Gravity Rises (S3)

PP: Part Seven

Ford immediately went with June to see his brother.

Dipper and Mabel had wanted to go too, but Ford and June had agreed that they couldn't risk Bill seeing through the kids' eyes. Lee was currently unconscious; Bill couldn't see anything that was going on in the minotaur village. The minotaurs likely wanted to keep it that way. So, leaving Dipper, Mabel, and Gideon behind, June had taken Ford through the tree network to the minotaur village.

The minotaurs were doing their best to get back to work on reconstruction after the panic of Lee's intrusion. June pointed Ford to one of the less-damaged buildings in the village, then disappeared into the trees. At the hut was a crowd of minotaurs, including many of the elders that Ford had spoken to only three days before. The minotaurs spoke in a language that sounded somewhat similar to English but was largely foreign to Ford; then, when the elders noticed Ford, they switched to English. "Stanford Pines," said one elder whose name Ford remembered to be Twánat. "Welcome back."

"Thank you," Ford said. "I'm sorry about the destruction from the gravitational anomalies."

Twánat dipped his head in sorrow or acknowledgment or both; Ford wasn't sure. "It was necessary to bring the tenth Symbol here, was it not?"

"Yes," Ford said, "and he'll recover. It wasn't my brother on the other side of the portal, like we had thought, but it was still the last person needed for the Cipher Wheel. We found my brother in the Order, where he's apparently been imprisoned for the past thirty years." Ford took a breath. "June tells me he's here."

"Yes, in here." Twánat led Ford through a simple door (that was partly hanging off its hinges) into the small building.

There was Lee, lying unconscious on a simple wooden bench. Ford ran to his brother's side. "Lee," he whispered, kneeling down on the dirt floor and putting a hand on Lee's shoulder.

"We found him unconscious beside the entrance to one of our secure areas," said a female minotaur behind Ford. "He set off the warding spells, which is why he's unconscious. We thought he was you at first."

Ford looked back at the woman. She had a soft brown bovine face and round black eyes. Tied over one shoulder was a simple red dress that reached to her ankles (or, her fetlocks), and her hooves were black and shiny. "Sorry, I should introduce myself," she said. "I'm Moira, Andrew's wife."

"Nice to meet you." Ford got to his feet and held out a hand. She looked a bit confused at the hand, but then she nodded in recognition of the human custom and shook it. "Is Andrew here?" continued Ford. "Could I speak to him?"

Moira shook her head. "He left not long before we found your brother. He's just doing simple business to help with the village repairs, but this whole situation almost seems like it was planned for Andrew's absence."

Ford scowled. "That sounds like Cipher."

"What?" Twánat asked in alarm.

"Bill Cipher is behind this, I guarantee it," Ford said. "He and my brother have a deal that allows Bill to possess him at any time. Cipher probably learned that Andrew would be gone, and he brought Stanley here to steal whatever it was he was trying to steal."

Twánat threw his head back in surprise. "But Cipher doesn't know!" he said. "He doesn't know we have it!"

"Have what?"

"Andrew can explain it better than I can," Moira said, "but it's a dagger. A dagger that's linked to the Cipher Wheel. If Cipher gets his hands on it, then that's a major step towards his escape."

"But Cipher didn't know," Twánat insisted. "No humans ever found out, and we don't know of any human prophecies that link us to the dagger — or even identify the dagger as the needed object for Cipher to retrieve. How could Cipher bring your brother here if he didn't know?"