Release

  "Sisters!" she blurted out without thinking.

  It was Rinzal who reacted first, moving himself nearer to her in a protective stance.

  "You know we don't think of each other like that here Tiegal," he reminded her gently.

  "Yes, I know that Rinzal. But I have had a lot of time to think about this and I think we could be classified in this way," she grunted, flashing him a look she hoped signalled her annoyance.

  Indramia moved nearer to her, brushing her shoulders against Rinzal as she did. It was a subtle maneuver, but one clearly meant to indicate that he should step aside.

  "I don't think we should be too quick to brush aside the language or emotional understanding that Tiegal absorbed as a human. After all, it was her ability to connect and bond to these humans that has made her so powerful. If she wishes to view our shared creation period as a form of sisterhood then perhaps this could be explored?" Indramia suggested.

  Ochrani nodded her agreement.

  "As Indramia was trying to say, there are similarities and differences between the four of us - the sisters created from the same carbon contributions. Each one of us has developed unusual abilities that, as far as we know, has not evolved through any Tandroan before us. And although very distinct from each other’s, they can prove complimentary.”

  “Apart from Parador’s that is!” Indramia corrected. “We really need to keep Tiegal away from her. Her gift is arguably the most powerful of them all. And the most dangerous.”

  Rinzal clapped his hand on his forehead.

  “Of course! I knew she was up to something. I warned Tiegal about Parador during her confinement period. Am I right in thinking she can manipulate minds?”

  Indramia flashed her eye-light at them all with one swoop of her head from left to right.

  “It seems she can. But what she didn’t realise was that her powers have limitations. It seems it wears off if we are too far away from each other for any length of time. Which, as it turns out, has worked in our favour since we were both placed on pilgrimages to different islands than her for the last year! And Tiegal, well…she placed herself in a different world entirely!”

  Tiegal shuddered at the feeling of Indramia’s arms around her shoulders and again when she whispered into her ear. “Do you remember what we told you about our gifts?”

  She squeezed her eyes shut as the memory of their lagoon reunion filled her mind in snippets.

  She could smell lilies and basil. Ochrani!

  And the sound of water splashing.

  A second combination of scents filled her - orange blossom and peony: Indramia!

  “It’s coming back to me,” she enthused, aware of the others breathing heavily as they waited.

  Another snippet of a memory flashed before her.

  Ochrani said she had the ability to create a location perfume. A way of pinpointing someone’s location by making a perfume oil to replicate their scent.

  And, Indramia possesses the gift of sight.

  Tiegal opened her eyes and surveyed them all one by one. Her mind raced with the possibilities these combined gifts could bring to her mission. There had to be a reason Rinzal and Zeno had brought them to her. Surely, they must believe they could use them to help her return to her real family on Earth? She started to ask the question that was bursting to get out of her, but it was Zeno who asked it for her.

  "And, you did tell Rinzal that you thought there was a way to use your abilities to help Tiegal connect to her baby?" Zeno urged, now standing close to Tiegal, as though keen to ensure her relationship was relevant too.

  Ochrani took three large steps forward, towards Tiegal, only stopping when her feet touched hers. Their noses were now only inches apart. Ochrani inhaled the air all around Tiegal's face, hair and neck.

  "Your smell really is exquisite. I think I can still detect a bit of her on you," Ochrani mused.

  "Her? You mean Cezanne? My baby? You can smell her?" Tiegal exclaimed.

  Her knees wobbled in shock. Zeno grabbed her shoulders to prevent her fall, whispering in her ear, "It's a lot to process but Rinzal has the cord, the one that connected you to her when she was growing inside you. He recovered it from the evidence room to show Ochrani, so she could smell the scent you share together, your connection with her."

  Tiegal tried to speak but the lump in her throat made it hard to breathe.

  Ochrani took a pace back from her.

  "I think I can make the perfume we need now. It's mainly floral with some cocoa, basil, lime and something else I cannot quite place."

  "Pomelo?" Tiegal managed to squeak.

  This was the strongest of the smells she had imagined when she thought of her daughter, even whilst she was growing inside her. Some nights when Cezanne had kicked and elbowed her way around the bubble inside her stomach, Tiegal had actually tasted the citrus fruit in her mouth.

  Ochrani smiled a wide, perfect, white-teethed grin.

  "Yes!" she enthused.

  She then swung around on her toes, in a perfect ballerina pivot, clapped her hands and then declared:

  "One, Cezanne Eureka Smit perfume coming up!"

  31. Perfume

  Tiegal refused to join the others in the sunrise ritual anymore. The last time she attended she had turned into a howling mess. Just hearing them chant the words, ‘no one can enter my island’ had made her scream at them all.

  "You stupid ignorant beings. You have no idea how powerful it is when you make a real connection. There is more energy created in that kind of exchange than anything you lot have ever experienced!"

  It still amazed her that she was not punished more severely for this outcry. In fact, she had not been punished at all. Instead, she had received an invitation for afternoon tea in the rose gardens with Atla himself. An afternoon that she now realised had been a carefully designed ruse to play with her emotions and her energy, once again.

  Every time she recalled their conversation, she found herself shuddering at the memory.

  "Tiegal Eureka, you are really are abundant with surprises. You must tell me more of what you speak by your recent experiences. How this human exchange created a more powerful energy," Atla had asked her, pouring them both green tea under the shade of his favourite gazebo, in the tiniest cups she had ever seen.

  In hindsight, telling Atla to mind his own business was not the most intelligent thing she had ever said, as she knew he had the power to place huge obstacles in her way. And obstructions were the last thing she needed, not when they were so close to forming a workable plan to get her back to Johannes and Cezanne.

  And yet, to her surprise, Atla had ignored her rude response. Instead, he had offered her some more plassimer pastries and had then walked her through his gardens to show her his latest fountain feature. One that he had commissioned with her in mind. A stunning design of a tree, and not just any tree, a thorn tree with glass-cut bubbles and stars hanging from its branches.

  "Johannes!" she had stupidly blurted out, realizing too late her reaction was exactly what Atla had hoped for. No wonder he had let her wear her Derado for a short period, clapping his hands when a burst of her vibrant colour filled the space around them from her pink diamond.

  Just recalling this made her stamp her feet as she dressed in front of the mirror in her room, running her hands over the star on her stomach.

  “He didn’t see me cry,” she consoled her reflection.

  But that afternoon with Atla still unnerved her, because her every instinct screamed at her to heed the veiled warning in his kindness.

  As Rinzal had said, "There is no doubt the fountain was a test to see your reaction. He may not have locked you up in a cabin, as he did before, but he showed you that tree fountain to see if you would release some of that magic emotional energy of yours."

  Rinzal had a point, but it still confused her. As if on cue, he knocked on her door. His warm, buttery smell wafted to her through the keyhole.

  "Just who I wanted to see!" she cried out, pulli
ng him into her arms for a tight embrace.

  "Have they stopped that moronic chanting yet?" She asked.

  Rinzal burst into a loud guffaw. One so loud and out of character that it implied he was deliberately trying to drown out her words. But then, he had always found her turn of phrase amusing, even when she said things no one else in their world would dare. Yet, there was something odd about the way he was reacting now.

  "Careful you! We have no way of knowing how long this shield of yours can protect you," he warned as he closed the door behind him, letting her know she had failed to hide her thoughts from him yet again.

  His twitchy movements and repetitive tugging on the longer strands of his hair immediately made the hair on her arms stand to attention.

  "What do you mean shield? And why are you so jumpy?" she asked, careful to keep her voice low in case there were others nearby who were making Rinzal nervous.

  Rinzal shook his head and gripped his hands together, stretched out in front of his chest, as though he were offering himself a handshake. Another very odd gesture for him.

  "Rinzal! What is wrong with you? Answer please, and now!" she demanded.

  "Okay, okay. Calm down. There is just a lot to put into place that's all."

  He beckoned for her to sit with him on her bed, shifting himself backwards so he could rest against wall, as he always did when they exchanged conversations in this way.

  "Before I explain anything further, I just need to ask you something about that fountain experience with Atla the other day," he whispered.

  “Not the love or death dilemma again Rinzal. I don’t care what Atla says, or anyone else. I have made my choice. I would rather live a short life that is filled with love than a never-ending one with no love. Johannes and Cezanne are my life.”

  Rinzal kicked his foot on the wooden leg of her bed. She knew he was still struggling with her choice.

  “Okay Tieg. As long as you are sure about that part.”

  “I am Rinzal! It doesn’t scare me. Not at all. And you can tell that to the others too. Zeno and my sisters. I’m more scared of being stuck here, regardless of the longer or even endless life span, because that would mean not being with my loves,” she shuddered. That version of her possible destiny was unthinkable. “I really don’t want to talk about it again.”

  Discussing life, love and death with her Tandroan family was exhausting. They were all fascinated by her stories of her life on Earth and the people she had connected with. Indramia seemed intrigued by her sisterly relationship with Annarita. Zeno was almost obsessed by the drama caused by Elna’s return. And Ochrani adored hearing the more intimate details of her experiences with Johannes. But it was Rinzal who the most difficult to placate. He seemed traumatized by the story of Kagiso and how she had died. He couldn’t comprehend that Tiegal was not afraid of death. Or that she had been to a spiritual building with her Earth family to pay her respects to Kagiso. And that she now believed that it was only fair that she kept an open mind to the things they believed in on Earth, the things you cannot always see.

  Rinzal was the only one that had not accepted her resolution. That she chose love over a much longer life. Even now, as sat with him on her bed, an awkward silence hung between them.

  “Hello in there!” she tried.

  Knowing it would irritate him, she pulled on a strand of his dark brown hair.

  “Ow!” He nudged her with his shoulders. “Okay, I won’t go on about that again.”

  He wasn’t finished. There was another question brimming, she could sense it.

  “But…going back to your tea date with Atla.”

  Tiegal groaned.

  "Rinzal! We have been through this, countless times! It was creepy, and weird, and I would even say it was exploitative of him. He knew I would get upset by how his Team accessed my thoughts when I first got back here, about my time with Johannes. And then he made a huge fountain scene out of it, just to taunt me!"

  She hissed back her answer, frustrated now that Rinzal was still obsessing over this afternoon. They were supposed to be getting ready to make the location perfume with Ochrani and Indramia to get her back to where she belonged.

  "Yes, but it's important we understand it fully. There has to be more to it than we are seeing. Tell me the part about him giving you your Derado back again. How long did he let you wear it?" Rinzal urged.

  "Not long at all. I would say no more than ten minutes," she answered carefully, still unsure what Rinzal was connecting together.

  "And did you see if there was any water in the fountain?" he asked.

  "Water? No, that was the bit I did ask him about. When would they be turning the water on?"

  Rinzal smiled.

  "That was what I hoped you would say. They worked it out before we did!" he enthused, shaking her arms with his warm hands.

  Tiegal pulled away from him, needing her physical space to gather her senses and work out where he was leading with this theory. She counted to ten, inhaling and exhaling, before clarity finally reached her.

  "The water! You think water is the key to getting me back?” she suggested.

  Rinzal nodded, waving his hand back and forth to urge her to expand on her thinking.

  "And, that's why he didn't let me near it. Why the fountain was dry. And why they keep offering me that weird milk mixture to bathe in. They think the water encourages my transportation!"

  It was all starting to fit together as her words filled the room.

  "Exactly! Well, that's part of it. You need to be wearing your Derado too. Just as you did on your first Release Day, and when you transported back again the second time, and finally when you came back here after giving birth to your baby. You can release your colours yourself but that's not strong enough on its own. You must need to be wearing it."

  He said the last words in a barely audible whisper.

  "But I wasn't standing in water when I transported the second time, when Atla tried to upset me. Or when I gave birth..." She choked on the last part. It was too painful to say those words out loud.

  "Ah, but you were near water and you were pulled over to water, both times. You said you lived near a river with Johannes and that's where you arrived when you were pulled over there to him again, both times. And when you returned you either appeared in the lagoon or the pyramid pool. I think there is a connection there, whether it's on this side or the other one," he reasoned.

  "But then why doesn't everyone do that when they wear their Derado on their initiation day?"

  Rinzal flashed her a look, the look. The ‘why are you asking me things you already know the answer to’ look.

  "Okay, sure, so that's to do with me and my extra deep emotions."

  "It's that, and your ability to have made this remarkable connection with Johannes, and now Cezanne too, that has made all of this possible, despite how exceptional it is. It's like a gravitational pull that exists between you two. He is your moon. I think you need to be near water, so he can pull you towards him." Rinzal looked on the verge of tears.

  "Hey, don't you get emotional on me now," she teased.

  She was about to reach her hand out to him, but he jumped up off the bed before she could offer him her reassuring touch.

  "I'm just going to miss you when you go again, that's all. But I know you have to do this. Are you ready? You sisters are waiting for you. We need to get you to the Iris to make that perfume."

  Tiegal clapped her hands in glee.

  "I will miss you all too. But, you're right. I can almost feel them pulling for me to come back to them. I'm ready!"

  Entering the Iris - a dark circular tomb underneath the unused gardens of Atla's Estate - was like assaulting the olfactory senses with every scent that had ever existed. And for someone like Tiegal, this was almost unbearable. Not only could she smell a myriad of scents, bombarding her all at once, she could taste of many of them too. Her mouth filled with saliva as soon as she entered the circular room. She gagged to relieve herself
of the taste of manure, quickly followed by coriander, the herb she detested the most.

  "Ah, Tiegal, I forgot about these extra senses of yours. I used to get this when I was younger too. It can be really annoying. I remember it well.”

  It was Ochrani, loud and even more excitable than she had been the last time they had met. Indramia was there too, nodding companionably at her side.

  "I did too," she contributed handing Tiegal a piece of thin, satin material.

  Tiegal took the red handkerchief from her quieter Tandroan sister and wrapped it around her nose and mouth.

  "How did you learn to control it?" Tiegal asked them, her voice muffled by the handkerchief material.

  "Allergies!" they both replied in unison.

  "Sorry? You have allergies? I thought they had been eradicated?" she questioned. Their twin-like responses were so intriguing she was temporarily distracted from the impending mission before them.

  It was Ochrani who answered for both of them:

  "Long story. We realised that if we made a plate full of all the foods we despised - and some of the other disgusting non-food tastes like vomit for example - we could override this connection with hearing words and tasting them."

  Tiegal gagged again. The word 'vomit' tasted of vomit.

  "You eat what's on the plate?" she managed to splutter.

  "Of course. That's the whole point. And you have to keep doing it every few months but it's worth it, trust me!" she explained.

  Tiegal watched how Indramia wrinkled her nose, clearly recalling the offensive experience. It made her think of Annarita, her human sister, and she realised how much she had missed her too.

  "Well, I'm grateful you haven't overridden your smell ability Ochrani. Have you had any success with the perfume? For finding Cezanne?" she dared.

  Ochrani and Indramia looked at each other, a silent communication passing between them. Tiegal could hear her legs knocking together as she started to shake. It was excruciating even waiting a few seconds for the answer to this. But then, much to her relief, her sisters’ colours began to seep out of their Derados. Ochrani’s chocolate submerged with the alluring orange of Indramia’s, forming a spectacular glow that illuminated the vaulted room. A room adorned with an array of glass bottles, all lined up on shelves than ran around the room in an onion peel circle.