Broken But Unburnt

Chapter 32 - Maverick

Chapter 32: Maverick

Cliffs above the City of Beceni, Northern Delos

Maverick was becoming far too accustomed to near-death experiences.

He and his small band of strange friends had run and they hadn't stopped running until they had reached the treeline on the north side of the Belleming Wood and burst through it to find themselves overlooking a bustling city far below them. He knew it well.

"Beceni," Maverick said, out of breath, as he looked down on the familiar city below.

He had been to Beceni many times. It was the largest Delosian city closest to the eastern coast and the Frozen Seas which many refugees had ventured dangerously across to escape their homes in Karil and the icy lands even further north of the continent. He had informants here, people who could help them, people who had always written to him to come and collect any of those refugees desperate enough to need royal intervention. He had met Aditya here. He looked over to her now and found that she was remembering that day as well.

"What did you do?" Neva snapped suddenly, drawing Maverick out of his reverie and back to reality where the lot of them had just outrun a madman and his overpowered posse. Zephyr and Delphi were still trying to catch their breath. Neva, having apparently caught hers, had Calliope by the collar and was shaking her about like a ragdoll, her braid swinging wildly about her shoulders.

"Neva!" Maverick cried, charging over to her and separating the girls. Calliope just took a deep breath and held up her hands in surrender. She was just as wide eyed and out of breath as the rest of them.

"What did you do, Ysuelt?" Neva shouted over Maverick's shoulder as he pushed her gently away. "You lied to us. Tell us what you are! Tell us what you really are!"

"No," Calliope said, shaking her head. "No, I swear. I'm just as surprised as you are, really. That– I've never done that before. I didn't even know I could do that. I still don't know how I did that."

"It's true," Sebastian croaked, rising from where Zephyr had set him down, one arm dangling as he limped forward. "I've never seen her do that before."

"That's impossible," Neva spat. "You had to have known. You–"

"Neva," Maverick interrupted with the most soothing tone he could muster. She looked at him then, finally, and calmed when he raised a brow in warning. "She saved us. She saved me. We were going to die there, all of us. She's the only reason that didn't happen."

The group fell silent, glancing around at one another as the truth of that sank in. Calliope's gaze fell to the ground, her lips parted slightly as though no one was more surprised by her power than her.

"What are you?" Neva whispered a moment later, just as in awe as everyone else.

It was a rhetorical question, of course. She hadn't expected an answer. After all, the girl herself had just admitted to being just as stunned as the rest of them. But an answer came anyway and from Aditya's lips.

"Andhakaar," Aditya spoke softly, reverently. They all turned to her for explanation only to find that she was now watching Calliope with wide, awestruck eyes. "The blackouts."

"Blackouts?" Zephyr asked, taking a step forward and glancing at Calliope as if trying to assess the threat level of the situation. "What are blackouts?"

"They were human silencers," Aditya explained, still marvelling at Calliope. "I felt it there, in that clearing. You all must have too. That's why you stopped fighting, that's how you knew."

"Felt what?" Maverick asked, looking at the Sahir in his party, obviously excluded from whatever they had experienced.

"Weakness," Zephyr whispered, looking away.