Apotheosis (Song of Sophangence Book 3)

by E. I. McAllistair

  “This place is too packed. That sucks because it makes it hard to keep going back to the snack table.”

  “You know, it still amazes me that your physiology has been so incredibly changed to accommodate your powers. I’m left wondering if we will ever know just how all these abilities work since I have never come across an Artillerite whose powers depended on their food consumption. I’m sure Gramps would be so interested in having you in the lab for a study-”

  “Leo, it is best that you run now. If Anaar or Dr. Darst get their hands on you, I am positive you will perish.”

  Though Phavian had not seen him before, likely thanks to his stature, he recognized Peter Gilchrist amongst the number of students Anaar was with, which now made much more sense. As Peter’s mentor, it would only be expected for him to have some interaction with the man’s friends. It was their own initial relationship that had brought him into the lives of so many of the now technically Freshman, but Sophomore class. Making his way up to the group, nothing but smiles, he comes to stand next to Anaar, his hand being swatted away when he attempted to interlock it with Anaar’s.

  “Damn Anaar, do I have you to thank for so many new faces here at the meeting? With how many people are here, we might be able to make a push for more funding or direct school support.”

  Sighing, “For those of you who don’t know him, this is Phavian Ingraham, he is the leader of this group. For some reason he likes giving me credit for things even though it was clearly the work of my best friend. Also there is the fact that people had much more time to acclimate to the campus before having this thrown on them.”

  “He forgot to mention, he’s my boyfriend too.”

  His face becoming sour with exasperation, “Thank you Phavian, I had not been reminded that I belonged to you in a while… I’m sure no one cares about that anyway. Shouldn’t you be acting more like a leader? Where is Maggie…”

  “Oh no, please, whatever you do don’t bring Maggie. That girl is nuts!”

  “I blame you for not limiting her exposure to Codi. It is your own fault. Now before you continue ruining introductions, you already of course know Peter, this is Genevieve, Leo, Jeonwoo, and Shonte.”

  Doing a little dance, “That’s right! Saving the best for last! I’m Shonte, it is nice to be able to finally meet you. I ain’t going to lie, I wanted to see this fine Black man who was number one in the school. Just in case you ever in the market…”

  Prodding her in the leg and looking extremely uncomfortable, Peter gives her a glare before apologizing profusely. “Please, pay no attention to Shonte, she did that to Anaar as well when they first met. She seems to not know about boundaries or proper decorum.”

  “Don’t be talking for me! If you don’t let people know, you will fuck around and miss out on good opportunities like that! Just because don’t no one want your little ass, don’t mean they don’t want all this lusciousness!” Rubbing her hand up her body, Genevieve turns red as she watches the display.

  “Shonte! Maybe you shouldn’t be making passes at the head of the organization…”

  “Well it would be a shame if he passed all this by!”

  Chuckling goodheartedly, “You are beautiful and all Shonte, but I’m a man kinda man, and this one here is all the man I need.”

  Peter leans into Anaar, whispering into his back, “Did he really just say ‘man kinda man?’”

  Sighing dejectedly, “Please don’t illuminate his idiocy, I promise he is actually bearable 1% of the time…” Pulling Phavian away from the group, Anaar gives an apologetic smile as he retreats.

  “Do you see this turnout? This is amazing! I wonder why the sudden interest?”

  “Didn’t we just go through… Nevermind. I’m going to find Maggie. She is the real reason this event is such a success, I should at least give her the proper acknowledgement. Are you going to be fine by yourself, or am I going to have to chaperone you all day?”

  Scoffing under his breath, “I don’t need a chaperone, I’m the group’s leader. Go find Maggie. I want to talk to her too.”

  “I swear if this wasn’t my own idea, I would have thought you were turning me into an errand boy.” Disappearing into the crowd, Anaar leaves Phavian by himself again.

  As he sidles about, making small conversation here and there, trying his best to at least speak to people he did not recognize, he feels a hard slap on his butt, and spins to find Marco grinning at him.

  “I see that thing is still nice and firm, never skip a leg day I guess.”

  “Yeah, and you do too many of them. How have you been, it feels like I haven’t talked to you in ages.”

  “I know, now that you actually settled down with someone, it seems you can’t be bothered with all of us you loved and left.”

  “Now Marco you know we had anything but love. Good times, sure, but love? Come on.”

  “Maybe for you, but I guess that is what it is like when you are the king of the school. I’m not bitter though, it is what it is. I guess it was fun while it lasted. So what is this big announcement you are supposed to be making regarding the direction of the group?”

  “Big announcement?”

  “That is what everyone is saying. With your new advertising strategy, I figured you were going to say we would have to pay to be part of the group now, some fancy stuff.”

  “I really need to talk to Maggie… Marco, I gotta go, it seems I might not be prepared for my own meeting.”

  Working his way through the crowd, he looks desperately for the small woman. While it was easy for him to see over many people’s heads, Maggie herself was tiny, so it did very little to help. Instead of looking down, he decided instead he would look up. Knowing Anaar, he would have already found Maggie, but given her predisposition for verbosity, they were likely in the same place. Patting himself on the back for his smart thinking, he easily found Anaar, who led him straight to Maggie.

  “With all that has been put into this meeting he better be ready! We discussed this so much over the past few weeks and-” When Maggie laid eyes on Phavian, she immediately pushed past everyone to slap him on the arm a few times. “Where have you been?! People are waiting! Do you have your speech prepared? Do you see this turnout?! If we can keep these numbers, we will be on our way to making some great strides! Why are you looking at me confused? Anaar, why is he broken?!”

  Simply shrugging in response, Maggie fumes at the combined annoyance of the two men. “Why are you asking me? I was just supposed to come find you.”

  “Well I am found! Phavian?!”

  Suddenly becoming nervous about what he would say next, “Am I supposed to have some big announcement?”

  “Are you joking? He’s joking. This has to be a joke, right? Why would you joke about something like this? Please tell me you are joking!”

  Seeing he was in much more trouble than he could have imagined, he looked to Anaar for support, only to find him quietly slinking away as if something very important had caught his attention. Thinking to himself that he would get Anaar back later for abandoning him, Phavian sucked in a deep breath and tried to look as formidable as possible. Somehow in the presence of the tiny woman it paled in comparison to her growing fury.

  “Ok, wait, if you just give me a hint, I’m sure I will figure it out!”

  “Figure it out?! You had better figure it out! What is wrong with you?! I have poured all this energy into securing all of this additional funding for the group, and support from the school, and you were supposed to be the thing to make sure they were hooked!”

  “More funding? Really?”

  “Where have you been all these weeks?!”

  “Hey… I have been dealing with some shit, I’m sure Anaar has told you about it.”

  Rolling her eyes, “When does Anaar tell you about anything?! He only just started being more open about his own business. Anything else is locked up tight and never escapes!”

  “Wow, he doesn’t even tell you?”

  “He values pe
ople’s privacy.”

  “But you are his best friend, what do you talk about?”

  “Things other than gossip?! All I know is he hasn’t gone into anything about your troubles. I’m sorry if you have been having a hard time, but it doesn’t make you any less of a leader. Unfortunately you have to just suck it up and perform.”

  “Wow, that was harsh, what if it was some really fucked up shit?”

  “Like the gross inequity of the affinities? People not having access to proper education or even healthcare based on attunement? Dehumanization?!”

  “Alright, alright I get it. I will make it happen.”

  “You’d better!”

  As she stomps away, clearly perturbed, Phavian for the first time genuinely saw what Anaar meant by limiting Maggie’s exposure to Codi. He would have expected such a tongue lashing from her, but not from Maggie. Maggie was always sweet and competent, yet unsure of herself. This person she was becoming seemed like she was going to start beating him at any moment. He made a note, hoping he would not forget, to talk to Anaar about it later.

  The room, packed with bodies, mingling amongst one another, seeking out familiar faces, and some simply standing about aimlessly, all seemed to be awaiting the big announcement. Though it pained him to admit he had no clue what that announcement was, or what it should entail, he knew there was no other choice but push forward. Making his way to the raised dais so he could address the crowd, it did not take long for the noise to die down and everyone’s attention to become lasered in on a nervous Phavian.

  “Hey everyone! I’m sorry this first meeting with the new students has come so late, but let me start by welcoming everyone who is new to the group, with a special warm welcome to all the incoming Freshmen. It has been a super weird time for the school right? Usually we would only have three classes on campus right now, but somehow we already have a new class here, ready to learn and become part of the Sophangence family.

  “Speaking of family, that is what I want to start with tonight. I know there are many of you who think the word ‘family’ only relates to those whom you have some genetic ties to, or with whom you grew up. While that may be true, that is not the only family you are capable of having. The people whom you call friends can be more family than those who gave birth to you. Those who share similar experiences to you can be considered family as well. I want to assure you that what we strive for is expanding our family to include all people, no matter who they are, because in this world there is too much to bear to go it alone.

  “I won’t bore you with the whole story about how we got our name, as there are many of you who have heard it a million times by this point, but for those who are new, know that we strive to live up to our namesake. By bringing together all the elements in harmony we want to give birth to a new age, or in other words, we want to create Life. Know that we cannot do it without each and every one of you here today, because it is a long and arduous road we walk, but together I know we can do it.

  “I know some of you might still be skeptical. I know most of you have been wronged, shamed, and hurt by a system of thought and oppression that seeks to divide and destroy. When I first started this group, I was convinced it was the system that needed to be changed. I felt it was the burden of the government to make things right, since they had so failed to do so in the past. In doing so I missed out on something very crucial.

  “By creating a ‘big bad’ it allowed me to go on with my own prejudices, resentments and hatred. I’m just a nobody right? I’m just one of the many oppressed. There is no way my innermost thoughts and feelings could matter to the cause, right? Well it turns out I was quite wrong.

  “I have recently come to understand that for all I preach, I am no better than the systems that hold us down. It is not because I have the power to prevent someone from getting a job, or to affect generational wealth of an entire people, but because the reason these things still happen is because there are those who feed into it. I thought I was such a great and upstanding guy, hell I thought I got a pass because I was doing what I could to help others in need. This means nothing if the intent behind your actions is hollow.

  “I realized that I have, not had, a disgustingly potent bias against Water Affinities. Somewhere inside of me I rationalized that it was acceptable, that it was the right thing to do, all because there were those of their number who had caused my people so much pain. What about all those people who had nothing to do with it though? Aren’t my feelings alone exactly one of the reasons we are told we are inferior? Because we cannot be smart, we can only commit to being beasts of burden, having a mindset no better than sheep? Once the mirror was turned on me, and I saw my ugliness for what it was, I found myself in utter disgust of what I saw.

  “Not only was I no better than those who sought to take what little I had away from me, but I was also a hypocrite. Nothing is more sobering than finding out everything you thought you knew was all a lie. It hurts. It fucking sucks. It makes you want to destroy yourself and everything around you.”

  As he looked around the room, all the eyes transfixed upon him, he could not help but break down. Taking a moment to recompose himself, he continued his speech.

  “I’m sorry about that. I have had some really fucked up shit consuming my life as of late. It is because of all these tragedies that I realized something. There is no time to sit back and hope for change. There aren’t carefully crafted stations to stop at along the way so you can take a moment to reflect upon yourself and make sure you are doing the right thing. It is so easy to recognize what others are doing, but we make it almost impossible to be introspective and live in our truth.

  “No one is perfect. If you thought they were, you just don’t know them well enough yet. Everyone has dirt, everyone has doubt, everyone has insecurities. Like I mentioned before though, everyone likes to hide from their own shit. You act like it doesn’t stink, like it smells like fucking citrus and flowers, but everyone else smells it for what it is.

  “The Seeds of Life has always been about reaching out to others, the ‘lost souls’ out there who need our help and salvation. We have been pushing so hard to make the world a better place, all the while disregarding our own issues. Moving forward I want to change that though. I want all of us to put just as much energy, if not more, into keeping one another in check. We should be at our core a support group for one another’s excellence.

  “How can we pretend to help others when we can’t even help ourselves? Change and progress starts from within. I thought we would be doomed and stuck within these walls when we lost Ripp, our Transporter. As much as I hate to admit it, we were never ready to spread our message because we had too much work to do on ourselves. With that I challenge you to answer the call and make sure we are holding ourselves to the standard we profess to others.

  “Make me the first person you deconstruct. Anything, everything is fair game. If we can manage to clean up our acts as a whole, maybe we can finally be worthy of reaching outward and spreading our message and our truth. No one here should ever feel like they cannot reach someone else in the group since we are all in this together and we are family. If we can stick to this, I know we will be able to overcome any obstacle in our way to making this world a better place. Thank you everyone, and please, make sure to make as many new friends as you can. Just because this is a combat school where we may often be pitted against one another in competition, doesn’t mean we can’t be doing so in the spirit of kinship.”

  With his speech finished everyone applauded him as he stepped down, eyes still slightly watering. Making his way through the crowd, he received nothing but cheers and more applause as he passed by. Something about speaking his truth made him feel like he had just taken a hot shower. He felt completely refreshed, and though he could not admit to being completely clean, he definitely did not feel as dirty and weighted down as he was before. He resumed his mission to speak to every new face he came across, as everyone banded together to truly come to know those
where were around them.

  12

  The day had come that many students simultaneously looked forward to, yet also dreaded. In keeping with the idea of increasing interclass activities, Professor Offerdero had come up with what she felt was a stupendous idea given the unique situation the school found itself in. Because the school technically had two Freshman classes running concurrently, she came up with an idea to pit the two against each other in a brawl to see which would reign supreme.

  It had only been a few months since they started classes, so the incoming Freshmen would definitely be at a disadvantage against their counterparts who were inching toward the middle of the final trimester of their Freshman year. Professor Offerdero took this into consideration when pitching the idea, citing the sheer difference in numbers being more than enough to place the two on equal footing. Also, with such a large majority of the new class being Quintessences, she felt it would not be a one-sided affair.

  The two classes met on the same days, just at different times, so she had the soon to be Sophomores excused from any class they might have at the same time. To further increase the competition however, she made an agreement with the other professors to allow them to forbid students from being excused. Because Professor Offerdero was not the most liked on campus by her peers, her offer was met with immediate acceptance by most of the instructors it applied to, only further crippling the more experienced class.

  Given only two days notice, the students all worried how the event would play out. Once the more experienced class found out just how much of a difference in numbers they would be facing, more and more students began trying to find reasons to not attend the class. Professor Offerdero was nothing if not thorough, so she was well aware of which students would not be in attendance due to their professor’s refusal. Any others who tried to skip the class would be counted three times for an absence to dissuade voluntarily not attending.

  “This real weird being cooped up in this room. I know it ain’t enough space for all of us in the normal class but just havin’ us in here with ole fuck ass Professor Osadi ain’t right.”