Vai

"I have brought writings that I believe are from your people," Esther said. She took her backpack off and brought out the broken piece of wall. The Awakened One wasn't paying much attention to her. He was now in front of Lieutenant Tanpo staring at her with his head tilted.

Esther handed him the piece. He shifted his yellow eyes to look down at the writing in his large hand. Then he tossed it over his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Esther rushed to pick up the piece of wall. She held it tenderly in her hands. "This might be able to help us learn about our light."

"No. It won't." The Awakened One said simply. "It is a recounting of history. A history you already know. My people lost. It won't teach you about the light. And even if it did, you still wouldn't need it. You have me now." He picked it up out of her hands and tossed it down the hole.

Esther's lips pinched tight as she frowned at the Awakened One.

"Teach us then," El said. "We don't have a lot of time before our ship needs to head out to the next schedule."

The Awakened One looked at her as if this was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. "Teaching and learning is not a process that happens in moments. It takes centuries."

"We don't have centuries," El said easily.

"Then I will teach you the one thing all of you sorely lack that should be something basic." He sat down on the dirt and rocks. "This one," he indicated Esther with a tilt of his head, "can teach you how to distort memories. It's a basic you should all know since you need to be secretive for now."

"I did always want to ask how you made me forget," Owen said, "and how you stole time from me."

"I didn't steal time from you," Esther said, "I just put you in a daze."

"But you did make me forget what you said."

"Yes, that is something I can teach you. But just like everything else with the light, you have to do it on your own to make sure it works." She sat down next to the Awakened One. The rest of us took that as a cue and sat down in a circle. "I thought I'd stay and learn from you though," Esther said.

The thought had never occurred to me that Esther wouldn't stay with us and from the looks of everyone else - even El - neither did they.

"We need you," El said. "Honestly, I didn't realize how large the Awakened One was. I thought we could sneak him onboard, but now . . ."

"Which is why you need to learn to stretch out with the light to contact me when I'm not there," the Awakened One said. "To do that, close your eyes and still yourselves so you don't get distracted by what's going on around you. When it becomes easier for you, you should be able to do it with distractions." He closed his eyes. The rest of us did the same.

"Now, concentrate on your light," he said. "Let it form around you and let it lift you out of yourself."

I called my green light to me and surrounded myself with it. I wasn't sure if it surrounded my physical self, but I knew it surrounded my spirit self. It caressed and tickled my soul. I guided the light gently and it lifted me. I opened my eyes. My body was below me. My body sat straight with my eyes closed. The green light tethered me to my body.

The Awakened One's spirit was above his body much like mine. He was surrounded by a gray light. He smiled when he saw me. He was still large, but somewhat less frightening as his spirit self. No one else had joined us yet. That surprised me a little. I thought this would be easy for Esther. Hadn't she contacted the Awakened One before?

Shel's purple light blazed and he lifted out of himself. He opened his eyes and blinked at me only moments before Minmin did the same with her white light. They both looked down at Esther's body.

"I thought she's done this before," Minmin said.

"I contacted her first," the Awakened One said. "She knows how to stretch out her light, but not how to come out of herself. Which is why we were never able to completely converse with each other.

El and Owen were next. Lieutenant Tanpo and Esther joined us almost at the same time. Esther couldn't hide her disappointment that it took her so long.

"Can we move around?" Minmin asked. She bounced up and down on her spirit feet. When she saw that she could indeed move, she took a few steps away from her body. "What happens if we go to far from our body?" she asked.

"If the light that tethers you to your body is severed, you will die. You still need a heartbeat to live. Traveling from it doesn't sever the tether, but it will leave your body vulnerable if you are not there to protect it. You can stay in your body and stretch out your light."

"That's what I did," Esther said not knowing we had just discussed that very thing.

"Yes," the Awakened One said. "And now that you all can do this, we should be able to communicate clearly if you just stretch out the light. I will say this form - where you are out of your body - is easier to communicate and provides clearer meaning and demonstration."

"But it leaves us vulnerable where as just reaching out with the light doesn't," Esther said.

"Yes," the Awakened One said.

"What happens to your spirit if you die outside your body?" Minmin asked. "Do you stay a spirit and float around."

"Like ghosts," Owen said.

"When you die, you die," the Awakened One said. "Like all creatures you go back to the ether. You reunite with nature."

Neither Owen nor Minmin liked his answer.

He ignored them. "You can call on your light in this state so you are still able to fight with the light. That would give you some defense if you are close to your body, but you can't physically fight and defend yourself." He gathered gray light in the palm of his furry hand. Pebbles below him - around his feet - flew into the air and swirled into a twisting, turning ball.

"I see," Esther said. Pink light blasted from her hands and pushed a rather large rock aside.

"Sir, are you all right?" Warpaint said to my body.

I didn't answer because he wouldn't be able to hear me anyway. If he could hear us - or see us - he wouldn't have asked if I was all right.

Lieutenant Tanpo and I exchanged a glance as the others practiced their powers in their spirit state.

"Sir?" Warpaint put a metal hand on my shoulder and shook. "Sir."

Since I had no idea what my light was supposed to be able to do, I went back into my body. I opened my eyes. "I'm fine, Warpaint."

"Really, sir? Because you wouldn't respond."

"I was communicating with the others through the light," I said.

"But I didn't see your light sir."

"It was an internal thing. Really, I'm fine."

"Okay, because you wouldn't respond and then rocks starting rising and shifting and exploding and imploding and there are fires."

"The others are practicing their light. It's all right."

"If you say so, sir."

Lieutenant Tanpo blinked her eyes open.

"You're not going to stay as a spirit and practice your power?" I asked.

"I don't know my power," she said.

"Then do you want to spar a bit while they are doing that?" I asked.

She smiled. "Let's do it over there though," she waved a hand. "We don't want to disturb their bodies."

Warpaint and I followed her to the spot she indicated.

"Ready?" she asked.

I nodded. I got into my boxing stance - feet light - hands up. She swiped out with a foot. I stepped away and blocked it with a fist. She didn't give me a chance to recover before she swung a fist towards my face. I blocked that too.

I didn't see the knee that connected with my thigh, but I felt the red pain as it spread out in a star shape.

Warpaint stepped between us. Lieutenant Tanpo immediately stepped back.

"It's okay, Warpaint," I said. "It's how I learn. It's how I get better."

Warpaint seemed skeptical, but he took a step back.

I readied myself again. I blocked a punch and was ready for the kick that followed. I tried something new. Instead of just blocking her leg I followed through with the momentum of the block and tried to grab her leg. I did grab it, but she easily twisted out of it. She smiled though as if she liked my initiative.

She tried to punch me, but instead of blocking it, I grabbed her arm when she got close and threw her over my shoulder. I worried that she hit the ground too hard, but she smiled again. "I thought you'd stick with boxing moves," she said.

"That was well done," the Awakened One's low voice rumbled over the distance. I didn't know he was back in his body. He stood and the others stood around him as they watched us.

"Learn the different ways to fight and learn fast," he continued. "That move won't work against the Corruption, though. Not unless they have a host."

"Can the light help us sense the Corruption?" Esther asked. "I've been trying, but the only way I can tell if they are in someone is by the pink in the eyes."

"We have never been able to sense the Corruption coming," the Awakened One said. "It is one of the reasons we lost. Now that we have returned to our bodies, let us all practice physical battle. You block with your fists," he said to me, "but it is important to keep up your shield of light as well."

It hadn't occurred to me to keep the light shield up while sparing with the others. I nodded and put the shield up. Green light surrounded me. Apricot light surrounded Lieutenant Tanpo.

Shel and Minmin paired up. Owen and Esther paired up. All of them going with who was familiar. That left El with . . .

"This is good," the Awakened One said. "Out of all of them, you are the only one with a fair chance against me."

El smiled that creepy smile that sometimes touched her blue lips. She attacked him. Fast. Jumping up to kick at his mid region. He was fast too. Faster than I thought. He grabbed at her with a large hand, but she spun out of the way. A fist connected to my face. It didn't hurt as I had my shield up, but I wasn't expecting it.

"That is foul play," Warpaint said as he stepped between me and Lieutenant Tanpo.

"No it's not," I said. "I should have been paying attention. She was teaching me. Move aside, Warpaint."

"How many times will you ask me to move aside, sir?"

"As many times as I need to."

He stepped aside. I threw a jab at her. The blue ridge above her right eye raised slightly. She side-stepped it, but just barely. I did a left hook, but she grabbed me and threw me much like I had thrown her earlier.

I stood up and turned to face her. She had thrown me far. I was a big guy. She smiled.

"Are you all right, sir?" Warpaint asked. He took a step towards me.

The ground rumbled beneath me before they came out of the ground. Millions of them. They tore through my shield with ease. They tore through my flesh. They cut my veins, my lungs. They shredded my heart.

There was a primal scream that cut the universe. It was Owen. He screamed for me. Screamed as my body collapsed to the dirt. Screamed as El shouted for the rest of them to get back to the shuttle. Screamed as Lieutenant Tanpo and Warpaint rushed towards me.

Screamed as the Corruption killed me.