Irena - Home Again

She struggled to a sitting position, finding the heart shaped sapphire resting warm and heavy in her hand. She stared at it, remembering having left it wrapped in silk, back at the apartment. A dim flicking flame still danced in its depths, hypnotic and slightly frightening. She turned it, accidentally shifting it through the sunlight from the mostly drawn drapes. Once again the air shimmered with a deep gong sound. The flame flashed to brilliance and in the after image, burned across her eyes, she saw a shadowy scene of a woman in a throne. A second woman stood in front of her. Then the flash faded and she was staring at cheap hotel walls once again.

Irena rose on unsteady legs, packed her bag, and left. On the highway she floored it, staying at the head of traffic instead of with it, slowing only where she thought there might be traffic officers. Her instincts were perfect, slowing her every time before a radar car came into sight. Her thoughts were too frantic already to notice the strange coincidence.

She pulled into the drive an hour and a half sooner than her previous best time, dashed upstairs and shouted for Shandi. "Hey, I thought you were gone for three weeks," Shandi's voice called from her room.

"I was going to be, but it was too weird being back there. Remember those friends I mentioned? They're still exactly where they were when I left. I don't know what I wanted, but I should have taken your advice and gone somewhere different. Has there been any word on Sophia?"

"No. The police are still nosing around, although their enthusiasm seems reduced. We're starting to slip at work. We need to have an internal beta running next week, that's what we promised Rani Corp."

"Rani Corp? Who're they?"

"Jaime's backers. It's their money funding this venture and we promised a live demonstration server running by next week so they could take a look at the final concepts."

"I'm not a game developer, but I do know Jaime's characters pretty well. Reading through her notes, while I was gone, brought them all back to mind. If there's any way I could help, I'd be happy to."

"I don't know, maybe. It's not just knowing the characters. You need to set them up, but that is done in an editing environment, so you wouldn't have to code them directly," Shandi said, more to herself than to Irena. "It might just work. Come in with me tomorrow and I'll run it by the director. You still have the rest of your time off, right?"

"I did take three weeks for a break, yes."

"Then come in tomorrow morning with me and see. I think you can help."

"Uh, sure, I can do that," Irena replied, nervous, now that her offer was accepted. She opened her laptop and began looking through the game docs as soon as she had finished unpacking. Looking through the files reminded her of the incident of the morning. "Hey Shan, did anything strange happen this morning?"

"No, why?"

"You know that sapphire we found? It appeared in my hand this morning. I was certain I had left it here when I left."

"I saw you put it in your drawer. You didn't grab it on your way out?"

"No."

"Strange, very strange indeed. Where is it now?"

"In here, on my desk. I'm not sure what to do with it." Irena stared at it and continued slowly, "Did...anything...strange happen for you today?"

"Not really, why? Did something happen to you?"

"I've been having really strange dreams lately. And I've been drifting into waking dreams over the past few days."

"It could just be stress. I've gotten that kind of thing before."

"Maybe..." Irena trailed off. "It was a long drive. I guess I'll read a bit and sleep if you don't mind."

"See you in the morning. Remember, off to game we go."

"Sure."