Chapter Seventeen
Shear
The building we’d taken refuge in had been a fast-food restaurant that served tacos and burritos.
Ingram had a cup of soda in his hand while Kenyon was in the kitchen, making food.
He’d said he’d worked at a place like this as a teenager, before he’d presented as an esper, and, given the way he moved, it must have been true.
Yun sat on a counter back there as well, giving Carter and me privacy to discuss the things we needed to.
“What the hell was that?” he asked as he leaned forward.
Sometimes I hated the way they expected me to have all the answers. Carter was the one with the plans, sure, but they thought that given my skills as a mentalist, I knew more than everyone else.
It was foolish. I had a feeling no one knew what to do in this situation, or understood what had happened, because to my knowledge it had never happened before.
“Clearly she’s connected to the dungeon,” I said, hoping that as I spoke, I’d come up with some sense of understanding. Maybe just talking it through would help me get there. “It explains why the first tear happened, why we were all pulled here.”
“Because she drained some of the heart?”
I nodded, that a good a guess as anything else. “The power she took from it must have remained inside of her all this time, connecting her to the dungeon itself. It isn’t normal corruption, so she can’t process it as she would from guiding.”
“How does she get rid of it, then? Could we force another guide to try to take it from her?”
“Maybe, but we both know she’d never agree to that.”
Carter sighed as leaned back in the booth. “She is frustratingly moral, isn’t she? Life is so much easier when people don’t care about others.”
“So we have to find the heart.” I ignored his complaints about Yun—while I might agree, it wouldn’t really matter. Yun would never agree to sacrifice another guide for herself.
“Can she create another tear to get out?” Carter asked.
“Maybe, but that would rely on us all being trapped here and hoping that might work a second time.” I didn’t relish the thought of getting trapped here for ten years, waiting for it to open again.
I didn’t know how Corsa had turned corrupted, whether it had occurred before or after the portal had closed, but I knew I didn’t want to risk it happening to me.
“Can she put that power back, then? She has good control over corruption. Maybe if we get her close enough to the heart, it will flow back on its own?”
I shrugged, because it was as good a guess as anything else. We didn’t have enough information to truly figure it out, to make a plan and stick with it. The best we could do was hope we figured something out as we went. “That means we will for sure have to deal with Corsa.”
“We were going to anyway.”
“Sure, without Yun. Now we’re going to have to have her in tow as we handle him. From what Yun said, Corsa is set up near the heart. It’s possible he is as connected to it as she is.”
“He was never going to walk away from this,” Carter said.
“He’s one of the reasons this all went to hell in the first place.
If he’d stuck with us, the Guild wouldn’t have used as a scapegoat.
That happened largely because of his father and his connections.
I could have let that slide, but after what happened with Yun?
Not a chance that he’s getting off. Think of it like a one-stop-shop for all our dungeon needs. ”
“Do you think he’ll be there?” I asked.
“Judging from what he’s said about Yun, how he’s acted, I don’t think there’s any chance he won’t be. In fact, if we make it all the way there without incident, without seeing him, I suspect it’ll be a miracle.”
“He hasn’t made a move yet, even when we got her to the portal. He just watched.”
I nodded, hating the answer that brought forth.
“He knew she couldn’t leave. He must have a better understanding of the dungeon than we do—it makes sense if he’s spent ten years in here.
He must have known she wouldn’t escape, so he’s merely watching to see where she goes.
He’ll know we’re headed his way. There won’t be any element of surprise. ”
“That’s fine. I don’t need surprise. I just need to get him in front of me.”
Food was dropped in the center of the table, with Ingram and Yun taking seats beside Carter and me in the booth, and Kenyon pulling over a freestanding chair.
“Did you really wrap all the food?” Carter picked up one of the perfectly wrapped tacos.
“Hey, old habits die hard. Plus, tell me it doesn’t make it look tastier. Now, dig in.”
I grabbed one of them, unwrapping it before taking a bite. I wasn’t all that hungry, but I knew better than to refuse food in a dungeon. There was no real telling when we’d next get to eat. It was like sleep—take the chance when given. It would keep an esper going much longer.
Yun did the same, laughing after swallowing her first bite. “You really did work at a place like this, huh?”
“I told you. I helped out on our farm a lot, too, but at fifteen I wanted to earn some money on my own. I cooked, took orders, all of that. I actually liked it—even thought I might become a chef someday,” Kenyon said.
“What happened?” she asked.
Sadness leaked from Kenyon at the question, though his expression hardly shifted. “I became an esper. When that happened, I joined the Guild, and that was all that really mattered.”
Carter spoke up, his tone suggesting he didn’t notice the somber mood the conversation had taken, though I’d bet he did it on purpose.
“Well, this explains a lot, you know? I’d wondered how you could make food that tasted so good but looked so horrible.
You learned at fast food—it all makes sense now. ”
“Say that the next time I cook dinner and you can eat crackers on the porch step, like my mom did to me if I ever complained about her cooking.”
“Yes, Mommy.” Carter flashed a bright smile, somehow completely changing the atmosphere. It was strange how he could do that.
I could sense what people thought, what they felt, and I could influence them with my powers, but I couldn’t predict much, couldn’t actually get them to change based on what I did or said otherwise.
I truly understood little of other people, and relationships had proven difficult due to it.
Yet sitting here, I didn’t feel on the outside. Even with my shortcomings, even with the things I did horribly, they never cast me out. They mocked me, but no more or less than I mocked them.
Even through it all, through the questions, through my failures, even knowing more about what Mr. Yorn had done to me, they didn’t create distance. They didn’t distrust me, didn’t shun me.
I’d never felt that before.
Yun leaned over, pressing her arm to mine, the action drawing my focus back to the table and the conversation. She cast me a sidelong glance, her eyebrow lifted in question.
Are you okay? I didn’t need my powers to tell that was the question.
I considered it, and for the first time, I nodded in truth. I was okay, because no matter what the dungeon wanted to throw at us, no matter the questions I didn’t yet have answers to, I wasn’t alone in it.
And that was a rather nice feeling…