The Budding Metalinguist

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Lillian woke up in her own bed for the first time in over a month. She opened her eyes to several stacks of old books and toys languishing on the dresser. Chris was an ample duster, but Lillian had never known him to clean anything up. He simply moved things around the house into neat and completely randomized stacks.

Lillian swung herself out of bed, relieved not to have to fall on her ankle as she usually did from her tall dorm room bed. She tucked the covers in neatly and plumped up the pillow before attacking the pile of books on the dresser- the only remaining pile in the room.

The previous night, Lillian had been dismayed to find that all of the books in the house which Chris associated solely with her had somehow been moved to her bedroom and out of the careful organizing system she had always tried to maintain. She had shelved all of the books in her own bookshelf to avoid them being moved again. Since her bookshelf was organized alphabetically, she figured it was probably better that she was doing this now rather than letting Chris sort the books.

Lillian removed the small coagulation of toys from the top of the stack of books and set them neatly into the compartment underneath the bench by her window. She paused and drank in the morning's view of Eugene, scattered trees and buildings extending to the horizon.

When Lillian was finished sorting the books and getting ready for the morning, she slung her backpack over her shoulder and headed downstairs for breakfast. Morgan was pouring pancakes into messy quasi-circles at the stove, and Chris was feeding a chunk of pineapple into what appeared to be a new juicer. Lillian would not have been surprised to hear that the old one had broken.

Morgan turned, letting her light honey-brown hair fall over her shoulders. "Morning, Lillian," she said casually, stepping to the side to hide the oddly-shaped pancakes. Lillian caught her eye and gave a narrow smile which made it clear that she had already had a preview of her breakfast. She set her backpack down on the floor next to the counter and extracted several eggs from the fridge, then joined Morgan at the stove to help with breakfast. Morgan relented and moved away from the pancakes, then was relieved to see that Lillian wasn't looking anyway.

Over breakfast, Morgan and Chris attempted to engage Lillian in conversation. The entire time, Lillian couldn't help but notice how they carefully avoided talking about anything related to thaumaturgy. Lillian felt oddly uncomfortable that she wasn't able to talk to them about everything she had found out in the previous month.

She couldn't help but tell herself that she'd be able to talk to Rachel soon.

☙❧

He's on his way home when the news comes. An emergency announcement, transmitted through a mix of thaumaturgy and metalanguage, delivered to everyone.

"After a severe thaumaturgical accident taking place in the Assembly chamber, the Premier Nolienic Delegation has instituted an emergency takeover."

He stops short. Every word like a punch in the gut. Accident. Delegation. Takeover.

His family is in danger.

The mirrors surrounding him are not safe. Entering any one of them could lead to a trap. He takes a wild chance and, spinning around, rushes out the switchpoint door. Leaving the soft grass of the courtyard for the untamed tall grass of the hills. He knows exactly which way to run.

It will be years before he realizes that running towards the danger is never the right option.

Dakota sat up quickly, breathing hard. It hadn't been a terribly unnerving nightmare, but nevertheless he felt anxious. He had been even more on edge than usual recently, and he wasn't sure why. As if everything was about to come to a head.

He swung his legs off the couch and shoved the blanket he'd been using underneath so as to hide that he had slept on the couch. Alarmed to realize that his hat had almost fallen off while he was asleep, he pulled it down tightly over his ears, wincing as he did so. He could still hear the words of the emergency announcement ringing in his head as he continued to try to wake himself up.

Suddenly, he heard a small noise behind him. He spun around, heart pounding wildly. Rory was standing ominously backed into the corner of the office, behind the door. Dakota shot him an angry look and pushed himself off the couch.

"What is it?" he asked, his back to Rory.

"Nothing really," Rory said. "I was just checking."

"Watching me sleep," Dakota muttered to himself, and shot Rory another glare.

Rory slipped silently over to the opposite corner of the office and departed through the mirror. Dakota watched him leave in frustration.

As much as he understood how Rory felt, he doubted that Rory would ever stop annoying and angering him.

☙❧

The shaft of sunlight spread insistently over Galena's face, and she admitted to herself that it was probably time to get out of bed. She threw off the covers and sat up cross-legged, rubbing her eyes, before pushing herself out of bed. Once she had finished yawning and stretching, she attended to her usual morning routine.

First she dressed into casual, inconspicuous clothes and neatly smoothed out the covers of the bed. She then brushed her teeth and washed her face. Before she headed to the kitchen to make breakfast, she lifted her phone from its customary position on her nightstand and dialed a number. Her mother's number.

She took a quiet breath and tapped the call button, holding the phone to her ear. It rang twice before playing an automated voicemail message. Galena took the phone from her ear and hung up absently before returning it to her pocket. She stared at a featureless section of wall in front of her.

Calling her mother every morning was truly helping her. Galena knew that Ashley would never answer, and there was no use in leaving a voicemail, but it was almost comforting. She knew Ashley was there, hanging up at a slightly different point each time, making sure that Galena knew she was safe.

Out of everything Galena had found out about her mother over the course of the last month, this was the only thing that made her feel that Ashley still cared about her. That she hadn't ever wanted to leave the way she did.

What was it that Beanie had said just before knocking Galena unconscious? "I have a life, too, you know..." Beanie had simply wanted to go back to that life, however complicated and bizarre it was. He didn't want to have to answer questions from the DIAO. Galena felt sure that Ashley was feeling the same.

She wondered if she would ever see her mother again.

☙❧

It was Rolf's day off. But even Saturday felt like a Monday in the light of his ever-present, simmering anger. Even walking around the park didn't seem to get it out of his mind.

Rolf's kneecaps knocked into a familiar post, and he looked down in surprise that quickly narrowed to rage. The sign. Beanie's sign.

DO NOT:

READ the SIGN

-or-

SIT on the

LETTER J

The sight of it brought back a flood of memories. The day that Rolf had been fired was the same day that Ashley had arrived in town. The day before Rolf and Galena had been hired by the DIAO, and Beanie had visited Lillian. Despite how furious Rolf was with Beanie and with the very existence of the sign, he still felt an odd feeling of nostalgia for those days, when he hadn't known who the vandal was, or spent too much time thinking about it. When he hadn't known how much Galena was lying to him and to all of them. When he hadn't known what kind of conspiracy Beanie, Ashley, and Galena were involved in and how hard they were all working to hide the truth.

Ignorance was bliss, he decided.

And so, he pushed all of his angry and hateful thoughts to the back of his mind and started at a brisk walk towards the Gamma Ray Café.