Crimes of the Vault

Chapter Ten

They settled under the trees of the orchard as Nexus had suggested they should, the heavy green tops shading them from the midday sun, allowing Mac to shed the top of his garments, his under-shirt a simple grey, his arms leaning on the grass below him.

They had all settled under the trees, taking a moment to shed any unnecessary garments, allowing themselves a moment to enjoy the cool grass below them, and the warmth of the air. Spring was definitely well on the way.

For once, Tempest was glad that she had decided against shoes that morning, the decision allowing her to feel the grass between her toes as she lay with her arms cross over her stomach and her knees bent. Nexus had sat to her side with a paring knife in his one hand, a pile of fruits collected in a basket in his other. He was using the knife to cut through the fruit he had picked from the trees on their walk up, and was handing slices every so often to Tempest as Wixar examined her arm on her other side.

Reed was sitting in the low hanging branches of the tree above them, the tips of his rough wings brushing the ground, his head ducking when Mac would throw fallen leaves or seeds from the trees at him.

"So tell us, Queenie," Wixar started, waving his hand over his lap, muttering a slight incantation that made a jar of ointment appear between his legs. "How did you manage this?"

Tempest watched as he began to smear the ointment across her arms, rubbing it into her skin and she sighed. "I went down to the coast to clear my mind after our meeting, and I was just thinking everything over, the prophecy, Warlocks, the lot. I kinda – reached my arm out," She followed her explanation with a gesture using her free arm. "To the water and it grabbed me, started pulling me in."

"Pulling you in?" Nexus questioned as he handed her a slice of apple.

Tempest took it, deciding to not question how they had apples in the spring, and nodded. "It wrapped up my arm and used it to pull me down, I didn't even consider that it was hurting me."

"So it just pulled you under?" Mac pressed, leaning his elbows down on his knees.

"I blacked out and the next thing I remember was waking up in this – blue space. It's hard to explain, but it was just endless – this abyss of blue that carried on as far as I could see. I can't really figure out why I was there in the first place, but I heard something calling out to me, telling me to pray."

"Your ancestors?"

She shrugged. "I don't think so, it didn't feel like them. So I was praying, and it didn't work so I just – I just told it to show me what it needed to so we could be done with it."

Wixar let out a small hum of interest as he let her arm rest back on her stomach, glancing down at her from where he sat above her reclined body. "This blue space – you say you've never experienced anything like it before?"

Tempest shook her head. "Nothing I've ever seen before. It felt like I was floating and falling at the same time."

He let out another hum, a hand coming up to scratch at his bearded chin.

"What is it, Wixar?" Reed asked the old Wizard.

But Wixar waved him off. "Let me mull on it while Tempest finishes her story."

Their attention turned back to her all at once, Nexus holding out another apple slice which she took gratefully, using her uninjured arm to push herself up slightly as she munched. "After that, it was zapped to this new place. I was in a sort of cabin room with no windows, and these two Witches."

This seemed to grab their interest, as if they hadn't already been intrigued. Tempest could see the spark in their eyes light up, all of their bodies leaning forward to get closer.