Revelation

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

                “I don’t understand,” Sergei said, giving Niki a blank stare.

                Niki wanted to lash out at her younger brother, make him feel like an idiot, hurt his feelings enough that he would want to go home. She managed to hold her tongue, because she couldn’t do that. No matter what he’d done, she couldn’t send Sergei home. Not with what awaited him there.

                “Your ability just isn’t… on. It doesn’t work yet.” She didn’t know how she could explain it any simpler, but Sergei seemed to be obsessing over just why he couldn’t do anything besides basic telekinesis.

                “Okay, but how does it turn on then?”

                “Fuck if I know,” Niki said with a shrug.

                “But yours works,” Sergei said. “How did that happen?”

                “I really don’t know. I…” Niki tried to remember back to when she first learned about her ability. All she remembered was getting into a fight with another Anitreh student and she had accidentally given him a slight shock.  “I don’t remember. I think it just kinda happens?”

                “When does it happen?”

                “I have no idea,” she said, shrugging once again. “It just all sorta happened naturally for me. Maybe your telekinesis has to be more developed first. I know we all spent years working on that before we ever had our affinities. Or maybe…”

                “Maybe what?” Sergei asked when Niki didn’t continue that thought.

                “Nothing,” Niki said. “Just keep working over there. TK me a beer.”

                “I want to know,” Sergei said. “What’s the maybe?”

                Niki sighed, knowing he would continue to pester her about it. “Some Anitreh, they’re just not very strong. They don’t have a strong affinity. I know those people tended to be late bloomers. And with you developing your own abilities so late, I’m not entirely sure you’ll have one.”

                “And you weren’t going to tell me?”

                “Eventually,” Niki said. “If I really thought that’s what was happening later. Right now, it’s just a thought. A possibility.”

                Sergei was silent for several moments, and Niki hoped that hadn’t upset him too much. At least not to the point he wanted to go home. Even without strong abilities, perhaps especially without them, it was too dangerous for him to go home. Not with who had their eye on him.

                “The guy who came to my house,” Sergei said. “Wouldn’t he have known my abilities were weak? So why’d he come for me then? You think maybe he’d leave me alone once he realized I don’t have any power? Then I could go home, right?”

                “No,” Niki said. “That’s really not a good idea. That guy, and the people he works for, they’re incredibly dangerous. If they get their hands on you, I think they’d kill you if they realized you weren’t any use to them. You’re lucky you got away the first time. They’re not really in the business of letting people know they exist.”

                “Does that mean I can’t ever go home?”

                “I don’t know,” Niki said with a sigh. “You should be able to. Honestly, there’s a chance that you’re not even really who they’re after. I think they’d have taken you if they could have, but I had a run in with these guys. They might just be trying to get at me through you.”