Chapter 5

Scouring everything he could feel with his presence made Kalex come to only one conclusion. The resources on Diat were literal garbage compared to what he was seeing in his cave. He’d be able to create items with a speed he’d never been able to achieve. With the availability of presence in these objects, losing a small amount during the crafting process wouldn’t largely change the outcome of the item and Kalex didn’t see a way to completely evacuate a presence in an object.

That fact made Kalex smile from ear to ear. He could experiment without the option of failure. Winding up in a weird world suddenly didn’t seem so bad. Other than his physical limitations and inability to speak with anyone, he was in paradise.

At some point during Kalex’s reverie, Lyla had set him back down on his makeshift bed and left the cave. Coming out of his dreamlike state, Kalex’s breathing became quicker and staggered. He’d been left alone. Had he scared her away? A wave of strange emotions hit him and he inadvertently started to weep.

Surprised by what he was doing, he sent out his presence in hopes of finding Lyla. On Diat, if Kalex strained himself, he could send out his presence a distance of around ten thousand rods but in the cave, just a quick look that took very little effort sent his presence a little farther.

Feeling the curvature of the planet was odd, to say the least. On Diat, Kalex’s range had been fairly flat with only a small bit of detectable curvature, but this cursory extension of his presence had increased his range to something he could only dream of. From his rough estimates, he had thrown his presence out around 8 to 10 million rods.

Kalex sat above his bed of grass flabbergasted. Most of what he was seeing was bright with an intensity that he struggled to parse. Noticing strange areas sprinkled throughout his sight, he focused on them to investigate. These areas were bare of presence, usually with a very bright spot in the middle. Looking closer, Kalex saw a myriad of beings, objects, and items. Before he could investigate further, he was brought back to the cave by the sound of wood hitting the cave wall.

Lyla leaned against the wall of the cave gulping heaving breaths of air. On her way back to the cave with a bucket of water, a deep sense of nausea hit her. It was much more than stomach-deep. If she had to guess, her spark was reacting to something and actively trying to push against it. As she trudged on, the feeling became sharper and more pronounced, causing her gait to waver. Reaching the mouth of the cave, the pressure on her spark became unbearable.

Fear gripped her as she thought of how this was affecting the child. Entering the cave, the last thing she wanted to see was Kalex struggling with this odd soul pressure, the poor infant had already dealt with enough in his very short life. Lyla cursed as she peered over to Kalex’s bed. Hovering a few inches above the bed was the child with a look of concentration on his face. The pain she was feeling multiplied as she beheld the baby until she couldn’t stay upright any longer and had to drop the bucket in hopes of not collapsing.

The moment the bucket clattered into the wall, the pressure subsided and everything seemed to be back to normal. Kalex watched a struggling Lyla with worry as she did not look well. “Are you alright? Are you hurt? What happened?” Kalex sent the smallest amount of his presence to Lyla in hopes of finding out what was wrong. She felt incredibly weak and the light hovering just above her navel was dim.

Remembering what Lyla had done for him, he tried to do the same. Kalex started to send out his presence to surround her. To Kalex’s horror, it seemed like Lyla couldn't breathe and he pulled his presence away from her. He racked his mind to try and remember how Lyla’s soothing presence had felt on him.

"I really wish I had my Lexidex, it would be really useful now." Kalex thought to himself. As if answering him, Kalex's mind stopped. A sheer cold gripped his mind and he remembered. He remembered exactly how Lyla’s soothing presence felt.

Immediately blanketing his presence over Lyla again, he began to shift his presence from intangible to something visible. While shifting his presence to help Lyla, he could only think of how thankful he was to have met her and how much he wanted to help. After a brief flash of light, Lyla collapsed on the cave floor.

After an initial panic attack, Kalex checked on Lyla’s vitals and noted that she seemed incredibly healthy and her little presence shone with a new intensity. A few units later, She groggily came to and immediately reached for the bucket. Gulping down most of the water that hadn’t splashed out when she dropped it, Lyla peeked at her spark with a slack jaw expression.

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Whatever Kalex had done, she now had the spark of an elite. Someone who had trained for centuries and sat with the highest echelon. Looking forward to the boy who had done the unbelievable, she shook her head with a smile and offered Kalex some water.

Kalex had surprised Lyla from the moment she laid her eyes on him and this experience was no exception. At the young age of fourteen moons old, she had seen many unexplainable things due to her being a product of the World’s Power Consolidation. Lyla didn’t know very much about how the Consolidation came to be as she was born into it and separated from her parents. From what she understood, the political powers that ruled over the world became tired of the stagnant power rating each of their realms held.

For centuries none of the realm’s ranks had changed and they were seeing fewer powerful people born. The popular thought was that due to large cities holding the vast majority of people, they were not experiencing the energy that sparks in the wild released, thus creating a society that wasn’t able to strengthen their sparks farther than what they had been born with. The result of the Consolidation was the mass eviction of the lowest-ranking citizens. They were meant to live in the untamed parts of the planet and search for treasures that could help nourish their feeble sparks.

Once a moon, they could travel to one of the cities still housing the elite and place their hands on an eclipse fragment to appraise the strength of their spark. If they were found to be at an acceptable level, they would be invited back into the city with a plus one. Everyone unable to do this was forced to live off the land and technically weren’t citizens of any realm. In the more habitable parts of the world, people could be found almost everywhere. Communal outposts had popped up in heavily traveled areas to help with any injured, weary, or destitute people who needed a chance to rest. All the people who had been displaced were referred to as Roamers.

Roamer-born children weren't a common phenomenon. It wasn’t because they didn’t want to but most of the Roamer’s time was spent searching and meditating in an attempt to grow stronger. Most vowed to wait until they had the safety of the Realm to protect them before they had children and could dedicate time to nurturing the new life. Though it didn’t happen often, a Roamer in labor or a young child running through the street could be seen when passing through an outpost.

Lyla was born in one of the most isolated outposts in the Realm of Seeds and was run by the oldest Roamer anyone had ever seen. The elderly population of the Realms were spared in the Consolidation so it was odd to see an elder running an outpost. With the main building being so well taken care of, rumors that the woman had lived there before the Consolidation was conceived were popular. Although Lyla was never able to get her name, the elder would always open her home to her whenever she and her parents came back from the wilds.

Every roamer was different but most only searched for ways to make themselves pass the eclipse test every moon and children or any other people who didn’t benefit their goals were usually put to the side. Lyla’s parents made sure she didn’t get killed by a beast or wander off a cliff but that was the extent of their care. Lyla would usually find a safe place to stash herself away when her parents found a location with a strong spark, as they would stay in meditation for days on end. This became Lyla’s daily life until her sixth moon.

After standing in line for hours, it was finally time for Tanya and Luka Graves’ turn to test themselves with the eclipse fragment outside the small town of Lora. Luka went first, waving off well wishes from his wife. Stepping up to the palm-sized stone, Luka began to pull as much energy as he could from his spark into his hand. It had been over ten moons since he attempted the test and nervousness invaded his thoughts. Finally touching the fragment, Luka opened his eyes and looked upon the only color he had worried about.

Red flashed from the fragment showing everyone who attended that there had been no improvement from the last test. Flashing red was the worst outcome anyone could’ve wanted and Luka was soon laughed off the stage. Tanya stepped up next, as she had always felt weaker than her husband, she didn’t hold any extravagant expectations for her outcome. She turned to the side of the stage and gave her husband a smile that she hoped had given him some hope. Tanya looked to the other side of the stage with trimmed foliage and very large trees. In the nook of the closest tree to the stage, she could see two eyes with an amethyst hue staring at her.

Trying to hold her composure, Tanya only grimaced internally. She had never wanted children, especially out in the wilds. The whole reason for the Consolidation was to grow your personal power, not take all of your time to care for a child.

Even though Lyla kept her distance from the pair, she always followed them around. When they tried to sneak out of an outpost in the middle of the night, Lyla would find her way back to them the next morning. From the showing of Luka’s power, Tanya had already prepared to go back to the wilds and toil for more power.

She placed her hand on the fragment and a chorus of astonishment swept the crowd. Purple. Purple was the first color that allowed you back into society. Tanya had done it! She jumped from the stage into Luka’s arms and promptly walked through the city gates with a round of cheers following them as the gates closed shut.