Chapter 7: Heighten

I trained with Fiori and Doran daily. Physical activity was something I had never done before. It was new to me, but I liked that feeling of exhaustion. In a way, it was liberating. It allowed me to clear my mind. All that tension in my chest. Tension I didn’t even know I had, was slowly melting away.

As I got better with self defense, Fiori started teaching me offensive manoeuvres. He was a fierce adversary in training. With incredible speed and agility, he could accelerate and change direction as quickly as a falcon in a dive. But above all, he was patient and a respectable teacher; valuing effort and improvement.

Day by day, my confidence was being built up. My body too. The speed at which I adapted to this new intense training schedule was incredible. According to Fiori, this was what it meant to be an Aethereusian. Our bodies were made to be adaptative. We were quick to build muscle, which had excellent memory and a staggering rate of recovery. Our minds were sharp, allowing us to swiftly grasp complicated concepts. As well, we were physically able to withstand all kinds of extreme weather, in both hot and cold environments.

I remembered my days at the orphanage. The shivering in winter, the exhaustion in summer. I wondered how regulated the weather had been inside the building. As we were approaching mid-June, we were now entering the coldest days of winter. Here, I didn’t have the luxury of being sheltered by windowless concrete, and the wind through the cracked walls was chilling. It didn’t affect me much, but I could see some of the others struggling.

As I was lost in my train of thoughts, I failed to notice Doran’s next move and before I knew it, his elbow connected with my nose. The pain radiated from my face to the back of my head. My neck jammed and blood started rushing down my face. It was too late. I covered my nose with my hands. The blood rushing through my fingers. I suddenly got nauseous at the sight of so much of it. Black spots filled my eyes and heat swept through my body. I took one step forward and blacked out.

***

“I think I might just start calling you the blackout kid,” said a voice.

There was some laughter.

Shit. Not again!

I was laying on the floor. Fiori, Doran, Ashe, were all looking at me from above. Worse, Eli, Hana and the teenager were there too. I debated for a second if perhaps it was better for me to pretend to still be unconscious. Just to avoid facing them. To avoid the inevitable embarrassment.

I was probably covered in blood. I shivered at the thought. My nose was throbbing. At the very least, the black spots and nausea were gone. Doran helped me up.

“You better go wash up,” he recommended with a sorry expression.

I lightly touched my nose, as expected, pain radiated through my entire face. I huffed. By now it was obvious, they probably all thought of me as a schlemiel.

Hana had a scolding look etched in her eyes. I could feel the weight of her disappointment.

Eli, who stood by her side, had a concerned look on her face.

At least there’s that.

I quietly waved hi at her, trying to smile. She scowled.

Fiori put his hand on my shoulder and smiled: “It’s all good. The progress you’ve made these past weeks have been incredible. You should be proud. This… This is just a minor set back. Nothing to frown about.”

He said these last words directly to Hana. The frown magically disappeared from her face and she seemed to relax a bit. She scratched her forehead, thinking, and opted to answer nothing. I was relieved. Doran grabbed me by the arm and led me back to my room.

I quickly washed up and changed. I looked in the mirror. My nose was a mix of purple and blue with a little black and yellow where my eyes met.

Splendid, I thought sarcastically.

Between that and the red cloud on my cheek, I looked completely defaced. Thankfully my hair was long enough to hide at least the cheek part. Then I smirked. When had I become so concerned with my looks? I turned away from the mirror and got ready to go.

Doran was waiting for me in the hallway. In the last few days, he had become a bit of a friend. He was older than me, but not as old as he appeared. The beard was misleading. He was witty. That was the most enjoyable part. Conversation with him was easy. He was an Aethereusian who had just barely avoided the orphanage life. He was still in contact with his parents who lived just outside Nova Summus. His dad, a Melior, had worked as a carpenter. His mom, an undisclosed Aethereusian had been a schoolteacher, but had had to leave her position after the rebellion. For the most part, they lived a quiet life just on the outskirt of town and were careful to not draw attention to themselves.

Whenever he talked about his family, I could feel a certain longing in his voice. He had been given to the army at the age of four, right after the rebellion, and enjoyed the privilege of keeping in touch with his relatives. “Once a year,” he explained. “They could visit me. But honestly, they were strangers to me. It was always awkward. Yet, I knew I was lucky. I was lucky to be alive. I was lucky to be in the military. We all knew what went down in the orphanages. We were constantly threatened to be sent there if we didn’t perform well. So, I performed well in every way. And that included smiling and hugging my parents.”

As we arrived in the kitchen, a small crowd had assembled around the teenager. He had a laptop in front of him. They were all watching something, a video it seemed. We joined them.

Hana and Fiori were there.

Eli too.

On the screen was a small stubby old white man.

At the bottom, “breaking news” was flashing.

It was a live coverage of a press conference on the steps of Ortus University. The government was announcing the creation of a human super weapon. According to the small man on the screen: “After many years of research, the scientists had finally been able to perfect aethereusian characteristics. These new Heighten Characteristics were being used to create human super weapons….”

He wouldn’t give many details about it, not even as reporters repeatedly asked. But it was clear, that this announcement was meant as a warning. A warning that the government of Antarticum had all the means necessary to remain in power, against rebels, against Aethereusians but against the rest of the world too.

Had they been threatened?

As soon as the press conference ended, the teenager slammed shut his laptop.

Hana chuckled and said: “Well that’s bullshit… Who are they taking us for? Fools?”

Fiori was quick to answer: “In any case, they’ve played their cards. Now we play ours. It’s time we blow this town up.” I saw a flicker of light in his eyes. The fearless General in him had spoken.

My eyes met Eli’s gaze.

How long has she been looking at me?

I felt like I wanted to talk to her, to apologize, to be friends again. But it was her that had walked away, and I had to respect that. I smiled back and was debating if I should go over when Hana planted herself right between me and Eli. She had an amused look on her face. I sighed and forced a smile. She put her left hand on my shoulder and declared: “Blackout kid, we have to talk.”

I heard Doran and Arno laughed behind me and caught Fiori hiding a smile.

“Blackout kid,” I repeated as I began following her.

Well… I guess it could be worse.

Fiori was right behind me. These two were always together. I was relieved, I wouldn’t be alone with her. She still scared me.

We entered the committee room. I had never been in here before, but it was just another converted bedroom. Same old wallpaper, same old curtain and same old desk as in my room. The only difference was that the bed had been removed and instead, a big round table with eight chairs had been brought in. I was invited to take a seat. Fiori and Hana did the same. Then we waited.

Finally, Eli and the teenager arrived followed by a tall person with dark short hair that I had seen around a few times. All three of them took a seat. We were set to start.

Hana took the lead: “I wasn’t planning on having this conversation today, I would have liked more time to assess our three rescued kittens. But it seems like time is no longer on our side.”

She took a pause.

She was looking for her words.

It was a little odd.

Like she had suddenly become confused.

Finally, she went on: “Meyer was rescued almost 2 years ago from the Senex Centralis Orphanage.”

She had said that while looking at the teenager.

So, his name was Meyer, I thought.

“Eli was rescued six months ago from the Nova Cibus Orphanage and Fenn was rescued last month from the Nova Urbi Orphanage. They were rescued because I believed each of them had what the government calls a Heighten Characteristic. As you can guess, Heighten Characteristics have been around for quite sometime.”

She stopped again.

Her mouth was twitching.

Fiori took over: “Why would the government suddenly expose the existence of such powerful characteristics? Well, we don’t know. We can only assume that this announcement is a fear mongering tactic that is ultimately part of a bigger plan.”

Yuki, the tall person with black hair, interrupted him: “Well then, do we believe they have achieved the ability to create a vessel with all three Heighten Characteristics? Do we believe they truly possess a human super weapon?”

Fiori took a deep breath before replying: “We have no reason to believe that they don’t.”

Yuki questioned again: “And worst-case scenario?”

Fiori frowned: “They will use this human super weapon as a threat against other civilization. They will use this human super weapon as a threat against dissidents. They will use this human super weapon as proof that Aethereusians should be feared…and should be exterminated.”

And that was that.

It was like death had befallen the room.

Meyer slammed his forehead on the table. Eli pushed her head back and stared at the ceiling. Yuki got up and slammed the wall with their fist. Hana just sat there motionless as Fiori’s fingers rhythmically tapped the table. I rubbed my forehead. This was a lot to take in. I was trying to make sense of it all.

The government had a human super weapon.

The human super weapon was an Aethereusian possessing all Heighten Characteristics.

Eli, Meyer and I were presumed to each have a Heighten Characteristic.

Eli, Meyer and I had been rescued because of Heighten Characteristics.

And now, here we all sat, in a decrepit hotel room talking about blowing up the government. Impulsively, I got up and announced: “Sorry, I’m out. I don’t know who you think I am, heck I don’t even know who I am myself, but I won’t have anything to do with your plans.”

As I reached for the doorknob, in a stern voice I had never heard before, Fiori ordered me to sit back down. I froze and obeyed.

“Your constant refusal to fight is outstanding! Either you are as dumb as shit and don’t understand the value of life, or else you’re a pitiful coward. Either way, you are a complete disappointment.” These harsh words came from Hana and cut right through me. But she wasn’t done. The frustration in her voice was obvious: “And to think you have the characteristic that allows you to kill people without a trace. It pisses me off! You piss me off!”

If it wasn’t for the empathy I saw in Eli’s eyes, I would have been crushed by now. Instead, against my character, I talked back: “No, you piss me off! Always so righteous. Not giving me any explanation but expecting me to blindly agree to everything you say. I’m not stupid! I won’t let you manipulate me. I’ve never asked you for anything. Fine! You busted me out of the orphanage, but you left the only thing, the only person that mattered to me, behind. Then you bring me here and tell me I’m so special, I should kill!?! Yeah! Ok! Whatever! This is not my war! This is not my fight! I never asked for any of this!”

I slammed my hand on the table. The frustration had boiled over. It was Meyer who answered me: “None of us ever asked for any of this. It doesn’t mean we should just walk away from it. From the moment you were born with characteristics, this became your fight, like it or not….”

I interrupted him: “If our aethereusian characteristics are that dangerous, then I say, let us all die. Let us be done with all this bullshit!”

Hana’s face started twitching again. Fiori was biting his lip. Eli and Yuki had remained silent through out the entire exchange.

“So, what are you going to do? Where are you going to go?” an agitated Hana asked.

Of course, I hadn’t thought about it yet. I mumbled something incoherent that sounded a lot like: “I’m… by… hum… outside… gone…ehhh.”

Once again it was Fiori that saved the day: “He’s not going to go anywhere. He’s going to stay right here. He doesn’t have to kill if he doesn’t want to. I won’t ask him to fight against his will. We didn’t rescue him from an orphanage to make him a slave here.”

The anger on Hana’s face was now intense.

He added: “I’m going to keep training him in self defence. At the very least, he will be able to protect himself.” He sounded defeated. I felt sorry for him. Having to put himself on the line, to save me.

I wasn’t looking for a compromise, but he had offered me one, nonetheless. Like it or not, whatever Fiori said, Hana agreed. So, it was settled then.

Yuki was the one who brought us back on topic: “They have a human super weapon, and we have three kids who may or may not hold the genes capable of generating Heighten Characteristics. So, what next?”

“We don’t.” That was Hana talking.

“We don’t,” she meekly repeated. “We thought we had three kids with Heighten Characteristics, but we don’t.” The room went silent.

“Fenn can drain someone’s energy until their heart stops. Eli has rapid cell regeneration and increased strength. But Meyer, as brilliant as he is, does not have mind control, as we had previously thought. Somehow my information was skewed. At this point, mind control characteristics remain a rumor only.”

“And do we know for a fact that these are the only three Heighten Characteristics?” That was Yuki again.

“No. No, we don’t. This is just speculation based on some documents held at Ortus University.” Hana, now, sounded completely defeated.

“And you managed to see these documents how?” Yuki was shamelessly pressing the issue. Fiori didn’t stop them.

“I haven’t. I have only heard about them.” Hana conceded. Her face twitched again.

Yuki had a long sigh and put their feet on the table before stretching backward on their chair. The whole room was silently thinking.

No tangible proof, no sound plan and no real objective. And yet they are all willing to fight.

I was in disarray.

Addressing Yuki directly, Fiori asked: “So, what are you thinking?”

“I am not thinking anything, General. I am just establishing the facts. And it doesn’t look good,” Yuki formally replied.

“Yes. And I thank you for that. But tell me, after hearing the facts. What do you think?” It was Fiori’s turn to press on.

Without any hesitation Yuki said: “I am not thinking my General. I am merely waiting for your command,” Fiori smiled at me. That was his warning to me. I could tell. He was setting an example.

He replied: “Very well, Yuki, I am glad we can count on you!”

Eli’s eyes were bright open. The disbelief on her face matched mine. As for Meyer, he still had his head resting on the table; impossible to know what he was thinking.

Without a word, Hana got up and left the room. Everyone else followed until I was left with Fiori: “Don’t worry,” he said. “She’s never been good with people. She is just trying so hard to do what’s best for all of us, perhaps sometimes she forgets that she is one of us.” I didn’t quite understand what he meant. But I had to trust him. And as Yuki had demonstrated… trust had to be enough.