ZETA

Hera’s partners created a loud ruckus as they roamed about upstairs. The six pairs of feet stampeding around that small area was enough to drive Zeta insane without even mentioning the distant murmur of voices, each whisper injected with paranoia.

Zeta assumed Hera informed them of his presence when they charged downstairs, but to his confusion, they bolted out the door instead. Seconds later, Hera followed.

“You didn’t tell them about me?” Zeta called when he heard her outside his room.

“I told them you broke in, tormented me for a while and then ran off–” she peeked in, only to witness Zeta still putting on his pants. “Oh, come on!”

“What? So I left the door open? It’s a habit.”

She quarantined herself from the room until Zeta was done, then she entered again, clearly disgusted.

“I hope that wasn’t excessively traumatizing,” Zeta said.

“Ugh.” She noticed the made bed. “Did you not sleep last night?”

“I’m offended. Are you assuming I woke up and left it unsightly?”

“Yes. You’re a slob.”

Zeta laughed. “I took a power nap for five minutes, then I spent the rest of the night concealing my wounds. Your neighbor has an extensive makeup collection.”

“So you only slept for five minutes?” she asked, bewildered.

“Yep, that’s all I need!” Zeta spotted rings around Hera’s eyes. “What about you? You don’t look healthy right now.”

“I wonder why…”

“Oh, come on. I’m not a plague.”

She feigned a smile. “I’m not so sure about that.”

Hera left the room, and Zeta finished getting ready for the day. He checked himself out in the mirror one last time, ensuring no wounds were visible.

He was about to exit the house when he noticed Hera sitting alone at the kitchen table, impatient and half-asleep. She grimaced when she saw him. “You have more questions, right? Let’s get them over with.”

Zeta gestured to the door. “Sure, I think Aspic is looking beautiful this morning. Let’s take a walk.”

“I’ll answer them here. Now.”

“Fine, I’ll ask one. Your partners, Berto and Igel, their sigmas were simple but inconsistent, what were they?”

She narrowed her eyes. It was apparent she didn’t just want to spill that information, but Zeta left her with no choice.

“If you must know, Berto uses sigmas from the Natural Padding set, and Igel has certain enhanced physical attacks,” she said. “Those sigma sets are widespread, but Berto and Igel don’t have the full sets. You already saw why.”

“Okay, but which sigma do they have exactly? I want a list.”

She scoffed. “I don’t know that. I trust them with their own sigmas and to come through when I need them to. Igel has an Enhanced Headbutt, I think, and I know Berto at least has Padded Thighs and a Padded Torso.”

“But not Padded Arms, that’s why I cut him there easily. I get it,” Zeta said. “What about you? Any other sigmas that I haven’t seen?”

Hera paused, then she smiled wryly. “Oh? You want to see what else I have?”

Zeta nodded, and she started laughing.

“Fine then. I might be a Mind focus, but the mind has many practical avenues, and one of those is fear.” Hera stared at him with absolute malice. “Appendophobia.”

She extended her arm, which elongated and thinned, blackened to a nighttime void and grew an excessive amount of hair. A feeler.

When Hera noticed what her arm was turning into, she screamed at the top of her lungs and reversed the process, leaving her in a cold sweat.

“Umm. Are you okay?” Zeta asked.

“You–I hate you! You’re an arachnophobe!”

Zeta was taken aback. “How in the world do you know that? How much did you learn from stalking me?”

“I didn’t, moron! That sigma turns one of my limbs into that of a creature in which my target greatly fears. You’re scared of spiders!”

“Yes, I am,” Zeta said, “and why did you scream?”

Hera’s face went red, and she shied away.

“Good to know we have something in common,” Zeta laughed.

“Seriously, everything about you is a virus,” she said.

“Ouch. That’s cruel. Now come on, I want to see more of Aspic. Care to be a guide?”

She shook with undiluted rage but gave in and followed him outside. Zeta was pleased to see the hustle and bustle of Aspic once more and with a full stomach this time.

“Where do you want to go?” Hera grumbled as she shut the door.

“Well, I don’t quite know,” Zeta said. “You’re the resident here, so you’d know all the points of interest. Oh, I know, take me to where all the sigmas are!”

They looked around. Basic sigmas were being used up and down the street like a carnival of them had hit the town.

“We’re here. Enjoy,” Hera said dryly, heading back inside.

Zeta grabbed her shoulder. “No, no, no. Let’s not be rude. Okay, so I worded the question wrong. You say I know nothing about the Sigma World, so enlighten me.”

Hera furrowed her brow. “What? For your level of knowledge, you need professional help. Do I look like a schoolteacher to you?”

“You are for today. Do you want a title to incentivize you? What’s your last name again? Verdure? How about Ms. Verdure? Mrs.? Are you married by any chance?”

“Just shut up and listen, then. Good God, I don’t even know where to start. So much of this is common knowledge that teaching it is impossible.”

“Then I suppose I’ll jump start it with a question. You mentioned sigma sets back there. What are those?”

“Can’t that information be inferred?” she asked with venom. “Never mind. A sigma set is a collection of sigmas with a near identical effect and one particular difference other than score. Take Berto. Naturally Padded Thighs and Naturally Padded Torso are a part of the same set because they do the same thing, but for different body parts.”

“You keep talking about a score. What is that?”

She twitched. Each question seemed to leave Hera more dumbfounded than the last. “Even if I gave you the full explanation, would you remember it? Why should I tell you if it will slip out of your head by tomorrow?”

“Sir Kagan always told me to never hesitate when asking a question, no matter how stupid it may seem,” said Zeta.

“Do you want me to like you? How about we make this a fair trade, then? Why don’t you tell me more about you? Who is Sir Kagan?”

“The greatest man to ever walk on this world’s soil.”

“That’s not an answer!”

“But it’s my answer.”

“Then here’s my answer, idiot. A sigma score is a number between one and infinity that measures how strong a person is. You have a sigma score of 0, which means that ants that pass by on the ground are strong enough to kill you!”

Zeta looked down. “Really?”

“Agh!”

“Hey, hey, calm down. It was only a question,” Zeta said with a devilish grin.

Hera’s face darkened, and all of a sudden Zeta felt a terrible chill travel down his spine. It made his body quiver and his face sweat cold, and he wondered what Hera was doing to make this terror so real.

But she adopted a similar expression of fright. A man covered in a brown cloak from head to toe passed them, and the feeling disappeared outside of his proximity as if the icy hands of death were released around their throats.

“That…that–Hera can you explain that?”

She analyzed the figure as he passed down the rest of the street. Anyone he came near shivered with pale horror, clearing his way. They calmed down with heavy sighs of relief as he moved on.

“That sigma is called Chilling Presence. It’s an Elementary grade fear sigma.”

“A fear sigma? Like the same type you have?”

She nodded. “People with that power typically have a focus in fear. Stay away from Fear focuses. They are evil and dangerous.”

“Advice accepted.” He reclaimed his excited self. “So…you called it ‘Elementary grade.’ New question. What are grades?

HERA

Hera spent the next hour toiling through a grueling, miserable explanation of every bit of sigma knowledge she could mine from the depths of her memory.

She went through grades, scores, types, the effects of Dormant sigma. She also learned, to her dismay, that Zeta possessed no base of knowledge for her to expand upon, so she could not afford to skip on a single detail.

“There, that’s it. That’s everything you need to know. Is there anything else?”

He wandered off. “No, if that’s all you have for me, then that’s all I need. Granted, if I have more questions, I’m sure you’ll be happy to oblige future visits.”

“You mean I’m still not off the hook!”

“Not completely. If I need some additional clarification in the future, I expect you to indulge me, that’s all. However, you don’t have to follow me around anymore.”

He’s letting me go! She could cheer, she could pray in Valeri’s name. She could bless fate and destiny, the heavens or hell, yet she had no clue whether to look up or down.

But there was something. A part of Hera simmered with unsatisfaction even with her respite. She had no idea where the impulse came from. Before her brain dug her out of the ditch, her mouth ran off and buried it with cement.

“No. We’re not done. We’re far from done. After this torture, I refuse to let you walk away for free. You have no money, and you have no sigmas, but I want something, anything, and I will not let you refuse. You’re going to tell me all about you.”

Chilling Presence - Fear, Dormant: Forcefully sends shivers down the spines of all those who come within the user's presence. (300)

(A) Force of will. Affects those within a 10 m radius. Chills are sustained as long as targets are within the radius. As soon as they exit the radius, the effect is drastically eliminated. Is meant solely to be an intimidation factor, the user should wary of social consequences