Chapter 3.5: Illusion of Choice

 “Wakey-wakey.”

Ace woke up, only to find himself bound to his chair. Felix was staring back at him with a grin plastered across his face. He slurped noisily on a cup of soda, which sloshed around as he swirled the cup.

Ace tugged at the restraints, which cut into his skin when he moved. “No use trying to break free. These ropes are used to restrain Cursed Phantoms, but they work just as well on sorcerers,” Felix said. “Let’s see what the protocol says. Uh, where is it?”

Felix frantically flipped through the heaps of papers on the table and finally found what he was looking for. He cleared his throat and read off a small slip of paper, “Do you, Ace Wang Zhong Sheng, solemnly swear that you possess no ill will towards the Tokyo Sanctum and all sorcerers in this present day and age?”

“Tok-”

“Swear on it.”

“Tokyo?!”

“Swear on it!”

“I SWEAR ON IT!”

As soon as Ace said it, the ropes loosened. “That’s more like it,” Felix snapped his fingers and burned the piece of paper. “As you were about to ask, we are in Tokyo, Japan. More specifically, Aogashima. But you’ve got to admit that ‘Tokyo Sanctum’ has a better ring to it.”

Ace shook off the restraints. “How long ago was Singapore?!” he asked.

“About three hours. While you were having a nice nap, I got these. They tell me all about you, like when you were born and what grades you got when you were nine.” Felix patted the stack of papers on the table. “ I had a couple of good friends to help me out. The government’s security stood no chance.”

“You broke into the ministries?”

“I even got your Math Olympiad medals and your Bridge Club certificates,” he said, gleefully waving them around. “It also says here that you skipped a year in primary school!”

“MY HOUSE TOO?!”

“Look, we need to know all we can,” Felix explained. “It seems like you truly are an Aberrant.”

“Aberrant?!”

“An Aberrant is someone who develops abilities without ever being related to a sorcerer. The Source chose you. Others call it the God Hands, but I hate that name,” Felix answered. “You don’t need me to explain what we do around here. You’ve seen it for yourself.”

“But–”

“Shhhh! Listen! The story would flow better if you quit interrupting me!” Felix shushed him loudly. “There are many kinds of phantoms we deal with. The one you met is pretty lame, others not so. Regular people can’t see them, but the chaos these things cause can manifest itself as disease, destruction and disharmony.”

Felix bent down. With a grunt, he lifted a heavy cage stuffed to the brim with smaller phantoms. “There, I’m not stuffing drugs into you. This is real. Besides, I’m not that stupid to bring drugs and guns into your country.”

Ace gritted his teeth, trying not to smirk at Felix’s remark. “Anyways, these caged thingies are also parasitic, leeching on people’s negative emotions to survive.” Felix put down his fingers as if he were checking off a mental checklist about phantoms. “People get sick, people die, people go missing and sometimes turn up dead if we are too late. Phantoms are more involved in these mysterious deaths than you’d think.”

Felix tore off the plastic lid of his cup. The straw wobbled as he played with it on the other side. He spun the lid like an improvised wheel. “This lid is the phantom’s core, and this straw is me blasting my flames at it,” he said and tore the lid into two. “This is how we exorcise them. Not kill cuz' someone told me not to use that word too much."

Felix sighed and put his feet up on the table. “But the main point is not to talk about them, it’s about you,” he continued.

“Are you going to ask me to become a sorcerer?” Ace asked.

“Funny that you ask, considering you are already one.”

“I don’t want to die, so no, I’m not joining you guys.”

Felix let out a wheezing laugh and doubled over, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. “You’re an interesting one!” he said between laughs. “You Singaporeans are so afraid of missing out and death. You guys run a tight rat's race to the bottom all the time!”

“I don’t think that’s exclusive to my people.”

“You’ll see things very differently now that you are a sorcerer.”

“I said I’m not joining you! Don’t I have that choice?!”

Felix thought for a long while before answering his question with a more serious tone, “You do indeed have a choice, but that’s not a choice you can make now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sorcerers have a Golden Core, which generates and supplies the Essence we need to use our abilities,” Felix explained. “But, if you are not able to ‘release’ the Essence properly, it will build up. It’s not a bad thing to let it build up for a bit. Too much, however…”

Ace suddenly thought of the brick that had shattered in his hands earlier.

“Does that mean…”

“I believe you are smart enough to know what will happen next,” Felix said, flicking his laminated certificates. “If this Capacity were to be exceeded, you would die. When? Who knows. How? I don’t know. Only the Silversteins know. They did it en masse in the past, but their descendants don’t like talking about it now...”

“So… I would die if I don’t–”

“Eh, it’s not like you don’t have a choice,” Felix said as he leaned back in his chair, balancing precariously on its back legs. “I do not think highly of not giving people freedom of choice, so I’m giving you one.”

“That’s not–”

“Join us or die. Sorcerers and normies don’t mix and never will. There’s no way we'll impart our knowledge to you unless you join us.” Felix’s bluntness cut deep. “I’m not forcing you in any way. You choose your path.” He got up from his seat and picked up the cage. The phantoms squealed from the sudden movement. “However, I would like to warn you that any path you take will have its dangers.”

Felix tossed the cage into the air and blasted it into smithereens. A plume of red-orange sparks showered both of them. Ace stood frozen on the spot, taking in shuddering gasps of air.

“Oh, before I forget! The most dangerous thing a sorcerer can do is die on a question,” Felix declared before leaving the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

***

Being serious really takes me out, Felix thought miserably.

Felix leaned against the railing, but thought it was a better idea to lean further out. He lifted his feet off the ground and balanced precariously on the railing. He pivoted about the small of his back, deep in thought.

Lady Meng stood silently by him. “Would it have helped if I were inside with you?” she asked.

“No,” Felix said. “You wouldn’t get it either. No one can. He’s eighteen, Meng Meng. A bit on the older side. He just graduated and was ready to pursue his dreams. It would have been much better if he were slightly young–”

The shrill chime of the ringtone sliced through the air, cutting him off mid-sentence. He got off the railing and stood upright, answering the call with a preppy ‘Hello!’.

“... I see, so the spells weren’t broken? Alright, understood.”

“What is it?” Lady Meng asked when he hung up.

“None of the Regalia responded to his presence.”

“So he’s not like-”

“No.” To Felix, Regalias were just fancy weapons, nothing more. The mere thought of them made his heart ache.

His initial theories were disproved by that one call from the Weaponmaster of the Ironkeep. The Meridian Hall was still intact. Perhaps it was a coincidence that Ace made a connection to the Source, earning himself a Golden Core in the process.

“I’d better document this,” Lady Meng said as she turned to leave. “I’ll be in my office if you need me. It’s going to be a long night.”

“Have fun, break a wrist while you are at it,” Felix smirked.

“I’ll twist yours off first.”

For the rest of the time, Felix paced outside the room, counting the number of steps he took to stave off sleep.

When the door finally creaked open, Felix could have sworn he had made one round trip around the world.