Chapter 70: Demonstrative

Back at my and Lena’s apartment, we’d deployed a whole range of tests/demonstrations. Those required either Fire or props I didn’t want to carry around, not least because bringing my own made the results less convincing.

We’d worked out something a little more portable.

“This is going to sound weird,” I said.

Sandy arched an eyebrow. “You don’t say.”

I chuckled. “Even weirder. Still, it’s better if you do it. Then you’ll know I didn’t stage it somehow.”

She folded her arms. I thought her patience was tremendous, even if it didn’t extend to disguising itself.

I stood up, more because it seemed rude to ask someone else to rise – in her own home, no less – than because I needed full mobility to perform the demonstration. “Can you fold, say, five napkins on the counter for me? It doesn’t matter how, but they need to stand up.”

“Like little pyramids,” Benji said. Which, I had to admit, was probably a better explanation than I’d given.

“Napkins,” Sandy said. “And this is going to explain to me why a scammer decided to withhold our money?”

I dipped my head. “I promise.”

She pushed back from the table, looking at Benji the whole time.

He nodded.

She sighed, stood up, and grabbed a handful of napkins from a quaint wooden holder shaped like a rooster. Her first attempt at a pyramid collapsed, but she set up the remaining four. They looked sturdy.

“Now I step back, or what?” she asked.

“Actually,” I said, “why don’t you stay there. It might help the demonstration.”

She leaned against the cabinet. “Fine.”

I took out my phone, opened the Third Eye app, and manifested Plastic with Air. A bit of a shame, that. Plastic was the Material I had by far the least of, and it also seemed to be the toughest to resupply outside of town. Couldn’t be helped, though. I needed its precision control for this demonstration.

Sandy frowned more deeply, so I suspected she’d felt a gust of wind. She finally looked from Benji to me.

Which wasn’t quite where I wanted her attention. “Watch the napkins, please.”

She shook her head, but did so.

As carefully as I could, I knocked the first of the four over.

“What the –” She shook her head. “I don’t know how or why you’ve decided to do a magic trick right now, Cameron. It’s something to do with the way you move your hand?”

I couldn’t help it. I grinned. “I mean, you’re not wrong. Are you watching closely?”

“Sure. Let’s get this over with.” She put her hands on her hips. “Then you can explain how you did it and why I should care.”

“That’s the plan.” I flicked the next napkin in line off the counter entirely, then, while the next wobbled from the air moving past it, scooped it up and tossed it toward Sandy like a shitty paper airplane. Extremely shitty; it wasn’t aerodynamic enough to do more than flutter in the air for a second before it drifted to her feet.

Still, that was a lot to accomplish by moving my hand from halfway across the room. Sandy kept frowning, but her eyes had started to widen. She swallowed, hard.

Time for the piece de resistance.

I swept my Plastic around to knock the final napkin off the counter. Instead of letting it fall, though, I wrapped it up and held it.

In midair, in front of Sandy’s face.

Her straightened hair blew in the updraft.

She stared at the napkin. Abruptly, way too late to have done anything about it if she’d had any reason to, she swatted at it. Her hand knocked the napkin and my Plastic toward the floor –

But not all the way. I raised the napkin back up and danced it back and forth in the air.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Sandy touched her hair, feeling the wind as it obeyed my command.

“What do you think, Ben?” I asked. “Is that enough of a demonstration?”

“Nope,” he said.

I glanced at him. His grin looked downright wolfish. I wondered when he’d last seen Sandy so astonished, but didn’t have to wonder if he enjoyed the view.

“Personally,” I said, “I prefer a little ambiguity. But if you insist...”

With tight, precise gestures, I crumpled the napkin into a ball in front of Sandy. With sharp chops, I bounced it around the kitchen. With a final crook of my fingers, I shot it back across and into my waiting hand.

Then, for good measure, I “tossed” it into the wastebasket and scooped the other four up to join it.

Sandy’s mouth worked, but no words spilled out.

Benji stood up and strode to her side. When her hands stretched out, his were there to clasp them.

“What...” She shook her head. “How...?”

“You think that’s dramatic?” Benji asked.

She found her voice and it was a hiss. “Cam controlled the wind with his phone! I think that’s pretty goddamn dramatic!”

“He showed me by jumping off a three-story balcony,” Benji said.

To my surprise, her eyes got even wider. “Can he fly?”

Benji laughed. “Well, little bro? Can you fly?”

“At the time, I was really hoping the answer would be yes.” I grinned sheepishly. “I’d like to think I managed to fall with style.”

“Guess I won’t spoil it for you,” Benji said. His voice softened and he turned back to Sandy. He grasped her arms gently. “What he did do was make one of those idiotic superhero landings –” Had I? God. I didn’t remember that. I flushed. “– and instead of breaking most of his bones, he sprang up and ran it off like it was nothing.”

“How is any of this possible?” Sandy asked.

“Because of Third Eye,” I said. “That’s the game Lena and I are playing. The game Omar is also playing, and it seems like he’s got a couple months head start on us.”

“What are you saying?” She gave a harsh shake of her head and tried to push Benji away. Either she didn’t put any force into it or he resisted, because he didn’t budge. “What is wrong with you guys? Do you think tricking me like this is going to make me forgive you, Ben?”

“It’s not a trick,” he said.

Her fists clenched. “It has to be!”

“Those were your napkins, Sandy.” My voice sounded so calm, it almost unnerved me. It felt like I was listening to myself give a performance on one of Lena’s videos. “You set them up. You felt the wind on your face. If I’m tricking you, how am I doing it?”

“But that’s...” She slumped.

Benji caught her; she let him. He wrapped her up in his arms and hers snaked around his back.

If we had somehow tricked her, it seemed to me it would’ve actually been an effective way to get him back in her good graces. Right up until the point where she found out.

Good thing this wasn’t a trick.

I hadn’t intended it to be quite this scary, though.

Benji had learned about Third Eye by accident, and by the time I’d had a chance to talk to him about it, we’d all had plenty more to worry about.

The last time I’d shown someone intentionally, it’d been a group from the wiki team and all of them had at least harbored suspicions. Zhizhi was the only one who had been taken completely by surprise, and I was starting to realize that she was more flexibly minded than most people.

Plus, she’d recognized from the outset that she would get the story of a lifetime out of it if she played along.

All Sandy stood to gain was a shattered view of the material world.

I decided video presenter was not the right persona to adopt, not that I’d done so intentionally. I ran my fingers through my hair and scratched the back of my neck. “I’m sorry for dropping this on you, but you had to understand what we’re dealing with.”

“Understand?” She shook her head against Benji’s chest. “That’s one way of putting it.”

I exhaled. “Fair. The truth is, as players, we barely understand it ourselves. We’re still focused on figuring out what we can do. Figuring out how it works has to take a backseat.”

“How did you walk off the fall Ben talked about?” she asked.

“It’s not going to make it sound more plausible,” I said, “but we’ve got HP.”

“Hit points,” Benji clarified. “Like a life bar in a video game.”

“And as long as you have any of those, what?” Sandy asked. “Nothing hurts you?”

My first instinct was to make a pedantic correction. It hurt, it just didn’t do any lasting damage. I didn’t think that would make Third Eye sound less frightening, though. “Basically, yeah. If there is a limit... well, it’s not jumping from a three-story balcony.”

She shuddered. “I almost want to ask for a demonstration. On the other hand, I really, really don’t.”

Benji patted her back. “They can do a lot more than what Cam’s showed you. Lena can cook food and even generate a little electricity. And they’ve got these virtual pets that, well, don’t seem that virtual.”

“And we’re basically just starting out,” I said. “What I showed you, it’s not quite my limit, but it’s pretty close. That’s with one unit of Air. Lena has two. The most anyone we know has used is three. Omar is offering five as part of the prize for winning the tournament he’s sponsoring. Somehow, I doubt he’s giving away more than he’s keeping.”

“God.” Sandy dragged in a deep breath. “It’s so much, I half forgot why you brought it up in the first place.”

For a wonder, I had the sense to keep my mouth shut and let her process.

After a moment, she slipped her hands around and pressed them against Benji’s chest. He let her go so she could straighten up and face me. “If what you’re saying is true, you think this Jeffries character is, what? Stealing all of our money so he can buy more power in the game you’re playing?”

“Not directly,” I said. “There’s an in-app store, but it’s not open, at least at this point in the beta. I’m not convinced it will work on real money, anyway.”

She spread her hands. “What’s he doing then?”

“That,” I said, “is what Lena and I are going to Florida to find out.”