page fifteen

[fantasies]

[Henry's been riveted to all the information coming in from Terre Haute. He has friends there, people he needs safe.... He wanted so badly to go, but he remembers all the times he jumped in too early and had to be dug out of trouble. He's learning, now; he'll be able to ride and fight on his own soon. Until then, he can't drag people down. So he's been practicing on his own, going through basic motions to remind himself that he can make sure he goes, next time, if he works hard enough.

But reading all this....

He sits on his bed with his journal open in his lap. His tone is firm, for a ten year old.]

Will someone tell me about the Dead Zone? I know some, the basic stuff, but I always focused on the castle, I guess. The castle's magic. But...

[But now it all seems so much bigger than that.]

I just want to know more.

Comments

Henry

[wolfchild]

[ Finally a calm moment so: ] What do you want to know?

Arya

[fantasies]

[He thinks on it for a second.]

What's out there? What's everyone trying so hard to find?

Henry

[wolfchild]

A lot of things. People are looking for anything about this place. To learn more. So they can go home.

Arya

[fantasies]

Do you really think it'd be out there? The secret to figuring out how to go home? I always thought it'd be in the castle, since the castle's the one that brought us here.

Henry

[wolfchild]

The castle wouldn't want us knowing. But there's other castles out here. Like there's one that died and everyone with it. We found out more about it to keep it from happening to us.

Arya

[fantasies]

[Oh. He hadn't known that.]

Have we found ones like Paradisa? That have people still living in it, like us?

Henry

[wolfchild]

I don't think so. But it's a big place. There's many places no one's been yet.

[dictated]

[wantsiceland]

The place where powers stop working, right?

[fantasies]

Yeah. That's where the people on the expedition went.

[wantsiceland]

Right. I talked about this with you before.

[granted, she was lossified to sixteen at the time, so he probably wouldn't recognize her voice]

Why the interest? Does it mean anything to us?

[fantasies]

[A beat, while he tries to remember the conversation. He's confused, for a second, but you get used to weird stuff after spending so much time here.]

Oh yeah! I remember. Basically, that's what I'm trying to figure out. A lot of people are really interested in it, so there must be something out there. I just don't know what.

[wantsiceland]

Are we sure it even matters?

[fantasies]

Everybody thinks so. They wouldn't go if they didn't have some reason to, right?

[heloise]

I was told magic does not exist there.

[fantasies]

Yeah, that's what I heard, too. And that things like flashlights and stuff don't work either.

But that's weird, isn't it? Magic can't just stop existing in one part of a world. You either have it or you don't.

[heloise]

Maybe it is tempered, rendered ineffective?

[fantasies]

I don't know how you would do that, though, except with other, stronger magic. But it can't be the castle, can it? Why would it want to stop magic?

[heloise]

Something stronger than the castle? Perhaps it is the castle trying to push its influence while the world damps it.

[fantasies]

So it might be the world's magic versus the castle's magic? But I've never heard of it working that way before.

[A pause.]

Unless... the castle doesn't belong here, either?

[whichwayyoulean]

Well, it's got plenty of weird wildlife.

[fantasies]

[That gets a small laugh out of him. Honestly, he's just glad to be hearing from friends.]

Did you find a liger?

[whichwayyoulean]

[He considers this a great victory]

More like a... leopion? I don't know, they were small and had spots.

[fantasies]

Leopion... leo-- oh! Like a leopard and a lion? That's weird. It sounds a lot less impressive than a liger.

[whichwayyoulean]

There weren't all that impressive really. Kinda skittish.

[fantasies]

Really? That's lame, they should at least have some weird special ability or something. Like breathing fire!