The training room had settled into an uneasy quiet.
Cassian, Orion, Lyra, and Kael were scattered around the training room, while Harley and Rover watched from near the back wall. Some of The Seraphyne sat nearby, quietly observing. Red guarded the door and was earlier reprimanded for smoking a cigarette around the children, so he stood alone with crossed arms, annoyed that he couldn't smoke.
Ivory sat in a chair beside Blue, who would test Serene today by giving her a few scenarios and having her use her abilities to exhibit how advanced she is or isn't becoming.
Ivory was distracted; the chatter around her felt far. Elara wasn't there. She was still in jail. Ivory felt the pit in her stomach churn; she felt it was unfair for Blue to imprison Elara.
Ivory snapped out of her thoughts and saw Blue holding a candy bar.
"That's mine?" Serene immediately looked at it.
Everyone laughed.
"Not yet," Blue smiled faintly.
He walked toward the curtain at the far end of the room and slipped the candy bar behind it. Ivory saw that there was a wooden chair, and the candy bar filled in some of the empty space.
"All right," Blue turned around, "One of your siblings is going to take it."
Cassian looked at Orion, who grinned.
Lyra laughed.
"That's easy," Kael folded his arms, "It'll be Orion."
"When everyone is behind the curtain, I will open it, and tap the shoulder of whomever I want to take it," Blue continued. "Nobody tells Serene who it is. She'll use her X-Ray vision to see who I tap, and who ends up taking it!"
"Are we supposed to lie?" Lyra asked.
"Yes."
Orion immediately looked amused.
Cassian rubbed his hands together in interest; Kael yawned in boredom.
Blue nodded toward the curtain.
"Go."
The siblings began moving around.
"Mom," Orion started, "You can't see either. No cheating."
"Oh, okay Mr. Cheater," Ivory chuckled and moved her seat over.
Now, Serene's older siblings weren't going to make it easy for her. They tried to make the test more interesting. Behind the curtain, Cassian distracted Lyra with a conversation, and Kael paced back and forth; noise would certainly distract her.
Orion, on the other hand, waited silently.
Blue turned to Kael, Lyra, and Cassian. Then, Orion made a move. He saw that his father was distracted, and silently opened the chocolate bar and took a piece.
"Hey, that's supposed to be mine!" Serene whined as she stared at the dark curtain that no one else could see through.
Blue, Lyra, Cassian, and Kael turned around.
"You can't eat my chocolate, Orion."
"Seriously, Orion?" Lyra asked.
"What? I wanted a piece," came his deepened voice.
Everyone laughed.
"Tag, you're it," Blue's voice was heard.
Everyone heard someone snatch the candy bar.
"Blue, we all know it was Orion that stole the bar," one of The Seraphyne replied, and everyone chuckled.
Spike, Rover, and Harley stood in the corner, and couldn't stop snickering at the situation.
"No, he tagged Kael," Serene stared through the curtain, "Who is ALSO eating my chocolate bar."
Everyone laughed.
"Sorry, can't help myself." Kael said.
Blue moved the curtain. "Nice job, Serene. Let's make this more difficult," he took out another candy bar. "Next, you're going to see who has it on them."
Serene nodded.
Blue closed the curtain.
"None of you dirtbags better eat this one."
"They all ate it?" Harley asked, bewildered.
"Yup."
"Even Lyra?" Spike asked.
"Of course. She's not innocent," Blue stated.
"That's rude, father," Lyra smacked her lips. "Orion started it."
"You ate most of it, dear sister," Orion said in a high pitched voice.
"Quiet now, children," Blue replied.
There was silence. Then, the curtain was moved again. Blue, Lyra, Cassian, and Orion stood still.
Blue walked over to Serene and simply looked at her. "Who took it?"
Serene looked from one sibling to another.
Blue stood behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Use your vision. See who took the chocolate."
"My X-ray vision?"
"Yes."
She took a breath, and her eyes focused.
The room seemed to change. The curtain stopped being an obstruction. She could see through it—the wall behind it, the empty space where the candy bar had been, the objects sitting in the alcove.
Then she turned toward her siblings.
She started with Cassian, because he was first in line.
Nothing.
Then, Lyra, who kept smiling.
"Stop smiling," Blue said to Lyra.
Lyra frowned.
It was hard with Spike, Rover, and Harley snickering in the corner.
"Quiet, humans," Orion told them, and they glared at him.
"Orion," Ivory started to chuckle.
"Quiet, human," Blue said to her, "My daughter is trying to concentrate."
Serene scanned Lyra's clothing with her Vision.
Next, she her eyes met Kael's. She stopped.
Through his clothes, she could see the candy bar tucked against his side.
Her eyes widened.
"Kael."
His smile disappeared.
"What?"
"You took it."
Everyone looked at him.
Kael stared at Serene.
"How did you know?"
Serene pointed toward his side.
"It's there."
Kael instinctively covered it.
Harley laughed.
Rover shook his head.
Blue didn't laugh.
He was watching Serene.
"Tell me what you saw."
Serene looked at him.
"The candy bar."
"Where?"
"In his shirt."
"How did you know it was him before you found it?"
"I scanned Cassian and Lyra and they had nothing."
Blue considered that.
"So you didn't guess."
Serene shook her head.
"No."
"You saw it."
"Yes."
Blue nodded slowly.
Ivory watched him.
That was the part that caught her attention.
He hadn't seemed particularly interested in whether Serene guessed correctly. He wanted to know exactly how she had known.
Blue picked up Spike's phone charger from the table.
"Again."
Serene blinked.
"Again?"
He held up the charger.
"One of your siblings took this."
"Why are we doing another one?" Orion groaned.
"You're just upset that you're not getting any chocolate this time around, Orion," Spike joked.
Orion nodded.
Blue looked at Serene.
"Who took it?"
Serene looked at him, then at her siblings.
And Ivory watched Blue watching her.
Something clicked.
Not everything.
Not even close.
But enough.
This wasn't simply Blue helping Serene practice. He was testing her. Ivory didn't yet know what he was testing her for. She only knew he wanted to find out exactly what Serene was capable of.
"How do I guess who took it?"
"Your vision should tell you," Blue smiled, "If you're started to get really advanced."
Serene looked at the charger, and saw dots around the charger. She looked closer, and saw some markings. They had to be DNA prints.
She scanned her siblings hands, and was able to see some of their DNA prints, but not enough to know which sibling it was.
"I see some marking, and some dots, but I can't make put their DNA prints," Serene said.
"Keep trying for a few more minutes," Blue encourage, "Then, if you haven't developed the ability yet, then we can work on it. You're doing great so far."
There was another ability she could use.
One she rarely talked about.
Serene was usually clairaudient too. She could hear things other people couldn't. She didn't like telling people because sometimes what she heard was private. She could hear conversations she wasn't supposed to hear.
And sometimes—
she heard things that weren't coming from anyone in the room at all.
Ghosts.
Good voices. Bad voices. Voices in between.
She had never known what to do with those voices, so she kept them to herself.
Serene closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and scanned her siblings' hands again.
The markings were still blurred.
She tried to piece together the faint smudges she could see on the charger with the markings on their hands.
Nothing.
Then she heard something.
A voice.
Cassian. Dad wants me to take this for Serene's training.
Serene's eyes opened.
"Cassian."
The entire room went silent.
Cassian froze.
Everyone turned toward him.
The Seraphyne member's mouth's dropped open. Harley stopped laughing.
Rover stared.
Orion looked from Serene to Cassian.
Cassian slowly looked at Blue, who didn't say anything.
After a few seconds, he only nodded.
The room erupted, and everyone cheered.
Her siblings clapped.
Ivory immediately stood and crossed the room, wrapping her arms around Serene. Serene laughed as Ivory hugged her.
"You did it!"
Serene smiled.
Everyone was celebrating. But beneath her smile, she was thinking about what had just happened.
She hadn't seen Cassian take the charger. She had heard him.
And for the first time, Serene realized that her abilities might be doing much more than she had thought.
She wasn't sure how to tell everyone. She wasn't even sure she wanted to.
Because if they knew she could hear their conversations, they might start wondering what else she had heard. One thing Serene was certain about was that she wasn't ready to explain the other voices.
The ones nobody else could hear.
The ones that belonged to the dead.
And the ones that belonged to entities that had never physically lived.