Jordan wanted to scream, but she kept smiling.
"I'm just thrilled that the Apostate is gone. I hope she gets eaten by a dragon," Freedom Shimmer said as he inspected the Bible verse on the railing of the stairwell.
He was flying inside, but she didn't want to say anything about that being rude, nor his numerous other instances of rudeness. He might be an unabashed Shimmerist, but he was in the House of Representatives. She didn't want to make him mad. Thankfully, the other people who had come seemed just as weary of listening to him.
"Must you ascribe to every bad stereotype of Shimmerists, Freedom?" Water Wings asked tiredly. "You're making us look bad in front of young Miss Gilmore. We want a positive relationship with the new head of Wabash."
Freedom landed and glared at Water Wings. "This is why you can't extend your reach of authority. You're too concerned with offending people. You're practically a disciple of the Apostate."
Water Wing's eyes narrowed. "You know I have no love of Sunset Blessing, but I don't advocate harm to anyone, even her."
Freedom Shimmer chuckled. "You may not be violent, but we all know why you're here. You wish to recover what she stole right out from under your foolish snout so you can prop up your failing leadership. The fact I coasted through my last election shows that ponies are ready for new leadership in the region, leadership that isn't going to play nice with everyone while sitting on the sidelines and letting our message be silenced."
Water Wings continued to glare. "Your mother didn't want to play nice either. How many years does she still have on her prison sentence?"
Freedom ground his teeth. "Watch yourself, old stallion. Your time is coming."
Water Wings flared his wings. "Is that a threat?"
The mayor, a human by the name of Grant Polis, stepped in front of the older pegasus. "Hey, hey, hey, Water, don't let him rile you up. You know that's what he wants. He's a loudmouth instigator, just like his mother."
"And you don't care about him trying to rile me up, human?" Freedom asked in an offended tone.
Mayor Polis gave Freedom a sidelong look but said nothing; the rest of the delegation, a mixture of humans and ponies, along with Andrea and Amicus, kept silent throughout the exchange.
Andrea loudly cleared her throat. "I'd be more than happy to have my people escort both these stallions off the property if they want to slug it out. They're already lucky even to be here. If Sunset were still here, no Shimmerist would set a hoof on this property."
"I don't want to be involved with anybody's agenda or politics. I want to get along with everyone," Jordan announced, still holding her smile. Her mouth hurt.
"If you try to get along with everyone, you'll get trampled by everyone, filly," Freedom sneered.
Andrea must have had enough. "With your permission, Miss Gilmore, security can escort representative Shimmer off the property. I think he has worn out his welcome."
"Yes!" Jordan said, perhaps too eagerly, but she didn't care. She needed to give Andrea a raise. Could she do that? Did she have any say over payroll? She'd need to ask Amicus about that.
"You heard Miss Gilmore, boys. We have permission to remove this shitstain from the property," Andrea said as she and several security guards advanced toward Freedom Shimmer.
The pegasus beat his wings and took to the air. "I'm being discriminated against! My free speech is being suppressed! I'm a member of Congress; you can't send me away."
Andrea started glowing, and he dropped like a rock, yelling in pain as he hit the floor. "You can yell about assault too, but this is private property, and even a member of Congress can be kicked out. If you refuse to leave, you can be forcibly removed."
"Aaaahhh, aahhh! My wing!" Freedom yelled as he rolled around on the floor.
"Don't be so dramatic; pegasi can take falls that the rest of us can't. You're not hurt," Andrea said as the guards reached Freedom.
"I know I wouldn't be injured by such a fall, but if you did get injured, I'll make sure everypony knows that you have brittle bones and be careful around you. I don't want some infirm pony getting hurt," Water Wings said.
Freedom stopped crying and stood up before the guards could touch him. He then flared his wings. "Back off! I'm fine. I can walk out of here on my own."
"Look, everyone, a miracle!" Andrea declared.
"He did seem to recover remarkably fast," Water Wings said with a smirk.
"Oh, no, not that. He's obviously a drama queen," Andrea said. "I meant he did the intelligent thing and agreed to leave. That means his brain must have grown three sizes today. One of the greatest miracles I have ever seen. Now if only you would leave as well, I would start believing in God answering prayers."
Water Wings fluffed his wings. "Sorry, I'm not as inclined to make an ass out of myself."
Andrea slowly shook her head. "Sunset will be disappointed when she hears that I will remain an unbeliever."
Jordan watched Freedom Shimmer being escorted out. She took a deep breath and turned her smile to the remaining delegates. "Sorry about all that. I set out some snacks and drinks in the next room. It's nothing fancy…just what I could throw together quickly with whatever was here. Still, I hope you can relax and enjoy yourselves."
"We were hoping for a tour of the property. It is closed off and mysterious. Sunset Blessing kept this place quite closed off," one of the Denver city council members, a unicorn mare, said.
Her ears flattened. "I'm sorry, but that isn't possible. I'm still unsure what is in each of the rooms. My auntie had a nasty habit of setting traps. I wouldn't want any of you to put yourselves in danger."
"And her sisters are unaware of what these traps are or how to disable them?" another city council member, a man, asked, giving looks to Andrea and Amicus.
Amicus shook her head vigorously. "We only know about the teleportation trap, and the secret to avoiding that has been shared with only Miss Gilmore."
Jordan wished everyone would stop calling her Miss Gilmore. It sounded so formal.
The unicorn mare city council member nodded. "Yes, we have all seen the signs posted. I believe them and am not about to try to call it a bluff. That does lead to another question. Can you tell us more about Sunset Blessing's mysterious financer for these security measures? To erect defenses against teleporting like she once had at The Bastion seems beyond a reclusive author's ability to fund."
"It is as much a mystery to me as it is to you," Jordan replied. "I'm sure we all have our guesses, but I have no more clue than anyone else what guess is correct."
Another council member, an earth pony stallion, looked at Andrea. "Not even her head of security?"
Andrea shook her head. "Only Sunset and her aid Charlotte Newman know, and both are departing for Equestria today."
Jordan rapped a hoof on the wooden floorboards. "Speaking of which, that should happen in just a few minutes. We can all watch it happen as we eat snacks in the rec room."
They all entered the rec room, which was one room over. The fact that Auntie Sunset had three teenaged colts and this room was almost exclusively used by them was fully displayed. All the diversions and decor were still here. There was a huge television, game controls, arcade machines, foosball, couches that showed considerable wear from roughhousing, and some very suggestive posters of mares that Jordan wondered how the colts convinced their extremely religious mother to allow them to have on display.
"Very sorry. I only arrived last night and haven't had time to redecorate," Jordan said sheepishly as one of the delegates examined a poster of a soaking wet mare laying on the beach with her tail flagged and her hind legs spread in what looked like s very uncomfortable position."Easy to see she had teenaged colts, right?"
"I think you could have taken five minutes to remove the inappropriate decorations," the delegate said flatly.
Jordan quickly lit her horn and pulled down the poster, revealing yet another Bible verse burned into the wall, along with another fire rune.
Come ... blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.
Jordan blushed as she put the poster back up. The poster was suggestive but nowhere near as evocative as what was written beneath it. She'd read enough clop to know exactly what was being described there, and the flowery language didn't make it any less blatant. Was that a Bible verse? The pattern was Bible verses, so she had to assume so. These verses had been added to the property very recently. That meant Auntie had taken down the poster, added the verse, and then put the poster back up over it. Auntie was a strange mare.
"I'm sorry," she said, feeling like that was all she could say today. "I'm a vivacious reader, and I find the written word more provocative than images. I know the image is bad, but not as bad as what's under it. Let's leave that covered for the time being."
"That was from the Bible, Song of Solomon," the delegate said.
"And still pornographic writing that should be kept private, no matter what the source," Jordan replied. "I'll find something less suggestive to cover it, but not today."
The delegate's eyes narrowed. "The Bible is the word of God. It is not pornography."
"Not to be contrary, but that verse seems to describe a female having her pussy stimulated till it oozes and then having her male partner eat the cum. Tell me that isn't pornographic," Jordan replied.
"It's symbolism!" the delegate yelled.
This was a mistake to say, but she couldn't resist. "So, is God symbolically eating the woman out, or is God the woman being eaten out, or is it a symbol of the church eating someone out or something?"
The delegate turned deeper and deeper shades of red. "Blasphemy! Are you trying to emulate Sunset Blessing by pissing everyone off?!"
Jordan stomped a hoof. "I have been here less than a full day and listened to her-" She pointed her horn at Andrea. "-criticize me for one thing after another. Then I got criticized by that congresspony. Now I'm listening to you berate me. Before I came here, I was getting laughed at behind my back at my old college. You know what? I own this place, and I'm not going anywhere or begging people to like me. I decided that the poster was slightly less sexual than the writing under it, you might disagree, but your fucking opinion doesn't matter here."
The delegate was practically spluttering now. Jordan wasn't going to listen to whatever was going to come next.
"Andrea, can you please remove mister…whoever this is. He has worn out his welcome," Jordan instructed.
Andrea lifted her leg and spoke into her phone. "Boys, we've got another one. No, not the other Shimmerist, sadly. I'm still hoping he makes Miss Gilmore mad. This time it's the evangelical prick who always wants everything in the Bible to be literal except when he doesn't like it."
"Andri, can you stop being an ass?" Amicus asked.
"I can, but I don't feel like it right now," Andrea answered as she approached the delegate. "Move along, buddy. We have no problem physically throwing people off the property." She looked around. "Keep pissing the filly off, people. I'm ready and willing to drag your flanks out of here."
Amicus got into the middle of the crowd and started lowering her head. "I apologize for my sister. She should know better."
"Naw, I'm fucking old, I don't give a damn what people think of me, and the filly can't kick me out," Andrea said as she guided the evangelical delegate to the door. "I'm just glad she stopped sniveling to these creeps. You should take a page from her. You snivel too much, sis."
"You are so impossible!" Amicus shouted at her sister as her sister exited the room.
"And then there were six," Water Wings said sagely before eating a piece of cheese from the snack tray on the table.
Nothing to do but carry on.
"Amicus, can you turn on the news stream?" Jordan asked. "Nothing is set to my voice yet."
Amicus gave the door where her sister had just exited one last grimace and then looked at the television screen. "Teptri'pi, turn on the rec room television, turn to news stream, Sunset Blessing's departure."
The television turned on and switched to the news, where a group of news commentators was discussing Sunset Blessing and her legacy and controversies as a live feed of the portal in New York played in the background.
"That's an odd name for the house's computer system. I don't recognize the language. Is it Polynesian?" Mayor Polis asked.
Amicus shook her head. "It is not. I've tried running it through translators, but it is from no known language on Earth or Equestria, living or dead. Sunset said it means something like a cross between sanctuary and home, but she never explained the source of the word. Maybe she made it up."
"Perhaps," Mayor Solis replied.
Andrea returned to the room. "Any more that need to find their way to the gate?"
"None as of yet," Jordan replied. She looked at the television. "It looks like it's time. She's going."
They all settled in front of the television; Amicus ordered the volume to turn up.
"And we've just been informed that Sunset Blessing will not be speaking to the press," one of the commentators announced.
"That seems odd, don't you think?" another commentator asked. "She's well-known for liking to hear her own voice."
"That was years ago. Even though she has written prolifically, there's been next to no public appearances from her since her presidential pardon. Her last public appearance was her visit to the monument in Skytree last year. She didn't make any speeches then, either. She may have changed," the previous commentator said.
Perhaps there is a chance at a last speech. It looks like she is bringing up the rear of the departing party," the other commentator said.
"It could just be her injury. She suffered a severe injury to her neck and shoulder some years ago. You can still see the scars. To date, there has been no disclosure about how she was injured. It looks like it would slow anyone down." the previous said. "Can we zoom in the camera for the viewers to see those scars? They look gruesome."
"Yes, let's all gawk at my baby sister's injuries," Andrea growled at the television.
"You know how the media is," Amicus replied.
The camera only lingered on the scars for a brief time. Then zoomed back out. The commentators then went on identifying each of the people in the party, zooming in on each briefly. Jordan felt regret seeing some of them go. There was a heavily pregnant Lántiān and her husband, Fredrick. Drizzle followed close to them, looking both sad and defiant. The filly likely didn't like being taken away from her friends and home to some unknown place just because her adoptive grandmother was going off to that place. Shǔguāng was close to Auntie Sunset, practically guarding her. He and Jordan had gotten to talking during Auntie's big party last year, and there had been a chance that they might have gone to his room to have some very adult fun if not for her mom being on their tails for the entire evening. He wasn't her normal type, but she still found him attractive, and he would have been her first. It was something about how he carried himself. She was still waiting for her first, but it certainly wouldn't be him.
The camera panned over to a cloaked woman and an unfamiliar night pony.
"And these two must be Charlotte Newman and Shadow Dancer. Charlotte Newman was an aide to Sunset Blessing and also worked as an aide to Connie Morgan. Shadow Dancer was a bodyguard for the foals, appointed by Yinyu Wu Yan," one of the commentators continued. "Why is Charlotte Newman cloaked up like that and wearing gloves?"
Jordan could take a guess. It was because Auntie Sunset was Charlotte Newman, and this human was some sort of body double to account for her departing to Equestria as well. She had no clue who was standing in as Charlotte Newman, but it wasn't who people thought. Then again, only a select few even knew Charlotte Newman was Auntie's human alter ego.
"Odd that Charlotte is departing as well," one of the delegates said. "She had an excellent head for politics. I had thought she would have used her position as Connie's aid to jump into elected office herself."
"Her ties to Wabash Manor might make it difficult. There'd be too many questions about her work for Sunset Blessing. Connie had those whispers plaguing her as well, even though Charlotte never seemed to have any agenda from Sunset Blessing that she was trying to push," another delegate replied.
"I met Miss Newman a few times in her capacity as Sunset Blessing's agent," Water Wings said, earning the attention of the others.
"A shimmerist had dealings with Sunset Blessing?" a delegate asked. "That is hard to believe. She despised shimmerists, and you guys despised her."
Water Wings shook his head. "Make no mistake, I detest Sunset Blessing for her betrayals and slander, but I am committed to a peaceful and moral way of doing things. I would hear whispers occasionally of some radicals intending to do her and her household harm. I would inform Miss Newman of this to communicate it to Sunset Blessing and prevent bloodshed. No matter how much I hated her, I wouldn't let anyone murder her. I'm not the evil she made shimmerists out to be."
"You keep telling yourself that, buddy," Andrea muttered.
He snorted. "With that in mind, my quarrel was with Sunset Blessing, and it seems her sister has an issue with me. However, I have no quarrel with you, Miss Gilmore. Freedom Shimmer is not representative of the ponies and humans who are shimmerists in this region. I hope we can have a more amicable relationship with Wabash Manor."
"Those people you say he doesn't represent elected him as their representative. You're fooling yourself about what shimmerists are like," Andrea said.
There was a delay. It looked like the portal guard was taking an extended time dealing with whoever was pretending to be Charlotte Newman. Was Auntie Sunset's deception about to be called out? No…Twilight Sparkle just appeared and was intervening. The Princess of Friendship was almost certainly in on Sunset Blessing's deception, so she'd ensure it didn't get called out.
"I don't want to fight with anyone," Jordan reasserted. "If he wants to be nice, I'll be nice too, even if I'm not going to let anybody get tours of the property. I'm not going to endorse anyone, either. I just want to live in peace here with as little drama as possible."
"You've got a lot of security measures here for just wanting to be everyone's friendly neighbor," a delegate who hadn't spoken yet pointed out.
"Which I inherited and exist outside my control. I can boss them around-"
"To an extent," Amicus interjected.
Jordan pointed at Amicus. "See, I don't even have full control over them. I've been here less than a day. I found out I was getting this place only a few days ago. I'm still learning the rules. I haven't even seen the whole property yet or know what all is here. I got a brief tour that didn't even let me look in each of the rooms, went to bed, got up, had a shower, ate breakfast, and threw together some snacks just in time for all of you to arrive so I wouldn't look like a bad host–which was also the first time I got to find out what food was here. Speaking of which, does anybody want mint chocolate chip ice cream? She left me a freezer packed full of it, and I don't like mint. It's Breyers if anyone's interested."
"Thank you for the offer, but no thank you," Mayor Polis replied.
"Hey, it looks like the Princess Twilight will make a speech, even if my little sister isn't. Let's hear what she has to say," Amicus announced as she turned the volume on the television up higher
Jessica nibbled on some toast and sipped some coffee as she watched the news broadcast with her family. Twilight Sparkle was on stage, flanked by Starlight Glimmer and Trixie.
"Greetings, friends," Twilight Sparkle began. "Today, Equestria is honored to be receiving Sunset Blessing and these young ponies as new residents, and soon citizens, of Equestria. We understand she had a troubled history on Earth, some of which I witnessed first hoof. However, Equestria believes in second chances…sometimes third or fourth chances."
Trixie lowered her ears and looked away. There wasn't much question about who was referred to by that last comment. Twilight might have honestly believed she was showing support for Trixie by saying that, knowing ponies would normally take it that way but not realizing how bad it played for humans.
"Years ago, Sunset Blessing did a scathing and humbling critique of Equestria's education system and policies when it came to magic," Twilight continued. "After dealing with the people of this world for nearly two decades and personally being thwarted by Sunset Blessing's magical defenses during the Cataclysm of Riverview, I'm forced to agree with her. Equestria needs to reform its education system regarding magic, or it will be overtaken and fall far behind in the near future. It has been on the decline for centuries, rarely having any advancement. I have done my best over the last twelve years to bring those reforms, and I am proud of what has been accomplished, but I know there is still much to do. Bringing Sunset Blessing to Equestria to teach at our most prestigious magic school is a continuation of those reforms, and it should hopefully give her a place where she can flourish and provide a positive effect on the lives of others."
"Seems like a speech she should be giving to the Equestrians, not us," Robby said.
"Twilight sometimes struggles to separate the difference between friends and her people. Call it a mental defect inherent to being magically tied to the concept of friendship," Jessica said. "Not that there's anything wrong with friendship; friendship is great, but more with being so tied to a concept that it warps your perceptions."
Dusk yawned. "This is boring. Why do we have to watch this?"
"Because Sunset Blessing has been one of the most influential people on Earth since ETS, one of the top two or three mages on Earth, she's family, and your sister might have died if not for her," their mom said.
"She's why Jessie almost died in the first place," Dusk muttered.
"As compensation for the United States relinquishing one of their assets-" Twilight continued, seeming to not like referring to Sunset Blessing in that way. "-Equestria has agreed to donate to the US government two thousand kilograms of thaumicaly active crystal."
Nightscape whistled. "Wow, Sunset Blessing costs a lot to buy."
"Equestria didn't buy her," their dad protested. "They just compensated the government for losing access to her services."
"Sounds like a purchase to me," Nightscape replied. "I know that stuff is easier to come by in Equestria, so it doesn't cost as much there, but that much natural crystal is more than most countries can afford to obtain. Even if that were all artificial crystal, it would cost a sizable fortune."
"We're losing one of our greatest mages to the competition; of course they wanted a lot of value to allow it to happen," Robby said.
"I'm surprised they are even letting it happen, even with compensation," Jessica said. Princess Twilight was giving general platitudes in her speech at the moment, making a speech because she was expected to make a speech, not saying much of substance. "She used to design spells to use as weapons. This is like handing Equestria the knowledge on how to make nukes. To date, we still don't really know how Riverview almost turned into a smoldering crater, but we know it came out of her labs."
"Let's not dig up bad blood," their dad quickly said."
"I'm not digging up bad blood. I'm pointing out that she has concocted spells capable of leveling cities in the past, and the USA is just letting her give her citizenship and services to a foreign nation. From a logical standpoint, that seems like a horrible idea," Jessica stated firmly.
"They got a lot of naturally thaumically active crystal for it. They can do a lot with that much stuff, and Equestria is an ally. Plus, she'd never teach them how to weaponize magic against us. She still has family here, and you know how she is about family," Nightscape reasserted.
"China must be throwing fits right about now," Robby said. "Auntie Sunset is out of reach, and their biggest rival just got two tons of valuable resources. They've been mad at us, but now they'll be mad at Equestria too."
"Good, it's about time Equestria got forced out of neutrality with China," Nightscape declared. "Maybe the Equestrians want relations to sour. China is dangerous, and everyone needs to be united against them."
"They could have made some declaration condemning China at any point if they wanted to do that," their dad said.
"Let's not worry about all that. I'm just hoping people ease up on treating us as risks because we're related to her," their mom said.
"Yeeeaaaa!" Umber yelled.
"You said it, kiddo," their mom chuckled as she rubbed his head.
Eve climbed on the couch and forced her way between her grandmother and her little brother. "Me! Me!"
"WAAAAAAHHH!!" Umber started to wail.
Jessica grabbed her niece and pulled her into her lap. "Eve, stop being a brat. Do you want someone to rub your ears? Come to Aunt Jessie."
"Yessie!" Eve yelled happily as Jessica started to rub the filly's ears.
"Yep, Jessie, that's right," Jessica said as she ticked her niece's wings with her free hand. Eve started giggling. "Who's a silly filly?"
"Me! Me! Hehehe!" Eve giggled.
"You're getting her all worked up right before her bedtime," Nightscape scolded. "I should have you be the one to get her to sleep."
"Nope!" Robby quickly protested. "Nobody is taking away daddy-daughter bedtime storytime."
"And Jessie promised me she'd work on the car with me," Dusk said.
She held up her hands. "Don't worry, bros, I'm going to let Robby tuck Eve in, and I'll work on the car right after I make a few calls."
"Go make your phone calls, but can you unmute the TV first?" their dad asked. "We've been watching her lips move silently for a couple of minutes now. I'm worried we missed something important."
Jessica shook her head. "No, she's talked at length about how impressed she was by Auntie's defenses back at the Bastion, went in talking about how Auntie has been of enormous help as a magical consultant through the years. She talked about how Auntie got her scars-"
"She did?!" Dusk asked with a gasp. "Why didn't you let us listen to that? It's always been some big secret. I want to know how she got her scars. They always said it was an accident, but everybody knows that's horsesh…horsepoop."
"Good save, bro," Robby complimented. Their mom was still giving Dusk a dirty look for the almost cussword.
"I'd have liked to have known what happened, too," Nightscape said with annoyance.
Jessica rolled her eyes. "Dad can tell you the story while I'm on the phone. He and I have known for years how it happened. I suppose we can talk about it now and give a more thorough account than Twilight's brief explanation if she's talking about it."
"You knew the whole time??" Dusk asked in disbelief.
"Is it shocking that Jessie knew a big secret?" Robby asked, right before yawning.
"Well, no," Dusk confessed. "But Dad knew too, and Dad's just…Dad."
"I can't be special?" their dad asked, sounding offended.
Dusk rubbed his head. "You can…I mean…you are, but you don't normally get caught up in all the crazy stuff. Jessie's the one who gets wrapped up in all the crazy stuff."
Their dad adjusted his glasses. "Maybe my crazy stuff is so secret nobody knows about it."
Dusk stared at him for a few seconds. "No, that's not it."
Their Dad actually looked hurt at the comment, looking down and away.
"I'll start walking you through how to assemble and mount an electric engine. That way, you can take over the activity from me when I'm gone," she whispered to her dad's ears alone without moving her lips, one of many tricks she had learned how to do with sound.
He didn't verbally answer, but he looked at her and did a small nod. Her dad was no mechanic, and mounting an electric engine in a vintage car that wasn't designed to have an electric motor was challenging for even most mechanics. Still, she'd done it before and learned enough from the experience that she could explain it to her dad. She could finish the task over time with Dusk, but their dad needed something special to do with him. Putting that engine together and mounting it in the Oldsmobile was something special. She loved her time doing things with Dusk, but there were other things they did. She didn't need to have a monopoly on her brother. Plus, it was logical that they should have more people who knew how to deal with that engine. She couldn't be expected to come running at every piece of maintenance it needed in the future, and neither her dad nor brother were strong enough on their own to do the lifting involved, but together they could manage to lift things together.
She unmuted the television just in time for her phone to start ringing. She answered it.
"Doctor Jessica Middleton speaking," she answered.
"Hey, Jessie," Jordan said in a low voice.
Jessica smiled. "Hey, Jor, can you hold for a few seconds? Let me get somewhere private."
"Okay."
She picked Eve out of her lap and put her with Robby. The filly didn't protest. In fact, the filly yawned. It was about noon. This was very late for her.
"Alright, I'm away from everyone. How's the new place?" Jessica asked.
"I think I made a mistake."
She blinked, then suppressed a growl. "What's wrong? Did Auntie leave some nasty surprise for you? Does she have you doing some insane task? If she did, I'll go to Equestria and drag her back here to have her do her own dirty work. I'll follow her around and make her ears ring until she takes it back."
"No, she didn't do anything like that," Jordan quickly said.
Jessica bit her lip and listened. Electronics could carry her powers. She didn't understand exactly how it worked, not her field of expertise, but she could use Jordan's phone as a conduit.
"You have guests," she said after listening for a moment. "They sound official. City reps?"
"Yeah. I think I screwed up. I kicked two of them out. I'm sure they're going to be mad at me."
"You haven't kicked them all out, so you're doing better than Auntie," Jessica said, chuckling, hoping laughing would put Jordan at ease instead of upsetting her more.
Jordan sniffled. "Really?"
"Auntie tries to be nice and reasonable, but she's got a short temper that flares up out of nowhere. I think there's something wrong with her psychologically because she has massive mood swings. If she has an agenda, she can manage to contain herself, but she didn't with them. Do you think she could make it through hours with those guys without losing her cool, especially since she didn't have any agenda with them to protect?" Jessica asked.
"It isn't just them. Andrea, Auntie's eldest sister, has been giving me grief since I got here," Jordan explained.
"Andrea gives everyone grief. She's always bad-mouthing everybody around her and normally cussing up a storm. Don't let her get to you," Jessica sighed. "Once you get past her rudeness, she isn't that bad. She's loyal to a fault, and despite the fact she's so old, she's still willing to take a bullet to protect others. Just don't be a coward around her. She respects people who take stands. They take getting used to since they're practically solar opposites, but both Auntie's sisters are good mares."
"So, Andrea might not like me hiding in the bathroom instead of dealing with the delegates?"
"Are you hiding in the bathroom?"
"May-be."
Jessica facepalmed. "Jordan…."
"I should go back in there, shouldn't I?"
"That sounds like a good idea," Jessica agreed. "I still need to call NASA and work on an ongoing project with Dusk, but I can come over this evening and spend some time with you."
"Can we go grocery shopping?" Jordan asked. "I got to look at the kitchen cupboards this morning, and I gave everything I thought was mildly edible to these reps. I don't like rice. Rice, soup, and egg noodles are all that's what's left here. Oh, and there's a big bottle of freeze-dried bugs and several tubs of mint chocolate chip ice cream. I'm not eating that."
Jessica gagged. "Yeah, we can go grocery shopping."
"Can you pay for it this time?" Jordan asked. "I'll make it up to you."
"You don't have any money?"
"Amicus says I have an allowance, but I need to go to the bank and sign a bunch of forms and then wait on a debit card to come in the mail. I can't even get to the bank until Monday."
Jessica rolled her eyes. "Okay, I'll pay for your groceries. Now get out of the bathroom and go deal with those reps."
"Thanks, Jessie. I just needed someone friendly to talk to."
She smiled. "No problem, Jor. I'll see you tonight. I'm looking forward to it. We can swing by my new place too. It's not as grand as Wabash, but it's my first place."
"I'd like that. I'll see you tonight. I'll tell Andrea to make sure you can get through the gate. Best friends forever."
"Best friends forever," Jessica replied with a smile.
With the call ended l, she took a deep breath. She hadn't bothered to tell Jordan there was no need to inform the guards she was coming. Jessica was on the short list of people who were always allowed entry, at least unless Auntie had changed the orders before leaving. That was a possibility that couldn't be ruled out.
It was time to call NASA and convince them to turn their multibillion-dollar telescope to look somewhere else. Turning it cost fuel and risked damage to the telescope. It wasn't a small thing to turn a telescope such as the Starpiercer.
What was she going to do about those classes if this turned out to be what the Dreamwardens sought? Physicists were still needed in the fight against the Devourers. They needed people to watch the stars and calculate where and when Devourers had been. You couldn't see where the Devourers were exactly by non-magical means, but you could track their path of death stretching back hundreds of millions, even billions, of years. Before life ever developed on Earth, the Devourers had been ending civilizations. Earth also needed people designing the weapons that would fight the Devourers since magic had no impact on the Devourers, as far too many worlds had found out. There was still value in the students. Whatever the Dreamwardens wanted out there, it wouldn't save the world on its own. No one thing or person could save the world on their own.
She auto-dialed the number and waited for a response.
"Doctor Middleton, a pleasure to be speaking to you again. Are you in need of more star charts already?"
She pointlessly shook her head. "No, and I'm hoping I won't need any more in the future. I think I found the region I've been looking for on behalf of the Dreamwardens. I'm texting you the general coordinates now."
The Administrator was quiet for several seconds. The line hadn't disconnected; she could hear his breathing and heart as well as the stream of Sunset Blessing leaving that the Administrator was watching.
"What's the probability of the coordinates?" the Administrator finally asked in a neutral tone.
"I have thirteen data points in that region ranging from 12.5% to 25.07%. I've never seen results like that. It's rare for me to see a single data point hit five percent. The area is in the Pinwheel galaxy. We need to get a better look to confirm whether it is the right place or not, but that will take Starpiercer."
The Administrator went silent again. Anyone with a tenth of her intelligence knew something was up. They must have been waiting for this news. That meant they were in communication with the Dreamwardens as well, which was unsurprising.
"I'll call a meeting of the Senior Management Council and see what we can do," the Administrator said at last.
"You wouldn't happen to know already what is being looked for, would you?" Jessica asked. "The Dreamwardens said a piece of super-dense thaumic matter the size of Neptune."
"The first and last place," the Administrator replied. "The first thing to exist and the last thing that will exist. The source of all thaumic energy. The place that makes physics even function. It's the holy grail of Astronomy, Physics, and Magicology to anyone who knows about it. It also probably raises enough theological questions to make me glad I'm non-practicing."
"Theological questions?" she asked. "How does a hunk of thaumic matter raise theological questions?"
"If what the Dreamwardens have described to me is true, it has covered in the ruins of a civilization that predates the universe itself, and the world itself is sentient. Dreamwardens don't lie," the Administrator answered. "The term ruins being used broadly, since every building is undamaged, merely vacant."
"It sounds fascinating, but how does this place help us defeat the Devourers? If it has been around that long, can think, and has done nothing about them, it makes me wonder what it can do now. Did they tell you?" Jessica asked.
"They didn't, but it survived the Devourers, the Big Bang, and presumably the Big Crunch. If studying anything can give us clues on how to survive a Devourer assault, it can," the Administrator replied. "You don't seem excited by this. You're a scientist. You should be as excited as we are at this discovery if we finally found it."
"I've seen fantastic things in my life already. I had a front-row seat to the Cataclysm of Riverview. I watched Wild Growth almost become an alicorn but fell short at the last minute. The Dreamwardens have shown me visions of worlds as the Devourers destroyed them. Things such as these that are beyond my understanding no longer shock me. I knew whatever this was had to be special. I have spent most of my life searching for this, being told it would help us survive; I wasn't in it for a scientific discovery. All I want to know is how it will help us," Jessica answered.
"I don't know."
She snorted. "Then I guess I'm waiting to see it for myself, and maybe I'll get the answer. Anyway, I'll let you go to call your meeting. I have a promise to my little brother to keep."