by Gage Lee
>>>Akashik network connection failed.
System reset imminent .
Cryptblock corrupted.
Closing open nodes.<<<
“Oh, my,” Monitor said. “No more dithering. Welcome to the Awakened world, Sleeper.”
A jolt of electricity, or something very like it, slammed into my solar plexus. Every nerve in my body screamed at the same time. My eyes shot open, my heart galloped, and I took in a breath that was both deeper and purer than any I’d ever experienced. A ball of pain blossomed in my gut, just behind and above my belly button. It felt like someone had stuck me with a hot bolt of lightning.
“Stop it!” I shouted and jumped to my feet. “You’re killing me!”
“That’s a bit of an exaggeration, don’t you think?” Monitor asked in a frosty tone. “I merely brought you back from certain death. If you’d prefer to stay on this side of the grave, I suggest you close your mouth and listen to me.”
The pain intensified, like a fist-sized ball of scalding iron had just appeared inside me. I was angry at Monitor, but I nodded and clamped my jaw shut. I’d have done almost anything to stop the agony.
>>>Akashik network interface host stabilization report
System reset aborted.
Akashik network connection failed.
You currently have one donor ghostlight blade in your core reserves.
Please circulate ghostlight reserves to complete your initial advancement, engineer.
Cryptblock generation aborted.
All existing cryptblocks have been dismantled.
Closing open nodes.<<<
“That’s much better.” Monitor floated into the air and crossed his legs. He held his arms out to his sides, hands level with his shoulders. He rotated his palms toward the ceiling, then touched his ring fingers to his thumbs. “Please listen carefully to my words. I have generously donated a portion of my ghostlight to you. That was enough to maintain your consciousness. However, you must circulate that energy to complete the Awakening before you die.”
“I don’t know how,” I gasped through the pain.
“This is truly unfortunate,” Monitor complained. “It took us so long to gather the ghostlight to power the transfer gate. This plan was our salvation. Narsk Alaush was to find and return with several experienced cultivators. Instead, we have...you.”
Monitor said the last word without inflection, but I still heard his disappointment. Narsk must have been some hotshot. Not that I cared. All I wanted was for the pain to stop.
“Please,” I groaned. “It hurts.”
“My apologies,” Monitor said. For the first time since I’d arrived, he sounded truly concerned. “It is easy for we soulforged to forget how miserable pain makes mortals. Listen to my words. Breathe in through your nose.”
The soulforged watched me follow its directions. Air flowed into my lungs, cool and faintly sweet. It tingled in my nostrils and throat, like a whiff of fresh peppermint.
“Now, hold it,” Monitor commanded. “Feel the ghostlight bloom inside you. Guide the celestial energy into your core.”
This reminded me all too much of one of my mother’s meditation tapes that she’d forced on Biz during the treatments. It was supposed to focus your mind and make it easier to deal with pain. The exercises had helped calm my mind, but they never seemed to touch Biz’s pain. I wasn’t at all sure the meditation would work to cool the fires burning in my gut.
But, despite my doubts, simply breathing did seem to help. I closed my eyes and held the breath in my lungs until the faint tingling I felt became a squirming ball of warmth. Gently, carefully, I coaxed the warmth—ghostlight, Monitor had called it—to travel deeper into me, through my body to the agony at my center.
The core.
More warmth oozed around the energy Monitor had transferred to me when he’d saved my life. The two forces roiled around one another like oil and water. The turbulence the powers churned up did nothing to ease my pain, and I clenched my jaw against a fresh wave of torture. I’d never experienced anything like this, and really, really hoped I never would again.
“Good!” Monitor’s voice rose excitedly, as if he really was pleased with my progress. Of course, everything he’d done so far to help me had hurt like a bellyful of broken glass, so I wasn’t sure his happiness was high on the list of things I should care about. “Now, exhale. Force the energy I gave you out of your core and hold on to your own ghostlight.”
The pain made it difficult to focus on the separate streams of energy running around inside my core. Bit by bit, I teased the sensations into two entities: one that belonged to me, and one that snarled and spat like a rabid wolverine and had obviously come from Monitor.
That one had to go.
I kept the foreign ghostlight in my thoughts and slowly, carefully, breathed out. Monitor’s energy billowed out of me in a cloud of foul-tasting black vapor. The bitter flavor lingered on my tongue after my lungs were empty and the streams of shadow had drifted away. As nasty as it tasted coming out, it had taken the pain with it.
Maybe I wasn’t going to die after all.
“Yes!” Monitor crashed his metal hands together like a pair of cymbals, and the echoes rebounded off the low ceiling and close walls of the pool chamber. “Take a deeper breath this time. Fill your core to the utmost.”
It seemed silly to let Monitor direct something as simple and instinctual as my breathing. Still, he had saved me and seemed to know what he was talking about. I took another breath. It was easier to direct the energy into my core. I also didn’t have to worry about Monitor’s foreign ghostlight interfering with my own. Within a matter of minutes, the pain in my center was gone, and I felt like I’d eaten a pleasantly large meal. I wasn’t tired, either. It was as if the few minutes I’d spent focusing on circulating my breath with Monitor had been as restful as a full night’s sleep.
I had a full minute of peaceful relaxation.
And then I exploded.
Chapter Three
ALL THE GHOSTLIGHT that I’d gathered during the circulation exercise burst out of me in a flash of golden light. The energy that had filled my body fled right along with it, leaving me feeling weaker than I had been when Monitor dragged me from the blue glowing water. A sound like the blast of a hundred trumpets crashed against my ears, its brassy cry drowning out my thoughts.
For a split second, I was looking down at my body from a vantage point somewhere near the ceiling. A ball of warm light burned inside me. Threads of fire wormed their way out of that core to crawl along my veins and arteries, tracing the outlines of my nervous system and forming a blazing aura that surrounded me.
>>>Akashik network interface advancement status report
Akashik network connection confirmed.
Advancement commencing.
Sleeper passing to Awakened core.
Congratulations, engineer! You have reached core level Awakened.
Ghostlight capacity advanced to five blades.
Good Strength, Good Wisdom
All other attributes registered neutral.
Meridian alignment in progress...
Meridian alignment complete.
Advancement complete.<<<
Great. The voice in my head was spouting more nonsense. I had no idea what the last sentence meant, but whatever it was hurt like blazes. My muscles convulsed and twitched for a moment, then I rose into the air, arms and legs spread wide. My point of view plummeted until it met my physical form and the two merged into one big bundle of ouch.
The pain, even the memory of the pain, vanished as I drifted back down to the stone floor. The warm glow beneath my skin faded and left me chilled in the cool air next to the pool.
“How do you feel?” Monitor’s eyes were fixed on my core.
“A lot better now.” That was the truth. Strength was returning to my limbs after the trauma of whatever had just happened. I was a good sort of tired, like I’d just finished a few warm-up reps at the gym. The fact tha
t the voice was still in my head, though, was worrying. Normal people didn’t hear voices. “What was that?”
“You cultivated your ghostlight and have advanced from a Sleeper to Awakened core,” Monitor said matter-of-factly. When he saw the confusion on my face, he unfolded his legs and dropped to the floor to stand in front of me. “Does any of that mean anything to you?”
“No.” I shrugged. “Look, I don’t know what you expected, but I’m just a kid who got snatched out of an amusement park to...wherever this is. I’m sorry if that messes up your plans, but it really screwed up my day, too. My sister and I really, really need to get back home before the park people disqualify us from the Smuggler’s Challenge and our mom completely freaks out and grounds us for the rest of our lives.”
Monitor put a hand on my shoulder and emitted a mechanical rasping that could have been a sigh.
“A mistake was made.” Monitor interrupted himself with a question. “What was your name?”
“Kai.” There didn’t seem any harm in telling the metal man who I was. It might even help him get me back home, somehow. “Kai Evers. That’s my sister, Beatriz. But everyone calls her Biz.”
“Well, Kai, you’ve gotten yourself in the middle of a trying time here at the Ghostlight Academy.” Monitor dropped his hand from my shoulder and steepled his fingers in front of his chest. “While all visitors are welcome to seek shelter with us, the Tribunal invested a significant amount of time and resources in summoning Narsk Alaush. We needed him, you see, to help us restore the Academy to its former splendor.”
“Who is ‘we’ and why should I care?” Monitor seemed polite enough, but I didn’t like the implication that this was somehow my fault. “Biz and I were playing a game. Marsala—”
“Narsk Alaush,” Monitor corrected me.
“Whatever. He shot me in the back and tried to steal our prize.” I motioned to my sopping wet hair. “And then you nearly drowned my sister and me. Whatever problems you have are your own fault, not ours. We just want to go home.”
“Yes, I see.” Monitor shook his gleaming head and his eye lenses dimmed to a deep violet. “I am very sorry, Kai Evers. As much as I would like for you to trade places with Narsk Alaush, that is not possible. The gate you passed through cannot be reactivated. The damage to the Academy is too severe and we lack the materials to reignite the generators, much less charge the crystals for proper constellation alignment. We would also need thousands of units of ghostlight ore to refill the pool.”
“Then I’m stuck here?” My fingers tightened into fists. “My sister needs her medicine. If she misses a dose, she’ll get sick. And a few hours after that, she’ll die.”
“That is not true, Kai Evers.” Monitor glanced toward Biz’s motionless form. “While your sister Sleeps, her physical form is in a state of stasis. And, when she Awakens, she will be stronger than you remember. Just as you are stronger now. We will teach her to circulate her ghostlight, and her body will heal.”
That seemed hard to believe. Biz had been sick, and getting sicker, for years. No doctors had even been able to agree on a diagnosis, much less a cure. Fresh air and breathing exercises wouldn’t erase my sister’s terminal disease or the years of damage it had already caused.
“You don’t have to keep saying my full name. Kai is fine.” I blew out a frustrated sigh and raked my fingers through my hair. “We can’t be stuck here. There has to be some way home.”
“Awaken your sister,” Monitor said gently. “Share your ghostlight with her. I will gather the others and return for you. We have much to discuss.”
“I don’t know how,” I started, but the soulforged jerk was already on his way out. By the time my last syllable faded away, the door had closed behind him. “Fine, I’ll figure it out on my own.”
Biz’s skin was still warm to the touch, her eyes gently closed. I sat down next to her and rested my palm on her stomach, right over the spot where I’d felt my own core come to life. I didn’t want my sister to go through the same nightmare I had. For the first time in years, she seemed at peace. I hated to spoil that.
But if this would help her get better, I wasn’t going to deny her that, either.
I circulated my breathing, and ghostlight filtered into my core in a slow, steady stream. It took several minutes before the voice intruded on my thoughts again.
>>>Core at maximum capacity. Five blades. Ghostlight decay at one blade per minute.<<<
Knowing that I had five blades of ghostlight was interesting, even if I had no earthly idea how much that was. What I did know was that I’d burned through all of my ghostlight in five minutes, so I’d better use it before it was gone.
“Okay, sis,” I whispered. “Here we go.”
I willed the ghostlight out of my core and into my arm. After a few seconds of concentration, the warm glow in my center separated into two parts. The smaller portion of ghostlight slid smoothly up my chest, through my shoulder, and finally into my bicep. When it finally reached the end of my limb, the energy lit up my hand so brightly I saw the dark shadows of my bones wrapped in the reddish glow of my skin and muscle.
>>>Akashik network ghostlight transfer request initiated.
Initiate ghostlight transfer?
Port connection required.
Akashik network interface awaiting input.<<<
“Yes, initiate,” I muttered to myself. I wasn’t sure whether talking to the voice would make it stick around longer, but if that’s what I had to do to help Biz, I’d do it. “Start the transfer.”
>>>Akashik network interface ghostlight transfer in progress.
Port connection established.
One blade of ghostlight transferring...<<<
The world got very blurry for a few seconds. Biz and I shuddered in unison. It was hard to tell which thoughts were mine and which came from her groggy brain as it started to Awaken. There was no pain, thankfully, but the sensation of being in two places at once was so disorienting I was pretty sure whatever was left of my green milk would soon be all over the floor.
>>>Transfer complete.
Disconnecting port.<<<
Biz jolted upright, breath whooshing into her lungs. Her eyes were wide as half dollars, and her mouth hung open as she gulped more air.
“Take it easy,” I said softly. “You’re all right.”
“Where are we?” Biz gasped. “What happened?”
“We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.” I forced a smile as I said the words. The Wizard of Oz had always been one of Biz’s favorite movies, and she’d devoured all the books. She would freak when she saw Monitor’s version of the Tin Man. “How do you feel?”
“Alive,” Biz said. “Mom’s going to kill us for this.”
“Accurate,” I admitted. “We’ll deal with that later. There’s something you need to do.”
I explained the whole breath circulation thing to Biz, who responded with a dubious frown and rolled eyes. She finally relented, if only because after everything that had happened in the last thirty minutes, meditating her way to health and wellness no longer seemed quite so insane. When Biz floated into the air during her Awakening, she started laughing and couldn’t stop even when her feet were safely back on the ground.
“Kai,” she finally managed to get out between gales of laughter, “this is completely impossible.”
“I know.” It was hard not to chuckle at Biz. The pure joy on her face made my heart ache. It had been so long since she’d looked so happy.
Her expression was almost enough to make me forget about this whole mess. I’d even accept the weird video game status report voice in my head if it meant Biz could always be this happy.
“I can breathe.” She sucked in a deep breath. “I mean, really breathe. This has to be a dream.”
She reached over and pinched me hard enough it should have left a bruise.
I hardly felt it.
“I don’t think this is a dream,” I said. “But it doesn’t seem exactly real, either.”
“Maybe.” I hated to admit it, but nothing else could explain what we’d experienced. “There’s a voice—”
The pool room’s door burst open, and Monitor swept through it with a small party of other figures right behind him.
“Visitors to the Ghostlight Academy, I present to you the members of the Tribunal.” Monitor stepped to the side of the door to let the others step in.
First to appear was a tall, thin man with silver hair that hung nearly to his waist. The tips of his ears, long and tapered to exaggerated points, jutted up through the silken strands of his hair and twitched slightly as if straining to hear every sound. His eyes, each pale gray iris slit by a vertical pupil, swept over Biz and me. The hem of his gold-embroidered white robes brushed across the floor as he made his way to stand in front of us. His anthracite skin was so flawless I swear I could see my reflection in its glossy surface.
“I am Ylor Valasa, lord regent of the Eldwyr Confederation, First Seat of the Silent Council.” He bowed low when he finished the words. “It is my pleasure, by grave and void, to welcome you to our humble school in this time of trouble.”
A tall woman wearing knee-high boots, leather pants, and a dented metal breastplate shoved Ylor Valasa out of the way and thrust her hand out to Biz.
“I’m Baylo Corinda,” she barked. A lock of platinum-blond hair fell over her square-jawed face, and she blew it out of the way with an exasperated sigh. Her green eyes were a shade darker than her skin, which bore more scars than I could count. “I’m the current spokesperson for the Band of the Shadow Fist. Nice to meet you.”
She pumped my sister’s hand up and down in a shake so vigorous I swear Biz’s feet left the ground. Then Baylo grabbed my hand and shook me until my teeth rattled.
“You, too, boy.” She slapped me on the shoulder. “He doesn’t look anything like Narsk Ashaul, Monitor. You’re really slipping in your old age.”
