Vivena moved through the hot Jamaican forest, twice as fast as her level was normally capable of. She had reached the heights of power hard to imagine for a Level 2.

Her Talent was incredible.

After her ‘fight’ with Caesar Stonewood, some in her family had whispered that she had a Broken Talent. Even though Stonewood’s Level 7 hadn’t been a challenge, she understood better than others what a Broken Talent meant. Only one member of the Sael House ever had had a Broken Talent. Her father had spoken about their first official ancestor – Sora Sael. Her Talent had turned blood into any poison Sora Sael had wished.

Vivena wasn’t anywhere near that kind of absurdity. Perhaps, her Level 5 minor upgrade might offer something broken but turning blood into a poison? Difficult to beat.

Not everyone was thrilled by her stunt though. Her grandfather accused her and her mother of endangering their family with the notoriety they’d gained. The World Government was actively hunting them now. Before killing Caesar Stonewood, their conflict had resembled a cold war, now things had turned bloody.

But even though she could see his point, she wasn’t letting them turn her into a scapegoat. With the powerful boost she received from her Talent, it was too easy to forget that doubling attributes at Level 2 made her almost as strong as a Level 10, making her opponents irrelevant. How had her family come up with the numbers Vivena didn’t know but these numbers terrified her. To think she was as strong as Windsor Freeman? Inconceivable.

Except for that one man who trivialised even her.

Columbus Curt.

He had an even crazier Talent than her, at least from her perspective. At a moment’s notice, he could double his attributes for several minutes, sending his power into an orbit. With his Talent active, he could defeat anyone on the planet in a matter of seconds. Why hadn’t he killed Freeman then? It was everyone’s favourite topic. Columbus himself had remained radio silent about this.

Others who came with them to Jamaica were less spectacular but still important. Tobia and Reglant were with them as always. They hated Windsor Freeman’s and his follower’s guts. What Vivena learned recently made her a little worried though. The Ravencrofts hadn’t always opposed the authoritarian and ethically-questionable ideas presented by the President. Many years ago, the Ravencrofts had been Freeman’s loyalists until they switched sides without a publicly-stated reason.

Apart from those three, Vivena’s mother and brother Antall came on this mission as well. Somehow, Columbus managed to persuade Japan’s most powerful family, the Nishimura, to send someone. Hideko was friendly but never ventured beyond small talk. If you tried to learn anything about her, you’d be disappointed.

Typical for her country, she used a katana.

Two extra members were added to their group, which didn’t fit in very well – Colonel Burygold Finn. A friend of many wealthy families and his right-hand man and arrogant prick – Gollod Brunk. He bragged about a failed assassination attempt on him since they’d left the USA. But with his attitude and personality, Vivena was sure the man would get his due.

***

They ascended a hill near the coordinates they’d been given. There had been a huge argument between her grandfather, Columbus and Raedan Ravencroft, the head of the Ravencroft family, about this. Most smaller houses didn’t want to join as the true scope of the war had hit them hard. Not many families had resources and connections like Sael, Ravencroft or Nishimura.

Columbus was the one who spearheaded this operation. He’d warned the lesser houses that if they lose the war, the government’s punishment would be worse than death. They still decided to withdraw from this operation. Columbus wasn’t the best when it came to public relations.

Vivena was okay with the absence of the smaller houses. She preferred a smaller group that worked well together. Even her mother and brother shouldn't be here. But in the end, it wasn’t her call to make. The heads ran the show. She was their fist.

“Tobia, do you smell anything out of the ordinary?” Columbus asked as they came to a stop.

“No.”

“Try to smell out the entrance to their base.”

She nodded and moved out of their position.

“How is that you don’t know about this base?” Reglant asked. “You were the chief-in-command, the man who ran the military.”

“The government had separate bases and operatives from the military. That’s why there was so much mess in our structures. You never knew who had the authority or sufficient clearance,” Columbus replied. For his young appearance, he sounded old. The Vitality change worked miracles for high levels. Many of them looked much younger now. Her grandfather included. It was freaking her out a little that Columbus was over eighty but looked mid-twenties.

She peeled her eyes off but him not fast enough. He noticed her attention but didn’t react in any way. This was another disturbing thing about him. His mannerism was desynchronized with his appearance.

“How is the new serum working?” her mother asked from behind. She whispered but the Level 7’s Perception was formidable. Vivena placed her palm on her mother’s knee, gently, letting her know to not continue the topic. Vivena didn’t feel comfortable discussing such matters in the presence of people like Columbus or Reglant, especially the latter. She couldn’t help herself but be wary around him.

They fell silent, waiting for Tobia to return. It took her an hour to find the entrance and it was Vivena’s job to force their way inside.

***

Waxilium Earl sat behind his desk, reading reports from Willow Croft about the rift’s stability and how it affected space around it.

It was boring, drenched in numbers and scientific terms. He wondered sometimes if Willow Croft hadn’t been doing it on purpose. He was content with continuing his research but the world had over a thousand rifts out there. They received a lot of data but Willow Croft seemed to grow relentless. And he isn’t the only one, Waxilium Earl thought.

Waxilium Earl could hardly blame the man. Freeman technically imprisoned them inside the base. If not for Waxilium’s father’s strong stance on keeping them alive, Freeman would likely kill off most of them, leaving alive Waxilium and maybe Willow Croft but that was rather an unlikely maybe.

He put the sheet down, clearing his—

The alarms came to life as one. Waxilium froze. The long months of isolation dulled his sense of urgency. He brought up the view from the security cameras and saw the last man he wished to see – Columbus Curt.

Curt found them somehow.

Did someone from the base leak their location? At first, Waxilium got angry at the possibility but then he started weighing his options. He couldn’t oppose them. He was Level 5 and most of the base’s personnel were between Level 1 and Level 3.

Fighting was out of the question. He saw on the screen how the irrelevant pockets of resistance were wiped out by a blonde in a green combat coat. She looked like some exotic demon.

Then he saw a woman in ruby red hair and his Level 5 mind connected dots. He knew her, she was LORELAI Sael. Oh, how did I miss the obvious? How did Beverly Nort-Witch miss this? She was meant to be his best field agent.

Waxilium’s revelation didn’t last long as the door to his office shattered and the blonde rushed inside, Columbus Curt stepped in behind her.

“Earl? Why am I not surprised?” Columbus Curt asked.

***

Blood in Vivena’s body pumped so fast, she was ready to tear apart anyone in her path. When she entered the office, she had to push her Will to stop her fists from flying toward the man behind the desk.

He didn’t look surprised to see them and then Columbus introduced him as Waxilium Earl, the son of Esopp Earl. Members of another powerful family that served Windsor Freeman.

This didn’t make any sense, given Freeman’s latest speech. He claimed to search for the source of the outbreak. Was this a lie?

Vivena watched Brunk and Finn leave the room, although Brunk tried to linger about. In the end, he couldn’t oppose Columbus. Then she heard soldiers entering the base, orders were shouted and the place secured. Columbus hadn’t told them about this part of the plan. They hadn’t known that he’d secretly placed his soldiers somewhere on the island. Nonplussed Vivena stayed by her mother’s and brother’s side. Reglant, Tobia and Hideko also remained in the office. They were the eyes and mouths of their families.

“Why do I find you in the place that supposedly is the source of the outbreak?” Columbus asked.

Waxilium had a stone-like expression.

“I want to strike a bargain.”

Columbus stretched his neck, thinking silently about Waxilium Earl’s words. Vivena’s noticed Tobia’s cruel gaze. It was her fault that things had gotten out of control in Lisbon. Columbus had only wanted to get proof that the World Government worked on some top-secret surveillance project that would put them all in jeopardy. Then Tobia smelled blood and things went to hell. Stonewood appeared out of nowhere and would’ve killed Tobia if Vivena wasn’t there to intercept him.

“You’re hardly in a position to haggle, Earl,” Columbus eventually replied.

“You’ll get more out of me in a friendly way than the hard one.”

“You’d be surprised,” Tobia said, narrowing her eyes on him. And there it was, her twisted appetite to cause harm. Vivena had heard rumours that Tobia’s Talent – Keen Smell – allowed her to find pleasure in smelling the pain of others. Vivena had no idea if that was true but she was disgusted by the prospect and during the time they’d spent together she was leaning toward believing the rumours. There was something wrong with Tobia. But without proof, Vivena wouldn’t judge her.

Waxilium glanced at Tobia but his eyes didn’t rest long on her then she looked at Vivena’s mother, saying nothing.

“Let’s bargain then,” Columbus said. “What do you offer?”

Reglant stirred, getting ready to join the discussion.

“The truth.”

“The same truth Freeman spoke about in his speech?” Atoll asked affronted. “You and your government are not capable of producing the truth.”

Either Waxilium Earl wasn’t moved by this or he hid his emotions very well.

“Speak,” Columbus said, ignoring others.

“You mentioned the source of the outbreak. Yes. This is the place where it all started.”

A cold shiver ran through Vivena. Until now, she hadn’t really believed they were going to learn the truth about the outbreak.

It felt groundbreaking but fortunately, her attributes were buffed by her Talent, especially Mind and its resilience allowed her to avoid the shock that appeared on Tobia’s and Antall's faces. Even her mother showed signs of distress but she masked them well.

“So it was Freeman’s doing?” Columbus asked.

“Yes.”

“We must tell everyone about this!” Antall said, excited and horrified at the same time.

“Not a chance,” Reglant countered. “This is worth billions of dollars. We can’t give away this knowledge for free. The leverage we could gain…”

Vivena’s brows arched as she watched the Ravencroft’s heir smiling greedily. On the other side of the room, her brother looked ready to vomit.

Heeding the advice of her father, Vivena kept her opinion to herself. Lorelai, on the other hand, was an outspoken person who liked to voice her opinions.

“This can be discussed in private by the heads of our houses. For now, let’s focus on the subject, shall we?” she said conservatively, for a change.

“I second this,” Hideko added. “It isn’t something we, the heirs, should talk about behind the backs of our parents.”

Reglant didn’t argue this and it was what made him dangerous among many heirs, he would never speak against the head of his house, even privately even though you could feel his contempt radiating off him.

“What do you want in exchange?” Columbus asked Waxilium Earl.

“I wish to join your side and have the ability to set up my own house.”

“Or we can break your legs and arms,” Tobia said with a hardly hidden glee.

“Leave the room,” Columbus said and there was steel in his voice. Tobia’s eyes flickered to her brother but he didn’t react to her silent plea.

Vivena had to admit that this younger version of the chief-in-command looked very intimidating. He didn’t have the youthful doubt.

“Granted,” he told Waxilium Earl, which made everyone in the room blink.

“Columbus, this isn’t your decision to make,” Lorelai reminded him.

“It is,” he replied. “Your house is in this only to preserve its profits and status. I am in this because I’d rather die than let a tyrant like Windsor Freeman rule the world.”

“If that was the case, wouldn’t my house join Freeman? I bet the Earls, the Stonewoods or the Romanovs are handsomely rewarded for their loyalty.”

“We both know that Freeman and Syberius have always been at each other throats. They hate each other guts. Now, let me do my job and don’t interrupt me.”

And I wonder why that is…

His attention returned to Waxilium Earl who seemed unperturbed by the whole situation. A bizarre man.

“Tell me more of this truth, Earl.”

“This base is built within a cave system. Inside the largest cave, about ten years ago, an expedition found a rift. The Hidden Hand has taken over and run the operations from the shadows. No one knew about it. Not even the Inner Circle. Freeman supervised it personally. We could not open the rift until the right Talent appeared and then mistakes were made. The rest is history.”

“Right Talent?” Vivena caught herself saying the words without wanting to. “Who?”

“You already know,” Waxilium Earl said, stonefaced. “We tried to find you as you were the only people who knew about his Talent and were unaccounted for.”

Vivena’s body went cold. This was impossible. This was his doing?

“That’s why you were after Gollod. You were trying to find us.”

“Yes, and we failed,” Waxilium Earl admitted as if it was no big deal.

“What the hell are you babbling about?” Reglant snapped. Being left out of conversation made him look very uncomfortable.

Reglant’s feelings didn’t matter to Vivena though. To have Keynes’s and her paths merged again… she didn’t have anything against that shy, awkward teenager from the Talent class. His strangeness had a cuteness to it— okay, only a sliver of cuteness and only sometimes. But even though he hadn’t been a social creature like her, she believed she’d peeked underneath his weirdness and seen a friendly soul there.

“Keynes Kid,” Lorelai said.

“He has a Talent that can open rifts?” Columbus asked.

“Yes,” Waxilium Earl replied. “And according to Windsor Freeman, there are higher-level rifts out there.”

“Where is Keynes Kid held?” everyone asked in unison.

“This is where Freeman’s trust in me ends. My father came here personally to pick him up but he didn’t even meet me. You would have to track him down to find the boy.”

***

An hour later, Vivena stood in the cave before the first opened rift. There was so much equipment here, it was clear that the government was studying it. Vivena’s mother had already told Antall to download the files. She didn’t want to leave any important information behind.

“What are they going to do with the personnel?” Vivena asked her mother.

“It depends on what they want to do with the truth about the outbreak.”

“Do they consider killing those people? Didn’t one of them message Columbus?”

“It is not that easy, daughter,” Lorelai replied. “Reglant knows what he is talking about. Knowing the truth about the outbreak gives powerful leverage. How many followers of Freeman have lost their families and friends in the outbreak? Most of them. The rumour goes that Letchworth Truman’s entire family has been killed by monsters. Freeman will do anything to keep the truth from going public.”

Vivena saw the logic in it. This gave them a better chance— Wait, I start to think like my father’s siblings and my grandfather.

Her mother noticed Vivena’s thoughtfulness and urged her to speak her mind.

“I don’t know what’s the right thing to do. A part of me believes that people have the right to know why their families and friends were murdered and by whom but the other side…” She trailed off.

“It’s personal, isn’t it?” Lorelai asked.

Vivena shook her head.

“No. The other part is all business.”

Columbus Curt entered the cave, Reglant, Hideko and Burygold trailing him. The chief-in-command approached the rift then turned to them.

“I decided to accept anyone from the base into my fold, the rest are free to go.”

It caught them all off-guard. This would turn the world upside down. Reglant and Hideko didn’t agree with Columbus’s decision and made him know it right away. Vivena sensed her mother’s willingness to join them and caught her arm, shaking her head softly.

“You CAN NOT do this,” Reglant snapped, losing his cool. “This is AGAINST what our families have agreed to. If you let those people out of this base, we will lose our best bargaining chip. We could win—”

Columbus raised a hand, cutting him off.

“Windsor Freeman was going to kill those people because they know the truth. If you propose the same thing, then it makes you the same man as the tyrant in my eyes. Do you wish to turn into my enemy, Reglant Ravencroft? Nishimura Hideko? Lorelai Sael? Which of you desire to join the tyrant in his sick pursuit of absolute power?”

“We don’t,” Lorelai replied right away.

“Same,” added Hideko.

“I’d be an idiot to declare myself your enemy, Curt, but this isn’t your place to make that call,” Reglant said and then stormed out of the cave.

“Colonel, is everything ready?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good, let’s get out of here.”

***

Webster Frog stood above the desk, his hands resting on its edge. A bright light illuminated the formation drawn on the paper in front of him. He got it all wrong about the Talent-shaping. Saels and other old families like them had known this for centuries and they hadn’t told anyone. How did the World Government miss the obvious truth? Most Saels had a poison Talent. Usually, their Talents weren’t impressive. They didn’t know how to make a powerful Talent but they knew how to make the right affinity. This alone was groundbreaking and Webster was unable to tell this to anyone. Their secret-keeping wasn’t built on NDAs or trust. No, the Saels had a ritual that sealed the secret within Webster. The World Government, for all its power and reach, didn’t have such means but there was a good reason why, apart from the sealing ritual.

Things Webster learned since he’d started working for the Saels, pointed exclusively in one direction – the past. Whatever happened in the past, produced secrets that had never seen daylight. The Saels were fine with showing Webster the formations and runic scripture used in the Talent-shaping ritual but they refused to tell him how they’d acquired this knowledge. It was safe to assume that some other families had even greater secrets. Webster was quite sure that the Stonewoods had many stone-related Talents in their family. It excited him to piece these things together, though he was sure that others had come before him, seeing through the mist of secrecy…

He shook his head focusing on the formation. The Saels had one thing wrong though. Webster was a Talent specialist but he knew nothing about formations. They were completely new to him. Obviously, it wasn’t something he would tell them. He would’ve never forgiven himself for losing a chance like this.

The door opened and Sirian Sael entered the room. Webster didn’t pay him any mind. He wasn’t here for social reasons.

“Any progress?”

“There are a lot of theories to assimilate before I’d be able to apply them in practice.”

Sirian Sael extended his hand and a tome appeared on it out of thin air. It must have been one of the famous multidimensional containers that allowed users to keep things in another dimension.

“This is a Tome of Knowledge (Formations). Nothing exquisite as its rarity is only uncommon but it will help you with the research.”

Sirian Sael turned to leave.

“Mr Sael, can I ask you something?”

“As long as it isn’t the same things you have asked already.”

It wasn’t. While formations remained a difficult subject to understand, one thing came to light fairly easy. The formations were set for a single affinity – Poison. But from what Webster had learnt, the Saels under the fake name Foxglove had tried to set the affinity to Mind or Intelligence. Webster was told that the Saels didn’t have a formation specialist anymore so how had they done it?

“How did you try to get the right affinity for Keynes Kid?”

Sirian Sael stood silent for a moment considering his answer then seemed to make up his mind.

“While some secrets must be left in the past, I believe, I can share this one with you.”