Omrai sat at a simple desk in his tent, staring down Beadoróf after arguing with him for the fifth time. Pity the arguments felt so one-sided. Beadoróf said nothing. No matter what argument Omrai used, Beadoróf didn’t see him as someone he needed to respect or obey. Omrai only sensed firmness.

Omrai had run out of fuel for his debate. It wasn’t as if Beadoróf didn’t want to help, he was just adamant that he couldn’t until Revin had returned. Omrai had considered going after the boy more than once, but again Beadoróf had cautioned him. “The last thing he needs when trying to master the greatest beast in the world is your condescension.”

Shifra wouldn’t speak to him either. Omrai understood. She’d been right. And so had Revin. After years of understanding people’s emotions so much, and using that understanding to manipulate or destroy them, he had reached the end of what that skill could help him with.

He found a new problem, or just a problem he’d refused to see before. He understood the emotions that came from people, but he didn’t understand why . And apart from combat, Omrai really had little experience with connection.

He felt more than heard a low rumbling sound, and the rushing of wind. Shouts came from his sentries in the camp outside. His eyes widened. He grabbed his sword and rifle and ran out the tent, noticing as he went that Beadoróf was smiling.

Omrai jumped outside. A massive ship floated in the sky near their camp.

“How did they find us!” Omrai shouted to one of this elites.

“I don’t know!”

Revin, Omrai thought, Revin must have been captured and gave us up. He wouldn’t last long against torture.

“To arms!” he shouted.

The men scrambled, drawing swords and loading muskets. Omrai led the way, standing between the ship and the camp, his men lining up on either side of him.

The ship was a hundred feet away, and it landed on the dry ground, rear towards them. The dreaded ramp opening slowly.

Omrai jumped at a presence behind him but calmed when he realized it was only Shifra and Kaiato.

“Shifra,” he said, “you should run.”

She shook her head, “You know I wouldn’t be fast enough.”

Omrai heard a loud bang and looked back at the ship. The rear ramp had dropped to the ground, shooting dust into the air.

He waited, prepared to fight. Prepared to die. If this was to be his end, scraping at dirt for answers, then so be it. His men steeled themselves for whatever would step out of that ship.

But nothing happened, no one appeared. There was no swarm of automatons like every other time he had seen one of those ramps open. The high and thick dust left the ship half-obscured.

The ground pounded with the footsteps of something… massive. Many somethings. From either side of the ship, dozens of giganotos appeared. Some of his men screamed in terror and a few scrambled away, their courage fading. One let off a shot, but it went wild.

“Hold your fire!” a man’s voice shouted from the ship.

Then, from out of the dust, with giganotos walking behind him, Revin stepped forward. He walked with a stick, limping on his bad knee. His shiny metal mastersuit visible under his open long robes.

Omrai’s jaw dropped at the sight. Revin looked exhausted. Smiling weakly at the group, the majestic giganotos arrayed around him. But none attacked. Revin had succeeded. He’d not only mastered carnivores.

He’d mastered giganotos.

“Stand down!” Omrai shouted.

Shifra and Kaiato ran past him, and Revin embraced each in turn.

Omrai approached behind them, tentative. He glanced up at the biggest giganoto he had ever seen, its body covered in scars.

“Revin, you mastered this?” Omrai pointed to the massive beast.

“In a way,” Revin said. He motioned to the giganoto, “I want you all to meet Scarback. She’s been searching for me ever since I got to Ateya.”

Kaiato looked to the beast, eyes wide with trepidation.

“She doesn’t hold grudges,” Revin said with a smile.

Omrai inspected the beast. There was a healed gunshot wound on the side of its face.

Revin locked gazes with Omrai.

“I found out why she was searching for me. She knew what was happening to her fellow saurians, that someone was throwing off the balance of nature. Taking away their food supply. She wants to fix it.”

Revin glanced up at the saurians, “I’ve mastered them all.” He looked back at Omrai. “I think together we can make the greatest army the world’s ever seen. Enough to bring us to even footing against Jebuthar. That is, if you still want to work with me.”

Omrai looked at the giganotos, still not believing.

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“Before you make any decision, you have to know something,” Revin said. He smiled. “You and Shifra have an ancient power, one that is only mentioned briefly in scripture.”

“I figured it out from what you said,” Shifra said, “What do you know?”

“The Sephitaron mentions gifts of old,” Revin said, “healing, elemental control, seeing into the hearts and minds of others...”

“It’s called Sympathy,” Beadoróf said as he approached.

“I think my father had it too…” Omrai said, suddenly remembering his painful interactions with the man.

“This is why you always feel so confused around each other,” Revin said, “Your powers are conflicting somehow.”

Beadoróf laughed. “It seems I was wrong about you, Omrai, you do have one of the powers of old. Your senses interfere with each other, like two mirrors facing each other. But you can turn it off.”

Omrai and Shifra looked at Beadoróf, incredulous. Omrai frowned. “I’ve… never tried. How?”

“Part of your mind is like a sniper, sitting in a roost, always searching,” Beadoróf said. “Find that part of your mind and calm it.”

Omrai and Shifra looked at each other with brows furrowed. Omrai still felt the contentious energy.

“It helps to close your eyes.”

Omrai concentrated, he could feel Revin, Kaiato, his men, and a great source of confusion. That must have been Shifra. He concentrated and tried to do what Beadoróf said. He didn’t think it would work.

Suddenly a great tension in his mind relaxed, and the confused buzzing subsided. In fact, all sense of others’ feelings disappeared.

And for the first time in his life, he felt nothing. He gasped and opened his eyes. Everyone looked like blank slates. He felt nothing from their facial expressions, now they were just faces. Just people. Had he truly been relying on magic all along?

In his own mind, it was still. So very still. Nothing but his own thoughts. Calm and quiet. He gasped in relief, tears forming on the edge of his vision.

It was as if a thousand voices had been screaming in his head his entire life. He’d gotten used to it. And now that it was gone, he was alone in his head. Completely alone. Omrai realized that his body had been tense, probably his entire life. But now, he finally relaxed.

He looked at Shifra.

She bore a similar look of relief, her eyes glistening with new tears. No scattered waves of confusion and frustration. It was all gone. For the first time, he could look at his daughter and just see her. The chaos had ended.

In a rush of emotion, Shifra embraced her father, and he hugged her back. They didn’t move for a time.

“You mean,” Shifra said to Revin, “That all of this time, it was just some stupid magic conflicting?”

“And it doesn’t have to anymore,” Revin said.

“That means everything I felt with my own father… could have been avoided?” Omrai said.

“The past is over,” Beadoróf said, “Now is the time to look forward.” Beadoróf smiled. “Sympathy, back in the world. I wonder if any more of your ancestors experienced the same?”

Omrai forced a smile. “Regardless, I can fix this with my daughter, and if she passes it on, she can resolve this as well. Teach her children how to control it.”

Shifra smiled too.

✦✦✦

Revin thought of his own parents. Where had they gone? Where was Jebuthar keeping them? Were they ok?

His thoughts were cut short by Beadoróf. “Now, onto the matter of the giganotos. How did you master them?”

“I didn’t,” Revin said.

Beadoróf furrowed his brow in confusion.

“I… communed with them,” Revin said, looking up at the giganoto, “And once I did that, well, speaking to their minds was like speaking to an old friend.” He patted the nearest giganoto on the leg.

Beadoróf smiled. “You should be proud, Revin. Most monks don’t learn that distinction. Even after a lifetime of beastspeaking.”

Revin smiled back.

Omrai looked at the ship. “How did you get that?”

“Jebuthar attacked us, but we won. See,” Revin said, grinning, “his gravity weapons don’t affect them. The spines on their backs are made of the same material as my sword.”

Omrai’s jaw dropped, and Beadoróf gasped. “That must be how the beastspeakers of old defeated the Kerdunans. Jebuthar’s paranoia makes sense now!”

“I also ran into Densal Valen,” Revin said, “she came with a group of automatons to capture the giganotos.”

“I thought she’d be dead,” Omrai said, “She tried to break Jebuthar’s code.”

“In a way, she was,” Revin said. “She was an automaton. Jebuthar had transformed her. I’d almost convinced her to join us before she attacked me. Scarback crushed her.”

“She turned blue,” Beadoróf said, “and you were no longer fighting Densal?”

Revin nodded.

“Jebuthar has been trying to figure out how to make his own human-form automatons,” Beadoróf said, “ones he could switch to a saurian soul to control if needed. What better way to punish someone than to rip them out of their body, place them in another, and rip away control whenever you disagree with them? The original soul can only watch what his new body does.”

They all went quiet…

“Come, let us adjourn to the tent,” Beadoróf said, and he left without a word.

Omrai looked at Revin. “Can you keep them from eating our men?”

“Yeah,” Revin said, “Besides, they think of us as friends now, not prey.”