"I'm actually running out of places I can dig for gold with very few questions being asked with how I'm able to find gold that others couldn't find. So, if I can open a gate, I can see if I can find another medium in which to earn a living on, or at least give the appearance of it. Magic isn't something that the government idiots would accept as to how I'm able to be self-sufficient. Although, there's also the issue with property taxes, but that's another matter altogether," he replied.
"What would you be able to show me about using magic?" she asked. "I mean, if I agreed to work with you."
"I can't really be sure," Heathcliff admitted. "I don't really know what you can do, but as I understand it, you know a number of ways of using your magic that we consider rather advanced, so we might be able to show you a few tricks, but otherwise not much."
Charlie nodded, not sure what else to say. She felt like she should ask him a few other things but couldn't think of what they were.
"Oh," Heathcliff said suddenly.
"What?"
"I just realized that if you can sense your focus on the world where it is, I bet that I might be able to come up with something that can help us find that world. Much like how we locate the gates, we can drop something else in that griffin canyon that we can detect as long as we show up on that world," Heathcliff suggested.
Charlie leaned forward in interest. "You can detect the gates? How?"
"I have an item that when magic is pushed through it, we can detect gates within a radius that depends on how strong the person's magic is. It's also very draining on whoever uses it and it won't detect a unicorn's forest," Heathcliff answered.
Charlie nodded, she wanted to ask how he learned about Petals' forest but didn't want to accidentally give any information about Petals and her forest. "Do you have something like that right now?"
Heathcliff shook his head. "No, I'm afraid I don't. I'll work on it, but it might take a bit of time."
She sighed. "I guess I'll need to do some exploring then."
"Might be good anyway, it could help you get used to other worlds and you might find something that will help us with our objectives."
Suddenly Charlie remembered something that she had promised to ask Heathcliff about. "Well, aside from that, do you have any room for my sister this week in your camp? I promised my dad I'd ask, she seemed pretty upset that she wasn't able to go."
Heathcliff sighed again. "I wish I could. Unless someone doesn't show up, I don't have room for anyone else, and if they don't show up, it'd be too late really to try and fill the vacancy. I also had hoped that there would be more interest in this camp, but I'm almost expecting this to become a complete disaster. Given how little I could think of to do with this camp."
Charlie was stunned at this admission. While she hadn't really understood the idea of the camp to begin with, she had at least assumed that Heathcliff had at least an idea, if not a vision, about how it would go.
She shook her head after thinking about it for a moment, she didn't really care to delve into the details of this and would rather move on. Although, as she had thought of her father, it tickled part of her mind that she couldn't figure out right away. As she shook her head, she realized the other item she'd wanted to discuss with Heathcliff.
"Sorry to change the subject again, but did you decide to go with my dad's security company?" she asked.
Heathcliff shook his head. "No, for what I need, your father's company doesn't have the resources to deal with what would be needed, even if I paid double their bid," he answered. "I had to go with another company that was able to meet the needs I had for that project."
Charlie nodded, not that surprised, there were a lot of things about her father's company that she didn't understand. "How about this. You find a project that you can hire my dad's company for and keep it on a permanent basis. If you do that, I'll share whatever I learn about other worlds with you. As well as if I learn about a gate that we might be able to use," Charlie said. She wasn't sure where this was coming from, but as she said it, it felt like it was the right thing to do. She just couldn't explain how or why.
Heathcliff nodded thoughtfully. "I think I might be able to work something out. Though, I'll need time to figure out a project that your father's company will be able to do. So, unless you're willing to give me the benefit of the doubt, we won't be able to work with each other for at least a few months. As after I come up with the project, I'll need to get things set up before I would be able to hire his company."
Charlie nodded. She was under no illusions that he'd be able to snap his fingers and it would happen right then. "I'll work with you as long as it doesn't take too long," she stated. "If I think you're not going to keep your word, I'll stop working with you."
Heathcliff nodded. "That's all I can really ask," he said.
Charlie nodded in response. She couldn't think of anything else to say, so she started to get up.
"I take it you don't have anything else to talk to me about?" Heathcliff asked, causing her to stop and hover above the chair for a minute.
"No, I can't think of anything else," she admitted.
"Well, there is one that I would still like to talk about with you," Heathcliff said.
Charlie sat back down fully, a little put out about the matter. "What is it?" she asked, not really interested in staying longer, but feeling obligated to with what she'd just agreed to.
"Since you had your magic unsealed before you came here, I take it that you were aware of what Emily tried to do to you," Heathcliff said, leaning on his arms against his desk.
"I was after she was interrupted," Charlie admitted. Even though she knew she still should feel violated by what happened, she still couldn't bring herself to that. She wasn't sure if it had to do with the magic that Emily used or if there was something wrong with herself.
"I assumed you probably didn't have your defenses up, but anyway, I was wondering what punishment you might suggest for her actions against you," Heathcliff asked.
Charlie was surprised. She hadn't expected to be asked for her input on this matter, but suddenly a thought occurred to her that could work out in her favor. "How about you let me deal with her," she suggested. "After all, I was her target to do with whatever she wanted to, so why not make it so I could do whatever I want with her?"
Heathcliff leaned back, looking at her thoughtfully. "It would be a kind of poetic justice, but unless you tell me what you have in mind, I don't think I'll be able to agree to it."
Charlie shook her head. "Nothing bad, more like having her run errands for me and stuff. Nothing like what she wanted to do with me or that would get her hurt," she said. "I just think that having her do something like this might make her think twice about doing it again to someone else in the future."
"Maybe, but I'm still not sure if I should do this," Heathcliff said.
"You can do it if you want, but that's what my suggestion is. Besides, you know she's done this before, so whatever you've done before hasn't worked, right?" she asked.
"She may have tried this before, but that doesn't mean what I do won't be effective. It just will take a while," Heathcliff replied, a little cryptically in Charlie's opinion.
"Well, if you won't accept my offer, I'll stand by that nothing happened. What Shirley saw was just a misunderstanding. After all, she can't be in trouble if she didn't do anything wrong," Charlie challenged, not caring if this jeopardizes her efforts in getting her father a client for his company. She had a feeling that what she gets Heathcliff to accept in regard to this would be important. Not that Charlie had any idea how or when.
"I see," Heathcliff chuckled. "I'll leave her in your hands and as long as it isn't anything that is over the top. I'll keep an eye on you to make sure you don't."
"Don't worry, I'm sure Shirley won't find anything she'd object to," Charlie replied, smiling in as an innocent manner as she can, hoping that it doesn't as look as forced as she feels it is.
Charlie climbed up on her bunk. The days events were really coming down on her. Hard. The sun had set long ago, even when they got back from Berthoud Pass, the sun was setting against the mountains, though it still took a few hours after that before it fully set. When Charlie and Heathcliff had finished working out a few details of their agreement, she found out just how late it was. Which took a lot longer than she had expected it to take.
Heathcliff had some food brought to them, so she at least had had something to eat. Though, it hardly felt like she had eaten anything. She wrote it off as her just being that tired rather than her body wanting more food. It also felt like she should still be more of a wreck from nearly dying like she had. It was like her mind had gone back to how she was as if it hadn't happened, which part of her thought shouldn't be the case.
She was satisfied that she'd been given authority over what to do about Emily, which Charlie wondered how Emily would respond to learning that. Not that she had anything sinister in mind. It was more that she'd like to know how to work her magic the way Emily did with that enchantment. Which Charlie wasn't sure how eager Emily would be to share that knowledge.
She felt herself start to drift off to sleep when she felt someone shaking her awake. Then as she opened her eyes to see who it was and maybe what it was about, she saw it was Emily.
"What do you want?" Charlie asked, her voice reflecting how tired she was.
"What were you doing at Heathcliff's house?" Emily asked, her voice a whisper.
"I convinced him to let me deal with what you tried to do to me with that enchantment," Charlie replied, figuring Emily didn't need to know what else they'd talked about and that she'd find out soon enough about the agreement Charlie and Heathcliff had made that concerned her.
Emily stared at Charlie for a minute, during which she let her eyes start to close again. "What do you mean by that?" Emily replied in a harsh whisper.
"I meant what I said. Can we talk about this in the morning?" Charlie asked. "I'd like to just get to sleep."
Emily didn't respond right away, so Charlie started closing her eyes again. "Fine," Emily relented. "But we will discuss what you meant by that."
Charlie mentally shrugged as she closed her eyes and went to sleep. She was starting to think about trying to find a way to let Beth and the others know about her having been able to get the Heart of the Forest back when she felt herself drift off to sleep.
Somehow Charlie knew she was asleep as she found herself in a vast emptiness. It wasn't a pitch black emptiness, only kind of like a void that she seemed to be in. Her surroundings changed color from black to white to blue then to pink just by her thinking it.
She created a floor for her to stand on and walk on just by thinking it, not that it mattered, somehow she could tell that the emptiness she was in extended infinitely in any direction and at the same time she could leave the emptiness any time she wanted. There was so much she somehow knew without ever being told that she was getting a little uneasy about it. It was almost like she was able to instinctively learn things like she'd never before been able. In a way, it was almost like…
Charlie suddenly realized this emptiness was almost identical to where she'd spoken with the Heart of the Forest. Which if that was in the part of her where her desires were, then that might mean that she was still inside her mind, which would explain how she 'knew' all that she could do there.
She willed herself to where her magic was and was suddenly by what looked to her like a liquid fire, colors ranging from white to blue to yellow. It burned as hot as she was aware magma could burn, but at the same time she could touch it without burning herself.
She cupped her hands together and dipped them in the liquid fire. As she withdrew her hands, she closed her eyes and thought about talking with Beth. She didn't actually expect anything to happen, but she opened her eyes as it suddenly felt like she was moving. She saw the liquid fire in her hands draining at her fingertips, while at the same time filling up by the heels of her hands.
She couldn't say she knew exactly what was happening but had a hard time moving in any manner. Even blinking seemed to take a prolonged period of time. Almost like she was moving in slow motion herself.
Then as suddenly as she had started moving without moving, she suddenly found herself face-to-face with Beth. They were standing in front of a bench by where she could tell was Beth's house, not that Beth had a bench at her house in that spot, but she wasn't going to try and analyze any of it. As she knew she was still asleep, she figured this was merely a weird dream.
"What're you doing here, Charlie?" Beth asked first.
"I just had to tell you that I get the Heart of the Forest back," she replied, starting to feel awkward that she was just telling this to a dream version of Beth.
Beth blinked. "How?"
"Well, they wanted me to open a gate with it, so I did, but I opened all of them and after that, I wouldn't give them the Heart of the Forest back, which they weren't happy about," Charlie said before explaining all that had occurred when she was required to step through the gate.
Beth shook her head. "You know, I have no idea how I know what you mean when you say things like 'gate' or how scared you were hanging over that canyon. But that aside, are you doing okay?" Beth looked at her as if it was the real Beth and not just a dream in Charlie's own mind.
"Of course I am," she replied, taking a seat on the bench. "I didn't get hurt, so why wouldn't I be?"
Beth sighed, sitting next to her on her left, taking her left hand in both of hers. "Just because you didn't get hurt doesn't mean that you're okay," she said. "Most people would find what you went through rather traumatic."
"Don't worry about it," she said, getting rather uncomfortable with the subject.
"I can't help but worry, Charlie," Beth interrupted, her grip tightening on her hand. "Have you talked to your mom or dad about it?"
Charlie shook her head. "No, I felt a little out of it on the drive back to the camp, but I talked to Heathcliff and then went to bed. I'm really fine, Beth," she said.
Beth sighed. "Well, I can't say how I know this, but it's almost like I can hear your thoughts sometimes and they're almost quivering in your mind," Beth said. "Whatever you're telling yourself, you're not fine. I think what happened might hit you without you realizing it soon."
"Why soon?" she asked. "I mean, if it did affect me like you said, why wouldn't it already be affecting me?"
"Maybe it's because you haven't fully processed it or maybe it's because you're not letting yourself feel it fully yet," Beth contemplated. "As you know, my dad was a therapist and sometimes talked to me about trauma."
Charlie shook her head. "Seriously, it wasn't traumatic. All it was, was just-"
Beth looked her in the eye and interrupted her. "Stop it, Charlie. Any near-death experience can be traumatic and I don't know how I know this, but you were crying after yours. I'm certain you were traumatized by it. Even if it doesn't affect you right now, it will affect you sometime down the road."
Charlie felt herself begin to tremble. Why, she couldn't explain. All she knew was that the calm she'd had gotten during the car ride was crumbling. In the end, she found herself holding Beth tightly as she felt her tears pour out again. Beth held her, making soft comforting noises, none that Charlie could really describe, just that she heard noises from Beth that just felt comforting.
She couldn't say how long she cried, just that when she was finally done, Beth's pajama top was soaked by her tears on her right shoulder and she had a minor case of the hiccups.
"Feeling better?" Beth asked, her hands on her shoulders.