Wind-Scarred (The Will of the Elements, Book 1) (7 page)

They were all walking away from the city,
but something looked... off about how they were moving. Then he
realized what it was. Every single one of them was stepping
completely in sync. His eyes darted to the program, but it had
detected no video tampering. Most of the people struggled against
it, some tried to catch hold of objects to stop themselves, but
they all just kept moving. The camera panned over more of the
stream of humanity as it came up the hill behind the cameraman. Up
close, he saw that many people were crying, that some were even
attempting to run back down the hill only to be caught in whatever
held the others and forced to march back. The camera continued to
pan, then the man who was filming appeared, looking scruffy and
unkempt, like he had just gotten out of bed. He was saying
something animatedly, then looked off into the distance and
hurriedly spun the camera around again.

The last of the stream of people was just
coming off of the bridge when the earth began to shake. The city in
the distance started to tremble. Waves lapped further and further
up the shore. It took Ezra a moment to realize what he was seeing.
The city was sinking.

Faster and faster it sank, water pouring
over streets, houses, buildings. The bridges twisted and strained
before being ripped to pieces, cables whipping around like enormous
rubber bands pulled past their breaking points. At some point the
cameraman fell, just as countless others around him had. His camera
returned to the scene just in time to witness the last of the hills
sink beneath the waves. Everything stopped shaking. The camera fell
to the ground, capturing a few last moments of people crying and
hugging, rocking in place in terror and despair before the picture
went black.

“
That can't have been real,” Ezra said. He looked at his
program, but it still faithfully displayed nothing amiss. “You...
you fabricated it. Made it look old. Maybe made it a long time ago.
There's no way that something like that could happen and we... and
people wouldn't hear... wouldn't know that it... it was fake, it
has be.” Ezra turned pleading eyes to Mr. Blair, hoping that he
would give away something, anything.

“
I
wish that were case,” Blair said sadly. “You of all people should
appreciate the kinds of secrets that are kept here.”

“
But... but something like that. A weapon that could do that...
it could destroy Sanctuary, could wipe us off the face of the
Earth. If the technology existed, we... we would know. We would
have some way to deal- ”

“
Ezra,” Mr. Blair interrupted him in a soft voice, “if I was
trying to convince you that you needed to keep what you know a
secret, what do you think I would do? You say you want to help
people. Do you know why I showed you that recording?”

“
You... you want to give me a reason why I shouldn't let people
know. Why it would hurt them if they knew. But think of the good we
could do! We could revolutionize the world out there! We could make
mankind greater than it has ever been! And everyone could see the
world, not just our little valley in the middle of nowhere and the
space station. The whole world! It's beautiful out there, and we've
all been missing it!”

Mr. Blair sighed and shook his head again.
“Suffice it to say that it has been tried. The result was a
backlash from the outside world so brutal and decisive that we were
left desperately scrambling for technology that would enable us to
escape the planet very quickly. Wormhole technology, in fact, that
your grandfather was kind enough to invent for us. But none of that
really matters. What matters right now is what you will do. Or
perhaps what we shall do with you.”

Ezra straightened up in his chair and cast a
belligerent glare across the table at the other man. Mr. Blair
chuckled. “Dramatic, aren't we? I am here to offer you a choice,
Ezra.”

Mr. Blair raised his hand, counting off the
options on his fingers. “One. You may go back to your life as it
currently stands. You will not speak of what you know and have
learned to anyone. You will never attempt anything like what you
have done tonight again. An agent will be assigned to you. They
will become your very best friend. You will include them in
everything you do and will never be far from their side. If you
ever breathe a word of what you know to anyone or attempt to evade
the agent, you will suddenly realize that your work requires you to
sequester yourself away from the world. Probably for the rest of
your life.”

Ezra gulped.
Well
, he thought to
himself,
you were looking forward to
thinly veiled threats
. “And the other
option?” His voice cracked as he asked the question.

“
You join up. You've already proven to be a rather resourceful
young man who does not completely lose his head under pressure.
Keeping secrets is only one small part of what we do, and believe
me when I say that we make the world a better place for everyone,
not just those of us who happen to live in Sanctuary.” Mr. Blair
gave another of his little smiles. “Also, frankly, we need the
help, and I would rather you became an asset then a
liability.”

Ezra sat for a moment and thought, staring
down at the table. Then he looked up, resolve flashing in his muddy
brown eyes. “I would need to know more. I'm not signing up for
something just because you say it's the right thing to do. Right
now the only thing I know about you is that you are responsible for
keeping the biggest secret in Sanctuary. Will you tell me the
truth? The whole truth about Sanctuary and the world outside and
what it is you do?”

A small frown creased Mr. Blair's face.
“This really isn't a negotiation.”

Ezra leaned forward in his chair. “And I
won't join something that works against my conscience. Besides,
what could you tell me that would make matters worse, provided I
could come up with proof for what I already know.”

Smiling wryly, Mr. Blair nodded in
concession. “I suppose that it really couldn't make you more of a
security risk. Very well, I will give you the short version, and
you can judge if we are what I've said we are. There's no going
back once you know this. Are you sure this is what you want?”

Ezra's expression was serious.

“
Tell me.”

“
We'll start at the beginning, or at least as close to it as we
can get. You already know that some unknown force defeated our
technology and, banished us here, to Sanctuary. Or maybe we just
hid. It really doesn't make a difference. When Sanctuary was
founded, everyone worried about our resources. Would there be
enough of anything to go around? Thus, the Legacy houses were born.
Persons who had specific knowledge, knowledge that was deemed
useful to Sanctuary as a whole, began to guard it jealously. They
kept it in the family, teaching their children privately in order
to safeguard their place here. To create a legacy for themselves.
People scrambled for importance. Over time they developed better
ways of guarding their knowledge, and when genetic keys became part
of the security used, nearly all research into any field which
could compromise their secrets was made illegal. No cloning, no
genetic research, nothing that could take away the power that the
Legacy houses had accrued.” Mr. Blair laughed sadly at
this.

“
Needless to say, it has significantly slowed progress, since
cooperation requires trust, and we have quite a history of not
trusting each other. This system continued for over five hundred
years. During this time the space elevator was built and the space
station begun. While it was under construction, several rather
enterprising individuals looked at the outside world and wondered
why we were going to space in the first place. After all, by then
the horrors of the Great War seemed nothing more than tall tales,
told by great-great grandfathers to frighten children when they
were young. And they had come so far by now. Surely everything
would have settled down.” Mr. Blair fixed Ezra with another
penetrating look. “This was the beginning of our incursion back
into the world.”

“
At first, everything seemed fine. Most people outside were
eager to lay their hands on what we had to offer. We established
trade routes, imported raw materials from all over the world and
exported whatever the world wanted. Of course, some people didn't
think that trade should ever enter our equations of dealing with
the outsiders. After all, we had technology, and they didn't. There
was adventure to be had and glory to be won, and groups of reckless
young upstarts with more brains than were good for them and too
much fire in their bellies began setting out to make their
fortunes.” Another rather pointed look.

Ezra bristled. He was anything but reckless.
Also, what did 'fire in their bellies' even mean? He was about to
speak up about it, but Mr. Blair just chuckled again and kept
talking.

“
They would go out with friends and weapons and take what they
wanted. Food, riches, women... no-one out there could stop them,
and no-one in here cared enough to do anything about it. That was
when things went wrong. People who fought back against us suddenly
developed powers. Control over the elements. Practically overnight,
individuals who had resisted us gained supernatural abilities that
more than leveled the playing field. Or maybe they always had them,
and just never used them until we went too far. I doubt we'll ever
know.”

“
Powers?” Ezra asked, suddenly very interested. “What do you
mean, 'supernatural abilities'?”

“
Complete mastery over nature,” Blair clarified. “The earth
bowed to their will. They would call fire or lightning and it would
jump to obey. Wind and water rose up at their hands, turning the
skies and seas against us wherever we went. For every one
elementalist struck down, four more seemed to spring up. We fought
and were beaten. Horrible defeats, over and over, until we had been
pushed back to Sanctuary, where we trembled in fear and waited for
the final blow. But the end did not come. They established
strongholds to watch us, and left us alone. History as you know it
came into being and the dash to leave the planet began in earnest.
The space station became a top priority, and a substantial bounty
was put in place for the first person to achieve faster than light
travel.”

There was a knock at the door, and Mr. Blair
rose to answer. Ezra took the time to consider what he had been
told. Magic! Well, maybe he hadn't called it that, but it certainly
seemed pretty clear to Ezra that, somehow, the people outside who
had given up their technology had replaced it with magic. If he
could just find out how... the possibilities were endless! Calling
lightning at a whim? He could remotely power a wormhole for days!
He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice the girl
from earlier in the evening, dressed much more conservatively now,
enter the room. She stood directly in front of him, playful little
smile gracing her lips, and cleared her throat, snapping him out of
his reverie.

“
You!” Ezra jumped up and away from her. “You electrocuted
me!”

She rolled her eyes. “Only a little. You
were about to do something stupid. I told you to follow
instructions.”

“
And... and you tricked me! You...” Ezra's face flushed and he
stammered on in an embarrassed voice, “you flirted with
me.”

The girl tapped her chin with one finger.
“Yes. Yes I believe I did.” She sat down, kicked her feet up onto
the table and crossed her legs as a languid smile spread over her
face. “And you loved every second of it.”

Ezra stammered out a few more
incomprehensible syllables, then looked up to glare at Mr. Blair,
who was massaging the bridge of his nose, eyes closed in a look of
annoyance. “Please,” he said in a dry monotone, “don't stop on my
account. Go on, this is fascinating.”

The girl let out a merry peal of
laughter.

Ezra pointed an accusatory finger at her.
“You didn't even know who I was or what I was doing until you stole
my camera!”

“
It
was
my
night off. And if I'd been sober I would have had you begging to
turn yourself in before you knew what was going on.” She gave him
another wicked smile. “And you would have loved that
too.”

Ezra blushed even harder. If that was
possible.

“
Agent Doe, please stop tormenting Mr. Hawkins.” Mr. Blair
sighed, “He is ill-equipped to handle it.”

“
Yes sir,” She drawled lazily, eyes never leaving Ezra, a
slight pout on her lips. “But I do so under protest.”

“
Noted,” Mr. Blair had apparently come down with a sudden
headache, as he was now rubbing his temples. He walked over to the
table and picked up his sunglasses. “Now, where were we... ah, yes,
we were beaten and we ran. Roughly twenty years later, one of our
remaining satellites picked up something. A huge conflagration,
clearly visible from space, suddenly flared to life at the northern
end of South America and spread rapidly through Central America,
finally coming to a stop in North America. It burned for four
months. We watched as hundreds of thousands of people died horribly
in the fires. A covert team was dispatched to find out what had
happened, what it meant for us. Apparently, in the twenty years
that we spent hiding, a group of people who could control fire,
called the fire-kissed, had risen to political power. Nearly every
person of significant power in any government was a fire-kissed,
and the devastation that we witnessed was the result of a
disagreement between two rivals groups within their
ranks.”