Her seat was comfortable.

  This was an important distinction. A grounding one. Something she needed to cling to as a reminder of where and what was real should she need to pull herself back to reality.

  Quinn was fully aware of this, and yet somehow found herself fidgeting.

  “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Milaro asked again, pushing the calming tea toward her, even as he reached out his other hand to hold hers.

  “No. But this is necessary.” Quinn didn’t want to dive into that damned memory. And if that snake was having her on, she’d gladly pay him another visit for screwing with her head like this. However, she was certain on a strange level that he’d told her the truth. And that meant they had to follow this up.

  Food in her stomach, calming and focus, tea in progress, and her mentor sitting in front of her holding her hands and ready to go through the whole thing with her? That was about as good as it could get.

  Milaro nodded. “Okay, first up, I need you to recall one of the exercises from a book I think Lynx gave you?”

  Quinn raised an eyebrow. Over the last several months, the manifestation had given her a whole slew of tomes. “You’ll have to be more specific than that.”

  “Swebby’s Path of Cognizant Deliberate Memory Management...” he began, but Quinn interrupted him.

  “Oh, the IR book? The Internal redirection book?” She sounded eager. She knew it. After all, it was one of her favorites so far. It had helped her focus on Eugea’s healing in such detail she’d forever be grateful. Speaking of which, she’d seen that spell cast. She still had to get Milaro and perhaps Nishpa to take a look at it.

  Milaro smiled. “Then yes. The IR book. I believe you should use those techniques to pull us into the scene we need to examine in your mind.”

  Quinn took in a deep breath and nodded. It made sense, of course. It was the most efficient way for her to dive in and get the best of this. Thing was, she wasn’t entirely sure how to just pull up that recovered memory. Closing her eyes, she dug deep. But she couldn’t bring herself to relax. There was a part of her just too wound up.

  “Breathe Quinn.” Milaro’s voice was gentle and if she didn’t open her eyes, she could concentrate on her breathing, on her mind, on her memories.

  In and out. Counting it down.

  She remembered being back on earth. That little store room with Malakai,. The sudden memory.

  And there it was.

  ~

  “Quinn, come here, show me your report card,” her mother called. Quinn walked over and giggled at her mother. She had to be, what, twelve?

  “Mom, it’s online, like it always is. What are you talking about?”

  “Fine, fine, give me the hard copy, anyway.” Her mother attempted to smile sternly, but it was, as always, just filled with contentment.

  Quinn handed over the hard copy to her mother with a big grin on her face.

  “You did it again! All As, I’m so proud of you.” The smile her mother gave her showed both love and pride.

  ~

  Nope. That was too early. She frowned as it slipped out of her grasp, only to catch it briefly and try to locate the portion she wanted.

  ~

  Dad laughed, her mum laughed, her grandmother laughed. The sounds were like music to her ears.

  They headed through the intersection closest to the ice cream shop. - they were so close she could practically taste it. The lights were green. They had the right of way.

  And then time seemed to slow down for her...

  ~

  Quinn froze the image right before the crash.

  Milaro’s voice was like a breeze speaking into her mind. Did you mean to stop it here?

  She nodded in her head, but then realized that wouldn’t help. Yes. I don’t... I’m unsure what would be in the side-view mirror during the accident. Wouldn’t it just be the car behind us? I feel like others would have braked, would have avoided it. I only remember the car getting hit from the side.

  You’re not just trying to avoid it? he asked gently.

  Maybe a bit, she admitted, but it’s more than that. If we don’t catch something this way, then I’ll give in and look at the actual crash. I’ll have you blur out their bodies. But right now you don’t need to yet. I just need you to sit with me. Here, in this scene. The side-view mirrors are at each side in the front. We won’t have the best angles for them.

  He stiffened ever so slightly as she felt him move in her awareness. And then she remembered he’d known these people. He’d sent them with her, to take care of her. He’d thought her dead with them almost a decade ago. This would be difficult for him, too. Maybe that’s why he chose to do this instead of Nishpa.

  Quinn pivoted around in her head, watching the frozen scene before them. Smiles on faces, ice cream expectant, joy and love. She’d had a pretty good first twelve years, after all. The memories weren’t difficult to recall. Just this one. This bad one.

  She could feel Milaro over in the vicinity of her mother in the passenger seat, while Quinn maneuvered to look at the one next to her dad, who was right in front of her.

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  In the still image, just about to pass the line at the green lights ahead of them, Quinn’s face was frozen in laughter at her father’s joke. She’d been shaking her head and calling him out and laughing in that carefree way. Which was probably the only reason she’d even had the side-view mirror in her vision at all.

  It was strange stepping outside of the car in her vision. Beyond the car was nothing. Just a big, open space where the image of her memory faded out to nothing but space. Quinn moved carefully to the side-view mirror and frowned. She needed to enlarge the picture, to pull it out.

  With a shrug, she grabbed the mirror and it detached with relative ease. She rotated it, trying to see the image in detail. But in her mind, where many things were possible, she simply asked it to enhance and enlarge. She remembered vaguely that the IR book had many ways to make the most of memories. Accessing them, controlling them, finding their secrets.

  There was definitely something in this one, but the blur was so severe, Quinn couldn’t be entirely sure. She squinted even harder at it and frowned.

  Found something? Milaro asked, looking over at her.

  I don’t know... was her only response. Because it wasn’t clear. There was something there, like a sphere or an eye. Any luck on your side.

  He hesitated. Not entirely, but maybe we should have a look at each other and see.

  They met in the middle and looked. The object in Milaro’s was much the same as Quinn’s. What do you think it is? She asked.

  He shrugged. Right now it’s a circular blur. Perhaps spherical. I think you should go back and see if it’s clearer before this juncture of the memory. Maybe 15 seconds even?

  Quinn nodded. It made sense. She dismissed the memory, clenching her hands around Milaro’s in the real world as she summoned another portion of her memory.

  ~

  “So, Quinn, tell me, did you cheat?” It was almost like a ritual question, a joke shared among all of them.

  ~

  Quinn remembered those jokes. She remembered the way they all reveled in them. She felt tired. Couldn’t she just stop everything for just a moment?

  Milaro’s presence by her side was warm and calming. This works. He said.

  Quinn knew immediately upon approaching the side-view mirror this time that their idea had worked. The image was already clearer. So clear, in fact, that Quinn gasped. Mainly because it still didn’t make sense. She walked around with hers to be closer to Milaro’s presence. This doesn’t make sense.

  No, it really doesn’t. Not when we didn’t detect any traces of other magic here. We locked down your parents, too. There was no way to scent them.

  Quinn had known that, at a certain level, but it helped to have it confirmed. Well then...

  But neither of them had an answer, and so Quinn just studied the image closer and committed it to memory. I swear it’s a moon like eye.

  In some ways, it looks like a dragon’s eye. And in others, it feels more like a golem eye. But both of those creatures require great deals of magic to exist on a world like Earth. It wouldn’t be sustainable.

  Quinn pondered that. But would it be momentarily sustainable? In that, perhaps this is how they got the actual drivers to the scene? A dimensional teleport?

  You’re really taking my: with magic anything is possible speech, to heart, aren’t you?

  Quinn knew if he was standing next to her corporeally, he’d be raising an eyebrow. She sighed. But why is it just an eye? I can’t see any other attachment. And it takes up most of the mirror.

  Milaro was peering closer. “You don’t think... can you feel that?”

  Quinn leaned closer to the mirror and its expanded image that already took up most of it. A strange pulse of warmth. This... whatever this is, isn’t hostile. It’s warm. It’s watching all of us.

  At that, Milaro frowned, and his presence seemed lost in thought, even though she could remotely feel he was still there.

  Her curiosity piqued. She was fascinated by the eye type thing that reminded her ever so slightly of Lynx and the golems as they communicated with and through the system, that it was a presence in her memories.

  She had an idea. Ducking back another ten seconds in the memory, she quickly checked the mirrors again. But there was nothing in them other than the cars that should have been. Not even a shadow of a sphere or eye or whatever it was. Pity the details were too blurry in the other ones.

  Which meant she should really also check the actual impact memory. Only. She chose the split second before impact.

  Quinn could feel herself shake as she stepped around the still intact vehicle, squeezing herself to see the reflection in the passenger side. Nothing was there. Nor was there anything on the driver’s side. Finally, she dismissed the memory and allowed Milaro rubbing the back of her hand to pull her back to reality.

  She blinked, even as thoughts ran rampant through her head.

  Milaro simply watched her, as if he was making sure to let her come to her own decisions before he jumped in and offered any insight.

  She ran a hand through her hair, pulling strands free and tangling them around her fingers in thought. “First up. How the hell did Kajaro know anything about this?”

  “I don’t have an answer for that,” Milaro spoke carefully, still watching her. “Maybe put that question to the back of the line.

  Quinn scowled, then sighed. He was right. “Fine. They weren’t the same eyes, you know that, right? If they were eyes. They reminded me a bit of Lynx, a bit of Misha... golems and all...”

  Misha popped into the office, a look of surprise on their face. “I... I am not supposed to be in here.” They said, looking around. “Did you need me, Librarian?”

  The hopefully soon relegated back to full supervisory duty golem’s appearance made Quinn smile. “No, I don’t need you right now. But I had mentioned your name, and so... here you are.”

  “Ah. Well. Then I will warp back to Harish then.”

  With a slight pop, they were gone.

  “It’s good to know something’s working like it should again.” Quinn grumbled.

  “Stop it.” Milaro chided. “Two different synthetic eyes then. Watching the whole scene take place.”

  “No.” Quinn corrected him. “They weren’t there upon impact. And they weren’t there another ten seconds in the past. Just for about 20 seconds right before. What, do we have dragons who only show us their eyes following us? Golems created to travel inter-galactically to, I don’t know, make sure they finished the job?”

  Milaro shrugged and Aradie gave her a wing hug. Neither of those things helped.

  “I’d suggest we see if you can project the images? Might help to have some reference. Could ask Carafax with all his chronicling...“ Milaro sounded like he was grasping at straws. “I’m sorry I’m not more help. From Kajaro’s phrasing, I thought this would be a revelation.”

  Quinn pursed her lips, running it all over in her mind. What had he wanted to tell her? Was it really a wild goose chase? “Perhaps we’re not looking at it from the right perspective?”

  Milaro laughed. “Well, let’s see if we can discover which perspective it’s from. After I go and have a bloody good sleep.”

  “Thank you.” Quinn said suddenly. “For being there with me.”

  “Anytime.” Milaro smiled and took his leave.

  Quinn watched him go, closed the door behind him, grabbed a pillow off the couch, and screamed into it. Just what she needed. More stuff she didn’t know.

  Aradie swooped down to land gently next to where Quinn lay on the couch, and hooted in commiseration while offering a brush of her wing.

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