‘Curious,’ Kaz said. ‘But Al, nobody else can do that. What makes you think this involves the Incarna?’
‘Well, neurons in my brain transmit an electrochemical signal to one another and—’
‘I mean,’ Kaz interrupted. ‘Why do you think this has something to do with the Incarna?’
‘Because,’ I said. ‘I just have a feeling about it. Partially Alcatraz the First’s writings, partially instinct. The Incarna knew about all these kinds of glass, but they wanted more. They wanted to have these powers innate inside of people. And so somehow, they made it happen – they gave us Talents. They turned us into Lenses, kind of.’
I frowned. ‘Maybe it’s not the fact that I’m an Oculator that lets me power glass. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m an Oculator and a Smedry. That’s much rarer, isn’t it?’
‘I only know of four who are both,’ Kaz said. ‘You, Pop, your father, and Australia.’
‘Has any research been done into people like us powering glass?’
‘Not that I know of,’ he confessed.
‘I’m right, Kaz,’ I said. ‘I can feel it. The Incarna did something to themselves, something that ended with the creation of the Smedry Talents.’
Kaz nodded slowly.
‘Aren’t you going to ask what makes me feel this way?’
‘Wasn’t planning on it.’
‘’Cuz I’ve got this really great comment prepared on unconscious mind interacting with the conscious mind and releasing chemical indicators in the form of hormones that influence an emotional response.’
‘Glad I didn’t ask, then,’ Kaz noted.
‘Ah well.’
Now, it may seem odd to you that I – a boy of merely thirteen years – figured out all that stuff about the Incarna, when scholars had been trying for centuries to discover it. I had some advantages, though. First, I had the unusual position of being a Smedry, an Oculator, and a holder of the Breaking Talent. From what I can determine, there hadn’t been someone who had possessed all three for thousands of years. I might have been the only one other than Alcatraz the First.
Because of that unusual combination, I’d done some strange things. (You’ve seen me do some of them in these books.) I’d seen things others hadn’t, and that had led me to conclusions they couldn’t have made. Beyond that, I’d read what many of the other scholars – like Kaz – had written. That’s part of what I’d spent my time doing in Nalhalla while I waited for the fourth book to start.
There’s a saying in the Hushlands: ‘If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.’ Newton said it first. I’m not sure how he got hit on the head with an apple while standing up so high in the air, but the quote is quite good.
I had all of their research. I had my own knowledge. Between it all, I happened to figure out the right answer.
Kaz nodded to himself, slowly. ‘I think you might be on to something, kid. Some scholars have noticed the connection between types of Smedry Talents and types of glass. They’ve even tried to put the glasses onto the Incarnate Wheel. But your explanation goes a step further.’
He tapped the diagram he’d drawn on the floor. ‘I like it. Things tend to make sense once you figure out all of the pieces. We call Smedry Talents “magic”. But I’ve never liked that word. They work according to their own rules. Take Aydee’s power, for instance.’
‘It seems pretty magical,’ I admitted. ‘Creating five thousand bears out of thin air?’
‘She didn’t create them out of nothing,’ Kaz said. ‘She’s got a spatial Talent, one that changes how things are in space with relation to other things. Like my Talent. I get lost. This moves me from one place to another. Your father loses things, not himself. He can tuck something into his pocket, and it will be gone the next moment. But when he really needs it, he’ll “find” it in the pocket of a completely different outfit.
‘Aydee’s Talent is actually very similar to these. Those bears, they didn’t come from nowhere. She moved them from someplace. Out of a storehouse or factory; perhaps she drained the armory back in Nalhalla. That’s how it always works. She’s not magically making them appear; she’s moving them here, and she’s putting something back in their place – usually just empty air.’
‘Like Transporter’s Glass,’ I said.
‘Yes, actually,’ Kaz said. ‘Now that you mention it, that is very similar.’ He tapped the ground again. ‘So, if I get you right, you’re saying that the Incarna turned people into Lenses. But something went wrong.’
‘Right,’ I said. ‘That’s why the Talents are hard to control, why they do such odd things some of the time.’
‘And that’s what your father is chasing, I warrant,’ Kaz said. ‘Didn’t he say he wanted to give every person Smedry Talents?’
‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘He announced it in a big press conference, to all of Nalhalla.’
‘He wants the secret,’ Kaz said.