Book 2: The Trialborn Legacy

They collected themselves before standing to survey the lobby. Tess had already confirmed that they were alone in the small waiting area so they took advantage of the reprieve to recover. The small waiting area was a square, a few dozen feet in each direction, with standard office chairs neatly lined against the walls. There was a small table with a coffee pot that was, to everyone's surprise, filled with freshly brewed, steaming coffee. The walls were floor-to-ceiling screens that simulated windows showing the picturesque landscape surrounding the power plant.

"Hey!" Tess said. "Don't touch that!"

Zavier looked at her guiltily and set the Styrofoam cup of coffee back on the table. "It's been so long, Tess!" he whined. "It smells amazing!"

"You don't know what's in that, or did you not find it suspicious that it was prepared for us while we were standing outside the door?"

Zavier looked at her, looked back down at the coffee, looked at her again, then slumped down in a chair next to the coffee pot.

"Don't pout. We'll find coffee when we get out of here and you can have all the non-poisoned coffee you want. Until then, no drinking anything that just appears out of nowhere!"

"Kids," she turned to them. "How are you doing?"

"I'm a little drained, but other than that I'm good," Cass said.

"Good. You think you can do your speedster thing again soon?"

He concentrated then shook his head. "I feel it recharging, but it's not ready yet. I might be able to get a step or two, but that's it."

Tess nodded. "Okay, let me know when you feel charged up. And start keeping a mental timer on how long you can go full-out. I'm betting we're going to need your speed again soon and I want to know exactly how long it lasts." She smiled internally at the pride Cass was obviously feeling for his part in the battle to get here.

She turned to Luna. "How are you doing?"

The girl was sitting awkwardly in one of the chairs, feet tucked under her legs and a thousand-yard stare in her eyes. "Uh… okay I guess?"

Tess sat down in the chair next to Luna, her gaze steady. "Speak up. What's going on?"

Luna shook her head, forcing a wide smile. "Nothing! I'm good. Can we go now?"

"Luna, stop it. I know the difference between your real smiles and your fake ones. We're not walking into a dangerous situation without knowing that we're all in top shape. We might not get another chance to talk like this, so we're doing it now. What's bothering you?"

Luna paused, collecting her thoughts before she spoke. "I just didn't do anything out there. I mean, yeah, I got us in here, and I know that was important, but I didn't control it. It just... happened. What happens next time, if my luck doesn't hold up? I can't rely on luck every time. Eventually you're going to depend on me, and I won't be able to pull it off."

Tess opened her mouth to console her but stopped herself. False assurances wouldn't do right now - Luna had a valid point.

"Huh," Tess said thoughtfully. "I hadn't considered that. And you're right. We've been relying on your luck in key moments, and that's... lazy. Maybe presumptuous? Either way, we've been putting it on you to get us out of tough situations, when we should've been planning for those moments without relying on your luck. But on the flip side, we do need to rely on it sometimes. You need to keep developing your luck skills and you'll only do that by using them. We just have to account for the fact that sometimes, they won't work. From now on, we'll only use them in do-or-die situations—when there's literally no other choice."

"You're starting to sound like dad!"

Tess laughed, rubbing Luna's arm. "That's not so bad, he's a smart guy." A thought occurred to her then. "Can you feel your Luck in the same way that Cass can feel his speed?"

That got Cass's interest and he moved to sit next to Luna as well.

"I, uh… I never thought about that. Let me see…" Her face screwed up in concentration. "I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for… I think…" Luna leaned forward, putting her hands on her knees - just as a small rock bounced off the wall behind where her head had been a second before.

Tess, Luna, and Cass all jerked their heads upward to glare at Zavier, who was sitting with a smug smile on his face. "Hey, it worked didn't it? She dodged it without realizing!"

Tess glared at him then looked back at Luna. "So, did it work?"

"It did, I felt something - but not like it's a resource that I can use up. More like it's something that happened and I can feel the ripple of it just as it's happening. I didn't realize it in the moment, but now I can remember how it felt."

"Can you control it?"

"I don't think so," her tone was not confident. "But it does feel like maybe there was something I could grab ahold of? I think I'd have to be paying attention and be super quick, it happens when I'm not thinking about it and it's usually crazy fast, but maybe I can?"

Tess sighed. "Well, it seems like it's not something we can rely on then. Keep practicing and do what you just said, but for now we'll assume you won't get lucky and plan around that."

Luna's face fell but she nodded her head in understanding.

"In that case," Tess's hand flashed and a knife flew across the room, cutting the bottom off the coffee cup that Zavier was just about to sip from. "I think it's time we get going."

Zavier set the bottomless cup on the table, scowling at the hot coffee staining his crotch.

They stood and moved to stand in front of a tablet that was mounted on a pedestal in front of the wall, opposite the door they entered through. Zavier looked back and realized that he couldn't see the entry door anymore - the picturesque scenes from outside had been projected over it and it blended seamlessly with the wall. They were in a box without an obvious way out.

He looked down at the tablet.

PLACE HAND ON TABLET TO PROCEED

He and Tess looked at each other. "I don't like this."

She nodded in agreement before looking under and around the tablet, then poked it gently with her knife. "It doesn't seem to have any obvious booby traps."

"That doesn't reassure me," Zavier said. "There's all kinds of System Fuckery that could be happening here."

"You old people are so scared of tech!" Cass squeezed between them and slapped his hand on the tablet before they could stop him. A light shone on the screen for an instant before the wall in front of them showed a picture of Cass's, the image as big as the entire wall. Text appeared in front of it.

Cassian Torres

Level: 10

Class: Shield Acolyte

Please name one skill, spell, or ability that you possess that is not shared by any other members of your group.

"Oh fuck that!" Zavier said and Cass pulled his hand away. The instant he did a loud buzzer sounded and the screen in front of them turned red, the text still visible. The voice of a young girl sounded all around them.

"Refusal to comply will result in harsh punishments. Each member of your group must meet the requirements to enter or your group will be denied access and removed from the building."

"Level requirements?" Zavier asked. "Hey computer, what are the level requirements?"

Silence followed his questions.

"Okay, so does someone else go next?" He looked around at the rest of his family.

"I don't relish the idea of going back out there with those dogs," Tess thumbed in the direction of the door they entered through. "I guess I'll give it a try."

She walked forward and tentatively placed her hand on the tablet. The air crackled with a sudden electric charge, and before she could react, a deafening crack split the air. Cass was thrown back violently, crashing into the wall with a sickening thud. The room pulsed, and a second wall flashed crimson, the warning clear: they had triggered something they weren't ready for.