: Synchroner

My name is Baha Anun, street artist and third brother of five children, this is how I introduce myself to the monster disguised as a man in front of me, and smiling he gives his sentence.

"Burn, Baha Anun."

The monster said extending its hand towards me.

"Burn and be reborn."

He speaks nonsense again. And the hand he held extended towards me lights up, as if struck by lightning, combusts and soon the scene is repeated in my hand.

Scream, no one hears me, or I don't notice the reactions if the monster and the girl heard, since I'm too busy with my own pain, from my hand the flames spread reaching my clothes with more fuel the fire soon becomes more hot I move hysterically looking without success for a way to put out the fire.

"Listen." The monster starts saying "you want to survive this and we want you to survive too, so follow my instructions."

Honestly I wanted to complain about what put me in this situation in the first place, but not surprisingly when you're burning alive time is a luxury, so I just nod in agreement.

"Great" Kaz the Arsonist praises my choice, not that there was one. "Now let's make you a Synchroner."

He approaches me and puts his hand directly on the fire.

"Normally you'd have to rely on your instincts and a few instructions here and there, but since you're kind of my responsibility we're going to cheat a little." He speaks calmly, as if setting someone on fire is an everyday occurrence.

"I need you to tell me what you're thinking and feeling, we can skip the obvious that comes with being burned alive I put my hand on the fire to feel this part, but say any and all thoughts as they come to your mind, understood ?"

How the hell is this going to help me? Damn it.

"Understood, Baha?" He asks this time visibly irritated, damn, what do I have to lose? I'll just say whatever comes to mind.

"Since I have nothing to lose, I'll just say what I want, satisfied?"

"Well, better. Keep going."

"How the hell did I end up in this mess? You can at least answer me..."

"This before I die?" The monster "The monster spoke raising an eyebrow in doubt."

What is...

"Happening? Is he reading my mind? The monster smiles and says..."

Something arises, a connection my body has no choice but to adjust to… synchronize with his movements and thoughts, without my control his words spill out of my mouth.

"Calling me a monster is kind of rude, right Baha?"

With my voice but his words he asks.

With voice, movement and thought in sync, we speak.

"Time to become a Synchroner, at once."

With thoughts that were not mine, but are the same as mine, the connection deepens, amplifies and resonates, and my eyes that no longer used my sight nor my ears of my hearing and one by one my senses are taken by this force... by the synchrony of a greater being.

And then I see, with my eyes but the vision of another, the world in a mesh of lines, points and colors, disordered but with a harmony of its own that I hear and feel through the only common point that this new world has: everything is vibrating.

It's subtle, but that's how everything moves in this world.

The world as it is, with each component that forms it constantly vibrating at its own pace, he calls the components atoms, and thinks about a smaller realm, quantum is the name.

Synchroners, they see a world a little deeper than the quantum but not so deep that it feels like another world, the world I see now.

You're on fire, literally, we're actually on fire.

A thought that I've already lost the trace of origin, is it his? It's mine? What is the difference?

You're losing yourself Baha, and I'm not going along.

I remembered the difference.

No longer lost in the euphoria of my new senses, I notice that he knows what he must do now, so I know too.

My new senses, a combination of the normal five plus the epiphany of the rhythm of all things, the sixth sense. Focusing this on the flames that are spreading through my body, I can see the way in which matter is converted into energy and heat is released, in the sixth sense fire is nothing more than a bunch of bright points like a swarm of fireflies.

With the sixth sense it's like I can interact directly with the energy it's brief, but this feeling is real, I look in my body for something that can synchronize with the flames, Kaz calls them mitochondria, and the process they and the flames have in common combustion.

I focus my mind on these components in my body and on the points of light that represent the flames, on the rhythm at which it moves and in which matter and energy are transformed, little by little I make the rhythm of the small components in my body the same as the one with the flames, when I get both sides to be in exactly the same rhythm, in sync, a connection that I don't fully understand is formed.

I can also feel that at the moment it's me following the rhythm of the fire's light points, this has to change, my body forces the combustion process of the tiny mitochondria to briefly speed up and through the connection the fire mimics them, only for the two to be reduced as little energy as possible, almost imperceptible.

With both sides of the sync calmer and more controllable, I begin the last step towards becoming a true Synchrhoner: creating a dantian.

I see the connection as a kind of line through which the energy of the two exchanges and goes towards a point of balance, it's not what I need, right in the center of the line I start to distort it into a small empty sphere.

Now is the problem Synchroners are divided into stages by the amount of two factors: energy and maximum connections they can maintain.

For someone who has just started a single connection through sync is the norm, but to create a dantian I need to cut the sync of the flames and sync my body with the empty sphere that serves as dantian's prototype, in a fraction of a second since even if the synchronization is cut, the connection lasts for a few moments longer.

And before these moments are over, I must re-establish the synchrony with the flames, but this time synchronize with the proto-dantian, which will still be connected with my body.

Despite the limited time I succeed in each of the steps necessary to create a dantian, Kaz being synchronized with me probably has something to do with that, but anyway I became a Synchroner.

Kaz cuts the sync between us, I can still feel the connection we shared, but it's slowly fading, my hand is no longer on fire and the burns are smaller than I expected.

The fire probably weakened since I used its energy to form my dantian, or my lack of wounds is because I was synced with Kaz, describing him as a monster sounds even more appropriate after feeling his power directly.

"Thank you, I think?" I thank them, I was going to bow slightly out of courtesy, but even though I became a Synchroner I almost became barbecue, so be damned courtesy.

"What are you thanking for? If it wasn't pleasant and it won't be free?"

The casual Arsonist, Kaz, reminds me again that there's one more task I have to complete.

Let it not be anything absurd this time, please.

"Second favor, I know, will you tell me what it is?"

I ask, a bit of my impatience surfacing, but considering the first favor involved risking my own burning to death, I don't think anyone would be in the best of moods.

As for why I'm not panicking despite this absurd situation, it's probably an effect of having my mind synchronized with Kaz's, and in his mind even massacres aren't worthy of a big reaction.

But there was something strange about the time we were in sync, even though he was confident and aloof, there was something else underneath it, endless paranoia mixed with self-deprecation in equal measure.

"Well, since you asked" Mingten says with a mischievous smile, the same type that put me in this situation "it's simpler than this favor here at least."

I don't think I'll ever trust redheads again, my mind has this silly thought as I listen to her.

"What is it this time miss?" I ask, I wanted to put an air of irony in my words, but I give up any provocation and use the most monotonous tone I can manage.

"Just follow me while we create our own faction."

"Is she crazy?" I direct my question to Kaz as every vestige of politeness leaves my being.

"I don't know, I met her yesterday, as far as I know she might just be in shock."

"Hey, don't talk like I'm not here, I'm not crazy, I'm not in shock, Okay."

That's what she says, but I still have my doubts.

"Okay, okay, I think I know why you're thinking about starting your own group, but recruiting through betting probably won't give anyone any reason to be loyal to you."

Kaz calmly explains how this plan could go wrong but still Mingten bites her lip, she tries to hide her frustration but fails.

"Argh, I'd like to follow you around for a while to see if this business has any future." I answer without thinking too much.

"You really should think things over before agreeing Baha, but on the other hand, overthinking and doing nothing can be worse, right?"

Kaz advises me, or is he asking?

"He's already accepted the deal, Kaz, and you're the one who doesn't want to stay in a city too long since we don't find anything interesting besides the Baha, why don't we speed up our pace a little?" Mintten asks Kaz, but what the heck is this interesting nothing but me? Did I become merchandise by chance?

"It really doesn't look like we're going to get any decent information around here and having someone used to street life will probably help us."

Please stop pretending I don't exist, is this revenge for calling you crazy, Mingten?

What did I get myself into?

"Well since that's decided, let's leave an hour early, Baha do you have anything you need to get right here before we leave?" Kaz, remember that I exist, probably for logistical reasons.

"No, I'm a traveling artist, which means always being ready to go, or at least that's how I see my life." I answer, it seems that my manners decided to return to my body, shrugging my shoulders, more precisely half returned.

"What are you waiting for then? Come on, I want to get to this tower as soon as possible." And with Mingten's words, as the last push we made our decision.

There's only one thing missing, what the hell kind of tower?