Syphon: Guardians of the Fractured Realms (14 page)

“Sounds about right. I think the crime scene techs are done sifting and collecting all the evidence there. Since we know how weird all this is, maybe we’ll spot something they overlooked. In the meantime, might I make another suggestion since I can’t get you to stop chasing this fool’s errand?”

She cast a dark look at him.

“What?”

“Might I suggest wearing body armor and carrying more firepower on you. If these people are as tough as you’re saying they are, I think we need to go in armed for bear. And not a little tiny black bear or Winnie the Pooh. I’m talking the mutant, rabid grizzly bear that’d strike terror into Godzilla if he ever came across it.”

As another broad smile broke across her face.

“Ya know what, I think that’s the smartest thing you’ve said today.”

He replied by balling up a piece of paper and chucking it at her head.

“That was unbelievable!”

Samuel glanced over at Blythe. He had to admit, he was pretty impressed with himself as well. He’d just spent the better part of an hour sparring against two, three, and at one point, four other partners. Even against such heavily stacked odds, he was still able to beat them without getting hit. What surprised him more, however, was that he felt more energized and rested now than when he’d first arrived. With a start, he realized he also didn’t feel quite as hungry as he had since leaving the hospital.

“Yeah, I kinda surprised myself as well. Didn’t know I was that good with a sword, or even dual-wielding for that matter.”

“Yeah, Cliff said he’d never seen anyone handle two long swords like that before. Joe had experience with a sword and parrying dagger, but the way they went on and on about it, wielding two swords of the same length is pretty rare.”

“I’m not sure why, but wielding two blades seemed even easier than just the one. It somehow felt more natural than just using the one sword, although it did impair my ability to use my jewelry as a shield.”

“Well, you sure as hell looked impressive doing it. You flowed like quicksilver through them. It seemed like the more people you fought, the smoother you moved through them. I talked to your sparring partners when you took a break. They all said that it felt like you weren’t even there when they went to hit you. Your blocks, for the most part, were so soft that they didn’t even realize you’d deflected them until their blade missed you by inches. Speaking of which, did any of that jog your memories at all?”

Samuel shook his head.

“I wish. I could feel something rattling around just below the surface, but the harder I tried to remember, the further away it felt. I know that I can handle swords for obvious reasons, but I don’t know how I know. The less I thought about it, the easier it became. It was weird, like fighting with swords was more natural than walking or something.”

Blythe surprised him by giggling.

“What’s so funny?”

“You almost sound like the description from a book I read when I was younger about a village of swordspeople,” she said, getting a far-off look on her face. Shaking her head, she continued, “anyway, the main character was from a tribe or clan that basically taught their kids from the crib how to become expert sword-fighters. One of them was worth ten or more regular swordsmen. If they were real, you’d fit perfectly into their society perfectly.”

“Speaking of which, what about you? I couldn’t help but notice you repeatedly downplayed your skills. You pulled back every time you had an opening. I also noticed how you purposely let other’s hit you. Why?”

Samuel watched as she ducked her head slightly before looking at him out of the corner of her eye.

“What? No… You’re wrong. I’m just not that good is all…”

Samuel cocked his head slightly as he looked over at her again.

“Uh… Okay, if you say so.”

Samuel puzzled over why Blythe would purposely play down her skill level.

She’s obviously a much better fighter than anyone realizes, but she hides it in front of her friends. Guess that’s just one more mystery I’ll have to worry about later.

Leaning back into the car seat, he sunk into his own thoughts. With his skills at fighting in general, and sword-fighting in particular, he’d obviously had a lot of training. Even though he looked like he was in his mid-twenties, he was easily able to fight off people who’d been practicing sword-fighting for at least ten to twenty years. How does someone become so skilled with swords at such a young age. As he thought about it, he realized he was making an assumption. Namely, that he was in his twenties. Granted, that’s how old he appeared to be when he looked in the mirror, but since he lost his memory, there was no way to be sure exactly how old he really was. Maybe he lived such a healthy lifestyle that he was in his thirties, or maybe even early forties. There was no way to be sure until his memory came back.

“Samuel?”

“Huh…? Sorry, lost in thought. You were saying?”

“Oh… no problem. I was, uh, asking if you planned on staying at the shelter tonight?”

“Honestly, I hadn’t thought about it, but since I don’t really have a lot of options, it’s either there or the street. So yeah, probably going to crash there.”

He glanced back over at her, watching her drive. From the expression on her face, he could tell she was trying to make up her mind about something. Appearing to come to a decision, she looked over at him.

“Well, I was kinda wondering… I know we don’t know each other very well… but…” she paused for a moment, her breathing increasing slightly. He wasn’t sure because of the low light, but he thought her face was getting flushed. Turning back to him, she suddenly blurted out, “would you like to stay at my place? You know… Until you get back on your feet and your memory returns?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, her eyes snapped forward to stare at the road they were driving on. Her breathing was coming in short, rapid inhalations and exhalations, like she’d just finished a short sprint. She had said it so fast, and without any warning, it took moment for him to process what she’d said.

“I mean, I understand if you don’t want to and everything. We really just met and all. So if you wa—”

“Honestly, I would love to stay at your place instead. I’m going to hazard a guess and suspect it smells a tad bit better than my other choices, to say the least,” he said lightly, trying to put her at ease.

She blinked a couple times, her mouth hanging open in mid-word. Her jaw worked a couple times before any sound came out.

“Oh… OH! Um, sure. Cool… Well, I live not too far from here, so we’ll be there in a little bit.”

Judging from the look on her face, Samuel realized she was severely flustered. If he had to guess, he suspected she hadn’t expected him to say yes, so when he did, she wasn’t sure what to do.

“Thank you for such a generous offer. You didn’t have to, but I really appreciate it.”

“Uh… no problem… I mean you’re welcome…”

“Are you sure about this?” he asked, “you seem to be a little tense about the situation.”

“Oh, I’m sure,” she blurted out, her face getting even more flushed, “I’d love to have you stay the night… I mean… Oh… that didn’t come out right.”

She took a few deep breaths before she continued.

“What I meant to say was, you seem like such a nice guy, I’d feel bad about you having to sleep down at the shelter. Not that it isn’t a nice shelter and everything, but I would hate myself if I just left you there when I could do something about it.”

Samuel looked smiling as he responded, “As long as you’re sure about it, I’d be glad to uh, stay the night.”

He had to quickly grab the door handle when she nearly swerved off the road.

§§§§§§§§§§§§

Blythe nervously fumbled with the lock for a minute, but Samuel pretended not to notice. Instead, he made a show of looking around the hallway as she finally unlocked her apartment door and went inside. He heard the lights click on as he followed her inside.

“I know it’s not much, but unfortunately it’s all I can afford right now. I’m still going to school, so between that, a couple part time jobs, and volunteering at the shelter, it’s the best I can do.”

Samuel glanced around the apartment quickly. It was a pretty cramped space, with a small kitchenette that flowed into the tiny living room. The couch looked well-used but in good condition. As he looked around, he noticed Blythe trying to covertly clean the place. Noticing his look, she hid some clothes behind her back.

“I didn’t get a chance to straighten up before I left this morning,” she said, trying to kick something under a small desk. “It’s usually not this messy.”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” he said, purposely turning away from her. He could hear her trying to stuff the items she’d been trying to hide into some nook or cranny that was close by.

Glancing back at her, he noticed her still trying to stuff more stuff into nearby crevices.

“If you can point me in the general direction of sheets and blankets, assuming you don’t mind, I’ll go ahead and make up the couch for tonight.”

“Oh, of course. Sure,” she said distractedly while continuing to stuff miscellaneous items in random spots. “They’re in that closet over there,” she added, waving toward a small door. Glancing at the door, he noticed a sword hanging on the wall.

“Blythe?” he said, stopping in front of the sword.

“Yeah?”

He reached out, almost touching the blade before pulling his hand back. He admired the sleek lines the blade cast. Without knowing why, he knew this sword was wielded differently than the longswords he’d been practicing with earlier.

“Is it okay if I touch this?”

“Sure, go for it. It’s not near as heavy as the ones you were playing with earlier. Not really wielded the same way either…”

She trailed off as Samuel pulled the sword off the wall and started using it in a way that felt most natural to him. He instinctively used the red tassels dangling from the pommel to blind an imaginary foe as he gracefully swooped and pivoted with the blade. For some reason, he felt it was normal to point the first two fingers of his off-hand like a secondary blade as he continued to glide across the apartment.

“How do you know that form? I’ve been studying it for nearly a year and I don’t look anywhere near as graceful as you do performing it.”

Blythe’s voice snapped him out of near-trance he’d been practicing in. With a sigh, he hung the sword back up on the wall.

“I wish I knew. Like earlier, I just flowed into how that sword felt like it should be handled. For some reason, I just knew it wasn’t used like the swords from earlier. What kind of sword is it, anyway?”

“Well, depending on whether you use the Cantonese or Mandarin name for it, it’s called a Gim or Jian. Most people just call it a Tai Chi sword though.”

“Tai Chi?”

Blythe nodded as she took the sword off the wall again. Moving through a few graceful moves, she demonstrated some of the form he’d just performed.

“Yes, sometimes called Tai Chi Chuan. It’s a form of internal martial art that’s supposed to help develop internal power, or chi.”

Hanging the sword back up, she demonstrated a different form.

“This one’s called the simplified 24 form, what most people start out learning.”

Samuel watched as she slid from one posture to the next. He could sense the power of the movements as she worked her way through the form. As he got lost in watching her perform, he suddenly noticed an odd shimmering-effect starting to form around her. The intensity seemed centered around a spot just below her belly-button and slowly suffused outward, forming an almost shimmering field extending several inches from her body. Before he had a chance to make sense of what he was seeing, she finished the form and the shimmering affect contracted back to her abdominal area.

Reaching into the closet, she pulled out a hand towel and wiped her face, which Samuel noticed had started glistening with sweat.

“It doesn’t look like much, but it definitely gets your motor running while relaxing you at the same time. Kinda weird, actually.”

“It looks likes a pretty powerful form of self-defense, too.”

Samuel noticed Blythe’s face sag slightly.

“Yeah… I guess so. Not really why I started taking lessons though.”

“Oh… Then why’d you want to learn it?”

Blythe’s expression darkened before glimpses of sadness poked through.

“I had anger issues when I was younger. My parents thought Tai Chi would help calm me down, especially after…”

Samuel looked at her as she trailed off. After a moment, he cleared his throat.

“Blythe?”

She blinked before looking at him again. She had a slight edge in her voice as she handed him the blankets and sheets from the closet.

“I’m sorry, I’m kinda tired and I need to get up early for work tomorrow. If you need anything, just let me know. Goodnight…”

Before he had a chance to say anything else, she quickly turned around and walked into her bedroom, closing the door behind her.

Samuel awoke with a start. It took him a few seconds to remember where he was. Sitting up on the couch, he glanced around for the source of the noise.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. I was trying to be quiet while I got ready for work,” Blythe said, poking her head from the bathroom.

“No problem. From what I can tell, I appear to be a pretty light sleeper. What time is it, anyway?”

Samuel heard gargling from behind behind the door. After a few seconds, she replied.

“It’s a little after six in the morning. I have to be to work by seven unfortunately. If I didn’t need the money so badly, I would have called out today.”

“That’s fine. There’s some stuff I need to look into today anyway.”

“Really? You’re welcome to stay if you want. I only have to work ‘til one today. After that, I have classes but they don’t start until three. So if you’re interested, maybe we can get some lunch together?”

Samuel could hear the hopeful tone in her voice.

“Sure. But you might want to consider bringing something home from the store. From the amount of food I seem to be able to pack away, I might eat your next month’s rent if we eat out somewhere.”