Elysium: Book Six of The Liminality

Chapter 12: Regressed

Karla sat at the kitchen table staring idly into an empty tea cup, trying to make sense of the detritus of shredded leaves arrayed across the bottom. She had never believed in tessomancy, but she was willing to give anything a shot at this point.

Her gut told her Izzie was not dead. She could not be dead. The way their souls connected, Karla would have sensed something if her sister was truly gone or distressed. She was sure of that. It had happened before when Izzie had gotten into serious trouble and was suffering.

But there was no such vacancy in that place deep inside her that held the kernel of her sister's existence. Izzie had to be okay. Or at least her soul had to have remained in this realm.

As she sat there, a nagging scratchiness arose at the periphery of her consciousness, tugging at the corners of her soul. A familiar friction had arisen between her present world and the one that lay beyond. She had almost forgotten what it was like to be visited by roots.

She meditated with force, cultivating the roots' interest in her psyche, seeking the pits in her emotional landscape that allowed her emotions to settle into the lowest and darkest places.

Mrs. Ambrose burst in from the garden, bearing a bundle of parsley she had just clipped, shattering her trance.

"You still sitting there? My goodness Karla. I went outside an hour ago."

"I'm thinking."

"Moping won't help you get your sister back. Keep yourself busy with some physical task. That's the best way to occupy your mind. That's what I do."

"I'm thinking of going to Edinburgh and Glasgow."

"Oh? And what are you going to do there?"

"Burn down some churches."

"Are you serious, child?"

"Maybe."

"Getting yourself sent to prison is not going to being your sister back."

"No. But it will give me some satisfaction."

"I'm hiding the matches."

"I need to be doing something. That's why I will go."

"Oh? And do you think you can do a better job than the police?"

"Yes."

"But we know nothing about anything. Who dunked poor Jamie in the lake? Whether Izzie is okay or not. Whether Izzie was even with him at the time."

"Of course she was with him. She would have come home."

"Still. We know nothing."

"That's why I want to find out."

"Why Edinburgh? Glasgow? Why not here?"

"There are no Sedevacantists here."

"I'm just asking you to give the police some time. They are professionals. They will find who did this."

"I don't care what they find. I still want to burn all their churches."

"Settle down! That will do nothing for poor Izzie?"

"I want to make them pay."

"We don't even know your father's church is involved in any of this."

"Oh, yes I do. Who else would want to harm Izzie?"

"God willing she's not been harmed. God willing."

"God doesn't care."

"Bite your tongue!"