This/Survivors song/Part 5
A fragment of the Garden of Remembering
< This | Survivors song
Part 5: Extend tertiary function
You want the answer? You want the end? There is no answer; there is no end. There is only now. In every instance, now, now, now, ever-changing now. Nothing else matters. There is nothing else.
Enjoy your purgatory of the now.
Notes:
- Let us pretend the whispering is only the desert wind.
- Same flavour, different giraffe.
- Placeholder languages may be chosen/generated by automated processes.
- To say 'kauhistuksen kanahäkki' may apply.
Surface
EXT. Lauhen sea - night
The sea is calmish, with just enough waving to break up the brilliance of the sky. It's a huge sky, awash with swirls of colour and light, thousands and thousands and thousands of stars painting the canvas above with more light than dark, and beneath it the water gleams, a broken landscape of dark shadows and half stars and silver edges.
The bubble erupts from the surface suddenly, popping out of the water and exploding on immersion into the atmosphere. The four kids fall out into the water.
Kit collapses and nearly sinks before Jora grabs him and holds him up.
Nolan treads water, peering vaguely off into the distance.
NOLAN
The stars are wrong.
Erry flops onto her back, floating, staring up at the sky.
ERRY
It's bigger than I remembered.
NOLAN
Thirteen days. Three hours.
We don't have an inflatable boat. There's no shore here.
Kit groans a bit, not opening his eyes.
JORA
Kit, I know it's a lot to ask, but can you do anything?
KIT
Nnnrrrgggh.
I can't summon one. I suck at summoning. Even little things. Like I tried summoning a spoon once? Wound up with a broken nail.
JORA
It doesn't have to be good. Or a summon. What else floats?
KIT
Ducks.
ERRY
Wood.
NOLAN
Ice.
Kit opens his eyes.
KIT
That... could work. Porous elves' ice, ratio of volume to surface area something lots of water...
Kit just hangs in Jora's arms for a bit. Then he raises a hand and shapes out some spell motions very lethargically.
KIT
yaga dalamo yäig gugum
He ties it all together with a flick and sags into Jora.
The water before them begins to draw together, whitening, solidifying into a mostly flat block of ice rising almost a foot out of the water, big enough to fit the lot of them. A slight wall lines the edges.
Nolan hoists Erry onto it and climbs in after.
JORA
Nice.
KIT
Nuhh-huh.
Jora tries to life Kit onto the ice raft, and Nolan pulls him up the rest of the way. Kit doesn't move, just collapses onto the ice, asleep.
Nolan pulls Jora up as well.
They all just lie there for a bit.
ERRY
It's not cold.
NOLAN
State shift via magical energy realignments. Rotations are held according to different frequencies than the natural state. Particularly stable frequencies retain a similar half-life to non-magically-occurring unstable materials.
ERRY
I see.
NOLAN
You do?
ERRY
It'll break down. So do other things. Eventually.
Nolan nods slowly.
ERRY
We'll run out of food first. Even if we eat you.
JORA
We're not eating Nolan.
A large fish, several feet long, flies out of the water and bounces onto the raft with a wet plop, winding up half on top of Kit. It has several large tooth holes in it, trickling blood.
Kit doesn't stir.
ERRY
We could eat that.
The fish flops weakly and then just lies there.
Kit continues to not react in any fashion whatsoever.
A tentacle reaches out of the water and gives them a little wave before disappearing back under the other waves.
NOLAN
Our giant cephalopod companion gives us thanks.
Librarian and Library
EXT. Soravian wilderness - morning
Coraline awakens in the tall dry grass, tied to a tree much as before, but now also gagged, her mouth covered, a cloth shoved in such that she cannot close it or move her tongue at all. She gags on the gag, trying to vomit, but it doesn't work. Instead she chokes, the vomit going up her nose, painfully, drowningly. She struggles futilely.
Vardaman casts a quick spell over Coraline. Her staff is slung over Vardaman's shoulder. Her bag is in his belt.
Agata and Argument of Hags are around.
VARDAMAN
bury thunder always.
Vardaman pulls out the gag and cloth and Coraline pukes on her lap, instead, straining against the burning in her nose.
VARDAMAN
You'll need to control your breathing, or you will die.
CORALINE
What?!
Vardaman stuffs the cloth back into Coraline's mouth, replacing the gag.
Coraline nearly chokes again.
AGATA
(mind voice)
I won't even be Captain Obvious today.
VARDAMAN
That was clever, your zombie. If you'd killed it, that might have worked.
And your magic. If you could have done that all along, why didn't you?
CORALINE
(mind voice)
He just... he doesn't seriously expect me to be able to answer that...?
AGATA
(mind voice)
No. But he wants to see if you'll find a way. You've surprised him, multiple times over.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
What? I'm not that stupid...
Why? Why all of this? This is crazy.
Coraline chokes and struggles a bit, trying to cough, pulling on the ropes.
AGATA
(mind voice)
Breathe. Just breathe.
Coraline does, focusing.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
I have to kill him, don't I? There's no other way out of this...
He pulls the gag down off Coraline's mouth again, and she spits out the cloth in.
CORALINE
Haista vittu.
AGATA
(mind voice)
Even if there is, it's not worth the bother.
VARDAMAN
That's all? You're not going to try anything?
CORALINE
Nyt sä vittu kuolet! I'll kill you. I'll fucking kill you. Fuck you. Fuck Kyrule. I'll take you behind the sauna!
Darkness swirls at the edge of Coraline's vision. Voices whisper, though they are not of the Death of Souls. They seem older, deadlier.
Coraline angrily pushes it away.
VARDAMAN
I don't seem to be dead.
AGATA
You're being ironic, Names.
CORALINE
(angrily pulling against the ropes)
I'm not ironic! Touch me again and I'll kill you!
AGATA
Heh.
VARDAMAN
Why the cats?
Coraline glares at him.
VARDAMAN
Why not use your magic before? Why cover yourself in so many lies, even now?
Who are you?
CORALINE
Your mother.
VARDAMAN
Well, shit. I'm fucked.
Whispers protrude. Nelanor. Nelanor...
CORALINE
(mind voice)
He didn't find the fragment.
AGATA
(mind voice)
You got lucky. He's probably not terribly familiar with the concept of a padded bra. Or not a good one.
He still hasn't gotten into your bag, though he's obviously wizened up that there's something there.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
I'm seeing things.
Vardaman picks up the cloth and stuffs it back in Coraline's mouth. She tries to bite him, but also reaches out with her healing senses, finding him there in front of her, his life, strong, vibrant.
He pulls the outer gag back up over her mouth, tightening it, and steps away.
Coraline rises up after him a bit, straining her arms, snapping the ropes taut.
CORALINE
HNNGNNN!
Vardaman regards Coraline blankly for a moment.
Coraline sinks back down into the grass.
VARDAMAN
I'll let you contemplate this.
Vardaman flicks a large golden coin onto Coraline's lap. On its face is the mask and skull of Kyrule.
AGATA
(mind voice)
Like something moving behind the fabric of the universe. I'm seeing it too. Interesting.
Also you maybe shouldn't have told him your intentions. Or be so obvious. Sure, you're angry, but how is this helping, exactly?
CORALINE
(mind voice)
Aaaaaagh.
AGATA
(mind voice)
I know. It sucks. Deal with it.
Coraline whimpers unhappily, vaguely staring at the coin. The details on the mask stand out impossibly shiny.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
I was so close. I was free... for a little bit. And now it's just this all over again, but worse.
AGATA
(mind voice)
Yes.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
Thank you.
Thank you for sticking around...
Agata purrs.
AGATA
(mind voice)
You may be miserable, but you're fun. Telling a Deathdealer fuck him and his god? That you're going to kill him? Stupid, but very fun, especially the things his face does. And I'm rather enjoying this whole side plot with Kyrule's Voice. Getting to watch that... well, you, of all people, as one of his Keepers is bound to get interesting.
What's with the coin?
CORALINE
(mind voice)
Dunno.
AGATA
(mind voice)
Because I think that one's yours.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
Voi paska. Did I not put that away?
AGATA
(mind voice)
Mmm, butter shit. I bet all the dogs go for that one.
Coraline chokes on a mangled sob-laugh.
Vardaman frowns, watching.
Coraline knocks the coin into the grass with her knee.
Later, when Vardaman hoists Coraline back up, he pockets the coin, and doesn't untie her from the tree. Instead, he pulls the gag back out and holds a bottle of vodka near Coraline's mouth, staying close.
Coraline tries to move her head to the bottle, but Vardaman pulls it back.
VARDAMAN
You're speaking to your cat. Even now. I don't know how, with your magic bound, but you are.
CORALINE
Well who else am I going to talk to, Kyrule?
VARDAMAN
Perhaps you should.
He puts the bottle to Coraline's mouth, and she warily takes a drink.
Vardaman takes back the bottle, gives her some food and water in much the same fashion, and replaces her gag. Only afterwards does he untie the ropes from the tree.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
My magic is bound?
AGATA
(mind voice)
Suppression spell. Ignore it. Doesn't seem to affect you anyway.
When they return to the horses, the one Coraline had stolen before nickers softly, turning toward Coraline. Coraline pulls a bit toward it as well, but Vardaman directs her instead to a different one, lifts her into the saddle, amd mounts quickly behind her.
Vardaman holds her tightly as they head out once more.
For a time, Coraline simply waits, looking out over the brown landscape and barren trees, just focusing on breathing. Then she closes her eyes, and looks properly out at the world without them.
Everything is dark, thin. The landscape shows itself as edges, smears, ghosts of trees and rocks. The sky is a void, hungering, lingering. Behind it all, stars poke through, ancient and terrible, singing. Sand trickles, hinting, whispering. Points of light distort the edges, trailing their essence behind them. A bird in the sky becomes a simple smear. Larger animals, huddled down, give off distorted glows. Sprites glimmer with tenuous light.
Her own self is a darkness to rival the sky. Vardaman is a brightness to rival the sun. The horses and cats are far more normal, simply shapes of horses and cats, glowing beneath her and behind.
Coraline reaches into Vardaman's brightness, feeling it all around her, almost a part of her. His arms are the conduit, his chest the core. She can feel his life, his strangeness, his simple fragility, and takes it all into her mind. For a moment she simply holds it there, and then she flips it, twisting it in on itself, turning it out.
Except nothing happens. The brightness remains. Vardaman... remains.
CORALINE
Nnngh?
Desperately Coraline opens her eyes, the brightness of the world flooding back as light, a thin layer over the darkness behind the world, even as she finds the horse underneath her instead with her mind, finding its essense, its life, and turns that out.
The horse crumples beneath them, falling over, dead, its life suddenly just gone. Vardaman pulls Coraline off as it falls, losing hold of her momentarily as he rolls away, and quickly gets up. Coraline yells in surprise, but gets up quickly and starts running in a random direction.
Vardaman runs after her and tackles her to the ground, hauling her back up a moment later. He draws his sword, turning, pulling Coraline back even further as he looks around for the source.
The other two horses shy away from the dead one, straining back. One of them stomps a bit.
VARDAMAN
(casting overhead with his sword)
See call come!
Agata peers at them curiously from the packhorse.
Coraline tries again, twisting at Vardaman's life, trying to put it out as she had with the horse, and the Carriers before. But nothing happens. Nothing continues to happen.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
I can't... it doesn't work on him.
AGATA
(mind voice)
Worked on the horse.
Vardaman looks around briefly, then spins Coraline around by the shoulder. He grabs her by the arm, putting his sword to her throat.
VARDAMAN
You. What did you do? How did you do that?
CORALINE
(trying to put on an appropriately blank look)
Nnn? Hnnnugh?
Vardaman frowns at her.
VARDAMAN
How?
Coraline desperately shakes her head, leaning away from the sword.
AGATA
The way you've got her bound up? How could she have?
VARDAMAN
And what about you, cat? What is your part in all this?
CORALINE
Hnnnugh hnngnnn nnn!
Vardaman pulls out her gag.
CORALINE
Leave her out of this! She doesn't even care; she's just here because it amuses her.
VARDAMAN
She helped you.
CORALINE
Of course she helped me! If I'm dead, I can't amuse her. She's a fucking cat!
VARDAMAN
And you expect me to believe you didn't do this?
CORALINE
Do what?!
Coraline looks toward the horse with her best impression of bewilderment. It's pretty good.
AGATA
(hopping onto the dead horse)
Mmm, dead horse beast. So useful.
Vardaman lowers his sword uncertainly.
AGATA
(mind voice)
Try giving him an aneurysm or something.
Coraline gives Agata a confused look, but tries to do various blood-related things regardless as Vardaman deals with the horses, still holding her in an arm.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
I can't. I can't target anything specific without being able to use my hands. I might be able to thrombus his arms or something, but what good would that do?
AGATA
(mind voice)
I find it hilarious that you know this stuff.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
I really don't.
AGATA
(mind voice)
Knife?
CORALINE
(mind voice)
With what? I've no hands, and I'm no foot magician.
AGATA
(mind voice)
You may have a problem.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
Just one?
EXT. Soravian wilderness - noonish
Vardaman continues on, hauling Coraline along bound and gagged, leaving the dead horse behind. They go slower now, resting the horses longer. They stop by a small stand of tall trees, Vardaman tying Coraline to another tree, Coraline almost hanging from her arms held above her head as she tries to sit.
Vardaman squats next to her and pulls the gag out again. Coraline very calmly vomits a bit in response.
CORALINE
(quietly)
Ense Vardaman.
Vardaman startles and stares at her.
CORALINE
Let me go.
VARDAMAN
What did you say?
CORALINE
Ense Vardaman, as I give your name as proof, in the name of the Eternal I command you to let me go.
VARDAMAN
You're a Voice? What the fuck?!
CORALINE
I wasn't supposed to tell you. I wasn't supposed to reveal myself. But nothing else worked. You wouldn't even die. I couldn't even do that...
Vardaman stares at her in considerable confusion.
CORALINE
(pleadingly)
Let me go.
VARDAMAN
No.
CORALINE
What?! But... you... you're...
VARDAMAN
As a Voice, I disagree. The choice remains my own.
Coraline stares at him for a bit.
CORALINE
But... why?
VARDAMAN
I can't trust you. No matter who you are, you are too important to let go.
Coraline stares at Vardaman desperately.
VARDAMAN
I cannot.
CORALINE
At least untie me? Let me come on my own? Let me breathe?
VARDAMAN
Would you?
CORALINE
(she takes a deep breath)
If you are determined that I must, then yes. I'll go with you.
Vardaman gives her a long look.
VARDAMAN
I wish I could believe you.
CORALINE
Whaa...?!
Vardaman stuffs the cloth back in her mouth, replacing the gag.
CORALINE
Nnn gnnnngh!
Vardaman turns away wearily, heading back toward the horses.
Coraline starts sobbing hopelessly, choking on the gag, vomiting a bit more, and then choking on that too when it goes up her nose.
AGATA
(mind voice)
Have you considered jumping off a cliff?
Coraline stares at Agata, trying to breathe and get all the vomit back out of her nose.
AGATA
(mind voice)
Because you should totally jump off a cliff.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
I... just... are you... what?
VOICE OF KYRULE
(mind voice)
Listen to your cat. Options remain.
INT. Grey Lobby
Coraline and Agata appear in the Lobby very suddenly. A small group of Keepers are arguing nearby.
Coraline stares at them hopelessly.
The Voice of Kyrule strolls over.
VOICE OF KYRULE
Keeper.
CORALINE
(loudly)
Jumping off a cliff?
The Keepers turn, surprised.
VOICE OF KYURLE
It is an option.
AGATA
For the record, I was joking.
Agata jumps up onto Coraline's head, climbing on her arm and shoulders, and then jumps across to the Voice's head, causing Coraline to have to take a step back to maintain her balance.
AGATA
But maybe he's onto something.
(she crouches, peering down at the Voice's face)
Hmm?
CORALINE
(tiredly)
Well, at least as long as we're all on the same page, here...
VOICE OF KYRULE
Your situation is unfortunate, but you must understand what happened is not something we can help. You were warned.
The Voice reaches up and pushes Agata's head out of his face with the side of a finger.
AGATA
Meow.
CORALINE
Yeah, sure.
Coraline sits down heavily and flops back onto the floor.
CORALINE
See, this is the point where I would totally just fuck everything and kill myself with a shovel. If I could. Which I can't. Yeeeeah.
The Voice stands over her and peers down as much as he can without dislodging the cat on his head.
A couple of the Keepers come over as well.
WOMAN IN BROWN
(kneeling by Coraline's side)
Whatever you're going through, the Eternal is with you. It can't possibly be so bad...
CORALINE
Oh, you have no idea. I'm eight different colours of 'fucked' right now. I didn't even know 'fucked' came in eight colours. Thought it was only three.
VOICE OF KYRULE
There are nine. You're not quite there yet.
Coraline stares at the Voice blankly.
CORALINE
Did you... just make a joke?
The Voice lifts Agata off his head, and leans down and hauls Coraline up by an arm.
The woman in brown jumps back.
Agata settles on Coraline's shoulders instead.
VOICE OF KYRULE
Come. There is something you should see.
The Voice gestures over the other Keepers, and draws Coraline into another space entirely.
INT. Library of Souls
It's a large space, a grand space. The prevailing colour is white, with smooth white stone architecture and soft white light permeating everything, glowing out of the walls, drifting down from the high, vaulted ceiling. Vast shelves fill the floor, rising up in a grand maze that fades into the white, filled with books of every style, every colour, every language. They are grouped similarly, and they are all glowing, each a little different from the next.
The Voice and Coraline appear in a wide corridor between the shelves, with a line of elegant white tables set out down its length. The space is eerily quiet, and yet full of whispers, and the faintest sounds of writing.
Agata half climbs over Coraline's head and peers off at a random shelf.
A winged cat peers down from the top of the shelf, and then retreats back from the edge.
VOICE OF KYRULE
This is the Library of Souls, the greatest power and the greatest treasure guarded by the Eternal. For every soul that is and ever was, there is a book, complete to the instant, either the now, or of its death.
CORALINE
And what is in these books?
VOICE OF KYRULE
Their stories. Their secrets. Everything they are, everything they've done, every thought they hide from the world. It is all here.
CORALINE
For everyone.
VOICE OF KYRULE
Yes.
CORALINE
In all the worlds? Are you in here? Am I?
Is... Kyrule?
VOICE OF KYRULE
Yes.
Something niggles in the back of Coraline's mind. The sand drifting in the black behind the worlds...
CORALINE
Why are you showing me this?
VOICE OF KYRULE
You are the Librarian. The Apostate Keeper, locked in an impossible predicament. You need to win this fight, and so it is time that we trusted you in full.
CORALINE
What fight?
VOICE OF KYRULE
With Ense Vardaman. With your predicament. With the Death of Souls. All of these, it is up to you, your task, your challenge.
CORALINE
Right. So with Ense... with Vardaman, just so we're entirely clear here, what happened was... I tried to tell him what to do as a Voice. He decided not to. As a Voice.
Stalemate?
VOICE OF KYRULE
Not exactly.
CORALINE
Well we've basically got Voice on Voice where one has the other trussed up like a piece of livestock, so who exactly wins, here?
VOICE OF KYRULE
That is up to you.
CORALINE
Oh?
VOICE OF KYRULE
The Voices speak for the Eternal. In light of a disagreement, arbitration is determined by who wins in practice. Should you escape, it becomes our will that you go free. Should you fail...
CORALINE
I did! I already escaped, he just hunted me down again!
VOICE OF KYRULE
That was before you invoked your right as Voice.
CORALINE
What... so I could have done that in the first place, and it would have been good enough?!
Why in the hells did you tell me to not tell him then?
VOICE OF KYRULE
That decision may have been in error.
Coraline stares at him, and sputters a bit.
AGATA
A god, admitting an error? Whatever next? Dogs meowing? Cats? Barking?
Coraline gives Agata a surprised look.
AGATA
Woof?
VOICE OF KYRULE
This error must be amended.
CORALINE
Can't Kyrule just make some miracle? Send someone to go say 'Yo this matter is settled sod off'?
VOICE OF KYRULE
That would be you. That is what the Keepers are.
CORALINE
(pumping her arms up like a cheer)
Whooo! I failed!
The Voice gives Coraline a flat look.
CORALINE
Sorry.
VOICE OF KYRULE
(gesturing to the stacks)
This is for you. The Eternal has here all the knowledge of all the universe. Use it, and find a way to save yourself.
AGATA
Do you give all your apostates the keys to everything, or just the really crazy ones?
VOICE OF KYRULE
There have been three, now. Bertram, Shalias, and Coraline.
Whatever you choose do with it, it will not be like the others. That is certain.
AGATA
And you're suggesting we use all of this to find a way to make jumping off a cliff actually work?
VOICE OF KYRULE
For instance.
AGATA
(purring)
You, my boy, are my kind of crazy.
CORALINE
All this because... I got stuck in a Voice-off? So I can jump off a cliff?
VOICE OF KYRULE
You have the means to find your own path. Use it.
The Voice turns as if to leave.
CORALINE
Wait. You said Kyrule has one too? A book?
Can I read it?
The Voice regards her for a long moment. Around them is only silence, and the sound of sand.
Finally he nods, once.
VOICE OF KYRULE
That is your right.
Follow me.
The Voice leads Coraline into the stacks, into the maze, past shelves upon shelves. The pages whisper of civilisations come and gone, of entire worlds wiped out. There is a sense, as they pass, of the Library shifting itself to their destination, taking them ever deeper. Shelves rumble around them.
The shelf they find themselves facing is, as with all of them, full of books. The names of gods, and of other things, adorn their spines.
The Voice stands by, watching.
Coraline goes over and trails a finger over some of the spines, and then selects a simple grey volume with a smooth cover, marked only by a figure of a mask. She pulls it out carefully. The front has a name: Aekrin Dri. She glances back toward the Voice, but he doesn't say anything.
Coraline opens the book, flipping through the first few pages, and begins to Read.
Vaguely, in the world of the living, Coraline feels the shifts from horse to horse, and the cold as night falls, and Vardaman ties her to another tree and feeds her food and vodka, slowly, so, so slowly. She doesn't respond when he slaps her face. It doesn't matter. It's a world away, slowed in the background, unimportant. She remains in the Library, Reading on, even as the Voice continues to stand by behind her, observing, even as tendrils of black lick around the edges of her sight, gleaming, even as the sand roars into the forefront.
EXT. Soravian wilderness; somewhere - night
Agata, too, is paying little attention, balled up in a giant fluffwad on one of the horses. Vardaman nudges at her, and the cat bites his fingers warningly.
Vardaman frowns.
AGATA
Don't do that.
VARDAMAN
What?
AGATA
Wake a sleeping cat. It's rude.
VARDAMAN
You've been sleeping all day. Amadi too.
AGATA
And we're going to keep right at it, if you please.
Why are you complaining? You want to move her, this is her not trying to kill you while you do it.
Real world
EXT. Lauhen sea - day
The days pass slowly. The raft floats vaguely, bobbing and turning occasionally, often simply sitting on the surface of the ocean. It's stable. It works. It is an absolute dead end.
The sky above them is utterly, utterly empty, and very blue.
The sea below is dark and blue.
KIT
So I can't help noticing... we seem to be lost at sea?
NOLAN
No.
KIT
No?
NOLAN
No.
ERRY
No.
KIT
Oh.
Well, we seem to be lost at sea.
Nobody responds.
JORA
We need shelter and water. Bearings would be good if we had anywhere to go, but we don't even know where we are. The fish appears to be edible raw, but it already went bad and we had to throw it back into the water, so we're back down to what we brought with us for food.
KIT
Right.
What fish?
JORA
The squid gave us a present. Apparently as thanks.
KIT
Squid. That... was a squid.
(he peers around)
And we really have no idea where shore is?
NOLAN
No.
ERRY
So whose fault is all this?
Kit and Jora glance toward Nolan.
Nolan looks at Jora.
JORA
It doesn't matter. We're here, and we need to handle it.
ERRY
It's awfully warm.
KIT
Oh, and I suppose you expect me to fix it. Fix everything!
(he waves his hand above them)
yat yoliaig gugum!
A cloud forms over them, blocking out the sunlight, and promptly starts raining on them. The ambient temperature drops significantly.
Erry flops back happily, smiling contentedly, even as she's pelted with raindrops.
Nolan blinks blankly as his hair plasters to his head.
JORA
Oh, wow.
KIT
Oh. Actually that does help a lot. Okay.
Stars, I'm hungry.
Nolan hands Kit a soggy ration block.
Kit stares at it blankly for a moment.
KIT
Yeah, okay.
Kit takes the block and starts gnawing on it.
JORA
We probably need to start with shelter. Some sort of covering or awning. A tensile structure?
KIT
(dubiously)
'Tensile structure'?
ERRY
We've been Nolaned. Save us.
KIT
I... what. Okay. How?
ERRY
Save us.
Kit turns to Jora.
JORA
Can you make a thin, coarse fabric out of the same material as the raft?
ERRY
And barrels.
NOLAN
Weapons.
KIT
Sure, I'll just make all the things!
EXT. Lauhen sea - day
It's later. The raft now has an assortment of all the things on it. Poles are grown up out of the corners, arching up into a pointed roof, covered in an awning which hangs down like curtains and blocks out the sun, though it's pulled open on two sides so they can still see out over the water. Barrel-like tubs of fresh water are shoved into a corner. Some weapons and various tools are piled up on the floor. A wad of fabric attempts is piled up next to them.
Erry is half-hanging off the side of the raft, trailing a hand in the water. Shoved into the far corner in the shade, Kit is very irritably making arrows, handing each one off to Nolan, who nods and then adds them to a pile. Jora has a glass of water, calmly sipping it.
All the things are the same strange sparkling matte white as the raft itself.
Erry falls out of the raft.
ERRY
Agh!
There's a bit of a splash.
Nobody really responds right away.
Kit finishes an arrow and stabs it at Nolan. Nolan evades the stab and takes it and puts it with the others.
There's some more splashing off the side of the raft.
ERRY
Guys, guys? I can't get up.
Jora puts down her glass and hauls Erry back onto the raft.
KIT
So this is fun, and all.
Erry clomps over to the fabric attempts and plonks down on them, making a makeshift nest for herself.
KIT
Also we seem to be lost at sea.
EXT. Lauhen sea - dusk
Night falls. The kids stare at it blankly. Jora ties up the side curtains as the sunset glints off the waves, and glows off clouds near the horizon. Stars poke out through the sky like weevils.
Erry totally accidentally smacks Nolan in the head with a fishing pole.
EXT. Lauhen sea - morning
It's a bright and sunny morning, with useless clouds littering the sky, and horrible amounts of beating sun glaring down, bouncing off the waves, and generally just lingering in the air.
A small pile of fish is on the floor of the raft. A much larger pile of weapons is next to it.
Nolan has a hatchet tied to the side of his head.
Erry is holding a fishing pole, but not using it.
Kit is poking a fish repeatedly with a makeshift wand.
Jora is lying in the sun, her eyes covered with a cloth, ignoring all of this.
ERRY
It's so sunny. Why is it so sunny?
NOLAN
It's summer.
ERRY
It's not summer.
KIT
We're lost at sea.
EXT. Lauhen sea - afternoon
It's bright and sunny. The sky is a grand blue expanse, with even grander, towering cloud masses completely failing to do anything to the sun.
KIT
Look. Clouds.
JORA
It is summer. The days are longer than the nights. That only happens in summer.
Erry smacks Kit with a fish.
KIT
Agh!
Nolan hands Kit a fish, and Kit smacks Erry right back.
Jora backs away, and then tries to grab Kit.
Erry smacks Kit even harder, and winds up hitting Jora as well in the process.
Nolan throws a fish at Erry.
Kit smacks Jora with a fish.
JORA
Guys, stop! Stop!
Nolan hands Jora a fish.
Jora looks at it, confused, and gets hit by another fish, and then slaps right back with her own fish.
This goes on for a bit. Sometimes one of them drops their fish, and Nolan passes each of them new fish to replace them.
EXT. Lauhen sea - morning
It's another day. It's exactly the same as the previous. The kids are sprawled about, doing nothing.
The pile of weapons is even larger now.
ERRY
It was summer. It's not gonna be summer again.
NOLAN
Different summer. We're on the other side now.
No significance of this occurs to anybody. Nobody responds at all, for a bit.
KIT
And we're lost at sea.
EXT. Luahen sea - night
It's night. The kids are mostly asleep. The huge pile of weapons is glinting dully. Nolan is sitting on the edge of the raft, peering out beyond the curtains, saying nothing, watching.
Jora nudges Kit and Erry awake.
JORA
You'll want to see this.
The vast expanse of stars is muted, only the brightest standing out, the constellations clear. The horizon, though, is awash with colour, glowing in all directions.
Then they stand, and see the sea. The surface is a brilliant canvas, full of swirling colour, greens and blues and purples, swirling into luminous depths. It shimmers and glitters as though spirits were dancing beneath the surface, and yet the surface itself is utterly still, like glass. Mermaids drift up and kiss the surface, before darting back down. The night is silent.
KIT
Woah.
ERRY.
What is it? Are those...
Jora shakes her head.
Kit trips over the weapon pile, and gets up quickly, peering over the side of the raft.
KIT
Something under the water, whatever it is.
NOLAN
Boom.
Nolan topples into the water with a small splash.
Nobody really responds to this at first, until a few seconds go by and nothing else happens.
Jora and Kit peer into the water where Nolan fell, but all they see are iridescent swirls of glow in the depths.
KIT
Either he comes back or he doesn't.
About an hour later, the lights are still dancing, the sea still still.
Nolan reaches out of the water and climbs back into the raft very suddenly.
KIT
Find anything?
NOLAN
There are no sheep here.
INT. Library of Souls
Coraline turns a page, Reading. The Voice is standing by, behind her. There is little to pay heed to around her.
She looks up momentarily.
CORALINE
How sure are we these are entirely... accurate?
VOICE OF KYRULE
Absolutely.
CORALINE
Oh. Oh dear.
EXT. Luahen sea - afternoon
It's a day. It's very blue. There are no clouds.
Jora is meditating, or attempting too.
Erry is juggling fish. Sometimes fish slap into people and things around her.
Nolan is soliciting yet even more weapons from Kit.
Some of the weapons in the now very large pile are no longer white - a few are glassy clear. One sword is black and shiny.
Jora grabs a dropped fish out of the air and smacks Erry with it, hard, knocking the girl over.
Erry stares at her in surprise.
Kit stops making pointless daggers.
Nolan frowns.
JORA
Enough! Enough of all this. Surely we must have something, be able to do something. Nolan, do you have any idea where we are? Can you not use the stars to determine our location?
NOLAN
Yes. I have.
JORA
Well?
NOLAN
I do not know what is at any location near to us.
JORA
Kit, do you...
Kit watches her expectantly.
JORA
Feck. What about... what do we even have with us? What have we brought?
KIT
What?
JORA
Turn out your pockets. Let's take an inventory.
Jora shoves aside the giant weapon pile, pushing it against a wall and curtain. Some swords slide out into the ocean. She upends her bag and pulls some stuff out of her own pockets, which turns out to be mostly lint, along with a few keys and a small knife.
Jora indicates the much smaller pile of only partly weapons and eyes the others expectantly.
Kit and Erry come over toward the pile.
Nolan drops a large stuffed bear onto the pile. It's almost as large as he is.
KIT
(stopping)
Whaaat.
Erry hugs her own, much smaller, mostly hairless moose.
Nolan pulls a full-sized shovel out of his pocket, and then dropped a magic bag on top of the bear, causing part of its head to disappear, the bag collapsing flatly across it as though containing nothing.
KIT
Oh.
Erry picks up the bag, sticks her head inside, and then starts pulling things out, adding them to the pile.
Kit tosses in some things from his own pockets.
Nolan very slowly adds a sheep rib, a pair of mismatched socks, and a small knife to the pile.
JORA
Good. Anything else?
Erry tosses a dirty lump into the pile.
They wind up with a heap of mostly lint, partly junk, a whole lot of random toys and tools and bits of broken things, a surprisingly good spade, not nearly enough alchemical ingredients, an ineffective amount of currency, some random bits of food, enough martial weapons to wage a small war, and a giant wad of yarn.
KIT
Well.
ERRY
So this is who we are, distilled down to simple items.
KIT
What?
JORA
It's a start. It's potential.
Jora pushes Nolan at the pile.
Nolan digs through it a bit and then holds up the flaky brown lump that had been the contents of Erry's pockets.
KIT
Do I even wanna know?
ERRY
Do you ever?
JORA
What is it? Dirt?
Nolan sits down and bashes the lump against the floor of the raft, breaking it up into smaller clods of dirt. Embedded within it are some twigs, a key, two spoons, a few clips, a knuckle die, and several peach stones. Their total volume more than doubles that of the original lump.
KIT
How in the world...
NOLAN
(holding up one of the stones)
Boom.
JORA
Can you grow that?
Kit takes the stone from Nolan and looks it over.
KIT
There's only one way to find out.
EXT. Lauhen sea - evening
The raft is rather a mess. The awning is gone, the poles broken. The freshwater barrels are smashed. The iceforged weapon pile is scattered everywhere, mostly in the ocean, random weapons and pieces of weapons floating sadly away. Peach leaves and twigs are everywhere. Jora is bleeding from an arm.
The four kids watch forlornly as the very large peach tree floats away, half-dead already, half-sunk in the waves.
KIT
That didn't work.
NOLAN
Can you make it work?
KIT
Can you keep it from falling out?
NOLAN
Can you balance it?
KIT
Maybe. But can I keep it from getting poisoned by all the salt? And from eating itself? And make it grow, but then stop growing? And make peaches? It would be a lot more useful if it made peaches.
NOLAN
Can you?
Kit shrugs.
Nolan hands him another peach stone.
Kit holds it up in one hand, and starts shaping the spell with his other.
KIT
uu dalamo ido!
The stone begins to sprout, the first leaves and blunt roots growing out.
KIT
yäig yakit ineigobio.
The roots branch into imaginary soil, reaching down, even as the seedling forms true leaves and begins to bud.
Kit takes it over to one of the corners of the raft.
KIT
iuol ke yäig.
Kit holds the sapling over the side of the raft, shoving the reaching roots into the water. Some of them cling to and grow along the sides of the raft, but the rest go down, hungrily feeding off the seawater and its illusions. The trunk thickens, branching, putting out leaves and dropping others.
KIT
udun mur ugarak uaimo! Guide the roots! We need it to stay up this time!
It's chaos. Kit holds his hands on the trunk while the others scramble around, guiding the roots around the sides of the rafts, and Kit meanwhile guides the rest down, holding the trunk straight, holding the entire shape of the tree in his mind. The tree is huge now, the trunk a foot in diametre, and the shape is only a little bigger, the idea simply more balanced... roots below, tree above...
Wood creaks around them.
KIT
mamanäïm tasigum...
ERRY
Agh!
The tree's growth slows. Roots snake around the raft, seeking, sticking, growing out hairs. Erry yanks her arm out of between one and the wall and it draws blood.
A peach falls on Kit's head, and then a snaking root trips him, knocking him back.
The tree stills, rustling overhead. The growth stops.
Petals drift down. Felled leaves are all over, covering the raft, rotting away already underfood. Above, the vibrant green leaves on the tree rustle in the wind, covering the raft and a good area of water around, blotting out the still glowing sky.
Erry and Jora get up uncertainly.
Kit stares up at it blankly.
Peaches fall vaguely around them, some splatting on the raft, others splashing into the sea.
Nolan catches one and bites into it.
NOLAN
Yes.
KIT
Yes?
NOLAN
This one seems to have worked.
Kit hastily rolls aside as another peach splats where his head was.
Peaches continue to splat down around them.
KIT
(not getting up)
So I think...
JORA
(cutting him off)
If you mention one more time how we're lost at sea, you will regret it.
KIT
Oh, no, no, that's pretty firmly established at this point.
I was just going to say, maybe this is an improvement. Over before.
ERRY
(through a peach)
Hmm?
KIT
Being lost at sea.
Kit falls asleep, not even closing his eyes.
A peach hits him in the side of the head.
This does not wake him at all.
INT. Library of Souls
Coraline closes the book carefully, peering off into space, thinking.
Kyrule appears behind her as a cloaked man, next to the Voice. They are almost like mirrors of each other, but not.
KYRULE
Did you find what you were looking for?
CORALINE
(smiling slighty)
I think so.
(she turns to regard Kyrule, cocking her head)
Tell me. If I were to give you everything, what would you do with it? If you had all the worlds to do with what you pleased, no other gods or obstacles in your way, what would you do?
KYRULE
Guard them.
CORALINE
And would you take on this burden willingly, knowing that it could well destroy you, and subsume everything you have and are?
KYRULE
What exactly are you offering?
CORALINE
I'm not offering anything. I'm asking you to give up everything.
KYRULE
You know I already have.
Coraline sighs.
CORALINE
I need you to say it.
KYRULE
I'll humour you. I would take it on willingly.
CORALINE
(closing her eyes)
Thank you.
(she takes a deep breath, holding out her hand)
How does this work? Identify Nelanor of Kenning Vos. Insert random string here to verify that identity by... agh damn. I did that wrong. Or... whatever.
Somewhere, not here, Coraline feels the sand trickling between her fingers.
CORALINE
As these worlds are unnamed, I so name them: here reigns King of the Sandcastle, Kyrule of... Arling Tor. Assessed and verified, with promises made, because I'm totally qualified to say that. Before the architects, a King and a Realm are so named; any who wish to dispute the naming may follow the proper procedures, etc yadda yadda stuff.
(she opens her eyes)
And that's it. We're live.
VOICE OF KYRULE
What did you do?
CORALINE
I'm... not sure. I think I've... put us on the map. The universes are part of a wider network, and you are now known and trusted within that network. You may find you have tools with which to protect this universe... and that there are many things that are not entirely what they seem.
Don't ask me how it works, though. I don't know. I don't even know why I have access, or how...
Sometimes names come up and I see... things. When you brought me to this Library, I just knew I had to find out if you were who I thought you were. Maybe you could protect these worlds. Maybe we could use...
(she takes a deep breath)
I didn't expect... her...
KYRULE
Eapherod.
CORALINE
We call her the Dark Sister. She's... your Eapherod. It worked. It fucking worked! And you... oh gods. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
Coraline sits down heavily, holding the book to her chest, taking deep breaths.
KYRULE
You knew her.
CORALINE
It doesn't matter now. I've got more immediate problems.
(she looks to the Voice)
I need to jump off a cliff, apparently. Because you can't just call your... guy off.
KYRULE
I can take his life, if you wish.
CORALINE
Agh, no. I'd rather jump off a cliff.
VOICE OF KYRULE
Your opportunity will come soon. In three days, it is very likely that Ense Vardaman will make camp at Taris Pass, overlooking the Yakima river valley. There is a sizeable cliff there.
CORALINE
So I just need to get away, get my stuff, jump off, and fly away.
I don't suppose you have any recommendations as to...
(she looks around uncertainly)
People I could use?
KYRULE
Silaerynn dru'Raema.
The Voice leans over to help Coraline up, taking the book out of her arms, and replacing it on the shelf.
Kyrule disappears in a drifting flash.
CORALINE
Silaerynn dru'Raema. Three days.
(to the Voice)
I can come back here, right?
VOICE OF KYRULE
Always.
Coraline nods and steps out of the Library, returning to what may or may not be the real world.
EXT. Soravian wilderness - afternoon
Vardaman and Coraline are now well into the mountains, rising along a rocky trail bounded on all sides by moss and lichens and trees. They're riding, Vardaman holding Coraline in front of him as usual. She's still bound, still gagged, and now far more sore than previously, the pain stabbing all through her arms, back, and legs.
Coraline startles a bit as she awakens, losing the rhythm of her breathing, before she manages to moderate it again, and hastily heals herself as best she can.
The voices get louder all around her, both the strange whispers of the black, and the voices of the Death of Souls as well. Gleaming tendrils of black cover the edges of her vision.
VARDAMAN
You're awake.
Coraline doesn't respond.
VARDAMAN
Where did you go?
Coraline stares off into the trees. In their shadows, forest sprites wobble their heads at them, rattling.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
So nothing's changed.
AGATA
(mind voice)
Nope.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
And he's as paranoid as ever.
AGATA
(mind voice)
Probably more so.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
Right. This is such a mess.
Where are you, anyway?
AGATA
(mind voice)
Vardaman shoved us all in one of his bags. Fortunately liveable. Had a vampire in it. And a sizeable liquor cabinet.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
'Had'?
AGATA
(mind voice)
Let's just say Argument of Hags seems to really like chewing on the living dead.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
What, it didn't fight back?
AGATA
(mind voice)
Naw, it was bound up something awful. So it just sort of gibbered a bit. While a cat chewed on it. That was a sight to see.
Agata passes Coraline some of the memories of the event, including a few particularly choice scenes of gruesome chewing.
Coraline starts to recoil a bit, but Vardaman tightens his hold.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
Dammit, cat, I did not need that!
AGATA
(mind voice)
Didn't you, though?
CORALINE
(mind voice)
No.
EXT. Soravian wilderness - evening
Coraline is still there when Vardaman stops, lifting her off the horse as he dismounts himself. She doesn't resist as he hauls her over to a tree and ties up her arms.
He pauses momentarily after, looking at her.
Coraline eyes him right back, breathing carefully.
VARDAMAN
(casting deftly)
Bury thunder.
Vardaman pulls the gag down, and then pulls out the cloth as well. It's a bit covered in phlegm.
Coraline watches him curiously.
VARDAMAN
Speak.
CORALINE
You wanted to know where I went.
VARDAMAN
Yes.
CORALINE
This is the world I made, a garden of remembering. Emily is good at remembering.
Vardaman frowns.
CORALINE
What?
Vardaman replaces the gag and goes to tend to the horses.
Coraline watches tiredly, feeling the pain grow yet again in her arms and shoulders.
A bit later, Vardaman comes back and ungags Coraline again, giving her some vodka. He moves to replace the gag, but then pauses when Coraline starts singing a song to the general effect of 'I'm fucking pissed off'.
CORALINE
(singing)
Mua vituttaa niin ankarasti,
Vituttaa aamusta iltaan,
Vituttaa on kaikki turhaa,
Vittu kun vituttaa!
VARDAMAN
I suppose there's some point you're trying to make, here?
CORALINE
Well, it'd be better if I were hanging up-side down, but I am tied to a tree, so it fits.
(she resumes singing)
Tunge positiivinen ajattelu hanuriisi,
Kierrän kriisiryhmänne kaukaa,
Älä tyrkytä minulle terapiaa,
Kaada lisää paskaa mun niskaan!
Mua vituttaa niin ankarasti,
Vituttaa...
Vardaman covers Coraline's mouth with his hand, preventing her from continuing.
VARDAMAN
Enough.
Vardaman retracts his hand, and Coraline doesn't continue.
CORALINE
I don't know what you expect. You're defying the will of the Eternal. Nothing you do, or I say, will change that.
VARDAMAN
You know only the Voices call him that.
CORALINE
And he doesn't even like it. He knows it's not true. Nothing is eternal. Everything with a beginning has an end. And everything has a beginning.
Maybe we like irony. Maybe a little defiance defines us, just like you. You won't succeed.
VARDAMAN
No?
CORALINE
Either I will get away from you, or I will die trying. This is a promise.
VARDAMAN
And how do you intend to do that?
CORALINE
There are a lot of ways to die.
INT. Grey Lobby
Coraline enters lightly, peering about. The boy in green waves from a sofa.
Coraline gives him a small wave in return, smiling slightly, and sidesteps into the Library.
INT. Library of Souls
The Library is the same as ever, glowing white, full of the faintest whisperings and scribblings.
Coraline finds herself in the corridor of tables, between labyrinths of shelves fading off in either direction. It shouldn't just be a corridor. There is something missing.
Coraline glances down the line of tables uncertainly. They are exactly as they were. The wide corridor between the shelves is just as it was, the tables lined up as expected.
There is nothing amiss.
Nothing has changed.
She turns and heads off into the stacks, making her way carefully through the maze. She knows exactly where she's going. The Library knows exactly where she's going.
Coraline slides the book out carefully. This one is a dull dark red, almost the colour of blood, streaked with strange patterns. Bright letters etch out the name: Silaerynn dru'Raema.
Coraline flips through the pages quickly, looking for magic, but picking up snippets of the life regardless. A childhood dreaming, running away. Meetings in the woods. Grasshoppers. A first few inklings of magic - a transfiguration over dinner. An exploded flowerpot. Leaves, floating, dancing overhead, responding to the faintest flicks of his fingers. The wonder and fascination of it all, quickly soured by the realisation of what it means.
Hiding in the caves, his friends huddled around.
Running.
Coraline flips ahead a bit. Stability. A big city, a mentor who asks nothing in return. She's a witch. She calls herself Mother Annabelle. She shows him things - how to cast, and how to hide. Simple spells, useful spells. How to heal a scrape. How to cook a meal. How to clean a room. How to hide. How to shift attention, and see without seeing. He gobbles it up, and helps around the house. He ventures out into the city, buying food, guarding himself.
He grows up a bit. He grows older. He makes friends.
Amidst it all, a shadow looms. A hanging dread. Something he's fled, and that hangs over him even still.
The other casters know nothing of it. They're free, and they advertise their skills.
Agata hangs floppily off Coraline's head, snoring.
CORALINE
What am I even looking for?
Agata lets out a particularly broken snore, tries to turn over a bit, curling her head around, and slides off Coraline's head, only then waking up very suddenly and clawing down Coraline's face trying to regain her footing.
Agata flops onto the floor, looking around in surprise.
CORALINE
(wiping at the claw marks on her face with her hand)
Well, you're really a cat, cat.
AGATA
What? Buh? No.
Coraline's hand comes away with streaks of ash on, and she eyes it confusedly.
CORALINE
I'm bleeding...?
AGATA
(sitting up)
You're bleeding ash. Or you were. It looks like it's already healed.
How's the book?
CORALINE
Interesting. Not really sure what I'm looking for. If I weren't on a bit of a deadline, it'd probably be a pretty fascinating read.
AGATA
Deadline. As in you'll be dead.
CORALINE
Yes, that's real helpful. Thank you.
AGATA
Well don't let me get in your way.
Coraline gives Agata an annoyed look, and then goes back to the book.
EXT. Lauhen sea - day
The raft is oddly stable, but rocking uneasily over the waves, the peach tree acting as a very crude sail. It's growing strong, firmly affixed to the corner, roots growing around the sides of the raft and cutting into the water like a large weight to keep it all level. The awning has been roughly replaced overhead, providing a sagging roof full of peaches.
Nolan has a bunch of broken water barrels shoved up against some of the roots, full of suspicious peach concoctions. Jora is fishing.
Kit wakes up briefly, grabs a peach off his sister, starts gnawing on it, and then falls asleep again in the middle of eating it.
Erry smacks him.
Kit doesn't respond.
ERRY
Why does he keep doing this?
JORA
What?
ERRY
Doing things, and then falling asleep.
JORA
Your brother is a powerful wizard, but he has limits.
ERRY
Seems like he always hits his limits when we need water.
Nolan passes Erry a mug of something clear and water-like.
Erry sniffs it and immediately recoils.
ERRY
That's not water!
Nolan takes back the mug and passes Erry a different one.
Erry sniffs this one suspiciously, and then eyes it in surprise before drinking gratefully.
INT. Grey Lobby
The boy in green has gone. A strange cat, silvery white and blue, is perched on a chair.
Coraline glances about in disappointment.
The white-blue cat ignores her.
Agata hops onto another chair and starts ignoring the white-blue cat right back.
Coraline ignores them both, and tries some magic, shaping with her hands and mind, forming words for little things.
Agata licks herself.
The white-blue cat hops down and disappears after a bit.
Coraline stops, staring off at some of the grey decor.
CORALINE
Just getting away won't do it. I need my stuff. I need to loot his pockets.
AGATA
You need to knock him out somehow. Drop a tree on his head.
CORALINE
That might make it a bit more difficult to get at his pockets, though, if there's a tree in the way.
You said you're in with his liquor stash? Think we might have a go poisoning something?
AGATA
Can't. He's not drinking any, just giving it to you. I think he takes this a bit seriously.
CORALINE
My... knack magic did nothing, but some of the spells did seem to have a slight effect.
AGATA
Better spells?
CORALINE
Dru'Raema might have a few for disabling folks. Maybe even just a sleep spell that actually works.
AGATA
Roughly speaking, the more words you add, the stronger the spell. But if you actually got some of the shape down too, that possibly might help.
CORALINE
You mean instead of just yelling random crap in a panic?
Except I can't speak. Or shape. That's sort of a problem.
AGATA
Sure you can. We're speaking now. You learned to shape magelights without using your hands.
CORALINE
Actually, that... might have been what dru'Raema was doing, too. Okay, so 'sleep' with extra words slapped on, and a shape. How hard could that be?
The boy in green appears, spots Coraline, and marches over as if on cue.
BOY IN GREEN
Where'd you go?
CORALINE
Had to check on something. If I were to say Sleep, what shapes would go with that? Trying to knock someone out.
The boy immediately brightens up.
BOY IN GREEN
Oh, new spells! I can look this up, I think. I'll be right back!
The boy pops out.
AGATA
You seem to accumulate unexpected allies.
CORALINE
Says an unexpected ally.
AGATA
Duh.
EXT. Soravian wilderness - morning
Coraline returns to herself as Vardaman gets up and hauls her back to her feet. He gives her the usual pat-down, but then focuses on her boobs, feeling around the edges of her bra. He stops at the fragment, holding it through her coat and shirt.
VARDAMAN
What's this?
Coraline makes an irritated noise through the gag.
Vardaman reaches up under Coraline's shirt and fetches the fragment.
Coraline makes an indignant noise.
As soon as Vardaman takes the fragment away, the voices clatter out of the cracks in reality around Coraline, jarring, bright, strange, pushing down on her like a horrible weight. A whole lot of other strangeness fades away almost as immediately.
Coraline tenses up awkwardly, blinking in confusion, trying not to... anything. She doesn't even know herself.
AGATA
(mind voice)
Names? What was that?
CORALINE
(mind voice)
Agh he found the shard!
Vardaman gives the shard a worried look, clearly recognising it, and turns back to Coraline with some concern before pulling the gag out and pushing Coraline's arms back up against the tree above her head.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
I'm fine, probably. It was just surprising, and annoying. And I guess it was helping even more than I realised. Perkele.
AGATA
(mind voice)
Probably?
CORALINE
(mind voice)
Well, aside from this very awkward position he's now holding me in? I don't know.
VARDAMAN
(holding up the fragment in his other hand)
How did you get this?
CORALINE
(rather loudly)
I am the Baron of Fartswetly, bearer of the legendary blade of Con Cebolla, won at the battle of the Great Fortress of Bleugh! All things come to me!
VARDAMAN
I had this in my things. How did you get it?
CORALINE
The Baron of Fartswetly has many means. Means and ways. Ways and means.
VARDAMAN
Why this? Why is it important?
CORALINE
Your friends in the woods wondered that too. They tested it against the Death of Souls, and it exploded. Kyrule felt that dearly, you know. So many souls snuffed out. So many of the faithful denied their endings.
VARDAMAN
What?
CORALINE
The shard should be with me. That is why you had it, Deathdealer. Just in case.
VARDAMAN
In case of what?
CORALINE
In case it could help, of course. Now give the Baron of Fartswetly her due.
Coraline beckons with her head.
AGATA
(mind voice)
Why are you antagonising him?
CORALINE
(mind voice)
Why not? How much worse could this possibly get?
Vardaman sighs and regags Coraline, pocketing the fragment and stuffing the cloth back in her mouth. Coraline bites at his fingers around it, but he ignores this and pulls up and tightens the outer gag holding it in.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
The spells don't exactly require his cooperation, so once I get the casting sorted out, we're basically solid.
AGATA
(mind voice)
He may yet kill you. For real.
CORALINE
(mind voice)
Hmph.
Changes
EXT. Lauhen sea - evening
It's a brilliant sunset, painting swirls of clouds with strange colour. Glints of other promise glow from the waters.
The kids are all doing stuff. Sort of.
ERRY
So that stuff. That magic stuff. This stuff.
Erry bonks on the raft for emphasis.
KIT
Huh?
ERRY
You could make anything. Everything. Trees. A castle. An entire floating island. We could have sheep.
Nolan narrows his eyes at her.
KIT
Uh...
ERRY
Why are we sitting on a raft? Why are our chairs the sides, and broken things? Why don't we have thrones and sofas?
KIT
Oh will you lay off about sofas already?!
ERRY
Just because you unreasonably hate everything and sofas does not mean I'm right!
KIT
You're not right, you're stupid.
ERRY
You're stupid! You're stupid and you're boring and you hate sofas!
KIT
I am not! You're just stuck on that one thing.
ERRY
I'm stuck? Me? Who's the one sitting on a pile of roots?!
KIT
What?! You're sitting on a barrel!
JORA
What... are you even arguing about?
ERRY
Agh!
Erry flops back onto her back.
KIT
How long have we even been out here?
JORA
About a week.
KIT
Really? That's it?
JORA
It was longer underground. I don't know how long.
