Nine

Auros hated going to the professor's lab, even though he truly enjoyed spending time with him.

Professor LFZ was a genius in the dying field of power and skill analysis, a true master of figuring out unusual abilities and building training routines to master them. He was also an exceptionally well known supporter of almost any anti-government group you could think of. Just knowing him probably put you on some kind of list, though Auros was hardly worried about that...well...had been hardly worried about it.

The way things were going, he wouldn't be surprised if Covnan Security didn't start looking for him soon.

The doors to the lab dematerialized and the professor called him from inside, "Auros, my friend, its been too long!"

Easily two hundred years old, the professor had been using technology and magic to keep himself alive for decades, the professor's voice was a woman's this time.

Interesting.

Almost reading his mind, the professor mused, "Don't mind the voice, damn modulator is on the fritz again. Can't get it to read my vocal cords correctly so its mimicking the first voice it heard after I set it up."

The last time Auros had been here, the lab had had a more traditional feel to it, perhaps more chrome than you'd expect. Now, every surface was made of wood, including some tools that seemed like they should have been rubber or metal.

"How can I help you, my boy," he asked, his body practically shaking with excitement.

"Here to discuss the differences between magical talent and skill again? Maybe we could talk about the new security checkpoints the gov has set up; I'll admit, I have more than a few opinions on that."

Auros shook his head and asked, "What do you know about a group called the Council?"

The professor made a strange face and said, "Well...I did take some time to look into it since the last time you came...but honestly, I haven't found much."

Before Auros could ask what he meant by 'the last time you came', the professor had waved his hand and cast the room in absolute darkness.

A light flickered on the far wall and a screen appeared with the words, "The Nex Council" on it.

"The only line I could find on this was a group called The Nex Council. There are traces of them dotted in lots of pre-Covnan societies, though very few details. What's more unusual is that current societies seem to make mention of them, almost as though they have been waiting to make an appearance."

Auros raised an eyebrow and asked, "What do they want?"

"Honestly? I'm not sure. At first I thought they were working behind the scenes, guiding humanity...but they don't seem to do much whenever they're referenced. Seems like when they show up something major happens, but then they immediately disappear. It almost feels like they're responding to events, rather than causing them, but even with that in mind, most of their appearances seem...random," he mused, tapping on the far too large desk.

"Random?"

"Yes, random. With such a consistent pattern, you would think that they would be associated with large groups or heroes...or villains...but, they seem to gravitate toward people who seem to have little importance in the world at large."

The screen flickered and moved to a different screen, this one blank.

"Uh, Professor, I think your screen broke."

Shaking his head, the professor spoke quietly, "No...its a picture of a material I'd never come in contact with before. I found it while I was looking for information on the Nex Council...you probably can't see it because your eyes don't know how to. It is...its a fascinating thing; wildly manipulable and it seems to be able to bond with almost anything. Even small mastery of it would change the very course of history."

"What does it have to do with the Council," Auros asked.

"Maybe nothing...maybe everything. It seems very important, so I checked, and while its hard to tell right now, it seems almost as if this material appears wherever the Nex Council appears. In any case, near as I can tell, the Council seems to be monitoring major events in our world for some reason."

Auros sighed and said, "So a group of planetary peeping toms want me to keep a girl safe."

""Seems that way."

Rolling his eyes, Auros sat in the chair across from the professor, holding his head in his hands.

The professor's eyes glowed bright green for a moment and he said, "You...seem different. What's going on with you?"

Auros shrugged and described the attack on him in as much detail as he could remember, watching the professor grow more and more interested as he did.

When he finished, the professor stood up and gestured again, adding a flourish on the end.

The room lit up and a small platform with hundreds of runes inscribed on it lifted up from the ground.

Motioning to the platform, the professor said, "If you please?"

Stepping up to the center of the runes, Auros asked, "What's this going to do?"

"I'm hoping it'll give me some more information about your newfound capabilities. I've heard a few scattered reports of people surviving traumatic events, even death, and afterward seeing some mild increase in ability and mana, though nothing as remarkable as you."

"What do you mean by mild?"

"A telepath who could only hear one person at a time gaining the ability to listen to five, after they'd been hit by a car driven by her wife. An air mage manifesting the ability to control the temperature of his spells after he'd fallen off a ravine in the maintenance district," the professor said as he typed in data and commands.

"Seems like nearly dying might be a good idea if you survive," Auros said.

"Yes, well its not just death, emotional trauma can cause it as well, but there is one common element between all of the reports," he said loudly as the platform began making a whistling sound.

"What's that," Auros asked quietly, barely audible as the runes began to glow and the air vibrated from the force of the spells.

"Glowing red eyes."

A whirlwind of energy raced around the room, with motes of light occasionally appearing and shooting at Auros. The wind was so strong, it was all he could do to keep standing on the platform, but the mana spiraling around him exuding a texture and presence all its own.

Mechanical arms raised from the ground and began scanning him from every angle, rotating counter to the mana wind.

Auros trusted the professor and stood his ground as the runes on the platform floated up and pressed themselves onto his body, sending shivers and tingles along his arms and legs.

Then, abruptly, the room was silent, still.

All around Auros, in every possible space, stood countless hims, all doing different things and in various states of mind.

They chattered silently to themselves, to him, to nothing, their voices a vacuous cacophony that threatened to drive him mad.

Mad.

The word clung to his mind as though it had meaning, digging into his head for a moment, before being whisked away as the platform lowered to the ground.

All around Auros was a vast, empty void, the blackness infinite in scale.

Somewhere in that darkness, Auros fell, his scream lost in the emptiness.

"Auros...Auros," the professor shouted as he rushed to pick Auros off the floor.

Lifting his friend up, the professor waved his hand over Auros's head and his eyes fluttered gently in the now dim lab.

"What...what was that," he asked, another headache starting to form behind his eyes.

"Auros...that...that was your mana," the professor said, his voice wavering in awe.

Auros shook his head and said, "No...no, that's impossible."

In the back of his head, a voice said, "Well...that's one option off the table."

Pushing his suicide ideations aside, he asked, "What does this mean?"

The professor set him in the chair at his desk and said, "Auros...genuinely...I don't know. This...this is unprecedented, everything I know about mana and the human body says that this should be impossible. Increasing your mana by even a little bit is incredibly difficult, and usually has devastating effects on your body...but you...you're in perfect health, better than perfect. Auros...what have you done?"

The Council's words reverberated in his mind as he said, "I...I opened a door."

The professor sat down at his computer and began furiously typing, seemingly almost forgetting that Auros was there.

Slowly the room returned to normal and Auros asked, "Professor...if that's my mana...why aren't I setting off every sensor in the city?"

Shaking his head slowly, his expression blank, the professor said, "Auros...I don't know. We're in uncharted waters here, drowning in the unknown...but it has to be connected somehow. The Nex Council, your eyes, your mana, everything has to be connected. Look...that test we ran...I've got hundreds of thousands of exabytes of data to analyze...that's going to take some time, even for me. There's a bed in the next room...you can stay here if you want."

Auros stood up, wobbly from exertion, and said, "No...no, I've got to get home tonight, I promised Luna."

Raising an eyebrow, the professor said, "I see. How's all that going?"

Letting out a sigh that may have come all the way from his toes, Auros said curtly, "Badly."

"No change then?"

Nodding as he put his hand on his head, Auros said, "Not really. There's a conversation I think we need to have...but I'm pretty sure we're all afraid to have it."

Stopping typing for a moment, the professor looked Auros directly in the eyes and said, "You know they care."

Auros leaned against the desk, its wooden texture oddly comforting, as he replied, "I know they want to."

"They do Auros. She made you promise to come home, didn't she?"

Giving the professor a surprised look, he asked, "How'd you know she made me promise?"

The professor laughed, his feminine voice still catching Auros off guard as he said, "Auros, I've known you for seven years. You wouldn't volunteer a promise like that to almost anyone."

Shrugging, Auros said, "Fair enough."

He walked to the doorway and as it dematerialized to let him out of the lab, Auros said, "Hey...thank you for that by the way."

"For what?"

"For being my friend...especially for so long. I know I'm hard to deal with."

The professor kept tapping at his computer as he replied, "You're not hard to deal with Auros...you just...you hate yourself so much. I still don't know why."

"Do you have a way to analyze that," Auros asked playfully.

"I've got a button I haven't pushed before, we could see what that does."

"Don't you have a disintegration ray in here somewhere that you've never used," Auros asked.

"Yeah."

"That's probably what that button does," he replied as he left the professor to his work.