Vidare 12: Tribunal

"State your name to the court."

"Miles Jermaine Nichols of The Chakravanti." Miles stood at attention with his hands behind his back, trying not to look directly at the nine various people who had come to represent each tradition.

"What is your relationship to Derrick Alan Parker?" The one in the center, his robe, a traditional garment of the Verbena, spoke up.

"He is what I would consider a son." Miles said plainly. "He is the adoptive child of my cabal."

"What is your relationship with his father, the deceased?" The Verbena asked.

"I was present when he died." Miles stated.

"Had you met him at any point before the day of his death?" Another member of the council added.

"No. Our first encounter was the day of his death." Miles looked at the ground now.

"Why did he die Mr. Nichols?" The representative of The Akashayana folded their hands as they looked down at him.

"He threatened to kill Derrick. He said he would find us, and put a knife in his own child. Ariana put a bullet in his head." Miles replayed the memory in his head with frustration written onto his face.

The member of The Mercurial Elite sat back in their chair. "What followed the death?"

"We contacted our handle Vicente. Ariana had cleaned up evidence and rolled Jesse into a rug. We then delivered the body to our handler, and left for home."

The council exchanged looks one by one. "Miles, what do you feel about this?" The Celestial Chorus representative asked.

"Horrible, but also quite relieved. Jesse was a man who left his own child on a rooftop for four years. He was an addict, for which I have no judgment, but was clearly more invested in cocaine than his son. Jesse threatened to murder the people who rescued his child from that roof and brought him back to full health. I sleep easier knowing he is dead, but I'm also disgusted at the part I played in it." Miles took a deep breath. "That all being said, had I simply not tracked him down, I could have prevented this. I feel guilty."

None of the council members spoke for a minute as they once again exchanged looks and waited for the next question. The speaker for The Order of Hermes sighed. "That will be all Miles. Please wait outside."

Miles was directed back out into the room, and as he shut the wooden door he looked out at the cabal. Derrick had his eyes fixed on the ground, and Ariana had buried herself in her hands with her hair a tangle. "How'd it go?" Kai asked.

"You know we can't talk about it." Jason looked up from his book to an angry look from Kai.

Garrett stood up next, walking swiftly into the room and refusing to look at Miles as he passed. Miles sat across from Ariana on the benches and pulled a pack of gum from his pocket. The group sat quietly as they waited for Garrett to finish his testimony, looking up only when he opened the doors. "They're ready for us."

One by one they filed into the large court-like room and stood in a line. The center member of the tribunal stood. "The Cabal assembled by the gathered has been interviewed, assessed, and examined with the fullest ability of this tribunal." She took a breath and looked at each of them. "Ariana of The Sahajiya, is hereby placed on a temporary hold for all missions, until further notice. At this time, she is subject to evaluations with a Master of her tradition, and only to return to duty with their approval."

Ariana balled her fists, her eyes fixed on the floor as they continued. "Miles of The Chakravanti has been cleared of all charges. Vicente of The Kha'vadi is cleared of all charges. No other member faces charges. The cabal is dismissed with one quick exception." The council looked up at Derrick. "Derrick Parker of The Akashayana, we offer you our deepest sympathies for the death of your father. We will assemble and deliver the last of his items to you in time." Derrick didn't move a muscle, only staring ahead as they talked.

Dismissed, the cabal slowly walked towards the wooden doors, and back out into the world. "Well that...sucked." Miles stated plainly. "Is everyone okay?"

Ariana was silent, her eyes fixed on the ground. Derrick was looking off into the sky with his hands in his pockets. "Is it cool if I go hang out with Rema once we get home?"

"Of course." Kai said. "Just leave your phone on."

Derrick started walking away and Jason pulled out his keys. "Everyone ready?" Jason asked. As he looked around he pulled aside Ariana. "I hope you know, the shot I fired last night wasn't to scare you. I just wanted to keep everyone in order." She only nodded.

"I've got business to attend to." Miles said shortly. "Once we get back, I'm gonna duck out and do my own thing." Taking their two cars, the group silently headed home with Ariana and Derrick silent in the back seat. The awkward nature of the drive made it uncomfortable as they headed home, and when they arrived, almost all of them walked inside without talking or looking at each other.

Miles with a pad and paper he had been keeping notes on from his investigations, climbed into his own car and took off, heading for the next stop on his journey. He drove for over an hour as he headed to Boulder, home of the chantry he had determined was previously under Carolyn Brewers control. Stopping outside of a large aromatherapy shop, he parked, and drew his pad, checking the address.

"Hi uh..." Miles pulled open the door and found a woman in a colorful outfit standing behind the counter. "I'm looking for The Chantry of Chemical Construction?"

"Ah! An awakened! How lovely." She stepped forward. "I'm Diane, I represent this chantry at all gatherings, and I manage this shop most days. What is your name stranger?" She grinned, opening her arms for a hug. "Allow me to greet you."

"Oh uh...okay." Miles accepted her greeting and walked up to her, spreading his arms and hugging her. "I don't mean this to sound strange, but I love your perfume."

"Why thank you!" She said beaming. "What is your practice?"

"Chakravanti." He nodded.

"How beautiful." She played with her hair. "Do you have time away from your mission, little keeper of the cycle?" She flirted clearly but Miles held up a hand.

"I might after. I need to settle my business first." He awkwardly tried to let her down as gently as possible.

"Very well. Head back through the door, and down the stairs. "You'll find our group."

Miles thanked her and walked back through the storeroom, clomping down the stairs as he went. As he got to the bottom, he found a well furnished area that resembled a hookah bar, complete with tapestries and beanbags. "I'm looking for the leader of this chantry." Miles clapped his hands together happily.

"That's me." A woman sitting against the wall with bright and colorful clothes stood up and raised her hand. "I'm Kendall." She reached out to shake his hand with a large smile on her face. "We just whipped up a batch of acid, you want some?"

"I might take some to go, but unfortunately I have business here." Miles smiled at the large beakers and tubes running intricately around their lab.

"Well then what can I help you with?" She smiled, her eyes half closed from the drugs she had ingested.

"I'm looking for anyone who had contact with Carolyn Brewer." He stated, ready for any resistance.

"Oh! Barb over there was her apprentice for a long time." Kendall smiled as she pointed.

Miles was taken aback at the helpfulness but he held out his hand. "Thank you." Shaking hers, he walked over to Barbara. "Maybe we could talk somewhere private?" Miles offered.

"No thank you. I don't know you and I trust my mentor." She smiled but her eyes were stern and confident.

Miles looked from Kendall to Barbara and nodded slowly. "Okay, I understand you had Carolyn Brewer as a mentor?"

"Yes. Lovely woman. Brilliant too." Barbara happily nodded. "She was quite gifted."

"Can I ask what she was like before she disappeared?"

"She was...upset. As far as I understood she was always fighting with her husband, that piece of shit." Barbara folded her arms. "One day, she came down to the lab and cleared out all of her things. She said she was going to work on a new project, something that she felt could fix a mistake that was made. A lot of our people defected to The Order of Hermes so we didn't have a lot of members left."

Miles bit his thumb. "Was she trying to recruit for help?"

"She wanted any of us she could gather to work with her, and I know she crashed on another member's couch for a week or two while she got set up at her new place." Barbara set down her book and lit a small burner that she placed two coals on for a hookah in the center of the room. "Care to join me? There's nothing in there but nicotine."

Miles thought for a minute. "I supposed it would hurt." He sat on one of the beanbags as she filled a ceramic cup like bowl with the tobacco, covering it in foil and poking holes in the top. She placed it on to of the hookah and sat across from him. "Is there any way you could put me in touch with the person she stayed with? Or the house she moved to?"

"Sorry, I only know the guy she went to stay with. Poor girl gave up everything. After a few weeks, she stopped coming around, and Lonnie said she had disappeared." Looking over as the coals began to burn she sighed. "I miss her every day. She had a beautiful dream of bringing new members into the fold."

"Lonnie was the guy she stayed with?" Miles shifted back to the topic.

"Yeah." Barbara adjusted her glasses. "You're quite diligent about this. Care to extend the same level of trust to me?" She watched as Miles looked at the ground unsure. "What have you got to lose?"

Miles chuckled. "I dunno anymore. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell you. Once the coals are set, I'll fill you in completely." He smiled.

Barbara nodded and the two waited for the coals to light, Barbara lifting a metal tray and tongs to transfer them with. "Gather friends." She called to the chantry.

Kendall and two others sat with them at the hookah, waiting for Miles to begin. "It all starts with a rooftop, and a boy." He took a deep breath as they primed the hookah. For an hour he talked, relaying the history of their cabal, and the nature of Derrick. He filled them in on every detail, down to the very last day, and stopped as they exited the tribunal.

"Wow." Barbara smiled. "You make most mages look like boring people in an office. Can I ask you something though?"

"Fire away." Miles said as he puffed from the hose.

"Why didn't any of you realize that Sarah was one of the girls from the photo?" Miles took the house out of his mouth. "She obviously knew him well enough that she was both delighted and scared to see him."

"Wait...you're saying Derrick and Sarah were both in the photo?" Miles was lightheaded from the hookah.

"That guy, Harry, he confirmed it. Which means you already have everything you need. Sarah, her husband, Derrick, David, Thomas, and Heather."

"No, the name on the photo was Vic. Not David." Miles looked at her confused.

"Dude Vic is his middle name. He went by it till his husband died." Kendall smiled. "He's a total dick. We used to call him Vic Dick. Like a victim of his own penis."

"David knows Derrick?" Miles stood up suddenly. "I have to warn the others."

"Hold it man. I wouldn't do that." Kendall held up a hand. "David is Jason's mentor right? And Derrick is David's future past husband. If you fuck with that, you could fuck with the timeline. We have to assume that this is all playing out the way it needs to, but you can't stop it from happening."

"Furthermore," Barbara added. "You have two people unaccounted for. Heather, and Thomas." Barbara took another puff from the hookah. "You came here looking for Carolyn Brewer, and that's what you need to keep doing."

"If it's playing out the way it's meant to, how do we know it's not supposed to go towards me interfering?" Miles asked with stoned logic. "Maybe it takes us right where we need to be."

"Because we have proof that interfering gets you killed, man." Kendall frowned. "Lonnie told us that Carolyn is nothing more than dust. She tried to interfere, and she's gone."

Miles felt his head spin. "I thought you said this was only tobacco?"

"Sorry dude, habit." Barbara smiled. "We also had to kinda get your guard down."

"Well not I'm gonna be fucking stoned all day. Alright, lemme get my paper. Walk me through it once again." He chuckled as he pulled out the pad.

"Alright. Part one, Derrick is obviously married to Vic, aka David. Two, interference causes death." Kendall started.

"Three, Heather, Thomas, and Carolyn are still a mystery to your group. You need to investigate them." Barbara nodded.

"Four. The letter to Derrick we can assume is his new name. Chris. You have a date of death. They said they have twenty good years together." Vanessa, one of the others, contributed.

"Hold on." Miles jotted as fast as he could. "Can y'all pass this around and check it? I'm high as dog shit." Miles laughed, passing the pad.

"You got it." Barbara took the pad and edited his notes, adding to them as they went.

"Five, and maybe most important. Derrick, Chris, whatever the fuck you wanna call him, he isn't dead." Barbara added.

"How is he not dead, you said we had a date of death?" Miles asked as he looked up at the ceiling.

Barbara smiled. "No, we have a date of disappearing. He was clearly never found, otherwise the letter wouldn't exist. Let's assume that Derrick goes back in time, meets David. He falls in love, and has a beautiful gay romance for 20 years. Why twenty years?"

"Because he died suddenly?" Miles added.

"No dude. Him and Derrick can't exist at the same time. Obviously, whatever happened, he didn't continue to exist. I posit a theory. He got pulled back through time." Barbara took another hit from the hookah. "See his whole existence, from the very beginning, is a complicated and fucked up loop. He can't exist at the same time as Chris."

"How do we know Chris didn't get involved and interfere?" Miles asked.

"Because the timeline continues. Derrick exists now." Kendall laughed, high fiving Barbara. "So you can't save Derrick from going back. All you can do is put the puzzle together for how to get him back."

"Back?" Miles asked.

"From the time he disappeared." Barbara nodded. "You have to pull him back to the present, whenever that time is. This is important though. It has to be minimum one year after he disappears, and no one can know."

"How the fuck did you get that number?"

"Because he doesn't look 17. When he gets sent back, he obviously spends time with that group. And if the twenty year timeline is correct, he disappeared almost an exact year before the current Derrick was born." Kendall grinned. "What a pickle."

"Which means, we have a one year gap on both sides. One year before he dies, one year before he reappears. Time goes equally on both sides." Barbara finished.

"Guys I'm too stoned for this, can I crash here?" Miles put his hands to his head.

"Of course." Barbara put her hands on Miles's shoulders, and everything faded into a blur.

***

Miles woke up next to Diane, naked and wrapped up in her arms and blankets. "Oh fuck." Two days had gone by of him smoking with the chantry, and Miles got up to search for his pants. As he was standing naked, Barbara walked in.

"Don't freak. I washed your clothes." She smiled, setting a laundry basket in the room. Nice tat by the way." She shut the door after eyeing the large lotus tattooed on his chest.

Miles dressed as quickly as he could, grabbing his gear from a nearby table where it was laid out neatly, and heading for his cat after he wrote his number down for Diane. "Stupid man." He said himself in his mirror. "Sloppy and stupid." Opening his phone he sent a text to Jason letting him know he was okay, and that he was still chasing leads, but he would be home tonight. Checking his pocket for his pad, he opened it to Lonnie's address that had been copied down in pink pen. Driving with his windows down, he aired out the smell of pot as best he could by the time he reached the small suburban home.

Miles fixed his hair, loaded his gun, and walked to the door as he took a deep sigh. Knocking, he was greeted by a man in his forties in business formal wear. "Lonnie? I was sent here by Barbara and Kendall from the Solifacti."

"Of course, come in." Lonnie stepped aside and waved at Miles, his house so neat it looked staged.

"Thank you." Miles said as he looked around. "You have a lovely home."

"It's been a lot of work." Lonnie sighed. "Tea? I imagine you're a little roughed up."

"Roughed?" Miles asked, confused.

"You smell like my Chantry." Lonnie smiled. "Do you need anything?"

"Just the whereabouts of where Carolyn Brewer went." He sighed, smelling his jacket. "Do you know where Carolyn went to stay?"

"I...I can tell you there's not much there." Lonnie said as he sat in one of his chairs.

"That's okay. I don't mind chasing cold or dead leads." Miles smiled. "It's part of the job."

"I know you're doing what you're ordered, but that lab-"

"Lonnie. I spent the last two days baked with your chantry and wasting my fucking time. I don't have any more patience. If you wanna help me, give me the location and send me on my way."

Lonnie stared at him sadly before he wrote on a paper. "Here. Just don't say I didn't warn you."

"Thanks." Miles took the paper. He sighed and left the house, slamming the door on his way out as he headed back to the car. Starting it again, he sped down the road as fast as he could towards the address.

"What the..." Miles stopped and stared as he looked at the huge warehouse floor which appeared black and burned like a bomb had gone off. Glass was scattered in every direction and broken equipment similar to the lab he had just seen was destroyed. The warehouse only seemed to have a mattress, a large perfect circle on the floor that was blackened, and a table that had been wrecked and smashed.

Walking close to the circle, he knelt down and pressed his finger to the spot, expecting to pull ash up. The concrete looked like it had been eaten away by a black inky substance that burned and chipped it away, staining it as it went. "Weird."

Activating his magic, Miles pulled out a small pair of dice. "Talk to me." He rolled them out onto the floor. The result came up as an eight. "Eight o'clock huh?" Miles spun around toward the direction indicated. He took a few steps and found a few torn pages across the floor. Picking them up, he made out what he could.

"--- Diabolical at best. The results are astounding. I've --- for three --- inside the new lab. Derrick has to be corrected at the pivotal moment to avoid contact with Alan. --- extremely painful. --- while engaged in the separated time stream." Miles brushed some of the dust of the first page and set it aside, lifting the second.

"I'm scared. As the ritual draws closer, I find myself hesitating to etch out even the basic mechanics. This ---- my life. My son will institute something I cannot fathom, and can only lead the world to disaster. --- the last day. My calculations are correct, but the work is debilitating. --- survive off of whatever food I can find." Miles set aside the page and picked up the last one.

"February 19th, 2002. It's ready. I'm saying goodbye --- dear. The price is worth paying. I will have to kill Derrick, Alan is no longer important. The --- extreme pain. Tonight --- and a final goodbye. I ask for no forgiveness. -Carolyn Brewer"

Miles set the last page down and went back to his car to retrieve a bag to put the pages in. As he returned, he shifted through every inch of the room but found no more than charred remains of equipment and paper. Leaving the domain he looked around for one of the houses nearby, and found an old man sitting on his porch. Approaching the man, he waved with a smile. "Hey there, can I talk to you for a minute?"