Page 33 of Rising

He was just as quick on his feet with the knife as he was in hand-to-hand, forcing me to move quickly to avoid a nick of the skin. I wasn’t in the mood to chance if he would stop just short of the connection of blade to skin in the spirit of sparring. It didn’t take long for me to scope out his skills to see he had clearly been well trained. The ability to get up close and personal with a knife was an art form for him.

A craft he took seriously and well-practiced, and I wondered why there hadn’t been any impressive weapons on him when I searched his bag. He clearly had an acquired taste when it came to what he wielded, and there was nothing in his belongings that reflected so.Unless he left on the run and this was all he could grab.

His archery skills could use some work, but they weren’t totally shameful. Few were great at it anyway unless they had used them in The Before. They were pretty useless on the run unless you held higher ground. Reina used it as her weapon of choice out of familiarity from hunting with her family. But if things were happening fast or in tight quarters, she’d be able to rely on her magic, rarely choosing to use a gun or knife, no matter how much her brother or I insisted.

She claimed she wasn’t comfortable with them, but who knew the true reason? There were secrets that she kept close to her heart, even from those who were closest to her.

He stopped to catch his breath and I stared him down. It bothered me that I couldn’t figure him out, but what bothered me more is that although my gut warned against making him leave, it didn’t warn me of danger. He was cagey, sure. But frankly, he hadn’t been any cagier than half the people who arrived here in the years this place was established. The longer you lived outside these walls, or the walls of another settlement, the harder your soul became and the harder it was to trust people you came across. Even if you wanted to let your guard down.

I guess the same could be said for inside these walls too; I thought. Knowing that even inside, we lacked trust in those who came fresh from the outside. Wanting to see the good but always wary of those that could be bad. We occasionally got them, but mostly just a disruptive few, or people who couldn’t cope with the constraints of morality and set on lawlessness after having to be a fucked up individual for so long. There hadn’t been arealthreat to us in years, not until recently.Making your wariness justified.

We moved back through the long corridor quickly, blinded by the sunlight that entered as the soldiers opened the door. It hadn’t taken him long to finish up weaponry and we could speed through elemental assessment, as well as it was pretty straightforward. You either had a lot of power or you didn’t. You had a cool trick, or you didn’t. Might as well be a yes or no question. We could train you into using it as a true weapon, no matter the amount of power. How much you held was only measured in order to structure our lines. Knowing who would run out first and who possessed the strength to take a hit before running on fumes, could make all the difference on the battlefield.

Amaia

We stood in the blank Element Room nearly identical to the walls of an asylum, but it was much more than that. Tomoe, Reina and a group of Tinkerers worked for a year straight developing it. Moe used her visions to see glimpses of the future, trying toseewhat they had accomplished years from now. Stealing peeks at the geniuses of the past and the inventions they were on the brink of creating until everything in their lives changed. Using it to direct their research and inventions to ensure they were on the right track, and Reina using science, studying DNA structure and using her own body to test out theories. It was all put together with random equations that would make sense to none but the mad scientists assigned to build it.

“How does this even work?” he said, confusion contorting his usually smug face.

“After a prick to the finger, the machine in the center of the room will be able to determine and confirm magic capabilities. Once I give you the go ahead, you’ll just blast everything you’ve got towards the wall.”I really should tell them to set up a recording feature here, I thought to myself as I jumped into my usual script. “It lets us get a look at how much magic a person holds, measured one through a hundred.”

I gave him a second to process before continuing, “Most people range between forty and seventy on the scale.”

There were a few one offs that hit right around seventy-five, people similar to Riley and Seth. Reina was at a strong eighty-eight, and Tomoe just slightly outranking her at ninety. Jax hadn’t been super powerful. He ranked out at sixty-one, but it was his passion for life and determination that got him placed high up in the hierarchy.

Let people trust him with their lives and the fact that he literally helped build this place. According to the machine, I outranked them all. Ninety-eight it said, no one ever reached one hundred. At least not here. I’d been proud of the results. I loved my power. It was an infinite well, but that didn’t mean I didn’t fear it. Everything came at a cost and there were times I’d felt the magic inside me swell up. Causing me to scream out in pain. My skin feeling as if acid ran over it, begging me to be released.

It scared the shit out of me at first, figuring it all out on my own, not knowing if my body was fighting off turning into the dead or not. Eventually, I realized the ecstasy and relief I felt was tied to me, expelling my magic. In the beginning I’d thought the flaming fueled temper tantrums and Pansie killing sprees were purely therapeutic. Feeding the chaos, sadness … loneliness in my soul. Then I met Prescott, and like the good adoptive father figure, he taught me. Showed me how to use my magic in ways that would ease the pressure before it overtook me, teaching me to control it rather than let it control me.

So I used it casually throughout the day, even when unnecessary. Most of the lights in The Pit channeled my magic either by my own will or via some Tinkerer device I didn’t understand other than it held a kernel of my magic. The kernel allowed even those without the power of flame to ignite, letting my magic be satisfied by a constant state of simmering.

Most people could use their magic here and there throughout the day. Many of my soldiers had enough to last them a day or two if they used their training properly. But the average person needed downtime, time to rest and recover. It didn’t take long, but they all needed it or they’d face the consequences of being depleted. Empty. And even though most of the population had been born on this Earth without magic, we could now die if we went too long without any at all.

“And you?” he pried, grinning with confidence once more.

“Does it matter?” I shot back, knowing there was a level of raw curiosity lacing the question.

Only a few larger communities within our territory had similar machines, and none were out beyond our borders. Though I was sure that we had breached the grape vine as soon as it was shared with the ‘trusted’ few. We never made a point to brag about our discoveries, what got out got out, but for the most part, we were pretty ethno-focused. Caring about what would be for the benefit of our people and The Compound, what would keep us safe and protected, rather than making a name for ourselves or establishing dominance the way other communities itched to do.

The Expanse having something of the sorts would be cause for concern, more for leaked information than what they would do with it. I couldn’t imagine anyone residing inside Transient Nation caring, but if the Covert Province got their hands on this … well it’d likely be used to persecute rather than the benefit of the greater good.I guess that is their greater good.

Since the wall was only able to get a read on elemental magic. Scholars and Tinkerers were hooked up to a brain scan, and the machine did the rest. It was one of the few ‘high-tech’ areas in The Compound. But that’s what happens when you put the best of the best on a high-level task. They achieve the impossible.

As far asUmbraswent, our skills were pretty obvious in other portions of the assessment, and anything can be taught to be used as a weapon. There was no way to measure that. You either got the shot every time or you didn’t.

Other skills that came naturally in life decided the outcome. You could either think quick enough on your feet to use the closest thing to you to your advantage or someone died, and hopefully not you. You were either fast enough or you were dinner to someone else. You either panicked, or you didn’t. There weren’t many of us, and that alone made us powerful. An invaluable asset to have around.

“For someone that was so keen on using magic to fight, you sure seem uncomfortable using it,” I taunted from the side, noticing the uneasiness in his face and posture as he stood staring at the wall.

“Not everything is for show, General,” he snapped.

“Right,” I muttered, focusing on the read of his DNA, annoyed yet again with his vague answers. “Whenever you’re ready then, fire first, we’ll finish with water.”

He took a deep breath and blew out before slowly raising his hand towards the wall. Unlike my own flames, there was no comfort or security to be found in the light and heat in the glory of his flames. The heat was immense, painful, but the flames were beautiful.

I was mesmerized by the blue and white light that battered the wall, forcing the invention to bend to its will and absorb his power, challenging its capacity to do its job. His shoulders were slack and his eyes flickered, lip curling into a snarl as his left knee fought to keep his weight.He has no control.I registered suddenly, struck by the realization that I needed to interfere before one of us got hurt.

“Water!” I yelled out, “Water! Water!”

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