by K. M. Fahy
“Good.” Kitieri leaned back in her chair with a sigh, and felt a twinge in her hand. Her body stiffened, and she turned her head to the window, where the first hint of a charge wafted in on the cool draft.
Oh, shit.
Her element reacted to the charged air, burning her palms beneath the skin, and Kitieri snapped her hands into tight fists as she bolted from her chair.
“I have to go.”
Tira stood, bewildered. “Is everything all right, Officer?”
“Yes—” Kitieri tripped over her chair. “Yes, I’m fine, I just…” She risked opening her hand to grab the door handle. “…Have to go. Thank you for the tea.”
She rushed out into the street, where the rain had let up to a slow drizzle and people were resuming their work.
No, no, stay inside, she thought frantically. Tira trotted after her.
“Officer, what’s wrong?”
“Tira, go back inside!” she snapped. Whirling around to the rest of the street, she shouted, “All of you, get inside!”
Members of the crowd threw her strange glances, ranging from indignant to fearful, but none heeded her warning. Panic rose in Kitieri’s throat. No one ever listened.
The first warning struck just then, ripping an arc of white lightning from Kitieri’s hand to strike the ground as people screamed and fled every which way. Those nearest to her stumbled back in surprise and fear, skirting around to give her a wide berth. Kitieri held her hand closed with the other, buried in her stomach.
“Officer!” Tira cried. “You don’t have a Gadget—you must come inside!”
“I can’t.” Kitieri shook her head and backed away, grappling with the seething lightning as it beat against its bodily cage. If I do, I’ll kill you.
Her lightning flared as the second warning threatened to pull it out of control, and Kitieri doubled over, gasping at the unbearable burn in her arms and chest.
She looked up, horrified to find so many still out on the street searching desperately for shelter. Too many people too far from their homes… and they were all in so much more danger than they realized. The Strike took only one, but she could kill them all if she lost control.
But I won’t.
Kitieri closed her eyes, envisioning the crooked cobblestone right in front of her, where no one stood.
You want to strike something?
She raised her fist, and as the third warning electrified the air, she brought her hand down with a blinding bolt of white lightning. It obliterated the cobblestone, shooting rubble and debris everywhere. Chunks of stone pelted her face and neck, clinging to her still-wet hair, and Kitieri grinned as the element coiled in her hand. Despite the surrounding panic, she felt many pairs of eyes swivel to watch her.
“Ready to work now?” she muttered to her hand. The lightning responded with a pain-free buzz on her fingers.
The Strike’s hateful eye locked on her from above, confident in its kill. She felt its attraction to her element, drawn to her element like a powerful magnet, and she remembered Haldin’s words.
“It’s drawn to you, just like your element is drawn to it. They are different, and yet the same, feeding off each other in a vicious cycle.”
“Different, yet the same,” Kitieri whispered. The Strike gathered its energy, hungry for death. “You can’t have me. I own you!”
The blue bolt roared down, engulfing her in a vortex of pure, unadulterated energy and heat. Even with her eyes shut tight, the brilliance was painful. Her hands shook at her sides, fingers curved to channel the power, and she pushed back against the force pressing down on her.
In an instant, a dark coolness washed over her sweat-drenched body. No sound reached her ears, and she felt as if she was floating on a cloud of black nothing.
I passed out again.
A whisper and the crunch of shoes on rubble filtered through the barrier.
No…
She peeked from one eye, and her senses flooded back to her. She still stood, hunched and panting as a circle of bewildered onlookers stared, unabashed. She forced her back to straighten, uncurling her clenched fingers and releasing the tension in her arms and shoulders as more people emerged from their homes to survey the aftermath. It was a sick habit, but people always looked for the charred body in the wake of a Strike.
Sorry to disappoint.
She turned and caught a glimpse of Tira huddling in her doorframe, one hand clamped over her mouth.
“Remember what I said,” Kitieri told her. “Ask for me.”
Tira nodded vigorously, and Kitieri started back for the Church with a sigh. She couldn’t avoid the place forever. As long as Taff and Jera were there, it was her only home.
The surrounding circle of gawkers parted to make way as hundreds of eyes followed her retreat, their murmurs rising into the chilled air to mingle with the gentle sounds of the rain.
Kitieri paused at the circle of trees that lined Enahris’ Square as her eyes fell on the blackened stones at the foot of the stairs. Her fingers moved unconsciously to the singed hole in the shoulder of her jacket, bared skin still smarting from Jorid’s fiery jab.
“You’re lucky I didn’t fry you,” she muttered. “‘Attempted murder,’ my ass.”
She kicked the crispy remains of the vine as she passed, sending them up in little puffs of ash on the wind. The new guard shift paid her no mind as she crossed the Square to the arched gateway leading into the network of the Church’s yards and outbuildings to retrieve the Gadget she’d left in the training yard.
As she followed the walkway between the high walls, one of the tall metal gates swung open into her path. High-pitched laughter and shouts met her ears, and Kitieri watched a young woman lead a group of children across the path and through another gate. One of the last children in line stopped and turned toward her, and her face lit up.
“Kitieri!” Jera shouted, running for her.
“Hi!” Kitieri dropped down on one knee, scooping her sister into a tight hug. The sweet, familiar scent of her hair as it hit her face pushed the worries from Kitieri’s mind, melting away her anxiety.
“You came to see me!” Jera said, smiling from ear to ear. Kitieri beamed back.
“I just couldn’t stand being away from you.” She tickled her sister’s sides and Jera shrieked, her infectious giggle bouncing off the surrounding walls. “How are the classes?”
Jera’s eyes widened. “I love this place!” she declared. “I got to meet horses today! There’s a gray one named Ashes that really likes me because I fed her carrots. I learned how to brush her, and comb her mane, and—”
“Officer.”
Kitieri snapped her head up, smile fading. Haldin stood in the middle of the walkway, and Jorid lurked behind him with a smug grin.
“Okay, Jera,” Kitieri whispered, resting a hand on her shoulder, “why don’t you go ahead and catch up with your class? I don’t want you to miss anything.”
Jera smiled and threw her arms around Kitieri’s neck. Kitieri held her tight, closing her eyes as she breathed in her scent one more time, before her sister turned and ran after her classmates.
Standing from her kneeling position, Kitieri met Haldin’s stern gaze.
“Come with me,” he said, turning.
Jorid sneered as he turned to follow, and Kitieri glared at the back of his head as Haldin led them through the Church and up the seemingly endless stairs. This kind of climb, she realized, could only mean one thing.
Catarva opened the carved wooden doors at the first knock, and Haldin pulled them closed again as they all moved to stand around the central oblong meeting table. Catarva walked around the far side, bracing both hands on the back of a tall, cushioned chair.
“Welcome, officers,” she said. “You are all here because disturbing news has been brought to my attention.”
“Yes, Baliant.” Jorid bowed before shooting Kitieri a scathing glance. “This girl tried to kill me and two fellow officers—”
“I did not try
to kill you!” Kitieri interrupted, but he raised his voice to speak over her.
“—on Church grounds, with an illegal element. She summoned a bolt of lightning with the intent to murder.”
“Intent?” Kitieri spat. “If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”
“Kitieri.” Haldin shot a hand out toward her, silencing any further rebuttal.
“I have injuries proving this occurrence,” Jorid continued. “Her bolt threw me back against the Church stairs, causing severe lacerations to the head, and there are two witnesses to the scene.”
Kitieri glanced at Haldin before firing back. “Are you going to mention the part where you and your buddies cornered me, held me with an arbor element, and burned me so that I would fight back?”
Jorid glowered at Kitieri.
“You are the one using an illegal element,” he said. “Your kind is far too dangerous to—”
“Jorid, would you please excuse us?”
Catarva’s voice cut through the man’s blustery condemnation like a thread of fine silk, and he fumbled over his last words.
“But, Baliant, I—”
“You will be compensated for your hardships today,” she said.
“I don’t want compensation,” Jorid sputtered. “I want her jailed for this monstrous—”
“Please excuse us.”
Haldin opened the door, leaving Jorid little choice but to storm out in a raging huff. As he closed the door behind him, Haldin put his back to the ornate wood with a long sigh.
“Hells,” he whispered, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“I didn’t try to kill him,” Kitieri repeated, looking between the officer and Catarva.
“We know,” Catarva replied, walking around the table to rest against its edge. “That’s not our greatest concern.”
“It’s not?”
Haldin walked to stand beside the Baliant.
“Why did you leave your PCR in the training yard?” he asked, and Kitieri looked down.
“I didn’t mean to,” she mumbled. “I’m not used to wearing them, and I’m sorry. But I was right about what I said… before my training started.”
Haldin’s brow furrowed. “Kitieri, I told you—”
“I’ve done it twice now,” she said. “I can harness the Strikes, and there is no victim.”
“People could have been killed,” Haldin said. “Leaving your PCR was utterly irresponsible, especially without having the faintest idea how your element will respond to a Strike.”
“I know,” Kitieri snapped. “But I can control it.”
“For now.”
The gravity in Haldin’s tone gave Kitieri pause.
“I told you earlier,” he continued, “your element will only grow more uncontrollable the longer it is out of lock. It is already reacting to your emotions when you’re cornered or stressed, like what happened with Jorid, and it will continue to get worse. Next time, it will kill someone. This is not a game, Kitieri.”
“I know that.” Kitieri looked up. “But today, I saved a life. Someone’s mother or son is still alive because I was there. Shouldn’t we be focusing on that?”
Haldin exchanged a glance with Catarva. “We don’t have that luxury right now,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
Catarva took a step toward her, bringing her palms together and intertwining her long fingers.
“Jorid went to the Board of Advisors before he came to me,” she said. “They are livid that I went around them to bring you on as an officer.”
Haldin rolled his eyes. “Amadora’s just mad she didn’t get to bully you,” he muttered. Catarva threw him a tight side smile before turning a solemn expression on Kitieri.
“But you’re the Baliant,” Kitieri said. “Can’t you do whatever you want?”
“I wish.” Catarva cocked an eyebrow. “My power here is only so absolute. The Board of Advisors has long been in place to keep balance and objectivity in matters of government, and I am often outvoted. Of course, I don’t need permission to hire an officer, but you are a special case. They feel I have undermined their authority in keeping your true nature a secret but, as we know, we did not have days to spare in this matter. Your training had to begin immediately if you were to survive.”
“But now that they know what you are,” Haldin said, “the Board’s attention is focused on you. Jorid made a strong case for your imprisonment today, and they were inclined to agree with him.”
Fear rose in Kitieri’s throat.
“Lightning is a banned practice, after all,” Catarva added.
“But I didn’t hurt anyone,” Kitieri said, glancing between the two.
“And therein lies your saving grace,” Catarva replied. “I was able to talk the Board down from their motion for imprisonment, but you will be under extreme scrutiny now. They are convinced that it is only a matter of time before people start dying at your hands. Any Strike can be your undoing.”
Kitieri winced as the words struck like an open palm across her face. Even as she rebelled inwardly, their truth stung.
With a sharp inhalation, Catarva looked to Haldin with a curt nod. The officer walked to a wide, sturdy chest of drawers under a window, and turned back with five metal hoops dangling from his fingers. The light filtering in through the window’s sheer curtains caught the reddish glint of the bands’ inner linings, and Kitieri stumbled back against the wall.
“No,” she whimpered. Panic coursed through her body as her breathing went fast and shallow, and she glanced to the door handle. Haldin moved to stop her escape, but Catarva put out a hand.
“Wait, Haldin.”
Kitieri turned her head from the door to stare at the Baliant, eyes flicking to Haldin to be sure he stayed back.
“Kitieri, I know what this must feel like,” Catarva started.
“No, you don’t,” Kitieri hissed. “You have no idea what happened last time. I won’t wear one of those again.”
“You don’t have many other options,” Haldin said. His voice was gentle, but his eyes left little room for negotiation. “Oran bands were the only way the Advisors would agree to let you walk free.”
Kitieri watched the metal circles swing from his fingers, taunting her. She saw the silver around Noia’s neck as she cried, and felt the squeeze of the collar around her own throat as the cable pulled it tight. A silent droplet splashed on her jacket, and she realized she was crying.
“I can’t,” she whispered. “I can’t do that.”
Catarva shook her head. “Haldin is right. You must.”
Kitieri’s temper flared, and she turned on the woman. “I didn’t want this. I didn’t want to come here, or work for you, or do any of this. You wanted me here for some reason, and I said yes because you promised my brother and sister a life!”
“They can still have that life,” Catarva said, lifting her head. Kitieri’s breathing hitched, and she swiped at the tears now streaming down her cheeks.
“You said I could leave whenever I wanted,” she ground out.
“You can.” Catarva’s voice lowered as she stepped forward, resting a hand on Kitieri’s arm. “But is that what you want?”
Though tears obscured her vision, Kitieri glanced again to the oran bands on Haldin’s fingers. One was bigger than the others; the collar, no doubt. The other four looked the right size for ankles or wrists, and Kitieri tore her eyes away as Catarva’s soft voice called her attention back.
“I understand that you went through something truly traumatic at the Church of Histan,” she said. “And for that I am deeply sorry. I know it is difficult to see now, but Haldin and I want the opposite for you. We want your freedom as much as you do, but in order for that to happen we need to buy enough time for you to get your element under control. The oran bands can do that.”
“They won’t work.” Kitieri shook her head. “It didn’t work at Histan’s Church, and it won’t work now.”
“They’re not meant to completely suppress your li
ghtning,” Haldin explained. “They are just to keep it manageable until you can get a handle on it and recreate that suppression naturally. The bands will minimize… accidents.”
“They will keep you and your family safer,” Catarva added.
Kitieri frowned, turning a skeptical eye on her. “Let me ask this, then,” she said. “Why are you suddenly so concerned about my safety when you didn’t even know I existed until last night?”
Catarva and Haldin exchanged an unreadable look, and Kitieri’s frown deepened.
“If you want to put those things on me, I have a right to know what’s going on.”
Catarva sighed. “You’re right. I didn’t know you existed yesterday because you were still locked until your experience at the pillar. I told you at dinner that your appearance here presented quite the opportunity—one that goes both ways.”
Kitieri narrowed her eyes. “Are you going to make me solve a riddle?”
Catarva pursed her lips.
“We need each other,” she said. “You need my protection and Haldin’s training to survive, and I need a way to harness the lightning.”
“For what?” Kitieri snapped. “You have everything you could ever need here. You don’t have to walk home from work every day without protection, waiting for your turn to die. You never even have to step foot outside, so what would you need with my lightning?”
Catarva stared, unprovoked, even as something sparked behind her amber eyes.
“There is much you do not yet understand, Kitieri,” she said quietly. “The Church of Enahris is under attack from all sides.”
“All sides?” Kitieri asked. “Isn’t it just the Church of Histan?”
Curiosity flashed across the Baliant’s fine features as she tilted her head. “You are aware of our brother Church’s transgressions against us?”
“I heard the red officers talking,” she replied. “They mentioned the fall of the Church of Enahris so that Shirasette could reach its full glory.”
Catarva took in a long breath. “Unfortunately, that is only one of the fights we face, and the lesser one at that.”
“What else, then?”
“I know you’ve felt it,” Catarva said. “Even with your element locked, you can’t tell me that you haven’t felt the lightning growing stronger.”