I suppose it is fitting that we start with a parallel. You and Kael were looking for someone and so was I. We both found the wrong person initially. Of course, you almost killed that innocent child didn't you?

For shame.

###

Joshua Rasgard never enjoyed carrying bodies around, living or dead. The thing was: they were heavy.

And so it was that he and his brother Kael heaved the downgraded Person in Black (a newly minted term from Joshua) from the back of the pickup truck. The two boys awkwardly shuffled the body towards the house with an awkward grunt and constant shifting to support the sagging weight. They passed the broken tractor-crane with its long arm and circular drill at the end. The only reason they could find work here was because of that broken machine. As they grunted their way up the porch steps, they could once again hear the little girl screaming.

“Was she doing that the entire time?” Joshua asked.

Kael shrugged. With the boy's feet in his hands, this amounted little more than turtling his neck downwards to give the appearance of his shoulders rising. “You did not help the situation, talking about her dad. Just once, for my sake, can you not drive a child to tears?”

“I–” Joshua took a strained breath. “We're here to find her dad, and I'm not supposed to ask about him?”

The door burst open and the old farmer stormed out to meet them. His mouth opened but could only twitch as he looked down on the Person in Black.

“Found the guy you've been talking about,” Kael said.

“Not as impressive up close, huh?” Joshua said with a prick of judgment in his voice.

“What– what happened to him?” The farmer finally got out.

“I hit him with your truck,” Joshua said.

“Why were you driving my truck?” the farmer asked in a stupor, moving aside as the boys brought their quarry in and propped him up in a chair.

“To. Hit. Him.” Joshua rolled his eyes. “I swear you aren't paying attention.”

The farmer fumbled in his pocket before bringing out his cellphone. “I'm calling the police.”

Kael snagged the device out of his hand in a clean motion before the man could press a button. “Not until we figure out what's going on here.” The girl poked her head around the corner. Kael gave her a wink and beckoned her over. He bent down and whispered, “Can you get me some snow? The coldest you can find.”

She nodded and dashed outside.

“So?” Kael demanded. “Is this the guy you've been seeing around?” He wagged the farmer's cellphone at the unconscious man in the chair.

The farmer shrugged helplessly. “I don't know. He doesn't look like much.”

Joshua circled the unconscious and bleeding boy like a swarm of scavenging egree, just without a long enough nose to elicit that bird-like appearance. As Joshua examined that comparison in his head, there was an uncountable number of animals he could have picked, but you always saw the circling birds first.

Little foot pats clambered up the steps and Kael held his hand out to receive a clump of dirty brown snow. He walked over to the boy drooping deathly still in the chair and ripped the ski mask off, revealing a face that was only remarkable in how disheveled and bloody it looked. Kael took the snow and wiped some on the boy's face and let the rest slide down his chest.

With a slow start, the boy sluggishly shuddered to life and gazed around the room glassy-eyed. He wasn't halfway through a feeble attempt to stand before Joshua had a firm grasp on his shoulder and shoved him back into the seat.

“Talk,” Kael growled. The boy threw up his shaking hands, seemingly anticipating a blow from the tone alone.“Start with who you are.”

“My name? My name is. . . It's Peter.” The boy's voice shook. “Where am I? Call my dad, someone?”

“Why were you traipsing around on a horse dressed like that? You could see why we want to know what's going on?” Joshua pulled up a chair and stared him down and couldn't help but feel a tinge of guilt for putting him in this condition. True, he couldn't have known that the “Man in Black” was some kid pulling pranks, but he could have killed just about anyone running them over like that.

Peter thought for a moment, slack-jawed, and then jolted. “Is the horse okay?”

“The horse is dead. Focus.” Kael said flatly.

“My dad's a lawyer; he'll sue you for that.”

“Only rich kids have horses, so that's hardly surprising,” Joshua said, as Kael chuckled behind. “But what I need you to tell me right now, is why you were going around dressed like that and scaring the farmer.”

“Why do you care?” Peter spat at them only to wince back in pain, feeling the broken rib bones screaming against his lungs. “It's the family horse; I'm allowed to ride it.”

Kael grunted and grabbed Joshua's attention. “Just show him the list. If this really is a dead end, we don't have a second to waste.”

Sighing, Joshua dug into his pockets and brought out a single ratty sheet of yellowed paper that had been folded over, creased, and crumpled a hundred times over. Joshua handed it to Peter. “You see that name at the bottom? We're looking for that man. And last we heard, he was being chased– through this town– by people dressed in black robes. So when the farmer says he's been seeing people who fit that description, we need to find out what's going on.”

Peter squinted down at the paper combing over crossed off name after crossed off name until arriving at the very bottom. “I don't know any Timothy Bartholomew.”

As these words sat in the air, the farmer gasped and the little girl squeaked. Joshua and Kael looked wildly between them. “You know him!” They asked in unison.

“Look here–” the farmer started.

“He's my dad!”

The farmer glared at her as Kael backed away and crossed his arms contemplatively. “He's still alive isn't he? He has to be alive. We need to find him.”

“But why? It doesn't matter,” the farmer said, almost tiredly. “Stop this. You want to be paid for the week? I'll pay you now.”

“We do not care about your money. Where is Bartholomew? Kael rounded on the man, pushing him back.

“He was afraid. He was worried,” the farmer said through panting breaths. “Someone was after him. And I'm starting to think it was you! I'm not saying a word till I know why.”

“And here we go,” Joshua mumbled.

“We're on a treasure hunt,” Kael said, flat, matter of fact. If Kael wasn't so close to the farmer's face, it would have been a comedic line. “And it all goes back to the Taerose Empire.

The King, Emperor, or whatever he's calling himself nowadays, he's absolutely obsessed with the occult– with ruins and artifacts and anything arcane. Kael lingered, gauging the farmer's reaction, seeing if this was new information. His thumb jerked back to the paper Joshua held. “Everyone who worked for the King is on that list, and they're all dead except your friend.”

The farmer slunk back, one eye twitching. “Is that true? Is any of this true?” His words shot past Kael to Joshua.

“Unfortunately.” Joshua ran his hand through hair flaked with bits of dried mud, realizing he was asking the man to take in quite a bit at once. A new tactic then. Complete, stupid honesty. “We're looking for a legend. And we don't have much of a chance of finding it unless we can find the last survivor on our list. Without Bartholomew we can't–“

“Save our mother's life,” Kael blurted out, his feet wearing the floor down in a small circular pace.

“Yeah, so,” Joshua continued. “It's like a book, if you believe the legends. Eternal life and all that. And when you consider that the Empire wants it and every other person on our list is dead. . . . Hey. The best way to help your friend is by making sure we get to him first.” Joshua saw the look of confusion on the farmer's face. Even if Joshua was good at reading people, anyone could see the reaction by how openly he wore it. They were five turns in from what this sleepy old man could process in a day.

“If your friend is in danger,” Kael said, “then you might be too. You have every reason to cooperate right now.

What followed was one of those happenstance moments where everyone just naturally stops talking at once. Peter's eyes danced and forth between the participants of the conversation, his expression one rapturous confusion. They stood in unrhythmed silence, waiting to see what would happen next.

“Can I please go?” Peter spoke up faintly from behind. “I'm realizing I'm in way over my head here. I really do. I was only playing a prank on the farmer. I only dressed like that because he's been telling crazy stories. I figured it'd drive him mad.”

Everyone turned to Peter slowly, understanding creeping over them.

“Because I was telling stories?” the farmer muttered. “You aren't the thing I saw originally?”

“No!”

A car's headlights flashed around the bend and flickered through the windows. Kael stared at the front door expectantly and then back to the farmer. “Were you expecting anyone?”

“I wasn't.”

Joshua bounced on his heels and looked around the room. “Okay, take the girl and hide in the back. Peter, you go with them.” The click of a car door opening and closing echoed from outside.

The old farmer was already ushering Peter further back into the house with one hand with the little girl's hand daintily held in his other. “I'll be back. I've got a gun.”

“I'll keep them out of you hair,” Joshua said to his brother, stopping to consider their bet. Taking Peter down would count for very little if the real Man in Black was at the door right now.

###

Kael closed his eyes and erased all sensations of reality. There was no hearing, no touch, no taste, smelling, or sight. There was just the flow– the Sychakenetic energy that penetrated his mind– gave him feeling where others had nothing. He ignored what lay behind and stretched out to feel what lay beyond the house, to the stranger outside.

Kael's eyes opened in shock. He could distinguish human from otherwise easy enough, but humans normally didn't feel like that. What visited them now was no ordinary human but a Syche– someone just like himself.

Kael's hand twitched, partly in anticipation, partly in nervousness. Had the person outside done the same? Did they know what Kael was?

It didn't matter.

“Distance, material, amount,” Kael mumbled to himself. The three properties that affected his powers: how far away, what you were controlling, how much you were controlling. There were four types of Syches, but they all abided by the same rules.

Footsteps up the wooden steps now.

Kael looked around. Wood, nothing but wood in the entire house. Good.

The doorknob twisted and Kael slammed his palms into the glossy wooden planks at his feet. As the door cracked open and the first sight of the outside seeped into the room, Kael forced the energy tearing from his mind and through the planks towards the door. The door frame bulged with a stream of orange energy.

As the door swung wide, Kael saw him. Eye to eye with a man in head-to-toe black robes, the real Man in Black. Tall. Strong. Dangerous.

Dead

The door frame ignited– exploded in a booming shriek. The force ripped the true Man in Black from the porch, torpedoed him into the front yard.

Wood, as it happened, was a great material. An easy conductor and decent explosive agent for a Combustion Syche.

Kael stepped through the smoke and out into the twilight. His heart fluttered as he reached out and felt the man's energy. He was still alive! The man rose from the ground in swirls of smoke– not a cinder glowing on him, not a thread out of place. A red-ish haze hung around him momentarily but sunk, settling into his robes.

Blood. So that's what you are, Kael thought. Easy enough. He stepped forward, taking a deep breath and opening his palms. First I–

Two beams of light flashed on Kael's face, blinding him. He staggered backwards with his hands up. He listened, his ears the only worthwhile sense in that moment.

The light faded, and Kael watched in dumb, blank stupor as the Man in Black crashed across the hood of the farmer's old pickup. The man spun cartwheels into the air and then fell back into the mud in a twist of limbs.

The truck skidded to a stop, leaving tire marks imprinted in the steaming mud. Joshua got out beaming and held his hand up. “Two and O' baby.”

###

Joshua chewed at his fingernails as the true Man in Black started to life– the muddy snow mixture running down his chest. With his mask and hood off, this was no child like before. No. This was a man. He blinked again and again before pushing against the ropes that bound him. Joshua wouldn't have to feel guilty about running this guy over.

Everyone except the little girl spread themselves throughout the room: Joshua, Kael, the farmer, and even Peter. They all stared at their captive with varying amounts of curiosity and suspicion. The Man in Black's eyes gazed doubly at the farmer with his shotgun. The general atmosphere of curiosity was so great that Joshua and Kael hadn't even been required to talk the farmer or Peter out of calling the police.

“Now that you're awake,” Joshua started, “I know what you are inclined to do, but that's how you die in this situation.” Joshua leaned in close, so close that the others couldn't hear. “No powers,” he whispered with a wink. In the background, silhouetted against the hole in the house where the door used to stand, Kael gave the man a curt nod.

“So what do you want?” the man said smoothly, calmly, not the merest hint that he wasn't in control.

That. . . . That actually disturbed Joshua. He wasn't ready for it. The words fumbled around in his mind tripping over themselves as he tried to come up with anything to say.

“Answers. Obviously,” Kael growled in his stead.

“I'm not going to tell you anything. I'm just going to wait,” the man said.

“Aha!” Joshua just about jumped into the air. “But see, you have already told us something. If waiting will solve your dilemma, that means others will come for you.” The man in the chair grimaced. “And circumstances lead me to another conclusion. You are here for the girl.”

The man grinned and nodded. “So you already know quite a bit. Is there any need to carry this prattle on then?”

“We still have a question that needs answering,” Kael said.

“I have two questions actually,” Joshua added. “Let's start with the one Kael probably won't ask: who are you with? No one just goes around dressed like. . . that.”

The captive slowly rolled his head and stared Joshua down. Silently. What is he up to? Joshua's heart fluttered a second time. Am I in control?

“I want answers too,” the farmer said through a raspy, shaky voice. “And I'm the one armed.”

“If you want to threaten me, have that guy do it.” The Man in Black nodded his head towards Kael. He leaned in closer to Joshua and continued in a whisper. “I'm going to kill you first.”

The death threats were take it or leave it. Joshua had been threatened a thousand times before. It was the absolute confidence that was new. New and terrifying. Joshua scratched his chin, perplexed. He genuinely had no idea what to do when someone wasn't afraid of being plugged point-blank range with a shotgun. What else was there to threaten him with?

“You want me to threaten you?” Kael said. “Fine. Old man, pull the trigger.” The Man in Black pulled back and looked Kael over, studying him. “Put the barrel next to one ear and pull the trigger. We can write our questions down. Shouldn't be a problem.”

Joshua chuckled nervously. “Bit much, but my brother isn't one to be talked out of things.”

It was obvious that the farmer would break soon. The jitters in feet, the beads of sweat on his neck betrayed his mental state. But nonetheless, he went along with it– if only in show– and began walking up to the side of the captive.

A low growl rumbled in the captive's throat but then subsided. “The Dark Element.”

“What's that?”

“You asked who I was with and I told you.” He looked to Kael. “What was your question?”

“Where is Doctor Bartholomew?”

The captive licked his lips and shook his head. For all his affectation so far, this was the question to perturb him. “Never heard that name in my life.”

“You're here for his daughter,” Joshua reminded the captive, “don't play dumb. We know your men chased him through this town. Whatever the Dark Element is, they are chasing him, have him, or killed him.”

“I have a question for you kid,” the man from the Dark Element said, locking eyes with Kael. “If I didn't get sucker-punched by that car, who do you think would have won?”

“Me,” Kael said. Joshua bobbed his head up and down as if that was the most obvious answer in the world.

“Well, let's put that to the test?” The man in the chair gave a half-cocked smile. “Let's you and I go back out there an settle this with some honor.”

“No,” Kael said with Joshua quick bob his head in agreement. “I'd rather just blow out your eardrums.” Kael held up three fingers. Then two. . . . One. As he slowly lowered his final finger. . . .

“North!” the man in the chair spat. “He went north.”

Kael made to get close to the man but thought better of it before stepping back. “We are north.”

“Tyré.”

The boys looked to the farmer. “The island just north of here is Tyré,” the farmer said. “It's not far honestly. Although I wouldn't want to go any further north with winter not even reaching its peak yet.

“Okay.” Joshua clapped his hands together with pep. “We have a heading. The only question is if a boat or plane is faster. And we're also going to need–“

Bang! The shotgun recoiled and acrid smoke filled the air.

Joshua fell to the side reflexively. As he rose, he had the nearest seat gripped in front of him like a shield. But no more shots came. Joshua was left with the singular scene of their prisoner slumped over with a pattern of holes in his chest like a cheese grater.

It always comes out like this, Joshua thought. No matter how hard I try, someone always dies. It's why we're here. It's why we can never go home. It's–

The thoughts shattered as some forced latched on to his arm and pulled him to his feet. Joshua looked blankly at his brother before shaking off and putting himself back in the moment. He could do this; he'd done it before.

“What was that!” Kael screamed, turning on the father., ignoring Peter sprinting out into the waning dusk.

The farmer stumbled for words: “Something, something, something, weird was happening. There was a thing heading for him, just slinking in the air there.”

Joshua looked down to a strange splash pattern of blood on the floor that drew a sharp arrow pointing to where he had been sitting. Even tied up, as long as the prisoner had his body with him, he was never unarmed. Joshua should have followed Kael's caution when dealing with the man and stood a ways back.

“Thanks,” Joshua said. “Probably saved my life.”

“What was that?” the farmer asked frantically, placing the shotgun down gently against the wall. His hand shook, pointing at the blood trail.

Kael quit his inspection of the body slumped in the chair to join the conversation. “Syche. He controls Blood. Normally we keep this sort of thing secret, but you're in it now.”

“And who is we? My kitchen just a meeting place for secret societies today?”

“Chill old dude,” Joshua said, moving towards the blown out door and feeling the chilling breeze wash over him. “No major conspiracy on our side of the aisle. Some people can just do things. Our family was just born with it– at least most of us– and we keep it secret. You might find the occasional rando out in the world,” Joshua thumbed back to the body in the chair, “but they haven't ruined the secret yet either.

“More importantly,” Kael said clearing his throat, “we're taking the girl and heading for Tyrė,”

“You can't take the girl. Her father left her with me. She's my responsibility.”

“She'll be better with us,” Kael said. “This Dark Element he was with will come, and when they do you shouldn't be here.”

“I was born in this house.”

“That's unsanitary,” Joshua commented, absentmindedly, needing to say something. Anything.

“The point is,” the old farmer said with growing frustration in his voice, “that I ain't leaving. If someone does come back for me or the girl, I've got my shotgun, and I'll let the local police know to look for people dressed,” he paused and pointed at the dead man, “like that.”

“Hold on,” Kael said. “Reload that shotgun.”

“What?” Joshua said, “looking out into the dark of night, expecting to see a whole host of Men in Black stomping through the fields.

“I didn't bother to check given the circumstances, but that man is still alive,” Kael said. “I can feel him.”

As Joshua, Kael, and the farmer, slowly looked to the man in the chair, he rocked on his heels to his feet, standing up like the living dead. As he moved, the blood stopped dripping from his body and instead moved in the reverse, pooling back inside of him. The ropes, cut with clean fray-less lines, fell to the floor. His left arm was covered, or perhaps transformed, into a giant crystalline red blade that swung lightly despite its tremendous size.

Joshua moved sideways to the kitchen and pushed down his first instinct to find the keys to the truck. Instead, he reached over and grabbed the box of shells for the shotgun.

Kael grabbed a chair and moved towards the enemy. The chair glowered orange as Kael ducked the first swing of the blade. Joshua sucked in air watching. As the Man in Black reeled back on the follow-through, Kael slammed the energy infused chair into the man's gut, willing it to release its energy right at that moment.

Joshua ducked behind the kitchen counter, pulling the farmer with him. A cacophonic boom shook the house. The dust stung his eyes and smoke filled his nose, sending Joshua into a spluttering cough. Joshua looked around the counter as soon as his vision cleared to see a gap in the wall and the vague shape of the Man in Black pulling himself up in the parlor.

This was unbelievable. By every definition of the word, this was insane. Joshua knew that Blood Syches were durable. He knew that they could lose blood and survive off wounds that would kill a normal human or Syche, but he had never seen it at this magnitude.

“Kael,” Joshua screamed, lunging for the box of shells. “Try this,” he said throwing them, sending them every which way around Kael's feet.

Kael gritted his teeth and looked back to Joshua angrily. “Just get Emily and get the keys. I want to go as soon as I'm done with this.”

“Emily the girl?”

“Yes. Obviously.” Kael barely finished the worlds before the Blood Syche came stumbling through the hole in the wall, a newly formed shield protecting his right arm.

That was all Joshua needed to see. He ran to the other end of the kitchen, grabbed the keys, and then nearly tripped over himself rounding the corner to go find Emily. One room and then the next. He actually didn't know the layout of the house outside of an occasional bathroom trip. He and Kael had been sleeping at a cheap motel in town.

The house rocked as an explosion sounded off back from where he came, but Joshua trudged ahead. The truth was: Kael could handle himself.

Joshua opened a door and found a bland white bedroom. The inoffensive, boring kind of design you normally use for a guest room. And it did look like it had a guest. The sheets were a mess. There were small clothes strewn about the floor. No doubt about it, this was the little girl's– Emily's– room. Which also made the next bit quite obvious. Joshua got down on all fours and looked under the bed. Sure enough, her scared face looked back at him horrified.

“Hey thereeeeee,” Joshua said, trying his best to sound friendly. “We're going to go find your dad. Ready to go?”

She violently shook her head no.

“You want to see your dad right?” Joshua said and winced as another explosion rent the house.

She shook her head yes.

“Great let's go.” And so he stuck out his hand. And believe it or not, she took it! Who's bad with kids now?

“What's all that noise,” she said, her voice borderline inaudible.

“Oh don't worry about that. My brother is just fighting the bad guy.”

“Will he win?”

“Of course,” Joshua said. He wasn't just saying it either to calm her. There wasn't a doubt in his mind what the outcome would be. “We've done this sort of thing loads of times. No way is he going to get you.”

And then she started crying, and Joshua had no idea why. He worked his way out the back door desperately replaying his words and trying to figure out what he did wrong but couldn't see the problem. Didn't she want Kael to win? Nevertheless, they made their way in a crooked semicircle around the house as occasional flashes of light brightened the windows, stumbling their way through the mud. Joshua hesitated at the second car there. He supposed the Man in Black drove, but it was a bizarre thing to consider. Shrugging it off, he lifted Emily into the back seats of the truck and turned the electric engine on.

An eerie quiet settled over the farmland, and Joshua turned to see Kael sauntering out of the house– smoking and sooty. He held up the outside of his hand for a fist bump, and Joshua happily complied.

“Finally got the fight you wanted?” Joshua asked. “And the man was. . . .” Joshua let the question hang in the air.

“It was unremarkable, and yes, I left that guy alive. I don't know how you expect the local p.d. to hold someone like that, though. The injuries will have to do it I guess.”

“Well, I'm sure you'll get some more exciting in Tyré. It won't be easy keeping Emily's dad alive.”

And then she started crying. Again.