Hello Sparks!
Woohoo! We started harvesting yesterday! It’s slow going, and not a wonderful quantity, but still exciting to see our whole season’s hard work paying off.
I wonder if you’ve noticed that this chapter is winding towards its end. We are 11 posts into this chapter, I think it’s our longest one yet, I’m not exactly sure, it’s been a while since I looked at the index.
As for the story… Cathy’s hard work seems to be paying off too. It took her two years to get to the point where Elle is able to go out in public safely and meet the person in the Authority who has been overseeing her case all along. Of course, she doesn’t know all that’s at stake, and she’s not the most perceptive preteen there ever was. I wonder what you’ll think of this one…
INDEX | Chapter 7 | Scenes 1 & 2 | Scenes 3 & 4 | Scene 5 | Scene 6 | Scene 7 | Scene 8 | Scene 9 | Scene 10 | Scenes 11 & 12 | Scene 13 | Scene 14 | Next Scene → Coming soon.
Previously: After a fancy dinner at a high-end restaurant the whole group leaves for a hidden bunker. Distracted by her own thoughts and preoccupied with Cathy’s apparent distress, Misty fails to pay attention to her surroundings. Soon she finds herself in a room capable of absorbing raw energy and is asked to give Minister Liebenberg a demonstration of her abilities. But they don’t know about her struggle with Penance, or why it makes her hesitant to use energy outside of a combat situation.
The first time I used too much energy and went into uncontrollable regen, I was still little. It was a few weeks after I came to TTH and met my trainer. I remember a large sparring room with a pretty stone floor and windows instead of walls. There were eight of us then. I looked at the reflections in the glass and felt small. I was the youngest in the group by one whole suns-cycle, at four. We were all standing in a circle with the instructor in the middle. I don’t even remember what she or any of the others looked like, except that it was the first time I saw Chrys, with her white outfit and loose blonde curls held back by a headband.
The instructor walked us through the simple routine of channeling forms. I’d spent the night learning them with James, then I had to practice until my muscles could remember what my mind already knew. I remember wondering if the others each had a Mind Smith too, to implant theory ahead of time and make learning faster. As we all watched the instructor, Chrys kept catching my eye. She looked so out of place, nervous, and insecure. I didn’t know at the time that she was the princess, or why she was wearing white when everyone else was in red. She was also just a little too tall and far too pretty to be one of us.
When the instructor finished her demonstration it was our turn. We all moved in the same direction, going through each step of the simple routine. After just a few repetitions I could already feel my energy rising. I had no idea how to stop it from surfacing or slow down the rapidly increasing volume of its release.
First, my skin started to glow, then little flames sprang up, then bigger ones. I stopped when I was the only one still moving, and then I noticed that no one else had lit up yet. The instructor knocked me out, and I woke up in my dark little cell, with such a pain in the pit of my stomach, at my core where the energy was most concentrated, that I could barely move. Teag still made me go to the gym, but it was no use. I didn’t have the instinctive control most Teleran children have. I thought I should simply release more energy, but the more I used, the faster it built, and the faster it regenerated, the worse it got and soon I couldn’t move at all.
I remember that it took what seemed like forever, getting worse and worse as my energy kept building up and concentrating beyond what my body could safely contain. Eventually nothing worked anymore.
I remember the green flash. I remember James waking me up a few days later and showing me the section of the facility I destroyed, showing me what was left of the four Talented children who had died in the blast. I remember what it felt like, to look at the little blackened bodies. They told me it wasn’t my fault, that it was out of my control. I didn’t believe it then, I still don’t.
Now I’m alone in this long narrow box. The door behind me is closed and the overhead lights are uncomfortably bright. I run my hand along the small white tiles that cover the floor, walls, and ceiling, and I can sense the way it seems to suck the energy out of me. It must be a conductive net, like the one in my old room in Luke’s house. There’s a wide window to my left, through which I can see another room that looks considerably more comfortable than this one, with cabinets and computers and two rows of red upholstered seats. The Minister, her two bodyguards, and the General are there watching me, with Cathy, unhappily waiting for me to do something to show off how powerful I am.
I consider what a demonstration might mean with my energy as dense as it is. Right now I’m in the best shape of my life. I was lucky when it went out of control at Luke’s house. I was dead empty of raw energy to begin with, and it hadn’t concentrated yet so when the dam burst it was a gentle flood rather than a pressurized explosion.
This time will be different. This time will be like the first time because my energy has been slowly concentrating for years, and there’s so much more of it now than there was back then. If I go into a wild regen and lose control in my current state there will be no way to contain it. I don’t want to be responsible for destroying the entire base and killing all its inhabitants. I don’t know if anyone will wake me from the dream world that always follows an episode like that.
Cathy gives me a little nod. This is a big deal for her. I look around one more time. The room is empty. There are ducts in the ceiling that keep the air fresh and clean, and slots in the floor, an odd little panel in the closed door behind me. The window has a grid of little wires inside the tempered glass. A small pulse confirms that the absorbent net is complete.
It seems safe enough. I’ll suffer for the energy I use, but I should be alright if I’m careful not to release too much, just like I did when I ran away from Logan.
I sigh and take off the shoes, then my shiny new jacket with all its pretty pins. I place the shoes together and put my neatly folded jacket on top of them in a neat pile in the corner so that they will stay clean and new.
Then I start with the twenty-first form. With my eyes closed I face them, and shudder at the sudden intensity of the heat that floods my body as I let my power flow. The twenty-second form is a bow. The twenty-third, spreadeagled, like a star, then turns into the twenty-fourth and a pirouette, flowing to twenty-fifth and then back into first. Just a little show, then dial it back.
My feet leave the tiled ground and I hover, intensely aware of the air pressure and currents in the room. The energy glowing green on my forearms, starts scorching holes in the long sleeves of my shirt up to my elbows, and I resist the urge to cough while the smoke is drawn up through the vents, wishing that I could tell them about the energy-tolerant fabrics we used to wear at TTH. Before the shirt can burn any further, I force the green flames to flow downward and coalesce into bright green fireballs, hot orbs that lay heavily in my palms, flaring between splayed fingers.
Cathy beams with pride. The General and the Minister stare in wonder. I exhale and sink back down to the ground, reabsorbing what will and letting the room have the rest. It is only a fraction of what I am capable of, but it should satisfy them.
After a moment, the Minister turns away and whispers something into what looks like an intercom. Eight more people in shiny clothes enter the viewing room and they all sit down in the upholstered seats. There’s a noise over to my right and a target slides up out of the ground. I sigh. How far will they take this?
Anticipating the order, I wait for them all to settle and then flick a small blast at the target, a small metal board marked with three red rings on a meter-long pole. There’s barely a flash but the wall behind is scorched black, and the top half of the pole that held the target in place is now a melted stump.
The denizens of the viewing room mutter amongst themselves, nodding and grinning, ready for more. It’s a silent horror show and I’m the star. Two more targets rise out of the ground. I spin and shoot and they disappear as effortlessly as quickly as the first one did. The viewers applaud. The miserable ache in my belly is starting to ease. I can’t keep doing this.
The little panel in the door opens, and a drone about the size of a dinnerplate buzzes into the room.
I look squarely at the Minister and shake my head. She smiles back at me. The drone makes a beeping sound and a tiny canon pops out of it. A second later it fires something at my feet. I jump instinctively, avoiding the small coil of smoke that rises from where the drone’s energetic cannonball landed, and watch the little machine buzz in a tight celebratory circle.
Cathy shoots a glare at the Minister and says something harshly. I can’t hear her, but her body language screams anger. The Minister’s eyes are on me, but her irritation shows in her brow and her shoulders. Her lips form words that look like, “Just do your job, Lieutenant.”
Cathy bends forward to press the button that lets her speak to me and her voice comes over the speakers on either side of the window.
“Please Elle, it won’t be much longer.” She says and I frown at her. This whole situation seems strange. What could they be hoping to achieve?
The drone beside me starts moving, buzzing around me, going faster and faster. Like a trained pet, I summon a little more energy and knock the drone out of the air, without taking my eyes off of the Minister. She looks delighted. I grit my teeth and shake my head again. I’m getting tired of this.
Cathy looks at me pleadingly, and I shake my head again. She mirrors, silently forming the words, “She doesn’t want to.” The Minister nods and four more drones buzz in through the door panel, canons already out they take position surrounding me.
I shake my head again, adamantly, standing my ground despite the threat. I’m not playing this game.
The Minister gestures and her two bodyguards step into position behind Cathy. The General protests in Cathy’s defense and another two men come up behind him to keep him under control. The other people in the room grumble their disapproval of this uncomfortable display. The Minister smirks at me, and a second later all four drones drop spewing sparks to the floor, one of them knocking over my pile of shoes and jacket. My body is starting to feel good. No more aching core. One or two more blasts is all it could take to kick me over into regeneration.
Next to enter the demonstration room is a soldier. It’s a little serp with a gun, aimed right at me. It looks utterly terrified. I glare at all of them in the viewing room and attack the poor creature before it can get its first shot off and leave it groaning in a crumpled heap.
Three more soldiers come in, better-trained ones this time. The first one fires a shot at my belly but I dodge. The other two take aim. I dodge the first but the second shot gets me in the shoulder, leaving a hole in my shirt and a dark scorch mark on my skin. I summon an energy barrier. It’s a basic defensive technique, infusing my skin with a concentrated layer of energy like a suit of armor. The next shot has no effect. I take out two of the assailants quickly, leaving more crumpled heaps, and the third surrenders, throwing down his weapon and kneeling before me. I glance at the Minister. She smirks again. I know she wants me to end it, but I hesitate.
The men holding Cathy push her hard up against the window before me and one of them holds his gun against her head. The General fights against his restrainers but he can’t get there. Cathy’s eyes are wide with terror. She looks so helpless. Why? I glare at the Minister. Because I won’t comply? The soldier before me is begging for mercy. Because I won’t hurt a surrendered soldier? I shake my head and bite down hard again. I guess I’m doing this.
It only takes a second to summon more power than I need and let it build up in my right fist. It has to be a concentrated blow or the fine absorbent filament running through every inch of this place will siphon it off as soon as it connects, but the glass isn’t forcefielded. I’m sure it’s hot enough.
I draw back, allowing the hot energy to bolster my skin, muscles, and tendons, and punch straight through the window to knock the gun out of the surprised bodyguard’s hand amid a rain of glass shards. The viewers are taken completely by surprise.
I grab Cathy and run.
Next Time: Misty has rescued Cathy from the Minister’s bodyguards, and fled the testing facility, the question is, what now? Can life return to normal after such defiance?
Thanks so much for reading! If you like, please:
Or better yet:
and as always, I love hearing what you think so, feel free to:
Hmm, where to start... My first thought is Elle and Cathy need a safe haven and allies to help them hide, but where and who could that possibly be? Who has experience and resources, and has access to a pair of idealistic young men with their own unique talents?
And no, after that nothing will be 'normal', but nothing has ever been normal really for Elle. The good thing is she has really come into being very closely in tune with herself as far as management of her energy resources. And she has become considerably better at problem analysis.
But the problem they face now is at a whole other level. Clearly, at this point, the Minister will stop at nothing to get Elle under her control. The end of the demonstration gave her all she needed to know. And I have to believe that she leverages power and resources well beyond General Morgan. I think he is just another pawn who may well get sacrificed trying to coerce Cathy.
And my speculation may be getting out of control here. Time to cool my jets... Friday, Friday!!
"It's a silent horror show, and I'm the star" - a pretty damn good description of life in general, eh? Good stuff!