Salient Secret 2

24

Palmer

"Ambrose, Idris, Tasia, Yvonne, Heska, Niko, and Clover!" I read the names under each portrait so that we won't be caught off guard by anyone.

"Got it!" Cassian shouts back. I look at the portrait of George/Ambrose, if you look closely you can see the slight similarities between the two. Considering I couldn't recognize Avery after her 'Vada' make over, I'm not surprised by how different someone can look after a few appearance tweaks.

Oh one more thing, we can't get out of here. We all tried teleporting out but it doesn't work, we're only allowed to teleport in and around this place, but not out. Imelda has been running around looking for another way.

"The way we came in is completely covered by the ground above," she says. "Cass, just use your powers to bring the roof off this place."

"Mel, this is a thousand year old Electus archive, I am not bringing the roof down and letting it fall and ruin everything," he responds.

"Would you be able to move the ground covering the staircase?" I ask knowing I might have a solution.

"Possibly," he says hopefully which means he understands where I'm going with this. He teleports to the staircase, holds his hands out and the dirt starts shaking, moments later there's a tunnel through the dirt with faint light at the end. That's not what I had in mind but I guess it will do.

"Ah dammit," Imelda complains when she tries to teleport out and it still doesn't work, which means we have to crawl our way out.

"I'll go first," I say climbing into the tunnel and kneeing my way through.

After what feels like an hour, I finally reach the end, I emerge onto the land like I am the calf the cow is giving birth to. I'm all covered in dirt, my hands are sore and so are my knees. Not long after me Imelda pops out complaining out loud.

"I would've switched to Team B if I knew Team A had to do this," she whines dusting her clothes off as if her hands are made of soap and water. She's really just making it worse.

"Let's get off this hell island," Cassian says after popping out the tunnel. "Back to the house." We all teleport away and reappear in the living room of the house.

"VADA!" Cassian yells.

"RIK!" Imelda joins Cassians yelling party.

"Yes?" Avery says walking into the room like nothing happened, which is good I guess.

"Where's Rik?" Imelda asks.

"I'm right here sis," Rik says now standing next to Avery.

"I'm here too," Tanith says.

"Where's George?" Cassian asks.

"Right here," George says emerging from behind the three. "Why are you all covered in dirt?" he asks like he didn't just turn the Electus archive into an escape room.

"Don't play dumb with us mi-" Imelda starts but then Avery stands in front of him.

"He saved our lives Imelda. Watch your tone, now go get cleaned up and get some rest, we have an early morning tomorrow. George is going to introduce you all to his family," she says with a small, creepy smile on her face.

"She's right Mel, if it wasn't for George we'd be dead," Rik says in the same gentle tone Avery has been speaking in.

"Vada, he isn't who he says he is," Cassian starts and Tanith chimes in.

"You're right Cass, he is Ambrose, Cynthia Wilders descent, get some rest, George will explain everything tomorrow morning."

"Okay," Cassian says and Imelda and I both look at him like he is psycho. "Let's go upstairs ladies and get some rest," he says with wide eyes, hinting that we will talk upstairs.

"Okay," I say and the three of us teleport upstairs. Seconds later Cassian and Imelda walk into my room.

"Something is definitely wrong," Imelda whispers.

"Definitely," I confirm.

"George must have done something to them," Cassian says.

"We have to undo it before they try do it to us tomorrow," I say panicking more than I'd care to admit.

"We can't undo it if we don't know what he did," Cassian explains.

"Clearly it's some mind control thing," Imelda says.

"Hold that thought," Cassian says teleporting away and reappearing in seconds later. "The inhibitors are in tact, that means this has nothing to do with their minds directly," he explains.

"Then what the hell is going on?" Imelda asks, frustrated by the lack of answers.

"I told you I heard whispering," Rik says bursting into the room playfully.

"Come on you guys, back to bed, you're gonna need that rest," Tanith is speaking to us like we're toddlers.

"Naughty, naughty, naughty," Avery playfully scolds as Cassian and Imelda leave my room.

The door closes, there's no one but me in here now. I look down and remember that I'm still covered in dirt. I have to shower now.

Afterwards, I change into pajamas and get into bed, although, I can't seem to sleep because of all the weirdness going on. Avery would know what to do.

*****

"The seven pillars are earth, water, fire, air, emotion, spirit and darkness."

"Palmer you're my sister, I love you."

"Avery lives on inside of us, there's nothing stronger than love, she will never truly die as long as we love her forever."

I jolt awake after having a strange dream where I was listening to Cassian, then reading the letter Avery left for me when she died and then Kai cheering me up after he caught me crying in my room the night of her funeral.

I gasp when I realize what the message in that dream was.

I know what I need to do.