Issue 1 Downtime

Haley walked up to Nailah's office during her posted office hours and knocked gently on the door.

"Come in, Haley."

"Hi Miss Weaver," she said meekly, walking into the office.

"Do you have a few minutes? And it's not about the Huck Finn paper you assigned last week."

"Of course. Is everything alright?"

"I...yeah," she said coming in and closing the door. "It's about the new girl...Miranda."

"Oh? What about her?"

"Well I met her the other night. We had ice cream. She's nice..."

She chewed her lip.

"I kind of sorta got into her mindscape accidentally and it was like really fucke....I mean uh...messed up."

"...sorry."

"Please don't refer to your classmates' minds as messed up, Haley. What did you see?"

"It was though...no other way to describe it. Not her fault that it looked like some old temple or ancient city that some army had like. Ransacked. She said someone did it to her."

"Most of her memories have been erased by Black Air. That's how her mind must have conceptualized it. Do you remember what the temple looked like?"

"It looked like it belonged in Rome. Columns and stuff. The city around it was in worse shape than it...holes in buildings...burned outlines of people on the walls...the whole place just...smelled. It smelled like a hospital. The temple had this woman in it. She called herself the seer. She was like...wearing a robe with a hood, so I couldn't really see her face for most of the time."

She wracked her brain to recall every detail she could. "She said the 'Dark Wind' did this to her...so I guess that's this Black Air that you're talking about. I actually had to fight this...thing in there. I tore it apart with my TK."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that last part. And yes, you likely saw the damage they did to her mind and the remnants of her original mindscape. And you said she called herself the Seer?"

"Well the thing was going to kill the huntress, the other woman in there, and probably the seer, and probably me. So of course I shredded it."

"It attacked her mental constructs too? Strange..."

"It was scary. The more I learn, the more I'm convinced there's nothing good on the Astral or in people's heads. First the terrifying witch that tried to steal me when I fell into the Astral in the maze, then the creepy snake talking to me and Steve, and now this poor girl with things in her mind trying to destroy her mindscape."

"Peoples' heads can be very strange, it's nothing to be afrai--wait, the creepy what?"

"Steve and I passed out watching TV in the common room the other night and we ....dreamt? I dunno...but the TV changed and this thing started to try and come out of the TV, so I smashed the hell out of it and we ran away, and this thing started talking to us in the gardens. It was this creepy three-headed snake...thing..."

Something about Nailah's attitude shifts dramatically, her wings unfolding ever so slightly to give her frame more bulk.

"What did it say to you." she demands maybe a bit too harshly.

"I..." Haley's voice faltered, clearly more than a bit intimidated by the display. "..it uh...kept...talking about how we arent getting told the whole truth about things...and stuff..."

The lights in the room flickered, and Nailah's nameplate on her desk rattled

Nailah reaches put to hold her nameplate down. "And I assume it told you it was going to tell you the whole story?"

"Yeah, more or less..." she said.

"...miss Weaver, could you please not look at me like you're going to eat me?"

"I'm sorry." she says, composing herself a little bit, though her tail is still going a bit crazy behind her. "It's going to be one of those weeks." she says with an exasperated sigh.

"What did it tell you, Haley. This is important."

"It told me to read this old book in the Maldon library. It seems like a real book...not creepy and skinned in human skin or anything...just like...an old mythology book. I dunno. I still don't know what the thing's like...point was. I don't know why it cares what I think about God or gods and goddesses..."

"Why indeed..." she mumbles to herself. "Did you read it?"

"Tried to...it's really..boring," she settled on.

"Then I'm sure you won't mind giving it to me."

"....what are you going to do with it?" she asked suddenly suspicious.

"But just because it isn't bound in leathery demon wings doesn't mean it's harmless."

"I can't make you hand it over or take it from you..." she adds after realizing how she must have sounded.

"...guess you're right." she said still rather uneasy about the whole situation. This lady was scary.

She dug into her backpack which has been dumped unceremoniously on the floor and pulled out the book, handing it to Nailah.

Nailah picks it up and leafs through it, frowning slightly. "Well I don't see why it wanted you to read this. This is just somebody getting carried away by the Mono Myth and rambling." she says. Best to just make Haley think the book is complete non-sense if she's already read it.

Haley regarded her with some suspicion as she flipped through the book, trying to subtly pick up on her thoughts to see what the hell she was getting at with this inquisition.

Trying to listen Nailah's thoughts is like trying to look at one of those squiggly lines floating in your vision on fast-forward. And even when she manages to get a glimpse it doesn't quite seem to fit what's actually going on and instead causes the weirdest feeling of deja-vu. Underneath that is this constant sense of anticipation, almost a sense of her counting down to something over and over.

"Apology accepted." she suddenly says without looking up from the book.

"I didn't apologize...?" she asked, playing dumb/innocent far too well.

"No, but you're going to."

Four...

"Or do I need to talk to your Telepathy Tutor?"

Three...

Two...

"Fine, sorry for trying to see why the fuck you're being just as cryptic and terrifying as that god damned snake," she snapped.

"Because there are some things you're better off not knowing." she says, closing the book and placing it in one of the drawers of her desk. "The same reason why we try to restrict Calvin's access to experimental technology or why no one is letting Brigid use a tactical computer or why we're not teaching Molly how to coerce people by looking in their eyes or why Tommy isn't allowed to transmute noble metals."

Haley remained unconvinced, and she had a terrible poker face. "Guess so. Thanks."

Fucking hell, maybe the snake was right about them...

"Well. Guess that's it. Can I leave before you change your mind and eat me?"

"No one is going to eat you, Haley."

Sure. Sure they won't.

"So that's that I guess. Just thought you should know about her head. She's a really nice girl and I want to help her get better."

Nailah nods. "Thanks for telling me about it. I'm glad to see she's making friends." she says, her mood clearly getting better with the change of topic.