Efferent

Chapter 38

"Ardyn? Ardyn!" Someone shouted and I screamed in response. Clark, his hands- I immediately sat upright and leaped off of the rocks and looked around me. Then I realized I wasn't in the valley, Clark wasn't here, and everything was gone.

I nearly fainted in relief, and my legs collapsed underneath me. Blaise caught me before I could face plant right on the floor, though, and then he set me on the bed carefully, almost gingerly, as if I was brittle glass and ready to break at any second.

I gave him a weird look and he backed away, muttering something about 'my fault'. I blinked and turned to Travis, who sat quietly, his hands folded. "What was that?" I asked. His figure blurred for a second and I thought I would return to the dark place again, but it was only because I fell down onto my pillow.

"He... you- well, Blaise overreacted yesterday and even he himself couldn't control his Efference. And he projected all of his worst fears into a mirage, a projection that his Efference created. And unfortunately, you were the one on the receiving end of it." Travis explained.

"Oh." I said quietly. "Wait, what?!" I asked, my eyes widening. "He-I- wait, so everything was a mirage, a projection?"

"Yes." Travis said shortly, peering at me curiously. I placed a hand on my heart and sighed in relief again. It was all fake, Ardyn. Fake.

"Dear, God." I replied, exhaling heavily.

Travis shrugged. "If I may ask, what was it that you saw yesterday? You were screaming and Blaise knew what it was, since he projected it. But I have no idea, and I want to know. It seemed terrible."

"It was." I agreed, shuddering at rememberance of the memories. "So Clark was hunting me down, and I fell down a cliff to the middle of a valley." I inhaled sharply. "Amelia was there, and she helped me up. Then Clark leapt towards me, but instead killed Amelia."

Travis blinked. "Then as I started running, his Efference returned. He appeared in front of me and when I changed direction, he was there, too. He was everywhere. Clark had manifested everywhere, and then once he finally caught up to me, he also killed me."

He blinked again. "W-wow. That is intense."

I gave a dry chuckle. "Yeah, but it was a thousand times worse if you were actually in it. It was dark, and the whole image just projected fear."

"I am sorry, Ardyn." Blaise whispered quietly, and I whipped my head around to see him leaning against the door frame. "I was so worried, and I panicked, not being able to control my Efference. I am sorry that you had to suffer through all of that. It must have been terrible."

"It is okay, I know you never meant to do it, Blaise."

"Er, sorry to interrupt, but I have aligned the recruited Afferents now. They are waiting." James's voice cut in. "I am beginning to train the Afferent, and if you all would like to help, please join me now in the living room, I have a few things to say." He left, and all three of us followed him.

James sat down on a couch and we followed suit. "I was thinking, to prevent overflow, that the Afferent will need to compete with each other to earn a spot. In the first few days or maybe a week, we will train them to the best of our ability. Then they will have a competition to find the strongest and best Afferent, and then will continue the training."

"Hm... why a competition? Why not just let them all stay? Surely they can all camp out outside, or something like that." I contradicted.

"Yes, even so, there are many of Afferent status, perhaps adding all up to a hundred or even two hundred. We can not possibly train all of them at once. So with the competition, we will pick out the strongest to train first. And once we finish training them, we can work with the rest." James reasoned.

I nodded slowly. "So how many Afferents will be allowed to continue training?"

"Possibly ten or twenty. Thirty at most. Remember, there are only the four of us. We can not monitor, let us say, thirty Afferents at once. That will not be effective, nor will it work. But with a smaller group, our attention can be focused on them more, and help them be better."

"Alright. When do we begin?" Blaise asked, cracking his knuckles as he stretched.

"Immediately. We will set out a course plan today, and first thing tomorrow we will start training." James replied.

"What will they be tested on?" I inquired.

"Mental and physical capabilities. Kind of like what the Percentage test does. Though the Percentage test is extremely accurate, we do not have that kind of technology. So we will have to resort to old fashioned ways."

"Such as?"

"Who can run faster, swim faster, things like that for the physical section of the test. For the mental part, who is smarter, more logical. Also, their powers. Which one is more valuable to us, which one do we need more in our team?" James rattled off.

"Good thinking. But I would like to know what kind of Afference is more valuable. Which kind of abilities will we need more?" Travis cut in.

James mused quietly. "Well, I would think something that can help us defend or fight. Such as Travis, he can actually defend. But Clark on the other hand, his Efference can't. It's only a mean of escaping, not a way to fight. And Blaise's Efference. He prevents instead. If his rival is not affected by his projections, then he his helpless."

A low growl emitted through the room, and we all sighed in unison. Clark. Again. "I hope you all can understand why I am not going to sedate him..." I trailed off, and Travis and Blaise nodded. I shivered slightly at the thought of facing the wild Clark again.

The two boys left to make sure his bonds were tight too, and James and I sat in silence for a little while. Then he spoke up. "Come with me, Ardyn. I have something to show you." He motioned towards his room, and opened the door. Then he pulled open a drawer to reveal a glass vial.

James held it in his hand. A clear liquid was contained within, and I looked at it. "In here is the serum." He said, voice serious as he

I gasped. "Serum, as in, Efference serum?"

"Yes."

"Then why not use it? I do not mean to sound selfish, but I-"

"That is not it, Ardyn." James said quietly. "This is the Efference serum, but I am afraid it will not work."