Untested Waters
After texting
furiously, Mathis convinced a friend nearby to join us in the park. It didn’t
take long for them to arrive and the two laughed over a silly handshake before
sitting.
“I’m the Focus,” he
said covertly. “Are you the impossibility?” He grinned and winked.
“Guess so,”
Andromeda said coolly.
Mathis said, “This
is Jin Chun. We’ve been in the same classes since high school. I appreciate you
coming on short notice, Jin.”
“Hey, no sweat. My
Battery’s been sick for a week and my Channel is out of town visiting family so
I’m itching to do some magic.”
“What’s your field?”
I asked curiously.
“Sound. We get
called in during announcements around campus a lot,” he laughed. “So! What are
we doing?” He rubbed his hands together eagerly.
Mathis and Andromeda
looked at me for guidance and I shrugged. “Probably some place a little more private,
to start. Then I guess… magic.”
“Sounds good!”
We headed for the
trees and followed an unpaved path until the growth was thick enough that I
figured we wouldn’t be bothered any time soon. Jin helped Mathis over a fallen
log and gave him some balance through the uneven ground that his mech-legs couldn’t
easy compensate for. He gave me a thumbs up when he saw my concern, so I didn’t
say anything.
“Should we hold
hands or what?” Andromeda asked.
Jin nodded. “It’s
easier the first few times to have physical contact. Eventually you’ll get the
hang of it and can function in close proximity. A few bonds can work miles
away, but that’s more rare and usually has some kind of transport component.”
He shrugged.
Andromeda, Mathis,
and I took hands. I felt Andromeda’s buzz in my left while Mathis’ cool breeze
echoed through my right. Jin stood a few feet back between Andromeda and me in
case he needed to step in to assist.
Jin tossed a deck of
cards into the middle of our circle. “Try to do something with that. Mathis,
why don’t you bring the power up but don’t give it any final push, yeah? Hold
it and see if one of them takes over for Focus on instinct or something.” Jin
shrugged carelessly but his expression was serious. He brushed a fallen lock of
dark hair off his forehead.
“Ready?” Mathis
asked. He was practically bouncing with excitement.
Andromeda and I
nodded.
A bubble formed in my
chest like a hiccup gone sideways. My back muscles tensed and released in quick
succession and I felt like shocks of lightning were flashing behind my eyes where
I could almost, but not quite, see them. I looked at Andromeda to see her eyes
closed; a look of concentration furrowed her brow and she seemed to be speaking
to herself silently. I looked at the cards and saw spiderweb-thin lines
reaching out in a thousand directions. I imagined plucking one.
The cards
disappeared.
Mathis let out a whoop
of enthusiasm that Jin echoed only a second behind. The power faded and my body
was my own again without any abnormal flashing or tension or buzzing.
“Who did it?” Jin
asked excitedly.
I looked at
Andromeda and she shrugged. “I was just concentrating on not exploding while my
muscles twitched and stuff.”
“That goes away
eventually,” Jin said with a dismissive wave. They looked at me.
“I saw some lines?”
I said uncertainly. “I guess I moved the cards, but I don’t know where they
went.”
“No worries. I guess
you’re a Focus after all,” Jin told me.
Mathis gave me a
double thumbs up this time and I smiled ruefully, confusion and excitement fighting
for dominance.
I wasn’t certain. “So,
I’m just a prodigy with language, I guess? I didn’t think Foci could do what
Channels could with that.”
“Maybe,” Mathis
answered. “Stranger things have happened.”
Jin put out a hand. “Welcome
to the club!”
I took it and again
saw that strange blue light. Why was it showing up everywhere now? On a whim, I
focused my attention on it and just as before it grew and changed into a burst
of energy. Jin’s grip tightened and I heard someone yell. When the light faded,
Jin was still holding my hand in a vicelike grip. He was staring at me with
something like fear in his expression. His touch felt like a crunch of autumn
leaves and I had the sense of two other feelings far away but couldn’t put a
finger on them.
He dropped my grip.
No one spoke.
“What did you do?”
Jin finally asked.
“I’m… not sure,” I
admitted.
“Did you… did you
just bond with Jin?” Mathis asked. “He already has a trio. That’s impossible.”
“How did you do
that?” Jin demanded.
I could tell he wasn’t
angry, but fear was close enough. I looked at Andromeda. Her arms were crossed
and she looked as tense as I felt.
“I…” I closed my
eyes and took a breath. “When I touch people, I see this kind of blue light. It
only started today.”
“When?” Mathis
asked.
“When I shook Dr.
Bjork’s hand and then yours. And now Jin’s.”
“And what does it
do?”
“It just moves
around on our hands and when I focused on it, like with you, it turned into the
bond-flash.”
“You wanted this to
happen?” Jin asked.
“No, I mean, I didn’t
know it would,” I explained.
Mathis put out a
hand. “What about now?”
I hesitated, but
took his grip. “Yeah, it’s there.”
“And with Andromeda?”
I slowly offered her
my hand and she reluctantly took it. “Same.”
“And Jin,” Mathis
instructed.
He gave me a long
stare before putting out a hand for a lose grip. “Still there.”
Before we let go,
Mathis said, “Hang on – what happens if you concentrate on it now?”
“Are you serious?”
Jin asked incredulously. He reclaimed his hand. “You can’t just go trying that without
any kind of information. This is unheard of! What if I lose one of my established
bonds?”
“Have you?” I asked
nervously.
Jin focused inward. “No,”
he admitted. “But I don’t want to go jumping into a lake if I can’t check for
rocks first.”
“How do we check for
rocks?” Mathis asked.
Jin ran his hands
through his hair and pressed the sides of his head. “The internet?”
“What do you think?”
I asked Andromeda. She was uncharacteristically silent.
“I think we’re
definitely about to be kidnapped by the government.” It was a statement of how
nervous everyone was that no one even tried to smile. We were all thinking it,
after all.
big YIKES big magical YIKES
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