Sally hesitated, then took a step forward and noticed a faint smile on the woman’s face that faded to sadness as she raised a hand to her heart.
Sally simultaneously raised a hand to hers and felt out of breath as her heart began to beat faster.
Sally lowered her hand and the woman mirrored her movements perfectly.
“What is your name?” Sally asked.
The woman began to speak, and then stopped. She stared at Sally before turning to look at the bay. The wind was beginning to pick up, making the surface choppy.
“Kera,” the woman said in a hushed tone as the wind carried her voice away.
Sally stepped closer. “I couldn’t hear you.”
The woman turned to look at her. “Kera,” she repeated.
Sally froze in place. She never heard of that name until now. And yet, she felt like she had known it forever.
Kera stared at her while the wind blew her dress away from the water every time a wave encroached upon it.
Sally didn’t know what to do. Part of her wanted to run back to the dormitory, while the other wanted to reach out and touch the woman. She felt drawn to her but couldn’t understand why.
“You saw me when I projected out into the courtyard during my demonstration,” Sally said. “You knew I was there the whole time and then you attacked me. Why?”
Kera stood silent. Her face seemed to contort as if she was holding back a million answers she wanted to give. “Tell me about your mother,” she asked.
Sally was taken aback by the question and she nervously raised a hand to chew on a fingernail. Kera grabbed it and Sally could feel a current of energy run through her.
Kera quickly withdrew her hand. “Please tell me.”
“My mother and father—” Sally began.
“Yes, of course. Your parents I meant to say.”
”—my mom and dad are, well, I don’t know, good. I guess. Why they sent me here, I don’t know. My mom is nice, I suppose.”
“Any siblings?”
“Brothers and sisters? No, just me.”
“Ah, an only child. Yes, of course,” Kera said with a smile and nodded her head.
“Why are you so interested in my family? And what sort of an instructor are you anyways? Oslo hasn’t introduced us to you or told us what classes you teach—”
“The acquisition of knowledge is not something that has to take place exclusively in a classroom,” Kera replied. “It can take place anywhere, anytime, and under any circumstance. It can happen right now in the middle of the night along the shoreline of a wind tossed bay. Never again think like that, Sally. There is more to this life than bricks and mortar, glass and steel. Then again, I think you are beginning to realize this.”
Sally crossed her arms over her chest and shivered as the air grew colder. Lightning flashed in the distance, followed by the rumble of thunder.
“Come, walk with me,” Kera said, and beckoned her to follow.
They walked side by side along the shoreline. The waves never touched Kera while they consistently drenched Sally’s feet.
They walked for a while until Sally finally broke the silence. “Why is it I seem to know how to project so well, even at an early age?”
“You are asking me why it is you seem so proficient in your power, while you watched your fellow classmates struggle to master theirs?”
“Yes,” Sally said eagerly, “I always felt like I was ahead of the class in everything I did and in every subject.”
“And how did that make you feel? Superior, I would imagine.”
“Well, I…I suppose.”
“And do you feel that it helped you advance your knowledge, or did it ostracize you from everyone? Did the other girls in your class like you? Did the boys take time to notice you?”
Sally stopped in her tracks.
Kera turned and glided toward Sally. “Knowledge is a funny thing. The more of it you gather, the more you make yourself believe others will listen and respect what you have to say. Instead, you find yourself being pushed to the side and ignored. Why is that?”
Sally shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Of course you wouldn’t know. It’s not how young you are that is the problem. It’s your lack of experience.” Kera pointed at her, then at the moon. “I want you, no, us, to project together. To the moon and back. Are you up to it?”
Sally recoiled as she looked up at the brilliant moon. It seemed so close, yet so far away.
Kera persisted. “Why are you so afraid? You said you always felt you knew everything there was to know about projection. So let us see.”
Sally shook her head.
“Class is in session, Ms. Trumbull. Don’t be fooled by the lack of desks and seats, or tablet and stylus, nor the absence of four walls and a roof. Remember, learning can happen anytime, anywhere. It doesn’t require a bloated institution and bureaucracy to make it happen.”
Sally swallowed hard and closed her eyes. When she opened them, they glowed a bright white and her body was perfectly still. Her astral form stepped out and floated toward Kera.
Kera beamed. “You truly are amazing. There are many like us who spend their entire lives trying to master this gift as proficiently as you have at such a young age.”
“Are you going to project with me?” Sally asked.
“Am I not already?”
Sally was astonished. “I don’t get it. You touched my hand earlier. I could feel you.”
Kera raised a hand. “Stop thinking and no more stalling. Learn how to let go. Now, come and follow me,” she said and floated up.
Sally followed her, while taking a quick glance back at her body where it stood along the beach like a statue. Her connection to it was strong, like a string attached to a kite that allowed her to find a way back.
But now she was beginning to doubt herself as she never really traveled this far from her body before. She looked up at Kera, who was hovering above, and wondered why she trusted her.
Kera smiled. “Very good. Any journey that involves self-discovery requires you to take a step forward no matter how small it may seem. And now,” she said while pointing at the moon, “we are about to take a journey of a million small steps. Are you up to it?”
Sally nodded.
“Let’s go,” Kera said and ascended rapidly.
Sally gave chase and labored to catch up to Kera who always seemed to be out of reach. She briefly looked down and was shocked at how high she was. She looked up and Kera was wagging a finger at her. “No looking back,” she said to Sally, “keep moving forward.”
Together they broke through the clouds that smothered the earth below as the moon lit them in a way that reminded her of the snow covered fields behind her home in winter. She drifted while marveling at the lightning that rippled through them.
“You’ve never traveled this high before?” Kera said as she hovered next to her.
“No. I wish I had. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful. I don’t understand why I’ve never attempted this before. Why was I so afraid?”
“Fear is like an anchor that keeps you firmly in place. It becomes a convenient excuse for not wanting to push yourself, to break the bonds that prevent you from exploring your boundaries, and then shattering them. Now come, no more dithering about. We have a journey to complete,” Kera said, and accelerated up and away.
Sally struggled to keep pace, all the while reveling with a sense of exhilaration as they raced higher and higher. For her, projection was always nothing more than stepping out of her body to snoop around. She would eavesdrop on guests during her parents’ dinner parties, or drift outside to sit by the pool, but now she was racing to the moon.
Suddenly and without warning, she felt lost and alone, as if she could never go back home ag
ain. The connection to her body became weaker by the moment as she then understood what it was like to be a ghost.
“No, you do not,” a woman’s voice said in her mind.
Sally gasped as Kera appeared beside her.
“You are far too young to understand the pain of knowing you have lost everything. To know that the ones you love are gone and forever out of reach. You have yet to truly experience such loss. Hopefully, you never will.”
“I can’t go any further,” Sally whispered.
“You can’t or won’t. There is a difference.”
Sally could feel tears streaming down her eyes and reached up to wipe them. She looked at her hands and saw how each one was like a tiny globe of light. They rose up to float above her, and then dropped like stones to the earth below.
“Even the tears you shed lack the strength of conviction. How will you be able to help anyone if you refuse to believe in yourself?” Kera said.
“But I do believe in myself! I told you, I know how to use my gift. I’m the best one here on the island!” Sally wailed.
“Gift? Did I not overhear you calling your gift a curse?” Kera glared at her.
“How…how did you know I said that?”
“Does it matter? Is it any different how you would spy on your parents during their little parties? Pressing up close to each one of them and listening in on their conversations. How amazing was it for you to explore the world of adult conversation and how it contrasted so sharply from the chatter amongst children. Did it make you feel more grown up?”
Sally was stunned. “How do you know these things?”
“Oh, my dear, sweet Sally. Do you think I was any different growing up? That I didn’t experience the same things you did? Look at us child, we are hovering above the Earth while floating in the infinite blackness of space. Are you feeling any more lost and alone than you were before?”
Sally looked back at the Earth. It was nothing more than glowing ball in the distance. She could feel her astral form being tugged, then yanked violently back to her body. She screamed as she hurtled across space.
She came to an abrupt halt as Kera grabbed her hand, then drew her close and cradled her face.
“Child, our lives are less ordinary. You cannot deny who you are. Never. Whether you call these powers of ours a gift or a curse, you can never pretend that you do not possess them. There will come a time when you will have to use them in ways you never imagined, such as now. Come, let us finish our journey. The lunar surface awaits us.” Kera let her go and raced away.
“Don’t leave me!” Sally shrieked and raced after her.
The moon loomed before them and the further away from the Earth they went, the more frantic she became. She could sense the connection to her body fade as voices flooded her mind and it felt like she was trapped in a crowded room with strangers shouting in her face. Overwhelmed, she placed her hands over her ears and came to a halt. As the shouting voices became louder, she felt as if her very essence was being absorbed into a collective.
One distinctive voice stood out from the din and it seemed familiar. She turned to look, but couldn’t find it. Faces flashed before her, but none she recognized as they all were grotesque and contorted in anger or in fear. She was desperate to find one face that seemed familiar, even a friendly one. She felt herself fade away just as a pair of hands grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her back. She opened her eyes and was relieved to see it was Kera. The woman was speaking, but she couldn’t hear anything she was saying.
“I said you have to be strong. Force your way past the muck and mire. Don’t let the voices overwhelm you,” Kera repeated to her.
Sally pushed her away. She wanted to leave. She had gone too far. This was something she had never done before. She was outside her comfort zone and she knew it. She looked around wildly as she tried to find Earth.
She spotted it. It was nothing more than a tiny globe hovering in the dark. She lurched forward and accelerated, never realizing she could move this fast. The speed became blinding as she hurtled through space.
She looked back and saw Kera racing to catch up to her. Her arms were outstretched as the woman spoke into her mind and commanded her to slow down.
Sally couldn’t. She was rocketing out of control.
The Earth loomed before her and soon she was breaking through the clouds. She sensed her body on the beach like a beacon of light beckoning her to return.
A sudden flash of light blinded her, then surrounded her and slowed her descent. Ahead, she could see a faint outline of Kera with her arms raised.
Sally slammed into her body and tumbled across the sand until she came to a stop. She couldn’t move as every muscle in her body seared with pain.
Eventually, she sat up and was met with a disapproving glare from Kera.
The woman spoke with her white dress swirling around her. “This gift, or curse of yours, the one you proclaim to have such control over, is it customary for you to go tumbling across the ground every time you merge back into your body? Is this your special technique? If so, I am not impressed to say the least.”
Sally shook her head. “This has never happened to me before. I’m always in control. I can slip out of my body and come back without so much as a shudder. Then I came to Perihelion and I feel helpless, like I can’t do anything right.”
“My child,” Kera knelt down before her, “you have never really been challenged. You lived such a structured and sheltered life but have since been taken from familiar surroundings and are now out of your realm. For the first time you are being pushed to do things you otherwise would never do. And you have fallen short.”
“I’ve never projected like that before! What do you want from me, you crazy witch!” Sally wailed.
Kera stood and stepped back as her eyes flashed a brilliant white. When she spoke, it was with a voice that sounded like it came from another world. “You will find yourself in a predicament, and soon. One that you will be asked to risk your life for the safety and well-being of others. I hope for their sake you are up to the task.”
Sally began to sob.
“Stop the tears! Falling apart like a little girl will not do anyone a shred of good,” Kera shouted, then dropped her voice to a whisper. “A friend will find himself lost and alone and thinking that everyone has left him behind. You will be the only one who will be able to find him and bring him back. In doing so, you will not just be saving yourself, but others as well. I hope you find the strength within, for you will be placing your life at risk. I personally don’t think you have the courage to do it, but I dare you to prove me wrong.”
Kera turned away and walked along the shore toward the rising sun, its fiery crown barely visible above the horizon.
Sally watched her go as she wiped tears from her eyes. She wondered if Kera was right. She never felt so empty inside.
She watched the woman fade in the distance without leaving a single foot print in the sand.
NINE
OSLO’S EYES FLUTTERED OPEN. He had sat at his desk earlier that evening analyzing the training results for the week. As always, it was an endless mix of bad news and poor performances. His students were not meshing together. Sally and Ray looked down on Breeze as they saw themselves superior to his rural upbringing. If Sally was alone with Breeze they did seem to get along, but as soon as Ray was introduced into the mix she morphed into a creature that wanted to please and cater to his every need. Breeze to her was practically out of sight and out of mind.
He had also spoken to Kera about her impromptu evening training session with Sally on the beach.
“She wilted under pressure,” she said, “but I shall endeavor to continue her training personally, regardless if she’s awake or asleep.”
Later, Excort wandered into his office as he always did by seldom knocking to
announce his presence. The dwarf climbed up into a plush chair that fronted the desk and stared hard at Oslo with his giant unblinking eyes. “So, how is the future super army coming along?”
Oslo slapped a report he was reading onto his desk and took off his reading glasses. “Why say it like that? What are you implying?”
“This is going nowhere, Oslo, and you know it. All of this,” Excort waved his hand in a sweeping gesture, “is over. Let it go. We had our day in the sun.”
“First of all, there is no army. They are my students. They are here to learn, not to go to war. Second, don’t ever say to me again that it’s over. You have been negative and unsupportive ever since I reopened Perihelion. What is it with you anyway? I imagined of all people, you would be the happiest to see this place bustling with activity again, ja?”
“Activity? You have a school with three students and two instructors. Your students don’t want to be here, and one of your instructors is like a ghost. Where is Kera half the time anyways?”
Oslo rubbed his temple. “My students are not here against their will. They were brought here with full consent of their parents—”
“Oslo, they were dumped here like baggage! What kind of parents just send their children off to a far off school without even inspecting the place? You come back to the island with urgent instructions to re-activate Perihelion. I don’t question you, I just figure you have some experiment you want to work on. You then bombard my wife and I with your ideas of opening the base to accept students. Before we know it, Sally and Ray arrive, followed by Breeze. Would you care to tell me what exactly is your plan is regarding them? Do you even have one?”
Oslo pounded his fist on the desk. “Let me remind you; they are here to learn about their gifts—”
“No, they are not! You want to start a war—”
“If you would please stop interrupting me, I could better explain—”
Breeze Corinth (Book 1): Sky Shatter Page 18