Lilith Landers (icehasformed) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2013-06-24 20:43:00 |
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Entry tags: | #solo, 2009-09-27, lilith |
bring them home from anywhere
Who: Lilith
When: Towards midnight
Where: Outside SOHS
If there had been a press conference whereby Mrs. Landers and every other parent were intended to beg, plead to whoever would listen for the safe return of their children, then Lilith would have been the one that onlookers singled out and judged for how collected she was. The one who seemed so calm she could easily have been misread as responsible for the whole ordeal.
Neil had been made to stay at home, spared the emotional collective of those who had loved ones who still had not emerged from homecoming. Besides -- who was to say one of the children would not try calling the house phone? The pair of them had very nearly comforted themselves with that notion, though Lilith did not truly believe it would happen and knew that her husband would feel her doubt. So she had left him to look after the familiars (after leaving Icarus instructions to look after Neil), who were beside themselves with a sense of not knowing that disturbed the elemental to her core. How could her daughters be not just off her own radar, but their familiars'? And what about Cole? At least with Beulah and Lambykins around she knew for certain that Niamh and Isolde were alive. It was killing her to think that the opposite could at all be possible with regards to her son. Looking at the faces of the parents around her, it was something they all shared. No, this was not where Neil needed to be tonight.
Arms folded protectively over her stomach, she leaned against her car, staring out past the assembled crowd to where she had heard more than one person murmur about police tape stuck to thin air. She did not feel the need to go over and see this for herself; one would have thought the fact a police car crashed into it was proof enough that there was some kind of barrier there. It was as though almost every newcomer wanted to go and get a closer look, to make absolute certain that there were signs of a physical wall between them and whoever it was they were missing. The moment they were given any kind of information by the law enforcement they had to see.
Pointless. It was all pointless. There were people everywhere and none of them could do anything but wait and watch and hope. Pray, possibly. Lilith was raised Irish Catholic but she had stubbornly refused to reach that level. She did not need to pray for her children to come home, they just would. Somewhere in there were the chaperones -- Linnea, for example -- who would be looking after them. She knew full well that Linnea would never let anything happen to either of their children.
Not voluntarily.
It was not a thought she wanted to have but it had already planted itself firmly under her skin. Whatever was going on, whatever had happening or was still happening inside the school, none of the adults would simply allow the children to be harmed. On top of that, a decent number of those children were not defenseless. Cole certainly was not. Beneath Lilith's calm facade the undercurrent of her thoughts whirled as though trying to drag her into something she was not certain she would be able to climb out of. She had frozen out the noise of the people -- the parents -- around her, her selective hearing filing through the bits and pieces she could hear from the police. The officers did their best to answer questions, though, generally speaking, it was nothing the elemental had not already heard. 'I'm sorry, but we don't know anything for sure yet. The moment we do, we will inform everyone gathered here.' A vague, unsatisfying response. One that rang false when tested against other theories. An invisible barrier so strong it totaled a police vehicle? There was no so-called 'normal' explanation for that. It was magic, and as much as she tried to ignore it the word rippled through the crowd at random intervals as if those gathered had been reminded by a change in the wind -- or, more likely, the arrival of a new, equally concerned individual who wanted answers of their own. There were enough nay-sayers, yes. Some did not want to believe their own craft was somehow keeping their loved ones from them. Others just did not want to think that magic was involved; the idea held certain connotations.
Lilith, however, was not one to underestimate the power of magic or pay attention to whether others liked the idea of what had been suggested.
Two weeks ago to the day she had stepped into the family pool, then nearly drowned in it. She was a master water elemental and had been for years, but something had managed to switch her apparent affinity from Water to Air. Such a thing ought not have been possible, but it had happened. For the briefest of moments her thoughts shifted from her children to touch upon her memory of the blonde air elemental and her father. Aetheria and Barnabas. Was it possible that this was the same magic? She imagined it took a fair deal of power to swap over the elemental capabilities of two individuals like that. Surely the same could do this? Lilith was no expert on witchcraft -- far from it -- but judging from the reactions of those around her, if it was a ward it was far from ordinary. Pulling her hair out of the knot she had fixed it in for the countless time, she fidgeted with the hair-tie before putting it back up again. Although it was a sign of unease, it was also the reason there was not a hair out of place on her head. The elemental looked as well-presented as she had when she first dressed herself for the day.
Her children were missing and the only physical evidence she had was the shadows under her eyes -- though Neil's were no better -- two panicking familiars and a stomach that felt like it was lined with lead. It only grew heavier as time went on.
On the dashboard her BlackBerry began vibrating, quietly calling for attention over those around her. She opened the door and slid back into her seat with one hand nursing a growing pool of water as she willed the moisture from the air. The other hand sought the message that had seized her attention. Neil. Tipping her head back against the headrest, Lilith tried to find comfort in the voice of her element before answering his one, simple question: 'Any news?' The answer was a negative, of course, and required an equal -- if not lesser -- number of words to answer. 'Not yet.' Correspondence regarding their children's welfare had been brought down to a total of four words. She never had been one for unnecessary chatter.
The BlackBerry buzzed at her again. 'Icarus says to come home. You can't help if you don't know what's happening.' Lilith's brow creased in a stubborn frown. It was her familiar who was forever reminding her she could not protect her children from everything. This was just one more event that proved him right. She may not have been able to offer them any amount of protection at that moment, but she was not leaving yet. 'Soon,' was her short response. Soon. She would just stay a little longer.
She had been telling herself that for a while.