The Coming Chaos

by D. K. Holmberg

  “It depends on the person using it. I suspect if you have more time with it, you’ll begin to master it in a way that will allow you to dig into thoughts that would otherwise be forbidden to you.”

  “Such as yours?”

  Lucy shrugged. “It’s possible you might eventually be able to reach my mind, but I wonder if perhaps my own augmentation will protect me.”

  It was something she should test. She didn’t necessarily want anyone digging through her thoughts, but if someone did, it might as well be one of the women she’d rescued.

  And if that happened, it would be better if she admitted to her involvement with the C’than before they managed to discover it on their own.

  She didn’t want that surprise.

  “How many others have discovered this ability?” she asked, looking from Rebecca to Eve.

  “Only one other,” Rebecca said.

  Eve frowned. “We don’t even know if that’s what she can do,” she said, waving her hand. She turned her attention toward the end of the village, and Lucy stared. There was an older woman sitting on a ledge, her legs dangling.

  Lucy Slid, emerging next to her.

  She was thin, and Olivia hadn’t fully recovered following her captivity. She didn’t know if the other woman would eventually gain back the weight she’d lost in captivity or whether this was a new normal for her.

  “Olivia?” Lucy asked, taking a seat next to her.

  The other woman stared out at the ocean. “I lived my whole life wanting to know what it was like to see the water like this.”

  “It can be soothing, can’t it?”

  The other woman shook her head slightly. “I don’t find it soothing at all. I find it chaotic.”

  “Why chaotic?” Lucy tried to Read her, but something prevented it. It was probably the same thing that would keep her from effectively Reading everyone within the village. They had some protections that were offered by the augmentations.

  “The way the waves work at the shore. There’s a certain chaos to it. It’s not peaceful at all.”

  Lucy looked out, watching, but from here, the way the waves swept into the shore, the whitecaps, had always seemed peaceful to her. She wasn’t sure why it wouldn’t be that way to the other woman, and yet, she couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps there was something more that troubled Olivia.

  “Rebecca tells me you might have begun to develop some talents.”

  “It’s too much,” Olivia said.

  “You can learn to control it.”

  Olivia’s eyes were red. Lucy hadn’t realized there was wetness around them, and she cursed herself. She should’ve paid more attention, should have recognized that the other woman was suffering.

  And how could she not? Having something like this thrust upon her would be hard. Lucy remembered how difficult it had been for her when she had first had the augmentation placed, the way it had strained her ability to control it, the overwhelming nature of all the thoughts around her.

  “There’s just so much.”

  “What do you detect?”

  “Sadness. Fear. Anger.”

  Lucy frowned. “Emotion?”

  Olivia turned away, staring at the water. “There are times when I wish it could be taken away from me.”

  Lucy sighed. “I can work with the others. I’m going to help them learn how to protect their minds.” Even doing that, she wasn’t sure it would protect against emotions. Plenty of people in Elaeavn could Read—it was one of the more common abilities—but what Olivia described was something else. Feeling everyone else’s emotions constantly would be a terrible thing. She could easily understand how it would cause someone to suffer.

  “Can you close it off?”

  “I’ve tried, but everything continues to come to me. It fills my mind. That’s why I’ve come out here.”

  “Does the ocean help?”

  “The chaos helps.”

  “When I first had my augmentation placed, all the thoughts that slammed into me were too much. I learned to control it eventually, but…” Even now, it was still difficult for Lucy to hold on to that control. She could shut out most of those voices, but it presented a challenge nonetheless. There were times when she couldn’t. When she was in busier cities, places where people didn’t know how to shield their minds, there was a sense of pressure, an overwhelming sensation of a dozen different voices all crying out for her attention. She was able to mute them a bit, but she still detected them.

  “I can help,” she said.

  “Are you sure?”

  Lucy nodded quickly. “It takes time, but I can help you with this.” The anguish she saw on Olivia’s face was heartbreaking.

  These women had gone through so much, and many of them were just now beginning to come into their abilities, learning that something new was offered to them, and she wanted to help them so they didn’t have to go through it alone.

  When she had dealt with the augmentation and the voices she’d detected, she hadn’t done so alone.

  There had been Daniel Elvraeth and Carth and Rayen, along with the Binders and, if she was honest, the Ai’thol. The Architect had helped her as much as anyone. Lucy hated admitting that, but because of him, she had gained an understanding of and a control over her abilities she wouldn’t have had otherwise.

  “If the ocean helps, you should stay near it.”

  “I don’t like coming out here,” she said.

  “Because you fear the waves?”

  “I can’t swim.”

  Lucy smiled. “I can’t swim all that well, either.”

  “I thought you grew up near the water?”

  “I did. But even in my homeland, not everybody gets into the water.”

  Those who lived closer to the shore would spend some time in the sea, but Lucy had been drawn to the forest, and the power that was there. Even now, though she loved looking out over the water and thought she might be able to find answers if she stared long enough, she didn’t love the idea of swimming.

  “Sometimes I wonder if it might be better if I left,” Olivia said.

  “Where would you go?”

  “Anywhere but here. Maybe someplace where the voices didn’t intrude.”

  “I don’t know where you can go that they wouldn’t,” she said.

  “Somewhere else,” Olivia said.

  Lucy took the other woman’s hand, squeezing it reassuringly, and yet she didn’t know that she was offering her anything. She understood the terror she would be going through, and just how horrible it must feel. It was so familiar to her, and though she didn’t know if she could offer her any sort of reassurance, she wanted to—and needed to.

  “Why don’t you focus on what you can think of?” she said.

  “Such as what?”

  “Focus on my mind.”

  “I don’t detect anything from you.”

  “Nothing?”

  The other woman stared for a moment, and again Lucy felt the pressure, but it was vague and faint.

  “There is something, but I don’t really know what it is.”

  “Maybe because I’m shielded.” Could she open her mind a little bit? Carth had a way of doing that, and Lucy couldn’t help but think that if she could do the same thing, it would be valuable. But how was she to do that?

  She tried to release her thoughts, opening up as much as she could, but even that didn’t seem to make a difference.

  There had to be another way. Somehow, she would help Olivia find a sense of peace. As she turned, she realized it wasn’t just Olivia whom she had to help find that peace. It was everybody in the village.

  The challenge was going to be in figuring out what it would take to help them. Somehow, she would have to figure out a way to budget her time. But then, that had been a challenge all along. She had known she needed to serve both the C’than and to help these women.

  And beyond that, she had to figure out what else they needed to do in order to stop Olandar Fahr and the rest of the Ai’thol
. The more she worked on the Ai’thol, the more certain she was that there had to be something they could do.

  “How long are you staying?” Olivia asked.

  She hadn’t planned on staying for very long, but she needed to be here.

  “As long as you need.”

  Olivia looked over at her, and the relief in her eyes was reason enough for Lucy to remain.

  5

  Lucy

  Metal swirled around Eve, the lumps of lorcith small but tightly controlled by the other woman. Lucy was impressed. Eve was beginning to show even more control than what she had seen from Haern the last time she’d been around him.

  “I can use the metal, but I don’t have any idea what else I can do.” Eve let the metal fall from the sky, dropping to the ground, and she crossed her arms over her chest.

  “There are other things you can do with it,” she said.

  “I’m sure there are, but anything I try to do doesn’t seem to make a difference,” Eve said.

  Lorcith had never been Lucy’s strength. She understood how it was used and that it carried with it some potential, but anything more was beyond her.

  “I know the metal can be useful, but I don’t have much experience with how to use it. You’re going to have to be creative.”

  Eve grunted. “Creative? Like you’re creative with…” She shook her head, turning away.

  “No. What was it?”

  “Nothing,” she said.

  Lucy studied her and decided not to push.

  She had been here for a few days, and the longer she was here, the more she felt there was something she needed to improve. Many of the women were learning aspects of their abilities, and yet the more Lucy worked with them, the more she felt that she wasn’t the best teacher for them.

  As strange as it sounded, it might be easier if they went to Elaeavn, where there were others with similar abilities. But she didn’t think any of the women would allow her to bring them there.

  Even the women who had come from Elaeavn—the Lost—didn’t want to return. There was a part of Lucy that wished they would, and yet she also understood why they wouldn’t want to go back. There was something different about them.

  More than that, there was a danger in returning to Elaeavn. They had been augmented. That meant they were Ai’thol—Forgers, according to the people of Elaeavn.

  And there were plenty of people within the city who had enough experience with the Ai’thol to fear what that meant.

  It would be a hard thing to explain, and even knowing they’d been abducted, forced to take these augmentations, Lucy wasn’t sure that anyone would be willing to understand anything more.

  It was better if they stayed together.

  Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she wasn’t helping them nearly as much as they needed. There were those like Eve, who wanted to better understand her abilities, to know what it meant for her to have control over lorcith. Lucy didn’t know whether there was anything she could offer her. She understood how lorcith could be controlled, but using it was one thing, and knowing a way to help the other woman learn to master it was something else entirely.

  And it wasn’t as if Eve was a blacksmith. Or even a miner. If she were either of those, then having a connection to lorcith would be more valuable. The only possibility was finding Haern. If she could do that, she might be able to see if he knew of any ways that lorcith might benefit Eve.

  “Just keep working,” she said. She turned away from the other woman, heading deeper into the village. Several of the homes were newly painted, the colors intentionally drab so that they would blend into the hillside. It was a clever plan, much like how Elaeavn had been designed, though Elaeavn had never been as masked as the founders of the city had wanted it to be.

  She found a group of women and stopped. Marcy was talking softly, explaining something to one of them. They were starting to work together, trying to teach each other how to use their abilities.

  The more they worked together, the stronger they became and the easier it would be for them to master those talents.

  Marcy noticed her watching and nodded to her, and Lucy turned away. She wasn’t going to intervene, and it was easier if she let the other woman take the lead.

  As she started through the village, something echoed in her mind.

  Lucy tensed. She paused, looking around.

  It was like a shout.

  The clarity of it was alarming, and as often as she had worked with others, she understood the nature of that call, though she hadn’t expected to hear it here. Within the village, most of the women were protected from her Reading them easily, the nature of the augmentation making it so that any ability she had was limited. It wasn’t eliminated altogether, but it certainly was diminished. And yet, she heard it clearly in her head.

  Who was it from?

  The answer didn’t come.

  More than that, she wanted to know if it would recur, and yet it didn’t.

  She frowned, looking around. Was there anyone in the village who needed her help? The first person who came to mind was Olivia, but the other woman was sitting on the edge of the rock, looking out over the ocean once again. Likely focusing on the chaos she detected out there.

  It wasn’t Olivia.

  It came again.

  This time it was clear, the voice cutting through.

  A summons: come.

  She recognized the voice, though she was surprised that she would detect it at all.

  Carth didn’t usually reach out to her in that way.

  She focused on the thoughts, reaching through that connection, and Slid.

  She emerged within Asador. It was a small tavern, and there was music near one wall. A pair of provocatively dressed women were making their way around the inside of the tavern, barely glancing in her direction when she suddenly appeared. The rest of the tavern was mostly empty.

  A darkened shadow in one corner caught her attention.

  “This is how you call me now?”

  The shadows began to separate, and Carth leaned forward. “If you won’t tell me where you are, it’s the only way I can reach you.”

  “You know I can’t.”

  “I know that you won’t, but can’t is a different story altogether.”

  Lucy watched the other woman. She had dark hair, and a scratch along one cheek suggested she’d been in a battle recently, though what sort of fighting had Carth been doing?

  “What’s happening?” Lucy asked.

  “Can’t I ask you to come just to visit?”

  She started to smile. “Seeing as how you have never done that before, I don’t think you would.”

  Carth motioned to the chair, and Lucy pulled it out. She perched on the front of the chair, nervous that it was a little more rickety than what she was comfortable with. Carth leaned back, resting her head against the wall, an uneaten plate of food in front of her.

  “Where have you been?” Carth asked.

  “You know where I’ve been.”

  “I know you’ve been working with Ras, but I also know you have your other assignment you’ve given yourself.”

  “And I’m not going to share with you where it is.”

  “Do you really fear I might abuse them?”

  “No.”

  “Then why not share with me?”

  “Because they don’t know about the C’than yet.”

  “You’re going to have to share with them eventually.”

  Eventually. That was the fear Lucy had, and yet she didn’t know how to approach the subject in a way that wouldn’t lead to fear and anger. They deserved honesty from her, and yet until they began to master their abilities, Lucy didn’t know that there was any need for it.

  “You need to be spending time with Ras,” Carth said.

  “I have been spending time with Ras.”

  “Not the last few days.”

  “Are you keeping such close tabs on me?”

  “As much as I need.” />
  “Listen, if we’re going to work together, then you’re going to have to trust that I know what I need to do. Much like I’m going to trust you know what you need to do.”

  Carth started to smile. “That’s what I’ve been waiting for.”

  “What is?”

  Carth got to her feet and motioned to her. “Come on.”

  “Where?”

  “It’s time for us to go hunting again.”

  Lucy frowned. “I’m not sure now is the best time for me to go hunting.”

  “Your friends will be fine without you for a little while, and besides, this won’t take very long.”

  Lucy had enough experience with Carth to know that such promises were rarely accurate.

  Still, when Carth opened her mind to her, a vision flooding her head, she focused on it and recognized where the other woman wanted to take her.

  She Slid, emerging in a grassy plain, a large town rising in front of them. A low stone wall surrounded it, and a hardpacked road led toward it. Smoke from dozens of chimneys drifted toward the sky. The air smelled of grain and grass, a pleasantly earthy odor, and yet there was no one around.

  “Why here? Is there an Elder Stone here?”

  She used her ability to Read, searching to see if she could uncover anything that might explain why Carth had brought her here, but the more she focused, the less obvious it was. There was no sense of Ai’thol within the hundreds of minds she was able to touch. It was nothing more than the typical day-to-day activity.

  She looked over to Carth. “This isn’t an Ai’thol stronghold.”

  “It’s not. At least, not yet.”

  “You think it might become one?”

  “Knowing what we do about Olandar Fahr, how he continues to move and to try to gain strength, I wouldn’t put it past him to attempt something like that, but no.”

  “Then what?”

  Carth looked over to her, meeting her eyes. Shadows seemed to swirl around them, though this close to Carth, she was able to See through them. “What do you remember of the man who captured you?”

  Lucy trembled involuntarily. “Enough.”

  “I’m sure you remember enough, but do you know where he operated out of?”