Shade of Deception (Two)

Four - SoD

Four:

The agility test ended up being a simple obstacle course which seemed to erect itself as we entered each portion. Think boot camp for superpowered teens and you are on the nose. Needless to say, I blew through the course like a hurricane.

Clarke jockeyed with the stronger and more able Nix youths. His physical prowess was slightly higher than average for the Nix, but not by any wide chasm. He was very well pleased when his color indicated green—which was like an A on his test paper. Mine was Orange, which they said had never came up before, but indicated it was well above the 100% curve. (Like a 5.0 College course A, instead of a standard 4.0 A in a high school level course.)

“Feel free to take her with you. I believe Doylestown would throw you a party.”

Senna jested in a slightly irritable tone. She seemed only reminded once more of the danger I posed to her and the Nix, should I suddenly feel the itch to conquer the world. There was this part of me that wanted to rise up, roar in fury, and smash my metaphysical expressive powers into her until she revealed to me what she hoped to achieve by her consistent antagonization.

As it stood now, her village was the only link to the immortal community I had. Her training for Skylar the only training available to help teach me and push me to be more than I was. After my brush with death when the Leviathan surfaced, I quickly realized that despite whatever advantages I was born with, there were other more deadly and sinister foes lurking, waiting to strike. Next time, I needed to be more prepared, not merely throwing my brutal force at the beast hoping it is enough to one-shot TKO. If my gambit had not paid off in full, then Doylestown and earth on a larger scale may have been destroyed. Once the leviathan had gained critical mass of power consumption, it could devour the whole world.

My reading in the Nix library had chronicled the histories of the species of the universe. Whole continuums were collapsed from leviathan devourers. Such information was disturbing, humbling, and honestly, it was galvanizing. A girl could not sit idle as her world—her whole existence was threatened.

Besides that, narrow miss, there were the powerful beings called the Architects. Once my existence reached their ears, I was not long for this world—unless I became a lot more than I currently am. Reapers have not been patrolling this region of late, but Skylar and I did run across a few of them last winter when we were up in New Jersey visiting another Nix settlement in the countryside up there. These reapers were not the mysterious but somewhat trustworthy type that Nadia had been. These were bloodthirsty brutes who were relishing the spoils of war and pillaging small communities of weaker immortal species unable to mount any meaningful resistance to them. It was the closest thing to what you read about in historical accounts about Viking raiding parties or conquering hordes of zealous and warped men of war.

“I will send word to the Lords of the City of Hidden. If they accept her, so be it.”

Siegfried said in a dry disinterested tone. He began to tap on holo-keys on his wrist. I realized his communication device was attached via his left wrist and it appeared every bit as functional as the most advanced human smartphone.

“they say they shall debate this for the evening.”

Senna seemed surprised by this. She seemed to have been expecting immediate rejection. That was how her expressions read, even though she was a master of hiding them, I had begun to learn how to read micro-expressions. The less one’s mental limitations are constrained by the assumption of human, the more deeply and precisely one can expand the mind and all the other senses of the body.

My sight worked well beyond human levels. I could perceive time much more slowly. I could break down and analyze every moment in time with far more clarity and detail than humans or even Nix. This allowed my strange violet eyes to perceive every single minute change in the face as information was presented to someone. The slight things they let slip for just a mil-second could be registered in my eyes. I had realized quickly that Senna utilized this trick as well. As a apex with dragon-sight, she could do something almost identical with me. That only made me try harder to clamp down on my expressions around her. Skylar did this with everyone in public, but in private she did not hide her feelings from her friends or family. She was vastly more open than I.

The thought of family sent a hurt pang through my chest. My estranged adoptive parents were almost unrecognizable to me by the time I saw them every day or so. My schedule kept me out well beyond their bedtimes for work, and I had a part-time job working for a Nix run grocery store on the edge of town. I largely took care of myself, and as painful as it was, I allowed the geas Hawker placed on them to hold. To disrupt a powerful geas ability would be to endanger their minds.

There was a part of me that considered pulling a full-on Hermine Granger and wiping me from their minds, but that was far too tricky to master for me right now. I needed time and practice. There were limits even to one who was a natural born expressionist. My world seemed completely isolating because of my natural abilities. There were even moments in my darkness where I could see the point of view of the evil shades that proceeded me. If they were treated so terribly, they too may have snapped and become tyrannical asshats. However, it was my love for Ariel that kept me from even considering venturing down that path.

“Great, so, just summon me to jump through hoops, then you want me to let you all AFK all night to decide my fate? Tell these Lords to f**k themselves if they really believe that I am their enemy. I’ll just go look for another educational option for my expression.”

I said, and I walked away, and I could feel the surge of raw emotions behind me. I was not trying to make more enemies, but I was not going to roll over and expose my soft underbelly.

I could hear someone pleading me to halt and listen. The voice was feminine and knew to my ears.

“Miss Graves, please, halt. I bring word from the Capital. A message for your ears.”

I could count on one finger the number of contacts I had inside the Hidden capital. I turned and I took in the tall stunning Nix warrior. She was ferocious and beguiling in equal measures.

Her chestnut hair was in silken shimmering medium-long lengths tied in distinctive braids on either side of her head. She had flowing brown hair held out of her face by the twin braids. Her eyes were like seafoam-green, and they slit slightly as she peered into my violet eyes. The inner huntress was roused to be so close to the infamous shade.

She was five-eleven, and her ethereal beauty was only tempered slightly by the deep rusty scale armor she wore. It was very hard to appear sexy and girly wearing mail armor, but she managed to pull that bit off smashingly!

“How’s Roger doing?”

I asked her without further preamble. The girl puffed slightly, and she harrumphed at me.

“Lord Roger of the Apex Clan is missing in action. He bid me pass this message along to you.”

My heart stuttered for a moment at this news and I completely lost the impact of her sassily correcting my casual reference to Roger with only his first name. The Nix did not encourage the people to retain the old-school speech habits, but a royal guard might miss that lesson.

“What, tell me everything!”

I demanded of her, and I felt my expressions rippling on my fingertips, ready to roar to life in the next moment. It required more concentration merely to hold back the raw lightning that sizzled on my fingers as my rage boiled.

“He went to the lower Nix district after his meetings in the City of Hidden. He insisted on walking amongst the people and listening to their woes. While on his rounds, he came across many who claimed their youths had been spirited off in the midnight hour. Lord Roger proceeded to investigate this matter himself, not waiting for word to travel out with the rest of our coded communications. His report would have reached Skylar, Princess Apex of the Clan. By the time I discovered he had succumbed to whatever nefarious deeds have swallowed the vanished youths, Lord Roger was gone missing as well! I opted to make all haste and come in person.”

I nodded and without missing a step or a beat I began to move towards the guest room where I was allowed to store clothes and other training equipment that I had bought myself.

“Come on, I am packing, and you are getting me into that blasted city, Lords and Elders be damned!”

I said in an ardent tone, and the girl looked a bit green in the cheeks almost matching her seafoam eyes.

“You don’t just gain access!”

She blanched and sputtered in outrage.

I turned and cut a steely gaze to her.

“This girl does, and I will pummel whatever expressive defenses try to bar my path!”

I exclaimed, and I heard a deep feminine chuckle as Skylar walked in on her soft moccasin-style shoes.

“Truer words and all that dad-saying stuff. I’ll pack the edged weapons; you grab the flame thrower.”

Sky said with a straight face, and Clarke rounded the corner and yelped out, “What in Hairy-ass-balls-Christmas are you two plotting?!”

I arched a deeply questioning brow at his choice of swears.

“What in the world do hairy balls have to do with Christmas?”

Skylar did not miss a beat, “Because they have not yet received their man-scaping Christmas gift, duh.”

She said in a dry tone, and Clarke seemed flabbergasted at the one-two punch between the pair of us. The other mail-clad guar girl merely peered down at Skylar as if in awe of her. I had seen the stary-eyed routine a few times now. Nix who do not live here tend to over-react to Skylar’s presence immensely.

Ever since she won the challenge of wills against her mother so effortlessly a year-and-a-half-ago, she was basically the anointed queen who was waiting only for her seventeenth birthday to ascend.

“Skylark, my princess apex!”

The girl exclaimed in a deep but girlish tone, and she fully bowed and dropped to one knee. Her head touched the ground. Clarke and I gaped at the display of knightly fealty. To this royal guard, Skylar was the most powerful figure in the entire universe. She was the soon-to-be-queen.

“Rise and make your arms useful to help carry this stuff. We are going to the City of Hidden, and I will not tolerate the Lords turning up their noses at my friend, Hannah. You may despise her if you wish, such is your freedom of will, but you shall loyally and faithfully serve us, because Hannah will assist me in tracking my bone-head fecking brother.”

Sky laid down the law as naturally as I drew oxygen. Clark just pointed off randomly towards town.

“Ok, so I will just tell Hawker to craft some excuse for us, ok?”

He said and he shuffled off out the door.