Gravity Rises (S1)

NW: Part Seven

The only light in the small clearing was the purple glow from Pacifica's amulet. Gideon didn't have his amulet activated; he was sitting sulkily against the cliff face. Pacifica still found it hilarious how Bill had treated the Northwest.

She wondered if she should clean up the sacrifice. She looked down at it, then up at the pine boughs above. Well, there was a way to clean up without getting dirty herself.

Pacifica levitated the money out of the sacrificial pile — a little more money never hurt, and Stanford probably wouldn't want it back with the blood on it, anyway — and put it to the side along with the candles. The gloves, the axo-whatever, and the spray-painted Cipher Wheel stayed. Pacifica stepped aside, cresting the small hill to get out of the way.

"Hey, wait," Gideon said, standing up and following after her. "Where are you going?"

The tree branches above him glowed purple and shook, dumping their snow directly onto Gideon's head. He cried out, but it was too late. The snow hit him full-on, bouncing off his head and coating his arms. He spluttered, pushing it off of himself, while Pacifica shook with laughter.

"Paz!" Gideon yelled. "What was that for?"

It took Pacifica a moment to catch her breath. "You — just happened — to be there — at the right time!"

Gideon brushed the rest of the snow off of him, then stomped toward her.

"Wait!" Pacifica called. "Make sure the snow covers the sacrifice. That's why I brought it down in the first place. So even if someone finds it after the snow melts, it'll be unrecognizable."

Gideon rolled his eyes but did as she said, using his feet and his amulet to smooth the snow over the area. Pacifica nodded in satisfaction. It looked like they hadn't even been here.

Gideon tromped up the hill to Pacifica. "You do realize," he said, "that Bill probably won't find anything."

Pacifica had considered it; using one of Stanford's employees wasn't the most fool-proof of plans. "I have a Plan B," she replied.

Gideon raised an eyebrow. "And that is?"

"Take the deed by force, of course. This was fun, but I'm not going to wait for Bill to tell me that he failed. I'll go kidnap Stanford and force him to hand his property over to me. And you can get information about his Journals."

She had expected Gideon to be excited, if not fall to his knees and praise her for her genius. Instead, he only sighed. "Have fun with that." He started walking away.

"Wait a minute," Pacifica said, following him. "Don't you want to torture Stanford?"

"No," Gideon said flatly.

Huh. He must be having a bad day.

"All right, fine," Pacifica said. "I'll have all the fun. I'll put in a word about those Journals, if you want."

"No," Gideon repeated, this time immediately. "Get the property, and then I'll search for the Journal. I'm not going to ask Stanford about it."

Pacifica shrugged in agreement.

Gideon turned to leave again, then turned back. "Pacifica. . ."

"What?"

"Stanford isn't some. . . townsperson," he said. "He's an experienced paranormal researcher, and he may very well be able to hold himself against you."

The nerve of him! Pacifica drew herself up to her full height. "Stanford Pines is a sorry old man who will have no choice but to bend to my will," she declared. "If you're not going to join me in ensuring that, then don't make comments about it."