Awakening - The Last Science #1

Chapter 8 - Tidings of Fire - I

  Rachel sat in her customary spot at the edge of the clearing. She'd brought a blanket to lay down on the dry earth under the thick tree cover and was comfortably leaning against a trunk observing the illusion of stars madly spinning through the sky. The orbs of light continued to move around the clearing while Cinza and her latest partner cavorted about in the center.

  She might roll her eyes in public, but she remained nonetheless impressed by the spectacle Cinza managed to put on every week without fail. Though she'd never admit it to Will, Rachel enjoyed the show in spite of her distaste for the usual antics of Cinza's little cult.

  It was all a mirage, of course. Anyone with her knowledge of visualizing connections would easily see Cinza manipulating the orbs, the people, even the sky itself. Trails connected her up to a massive, razor-thin line which formed an invisible, one-sided disk of sorts that covered the entire clearing, through which she managed to replicate the expanse of stars and subsequently twist them to her every whim. It was impressive to say the least, and Rachel couldn't deny that part of her weekly attendance was simply attempts to try and discern Cinza's methods. If magic was akin to science, as they hypothesized, then Rachel should be able to reverse-engineer the technique somehow. It was only a matter of observation, study and her own experimentation.

  She attended under a veneer of ensuring that secrecy was maintained from the town, but Rallsburg was the sort of place where everyone went to sleep early. Rachel wasn't particularly concerned they'd be seen, and indeed had stopped bothering to take precautions against anyone accidentally stumbling across the exhibition months prior. Her fellow councilors had long since stopped attending as well. Josh had never seemed interested in the first place, and Mabel complained that it hurt her eyes to observe. So it fell to Rachel to continue monitoring the rituals, keeping an eye on Cinza and her followers.

  Rachel didn't really fear much from them. Cinza was a fierce supporter of their privacy from the world at large. To the grey-robed young woman, magic was a divine privilege—a blessing unheeded by bureaucracy or restraint, granted to individuals by fate and by the 'goddess' in equal measure. She preached often of the coming witch hunts against the worthy chosen. While Rachel didn't agree with the rhetoric, she certainly shared Cinza's fears. Witch hunts were always in style, after all. Anyone who was different, anyone who stood out from a given crowd was liable to be beaten down if they were perceived as a threat.

  Rachel watched as Cinza managed a particularly stunning pattern with the lights. She wasn't one to rest on her laurels, Rachel noted with appreciation. Every week there was some new minor innovation. Many of them were discarded the following week, for whatever reasons Cinza might privately hold, but the most truly impressive movements were kept and added to the routine.

  In this instance, she'd flipped and spun the star she'd formed, changing it from a two-dimensional outline floating above the surface into a brilliant, layered design that filled the clearing entirely. Eight points rounded the edge of the circle as usual, but another copy of the same design spun upward at each diagonal until there were eight copies at various angles, which began to rotate in an intricate weave, never quite touching even as they spun inside each other.

  She sighed. This sort of display, as impressive and beautiful as it might be, would only serve to fuel the fires of such a crusade. The world was still full of the fearful, and greater access to information with such tools as the Internet only served to increase that fear. The unknown might be terrifying, but when one begins to hear of powerful, abnormal people hiding out in every neighborhood in America, how long before they start lashing out at the innocent based on their appearance, their beliefs, their orientation or—in this case—their abilities?