Art by 46Kibahime ~ The Owl is Hunting

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Chapter 1 - Starpoint Tower

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Athira landed softly on the roof of the skyscraper, watching her quarry move through the night.

Reader. It'd taken her months of tracking him to Sirah, weeks of pinpointing him consistently to this area of the city, but she'd found him. There was no mistaking the signature silver mask, nor the cropped black hair that framed it.

His figure, outlined by the glittering lights of the city below her rooftops, moved swiftly between the buildings as he continued towards the outskirts. No doubt it was how he'd been able to evade the Elites for so long. No one expected him, a purple colour, to be anything but exceptionally mentally capable and yet here he was, swinging between the rooftops like he was born to it.

What a revolutionary. Now we can all devolve back into monkeys and go about our merry way.

Athira took her eyes from him for a moment and scanned the distance, careful to never let his figure quite leave her sight. There wasn't much but ruins in the direction he was headed, although if he were headed to the old Starpoint tower, it would all but confirm her suspicions that he was the one she needed.

She caught his figure just as it rounded a corner, leaving what was officially considered Sirah's boundaries.

She walked to the edge, allowing her colour to keep her afloat as her boots left solid ground. Hands in front, she aligned her body into a dive to gather speed before spreading her arms wide and pushing them behind her as she silently moved in on her prey.

There was nothing more than a tingling in her fingers as she drifted through the air. Flight didn't hurt like it once had. It didn't cause her runes to flare, only to simmer on her skin like they usually did. If anything, it was the closest to enjoyment she got.

She followed him through the ruins, weaving his way across the long abandoned, partially destroyed buildings on the verge of collapse. She eyed the device he was using to swing between the buildings from her vantage point in the sky. Wherever the hook landed, more than a few things crumbled to the ground.

Athira frowned. They better not fall over on top of him. I'm not spending the next eight months finding another person who can help me.

Despite her misgivings, Reader managed to reach the Starpoint tower without placing himself in mortal danger. Sure enough, when he reached its base, he stopped and replaced the hook device on his waist, pulling out something that glinted in the faint citylight instead.

Athira's heart sped up. This was it. Somehow, Reader was linked to the disturbances at Starpoint tower, the ruptures in colour that woke her up, sweating in her sleep. He had answers... or at least she hoped he did.

She pulled herself into the shadow of a nearby building to watch him. Reader stood for a moment, one hand resting against his head, the other holding the glinting object in his hand, before he tugged the old metal doors of the tower open and dropped the glinting object to the floor behind him as he disappeared inside.

Things were coming together, finally.

Whatever Reader dropped at the entrance of the tower wasn't going to stop her. She didn't need doors. She drifted closer to the wall of Starpoint tower and took a deep breath, steadying herself.

Athira pressed her palms against the corroding metal walls and willed herself to slip through it, holding her breath against the pain that bloomed along her skin. Her colour obeyed, encasing her body as she pushed herself through to the inside of the tower. Like when she levitated, she wasn't afraid of getting stuck. Her colour wouldn't let her die so easily.

On the other side, she blinked away the weird sensation that came with passing through a physical object, but something wasn't right. Her colour still tingled unpleasantly through her body.

She looked behind her, finding the problem immediately. With one last tug, her foot came free of the filing cabinet that'd happened to be on the other side of the wall. It fell over, but Athira caught it just before it hit the floor and righted it.

It'd be awkward if Reader was alerted by a rogue cabinet, she thought, shaking out her arms. She brought them in front of her, observing the runes. She ran her fingers over them. It never ceased to entrance her, the way they came alive to dance on her skin when they were settling the power pushing against them.

Once they were still, Athira glanced around. Nothing but silence greeted her. No alarms, no explosions.

I swear, if this is another wild goose chase, I'm sending that bird to another dimension.  

She made her way along the narrow corridor, opting to walk in case Reader was the type of psychic able to sense nearby colour use. His name suggested he couldn't, but nothing about him seemed regular so far.

Everything in the tower was covered in thick layers of dust. Every step brought a new cloud of the stuff into the air. Items from the past team who'd lived and worked here still sat on the tables where they'd been left. Paperwork scattered over the floor, cabinets still half-opened, glass vials containing the remnants of some long evaporated liquid.

All in all, the tower looked abandoned. No one had been here in years. Yet she couldn't deny the presence that seemed to linger in the air, pressing down on her, watching her from the shadows.

Her fingers played with the amulet on her cloak. She knew the story, the mystery behind the tower. It was the same with the first three people she'd asked about it.

Don't go there. That place is cursed.

 The Colours that resided there vanished without a trace one night, taking everyone in the building with them.

The Elites won't let anyone near it.

Naturally, it was the first place she investigated.

Her efforts hadn't come to much though. Everything was like this corridor - empty and deserted with that presence hanging in the air. Even Talon hadn't been able to provide insight, although technically he only knew what her subconscious was already aware of.

Athira came to the place where the hallway split off into three directions.

One, larger than the others was obviously the main hall, leading in from where Reader had entered. From her previous investigations, the other two led off into a series of more hallways, as untouched as the rest of the building. Only now, there was a trail of disturbed dust leading from the main hall and into the doorway on the left.

She followed the trail, matching her steps to those already in the dust and making sure her cloak didn't drag. The trail turned left into what had been a common room before disappearing down a flight of stairs delving into the ground.

Where the hell is he going?

At the bottom of the stairs, the trail ended against a wall. A single light flickered in what seemed to be an otherwise empty and completely dead-end hallway that had never reached its full potential during renovations.

Athira spent a whole two seconds looking for the switch that would open the obvious secret panel before muttering to herself.

"Screw this."

She placed her palm on the wall in front of where the dust trail disappeared and splayed her fingers. She wrapped her colour around the sliding section of the panel and pushed it into the hidden alcove, granting her passage.

The difference on the other side of the panel was immediate.

For one thing, it was lit. The darkness in the room was banished to the corners by glowing blue light, a similar shade to that which marked her own arms. A faint humming noise made itself known, pulsing on and off at varying intervals.

Athira moved forward into the cavernous room.

Somehow, the roof seemed to extend long past where the top of the stairs dictated it should end. The colour of the lighting being similar to that on her arms was no accident, either. Runes, similar in shape though different in design to those on her body marked not only the walls, but several deliberately placed items around the room. All of them faced a glass-like pillar in the centre that caught their light and projected it into a beam on the ceiling, scattering even more runes across it like stars in the sky.

"What interest does Reader have in this?" she said to herself. She briefly considered using enough of her power to ignite the amulet so she could ask Talon, when a voice interrupted her musing.

"What an excellent question."

Athira spun to her left just in time to see a figure drop out of sight behind a railing. She took a step to chase them until movement above her head sent her senses into overdrive. Her colour drew almost instinctively, slashing at whatever was falling at her.

The net, still sizzling with blue colour fell at her feet with a dull thud. Athira kicked it away with contempt and stalked towards the silver-masked figure who had just appeared, ready to strangle answers out of him if need be.

Reader turned around to face her, eyes shining through his mask. "Why do you five always, always get in the way when I'm doing something important--" He paused, glancing around the room, past where Athira stood before clicking his tongue. "Well this is unexpected."

Athira folded her arms. "What, you knew I was coming and expected that net to work for more than a few seconds, if at all?" 

Reader laughed. To her surprise, it sounded genuine. "No, no, on the contrary I would not expect such a basic trap to hold one such as yourself. Hence its intent was not for you. I must say I am taken a little off guard with this surprise visit. I was expecting someone else."

"Most people are," said Athira.

"I was not aware that I was the Owl's next target," said Reader with a smirk. "Although you may find me more of a challenge than the second rate rabble you've been feeding to the Elites over the past few months."

Athira shrugged. "It wasn't my ultimate goal. I gave them all a choice. Give me the information I wanted without a fuss or get a free tour of the Elite's prison facilities." 

Reader moved over to a screen situated on the other side of the room, touching several places on it to bring up a few of the rune patterns scattered around the room. Athira followed him cautiously, watching the runic patterns rotate in 3D. 

"Ah, bribery then. I take it it didn't go down too well with the number of us that have... disappeared recently?"

"What can I say, I was merely sifting out the useless in your recruits. Really, you should be thanking me," she said dryly. 

Reader snorted. "Not when that appears to be every single one of them." He straightened up, giving her a smile through his mask. "I am curious as to how you found me here, however."

"Let's say you made a rather noticeable disturbance and a little bird picked it up for me. Either way," she said, pulling down her cowl. "I'm going to give you the same choice I gave your cohort. Give me the information I want, or I'm taking it and leaving you for the Elites."

Reader raised an eyebrow and folded his arms. "Big words for a little girl, but I'll bite. What is it you want to know?" 

What do you know; he is exceptionally capable in the mental department. "Everything you know about the disturbances in this area, for a start." 

"Hmm, a rather broad subject. I take it you're rather familiar with the blue colour and the runes they are capable of creating, since you appear to have marked yourself with them?" he said. 

"Fishing for information is a little below you, don't you think."

Reader shrugged. "Worth a try. Anyway," he said, "As you may have noticed, this tower and everything around it is utterly ruined. I have my suspicions that the Colours here, a blue team, were attempting to create some kind of... rift, if you will."

Rift. The word drifted through her mind, threatening to paralyse her. Without her direct command, her left hand rose up to touch the centre of her chest.

Reader's voice continued on, his fingers skimming through various rune designs. "Either way, while they had the basic shape of the runes right, their form was completely wrong and their plan backfired. As a result, there was a massive explosion that killed everyone nearby and stole the colour of the rest. Tragic really." His voice implied he didn't particularly care. 

"That still doesn't explain the more recent disturbances, Reader," said Athira. 

Reader shrugged. "That's because I don't have an explanation for them, Miss Owl. I sensed them through the minds of others and tracked it here, hoping to find out why. I must say though, what I found here is much more than I'd ever hoped for. Seeing it in person instead of in the mind of that other Colour is much more intoxicating." 

"What interest are they to you?" asked Athira. 

He gave her a sly smile. "Don't expect me to give up all my secrets because you ask. We may be equals, but we are not partners." A few quick touches and the runes on the screen disappeared. He clucked his tongue."I do want to ask though, since I'm being so compliant, may I see your arms?" 

Athira folded her arms under her cloak, hugging them against her body. "Why?"

"There's no reason to be suspicious," said Reader. "I merely wish to look at their design, since I have never met someone who quite meets the description I have of your runes. Despite being a purple, I have a vested interest in the blue colour." 

Reader held out a hand. After a moment, Athira tentatively unlocked her arms and hovered her wrist above his grasp and locked eyes with him. 

"Just looking. Understand?" she said. 

He nodded, and she lowered her hand. 

He ran his fingers over the skin of her underarm, his eyes scanning each line of her runes. "All consistent, I don't see what they..." 

Reader's voice trailed off. He hovered for a moment in the space between her crescent and sharp lined runes, eyes tracing something she couldn't see. 

When he looked back to her, his eyes were ablaze with a purple light. 

His voice was a whisper. "Tell me, Miss Owl, does the word 'Rathe' mean anything to you?" 

Athira's blood went cold. There is no way. "How do you know that name?" 

He smiled at her, but it wasn't like the previous ones. It was filled with a kind of hunger, a longing for something that had just come within his grasp. His grip on her wrist tightened. Beneath the surface of her skin, Athira's colour roared to life.  

 "Ah, so you are familiar with it."

Athira jerked her arm away, cradling her arm that burned as if she'd just used her colour to lift a building. "What did you do? How did you--"

Athira? Talon's voice was frantic inside her mind. Athira, what's going on? All of hell's just broken loose, there was someone in here and he--

"I can see your mindscape, Athira. By merely touching a person, their mindscape is visible to me, every crevice, every aspect of their being is laid bare." Reader licked his lips. "But yours... yours is vast. There are aspects there that would take me days to access, guarded by something that escapes me. But I saw enough -- I saw what those runes on the surface of your skin hide, and that which lays below." 

He advanced on her. Athira took three steps backwards and stopped herself, raising her hands in front of her. 

She kept her voice steady. I'll take care of it, Talon. "You'll stay right there unless you want to know exactly what I'm capable of. I warn you. You don't stand a chance, Reader. I don't want to hurt you." 

He shrugged. "The stories of my underlings don't concern me. They often play up the abilities of their foes to attempt to impress me. You may be more skilled than the regular Colour, Athira, but I assure you that you're not capable of handling myself," he said, taking another step. "Join me, and we'll unlock that power hidden in you, I promise."

Athira shook her head. Already the runes on her arms were starting to glow, sensing her distress, calling her colour from her without her permission. "No, you don't understand. It can never be unlocked. It has to stay there, it can't be--"

A flash of purple blinded Athira for a moment and she stumbled. There was a pressure on her chest as Reader's hand shot out, fingers grasping her amulet as he ripped it from her cloak.

Athira, wha--

Talon's voice went silent. Panic rose up in Athira. No, no the amulet--

His voice came from somewhere to her left. "And without this, I'm sure your abilities will be less than substantial. A power booster, really Athira? So cliche."

Sight useless, she followed her ears and lunged to the left, managing to catch on to his arm and drag him back. "It's not a power--"

She'd forgotten what it felt like without her amulet. It'd been years since she'd taken it off and all at once, she remembered why.

The onslaught of power in her mindscape rocked her body. Her runes, previously at a dull glow, now covered her body in brilliant blue light. Without Talon to guard her mindscape, help her stop that flood of power from consuming her, her rampant emotions, the panic and the anger, took control of the flood.

Athira grabbed her head, trying to think. She knew what she had to do. She flung her arms out to the side, releasing the summoned colour in a huge burst that crashed into the side of the room and sent anything in its path flying. Free of the immediate pressure, she dragged her gaze up to meet Reader's.

He was staring at her in disbelief, her amulet still clutched in his right hand.

"Give me the amulet now, or I can't promise you that I can control what happens next," she said. She didn't recognise her own voice.  "Now, Reader, or I swear--"

Reader broke their gaze, moving his attention to "I'd love to continue this little chat, Athira but my sensor says we have company. Three of them, in fact, and I no longer have the net to deal with their entrance."

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A/N - First chapter and prologue done in a day. I'm proud of that. 

Word count - 4285