Phoebe meet GWENN

Posted on Mon Jan 22nd, 2024 @ 14:50 by Phoebe Hunter & William McAvoy & Claire Cavendish

Chapter: Winter's Crest Festival
Location: GWENN
Timeline: November 28th 1992
1222 words - 2.4 OF Standard Post Measure

It had taken Phoebe weeks to pluck up the courage to bring it up again to Claire now that she knew the headmaster had something that they could use to track Robert but there she was following Claire and William further into the castle than she had ever before. She had always wondered what the door off of the Knights locker room had been about but with no need to question or ask about the locked room she had not. "So what happens now?" She wondered finally as the silence got too much.

"What happens now is we try and track Robert using the DNA sample you were able to retrieve." Claire hadn't really wanted to elaborate on the detailed inner workings of GWENN, but perhaps it was good for someone outside of her and William to know about these things, in case something were to happen to them. "This castle was a historic sanctuary for wayward mutants. William protected these grounds from witch hunters and the like." The head teacher swiped her card and with a heavy click the door opened. After the incursion by the small group of students they had increased the security on the undercrofts of the institute.

“Yes but how?” Phoebe asked not deterred from asking her questions. She wanted to know everything to assist if she was leading the knights. William grinned at her and indicated the device that was linked up to what could only be describe as a looking glass.

“Guinevere's looking glass.” He explained as Phoebe only took a couple of steps into the room and stopped.

“Guinevere's looking glass?” Phoebe could not believe it. She knew the legends of relics that were from Camelot but she had never seen one in real life. “How did you come across it William?”

“One of the faetouched I helped in 1399 gave it to me for safe keeping as she could not travel with it easily and I believe Hextilda… my wife put it in my tomb.” He explained. And for the first time Phoebe realised he was a real person with a real life before he woke up in the castle after 600 years.

"Where it lay undisturbed for half a millennia until I found William during the renovations in '89." Claire took up the helmet with visor from the desk and sat down in the chair. The sample that had been provided was put into an appropriate slot and she slid the contraption over her head. It looked like a flight helmet directly from Top Gun. The visor covered the head teacher's eyes. "This allows us to remote view the location of the individual linked to the DNA. The fresher the sample, the better the lock. Plus there's quite a bit that seems to interfere with the signal. In general we can get within 50 metres of our target." It seemed like the purple woman was looking around herself but through the darkened visor it was clear she was focusing on something other than the room around her. "It looks like Oxfordshire, some small town south of the university. Does that mean anything to you? Any known safe houses for him? Associates?" it was sometimes difficult to make out details, but Oxford was a place that wasn't unfamiliar to her.

Phoebe waited with bated breath as she listened to what the woman said. Something inside of her said she knew the area, she knew exactly where that was but logically she could not. “I went to Oxford but he had no connections there when we met. We were not there long before we went to London. Maybe my blood is confusing it?” Phoebe shrugged.

Claire looked if she could hone in on the signal that GWENN had locked on to. It took them further into the rural area but failed to get closer. It didn't seem like particularly secretive areas, on the contrary. When she had been in a small rural town in Wales it had always seemed like everyone knew everything that happened all the time. The same was true for New Cresthill. "Possibly." She didn't sound convinced.

“It had never worked like that before but maybe you are correct there,” William spoke up looking at Phoebe wonderingly. It was not for the first time he wondered if there was more to the woman that met the eyes. “It was worth a shot.”

The head teacher sat back and pulled the visor from her head. "Perhaps it would be a good idea to ask around with your contacts, if you still have any, down there. Communities like that are usually tight-knit."

"I have contacts," Phoebe assured quietly as the feeling left her that she had an idea of who the person was and she shook her head. "I am sure I will be able to figure something out but Robert is the like type to stick to large cities as there are plenty of places to hide away or slip into."

"Perhaps if he knows that he'll have broken pattern, to throw people off his scent." Claire didn't know Robert as well as Phoebe did but people were capable of going to great lengths to keep themselves safe and hidden if they needed to. It was something that their community had gotten very good at, by necessity. "See what you can dig up, if you want I can try and figure things out from my side as well."

Phoebe offered a shrug. She was not at all convinced but said nothing she was not in the best place to judge Robert in the slightest with a headache that was brewing. "I will... I just need to go lie down and get rid of the headache that is brewing." She admitted offering painful smiles as she made a hasty exit. William waited until the woman was far enough away before he turned to Claire.

"That was strange as you would say. You did not see it but she went..." He tried to think of a word that covered what he had seen. "blank."

There was a moment where Claire had to parse what that could mean, "It's an emotional thing for her as well, I'm sure there's a good explanation for her reaction. We'll wait for her to follow up with her contacts. In the meantime I'll put out my own feelers in Oxford." She stepped up to the medieval knight, "Can you reach out to anyone down south?" She slapped his shoulder and laughed a bit, hoping that he had found some peace with the situation over the past three years.

The man glanced down at the woman and frowned a little before smiling. “I’m just saying something was not right about her reaction. Blankness is not…” he paused and shrugged. “You are right.” He conceded. He just did not like how it had all gone something was not right.

"I'm sure that if she needs our help with anything as a result of this, she'll come to one of us." Claire put her hand on the man's shoulder again, this time as a more friendly and caring gesture, softly patting him. It was endearing to see how much the medieval man cared for the staff and students at the institute. "Let's get back topside, before someone misses us and decides to start digging."