Gravity Rises (S3)

SP: Part Six

Lincoln felt a tug on his soul.

He sat in the cave of prophecies, wondering if the anomalies were over. It felt like it had been about eighteen hours since they had started; but then again, it was hard to estimate time when you were stuck in a dark cave. Still, there hadn't been anomaly for quite a few minutes, so perhaps they were over. Perhaps he could finally go back to Pacifica and the other Order members and make sure they were okay.

Then the tugging. It felt like someone pinching his skin, or pulling on the back of his winter coat, but it wasn't a physical sensation. Rather, it was a tug on the very connection between his spirit and his body.

Another tug, then a jerk, then a ripping sound. Lincoln braced himself as he left his body and fell back among the stone floor of the cave — though of course he couldn't feel the rock.

"Those scoundrels!" came Bill's voice, shouting from Lincoln's body. "I should have known they would pull something like this!"

"Good morning to you too," Lincoln grumbled. He flew around to look Bill in the eye, since the demon hadn't bothered to turn around. Given the yelling, he expected to see a scowl, with Bill's glowing yellow eyes glaring out at him; instead, he found a huge smile splitting his own wrinkled face and Bill's eyes twinkling triumphantly. "Lord Cipher?" asked Lincoln. "What's going on?"

"I was trying to stop the portal," Bill said, "but I shouldn't have. I should have encouraged it!"

"I thought you didn't want all ten Symbols in town."

"I didn't. But the ancients — those clever devils — built my defeat into my very liberation. Turns out I can't escape unless all ten Symbols are in town."

Lincoln nodded pensively. It made sense. Those ancients knew what they were doing when they trapped Bill in this dimension. "How did you discover that?" he asked.

"The township formed," Bill replied. "The time bubble ended. As soon as the last Symbol entered, a barrier went up around this whole area — the town, the forest, everything. Just like the prophecies say."

This declaration sent shivers up Lincoln's spine — even though, technically, he did not currently have a spine. "Then we should go back to the Order," he said, "and figure out what we need to do next."

Bill gave him a flat look. "Oh, don't pretend that's what you're most concerned about," he said. "You want to go back and make sure your precious Pacifica is okay."

"And everyone else," Lincoln said defensively.

"Sure. Well, we do need to go back. The township has formed, but I don't know how to start it up. All I know is that it has to do with my Symbols, somehow. We'll go back to the Order and see what we can find in the library."

"We" meant Lincoln and the other Order members doing the work as Bill read over their shoulders (so to speak). But that was fine; Lincoln would rather flip through books for Bill than watch in spirit form as Bill did it himself. His spirit form made him feel restless, and he had yet to find a way to get rid of the feeling.

Bill gathered up Lincoln's things in his duffel bag and started from the cave. Lincoln followed him through the forest for what seemed like hours, though it surely wasn't that long. Regardless, it felt interminable: Bill walked in silence, and Lincoln's sense of restlessness only grew.

At least he wasn't the one trudging through the snow. That was a perk.

After a while, Bill stopped. "I need to check on something," he said. "Stay as a ghost; I won't be long." He sat down at the base of a tree, leaned against it, and closed his eyes. The body went slack as Bill left it.