Page 229 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘You already know I did.’

‘Mm.’

Riley is reading the screen.

Kade walks closer, looking over the information displayed there.

‘What have we got?’

‘Deep-dive research into highly classified information. Tanner was very helpful in showing us where to look.’

‘About what?’

‘The three kinds,’ Cole explains. ‘Paranaturals, Resonants and Fraymorphs,’ he recites. ‘Government names, obviously.’

‘Then use the proper terms,’ Finn reminds him.

‘Will do, don’t worry.’

‘Anything interesting?’

‘Oh, fascinating! Especially about the Wildwanes.’

‘What’s that?’

‘I’ve been working to very respectfully break down the government designations, as they’re geared towards practical labelling.’

Finn mutters, ‘As well as smear tactics.’

‘Morph is pretty obvious. Transformation. The Fray part is interesting, though. Could be structural rather than biological. Fraying implies destabilisation. Fibres separating. Stress fractures spreading through material under tension. Maybe the transformation isn’t clean. Maybe the body literally comes apart at a cellular level before rebuilding itself into another state, or…’ He leans back slightly, still turning it over. ‘It could be neurological. Identity fraying alongside the tissue. Boundaries between forms degrading under stress.’

‘He’s in his happy place,’ Finn tells Kade. ‘Making science out of magic.’

‘That’s all magic is,’ Cole argues. ‘Science we haven’t mapped yet.’

‘Or science is magic we’ve learned to accept.’

Cole considers. ‘Fair point, well made.’

‘Fraymorph,’ Finn muses, ‘feels to me like some kind of shapeshifter. It’s really interesting, actually, because the more I research these three kinds, the more I realise they’re essentially more complex versions of historical supernatural entities. A Brightling, for example, seems to be a kind of witch, for lack of a better word.’

Cole scoffs. ‘You think Brightlings are witches?’

‘I think none of us knows what an actual witch is, given that the ones we were taught about in history were mostly women who used herbs to heal.’

‘If they are anything like what they’re supposed to be, then they’re superheroes,’ Cole argues.

‘That’s ridiculous.’

‘Why?’

‘Because superheroes are a neatly packaged human fantasy. A capitalist, patriarchal distortion of the concept of magic, inflated to the point that anything more subtle than levitation, telekinesis or invisibility is dismissed outright. It’s a bar intentionally set in space. Seeds of doubt sown inside an enjoyable but unreachable ideal.’

‘Bullshit. Superheroes are inspiring. They represent the best in us.’

‘Which is precisely why the government wouldn’t want Brightlings associated with them. But even aside from that, the world cannot survive on hope alone. It’s an opiate,’ Finn tells Cole. ‘You feel hopeful, you feel better and the urgency to create actual change fades. I’ll do it tomorrow and if not, someone better will come along and do it for me.’

‘You’re so depressing sometimes.’