by E. L. Aldryc
“Dangerous stuff?”
“Don’t,” Soraya said to Frederich, but this didn’t stop him.
“Breaking into places, hiding data, messing with the AI logs. We used to do all kinds of things back when Adriel was still here.”
Was he joking? Elodie turned back to face Soraya, who glared at them both.
“And you never even told me about it?” Elodie asked.
“Yeah, you’re welcome,” Soraya replied.
This was it. Elodie took the silver ball. She felt the current.
“Wait, let me explain,” Soraya said.
Nope, not this time.
The current was ready, and patient. Elodie crushed the silver ball with her fingers and sat down on Seravina’s chair. Eyes closed, she focused.
At first, the response was lacklustre. Elodie tried to focus harder, slowly feeling that the distance she built between herself and the current was diminishing.
But she felt the charge, as if she were boosted by as if something made her more centred, and she could feel a weak lead. The activity was paragonstic, but the only logical approach Elodie could think of was to sift through everything that ever was or would be. The farther it took her from the root reality, the more she felt fear creeping in. She wasn’t ready. She didn’t even know what a wrong move would do. She was going farther and farther away from her body, feeling cold, but there was no slowing down. Something brought her to a stop, and Elodie was overwhelmed by a chaos of words and numbers. As she tried to calm down, they began forming a sequence.
And Elodie had to bring it back, whatever it was.
The here. The now. The root reality. And painfully, she pulled back towards it.
“Two hundred and twenty-six thousand. Left point, zed axis. Four hundred and one. Section B. There should be a pi in the middle,” she said, and then, it went dark. Not even the current. Just dark.
It’s a New World, Baby
Wednesday, 26 June 2363
Elodie woke up in MediMundus with a skull-splitting headache.
“Water,” she whispered, and before she even looked, a hand led her fingers to a glass.
“Drink,” Soraya said, and oh no, all the memories rushed in.
She did it. Did she do it?
“Did I do it?” Elodie warmed up her voice.
“Let’s talk about it at home,” Soraya replied. She looked around the room as if she were looking for spies behind a curtain. So dramatic.
“It’s a simple question.”
“If you’re asking whether Tammy now thinks that I broke the tola and gave her the info to fix it after two hours of catastrophe, then yes, you did it. Tola is fixed. We located the error, lucky us. I tried to explain to her that we just looked at some maintenance reports and made a very educated guess. But you know what the gifted are like. They only believe in destiny if they’re the ones controlling it.”
If Elodie understood this right, Soraya had lied about what happened. Elodie remembered the string of numbers and letters. They must have been a hint to where the error was.
“But that’s not—”
“The doctor said you can leave as soon as you’re awake,” Soraya cut in. “The gifted told me not to worry, that it’s probably just an adverse reaction to the blackout. What a relief.”
“I don’t understand.”
It wasn’t just the headache. Soraya was even more on edge than during the tola failure.
“If you let me take you home, I’ll fill you in on everything.”
As if that had ever happened.
“Why don’t you start now?” Elodie demanded. Soraya got up and changed the windows to show the outside of the Institute. It was early evening. Everything looked normal. People were taking breaks, and their open holographic apps danced around them in the setting sun.
“We still don’t know what caused the tola failure, and the gifted are in the middle of a group nervous breakdown. Because the blackout is still on.”
This was disastrous news, which explained why Soraya couldn’t stop smiling.
Elodie got her thoughts in order while they drove, and as soon as they parked on the terrace, she kicked off.
“Why did you tell Tammy you got the solution?” If she could slam the terrace door, she would. Like this, it just re-materialised sassily.
“I’m not sure what they’d do to you if they knew. I want you to make the decision of whether you tell them or not.”
“Typical!” Elodie threw her bag on the floor and went for the fridge. She was starving. “You couldn’t even let me shine for once.”
There was nothing to eat. That angered her even more.
“And what’s this whole thing with you and Frederich going on secret adventures at the Institute? What, am I so useless I wasn’t even allowed to know?”
Soraya waited by the door.
“Frederich is a danger to himself and others. He’s a different kind of alchemist, and he’s open to change. Seravina thought if we helped him gain influence in Reijin, he could eventually become a counterweight to Dr Birkelund. Who, you know, is impossible to reason with. A few favours were exchanged. Nothing special.”
In the absence of food, Elodie helped herself of one of Soraya’s custom blended juices that were “completely off limits”.
“Nothing special. So you’re telling me that even while I desperately wanted to get involved with something meaningful, something like you just mentioned, you kept it a secret?”
“I don’t think you understand the extent of stress I saved you,” Soraya replied.
“You just don’t understand anything, do you?” Elodie said.
It had taken them less than an hour to start fighting again. Tammy would have rightfully called this an unhealthy environment. As if summoned, a message came through, asking Elodie to rest tonight and come in for a 9 a.m. meeting.
Soraya sat down on the couch.
“Hopefuls,” she said, “are gifted people who were swallowed by the current.”
Elodie almost choked on the juice.
“There used to be more because the augmentation was still evolving, but in any case, they can still happen. Very few people ever made the connection, and it’s not a widely known fact. Even in Rising Dawn. So I don’t think Tammy lied. Or she knew better than to tell you the truth.”
“Why?” Elodie asked and sat next to her on the couch.
“Before you can control your abilities, associations are what drives your journeys through the current. If you knew too much about what you should be afraid of, you’d hit something scary a lot more often. This way, people kept telling you everything was fine, and you made it. Even though you were probably very close to being consumed.”
To finally have someone say it out loud sent chills down her spine. But was it true?
“And how do you know this?” she asked.
“Erm.” Soraya hesitated. “This doesn’t go beyond this room. The gifted rarely get questioned, but I’d love for you to think about this as little as possible when you’re around Augustina.”
Elodie raised her hand. “I promise.”
“Both my parents were Hopefuls. Both. Rising Dawn didn’t audit properly in the Italian subsidiary where they joined. They’re not easy to spot and you might not even believe me. I get that, because you could still talk to my parents and think they’re just rude and a little spaced-out. But you’d see they’re really not ok if you got to know them. They stopped accepting jobs before I was born. No one asked why. They weren’t particularly strong. Because Rising Dawn is cocky. In the last fifty years they’ve somehow convinced themselves that the original Hopefuls were a political faction that killed Nada Faraji, and they’ll mock anyone who says otherwise.”
Soraya noticed Elodie’s shock.
“Yep,” she said, “that’s the big secret. I know what happens to people who can’t control their abilities. Seravina hired me because I have a unique perspective on a lot of things. The freshest eyes possible.”
“Does Tamm
y know?” Elodie asked. She promised not to say anything, but this was huge. After the blackout, she’d try to convince Soraya to start talking to Tammy. It would be her personal project.
“I don’t think so. Seravina was a great keeper of secrets. I didn't even know all of them. Like the fact that she made Frederich synthesise a gifted stimulant.”
This explained so much. The overprotectiveness. The hatred for the gifted.
“Thanks for that,” she said.
“You’re welcome,” Soraya replied. “Don’t make me regret it.”
The (Un)fortunate Seer
Thursday, 27 June 2363
They were two just girls sitting on this bench in front of the office of the late Seravina Giovanotti. One was calm and one was not. Elodie took pleasure in being the calm one, for once. It was just a debrief. Soraya looked like she was about to be telepathically interrogated. Her secrets were out; she was vulnerable. As a consequence, she followed Elodie everywhere. It made Elodie nervous, and she was twisting the hem of her dress.
“I don’t know if you know this, but there are three non-observantum zones at the Institute.”
Soraya tried to catch her gaze, but Elodie kept hers directed on the floor. Not today. Not again.
“Interesting,” she said.
“The first one,” Soraya continued, “is in the Particle Lab. That one is almost naturally occurring. Tola works oddly inside with so many experiments so you can’t retrieve footage easily, and it’s hard for paragnosts to see in there anyway. We know that.”
“Soraya…” Elodie tried.
“The second one is inside the Reijin labs. Basically, the same reason. But with a superiority complex.” Soraya smiled.
“I know what you’re trying to do,” Elodie said and crossed her arms, stretching on the bench.
“Now the third one, the third one is interesting. It’s inside this office.”
She pointed at the door.
“So let’s say that you were inside. Doing things, saying things, right? As long as it’s happening right there, video cannot be extracted out from the tola network. And paragnosts can’t extract information either. That's intentional. Seravina made it that way so that she could have conversations in safety and privacy.”
“I’m going to tell them the truth,” Elodie said.
“And I’m hoping you’ve worked at the Institute long enough to understand the pliable nature of truth.”
When—just when would Elodie get a break from people schooling her?
“You worried just about the drugs, or…” she said.
Someone was approaching.
“Shut. Up,” Soraya whispered.
“That’s not your call.”
“It’s for Frederich. He’ll lose everything if you do it. But hey—your call.”
Tammy walked along the long corridor that led to the office. Any tension she dared to show until now vanished, instantly replaced by a face frozen in pleasant expectation.
They were all cordial on arrival. Elodie studied her, just like she’d been studying the other affected gifted in the past few days. They all looked so… fine.
“I didn’t expect to see both of you here,” Tammy said with unwavering bliss.
“I bet you’ve been saying that a lot in the last couple of days,” Soraya replied.
Elodie needed to get out of here before things got physical.
As soon as they were alone in the office, Tammy took a seat in Seravina’s old chair, and Elodie was reminded of why she was here. To tell the truth and get Frederich booted from Reijin? Or maintain a lie and just let Soraya take the blame?
“Honey,” Tammy addressed her. “Don’t be scared. I just want to talk to you. How are you?”
“I don’t know. It’s a lot of things to process. I don’t have time to think about anything before the next big thing happens.”
So far, so honest.
“I know. And being able to reflect on that is what makes you extraordinary. Challenges are painful only until you resolve them. And you thank them for making you stronger. Don’t you agree?”
Elodie did agree, and she nodded accordingly.
“So I really wanted to commend you for how you handled yourself in the middle of the tola crisis. This blackout is difficult for all of us to handle, and I can’t even imagine what it must be doing to you. I mean, I’ve never done this much admin in my life.” Tammy maintained determined serenity, though with a bit of self irony.
“Thank you,” Elodie said, “and I’m happy you consider me a contributor."
So far, so truthful.
“You know I value you as an integral part of our future,” Tammy said. “I’m sick of saying it; you’re sick of hearing it. You are the first A-class paragnost we’ve had a chance of discovering in the last twenty years. I mean, the last person with your level of skill is me. We’ll go on to do great things together.”
“I really hope so,” Elodie replied.
“And you know Rising Dawn has always been a very particular part of the Institute. When we solve problems, people are afraid of us, because we’re powerful. When we can’t, the blame falls on us, because we've spoiled people into thinking we’re going to solve everything. The gifted life is hard. Sometimes it seems that there are no correct ways to think about ourselves. And it becomes particularly dangerous when we let other people dictate our value to us. Tell us what to do. Make us say things we don’t want to.”
Elodie swallowed heavily. So this was going somewhere. “I don’t have that experience.”
“That’s good,” Tammy said, “because you’re susceptible to a lot of things while you’re still in training.”
That word. Training. Reaching absurdity levels that shouldn’t be possible. Even now, after saving the Institute from absolute disaster, she was apparently still in training.
“I know you’re struggling. And you’re tired of me telling you to just sit tight and be patient. I’ve appointed people monitoring your future too, to ensure your success. And I’ve done nothing but acted in accordance with that recommendation. I’m the one who made informed decisions on how to protect you from various dangers. You can trust me.”
“I know that,” Elodie said.
“So tell me. Were you asked to lie to me today?” she asked casually.
“Yes.”
It wasn’t a sudden decision. She needed to tell the truth.
“So this ridiculous story of you geniuses just stumbling upon a correct answer by looking into different ‘system error’ reports? Fake?”
“Yes,” she replied, and Tammy was visibly happy. But there was no telepath in the room. She was here just to confirm her suspicions.
“So Soraya actually sabotaged the tola and then came riding in with a solution?” Tammy continued.
“What? No,” Elodie replied. Was she actually serious? Even her own mentor couldn’t for a single moment consider her strong enough to do something extraordinary?
No matter what she did, Soraya was front and centre.
“What do you mean no?” Tammy asked as things suddenly didn’t go the way they should. “If she didn’t do it, then how did you find the answer?”
Elodie considered the situation again, and the perpetual helplessness they put her in. If she said that she did it, she’d have to reveal all the details of how she succeeded. And she had promised Frederich to keep it a secret, and she didn’t want the first secret he shared to be his last. She was playing with his life. He trusted her too.
But there was an idea.
“Nobody did anything but me. I simply broke the blackout because I can. The others lied for me.”
Voilà.
Even Soraya couldn’t say that this was a bad move—she told the truth and found a way to make sure she was the only one who’d get any follow up for it.
The look on Tammy’s face was everything. Yes, it was her. Yes, she’d finally lived up to her potential. That’s right. A-class paragnost. Who else?
“How?” Tammy f
inally asked.
“You put me in a room to find out what went wrong and save the Institute,” she said, “and I found a way. That’s how.”
“Wait, wait. You did this. No one helped you?”
The doubt made Elodie even more eager.
“I take full ownership,” she declared.
“And Soraya didn’t ask you to do it?” Tammy asked.
“No.”
“You just tried and you could access the current?”
“Yes.”
“And all that happened to you afterwards was that you passed out for two days?”
“Wait, what’s your name again? Have we met? Where am I?” Elodie was enjoying this.
“Very funny,” Tammy mused and noted something in the app.
“I’m the same. Slowly getting better.” Elodie said.
“If that’s the case, then I know exactly what to do.” Tammy opened a private window. Institute leadership and the blackout had made her a heavy technology user.
“Like what?”
“Well, since MediMundus confirmed that there didn’t seem to be any adverse effects on your psyche while you used your abilities during training, I want to put you in a safe environment and acclimate your brain to visions by simply seeking them out and embracing them.”
“You want me to repeat it?” Elodie asked cautiously. She hadn’t planned that far ahead.
“We’ll work together,” Tammy said excitedly. “And you’ll find out how this blackout ends.”
“Great.”
Time to panic. What did she just promise?
Windows to the World
Elodie went to catch Soraya a few minutes later. With all that had happened, it was probably best if she told Soraya the news herself and made sure the story was heard properly. That’s what a real A-class friend would do.
Soraya was waiting outside the building, sitting on the chunky steps that led up to the admin building. This band-aid would go off in one go.
“I told the truth,” Elodie said.
Soraya went significantly paler.
“I told them I can see through the blackout. None of you had any idea what was even going on, and thanks to me you won’t get punished. I call that a victory,” she said. Public space. Public display to fortify the story. Soraya processed the falsification but didn’t relax.