by V. St. Clair
Topher met her eyes and suddenly realized why she didn’t want to touch it herself.
She’s afraid her power will manifest if she touches it.
He had no idea if using someone else’s emblem was even possible, but vowed to do some research later. After a glance at the emblem, he pulled on a thin glove from the emergency response pouch on his belt and lifted the emblem out of the bag. The weight of the imbued elarium in his hand was heavier than he expected, and also warmer. He leaned forward to pass it to Ryker.
The room around him was plunged into blackness, and Topher felt disoriented as the ground abruptly gave way beneath him. Screams filled the air as he fell through a fathomless void, hundreds—no, thousands of voices shrieking in agony.
The world reformed around him, and Topher was standing in a place he didn’t recognize. Jessamine and the others were nowhere in sight, and he had no idea how he had been teleported out of his mother’s house. Could the Gifted actually do such a thing, or was the emblem booby-trapped in some way? Did the conspirator in the Augenspire know Jessamine’s people would have to handle it at some point during the investigation, so they sabotaged it?
The area around him was undeveloped and rural; no skyscrapers or lights were visible in the distance, only some oddly-shaped hillocks in the grass nearby that didn’t look like natural formations. The screaming was still going on in his head, but it was quieter now, and Topher heard a noise above it like the rushing of air. He looked up and gasped out loud.
A spaceship was entering the atmosphere, slowing rapidly and coming to a cruising altitude overhead. Topher had never seen anything like it, nor could he read the strange markings on the outside of it from such a great distance. He reached reflexively to his belt to insert a Talent, only to discover his armor and weapons were all missing.
A wave of panic washed over him at being alone and weaponless, but he ignored it and turned to the marvel of the ship overhead. What was he seeing? Had he been brought to another world where space travel was still possible?
The world dissolved around him again and he was plunged back into the screaming blackness, but this time a voice found him as he was falling—a voice he recognized.
You have finally come.
Topher clapped his hands over his ears to try and block out the deafening shrieks of pain all around him, but he could still hear the other voice clearly inside his head. It was the voice that had been whispering to him for eight years now, though he had never heard it this clearly before.
“Where am I?” he called out to it. “Who are you?”
I did not know how weak—no, not this word—small? No…I’m sorry, I do not speak it well. The voice sounded frustrated, pausing.
Fragile—yes, this word. I did not know how fragile you would be, the voice explained. I pushed too hard and made you forget. You were not meant to forget. I did not know if my words still came to you after you blocked them.
“Forget what? What did I block?” Topher pressed, as the world reformed around him once more and brought him to another rural place, though this one he vaguely recognized. “What river is that?” he asked himself, staring at the mercury rolling past him. The screaming faded into the background once more. It looked almost like the river past the east border of Silveria, except neither the city nor the Augenspire were visible in the distance.
Lumps of elarium ore were spread out along the bank of the river like some kind of weird border, though there were large gaps in the deposits. Topher thought he saw a rock of elarium shift nearby and jumped back, startled. He waited to see if an animal would run out from beneath it, but the voice in his head spoke to him again and he lost track of it.
There were billions, once…
“Billions of what?”
A bright red targeting field about eight-feet in diameter appeared in the middle of the mercury river, and Topher jumped back and looked up at the sky to see another spaceship hovering overhead. The bright red targeting field seemed to be coming from it, and before Topher could figure out why a spaceship would be targeting a river full of mercury, something dropped out of the sky and plunged into the river, splashing mercury up all over the ore deposits. Topher ducked reflexively, and though it splashed over him, nothing appeared to get on him when he stood up, though there was mercury on the ground where he was standing.
Topher wondered if he was even really here.
No, the voice startled him by responding to the unasked question. Only watching.
The world shifted again and now he was standing in a field with hundreds of those lumpy hillocks in the grass, but this time there was another person with him.
The man in front of him was wearing a full biohazard suit, though not of a style Topher had ever seen before, his face visible in the only clear panel of the suit. He carried a heavy-looking briefcase and was taking in the surroundings with interest, looking straight through Topher without seeing him. More elarium was visible here, some of it heaped near the hillocks.
Did the old elarium mines used to grow out of the ground like this? Topher wondered, but the voice didn’t answer.
The stranger in the biohazard suit stopped in place, seemingly at random, and knelt down to open his briefcase, extracting something in a large, cylindrical canister and setting it on the ground. He pressed a button on the side of it and a light mist hissed out of the canister.
“What is that for?” Topher asked out loud, forgetting he wasn’t really here, but hoping the voice would answer anyway, except suddenly the world flipped upside down and he felt himself being ripped away from everything again.
Topher opened his eyes and found himself on the floor of his mother’s house, gasping for air and shaking. Jessamine leaned over him, an escaped strand of hair from her bun falling into his face as she frantically checked his pulse and called out to him. There were tears in her eyes.
Reya was looming behind the Vicereine with her weapons drawn, though she looked like she had no idea who to aim them at, wavering them unsteadily. Topher had no idea what he was doing on the floor, the flood of memories and dreams—were they dreams?—fighting to sort themselves in his head.
“Topher!” Jessamine gasped, unbuckling his armor and pulling his chest-plate away from him. “Are you awake? Can you hear me? Can you breathe?”
“Yes, yes, and yes,” he groaned, struggling to sit up and figure out what the hell was going on. Had he gotten sick and passed out? What had he been doing before?
“Reya’s summoned an ambulance.” Jessamine pressed a palm to his chest to stop his movements. “Stay still and we’ll get you help—”
“No, cancel the ambulance,” Topher insisted, forcing Jessamine to lean back as he sat upright. “I’m not sick—I don’t think I’m sick,” he said, suddenly uncertain.
“Topher, you had some kind of weird seizure,” Reya explained. “You can’t tell me you aren’t sick.”
“Cancel the damn ambulance,” Topher told them again, voice stronger now. “We can’t risk it coming here and wondering why the Vicereine and her Majors are at this particular house in downtown. If I’m sick, cart me to the nearest main roadway and call for help from there.”
Jessamine bit her lip but said, “Do it,” and Reya got back on her comm to explain that the comm had sent out the request for help in error, listing her identification number to override the command.
Topher closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, trying to sort through the rush of images and events in his head. He had been dreaming about another world, or an earlier version of Elaria, but when had he fallen asleep? The last thing he remembered was reaching for the emblem to hand it to Ryker.
The first thing he saw after reopening his eyes was his mother. She was blinking and adjusting her features more than usual, as though fidgeting. Her typically stoic expression was faltering, giving way to something vulnerable and making her look older and younger at the same time.
“From your perspective, what happened?” Topher asked, motioning for
Jessamine to move back so he could get up and resume his seat on the couch.
Jessamine made sure she was settled beside him before answering, “You picked up the emblem to give it to Ryker, then all of a sudden you froze about halfway through reaching towards him.”
“You had a weird look on your face, like you’d suddenly realized something horrible,” Reya added. “I thought you were looking at Ryker, so I drew my weapons and prepared to fight.”
Ryker was still sitting on the edge of his seat, shooting terrified glances at Reya as though expecting her to attack him at any moment.
“We tried asking what was wrong,” Jessamine resumed. “But you just collapsed onto the ground and starting shaking, only your eyes stayed open the whole time and you seemed like you were trying to say something. We called out to you and shook you, but you didn’t snap out of it, so Reya called the ambulance and I was removing your armor so you could breathe more easily.”
Topher could hear the depth of her fear hidden behind her gentle tone, a small quiver that only years of knowing her could detect. Was she afraid I was dying? Mostly because he didn’t trust the next words out of his mouth if he didn’t break eye contact, Topher glanced at the emblem lying forgotten on the floor.
Have I ever actually touched one before?
He strained his memory, frowning thoughtfully at the emblem for inspiration.
“Always by the chain,” he answered himself out loud, eyes widening in surprise. His job didn’t often put him in a position to handle emblems, and the few times it had, he had always held them by the chain, not the emblem itself.
“What?” Reya blurted out. “Please don’t tell me you’re losing it again.”
“No—damn it, I’m fine,” Topher said, annoyed by all the attention. “I was trying to decide whether it was possible to sabotage an emblem, but I realized I haven’t ever handled one directly before now. I always held them by the chain without even thinking about it.”
His mother looked interested now, the color returning to her features.
“You think the emblem did something to you?”
“I’m quite certain of it,” he replied, doing some quick thinking. “I’ll need to think about it some more, but it may answer a nagging question I’ve had for some time now.” He met Jessamine’s gaze as he said this, and her lips parted in surprise.
“Care to share?” Reya prodded, annoyed.
“Not really,” Topher answered. “Not now, at least.” With effort, he turned his focus back to the emblem. “Ryker, do you think you can read the emblem still, or have I messed it up by handling it?”
“Really?” Reya grumbled. “We’re just going to gloss over the whole you-almost-dying-in-the-middle-of-the-living-room thing?”
“For now, yes,” Jessamine said with finality. “Well, Ryker?”
The Gifted still looked shaken by recent events, but he refocused and said, “I don’t know. You were wearing a glove, and you aren’t bound to it closely so it’s worth a shot.”
He reached down, fingers hovering for a moment while he hesitated, before picking up the emblem from the floor. When he didn’t seize up or collapse, the room collectively exhaled in relief. Ryker closed his eyes and clutched his own emblem with his free hand.
“I don’t feel the Major on this,” he commented aloud, eyes still shut. “Whatever happened, you didn’t imprint yourself on it.”
“That’s lucky,” Jessamine acknowledged. Topher remained silent.
“There’s fear…and angst. A lot of angst.” Ryker frowned, moving a hand to a different part of the emblem. “Most of the anxiety is old and persistent…not uncommon for the Gifted,” he remarked. “The fear is newer…probably tied to the murder. He was…suffocated, in some way? He couldn’t breathe?”
“Yes,” Jessamine confirmed. “Strangulation.”
Ryker nodded and continued touching different parts of the emblem, narrowing his eyebrows in concentration.
“Recognition and panic.” He opened his eyes at last, extending the emblem to Jessamine. Rather than touch it, she opened the evidence bag and allowed him to drop it inside.
“Are you going to elaborate on that at all?” Reya prodded.
“Those were the last two emotions—and the strongest—tied to the emblem, prior to being strangled. They came at approximately the same time.”
“So the Gifted knew his attacker and was afraid of them? That doesn’t make it likely it was someone in the military…”
“A clarification, Major. I said he recognized the assailant, not that he knew them.”
Jessamine’s brow furrowed. “So, to summarize, either someone he knew, or someone he knew by sight. Someone in a highly-recognizable uniform, let’s say.”
“Something like that, yes,” Ryker confirmed.
“That makes it more likely to have been someone tied to the military,” Reya sighed. “We have more uniforms than we know what to do with, and have certainly been hazardous to the Gifted in the past.”
“The problem is we don’t know which uniform it was,” Jessamine sighed. “That would help us at least narrow things down. It could be a Major in armor, a Minor in their robes, anyone in the aerial or ground forces…”
“If I may?” Ryker interjected here.
“Yes?”
“Well, there are a lot of people in the ground and sky forces, most of whom are just normal men and women, working to get paid. We encounter them pretty frequently around town, and for the most part no one gives us trouble. I wouldn’t immediately fear for my life if I ran into a fully uniformed, recognizable soldier at night. They go to bars, too, so it’s not unreasonable for them to be wandering about at night alone.”
“True. Does the same apply to the Minors?” Topher asked.
“Mostly, yes. We encounter the Minors fairly regularly at the Academy, and—forgive me, Excellency—they are regarded as glorified desk-jockeys by most of the Gifted. We aren’t afraid of them in their own right—”
“You’re afraid of who is backing them,” Jessamine finished for him, nodding with interest. “Yes, I can see that. The Minors have the power to punish you only because they can draw the attention of my Majors if you are uncooperative enough.”
“Well, yes.” Ryker glanced between Topher and Reya, and a lump formed in Topher’s stomach as he recalled the Viceroy’s words to him when he was first inducted.
You are my eyes, my ears, and a weapon to strike terror into the hearts of my enemies.
“So you’re thinking another armored Major made an appearance and killed this man,” Jessamine suggested. Topher could hear the, Great, another traitor in her tone.
“That’s just my take on the whole thing,” Ryker explained. “If I was going somewhere alone at night and an armored Major dropped out of the sky in front of me, I’d probably die of heart failure before they could kill me.”
An uncomfortable moment of silence fell over them, during which Hera leaned against the wall and glanced at the clock, her features pensive.
“Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.” Ryker finished.
“No, you’ve helped. We will continue to investigate as before, but please keep an ear out for any news you might hear through your Academy contacts. If anything comes up—even a rumor—please relay it to Hera, who can ensure it gets to me.”
“Yes, Excellency.”
Jessamine stood. “Reya, please start the car for us.”
The Major nodded and departed immediately.
“Thank you for your time tonight. Hera, we’ll be in touch if anything else develops,” Jessamine assured her.
“I’ll walk out with you.”
Topher and his mother exchanged a brief glance, the former surprised by the offer of the latter. When they stepped into the darkness of the front yard, Hera leaned close to Jessamine and said, “Risa was recently pursued by someone she believed to be a Provo-Major on her way back to the Academy.”
“What?” Topher and Jessamine blurted out at the same time.
“It was dark and she didn’t get a good look at them, but she said at one point they flew through the air after her and she had to use her Gift to escape, and their outline was broad enough to be wearing attack armor. Given the absence of a follow-up attack on her, it appears to have been an opportunistic attack.”
Jessamine absorbed this in silence until Hera finished speaking, then said, “Thank you for this information. I’ll need to interview Risa about it, since it’s the best lead we have from a survivor right now, so please assure her I take this seriously and will follow up with her tomorrow morning.”
Hera nodded curtly.
“I will convey your message. If there is anything my resources can do to assist with bringing the murderer to justice, let me know.”
She met Topher’s gaze at last. It looked like she wanted to say something to him, but ultimately she let them leave without another word, ducking back inside and shutting the door behind her.
Once they were alone in the front yard, Jessamine paused. “Are you going to tell me what the hell all that was about with the emblem?” she asked in a whisper, the concern back in her voice.
“Yes. When we get back to the Augenspire, meet me in my rooms when you’re sure you’re not being watched.” He turned to her. “Bring your emblem.”
13
Carl Vucanis
Carl took a last look at the Academy as the driver pulled away from it, merging onto the Augenspire Expressway. It felt strange and surreal to think he was done with the place, unless he chose to visit.
For years I’ve been dreaming about being free of the place, and now that I am, all I can do is stare at it and wonder if I’ve made the right choice.
His meager belongings were in the trunk of the massive ground-car, trundling towards the Augenspire and whatever awaited him there. As a captain, he would be residing within the monstrous building itself, though he had no idea what the accommodations were like or where the rest of the ground forces lived.
“Well, looks like you made it through the gauntlet and got yourself a job after all,” his driver, Artim, congratulated him from the front seat.