Soul(s) (27 page)

By the time we reached the transporter Sariah had
passed out. I could feel her chi, injured but not close death.

I knelt on the platform, pulling my communicator out
of the jelly-bean shaped pack. It jolted to life and Lanni’s voice
filled up the dark night.

“Transporting you now,” she informed me.

Lights swirled around us and I let out an enormous
sigh of relief. I was ready to be back in the city and at least
safe for the night.

Just like the night she’d gotten injured, I took her
back are room and drew a bath, but this time I slipped in with her
and held her close to me. After a while she came to and pushed her
mouth up against mine, beckoning my lips into a kiss.

She shifted sideways on my lap and I wrapped my arms
around her in a way that allowed her to recline back into the crook
of my arm. We didn’t talk. Usually, I felt like had so much to say
but tonight we both just wanted to feel.

I didn’t break our kiss as pushed in her. Her
position on my lap made me feel like I was squeezing into I moved
my hips circularly easing myself in slowly in. I was reveling in
the feeling of being tightly encased by her body but not wanting to
hurt her either.

After today we could never pretend that the threat
wasn’t real. That danger didn’t exist, that loosing each other
wasn’t a daily possibility. We’d faced the unknown before with the
Banguri, but they were never really a threat. Everyone knew that
now. This new enemy. This new unknown was the real danger and if
ascension was how our story ended then I wanted to be with her
tonight.

I need you so much,
I kissed her again. My free hand roaming all over
her, as if I was committing her body to memory through
touch.

Sariah’s body trembled over mine as she came. She
pulled back, sitting up and repositioning herself on me in a
straddle. I cupped her face lovingly in my hands.

“I’ve always needed you,” she told me.

“Whatever happens tomorrow,” I started to say
looking at her earnestly. Her eyes filled with emotion and she
looked away, shaking her head.

“I don’t want to think about tomorrow,” she
whispered.

She slipped herself back on to me and she started
moving again. Her hips making the water wave in the tub softly as
she steadily brought me to a hard release.

What do you want to think about
then?
I asked as pulled her closer and
breathed in the smell of her wet hair.

Nothing, nothing at all.

Even if we didn’t want to thinking about, the
morning still came, and we all met in the great council room with
the other Aura and our new Banguri allies.

Lanni had rigged some type of projector able to
display a 3D image of the peninsula. All of the outer territories
were marked, all of the temples, and then there were little red
squares for the areas where the enemy Auras had taken over.

The council room was round like a stadium. Everyone
could see everything and everyone else. Iris stood in the center
with Lanni. I looked around us. Very few Venku. The majority were
non-fighting Aura’s and Banguri. The odds weren’t in our favor only
a few of us actually had powers and new how to use them. Iris
greeted us briefly and then began.

“All refugees from both Banguri land and ours are
now in our Mountain City. Thanks to the efforts of Sariah and
Keegan, we’ve changed the terrain and fortified Paramount, we have
weapons to supply our entire forces, and we know that the Omni do
not have the same powers we do. We can assume that they come in two
ability types like we do, and one of their abilities is to create
poisonous needles and projectile them like bullets out of their
bodies. Lanni is going to explain our plan for the battle that will
inevitable take place.”

“Our best defense is the mountain range. They’ll
take the flattest passage so we need to be prepared to fight here.”
Lanni went up to the projection and touched the area. It lighted up
and then zoomed in showing a passage way a quarter mile wide by a
full mile long. It was only a few miles out from the Light City
itself.

“It’s the most direct passage way to us and they’ll
take it,” Lanni said. “Now the dekus are only used for close one on
one combat. We need a few solo telekinetic Aura to long the ridges
and pick off as many of the enemy as possible. All of the remaining
Venku will be mixed in. Keegan and Sariah we need you close to the
front you’re the strongest we have.”

“What about Ajani?” Sariah asked.

“Ajani and a small band of Aura will be guarding the
refugees in the Mountain City north of here,” Lanni explained.

“I know,” Iris said addressing us all, “that we
haven’t had a war in many cycles and that most of you weren’t
awakened here when we did have a war. I take the responsibility
fully for not keep us more prepared for an unknown threat but that
can’t be changed now. All we can do is defend our city and our
people: Aura and Banguri alike. We cannot fall. Find the
viciousness within yourselves and let it out. It’s the only
way.”

I felt Sariah flinch beside me and I took her hand.
She’d barely spoken since last night. All of the fighting all of
the killing was changing her. Pulling her away from me, but I
wasn’t going to let her go. I wasn’t going to let her withdraw.

“It’ll be okay,” I told her. I wrapped my arm around
my shoulder and pulled her to me.

“I hope so,” she said, her voice barely audible, “I
hope so.”

The debriefing concluded with Lanni explaining that
the Atlas showed the Omni forces being concentrated just four hours
away. They were pulling most of their muscle away from the
territories and straight toward us. If they continued to advance at
this pace they would hit the city in less than half a day’s
time.

Iris dismissed the Venku and kept back the Aura’s
and Banguri—she need to explain to them in a crash course how to
fight with their dekus. We’d been instructed to go union as much as
possible in order to be the strongest we could for the battle. As
soon as they were within two hours from the passage mouth, we would
leave the city and get into our positions. Sariah and I got up and
began to file out with the rest of the Venkus.

“What if they surrender?”

Iris had been talking to Lanni but she stopped
abruptly looking over to Sariah.

“My dear, they
won’t
.”

“But if they did?”

“I cannot predict the future,” Iris insisted before
turning back to Lanni.

“No—that’s not good enough!” Sariah yelled as she
stormed down the isle. “I don’t want to kill, especially if there
are other options. I need to know, what happens if they
surrender?”

“I’d hunt them down anyway,” Iris
said. “I understand that you don’t want to kill but if it’s either
them or us, it will be
them.
We cannot trust them. They poisoned over half
this council and forced me to kill
my own
people.
Sariah, I know about loss! Are you
that childish to think that you’re the only one who doesn’t want
to
kill?
Wake up
girl, none of us do. But do you know what I want more?”

I’d followed Sariah into the center of the room. She
stood motionless before Iris as she soaked up all of the rebuttals
of her original question.

“DO YOU KNOW WHAT I WANT MORE?” Iris yelled.

“No,” whispered Sariah dipping her head
downwards.

“I want my people to survive. I want my Venku to
survive. I want to see change flourish and if the price is a blood
stained deku, better it be their blood then ours.”

Sariah’s energy turned dark. I could feel how upset,
conflicted, enraged and hopeless she felt. I put my hand on the
small of her back and she pulled away sharply before leaving the
room.

Iris looked at me her eyes fierce.

“Keegan—I know you understand Sariah and the
situation we’re in. She needs to kill. She is the best weapon we
have. There hasn’t been an Aura like her in many cycles. The point
is she has to fight. You need to make her understand that death
will always happen but she is lucky. She can choose whose death it
is. She can decide what blood is on her hands. She will be the
final judgment for us all.”

I leaned against the wall outside our flat. The air
blew through the opened windows. It had been raining—how fitting.
Even nature was distraught. It’d been almost an hour since we left
the debriefing. I knew I shouldn’t stay out here much longer, we
didn’t know when the enemy would reach us. Lanni was sending out
mass reports to the communicators. So far they still were not
within two hours from the mouth of the mountain.

I’d been out here trying to
determine what was best for my Sariah. Was winning worth winning if
it meant she destroyed herself. There had to be a balance. All of
us made choices, and I wouldn’t let her sacrifice her soul period.
She could battle today and wipe them out and there could just be
thousands more waiting to make another attack. It could never
end—perpetual death. We could leave. How often had I said that to
myself? What hadn’t we? I thought back to each time I’d
propositioned it—it was always Sariah who wanted to stay. Maybe it
was time to final go. We could survive on our own it was the city
that couldn’t survive without
us.

I pushed myself off the wall and turned the nob on
the door. Our flat was quiet and I went up the stairs in threes. I
pushed the bedroom door open but she wasn’t in there. Like deja-vu
I saw out of the corner of my eyes a flickering in the other room.
She was looking at the mini-globe again of First-Plane.

I pushed the door open to find her sitting on the
floor leaned against a wall. Her head in her lap.

“Wats, we need to talk.”

She lifted her head up and her eyes were so sad it
nearly broke me. I sat beside her and puller her onto my lap, like
I always did and she responded to my affection the way she always
did—relief. She hugged me tight and I felt her body quiver in fear
against mine.

“You’re shaking,” I told her, worried.

“I’m afraid of what I’ll become when I kill,” she
confessed.

“I’d be lying if I told you it won’t change us, but
we’ll still be Venku no matter what!”

“I want there to be another way so badly, but there
isn’t, is there?”

“We could leave,” I suggested.

“No, that would be just another form of
killing.”

“But we’d be living,” I insisted.

“Our lives at the costs of others. Iris is right, we
could kill and save lives. Plus, there’s earth to think about. If
they take over the city and find out about the portals, then
what?”

“We don’t have to live for anyone else but
ourselves.”

“No, we do, Keegan. We do.”

“Then we fight when we fight, and love when we can
love.” I cupped her face and kissed her tenderly trying to put
everything I was feeling into that one kiss. I pulled back
breathless. Her cheeks were hued a soft rose color.

“Still blushing?” I said, laughing softly as I
caressed the side of her face.

“You’re still overwhelming,” she teased back.

“I’m glad you’re not tired of
this, because we
need
to do it to survive.”

“One day it’ll become strictly survival?” she
murmured as I began to undress her.

“No, never,” I vowed as my hands glided over her
body, peeling the suit off her skin. I scooped her up and took her
to our bed. “It’ll always be love.”

37: SARIAH

Keegan was asleep beside me, with his arm draped
possessively over cupping my breast. I rolled towards him and his
hand slid lazily down my side to my hip. I loved him; really loved
him. What wouldn’t I do to keep him? Nothing. Even if the price was
losing myself? Yes.

There didn’t feel like there was a grey area
anymore. Everything was black or white. I had to cling on to the
hop that maybe I was the grey area. Maybe if I was strong enough I
could win the war and with only a few casualties on either side.
Perhaps I could force them to surrender by killing their leader? I
vowed to myself to try that route first. I could use my powers to
find their leader and finish this war quickly. If that didn’t work
I’d have to kill as many people as necessary, but that would kill
me in the process.

What if I can’t bear the guilt of
destroying so much life?
I thought to
Keegan.

I’ll bear it with you and together
we’ll create to make up for all we’ve had to destroy. We’ll rebuild
the cities.
Keegan thought to me waking
up.

“Rebuild the cities?” I said a loud.

“When you left earlier, Iris and I talked. She wants
us to train the newlies when they start arriving again and train
the Banguri refugees. She has plans to build a new city that’ll be
for everyone.”

“That’s almost something to look forward too,” I
muttered.

“Almost?”

“If we don’t win the war, none of it will happen.
What if the Omni never stop attacking? What if they keep sending
more and more people?”

“We’ll make sure our people are the last ones
standing. We will survive. Don’t think so much, Wats. Stay right
here in the now, with me.”

He rolled me over, sliding his body on top.

“I dare you to think about anything else,” he warned
his eyes blazing mischievously.

On the table besides the bed the communicator lit up
and shooting a map projection up into the room. We both looked
over. The yellow squares were within the two hour arrival zone.