Chapter 6

Luke

I watched my brother, Helios and Allard follow Beatrice as she led them away to something that looked sort of like a metal box on wheels. She kept glaring daggers at Helios, but he seemed to be ignoring her. As I watched them recede my heart clenched. I had to remind myself that Elex could take care of himself, and so could Helios. Hell, Allard alone could take on anyone we'd seen so far. Reassured, I turned back to Betts who started leading the group through double doors.

We followed Betts through a maze of hallways until finally stopping outside a pair of double doors where a short, stout woman stepped up beside Betts. Above the doors was a placard that read "Pavilion Auditorium".

"Okay folks, this is where I leave you for the moment," Betts announced to us, her voice echoing in the empty hall. "I leave you in the very capable hands of Lottie Galanis. Lottie is the Administrator for the Diasothike Pavilion. If you need anything, Lottie will help you with it."

I thought Lottie's face plain at first, but then she smiled at our ragtag group and it lit up the room.

"Hello, everyone! As Betts said, I am the Administrator for the Diasothike Pavilion. Following the Touchpoint I will be getting everyone set up with living accommodations, clothing, supplies, and everything you need to help you get familiar with Illyrian society. We are so happy to welcome you here. We need the help of every able-bodied Mageian in upcoming battles."

"What if we don't want to fight?" A voice from the back called.

Lottie turned her attention to the speaker.

"While we are desperately in need of Mageians who are willing to fight with us, we would never force you to do anything against your will. We are not Alexandria. You are free to make your own decisions. If you choose not to fight, we could use your help in many areas. We can offer you training in a trade of your choice. If you would rather leave us completely, we will be more than happy to help you find your way and provide any resources we can to start your new life."

The crowd shifted uncomfortably. We weren't used to being able to make our own decisions.

"Can you tell us more about this Touchpoint?" I heard Deliah, one of the Fire Mageia ask.

"It's very simple," Lottie said, smiling. "We will have you all up on the stage. We ask that you hold your hand out like this," she said, demonstrating by holding her arm straight out from her side.

"Somas who have completed their training will file across the stage and brush fingers with you. If any of you feel so much as a tingle from that touch, we ask you to alert one of the proctors on the stage. They will bring the fortunate Soma to a separate area where you will have the opportunity to begin to get to know each other. Once you feel confident in your decision we can talk more about the Bonding ceremony."

"Decision?" I heard Tik ask, confusion evident in his voice. "We get to decide?"

I saw many of my fellow Mageians shift nervously. Having choices was not something we were familiar with, and many had struggled with even the limited freedom we had experienced on Heraklion. Everything in our lives had been dictated by the Elusians who ran the Legion.

"Yes, dear," she said, smiling gently at him. "During the Touchpoint some Mageians will react to more than one Soma. Bonding is a very personal decision. The choice to Bond or not is up to the Mageian. We treasure our Mageians and do everything we can to make them comfortable and at home. Toward that end, I'd like to introduce you to someone else."

Tik sagged next to me.

"Can't we just, you know, sleep for a bit, first?" he asked.

Lottie smiled understandingly at him.

"We will get you quarters as quickly as possible. It's a bit of a scheduling nightmare to hold a Touchpoint, and we have a newly graduated class of Somas who were about to be deployed. We need to see if any of them find their match with you before we can send them out. I'm sorry. I know you are all exhausted, but the Touchpoint shouldn't take more than an hour."

A man walked up from behind Lottie. He was older than us by several years, but his face was familiar to me.

"Hello everyone! My name is Octavius, primary Water Mageia, formerly of the Alexandrian Legion, and I am one of the Mentors who will be helping you adjust to life in Illyria."

I heard several sharp intakes of breath as he introduced himself. Octavius had been in a Machi about two years previously. I remembered him and it sounded like several others did too. Seeing him here in Illyria was a nice surprise.

"Primary Water? What does that mean?" I heard myself asking. I had never heard the term before.

"Vlakas! Good to see you made it!" he said, stepping forward and shaking my hand.

"It's Luke now," I said, a little embarrassed. Vlakas meant "idiot" and had been the name I had been stuck with in the Legion.

"Good for you, Luke! Taking back your own name is one of the first steps we encourage everyone to do here. A Primary is the power you held before you Bonded. You're Earth, right?" he asked.

I nodded, blushing at the compliment.

"So if you find your Soma here today and decide to Bond, it will unlock other elements for you. Some of you will have dual powers, triple powers, or even all four elements." He held his hand out and a petite woman stepped forward and wrapped her arm around his waist. "I was fortunate to meet my Soma about eighteen months ago. Her name is Gretia, and we've been Bonded for a year now."

Gretia waved at us, then Octavius held his right hand up and water pooled around it. He put his left hand up and air began swirling around it, swirling bits of dust around his hand. He brought both hands together and the water and air merged, creating bubbles that danced around us. We all stared in awe at the display of a Dual Mageia's power for several moments, then Gretia broke the silence by poking Octavius in the ribs and the bubbles popped as he laughed, splattering water over all of us. Several of the Mageia began chuckling as the Dual Mageia laughed as his mate continued to tickle him.

"Octavius likes to make a big show for all the new Mageia, but we really are happy to have you all here, and hope that you, too, find your match today," Gretia said to the group. "We will get you our phone numbers after the Touchpoint so that if you have any questions, you'll be able to reach us or one of the other Mentors."

"Okay, folks! There are a lot of excited Somas waiting out there to come in and meet you! Let's get you lined up on the stage," Lottie said, directing us up the stairs.

I saw Tik hanging back, obviously unsure of himself.

"You okay, Tik?" I asked. He nodded, but worry was still evident on his face.

"What if we don't find a match?" he asked. "What happens then?"

I shrugged.

"I don't know, but it's not like they are going to kick you out. It just means you haven't found them yet."

"But will they even want us if we don't make a match?" he asked.

"Of course they will want us!" I said, with a confidence I didn't really feel. I didn't know for sure what the Illyrians would do, but I knew we were too valuable of a resource for them to kick us out. "They need us for the war effort, if nothing else. Besides, I heard Hel say they needed more Earth Mageia to assist with their metal workers. With your skill, you would be a good fit for that."

Tik's face brightened. His Legion had discounted his skills because he didn't have a large amount of power at his disposal. Elex and I had been teaching him how to make the most of the power he did have. He had an extremely light touch: I had seen him pull a bullet out of the arm of a Mageian who had been shot on Heraklion. I was confident he would do well.

"You've got this, Tik," I said, trying to share that confidence.

I gravitated toward the end of the line, stopping here and there to check on the Mageians lining up. I spoke to a few, just like I had Tik. Some just needed reassured, some needed a kind word. Some were just exhausted. I did what I could to relieve their fears while trying to quell my own.

I felt a little lost and overwhelmed without Elex and Helios. When they were around it was a lot easier to disappear into the woodwork. My brother possessed a level of charisma that I lacked. He didn't like people, but he was good with them, especially the ones who were broken in some way, like most of our Mageia were.

It made sense Hel and Elex wouldn't need to be here. Since they were already Bonded they wouldn't need to attend the Touchpoint, but I couldn't help but worry about my brother. I had to keep reminding myself that they were more than capable of taking care of themselves, so I had to trust that they would be okay.

Lottie lined us all up on the stage. I was on the far end, closest to the exit. Behind us they had set up little partitioned rooms.

Lottie told us this was where the Somas who might be a match for a Mageia would wait until the end of the Touchpoint.

"You okay?" Deliah asked. She had been moving up and down the line just as I had, making sure everyone was doing all right. I looked at her, feeling like a hot mess and longing for a shower. We were all still wearing our ripped shirts from Heraklion. I'd been too excited about arriving in Illyria to eat or sleep that day and was beginning to feel the effects.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied. She looked at me intensely and raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, fine, I'm not fine, but I'm as good as I'm going to get for now," I said. "At least, until I can get some food and a shower."

To my surprise she reached out and threw an arm around me.

"You're doing good here, your Highness," she said in my ear.

I couldn't help but wince when she said my title.

"Don't call me that!" I said. "We've left all of that behind."

"You may have left the title behind, but you're still a leader, whether you see it or not," she said. "You can do this. Now c'mon, I heard Lottie say we have a thousand Somas to meet."

I tried repeating her words like a mantra. You can do this. You can do this. I shuddered at the thought of meeting so many people and prayed to the goddess for some kind of escape. Socializing of any kind was not something I excelled at. Give me a library or science hall and I could be lost for days. Throw me into a party and, well, I was just lost. Or caused a disaster, as my parents had pointed out to me, repeatedly. What kind of Prince was I, if I couldn't handle meeting people?

In the Legion, at least, things were familiar. There was a routine and order that I could comprehend. The rules were brutal, but simple. I stuck close to Elex, and he had guided me through the life of a Legionnaire. I felt lost without him and didn't realize how much I had relied on him.

I tried to distract myself from my spiraling thoughts by cataloging my surroundings. The ceiling of the auditorium had to be four stories high. We were led to a large stage in the front. I heard the loud hum of voices coming from outside the room and understood why once they opened the doors. There were hundreds of Somas entering the auditorium. They weren't exaggerating when they said there were a thousand. They lined up according to some numbering system I didn't understand, all their eyes on the stage. On us.

I felt myself growing dizzy and lightheaded at the sight of all those people. They just kept pouring through the door, hundreds and hundreds of men and women, every size and shape. All of them were looking at the stage, looking at us, with so much hope and expectation in their eyes.

Lottie and her assistants started the Touchpoint, her voice a vague hum as she spoke into a microphone about what was expected of participants. I wiped sweat off my forehead. There were lights and cameras pointed at the stage. I was familiar with cameras, having appeared on many news shows with my mother and father, but some of the other Mageian's had never seen them in person and were a bit intimidated by the hot lights and lenses pointed at us. I wasn't afraid of the cameras, exactly, but they did stir memories I'd rather not recall.

Memories of being small. Helpless. Powerless.

Before I knew it, people started walking across the stage. As they approached and began brushing fingers with my friends my heart started racing and I felt short of breath. Fuck. It was just like the feeling Suppression caused, where no matter how much I actually breathed I felt like I was smothering.

I heard a sudden cheer go up and the sound hit me like a thunderbolt. I was suddenly burning up and the sounds of the auditorium seemed super far away. I held my hand out like the others, but my thoughts were focused on simply not throwing up or passing out. I barely felt or acknowledged the tingling brush of hands from several of the people who walked past me, so focused on my attempts to just keep breathing that I hardly registered the sensations in my hands.

A Soma stood in front of me, a man I'd guess was around the same age as I was. The young man smiled at me in delight, but all I felt was confusion. What was happening?

"Congratulations, young man," one of the proctors said. "You can wait over here."

I followed his gaze as he was led away, and the joy and expectation in that look froze me to my marrow. He needed so much from me; he needed more than I knew I could give. I looked across the jam-packed room, each of the faces filled with hope, except the ones who were stepping off the stage without having made a match. Their disappointment and despair were almost palpable. I saw two young women fall into each other's arms crying, both having crossed the stage without making a match. The pain I saw on their faces broke my heart.

Moving behind the other Mageians to try and cut out the sight, I doubled over, hands on my knees trying not to pass out. I could almost feel the hope of the Somas as they walked though, and the despair of those not chosen. The cheers and noise around me were suddenly just… too much. I had to get away. Away from the hope. Away from the despair. Away from the expectation.

Before I knew what I was doing I was off the stage and out the great double doors of the auditorium and running blindly into the complex.