Despite good ventilation, the air in the gym was stale and sweaty in a way heavily used gyms perpetually seem to be. Huck had been in the building long enough for his nose to ignore the odor by now; not that he needed to focus much on doing so. Every muscle in his body screamed for his attention with the pain of his workout. He was relentless. For hours on end, he’d pushed himself harder and harder, not fighting against the feeling of inferiority from being smacked around by that gang. Rather, he fought against his memories of that pod. Every time he tore his triceps, it reminded him he still had that arm attached to his body. Every time his knee popped out of place, lancing pain whispered soothing thoughts of ‘I’m still here’. Every time his body crumpled under the weights, he stood up again and the memories felt more like a bad dream. Other gym goers had long since stopped paying attention to Huck and his reckless workouts and body-breaking collapses- not since he popped his knee back into place and kept going. This pain centered him; it was real in a way the pod couldn’t replicate.
“Even for an Eternal, you should take a break,” a voice came from behind him. The man was huge. Dark skin, bald head, and a strange accent- the same man who rescued Huck on the train. The memory of a loud slap rang in Huck’s ears.
“I don’t need it,” Huck spoke over his shoulder looking up before going after another set of squats.
“I was being polite. You’ve been hogging the squat rack for the last hour,” the somewhat stranger persisted.
Huck looked around the gym. Everyone seemed to be staring at the encounter. At him. The small guy versus the giant. “Get here faster next time,” he decided to respond before dipping low again.
“I see,” was all the man replied before picking up another two plates and casually adding them to Huck’s bar.
“The hell are you doing?” Huck called out at the unexpected weight increase.
“If I cannot workout, then I will train. You are not pushing yourself to grow- you’re just trying to hurt yourself. Maybe this will make you hurt yourself faster.” Without warning, he picked up another two plates, adding them to the bar as well. “Remember to keep your form,” the man gave Huck’s sternum a hard poke. “Back straight.”
Huck’s face reddened with effort as he tried to lift, giving way to a powerful groan as his body exploded with effort. One inch- two. Slowly, his body crawled upward against the tremendous strain. Right until it couldn’t. Huck collapsed under the tyranny of gravity and oppressive weights, fully expecting broken, well, everything, but to his surprise he hit the ground without being crushed.
The man stood over Huck holding the bar at a ninety degree angle from his body. “If you really have problems you need to get beaten out of you, there’s a sparring ring downstairs. The guy in there now is on a winning streak.”
Huck looked up at the man looming over him and slowly nodded his head. “I’ll look into that. I’m Huck by the way.”
“I remember from the train. Odd we should meet again so soon. My name is Tobi. Good luck downstairs.”
“Don’t want it,” Huck grinned before standing up, ignoring Tobi’s outstretched hand to help him up, noting Tobi still hadn’t put down the barbell stacked with plates. “But I’ll remember your name too, Tobi. So far, you seem like the man to beat.”
“See if you can,” Tobi nodded somberly in acknowledgement.
Huck wiped his face and arms down before heading down the stairs. The stench of sweat was the first thing to assault his senses, quickly followed by the dull thwaps of flesh pounding on flesh. A rudimentary boxing ring stood out in the center of the floor, elevated a few feet off the ground where two guys fought mercilessly. As Huck took in more details of the room, he noticed that the two people fighting appeared to be identical in everything from appearance to Traits. Though clearly, one of the two did not fight as well; every move he made was slower, every punch he threw seemed weaker, and clearly, his stamina was flagging. In a matter of moments, the superior fighter had his other self pinned to the ground. The match was over. The loser groaned before rolling out of the ring to a corner where a staff member tended to the wounds, using their Trait to heal the fighters.
Absent of another challenger, Huck took his opportunity to step into the ring. His opponent’s form shifted until he stared at a mirror reflection of himself. A Shifter. Must be off putting for competitors to punch themselves in the face. His challenger looked himself over, noting his own diminished height and reach before locking eyes with Huck, an eyebrow arched in question.
“You’re a Shifter?” Huck asked, getting himself into a fighting stance.
His face slowly nodded back at him.
“You ready?”
Again, Huck watched himself respond by slowly nodding his head.
“Go.”
That was all the warning his doppelganger needed to spring into action. Probing jabs flew at Huck tentatively, but that didn’t last long. His other self kicked out at Huck’s shin, causing Huck to stumble before his face cracked loudly from a backhanded fist. Huck stared at the ground in front of his face for a moment, trying to grasp what had happened. He’d been outmaneuvered, and quickly. Standing back up, he charged back into the fight and landed a glancing blow against the ribs before doubling over from the fist that had somehow managed to plant itself firmly in his gut. He could feel his Healing Trait working overtime on the blows, slowly standing back up to lock eyes with his lookalike.
On and on the fight went for long minutes stretching into what felt like an eternity. Blow after blow crashed against his body from his opponent who just seemed to be a better version of himself in every aspect. No matter how quickly Huck moved, his other was quicker. No matter how hard he hit, his other could take the blow and keep coming. He’s probably a few inches taller, too. Huck’s fighting style became brutal, letting hits through in order to get a chance at landing a hit of his own. He could feel his bruises worsening, his eyes swelling, his cuts reopening after each suffered blow from the relentless fists of himself. And still, Huck forced himself to stand and fight. He threw himself at his opponent again and again, always taking the worse beating, but always rising again to fight.
This time as Huck rose from the ground, his other self shook his head, pointing for Huck to leave the ring.
“If you’re gonna be me, there’s something you gotta learn first,” Huck huffed, his heart pounding in his chest from the exhaustion of prolonged combat. “Quitting’s for the dead.”
With that, he threw himself bodily at the one bearing his likeness, tackling the guy to the ground. They pounded each other’s faces before the doppel managed to pin Huck’s arm behind his back. It should have been over then. But these soft idiots have no idea what living in Philadelphia means. Huck rolled into the pin, dislocating his shoulder in the process with nothing more than a grunt. Using the moment of surprise to his advantage, he wheeled on his other, once again tackling him to the ground. They fought and beat each other like that for a moment, Huck using his dislocated arm as a sort of flail until his Healing Trait kicked in enough to work it again. He could feel his knuckles fracturing with every punch, his skin splitting on his face, his nose bending and breaking again and again.
His whole body trembled with effort as his doppel managed to make enough space to break up the ground fight. He watched himself stare back at him, swollen eyes filled with confusion and a twinge of horror. Huck grinned back, forcing himself to take another step forward, only to be literally smacked down by a haymaker. Huck stood up again, landing a tired haymaker of his own. Blood flew out of a wound that slowly healed from a Trait nearing exhaustion. They traded wild, winded, sloppy punches with each other until they collapsed in a pile of bruises and blood. Huck slowly managed to bring himself to stand again, only to notice his other self remaining down, holding up a hand in surrender. He seemed… confused with the outcome of the match- confused about what Trait Huck possessed that he hadn’t copied correctly.
“You’re a good Shifter,” Huck gasped for air, helping the doppel stand back up. “Enhancer too, right?” The Shifter nodded assent. “Make yourself a better version of your opponent. Good strategy.”
The Shifter shook his head in dismay.
“Thought so. You definitely felt like a better version of me.” Huck lightly pounded a fist to his heart. “Good fight.” Huck turned around and took a step before collapsing to the ground unconscious.
Jenna sat on a bench, taking in the peaceful atmosphere while she could. Yesterday had rained, which really sucked, but today was beautiful again. She felt the bench beneath her shift as another person sat down next to her.
Without opening her eyes, Jenna simply spoke, “No.”
“No?” a male voice responded.
“Correct. I’m not interested. In you, specifically. You’ll have better chances with the blonde about to run by. Not that those chances are particularly favorable for you, but still... Better than zero, right?”
“Wha-”
Soft yet rapid footsteps moved past the bench, interrupting the nameless mook’s confusion. They passed by and to the mook’s credit, he didn’t hesitate in leaving to chase after her. With a sigh, Jenna spoke more to herself than anyone else, “Works every time.”
“Hi,” a somewhat familiar voice greeted Jenna.
“Hello, sandwich girl,” Jenna sighed, silently mourning the peace that had all-too-soon ended for her.
“You can call me Fiona,” Fiona giggled. “And I was surprised to see you here. Well, surprised to see you alone, anyway. Where’s your… platonic friend who happens to be male?”
“In his dorm. Frustrated, but still making headway,” Jenna answered nonchalantly. “Look, let’s just cut to the chase here. You saw me just now and are smart enough to put together that I’m an Oracle.”
“Wow. Yes, that saves so much time from being delicate about your Trait. Do you already know what questions I’m going to ask then?”
“Yes I do; yes I am pretty good at it; no, that’s not how the future works; yes, I’ll be in the Elite class with you so you can ask me more questions as they come up; I haven’t decided if we should become friends yet; no, not because of Nate; Then why? I can see the future, but I can’t feel the future; What does that mean? I can see actions, but I don’t know what I’m thinking or feeling during those moments.”
“Like… I could ask you who I date next, and you could tell me, but you wouldn’t know if I fall in love?” Fiona reasoned out.
“Pretty much,” Jenna responded. “We’ll spend a good amount of time with each other from our classes, but I have no idea if we enjoy that time.”
“And you already knew all of that without me asking?”
“Yup.”
“Sounds exhausting.”
“It can be. But I was looking through my day anyway to see if-” she caught herself and tried to hold back her blush.
“To see if perhaps a platonic friend of yours who happens to be male would actually pay attention to you instead of whatever project he’s currently working on?”
Now Jenna couldn’t hold back the blush.
“You care about him?”
Jenna nodded.
“That’s really weird since you literally just met like three days ago, but okay. I won’t tease him anymore.” Fiona’s eyes narrowed as her thoughts put something together. “But you’ve actually known him for a while now, haven’t you? A while longer than he’s known you?”
Her eyes shot open with alarm. “N-not really,” Jenna defended herself.
“You’ve seen him, though. In the future. I’m guessing in your future? Yeah, I thought so,” Fiona gave a sly grin. “Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me,” she sing-songed. “And I’ve decided I’m not going to blackmail you over it. You’re a real treasure, Jenna Harris. I hope we can be friends. Real ones. I have a feeling we’ll need them in the courses coming up.”
Jenna nodded her head. “Makes sense. I just don’t know who the last member of our group is.”
“What do you mean?” Fiona scrunched her eyebrows together.
“Me, you, and Nate makes three, plus Huck makes four. I see a fifth person with us, but I have no idea who.”
“Who is Huck?”
“He’s a good guy. Little rough around the edges, but a good guy deep down,” Jenna waved her hand dismissively.
“Okay, so what’s number five look like?” Fiona thankfully moved on.
“That’s the thing: I don’t know. He’s just… sorta blurry. You know how sometimes when you dream you just know something? I get the same sort of feeling about him. Or her. Whoever number five is doesn’t look like anyone, least of all his or herself.”
“That’s… weird.”
“We all are. Sorry you got stuck with the weirdos,” Jenna shrugged.
“No, it’s okay. I guess I’m kind of a weirdo too. I come from a family-owned sandwich shop to be an Elite hero. Not exactly a typical origin story.”
Jenna let the silence hang in the air, still unsure of where Fiona wanted to take this line of questioning.
“So how’s our class look?” Fiona led. “The Elites. Anyone interesting I should know about?”
“Pretty much everyone there is someone to know about,” Jenna smiled politely. “Wouldn’t be the Elite class if it were filled with inconsequential people, would it?”
“Right, but is there anyone… interesting… to me, specifically,” Fiona pressed.
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Jenna sucked on her teeth. “You wanna know if you meet anyone you end up dating.”
“Preferably someone I end up marrying,” Fiona nodded unabashedly, moving in closer to Jenna in excitement.
“That’s not how the future works,” Jenna sighed. “Look, I could literally just pull out a random name and thanks to your presuppositions, your relationship would go far- because you think the relationship will go far, not because of any sort of innate compatibility with each other. How you view the present is most often the deciding factor for your future. But in reality, you could just choose to be with someone and have the same determination and mindset to persevere and… and, you’re not paying attention anymore.”
“Please?” Fiona begged. “I’ll… I’ll give you a free sandwich?”
Defeated, Jenna hung her head. With a thought, her pink irises turned milky white. Images flashed through her head at the speed of thought, giving off more impression than discernible future. She saw Fiona doting on her future classmates, flirting with any male around her. “You are not a one man kind of woman, are you?”
“Men are like candy. So many flavors to choose from, how can you know which one to pick when maybe another flavor is better?”
Jenna shook her head. “Most of these routes end up with jealous breakups. I’d recommend focusing on learning how to tell yourself no.”
“Most? But not all of them?” Fiona inched closer.
“That’s what you took away from that sentence?” Jenna shook her head with a chuckle. “Fine. Some relationships go well some of the time. Relatively speaking.”
“How relative?”
“They last longer than a month?”
“That’s practically marriage,” Fiona grinned eagerly. “Who who who? Tell me!”
“Um… you call him Nick, though I get the feeling that isn’t his actual name. You also don’t really look too happy whenever you’re with him. Seems sort of like it’s just the novelty of being in a relationship so long that keeps you around. He seems pretty happy though. Until you cheat on him.”
“Hm. Nick? I’ll keep an eye out for this Nick. Thanks, Jenna. You’re a gem.”
Jenna sighed and shook her head. “What are friends for, if not to fail utterly at Bechdel tests?”
“Huh?”
“Nothing,” Jenna sighed and shook her head again. “Any chance you want to talk about something other than boys?”
“Sounds boring,” Fiona frowned. “But I guess I’ll give it a shot?”
“How’s your Trait coming along?” Jenna probed.
“Same as it’s always been,” Fiona shrugged.
Silence ensued.
“Well, that was fun. I’m going back to my shop,” Fiona stood abruptly.
Jenna buried her head in her hands. “I need better friends,” she muttered to herself.
Nate opened bloodshot eyes to a room that looked like it had barely managed to survive a major earthquake. Pillows, blankets, clothes, and crumbs of food all lay strewn about the floor. His bed was no longer flush against the wall, and it appeared his dresser had tipped over at some point. But none of that mattered anymore. Gingerly, he held the pillow in his hands, inspecting it closely. It had been a brand-new pillow just the other… had it really been a day already? Not important. He shook his head, trying to focus. Imbuing had worked. I think. As he held the pillow and Read it, he got flashes of his own voice speaking back to him: ‘Sleep. Rest. Peace.’ His voice chanted on repeat back to himself. Even staring at it so intently now seemed so warm and inviting. Maybe I should rest my eyes for a moment. He jolted himself awake, fighting off every urge his sleep-deprived body was throwing at him.
Stifling a yawn, he stood up and left the room. The scent of fresh air nearly knocked him back, but he pressed onward still, running to Jenna’s door. After a few knocks and no answer, he frowned, turning to Huck’s door only to get the same result. He wandered around the building, carrying his triumph and deeply regretting not taking down either new friend’s phone number. Clearly not thinking coherently, Nate’s sleep-deprived stumbles around the dorm took him in wider circles searching for Jenna. Though now that he thought about it, why was he looking for her again? There was a perfectly good pillow in his hand. He could just curl up and-
“Jenna?” Nate rubbed his eyes with the hand holding his pillow. His head slumped in a microsleep cycle before he caught himself.
Jenna was sitting alone on a bench in a park that they’d never been to before. She smiled back at him in her new outfit- Nate frowned upon realizing he was still wearing the exact same clothes the last time they’d met several days ago.
“So much for texting me,” Jenna shook her head.
“Ah, right,” Nate grimaced. “Sorry. We should-” he yawned fiercely, “we should exchange numbers. So I can actually do that.”
Jenna stared at Nate and blinked several times before bursting out into a laugh. “Blue skies, how have we not done that already? Here I was starting to think that you just straight up forgot about me.”
They spent a minute adding each other to their contact lists and verifying they’d copied each other’s numbers correctly before Jenna motioned to Nate’s pillow. “Can I assume you’ve been successful?”
“Maybe,” Nate would have narrowed his eyes if not for the fear that if they weren’t wide open they’d immediately shut. “Don’t you know already?”
Jenna stifled a laugh. “First of all, you don’t have to stare at me like that. You look like a lunatic.”
“If I don’t keep my eyes like this, I’ll fall asleep,” Nate explained.
“Okay,” she giggled. “Second, of the futures I looked at, about half of them had you come back with nothing. All I saw was that in every future, this is where I found you next. So after you didn’t reach out to me for a whole five days, I decided to wait where we meet next.”
“That’s weird,” Nate frowned.
“What’s weird?” Jenna challenged defensively.
“I checked your room first. Then I checked for Huck. Then I checked all around the dorm building. I’m actually not sure how I made it all the way out… where are we?”
“The park in the center of campus,” Jenna offered.
“Right. Well, it’s kind of literally the last place I checked to find you.”
“Anywhere you find me would literally be the last place you searched,” Jenna grinned playfully.
“Okay, you got me on that one, but why are you all the way out here?”
“Cause this is where we’d meet again.”
“There wasn’t a single future where you were just in your dorm room or something?”
Jenna frowned and shrugged. “I guess not.”
“That’s weird.”
“So the pillow?” Jenna prodded.
“Oh. Right. See for yourself,” he grinned and tossed the pillow at her. She caught it deftly, giving the cushion a few pokes and prods as she examined it.
“It doesn’t,” she stifled a yawn, “excuse me. Doesn’t seem different from a normal pillow.”
“Ah!” Nate pointed at her, “But you yawned.”
“It’s a reflex. Pillows are associated with sleep and I’ve been really tired. Looking into the future is a lot more work that people realize,” she tucked the pillow behind her head on the park bench. “Oo, that’s nice, though. Good quality to it. Come on, sit with me.”
“I, uh,” Nate looked around nervously. “I kinda stink.”
Jenna gave a genuine laugh that tinkled pleasantly in Nate’s ears. “You do. But only because you went almost five days without reaching out to me.”
“I told you already, I didn’t have your number,” Nate explained, unable to hide his own smile.
“And there wasn’t a single future where you couldn’t knock on the wall or something?” Jenna challenged as Nate sat next to her.
As an answer, Nate gestured to where they were. “Apparently that wouldn’t have worked either, since you were all the way out here for no reason.”
Jenna shrugged and yawned again. “You expect me to be some kind of oracle or something?” Her eyes drooped heavily under the setting sun, golden light making her brown curls glow muddy reddish. Nate didn’t reply, already sleeping.
“Hey,” a gruff voice startled the two of them awake. It was dark out. Very dark.
Nate yawned, sitting up as he picked his head from Jenna’s lap. He stretched and blinked a few times at the very bright light shining in his eyes. “Wha…” was all he could manage as the brain fog remained. It was a bit cold out.
“Oh. You were sleeping. Good,” the gruff voice noted. “Well, not good, but better than… anyway,” he cleared his throat. “Campus security. Got a call about a potential public disturbance from a couple in the park, thought I’d check it out.”
Jenna let loose a yawn, “Disturbance? Us?”
“Well, yeah,” the gruff voice answered. “Couple of kids late at night out in the park. The way you guys were positioned- it sort of leads to certain conclusions.”
“What kind of conclusions?” Nate responded, still not able to see anything beyond the flashlight shining in his eyes. What sleep he had gotten in however many hours had passed worked wonders for his brain to become functional again. Or at least as functional as Nate’s brain normally would be when it came to anything having to do with the opposite sex.
“You know, with your head… and her leaning back like that… Don’t make me spell it out,” the security officer groaned. “I’m too old to do night rounds around the Bloody Willow anymore.”
“Bloody Willow?” Jenna scrunched her nose.
“The Wet Wood? Maidenhead? Blushing Knotty? Red Weeper? Who am I kidding, you’re first years, aren’t you? I shouldn’t go around putting ideas in your head. You know what? Forget I said anything. There was supposed to be a curfew set tonight. Get yourselves back to a dorm. And for the love of Bastion’s city, if you decide to get intimate on campus, keep it private.”
Jenna blushed and looked away as Nathaniel blinked at the elderly guard.
“There’s a curfew in effect tonight?” Nate asked in a daze.
“You’ve still got 15 minutes. The Manatologist is predicting an erratic Tier IV Gate to pop in around the area sometime in the early morning. He’s been wrong before, but…” the guard shrugged noncommittally. “Whatever may or may not happen, Lighthouse is in the city tonight. As long as the streets are cleared of bystanders, the Heroes can clean up without worry.”
Nate felt something squeeze his hand. He looked over to find Jenna nodding slowly.
“We should go,” she spoke softly. “You too. Finish your patrol as quickly as you can.” Her eyes flashed milky white for a moment. “There’s one other couple on your route in the bushes about a quarter mile that way.” Her face reddened substantially as her own words caught up to her. “Not that I saw them! Well, I did see them, but I wasn’t looking at them; I wasn’t even trying to see them at all!- not that they were being obvious that I noticed them-”
“She’s an Oracle,” Nate shrugged to the security guard. “Tier V. Get them and get inside.” Squeezing Jenna’s hand to snap her out of her spiraling embarrassment, Nate stood and strode briskly back toward the temporary dorm, dragging a still sputtering Jenna behind him.
“How bad is it?” Nate asked her somberly.
“Tier IV, like he said. In the city proper. Close to campus. And soon. Mayhem doesn’t seem to breach the streets, thanks to Lighthouse.”
The rest of their walk was silent as Jenna finally seemed to get her feet back under herself. She caught up with Nate in a few strides and they began to cut back across campus. Without word or question, they both strode into Nate’s room and closed the door. Pungent sweat stink blasted their nostrils within seconds, causing them both to recoil before Nate threw his window open, giving Jenna a look of solemn apology.
“Sorry. Sort of lost track of… well, everything working on my Imbuing.”
Holding a hand to her nose, Jenna chuckled to herself. “Can’t be perfect,” she shrugged. “Besides, I think it’s a bit better now?” she ventured, still unwilling to test that particular theory at the moment.
The sky shattered. White shards of light filled the black sky before dissolving to a blood red. Wind howled through the open window with the sharp screeches of demons, just barely below the threshold of pain in volume and tone. Nate’s back hunched in discomfort. He could feel every hair on his body stand on end. His mind flashed back through the years in Columbus, Ohio. Back to similar sky shatterings. Back to screaming and blood. Back to crowds trampling each other in a panic. Back to hideous laughter as the creatures slaughtered groups of people at a time. Back to fallen Heroes and broken hopes. Back to darkness. Back to the present as Jenna gave his hand a tight squeeze. Looking over, he could see etches of fear in her own pink irises.
The two of them strained to see anything out of their first floor windows to no avail, the actions behind the various shouts and screeches and screams blasting through their window completely hidden by surrounding buildings. Nate shuddered at the city’s siren wails, willing himself not to be drawn into the past again.
“It’s going to be okay,” Jenna muttered, more to herself than Nate. “I saw it’s going to be okay, so it’s going to be okay.”
Funny how now ‘the future’ is definitive. Truth be told, it was a convenient lie Nate would 100% get behind right now. We’re going to be okay. It was such a simple convenience to believe with Heroes on the streets. Truthfully, the sentiment translated to ‘we won’t get slaughtered this time around’.
Low rumblings filled the air like thunder as battle broke out in the streets several blocks away. Muffled voices shouting indiscernibly at each other echoed across Chicago’s skyscrapers and into the dormitory room. A tangible aura of oppression and fear fell over the city. Nate and Jenna stood there, unwilling to let go of one another as true terror radiated outward from the flashing lights just out of sight. Shockwaves blasted through the air, the barest eddies of those which managed to get reflected into Nate’s open window was nearly enough to rock the pair of young adults backward and off their feet. Their building shook again under another oppressive shockwave, dust crumbling from the ceiling. Jenna’s breath hitched before she returned to her mantra of “It’s going to be okay.”
Nate could only shake his head in dismay, giving his friend a look of concern. She thinks I have what it takes to stand out there and fight Demons? I couldn’t even stay upright on the outskirts of this battle. The shockwave of a stray punch would be enough to turn me into jelly if I were even a few blocks closer. Hell, this building can’t even take much more punishment. His eyes drifted upward as the dormitory shook once again. Perhaps it was intuition that extended his arm; perhaps destiny or fate, or maybe it was simple curiosity that led his actions. Nate’s hand connected with the wall and he felt something resonate within his core. It wouldn’t make sense for a structure to be unstable. That was the antithesis of design. Structures are designed and built for stability and shelter. Period. Nate’s will nudged the building itself. It didn’t feel like improving any materials, or changing the building’s foundation to be more solid. The sensation was more along the lines of aligning the building with its inherent purpose of design. Subtle shifts in joints to better handle stress and strain, tightening of bolts, rejoining subtle flaws in welds, purging several dozen minute imperfections that didn’t align with the building’s purpose. He could feel some sort of energy leave his body, adding up rapidly to fatigue. His eyes fluttered, breaking him out of his focus as he nearly blacked out, stumbling into Jenna.
“Woah,” Jenna exclaimed in surprise as nearly 200 pounds fell limp against her diminutive frame.
Nate caught himself just before they both toppled over. “Sorry, I’m not sure-”
Another explosion crashed through the air. The building still shook, but not nearly as badly as it had for even the lesser shockwaves.
Jenna’s eyes flew wide as she gazed into Nate’s eyes. “Did you just-”
He couldn’t keep the smile from creeping upward, “I think I did, yeah.”
After righting herself, she followed up with a light punch to his shoulder. “Imbuer V,” she grinned cheekily. “Told you you had it in you.”
Nate chuffed. “I don’t remember that being an exact quote, but yeah. Thanks. And I guess for the campus orientation advice as well. Probably wouldn’t have made it back in time otherwise.”
“That wasn’t any sort of prediction,” she blushed under the praise.
“As I remember, neither was your Imbuer pep-talk. Well, not really.”
“I don’t… wasn’t that a vision within a vision where I said you should focus on Imbuing?” Jenna scrunched her nose, trying to recall herself.
“That’s not the part that helped me,” Nate chuckled, collapsing onto his bed. “It was the talking bit after. Where you just had me talking about what Imbuing is. Or really, highlighting my complete lack of understanding. Your questions helped a lot more than your visions.”
“Pah! Some Oracle I am, then,” she teased with the shake of her head.
Nate gave his own chuckle. “Oracle V, Friend VI. The Trait’s kinda OP. Don’t disparage.”
“So I’m like: a Mega Ultra Friend?” something in her voice soured as her face fell flat.
“Hey, friendship is the greatest magic of all. Don’t sell yourself short,” Nate teased, sitting upright to pat Jenna’s head playfully. His smile fell away quickly as their eyes met. Part of him wanted to kiss her. Badly. But she’s an Oracle. Surely she’s looked into our future by now. If anything significant were there for us, wouldn’t she tell me? Nate broke eye contact and looked out the open window again, taking a deep breath in and out again. Silence filled the room for an awkward moment before Nate spoke up again. “The shockwaves are coming in more sparsely. Lighthouse probably already contained the break. I think we should call it a night and head off to our beds.”
For the tiniest of moments, Nate could almost swear he caught something flash across her face out of the corner of his eye. Relief? “Yeah,” she turned to him and grinned. “Big day tomorrow. Don’t sleep in, okay? Orientation is still important for the Elites.”
“We’ll walk to orientation together. Then at least we’ll know we’re both there. Night Jenna.”
Jenna rolled her eyes, shaking her head with a smile. “Good night, Nate.”