The Lightning Conjurer

by Rachel Rener

  Every muscle in my body tensed. I glanced over at Aspen who was staring down at her hands grimly. “So? When can we leave?” I demanded. “Shouldn’t we be getting on a train? Or even better, a jet? Why are we even still here? We can discuss the details on the way!”

  “Ori—” Mei started.

  I stood from my seat. “Have you sent a team there in the, the… the in-between time? Some of my friends from the IDF are still in Tokyo. We can bring them here and plan a rescue—”

  “Ori,” Mei said firmly. “Please. Sit.”

  I stared at her in confusion but did as she asked.

  “There have been reports of violence.”

  “At the village?”

  “Ori, shut up and listen,” Aspen snapped. My insides knotted. She’d never used that angry tone with me before. Ever.

  “Before we can address the situation in Shirakawa-go, we may have more pressing matters to deal with here in Tokyo,” Mei continued. “I know that this is not what you want to hear, however there have been reports of violence around the world. As Kaylie’s message has begun spreading through the Order, the whispers and stirrings have been growing louder. She has given the silent minority a megaphone, a conduit through which they can air and amplify their grievances with the rest of the world.”

  “Kusss-emec,” I muttered, shaking my head. I knew Kaylie had become radicalized. Also jealous, angry, and resenting of non-Elementalists. But I’d never seen a violent side to her, not once in four years. Did she know her speeches would have this kind of effect on her followers? Or was this thing just spinning out of control?

  “This sort of thing has happened before, hasn’t it?” Aspen asked, chewing on her nail. “I once heard Aiden and Robert discussing the second World War – how most of the Order was content to let the rest of the world burn itself down. Robert later told me that certain Asterians were even rooting for it.”

  Mei nodded. “It’s true, Elemental supremacism is not a new belief system. It has been around since the dawn of Elementalism, in all of its various expressions. Usually, it’s limited to talk and rhetoric. From time to time, we see individuals like Jahi and Keres taking a stand and renouncing our way of life in the shadows. But seldom do we ever see Elementalists act on such impulses. When they do, those individuals are quickly Contained. Today, we are seeing something… unprecedented. There have been several organized attacks against non-Elementalists between yesterday and today, across half a dozen cities worldwide. Twenty-six people have been killed.”

  “No!” Aspen gasped.

  I sucked in a deep breath. “How do we know that it was Asterians?”

  “Because the deaths were not natural. The indications of Elemental force were there. Our Containment units were able to dispatch quickly to either clean up the scene or make it look acceptable—”

  “Acceptable?” Aspen asked.

  “Using carbon monoxide poisoning, for example, to mask Auromantic suffocation.”

  Aspen’s face turned white. For me, unfortunately, the tactic was all too familiar. Not that anyone at the table knew anything about my prior life. Well, Mei probably did.

  “Furthermore, and this is the most disturbing aspect – a symbol was either carved or spray-painted at every site, like a calling card. A symbol we’ve quickly connected to this growing body of supremacists.”

  “The same one that was on the signs at the rally?” Aspen whispered.

  Mei nodded as she retrieved a piece of paper from her shirt pocket. “Here,” she said, placing the paper in the center of the table. A dark symbol stared back at me. A dark symbol I’d recognized. It was the same symbol that Kaylie had recently tattooed on the back of her neck, visible only on the rare occasion when she wore her hair up:

  I never knew the meaning of it before. Now I did.

  “This symbol has been popping up all over the world,” Mei said quietly. “I fear it is being used as a scare tactic.”

  My mouth was too dry to speak.

  Someone knocked on the door. A moment later, a man in a suit entered. He was in his thirties, almost as tall as me, and had ink-black hair.

  “Ito-san, thank you so much for joining us,” Mei said as she stood. “Ori Levitan, Rowan Fulman, this is the Tokyo Chapter’s Head of Security and Containment, Ito Daichi. He has urgent news to share with us.”

  “Hajimemashite.” The man gave a short bow. “Please, you can call me Daichi. Ah, Saitō-sama, as I have informed you on my way here, there have been reports of gunshots sounding in two yakuza-operated bars in Shinjuku alongside confirmed Elemental strikes – quite powerful ones, according to our team.”

  “Sorry, but did you say yakuza?” I asked. “As in, the Japanese mafia?”

  “Hai,” he replied grimly. “One site has been abandoned – no casualties to speak – but there were shots heard at a neighboring bar moments ago. Tokyo Police are clearing civilians from the area, and our own Containment unit is on the way to escort the officers themselves out. We have been caught very short-handed as we’ve already sent half of our Containment team to Hong Kong to help with the situation there.”

  “How can we help?” Aspen asked without even pausing to consider. Because of course she would.

  “Pentamansā-sama,” Daichi bowed again.

  “Rowan is fine.”

  I wasn’t sure why that icy stone suddenly appeared again until I realized: only her closest friends called her Aspen these days. What if I wasn’t a close friend anymore? Would I have to start calling her Rowan like everyone else?

  Daichi blinked in surprise but quickly recovered. “Of course, Rowan. I was about to say that normally I would not allow you to place yourself in such a dangerous situation. But I am afraid we urgently require your help. We only have one Empathic Electromancer on site, and we must wipe the memories of dozens of officers and civilians at the scene for their own safety.”

  “Then we can’t sit around and wait,” she replied.

  “What about Aiden? Eileen?” I demanded. “Are we just gonna cross our fingers and pray for them?”

  “We do not know for certain that they are in trouble or need assistance,” Mei replied. “A team is working to establish their location and status as we speak.”

  Aspen’s mouth pressed into a line. “Mei – after we assist Daichi and his team, I would like for you to arrange transport for us to get to Shirakawa-go as soon as possible. Will that be feasible?”

  “Hai,” the minister nodded, gesturing toward one of her attendants. “All will be taken care of, Rowan-san. I will have my assistants arrange transport in the meantime.”

  I squeezed my eyes closed. Elementalists I could deal with. Walls of Fire, bolts of Lightning, no problem. But guns? Guns brought terrible memories with them. Like the last time I fired a gun six years ago. Noam, Levi, Talia and I had made our way into that underground weapons facility in Lebanon in the middle of the night. It was supposed to be deserted after the Americans carried out a drone strike. Except it wasn’t. A handful of young Hezbollah soldiers were there. The oldest one couldn’t have been more than seventeen years old. These were not Elementalists. They weren’t even experienced soldiers. They were boys who barely knew how to hold a gun. But the oldest ones fired when we approached. And the four of us… we had no choice but to defend ourselves. So many bullets. So much blood. Levi never made it home. His parents never knew how he died. That’s why guys like me were perfect for that sort of thing. No parents. No children. Only my aunt, who had the beginnings of dementia anyway. She wouldn’t even remember if I never came home.

  “Ori!” Aspen shook my shoulder roughly. “Come on. We have to go.”

  I stared at her stupidly, my brain working but my mouth frozen. I could have told her about my fears right then and there. Mentioned my history, maybe even the PTSD I’d been diagnosed with. She would have understood, of course. In fact, she’d almost certainly tell me to stay back. But I couldn’t leave her. Not when Daichi said our own numbers were so low. Not with trigger-happy ya
kuza around, not to mention violent supremacists. I’d dealt with guys from the mafia before. Different county, same story. There was no way I was going to chicken out now.

  I flashed Aspen a tight smile. “Yeah. I’m right behind you.”

  Chapter 12

  hinjuku was thirteen minutes away from Shibuya crossing. The way Daichi sped down the road and between cars, it was more like nine or ten. This part of Tokyo didn’t look much different from Shibuya. Lots of tall buildings, too many flashing signs and lights, a long walking bridge that stretched over the busy intersection. Except the narrow street we turned on was totally empty. Daichi, a Level-two Terramancer, and his assistant security officer – a Level-two Hydromancer named Bo – led us down a narrow alleyway behind a Pachinko arcade. There, a group of maybe twenty people stood huddled together. They didn’t look happy.

  As we got closer, I realized they weren’t huddling. They looked kind of squashed together. A young Japanese girl – seriously, she looked like she was a teenager – stood a few feet away from them. She was leaning her head against the bricks and looked bored even though several of her hostages were shouting at her. At least, it looked like they were shouting. But I couldn’t hear them. Next to her was an older white guy with his arms crossed. He was looking past us, toward the end of the alleyway that faced the street, and was frowning intently. Kind of like he hadn’t gone to the bathroom in a long time.

  When Daichi and his team approached the two of them, I looked around nervously. I didn’t hear any gunshots or see any sign of a fight. The alleyway was empty and quiet. No blood. No bullet casings. No exit, either, except for a tall brick wall at the other end that had a steel door embedded in it. Unlike the rest of Shinjuku, it had no windows and no big flashing sign above it. Just a piece of wood above the door with a single Kanji character carved into it.

  Daichi said something to the young Japanese woman and the guy, glanced nervously at the squished group of silently yelling people, and then turned back to us. “This is Hina and Frank. They work on my team. Rowan, Frank is an Empathic Electromancer like yourself, however he’s focusing his energy on keeping the alleyway clear.”

  I knew it wasn’t the time, but I just had to ask. “How’s he doing that?”

  Daichi turned toward me. “He’s giving anyone who passes a powerful feeling of fear and dread. It makes them hurry by without wanting to pause and look.”

  “That is so cool,” I whispered to myself.

  “Rowan,” Daichi continued, “I understand you aren’t a fan of Mnemonic Manipulation, but we need to get these civilians away from here.”

  She took a deep breath, then nodded. “If it’s strictly for their safety, that’s the most important thing.”

  He led her over to the group and I followed. As soon as we approached them, Hina made a small movement with her hand. Suddenly, I could hear all of their angry shouts loud and clear. An Auromantic sound barrier. That must have meant she was using Wind to bind them together like rope. That took some crazy talent to do all of that at once while chewing bubblegum.

  Daichi leaned in towards Aspen. “We need the civilians to leave and forget what happened here. But please leave the police officers.”

  She nodded and then closed her eyes, her face scrunching into concentration since she was both rusty and uncomfortable with this type of morally-fuzzy Electromancy. But after a moment, the hair on the back of my neck stood and the smell of Lightning filled the alley. One by one the people stopped yelling and turned to look at her. As usual, I stared at her in amazement. Rusty or not, her Electromantic abilities were greater than anyone I’d ever seen, except maybe Barish. His abilities had been almost beyond belief.

  I couldn’t “hear” what Aspen was telling the group of people. Part of me worried that she might hurt them, since I understood that Electromantically affecting memories could be a painful process. I witnessed her suffer through that myself. But their faces were calm. The civilians’ anyway. The cops looked like they were gonna plotz.

  After another moment, Aspen opened her eyes and turned to Hina. “Hina, you can release the civilians now. They’ll be on their way.”

  The girl nodded and one by one the people broke away from their silent Wind prison. Quiet and peaceful as they seemed, they had odd looks on their faces as they left the alleyway.

  “What did you tell them? Daichi asked.

  “That they accidentally turned onto this alley a few seconds ago after making a wrong turn and thought it was really boring and had an odd smell.”

  I felt the corners of my mouth twitch into a grin. “I myself would have gone with face-eating zomb—”

  The sound of gunfire cracked through the air. My arm reached for Aspen and yanked her to the ground with me. Hazy white spots were floating in front of my eyes and my heart was pounding so hard my chest hurt. Cold sweat started dripping down my back. Aspen was saying something to me but I couldn’t hear her over the loud ringing sound in my ears.

  “Hina!” Daichi shouted over the noise. “I need a sound barrier!”

  The girl nodded, then turned her attention to the end of the alleyway.

  Finally, the ringing stopped and Aspen’s voice yanked me from my panic. “Ori! Are you okay?” She was shaking me by the shoulders again. “The shooting is happening inside. Not here.”

  I just stared at her wordlessly.

  “Oh, Ori,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry. What can I—”

  I held up a hand and shook my head. Not the time. Not the place. Not her problem.

  Daichi extended a hand to Aspen and pulled her up. I stayed sitting on the ground since I wasn’t totally sure my legs would let me stand. “Rowan, we need to get these officers to keep civilians away. Hina can maintain the sound barrier even from inside the building but Frank’s abilities don’t extend that far. I need him with us, and the officers standing guard outside.”

  “Right.” Aspen focused her attention on the three cops who were staring at us with maybe even more terror than I felt. After a moment, she closed her eyes and nodded at them. They nodded back, then walked over to the mouth of the alley.

  “They won’t move until I tell them to, although they will run if there’s imminent danger,” Aspen explained. “I made sure of that.”

  Daichi nodded. “Bo, Frank, behind me. Rowan and Ori, stay behind them. Hina, can you keep a sound barrier against the door and provide us anterior shielding at the same time?”

  The girl blew a bright pink bubble as she nodded.

  “Then, please, lead the way.”

  As the rest of the group walked toward the door, Aspen knelt beside me. “Ori,” she whispered again. “You absolutely don’t have to come. You can stay out here with the officers.”

  I choked out a laugh. “Stay out here? And miss all the fun? No way. I was just resting. Come on. Just stay behind me.”

  She looked like she had more to say but I didn’t wait around to listen. Instead, I jogged ahead, repeating the mantra my doctor taught me to repeat during panic moments like these: I am safe. I am in control. These feelings will pass. Except, of course, I wasn’t safe, I wasn’t in control, and these feelings weren’t going anywhere.

  I repeated the mantra anyway as I followed Frank down the stairs and into the underground mafia bar. Four steps in and the smell of blood hit my nose all at once. I kept waiting for more shots, for someone to leap in front of us with an AR-15. But it was dead quiet as we descended. At the bottom of the stairs was another steel door, this one with a tiny window. Bright red blood was splattered on the cracked glass. Daichi raised his fist in the universal “hold” sign as Hina slowly opened the door. The absurdity of that hit me. Why the hell was a tiny young thing like her at the front of the group? My breaths were coming fast and shallow now.

  “Hina’s extremely powerful,” Aspen whispered. “I don’t think I could stop a barrage of bullets with Wind alone. But she can.”

  Great. Aspen was so worried about me she was tapping into my thoughts now. Just w
hat I needed after what happened back at the hotel. Ugh. I quickly forced the humiliating thought from my mind. I am safe. I am in control. I am safe. I am in control. I am safe—

  Daichi kicked the door open. My chest collapsed in on itself like a dying neutron star. I expected a barrage of bullets. Waited for the four people standing in front of me to thud to the ground, their bodies covered in holes and drenched in blood. A tiny voice in my mind reminded me that no matter what happened, I had to get Aspen out of there safely at all costs. All costs.

  But nothing happened. Daichi and Hina disappeared into the shadowy bar, followed by Bo and Frank. I took the deepest breath that I could and followed, making sure Aspen was right behind me. I would have to shove her in the opposite direction if anything went wrong, possibly use my body to shield her. Better to keep her in the narrow staircase as long as possible so I could block anyone who tried to follow. I rehearsed the moves over and over in my head so my body could move on autopilot even if my brain got stuck in frozen trauma zone.

  I am safe. I am in control.

  Once we got to the doorway, the metallic stench of blood hit me even harder. In the darkness, I saw Levi’s lifeless, bloody body in Lebanon. Saw armed, frightened teenagers who should have been at home playing videogames. I blinked the images away, shook my head to clear them. I didn’t want to walk through that door. But I had to. I wouldn’t abandon her.

  I am safe. I am in control.

  As I entered the bar, my eyes couldn’t even get used to the darkness before a rough hand pushed me backwards. It was Frank’s. He held his arm behind his back like he didn’t want me to pass. I should have turned around right then and gotten Aspen out of there. But I didn’t. Like an idiot, I pushed against his hand and peered over his shoulder. And then I saw them. The bodies – at least ten of them. They were yakuza, that much I could tell. Regular Japanese citizens didn’t have tattoos running down their necks and arms. Those bodies lay on the floor like they were sleeping, no signs of cuts or bruises. Suffocated by Wind. But the other bodies… some were charred and mangled. Burned by Fire. Some were dry and shriveled with skin that stuck to bones like dried leather. Desiccated by Water.