Fragments of Light

by Beth Hodgson

  There was another sudden boom, and the building debris shifted. Small flecks of dust and metal showered on Suresh, the woman, and her children. Another rocking of the earth, and the building started moving.

  “Oh God, oh my God!” the woman exclaimed, grabbing her children. With a burst of panic, she yanked them out of the building, Suresh trailing right behind her. He caught the hem of her sleeve, holding on to it.

  “Grab on to me!” Suresh told them.

  “We have no time! The building is… Oh God!” the woman screamed, pulling her children away, running.

  Suresh heard the building start to topple, its metal creaking while the last of the unbroken windows shattered. He ran after the woman, lunging toward her and her children. Within a second, he caught up, putting his arms around all of them, making sure his skin touched each one.

  Suddenly, a bright burst of deep greenish-blue magic burst from his body, enveloping them entirely. Not even a split second later, they appeared miles away from the decimated city, on the outskirts of a mountain range.

  The children stood wide eyed, while the woman took a step back as Suresh’s power faded. “You… you have the power of the gods…” she started. “They are real.”

  Suresh only could nod, not wanting to elaborate. He pointed over to a nearby cave, one he’d seen as they traveled through the magical dimension to bring them there safely.

  “Get inside there,” he instructed. “You will be safe.”

  “Can you… will you stop this destruction?” the woman asked, as the earth shook again. One of the children lost their foothold, stumbling to the ground.

  “I can’t. It is far beyond my capability,” Suresh answered. “I’m not even supposed to be here. Now please, get inside the cave before the next wave of meteors comes.”

  The woman nodded, grabbing her children. “Thank you.”

  Suresh heard more sizzling sounds, and a deep-red glow burned in the sky.

  Summoning time magic once again, Suresh’s magic whirled around him, then washed over his body, shooting him back into the space-time continuum. His body hurled across the glowing paths until he hit an invisible one, its solidifying mass bumping his back. He rolled a few more feet, then halted, remaining on the starry path, lying still, catching his breath.

  The destruction of the Earth… was that because Geeta didn’t succeed? He hoped not, otherwise he and the future would soon fade away. Did he still have time to find Ghost Man?

  I have to hurry. The Earth is in danger!

  Suresh looked over, still lying on the ground, studying all the portals. As he scanned the sky, one stuck out to him.

  The portal was not rippling or swirling like the others. It was violet, frozen of any motion.

  Geeta. He had finally found her.

  Suresh smiled in relief, sure that he finally knew where Geeta was. He leapt to his feet, then ran toward the strange portal.

  Cautiously, Suresh touched the portal to see if he could enter it. His finger disappeared behind the violet light of the portal, but the light of it remained still.

  Geeta, I’m coming!

  CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT

  RED

  Hours melted into days, days into weeks. Weeks then turned into months. No matter how long it had been, Kyle had been living the same damn day, frozen in time. How many days had it been since he met Geeta? It had been so long that Kyle had lost track.

  After the first month, after they’d continued to train in the eerie evening sunset of Geeta’s violet world, Kyle had had enough. He was tired of seeing the purple light. He would rather have the violet darkness around him so he could at least get some sleep. He constantly grumbled to Geeta about it, and eventually she gave in. They lived an hour in real time that same day they first began training, then she froze time again.

  Every day Geeta grilled Kyle on his power, and the two of them dueled until he physically couldn’t take it anymore. Kyle never won the duels. As much as he took her instruction, with the combination of his elements and analogous colors, it was never enough to overwhelm Geeta. He had come close once, but Kyle had a feeling it wasn’t because of him, rather it was that Geeta had been overly tired that day.

  Time had been taking a toll on them. Kyle could see the slight changes in his body and face from the daily practice. Even though he was thin, he now had more upper body strength, the training having transformed his body into something greater. His body was leaner, more cut, and his biceps were larger, causing his tattoos to bulge out from the curve of his upper arm. His jaw was more defined, with slight stubble, and his hair had started growing in red, matching his ruby-red eyes. His red hair had bothered him at first, and he bleached it constantly because of it. But after a while, Kyle got tired of doing it, as it was a pain in the ass, and the red was starting to grow on him. He now had an inch of crimson red with the tips of his spiked hair frosted white from his old growth.

  Since time was frozen, Kyle had taken stuff from stores, as both he and Geeta needed to eat. Kyle could see that it bothered Geeta greatly, but he didn’t give a damn. He and Geeta couldn’t go hungry, and in a way, it was payback for the stores that had taxed the hell out of him. And he was saving the world. It was the small price for the stores to pay for saving Arcadia.

  Kyle threw on a clean shirt and pants for the day, waiting for Geeta to finish her prayers so they could start their daily duel. He had never watched her pray since that first night, as it made him feel uncomfortable and completely out of place. Maybe even a little guilty that he had never prayed himself. The closest he had ever gotten to a prayer was when he called out to the God of Light for help when he was about to get injected with Emerald’s blood. If you could even consider that communing with the divine.

  Geeta was the complete opposite of him with her being so religious with her gods. Kyle had wondered for months if her gods were similar to the God of Light. He finally asked her one night about her old gods. Geeta had told him that her beliefs were different than that of the God of Light, but it was a similar concept with more gods—that each of her color gods combined equaled complete holiness. It all was good versus evil, no matter the details of the religions, she stressed.

  As Kyle waited impatiently for Geeta to finish, he grabbed his guitar and stepped outside onto the apartment’s patio, which was no bigger than the bathroom inside. Strumming his guitar, Kyle played the same tune he had played every night whenever Geeta was praying.

  One of the first nights when the world was frozen, Kyle had retrieved his guitar from his apartment. At that time, a new melody came to his mind, and he couldn’t get it out of his head. Kyle knew he had to get it out, as it was burning inside him, and the only way for him to do so was to play it.

  The song was about Emerald. A way for Kyle to channel his energy, his drive, and his determination to get her back. Through his singing and playing the melody within his fingertips, he felt deep within that he was creating a spell, strengthening his heart with the entrancing music.

  Kyle could have stayed at his apartment and met Geeta routinely to train instead of staying at her place, but within the empty, stale world, it was lonely. He felt he was better off with someone who actually moved instead of seeing Rosie frozen outside her door, eternally locked in a pose, grabbing one of her magazines with Zaphod on her shoulder.

  During the second chorus of his song, Kyle heard the sliding glass door open and then silence. Geeta was listening patiently to his words. Kyle stopped mid-song, slightly embarrassed, as he’d never been one to sing love songs, especially in front of others. Besides, it was private. Between him and Emerald.

  “She’s lucky to have someone like you who loves her,” Geeta stated, waiting by the door. “You are her true complement.”

  “Complement?” Kyle asked, setting down the guitar and lighting up a cigarette. “You mean like a partner?”

  Geeta raised an eyebrow, her mouth revealing a half smile, amused at his statement. It was one of the first times he had seen her smil
e. It was very strange.

  “You could say that. Each color has an opposite in the spectrum. It is more apparent when you bend the spectrum line in a circle. For you, being red-gifted, your opposite would be green. And as little as I know of Princess Emerald, you both seem very polarized as far as your personalities go, and your magics. However, being so opposite, you end up complementing each other.”

  “So complements are couples, basically?”

  “Not exactly. Complements could be two gifted in love who are opposite colors, as many have thought in my time. But really it’s the soul of the person, and the magic that lies underneath in their life-force that works together as one. There is a saying from the Rainbow Mantras, written by my people. It states: The creation of light is through complements, for each color yearns for its other half. The two colors opposite can eradicate all shades of darkness.”

  That statement couldn’t have been more perfect for describing how much he longed for Emerald. He needed her. He yearned for her.

  “Then you can understand why I need to get Em back,” Kyle stated, exhaling the smoke from his lips, his eyes meeting hers. “I just want to be with her.”

  “I know.” Geeta nodded. “It must be painful knowing that your other half, their magic and their soul, is kept apart from you. Especially in her circumstance.”

  “It’s like someone ripping my heart out of my fucking body every day and burning it.”

  Geeta remained silent, then continued softly, “I can’t imagine.”

  “Yeah, well, you don’t want to. It’s shitty.” Kyle finished his cigarette, flinging it over the edge of the patio. “Let’s go. Talking about it is depressing me, and I can’t break my focus now.”

  “Agreed.”

  ***

  The Unimark Corporation’s neon sign and brightly lit windows were all colored a violet tint, just as the other lights in Arcadia. Shades of violet-blue. Kyle was so sick of seeing violet that he was always excited to duel, since he got to see his red magic. The only other time he got to see color was when he touched an object. And, of course, he and Geeta remained in color as well. He would probably would have gone insane were that not the case.

  Geeta was already waiting for him on the rooftop, as usual. Why couldn’t he just disappear and reappear instantly with Geeta? It would save so much time instead of flying there. She almost always insisted on him practicing his power, even though flying came naturally to him. On some days, Geeta would extend her hand and use her power so that they could travel together, but that was when she was in a good mood. Geeta hardly ever seemed to be in a good mood, and today was no exception.

  As Kyle released the red winds that swirled around him, he fell lightly onto the rooftop, feet first. Geeta nodded in approval, noticing how much more restraint he showed now. What she had taught him about restraint had helped Kyle hone his abilities more, resulting in the spell being more powerful. But Kyle didn’t always think Geeta was right about not using his raw emotions to unleash the wilder part of his magic. There was always a storm brewing inside his being, making him feel like his chest was going to explode at any moment if he didn’t expend his energy quickly. The force inside of him demanded it constantly, and it nagged at him every time he chose to restrain himself in his casting.

  Geeta had the staff in her hands and was gesturing for him to take it.

  “Wow, this is a first. You are actually letting me use the staff today?”

  She handed it over to him. “Today there will be no duel. Instead, I want you to try and enter my mind using the full power of your adjacent color, violet,” Geeta said, not moving from her spot. “You have shown me that you can use your analogous colors, but you have yet to use the full force of your adjacent colors. That is something you must be able to master, especially violet magic.” Geeta’s long dangling earrings swung as she motioned to the staff. “You should use the staff to amplify your magic, as this task will be extremely difficult for you.”

  “You know, I’ve used my violet magic before in our duels, and even a bit when I was at the cathedral,” Kyle said.

  “That’s very true, but it was all by accident when you did it. And every time it was the physical force side of the gift of the violet. You’ve never cast mental force using violet magic, have you?”

  As soon as she said that, he realized that he had. The moment he yelled Emerald’s name in the cathedral, he’d broken her mind from Ikaria’s magic for just a second. He had thought it was his voice that woke her from her spell, but when he looked back upon the situation with what he knew now, it was his magic.

  “Are you sure you want me to use the staff for this? Won’t it be too easy for me?”

  “Positive. It is nearly impossible to get into the mind of a violet-gifted. You will need all the help you can get.”

  Kyle paused, glancing at her suspiciously. “Wait, is this some kind of trick? You’ve always said we shouldn’t tap into the darker side of our magic. And now it’s okay? What gives?”

  Geeta let out a sigh, then sat down on the ground. “You entering my mind is not using the darker side of the violet power.” Geeta nodded her head, waiting for Kyle to sit down.

  “But I thought you had said before that entering another’s mind is the darker side,” Kyle countered.

  “Entering someone’s mind, no. Possession of one’s mind and body, that is a whole other story. Now enough talk, and sit your butt down.”

  Kyle complied, resting the staff in his lap, both hands grasping the metal. Closing his eyes, Kyle focused on seeing the violet within his life-force. Through the red magic that pumped in his veins, Kyle saw the violet color seep forward, slowly running its course through his body.

  He had never had an opinion on the color violet before. But with months of training in a frozen purple world and discovering what emotion violet magic fed off of, Kyle didn’t like using it. It made him feel funny, and not like how he was supposed to. Violet magic fed off jealousy. He could see why red and violet were next to each other in the spectrum, as the darker side of red was wrath, and the darker side of violet was hatred. Similar in aspects, but Kyle viewed wrath as a bit lighter of an emotion than hatred, if one could even make sense of that statement.

  Kyle was never one to be a jealous person, as there was nothing to be jealous of in the world. But now, Kyle could understand the emotion, now that Prince Derek had married Emerald and had her as his own. That was something for Kyle to be jealous of. And that made him angry, very incredibly angry. The prince had forced the princess to marry him against her will.

  Bastard!

  Violet jealousy filled Kyle’s life-force, completely encasing him within the purple feeling. Kyle continued to picture Prince Derek the moment he saw him embrace and kiss Emerald at the wedding. Kyle’s veins began to vibrate, buzzing with intense jealousy. Darkness began to emerge with the hatred, but Kyle pushed it back.

  Don’t even fucking think about it! You won’t control me, darkness!

  Feeling the magic flowing through his body, he released the power into the staff, sensing the orb glowing with a red-violet intensity. Red would always be present in his casting of magic.

  Violet magic began funneling from his body as it poured over Geeta. In his mind’s eye, Kyle saw the inner workings of Geeta’s mind, barricaded and shielded. The complex maze of doors and windows remained shut, all shielded with an intense magic. Sensing the power, Kyle knew that Geeta was using a different color magic to guard her mind—yellow magic, though it appeared violet from her life-force. Protection magic.

  Kyle’s spirit shifted in Geeta’s mind maze, hoping to open each door and window one by one. The protection magic was so intense that it burned him as he neared each entry.

  Well, shit, how in the hell am I supposed to get inside her mind?

  A swift wind blew over his spirit, and Kyle suddenly felt his mind under attack. With a sharp, forceful blow, he was back in his own mind.

  Opening his eyes, he saw Geeta remained seated a
cross from him, narrowing her eyes at him.

  “What did you think you were doing? I said for you to enter my mind, not break into it!” she scolded him, getting up from her spot.

  “I thought that was what I was doing!” Kyle snarled back.

  Geeta whirled her hand forward, her violet magic bursting from the palms of her hand. The power picked up Kyle’s body, flinging him hard against the cement escape door of the building. “Nobody is allowed to see my thoughts. Nobody!” Geeta yelled.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you? It was a misunderstanding. You need to chill out! I didn’t see anything, and even if I had, I wouldn’t have cared. I’ve seen a lot of shit in my time, and nothing would surprise me. Not now, anyway!”

  Geeta’s bitter face remained motionless. After a few moments, her eyes lowered, and she turned her head. “I am ashamed,” she spoke softly.

  “Ashamed of what?”

  Her hard face softened, and her eyes started to water. No tears fell, but just the flooding of her eyes made him feel like shit. “I’m done for today,” she whispered with a jittery voice.

  Geeta suddenly flashed violet, disappearing, leaving Kyle behind. Kyle walked over to the staff, picked it up, then closed his eyes. He breathed in deeply, focusing on the power of the staff, bonding with his magic.

  Well, she might be done, but I sure as hell am not!

  Then Kyle began to practice on his own. Not with restraint but with his raw emotions.

  Boy, did it ever feel good.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE

  YELLOW

  “High Priest Auron? Are you okay?” a younger priest called out within the temple.

  Auron shook his head, realizing that it was way past time for his ritual meditations. The moon was full in view between the columns of the temple.

  He’d had the same vision again. The gifteds’ bodies melting all around him, their bloodcurdling screams of agony cursing him for taking them to the past. They all blamed him for their demise.