Chapter 2 | Draft 2

A steady rocking motion kept Aela securely in the depths of sleep as her subconscious raged to wake. She blinked her eyes open and failed to stifle her moan at the soreness that bloomed along her ribs. “Good, you’re awake,” drawled the tall male. He dropped her from where he had been carrying her on his shoulder. Aela groaned into the gravelly mountain path.

The tall male bent at the knees and peered down at her as she tried and failed to gain clarity of her situation and surroundings. “Here’s what’s gonna happen, missy. You’re gonna walk nice and pretty like with me and show us where you keep those shiny little rocks you were peddling at the market and maybe, just maybe, we’ll get to have a little fun together,” he said has he drew a gloved finger down her cheek and jaw. 

Aela smiled grimly at her handiwork etched into his pale face. She would rather die than have his hands on her. 

“With that… ruined face… no wonder you’re… propositioning… a woman in… the dirt,” Aela wheezed. Her goading had found its mark as he shot a fist into her abdomen, right across her already bruised ribs. As she cried out, Grey Hair tipped his head back, a soft smile graced his face, like her screams were the most pleasant melody. He brought his gaze back to Aela and fisted her hair roughly at her scalp, dragging her closer to him. “You listen to me—” he started. “My Lord Kaitos!” A priest bustled up the path to them.

Kaitos stood, kicked Aela in the ribs and muttered, “Don’t bother gettin up darlin.’ You’re right where I want ya, flat on your back.” Aela tasted copper on her tongue from biting off further cries of pain.

“What is it?” He snapped at the priest. “There’s a dust storm coming. We won’t make it to the city before it’s upon us, my Lord,” they said with rushed reverence. “Hmm,” Kaitos responded, and they walked down the trail a short distance, leaving Aela sprawled on the ground. Once she was sure they had turned away, she gently pressed at her ribs. She stifled a cry and a cold sweat broke out across her forehead. Broken. Aela prodded the rest of her body, remembering the crystal shards kicked at her, being pulled down the rock and carried like a sack… she wasn’t in the best shape to escape. “Come on, Aela,” she whispered to herself. “You’ve survived this long.” Kaitos walked back to her, with the priest in tow, and the sickeningly sweet smile on his pale face told Aela everything she needed to know about the male and what he planned for her. 

Aside from the abuse, there was something off, something she wasn’t seeing about Kaitos. Aela regarded him beside the priest looking down at her. What was she missing?

Aela met his stare as she laid injured on the ground. Let her trepidation show. Let them think I’m weak. “Very nice,” Kaitos grinned at her. “Are we tame now, lass?” Aela said nothing as her eyes glazed over and she lost consciousness once more. 

***

A quick slap to either side of her face startled Aela and her eyes rolled open. “Stay awake. I may be an errand boy but I aint gonna carry you all the way. Come on,” Kaitos said, yanking her to her feet. “While we walk, you can tell us where your crystal horde is.”

My crystals? Aela’s thoughts were sluggish like her movements as she staggered after him. Behind her, she could hear the shuffled footsteps of the priest who met Kaitos in the mountains when he captured her. “Yes, do tell, child. We are eager to acquire them from you. It’s for the best, as you have no genuine need of them. Not like the Masters.” The priest said with a dip of their chin. A barely restrained mania laced their tone near the end of what they said. Aela gave them a wary glance. They weren’t making any sense. Aela hung her head and took a shallow breath so as not to disturb her broken ribs. They didn’t know what she was. Who she was. They weren’t after her, but only sought crystals. “I keep my supplies… stashed in a… forgotten village… at the foot of the pass.” Aela said through gritted teeth, answering their question. 

The priest blabbered on about the history of Prente and the Masters, and she tuned him out until he said something that caused her to stumble over her feet. 

Another tremor threatened to overtake her body, but the visceral shock was enough and kept it at bay. Kaitos was a star.

***

Aela’s mind reeled with the knowledge of Kaitos being a celestial. How did he get here? Her thoughts suspended their flurry of questions when they latched onto the next thing the priest uttered. “The traveling rings are being guarded at all times, my Lord. No one enters them without your express command or escort,” said the priest. Aela didn’t hear Kaitos’ grumbled response as she fell to the ground. There were traveling rings. A huge flood of hope surged through every limb and all her pain was forgotten as Aela climbed to her feet. 

“Traveling rings?” She couldn’t help but inquire.

“Nothing for you to be concerned about, child,” the priest said.

Kaitos came to stand before her. He fingered one of the many strands of hair that had come loose from her braid and he twirled it around before he brought his face closer to hers. “Alright missy, time to show us where you keep all your treasures,” He said with a sweeping look up and down her figure. Aela jerked back at the proximity and his black eyes glimmered with ill-intent. He roughly gripped her shoulders and pushed her ahead of him up the path. Whoever Kaitos was, it was clear he was no ally, despite their shared origins.

The dust storm the priest had warned about made an appearance. A haze settled into the dust thickened air and the wind began its mournful howl throughout the mountain. The small party hiked up the Spine to the pass that loomed before them. As they came closer to the abandoned village where Aela’s “supplies” were hidden, her mind darted between steeling itself for what she would see and a plan to elude her captors. An itchiness added to her many symptoms as the sweat that beaded along her skin dried quickly. It made for a painful and irritated hike to her former village. She staggered to the top of the pass. Through its mouth, she saw the only semblance of shelter for many miles. Nestled in a once plush oasis was the village she worked so hard to forget.  

Scorch marks still marred the few buildings left standing. The raging fire had consumed nearly everything else and reduced it to nothing but piles of rubble and ash.

“Well?” Kaitos said over the wind. 

“Well, what?” Aela replied. Her lids threatened to close at any moment.

“Off you go then,” he said with an impatient wave toward the town. “Lead us to the crystal supply.”

Aela drew in a slow breath. What House did he belong to? It had been an age since she had last been among her kind. Who knew what alliances were in place. She didn’t know who to trust. But whether she liked him or not, Kaitos was her only connection to home.

“You don’t have crystals where you’re from?” Aela gently prodded. “I have little more than what you’re making me carry,” she said as she wrapped her arms around her torso, cradling her injury.

“By the Unrested,” Kaitos cursed at the dirt stained sky. “Does no one do what they’re told the first time on this gods forsaken planet? Get moving!” Kaitos pushed her toward the narrow path that lead down into the village. Aela fell and scrambled for purchase, skinning her knees and palms on the rough ground. The priest scurried up to where Aela was, her breaths uneven on her hands and knees. They placed a bony hand on her shoulder. “Come now, child, it’s best for all if you cooperate.”

Aela shoved the priest’s hand off her shoulder and skidded more than walked down the steep path into the village. Gusts from the dust storm threatened to lift Aela off her feet. She was not a spry thing, being nearly as tall as many of the men in Surya, and her mining profession kept her active. With a glance behind her and no small amount of dissatisfaction, she noted the priest and Kaitos seemed accustomed to the turbulence, as they walked with ease. Grimacing, she briefly thought about reaching out for her power to counter the winds with rain. But she knew better. And soon, all reasoned thought emptied her mind. 

It felt like her breath was being held from her by an invisible hand which wound its way around her neck as she shuffled toward where her old home used to stand. 

The fire had burned hottest here, leaving the earth polished until it shone like black obsidian. The epicenter of the wildfire that destroyed the village, which left no survivors save for herself and Renee. And now there was only her. Aela sweat anew as heat rose from the polished ground and joined with that overhead, making it difficult to breathe. Smoke curled around her. Her body felt like a cinder on the precipice of combustion. 

Distantly, Aela could hear them demanding she show them where she kept her crystals. But being here in this place kicked the door sealed shut on her nightmares, wide open. “My Lord?” The priest asked as they noticed the ground smoking near Aela’s feet. Kaitos stalked toward her and snarled, “More witchy tricks?” Aela was too lost in her mind to comprehend what was happening—what was real and what wasn’t.

What Aela remembered of the fire—which had burned from her nightmares into reality—came in fitful glitches. It had been a pleasant day, filled with coming-of-age traditions and older women passing down wisdom to the younger. After Renee and Aela had retired into their home, that was when her dreams first began to affect her waking world. Aela was shaken from her reverie by Kaitos, who was screaming in her face, but all she heard was the roaring in her ears. A heat coiled in her body, begging to be unleashed. A lopsided grin spread across her lips as the fire from her past once again ravaged her present. It could not be contained. A barrage of living flame erupted from her memories and licked across the blackened earth at her feet, eagerly seeking consumption.

Red and orange flames engulfed Kaitos and the priest, surrounding her in a cyclone of fire. A coherent thought echoed through her mind but was inaccessible. Aela knew she should get away, try to douse the flames, do something, but the waves of ethereal heat swept her away. 

Hours or moments passed when the flames finally flickered, then stuttered out. Where the priest had stood, nothing remained—not one flake of ash. The blackened husk on the ground before her was presumably Kaitos. Aela quickly averted her eyes and wretched. With shaking hands, she wiped her mouth and stumbled away from the carnage. Fueled by desperation alone, Aela’s body lurched into motion. She had to get away. Even if the priests and Kaitos didn’t know what she was, it would only take one non-catastrophic flare of her power… 

Death was more amenable to capture.

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Fate must have watched over her, for Aela made it mostly unscathed to her cave on the other side of the Spine. The dust storm had blown down into the desert, which had allowed her mostly safe passage down the rocky slopes. She staggered under the young vines that Renee had painstakingly cultivated to conceal the round entrance of their hewn home. The very cave Aela formed when she fell from her place, Set in the galactic sky. There was no one to greet her since the wasting disease had taken Renee’s life. As Aela walked on unsteady legs deeper into the tunnel, it opened into a larger cavern. A shade garden grew along the right side of the entrance, her pallet of blankets lay against the opposite wall, and a series of shelves she had chiseled into the natural stone held her supplies. It was the closest thing to home she would ever reach. Renee found her and raised her as her daughter, hiding a fallen star in plain sight. Still trembling with the aftershock of what happened yet again in the mountain village, Aela tried to calm her erratic breathing. Each breath was like a fresh laceration to her ribs. For not the first time, Aela wanted to curse her adoptive mother for bringing her to the village in the mountains. It was unfair to fault Renee in that. She had done Aela a kindness she didn’t deserve by taking her in and raising her. Even though Renee unwittingly sealed the town’s fate by bringing Aela there. No. The lives lost in the mountain village were a weight she would carry for the rest of her existence. A stain upon her flawed soul.  

How she was conscious after recent events was beyond her. Aela stumbled to the far wall of her cave and dropped her pack which Kaitos had given back for her to carry. Her fingers grasped at the rough shelves and knocked over precious crystals in her haste to find a thesmit tonic to ease her symptoms. Her stomach churned and vibrated anew with pent up energy. Darkness edged her vision as her body collapsed onto the stone floor.

***

Her body fled to the one place it felt safe in her dreams. Submerged in water, Aela didn’t startle. The healing waters of her home planet Solara held her in a silent, welcoming embrace. A ripple of awareness danced across her subconscious. And with it, sorrow, deeper than the depths of Solara’s ocean, stabbed into her heart. She knew it was only a dream; she couldn’t be home. Home was far away in a black sky flecked with diamonds somewhere she couldn’t reach. 

Even though it was just a dream, Aela urged her body to soak in the healing properties of the water, for she knew the experience was fleeting. The tepid liquid did more than heal the scrapes along her body and set broken bones, but soothed over the old scars gouged in her soul. Most of the time, Aela had an acute awareness while dreaming. She knew her body was resting somewhere apart from her mind, while she walked the in-between plane. A different realm only accessed by Dreamers. Reveling in the luxurious feeling of being in her natural element, she indulged in the calm and restful state her subconscious conjured. 

Aela pulled her native water deep into her lungs, expelling bubbles that trailed upward. A comfortable weightlessness surrounded her and her body slowly floated toward the warmer waters of the surface. As she emerged, the ocean sluiced down her body, leaving dry, pristine clothing behind. She shifted herself above the gently undulating water, coming to sit on top of the ocean. Opening her eyes, the sky ahead beckoned a new day. With deft fingers, she unwound her braid and let the long, ashy and wavy strands fall down her back. Without the intense heat of Prente brought forth by the dual suns, Aela smiled at the amethyst hue to the sky and dusty rose quartz clouds overhead. Her typical waking hours were a wash of browns and grays or darkness while in the mines. The palette before her now was like seeing the crystals she unearthed come to life and brought an appreciative hum from her. 

Aela trailed her fingertips along the watery surface. Casting her awareness outward, she searched for any other sign of life. Her heart ached knowing she wouldn’t find anyone, but it didn’t stop her from searching for more of her Line anytime she dreamed. “She is the last of us.” Her mother, Alrescha’s voice, echoed in her head. The last words her mother had uttered before everything changed. Aela snapped her eyes closed and her breath caught in a staccato rhythm. The ocean became turbulent around her as the waves built higher and higher, heralding a storm.

Violet-white lightning, the same calling card as her mother, forked down from a now ominous sky as it speared down in jagged streaks. The heavy clouds emptied a deluge, pelting her skin. She became one with the sea as it sensed her turmoil and writhed beneath her in response. A mighty tempest roared, dragging her along the choppy waters. She fed the storm with her rage. Gave the monsoon rising within her an outlet as she unleashed it back into the wild spray. Here, safe in her dreams with no casualties save for herself, she could release and test the near bottomless depths of her power.

So much for a calm and restful dream. Aela knew she needed to reel in the storm. The more energy she exerted, the more likely she was to draw something into her dream, for power called to power. It was a phenomenon she didn’t understand fully. Aela leapt into the sky, twirling through the roaring winds lashing her hair about her face, and breathed the misty air deep into her lungs. This gift was unlike any of her Line. Her mother and father had no insight to provide her other than keeping the extent of her promised power a secret. 

 A familiar itch crested between her shoulder blades—she was being watched. That brought an innate sense of dread… or was it anticipation? Without the thesmit tonic in her system, which slipped from her grasp before she fell into the dream, she had even more clarity of her surroundings. Aela dove to the hover above the surface once more. With loving hands, she soothed the waves to stillness. The wind followed suit and the rain above reduced to a trickle, heeding her gentle command. The clouds kept a navy hue, ready to release another downpour at a moment’s notice. Aela walked along the mostly still water where not a trace remained of the turbulent squall that was there moments ago. She shifted her gaze across her planet, seeking the source of her discomfort. At once she saw finite cracks and silver lace spread over the ocean, racing toward her from the horizon. Her bare feet took on an icy chill. She tucked her knees up and levitated, studying the intricate frozen pattern atop the water. As she reached her hand out to trace the frozen design, her head snapped up as she sensed another presence.

Aela soared above the navy clouds for a better vantage point. Utter stillness greeted her. An eeriness permeated the air and if Aela had hackles, they’d have risen. There. Far in the distance, the clouds beneath massed together, darkening into a blackness deeper than the velvet sky of the galaxy. Cold mist took her breath away as it speared for her from the darkened clouds. While she hovered in the air, Aela futilely swiped at the gathering mist, having taken on the appearance of inky tendrils which had panic seizing her lungs, still void of air. An odd sense of familiarity came with them, though the thought was fleeting as she tried to break free. Instinct overrode her fear and she shifted.

Without making a splash, Aela appeared deep beneath the ocean. And she laid in wait. Her mind honed in on the darkness hovering over the healing waters. The filtered light through the water grew dimmer until her entire world became black. 

“Time to go,” Aela whispered to herself, trailing bubbles. She willed her body to wake before the darkness could snare her, but she remained in her dream. She began to glow, to provide herself a little light, and she watched the bubbles float higher until they disappeared from her view. A massive hand made entirely of golden tinged shadow plunged down for her and Aela screamed, releasing more bubbles in front of her. The Darkness. In the next moment, a creature she had long since believed a myth, appeared and opened its mighty jaw, biting through the hand. His scales were a blur of blues, greens and turquoise like her eyes, but she didn’t have more than a moment to see him before the momentum from his massive body propelled her away.

***

From one blink to the next, Aela resumed residency of her body lying on the rocky ground of her cave. She rolled onto her side as water expelled from her lungs roughly, and she coughed until she successfully sucked in the dry air of Prente. Aela shivered. She sat up and glanced down at her sopping wet clothing. Try as she might, she couldn’t call forth a trickle of water outside her dreams. She had tried countless times to summon water since she had been stuck on the desert planet, but the element of her Line never heeded her call unless she was in the realm of dreams. As evidenced by her sodden appearance, her other gift had no qualms about manifesting. The first time Aela’s dreams had affected her reality occurred after Renee died five years ago. Since then, discerning what was a dream or reality was an ever shifting blur, which became less perceptible with each passing year. She needed to learn to control it. What would happen if something far more destructive, like what happened to her village, happened again? She was a threat to all those around her. 

The questions she had about her past were stacking up, and she had little to no answers to shift the weight of them. Anxious from her dream, Aela paced the inside perimeter of her cave. She had lived on Prente for close to fifteen years and just now the priesthood was after her? While crystal mining was a lucrative business, she had avoided the priesthood’s detection for years. How had she slipped up? Why were they after her now? Who was Kaitos? Aside from the present problems she faced, how was she ever going to learn to control her powers? The answer came to her and her feet halted. She didn’t have any simple choices. Danger and consequences lurked eagerly, waiting for the slightest misstep. Resolve pushed the questions weighing her down as she squared her shoulders. Aela assessed her crystal supplies and food stores, then packed for what could be her last trek across the desert.