Why am I here? It's the same old story, Damaris wants to talk to him, so I'm sent to collect him, again. But what can I do, as a zi̱ti̱tí̱s of the Sanctuary I am duty bound to obey whatever high mother sits in the silver seat, and for the last two thousand years that has been Damaris. Not that this order was an especially unwelcomed one. I haven't seen Varden in almost two months.
So here I am in this human city searching for one of our own who wasn't one of our own. With all these Koinós around it makes my skin crawl. I am a Shaper, that means I'm better than every single one of these humans. Born and raised inside the Sanctuary, a palace where we train and work to keep the peace within the Yperfysikó Yfí̱lios.
Knowing Varden at this hour he'll be at his volunteer job. I still couldn't understand why he'd spend his time trying to better the lives of these people. They'd all be dead within a measly one hundred years and all he'd have of them were memories. I curled my lip and kept my gaze on the sidewalk. These people were all the same, so convinced of the own superiority without even knowing that the young-looking woman in their midsts could kill every single one of them without breaking a sweat.
As I said before, I am a Shaper, a being of great intrinsic power, blessed with the gift of near immortality. My mother was born in the days of Columbus expedition. I was born in the years following the American Revolution. Since my race began to keep records there has never been a recorded case of one of us dying naturally, just being killed. We can die in much the same way and by the same methods as normal humans can. It's just that we can take a lot more damage before we die.
But enough about me and more about why I'm here. Varden Core, to our knowledge the only male Shaper on the planet. You see, the genes that possess the power have been passed from mother to daughter for over two thousand years. Male children have been born of course but they do not have the abilities that their sisters do. Yet two years two months I stumbled onto something none of us thought any of us would find, a male shaper.
Twenty-six months ago.
"How did you do that?" I kept my face impassive, yet my mind was in turmoil.
I had seen him create a knife from thin air, a blue crystal knife, use it to cut a cord of rope only to let it dissolve into mist after he was finished with it. No one else seemed to notice what he's done, but I had. His black-haired head had swung in my direction the instant I'd begun to walk towards him. When our eyes locked, I knew, I knew he was the one, the one I'd been looking for. But before I could even get close to him, he'd bolted.
Chasing him into the dark alley wasn't my best decision I'll admit. So, when his right arm lashed out from behind a dumpster and clotheslined me, I guess I had it coming.
"What do you want?" His voice had been higher than I'd expected but still had a measure of maturity and confidence.
"I saw what you did with that knife back there." I told him while I got to my feet. It wasn't until I was standing again that I tasted something coppery on my lips. It caught me by surprise, no one had been able to make me bleed in over fifty years.
"What knife? I have no idea what you're talking about." He slid into a back stance and slid along the wall, out from the corner created by the dumpster and the back wall of the building we were behind.
"That knife you created then allowed to vanish," I told him. "These humans might not have seen you, but I did." I shook my head to clear it then noticed he had positioned himself with a clear escape route. I didn't know who this guy was, but he was good.
"I still have no idea what you're talking about. People don't create things out of thin air." I could tell he was stalling, so I decided with the direct approach.
"I think you're trying to lie to me, just like you've lied to everyone else." I rolled my head then settled my gaze on him. "I don't know who you are, but I know what you are." For the first time I saw doubt creep into his face.
"I think you've been drinking miss; I could take you to a shelter if you need help."
His condescending words sparked a sizzle in my bones. Did he think I was human; I knew he'd recognized me for what I was when my attention fell on him. But he still hadn't figured it out. So, I decided to show him what I was.
Without warning I flew at him, covering the twenty feet between us in a single bound. At the apex of my leap, I summoned my blade congealed it from oxygen atoms into a shining green rapier. With all my might I took a two-handed grip and brought it down towards his skull. An inch from impact I felt a shook in my arms that went all the way to my elbows. My feet hit the ground as I was flung away like a leaf back into the air. Pivoting I landed in a ready stance, expecting an attack.
I looked back at my opponent to find him in the same spot he'd been before, except this time in his hands he held a shining blue Katana which he held in position one, left foot out in front a little, right foot at a ninety-degree angle from his body out to the side.
He must have seen my shock at the sight of a blue blade. No Shaper in known existence was able to conjure a blue blade. Our blades match our eye color and since all Shapers eyes were green so were our blades.
He hadn't moved since he got out of the corner and deflected my attack. He just sank deeper into his defensive stance and waited. I had to admire him, I could see he was as shocked as I was, he must have thought he was the only one of his kind, which in a way he was.
"I thought I was the only one." I heard him whisper, confirming my suspicion.
Leaping at him again I brought my blade down like before, then in mid strike I darted it back then struck straight forward. When my feet touched down, I expected to find him either to have moved or had taken the tip of my blade. Much to my surprise he did neither. My feint hadn't caught him off guard at all. He'd merely brought his blade from guard position to straight horizontal and slammed it down on top of mine, trapping it under his. At the downward angle my sword was pinned I couldn't retract it fast enough to avoid the shower of stars his head colliding with mine caused.
Staggering back, I dropped into a reverse ankle sweep, hoping to knock him off balance long enough for me to leap away. Yet he stepped over the clumsy kick and just settled back into his defensive stance.
"Hey red, if you want to keep hurting yourself that's fine with me. Or do you want to talk? I have a ton of questions I'm dying to ask." He said past his blade.
But the ringing in my ears drowned out most of his words, so all that came through was mumbling. This guy was mocking me, an eleventh level zi̱ti̱tí̱s, so I leapt back at him, this time using the superior speed of my blade to knock his weapon out of line long enough to catch him in the temple with my pommel.
For the first time he moved, more like staggered for a second. A movement I relished for as long as I could. Then with a deep growl he sprang. I had never seen such ferocity before, that blue blade was everywhere, slashing faster and faster until I saw the world thru a blue haze. My last perry met nothing but air as he twisted his grip, reversed his blade and drove it at my throat. I closed my eyes and braced for the strike, but nothing happened. Cracking my eye, a fraction I saw the tip of his blade beneath my chin and felt the tiny trickle of blood running down my neck to disappear beneath my shirt.
"Now that I have your attention, I have a single question. What am I?"
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Zi̱ti̱tí̱s: Seeker.
Koinós: Common.
Yperfysikó Yfí̱lios: Supernatural World.
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