“Yes,” Ashley said. She thought about leaving it at that, but these people were the same ones who had agreed to pay her for her time and her trouble. “But this memory being in the mix and Edict’s power don’t have anything to do with that. Maybe this an avenue to pursue, on why this memory bleed happened, but I haven’t had the opportunity to be one hundred percent me for a long, long, long time.”

Eclipse x.6

Damsel’s power broke through the silence, the scream and the crackle of it so abrupt in how it came on and dissipated that she could imagine it was a continuous sound that was only audible when her power opened the door.

In the break between the use of her blasts, her toes scrabbled for footing on the brick.

Another blast, driving her up and at an angle. The darkness rippled behind and below her like her dress flapped and whipped around in the disturbed air. She had to work against the push, so she wouldn’t simply be pressed against the wall. Instead, her leg extended out, some isolated muscles she wasn’t used to exercising straining, her foot dragged down, and she made her way up.

She was three stories above the ground, only a drop with nothing to grab below her.

The blasts alternated, to provide that recoil push that could drive her skyward, while her feet worked to give her traction and keep her positioned.

This blast sputtered after she tried to extinguish it; a movement of her hand she hadn’t intended, or just the power being its moody self, it continued to output power, pushing her off course. She was flung sideways, toward the corner of the building, and beyond that—only the fifty foot drop to pavement and sidewalk.

She compensated, a use of her power to send her in the opposite direction. So wild and reflexive a move saved her from the immediate threat, bought her a second, and threatened another crisis, her entire body out of position, her frame of reference spinning around her.

She could see the fat, rust-stained concrete lip at the bottom of a window, and she stomped on it more than step on it, in her rush to find footing.

It was another half second of time, and it gave her the ability to establish her frame of reference, reminding herself what was up, what was down, and where she wanted to be.

Up. She blasted, both hands, and her knee almost struck her chest as she rushed to get her footing in advance of her body getting that high.

Up, another burst, another noise, another shudder through her arms and shoulders to her chest, the feeling around her heart and chest reminding her that she hadn’t breathed in twenty or thirty seconds.