Chương 194: Act 3, Chapter 46: Negative space

Day in the story: 15th January (Thursday), morning Alexandra May"Lex!" Peter shouted, fury ripping through his voice so sharply I almost didn't recognize him. My little stunt sent us both rolling across the floor in a mess of limbs, skidding away from the core. I jumped off his chest and sprang backward, flipping cleanly through the air before landing a few feet away. With no hesitation I pulled several sound cards from my holder and sent them flying toward the core.

As they slid into place, I willed them to become the Bluetooth speakers. My phone was already in my hand so I pressed play. The first note of my time-slowing melody rang out. Peter's head snapped toward me. Around the cards, the air shimmered and thickened, swelling into a dome of temporal drag. Faint rainbows flickered along its surface.

"I don't have time for this!" he shouted and sprinted toward the core anyway. The moment he crossed into the zone, his speed relative to me dropped to a crawl.

"Here we go again," I muttered, teleporting to one of the cards inside. The world snapped into place as it moved around me. I adjusted my footing and charged him, driving into his side and knocking him out of the slow field. We slammed into the ground and rolled apart.

"I can do this all day," I said as he climbed back to his feet. My side froze for a fraction of a second, sending a cold chill throughout my body.

"Why?!" he roared, throwing his arms wide.

"I told you I can't stay here!"

"Tell me why, and I'll consider letting you go," I shot back, watching his hands tremble.

"No," he whispered. The floor split open beneath me ordered by his power over this place. I dropped straight down toward the ocean below while he stepped calmly back into the zone. Thanks to my extra brain, I reacted in time. I pushed Authority into my left leg and shaped a small platform beneath my foot mid-fall. I kicked off it and launched myself upward, bursting back through the hole my brother had torn open. Oh, the wonders of modern magic.

For a brief second, I studied him inside the slowed field, searching for a way to stop him. Something that would keep him from reaching that crystal no matter how stubborn he felt. I could force-teleport him out of here. But he would resist, and inside his own Domain, he would probably win. I glanced down at my leg.

"Eh. Not much of a male one, but artistic enough, right? If I squint, it might pass," I muttered to myself. I targeted another sound card, teleported, and repeated the maneuver. I slammed into him again, dragging him out of the slow field. We hit the ground hard, but this time, while I had him pinned, I focused on my artificial leg and willed it to become his only working one. It accepted my Authority immediately, expelling the previous imprint of my will and replacing it with the new one. I knew Peter.

Even with whatever had twisted him lately, Trueform let me push through the weak points in his resistance. I shoved myself away from him, and we both landed hard on our asses.

"What did you do?!" he shouted, staring down at his legs. The one linked to him twitched its toes. Without a knee to anchor it and give mobility, all he managed was a weak flex of a foot. It was almost sad to watch.

"I made time for you to explain," I said, keeping my voice steady.

"My legs don't work," he murmured, staring down at them like they'd betrayed him.

"But they're healthy." He replied with complaint in his voice.

"Yeah. I took them away so we could talk." I folded my hands behind my head and looked up at the ceiling of his cavern as I laid down.

"Whatever you're chasing can't be so urgent that you can't spare me a few minutes." Shadowlight moved through the crystal all around us, undisturbed by our dispute.

"It's not about urgency…" He inhaled slowly, then let the air out like he was deflating. The fight drained out of him along with the breath. He stopped trying to move and sat down instead, watching me intensely.

"It's just that I'm not you." I tilted my head.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"When you decide something, you follow through. No matter the cost." His mouth tightened.

"I'm not sure I can."

"Uh… thanks?" I pushed myself up so he could look at me properly, eye to biological eye.

"I'm afraid to stay," he said, but the words came out rough.

"When I close my eyes, I see her. I see you. Sophie. Jason. All the people I'd stay for." His voice cracked, just a little.

"It would be so easy to just stay."

"And you can't?" I asked quietly.

"What did they show you?"

"Please." His gaze flicked to my leg.

"I'll heal it. Just let me go. The longer I sit here thinking about my Lucky Seven and the child…" He swallowed.

"The child. Is she really?"

"Yes, my boy," I said with a softer voice.

"If everything goes right, and I hope it does, you're going to be a father." I held his gaze.

"Whether you're a dad too? That part's on you."

"I never wanted to be one," he reminded me.

"I don't know how."

"I know." I replied thinking about myself. About all the things I hadn't wanted either. Regret and I were good buddies by now.

"Bit late for those wishes."

"Fuck." He dropped his back onto the stone, staring up at nothing in particular. For a few seconds, he didn't move at all. Then he spoke with a distant voice.

"I met a fortune teller. Like the one we saw in Paris. Except she was the real thing. Stephan vouched for her." He turned his head toward me.

"She showed me New York drowning. Waves crashing through the streets. The Statue of Liberty destroyed. And a monster rising from the deep."

"And you're the chosen one to stop it? Really?" I snorted.

"No offense, bro, but that makes me want to laugh. Why you? Why not literally anyone else?"

"Others saw it too," he said.

"The same vision. The creature's a God. It holds Authority over oceans."

"So they need someone with a counter?" I pushed.

"A clashing power? Aren't there archmages out there who could do whatever they wish to both of us?" This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

"They'll use everyone," he said, dragging himself back into a sitting position. He rested his elbows on thighs and buried his face in his hands.

"But my power… It might be necessary."

"Bullshit, Pete." I pointed at him.

"They're using you. That boss of yours in the FBI. The demon, right? Aren't demons supposed to be the bad guys?"

"As far as I understand, they have every reason not to be," he said quietly.

"What?"

"They draw their power from contracts. Deals with humans, with other beings." He lowered his hands and leaned back on them as his eyes drifted to the crystal ahead. Its glow washed over his face in pale blue light, softening the hard lines.

"Every contract feeds them a sliver of magic. But if the contractors die, the Authority tied to those deals disappears with them. So no, they're not kind out of charity. But they do have a vested interest in keeping humans alive."

"So this is reverse warlocking? Instead of handing out power, they siphon some off for themselves?"

"That's not a bad way to put it. Though Stephan's both a demon and a warlock. He takes power and gives it back to others."

"Okay. That's… kind of cool, I guess. Interesting, at least." I rubbed my chin.

"Still doesn't make them saints or even remotely trustworthy. How much time do you supposedly have before you face this ocean god?"

"No idea." I stared at him.

"What? You're this frantic without a deadline?"

"That's exactly why! There's no timeframe. It could be years. It could be tomorrow. I don't know how much I can afford to slow down. It makes me anxious as hell!" His voice echoed off the cavern walls.

"Chill, man."

"Chill?" He barked out a hollow laugh.

"I could be needed any second. And you're the one lecturing me? You got out from under Penrose and you're still planning to work with him. You agreed to jobs for Joan. You want in with the Guild too!"

"I am working for the Guild," I corrected.

"Just not this very second, unlike Penrose. But yes, I am. Lost my leg working for them." He grimaced.

"Fine! You don't have to keep repeating that. I will heal that leg, but I can't come home. If I do, I won't be able to leave again. I won't go back to that hell at Other Quantico."

"I did not mention the leg, to force you to heal me."

"I know. Sorry for my outburst. I thought this will be quick advancement, but it turned out to be an intervention and is about to become a healing session." Using his hands, he lifted himself a few inches off the ground, dropped, then did it again in an awkward shuffle. He crawled toward me like that until he was close enough to reach out. I watched him approach, weighing whether to release the Authority on his legs, but decided against it.

"Wait." His head snapped up.

"You said you're working for Penrose right now?"

"Even as we speak. I'm helping him reach an InterContinental in the Mirrored City." His eyes widened.

"You left him there to stop me?"

"No." I laughed.

"I'm still there." He stared at me with his mouth slightly open, trying to process that.

"Never mind," he muttered.

"I'd assume painting-based magic is easier to understand than whatever you're doing. I don't think I want an explanation." He reached toward my right leg.

"Not that one," I said. He shifted his hand to the other and frowned as his brows knitted together in concentration.

"It feels wrong and right at the same time," he said slowly.

"Like it belongs to me… and not you." He flexed the foot and it moved when he willed it to. He flinched noticing that.

"That's why I can't move, you cheeky cunt."

"Oh?" I smiled.

"I earned a bad word from you. I must be special." My voice softened.

"I miss you, Pete. Things are easier when you're around."

"And that," he replied stiffening up, "is exactly why I didn't want to stop and talk. You think this is easy for me?"

"No, it's not."

"Exactly. So take that cursed magic of yours out of me. And out of this leg." I hesitated—just for a second. Then I let it go. I pulled my Authority from the prosthesis, from the sound cards, from the shimmering dome around the core. The temporal drag collapsed in a ripple of fading Shadowlight. The air steadied. Peter turned toward the crystal as the last shimmer dissolved.

"You'll have to explain that someday," he said.

"I know." I sent Usagear back into my Domain and rolled up my trouser leg. He reached down and unfastened the strap, easing the artificial limb off. When the stump was exposed to the cavern air it made him grimace.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there," he said quietly.

"How did it happen?"

"Short version? I went up against Malik's brother. Turns out he's a much tougher fighter than I expected him to be."

"You got him?" He shifted to kneel beside me, setting my stump carefully aside.

"Almost. I will next time." I exhaled.

"On the bright side, I figured out how to use music because of him."

"Okay..." he winced at me and placed his hand over my knee closing his eyes in the process. I felt his magic press against me, asking permission. I opened the door letting it in. The first sensation was heat. Then the pressure. Blood surged into the shortened limb like a river forcing open a dry channel. The wound strained, trying to remember what it had once been. Deep, bone-sinking cold followed that feeling. I curled inward and bit down on my sleeve, but a scream still tore free.

"It shouldn't hurt that much," he said.

"You think?" I gasped as sweat run down from my forehead.

"Aren't you rebuilding my nerves too?"

"I'm trying. Something's wrong." The cold deepened. My left side began to lock up as paralysis crept back into me. He pulled his hand away and grabbed my shoulders with both.

"Lex?"

"What's happening?"

"I changed you. Your body should regrow the limb over time. But I can't push it further. Something's actively blocking my Authority."

"Maybe it's me," I said through clenched teeth.

"My soul's been… complicated lately." I forced a breath.

"Thank you anyway. So it'll regenerate? Slowly?"

"Yes. Anything missing, I think, as long as you're alive. But not fast. This will take months, Alexa."

"I can work with that. I'll adjust the prosthesis as the legs grows." I replied as my body started obeying me again. I looked up at him.

"Are you really going back? To do whatever this is?"

"Yes." He told me, without any hesitation.

"I have to." I watched him through all the eye-cards around stand while I reattached the strap, tightening it into place.

"Will you tell Zoe?" he asked focusing his own two eyes on me.

"I fucking should. What you are doing is… not healthy. But who am I to judge? You stood by me through almost all of my mistakes, never complained… too much, and supported me even when I had not deserved it. I will return the favor, even though I hate it."

"Thanks." He relaxed hearing me say all that.

"Do not thank me." I stood up, my artificial leg accepting my power again.

"I am trying my best to change myself for the sake of my friends and the one within my own soul core. I work hard to lie only when absolutely necessary—at least to them and to myself."

"This is necessary for me, Lex. She will hate me—you said it yourself—she will if she learns that I chose to abandon her right now." He exhaled, calculating something in his mind.

"But now that I think about it, it's better to train hard now, before the baby is born, rather than when it's out in the world, right?"

"You ask me? I am the damaged one, remember? You were supposed to be the good boy. I don't like seeing you like that." I put my hands on my hips. Couldn't help it, really.

"What would you do in my place?" His conviction was leaving him, but I saw him for what he had become. He'd ask me because he knew I'd do the same as him. He wanted to rebound like a wave toward what he had already decided.

"I'd go to Zoe." I lied in the most convincing way I could manage.

"Come on! You would not do that." He sounded disappointed in my answer, or in himself. I could not tell.

"You'd try to get the power, push yourself to the limit. You always have."

"You asked me what I'd do and I answered. Did I not abandon everything to rush after Jason?"

"You see!? It's exactly what I am doing—I abandon everything to save the city and people in it!" His words came out stronger somehow, supported by his Domain perhaps. They bounced off the walls, and I physically felt the power they carried.

"I disagree. I chased someone I knew, to save him. You are chasing an unknown, abandoning the real deal." I replied, even though deep down I knew I might have done the same thing he was doing. I also knew that he differed from me. This pursuit of his would ultimately change him for the worse or destroy him outright. He deflated again, releasing the anger with the breath right as he exhaled. He looked me straight into my own two eyes.

"You might be right, but I will do it anyway. Lie for me, sister." He passed me, walking slowly toward his soul core again.

"Please," he added when I turned behind him, following his movement with my gaze.

"I might. Haven't decided yet," I replied quietly, almost whispering.

"I might say it, because you'd do the same when supporting me through similar shit. I believe however that you are making a grave mistake, brother and it will cost you more that you assume. You are abandoning her and the child. You hated your parents for leaving you, and now you repeat their doing." He lowered his sight, shoulders slumping, but he did not answer with words. No. This time it was an action that spoke for him.

His hand touched the crystal and the maelstrom caught within stopped moving for a single heartbeat and all the Shadowlight pulsing within the walls, the ceiling and the floor along with it. Then the moment passed and with gravity equal to the one that was able to pause the world for a second, the whirl of the water and Shadowlight resumed within the core, expelling the light from it, covering Peter in its violent eruption.

Only thing it left for me to see, was a shadowed silhouette—a negative space of Pete in the white canvas of the all-consuming illumination.