Quibble, 33. Phantom

A phantom Zero with uncanny powers chases Quibble.

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33. Phantom @Alnasl

Leaving the Adroit consensus, Definition took only a horse, not even the cart she came with. Her flight and Bibliography’s ire disturbed me. The excelsior rushed ahead in the art of glasses, outdoing even Vega’s wildest hopes, but her closest friends were beginning to desert her. “A bad sign,” I told Aladfar, and he agreed. Quibble needed her friends.

Control’s interest in her was growing keen. Through spies, Vega learned that Unity’s restraint regarding Quibble mystified the lord of control Alioth, and he obeyed Its dictate only because he didn’t yet realize It was checking him in deference to Utopia. If he figured out the ruse and saw Unity Itself defied control, he would give no heed to the question of who had deceived him. His wrath would bear down on Quibble, and he would follow edict to the letter.

Lesath’s involvement alarmed me, too. Seeing him in Quibble’s dream, my first thoughtless notion had been to ask Utopia to imprison her in Its hub and keep her there out of sight. That was of course absurd, no solution had it even been possible.

What did Lesath want of Quibble? Thinking himself Unity’s proxy, as all lords of utter control did, he was no respecter of Its strictures. He would obey no commandment Utopia gave, either. What held him back? Seeing what Quibble could do, he hadn’t tried to kill her at once. Did he not see her as a threat? Did he hope to make her his pawn? Or was she, somehow, his queen? What game was he playing?

One thing more bothered me: the phantom. Of all who watched Quibble, control and kindness alike, none saw that Zero. She alone espied him. He was clever enough to light no glass, attempt no control. But it shouldn’t have mattered, especially to me. My negativity is so strong I can espy unlit glasses, even ambers. How the phantom escaped my notice was one mystery to darken the glass, but why he sought to put such a scare in Quibble was yet another. Only now, Numberless, do I see he was also scaring me.

It happened the evening of the fourth touching, two days before Definition left, as Quibble was climbing the northeast hill to meet me at our appointed place. I espied her as she climbed. Behind her came Rasalased, now stealthier on the ground Without. Aladfar and Alsephina flanked Quibble’s path uphill, one to the left, the other higher to the right. By habit, they kept their hands from all glasses save their ambers, so as not to frighten Quibble, and they intoned to me, reporting her progress and any danger they sensed. At no point, as dusk darkened to night and Quibble climbed on, did any report reach me of the least thing out of the ordinary. All was quiet.

Then, below Alsephina still, Quibble turned aside from her path. I had taught her how to intone, so I messaged her: What’s the matter? Why aren’t you coming straight up?

There’s a Zero ahead of me! came her reply.

That’s Alsephina scouting.

Are you sure? Quibble intoned. I know her amber when I espy it, Aladfar’s too.

Of this I had been unaware – some powers came so naturally to Quibble that she didn’t think to mention them – but it didn’t surprise me. This was no time to grouse at her about the oversight. I espied the hillside again: below me were Aladfar, Alsephina, Quibble, Rasalased, nobody else. The path’s clear, Quibble.

She corrected her course and kept coming. Then she stopped and intoned again, not only to me but to the other three Zeros as well. Who’s popping?

Popping? said the silence.

I see no pops, Alsephina reported.

Quibble stepped again off her path, now into a copse of trees. A moment passed. Sorry, she told us, it must have been a trick of the light.

Calm down, I instructed. If there’s a pop, we’ll all be around you before it flashes out.

Will I still be here, though?

Trust us!

Quibble resumed climbing, and for a long while nothing happened. She passed Alsephina, headed up towards me. Halfway, I espied her at a stop again. Exasperated, I intoned for all to hear, Now what?

No answer. I stopped espying and relied on my bare sight. Quibble was running up the hill now, both arms pumping the air by her sides. Presumably, her amber was in her pocket, and she couldn’t hear me. Calculating quickly, I popped into her path. Too close: she tackled me head-on and bore me to the ground before my feet even touched it. As I lay sprawled, the wind knocked out of me, she scurried away on all fours like a crab. A crack of sound: another pop-in a few feet away. By its light, I saw Quibble rise from the earth with a heavy branch clutched in both her hands. She began to swing it at my head. Then Aladfar stepped halfway between us, shouting, “No! It’s the vision!”

Quibble dropped the branch. Rising, I lit my amber to see her. In her pale face lay the shadow of sheer terror. “Alnasl!” she gasped.

“Who did you think?” I said.

Now two more pops echoed over the hill. In brilliant bursts, Alsephina and Rasalased appeared at either side of Quibble, making her flinch.

“What happened?” Aladfar demanded, looking around at everyone.

“Something spooked her,” I said.

“A Zero!” Quibble said, and Aladfar looked at her blankly. Her eyes widened in amazement. “You didn’t see him?”

“I saw you run, but not what you ran from,” he told her.

“Nor I,” said Rasalased and Alsephina together.

Quibble turned to me. I shook my head.

“There was a Zero right at my back!” she exclaimed, looking at us one by one in disbelief. “None of you saw him chasing me?”

“Start from the beginning,” I suggested.

She took a deep breath. “First I espied an amber I didn’t know – not the Zero, just the amber. Then it vanished and I kept going. Then a shadow appeared on one side of a tree. I was sure it wasn’t there before, but when I went to look closer, it was gone again. So up I went. Then I saw the pop and the Zero. He was on the path ahead—”

“Wait,” Rasalased interrupted, “what you’re saying is impossible, Quibble. None of us saw a pop. We didn’t hear anything, either.”

“No, I guess you wouldn’t,” Quibble said. “The pop was black, silent.”

All four of us gaped at her. “Come again?” Aladfar said.

“The pop was black in color. The Zero popped without making a sound.”

“Pops emit light,” I objected. “There’s no such thing as black light—”

“There’s ultraviolet,” Alsephina put in.

“—and you can’t pop out without a sound!” I finished, ignoring her.

“I’m telling you,” Quibble insisted with a glare, “the second time he popped out, I saw, and it looked just like a pop, but it was all black and it didn’t make a sound.”

“And then what?” Aladfar asked, intoning to me, Let her speak!

“After he popped out again, I heard footsteps coming up behind me. Before I could turn around, he whispered right in my ear. He said, ‘Run.’ So I ran! I heard him running behind me. Then there was a pop right in front of me, an ordinary pop. I’m sorry, Alnasl, I thought it was him.”

Aladfar turned to me. “Vision, it’s time Quibble’s lessons take a leap forward. I don’t know what we’re dealing with here, but it sounds like a trick of utter control.”

“It must be,” I found myself saying. “They do strange things with their glasses. Pop hundreds of miles at a go, slow their heartbeats—”

“That’s not my worry.” Aladfar turned his eyes on Quibble again. “Was the Zero you saw the lord Lesath?”

“I didn’t see a face,” she admitted. “His hood was up. But no, it wasn’t Lesath. I think I’d know the lord to see him. This Zero was shorter. And he didn’t wear black. He wore maroon, like Alsephina.”

“An adept! Let’s assume it’s Lesath’s adept. Now, my second worry. Why did he tell you to run? If he could catch you unawares, why chase you?”

Rasalased posited the adept wanted to frighten Quibble, and that theory squared with the facts, but it still left us at sixes and sevens to guess why. What advantage might utter control gain by frightening her with demonstrations of arcane power? Wasn’t their purpose better served by simply using their power, stealing her away? They were cruel, all Zeros knew, but they weren’t mere bullies – they directed their cruelty at their aims. What was this phantom Zero’s aim?

Aladfar adjourned the array and went to consult Vega. I took Quibble Within, then by night-door far afield for a lesson in popping to places unseen, so she could get well away from a threat. I’d put it off too long.

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