Lightning Bringer: (Lighting Seeker Book 2)

Midnight

Vale pressed her body against the closed panel, suddenly overwhelmed by the noise as dozens of people bolted in her direction shouting all at once. She pressed her hands behind her, too jumpy to trust herself. They aren't here to hurt me. Try not to electrocute them to death.

It was hard to think. Her mind sparking with half-finished, sporadic thoughts as she tried to calm her wild heartbeat. Vale was embarrassed by her reaction, startled by how a crowd of people triggered an instinct to flee.

"Is it true that your arm can turn into anything?"

"How many AI's have you taken out?"

"I heard she took down an entire AI ship!"

"No way, that's just  a rumor!"

Calm down. Breathe.

"Guys! Chill out! She didn't come here to have you all geek out over her!" someone in the back shouted. Vale could hardly hear them over the roar of blood in her ears.

Their faces blurred, replaced by the girls in the forest. The ones who had attacked each other, the ones who had attacked her. This isn't the same, Vale told herself. I'm safe here. I'm not in the game right now.

Sky's hand interweaving with hers brought her back into her own body, anchoring her to the present. As Vale opened her mouth to speak, the room went deadly quiet. "Wow... I had no idea people knew that much about me..."

"You're a legend!" A small boy with cropped black hair said, his brown eyes bright. "You take down the bad guys."

Vale had a strange out-of-body experience as questions were asked, every face glued to hers, eager for answers. They settled into chairs, the games forgotten as their newest form of entertainment did her best to answer their queries.

Vale felt unworthy of their fascination. All she had done was try to escape AI's when they chased. But ever since that incident on the bridge, people knew who she was. Her title as "Lightning Bringer" something worthy of praise. She hadn't realized just how large her exploits had become. How watched every move she made was.

Once questions turned from her fight on the bridge to her time at the Devinus castle, Vale couldn't hold back her surprise. "How do you all know?"

"Someone's been leaking the footage onto black market servers," a girl with pink hair replied. Vale internally swore, making a mental note to kill Tye, the Tradesmen's soon-to-be-dead tech guy. Tye! Why do you insist on posting everything?!?

Even though she was irritated, she had to admit she was impressed by Tye's skills. How did he hack Kebar's servers?

The questions about her time at the Devinus castle died when they saw the look on her face. "Enough questions. She came to play! Let's show her what we got!" a little girl said bouncing up and down. Then she grabbed Vale's metal arm and tugged her towards a set of controllers tangled up in front of a small screen.

...

"I WIN!" Vale shouted, eyes bright with excitement. She hopped up and down, laughing. The sound was strange. The smile on her face felt ancient, unused for so long. But it was real and it felt amazing.

"You were bound to win eventually..." the little girl named Coni muttered. Vale had lost a total of eight games before she finally caught a break. The others around them laughed. "I mean... you couldn't suck forever."

Vale snorted as she saw Coni's face scrunch up in frustration. "True."

Sky had stood by watching her, amused by Vale's determination to play the same game over and over until she won. Now victorious, Vale was satisfied and held out the controller. "Did you want to play?"

He smiled. Let's check out the other rooms.

Squeezing through the gamers, Vale and Sky said their goodbyes and disappeared into a room filled with tables, stools, and equipment of all kinds.

The room was filled with the sound of work, buzzing conversation as people compared their leatherwork, offered pointers on screens that were being built by hand, and adjusted discs on hoverbikes.

The smell of freshly baked and frosted four-tiered cakes and hand-made pasta wafted through the room as classes were taught on making things for yourself without the help of an AI assistant.

The sight was foreign, strange and so beautiful that Vale's eyes filled with delighted tears. This is what we are fighting for. She had never seen humans make their own food or fix their own equipment.

Vale suddenly craved to jump into one of the classes, bury her hands into a new craft, learn a skill that had been lost since robots had taken over every single task that had otherwise been a part of human life.

Pick one, Sky offered a wide grin on his face, his delight mirroring hers. Always good to have a few skills on hand. Dash and I took a few classes here when we were younger.

Vale had a thousand questions, but they could wait. Her eyes drank in the room, trying to decide where to start. What should I know first? she wondered. Moving around the space, she spotted a woman with thick bottlecap magnified glasses, her eyes glued to a screen. A small sign in front of her table said

"How to hack with Anything."

Intrigued, Vale walked over and took the empty seat in front of her booth. "Hi," she said when the girl didn't look up.

The woman continued to ignore her, eyes staring down at an exposed circuit board at the back of the screen. She tapped her plack fingertips nails against her temple in a rhythmic pattern, muttering under her breath. Her hair was cut short, barely visible against her dark skin.

Vale opened her mouth to try again but the woman's hand shot up quickly. "Shush. Wait." Vale closed her mouth and watched the woman work. She pulled a pin that was tucked behind her ear and pressed a small button nearly visible on the circuit board. Then placing the back onto the screen again, she flipped it over satisfied.

Vale met a pair of deep brown eyes, large and curious as the magnifying glasses highlighted the flecks of gold inside. "You breathe too loud."

Vale blushed, surprised by the comment. "Um... sorry."

"No need to apologize. Just don't do it anymore." Vale was at a loss and nodded, not sure what else to do. "You hear to learn?"

Vale nodded. "I—."

The woman held up her hand again. "I like to guess why someone comes to my booth." She leaned over her table and stared into Vale's eyes, her own narrowed in appraisal. Then she flicked her eyes down to Vale's arm and leaned back. "I turn away most people who come by. They want to learn for the wrong reasons. And under normal circumstances... I'd shut you down too."

The woman picked up her screen again and turned it on. "But... seeing as you are far from a normal circumstance and are most likely going to do this for survival and not to prank a neighbor who's been playing their virtual games at an unsavory volume... I'll help you learn to hack a screen."

The woman's face split into a wide, crisp white smile that lit up her whole face. A glistening crescent moon in the night sky. "I go by the name Midnight. Let's begin."