Chapter 18:

                 18 Days After Spring’s Beginning

                        277 Days After The Ra’tok Attack Amia Village

                                The Sky Fisher, Airship, Border of Rua Desert

The Tuskite slaver clamps manacles around my wrists, black inscription marks running along them. I feel a strange and unpleasant sensation, like a weight settling on my shoulders. Then the pirate takes my spear from me. I don’t try to fight back, much like the rest of The Sky Fisher’s crew.

They all look defeated, some even crying.

I had gotten to know Corazon a little over the two weeks I had spent with him, and I can say he was a honorable man. He also had a knack for being daring, while also leading his men with confidence. He cared for them, that’s why he challenged Felton to a dual. To stop them from dying.

The pirate that put the shackles on me sneers, “Don’ go botherin’ to use katra. Th’ shackles stop katra ‘low.”

It takes me a second to decipher what he said through his heavy Rua accent. The shackles stop my flow of katra? As in through my channels?

I suppress a bitter laugh. The pirate moves off.

I look at Kamar, who had surrendered when he realized that it wasn’t a winnable fight. They had locked him in an obsessive amount of chains, not having manacles large enough to fit around his wrists. There was a metal collar clamped tightly around his neck, and I could tell it wasn’t comfortable.

He looks at me with a fiery anger in his eyes, mixed with determination.

I close my eyes, assessing the state of my channels. They are still shattered, but now they are filled with a strange murky purple.

It’s some kind of suppressor? And the inscribing on the manacles is what is generating it? I inspect the manacles, turning to look at them. I find a small hatch that is locked along side the lock for closing the manacles. That must be where the power is coming from.

Closing my eyes again, I go back to my shattered channels. I can see how this might be more of a problem for those who weren’t crippled, having their katra flow either completely suppressed, or incredibly slowed.

The purple energy is slowly leaking out of my channels and being absorbed by the crystals that coat my body. It’s treating it like vital arua.

The crystals glow with a small, dim light as they absorb the katra suppressor, storing up energy for healing.

I grab a fistful of my Gray katra, curious about how the shackles work. Then I send it into my channels.

Stopping myself from gapping, I watch as my Gray katra completely tears through the suppressor. My Gray katra is not hindered in the least, absorbing the suppressor.

I stop, bringing my Gray katra back into my core. Maybe there is a way to escape, but I need to keep this hidden for now.

Opening my eyes, I watch as the two pirate ships are hooked up to the sides of what remains of The Sky Fisher. From what I could over hear, they are planning on dragging the ship with them to their base, where they will dismantle it and unload the cargo.

The pirates have all the remaining crew members, those who surrendered, stuffed in the center of the ship.

Felton had disappeared below decks, and I can only assume he is currently reveling in his victory and looking through all the goods.

Looking a the shackled crew members, they all look defeated. Out of the 80 man crew, only 34 picked to surrender. The others were killed and their bodies tossed off the side of the ship and into the clouds bellow.

The remaining 34 look defeated, some crying. I feel it too. But I can’t give up.

There’s nothing I can do right now, only wait. I close my eyes again, fixing my mind’s eye inwards.

Floating down to the surface of my world, I materialize my phantom body. Looking at the tree, and it’s rapidly maturing offshoots, I sit down under its leaves.

I close my eyes again, just thinking.

Plants need sunlight to survive, and I don’t think this one is going to be able to spread very far. The thought is filled with my melancholy, unlike this plant, I had the ability to explore. The plant was confined here, to the edge of the water and where the light was.

Now though, I’m not to sure I will ever be free. I’ve got a chance, I just have to figure out a way to use it.

Opening my phantom eyes, I look up at the strange tree. It strikes me how eerily quiet this place is, except for the gentle lap of the water.

Standing up, I focus on the tree. I can feel and see the bright green katra and the dark Gray Life katra inside it.

There has to be a way to control it. It’s made of my katra afterall.

I grab a glob of the strange Life katra from deep within the earth, holding it in my hand. I try to imprint the image of a plant on it, but it doesn’t work.

How did the Controller do it?

I remember the horrible amaginations of creatures, twisted and combined. They all dropped cores, didn’t they?

Maybe that’s the key, I need some part of it, that is still relatively living. A piece.

I look up at the tree above me, and at the still leaves that soak in the light. I will my body to float up, I grab one of the small leaves on the tree and yank it off.

Holding it in my hand, I slowly float back down. I look at the small, green leaf, turning it in my hand. Then I look into the katra that holds it together. The vast majority is the bright greenish gray katra, that I can only call “Plant” imprinted katra, and flecks of the darker gray Life katra.

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Let’s see… I take a small droplet from the life katra I hold in my left hand, willing it to carefully hand on the leaf.

It lands in the center of the leaf without a sound. I furrow my brow, focusing on it. I will it to combine with the leaf.

To my surprise, it does so easily. The gray Life katra slips into the leaf without resistance, dispersing among it.

Then I can feel the leaf, like it is a connection to me. I can sense I can manipulate it much like my katra.

Blinking, I focus on the strange mental connection. There is another next to it, only this one incredibly weak, thin and barely noticeable. I pluck the connection and then I know it belong to the tree.

So I need a strong connection to control it, like I would my own katra? I scan that area, in the back of my mind. I can sense another connection, only this one is incredibly strong.

I try to connect with it, but am met with a block, unable to do so. Is this… a connection with my gauntlet?

Trying to follow where it leads gets me nowhere, because it simply stops me from going to far down the string. But the feeling is similar to the film I have had to pass through to get to my gauntlet.

So I can’t do anything with this. Not for now at least. I turn my attention back to the other two connections I hold with the tree and the leaf.

What can I do with this? I trace the connection to the leaf. I can sense that there is a large amount of katra packed into it. The Life and Plant imprinted katra mingling with each other.

I try to control the Plant katra, but I find I can’t, but I can control the Life katra inside it. What if I try to re-imprint the life katra?

I will a picture of a circle onto the life katra, but it slide off without any traction. Then I try commanding it into a ball, gathering up all the plant katra.

There is a crinkling as the leaf starts to fold in on itself, rolling into a neat ball.

It worked! I laugh, hopping up and down in excitement. I can manipulate it!

I had been trying for these last two weeks to figure out how to control the Plant katra, to understand it.

That’s when I notice something strange. There's less Life katra than before.

It wasn’t by much, but I could tell from the small drop I had placed, there was a little gone. Does controlling the Plant katra burn it up?

I test it by making small nubs grow out of the now rolled up ball of plant matter. The nubs rise to the surface, and now I can tell that some more of the Life katra has been burnt up.

This might be a problem. While I do have a large storage of Gray Life katra, I do not know of a way to make more. I have tried to imprint more katra with the “life imprint” but I have been unsuccessful.

For now, it doesn’t present too much of a problem. But later on… I don’t like the idea of not having enough to control the tree if it tries to harm me. But so far it has been benign.

I look a the tree, rubbing my thumb over the bumpy sphere of plant matter I hold in my hand.

I try to yank the Plant katra out, but it is firmly in place, and all I end up doing is shifting the malformed sphere into a spike, burning Life katra. So once it is mixed in, I can’t remove it.

I form the plant back into a sphere, unsure of what to do with it. I look at the tree, and its still leaves. There is no wind here, it is too low for any to form. On higher areas on my core, there is a moderate amount of wind.

I close my spectral eyes, focusing completely on the sphere. This place is so barren, even with the Tree.

Maybe now that I know the secret to manipulating the Plant katra, I can create something with it.

What should I make?

I flick through a few images. Another plant? Grass? How about an animal? No, that’s too complex.

I sulk on the thought for a few minutes, then it hits me. A bug, how about a spider?

I always liked spiders, they were weak, much like myself. But they were able to get over that weakness by laying a trap, to catch bugs far deadlier than themselves.

Focusing, I imagine a spider. Only I know that I am using a plant, so I shift it to fit the idea of being plant like. Four legs, made of tough, flexible wood.

I want the plant spider to be able to survive without having to be near the water all the time, and to not need too much light. SOme animals get energy and food from eating minerals, right?

I morph the image to fit. It will have one large body, held up by four strong, legs. The top portion of its body will act as a sort of water sack, allowing it to store water for later use. I layer a leafy coating over the to of its head, kind of like fur. I change it’s head to have two eyes and a extendable neck. I add to small arms to it, each with four fingers, two on each side of the palm to allow for picking up things.

I also focus on the idea that I want it to be able to draw energy from the stones, converting it into a type of food.

Time moves quickly as I formulate the image, perfecting it till I have a clear idea of what I want. Then I hold the image in my mind, opening my spectral eyes.

Focusing on the ball of plant matter in my hand, I push the image onto it. I watch as the ball withers, slowly liquefying and reforming.

Life imprinted katra starts to burn up and a prodigious rate. I start to panic, but hold doggedly onto the image. Come on!

I start channelling more of the Life katra from my left hand, helping to fuel the creation process. I quickly run out of that, and am forced to draw even more from my finite banks of Life katra.

I stand there, feeding it my katra as the Plant Spider takes form. First, the body is formed, then the legs. The small arms form next, then the head. After that, the visible changes cease, the general shape formed. Now I interpose the internal organs on it.

The nervous system forms, along with the heart, thin and fine viens allowing for nutrients to be carried forming. The heart is more of a sphere, that helps pump the nutrients through the veins. I form a stomach, that can break down just about anythings and turn it into energy. The water sack forms, hollowing out and from the outside the top half of the spider looks deflated.

Then I form a brain, or thought processing center. I want it to be smart, know what to do to survive.

I go on like this for what feels like hours.

Then I am done.

I blink, feeling light headed and mentally exhausted. My will is frayed and tattered, worn and spent.

Once I get my bearings, I look down at my hard work.

There, in the center of my palm lays a small spider like plant, curled up. The entire thing is a smooth green texture, much like the stem of a plant. I didn’t want to use too much Life katra up, and I didn’t have enough plant matter, so I settled with making it a child. It sits very still, not moving. Did I… do it?

The green spider stirs. It stretches a leg out, then another and another. It spreads its small, spear like legs out, then shakily props itself up on them.

I watch in fascination and excitement as my creation stands, looking around. It makes quiet, chirping sounds. Clicking it’s manables together.

Then it looks up at me, it’s two black eyes staring at me in fascination. I stare back at it, studying it.

I can’t help a wide, toothy smile from spreading across my face. I DID IT! I laugh in excitement, spinning around and cupping the small spider in my hands.

The spider makes higher pitched and quicker clacks to show it’s displeasure.

I set it down on the ground gently, watching it slowly crawl off my hand.

The plant spider stands on the ground, unsure of what to do. It looks up at me, as if asking to go back in my hands.

I shake my head, making a shooing motion. “You’re free now, go explore.”

I watch as the spider turns back, slowly trundling off towards the lake.

There is a sudden rumble, and I am jolted from my inner world. My last sight it the small plant spider reaching the water.

Then I am back into reality.

A pirate kicks me in the ribs, yelling, “Get up, cap’in says to the brig with ya!”