Chapter 7

The group fell so quiet they could hear Colleen whisper, "Why?"

Fuse's eyes flinched open, the spectrum in her irises overcome with red. Jayson balled his fists.

"Because of the Lraenu," Fuse said.

The four winced at "Lraenu." It was as if Fuse's voice threatened to break their ears, but she didn't have the strength. Ru tried to repeat it, but could not manage the pronunciation Fuse had given.

"The first Skaeya rebelled against the Accilean leaders," Fuse said. "Since then, the galaxies have been overrun by vicious, ghost-like creatures called Lraenu. The Lraenu can change their form, but as a true Lraenu, they are practically invincible. We know they are under the command of the rebel Skaeya, but we aren't sure if he created them or if he simply controls them.

She paused, waiting for some sort of response. The four stood still and silent, somewhat goggle-eyed.

"You, with the blue pendant." Fuse pointed at Ru. "What's your name?"

Ru's name was startled out of her. Fuse knelt and lifted the eagle pendant on the tips of her long, rough fingers. "These pendants you have been given will help you access power to defend the galaxies. Before, they weren't strong enough to transport Skaeya between worlds, but after tonight you will be able to come and go with no one from your planet noticing. They are your power source - do not lose them, never give them up. And most importantly, don't break them."

She pointed to the sky, releasing the pendant string and allowing Ru a much needed step backwards. "Ru, yell 'switch meteor' as loud as you can. As if you wanted the sky itself to hear you."

The area was too quiet for Ru to feel like yelling at the top of her lungs, but she sucked in slow, deep breath. "Switch meteor!"

Her voice came back to the group in slow, crisp echoes. They died out quickly. After a few seconds she felt a hostile blush. "Okay," she murmured, "What'd you make me yell like that for, now?"

Jayson stared upwards, lifting the bill of his hat. "Hey, a shooting star."

At first, they could only see the twinkle of strange constellations. Jayson aimed his finger at a gap in the leaves. Slowly, a blue light emerged. It soared steadily across space, its flaming tail solid and straight. "That's too big to be a shooting star," Colleen said, wringing her hands. She had seen many shooting stars before she had gone to sleep. "And too slow."

The object was hidden momentarily behind the broad palm leaves, which were swaying in a sudden breeze. The light's tail disappeared as it grew brighter, swelling to the size of the moon. The group tensed. "Oh man, I think it's headed this way," Randy said. "Run!"

The light illuminated the ground with blue, revealing the increasing wind in the thrashing palmtrees. The gusts were coming from all directions, driving the children in towards the light. They clung to tree trunks and dug their shoes into the ground to gain every inch they could away from the apparent impact site. Jayson noticed that his sister was not with them. "Ru, c'mon!" he called, glancing back.

Ru had not moved at all. She stared up at the sky with eyes so empty Jayson felt his stomach drop. Fuse stood nearby, barely affected by the wind. In the instant Jayson turned back, he knew he would not make it in time to get Ru out of the way of the racing light. He screamed her name in a last-ditch effort to get her to move, but it was lost in the wind.

The light hit with a shockwave of blue and howling wind.

Ru felt herself rising at an incredible speed, whirling around in cloudy wind. She was being lifted to the highest heights of a sunlit sky, to the deepest blue, reaching for the limit. Energy built inside of her, that same soothing, uplifting kind that came from her pendant light, and flattened her out. Her muscles stretched and even her fingers sprawled. She noticed her body disappearing and suddenly, something deep inside her shattered.

She had never felt this free. She wanted to soar on forever in this sky, spiraling through the rolling clouds - but the sky had gone. The wind remained, but she wasn't sure how she was aware of it, as she seemed to have no form. She had no fingers to feel the wind, no ears to hear it, no eyes to take in the rushing sky.

In an instant, she was back in the Arrikan forest. Her feet were planted firmly on the ground, all her senses were back where they should have been. Her clothes, however, were different. Her frayed, somewhat white sneakers had turned thick and cobalt blue, with white wing insignias on the sides. She had a blue, sleeveless shirt and a shining sash looped over her left shoulder. The spectrum on its surface seemed to be shifting as the light around her changed. She had dark blue windpants, and white fingerless gloves that reached nearly to her elbows. Around her wrists, there were thick gold rings with two blue feathers attached to each. A blue headband was tied firmly around her head, holding her bangs away from her eyes and ending in two tails that were a little shorter than her hair.

It took her a moment to realize that her appearance wasn't the only thing that had changed. That intense freedom she had felt before she came back to reality was still inside her, softened, and her mind felt as open as the books she stared at for hours on end. There was something new about the way she was perceiving everything, as if she had been seeing the world in black and white all her life and suddenly everything was drenched in color. There was  energy in all directions - she was connected, feeling the movement of the stars and trees and people and lytras of the galaxies. Overwhelmed by her new sense, she could not move.

"You are now the Skaeya of the sky," Fuse told her, "The leader of this generation."

The weight of "Skaeya" hit her opened mind with full force. In that instant, she knew just what being a Skaeya meant to the world, what was waiting to be awakened inside her. She felt like a star herself, burning with immense energy.

Fuse looked different now, in the same way. There was energy in her, not the same as a Skaeya and not as strong, but something that would be difficult to ignore. And there were her friends, grouped together and gawking at her, with a huge difference. It was as if she had jumped into the third dimension and left them in the second.

"Hey, can I do that?" Randy asked. Ru sensed eagerness in his voice, but through the difference in their energy levels, the feeling was patchy and canned.

"If you can yell loudly enough," Fuse said.

Ru had no doubts that Randy could yell that loudly.

His meteor did not take nearly as long to arrive as Ru's, and fell so fast the others could barely see it. It hit the ground with an electric boom, and the resulting light was even too bright for Fuse to look at. Randy was the only one who see. A tunnel of colors whirled around him as he shot upwards. His heart raced and vanished as strings of light closed in on him, pushing him higher and higher.

Something inside him shattered and the world went to darkness and glittering stars. All the galaxies of the universe were in his sights, amazingly clear -

All the light faded, except a green glow that came from a horizontal hourglass shape across Randy's new T-shirt. He had a wide, fern-green headband and windpants. His sneakers had an eight-point star on the sides. Ru could feel so much energy from him, it was as if the light that had transformed him had never left. He was right in front of her, and now she couldn't even imagine him with the filthy hands and torn jeans he had seconds before.

"Awesome!" Randy pulled at his clothes. "Oh, cool, my shirt's glowing."

Ru snickered. Of course, with all this new sense that came with their transformation, the shirt would be the first thing he noticed. A devious grin spread across his face and he smacked his palm with his fist. "So what kind of powers do I get?"

"You are the Skaeya of Light."

"Light?" The excitement drained away. "Light?! Ru gets like lightning and tornadoes and stuff, and I get light?"

Ru hadn't given much thought to her power aside from the new sense. She imagined summoning a funnel cloud, and acquired the grin Randy had lost. "Please, no lightning," Colleen whimpered as she noticed Ru's expression.

"Randy, is it?" Fuse asked.

Randy crossed his arms and gave Fuse the toughest look he could. "Yeah."

Fuse looked him up and down, then flicked her hand. A set of glowing rainbow feathers appeared between her fingers. Ru suddenly realized how dark it had become since her transformation. Fuse floated the feathers to separate places in the clearing and turned to Colleen. "Randy," she said at last, "it would be wise not to underestimate any element."

Her answer set Randy off to grumbling. She bent over so that she was at Colleen's eye level. "You next?"

Colleen jumped. She had been quietly panicking - there was no way she could be a defender, not after how she handled things every day with the girls at Nuthatch. More in mind than anything, however, was her dream. She glanced around, hoping her eyes would not cross anything red.

"What's your name?"

"Colleen," she murmured.

"Er - I'm sorry, I didn't hear that," Fuse said, inching closer.

"Colleen," she repeated. Fuse's presence, though agreeable, was overwhelming in its familiarity, and she trembled. She covered her pendant with both hands. "This - this isn't a Skaeya pendant."

"Of course it is." Fuse beamed. "You couldn't be here otherwise. Give it a try."

Colleen gulped, and Fuse backed away. All she could think of, as her mouth only formed the words, was how similar the switch meteors had looked to the red star in her dreams.

Fuse looked to the sky. "Not loud enough."

Cringing, Colleen felt her eyes sting and water and her face grow warm. Her voice caught in her throat. She stared at her shoes, hoping that she would hurry and wake up before the red star sparked in the sky, before that horrible voice could be heard again, and was reminded by her own words that it was not a dream. The red star hadn't looked exactly like the switch meteor, but it was close. Her pendant was pink, and the last two meteors had matched the colors of Ru and Randy's pendants.

She thought of simply telling Fuse the dream, but even though she was the subject of the dream, she was a complete stranger. Her voice was still caught.

Ru shrugged. "It's okay. It doesn't hurt or anything."

Fighting the idea of running away, Colleen clenched her teeth and screwed her eyes shut. She drew a few deep breaths, relaxing her throat, and then screamed, "Switch meteor!"

The air grew cold. Colleen's head jerked upward, her quickening breath clouding the air. A breeze picked up, sparkling with snowflakes, reflecting the pink light from the approaching meteor.

It seemed to hit in slow motion. Despite the silver reflections she saw in the ice all around her, Colleen felt warmth closing in on her from all sides, so real it was as if she were floating on it, up and up. It almost put her to sleep when she felt a part of her shatter. She could feel the presence of every one of the snowflakes that drifted by, every little crystal of their structure, gleaming in light, playing out in her mind.

Their sparkle was concentrated into her new shirt, a pink, sleeveless top. She wore the same hairpiece she always did, a pink arc over the top of her head, only the pink had gone so bright it was almost neon. She had black shorts, and pink sneakers with a white snowflake symbol. There were white ribbons around her wrists and near her elbows, criss-crossing over her arms.

"That one blew away our lights again," Fuse muttered.

The glowing feathers were nowhere to be seen, but Randy's shirt gave off enough of glow for everyone to be seen clearly. In his dim light, Colleen's shirt glittered as if it were in a head-on spotlight.

"I'll give you light," Randy threatened, pointing at Fuse.

Colleen hunched over. The energy poured into her mind without resistance. "I-I feel so strange," she quivered.

More feathers appeared in Fuse's hand. "You're just awakening to the Accilean System."

"Accilean System?" Colleen repeated in a whisper.

"Odd - your pendant has been used before," Fuse said. "Yes, I'm sure I've seen it. You are the Skaeya of Ice, but the way."

Colleen was about to ask, but Randy sprang out in front of her, growling and waving a fist at Fuse. "Light power!" he shouted. "Go! Shine!"

Fuse's face gave hints of amusement and confusion. "Your elemental powers don't work yet. I can't explain until all four of you are ready."

She glanced at Jayson. His eyes were shut and his face relaxed into cool annoyance. He leaned up against a tree, crossing his arms.

"That's Jayson," Ru said. "He probably still thinks this is a dream."

Randy bounded right over to Jayson and aimed a finger in his face. "Chicken?"

"I told you, that doesn't work with me," Jayson said.

"You have to do this."

The coolness was gone in an instant. "No, I don't! Something isn't right about all this!"

Jayson shifted his weight away from the tree and started to walk off. Fuse stepped in front of him. "I thought you thought this was a dream. If -"

"Switch meteor!"

Fuse jumped.

"I said I don't have to switch." Jayson's eyes began to empty. "I didn't say I wouldn't."

He watched, unmoving, for the meteor's arrival. A hot breeze rushed up. Small flames inched up from the ground and licked at his sneakers, drawing upwards towards the meteor as it closed in.

It hit in a storm of short, fiery ribbons, and Jayson rose in the air with the heat, embers whirling furiously around him, then gigantic flames. They twisted, glimmered, but kept a respectful distance, giving him energy through their heat. There was a shattering within him.

If he had a form, he was certain he could carry the world on his shoulders. The strength he was feeling was incredible, the clarity of his thoughts, which no longer flickered through his mind or tried to make sense of what was going on around him.

Like Colleen, he had kept his headwear, except the White Sox logo had gone and it was a deep black, no longer dusty or frayed. He had a red T-shirt, dark red windpants, and red shoes with yellow flames printed on the sides.

"Dude! You're shirt's on fire!" Randy cried.

Some of the flames had failed to clear. Jayson yelped and ran around in a circle.

"Jayson! Stop drop and roll!"

"Quick, teach me my ice powers!"

Fuse laughed. "Calm down! It's just part of your outfit. It can't hurt you."

Jayson noticed then that he felt no heat or pain from the flames, and there was no sound or smoke, only light. When he jerked the collar of the shirt, the flames wiggled. His face turned red.

Fuse gave them all an approving glance, then closed her eyes. Ru felt a small undercurrent of energy from her, seeping into the ground and spreading, encircling the world beneath their feet. "You four listen well. We still have time left. The Lraenu are far from here yet, and they don't seem to be looking for us. So let's move onto your next ability - flight."

"Flight?" Randy asked, raising an eyebrow.

Fuse stepped closer to an opening in the trees. "Well, you are flying fighters, aren't you? I've heard that Skaeyan humans often dream they can fly. That is because they know, deep down inside, they really can fly. The Accilean Council made them forget, for their own safety."

Jayson's big brother voice came now. "Accilean Council?"

"The leaders combined, the council they form," Fuse reminded. "They run the Accilean System."

"I don't understand. What exactly is the Accilean System? How can it bind galaxies together?"

"Later, later," Fuse said lightly. Before Jayson could protest, she stuck two fingers in her mouth and gave a sharp, melodic whistle. A gold light appeared in the sky, flickering into a silhouette of a bird as it crossed the moon. It swooped down and perched on Fuse's angled arm, a small eagle. Its feathers were translucent, silver and gold, and its eyes, beak and talons metallic. It was lit up on the inside like a paper lamp.

"Skaeya, this is my friend Glyder. He is a wisheagle, and he will help you remember how to fly. Keep your eyes on him now."

Fuse raised her arm sharply. Glyder flapped into the air. Like a lytra, he glowed brighter and brighter as he flew further from the ground, but the light floated to the ground in waves, as if he were shedding layers of stardust. The air split with firecracker screams, rays of golden light swept over them, and Ru felt something. It was the same freedom that came with her transformation, more than a feeling. Something was twisting in her mind, clarifying, just on the edge of her memory.

Her head snapped up and she bolted forward. Her friends all watched her as she raced by, until she leapt into the air at the edge of the clearing. Seconds passed, then a minute.

Her feet never touched the ground.

The others gathered around her, gaping up at Ru. She stared blankly ahead, still as stone. Her shoes dangled at their eye level.

"It worked!" Randy yelled, bringing Ru back to reality with a start.

Her stomach lurched and her heart tried to beat its way out of her chest. She wobbled and waved her arms around, searching for something to grab onto, but there was only air.

"That's it, she remembers," Fuse said.

Ru's mind latched onto Fuse's voice. "Help!" she shrieked. "I'm gonna fall! I don't know what to do!"

Fuse only laughed. Ru would have glared at if she didn't feel like if would make her tumble out of the air.

"You won't fall unless you want to," Fuse said. "You should remember that by now. You'll only go where you will yourself to."

A grainy splat echoed off into the trees. In his excitement, Randy attempted to take straight off and landed face-first in the dirt. "It may take a few runs," Fuse said. "Try keeping your feet under you."

Ru became aware that the pendant warmth was back. It was more dimensional this time, a vastly clearer blue without being visible, and it was building structure in her mind. Something solid, to hold her up away from the fear, crystallizing her thoughts. Her mind went into cartoon vision, wondering why she wasn't bobbing up and down as she hovered like on TV.

This thought gave her enough courage to move. She kicked at the air as if she were swimming, but only tilted a few inches clockwise.

"Use your mind, not your feet," Fuse said.

Ru took a deep breath and stretched out, bringing her arms down. She envisioned taking off, like a bird, its wings gulping air and pushing away from the ground, and suddenly her stomach dropped again. She opened her eyes, and saw she was a few feet further away from Fuse.

Two separate crystals formed in her mind, and replayed what she had just done. The swiping hand motion had not been necessary, it was that she wanted to feel like that bird taking off, and imagining that happened was what propelled her upwards. She used the same idea, only less visualized, and turned in a full circle.

"Go ahead and try it out," Fuse said, beaming. "We'll catch up. Just don't go too far, and if you see or sense anything out there besides us, come right back here."

Ru's eyes went to the sky. The broad yellow sliver of moon gleamed between palm silhouettes, stars scatted around it like embers. She started up slowly, slipping between the thick, cool leaves, focusing on the stars. The air was less dense above the trees, the night sky an elegant indigo. She ascended faster and faster, and though she could feel the air flow around her, it didn't fly in her face or muffle her ears. She let herself slow to a stop and looked out over the world, and her face lit up.

Beyond the palm field, black and thorny in the night, there was an ocean. It reflected the sky vividly, a giant stained glass window. An arc of fuchsia and blue stars, some as large as the moon, dust curling off their edges, stretched under another moon, a violet crescent. The size of it, when she thought of the single, pale-faced moon at home, left her breathless. She could see further and further into the glittering night, and the more she could see, the more she could feel. Each star her eye could take in made her feel a different burst of energy, made her see a different world at a glance. She felt as if she were about to burst into light.

"Wow," she heard Colleen sigh.

The rest of the group had reached Ru's level. Ru didn't turn to look at them, she could feel them in her mind too - Jayson flickered, Colleen floated, Randy shimmered. The sky overwhelmed them all. She had looked at the sky so many times from her own planet - perfect blue, crystal white, wild gray and black. She knew that she never really saw anything there. Here there were potentials she never dreamed of, trillions of entities with their own stories, their own place in time, their presences locked together in a web of irrepressible, harmonious energy.

Fuse's light came up behind them, her wings humming loudly. "From now on, our training will be at the Council's complex, but the only gatestone from Skae leads here, so you will come here first."

There was something off in her voice. Though it was hard to see with the bird's pure black eyes, Ru could tell she was eyeing something off in the distance. Following the bird's gaze, she made out the silhouette of a half a square sticking up out of the trees. It was quite a long distance away, if the group was any lower they wouldn't have been able to see it, but it was striking.

"You know," Jayson said,"having a flaming uniform kind of ruins the element of surprise."

"The element of surprise is useless with the Accilean System involved, anyway."

Ru was sure now that the Accilean System was this energy field. And over by that block in the trees was a strange void, a cold, empty draft leaking into the world, a single line of black smoke in a forest in danger of fire. It reminded Ru that there was still at least one thing she couldn't see. This brilliant harmony that flowed through these galaxies - who and why would anyone want to endanger it?