FORTY-ONE: Chaos

FORTY-ONE: Chaos

Everyone kept moving after the dad and his kids were gone. Alden didnt know what the plan was, and he couldnt understand ninety-five percent of the conversation around him. But it made him feel better that the scientists were taking action.

They stayed in the warehouse for a few minutes, examining places the demon bugs had touched, calling out information to each other. Alden watched them intently, trying to understand.

They always examined the damaged spots from at least a foot away. So maybe even touching the residue left behind by the things was hazardous. Alden followed Thenn-ar around, peering at everything she peered at and always straining his eyes and ears in an effort to detect the flying black dots before they approached.

There were always one or two where he could see them now. They didnt have anything like a standard flight pattern. One would spiral toward the ground. Another would drift like it was caught in an invisible breeze. The one that scared him the most drifted for a while and then, inexplicably, changed direction and shot through the air rapidly for a few feet before drifting again.

They didnt just leave holes in things. Though that seemed to be the most common result of them banging into an object, some of the spots the scientists examined werent places that Alden would have recognized as damaged at all. A rough patch of metal, a fine smear of ash, a shiny puddle like a drop of resin on the pavement. If Joes assistants understood anything from these signs, Alden didnt know what it might be. After about five minutes, the examination ended with them all gathering around to stare at a single tiny hole in the floor.

Alden stared at it, too, noting the way the edges were jagged and sharp on one side and crumbly on the other. As if part of the concrete had started turning into chalk. After looking at it, the scientists all turned and left the building. Alden followed after them, nervous and confused.

If the things punch through metal, then buildings arent that safe. But if they only punch through sometimes, then its still better to have a barrier between us and the outside, right?

The scientists looked out over the marleck fields. The man said something to Thenn-ar and gestured toward them, but she shook her head and led the way down the packed dirt of a narrow road. Aldens best guess was that they were going to the group of farm buildings hed seen on his first evening on Moon Thegund.

Theyd been on the other side of the enormous field. It was a long walk, and he understood why Thenn-ar didnt want to go through the bushes. It would be hard to see the small demons coming; they could drift right through a patch of leaves into your face. Even if the road wasnt as direct a path, at least the visibility was good enough.

It was always the same dull yellow overcast sky every time Alden was on Moon Thegund. Nothing ever appeared from beyond the dingy, low-hanging clouds. He wasnt sure if the fact that hed never seen anything like darkness or dawn was happenstance, or if the moon had extremely long days. Maybe there was no night on this side at all.

He hoped that was the case. Being here in the dark would be a hundred times worse.

Its not quiet anymore, he realized as he followed the scientists down the road. Moon Thegund had always been eerily silent. But now, in addition to their footfalls, there was a low drone.

And the more he looked, the more of the tiny demons he saw.

Any time one approached, the scientists dodged it. Alden saw one emerge from the ground a couple of feet ahead of the man in front of him. He shouted and pointed, and the guy stepped away from it as it buzzed around a few inches above the dirt.

The scientist grimaced, but he didnt look surprised.

Of course. If they go through things randomly, that includes the ground. He had seen the hole in the floor of the warehouse, but he hadnt put it together. And maybe it was even worse than that. Hed had a passing thought that a larger than expected percentage of the things were rising up from the grass.

What if they were? What if the demons were coming from beneath them instead of falling on them from above? How could you dodge something that might just fly right through the bottom of your foot?

I want my movement trait.

He clenched the putty ball hed gotten the girl to give him tightly in his left fist. He still had Joes ring on that hand, and the hand was in his pocket. One more layer of protection. If he dropped it while his skill wasnt active on it, the magic ring would hold it against his palm for a second. If he dropped it while his preservation was active, interfering with the ring, then his pocket would still be holding it. That should be enough.

One of his real victories in his nightly lessons with the professor had been mentally weaving around the loss of contact breaks entrustment rule that came with the skill. To start with, hed had to hold his item directly with his hands or another body part. But that had felt limiting and not quite right based on his understanding of what the skill did.

After all, he was pretty sure his sense that he was touching the objects with his hands was itself manufactured in some way by the skill. He didnt think skin-to-carried-item was really what was going on, so a rule requiring apparent skin contact was just a needless complication.

Despite his initial enthusiasm for altering his perception until he could do earth-shattering things with the skill, Alden had since modified his expectations. He hadnt been able to make many significant changes to the skill through the perception route. Joe assured him that it was an important thing to work on, but it was also clear to him now that it was never going to be some universe-breaking loophole for skill use. Instead, what he could manage was wriggling away from one reasonable assumption about the scope of the skill to another reasonable assumption.

And then practicing it until it clicked.

He thought hed had fairly easy success with the loss of contact rule because it already felt like a point of confusion. If he preserved things by carrying them, then how could entrustment just end when he shoved a thing in his pocket? He was still carrying it, wasnt he?

Hed gotten the hang of it pretty quickly, and now he could tote preserved items around inside other things. As long as he didnt let the ball rest in his pocket while his lab coat was dragging the ground, hed still be bearing it with no help. The carriage wouldnt cease, so the entrustment wouldnt break.

And as long as it didntwheres that switch inside me? That one that activates Azure Rabbit?

Days ago, hed been almost positive he could turn the trait on and off without the Systems help. At first, he felt around inside himself, but after a couple of minutes he decided it must not be the right tactic. Perhaps it was unnatural to look for such a literal ON button inside his own mind and body.

If I was about to leap over something or duck or take any other action, I would just do it. Lets try that.

He focused on the feeling hed had running to the lab that first day. The long, long jog that ate through the miles, the tiny adjustments to the way he moved until he got better at it.

Take a step like one of those steps. Tweak your center of gravity. You remember what it feels like.

It was hard. The demon bugs kept drawing his attention. And when he focused on his body, it made him hyperaware of the physical effects of his own fear. His pulse was too fast, his breathing shallow, his hands cold and clammy. There was a tightness in his chest like a rubber band that was about to burst.

Alden ThornDead of a Heart Attack at Age Fifteen.

In a way, though, cataloging the tangible signs of extreme stress made it easier to deal with the emotions. He couldnt stop his heart from pounding like it was trying to escape from his body, but at least the feeling was solid.

It gave him a different perspective to approach the problem from. If the fear was something chemical and unavoidable happening to him thanks to his own animal response to danger, then all the effort he was putting into mentally crushing it with willpower and a can-do attitude was wasted. You didnt will a physical reflex out of existence. You didnt feel guilty about it.

You just dealt with it.

Easier said than done, but it was better than it had been. His mind was a little clearer.

I am extremely terrified of dying on Moon Thegund, he admitted to himself. I am probably not going to stop being extremely terrified anytime soon. Im a mess, and the troubles only just started. Thatssomething Im going to want to unpack. But not here.

Not until I get back home to Aunt Connie and Boe and Jeremy.

Now I just need to move.

Thenn-ar nodded. She pointed to the womans leg. Dont it, she said.

Dont touch it maybe? Right. They avoided touching even the spots where they saw the demon damage.

But what did that mean for the injured woman?

Alden forced himself to let the putty ball fall into his pocket, then he lifted her, careful not to let his fingers brush against the strangely altered flesh. Still sobbing, she grabbed him around the neck and held on tight.

It was so much easier to carry someone who was helping out by holding on, but he had to remind himself not to squeeze her. Hed gotten a bit too used to gripping preserved things really hard, since they couldnt be hurt and he was always scared of dropping them.

He was relieved when he took a step and felt his trait working. It meant the putty was still officially under his protection. Hed known it should be, but still in a situation like this he was extra paranoid about getting it wrong.

When he got home, and the stakes were low, hed start hauling all his preserved stuff around in a backpack to get used to it.

With the added burden, Alden had to be extra cautious about avoiding the demons, but the other two helped him. He walked in between them, and they pointed out things he might have missed. Including, once, a place in the road where the hard, flat earth had a large divot in it.

Anywhere else, that wouldnt have been too concerning. But Alden had previously noted that Moon Thegund didnt have a lot of variety in the terrain. He hadnt seen a single pothole in the ground during his run to the lab.

When they reached the white block building, Alden set the injured woman down. She wobbled, leaning on him, and took a pen laser from inside her coveralls. It took a while, but the male scientist used it to burn off the door lock.

The interior was mostly private office spaces, arrayed around a central area that served as a break room. There were tables, chairs, a kitchen, and a sofa. They helped the injured woman into a chair, and Thenn-ar went to the sink. Water flowed from it readily when she touched her hand to the faucet.

She brought it over and washed the strange wound by pouring it slowly over the surface. A bloody pool formed on the hard floor.

Alden had no idea what else to do with himself, so he stood guard, keeping his eyes on the three demons that were drifting around the break room. He had an impractical urge to stand on his tiptoes, as if having even that much less physical contact with the ground would save him if one emerged beneath his feet.

The male scientist fiddled with the small television on the wall. It came alive with a crackle, and he ran his fingers over the touchscreen quickly, bringing up several different images. One of them looked sort of like it might have been a communications screen, and Alden gave Thenn-ar a hopeful look.

Talk to someone? he asked, pointing at the tv.

Just because the System wasnt working, it didnt mean everything was down, did it? The Artonans were heavily reliant on magic and magical equipment, but it wasnt like they didnt have satellites. Radio, cell phone tower, smoke signalsAlden would gladly accept whatever kind of solution might exist out here in the middle of nowhere on the worse half of what was apparently a very bad moon.

No, said Thenn-ar. Maybe if -?

But the man manipulating the television shook his head. He flicked away from the comm screen and pulled up a map. Alden assumed, based solely on the usual function of maps and not any ability to read the logograms on it, that it was of their current location.

It was really plain as far as maps went. There were no lines to indicate the boundaries of patches of land, and there were few topographical markings. It was basically just some dots on a grey field, with a box out to the side that looked like it might be the key.

Then the scientist touched something, and patches of purple, pink, and red spread across the screen. It looked a lot like a weather radar map. Mostly it was purple, but a pink blob was at the center, and in the middle of that was a small bright red dot. Were probably at the center right?

In the red dot.

Thenn-ar asked another question, and the man touched another part of the map.

The red expanded. Then expanded again. And again.

A forecast?

Alden hadnt thought his mood could turn darker, but it did. The man swore. Thenn-ar closed her eyes.

How many? Was it childish to say hours when he knew that wasnt likely to be the answer? How many days?

They didnt respond.

The red is bad? There are many red days?

Many, said Thenn-ar.

Too many, said the man.

Someone comes to help? Alden suggested.

You were someone, the man grunted.

Oh. Right.

So thats how it is.

the Contract? the woman in coveralls gasped from the sofa. She was looking at Alden.

Its not here, he said blankly. No Contract in this place now.

They all three stared at him with wide eyes. They hadnt looked nearly as shocked when he told them the Contract was bad earlier. And that made sense, didnt it?

Alden himself knew that even if you werent an Avowed, the System existing was a fact of life. Hed never once been anywhere where it wasnt. It was like being told that something fundamental youd taken for granted had vanished from the world.

No Contract, he said again. Only us.