Weaver's Knight ~ A Modern Fantasy Web Serial

Ch. 4.1 - Alice

Alice chewed thoughtfully on her fourth slice of pizza. Her four guests were resting in their chairs. Max was slumped back, his male form sporting a frown and bad posture. Sara was looking down at the table, two knuckles playing at her lips. Molly, as Alice expected, was watching the trap door, having turned her chair slightly to be able to easily face it. All three were behaving predictably. 

Alex was finishing off the crust of his third slice of pizza with one hand, the other resting contentedly on his abdomen. By the way it keeps sliding down, he was probably a bit rounder before his Empowerment, she thought with a smile. It's always nice to see someone actually enjoying his majestas. I wonder why the design on his armor keeps changing? The lines and dots shifted slightly from time to time, usually when no one was looking. I'm pretty sure it's not a conscious decision.

The newcomer was looking around at 'Wonder Rose's secret lair.' Alice had already explained how she'd carved out the room below the apartment building with her modest Blaze talent, but he still seemed impressed. Making the walls match the basement above us was the only hard part, she thought idly. The room was modestly furnished, with a microwave oven atop a mini-fridge, an overhead light, a portable generator, and a small table for her laptop accompanying the table and folding chairs for her guests. Alice concentrated for a moment to keep the generator running. Glad I don't have to maintain my wireless right now, she thought idly, eyes flickering to the inactive laptop. Okay, enough avoiding. Let's do this.

"So." Alice donned her most disarming smile, set down her pizza, and looked at Alex. "What do you know about Vision contact?"

"Not much," he replied with a shrug. "Molly used it to coordinate with me, but it was more like a subvocal cell phone than mind-melding."

Molly chuckled. "You were nervous enough as it was, Alex."

Alex raised one eyebrow at Molly. "There's a reason for that," Alice added quickly. "If you've used Vision for any kind of ESP, you know there's a lot more to it than mental radio." Alex nodded slowly in response. "There are all kinds of layers to telepathy. Using it for silent speech is the least connective. It can get much deeper."

"I figured," Alex said slowly, looking at the table, "but I've been at this for less than a day. I don't really know much of anything about how Majestic talents work."

Alice cast as gentle a sidelong glance at Molly as she could. "We've been busy," Molly said dryly. "He held off the Skeptic in his first hour. I figured he'd be okay while we secured Sara."

Alice let herself gape briefly. "Okay, now I really want to see how your spirit works," she said, smiling at Alex again.

The super-knight lit up. "My spirit? Okay, I have about a million questions," Alex said quickly. He stopped at Alice's raised hand.

"Believe me, I get it," Alice replied, casually tracing a swirl of golden Vision energy through the air, "but this will be a lot easier - not to mention faster - with a psychic rapport."

Alex took a deep breath, let it go, then nodded. Sara gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "Okay," he said. "Let's do this."

Max sat up a little straighter, watching curiously. Sara quietly let go of his hand and Wove for a smooth rapport, fingers flowing to Evoke an auspicious harmony. Molly stood, Anima flowing with subtle power around her hands and feet. Alice simply looked into Alex's eyes. "Good. Now, try to relax. You use Majestic Inspiration, so just let the talent flow into you." She waited while Alex poured Weaving through him, keeping her expression neutral as it snarled into several knots in his aura. "Easy now. Have you ever heard of 'grounding and centering?'" Alex nodded. "Great! Do that." The knots came apart quickly. "Perfect. Now I'm going to make contact. Ready?" Again, he nodded. Alice gently reached out with her Vision, her own Inspiration matching his in careful sympathy.