Chapter 22 Kyzen #3
“Of course not. He’ll stand over them the entire time and make sure they don’t grasp any of the knowledge at their fingertips. The book we’re here for was locked in his top drawer last time and the key was in his other drawer.”
He moves carefully around the stack of books that comes up to his waist as he maneuvers around the desk. I stay silent as I let him search and do what he needs to do.
A latching mechanism echoes around us, followed by the creak of the drawer opening.
“What a shame,” he grumbles as he carefully pulls out a huge-ass fucking book and places it on the desk.
My heart thunders at the size, and a small touch of doubt creeps through me. His disappointment is most certainly aimed at the High Chancellor’s carelessness, but he doesn’t seem fazed by how much work we both are truly going to have to put in.
I’m starting to freak out. This is by far the biggest damn book I’ve ever assisted him with copying and we’re actually in a time crunch.
“Amick, why didn’t you warn me about how big the book is?”
He doesn’t answer right away. With a snap of his fingers, a book equal in size drops out of a starshoot and he catches it before it crashes into anything.
“You would’ve had too much time to process your doubt. I’ve been preparing and training my power to go faster, especially after this last release. We’re going to be pushing our limits, but we can do it. We’ll be tired, and Thayla will need to take care of us.”
I can’t even smirk at that image of her taking care of us. My palms are growing sweaty staring at that fucking book.
“How much do you need me to speed it up for you?”
“I’ve gotten myself down to a page in one point six seconds. I want you to get me to a half second per page.”
My eyes surely bug out of my head. “How many pages is that?”
“One thousand, seven hundred, and seventy-seven.”
A quick calculation runs through my mind, and I sway where I’m standing.
“That’s nearly fifteen straight minutes of power use, full fucking throttle, Amick. This is nothing compared to what we did in the restricted room. Tired is an understatement. It’ll take the rest of the afternoon, possibly a nap, and tonight to recoup.”
“I’m aware. Do you not think you can do this? Tell me now.”
There’s no annoyance or disappointment in his tone. Just genuine concern.
I release a long, slow breath as I shake myself out and prepare to go full fucking force. “No, I can. I was just having a moment and wrapping my mind around it.”
“We don’t have time for freak-outs. Come on.”
I cross the mounds of shit everywhere to stand on his left side so his right is free for him to write. “What was your plan if I said I couldn’t do this?”
“Steal the book and hope Harriseen didn’t look for it in the meantime.”
I snort as I lay my hand on his shoulder. “Okay, Riven.”
“Yes, unfortunately, it is him and his tendencies that struck the idea in my mind. The book wasn’t positioned where it was in the drawer the last time, though. It was more to the left than centered. That leads me to believe Harriseen moves it around enough that its position isn’t permanent.”
I remove my hand from him and hover it over the cover, getting a sense of the time spent with this book.
“Valories, this book is ancient. It was created maybe a millennium after when we assume the original Gods Binding was created. A lot of time has been spent between the pages.”
“I figured as much. It doesn’t matter. We’ll stick with our original plan. You can do this and so can I. Ready?”
“Ready.”
I place my hand back on his shoulder, breathe, and release.
We both grunt as the full force of our powers ignites and collides. Unlike when I call forth my power and let it spread, right now I’m pinpointing it not only at him but at his own power.
Time in the office, the hallway, anywhere in the Godsdawn, stays the exact same. His accelerated writing is the only thing that speeds up.
I close my eyes, concentrate on my breathing and the vibration humming through my fingers.
Unlike him, I can’t focus on the pages flying by. The way they flip so fast makes the ink blend into a dizzying blur. It makes my stomach turn the longer I stare at it.
These minutes don’t speed by. Fifteen minutes is fifteen minutes, and it only takes about four for the first drop of sweat to form on my forehead.
I let my mind drift back to the first time we ever did this. To the first real conversation he had with me about his escape plan and how he asked me to use my power not on him, but with his.
He explained he’d been reading up on power dynamics and he believed as long as he allowed it, his power wouldn’t push mine away if I tried to use it on him.
Growing up, allowing someone to even use their powers to sense ours was a huge fucking no-no. We were expected to react accordingly, no matter who it was that dared do it.
Touching us and our powers was off-limits to all.
Except our father, of course. He was allowed to use his power on us or anyone he gave permission to with his supervision.
My brothers and I weren’t an exception to each other. My father was strict about not letting us work together on our powers or sense each other’s. He always said, with the abilities we had in us, we were liable to accidentally kill each other.
So when Amick proposed what he did, I was shocked and refused out of fear I’d kill him somehow. That was when he pointed out and made me realize the very obvious lie our father had been feeding us.
Riven was always allowed to work with one of us…
Like Creed’s taught Thayla, beings below us, we don’t even sense. To put it in simple terms, it’s basically because our power just brushes theirs off.
Beings with greater levels could hurt us. Our power would attempt to fight back and could possibly win, but it’d take a lot of strength, concentration, and grit.
Meeting a power of equal strength, like myself and my brothers or a Beginning God versus a Beginning God, the two forces would come to a standoff. They’d collide with equal energy and not budge until one of us allowed it.
We wouldn’t harm one another unless that was what we wanted to happen.
Once Amick convinced and showed me we could work together, my eyes truly opened. I tried to learn everything about my power he was willing to teach me. I didn’t care how he was getting the information. I was willing to help him get more.
Then I shared it with Creed and Riven. Riven wasn’t keen on any of us mixing our powers with his, but he did like the idea of me being able to use my time to move us faster or slower.
Creed said if he ever needed to make a death quicker than he already could, he’d let me know. When he said that sarcastic shit, I knew he didn’t believe he’d ever actually ask.
He has. Plenty of times, actually.
I was thirteen when Amick brought a book to my room and told me to tell him how much it had been read. I had no fucking clue what he was talking about.
By that point, I knew he could touch objects and see their truth. He swore I could do the same but with time.
He was right. It was another example of how our father was manipulating not only our lives but the possibilities of our powers.
My ability to sense time in an object has grown tenfold since then. It wasn’t something that was taken from me when we were stripped of our power, but it did weaken greatly.
Now I can tell you how long ago the object was created and how much time it’s been interacted with.
Even this book he’s copying right now, if we had the time to spare and it wouldn’t take so much out of me, I could narrow it down to how much the High Chancellor’s read it since it’s been in his possession.
A smile crosses my face as I think about how Amick is actually a hell of a lot sneakier than we give him credit for. Riven always gets the credit because his methods are louder, more obvious, but in reality, Amick is just as slick. He’s just silent.
I peek an eye open and release a heavy breath as I see him getting closer to the end of the book. His bangs have fallen in his face and are drenched, as is the back collar of his shirt.
Nausea is creeping through me, and I swallow the saliva building in my mouth. “Two-minute warning.”
My power tries to slither back into my skin. Its way of saying okay, I’m reaching a very unfamiliar end of my rope.
Since we’ve been in the Godsdawn, we don’t allow ourselves to tire out like this. We’re always ready, always prepared.
Today will be an exception. Hopefully, one that pays off greatly.
I groan and my fingers tighten on his shoulder. “Amick.”
“Hold on, Kyzen. A few more seconds. You can do it.” His words are strained, barely audible, but I do as he encourages.
I squeeze my eyes shut, and a forceful grunt tears up my throat as I push my power past the point of its limit.
My ass hits the ground and so does his as he snaps his power back inside himself.
He leans his back against the cabinet as a heavy breath falls from his chest and his hands fall limply against his lap.
There are uncontrollable tremors in his right fingers and no matter how much he flexes them, they don’t stop.
I bury the heels of my hands into my eyes as if I can rub the dizziness and black spots away. My body’s lethargic, and the longer I sit on the floor, the heavier I get.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
My grip on the desk slips as I try to pull myself up and a pile of papers pours down on me. I growl a slew of annoyed curses as I pick them up in as close to the fucking unorderly fashion they were already in.
The last piece I grab gives me pause as I immediately see Thayla’s name, right alongside ours. The whole page is full of completed Valtrues, written in different ink.
“Amick, he has a list of completed Valtrues, which I get isn’t out of the ordinary, but they’re color coordinated.”
I pass him the sheet as he holds his twitching fingers toward it.