Powerless Revision 1 (17 page)

“Anything you can,” Aoi said out of cold honest truth.
 

The group spent some time in silence. For Aoi, there didn’t seem to be any air in the world. They discussed a few more minor points, but the only thing they reached an understanding on was that no matter what they were doing, Aoi planned to do it herself. The rest were supposed to do what she said without getting in her way.

After a while, they heard the sounds of Makara dice coming from Roselyn’s group and decided that everything that needed to be discussed had been. They got up to leave, agreeing to get together early before the start to report any new ideas.

***

Mira waved goodbye to her teammates when they reached the big marble boulder, which seemed half as tall because of the snow. She watched them as they continued on to the outpost to buy candy, and she couldn’t help but share in Aoi’s disappointment. Her own aspirations were wrapped up with the fate of this team now too.

As soon as she made her peace with the likelihood that things would not turn out well, she turned to take the path home, but a whispering voice came to her after only a few steps. Turning, she saw the man in the metal, Yannick, from a burrow in the snow on the side of the boulder facing the forest. She leaned to the side and came closer, slowly revealing more of his figure, which had been so close by but completely undetected.

“I’ve got something for you. Do you have something for me?” he beckoned. He reached into his jacket with one hand and removed a thin metal disc about as wide as an orange. Mira immediately knew what it was and her eyes grew large. But she had not forgotten the words of her parents, and so she kept a cautious distance and a wary vigilance.

“Where did you get it?” she asked, looking into his shaded eyes.

“It required some traveling, but I managed to get it,” he said.

“That’s not what I asked,” Mira snapped. “Did you steal it? Are you a thief?”

Unexpectedly, Yannick began chuckling. He looked over Mira, through her, and shook his head in amusement.

“No one takes the time to understand my business. They don’t care to look past the surface. Yes, I did steal this. I don’t always have to steal my goods, but this one I did. You still have the choice of whether or not you want to trade, but there is one more option too. Do you want to know more?”

Mira felt torn between her need for the neodymium magnet and the repulsive nature through which it had been brought to her. Anxious to delay the decision, she let Yannick go on.

“That’s good,” he said. “You might just avoid doing something foolish if you listen carefully. I can tell you right now there aren’t too many of these things around. And the shape and size make this especially rare. But I got one in my sights right away, and so I set out tracking it. It took me up north of Darmen, in the high mountains where people don’t rarely venture. I expected it to be lying on the ground, but instead this strange old man had it in his secret hideout.

“It didn’t take me long to realize what he was doing, experiments on people of an unnatural and sickening nature. Get this, your little piece here was in the machine he was using on ‘em. The stealing was easy enough, just waited till he fell asleep and then cut the machine open and took it out. Came back here in a snap.

“Let me tell you something, girl. Nobody would have ever found that man or known what he was doing if it weren’t for you sending me out to find this. I can’t say I stopped him for good, but I sure did a number on that machine in the process and if he needs another one he’ll be hard pressed to find it. Giving me a chance to do this is the service you did for me, and that’s why I’ll let this thing go for just a water filter. So, yes, to answer your question, I stole it. Now you tell me if that’s a bad thing.”

Mira listened intently to his story, and it convinced her thoroughly. She told him she didn’t have the water filter with her, and that she would have to get it from her house. He told her he would be waiting outside and they would make the trade there.

A short time later, Mira returned home. She went to get the water filter from the basement and brought it up without her parents knowing. Once outside she saw Yannick in the bushes across the road, and she went to meet him.

“Ok, so this is where you put the charcoal, and then you can run water through,” she said. They exchanged goods, each looking excited about their new possession.

“There’s one more thing,” Mira added. “I want my hair back.” Without any resistance, Yannick reached into his sack and pulled out a small piece of felt. The felt had lots of hairs sticking out, and Yannick ran his hand over them until one made him look up at Mira. He handed the single strand of hair over, and Mira put it in her pocket, feeling a bit strange because she had never taken such pains over a hair before.

Mira said goodbye to Yannick, returning to her home without giving her decision a second thought.

***

Early the next morning, all of the senior level students of Dustfalls Academy gathered in the snow-covered courtyard of Corey Outpost. The butterflies of anticipation fluttered in the stomachs of more than just the students though. A large crowd had gathered on the grounds and the second story balcony to witness the event. The marketplace stalls had all been cleared away. Above the outpost, a front of thick, gray clouds blanketed the sky.

The courtyard had been marked into three sections with little flags that poked up through the snow. Fortst looked as domineering and stern as ever. He crossed his hands behind his back and surveyed the line of students with a grim glare.

“We will now commence the senior level Team Trial,” he barked, trying to sound official. “The results of the Team Trial determines the order of entry for the Final Trial at year’s end in the spring. Its format is a free-for-all with a student entering the battleground every minute. The last team to finish today will be the first to enter.

“The courtyard has been marked into thirds, and each team gets an equal amount of wall space. Your objective is for each team member to exit the outpost over the wall. But only one method of exit is allowed, however, and that method will not be known until your team retrieves a chest buried eight feet under ground in your areas.

“If you dig too deep, you will crash through Corey’s ceiling, and I’m sure he will dole out the consequences for that. But, as for my rules, doing any of the following will result in immediate disqualification of the entire team. You cannot use the outpost gate until you have retrieved your chest, and only exiting over the walls using the prescribed means will allow your team to finish. You cannot hinder, through power or otherwise, the members of another team. Finally, you cannot receive aid or assistance from anyone who is not on your team.

“Your success today, and in the future, depends on how well you can work together. Now, get to your areas and we’ll wait for Corey to give us the signal to start.”

Once the students had scrambled onto their thirds, a deep base sound bellowed through the frozen ground. They all sprang into frantic action, pounding their feet and digging into the snow. Almost instantly, Jeremy shouted something to his teammates.

“It’s right under here! I can tell,” he called as he ran to one corner of his field. Hearing that Jeremy had just thrust his team into a substantial lead, Aoi cursed herself with a painful moan. She directed her next glance to Mira, who helplessly scratched and kicked at the surface of the snow. Her team, like Vern’s, had no idea where their chest was. They had no other option than to pick a spot at random and hope for the best.

All of the teams started clearing away the snow. Aoi told Rowland to start forming shovels, and then she started swinging her hands under her feet, swiping big chunks of snow out from under her. Vern’s teammates kicked and dug at the snow so that he could suck it away, just as Will’s teammates did so that he could blow it away.

They all worked with a dogged determination, a mindless exertion that ignored the fatigue building in their legs and arms. The crowd watched the flying snow with enthusiasm and reverie, gauging each group’s progress, predicting winners, and sharing stories of their own school trials. Some travelers watched with a piqued curiosity, having never seen a trial similar to this.

Breaking through to the frozen ground, their progress suddenly slowed and the teams adjusted their tactics. Rowland began handing out a few rudimentary metal shovels, and Mira, Andrew, and Chucky started hacking away at the ground with them. Dennis, who had already worked up a sweat, was melting the snow and beginning to soften the ground. Roselyn had stopped digging once they found the dirt, choosing instead to devote herself to three little notes. Her song evoked a fervor and a passion in her teammates, who dug and cut into the ground with a tireless drive.

Layers of sand, dirt, and stone slowly covered the snow piles. The captains urged on their teams, occasionally looking at the others to get a sense of their progress.

“We have to go faster!” Aoi commanded as she flicked dirt and stones up out of her hole without checking where they would go or whom they would hit. When she did look up, she saw Chucky’s greasy, oily hands slipping around the slick shovel.

“You’re not doing anything!” she howled at him. He looked up from his work, distracted and frustrated.

“I’m trying!”

“Well try harder. Take your coat off and wrap it around your hands so the shovel doesn’t slip. Either that or go sit against the wall and let somebody else do it.”

“But I’ll be cold,” Chucky said.

“I don’t care!” she screamed into his face.

Across the courtyard, the first signs of impatience emerged from Roselyn’s team.

“How much farther is it, Jeremy? This has got to be almost eight feet,” Mary whined through her breathless exhaustion. But he didn’t respond until his group dug through to a large boulder.

“I must have made a mistake. I thought this was the chest. That means it has to be way over on the other side,” he groaned. His entire team, supported by their captain, rushed to the spot Jeremy directed them to and began to dig all over again.

When Vern’s team reached what they thought was the correct depth, they decided it would be more effective to widen their hole instead of digging a new one somewhere else. Dennis, Kurt, Sophie, and Dot kicked at the walls while Vern sucked out the loose rubble.

Mira watched her captain pawing at the earth with her bare hands like it was as soft as pudding. Maniacal intensity possessed Aoi as she tore through the ground. Mira poured all of her energy into her digging, fearful that Aoi would punish her as motivated as she was to win. But it was Vern’s team that struck the chest first, and the crowd joined in the team’s excited cheer.

“It’s about time!” Vern laughed. “Let’s see what we got here and then wrap this thing up.” Together with Dennis, he ripped the chest out of the ground, and everyone crowded around at the bottom of their hole to see what it contained. The chest had a thick lock on it though, and the team puzzled over the best way to open it.

The other teams quickly realized there was more to this chest than they thought after Vern’s team had been silent for some time. All of a sudden, his team emerged from the hole carrying the chest over their heads. They carried it up the large stairs to the second floor and rounded the corner to get to their area.

“You guys hold it up, but make sure I’m the one to push it off so it collides with the ground at the right angle.” Dot said.

Furious that her team was losing, Aoi took an angry swing into the dirt and her hand collided with the chest. She instantly yanked it out and spied the heavy lock. Over and behind her, her team could hear a loud crash. Aoi looked at the lock and then she looked at the wooden frame with its metal linings. Without a moment’s hesitation, Aoi punched through the wooden frame.

“Where is it, Jeremy? How could they have found it before us?” Will called with an angry inflection. Roselyn noticed the meager progress Jeremy had made and put together the answer to his question.

“He’s deceived us,” she whispered from the top of the hole. She turned her head to survey the remaining area. It seemed like such a massive expanse of blind hopelessness now. Carrying a smug and satisfied expression, Jeremy wiped his hands on his pants and abandoned his work.

“How could you!” Will growled through clenched teeth as he gave Jeremy a shove against the dirt wall. When Jeremy got up, centipedes and ants crawled around from his back. They complimented a wicked grin and taunting eyes.

Vern’s team raced back down the stairs to find the chest had fractured against the ground. They kicked at it and quickly broke their way through. Sticking his arm in, Vern began pulling out the contents. Handing them over to Kurt, he delivered a carrot, a scarf, a corncob pipe, and two pieces of coal. They raced out of the hole to get to work on escaping over the wall, but they realized the mistake they made when they got to the surface.

“Dennis, you melted all of the snow!” Dot moaned, looking around at the bare ground covering more than half of their territory.

“This way!” Vern called to his team, but then stopped and gave directions to Dennis. “You need to cool down. Take a rest for a bit and then come when you can warm the snow but not melt it. We need it packy, ok?” Alongside the rest of his team, Vern sprinted out of the gates into the snow-covered ground in front of Corey Outpost.