Hurricane #25: The Impasse (Patreon)

The hyena’s walk—carrying the two caged canines—became a drive, one Serrano was frustrated at being unable to see from the cage’s position on the passenger seat. At some point, they’d clearly entered a tunnel, or a garage, or…something underground on the campus, something that kept going for several minutes even at what felt like the unsafe speed Professor Irsaw routinely drove at. (Not that she’d have room to talk, given how much of a speed demon she’d been back when she had a car.)

“All right.” That was the first thing Irsaw had said since they’d hit the road, beyond responding with some variation of patience, please whenever Serrano protested. Sarah hadn’t tried to say anything, just staring ahead fixedly. Her expression had gradually morphed from wary to seething, though, so maybe that was an improvement.

Before Serrano had a chance to ask just what was “all right,” she felt the car park and the engine shut off. Irsaw picked up the cage again and took them out of the car, then set them down on the floor. The floor of what still wasn’t clear, but it was bare, polished concrete. Then she heard another click, and the world blurred for a moment, the feeling this time less of the floor dropping out than of being fired out of a cannon. When her vision returned, she wobbled back and forth, trying not to hurl.

“Sorry,” Irsaw said, sounding genuinely apologetic. “I haven’t quite been able to work out the right damping effects.”

“Uh.” She straightened up, taking a deep breath. Back to normal size, as she’d expected. The car, which revealed itself to be a silver sedan of an expensive and vaguely timeless import variety, had…parked inside a building? No, the car was on asphalt, but the asphalt ran along the inside wall of an office. The back wall of the office was entirely open to what looked like a much larger office—as in giant scale. The sound echoed strangely.

Sarah’s fists were clenched by her side, and she hyperventilated a few seconds. Then she glared up at Irsaw, stalking quickly toward them.

“I apologize, Miss Wylde, but please understand—”

She slapped the hyena hard enough to make Serrano wince reflexively from the sound.

Irsaw rubbed their cheek and fell silent.

“No, you understand that whatever trouble you think we’ve caused this morning will pale compared to the trouble you and your school will earn if you ever do that to me again.” Sarah pointed at the cage, then clenched her fists again, this time taking a slow, deep breath. “Furthermore, you know full well what the stakes are for not just your school but your world if we fail to stop Sark. Like it or not, we’re all on the same side.”

Irsaw tilted their head. “Are we? Miss Layotl and I face a looming existential crisis. But from both the mythological research Mrs. Webb has shared with me and your own words about ‘pruning branches,’ it seems like Faerie faces little more than an unfortunate inconvenience.”

Serrano’s ears skewed. She wanted to protest, but Irsaw wasn’t technically wrong. Sarah had absolutely been helping, but if it would help the Faerie Realm more to cut this branch of reality loose, would the wolf even blink?

“As I told Serrano, our Queen’s power over the branches of reality is…complicated.”

“If you’re about to tell me she can’t prune branches and you’ve just been blowing smoke up my ass about that this whole time, Sarah, you’re going to be facing a looming existential crisis, as in me looming over you very pissed off.”

Sarah gave Serrano a dour look. “She can, I assure you.” After a moment longer, she sighed, looking at the ceiling. “But I also told you that Sark’s machinations are affecting Faerie itself. That’s why I started watching you in the first place—to learn how you were connected to it all. And the more we learn, it seems the less we know about what happens if either this branch or Sark’s is pruned. What other connections break, what futures are lost…and what it means to have a rogue weather goddess whose powers extend across not just her world but across other dimensions and ours.”

The coyote furrowed her brow, trying to parse that. “What exactly are you saying? Faerie’s starting to be worried about me, specifically?”

“Faerie’s been worried about you specifically, Serrano. When we first met, I told you I thought you might be a serious threat to other worlds or even Faerie itself. When it became clear power was being stolen through you, I started trying to help you. And I still am.” She looked back at the coyote. “But if they ask me if you’re a serious threat to Faerie now, what do I say?”

“Three Lords, you say ‘no,’ because I’m not! Even if I understood exactly what I can do with my supposed powers, which I don’t and I’m not even convinced they’re really mine instead of being temporarily lent to me, you’re…” She spread her hands. “If it’s just an ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ thing, I guess it is what it is, but whatever’s happening to Faerie is a side effect of what’s happening here. I want to stop what’s happening here, and when I do, it’s going to stop what’s happening in Faerie, too.”

“I know.” Sarah looked away.

“But,” Irsaw murmured, “that doesn’t address the Faerie Queen’s concern about the rogue storm goddess.”

Sarah shook her head wordlessly.

“Then you address the damn concerns, Sarah. Even if this is still just a temporary truce, you can tell her Royal Highness that. Let her know you’ll get back to trying to kill me after this is all over.”

“That’s not—dammit, Serrano, it’s not about that and it’s not that simple, either. I’m not going to go back to trying to kill you.”

“Unless the Queen tells you to because I’m supposedly a rogue storm goddess?”

“I don’t know what to tell her!” Sarah roared, loud enough to make Serrano jump and even Irsaw to raise their brows and step back.

The wolf looked at both of them, then rubbed her forehead, speaking more softly. “I know we started out on…less than good terms, Serrano, but I…I know you’re not our enemy. I know Sark is the real threat we have to deal with. But I don’t know how to do it yet. Cutting him off here is the first step, and that may be the only step you have to take. But the threat to Faerie won’t necessarily end when the threat to this reality does.”

“Then I’ll help you deal with that threat.”

“I don’t know if you can, and I’m not certain you’ll be allowed to. I don’t—” Sarah closed her eyes. “I’ve been trying to help you. Protect you. It’s not a choice all of Faerie agrees with.” She sighed, opening her eyes and looking square at Serrano again. “And when the Queen asks me if you’re as big a potential danger as Sark is, and she will ask, the truth is that I don’t know. And the truth is that I can’t—I won’t—lie to her.”

Serrano ran a hand through her hair. “You really think I am a rogue storm goddess?”

Sarah smiled wanly. “I can’t swear to the ‘rogue’ part.”

Irsaw cleared their throat. “Clearly saving the world is of paramount importance, Miss Wylde, but the only people who will know and understand, even be capable of understanding, what you and Miss Layotl have done—assuming you succeed—are people at this college. As small as the concerns of my college may seem to two mythical beings concerned with the fate of the world and the fate of Faerie, I feel bound to gently remind you both that without the help of myself, Mrs. Webb, and Professor Snep, you wouldn’t be together at this moment to be arguing with one another and with me. Either Sark’s plan would have already moved past the point of no return, or the Queen of Faerie would have already intervened.”

Sarah narrowed her eyes at the hyena. “And?”

Serrano sighed. “And if the world survives Sark, it’d be good if the college survives us.”

Irsaw inclined their head. “Not to put too fine a point on it, but as Miss Wylde so eloquently put it, this world is a ‘chaos nexus,’ which I can’t help suspect means it attracts outsized threats.”

Sarah crossed her arms, but looked away again after a moment. “So it needs outsized defenders. Like a college of magicians and giants that can coordinate with the little, technologically savvy world.”

“Quite so. All I’m asking is that you remember that anything either of you do that involves magical powers or unusual sizes will reflect on this college. None of the staff want to be in a position where we have to demonstratively make an example of our fellows.”

Serrano pursed her lips. If push came to shove, could they make an example of either her or Sarah? She wouldn’t bet on it, especially Sarah, but she probably shouldn’t push it. Giving Irsaw a curt nod in return, she spread her hands. “So now what?”

“Now, we find a place for you to both to stay on campus tonight. And,” they raised their hand as Sarah started to protest, “we come to a consensus about what to do tomorrow morning regarding your supposedly double-agent mercenaries.”