Powerless Revision 1 by Jason Letts Read Free Book Online Page B

knowledge that the entire community depended upon. But seeing the shriveled body before him somehow detracted from that.
    “I’ve come about my daughter. She needs your permission to attend the academy,” Kevin said. The old man nodded his head, already in deep thought.
    “If it had just been that, I would have had an assistant take care of you. But that’s not all you needed to discuss,” he said.
    “That’s right. There’s something else—”
    “Something more serious,” Corey added before returning to the beginning. “But I was surprised to hear about the daughter you’ve been hiding, and more so of her circumstances. I’ve heard her, you know. Her footsteps are hesitant and there is much fear and doubt tangled within the waves of her voice.”
    His voice imitated Mira’s, and Kevin looked carefully at the man, listening to the heavy words that forcibly entered his ear. Assuming Kevin’s voice, the words Corey spoke haunted Kevin’s mind and drowned out his own thoughts.
    “In a race, sound will always lose to light, but sound is much more vital to our existence. After all, we can create sound, but we can’t create light. Most people foolishly depend on light to tell them about the external appearance and the internal emotions of others, but sound is a much better indicator. I can recognize your daughter, Mira, without a doubt and clearly interpret her emotions from just a few words. And the same goes for you, Mr. Ipswich. Now tell me, why did you let your bird out of the cage?”
    “Because she’s got a life to live, just like the rest of us. It’s not right for myself or Jeana to decide that she can’t find a place in the world, that she’s not good enough for it,” Kevin argued.
    Corey again smiled, enjoying something that Kevin couldn’t see.
    “And you want her to attend the academy too. What if she goes off to fight?” Kevin heard the playful tone of his wife’s voice.
    “That will be a decision of her choosing. She needs this opportunity to socialize and learn about the world. You can’t deny her that. I don’t see how she could complete the Shadowing, but if she does decide to go with her classmates to fight then I can be proud of her for it.”
    “Oh, but you know,” said Corey, darkly, and with an increasingly base voice. “Your voice tells me you know full well what would happen to her. You work preparing supplies for shipment to the front lines, but you’ve only heard of what goes on there. Words can’t describe the kind of bizarre chaos and insane carnage unleashed in the heat of battle. It’s something you must hear for yourself. I get the sense that the danger is coming closer to home than you would like.”
    Kevin cleared his throat, chilled by what he’d just heard.
    “Yes, that’s the other thing. Before we let her out, Mira said she saw a face in my vapor. I checked everywhere, and I couldn’t find evidence of anyone strange in the area, but I have this sneaking suspicion that someone was trying to get in.”
    “You sound like a man who knows to be worried from experience. Am I right?”
    Kevin, soundlessly, grimaced and looked away.
    “Your silence speaks as loud as your words,” Corey went on. “So you think someone is out to get you, again, and so you put your treasure out in the open where anyone can get to it. Is that intelligent?”
    “She’s safer away from Cloud Cottage than in it,” he said, defensively. “No one knows who she is or what she is or even where she’s from when she’s out in public. Being at school should especially put her out of harm’s reach. No one knows she exists so she can’t be the thing they seek.”
    Corey carefully considered this, finally nodding his head.
    “That’s true, for now. But how long do you think it will be until her secret gets out? If someone is targeting you, that means they’re after something. Maybe they don’t know where it is, but my guess is they will know it when they find it. You must be