Lukai checked the recordings. In all their places in the OFF, they had devices to record movements for security reasons.

  What he saw confirmed that Taj was indeed someone irregular.

  He finished discharging himself in three and a half minutes. A long time, honestly; it told Lukai everything about how much energy Taj could store.

  How was it possible to store this kind of amount?

  Then Taj went to the bathrooms. He didn’t know which one Lukai was in, so he went into the first in the row and suddenly stopped.

  His face was visible, and his expression changed as if he were in pain. Then, water started to fall out of nowhere. It looked like it was raining inside the building.

  Taj was standing under this water, falling from above, for thirty seconds. Lukai checked. Then he said something, looked as if he was in even bigger pain, kneeled, then said something again… and disappeared.

  That was not all, though.

  When Taj had said something for the first time, all the droplets froze around him.

  The surrounding water stopped falling, as if he were in a bubble.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Outside, it was still flowing from above, but from where, Lukai had no clue. It looked like it was created on the spot, falling down, but what was near Taj had frozen and stopped. It all fell when he disappeared.

  Lukai wasn’t aware of how one could create water out of nothing or freeze things in time or space. Taj was only an energy projection, materialized from one small Crystal. He also discharged himself a moment before.

  How could he do something like this?

  It was clear that Taj was powerful even without his physical body.

  Lukai had a sudden thought. Could Elder from Crystal single-handedly defeat the attackers?

  Was the e.i., in fact, a weapon?

  Had they been walking around with a weapon all this time without realizing it?

  … To think that he threw this Crystal into the lake. No wonder Luna panicked.

  Now, looking back at his actions, Lukai noticed he was wrong many times.

  When would he learn? To recognize the situation with all the subtle elements, to navigate them better. He was good at commanding and creating order. But nuanced politics, he sometimes felt he couldn’t grasp fully.

  How does one learn it? Needed to be born with it, like Si? But he, Lukai, was the son of his father. He also should have it in his blood.

  Lukai didn’t envy Si. He had analyzed him earlier, when they had met, because he wanted to learn. As Si had intuition, always.

  What were the chances of mutually falling in love with his alliance fiancée? Clar, a girl from the Clar family. And he couldn’t even say that Si was lucky.

  Because fate, whoever believed in it, could prove that he, Lukai, was gifted with the Clar girl first. He had his chance first, and if fate wanted to help him, it looked like fate had tried. But he threw it away. Like the e.i. device that he had thrown into the lake.

  Lukai was aware he could be angry only at himself.