As the sisters walk through Adam City, they are met with smiling faces. But when the Quos see the team walking along the streets, they all stop and stare. Most of their attention is fixed on the Guardian’s wings. Jay smiles at them but he gets nothing in return.
“They take time to warm up to winged ones,” Choice explains.
“It’s crazy to see how freely they use their powers here,” Miku adds.
“It’s hard to get over the ‘no wings’ thing,” I tell the sisters.
“When you have great powers, you don’t need wings,” Choice replies, with a slight disdain in her voice. Marcus and I exchanged a look. He caught her tone, too.
“My sister means to say, we’re all gifted. Wings or no wings,” Charity explains.
“Well, we know what Chance can do, what about you, Choice?” Rio asks.
A smile creeps into Choice’s face. She stops walking and goes over to Ameana.
She stands to the right side of Ameana, holds her hand out as if she is “calling” for something from inside Ameana head. A few seconds later, a stream of long silvery thread seeps out from Ameana’s temple and gathers in Choice’s palm. Then Choice throws the thread against a tree. The tree turns into a pile of ashes instantly.
“Wow,” I whisper under my breath.
“I collect thoughts. Anger. Hate. Fear. I take them and turn them into—”
“A weapon,” Jay finishes.
“Something like that,” she says coyly.
Jay stares back at her hard. I thought I would defuse the tension by focusing somewhere else.
“So Charity, what’s your power?” I ask.
“Um…well, you can Glide, right?” she asks Jay shyly.
“I can Glide and Convince,” he replies.
“How far can you Glide in a second?”
“About half way around the world.”
“Take my hand, then try to Glide.”
She extends her and Jay takes it. A blue spark ignites between their hands then Jay Glides. He comes back in a fraction of a second.
“Yo, that was crazy!” he announces.
“You went all the way around the world?” I ask.
“Six times,” he says, too excited to stand still.
“I’m an Enhancer. I add to whatever powers you already have,” she says dismissively.
“That’s hot!” Jay says, clearly impressed.
“I wish I could have my own power and not just make other people stronger.”
“Charity, don’t be a downer,” her sister scolds. She hunches her shoulders slightly and lowers her eyes.
“Charity, your power is like cash money. It’s always useful,” Jay says. She doesn’t bring her eyes up from the floor all the way but she does perk up and smile.
“We need to go inside,” Ameana says weakly as she doubles over in pain.
“What is it?” Marcus asks rushing to her side.
“I don’t know.”
“Does your power have some kind of side effect on the people you pull from?” Marcus asks.
“It makes them weak. I should have mentioned that,” Choice says sweetly.
“Yes, you should have,” Marcus warns her.
Rio makes Ameana lean on him as we all head back to the temple.
As soon as we enter, Chance is there to greet us.
“What do you think of our city?”
“Nice. But if we are going to get to Pyron, we should head back now,” Marcus informs her.
“It’s late. The Port can only take you as far as Terra. And you should not travel there at night.”
“We can take our chances,” he assures her.
“Your teammate looks unwell; recharge then leave in the morning. We have prepared rooms for all of you.”
Marcus is about to object but then he looks at Ameana. She is trying to put up a brave front but she has yet to stand fully upright.
“Okay, but we will take off at first light.”
“That sounds very wise Guardian.”
Chance tells Charity to show us to our rooms.
“Before you go, I think it’s only fair to warn you that Pyron will be extremely dangerous. Everyone always focuses on reaching Kairo but that’s a mistake. You will need to focus on how to get past the terrain of Pyron first. Then focus on Kairo in the castle.”
“You have any suggestions?” the Twins ask.
“You will need help from three beings. You need someone very familiar with Hun’s Market as Kairo has used many items from there to protect his land.”
“Would a Seller do?” I reply.
“That would be wise, yes.”
“Do you know of one?” Charity asks.
We all exchange bemused looks.
“Yeah, we know one,” Marcus says regretfully.
“Is he a friend?”