Asylum

Final Training

"Will you bring me a belt and katana from my father's room?" Ren ominously inquires, a dark expression in his eyes.

"Do you want me to go with you?" Kya whispers next to him.

He shakes his head and point to me. Finally, I'm important! "Leo, you up? I'm going to want you in Alistair's head."

"I threatened him that I'd strip last we saw him," I coyly remind him. Then, winking, I murmur, "I'm already in his head." Ren's cutting glare doesn't waver at my joke, and he aims that penetrating stare at me, waiting for a straight answer. "Okay. Yeah, I'm in."

"Great," he says in a tone that could also be used to say, "drop dead." Once the Sage comes in, Ren and I stand as he wraps the katana and sheathe around his hips. I have to admit, something about him with a katana just seems more complete to me, as if he's finally living up to some unspoken image. It reminds me of when I thought that he would fare better against Reaper if he had some sort of weapon. "I'm going to want you out of sight, but within range. We're going to be on the pavilion. Any ideas?" Coolly, Ren rests his hand on the sword's hilt, as if it's the most natural thing in the world.

"Just behind those cafeteria doors," I offer.

Ren looks at the spot, then thinks. "That should work. If you need to move, then do so. Just don't cause a disruption." Personally, I think that's like telling an elephant to be a ninja, but I'm not telling him that. I finally have a job.

"I won't be able to hear the conversation," I point out.

He hesitates, throwing a nervous glance Kya's way. Once again, those two know something that nobody else does. What more does a poor suspender-wearing guy like me have to do to be worthy? "That's fine," is all he shortly acknowledges. Ren takes in a deep breath, which is suspiciously deep for just meeting with Alistair. Whoever he really is, I'm sure he knows about it. Why else would he request the katana?

Ren and I walk to the door, but I stop inside the cafeteria and he treads on. I kneel down, conserving my energy and sensing the pavilion. I follow Ren's head until I pick up another mind. The first things I pick up are Alistair's moods: haughty, triumphant, and vengeful. They're all emotions I've never experienced, and as Sarah creeps up next to me, I ask, "What colors would those be?"

"Haughty would be a blazing orange," she whispers so I don't lose focus and break my connection. "Triumphant is a glittering gold. Vengeful, as you can imagine, is blood red."

I nod, wondering what my colors must look like to her. What are the hues for crippling self-deprecation and low esteem?

Pushing the thoughts aside, I fish around in Alistair's mind. Last time, I couldn't get through to him because of all the massive entanglements of his threads, which haven't gotten any better since last time we met. But I've gotten better. Using the concept of telekinesis's breaking through particle barriers, I can maneuver my way right through him until, jackpot, I've hit his mind space.

Most of what he thinks to himself are references to a man I'm unfamiliar with. Xavier is the name I scrounge up, but I've never met one. Does that name mean something to Ren or Kya? The ideas surrounding him include proving himself worthy of living. Of honoring his family by spilling the blood of their persecutor. I didn't expect someone like Alistair to have any depth of character other than being a prick who's only out for himself, but it seems our mystery man has motive behind the moves.

Come evening time, we will reign hell, is a very specific thought I encounter. It's shocking and being a master of exaggerating myself in a physical manner, I cringe. "What?" whispers Kya, who, sometime between five minutes ago and now, has crept up behind me. She isn't alone, either. Elektra stands, arm crossed with her favorite scowl on her face.