Origins of Hope

by Anastasia Drapievsky

  He snapped his fingers. Of course; if he could find Celes wherever she was, then he could easily find Vafri here. He glanced down the hallways, for the first time glad that he could easily see people and the ‘ropes’ without having to actually see their bodies. When no one walked down the hall or were busy in their rooms, he closed his eyes and colored his mind black, with the image of how Vafri ‘wiggled’ glowing in the dark.

  A picture jumped out readily to him. Vafri sat in the cafeteria, eating alone at a table on the second balcony by the Krshk tanks. Only a few people sat around her at their own tables, and he ended the scrying. While he felt tired, he didn’t feel ready to pass out like he usually did when scrying Celes.

  Reaching the second cafeteria balcony several minutes later, Zander found Vafri still eating, her eating utensil held in midair with a very vacant expression on her face. He lightly tapped her shoulder. Her eyes focused back to reality then looked up at him. He had never been this close to her before, and found her big eyes, a deep ocean blue with gold flecks, kind of pretty.

  “Hey, you OK?” he asked, looking around in case Efrik stalked around somewhere.

  “Hm.” Vafri’s eyes looked down at her plate, filled with meat and a lot of vegetables. “Yes. Why?”

  “Just to... see how you were doing,” Zander said, frowning at himself for sounding lame. Xenith would have said something cooler.

  “Good. Thank you,” Vafri added in afterthought, using her utensil to push a red vegetable next to an orange one. She had color coordinated her food.

  Zander paused. Most kids talked a lot, even the shy ones once you spoke to them enough. She didn’t seem like one of them. “Am I bothering you?”

  “Huh?” She looked up at him again, her eyes narrowed. While Rym looked similar to humans, their body language was different; she didn’t look at him in annoyance, but in confusion. “No. You are not bothering me. Sit?” she gestured to the seat in front of her. “Did you eat?”

  “Yeah, but that’s OK.” Zander took the seat. “Is it, uh, good?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, looking down at her plate and picked a purple potato, munching on it. “Hm. Tastes good.”

  “You... didn’t know that while you ate?”

  “I wasn’t here,” she said, as if that explained why she hadn’t tasted her food despite clearly eating it before he arrived.

  He almost blurted out that she had been eating at least for six minutes, but then that would leave questions on how he knew that, and Xenith would get mad at him for accidentally spilling out he was an Akaiedal. “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “I mean, my body was here, but I was...” she waved her hand about.

  “Oh, illusions?”

  “Yeah.”

  “About what?”

  “My home.”

  “Oh,” Zander said, unsure if he should sound happy or sad. While some adults didn’t mind talking about their homes, most of his fellow Melyn cried when they thought of home… well, some of them did. Zander only cried because he missed his sister, but he felt better now. Here he only had one bully, great friends, plentiful food, and met cool aliens. That beat his homeworld any day. “What’s it like?”

  “I can show you,” she said, looking at him. “Would you like to see?”

  “Uh...” he stared at her, remembering how she showed Efrik something awful. “It’s not scary, is it?”

  “Are you scared of beaches?”

  “Never been to one.”

  “They’re not scary; here.” She touched his arm, and the entire cafeteria blinked out of existence.

  The smell of salt stung his nostrils, and the sound of a large body of water smoothly gliding over sand hit him before his vision adjusted. He sat at a wooden bench across Vafri, whose gaze wandered around. Miles and miles of bright pink sand stretched up and down the shore, dunes of sand to his left lining glass houses with little specks of lights. Three moons hung overhead, an arm of the galaxy dividing them. A gentle breeze ruffled his hair, and he turned his head to the pitch-black ocean.

  “Holy...” he blinked, and the beach vanished, the cool walls and the chattering of the cafeteria rushing back, back at the metal table between him and Vafri. Her face looked drawn, her eyes droopy.

  “Sorry, it is a little hard to keep someone in there with that amount of detail...” she sounded winded.

  “It felt so real!” Zander said in awe, leaning towards her as she removed her hand from his forearm. “That was so cool! That was your home? You have three moons? We only had one; three is way more awesome. The beach really does smell like salt, wow!”

  Her eyes watched him, her own mouth gaping at him, but she smiled. “Did it feel real?”

  “Well, I mean, I never been to the beach before, but are you sure you didn’t teleport me there or something?” He pressed a hand on his hair, remembering the breeze, and looked down at his feet, checking the shoe soles for pink sand. “I keep thinking I’m going to find sand in my shoes.”

  She giggled, despite looking anxious and tired. “No, no teleportation. Even if sometimes I wish I could do it...”

  He cocked his head. “Why?”

  She paused, looking down at her plate. “I miss my older sister a lot,” she whispered. “I know I can’t see her, probably ever again, but if I could just see her....” she shook her head. “Is it bad that I still miss her after several months?”

  Zander felt sad, but when he got an idea, warning bells sounded. No, you can’t! Xenith said not to tell anyone! “I’m still sad about my older sister, too,” he said, nodding sympathetically.

  She looked up at him. “You don’t look sad though; or at least, as sad as me. How do you not feel as sad? Or, I mean, how do you get to not be as sad? I’ve been trying really hard, but it’s not working...”

  “Uhm...” Zander felt like he would give a bad answer, and it might be a lie; he felt better because his counselor and teachers helped, and so did his friends, but seeing his sister helped him a lot. “I, uh... made friends...?”

  Vafri slumped her shoulders and hung her head. That seemed to be universal in all species, even Krshk, when they felt disappointed. “I don’t have any...”

  “You have me!” Zander said quickly, and meant it. “I want to be your friend. Quath and the others are nice too, and I have some older kids that I hang out with. They can help.”

  Vafri looked up at him. “How do friends help each other?” she asked, her voice feeble.

  Saying ‘The power of friendship!’ might have gotten a laugh out of his other friends, but he didn’t think it would work with Vafri. “Uh, they play with us,” he said, thinking of Quath, Zimn, and Benca, “talk when we’re confused on what to do with something,” like when Nentok and Qianii helped him with his homework and recently his ‘condition’, “find us when we’re sad and help us get through it,” the time when Xenith found him and became his friend, “and defend us against bullies,” the moments when his sister would place herself between him and the kids at school, or even their own dad.

  She kept her head down, but listened. “You told Efrik to leave me alone, so you defended me against a bully...”

  “And you helped all of us and stopped Efrik from beating us up,” Zander quickly added. “You acted like a friend.”

  Vafri said nothing for a few moments. “I never had friends before besides my sister. Can I even be a good friend?”

  “I think you’ll be a good one,” Zander said confidently. “I didn’t have any friends either until I came here. My sister was my only friend before I got here, but then I met Xenith! Who is really cool, by the way.”

  She inclined her head. “He is the one who can hear everything?” she asked, looking up at him with wide, suspicious eyes.

  “He doesn’t want to, and he ignores it, like...” Zander waved his hand to the crowd below them. “You can hear all of them, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “But can you hear what any of them are exactly saying?”


  Her face relaxed, her eyes glazing over for a few moments. “Not really, unless I concentrate...”

  “Xen said it is like that for him; he hears a lot of people but unless he really, really concentrates, he doesn’t hear anything. It’s just noise,” Zander explained. “He wants to have peace and quiet than having to hear everyone talk all the time.”

  Vafri gave Zander a small smile. “I think I know what he means.”

  “Really?” Zander scratched his cheek. “I would think it’s boring; I like being around people and hearing lots of noise. It’s fun.”

  “When people aren’t being mean, maybe.”

  “Well, yeah, when they’re not being mean. So,” he stuck out a hand, “friends?”

  Vafri stared at his hand. “.... Is there something I’m supposed to do?”

  Oh, duh, she’s an alien. “You shake it. Humans do it when they meet each other or make deals or promises.”

  Glancing at him, she gripped his wrist with both of her hands and shook his wrist.

  Coughing so she wouldn’t recognize him laughing, he took her hand and demonstrated a handshake. She returned it. “I liked the other way better.”

  “I do too,” Zander giggled. “How do Rym greet each other? I saw hands on shoulders or something.”

  “That’s for when they don’t know each other. They do this,” she reached across the table and put a five-fingered hand on his cheek, “when they’re friends. Do humans have a greeting for friends?”

  It felt weird having someone touch his face. “They can shake hands, but sometimes they have secret handshakes. We can make one, even with the touching face part.”

  “I would like that,” she smiled again. “My sister said that humans were...” her face dulled at the mention of her sister. “... were a little cold sometimes, but I guess even she could be wrong.”

  “Some of us are, I think,” Zander said, his spirits falling again. Vafri felt terrible about her sister. He didn’t want her to feel sad, and friends made each other feel better.

  He looked up and down the cafeteria, then privately projected, >>I have an idea. But I can’t do it here; it has to be somewhere else.<<

  She blinked. >>What do you mean?<<

  >>I can’t tell you. And if I did, you have to promise me not to tell anyone. Ever. Xenith knows, but he is the only one.<<

  >>What is it?<<

  >>I can’t tell you until we get outta here. If I do it here, I might get caught,<< he added, looking around the cafeteria again.

  There was no way Vafri knew about his ability to scry, but she still scarfed down her food quickly and deposited her tray in the bin, following him out of the cafeteria.

  Zander took her to several places, scanning their surroundings to see where people were, and at the lower observatory found no one. He felt better about the observatory since the residences were several levels up and leadership even more levels above that, and down there the engineers didn’t like to bother anyone or be bothered.

  With the view of the Tyli nebula on one side of the observatory windows and their solar system to the other, not a soul was in sight, and Zander felt safer to talk. He just hoped Vafri wouldn’t tattle on him.

  “So, this is a good place,” he said, looking around as Vafri eyed the surroundings. “I don’t know if I can even do this, but uh... what does your sister look like?”

  She blinked, but said, “She’s tall. She has skin like mine, but her eyes are yellow and she has more stripes on her face.”

  “Can you show me an illusion of her?” he asked, trying to picture a tall girl that looked like Vafri but with yellow eyes.

  “I... don’t want,” she said, looking away. “It hurts to...”

  “Oh, OK, I can still try. Uhm, anywhere she might be?”

  “She travels a lot, but we lived on Ascendant. Why are you asking?”

  Ascendant was only three Liet gates away from Aorírdal, so Vafri’s sister was probably the same distance away as Celes. “Tell you in a second.” He closed his eyes, blocking out everything, and pictured what Vafri’s sister could look like. Nothing came. Frowning, he tried again, and nothing. After five minutes of his face contorted in effort, he took a break. “OK,” he breathed, opening his eyes. “I might not be able to see her...”

  “What?” she stared at him. “How would you be able to? Are you using imagination, or...”

  “I’m, uh...” he sighed. “I might have a way to see her, but I don’t know what she looks like. Do you at least have a holo, or something like that?”

  She continued to stare at him, then showed some teeth. “If you are making fun of me—”

  “I’m not, I swear I’m not,” Zander stammered. “I missed my sister, a lot. It hurt, and I cried every day. All I wanted to do was see her, and...” he glanced around, paranoid someone would suddenly burst through the observatory doors. “Trust me and I’ll tell you.”

  She didn’t answer or move her lips to cover her teeth, but she grabbed his wrist. The observatory cleanly smoothed into the beach scene again, this time with someone standing right next to them, frozen. Zander looked up, meeting a person with similar features of Vafri, but with smaller eyes and an angular face. Gold eyes with blue flecks looked down to Vafri, with purple lines creating a simple pattern on her light turquoise skin. Her white sleeves rolled up her forearm and calves, her hand on Vafri’s shoulder as she smiled down at her. Zander saw a rope connected to Vafri’s body to her sister’s, with a faded aura around Vafri’s sister.

  The illusion dropped several seconds later when Vafri let go of his arm. “Got it?”

  “Yeah; let me try again.” He closed his eyes, remembering what Vafri’s sister really looked like, her aura superimposed over her physical one.

  From the blackness came lines, the lines growing brighter but maintaining dull shapes, to form what looked like a desk. Vafri’s sister slowly morphed from the darkness as she sat at the desk, wearing strange clothes, waving something in midair. Vafri’s sister turned away for when someone said in a muffled voice, “Sann’a, oyeka-privik. Viramir kalvrek—”

  The vision abruptly ended, and he stumbled back, opening his eyes when he felt Vafri grab him from falling. “What happened? Your skin is...” her eyes roamed his face, her mouth open. “Are you supposed to turn light brown to light pink?”

  “What?” He looked to his paled forearm. “Oh, that happens when humans get scared or get really, really tired,” he said, feeling sleepy. “Let me sit down...”

  “What did you do?” she asked as he found a bench, sitting on it. “You just stopped moving...”

  >>I scried her,<< he mentally projected.

  She stared at him for a moment, then bared her teeth again. >>Do you think I’m stupid? Anmavels are rare, and if you were one, we would’ve heard about it.<<

  >>You mean Akaiedal?<<

  >>That’s what the Iaiedal call people who can scry; we have our own word,<< she hissed. >>You’re making fun of me!<<

  >>No, I’m not! I heard someone say, ‘Sann’a, oyeka-privik’. What does it mean? I couldn’t understand it.<<

  Her mouth popped open, staring at him. >>What else did you hear?<< she demanded, kneeling in front of him and grabbing his forearms. >>You have to tell me!<<

  Uh, I guess she believes me now? It seemed important to her, so he said, >>I don’t remember; it went ‘veer-ah-meer kahl-vureck’ or something...<<

  She gazed up at him, her jaw still dropped, her earlier anger gone. >>There was no way you could know that. Even if Xenith overheard and told you, I never... you don’t understand Velandik, either...<< she poked his cheek, as if doubting his existence. >>Are you really a—<<

  >>I think so, and you have to swear not to tell anyone about it,<< he immediately said. >>It’s the only way I can see my sister, and I don’t want them to put me in PDTs so I can’t.<<

  >>No, I won’t tell anyone.<< Vafri closed her mouth, her lips a thin line. >>But you can’t tell anyone about Sann’a either, or what someone said
to her.<<

  >>What does it mean?<<

  >> ‘Oyeka-privek, Viramir Kalvrek’... it means ‘need to hurry, the General is infected’.<<

  >>What General? Infected? Like a cold?<<

  >>I don’t know; we have a lot of Generals. And maybe like an illness? But Sann’a—my sister—told me she was working with The Ascendancy, and that something was making or changing people into something bad. It was the last thing she told me before she made me go with Prior Mato and Krian Hekla.<<

  Zander swallowed, >>You don’t think it’s like a XIK or something?<<

  >>Doesn’t that just turn people into monsters? I don’t think so, because...<< she frowned. >>‘Need to hurry, she is infected’. Not with a sickness; they say it like a computer. Like, a computer having a virus with something hidden in it, or a glitch.<<

  That didn’t make any sense, but it didn’t stop Zander from having a terrible feeling about it. >>That sounds... bad. Maybe Xenith would—<<

  >>No, not him,<< she said severely. >>I know he’s your friend, but I don’t know him.<<

  >>He might know something and can help—<<

  >>No one,<< she said, staring at him. He felt the walls press against him, and he winced. >>I don’t want to scare you, but you don’t understand. My sister was scared. I felt how scared she was. She works in The Ascendancy military and has fought pirates and bad people, and she was never as scared as she felt when she told me before I left. Until I know I can trust Xenith, please don’t tell anyone. I promise not to tell anyone that you’re an Anmavel.<<

  Zander really didn’t like that he couldn’t talk to Xenith about it, but she had a point. >>OK, I won’t tell anyone, not even Xenith. Though, if he—<<

  “Hello?” a voice called out faintly.

  They both jumped, whipping their heads around, convinced someone had entered without them noticing. Zander looked for any auras yet couldn’t find any besides the two of them.

  >>What does ‘Hel-oh’ mean?<< Vafri asked, her eyes darting around.

  Zander gaped at her. >>It means ‘hello’; is your translator—<<

  >>It isn’t broken, I don’t—<<

  “Hello?” the voice called out faintly again. “I can see something...”