Indal. Tell him—”

“Tell me what?” Indal’s voice came from behind Carda.

“What are you—?” Carda said, startled.

Indal leaned into the room and looked around. “I felt a strange pulse of temporal energy just now. Never experienced anything like it.”

“And you didn’t go wolf?” Xironi inquired.

“I can passively detect temporal energy, even if I can’t manipulate it,” Indal sniffed. “So what’s up?”

Carda pointed at the necklace, making sure to keep well away from the pendant. “This necklace. It’s really important. I don’t know why, but it is. I need you to do whatever you can to find out why.”

Indal gently took the necklace from Xironi’s hand and held it up. He peered closely at it for a moment before his eyes widened in alarm… or was it something else? Recognition?

“Where did you get this?” Indal whispered a heartbeat later.

Carda scratched his head. “I don’t know. No, that’s not entirely accurate. I don’t remember. But I feel like I should. And there’s one other thing…”

“What’s that?”

“A name. Alatha, I think.”

Indal locked eyes with Carda. “How do you know that name?” he asked sharply.

“If I knew, I’d tell you,” Carda told him. “I just do. Why, do you know her?”

Indal shook his head. “That’s not important right now. Well, I may be temporally crippled, but I can still do research on this necklace. I’ll do what I can.”

“I’ll be interested to see what you can find out,” Carda replied. Indal left the room, studying the necklace intently.

“Carda?” Xironi asked. “What was all that about?”

“I don’t know,” Carda answered, crossing to the bed and plopping down on the edge of it. He dropped his head into his hands. “The past two weeks have been so crazy… I hope I’m not losing my mind…”

Xironi sat down beside Carda and wrapped one arm around his waist, hugging him. “It’s a lot to take in so quickly, I’ll grant you that.”

Carda rested his head on Xironi’s shoulder. “At least I’m not going through it alone.”

Xironi blushed a bit, but stayed where she was. Sometimes you just needed to comfort someone. She rubbed his back for a while, until she felt the tension begin to leave him.

He lifted his head. “I just had an idea.”

“You did?”

Carda jumped to his feet. “What if we take the car with us?”

Carda’s Roadster was parked in Xironi’s driveway. Carda walked around it, examining it critically. “Joseph’s journal explains how to create an extra-dimensional space. What if we expand the inside of my car? Make it like a mobile base of operations?”

“I don’t know,” said Xironi, tail twitching. “It’s not good to take technology like this into other worlds. If you wind up on a world that’s more primitive than ours, they think this is very black magic.”

“I wonder if Slicks can do invisbility,” said Carda thoughtfully. “I’ll call him and ask.” He dashed into the house.

Xironi opened the car door and climbed into the driver’s seat. The roadster was only a two-door. Not even a back seat to work with. She climbed out and opened the trunk. It was empty. She thought that she had seen shoeboxes bigger than this trunk. But still, it was something.

Carda reappeared. “He says he’s got invisibility devices, but they don’t come cheap.”

“How much does he want?” Xironi asked.

“He asked how much I had left of the race winnings.”

“What’d you say?”

“I told him three thousand,” said Carda sheepishly.

Xironi looked suspicious. “Where’d the other two thousand go?”

Carda looked innocently up at the sky. “I ordered a new computer.”

Xironi sighed and rolled her eyes. “Anyway… about expanding your car. I think the trunk is our best bet.”

Carda looked into the trunk. “Yeah, easier to get into, at least. So how do we start expanding it?”

Xironi lifted one hand, twirled her fingers, and summoned chalk out of midair. “We have to do all the measurements first.”

There was a disappointing amount of math involved in expanding a space. They had to measure the existing space, write down the measurements of the bigger version, then crank those numbers through a series of formulae recorded in Joseph’s journal.

“You do this often?” said Carda, diving into the trunk to mark the corners.

“Only in school,” said Xironi. “I got a B. One wall only went halfway to the ceiling.”

“What was in the gap?”

“An open portal into the teacher’s lounge. I would have gotten a lower score, except that my teacher thought it was funny.”

Carda and Xironi stood at either side of the car, summoned pale green flames, and thrust them into the trunk, touching each of the chalked marks. The room expanded into a fifteen foot square, down inside the trunk. It was like looking into a basement. The walls and floor were padded with felt, exactly like the trunk had been.

They jumped down into the room. “Now what?” said Xironi.

Carda grinned. “Now we need furniture!”

“Not without stairs,” said Xironi, pointing at the trunk door fifteen feet overhead.

“I know!” said Carda. “How about one of those ladders that rolls up?”

Xironi squinted. “Like on a pirate ship?”

“No, silly,” said Carda. “They’re metal. Can you summon one? I haven’t worked the kinks out of my summoning yet.”

“I can only summon something if I know where it is,” said Xironi. “Um.” She bit her lip, thinking, waved her right hand, and summoned a rope. “That’ll get us out of here, anyway.”

They climbed out of the trunk and made a quick run to a home improvement store. They returned with Carda’s ladder and installed it. Then Xironi climbed into the trunk and started summoning furniture from the house.

They stocked the room with a couch, a minifridge, and a desk for Carda’s new computer, when it arrived. Carda and Xironi had a brief debate about electricity and where it should come from. Carda solved the problem by linking to the car battery, which turned out to be a nuclear battery from a more advanced world. Xironi dumped her backpack of clothing and other gear into a corner, and proclaimed it finished.

Sera’s head appeared overhead, looking into the trunk. “My, you two have been busy,” she remarked. “Making the car into a camper?”

“I wanted a van with ‘mystery machine’ painted on the side,” said Xironi, “but Carda wasn’t too thrilled.”

“Har har,” said Carda. He spread his arms and encompassed the room with a grand sweep. “Welcome to our mobile base of operations, Sera!”

Sera climbed down into the trunk. “Nice,” she said, looking around with hands on her hips. “You sure the car can handle this much load?”

Carda blinked. “Huh?”

“Well, isn’t this whole space attached to the car? Wouldn’t that make driving more difficult if you’re hauling all this around, too?”

“Hadn’t thought of that,” Carda muttered, embarrassed.

Xironi pondered this. “I don’t think extra-dimensional spaces work that way, although I’m not entirely sure. I mean, sure the house is full of space like that, but the house doesn’t move, either.”

“Only one way to find out,” Carda grinned.

“What’s that?” Sera asked suspiciously.

Carda didn’t answer. He merely climbed the ladder and shut the lid of the trunk. The room was plunged into darkness.

“Remind me to tell Carda to get a lamp or two from the house,” Xironi commented.

“If we survive this,” Sera quipped.

“Huh?”

“If he’s testing this out the way I think he’s testing this out…”

“No. No way, you’re not thinking—”

“If you get knocked unconscious by flying furniture then we’ll know his plan didn’t work the way he thought it would.”

Xironi felt her way to the couch, curled up on it, and waited, tail twitching nervously.

It was about three minutes later, though it had felt like hours, when the trunk lid opened again. “Well?”

“Well WHAT?” Sera snapped. “You lock us in here, in pitch darkness, I should add, without even telling us that what you’re about to attempt could be dangerous?!?”

“Doesn’t look like anything moved around,” Carda noted.

“So what?”

“So I just took the car for a high-speed trip around the block. You never even felt it, did you?”

“No,” Xironi admitted.

“No harm, no foul, then,” Carda grinned.

“Creator give me strength,” Sera muttered, forehead in hand.

Indal paced in circles around the outer tier of the lounge. It simply didn’t make any sense; the item he now held in his hand shouldn’t exist. For one thing, it wasn’t supposed to be a necklace; rather, the piece of ivory dangling from the silver chain in his hand was part of something larger.

For another thing, he had seen that “something larger” quite recently. The night before, in fact.

And it had been intact.

“How do you factor into all this, Alatha?” Indal muttered to himself. “If you had known who he was, your father would have credited you with Carda’s discovery instead of me… But you haven’t left the Institute in months, have you?”

He mentally cursed Rayn for his Lycan problem. If only they hadn’t fought…

“Problem?” Lucas’ voice cut into his thoughts.

“Trust me, you’re better off not knowing.”

Lucas shrugged and turned to head back into the kitchen.

“Still…” Indal mused aloud. Lucas paused and looked back over his shoulder. “Would you happen to know any alchemical methods for locking someone into one set of space-time coordinates? So that I don’t ‘transform’?”

Lucas pondered this for a moment. “It’s worth looking into, at least.”

“Good. Let’s get started. The sooner we find a way, the sooner this latest mystery can be put to rest.”