MISC: To Answer Drew and Part 37

[George Phillies]

>> She wore a baggy royal-blue sweater and loose blue jeans, but seemed
>> unbothered by the blinding snow, gale-force winds, and below-zero
>> weather.
>
> Hmmmmmm. Not concerned that her identity will leak out from doing that, then? Of
> course, it makes sense that the snow itself would veil her...

She is in disguise as Professor Morgana Lafayette.

>> “I never used it in a match,” Janie said.  “I was saving it for
>> National. Now Eclipse used it!
>
> Hmmmm! Parallel development, or super-mindreading?

No, but she does not find out until late in the book.

>> “Actually, these days it’s mostly one friend,” Abigail said. “Joe
>> Cartwright is a very polite young man, well, boy, he being about your
>> age, Janie. You said he was a good player.”
>
> GASP. Eclipse is secretly her crush!

Actually, Morgana Lafayette asked about this:
   <You two weren’t carrying on, Janie, were you? I know you’re way 
young for that, but it matters legally, so I have to ask.> The 
telepathic question went unheard by the rest of the Wells family.

<No! Absolutely not!> Janie tried unsuccessfully not to sound offended. 
“We kept in touch, after he rescued us. Well, he and I could reach each 
other mentalically. I never needed to phone. We’d agree on good times 
for him to show up.  Mom and Dad said it was all right.  Didn’t you, 
Dad?” Janie asked. “And sometimes we all played base ball nines 
together. A few times, Brian needed a couple extra players for his team. 
Trisha was always catcher. She insisted. And never managed to hit the ball.”

Not crush.  Opponent.  Who gets crushed every time, and was grateful for it.

> Oh shit, her crush really *is* Eclipse o3o

Err, Eclipse is a girl.  Janie knows that.  Also, Janie does not find 
Joe or other boys interesting yet.  Her sister Comet, ummh, Jessamine 
Trishaset, has a different opinion.



“Just a bit,” Morgana answered. “The Americans were fine, but Kamensky 
had the Russian Imperial Elite Strike Team at the far end of a leash. If 
he’d decided that Joe is Eclipse, which sounds massively idiotic, he 
might have had his Team try to kidnap Janie to extract details from her.”

“No!” Abigail said. “My little daughter?”

“I said try,” Morgana answered.  “Janie was safe.  You were all safe. 
The Tsarists?  Unless things went massively bad, they were toast. Burnt 
toast. Two out of three safe isn’t bad, is it? But there are two things 
I need to do here, and then I really need to go home and make dinner.”

“You are having dinner here,” Abigail ordered.  “We owe you much more 
than that. What do you need to do?”

“For the first I need your agreement,” Morgana said. “The first is 
called a null link. It’s not mentalic, exactly. But if anything happens 
to any of you, I will know something is wrong and exactly where to find 
you. It’s very slightly editing your subconscious, like crossloading an 
app onto a phone. Oh, when I’m done, you won’t remember that I did it. 
Except you, Janie, you know your own mind too clearly.  You will 
remember. You will also not remind anyone. It’s a safety precaution. 
Agree?” Patrick, Abigail, Trisha, and Janie nodded. Brian grimaced but 
finally mouthed agreement. “This just takes a moment.”

“Now,” Morgana continued,  “the two things I need to do,” she winked at 
Janie, who smiled back, “are to find out if there’s a reason none of you 
know where Joe lives, and if so, what the reason is. Each of you, try to 
remember asking him for his phone number the next time you see him.” 
Her eyebrows wrinkled. “That was very interesting, but not the way I 
expected. I can go to the next step, unless you want to drop it.”

“What was interesting?” Patrick asked.

“You each had your minds changed, so soon as I asked the question, but 
the mind changing was not done with mentalics,” Morgana said.  “And some 
of my wards, ones that normally never do anything, were poked, not gently.”

“Is it dangerous?” Abigail asked.

“In this world, nothing is safe,” Morgana answered. “Someone has placed 
a geas, a construct, on your house and its residents. Having a geas like 
that in your house is almost certainly more dangerous to you. Yes, geas, 
a third-order construct.  It controls what you think, about a narrow 
range of topics, inobtrusively. Leaving it there now that you know it 
exists is probably even more dangerous. To remove it, I need a blank 
sheet of paper and a clean table.”

“Got it,” Trisha announced. The suddenly clean table had a large sheet 
of blank paper on it.

“Three of you will see nothing. Abigail, Patrick mentioned that your 
grandmother on the O’Rigamy side had the second sight, so you may see a 
blue haze.  Janie, you will see clearly what I am doing, but you should 
absolutely not, not even if it’s life and death, try anything like this, 
not until you know exactly what you are doing.  Clear? And the rest of 
you, don’t interrupt.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Janie managed.

“Good.” Morgana touched the paper. “Nin amner morgoth.” To Janie’s eyes, 
a point of blue light appeared on the page. Morgana tapped the paper 
again. “Nin amner calirath.” Another point of light appeared. Morgana 
continued her chant. When she touched the fifth point, the light from 
the points flowed out, forming a star, surrounded by circles within 
which burned words in a script Janie did not recognize.  To Janie’s 
eyes, the words seemed to move, curling into and out of the page. “Now, 
all of you, try to remember Joe’s home address. Good. Wait.” Morgana 
gestured above the circle, her fingers making an intricate cat’s cradle 
that wove in and out.  Janie saw what her siblings did not, bands of 
light and lines of text connecting Morgana’s fingers.  “All done,” 
Morgana announced, slumping back in her chair.

“What were you doing?” Brian asked. “Are you all right?”

“That,” Morgana announced, “was a third order attack in use. Until I 
erased it. It made sure that anyone in this house would not think that 
Joe had a home address or interlink ID, let alone wonder what they were. 
It also made sure that no one would think it was interesting that Joe 
here was the same as Joe who rescued Janie and Trisha.  The attack 
followed him around, within a mile or two, so no one else would wonder.” 
She leaned back farther in her chair. “I’m all right, but it was very 
solidly embedded.”

“Who could do that?” Brian said, not quite making it sound like a 
question. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

Morgana threw up her hands. “At a guess, Joe’s mom.  But I don’t know 
who she is.  ‘Cartwright’ is not a persona I can name. Almost no 
personas can do things like this.  I don’t remember that any of them 
have children. And thank you for asking, Brian.  Perhaps another cookie, 
please? That was more than a bit tiring.” Brian handed her two cookies, 
the first of which rapidly disappeared.