Chapter 25

The Brownie

While Grandmum and the elder gent talked, I kept an eye on the wee Cyclops. He was slowing down, like all tots after a busy play day, and was starting to go droopy eyed.

“Grandmum, we need to get the little to a bed.”

“Oh, my! You’re right, Winni. Mindy should be coming home soon too.” She turned to Elder Harry. “You really need to speak to my daughter. Would you mind coming with us to her apartment?”

Grrlecc opened his mouth in a Rhonderdack-sized yawn.

“I’ll follow you in my car, Mary Katherine.”

Grandmum let me use the ray-dee-oo while we rode back to the keep. She explained that steeds do not speak...well, not always in a language understandable. It was all a tad confusing. Somehow sound is transported from Notherplace and, if you twist buttons just so, you hear something you ken. The lad was asleep as soon as his britches touched the seat. Thankfully, he did nae wake grumpy. Grandmum and Elder Harry helped him up the stairs and tucked him in Sammy’s bed.

Tea is always proper, so I brewed a pot and brought cuppas and some goodies I baked earlier. Grandmum insisted that I join them, so the washing up would have to wait.

“Harry, what should we do?”

Grandmum was straight to the point. I liked that.

Elder Harry sipped the tea and sighed in satisfaction. “Thank you, Winnalea.”

A true gentlemen he is. “’Tis nothing, Elder Harry.”

“Please, call me, Harry.”

A good match for Grandmum, truly.

“How does this fit into your hypotheses, Harry?” Grandmum asked.

“More complex beings and more awareness. It is all there if you are fast enough to research before the data is altered.”

“What do you mean?”

“Facts have been twisted, Mary Katherine. The--I’m sorry, Winnalea, where are you from?”

I sipped my tea and added a dollop of cream. “Ortharos.”

“Our visitors from Ortharos are becoming more complex, more coherent, and less temperamental. It is a slow progression, but obvious--if you have unaltered data and if you compare it to all the information we have gathered.”

“Why is this secret?” Grandmum asked.

“I think the deception exists to bring back our people as soon as possible and the government fears that the magic of Ortharos could be used here. Imagine it, Mary Katherine, alien visitors who come and with a wave of a wand, affect our world. I believe some of our people have access to the same magic that continues to filter in. Ideally, they want to stop it, but if they can’t, they want to make sure interactions with ORBs are limited and the gifted have no idea of their powers. You see that the school is growing in leaps and bounds. More and more score highly on tests that, in a crude form, identify and quantify magic.”

“The big question is, when will it all end?” Grandmum asked, wringing her hands. I knew she worried about her daughter and Little Miss.

“I don’t know, Mary Katherine. If I had to guess, when an equilibrium is reached. I think magic is not static. It is more organic. How that will come out in the wash, I don’t know.”

Mary Katherine tilted her head to the side in contemplation. “Do you mean, when enough magic from Ortharos sifts through to this world? Will that stop the Blinks, or just the uncontrollable behavior of the ORBs?”

“I really don’t know the answer to that. Only time will tell, when the magic between worlds levels out. If people stop disappearing, then we can assume the transfers are over, but the one thing that is undeniable, is that Winnalea is an amazing crumpet maker, and who couldn’t agree that she brings goodness to this world. We can’t just keep terminating every ORB that appears on Earth. It’s inhumane and ISMAT knows it. We have to get Winnalea and the Cyclops child in front of the council--” He paused and took another sip of his tea, then finished, “--safely,” he emphasized.

“Harry, love, you are such an optimist, but remember, your ORB recovery research is what got you removed from office. How do you propose we get a hearing with the council without a team of agents annihilating them?”

I choked on the crumbs of my crumpet when Grandmums asked Harry that.

“Give me some time to work on it, and let’s lay low for a bit. Actually, Mary Kate, you, Winnalea, and the child should come back to my place. I’m not sure you will be safe here, if Mindy has already disclosed her findings to ISMAT. You can leave her a note with my address, and she will see it when she returns.”