Guardians Book One - Magic Rising

Chapter Twenty Five

Lady's father dropped Lady, Kath and Pes at Lady's flat in Kew, wishing them well before driving off to his own property. Kath stared up and down the street, taking in the smell of bus fumes as the 65 went past, the chatter of passers-by, the endless brick and concrete jungle. It wasn't even the contrast with Dartmoor. It was the change in her; it all looked different, somehow. Less real. More...fabricated, new, fleeting. How long've some of the Guardians been around? This hasn't been five minutes to the earth. And the guys, and Alexander, they have this in their heads all the time, what the world must feel like and all it's been through? She shivered.

Lady paused with the key in the lock. "Are you well?"

"Just thinking," said Kath, forcing her lips up into a smile. "D'you...I mean, you two, doesn't this weird you out? London, I mean? The newness of it?"

Pes laughed. "I've been around a bit, around the country, around the world! And London is actually one of the better places. It's been here since Roman times in some form or another. You can feel that. That's what gives us power – the constant clinging-on beliefs humans have..." he held out his hands, palms down. "Pressed into the earth itself. He's quiet, the Guardian of Earth, but I met him once. He's calm. Doesn't like company. Always refused to take a side..." Lady tutted, but Pes carried on. "He said, he likes listening to histories of people through the ground. Everyone has a story. It all sticks."

"He may soon have to take a side," said Lady, turning the key. "We all may. Otherwise there will be no stories left to tell." She pushed open the door, and entered her house.

As Kath stepped over the threshold, in spite of Lady's doom-and-gloom prediction, her heart suddenly soared. It's like...like it's the first day of the holidays, like I'm waking up to something wonderful, a day I've waited for for a long time... She laughed aloud, holding up her hands. The air in Lady's flat was shimmering.

"Someone is here," Lady hissed, grabbing for her gun.

And someone, indeed, laughed.

"Lady Water, what a welcome! Do you not recognise me? Why, it has been years but I could be quite hurt, Miss Water."

The voice was a shock of heat and merriment down Kath's spine. Pes pushed the door shut behind them, laughing with her.

"It's been far too long. Far too long! Come out, then?"

"Is that...?" Lady relaxed, sliding her gun back into its holster, and held out her hands, groping for something in the warm air, her lips curving upwards.

Before Kath's eyes, the air coalesced into...something. A shape, certainly; a cloud, glittering. For just a moment she caught the faintest hint of a face – pixielike, giggling – and then it was just motes again, swirling around them. The cloud inverted itself towards Kath, and she realised it was meant to be a bow.

"Mortal Seer!" it trilled. "I am the Guardian of Day, and it brings me great pleasure to meet you, friend of Water and Pestilence!"

"Oh, Kath," Lady said, turning. With the glowing, insubstantial cloud of Day between them, Lady's face was hazy, but she was smiling – a true smile, real joy on her face. "I am so pleased...that you can meet a friend of mine..." She held out her hand to encourage the two together. "This is the Guardian of Day. She is my mother's special aide, and while we grew up, she was always there."

"We missed you," Pes saluted the cloud, the long sleeves of the shirt of his three-piece suit swinging over his hands as he did so. "How have you been?"

"Oh, well, well," the cloud assured them. "I came in with the sunbeams. I hope you do not mind! You have not kept your house in good condition, Miss Water." Lady actually flushed.

"I had little time," she muttered, but Day laughed.

"I understand. I felt the traces of Night here." The cloud whirled agitatedly around. "Once we were one, he and I, a complimentary pair. But he was lured away by the dream of a greater dominion. It grieves the heart,  but nothing is eternal. All rhythms rise and fall. He will return to me." It – she – whisked up to Kath again, who held her hands out, fascinated. I can feel her – physically, although she's just air. It's like holding light, all frothy and liquid.

"What's your magic? It feels...amazing!" Kath couldn't help saying. Day giggled.

"Forthright! I like you, already! I bring the day, circling the earth with the rotation of its gravity, keeping its precession on balance. And I am the feeling of the rise of the sun on what you have looked forward to...and what you dread. I am the new day, the blank page, the strength to try again with the knowledge that the day before is not the end. Metaphor and physical. Such it is, with the Guardians who are not wholly of the earth. It is you, human one, who gave the process that is me, a name and a feeling, and what happens then, is that we touch that feeling."

"Oh," said Kath, and remembered how to focus again. "I think I get it. So the Guardians, who aren't things, or aren't just things...they're emotions?"

"Inspirations. Concepts," Day agreed. "I am what you made me, what you associate with the Day." She laughed. "Perhaps you have less to learn than we believe!"

"Oh, I'm learning to focus," Kath said, grinning lopsidedly. "When I was a kid, my...my gran. She'd always say, it's OK. Tomorrow is another day."

"Wise words," said the cloud. "That is the spirit of day. New budding power. Refreshed strength." Insofar as a cloud could turn, she did so, back to Lady. "I have spoken with your mother. She has told me of what happened with Fire and Night, and that they have left the immediate ground. She is concerned they are following you – they did not press their apparent advantage..."

"They were interrupted," Lady said, but she was frowning.

"This is a small country," said Pes, thoughtfully. "When the Lord's vessel was in larger countries, it was much easier to hide, and harder to see where the other Guardians were." He turned to Kath. "We've been situated all over the place, through the years. The Lord's original vessel had a cult to keep the Lord's soul with a continuous line of hosts. Through the years, as the world changed, they dwindled, we moved around. That's why the Lord was so desperate when Alexander found his dying host. He had no-one else, and he does not...take bodies by force, as his brother does." He sighed. "But he can't afford to...to...fade away. This isn't a great place for a showdown, is it? Especially not in a city like this. No wonder they're playing. They can afford to. They know we don't want to hurt people..."

"Crap," said Kath, her mind filling with magical battles waged on the rooftops of Westminster and Big Ben. "And...it won't be a secret for long, that way?"

"Father wishes to release knowledge gradually," said Lady. "I have often wondered how he planned to achieve this. If he intends to fight the Dark Lord – if we intend to fight those upon his side also..." She left the rest of the sentence unfinished, but Kath got the idea.

"Crap," she said, again. "Why'd we come back here, then?"

"There's something here," said Pes, quietly. "Under the city, brewing. Why else would Dream be here? And Night – Lady was already on the case with him, before you even met. That's why she took the job here. They were coming here already. What do they want?" He smiled ruefully at Kath. "I think...that's kinda what everyone wants you to help with. Find out what's attracting them here. If it's..."

"Him," Lady breathed, her voice cold. "The Dark One. He has been so quiet for a few years now. We have all worked hard, tracing, but we cannot follow that which we do not attune to." She glanced at Kath. "Yet, you can."

"Like a metal detector," Kath tried to joke.

"I need to go to your father, the Lord, Miss Water," said Day. "Be well. Keep in contact..." And just like that the air flickered and funnelled itself into the living room and, as Kath moved forward to watch, through the slats of light showing through the blind and out.

Pes waved a redundant hand after her, and sighed.

"We've got a lot to do. She's right. What is going on here?"

"Then our lessons should begin at once," said Lady, flexing her arms up and down. "I shall not yet bother to replace the furniture."