“I don’t …,” I said, trailing off as something landed beside Knoxx. “Wait. That’s her. She just … Sparks! She jumped from the next building over. That has to be fifty feet easy.”
The two started conversing, and what I wouldn’t have given to be able to hear what they were saying. Finally, Newton pointed one direction, then the other. Were they setting up a perimeter? I watched as the man formed into a bird again and flew off.
Then Newton was gone. Sparks! That woman could move. I had to zoom back two steps to find her running across the rooftop. Her speed was impressive; by the display above my scope’s holosights, she was moving at fifty-three miles per hour. I’d read of Epics who could move faster than that, but this was only one of her secondary powers.
Newton bounded up in a short hop and came down on the edge of a roof, then engaged her energy reflection power—she reflected the force of hitting the rooftop back downward, making her move like she was on a trampoline that perfectly conserved her energy. She shot into the air in a powerful, quick-moving arc and easily cleared the gap between buildings.
“Wow,” Tia said softly.
“Not as impressive as flying,” Prof grumbled.
“No, it’s more impressive in some ways,” Tia said. “Think of the precision and mastery that requires.…”
I nodded in agreement, though they couldn’t see. I followed Newton, moving my scope, as she leaped again. She landed on the roof of a large building right next to the one where Obliteration was, then pulled out her sword and started hacking away ropes on the bridge leading to another rooftop. She repeated this with the other two bridges on the building where she stood.
“This is unusual behavior for her,” Tia said, sounding uncomfortable.
My hand tightened on the rifle barrel. She’d completely isolated a building right next to the one Obliteration was on. Now the water surrounding the building was pulling away, like … like people at a party leaving space around someone with bad gas. The water rushed back some ten feet on all sides, then held there, exposing the bottom half of the building. It was rusted over and encrusted with barnacles.
I glanced at Obliteration, sitting and glowing on the rooftop of the building next to the one the water had pulled away from. He hadn’t moved, hadn’t even reacted.
“What in Calamity’s shadow?” Tia whispered. “That water is Regalia’s doing, but why …?”
I looked back at the isolated building where Newton strolled over to the stairwell leading down from the roof into the building proper. She took something off her belt and tossed it down the stairs, then threw two more small objects onto the rooftop nearby. Finally, she bounded away.
“Firebombs,” I whispered as they exploded in quick succession. “She’s burning the building down. With the people inside.”
30
I threw down the gun, scrambled back from the window, and leaped for the backpack. I unzipped it and pulled out the spyril.
“David?” Tia asked urgently. “Leave the scope on the building!”
“So you can watch those people die?” I asked, unpacking the wetsuit. Sparks! I didn’t have time for that. I started affixing the spyril over my clothing, pulling off my shoes and doing the legs first.
“I need to observe Newton’s behavior,” Tia said, ever the academic. We were alike in some ways, but this was what separated us—I couldn’t detach myself and just watch. “Newton hasn’t killed in years,” she continued, “save for a few quiet executions of rivals or those who threatened Regalia’s peace. Why do something this atrocious now?”
“Regalia is making an example of those people,” Prof said softly over the line. “She’s using her power in an obvious way, to make it clear that this is her will—and to keep the people in the building from jumping into the water. This is meant to tell everyone to stay away from Obliteration. Like a corpse hung from the walls of a medieval city.”
“Makes sense,” Tia said. “He’s going to have to sit out there for several days, immobile, and Regalia won’t want him interrupted.”
“We’re witnessing her slide from benevolent but harsh dictator into all-destroying tyrant,” Prof said quietly.
“I’m not going to ‘witness’ it,” I said, pulling another strap tight. “I’m going to stop it.”
“David—” Prof said over the line.
“Yeah, yeah,” I spat. “Reckless heroism. I’m not going to just sit here.”
“But why,” Tia said, voice softer. “Why is Regalia doing this? She could swallow the city in water, couldn’t she? Why use Obliteration. Sparks … Why destroy the city at all? This isn’t like Abigail.”
“The Abigail we knew is dead,” Prof said. “Only Regalia remains. David, if you save those people, she will only kill others. She will make certain her point gets made.”