Quick Silver (girlxgirl) (ON HOLD)

Chapter 4 - Imaging

Chapter 4

Imaging

The young girl worried her fingers together as she watched the professor float back and forth in front of her. The motion was too fluid to be pacing, but she thought that’s what he was doing. She’d awoken to find her belongings packed away in the deep red leather trunks that now stood in a pile beside her. The brass detailing glinted in the orange sun that peaked over the horizon. She had never gotten used to seeing the professors out of doors. They looked so foreign in this setting. Their mysterious, hidden faces and gloved hands were far better suited to the musty confines of the libraries and the passageways.

“Professor? Is everything alright?” Sascha was nervous enough without watching him.

“Yes, yes dear. I’m just nervous. My other charges have had to be moved to new teachers since I’ll be going with you. There hasn’t been time to set up a proper exchange. We’ll be gone before they even awake. Nothing for you to worry about.”

“Okay. Ouch.” The young girl muttered to herself and scratched the red mark that had sprung up on her arm after her earlier decent into unconsciousness.

“My apologies. Priscilla wasn’t as gentle as she could have been. I was rushing her.”

“Pardon?”

“The needle mark.” He waved a hand towards the mark on her arm. “We have a long journey ahead of us, and I need you awake for most of it. The injection does the opposite of the capsule you took earlier. It wakes you while placing your charge into a long, restful sleep. I believe we gave you the ten hour dose.” He seemed distracted as he relayed the information, as if injecting her in her sleep would become commonplace. He looked out towards the road, waiting for something.

“Oh, that means that Sascha will sleep for the full ten hours?”

“Of course.”

“But won’t that impact her schedule? Won’t that change her path in order to benefit our needs?”

“We calculate carefully, Sascha. This was figured out to ensure it doesnot influence her future. Also, the sisters have advised that you will not require any direct input into your charge’s life for the next two days. That allows enough time to travel and get you settled into The Observatory. Remote influence is possible, but too advanced for what you have learned. The tapestry says we are safe if we start our travels now.”

Sascha stood on the beaten wood of the veranda of the only home she had ever known. The intricate carvings in the wood. The squeaky board that was three steps to her left. The hidden latch beneath the candleholder on the wall that rang a chime in the bedrooms of the four would-be silvers who shared the house. She knew them all by heart. She wasn’t prepared to leave them. Fear made her heart run. Made her anxious and scared. But there was excitement and exhilaration behind those feelings. She was the youngest silver to ever begin her residency at The Observatory.

She looked down the road, following the professor’s gaze, and thought about what he had told her about her charge being impacted by the actions of another silver.

“Professor? If there are things that can put me to sleep or wake me up and impact my charge, doesn’t that mean that someone other than me can cause changes in the direction of my charge without my influence?”

“Those items are strictly regulated. Only professors have access to them. You have nothing to worry about.” His gloved hands pressed together, “Ah yes, finally. Our ride is here.”

Sascha looked towards the horizon. A large, copper coloured coach approached. Its eight wheels turned slowly as gears running along the side of the machine twisted and moved the mechanisms below. Two chimneys pumped smoke from the roof of the machine. One blew a familiar, dull red smoke, caused by the burning of the ruby coal used for heat. The other puffed out a thick, blue smoke. She stared at it as it started to create shapes and forms. It looked like a thicker version of the smoke that opened the passageways.