by V. St. Clair
Topher knows my secret! A wave of fresh panic washed over her as she was reminded of it. He knew she was Gifted, and there was no way to take that knowledge back, short of killing him. Not even Shellina knew about it; Jessamine and her father were the only two people on the planet who knew what she was…and now, Topher.
So far he hadn’t reacted badly to the news, but he was excellent at concealing his emotions and he was still focused on keeping her alive, so he probably hadn’t had time to consider it properly. When he did have time to think, would he feel obligated to report it to a larger group of people? Would he be repulsed by her? Would he even want to protect her anymore?
Unable to stand the silence anymore, Jessamine said, “You must be horrified.”
Topher anchored off of one of the larger banking buildings and kept them in the dark zone—the unlit space above the streetlights of ground-level but below the lights of sky-level—veering towards a less affluent area of town where there were more small businesses and residential neighborhoods.
“Horrified by what Fox did to you?” he asked uncertainly, as they descended quite close to the ground. If someone looked up, there was a chance they would be visible at this altitude, but it seemed like they were going to land soon. Jessamine still had no idea where Topher was taking her.
“I mean with me, because I’m—you know.” For some reason she couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud again, not when they were in the middle of the city like this.
Topher frowned at her as they touched down in a nondescript alley between two buildings. It was well-lit—most everywhere in Silveria was—but there was no one else in sight right now.
“It certainly explains a few things,” he admitted, inclining his head thoughtfully before turning his sound-dampeners to maximum to muffle the sound of his armor, and jogging down the alleyway.
Jessamine ran after him, surprised when he stopped in front of a razor-wire fence and lifted a piece of road out of the ground to reveal a hatch leading downwards into the earth.
How did he know that was there?
She knew he had grown up somewhere in this area of town, but hadn’t realized he had such thorough knowledge of its secrets.
“Like what?” she descended down the ladder first, so he could follow and pull the false section of road back into place. She didn’t like descending into total blackness, but trusted he would have warned her if there was any danger.
“It explains your father’s abrupt shift in policy about ten years ago, when you were thirteen. I never thought about the timing before, but it would have been around the time you got tested for Gifts, though I’ve no idea who you had to bribe to keep the results quiet.”
Jessamine fumbled around in the darkness at the bottom of the ladder, but Topher was right behind her and began guiding her quickly across the room and up another set of stairs.
“No one, actually. The Minors who were present at my testing met with an accident when their aerial speeder exploded. Father explained it as a faulty ignition coil after the probable-cause team was done investigating. Thankfully they had just transmitted their electronic report that I was clear before they left…”
She had no idea what Topher’s facial expression conveyed right now in the darkness, but she doubted he believed the story of the timely speeder accident any more than she did. Her father had top-clearance codes and could have easily logged in as one of the Minors if he exerted himself, and Jessamine had always known the reports were sent out after the Minors were in the air, not before they left the tower like everyone thought.
“That was…fortunate timing,” Topher replied neutrally, pulling her up the stairs and catching her when she stumbled. They emerged in a basement of some sort, quickly crossing the room and going through a hidden access door leading to another set of stairs that split off in two different directions.
Topher took them up the set on the right, and Jessamine ignored a stitch in her side as she continued after him, marveling at how well he knew his way around this underground maze.
“If there is any bright side to this mess, at least I can say confidently that whatever voice is in your head, I owe my life to it and I don’t think you’re crazy,” Jessamine panted, still jogging.
“I suppose there’s that, at least,” Topher admitted without looking back. “I didn’t expect us to both be sharing our deepest secrets with each other tonight, but it will likely make things easier for us in future.”
Jessamine scowled and said, “I can’t believe you kept this thing with your head a secret from me for eight years.”
“You kept your secret for just as long,” he answered easily.
They went through three more underground rooms before moving up to the ground-level. Jessamine thought they were going to go outside again, but Topher surprised her by guiding them into yet another underground bolt-hole that took them through the cellar of a wine shop, a storage area for a business, and eventually, through an access hatch in the wall leading to a long tunnel.
“I didn’t realize there was so much hidden architecture under the city,” Jessamine noted, following him through the tunnel, which seemed to be sloping gently upwards. They came out in what looked like an actual basement to someone’s house, after Topher opened the wall panel at the end of the tunnel.
“Oh sure, there are a ton of unregistered dens, businesses, and hiding places on this side of town,” he explained easily, pulling her upstairs. “Some are relics from the Great War, and others are more recent.
“I hope my mother doesn’t have a heart attack when we come bursting into the house in the middle of the night,” he reconsidered, slowing their ascent up the stairs as they moved towards a closed door with a strip of light shining beneath it from the other side.
“This is your mother’s house?” Jessamine asked in interest. She had wondered about his mother for years, having never met the woman before. She knew Topher’s father was already deceased, but she had been dying to meet the woman who had raised the man she loved.
“Yes, but I haven’t been home in years,” he admitted. “I expect she’s going to be surprised by our sudden appearance, but no one will look for you here for a while, and she can get you out in a hurry if she needs to.”
“Why don’t you visit more often?” Jessamine asked in surprise. “Do you not get along with her?”
“It isn’t that—well, we’re not always on the best of terms,” Topher admitted. “I stay pretty busy with my work, and she stays busy with hers. We occasionally talk over our comms, but we move in different circles now.”
He sped up again as they neared the top of the stairwell, as though anxious to see his mother after all this time. They burst through the door directly into a kitchen full of people.
The woman standing in front of the sink had to be Topher’s mother; he had her dark hair and blue eyes, and there was something regal and opaque about her features that she had passed on to him as well. There were three other people in the room around Jessamine’s age, but she didn’t know any of them and had just enough time to realize they were all wearing emblems around their necks when they jumped to their feet in shock.
“Mother, I need your he—what the hell are you doing here?” Topher stopped in his tracks, staring at the only other boy present in bafflement.
The sight of an armored Provo-Major and the Vicerina in a kitchen full of Gifted triggered an immediate reaction. One girl flipped the wooden table and dove behind it for cover, another screamed and grabbed her necklace, and the boy clasped the emblem of a key and did something that made the nearby air appear fuzzy.
“NO!” Topher barked forcefully at the latter, lurching forward to grab him by the arm, which pulled Jessamine forward as well since he was holding onto her with his other hand.
“Let him go!” Topher’s mother commanded imperiously, following with, “Maxton, dispel the door!”
“You’re harboring a fugitive!” Topher shouted at the same time the man said, “I’m not going
back in to that hellhole!”
“What is she doing here?” one of the girls asked indignantly, which Jessamine somehow heard over the other chaos. The girl was glaring at Jessamine with something close to hatred.
The sound of her voice seemed to startle Topher, who had previously only noticed the boy trying to escape. Now he turned to look at the others, releasing Maxton in confusion.
“Ana, you know my mother?” he looked at the girl behind the table, who was clutching her emblem as though prepared to fight. Now she released her grip and stood up slowly. “Risa?” he turned to the last girl, the one who didn’t like Jessamine, who looked like she had just seen a ghost.
“Mother?” The one called Ana said in horror, turning to the older woman. “You never told me you had a Provo-Major for a son, Hera!” she sounded outraged, but Jessamine’s blood ran cold at the last part.
“Hera?” Topher’s face went through a dozen different expressions in a few seconds. “You’re Hera?!” he barked at last, his eyes settling on the others again as everything suddenly made sense. For a terrifying moment, Jessamine thought he was going to attack his own mother in her tiny kitchen.
“What in the hell is wrong with you? Don’t tell me you’re the one we’ve been looking for all this time—my own mother?!” When no one said anything to this, he punched his fist into the door frame in a rare loss of control, smashing through the frame with his gauntleted fist and scaring everyone in the room.
“Let me guess, you’re the fucking psychic!” He rounded on Ana now. “Of course you are. Every person I’ve been looking for, for months and years now, is all right here in my mother’s kitchen.” He looked absolutely disgusted with the group of them.
“Why are you here?” His mother—Hera—narrowed her eyes at him, gaze flickering to Jessamine.
“We should—no, damn it—this is still the best option…” Topher scowled, looking like he wanted to punch more things. “We’ve been betrayed, and I need to keep Jessamine safe until I can sort out whether there are any more of my peers I need to kill.”
Everyone in the room looked shocked at this, and Jessamine wasn’t entirely sure they should be telling their biggest adversary about the problems in the government, but it was too late now.
“There’s been a coup?” Hera asked calmly, though her posture was still rigid. Years of military training had Jessamine making a quick note of where anything nearby that could be used as a weapon was located, in case things went badly and they had to fight their way out.
“I’m not sure how far the attack has gone,” Topher admitted, all business now though clearly furious. He seemed to be willing to deal with the fact that his mother was the leader of the revolution against the establishment he worked for at a later date. “I wasn’t supposed to be there tonight, and I need to get to the Tetra soon to hold up my alibi and figure out if Lorna has been suborned or not.”
Jessamine had no idea if the others followed any of this, since they obviously weren’t even in touch enough for him to realize his mother was Hera, but no one questioned him yet.
“I need to know if I can trust you to keep Jessamine safe.” His voice was deathly serious now, staring unblinkingly into his mother’s eyes.
“You can,” she replied firmly. “We all support her efforts of reintegrating the Gifted into society, and look forward to her rule.”
Topher frowned and said, “Do not lie to me about this. If anything happens to her while she is in your care, I will exact such terrible retribution against you that I can’t even fathom the details of it yet, mother or not.”
His voice was so threatening Ana actually took a step backwards and Jessamine grabbed his gauntleted hand in a placating gesture, but she wasn’t sure he could feel her through his armor.
“I’m not lying to you,” Hera responded calmly. “She will be safe with us.”
“Good.” Topher nodded, turning to Ana. “I doubt I’ll be able to make our meeting tomorrow, in light of recent events.”
Ana pursed her lips and said, “I was going to tell you Major Fox is plotting to kill the Viceroy. I’m not psychic—by the way—but I pulled that from his mind and have been trying to think of a good way to get the information to you ever since.”
Topher closed his eyes as though praying for strength, but only said, “That would have been good to know this morning.”
“We just killed Fox and escaped,” Jessamine added, earning a dark look from the girl named Risa, who kept staring at her for some reason. She had no idea why the Gifted girl disliked her so much, but didn’t have the energy to spare caring right now.
“I need to go catch Lorna,” he turned to Jessamine now, pulling a knife from the nearby table and placing it in her hand. “Jessa, I promise I will do everything I can for your father and sister. Stay here and stay safe, and I’ll come back for you as soon as I’m sure I’m not being followed. I don’t care who these people are or what you think they mean to me, if anyone tries to hurt you, kill them.”
“That’s a bit melodramatic…” Maxton grumbled from his seat with raised eyebrows.
“Topher—” Jessamine wasn’t sure what she was going to say. Be safe? Don’t leave me here with Hera and her people? Do you hate me because I’m Gifted? I love you?
In the end she said nothing, but Topher seemed to understand because he nodded and squeezed her hand gently.
“Everything will be fine, Jessa. I’ll be back soon.”
He turned and ran back down the stairs and was gone.
Jessamine felt awkward as she stood there beside the splintered door frame with four total strangers, all of whom were apparently trying to bring down her father’s government until recently. She took a deep breath and let years of practice and experience guide her, setting down the knife and approaching Hera.
“I’m Jessamine Elaria, Vicerina and heir of the Viceroyalty. It’s a pleasure to meet you at last; your son is one of my dearest acquaintances.” She shook the woman’s hand. “So, what happens now?”
“It seems we have much to discuss, Vicerina.”
“Indeed. May I sit down and have some hot tea? I find myself cold and tired and shaken from the recent incident.”
“Of course,” Hera answered fluidly, relaxing into the role of hostess. “Let’s move to the living room where we can speak more comfortably, and I’ll bring some tea.” It was clear this was a woman who wasn’t easily rattled, and Jessamine could see where Topher inherited his typically-cool disposition. “Ana, Risa, you need to leave now and hurry if you’re going to get back to the Academy before curfew. Go.”
“We can’t leave now…” Ana protested.
“This will all be here tomorrow. You don’t need any scrutiny on you by the Minors, especially if things are amiss within the Augenspire. Go.”
Ana and Risa got up and left through the front door, the former still grumbling about being kicked out right when things were getting interesting and the latter still ominously silent. Maxton, as a wanted fugitive, remained with them.
“Now,” Topher’s mother said, when they were seated on couches in the living room with mugs of hot tea. “Tell me what’s going on.”
Jessamine took a sip of the hot liquid. It seemed to burn away some of the pain in her mouth and settle her nerves.
“Well, I guess I’ll need to start from the beginning for it to make any sense. You all might want to get comfortable, because this is going to take a while…”
She launched into the story of everything that had happened since her father became aware of a plot against them, omitting all the irrelevant or confidential details. After all, she was talking to a wanted fugitive and the woman who had been leading the resistance against her family’s government ever since the fall of Ash’s rebellion in Halstead.
She spoke for hours, and they didn’t interrupt except to ask a few clarifying questions here and there. All the while, she was listening for the sound of the basement door, for some sign of Topher’s return, wondering if he had ma
de it back to the Augenspire yet and gotten things under control.
She talked until there was nothing more to say, and when the others went to bed, Jessamine was still there, wondering and waiting. The sky lightened by degrees, until early morning traffic could be heard outside as people commuted to work.
He’ll come back today…he has to be here soon…she assured herself in a constant mental litany, arms wrapped around her folded up legs with her chin resting on her knees.
Any minute now, I’ll hear the door open…he’ll definitely be back today…
Topher didn’t return.
Table of Contents
The Augenspire
Origins of Elaria: Book 1
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3
4
5
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7
8
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