Page 65 of Cerulean Truth
She smiled. "No, overall."
I gasped.
"In the world?"
She laughed. "No, I mean per Collective, but it crosses generations."
I nodded hesitantly. I couldn't help but ask, "So what's that guy James?"
She seemed a little taken aback by my specific interest in him but didn't press the matter. "He skipped the Moderates entirely and was recruited at twenty-one out of the Advanced class to be our First Offensive, so he was a separate category."
"Of course he was," I mumbled, vastly irritated by this in no way surprising information.
We watched the class for an hour and it amazed me what they were capable of. The students, dressed in sleek black attire, moved with a fluidity, nothing short of mesmerizing. They fought each other in silence, their footsteps barely making a sound against the polished floor. I couldn’t help but be in awe of their precision, their entire essence a delicate dance of power and control.
They were all highly developed and their fighting skills were nothing like I had ever seen humans do. Half of their techniques took place while hovering over the floor for a few seconds. Like some form of Cirque the Soleil but with assassins instead of acrobats.
As the class continued, I couldn’t help but wonder about the challenges they faced, the sacrifices they made, and the secrets they held. The life of an Offensive was undoubtedly fraught with danger and darkness, but it also seemed to be a life of purpose and power. I felt inexplicably drawn to them.
Walking back from the elevator, I asked Enya a bunch of questions, about Offensives, about Healers, about the Academy and about anything and everything I could remember.
To my surprise she was very patient and answered pretty much all of my questions. But it was her warning that stuck most.
“I warned you about James Walker before,” she reminded me, her tone serious. “But he’s not the only one you should be wary of. Offensives once focused primarily on deterrence. Their missions aimed to gather intelligence and prevent conflicts. The fact we magi hadn’t seen war in over thousands of years, was directly correlated to the work these Offensives did.”
She paused, letting the weight of her words sink in.
“But,” she continued, “with the Battle of ’59 came a whole new generation of magi and their ideas on what Offensives needed to be. They honed their skills and turned them into what suited them most.”
“So what are they now?” I asked, holding my breath.
Enya fixed me with a steady gaze as she replied, "Lethal."
Day four: The Great Exposure.
"What areyouspecializing in?" I asked, intrigued, after we exchanged greetings the next day. Having missed the chance to ask personal questions the days before, I was becoming eager to get to know Enya.
She smiled, surprising me with her unexpected expressive demeanor. "The Human World, actually."
This revelation caught me off guard. "Really? How come?"
"Well, with the Great Exposure in the making, it's become a very popular topic. If we are to assimilate with humans, it seems appropriate to be knowledgeable about their world."
I was about to ask for more details when she pre-emptively added, "That's why I volunteered to be your tour guide. I figured, I teach you about our world, and you teach me about yours." She shrugged.
Right, because I had something to teach…
"You know what," she continued, "why don't we go get some coffee, something to eat, some water—there's a beautiful stream up ahead in the garden. Let's see something other than the four palaces you'll walk for the rest of your first cycle anyway."
I smiled gratefully and nodded enthusiastically, especially pleased about the coffee part. There was no way I would survive this world, or any other world, without caffeine.
As we walked outside together, through the gorgeous garden I had entered on my first morning, we arrived at a beautiful patch of grass near a small fountain, emitting a soothing sound as its water flowed into a stream that led to our seats.
Enya settled on a long branch hanging from a large tree, overlooking the water. She took out a bottle and gazed longingly at the stream. I sat down next to her, hanging on to her every word. “Coffee? Water? A sandwich?” she asked.
"All three, if possible," I laughed.
She smiled and held all of it in her hand a few seconds later. Okay, that still blew my mind.
