Page 13 of Cerulean Truth
Once we arrived in my living-room, Stephen sat down at my desk. I translated him a cold bottle of water and took a seat across from him on my couch.
"Is everything okay?" I asked, furrowing my brow as his serious demeanor caught my attention. He dismissed it, but I could sense something was off.
"What happened?" I pressed, attempting to calm down a growing sense of worry.
He sighed. “Well, something did happen…but not to me,” he added hurriedly, noticing my expression. I relaxed a little and leaned back, studying him. He looked well, though exhausted, and I wondered what could’ve possibly happened that made him interrupt his consensus-tour to come talk to me.
“How‘s the international consensus coming along?” I asked politely but he brushed off the question, indicating it wasn't the reason for his visit.
He studied me with a penetrating gaze, obviously contemplating how to begin discussing whatever had brought him here. I realized I’d never seen him hesitate like this ever before. Whatever he was about to share weighed heavily on him, which made me feel somewhat on edge.
I shifted a little on my bed and nodded encouragingly at him. He took a deep breath and then a sip of water. Tapping my foot impatiently, I waited for him to start talking.
“I was in Boston for a few weeks doing some research I won’t bore you with, when I came across…” He bit his lip and squinted his eyes slightly, as if he wasn’t sure if he could tell me.
“I won’t tell anyone,” I assured him, a little offended he doubted my discretion.
“It’s not that,” he waved impatiently. He got up from the chair and started pacing around the room. Him being nervous was very out of character and it made me even more anxious.
“Can I ask you something?” he restarted abruptly. I nodded, confused by this change of direction.
“You were six years old by the time we found you, how did you manage to keep your translation hidden all those years before? Do you know?” he inquired.
I was rather stunned by his question; I had known Stephen for almost twenty-four years, and he had never asked me about my time before Cyclos.
“Well,” I began slowly, “I’m not entirely sure but I think since nobody really cared about how I felt, I didn’t either. Whatever feelings resided in me, I had no idea how to express them, so I guess, when my emotions didn’t surface, neither did my powers… It wasn’t until that incident in the last group home, where you ended up finding me, my powers kicked in. And as you know, once they did, it took me a long time to learn how to contain them.”
Suddenly it dawned on me what it was he was getting at.
“Is that what this is about? Did you find another one in the Human World?” I asked, taken aback. Finding a maga or magus in the Human World on our own was rare; they were typically registered and located by the LiaPrism as soon as theytranslated. Afterward, a Defensive from the closest Collective would retrieve them, as ordered by the Council.
He nodded, his eyes filled with sadness.
"Yeah," he replied, "and she's much older than I could have ever imagined." He sighed as he resumed his seat.
"How old is she?" I asked slightly alarmed. "Seven? Eight?"
He observed my face and answered softly, as if anticipating my reaction.
"She's in her early twenties."
I don’t know what reaction he expected, but hearing this, I snorted derisively.
"Stephen, I’m sorry but that's not possible. Nobody has so few emotions, their magic remains dormant until their twenties! That would mean she’s never experienced any uncontrollable emotions, not as a child, not during puberty. The odds of that happening are?—”
"Non-existent," he interrupted me. "I know," he continued. "But I talked to her. She's in her early twenties, a law student, interning at a major law firm in Boston. She's living a very human life, with seemingly wonderful human parents, friends, and a thriving career. But, and I'm certain of this, she has the power to translate."
I was highly skeptical of what he was telling me.
"And how can you be so sure she has translation?”
“I saw it happen. I saw her translate,” he said almost inaudibly.
I sat up straight immediately.
“That’s not possible. If a maga was translating in the Human World, we would've known. The LiaPrism would’ve alerted us, would’ve tracked her energy and she’d be in our records already,” I stated the obvious.
Stephen nodded again.
