Chapter Text
Ianto placed the box on the conference room table. It looked to be made out of a single piece of ivory. Anemones had been carved in deep relief around the sides, while on the lid the flowers formed a wreath around the profile of a young woman with long wind-tossed hair carved out of a deep red stone.
"The stone is a ruby." Ianto said. "Flawless. Mr. Gurdin was gibbering when he showed it to me. To a good jeweler, carving stones like that is a mortal sin."
"Mr. Gurdin?" Owen asked.
"Jeweler. Old friend of my Tad's. One of his clients brought it in to sell at auction but Mr. Gurdin's psychometrist took one look at it and promptly fainted, so he called me."
"It's exquisite," Gwen said. "She almost looks alive."
"That might be the problem. According to Mr. Gurdin, the psychometrist sensed something very dark about it. And then there's the fact that nobody can figure out how to open it."
"A puzzle box?" Jack said delightedly. "I love that sort of toy."
"This toy is worth about two hundred thousand quid," Ianto replied. "They did some carbon dating on it and it's probably older than the pyramids."
"Very high quality carving work for something that old. The ruby looks as if they had used a laser." Jack said. "Tosh, let's verify any possible tool marks… Tosh?"
Toshiko looked up. "Sorry. What?"
Jack gave her a long look. "All right, that's it. Owen, you need to give Tosh a check up. Right now."
"No!" Tosh sat up. "I'm all right."
"No, you're not, and everyone knows it." Jack said. "Ever since we came back from the Brecons you haven't been acting like yourself..."
"I do my job!" She shouted at him.
"It's not your job I'm worried about!" He shouted back. "Tosh, you are pale, you barely eat, you… for God's sake, you nearly ended in the fountain yesterday because you were too distracted to see where you were going!"
"I was talking to Myfanwy!" She clapped her hands over her mouth as if to retract her words.
"What?"
"Don't look at me like that. I'm not crazy!" She held herself ramrod-straight for a few minutes, then sank back into her chair as if deflated. "At least I don't think I am."
"Tosh, what is going on?" Owen took Tosh's hand in his. "I'm your doctor. I thought we were friends."
"We are! It's just that…" She gave Gwen an entreating look. "Don't be angry at me, all right?"
"Why would I be angry at you?" Gwen looked confused.
"It's just that…" Tosh took a deep breath. "It started after your Tylwyth Teg friend touched my forehead."
"The elf-sight?" Jack asked. "It's not that unusual for fae to gift humans that way if they like them."
"It didn't stop there, Jack. Out in the woods, when Ianto and I were running from the cannibals, I led him straight to the kitsune. I could sense her, hear her, even before I saw her." She ran her free hand through her hair. "Then, afterwards, I started seeing them. Everywhere. Do you know how odd it is to water your plants while holding a conversation with a raven? Or to have a bat give you a report on what trees will be fruiting soon?"
"You're talking to animals?"
"No! I'm talking to animal… I don't know. Spirits?" She looked at all of them in bewilderment. "Inari help me. I'm losing my mind."
"No!" Gwen went to kneel at Tosh's side. "You're not. Tosh… when I told the Herald messenger that you couldn't see him because you didn't have any Talent, he said you did, but that it had been inhibited when you were a child."
"What? No. He was mistaken. Gwen, they tested me until I was sick of it. My mother cried every time the reports came back negative. My father couldn't even look at me, he was so disappointed."
"I'm sorry, Tosh." Gwen stroked Tosh's hair. "I'm sorry. But… it was your father that inhibited you."
Tosh pushed her away, shrinking back into Owen, who simply held her hand tighter. "No! He wouldn't have done that!"
"I'm only telling you what the Herald said. He's very powerful and he's not a prankster. He said he judged it would hurt you too much to know, so he just gave you elf-sight. A small compensation."
Owen gave Gwen a hard look. "Then why did you tell her now?"
"Because she had to," Jack said. "Tosh's talent is so powerful that it only needed a tiny push against those barriers and it all came pouring out. Unacknowledged and uncontrolled it would have killed her."
"Why would he have done it? Why?" The voice was that of a bewildered child, and it tore at their hearts. "I would have done anything, anything, to not hurt okaasan. She cried every night. Every night!"
"You told me once," Ianto said hesitantly, "that in Japanese culture people who could communicate with animal spirits were considered less than trustworthy. Maybe your father did not want that for you."
"And instead he condemned me to a childhood full of disappointment and humiliation?" She shook her head angrily. "No. You're giving him too much credit. He just didn't want his friends to know he had sired a child with a wild talent. Better than she be an… eunuch, than a majo."
"You are not a witch!" Ianto said. "In Wales you would have been honored. Tell me, Tosh, have you noticed white dogs with red ears following you recently? Dogs that nobody else sees?"
"How did you know?"
"The hounds of Annfwn are protecting you, Tosh. Myfanwy talks to you, and dragons were supposed to be bloody choosy. Here in Wales you would have gone to the groves at soon as the talent manifested, to be trained as a priestess. Ask Gwen, if you don't believe me.' He grinned. "Or into the Church school if Mother Katherine had gotten a hold of you first."
Tosh pushed away from the table and stood up. "I have to think. I'm sorry, but I have to be alone for a little while and think."
She ran out of the conference room. Ianto, Owen, and Gwen all made to follow her but were stopped by Jack.
"No. She needs someone who can listen without making demands." He tapped his ear piece three times. "Andy? Tosh needs your help."