Tillo Lando March 5th,20XX

The diamond felt cold and heavy in my hands. Heavier than the actual stone was the weight of the price I knew it held. It wasn’t that large, about the size of a baby’s fist, but I couldn’t help but compare it to the million-dollar rings I’d seen advertised before.

“Woah!”

Kaja held a lump of gold around the same size as the rock in my hand and looked just as awestruck as I felt. Her fingers roamed its smooth surface and applied pressure carefully, as if she was scared, she would dent it.

“Okay, now can you try to turn this into gold, Shia? And Ernate, can you turn this into a diamond?”

Scorda looked at us with eager eyes as he respectively pushed a glass globe at me and a block of raw metal at Kaja.

Besides our meeting with Anatha earlier, today was the first day we were working with the scientists. Destia had told us how her time had gone before she’d gotten hurt.

I’d expected them to start with questioning us, but instead, they had rushed us into Danka’s hospital first for physicals. We’d already taken them, so we weren’t unfamiliar with the process, but it was still somewhat uncomfortable.

We were supposed to meet with Marsha next, but she was running a bit late, so Scorda had taken up the spot.

We’d started using our powers on random objects, like changing the colours of pens and the lab equipment size. When he’d initially asked us to change random things into gold and diamonds, we’d explained that we couldn’t since we’d never seen them before. I hadn’t been expecting him to find such precious materials in such a short amount of time.

“Don’t worry, kids.”

He patted the shrunken machine he’d taken to tossing up and down in the air.

“This thing you guys shrunk is worth about four hundred of those things you’re carrying now. Even if you wanted to worry about money, it wouldn’t be on those things.”

His accent was thick and did little to soften the impact of his words. I nearly dropped the crystal in my hands but caught it in the nick of time.

Before she could think about what he’d said too deeply, Kaja took the plunge first and grabbed the lump of metal in one hand while keeping the ball of gold in the other. Not wanting to be shown up by my twin, I did the same and tried my best to replicate.

They already had similar textures, so all I could do was try making the cloudy glass resemble the clear, riveted crystal as much as possible.

I’d never really thought about how my powers worked before, so I didn’t know how effectively I could use them. Like when we were changing the size of things, it was easy enough. And changing our clothes was even easier.

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In those cases, it was literally just having a mental image and trying my best to materialize it. There was no special feeling, no sense of anxiety. It was just like raising my arm. It took conscious effort, but it didn’t take energy.

Kaja had described it a bit differently; she said it was like sneezing to her. She'd described using her power like releasing a pressure she hadn't known she was holding.

“Done!”

Kaja proudly put forth the bright golden orb in her right hand and brought it together with the original in her left. It was a bit unfair since I had a lot more detail to pay attention to, but I tried to move a bit faster.

“Ah, take your time Ernate.”

I still had a hard time adjusting to the code names. I also had a hard time understanding why Joyce had wanted to give us code names when our faces were plastered all over Squire and now in the newspapers.

Archer had finally been allowed to come home after the ceremony a few days ago, but the both of us were on strict ‘no strain’ orders. No running, no yelling, and bedrest at every opportunity possible.

It had taken a day’s worth of begging to get Joyce to let me come down here to work with the scientists. And she hadn’t actually given her permission, but she hadn’t explicitly said I couldn’t come down here either. She was at work right now, and I planned to be done here long before she got back.

Aaron was still visiting his parents, so he wasn’t here to monitor us either.

I didn’t know what was up with him or why he’d been gone for so long, but Joyce had told us not to worry about it, so I tried my best not to.

The memory of Aaron going wild on the criminal the other day still came to mind, but it didn’t bother me at all. While I’d only gotten a small cut on my neck, id’ been so scared that it would have turned out worse.

I stared at the almost transformed glass in my hand and worked harder on turning it into a gem.

There was a lot I could have done back then. I could have made myself bigger and forcibly broken the hold. I could have shrunk myself down and escaped. I could have tightened his belt and made him lose circulation in his waist. Heck, I could have turned the knife into cheese.

There was so much I could have done in that scenario, but I’d been stuck, paralyzed. It wasn’t like I’d never been in jeopardy before, but that was one of the first times I’d so poignantly felt that my life was in danger.

So, Aaron defeating the source of that intense, mind-blanking pain had been cathartic in a sense.

I remembered the conversation he’d had with Archer back when we’d been in the hotel.

We’d been in an adjacent room, and the door had been closed, so a lot of it had been lost. But I remembered the gist of it.

I hadn’t given it much stock back then. But seeing the usually kind and calm guy fly into a rage just because we were hurt helped me feel a lot less scared than I otherwise would have.

Before, it’d only been Kaja and me, so we’d gotten used to looking out for ourselves and others. Even when we’d gotten into trouble before, the adults around us had either ignored it or had gotten mad at us, the victims.

Seeing the adult in front of us, not only coming to our rescue but also defeating the most immediate source of fear, had filled me with such an intense sense of security, despite the immediate danger we were in.

That was why I hoped he’d come back soon and that whatever was going on with him would resolve itself soon.

I hadn’t even gotten to say thank you.

“Ti- Ernate! Aren't you done yet?”

Kaja’s excitable voice filtered past my thoughts and pulled me back into reality.

“Ah, just give me a second.”

Adults and others aside, that was the first time I’d found myself unable to use my powers since I’d gotten them. I didn’t know how normal they had become to me, but I’d hated the feeling of not having them.

I needed that to not happen ever again. I never wanted to feel as utterly helpless as I had.