"I'm nearly certain they're still within Fragr. Although it's a failed rift, it couldn't have possibly taken them far. The rift that brought me to Fragr in the first place was a failed one too, and the only reason I landed here was because I intended to land here–just not next to you and Andrew." Talen spoke with quiet certainty while opening yet another shimmering tear in space, stepping through one after another like a man pacing an invisible hallway.
Once he was through the rift, his Nullification pulsed outward at full strength, a muted field of distortion stretching almost two hundred metres around him.
Each time he ignited the Nullification, the other ability, Rift, winked off for an instant, but the openings themselves lingered like slow-healing wounds until the fabric of space reluctantly knitted shut. He had repeated the cycle for twenty restless minutes under Isabella's watchful eye. She kept her distance, a dark silhouette against the skyline, knowing too well that the effect of his Nullification made prolonged closeness uncomfortable, even dangerous.
"I do hope so. I can't sense anything yet." Isabella's voice floated through the comm bead in his ear, calm but tight with worry. "The effect of my ability on him ran out minutes ago and still no sign. I only hope he can restrain himself."
Her words followed him as he stepped from one rift to the next, the soft hiss of the portals closing behind him like the sound of doors in a haunted corridor.
Talen thought back to half an hour ago, when Isabella had looked ready to snap his spine for the smallest misstep. She might seem calmer now, her voice measured, but he wasn't fool enough to test that theory. Suicidal thoughts belonged in the head, not in action.
"Still kind of lost here," he finally said, letting curiosity outpace caution. "What makes Andrew that much of a threat?"
He already knew Andrew was supposedly mad–allegedly–but the claim felt hollow. It was hard to picture the quiet, sharp-eyed Andrew as truly deranged. Maybe he shouldn't be so sure, not when he barely knew the man, but still… madness?
"He's mad?" Isabella echoed, faint puzzlement threading her words. "What other answer do you want?"
"Of course I heard you the first time," Talen replied, sliding into yet another rift. "I'm asking why his madness is dangerous. And how does it tie to the carnage at Grede?"
He timed the next pulse of Nullification with care. If he left it active too long, the distortion would collapse the very rift he needed to pass through. Each jump demanded precision, like threading needles in the dark.
"Have you heard of Dissociative Personality Disorder?" Isabella asked.
She stood on the broken lip of a spiraling skyscraper, the wind tugging at her long coat. Every sense she possessed was sharpened beyond the human range. Her hearing stretched for kilometers, sieving the noise of the city, discarding what she chose not to hear. Her vision sliced through shadow and haze, though Fragr's labyrinthine sprawl limited even that. Smell, she barely used.
But one perception eclipsed all others: the innate Chosen sense, the ability to feel another Chosen's presence. Isabella had trained hers to a razor's edge, far beyond the faint tug most Chosens could manage. Where others felt only a vague awareness of each other, she could pinpoint a Chosen's exact location across vast distances. She was a living compass, a silent radar sweeping the city–and beyond, if she wanted.
"Yeah, I've heard of it," Talen said, his voice a low affirmation.
"Then let me explain it simply." Her brow furrowed, eyes narrowing on some unseen point in the distance before her expression smoothed again. "Sometimes Andrew isn't Andrew. When that happens, that's madness. And here's the part you need to understand: we need Andrew to always be Andrew. Always."
Talen resisted the urge to blurt the a question with the most obvious answer. Andrew is "dissociative"? Of course he wasn't stupid enough to say it aloud.
"I understand," he said instead, his tone carrying a new weight. He kept moving, but each rift he opened now felt a shade more urgent.
He didn't know the full truth of Grede's massacre, only the aftermath: the streets slick with blood, innards flung like careless paint, the quiet horror that no one had survived to tell a coherent tale. Those that did survived hadn't been close enough to witness the nightmare. What little he did know was enough to twist his stomach.
And as the minutes stretched on, Talen began to feel the echo of Isabella's tension seep into him, a growing unease that settled deep, like a storm warning only they could hear.
If she's indeed right about being the one to restrain whatever monstrosity Andrew is, then… I've really messed up this time. Shit! People's lives are at risk here. Shit!
Then Talen's thoughts froze. His mouth opened to ask the most rational question.
"If Andrew is as much of a threat as I imagine him to be, which I know certainly doesn't measure up to what he truly is, why is he still alive? As a matter of fact, why has he been walking around with you when you clearly know the madness he harbors? You said something about him being the cause of the carnage at Grede… So, why is Andrew still alive, Isabella?" Talen's voice lacked the usual restraint it carried around her. This time it was cold and interrogative, attuned to the slightest tremor in her reply.
A silence stretched for several seconds before Talen finally heard her voice come through the other end.
"Just continue with what you are doing, Talen. If you hadn't messed up your rift, we wouldn't have to worry about this. So just continue with what you were doing. I'm not in the mood to give answers."
It was stern, a compulsive force following her statement.
Talen stopped in his tracks and shifted the effect of his Nullification toward resisting the intangible compulsion. He instantly nullified it.
He stood there, his gaze turned toward Isabella's general direction. He couldn't see her, but he could deduce that she could see, or at least perceive him clearly. It wasn't even a matter of deduction; she had stated herself that she could sense the exact location of Chosens. Of course she knew he was looking her way, and his gaze was anything but friendly.
"I know I messed up, but the question is, why the hell do you have a ticking time bomb on you? What the hell is going on here? And please, do not try to use your ability on me again. I'm not oblivious to its other effects; I choose to accept them." Talen's tone was different now–openly antagonistic.
"Talen… go back to what you were doing. If you desire an answer, I shall give you one after we've found Andrew. Key word: Andrew." Isabella didn't try to compel him this time. Her voice sounded almost normal.
"Fuck no! I want—"
Before he could finish, a hand tore through empty air and struck him hard across the cheek.
Talen felt his jaw nearly dislocate as he was flung off the roof of a duplex–loosely attached to several other fancy-looking buildings–and onto the protruding side of another structure some distance away.
"Do not make me repeat myself again, Talen. Continue with your assigned task, and I might decide on whether I desire to satisfy your curiosity or not." Isabella now stood where Talen had been moments ago, staring down at him with her venomous green eyes, their menace clear even beneath the bright noon sun.
"What are you going to do? Kill me? Go ahead. Go ahead and kill me while knowing full well that you let someone like Andrew, someone who has done things inhumane, someone who has innumerable stains of human lives on his hand, live. I thought you were the good guys. I thought you were going to be the 'heroes' who would finally save the people from the madmen who call themselves 'Chosens.' I thought you were different, but it seems I'm wrong. You're all the same. The power has eaten away your humanity—"
The rest of his words caught in his throat as he suddenly found his neck locked in Isabella's inhuman grip.
The absolute hell! Talen was stunned.
Isabella hadn't rifted to him, instead, she had forcefully rifted him from his own position. This wasn't like his Rift, which others could enter if they wished. This was more akin to how Isabella always rifted, except this time he was the one compelled to rift.
She can force others to rift wherever she wants without rifting alongside them? Isn't hers far more convenient and with fewer limitations than mine? This is unfair!
As these thoughts tore through his mind, the countless possibilities of the nature of Isabella's Rift flooding his mind, Isabella's nails dug into his neck as she effortlessly lifted his body closer to her face.
"Are you done? Because if you aren't, I've found 'their' location. You'd better pray your Nullification works properly on him. Have I made myself clear?" No emotion flickered behind those eyes. Isabella was also… mad?
"Yes," Talen managed to answer as she released her grip.
"The moment we rift in, I'm going to amp your Nullification to the maximum you can handle. Since you can't choose a specific target, you're to release the effect instantly into the entire area you can cover, to the absolute limit. Do you understand?"
Isabella pulled him upright as her cold gaze returned. And within those venomous eyes churned something beyond coldness… insanity itself.
"I understand."
"Alright then." And with that, they were both gone. No spatial fluctuation, just a gentle erasure as if they'd never been present in the first place.
Within seconds, the city of Fragr was about to experience the most transformative event in the past several millennia of its existence.