Microstory 188: Fiona Mill

This is an experimental Bellevue Profile microstory. The introduction can be found in Microstory 101. More to follow.

When Fiona Mill’s parents were driving their little baby girl home from the hospital for the first time, they were involved in a vehicular collision. Little Fiona was thrown from the car and suffered an irreparable spinal injury. Fortunately, she survived, but was left a paraplegic, and was forced to remain in a wheelchair. Having grown up in this condition, and not knowing any other way, Fiona was a primarily positive and agreeable person. After her parents entered an assisted living facility, she took over operations of their little eleven-room motel on the edge of Gallup, Ashiwa. Business was not great during her tenure due to a new highway, but overhead was minimal and she employed only one worker. They were able to keep the business afloat with little struggle. As a little girl, her parents would often underestimate her strength, and never noticed when she would sneak over and listen to their discussions. They would regularly discuss something referred to as the Firefly Program, but always danced around the details. One night, she witnessed a mysterious yellow light emanating from her mother’s hands. Simply seeing this with her own eyes allowed her to understand how to make this light happen herself. It started with a violet light, but gradually slid up through indigo, blue, green, yellow, and orange. She was never able to generate any other colors, and she did not understand exactly what was happening, or why she was able to perform this magic. She decided to never reveal to her parents that, not only did she know her mother’s secret, but that she shared her gifts. Fiona was placed on the special list of anomalies, and approached by Bellevue without prompt. Being so agreeable, and really having nothing better to do, she closed down the motel and and moved to Missouri, under the condition that her one employee could accompany her. He ended up seamlessly continuing his maintenance duties at the Bellevue Hotel. After some investigation, it was discovered that Fiona’s ability was not just glowing. The lights were only precursors to astral travel. When she steadied her mind and focused her light, Fiona could actually open up windows to other dimensions called astral nodes. Each color gave access to its own specific dimension, and each successive dimension could facilitate faster-than-light travel to a greater distance.