“You can’t tell me unless you’re in my presence? Why? Because he told you not to tell?”

  The picture of Prentkos in my mind frowned. “I,” he said and paused. “I can’t say… It’s difficult. I know the Nine has me. His assistant—the blond woman who’s with him—she talked to me, and I can’t repeat anything she said.”

  “His assistant,” I said. “Do you mean Colette? She’s good with a crossbow?”

  He nodded.

  I’d seen her face with the others Spark showed me. Her own embedded commands to not betray the Nine forced her to commit suicide rather than tell us more, but she’d gone in here before that happened. So, she was still alive in a sense.

  Worse, we’d learned some useful information from her even in the process of capturing her and freeing my cousin from the Nine. If she somehow ended up dying in the process of what I did here, I couldn’t even guess how it would change the past.

  I asked, “Would I be correct in guessing that he told you to kill me if you saw me?”

  Then I turned to Spark, “Is there any way you could show me the command behind his actions?”

  With a flick of her fingers, she said, “I can,” and a circle appeared in the air in front of us. Prentkos, Magnus, and Colette stood within a grey, stone structure that might have been a castle or, if not, some kind of premodern, stone building.

  None of them appeared to be dressed appropriately for the context, though. Magnus wore a gray suit with a blue overcoat. Prentkos wore the same red and white accented costume I’d always seen him in. Colette might have been the closest to appropriate, but not by much. She carried a crossbow, but one that couldn’t be confused with medieval technology. Hers was made of black metal with a scope and a foldable bow. As for clothes, she’d gone with a green jumpsuit made of a thick material that hinted it might be armored.

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  Magnus glanced toward Prentkos and then over to Colette. “Do you have him? Killing him would be a waste, but it might be necessary. He’s too strong and fast to allow him to survive if he can’t be controlled. Are you sure about what you said?”

  Colette’s lip curled as she looked off to the side, but by the time she met Magnus’ gaze, she was smiling. “I’m sorry, sir. I know you want him, and I know what I said before. He is one of the easiest subjects to manipulate that I’ve ever encountered, but at the same time, he isn’t.”

  Magnus nodded as if encouraging her to get on with it.

  Her eyes flickered toward, and her voice rose as she began, “I’ve told you before. He’s an excellent candidate for your program to find humans with a connection to the Artificers. Dr. Mind’s tests show him to be well above the majority that you’ve found. The problem is that every time we get him to pull energy in, it destroys what we’ve set up. If you want another Artificer, you’ll have to find someone else. He’s only useful so long as he can’t use the power you want. If you want to keep him, you’ll have to keep him within his normal, human limits.”

  Magnus sighed, but then said, “Well, then we send him to Dr. Mind, and we clone him. Maybe Dr. Mind will figure out how to get the best of both out of him. Until then, I’ll have to look for people with potential who want to serve me.”

  He walked up to Prentkos and around him, staring him up and down as he did. “You’re such a disappointment. You’re everything I want and nothing. Bah. You know what I’d do with you if I could? I’d use you to face monsters, but you won’t live that long if I can’t trust you to develop your power. You won’t trust me, so you’re doomed to die human. If you trusted me, I could take you to the center of this place. I only learned the name just recently. The center of this place is called The Singularity. Unusual name, wouldn’t you say? But if you want to control this thing, that’s where you go. That’s where we’re going next, but unfortunately, we’re going without you.”

  As he talked, Colette’s face tightened, “Sir… He’s going to be stuck here until you get full control. He’ll be able to tell anyone where you’re going now.”

  Magnus shook his head. “True. Have him kill anyone he tells. You know what? Tell him to hint that he knows where I’m going to anyone whom he thinks can help him. He can only tell them in person, and then he has to kill them. How about that?”

  Colette eyed him, but then said, “I think it could work, but I feel like it won’t be that simple.”

  Magnus waved her words away with a gesture, “Do it.”