hourglass, 𝒎𝒂𝒛𝒆 𝒓𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒓. ¹

⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀

⠀ ⠀ MENDEL: "my turn again. what are the dreams about, athena?"
⠀ ⠀ ATHENA: "they're mostly about what happened to me in the hospital." (pause) "they tortured me in there, i'm not sure what their purpose was but i remember overhearing someone say that putting my body under enough stress or pain would force it to defend itself, and they wanted to experiment. one of the doctors told me that i was useful to them because i was powerful, and the more powerful they made me, the more useful i became━so i later learned that if they could somehow end up suppressing me, they could be able suppress anyone with ███████."
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ athena pauses, frowns, then shrugs.
⠀ ⠀ ATHENA: "they were trying to invent some kind of vaccine that would suppress and possibly delay the effects of the flare even more than the 𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒔 when wicked found me."
⠀ ⠀ MENDEL: "and did they succeed?"
⠀ ⠀ ATHENA (shaking her head): "they were able to make suppression work on me, though, if only for an hour per dose. they kept showing me scans of how the flare was developing in my brain and kept saying that i was showing no symptoms of losing my mind, but i'm almost certain they didn't know i was immune. they tried suppressing some people they'd brought in from overran camps further down the coastline, but they all ended up dying. my question, now."
⠀ ⠀ MENDEL: "not so fast. you still haven't said what the dreams were about━at least not specifically."
⠀ ⠀ ATHENA: "i told you, they're about what happened to me in━"
⠀ ⠀ MENDEL: "they tortured you, yes. so you said, and so said the files i was given to analyse. but how? how did they torture you?"
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ athena's hands clutch the sofa cushions, her fingers curling into the soft fabric as her jaw clenches visibly. her eyes darken slightly and mendel reaches for the syringe, though he never touches it, just lets his hand hover over it in warning.

⠀ ⠀ ATHENA: "they did anything they could think of to induce pain. they started by cutting into me, and when that stopped working, they decided it was time to start breaking bones. at some point, they were able to raid an abandoned military hospital a little farther north from the camp itself and came back with heavy doses of capsaicin injections. they━"
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ athena visibly shudders, her eyes fluttering shut and her death grip on the cushions lessening every so slightly.
⠀ ⠀ MENDEL (gently): "it's all right, athena. that's more than enough. you don't have to keep going."
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ athena doesn't appear to hear. she drops her head back, her voice thin, strained, pulled taut and shaking. the static in the audio keeps growing, but her next words come out more than clear.
⠀ ⠀ ATHENA: "they had me strapped to a metal wheelchair and had a mask 𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 into my jaw, they kept telling me it would all be over soon and i'd go back to my parents. they even started counting down the weeks until they'd let me go, but then they'd knock me out for days and tell me i'd only been sleeping for a couple hours. i couldn't━"
⠀ ⠀ MENDEL (urgent, his expression nauseated, panicked. his hands are shaking where he'd placed them on the table, his eyes wide and bottom lip trembling): "i know."

⠀ ⠀ after a moment of growing static, athena opens her eyes. she's paler, her skin looks almost pearl white through the glitches. mendel removes his glasses with trembling fingers and rubs the heel of his other hand against his face.

⠀ ⠀ MENDEL: "go ahead and ask what you were going to ask."
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ a long moment passes.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ mendel puts his glasses back on.
⠀ ⠀ ATHENA: "can you learn ███████?"
⠀ ⠀ MENDEL: "i don't know. it would seem so, although the only other ██████ i knew could never quite define or tell me how exactly he acquired the ability. but he couldn't ██████████████, as i can. as you probably could if you tried hard enough. his ability was limited, perhaps because it wasn't his █████████████. he could only ██████████ of people he had a very close, personal connection to. he spent years trying to cultivate ███████ but never got past this. he could ██████████ of people he understood on a deep level, and only if they felt a close connection to him in return. but no one else."
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ athena says nothing.
⠀ ⠀ MENDEL: "i advise against it, though. ███████ is a curse as much as a blessing. far worse than what one could ever think, especially when you use it on a loved one and realise all the nasty things they █████ about you but would ███████████████."
⠀ ⠀ ATHENA: "i want to help 𝒉𝒊𝒎."
⠀ ⠀ MENDEL: "i know you do." (he drags his hand through his hair) "i know, athena. but ███████ apollo's ████ won't favour you. it won't make helping him any easier. believe me."
⠀ ⠀ ATHENA: "but you said if i tried hard enough, then maybe i could do it. so you think i can learn. you know i can."
⠀ ⠀ MENDEL: "if i think you can learn? sure. but i also think that would be a very bad idea." (he pauses) "look, i've been where you're sitting years ago, and i know how it feels to want to help someone but to not know how, so trust me when i tell you━this is the worst path to walk down."
⠀ ⠀ ATHENA: "what if this is the only path? what then, mendel? how am i supposed to help him?"
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ the silence is brief, but something passes between the two of them. something unspoken. mendel nods once, then nods again, his hand reaches up to adjust his glasses, his lips twist into a dubious frown.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ he says something and the static is too loud to make it out, but athena is still looking at him, her face impatient and her eyes hungry. she opens her mouth to speak again.

⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ the image becomes too blurred and distorted, the audio abruptly cuts off, but when the video resumes, fully focused and with clean audio, the pair has already finished their meeting and athena is heading out with a new 𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒚 book under her arm.

⠀ ⠀ ⁰⁰ 𝑪𝑶𝑷𝒀𝑹𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻 𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐏𝐥𝐔𝐒 2020
book 𝒐𝒏𝒆 in the 𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒚𝒔𝒕 series