I woke up to the sound of an industrial grinder and the smell of reheated coffee. For a second, my sleepy mind thought I was in my father's workshop on the farm. But when I opened my eyes and saw network cables dangling from the ceiling like plastic vines, reality hit.
I was in The Hive.
I got up from the mattress on the floor. My right arm, now "turned off" and invisible beneath my t-shirt sleeve, felt light. Faísca, my spiritual dog, was sleeping (or the spiritual equivalent of it) on top of my backpack, looking like a pile of golden glitter at rest.
I walked to the common area. The warehouse was in full activity.
"Morning, Princess of Light," Mel greeted, without taking her eyes off the baseball bat she was modifying. She was wrapping a copper wire around the barbed wire. "Sleep well under the protection of your own Gift?"
"Better than on the street," I replied, grabbing a cup of black coffee. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to get this crap to hold more Fervor," she grumbled, frustrated. "I charge the bat with my will, infuse the energy, but after two strikes it 'goes cold.' You Chosen don't have that problem. Your faucet is always open."
I sat down next to her. I observed her aura. Mel was a powerful Awakened, but she was trying to force the power into the object with anger, by brute force.
"You're doing it wrong," I said.
Mel stopped and looked at me with an arched eyebrow, the "who do you think you are?" look.
"Oh yeah? Then teach me, oh great Chosen one."
"It's not irony, Mel. Look." I put my cup on the floor. "On the farm, when we want to take water from the river to the pond, we don't push the water. We dig the channel and let it flow. Fervor is the same."
I extended my left hand (the human one) and touched her bat.
"You're trying to force the Fervor into the metal. You have to invite the object to accept your faith." I closed my eyes. "What is your philosophy, Mel? Why do you fight?"
"Because the system is garbage and I don't want to be crushed," she replied quickly. Survival. Rebellion.
"Then not so much hate. Use your will for freedom. Feel the bat as an extension of that freedom."
Mel scoffed, but closed her eyes. Her aura shifted. It stopped being an erratic, red spike and became a constant vibration. The bat began to hum. The barbed wire glowed with a stable crimson light, not aggressive, but firm.
"Holy cow..." Jão, a skinny kid who managed the plumbing, stopped to watch. "The glow isn't flickering."
Mel opened her eyes and smiled. A genuine smile.
"It lasted longer," she spun the weapon. The trail of light remained in the air. "Okay, country girl. Point for you."
"Now it's my turn," I said, standing up. "I know how to charge a battery, but I don't know how to fight in your jungle."
"True," Mel stood up, resting the bat on her shoulder. "You fight like a tank with the high beams on. On the street, against Alencar, that's suicide. They'll see you from miles away."
"So what do you suggest?"
"Guerrilla warfare," Mel walked to the center of the warehouse, where there was an improvised obstacle course with pallets and car carcasses. "You use your arm to make giant shields and brilliant tethers. It's beautiful, but indiscreet. Can you make something... smaller?"
I stood still in the middle of the "arena."
"The light of Aureus is expansive," I explained. "Its nature is to occupy space, to push away the shadow."
"Then contradict your nature," Mel challenged. "If you want to survive Vitor's assassins, you need a light that doesn't blind, but that cuts. You need focus."
I took off my jacket. The golden glow flooded the place.
"Try to climb that container over there," Mel pointed to a metal structure five meters high. "Without using the ladder. And without lighting up the whole warehouse."
I took a deep breath. Control.
"Tether." I conjured the bond.
The light exploded, whipping the air. The entire warehouse lit up.
"Failed!" Mel shouted. "If this were a stealth invasion, the sniper would have already taken you down. Dim the shine! Condense the mass!"
Frustrated, I undid the tether. I tried again. I imagined the light not as a sun, but as a laser. A golden sewing thread.
My arm hurt. Holding back the expansion of Aureus required more faith than releasing it. It required iron discipline.
"Thinner... denser..." I murmured.
The light began to retract. Instead of a thick, radiant whip, a thin, almost solid cable formed, with a matte glow. It was less "divine" and more "functional."
I threw the cable. It snagged on the edge of the container with a dry, almost silent snap.
"Better," Mel approved. "Now climb."
I pulled. I didn't have the physical strength to hoist myself with one arm, so I used the retraction of the tether to pull myself up. I flew upwards, landing awkwardly on top of the metal.
"Not bad for a first try!" I shouted from above.
"It's not over!" Mel kicked a tire below. "Enemy at six o'clock! React!"
I spun my body around. There was no real enemy, but I understood the exercise.
"Flash!" I instinctively released the containment I was holding.
The condensed light on my arm expanded all at once in a fraction of a second. A strobe flash blinded everyone in the warehouse. I heard Mel swear and cover her eyes.
When their vision returned, I had already jumped off the container and was behind her, my human hand touching her shoulder.
"Dead," I whispered.
Mel blinked, wiping tears from her dazzled eyes.
"Incredible…!" she laughed, impressed. "Okay. You learn fast. A light grenade to the face. I like it."
The sound of slow clapping came from the entrance of the computer lab. Lucas was there, holding a tablet, with deep circles under his eyes but an electric gaze.
"The training was beautiful, but playtime is over," he said, serious.
Mel, the others, and I gathered around him.
"What did you find, Lucas?" I asked, wiping sweat from my forehead.
"Remember that concrete truck that left the construction site the night you faced Vitor?" Lucas slid his finger across the screen, showing a satellite tracking map. "I managed to follow its route through the toll system. It didn't go to take debris to the landfill."
"Where did it go?"
"To a customs warehouse near the Port of Santos[1]. But the cargo register says it was empty." Lucas looked at me. "Except the road radiation sensors went off. Concentrated Entropy. They are moving the 'core' of the failed ritual."
I felt a chill. Vitor hadn't given up. He was just changing the party's location.
"If they open a rift that size..." I started.
"...they won't need to drain one watcher," Mel completed, hitting the bat against her hand. "They'll drain an entire neighborhood."
I looked at my "herd." Awakened with scrap weapons, but with the will to survive. And me, a Chosen with dirty boots and a tether that now knew how to be silent.
"Lucas, what's the security like at that warehouse?" I asked.
"Heavy. Mercenaries, cameras, and probably more of those paid Awakened."
I smiled, and felt my right arm vibrate, not with the anxiety of fear, but with the certainty of purpose.
"Great." I looked at Mel. "You wanted to see urban guerrilla warfare? We're going to test that bat of yours in the field."
"Are we going to invade?" Jão asked, his voice shaking a little.
"No," I replied, closing my fist and condensing the light until it turned into just a golden ring on my finger. "We're going to do a surprise audit. And I don't think the Alencar Construction Company is going to pass this inspection."
[1] The Port of Santos is an estuary port located in the municipalities of Santos, Guarujá, and Cubatão, in the state of São Paulo. It is the main Brazilian port, the largest port complex in Latin America, and one of the largest in the world.