Spliced

Amanda, Sirius, and Kass made their way along the north-east corridor, the very same one Kass had been on when she’d last seen Tony. Outside the sky was overcast and the bulk of the garden was hidden by large pine trees and several shrubs. Kass knew if you pushed through the small gap between those trees, there was much more garden beyond, filled with rose bush mazes, gazebos, and even a small pond with a old wooden bridge. They’d taken a brief walk through part of it when she’d first visited. The weather looked to dingy to go out there now.

They explored a few rooms, most of which amounted to nothing more than junk and dust bunnies. Then they came upon the kitchen. It was sparkling, lined with pristine black and white tiles, much cleaner than the rest of the house. Kass felt it didn’t fit in this place.

“I don’t think we’re going to find a will in the kitchen,” Sirius remarked with a puzzled look at the room.

Kass wondered if he felt as mystified by the room’s cleanliness as she did.

“No,” Amanda agreed softly as she gave the room a sweep with her own eyes. She did a circle around the island in the middle of the room, looking perhaps for any piles of papers. But the place was spotless. Eventually she met the other two by the door and they continued down the hall deeper into the north-eastern wing.

They tried a few handles, found most things were locked, and continued on.

“You know it’s probably most likely to be in one of the locked rooms,” Amanda replied, as she walked slowly down the hall. She glanced back at Kass with a question in her eyes.

Kass nodded but wasn’t sure what Amanda was asking. Did she want to break in? “I don’t have a key. I think there was a room with some keys...” Kass trailed off, remembering how last time she was here they’d come across a small laundry in which one green wall had been almost entirely covered in hanging keys. But she wasn’t entirely sure of it’s location and even if they found it again she wasn’t confident it would help. There had just been too many keys.

Amanda turned back again briefly, still walking, still trying doors. “A little magic might help?” she raised her own hands and then nodded at Kass’s to indicate she meant her magic before turning back around again. She didn’t wait to see Kass’s reaction.

Kass paused and glanced at the keyhole on the nearest door. She crouched down so she could peer in it. She understood what Amanda wanted. She was suggesting Kass use telekinesis to move the mechanism.

“Looks like an old skeleton key lock. They’re awful easy to pick,” a deep voice said from right behind her.

Kass jumped. Sirius had spoken softly only a few inches from her ear. He crouched down next to her and studied the keyhole. Past him, Amanda continued walking further down the corridor, still trying doors. She seemed oblivious that they’d stopped.

Kass felt her heart beat faster at Sirius’s proximity. Her breath caught in her throat and she hoped he did not notice. Yet some part of her hoped he did. She drew back and gestured for him to have a go at picking it. She was sure he’d do a better job than any attempt with her imprecise magic.

He pulled a small Allen key from one of the many pockets within his coat and held it up with a smile. It never failed to impress her that while he had the physical strength to just pull the door off its hinges he often chose to use more gentle methods.

A little bit of fiddling and the door swung open a crack. He met Kass’s gaze and gave her a look that reminded her of mischievous youngster up to something he shouldn’t be. She found the cheekiness charming and couldn’t help but smile in return.

Her smile fell away as Sirius turned and called out for Amanda. Amanda stopped mid-attempted twist of another door further down the hallway and turned to look back at them. Sirius nodded at the now open door.

Kass’s curiosity got the better of her and she pushed her way into the room. Or perhaps it was more that she didn’t feel like standing there watching Amanda walk back down the hall to Sirius, reminding her of what was not hers to take. She was sure her thoughts would be plastered all over her face for Amanda to read too. Not that anything much had happened, not since she’d kissed Sirius on their last adventure. Sure for a moment he had kissed her back, but he hadn’t spoken to her since, at least not about anything important, not about that kiss. Amanda hadn’t either and for the most part Kass had avoided making eye contact with her for anything more than a second.

Sirius glanced after Kass as she entered the room, just to make sure everything was alright, then he turned and waited for Amanda.

Kass found herself in a room with a lot of potted plants sitting on the floor and atop an array of wooden and glass tables. The thing that struck her first was that they all seemed to be in perfect health. All were a vibrant shade of green and some were blooming with flowers in equally striking colours. The floor was was covered in more black and white squares, no dust or dead leaves to be found anywhere here either. Something about all this cleanliness in such an old house gave Kass the chills so she folded her arms as if in extra measure to not touch anything. She walked among the plants and stopped when she came across something even more strange in the corner of the room.

A large dollhouse in a less than half inch scale, took up a decent portion of the room. She’d never seen one so big and so minute at the same time. As Kass peered closer it looked strangely familiar, some of the rooms she was sure she’d seen before, only bigger. Indeed, the outside of the dollhouse looked very much like this one. One of the side panels was open and she reached forward and opened another. The house opened multiple sides, the walls hanging on by hinges. It was a model replica of this one, long wings and everything. She circled around it and stopped when she noticed some figures in one of the rooms on the second floor, figures that also looked strangely familiar.

She picked two of them up and turned them over. Both seemed slightly too big for the scale of the house and were obviously hand made from fabric. One had long dark hair, green eyes, and a feminine figure. The other was male, also long haired but silver in colour. This one’s eyes were grey. Each one bore clothes that resembled the ones that Cat and Zephyr had been wearing earlier today. Dark jeans, a black singlet, and leather jacket for Cat. Light slacks and a soft grey woolen jersey for Zeph. It even had his elbow pads sewn on. Kass placed them down on the table and took a nervous step back feeling like she’d touched something she shouldn’t. Her eyes then caught on two more figures higher up. Without touching them, she could already see that they resembled Wolf and Indi.

“Kass,” Amanda called from elsewhere in the room. “Come take a look at this.”

Kass left the dolls where they lay on the table and ventured out to find Amanda and Sirius standing around a wooden desk. Kass hadn’t noticed it at first. It, like all the other surfaces in the room was covered in plants. It was thin and had no chair but now that Kass had gotten the chance to look it over again she noticed the small drawers tucked into it. Amanda had pulled one open and was now holding out a letter.

Kass took it and her eyes widened as she read the words at the top of the page. “It’s the will. You found it.”

“You can read that?” Amanda asked.

Kass nodded absently as her eyes followed the cursively written inked words that ran across and down the page. “Bits, it’s a northern script, not mine but a close dialect. I can read some, well enough. It’s strange though because I thought she would have had it done in English. She was from the north originally though so...”

“What’s it say?” Sirius asked.

Kass frowned as she squinted at the letter while holding it about an arms length away. She then sighed and reached into her sleek leather handbag to pull out a peer of reading glasses. Pulling the letter in closer again she skimmed the rest. “It’s pretty much like the old guy said except... there’s more but it doesn’t make sense...” She shook her head. “I’m not sure I’ve got the translation right. I’ll have to get someone else to look at it. That’s good though, it’s what we came for. What else is in that drawer?” Kass put the letter in her handbag.

Amanda grabbed a handful of papers from the desk and, careful to keep them in order, splayed some out so Kass could see more inked words and some symbols. Kass took a couple off the top to study closer. Some of the words she recognised but the symbols were a mystery. Others were written in languages she’d never seen before.

“I recognise some of these symbols from a few spells but I don’t know any of the languages. Some of these look like recipes.” Amanda told her.

“That one’s a language spoken across the south-eastern islands, it’s pretty common.” Sirius jumped in pointing at a particularly symmetrical looking script.

“The one that sounds like singing, that we heard in Capricorn?” Amanda asked. “With all the tones.”

Sirius nodded.

Kass held the paper out to him.

He shook his head. “Oh I can’t read it, I only know a few words, and I doubt they’re on there.” He dropped his eyes, obviously feeling bad about not knowing the answer. “I’m sure you can find someone who can read it. Wolf probably knows the spells better than I do at least.”

“You think we should take them all?” Kass asked.

Amanda shrugged. “You might not find this room again, I saw some symbols on the door, I don’t know if it’s live magic but, here come take a look.”

Kass and Sirius followed her back to the open door. She pointed to some markings near the keyhole.

“I didn’t see that before.” Sirius knelt down in front of it next to Amanda. “What does it mean?”

Amanda shook her head. “It depends on the caster, they all have their own set of symbols, and there’s a bit of crossover, not always consistent. The more commonly used ones tend to be more powerful though, or more longer lasting, in theory because they are so well known. Although that’s just a theory, but belief does funny things to symbols.”

Kass nodded. “Much like with any language.” She’d heard as much about the working of spells herself.

“In reality they don’t really mean anything, they’re just a a tool, a crutch, like using a wand or pointing a finger. You still need an infuser’s magic. Runes just makes it easier to cast.”

“And to know what’s been cast.” Sirius added.

“This is a teleportation ring,” Amanda said pointing to one symbol. “Carved on a door, assuming that it does match up with what’s been cast..” she shot Sirius a wry smile “...then when we step back through that door we may not find the room we left behind is still there.”

Kass glanced back to the corner where the dollhouse had been, silently drawn back to it, thinking of the two dolls she’d pulled from the house. Perhaps she should put them back? She wandered off as Sirius pointed to another rune.

“What’s that one?” he asked “I’ve seen it before.”

“You would have.” Amanda smiled “It’s a dreamwalking rune. The same ones Katrina was messing around with last summer.” Amanda rolled her eyes as she remembered the trouble her daughter had gotten into. Katrina had an interest in dreamwalking magic, which she liked to borrow from her aunt any chance she got.

“Which makes me wonder...” Amanda trailed off as she realised Kass wasn’t there anymore. “Kass?”

“Back here,” a voice called.

Amanda a Sirius followed the sound to the back of the room.

Kass was just removing her hands in one of the rooms of the giant dollhouse when they found her.

“Don’t touch that,” Amanda warned as she realised what it was and what the little figures inside looked like. “Did you move anything?”

“Just the dolls, those two.”

“Where were they?”

Kass pointed to where the dolls had been and now were again. “They were there. I moved them before. I realised my mistake, I was just putting them back. You think it’s magic?” Kass inquired wanting to know for sure.

“I don’t know. Best not to touch anything that looks like a poppet?” Amanda was peering now into one of the lower rooms.

Kass followed her gaze and almost froze. “But how..?” Kass trailed off. “They look like us.” Her statement was barely a whisper.

Amanda didn’t answer, she just stayed staring at the dolls and house with a thoughtful and concerned expression on her face.

Eventually Kass asked in a whisper “How do you destroy a poppet?”

Amanda replied an an almost equally quiet voice, “Depends how it was made.”

The three of them stood silent for a moment.

“I don’t think they look anything like us,” Sirius commented. “I mean they’re all the same height.”

He said it dry, no hint that he was teasing, but it earned a smile and a soft snort from Amanda who was used to his style of humor. “They don’t have to be accurate, although it helps. Let’s just leave them be. We’re safer the further we are from them. I’m not sure we’re really here right now anyway.”

“What do you mean?” Kass asked as she and Sirius followed Amanda away from the dollhouse.

“There was a dreamwalking rune on the door.”

Sirius shook his head. “I know what dreamwalking feels like, I’ve done it with Cat before, and that time in Katrina’s dream.” He rolled his eyes, “That time when she borrowed some of Cat’s powers.”

“Neither of which amounts to the most quality of dreamwalking.” Amanda replied without any intended judgement. “A child, an infuser at that, and, let me guess, Cat was also a child when she pulled you into her dreams?”

Sirius gave the barest of nods as Amanda glanced back to check his answer.

Kass spoke up then. “But if this is also infuser magic that shouldn’t be that strong either, even compared to a child who is a dreamwalker should it?”

Amanda paused as they reached the door to the room. She turned and looked at the other two. “Depends, generally yes but not always, not for a trained infuser. We don’t know what magic’s in this house.”

She held out a hand to Sirius as she turned to face the door. Sirius grabbed hold of it and in turn held out a hand to Kass whose world flipped upside down at the prospect. She grabbed his hand trying to ignore the somersaults her stomach was doing or the guilt she felt at her own rogue thoughts. They walked through the doors, letting go of each others hands once they were through.

They each gave themselves a once a over before looking back at the door which looked no different than when they’d entered.

Kass glanced at Amanda wanting to see her reaction. She looked a little relieved but also still a touch on edge. Not that it was easy to tell with Amanda. Kass thought she had her expressions sussed out though, for the most part.

Sirius also gave Amanda a questioning look. “What now?”

Kass interrupted before Amanda could answer, “That dollhouse... the room the dolls were in, it looked like the room we were in.”

“Which is why I’d like to get as far away from it as possible,” Amanda replied. “We’ve got what we came for, now let’s find the others and leave this house.”