Etherno

by Aaron DeMott

  The Dean turned to Kasai. “You’re an S-class. You shouldn’t ever need to get into a fight.” He swiveled in his chair to face Cerina, and continued in a harsher tone. “As for you, you can leave your attitudes about social classes back in the forest. Provoking a fight is just as bad as throwing the first punch.”

  His gaze swept over all of them now.

  “So, for punishment, you’re going to have to learn to work together. You’ll start by cleaning up the cafeteria, then you’ll be working with local law enforcement to track down last night’s trespassers. Meet with Professor Jekao in his office to discuss that assignment in more detail after you’re done with the cafeteria. Dismissed.”

  Tannin practically bolted for the door. Cerina shoved past him and stomped off down the hallway.

  “Hey, wait, isn’t she supposed to come with us and help clean?” Tannin said.

  Onin shrugged. “Go tell her that, then.”

  Tannin made a face. “I’ll pass, thanks.”

  “I’m sorry I got you into this.” Kasai’s shoulders slumped. “Trouble follows me everywhere.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Onin said.

  “Yeah, we could have run off like everyone else.” Tannin shrugged. “I just can’t see that crazy b—uh, psycho—um, well, I can’t just sit there and let people stomp up to someone and start screaming.”

  “It was our choice to get involved.” Onin shoved Tannin in front of him and fell back to keep pace with Kasai. “So, we’ll help clean. Let’s get it over with.”

  The janitor stood in the doorway to the cafeteria. He handed each of them a broom and dustpan.

  “The Dean says you have to use these, and nothing but muscle power to clean up the veranda. No gifts.”

  A groan escaped Onin’s lips. This sucked, and it wasn’t even his fault!

  The janitor waved a hand at the outer doors. “Trashcans are outside, put all the debris in there.”

  He passed out the cleaning implements and left them alone.

  “Well, we might as well get to it,” Onin said.

  Three hours later the veranda was clean. Onin leaned against the wall and slid down to a sitting position.

  “Well, that was fun.” Onin rubbed the back of his forearms.

  “If you think that was fun, I’ve really got to drag you to more parties.” Tannin slumped against the wall and sat next to Onin.

  “We should get to Professor Jekao’s office.” Kasai sighed. Her face had a blank, neutral expression. She scooped up her dust pan, turned around, and left.

  Onin groaned as he struggled to his feet and followed her.

  “I’m serious about the parties.” Tannin called after him.

  “Whatever. Shut up and come on.”

  Cerina was waiting for them outside Jekao’s office. She smirked at them before she turned the doorknob and entered. Onin was tempted to barge in after her and let the professor know she hadn’t helped them with the cleaning. He stopped mid-stride. This wasn’t grade school. He could only control his own actions. It’d be better in the long run to let Cerina deal with the fall-out from hers on her own.

  “Ah, good, You’re all here,” Professor Jekao said.

  Onin followed the others inside the professor’s office. He plopped into a chair by the door. The office looked almost exactly like the Dean’s office. Same white walls, same plastic desk that was patterned to look like wood, and the same green curtains on the window. A few maps on the walls and a bookshelf full of worn volumes gave the professor’s office a touch of personality. Onin wasn’t sure if the cookie-cutter offices indicated that ABG wasn’t well-off financially, or if it meant they understood that fancy offices weren’t what was really important.

  “So, why are we here,” Tannin asked.

  “If you’ll shut the door, please,” Professor Jekao replied..

  Kasai flicked a finger and the door clicked shut.

  The professor leveled at stare at each of them before he spoke.

  “You all know about the attack on Onin and Kasai last night, right?”

  Cerina snorted.

  Jekao cleared his throat. “I’ll deal with you later. You still owe ABG some cleanup work.”

  Cerina jerked her head up and clenched the armrests of her chair. “Pardon?”

  Jakao smiled. “You do know there’s cameras out there, right?”

  Cerina’s face paled.

  Onin smiled. She’d probably get a lot worse punishment now. Served her right for not helping. Especially since it was her fault to begin with.

  “Anyway,” Jekao turned to face Onin. “Local law enforcement has asked for our help in tracking down the perpetrators. Stuff like this may happen out in the country, but in most large cities it’s safe to be a giftling. Especially here in Dabreth. So, the four of you are to report to police station C-47 to be briefed.”

  Tannin jumped to his feet. “Uh, you can’t make us do that, can you, sir?”

  He looked around at the rest of them. Onin waved at him to sit down. Tannin frowned and flopped down in his chair.

  “Ordinarily not.” Jekao stared at each of them in turn. “However, due to some mitigating circumstances, we have a discipline problem on our hands. I don’t care who’s at fault. I don’t care if you were even in the fight. You’re all adults here, and I’m not your nanny. You have to learn how to handle these kinds of things on your own. Also, ABG has a reputation to maintain. In-fighting among our students is not the image we want to portray. So, you will learn to work as a team.”

  He turned to face Cerina, stood, and leaned over his desk toward her. Her eyes widened.

  “Or you will all be kicked out. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Yes, sir.” Cerina’s voice was hardly more than a squeak.

  “Good.” Jekao sat down again. “Off you go, then. You’re expected to report to the police station immediately.”

  “Yes, sir,” all of them said in unison.

  Onin rose and held the door open. The others filed out of professor’s office. Onin, as the last one out, closed the door behind him.

  “Well this sucks.” Cerina flared her nose and stuck her chin up in the air. “Now I’m stuck with you losers.”

  “Ha! Like we need your lovely personality around,” Tannin said.

  Onin took a deep breath. “Not now, okay? Do any of us want to get kicked out of ABG?”

  Silence answered him.

  “That’s what I thought. Now, I believe we were told to get to police station C-47 immediately, right?”

  “Yup,” Tannin said.

  Onin raised his palm and generated a medium-sized servitor, about double the size of his head.

  “Anyone else need a ride?”

  “Ooo, me!” Tannin raised his hand and jumped up and down.

  “Quit acting like a child.” Cerina turned up her nose and spun away from him. “I don’t like depending on others. But fine, if you’re going that way.”

  “Kasai?”

  She smiled. “I’m good.”

  Onin shrugged and generated two more servitors. They rose into the air and took positions above Onin, Tannin, and Cerina. Energy tendrils reached down and wrapped around each of them, gripping them by the shoulders, waist, and legs like a harness. The servitors rose into the air suspending them underneath, and took off for the police station.

  Onin looked over his shoulder. Kasai jumped up into the air and shot up past him. She spread her arms out and maneuvered her body into a horizontal position. Then she zipped forward and angled in next to Onin.

  Onin looked over at her and raised his eyebrows. “You can fly?”

  “Not really.” Kasai ducked her head and twirled a lock of hair around her finger. “Most kinetics can only levitate things, but I think that’s due to a lack of imagination. I ‘imagine’ kinetic glider wings, and push off from things. I’ve been working on a engine of some sort, but it’s problematic.”

  “Cool!”

  Kasai was beautiful and clever. Onin gri
nned and felt his face flush. He looked away and concentrated on the rooftops they were flying over.

  ABG was located out near the south edge of the city near the suburbs. The buildings beneath them now were getting taller as they headed north toward the police station.

  Onin’s servitor started to descend, and the others followed him.

  “There’s the station.” Onin pointed to it, and the servitors set them down on the steps outside the front door. Onin held out his hand and the servitors floated over toward Onin. He touched the closest one and it slowly shrank as he re-absorbed it. He re-absorbed the others, and turned to admire the station.

  The police building was one of the oldest in the city. It was constructed from brick with actual wood frames around the windows.

  “Quit gawking at the ruin of a building and let’s get this over with.” Cerina shuddered and straightened her top.

  Tannin leaned in to whisper in Onin’s ear. “You think she’s this charming all the time, or is it that time of the month?”

  “Tannin!” Onin leaned away. “That’s not—You don’t’—You’d so better hope she didn’t hear you!”

  He shook his head and led the way up the steps and into the station. The inside of the building looked modern. White walls, a bunch of chairs, a few potted plants, and a counter that divided the room in half. A woman in a police uniform behind the counter. Onin walked up to it and addressed her.

  “Hello, Onin, Tannin, Kasai, and Cerina from Applied Bio-Gifting College. I believe we have an appointment?”

  She looked up at him, frowned behind her glasses, and punched a few buttons on her computer terminal.

  She nodded. “Room I-3, down the hall, and to your left.”

  “Thanks.”

  A door behind and to the right of the counter swung open and they walked down a blank white hallway.

  “Right here.” Tannin pointed a sign above the door. “I-3, according to the sign.”

  Onin opened the door, and they stepped in. The walls were bare cement brick. There was a table in the center of the room. One wooden chair was on one side of the table, four on the other side. The room had gray concrete walls, and only one small window set high on the far wall.

  “This can’t be right...” Tannin’s voice trailed off.

  A click sounded. Tannin spun around and pulled on the handle.

  “It’s locked! I think I can Reinforce a chair and use it to break a door down,” he said.

  “Is that your gift?” Kasai asked.

  “Yup!” Tannin grabbed one of the chairs by the leg, spun around and slammed it into the wall. It bounced off, unharmed. “I can make things stronger.”

  “Waste of gift,” Cerina muttered.

  “It can be handy!” Tannin slammed his head into the concrete wall, leaving a crushed indent. “See?”

  Onin sighed. He pulled out a chair and sat. “How about we all sit down and wait and see how this plays out?”

  Kasai sat next to him, cross-legged on her chair and closed her eyes.

  “What’s she doing?” Tannin asked.

  “How should I know?” Onin shrugged. “Might be meditating or something.”

  “Oh, yeah. Monks.” Tannin spun a chair around and sat, resting his arms across the back of the chair.

  Cerina sighed as loudly as the reverse jets on a hover truck, and pulled a chair over to the other end of the room.

  Half an hour later, according to Onin’s phone, the door opened, and Professor Jekao entered.

  Onin blinked a few times. What was the professor doing here? Kasai grabbed his arm. Tannin’s mouth fell open. Cerina jerked upright in her chair. The professor walked over and sat in the chair at the opposite side of the table. He wore a black police uniform, with a captain’s rank insignia on the collar, and a reserve force patch above his name patch on the left breast pocket.

  “What in the name of the matari are you doing here?” Cerina asked.

  He gave her a stern look. “The lieutenant got involved in another case, so they called me in, since I was already briefed. I apologize for the wait.”

  “Oh, for...” Cerina didn’t finish her sentence.

  “Anyway, let’s get on with the briefing.” The professor pulled a piece of paper out of his jacket pocket and unfolded it. “We have reason to believe that the attackers will try to hit the college again tonight. As Cerina alluded to earlier, they sound like they may be giftling hunters from the Northlands. If they are, they’ll keep coming back until they’ve caught that flame giftling, or Kasai, or whatever else they may be after.”

  “So, what do we do, stand around like sitting ducks until they show up?” Cerina picked at her fingernails.

  “More or less. We want to detain them and learn who hired them. Your task is to work together to capture them. Once you’ve got them, call in to the police for pickup with the radios you’ll be issued. Any questions?”

  “Yes.” Cerina looked up. “Why have us do it instead of the police? They have a special squad for this sort of thing, don’t they?”

  Jekao rubbed his forehead.

  “Yes…” He let the word draw out. “We’ve been over the why in my office back at ABG. In addition to that, all four of you have criminal justice as a minor. If you want to go into that field, this field work would help your grades and your resumes.”

  “You mean this is extra credit?” Tannin asked.

  “Yes.”

  Tannin let out a loud whoop. “Sweet, I might not flunk out!”

  Onin rolled his eyes. “You’re an idiot.”

  “Thus, the need for extra credit.”

  Every one of them, including the professor, smacked their foreheads with the palm of their hands.

  “What?” Tannin looked around at them. “It’s true.”

  Onin peered down into the crater.

  “You’d think they’d fill this in already,” he said.

  Kasai shrugged. She still wasn’t wearing a jacket. Onin wrapped his arms around himself. It was colder out today than it had been yesterday. The weather needed to make up its mind. He rubbed his arms. Hopefully those thugs would show up soon.

  “Well,” Onin looked up and down the empty street. “Do you want to pace up and down this block some more, or wander around?”

  “We should probably wander.” Kasai glanced over her shoulder. “This feels like we’re waiting for them. If we made it look like we gave up, they might try to ambush us then.”

  “Yeah,” He snorted a second later. “As long as Tannin doesn’t fall asleep, and Cerina doesn’t leave.”

  Kasai smiled. “I don’t think they’d do that. Neither one of them wants to get kicked out.”

  “Yeah.”

  They crossed two blocks without a sign of anyone. Maybe the bandits weren’t going to show up tonight?

  “Hey,” Onin said.

  “Mmm?”

  “What if they’re after that fire giftling, Onryu, and they’re hoping we lead them to her?”

  Kasai snorted. “Then they’re in for a long wait. Neither of us knows anything about her.”

  “True,” Onin wandered over to a park bench and sat down. “Maybe if they’ll attack, she’ll show up?”

  He had hardly finished speaking when something whistled past his ear and exploded. Onin dove for the ground. “Me and my big mouth...”

  He looked around for Kasai. She stood next to him. The shimmer of a kinetic force-field surrounded her. Shadows resolved into men, the same ones who had attacked them last night. Well, it was either them or someone with the same fashion sense, since these guys were dressed all in black.

  The men spread out in a circle to surround Onin and Kasai. They drew guns and crouched around what cover there was along the street.

  One of them leveled a gun at Onin. “Don’t move.”

  The rest aimed their weapons at Kasai. They fired simultaneously, and a red beams splashed against Kasai’s shield. Sweltering heat radiated from the beams in waves.

  “Show you
rself, fire giftling.” One of the thugs behind Kasai took a step forward. His voice was deep and gravely.“Or the girl gets baked alive!”

  No one moved for several minutes. Kasai wasn’t even sweating. Had she thought up a way to deflect heat with her shield, or was her latent fire gift keeping her safe? Or Onryo might be close by after all.

  “She’s here,” the first man pulled a slide lever on the barrel of his gun “She’s shielding her somehow. Have it your way.”

  He pressed a button on the side of his gun and a large fireball leapt from the barrel and exploded. Kasai, still shielded, was thrown over the park bench and into the bushes.

  A loud high-pitched squeal echoed down the street, and the thugs winced. Onin looked around. Was that from Cerina?

  Adrenaline pulsed through Onin. He had to act now while the thugs were distracted. He jumped to his feet and generated two servitors. They raced around the thugs and arced lighting at them. Nothing happened. Grounded suits?

  The thugs dropped their guns and pulled short sticks from their packs. With a flick of the wrist the sticks extended, and they jabbed the sticks into the servitors. The servitor’s light grew dimmer. The weapons must be draining the energy from them. Onin generated two more and sent them into the fray.

  Suddenly a lightpole crashed into two of the thugs and shattered the park bench. A second later Tannin rolled past Onin, and scoped up two slats from the remains of the bench. He held them by the ends and swung them a few times.

  “Wow, these guys are pros, huh?” Tannin said.

  The sky brightened, and a flare landed in the midst of the thugs. The light dimmed to reveal Onryu. Her red hair was loose and waved in the light breeze. Her white wings were half extended, and she had one hand on the curve of her hip. The other was raised, fingers loosely spread, pointed at the nearest thug.

  “I’ve had just about enough of you.” She spread her fingers out wide and white hot flame poured out of her hand and washed over one of the thugs.

  “Wait!” Onin yelled and waved at her. “We’re supposed to capture them!”