Chlorine Halos

Heroes

Both utilize the aperas, but in very different ways. Arbiter abilities have a wide spectrum. The two arbiters you know in Cartesia are Maestro and Donovan. Maestro can use a conduit, the bronze ring around his waist, to bend dimensional space and travel through it. The aperas is always moving through that conduit; his ability allows him to harness it. Wearing a conduit exposes your body to a high concentration of the aperas. We are malleable beings, inside and out. Given the right circumstances, we can change. Now, Donovan is part of the Alcove of Analytics. His ability is internalized, but not at all less impressive. He has a boundless capacity for information. His mind processes and stores data in ways you or I could not begin to understand. He analyzes large sections of the grid and searches for conditions which signify a threat.

Those with element abilities are rare. They can manipulate water, fire, wind, and earth. Your father was a water element, as am I. And as Maestro informed me, you are as well. Coming in contact with a conduit will stir your ability and bring it to the surface. You are your father's child.

While we studied at the Annex, no one there or in all of Cartesia could believe two elements shared such a history. Because elements are so few and far between, everyone saw the fact we were found together, side by side, as a crazy coincidence. I'll tell you this now: Coincidence is the universe showing finesse.

Once we graduated and were inducted into the city, I demonstrated I was fit for leadership. Your father excelled with mission work on the grid. He believed he could serve best by directly interacting with it. Whether you're an element or an arbiter, there must be a level of anonymity when you're on the grid. Displays of power do two things: create panic and tyrants. This cripples the grid. Prosperity does not grow from either. Whatever way the aperas is channeled, it has to be done with discretion and strategy. The stress of that is alleviated somewhat for elements. The grid seems to have accepted the unpredictability of the weather.

Your father joined relief efforts in the most desolate places, cleverly masking his ability by becoming involved with irrigation projects. It wasn't long before he wanted to do more. He wanted to help and he knew he could. He devised a plan to unite Cartesia with the grid. No more hiding, only building to a better way of life. It was meticulously crafted and well-thought out. It had contingencies and exit strategies. This would build relationships with governing entities and slowly reveal what Cartesia could provide. The Roundtable of Cartesia granted the execution and he began to work. And that's all he did for years. 

Then, he met someone. He fell in love. It was a whirlwind romance he never saw coming. It was your mother. Things began to change for him, but he never lost focus on his goal. In fact, he said he was onto something that would change everything. But, before he could move much further with it, he became a father. His whole perception shifted, right then and there. I think it was because, at that moment, the stakes changed. His decisions were built on something else entirely. He continued to work, but he became more and more detached. We saw each other less and less. I really wanted to change that. But, I waited too long. I missed my chance."

Jasper sniffled sharply and wiped away the tear forming in the corner of his eye with his deeply calloused thumb. Without knowing, he had given me something I had wanted for a long time. I got to see my father again. Even through story, that was enough. I felt him through the words and it kindled an idea inside me.

"I want to finish what he started," I said, standing to my feet. "Can you help me?"

"If anyone asks me, 'Who is Avian Douglas?', I have the answer," Jasper said, standing up and putting his hands on the sides of my arms. "He's his father's child." He turned toward the large divider in the workshop and took a step in that direction. "I think I know where to start."

He led me over to where all the shop's equipment and tools were kept. Not one of these utilities was driven by electricity. A manual power lathe, showing the smoothed signs of heavy use, was in one corner; A brick kiln, glowing from scarlet embers, the other. Over-sized work tables were covered with incomplete projects and hand-crafted mechanisms. Every type of hand tool hung from a peg board behind the elaborately detailed desk Jasper was digging through. In the center of the desktop, a penrose was cradled by a conduit.

"Here we are," Jasper said, pulling out an oval shaped metal box. "This was your father's. After I received the terrible news, I brought this here from the archives. He kept all of his reports and findings in this box. Unfortunately..." Jasper opened the box and inside was a piece of glass which fit perfectly into its ovate satin-lined casing. The glass had a crack down the center. He wedged his finger inside the box and pried out the glass, revealing the crack was actually the split between two pieces.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Together, it's called a shard," Jasper explained. "We use it to pass information around the city. If you hold it to the light of a penrose, it will display whatever you wish to record and send it to whoever you choose. Even if I were to repair this, I would have no way of knowing what he had filed away. The shard responds to the individual—if I were to hold this one, I wouldn't see anything. I've never used it before."

"I don't understand," I said, staring at the glare reflecting off the shard. "What good is it to us?"

"You're his bloodline, Avian," Jasper answered. "This will respond to you and maybe give us some direction. Just before he died, your father was exhausting all of his resources to track someone. Our last conversation concerned me. He was frantic. He came to the city to search for information on someone he said was following him. After painstakingly reviewing every report and file, he told me that there was no record of any use. People, even elements and arbiters, are elusive, but we always have data on them at some point, at some time. No one can navigate through the grid for a lifetime without somehow interacting. Your father was frustrated when he left. I didn't realize how frustrated until I found this."

"So, you're saying if I hold this, I could possibly find the person he was searching for? This person who was following him and probably killed him? And then, came after the rest of his family?" I asked, hyperventilating. Each question thrusted with an angrier tone. 

"Avian," Jasper said calmly. "You have to understand, I have looked everywhere to find the truth about what happened to your family. If someone was, in fact, after your father as he claimed, that person would have shown up somewhere. That person doesn't exist. We will continue searching for the truth, but I want to use this shard so we can fulfill your father's wish of unity. Use whatever he had completed in his plans and push forward. Be like the heroes from the fairy tales he told—courageous, strong. We can't chase after someone who isn't there."

I took a deep breath. "I understand," I said. "You're right. Forward. Heroes." Jasper passed over the two pieces of the shard. I held them together and over the light of the penrose. For a moment, I only saw my reflection. Revealing themselves slowly, letters formed on the shard, creating two words.

NICHOLAS MICHAELS

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[Ch. Ded.] @Michelle007
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