Insight Kindling

by Chess Desalls

  My father’s eyes hardened. “Are you sure about this?”

  Valcas placed his hands on my father’s shoulders. “He’s a Detail Technician, Plaka. He has no reason to be unsure. If you need proof, we could have him record his memories in a pair of travel glasses and play them back.”

  My father considered this. Then, nodding, he patted Valcas on the back, and then nudged Ray. “Go on, my boy.”

  Ray blinked. “The air layer offers no relief from the pain; it feeds the flames. And then there are the layers of balm and water. Four layers.”

  He hunched over, exhausted. His face and shoulders relaxed. He looked like he was finally at peace, as if surrounded by the healing aloes in the balm layer. We sat there staring at one another as we let him rest.

  Valcas looked over at my father. “Do you remember the air layer from when you tried to go back through?”

  “I do not. I was mad with solitude. I ran through, thinking that if I rushed without stopping, I wouldn’t feel as much pain. I never stayed inside any one layer long enough to inspect it more carefully.” My father looked at Ray with wonder and shook his head. “And here I’ve remained this entire time.”

  I frowned. “But you can’t hang out in the air layer forever. Wouldn’t you still need to go through the fire layer to get outside?”

  Valcas and Ivory exchanged a glance.

  “It’s worth a try,” Ivory said.

  “What is?”

  Ivory shrugged. “We may not be able to travel outside here in the caves, but maybe we could travel within that air layer.”

  “THE FALLS aren’t wide enough to be able to get in motion, though, right?” I asked, looking down at my hands. Still thinking, I added, “You could easily end up in the fire layer if you run toward the air and don’t manage to transport quickly enough.”

  I felt Valcas’ arms circle around me. “If we start at one end of the Falls, within the air layer, and run to the other side of the Falls inside that space, perhaps there will be enough room.”

  “How thick is the middle layer, Ray?” I asked, looking up.

  Ray’s eyes were glassy with pain. I didn’t know whether that was due to his mental anguish over the Fire Falls or the fact that Valcas sat behind me, cuddling with me in front of everyone. Immediately, I felt bad. We were in an awful situation, and here I was worried about a nonexistent love triangle. As if.

  “The space is six feet deep, ten and a half feet wide and four hundred feet high,” he said. “The air acts as a cushion between the fire layer and the soothing liquids. But I was in so much pain—” He shook his head. “I’d have to go back through again to be sure.”

  Ray shuddered.

  I could only image how horrible it was to relive the pain over and over instead of being able to forget most of it the way I had, remembering the balmy coolness of the healing layer the best.

  I felt Valcas nod behind me. “I’ll go with you, Ray,” he said. “We can go back through the healing layer as necessary. I’ll try recording what I see with the travel glasses.”

  Ray’s face paled, but he attempted a brave smile.

  “No,” I said. “I’ll go with Valcas. I can use my pair of travel glasses.”

  “You won’t be able to get the exact calculations,” said Ray. “Precision is important for our escape.”

  I sighed. “Ray, you don’t have to do this.”

  He looked at me, and then at my father. “Yes. I do.”

  “Besides,” Valcas said, standing up. “You and Plaka have some catching up to do.”

  I WRUNG my hands as I watched Valcas and Ray ready themselves to go back through the Falls, Valcas equipped with his travel glasses and Ray equipped with his brain.

  Once they were through, Ivory looked at me and smirked. “I don’t feel like being a third wheel in this conversation, so, um, how about I keep an eye on dinner while you and your papa go for a walk?”

  “But what if something happens to them?” I frowned.

  Ivory shooed us away with her hands. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll come find you if I need to. If they hurt themselves, I know of a good doctor.”

  My father sighed. “Come, Calla. Ivory is right. We won’t be able to do anything for them until they come back through. We should let them carry out their mission.”

  Hesitantly, I walked through the tunnel with my father, wondering whether I would be able to ask the questions I’d saved up for him all my life.

  I trusted Ivory with my life, but I was grateful that she encouraged us to go off alone. Some matters need to be kept private, personal relationships especially—things that individuals treasure, nurture and hold close. I wondered how much personal stuff my father was willing to share with me.

  I decided to start at the beginning.

  Once we were out of earshot of Ivory, I asked, “So, how did you meet Mom?”

  My father’s shoulders went stiff. “Your mother never told you about us?”

  “She got mad at me every time I asked about you,” I said. “Sometimes I thought she couldn’t stand to look at me… you know, because I look so much like you.”

  He stayed silent for a few moments. Then, slowly, his story became reality, giving me a history and a past. I learned that day who I really was.

  “Like Valcas,” he said, “I was a rogue traveler from a future world, Chascadia. I dabbled in unofficial objects, using them to travel alone and stay out of the TSTA’s way. Unfortunately, it appears that every way leads to the TSTA.”

  “What’s your unofficial object?” I asked.

  My father laughed. “The baglamas. It does more than play music. And, here behind the Falls, where its travel properties are useless, its music keeps me company.”

  I didn’t have a response so I stayed silent, hoping he would continue with his story. The last thing I needed was to go off on a wild tangent about traveling when he was prepared to tell me about who he was. And who I was. But then, who said this would be the last time we chatted? Finding him marked the beginning of the possibility of a future relationship.

  “I’d love to hear more about traveling with a musical instrument,” I said. “But I’m missing a lot of background about you, about myself.”

  My father’s response made my eyes grow wide. He put his arm around me, the way he’d done with Ray, the way he did when trying to provide comfort. “We have all the time in the worlds,” he said. “And we will have that time whether or not we escape the Falls.”

  I smiled. He finally sounded hopeful, not just about getting out of the Fire Falls, but for us as father and daughter.

  “Your mother, Doreen, was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, which is saying a lot given how many places I’ve visited and how many people I’ve seen. Even though everyone seems to think I’m a great man because I am a Remnant Transporter and a healer, I too have ghosts in my past and actions that I regret.” He sighed. “I’ve had plenty of time to think about those regrets—alone, here in the caves. But enough about that. You wanted to know how I met your mother.

  “One day I was roughing up some guys in the northeastern part of the United States, Earth, in an alley behind a restaurant where your mother worked part-time as a waitress. You see, back then, I already knew about my talent and I was very proud—it made me feel powerful. I felt I needed to show it off, to dispense justice, to hurt the bad who hurt the good.

  “From the corner of my eye, I caught a young woman looking at me, with dark eyes as large and deep as the teardrop moons in Chascadia. They were beautiful… and angry.”

  “Angry?”

  “She objected to my treatment of the hoodlums I was punishing. When I turned to look into her disapproving eyes, I finally understood that I was misusing my talent. That was enough time to give the hoodlums the upper hand. Before I knew it, I’d been knocked out cold.

  “When I opened my eyes, there they were again: two dark, soulful eyes, angry and condemning, but also concerned. This time when I looked into them, I fell in love
.”

  “Ah,” I said. Love at second sight? That was odd. “Did you two date?”

  My father shook his head. “I didn’t know where to begin, how to explain where’d I’d come from and who I was. I kept her at a distance, but I came back from time to time, to be near her. Sometimes we exchanged a few words, other times we watched each other from afar, but always, it was as if we were drawn to each other.

  “One night she cornered me in the alley and demanded that I explain who I was, where I was from—her beauty was terrifying. I couldn’t resist—”

  I cleared my throat. My attempt at covering up the noise, brought on by a sudden discomfort in the subject matter, had failed. Hearing my father describe his desire for a woman was weird enough, but he was talking about Mom.

  He chuckled, pulled out a light stick from who-knows-where and popped it. A yellow-orange glow lit the way as we walked toward the inner caves. It was the first time I saw the inside of the deeper tunnels and could walk along them without feeling the walls. Out of habit, I glided my fingers against the stone anyway. Ingrained within the smooth texture of the walls glinted flecks of color as tiny as grains of sand.

  “At first she didn’t seem to understand,” he continued, seemingly uninterested in the tunnel’s beauty. “The idea of time travel was foreign to her, a far-off fantasy, much like me. When I learned she was pregnant with my child, I grew scared. I, with all of my talent and power, was scared… for me, for her and for our baby. You. By then, the TSTA had caught up with me. I’d done nothing to earn one of their infractions, but I had already been under attack by the Uproar.”

  “Was that why Mom started working for the TSTA? So she could help Valcas find you?”

  My father frowned and shook his head. “I never knew that she worked for the TSTA.” His voice lowered. “I never knew she’d been part of the search. Although, I expect her involvement had more to do with you than me.”

  I wasn’t so sure, but Mom had said she’d been trying to protect me. Maybe my father was right.

  “I SAW Valcas’ memory inside the travel glasses, where he made his promise to Mom—that he would protect us, and that he would continue to search for you.”

  My father sighed. “I had no idea Doreen cared enough about me to get involved.” The blood drained from his face. “Has she been waiting for me all this time?”

  “She did wait for a long time,” I said. “Remember that anger you saw in her eyes? Let’s just say that at some point, I got to see that anger every time I asked about you.”

  We stopped at a turning point inside the caves. We were at an intersection. One way led up to my father’s hideout, and the other to the latrines.

  “Do you want to go up to your cave, or do you want to start heading back?” I asked.

  “We should go back and see what progress has been made.”

  I cringed. My father’s voice had suddenly become distant. I hoped I hadn’t offended him with what I told him about Mom. Seeing as I’d endured her bitterness toward my father for so long, I decided I could manage to do so a little longer. I changed the subject as we walked back to camp.

  “Valcas showed me the slice in time where he first met you. He also told me that he was one of your patients.”

  My father nodded. “Before Ray, Valcas was the most tortured soul I’d seen. Although, Ray’s healing remarkably well.”

  “I researched Valcas’ past at the White Tower,” I admitted. “From what I could tell, he had a strange and lonely childhood.”

  “Never underestimate the sensitivity of the young. Yet, in Valcas’ case, his childhood was only a shadow of his pain.”

  Frowning, I asked, “What happened to him that made him so sick that he needed a healer?”

  “He hasn’t told you?”

  “No.”

  “Then I’m not at liberty to tell you either. I am a healer and a confidant. I don’t reveal my patients’ secrets.”

  “I understand.” I really did. Remembering the darkness of the memories Valcas had recorded in his travel glasses, I’d already known something had gone wrong. I just didn’t know what it was. Even though Valcas had trusted me with those memories, I’d done my best not to spy on him by searching through them since leaving TSTA Headquarters. I hadn’t looked at his memories at all since our mission started.

  “And you,” my father said, interrupting my thoughts. “What is your opinion of Valcas?”

  I pressed my lips together, wondering where this conversation would lead, not knowing how to begin. After a lingering pause, I said, “We had a rocky start, but the more I learn about him, the more I trust him.”

  “I trust him with my life, and yours. Do you love him?”

  Shocked, I stuttered, “I—why, I—that’s none of your business!”

  My father raised an eyebrow.

  I took a deep breath to regain control over my emotions. “Why do you ask?”

  “Because I know him well, and from what I see, he is in love with you.”

  “I thought you weren’t in the business of telling others’ secrets,” I shot back.

  “This is no secret. Every one of us can see it, a love that is plainly visible. Love that you could use to destroy him. He has given you incredible power over him, Calla. Be careful how you use it.”

  My stomach burned as my heart leapt upward into my throat. Valcas hadn’t said anything about love. He’d talked about feelings and proving himself to me. My head spun. What feelings had I burned into the travel glasses when I was at the White Tower? I hadn’t promised him anything… except that I would tell him if there was no chance between us. And if I did, he said he’d back off. End of story. Or was it?

  “Okay,” I said, shrugging. It wasn’t like I had any plans to hurt Valcas, with or without whatever power my father was going on about.

  I stared at the ground, watching my feet press in front of me. We were almost at the camp. The glow of the light stick “fire” burned brightly in front of the Falls. It was warm and comforting, the exact opposite of the sharp white glow of the Uproar. Figuring that my father’s knowledge of the Uproar would be useful information to Ivory, I waited until we got to the cave before I switched topics again.

  “What exactly is the Uproar?” I asked, plopping myself down in front of the light sticks.

  Ivory, who was carefully removing our fish and seaweed “lasagna” from the light stick pile, stopped what she was doing and froze long enough to get burned.

  “Ouch!” she shrieked, dropping our dinner on the ground.

  Fortunately, the meal was tightly enclosed in the package of leaves. She picked it up, turned it over, and set it aside near the pool to cool. Then she sat down beside me, wide-eyed, apparently ready to hear what my father had to say about the Uproar.

  Still standing, my father looked over at the Falls. His fists rested on his hips as if he were a warrior staring down his opponent. “The Uproar is an impurity, a being of chaos that resists fire, including the purifying fire of the Fire Falls.”

  “Um, okay,” I said. “What is it made of? Just light?”

  “The Uproar is a spiritual being, one that can be manipulated because it is sentient. It only takes the form of light, a less intense shade of the Everywhere and Everywhen.”

  “A spiritual being,” I said. “No wonder we can’t fight it. But it can be extinguished, right? That’s why Ivory and Ray were trying to surround the Uproar with fire on all sides and drive it toward the Fire Falls.” I furrowed my brows. “How would fire kill it?”

  My father brought his finger to his lips and shrugged. “The Uproar is an impure spirit, one of evil. Fire purifies. When the Uproar passes through fire, it is purified until there is nothing left.”

  I stared at the pile of light sticks in front of me. They gave off heat and light, but they were not fire. Not that it mattered. It wasn’t like I could seek out bursts of bright white light and try poking them to death.

  “An impurity,” I said again.

  Ivory g
ently nudged me. “Let me try,” she said. She cleared her throat, raised her eyebrows, and lowered her eyelids, as if she was about to ask or say something incredibly important. “I think we understand all of the words you’re saying, Healer, but we need to hear them in a way that makes sense. Could you give an example of burning off impurity so we can understand better?”

  My father smiled; it was a small smile, but full of depth and knowledge. “Yes, I can. Valcas told me about an extraordinary recovery that both he and Calla experienced—a healing that took place while coming through the Fire Falls.”

  “My eyes?” I asked. “Does the impurity of the Uproar have something to do with my eyes?”

  He sat down cross-legged and placed his hands on his knees. “The fogginess in your eyes and Valcas’ that became more prominent during travel was like a cataract. In one sense, it hid who you were to others and made you more susceptible to becoming lost. It also changed your eyes’ true color, which I hear made Valcas look rather disturbing.”

  Ivory snorted. “Disturbing is one way of saying crazy-eyed, horror flick star. He looked like a Halloween ad for the undead.”

  Covering my mouth with my hand, I nearly choked trying not to laugh. I couldn’t have said it better, and I couldn’t have agreed more. But then, whatever impurity Valcas had in his eyes, had also grown in mine. The thought sobered me.

  “The Fire Falls,” my father continued, “cleansed the contamination that had grown through use of the travel glasses. The fire purified the impurity, eliminated it, much like the Fire Falls could potentially destroy the Uproar.”

  I GULPED.

  “Where does the Uproar come from?” I asked. “What world?”

  “The Uproar traverses all worlds and mimics the Everywhere and Everywhen. It is the effect of our travels through time and space—an ethereal being, born of displaced energy, and which thrives on the death of travelers.”

  “But I thought it fed on the blood of travelers.” I wrinkled my nose. “How does a spirit feed on blood?”

  “What it’s after are the travel talents that flow through the blood of its victims.”