Abominations (39 page)

      James smiled, a large and happy thing and told her that he'd do that.

      Back in the apartment Beth asked her to sit down, giving her a frank and serious look, making Gwen wonder if she'd accidentally done something horribly wrong. Maybe adults simply didn't eat peanut butter here or something? Or had the no crust thing been too much? She'd just meant it as a joke...

      “We're going to have to get you some training in how to control and use your magical abilities, Gwen. It's only by luck, I think, that you haven't accidentally done something destructive already. Possibly even hurt someone. The problem is that we need to get you training, but without letting anyone know that you're getting it, at least no one that doesn't already know that you're not Katherine. She had full training and probably got extra in secret, from the sound of things. Body switching is complex and high level magic after all and not exactly covered in standard second school courses, being illegal. Now I know why though. If she'd been an orphan my guess is that her last name would be Westmorland right now instead of Vernor, and she'd probably be on assignment somewhere rather than sitting in your body in another world. I knew that had to take a lot of innate ability, but I'd no idea how much she had.”

      Pushing in next to her on the sofa, Bethany gave her a small hug with one arm as if trying to reassure her. The move made Gwen uneasy. Not the contact, surprisingly, which was nice, but the idea that this was so serious she had to be propped up in Beth's mind.

      “Now, I can go over the basics, of course, which will give you rough control. Eventually you'll have to pick a specialty of some kind, which will take more advanced training. If you pick one of mine, then obviously I can teach those, even if I have to go into the right working state for specific high level demonstrations. If you pick something else, then we'll have to find you someone with that specialty. On the good side, I do know a lot of people that might be enticed to help there. Healing is useful, but takes a long time to learn. Telepathy is a good one, but it can drive you insane if you're not careful. Most people won't go into it as a specialty for that reason, which is why the Westmorland protocols were used to condition me for it. That way it can be turned on and off without a noticeable act of will. There's a whole host of things you could learn really, radiatives, combat, even novel research if you're so inclined, which could be a good field for you, since you view the world so differently than anyone here does. We need to get you the basics first, so that you can see if anything feels particularly right to you. It's not like you need it to make a living, not with your stipend, so that will leave you a lot of room to pick something interesting to you.”

      Taking this in, Gwen decided to not worry about it and pretend that this was like a movie or game. So, of course she'd have superpowers here. Made perfect movie logic sense. Even to this story it made sense, Katherine's high power level having been what allowed the woman to take Gwen's body, either on purpose or accident, even though it had been in a different world. It made perfect sense. She repeated this to herself a few times, trying to act like she believed it.

      “OK. So how long will all this take do you think?”

      Bethany put her index finger to her mouth as if telling someone to be quiet, Gwen saw from her abstract look that she was just thinking, considering the variables carefully.

      “For the basics? I'd say a year. Normally you'd get them in school, over about eight years of education, but you won't really need to go that slow, since your abilities are already well developed and matured. Each specialty takes longer, figure between three and seven years, unless you pick a really hard one, like healing. That could take nearly twenty years, with specific training and specializations. You probably should have started that one about ten years ago, but you could still do it. Healers tend to live a lot longer than other people for some reason, so you'd get extra time. Probably worth doing just for the extra life really. Three or four times what most people get, sometimes more.”

      Hopping up, Beth walked quickly to her room, coming out a few minutes later with a small box that seemed to be made of pine or some other light-colored wood. When she opened it, it had a small collection of junk inside: a metal ball bearing, a small pinwheel made of wood, a rock about the size of her thumb, a silver metal piece that looked about the size of a pack of playing cards and a ball of string. There were also several things that looked like letters at the bottom of the box and a round tube, which looked like the crystals that powered everything here, a copper plate at one end and some kind of stone, like quartz on the other, cut to flat smoothness.

      Taking the crystal out and handing it to Gwen, she asked her to charge it.

      “Um, sure. So, uh, how do you do that exactly?”

      This got a chuckle from Beth, who explained that what she'd done with the stove or at the museum to raise the stone would work just fine, all she had to do was charge the crystal until it felt full. Before Gwen could ask how she'd know what that felt like, she told her that that's what this lesson was about.

      “Give it a try, it won't hurt. You can't mess it up.”

      Gwen set her mind and focused, pushing at the metal plate by concentrating on it. After three minutes or so, she felt it pushing back at her, she thought, a few seconds later she knew it pushed back.

      “That feeling, that pushing back, is that it?”

      “Most likely. Everyone tends to describe it a little differently, some people say it feels like tingling, others just know that it's done or feel it as heat. I always feel it as a knowing, but that's the rarest of perceptions, a pushing is a nice tangible sense of things. Probably easier to work with for a beginner. That's why I didn't tell you what to look for, so that you'd be able to find your own way.”

      Then Beth had her charge every crystal in the place to full, one at a time, without taking a break.

      “Good! I didn't want to do all of that myself, it's boring, but a lot cheaper than hiring it done. So, as it is right now, if worse ever came to worse, you could get a job doing just that. Mind numbing, exhausting by the end of the day, but it pays well enough to make the rent on this place and keep you in food. We'll work this for a few weeks, since that feeling, that release of power that's required to fill a crystal, is exactly what you need to learn to control first. If you aren't releasing energy, you aren't doing magic.”

      It felt like a huge weight had suddenly lifted off of Gwen's chest, one that she hadn't even known existed. The knowledge that, if everything here went south, she could get a job that would let her survive on her own merits made her feel so much better. After all, the Vernors wouldn't want to give her money forever and Beth, sweet as she was about everything, wouldn't need a caretaker much longer either. Really, that Gwen was getting paid for it was probably a bit of an insult to the woman, since she was doing at least as much for her as the other way around. Glancing at the last of the crystals sitting on the low table in front of the sofa Gwen winced. More. Bethany was doing more for her than the other way around. Plus, hadn't she already said that on a normal job other Westmorlands would make sure that all the states were managed correctly? If so, this job was going to dry up one day soon. It kind of had to.

      Since they were on magic and related topics right now, Gwen asked her if her intuition and telepathy worked even when she wasn't in her work state.

      “Kind of. I can focus and pick up thoughts, but there are built-in limits to keep it from being too easy. This was put in to protect me, not other people from too invasive a gathering of information. So, yes, if I know to do it, I can pick up thoughts, and intuitions come all the time, just at a muted level. Um... Not to scare you, but you have the same basic abilities too, just untrained. Now if you never train them at all, they shouldn't be much of a problem for you, unless your mind turns out to have a particular aptitude for such things. The same is true with the rest of the natural magical abilities. Everyone has them all, but without focusing on them they don't do much. I'm just telling you this because you may, or may not, pick things up from people at times. Don't let it scare you if it happens is all. Sometimes what other people think isn't all that flattering or kind, but I imagine you're well hardened to that idea from your other life. Given that, you probably wouldn't be shaken by almost anything in another's head at all.” Beth stared at her for a second, a considering look on her face.

      They worked out a sign to get Beth to do this, read her mind, which involved Gwen holding her left temple for five seconds or more. At that point, Beth would read her thoughts, so that the detective could find out what she wanted. It wasn't perfect – being one way – but it gave them some limited ability to coordinate silently.

      They practiced it for a while, until they were both sure they had the signal down and that Gwen could think in a way, on purpose, that would clearly pass information to Beth. It actually took a bit for her to catch on that her thoughts distorted when she tried to control them overly, the main thought eventually becoming the focus on projecting instead of the message she tried to send.

      What she finally found that seemed to work, was a simple repetition of the words in her head. She spent a few seconds thinking at the detective to turn on the radio, until she remembered they called it a telesar here. When she got it right, the other woman stood up and turned it on to a station that played something like instrumental Jazz.

      Bethany pulled out her needle point, and noticing that Gwen just sat watching her, pulled out a spare frame from her bag and demonstrated how to do some basic stitches. After about an hour of this, they decided on a simple pattern for her to try and then both of them sat quietly, stitching away for a while, talking and listening to the music.

      After a while, Beth changed the station to one with news on it. This time they didn't even have to listen to anything about Westmorlands. It was a Saturday evening gossip show that seemed to be a reading of articles from newspapers and then commenting on them. The whole thing sounded a bit lazy to Gwen, but then the guy commenting wasn't a giant prick either, so she could forgive his lack of personal footwork.

      Katherine Vernor's name came up in the second section after a couple of advertisements which involved the newsies singing jingles, poorly for the most part, acting out little verbal skits or simply saying that a particular item could be purchased or a new store was open and ready for business. Gwen realized that she could probably make a killing in advertising here. All they needed were recording devices, which they had. If not they wouldn't be able to replay interviews and music, which she knew they did all the time. No one had thought of using that for advertising though.

      “So, Miss Suzette of the Post says that the much talked about birthday party for wife of shipping magnate Robert Vernor, Ethyl, went spectacularly with only one glaring sore point, when a party crasher – anti-Westmorland activist Martin Cardell – tried to create a scene, apparently attempting to provoke the party goers into attacking him for some free publicity. Instead the Vernors simply talked to the man and served him dinner, including a finely crafted confection of tiny cakes for dessert. Even Cardell could be overheard commenting on how good they were.

      “Now that's class if you ask me. No one would have blamed them for having the lout tossed on his ear with a bit of the boot added to help him on his way, but instead they took the high road. Something for us all to aspire to.”

      A rustle of paper came from between the spheres of the telesar.

      “Miss Suzette goes on to say that Katherine Vernor, known party girl about town is apparently serious about her dedication toward living a more stable life, after her close call of two weeks ago.”

      The story finished off with a quote, the words that Gwen had spoken to the older lady at the party, about what she'd believed were her last thoughts. It sounded better when someone else said it. Almost noble and deep.