She was about medium height and had a slender frame. Her petite features were accentuated by rather pale skin and dark eyes. Her shoulder-length hair started off achromatic at the front near her forehead, then segued into streaks of color — going from left to right across her head like a rainbow — before becoming colorless again at the back. (And when I say like a rainbow, the streaks in her hair literally mimicked a rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.)
<Rune!> I said, reaching out telepathically for my friend. <What is this? Who’s that woman?>
<That’s Gamma,> he replied.
<Gamma?> I echoed, as I glanced at the woman. But Gamma was dead. She couldn’t be here, unless…
<I thought you guys couldn’t manipulate time in here,> I said, feeling certain that was the only way the dead Chomarsus could be making an appearance.
<That’s not what this is,> Rune assured me. <We’re just reverse engineering the events leading up to her death, Incarnate-style.>
Reverse engineering? I thought.
I turned back to Gamma. As I looked her over, I realized that I’d misspoken when I said that she was “standing there.” It didn’t appear that her feet were actually touching the floor. Even more telling, I suddenly noted that I could actually see through her, as if she were a ghost.
I had additional questions for Rune, but before I could ask them, Gamma went into motion, drawing my attention. Spreading her feet apart, she appeared to brace herself and then raised her arms until they were parallel to the ground, palm-outward. At the same time, her face became a mask of concentration as, lips pursing, she frowned with effort.
Frankly speaking, she looked like a mime trying to push an invisible wall. I got the impression that she was struggling against something, which I simply wasn’t able to see. And then it hit me.
Like other Incarnates, Gamma’s name was a reflection of her attributes. Gamma rays, I knew, were at one end of the electromagnetic spectrum, beyond the ability of the human eye to perceive. Fortunately, that wasn’t a limitation for me, and I quickly cycled my vision through the spectrum until I found a range that allowed me to see what was happening.
Gamma appeared to be in a pitched battle of some sort, with rays of light firing out from the palms of her hands. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to discern who her opponent was, as the beams she produced vanished when they passed outside the circle formed by the Incarnates present. That said, her adversary, whoever he or she was, seemed to give as good as they got, as noted by the fact that similar shafts of light were being fired back at Gamma. Even worse, they seemed to be taking a toll.
I had to admit to being impressed by what I was seeing. Like a bomb expert rebuilding a detonated device, the Incarnates were somehow visually reconstructing what had happened to Gamma. It was a mind-blowing display of their abilities, once again highlighting just how powerful they truly were.
On a whim, I reached out empathically. As expected, I detected no emotions from Gamma; she wasn’t really there, so no surprise at being unable to detect anything. Likewise, I didn’t pick up any vibes from Rune and his fellow Incarnates — except Static. The feelings were much the same as before (basically sorrow and resoluteness), but they were almost overshadowed by anger this time. (I did notice, however, that in this part of the spectrum, all of the Incarnates — not just Static — seemed to have a luster about them. In fact, Static seemed to have an additional glow — an inner shine near his chest area — as if he were trying to one-up his colleagues.)
My gaze went back to Gamma, who had seemingly started to wilt under the attack, letting out what appeared to be a groan of pain. Wincing, she stopped her own assault, while the attack on her appeared to intensify. Then, her eyes went wide, as if she’d suddenly had an epiphany, and she screamed, “No! No! No! Cerek!”
Catching motion with my peripheral vision, I looked away from the scene in the middle of the room. Much like Gamma had done a moment earlier, my eyebrows went up in surprise at what I saw.
One of the archers sculpted into the wall had stepped down to the floor of the room.
Chapter 19
It took me a moment to get over my shock, during which time the archer unexpectedly turned toward me, drawing his bow. Immediately recognizing the danger, I automatically went into defense mode and shifted into super speed without consciously thinking about it, just as the statue loosed his arrow.
The world around me went into slow motion. A dust mote floating near me appeared to get stuck in midair. Gamma’s facial expression froze in place. Most importantly, the arrow that was fired at me seemed to get mired in place. Nevertheless, being able to estimate its trajectory, I got out of its flight path — and not a moment too soon.
I had barely stepped aside when something whizzed by me, almost grazing my chest. I stood there, momentarily stunned by what had just happened, for two reasons.
First, when I’m at super speed, there’s practically nothing that whizzes by me. Nothing. Frankly speaking, I’m just moving too fast at that stage for anything like that to happen.
The second reason I was jolted related to the identity of the object that had come close to tagging me: the stone archer’s arrow.
Relative to me, it had moved at what I presumed was its “normal” speed.
Somewhat stupefied, my mind raced for a moment, trying to figure things out. Had I lost my powers — somehow shifted out of super speed? But a quick glance around revealed that Gamma (as well as the dust mote I’d noted earlier) still looked frozen. That meant the statue had sped up!
As I was
