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I wasn’t ready to return to my room, so I headed upstairs to Pops’ office. His curtains were half-shut against the morning sunlight, though the room was bright from the overhead lamp glinting off his metal desk. I was careful not to look at the Coalition’s symbol painted on the desk’s front as I sat in one of the firm, blue-fabric and metal chairs.
“One moment.” His fingers searched across the keyboard as he finished typing whatever message he was working on. Eventually, he tented his fingers and looked up. “What do you need?”
“Now that we have my parents and the car back, what next?” The flower charm tickled my skin where I had replaced it around my neck. “What are we going to do about the Camaraderie’s Legion Spore project and the time stones?”
Pops straightened his back, his salt-and-pepper whiskers twitching. “We’re still recovering, so we need to avoid any larger missions until we can assess the situation. Inese and Jack are testing Quin and Lily to see how they might fare on missions. If they can join the ground team, that will open up more opportunities for us.”
I flinched. Tim and Crush had been better aligned with tasks on the airship, but even before them, the loss of Chill and Alec meant we sorely lacked in the ground team department. Lance and I sort of made up for that loss, but we were both relatively inexperienced.
“For now, we’re going to resupply and gather what information we can,” Pops continued. “There’s not a lot we can do about the Legion Spore until we know more about it. But now that we’re back, I’m going to review Tim’s notes. In the meantime, Gwen has been trying to get in contact with the other rebel cells to see if they know anything, and Jim is looking into the time stones. We can’t do much until we can pinpoint their location.”
“Tim gave us a starting point, if you really think they’re worth something.” Sure, they were powerful. But could they really go back in time?
Doubtful.
“Even with Tim’s notes, we have several large regions to consider. We won’t be able to go after the stones immediately. But we can prepare.” Pops paused. “I assume you still want to go on missions?”
“Of course. The Camaraderie needs to be stopped. I know you don’t think we can reverse the transformations, but we have to do something.” I clenched my jaw, wishing I had a plan.
“I figured that.” Pops’ lips pulled back into a frown and wrinkles of worry creased around his eyes. “How are you doing? You’ve been having issues with Lady Winters’ memory seeds. That’s not conducive to carrying out missions.”
I bristled. “I’m not letting the seeds stop me.”
He took a deep breath. “I understand. But while we were in the Community, those attacks put you in danger. I need the people I send out to be in good health and sound of mind. Otherwise, I risk the entire team.” I opened my mouth to protest, but he shook his head. “For now, it will be Jack’s decision whether or not to bring you on missions. I don’t anticipate us going into any direct fights until we know more about the Legion Spore, so you have some time to work with them. But you need to get those memory seeds under control, Jenna. Both for your sake, and for ours.” He unlocked his fingers and rubbed his forehead. “Those seeds aren’t pleasant, I know. But if you really want to do something for the team, make sure you spend time with Gwen working to remove them. I don’t want to have to restrict you to staying on the airship.”
My breath hitched in my throat. If the attacks got bad enough, he’d remove me from the team? It made sense from a logical standpoint, but then how was I supposed to stop the Camaraderie?
I swallowed hard. “I’ll do what I can. I already met with Gwen this morning, and we’re starting to work on it.” I couldn’t let Lady Winters stop me.
“Good.” Pops nodded curtly. “In the meantime, all of us need to help your parents acclimate. Since they aren’t official members of the team, they won’t be going on missions unless they want to, but they can still help out around the airship.”
I nodded. Doing little tasks to help would make it easier to orient them to their new surroundings. As for the rest of us, we would eventually be fighting the Legion Spore or going after the time stones, and I needed to subdue those seeds before Pops needed me on missions. I was going to be spending more time with Gwen and the flower charm than I first thought.
I headed to the training room and flicked the switch by the door. The ceiling lights popped on, a low, faint purple glow that buzzed, humming steadily until all of them emitted the same, white light from their metal cages. Certainly not the elegance the original builders had intended, but it worked for the Coalition’s purposes. A series of pipes rose through the center of the room from the lower floor where a set of buffet tables should have been, and at a couple stories tall, the training room had a track that ran around the upper section which was once an elaborate balcony.
I made sure the door was closed behind me. Then, while on the track, I pulled on my enhanced speed power and ran, letting the airship’s cool breeze chill my sweaty skin. I was running because I wanted to, not because I had to. Running to focus only on the blur of the dingy bronze walls. Running to forget about everything that had happened, if only for a little while.
Eventually my body tired, and I was too exhausted to pull from my speed power. I slowed to a jog. I took deep breaths and stretched the way Jack had instructed me three months ago. Hard to believe that all this started only a few months back. Hard to believe two major Camaraderie leaders were now dead, and I’d been involved. I held the flower charm up to the light. The little jewels sparkled—yellow apatite for the petals, and emerald for the stamen. Gwen been so insistent that I hand it over...
What if she was right? What if I needed to be more careful?
I twisted my lips. Maybe I should learn to use it properly, that way I’d be less likely to use it by accident. Gwen was too tired from our morning session to help me right now, but how hard could it be to teach myself? Then I wouldn’t have to risk reading someone’s mind. I would treat it like my plants, starting with testing what I could sense.
That would be better than no training at all, wouldn’t it?
I found myself a spot at the center of the training room and sat crossed-legged, the way I did the first time I tried to understand my plant power. Then I unfastened the necklace and pooled the chain in my hand, making sure the charm made skin contact.
When Jack had me test my plant power, he didn’t have me do anything. He just wanted me to sense the planter’s position. If telepathy was anything like being a plant elemental, maybe I could sense where people were based on their thoughts. I didn’t need to actually read their minds. I just needed to know they were near.
I closed my breath, exhaled, and then listened.
Nothing happened.
Maybe I needed to focus on someone in particular—Jim. He was probably still in his office. I pictured him sitting at his desk behind all his books, talking to my parents. I felt a tug, a little ping at the front of my mind. I honed in on that. I needed to feel his presence—
Warm sympathy trailed through my mind, crushed with a weariness that made me want to close my eyes and not wake up, never mind that I had people to protect and a vision to uphold, and as long as I kept going I might one day see that vision fulfilled, and there was so much left to do to make this world the place it was meant to be—
The lights of the training room swam above me. I blinked. The hard training room floor pressed uncomfortably against my back. The necklace chain was just out of fingers’ reach, but I was too numb to grab it. Though I hadn’t seen anything, I felt like I’d been slammed by a toughness beastie, mentally rather than physically. My eyes watered from the sheer scope. I was glad I hadn’t gotten even more of Jim’s feelings. But I had never seen him so weary, so heavy-hearted, unless what I was sensing was his sadness from the funeral we’d been to a few days ago. I closed my eyes, wishing I hadn’t tapped into that particular emotion. How did he stand it? All those teammates who had died over the years...
I pushed myself up abruptly and grabbed the charm again. I pressed the jagged petal points against the tips of my fingers, feeling the sharpness without breaking skin.
I wasn’t going to allow any more teammates to die. I was going to make the Community safe. And if that meant learning how to use this pendants-cursed artifact... so be it.
Step one... figure out how to block emotions when conducting a telepathic search.
