Divulgence (Song of Sophangence Book 2) Read online

  Still backing away now that he was free to move since the protective dome was gone, “Get away from me! That man I know would never do something like that! The man I know is loving and doesn’t kill people!”

  With a dismissive hand wave, “The man you know has a body count well into the thousands. It comes with the territory. Now are you going to continue being a baby about this?”

  Ixnes strides up to the two boys, placing her hand on Anaar’s back. “So that barrier was your work. Quite a neat trick. I wonder if I could pick that up, it could be quite useful. I figure I have another century or two in me to try.”

  Phavian finally stands up, looking at the two in disbelief. “He just killed like forty people! He says he has a body count in the thousands! What is wrong with you? Shouldn’t you be like, reprimanding him or something?!”

  “For what boy? Something I would have done myself had I gotten here first? While I am a bit disappointed at the final result, when that pile of refuse began spouting his filth, I lost all hope for him anyway. Another neat trick might I add, you are quite the prolific Hydrokinetic. Judging from the massive beasts you have conjured which seem to have a life all their own, I can only presume you are a True Quintessence, as it would have taken forever to accumulate that much water from the atmosphere. You have much explaining to do…”

  “You should not be so calm about all of this! You should not be sharing tips on how to up your Hydrokinetic game! How are you even a Hydrokinetic?! A True Water Affinity?! You are a Demolitionist! You create explosions! How is any of this possible?! I can’t deal with this. I just want to go home!”

  Receiving only a shrug, she looks from Anaar and gives Phavian a sympathetic look. “James, open a wormhole in my location, and then send Mr. Ingraham home. Preferably close to his door, as though he is a tasty treat for sure, I would rather him not be parading around campus in that outfit or his current state of mind.”

  A wormhole immediately opens, as Ixnes makes a small shooing motion to Phavian, who needs no additional coaxing to be free of the nightmarescape he had been in for the past twelve hours. Once he is gone, Ixnes looks to Anaar.

  “Child, can you not go a week without getting in trouble?!”

  “For the record I asked for none of this.”

  “I suppose you are right, but you do owe me a wealth of explanations now that your little secret is out into the open.” Noticing his eyes were regaining their normal shine, she felt she could breathe easier.

  “I can agree to that. Does James know?”

  “No. I can only presume you would rather keep it that way?”

  “Please.”

  “Very well, we shall head back to my home where I will prepare us a meal and we can discuss in private. Hobb advised me he sent Harston to your room right away as you thought it was acceptable to leave a shattered pitcher of juice on the floor and food on the counter.”

  “Yeah, I kinda wasn’t thinking about cleaning up the kitchen while Phavian was dying because of me.”

  “Fair point. I presume I can leave you to speak to Mr. Ingraham?”

  “Yep, I’ll take care of it.”

  “Splendid, let us be off then.” Just as they are about walk through the wormhole, she makes a gesture to the menacing, yet now docile serpents.

  “Oh, yeah, you can go first. I’ll take care of them.”

  With a sigh she steps into the wormhole, followed closely by Anaar. As the wormhole closes, the adder, the dragon and the throne all lose their shape, flooding the warehouse in a sea of red tinted water.

  2

  Though Ixnes had been completely silent about the matter at hand as they enjoyed their breakfast, instead choosing to delight Anaar in idle banter about the school and the changes it was going through, once they had finished their meal, the conversation swiftly changed. Moving to an elegant study, adorned with a number of what seemed to be precious artifacts, she had her maid close the door, telling the tall, lithe woman to make sure there were no interruptions before she called for them. Clearly understanding what that command implied, the maid nods politely leaving the two alone, a serving platter with tea between them. Leaning back in the chair, crossing her legs daintily but with practiced poise and elegance, Ixnes abandons her previous prattling as if it never happened.

  “Now child, when I said you should let the boy in, I meant into your pants, maybe into your heart, not into the whirlwind of perils you seem to be fraught with!” Taking note of his embarrassed reaction, as well as the fact his eyes had regained their normal glow, she was comforted the person she had met in the warehouse seemed to have receded, leaving the boy she had come to know. “Tell me, how exactly do you plan on cleaning up this mess with him? At the very least you owe him an apology for having him brutally beaten and almost killed.”

  “That was only partially my fault! I am still coming to terms with everything that has happened to me in the past few weeks myself. I had begun to suspect everyone in my life of being spies for their cause as they seemed to know so much about me. I can at least scratch Phavian off that list… How was I supposed to know they understood my feelings for Phavian better than I did? Better yet, how did they even capture Phavian in the first place? That isn’t even what is the biggest issue! Why is a massively powerful organization so focused on someone as insignificant as me that they would go through the trouble of kidnapping someone just to lure me to my death?!”

  With a small grin Ixnes leans over, grabbing her cup, filling it with tea and cream, followed by sugar. “I thought I would be asking the questions here, though I suppose one cannot expect to get without giving, now can they? From what Hobb has told me, through profuse apologies might I add, is he fell victim to his own habits, being summoned against his will through a vortex. This adds up considering what he was wearing when we found him. Though Hobb has footage of his disappearance he failed to alert me sooner of anything suspicious.”

  “Apologies mother. Despite your request to increase security protocols and assess any incident, no matter how small, I have failed you all.”

  “Silence child. Though I do expect more from you, I do not expect you to be perfect. Given the nature of this institution it is not terribly unheard of for something like that to occur, though to my knowledge we do not have any vortex users at this school.” She cuts an eye over at Anaar who simply throws his hands up in defense at the speculation. “You cannot fault me for wondering. Though I knew you were hiding things, being a Water Affinity, and a True Quintessence at that, was never within the scope of my expectations. If you knew such things without a shadow of a doubt, as the aqueous form and creation of water was an indication, regardless of not being able to have your affinity detected, why did you not just be forthright with this information? Though I am not condoning it, the status you would have gained from being a Water Affinity alone, not to mention a True Quintessence would have opened doors for you long before you came here. Sometimes you must take advantage of the broken system to place yourself in a position to change it.” Taking a sip of her tea, she continues. No one is forcing you to be an elitist- Oh my you really must try this tea, it is absolutely exquisite.”

  Is she serious right now?!

  Taking in the look on his face, “Your loss, I shan’t force you. Simply more for me. Now back to my previous question. Why do you hide your affinity?”

  “It is already hidden to be honest. I couldn’t tell you why I can’t be detected-”

  “Though you have some conjectures, yes?”

  “Well, yes, I do, but that is beside the point. It was less I hid my affinity, and more I let people do what is in their nature, which is judge based on their own sensibilities.”

  Raising a perfectly manicured eyebrow at Anaar, Ixnes simply sits, staring at him in silence.

  “Ok fine. Maybe I take additional steps to not flaunt my true abilities, but I don’t find that any different from me going through extreme lengths to make sure I am not wiping out cities. Well… all the time at least.”


  “That sounds much more reasonable. Though you are not a liar, you are very good at controlling a narrative. If you did not have so much amazing potential in other facets, I’d make you part of my public relations team immediately.”

  “Umm, Thanks?”

  “Why don’t we start with the facet of your abilities you do exhibit: being a Demolitionist. I believe part of what makes it so believable that you are Fire attuned is this ability. How do you manage such a thing being Water attuned?”

  Raising his hand, Anaar creates a perfectly spherical orb of water, floating just above it. “As a Hydrokinetic, you are the foremost authority, and considered to be the most powerful to ever walk this planet. As such I would have thought you would have long since registered the volatility of water.”

  Savoring another sip of her tea, then sitting it back on the table, Ixnes sits back in her seat, amused at the infant before her lecturing her on gaps in her ability. “It seems my years on this earth has not afforded me your insight into exactly the phenomenon you are trying to explain. If any were to have told me there was someone under my care that would look down upon me for my lack of knowledge and understanding of my own abilities, I would have laughed heartily. I have come to respect you are far from any ordinary being, despite your years. Indulge me Professor Vorpahl.”

  Intrigued that the orb suddenly shifted into a model of a water molecule, she is impressed he had the knowhow to create props for understanding, indicating that despite his hiding, he had been longing to explain this to someone for quite some time.

  “Obviously water is made up of three simple molecules, right? A hydrogen and two oxygens. When separate hydrogen and oxygen molecules come together, it is not their inclination to combine into water, but instead they would rather make something else, such as hydrogen peroxide or something. When those molecules are forced into a situation where they must combine to make water, what is the result?”

  With a look on her face of vague understanding, she nods indicating he should continue. With the model separating into their constituent molecules and then coming together, the resulting fusion causes the water to shift back into one model, with halos orbiting it.

  “Though water is extremely abundant on Earth, it is a naturally occurring resource, so we are not trying to generate it like say, electricity. When forced to occur, the result causes a massive release of energy relative to size the of the atoms. Put simply, I can split and force water molecules back together to create this reaction. When I first manifested, it was extremely destructive, and much more in line with what people expect an explosion to be. Given that I manifested at when I was seven, I have had more than a decade to hone using my powers. Also, though I manifested the ability to create explosions at seven, I had other abilities before then.”

  Upon hearing this, Ixnes’ face becomes rather severe. “Even for you that is impossible. The fact you manifested one ability at such an early age is unheard of. You mean to tell me you knew you had other abilities even before then? Do you understand what that implies? That means even as a young child you had an echelon exceeding 3.5. Most people in life never even reach 3.0 and you were in diapers with a higher echelon than the average adult?”

  He shrugs, “I know it is hard to believe, but I have been a Regenerist and a Medic my entire life from what I know.”

  “Well of course you are a Regenerist. We all are. That is nothing special for the Water attuned.”

  He looks down for a moment, with a face she cannot discern whether it is ashamed of being so quickly shut down, or if he was thinking of something else. “You once asked me how I survived the aftermath of the incident in Cuba.”

  “Well by all accounts it is unheard of you are alive. Regenerist or not. If your own powers did not obliterate you, then the fall should have surely ended your life. I cannot profess to be an expert on True Quintessences, I’ll leave that to you and Fredderick. Though you gain an extraordinary resistance to damages, you are not exactly invulnerable.”

  He stands from the chair, forming a barrier around himself. Curious as to what he is doing, she looks on in disbelief as a blade of water severs his arm at the elbow, and before it can barely be affected by the pull of gravity, it has already reattached itself with a speed that puts the Schodes’ Instantaneous Regeneration to shame. Speechless, she watches as he steps out of the sphere, shrinking it to contain the blood that sprayed from his arm in the brief moment it was severed.

  “That is only a small fraction of what I am capable of. I am positive the explosion in Cuba vaporized my entire body. Apparently I killed an Immortal, but it wasn’t enough to kill me. This has been my body for as long as I have known. I’m immune to disease, poison, and most debilitating effects. This is why Stefani terrifies me, because her powers work on me.”

  Feeling faint, Ixnes does her best to take stock of what she has just seen and heard. “If what you are saying is true, how do you have such a physique?”

  “Oh, that’s easy, I can turn it off.”

  “Excuse me? No one can ‘turn off’ being an Immortal, or Instantaneous Regeneration. They are completely passive abilities.”

  “I know, I am pretty sure it isn’t technically a manifestation. I call it Hyper Constitution, since even the former abilities are subject to detrimental effects in higher does. I’m not. In high school I drank 15 bottles of 190 proof alcohol straight, and didn’t even so much as wobble, or have my vision swim.”

  Looking at him with a hint of scolding evident, “How exactly did you obtain this much alcohol?!”

  “I looked at it as a science experiment, so I just slipped through the door in my elemental form. I would have left money if we had it.”

  “How is it then you still have a Vizer? What about the implant? Should they not be gone?”

  “I believe I can answer that.”

  At the sound of Hobb’s voice Ixnes’ face contorts making it very clear she is not happy. “Are you telling me you knew about this all along Hobb?!”

  “This is correct. As we are connected, there is no way Anaar could utilize his abilities without me knowing. I have had the pleasure of learning many things about him in the past months.”

  “This is something that was necessary for me to know Hobb.”

  “Excuse my impertinence, but to be clear, there was no logical reason for you to know more than you were given until Anaar desired it. As I had assessed the greatest danger he posed to the community was already known, if not specifically the magnitude of such, his right to his privacy was his own. His secrets are guarded by an encryption even I would need centuries to unravel.”

  “I would like to reprimand you, but it seems you have been creating things that are quite useful for the child which will serve me in the future. Though I cannot pretend to like the secrecy, you are not the first child I have had to go through this with. Now proceed to explaining how his Vizer and implant are intact.”

  “Certainly. Similarly to how your regenerative abilities made it possible for you to wield the first implant, despite the strain it would cause on others, Anaar boasts the same circumstance only to a much greater effect. As the hardware was designed to code with his DNA, and resonate with his abilities, they have taken on the properties of his Hyper Constitution, allowing them to reconstitute from his power alone. When the idea for the hardware come into existence, one of the most significant components it potentially boasted was its synergy with True Quintessences. Though Father is not aware, his invention, combined with Anaar’s unique abilities far exceed anything he could have ever imagined.”

  “To be clear, like an Immortal, you can reform as long as your genetic material is in the water droplets in the air? Though according to you, your ability actually exceeds that of an Immortal, and it has essentially created an even more advanced version of the prototype than we intended?”

  He shrugs, “Sounds about right. Neither Hobb nor I actually know what happened during the time I was in pieces, I suppose because I obviously was
n’t conscious, and without me there is no way for him to exist, but when I came back, that is when he signaled for you to come get me.”

  “And you two plan on keeping this research, likely worth zillions, to yourselves, all to protect Anaar’s secrets?”

  “Do you really need more money? Also, since we are being frank, it is obvious I am not normal. This data would not do you much good if there were not others that could benefit from it, meaning there would be no market, making it quite worthless.”

  “As much as it pains me, I cannot begin to believe I am a match for the intellect of one of you, nevertheless both of you. The only person I could hope to find some rebuttal to your argument would likely never know of it as I am sure you intend to keep this a secret from Miles as well?”

  “At least for now. Hobb and I agree nothing could come of it other than him obsessing and overworking himself, so it is in his own best interest we keep it hidden.”

  Slumping in her chair in the least elegant fashion he has ever seen her exhibit, “Why must I have such exceptional children. I was so spoiled with my biological offspring. Though having an ability under your control which somehow exceeds Immortality is hard to trump. Let us get back to the task at hand. You infused a barrier that would shrink Kaswin Osadi’s manhood with a regeneration so potent you reversed damage to Phavian which by all accounts should have been irreparable given the span of time he spent in that state. Not only that, it was a very short span of time for a regenerative healing. Though few people know, I am a Medic myself, not nearly the likes of our hospital staff, and clearly not you it seems. Then again when you have been a Medic your entire life what can one expect. I am sure I already know the answer, but even though it is obscenely powerful, are you only a regenerative Medic?”

  Shaking his head, he finally reaches down to get some of the tea that was previously offered, finding Ixnes was quite right about the flavor.

  “As I thought. I am not surprised. That is why you are taking medical courses?”