Breeze Corinth (Book 1): Sky Shatter (19 page)

Ray jerked a thumb toward the scissor lift. “So anyhow, I brought the lift. I suppose you can clean up from here. You seem to have a handle on things. I’m going to check up on Sally.” He headed toward the dormitory.

Breeze groaned as he got to his feet and began cleaning up the mess he made.

Oslo and Excort stood on an adjacent rooftop overlooking the dorms and watched as Breeze cleaned up the work site.

“Well, did you see what you want? Disappointed?” the dwarf asked.

“There is more to this school than teaching them how to use their gifts. They need to work together as team. They need to understand that they have to come together.”

“For what Oslo? What are you preparing them for? These kids are far away from home and in unfamiliar surroundings. They don’t want to be here and this campus is not even fit to be used. There is so much to repair around here—”

“That’s your responsibility, not mine,” Oslo snapped at him.

“Yes. Yes it is. And I’m doing it all by myself, thank you very much!”

Oslo closed his eyes and breathed deeply. “I’m sorry, old friend. I just assumed your sons were here to help you—”

“My sons and daughters, my family, have long ago left this place. There is nothing here for them. They have made a life for themselves on the surrounding islands. They live in peace. There are no troubles for them. Oslo, you have to let go. The past is the past. Move on. Go to Raza. Take her daughter to her. Live a life with the ones you love. Move on.”

Oslo raised a clenched fist. “I can’t let go. After all that has happened. All that I know. How can I just walk away and pretend to live a normal life?”

“Normal is what they want,” Excort said as he pointed a finger at the sky. “As long as we don’t make any waves, they don’t bother us. Cities are not attacked. People don’t vanish. Yes, on this island we are hidden from their view. But they see everything else. If you stand out, they will knock you back down. As long as you live a simple life, they don’t seem to bother anyone. It’s when you start using machines they take notice, and terrible things happen. And now, you’re adding the recruitment of paranormals to the mix, which is what they despise the most and have gone great lengths to suppress.”

Oslo chuckled.

Excort stared at him. “What’s so funny?”

“You accuse me of not letting go? Do you have any clue what’s happening out there? Or have you been stuck on this rock for so long, you stopped poking your head out to see? It’s different Excort. Cities are flourishing. Machines are being built. And there haven’t been any cases of cities or territories being attacked. Until now.”

“What attacks? Where?”

“Never mind that. Progress is being made again. We’re waking up. I just want the world to remember the heritage of this planet. For people to take pride again in their history!”

“How, with him?” Excort stabbed a finger down toward Breeze.

“It’s a start. All great things have a beginning somewhere.”

Excort turned and walked away. He had heard enough, especially after having a long day of making endless repairs with no real help. He reached the door that led to the stairwell, then stopped to look back at Oslo.

Oslo was standing with one foot on the railing and spoke while gazing at the sky. “If you look closely, you can see them. The stars that are not so bright, the ones that don’t seem to shimmer. That’s how you know it’s the Elephim. We can stop them, once and for all. I believe we can,” he said.

Excort understood what drove Oslo. He served in the military with him on Perihelion when the troubles began, and life as they had known it began its long march toward decay and chaos. They watched as the world was strangled by the hands of a powerful, yet unseen force. A shadow organization that slowly took over the institutions, industries and customs of Earth and her colonies, then encouraged the people to question and malign them. Soon, decay and chaos swept through like an unforgiving wind. Brothers quarreled and fought. Neighbors attacked and killed one another. Territorial governments were locked in endless wars and conflicts amongst themselves.

But the greatest accomplishment of the shadow organization, who later revealed themselves as the Elephim, was turning the population against the heroes and vanguards of Earth, the Helios, the paranormal army who protected the planet and her colonies.

The Elephim did not have the strength in numbers to confront the Helios directly; they were an ancient race who had long ago let their world fall into ruin. Yet their desire, driven by madness and depravity, to see all worlds become as eviscerated as theirs, compelled them to seek out life and suppress it, as they had suppressed their own people. But Earth possessed an energy unlike any other, and they knew it was instrumental in the creation of the paranormals that made up the Helios. The Elephim wanted to tap into that energy and replenish their strength, and perhaps use it to rebuild their world into their dark vision of it.

But the Helios would be their greatest obstacle in their quest for complete dominion of Earth, so they used subterfuge to undermine them.

A whisper campaign was set into motion against the Helios that soon erupted into a firestorm of negative public opinion. Malicious lies were spread, painting the Helios as power mad zealots who engaged in acts of perversion, while plotting to enslave the population.

The Helios soon found themselves on the defensive and became embroiled in a war amongst themselves. A war between factions who wanted to give in and surrender to the Elephim, who were beginning to emerge from the shadows and present themselves to the people as a safer alternative for peace and security, and those who chose to resist, for they knew the true nature of the Elephim and the horror they represented.

The turmoil surrounding the Helios made it easier to hunt down and destroy those who resisted the growing influence of the Elephim. It was painful and demoralizing to the resistance that those who were slain were done so by the hands of traitorous Helios who had become agents for the Elephim. Those who managed to survive went into exile to either hide on Earth, or to disappear into the stars.

With their protectors now gone, the people were forced to turn to what was left of the shattered territorial governments for security, but there were helpless to do anything.

The absence of authority paved the way for the Elephim to create a new government. They not only created the chaos and orchestrated it from the shadows, they now offered the solution to it. They held out a helping hand to the burnt out remains of a society that had destroyed itself, and offered order out of chaos. For a society that once valued personal responsibility and individuality, it now sought peace and tranquility at any price.

The Elephim placed platforms in orbit above the Earth. They claimed that it was to monitor and provide security, but instead became a systematic effort to control them like cattle. Any attempts at technological progress were met with swift retributions. Any desire to begin an alternative government was squashed. Earth was to be controlled by one government only, one administered by the Elephim and enforced by traitorous Helios, who now wore jet black uniforms that covered them from head to toe.

What would destroy humanity the most was not the attacks on cities and industries, or driving off the Helios into exile and obscurity, but the abduction of children by the Elephim. The heartbreaking stories of parents waking up to find their children missing had one common denominator: the abducted children were paranormal.

Oslo and his wife, Raza, spanned the globe seeking these families to bring them to Perihelion for refuge. Military personnel serving on Perihelion, who long ago refused the authority of the Elephim, were more than eager to help.

Perihelion was the only military base with an experimental electromagnetic camouflage, the fog as it was called, that was to be adapted and installed on the starships of the Interstellar Navy. It was now used to shield the island from the prying eyes of the Elephim and protect Earth’s last and most precious resource, the children of the paranormal.

Perihelion was a base that also hosted a military academy for cadets. Oslo and Raza planned to use it to train and hone the paranormal powers of their recruits. They shared a vision of them becoming the next generation of Helios who would liberate the planet from the Elephim.

But it was too late as the Elephim were made aware of these plans from well-placed spies. Though they could not find Perihelion because of the fog, they isolated it by raining destruction upon the rest of the world.

When it was over, the children and their families stayed on the island until the fires across the planet had burned themselves out, then left Perihelion and returned to what little was left of their homes and live out the remainder of their lives rebuilding what they had lost. Despite their efforts, their homelands would devolve into chaos.

The Helios who survived the purge knew better than to reveal themselves. They were never heard from again.

Excort did remember an alternative plan that was hatched by Oslo, Raza, and a friend of theirs, a projector whose power seemed to grow exponentially by the day. His name was Bram. He was recruited to train at Perihelion right before the purge began along with Oslo and Raza.

Their plan was to augment Bram’s projection capabilities with machinery that Oslo and a robot assistant of his designed and built, to seek out the home world of the Elephim and discover any weakness they may have and use it to destroy them.

They found it after many attempts by relying on clues they found in ancient texts of the island’s vast library. But the mission came to an abrupt end when Bram’s astral form disappeared after one of many excursions to and from Helena, the Elephim’ home world, leaving his body behind in a comatose state that was kept alive by the machines that augmented his power.

“The three of you did what you could,” Excort said, “but in the end, the odds were stacked against you. You never had a chance. Bram was your best hope and you sent him to confront the Elephim and to find their home world, but something happened to him. Whatever it was, he could be the reason why they became dormant for so long. Perhaps he found a way to fight them and prevent Earth from being harmed any more that it has. Maybe he reached an agreement with them to leave Earth alone as long as we don’t try to become ambitious again and recover what we have lost. What I believe,” the dwarf pointed at him, “is if you stop trying to recreate the past, they might just leave us alone.”

Oslo held up a hand. “I told you, Bram sent me a message. He is returning. He wants Perihelion reopened.”

“Did you really hear from him? Or is it the guilt that you feel for sending him out into the unknown and never returning?”

Oslo didn’t respond.

Excort lost his patience. He turned and descended the steps.

OVER A WEEK HAD
passed since their failed attempt at sprucing up the dormitory and Sally was becoming exasperated.

Oslo continued their training as he strived to get them to wield their powers in new and interesting ways, but it was becoming quite clear to her and the others that he wasn’t much of an instructor while also doubling as headmaster.

Sally hounded him about the arrival of the other students he had promised. He would repeatedly assure her that more were on the way.

Breeze was acting strange around her. He would pass her in the halls, or on the boulevards of the campus, but avoided her gaze. A few times he mumbled an apology to her about the painting accident. She just didn’t know what to make of him. A part of her was falling for him, the other was screaming at her to just ignore him.

A heavy rainfall the following night woke her and she couldn’t fall back asleep. She went to the balcony to look out across the bay and watched as the rain come down in sheets. The pitch black night was lit by streaks of lighting that briefly gave her glimpses of the shoreline while thunder rocked the dormitory causing it to shake and rumble.

The storm abated as the heavy rain petered out into a light drizzle. The dark and thick storm clouds gave way to wisps of fast moving rain bands that allowed the starry sky above to shine through. She looked up and sighed. The stars here seemed so much brighter than at home. Her city was a fast growing one and the electric light from the street lamps created a glow over it that obscured the starlight.

As the rain bands thinned out, she leaned over the railing and began searching for constellations. She marveled at how the stars seemed to hang in the sky like glittering jewels and she wanted to reach out to grab one as they felt so close.

She noticed one star in particular that appeared dull compared to its companions, and then brightened as if a surge of energy rippled through it. She had the feeling it knew she was watching when the star wobbled and drifted away.

She tracked it until a movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention. She looked down at the beach and saw a figure staring at her. She recoiled in fear and quickly stepped back from the railing. The figure turned and walk along the shoreline with a flowing white dress streaming in the wind.

The figure turned to look at her again. Sally put a hand to her throat and realized she was looking at the same woman from the cove and the demonstration session in the dome. The woman raised her hand slightly as if to greet her, then turned and continued walking along the beach.

She watched her fade into the dark and felt compelled to project out to her, then thought better of it after remembering her experience in the courtyard. She needed to confront this woman on a physical plane, not the astral one.

She ran out of her room and down the steps, then through the courtyard that lead to the beach as her adrenaline overwhelmed whatever fear she may have felt.

She looked down the shoreline and caught a faint wisp of a white dress in the distance. She bolted across the sand, never realizing that she was the only one leaving footprints behind.

As she drew closer to the woman she slowed to a walk, and then stopped. The woman turned to face her and the moonlight made her white dress glow even brighter, allowing Sally to see how beautiful she was, with her long flowing hair blown about by the wind. The woman raised a hand and beckoned her to come closer.

Sally hesitated, then took a step forward and noticed a faint smile on the woman’s face that faded to sadness as she raised a hand to her heart.

Sally simultaneously raised a hand to hers and felt out of breath as her heart began to beat faster.

Sally lowered her hand and the woman mirrored her movements perfectly.

“What is your name?” Sally asked.

The woman began to speak, and then stopped. She stared at Sally before turning to look at the bay. The wind was beginning to pick up, making the surface choppy.

“Kera,” the woman said in a hushed tone as the wind carried her voice away.

Sally stepped closer. “I couldn’t hear you.”

The woman turned to look at her. “Kera,” she repeated.

Sally froze in place. She never heard of that name until now. And yet, she felt like she had known it forever.

Kera stared at her while the wind blew her dress away from the water every time a wave encroached upon it.

Sally didn’t know what to do. Part of her wanted to run back to the dormitory, while the other wanted to reach out and touch the woman. She felt drawn to her but couldn’t understand why.

“You saw me when I projected out into the courtyard during my demonstration,” Sally said. “You knew I was there the whole time and then you attacked me. Why?”

Kera stood silent. Her face seemed to contort as if she was holding back a million answers she wanted to give. “Tell me about your mother,” she asked.

Sally was taken aback by the question and she nervously raised a hand to chew on a fingernail. Kera grabbed it and Sally could feel a current of energy run through her.

Kera quickly withdrew her hand. “Please tell me.”

“My mother and father—” Sally began.

“Yes, of course. Your parents I meant to say.”

”—my mom and dad are, well, I don’t know, good. I guess. Why they sent me here, I don’t know. My mom is nice, I suppose.”

“Any siblings?”

“Brothers and sisters? No, just me.”

“Ah, an only child. Yes, of course,” Kera said with a smile and nodded her head.

“Why are you so interested in my family? And what sort of an instructor are you anyways? Oslo hasn’t introduced us to you or told us what classes you teach—”

“The acquisition of knowledge is not something that has to take place exclusively in a classroom,” Kera replied. “It can take place anywhere, anytime, and under any circumstance. It can happen right now in the middle of the night along the shoreline of a wind tossed bay. Never again think like that, Sally. There is more to this life than bricks and mortar, glass and steel. Then again, I think you are beginning to realize this.”

Sally crossed her arms over her chest and shivered as the air grew colder. Lightning flashed in the distance, followed by the rumble of thunder.

“Come, walk with me,” Kera said, and beckoned her to follow.

They walked side by side along the shoreline. The waves never touched Kera while they consistently drenched Sally’s feet.

They walked for a while until Sally finally broke the silence. “Why is it I seem to know how to project so well, even at an early age?”

“You are asking me why it is you seem so proficient in your power, while you watched your fellow classmates struggle to master theirs?”

“Yes,” Sally said eagerly, “I always felt like I was ahead of the class in everything I did and in every subject.”

“And how did that make you feel? Superior, I would imagine.”

“Well, I…I suppose.”

“And do you feel that it helped you advance your knowledge, or did it ostracize you from everyone? Did the other girls in your class like you? Did the boys take time to notice you?”

Sally stopped in her tracks.

Kera turned and glided toward Sally. “Knowledge is a funny thing. The more of it you gather, the more you make yourself believe others will listen and respect what you have to say. Instead, you find yourself being pushed to the side and ignored. Why is that?”

Sally shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Of course you wouldn’t know. It’s not how young you are that is the problem. It’s your lack of experience.” Kera pointed at her, then at the moon. “I want you, no, us, to project together. To the moon and back. Are you up to it?”

Sally recoiled as she looked up at the brilliant moon. It seemed so close, yet so far away.

Kera persisted. “Why are you so afraid? You said you always felt you knew everything there was to know about projection. So let us see.”

Sally shook her head.

“Class is in session, Ms. Trumbull. Don’t be fooled by the lack of desks and seats, or tablet and stylus, nor the absence of four walls and a roof. Remember, learning can happen anytime, anywhere. It doesn’t require a bloated institution and bureaucracy to make it happen.”

Sally swallowed hard and closed her eyes. When she opened them, they glowed a bright white and her body was perfectly still. Her astral form stepped out and floated toward Kera.

Kera beamed. “You truly are amazing. There are many like us who spend their entire lives trying to master this gift as proficiently as you have at such a young age.”

“Are you going to project with me?” Sally asked.

“Am I not already?”

Sally was astonished. “I don’t get it. You touched my hand earlier. I could feel you.”

Kera raised a hand. “Stop thinking and no more stalling. Learn how to let go. Now, come and follow me,” she said and floated up.

Sally followed her, while taking a quick glance back at her body where it stood along the beach like a statue. Her connection to it was strong, like a string attached to a kite that allowed her to find a way back.

But now she was beginning to doubt herself as she never really traveled this far from her body before. She looked up at Kera, who was hovering above, and wondered why she trusted her.

Kera smiled. “Very good. Any journey that involves self-discovery requires you to take a step forward no matter how small it may seem. And now,” she said while pointing at the moon, “we are about to take a journey of a million small steps. Are you up to it?”

Sally nodded.

“Let’s go,” Kera said and ascended rapidly.

Sally gave chase and labored to catch up to Kera who always seemed to be out of reach. She briefly looked down and was shocked at how high she was. She looked up and Kera was wagging a finger at her. “No looking back,” she said to Sally, “keep moving forward.”

Together they broke through the clouds that smothered the earth below as the moon lit them in a way that reminded her of the snow covered fields behind her home in winter. She drifted while marveling at the lightning that rippled through them.

“You’ve never traveled this high before?” Kera said as she hovered next to her.

“No. I wish I had. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful. I don’t understand why I’ve never attempted this before. Why was I so afraid?”

“Fear is like an anchor that keeps you firmly in place. It becomes a convenient excuse for not wanting to push yourself, to break the bonds that prevent you from exploring your boundaries, and then shattering them. Now come, no more dithering about. We have a journey to complete,” Kera said, and accelerated up and away.

Sally struggled to keep pace, all the while reveling with a sense of exhilaration as they raced higher and higher. For her, projection was always nothing more than stepping out of her body to snoop around. She would eavesdrop on guests during her parents’ dinner parties, or drift outside to sit by the pool, but now she was racing to the moon.

Suddenly and without warning, she felt lost and alone, as if she could never go back home again. The connection to her body became weaker by the moment as she then understood what it was like to be a ghost.

“No, you do not,” a woman’s voice said in her mind.

Sally gasped as Kera appeared beside her.

“You are far too young to understand the pain of knowing you have lost everything. To know that the ones you love are gone and forever out of reach. You have yet to truly experience such loss. Hopefully, you never will.”

“I can’t go any further,” Sally whispered.

“You can’t or won’t. There is a difference.”

Sally could feel tears streaming down her eyes and reached up to wipe them. She looked at her hands and saw how each one was like a tiny globe of light. They rose up to float above her, and then dropped like stones to the earth below.

“Even the tears you shed lack the strength of conviction. How will you be able to help anyone if you refuse to believe in yourself?” Kera said.

“But I do believe in myself! I told you, I know how to use my gift. I’m the best one here on the island!” Sally wailed.

“Gift? Did I not overhear you calling your gift a curse?” Kera glared at her.

“How…how did you know I said that?”

“Does it matter? Is it any different how you would spy on your parents during their little parties? Pressing up close to each one of them and listening in on their conversations. How amazing was it for you to explore the world of adult conversation and how it contrasted so sharply from the chatter amongst children. Did it make you feel more grown up?”

Sally was stunned. “How do you know these things?”

“Oh, my dear, sweet Sally. Do you think I was any different growing up? That I didn’t experience the same things you did? Look at us child, we are hovering above the Earth while floating in the infinite blackness of space. Are you feeling any more lost and alone than you were before?”

Sally looked back at the Earth. It was nothing more than glowing ball in the distance. She could feel her astral form being tugged, then yanked violently back to her body. She screamed as she hurtled across space.

She came to an abrupt halt as Kera grabbed her hand, then drew her close and cradled her face.

“Child, our lives are less ordinary. You cannot deny who you are. Never. Whether you call these powers of ours a gift or a curse, you can never pretend that you do not possess them. There will come a time when you will have to use them in ways you never imagined, such as now. Come, let us finish our journey. The lunar surface awaits us.” Kera let her go and raced away.

“Don’t leave me!” Sally shrieked and raced after her.

The moon loomed before them and the further away from the Earth they went, the more frantic she became. She could sense the connection to her body fade as voices flooded her mind and it felt like she was trapped in a crowded room with strangers shouting in her face. Overwhelmed, she placed her hands over her ears and came to a halt. As the shouting voices became louder, she felt as if her very essence was being absorbed into a collective.

One distinctive voice stood out from the din and it seemed familiar. She turned to look, but couldn’t find it. Faces flashed before her, but none she recognized as they all were grotesque and contorted in anger or in fear. She was desperate to find one face that seemed familiar, even a friendly one. She felt herself fade away just as a pair of hands grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her back. She opened her eyes and was relieved to see it was Kera. The woman was speaking, but she couldn’t hear anything she was saying.