Sky

Electricity, the transfer of energy from one point to another, from where there is something to where there is nothing. Hot flowing into cold in a bid for balance, energy let loose in the transfer in a flash of blinding light. Plus and minus, plenty and lacking, energy traveling along the shortest path to reach its destination, often with explosive results.

With her eyes closed and mind in deep meditation, Sky breathes in deeply and focuses inward, her mind turning with thoughts of electricity and lightning, contemplating what little knowledge she has gained from speed reading what she could on the subject, operating mostly on idea and image rather than intimate knowledge and familiarity.

Sky knows lighting. Even before her people came to Earth, when they had still been hiding away on the body of the //World Tree, she would often watch the void that was their ever-present sky in the space without stars. Where monsters would fall out of the darkness as if from nowhere and horrible titans of mind breaking appearance would wrestle with the golden roots of the //World Tree in a bid to devour its divine flesh of golden bark and drink from its blood of flowing amber sap.

In the spare moments where the void sky was peaceful, she could look out from the cracks in the bark and watch as lightning would dance across the twisting swirls of purples, blacks, and mixes of colors that the mind fails to properly perceive. There was little else to do but sit around and starve or hide away from prowling horrors that would tear there village out of their hole if they were ever found, like so many other villages have gone before.

Now, on Earth, besides the presence of monsters, lighting dancing in the storm clouds is one of the few similarities that can be found when comparing Earth to the void. It reminds her of her childhood. Not of the starvation and the fear of death, but of those quiet moments when she could peek out from the safety of the bark and see something more…

Sky often finds that she sleeps best on stormy nights, where the rumble of thunder can be felt as she lies asleep in her nest of blankets or in Lain’s arms.

She likes lightning. It’s pretty and dances in the sky, just like her name. A name that she had earned mostly as a joke by the village chief when she had been seen stumbling through the branches while trying not to fall after failing to capture a bird. He said that looking up at her, she had looked like she was dancing in the sky, even if she had looked like a drunk idiot while doing it…

She can’t help but to smile as she remembers that day. It had not been too long after arriving on Earth, when her people where still getting used to their new home and exploring, working on building new villages in the treetops. Days full of hope for a new future.

…

Sky doesn’t know how long she been meditating now, how long she has been sitting here as she focusing inward, poking and prodding at the core in her belly whose presence is slowly growing larger and larger in her awareness, its electric-blue glow filling her mind like a neon light at the end of a dark street. As it fills her mind more and more, she finds herself drawn towards it like a fluttering moth, the light growing larger and more beautiful the closer she gets.

It is getting easier now, no longer needing to poke at the thing and try and draw it out, but instead now allowing herself to be the one draw towards it. To let herself sink into its light and for its light to fill her in turn.

Eventually, there is only the light, only her core filling her perception as it has finally been drawn out and she drawn to it, the metaphysical orb now pushing against the confines of its own container as it tries to grow, to surface into a state of real and unreal, to start a process of growth that all living things go through.

A seed buried in the soil, fed water and light, and then opening to reveal the sprout within.

She needs it to open, for it to peel back the layers of its outer shell and let what is inside, out. Out so that it can feed and breathe and grow and make her more.

With a final push, Sky wills the core to open itself to the world, to finally let it spreads it roots through her body so that it may drink of the world’s energy.

The core, the glowing sphere of electric-blue, spits open, the folds of its metaphysical shell splitting and shifting and sliding in directions that Sky’s mind can’t perceive, but open it does, revealing the little life contained within for her to finally perceive.

A single speck, glowing with divine light, hungry and eager to grow.

Sky breathes in deep, and the seed breathes in alongside her.

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My eyes snap open, suddenly pulled out of my meditation by the feeling of… power. An unstoppable rush of power and strength like I have never felt before. With just a single breath it suddenly feels like my lungs have been opened for the very first time, as if this breath is the first true breath of air that I have ever taken.

I can feel it, the power rushing into my body as I fill my lungs, flooding though my every vein with hot blood and filling my muscles and skin with energy. Just a single breath and I suddenly feel as if I could do anything. That I could throw a building or fly though the sky, or that I could speak and no matter what is said, those words would be truth etched into reality!

It slowly fades though, like reaching the peak of an orgasm so good that it is ripping my mind apart as I clench the sheets, the euphoria of it all is sadly sort lived, leaving me longing for that next blast of YES that is sure to leave me shaking and panting and begging for more.

But unfortunately, unlike a passionate night under the sheets with my lover, my next breath carries less pleasure, and the next even less again. The euphoria and feeling of unstoppable power slowly fade, and in its place is knowledge. I had done it. I had finally opened my core and brought it into full awareness. I can finally feel it there in its entirety, floating just under my navel as this little bead of power, and not instead as some vague growth that keeps shocking me!

After a calming breath, I finally open my eye and find myself sitting among rings of piles of electronics, my people gathered around me and prostrated in fevered worship as a blue light gently colors everything and shadows dance in the corners from the flicker of light playing against bodies and furniture.

All around me, in haphazard piles and towers that stack to the ceiling, every television and computer monitor, every cellphone and every digital watch, every device that possibly can, their displays are glowing blue, powered despite not being plugged in, radiating the very same electric-blue as my core. Currents of electricity play over everything here, electric toys moving and making noise, game systems starting up and ejecting long forgotten discs, microwaves turning despite having been long broken, and radios turning out static and random chatter as they shift though varying frequencies.

All of these electric currents flow back to me, my body wreathed in arcs of electricity that dance across my fingers and coil around my horns, flowing through the silver chains that hang from them and making the metal glow with a blue light. My hair, the long dark blue strands that normally flow down my back, are now floating in the air as if lifted by some unseen force.

I can feel it, how every breath draws in more energy from my surroundings. How the collections of batteries around me are being drained of all their energy and how it all flows straight into me, the mana in the air resonating with my will as my core hungrily drinks its fill. And drink its fill it does. Every device and battery around me, every scant bit of energy contained within and even the potential energy that it could have stored, is all pulled greedily into my body.

Screens begin to go dark, their internals degrading as I rob their copper and gold of the potential to conduct energy. Toys go still and consoles show red rings before burning out, ozone leaking out of their vents before they go dark. Radios go silent and cellphones crack. AA batteries pop as their acid bubbles over, and the housings of car batteries crack, there contents spilling out onto the floor but not burning it as the stuff has been reduced to such a useless state that chemical reactions can no longer even occur.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Hahahahahahaaaahaahaha!”

I can’t help but laugh as I stand, ignoring the soreness in my legs from sitting for who knows how long. And why wouldn’t I laugh? I can feel it all! So much power rushing through my body and filling me in a way that I had never before been able to comprehend. I was a starving woman that hadn’t even known that her stomach was empty, receiving her first meal ever!

With electricity playing over my body and dancing between my fingers, I laugh and laugh, my hands raised to the sky in sheer rapture.

I need to speak; I need to declare something to the world so I can express just how I am feeling right now. And two words, a single phrase is all that comes to mind to properly express my emotions in this moment. A quote from a movie that I had watched with Lain not too long ago.

“UNLIMITED POWER!!!”

With a flash of blue light, electricity arcs off from my body and strikes the surrounding towers of devices as I laugh like a mad woman, reducing the already ruined things into brunt and broken scrap as they collapse all around me in a clattering of shattering glass and breaking plastic.

“Ah… this must be how she feels? So much power held at the tip of her finger… And now, I can be just like her. I can stand by her side now as an equal~” I say to myself as I gaze longingly up towards the ceiling, my hands coming together to be clasped before my chest. With a small push of will, I close up my core. It is full and fed for now.

As I calm myself down, I draw the blue electricity back into my body, storing it away for when I need it. I can feel as it flows through my veins and gathers in my organs, ready and waiting to be released at a moment’s notice, my fingers especially feeling tingly as blue bolt of lightning are barely contained from escaping.

An old voice off the side speaks to me, full of devotion and love as if one was speaking to a beloved Goddess.

“My most Holy Empress, you have done it. You have finally ascended to her station. You have finally and truly inherited her crown! All hail the Empress!”

I look to the old Shaman and see him shaking with barely contained emotion, his hands raised in worship. If he could shed tears then he would, but alas, my people are incapable of crying.

The other Shamans, and even my Royal Guards, are also in a similar state, collapsed to their knees with hands held together as if in prayer as they look up at me, their eyes only able to see me and refusing to look away lest I might disappear, as if I might be a beautiful dream that would slip away if they awoke.

I speak to the oldest Shaman, asking my question. “What do you mean, truly? Had I not already become our new Empress?”

He bows his head. “No, my Empress. You had already ascended above us then and held the most right to claim title of Empress amongst everyone, but you had yet to truly claim it, until now that is.”

“Explain.”

He bows lower and continues, “Yes, my Empress. There was a prophecy, stories that were not passed down from mother to daughter like the ones you know, but from Shaman to Shaman, always held as the utmost secret because knowledge of it could have torn our people apart in the fires of war, tribes slaughtering each other in desperation of its fulfillment.”

He continues after taking a calming breath, his body shaking with adrenaline.

“The first Empress, our people’s Goddess, gave her life for us when our world burned. But the story you know is not whole. She didn’t just trade her life to the //World Tree for our safety, she had done more, to ensure that one day, she would be able to return to us! One hundred daughters, selected at random, from the rich to the poor, from the strong to the weak, where given a fragment of her very soul, to be held and passed down from mother to daughter, much like our history. Eventually, one day, a bearer of her fragment would awaken. That one day she would be returned to us, not as a new Empress, but our Empress, reborn anew from the descendants of her own people and returned to us in new flesh.”

“The Shamans of the past swore to never tell a soul of this. They knew that if anyone discovered her inheritors, that they would worship the one in their midst, claiming them the true reincarnation over all the others, going to war to raise their chosen inheritor to the top. Villages destroying villages in desperation to see her reborn. But now you are here. Truly returned to us! Awakened and reborn! Our Holy Empress, Immortal ruler of us all!”

As the Shaman speaks with reverence, the others kowtow even lower, their bodies pressed as far down as they can go.

I blink in surprise as I look down at him. “I have her soul? Reincarnation?”

“Yes, my Empress. You have always been. Even divided into a hundred parts, you will live forever. Even if your mortal form shall die, you will be reborn again. So long as even a single fragment remains, you shall always be.”

“How do you know that I am awakened or that I am really her?”

“Can you not feel it my Empress, the divine spark within you?

My hand goes down to my navel, feeling at the core inside of me that is radiating with energy. Deep inside of it, I can still feel that little golden mote of energy. Its presence is small but noticeable like a warmth in my gut.

“But, I don’t feel like I am her. I feel like I am me?”

The Shaman raises his head and nods.

“Yes, my Empress. You will eventually regain your memories with time, but you will remain as you are. When you made the decision to divide up your soul, you did so knowing that you wouldn’t be exactly the same person after your rebirth. But in the end, you are still you, you are still our Empress.”

“Will I change as I get my memories back?” I ask, feeling worried.

“I do not know, Empress, that is for you to decide. They are your memories, but you are you, your will is yours.”

… I don’t know what to think of this. On one hand, I feel excited, like destiny had brought me to this point, but on the other, I feel apprehensive. As if none of this is truly mine. Because if I really am just her reincarnation, then… but if I really am her, then shouldn’t I just be happy with this, because it means that all of this was mine to begin with? Or… Ok, maybe I should leave figuring this out for later. I can talk with Lain and figure it out some other time… Yes, that sounds good, let’s go with that.

Just as I am about to move on, a thought hits me, and I quickly ask the old Shaman. “What about the other fragments? What will happen to them now, and do you know how many are left?”

“They will remain dormant, continuing to be passed from mother to daughter until the day they are needed… should the worst happen… Let us pray that you live a long and healthy life, my Empress. As for how many are left, we do not know. To prevent even the Shamans from manipulating things, even they were not permitted to know who the daughters were. We do not know how many fragments remain, which is why I would recommend that when you relearn how to do so, that you should spread more fragments again.” He says as he bows respectfully. The other Shamans nod along wholeheartedly in agreement.

Ok, so I guess I don’t have to worry about another, me? Yeah, I guess another me popping up out of nowhere and also claiming to be the Empress… Ok, that is weird to think about…

Finally ready to move on, I look away from the gathered Shamans and toward the human soldiers that have been awkwardly standing off to the side this whole time, watching everything happen. Lain’s friends, and the rival… but I’ve already defeated her once, so I don’t have to worry about her. Still, I give her a quick look to let her know that I have my eye on her just in case she decides to try anything in the future. For some reason, she gives me a confused look. Probably just playing dumb…

Regardless, with power swelling in my core and ready to be let loose, I switch to speaking English and ask them, “How is the situation out there?”

The oldest one, Seargent Lenz, answers me. “The Goblins have been sieging the north wall for the past few hours, ma’am. Monsters drawn in by the use of heavy artillery have also begun to attack the other walls with increasing intensity, forcing us to further spread our forces to keep them back. The remaining Demons on base have been deployed to assist in keeping them back. As for civilians, people have been ordered to take shelter in emergency shelters, bunkers, or to remain hiding in their homes. Lain’s family is currently secured at the hospital.”

“Thank you, what will you be doing now?”

“Our orders are to guard you and do as you ask, within reason. We will remain with you.”

“Good, then you are coming with me to the north wall.”

Turning away from the human soldiers, I look to the captain of my Honor Guard and give him the order. “Gather my forces and every able-bodied adult that wishes to fight. If those damn Goblins want to attack my home, then we will stab them with our spears and push them back!”

He can’t contain his excitement at hearing this, and despite holding back as much as possible to remain respectful before his ruler, he can’t help but to wag his tail as he stands and salutes with a snap of his feet, the butt of his spear smacking the floor with a loud, clack!

“Yes, my Empress! It shall be done!” He shouts out with gusto and pride. Pointing to two other guards to come with him, they immediately run out of the room as fast as their legs can carry them.

The rival, Lain calls her Rookie, speaks up from the side and asks, “There is only a few thousand of your people here, right? How many of you are able to fight?”

I look to her with pride and a smug smile and answer. “Our numbers where low when we brought them here, but now that my people have become well fed and have been able to heal, my force’s warriors now number at five hundred!”

“Five hundred? You do realize that there are hundreds of thousands of Goblins out there, right?”

“Yes, but the warriors are only the battle-hardened ones. For my people, when it comes to killing those smell green bastards, every adult will fight. We should be able to bring about four thousand spears to the wall.”

“Four thousand… again, versus hundreds of thousands? Or are you suddenly as powerful as Lain and her Demons and can just shock all the Goblins to death, because don’t get me wrong, that would be awesome if you could do that.”

“Hmm, no? I’m not that strong yet, I literally just got my core.” I say as if she is dumb.

What does she expect me to do, snap my fingers and kill all our enemies with one spell? What is that thing Lain taught me again…? Oh yeah, Deus ex Machina. Those ruin stories sometimes…

“I’m not a Deus ex Machina. No, we just need to stab anything that tries to get past us and hold them off until Lain gets here. Then she will kill them all. Now, let’s go! I want to throw lightning bolts at Goblins!”

Declaring war on my hated enemy, I turn and march out of the now dirty room. My maid is already waiting by the door and is holding my puffy pink winter jacket for me, she hands it respectfully to me as I walk past, the human soldiers just shrugging as they grab their stuff and move to follow me.

…

Once Sky and everyone else is gone, the Kobold maid sighs as she is left alone with the now trashed living room and the piles of broken electronics and exploded batteries. Resigning herself to have the house cleaned and tidy for when her mistress returns home, she goes to the broom closet to fetch a broom and some trash bags. She has her own battle to fight here…