Depth

by Emily Thompson

  Twist remained silent as the subject slipped off of him. The young Rook quietly disappeared, finding another conversation to join. Soon, as the others joined in with the new direction of the conversation around Twist, all of them eagerly comparing and contrasting their Sights with each other’s, Twist tried very hard to catch as little attention as possible. Their voices rose higher as new conversations split off of the central one and everyone struggled to be heard. Twist let their voices drown him, praying that no one would remember he was there and try to speak directly to him.

  “What the bloody hell did I just miss?” Jonas asked.

  Twist spun, startled to find him suddenly at his side. Deep in his attempts to stop existing, Twist hadn’t noticed the buzzing in his neck grow as Jonas approached. The sight of him was so reassuring to Twist that he found himself letting out a deeply relieved breath. Of course, Jonas had noticed Twist’s distress through the connection to their Sights.

  “You really don’t want to know,” Twist answered, leaning closer to be heard.

  “So you’ll tell me later?” Jonas asked, one eyebrow raised.

  Twist glanced meaningfully at the Aura Fondler, whose silver charm still hung defiantly revealed. Jonas followed his gaze and started, looking back to Twist in surprise.

  “That’s the same…” Jonas began.

  Twist nodded, looking at him miserably.

  “As if this bloody circle wasn’t bad enough,” Jonas grumbled.

  The group around Twist started to break up on its own, as the conversations continued to fracture and shift. A few people wandered off in search of drinks at a small bar that had been set up near the center of the lounge, while others found seats to talk together about their Sights. Twist took the opportunity to slip away with Jonas into a neighboring group, leaving behind everyone he’d talked with previously. When no one seemed to notice this, Jonas led him straight to the other side of the group, to the very edge of the glass dome. There they found an empty pocket between the glass and the backs of men deep in conversation.

  “All right, what was all of that about?” Jonas asked in a whisper, standing very close.

  Twist moaned at the memory and rubbed at his brow.

  “Come on, Twist,” Jonas said, putting a hand on his shoulder and peering at him with purple eyes. “Why did that woman have a necklace of Mama’s charm?”

  Twist took a steadying breath and reined in enough of his exhausted will to relate what had happened to Jonas as simply as he could. Jonas listened without question, and then he paused for a long moment.

  “So you’re famous, then?” he asked finally, looking highly unnerved.

  “Apparently,” Twist answered. “As I said, the others recognized the story. They knew what she was talking about, even if they didn’t believe it. And, incidentally, you’re part of the bloody story as well.”

  “But how can they all know the same story?” Jonas asked. “They aren’t gypsies or dragons or anything. They’re just people.”

  “I don’t know,” Twist answered with a listless shrug. “But then, I never used to get out much. I don’t know anything about Sighted culture.”

  “Well, I’ve been to Sight circles before, years ago,” Jonas said. “I’ve met loads of people. I’ve never heard anything about a broken fairy soul or a witch’s son—not any of it, until recently.”

  “Well, the cat seems to be well out of the bag now. Which brings up another disturbing issue, actually.”

  “Do I want to know?” Jonas asked.

  Twist smirked but went on anyway. “If it’s not just dragons and djinn and gypsies who know this story, and it’s spread to people who’ve turned it into some fantasy epic, then one would logically expect that some part of it must be true.”

  “Nope, I really didn’t want to know,” Jonas grumbled. “But hell, Idris said he was a part of it. He said he’s the one who broke the damn fairy in the first place. As much as I’d like to, it’s hard to brush his sincerity aside. Not to mention Mama. And now…” His words drifted off into a sigh as he shook his head.

  “Maybe we really shouldn’t be talking about this,” Twist mentioned. “If it’s all true, then we actually might be set upon at any moment.”

  “I don’t see any evil spirits. Do you?”

  “I just don’t know what to believe anymore,” Twist moaned pitifully.

  Jonas put a hand on his shoulder, looking at Twist with obvious sympathy. Twist’s Sight fogged over with a chilling and shifting but still soothing and calm white mist that reinvigorated his spirit somewhat. Twist could only smile, realizing how easy it really was for Jonas to offer him comfort. Even if the world had stopped making any sense, at least Twist wasn’t alone in it.

  “Come on,” Jonas said. “We’d best keep moving. There’s people with hyperhearing about.”

  Twist nodded, looking around at the crowd with new suspicion. No one seemed to be paying them any mind at all, for the moment. He and Jonas made their way back toward the center of the lounge, doing their best to look uninteresting. The crowd thinned into a relatively empty area around the stairs; the sight of an exit was deeply alluring to Twist.

  “Not leaving yet, are we?” Aden asked, seeming to appear out of nowhere when a small group passed by in front of Twist and Jonas.

  They pulled to a stop immediately, Twist looking back at Aden coldly while Jonas put his goggles back on over his eyes.

  “No, we’re mingling,” Jonas answered flatly. “That’s what you ordered us to do.”

  Aden sighed and looked to Twist instead. “I think I told you where the sections for your senses were. Did you get lost?”

  “We went to them,” Twist answered, his voice emotionless and quiet.

  “Then what happened?” Aden asked.

  “Thanks to your lovely introduction,” Jonas said, his voice laced with spite, “I got twenty-odd people crowding in on me and begging for bloody predictions, all at once. How about you, Twist?”

  “A strange man tried to touch my hair.”

  “Wait, what?” Jonas said, looking to Twist in alarm. “Someone wanted to touch your hair?”

  “As I said, he was strange,” Twist grumbled.

  “So now,” Aden said, clearly struggling to remain visibly polite, “you’re what? Crashing other groups?”

  “Yep. We’re mingling,” Jonas said, nodding. “Would you like to demand we do something else?”

  “I’m not demanding anything,” Aden snapped at him, somehow still holding on to his pleasant air. “I’d like it if you would share your experiences and learn from others.”

  “And I would like to stab you in the throat,” Jonas said.

  Aden’s smile vanished into shock. “That wasn’t a lie,” he muttered.

  Jonas smiled. “You very nearly had me actually wanting to be pleasant to you, Aden. Until you threatened Twist. I hope showing us off to these people was worth it, because in forcing us to come here, you blew your only chance to count me as an ally. As soon as we are off of your damn ship, we’re going right back to being enemies. And you know you’re not the only powerful friend I’ve ever had. So I really don’t care what you want. If you need me to do something, then go right ahead and threaten us again. Otherwise, shut the hell up.”

  Twist watched Jonas in amazement, while Aden’s expression only darkened.

  “And every time I came to your aid?” Aden asked, his voice cold now. “Does none of that matter to you?”

  “You only helped us in order to help yourself,” Jonas said, shaking his head. “Twist’s determination saved me from outer space. Arabel found Myra at the bottom of the Caribbean. As for when we were in Atlantis, I seem to remember rescuing ourselves. All you’ve ever done is freeload off of our discoveries. You’ve already gotten all the reward you deserve for that.”

  The bitterness in Aden’s eyes seemed to spread throughout him as he listened to Jonas, and it made him look fatigued and much older. Twist couldn’t disagree with a single point Jonas had made
and knew that Aden’s Sight was underscoring all of the truth he heard. Aden remained quiet when Jonas stopped speaking, only looking thoughtfully to one side. He then pulled himself into a taller posture before he looked back to Jonas’s impassive black goggles.

  “I’ve never made a fool of you. Don’t make one of me here, or we truly will be enemies.”

  Jonas put on an expression so unkind that it gave Twist a shiver. “Yes, sir.”

  Aden gave a silent sigh and turned away. He left without another word, but not three steps away Twist heard Aden’s voice respond to someone amiably. Jonas’s expression had turned satisfied as he tugged his goggles down to watch as Aden forced himself to smile and speak with the lady across the way with apparent calm. Twist looked back to Jonas, his eyes wide, at a total loss of what to say.

  Jonas looked back to him with sky-blue eyes. “That felt wonderful.”

  “Yes, I’d imagine so,” Twist muttered.

  “You don’t agree with what I said?”

  “On the contrary, I agree completely on every point,” Twist answered without hesitation. “I just wouldn’t have actually said all of that to a man with an army.”

  “Don’t worry, Twist,” Jonas said warmly. “I’ve got your back, and I’m indestructible. Besides, Aden’s no real threat. He’s got appearances to keep up. And he just told all of these people that we’re his friends. How would it look if he suddenly had us executed?”

  “That’s an excellent point,” Twist said, astonished. “Good heavens, do you think we’re actually safe right now?”

  “We’ve battled dragons, Twist. You’re worried about a human being?”

  Twist chuckled and shook his head. “I suppose not.”

  An hour passed, and Twist and Jonas found themselves seated with a small group of people whose Sights made it impossible for them to ever be lost. One woman said that she could see all of her own footprints no matter where she walked. Another said that she could feel magnetic fields and always knew which way was north. A man who sat with them said that he could see a detailed map of all the streets and pathways for a mile around him at all times, if he only closed his eyes tightly for an instant.

  “What about you, Mr. Davis?” asked the woman who could see her footprints. Mildred, Twist believed was her name, but he wasn’t sure enough to risk using it and end up being wrong. “Aden mentioned that you see the future, didn’t he? Can you see where you will be before you set out?”

  “My Sight doesn’t work that way,” Jonas answered, shaking his head. “It enhances my vision, and I can see rather far out ahead. I’m not often lost.” Mildred and the others—Sarah and Trevor, Twist was fairly sure were their names—seemed disappointed with this answer, as they were likely all looking for an opportunity to ask more about Jonas’s future visions.

  “I am quite often lost,” Twist mentioned, speaking up before any of them could have another go at Jonas. “I have to carry this around.”

  He produced his small copper globe from a pocket and spun the northern hemisphere of it in opposition to the southern. The globe grew in size as the fine metal spread over the surface in the shapes of the continents. At the same time, a tiny mote of blue lightning sprang to life on the globe, sitting nearly half of the way across the copper representation of the Atlantic Ocean.

  “Good heavens!” Trevor gasped. “What is that?”

  Twist smiled, happy that his distraction was working. “Isn’t it clever? I can focus on any part of the world, like this,” he said, pushing the borders of Europe gently apart with his thumbs, while the metal shifted to show the entire region in greater detail. “And this little fleck of electricity, here, follows me around the world as I travel.”

  “It’s like magic!” Sarah exclaimed delightedly. “Where ever did you get it?”

  “A friend of ours made it,” Twist answered, shutting the globe with an easy motion and also snuffing out the electric marker. “He’s on this ship, actually, traveling with Natasha Samara.”

  “Oh yes!” Mildred said with excitement, glancing off into the crowd around them. “I thought I saw her just a moment ago. She’s ever so lovely…”

  “I’d like to talk to the fellow who made that,” Trevor said to Twist. “Point him out, would you? So I know what he looks like.”

  “Niko isn’t Sighted,” Jonas said, shaking his head. “Last I saw him, he was wandering the ship.”

  “Not Sighted?” Trevor asked.“Then how could he make something like that?” he asked with a gesture to Twist’s globe.

  “He’s a genius,” Jonas answered. “Not every clever person in the world is Sighted, you know.”

  “Well, I suppose not in the strictest sense,” Trevor replied with a wave of his hand. “But ordinary people have so much to overcome, just to be on the same level as a Sighted person, that it’s not exactly fair to compare the two.” Mildred and Sarah nodded in agreement.

  Jonas frowned, his disdain perfectly clear despite the goggles over his eyes. “So you think you’re better than normal people because of your Sight?”

  “Well…” Trevor began, suddenly confused. “I wouldn’t say ‘better.’ It’s more that we are all blessed with just that much more.”

  “Blessed, right…” Jonas grumbled.

  “Come now, Mr. Davis,” Sarah said, her tone good natured but also chiding. “Given the choice between being an ordinary person and being Sighted, wouldn’t you choose to be special?”

  “Indeed,” Mildred added. “Surely, everyone would choose to be Sighted if they could. That’s why so many ordinary people can be jealous of us at times.”

  Twist held his tongue while countless moments in his past, when he’d prayed for his Sight to vanish, crowded into his thoughts. The only jealousy he’d ever encountered had been his own, desperate for any relief from the isolating and terrifying effects of his Sight when used on people. Sure, it might take him a bit longer to fix a clock without his Sight, but there were plenty of brilliant horologists who weren’t Sighted.

  Jonas also remained quiet, and the smiles of the other three began to fade into confusion at their silence. The buzzing at Twist’s neck had gone cold and still. Twist could easily assume that Jonas’s thoughts had taken a similar path to his own, into pain, fear, and visions of death.

  “So, Millie,” Jonas said suddenly. “You can see your footprints. Do you know how many steps you’ve taken, all together?”

  “Oh.” Millie—apparently not Mildred, after all—seemed somewhat surprised by the question. “I really don’t know. I’ve never counted them.”

  “Too bad,” Jonas said, appearing perfectly placid. “It might be fun to know.”

  As Millie mused about the idea of beginning to count her steps in the future, she and the others followed the conversation further and further away from the subject of Jonas’s visions, as well as from the glorification of Sights. Twist and Jonas both worked subtly together to keep the topic of conversation well clear of any dangerous pits, while each did his best to brush off uncomfortable notions and stinging implications. The effort to do so continued to weigh heavier and heavier on Twist’s will, until he began to battle desperation as well. Random plans for escape appeared to him, each one growing less likely than the last.

  “Well, you came after all!” Tasha’s voice cut in while Trevor was benignly distracted with explaining why San Francisco’s city planning was superior to that of New York.

  She stepped up to the side of the couch Twist and Jonas were sharing, and the other three in their group stopped speaking to look at her in happy surprise, clearly recognizing her.

  “So it would seem,” Jonas answered her, his smile thin.

  “How wonderful,” Tasha said, her smile looking nearly as thin as Jonas’s.

  Her dark eyes seemed to be trying to convey some hidden meaning to Twist, while her expression showed nothing but genteel delight to everyone else. Twist wondered how much her Sight might have shown her about his and Jonas’s current state of mind. Could
she see that they had been forced to attend?

  “Are you enjoying yourselves?” she asked, her voice filled only with carefree loveliness.

  “Just as much as I knew I would,” Jonas said, his tone darkly colored with his true emotions. Twist glanced at the other three in their group, but none of them were looking at Jonas. They still seemed fully distracted by Tasha's presence.

  “Well, if I could be so rude,” Tasha said with perfect decorum, “I’d like to introduce you to some lovely people I’ve just met.” Twist now saw a pleading light hidden in the gleam of her dark eyes when she looked to him.

  “It seems we’ve been summoned,” Twist said, with his best reluctant smile, to the others as he rose to his feet.

  Jonas seemed surprised that Twist had accepted the invitation so quickly but nonetheless rose from his seat as well. The others expressed their polite displeasure at losing them but made no true complaint. Millie stole Tasha’s attention just long enough to say that she was an admirer of Tasha’s and that it was wonderful to meet her. Tasha accepted this with perfect grace and suggested that she and Millie share a coffee at some point in the journey. Clearly overjoyed with this offer, Millie finally let them depart.

  “What’s going on?” Jonas asked Tasha the moment they were away. He pulled his goggles off of his eyes to glance at her but was careful to miss making eye contact.

  “I’m sorry it took me so long to get to you,” Tasha said, her voice low and urgent as she leaned in closer. “I don’t know what’s happened, but I want to remember that I am still your friend. My allegiance to Aden is not as important to me as I might make it seem.”

  “Wow, you really don’t miss very much,” Jonas said, clearly taken aback.

  “The two of you were covering your feelings well during your introduction, but I didn’t miss the murder in your eyes, Jonas. Aden can’t actually harm you now that he’s made a show of being your friend, of course, but you must still be careful. His power is vast. But if you need my help, at any point, please do know that I will give it.”