Cardinal Tower (Trinity Central Book #1)

Chapter 33

"Today's target practice."

We tossed around a few knives when Jacoby came by to drop off a box filled with our new weapons. Guns. Blake laughs a sort of enthusiastic boyish laugh, Aria stares at the contents in curiosity, and I reach for more knives to throw. Even I've never held a gun, at least not in a fight. Because of the limited amount of ammo left in the world, Karmas don't typically use guns. Each Karma gets a clip of ten bullets a month, and so most of them decide that learning to use daggers is more practical.

"Your aim with knives is already impeccable, Berkeley, try one of these for a change." Mcallister picks up one of the scraps of metal, and turns the handle towards me. "It goes pretty well with that jacket of yours, don't you think?"

I drop my knife, and replace it with the gun, grabbing it a bit too aggressively in hopes it might trigger a bullet to fly into Mcallister's hand.

"Before we begin, I'd like to introduce some other special ops recruits we've picked up. They've had about as much gun practice as you've had, so they'll be joining our class today."

Mcallister opens the door to two young girls, each no older than Aria.

"Fray, eight years old. Telum species: Flood. She's quiet, but not shy. I'd watch your mouth around her." He points to a young girl, hair similar to my own, skin slightly more tanned. Her eyes stare widely at the rest of the room, encompassing at least half of her face. Something about her presence is unsettling, which is strange to think that this small child could disturb me so much. Maybe I've finally found someone who can match my level of innate abnormal behavior.

"Scarlett, nine years old. Telum species: Flame projection. I'm sure at least one of you are aware of who she is."

Aria's eyes are bulging, tears welling at the sight of her sister. Scarlett is identical to Aria if not for their hair. While Aria's is white and straight, a mess of red curls resides on Scarlett's head. She seems to notice Aria almost as quickly as Aria recognized her.

"Scarlett?" she whispers, disbelief filling her growing smile.

"Aria!" her counterparts screams, excitement filling the air. Their personalities are polar opposites, Aria's antithesis almost as enthusiastic as she is small.

They embrace in a tight squeeze, a stunned gaze looking past the tangle of curls while Scarlett wraps her arms around her.

In the midst of this tearful reunion, Blake asks Mcallister a question out of earshot from everyone else.

"What's a Telum species?" he asks, his apparent confusion towards the foreign word completely understandable.

Realizing Blake's never been formally introduced to the idea of type fives, Mcallister offers an explanation. "They're type fives. Stafford classified the four natural phenomenons, but there's a fifth one that's not as known to the public. They possess superhuman abilities when under cases of extreme stress or periods of adrenaline induced hysteria. Fray's ability is called Flood, which means she can create water from thin air."

"And I'm guessing Scarlett can create flames. That's her Telum species. Is Aria one of them too? I saw her fill a room with ice."

"Aria's Telum species is ice projection. She creates ice as easily as Scarlett creates fire. For twins, they're polar opposites. We've got a couple more type fives stashed away, too. In time you'll meet our healer, telepath, magnet, etc. etc. But there is one other you've already had the pleasure of speaking with." I see them turn to me in their peripherals, I force myself not to look back.

"Castelle Berkeley, Telum species: Elementaler."

* * *

We spend the rest of our session with target practice, shooting our bullets at dummies on the other side of the room. Aria and Scarlett were completely engrossed in each other's company, leaving the rest of us to stand idly by waiting for their conversations to end. Blake was much more jumpy than usual, reacting overly cautiously whenever any of us were involved, understandably so.