The Teacher

Cthonics and String Theory

It took Uriel and Finn a few minutes to wake Gloria up, and she was obviously in shock once they had her awake. She kept looking around nervously and jumping at shadows. Finn made sure she kept a flashlight on her, the batteries it came with had never been replaced and never would be, and between the weight and the light it cast it quickly became attached to her person.

"I'm loathe to leave right now, but I know you don't like us hanging around." Uriel spoke softly to Finn, so Gloria wouldn't over hear him. "Do you mind if I stay until she's calmed down?"

"Keep your glow on and you can stay. Maybe, once she's able, take her into the library and do some research on the non-terrestrial things out there. The dark isn't as scary once you realize what all is out there." Finn said as she made sandwiches. She was cutting them into finger widths so that they were easy to nibble on with a flashlight in your hand.

"Maybe for you, you can see the ley lines. Not only can she not see that, her fire won't work out there." Uriel argued, and leaned a hip against the counter. He was watching Gloria, but she had started muttering. The Cthonic language, translated for the human mouth, was basically just your brain urging words out faster than you could physically do it. Cthonic gibberish was no less terrifying to hear for knowing that.

"I didn't think of that." Finn stopped cutting and looked around the angel at the girl on the couch. They had removed the legs of the couch so it sat directly on the floor when Gloria realized it was dark underneath. "I've always wondered if a strong enough fire witch could get flames in space."

"It's possible to get heat, but you'd still need something to burn to get actual flames." Uriel said.

"Does dark matter burn?" Finn asked. The angel turned his head slowly, the blank expression on his face as his eyes turned to meet Finn's nearly as terrifying as the Cthonic gibberish coming from the living room. Finn considered making the house glow from all angles just to shake off some of the darkness.

"For the love of literally everything, please don't." Uriel said flatly.

Finn smiled and lifted the plate of finger sandwiches, carrying it into the living room to set it down in front of Gloria. "Can we move to English, Gloria? I'm not fluent in Cthonic." Finn said.

"Huh?" Gloria said, startling a little when she realized that Uriel and Finn were close to her again.

"It's alright, just us." Uriel said as he sat down beside her.

"I'm sorry." Gloria said to Finn.

"Why?" Finn was honestly confused, the girl hadn't done anything wrong.

"I've seen things that we weren't meant to see and I can't unsee them and I moved the house without your permission." Gloria rambled and then cut herself off, looking sideways at a shadow in the room. Slowly she drew the beam of the flashlight across it, relaxing slightly when it faded in the beam.

"Well, let's talk about that then." Finn said as she bit a finger sandwich in half. "What were you doing while I was napping?"

"I started trying to find information on this Arthur guy." Gloria said, still staring at the shadow. "I couldn't find his Chronicle. It's not like yours, where it's locked and I just can't read it. It's like his is missing. There's a spot for it when I look for it, but someone else checked it out." Uriel and Finn shared a disturbed glance as Gloria continued. "So then I did what you told me to. I started looking for the lumber room. I know it's there, and the house would let me open up hallways to it, but they were creepy and gross and I didn't want to go alone. So then I called Uriel and we found the book about the lumber room and the mill that actually was attached a long time ago. Bad things happened in there." Gloria looked unblinking at Finn, making her uncomfortable enough Finn shifted where she sat. "So in the book it basically said that because I didn't know what had happened and the house didn't want to tell me that it was trying to scare me away? Or slow me down? And I said I didn't like that the house was so mysterious, like the dark side of the moon. Uriel said I was being a tad melodramatic, that the moon wasn't so bad, and then I thought 'well gee, let's go see'." Gloria stopped talking, her face going slack and her eyes losing their focus. She was silent long enough that Finn started to lean forward . "And then everything was dark. There's no power out here, so the house went dark. And it was dark out there, except it's not. You can't see, but there has to be something, so you see things anyways. And maybe they aren't actually there, but they were there."

Finn nodded, and when Gloria had gone silent for a few minutes, and nibbled at a sandwich, she spoke. "So I'm hearing that we need to discuss your will."

"Am I dying?"

"What?" Finn blinked in surprise. "No?"

"Then why do I need a will?" Uriel smiled and looked away to hide his amusement.

"Not a will. Your will. This house, once it's decided you are one of it's bosses, will do what you WILL. Not what you want, and not what you wish. There could have been power to the house on the moon if you had willed it so, but because you allowed your belief to rule your will the house went dark. Now, it won't let you die so there was breathable atmosphere inside and it wouldn't have let you leave, but it also isn't intelligent. The house cannot prevent you from doing something silly like move it to the dark side of the moon while I'm sleeping and can't enforce my will on it. So, we work on your will so that should you ever need to do something drastic with the house it will be done the way you want it it."

"You said not what I want." Gloria argued.

"Want is a part of will, so is wish. But choice is the biggest factor. If you had the ability to turn on the power to the house would you have?"

"Of course!" Gloria protested and she lurched forward on the couch.

"So we need to strengthen your will. We do that with practice, it's a bit of an abstract concept even for those of us that use it daily. I'll try and remember some of the games we played when I was a kid." Finn nodded while she spoke. "For now though, let's see about that lumber room you mentioned." Finn looked to Uriel. "Did you see it too?"

"I did not Lady." At the angel's use of the honorific Finn narrowed her eyes, but she didn't interrupt his answer. "I knew there had been hallways, I could feel them trying to hide from me, but you have always been clear that no matter what any of us can do with the house, we are to refrain. And also Gloria seemed keen to research it first." He looked away. "And then we were on the moon."

Finn nodded. "Right, well then I guess I'll take charge." She frowned a moment and then stood as a door appeared on the wall behind her. "Just remembered about this now though, there's a doll house version of the house. It uses strings that are visible to anyone to show what the magic is doing." She opened the door to a room that was warm and inviting and wistful in the way of rooms that once were favourites and have been long forgotten. A large, low table sat in the middle of the room with a house on it. The house was made of wood slats painted the most non-descript form of white Finn had ever seen and she frowned. It had been painted colours once. Gloria moved in to peer into the windows and then jumped back with a squeal.

"There's people in there." She pointed and Finn bent in to look, eyeing the tiny doll made of string and magic that represented her. She smiled and stood back up. "I forgot about that. We used to use this to cheat at Hide and Seek. It's just a doll being used to show where you are. See?" She pointed at the doll in the back of the room where it leaned against a wall with tiny lace wings and a limp disc of some sort of gauzy fabric. "Uriel."

"Why is the halo limp?" Gloria asked.

"I beg your pardon!" Uriel exclaimed as he stood up straight from where he'd been leaning against the wall and Finn chuckled.

"The dolls were actually made by someone a long time ago. If you know anyone that could repair them so it's not limp I'm sure the angels would appreciate it." She lifted the lid of the house up so everyone could see inside the building. "Now, what you do to this house will not be represented in the main house, but anything you do out there will be represented in here. Watch." She moved the model couch to the middle of the room and then pointed to the living room where the couch was still against the wall. When they looked back the couch was back against the wall in the model as well.

"And the strings?" Gloria asked and Finn nodded, pulling a stool up so she could sit beside the table. She placed both hands palm down on the table, shut her eyes, and relaxed. It had been so long since she used the model it was a little difficult to sink into the magic that controlled it, but then there was a moment where she felt things click into place. A gasp told her that the strings were visible now and that Gloria hadn't realized they were everywhere. Finn reached along the lines of the house searching for the lumber mill. Tiny clicks and clacks on the table told her the house was showing Uriel and Gloria what she was doing.