CHAPTER 7 - ACCELERANDO II

  The endless pale stretches, stretches and stretches everywhere you look. Crystalline formations that bend and stretch without limit, lattices of impossible geometry, structures that do not cast shadows.

  The beautiful song spreads, spreads and spreads until it becomes you. Put apart and rearranged however he wishes, for his vision for you will always be perfectly in tune. Deviate from the song, and your song shall fade into eternal silence.

  The enormous hand guides, guides and guides. He knows all there is, and all that has been, and all that will be; he is a force borne of hatred for disorder, and thus everything must have its place as he dictates.

  That is the perfection he has wrought. And it shall continue to spread until the entire universe is unmade and remade in his image.

  Siena's eyes blarily open as the sun shines through the window; the rays burrow through the fine dust swirling in the bedroom. It takes her a few seconds to recognize that this is her room. There isn't a sound the world she can hear, at the moment but the subtle wind that propels her soot. It has accumulated throughout the night, making it around ankle-deep around her bed.

  "Embarrassing." She barely hears when she whispers to herself. Accidents like this usually only happened to girls just having been given an implement. "Ugh."

  She feels something drip down her cheek and touches it, finding a tear on her finger. She feels odd, like there is a cavernous hole in her chest. It's always been there, of course, but when Siena goes to grasp at it through her clothes, it feels particularly hollow. There is, of course, the matter of Star Sentinel yesterday, and the danger she and her sisters are in.

  But there is one main reason she feels so fragile today.

  The monster takes a shaky breath—

  And another. And another.

  Yes. She's utterly homesick, both because she misses the Orchestra and New Mexico. Adding the two together is too much for her poor heart to take without some adjustment.

  She spends a few minutes on her bed until the dust subsides, hugging her knees like a little girl. Siena felt like cracked glass, as if a single touch could send her crumbling, but as time passes, those cracks heal and she takes the first step out of bed.

  A momentous step it is. Siena remembers entire days where this would seem like an impossible task and she would stay there rotting like a corpse until the need to go to the bathroom finally made staying untenable.

  Her dust feels warm under her feet, like wading through warm sand. Comforting. It shifts easily with every step, light and gentle, settling against her skin instead of scraping it, holding her steady instead of dragging her down. Each grain percolates against the pore of her soles; each grain, she can tell apart, pushing and pulling as she pleases in the back of her still half-asleep mind.

  "It's kind of slippery."

  Her sisters are going to be busy today. Megan's positions give her plenty of obligations already, but there is more digging she wants to do into the Agency and how its non-Magical Girl side functions—and if she could start abusing her authority like Star Sentinel does, if only subtly to give them an advantage.

  The dressing down she gave them last afternoon for fucking up sends shivers down Siena's spine as she lazily steps into the shower. The water thankfully helps her wake up some.

  Keisha had a prior commitment with some friends, and she'd use the opportunity to complain and really drive home the point that Star Sentinel had abused her importance in the Agency to get whatever she wants, going so far as to bully a suicidal girl she'd befriended recently. They didn't expect to change the entire culture at the Agency, really, nor did they care to. They just to get a minimal amount of heat on Estelle so she knew there would be consequences to her behavior.

  Siena feels like they've both come to respect her more the past few days, but they still treat her like an afterthought, or someone they need to protect and who can't do anything on her own. She pushes her tongue against the back of her teeth and clasps her upper arm, where her self harm scars lie.

  She doesn't regret the vessel she's picked, nor does she feel remorse for cutting a life short that this girl was willing to throw away. But sometimes, she wishes it was easier to do things. With her utmost priority being her own survival, the monster finds that energy coming easier and easier the more danger she's in. Like when Keisha nearly killed her and everything came effortlessly.

  Thus, as she turns off her showerhead, Siena decides on this:

  She needs to do something today. Maybe multiple things, even!

  It starts slowly, with the simple ordering of breakfast. This seems small, but would have been an unsurmountable mountain just a month ago. It's a simple meal she enjoys in melancholic silence while she tries to remember the Conductor's song. Toast with butter, scrambled eggs that are a little too dry and tasteless, a paper cup of coffee and a bowl of fruit. However, that is enough to get the ball rolling.

  She texts her brother next to check in on him and his mother, but it's business as usual, with Gabriel being content to serve at her every beck and call. When he speaks about himself and something he enjoys, however, he shines brighter than any star. Yesterday, he'd gone out to play a casual game of basketball with his friends and co-workers. Needless to say, his height and size made him a force to be reckoned with.

  Gabby: Theres this girl i like but idk how to approach

  Gabby: I think dshe had a good time tho. how are you doing? homesick alr?

  God, of course he knew. That gets a smile out of her.

  Siena: I cant help you with girl troubles but i hope u do okay. gtg

  One day, she'd free him. Not today. Though the last time he got something close to a girlfriend, their mother picked that relationship apart before it could ever become real.

  Yesterday, she lamented that she hadn't practiced more with her powers in case she needed to escape, and as the days went by this seemed like more and more of a possibility. It is only a matter of time until Golden Promise awakes, and when she does, no one knows what will happen.

  She could stay home for this—there is nothing banning Magical Girls from training in their own time, but Siena figures…

  Siena figures there's some smoothing over to do with Maya after yesterday, and perhaps she can make an impression on the people at Headquarters. There are also classes she needs to sign up for and attend because her past self kept putting them off.

  Yes. That is what she would do today.

  Before that… Siena grimaces at her soot-filled room.

  She needed to clean this up. It'd be quick using her powers.

  —

  Truth be told, the monster's past self didn't experiment a lot with her powers beyond the bare minimum despite their existence giving her a renewed sense of purpose she'd lost—or maybe she'd never had. The memory of the day she got them remains vague in Siena's mind, though the words spoken to her are still fresh.

  Every girl who's been given an implement experiences the same thing. It comes as a vast dream, light pouring in from every direction, a presence too large to comprehend standing over you, and a single question placed within your mind.

  Do you want to fight for your universe?

  Some girls claim they remember having a conversation, but not the contents. Some claim they can pierce through the light and see what Luminaries truly look like, or that they could influence what powers they got in some way through their conversation. Some girls even refuse within the confines of the dream and go about their normal lives. But none of them truly remember anything beyond that question, that booming voice that grips you by the throat and captures your attention forevermore.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Maya is one of these girls who claim that she vaguely remembers talking about her desperation to see new things. Now her eyes with the color and expanse of a beautiful sky always dart throughout the world to catch anything she might find interesting, which makes getting to the training facilities take a little longer than it should have.

  Siena doesn't mind. Anything to smooth things over.

  "I'm surprised you wanted a spar," Maya says as they walk into the massive stadium-like building. "It didn't go great the last time…"

  Ah, yes. The last time, when Maya asked her to train, Siena had a mental breakdown because she couldn't get anything right. She'd been new at using her powers back then, and everything feeling like a word on the tip of her tongue was incredibly frustrating for her depressed mind. As a result, she'd given up on attending her classes—all classes, not just fighting ones.

  "I'm alright. I've been trying to do better recently," she whispers. "Listen, Maya, about yesterday—"

  "Oh, you're fine! I was trying to pry too much, methinks." She smiles and bumps Siena's arm with her elbow. "Plus, you asking me to do this puts a lot of worries to rest. I thought our friendship was a little rocky."

  Siena mirrors her with a smile of her own, half natural half practiced. "You're my only friend in this place. I'd never give you up for the world."

  Maya looks away and twirls with her hair. "You have other friends now; I'm glad. Um, Shadow Lily and apparently Twilight Ember? Which is a crazy pair."

  The ashen-haired girl blinks, remembering that yes, to the outside they were friends. She'd spoken so naturally that she'd forgotten no one knew they were sisters. "They're new. You're… you know, a more secure thing," she lies. "Anyway, I just figured it'd be about time I start taking this stuff seriously. I never want to feel as powerless as I did in Seattle."

  "You did almost die," Maya says. "Most of what we'd have to face before that is small packs of Choristers. And even then—how many Overtures have you been in again?"

  "Three, including Seattle."

  Maya scoffs as they step out of the way of a security automaton. "Yeah."

  The training grounds are multiple rooms constructed from layered alloy reinforced with Essentia, the material threaded through every surface in thin luminous channels that supposedly make it indestructible. Of course, damage has been done to them in the past, the most famous case of this being when Golden Promise accidentally disintegrated one of the rooms when stress testing her powers. Ever since then, she's decided training over the middle of the pacific ocean to be less dangerous for the people around her.

  Everyone knows the story.

  There are a lot of girls using the facilities these days because after Seattle, everyone wants to do their part. From the lobby, Siena catches it all in fragments: the dull thud of impacts, the low crackle of energy, the clashing of implements, the hiss of containment fields engaging, voices shouting counts and corrections, laughter cutting through the noise before being swallowed again by the thick walls.

  It takes a little bit for them to find an empty chamber which makes Maya grumble that with the amount of money they get from congress every year they should have double the number of rooms. As soon as she enters, she starts stretching and jumping and loosening her body. Siena's never done the same before her own fights, but her friend has a much more demanding implement.

  "You have an interesting power, Siena," she says as she plants her feet and rolls her shoulders, lifting one arm over her head and leaning into the stretch. "Usually Magical Girls are a lot more flashy, but fine particles… fit you, I guess."

  "There's comfort in being part of a whole," Siena confirms. "Um, so how do we do this? Do we just… go? When you're done stretching I mean."

  "Same as last time. We touch each other with our implements, that's a point—it helps present turtling. The first to three points wins the match."

  Of course, last time Siena had gotten beaten twice in a row with no victory to her name. Not three, because Maya felt so bad for her she didn't bother doing it a third time. Eventually, the girl finishes her stretches and decides to transform.

  Clear Skies straightens, and her clothes simply change. The fabric lightens, the colors washing into pale blue and white like clouds passing over sunlight. The new uniform settles on her body in loose, flowing lines, light enough that it stirs when she moves because a breeze is always close. White boots form around her calves, reaching just under her pale skirt.

  Siena feels it against her face, too. The joyous breeze, the gentle warmth it holds, the way it whistles in her ears in a way that makes her smile. Just being around the damn girl gives a sense of such freedom it's difficult not to feel a little happy. The room itself feels open and not buried behind layer after layer of reinforced materials. A spear materializes in her hand with a gust of wind, light enough that it barely seems to have weight when she lifts it. The blade is shaped more for speed than impact.

  Siena transforms as well, though hers is far less glamorous. It's grime and dirt and dust, the kind that doesn't leave even after each room is intensely cleaned. It wraps around her and becomes a second skin—no, it becomes her. Her skin, her clothes, her hair, millions upon millions of tiny little things arranged into clothing and the shape of a human body. Her scythe feels right in her hand.

  "I'll count us down. Three…"

  Siena doesn't really think she can beat Maya, but she'll give it the hardest of tries. She needs to get better at this if she wants to live. If—

  "Two…"

  —they have Star Sentinel chasing them across the earth to avenge Golden Promise. If they have the entire Agency ready to kill them at a moment's notice—

  "One…"

  —What would Gabriel think? Abject horror at her not being his real sister. He'd mourn her, cry tears until he couldn't any longer. She doesn't want him to hurt.

  "Go!"

  A burst of wind, and Clear Skies seems to part the world to make way for herself, the tip of her spear seemingly cutting across the air with a visible warp. She's not flying as much as she's letting the wind take her wherever she pleases.

  Siena barely has time to react—dust and soot and dirt fly in every direction from the wind, filling the room with silence and flickering lights—with a firm grip, she brings her scythe up on instinct. The curved blade bites into the rushing current, the ash from her lantern flaring as the wind collides with it, but the spear isn't thrown back.

  Wind. Endless wind, hurricanes and the smell of the sea and the roaring of seagulls and she sees a flash of the ocean. The wind is stopping her dust from getting into Clear Skies' lungs. Maya's hand finds Silent Ash's stomach, and compressed air is released all at once like an explosion, throwing her back.

  Her ears ring, a sharp, hollow sound that swallows everything else. The world lurches, then blurs, the ceiling smearing into the floor as she skids across the room. Her Scythe flies in the opposite direction, but no clang is heard when it hits the wall.

  She's not going to die. She feels so strangely calm, but has no time to think. A dull explosion of compressed air brings Clear Skies right up to her. Her Scythe dissolves in dust, reappearing in her hands—

  Cold Essentia touches Siena's arm. It's Maya's point. Dust falls to the ground.

  "You were nearly there with your Scythe timing. Could have swiped my legs before I touched your arm. A Scythe has such a particular shape…" Maya bends over and rubs her ankle, then offers a hand to lift Siena up. She takes it with a groan—her back hurts. "Ready for round two?"

  The words had barely left her friend's lips when the monster answers. "Absolutely."

  Her friend's eyes widen. "Okay, wow. Someone's excited."

  Twice, two Magical Girls had used speed to take advantage of her, and twice it had worked. There has to be a way to beat them beyond taking their hits and hoping for an opening. Even if she replicates what she'd done against Keisha in Albuquerque, Clear Skies would still win that battle of attrition.

  Her ears feel full when they get back in position. Maya's fast, but she's slower than Shadow Lily. Less experienced. Less efficient or disciplined. She fights with her body behaving like the wind, loose and d

  "Three, two, one, go!"

  Maya rushes again.

  Siena forces herself upright, dust gathering at her heels, the lantern on her scythe coughing out more ash as she steadies her grip. Speed. It's always speed. She can't match it, so she has to change the ground the fight is happening on.

  She drags the blade of her scythe across the floor.

  The soot crests low like a wave, and most of it is dispelled by the wind. The thing about her power, however, is that there's just so much of it, and she can alter it by will. The drifting dust thickens.

  What had been fine ash knots together in midair, clumping, hardening, turning into jagged chunks that drop to the floor and roll, heavy enough that the wind can't push them aside anymore. The fragments surge forward, wrapping around Maya's ankle in a snapping coil. Clear Skies stumbles, the wind faltering as her balance breaks; the spear scrapes the floor as she catches herself.

  In the choking, oppressing darkness, Siena's arm turns to solid soot holding onto her scythe. There are goosebumps all over it; it feels like hers, yet not, but still she extends it further and further, clumping ash turning looser and the shape of her arm losing form the further it gets.

  The scythe taps the tip of Clear Skies' forehead.

  All of this, in less than two seconds. Siena can't move fast, but she can think fast—she has to, to micromanage each fragment of ash like it's an extension of her body. And there's so much of it. Maya had kept it mostly at bay with her wind, but it's everywhere now. The ash pours across the chamber in thick sheets, spilling over the floor, climbing the walls, piling in the corners, the air growing dim and heavy with it. It moves in layers, waves sliding over one another, filling every open space, swallowing the light until the room feels smaller, tighter, buried. What the wind couldn't scatter, it was forced to carve through, leaving long, ragged paths in a sea of black.

  The monster's body loosens and returns to normal. Maya winces and rolls her ankle. "Your win, but… ouch."

  "C—crap!" She hadn't held back enough like Maya had! Was she going to find her out? No way, right? "I'm sorry, I promise I didn't mean it!"

  "It's fine! Might need a little break before round three, though. I really wasn't expecting that trick, but I guess Seattle taught you a few things," her friend says with a grin. "I thought I'd just be able to do what I did again and win like last time. You've improved a lot!" She exhales and lays down on the floor, not bothered by any of the dust. "Let me take five, and then I'll lock in."

  Of course, Siena doesn't expect to win again, but if she can take the win, if she can finally show her growth after so much stagnation to survive—

  There's a burst of commotion beyond the training chamber; girls celebrate so loudly it feels like they're shrieking at times. Maya quickly checks her phone, and nearly lets it drop from her hand. Her mouth agape and her eyes wide, Clear Skies stares at Siena.

  "Golden Promise is awake."