"Welcome," voices murmured as River settled herself down.
She looked up and saw a group of about eight people sitting around a round, wooden table.
"Er- hi," she replied nervously. Sitting at the circle were Blade, Dante, Aryan, Dr. Ashe, and four unfamiliar faces gazing down upon her.
The walls and floor were made of stone and the table was off in the side of the room, leaving a very empty space down one side.
"This is River," Blade introduced her. They stared at her unblinkingly.
"Milo," he nodded to the curly haired boy. "Fox," he pointed to a haughty looking girl with long, black hair.
"Sirus," he gestured towards a purple haired male who gave a small wave in which River returned back nervously.
"And Esther," a brunette with kind, large eyes gave her an encouraging smile.
"And you know the rest- Dr. Ashe, Dante, and Aryan."
Aryan sent her a lopsided, handsome grin that quickly turned into a smirk as River turned away, blushing.
She couldn't think of Aryan like that when Jack was still waiting for her.
She focused pointedly at the table in front of her.
"Soo, how am I supposed to figure out what abilities I have?" She said steadily, still focused on a point on the table.
"We narrow them down," said Dante. She looked up his way. "Ready?" She took a deep breath.
"Ready as I'll ever be."
"Alright, let's get started then!" He said happily, rubbing his hands together.
"So, I don't know if anyone has told you about all the abilities yet...?" "Blade already told me," she replied quickly.
"The Seven Good as listed are: Mind reading, tracking, planting, healing, divination, light bending, and age-shifting"
"The Four Neutral are: Invisibility, levitation, electricity, and speed."
"The Three Evils are: Illusion casting, torture, and fire."
"The Two Rare are: Rebirth and Soul-stealing."
"The first three that are easiest to tell whether you have them or not: Tracking, mind reading, and divination. If you held any of those three, then you would have showed signs already. If you were a Tracker, then you would have felt a natural affinity towards us as soon as you met us, yet you showed an obvious aversion at first." Blade smirked slightly at those words and River narrowed her eyes at him.
"If you were a mind reader," Dante continued, "then you would have not thought it necessary to ask us so many questions. And if you were a Seer, or your ability was Divination, then you would not appear as stable since Seers are constantly pelted with new and sometimes frightening visions."
"We're going to test some other powers, now," Esther now stood up, brown hair rippling behind her.
"These are powers that we need some space with," she nodded towards the empty space on the side of the room. Unease cascaded through River. What was she going to have to do?
"Relax," she smiled, spotting River's distress. "We're going to test your speed, levitation, electricity, and fire."
River tensed at the word "fire." It was labeled under the "evil" category and she hoped that with all her heart she would not get it.
She wished that there weren't so many people watching her.
"So for speed, I just want you to run as fast as you possibly can and try to will yourself to go even faster. Got it?" Esther instructed.
"Er- yeah..." River imagined how stupid she would look running around aimlessly in circles like a clueless chicken.
Obviously the others thought the same- Aryan leaned back and let out a loud snort of amusement while Blade smirked openly.
She shot them both daggers with her eyes. "Okay," she took a deep breath and began running. No newfound power came to her, no sudden burst of speed.
She only felt herself starting to get tired from running.
"Definitely not, I've seen snails run faster!" Aryan called out.
River slowed down and glared at him, panting and huffing. He grinned.
"Okay, he's right, probably not speed," Esther seemed to be keeping in a chuckle.
"Levitation is pretty easy. Just imagine yourself lifting off the floor. I'm a Levitator myself and I find that closing my eyes helps a lot."
River did not like the idea of her standing in front of all those people with her eyes closed, but she did it anyway.
After a few seconds, she decided it was enough.
"Nope, definitely not," she concluded.
"Ah, well... next power then," Esther looked slightly disappointed.
"Electricity is the same. You just have to will it to happen. Just- if you do, then please do not aim it at us. It's probably better if you're facing the wall," she added.
River did as she was told, pointing her hands at the wall and feeling particularly foolish.
"Yeah, I don't think I have that power," she said after a few minutes.
"Well then... fire is our next stop. Turn towards the wall again," Esther said.
A sense of foreboding crept up on River's body. She did not want an evil power.
Helplessly turning towards the wall, she directed her palms and willed herself to produce fire.
She shut her eyes and after a minute or two, nothing happened.
She let her hands down, relieved. She was sure she must have imagined it, but all the others looked relieved as well.
"Okay, well that's settled then!" Esther walked back to the table and River followed.
Blade got up. "I'll take care of this next one," and he drew a flashlight out of his pocket.
He turned it on. "Put your hands underneath," he said and took a hold of her hands.
A chill spread through her back and she felt a faint tingling, but she firmly ignored them and thought of Jack.
In the corner of her eyes, she thought she could see Aryan staring hard at her and Blade's hands together.
She shook her hands away from Blade. "I can do this myself," she snapped and put a hand underneath the light.
"Hear, let me show you," Blade said and promptly put his hand under the light and started controlling it. A beam of light shone directly into her eyes.
"Show off," she muttered as she rubbed her eyes. "Lemme try," she huffed and tried again but kept producing fruitless results.
"How do you do this?" She said helplessly.
Blade laughed and pulled her in closer. "It's probably just not your power," he murmured, holding her in tightly so she could hear his every whisper clearly.
She felt butterflies erupt in her stomach again at his touch.
"You'll probably get something lame... like planting," he breathed in her ear. "Hey!" River swatted him playfully, feeling indignant.
Their faces were so close now that she could see his amber eyes clearly.
"There are people here," interrupted the pointed voice of Aryan.
Looking around, she saw that everyone else was staring at them with clear amusement while Aryan was glaring.
Blushing, River immediately stepped back. What was she doing? He was right, there were people there and she needed to focus on staying loyal to Jack. What was wrong with her?
"Yeah, I definitely don't think light is my power," she said hastily.
Soon, she had gotten through age-shifting, healing, and invisibility without any further success.
"Then next up is planting," Milo got up from the table.
"I'm a planter," he explained. River was sincerely glad he could not hear her thoughts on how planting was lame.
"I know many people think it's not a worthwhile power to have, but it can be really useful when you need it. For one, you will have a lifetime of food," he said as if sensing her thoughts.
He drew out of his pocket a seed. "Hold it in your hand and will it to grow a sprout. Go on," he encouraged her. She stared at the seed for a second, then closed her eyes and imagined the seed growing a sprout.
She opened her eyes again. "Um, it's not working," she said. "So that's definitely not my power," she concluded.
She noticed that the whole table looked uneasy and were exchanging subtle glances.
Dante took a deep breath. "Well, now we only have a few more powers left to test. Rebirth, soul stealing, illusion casting, and... torture," at the two words, there was a ripple of restless murmur.
Those were the last two "evil" powers.
"We cannot test rebirth as we would have to kill you to find out whether or not you can be reborn and we cannot test out soul stealing as that could be potentially very damaging to a human life... we must test out the last two."
River's heart hammered. She did not want either of those powers.
There must have been a mistake. "Can't I just retry all the other ones first?"
"Powers come naturally," Blade stepped forward, something curious in his eyes although the rest was inscrutable.
"Since we must have a test subject," he took an inward breath.
"I will do it." The rest of the table shifted a little but did not object.
"Blade!" She protested. "I will be fine," he reassured her.
Her hands trembled. "So... which one do I do first?" She whispered.
"Illusion casting," he breathed. "And what is that? How do I do that?"
Dante spoke up. "Illusion casting is the ability to cause realistic, dark hallucinations. Sometimes to the person being casted on, it almost feels real enough to touch. It is in the same category as "torture" because this is mental torture."
"Nobody in this room knows how it works so you will have to try by yourself," He finished, leaving River gaping.
To her, it sounded as if that power was the ability to give people frightening, life-like visions that left them forever scarred.
"I'm not trying it out on you!" She said indignantly.
"Just do it," Blade snapped impatiently.
"But-" She looked at the others for support, but they just gestured her to do it.
"I- fine," she said a little grumpily.
She stared directly into Blade's amber eyes and apologized silently in her head before trying it out.
It was hard to imagine terrible things. Her brain was not wired for that.
She took a deep breath. She had to find out what her power was.
She thought of fire, ash, and burning.
She imagined the anguished cries of people being tortured.
She shut her eyes and held her palms out to him.
She rocked back and forth slightly, still imagining the shrieks of pain and agony.
In that moment, something cold and calm swept over her so that she had no other will than to just cause the unknown person in front of her as much mental pain as she possibly could.
She had no other feeling than just to harm.
She felt a mixture of hate, cruelty, and ruthlessness.
She didn't care if she hurt the person in front of her- he was just a nobody.
She felt hate pulsing from her heart, and she wanted to lash out.
She took an involuntary step forward and there was a flash of light and a scream.
Blade's knees buckled and he fell on the floor, twitching.
He cried out and his face was a pale color. River did not feel any remorse for this body rolling on the ground.
She could step on him- he was only a small bug- She felt cruelty pulse through her heart and a ruthless satisfaction.
It was only then she heard a distant calling. "River! RIVER!" The voices were yelling at her to stop, to not do this anymore.
She didn't listen. She didn't have to listen, either.
She could do whatever she wanted and no one could stop her.
"RIVER!" A familiar voice screamed. She blinked.
He sounded familiar. She turned around and saw a boy with large, golden eyes and strawberry-blonde hair.
"River, it's me!" Aryan yelled. She blinked rapidly and things started to come back in focus.
"River, stop it!" He cried. She took a trembling step back and regained her senses.
She inhaled and managed to suck her power back in.
She immediately fell down, and things were coming to her in flashes.
There seemed to be a terrified screaming echoing in the air, and others were helping up Blade while Aryan helped up River. "River, River?" His voice echoed distantly in her ears.
"Mhm," she murmured faintly. She saw Blade who had tear tracks still on his cheeks. He was retching slightly while the rest were holding him up.
"No-" her voice cracked. She did not want this. She didn't want this power. She felt a cool towel pressed against her forehead and things came into clearer view just for a second.
It was long enough for her to see everyone else staring at her.
Their expressions were not hard to figure out. They were scared.