To Ally with the Guardians

Chapter 20: What Lay Beneath

It came to everyone's attention as they began to form a course of action that they had no way of contacting the people who had escaped via portal. So Tooth set one of her Mini Fairies up to the task of telling them it was safe to come back and filled Sandy in on everything while helping with the children. Duran and Bunny worked on fixing the wooden barrier, and the latter still hadn't said a word since acting on the curse.

Matt spoke to and walked around with Angelia and Whisper, showing them where he had thrown the Indicator. Unfortunately, he ended up finding it unharmed aside from a few dents under a tree. He didn't know if this was normal behavior for a brass object, though, the blasted thing. He hadn't ever chucked one down from a high distance before.

"How do you think I could destroy this?" he asked Whisper.

She shrugged, looking at it and saying, "Melting would probably work." It was true. How could Matt do that, however? Would just throwing it in a fire be enough? "I still don't think you need to, though. It's not a Monitor, and besides, Monitors only show truth, not make things true. If it was a Monitor, it wouldn't matter if you broke it or not."

"But what if it's not like a Monitor?" It would be best if Matt assumed that the Indicator had something to do with this whole mess. He had to destroy it for Haven's sake to make sure that Whisper's plan-in-the-making wouldn't fail for no reason.

"What if it's part of the curse?" Angelia added.

"I would be able to sense the darkness within it if it had to do with the curse; I can sense it in your cure. Though I don't know what your Indicator is, I know it's not controlling Haven's destiny, at least not like that."

"But what if it's controlling her fate another way?" Matt asked as a portal opened up at the top of the hill, North leading the children through.

"And what way do you have in mind?"

Matt didn't have an answer at the front of his brain, but there had to be something else the Indicator could control that would prevent Haven from being cured.

Tooth and Sandy waved at North from the bottom of the hill and led the recently-cured children to the other kids. The two Guardians then gestured for everyone else to follow them: Bunny, the Prophecy Person, and the L.E.R. They also called out to Mallory, who had just come through the portal with his translated records in one hand and Sophie in the other, Jamie tagging along behind. Jack was likely still on the other side of the opening, probably waiting to be the last one through so that he could keep an eye on the children still there.

"Let's go," Whisper said, walking toward the others. "We need to plan with them."

"And destroy the Indicator?" Matt added hopefully.

Whisper shook her head. "Your 'Indicator' is only doing just that: indicating, not cursing. It doesn't need to be destroyed. We need to formulate our plan before Fearlings show up again." She continued on her way, and Matt and Angelia followed.

"We should still destroy it, just in case," the latter whispered to the former.

"Yeah, but what would we use to melt it?" Matt asked.

"I don't know." Angelia looked off in the distance. "Garvit might've known. I know you didn't like him, but he was smart."

"Well, we can't get him back now," Matt said, although he would be perfectly willing to put up with the redhead again if it meant ensuring Haven's safety. "We'll just have to figure it out ourselves."

It took hours to get everyone settled back in. Many of the children were hungry, so there was breakfast, and they were also all antsy from the threat of Fearlings and Nightmares before the evacuation. The Guardians and Mallory wanted to get them calmed down first before hearing what had happened and beginning to plan. After all, if children were scared for their lives enough, they might eavesdrop on the conversation to try to find out what was going on, and the thought of many Guardians leaving for a little while would only frighten them more.