Awakening - The Last Science #1

Chapter 13 - Fugitives - III

  They arrived at Hendricks Apartments a short while later without incident. Apparently, the source they were looking for happened to live near Rika, which she found incredibly irritating.

  "If I'd known the fucker was awakened this whole time, I could have just gone straight to him," she grumbled while they snuck through the underbrush on the rear hill behind the apartments. "A guy who can find things with magic? Exactly what I need." She paused, holding onto a tree branch with a wide-eyed expression.

  "What?"

  "A guy who can find things..." Rika repeated. "Kendra had a source for finding Scraps, and was going to sell me the same service for my father. It's gotta be him. No way multiple people have that kind of spell worked out already."

  "Who is this person anyway?" Alden asked.

  "Can't tell you that," Rika replied. "I'm sorry, but I'm sworn to secrecy, and I'm trying to actually keep my promises now. Trust me though, he's harmless."

  "Something doesn't add up though."

  "Yeah, he's clearly not charging enough."

  "No, not that. I don't think he can actually do what he says he can do."

  "Huh?"

  Alden sat down for a moment to catch his breath. Climbing up the steep slope to the apartments was more difficult than he'd expected. "He's probably able to find Scraps and magic things, since he found out about yours. But I don't think he can find people. If he could, why wouldn't Kendra use him to find Natalie's dad?"

  "Shit, Alden. That makes sense."

  "So either Kendra's being lied to, or we are," Alden concluded.

  "Or he can, but Natalie's father is being blocked somehow. Magic preventing magic."

  "Does it work like that?"

  "Sometimes," Rika said. "Here, try this out." She looked round. Her hand flung out at the underbrush. A stick gently floated into the air in front of her. "Reach out and grab it."

  Alden reached for the magic. He'd begun to visualize it in his mind like a churning liquid in his mind, a pool of raw energy from which he could release bits of power to do things. It helped him hold more control over the flow of energy out of his body, so that he didn't black out from overexertion. He'd come up with the idea himself, and felt quite proud of it—but when he described the idea to Rika, she just laughed. Apparently, she had no need to hold back, and that her body was much better at self-regulating than his.

  His own mental projection reached for the stick, while the pool in his mind sprung a small leak. When he was about to make contact, he could feel another presence. It was a hard invisible surface, in the shape of an encompassing sphere that held the entire stick firmly in place. Curious, Alden tried to feel at it, and realized that if he pressed harder, he could actually break into it. He focused his will into a thicker point and drove at the edge of the stick. The leak in the pool widened, but he could feel the sphere beginning to crack.

  "Yeah, that's how it works," Rika said. "When you project, you'll start to notice other people messing with things. There's a whole invisible layer just above what you actually see and feel."

  Alden tried to press harder, wanting to break through and show Rika he could manage it. A crack began to form. Alden looked at her excitedly, but she just smirked.

  A invisible wave slammed into his will from the side, shoving him away and shattering his concentration completely. He let go immediately, closing up the pool.