The Fence

Chapter 16: Levitation

"Do you remember how you made Sutikka levitate, Marcus?"

I don't know how to describe it. When I was out in that arena fighting Luci, Sutikka and I were quickly trying to come up with some sort of gameplan. When we finally decided to combine our strengths to match Luci's speed, we were in sync. We knew what each other was thinking. When I had stepped onto Sutikka's silver blade, it felt like a chain was locked around my ankle and around Sutikka's staff. Our bond was the thing keeping me safe, and it had to be our combined strengths that gave us the ability to levitate.

I must've taken too long to answer because Grey suddenly continues to talk. "In order for your weapon to read and know what you're thinking, the bond between you has to be strong. Your relationship with Sutikka is off the charts. No one's ever connected with a weapon so easily and so quickly."

I lift my eyebrows in surprise. "No one?"

Grey looks thoughtful for a moment, as if remembering an old, happy memory. "Well, there was one other person."

"Who?" I inquire sharply, abruptly feeling competitiveness wash over me like a wave. "Ayumi? Axel? Rin?"

"No."

"You?" I ask, intending for it to be a joke. My chuckle slowly fades away when his eyes light up, although his expression stays the same.

"It was you," I repeat, confident in my answer this time. "Really? What was your weapon?"

Grey reaches behind him to grab something from his pocket, coming back with a small, round marble. "You remember this, right?" he says, pressing his thumb gently to the button resting on top. Six legs sprout from the side of the small marble, allowing the weapon to start its ascent up Grey's shoulder.

"Of course," I reply, watching the insect resting on his body. I think to the other day when he used it to calm me down, letting it crawl up my own arms. "Are you saying this was your first weapon? I thought you don't get one until you become a mentor."

"I had the chance to beta test one," Grey answers, prying the weapon's legs away from the material of his black shirt. "As hard as it is to believe, this is just a prototype. The late Chancellor wanted me to try one out for him."

"What an honor," I say, trying to imagine the scene in my head. "Does it have a name?"

"Light," he responds, throwing the small orb into the air beside him. I stare up at the marble as it floats next to his head. "I just told her to levitate for me, Marcus. She can because of our bond."

"Amazing..." I murmur.

"There comes to be a point when you can tell your weapon to do crazy things for you, and your bond will be so strong that they can actually accomplish those crazy things. Like levitation, for example. If I tell Light to transform into a scythe, she can. The reasons? She has the technology to do that for me, whereas other non-orb insect weapons cannot. And, our bond is powerful enough to support us."

Grey holds out his hand, and right on cue, Light drops from the air and into his palm. He closes his eyes for a brief second, and then Light is burning with a white hue. I watch in anticipation as the ball quickly spreads into the long staff of a scythe, decorated with a sharp blade.

I hear Grey huffing a laugh to himself, as if almost in awe of his own abilities. He quickly allows himself the balance he needs to stand on the blade of his newly formed scythe, and before I know it he's leaning forward and zooming away. He goes right by leaning right; left by leaning left.

In a sudden burst of excitement, I set Sutikka down softly and step onto Sutikka's large, silver blade. I close my eyes, allowing myself to focus, and trying to remember exactly how we'd levitated before.