Dreams of Stars Part 16

A little short, but I'm tired this week.

            The Tameran Asylum stood before them like a fortress, which was fitting as it was designed to look and act just like a fortress, only its purpose was to keep people in, not out, though it did an excellent job of that too.  The wall was stone, hard, grey stone that one might mistake for natural rock, but was really a fancy concrete pattern dug into the outside of the building to make it look more presentable to the outside world.  This was important as the massive towers, the giant, slowly opening gates and the guards with heavy weapons did not make the place very inviting looking.

            L’lorne stood next to it, looking up from the sidewalk at the edifice of fake stone and security, but she wasn’t really looking at it.  Instead, she was trying to find information, and having such poor luck that she could only curse quietly in a language long dead.

            Blocks.  Lots of them.  Officially, they were called “Delphi Data Access Restriction Requested By Anonymous,” and that’s what came up with every attempt to learn something about the Asylum.  No building schematics, no history, not even access to satellite photography of the site.  She knew who was to blame for this, because he was the only one who had a reason to restrict it, and that fact seemed to feed on her already ever present anger she had for her former lover and teacher.

            Deborah giggled, drawing L’lorne away from the building for a moment.  The girl was staring at newspaper box, grinning in such a way that anyone else might think there was something wrong with her.  The sunglasses, however, were transmitting the entirety of the paper’s comic page before her and she was enjoying it quite a bit.

            More frustration filled L’lorne as she attempted to access the local data web, only to find nearly the same amount of information on the Asylum as Delphi was currently offering.  The government had taken quite a few steps to more or less erase the building from existence, restricting and classifying nearly everything.  Perhaps she should have accessed the data stream at the CDPC instead of letting Deborah do it.  In moments, she could have had everything she needed.

            No, Deborah had to do it.  The importance of her being able to come to grips with her own gifts was far too great to have done it for her, at least in the long term.  The lack of information on the Asylum was merely a minor inconvenience, really, and it could easily remedied without Delphi or the government’s help.

            “That guy is sure odd looking,” Deborah said as she stood up, a smile still on her face from the funny pages.  L’lorne muttered a questioning hum, but didn’t really take much interest, and Deborah did little but half point to the front page before turning her glace up the granite side of the Asylum.  “So, figure a way in yet?”

            “No, not yet.”  It felt weird to say that, so L’lorne said nothing else for a moment as she continued to try various methods to find the data she wanted.  It was slowly looking like she would have to build her own separate database on the place if she wanted anything new, which meant doing a sonar sounding, some radar mapping, thermal imagining, etcetera, etcetera.  Nothing she couldn’t do, but it still wouldn’t give her that final crucial bit of information she needed:  Where was Patricia Ignigus?  In the end, she would simply have to go in and look.  “I think we’ll need to wait until tomorrow, it’s getting late right now.”

            “The sun just set,” Deborah protested.  “We’ve got plenty of time and. . .” she interrupted herself with a yawn, triggered by a well placed push of that mental button.

            “We’re exhausted,” L’lorne said.  “We should get some rest tonight, then come back tomorrow.”

            “Alright,” Deborah said.  The girl slumped a little.  She was tired, they had been moving at a breakneck pace nearly all day, but she wanted to get this over with.  To be within a few feet of her final destination, and have to stop and wait weighed heavily on her, that was obvious.  L’lorne felt it too, though she was a touch farther away than Deborah was.

            “You know, we should stay close, just in case.”  L’lorne turned around looking carefully up and down the street.  There were plenty of motels in town, but none were near the Asylum.  There was one place, however, that looked promising.  “How about we stay there for the night?”

            The house L’lorne pointed at was most certainly abandoned, with nearly all the windows and even the front door covered in rotting boards.  No power flowed through the wires, and the pipes were all dry and partially filled with dust and calcites.  Yet, despite this, it had once been a beautiful house.  A tower like room sat above the entryway which opened to a great wraparound porch.  The colors would have been bright in their time, but now were browned and chipped, with only a few hints of its former glory.  All this just across the street from the great, terrible Asylum and both shared one very important fact that intrigued L’lorne:

            Delphi Data Access Restriction Requested By Anonymous.

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Questions

1. What kind of person is Lcorn Llorne? What does she look like (in your mind)?
2. What kind of person is the Deborah Ignigus? What does she look like (in your mind)?
3. Does the setting seem fitting? Would you like to know more?