Wordlessly, I handed the letter to Evelyn. Aiden and Robert read over her shoulder as she scanned the pages, quietly sobbing. I fingered the tanzanite pendant around my neck mechanically. I’d like to say that I felt a great relief, or even a deep sadness, upon reading my mother’s final words to me. But the truth is, I was numb. I had processed more in the last two weeks than what had seemed humanly possible. My head was aching; whether due to the cathartic letter or concussion, I can’t rightly say.
Glancing inside the manila envelope, I could see there were more items at the bottom: my old drivers’ license – the name said Rose Smith – and a passport from 2013 with the same name. I could only assume ‘Smith’ was the alias my family took when we moved to California eighteen years ago. At the bottom of the manila envelope, I found a small red packet with the number 1124 stamped on it. The back of the tiny envelope said “Sunshine Valley Bank”. Inside was a small brass key.
Beside me, Evelyn had finished reading the letter, then reshuffled the pages to read it again. Inside the red envelope, beside the key, was a tiny hand-written note tucked inside, comprised of only two words: Start here. The handwriting was different than that in my mother’s letter. I frowned slightly, tucking it safely back inside the envelope, then set it aside for the moment. When Evelyn was done reading the letter a second time, she turned to me, taking my hand in both of hers.
“I want you to know that there wasn’t a single day that went by in the last three years that I didn’t want to rush over there and tell you everything… But your mother made it clear that the less I spoke to you, the better. She was worried that my presence might trigger some latent memory she may have missed. I swore to them that day that I would keep my distance… but I wasn’t even strong enough to do that. Perhaps all of this is my fault, since I couldn’t stop showing up and butting my nose in your life…” she began wringing her chiffon scarf fretfully between two hands.
Robert put his hand on her shoulder consolingly. “To be honest, Evelyn, because you saw so little of Aspen between the ages of six and twenty, it’s very unlikely that you triggered anything. One must have a very strong, perennial connection to an image in order for it to trigger a latent memory after that level of neuro-electrocution.”
I put my elbows on the table and began rubbing my throbbing temples. “Does everyone understand the concept of neuro-electrocution except for me?” I muttered into the table.
“Oh! I’m so sorry,” Robert answered. “I had erroneously assumed you knew what that meant, but that was a silly assumption on my part.” Evelyn started digging through her purse again, her hand reemerging with a small bottle of ibuprofen, from which I gratefully took three capsules.
“I’ll get you some water,” Aiden offered, turning to walk over to a nearby water fountain. “Talk loudly, Robert, I want to hear this, too.”
“Ah, right,” Robert began, clearing his throat. “Well, this is an area of Elementalism that I’m particularly interested in, and, I daresay, rather knowledgeable in as well, since I myself possess a tiny amount of Empathic Electromancy. Though, I should preface that by saying that my ability is so minimal that the Asterian Order refused me active membership.”
Evelyn raised a censorious eyebrow at him, so he quickly added, “It was nearly fifty years ago that I went to take my assessment after researching the organization from the outside, and I certainly wasn’t aware, at that time, of their nefariousness. Regardless, they did generously grant me an honorary membership, for a significant fee, which has allowed me access to their libraries and archives worldwide.”
Aiden came back then, offering me a cup of cold water. I smiled at him gratefully as I took it. He stood behind me as Robert continued, softly stroking my hair.
“Electromancers are exceedingly rare,” Robert began in his typical scholarly tone. Evelyn leaned towards him, riveted to her seat. “If one hundred hypothetical people were to display Elemental abilities, perhaps only six or seven would possess any sort of Electromantic ability. Of those who do, roughly about a quarter display what is known as ‘Empathic Electromancy’, as Aspen’s mother clearly does, meaning they express their Electromantic abilities in a telepathic way.”
“You mean, they can read minds?” I asked, dumbfounded.
“Not quite… you see, Empathic Electromancers are more attuned to the electrical impulses of the mind – it’s how the brain’s neurons communicate with one another. Millions upon millions of neural connections form within our mind via these electrical signals, which travel along neuronal axons to communicate with a neighboring neuron’s dendrite. Simultaneously, those of us who are fortunate enough to not be brain-dead experience unremitting electrical brain waves, which oscillate at specific frequencies to perform various functions. In short – our minds function entirely via electricity.”
“I had no idea we had electricity in our brains!” Evelyn exclaimed. “That seems rather dangerous, doesn’t it?”
Robert chuckled, then continued. “In some cases, Empathic Electromancers can feel what others are feeling. I am able to do that to a very feeble extent, though, in my case, it mostly just means that I score very high on the empathetic spectrum: if a person close to me is morose or anxious or even lying, I can usually tell, even without the usual telltale signs to give them away. It’s a wonderful talent to have in my profession,” he added drolly.
“And in your relationships,” Evelyn added with a smile. He patted her hand affectionately.
“Some Empathic Electromancers take that ability several steps farther – their empathy is so attuned, they can effectively read minds. Even more extraordinary, a scant handful of others can actually affect the minds of those around them, usually in subtle ways. Aspen’s mother appears to have been rather extraordinary, in that she was actually able to affect – even eradicate – the neuronal connection sites that comprise memories. This is clearly what she did to Aspen in order to prevent her from accessing her memories, as well as her abilities.”
“But my abilities came back,” I said, “So how does that work?”
Robert stroked his white beard thoughtfully. “I can only assume that she wasn’t quite able to successfully eradicate all of the neural connections linking to your abilities in your mind, and through the phenomenon of neural plasticity, new neuronal passages eventually formed over time, allowing faint vestiges of those memories to resurface.”
“Aspen is also extraordinarily powerful, so I suspect that played a part in her abilities resurfacing,” Aiden said, taking a seat next to me.
My face flushed at his comment. My whole body was warm, actually, so I took off my jacket, grimacing at the pain in my shoulder, as well as the ugly, gaping hole I accidentally burned into the leather. “If my mother was an Empathic Electromancer…”
“What on Earth have you done?!” Evelyn cried out suddenly.
“It’s not as bad as it looks, it’s just a little burned…” I answered quickly, turning to inspect my bandaged shoulder.
“Not that – is that a tattoo?” she practically screeched, reaching for my arm.
Beside me, Aiden gasped. “They did that to you at the hospital?”
I sighed, glancing at my arm. The outer edges of the angry black star looked red and irritated, even in the dim light of the stacks.
“Yeah… Dr. Chen said he tried to stop them, but I guess they did it while he was out and I was still under.”
I actually jumped as Aiden slammed his fist on the table, looking absolutely furious. Evelyn turned to stare at us, horrorstruck.
“They did this without her consent?” she moaned, putting her face to her hands. Aiden nodded silently, his face dark with rage. Evelyn continued wailing into her hands, her words muffled by her palms. I pulled my arm off the table self-consciously, attempting to cover the tattoo with my other hand. Even Robert had been looking at the symbol on my arm, aghast.
“That you’ve been clearly branded as a Pentamancer is very serious indeed. Not only will you attract the attention of Elementalists everywhere you go, but seeing as you are the only known Pentamancer in existence, everyone who sees that tattoo will know who you are. This undoubtedly will make your attempts to avoid the Order all the more challenging.” He turned his attention to Aiden then, his expression suddenly accusatory. “This never would have happened if you hadn’t just blundered in there like that! What were you thinking, breaking into one of their Chapters? Doesn’t the name Jimmy Hoffa ring a bell? Harry Holt? Spartacus??” He threw his hands up in the air, exasperated. “Every single one of those disappearances – and many more – were at the hands of the Order, and you know that!”
Aiden held up a placating hand. “I know,” he told Robert, regret clear in his voice. “I blame myself for what happened tonight, entirely. No excuses.”
I started to protest that, in fact, the fault was entirely mine, but he waved the same hand at me, this time in a quieting manner. I bristled at the authoritative gesture, but Aiden continued, disregarding my glower. “Speaking of disappearances, I found some interesting notes in the records room, the most relevant of which were stuffed in my father’s file.” He reached into his jacket pocket to pull out several pieces of crumpled-up paper. “Nothing to make up for what happened to Aspen…”
“Or you,” I interjected dourly.
“…But it’s certainly something to make the disastrous outcome of the evening slightly worth the cost. This one,” he said, smoothing out the creases of a small yellow page on the table, “gives me reason to think that there’s a possibility that Elizabeth Fulman may very well be alive; at least as of the end of 2016.”
“What?” Evelyn and I gasped at the same time. I jerked my chair closer to Aiden to get a closer look at the faded ink on the yellow slip of paper.
“This memo was dated December 2016. It states that a female Empathic Electromancer, Level Three, had been moved from the D.C. Electromantic Containment Center to a different facility. I can’t be sure it’s Elizabeth, although I also can’t imagine that there are very many Level-three Empathic Electromancers in the world who are under Containment…”
I re-read the memo three times to make sure I didn’t miss a word. It was disappointingly vague, providing no further details apart from what Aiden had already said.
“What does the square with the three I’s mean at the bottom of the page?” I asked.
“It means that there’s additional information available, accessible only by those possessing Level-Three Officer security clearance or higher,” he answered.
I leaned back in my chair, pondering that for a moment.
“I also found this,” he said, his voice lowering in pitch slightly as he spoke. He was looking at Robert as he unfolded a second sheet of paper. Robert reached across the table to take it, adjusting his spectacles as he read the wrinkled page.
“Sarah Lawson?” He gasped, regarding Aiden over the sheet. “You don’t mean…?” Aiden nodded.
“It would appear that my sister is also being held in an Asterian Containment facility.”