by Hana Starr
“The glow is Ethran,” he told her, touching it himself. “I can feel the energy. But why or how, I have no idea.”
Her whole body was warm now, despite the freezing conditions of the world. The heat started with her chest and spread all over, like a fire that didn’t quite burn. It felt warm, like a piece of her had finally been returned.
Zipporah knew that things like that didn’t happen to normal humans, and she knew there was no such human condition that would make her so. Arden touched his forehead and gasped. Something had opened to him that he had never had access to before. It was her. Standing right before him, he was able to open up her mind and walk inside, seeing every emotion she had ever felt and every thought she had ever had.
“Are you in my head?” She whispered, touching his bare chest. She didn’t like her thoughts invaded like that, so she put up a mental wall to block him out. It came slamming down harder than she meant for it to, and he jerked back.
“What is happening?” He whispered, “It’s like you’re becoming Ethran.”
Zipporah shook her head. She couldn’t be becoming Ethran. That was both impossible and it would destroy the Earth. She quivered at the thought of all of this suffering being for nothing. Only to become a part of him when it mattered most—when she needed to be herself.
“We have to hurry,” he breathed, pulling her clothes over to her and motioning for her to get dressed. “Something is happening to you. We can’t lose the human side before it’s too late.”
The two of them pulled their clothes on quickly and began to run, dashing through the cave as fast as their feet would carry them. Zipporah’s heart was crying, lamenting, and mourning in agony, for reasons that she could not understand. Her heart was dying.
“Beth!” Zipporah screamed, reaching for the oldest Ethran she could. With age came wisdom, as her mother always said. Beth’s face popped into the entrance of the cave, twisted into disapproval and worry. Zipporah supposed that she did not approve of their lovemaking, but also felt the emergent electricity coming from the two of them.
“I felt it,” She confirmed, looking down to Zipporah’s chest. Even through her shirt, the orb of light could be seen. Zipporah’s eyes were wild, searching the faces of each Ethran for answers, but found nothing. Desperate, she pulled the mental wall up that she had previously used to deny Arden access to her thoughts and entered their circle of private communication. They didn’t seem to notice her, which she found odd.
That is Ethran light, Arden’s mind informed the others, glancing over at Zipporah, knowing that she was listening. She averted her eyes from his and made it seem like she was focused on something else.
Yes, but how? She is human through and through! Rain exclaimed, her eyes moving over Zipporah’s body curiously.
Perhaps this was the power the Elders had spoken of. Perhaps that’s what she needed in order to restore order to the Earth. Beth’s thoughts broke through the conversation. Consider it; she was given no instructions on how to do this thing. The Elders did not know she would run into us. They are not fools. This could be why she was so pulled to our eyes. Why she was so important to us. Because she really is special. A piece of Ethra lives in her. That’s why her vision was restored in part of her body. Part of her body responds to the Ethran spirit. The Elders said it would take Ethran and Human to save the Earth. That is her.
Zipporah’s eyes widened at Beth’s realization, but she did her best to remain neutral, acting as if she still could not understand the unspoken conversation. Arden reached his hand over to hold hers, leaning into the sweetness of her hair and breathing in. He didn’t understand how humans smelled so wonderful, but her hair almost always smelled like a field of flowers.
“So I’m like…A hybrid?” Zipporah asked, looking at all of them with raised eyebrows. Beth’s face twisted in realization that she had been listening the whole time, and then in confusion.
“How did I not sense you…” She touched her temple and sent out another message, to which Zipporah responded. Beth looked up at her in shock, unable to form words for what she was thinking.
“The human side of you masks the Ethran piece to other Ethrans unless you open it up. It’s like a two-way radio. You can always listen and talk, but you choose when the other side can listen. That’s amazing,” Beth breathed, staring at Zipporah like she was the strangest creature she had ever seen. Zipporah blushed and turned away from the group of Ethrans who stared at her in awe. Including Arden.
“Stop that,” she muttered, drawing her eyes away from him. She was uncomfortable with the attention—with this new found piece of her that had been dormant for all these years. Her mind went in circles, wondering why no one saw it before. Wondering how she had gotten her little piece of Ethra in the first place.
“Nothing like this has ever happened. Not in the history of the universe,” Arden told her, touching her arm softly. Oddly, that did not make Zipporah feel better. She liked statistics. It calmed her to know that someone else had experienced what she did and they came out alright. But this made her totally unique, and she couldn’t find comfort in that, as much as she wanted to.
“So what do we do with it?” She said finally, breaking into the racing thoughts of the Ethrans. She hadn’t even bothered to listen, too distracted with her own thoughts and worries. Beth put a finger to her chin, thinking back again. Her hand when to the shoulder of Rain and she took a deep breath. Without asking permission, Zipporah slipped into her thoughts and discovered what she was thinking.
We need to go to the center. Where this all began. Where they first landed. The original point. Beth thought to the others, including Zipporah. Where in the world could that be? There was absolutely no way to know where they came down, or when. And if they did, how on Earth were they going to get there?
“I think they will have the answer to that,” Arden nodded towards Rain and Rose, smiling softly at them. Zipporah could feel his heart soften towards them, knowing that they had been through so much in such a short amount of time. His eyes were kindly trained on the two of them as they gazed at each other. Rain and Rose had been living in the sky, amongst the clouds, helping to provide light to the Earth. They would have had to see where.
Rain was the first to move, looking up at Zipporah with sad eyes. It was a look no one wanted to be on the receiving end of, and Zipporah knew that she was about to say something horrible.
“Canada. Very close to Niagara Falls.” The words left her mouth quietly and she looked away as quickly as she could. Zipporah felt her knees give in under her body, and tears swelled into her vision with little warning. She knew what that meant. It was very likely that her family was dead.
“Maybe they made it underground,” Rose offered, looking at Zipporah with compassion. She appreciated the sentiment, but her heart knew that something awful had happened. She reached out to feel for the presence of her family, using her new-found Ethran gift to reach over the souls of the Earth. She found many of them, hiding in caves and underground fortresses. Herded together, praying for humanity, Zipporah felt their terror.
“Either way,” Arden whispered into her hair, “We have to do this.” His hand went to her back reassuringly and guided her up, seemingly feeding her his strength. She didn’t know what happened to the girl who worked on the Star Liner. That girl had been broken down, beaten, ridiculed, but still somehow found a way to pick herself up and keep on. But who was she now? Collapsed on the ground, sobbing for the loss of her family, needing someone to pick her up.
He was right, of course. But for some reason, knowing that her parents wouldn’t be waiting for her somehow lessened her desire to carry on. But then there was Arden’s hand on the small of her back, slowly pulsating through her body the message to not give up. She loved him for that, and gripped on to his waist as she looked at the others, a little embarrassed.
“Does that thing still fly?” Beth nodded towards the Rath ship in the distance, changing the subject abruptly, clearly unco
mfortable with the intense display of emotions. Zipporah wasn’t sure if it was the hopelessness she had shown for the loss of her parents, or the loving way that Arden touched her.
“Yeah,” Zipporah nodded, pulling herself together and away from the arms of Arden. She made a decision right there that she would no longer allow herself to be the victim. She didn’t want to be weak, and she knew she had the strength in her. She took the first step away from them, leading them to the ship. Mentally, something changed in her. She went from sheep to shepherd, deciding once and for all that this was her planet, and she would be the one to save it. She would make new life on Earth.
Chapter Nine
The group of Ethrans arrived in Canada two hours after reaching the ship. Zipporah stood up from her seat in the captain’s chair. She had been the co-pilot to Arden, learning how to steer the ship herself while he watched, engrossed with her capacity to learn, then chalking it up to her Ethran roots.
The others had stayed in the back, conversing with each other quietly has the time rolled by. A few of them slept, resting their human bodies for whatever they had waiting for them. Zipporah refused such rest. Her body was on fire. Energy seeped from her fingertips as she sat on the edge of her seat and absorbed the information necessary to operate the ship.
Zipporah was the first to step off the ship, stretching her muscles up to the dark sky and twisting her joints back to life with a satisfying crack. The hours she had spent on the ship felt like years, and she was ready to move again. She pressed down her pain and sadness, saving it for a time when the fate of the world did not pivot on her ability to hold herself together.
“Ok,” Zipporah cleared her throat and looked around. She remembered this place with fierce familiarity. But it was nothing like it had been before. Niagara was barely falling. There were no swelling waters rushing down, or the deafening sound of the falls hitting the base. All Zipporah could hear was a faint trickle, and she couldn’t understand why.
“Where do we go from here, Rain?” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and exhaled slowly, taking her eye off of the desolate view.
Rain closed her eyes for a moment, scrunching up her delicate face to find the exact place and memory that would lead them to where they needed to go. Zipporah stayed on the other side of her consciousness, not wanting to enter her mind unless she needed to. She waited while Rain searched her mind, and looked over to Arden. His eyes were on her, smiling softly. Her eye caught his and for a moment, her heart melted into him and she released a feeling of peace to him.
“Two miles from here. That’s where they landed. I think it is East from here.” Rain held lightly onto her head as she groped around her mind. Zipporah turned, knowing where that was. A mile from her family’s home. Rain mentally nudged Zipporah to turn her back, to which Zipporah obliged. A shadow was cast that came from the overwhelming light of an Ethran in their true form. The light rose into the sky and perched in a cloud.
I will lead from here. I think I remember the exact place. She thought to the Ethrans and Zipporah. They began to follow the pool of light being cast onto the dark world.
It wasn’t long before Zipporah began to feel a sense of cold, dark dread settle over her body. They were near the beginning of the end, and she expected nothing less than a bloody fight. She turned her back to her new friends so their shapes would change into something safer for them. Wishing she was able to do that herself, she pulled out her weapon and prepared herself for what was to come.
It was quiet. Almost eerily so. Zipporah could see much more out of her good eye with the light that her friends provided her. She saw nothing out of the ordinary—nothing that stood out as particularly malicious. She didn’t trust the seemingly calm atmosphere.
“What do you think?” She whispered to Arden, who was glowing behind her softly. She resisted turning around to look at him as he began to speak.
“I think this is a trap.”
Her blood chilled in her veins. She knew he was right, without feeling out to the rest of the area. Without taking another step, she knew he was absolutely right. She looked around, still seeing nothing.
Zipporah, Rain’s mind reached into Zipporah’s and pulled her to attention. They are in the sky. They are all around me. Some are watching you. They’re amused.
Anger boiled in Zipporah’s stomach as she thought about the vile species watching her, waiting for her to fail. She pulled her shirt tightly over the glowing center of her heart. She refused to allow them to know the power she held over them. Perhaps that would give her an advantage.
How many ships? Zipporah thought to Rain, mentally preparing herself for the fight of her life. She could handle one Rath. Maybe even two. But a fleet was a different story. The Ethrans behind her continued to saturate the ground before them with the purest light. Zipporah could hardly believe that such beauty was inside of her.
Two, Rain confirmed. They are not in the ships. They are in the sky. All of them. I think they were already on the Earth when Ethra destroyed Rath.
All of you, She addressed all of the Ethrans surrounding her, go up and try to shine some light on them. Arden and Beth, stay back with me. We need to end this, and quick.
Zipporah felt some resistance from a few of the Ethrans, but she gave another mental push, and they slowly did as she asked. Closing her eye, she waited for them to join Rain in the sky before turning to Beth and Arden. Her gaze took the light from them and replaced it with their human bodies. Zipporah was a little relieved to be looking into Arden’s face, but she ignored her instinct to latch herself on to him. He would not be saving her this time.
“They are all in the sky, so we have time down here to figure out how to take away this darkness.”
****
Zipporah searched the area fervently, her breath quickening as her Ethran friends sent frantic thoughts through their mental connection. They were not doing well, but bodies continued to fall from the sky. She didn’t have a lot of time. They wouldn’t be able to kill them all, and certainly not last forever. They must have been hiding from the eyes of the Rath, or they would have surely died by now.
“Zipporah!” Arden cried, his head striking through the air to get her attention. She swung around to meet his eyes, then her own fell to what he had discovered. It was a small grate covering a hole in the Earth. Zipporah rushed over to where he was standing and bent down to her knees, peering into the gate attentively. She heard muffled cries—human cries. There was a sickening smell of rotting flesh, blood, and unwashed bodies that rose to her nose, and she knew that people were trapped down there.
“Hello?” She cried, gripping onto the gates ferociously. A tiny shred of hope sprung forward in her heart, and she called again. There were many who moaned in response, but no definite answer.
“Could your parents be down there?” Arden asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. Zipporah looked over at him, overcome with such emotion that she couldn’t properly put it into words.
We have to come down! Rain thought to everyone, passing the message as frantically as she could. Zipporah watched as all of her Ethran friend’s lowered themselves to Earth. And she watched what trailed behind them. Thousands of Raths.
“Oh, my god.” She muttered, barely able to breath. Fear took over her heart as she looked into the eyes of her friends. Had she led them all to their deaths?
The light in her chest began to burn, and Zipporah turned her attention to the power that was manifesting inside of her. She honed in on the feeling of her heart burning away, seemingly into nothing. Arden took her hand, and suddenly he was able to feel what she could.
Rain took her other hand, offering some support or comfort in their final moments. But Zipporah knew that they were not going to die. The feeling washing over her body was full of rage and power, but also immense joy. She let all of these things rush out of her body and flood the atmosphere around her, eyes snapped shut in total surrender. The Ethrans had formed a connected circle, allowing her all o
f the energy she needed to allow her spirit to run free.
Tears seeped through her shut eyelids, staining her dirty cheeks and reminding her that she was still alive. In the background she could hear the screams of the Rath. They were melting in the face of such awesome power. She could feel the gentle feed of power flowing into her from her friends. They were fueling her rage, her sadness, and her overwhelming sense of loyalty to her planet. Arden was gently nudging her to go forward, his hand squeezing around hers tightly.
“Zipporah!” A woman cried from a bit away from the commotion. It sounded like her mother. Zipporah’s eyes snapped open and her head jerked around. The power around her faded slightly with her focus broken.
“Mama?” She called frantically, shaking her hands free of Arden and Rain. Her mother was near her. She could feel it, and she wanted her. As Zipporah turned to the direction her mother’s voice was coming from, she saw her worst nightmare come to light; a Rath was holding her mother by the hair, a knife pressed against her neck savagely.
“Let her go!” Zipporah shrieked, radiating more power than she had intended to. This particular Rath seemed to be stronger than the others, and he wasn’t going to talk. His hands tightened in her mother’s hair she began to squirm.
