Dust and ash sounds like it must be house-cleaning day for you. I'm assuming that it's too early for any forest fires at least!
Dust and ash “How?” Adams looked pale and her voice wasn’t quite its usual strident tone. Collins looked at her, wondering for a moment if she was afraid of something, but she glared back at him as fiercely as ever so he gave her a half-smile and went back to looking at the ghosts in the distance. “Wriggle on our stomachs through the grass?” She sounded oddly hopeful. “I doubt you’ve had any training in moving to minimise the chances of detection,” said Ethel cheerfully. “Now, if you’d ever met my grandmother you’d be an expert at it, but she was a rare old bird. Thankfully.” Collins smothered a snort of laughter, and then jumped as the Inspectral walked over to him and laid a hand on his bracelet. For a moment there was a sensation of weight, and then coldness seemed to pour out of the bracelet and over his skin. “Activated peridot,” said the Inspectral. “You bought it when you went to investigate the beach, if I remember right?” The memory of the occult shop and the smells of the essential oils came back in a flash; Collins nodded, not knowing quite what to say. The Inspectral had sounded half approving at the time when he saw it, so what had changed now. “Aha!” Ethel sounded like he’d discovered a pot of gold at the rainbow’s end. “Perfect Harold! We can just reverse the polarity, as they like to say in those science fiction shows. Hold your wrist out, son, there’s a good boy. This is one of the easiest little rituals there is, your grandmother could do it if she tried. At least,” and he hesitated a moment, “mine did. And did.” He patted his pockets, starting with his breast and inside pockets and moving down, until he patted his knees and then revealed a hidden zip there, from which he pulled a small plastic burgundy pot that looked like it might contain cherry lip balm. “Dust and ash,” he said. “Very very useful in our line of work; it draws lines when the ash is taken from the right place.” “And at the right time,” said the Inspectral. “Don’t start, Harold.” It was the most serious Collins had heard Ethel sound, and even Timothy pricked up his ears. “Right, we need a sprinkle of this, and you need to hold your arm out like this….” Ethel’s clear instructions were easy to follow, and in less than forty-five seconds the world around them had gone slightly fuzzy as though mist were just starting to creep in. “It doesn’t work on the Garmr,” said the Inspectral. “But that’s fine, he’ll make a good distraction to help us sneak past. This isn’t invisibility exactly, it’s more than an insistance that ghosts pay no attention. Tell Timothy to go and play with the soldier ghosts, please, Collins.”
Greg - no, no fires yet, thankfully. That... would be an unpleasant addition to things. They've actually banned all burning for the moment, to avoid making the air quality worse for people. Orchardists aren't particularly pleased, as they tend to burn this time of year to get rid of trees they've pulled out, but then again I don't think most anyone is pleased about most anything right now.
Nice call back to the bracelet. And I honestly can't wait to read about Timothy distracting the ghosts.
2 comments:
Dust and ash sounds like it must be house-cleaning day for you. I'm assuming that it's too early for any forest fires at least!
Dust and ash
“How?” Adams looked pale and her voice wasn’t quite its usual strident tone. Collins looked at her, wondering for a moment if she was afraid of something, but she glared back at him as fiercely as ever so he gave her a half-smile and went back to looking at the ghosts in the distance. “Wriggle on our stomachs through the grass?” She sounded oddly hopeful.
“I doubt you’ve had any training in moving to minimise the chances of detection,” said Ethel cheerfully. “Now, if you’d ever met my grandmother you’d be an expert at it, but she was a rare old bird. Thankfully.”
Collins smothered a snort of laughter, and then jumped as the Inspectral walked over to him and laid a hand on his bracelet. For a moment there was a sensation of weight, and then coldness seemed to pour out of the bracelet and over his skin.
“Activated peridot,” said the Inspectral. “You bought it when you went to investigate the beach, if I remember right?”
The memory of the occult shop and the smells of the essential oils came back in a flash; Collins nodded, not knowing quite what to say. The Inspectral had sounded half approving at the time when he saw it, so what had changed now.
“Aha!” Ethel sounded like he’d discovered a pot of gold at the rainbow’s end. “Perfect Harold! We can just reverse the polarity, as they like to say in those science fiction shows. Hold your wrist out, son, there’s a good boy. This is one of the easiest little rituals there is, your grandmother could do it if she tried. At least,” and he hesitated a moment, “mine did. And did.” He patted his pockets, starting with his breast and inside pockets and moving down, until he patted his knees and then revealed a hidden zip there, from which he pulled a small plastic burgundy pot that looked like it might contain cherry lip balm. “Dust and ash,” he said. “Very very useful in our line of work; it draws lines when the ash is taken from the right place.”
“And at the right time,” said the Inspectral.
“Don’t start, Harold.” It was the most serious Collins had heard Ethel sound, and even Timothy pricked up his ears. “Right, we need a sprinkle of this, and you need to hold your arm out like this….” Ethel’s clear instructions were easy to follow, and in less than forty-five seconds the world around them had gone slightly fuzzy as though mist were just starting to creep in.
“It doesn’t work on the Garmr,” said the Inspectral. “But that’s fine, he’ll make a good distraction to help us sneak past. This isn’t invisibility exactly, it’s more than an insistance that ghosts pay no attention. Tell Timothy to go and play with the soldier ghosts, please, Collins.”
Greg - no, no fires yet, thankfully. That... would be an unpleasant addition to things. They've actually banned all burning for the moment, to avoid making the air quality worse for people. Orchardists aren't particularly pleased, as they tend to burn this time of year to get rid of trees they've pulled out, but then again I don't think most anyone is pleased about most anything right now.
Nice call back to the bracelet. And I honestly can't wait to read about Timothy distracting the ghosts.
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