Sunblind Serpent: The Zodiac Without A House

At almost the same time Marek pulled the utility hatch closed behind him beneath the Linden Metropolitan Exhibition Center, Dr. Elias Mercer disappeared from a room with one door.

The guard watching the camera did not notice immediately. Dr. Mercer had spent most of the previous hour seated at the narrow table inside the holding room, reading the same six pages the government had allowed him to keep. He had turned one page twice without looking at it and had ignored every question asked through the wall speaker.

At 21:14, the camera showed him sitting there.

At 21:15, the chair was empty.

The guard replayed the recording before calling anyone. Dr. Mercer did not stand. He did not cross the room. The picture did not cut to black, distort, or skip. One frame contained a man. The next contained an empty chair and six sheets of paper left in the same position on the table.

The door remained locked.

The mechanical seal had not opened since the previous meal delivery. The corridor camera showed nobody entering or leaving. The ventilation opening above the bed was smaller than Dr. Mercer’s shoulders, and the steel mesh covering it had not been moved. A restraint cuff lay on the table beside the papers. It was still closed.

The first security team searched the room anyway.

The second searched it again.

By the time a third team arrived, nobody was pretending the problem involved a hidden compartment.

Dr. Mercer’s disappearance entered the shared emergency network eleven minutes later. The first message called it an unauthorized absence. The second removed that wording. The third instructed every recovery office, military checkpoint, and Astral-response unit with access to the network to report any sighting immediately.

Within half an hour, several governments were asking for the full recording.

None of them received an explanation with it.

Dr. Mercer had made the decision several hours earlier.

Two officials outside the holding room had mentioned the part that mattered.

People from the Prime Continuum had reached Earth.

Dr. Mercer stopped reading.

He had expected them eventually. Earth was a Newborn World now, and the Houses would not come only to observe it. Whoever secured Earth first would gain the prestige of bringing a Newborn World under its reach. The others would not allow that advantage.

If they learned where Dr. Mercer was being held, they would extract what he knew about Earth, Project Meridian, and its awakened population, then use it to decide how this world could be claimed.

Dr. Mercer closed the pages.

Government custody had stopped being the safer option.

Rhovan Torsk heard about Dr. Mercer from a portable radio that had been stolen before he arrived.

The radio sat on a crate near the rear wall of an abandoned freight office. Its antenna had been repaired with wire from a broken lamp, and the volume control worked only if Dario held it slightly to the left. Dario had complained about this several times.

Nobody had offered to repair it.

Rhovan sat on the only chair in the room and listened while a nervous announcer repeated the description of Dr. Elias Mercer for the fourth time.

When the report mentioned that Dr. Mercer had disappeared from a secured government room without opening the door, Rhovan frowned.

Kellan noticed.

"So you do care about something."

Rhovan looked at him. "I care about many things."

"Name two."

"Good tailoring."

Kellan waited.

Rhovan looked back at the radio. "You asked for two. You did not say they had to be different."

Nadia covered a laugh with a cough.

Kellan’s knuckles were still swollen from an earlier mistake, so he decided not to continue.

The room carried several other reminders of that mistake. One wooden table had lost a leg. Rafe’s knife was embedded in the wall near the ceiling where Rhovan had thrown it after taking it away from him. Dario had a bruise along the side of his jaw. Nadia had stopped using other people’s voices after discovering that sounding like Rhovan did not make Rhovan less capable of reaching her.

Silas had been the only one patient enough to wait.

He had lasted the longest.

Eren had watched the first thirty seconds and decided participation was unnecessary.

Rhovan had approved of that decision.

The fight had not convinced them to follow him.

If anything, it had made Kellan more irritated, Dario more suspicious, and Silas considerably more interested in knowing who Rhovan actually was.

Nadia had asked what he wanted before anyone else. Eren had asked what would happen if they refused. Rafe had mostly wanted to know whether Rhovan knew a route out of the district that did not end at another checkpoint.

The discussion lasted long enough for Dario to sit down.

That was the first improvement.

Rhovan explained what he knew about their Marks, why the government would continue looking for them, and what would happen if they kept using abilities they did not understand.

Nobody agreed immediately.

Kellan wanted proof. Silas wanted details. Dario wanted to know what Rhovan expected in return. Nadia, on the other hand, wanted to know whether this arrangement came with food.

"You are remarkably selective about your concerns," Rhovan said.

"I have several," Nadia replied. "Hunger is currently winning."

"Go find the nearest convenience store, then," Rhovan remarked.

Nadia stared at him. "Was that permission?"

"It was a solution."

Rhovan knew that they did not become his subordinates that night.

They simply stopped leaving.

The radio continued.

"...all agencies are advised that Dr. Mercer may possess knowledge concerning the most recent Awakening event and the ongoing integration phenomenon. Civilians should not attempt contact—"

Rhovan leaned back.

Dario adjusted his grip on the radio. "You know him?"

"I know of him."

"That’s not what I asked."

"If I knew him personally, I wouldn’t have specified the distinction."

Dario stared at him for several seconds.

Rhovan considered the matter resolved.

Dr. Mercer was inconvenient. A Libra Advocate at his Cycle could move through institutions more effectively than most soldiers moved through doors, and he had spent enough time studying Earth before Day 367 to understand which systems mattered. More importantly, he knew about Ophiuchus.

Rhovan looked toward Silas. "Did the report mention Marek Vale?"

"No."

"Any movement from the Exhibition Center?"

"Not in that report."

Rhovan’s attention left the radio. The government could panic without Dr. Mercer’s assistance. He had a different problem.

Kellan pushed away from the wall. "You still haven’t explained what exactly you want from us."

"I did."

"You said we were going to work for you."

"No. I said you were going to follow my instructions. If that qualifies as employment, then apparently I owe you salaries. Unfortunate, but I do have standards. Exploitation is terribly inelegant."

"You have money?"

"Of course."

"Earth money?"

Rhovan paused.

Nadia smiled. "That’s a no."

"I am wealthy. Unfortunately, all evidence supporting that claim is currently on another world."

Dario lowered the radio. "We’re not following you because you defeated us."

"Good. I would hate to discover your loyalty was available at such an embarrassingly low price."

"You beat all six of us," Dario said.

"Five." Eren raised one hand slightly.

"Correct. It was five. Eren was apparently the only one of you who recognized a bad decision before making it."

Kellan muttered something that sounded like an insult.

Rhovan ignored it.

He had already made them the offer once. They had been too angry to understand it properly at the time, so he made it again.

"You can continue moving every time the government gets close enough to recognize one of you. You can sleep in abandoned buildings, steal food badly, argue over radios, and hope nobody who actually understands those Marks decides you are worth collecting."

Rafe glanced at the knife in the wall.

Nadia folded her arms. "You sound like you have a better option."

"I do."

"Which is?"

"You learn."

The room became quieter.

Rhovan rested one ankle over the opposite knee. "Your Marks are still near the beginning. You use them like people who discovered tools without being told what they were designed to do. Sometimes, that works. Usually, it injures furniture."

Kellan looked at the broken table. Then, he said, "That was Dario."

Dario turned. "You threw me into it."

"You were standing in front of it."

Rhovan continued before the discussion became less useful. His attention settled on Kellan. "You think Aries is whatever happened when you fought me because that was the part you noticed."

Kellan frowned. "It worked."

"So would throwing a chair." Rhovan glanced toward the damaged wall before continuing. "But your Mark reacted when you crossed the room earlier, before you hit anyone. You noticed the effect. You just decided the punch was the important part."

Kellan’s expression changed slightly. Dario looked over as well.

Rhovan leaned back against the table. "What you discovered after awakening is only one way your Sign can manifest. The Prime Continuum calls those Sign Expressions."

"So there’s more?" Kellan asked.

"Considerably more. Which is why I can teach you how advancement actually works. Degrees, control, and what your Signs can do once you stop assuming the first thing that happened is the entirety of what you are capable of." Rhovan’s attention moved across the six of them. "I can also teach you enough Prime law to know when a House representative is lying to you, and enough House politics to know when the truth is worse."

Silas waited until Rhovan finished. "And what do you get?"

Rhovan looked at him.

There were several possible answers. A group that could move without attracting the same attention he did was more useful. None of those answers were the reason he had remained in the room after the fight.

"You were with Marek Vale."

Nobody spoke for a moment.

Rhovan continued, "You saw what he did on Route Eight. You saw where they took him. You saw who stayed with him. Each of you noticed different things because each of you is irritating in a different way."

Nadia smiled. "That sounded almost affectionate."

"It was not."

Dario crossed his arms. "And if we help you find him?"

"You stop running."

Kellan gave a short laugh. "You going to tell the government to leave us alone?"

"No."

"Then how?"

Rhovan’s expression did not change. "I am going to make chasing you expensive."

Kellan stopped smiling.

Rhovan stood and removed Rafe’s knife from the wall. He turned it once in his hand before offering it back handle-first.

Rafe accepted it carefully.

"Strength is useful," Rhovan said. "Knowing what to do with it is more useful. Stay with me, and you will have both. Eventually, the people chasing you will need a better reason than habit."

Silas watched him. "And all we have to do is help you find one nineteen-year-old?"

Rhovan gave a short laugh, covering his mouth briefly with one hand. "Do not make it sound easy."

"You think he’s that dangerous?"

Rhovan looked toward the dark window.

"No." The amusement left his face. "I think everyone else is going to realize how important he is before he does."

The radio behind them repeated Dr. Mercer’s name.

Rhovan did not turn around.

"Now," he said, "tell me everything you remember about Marek Vale."