Broken Sleep

Sometimes, the dance called life is graceful. Sometimes, you step on a toe or fall flat on your face.

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Mairead Harker
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'Baby' Baroness

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Broken Sleep

Post by Mairead Harker »

Maggie, go to Doran. Get to Stardreamer Manor. Colleen was still at the Outback when her message reached her sleeping granddaughter.

Maggie jolted awake. Despite being on the island and far from the city, the wave of mixed emotions had hit her at once. Her grandmother rarely disturbed her thoughts let alone her dreams. What happened?

Chaos. Normal is broken. Again. The sensation of standing in the eye of a storm filtered through the mental link. The Opals are dust, child.

Maggie rose, showered, and dressed before heading to Stardreamer. There was no time to wait on a ferry, so, she would use a travel stone.

Rhiannon Harker was wrapped in a thick plush robe and wearing fuzzy slippers as she made her way down the upstairs hall. “Maggie?” she asked quietly. “What’s going on?”

The teenager was tugging on her blue parka. “I gotta get to Doran. The Opals are pfft and Rhydin’s gone crazier.”

“Won’t Sylva be there?”

Maggie eyed her mother a moment. “I’m sure she will.”

“Then why do you need to go?” She was concerned that Maggie was having difficulty accepting the young couple’s relationship.

“Mama,” Maggie spoke softly, “Sylva isn’t an empath. She’s a good person and they’re happy. I’m happy for them. But. No matter how tightly she holds on, she can’t really stave off the fear, anger, and pain that’s got to be slamming Doran right now. I can help with that as well as with any of the fosterlings that need help. It’s a BFF/Empath thing.”

“What about Riverview Pediatric?” Rhi leaned in the doorway of her daughter’s room.

“Covered. Aunt Nikki and Uncle Rick worked out something with Doc Anya to help the kids. It’s passive like my armor. Before you ask about about Dockside, Gran said Mr. Reid was going to help with that. What about the shelter in Old Market?”

She grinned as her teenager turned the tables on her. “All set including a teleportation pad in the Observatory to bypass Harris’s toll booths.”

At the mention of Harris’s name, Maggie grew quiet. Odd as the man could be, he’d never treated her unkindly. It was Harris who had dubbed her the Baby Baron.

“What is it?”

“I’m just wondering about something. If the Opals communicate with their holders, how much of an impact will there be on the holders and those that have had them before?” Maggie may have picked up more from her grandmother’s message than she realized. “And what about kids like Thia?”

Dark brows rose as Rhi handed her daughter her staff. “What about Thia?”

“She grew up with one or both of her parents having Opals. What if this shattering comes back on her or her little brother?” Maggie shook her head. “It’s like a big snowball.”

“Or an avalanche?” Rhi added.

Maggie’s older counterpart, Pearl, never talked about what could be, but she did discuss parallels of what had happened. They had done so not long before the Tower of Water Challenge where their Uncle Eregor could have been lost in the depths of some godforsaken dark world. Maggie had others to add to Pearl’s list, the reforming of Twilight Island. She remembered that. She wasn’t born when several of the Barons rings were used to anchor and strengthen the Ward of Gondar. Those events, by themselves, might have been passing footnotes in time.

“Mairead?” There was concern in the mother’s voice. Maggie had been quiet for too long.

Maggie’s shook herself out of the trance-like state and spoke, “Do you ever feel like we’re walking on a giant sleeping caldera? A volcano that seems dead on the surface, but the right set of circumstances will bypass warnings. Then boom! Life as we know it is done.”

“Sometimes, but if we spend all our time worrying about what might be then we miss what is.” She hugged her eldest child. “Keep your commlink open so Aunt Dee can find you.”

“I will.” Maggie was on her way.
"And those who have not swords can still die upon them." - Eowyn, shieldmaiden of Rohan
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