The Unskillful Thaumaturge

XXVI

Lillian stared unblinkingly at the ceiling above her narrow bed, contemplating what it meant to be the infant found at the Thaumatogenesis. Did it mean that there was something she was destined to do, something more than just being the intelligent young girl she was, something more than an early college physics degree? Was she a part of something-

Lillian's deep blue eyes narrowed at the unexpected knock at her door and she slowly swung herself off the bed, picking her phone up off the table and opening the calls app. She cautiously scrolled down until her finger was hovering over the DIAO's phone number, then tiptoed toward the door to look through the peephole.

But she only saw Angela's annoyed face. "Come on, Lillian, I don't have all day. Don't you want to work on homework?"

Lillian relaxed, recalling the study session she had scheduled with her classmate, and creaked open the door. Angela spotted the phone in her hand and cocked an eyebrow. "Talking to someone?"

"Nah," Lillian responded. "Remember when I told you about those guys that came to my door?"

"Yeah?"

"The DIAO wants one of them for questioning. If it was him I would have called them."

"How do you know it's really me? I could be an illusion, too, you know."

"If you were actually one of those guys, you probably wouldn't want to ask that."

"Well, I could be asking that just to divert attention from the fact that I was actually an illusion and instead seem like I was challenging you, as the real Angela would, to-"

Lillian rolled her eyes. "Okay, it's definitely you." She opened the door and Angela stepped inside.

❧☙

"Ten bedrooms?" Dakota exclaimed disbelievingly. "Why would you need ten bedrooms?"

"Let's see." Rory began counting on his fingers. "Me, you, Mira, Lillian, Ashley and her daughter, Jay, Lindsey, Alex, and- and one extra."

"Let me get this straight. You have bedrooms for you, Mira, Ashley, Jay, Lindsey, and Alex?"

Rory nodded.

"Why?"

"You want Mira to be there, Ashley's daughter would want her to be there, it would be a good opportunity for Jay to learn but Lindsey would need to be there for him, and Alex is recording everything."

"Why you?"

"Someone would need to worry about Lillian."

"Shouldn't Mira do that?"

"She'll be busy with you." Rory looked as if he wanted to say something else, but the words died before they reached his lips.

"But can't-"

Before Dakota could finish, Rory put a finger to his lips warningly, then closed his eyes for a second. "Sorry, there was an Ash a couple miles away," he explained after a moment.

"What did you do?"

"Dumped it."

"Whose was it?"

"Sky or someone's. One of that lot."

"Thanks." Dakota dipped his head.

"So maybe you do need me for something," Rory replied.

Dakota nodded, distracted, and squinted through the fog. He could make out a door nearby. "It's through there?"

"Yeah," Rory answered. "Want to see?"

"No, I think I'll be seeing enough of it pretty soon."

"When are you planning on bringing her back here?"

"The eleventh," Dakota responded.

"That's two weeks away!"

"Is there something wrong with that? We have the time."

"But don't you want her to learn?"

"She'll learn fine if she comes in then." Dakota shrugged. "Doesn't really matter, as long as she figures it out eventually."

"Figures it out? She needs an actual teacher."

"Not-"

"No, I'm talking about you."

"Me?"

"Were you expecting me to teach her? You explain things a lot better than I do."

Incredulous, Dakota pointed to himself, and Rory nodded. "You think I explain things better than you?" Dakota asked.

"If you actually care about it," Rory replied sharply. "I know well enough that you don't put your mind to it when you're teaching Omnis." Dakota looked at him questioningly. "I know why you're teaching at UOD. It's not because you actually like thaumaturgy, or you want to teach it, although I'm sure in a different situation you would. It's because of Mira-"

"You're wrong."

"What do you mean, I'm wrong? That's impossible-"

"Yes, I care about Mira. But I'm not teaching at UOD because of her. She's fine. She knows exactly what she's doing. She's on duty. When she finally gets off maybe she'll come and see me. I'm teaching at UOD because of Lillian. She deserves answers."

❧☙

At the moment, Galena was searching for answers of her own. The story behind the Thaumatogenesis and the truth about Beanie, as she and her coworkers had taken to calling the prisoner, seemed to be getting more and more elusive every day. And, if possible, she was even more confused about her mother's involvement in the mystery. Yes, it was possible that Beanie had just been asking her for directions, but Galena felt that the conversation had been too long for that- and it didn't explain Diane's inability to reach Ashley. Galena had tried to call her several times over the weekend but her mother had hung up as soon as she had called.

So what could possibly be the connection between Beanie and Ashley? What had been so important that he had to talk to her before she left? Why specifically her mother?

And Galena found herself at the center of her own personal epiphany. She may not have been able to answer the question, but she had made a connection. There was more than one way she was involved with the mystery. For all the DIAO's deliberation over Ashley and Galena's eyes, she couldn't believe that no one had realized it before.

Was it possible that she was actually a part of all this? Were her eyes twitching because Beanie had known her to be Ashley's daughter? Was she more than just an outside observer trying to make sense of the mystery?

All this only made Galena long even more for concrete answers. And she refused to give up.