The Agency

The second Sara's feet carried her beyond the edge of the clearing, she felt her body--her real one, the one back in Clan Willow--moving, trying to wake up around her. The dream world fluxed and flickered, and she had to fight with all her will to stay asleep; she couldn't wake up, she couldn't leave, until she knew the others were all right and Rowan had come back. She had to know.

She stopped short and clung to a tree, breathing hard until things made sense again. Colors spun around her and the forest morphed into the bedroom, then back, and back again, and back, until she forced herself to ground and center in the reality--if it was reality at all--that she wanted to stay in.

Distantly she heard shouts and the sounds of fighting. She had to hold onto the tree to keep from running back toward the clearing. There had to be something she could do--she wasn't some useless barefoot pregnant woman! She wasn't going to stand by and let people she cared about die.

Sara left the tree and headed back, angry at herself for even letting the others convince her to run in the first place, but before she made it ten steps, something large and heavy blundered into her, knocking her back and onto the ground.

She struck out, thinking one of the Seraph had found her, and in a way she was right--in a split second she realized it was Lex.

"Get off!" she grunted. "Damn it, get--"

Then she saw the blood, and the tattered ruins of his left wing. She gasped and slid out from under him, helping him turn onto his back. He groaned.

"I'm all right," he panted, which was absolutely not true. "Jason is in trouble--he sent me to find you while he kept them busy."

"We have to go back!" she said. "Come on!"

"I'm not going to let you get hurt," Lex insisted.

"What exactly are you going to do to stop me? Goddamn it, I'm not just some breeding mare, I'm a fucking Shadow Agent! Now, you can come with me and help me save him, or you can lay there in the dirt."

She started running, and a minute later heard him behind her; she knew he was in bad shape but there was no time to take stock of his injuries until she found Jason and got those things away from him. She didn't really have a plan, but there had to be something, anything--

Sara exploded out onto the sunny grass, and instantly the stench of blood overwhelmed her, sending her puking into the nearest tree trunk. Waves of nausea battered her from all sides and she doubled over.

She heard Lex arrive, and heard him gasp. "Jason!"

She forced herself back up, wiping her mouth on her sleeve, and shoved herself away from the tree, following the Seraph's voice past the bodies of the four creatures that had come to kill them.

Near the Rune Tree, still bathed in warm sunlight, lay Shadow Agent 7. He was dead.

"Oh, god, no..." Sara went to her knees beside him, with Lex on the other side, the Seraph gently removing a long pale shaft of wood from the vampire's chest. No blood followed the stake's withdrawal....there was no blood pumping. His heart had stopped beating before they even reached the clearing.

Sara wept, touching Jason's face, trembling fingers closing his lifeless blue eyes. Lex was crying too, silently.

Oh, god, this can't be happening...Rowan...what's Rowan going to do? What are we going to do? He died here all alone, he should have been with Rowan. They should have been together. What are we going to do?

"I'm so sorry," Lex whispered. "Twice now you've saved me, and I can never repay you."

"We're going to have to tell Beck," Sara sobbed, and the answering look on Lex's face was so full of grief that she couldn't say anything else.

Behind her, Sara heard something.

She turned around, terrified suddenly that there were more Seraph, her mind cataloging where she'd seen the discarded weapons--but there was no need.

As it had done before, the Rune Tree's bark was fading, turning to mist; the image of the carved bark seemed to twist in on itself, and went dark.

Sara and Lex stared, openmouthed, at the figure that emerged.

It was Rowan...and yet it wasn't. He looked the same, and was wearing the same black pants and t-shirt he'd been wearing when he'd gone to bed earlier that night. He was still barefoot and still wore the stone around his neck. But though his hair was still its summer shades of brown, green, and grey, and his eyes were still green, something in them had changed irrevocably.

They were luminescent, filled with fire, and with a quality Sara could only describe as life--not the life of a single individual, but all life, waxing and waning and spinning round and round again, from birth to death and on to rebirth.

He stepped forward, and the dream world seemed to bend around him, changing as he moved.

He looked around the clearing, his expression perfectly calm, detached.

He lifted a hand.

Sara felt something in her stomach lurch, and when the feeling stopped, and she followed Lex's gaze, she gasped.

The four dead Seraph had disappeared. The blood had evaporated.

Rowan came to them, and knelt beside Sara, who almost passed out under the onslaught of his aura even as she remembered this very feeling from the night of Beltaine, the night the Singer had been conceived.

Understanding dawned at last.

The Weaver leaned over Jason's body, smiling softly. The look on his face was one hundred percent Rowan, full of love and regret. "Sorry I'm late, culisen," he said, laying his hands tenderly on Jason's ravaged chest.

Again, the lurch in her stomach, and before she could even let out her breath, Jason gasped hard, his body spasming into the ground, eyes flying open as he coughed and drew a hungry, ragged breath. The blood all over his chest was gone, as was the wound left by the stake. His death had been erased...no...rewoven.

"Now," Rowan said, still serene, with a gently ironic touch to his voice, "I think it's time we all woke up."

Sara blinked.

Then she sat bolt upright in bed.


*****

Jason woke shaking, his entire body in agony that centered in his chest--he thrashed in the covers for a moment, confused and scared witless, until he realized he was home in bed, not bleeding out on the forest floor.

He was drenched in sweat and could barely hear anything over the sound of his heart trying to shatter his ribcage from the inside. He curled up in a fetal position, trying to breathe, trying to make sense of anything he'd seen or felt.

I died. I felt it. But then...what happened? I saw Rowan. He was all right. But...

His cell phone on the bedside table rang, the sound oddly shrill in the near-silent room and loud enough to startle him out of his panic. He rolled over, groping for it, and mashed the keypad with numb fingers until he hit the "talk" button and got it to his ear.

"Jason?"

The warm, familiar voice flooded him with relief, banishing the pain and fear.

"Baby, are you there? Talk to me."

"Rowan..."

"Yes, it's me. Just breathe...are you all right? Are you hurt?"

Jason sat up, pulling his knees up to his chin and holding the phone like a lifeline. "I'm okay. Are you?"

"I'm fine. A little...freaked. Well, extremely freaked. But I'm okay."

"Sara?"

"She's here, she's fine too. We both woke up at the same time."

Jason's free hand went to his chest, feeling for the hole that should be there but wasn't. "What happened to me?"

"It's...it's complicated, amori. Just try to relax, and try to rest. Everything's okay now."

He shut his eyes tightly. "Come home."

He could hear Rowan smiling. "I am, my love. Tomorrow. I'll be home to you by sunset. For now, just rest. Call Lex to make sure he's all right, and then rest, and I'll see you soon. I promise."

*****

As Rowan hung up the phone and lay it down, Sara was still weeping into his shoulder. He put his arms around her and held her close, murmuring to her in Elvish, letting her touch and squeeze him wherever she needed to to affirm he was alive, and they were safe in the real world where they belonged.

Gradually she calmed, and before long had fallen asleep again, this time peacefully.

He made sure of that.

After a while, when he was certain she wouldn't wake, he eased out from her embrace and left the bedroom, making his silent way out onto the guest house's porch.

The world was all ashimmer to his eyes. He could see glimpses of past, present, and future, and how the slightest touch could alter worlds. He could feel the potential of everything around him, flowing through his veins, singing from end to end of his being. To work with that magic, he had to enter a deeper state than he had ever been trained for, but still, in time he knew it would be effortless.

He was still Rowan. He chose to be. But as Clan Yew had once filled his head with false memories, now there were entire lifetimes dancing before his eyes--he remembered a thousand years ago, and a thousand before that. He remembered the first breath he had ever drawn, when the world was still so young and humans so innocent. Some things were clear, and some still shrouded in the elusive gossamer of time. The past and the future had always been the Sibyl's province. The present, and transforming it, was his.

It wasn't omnipotence, but it was damn close.

Once, they had all worked together. His sister had been able to see all the consequences of every action--perhaps that was what had driven her mad, spending millennia alone with nothing but the entire world’s karma to keep her company. He remembered when she had been young and full of hope, like the Maiden, the daughter of endless possibility with her blossoms and baby animals. The Sibyl had been the oldest of their triumvirate.

Rowan stood out in the fresh Summer night, letting the crossthreads of the universe shift and split around him, watching it, drawing strength from the endless dance. The urge to lay his hands upon the tapestry of life and change its weave was hard to resist, but he would simply have to learn; he had no right to remake the world on a whim, and the concomitant responsibility was even greater than the power. He knew it was going to be hard, nearly impossible, to use that power without letting himself be used.

Once, his people had faded from the Earth. They had been too powerful, too lonely. Their gifts had been disseminated among their children and children's children, the magical genetic birthright of the Elves. Some of that magic had passed on to humans as well, back when they could interbreed, and now it was all but gone.

But something had brought them back. Something, or Someone, had decided it was time.

Rowan knew in his heart that it had not been the Sibyl's doing. She was an instrument, like they all were; their power came from the Divine, and only the Divine could reawaken it.

One way or another he would find out. One way or another, he would find the others, and he would stop them from turning on the human race.

He'd start with the Singer.

But first...first, he would go home, back to his lover. It was almost funny now, thinking of his fear and doubt. Of all the future possibilities he should worry about, love was not one of them.

Rowan smiled into the dark, one hand touching the silver band around the opposite wrist. Home, and Jason. Passionate lovemaking followed by pizza and sleep. Real life, beautiful life, his life.

Saving the world could wait. He was going home.


*****

SA-7 waited alongside Dr. Nava and Ness while the van pulled up to the ramp inside the Agency's underground parking garage. Outwardly he was all business, but on the inside his heart was turning somersaults and cartwheels in amongst the butterflies--no, bats--in his stomach.

He had no idea what to expect. He'd only spoken to Rowan for a moment the night before, and then briefly to Sara later, who had said that Rowan had changed, but was still himself, and that he shouldn't worry. For some reason that made him worry even more.

It didn't matter. Rowan was home. He could have grown scales and sprouted a second head, and everything would be okay as long as he was home.

The look on Nava's face when Sara climbed awkwardly out of the van was absolutely priceless. The doctor's mouth dropped open and her eyes grew wide with shock until she looked like a cartoon of herself.

Sara, visibly and obviously pregnant, had to move more slowly than before, but still looked quite comfortable in her own skin. Her face was a little fuller, but she didn't look tired and sick anymore, and had put on weight besides the belly itself. Still, judging by Nava's expression, their ideas of how quickly she'd progress had been a little conservative. Jason didn't know all that much about pregnancy but he guessed she looked about four months along...at less than two months from conception. In another month she'd be as big as a house, at this rate.

A moment later, Rowan got out, and the van pulled away from the curb.

Jason tried not to stare, but it was difficult. He hadn't seen his partner in a month, unless you counted the night before, and now...it was hard to pinpoint the change, but anyone who had ever known the Elf would know immediately that he was different.

Rowan looked at each of them in turn, evaluating, as if he was reminding himself who they were and what their roles were. When his eyes lit on Jason, the vampire felt the warm kiss of energy run through him, just as it always had.

He finally felt like he could breathe again.

He figured there would be the usual noises made by Ness about debriefing and returning to duty, but before the Director could open her mouth, Rowan said quietly but firmly, "Just as a reminder, Ness, I'm still technically on vacation until Monday. We can debrief then."

For a wonder, Ness didn't protest at all. "Of course, SA-5. I only wanted to welcome you both back and say that you've definitely been missed around here." She turned to Jason and said, "SA-7, I'll need to see you in the conference room as soon as the team returns from the raid on the sorcerer's home. In the meantime I would like you to send me your preliminary report on the necromancy case. I believe you mentioned your notes were on the computer in your quarters?"

"Yes ma'am," he replied with a grin.

"See that you go there immediately, then, and get that put together for me. I'll see you in a few hours."

With that, Ness turned and left, her heels clicking crisply on the concrete.

Nava was already peppering Sara with questions, and Sara sighed and said, "Okay, okay. Let's just go on up to the infirmary and get the poking and prodding over with." She cocked her head toward Jason and added, "Speaking of poking and prodding, aren't you supposed to be headed back to quarters?"

Jason rolled his eyes. "Have fun with your paper gown and speculum, Agent 9."

Sara stuck her tongue out at him and followed Dr. Nava through the sliding doors into the base.

Finally, Jason turned to Rowan.

They stood for a long moment staring into each other's eyes.

"Am I allowed to hug a Jenai?" Jason asked, his voice hushed with emotion despite the weak attempt at humor.

Rowan's only answer was to cross the space between them and fling himself into Jason's arms.




© 2009 by Dianne Sylvan.