Chapter 31

Sarah waited nervously in the Awakening Centre lobby, her feet drumming restlessly against the padded sofa. Christmas Carols echoed around the big open space, vying with the early morning hum of Centre staff and hopeful clients as they filed into the vast building.

Even on Christmas Eve, the Centre was a hive of activity. She was surprised at how many new candidates were here as well, trying to get a booking for Testing. After the attack at the Levitator Races she expected everyone to be hiding away, worried about another outbreak of violence.

She hadn’t wanted to come out herself, having spent all of yesterday at home trying to make sense of what had happened at the Tower.

“Good morning, Miss Evermore” her tutor spoke in her flat monotone. “You asked to see me?”

Sarah jumped in alarm and looked behind her, seeing Sister Domenica standing quietly at the back of the sofa.

“Holy crap! You startled me!” she cried out and the Necromancer flicked the top of her head lightly with a pale index finger.

“Please mind your language, Miss Evermore” she chastised her pupil. “As my student I expect you exhibit a certain level of decorum at all times”

“Exhibit my what?” Sarah asked in confusion, rubbing the top of her head. Sister Domenica’s grey eyes twinkled as if she was amused and Sarah wondered if the holiday spirit had finally gotten to her teacher.

“Act like a lady” Domenica explained in simple terms. She eyed the scruffy blue jeans and boy’s t-shirt her pupil was wearing and sighed softly. “Or at least like a civilised human being”

The Sister walked around the sofa to stand in front of Sarah, looking her over speculatively.

“Something has happened since our last meeting, has it not Miss Evermore?”

Sarah fidgeted under the gaze of the older woman and lowered her head.

“I think I went into the After” she admitted. “I saw my Uncle Rex again”

Sister Domenica went utterly still, which in one respect was difficult to notice as the Necromancer was immobile most of the time.

“Are you Okay, Sister?” Sarah enquired worriedly. “Did you hear me?”

“My apologies, Miss Evermore” she finally answered. “I was expecting some change in you but this has exceeded my expectations”

Her tutor was looking about the lobby, almost furtively it seemed to Sarah. She seemed to reach some kind of decision and stepped closer to the girl, leaning forwards to whisper conspiratorially in her ear.

“Would you like to see my laboratory, Sarah?” she breathed. This close she smelt of tea and vanilla, with a hint of something faint and herbal beneath the stronger odours.

“Uh, sure” Sarah answered trustingly.

Her teacher smiled thinly and grasped the girl’s hand in her own cold and firm one. With surprising strength she drew the girl from the sofa and led her through the lobby. As crowded as it was, the people parted before the Necromancer without her saying a word or making a single gesture.

Soon they left the public areas behind, the Sister brandishing a thin plastic security card like a sword. It let them through three different guarded doors until they arrived at a solitary elevator labelled “Authorised Research Staff Only”

“Am I allowed in here, Sister Domenica?” she enquired.

“Of course” her teacher replied. “How else can I get my test subjects to the lab?”

=====

Hammond Pike had come to an uneasy working relationship with his laboratory partner. When she was away on her occasional errands, he conducted his own research and did pretty much whatever he wanted. Mostly he continued the research into summoning of Doppel Gangers and other strange creatures from the Dark Side, much as he had done in his previous life as Tomas Albright.

When Sister Domenica was in attendance, he did whatever she told him to. The Necromancer seemed happy with that arrangement and Hammond found he spent a lot less time constrained by Binding spells or rendered unconscious by Sleep charms.

He had spent a glorious ten minutes enjoying her absence, called forth by some message from the Reception desk that saw her leave in a state of mild annoyance. As long as that annoyance was directed at some other unfortunate soul he was happy.

Hammond pottered about the lab, humming to himself as he prepared a summoning circle on his side of the shared space. The basic circle was painted onto the floor with a hard wearing paint mixed with silver powder to maintain “thaumaturgic conductivity” as his old master used to say.

To this he added a sparkling grey powder in certain patterns within the existing markings, careful to not waste any of the finely ground silver, bone and ash that made up the substance. This powder was time consuming to make and represented a fair chunk of his budget for the research he performed. The tall man knelt beside the circle, carefully adjusting the outline of his runic symbols He heard the main door to the lab open, the heavily reinforced hunk of metal and Ceramite booming loudly as his colleague pushed it hurriedly aside. Hammond sighed to himself, realising he would have to abandon the project while he listened to the Necromancer’s demands.

“Pike! Where are you?” he heard Sister Domenica call out. Bowing to the inevitable he got to his feet, looking over the bank of cabinets and tables to where the older woman strode purposefully down the central aisle.

He was about to announce himself when he saw the young blonde headed girl at her side. There was no mistaking the child, even without her Junior High School uniform.

“What the hell is she doing here?” he shouted, drawing the eyes of both of them to his own shocked face.

“Mr Pike, mind your language in front of the child!” Sister Domenica responded tartly. “Why is everyone so profane today?” she muttered as an afterthought. She tugged the hapless girl in her wake until she reached her own research space.

With an imperious finger she beckoned Hammond to her side, directing the girl to sit in a swivelling chair next to a bench covered in piles of neatly sorted papers and folders. Hammond approached warily, his eyes flicking from the Sister to the girl with an equal measure of alarm.

“Um, Hi, my name is Sarah” the girl spoke to him, holding out her right hand to shake. Hammond stood next to her and looked down at her proffered hand as if it was going to explode.

“Hello, Sarah” he managed to gurgle. “I’m Mr Al….ah… Hammond Pike” he finished lamely. He reached for her hand with his own, but at the last moment Domenica knocked his hand aside impatiently.

“No time for that, Pike” she cajoled him. “Miss Evermore claims to have visited the After!”

“Really?” exclaimed a suddenly animated Hammond. “Are you sure you did or was it just a dream?”

“Well, I wasn’t sure at first” Sarah admitted. “But when I was getting changed at home I found this in my pocket” She rummaged in her jeans and pulled forth a wrinkled candy wrapper, the outside surface printed in bold red stripes.

“A young girl found a candy wrapper in her pocket?” said a deflated Hammond and turned to give a disparaging glance at the Necromancer. “That’s your proof?”

Sister Domenica eyed him coldly and rubbed the ring she wore on her left hand. Hammond recognised the Binding Spell focus immediately and held up his hands in mute apology.

“She was given this by her Uncle while she was in the After” the Sister explained. “Miss Evermore has already told me the gist of her experiences there”

The Necromancer held out her hand to Sarah.

“May I hold the artefact?” she asked politely and the girl nodded agreement, placing the piece of crumpled paper into the woman’s outstretched palm. It sat there without any obvious effect and Hammond exchanged a knowing look with his colleague.

“Transference of physical matter, from one Realm to another” he breathed in awe. “Can it be true?”

Sister Domenica held out the wrapper and Hammond took it carefully. A tingle of energy ran though his fingers, bringing with it a taste of peppermint and the sound of distant surf crashing onto a sandy beach.

“Bloody hell!” he gasped loudly and dropped the wrapper onto the scrubbed white tile floor at his feet. It lay there like an innocent piece of trash, completely unaware of what it represented.

“Profanity!” the Sister said warningly and stooped to collect the prize. Upright once more she gently laid the peppermint wrapper on her bench, putting it on a metal tray then placing a clear Ceramiglass dome over the top.

“So you both believe me?” questioned Sarah anxiously. “I wasn’t just dreaming it up?”

“I believe you entered the After, Miss Evermore” her tutor agreed calmly. “More importantly, you were able to return to the Now, alive and intact it would seem. That is a remarkable feat in itself”

“Absolutely!” enthused Hammond. “And to top that, you actually brought back a piece of the After into our own world. A physical artefact, proof of your journey”

“Okay, thanks” Sarah said with relief. “I thought I might have been going a little crazy there. So what do I do now?”

“Do?” answered her tutor. “We try and get you to do it again!”

“What, right now?” Sarah exclaimed. “Sorry, I can’t today. It’s Christmas Eve and I have to catch up with all my friends and family!”

Hammond was about to tell the girl she had better do as she was told when the Necromancer tapped him on the side of his head. He had spun to yell at her but she toyed with the Binding spell focus on her finger, giving him a significant look in return.

“That will be fine, Miss Evermore” the Sister assured the girl. “We can conduct further testing after the holiday season”

“Thanks, Teach!” Sarah responded, her mood happier now she no longer doubted herself.

In no time at all, the Necromancer had bundled the girl out of the lab, escorting her past the layers of security. Hammond watched the pair of them leave, then shrugged his shoulders philosophically.

The plans he and the Necromancer had agreed on would take some time to be completed. Having their test subject achieve a successful translation into the After and back again so soon was a definite bonus.

Maybe the old woman would take a break over the holiday season too, giving him time to work on his own research. It was a possibility that brought a faint smile to his face, his new lips and cheeks still feeling a little tight after the reconstructive surgery.

He was still smiling when he heard the cleaning robot chirp happily to itself from his side of the lab. A distinct sound of a vacuum cleaner started up and in sudden desperation he raced to his summoning circle.

By the time he got there, the industrious little robot had sucked up nearly half of his valuable powders from the floor. It was heading for the remainder when he leaped on it, wrestling the confused machine away from his precious materials.

“Give it back you little beast!” he was shouting, along with a variety of choice swear words that would have earned him a good Binding from the Sister.