characters: Daryn & Phoenix setting: Morning, the beach, days after the Faction meeting summary: Trying to focus, trying to make sense, trying to make contact rating: low
After yet another sleepless night littered with nightmares and flashbacks, Daryn was up early as usual. Slipping out of her house quietly, with a yawning Phoenix in tow, the two walked silently across the island. It had become a morning habit of theirs. Daryn brought her daughter to a nice, peaceful place so the two could enjoy some time together before the daily chaos began. Arriving on the opposite side of the island, to a small, rocky beach with a calm tide, Phoenix eagerly kicked off her shoes and went to splash in the cold water and collect remnants of shells and sea glass and shaped rocks.
Watching her daughter with a faint, tired smile, Daryn had trouble focusing completely on the little girl. Her mind kept drifting back, years back, getting caught up in scenes of memories that she wasn’t entirely sure were accurate anymore. It was getting harder and harder to shake them. Without warning, she’d become trapped, both in the memory and the experience of it, until she was haunted by that choking feeling of blood filling her lungs and everything going dark. Gasping for air, Daryn returned to the present, suddenly aware of her surroundings and the feel of the cool, salty ocean air filling her lungs.
Done with playing in water, Phoenix climbed up to sit on a large rock and drew in the wet sand with a stick. Daryn took a seat beside her, showing her how to write her name with her usual quiet patience. Daryn’s mind drifted again, but to more relevant things. She wanted Phoenix to know what it was like to live a normal life, to be around more children her age, to go to school, to know freedom. The way to do that was to get in contact with the mainland. And that whole topic made Daryn feel alienated.
Learning about Remy and Zayne making contact with the mainland left Daryn shocked, with a strange sense of betrayal. She wasn’t stupid, she knew that establishing contact couldn’t have been quick and easy. It had to have taken some time, probably several tries. But that information was never shared with her during the process. Logically, she knew there had to be a reason Remy hadn’t told her, not even when they met in private just before the meeting. There had to be something behind it that would make perfect sense. But it didn’t make her feel any more secure in her precarious-seeming position within the Faction. It wasn’t the first time in the last few months that Daryn regretted her decision to step down as the leader. Her role, which she had thought was second-in-command, now felt completely in question. More and more lately, there were reasons given to her about why she shouldn’t be getting involved in things: from needing to be there for Phoenix to needing to use her healing ability instead. The group she helped to found, the family she had created for herself and was fiercely loyal to for years, it felt like they didn’t need or want her anymore. She was nothing more than an afterthought. Did she have a place among them anymore, did she have anything left to offer them?
Angry with herself for feeling upset, Daryn pushed those emotions down deep inside. It didn’t matter how she felt, this wasn’t about her. Contacting the mainland was in the best interest of everyone on the island. And just because she had no part or knowledge of the first contact, it didn’t mean that she couldn’t establish contact of her own, on her own. She could still contribute something to the cause, somehow. The problem was: who to contact? It had been five long years, anyone she knew was likely too far away to receive even a faint telepathic message. And that was assuming she could even reach the mainland at all. Just reaching out to random, close proximity minds wasn’t likely to work either, unless the goal was to drive some poor, innocent person insane with the sudden presence of voices in their mind. Contacting people off-island was the goal, but the execution was still unclear. And Daryn had a fear that if she didn’t figure it out herself, someone else would. Then she really would be of no use to the Faction. There wasn’t time to waste.
Bored with drawing in the sand, Phoenix jumped off the rock and went about chasing a few birds who kept landing nearby to look through shells for food. Daryn kept her eyes on her child, but tried to clear her mind. Maybe the quiet and stillness of the morning was the best time of day to try to reach out for contact. Focusing with all of her energy, she scanned for distant minds. If she could hear their thoughts, then she could communicate with them. Identifying potential contacts was the first viable step. She searched mentally, reaching out for anyone to tap into, but every mind she sensed felt just out of reach. She could hear their thoughts, just as she did those of everyone on the island, but they were so faint it was difficult to ascertain how many there were. But it was a start. Something was out there, people were out there, and maybe they could help. She just had to push herself harder to reach them. It would take even more focus to speak to them and maintain contact.
Phoenix ran back to Daryn and climbed up into her lap, breaking her concentration. Blinking, Daryn looked to her with a soft smile. Let’s go home and make breakfast, okay? Phoenix hugged her and happily agreed, taking her mother’s hand and pulling her up to stand before eagerly guiding the way back home. Daryn told herself she would try again later in the evening, maybe by going out on the rocky pier, slightly closer to the mainland. She was going to keep trying, day and night, until something worked.