“Trust me, I know better than anyone how evil siblings can be, but if he is your twin, why does he do such fucked up shit?!”
“Genetically we may be identical, but we clearly grew up in very different manners. Just the differences in our appearances can attest to that. I know nothing about him other than the fact that he seems to think I live a charmed life. If that is the case, he must have been through some pretty awful things, starting with abandonment.”
“That fucker attacked me like it was personal!”
“Didn’t you attack him first?”
“Yeah, but I thought it was you.”
“You really aren’t helping your case Phave…”
“You really aren’t. I am not saying what he did was right, but even you can admit you would not let someone assaulting you go unpunished.”
“Why the fuck are you two taking up for that piece of shit?!”
“We aren’t, we are simply pointing out the fact that you started a fight against someone who seems to scare even Anaar. Speaking of which, if he is your twin, why does he frighten you so much? Shouldn’t that make you two equal in power?”
“Theoretically yes, but it seems we are even more anomalous than even I could have expected.”
“How do you know he is stronger than you?”
Sighing, “This is another reason I brought you two together. I don’t have time, nor do I want to do this twice.”
Outstretching his hand, he opens a portal directly into Phavian’s room. Though both of them jump with shock, Phavian is more affected as he clearly recognizes where the portal leads to.
“How… You are a Water Affinity. This looks just like Ripp’s portals. You said Water Affinity portals could only be opened in water…”
Standing, an orb of water forms in his left hand, while a swirling gust formulates in his right. With their eyes bulging, he dissipates both and closes the portal. Sitting down again he scratches the back of his neck. With a nervous grin, his voice shaking, “Surprise, I have two attunements.”
“What the actual fuck! You mean to tell me all this time we have been hoofing it or being subject to Ripp’s evil whims, and you could do this all along?!”
Maggie, who seemed to calm down quite rapidly, makes a gesture toward the kitchen. “Phave… It is like the point is over there, and somehow you ended up over here.”
Anaar did not let Maggie’s nonchalance go unquestioned. “I expected you to be more… Shocked? Angry?”
“Well when you think of it, it fits together much better now. I suppose it feels like I have been through exactly this before so the shock value is gone. You move like lightning, and you have these freaky senses like you know something is going to happen before it does. Now seeing you make a portal, it explains all those times you showed up to places like ten times faster than you should have. I guess I should be questioning how you have two attunements, but you are the nerd for that sort of thing, not me. I just know you as my best friend who is always making the impossible happen.”
Phavian, seeming to get on board with what the implications of this new information meant, jumps up with a start. “There is another one of you running around?!”
“I think I am supposed to take offense to that, but since I had a similar reaction, I believe you are allowed a pass. To answer your question, no, from what I gather he is potentially far worse and has a different set of abilities than I do.”
“Like what?”
“Remember how you said hitting him was like punching the hardest thing you had ever met in life and he didn’t flinch? Well that is because he is Fire and Earth attuned. He has some crazy level of Invulnerability even I can’t understand.”
“Holy shit! I hit that kid in your class though and he went shooting off like a rocket.”
“Like I said, it is almost like he is attached to the earth itself. If he doesn’t want to move, he isn’t going to.”
“What the fuck!?”
“Yeah, there is that much of a difference in his strength. I’m not even sure internal trauma will do anything to him.”
“Wait, how do you even know all this? It can’t be like he told you all of this over a nice cup of tea. Which I could really go for…”
“Affinity Detection.”
“Like the Affinity Detection?”
“I would suppose so. It isn’t like there are many people to ever have this ability.”
“Is that how you know people’s powers with seemingly no information?”
“Yes.”
“If you have such a rare ability- like seriously, how many do you even have at this point, I can’t keep up, why do you study it so much? You don’t need it.”
“Hmm, how to explain it… You can see letters, but if you don’t know the language you can’t read it. You can hear a sound, but if it is not familiar, there is no way to identify the source. You could smell a flower, but if you had no frame of reference for what a flower was, or even a floral scent it would be meaningless.”
“So you study to make sense of the information you get from people?”
“Precisely. Affinity Detection doesn’t just stick a label over people’s head that spells out what they have going on. Well, not exactly. All of my senses are connected to the ability. I could recognize you just by seeing you, or I could hear your voice from another room and my brain registers it as you. It is a similar concept.”
“That sounds cool and freaky at the same time. What do you see when you look at me?”
“It is going to be hard to explain, but I can try. “You radiate this vibrant emerald aura. This to me indicates you are a powerful Earth Affinity. Oddly enough, the colors of our Vizers are spot on, so they must be based on the few who have had this ability. I can see your manifestation. I can read it as what you call it, Singularity, but the way I view it, it more directly translates to Amplification. Because I am a Grand Synestate-”
“Pause. Like Master Shin?!”
“Yes.”
“Is that how you knew he was one too?!”
“Oh yeah. That is easily his strongest skillset.”
“You can differentiate?”
“Yep.”
“Can we get back to me? It feels like I am getting a palm reading or something.”
“Like I was saying, like Master Shin, my five cardinal senses are not the only ones that I possess and can enhance. We both can sense potential, but due to my Affinity Detection, I would surmise mine gives more context to what we see.”
“What does that mean?”
“You know how I have said things like Stefani terrifies me, or Dan’s powers are repressed, or yours have limitless potential?”
“I thought you were just trying to make us feel good.”
“I’m glad it did, but it wasn’t intended. Your manifestation literally can evolve without limit. The way you utilize it in completely unique ways from enhancing your physical attributes, to giving the appearance of being an Aerokinetic, if you were to live as long as I expect to, your one ability just reads to me as infinity. By the way, now that the cat is out of the bag, I could probably help you with the effects of your fan, but that will have to wait.”
“Tell me about Dan and Stef.”
“It took me the longest to break past it, but as he undoes the damage that has been done to him, it becomes clearer and clearer. Dan’s true echelon is somewhere around 5.42.”
“That makes me look like nothing!”
“Me too. Probably not Anaar though.”
“Dan is weird because most people have the potential for their echelon’s upper limit to increase over time. In Dan’s case, I can’t see his upper limit increasing, only the blocks in place falling off.”
“And Stef?”
“Stefani… Her ability is the only one I have ever encountered that is just a blank space.”
“What does that mean?”
“I can’t use my powers to help her develop, because I don’t think her powers have a path for development. I genuin
ely think she could do whatever she wanted at some point. It seems to be balanced by her upper limit being capped, but raw power is only a piece of the equation.”
Phavian bounces up and down, “Do me next! Take that any way you want to.”
As Maggie rolls her eyes, Anaar cannot help but chuckle. “You aren’t exactly an enigma. You are for the most part what you present. You haven’t reached your limit, that is for sure. Oddly enough, you… taste like ice cream.”
“Motherfucking chocolate ice cream!”
Sighing… “Hate to burst your bubble, but your skin color has nothing to do with it. I haven’t had many opportunities to… you know, taste people, but you are so obvious it is hard to miss.”
“That is freaky! Like freak nasty… The stuff we can do with this…”
“Ok, I’d rather not be involved in whatever you are planning.” Turning to Anaar, “When do we leave?”
“We?”
“Hell yeah! We are coming with you! Did you think you could just waltz in, tell us you have an evil twin, you have two attunements, and you are going on a journey to find him and we would just send you off with a basket of sandwiches?”
“Is Maggie making the sandwiches? Because I wouldn’t trust you to even pour me a glass of water…”
“Hey!”
“It’s true, but in all seriousness, I am going to tell you just like I told Ixnes, this is too dangerous. Also, it is something I need to do alone anyway.”
“You need backup!”
“No, I need the most important people in my life safe. That is absolutely something I can’t count on with you tagging along. I need you two here taking care of the homefront.”
Maggie raises her hand, “I don’t know what that means.”
Phavian follows suit, “Me neither.”
“Who knows how long this is going to take? Maggie, I need you to look after Seles for me-”
“What is wrong with me?!”
“You can barely look after yourself!”
“He has a point.”
“Hey, next time I want a gangbang I’ll schedule it in advance. Bastards.”
“I need you fielding questions regarding my absence. Everyone is going to flock to you for answers, so you need to be here to answer them. Take care of Harston for me. Be as needy as possible so when I return maybe he will finally take a vacation.”
Maggie snickers as Phavian sulks. “What about your schoolwork?”
“The assignments are online, I can do them with no problem. I’m sure Ixnes will take care of my lab requirements.”
“What about Dan and Stef?”
“Now Maggie you know damn well how to take care of Dan. All you got to do-”
Maggie throws the seat back at Phavian, somehow making it into a deadly weapon. “How do you put up with him?!”
“Seriously? You know Dan is just as bad.”
“You’re right. We need to get new boyfriends.”
“We’ll put it on the list for when I get back.”
“Hey!”
“As for Dan and Stef, it has been one of the hardest things I have ever done keeping this from them. I try to follow a rule that no one learns the truth unless circumstances cause them to figure out. That is the only thing that lets me sleep at night.”
“Then why did you tell us about your Air Affinity powers?”
“You guys are already in on the secret for the most part. If I was going to tell Ixnes, I wasn’t going to just leave you out. Speaking of which, I just thought of something… I need to go. I’ll be back later tonight, I’ll leave on this trip tomorrow morning.”
Opening a portal, he walks through, it closing right behind him. Maggie and Phavian watch as he makes his abrupt exit, thinking about how he never seems to tell everything. After a long moment, Phavian looks at Maggie with a serious look.
Suddenly breaking into a wide grin, “How fucking awesome is it going to be to have a Transporter who will actually take us places?!”
26
The young boy stood alone in the midst of the other children, not feeling fear, but something else he did not have words for. He looked to the side as the jeering he had come to know began.
“Doodyhead Yeff! Stupider than a rock!”
The other children laughed raucously at the boy’s expense. Despite his feelings, he had learned it was best not to engage with them because it only made things worse, which eventually ended badly for him. He did not understand why he was treated so poorly, maybe because he was different. When the antagonizing boy found his taunts ineffective, he ran into Yefferson to push him down.
When the boy collided with Yefferson at full speed, he was immediately repulsed, sprawling onto the ground while Yefferson stood unharmed and unfazed. The boy burst into tears, screams of pain resonating through the halls. When the staff took notice of the situation, they picked up the boy, tending to his bleeding nose as they attempted to find out what had happened. When he had settled down enough to speak, the boy painfully pointed to Yefferson.
“He hit me!”
The woman immediately looked to Yefferson with disdain. “Yefferson Costa, we have told you time and time again we will not tolerate your bullying here! If you can’t behave, we will send you where the bad little boys go.”
Though this had become an almost frequent occurrence, he played his part as he always did. “I didn’t do nothing!”
Looking to the others in the area, the woman gave them questioning looks. “Is this true?”
Many of the children looked away, but there were those who responded with gusto. “No! Yeff started it! He always startin’ stuff!”
“Lying, fighting, could you not have behaved even on your birthday? You are lucky we even know when it is, many children just have a day we picked! The treat we had planned for you will be canceled now since you continue to show that you do not deserve it. Maybe some time alone will make you think about your actions.”
A man comes to take the still whimpering boy away while Yefferson was led to the room he had come to hate. The room was cold and empty, but the lights in the room stayed on constantly. They were annoyingly bright which prevented him from getting any sleep. It was in those days he first came to hate the light. He sat there for hours in the corner, it being the farthest away from the oppression of the light. At some point he was finally retrieved by one of the staff and brought to the clinic for his yearly physical.
He spent very little time in the clinic, unlike the other children. Though he would fall ill on occasion, it was nothing compared to the constant stream of illness passed around by the others. Picked up by the man and placed on the examination table, he was left alone with the doctor and nurse as usual.
“Yefferson Costa, age 5-”
The nurse cleared his throat, “He is 6 now doctor. It is his birthday today.”
“Oh yes, I forget that every time. April 20th, like clockwork. I so rarely see this little guy compared to the others I forget about that. Well happy birthday son.”
Yefferson sat on the table, stone faced as the smiling doctor turned away from him. He did not understand why his birthday was special. To him it was just another day reminding him that no one wanted a broken child. He heard the whispers from the nurses and they all called him that more than they called him his name.
“Alright, vitals seem good. Perhaps this is the year he gets strong enough to have his affinity detected. Hook him up to the machine.”
The nurse treated him gently, kindly, one of the only people he knew to do so. Once he was fully attached to the machine, it ran through its process and the test came back as inconclusive. The doctor looked at the results with annoyance, throwing the printout in the garbage.
“Try it again.”
When the test came back the same, he put the results in the file and continued on with the examination.
“Earth it is then. No blood sample since the kid is tough as nails. No needle will get through his skin. Good thing he doesn’t get sick like the oth
ers or else it would be a real pain. Probably has to do with his abnormally high body temperature. He is never feverish though, so it just seems he runs hot. No indication it is causing any brain damage. Not the brightest bulb, but that doesn’t mean his brain is cooking.”
The doctor completes the final touches to his exam when he takes off his gloves and runs his fingers through the thick head of hair almost to the boy’s waist.
“Still no luck cutting this?”
“No doctor. The barber refuses to try anymore.”
“Oddest thing I have ever seen. Oh well, it suits the kid so I guess it is fine. Just make sure the staff is keeping him clean. If he got lice there is no easy way out of it.”
The doctor leaves the room as the nurse helps Yefferson get dressed. After leaving the clinic he was taken to dinner where he rejoined the other children. He did his best to keep his distance, not wanting another incident like that morning. He ate his food quickly and quietly, waiting to be taken back to his room when dinnertime was over. Back in his room he found the schoolwork he had missed for the day and chose to ignore it.
Flopping down on the bed, one of many in the room, he finally felt he could get some sleep, the sounds of the others almost nonexistent to his ears. As he slept, he had the recurring dream that haunted him, which seemed to speak to why he was unwanted. Though many other children felt the same way, he knew he had been returned rather than being a case where he had never left.
“Mr. and Mrs. Rivas I simply do not understand. You seemed to be ready to move forward with officially adopting the child not very long ago. What could have possibly changed?”
“We wanted a newborn, but we understood there were certain protocols that had to be followed which caused Yefferson to be held for over a year. We still wanted him because he was so darn cute, but there are just too many strange incidents that has happened since we took him into our home.”
“Mr. Rivas could you please explain in detail? I would be happy to work with you to see if we can resolve them.”
“Well we can start with the fires. In only two years we have had seven cases of spontaneous fires in our home. Are we sure this child is an Earth Affinity?”
Apotheosis (Song of Sophangence Book 3) Page 32