Like Mother, Like Daughter? (W.I.T.C.H.)

Susan Vandom wasn’t having the worst day of her life.

The worst day… Well, she didn’t like to think about it. But this was very definitely claiming the second worst day title, displacing an event she’d considered immovable in this position.

*I’d ask what I did to deserve this,* she thought bleakly as she exited the school building. *Except I know all too well. But not Will. Please, don’t let her have come to harm.* She wasn’t sure who she was pleading with.

The police officer with her adjusted his hat. “We’ll keep looking, Ms Vandom. I’m a father myself.”

“Thank you,” she forced out.

“You’re sure she doesn’t have any friends?”

“I don’t know. We only just moved here,” Susan repeated, trying not to scream at the man. It wouldn’t help. “I hoped she’d make some here, but…” She gestured helplessly.

“She may have gotten lost,” he offered. “This isn’t a bad town. We’ll do everything we can.”

Susan nodded sharply, wishing - not for the first time - that she had the means to find Will by herself. Taking a day off work right after starting wasn’t going to win her points at Simultech, but it wasn’t a tough decision. “I’ll have my phone on me.”

“It’d be better for you to be at home if she makes it back on her own,” the policeman advised. “I know it’s tempting but we know Heatherfield and you don’t - and if she gets home and you’re not there she might not stay. Please, leave this to us.”

“Right…” The dark-haired woman rubbed her face. It had been a long night, full of terrified images of what might have happened to her daughter. Images that were mostly a little too esoteric to share with an honest police officer who would believe none of it.

He obviously knew that was the best he was going to get and nodded. “Good luck.”

Watching the police car leave, getting no small amount of attention from the students filtering into the campus, Susan felt a hundred years old. Which was… closer to being accurate than most people thought.

She was about to head out onto the street where she’d left her car parked, when a glimmer of light caught her attention. A shade of pink that had haunted her dreams - and more often nightmares - for a very long time.

*Now I’m seeing things,* she thought. But her head was already turning despite the expectation that it would be something else, something she’d just mistaken for…

*No.*

*No, it couldn’t be.*

*No, I can’t have brought Will somewhere that… that…*

Without even thinking, Susan Vandom stalked towards the crystalline pendant currently being clutched by a nervous-looking girl with short hair except one beaded dreadlock, showing it off for three other girls.

She knew that pink sphere all too well. Had obsessed over it. Had nightmares about what it had cost her.

(If it had cost her her daughter, Susan Vandom was going to try very hard to smash the damned thing, whatever the consequences).

She wasn’t being subtle about her approach and the girls (rather dressed up for a day at school, but what did she know?) all turned around, the dreadlocked one hiding the pendant behind her. Susan wasn’t sure how to break the subject, but she had to… whichever of them had charge of it would know, if anyone did, if there was something more than natural going on. Something that might explain where Will was.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, the turn had shown her something else that was entirely relevant to her concerns.

“Excuse me,” she said without any great sincerity. “That looks like my daughter’s school bag.” It really did, with the frog badges.

“Um,” the girl holding it said nervously.

The athletic brunette spoke up in her place. “Are you Will’s mom?”

“Susan Vandom,” she introduced herself. “Will didn’t make it home last night. May I…?”

“Ah, we don’t know you’re…” a small asian girl spoke up, not too discreetly sneaking the pendant from her friend.

Susan produced her wallet and offered her driver’s license. “Girls, if you have any idea at all where my daughter is, I won’t ask too much about how you have the Heart of Kandrakar.” ‘Too much’ was a very relative qualification, but she wasn’t going to waste guilt on mere weasel-words at a time like this.

The four of them were clearly terrible at lying - probably new to this. About Will’s age - twelve, going on thirteen.

“H-hear-”

“Haha, I don’t know what you mean,” the blonde said. “But we think this is Will’s backpack - Taranee found it on the way here.”

Susan took the bag and opened it. The packet inside was proof enough for her and she pulled it out. “This had cookies in it, I gave her them to break the ice and make friends.” She didn’t know what her expression looked like. “You know her name, I take it that you spent at least some time with her yesterday.”

“Er, yes…”

She nodded sharply. “And as Guardians of the Veil, I can expect that you’re not behind her going missing.” She could think of one particular Guardian who had done exactly that, old guilt ripping into her afresh at the thought of a mother who’d gone through exactly what she was facing now. And had been for a very long time. But what was one more lie?

“How do you know that?!” the brunette exclaimed. “Are you from…?”

Susan exhaled slowly. They must be new at this. Four of them… the fifth had probably not…

(A dreadful possibility crossed her mind and was smashed flat for the temerity).

“I met some Guardians a very long time ago,” she admitted. “I know a little about them. And for Will to go missing and find that the Guardians are here, I hope very much that she hasn’t crossed your path in a professional category.”

“We’re not exactly professional.”

“Irma!”

“Well we’re not!”

“I found it in an alleyway,” the dreadlocked girl said nervously. “I guess I live in the same direction you do from here, but I wasn’t going straight home yesterday… if I had then…”

Guilt. Susan knew what that looked like, from mirrors. “I’m sure you’d have helped if you’d known then. But if there’s anything you can do to help me find her… I’d…”

The heart practically jumped out of the little asian girl’s hands - for a moment that mixed horror with just a tiny hint of shameful glee, Susan thought it was coming at her. But no. It stretched out, drawing the girl towards the school building.

“Um, we may not know. But this thing seems to have an idea,” the girl admitted.

(The idea snuck up on Susan again. She killed it and buried it.) *Not my daughter. No.*

“It might…” Susan took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. “I know it’s a school day, but please. Help me.”

-

The jewel led them into the school’s basement. Dusty, dingy, probably abandoned as unused years ago. A part of Susan was surprised more students hadn’t snuck down here, it wasn’t locked. But perhaps times had changed.

She got introductions to the girls. Taranee, the girl in dreadlock and glasses. Little Hay Lin, carrying the Heart of Kandrakar (the Keeper, a little fearful voice whispered). Confident Irma. Tall, blonde Cornelia who claimed she didn’t want to come here… but no one was dragging her.

It wasn’t like it was. It wasn’t like them. But it reminded her of them.

Susan hoped that they thought her curtness was just worry for Will. Probably the Oracle hadn’t told them about her. Kandrakar was usually quiet, and telling girls about the past wasn’t their style. It wasn’t a story she wanted to tell… but she would if she had to.

If that was the price of Will’s safety.

The shadowy basement rooms and passages were lit only by the glow of the Heart… and then by another glow - a blue white presence hanging in the air.

“A portal,” Susan murmured. “Then Will’s…” Many of the worst imaginings came to her mind.

“On the other side of that?” asked Irma.

The only adult in the group looked at the Heart, still gently tugging Hay Lin towards the portal. She nodded.

“This is crazy,” Cornelia declared. “Until she puts that on, we don’t have most of our powers.”

“What?” That word wrenched from Susan. “What did you say?”

“Um,” Taranee backed up a little.

Hay Lin squeaked.

“I thought you knew,” the blonde pointed out. “The magic do-dab doesn’t change us into Guardians unless she’s....”

Susan raised her hand for silence. *Oh no. No.* “This can’t be happening.”

“Mrs Vandom?” asked Hay Lin nervously.

“Are you saying my daughter is the Keeper of the Heart of Kandrakar?”

“Uh-huh,” Irma agreed.

She felt her hands shaking. Four of them, which had to mean there was a fifth.

A fifth, who was missing. Like Will.

Susan Vandom’s last hopes got staked through the heart and buried.

“Damn you!” she growled and snatched for the Heart on a sudden destructive impulse. Hay Lin squeaked nervously.

There was a flash of light from the crystal and moment of pain - and then another as she slammed into the wall. The Heart, it would seem, remembered her. There was no satisfaction to that.

“...that looked like it hurt.”

“Give me my daughter back!” Susan hissed at the Heart. “You can’t have her.”

“Uh, we don’t… have her?” offered Taranee.

“Not you! Kandrakar!”

“Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cornelia pointed out. “But right now, she’s not here. And I don’t think the doohicky can fix that.”

For a long moment, Susan was tempted to give up. It filled her with more shame than anything in her life. More than what had haunted her since long before these girls had even been thought of.

Then she shook that off. No. Nothing was keeping her from Will. Nothing.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. None of this is your fault.” She pushed herself to her feet - seeing the girls back up warily. Well, it had looked as if she’d tried to attack Hay Lin. “Thank you for bringing me here. I’ll take care of it from here.”

“Uh, are you nuts? We’re going after her,” Irma declared.

Susan felt her lips curl in appreciation. The girl had guts. That… well, it would help. “You’ve not been doing this long. You can’t have met Will before yesterday…”

“She’s one of us.”

*So was I. So was…* Susan cut that thought off before the name could remind her.

“We hardly know her,” Cornelia pointed out.

“Last year, you hardly knew me.” Taranee countered.

“You don’t have to come if you don’t want,” Hay Lin declared and jumped through the portal, vanishing. As did the Heart of Kandrakar.

Susan followed on instinct.

-

She landed with a splash in a swamp. A moment later Taranee followed her - Susan caught her as she landed and waded aside. Looking back, she could see this side of the portal. That was a relief - if she hadn’t then getting back would have been problematic.

Cornelia followed them through with a considerable splash as she apparently wasn’t coming through under her control. She ended up fully submerged for a moment and came up with a small squid-like creature on her head. “Eugh! Gross, gross, gross, gross!”

Susan flicked the creature away and then helped the blonde up and away from the portal. A moment later, Irma splashed down as she emerged from the portal. “That certainly wakes up your underwear,” she declared.

Was that something kids said now? Susan sighed inwardly. She’d clearly not been keeping up. “Hay Lin?”

“This way,” the girl indicated, the crystal still offering what guidance it could. Which was reliable, at least. Susan could forgive it for choosing Will… a little, anyway.

Not that she was in a position to be offering forgiveness. Was this a punishment aimed at her?

They followed the smallest of the group as she crossed the swamp towards what was clearly a looming castle. Because of course it was. The swamp reminded Susan of Meridian - how had that mess even been sorted out? Hay Lin hopping from one foothold to another, staying clear of the water, reminded her of another girl…

Lin. Well, now she felt stupid all over again.

“Do you have a relative called Yan Lin?” she asked, wading between hillocks.

“Sure, my grandma!” The girl looked back and beamed. “You know her?”

A gulf of years loomed. *Grandma. Of course.* “I did. Once.” Susan looked away. “Is she well?”

“Fit as a fiddle!”

“Good.”

She didn’t see the other girls looking at her questioningly, but she knew by instinct that they were. None of them spoke about it though. The moat of the castle was ahead of them and without a Guardian’s ability to fly, that would be an obstacle.

Something rumbled under the waters. Something large.

“Look!” Hay Lin stepped heedless towards it. “Fishies!”

*Does she have some form of empathy with fish?* Susan wondered. *That could make this easier…*

The fish - larger than all of them combined - burst up above the water. Some mix of shark and crocodile, Susan thought absently, glad it at least didn’t have the latter’s legs.

Hay Lin, entirely in the creature’s shadow, screamed.

*That’s probably a no for ‘fish empathy’,* the mother thought and reached out for the girl but Irma was faster, pulling Hay Lin away from the water. They retreated behind some roots and stared at the still bubbling water.

“Okay,” the brunette girl declared. “We’re not swimming across.”

“Well I have sort of an idea,” declared Cornelia.

The other three girls all turned to look at her with some doubt.

“Oh, don't look so surprised.”

The byplay forced a laugh out of Susan. “Please,” she invited, gesturing for Cornelia to continue.

The tallest of the girls climbed up a knoll looking over the moat and extended her hand.

They watched, Susan’s heart pounding, and at first nothing seemed to happen. Then a long root that clung to the side of the towering castle pulled its way off the rocks, gathering energy until it swung across the moat, the end completing the arc in the blonde’s hand.

“Yay!”

“That was cool.”

“Yes,” Susan agreed. “Well done, Cornelia.” Even without the power of a guardian’s transformation, they weren’t without options - if they were resourceful enough.

The swing across the moat was exhilarating. It took Susan back to the past for a moment, the sort of thing that she might have done back then. Unfortunately, as the balcony they were aiming for closed in, it was clear that they had slightly miscalculated the height. Or perhaps how much momentum they had with the weight of all five of them.

“Jump!” she called out, as they reached the furthest extreme of the swing.

In the scramble, her hands barely found the edge of the balcony, slippery with rainwater and moss. Someone latched on to her waist and Susan felt her grip slip with the added weight. *I’m not a teenager any more,* she remembered. *I am going to feel this in the morning.*

More hands grabbed hers and pulled. Some scrabbling got her a foothold and with that to work with, Susan pulled herself up far enough to get her waist over the balcony.

“Where’s Corny?” asked Irma.

Susan reached down, one hand free now, and helped the blonde climb up.

“Thanks, Mrs Vandom.”

“Ms,” she corrected and then smirked. “But I guess anyone who’s hung onto me like that can call me Susan.”

The teenager flushed. “R-right.”

“Ooo! Me too!” Hay Lin threw her arms around Susan as she pulled herself up over the balustrade.

“Yes yes, you all have permission,” Susan sighed, patting the girl’s head with one hand as she got her feet under her. Apparently trying to snatch the Heart from her hadn’t offended Yan Lin’s granddaughter much. Or at all. “Now let’s see if we can find Will without being spotted.”

-

The housekeeping of the castle’s corridors made the school basement look positively pristine. Cobwebs almost covered some of the passages. Most of the girls were short enough to get past them, but it was more of a problem for the taller Cornelia, and for Susan. They did what they could but Susan was resigned to washing the results of some collisions out of her hair later.

“At least we know these passages aren’t being used,” Susan murmured.

Cornelia just rubbed her bare arms, as if trying to scour away the remains of one cobweb. “That’s a great relief.”

The chambers they were going past had bars on them. This was clearly some kind of prison. The fact it was in disuse might be a good sign, or perhaps not. Susan wished she knew where they were, but all her information on other worlds was decades out of date.

The heart finally led them out of an arched entrance into a larger chamber, with several large pits dug into the floor. The crystal jerked forwards with even greater force as they entered, almost yanking Hay Lin off her feet. Susan caught her before she could fall and saw the chain holding the pendant stretching almost horizontally, pointing to one of the openings. An oubliette, she realized - a deep, vertical cell with the entrance at the top.

The sort of place you put someone you didn’t expect to take out soon, if ever.

“Will!” she called down the hole, voice echoing down the stone sides.

“I’m down here!” her daughter’s voice came back.

Susan sagged in relief. Will was alive. The worst had not happened.

“Catch!” Hay Lin called and released the heart. It dropped like the stone that it was, the pink glow diminishing as it descended.

Susan braced herself for what she knew must inevitably follow.

“Guardians unite!”

Like every time she’d heard those words, the woman braced herself for the column of pink light that erupted up from the darkness below. Taranee, Cornelia, Irma and Hay Lin were swept up in it. Transformed, left older in appearance by the heart’s magic. Dressed in the green and purple of the guardians. Bewinged and brought to their full potential.

And Susan… wasn’t.

Of course. What had she expected? She was no longer a Guardian. Hadn’t been for a long time.

And yet, there was a little part of her that had expected the clock to be rolled back, all her sins absolved. Stupid.

“Taranee, a little light?” asked Irma, peering down into the shadowy depths of the oubliette.

The girl, now with multiple fierce looking dreadlocks, conjured a ball of flames without a word, only for it to suddenly plunge downwards into the pit.

Old reflex had Susan extend her hand sharply, stabilizing the ball.

Much to her own surprise, it worked and the fire hovered in mid-air.

“S-sorry,” Taranee exclaimed.

“Practice helps. Do you have it now?”

Susan felt it slip from her control, but it didn’t fall any further. “I… I think so.”

“You do,” she assured the nervous girl.

“That was cool,” Irma assured her.

A moment later, Will soared up out of the pit, looking every bit the confident young woman that Susan had believed - hoped - was within her nervous, withdrawn daughter.

The redhead’s eyes lit up at the sight of the other four Guardians. “You came for me. You really are my friends.” Then her eyes met Susan’s… “M-mom?”

Susan, for her part, reached out wordlessly to her daughter - the Keeper - half afraid that she’d vanish like a mirage.

“I can explain!” Will burst out.

A door, high on the chamber wall, burst open and guards began to descend a stairway towards them.

“Later,” her daughter continued, looking around. “Cornelia, Taranee - block the stairs! Hay Lin, find us an exit.”

The girls burst into action immediately, Susan stepping back to watch them work. Watch her daughter lead. She was so proud of the girl that she was almost choking. So afraid for her that she couldn’t have said anything anyway.

“Irma,” Will moved her attention smoothly towards the last of the team. “The rebel leader’s down there - he’s too heavy to lift out. His mouth alone must weigh two hundred pounds.”

Irma smirked confidently. “We don’t have to lift. Water!” A torrent of water crashed from her hand down into the oubliette. Susan hoped that the rebel leader could swim as the oubliette was rapidly flooding - a firehose couldn’t have filled it so quickly. The young Guardians certainly didn’t lack for power, just control.

Well, it was still their first few days in the role. She could recall a few - more than a few - gaffes on her part. Things she’d never admitted to her own friends. Perhaps… perhaps she should have. Been less convinced she had to be the perfect leader, the one who never made mistakes. Until those mistakes turned into something worse.

While Susan was thinking, the water reached the top of the pit, with two bedraggled people floating - or rather one on top of the other. A small, goblinesque shape clung to a youth not much other than Will. “Let go of me,” the boy complained. “We’re out.”

She grabbed the smaller of the two, dropping him on the wet flagstones and then offered her hand to the young man, bracing herself against his weight as she heaved him out.

“Hey, it’s him!” exclaimed Taranee, pointing at the boy. Then her finger moved to the goblin. “But what’s that?”

“And which is the rebel leader?” Susan asked.

“That would be me,” the boy answered. If he was the leader, rather than a leader, then Susan suspected the rebellion was struggling. Then again, she’d been younger. “He’s a smuggler.”

“Businessman!” the little guy protested.

Cornelia had also fallen back to join them. “I blocked them but it’s not going to hold for very long.”

Only a moment later, Hay Lin returned, hyperventilating. “There's a million halls down there, it's a really cool maze!” Her expression fell. “I mean, cool if we weren't trapped in here and everything.” Then she spotted the young man and brightened again, her mood as changeable as the wind. “Hey, you didn't get eaten by that thing!”

He shrugged with forced nonchalance.

“We may be able to retrace our steps.” Susan had tried to keep track of the turns, but she knew from long experience that it was easy to get lost, things could look very differently just going through tunnels in the opposite direction.

“Take Blunk!” the goblin proclaimed. “Blunk knows tunnel. Secret way out.”

Hay Lin laughed nervously and took the goblin’s hands. “He’s kind of cute?”

“And we don’t have time to wait,” Susan observed, seeing guards climbing down from chains stretching from the ceiling. How they’d got there she didn’t care. “Let’s go.”

They ran - well, Susan and the boy ran. The Guardians flew, while Blunt padded along on all fours. She saw that Cornelia was bringing up the rear, throwing up the barricades.

“Don’t do that,” Susan warned her, after the first two. “They’ll just use the blockages as markers to figure out where we went.”

“Oh.” The blonde looked a little huffy.

“The first few are fine,” she panted. She probably needed more exercise. “But once we’re out of their sight, we can lose them in the tunnels.”

“Tunnel,” Blunk declared after several turns - he darted into a side-passage. “Under moat!”

That sounded promising until he removed some debris and discovered bars across the passage. “No!”

The boy sighed. “That’s what you get for trusting a smuggler.”

There was a nasty sounding roar from behind them.

“Stand back,” Taranee ordered and a brilliant fire rose from one of her fingers. She pointed it at a bar and started to melt through it. It wouldn’t be quick though.

“I need you to do something really difficult,” the boy told them. “Be very quiet.”

Susan hid a smile at the offended expressions of the girls.

Kneeling, the boy closed his eyes in concentration and a wall appeared from nowhere, closing off their side passage from the rest of the maze.

“That’s -!” Cornelia began and Irma clamped her hand across the girl’s mouth.

Susan stared at the boy and then the new wall, nodding as she realized that it was just an illusion. Very clever. It wasn’t the most powerful of spells, but sometimes it was a matter of having the right tool for the job.

A crash of boots and the sound of something slithering approached them… and then receded as the pursuit went past them into the labyrinth.

In the shadowy tunnel, Will reached out a hand and grasped Susan’s. She smiled down at her daughter - not as far down as she was used to - and squeezed Will’s hand in silent reply. It was hard to say how long they stood there, hand in hand, but eventually Taranee managed to sever the bar she was working on at either end, leaving enough room for them to wriggle through.

Susan followed Blunk and the guardians, then paused for the boy. He was still looking away, entranced in his spell. “What’s your name?” she asked him.

“Cal- ah no!” he exclaimed as the illusion collapsed, leaving him blinking at the empty passageway beyond it. “Er, Caleb.”

“Good job, Caleb. But we can go now.”

“Right. I knew that.”

Susan was crawling away from him, so she didn’t have to hide her smile. Teenaged boys and their machismo. Then she stopped smiling. How long had he been in there with Will? She trusted her daughter, but…

-

After all the trouble getting here, the exit from Blunk’s tunnel wasn’t all that far from the portal. The girls could probably have simply flown right down there and been away in minutes, but of course they had companions to shepherd.

Susan missed being able to fly.

“Mom, about that explanation,” Will began, flying alongside her.

“She already knows about the Guardians,” Irma cut in.

“And she knows magic!” added Taranee. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

“Wait, you knew about this?” her daughter exclaimed in an accusatory tone.

“I had no idea you’d ever meet a Guardian, much less become one,” Susan defended herself. “Seeing the Heart of Kandrakar again gave me the fright of my life.”

“You’re not mad?”

“I’m terrified. The Heart’s a dreadful responsibility.” She paused, thinking back to her own time. “But I know - I *know* - that you couldn’t possibly have made better friends yesterday. This… just wasn’t what I expected.”

Will nodded. “Why didn’t you tell me you knew magic?”

“A good magician never reveals her tricks. And honestly, I haven’t used it in years.”

“I learned from my mother,” Caleb cut in. “Who did you learn from?”

“That’s… a long story.”

“Right, I get it. Subject dropped,” he said huffily.

“No, it’s fine. But we should focus on getting out of here. Ask me once we’re safe.” She didn’t like to think how Will would react… but better she heard it from her. How she was going to explain it all… she wasn’t going to enjoy this.

“We’re almost there now,” Irma declared, pointing. “There’s the portal. We’re home safe!”

“Irma, don’t you know that that’s just tempting fate?” Taranee complained.

Susan was going to agree but then a giant snakeman erupted from the swampwater in front of them, rather proving Taranee’s point.

“...my bad,” Irma muttered.

“Why would I search all the passages for you?” the serpentine creature gloated. “When I could wait here, where you’d have to come.”

Susan frowned. She’d heard that voice before. It was hard to place, but now that she thought back… well there weren’t that many snake-men.

“Cedric!” Caleb exclaimed in a disgusted voice.

Well that narrowed it down to one possibility. Wait, was this Meridian? Cedric was still here? Did that mean… She shook her head. There was time to think about the implications later.

“I’ll try and draw him away,” Caleb started to say in a low voice.

“Good plan,” Susan told him, grabbing him by the shoulder. “But I’ll deal with him. You get clear.”

Cedric hissed in amusement. “You’re going to deal with me? You?”

“Mom!” Will protested.

“Go,” Susan ordered in the go-to-your-room voice, then turned to Cedric. “It’s been a while, Cedric. Have you forgotten who you’re talking to?”

His tongue flickered out, taking in her scent. “I do know you,” he exclaimed, drawing back and up, his focus now entirely on her.

Susan began to circle. “I think you’ve put on a little weight since I last saw you.”

“You… you’re not a Guardian any more!” Cedric declared. “You’re nothing.”

“That’s half-right.” For the first time in decades, Susan let a little quintessence crackle around her. “I’m not one of Kandrakar’s chosen any more. Which means I don’t have to play by their rules.” She could see the Guardians flying for the portal, Will having to be half-dragged.

“I… see. So… what brings you here?”

“Oh I had no plans to come here at all,” she told him sweetly. “Until, that is, someone brought my daughter here.”

Cedric flinched.

“Oh was that you?” She let that hang in the air. “Yes, I think it was.” Then she took a deep breath. “Crawl back to Phobos, and tell him this, from me: Earth is protected. And if you lay one finger on my child again you’ll pray that I’m as merciful as whatever punishment he gives you for this failure.”

Cedric was literally squirming. “You’re not welcome here,” he said at last. Trying to save face. “Leave.” He moved aside, giving Susan a direct path to the portal that the others had already used.

Every instinct screamed that she should run. Instead she stalked through the swamp water as if she owned it and paused right before the portal. She turned, looked at him. Channeled all the arrogance that she’d once worn so proudly. “I’ll be watching.”

And then she left Meridian.

-

“That was so cool,” Cornelia exclaimed once Will had closed the portal.

The girls had transformed and Susan, utterly drained, found a box to sit on with Will.

“He was afraid of you,” Taranee exclaimed.

Will leant on Susan, who put her arm around her shoulders. “Is it true? Were you a Guardian once?”

“That’s right. In fact, I was the Keeper of the Heart - like you.”

“It’s not a long story,” Caleb snarked from where he was leaning against a wall. “As far as you learning magic goes.”

Susan groaned inwardly. “It’s a bit more complicated than that. I was a disastrous choice as Guardian. I don’t like to even think about it, much less tell people.”

“Would you have really hurt Cedric?” asked Hay Lin… “You were scary, Susan.”

“I suppose he might have got indigestion.”

They all looked at her.

“I was bluffing,” she explained. “That little light display was about as much as I can do.”

“But, the fireball!” protested Taranee.

“You created that. I could only influence it when you lost control - as soon as you had it again, it was out of my hands.” Susan sighed and hugged Will closer. “Sometimes - more often than I would have believed when I was your age - it’s not how much power you have, it’s knowing what you can do with it. It’s why Cedric is so dangerous.”

“Besides shape-shifting, illusions, manipulating people -”

“And being a giant snake monster?” Irma cut off Caleb’s listing of the monster’s qualities.

Susan nodded. “All true. But he’s also smart. It’s how he survives - he never picks a fight unless he expects to win. This time I used that against him - but he will figure it out.”

Irma squinted at her. “Uh, Ms Vandom…”

“I said you could call me Susan.”

The girl nodded. “He’s not Will’s father, is he?”

“NO!” Both Vandoms exclaimed loudly.

“Eww, eww, eww,” Will added, shaking her head.

“He’s quite handsome in human form,” Susan conceded, mostly to tease her daughter. “And my taste in men is admittedly atrocious. But no - we crossed paths back when I was a Guardian and I believe we made quite an impression on him at the time.”

Caleb cleared his throat. “So what do we do now?”

Susan reached into her coat and produced her phone. “Now, you need to make yourself scarce while I talk to the police.”

“The who?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Irma waved her hands. “You can’t tell the police about this!”

“I need to tell them that Will’s been found. They’ve been combing Heatherfield for you,” She checked her phone and found no messages. “Do any of the doors here lock? I think we could reasonably claim that you went exploring and got locked up down here by accident, Will.”

Her daughter made a face. “Great. I’ll be a joke.”

“Also we’ll need to break a drain pipe to explain why we smell like this,” Susan continued, sniffing her sleeve. “As for you, Blunk…” She looked around but saw no sign of the little goblin.

“He hightailed it out of here as soon as we arrived,” Caleb told her.

“Huh. Well, he’s survived this long in Meridian… He must be fairly resourceful.” Heatherfield could probably survive one goblin-like businessman, she thought.

“Who are the police?” Caleb repeated his question.

“Like guards,” Irma explained. “They’ll want to know who you are, how you got here. They won’t give up until they have answers that satisfy them… and they won’t believe a word about magic.”

“Is there a tyrant here like Phobos?”

The question was asked in all sincerity, but it cracked everyone else in the room up.

-

Between faking a broken lock and a broken drainage pipe, then explaining to the principal and the police where Will had been - and why Susan hadn’t gone home as she’d agreed to - it took the rest of the school day to get to the point that the girls could smuggle Caleb off the campus and to Susan’s waiting car.

It very likely could have taken even longer, but it turned out that Irma’s knowledge of the police came from her father - the same police officer who had been helping Susan that morning. Once his daughter was involved, Sergeant Lair had apparently chalked this up as ‘another crazy thing that happened around Irma’, and settled his colleagues down.

Caleb peered around the streets as Susan drove, while the five girls (all crammed together in the back) called directions to her. The size and scope of the buildings were something unfamiliar to the young rebel.

“I was meaning to ask,” Susan asked - trying to distract herself from her thoughts about the conversation she was about to have. “Are you *a* rebel leader… or *the* rebel leader?”

The boy coloured. “A leader. Dad says I’m ready for some responsibility. My parents are the real leaders.”

“And do they know you’re here?”

“I sent word back to them that I was looking for a portal to Earth. Phobos has learned his sister is here - he’s looking for her. I didn’t have time to go back and talk to them.”

Taranee stuck her head forward over the seats. “His sister?”

“The rightful ruler of Meridian,” Caleb confirmed. “She’s been missing since she was a baby. If she were to return, she could be a rallying point for the resistance. And she’d be able to rival his magic. At least, that’s what mother says.”

“And she’d know?” Cornelia asked skeptically.

“There isn’t much that my mother doesn’t know,” he said confidently.

“Speaking of things that mothers know,” Susan observed as she saw a small Chinese restaurant. Their destination. “Hay Lin, I don’t think your grandmother is going to be pleased so see me.”

“Grandma’s a great person!”

“I know. But the last time we spoke, I wasn’t.” Susan had to relax her grip on the wheel to pull over. “Just be prepared when it gets ugly.”

“It’ll be fine, how mad could she be?”

Explaining that would be a conversation that Susan didn’t want to have in public. “We’ll find out, I suppose.”

The little mob exited the car and the girls all but dragged Caleb inside. Susan followed at a slower pace. It was time to face the music.

Inside, she saw Hay Lin eagerly talking to… that had to be Yan Lin.

She hadn’t been prepared to see how old her friend was. It was one thing to know that her years in prison had been far from the number that had passed here. But now she was looking at an old, stooped woman whose face was a mass of wrinkles.

And beneath it, there was still Yan Lin. Still someone who’d stuck with her through thick and thin… until even that loyalty had met a rock that it couldn’t survive.

There was a crystalline moment when Yan Lin’s eyes locked on hers. Perhaps for others it was an instant but in that time, Susan knew that the older woman was reliving the same events that she was.

“Nerissa!? What are you after?” Yan Lin snapped.

“Uh…” Will looked startled. “Who’s…”

“Nerissa used to be my name,” Susan explained quietly. “I drove them here, Yan Lin. That’s all.”

“A likely story.” Yan Lin stomped forward. “You’re after the Heart!”

“I’m capable of learning from my mistakes.”

“Oh, *mistakes*. Is that what you call them?”

“It covers a multitude of sins,” Susan admitted. “I know it’s worth almost nothing, but I am sorry.”

“What you did was unforgivable, Nerissa. Stay away from these girls!”

Susan felt her own temper flare. “It’s not quite that simple. But you’re right. What I did was unforgivable.” She looked past - over - Yan Lin’s head. At the girls who were frozen in disbelief. At Caleb who looked less surprised - she suspected he’d taken her warning seriously. “Yan Lin was a better guardian on her worst day than I was on my best. You can trust her.” Then looking back at perhaps her oldest remaining friend in the world, Susan added: “I’m trusting you with my daughter, Yan Lin.”

“You… what?”

Susan turned and left, taking no satisfaction in Yan Lin’s stunned expression.

“Nerissa!”

She kept walking. Back to the car. Away to somewhere she could cry in privacy.

-

Hours later, the apartment door opened and Susan looked across the darkened room to see the light spilling in from the corridor outside. The sun had set as she was driving home.

Will was outlined by the electric lights, her shadow cast across the room. She looked very young, very frightened. “Mom?”

“I’m here.” Susan wiped her face. When Will didn’t move, she rose and walked over. “Did you think I wouldn’t be here?”

“I wasn’t sure,” Will said in a small voice.

She was about to hug her, but the girl flinched away. A dagger driven into Susan’s heart. This was worse than going into Meridian. But if she gave up now… “You’re my daughter,” she said slowly. “I love you more than anyone or anything in the world. Nothing will change that.”

Will dropped her bag and then kicked the door closed. “I don’t know what to think.”

“It’s been a busy couple of days, hasn’t it?”

“Is it true?”

That hung in the air. “I don’t know what Yan Lin told you exactly,” Susan admitted. “But I think I can guess.”

She’d taken what she was looking for out of a drawer. Something she’d hidden for years. Not even daring to look at, really. Now she flipped it over and pushed it towards Will. “This is Cassidy.”

Will picked the picture up, then looked at Susan. Expectantly.

“She was my best friend.” Susan admitted, eyes prickling with tears. “The best of us, really. She was the Guardian of Water… but I think she should always have been the Keeper. What I did… Yan Lin is right. It was unforgivable.”

“What did you do?”

Oh god. That question. For years she’d hoped to never face it. Not from Will.

“...I killed her.” Tears ran down her face at the admission. It was too much to look at Will and confess that. Susan covered her face in her hands. “I was jealous, bitter. I was a complete fool and I destroyed everything that mattered to me for something that was never worth it.”

There was a clink of something being put on the table between them.

“For this?”

Oh she wouldn’t…!

Between her fingers, Susan saw the pink crystal on the table, still on its cord.

The Heart of Kandrakar. The one she’d carried, lost… killed for.

“I never wanted her to die,” she said slowly, “But yes. I was trying to take that back from her.”

“And you’ve never forgiven yourself.” Small arms closed around Susan Vandom. “Mom, you don’t have to do this.”

“Do what?” she asked, as if she was the child and Will the parent.

“I can give it back. We can just leave.” And then Will scooped up the heart and dangled it between them. “Or you can take it now.”

Susan stared at it, then her daughter’s eyes. “You can just forget that last part right now. Even if I could take the heart, it would be Cassidy all over again. I can’t say I’m better than that - but I’ll never do that again.” She wiped some of the tears away.

“And… giving it back. Not being a Guardian?”

“You have no idea how tempting that idea is.” She rested her forehead against Will’s. “Being a Guardian is a… a terrible privilege, an amazing burden… I want, more than almost anything, to protect you from everything that comes with it.”

“Almost anything? I don’t understand. If it’s hurting you then…”

“Will, the most important thing for me, is you. And if I hide you away from the rest of the world, like the treasure you are… then I might be keeping you from becoming the amazing young woman that you’re growing into. You’re so special that you have no idea… and no, I don’t mean you being a Guardian. And while you’ll always be my little girl, that can’t be everything.”

She reached up, cupped her hands around the Heart and lifted it up into Will’s. Still between them. Her hands around Will’s, Wills’ around the Heart of Kandrakar. “What matters is your decision. What is right for Will Vandom?”

For a very long moment, the only sounds were their own breathing.

“They came for me, Mom. And if they were in trouble…”

“You would go for them.”

Will swallowed. “Are you mad?”

*Yes,* Susan thought. *But not at you.* “When I saw you take charge in that dungeon, I was prouder of you than I have ever been. And more afraid.”

“You were afraid of me?” Will recoiled, looking pained.

“No! Never. Afraid *for* you,” she explained. “Afraid of the dangers of being a Guardian. And…” She blinked back more tears. “Afraid that you might make the same mistakes I did.”

“Hey, I’d never do that!”

“I would have said the same,” Susan admitted. “Right up until I did. It’s never easy.”

“I won’t,” her daughter promised. And then a smile crept onto her face. “You won’t let me.”

“What? Will, I’m not qualified in any way to tell anyone how to be a good Guardian.”

“It’ll be easy. Just tell me what you did, and I’ll do the opposite!” Will leant over and kissed her on the cheek. “Okay, maybe not quite that simple. But I’m not choosing between this -” She held up the Heart “- and you. I’m keeping both.”

“I…”

“You said it was my decision.” The mulish determination in Will’s face was evident.

Susan slumped back in the chair. “I did, didn’t I?”

“No take-backs.”

“No, no take-backs.” She raked her hair back. “Are you sure about this? It’s going to be difficult. I doubt your friends will be as understanding.” She didn’t mention Yan Lin. This was undoubtedly going to terrify the former Air Guardian.

Will frowned and then shrugged. “Caleb said, when Yan Lin told us - he said that some of the people who joined the Rebellion had worked for Phobos before. And it was always hard to trust them, in case they were spies.”

“That makes sense.”

“But if they turned away anyone who’d ever made the mistake of serving Phobos, they’d be turning away everyone who’d learned that it *was* a mistake.”

“That’s very wise.”

“I think his father told him that,” Will confided. “Caleb’s not exactly wise. Wise-guy, maybe.”

“I can see that.” *A very dangerous young man to be around five impressionable girls… But not a bad young man in other ways,* Susan admitted to herself. “But I’m not sure where you’re going with this.”

Will held up the Heart between them again, slipping her hands free of Susan’s. “You said you weren’t better than trying to take that. But that’s it: you weren’t better than that. And now, you are better. I’m not going to try and say you weren’t terribly wrong in what you did. But you’ve learned from that. And I’d really much rather learn from your mistakes than mine.”

“Well, we agree on that.”

“So Caleb… he’s going to give you a chance. Although maybe just one.”

“Fair,” Susan sighed. “If I hadn’t… if I hadn’t torn the Guardians apart, we might have been able to stop Phobos long before you ever had to deal with him.”

Will nodded. “I guess we’ll never know about that. Anyway, Irma thinks you’re ‘wicked cool’, even if she’s not exactly okay with your past.”

“Is that a compliment?”

Her daughter nodded. “I think the others will come around.”

Susan gave her a rueful look. “First lesson for you, Will. If they come around, that’s good, but don’t let this become a rift between you. The Guardians of the Veil are at their strongest when together - emotionally, even if you’re not in one place. Separated… that’s when you’re at your weakest. You can’t afford to ignore a disagreement… but at the same time, they won’t just go away because you confront them.”

“So it’s complicated.”

“Yes. Like friendship. Or family.”

“Okay. I’ll talk to them… with them.”

“That’s right.” She kissed Will’s cheek.

“And you talk with me? No more secrets?”

“No more secrets,” Susan agreed. “Just be careful what you ask for. There are some things you might not want to know.”

“I don’t think anything’s going to top what I found out today.”

“Your father wasn’t my first boyfriend.”

Will crammed her hands over her ears. “Not-listening, not listening!” she cried out, retreating towards the bathroom.

And her mother watched her go, feeling lighter than she had in years.