Chapter 38

Well, that could’ve gone better. Joel arrived back at his dorm late on the night of The Healer trial, trophyless and utterly devoid of points. He and Bobby hadn’t said a word to each other since their post-challenge interviews and the shuttle ride back to the spire. Neither was in a chatty mood. Zero points. It had been as bad a start as Joel could have imagined. He had trusted Ariella when she convinced him that he was ready for the competition, but that had all been a lie. What was he here for? This wasn’t even his dream. How could it have been? He had only gained his powers a couple of months ago.

Joel changed into his pajamas and climbed into bed. Getting comfortable, he felt a crinkle of paper under his pillow. His roommate seemed to be asleep. At a minimum, Bobby was on the verge of slumber, motionless under his covers on the other side of the small room. Joel grabbed the Onyx tablet that was provided by the Top Seed producers. It wasn’t uncommon for Joel to watch videos before bed, so he knew Bobby wouldn’t suspect anything untoward.

Joel pulled his covers over, made a little tent with his head, and turned on the tablet to create enough light to see the paper tucked into his pillowcase. He pulled it out and looked at it: an envelope. Strange. It seemed heavy, as though it had more than just paper inside. He quietly opened the flap and turned the envelope upside down. It contained two objects. The first was expected: a small business card with a cryptic message that read “digsy’s dinner | click click click | two’s A must | don’t be fussed |” The second object in the envelope was odd. It was a small disk, the diameter of a nickel but twice as thick, with a button in the center. It didn’t take a genius to decipher the lazily coded message.

The first line of the code was the easiest to decipher. Digsy’s Dinner was a reference to the band Oasis. The song appeared on their first album as “Digsy’s Dinner,” but in the United States, it was misprinted as Digsy’s Diner. The Oasis Diner was an all-night diner in the normal part of Eden. That would apparently be the location of a secret rendezvous. The key to the next part of the message that Joel was able to decode was in the only word that was capitalized in the third line: A. He laughed. Either this was a Pretty Little Liars reference, or he was to meet Ariella at the diner. But, duh. Who else would he be meeting at two a.m.? That was the third part of the message. “two’s A must,” 2 A.M.

Joel took another moment to see if he could glean anything else from the message. “Don’t be fussed” might refer to not being followed or maybe not being seen. He looked at the small chrome button in his hand. “Click Click Click.” He pressed it three times and noticed a slight glow coming from the edge around the center clicker. He put it in his pocket. If he was right, that little fob could be the most powerful and useful object in his possession over the course of the next year.

Joel turned his tablet off and rolled over on his side. He didn’t set an alarm for fear of waking his roommate. If his guess was right, the clicker might give him protection from mechanical eyes but not from human ones. He eyed the clock next to his bed until the short hand pointed at one, and the longer hand was over the six. He decided to be as cautious as possible and poured his power into a sustained blast of sleep energy that washed out from him. Keeping the slumber effect active, he slipped out of bed, threw on some warm clothes, and made his way out of The Spire to The Oasis Diner just off Main Street in Eden, Ohio.

***

A bell rang as Joel stepped across the threshold into the quintessentially American atmosphere of the small-town eatery. He looked around until he saw the back of her head. She was sitting at a table against the far wall to his right. Her red hair stood out amongst the blue faux leather booths and rusty metal accents. A small field mouse scurried across his feet as he made his way to the corner. This type of thing would worry him in a normal restaurant, but not tonight. No, tonight, this little rodent's presence simply reinforced the fact that he had read the clue properly and come to the correct spot.

However, a different emotion started to well up inside Joel: anger. Anger. Anger at being forced into a competition he wasn’t ready for. Anger at the fact that Ariella had been unable or unwilling to help him in any significant way. Anger that he had just embarrassed himself on the world stage. And Anger that, once again, he was poised to fail at something he was starting to care a great deal about.

“Ariella,” he greeted with a nod as he sat down against the far wall facing the door.

“Ah, Joel. I’m glad you were able to decode my message. I expected you were up for the task, but one never knows,” She said as she dipped a french fry into her milkshake. “Strawberry fry?” she offered.

“Strawberry fry? No! That’s what you have to say at our clandestine rendezvous at two in the morning after I just had a truly spectacular failing in the trial? Strawberry fry?”

“Well, you don’t have to get all snippy,” Ariella responded. “I know it's not the most conventional midnight snack, but still. It’s better than, say, vanilla hashbrowns. Although chocolate chips actually sound pretty good.”

“It’s not about the snack!” Joel’s voice was rising as he started to lose the internal battle to hold his shit together.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“No need to yell. Geez. Try to stay on subject. We have a lot to get through. But first, you got my gift, right? And used it before leaving The Spire?”

Joel pulled the small chrome button out of his pocket. “Yeah, what is this thing? I mean, I get it probably allows me freedom from The Show’s cameras, right?”

“Astute as always, young padawan.” Ariella chuckled at her own lame joke. “Yep. If you click that button three times, it will give you the freedom to move about without The Show’s eyes on you. Basically, any camera looking in the direction of that device while it is activated will be knocked out for five long minutes. The Show has millions of drones activated at any given time, so a couple of dozen can go offline without causing alarm. But don’t use it too often, and always activate it from your dorm…” She paused, sniffed the air, and smiled. “…when you’re alone or with your roommate. The trick is to make it seem like you are in the privacy of your room whenever the cloaking device is activated.”

“Sweet.” Joel looked at the small coin-sized device in awe. “By the way… Am I fucking psychic? Because last night I had this crazy dream where Bobby and I were drowned at sea after a tidal wave hit us, and then in the Challenge-”

“Yes, I watched the challenge.”

“Yes? Am I psychic? How do you know? Was Eclipse psychic?”

“Woah Woah Woah, slow down, Joel. I’ll answer as much as I can tonight, but first things first.” Ariella waved the waiter over to their table. “Hi Eddie, this is my good friend Joel. Joel, Eddie here can be trusted with anything. If you ever find yourself in any trouble, just come here and ask for Eddie. He will get word to me that you need help.” Eddie gave a smile and an awkward wave at Joel. He was a tall man, maybe 30 years old, and dressed casually. His hair was very short, almost shaved, and dyed pink. He had a couple of studs in his ears and a lip ring. “Eddie, Joel here would like a basket of fries and a vanilla shake,” and turning to Joel, added, “Strawberry is for those who crack the top 10 in challenges. Want anything else?”

Joel asked for a burger and some water, and Eddie returned to the kitchen to place their order.

“Now, as for being psychic,” Ariella jumped right back into answering Joel’s questions, “I’m not actually sure. Eclipse never mentioned anything to me about psychic abilities, but there is nothing to indicate that he was. The Show may actually know more. Flint and Eclipse were very close. But, we don’t even know that you inherited his exact powers. Usually, there are distinctions between individual power sets, even with those from the same bloodline that have similar base abilities.”

“Distinctions?” Joel asked.

“Yes. Like, two people might have the ability to teleport. But one might be able to go long distances, lacking the ability to pinpoint the end location, while the other might be limited in distance yet have extreme precision. Or it could be as simple as one of the teleporters creating a smoke cloud and the other a flash of light as they tear through space and time.”

“Ah. I see.” Joel said as he stole one of Ariella’s fries.

“But as for your psychic abilities, I have a theory.” She scrunched her nose and lips together, thinking hard about how to explain or how much to reveal. “Now, Eclipse never confirmed that he had this ability, but I always wondered if, as the moon Aspect, if he could enter or even manipulate other people’s dreams or nightmares. As you know, Aspects are extremely powerful, the most coveted of all power classifications. Eclipse couldn’t just create or control characteristics of the moon like gravity or reflective light energy. He could also take those characteristics on, essentially making him a moon god”

“Woah. Is that what you think I am? Am I The Moon God now?”

Ariella laughed, “Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Your point total at present would indicate you have a way to go until god status is achieved. Moon minion, maybe. But, back to your dream walking…”

“I mean, it’s possible. But why would Bobby be having a nightmare about drowning? And it’s just a coincidence that we had the exact same thing happen in the challenge?”

“Hmmm, I usually don’t believe in coincidence,” Ariella said thoughtfully as her mind drifted elsewhere.

Joel’s interactions with Ariella often felt conspiratorial. There was always an air of subterfuge, of something bigger that had her attention. He felt the only times she opened up about what was going on was when she needed him to have a piece of information so he could do something for her: like he was an asset.

Ariella began to speak a bit louder for some reason, “You should talk to your roommate. See if he has some connection to the water or a fear of drowning. Oh! Maybe he was a pirate in a previous life. Maybe he is a pirate!”

Joel rolled his eyes. Ariella was the most enigmatic person he had ever met. One minute, she could be deadly serious, like a college professor, or lawyer, or some sort of secret super spy. Then, in the blink of an eye, she could become this socially awkward, silly, “fun aunt” type. The duality kept Joel off-kilter in their interactions. Which, now that he thought about it, was likely the point.

When his food arrived, Joel took a huge bite of his burger, and while he was chewing, Ariella asked, “How much do you know about the origins of The Council of Heralds?” He nearly choked and struggled to swallow the gigantic mouthful of beef, cheese, and bread.

“The Council? I know what we all know. During colonial times, settlers found a wellspring in the West, bathed in it, and got powers, blah blah. They formed a council of twelve to represent the new community they built at the site, yadda yadda. The wellspring dried up, and only those born of the original founders' blood have powers now. But there have been so many generations now that it doesn’t really matter. Powers are just passed on like genetics. Is that what you mean?”

Ariella couldn’t contain her laughter, “That’s it in a nutshell. It’s a nice little bedtime story, isn’t it?”

“I guess,” Joel answered, confused as to how this could be important enough to call an off-the-grid midnight rendezvous.

“Now, if I’m not mistaken, your new friend followed you here and has been listening in on our conversation.” She stood up and waved at the far end of the small diner, “Bobby, come on over! Let me tell you both the real history of The Heralds.”