Chapter 28: Source, Condition, Vessel
Section Nine occupied the western side of the hall.
Temporary barriers formed several paths toward the tables for assessments. Each line had been separated according to the number of occupied scales, which meant from zero to all thirteen scales and the other odd line labeled beyond them.
Apparently, some of them had reached that limit of thirteen scales, which somehow surprised Marek for their lack of prudence in using a supernatural ability they had never known or encountered before.
NO MANIFESTATION OBSERVED.
ONE OCCUPIED SCALE.
TWO OCCUPIED SCALES.
THREE OCCUPIED SCALES.
... THIRTEEN OCCUPIED SCALES.
... UNKNOWN CONDITION.
The final line contained fewer people than the others. It also barely moved.
Several Ophiuchus bearers sat on the floor beside the barriers. Some held their Marks. Others kept their arms wrapped around their bodies, as though preventing something from leaving or entering them.
Medical personnel moved between the lines with tablets and portable scanners. They examined the Marks, recorded the colors of occupied scales, and asked what each person had felt before the scale activated.
Most of the answers did not help.
Pressure. Heat. Cold. Movement beneath the skin. A sensation that something had opened. These answers could not have been vaguer than they already were.
One man had both hands pressed over the black center on his chest. His fingers remained there even when a medic asked to examine it.
A woman sat beside him.
"I am still here," she whispered.
She repeated it several seconds later.
Nobody asked her why.
The four of them entered a line of their own. Cooper started moving toward the line marked NO MANIFESTATION OBSERVED. Clara caught the back of his shirt and pulled him beside her before he reached it.
He turned to protest. She did not release him. They remained together.
The line moved forward several meters before passing beside a portable medical station. Six cots had been arranged behind a temporary screen.
Five were occupied.
Marek slowed.
None of the patients appeared injured.
An older woman lay nearest to the entrance. Her hands had been placed over her abdomen. A pulse monitor remained attached to one finger.
Another wore a security uniform. His boots had been removed and placed beneath the cot. The third appeared younger than Mara. Two more occupied the cots near the wall.
All five were breathing. None responded to the people around them.
A doctor lifted the security officer’s eyelid and passed a light across the pupil. It contracted normally. However, the man’s physical body did not react at all.
Marek looked away and proceeded to go to the line where he should be.
Clara followed first. Henry guided Cooper through the opening in the barrier before the processing worker could stop them.
The Marks on the five patients were immediately recognizable.
Ophiuchus.
Thirteen empty scales surrounded each black center. There were no visible injuries around the Marks. No swelling. No discoloration. Nothing had entered any of the scales.
Still, their Marks’ centers appeared different.
Marek’s own black center felt like an open space whenever his attention moved toward it. Something existed behind the circle, but the space itself remained empty.
Theirs did not.
The black circles remained the same color and shape. Nothing glowed beneath their skin. Nothing moved.
The emptiness had simply ended.
The nearest medic was adjusting an intravenous line attached to the older woman. Marek asked what had happened. The answer was recorded as an
It perfectly described the patients’ current statuses without explaining them.
Some had arrived at the facility already unconscious. Three had stopped responding after registration. None had shown signs of poisoning, seizure activity, brain trauma, or internal injury.
Their hearts continued beating. Lungs continued to function normally. Bodies reacted normally. Those five seemed to have lost their spatial awareness.
’To them, it might have felt like the things and people around them were not there—like they were just trapped inside this empty space they could not get themselves out of,’ Marek thought. ’Of course, that was just a theory from my tiny brain...’
The doctor explained that several had complained about pressure near the black center before collapsing. Others described coldness or movement beneath the Mark.
For some, the symptoms lasted several minutes.
For others, only seconds.
Marek placed two fingers against the wrist of the youngest patient. Her pulse remained steady. Nothing in her body suggested an immediate emergency. That did not translate to ’nothing had happened’.
It only meant the damage was somewhere the medical equipment could not see.
The doctor noticed Marek’s two occupied scales and assumed the same condition was less likely to affect him. Marek reminded him that neither of them knew that. The doctor accepted the correction without arguing. It was no use arguing over something even a doctor could not properly diagnose.
A barrier struck the floor behind them.
The sound passed through the nearby lines. Several people moved away while medical personnel crossed toward the disturbance.
A young man had collapsed against the railing.
Two people supported him beneath the arms, but his knees no longer held his weight. His hands remained pressed over the left side of his chest. Thirteen empty scales surrounded the black center.
"It feels full," he said.
The words came out between short breaths.
A medic asked whether he had taken anything from another person.
He had not.
Nothing had entered his scales. He did not know how to use the Mark. The pressure remained in the center.
Marek reached him before the medics lowered him completely.
The man’s name was Devin Luneta.
His skin had already begun to lose color, although his pulse remained strong. His fingers tightened around the fabric covering the Mark.
Then they stopped.
His unfinished breath left his mouth. Fear remained across his face. His eyes were still open. His body simply stopped participating.
His knees folded.
Marek caught his shoulder while a medic secured the other side. Devin’s full weight dropped between them.
Nothing had changed physically. He was not heavier or lighter.
The medic called his name and pressed two fingers against the side of his neck.
Devin continued breathing. His pulse was still there. But according to the young man, the black center on his Mark felt full.
Marek placed his palm over it.
[SUBJECT IDENTIFIED.]
[DEVIN LUNETA.]
[CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT ESTABLISHED.]
Devin’s body became clear beneath Marek’s hand.
His blood flow seemed normal. Blood circulated through every major vessel. There was no internal bleeding either. No damaged tissue. No foreign substance. No uncontrolled First Motion continued striking his body.
Nothing inside him explained why he had collapsed.
Marek moved his attention toward the Mark.
All thirteen scales remained empty.
The center did not.
[ACTIVE CASE DETECTED.]
[CONDITION IDENTIFIED: BEARER.]
[CURRENT VESSEL: BEARER.]
The words remained inside his sight. The condition was Devin. The Vessel was also Devin.
As though there was no distinction between them.
[VESSEL ACCEPTANCE: ESTABLISHED.]
[CASE STATUS: STABILIZED.]
[RESOLUTION STATUS: INCOMPLETE.]
Marek stopped breathing. He had seen those terms before. Moreover, he seemed able to assess the conditions of other Ophiuchus bearers now.
Elia’s Case had become stabilized when the condition killing her was no longer inside her body. The uncontrolled movement had entered Marek instead.
The condition had gone somewhere else.
Devin’s Case had also been stabilized. But nothing had left his body. The source, condition, and Vessel were all the same person.