I frowned. “What kind of a question is that?”
“Just a question. Do you feel like answering it?”
“I feel like doing a lot of things, but considering I’m handcuffed, there’s little I can do.”
That wasn’t exactly true. Even with the handcuffs keeping my wrists bound, there was plenty I could do, but I didn’t want him to know that. I wanted him to think he was in complete control, to lower his guard, to get complacent. That was when people made mistakes.
The man behind the desk clicked the back of a pen and wrote a note into the notepad on the desk. “My name is Calder Graves,” he said, “I’ve been assigned to work with you, to help you remember some things that might help us better understand what happened to you.”
“I can save you a whole bunch of time and tell you right now, I have no idea what happened to me because I can’t remember.”
“Yes, I’ve been told.” He spoke calmly, coolly, with the soft demeanor of a man who had dealt with difficult people before. “You don’t know this about me, but I’m a Psionic mage. Do you understand what that word means?”
“That you’re one of the people that runs this place?”
A smile played on his lips. “No, I don’t run this place—I only work here.” He paused. “A Psionic has the power of control over the mind, which makes me the most well-suited person to help you recover your lost memories.”
I paused, staring at the man across the desk from me, studying his nose, his lips, the wrinkles on his face. “Why don’t I hate you?” I asked.
“Because you know me.”
I shifted in my seat. “What?”
“We know each other. That’s why we don’t hate each other. We’ve had time to adjust.”
“What are you talking about? I don’t know you.”
“Yes, you do. I want you to listen to the sound of my voice very carefully, Six. Can you do that?”
He was doing something to me. I could feel it, pressure building around the sides of my head. My hands flexed, fingers curling inwards and then splaying out. “What… are you doing… to me?”
“The golden stone shines brightest at dawn.”
The words were like a sledgehammer that came crashing against my forehead. My head tipped back, and my mind went reeling. Thoughts, images, voices, they all came crashing into me like waves. Relentless, hundreds of them hitting me at the same time, from all directions, coming so fast I thought I might drown in them.
“Six…” a single, distant voice stood out above the rest. I recognized it, I knew I did, but I couldn’t place it. Not yet.
Around me, I heard birds chirping, the soft whisper of a breeze rustling through leaves on a tree. I could feel it, now, cool against my skin. I willed my eyes to open, concentrating on the echo of the voice as it lingered in the back of my mind.
An angel loomed before me, its body dark and featureless, its wings fully extended. As my eyesight cleared, I realized the sun was behind it, obscuring the details of its perfectly sharp face, the ruffles of its wings. It wasn’t real. It was a statue made of marble, or stone. I wasn’t sure.
“Yes?” I asked, but I felt like I was dreaming, like I wasn’t really speaking at all.
“Are you paying attention?” came the voice again. A woman.
“Give her a second.” Another voice. Calder’s, this time. “This is what she’ll remember first when we activate her memories, but we need to let the magic work.”
I blinked again, bringing my focus on the source of the voices. There were two people in front of me. One was Calder, his light brown eyes shiny against the morning sunlight bathing the courtyard. The other was a woman with brilliant white hair, eyes that sparkled like sapphires filled with their own inner light, and wings… luminous, vibrant wings that flickered and shifted like they were made of fire. Even kept tucked behind her back, they were impressive.
Seline.
“The golden stone shines brightest at dawn,” she said, “This will be the phrase that brings you back, the phrase that makes you whole again. When Calder clicks his fingers, your memories will fall asleep… by the time they come back, he’ll be the first person you see.”
“You’re sure it’ll work?” I asked.
“I’m sure,” Calder said, his fingers ready, “But the ride back will be a little bumpy. You’ll need time to adjust.”
“How much time?”
“We should cross that bridge when we get to it,” Seline said, “For now, I want to go over a couple of things and make sure they’re on the record.” She paused, bringing her incisive blue eyes to bear on me. “Against my better judgment, you’ve volunteered to take on Operation K. Before I go into detail, I want to remind you of a couple of things. Your name is Six, and you are Serakon. Eight years ago, I found you chained up and freed you from the Crimson Hunters keeping you as their captive, and for the last eight years, you have been a valued member of the Obsidian Order.”
Two more people came into view behind Seline. One, a dark-skinned woman with ice white hair wearing a black jumpsuit. Behind her trailed, a set of massive, fluffy white wings that drank the sunlight. Beside her was a stoic man, with short, dark, hair, eyes as black as night, and long, black wings to match. He placed one of his hands on Seline’s shoulder, and she took it and squeezed.
“These are Aaryn and Draven,” Selin continued, “Together, we run the Obsidian Order, an Agency that’s completed countless missions with the sole purpose of making this world a better, safer place for people like us—people who fall. Just so there are as few blank spaces as possible when you’re activated, do you recognize us?”
“I do,” I said.
“And do you know where we are?”
I looked around at the black, stone walls surrounding the courtyard. Archways in the walls looked into corridors filled with people watching, many of them wearing jumpsuits with stripes of brass, silver, or gold; each and every one of them wide-eyed, as if they were watching celebrities perform an intimate show just for them.
“This is the Black Fortress,” I said, “My home. I live here.”
Seline smiled a soft, motherly smile… but then her smile darkened. “By the time you remember this, you’ll have experienced the initial hatred that sparks inside of us the moment we encounter unknown supernaturals native to Earth. It’s probably confused you. I know it confused me for a while, and even now, we still don’t understand why the hatred exists between our peoples. It doesn’t make sense, and it only makes diplomacy harder.”
“If it makes you feel any better, even mages don’t know the answer, and we’re supposed to know everything,” Calder put in.
Seline nodded. “The good news is, the feeling goes away after a while. The longer you spend with each other, the easier it is to kick the urge to kill each other to the side. But in Devil Falls, the place where you’re going… the Natives there choose to keep their contempt for us. They stoke it, feed from it, and use it. At best, they beat us and throw us into Harrowgate Prison. At worst, they slay us in cold blood with impunity. It has to stop, Harrowgate has to stop, and that brings us to your mission.”