Soul(s) (25 page)

33: SARIAH

It was like walking through water and right
when I was scared I wouldn’t able to breath it was over and we were
on the other side back in Second-Plane.

Keegan squeezed my hand and the world around
me came back into focus. It was newly dark, the sun had just set.
Ursula and Erick had delivered us right outside the Light City
walls.

“
Are you alright?” Keegan
asked me

I nodded yes and we walked into the
city.

“
Something seems off,”
Ajani said from beside us. “The city is too quiet.”

“
You’re right. The streets
are deserted. It’s almost as if they’ve fled the city. We’d better
hurry and get to Paramount,” Keegan agreed.

We took off, running as fast as we could
through the climbing city streets to Paramount. As we neared the
building itself, I was hit with a wave after wave of thoughts. It
was too much for me to make sense of and I desperately blocked all
the voices out.

I looked around me in horror. Bodies were
strewn across the steps to the large entrance, toppled in the
streets and on the lawn. Anybody we could see was a person who was
dying but wasn’t dead yet, but even as we spoke they were
dematerializing and I could feel their souls releasing. I shuddered
as I felt them ascending. I kept my eyes to the ground I didn’t
want to see the balls of light floating up into the sky.

“
What happened?” I asked
frantically. Looking to Keegan for an answer I knew he didn’t
have.

“
Should we ask one of them
before they die?” Ajani asked quietly

No one gave him answer as we headed up the
steps weaving in and out, careful not to bump anyone. I was
starting to feel sick. I clutched my hand over my mouth. I had to
get away from all that death. I hurried into the building and
almost ran into Iris as she turned a corner.

“
You’re back! At least
something is working out in our favor,” Iris exclaimed. She had a
slight limp and bruising around her neck.

“
Are you alright?” I asked
hugging her quickly.

“
No, but I’ll have to be.
We were betrayed by some council members. They’ve been meeting with
the Omni, a set of Aura’s like us who are from the land past the
peninsula. They’ve been planning to eradicate the Banguri. We’ve
known of other Aura but our focus has always been on our own. We’ve
never—or so I thought—communicated regularly with other tribes.
Anyway, when the rest of the council refused to agree to the decree
and the Omni and their new Aura allies attacked us. Just like that.
People I’ve known for my whole life turned on me; Aura fighting
Aura. Somehow we won, but I’m the only council member left. I’ll
have to lead—for now at least—and the Light City is temporarily
secure.”

“
Why only temporally?”
Ajani asked.

“
The Atlas has been
lighting up with a new color—yellow.”

“
More Omni?” Keegan
asked.

“
We can only assume at
this point. Reports are already flooding in of new attacks the
outer territories. Refugees will be making their way here soon.
Those who can fight will stay in the city. Everyone else, will go
north into the Tawas territory in the mountain range behind the
city. I will stay no matter what! We have to try to fortify the
city.”

“
There are advantages to a
mountain range for fighting. Is there no other safe territory left
that could be used for the refugees so we can draw the Omni into
the mountains?” Ajani questioned.

“
No,” Iris confirmed,
“we’ll make our final stance there, if we lose the
city.”

I agreed with Ajani, the
mountain range was ideal. Plenty of coverage, tight areas of
battle; we’d have the advantage. But the land leading up to the
city was wooded and flat. The main part of the city offered little
to no coverage. I looked over at Keegan, he was lost in thought and
Ajani stood next to him idyll spinning a pebble off the ground with
this powers. My mind was racing. There was so much to do in an
unknown amount of time. We had to find a solution. Suddenly, the
idea struck me like lightning. We could manipulate anything with
our minds,
anything.
Why not earth? Why not make a mountain range?

“
We’ll change the
terrain.”

“
We’ll do what?” Ajani
asked.

“
Brilliant, Wats! It could
work.”

“
We’ll gather all the
telekinetic Auras,” I said, thinking out loud, “we’ll have and
spread them just outside the city wall. We’ll make a complicated
mountain pass, that’ll buy us some time, and when the battle comes
we’ll be ready.”

“
This is a better plan
than what we had even to minutes ago,” Iris said enthusiastically.
“This will help our current disadvantages not be so life
threatening. We don’t know our enemy. We have no idea what their
powers are and they vastly out number us.”

“
We might be able to
improve our numbers,” Ajani said lowering his voice so that no one
passing near us could hear. “Sariah and I tracked the Bangrui and
found another camp. We managed to get through their portal which
led back to First-Plane. We met with the Banguri leader by accident
but they too have been attacked by the Omni and are willing to make
an alliance with us.”

“
That was why we came back
so quickly,” I added. “The High-Banguri are willing to align
themselves with us if we allow them to take refuge with us, give a
vow to make no attempts to control their ability to create portals,
and keep the existence of a travel back to First-Plane a
secret.”

“
We could put the ones too
young or old too fight with the other refugees in the mountains,”
Keegan added.

“
That
will
be interesting. But, it’s
either evolve or die and I think the proper choice is always
evolve,
” Iris said
smiling. “How do we get word to them that we accept their
offer?”

“
Telepathically,” I
explained. “There is a Second-Plane leader that I can connect
to.”

“
When we’re done here,
Sariah, contact them immediately. We don’t have time to waste. Tell
them to head for the east entrance of the city. Our new enemies are
flanking from the west with any luck they won’t see our
reinforcements arriving. Ajani, you will safe guard them with a
handful of venku-warriors. Once our terrain is cemented we’ll know
exactly how to guide them into the city.”

Ajani nodded silently.

“
Will need weapons,” Iris
continued, “Keegan and Sariah, I hope you’re up for a
challenge.”

34: KEEGAN

I was watching from the
towers but I could see Sariah just fine. The city had never been
very large but with my eyes I could see her a quarter mile or so,
just outside the Light City’s walls. Ajani was there too, but they
were spread out some twenty to fifty feet. For the first time I
wasn’t jealous—
trust
. It all came down to trust. I still didn’t like him, though.
I was waiting for them to beginning, it was taking a few minutes
for Sariah to line everybody up and explain the general idea of how
they were going to change the terrain. Most of the telekinetic
auras weren’t even fighting trained, they just spun objects in
their spare time—which priory they’d had a lot of.

Sariah and I didn’t seem to have that
problem. Even know, even within the breath of a few moments rest,
my mind was raking over and over again our next mission Iris had
sprung on us. Sariah and I were going to break into one of the
largest temples and steal as many deku as we could. That’s how low
our numbers were, that in one trip we’d be able to retrieve enough
deku to arm are new Banguri allies that were willing to fight.

There about ready to
start,
she thought to me.

The thirty or so telekinetic Auras were
finally lined up. Even untrained they were our strongest weapon,
but from what I could sense in their chi’s Ajani and Sariah were
the strongest; and Sariah surpassed them all. My lovely, Wats. My
heart warmed with pride.

Would this count as a long
distance relationship?
I teased thinking
to her from the towers.

A what? I don’t even—how can you joke?!

It’ll be fine,
I thought comforting her.

What if my idea won’t
work?
She thought to me, her voice
rippling with doubt.

You’re stronger than anything this plain has
ever seen.

Flattery,
she thought to me in almost a whisper.

Fact.
I tossed back to her mind
I’ve never
told you but I can see chi’s. I can almost read the energy. You can
feel them, I can see them.

What do they look like?

Colors of light. You’re is ginormous.

Keegan,
she thought and I could hear the smile in her
mind’s tone,
are you calling me
fat?

Voluptuous,
I corrected.

What color is mine?

I’ll tell you next time I see you.

You can see me now, cheetah.

Then I’ll tell you next
time I kiss you,
I purred to
her.

We just got the single to start.

I zoomed in on them. Her energy flared as
she exerted her powers. The ground around her trembled and then off
a safe distance from her it began to rise slow at first and then it
zoomed as it picked up momentum. Ajani did a little but everyone
else was struggling. Sariah stopped, turning her head side to side,
sensing the others weren’t able to do what she and Ajani could
do.

They’re not strong
enough,
her thought came to me in a
pant.

You’ll have to guide
them,
I told her.

How?
She asked.

Stop trying to do it all by yourself.

35: SARIAH

Keegan was right.

You’re strong,
he thought to me,
lead
them.

I don’t like entering
people’s minds,
I thought to
him.

Get over yourself.

What?
I snapped back. Even though I couldn’t see him, I turned my
head, looking over my shoulder in the general direction I knew he
was.

Don’t you glare at
me,
he thought to me. I imagined his sly
smile and couldn’t help but laugh.

He was right. I had to get over myself. I
had this power, I needed to use it. Everything was riding on this.
If we were going to keep First-Plane safe, us safe, Keegan safe—I
had to get over myself. I had to do what needed to be done.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes
again. I could feel all of the souls around me. I reached out to
them all at once.

We have to work together, all at once.

Then I was hit by all of them trying to talk
back at me at once and my temple pounded furiously.

SILENCE!
I thought-yelled, probably too loud, but it was
more of a reaction than an action. I couldn’t think if I heard all
of them at once. I couldn’t instruct them all at once it was too
hard. I felt stuck. Perhaps I could show them by doing it? But that
could take too long and we didn’t have time to spare. I began to
panic, feeling inadequate. I shouldn’t have let them put so much
faith in me.

I felt Keegan’s arms around my waist and
breath against my cheek. I turned around, and as I moved I saw the
others awkwardly trying to move the ground on their own.

“
I hope you don’t mind me
joining you. Looks like you could use my help. I have an
idea.”

“
I hope it works,” I said
nervously waiting for him to tell me his plan.

“
I think it will,” he said
but you can’t stifle any of the emotions you feel. You’ve got to
trust me.”

I nodded as he began to caress the side of
my face tenderly and closing my eyes I leaned into his touch.

“
What are you going to
do?” I asked with a mixture of excitement and
reservation.

“
I’m going to kiss you,”
Keegan wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close against
him. Our energy warmed between us—that familiar hot white
lighting.

“
Just a kiss?” I asked
confused and relieved that his idea didn’t leave to me orgasming in
front of all these people.

“
I’m really, really good
at it,” he teased.

“
I know I’ve kissed you
before,” I reminded him. I was getting frustrated. Now wasn’t the
time for a make out session.—

My thoughts stopped as his lips committed
themselves to mine. He was putting so much emotion in to our kiss
that I couldn’t think about anything else but the world he was
creating between us. It was just us. Just this moment. Our energy
exploded and I felt my strength magnify tenfold. Not only we were
creating so much energy that I had to use some of it, I couldn’t
hold it all in my own body. I snapped into the minds of all the
Aura around me. I don’t know if I took it, or they let me, but I
had control of their power. Then I felt another surge, Keegan’s
power was combining with mine. I let it fill me up like air in my
lungs and when I exhaled it all came out and the earth begun to
shake and change.