Chapter 65
Bailey was excited to be working solo. This was her chance to prove that her position at the top of the leaderboard was no fluke. She deserved to be the current Top Seed. Furthermore, taking out the juggernaut of Team 1 would make her mark in War Games and the Top Seed competition as a whole. Vegas odds had Horizon winning the whole damn thing, but Hieroglyph was going to cause an upset, and she took great pleasure in that notion.
She perked up a bit as she neared the halfway point between her home base and her objective. If Horizon’s team had a similar strategy, the time was approaching when she could possibly cross paths with whoever was sent to capture her team’s flag. It was possible that Lizzy would have played defensively. Since they currently held the top position in War Games, they may have all stayed back at base to guard their flag from being taken. That was probably their best strategy. But Horizon didn’t think that way. Bailey would bet everything she had that Lizzy would have wanted to gain another point before the day was up.
That bet might have paid off, too. Just as Bailey was approaching the Northern mountain foothills, she saw something that put a bit of a damper on her enthusiastic mood. The trees ahead were bending in unnatural ways, a signature of Ashbury’s tree surfing. Hieroglyph hung her head, taking a moment to gather herself, and then stood tall and prepared for another showdown with her blond roommate.
She quickly shuffled through single words that could be effective against the floral empress. In many ways, Ashley was the worst type of opponent for her. Bailey’s power came with a few downsides, one of which was that it was impossible to calibrate, so if not careful, she could become easily overwhelmed in battle. Since she could only activate the essence of a single word at a time, she was unable to dictate the proper amounts. She could use a word that encompassed a quantity, like “swarm,” but that was vague; a swarm of what? She could anticipate locusts and get butterflies or bubbles. Likewise, she could use plurals to indicate more than one of something. But then she was rolling the dice as to how many would be conjured. She could say locusts and get two, which would be useless, or a million, which would possibly put her into a coma from over-exertion.
So when going against a foe like Ashley, who could create a veritable legion of leafy soldiers, Bailey would have to depend on short bursts of area assaults and shields unless she could come up with a more comprehensive solution. And the time for planning was over, she had run out of time.
***
Joel sat atop his team’s tower as he had been during this whole challenge. Part of him felt guilty for always staying back while everyone else fought so hard for every point. Then again, great defense is the best offense, as they say. And, as far as the world was concerned, he had the perfect meta-ability for defense. Very few people knew how effective he could have been if properly trained. In truth, Joel himself didn’t really know the full extent of his powers or how to utilize them fully. The moon was an enigmatic force that had been attributed to so many powers throughout history. We all know that the moon affects gravity and ocean tides, but throughout the continuum, it has been so much more than that. The Greeks believed that the moon was the home of the dead, while the Hindus believed that it represented rebirth. Sleep, dreams, moonlight, and even hunting have all been associated with the moon. Inducing sleep just happened to be the easiest aspect for Joel to master, which was honestly a curiosity even to him; though he was thankful for it in this trial, since he would be able to create a constant radius of sleep around the tower, preventing anyone from approaching the tower without passing out.
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It was the last day of the challenge, and Joel would never tell his team this, but the constant power usage was wearing on him. He had never labored this hard before, but his team was counting on him, so he pushed through. Ironically, boredom was becoming an issue. It was so hard to focus just sitting there, solitary, day after day. He only got to see his team when the points reset. Joel had always considered himself an introvert. Someone who tended to keep to himself. However, after nearly a month of being mostly alone, he felt socially starved, which he didn’t think was possible. Was it bad that he really hoped an adversary would show up just so that he could throw them in the brig and finally have someone to talk to once in a while? His mind was drifting more and more as he stared at the same trees all the time. He regretted not talking to Ken or Jax about meditation techniques. A few weeks ago, he did begin a challenge to count all of the branches on each tree surrounding their home base to try to center himself and stay focused. “One thousand, four hundred and fifty-five. One thousand, four hundred and fifty-six…” though it might have been having the opposite effect. Joel’s mind began to drift off when he suddenly heard someone shouting his Herald name.
Joel looked down and saw Athena, decked out in her white and gold Olympian costume, standing just outside his radius, which was curious because no one could see Joel’s power. How did she know where to stop? Also, curiously, instead of assuming a fighting position or trying to sneak by, she stood there waving her hands to get his attention. “Zs! I know you’re there! We need to talk, Alani.”
“Alani?” Joel was confused.
“Oh, sorry! It's just a greeting. Like, ‘We need to talk, dude!’.”
“Ah.” Well, that cleared up his confusion, but he was still wary. He didn’t even know Athena. To his knowledge, they had never met. They certainly hadn’t ever talked or held a conversation. So, her showing up like this, displaying a clear knowledge about the mechanics of his power, sent up some pretty glaring red flags. He responded tepidly, “Yeah? About what?”
“Drop your sleep aura and let me in. We can discuss in a more private setting,” Olympian made it all sound way more cryptic than the words themselves conveyed. What was she getting at?
Joel narrowed his eyes. This had to be some kind of trick. There was no reason for them to have a private conversation. There was simply no way she just wanted to talk. Athena was savvy. She probably wanted to lull him into a false sense of security so she, or one of her teammates, could capture his flag. Ever so carefully, inch by inch, Joel extended the sleep cloud outward toward her so slowly that she didn’t notice. “Okay. You stay there. I’m coming down.”
“Good! We need to talk about our ginger friend. Shhoe know, Mmmikey’s mmmom?” Olympian’s speech slurred.
Now, that came as a surprise to Joel. She knew Ariella? I guess it made sense. Her mom was on The Council, and Ariella was the Sentry. Still, Athena was intimating that she knew about Joel’s relationship with the red-headed Herald. And, that was a closely guarded secret. What the hell was going on? Before he could pull his aura back completely, he heard a thud. Peering between the tower’s crenels once more, he saw that Olympian had fallen under his sleep spell and dropped, snoring, to the grassy turf. Oops. Well, he might as well get her into a jail cell. If he was going to risk a conversation with Athena, he should probably do so with the proper precautions.