by Rachel Rener
“C’est comme utiliser une tronçonneuse pour hacher des carottes,” I heard one of the villagers whisper to another. “It's like using a chainsaw to chop carrots.”
Suffice it to say, none of us were in great spirits when we arrived at the Paris Chapter the following morning, where Mei was presently giving a recorded speech to formally condemn the mounting Elemental attacks happening around the world. Her remarks were being live-streamed to every Asterian Chapter on the planet. Once she was finished, Ori and Kaylie would give their own prepared statements to the Chapters before kicking off their very first live-streamed debate that afternoon. The timing of that debate was politically necessary given recent events, but it was terrible timing for our bedraggled team of six. We were tired, frustrated, and feeling defeated. The attacks – particularly the massacre in Japan – had left us frightened, traumatized, and, in Ori’s case, physically injured. As if all of that wasn’t enough, a strange awkwardness had permeated the group, which amplified the overall crankiness factor: Savannah and Aspen seldom even acknowledged one another; Aiden and Ori exchanged very few words, most of which were clipped and tense; and the most surprising part of all – Aiden and Aspen’s rock-solid relationship appeared strained, while Savannah and Aiden, two sworn, longtime enemies, seemed… well, not warm and friendly. But not cold and bitter, either. It was all very perplexing. And volatile. It felt as though one mistimed sneeze might send the entire group into chaos.
And so, it was that particularly tense morning that would set the tone for Ori’s forthcoming debate later that afternoon. After a hurried brunch of coffee and croissants, we’d all crammed into one of the chapter’s small, windowless meeting rooms several stories below ground. The chairs were stiff-backed and uncomfortable. The round table was slightly too small so we were all crammed around it. And poor Ori was practically sweating through the top of his head as he stood at the podium, addressing a stuffy room of supporters and friends who were hurling rapid-fire questions and responses at him to help him prepare for the live debate. However, some of those questions didn’t feel very supportive. Or friendly.
“It would seem, Mr. Levitan,” Daichi, Mei’s head of security, addressed Ori, “that you are woefully under informed when it comes to Chapter security protocols.” Even though he was pretending to be Kaylie, his tone seemed genuinely exasperated.
“Probably best to avoid that topic, Ori-san,” Kumiko added helpfully.
“Okay, okay, I’m making a note,” Ori gritted his teeth as he scrawled something on his notepad. He cleared his throat for the third time. “Okay, so, moving on… Um, regarding the recent wave of hate-fueled Elemental attacks, I think—”
“Attacks?” Aiden repeated. He, too, was aggressively pretending to be Ori’s political adversary. “What evidence do you have to prove that these were so-called ‘attacks?’ How do you know our members weren’t simply acting in self-defense?”
Ori shuffled uncomfortably.
“Would Kaylie actually say that?” Eileen asked, leaning forward. “I mean, it just seems crazy to me to take such an extreme stance. Why risk her entire campaign to appeal to a small, angry minority?”
“Because this ‘angry minority’ is gaining traction,” Savannah replied from across the table. She was seated at Aiden’s left and had been unusually quiet up until that point. “When the news of the attacks broke, we didn’t get the unanimous angry uproar that you were all betting on, did we? Kaylie’s own supporters – who are growing in number every day, I might add – are voicing their support for the attackers even as they’re being accused of murder by Mei’s administration.”
“I hate to say it but she’s right,” Aiden remarked, his expression somber. “Even though most Chapters are condemning the violence, there’s a growing faction of Asterians who are saying that these vigilantes are doing the right thing, that it’s high time someone stood up for the Community.”
“By killing people?” Aspen challenged. She was sitting between Ori’s podium and myself, her hands clenched beneath the table.
“Not the killing, per se, but the rhetoric and desperation behind it.” Aiden didn’t quite meet her eye as he answered. “Robert tells me that op-eds are cropping up all over the Asterian archives. It’s a growing sentiment, one that’s both contentious and emotionally-charged. And you’d better believe Kaylie is going to take full advantage of that.”
I glanced at poor Ori, still recuperating from his own traumatic injury in what had been an obvious, targeted attack. That he’d actually have to debate something so deplorable, so nonsensical… Not to mention the fact that he’d be doing it in his second language, against his ex-girlfriend of all people.
“Right,” Ori muttered, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His normally olive-colored skin looked oddly pale beneath the growing sheen of sweat dotting his forehead. “Okay. Well, this clearly wasn’t a matter of self-defense, which I can personally ‘voucher’ for. The non-Elementalists who were killed were murdered in cold blood—”
“Cold blood?” Aiden raised his eyebrow. “A trial hasn’t been set until next month – haven’t Elementalists been marginalized enough throughout human history without their own ministerial candidate siding with machine-gun-wielding gangsters—”
“Stop.” Ori held up a hand, his eyes closed. “Just give me a minute. Please.”
I frowned. I knew Aiden didn’t believe a word he was saying, but he was doing such a good job of playing Devil’s Advocate. Too good of a job. And Ori was looking paler by the second. This topic was clearly psychologically triggering for him, perhaps in more ways than one.
Aiden scowled. “This is a debate, Ori. You can’t just ask for a time-out!”
“Just give me a minute!”
“Aiden,” Aspen interjected. “Change the subject.”
He gave her a long, steady look while I went back to studying Ori. Visibly upset, his hands were gripping the edges of the podium so hard his knuckles had turned white. A bead of sweat dripped down his forehead, which I stealthily cast away without anyone noticing. The goofy and laid-back guy I’d gotten so used to over the years looked like he was on the brink of a panic attack. What in the world was going on? I wondered if Aspen had merely sensed his distress or was perhaps aware of something we weren’t.
Eileen reached for my hand under the table. The tension must have been getting to her as well. “How about we skip past the attacks and talk about the whole us-versus-them narrative that we know Kaylie’s gonna spin?” she suggested, her worried gaze shifting from me to Aiden.
Ori cast her a grateful look.
“Alright,” Aiden finally replied, leaning back in his chair.
“Maybe I should take over—” Aspen began, but Aiden didn’t hear her. Or maybe he just pretended not to.
“Mr. Levitan, if you don’t believe that our Community comes first, then where exactly does it come? Second? Third? How many organizations and individuals do you wish to protect before you start protecting your own flesh and blood, right here, in this room?”
Ori faltered for the briefest moment. “Well, firstly, I never said that our own Asterian Community shouldn’t be our top priority. I just said that we can’t make a complex situation like this as black and white or us versus them.” He glanced down at his notes, his hands trembling. “One life, one person’s rights, isn’t worth more than another’s… And it’s a very, uhh… what’s this word?” he asked, squinting at one of his notecards. “Noo-ants?”
“Nuanced?” Aspen offered.
“Yeah, a noo-anced topic that deserves careful consideration—”
“This is just more political waffling and evasion,” Aiden interrupted, waving a dismissive hand. “It’s clear that my opponent doesn’t give a rat’s ass about this Community or anyone else in this room except himself.”
My eyes trained on Aiden’s, where I was surprised to find genuine anger simmering. He was twirling a marble-sized ball of Fire between his fingers, the tips of which were drumming the
table. This definitely didn’t feel like practice. Nor did it feel hypothetical.
“Aiden!” Aspen interjected again, clearly exasperated. “Would you please stop being so aggressive? We’re supposed to be helping him, not attacking him!”
“It’s true, Aiden-san,” Kumiko chimed in, her gentle voice startling me. She and Daichi had grown very quiet as the rest of our group became louder and more agitated. “We must show Ori-san our support and cheer ganbatte for his success!”
Aiden folded his arms across his chest. “Why? Because Kaylie’s going to be so accommodating and patient up there?”
“Aiden’s absolutely right,” Savannah interjected, eliciting an audible growl from Aspen. “She’s going to be all over Ori, trying to make it sound like he’s a traitor and willing to put the needs of the rest of the world before his own people.”
“I’m not putting anyone else’s needs first!” Ori retorted, banging his fist as he did. The sound made me jump. “Least of all my own!”
“Now tell us something we might actually believe,” Aiden muttered. I don’t think it was meant to be heard by the rest of us, but Ori’s jaw visibly clenched. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as ionized particles filled the room; the flames entwining Aiden’s fingers heated from orange to white. I tensed, readying myself to counter a potential attack – fortunately, Wind and Water are wonderful buffers against both Fire and Lightning. But that needed to be a final line of defense, not a preface.
“Gentlemen,” I said, rising from my seat. The gentle touch of Wind swirled around my forearms and fingers. “Maybe we should all get some fresh air and give Ori some space to get his thoughts back in order.”
“Why?” Savannah remarked. “Kaylie’s not going to give him that luxury.”
“Would you just stop?” Aspen snapped. “Give the poor guy a break.”
“Just kill me now,” Ori muttered as he shuffled his papers in order.
“I second Sophia,” Eileen added, rising to stand beside me, “I am in serious need of a bathroom break. Let’s everyone take fifteen, okay? Or maybe twenty, if you haven’t had your daily dose of fiber yet today.”
I smiled. Eileen – always the valiant, grounding force.
After muttering their agreement, the rest of the table stood, save for Aspen. She watched in silence as Ori rushed out of the room, followed by Aiden, whose hands were shoved in his pockets. As the others shuffled out behind them, the tension was so palpable you could almost taste it.
“Do you need anything?” Eileen asked, giving my shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “I know you love those chocolate croissant thingies that they have in the lobby. What are they called? Pan-o-chocolate?”
I laughed at her terrible pronunciation. “It’s pain au chocolat – and that sounds amazing. Thanks, love.”
“Aspen? Anything?”
She shook her head. Eileen’s eyebrows narrowed and I understood why. Aspen’s skin was noticeably paler than usual, and her cheeks looked drawn. Something told me that there was more to that than politics.
“Okay… well, I’ll be back in a bit,” Eileen said, giving my cheek a quick kiss.
After the door to the meeting room shut, I took my seat again and bit my lip. There were so many things I wanted to say and ask, but would my prying help? Or would it stress her out further, knowing that I could see how anxious she was?
“I’m okay,” she replied, reading my mind. Perhaps literally. At what must have been a startled look on my face, she met my eyes and smiled. “Sorry. I can just feel your worry.”
“I gather you’re facing some difficulties?” I ventured.
“Honestly… everything’s a mess right now. And it’s all my fault.”
“Your fault?” I repeated. “How so?”
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, her eyes closed. Was she debating something? Eileen mentioned that she’d tried talking to Aspen about the weird group vibe several times in Shirakawa-go, but to no avail. I certainly didn’t want to press if she hadn’t felt comfortable talking to Eileen, who was so much better than me at this sort of thing.
“Sophia… I messed up.”
That didn’t sound good at all. Nor did it sound like Aspen. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Would you take a walk with me?” she asked, grabbing her leather jacket.
“Of course.”
We left the meeting room and took the stairs up and past the extravagant underground lobby above, where several paintings that I could have sworn belonged in the Louvre were hanging in high alcoves with gold-plated trim and crown molding. The actual entrance of the new Paris Chapter was up one level, the back door of a functional patisserie that was staffed entirely by Asterians – hence the delicious breakfast pastries in the lobby. The Chapter took up a whole city block with all Asterian business occurring belowground, a functioning, income-generating café and secret entrance on the street level, and apartment buildings above where most of the chapter workers and visitors were housed. The design worked quite well since the entire neighborhood, Montparnasse, was comprised of fancy limestone façade buildings that also had businesses on the first floor and apartments nested above that.
That morning, the café was surprisingly devoid of members, a nice change after last night’s Pentamancer-fueled mob, so we were able to walk right through without being stopped. Outside, the Parisian air was crisp and cool, more like autumn than winter. We strolled along the quiet street, the top of the towering Montparnasse building to our north and the tip of the Eiffel Tower just visible in the distance. The smells of pastries tickled my nose as I took in a deep breath, filling my lungs with the fresh breeze I’d been craving for hours. It seemed like Aspen felt the same way.
We walked in silence for some time, arm in arm, admiring the Haussmannian-style buildings of the neighborhood and inhaling the soul-warming smells of the city – minus the cigarette particles that lingered on the air, which I happily filtered out with a twirl of my fingers. As we came to the end of the street, we stopped and stared at the magnificent crown of the Eiffel Tower rising above the low buildings and bare trees. This was, perhaps, the closest we’d get to it during our limited, underground visit to Paris.
“So… Ori kissed me.”
I turned to gape at Aspen, doing everything I could to stifle a gasp.
“Aiden knows. The whole thing is an absolute mess and I have no one to blame but myself.”
I struggled to find a suitable response. Ori had kissed her? Thank goodness Eileen wasn’t there at that moment; she’d probably keel over and die at the magnitude of this revelation. I took an extra moment to compose myself before answering. “Did you ask Ori to kiss you?”
“Definitely not.”
I frowned. “Then I don’t understand why you think it’s your fault?”
Aspen sat down on a nearby bench and I did the same. Her face looked absolutely crestfallen, so I put an arm around her shoulders like Eileen always did for me.
“Last week, I walked into Ori’s hotel room, unannounced. He wasn’t answering when I knocked and the music was playing so loudly… and, somehow, at the time, I thought the topic was important enough to let myself in…” She took another deep, shuddering breath. “He’d been showering – hardly had time to put a towel on before I turned the corner. It was so stupid of me, really. I should have left right then and there.”
I bit my lip. I knew how much she loved Aiden – and how very much he loved her back – and this story was making me anxious for her.
“Anyway, he instructed me to stay, said it was no big deal… but oh, Sophia, the thoughts he was blaring from that thick skull of his.”
“Thoughts?”
“Of the, um… R-rated variety.”
“Oh.” I felt my cheeks warm. Ori was colorful enough when he spoke out loud. I couldn’t imagine – didn’t want to imagine – the things that went on in the squally tumult of his own private mind.
“I did everything I could not to listen, to t
une them out. But it’s so much harder with Electromancers. Electricity surrounds us, broadcasting our thoughts and emotions on a level that makes ignoring them harder than hearing them. And Ori’s my friend, we’ve been through so much, so his mind’s frequency is so familiar and…” She gulped loudly enough for me to hear even over the distant sounds of horns and traffic. “He’s had these feelings for me for so long… I thought they’d finally gone away when he was with Kaylie, but I think he’d just repressed them.”
“I understand,” I replied. And I did. The whole thing sounded terrible. But I still didn’t understand how any of this was her fault, apart from letting herself in his room.
“Anyway, it was so loud and so uncomfortable that I finally had to acknowledge the elephant in the room.”
“Oh,” I blinked. “That must have been really awkward. But, honestly, what else could you do?”
“I could have left!” she covered her face with her hands, and I could see the tips of her ears turning pinker. “Or given him a healthy dose of ‘nuh-uh, ain’t happening.’ But instead of telling him what he needed to hear, I…” she bit her lip as tears began to fill her eyes.
“Hey, it’s okay.” I squeezed her shoulder gently. “Take your time.”
“I… I told him the truth. That I cared about him deeply. That I even find him attractive…” she trailed off, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her hands.
At that moment, I recognized her deep compassion at play. But I saw something else as well: the distinct possibility that she’d gotten swept up in all those Electromantic signals running through her brain in Ori’s hotel room. Instead of fighting the wave, she let herself get carried away by it. It was something that frequently happened to Electromantic Empaths… particularly the ones who were highly-attuned to the needs of others.