Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was a long drive from Oxford to the tiny, familiar beach. Arcelite, his Lieutenant, and Avalon ducked under a line of bright yellow caution tape--the Lieutenant waved to the constables as they pass--and walked down the wet sand to the shore, where the green-gray water washed over the toes of their boots. Being Avalon was easier than being Vanya; her skin fit better, like she had finally shed a too-small shell for something with enough room to grow on. She teleported the last few feet to the tidebreak, just to prove to herself that she could.

She could see her wonder, a dark blur on the horizon, as if through shifting glass or running water; not quite clear, but indubitably there. Arcelite and the Lieutenant with him whose name she could not remember watched her, but could not see Avalon any more than she could see Oxford from this rainy shore. More than the sight, though, she could sense her wonder, a sea-shanty in the back of her head and a childhood lullaby, the only thing she remembered of Tate Konstantin. “Arthur my king lay dying,” she sang, under her breath. “His golden crown was broken…”

Arcelite looked over at her, his eyebrows disappearing under his fringe of pasty blond hair. “You have a lovely voice, General Avalon,” he said.

She fell silent, and twisted her hands in her coat pockets with the letters from Babylon. I’m trying not to freak out, but I am really worried… He loved her. They didn’t know what she would face on her island--if she could even access it anymore--if it was even still hers. There was no one else who could do this for the Negaverse, though, no one else who would dare try. Linarite didn’t even know where her Wonder was anymore. Of all of them, it was only Avalon who could bring them to this place. Who could dream of breaking this cycle.

Her stomach churned, she ground her teeth, and the dark blur on the horizon did not move. Dark storm clouds lingered overhead and a chilled sea-salt wind blew.

“Unnatural weather for this time of year,” said Arcelite, his deep yellow tail-coat whipping at the back of his legs. “I wonder if it’s got anything to do with Avalon.”

“Maybe,” said the Lieutenant. “Bad weather, you know?”

She frowned. The Avalon she remembered was abundant, full of life. But then, that Avalon had had a knight. This Avalon no longer did--all it had was a General.

She took a deep breath, and called her sword to hand for comfort. Arcelite and his assistant stepped back, gave her space. The tide washed up around her ankles, sluicing sand over her boots. In her mind, the image of the shattered chapterhouse on Avalon swum to the forefront of her mind--the fallen beams, the shattered timbers. Where was the heart of a Wonder, anyway? Would it be in the knight’s tower?

Time to find out. She closed her eyes, tucked her right hand into her pocket with all four letters from Babylon. No point in delaying now. No point in hiding anymore. If she did this, perhaps she could go home to him. She fixed the chapterhouse floor in her mind, and vanished.

Arcelite summoned his communications crystal to hand, and waited.