» 13 – The Guide «

EARTH. NEW ALBION.

Distant lights and colours play behind June’s eyes. Familiar faces stand just out of reach, hands grasping at her from the shadows. There’s so much blood. A hand on her shoulder, a voice whispering in her ear:

“If you die, you could apologise.”

June’s eyes snap open, though she very much wishes they hadn’t. Her whole body aches, but the worst is her back, a white-hot pain raking across—

It’s dark for a time, then June opens her eyes again, more slowly this time. She’s lying on her side, can make out someone’s studio. The noise outside signals cars, crowds of people.

Back in New Albion, her brain processes, still on auto-pilot.

“Oh, you’re—”

At the voice, June lunges up, trying to ignore the flash of pain the movement brings. She wraps a hand around her attacker’s throat, pushes them down—

“J—” Kyra struggles to speak, move out of the older woman’s vice-like grip.

“Kyra!” June releases the girl, hands trembling. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry.”

The girl sinks to sit with her back against the bed, unable to answer until she can catch her breath.

“Where—?” June’s eyes flash around the room, taking in—

“Is that typically how you treat someone when they save your life, June?” A new voice, somewhere behind June.

She tries to turn, face them, but it’s too painful.

“Don’t move, you idiot. You’ll burst your stitches.”

I know that voice.

Arjun sweeps around to stand beside the bed, kneeling to check on Kyra. She waves him off, apparently more startled than hurt.

“Go get yourself a cup of tea,” he tells her. “Let me check on my idiot patient.”

Kyra gives June a shaky smile, then disappears from view. Arjun turns, raises a dark eyebrow.

“Your hair is silver,” June notes.

“An astute observation,” he replies dryly.

He stands up properly again, letting June get her first proper look at him in… too many years. He’s older now—had she missed his thirtieth? She wasn’t sure—but it seemed nothing would deprive him of that effortless lean look. His skin is a slightly lighter shade of brown than she’s used to, perhaps the fault of long hours spent indoors.

“I see it only took you nearly dying to deign to visit me again.”

“Don’t be a jerk,” June replies, wincing. “I almost died.”

“That’s what I just—” He sighs, shakes his head. “You’re lucky you didn’t bleed out.”

“I’ve been through worse.”

“No, June, you haven’t.” Arjun glances past her, then pulls up a chair beside her. “What’s going on? What’s with your posse of traumatised kids?”

“Kyra’s the new Hero. I’m her Guide.”

“Oh.” Arjun leans back in his chair. “Oh shit.”

“Yeah, no kidding.”

“If…” He considers his words carefully. “If you want to talk about…”

“Not really,” June replies bluntly, though she offers an apologetic look. “There’s a reason I haven’t come to see you, and it’s not just because you’re a dick. It was just…”

Arjun looks down at his hands, threaded together in his lap. “Yeah, I know.”

The two sit in the silence for a moment, not sure what else to say, weighed down by everything left unsaid.

“So, uh, I guess I need to apologise to your dad for bleeding all over his shop, huh?”

“My shop, you mean,” he replies.

June looks at him properly, startled.

“Arjun, I’m so—”

He laughs, waves her off. “Dad’s fine. He just decided to retire early, travel the world with Mum.”

“And you took over? What happened to you being a doctor?”

“Tried it.” He shrugs. “Someone had to step up in the end, though.”

“One of your siblings couldn’t do that?”

“They all fled the country.” He sighs. “Can’t believe no one wanted to get stuck with the family curse.”

“So you ended up being, what, the responsible one?” June raises an eyebrow.

“Stranger things have happened.”

“I’m not sure about that.”

#

June refuses to stay in bed, much to Arjun’s chagrin, so they compromise on having her use his grandfather’s old wheelchair. He wheels her out of the study and into the small kitchen, all part of a cosy Victorian-era apartment above the Goswami family business. The building felt designed a little bit like a rabbit warren, but June had always considered that part of the charm—though being wheelchair-bound meant she now couldn’t make it down the stairs.

Probably part of Arjun’s plan.

A kettle boils away on the stove to the left, while Kyra stands in front of a window nursing a cup of tea. She’s dressed in a too-large jumper she probably had to borrow from Arjun, and the setting sun lights her from behind in a soft orange glow. Ewan is waiting nervously at the table, fidgeting with his phone, and he looks up suddenly when they enter.

June shifts uncomfortably in the wheelchair. “Kyra, I—”

The girl turns to face her. “You almost died, so I’ll forgive you this time.”

Then she smirks, a sign June accepts with a sigh of relief.

“Are you okay?” Ewan asks.

“I’m not dead, so yeah. Sorry if I gave you guys a bit of a fright.”

Ewan’s look makes very clear that she’s understating what happened just a little bit.

“I’m grounding your boss here until at least tomorrow,” Arjun announces, continuing to talk over June’s protestations: “No arguments. I need to keep you under observation for at least that long.”

June tries to cross her arms in frustration, but it hurts too much to try, which is indication enough that she should concede the point.

“Where’s Meilin?” June asks.

“Asleep in the other room,” Arjun answers, wheeling June in beside the kitchen table. “Just seems like magic exhaustion, though. She should be fine tomorrow, but I don’t want to wake her, so she’s welcome to stay here too.”

“What about us?” Kyra asks.

“Ah, you should probably head home,” June replies. “Make sure no one thinks you’ve gone been kidnapped or something. It has been a full day, unless I was out for longer than I thought.”

“At least time flows the same in the Marchlands,” Ewan comments. “I didn’t think to ask if we’d get back and find ten years had passed.”

“That would make Hero-ing rather awkward,” June agrees.

She threads her hands together in her lap, not sure what to say next.

“You should come by tomorrow, discuss the future. There’s so much responsibility on both your shoulders now. I don’t want to scare you, but I do want you to be prepared.”

“Finding out about magic and a secret fantasy world helps take the sting off,” Ewan offers, and Kyra gives a quiet smile in agreement.

June offers them a smile back, if only because she’d heard someone say the exact same thing, back in the day.

“You don’t mind if we invade your space a bit longer?” she asks Arjun.

He chuckles. “I’ll insist on it. Besides, you’re the most interesting company I’ve had in months.”

“And on that note, you two better leave before he starts bemoaning his love life,” June warns them.

“I’ll walk you out,” Arjun says, shooting a mock-glower in June’s direction.

“You look after yourself, okay?” Ewan says as he stands.

“Don’t worry, I’m stubborn,” she assures him.

Kyra moves to sit down atop the table next to June, Ewan and Arjun disappearing from the room as she does.

“I thought you might die,” she says quietly.

“I could have,” June replies. “I don’t want to worry you, but it’s the truth. That’s your reality now.”

“Aren’t I supposed to stop that though? Isn’t that why I’m the Hero?”

June smiles ruefully. “I wish it was that simple.”

“Well, let’s do our best to keep it simple.”

Kyra hesitates, clearly considering a hug but deciding better of it. Instead, she offers June a hand.

“It’s been a hell of a forty-eight hours,” she says, stifling a laugh at the thought that it’s only been that long. “Thank you, for being there for me. For us.”

“Always.” June takes her hand. “It’s my job after all, right?”

“I’d like to think you’d do it anyway.” She smiles. “I can tell you’re a good person, Ms Winters.”

#

While Arjun takes the Hero and Squire downstairs, June slowly wheels herself to the doorway of the room where Meilin is sleeping. She seems at peace, breathing slowly but steadily. A black cat is curled up beside her, nestling against her for warmth. It opens an emerald eye to study the newcomer, returning to dozing when it’s satisfied she isn’t a threat.

“You have a cat now?” June asks Arjun when he reappears behind her.

He shakes his head. “She had it with her when I arrived.”

“Huh.” June frowns, but motions for Arjun to help wheel her away before they wake Meilin.

They retreat into the study, almost but not quite the same as June remembers it. The personal touches of Arjun’s father are gone, replaced with his own knick-knacks and photographs. One sits on the mantle above the fireplace, placed faced down. June recognises the frame.

“Maybe we can talk, just a little,” she says, as Arjun bends down to light a fire.

“We can talk as much or as little as you want,” he replies, giving her a reassuring smile. “I’ll go get us some tea first, how about that?”

She nods, watching the crackling fire as Arjun disappears from the room. Her wounds still ache, but she’ll heal—a Titled privilege. Alone with her thoughts, she thinks back to what she saw outside the gateway in Wù-Pailou, what she saw before the rain turned everything to mud.

Should I have told them about the tracks before they left?

She shakes her head, in part to reassure herself more than anything else.

No, I don’t want to scare them. Not until I’m certain.

But deep down she knows that any answers will just make how bad the situation is that much more apparent. All because it looked like the barrow geists had entered Wù-Pailou through the gateway; that they were somehow from Earth.

~***~