The Rising - Ennead 1

Act 5

"Yes, I am Magus. So what?" I drop into what my mother likes to call 'gutter talk'.

"Mumu! You done cross 'de wrong wire. Wetin I take do you? We're all on the same side you idiot!"

I sense his sister's subtle, furtive movements. I shoot her a strong warning through a private sending.

"Make you no try. I can hold both of you just as easily."

Ok. I don't think I should be trying the limits of an untested skill but the temptation is too strong. I could crush them both or make them my adoring slaves. I guess this is what they mean by "power corrupts".

A heavy hand is laid on my shoulder, an almost familiar and yet alien sending whispers through my skull at the same time.

"Let him go. You've proved your point. Any further and you would give him..." The sending tapers out.

"Temi, enough!"

This time it's a voice I know. Carlos. He's holding my head between his palms and staring into my eyes as if I'm insane. Either I'm daydreaming or his healing is impossibly quick.

Coming out of the haze in which I had been suspended, I catch a whiff of his thoughts. One of them is the face I see in the mirror, but a bit different. My face in his mind's eye is flat, emotionless and creepy.

"Any further and what?" I ask him, slightly irritated. Okay, I'm plenty irritated, but I'm covering it up pretty well.

"What do you mean?"

"Your sending. You didn't complete it..."

He turns away, distracted by a sudden movement and twitches upraised fingers like a magician. His liquid sword flickers through the air like white lightning and gargouille explode into showers of black dust.

He walks away without another word, honor bound to continue protecting the uninitiated within the courtyard. As what seems like an afterthought, he tosses a sending to me, "You've created a problem Spider. Fix it."

A spark of self-righteous anger flares in my chest until I finally take a look at my 'mess'.

Jules is collapsed on the cobblestones, eyes rolled up into his head. His sister kneels beside him, checking for a pulse and pounding his chest. Every time she pumps his chest it feels like a slender needle is being driven into my heart

The familiar stranger brushes through my mind again, "Never use a mallet where a hammer would do. Time to make this right. We have to..."

"Do what?" I fire back, as it fades out, "Who are you?!"

The only response I get is querulous wheeze, barely perceptible, "Errrrr, I emmmm..."

Jin Takazawa

I don't believe in fate, God or luck but there must be a special, universal maliciousness at work tonight. Being stuck with a former one night stand is not uncomfortable, we're in the same band; I got over that awkwardness long ago. Being stuck with said guy when he's out cold is a new experience, new enough to get me feeling uncomfortable.

Kyle Gaines was a mistake I don't mean to repeat. He caught me at a down moment in my relationship with Monica. Looking at his features now though, innocent in deep slumber, I wonder; what if...

A rustling intrudes on my thoughts. I have to get my head on right. Whatever Mad did to get us out from under that collapsed scaffolding is messing with my thinking.

"Mad - I'm heading down to the ground lobby. There may be a few of them in here."

"We'll meet you there. Keaton is up. Kyle?"