Collective

Althea

"For a second time, I wasn't lying." Althea spoke through gritted teeth. She was already tired of this girl and her constant accusations. It made a simple conversation much more tiresome. 

But this time, Gemma didn't argue, just shrugged, and resumed her glassy stare out the window.  

Althea thought about what Gemma had just said. If Althea was lying, she could only be lying about one thing: that she would tell a royal she didn't want to give up her Power if they tried to take it from her. But what could that even mean? Althea had felt, when she said it, that that was what she would do. Was Gemma saying in the moment, she'd be too afraid to tell off a royal. Or did she mean something else entirely?

Tired of spinning wheels in her head, Althea lay back on her cot, staring up at the ceiling. Suddenly, Gemma jumped up and pressed her head to the glass. 

Startled, Althea, sat up, "What are you doing?"

"Shhhh." Gemma had a look of intense concentration on her face. As she pressed her ear as hard as she could against the window. 

Althea, curious, got up and pressed hers against the glass as well.

"What do you mean, what rumors?" a voice was asking.

"The rumors about Madam Arabella. You haven't heard?"

"No, what happened?" 

"Well this comes from Terrence, who heard it from one of Arabella's servants, but you know Arabella is hardly the most discrete royal."

"Yes..."

"And it's widely known that she takes Powers from people who displease her and their children."

"Right..."

"Well, they say...they say she's lost all of the Powers she's taken!"

The second voice exclaimed something in response, but Althea was so shocked, she pulled her head away from the glass. 

"Arabella takes Powers from people who displease her?" she echoed in shock, to Gemma.

Gemma just shushed her again, her ear still pressed to the glass, but Althea wasn't even listening. She was replying the morning in her mind. Specifically, she was replaying the moment when Arabella had grasped her hands and closed her eyes. She had been trying to take Althea's Power. That's what she had meant when she told Althea and her mother that she would punish them another way, that the first way hadn't worked. The first way had been trying to take Althea's Power, and Althea didn't have a Power to take. Arabella had assumed that another Royal had already taken it, which explained her comment about Althea being a bad girl. Suddenly it was all clicking into place. 

Eyes wide, Althea turned to look at Gemma, who had finally pulled her ear from the glass. 

"She tried to take my Power." she said to Gemma, incredulously. 

"Yes." Gemma looked amused, "How did you not know that?"

"I never knew Royals other than the Queen took Powers. I thought it was illegal."

"Have you been living under a rock?" Gemma taunted her, "Of course it's illegal but that doesn't stop them from doing it. Even the Queen knows...but she won't stop them because acknowledging it would make her look like she didn't have control over her own court subjects."

"That's....horrible." Althea was still shocked. Suddenly something occurred to her. "That's proof though! That's proof I'm not lying, you are!"

"What is?" Gemma didn't look convinced.

"You said I was lying about having a Power. Well I'm not. When Arabella grasped my hands and tried to take my Power, it didn't work, she just fell down on the ground. And she even knew it didn't work - she said if she couldn't punish me that way she'd have to do it another way, and that's when she brought me here. And she implied that she thought another Royal had already taken my Power and that's why I didn't have one. So I don't have a Power. That proves it." Althea was smug.

But Gemma shook her head. "I promise Althea, truth is my Power. My Power is never wrong. You were lying. Which means something is very off here. But it doesn't mean that you don't have a Power. It just means that she couldn't take it. You have a Power that she couldn't take."

Gemma looked thoughtful. After a few seconds passed, comprehension passed slowly over her face.

"Oh. My. God." she looked at Althea through new eyes. 

"What?" demanded Althea.

"Could it...no, it has to be!" Gemma was growing excited, her eyes were glowing.

"WHAT?" Althea half shouted.

"You're Power, it has to be that your Power is the Power to take away other people's Powers!  And it works on Absorbers!"

"No." Althea shook her head, "I don't have any of Arabella's Powers, I still have no Powers, so that can't be right. And I've never taken anyone else's Powers either. I've touched other kids loads of time....that sounded creepy but you know what I mean. "

Gemma frowned, thinking.

"It has to be. Maybe you don't get Absorber's Powers. Maybe it's a Power specific to counteract Absorber's and it just gets rid of all the Powers they weren't born with."

Althea looked at her skeptically, "That sounds far fetched."

Gemma was insistant, "It's something like that, it has to be! How else do you explain Arabella trying to take a Power from you and failing, the fact that when you say you don't have a Power, I know you're lying using my Truth Power, and the fact that after trying to take your Power, Arabella lost all the ones she had collected?"

Althea shrugged dismissively, "It's just a coincidence Gemma, that's all."

"No it's not, it can't be. It's too much. You're directly linked to all this. I don't know all the specifics but I do know you made her lose her Powers." 

Gemma sat thinking again for a few seconds, then announced, "We need to test your Power with another Royal. We need to know if it works on all of them, and we need to know if it just takes away their acquired Powers, or if it takes away their Absorbing Power too."

"We" Althea emphasized the word, "Don't need to do anything. This is all ridiculous Gemma! Even if a single word of what you were saying was true, which it's not, why would I even want to test it? How would I even? It's not like I'm around Royals on a regular basis. And if you were right, taking away Royal's Powers would be incredibly dangerous if they found out about it."

"But Althea," Gemma was practically begging her now, her eyes wild with excitement, "Earlier, you said that you would tell a Royal you thought it was wrong if one tried to take your Power. You said you thought it was wrong! If I'm right about your Power, just think about what it could mean. For you. For the citizens of Carvaea. For the resistance."

Althea regarded Gemma, "Just because I think it's wrong doesn't mean I want to join any rebellion. And the fact is, you're wrong. I don't have a Power, and I can't take anyone else's. And that's that."

Althea spun around, collapsing on her bed with her back to Gemma. This conversation was over.