Heathcliff sighed as the door closed behind him. There was a lot of information that was just shared with him. Much of it felt like it should have been known already to him. This Arachii might be a good source of information about gates that isn't in any of the records that he has. Maybe even any that he'd be able to find surviving in this world right now.
He moved over to his desk and sat down and let himself get lost in thought about the various possibilities that what he'd just learned presented to him as his gaze centered on his desk. While this 'bicorn' wouldn't be able to help with his mapping plan, it at least did let him know that much of what knowledge of the gates they thought they had might not be as accurate as they'd like. He looked from up his desk as the door opened and Carl entered.
"Don't tell me that you believe any of that bullshit," Carl said.
"Don't underestimate what we probably don't know," He gently rebuked Carl. "That girl isn't stupid. Just because we don't know something is possible doesn't necessarily make it impossible. Some of what she said might be fanciful, but that doesn't necessarily mean all of it isn't true."
"Still, why don't we have any record of these bicorns that she told us about?" Carl asked.
"I can't say why, but you saw yourself that there is now a gate in our basement that we both know hadn't been there before," He reminded Carl. "Unless you can offer a better explanation of how that is, then we'll have to go with what Charlie Rivers told us."
"If what she says is true, and I mean if, what does that mean for us?"
"It means that we now have a means to access the unicorn's forest that won't draw public notice. We can begin sending out expeditions into other worlds earlier than we had originally planned. It also means that we might be able to learn more about the gates than any of the records we have could have possibly contained in the first place."
Carl nodded thoughtfully. "That does sound good, but what if it's still all bull? Can we afford to waste time following leads that won't get us anywhere?"
"If it turns out to be mostly false, then we'll cross that bridge when we cross it. As you have said before, Charlie Rivers is a young girl. If it turns out what she told us isn't true, then that would mean she is trusting the wrong source of information. So, she would not be the problem we'd have to focus on if that possibility turns out to be correct. As a young girl, she could be influenced by others who she wouldn't know not to trust. If that is the case, we'll have to find a way to extract her from their influence and bind her to us. That will need to be done carefully so as to not turn her against us. You've seen it for yourself. She might have even more potential with her magic than I do. Then there's the fact that I think she might be the one that will lead her group of friends, which would mean that if we get her, then we'd get her other friends, who look like they might have as much potential as you yourself did at that age."
Carl shook his head in disgust. "That's the worst of it. A stupid kid with that much power. If she really realized what she can do, what's to stop her from turning everything we've worked at inside out and upside down?"
"What is there to stop her?" Heathcliff asked rhetorically. "I'd say those she cares about." Heathcliff stood up from his desk, and started walking towards the door, motioning for Carl to follow as he left the office. "While I can't find much information on her, the little I've been able to learn through observing her is that she works hard to help those she cares about. I'm sure she doesn't want her family hurt, nor does she want to cause problems for her friends or those her friends care about. In addition, I believe we might have someone who could tie this girl to us in a way that we overlooked in the past."
"What way is that?" Carl asked, apparently not caring to try to hide his disbelief.
"Did you notice the way she looked at my niece, Shirley?"
"Why should I have?" Carl asked. Even though he couldn't see Carl, he was sure Carl was shaking his head.
"I think Charlie Rivers might have a crush on her. If we get Shirley to help foster those feelings, we might be able to get her bound to us tighter than if she merely felt indebted to us."
"You think that that stupid girl is-"
"You would do better to not finish that sentence," Heathcliff snapped at Carl, not bothering to look at him. "You should realize how many people who work with us are either like young miss Rivers or have those they care about like her. You might not care for people who have those attractions, but that's not for you to decide. I really believe they don't choose whom they are attracted to. Nor do I believe it's our place to say if they can act on those attractions. What they choose to do in their own relationships is their own business and isn't for us to dictate what they can or can't do."
"Sorry," Carl muttered. Not that he thought Carl thought any differently now.
"Anyway, as long as my niece is open to that kind of thing we should be able to move forward with that." Heathcliff paused as he looked through the open door to the dining room, where Shirley was eating her lunch, her own mind clearly elsewhere. "You never know what might come out of such a relationship."
_
Charlie hung back from the rest of the group as they walked back through Petals' forest. She didn't completely blame them for being mad at her, it was kind of her fault anyway. Though, she couldn't think of a way to have avoided this situation. She had in mind that if they asked her why she was walking so slowly that she'd blame it all on her being tired and not wanting to overexert herself while she allowed her magic to recover.
"So, whatcha thinkin' about?" Beth asked her from ahead of her.
"Nothing really," she replied, hoping Beth would leave it at that while knowing that wasn't going to happen.
"Who was the girl you kept looking at in Heathcliff's office?" Beth asked.
"Shirley," she answered. "She was one of the counselors at the math camp."
"So, you have the hots for her huh?"
"What?!" she cried in surprise.
"Oh yeah, I saw how you looked at her. You have a crush of your own."
Charlie couldn't think of how to respond to that but felt her face heat in embarrassment.
"Don't worry, I doubt the others noticed, but what do you intend to do about it?" Beth asked, startling her as she found Beth waiting for her on the other side of a green crystal as she walked past it.
"I'm not sure," she admitted. "I mean I wouldn't mind if she'd like me, but she is a lot older than me. She probably wouldn't be as interested in me."
"You never know," Beth replied. "She might be more open than you think, but if she is, I'd be worried about you."
"Why?"
"I'd be worried that she'd be using your feelings to manipulate you."
"Why would she do that? She was helping protect me during the camp."
"Yeah, she was protecting you, but likely at the direction of that Heathcliff," Beth said, putting her arm around Charlie's shoulders.
For once, Charlie didn't mind the contact but rather leaned towards her friend. "Why would that matter?"
"If Heathcliff directed her to get you in bed with her, she might try that," Beth commented. "At least that's the feeling I got from her."
"Why would he ask her to do that?" Charlie wasn't as sure about what was going on as she was a minute ago.
"Look at it this way," Beth suggested. "You told us that Heathcliff's people had tried to mention about magic to you before they asked you to open the gate. Since the reason they wanted to do that was to get you indebted to them, what if they used Shirley to try and get you in pretty much the same way?"
"But she wouldn't do that," Charlie protested weakly. She really didn't know if Shirley would or not, but she didn't want her to be capable of that.
"I hope not, but that's why I'm worried."
"Well, what's to worry about anyway?" she asked. "It's not like we'll be hanging out with her much or anything."
Beth shook her head. "You never know what's going to happen. I hope I'm mistaken, 'cause I'm not sure what it might affect." Then after a moment, she added, "And I don't want to see you get hurt because of anything like that happening."
"No more than who that Alex was that you mentioned when we first met Petals or who gave me this necklace, unless it's the same person," Charlie replied, absently fiddling with the pendant, trying to ignore Beth's last statement by pushing the thought to the back of her mind.
Beth sighed, which said to her that she wasn't going to give any information about the pendant or the mysterious 'Alex.' Which didn't bother her. She'd decided not to worry about those details. If the person who gave her the necklace didn't come forward, then she wasn't going to worry about it. After all, she liked the indigo butterfly, so it wouldn't be a total loss for her if the giver didn't reveal themselves to her.
"By the way, what was it at Heathcliff's that had you almost in a panic?" Beth asked, as the outline of the sequoia came into view.
Charlie sighed herself. She'd kinda hoped that Beth had forgotten about that. "It's just that it felt like you guys weren't happy that I was letting what I learned from Arachii the same time that I was telling Heathcliff about it. I guess my mind wasn't sure what to do about that."
"Don't worry," Beth assured her. "They may not have liked it, but they'll get over it. I mean, it's not like you were keeping it a secret for months and months from them. You know, like about the crystal."
"Are they upset about that?" Charlie asked, suddenly worried about that. She never thought that she'd be part of group a friends like them and suddenly she thought that she'd lose them and couldn't figure out why that bothered her so much.
"Doubt they're really upset about it, more just annoyed, I think. I mean, that's, what? About the third or fourth piece of information you revealed you knew and didn't tell them, pretty much right away," Beth replied.
Charlie nodded and continued walking with Beth in silence, not sure what else to say about the matter. Especially since there wasn't anything she could do to change those facts.
"So, what else do you have planned for the rest of the summer?" Beth asked after they passed the sequoia. "Anything special?"
Charlie thought about it and couldn't come up with anything specific outside of the usual yearly events. "My dad's birthday is on the twelfth of August, but otherwise no other plans," she answered.
"In that case, would you like to spend the night at my place for a week or two?" Beth asked. "I think we can learn more about what we can do with our magic if we work together on our experiments."
Charlie thought about it. While she would rather not, mostly because she'd never slept over at anyone else's house before, it did sound appealing to her. She might even learn more about Beth than she had already. Which she was surprised to realize that she found that rather appealing.
"I'll ask my parents, but otherwise I think it shouldn't be a problem. I mean, as long as we keep coming back to my place so I can at least take care of my garden," she said. Then realized something that she hadn't said but had wanted to before now. "By the way, thanks for taking care of my garden. I really appreciate it."
"No problem, bestie," Beth said, pulling her arm around Charlie's shoulders tighter. "That's what friends are for."
_
In the end, the only one with any problem by Charlie staying at Beth's was Cherie, and it was clear to Charlie that she was very annoyed by that fact. Maybe it was that she hadn't been allowed to do that in the past or maybe because she was used to Charlie always being around their home, but she was. Charlie couldn't help but wonder if there was anything she could do about it.
So, she knocked on her sister's door that afternoon, before they were called down to dinner. "Mind if I come in, Cherie?" she asked, wondering what she might learn from her sister through this attempt.
"Go ahead," was the reply.
Charlie opened the door and entered her sister's room. The room was covered by her latest band preferences, movies she really liked, and some pictures sporadically placed of her and her friends doing one activity or another.
Cherie was sitting on her bed, her phone in her hand, doing something with it while resting with her back against the headboard and wall. Maybe a game or browsing an app or browser, Charlie never could tell.
Charlie walked over to stand by her sister's bed, not sure if she should sit on the bed, at her sister's desk, which was still covered in its usual clutter, or somewhere else. However, she was more concerned at the moment with healing any possible rift between her and her sister.
So, as she reached Cherie's bed, she didn't waste any time in saying her piece. "Cherie, did I do something to upset you?" she asked. She was confident she hadn't, but at the same time, it was never wrong to go forward with extra caution. Especially since she really didn't know what the problem might be.
"No, you didn't do anything," Cherie replied, not looking up from her phone.
Charlie waited a minute before she could tell Cherie wasn't going to add anything more. "Then what's the problem? I mean, you used to be annoyed that I didn't hang out with anyone and that I spent all of my time, especially during the summer, at home."
Cherie didn't respond right away. Charlie was beginning to wonder if she was going to reply at all to her question, when suddenly she put her phone down and looked directly at Charlie, her eyes glistening with tears, not quite ready to be released. "You want to know why? Well, I always thought that it would be better if I didn't always have you around here when I'm with my friends and that I'd like it if you were gone while I was here sometimes." Cherie stopped to take a deep breath as she absently looked towards her desk. Charlie wasn't sure what else to do, so she waited patiently. "Then you're not here basically at all this summer. Or even the last two months of school. I didn't realize how much I counted on you being here."
"Would you like me to spend more time with you?" Charlie asked, not sure if that's what her sister was getting at. After all, they rarely spent time together outside of family activities, so she wasn't sure what her sister meant.
"I'm not sure," Cherie said, a tear starting to flow down her cheek.
"Is there anything that I can do for you?" Charlie wasn't sure if she should do anything for her sister at the moment, like trying to comfort her or if that would make things worse.
Cherie looked at Charlie directly. The first time she did since Charlie came into the room. "Would you be willing to spend the night in here tonight?" Cherie asked.
Charlie knew that that wasn't what her sister wanted most, but she accepted that, given there was supposed to be severe weather that night. "Sure, I'll do that," Charlie said, sitting on her sister's bed. "Maybe when we go to bed you can tell me what's really bothering you."
Charlie was surprised when Cherie's face went beet red. "W- what do you mean?" Cherie stammered.
Charlie smiled, hopefully reassuringly. "I mean that the severe weather tonight isn't what's got you upset right now. I'm happy to spend the night in your room instead of mine if you want that, but what I really want to know is what problem there is between us."
"There's no problem," Cherie said, her voice telling Charlie that she wasn't aware of one.
"Then why were you so annoyed when you found out that I was spending a week at Beth's?" Charlie held her hand out to her sister, not sure if Cherie would take it.
Cherie did as she replied, "I think it might be that I miss you being around. It was almost like you went from being constantly here to being almost a ghost around here." Cherie took another deep breath. "Then…"
Charlie again waited patiently for her sister to continue, but when it became clear that she wasn't going to, Charlie tightened her grip on her sister's hand. "Whatever it is, I promise I won't get mad. We're sisters, I'll always be there if you need me, even if I can't do anything right away for you."
"Thanks, but I think I shouldn't say anything more. I mean, I'm not even sure of what I wanted to say a moment ago," Cherie said, smiling encouragingly at her.