Aetheran Child (39 page)

It seemed much taller than before. Had it grown?

Lexan reached up but at the last second, retracted his hand. He stood still and closed his eyes, listening to the bubbling of the lake next to him, and the falling waters.

The first transformation passed him within seconds. His skin became translucent, his body energized, and his mind focused. But he did not open his eyes yet. Lexan felt how he floated just centimeters above the surface and so he floated over the lake and toward the waterfall. He had to concentrate hard to bend reality to his liking. A massive repulsion force built up at the lower part of his body as if both his body and the lake water were magnetic poles of the same sign.

Yet he stood still, with closed eyes. His body vibrated slightly as the energy built up within him. The lake rippled under him but soon after, it stopped. The boy’s body no longer interacted with the electromagnetic spectrum, making him nearly invisible.

He rose a few meters into the air, into the falling mass of water that sprayed his entire body. Drenched in seconds, the boy shed his clothes and with them, he shed more weight off his shoulders.

His body felt tenth its initial weight, but the same mass. He felt free of burden and opened his eyes. Above him was the sky, littered with tiny white spheres, all inter-connected. In front of him, a wall of water with rocks behind it. Below him, the lake rippled as the water splashed down. His clothes floated on the surface.

The repulsion force gained power and pushed the boy into the falling water, through the water upward. Lexan had to close his eyes again to protect them. Matter pushed down on him, and he felt a sudden urge to stop and fall back down. But he did not, he pushed harder and harder against the stream, against the natural order of things. He tore through the waters and pushed harder but somehow managed to end up lower than where he initially started.

He grit his teeth as he always did nowadays whenever presented with a challenge seemingly too hard for him. With a bang, the water around exploded and he cleaved through the fluid into the air, escaping the water’s massive power. He landed by the main river source and laid down onto the ground. The grass prickled his naked body.

V

Lexan made his way to the Recruit Ship. An enormous, wide, saucer that housed all the recruits from the planet which numbered in millions. It was the first of many that would land on the Aether planet; most students preferred to leave after the school year ended. The ship would engage on a five-month journey. Due to its enormous size, and Twist space being out of commission, the ship would drift several weeks to the outside of the system until it could accelerate further and enter whatever universe they used for travel now.

The boy stood in front of the ship. He checked his NCC for the hour, and noticed he had only ten more minutes. The day went by quickly, especially since he fell asleep in the Gardens. He has never felt so relaxed and right about his decision though, which mattered to him the most at the moment.

Solan and Krall came to see him, wishing him good luck. Solan was still bitter at Lexan for leaving him to Sun Surf alone but understood his intentions. Krall laughed and winked at Lexan when he said, “I'll see you in half a year, my friend.” The boy had returned from his vacation early because the United Republics had finally cycled into its Imperialistic era.

As he watched hundreds of other students get onto the ship, he realized that he had no one else to part with. He began to walk toward the ramp when someone grabbed his arm.

“You can't go,” a voice too familiar said. Lexan turned around only to stare right into Bloo's fiery eyes stung with tiny mucous beads that rolled down her cheeks. The boy blinked.

A hallucination, he realized, and in front of him stood Charles. The chatterly, warm Octid from the Cardinal Regions, “You can't go alone. Come on, help me out with these bags.”

The enormous spider handed Lexan two large bags, and carried the rest with his strong appendages, “I did not realize you wished to join the Peace-Keepers, [Muray].”

The boy smiled and laughed, “I didn't realize you'd join, too. And by the way, it's Lexan.”

Charles's antennae glowed a brilliant green, the laughter of his species, “So your equipment was hacked too?”

Lexan nodded and could not help smiling. He could not have wished to have had a better friend to come along with him. The journey, his trip, and destiny might not be as lonely as he thought.

“When did you figure it out?”

“A few days ago during my Solitude Training,” Lexan remembered the Octid telling him of this secret training he performed during the break.

They walked together up the pathways toward the saucer, “Where should we get a room?”

Charles glowed a green again, he was obviously happy at the moment, “Wherever. Let's go.”

Without a single look back, Lexan walked on and on, between hundreds of people up to the enormous black saucer , the size of a city.

The darkness around his heart grew heavy and tangible. Despite it, he was happy, happy that he finally managed to come up with a way to help. Even though he might get killed, even though he will have to endure brutal training, even though he will eventually be brainwashed by the government and fight in this Nether war, killing innocent men and women; he felt certainly happy. Even though he will never be able to return back to this world and see these people that changed his life forever in those short few months, he knew it was best this way.

Even though Alary would stay here and live out in peace until the war reached the Aether system, Lexan would keep her in his heart. And even though Bloo, Nivua, Jacque, Solan, and all the others will never hear from him again, they will remember him as the strange Cardinal. The boy from an unknown world, without any understanding of this strange universe, he will be remembered.

Romul and Remu would certainly remember him. They will with most certainty never venture out into the Council sub-Node again, or experience such danger that he exposed them to.

But all might forget and live out their monotonous lives and forget about the changes he made, the realizations Lexan showed them all.

I am abandoning so much, he thought, for such an impossible task. All my efforts my go in vain. Yet on this day, June Third of the Earth calendar, he stood by his convictions.

“Just one question, Charles. What made you join the Peace Keepers?” he asked, stepping inside the black-walled saucer.

“Destiny.”

Epilogue

Behind, at the mouth of the port stood Bloo. Her burning red eyes glowed with tears. Her lip trembled, her quilt hair shook and fell down on her back. She clutched in her hand an item. In front of her, the saucer started to close up. All the people, many of her dear fellow classmates already left. This particular sector had been the last to load up new recruits.

In five long months, all those young men and women would enter training. A few months later, they would enter the war that ravaged the Independent Outlying Nations. Lexan, she thought, is most likely going to die then.

“Stupid, stupid boy,” she whispered with anger and sadness.

Her hands balled up into fists, her knuckles whitened. She wished she could hit her intangible feelings.

She cried solemnly, quietly, but ready to burst out loudly if she was not alone. People all around her stood and felt the same as her.

No, not exactly like me, she thought. She listened to Lexan's message days ago. He apologized, apologized for everything. She did not expect that. And she knew that he truly loved her.

But now she lost him, “He's gone,” she whispered through her clenched teeth.

Her hand was at the point of crushing the item in her hand.

She opened her hand to look at it. A simple ring made of durable metal. An alloy that could withstand the scorch of a star. It bore three small crystals that lit up whenever it received enough energy.

A new channeling ring for Lexan, one that impossibly connected to hers across the universe. If hers glowed, so would his and vice-versa. She wanted Lexan to remember her and know her love was true. And to think of her whenever he looked down upon his hands.

She broke into a sprint to the end of the platform. The bridges had already withdrawn and there was no way inside.

“May I help you miss?” A man Sky Surfed down to her level, he was dressed in a black skin-suit covered with grey armor. He was a military man, “Is there something you need?” he asked again.

“My friend, he left. I forgot to give him something.” she mumbled, her tears started to crust and dry on her skin.

“No problem, I can deliver it to him,” she smiled at the man and he smiled back at her, “Tell me his name, and he'll have it in no time.”

Bloo dropped the ring in the man's extended hand and mumbled, “His name is [Muray].”

The man surfed up and to the saucer. And just as he was out of her sight, the poor Cardinal girl broke into another cry.

###

About The Author:

Antonin Januska is a writer, programmer, and a hobbyist photographer. You can catch up with him on his writing blog,
Thought Essays
or his programming blog,
AntJanus
.

The sequel to this book is already in the works under the title of Origins of Aetheri.

Follow me on Twitter:
@antjanus