Page 20 of Grounded (Convergence #1)

“Yes, in every convergence, all aspects must be applied with intention.

So, if I wanted to converge a barrier for a pit, I would first guide tech with my vision of the barrier's housing and then I would weave magic into that housing to protect and fuel the machinery. With magic, especially, things can get complicated. By its very nature, magic wants to be creative. Many inventors converge amazing things by forming a machine with tech and then letting magic enhance it at its will. Coercing it into doing precisely what you want is where the talent comes in.”

“And you have this talent?”

“Yes. I'm very talented in many convergences.”

Thax grinned. “Who's arrogant now?”

Liria shrugged the shoulder she wasn't lying on. “It's a fact. It's why Paradefense offered me a job.”

“They came to you?” Thax didn't know much about the way Paradefense—the united organization of Medean and Aethari experts and leaders whose job it was to oversee all military actions on Para—handled recruiting Medeans, but he suspected it was rare for them to seek out candidates.

“Yes, and they offered me the highest pay they could give a new officer.”

“Must have been an impressive offer.”

“It wasn't. I refused.”

He burst out laughing. “Really?”

“Yes. I didn't want to work here. The thought scared me. It scared my parents too. But then they offered me more. Double their initial offer with the promise of ten times the amount when I made chief. Shh, don't tell anyone. It's a secret.”

“Ten times the highest starting pay?” Thax pulled his head back.

“I'm exceptional.”

“I'm not surprised at your skill, just that Paradefense would pay so much for one employee.”

“This one employee got that barrier up when it wouldn't respond to basic convergence.”

“What barrier? Do you mean the one that went down during that last breach?”

“Yes.”

“That was you? Just you?”

“It wasn't just me. My team supported me as I converged.

But I did the main portion of the converging.

The barrier went down and didn't respond to the usual repair work. I had to summon magic from the Source and do a more intricate convergence, refilling the stores inside the barrier to bring the magical energy field back to life.”

“Baby, I have no idea what all of that means, but it's damn sexy and sounds really impressive.”

Liria chuckled. “Thank you. That's why they offered me so much.”

“And you accepted because of the money?”

“Yes. I didn't have any dreams of being a hero.

Frankly, as good as I am at converging, it's all I'm good at.

My sister is a vocalist and a musician. She's amazing.

So talented. She writes her own music and has a voice that can melt the hardest of hearts.

Oh, and she can play any instrument you hand her.

She was my mom's star pupil. But I've never had an aptitude for anything but converging. My mom tried to teach me the most basic song on the piano once, and after weeks of me torturing our ears, she finally gave up and let Dad have me full-time.” Liria laughed and shook her head. “She's the most patient woman I know.”

“Everyone gets one talent.” He kissed the tip of her chin. “Yours is convergence. Your sister's is music. That makes perfect sense with your parents and their skills. You can't expect to have it all.”

“I can and I did,” Liria grumbled. “I've always envied my sister's ability to hear a song and then play it perfectly on whatever instrument she happens to be holding.

No sheet music to follow. Just instinct.

She's been that way since she was a child.

Played her first song on the piano when she was four.

Expert on the harp by six. Sweet convergence, you can't imagine the way people look at her when she sings. She's . . . well, she's perfect.”

“No, she's not. And she probably envies your ability to converge.”

“Everyone can converge. Lena can too. I just do it better than most.”

“Not everyone can converge.”

“Every Medean.”

He nodded. “I suppose it's like an Aethari who's an excellent flier. The achievement doesn't seem as great because everyone can do a lesser version of it.”

“Exactly.”

“But think about how the other chiefs would feel if they discovered the difference in your pay.

Think about how your sister feels. She can converge, but she'll never be able to do what you do. No matter how hard she studies or practices. You were born as exceptional as she was, just in a different way.”

Liria shrugged again. “I guess we always want to be something more than we are.”

Thax stared at the amazing woman lying beside him and wondered how he could have ever thought of Medeans as less than Aethari.

But that's how he'd been raised. It was just a truth handed to him that turned out to be a lie.

He had been uncovering a lot of those lately.

“Yes, and striving to be more is not a bad thing. But maybe leave some glory for the rest of us, Liri.”

Liria laughed, and her face shifted into something ethereal. Untouchable. Beyond any man's reach, even those with wings. Thaxvarien couldn't breathe for a second. When she settled into a smile, she searched his face, paused, and started to frown.

To cover his awe, he asked, “Have you ever been to a fancy restaurant?”

“Yes.”

“Is there a difference between the food there and at, say, a common diner?”

“Of course. It's ten times better . . . ah, I see what you did there. You're saying that the chefs in the fine restaurants are like me and the ones in the diners are like everyone else?”

“Pretty much. To a certain extent, cooking can be learned. But great chefs have a talent they're born with that takes them beyond the average. Your talent at convergence was enough to get you snatched up by Paradefense. You're the equivalent of a talented chef.”

“I don't know if I like that comparison, but I get what you're saying.” Liria paused, then asked, “What about you?”

“You know how I got here.”

“It was mandatory, yes, I know. But I'm asking about you. Your life. Childhood. Stuff like that. What's your story, Thax?”

Thaxvarien couldn't hold back his grin. She wanted to know about him. That had to be a good sign.

“What?” she asked.

“No, nothing. I just . . . I'm surprised at how much I want to tell you about myself. Normally, I don't like talking about my family.”

“Why? Are they a bunch of dickheads like you?”

Thax snorted a laugh. “You know, that really hurt my feelings when you called me that.”

“No, it didn't.”

“It did.” He pulled her hand against his chest and declared, “You wounded me deeply.”

Liria laughed again and then whispered, “I didn't expect this.”

“What?”

“You. You're so—I don't know—lighthearted, I guess.”

Thaxvarien once again recalled Rinna's advice. Show his true self. Be vulnerable. Again, she was right. She knew her friend well. He would continue to be open with Liri and maybe tease her a bit in the process. He needed to see her laugh again.

With that thought in mind, he asked, “Oh, and I can't be happy because I yelled at you the first time we spoke?”

“No, but you did go a bit bonkers at that breach. It's hard to equate that blood-covered man with the one currently lying beside me.”

Oh, fuck. Thax hadn't considered that because Liria had been the security chief on duty, she would have been the one monitoring the battle. Then he remembered that strange sensation—the feeling he got when he looked at the pit camera.

It had been a terrifying day for Thaxvarien Rennux.

His combat training had been poor, but even if it had been the best, no amount of practice and hologram battles could prepare you for facing the Nethren in person.

They were true monsters, their stares as cold as the metal they were made of.

And he hadn't known how to properly use that damn pulser.

One soldier could turn a battle for good or ill.

Mid-battle, missing every target he aimed at, Thaxvarien faced the possibility that he would turn the battle toward defeat.

Because of him, the fortress might fall into Nethren hands.

And that fear threatened to consume him.

But Thaxvarien had never been one to give in to his fears.

If he couldn't do his part with a pulser, he'd find another way.

And then he had seen that Nethren with the horned helmet.

Saw the way he had stared at the camera.

Holy Source, he'd been looking at Liri. How?

How had that Nethren motherfucker sensed her?

How had Thaxvarien sensed her? Lying in bed beside her, he finally understood, if not the how, the why.

Why he'd been so furious at that Nethren just for looking at a camera.

It had enraged him past the point of reason, past all his fear, and driven him down to the ground.

On the pit floor, combat should have favored the Nethren.

But Thaxvarien had been training with a sword since he was ten.

It wasn't so much a weapon as an extension of his arm.

Add to that his senseless fury, and those two remaining Nethren hadn't stood a chance.

He got in too close for them to use their projectile weapons—so similar to pulsers and yet very different.

And then they were dead, and he was covered in their blood.

He barely remembered beheading them. His training had taken over, and his need to kill that Nethren in the horned helmet drove him.

Until he saw that his target had escaped.

That's when the fury receded and his brain got back in control.

Himself once more, Thaxvarien had gotten a good look at his handiwork.