CHAPTER 12
“I think I get it,” Fletcher says.
“Really?” I lean back into the booth and sigh. “Right now?”
He nods. “There’s a game going on, underneath reality, and you guys can bend the rules.”
“No, I mean—really, as in, you’re really speaking up right now?”
“That I am.”
I shake my head. Well, there goes the narrative flow. Fine. Whatever.
“Well, kind of,” I say. “But it’s more like... You and everyone else is playing checkers, while we’re playing—”
“World of Warcraft.”
“Sure. Yeah. Your game might be simpler, it might be easier to understand, but it’s limited by the board and the pieces and the rules, and our game can simulate yours down to the smallest detail.”
Fletcher nods. “Right. So, it’s like The Matrix. You know that line Morpheus has?”
“Uh, I think he has a few?”
“Would your game include a bullet from this gun?”
I raise an eyebrow. “Did that sound cooler in your head?”
“If I shot you,” he continues, “Right here, right now—what would happen?”
“Jesus. Okay. I mean, beyond everyone in the diner seeing that you shot a kid?”
“Sure. Beyond that.”
“Well,” I begin. “It would hurt. But I’d live. Even if you emptied the clip, I could use Matter II or Forces II to slow the impacts.” Maybe not at the moment, of course, considering my QP—but he doesn’t need to know that. “And that’s if I didn’t have my mantle up.”
“And if I shot you in the head?”
“Agent, please,” I reply. “Alive and dead, they don’t really have the same meaning to me anymore.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“Do you? I mean, there’s that line from Watchmen. A living person and a dead body have the same number of particles. There’s no real difference. Except there is, right?”
Fletcher nods. “Yeah.”
“Consciousness,” I say. “And the three of us were technically dead. We just didn’t know it. Right now, my consciousness isn’t just in my brain. It’s in the symbiote, too, and I don’t know where it resides. We’re linked. I’m pretty sure if you shot me in the head, Agent, I’d still be able to hobble out of here. And every single person who saw you do it would think you'd only grazed my cheek.”
"Like that cube." Fletcher takes a breath. “Hold it together, Bill,” he mutters. “And these powers, how do they work? This one-to-five thing.”
“Well, it’s like Kree said. Each Aspect has five Semblances.” I glance at the table, and dab some of the salt crystals onto my finger. “Take this salt, for example. With the first Semblance of Matter, I can tell you everything about it. At the second, I can push it in ways it was already going. Controlling and Invoking—well, those mean exactly what they sound like.”
Fletcher nods. For a time, he just sits there and nods.
“You’re shitting me,” he says, finally. “Even for life, death, time?”
“Yeah,” I reply, nodding. “Hence, the Pax. Now, can I get back to the reason why we’re here?”
“Sure, Cross.”
I lean forward, resting my arms on the table, trying to recall.
“Now, where was I... Oh, yes—”
----------------------------------------
“Synergize.”
It was like waking up without being asleep. I had no idea how else to put it. It was like the shadowing of an overcast day, and yet it felt anything but cold and dark. The shadow fell over me, warm and bright. It was like the memory of the cave, of seeing through everything—and then, in another second, of grasping that the same pattern that sent the planets spinning around the Sun was the same that’d put me in this quarry, at this time, with these people, for this purpose.
The symbiote was like a cloud over my hands, and my entire body. And my body felt good. No fatigue, no hunger, no pain. It was, I realized, like I had felt until my consciousness had been “re-tethered.” I looked down at myself, and saw the same glowing armor that the others had, but different, too. I knew that it was light, but solid—hardlight, it was called. The color of the Monitor class was green, it seemed, and my Mantle included both armor and robes. Like a Jedi or a warlock. Not as dorky as I had feared.
“Whoa,” I muttered.
“Congratulations, novitiates,” Maarek said, bowing his head, but he sounded as grim as ever. Next to him, Kree was giving us a wide, toothy smile. Same expression as when she'd showed off her fangs.
The tesseract opened.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
FORCES | 1/5 — Knowing
“Compel the forces of the universe; bind the fundament to your will.”
A black hole is a nexus of the most destructive powers known to the universe, and so, Forces is the ability to perceive and manipulate the energies that make up the universe, subtle or otherwise. Everything from sound, light, and heat to gravity, electromagnetism and radiation. It is the power that ranges from activating electrical devices with nothing but a thought, to ceasing the rotation of an entire planet. It allows an Incarnate to access the unimaginable, unfiltered power of the entire natural universe, in both subtle and sublime forms.
KNOWING: With knowledge of the First Semblance, an Incarnate can influence the most obvious forms of energy—heat, light, and sound—but also detect wireless signals, hear sounds above and below their range of hearing, and perceive visual phenomena outside their typical mundane spectrum.
MIND | 1/5 — Knowing
“Penetrate the veil of information; glimpse the noosphere.”
Nothing escapes a singularity, not even information, not even the collective consciousness of all living things. Mind is the ability to perceive and manipulate the thoughts and perceptions of sentient beings, including altering their actions and beliefs—both individual and collective. It is the power of sensing someone’s true intention, to stripping someone’s consciousness to ribbons. It is perhaps the most horrifying of the Order’s powers, and yet the most vital to maintaining peace.
KNOWING: With knowledge of the First Semblance, an Incarnate can determine someone’s true intention, read their surface thoughts and emotional state, and detect disruptions to the noosphere in their general proximity—such as the usage of telepathy or other extrasensory manipulations.
MATTER | 0/5 — Unaware
“Subvert the underlying mathematics of reality; twist and break the atomic lattice.”
Singularities consume matter, so, it is perhaps no surprise that the ability to manipulate that same matter is a first-level discipline of the Incarnate Order. Matter is the ability to manipulate inert, inorganic substances, both simple and complex. It is the power of detecting imperfections and controlling mechanisms with but a thought to transmuting one substance into another. It is the power of turning lead to gold, liquids to solids, to creating something from nothing—or to entirely expunge those same things from the substrate.
ARCHE | 1/5 — Knowing
“beginning, realm, empire, authority and power; witness the first and final principle.”
The universe is more than it appears, and so much less. If Forces is the ability to manipulate the obvious energies of the universe, then Arche is the ability to manipulate the imperceptible powers and principalities that underpin it. Arche is the influence of the Others, rendered through the shared consciousness of a sentient mind, the throne of an Incarnate’s authority. It is the alpha and omega of power, the ability to change what you will, and resist everything you do not.
KNOWING: With knowledge of the First Semblance, an Incarnate can sense the will of their symbiote and wield its energies.
“Alright,” I said, unsure of what else to add. “Cool.”
“I don’t feel any different,” Emma said.
"I'm not sure we should?" I half-asked.
“You should not,” Maarek replied.
“So,” I began, “Just how do we use these...” I had no idea what word to use—powers, abilities, disciplines?
And just like that, I knew. The symbiote whispered to me. Not in words or thoughts or even images, but just pure understanding. I was aware, now, of the fact that my body was awash in forms of energy that I’d known about but never felt. It was like straining to hear words on the other side of a door, and then realizing you understood the language. A trucker on his shortwave, a heated argument on talkback radio, an FM station playing Breaking Benjamin...
“This is insane,” I said. And then, when I stopped focusing on it, the radio waves were silent. Not imperceptible, but filtered out. I shifted in and out of that awareness like closing and opening a curtain. And, I thought, the fact I could do that with people’s thoughts...
Emma thrust a rock in my direction. “Dude, check this out.”
It looked like a very normal, very grey rock.
“Nice rock?” I offered.
“It’s basalt! It weighs 106 grams exactly.”
“Okay?”
“And if I was to apply just enough force right here,” she pointed with her other hand to a bit of the rock that seemed the same as any other, “I could split it in half.”
“Well, congratulations, Emerson,” I told her, grinning. “You’ll be Stonestead’s best geologist in no time.”
“Yeah,” she replied, nodding. “I will. And just what were you saying is insane, by the way?”
“I can hear radio waves. What’s your favorite radio station?”
“Uh, 102.5 FM.”
I sifted through the sounds of people talking and several different genres of music, only to realize—
“Okay, I can’t tell which one that is. Not yet, anyway.”
“Wow,” Emma replied. “Neat superpower, Caleb.”
“Novitiates,” Maarek called. “Attend.”
I turned to face him, as did Emma. Max, who I realized had been looking out over the little lake, turned to regard him, too. Kree remained at her father’s shoulder.
“I think this is enough for now,” he said. “Over the coming days, Novitiates, your understanding of your symbiosis will increase. You’ll be inducted further into the particulars of the Pax. Know that our sanctum is always open to you, and we are here to guide you, but also know that any attempt to expose our existence here will be met with dire consequences.”
“Got it,” I said.
“Initiate Taal will return you to your homes,” Maarek said, nodding to her. “She will also provide you with a way to contact us. For now, heed your symbiotes and advance the Pax when and where you can. You are the first Incarnates from your world—indeed, from this section of the galaxy. It will take time for us to understand your role in the wider system, especially given the unusual circumstances of your... acclimatization.”
“Sounds like side quest time,” Emma murmured. And then Maarek dismissed us, and Kree led us back to beige sedan that she had used to abduct us that morning, when we’d been half-dead and somehow not known it. It felt like a lifetime ago and, in a way, it was. Kree ignited the car’s engine with a simple touch. Dropping our mantles was as simple as thinking it, like blinking with sharp intent.
On the drive back to Stonestead, Max finally spoke up, shaking his head.
“I can’t believe we’re going back to school tomorrow.”