The next morning they returned to the base, reappearing in a mass of shadows in their bathroom. Anryien shifted and Jack slowly began to rise to the surface. The shadows that clung to him dispersed into a dark mist and he braced himself on the bathroom door.
Luna wrapped a hand over his arm as if to help but he shrugged it off with a wry smile.
“I just need a minute.” He said and she nodded, stripping herself of the jewellery she wore as he gained his bearings.
After a minute he relaxed and rolled his shoulders, the tension leaving him.
Shifting was uncomfortable to say the least and he was glad that the god had clearly taken on the painful part, leaving Jack with only a bit of discomfort.
He opened the bathroom door and they slid out, the early morning light flickering through the trees outside the window to fall over the bed. Luna stripped and walked to the closet, pulling out a ruby colored dress.
“You take the shower, I have to check in.” He drawled and she nodded, pecking him on the cheek as she slid back into the bathroom.
He sighed and changed into his uniform, his clothes rumpled from the shift.
Anryien was silent for the most part it would seem, though he could sense him hanging onto his mind like a koala.
The shower flicked on as he left the room and made his way through the halls, the others who lived in the main building already at work in the base. He released a sigh and rolled his neck, the slight cracking helping to relieve the tension that was already coming back in his shoulders.
“Williams, the General wanted to see you.” Dayton called out when he spotted him coming out of the main building.
Charles Dayton was a middle aged man who had been working with them all for as long as Jack and Henry had been there. He had been trained beside the two of them, but the older man kept to himself for the most part, making very few friends despite being one of the most amicable people Jack had ever met.
Jack grinned and nodded and the greying man waved him off.
A few minutes later he found himself back in the main building, the General having redirected their meeting to his office and not the usual tent.
The General sat and threw his legs up on the desk, lighting a cigar with one hand before taking a puff.
They were silent for a time, Jack finding himself much more at ease with the man than he had ever been before.
The older man’s keen grey eyes narrowed on him after a moment.
“Williams,” He began, his voice relaxed and casual, but Jack could sense another shoe about to drop.
“I am not going to ask where you and the girl have been, or why neither of you were caught leaving the base by the other men or hell, even the cameras. Or why when I sent McBride, he could not find you in your room. I don’t frankly give a flying fuck if you are off galavanting with the girl- but my higher ups do and it has been noted.
“You are not to leave the base again within the next month but for your missions. Lucky for you, you have one on the twenty-ninth. I will not put my career on the line- and certainly not what I’ve worked so hard for- for you to go off and make hanky panky with the girl. I might not care, but I will care if I have to have this conversation again. And I assure you, you will not be in for a good time then. Am I clear?”
Jack nodded with what he hoped was a fair expression on his face.
Anryien was grumbling in his head like an angry teen and Jack couldn’t help but feel like laughing at it all.
The General sent him out with a wave of the cigar and he left, off to find Henry- his friend was good with knives of all sort and he could figure that it was time to brush up on the supposed skills he had been gifted with.
Their next mission was to retrieve a missing painting that had been stolen from an art collector in Ireland.
Oddly enough, the painting had been tracked to an antiques dealer not even thirty miles from the collector’s home, and it was now in the hands of an old woman named Neve Conway.
This time is was just Jack and Luna who made the mission and they didn’t expect it to turn sour, but the higher ups thought that Sverila could steal it overnight.
Jack and Luna had changed the plan since Sverila wasn’t exactly responding at the moment. First they would look through the shop and express interest in several items until Anryien could lead them to the painting which was supposedly kept in plain sight. Then the god would scan the old woman for answers and then they would come back during the night to grab it and wipe the woman’s memories.
Seemed like a solid plan, or at least that was what Jack thought.
It did not go as expected.
The shop was overcrowded with hoarded items and both the god and his host grumbled their way through the packed stacks, taking the lead and making sure to catch anything that fell from the high shelves before it could crush their heads.
Luna laughed at Jack’s grumbles and he smiled when he caught her grin.
It took them a while, but they eventually found the checkout counter, which was covered in several layers of dust, a few spider webs dangling from the register and back shelves.
“I really hope the owner isn’t dead back there.” Jack muttered and Luna muffled her laughter behind a hand as she tugged her jacket close around her.
“Never fear, my dear. I may not look it, but I am most certainly alive!”
They turned around the see an old woman marching her way down the aisles, looking incredibly spry for someone so aged.577Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMCrDN9nH9Z
Her hair was near white and her face was filled with deep-set wrinkles, giving her the looks of a wizened crone. She sent Luna a grin, her crinkled eyes warm as she proceeded to smack Jack with her unneeded cane.
“Hey!”
He rubbed his hand with a pout and she released a cackle.
“No hanky-panky in my shop, boy! I saw where that hand was going!”
Luna giggled at his expense and the elderly woman popped behind the counter, waving them into a back room.
“Come in, I have been expecting you!”577Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMfdpCwIgWZ
“You have?” Luna tensed slightly and the woman grinned.
“I have the Sight you see, I saw you coming a decade ago. And lucky for you, I have just what you need!”
Jack had positioned himself slightly in front of Luna and she wrapped her hand around his elbow to get him to relax.
I cannot read her.
Great.
Jack didn’t think the woman would attack, but he regretted leaving his recently acquired training blades in the car.
He and Luna had a few days for the trip and he had wanted to see if she had any physical gifts as well. Luna had agreed and they had found her a couple of kni-
Daggers.
Whatever.
-To test out with. The god had recommended them seeing as how his sister typically fought with a pair of her own if she couldn’t rely on her magic.
The woman introduced herself using the same name they had been given and told them to sit on a relatively tidy bench as she pulled a cloth wrapped painting out from behind a shelf.
“That’s it.” Luna breathed.
“How do you know?” Jack asked as the god affirmed her statement.
“I-I don’t know. I can feel it- it… has a will of its own. It doesn’t like me.”577Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAF8yoVmVRR
The old woman chuckled as she placed it atop an easel.
“Quit your whisperings, you two. I have ears like an wolf.”
Luna went silent and stared at the covered painting, worrying her lower lip beneath her teeth and making it swell.
It’s like she is a reflection of my power.
Who?
The old woman. I do not think she is human.
Jack had tensed and wrapped his hand into Luna’s. Her hold was soft in return, distracted.
“She’s awakening.” Luna murmured and he didn’t have to ask who.
Sverila, no doubt.
The woman appeared next to Luna in a heartbeat and grabbed her right hand, staring at it as she prodded it with both of her own. Luna barely looked away from the covered painting though.
The woman released her hand, gaining Luna’s attention.
“You’re pregnant. Congrats, dear.”
Jack stilled but forced himself to relax, in his head he worried over the future, his hand gripping Luna’s tighter as he fretted over all the possibilities.
His vision- in his vision she had given birth to twins.
She hadn’t been sick- he didn’t even suspect anything was going on. He didn’t have to ask Luna to know she didn’t either. He had known that she didn’t really get a menstrual cycle since they had lived together for so long, so they didn’t have that to go by.
He glanced at Luna to see her eyes slightly glazed over as her hand fell to lay in her lap.
“What’s wrong?”
“She’s just in shock, boy. That and the Glass has that effect of some people. Here, take the glass out to the car and I’ll get her something to drink.”
He begrudgingly released her to the woman and carted the painting out the shop to the trunk of a car they had taken.
It was not as heavy as he had believed it would be as he gripped the thick wooden frame, the ornate carvings cutting into his hands.
He carefully popped the trunk and tucked it in inside, though something stopped him from closing the trunk.
His attention was drawn to the black silk covering the actual painting and as if his hand had a mind of its own he flipped the silk off and released a choked gasp.
It wasn’t a painting- but a mirror. What had the woman called it in there? Glass?
It’s the Diviner’s Glass.
What does it do?
It is supposed to show the viewer a brief look into the future. What do you see?
Nothing.
He wasn’t lying. It was just a simple mirror, only with an ornate silver gilded frame.
He couldn’t deny it though- something was off about it. Something about its surface- or maybe below the surface- called to him- no, resonated with him.
He stared at the Glass and time seemed to slow to a crawl- and then to a sudden stop.
He blinked once and something seemed to change in his reflection- something he could not name, could not properly see. He blinked twice and his focus became achingly singular and felt little as he began to slip down a rabbit hole of sorts.
With the third blink he collapsed and began to slip away to the back of his mind as a vision came into alarming focus.
Bitter cold, he can barely breathe, his chest aches painfully and he knows he is not the one in control.He can barely see past the receding ice. He blinks and finds himself lying in a metal tube, the cold a different type of cutting. Each breath draws a shudder and he cannot bring himself to speak. He cannot think- where is he? Who is he? He can hear a man’s voice calling in his mind and he willingly slips to the back of their shared mind...
Jack slammed awake and nearly slammed heads with Thomas as he rushed to sit up.
His breathing was sharp and thick, desperate. How did he get here?
He calmed as he felt a familiar hand rub his back.
Luna. He was with Luna. Ireland. Old woman. Painting-Glass thing. Vision.
Fuck.
It took a few minutes but he relaxed and looked up to see a worried Luna sitting at his side, her eyes weighed down by slight bags.
Jack widened and blinked his eyes several times to wake himself up a bit more.
The infirmary is quiet for once, most of the others asleep.
It’s night, but only an hour from dawn.
Luna’s voice was soft to not wake anyone else in the infirmary as she fills him in on what happened on the mission.
On how she had found him outside. The god had awakened briefly to slide into the passenger seat of the car, but she had driven several hours to make it to the transport in England where they had checked him over before sending them back to their base.
They had taken the mirror when they had gotten back and Luna had gotten the Charlestons to cart him to the infirmary as she reported back to the General.
The man had been suspicious about it all, she told him as dawn approached.
She had never reported directly to him before and he heard from Henry in the morning that the General thought Sverila had disabled him. Luna had been asleep then in the back while he and Henry had spoken quietly about what they thought he would do.
Would he try and separate them now?
It seemed likely.
Henry promised to tell him what was going on when he figured it out.
Henry worked higher up than he did- they told him things that Jack was kept unaware of.577Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLaLQk4ZQ4a
That had been on purpose- they had wanted someone who wouldn’t be able to give Sverila information easily. No, he would have had to search it out to get answers to any question. It left Luna and Jack relatively isolated from the classified information and even his friendship with Henry would not get him to reveal any information to Jack.
Jack made sure to keep quiet about what had happened even before the god had commanded him to- neither of them were sure whether the vision was a result of the mirror of not, but they couldn’t risk letting anyone know beside Luna about the visions.
Henry eventually left and soon enough he was left without cognizant company.
“Me? Not cogny? Williams, I am offended!” Morgan chortled and the other men laughed as Beatrice began her shift, Luna in the back.
Jack chuckled at the other soldier’s words and fell back against the cot, already longing for when he would be deemed healthy and able to leave the barely heated infirmary.
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