Einhurst was already out in "the weeds". Yet if “the weeds” could have their own weeds, then a group of slapdash trailers two and a half miles outside of town was just that. The trailers sat on their own lots, a neatly measured half a mile from the next. The residence in question lay right on that line where the trees started growing, separating civilization and the wild. The trailer could hardly be called in the forest, but no one was claiming it as part of town either.

There was no bus Kael could take, no cabs in a place like this, and he hardly felt like hitchhiking. So he walked.

"Howdy." The word bounced between the dirt mounds.

Just as Kael skirted by the giant earthen barriers, ten feet high, he looked down the entrance to see a ruddy-faced boy bundled up in cheap store-bought warmery.

"Hey," Kael said, before walking onwards, the kid quickly following on his heels.

"You going back to see Mr. Ward? You said you would today."

"You got it," Kael said, smiling and offering a thumbs up. "You did say he lived alone. Your intel still good?"

"Sure. He's never been so much as married. People can't stand the coot."

"Then I'm still going. He wasn't alone last time. I'm sure of that." Kael wrinkled his nose looking up at the sky. No snow meant low steam this morning, which would make it both easier to see and be seen. "Unless you've heard something else. . . ."

"About that medical fella'? Nah."

"You going to follow me the entire way, or you going to school?"

"It's Harvest Day. Only day this time of year we actually get off. Religious holidays in the summer and all that." Kael pulled the kid to the side as a car whizzed by. "Anyhow, if I got school, you got school. No way you're an adult yet."

"Never went to school," Kael sighed. "I've appreciated your help spying on your neighbors, but are you really going to follow me all the way there? He almost shot me last time."

"I heard. Everyone talks about it."

"Who's everyone?

"Everyone, everyone." The kid skipped in front of Kael and started walking backwards. "Mr. Ward is in town almost every night getting sloshed at the bar. So everyone, knows everything."

Kael said, "They know everything I don't need to know, that is. Are you coming or not? I'm not going to shoo you away, but you have to promise to keep a secret. We're going to be sneaky, but if we're found out, I will. . . .'' Kael stooped low in that barren lea and lowered his voice to a whisper, "have to do some magic."

"Nah. You're having a go at me now."

Kael tried his best not to smile. "Head back and ask around again. If you can find info on Bartholomew, I'll double what I was offering."

"Double what you were offering yesterday, or double what you were offering last week."

"Double what I was offering three seconds ago. You find this guy, and I'll give you whatever you want. Now git." Kael twisted the boy by the shoulders and pointed him back towards town. The kid scampered off, his feet nearly kicking him in the rear as he ran full speed.

As the boy disappeared like a mirage into the ever so slight haze of steam from the surrounding farmland, Kael doubled his pace and made for his target.

Any group of people had outsiders who didn't get to take part but still knew everything: children, homeless, the drunk tank skunks. They'd always give you the real news. Kael had started with the children, time for the drunk.

Evergreens dotted the murky countryside in pinpricks, and tent-pole trees stood stark with never growing foliage. It was the latter that bore the jagged scars of repeated lightning strikes. Kael turned down from the craggy country road and stepped over a chain spanning two lonely steel rods. In theory, it marked a side road. In practice, Kael stomped down a path of mud with a double line of tire tracks tearing through that.

Kael stood straighter, strained his eyes and ears. Typically he'd use his powers to send waves of energy to feel about, but in such an open space, he could see further.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Distance was one of the three main pillars of all Syches' powers. Distance, material, amount. The further out, greater quantity, and less purity a substance, then the more mental focus and power it took. Material presented a conundrum for Combustion Syches like Kael. Knowing a rock was composed of fifty percent iron, for example, still left Kael in the dark about the exact energy requirements to make it explode. Each element on the periodic table was unique.

Lightning Syches ran into similar problems calculating conductivity and resistances for composites.

Both could over saturate the material with energy to create the desired effect, but that was a quick way to drain yourself.

The one immutable rule was that Syches couldn't affect humans directly. If he stretched out with his powers and found a void, that void was a human.

A couple days ago, Kael crawled through the grass close enough to Ward’s trailer to feel a black hole inside. And it was precisely at that point where Kael looked up to see a shotgun resting on his forehead, held by none other than Fillip Ward himself.

Ward outside, mystery man inside. Working theory.

Kael's feet stopped. He had moved far enough beyond a large tent-pole tree to see behind it, and the sight caught his breath. His hands slowly rose in the air as he subtly angled himself towards the new danger. Ward sat in a lawn chair behind the tree, that infernal shotgun pointing squarely at Kael's chest. Tricky creatures those. Despite their reputation as close-range weapons, they'd kill anything within eyesight; it's just that they'd obliterate a living being within ten feet. They had one big downside and that was the reload time. Unlike the LIM-b firearms military and upscale police were carrying these days, these antiques required a double load, putting in a Magcon after the bullets.

Kael didn’t think he’d have to reload from this range.

The bumpkin held his gun loosely, in the other hand a beer can. Wasn't his first this morning based on that distant expression.

Kael's fingers twitched and his mouth moved slightly, looking not at Ward but at the dirt between them. Distance: 20 feet. Material: dirt. Little under half of that would be minerals, one-third air, and the rest would be water. At least he wouldn't have to worry about it being frozen.

"Were you waiting for me?" Kael asked, more curiosity in his tone than anything else.

"I heard you were coming."

"Heard from whom?"

"People talk."

It was in that moment, Kael realized he hated this town. “How about you lower the gun and we can carry on the tradition?”

Ward ignored that. "Getting a little bothered by you, boy. Try and rob me once–" he paused to take an awkward sip of his beer. Kael waited, but Ward didn’t resume.

"I told you last time, I'm looking for someone. I have no interest in robbing you."

"I told you last time, ain't nobody here."

"See, I know that's a lie, hence the impasse. I know someone was in your trailer. Maybe there still is. And what I'm doing is too important to ignore that possibility." Kael stretched out with his mind, drawing the energy he put forth into a line through the earth to where the man stood. It snapped like a taut string and Kael held it there. The act created a faint line of pressure through his frontal lobe as he held that connection.

"I'd keep saying people talk," Ward began, "but no one is talking about my business. No one around here knows or cares what I do, so I'm going to ask you one last time, how could you know that someone's been in my place?"

The gun shook now, and Kael eyed the man's finger hovering over the trigger wracked with tremors. He focused on that faint line of energy he shot through the dirt. Had to keep that in focus no matter what. Sychic energy was all about will. Unlike Ward, Kael's hands remained eerily still. His eyes stayed fixed on the horizon and unwavering.

"Making me real nervous with that gun," Kael said.

"I don't give a–" The man's finger twitched.

The faintest spark of orange ran through Kael's heel and into the ground.

The world ripped itself apart in heat and fury. A maelstrom of dirt and rocks and brown erupted into the air where Ward had stood. A particular noise which could only be described as ear-drum-bleeding-loudness ricocheted throughout the countryside, and for a fraction of a second, the morning mists retreated. And as the dirt came tumbling down in specks and earthen clods, Kael umbrellaed himself with an arm, feeling the hail of dirt pelt his chest and head with inoffensive patters. As the instant of pandemonium subsided, Kael relaxed himself and began dusting off.

He surveyed the scene with satisfaction. Kael had seeded the explosion further down in the ground and kept it contained. Nothing but a shockwave of dirt had blown Ward away.

Kael found the shotgun lying under a large rock. He couldn't be sure, but he distinctly remembered a little pop during the explosion. That would have been an unfortunate way to go, a stray bullet ricocheting. Kael hoisted the gun with one hand and sent spasms of orange energy through it that netted around and encased the weapon. Then he chucked it as far as he possibly could and watched as it exploded in neon hues in the air. He listened for a second pop but it never came. That confirmed that Ward actually had got a shot off, wherever it went.

Kael found Ward. The drunk lay in a ball under a layer of burnt Earth, his arms strung across his body like he was hugging himself. Kael nudged him with his foot, turning the man over fully on his back and giving him adequate room to breathe. And breathe he did, in painful, wheezing rasps. Kael didn't know when he'd be conscious again, but it didn't matter. He wouldn't be up and walking around any time soon.

"Serves you right," Kael said making a rude gesture, bringing his second, fourth, and fifth fingers together. "Stay here and--“ Kael paused to look at the swirling fog low to the ground, “blow off some steam.” Kael sighed. “That was a Joshua joke.” He looked down the imprint of a road and resumed his march to Ward's trailer. "I know I shouldn't expect anything, but I'm prepared to get my hopes up."