Post-Battle Interlude

[rememberettersberg]

As the last of the zombies disperse, dust fading in the chill air, so too does Thomas' mood, the manic good humour that had kept him going all day. Every part of his body hurts, the solid ache of extended exertion, and he knows that he must look as awful as he feels. A mirror reveals the grim reflection of a past age; Captain Nightingale, awash with blood and mud, clothes torn to rags and skin caked with grime.

He strips without thinking much of it, dives into the freezing shock of the lake's still depths, and swims until his aches turn into leaden exhaustion. A part of him, as always when near open water, reaches out in search of its spirit but encounters only dank emptiness. Usually this would bother him, but tonight it feels right, apt.

There's a towel on the shore when he emerges, one he didn't leave there, and he wonders at the mansion all over again. Hordes of undead by day, the comfort of a fresh and fluffy towel at night. His lakeside office glows with warm light and the promise of fresh tea. He trudges towards it without conscious thought, mind half a century away.

Not primarily an open post, but he'll talk if anyone turns up.

Comments

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, well done, you," Susan says, emphatically. She doesn't believe there's magic in the world she grew up in - it rather seemed all constrained to Narnia - and since Thomas read about Narnia in a children's book, perhaps they are from slightly different Londons. But still, the thought of a Hitler with access to magic! Horrifying.

[rememberettersberg]

"Mm. The Black Library was secured, but at tremendous cost of life." He sighs. "Those of us left ended up scattered. Some gave up on magic altogether. Others eventually retired and died. In the end, there was just me. The Folly became part of the Metropolitan police, the Nazi research materials safely under lock and key with me as guardian. Just enough of a reputation and job title left to bring me in on relevant investigations."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I was still young, at the start of the War," Susan says, thoughtfully. "They tried to protect us from the worst of it. I still see the scars everywhere I turn, back home." And in herself, too, but that goes without saying. "I am not surprised to hear of the scatter, but am sorry that, in surviving it, you have been left alone."

[rememberettersberg]

"Things were slowly changing," he says. "And then I arrived here and everything changed rather more rapidly." His smile is wistful but there. "And I am far from alone here."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"That's good," Susan says, firmly and with very little jealousy. She's tracing back through the thread of their conversations. "So you have magic then, do you?"

[rememberettersberg]

"I'm a wizard," he agrees. "Trained in Newtonian magic." Swiping a book from his desk, he gently tosses it her way - Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Artes Magicis, a codification of magic and how to use it penned by Isaac Newton.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan catches the book easily, and flicks quickly through the first few pages "He is primarily known for gravity, in my world," she muses, pausing to read a passage in full.

[rememberettersberg]

"Yes, his scientific endeavours seem to be his most universal quality. I suppose it's impossible to know whether his magical research exists in other worlds."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan flips through another page, and skims another passage. "Interesting," she says, and closes the book. "I hadn't thought to equate magic with science, before. Only with faith."

[rememberettersberg]

"Faith is belief in something unknowable," Nightingale replies. "Magic can be catalogued and made systematic. It follows laws in the same way as science must."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"How logical," Susan says, thoughtful. "I suppose I haven't spent much time thinking about magic. Narnia seemed magical, of course, but the only practitioners were the Lion and the Witch. Never humans." Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, she remembers. The phrasing strikes her as queer now.