Chapter XLV

Carrot’s phone rang, and she jumped up, her heart skipping a beat. 

She paused, looked down at her mom, then looked to the doorway. She had brought her mom to her bed. Of course, her first action after making sure her mom wasn’t bleeding or anything was to call an ambulance but no one had replied, the line went busy then a robotic voice came on and told her to be patient as they were receiving an above-average number of calls. 

She had given up after waiting three minutes. Her mom was surprisingly light, once Carrot got a good hold of her. It was wrong. Her mom was supposed to be warm, and soft, and full of light and laughter and she was nice. She wasn’t meant to be dead weight and bones that Carrot could feel through her dress. 

Carrot had placed her on her bed, brought some pillows to place them behind her mom’s back, and then sponged some water into her mouth. There was no fever, no bleeding, nothing wrong that she could see. But her mom was still unconscious, and that was bad.

The phone rang again, and Carrot waited for a moment, caught in indecision. 

She reached into her pocket and removed Bathemius. “Watch over her,” she whispered before gently setting the bat down onto the nightstand next to whatever books her mom had been reading.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll do that,” Bathemious said.

She wasn’t worried that he’d double-cross her. Sure, he was a little brusque and rude, but Carrot’s mom could win anyone over, even ill-tempered little bat daemons.

Carrot ran back to her own bedroom and found her phone on her desk. It was charging since its battery wasn’t very good. She unplugged it, then answered. “Hello?”

“Carrot?” Silas’ voice came through. “How are you doing?”

She sucked in a breath of air, then almost let it out as a cry. Somehow, she managed to retain herself. “Silas, mom is hurt.”

“Your mother?” he asked. “What happened? What’s happening around you right now?”

“I don’t know? There’s... stuff in the air? Mom was on the floor in the kitchen. She was making breakfast. I didn’t even hear her fall.”

“I see. I’m on my way to your place now,” he said. She could hear him moving around, a chair scrapping, cloth moving. “Will you be okay for... twenty minutes? I don’t think I should drive over.”

“I can be yeah,” she replied. ‘Silas, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know, exactly. But I suspect that the Master has made their move. I don’t think your mom is the only one affected. This is across the whole city. Or at least a large part of it. I’m seeing some sort of magic-reactice dust here as well.”

The whole city? 

Carrot had a few strong spells, but at most they could reach across a football field, maybe a little further. Not an entire city. That was so far beyond her that she didn’t know where to begin. 

She returned to her mom’s room. “Is... this is going to be bad, right?” she asked. “If everyone is like mom, falling asleep all of a sudden, then a lot of people will be hurt.”

“Yes,” Silas said simply. “But this might also be something of an opportunity for us. This is going to have a source, and its going to be terribly obvious. I’m going to hang up now. I’ve, ah, found a bike. I’ll be there soon. Call Iris, if you can.”

“Okay,” Carrot said. 

She waited for him to hang up, then looked at her phone. She took a seat on the edge of her mom’s bed, then dialed in Iris’ number.

It took three rings before someone answered. “Huh?” 

“Hi!” Carrot said. “Iris? It’s me, Carrot?”

“Hu? Oh, yeah, what?”

“Did I wake you up?” Carrot asked. She looked at her phone. It was ten in the morning already, well past the time when she’s normally wake up.

“Urgh, yeah? It’s still morning, I was sleeping. What’s up?” Iris asked.

“I... Iris, I need you to llook around. Is there magic dust in your room? Does your magic feel weird?”

Iris paused for a long time. “Is this some sort of joke?” 

“It’s not,” Carrot said. She tried to put as much sincerity into the words as she could, and she suspected that it worked when she heard a bed creak. Iris was sitting up, at least. 

“There’s no magic dust in the room. None that I’m aware of,” Iris said. “My magic feels normal. Not that I have much to account for, as you well know. I’m... one moment. Yes, my magic works fine. I have an enchanted light here and it’s turning on and off as usual.”

“You have an enchanted light in your bedroom?” Carrot asked.

“Yes? I need to use the washroom at night sometimes. What of it?”

“Nothing!” Carrot replied. Actually, that was a great reason to learn a light spell of some sort. She shook her head and refocused on the now. “Iris, there’s a weird dust in the air, and it’s attracted to magic, and people, and it made my mom faint, and she’s not waking up, and Silas is coming, but he won’t be here for a while and I’ve been cleaning it off my magic this whole time, but it keeps clinging onto me, and I don’t want it on my mom and I’m afraid.”

“Whoa, whoa, calm down,” Iris said.

Sadly, that didn’t really help Carrot feel any calmer. She understood where Iris was coming from, but her eyes still felt wet. Still, she reached up, patting her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt, and took a deep, snotty breath through her nose. “Okay, I’m calm. Sorry.”

“Right, no, I get it. Where... give me a second. Okay, I’ve got a pen. Give me your address. I’m bringing a few things.”

Carrot rattled it off. “What kind of things?” she asked.

“Well, obviously whatever is going on didn’t hit me, so my house is safe. Is this just at your home?”

“No? Silas noticed it too. He lives halfway across the city.”

“Right. So for some reason, my place was shielded. Honestly, that could be a lot of things. We’ve have this house for a few generations, so I don’t know which old defence is doing it, but something is keeping me safe. I’ll test a few things, then come over. I suppose I’ll have to get my scooter out of the garage.”

“Do you have a permit for that?” Carrot asked.

“If people across the city are fainting, I doubt the police will be stopping me to check,” Iris said.

“Oh... well, at least wear a helmet.”

“Yes, mom,” Iris said with obvious sarcasm. Then a beat later, she returned, and Carrot could hear the wince. “Sorry. Bad timing.”

Carrot giggled, even if came out a little wet. “It’s okay. Just... come here fast? But follow the speed limit!” 

“Uh-huh. I’ll skip my morning ablutions. But give me time to get dressed, yeah? I’ll be there soon. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“I wasn’t planning on it!” Carrot said.

“I doubt you do much planning, that’s the issue,” Iris said. “Anyway. Bye.”

Carrot heard the click, then stared at her phone. She’d hung up for real. Pursing her lips, she tossed the cell onto her mom’s bed, then stood up, then sat back down. She didn’t know what to do. So she ended up circling around and sitting on the other side of her mom and took one of the woman’s hands in hers to gently pat it. 

Soon. She had friends coming over, and soon, things would be better.

***

“Stupid, birdbrained, moron,” Ivil muttered as she pushed her scooter out of the garage. She had her hat under one arm and an old backpack slung over the opposite shoulder, weighting her down awkwardly to the side. 

Iris cursed Carrot, and also to a lesser extent, herself. She should have asked more questions, but it was a little too late for that, now.

Getting on the bike, she spun it around so that it faced the road, then started it up. The little electric motor barely made a noise as she road it down to the edge of her driveway, then stopped.

Yup, there was dust in the air. It looked a little like pollen, though at entirely the wrong time of year for it. 

She sighed, stopped, then got off the scooter to poke at a small pile of it on the sidewalk. The backpack contained everything else she could think of that might help. Charms, bottled reagents, a few enchanted devices that she’d made, and several more that were just part of her inheritance. She didn’t expect to need it so soon. 

For now, however, she didn’t need a way to stop this stuff, or to know what it was. She just had to know how to get through it untouched. 

She had an idiot friend to save.

***