Sunblind Serpent: The Zodiac Without A House

A little more than one week earlier, Dario Lolet still thought a strong person should look strong. The detention center had already given him several reasons to reconsider normal expectations.

The locks started failing first. Then, a guard threw another man through a door without meaning to. After that, someone began using copied voices over the intercom to give false instructions.

By the time the southern holding wing opened, Dario had stopped waiting for anyone to explain what was happening.

Kellan Mora left his cell before him. The red Aries Mark across his shoulder brightened when he moved, usually just before he moved too far. Nadia Corin followed after discovering that half the guards no longer trusted the intercom because she could reproduce their voices.

Silas Neri kept stopping near doorways to examine things nobody else could see. Violet-black lines appeared around his Scorpius Mark whenever he focused on disturbed floors, damaged locks, or something recently touched.

Eren Valdo had a pale Libra Mark along his forearm and had spent most of the escape saying that something about the building felt uneven. Rafe Calder simply wanted out. The bow-shaped Sagittarius Mark along his arm had apparently made finding routes easier.

The six reached the southern processing corridor before they found the man in black and gold. This man was standing outside the detainee cells with four security officers several steps behind him.

Dario noticed the clothes first.

The man wore fitted black clothing with narrow gold lines running along the collar, shoulders, and cuffs. There was no government seal anywhere on it. No identification band either. The material did not resemble anything issued inside the detention center.

He appeared to be somewhere in his mid-twenties. Tall. Lean enough that Dario would not have considered him particularly strong.

His dark hair had been pushed backwards from his forehead. Several strands had already fallen loose, but nothing else about him appeared disturbed.

He carried no weapon.

That was strange considering the corridor around him.

Nearly forty people occupied the wider processing area beyond. Some wore detention clothing. Others were guards, clerks, medical personnel, and civilians brought inside after their Marks appeared.

There was no chaos, however. For a detention center that had started coming apart less than an hour earlier, the people inside were strangely organized.

The man watched them approach. "You need to stay here for now."

His accent was wrong. Dario could understand every word, but something about the pronunciation did not belong anywhere he recognized.

Kellan noticed too. "Who are you?"

The man raised his chin slightly. "Someone trying to keep this corridor usable."

"We’re leaving."

"The southern route is not clear."

Dario stopped several meters away. "That sounds like our problem."

"It becomes mine if you run through the people behind me."

Dario checked the corridor.

The man was right about one thing. Too many people were gathered there. Dario still did not understand why.

"Move," Dario said. The word came out heavy.

"No."

Kellan took one step. The stranger’s attention shifted toward him.

That was enough.

Kellan moved.

The first step became a lunge. Red-orange light flashed from his shoulder as he crossed several meters much faster than he intended.

The stranger waited. At the last moment, he moved half a step sideways. Kellan twisted after him, but his momentum had already carried him too far.

His shoulder struck an empty processing desk. The desk folded against the wall and Kellan went over it.

Dario was already moving. He had learned what his own Mark did when he stopped trying to hold back. His body became heavier when he planted his feet. His grip could bend metal. Doors had stopped being particularly meaningful.

He drove both hands toward the stranger.

The man caught Dario by the wrist. Dario expected his arm to buckle under the force. It did not.

A faint gold-white light moved across the stranger’s hand. Dario felt himself turn. The motion was small. The result was not.

His shoulder struck the wall. Plaster cracked behind him. By the time he pushed off the wall, the man had already let go of his wrist.

Nadia shouted from behind, "To your left!"

The voice belonged perfectly to one of the guards.

The stranger did not turn.

Nadia tried another. "Weapon!"

Nothing.

The man’s attention remained on Dario and Kellan. Then he spoke to the officers behind him. "Hold the line."

Gold-white light appeared. It did not come from the ceiling. A narrow flare crossed the space between the stranger and the four guards. For less than a second, light rested across their shoulders.

The effect was immediate. The tension disappeared from the officers’ movements. Two moved the civilians farther back while the others closed the side entrance. Nobody shouted over anyone. Nobody hesitated over which direction to go.

Dario had no idea what the man had done.

Silas moved around the left side. His Scorpius Mark had become brighter. Dark-violet traces appeared across the floor where the stranger had moved.

Dario could not see whatever Silas was seeing clearly, but Silas followed the stranger’s previous path with unusual certainty. "There."

The stranger changed direction.

Silas followed the trace. The stranger changed direction again and flicked something from his fingers. A small point of gold-white light left the man’s fingers and struck the wall beside him. The corridor became white.

Dario shut his eyes. It was already too late. For a moment, there was nothing except light and the sound of several people stumbling.

Dario opened his eyes through the afterimage. Silas turned toward the wall.

The stranger did not. He crossed behind him and struck once below Silas’s ribs.

Silas folded and dropped to one knee.

The strike had been controlled. Dario could tell from the way the man stopped the motion immediately after impact. Silas remained conscious.

Kellan came again. This time, he shortened the first movement. He stopped before overshooting and immediately started another.

The stranger blocked the second attack with his forearm.

Kellan’s fist struck hard enough that Dario heard the impact.

The man moved less than a step. Gold-white light spread briefly along his arm. Then he drove his palm into Kellan’s chest.

Kellan left the floor.

He landed beside the damaged desk.

Nadia moved while the stranger was dealing with Kellan. She came around his blind side and reached for his arm.

He turned before she reached him.

He caught her forearm and redirected her into one of the empty chairs. She struck it sideways and went down with the chair beneath her.

Rafe had stayed out of the fight. He was moving toward a pistol beneath one of the processing tables.

Dario saw him. But so did the stranger.

Rafe reached it first.

A point of light struck the floor in front of his hand. The flash was smaller this time.

Rafe jerked backward.

The stranger kicked the pistol beneath a locked counter before Rafe’s vision recovered.

Eren had not attacked yet. His Libra Mark was glowing. He was watching Dario. Then the stranger. Then back at Dario. His expression changed. "The difference is wrong."

Dario had no time to ask what that meant.

He charged again.

This time he planted both feet before making contact. The Taurus Mark beneath his shirt became hot. His stance settled. The cracked flooring beneath one shoe gave slightly under the weight.

The stranger met him directly. Both hands locked around Dario’s forearms.

Dario pushed. Nothing happened. He pushed harder. The man slid backward several centimeters.

Dario almost smiled.

Then everyone in the corridor turned toward them.

Dario felt the change before he understood it.

The gold-white light around the stranger became brighter.

Heat moved across Dario’s hands. Not enough to burn, but definitely enough for him to notice.

The man’s arms stopped moving backward. Dario increased his force.

The stranger did the same.

Dario stared at him.

There was no reason a body built like that should have been producing this much force.

The stranger pushed once.

Dario’s stance broke. His boots slid backward across the damaged floor before he dropped onto one knee several meters away.

He tried to rise. But the stranger was already in front of him.

Dario stopped.

Around him, the others had done the same. In less than two minutes, the six of them had accomplished nothing.

The stranger turned away and addressed the officers. "Give Taurus and Aries more space until they understand their First Motions. Keep Gemini away from voice-dependent systems."

One officer nodded.

The stranger continued, "If you find a black central Mark surrounded by thirteen separated scales, do not place unstable Awakened beside them."

The officer frowned. "What Sign is that?"

"Ophiuchus."

Dario remembered the word.

"Do not provoke them," the stranger added.

The guards began repeating the instruction between themselves.

Dario remained on the floor. He raised his head and asked, "Who are you?"

The stranger glanced at him and replied, "Not from your world."

That answered one question. At the same time, it created several others.

The man walked away before Dario could ask any of them. At the time, Dario had assumed somebody else would know who he was.

A little more than a week later, Dario knew better. He had told the officer on Route Eight nothing about the man in black and gold—mostly to keep the sharp one from probing further.

The officer had known the first Ophiuchus warning.

He had not known the second.

But that Ophiuchus-marked young man had noticed.