glacial_queen | Room 218, Friday Night

But was she ready for a phone call? Because Jaime had spent a fruitless week not learning anything, and the helplessness was getting pretty overwhelming.

So he was calling Fandom, hoping to offer something of some use to someone, even if it was just a place to hide people. And Karla was the only person in his list that he could still get his phone to connect to.

Mother Night, not another phone call.

Look, after Karla's week, it only made sense she was developing a kind of phone-phobia. She was starting to think that this was her punishment for all the 'Hi, I'm off to do something dangerous!' messages she'd ever left.

Still, she picked up. These days, you couldn't not.

"Jaime?"

She answered the phone.

Which made Jaime's throat tighten at the reminder of the people who hadn't.

"Karla." Oh, hello there, obvious tone of relief. Could you be any more obvious?

"I'm here," Karla said quietly. "Fandom's still okay. How're you? Can you get here? Tomorrow is the last day for portals, but there's a branch on the island now and we might be able to work something out..."

Please don't make her lose another friend, Jaime. She's kind of at her limit.

"I'm fine," Jaime answered. "Everything's fine here." He knew, at least, what he'd want to know first in her place.

"That's..." He had to pause to swallow. "That's why I wanted to call."

Another swallow. "To see if people needed a place to go." To stay. To hide.

"Momoko was going to--" send her sister, he'd intended to say. But Jaime really should have known he couldn't have begun any sentence with her name with any hope of finishing it.

There went the question of whether or not Jaime knew about Momoko. Karla felt awful about the relief that went through her at that. Telling Jaime about that would have crushed her. And him.

"I...I don't know if people can get portals still," Karla said. "Maybe? I think they're stopping all the portals tomorrow at 7pm. But I can get the word out? You think your world will stay safe?"

"Nothing's happened here at all," Jaime said after a couple of deep breaths. "So if anyone wants to get off the island, just... send them through. There's plenty of space."

Another deep breath.

"Is... everything okay? On the island, I mean?" Besides plenty of other people feeling like he did.

"I'll get that out," Karla promised. "I don't know how many people will take me up on it or how many portals will work, but...it's a good idea to get people away if they want it."

She idly wondered if she could convince some of her friends to go. Somehow, it didn't seem likely.

"Everything's okay so far," she added a beat later when she remembered that Jaime'd asked. Sorry, Jaime, Karla's brain was working on a hundred other things. "Nothing's vanishing here. It's just...everywhere else."

"Yeah." Jaime remembered.

But at least Fandom was safe. "Does anyone have any ideas about..." Well, things?

Jaime's own research had turned up precisely nothing useful.

"Not a clue," Karla said. "Momo--" She stopped, took a deep breath, and continued. "Momoko gave me some insight on things that won't work against it, but so far, all we have are things that it isn't. I guess if we keep doing that, maybe we'll find out what it is, but..."

Hardly the most efficient use of their time.

"Well, I've got a list of that, too," Jaime said quickly, hoping that the rush would keep him from thinking about Momoko.

It kind of worked?

"Do you--can I ask--I didn't think she was leaving--" How to ask this without saying Momoko's name? "What was she going to do? With your home, I mean?"

He'd started to say, then stopped, and who knows? Maybe it would be something useful to know?

"She..."

Jaime trailed off, spending a couple of seconds in silence while he tried to work around the massive lump in his throat.

He didn't trust himself to speak. Not more than a few words. So then he took a moment to figure out how to convey it in the fewest words possible.

"Her sister."

"Oh." Karla kind of hiccuped on the line--an unwanted sob, trying to make its way out. "I--I shouldn't have asked."

Especially since Jaime said Momoko 'was going to.' Which meant she hadn't. Which meant....ow.

"Are you--?"

This was a very eloquent conversation, yes.

Jaime shrugged miserably.

It didn't even occur to him that the gesture didn't transmit through the phone.

"I'm managing."

But managing to what wasn't something that even Jaime really knew.

Karla could accept that answer. She wasn't sure what she was managing to do, either. Keep it mostly together, maybe?

"And--and you know about Dinah?"

Aren't you glad you called, Jaime? Hugs and rainbows for everyone!

Yes. This had been the best idea ever. Clearly.

"I... tried... calling her."

So, yeah. He knew.

Karla bit her lower lip and scrubbed at her face. "I--I'm sorry. I should have called you. But there were--I kept having to add names to the board--and trying to research--"

She had a thousand excuses why she hadn't called. But they didn't matter. She'd owed him that phone call and she'd failed.

"I'm sorry, Jaime."

"It's okay," Jaime said quickly. It wasn't, of course, but that wasn't Karla's fault. "You have enough on your plate." That, at least, was true.

"And I'm fine."

Wow. Jaime had never been very good at lying. Clearly that hadn't changed.

Karla gave her phone a dubious look. "You don't normally try to lie to people, do you? Because, no offense, but you suck at it."

Jaime sounded about as fine as, well, anyone else who'd just lost a bunch of people he cared about in ways he couldn't do anything about.

"Fine-ish?" Jaime tried again, this time not trying to sound convincing, really. Just... truthful.

"At least my family and friends are all okay."

Karla winced at that. Not all of them, Jaime. Not all. "It's something," she agreed. "And you're sure there's nothing happening in your galaxy? From all reports, it started off really tiny and then bloss-- spiraled from there."

Blossom had been Momoko's code name. Ouch.

Even with Karla catching herself, Jaime's mind finished the phrase for her, and he hissed softly.

"Nothing detectable," he answered, choosing that rather than focusing on the loss. "The Scarab is really sensitive, and he tells me that there isn't even..." Jaime shook his head. "It's kind of complicated and involves microwave background radiation, but it boils down to no detectable problems."

Karla bit back a worried 'Are you sure?' She knew that Barbara's computers hadn't been registering anything amiss all that time, either. But the Scarab was more than a computer, so maybe...

Maybe Karla just had to trust that Jaime was right.

She nodded, even though he couldn't see it. "I'll let people know, okay? Maybe send out an email or something? Should they prepare for a stay? Or to kind of...settle down?"

There was a moment of silence. "That's up to them," Jaime eventually answered. "If they need a permanent place, we can find one." He wasn't sure how confident people were of being able to solve this one...

Karla was growing less confident every day. With every new picture on the board and every phone call she had to take from someone else saying goodbye.

"I'll let people know," she said again. "And see what they decide to do."

Maybe send money along with them, so if they needed funds they'd have it without straining the Reyes' family savings too badly. "I really appreciate the offer. On everyone's behalf."

"Thanks for passing it on," Jaime said, voice sincere. "I... well, it's nice to feel like I've done something useful."

Morton was missing his cousin. And since he had no more pressing matters to spend his time on, he decided to give Karla a call.

"Karla!" he said as soon as she answered. "I love Emma for giving me this thing." And Warren for teaching them all how phones actually worked, but, while Morton was feeling A-OK today, that still didn't lead to him doing more than grudgingly admitting Karla's feathered boyfriend was more than 'acceptable.' "How're you? How's your crazy school? And your even crazier friends?"

Not that Cassidy was one of Karla's crazy friends. But Morton wasn't going to ask about her outright. Not at first.

Karla was...staring at her phone in shock, just a bit. When her phone had flashed Morton she'd answered, expecting the worst. Not this cheerful, lighthearted greeting, the one that sounded like nothing was wrong...

Even if parts of Kaeleer weren't being stripped away and vanishing, Morton still shouldn't sound this...happy. There were Black Widows to smuggle and a secret army to raise and Julian to deal with and Hobart sitting like a smug vulture over everything...

"Morton?" she asked, concerned. "Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Morton asked with a laugh. "And you call me fussy! I call to check up on you and you act like it's some kind of harbinger of doom!"

"Morton," Karla hissed. "Is someone listening to you? Is this your way to warn me? Hobart? Did he find you guys? Haven? Mention Emma again if you need help."

"Karla, no, seriously, what is your problem?" Now Morton was giving his phone concerned glances. "Is this some kind of weird female joke? Who's Hobart and why would I be hiding from him? What's Haven? Are you okay? Did something happen?"

"Who's Hob--" Karla paused, realizing what must have happened. Hobart had vanished, which meant Morton had no reason to fear for his safety or hers. Hobart's disappearance was a symptom of something even worse but he had no way of knowing that, either.

"I'm okay," she said with a fake trill of a laugh. "Just teasing. You know, like you said. Where are you now? Is Julian with you?"

"Yeah, he's here," Morton said, easing back a little. Silly Karla, always teasing. "We're in Sidra, of course. Where else would be be? One of the outlying farms?"

"I don't know," Karla said waspishly. "In the forest. In the mountains. In Arceria, watching over the Black Widows. I can't imagine why I didn't know instinctively you weren't in Sidra."

Morton sighed and rolled his eyes. "Karla, if you're going to keep playing stupid games, can you at least tell me the rules? Or is this something like cradle, where me knowing the rules somehow invalidates the game?"

Yeah. Morton held cradle in the same high regard as the rest of the boyos.

"Mountains? Forests? Arceria?"

Arceria was gone.

Karla had to sit down for that. It meant that all the Black Widows she'd tried to usher into safety were gone, too. Haven was gone. All the Arcerian cats were gone. Kaelas was likely gone, too, since he'd been staying there to help sort out any differences between the humans and the kindred.

Gone. All of them. Gone. And now, had never been.

She had to clear her throat before she could continue. "B-before I tell you the rules, you have to answer me a question. Name all the Territories in Kaeleer."

Morton heaved a great sigh, trying to remember exactly why he'd missed his cousin. "Would my lady like them in alphabetical order or simply in order of the date of their founding?" And then quickly before Karla could answer, he rattled off, "Glacia, Dhemlan, Paw Islands, Nharkhava, and Centauran."

He was a little surprised by Karla's whispered, "Is that all?"

What did she mean, was that all? Of course that was--oh. "Sorry, right. And the forests of the Dea al Mon."

Heh. Gabrielle might have killed him for that.

...Chaosti who?

Katrine, the tiny, pixie-winged female. Kalush, petite and lush and quiet, but with a wicked sense of humor. Astar, the centaur female who could make anything grow. Sceron, who'd been willing to challenge Saetan over Jaenelle when they'd first met. Gabrielle and Chaosti, tall and silver-haired, moving with an almost inhuman grace.

And Jaenelle, of course. Thank the Darkness for Jaenelle. But they were all that was left of the boyos and the coven who had descended on poor, unwitting, Uncle Saetan that first summer. And Karla and Morton, of course.

No Khary. No Morghann. No Aaron. No Sabrina or Zylona or Jonah. No Grezande or Elan. No kindred. No unicorns or Arcerian cats or Sceltie dogs. Ladvarian might still have existed, but odds were Kaetien was gone, too. Lady Ash of the wolves had vanished at least two weeks ago--and there was no guarantee that all of the people Karla was counting as survivors really were.

Karla put her fist in her mouth and bit down hard. No reason to worry Morton even more.

Yeah, well, Karla's not-talking was worrying Morton just as much as her talking. "This is getting really weird, Karla," Morton warned. "Are you in some kind of danger? Is this whole weird call just you trying to warn me that something's not right? Bring up Emma again if you need help."

"What? No!" Startled out of her reverie, Karla could almost laugh. "No, I'm safe. I'm just kind of...pensive tonight. I had a call with a good friend who'd lost someone--close to him." Those were both true enough in their own way.

"I'm sorry if I seem weird. I'm just kind of...following my own thoughts tonight."

"Aww, Karla, I'm sorry," Morton said. "...It wasn't because of something dangerous on the island, was it? Because, Karla, you promised. I do not want to have to relive that conversation between Lady Raven and that Jack fellow more than once."

Jack?

Karla's heart broke again as she realized that Morton no longer remembered Dinah. Or Tahiri. Probably not Kennedy, anymore, too. Maybe not Bobby, either. In its own way, this hurt even more than losing them had. Because Morton had no idea anything was amiss. He didn't even remember enough to know what he had lost.

"No, no, nothing is wrong on the island," she said, forcing herself to smile. It wasn't actually a lie, even. "We're all safe and just fine here."

For now.

Room 218, Friday Night

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