Ouroboros Ch. 01

There was a time of stillness after Boros' confession. For director Bowen it was to adjust her thinking. Everything had happened so fast. One moment she was immersed in her work and the next there was an emergency, one of the worst that happened in her field. A non-human out of control. The individual sitting before her was most definitely not out of control, something she was glad for in light of Mr. Wolfe's declarations. She hadn't missed the looks her security chief was giving Boros out of the corner of his eye though. Evidently he was a significant threat. Why didn't she feel that way? She knew this man boros was being on the level. When her gut told her one thing and what she'd seen told her the same she was likely to concede.

She broke the silence. "Alright Boros, I'll bite. What's the loophole you found that'll let you register without telling me what you are?"

"Well director, It;s simple. I'm not fully grown yet." he answered her calmly. "You see, my abilities are still growing. Just six months ago I discovered a new talent." Boros explained. "This has been happening regularly throughout my life. That would seem to me that I am not quite matured yet, I'm still an adult and can choose and decide for myself, but I haven't matured yet."

"I have to give it to you there, but how do I know you're telling the truth. Afterall, after a hundred sixty years you should by all means be considered mature."

"If you question my honesty, ask your friend here," he indicated Mr. Wolfe with a nod of his head. "He can tell if someone is lying."

"Is that true Sam? Can you tell if someone is lying?

Wolfe shot daggers at Boros. It looking in his general direction without making eye contact could be considered as what he was going for. With a voice like gravel, the werewolf admitted the talent. "Yeah, I can."

"When was the last time I lied to you?' she asked.

She was very quick. Boros admitted to himself.

Sam Wolfe was obviously uncomfortable with this line of questioning. "Why don't we forget about the past and you can live in the now knowing what you do?" He tried to obfuscate.

"No Sam, I want to know if you can tell when I am lying. When was the last time I lied to you?"

"You've been lying to me since we got here. But the last time was when this whole supposed emergency started. You pretended not to know who Guffrey was." He admitted.

"That doesn't prove anything, we've been working together for a long time. I can always tell when you're keeping something from me too."

"Not like this, your pulse sped up, you were slightly flushed, and your scent changed a little. When someone lies they smell a little rancid. Most were animals and some other non-humans can tell too. It just something we aren't comfortable advertising."

Boros cleared his throat. "I don't mean to interrupt, but if we can, can we get back to the matter of my registration?"

Director Bowen and Sam Wolfe exchanged a look. "He hasn't lied about anything. Also, even though this office has given him a bad shake, he is still being reasonable." Wolfe told her.

"You're right. Boros, I've gone through everything on the holoreader and with the exception of declaring a race or species everything is in order. About that though, we really need to put something there even temporarily with a note that it is subject to change as you 'mature'." She emphasized the last word with air quotes. "What would the closest being you could compare yourself to at this point in your development?" She asked, trying to help.

Boros thought for several moments. He'd learned through instinct and on the fly about what he was capable of but those attributes were very rare and would point the authorities in a very narrow direction. He was sure they wouldn't need as much convincing as he did as to what he was. "I would have to say that I could categorize myself in two different ways, but if I had to choose I would say shapeshifter." He capitulated.

Mr. Wolfe's eyebrows almost rose up into his hairline. "There's no way you are a shifter." He stated firmly. "First off, they may age more slowly than humans but a shifter your age, if he wasn't already dead, would be ancient and bedridden. Second, you smell like magic. Shifters can't do magic."

Boros sighed shaking his head. "You're wrong about that last part. I know from personal experience that they can." He was beginning to wonder about his plan to find out more about himself. Wolfe had, he assumed, been raised in the preternatural community and he was learning more from Boros than Boros was learning from him. But that was in his nature, to be helpful when he could.

"I've encountered four different types of shifters that could use magic. A werebear wizard, a wereleopard necromancer, a werewolf mage, and another werewolf pyrokinetic. I'm sorry to say that the two werewolves sought me out and I was forced to defend myself, they wouldn't stop no matter how many times I offered them an alternative. But the bear and the leopard were more tolerant of me when the realized I was peacefull."

"I'm going to want to talk to you about that later, Boros." Mr. Wolfe told him. "I've never even heard stories about that kind of thing."

Director Bowen accepted Boroses testimony, but she had another question in mind. "You said you could categorize yourself in two ways, what is the other?" She asked.

"I'd rather not say." Boros responded. "Can we let it go with just documenting that I may be a shapeshifter but not adding species?"

"I'll let it go at that on two conditions, then we can finalise your registration. That you tell me and I'll leave it out of the file, and that you and I stay in contact. I took an almost instant liking to you Boros and I enjoy your honesty. It's refreshing. Do we have a deal?"

"We do." Boros agreed. Directing his question to Mr. Wolfe, he asked. "Are we still alone?"

"If we weren't the boys would've let me know."

"I chose shapeshifter because it is benign. No offense." He apologised to wolf who shrugged it off. "You could also consider me to be an elemental."

"WHAT!" Wolfe exclaimed

"What's an elemental?" Director Bowen asked.

"It's a being that not only embodies but can control an element. They are exceedingly rare and powerful." He answered director Bowen. "Of which element?" Wolfe asked Boros.

"That wasn't part of the bargain, Mr. Wolfe." Boros apologised. "The answer to that question is part of the mystery I am trying to find an answer to."

"Nancy, I like the guy but you can't be serious about signing off on this without knowing what kind of forces he can command. You don't understand what elementals are capable of. If you at least knew what type his is we could at a minimum plan contingencies." Wolfe argued.

Director Bowen leveled a hard look at her associate. "Boros is right. I only asked him what else he considered himself to be, not any details pertaining to that revelation. He's going to stay in touch with me, hopefully over time he will realise that I don't do what I do as an agent of the government. I am in this line of work because I really want this to work out. I see a bright future ahead of us, Sam. One where we all work together for the betterment of each other." She directed her attention at Boros. "I hear what Sam is saying, and he knows a lot more about what is going on in the preternatural community than I do. I am, for now, stuck in an administrative position. But I have an open mind and integrity." She tapped away on the console before her for a moment then ejected a small data chip and handed it across the desk to Boros. "Your information is entered in the system, everything on our end is finished. The only thing left is for you to update your profile in the database, as soon as you get them make sure you input your new address and comID. I provided my com ID and some other information along with the usual welcome packet. You should find some of that very useful, since you're new to the area."

Boros accepted the data chip. "Thank you, director Bowen." He said.

"Please, just Nancy. I did mention that I wanted us to be friends, didn't I"?

"Thank you, Nancy. For helping me and for your offer of friendship." He responded earnestly.

"What are you planning to do now that your registration is finished?" She asked him.

"From what I understand, the Consul for the eastern region holds her seat in Miami. I'll introduce myself today and ask for her advice about what arrangements I should make." He answered her. He was a little concerned about the reception he would receive. If it went well, he might find cooperation and camaraderie. If it went badly, he might find every door closed to him and at the very worst, death.

"Hmm. That would be Gabriele, Sam and I know her. Why don't we all go back to my office and we'll give her a call. Sam, dismiss the security team and let everyone know that it was all a misunderstanding. Oh, and have Mr. Guffrey confined until I can deal with him, it might be a day or two so have someone see to the necessities before you rejoin us." She motioned for Boros to follow her and they went up to her office.

***

The office of director Nancy Bowen was a utilitarian one on the one hundred forty second floor. It consisted of a spartan desk with an integrated console, two chairs facing it, an uncomfortable looking couch, and a projector silently streaming several newscasts simultaneously. The only object that didn't follow the theme was the desk chair Nancy sank into with a sigh. It was high backed and firmly stuffed, its leather looking upholstery gleaming. She motioned with her hand for Boros to take a seat in one of the two chairs.

"It's not much, is it?" She asked talking about the surroundings. "I'm only here temporarily. My permanent posting is in Miami." She explained. "The station director here was due some vacation which happily coincided with an investigation I was conducting. I should actually thank you. Ell'an Guffrey was a person of interest. This situation should give me some leverage with him." She explained. "I'm not at liberty to discuss the details, but I should be able to finish up here before director Ribisch get's back. Maybe when I get back to Miami I can show you around some?" She offered. "Not the normal touristy stuff, the real underbones of the city."

"I think I would like that." Boros replied. "But let's take this one step at a time. I've never really been accepted in the preternatural community, I'll probably have to set myself up a ways away from the heart of things. There are some considerations to take into account, but I'll make sure I keep you informed of what happens. I'll want to discuss it with the Consul before I decide anything."

"You're right, of course." She offered. "I'm just waiting of Sam to join us before I call her. They have history together and she'll hear what he says with a more open mind than if it came from me or you. In the meantime, are there any questions I can answer?"

Boros thought about that. "Actually yes. I caught a glimpse of the monitor a few times, there were more fields on that application than the one I filled out. Mostly it was just areas for notes to be documented about a specific field but there was a class designation fied that I was curious about. What is that for?" he asked hoping that it wasn't what he thought it was.

She grimaced. "You would ask about that. It isn't common knowledge to those we register. I'll answer since you asked, but I'd appreciate it if you kept that information to yourself."

He nodded his agreement. "I will, unless circumstances take a turn for the worse and that information can save lives." He promised her.

Giving him a level look she nodded. "Understood. Well, the way it works is pretty simple. The subjects abilities are broken down into two parts and then a third designation is applied as an overall determiner. The two parts are physical, scaled one through ten with ten being the least, and non-physical, scaled A through J again with J being the less powerful. From there the overall determiner is a mean of the values. Bear in mind that I didn't come up with the system, but it can be fairly accurate most of the time. There are anomalies but for the average preternatural citizen it pretty much gets it in the ballpark. Weres are a little more difficult to pinpoint their non-physical attributes to because it relies on the force of their personality and the strength of the beast they carry inside of them." Nancy explained.

Boros could immediately see how much this system didn't make sense from his own experience. "I don't want to offend you, Nancy, but that system is pretty flawed."

"How so?" She asked.

"I'll give you an example from my own personal experience." He offered. When she nodded at him to continue, he did. "About twenty-five years ago I was deep in one of my mines when I felt someone approaching from the south. Of Course I went to investigate, people don't usually wander that far out into the wilderness, nine out of ten times it is someone looking for me specifically. She was very tiny, just over four feet in height and of asian descent. If I were to use your system I would have rated her at an eight for physicality and probably a D or an E for her use of magic. Giving her the benefit, that would have rated an overall determiner of what? Six, right? Not so bad. But she was skillful. She cast a simple spell to magnify and compress light along a focal point." He explained to Nancy.

"That doesn't sound so bad, so what? She made something glow really brightly?"

The door opened and Sam entered, closing it behind himself as Boros shook his head and continued. "No, Nancy. The focal point of light was a beam of light no thicker than a thread of fabric. When she slashed it at me it cut through everything it touched for hundreds of yards. She created a clearing in a forest a half of a mile wide and long in less than a second."

Nancy was stunned and Sam having only come in at the end was confused at what they were talking about.

"You're kidding me." She objected. "You're saying she basically used magic to create a laser beam out of sunlight."

"That's right." Boros told her. "And from what I understand about magic it required very little power or skill, just creativity."

"How did you escape that?" She asked him.

"At the time I didn't know what it was she was doing, I only felt it was very dangerous. She just did it as soon as she saw me. We didn't talk or anything. When I felt her attack I jumped over the beam of light and killed her before she could redirect it at me. I only found out the mechanics of what she did after consulting a witch friend of mine."

"If you were that close, how did she miss with her first attack on you?" The question came from Sam who had evidently put together what we were talking about.

"She wasn't all that close, maybe two hundred yards away when she saw me." Boros replied.

"How did you kill her from that far away?" Sam asked.

"I decapitated her." Boros answered with a tinge of regret in his voice.

"How?' Nancy asked in a choked whisper.

"I ripped her head off, alright? I didn't like doing it, but if I didn't I would have died." Boros told them both abruptly. He keenly felt all of the lives he had taken, and they weighed heavily on him.

"I know a little about witchcraft." Sam told him. "Once a spell is active it responds to the thought of the caster. Are you trying to tell me that you covered two hundred yards, and ripped off the head of a witch before she could think about redirecting a spell? How"

Boros. However was done with this line of questioning. "I don't want to talk about this anymore." To Nancy he asked, "Since Sam is here, can we call the Consul now?" He all but pleaded.

Seeing that Boros was distressed Nancy was willing to change the topic. "Of course. I'll allow three sixty permissions for the projectors so we can all participate in the call."

"Wait a moment Nancy. I still have a few questions for our friend here." Sam said.

"No Sam, not right now. Maybe later after Boros get's to know us better. Would you be comfortable talking about something like that with someone who was almost a complete strange?"

Sam thought a moment then shook his head. "No, you're right. But you know me, I like a thorough debriefing."

"But he's not one of your's Sam." Nancy told him gently. "If he's up for it another time, you can ask. But you can't order him to do anything unless you think he's done something worth being arrested for. And from what he told me, he acted in pure self defense and hasn't earned that."

"You're right. Boros, I'm sorry, I was out of line. I hope though, that you'd be willing to talk shop with me sometime, maybe when we get back to Miami we can get to know each other."

Boros was struck with the similarity of these two people. Their mannerisms were very close, almost intertwined and he found himself hoping that they could one day be friends. "I'd like that Mr. Wolfe." Boros offered. He chose the form of address he did because sometimes other preternaturals could be touchy. Unless they told you otherwise it was usually better to be respectful.

"Enough of that, call me Sam. Nancy, why don't you make that call. It's been awhile since I was able to surprise Gabby, I'm looking forward to it." He said with a chuckle.

It was only a couple of moments before the image of the face of a young man was hovering over Nancy's console. "Eastern division, how may I direct your call?" The projection asked politely.

"Hello Tamlin. Its director Bowen can you please put me through to the Consul? And let her know it is a matter of some delicacy, it would be best if she took the call in private."

"That shouldn't be a problem, she's just finished receiving and is in her chambers. One moment and I will relay your message. Hold please." The hologram flickered out to be replaced by an orb of translucent blue with a similarly colored flame sinuously floating above it.

It was a much shorter wait than any of them had expected. "Nancy!" A young sounding voice preceded the image of it's owner. She was a paradox of warring attributes. She was matronly but young, her eyes were wise but sparkled with youth and mischief. "It's been so long. You really should keep in touch, I miss our talks. What's happening in your corner of bureaucracy?" she asked.

"I regret that I haven't called you before this, I've been out of town on business." Nancy responded smiling. "I'm sorry to say I'm calling about a professional matter. Sam's here too. I allowed three sixty, if you want to accept you can see all three of us."

The image wavered and changed to a full holograph rather than the flat image they had been seeing. "Oh my, who's your handsome friend?" Gabrielly asked.

"He's actually the reason we called." Nancy explained. "He's newly registered, there were some complications to the process."

"You didn't do anything untoward I hope?" Gabrielle asked Boros.

"No ma'am." Boros answered. Responding to mischievousness he noticed in her eyes before he decided to play it light. "I managed to scare the security team that was called on me enough to get a face to face with your friend Nancy here. I didn't even have to maim anyone."

"Boros!" Nancy exclaimed. "He's kidding Gabrielle, well not really. He did do that, but Boros has been nothing but the soul of courtesy. He was being given the runaround by a low level functionary. When he asked to speak to someone in charge, instead of getting his superior he called security and claimed Boros was an out of control preternatural. Thankfully, Boros had the presence of mind to record the entire thing. That functionary is now in confinement and we finalised Boros' registration." Nancy explained. "He did threaten to kill the entire security team to make it happen though."