Much like the Main Hall, the Commons was a big old house converted for summer camp use. Half the ground floor had been converted into one giant living room and stuffed with couches, love seats, and heavily cushioned chairs all facing a big, flat-screen television. Rising platforms had been built to give the room a theatre feel

Camp Arrowhead did not specifically ban electronic devices, but there was little to no cellphone service and no outlets in the cabins. The television in the Commons was the only one on campus. It didn’t have access to cable or satellite and was only hooked up to an old DVD player.

When the girls of cabin 12 entered the living room of the Commons, it was already half full. Frankie claimed them a large couch near the back. Emilia was about to join them when she noticed, on a loveseat crammed against the wall, near the middle, Eddie sat by himself. He had a backpack on the seat next to him and three-ring binder open in his lap.

“Hey Frankie, I’m going to go check on my friend.” She was surprised at herself, calling Eddie a friend when she barely knew him, but didn’t correct herself.

Frankie looked where Emilia gestured. “Sure. Remember, curfew is ten o’clock.”

As the junior councilors haggled over what movie to watch and the crowd in the living room grew, Emilia threaded through the couches, down to the middle level, where Eddie sat.

“Mind if I sit with you?” Emilia swallowed her uncertainty.

Eddie blinked up from his binder at her, then smiled.

“I didn’t see you at dinner,” Emilia said.

“I didn’t go.”

“What? You missed mac and cheese.”

Eddie shrugged. “I wasn’t that hungry.”

His cheeks flushed and he cleared his throat. His eyes were still red and his voice thick. Emilia had attributed it to allergies on the bus, but maybe he’d been crying.

“Did something happen?”

Eddie grabbed the backpack off the other half of the love seat and set it on the floor between his feet. He shook his head then shrugged. “My roommates all really look up to Keegan and his goons. They were just giving me a hard time, that’s all.”

“Your councilor didn’t put a stop to it?”

Eddie shrugged again. He looked hard at his binder, refusing to meet Emilia’s gaze, and squirmed. “He told them to knock it off. After a while. They were just sayin’ stuff. They didn’t hurt me or anything.”

Emilia frowned. “If you want, I could...”

Eddie waved her off. “Don’t. I can handle teasing.”

Emilia nodded. It was basically the same thing she’d told her parents about the kids at school who took every opportunity to remind her she didn’t fit in.

“So, what are you looking at?” Emilia asked.

Eddie held the binder out so she could take it. It was filled with plastic, nine-pocket sleeves and each sleeve was filled with a trading card. Each card was printed with the smiling picture of a superhero, their codename splashed in bold lettering, the familiar golden logo of The Union in the upper right. She recognized most of them: Goldmane, Fateshifter, Pyrogenius. The backside of each card was filled with tiny print describing real names, years of active duty, lists of super powers, and so on.

Emilia turned the page and was met with the most famous superheroes on the planet: the Heroes of Humanity. The Athlete, the Dancer, the Guitarist, and the Speedster had confronted the Demon Lord at his fortress in the middle of the Tranquility. Their fight was modern history and high legend rolled together. It had all happened before she’d been born, but sometimes Emilia felt like she’d been there for it. Every year there was a celebration, the Heroes of Humanity plastered on everything from napkins to flags to costumes, and the interviews played over and over again.

She tapped the card of Zenith, the Guitarist and was reminded of the guitar pick in her back pocket.

“Are these official?”

Eddie nodded. “Bootleggers stay away from The Union members. No one wants to tangle with that legal team.”

He took the binder back from her and flipped to the first page and the trading cards depicting figures of history and legend: the Light Cleric, the Shadow Knight, the Twilight Royal, but Emilia’s eyes lit upon a pair of bright purple eyes and suddenly her mind raced with pages of information she didn’t remember knowing.

“Magic and superpowers really only returned to the world about sixty years ago,” Eddie said. “That is, to the degree that they exist now. There are stories of powers before that and some say it really started after the Last Great War, just under eighty years ago…”

But Emilia wasn’t listening. Instead she remembered the story of Piety Churchstep, a figure of legend said to have cleansed the continent of undead and scoured the church of corruption before the age of fifteen, when she died. Or perhaps she ascended to godhood. Or perhaps she’d moved on to another plane of existence. There were few primary sources from the time, many of which had been dismissed as fanciful until superpowers had begun to reappear.

Her mind leapt next to the Reckoning Papers, a set of testimonials written by High Cleric Temperance Sunday. Most of the Papers were lost to history, but what remained described her life with the Light Cleric and…

Emilia wrenched her thoughts from the foreign memory. Her vision blurred and her stomach lurched. She’d never read anything called the Reckoning Papers and only knew about the Light Cleric as a hero of myth.

Eddie looked away from his trading cards to her. “You okay?”

The eerie opening strains of Ghostbusters filled the room. Someone dimmed the lights and the opening camera shot of a massive library’s edifice filled the screen. The camera panned down to the great stone lions guarding the entrance, then to the flapping pigeons and milling people. Ghostbusters was one of Emilia’s favorite movies because it was one of her mother’s favorites, but the sudden noise against the unfamiliar memory was too much. A headache pounded down her neck to her shoulders.

Emilia shook her head and stood. “I’m feeling... odd.” She took a moment to be sure of her balance, then threaded through the couches.

Eddie followed carefully. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No. It’s not that. I just…”

She made her way to the stairwell that would take her to the camp’s library on the third floor. It was one of the least popular spots at Camp Arrowhead and she knew it would be quiet.

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The third floor of the Commons was four bedrooms split by a hallway running the length of the floor, two on each side. Each of the former bedrooms had been repurposed: every bit of wall-space covered in bookshelves, every shelf crammed with books. Thick-cushioned couches were wedged in the closets. Emilia felt better the further she got from the crowd. She went into the first room on the right at the top of the stairs, flipped on the light, and sat on the dusty couch.

After a while, she realized Eddie stood in the doorway, awkward, backpack dangling from one hand. Emilia took a deep breath, feeling her chest and shoulders relax. She opened her mouth as far as she could and her jaw popped. Her headache drained and she sighed in relief.

“Better?” Eddie asked.

Emilia nodded. “Much. That was… peculiar.”

Eddie looked uncertain.

“You don’t have to stand there all embarrassed,” Emilia said. She patted the couch. It was dusty and smelled faintly of books. She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the back of the couch. The sudden memories weren’t as odd as what she’d felt at the end of school, but neither were they normal. What if she really did have some kind of power? Who better to talk to than an expert?

Eddie sat.

Emilia kept her eyes closed but cleared her throat. “Would you tell me more about parahumans?”

“What?”

“I’m interested and... it might distract me from the last of this headache.”

“Sure. Um, what do you want to know?”

Emilia had a thought. A test of sorts. “Tell me something weird. Something not a lot of people know about parahumans.”

“Hmm, all right. Have you ever heard of the Twenty-seven Realms?”

Emilia’s first thought was for the brightly-colored kid’s books from childhood. She remembered colored spheres arranged in orbits like the solar system. She remembered fantastical landscapes in watercolor, oil, and chalk with names like the Realm of Dream and Whimsy, the Shining Halls of Justice, the Dread Waste. She remembered figures of legend: the Vamphirom Philosopher, the Twilight Royal, the Trio of Van’litha.

“You mean the old fairy tales?” Emilia said.

Eddie nodded. “There’s a lot of old stories from the ancients up until about two hundred years ago with all sorts of supernatural people and events. The Ancient Taranaki Empire was ruled by a council of wizards in some stories. There’s and old sun-god religion that featured an octtheon of saints. And so on and so forth.”

Emilia shrugged. “I’ve read some of those in Language class. They’re a bunch of stories people believed at the time, right?”

“Could be,” said Eddie. He sort of nodded, sort of shrugged.

Emilia felt the last of her headache draining away and sighed in relief. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the couch. Eddie continued, but Emilia listed with only half her attention.

“When the first few parahumans appeared eighty-some years ago…”

Emilia remembered a paper she’d read on the subject, written by Dr. Alex Roybal. Dr. Roybal was one of the foremost researchers of the Realms. She suspected there was a terrestrial method of tracking the Realms and predicting what ancient peoples referred to as Intersects. She believed that the disappearance of supernatural beings in historical accounts world-wide about two-hundred years ago coincided with the Prime Realm somehow falling out synchronization…

Emilia sat up with a gasp of understanding. The headache threatened around the edges of her vision, smelling of toast.

Eddie jumped up from the couch like she’d bit him. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Emilia blinked rapidly and tried to relax her thoughts. She’d never read an academic paper by Dr. Alex Roybal. But Eddie had. She was certain of it. This was completely different than what had happened to her in the gym on the last day of school, but no less unnerving.

“Was that…” Eddie cleared her throat uncomfortably. “Was that weird enough, or have I gone over the edge into super nerd?” Eddie asked.

Emilia laughed. She saw Eddie tense and tried to make her voice gentle. As she spoke, the threatening headache retreated. “Would that be such a bad thing? Super nerds rule the world. You could become the foremost authority on parahumans.”

“Probably not. Dr. Alexandrea Roybal at Union Academy, is has been studying parahumans her whole life.”

“Well, maybe you could study with her.”

“I’m not a parahuman, so I can’t attend Union Academy.”

“Maybe she does one of those online master’s classes.”

Eddie shook his head. “I don’t want to be a professor of parahuman studies. I want to be a superhero.”

“You just said you don’t have parahuman powers.”

Eddie patted his backpack at his feet where the binder of cards was.

“Chalkstone was the leader of Troop Doubleought during the war. The whole troop was parahumans but him. He was just trained constantly. Brightower of the Union is a brilliant engineer, but not a parahuman. She created her own powersuit and designed The Unions satellites and stuff. Then there’s Vigilante. He fought crime in Kinswell for a decade with nothing but a bow and arrow. Well, and he had lots of money and political connections, but it was mostly the bow and arrow. I know it’s silly, but I keep hoping if I just study hard enough, memorize enough facts…”

Eddie looked away, blushing hard.

Emilia couldn’t fault him for wanting to be a superhero. She had daydreamed about it herself when she’d been small. But even she knew non-powered heroes were rare. He’d have to train like an Olympic athlete to have even a slim chance.

Emilia cleared her throat. “Frankie Crabtree, she’s the junior councilor for my cabin, she teaches archery. It’s almost all she does at camp.”

Eddie sniffled and closed his binder. “You’re patronizing me again.”

She hadn’t meant to.

He looked up at her, eyes shining behind his thick glasses. “Look at me. I’m fourteen years old and I’m tiny.” He lifted his right arm in the classic flexing pose. “Look at these skinny little arms. I can’t draw a bow. And if I went dashing across rooftops, I’d probably slip break every bone in my body. I can memorize names and dates, but I’m not an engineer and I’m not rich.”

“Eddie, a moment ago you told me you wanted to be a superhero. Now you’re trying to convince me it’s not possible.”

He cleared his throat roughly. “Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to be a superhero. And you’re the first person I’ve told who didn’t immediately laugh at me.”

“Well, why do you want to be a superhero anyway?”

Eddie laughed and sniffled again. “I guess, because they help people. When Keegan would make fun of me or chase me or push me around, I used to wish someone would rescue me. Then I began to wish I could rescue myself. And now, I guess, I want to rescue others.”

“Are superheroes the only ones who can rescue others?”

Eddie cleared his throat and wiped at his cheeks. “You going to suggest I become a policeman?”

“Or a nurse. Or a teacher. Or a historian. Hell, you could buy food for people who don’t have enough. Anything.”

Eddie smiled. “I suppose, superhero as metaphor, is a worthy aim.”

“At least you have an idea what you want to do,” said Emilia. “I’m just hoping to survive high school.”

Eddie’s expression went far away and Emilia closed her eyes again. It hadn’t been the same as downstairs, but hearing Eddie talk about the Twenty-seven Realms had triggered something. Maybe she was imagining things, but maybe…

The silence between them stretched and Emilia let it drain the rest of her headache.

Eddie dug into his backpack and pulled out a battered old book with a plain brown cover. “Can I ask you a weird question?”

Emilia opened her eyes. “I have no doubt.”

“Are you sure you’re not a parahuman?”

Emilia squirmed. Between the foreign memories and the embarrassing moment in the gym, she wasn’t certain anymore.

Eddie hurried on. “I ask because I found this old book here in the library. Have you seen it before?” He held it up. It looked like an old library book with a brown cover and a many-pointed star, like a compass rose, stamped on the front.

Emilia shook her head.

“This is a transcription and collection of all the notes the Fir Family ever wrote about Camp Arrowhead.”

Emilia waited for him to go on. He looked at her intently as though waiting for her to respond. When she didn’t, he scrunched his face in thought.

“You called Keegan and his buddies something on the bus.”

“The four fiends,” said Emilia.

“Yeah. Where did you hear that?”

She shook her head. “I just came up with it. It seemed appropriate. I liked the alliteration.”

Eddie opened to the front page of the book and read.

A compass rose marks the way

Sixteen-points upon a star

A hero is the key

Four seasons spread through time

Elements to focus

Directions to point

Fiends to test the mettle

Open the door, hero,

open the door

A long enough time line

Crumbles all stone

Unravels all knots

Opens all doors

A hero will come

A hero is key

Open the door, hero, open the door.

“Poetry isn’t my strong suit. What’s it mean?” Emilia asked.

Eddie shrugged. “I was hoping you knew.”

“Because you’re convinced I’m parahuman?”

Eddie shrugged. “I know what I saw.”

“Saw?”

He looked away. “Heard, I mean.”

Emilia thought about the poem to distract from Eddie’s misspeak.

“At dinner we were speculating about the keyholes in the stone box. There’s four of them and there’s lots of groups of four. Like the poem says.”

Eddie looked back down at the book. “Seasons, elements, directions, fiends. And if there are fiends, perhaps the hero is meant to fight them.”

Emilia shook her head. “But that’s just coincidence, me calling them that.”

“Or, maybe you’re a hero who will test her mettle against the fiends and claim the treasure.”

Emilia rolled her eyes.