Purity of Mind

Chapter 22: The Tenth

I struggled not to repeat myself, instead settling for "I don't understand."

"You don't believe, you mean," King said. "I can't blame you! Ask this lot," he said, gesturing to his generals in the crowd, "they didn't believe at first, either. You'll see. Because the elements, they're about creation. But Void, it's the opposite. It's about destruction. And the longer you're with me, the more you'll see that's what I do." He turned to face his audience. "Isn't that right?"

I was expecting a cheer from the people, given how raucous they'd been the previous days, but instead, they just inclined their heads in unison. That didn't really do much to dispel the whole "void cult" feeling.

"I've already shown you." King was not going to stop talking anytime soon. "I've done something that not even a Pure Mind can do; I took Pampa's power from her, and made sure you received part of it. The closest thing to giving I can do, and it's really more you getting in the way of me taking it than anything else. I made you, if not Pure, then Gifted at least. Nobody else in this entire world could do that. And I took it away again, as you pointed out. Do you remember what it was like, to have such a gift? To be connected with your element on a personal level?"

He paused long enough for me to realize that wasn't a rhetorical question. "Yes," I said. The feeling of my connection with the mud had almost entirely faded, but the memories were still fresh and alternately comforting and terrifying.

"Imagine feeling that every single night. Imagine the moonlit sky being a part of you. Imagine that everywhere in the city where there is nothing, resonates with you. Imagine the places *between*. These belong to you. That's how I know what I am. I can't expect you to believe, not right away, but I want you to remember your time as Gifted. Remember it, and know that that is what life is for me, only on a far grander stage."

He gestured to the crowd, and they stopped their creepy head-bowing. Sensing that the time of explanations - bizarre though they were - was about to be over, I spoke up. "What about the Pure Mind?"

King laughed fully this time, though at least the generals didn't join in. "Oh yes, of course, your mission! You remind me of a younger Seven. So eager, so dedicated. Let's hope you're smarter than she was about obeying orders, shall we?"

Pawn Seven didn't react; hadn't reacted the entire time. She already knew everything that was happening, because this exact thing had happened to her, and now she was trapped. It didn't bode well for my chances, and suddenly the mission seemed more out of reach than ever before.

"As it happens," King continued to enjoy the sound of his own voice, "the timing of your initiation into our little group is convenient. Suspiciously convenient, really, which is why I had to test you with that whole Mudslinger thing. The eclipse is coming up soon, and when that happens you'll be able to act on your precious mission."

"Eclipse?" I asked. The conversation had taken too many abrupt turns for me to be able to follow all of them, I just had to latch on to whichever one stuck out the most.

"I can predict them," King said, as though such a matter were trivial. "Eclipses are a force for the Void. They say that one happened on the day of my birth, though they only say that because I told them to. Makes me seem scarier. But still, Eclipses being of Void is pretty obvious. I mean, the moon shifts into a disc of darkness that eats up the sun? That's some serious symbolism. And, like the eclipse demonstrates the inversion of void and fire, so shall this next one be accompanied by my own inversion. From below the streets to above them. From outcast to caster-out. You get the idea."

"You're going to overthrow the surface," I said. I'd so far avoided saying the words 'void cult' out loud, but the number of similarities was getting out of hand at this point.