Episode 35: Dualbloods and Dampeners

Aubrey Lance, S.S. (Supernatural Sleuth) -- Season 1, Episode 35: Dualbloods & Dampeners

“Who is their?” my dad asked Mr. Pierce. “Are you being hunted?” 

I perked up at that question, because if Mr. Pierce was being hunted, what if it was the same people who were after Emery and me, and who had taken Chloe? What if he knew who they were, or even better, how to find them? 

But Mr. Pierce shook his head. “Not directly… not like some.” He met my dad’s eyes. “I am so very sorry about Emery. I hadn’t realized, at first, that there were others around me that the dampener was preventing him from sensing. I’m normally quite attuned to other magic around me, but with my own gifts dampened, my ability to notice others’ is impaired. It took me far too long to notice Emery’s.”  

My dad’s eyes widened. “What do you know about what happened to Emery?” 

“Nothing beyond the obvious,” Mr. Pierce answered, looking a little surprised. “Just that she had a powerful gift of some kind… and that she… well, forgive me… that she drowned.” His eyes narrowed. “Is there more?” 

I flicked my gaze to my father, wondering how much he would share with Mr. Pierce, but he opted for a non-answer. 

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” he muttered. “Perhaps.” 

Mr. Pierce’s expression saddened. “If that’s so, I am truly very sorry.” He looked completely sincere.

My dad drew a shaky breath. “Thank you.” 

“If I’d realized sooner the gift she was hiding,” Mr. Pierce said softly, “I may have been able to coach her on wielding it… or how to conceal it from detection if she wished.” He looked at the hourglass. “Although, if she led you here for this, then perhaps she already knew that part.” 

I glanced down at it. “Yes. I guess she must have.” 

Mr. Pierce looked down at his feet for a long moment, then he looked back up at me. “I saw your sister in the library often. She seemed a sweet soul, and an excellent student. I’d hoped to have her co-host the show with you when she suggested the idea, but she was quite insistent it be your show. She believed in you deeply.” 

Hot tears pressed into my eyes. 

Dad moved quickly to me and wrapped me into a hug that smelled so very him. 

We stood like that for a long moment, then I drew a breath and held the lockbox and hourglass out to Mr. Pierce. “Here. It’s yours. I’m sorry for messing with it.” 

Dad and Collin didn’t try to stop me—-they both seemed to believe his story, or at least they trusted my judgment, and I believed him.

Mr. Pierce took the lockbox carefully. “Thank you, Aubrey. May I?” He gestured to the chair behind me, where the hidden compartment for the lockbox still hung open. 

“Of course.”  

Dad, Collin, and I moved out of the way, and Mr. Pierce knelt and secured the lockbox back inside its hiding place, then stood. 

When Mr. Pierce turned toward us again, I focused on his face, trying to absorb this new reality where my favorite teacher had magic. Honestly, I was still trying to process that I had magic… and Emery… and the cheer hawks… and apparently my grandparents. 

It had been a very strange couple of days. 

Mr. Pierce looked at me. “You said Emery sent you here to find this lockbox. I won’t pry into how that came about, but surely she intended for you to learn about my magic if she went to such trouble. Did she know about your gift? I can barely detect yours, even now, but once I focus on it, I can tell it’s there.”

“I think so,” I said. 

My dad tensed. “You can detect Aubrey’s latent magic? Does that mean others can, too?” 

Mr. Pierce tilted his head in concentration. “Just barely—and only when I’m focused on it.” He looked at my dad. “I wouldn’t worry too much. My detection abilities are unusual. Her signal is so faint, even most of the skilled detectors wouldn’t notice it unless they were right on top of it.” 

That was at least a little reassuring. 

Mr. Pierce turned to me. “Your gift is still mostly undeveloped, yes?” 

I nodded. “I’m still figuring it out. What kind of magic do you have?” I asked him, then realized that might be a personal question in the magic community. “If you don’t mind me asking,” I added in a hurry. 

Mr. Pierce didn’t look offended. “I’m a dualblood elemental—fire from my mother, water from my father. They made quite a combination. Our home was always interesting.” He smiled and shrugged. “In any case, here I am. I’m fully capable of controlling my active magic. It’s the latent gifts that are the problem. My gifts put off a stronger signal than most, and there are those who are not so kind about gifteds living among regular humans—especially elemental gifteds, for whatever reason. Truly, our magic gets a bad reputation, but it’s really quite harmless on its own. There’s no danger in the magic itself, after all, just in how one may choose to wield it…” He trailed off. 

Collin gaped at him. “My bigger question is, how does a fire and water elemental become a high school librarian?” 

“I love being a high school librarian.” Mr. Pierce looked surprised by the question. “I’ve been in hiding, as it were, for years and years… but as long as I keep my magic dampened, I can live a fairly normal life, just as anyone else would. I do have to keep it dampened continually, which is quite fatiguing, over time… but it’s necessary to avoid detection.” He shrugged. “Elemental magic puts off a noticeable signal even when not in use, you see, especially for dualbloods. It’s something about the mixture of the elements… it makes it difficult to—”

The mixture of the elements… “Wait!” I said, my heart nearly jumping into my throat. I slid off my backpack and dug Emery’s notebook out. “Look, right here.” I jabbed my finger at the left-hand side of the page and shoved the notebook toward my dad and Collin.

They both read the quote, then looked up at me with wide eyes. 

“I think she meant for him to help us,” I said. “Or maybe for us to help him?” 

Dad and Collin both studied me for a moment.

“I trust your instincts on this, Aubrey. If you think it’s safe to bring him in on things, go ahead," Dad said.

I turned to Mr. Pierce and recited the quote. “‘Life was not gentle to him, and the elements so mixed in him that he made warfare on life.’” I shifted the notebook where he could see it, then pointed to the page. “Emery left this notebook for me. This page is full of clues to help us find out what happened to her… or maybe even to Chloe. One of these clues is what led me to your lockbox. But this one—I think this one was about you.” 

Mr. Pierce quickly skimmed the quote. “Spoon River Anthology,” he said, recognizing the quote. He glanced up at me. “This page was written by Emery? Before her death?” 

“Before her disappearance," I clarified. 

His eyes widened. “Emery is still alive?” 

“We hope so,” my dad answered. “And we believe Chloe Cartwright’s disappearance may be connected to Emery’s. Emery’s clues may be the only shot we have at finding out what really happened to both of them—hopefully before it’s too late.”

Mr. Pierce looked deeply concerned. “And these clues led you to me? Why? I mean, I would love to help in any way I can, but… I lead a quiet life, Aubrey. I keep to myself. I don’t know of any other gifteds in this town beyond your family, and I know nothing more about the rest of this than what you’ve told me today.” 

I believed him, but it was disappointing. I sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe she just wanted me to know another gifted was here.” Honestly, it was frustrating. When we’d finally figured out these clues, I’d been so excited. I expected our discoveries to blow the investigation wide open and make everything finally make sense. Instead, I’d found only dead ends and more questions. 

Maybe this dampener and Mr. Pierce’s magic weren’t the secrets Emery had been leading me to, just more pieces of the puzzle—more clues. But for what? For finding her? For finding Chloe? Or both?

Perhaps if I could’ve gotten visions of the future like Emery, instead of breadcrumbs from what had already happened, then—

I gasped as a flash of an image hit me like a psychic brick: Emery on the shore. The gulf shore—with waves crashing in.  “‘A Dream within a Dream,’” I whispered. 

“What?” Collin asked.

When I looked up again, all three of them were staring at me. 

“Aubrey?” Dad looked concerned.

I scrambled to turn the notebook back toward me so I could see it properly. “The poem by Edgar Allan Poe.” I stabbed the page with my finger as I read aloud. 

“I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore,

And I hold within my hand

Grains of the golden sand…”

“We checked the beach already,” Collin said, looking confused. “What does—”

“But did we?” I spun toward Mr. Pierce, growing more excited by the moment. 

“That’s why you went to the beach?” my dad interrupted. 

I gave him an apologetic glance. “Yes, but—” 

“We’ll talk about that later. Go ahead,” my dad said, nodding toward Mr. Pierce. Dad wanted answers as badly as I did. 

“I think there is a reason Emery sent me here, but not just because she wanted me to know Mr. Pierce had magic.” I turned back to Mr. Pierce. “Is your red-and-turquoise-sand dampener the only kind Madame Sava made? You said it was coded to your magic, right? Does it come in other colors?” 

Mr. Pierce’s eyes widened as he caught my meaning. “Yes, it does. The color of the sand depends on the type of the magic it’s made to dampen. Hence the turquoise and red, for my elemental gifts of water and fire.” 

“What type of magic needs gold sand to dampen it?” 

“Illusory magic,” Mr. Pierce answered with a bit of awe in his tone. 

My heart raced as I realized what this could mean. “Do you know where I can get a gold-sand dampening glass?” 

Mr. Pierce glanced at my dad. “I hear you have connections to the investigator who works out of Madam Sava’s old shop—he would know whether Madame Sava left any further hourglasses behind.” 

My dad’s eyebrows raised. “How did you hear that?” 

Mr. Pierce blushed slightly. “Hear may not have been entirely accurate. I have wards about this place, and I recognized his travel magic here just before I sensed the hourglass had been tampered with. I put two and two together.” 

“You’re familiar with his magic?” my dad asked, surprised. 

A reverent expression crossed Mr. Pierce’s face. “Many know of him in the supernatural community. He has protected many of us from those who would hunt or expose us.” 

“I see,” my dad said. “Thank you for the suggestion. I’ll ask him about the hourglass.” 

My dad sent off a text. 

“Illusory magic,” I said, turning to Collin. “Like the kind that could hide clues left for us.” 

“You don’t think—” Collin asked. 

“I do,” I said, more sure than I’d ever been. “If we can get that hourglass…” 

I didn’t know what we might find on that beach, but I was sure that’s where Emery’s clues were leading us—where they’d been leading us the whole time.

With Chloe, there had been no witnesses to her abduction, not even with a giant window and people all around. But there had been witnesses that saw Emery on the beach the night she disappeared, just like I’d seen her in my dream. Given Emery’s gift for seeing things, and the dream she’d sent me and the clues she’d left, she must have known something was going to happen to her on the beach that night… which meant she went anyway, maybe even knowing what would happen. She’d seen it in her visions, yet still made sure she was there… and that people saw her there. On purpose. 

Then she made sure that I saw it in my nightmares. 

A dream within a dream.

The recurring dream I’d had wasn’t separate from her notebook page. It went with it. Emery had shown me what she needed me to see, because she knew we wouldn’t see the rest of it… until we had the right tool to reveal it.

The whole thing was one big clue, and I finally understood what it was telling me. 

With my heart in my throat, I looked at Dad and Collin. “We need to go back to the gulf.” 

***

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