Emergence (20 page)

“Will you?”

Sliona clasped Melissa’s hands. “For my part, and that of my people, we will. No one has extended such a hand of friendship to us before, and in light of what we put you through, we will never forget you.”

“Then let me do this one thing for you.”

Sliona was about to speak, when Melissa extended tendrils of sussa around her body. Sliona smiled, and closed her eye, as she was lifted into the air. The other wilāyas drew near, and when Melissa finished, they gasped with surprise.

Sliona rubbed her eyes, and opened them both. “I can see!” She extended her arms and stretched her legs. “I haven’t felt this goods in decades, child!”

For the first time, Melissa saw how beautiful she was. She stood tall and proud, with muscled limbs and fiery red hair. Her gaze was one of command, and she knew she could inspire armies with her words.

“Thank you for taking my gift. I must leave, now.”

Sliona grasped her hand. “You may not believe it, but we have made much progress. I have heard of Richard’s confession, but understand, he is a gifted child. This ship you stand in may look broken and beaten, but if you wish it, it can sail once more, to support your cause.”

“I could never ask that,” said Melissa. “This isn’t your fight; it’s mine. I’m just glad to know there’s somewhere I could come to, and be accepted.”

“It is because you could never ask it, that it will be done. You will always be welcome here.”

With that, Melissa took to the skies, heading back to her mother’s home. And as she looked back, from deep within the clouds, she could see a dark presence hovering above the ship behind her, and she knew Vincent was watching.

The small levitating platform that was her mother’s home hung low, only a few dozen meters off the ground. The windows were dark, and no smoke issued from the chimney.

Are they still there?
she wondered, growing anxious as she flew closer.
Could something have happened to them? Why didn’t it go to Imathrin?

She landed on the entranceway, and pushed open the door.

“Hello?” The passageways were empty, with only beams of sunlight straying within. She crept cautiously through the living room, keeping a tight ball of sussa lightly conjured in her hands.

“Asil? Asil -- are you here?”

She turned to look into the kitchen, and found the first body.

“Oh my!” The sussa disappeared from her hands, and she rushed to kneel beside one of the hlenna. It lay face down next to the stove, curled against it as if huddled for warmth. She cried uncontrollably, her body wracked with heaving sobs. “How did you die? I left enough food -- I charged the batteries with my sussa. Where did it all go?”

“We were fine, for a while,” said a voice behind her that she knew to be Asil’s. She couldn’t turn to face him -- she remained kneeling by the hlenna. “We had warmth, and food. But then one day, it grew dark. The platform shook, and the firespheres dimmed.”

“How long ago?”

“About two months.”

“Two months . . . two months . . . wait! That was when I was imprisoned, and used Toby’s network to summon sussa. Could I have drawn it from this battery?”

“Does it matter?” said Asil, coming to stand over her. “Only two hlenna are still alive -- barely.”

With a flick of her wrist, firespheres ignited throughout the platform, which itself rose speedily into the air. With another motion of her hand, the bodies of the fallen hlenna were gathered and placed in the small room where her mother lay. Finally, with her sussa she reached out and pulled roots and tubers from the ground below, cooked them, and placed steaming bowls of it on a small table. The hlenna came running in.

“Melissa -- is it really you?!” they cried with glee. “Oh Melissa -- we’re so glad you’re back!”

They rushed past the food and clung to her for dear life, squeezing her and laughing. Melissa couldn’t help but laugh, and finally managed to look Asil in his eyes, who distinctly wasn’t laughing. He knelt where the dead hlenna had lay, and reached out his hand, as if he could still touch them.

“It’s a shame not everything can be fixed with a flick of the wrist.”

Chapter 17

“Are you ashamed of me?” asked Asil.

He asked that question after they had all eaten, and the hlenna had shared stories of their long, cold wait. Melissa returned the favor, sharing with them her journey, leaving nothing out.

Melissa turned away, reluctant to answer. “What do you mean?”

“Are you ashamed of the fact that I was made by you? Do you look on me as less than a person?”

She sat down. “I think of myself as less than a person. What does that make you?”

He sat next to her.

“Why was I created, Asil -- why?”

“Do you really need to know?”

“You did -- it was one of the first questions to come out of your mouth.”

She watched as he leaned back, and knew he was perturbed. She was amazed at how well she could read him.

“Perhaps you were made to keep someone company,” he suggested.

“Not many Archsussa can make an idelfada, much less one that has a full range of emotions and is capable of learning. I only know of one that has been able to accomplish that feat, and I truly hope I wasn’t made by the Freilux.”

“Almost every living being asks why they were created, and what their purpose is in the world.”

Melissa shook her head. “Except my creator might be walking around somewhere as we speak.”

“Is it that you’re afraid of what you might have been created for, or who might have created you?”

Melissa nodded, acknowledging doubts and anxieties that had been welling within her ever since Vincent revealed who and what he was.
What if the Freilux created me to be his little pet, and I got out of hand?
She sighed. “Do you know what I want? Do you want to know what I
really
want? I want to go home. I want to go to a place that I know instinctively and truly is mine, and find unique comfort and solace. I was created, formed from the shape of another with the memories of another. And now that I have become someone different, someone unique, I find that I have no root. I exist nowhere.”

“But you live here,” explained Asil. “And isn’t this your home?”

“I might
live
here,” she said, “but that doesn’t mean that I feel safe here. I can’t describe it, Asil; it’s a feeling down in the core of me, a yearning for this one, perfect, safe place. If I were born then I probably would wish for the home of my childhood. But I wasn’t. I was created out of the ether, and I feel I will roam for the rest of my days, unable to rest, unable to make a nest and move forward with my life.”

“I . . . I couldn’t begin to answer you.”

“I know, and it would be unfair to think you could. Right now, I just need to rest.”

Asil’s expression perked up. “Are you sleeping now?”

Melissa sighed, realizing it for the first time herself. “I . . . I can’t become like Toby. I don’t know if I’ll lose my knowledge, my power, but never again can I treat you the way I did, or allow myself to follow the path I almost did with the scientists. I need balance, and sleep is the only way to achieve it.”

He came to her, and kissed her on her forehead, and she thought it the tenderest thing anyone had ever done to her. While Vincent had shown strength, and Richard intelligence, Asil was by far the most compassionate man she had known. “Then have a pleasant rest; I will keep the hlenna quiet.”

She lay down and slept for several days, entering into a lush dreamland she had never before seen. On a wide landscape of dunes, made of a hot, dusty material, she staggered under a burning sun. Never before had she felt so hot, so dehydrated. The world seemed utterly alien to her, yet familiar. In the distance mountains of metal rose and fell, as if a hundred Imathrins were joined together.

Her attention was drawn to the surface around her, which was now covered with books, Thick books, thin books, with old, dusty covers and ornately written titles all clamored for her attention by the thousands, opening and closing their covers as if they were animals begging to be fed. Many she recognized as books she read to learn of sussa, and she wondered why they were behaving so. They screeched loudly, and it became like a static that erased lines learned from her mind.

I must leave -- I understand why Archsussa sleep so little! But then what’s the answer? I can’t go on like this -- I need balance, clarity, yet I also need the power of sussa.

She sat down in the middle of a wide tract of arid land, hard with visible cracks through the surface. The books flapped and stirred up billowing dust clouds, obscuring their titles and blotting out the words.

I am not afraid any longer. I will not run for you, or anyone else.
She wanted to hit the books, beat them into submission. Suddenly, a voice could be heard over the terrible din of the books.

“
There is a time to fight, and a time to heal
.”

“Who are you?” asked Melissa. “Show yourself!”

“
There is a time to fight, a time to heal. A time to listen and a time to act. The secret of life is knowing when those times begin, and when they end
.”

“Who are you?” she asked softly. “Please.”

“
I am he who has lost more than any other; he who is almost beyond redemption. You will see me many times though the sight will give you no pleasure. One day, near the end of all your days, you may see me yet again. And it will be a time of great joy, and unending sadness
.”

Melissa knelt in the sand, her vision blurred by the dust storm generated by the books.
How can I fight the wisdom I have learned? Is there anything more futile?
She sat back on the heels of her feet, and lowered her head. Often as a child she had seen her mother practice this form of exercise/relaxation, and it always seemed to center her mind. Melissa echoed those movements, pressing her hands together, then opening them as if they were petals of a flower waiting to be nourished.

She did this several times, chanting a sacred word her mother taught her. After a time, the beating subsided, the screeching abated. She slowly opened her eyes, and saw the myriad of books lying on the ground, slowly opening and closing their covers as if breathing. She got the impression they were tired, and needed to be fed. Instinctually, she walked over to one, and opened her mouth over it. The book pulsed back to life, the words etched on its pages glowing with an iridescent blue hue. She did the same to the others, reviving the books, and when she finished, she found she had an even greater understanding of what she had read. For a moment, the entirety of creation yawned before her, and she saw her relation to it. But it was fleeting, and vanished, leaving her in a black void.

A light ignited in the distance, and she ran towards it. Pulses of light dispelled the darkness of the void, and as she drew near their source, she understood. She stood above the surface of Iqui, watching as Toby led his army into battle with the Freilux. They fought in the skies surrounding Imathrin, trading great plumes of white fire. Six Archsussa fought alongside Toby, and for a time it seemed as though he would prevail. But the Freilux, now thin and strong, surged forward, with one hooded Archsussa whose body shifted in the light like Vincent’s. His power was incredible, and with one blow that dark Archsussa shattered the skulls of three of Toby’s Archsussa. They exploded in great fireballs, and Toby’s forces stumbled in their advance. As the Freilux unleashed a hoard of Igra, Toby turned to face Melissa directly.

“Help me, dear Lissa . . . help me!”

She bolted awake at his plea, knowing he was just now uttering those words.