"I know," Five Days' Darkness said, "that you think of yourself as stupid. Harmony's example is of little help to you because she is a Twilight, and you a Night. I understand this."
Faith nodded, not speaking. Five was only a god. He didn't know what it was like to grow up with a drunken mother. To fail your classes again and again because there was no way to study. To be told over and over how dumb you were. He didn't know.
"The beginning of all knowledge is sense experience, Faith, and charms to enhance your senses come easily to Nights. If you open your eyes, your mind will surely follow."
Faith sat with her legs crossed. Her eye was open. What else was she supposed to see?
"Never forget, Faith, that I am only a guide. The power comes from within you. Now...look." Five took her hand and held it in front of her face. "Look."
It was her hand! What was she supposed to-?
In her mind's eye her hand separated into a million pieces. Skin. She saw skin. Thousands of tiny segments, pores and hairs wedged between them. The whorled ridges of her prints. Veins just beneath the surface, throbbing ever so faintly. The fine twitches of individual fibers of muscle. The hidden sculptures of bone.
She dropped her hand away, but the details remained. It was impossible not to see them. She could see the threads in her clothes. She could see the lines on the paneled walls across the room. She could see...Five Days' Darkness was smooth, like he wasn't any substance at all. "Shit. And I thought my eyesight was good before."
A click, and the room shifted. Tones went a little muted. Shadows were just a touch darker. Five had turned off the lights. "Shit. This is some Superman shit here."
"Wait'll you see how Daredevil has it," Five said. "Well, if he weren't blind. Many things in science are not as easy as mere passive observation, and yet if humans could see germs with the naked eye, for instance-"
What if she were to lose the other eye somehow? Faith closed the one that remained and focused again. "Faith, what are you doing? Sensory acuity only begins with the sense organs, and even an Exalted brain doesn't adjust instantly the first time."
Dust and old sweat and incense and cleaner fluids exploded in her nose, followed by a subtler smell, musty and dank, that seemed to emanate from Five Days' Darkness. Faith leapt up and grabbed her Pepsi. Caramel? It was caramel this stuff tasted like? Cola nut, sugar, a half-scent like...stale air, only nice somehow? Carbonation, she was smelling the carbonation. She cracked open a can of Coke without waiting and was rewarded by a slightly stronger version of the same. She poured the stuff into her mouth. Sweeter. Not much difference otherwise. Kind of disappointing really.
"Faith? Hold your horses. I know this must be a rush-" Hell yes it was a rush! Bad smells were still bad, but nothing smelled worse except to make it...um, smellable at all. Everything else was intensely better. She lifted her shirt to smell the fabric. Cotton. Flowery chemical residue still in there. Hell, she lifted her arm and sniffed her own pit like a dog. Even that wasn't bad. Kind of familiar but not. "Faith, you might not want to-" She closed her eye again, then thought for a moment and held her nose. "Faith!"
Whispers became roars, then damped down again, a weird staccato effect as her senses struggled briefly to compensate. Traffic outside rose to audible volume, followed by conversations that somehow failed to overlap. There was a moment of intense chafing that passed but left her feeling every crease, every seam, every threadof her clothes.
"Faith, this may not have been wise." Five's tones were sufficiently human to convey meaning, but she could suddenly hear the absence of overtones and undertones, making his voice strangely flat. Mini-breezes flitted past her skin. She could hear her breathing, her heartbeat, the motion of her guts, the faint creak of her joints. None of that from Five. His body was fake in a lot of ways, and she could count them all one by one.
Amy: perspiration, more chemical flowers, strange ozone something. B-bot, her oil scent oddly faint but definitely there. "I'm sorry about my costume but there was a fight with three Fyarl demons and they tore it and covered it in sticky gunk and-"
"It's okay, I promise. Chill. We'll make you a new one." Sex? Someone was turned on. Oops, that was Faith. Damn this was wild.
Amy finally stepped through the door and Faith seized her by the arm. "Holy crap we need to screw."
Amy stared at her. "Faith? Are you stoned?" Worry. Amy was worried for her. Her muscles shifted as she spoke, changing the shadow patterns on her face.
"Stones?" B-bot wondered. "She's not bruised at all." The motors under her face flexed her obvious plastic skin in unnatural ways.
"I'm not stoned but I should be. Holy shit Ames get me some weed. Hell, get me some acid."
"Faith has decided it's a good idea to amplify all of her senses at once," Five Days' Darkness cut in. "While this won't be the standard effect, her brain is still lagging just a bit from overload."
"Faith? Are you sniffing me?"
Faith tried to say she was sorry, but her voice had turned sugary-sweet in her mouth. Amy spoke again. Her words were green and salty. Faith squinted to see them better.
B-bot opened her mouth and everything went black.
Chapter 51-Brains and Bondage
"Faith? Are you with us, Faith?" A silvery light was shining in her eye. Kate. Her caste mark was stabilizing. This month it had shifted almost to half but it was changing back.
"Here," she said. Her mouth was dry. Everything was dull, flat, colorless, and bland. Not permanent. Well, maybe that was for the best. "Things started turning...wrong. People looked...floral and sounded red and smelled high-pitched."
"You had a bout of extreme synaesthesia," Five said. "You can't overload an Exaltation, but under certain circumstances you can overload the person attached to it. Don't worry. Next time you do that, your Exaltation will have its compensatory mechanisms ready. Please don't try it again next time you upgrade your senses, though."
"There's another upgrade? Hot damn!"
"Fortunately you'll have to develop your natural powers of observation a bit more." All the people around her gave relieved sighs. "Faith, this was not a particularly smart thing to do."
"Ya think?" Faith shook her head regretfully. There were things about her not even Exaltation could change.
"It's purely a matter of self-confidence," Five Days' Darkness explained. "Harmony believed, deep down, that she could better herself, though she had a crisis while serving as alembic. Her Exaltation amplified the traits it was meant to, at first without her conscious direction or opposition. Faith is the opposite. At her core, she doesn't believe herself capable or deserving of greater intellect. She doesn't try hard enough, so her Exaltation fails to provide."
"Should we even worry about this right now?" Robin asked. "The election's less than a month away."
"Faith's the strongest of us," Kate reminded him. "In principle she's more powerful than Lilah. But Lilah out-thinks and out-plans us at every turn. Odds are Faith could snap her neck like a twig, but something always stops her from coming to grips and the more I think about it the more likely it seems that Lilah has all of it planned out."
"If we can't figure out her game she'll just keep checkmating us," Amy said.
"And if we do figure it out?" Robin countered. "What then?"
"Yahtzee!" Harmony said, smiling.
"Harm has it," Sam agreed. "We can't just meet her strategy; we have to change the game to something we can win."
"And to do that, we need to get our strongest member firing on all cylinders," Shoat said. "So...if anyone has an idea let's hear it."
"Faith's already tried strategy," Amy said. "It didn't work out for her and that's part of what's got her wrecked now."
"Any other smart person stuff she's good at?" Oz asked.
"Demons," Lorne said. "Girl knows her paranatural phenomena. And maybe I can get her to sing for me."
"It's a long shot," Amy said, "but can we initiate her as a witch? That might convince her, and it's different enough not to trip her up on being 'educated'."
"Books of sorcery on tap here," Kate said. "It's worth a try."
Riley shrugged. "So let's bring on the demons."
"Hey darlin' gonna make it happen/Get the world in a love embrace/Fire all of your guns at once..." Faith trailed off. "I never realized how silly this sounds till I sang it without the music."
"Go on," Lorne urged. "You're doing fine." Her singing voice was only passable, which was a relief after hearing Amy and Harmony's clearly-unnatural improvement.
Faith pretended to strum a guitar-at least, Lorne thought that was what she was doing. "Fire all of your guns at once/And explode into space/Like a true nature's child/We were born, born to be wild/We can climb so high/I never want to die/Born to be wild/Born to be wild..."
Lorne scratched at his horns. "I can say this much: you have a lot of future ahead of you. Maybe plan on making it a good one."
"Got any advice for that?" Faith frowned at him, but she was only mildly irritated. At worst she might behead him.
He shrugged. "A little light reading?"
"Will she even look at these?" Harmony dropped a stack of books onto the table.
Five Days' Darkness winced and removed the second one down. "Not this one. Some things are better lost."
"Like what?" Harm asked, peering at his face.
"There's too much necromancy in the world," Five said, "but no one's been able to reach past the Iron Circle in millennia." He hefted the book. "That could change if we're unlucky. Can I trust you to burn this?"
Harm nodded solemnly. "You got it." She took the heavy tome from him. Faith being a necromancer was about as scary as it got. "Anything better?"
"Hmm. This is listed as the 'Grand Grimoire', but in truth it reminds me of a heavily altered copy of the White Treatise." He closed it and held it out. "Perhaps it's merely similar due to similar subject matter. See what she thinks of this. Don't tell her precisely what it is. I'm certain she'd balk."
Harmony took it, taking careful note of which one it was. No good giving the necromancy book to Faith.
"So I'm trying to plan out a last-minute agenda," Sam explained. "We can't let Lilah win. I'm no Bush fan either, which means our best bet is a tightly-targeted assassination. Got any ideas?"
"Treat it like a high-profile slay," Faith said. "In and out, leave no evidence. We'll have to make sure there's no body. And get past the Secret Service. Can't use a bomb or shotgun or anything like that; too much chance of hitting our boy Al."
"We can't assume she's useless at close-quarters fighting," Sam pointed out, targeting Faith with her rifle. "We don't know much about what powers she might have developed by now, and Five Days' Darkness think she used the Black Claw martial arts style to force Joe Biden out."
"What about poison?" Faith asked. "It's not exactly in the Slayer handbook, but what the hell, I'm not exactly a Slayer, right?" Sam fired, but Faith had already kicked a manhole cover into the air, and the bullet ricocheted away. "Honestly we need to plan a series of attempts right up to Election Day. We don't know what she might be immune to."
"We can't get caught during any of that," Sam reminded her, taking aim again.
Faith held up one finger. "We need an inside man. Got a cardboard soldier we can replace a Secret Service agent with on hand?"
Sam laughed nervously. "I don't like the way you think, Faith, but it ought to work."
Harm entered the training room. "Hey, Faith, got a minute? I found a ritual we might use to take Lilah out of the running."
Faith blinked, then frowned. "Why not give it to Amy? She's the witch."
"She doesn't have the power to use it, Faith. You do though." Harm held up the book. "Just take a look at it and tell us what you think."
Faith took the book as if it were a dead fish. "What've I got to lose?"
"Nothing," Harmony said cheerfully. "Buffy used to do rituals like this all the time." She glanced at the other book in her hand. "Gotta go burn this. See ya later!" She trotted off.
"Burning books," Sam said. "It better be something important."
Faith held up the book in her hand and sighed. "I better go. I'll be all night on this."
Five Days' Darkness sat there watching her as if he were thoroughly uninterested, but Harmony knew better. He was definitely hiding something, and he wouldn't be doing that if he didn't care. The question was what he was interested in, and he didn't show enough human reaction to figure that out.
"She said she'd try, but she didn't sound like she expected to do it."
Five sighed. "Trying to initiate a doubtful candidate into sorcery is always a long shot. There have been important Night caste sorcerors before, but Faith doesn't fit their profile. No reaction by comparing her to Buffy?"
"An eensy bit. Not sure it was positive though." Faith just sounded defeated to her.
"Buffy is a rival, but one she's generally felt was more competent and morally better than her. Persuading her to compete will usually be a toss-up." Five leaned forward. "What of you? Any decisions on what to pursue?"
Harm shrugged. "Like, nothing you've told us about has anything to do with modern technology. Have you got anything about First Age machines?"
"I have my memory," Five said, "and little more. But what I remember I will offer you. Your society is about equal to that of the Shogunate technologically, and yet has no command of essence-indeed, it seems to reject magic utterly. It would be interesting to see what happens when the two are combined. You did burn that necromancy book, though?"
Harmony nodded. "I did. Seems kind of a shame, though. And I've read a lot lately about not being able to suppress knowledge forever. Are you sure-?"
"Harmony, I doubt we can suppress it forever. I will take what time I can buy, however. Necromancy is not a kind or good art. It had its uses, but few of them were worth the harm done."
Harmony shrugged. "Whatever you say, big guy. I prolly couldn't make it work anyway." She turned and strolled away.
Faith threw the book at Amy's face. It halted inches away as Faith snarled, "I can't do this! Why did you people even give me that thing?"
"Faith, stop, please! This wasn't about embarrassing you!" Amy was ready to yank Faith into the air if she had to, but that'd be a major escalation she wasn't ready for just yet.
"I just...Ames, I'm a weapon. I sneak around and I hit things till they die. Just point me where you want me to go already! Tell me to go kill Lilah and I'll go, tell me to blow up the White House, just tell me what you want me to do!"
"Faith," Amy said, her voice cracking, "you're a human being, and you have huge powers. You need to make your own decisions. You can't just let people give you orders."
"No! No, damnit! You don't understand what happens when I do my own thing, Amy!" Faith picked up a dagger and slammed its blade straight into the table. "There is something wrong with me. It's made me a murderer already, and being smart won't fix it, it'll only make it worse. I'm...I'm cursed, Amy. Everything I do turns to shit."
I know my curses, Amy. She's not cursed.
"You're not cursed, Faith. You've made some bad decisions- mostly listening to the mayor is what I heard-but you're just you." Amy held out her hand. "Just calm down. Tell me...tell me what you want. Seriously, just make a wish. Free offer here. Would you rather be stronger? Prettier? Better at anything you want, Faith. Just ask."
"You can't do that." It wasn't often you heard Faith's voice waver that way. When she was confused and angry, sure. But really, truly uncertain? Not much. "You're an Exalted, but you're not a genie."
"Maybe I am. If ordinary vengeance demons can warp reality, the Old Ones must have been able to, right?" Amy raised her hand and snapped her fingers. "Why didn't they just wipe the Exalted out of existence? Because we could do it too. Right? Now tell me what you want."
Faith scoffed. "Okay, make me able...to...speak Chinese."
Amy thought of telling her there was more than one Chinese language, then just settled on Mandarin. She was pretty sure she could do that. "Done." She snapped her fingers again.
Faith spoke. At least, Amy thought she spoke. "I said, didn't work." Faith said as if wondering why Amy didn't understand.
"Say it again." Amy didn't know any Mandarin herself. Faith could be faking for some reason.
Faith made what Amy thought were probably the same sounds, but more slowly. She frowned and put her hand on her mouth. That's Mandarin,Hallie said. Now she's cursing. What a dirty mouth.
"I'm speaking English now...right?" Faith said this very slowly and carefully. "My head hurts like it's fill..." She lapsed into gibberish again...so far as Amy could tell.
Nope. Horrifying accent, though. She says her head's filling up. I suppose it is.
"Faith? Hey, give it a moment to settle out. You just went bilingual. That's big." Amy touched her shoulder, and Faith didn't flinch back.
"Try," Faith said, still focusing on moving her lips carefully.
"I know you're trying," Amy began.
Faith shook her head furiously. "Hablo Español asi asi," she said even more carefully. Hallie was right; her Southie accent sounded atrocious. "Don't like remembering mom's boyfriends, though, so I only speak it when I gotta. It's nothing special. Grew up with it."
"Still. The point is-"
"Tthe point is you don't want me running around with the power to screw with reality, or people's heads. You can not !#;..." Faith shook her head angrily. "...can't trust me."
"The only thing I don't trust you on, Faith, is filling up your brain too damn fast." Amy shook her head. "Faith, most of your mistakes have been about giving up your right to decide. First to that Post lady you talked about, then to the mayor. You've been irresponsible on your own, sure. Learn from that. But the closest you've ever been to evil is when you let other people run your life. Stop saying you're stupid, Faith. You are not. Uneducated? Sure. You are not stupid. Or you'd be dead by now."
"I'm no genius either," Faith muttered.
"You don't have to be," Amy said, taking her by the shoulder. "But if what Five says is right, then...you've got as much as three thousand years ahead of you." She didn't mention what he'd said about her-that the Infernals who hadn't become copies of the Yozis had suddenly dropped dead at a hundred-fifty or so. That was stlll plenty of time, she guessed. "That's a long time to be dumb."
Faith gaped. Hadn't she asked at all? "Three...hundred, right? You meant three hundred?"
Amy shook her head. "In the First Age, some Solars lived longer than that. They were working on ways to live forever."
Faith sat down hard on the floor. Amy crouched down next to her, but she didn't seem to notice. "What the hell am I gonna do with three thousand years? I was planning for like, five, maybe six or seven if I was lucky. Three..." Faith lapsed back into Mandarin.
Amy interrupted her again, this time with a kiss. Maybe that would hold her attention. "In three thousand years, you could learn a lot. Magic. Science. Everything. You are not stupid. And if you were, you wouldn't have to stay that way."
Faith stared at her blankly. "What the hell am I gonna do? Do all Exalted live that long?"
Amy shrugged. "Not the Dragon-Blooded. But even they don't get old till maybe five or six hundred. Abyssals like Shoat can live forever. In theory, anyway." She kissed Faith again. "If you want to die, I can help with that."
Faith raised her eyebrows at that. "Tryin' to teach me French? I'll teach you French." She slipped her tongue past Amy's lips, then broke away again. "I'll keep trying. Sorry for doubting you about Chinese."
"Be sorrier for doubting yourself. And let's find somewhere more private."
Faith winked. "Do we gotta?"
Amy considered that, then slipped a telekinetic tendril under Faith's shirt. "Not if you don't wanna."
Harmony finished scanning the last few pages into the computer. That was that. She tossed the book into a metal bucket, added some loose paper, and set it alight as promised.
She was just curious. Besides, you had to be initiated to actually use this magic, according to Five Days' Darkness, and she wasn't, so there wasn't any danger just knowing it. Right? When she was done reading, she'd delete it. No harm done, ha ha.
Harm turned off the news-something about rumors that Faith was dating Britney Spears! lol nope-opened the document and began to read. "The Book of the Names of the Dead. Huh." This was gonna be a pretty good night.