Experiment Zero

42. A Resolution?

A moment of silence passes after Core snaps his fingers.

The awkwardness grows, and I fidget in my seat, while he just sits there, looking completely relaxed.

"So......was that supposed to do something, or.......?" I finally ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Just give it a moment." He says calmly, holding up a hand.

Suddenly my dad appears in the air a few feet, away, his gag off and bounds undone. 

"Dad!" I exclaim, watching as he falls to the ground from where he was hovering with an 'oomf'.

"Ashley!" HE says when I kneel besides him, helping him up. I look back up at Core, narrowing my eyes.

"Did you have to be so rough with him?"

"I apologize, I didn't know my power would do that to him. I just wanted to bring him here, I did not specify that I wanted it done softly." He replies, looking guilty which sways me to forgive him.

"So that's it? Everything else is resolved? The team of Scientists and guards are gone?"

"Well they aren't gone yet, but you'll find that they suddenly have the very strong temptation to get on the brand new boat that has appeared on the coastline which will take them to Braun island without the need for a captain."

I help my father to his feet, meeting Core's plain brown eyes. For such a powerful figure, you would expect him to have a cool shade of color for his eyes, but instead they are as brown as chocolate, plain and very human-like.

"Thank you, Core."

"Just remember our bargain." He reminds, and I turn back to my dad to find him with his mouth open, staring at Core.

"Core? As in....The Core? He stammers, surprising me.

"The one and only." Core smirks, throwing his hands out wide as he stands.

"So you are real." My father breathes.

"Dad?" I question, casting glances between him and Core. "Did you know Core was a person?"

"Person is a very complicated term when used to describe me." Core muses, but I'm not paying attention. Instead my focus is on my father who shifts uncomfortably.

"Ashley, I've never told you this, because I didn't think it was important at the time, but your mother used to write me letters when she came here to Dalton. I didn't receive them, of course, until someone knocked on my door saying they had found the ship, where the letters were stashed on, lost at sea, but not the ship crew or any of the Scientists. I read the letters, and in them she wrote down her whole experience here, about the types of plants she had found, and the layout of the island. She talked about a completely different species living  here, three in fact, and about Core, this magical being who she had stumbled upon when she got lsot in the forest once."

"You knew all this information and you never told anyone?!?" I ask, incredulous. 

Something must be wrong with my hearing, or I don't know my father, because the dad I know would never keep this sort of information to himself.

"I was sick with grief at the time! And then, once I had recovered, I thought what she was saying was crazy! I mean, three species and a magical being who controlled the entire island named Core? Doesn't that seem a little far fetched when put out on the table like that?"

"Well when you say it like that," I murmur, at the same time Core says, "Hey, I take offense to that!"

"Apologizes." Dad instantly says, fear flashing in his eyes, and Core rolls his eyes, straitening his suit.