Chapter 19
KIT
SFS POLARIS
Amaltheia lounges in the desk chair in front of the giant Prism displayed on the wall of Kit’s lab, which shows a magnified version of one of the infected cells.
To her right, Nevis stands behind Kit, peering over her shoulder as she adjusts the focus on the scope.
The room is stark white, sterile, and when Kit is in here alone for hours on end, it starts to grate on her eyes and her soul. She’s glad for the company.
“Hang on a sec, Neve,” Kit says, attempting to shoo Nevis backwards.
“You’re breathing down my neck.” She adjusts the knob again, focusing the blood sample beneath the lens.
Hers. She’d wanted Nevis and Amaltheia to see it, to verify that she wasn’t losing her mind.
That there were, in fact, flecks of golden light in the chromatin of the cell.
“Okay.” Kit steps back, crossing her arms as Nevis looks into the scope. Amaltheia taps her foot as she waits, and Kit throws her a sharp glare.
“Holy shit,” Nevis exclaims, suddenly. “What the…”
Amaltheia shoots up from her chair, elbowing Nevis out of the way. “I want to see it.” A second passes, then two, but Amaltheia is still and remains silent, taking in the blood cell in front of her.
“Well?” Kit demands, her impatience getting the better of her.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in person,” Amaltheia says, stepping back.
“Neither have I,” Kit says at the same time as Nevis.
“Do you think it’s…what you said the other week?” Kit is hesitant, not wanting to say the words aloud.
“Yes. Seeing this makes me even more certain,” Amaltheia says. “This is exactly how it appeared in our digibooks. A flare in the chromatin.”
“You should try it,” Nevis cuts in. “You should try to do something, right now. See if it works.”
Kit looks to Amaltheia. “Is that…safe?”
Amaltheia shrugs. “Probably? I’d suggest starting with something small. Not a human, obviously.”
“Obviously,” Nevis interrupts, rolling her eyes.
“A flower, or a plant of some kind,” Amaltheia continues. “See if you can bring a dead one back to life with the force of another.”
“I’ll have to go to the sundome,” Kit says, her stomach immediately leaping into her throat.
The last time she was there, so was Task.
And the strange thing had passed between them, before he’d shut her out entirely.
Maybe she can convince Nevis or Amaltheia to go so she doesn’t have to see him, on the off chance he’s there.
Avoiding him might be the best option for the foreseeable future.
“You sound apprehensive.” Nevis is intuitive like that, can sense when Kit is off.
Kit shrugs. “Just ran into Major Canmore in there the other night. I’d prefer not to repeat that experience.” She tries to keep her voice even, her face straight, even as the thought of him sends her pulse skittering.
Amaltheia chuckles, her blonde curly hair bobbing around her face as she laughs.
Kit scowls at her. “What’s so funny?”
“You’re just so adamant that you don’t like him,” Amaltheia says. “He’s really not that bad.”
“He’s awful,” Kit protests, though he’s not. Not completely.
“Whatever you say,” Amaltheia sings. “I, for one, will not be retrieving the fauna for you.”
Kit looks to Nevis. “Neve?”
Nevis heaves out a long-suffering sigh. “If I must.”
Nevis returns twenty minutes later, her satchel full of florals plucked from the sundome.
“And I brought this one from my room.” She whips out a dead pothos plant.
“I don’t have much of a green thumb.” She frowns at the plant, flicking one of the leaves.
“Oh, and I didn’t run into Major Canmore. The sundome was unoccupied.”
“Thank you,” Amaltheia says, turning towards Kit. “Why don’t you try accessing it, now that we have the plants?”
“Accessing what?” Kit huffs, still annoyed with the two of them for making fun of her earlier.
“Your power. At least try it, so you can confirm if it’s doing what we think it’s doing.” Amaltheia takes the dead pothos plant from Nevis and sets it in front of Kit, with a live flower just next to it.
“How?” Kit asks. “I don’t know how to summon it. Before, it would just happen without me thinking about it.”
“Place your hands here and close your eyes,” Amaltheia instructs, pointing to the two plants.
“It’s different for everyone. But what we learned during training was to envision that you have a jar or a barrel inside of your chest that’s filled with a substance.
Imagine that you’re pulling a bit of that substance out and threading it through your veins, into your hands. See if it works.”
Kit shuts her eyes, her fingers touching the leaves of the dead pothos, hearing nothing but the sounds of Nevis and Amaltheia breathing as she does as Amaltheia suggested.
She pictures a glass jar in her chest, something like they had in the coffee cabinet back in Lumaria.
She imagines unscrewing the top, taking a bit of the liquid out with a syringe, and pumping it through her artery, into her veins, all the way down her arms and to her fingertips.
She braces for something, anything.
She opens her eyes, the dead pothos still very much dead in front of her. She frowns. “Nothing.”
“It’s alright,” Amaltheia says. “Nobody gets it the first time, or even the second. That’s why many of us are trained for over a year after we manifest.”
“How are you trained?” Kit asks, her eyes not meeting Amaltheia’s. Her reasons for asking are twofold, and she worries if she makes eye contact, she will be transparent.
Of course, she wants to know for her own purposes, especially if she somehow has this power.
But ever since Finn mentioned the Eight Great, that Task must be very powerful, she’s been trying to figure out what his ability is.
She hasn’t picked up anything externally powerful about him yet, aside from his looming stature, the iciness in his gaze.
But she also supposes she hasn’t seen him in a situation where he’s been forced to use his power.
“It depends,” Amaltheia answers. “Healers are all trained at the Academy on Nexarium. But those who manifest the Eight Great, they’re trained at Xaria by members of the Force, usually coupled with a member of the High Council who possess the same power.
” As if sensing Kit’s unspoken question, the edge of Amaltheia’s mouth curls into a smile, and she says, “Major Canmore was trained by Governor Dormius himself.”
“I wasn’t asking because of Task,” Kit objects, though she was, in part.
“Sure,” Amaltheia says, waving her hand.
“I’m not a part of the High Council, nor a member of the Force, but I’m willing to help you, if you want.
I was instructed on the Eight Great at the Academy, so I at least have a passing understanding of Vitalis.
It may simply take some time to figure out how to awaken your power on command. ”
Kit still doesn’t entirely believe she has a power. She continues to think this all may have been a fluke, that in every case, she’s gotten exceptionally lucky. But her blood is saying something different, conveying an energy signature she’s never seen on Lumaria.
She crosses her arms, looking between Amaltheia and Nevis, who she feels have ganged up on her. “You’re sure of this?”
“Kit. Your blood has something in the chromatin we’ve never, ever seen before on Lumaria. This has to be why.” Nevis sounds so sure, looking to Amaltheia to confirm her statement.
“I’m as sure as I reasonably can be,” Amaltheia says, nodding. “Obviously we can’t know for certain until we see you do something with it. Do you want to try again?”
Kit places her fingers on the dead pothos leaves again, summoning the same picture she did previously.
The glass jar in her chest, unscrewing it, withdrawing a bit of the liquid and pushing it through her veins.
She thinks she feels a small spark in her fingertips, but when she opens her eyes again, she still sees nothing. She sighs.
“Maybe try sitting,” Amaltheia suggests, dragging her chair over to where Kit stands. “And try to clear your mind of everything.”
After another hour of attempting to make something happen, Kit remains unsuccessful. Nevis sits on one of the tables, kicking her feet and yawning. Amaltheia is patient, but Kit is on the verge of tears, frustration threatening to overtake her. Just another thing she can’t do well enough.
“Why don’t we try again tomorrow?” Amaltheia says, tucking her curly mass of hair behind her ear, revealing a small tattoo that Kit hadn’t noticed previously — a small, interlocking set of three triangles.
“I’m on shift most of the day tomorrow,” Kit says, still looking at the tattoo. “But I get off at ten. After that?”
“I’m on at ten,” Amaltheia says. “But we’ll find something that works.”
Three days later, Kit meets Amaltheia in her lab again, locking the door behind her.
She doesn’t want to be accidentally interrupted.
Not when she continues to struggle with accessing her power.
She’s been trying on her own at night, going through the steps that Amaltheia has outlined, but nothing has worked thus far.
She’s beginning to think the anomaly in her blood is indicative of something else — not that she’s a Vitalis. There must be some other explanation.
Amaltheia looks radiant tonight, her curly blonde hair gathered on the top of her head, the little triangle tattoo more apparent than ever. Conversely, Kit feels as though she’s been run over by an airbus, and the shadows under her eyes are a permanent fixture. “Ready?”
Kit shrugs. “I suppose. I’ve been trying every night to no avail.”
Amaltheia pats her shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll try something different tonight. Sometimes emotion helps to invoke it.”
“What do you mean?” Kit asks.