Specularis (The Order - Vermish)

11: and will you sigh with me when i'm sad?

Following mine and Lilith's conversation with Zecchia and then my phone call with Vera, I rushed to get to the office to be able to discuss with her face-to-face. In my overwhelmed state, my reflexes immediately kicked in, and as soon as I opened the door, I sprinted towards Vera, bringing her close to me.

To my surprise, she clung onto me tighter than I expected."Where's Ms. Bathory?"

I released her from my embrace to face her. "She's telling the others."

"That's good. It's good to be prepared." Her reply was muttered quietly, and she appeared to be out of breath. She quickly sat down.

"This is crazy, right?" I exhaled for five seconds, trying to let reality sink in. "This is entirely crazy! What are we supposed to do with this? Are we- are we going to tell Council? How do we even help Lilith at this point? I don't know what to do with any of this."

I received a nod from her and hum of approval, but it seemed as if she was out of it. Her gaze was onto the ground, and it looked distant from the world. Something was wrong. "Vera, did something happen while I was gone? You've been awfully quiet."

She remained unmoving, her back crouched. I tapped her lightly on the shoulder, hoping that it would awaken from her thoughts, but she only shook her head slowly.

A few more minutes passed of nothingness. But all of a sudden, there was motion beneath the ground. One that was intensifying every minute that passed and that sobered Vera up. Our eyes locked hastily in panic, and I, who was upright, stumbled. Frantic voices could be heard outside, catching Vera's attention.

Not waiting for another second longer, I found stability whilst gripping at the shelves in front of me. I opened the door, and as soon as I did, Vera ran past me despite the shaking ground.

"Everyone, find safety somewhere!" I noticed her movements wavering as if having committed something she thought twice about. She turned to me. "Use a shielding incantation on everyone, including yourself."

I did as she instructed despite my confusion. A forcefield-looking bubble cocooned all of us, and I watched Vera spell one for herself.

It was a good ten minutes until the earthquake eventually stopped. Everyone was granted permission to leave their duties for the day, but not until they finished cleaning up the temple.

The two of us returned to the room and Vera, with her fatigued expression stared at me. "Hamish, I-" A ring prevented her from proceeding.

"Tell me what's going on."

She glanced at her phone, her eyes widening for a millisecond. "I can't ignore this. It's the Council."

And she was off to answering the said call. "Yes, this is the Grand Magus speaking. Yes, it was for about ten minutes. I see. I'll have one of my disciples look into this. I will call you once I get anything."

"So?"

"Can you get someone outside? I need to have someone do a bit of internet research. Preferably someone we can trust."

I scanned the group of working disciples, but settled once I spotted Gabrielle. "Medicum, come inside the office, will you?"

She complied instantly, shutting the door after she was inside. "Grand Magus, Temple Magus, not to sound rude, but Jack just called me minutes ago saying that Lilith had something she needed to tell all of us. Is this what's happening?"

"No. You can go ahead and tell Jack that we have you on an assignment, and we can tell you what's up afterward."

"Okay. So what is this assignment?"

"I need you to look into the earthquake. Search for any patterns, anything that might make the situation unusual. I got a call from the Council that every Order worldwide experienced an earthquake at the same time and in the same duration. I need to report to them as soon as possible." Vera explained to which Gabrielle responded to with a nod and a bow before she exited.

Once it was only Vera and me inside, I confronted her. "Vera, what's wrong?"

A weak laugh escaped her lips. "A lot of things are, apparently. And I'm fucked. It's inevitable, I'm going down. If not metaphorically, maybe even literally."

"What do you mean?"

"I think I might be dying." She whispered sorrowfully.

"What? Did you find anything? Are you feeling any different?"

"The necromancer came again."

"And what did she say? What made it different this time?"

"She said I can't use too much of my magic or else..." Her words were trailed off, unable to face the music. "And I'm not sure, but there's no reason for her to lie. No one's that adamant that they'd march on enemy territory, and she just kept going on and on about her warnings, and maybe it's real. I could never comprehend the reason why she would do this, but I'm starting to believe that maybe I do have to listen. There's so much to do. I can't be this way right now. "

"I know..." I sighed deeply. "But you just can't let this be, Vera. And I'm not going to make this about me this time. What do you want? What do you need? Maybe there's something we can do."

"I can barely think of anything. Every time I attempt to do so, a flurry of shitstorms enter my mind, and I don't know which one to focus on." The tears were falling down her face and it was a painful sight to behold. "I can't think about the truth, because that's what's got us here in the first place. I can't think about more lies, because that still leads to the same road: hell. I can't think about hell, because that's probably where I'm going. I can't think of myself, because I'm fucking dying. And I can't think of other people when all I want to think about is you."

"Don't focus on me. Focus on you. We're not yet sure that there's no other way around this, right?" I had to calm myself down. The circumstances relied on me to keep everything afloat and I would willingly do anything Vera needed of me. "Then maybe there is. We are going to find it if it exists, and until then, you are not going to use too much of your magic. Are you good with that?"

Instead of responding with a straightforward yes or no, what she said was: "I want to be with you."

I welcomed her in, guiding her head towards my chest. I can't let her see me with this pained expression. It would only feed into her breakdown. As she wept onto my chest, a traitorous drop escaped my eyes. "You are with me, and you are going to be for as long as we both can." And hopefully, that's a long time.

A knock interrupted the moment. "It's Gabrielle. I may have found something."

Vera turned her back to the door and nodded at me to open it. "What is it?"

"The earthquake, as it happens, was experienced worldwide. Like, not just on ones with factions of The Order. There have been reports of tsunamis in water-covered areas as well. And as it turns out, all of that was simultaneous and with the same duration of ten minutes." She glimpsed at both me and Vera's back in her search for explanations. "Do you have any idea what could be causing this, Temple Magus?"

"Ye-" I was about to give her what she wanted until yet another shrill sound disrupted the confession.  What is it gonna be this time?

"Hamish... she's here." Fuck.