“I wanted to tell you, but it was complicated,” she said while we moved. “I didn’t have a choice. You’ll have my story soon. I don’t think you and Renalt have halves, I think you have thirds, and I have the remainder.”
“I’m just happy you’re back,” I said, and she released a relieved laugh when she saw my smile.
“And I’m just happy you’re safe,” she said as we took off down the alleyway. We turned into a chain link fence with barbed wire on top, and I blasted a hold through it, Slugger maneuvering a dumpster to hide the damage. Then we wove between a mix of private and public property, only coming back out into the open when we could no longer hear the sirens for several minutes, and slowing to determine a plan.
“You have anywhere for us to go?” I asked Renalt, and he shook his head.
“They’ll know where I’m staying,” he said. “Anywhere I go would be linked to my accounts. Peculiar that they didn’t find me already. So foolish of me to return here with a warrant for murder.”
He shook his head, dazed, and behind him, Lucio shrugged.
“You,” I said, jabbing a finger at him, “need to have less of an imagination.”
“People believe the craziest lies. It’s what makes conspiracy theories so addicting,” he said, scratching his head.
“To the coliseum, then, before,” I jabbed a thumb at Renalt, who was scratching his head and looking upwards, and mouthed, he wakes up.
“I think not,” said a commanding voice, and I jumped as a doorway across from us opened. Two figures stood there, two people that I never would have expected to see again after the facility. Two who certainly did not belong in Rome.
“Relax, SC,” said Lynns, my old instructor from the academy. The one who had taught us of the strength of the unknown power, the one who knew the categorizations and weaknesses of every power in existence. Instinctively, I had prepared and attack, but his words made me pause—Lynns had always struck me as someone caught up in Siri’s mess, not contributing to it. “I’m not on Blake’s side. Nor Siri’s. We’ve been watching you for some time, taking notes, you might say.”
“And why should I believe you?” I asked, the others clustering around me, their own powers activating.
“Simple,” he said as the second figure extending a hand towards him. Instructor Cane, our physical education and martial arts teacher, except that he had changed. Now he was a reed of a man, and before he had been a mountain of excess fat. In the last few months, he must have shed over a hundred pounds.
Then Cane drew something out of Lynns, something that coalesced in a dark ball in his hands, seeming to exist just beyond my vision. Like a bright UV or infrared light, I could just barely sense it, but not quite make it out. And as he pulled it away, Lynns’ pupils expanded, and he seemed to grow straighter, his voice deeper and carrying enough weight to push us over.
“Because I know you, Star Child. I know you as the first Gravital in four hundred years. I have walked with Aetia, I have seen the tree of death, I have heard the song of sirens. I have recorded these, and more, just as I have watched and recorded you. But for the first time in my existence, I have deemed it necessary to interfere.”
He slumped as Cane released the ball back into him, turning upwards to face us, his face drawn.
“SC, that man next to you has the power to bring all of Rome to its knees. By meddling with his mind, you are flicking matches around a powder keg. Normally, I’d let it go off, as that’s how things should be. But your opponents are cheating.”
“You’re on our side, then?” asked Lucio. “This isn’t some elaborate lesson?”
“Everything’s a lesson.” stated Lynns. “And I’m not on your side, no. But I intend to even the scales.”
I looked to the others, and after a moment, they nodded. “Fine,” I said, stepping inside. “But don’t think you have our trust.”
“I know you don’t, as I know many things,” said Lynns with a smile, backing away from the door, and continuing to speak as we entered. “Let’s write history.”
Chapter 55
“Slugger! To think you missed my class so much that you would travel across the ocean to see me. How fortunate we are that I was actually here!”
“Cane, Cane,” Slugger answered with a mock bow, kicking a leg backwards so his fingers brushed the floor. “Too long, eh? I’d say, your class actually served me well. Beyond my expectations, low as they might have been.”
“Don’t sell yourself short! You always had a knack for your fists. As I’ve always said, hard heads lead to harder fists,” Cane said, and we entered the living room. The home itself was normal enough to take away my edge—Lynns had made it a point to leave the front door in sight, and I could see two other exits. We sat around a table, filling the eight chairs perfectly. Two of them were folded up and jutted out at the table’s edge, as if Lynn’s had pulled them up for those extra among us—but he’d never had time to prepare them since we had arrived.
“CEO Renalt, I presume,” said Lynns, pulling a chair out for the man at the end of the table. “I must extend my greatest apologies to you. Please understand it was not our intent for you to become wrapped up in this, and we’ll have you on your way soon. In the meantime, may I offer you some tea?”
“That would be quite agreeable, though I must admit,” said Renalt, lowering his voice and leaning forward. “I’m afraid I am on the wrong side of the law here, and could use your utmost discretion.”
“Renalt, relax. You are in good hands. There were quite a bit of mental powers being thrown around during that battle, and I’m afraid that you may have fallen prey to some that were used indiscriminately. If it is your warrant that concerns you, I implore you to look at the root emotions behind it. Can you actually remember doing anything wrong?”
“It’s a warrant for murder, dear man!” Renalt said, running his hands over his eyes. “I’d—”
“You’re a rational man. Do you recall the murder itself?” Lynns handed him the tea, and Renalt took a long sip. “Enjoy, it’s your favorite.”
“It’s quite good,” Renalt agreed, nodding. “And, well, no, I can’t recall the event itself.”
“Because you fell victim to a mental attack. Don’t be afraid; such things are quickly remedied when identified, but it would still be best for you to report it to the police along with the events of tonight. I’ve already called you a taxi. It should arrive soon, with instructions to take you there after an hour drive, such that the police have a chance to cool off.”
“And how would you know this already? I never saw you there?” Renalt asked, suspicious.
“I have an informational-based power. There are some things I just know. Such as how I know that if you report yourself in, you’ll be doing us more good there than here. Tonight, I have brought us together to share more information,” Lynns said, then turned to me. “In particular, what has happened after our departure from the academy as well as before. There is much you do not know, much that I can provide.
“At the academy, we never discussed my power. As I said, it’s information based, knowledge based. It lets me know things that others simply could not. I can see into their hearts, their memories, but more than that—I can see when something big is going to happen, something to change the world forever. That’s why I was at the academy when you were, and that’s why I brought Cane with me. You see, my power comes with a dead weight, a setback. But Cane here, well, I shall let Cane explain.”
Cane nodded, holding both hands over his stomach out of habit, where they would have protruded only a few months back. “It’s no coincidence that I’ve lost so much weight, that the fat has peeled right off me faster than should be possible. You see, this is how I looked before I came to the academy. How else would I have convinced them to allow me to be a physical education teacher? No, I gained my mass there, and the reason why is that my power allows me to store poison as fat as well as handle it.
“Lynn’s power means that he collec
ts all sorts of information from the world, and much of it is poisonous. Mentally poisonous, that is, and prevented him from using his power to its full extent. It clogged his vision, pulling shades over his eyes, and only with my help can he see through it. Except at the academy, I had trouble providing aid to him, for the poison was already so thick in the air. Siri’s song alone was all I could handle, and even then, it put weight on me faster than I could pull it off, so potent was its toxicity. But Lynn’s power brought us to the academy for a reason. Because there was a score to settle, and more importantly, an event—one we believe you set off, SC, when you interfered with Peregrine’s machine and had Siri arrested.”
Lynns took back over, steepling his hands in front of him and leaning back in his chair.
“Back then, SC, we did not realize what you were. Without me being able to access my full power, I simply knew the normal tidbits about you that I would about any student. I saw no deeper than skin level. But now, stepping back without our powers stretched to the limit from Siri, your abilities are far more interesting than I had realized. Now I see.”
“So you’re saying,” I said, “that you were trying to head off Siri before we even arrived?”
“Oh no!” said Lynns, wagging a finger. “Our position is of knowledge and information, not of interference. As I said, this is the first I have done so purposely in my entire existence. We merely record the history.”
“Then why start now?” I pressed. “Surely there were plenty of times in the past that were far worse. Why not stop a genocide or a war? Why not lift your finger then?”
“I don’t want to call them necessary,” said Lynns. “But they were natural, they were part of humanity, evil though they were. They were history. But my power, my power exists outside of history itself. It’s stronger, it encompasses more, it lets me see that which should not be seen or remember what should have disintegrated away long ago. But somehow, Siri’s people—the Instructors as you call them —discovered my stores, and they tapped into it. They stole my knowledge for their own perverse ends. It’s how Peregrine learned to build his machine, using a book that I had written long ago, one of twenty or so they managed to filch. One on making of objects of permanence with power. You see, there are some powers that have lasting effect, but typically after their owner is eliminated, they erode away. Peregrine’s machine was created in a fashion that it should be eternal, an art lost long ago, better off lost. You can imagine the danger of Specials creating weapons that give others access to their powers, no? Staffs that shoot lightning or swords that bear down fire. At one time, these were not merely legends.”
“So you’re intervening because Peregrine stole one of your books? That was the straw that broke the camel’s back?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. “Not what they did to all the students at the academy? Not the other atrocities?”
“Information, boy.” Lynns sighed, rapping his knuckles on the table. “When you were a student, I told you the strongest power was the unknown. In general, the greatest information is that which your enemies do not have. They stole information that was not theirs, information that should have died long ago in history and never returned, information foreign to your reality. It’s as if they were filling out a crossword puzzle and cheated, flipping to the back of the book for the answer. So, to right the scales, I am doing the same for you.
“You must realize, this is no mere extension of mundane power. My power is something that is known as a Titan. These are powers so strong, so encompassing, that the individuals no longer retain their humanity. It consumes their entire essence. For instance, mine relies so heavily upon knowledge that until Cane came along to shape me, I was little more than a database. I had lost all sense of personality. Left to my own devices, my power would completely override me, and I would be nothing more than a force of nature. As I stand now, I’m likely little more than a construct resembling humanity,” Lynns concluded, then turned to the Renalt.
“I’m afraid that your ride has arrived, sir. But know this—relay on to the police what you know, and what occurred tonight. It will only help them in what is coming. Know that the plans that brought you here were improper, and we shall do better in the future. Know that the memory of your warrant is likely not the only false one. I advise that you scrutinize your memories and emotions of your nephew, Blake, quite closely.”
Cane led Renalt to the door, and he still walked as though dazed, the night having gone far differently than he expected. Then when Cane returned, Lynns spoke to us once more, his voice low and eyes darting to the door.
“I mentioned I was a Titan, which is true. Though strong, my power is not immediately dangerous. But whether he knows it or not, Renalt is another. He has the power to bring the entire city to its knees, and by meddling with his mind, you could quite easily have released it upon us all.”
Chapter 56
“Seemed pretty harmless to me,” said Lucio defensively, popping a cookie from the center of the table into his mouth and speaking before he finished chewing. “Blake wasn’t even after him, he was after Francesca.”
“I doubt Blake even knew,” Lynns said. “All he would have been sent here to do would be escort, ensuring that Renalt and Francesca met as well as protecting her from you, SC. You see, Renalt likely has no idea the capacity of his own power—rather, like mine, it’s locked away within him. Shackled by mental chains. But if you have ever seen a tornado in action, lighting it on fire would be the equivalent of just a small portion of his ability.”
“Sounds like he would have used it against Blake, though,” said Slugger, looking wistfully towards the door. “Maybe we should fetch him. Convert him to our side, eh?”
“You don’t understand,” said Lynns. “He would be a force of nature. A hurricane does not pick and choose the good from the evil. A hurricane destroys.”
“That’s his essence,” concluded Ennia. “His power alone. Any personality he has would have simply been blended in, constructed.”
“That’s a good way to put it,” said Lynns. “Think of it this way. Lacit was a full league below Titans, at minimum. Only after Fractonis Essentia did he even brush against the lower bound of one. And even then, look what it did to his mental health. He pulled himself apart just as he pulled everything else apart with his power. And that’s just the edge of a Titan’s madness.”
“So you’re saying we’re fighting actual forces of nature here?” I asked, frowning, shifting to look out the window where Renalt had left, where it was too dark outside to see if he was still waiting. “How the hell are we ever supposed to win that?”
“For one, they’re exceedingly rare,” said Lynns as Cane nodded. “Perhaps only a dozen exist in the world at any point, and they tend to destroy themselves quickly without outside aid. And second, you should never square off against a force of nature, against a Titan. Rather, you should direct it, guide it, which is exactly what your enemies have done. They used Siri, a Titan herself, to control the others, to construct mental cages for them that held their powers dormant. Siri was more than a headmistress—the other Titans were brought to her every few months, and she’d renew their mental cage. In this way, they controlled Siri too—for her essence is about absolute control over others. She was eager to be the one to put them in line, the one to hold the leash of gods. Putting her in that cell is the greatest form of torment imaginable to her, since she has lost all control.
“But it means something more. While well intentioned, when you locked Siri away, you locked away their control of the Titans. With each day their shackles rust, their mental barriers grow weaker. There’s no one left to make sure that these are maintained, that these carefully cultivated forces do not break the world itself apart.”
“Sounds like a problem they created for themselves,” said Slugger, folding his arms over his chest and resting a leg against the table’s edge. “Tampering with natural forces and all. Raisin fists they can’t back up.”
“True. It’s similar to a wild
fire that has not been allowed to burn for years. Typically, these Titans flare up and disappear, with the world none the wiser. But now, there are a dozen of them due at once. No matter whose fault it is, the world will feel it if their chains are not renewed.”
“The fools,” said Ennia, shaking her head and clapping her palm to her temple in a sudden movement. “They had no contingency! They never expected something to happen to Siri.”
Chapter 57
The next hour passed with Arial filling us in on everything she had seen under the Litious. And when she finished, Ennia looked stricken, a piece of paper she had requested from Lynns filled with notes.
“We knew something of the Litious, but no realization that it had extended this far,” she said, peering down at the lines of neat text accompanied with sketched diagrams. “They’re changing their own essences, ripping apart the soul and the body.”
“It’s been done before,” said Lynns. “And was thoroughly stamped out a millennium ago, along with the burning of their texts. Since then, they’ve been working to rediscover the methodology.”
“Which occurred because of Zeke’s accident,” Ennia added. “The Litious would have had pieces of their ancient culture and texts, but when Zeke fell into the other side, he provided the rest of the puzzle for them. The duality of worlds, where powers reside between, and the idea that they can be altered by reaching the point where they meet. Which is what happens at the extremes, such as when they use pain.”
“So you’re saying they don’t have to use pain?” asked Arial. “It worked well.”
“They shut my powers off like turning a faucet,” I said. “Seems like they have it figured out.”
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