Emergence (7 page)

“How ridiculous!” she cried, and for a moment her body started to oscillate out of its perfect rotation. “I can’t be distracted, but I won’t look like a fool.” She extended her sussa to push the fabric up, and managed to gather it between her legs.

“Ocha mada, grunxa oyo,” she chanted, over and over, as her body began to spin. She could feel the power building within her; felt the tendrils of sussa get caught on her spinning body like webs of a spider. It was as if she was divining power from the planet itself, drilling down into its depths to extract what she needed. Before long, she was cocooned in those tendrils, her body spinning at a feverish rate. Her mind raced over all the parameters, all the warnings she read about.

I must come up with a form now! The time is near when my power will be at its maximum
.

She relaxed her mind, as the books told her, and let the image of a man come. She could see a lean, muscular form, thick, black hair, and golden eyes that twinkled mischievously. Once his face was in the forefront of her thoughts, she instantly stopped her spinning and stretched out her arms.

“Now appear before me; I command it!”

As she pulled apart her arms, she rotated lengthwise in the air, so she was once again upright, though still several feet off the floor. The sussa that was gathered around her gravitated upwards into a rapidly spinning sphere that glowed with intense heat and light. Melissa felt her arms were burning, but knew she must press on.

“Appear, boy; I demand it!”

The spinning sphere slowly moved out from between her hands, and settled on the floor a few feet in front of her. It continued to spin, but it also stretched upwards into an ovoid. When it was the height of a young man, Melissa gathered her remaining strength and said;

“I . . . demand . . . it!”

The sussa coalesced instantly into a humanoid form, and as it did, she collapsed from the strain.

She knew not how long she was unconscious, but when she woke the room was frigid.
I’m glad I set this place down -- I probably would have died if it fell while I was out
. Slowly, she got to her feet, and conjured several warming spheres. To her amazement, she actually felt stronger, and it took a visual check to see that she had absently raised her platform high above the clouds.

But her attention was distracted for only a moment, as what she had waited for was now in existence. She walked slowly around a young boy, who stood without clothes. She averted her eyes from his privates, but admired the strength of his shoulders and chest, the proud sculpted brow he wore. He had long, black hair, deep rich sienna skin, and a curious aspect that in one light seemed compassionate and kind, and in another ruthless and determined. Finally, she stopped in front of him, knowing what must come next.

Now, the kiss. I’ve never kissed a boy before. At least he’s asleep
.

She stood on her tiptoes and tilted his head down. She pressed her lips against his, pushed them open, and gently breathed into his mouth. After a few seconds, she felt his lips move, felt his arms grasp her shoulders.

“No!”

She pushed back, finding the boy alive.

“What is your wish, dearest one?” he asked softly, in a lyrical baritone she found tremendously appealing. “I am here to serve you.”

“Dearest one? You don’t even know me yet.”

“And yet, I know you created me.” He gracefully knelt before her and gently held her hands. “I know that I am yours, and will do anything to please you.”

Suddenly it all felt very ‘adult’ to Melissa. He was still nude after all, and she could tell that he was eager to please. And while she knew she must do the right thing, his broad strong shoulders and shadowed brow were starting to convince her otherwise.

“First, you need to put some clothes on.” It was in that moment that she cursed herself, as the only clothes around fit her or her mother. She ran into the bedroom and grabbed a thick blanket. “Put this around you.” He did, but she could still see his arousal. “Just . . . sit down,” she said, exasperated. “Let me think for a while.”

“By your word,” he said, taking a seat.

She went over to the window and leaned heavily on the sill. Once again, she shifted the platform so she could look on Toby’s camp. At least once a day she would watch the miniscule figures walking to and fro, drawing comfort that one of them was Toby. As she watched, soldiers could be seen running back and forth as Archsussa threw great plumes of sussa.

Wargames
, she thought to herself.
He must be getting ready. And here I am playing with a naked boy
.

She turned around to face her new responsibility. “So, what shall we name you?”

“What is your name?”

“Melissa.”

“What a beautiful name!” he exclaimed, making Melissa blush. “How I love to say it. Melissa . . .” The boy leaned back, rolling her name over his tongue. “But if you just created me, how is it I know how to speak at all? How do I understand your words, and have knowledge of how to use tools?”

“It is part of the creation process,” explained Melissa. “I imbued you with a large segment of what I know.”

He got on the floor and knelt before her. “Thank you, great Melissa! How I love you . . .”

“Enough of that!” she cried, bringing him back into the chair and bringing back up his blanket. “Now, what shall we call you? Do you have any preference?”

“Whatever my Melissa wishes, I shall endeavor to accomplish.”

“Well your Melissa wishes you to have an independent spirit. I wish you to think for yourself, and make decisions on your own. I need a companion who can help me to move forward, and not agree with everything I say. I wish you to name yourself.”

The boy sat back, vexed. “If you wish it, so shall it be. I name myself . . . Asil.”

“Asil?”  Her mind raced, trying to figure out where he got the name. “Ahh -- Melissa reversed, and truncated.” She nodded. “Very good -- at least we can begin.”

“If my nakedness causes you discomfort, then may I have some clothes, Melissa?”

“Of course.”

Suddenly she recalled some lessons she read about material creation. She went into the closet, and pulled out clothes she had no taste for. Putting them in a pile, she used her sussa to break down the garments and reconfigure them into three outfits Asil could wear.

“Thank you,” he said, as he dropped the blanket to the floor. “Let me try these on.”

Melissa hurriedly covered her eyes. “Have you no shame?”

“Not in front of you -- you created me,” he said perplexedly.

“Well, then I wish you to have shame. To be modest, and cover your nakedness.”

Asil sighed. “As you wish.”

As he gathered the clothes and went into an adjacent room to change, Melissa sat down, relieved to be rid of him for a short time.

This is going to be harder than I thought. I see why people made idelfada with no knowledge - they would be like mannequins of flesh, poseable and malleable. But with intellect, and a mind, how should I proceed?

He came out, dressed in tan slacks and an open white shirt. He cradled Nuri in his strong hands, and while at first she thought it to be the most precious thing she had ever seen, his brow seemed sad, as if the weight of the world hung on his newborn shoulders. His aspect has a ominous, foreboding quality to it, as if despite all her good intentions, he was still a boy, with a man’s spirit that would prove difficult to understand and impossible to control.

“What’s its name?” he asked quietly.

“Nuri.”

“Nuri.” Asil nodded, stroking its fur. “Did you make him also?”

“Yes.”

“And when he didn’t comfort you as you needed, you made me?”

His honesty and straightforwardness surprised Melissa, but she opted to indulge him with equally blunt replies. “Yes.”

Asil was silent for a moment. “What is it like to be real, to have been born rather than manufactured?”

Melissa went back to the window, and gazed longingly on the limitless snow. “I wouldn’t know, Asil. Now, you have just been made, and I have much to read about and learn. Will you take a seat while I read?”

“By your word, Melissa.”

So they both sat; she behind a table full of books, and he in a large chair nearby, and she read on as he silently sat, stroking Nuri who slept on his lap. She thought it a little idyllic, even if his continual gaze of adoration was a little distracting.

Chapter 8

Two weeks went by, and for the first time Melissa learned what it was like to continually share her life with someone other than family. Asil was the first person she saw when she woke, and the last before she went to sleep. They ate together, gazed on the massive crater together. She felt embarrassed when she needed to go to the bathroom, and vexed when he hinted that she needed to bathe. He sat nearby while she studied and practiced sussa, she taught him to cook and tend to other household duties. Rarely were they apart, and soon they fell to petty bickering.

“Could you pass the hula beans?”

Asil roughly pushed Nuri off the kitchen table and slid the bowl in front of Melissa, who dumped a heaping portion on her already full plate. “Haven’t you had enough?” he asked.

She stuffed her mouth, and rolled her eyes at him. “When you go a full two weeks with only one hour sleep, then show me how little you eat. I’m awake more, so I gotta eat more. Damn,” she spat, as some black sauce spilled on her already soiled sweater. “You made it too hot again.”

Asil nodded tacitly, and began to clear some dishes off the table.

“And get me some more fula juice -- this lofa is too dry.”

With a mannered, deliberate hand he retrieved the pitcher of juice out of the storage and placed it in front of her. “Anything else?”

Melissa paused from her feasting to look up at him. He was still the perfect specimen of masculinity, and in that instant of admiring him she suddenly felt ugly and fat.

“I’m sorry,” she said, wiping her mouth clean with two separate napkins, “I guess it’s just frustrating to learn all that I have and not be able to put it to good use.”

“You float Nuri about very well, and keep our platform levitated and warm.”

“Yes, yes, but that requires so little effort now,” she said, with a dismissive wave. “Ever since I created you, I feel more powerful. I want to stretch myself, test my power, but I don’t want to go out and attract attention to myself by obliterating mountainsides.”

“Why don’t you make a menagerie?”

“A what?” asked Melissa, reluctantly pushing the food away.

“More pets, like Nuri, but who have limited intelligence and can keep us company. Smaller, dwarf-like creatures -- I read about them in your histories.”

Melissa thought on his words. “I like that.” She got to her feet, and paced around the main living room, thinking on all she studied. Believing herself to be an idelfada, she had read all she could on the subject, and could instantly recall all that was necessary.

“So not quite human, but not quite animal?” she asked.

“Yes, like little dolls or playthings.”

“Mmm . . .” said Melissa, as she conjured tendrils of sussa from her fingertips. “Perhaps like distant cousins of Nuri, with higher reasoning.” She barely had to outstretch her arms to manifest four balls of sussa, spinning furiously before her. Nuri scampered into another room, and Asil knelt in a nearby hallway, content to watch from a distance. “I’ve seen drawings in children’s books of funny little creatures,” she said, as the balls spun faster and stretched into small ovoids. “I can see the detail in my mind, Asil! Oh, the power I have!”