xp_logs | House of Wind: Right Place, Wrong Time

In Rio, the team finds the house, a day too late. But Alison and Saul also find something left behind for them - and not by Nathan. Elsewhere, Nathan finds himself in the right place. All that's left to do is wait.

"We're too late." In most cases, Saul Morrow was not a man to state the obvious, but this was a special occasion. It was not casually said, either, and the hint of emotion behind it would have, should have been unreadable. But days of searching, only to find the right place, at the wrong time...

He hadn't even known that this house existed. He had been to Rio de Janeiro several times over the last thirty years, some of those times with his brother, but they had always stayed in the city. Had it not been for the local police's willingness to cooperate, this place would have remained a secret. This Captain Cardoso had located the airport Gideon had flown into, and then this address on the invoice for the landing fees.

But too late. The house was empty even of staff.

Saul shook his head a little, watching Alison Blaire prowling around the elegant living room of Gideon's house here in Rio. "What are you looking for?" The others were elsewhere in the house, doing a cursory search - the damaged rooms upstairs suggested things that Saul preferred not to contemplate too closely - but she seemed more purposeful.

"A clue," Alison answered absently, scanning the room on the superficial level for a second time before starting to prowl around a third time, this time looking at every item and piece of furniture intently. "Something." She shook her head at the living room and after a moment's thought, headed for the kitchen. "C'mon, you left me something... you did before, you did it again."

"I have the strong impression that you're not speaking to me, Ms. Blaire," Saul said, but followed her. "Do you think that Nathan would have left some sort of message behind?" Perhaps he would have, Saul told himself. His son was nothing if not resourceful.

"Not Nathan..." Alison paused to give him a sideways look, before taking a deep breath and turning around to look at the kitchen instead.

And there it was, blindingly obvious to her, smack dab in the middle of the antique tiles lining the counter by the sink. "...no way." Alison pointed at the tile she had noticed, the Askani rune highlighted by the ray of light she shone in its direction. "See that?" She was grinning now, feeling a fresh surge of hope. "She left it. She knew!"

"What..." Saul blinked at the tile, something close to open shock on his face as he tilted his head, studying it. The sudden shock of familiarity was overwhelming. "Esther? It looks like the drawings she used to do, years ago..." Esther had been here? In this house? "She was here in Rio," he said, almost under his breath, something close to real pain in his voice. "The year she died." Yet another one of her many impulsive trips in those last years, at a time when her health should not have permitted it. He remembered, suddenly, Gideon telling him, with visible irritation, to just take her passport away and be done with it, Saul, before the foolish woman drives herself into an early grave.

"That would make sense," Alison replied, not unkindly, but also not preoccupied with the past enough to stop focusing on the immediate future - and finding Nathan. "But that's not all that's on this." Alison leaned forward, lips curving into an amazed smile. To anyone else, the tile would be a simple, engraved decorative work. But to Alison, a shade of blue on blue intertwined among the rest of the drawing upon it spoke of something else entirely.

An Askani rune, which encompassed one concept. 'Look behind me.'

Without further ceremony, Alison traced the contours of the tile with a fingertip, the laser eating away neatly at the cement holding it in place until the tile tipped over neatly into her waiting hand. "And there we go..."

It was a envelope, heavy paper, slightly yellowed with age. Alison's name was printed on the front, and she opened it to find a single sheet of paper, covered in graceful handwriting. Saul took a sharp breath, recognizing it immediately. As did Alison, who had read a similar letter over Nathan's shoulder in Africa, months ago.

Alison,

I only hope that what I've seen, I've seen clearly, and that you'll read this when the proper time comes. If it does. Perhaps what I truly hope is that you will have no reason to ever be in this house, finding this letter.

I'm dying, and my vision is growing cloudy. I see only fragments, now, fragments that terrify me, and very few that give me hope. I see my son relying on fragments of his own, which terrifies me even more. I see him here, in this very house where I'm standing - hurt and trapped and yet somehow willing. I'm not sure I understand. I see him and he's not fighting. He's made a choice.

He won't be here when you get here. I know that much. Gideon's taken him to the end of the world. Please, find him. I see very little past this, and I'm not sure why, whether he's miscalculated and Gideon's future will carry the day.

I'm so terribly tired, Alison. I need so badly to do more for him, but I'm running out of time. Remember - the end of the world. They're alone at the end of the world.

Esther

In the last paragraph or two, Esther's writing had deteriorated, grown rushed, almost frantic. Saul was staring down at the letter like it held answers to questions he'd never wanted to ask.

--

"What did you think you were doing?"

His mind was hazy still. The methods of Gideon's 'staff healer' certainly bore no resemblance to what Amanda had used to do. The man had even explained that it was dangerous, forcing the metabolism to speed up and the body's regenerative abilities to fast-forward, and so could only be done in small doses to avoid doing more damage than good. It had certainly hurt. A lot. But at least his ribs were no longer poking holes in his lungs, or so Delgado claimed.

It still kind of felt like they were.

"Nathan. Are you paying attention to me?"

Nathan blinked and shifted in the chair, his breath catching at the pain in his chest. He hadn't been able to stay in bed. It was easier to breathe, sitting up. Gideon was sitting in the chair across from his, wearing an oddly pensive expression. The sunlight from the window fell across both of them, but Nathan still felt cold.

It was colder here. More windy.

"Did you lose your nerve?" Gideon murmured, his eyes locked on Nathan's face. "It was a remarkably inept escape attempt, which makes me think it wasn't serious..."

He couldn't remember why he'd done what he'd done. Was that why Gideon didn't know? Couldn't just pick it out of his mind? "I'm where I need to be," he said after a moment, unevenly.

"Mmm. A country and most of a continent away from where your friends can help you." A pause. "Do you expect to die here, Nathan?" The tone of the question was almost curious.

Moira's and Rachel's faces, flashing vividly in his mind's eye. "No," Nathan said, his head almost clear. "But I do expect you to try to kill me."

Instead of answering, Gideon rose, moving smoothly towards the door of the much smaller bedroom. The house was smaller than the one in Rio, Nathan thought. Smaller and more rustic. The house at the end of the world.

"Get some more rest," his uncle advised him, pausing at the door again. "We'll begin again tomorrow."

Nathan didn't answer, didn't even particularly register the door close behind Gideon. He stared out at the mountains, his mind perfectly empty again. Almost peacefully so.

He was right where he needed to be.