Author’s Note: Now that that part’s settled, they can do a bit of work as a team. Sort of.
“Here,” Enya said, turning the screen so that everyone could see it. Sherwin leaned over her shoulder, trying to get a good look. She shifted her head, bumping Cress, who rose and started pacing the back of the room. She gave him a look before she went on. “This is a list of all the properties owned by Aether Industries. They’re marked on this map here, but what bothers me is them having so many clustered right in the middle of the city. I just don’t see them as places where they’d hide someone like us. There’d be too much of a risk of them using their element to try and escape or just draw attention to the place.”
Moira nodded. “Unless the surrounding neighborhoods were full of vacant buildings or industrial buildings that don’t see a lot of use.”
Terra frowned. “There aren’t any weird rumors involving any of those properties, are there?”
“No.”
“Dig deeper. What about those… What are they called…?” Cress rubbed at his forehead. “Holding companies. Yeah, one of them. Why couldn’t they have a place under one of those names?”
Enya sighed. She rubbed at the back of her neck. “Maybe. I need a break. Too much time staring at those screens, and my head starts to ache.”
“I can fix that for you,” Sherwin told her, moving her hands out of the way to work his magic on her sore muscles. He’d gotten pretty good at this over the years, and even Moira would let him do it for her on occasion. Of course, he preferred women that weren’t related to him, but he still shared a deep bond with his sister. He helped her out when he could.
“I’m going to go take a bath,” Cress said. “If you find something, let me know.”
Sherwin would have teased the other man about the whole bath thing, but that had stopped being funny years ago. Cress was water. He was drained. He needed a bath. The fact that he was admitting it was more worrisome than anything else.
“Damn. I wanted one of those.”
“Would you rather go first, Occie? I’ll let you.”
She shook her head. “No, go ahead. I’ll take my turn after you do. You may as well go to bed when you’re done. We’ll be leaving early tomorrow, right, Moira?”
“Yes.”
Cress nodded, ducking out of the room. Sherwin shook his head, leaning down to Enya’s ear. “So, did that help?”
“Um,” she said, frowning. She moved away from the computer. “I think I might actually have a migraine. I’ll just go ahead and lie down, pick up on the search in the morning. Excuse me.”
“Enya.”
She stopped, turning back to Moira. “Problem?”
“No, just… a thought. We haven’t discussed rooming arrangements yet, so I thought I’d suggest that you share with Oceana and Cress. Normally, they get a room to themselves so that he gets as much of a chance to renew when he’s sleeping, but with your nightmares… a little less rest for him might be an acceptable trade-off for you not waking the whole neighborhood.”
She grimaced. “Yeah. It probably is. As long as Occie and Cress are okay with that.”
“I’m good. Fair warning, though, he snores.”
Enya laughed. “It’s not that bad. I’ve fallen asleep on him a few times, and unless he got twice as loud as he used to be, I’ll survive.”
“Good,” Moira said. She turned the laptop toward herself, putting her fingers on the keys. “It’s been a while, but I will see what I can do with this.”
Terra rose. “I’m going to turn in if you don’t mind.”
“No, go ahead. Get some rest.”
Sherwin watched them all go, shaking his head. He turned to his sister. “Don’t start turning into Cress now. You get to sleep, too. You’re not allowed to start pushing yourself too far and not sleeping and all of that crap.”
She looked up from the computer. “I won’t.”
“Sure.”
“I don’t have half the problems that Cress does, and I don’t… Oh, never mind.”
“What?”
Moira let out a breath. “You know I love you, right?”
“Of course.”
“Then please understand when I tell you that you’re an idiot,” she said with as gentle of a smile as Moira ever gave, putting a hand over his. “To make a terrible pun, I have to tell you that you need to stop chasing after the wind.”
“We need to get you a guy.”
She shoved him back, knocking him into the wall. “I take it back. I don’t love you.”