Relic

New York City, 1974

As the last echoes of my lecture faded, the audience remained silent, leaving me momentarily adrift. Had my words resonated, or had I unintentionally offended the group?

I had restrained myself and omitted the more contentious aspects of my lecture. Afterall, I needed their support and funding to further my research into what I had begun to call the Shadow World—an alternate world running parallel to our own. I did not want to leave them thinking I was a lunatic.

Sadly, this was a familiar outcome back home in London and why I had agreed to come to New York City. Caution was key to avoid being dismissed.

I moved away from the lectern, readying myself for the assault of doubt, the familiar challenges to my qualifications, or even the blunt rejection of my research’s credibility.

Dealing with skepticism was nothing new to me. Memories of a particularly patronizing encounter at Oxford—a priggish little man who dared suggest my feminine anatomy invalidated the integrity of my work—lent a bitter taste to my expectations. Americans, at least, tended to brush me off more politely.

What happened next was nothing like what I’d faced before. To my surprise, the Aeonian Order of the Aetherial, or AOA (the ridiculous names of these organizations, something I reminded myself to write a paper on later), started clapping.