CHAPTER 8: HOPE

Spreading my body across the rocky yet comfortable hill side of Mt John observatory, the bright image of the milky way fills my heart with sense of belonging as a small yellow dot moves quickly across the sky; vanishing without a trace.

“Do you think that was them!?” asks a voice beside me, a trace of excitement carried by the cold night air.

Straining my eyes, I scan the star-lit sky for the small dot that carry’s humanities hope; my hope. 

“yea, that was them.”

I imagine the view of earth gently fading into the ever-vast expanse of space. I imagine the hope and excitement of the people on board, ready to spread humanities dreams to a planet of red sky and seas of rock.

But perhaps even more so, I imagine their thoughts of the people they left behind. The humans of earth; So, curious and ambitious, yet helpless and destructive. So, kind and close, yet bitter and distant.

Samuel, the person beside me, sits legs crossed, looking at the stars. “Do you wish you were going with them?”

Thinking back to all the test and trials I completed, I know the answer is yes. “of course, but living on earth is nice too. I mean, I would miss seeing my family… and other stuff like that”

Taking a while to respond I roll over to watch Samuel brush a hand across his face; probably still upset about not being chosen. “Don’t worry, in a decade or two, we’ll probably join them. Just be patient”

Hearing Samuel scoff, I play it no head. “I wish I could be as optimistic as you James. But with the way the world's going, I doubt we will make it at all”

I understand his feelings; the rise of nationalism in the last few years hasn’t exactly inspired hope for our future. Not to mention the beginnings of a climate crisis.

“I think everything’ll be okay. Everyone had to work together to make that ship, and I believe it’s just the beginning”

Samuel took a moment to respond but eventually let out a sigh. “I hope so… I really hope so.”

---

The rhythmic sound of hooves fills my ears as I rub the rheum from my eyes. Feeling the carriage sway, I think back to my dream and smile at how wrong, yet, right I was.

“good sleep?” asks mum as I haul myself onto the wooden bench beside her.

“Yea, just dreaming something from long ago.”

“I see. Do you mind checking on your father, I might just sleep myself” says mum while she slips down onto the thin mattress placed between the two sides of the cabin.

Taking a glance out the window, the view of a large crystal blue lake surrounded by rocky mountains fills my vision. The scene reminded me of the times I went camping back on earth.

Stepping across my now sleeping mother, and pushing aside the coat of the precariously positioned Emery, I climb onto the drives seat next to dad and Evan.

“Good morning, we should be reaching Rohndel pretty soon. I guess we’ll have breakfast there” says dad with a cheerful smile.

“good, I can’t wait to rest for a few days. This carriage is killing me” remarks Evan while leaning back into the seat. I understand his feelings, we’ve been on this uncomfortable carriage for almost two months now.

It hasn’t been too bad though: fantastic scenery, zero light pollution, unlimited time to practice magic. A lot of time to think…

Casting my mind back to the last experiments I did before leaving Rohl, I anguish over my lack of equipment. If I was back in Sol, I could quickly detect and accurately trace any magnetic field changes, radiation levels, currents…anything really.

The test on fire magic pointed towards what I suspected for a while; fire magic is simply energy. I don’t yet know where it comes from, but I’m certain that it is. When Emery increased the amount of mana, the colour clearly changed according to the energy levels of photons. Unfortunately, that doesn’t explain why we lost control of the experiment.  

And then there’s Air magic, which I now like to call the force or telekinesis. I didn’t have any expectations as to what would happen during the experiment, but I did have my suspicions that it wasn’t simple Air manipulation. I don’t have an explanation for this magic yet, but I guess time will tell.

Finally, the results from water magic leave me the most confused. I was sure that water magic just altered the charge distributions and the amount of energy that something has. Yet, what was the bubble? I noticed water rapidly condensing onto the vacuum chamber glass. Perhaps the water was drawn directly to the ball?

Not really wanting to think about it, I watch Evan play with his sword while I calm my mind. It’s not like I need to understand everything now… I have eternity after all. Closing my eyes, I listen to the sound of Evan cutting the air mixed with the sound of the ulnag’s trotting. A series of images flash across my mind.

Resistance. The air provides resistance to the sword, just as both the ground and air, provide resistance to the carriage and hooves. Air resist the free movement of electrons, what if mana can be affected in the same way?

As the idea formulates itself, I imagine free electrons inside the top of Evans sword crowding a lower area, while leaving the tip almost entirely positive.

“Evan, can I borrow your sword for a moment?”

Slightly hesitant, Evan hands me the sword while not letting it leave his site. Careful to keep the tip away from in the air, I try harder and harder to relocate the electrons from the tip towards the handle. Yea, there’s resistance.

“Dad, can we stop? I want to try something” I ask while maintaining the swords new electron distribution. Giving a shrug, dad calls for the ulnags to stop.

“Um… Lucy, what do you plan on doing with my sword?”

“I’m going to create lightning.”

Not giving Evan a moment to answer, I use telekinesis to lift the sword into the air; the tip pointing towards the ground. “Lucy! How are you doing that!?” shouts Evan in surprise as I quickly lower the sword towards the ground.

A suddenly flash of light along with a loud crackle, emanates between the sword and ground, as an incomplete hypothesis appears within my head. What if mana’s like conducting electrons, in that it flows through something. And what if that something has a breakdown point? That might explain what happened during the fire magic experiment.

“Lucy, seriously! How the hell do you do that? Not even the teachers are that good with air magic” asks Evan pulling me from my thought process.

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“What do you mean, they can’t even do that? It’s quite simple really; you just imagine a force lifting the object and it does. I know you need to use the chants, but it’s still not that hard.”

Evan looks almost angry with me before huffing to himself and grabbing his sword back. Still, even I have to admit that my magic seems… more precise than anyone else. According to my hypothesis, the better you understand and imagine magic the greater control and power you have.

But truthfully, I have no idea how telekinesis works, nor was I just using Simbrain to increase the number of details. But if simply thinking of it as a force really changed things that much, why can’t Emery use air magic as well as me now?

---

Approaching Randalinst, I tried to make out the buildings, but was left disappointed. Although the town had a larger population than Rohl, there were less large buildings to be seen from a distance. The architecture seemed to vary between medieval gothic and… just plain wooden shacks.  

“Dad, I thought you said this place was lively?” asks Evan as we enter the town, only to pass by several buildings with broken glass and ruined walls. “It is… or at least was” replies dad as we pass a group of children wearing decapitated clothes but ironically laying in-between two of the best-kept buildings in town. This is entirely different to Rohl.

Earth still had small levels of poverty during the twenty-third century, and the colonies had none. But this reminds me too much of the resource crisis during the late twenty-first century.

Arriving at the inn; an old plain wooden building, but one of the few that was up kept, an old man wearing a waistcoat and top hat greeted us. “Good morning. May I presume you wish to stay at the miner’s end?”

“Yes, enough beds for five, please. But can you do it with three rooms?” replies dad while pulling a gold coin from his travelling robes. The old man’s face instantly lights up, seemingly enchanted as he turns the coin around in his hand.  

“It would be my pleasure. We will prepare your rooms immediately” bowing quickly; the man strides back inside.

“Shouldn’t we get supplies? There’s hardly any food left, and we still have a month to go” asks mum as she jumps down from the carriage accompanied by Emery.

“That’s true, how about you go with those two, while me and Emery get that ulnag looked at?” replied dad while pointing at Evan and me.

After a few minutes of conversation, we finally set off to buy food and supplies. Several of the stores were simply empty, so we ended up buying everything from two stores.

“Mum, why’s this place so poor compared to Rohl?” Evan curiosity gets the best of him after we pass several alleyways of homeless. “It’s not so much that here’s poor, more that Rohl was rich. Last time I was here, the town was thriving though.”

“But then why’s it like this now?” asks Evan as we leave the last shop with a sack of agiurts. “Well, the town was probably hit hard by the last king’s orders to conscript miners. No one knows what for though” The last king conscripted every miner? And no one knows why…. That’s just a little odd.

“Are we going to war or something?” I hoping the answer is no. I don’t want to see Evan conscripted and possibly killed for something so pointless.

Thankfully mum shakes her head. “No, I don’t think so. I would’ve heard at least something then.”

Upon returning to the Inn, I immediately fall back onto my comfy bed while thinking about the days spent hungry during all those pointless wars at the end of the twenty-first century.

Looking out the small window, I catch site of two young boys only slightly older than myself, sitting beside an adult. They were clearly homeless, and I wanted to help them…but, I hate starting conversations with people I don’t know.

…Maybe I can just drop some food at the alleyway entrance… yea, that’s a good idea.

Convincing myself that I won’t need to talk to them, I knock on Emery’s door. After a moment of banging and mild profanity, Emery emerges, kneeling and holding his bare foot. “Ah… Emery are you ok?”

Obviously, he’s not, but he smiles and nods his head. “I'm all right, what do you need?”

“Well, I was going to ask if you wanted to follow me, bond and all. But I guess I’m only going across the road” Actually, I could use some time alone for once.

“Across the road? Why?”

“Doesn’t matter, I’m going alone anyway” I say while quickly heading downstairs and out the inn before he can catch up with me.

While walking towards the store from before, I realise just how much I sometimes miss being alone. I’ve probably been more social in this life than I ever on Sol, but I guess being a child again kind of forced me to.

I wonder if just giving them a gold coin would be better, but I don’t know what crime’s like in this town so maybe I shouldn’t.

Entering the store, I’m met with crates upon crates of fruits, grains, and vegetables that none of the hungry will ever eat.

“Hey, you’re that little noble girl from earlier. Did you get lost?” turning around I find the large well-built shopkeeper towering over me.

Oh, I just remembered why I never go out alone. “No, I came here to buy some food” Hopefully he doesn’t start escorting me back to my parents like the last time I went shopping alone.

Seemingly enticed by the prospect of money, the man completely forgetting my age. “oh. Well, you came to the right place. What do you need? We have iol, fresh gal yhut, even some apples…” says the man while pointing around the shop.

Listening to him drone on about his products, I almost miss the only English word I’ve heard in this world. Did he just say apples? As in the English word for apples?

“I want to see the apples please, ” I ask as the man quickly scuffles away to retrieves a hard-small roundish red fruit. Yep… that’s an apple…

“Sir, do you know where the name apple came from?”

“Unfortunately not, however, I’m willing to sell them to you for one silver each” Sigh. No information and price gauging. “I’ll buy fort, please. And can I have the same number of iol, radin yuik, and eighty garden velks?"

Handing over one gold coin, the shopkeeper offered to help carry all my shopping, but I refused; leaving the man speechless as I lifted all the boxes with telekinesis.

Noticing everybody staring at the four boxes floating above me, I try to hide my face within my hair while walking as quickly as possible. I really should have brought Emery.

Rounding the corner into the first alleyway, I place one crate against the wall. Giving a small smile to everyone watching, I run to the next one.

Finally arriving the alleyway opposite the inn, I spot the two children in ragged clothing still sitting next to a woman I presume to be their mother. Placing a crate beside them I try to run off as possible. “Miss, I can’t accept this. It’s too much!” shouts a female voice from behind me.

Turning around, I see the homeless woman from before holding out the gold coin I left on the box. “I-It’s ok, you need it so much more than me” I reply while pointing at her two kids now standing beside her.

The woman shakes her head vehemently. “I could buy a house with this! It’s too much; please take it back.” Wait, this place is so poor that a gold coin can buy a house?  My family has tens of thousands of them, and even more stored in the capital. But watching the way she refused one simple coin…

I felt a feeling that I tried my whole life to suppress behind logic and reason. A feeling that I just couldn’t control when I remember how humans used to treat those so much poorer than them during my childhood.

How society would look down on my parents who needed welfare to survive, those who said that they had no right to a decent life, those that said they shouldn’t bread. Despite never having done anything wrong but be poor.

“Then buy a house” hands shaking I grab another coin from my pouch.

“No, I can’t take that!” says the woman while trying to push both coins into back into my hand.

“Why!? Because you’re not HUMAN!? Because you don’t deserve to live a DECENT LIFE!? Because everyone tells you that you’re a BLIGHT to SOCIETY!?”

Grabbing my pouch, I take another five coins and shove them into the woman’s hand. “WELL, I DON’T CARE! Because as far as I’m concerned, any society that shuns its weakest members rather than HELPING THEM is NO SOCIETY AT ALL!” 

Hands still trembling, I try to regain control of my emotions before they slip again. The woman looks down at me but seems to shrink back into herself as a tear eclipses her eye. “I-I… No, I-I can't.”

Realising how hard it must be for her to accept so much from a random four-year-old, I gently pass one more coin; my last one. “I promise you; things will be different when I rule the world.”

Wait… when did I want that?

Not responding the woman continued to stare blankly towards my eyes, a small crowd of homeless around me “W-What’s your name?”

“Lucy Ellenvale”

Unexpectantly, several members of the homeless crowd prostrated before me with an expression I’ve never seen in their eyes, “Lucy the holy one! Please forgive us for not recognising you! Bringer of eternity and protection” What the hell is-

One of the men suddenly lifts himself onto his knees, placing a hand on my left shoulder. “They told us you would come, I small girl with red hair, far beyond her age. An insatiable rage, and a kindness to all” This is freaky! Who the hell predicted I would be here? “W-who, who said I’d be here?”

The man looked a little perplexed for a moment before laughing. “The silent ones of course” I felt a searing pain sore through my head as several pictures raced through my consciousness.

Resisting the pain in my head, I ran as fast as I could towards the Inn. An impending sense of doom filled every fibre of my being.

“Lucy what’s wrong? You look scared” asks mum the moment she opened her door. “We have to go Now! Now! Now! Don’t ask any questions!”

“Lucy, calm down! No one’s here to hurt you” says mum apparently not understanding the urgency that I feel. But before I can say anything a deep muscular voice emanates from behind me. “No she’s right, you should have already left” I feel a sudden blow to the head before reading Simbrain’s warning.

* Severe brain injury

* Initiating repairs

* Estimation one week

Everything goes dark before I even hit the floor.