Witch Doctors Inc: SEASON TWO (Ongoing)

Part 1.12

Everyone comes to Naemar this time, even Onyx. I don't need the entourage, but I don't complain.

Owen isn't at the fragment today. Only the gelatinous octopus slops over the wet earth, eyes round with curiosity. It's the perfect spot for me to focus on energy-sensing.

Onyx takes a spot next to me. Ruby is out badgering the villagers for answers, and Addy and Maya have gone with her for damage control purposes.

I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. The coolness of water laps against the borders of my mind. I'm surprised to find that the fragment's energy is more than what it should be. There's a heaviness to it, as if someone has packed energy particles too tightly. I drift away from that mystery, past the curious throb of the octopus, and out into Naemar proper. Human energy dots the village like daisies in a field.

I weave past the dots to the big hump of energy in the middle. It's the energy of a disturbed slumber. It's hazy and thick, heavy with hypnotic calm, but there are pinpricks of unease scattered throughout. Those pinpricks hurt to touch, as if they are sore teeth being picked at.

"Ignatius," I call.

The words sink into the darkness around me. My energy is too far away. Frustrated, I clutch at the nearest branch and try again.

"Ignatius," I call, more firmly this time. Nothing answers my call.

I'm going to try something I've been working on. I've been able to teleport for some time. It requires you to loosen your energy particles so that you're dispersed throughout your surroundings. Once you've done that, you can sense your way to your destination, then gather your particles back together when you've arrived.

I loosen the particles in my hand only, the one resting on Ignatius's branch. It's still tethered to the rest of my physical body, so it can't go far, but it can penetrate deep into the wood like a shock of mist.

A glint pierces the haze - a dream, or a thought. More glints appear, colourful in my mind's eye. I've got Ignatius's attention.

Ignatius. Let the villagers go.

There's something else Onyx has taught me - telepathy. I can't use it for long, but if I really concentrate I can send a thought out to a specific person.

A cloud of confusion greets my call.

Why are you keeping them here? Let them go. Let the moon girl go.

The confusion swells. Glints appear in the cloud, blinking furiously.

What was he trying to tell me?

Let them go, Ignatius. They're not yours to keep.

A bubble of heat worms towards me from within the slumber-haze. It knocks against my energy, forceful. I envelop it, trying to soothe its agitation. It strains against me, against the haze. Glint of consciousness stud the strain, growing brighter with each second. In the strain, there is a voice. A word.

I let the agitated energy flow past my dispersed particles. I focus fully on sensing them.

The strain hisses out a word.

I catch it with my mind, holding it gently, like a precious bauble.

The word is trapped.

*

Coldness takes hold of me, and it isn't due to any breeze.

Trapped.

What did he mean by that?

The villagers were trapped, maybe that was it. Why would Ignatius give me that one word? I'd asked him to let the villagers go. I knew they were trapped. Yet he'd fought against his entire being to give me that one word. That one word, steeped in anguish.

I'm too tired to hold the connection any longer. Next to me, Onyx wakes from his nap. Did I miss anything? he asks.

I scowl.

We meet the others in the village square.

"Owen wants us to back off now that the tests came back negative," Ruby shares. "He thinks that's enough to convince Talia. He's agreed to speak to her through your communications monitor, but he won't leave Naemar."

"There's no moon girl." Addy adds. "None that the villagers know of anyway."

Maya quirks an eyebrow. "Time for more research?"

"When we get back," I agree. "I'm going to take more bark samples."

That is, if these stupid plants, or epi-whatever, will let me. They're crawling all over Ignatius, sticking their leaves and pollen everywhere. The worst is the vine with the shrivelled brown flowers. Not only is it hideous, it sports a barely visible coat of spindly thorns that dig into my skin as I try to get to the bark.

"Idiot, ugly plant," I grumble.

"I quite like that one," Maya says. "It's unique. You don't see many flowers with brown petals. There's a patch of them growing in my room back at the cottage."

Why she'd want those ugly flowers in her room, I wouldn't know.

"A little help, cat?" I glare at Onyx, who's prancing around in the shower of leaves I'm unintentionally creating. I'm wondering if I can just use my witch powers to zap the accursed plant when a low growl emanates from Onyx's throat.

That vine. The one with the brown flowers.

"Yeah," I confirm. "That's the one I want you to destroy."

Lily, when did you first see this plant?

"It's been here this whole time. Are you going to help me or not?"

Step away from that plant. Immediately.

I squint at Onyx, whose eyes have gone cold.

"Onyx," Maya says, "are you okay?"

"What's your problem now?" I grumble.

He turns to me with winter in his eyes. Lily, he says. That plant is not native to this planet.