Dripping Away

Chapter 5: Given Thunder

          The next few days were spent figuring out what I could do, and I was learning about the history of the Age of Rain. Some people called it that, the ones we call Scholars who dedicate their entire lives to the causes and effects of Trelós. They studied what year it was and the cause and everything they could get their hands on before the Six stripped that from public records.
           I learned about the giants and how they all died because of the disease that plagues the rain. There are supposedly other storm children we'd yet to meet, too, which I was curious about. There were more of us. Somewhere. I continued to test out what I could do with my electric powers through the many tests and tribulations that Abers loved to sift through. Each Storm Child had their own things they worked with, though no one knew what they were. Abers concentrated lightning into shields and electric balls, which I still stared on in amazement. My powers, on the other hand...
           We didn't know what they were.
          "You are special," Abers smiled when lying on the adjacent couch to me. "Lady Lekereianale told me about all of you, but she told me that you were special."
           Abers decided to waste money on this strange mask that altered your face one day. He told me that it was for me when we went out into town, showing me one he already bought beforehand. I didn't know why I would ever need such a thing, but Abers was keen on disguising us.
           I liked Abers, which was starting to bother me a little. I liked Ranll too, but we all saw where that went. That wasn't anyone's fault, but I didn't want to get attached to someone all over again. My heart was cold inside.
             "Let's go to the market," Abers mentioned to me. "We'll wear the masks, so don't get intimidated by strangers."
             He chucked the mask, and it landed in my lap. My hands tensed as I realized my feelings to care were out-weighing my feelings to become flippant. I pressed the mask to my face, and I pressed my jacket around my body as if it was going to save me from myself. Abers led us down the street, but it was a lot farther than our visual corner. Now that it was him and I practicing there, the whole building was scorched to black, but we were under protected alleyways.
We found the outside market under one of the protected alleys, selling produce and whatnot. The Six could still do that with artificial things that I saw once. Once.
            Abers began skimming everything and landed us at a table with a young girl listening to music with headphones. She was in another universe.
           "Why were you wanted by the Six?" Abets asked in a low whisper. "I've been trying to look it up for some time, but I've found nothing."
           "Depends," I chuckled. "There's a lot."
            "I heard about rumored murders."
             "And theft. And terrorist acts. And even working with drug lords." I stared at Abers through the mask. "I almost killed Ikalanig."
            "Almost."
           "I scarred him up pretty good, though. All those lines on his face are from me."
            I was young and foolish, and I may have had too much to drink, but Ikalanig was there. "It's kind of a blur, really," I said. My life was a blur.
           "Miss," Abers shouted to the girl with the headphones. She tore one away, but she didn't look up.
            "What?" she spat. I saw this glimmer of yellow cross her vision.
           "Do you have anymore of these?"
           Abers held up a necklace with a ten-sided gen inside of this golden ring. The gen was completely black besides these white speckles that tainted the middle of it. The girl gripped the table tightly.
           "Just the one, Mr..."
           "The masks don't fool you," Abers growled. "but speak our names aloud and be thrown into the electric pits of my hands. It's Mr. Timien and Mr. Voshkelp to you out here." Abers threw money on her display table. "I'll take it, Vorlem."
             She glared. "I found the other two of us. I will assume... Mr. Voshkelp is the unruly-"
            I stopped them both. "What are you two talking about?"
              Abers stared at me in disbelief. "Can't you tell? She's a..." He turned into a whisper. "Storm Child."
            The yellow in her eyes had taken over her irises entirely, and the air around her started to feel thick . She glared at Abers.
            "Let's discuss this somewhere no so open," she said.
             She disappeared from behind her booth and reappeared from thin air right next to me. She had this dark cloak on as she followed Abers and I into one of the dry, empty alleys. This city was a maze of alleys and people all slammed together with abandoned buildings stuck in between. The girl leaned against a wall and pulled out a cigarette. I couldn't be any less surprised she managed to get a hold of some of those. She seemed like the sly type.
             "Weshin and Westik Makemel," she coughed through one drag. "They're twins, so their powers mock each other."
            Abers nodded. "And I see you've been testing yours. That teleport move was nice."
            "And you have the wildcard." She stared at me up and down to try and find some flaw within me. "I'm Nashirme Vorlem."
            I knew her. It was my time to glare as my thoughts run amok in my head until her face and her attitude finally fit the fine print. I started laughing for a moment, which caught them both off guard. This girl was little back then. She would run back and forth across the room when I would conduct meetings with her father. That explained the shady business.
            "They used to call me Zipper when your father was alive," I told her. "Do you remember that?"
            Her face grew red as she realized who I was. "That was you?"
           "I've been a lot of places in my time, so yeah. I worked for your father one time."
            I used to have contacts all over the city at one time. They used to spread rumors about a ridiculously tall man that would do any task to get a meal or a quick buck. Used to. When I met Ranll, he asked me to quit being a burden to everyone and stay with him. The rumors, the thrills, they fell apart. The Six still wanted me, bu that would never stop. I was wanted more in death than in life.
            "What did Lekereianale call you?" I asked her. She had thrown the rest of her cigarette in a worn drain.
            She glanced at me, though now she was afraid that I might reveal something embarrassing of her. "What do you mean?"
             I said nothing, expecting her to understand me.
             "She came up and picked up a necklace similar to that," Nashirme admitted, pointing at Abers's new find. "She asked me if I was ever read to take on my father's legacy. I looked nothing like my father, but she... could tell. It bothered me, and yet I gave her an answer. Why would I be ready to be so sinister when all I ever wanted was to live a good life?" Nashirme seemed solemn as she though about it. "She was nice, though. She gave me the name of Drowning Descendant."
              Star Child, Young Builder, Drowning Descendant. The names had meaning to them. They had to.
             "Well, don't be like your father," I told her. "He's dead for a reason, remember?"
​​​​​​​             Nashirme looked away. "I know."