Lifting Tristan

Tristan nodded to himself for a moment.

"Up?" I asked.

"Yeah."

I grabbed his armor, looked over at Sveta, who was picking up Rain, and nodded.

"Sorry. I know I'm heavy," Tristan said.

"I don't think that's a problem anymore," I said. I asserted my grip, and the metal creaked.

"Why?" he asked, in the same moment I took flight.

I saw a flash of his face, he peered through the goggles and past the metal of his helmet to see me with my arms at my sides. I could feel his gut lurch through Syndicate's power.

Sveta followed, and I felt her reaching out, finding the handholds.

I deposited him on the tallest rooftop with a view of the area.

*****

"Your power," Tristan said. He was already drawing with motes. It looked like a wall separating buildings.

"Since the dream room," I told him.

"Huh."

*****

"This power change," Tristan said.

"Hm?"

"Did it come with any resolutions? Realizations? Changes in… anything?" he asked. "For Byron and me, it was our relationship."

"Did the power change the relationship, or did the change in relationship precipitate the power change?"

"The second," he said, his gaze still fixed on Oberon.

*****

"A bit of a change in perspective," I told him, watching him work while avoiding eye contact with the group. "Near death experience. Seeing some of those scenes in the crystals."

"Same as us, then," he murmured.

- Radiation 18.4