Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor

increasingly easily up the bare rock face, his hands and feet instinctively finding holds and supports he would have sworn weren’t there till he needed them. Not for the first time, it was as though his body knew how to do something without having to be told. Owen brooded over that as he climbed. He’d become able to do all kinds of things that he never could before, since he passed through the Madness Maze, and emerged so much more than he had been. The talents came and went, and he couldn’t always be sure they’d be there when he needed them. And even after all this time he was no nearer understanding their nature. He looked across at Hazel, skittering calmly up the smooth granite surface like an insect on a pane of glass, and had to look away. He really hoped he didn’t look like that.
    He made himself look again, and found Hazel looking back at him.
    “I know what you’re thinking,” she said easily. “Wouldn’t be the first time,” said Owen. “I assume you had no prior knowledge of rock climbing before today either?”
    “Got it in one. It’s as though my hands and feet know where to go without me looking, as if they’ve always known. Spooky. I wonder what else we could do if we just put our minds to it. I’ve always dreamed of flying…” “I wouldn’t try that out just now,” said Owen. “Those rocks below look to be particularly unforgiving.”
    “Good point.”
    They climbed some more in silence. Owen couldn’t help noticing that neither of them were even breathing hard.
    “Do you ever think about the things we can do?” he said finally. “What we’re becoming? We’re not espers. I had a number of major players from the esper underground scan me, at my request. They had no idea at all how I’m able to do the things I do.”
    “I try not to think about it too much,” said Hazel. “We were given gifts. Gifts that have kept us alive in situations where anyone else would have perished horribly. They helped us overthrow the Empire. Why look such a gift horse in the mouth?”
    “Just because something has a leg at each corner and eats hay, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a horse.
    Espers, for all their powers, are still human. That’s one of the reasons we fought the rebellion. But we were changed by an alien device. Who knows what it was really intended to do, what it was supposed to produce?”
    “Transfiguration,” said Hazel slowly. “It made us… better than we were. That was its function. I remember that much.”
    “But what do we mean by better? A human definition or an alien one?” “Why the hell are you asking me? You’re the brains in this partnership. I just hit things.”
    Owen sighed. “Because I’m tired of asking myself questions that I can’t answer. Or else coming up with answers that are just too damned disturbing. Our only hope of enlightenment was the Maze itself, and the Maze is gone. Destroyed. And with it went all our hopes of discovering exactly what was done to us and why.” “So why torment yourself?” said Hazel, stopping to look at him as she realized he’d stopped climbing.
    “Because I’m scared of what I might be becoming,” said Owen. “I’m scared I might be losing my Humanity. Leaving it behind. Have you ever thought we might end up as distant from ordinary men and women as the Hadenmen or the Wampyr or the AIs from Shub? That we might become so… alien that we might forget who and what we used to be?”
    “Stop it, Owen,” said Hazel sharply. “You’re just spooking yourself. I don’t feel any different from the person I used to be. I still believe in the same things, want the same things, hate the same things. I’m still me. My abilities just make it that much easier for me to achieve the things I want.” She started climbing again, and after a moment Owen followed her. “I think it’s subtler than that,” he said finally. “One small change might not mean much, but put enough of them together… I mean, we don’t even have the first idea of how our powers work. Why they come and go the way they do. Sometimes we’re just fighters with an edge, and other times we’re all but gods. We’re not in control of our powers. They control us.”
    “Look,” said Hazel. “If you’re trying to spook me now, you’re succeeding, so cut it out. Our condition didn’t exactly come with a user’s manual, so all we can hope to do is learn by doing.”
    “It’s dangerous to use any new weapon without checking out