What is this thing?

[Zephyr]

Zef sat in her apartment staring at the two devices sitting on the coffee table. She had no idea what they were, or how she was supposed to use them.  This looked like dangerous and creepy bugs like something you'd see in horror flick.  She sipped at a glass of white wine and wondered what Jaxen was doing, or what he'd been doing while she was gone. Though from the calendar she hadn't been gone more than a few days, but she'd done had a baby and spent a month or more nursing him before her son had been ripped away from her. He would lead a rebellion and thwart the gods, it was a small price to pay to end them in whatever time he was. But still, Zef was sad. She'd never get to know him. 

She should make a visit to Jaxen soon. But right now she wanted to tear him a new one and she couldn't exactly tell him he had a son, and that he'd been taken from them cause of some deal he made. When had he made it?  It didn't matter, it was done.

And Jaxen still owed her a child. She sent him a text.

Meet up?

She didn't care when, or where, but she needed to give him ... she didn't know what but she had to see him.  Angry sex was still good sex and probably he wouldn't even notice.

Zef picked up one device and held the cold metal in her hands, the gem staring up at her. "What the fuck are you?"

[Zephyr]

The cold metal in her hands reminded her of the place where she lost her boy. There was saddness but no tears. No sobs like a typical mother, she was not the typical person much less mother.

Jaxen's text pulled her from her thoughts.

You know when and where.

At least she knew what he meant. When and where. That was for later. The stupid thing was supposed to help her with her end goal. She wasn't sure what it was meant to do -- control a godling? how? Zef studied the object in her hand.

[Jacob]

Nox had been pulled away on a secret mission. It wasn't Atharim, but he left none-the-same. Jacob was concerned but even the hacker boy had gone with him so it had to be important it wasn't just a trip home for the sake of going home.

Jacob knocked on Zephyr's door. He'd tracked her down, it hadn't been hard. Not that her place of residence wasn't listed in the Atharim files. Which Jacob was still getting used to. He fumbled through the systems but found his way around sooner or later. He was no hacker that was for sure. His old fingers barely finding the right keys to type with. Clerical work had never been his thing.

The pendant hung against his chest under the shirt and Jacob wondered if the boy would take it if it was offered. Now that he was doing his job -- even if he required some clean up work. He still went after the dangerous ones.

The pettite woman opened the door looking depressed and underjoyed. "Jacob." She said moving aside to let him in.

"Has your cousin located our godling?"

Zef blinked at him as if he'd spoken a foreign language and shut the door behind him. "Hayden tells me that Nox got a text and he and the hacker went on a trip to the US. Hayden was unable to follow."

"Isn't that his job?"

Zef nodded pouring a second glass of wine and offering it to Jacob before nodding for him to sit and make himself at home. "When we have a job for him. He's not a detective."

Jacob nodded. "And he shouldn't be sleeping with the boy either. Yet he has done that." Jacob couldn't fault either of them, he'd probably done the same thing given the choices they had now. He'd never have done it when he was their age. Being with Noah had presented enough problems as it was. And Nox reminded him too much of the man he had loved for so many years. "We have no idea where he is, or what he's doing?"

Zef laughed. "You Americans are harder to track in your homeland than you are here."

"I suppose you are right, he'll come back. He has nothing back there." Jacob didn't think Nox would ever go back, he'd made a life here -- a real one. As he thought about doing the same Jacob noticed the pair of spider like jewels sitting on the coffee table. "What are these trinkets? They look mighty dangerous for such pretty things."

[Eidolon]

Life had changed, and Eidolon lost herself a little in the routine of it. While she had kept herself physically fit over the years, it was not the same as proper training, and it would take time to build back. Zephyr was a hard mistress, uncompromising, but Eido found some solace in the work. It kept her from thinking. Not about regrets. About the future. About the book, and Kiyohito.

Despite her fears and reservations, the flutter of power that had brought Zephyr and her together had not yet returned. Whether the other woman felt frustration over that Eido could not say, but it certainly helped soothe her transition, allowing confidence in her own self, and in her own body, to take greater root. She felt the slow erosion of her guard; the fear that she would unintentionally do something to harm another relaxing a little. It was a delicate peace, balanced on a pinhead. But Eido accepted it for what it was.

She had slipped into her role unobtrusively and with quiet dedication. They did not speak much, and Eido volunteered little about her life or opinions. But when she purchased prenatal vitamins and left them on the coffee table, they went. Sometimes there were other gifts; small things she discovered Zephyr liked. It wasn’t friendship, not in the way one might think. But there was kindness in Eidolon’s loyalty. She slipped around Zephyr like a ghost, quietly peripheral, but she always took note of the small things.

Lately something was wrong, though. Not just the three day absence, but a change in Zephyr’s manner. Eidolon was naturally attuned to such nuances, but she saw and heard far more than she ever commented on. She asked no questions, reluctant to intrude on something personal – she knew, after all, that Zephyr was intending to bear a child, and Eido had done enough reading to understand that pregnancy was not always smooth.

She noted the wine.

If Zephyr wished to talk, Eido would listen, even if she had no wisdom to offer. Not as an Atharim, and not as a channeler, but as another woman. But she did not quite know how to make that offer, other than to be present.

She heard the knock from the other room, but her guard relaxed when she heard Zephyr greet the visitor with recognition. Jacob Dean was an associate. Eido would not intrude, nor make her presence known for now. Not because she was in hiding -- true to her word, Zephyr had purged the records of both Chihiro and Kota's names. If Eido was distant, she did give her trust honestly. She did not intrude because it was simply her way.

[Zephyr]

Zef set the second doo-dad down on the coffee table and sighed. "I don't know. I was told they'd help me control a godling."

Jacob laughed. "Who told you that?"

Zephyr frowned. "I'm not at liberty to say. But I think my source is reliable." Zef knew Eido was around. While Jacob had conceded to let his nephew live, Zef didn't think he would have such leniency for Eido so she never told Jacob her secret, and Jacob never asked but she wondered if Eido had heard what she'd said. The Durante boy had proven himself a reliable hunter. She shouldn't have doubted it, and of the four marks he'd been sent after he only refused on, and Hayden had taken care of it. Zef didn't think he would need to be controlled. And Eido was loyal to her, and to the unborn child she would never meet.

She looked back towards where Eido likely was and sighed. Eido would never meet the boy, and Zef would never know where and when he'd play his role. Only that he would help end the war against the gods. He would lead them to glory. She was proud of that.

"You okay? You are starting to wander off." Zef could tell he wanted to add more, but what she didn't know. And it didn't matter she wouldn't tell him of her journey's through the lands she'd been. The child she had and lost. She wasn't sure she'd tell anyone of that loss.

"Fine. Just thinking how this might work."

"They sorta remind me of those creatures from the Aliens movies. The ones that break out of the eggs and wrap around your face."

Zef chuckled. "Perhaps it's similar. Wrap around the brain stem? or Spine maybe? If you are to control someone though I don't think I'd want this thing in my brain." Zef shuddered. She didn't want to pick up the pieces again, specially since she didn't know how they worked and if Jacob was right about the resemblance.