Day 381 –
JJ looked down on the sandy footprints on his dark armour. T wiped his helmet dislodging the mud on his faceplate and looked at JJ. Before JJ could react, he had to jump back, and T was in the middle of battle. JJ looked at his sword and then at their blurring foe.
Clack! Clack…Clack. Clack.
Ghost whose projection was assisting Sheetal with a lesson on the continuum armour stopped and looked down at Ash. The boy was so fast that he was having a hard time keeping up with Ash. Any faster and the dreamscape would have a hard time keeping up with him.
The kid sent T stumbling to the side. And JJ’s sword and Ash’s tonfas met in a blur and Ghost decided to cheat.
Clack! Clack. Clack. Clack.
The ground around Ash’s feet melted and turned to concrete.
“Whaaa…”
Ash glanced down and Ghost smacked his head with the blunt side of his sword.
Thwack.
“Ow!”
Ghost appeared next to the round ring and chuckled “Always watch your surroundings.”
Ash rubbed his head “That wasn’t fair.”
“Neither will the raks or the anomalies, Ash.”
Theory frowned at Ghost who had appeared next to him “Ghost, will you stop antagonising the warder?”
“Anathema morphs the ground.” Ghost stated and shouted to be heard over everything “You need to watch your footing.”
JJ looked in between Ghost and Ash. He pointed at T “T, fight the warder one on one for a bit.” and began to make his way to Theory and Ghost.
Ash rubbed his head and twirled the tonfas in his hand “Ghost, I want my tonfas.”
“And I want the universe to make sense. But I got you instead and those sticks.”
Theory watched Ash snarl and curse but then T was in front of him, and he was busy defending.
JJ stopped in front of Ghost “He is silly. His weapons look silly. But…”
Ghost raised his eyebrows “But, what?”
“Look at my armour Ghost.” He pointed to the footprint “Those are all kicks. What you don’t see are the spots his weapons hit me. I have seen those weapons. They would have cracked my armour and turned me to ash.”
“But those weapons. They are so inelegant.”
“A blade is a weapon of last resort.” JJ stated clamly.
“Then why do we keep using them more and more?” Ghost asked pointedly.
JJ grimaced.
Theory watched the exchange and nodded “You can’t touch the stick. So you can’t put them in here. Is that why they are sitting on table?”
This time Ghost grimaced and acknowledged the point “Also, the anthema in the pods. We don’t know if they will destroy them or not.”
Theory nodded “Ghost, I know these sti…”
“Tonfas.” JJ corrected and added “Or Night Sticks. That’s what Sheetal calls them.”
“Whatever, they are called.” Theory dismissed “Ghost, I know you don’t like them. Faded gods, I don’t like them. If the warder is using them means he is too close to the enemy. But the boy, is a dervish. Whoever trained him, knew what they were doing. And then Ash decided to pop in four speed shards to make things unpredictable. And now he is almost unbeatable.”
Everyone watched Ash rush T. T back pedalled under a barrage of strikes. Ash twirled one of the tonfas and brought it up. T brought down his sword at the opening. Ash brought his tonfa handle up and hooked the oncoming sword off target. T was left open.
One second Ash was standing on the ground and in blink of an eye he was dropkicking T, WWE style. T didn’t move. Ash’s eyes widened. And he fell. Face first. To the ground.
Thud.
Ghost voice quivered with anger “He needs to stop fighting like he has bulk.”
“He needs shards.” JJ stated.
T pocked Ash’s rear with his sword. And shot him a one finger salute.
Ash frustrated words came out muffled “That armour is a cheat.”
“Even if he had bulk Ghost. He couldn’t have moved anyone of us in our armour. The ASHA 11 is what one point two, maybe three tons?”
“One point seven with the sapphire helmet.” Ghost corrected.
“But he has seven shards.” JJ stated and asked “I know warders don’t ascend like us. But we all have eight shards. Isn’t that just one lesser than us.”
“Four of them are speed, two of them are channel, one is a density, and the last one is a sense. Leaving the last one aside for a second, that is a build of a burst mage. Only our friend doesn’t want to be a burst mage. He wants to be a brawler.”
“Sense shard. Isn’t he a sensopath.” JJ asked.
Ghost closed hie eyes “He put it in there because he thought it would make his eyes red.”
The two Jays gave Ghost an incredulous look.
“Yeah…” Ghost said softly and continued “I have offered both the warders a few shards.”
Both Theory and JJ looked at Ghost in surprise.
“What? I told you that I want to equip the warders to guide us out of the mess we have created for ourselves. Did you think I was lying?”
Theory shrugged “You said you are making a weapon and shield. I thought you wanted to use them.”
“Only a fool wields a weapon they can’t use.” Ghost shook his head “Anyway, I offered Ash strength shards.”
“He would take that.” Theory smiled “It would make him bulky. He likes being thin.”
“He is not thin. He is girly.” JJ grumbled and when everyone gave him a look, he explained “Women, no, adolescent human females don’t have muscle density to attack in conventional male manners.”
“So, he doesn’t have the bulk to fight the way he is fighting.
“Well, that was his answer. Along with a lecture about having beautiful fingers, long arms, and wrap around legs.”
Theory snorted “Sounds like him. That means we need to give him a power shard.”
“No.” JJ shook his head “We need to give him four power shards and two channel shards.”
Once again everyone looked at JJ and he elaborated “He uses his legs as much as his hands. Ideally, I would give him eight power shards, and six channel shards. Two for his arms, elbows, legs and knees.”
Theory frowned “Expense aside. Wouldn’t that limit him?”
“No.” Ghost shook his head “If we follow your recommendations JJ, it will just occupy just seventeen slots.”
“Seventeen?” JJ asked.
“Four power. Four channels. Four speed. One sense. And four density.”
“Density?”
“He put a density shard in his heart. Now his two other hearts are reeling in strain.” Ghost scowled.
“You can’t blame him for that. He didn’t have two other hearts to worry about before you put him through an anathemic mutation.” Theory said sternly.
Ghost nodded “Well his soul structure will have thirteen slots free. Plenty of slots to let him do what he wants.”
JJ nodded “Yes that would make him specialist. So, warders can slot in thirty shards. That is frightening.”
“Only first generation warders. The second generation drops to twenty five, the third to twenty, and then the drop is slower.” Ghost replied.
JJ gave ghost a look “How do you know that Ghost?”
“The ripple told me.”
Theory raised his eyebrows “You are talking to the light’s children now?”
Ghost shrugged “Should I not?”
“No, no. I didn’t say that. I just that frightening.”
“Then be happy we are on the same side.” Ghost grinned.
“Coming back to the Warder Ash.” JJ brough the conversation back to the topic at hand “Density shards, aren’t they supposed to make armour and structures denser?”
“Yes.” Ghost sighed “I don’t how, but he can slot them in to make his soul denser. And that is also a problem. If he gets those shards, his soul will be dense enough to overpower the dreamscape and pop out.”
“And you don’t want that.” JJ nodded.
“They are not ready, JJ. When they leave this place, everyone will try to use them for their own petty goals.” Ghost stressed.
“Ghost, the choice is simple. Do you want your weapon to be sharp, or not?” JJ asked and nodded “You know what you need to do.
“Then you have a difficult conversation ahead of you, Ghost.” Theory paused and smiled “At least, Ash looks like he is in a better mood now.”
Everyone looked and watched Ash hit T with a rapid series of blows that clanked of his armour. T just stood there and took it. He had no other choice. The boy was fast but inside his armour T was unperturbed. He didn’t feel a thing.
Ash laughed and slowed just a bit. T swept his sword in a long arch, like a fly swatter
Thwack!
Ash flew back, five feet and fell on side.
Ghost groaned “This is going to be hard.”
Day 412 -
Sheetal sighed “Can we please get back to the shards.”
“No, first you need to understand why the power conduits don’t connect to each other in our armour.”
“Oh, that’s easy.” Sheetal smirked “These shards are in your armour and they are generating potentiality to power it. But they have their own flavour of potentiality. Potentiality that resonates at different wavelengths. Like Ac and DC currents. Only you have multiple versions of current. So, you us the power conduits to dump them into that spiralling patten and draw power from that.”
Ghost who had been pointing at the zoomed in image of a power conduit dropped his hand and looked at Sheetal, impressed “That is… Correct.”
“Very well, lady warder. What do you want to know?” Ghost asked as he freed Ash.
Sheetal looked at Ghost for a long moment “Lady warder?”
“You are a lady and a warder.” Ghost stated with a smile.
“Fine! Why do shards have powers?”
Ghost paused and thought about his answer “The simple answer is we don’t really know.” Ghost raised a finger “But…”
Ghost took in a deep breath and answered “The Arbiters of Solace believe that they are the essence of first light. The metaphoric blood, sweat and tears she spilled when she created the universe. And since the light created the universe, the shards have everything the universe is made off. There is a partial truth in that. On the other hand, The Silver City believes that the shards were a gift from the light. To help sentients surpass their limits. There is truth to that too.”
A slight glow started wrapping Ghost as he spoke “Others believe that the shards were given to mortals to fight back threats like the anomalies. Some even rationalise using them to fight against their rulers by calling them mad and bent of blood and death and killing hundreds, while shouting that they are doing everything, for the light. There is truth and falsehoods in those statement too.”
Sheetal scooted back from Ghost and watched with wide eyes as he began to float over the ground.
“The truth is we are the shards. Our mortal souls, when they wink out and leave, we leave an everlasting impression behind. Understandings, you had in your lives stay behind. Knowledge, we cultivated throughout our lives, drift through the universe. Until the light shines its glory upon them so that they might be used for its intended purpose.”
Ghost blinked and shook his head.
Sheetal, in a tentative tone asked “Ghost, are you okay?”
Ghost took a sip of his coffee to wet his lips “Yes. Basically, they are metaphysical in nature. They have always been there, and they will always be there. But most of them are here. At the edge of the universe. Floating in the wake of creation.”
“So, do shards are help us tap into a different dimension and use the forces there to effect, our three dimensions?” Sheetal asked.
Ghost looked at Sheetal sharply “You know I don’t know the nature of your soul but what you just said gave me a hint.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“I will come back to that.” Ghost shook his head and answered “No, the shards don’t help you tap into a different dimension. It’s your soul that does that. Shards make it possible for your soul to interact with the different dimensions. They are… They are like tools for your soul.”
Sheetal looked at Ghost. He had stopped glowing and was now sitting in front of her like nothing had happened.
“What just happened?”
“The ripple. It wanted to pass on the information about the shards to you.” Ghost shrugged.
“So what? It possessed you?”
“No. It asked me to step aside.”
“Is it watching right now?”
“Yes. It’s always watching. As am I.”
Sheetal’s eyebrows rose “Always?”
Ghost grimaced “Yes. Always. Your heartbeats were elevated, your brain chemistry was all over the place and you were mewling.”
“Mewling?” Sheetal asked in an offended tone but couldn’t keep the smile of her face.
“Don’t remind me.” Ghost shook his head with an uncomfortable expression “Anyway, I glanced down and saw that. It was just a fraction of a second but… The feeling was akin to having a daughter and finding out that she was a teenager finding herself in the most inappropriate manner.”
Sheetal snorted.
Ghost chuckled “Well at least you are better than your brother. He doesn’t care if you watch. He thinks its only natural for people to watch him, because he is perfect.”
“You know, he thinks that you can read our minds.” Sheetal looked at Ghost.
“I observe your brain chemistry and your neural pathways.”
“So, you can read our minds?”
“Not exactly.”
“Tell me what I am thinking?”
“How to get away from this awkward conversation and back to shards.” Ghost replied.
“Finally, someone who gets me.” Sheetal muttered “Okay, so putting shards in gives us the ability to use wavelength of potentiality.”
“Maybe?”
Sheetal held up her hand “Then maybe they be in our brains rather than other places.”
“Other places? You mean like Ash? Or do you mean like just under your ribcage, like in your case?”
Sheetal bit her lip.
Ghost smiled “Sheetal, do we agree that light makes up everything in the universe?”
Sheetal frowned “Photons and electrons?”
“Yes.”
Sheetal had a eureka moment “Then it wouldn’t matter where they are.”
“Ah… Careful girl. You are delving into religion.”
“Am I? What religion? Nevermind!” Sheetal shook her head and continued “Ghost, we all know that an atom is made of electrons and protons. What is it if not light?”
“No, that is not all that an atom is made off. It is empty for a reason. Where do you think you store your potentiality.”
“But what is potentiality if not another version of light?”
“And that’s why I told you to stop because now you are firmly in the religious zone.”
“That would make shards, light reactive.” Sheetal continued “No, if all matter in the universe can be collapsed to the size of a sugar cube, that would means that we are made of light too.”
Sheetal floated up from her chair and began to pace “And in place where light can be used as a steady source of power… I need to run some calculations.”
Ghost sighed.
He didn’t need to check Sheetal’s reading. He already knew that Sheetal’s brain was operating at ninety percent and focussed on one thought. He flashed out and Sheetal didn’t even note his departure.
Day 437 –
Ash walked in with a sleep tousled hair, shook his head “Okay! Yeah, I don’t know what just happened. But I am on my deathbed.”
Ghost looked at Ash who was standing in front him hail and hardy. He looked at Sheetal for an explanation, but she had a far away look in her eyes.
“Maybe, I am just too sigma to understand this geek talk.” Ash muttered.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Ghost asked “Umm… Ash, are you okay?”
“No, I am awesome. No thanks to your weird flex.”
Ghost looked at his bicep which wasn’t flexing in the least and then back up at the boy with a clueless look “Huh?”
“See how it feels?” Ash asked.
“I don’t understand.”
“Exactly!”
“Exactly, what?”
Ash pointed at Ghost “One moment you are talking to She, and the next day I am made of light. Then she gone, stuck in her white boards. And I am here. Getting bored in this empty mansion. Even the seven are out, sleeping.”
“Yes. Well, they do need to sleep.”
“That’s nice. Because Sheetal wants to cut off her pinky finger now.”
“What!?”
Sheetal focussed on Ghost. Her words came out rushed “I figured it out. Light. I am made out of light. If I can. And believe me I can. Isolate my frequencies and keep it resonating with the matter to keep it in a liquid form, I can use it.”
Ghost blinked and looked at Ash.
“Don’t look at me. I talked to her and made her settle on her pinky toe.” Ash defended himself.
Ghost rubbed the bridge of his nose “This is regarding plasma isn’t it? Why are you so insistent about using plasma.” Ghost asked.
“It’s from Stargate. There is this spaceship called Organisation and it that shoots balls of death and conquer civilisation in the name of exploration.” Ash explained.
“It’s Star Trek and… no.” Sheetal gave Ash an annoyed look “They use those torpedoes to defend themselves.” Sheetal corrected Ash.
Ghost groaned something under his breath.
“What?” The brother sister duo asked together.
“The ripple just said, you both are fools, and I agree.” Ghost clarified.
“Hey.” Ash began “The ripple. The glowy thing trying to stuff itself inside you?”
Ghost stopped Ash “Have you both considered that you don’t need to chop of your limbs to do blood rituals?”
“Blood rituals?” Sheetal asked
“Yes, the process is called a blood ritual.” Ghost shook his head “You take a drop of blood, put in anticoagulating agents, keep it fresh, and use your connection to the blood to achieve your goals.”
“Sounds evil.”
“The funny thing is, it’s a cheat but it will work.” Ghost murmured.
Sheetal ginned “So, we can do it?”
“No.” Ghost said in annoyance and sighed “You are not going to stop are you?”
“No.” Sheetal and Ash said together again and gave each other looks.
“If we are going to do this. We will have to do it the right way.” Ghost paced across the room while biting his thumb “Well, I guess this is a good time as any. The seven and I have been working on a plan to get you some shards. Sheetal I don’t know your soul’s structure. So, you need to disclose that information to me and if your soul is compatible we will give you a dimensional shard.”
“Why?”
“To store the plasma, you silly girl.”
Ash opened his mouth to protest only to be spoken over by Ghost.
“And Ash, you need to learn glyphs from book four and five. They are four dimensional glyphs in there. That mean they have a time element.” Looking at the clueless look in the boy’s eyes Ghost added “Time like in, timed bombs.”
“Oh! Okay.” Ash nodded
“You will need those glyphs to isolate the resonance of Sheetal’s potentiality and Sheetal will need to learn how to do that too. Sheetal you don’t need to learn glyphs just remember the patterns.”
“Okay.” Sheetal nodded.
“But I need a promise from both of you.” Ghost took in a breath “Sheetal if I give you a dimensional shard, it will conflict with mine. And you will be able to walk out of here. And Ash, if I give you the density shards you need your soul will become to heavy for me to contain. And I need you to stay and learn what I must teach you both here.”
Ash opened his mouth to refuse and Ghost continued “Also, I will need a favour from both of you.”
“What favour?” Ash snarled.
“Does it matter? We are getting more shards and a weapon to be feared.”
Sheetal and Ash looked at each other and Ghost noted the burst of thoughts going through their mind as they communicate through an unseen link.
“We’ll do it.” Sheetal stated.
“She?” Ash said verbally.
“Plasma. Torpedoes. Ash.” Sheetal grinned.
“Stockholm. Syndrome. She.” Ash grimaced.
Day – 496
In a blink on eye the world around Sheetal transformed. The sun beat down on her and the desert’s bleached sand. Before she could shield her eyes the sand ten feet ahead of them erupted upwards. A malformed humanoid sand creature jumped out and lunged towards her people. Sheetal shot out a hand and grabbed it in mid-air.
She squeezed her hand and felt empathetic resistance when the sand creature struggled. She sprayed potentiality all over the dust ball that her shards had become. They hummed and the creature bound in her powers cracked. It fell to dust.
“Behind us.” T yelled.
Sheetal tuned to look and saw one getting erased from existence in a flash. The other one she caught and lifted of the ground. She watched T reload his weapon with glass cylinder with a speck of nothingness inside it.
Crack!
The creature in Sheetal grip fell apart and automatic laser weapons began to zing behind her. That meant Theory and JJ had started shooting. She tried to look for Ash and felt panic, then anger come from their link. She looked deeper and heard.
“Nirma. Washing powder Nirma…”
Sheetal shook her head and pushed an elemental into another’s path. She caught a third one and slammed it into the ground.
Flash.
The two tangled elemental were erased by a ball of light shot from T and Sheetal turned to look at the enemies, correction enemy. The two Jays were casually turning the last one into glass. Five others just behind this one were melting into the sand.
Crunch.
The last one broke into bits and Sheetal relaxed taking her team members in. And then, she saw Ash. He was just sitting on the sand next to Needles. Drawing a large male member in the sand.
Sheetal caught Needles eyes who shrugged.
Ash added three flourishing stokes just over the tip and looked up at the sky with his hands on his hips.
Sheetal wanted to scream at him in annoyance for just sitting there but she was out of potentiality and panting.
“Ghost. The system won’t allow me to say it. So here, I have drawn it out for you.”
Ghost appeared in a flash and smiled at Sheetal “Perhaps, elementals aren’t the right enemy for you. We all thought you were a gravitron specialist. No, you are much more powerful than any gravity mage I have seen.”
Sheetal grinned “Yeah, I am a cosmic mage.”
Ghost nodded and tuned to Ash “Seriously kid? Why?”
Ash walked to ghost and kicked him in the shin “You know why?”
Ghost looked at Ash blankly and then realised why the boy was angry “We can fix that.”
Ash snarled “You better.”
Day 513 -
Sheetal and Ash flew out of the unmanned vehicle called a Dhola. The seven jumped out right behind the two warders and began firing into a horde of enthralled. Sheetal dropped Ash and duked left. Rolling in the air while avoiding an arrow she aimed a hand at the archer.
A stream of sticky fire lanced out. Sheetal grimaced when the lance of plasma flew to the left and fell a bit short. Still it was plasma and it was going to light everything in the general direction on fire. Then with a thundering roar the torpedo erupted before it could reach the enemy.
Sheetal cursed and shielded her eyes. She looked again. Even through the plasma containment field had missed the archer, the fire had spread and was killing everything in the general direction. Her eyes landed on the archer, he was trying to run out of the fire while his shield contracted at a dangerous level.
Flash.
Sheetal blinked and looked around “She was a black and white wisp floating in the air next to Ghost.”
“What? What happened?” Sheetal asked.
“You died?” Ghost replied in a bored tone.
“How?”
Ghost pointed a finger at a vetaal shaman who was throwing green flames at her squad “Cursed fire.” Ghosts explained.
“Ash and sand!” needles appeared on the otherside of Ghost and glared at the high councillor “A rak ambush Ghost?”
“You are going to be fighting raks, Needles.”
“Faded gods!” JJ appeared next to Sheetal rubbing his chest and gorwled “That hurt, Ghost.”
“Well, this is a bust.” Sheetal said in a dejected tone.
“No, Theory, Ash and T are still fighting.” Needles shook her head when she felt a spike of rage from Ash.
“Yeah, but, if one warder dies, they both die.” JJ grunted.
“So why aren’t we stopping?” Sheetal asked Ghost who had raised his hand to stop the simulation and instead begun to smile.
Ash kicked an enthralled into the air to intersect the green fire heading towards them and yelled over the sound of battle.
“Theory? T? Now that the grumpies are gone what do you guys say? We have some fun?”
“Is this your idea of fun, Ash?” T asked while emptying his rifle into a group of enemies.
Theory smashed the butt of his rifle into a charging night stalkers nose and grunted “Sure, what do you have in mind warder?”
“I want the stinking magic lizard that got Sheetal.” Ash let out in a growl.
Both T and Theory chuckled. Ash might have wanted for his words to come out in anger. Unfortunately his growl was more cute than threatening.
Theory began giving orders “T, watch our backs. I’ll be covering the warder and thinning the enemy. Ash, you are on point. Lead us warder.”
“Guy’s the aim of the mission was to reach the checkpoint.” T pointed at the large flag on a sand dune and added “Oh, whatever.”
“Alright! Lets goooo…”
Ash blurred into a cocoon of action. When he stopped, dozens of glyphs shot out of him. A few lingered in the air, but most impacted the enemy forces. The enthralled all but withered and fell apart in front of Ash.
Ash shot a sharp grin at the Nishachars turning towards him and charged. One moment he was standing with Theory and T and the next he was braining an ugly deep blue skinned man.
Thump!
The man’s skull caved in, and Ash appeared next to another kicking the man’s chest.
“See, I told you force shards would work as well as power shards.” Needles smiled.
“Yes, but why did he have to put them where he did. I don’t understand this concept of force on the left and power on the right.” Ghost grumbled.
“Don’t ask me.” Sheetal said when everyone gave her a side eyed glance and in grumpy tone added “He just said, She, you won’t get it. You are not a fighter.”
JJ nodded in understanding “It gives him more versatility.”
“Then why don’t see any versatility from him.” Ghost pointed at Ash in annoyance.
Crack.
Ribs broke under Ash’s power shard fuelled kick. He brought his right foot down and faced the hoarde of enemies trying to circle him. Shots felled the ones trying to flank on the right and a flash vaporised the ones of the right. In the confusion a vetaal flew at Ash. Trying to stab him with its nails. Only Ash was gone.
Crunch.
The vetaal whirled to see Ash breaking the neck of a large woman with his tonfa. The vetaal bunched his legs up to leap and then his head exploded.
“Nice shot.” Theory muttered to T.
“Thanks, but how is the warder going to get from here to that…” T watched Ash jump and in midair vanish “Mage?” T finished with a confused expression.
T pursed his lips. Why had he said the word mage. Why was he looking in that direction? What was he talking about? And why wasn’t he shooting. T scowled and started laying into the enemy with his assault rifle.
Ghost flicked and the world below slowed. That wasn’t exact. Sheetal who was sensitive to the changes in reality, could tell that he had actually sped up reality on their side of things.
Ghost announced “Seven. I wanted you all to see this. So, you won’t be surprised in action.”
“See what?” JJ blinked in confusion.
“What a breaker can do.”
“A what?” Needles asked.
Ghost frowned and looked at Sheetal for assistance.
Sheetal simply pointed just above the Vetaal shaman and smiled ““He is going to appear there. The bonds are weakest over there. Even the wind is slightly off.”
“Who?” Needles and JJ asked together.
Ash closed his eyes and felt the air rush around him. He took in a breath and held it. That was the only way he knew to trigger his ability. All light rebounded scattered around him for a fraction of a second. And then he was floating.
Ability - Float
Duration – One breath.
Type – Anathematic.
Allows a breaker to break free of reality’s clutches for one held breath.
Ash tapped into his body. His sight faded to black. And he saw familiar message.
Name – Ash.
Species – Undecided.
Type – Warder.
Status – Blind.
He hated this part. For a long two thumping heartbeats he could see anything. And that was unnerving because he was not alone in this strange unreality. Ash’s strands tickled and a three hundred sixty degrees version of sight filtered into his mind.
It couldn’t be called sight. It wasn’t sight. It was a sense.
Responding to his thoughts his sense shard activated and quickly parsed through the information. Ash almost sighed in relief when a feeling of where things were filtered into his mind. But how could it ever be that simple, he did not just see where things were, he saw what they were made off, what they could do, and what they could become.
And over that were creatures. Not in the dreamscape. But over their pods. Creatures large and small. Insectoid, aquatic, and reptilian things waiting to bite into them at one misstep. In his bones Ash knew what they hungered for. His soul, his thoughts, and everything that made him.
But, he hungered for something in that inky darkness. He wasn’t as big as the towering creatures roaming the lands looking for a bite. Nevertheless, he belonged there and everywhere he looked he could see a morsel. And that all he needed.
Anathemic matter. It was gritty, oily, fatty, and clumpy. And yet, it was what he needed to sustain himself. It streamed into his mouth and Ash swallowed it. It went down his gullet and was consumed in an instant. Suddenly power flared in his power shards. His right side lit up attracting the attention of the wandering creatures. Most of them ignored him. He was a speech of dirt shining in the sand. One insectoid creature though began to walk towards him to investigate.
Ash began to release his breath and faded out of the inky world. The creature persisted. Trying to scratch its malformed claws into the real. Ash retreated quickly and floated away. Into the light of the dreamscape. Thankfully, the dreamscape wasn’t as real as reality. Comparing it to the world outside was like to comparing a dried husk of a tree to a forest. Ash focussed on that husk bringing his senses all into the dreamscape.
The force of his jump without the pull of reality had made him fly upwards. Over the heads of the gathered foes. And there right in the middle of them was a strange greenish brown lizard thing scooping out another ball of green fire from a wok.
Ash blinked and almost laughed when he saw the wok. Instead, he focussed on the slight abnormality that had appeared in the dreamscape. And let the rest of his breath go.
Ash flew down at speed. The vetaal looked up in surprise. Ash extended his tonfa. The vetaal tongue lolled out it shock. Ash shot the gathered power into the tonfa.
Bang!
The tonfa exploded. Shards flew everywhere. Enemies dropped in clusters. But most of them were directed at one lizard. And it dopped with half of her head missing.
They recoil of the explosion momentarily slowed Ash’s descent and he came down to the ground and halted his movement in a skidding stop.
“Gotcha!” Ash flung his hands up in victory and saw that he was standing in the middle of their mansion’s hall.
“Nice one boss!” Theory clapped.
Sheetal smiled.
Ghost rolled his eyes.
Everyone else looked confused.
“Ash?” Needles asked.
“Yes, Needles. That’s what he does.” Sheetal explained.
“Was that some sort of mental effect?” JJ asked.
Sheetal looked at Ash and bursts of thoughts passed in between them.
Ash chuckled “No. I just floated out of reality.”
“But for a second we didn’t know, you.” Needles stated.
“Yeah. Or if you even existed.” T bit his upper lip.
“I am not relieved by your explanation warder.” JJ grumbled.
“Oh, get of it, JJ.” Theory huffed.
“Theory. You know what a reality tears can do. We can’t allow anyone to split it open.”
“Yes.”
“Theory!”
“JJ! Will you stop and listen?”
JJ folded his arms on his chest.
“We did this to them. We made them what they are.” Theory began.
“We did no such thing.” JJ growled.
“No, we did. You, I, Needles and the fumbling T. We brought them here and then we left them alone for Ghost to do what he did.” Theory’s finger pointed angrily at Ghost and in a growl he continued “Why? Because we didn’t want a new problem. It’s only because of Needles we are here.”
JJ grimaced and clenched his jaw “Humans are can not be trusted with that kind of power.”
“Isn’t that great JJ? Because the warders aren’t human anymore. We did that too. Now that we have changed their nature, and suddenly we feel uncomfortable with what we have done, what do you want to do?” Theory leaned in and asked “Kill them? Because that’s the only way you will stop them.”
Everyone watched Theory and JJ come face to face. Looming over each other. And everyone could sense they were one step from violence.
Needles began to move when she heard.
“Kiss. Kiss. Kiss.”
The warders began to chant and giggle like teenagers.
JJ took step back and Theory shuffled sideways. He looked at Ash and nodded at him from breaking the tension. But the boy was not looking. He was clinging on to his sister and giggling.
“Imagine their moustaches. Like seals…” Ash wheezed.
Sheetal broke down in laughter “Stop… With the visuals.”
“Point of matter.” Ghost said in a casual tone “If the warders fall. I will destroy the continuum and every individual who belongs to it.” The seven turned to look at Ghost and he continued “The ripple would demand it, and I wouldn’t fight against her. In fact, I will assist her in every way.”
Theory sighed and pointed at the children. On was rolling on the floor, and the other was hanging in the air chuckling hysterically.
“I get it Ghost. But maybe you need to tone down the threat a bit. Because they don’t seem worried about JJ’s threat.”
Ghost chuckled “Oh they are not. You, know now what Ash can do. At least a bit. You have no idea what Sheetal is capable off.”
Day 605
Sheetal woke up and found Ash drawing patterns in the air. Some of them sparked and fell apart. Others sputtered on or off. But most of them hummed with a gentle glow.
“Ash.” Sheetal hissed “The lights. I am trying to sleep here.”
Ash tuned and looked at her with blank unseeing eyes. Slowly his gaze focussed on Sheetal and he looked away.
“She. It’s time.”
Sheetal sighed. What was wrong with her brother. Couldn’t he see the light bleeding out from the glyphs and painting their room in multicoloured hues. She hadn’t been able to get an hour of peaceful sleep.
Well at least through their link she knew that Ash was worried. As worried as her. Sheetal didn’t think that he would be worried but here it was, the time to repay their favour and…
Sheetal couldn’t think about that. The fact Ash was nervous was enough.
Sheetal stretched and recalled when Ghost had come to her with shards for her.
“Lady warder. A cosmic mage creates a version of the universe in their soul. You already have a handful of shards that somewhat do that. Here are some more to help you on that path. Here are some normal ones you will need. Water, stone, cold, density, acid, and alkali. Plutonium, polonium, francium. These are the heavy metal I could get my hands on. Now… here are the really dangerous ones. Order and Light.”
Sheetal still remembered looking at the last shard. Where other hummed blinked an glowed, this one was steady. It felt heavy. As if it was glowing kilometre high tower stuffed in a grain of sand.
Then the voice had spoken to her.
“Child. The queen. The empress. The bringer of an era. I haven’t spoken to you because I did not want you to get attached. I am of the light and so are you. Our bonds are eternal. I give you two pieces of me. As I will give them to you brother. Yours will bring light and order to reality. His will bring light and a chance where this none. With this gift I will begun to fade. Don’t fret. Ghost, will become your adjudicator if the light wills it. A word of warning though warder, the light shard might raise you to heights but it also lets us keep an eye on you. Do not waver in your convistions.”
Sheetal hadn’t hesitated. She had stuffed the shard by the handfuls into herself. This wasn’t just a matter of power, she still remembered that mission. The one hanging over them.
Mandatory Mission
Save The Continuum
Fight of the Rakshasa Empire and help the continuum create a safe harbour in the trials.
Rewards
12 Favours of Light
System Rank - 6
Terms - You may not leave the trials until this mission is completed.
Duration to completion – 182 days.
Failure Penalty – Death
And she needed all the power in the world to complete that. And to do that Sheetal neede to be complete. And that what had Ash so worried.
“Sheetal. Girl. Put on a top. Or at least a bra.” Needles hissed from the door.
Sheetal blinked and lowered her hands to her chest. Behind Needles was her husband who had turned his back to her.
Sheetal blushed and a shirt appeared over her naked form. She expected Ash to chuckle and crack a lewd joke, but he was too busy with his glyphs.
“Ghost? Are we ready?” Needles asked.
“Ash?” Ghost didn’t appear but his voice reached everyone.
“Superimpose these.” Ash ordered and asked “How do they look?”
“The fourth row, it is…”
“Ah, got it. The potentiality too dense there. Let me add a layer.”
“Ash.” Ghost voice had a smile to it “It’s going to be okay. There are three redundancies before the fourth one.”
Ash stepped back with a grimace and looked at Sheetal “Don’t you dare die on me.”
Sheetal moved to reassure Ash but he was gone in flash.
She stopped. His eyes were they white all over. For second she thought that he was blinded.
Sheetal shook her head “No. Must have been the light. The dummy. If I die so does he. And so does Ghost.”
Ash appeared in a strange empty place. He was floating. Only this time he wasn’t using any anathemic ability.
“Ghost. If we do this, then you are mine and you will owe me forever.” Ash looked up at the nighttime sky and growled.
Ghost appeared to his side with a ripple of air and asked “So, you are ready then?”
“Yes. I am awesome.” Ash said in an annoyed tone.
“Then we need to hurry. Right now, the null zone is empty. Theory and T are keeping watch. We need to finish quickly before someone notices the power draw.” Ghost words rushed out of his mouth.
“Hold on. Didn’t you hear me?”
“I did my warder.” Ghost brought his hands to his chest and bowed his head “By the ripple watching over us, I hear you. And I pledge to serve you for my entire life.”
“Ah… Okay. I just was looking for a yes you know.” Ash muttered.
“Shall we begin?” Ghost asked and receiving a nod from Ash transported them to a dark room.
A shift happened around Ash, and he looked around. He could not see anything. Not with his eyes. He sighed and closed them. His sight settled and he was surrounded by glyphs. Hundreds of them. Layered upon shards and each other to make packets of function.
Then there were others. The ones that did their job but needed to be improved. That wasn’t the issue though. Interspersed with those ones were then ones that barely functioned. And in between them were the ones that needed to be discarded.
Ash pointed his hand pointed at a junction “Erase that mess and add the wiggly bunch.”
Ghost deadpan voice respond “Erasing section ‘A Seven’ for ‘Wiggly-Woggly Bunch.”
“Good.” Ash nodded seriously and continued “Now add a Jordon dunk under it and a cuckoo nest next to it.”
“Push and hold.” Needles ordered
“Push and hold.” Sheetal chanted.
“Good again.” Needles said sternly.
Sheetal did as ordered while JJ in his massive armour restrained her body with her back to his cold metal chest.
“Again.”
Sheetal went through a few repetitions. Her body tried to fly up only to be held back down by JJ’s powerful arms. She couldn’t pay attention to that. She was more focussed on the light she had stocked into a fire.
“It is… It is… Glowing.” Sheetal said ecstatically.
“Not good enough. Your mental shard is enforced by a strength shard. It should be blinding.”
“Push and hold.” Sheetal cried out.
“Good! What does your cluster look like?” Needles asked.
Sheetal looked inside herself. She didn’t like the world soul. Put that is what everyone called it. Inside that place, her mental shard intermingled with strength shard blazed white and blue. Under its glow was the mall formed peace of mass Ash called the dust ball. Well it wasn’t that anymore. It was solid and tough.
Sheetal replied “Like… Like… Rock.”
Needles frowned “Not good enough. Push more. Until it is as small as a pebble.” She ordered, “Compress it.”
“How?” Sheetal asked in a small voice.
“Push and hold.” Needles enunciated every word.
Ash groaned “Ghost. This is worse than what you told me. That section is bleeding potentiality, the one on the right is just wrong and the one on the left needs to go. And by that I mean, if you don’t get rid of it you will pop.”
This time Ghost did not appear, but his echoing voice asked “What about the control unit at the bottom? I am more worried about that.”
Ash smiled and with a flick of his finger scratched out two glyphs. He chuckled “Now, nobody controls you Ghost, but me. And I want vengeance.”
“Oh, okay.” Ghost stated “Ah… Was it that simple?”
“For me? Yes. But then I am…”
“Awesome. I know.” Ghost completed Ash’s words.
“Wait, is that?”
“About what? Controlling me?”
“Yes, and that is non-negotiable.” Ash warned.
“Of course, it’s not.” Ghost stated in bored tone.
“Was that sarcasm?”
“Tell me. How bored are you?”
Ash waved his hand about “Enough to fix this mess. Thrice.”
“Well, then you can go about it?”
Ash looked upwards and saw through the glyphs and the dark room. He looked straight at the glowing paper-thin pane of light that Ghost was slowly transforming into.
Ash grumbled under his breath “I swear I will find a way to poke you in the bum one day.”
“Excuse me?” Ghost asked.
“Nothing. Yeah, just pump in some anathema and let me see what I can do.”
Ghost hesitated “Your sister isn’t ready yet.”
“Yeah…” Ash grimaced “She is too used being human.”
“What does that even mean?” Ghost asked
“Asks the guy with the thin bezels.” Ash moved towards the next batch of glyphs.
“I don’t have any bezels.” Ghost grumbled back.
Ash focused on the glyphs and muttered “My point exactly… Hey. Ghost? Where is all this power coming from?”
“Oh, that is, you know bug that followed you back from that place. I ate it.” Ghost replied casually.
Ash who was going to start repairing the glyph in front of him stopped. He recalled the strange bug that was larger than a skyscraper heading towards him. If Ghost could eat that, then…
“The ripple. The other one?” Ash finally asked.
“She is dead.” Ghost said in a silent voice and was silent for a sombre moment “Now I will be an adjudicator in her place.”
Ash sighed loudly “Of course she decided to end it all. She had to listen to you and your droning moaning cries all the time.” Ash continued in a mocking voice “I miss wife. I will never reincarnate around her. I am lost. My people are lost.”
“Warder.” Ghost said in a warning tone.
Ash continued working “Ghost. I am blind. I am trapped and I am bored. And, the only thing being I could expect to crush you decided to pop herself off.”
“Ah!” Ghost acknowledged and continued “The ripple. She was old Ash. Sixty millennia old. She was too tired to crush a paper bag much less me.”
“Did you plan that too?” Ash asked.
“What? No. That was a happy accident.” Ghost paused and asked with a smile in his voice “Plan?”
“What? You don’t expect me to believe that the only one coming out of this with everything he wants hasn’t planned all of this.”
Ghost exhaled “Needed, Ash. I got what I needed not what I want.”
“No, you are getting what you want by making me do redo these glyphs because you emotionally blackmailed Sheetal.” Ash grumbled.
“About the ripple she gave me a couple of shards for you.”
Two shards appeared next to Ash and Ghost continued “The one that is glowing steadily is a light shard. You should slot it in your…”
Ash pushed it into his chest.
“Primary heart. Just over your density shard.” Ghost finished and continued “The darker one is time. You see how… What are you doing?”
Ash stopped trying to push the shard towards his crotch and explained “It’s time, right? Maybe it will delay my…”
“It doesn’t work like that.”
“How do you know?”
“Put in your secondary heart.”
Ash looked up with his blinded eyes and glared.
“Please.” Ghost hissed.
Ash smiled and slotted the time shard in the heart just under his spine and added “To be honest, I only did it because I get rear ended as much as get fronted. This will help.”
Ghost groaned and asked “Do I need to tell you to push and hold?”
“Does it look like I am ready to give birth?”
“I am just going to sit quietly and observe.” Ghost retreated.
Ash grumbled and continued working. Every glyph he replaced, every batch he refined, and every possible malfunction he negated gave all three of them a chance to survive they didn’t have.
“Ash. It’s time.”
Sheetal’s face transformed into a pained grimace. She cried out. “Aahhh!”
“Hold it.” Needles ordered in a high pitched voice.
Her eyes went to JJ whose hands were trembling under the strain of holding Sheetal down and took a step back.
Needles looked up “Ghost, she is ready.”
Ghost voice boomed across the room “Sheetal, remember, you need to slam the star into the compressed matter in your soul and then claim it.”
Sheetal squinted in strain. She couldn’t even think to acknowledge Ghosts words.
“Sheetal! Come on girl. You are almost there.” Needles tried to motivate Sheetal.
Sheetal looked up with reddened eyes and nodded slowly.
She looked inside herself. The dust ball inside her had transformed into a small pebble of blackened something. It wanted to be let loose. It wanted to expand and just holding it there was causing a shooting sharp pain to travel down her mind to her waist.
She began to pull of the mental shard to slam it down on the pebble. It didn’t move. She could hold on to the pebble and move the star.
“I…I…Can’t.” Sheetal whimpered.
“You need to try. Really try.” Needles urged the girl.
Sheetal looked inside and growled. If the mental shard didn’t want to move, then so be it. Sheetal reached out and gathered the pebble in her proverbial hands. With a scream of anger, frustration and rage Sheetal slammed the pebble into the mental shard.
Needles watched Sheetal scream “Aaaaaahhhhh!”
Blink.
Needles shook her head. JJ besides her twitched and looked around.
“JJ? What happened.”
“Read your notifications.” JJ said in a stiff voice.
Warning!
Dreamscape dissolutions detected.
Ejecting all souls in dreamscape.
Continuum Dreamscape #412 is no longer available.
Estimating repair time… 4 hrs.
JJ pointed at the med pods “Ni, something is going on in there.”
Needles looked up and at the med pods. The warder’s bodies inside had started to light up from inside. On by one Ash’s shards began to glow and their essence started to flow into Ash. In the other med pod Sheetal’s torso exploded into soundless cacophony of multicoloured lights.
Needles steeped back from the violent explosion that looked like it would tear the girl apart and stopped. The explosion had found an outlet. It travelled down Sheetal’s waist, to her thighs, and began to slow when it reached her calves. And finally stopped when it reached her toes.
Needles released a held breath and asked “It worked? By the light, it worked.”
“What worked?” T walked to them form the door followed by Theory.
“And why is there so much anathema in the pods?”
Needles was so focussed on the lights inside Sheetal that she hadn’t realised the quantity of anathema in the pods had risen to its former levels again. However, this time the anathema was being used up faster than before.
Sheetal’s lower half was constantly morphing. Mutation and permutations of flesh and bones crawled up and down her legs. On she noted resulted her in having twenty toes. But it was soon discarded for better, more fitting forms for her soul. The used up anathemic matter melted and was soon discarded by the pods into a tank.
“Where were you?” JJ asked the two men behind her.
“There was an aug. He is strange. I can’t even tell what he used to be. A Taran or an Aditya. He was snooping around so we went to confront him.” Theory explained walking closer to the pods.
“He calls himself Scar now. He says the warders gave him that name and he wants to join our squad.” T continued.
“Why?” JJ asked.
“He said something about temporal power resonance and orders from the queen.” T answered and asked, “Are they are okay in there?”
Needles who was using her comm gem to link with the pods gasped.
“What?” JJ asked.
In response she brought the vital stats of the warders and projected it over the wall next to the pods.
“Their bodies, they are okay. They hare going through what I would call refinement but that’s not what worries me.” Needles looked at every member of seven in their eyes “I am not getting any brain waves from them.”
“What does that mean, Ni?”
“I don’t know JJ.” Needles voice cracked.
“It’s okay. It’s okay. Everything is going to be okay.” Theory smiled did you not read the notification from the pod “It says, ejecting all souls in dreamscape. That means...”
“It means they were ejected.” Needles finished and asked “But to where?”
“I don’t know Needles. But I know one thing. Ghost has invested too much time and effort in those two. He won’t let anything happen to those kids.” Theory tried to calm Needles.
“That’s the problem theory.” Needles pointed to Ghost’s body “I am not getting any brainwaves from him either.”