Bunned hair, softly swaying dress, sharp strides, wedged heels thumping against the floor; a briefcase in hand.
Lynette walked briskly, yet majestically, down the hall towards the Kajiado County Director of Environment's office — at the first turn on the right.
She seemed all formal but jubilant.
Just as she was about to make the turn, she noticed something on the floor:
Dirt.
Lumps of soil, dried leaves, and pebbles.
"What?" she wondered.
What were those doing there? The rest of the floors...
But just as she was looking around, she found herself abruptly standing in an outdoor space — a violent wind blowing past her as the trees nearby rustled in a gentle symphony.
The sky was orange. Sunset.
"What the heck is happening?!" Lynette started to panic.
The briefcase dropped from her hand.
The wind howled in a familiar eerieness.
Lynette got the gist of where she might have been. Her eyes went wide. "No..." she dreaded.
"Waaah! Waaah!" A child's cry exploded from the blues.
She turned sharply to her right to see it:
The cliff. The cliff staring down to the vast forest.
Without any more delay, she took to her heels, her entire being riddled with something far much worse than fear. Something that a mother could only ever feel, when their child was falling off from the edge of a cliff.
Her eyes glistened. The wind blew. Her legs raced.
But with brutal suddenness — again — everything wrapped into a desolate darkness. Still, quiet, black.
Lynette stopped instantly — heart clenching, breathing ragged — and tried to look around.
Nothing. She wasn't even sure what she was looking for, or at, but while doing so, she realized... she could see herself?
"Illogical," she grimaced while staring at her hands.
"Mom?" A deep voice suddenly echoed from ahead of her.
She flinched at the sound and froze.
It came again. Louder, sadder, more desperate. "Mom?!"
Lynette's heart clenched tighter — her pupils dancing. She wasn't even sure she could remember how to breathe.
"...Edward?" She managed to breathe out between trembling jaws.
"Mom, why didn't you save me?"
"Edward, I—"
"Mom, why didn't you protect me?"
"I'm sorry, Edward," her composure began to break. "I really tried to—"
"No!" The voice suddenly snapped. "Not Edward!" It turned monstrous.
With a whoosh, Lynette felt a presence behind her.
"Me," a soft, sweet, familiar voice whispered in her ear. "Edric."
"Hhhhhh," Miridald gasped violently as she sprang awake, perspiration all over her face and body and her heartbeat drumming loudly in her ears.
She stayed like that, frozen stiff as her harrowed eyes gaped vacantly at the sooted fireplace ahead, before finally realizing the taut arms wrapped around her.
"Am here, Heart," Jarold said softly from beside her, his heavy chin resting gently on her shoulder.
Miridald turned to meet his eyes, tears threatening to spill from hers.
They locked in a side glance.
"I'll always be here," Jarold reassured before she could speak.
The dam broke. "I love you, Jarold," she wept, turning to hug him, clutching onto him tighter than a clamp did around a steel pipe.
"I know, Hon," Jarold assured softly, something vilely affectionate shimmering in his eyes. "And I love you too."
-------
Opening his eyes, Edward was stunned and almost startled by the first thing that met them:
A smiling Mdachi seated on a chair right in front of him.
He blinked harder and stared at the foot end of the bed, setting himself up on a plank by his arm.
Yep. Just as expected. Anita sat there smiling at him just as disturbingly while waving a nervous greeting.
"Oh my god, guys," Edward groaned while pinching the bridge of his nose. "You haven't done this since I lost in that writing competition that time. Rada?" He seemed exhausted, with his half-swollen eyes and dry, messy hair just proving the case.
"Well... you didn't lose in that writing competition; you only won at third place—"
"Exactly, Dachi!" Edward exclaimed dramatically, then, with an all-of-a-sudden demeanour swap, he switched back to his earlier suspicious self. "Where's Jesse?"
"Up here..." Jesse answered groggily from the upper bunker, before inevitably falling silent again — sleeping.
Edward's eyes dropped back down to Mdachi — then Anita — then flipped back up to the upper decker.
He squinted. "Isn't the guy a heavy sleeper?" He asked, looking between his friends.
"He's a pretty good listener too. Apparently," Anita added almost dryly.
With a terrified, almost theatrical voice, Mdachi whispered. "Trust me, we know." His tone turned casual. "I'm starting to think he didn't use magic, or ktsin, to eavesdrop on us the other time."
"And when was that exactly?" Jenevive questioned, stepping into the room with a tray of fare in her hands.
A steaming cup of an aromatic, herbal tea, some fresh pastries, bacon, and a side note of fruit salad.
The door remained ajar far behind as Jenevive set the tray on the nightstand close to Edward.
Edward grabbed his phone from the stand.
"So," Jenevive said, straightening up. "Who used magic to eavesdrop and when?"
Mdachi went stiff. "Me and my big mouth," he cursed inwardly with tightly pressed eyes.
Jesse groaned from the upper bunker.
Jenevive's eyes shifted to him. "Jesse?"
Jesse didn't respond. Instead, he flipped to the other side of the bed facing the wall and pulled the duvet over his head.
"Don't pull your beddings over your head at me, boy!" Jenevive scolded as she yanked the duvet down to his feet.
"Mom... just fiv-fifty more minutes, please," Jesse mumbled.
Edward checked his phone. It was 7:16 a.m.
"Fifty?... Fifty more minutes?!" Jenevive couldn't believe Jesse had just said that. "Jesse, what in the Ktsi's name did I tell you about foolhardy use of magic?"
Mdachi flipped his eyes open. "You can swear in supernatural terms?" He whispered, gazing between his friends. He turned to Anita. "You do that?"
Anita just rolled her eyes.
"Jesse, answer me!" Jenevive continued scolding as she rocked Jesse aggressively.
Finally waking up, Jesse sat disheveledly and gawked at his mother.
"Don't look at me like that, kiddo, and—"
Before Jenevive finished speaking, Jesse chanted a quick incantation that was followed by a whoom-whump sound.
The room fell silent.
Underneath the bunker, Edward and Mdachi's brows furrowed.
Anita looked blasé.
Jenevive, meanwhile, stared vacantly at the wall ahead of her.
"Kwani nini imefanyika?" Edward asked, getting up from the bed and craning his neck up to the upper bunker.
His face went pale and blank when he saw no one on it.
"Bro, rada?" Mdachi asked, nudging him by the elbow and also standing up.
His face fell when he saw it too.
"....Umm," Edward trailed off, sweeping his hand across the bed. "I don't think that's an invisibility spell. It sure as hell didn't feel like one."
"Feel like?" Mdachi grimaced from beside him.
"You can feel magic," Edward explained curtly. "At least in some sort of way."
Mdachi turned away from him with an eye roll. "Crazy week we've had," he mumbled.
"I heard that," Edward countered.
"Mom..." Anita started softly, getting up from the bed and smoothing her skirt down. "Just let him be..."
"Anita..." Jenevive cut her off, her tone at the brink of exasperation. "Just... don't now." She stared Anita in the eyes. "I'm still reeling from you disparaging me yesterday."
Anita was dumbfounded.
Edward was flabbergasted.
Mdachi... well... he just sucked his teeth in.
"What's she talking about?" Edward queried Anita. "Better question," he turned to Jenevive. "Where did Jesse just go?"
Jenevive just sighed deeply.
Anita stepped in to explain. "Jesse just teleported," she blurted out, looking anxiously between her friends.
Edward swallowed.
"That's what the sound you heard was." She gestured to the bed, her tone turning factual. "Matter of fact, if you had the right gadgets, you'd be able to tell the energy shift and current recuperating activity on this bed."
Mdachi's eyes gleamed — exponentially.
"..." Edward tried to speak — the words didn't come out. "...Teleportation is possible?" He finally managed, his voice a bitter tinge of awe. "Is flying too?"
"Is that what Jesse still did the other night?" Mdachi posed.
Everybody frowned. They didn't quite get what he meant.
"The night before yesterday? When you guys had me sweating blood about the camera before Jesse showed up — and saved my ass?"
"Oh," they recalled.
"Nope. That was invisibility," Edward answered before Anita could.
Everyone in the room stared at him.
"What, guys? I'm a warlock," he shrugged, a painful memory burning at the back of his mind — Beatrice.
"Or do you keep forgetting that?" He asked, feigning agitation.
"Edward, how's your arm?" Jenevive asked suddenly.
Edward took a gander at his left arm laying bandaged beneath the sleeve of his velvet pajamas. He hadn't really thought of it since waking up. Not at all, actually.
He looked up at Jenevive. "It's fine. Almost forgot about it, actually." He smiled wearily, a flashing, brutally agonising memory of Edric flickering in his mind.
It took almost everything to hold back the tears.
Jenevive was oblivious to it — her arms crossed. "And the migraines?" She continued questioning, concern very evident in her tone. "Have they resurfaced? Has your magic?"
Without warning, Edward turned to the nightstand beside him, stretched his hand toward it, and chanted a familiar spell:
"Oszrò nevë tata."
A glow, blue and familiar, appeared on the tray of food and Edward's hand.
A sharp breath instinctively sucked into Edward's lungs, his mind reeling, his eyes glistening.
He couldn't believe it — his magic was back! And it felt just as surreal as the first time he had managed the spell.
Everyone stared, each with a different, soothing emotion beneath the surface — until Mdachi spoke.
"Heck yeah, flying is possible! Cause what in the impossible reality is this?!" He turned to the trio, all exhilarated and hands akimbo. "I don't know if I'll ever get used to this, but I sure am loving it — the experience. At least the good one?"
Everyone frowned up.
"Forget I was talking and just continue, Edward," Mdachi waved off contritely.
Edward carried on. He rotated his hand through a straight angle before curling his index finger inward, his attention focused on the bowl of fruit salad.
It came floating to him before finally settling on his hand.
The glows vanished.
"How do you do that?" Mdachi wanted to ask, but chose not to. He would ask later — he had already exhausted his day's rambling chance.
As if reading his mind, Edward turned to him with a warm smile. "I'll explain it to you in due time. At least the parts that I understand."
Mdachi beamed, nodding vigorously.
"So," Jenevive carried on, arms still crossed. "How'd that feel?"
Edward shrugged, his lower lip pursed. "Normal in its own right. Unreal, real, grounding, and exo..." He trailed off, snapping his fingers.
"Manual?" Anita proposed.
"Yeah," Edward agreed. "Exo-manual."
"Wow," Anita couldn't help but wonder. "That pretty much—"
"Sums it up," Jenevive filled in for her.
"Wow indeed," Mdachi exclaimed with an awestruck face.
"So apart from that, there were no migraines? Or anything?"
"No Mama Anita," Edward said taking a spoonful of the salad.
He talked with food in his mouth. "They poofed."
Anita sneered at him.
Edward just rolled his eyes and took another spoonful.
"Good. Now make sure to take the tea I brought you alongside your breakfast. We'll wait for your mom and aunt to arrive before anything else. I'm glad you slept well."
"I did," Edward affirmed. "But do I need to take the tea twice?"
"You didn't like it?"
"No, it was okay. I was just asking."
"I'm just taking cautionary measures. As your mom and Anita told you: Pepo is no child's play. You're an extraordinary ktsi, Edward — just like Jesse — or maybe just a bit. Plus your memory recovery seemed pretty intense for what it's usually supposed to be."
"Now if you'll excuse me, I have some work I need to go through as I leave you to eat. It also just helps me unwind."
Edward recoiled. "Work?"
"What?" Jenevive raised a brow with a smug smile. "As if driving to your aunt Renee is different."
"Well, okay," Edward admitted.
"But, Mrs. Atieno?" He prompted.
Jenevive spun back to him. "Yes, Edward?"
"How's the investigation coming along?" There was something in the way he asked it.
Jenevive just smiled. "Most things have already been uncovered by you guys and your aunt and mother. But trust me — I know what I'm doing, and it'll come in handy."
Edward gave a small, satisfied grin.
"Plus, with your memories recovered, it easens the exercise. I just don't want to question you at the moment."
"Just don't let the bureau in? Anita said they aren't to be trusted — and they give me the ick."
Mdachi made a face. He knew exactly why Edward had said that, yet they hadn't told anyone they had gone to Hallington's neighbourhood and talked to his neighbour. At least he hadn't.
Jenevive spared Anita a glance before looking back at Edward. "I won't let them cause trouble." She gave a brittle smile.
With that, Jenevive strode out of the room and closed the door behind her.
Edward turned to Mdachi, taking another spoon of his salad. "So," he said, examining his spectacles, his mouth busy. "These are new specs?"
Anita pinched her nose-bridge. She could feel her nerves grating.
"Yeah. Told you I'll replace them."
Edward smiled, something bitter underneath it.
He spun to Anita suddenly, shoving another spoonful of the cubed fruits into his mouth. "And you, Nitsy—"
"Don't talk to me with food in your mouth," Anita interjected with a raised hand, her tone dangerously stern.
Edward exhaled exhaustedly.
Whoom-whump!
Jesse appeared smack-dab in the room, a long, thick, fluffy blanket draped around him.
Mdachi flinched.
"Don't mind me," Jesse said drowsily, walking toward the bed. "My bed just wasn't warm enough."
He reached the bed and chanted the levitation spell.
Grey sparkles appeared all around him as he slowly ascended from the ground, rose to the top bunker, and lay on it — the blanket still around him and settling gracefully onto the bed with him.
The sparkles disappeared. Jesse fell silent, his side rising and falling in a gentle rhythm.
"Show off," Mdachi muttered, almost indignant.
"So," Anita spun to Edward, completely unbothered by Jesse's spectacle. "What's that you wanted to say?"
Edward blinked out of his daze and turned to her. "What was that about your mom saying you disrespected her?"
Anita rubbed her temples and sighed. "Sit down."
Edward went to the couch in the room and sat down — bowl still in his hand.
Mdachi followed and sat beside him. His face had a sombre look on it.
"So," Anita began, settling herself beside Edward. "Let's begin from when we left you at the estate's gate..."
-----------
Diani Towers...
"Where do you think you're going, Edric?!" A tall, ebony-skinned girl with sharp features and kinky hair hollered as she chased after Edric.
Edric bounded down the stairs faster, finishing up with the last button on his shirt — leaving three of the topmost undone.
"Don't even think of stopping me, Suma," he said, reaching the landing, looking as classy as ever with his orange tartaned shirt, black jeans, brown Timberlands, and silver accessories.
Suma huffed as she hastened after him.
"And why wouldn't I, Edric?" She asked, stepping in front of him, her presence imposing. "You almost died last time!"
Edric gave her a look.
"Or at least it seemed that way," Suma corrected herself.
Edric gave an eye-roll, sighing.
"Aren't you worried about your brother? About how he's doing, thinking you might have died?" Suma challenged, voice all raspy.
Edric raised an eyebrow. "Suma, I appreciate everything you've been doing for me so far, but you don't need to get all sentimental on my family affairs." He turned his back to her, walking toward the foyer. "Besides, Edward has his friends alongside our mother and aunt to take care of him. He'll be fine. At least as I plan on the family reunion."
"Edric," Suma called out worriedly.
Edric stopped in front of the foyer and sighed. It took him a minute before he turned back to Suma, eyes sparkling with sincerity.
"You know I'm doing this for them, right?"
Suma inhaled deeply, relaxing her shoulders. "I know, Edric. But do you know exactly what you're doing?"
Before Edric could answer that question, he heard someone at the door, trying to unlock it.
He flipped to it, his body going stiff, his eyes sharpening with alarm.
Suma rushed beside him.
"What's wrong?" Her voice carried panic.
"Neither my chauffeur nor the guards my father assigned to me can just come barging into this place like this. Nor do they have the key to do so."
He poised himself — ready.
Suma's eyes widened. "You think—"
"I can only hope not," Edric cut her short, his voice a sharp rumble now. He turned to look at her. "Cause if so; I'll be so screwed, and my cover so blown."
He turned back to the door, the fidgeting now ceased. It was unlocked.
Suma gathered herself from beside him, readying herself with a spell. The atmosphere around her shifted.
The door clicked open before swinging wide.
Edric's guard dropped.
Suma pouted in bafflement.
Mimi — all heavily dressed up — looked up to see the duo standing awkwardly at the far end of the foyer.
She had her luggage crowding around her.
"Umm..." she frowned, her gaze shifting between the two.
"Mimi, it's not what you think," Edric tried to explain as he rushed toward her, leaving a befuddled Suma behind him.
"Hmm," Mimi hummed.
Edric reached her and gave her a warm embrace. She hugged him back, standing a bit shorter than he did.
He pulled back, examining her. "What's with the overdressing?"
Mimi frowned. "I didn't know it won't be cold in Ngong. It's been a while tangu nikuwe home," she said smiling, her British accent weak.
Edric led her in and helped her with her luggage.
"So," he began, closing the door, "why didn't you have people help you out with your impedimenta?"
They filled up the entire foyer space. Edric hustled to get through.
"You know me," Mimi shrugged, walking toward Suma, her eyes scrutinising her.
Edric shrugged too. "Yeah," he said, getting to the end of the foyer. "You like not to 'bother' people."
Mimi smiled back at him before flipping back to Suma.
Suma felt uncomfortable.
"And who's your beautiful friend over here, Edric?" Mimi inquired, tone unwelcomingly sharp.
Edric rushed to beside his friend instantly. He fidgeted. "Mimi... I'd like you to meet Suma. She's a friend of mine. I met her briefly after arriving in Kenya."
Mimi said nothing, her lips pressed into a line.
"And, Suma," Edric turned to his friend. "This is my one and only, super amazing, loving, slightly stern; Nanny!"
Mimi rolled her eyes, smiling.
Edric smiled too.
Suma felt less uncomfortable. But before she could reach out to greet Mimi, Mimi had her hand in front of her.
Suma took it, seeming a bit awkward. "Forgive my insolence, child," Mimi apologised. "It's just that my Edric here can tend to be... mischievous. If you know what I mean."
"I do," Mimi admitted, giving Edric a once-over, smiling. "It'll be hard not to."
Edric's face went blank.
"Child," Mimi said, pulling from the handshake. "Are you... a witch?"
Suma's eyes went wide, then relaxed. "Wow!" She said before Edric could step in. "You really are perceptive. You precede your reputation."
"My pleasure, child," Mimi answered warmly.
"So," Edric said, clapping his hands together. "Why isn't popsy with you?"
"He said he'll be coming on Tuesday," Mimi replied walking over to the sofa.
"Valentines?!"
"Yeah," she said sitting down, peeling off the jacket from her. "Was supposed to be a surprise but I guess I already spoilt it. Oops."
She sat more comfortably with the jacket off.
Edric joined her on the sofa, Suma sitting on one beside them.
"Well, ouch then. Tell me how the kids are doing."
Mimi gave him a skeptical look. "Where were you heading to, Edric?"
"No where," Edric answered almost immediately.
"Hmm..." Mimi's eyes narrowed.
"Seriously, Mimi."
"Okay," Mimi said looking away.
Suma felt uncomfortable again.
"Have you guys had breakfast?" Mimi asked suddenly.
"No," Edric answered before Suma could.
She gave him a subtle look.
"Want to whip up some for us?" Edric proposed.
"I was hoping you'd offer but okay."
She sprang up immediately. "Kenyan special?"
"Delightful," Edric replied enthusiastically.
"BRB." Mimi shuffled to the kitchen.
Suma turned to Edric. "Excuse you?!"
Edric gestured for her to calm down.
She glared at him for a while before finally doing so.
"I'm going to the kitchen to help her," Suma announced, standing up.
Edric watched her.
"Not that I'm hungry," she hissed, striding off.
Edric fell back on the couch and ran his hands down his face.
"Shit."