by W A Rowland
“That’s just a bit terrifying,” Liam responded.
“I’ve been around for almost 5000 years and I still get goose bumps when I get to that part of the speech,” Bast said, giving a grin. Then she got serious again. “Remember it all, Liam, because it’s the best cautionary tale we demis have, but not the only one. Almost every tyrant in history started out as a demi with a seemingly noble purpose, but who lost their way. We have been given a great gift from the guardian, but we have no implicit rules to guide us. Only how we view the world and bond with our guide gives us direction.
“Most often, demis who commit atrocities have lost sight of their humanity. They try to act like something better, more evolved, or different altogether from regular people. They deny flaws and end up accentuating their wrongs. They justify their actions by saying that they no longer have to follow human morals or ethics. That they’re above such things. We call them the ‘Graven,’ and they’re the worst of the worst this world has to offer. Hitler, Attila the Hun, Stalin, Castro, Rasputin, Belle Gunness; all demis who sought to conquer and control humanity in a twisted version of their guides desires. They attempt to place themselves as gods in one form or another. When possible, our little family here attempts to disrupt the plans of people like this. Admittedly, more out of self-preservation because a takeover of society would also harm us. But, aside from a few encounters throughout the years, we’ve attempted to stay neutral.”
“Why tell me all of this then? If I’m part of this group now and we stay neutral, then why does it matter?” Liam asked.
“I’m telling you all of this now, because I believe the core you’re currently bonded to belonged to a rather nasty group of Graven that call themselves the ‘Association of Celestials.’ We haven’t had many interactions with them in the past, but the few that we have had always ended in bloodshed. They’re one of the few groups of Graven though that have operated with enough tact so as to not draw the attention of the world at large, and in turn, one of the demi groups that does actively hunt cores. It appears that they’ve matured enough to have larger goals in mind lately though.”
“So, there’s a big group of bad demis that are trying to take over the world? And, I somehow found one of their cores? I mean, how do you even know that it was one of theirs?” Liam asked, a little incredulous and hoping the whole thing was just some big joke.
“Naturally, objects of such power are tracked carefully through spies and powers. To our knowledge, there are around 250 cores in the world. When Jacob Nelson came into possession of the core, we began watching him. He received the core a couple months ago as part of a will from a high-ranking Association member that died suddenly. Other enclaves are looking into that specifically, as we suspect he was killed by another member of the Association, and his death shifted power. We assumed that Jacob Nelson was planning to keep the core until the Association claimed it and found another host. That is until you found it,” she said pausing. “In any case, your bonding with the core places you and yours in quite a bit of danger. The Association does not like to lose power, and the loss of a core is a huge deal.”
“So, when they broke into my apartment…” Liam started.
“…is when we realized that you had the core. Honestly, if it wasn’t for Cindy’s warning, we wouldn’t have gotten you out in time,” she said.
“What do you mean?” Liam asked.
“She got a warning that something bad was going to happen. She saw your body and five men dressed in black in your apartment building and then the city skyline. Only took one call for Steven to confirm that you matched the description of someone who worked for Jacob Nelson, so Sarah took a portal to your block and mentally nudged you to go on a walk,” Bast said.
“Wait… really?” Liam said disbelieving.
“You tell me. When was the last time you willingly took a walk around your neighborhood at two hours till dusk?” she challenged with a grin.
“Ok, point taken. But what about the rest of it? Why didn’t they just grab me then?” Liam asked.
“We needed to lead on the Association, and grabbing you then would have revealed us too soon. Also, we weren’t a hundred percent sure that you had bonded with the core. Steven followed you and the rest of the team watched the Association people trash your apartment looking for the core. They apparently thought you had stolen it as retribution for being fired, from what Sarah gleaned. It was only after Sarah, Hand, and Jax followed the association goons back to their base that we found out that one of the officers suspected that you may have bonded with the core,” Bast explained.
Liam suddenly felt sick again as he realized how close he’d come to dying. Again.
She continued, “Steven confirmed that you indeed had bonded with the core, so we worked a plan to get you somewhere secure and you know the rest. Unfortunately, the fact that Cindy got a warning at all means that whatever the Association had planned for that core was about to happen and it was not going to be good,” she finished. “Please understand, we usually only interfere in events that have a wide-scale effect. We don’t usually get involved in politics or local affairs. In the past, we’ve only ever intervened in cataclysmic to extinction level events.”
Liam was at a loss for words as the vastness of the situation washed through his brain. Whatever the Association was planning wasn’t just about his city. It was world-changing. “I think I need time to process this.” He finally got out.
“Take what you need, but not too long. You are part of the family now, and honestly, we need everyone we have to get ready for a possible fight. Now that we’ve gotten involved, we’re going to be doing some investigating and a possible intervention against the Association’s plans.”
Liam nodded, and then a thought struck him. “What about my friends?” he asked. “You said that me and mine are in danger? I have no blood relatives living, but what about my friends Kat and Rich? Would the Association go after them?”
“It’s possible, it depends on how much the Association actually knows about you, and if they think those two can be leveraged against you. I’ll send Steven to keep an eye on them to be safe. Ok?” she said, with a warm smile.
“I’d like to go with him. If I got them into trouble, I’d like to help get them out,” Liam said.
“I’m afraid that would be too dangerous at this point. You need to understand Liam, if the Association is able to get their hands on your core, then whatever Cindy’s vision was about may still happen. For now, you need to stay low profile,” she responded.
“So, I’m supposed to just sit here and relax while my friends may be in danger?” he asked.
Of course not. You’ll be training,” she said, giving him a devilish smile.
“Thea! Please come here,” she shouted over to a short redheaded, middle-aged woman in black workout clothes with muscles on top of muscles. Liam’s eyes got a little wide as she walked over and grinned at him.
“This is the new guy?” Thea said with an evil grin of her own.
“Indeed. Please get him up to speed dear,” Bast said then turned back to Liam as she stood up. “Have a good time, Liam,” she said and then slinked away towards the other demis in the room.
Liam looked at Thea and frowned. Lily, why do I feel like that was sarcasm, he thought.
“Because it was dummy. She’s about to wreck us,” she said, and then did the disembodied spirit equivalent of a *GULP* in his head.
Yay, us, Liam thought as Thea motioned for him to follow.
PAIN AND POWER
Thea led Liam and Lily to the stairs and proceeded through the portal back to the asylum. Once there, she brought them to a padded cell and entered, closing the door behind them.
“Creepy,” Lily said making Liam’s skin crawl.
“Thea? Why are we here?” he asked askance.
“For training, I need to know what you’re capable of handling, and you need to figure out what your power set is going to be like,” she responded.
&nb
sp; “I get that. But why are we here?” Liam responded motioning to the room.
Thea stomped twice on the padded floor. “Cushioning. Turns out padded cells make for great sparring rooms.”
“Sparring –” Liam started, but was cut off by Thea lunging towards him in a blur of red hair. He tried to dodge, but her open hand hit his chest and sent him sprawling to the ground.
“You’re slow, anticipate the attack at all times,” she said in a tone that Liam immediately associated with military drill instructors from some of Rich’s movies. Liam picked himself up and she blurred at him again. He lashed out this time trying to counter her strike with his own, but she flowed like water around his clumsy punch and he once again went flying, hitting the back wall of the cell. “When you strike, you need to hit ahead of your target, aim for where they will be, not where they are,” she said and then blurred again.
This time, Liam lashed out with his telekinesis power and somehow latched onto her hand, stopping it a fraction of an inch from his chest, but feeling an immense amount of energy leave his body to maintain the field.
Thea bounded off of the invisible force field holding her hand back though and gave him a solid kick to his side, doubling him over. “Good, use what you have, but always be ready for the other person to get creative as well. This is true especially with demis in the mix.”
Liam caught his breath and got up again, ready for the next attack. But it never came. Thea stood looking at her hand that had her clenching and unclenching it, perplexed.
“Are you done hitting me?” Liam asked hopefully.
Thea didn’t answer, but instead walked over to one of the walls and punched her hand through it. Liam blanched. Holy Shit, that could have been me, he thought, panic rising.
“Calm down, Liam; obviously, she’s been holding back,” Lily responded.
Thea pulled her hand out of the wall and stared at the hole.
“By the way, did you feel that power draw when we stopped her hand?” Lily asked. “I don’t remember your telekinesis needing that much energy before.”
“Me either, maybe because her hand was moving so fast? Took more to stop it?”
Lily didn’t answer because Thea looked at her hand then Liam.
“What the hell did you do to me?” she asked. Her face white.
“What do you mean?” Liam asked, suddenly afraid. “I didn’t do anything, and if I did, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”
“You don’t understand. I couldn’t do this—” She punched another hole in the wall. “—before now. Now I sure as hell didn’t just discover a new ability after 2000 years to keep my body from breaking, so you had to have done something.”
“I… I’m sorry, I don’t know,” Liam said.
“Think back, what did you do to stop that last attack?” Thea asked.
“I used my telekinesis. I thought about your hand and that it wasn’t stopping, I thought it would go right through me. So I stopped it,” Liam said, trying to recall his exact thoughts at the moment.
“We need to get back to Bast, right away,” Thea said, and practically pushed him out of the room.
Back at the bunker, Bast did her best to calm down a very excited Thea.
“Thea, slow down, tell me again what happened exactly?”
Thea growled in frustration, then, having an idea hit her, she walked over to the cinderblock wall of Bast’s room and punched it. Her punch was met with a loud crunching noise as the cinderblock cracked, but so did her hand. Thea let out a scream of pain and rage. “Fuck! That hurt!”
Bast looked at her head of security and sighed. “I thought we were past this phase, Thea,” she said patronizingly.
“No, I did it at the asylum, there was no pain, no resistance, I was able to punch right through it,” Thea complained. “We were training and he did something.”
“Ok, ignoring the fact that you’re punching holes in my walls here. Seriously, Thea, you know that demi powers can’t influence one another. It’s the unwritten rule,” Bast said.
“Bast, I’m telling you, he did,” Thea said firmly.
“Liam, would you please tell me what exactly you did? Maybe some kind of joint attack?” Bast asked.
Liam quickly recounted what had happened and Bast listened intently. “Maybe some latent telekinetic energy wrapping your hand, Thea? Would certainly explain it,” Bast said.
“No, it wasn’t that. Bast, I felt my hand change. My guide did too!” Thea said, frustrated. Then she got another one of those looks in her eye, and launched herself at Liam.
“Thea!” Bast yelled and reached out to grab her, but before she could, Liam put up his telekinetic shield again and Thea bounced off it as before.
This time though, she had hit the shield with her whole body instead of her fist, essentially doing a horizontal belly flop. Again, Liam felt his energy spike and leave him; he was starting to feel tired. The muscular woman jumped up and rushed at the wall again. This time, there wasn’t a crunch or a scream of pain when she hit though. This time, there was only a Thea-size hole through the cinderblocks and into the common room.
Bast stood there, her mouth agape at what she had just seen. She knew that Thea wasn’t capable of that kind of force. She had met very few demis without specific destruction powers who were. And Thea had just plowed through a solid cinderblock wall with little to no problem.
Thea walked back through her hole grinning. “See! I told you!” she said excitedly.
Bast looked at Liam, looked at Thea, then looked at the hole in her wall. “Woah,” she said.
Hand appeared suddenly in Bast’s office, a little dust settling from being disturbed as he passed through the door. “What happened!” he said, then noticed the hole and Thea’s smug grin. “Uhh… boss, you’ve got a hole in your wall.”
“Yes, thank you, Hand, I know,” Bast responded, then looked angrily at Thea. “Hand, please be a dear and go fetch Michael for me.”
Hand looked at Liam and Thea then shrugged. “Sure, boss,” and disappeared, the dust stirring up once more.
Bast turned to Thea and Liam. “Liam, as you’re still new to being a demi, I’m going to explain this to you in plain terms. What you just did is impossible,” she said flatly.
“There has always been a line for demis that nobody has ever crossed and that is the ability to screw with other demis’ powers.” Thea picked up.
“The closest I’ve ever seen is powers negating each other, like fire and ice, but even then it’s only the effects that negate each other. No demi in the history of the world that I have ever heard of, which is nearly all of them, has ever had the ability to manifest an internal effect on another’s powers,” Bast finished.
“And you think that I just did that?” Liam clarified, a little confused.
“I know you did,” Thea said confidently.
“I find myself having to agree with Thea. You didn’t just wrap her in a telekinetic bubble like I originally thought. I saw your aura flow into her through your shield and actually interact with her aura,” Bast said. “And before you ask, no, it’s not supposed to work that way either.”
Liam dropped his hand from where he’d been raising it and closed his mouth.
“To actually affect another’s powers directly means affecting their connection to the astral plane. To literally extend a part of your soul into theirs and forcibly change the fundamental link that ties them to their soul,” Bast explained.
“Also, the fact that the effect wears out after a little while means that the change isn’t permanent either,” Thea pointed out.
“Not only that, but it seemed to be an augment of one of your already existing abilities. Aren’t your bones hardened, Thea?” Bast asked.
“Yeah, hard as steel,” Thea confirmed. “But after hitting his shield, I felt as if I was one solid piece of metal. That my bones extended out to my skin even. I felt invincible,” Thea said, getting a glassy look in her eyes.
“I wonder…” Bast tra
iled off looking at Thea. “Liam, I need you to try to replicate what you did with Thea. Everything right down to the thoughts you were thinking,” Bast said, standing a few feet from him.
Liam tried, but couldn’t remember exactly what it was he had done. It had been instinctual at the moment. “I’m not sure I can. It was like, she charged me and I just did it,” he said. “Lily, can you remember anything?” he said aloud to his guide.
“No… actually. Which is odd. I normally have access to all of your short-term memories, but that area is just blank,” she responded.
“My guide says she can’t remember either, which is strange for her,” Liam explained to Bast and Thea.
Bast put her hand to her chin, looking thoughtful. “I see, Liam. I’m sorry for this.” And then she punched him.
Twenty minutes, and many random attacks, later, Liam, Bast, and Thea had still not figured out the exact trigger for his ability. Sometimes Thea would attack and he’d stop her and she would be augmented. Other times, she wouldn’t. Bast had tried a few times, but after giving Liam a black eye with one attack, she decided to leave it to Thea, who had much more training at pulling her punches. Bast apparently had been originally trained to never pull a strike, and she’d never bothered to shake the habit.
Liam was getting a bit worried because it seemed like Lily was having issues keeping up during the training. She kept fading in and out. His black eye from Bast had happened when she had faded out and Liam couldn’t get the shield up in time. Thea continued to attack Liam for a few more minutes before a demi named Michael showed up to patch Bast’s wall where Thea had run through it.
He had some sort of matter manipulation ability and was their resident architect and structural repairman. He took a look at the hole and sighed. “I’ll have to bring in some new material. The center blocks are completely powdered. Nothing to work with,” he said. “Why exactly did Thea run through your wall?” he asked, looking askance at the grinning Thea.