Chapter 105: Power

  Chloe knew her power had to surpass Zelph's. Nothing else made sense. She was the daughter of a pair of imperials, the first such in centuries. She wore an erinyes, the mecha, armor and weapon of her ancestors.

  And yet:

  When she tried to shut Zelph's telepathy from her mind, she could not bar him.

  When she tried to hurl waves of telekinetic force at him, she could not hit him.

  When she tried to so much as sense his presence, she could not feel him.

  Everything that had been easy and pleasant about her power suddenly seemed terrifying. All she really knew about it was what Milissa had taught her, and Mili was anything but a fighter. All she intuited came from Megaera, and the erinyes seemed incapable of communicating in anything but metaphor and half-glimpsed dream imagery. Chloe didn't even know if what she gleaned from it was its intention or a side effect of using it.

  She felt herself lifted from the floor of Rhetta Ferrill's office. She lashed out at the lines of force between her and Zelph, but her attack passed through empty air.

  As the telekinesis bit into Chloe's erinyes-sheathed body, she cried, “How are you doing this?”

  He didn't answer.

  He didn't have to.

  Chloe realized she'd finally asked the right question.

  A wave of power, omnidirectional, broke Zelph's hold and hoisted her momentarily upwards. She floated slowly to the floor and faced him.

  Chloe had wielded her telekinesis like a club, at best. Zelph's danced, dozens of invisible whips and tendrils. He had to have incredible concentration to maintain them all at once, but in accepting that degree of difficulty, he acquired the ability to strike from seemingly impossible angles and penetrate otherwise invincible shields.

  Chloe couldn’t have matched his precision without years, decades, of training. Perhaps it would always elude her.

  Now that she understood his methods, though, she could fight them. She waited for his attack to come and allowed herself a tight smile when it impacted against a hemisphere of force she rotated too fast to allow it to miss even an attack at the speed of thought.

  Her smile vanished as quickly as it had formed. Zelph's mind filled hers again, worse than before. More than a voice: images, scents, feelings, emotions – so, too, much.

  Chloe stumbled and clutched her head. She hoped her shield still spun, still existed, but she couldn't concentrate enough to check.

  Disgust.

  What an idiot she was! She had picked this fight without any idea what it entailed. Indignant because she'd been tricked, resentful because her life had been broken down, hateful because her parents and Rudy had been hurt. She had gone along with the Animus Hunters until they had her in their full power, Zelph's power, because she'd wanted the chance to lash out at them and prove, prove they had to leave her alone!

  The voice was hers, but the thoughts weren't, couldn't be.

  It wasn't like that, she told herself. This isn't me.

  But why had she attacked when she did? Sending Milissa away was one thing, giving herself the option to fight, but she hadn't even heard President Ferrill out. Hadn't the president said she was making a terrible mistake?

  Look what happened when I didn't strike from surprise, Chloe countered. I knew what I was doing, and this isn't me.

  I didn't know anything. I've traded on being an oh-so-special imperial, like the rules didn't apply to me. Maybe I didn't deserve this to begin with, but now?

  Stolen novel; please report.

  I deserve whatever I'm going to get.

  “This isn't me,” Chloe screamed. She looked up to find Zelph's face centimeters away.

  I am not telling you anything you have not considered for yourself, he thought.

  He was telling the truth. Chloe knew in her gut the thoughts were hers, just ones she hadn't wanted to let come to the surface. Zelph dredged them up to throw against her will because her fears were his truth.

  He was probably right.

  As far as he went.

  “You've used people, hurt them, even gotten them killed to bring me here,” she said. “You've got exactly no scruples.”

  I do what I deem necessary, he thought. As you do.

  Exactly, she thought back, pressing her voice on him for the first time. You got it, Mr. Zelph – I do deem it necessary.

  Hate.

  She knew Zelph was playing on her emotions, but not how to stop him. His telepathic probes reached deep down into depths Chloe herself shuddered to realize she had. She hated him all the more for it and couldn't tell if it was natural or forced.

  Maybe it didn't matter.

  She lashed out, battering him with unfocused power. Her erinyes whipped about her, silver sheath becoming silver wings beating frantically at the constrained air.

  Still, somehow, she missed.

  How dare he do this to her? Make her, not just lose, but mock her for losing, toy with her? Principle damn him, this went beyond “duty” and “ideology!” He was tormenting her for no reason at all!

  “You got me,” Chloe said. “I do hate you, Mr. Zelph. You killed my original parents – one intentionally, one by accident. You're trying to take a second set of parents from me. You give every indication of being an awful person. Does that mean you 'win?'”

  I don't know, he thought. Does it?

  “Stop playing these stupid games with me!”

  Fear.

  Stop playing stupid games – and kill me?

  What alternative did he have? She'd demonstrated Limiters wouldn't work to constrain her. She'd demonstrated she would use her powers when pushed. Errard Zelph seemed to intend to keep pushing her well past her limit.

  What about her parents? Rudy? Milissa? For associating with a 'rogue imperial' they all had to die.

  If she had been wiser –

  If only she didn't exist –

  No, Chloe thought.

  Zelph drew himself up to his full height.

  Even if they are hurting now on my account, she thought, the people I love also love me. You can dredge up everything bad I've ever thought or said or done, but not that. They give me too much to live for.

  They, Zelph thought, are never going to see you again.

  Chloe felt her limbs lock as telekinesis flowed inside her body. She rose, puppet-like, until she was eye to eye with the Animus Hunter and her arms felt like they would shatter and her gut twisted with unfamiliar vertigo.

  Your real parents are dead, Zelph thought. Your noble friend escapes one trap only to fall into another. Your felid mother is powerless and ignorant. Your oligarch lover is losing a meaningless battle for a prize no one will dream of granting. Your spacer father never could have protected you –

  “My dad is always protecting me...” Chloe's knee rammed between the Animus Hunter's legs. “... because he taught me how to protect myself.”

  Zelph's armor absorbed most of the blow, but for just a second, his concentration slipped.

  Chloe's hand whipped out and, flashing silver, hurled him back. His crumpling form shattered the fragile telekinetic globes keeping their voices private, slammed into President Ferrill's desk and lay still.

  Chloe stalked forward, one hand a clenched fist, the other still outstretched and glowing with her erinyes' awakened power. Zelph could have killed her at any time. She knew the moment she felt him affecting her from within. He'd chosen to torment her instead, just like he had Rudy.

  “Your mistake,” she said –

  And looked up at the senate chamber beyond the open roof of the presidential office, a generation ago the throne room of her ancestors, now filled with the horrified faces of elected representatives. Rhetta Ferrill slumped behind her desk. Slowly, sadly, she looked up and shook her head.

  Chloe looked down the length of her outstretched fingers. The air crackled with the power she was about to unleash on the already broken Animus Hunter.

  The only mistake, thought Errard Zelph, a bloody grin splitting his face, was not mine.