by Jason Letts
CONTENTS
Title Page
BOOK 1: THE SYNTHESIS
Chapter 1: Cloud Cottage
Chapter 2: The First Day
Chapter 3: Corey Outpost
Chapter 4: The Blood Stone
Chapter 5: The Tournament Trial
Chapter 6: The Toughest Medicine to Swallow
Chapter 7: The Diamond Carafe
Chapter 8: The Team Trial
Chapter 9: The Piecemeal Assassin
Chapter 10: The Birthday Party
Chapter 11: Paint and Pencil
Chapter 12: Dustfalls
Chapter 13: The Final Trial
Chapter 14: The Synthesis
BOOK 2: THE SHADOWING
Chapter 1: A Mother’s Tears
Chapter 2: Darmen Bound
Chapter 3: Pinchy Publishing
Chapter 4: Beginnings
Chapter 5: Trial and Error
Chapter 6: In the Dark
Chapter 7: In the River
Chapter 8: The Garden Party
Chapter 9: Homecoming
Chapter 10: Power Sources
Chapter 11: What Lies Beneath
Chapter 12: Reunion
Chapter 13: The Quagmire
Chapter 14: The Slope
Chapter 15: Ascension
BOOK 3: THE STASIS
Chapter 1: The Equinox Festival
Chapter 2: Shade Base Camp
Chapter 3: The Condemned
Chapter 4: Sink or Swim
Chapter 5: A Mind of Madness
Chapter 6: Flight
Chapter 7: Dreamscape I
Chapter 8: The Specials
Chapter 9: Dreamscape II
Chapter 10: Tied Hands
Chapter 11: Apocalypse
Chapter 12: Dreamscape III
Chapter 13: Revolutions
Chapter 14: The Night of the Undying Sun
Chapter 15: The Eradication of Corey Outpost
Chapter 16: The Pilgrimage of Lost Souls
Chapter 17: The Battle of Darmen
Chapter 18: Attrition
BOOK 4: THE SUBMERSION
Chapter 1: The Savior
Chapter 2: Speechless
Chapter 3: The Thread That Binds
Chapter 4: A Mouthful
Chapter 5: The Ghost
Chapter 6: The Caravan Man I
Chapter 7: The Caravan Man II
Chapter 8: Reversal of Fortune
Chapter 9: A Lucky Break
Chapter 10: Circumvention
Chapter 11: Sawdust
Chapter 12: The Laugh Riot
Chapter 13: Setting Sail
Chapter 14: Stowed Away
Chapter 15: At Trail’s End
BOOK 5: THE CARAFERS
Chapter 1: The Final Trial Rematch
Chapter 2: A Change of Plans
Chapter 3: The Corporeal Cave
Chapter 4: The Drifter and the Wanderer
Chapter 5: Everything
Chapter 6: The Southern Fingers of the Frozen Desert
Chapter 7: Chucky’s Plan
Chapter 8: Lines in the Sand
Chapter 9: The Other Half
Chapter 10: In A Flash
Chapter 11: The Trinity of Energy
Chapter 12: Mira’s Outpost
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Copyright Page
POWERLESS
The Complete Series
Jason Letts
BOOK 1
THE SYNTHESIS
“Dost thou deem it misery to be endowed with marvelous gifts, against which no power nor strength could avail an enemy? Misery, to be able to quell the mightiest with a breath? Misery, to be as terrible as thou art beautiful? Wouldst thou, then, have preferred the condition of a weak woman, exposed to all evil, and capable of none?”
Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Rappaccini’s Daughter”
Chapter 1: Cloud Cottage
“Hello? Is someone there?” asked a fifteen-year-old girl named Mira Ipswich.
Alone in the backyard, she felt a peculiar sensation that someone she didn’t know was nearby, but that was impossible. Her home and yard were surrounded by an impenetrable cloud, and the only people she could remember seeing for as long as she lived were her parents.
Mira noticed something strange taking shape on the cloud’s surface. Her curiosity distracted her from the loneliness that had brought her to tears so many times. It was just a curvy line at first, but it grew longer. Bending lines, ovals, and circles imprinted themselves on the soft, wavering surface. She leapt to her feet and looked at the figure forming in the white wall.
The lines joined and a face appeared on the undulating surface. It seemed to breathe and blink. When she stared into it from up close, moisture dripped down Mira’s cheeks and collected on her fingertips. Gazing into the face, its ponytail off to the side, she realized it looked an awful lot like hers. Just as she began to wonder if she was looking into a mirror, the image in the cloud washed away.
“Wait!” she shouted into the wafting mass. Her heart thumped inside her chest. Keeping her ear against the billowing wall, she waited. The moisture had drenched her clothing and brown hair, but there was no response.
She began to think it had been her imagination, like all the other times she had hoped someone other than her father would find a way to pass through the mist. Had she only imagined what she wanted? No, she remembered it, and it was real.
Someone had almost made it through to her.
Suddenly full of excitement, she sprinted down the path between tomato plants and cabbages to report the news to her mother. Jeana, busy pruning a geranium, noticed her daughter’s rapid approach and formed a subtle smile.
“Mom! Mom!” Soaked, flushed, and out of breath, Mira struggled to express what had happened. “I saw something…through the mist. Looked like a face. I—”
“What? That’s impossible.” Jeana reluctantly put down her clippers. She brushed the graying hair from her cheek, revealing the faintest wrinkles around her eyes and mouth.
“I saw it, I swear. Someone was out there. Someone was so close to breaking through and getting to us,” Mira said.
Her mother’s steady reaction started to frustrate her. It chipped away at her hope that she’d stumbled upon something important.
“I’m sorry, but it’s probably just inside your head. Only your father is able to pass through the cloud,” Jeana said.
“Maybe Dad knows something about it.”
“Maybe it was him,” Jeana said, seizing another possible solution. “Did you ever think of that?”
“I’m certain it wasn’t. It looked like my own face staring back at me.”
“How can you be sure?” Jeana asked, taking on the tone of a teacher as she so often did during their studies. Other than the stacks of Flip Widget’s Manuals of Science in the basement, Jeana was the only teacher Mira had. That made it hard to argue against her.
“I know it was real. I’ll ask Dad about it when he gets back.”
A sinking, unsatisfied feeling replaced Mira’s excitement. She sighed. Jeana pursed her lips and then shook her head.
“You should probably forget all about it. Come here.” Jeana pointed to the pistil and stamen of a nearby flower. “Can you tell me what these parts of a plant are called?” she asked, changing the topic of conversation for good.
Far from forgetting about it, Mira brought up the news as soon as her father, Kevin, had returned home. He was exhausted and stressed, unlike Mira, who lit up when he walked through the door and proceeded to tell him about her encounter. Putting his hand to
his chin, he assumed a bookish disposition, amplified by the clean part in his hair.
“A face, you say? I think you must be mistaken. I’ve never seen anything that can get through the mist. You shouldn’t let yourself get worked up so easily,” he said.
“I really did see it though. The face looked so alive, like it was trying to say something,” Mira argued.
“Oh, now it was trying to say something? What did it tell you?” Kevin asked, teasing her with a smile.
“I couldn’t make out the words, but the lips moved and the eyelids fell, hiding something sad or secret.”
“What can I tell you, sweetheart. There’s nothing out there for you. I’m sorry. How about we find something interesting to dissect?”
“But Dad, you have to believe me! It was really there. I could show you where and we could go look for it together. Maybe someone needs our help, maybe someone is lost.” A note of desperation crept into her voice, and it reminded Kevin how Mira’s pleadings had become more frequent and more persistent. He searched for a way to tell her it was all for her own good.
“Mira, you’ve got to put it out of your mind. You didn’t see anything because there’s nothing there. You might imagine things are bad now, but what if you found something and your life became so much worse. What if it became a painful nightmare that made your present unhappiness seem like bliss?”
His daughter stared into his eyes, searching for the truth. If his words hinted at the existence of another world, then that could only mean one thing for hers.
“I can’t stay trapped in this cloud forever!” Flushed and defiant, she ran to her room and slammed the door. After some time, Jeana went up to find her. She offered a few comforting words and saw her daughter off to sleep with a kiss.
Returning to the kitchen, Jeana met her husband with a distinct look of displeasure.
“Maybe we should reconsider our plans,” she said, biting her lip.
“Why? What’s changed?”
“Do you know what that face could have been? What if someone was trying to get in? Could you be losing your strength? You’re not as young as you used to be.”
“Impossible,” Kevin said. “I don’t know who or what it was, but it doesn’t sound good. I’ll get to the bottom of this. Don’t you worry.” He turned to leave, but Jeana wasn’t finished.
“I don’t think it’s right to keep Mira here any longer. Maybe it’s been a mistake all along.”
“You know how dangerous it would be for her. We might as well be marching her off to her death. And we’d be responsible for it. She wouldn’t last a day.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. We could still protect her. It would be a difficult adjustment for her, but it’s what she wants. And she could make it.”
“She could make it? Are you mad? You yourself just said that someone could be trying to get in here, and you want to let her wander about where any accident or villain could strike her? And be mindful of the war. It seems far away from our sleepy little town, but it’s all-consuming and people from town who go off never return. How long could she escape it?”
“She could join the academy. She could learn to defend herself.”
Kevin’s temper fizzled and he laughed heartily.
“I’m sorry, honey,” he apologized, knowing she was serious. He wrapped her in a loving hug. “You’ve thought it all out, haven’t you? But what could she possibly defend herself with? She’d be candle wax trying to put out a flame.”
Jeana calmly distanced herself from him. “I don’t know, but this is the life that she was born to live. It belongs to her and not to us. She deserves the chance to make from it what she can.”
Kevin found this argument much more difficult to refute. He considered it for a moment, rolling his head around his neck, before speaking.
“You do realize how agonizing it will be for her, don’t you? She’s different and missing something important, something vital. What she lacks will haunt her for as long as she can carry on, overshadowing the miracle that she’s survived every day.”
“We can’t know for sure how she’ll react. It’s true she’s led a sheltered life, but something bright and courageous could emerge.”
Kevin delved into his imagination and conjured his wildest, worst visions of what could happen. It was terrifying, but he no longer felt he had the right to keep his daughter cloistered, no matter what happened.
“Then it’s decided. We’ll let her flourish or fail under her own power. Her disadvantage is substantial, but we can’t be guilty of stripping her of her freedom any longer. The only thing left to consider is how we should open the blinds.”
The sound of clanging pots woke Mira early in the morning. Exhausted and not wholly rid of yesterday’s frustration, she dragged herself out of bed to check on the strange commotion. After pulling up her leggings and slipping on her tunic, she took a moment to lean out the large window in her room. The white wall rubbed up against the darkness. A slight tinge of anger tweaked her heart when she thought of the conversation with her father.
Shaking her head and feeling the hopelessness of fighting, she turned away from the window and went downstairs. She found her father lounging in a chair. Her mother, on the other hand, was very busy. Why they both weren’t still asleep at this early hour mystified her.
Delicious aromas tickled Mira’s nose and made her mouth water. Poking her head around to see the kitchen’s hearth, she caught Jeana busily transferring food from pans to plates. A colossal breakfast was taking shape on the table.
“How long have you been up? What is going on?” Mira asked, with both interest and skepticism. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she dutifully moved toward the basin to start cleaning the dishes.
“Just sit yourself down, dear,” her mother said. Mira’s father, still wearing his pajamas, took a seat at the table. He seemed unusually relaxed.
“You aren’t leaving today?” Mira asked. Very few occasions kept him home, and today was neither a holiday nor a birthday.
Kevin pulled her in close. “There’s something we want to talk to you about. Is that OK?”
Mira, shifting in her seat, raised her eyebrows and gave him her full attention.
“Oh boy, this is hard. Now, where to begin?” he said, looking around the room for something.
“Spit it out, honey,” Jeana said, rolling her eyes.
“OK, OK. Mira, we’re going to let you go. But there are some things you need to know first. Can you listen to everything before you make any judgments?”
She squinted at her parents, struggling to understand.
“What do you mean you are going to let me go?”
“You’ve made it clear that you’re not happy with your life. We’re going to help you change it, for better or for worse.”
“So do it. What do we have to do? Let’s do it.” She leaned forward over the table, eager. Her eyes glanced back and forth between her parents.
“Remember, you’re going to stay here and listen to everything. Look outside.”
Confused, Mira turned around to look through the large glass doors that led out to the backyard. Candle and firelight from the house met a swath of the undulating mist. She watched, unsure of what she was looking for.
The watery mist thinned and separated. For a second, the water fell in an intense downpour, splashing against the ground. By then enough of the wall had evaporated to reveal bright stars speckling the sky beyond.
Mira’s eyes grew large and her jaw dropped. She was overwhelmed and forgot to breathe. She rose from the seat and staggered toward the door. Her eyes remained transfixed on the sight before her, afraid that it would disappear if she blinked. She pulled the door open and stumbled into the open air. Her parents didn’t go after her, letting her soak in the moment.
The first thing she noticed was the morning breeze that brushed against her tingling skin. She took small, measured steps out onto the dark lawn in her bare feet. In a trance-like gaze, she stared out in front of
her as far as she could see.
Mira had never seen the stars so clearly before, but something else stretched over the sky that captured her wonder and demanded her attention. Stitched together over the atmosphere, a luminous and sharp web draped high above, embedded in the stars. Marveling at it, she admired its graceful curves and simple elegance.
Before she could even begin to absorb what she saw, the sun peeked above a mountainside in the distance, showering light down on the vast and beautiful scenery stretching out before her.
The brilliant rays masked the web but revealed a radiant landscape below. The trees in her yard were actually part of a huge forest that sloped down behind the garden and extended outward along a valley. She could see for miles and miles, past a river, a village, all the way to the towering mountains that formed a chain down to the fresh morning sun near the horizon. She saw smoke rising from the chimneys in the village, and homes huddled behind a large stone fort, which looked out over vast farmland. A hawk navigated the sky, majestic in the first light of day. She watched it dive, flap its wings, and rise.
Everything was beautiful and new, but the most wondrous part of it was how it could all change so quickly. Her parents had some explaining to do.
Chapter 2: The First Day
Jeana and Kevin slowly approached Mira, giving her time to regain her senses. When they were sure they wouldn’t startle her, Kevin put his hand on her shoulder.
“How did you do that?” she asked, mesmerized.
“Let me tell you.” Kevin gently turned her toward the house. She yielded without the least resistance, and together they returned to their places at the table. She still looked dazed. Her mother put some food on her plate, but Mira didn’t touch it.
“There is so much we need to tell you. There are things we’ve kept from you,” Jeana said. “You see, when a baby is born, a special gift comes down from the web of the universe to make the child special and unique. We believe that gift makes us who we are. Your father’s gift has to do with the water in the air, which made the wall around our house. We are all given the ability to control something. It’s an extension of our being.”