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Kalistratos insists I’m an omega. I ask him how he can tell, and he looks at me like I’ve asked how he knows the sky is blue.
“Can you not see with your eyes that I’m an alpha?” he asks.
“I have no idea what I’m looking for, dude.”
“Dude? What is ‘dude’?”
I sigh. “Nothing, don’t worry about it.”
“It should be obvious,” he says.
“Well, it’s not for me. We don’t have anything like it where I’m from. Not for humans, anyway.”
The strange thing is that I do feel something that I can’t explain. It feels like developing extra taste buds or a sixth sense, or like going to the gym for the first time and discovering the muscles you never knew you had. And it’s more than just finding Kalistratos to be attractive. It’s that aura I’d noticed before. I guess I’m able to put a word to it now—he’s an alpha, I’m an omega. It’s biology in this world Kalistratos calls Circeana.
He can get me pregnant.
2
KALISTRATOS
Could this strange omega truly have been brought here by the Great Phoenix? His talk of visions of a flaming bird seems to say so. So do his strange clothing, manner of speech, and clueless nature. But the most glaring sign is the comet that flashed across the sky last night.
It’s all very bizarre to be happening right now, just as Alyx and I had finally managed to track down a map to the Great Phoenix’s temple. And though I’m certainly no stranger to unexplainable encounters through my travels around the continent, I’ve never met anyone like this human named Tyler.
Is he fully human, though?
He’s not one of the other clans, that’s for certain. He’s not of the Phoenikos, and yet…there is something about him that feels like he does belong to our clan. Like there is a phoenix flame inside of him. Hemustbe herebecause of the Great Phoenix. His magic must’ve summoned Tyler to our realm. But why?
“What is this Great Phoenix?” he asks.
If he was brought here with phoenix magic, how can he not know this?
“All of the clans have a patron deity,” I say. “The Erpetosi have the Great Frog, the Hulaiosi the Great Wolf, and so on. The Great Phoenix belongs to the Phoenikos clan. A grand bird of flames, the arbiter of rebirth and rejuvenation. His magic is the most powerful of all the clans.”
“Wait,” Tyler says as he trudges along beside me. The ground is becoming less muddy—we’re coming close to the forest's edge. “So those frog guys back there are part of the Erpetosi clan. You’re part of the Phoenikos clan.”
“Yes.”
“Okay, then why do they look like frogs and you don’t look like a bird?”
“Because they don’t have to worry about staying hidden,” I tell him.
“And you do?”
“There aren’t many of us left. From what I know…none to bear the next generation, to regenerate us. Just a few scattered alphas, threatened to die out. Our abilities have always been sought after, especially by those who believe wecan grant eternal life. It’s all bullshit. Some of us can manipulate time, but only in short amounts. We can’t turn back the seasons or reincarnate the dead like the myths say. But that didn’t stop generations of hunters from trying to harness our powers… even at the expense of our lives.”
“Jesus,” he says. Another one of his strange words. “So you stay in human form to hide? That’s awful.”
“Eh, it’s not so bad. Life is more enjoyable when you have thumbs.”
Tyler is silent for a while as we walk. I can feel him digesting all of this new information. It must be a lot for him.
“So, what about Alyx?” he says. “Is he from some kind of cat clan? Or do all cats here know how to talk?”
“He’s Phoenikos, too. His abilities allow him to shapeshift into all manner of small creatures. Cat is his form of choice, for some reason. Probably some kind of weird fetish, but you didn’t hear that from me.”
“And your abilities…” He trails off, thinking about it for a moment. “The thing you did with the frog. Teleporting. You can play with time?”
