Good Tuesday, and once again, a very merry un-birthday to you all! Unless it’s your birthday, well, then - Happy Birthday! (I wonder if anyone gets this reference, if you do let me know in the comments.)
Look, I know my last episode was short, and I suppose I also shouldn’t say things like “I’m too lazy” on the internet, so I’ll give you a little more detail instead, I’ve had my big brother visiting, and it’s been wonderful! But he keeps me quite busy so I’ve had a bit of a challenge finding time to put my thoughts down. And, I know, since I can schedule that, that shouldn’t be a problem, but… Let’s just say there were a few too many embers to categorize and articulate last week, okay? He’s still around, and here we have a little bit longer entry, so I’m keeping this short.
Anyway, last time, I admit I teased you guys with just a trickle, this time we move a little faster, and I’m sure you’ll see why I didn’t want to split this sequence up.
Here goes:
INDEX | Chapter 5 | Scenes 1 & 2 | Scenes 3 & 4 | Scenes 5 - 8 | Next Scene →
Previously… Misty (Elle) finally wakes up from her long sleep and goes exploring. Excitement gets the better of her when she finds the pool in the gym, and then she is enthralled by the sight of the plantation that surrounds Luke’s house. But tensions rise once more when Logan runs into her on his way to his routine morning workout.
"Hi," I say with unfeigned joy.
Elle doesn't move, but stares at me expectantly, wide-eyed and wild. I lick my lips, and swallow down the initial shock, trying to keep my voice steady and calm, "I didn't expect to see you here." I say, smiling uncertainly as I stand up. Luke's coaching on what to expect buzzing through my mind, contradicts everything I see before me, and I wish for the first time that I had some idea of how my empathy works so I could use it now.
Luke said Elle would probably be minimally responsive, maybe disoriented and confused. No matter how healthy she looks, her muscles would have atrophied and it would likely take days or even weeks of physio before she regained some strength and mobility. She may even have suffered severe brain damage, and never be the same. The expectation was certainly not to find her fully alert and apparently fresh out of the pool.
"You know me?” I ask, breathless and bewildered. Her nod is so slight I think I may have imagined it. Her energy feels very low. She’s like staring at a wall.
“How are you feeling." I inquire, grabbing a towel from the nearby cabinet, she doesn’t react. I approach slowly, recalling the scared little girl hiding in a dilapidated cage. She still hasn't moved a muscle when I reach her dripping frame. Her eyes narrow as she stares intently at me. I wonder how much she remembers.
I remember, the pulsing, the vivid silver-green flash, the destruction... I shudder inwardly, recalling the innocent agonized screams. What a different picture she represents now. I think, breathing a sigh of relief when she slowly reaches out to take the towel from my hand. She looks almost serene as she wraps it around her shoulders.
Fight or flight? I ask myself, I’m not sure yet. I push my energy signature as low as I can and step away from the window as Logan pushes open the door, tossing a paper into a bin close by. I turn to face him. His eyes are on the water as he walks to the edge of the pool. He hasn't seen me yet. It looks as if he is about to dive in, but then he stops.
I can't move. It feels as if my body has turned to stone. I can barely breathe. My heart is in my throat, and I hear the water dripping from the hem of my wet dress onto the mat around my feet with a plop, plop, plop.
Logan stares at the puddles and footprints at the edge of the pool, my footprints.
I study him as he studies them. He has shorts on but no shirt. His skin is smooth and tanned and his body is muscular. His limbs all fit together nicely, not like some of the warriors back home who had their muscles built up until they hardly looked Elder anymore.
Logan looks perfectly Elder. His curling black hair is loose around his shoulders, worn long and swept back as is proper, and there is a hint of shaved beard on his chin and cheeks. He seems older and a good deal more powerful, powerful enough to be worthy of those rare green eyes of his, and it makes me wonder again how long it has been.
He stares at my feet for a moment as if they had scales like a filthy Drakisthan. It’s so intense, that I almost glance down to check myself, but then his gaze travels up my body until he finds my eyes, and a vague memory of violence enters my mind. I swallow hard, blinking, remembering the first time I stared at him across a much smaller room. My heart pounds so loud, I'm sure he will hear it.
"Hi." He says, his smile looks as uncertain as I feel. He carries on after a pause, "I didn't expect to find you here." My mouth twitches, but I keep my gaze level.
His forehead glistens. Breathing in, I can smell the slight film of sweat, and something herby and sweet, like soap. His voice conjures a vision of a cage and the pieces of my Maxillian horse figurine in the firelight. Remembering Logan's sadness and my own fear, I will myself to stay calm. James cannot reach me now. Slow even breaths.
“You know me?” Logan asks offering me a fluffy white towel that he seems to have produced out of nowhere. "How are you feeling." He says, not looking away. I fight the urge to run, shakily reaching out to take the towel from him. My fingertips touch his hand and I remember him holding me, sitting with me through that silver-green glow, and suddenly I feel okay. All my fear melts away. I am not going to run, it is all going to be fine.
* * *
Logan leads me around the building he calls home, and I follow, lost in thought once again. Back at TTH, when I woke up after an overload, it was always my Mind-Smith that met me first, to instill the new disciplines and goals, then Teag would have me back in the gym, training, within hours. I had to catch up on what I had missed, after all. They carried on as if I had simply slept a little late, even though it sometimes lasted hundreds of days, even after James learned how to fetch me out of the dream world.
But this time, I was unguarded. Logan asked how I was feeling, he gave me a towel and looked at me with concern, in a way that made me feel like I was worth something, as a person, not just my potential as a weapon.
I have no idea what comes next this time.
Why? Why wouldn't they abandon me? Why try so hard to save me? What could they possibly hope to gain from keeping me around?
We stop unexpectedly in front of a door that looks different from the others. It is the same dark wood, but instead of vines and flowers, it has a pair of birds, masterfully carved, and stained black. They are large, with broad rounded wings, and the feather tips spread like fingers. Their long legs look odd with the short thick necks and squared-off tails. They seem to stare at each other in an unsettling way, the small black eyes shining with intelligence. I want to reach out and touch the heavy bills to see if they’re as sharp as they look, feel the fine dark feathers that seem to glow with an inner radiance, but Logan is in the way. He stands between me and the door, knocks, and then calls, "Luke!" looking back over his shoulder at me with a wink.
I know his voice when he calls back and it still has that smoothness that makes me think of James. I wonder if it was his presence I sensed behind Logan in that desolate place. My heart flutters wildly and I push down the desire to run away screaming. It was Luke who saved me. Yes, he saved you, even though you have given him nothing in return. I hold my ground and manage a small smile for Logan.
"I have a surprise for you," Logan tells Luke, a little more softly. The shuffling sounds on the other side let me follow Luke's movements. Out of bed, slippers, robe. Then there is a pause and then his feet trace a path to the door. Logan steps aside when it opens, and Luke just stares, open-mouthed.
He is still half asleep. His light brown hair is standing up in a few different directions, and there is a slight stubble on his jaw as he ties a belt around the waist of a fleecy dark blue robe that is dotted with absurd little yellow crescents. I am so shocked that I almost giggle, my worried grin replaced by one of mirth.
"We'll give you some time to recover." Logan says all haughtily, "and I will leave Elle in her room."
* * *
A few minutes later I have figured out how the en-suite's shower works and eaten a light, savory broth left by Logan with his promise to return shortly.
I stand by the window, wearing a light blue dress from the cupboard, looking at this new world and thinking about the things I left behind. I don't have long to wait.
Logan told me that there would probably be some medical tests, and when he shows up with Luke outside my door, they don't knock or even hesitate, but just walk right in. Luke looks striking in his white lab coat and wet hair combed to the side. He looks older as well, his unshaven jaw and forehead slightly lined. Still the same shiny shoes. Logan close behind him, is enough to make me relax. I’m no stranger to medical tests after all.
Luke hesitates as he comes to stand before me. His hands are shaking, and his forehead is damp with sweat. It’s a very different picture from the confidence he showed as he approached. He looks me up and down, puts his fingers over his mouth and states breathlessly, "I have so many questions."
I try not to frown, my own list of uncertainties running through my mind at blinding speed.
"You remember, we decided, long ago, to call you 'Elle', is that okay?" Luke asks in a hesitant tone. I tilt my head to one side, thinking about it. Elle is as good a name as any I suppose and nod a little.
"You slept for more than four years." Years? The way he says it; the way they have aged - he must mean cycles. I blink as I realize what that means. I was near the end of my eighth sunscycle, which would make me twelve now.
"I am going to need to take some scans," Luke says with unexpected urgency, as if the results are terribly important. I cannot imagine why.
Four cycles. I feel fine. Better than ever actually.
As Luke, Elle, and I walk to the lab, I try to keep in mind that for us it has been years but who knows how much she has been aware of in that time. Luke leads the all too familiar way though I feel him observing her through my eyes as I watch from the rear. We note how her gaze passes uninterested over the paintings but she looks at the patterned wallpaper with awe, even reaching out to touch it once as we turn the corner. She’s only a head shorter than my 1,8 meters now, walks with perfect grace, no sign of tremors or imbalance, in her neatly proportionate limbs. With my deeper perception, Luke marks the movement of her shoulders and chest as she breathes slow and deeply, as well as the slight throb of her carotid artery as her heart beats steadily.
How strange this must seem to her. Luke's thoughts echo weirdly in my head. His piggybacking off of my senses needs a much deeper connection than he customarily uses and it makes for some strange reverb.
We reach the swinging double doors of the lab ith their little round portholes and Luke pauses before we enter, more less-than-pleasant images of the last time she was here flit vaguely through my mind before I feel Luke withdraw and I am alone in my own head once more.
This remarkable building fascinates me as we walk in silence. Luke leads the way and Logan watches closely from behind. The air is heavy with unspoken words, but the patterned walls and carved doors are beautiful and I make mental notes of each of them as we pass, fleshing out my inner map.
We go slowly, down two flights of stairs, left, take the second right, into a foyer with a magnificent ring of lights hanging from a chain. It feels like Luke and Logan are always on the verge of saying something but never do, and again my thoughts are drawn back to the Mind Smith and his methods. I will have to be careful with Luke.
We go through a large and very impressive kitchen of red wood and metal, down another wide hallway and through a few sets of swinging double doors to reach our destination.
Luke's lab is a wide-open space, the walls lined with tables and shallow cabinets and all manner of strange equipment. Very little color.
He gestures towards a padded table in the center and with no more than a heartbeat’s hesitation, I obey.
Very careful.
Thanks for reading! I hope you’re enjoying following along with my Bottled Embers!
Next time… Elle finds herself in Luke’s lab submitting to ambiguous medical tests while Logan looks on. ?
As always, the easiest way to ensure you never miss an installment is to, click here:
for FREE! Also, interacting and engaging with you guys on anything to do with this story is one of the best parts of my week. I promise I would genuinely LOVE to know what you think so far, please feel free to:
or better yet, if you want to show a girl some extra love, and support this project, I’m always happy to welcome new names to the list, so tell your friends. Any of them, all of them, so they can tell their friends and we can all read along together:
Until next time. 👋🏻
I absolutely love how you did her take on her experience with Logan!
I've been waiting for you Frank. I've been waiting all day... And now you give me sponges and misunderstanding?! How do I respond to that? Ahem...
Misty, being calm and controlled... I think more stricken than anything else, at least at first, until she makes sense of all that she knows. Logan isn't a threat, remember? And she still isn't sure what Luke is, though she is starting to gather the pieces she needs to understand. You're right, Logan and Luke have a lot to learn about her, partly why Luke-dear is so inclined to gather data. And I hope you noticed that Misty seems to have some new insight into Logan's heritage, "as is proper" and "deserving of those rare green eyes" - wink wink. Maybe even more than he knows himself? Ooooh! You make my day Dude!