Harris Institute for Gifted Students Episode 11: Imagine

Harris Institute for Gifted Students by Pineapple | Content warnings

---

The improvement Vanessa had made since the beginning of the semester was obvious. She was in her element here, between Ben and Sofia, focused and doling out directions confidently and comfortably.

She held one of Ben’s hands and one of Sofia’s, telling them to do the same. Ben’s barrier expanded around them: solid and inescapable. Deafening, almost. It felt like a bubble, surrounding them like their own little, nacreous world.

Sofia felt static trail up her arm, the hairs standing up in the wake of Vanessa’s powers. Her control had gotten more exact. It was like Vanessa was tossing the energy right into her, nice and easy, so even somebody as clumsy as Sofia could catch it. Sofia felt her awareness open up like an animal opening their eyes for the first time.

Marjani was there. Sofia had forgotten nearly forgotten. The twins, too, and Mickey. Sofia felt more aware than ever now.

Greyson was in the clinic with Melissa, but Sam was nearby. He was planning to report back to them as soon as all this was over. He hadn’t told Sofia, but she knew, because she could feel his intentions at the back of her skull like a whisper she was trying not to hear. Her hand almost slipped from Ben’s, but he held fast.

Right. They had a mission. She needed to focus.

“Ready, Sof?” Vanessa asked, just to her right.

Sofia nodded. She felt the barrier shrink around her. A vacuum seal to keep anything extraneous out. Sofia felt Vanessa’s fingers twitch beneath hers and felt secure, knowing she wouldn’t get lost here, as long as she had Vanessa as a tether to reality. She closed her eyes, held on tight, and dove in.

Ben’s magic was like a wet suit here. The bubble thoughts floating around her wouldn’t touch her as long as it was there, so she could swim freely as she searched for that strange, droning language she’d heard in Ray’s mind yesterday. But it was useless. The voice was nowhere to be found. There was nothing here but voices she couldn’t hear. An endless sea of peoples consciousnesses.

“Let’s stop,” Sofia said, opening her eyes. Ben and Vanessa dropped her hands.

“What’s wrong?” Vanessa asked, chewing on the inside of her cheek. “Need a break?”

“I don’t…” Sofia started. When had she sunken down to her knees? She tried to stand, and Mickey was instantly at her side, steadying her. “I don’t hear it. I don’t hear it anywhere.”

“We could try expanding Ben’s barrier,” Marjani suggested.

“Or get rid of it altogether.” He sighed. “It might do more harm than good if it’s flying under the radar somehow.”

“No, I don’t think that’s it…”

Sam hummed, crossing his arms with a furrowed brow. Sofia was still buzzing a bit, still feeling the effects from Vanessa’s boost. When she looked at Sam, she could tell he was running obviously through scenarios in his head. Wondering if maybe Alaric had caught onto them.

She could feel the tension from everyone else in the air. Unlike when she’d linked to Ray, she couldn’t understand the twins, but the energy from Sumire was much the same as Sam. Sugi was… pleasantly empty in a carefree way. Like a cloud on a pretty spring day. Like a Monet painting or something.

Sofia wondered if she should go and ask for Ray’s help.

“You don’t need my help,” he said preemptively, directly into her brain.

If she hadn’t been expecting it, she might have been surprised.

“You got that boost. Are you gonna waste it?”

“I can’t find him here. I can’t hear him anywhere around us,” Sofia answered back, glancing back towards the training building where Ray lived.

“So he must not be anywhere around us.”

Sofia huffed a sigh. This man was so annoying.

“What’s the matter?” Mickey asked.

“Ray suggests that the voice must be somewhere that I’m not looking,” Sofia answered, rubbing her head, mussing her hair.

“Do you think he’s in that building outside the barrier?”

All eyes turned to look at Sugi.

He was chewing a piece of grass, staring off into the distance.

“What?” Vanessa asked with no inflection.

“The new building,” Sam repeated flatly. “Outside the barrier.”

Sugi must have felt eyes on him, because he looked over at everyone else. “You guys didn’t notice it?” he asked. “I saw it last time I went out to town to see my friend.”

“What friend?” Sumire teased. It was lighthearted, but there was a harshness in her voice that belayed an urgency her twin wasn’t showing.

“That Indian guy who works at the little cafe,” he said. “On the way back, I saw it. It gave me… a bad feeling. I told you, Sumi.”

“There was nothing there.”

Sugi stopped to take the straw out of his mouth and throw it on the ground as he stood up. “There was a big building! I pointed to it last time!”

“I thought you meant the bird—”

“Which way?” Sofia asked.

“Huh?”

She could feel the boost dulling. She was running out of time. “Which way do you come back?” she asked desperately.

Sugi pointed. The same way he’d been looking, contemplating this whole time. Of course.

Sofia grabbed onto Vanessa’s wrist and shut her eyes again. She reached out, out further than she’d ever tried. She imagined shooting her powers like one of Mickey’s arrows, penetrating the barrier to get out to where the building might be.

A hand grasped hers. Mickey? No.

It was Sugi. He was showing her the way. In her mind’s eye, she could see the place he was talking about. It wasn’t as big as she’d imagined, but it was sizable enough… impossible to miss.

“Do you see it?” Sugi asked.

Sofia nodded.

“Is he there?” he asked next.

“Cut it off,” Ray’s voice rang out. “If you don’t stop, I’ll stop you myself.“

Sofia blinked her eyes open, dazed. Everything was so much… more without the school’s protections. There was a rawness to the thoughts of the real-world. Unpolished. Unsanded, even. She could get splinters from touching it, going in unprotected.

“Sofia,” Ray said again, an edge to his voice.

There was a sharp tug on her brain: the painful beginnings of a migraine. She doubled over, seeing spots in her vision.

“Sof!” Mickey shouted, catching her again by the arm.

“What’s this?” a voice asked, contemplating with a cold disinterest. Like she was barely worth the time. It was attached to whatever it was that was pulling her. Dark, menacing. Looming and all-encompassing. It was the same voice from the assembly. From Ray’s room. When she tried to put up her defenses, sever the ties, his hold tightened. She slid closer to the tower.

“Sofia?” Vanessa startled, grabbing onto her other side.

“It’s Alaric,” Sofia and Sugi said together.

When Sofia looked up at him, he was looking at something she couldn’t see. Sofia reached out for Sugi’s hand, and he took it. There was a hand, bright and sparkling. Fluorescent. It hurt her eyes to look at it; the throbbing in her head increased.

Sugi looked at her, his eyes searching. “Ready?” he asked.

Ready? Ready for what?

And then there was darkness covering her eyes. It was a blessing against the light of Alaric’s magic. Warmth around her middle and against her back. It felt like a hug.

“Focus on me,” Ray’s voice said.

“I hear you.”

“I told you to cut it out, stupid,” he said. “Why didn’t you listen?”

Sofia let out a laugh.

She heard Sugi make a noise—something like a grunt but not quite—and the pressure in her head eased. The darkness cleared, and the warmth faded. She blinked her eyes open.

“Thanks for the save, Ray,” she thought.

“Find out what’s up with that kid of yours,” he said back. “How he knew it was Alaric and that I was gonna help like that. I’m going to bed.”

Sugi helped Sofia sit down in the grass. Despite herself, she felt something bubble up inside her—a laugh. Everyone looked at her like she was crazy, but she couldn’t help it.

“I heard him,” she said. “He heard me, too.”

Sam’s crossed arms fell to his sides.

Mickey brushed Sofia’s hair out of her face, cupping her cheeks. “We’ve lost her,” she mourned facetiously. “Alaric replaced her with someone who has no sense of how to read a room.”

Sofia giggled. “No, you don’t understand. I heard—”

“Sahar?” Sam said for her.

Sofia nodded. “Alaric is there, too, of course. But Sahar is there, somewhere, underneath that noise I heard before…”

Sam bit his lip, holding back a smile. Maybe tears. Maybe both. Mickey and Sugi and Vanessa started crowding around Sofia, so she couldn’t see Sam anymore.

“What happened with Alaric?” Vanessa asked. “Are you okay?”

“He… found out I was searching,” Sofia explained, rubbing at her eyes. The migraine was mostly gone, but she could use a rest after all that. “It felt like he grabbed onto my brain. I couldn’t leave, I couldn’t sever the connection…”

“He shouldn’t know it’s you, at least,” Sugi said. “I think… it didn’t seem like he knew…”

Sumire stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

“I just… Like, I used my magic so that I covered Sofie’s magic with mine. And then I cut it with a knife.” He reenacted it, slicing downward through the air with his hand. “Easy peasy.”

“You can do that?” Sumire asked, cocking her head.

Sugi shrugged. “Why not?”

“How did you know Ray was going to help me?” Sofia asked.

He hummed in response. “You were… unresponsive. I figured your mind was preoccupied with things other than Alaric. Plus, I was hoping, after what Sumi told me about yesterday.”

“Hoping?” Sofia repeated. She felt a blush crawling up the back of her neck.

Sumire coughed loudly and obviously to change the subject. “What are we planning to do about Alaric? Whether Sofia or not, he won’t be happy about anybody snooping about his Frankenstein project.”

“Aw, don’t call him that…” Ben chided.

“Regardless, it’s a bad idea to wait too long to act,” Marjani said. “Alaric of the Light is skilled at what he does and swift.”

Vanessa nodded. “I know. We need a solid plan if we plan to go rescue Sahar…” She put a hand to her chin like she always did, but now she was biting on her lip in addition to it.

“Rescue missions are more difficult than straight-on assaults, Vanessa, you know that,” Marjani said.

Vanessa looked up at her. “I know,” she said again, sighing.

“Ben and I will assist coming up with a guarantee.”

When Vanessa looked to Ben for confirmation, he gave a confident thumbs up.

“Samuel,” Vanessa said, “please go update your sister and Greyson. Everyone else… go get some rest. Meet at the field after classes?”

There were a few scattered agreements, and then they were walking back to their dorms like everything was normal. Sofia tried to imagine that it was.

---

Ms. Fatima was in a somber mood. The candles on her desk were flickering erratically, which said more about Sofia than it did Ms. Fatima, but Sofia could tell by the look on her face that something was wrong as she idly shuffled the tarot deck in her hands.

“Let me come with you after class,” she said.

One of the flames flared dangerously high, though it felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped on Sofia. “Wh-what do you mean? Come where?” She was trying and failing to keep her voice steady.

“I can only take you to the back of the barrier.” She fanned the cards on the table. A nice, even spread as always. “Alaric won’t suspect anything if I go that far and I can keep him off your back until then.”

Sofia managed a weak laugh. “So you know?”

“It is your journey, mi niña,” she said softly. She flipped over the deck with one simple motion so they were all face up. Just like the day before classes, they were in order. She slid Justice so it was sticking out, just an inch. “You found him. You have your team. When you encounter The Tower, what will you do?”

Sofia looked at everything in front of her. Every single step laid out.

“You and your friends have grown, Sofie,” she said. “From The Fool to The Hanged Man. Death is next. Let it remind you that the future is not set in stone.”

“The cards also reminds us that The Tower will fall.”