by M. S. Dobing
‘Nothing, forget it. Does he have any abilities?’
‘Nothing he’s directly in control of. He has a form of Sentio that allows him to detect the Weave in people. Just an instinct, nothing specific.’
‘I see.’
Anna drank the rest of the drink and slammed the glass onto the table, snapping Seb out of his melancholy mood.
‘So, have you seen much of Sylph?’ Anna said.
‘No, not really. She hasn’t been back to the dorm in weeks. I’ve seen her in the canteen a couple of times, but only in passing.’
‘How did she seem?’
He thought on that. ‘Quiet maybe. Tired? She was never one for conversation. Why do you ask?’
‘Probably nothing. Something Nina mentioned.’
‘What was it?’ he said, his attention piqued.
‘Just that Sylph seemed a bit distracted, that’s all. I was wondering, as you were her friend, if you knew why?’
‘No, sorry. I’ll ask her when I next see her.’
‘Thanks, I’d appreciate that.’
‘No problem.’
‘Now, let us get to the task at hand.’
That flutter in his stomach again. ‘Novo?’
‘Correct. Novo. The Change. You know of it?’
‘Well, Enzo gave it to me. The library that is. I’ve read a lot of it, too. I pretty much memorised the Foundations of Arcana at the Magistry, although I never used any of its patterns. At least, aside from when Cian taught one to me. It never got stored in my mind, though. Blurring, it was.’
‘No, it wouldn’t. Blurring is a complex skill, requiring the manipulation of many variables. You simply weren’t ready to store it then.’
‘And now?’
Anna smiled. ‘You tell me.’
‘Well, it’s there. I’ve used it a couple of times in training. I still find it tricky. It appeared when Enzo opened up my Novo library.’
‘That’s good. Some don’t even see those patterns at first. They just come with practice and time.’
She took a coin from her purse and placed it on the table between them.
‘Let’s start simple. You have the patterns to hand?’
Seb closed his eyes. The Novo library appeared in his mind, with only a handful of patterns illuminated, ready for calling.
‘I see them, although there are not many I can use.’
‘There won’t be, not yet. Over time more will appear. But for now, these will do.’
‘Okay,’ he said, still looking at the strange Runic Script that danced before his eyelids. ‘Now what?’
‘Simple. Move the coin. Move it towards me.’
Seb looked down at the coin. It seemed easy enough. He sensed out, the Consensus was there, but weak. The only person within sight of the coin was Kev, and he was lost in his own little world.
Easy.
He channelled, taking in more of the Weave. That heady sensation of being Aware, being alive, filled every bone in his body. The world took on that new clarity that he’d come to relish since he’d first become imbued. He looked down at the coin, brought the Script to mind that would exert some force against it, then pushed.
Nothing.
He shook his head. Refocused. The pattern was still there, glowing in his mind. He pushed again. Harder this time.
Still nothing.
‘Problem?’ Anna said, a knowing smile on her face.
‘No, it’s fine, just need to channel properly,’ he lied.
Seb shook his hands out, removing the tension. He let out a deep breath, focused, and called the pattern again.
Nothing.
‘Dammit,’ he said, sitting back with a sigh. His head was beginning to pound, the result of excessive channelling on a pattern he’d only just learned.
‘Not as simple as you’d think, is it?’
‘I don’t know what’s wrong. I’m calling the pattern. It’s only a matter of exerting force, isn’t it? Why can’t I move it?’
Anna sat back. She held up her hand, palm facing Seb. She pushed her hand out, and as she did so the coin moved with it, grating across the table.
‘How did you do that?’ he said. ‘I could feel the Weave, but you were doing something different. If anything it felt like you were using Sentio.
‘Think about it, Seb. What is reality, really, in terms of the Weave?’
‘Energy transformed by our senses into something our minds can make sense of,’ he replied without a pause.
‘Right, so everything we see, hear and touch, is a unique arrangement of this energy yes? Otherwise, how would you know this coin from a coin three thousand miles away?’
‘Okaaaay,’ he said, suddenly aware his bottom lip was dropping.
‘Therefore, in order to affect reality,’ Anna continued, her raised eyebrow indicating she was finding this conversation harder than anticipated, ‘you need to attune to the specific area you wish to affect. Applying Novo on its own does nothing when trying to affect something else. You need to decide what you’re going to affect before you implement the how.’
Seb felt himself nodding, a semblance of understanding flickering to life in his mind. ‘So that’s why I felt your Sentio, you were having to sense the coin too?’
Anna slumped back and let out an exaggerated sigh. ‘I think he’s got it!’
‘Funny.’
‘It’s logical when you think about it. For anything that affects someone else’s reality, you need to combine all three schools in order to implement successfully. Your Sentio allows you to focus your efforts on the specific area, your Avatari will allow you to translate that into something your mind and body can understand, and finally your Novo will actually affect the change you decide to make.’
‘That’s why Novo is last? You need to master the other two before you can attempt it?’
‘It’s been that way for centuries, and has proven most successful.’ Anna leant forwards, her hands clasped together on the table. ‘Now, move the coin.’
Right. Move the coin. How hard could it be, really? Sense it? Feel it. Move it. Straight forward.
Wrong.
Seb channelled. Novo filled his mind again, although the pain from his last efforts prevented him from absorbing it fully. His sense activated, and he focused on the coin and nothing else.
At first, nothing came. He’d only used Sentio on the living before, not inanimate objects. He probed, but all he got back was the vague background echoes of the other inhabitants of the pub. He shook his head and took a deep breath.
‘Tune everything else out, Seb,’ Anna whispered. ‘That’s why I brought you here. If you can do this kind of feat surrounded by the Unaware, you are on the right track.’
He nodded, eyes locked on the coin.
Focus. Come on, you can do this!
He sensed again, gentler this time, feeling for anything at all that his Sentio could detect.
Nothing.
Wait - what was that?
He sensed again, the touch even lighter this time, barely a caress of the Weave. He caught something, a vague, almost imperceptible resistance as he passed his focus over the coin.
‘Something happening?’
Seb didn’t look up, but he could sense by her tone that she was smiling. He pushed her to one side in his mind. His heart thudded, but he slowed it down with Avatari. This called for calm, not excitement.
He increased his channelling, narrowing his beam even further. He felt it this time, no mistake at all, and his mind nearly exploded at the concept.
Atoms. Were they atoms? Particles of some kind, but none he’d ever seen in a science book. They blinked into existence, fizzing with energy before popping out again. It was like looking at a storm inside a thick cloud, but every time he tried to focus on a particular area the cloud shifted, as if he were blowing on it in some way.
‘You’re doing well, but don’t search too hard. You only need enough to encompass the coin, nothing beyond. Reality doesn’t like to be observe
d in totality.’
He pulled back his sense, the cloud receding in size and no longer squirming away from his probes. He could see it all now, and he gently wrapped his sense around the entirety of the coin. He closed his eyes, feeling the energy, his mind translating it into something that he recognised from the real world. He felt the roughness of the coin’s edges, the grooves and channels that covered its surface. He smelled the dried sweat and other chemicals deposited by its former owners. In his mind’s eye he saw it, clear as day, sat on the table before him, the Queen’s head staring up towards the ceiling.
He pushed.
Metal scraped on wood.
He opened his eyes. The coin had shifted. Barely an inch.
‘I did it!’ he heard himself say, although for some reason his voice sounded distant, as if coming from somewhere else.
Anna looked back at him, a strange expression on her face.
Sympathy.
‘What’s wrong?’
A pain unlike nothing he’d ever felt exploded inside his mind.
‘Not again,’ he slurred.
As he slumped to the table, the world vanishing into a haze of white light, he heard Anna speak to someone out of sight.
‘Call a cab, this one’s going to be out for a while.’
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Nothing. No pain. Not yet.
Seb opened one eye. Thankfully the lights wherever he was had been dimmed.
He opened both eyes.
Something moved out of the corner of his vision. He sat up, heart racing.
‘Hello, is anyone there?’
He was in his room, the duvet pulled up to his waist.
He’d seen something. Hadn’t he? He dared a sense. Nothing. Nothing at all. But his instinct, that natural awareness belonging to all humankind, told him that something wasn’t quite right.
‘Hello?’
Not a sound. Sentio came up with zilch. He rubbed his head.
Must’ve been some kind of side effect from the burnout.
He turned his head, quicker this time. The pain increased slightly, and he raised a hand to his brow. He didn’t dare risk pushing anymore into his Avatari to dull the pain. Passive healing would kick in soon, but for now he’d have to make do with more traditional methods.
He swung his legs out of bed. The curtains were open, but it was still night outside. Was it the same night as the pub? Or had many days passed since he’d burned his mind out? He summoned the courage to stand, but stopped at the last minute when he saw the glass of water by his bed with two tablets next to it. A small note had been left by the glass.
Drink me.
‘Nice touch,’ he said.
Seb took the tablets, chucked them both in his mouth at once and downed them with several glugs of water. The tablets would take a while to kick in, but the water’s effect was instant. He felt refreshed, the sluggishness of his mind receding. He stood from his bed, standing still for a moment to check that his sense of balance was still present, before vanishing to the bathroom.
Half an hour later, when Seb had showered, dressed and was sat drinking his second coffee, a knock came at the door.
Anna.
‘It’s open.’
Anna came in. She was dressed in her civilian clothes. One of the sleeves was ripped and mud, or something similar, had stained the front of her jacket. Her eyes looked tired, and her skin pale.
‘I just came to see if you were okay,’ she said with a weary smile.
Seb eyed her for a second. There was something off about the way she spoke. He couldn’t quite place his finger on it.
‘Me? Nothing I’ve not experienced before. Although I think it’s me that should be asking that question. Are you okay?’
‘I’m fine, I’m fine, just some resistance last night.’
‘Resistance? From who?’
Anna waved a hand. ‘Nothing we couldn’t handle. It was a multiple this time. A family had been corrupted by the Weave.’
‘A whole family?’ he said. Anna crossed the room and sat on the stool by the dresser. She looked around as if she’d only just realised where she was, and then walked back to the door.
‘Anna?’
‘Mmm?’
‘The family. What happened?’
‘Mum, Dad. Two kids.’
‘Did you manage to cleanse them all?’
Anna paused, just for a heartbeat. ‘Most of them.’
‘Most?’
‘Sometimes people can’t be saved, Seb!’ Anna snapped.
Perhaps they didn’t need saving in the first place.
Anna stood stock still. Her eyes bored into him. Had she read his mind? So what if she had? It was an obvious challenge, even if they didn’t want to hear it. The pain in his head had begun to swell and he took a seat on the edge of the sofa.
‘Sorry, I should not have thought out of turn.’
‘You think what you feel.’
‘I know, but I need to learn to control it better. Sometimes I get angry first, then think after.’
Anna didn’t respond. Seb looked up. She was staring out of the window.
‘Anna?’
She looked at him, then shook her head.
‘Sorry, I must go. Archmage Sedaris wishes to see me. He wishes to see all the elites.’
‘Really, what’s the big deal?’
Anna was already opening the door. ‘When the summons comes, we do not query. We simply obey.’
She left without a further word. Obviously the thought about saving the family had struck a raw nerve. But so? Who hadn’t made it from this latest cleansing? Who was now mindless, or worse? As he sat, head in his hands, pondering another loss because of the Weave, a sentence came to mind, uttered to him months earlier.
You will have to make a choice.
Why it came up now he had no idea. What choice could he make? He’d made it, hadn’t he? When he’d shattered the Spoke Stone months earlier. He’d found the magi and he had continued his training.
This was good.
Wasn’t it?
Something flashing caught his eye. He looked back to his bedroom. His phone was on the floor. A pale blue light blinked on and off. He went over and crouched.
‘Slower, Seb,’ he said, the sudden movement making his head hurt. He picked up the phone.
One message.
Cade.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Seb made his way out of the dormitories and passed through the canteen. Aside from a couple of acolytes, the room was empty. No surprise, considering the late hour.
He walked at pace back to the plaza. Operations were shut down for the night. To his right, the wide door that led down to the Junction was sealed. Two First soldiers stood impassively on either side.
He emerged back onto Central. There were more people here, but still just a fraction of the number he’d seen here during the day. They milled in small groups, sat around tables at one of a couple of bars that were still open.
Nobody paid him any attention as he moved across Central, and that suited him just fine.
He was just about across the wide plaza, turning into the wide passage that led back into the part of Domus that sat in the world of the Aware, when something caught his attention near the fountain. He slowed to a stop, not quite recognising what he was seeing at first.
Then it clicked.
‘Cranks?’
The old man was slumped against the fountain, his head lolling backwards over the stone.
At first Seb had assumed the old man had drunk too much again. He’d seen him at the pub that night with Anna, and it wasn’t too great a stretch to imagine him knocking back enough ale to render himself unconscious.
But then he’d noticed the trolley lying on the floor beside Cranks. A clear fluid leaked out, pooling on the floor next to him.
The old man was in trouble.
Seb raced over and hooked his arm under Cranks’ back. He lifted him up, pulling the back of his head out of the fountain.
The old man’s lips had a blue pallor, and his skin was the colour of wax. Seb sensed. What returned wasn’t good.
The man was dying.
‘Cranks? Can you hear me?’ Seb lowered him to the floor, resting his head gently on the tiles. He looked toward the guards at the other door, the one that led into Domus. ‘Get help! It’s Cranks! I think he’s had a heart attack or something!’
One of the guards vanished into the passageway. The other grabbed some kind of device from a green box on the wall and ran over. He squatted next to Seb and pulled the device – some kind of resuscitation machine – from the green box.
‘Is it a cardiac arrest?’ the guard said.
‘I-I don’t know. How do I tell?’
‘You’re a mage, aren’t you? Can’t you look into his body or something?’
Could he do that? He looked towards Cranks. The old man wasn’t moving. His eyes had rolled up into his head, and his tongue was hanging out of his mouth. Seb pressed a finger against Cranks’ neck.
Nothing.
His aura was there, though. Faint, but definitely there. His body might’ve failed but the soul hadn’t left. Not yet.
He directed his sense into Cranks’ body, mixing in Avatari. He couldn’t see inside the old man, he didn’t have that ability, but one thing he was sure of was that there seemed to be no electrical activity going on inside the old man’s muscles. They were simply still. Unmoving.
‘I think it’s a cardiac arrest. There’s no activity I can see.’
‘Right. Stand back.’
Seb stepped away as the guard ripped open Crank’s shirt and placed a series of attachments to his chest. He pressed a button, and the device began counting down in a robotic voice, telling people to stand clear. When the device reached zero, it sent a jolt of electricity that made Cranks jerk slightly.
Seb stood, leaning against a stone pillar as the other guard returned, accompanied by two magi that he didn’t recognise. They all squatted around the old man in a flurry of activity.
They battled for several minutes. Whilst Cranks’ aura remained, there was a chance. Seb felt the tugs on the Weave as the magi directed their magicks towards the old man. A couple of times the aura flared, recovering some of its normal blue colour. At one point Cranks actually opened his eyes wide and his arm shot out, reaching towards something above him. He said something then, but Seb couldn’t quite make it out.