Fervor (25 page)

They walked into the kitchen where the Languorite was sitting atop the table. Francis frowned somewhat, and then glanced at Sam and Sarah with his familiar slightly melancholic expression, a hint of fear in his pale green eyes. He did not advance any closer.

“
I guess that we start with that,”
the Teller said, gesturing towards the magical device.
“It can bring down the stasis, as we’ve seen firsthand. What more can you tell us about that?”

“
As a passive function, it can bring down any magic in effect that is in place for the purpose of suppression of natural influences. That would include the stasis, which the scholars had put in place to suppress natural aging. If any of you were not Connected, it would change that, too. The Bigs were all chosen because you were telepathically stronger than the latents. Your parents were all first generation offspring of purposefully interbred latents. The scholars considered you the next step in the evolution of our race. Magic runs strong in you, too,”
Elliot explained.

“
The Bigs? Do you mean the Controls as well?”
Sam asked. He knew that Francis had unintentionally suggested Royce had been slated to be a Finder, until the Littles had been introduced into the mix. The gifts of the Talent Groups were seemingly interwoven with the connection – such as the Tellers only being able to influence other Connected. Was Royce deaf to the connection because this had been suppressed in him? If that were the case, all of the Controls had a legitimate reason to be angry.

“
There wasn’t a child on Fervor that began life without the potential to be linked to the connection,”
Elliot admitted, turning to face the Finder.
“You should have all had that from day one. They suppressed it until they were prepared to commence their experiment, and then lifted the magic on all of you but the Controls. They didn’t realize that suppressing it for so long would cause damage.”

“
The sensory damage?”
Sarah concluded.

“
Not in the way that you might think, based on what happened to you. It damaged the nerves actually used for the connection, so the scholars had that newest sense rerouted through another existing channel, one that best matched your potential strength. You had already been organized into groups using the diversity of your potential strength, your house-families, which is why you had had the mixture of resulting loss of senses. The restoration of your senses was another function of the Languorite that works on a passive level. It repaired that damage and returned the senses to their appropriate channels,”
the technician acknowledged.

“
And that’s why I can see again,”
Sarah murmured, her dark eyes glistened with fascination.

“
Hmmm. I’d thought that’d had something to do with our gifts,”
Sam said.

Elliot smiled at him. Sam got the impression that the technician considered him to be clever.

“
Not directly, although yours gifts were provided to you based on your anticipated ability with the connection, as well as certain personality traits.”

“
But Royce, our Control, was originally supposed to be a Finder, instead of Sam,”
Sarah retorted.
“Explain that.”

Francis scowled a little upon this revelation, and Elliot shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Sam thought it was interesting. Despite being here to help them, there were things that the technician was just as reluctant as Francis had been to share with them. The situation was a little different, however. While the temptation was there to push through or peek around Elliot’s paper thin walls, the way that he and Sarah had once done with Francis’s sturdier walls when they had first met, Sam couldn’t bring himself to do it. Unlike with Francis, Sam had faith in the fact that there was good reason for Elliot to hold things back, and Sam was sure it would come out eventually if he didn’t pry now. That was not the case with the Teller.

“
I’m not going into detail today about what happened there. I’m already giving you a lot to absorb, and I think there are some things that you need to be ready for before I share them with you. You can trust me when I say that I don’t think that you are ready for that. The scholars never looked at you as people. They should have, but they didn’t. They have done things, many things that I think the majority of people in society at large would consider highly unethical, no matter what the ends or the objectives in all of this,”
Elliot stated.

He paused, facing a dissatisfied stare from the Fixer. She was convinced that she could handle whatever he might have to tell them. The technician shifted in his chair again, and thumped his boots on the floor a little, in a nervous and unconscious attempt at a distraction. Sam decided to throw him a life line, and come to his rescue.

“
Speaking of Finders, I believe that I found your hover today,”
Sam mentioned. Elliot’s face brightened and he sat up, visibly relieved.

“
Well – that is good news. I was more than a little concerned that we might be stuck here,”
the technician exclaimed happily.

“
Don’t get your hopes up just yet,”
the boy warned.
“It looks quite severely damaged and it’s resting on the rocks upside-down. To make matters worse, it’s located in the section of the beach that Royce and his Control friends have deemed ‘their’ territory.”

“
Damage is repairable,”
Elliot insisted.
“As long as we can locate the proper tools, materials and other supplies, I’m quite certain that I can fix it. We may have to jury-rig a few things from some of the standard hovers on the island, but I can probably make it work. Righting it won’t be a problem either, with enough hands.”

“
But that is a problem,”
Sarah countered, pushing herself back from the table in frustration. She appeared to be attempting to avoid Francis’s gaze in the process, as if he would find what she was about to say offensive.
“None of us can get close to the hover, other than Fiona, and running it is off limits, even for her, because of the Directives. You and Fiona won’t be able to flip something like that alone. You might be able to set up some sort of hoist, with pulleys, or maybe use some of the regular hovers for leverage, but it will be really awkward on those rocks.”
Sarah was not sure where her ideas had come from, but they at least offered a partial solution.

“
You leave that to me,”
Elliot said.
“If there’s a way of sorting this out, I’ll come up with it.”

Sam got the impression from the dishevelled man that he was not used to speaking with children, and that he was not sure how or if he should adjust his approach when dealing with them, compared to interacting with other adults.

Francis, who had remained silent since the beginning of the conversation, finally spoke up.

“
All of this won’t matter if you can’t override the instructions embedded during the Gathering. You fix the hover, and Elliot and Fiona get to ride off without the rest of us. I really don’t think that was what you intended when you came here in the first place.”

“
Not at all, Francis,”
Elliot replied, with a wry smile. He pointed at the Languorite.
“Our solution to that dilemma lies in its other functions, the ones that require activation.”

“
What other functions?”
Sam questioned, always the curious one.

“
The gifts that you have aren’t exactly talents as the Directives would have you believe. They are tools as much for the scholars use as for your own benefit. They are not natural, unlike your ability with the connection. They are magical enhancements, used to highly exaggerate inherent traits that you possess and to warp them in order to simplify the scholars’ work.”
Elliot placed his elbows on the table and leaned forward, hunching his shoulders as he did so.

“
Like Nathan being their eyes,”
Sam observed
. “And Fiona their means of recording what happens for later use.”

“
And Francis being their mouthpiece,”
Sarah piped in.

The Teller had fallen silent again and watched the pair of not-so-little Littles with heightening suspicion. It was clear that he did not like the way that this conversation was going.

“
Exactly,”
the technician affirmed.
“Sam here was intended to assure that you did not go without the necessities. I can guarantee you that there is enough food here on Fervor in stasis to keep you going for many years. I was never able to find out what end date they had planned for this experiment, the supposed Coming that was mentioned in their documentation, but my guess would be not for several more years in the future, if not longer.”

Sam did not want to imagine what sort of torture emerging from stasis would have been for them if their aging had been delayed to that extent.

“
I was here to make sure that things remained in working order, including the subjects of the experiment themselves,”
Sarah added, not trying to hide her disappointment. This knowledge, now verified, seemed to tarnish what she had once considered her silver lining, when everything else had seemed dark and gloomy.

“
It’s not a bad thing, Sarah,”
Elliot suggested.
“You still have very useful abilities – it’s the compulsions associated with them that can prove to be problematic. I’m afraid I can’t remove one without the other, but the Languorite can strip you of those ‘talents’ if used properly, in theory. I’d like to guarantee success, if I was to try, but I’ve never had the opportunity to use it in practice. I wouldn’t want to make the attempt unless you deemed it necessary. You would lose some benefit if all went well, and if I got it wrong, the repercussions could be horrific.”

Sam did not want to give up his gift, even if it involved some compulsion. As far as he was concerned, the benefits far outweighed any deficit.

“
I may be able to use it to eliminate any compulsions imposed on you by the Tellers as well,”
the technician continued.
“That much wasn’t clear. But when the time comes, it may be worth a try, despite the possible risks.”

Sam and Sarah agreed, but Francis said nothing. That was when Nathan appeared in the kitchen, bringing all conversation to an immediate end. He kept his eyes averted from them as required. He was still flinching from time to time in pain, and he looked dead tired.

“
I’m s-sorry t-t-to interrupt, b-but I’m st-st-starving,” he spoke aloud only, not willing to drop his walls in order to speak through the connection openly. “F-Fiona hasn’t c-c-come out y-yet, has she?”

“
No,” Francis replied, in a subdued manner.

“
Allow me,” Elliot offered quietly. “It won’t be fancy, but it will be something.” He got to his feet and set about preparing a simple but edible meal, filling in for the Keeper. The rest of the conversation would have to wait for another time.

Hover

After Nathan had left the next morning, Sam tracked him down through the connection and briefed him, to the best of his recollection, on everything that Elliot told them the evening before.

“
Fiona should really be the one telling you all of this. She’s the one with the picture perfect memory,”
Sam insisted.
“I don’t know if she even listened in last night. It’s almost like she doesn’t want anything to do with us right now.”

“
She still won’t talk to me,”
the Watcher admitted sadly.
“Are you sure that I haven’t done anything to upset her?”