Kazza’s Reviews > Penumbra > Status Update

Herald pushed the glasses up his nose and blinked, rubbing his chin. “It’s definitely happened before. It’s not unprecedented. Sentient artifacts can and will form bonds with their users. But for one to fight of its own accord? And it flew, you say?”

Vanitas hovered just in front of me, his blade stained with blood and his hilt at hand level, as if wielded by an invisible swordsman. He stayed perfectly still.

Thea said that I was learning to use my magic quickly enough. She watched over me while I practiced. I can’t say that shadowstepping – or stepping, that’s what we call it now – was my favorite activity, considering I had to move through the darkness each time, that dimension that has things crawling and living in the shadows. But the power definitely came with its conveniences.

I looked around – nowhere to go, nowhere to hide – and cursed, knowing that I was seconds away from having my skull and my brains completely exploded. Hah. Joke’s on them, I thought. The cleaning bill was going to be atrocious.

Two spheres. This time, she didn’t even have to throw. Thea spread her fingers, releasing the orbs. They floated in midair for the span of a second, then, like a pair of missiles, flew screaming in my direction.

“Our talents are awakened in times of great stress, Mr. Graves,” she said, her tone so business-like that I almost forgot that she was probably planning to kill me. “It seems that your murder wasn’t enough to squeeze it out of you. Shame, considering the swell of power we sensed when you died.” She held up one hand, her fingers spread loosely. “We’ll just have to give the process a little nudge.”

“Combat?”
“Things can get dangerous, so it’s helpful to have one or two staffers who can throw fireballs on command, or maybe call a lightning strike.”
The hairs on the back of my neck prickled. No way. No fucking way. That sounded awesome, and I knew more than anything that I wanted to be a Hand.

(..) and I was certain that she was intentionally avoiding discussing anything that I was actually burning to learn about, like what was up with all the fires, how did the paper do that, and why the hell was that one guy wrestling a book to the ground and wrapping it in chains?

A whole tribe of people hiding in plain sight, living in a separate layer unseen by society, unseen by anyone in the city of Valero, or California, or the world. And magic? Real, actual magic? My gaze kept flitting, like my mind was trying to settle on which of a million different questions I should ask first. When I spoke, I realized that I hadn’t even decided. “This is a lot to take"

I kept my face level as Berta raised a hand, palm flat, fingers outstretched, just inches from my wound. The breath caught in my throat as the last of the blood oozed out of the wound, as the edges of my skin began to stitch back together over the break in my body. I stared in horror, in awe, my gaze flitting from Berta, to Thea, and back.