The Sphere of Time

by TIME, S. O.

  Her words remind me of the woman I guided back in Vale who asked me to watch over Sahra. I can’t seem to remember her name. An unsettling chill runs down my back. I shake my head to clear the memory and meet Aldrea’s gaze.

  “They’re all I have. Without them, I’m sure I’ll never find the answers I seek.” I reach for my face and run my fingers across the mask that hides me. “I’ll do my best to keep them safe, Aldrea. I promise.”

  She nods and smiles faintly. “Thank you.”

  We turn our attention back to their conversation as the voices return to a more reasonable volume.

  “I’ll return momentarily with a prototype,” Hana says. We hear her heels click across the marble floor, louder and louder, and then an unusually loud rustling. The clicks then continue, still quite loud, followed by the sound of a door opening. Aldrea and I trade a confused look. Her eyes go milky as she accesses the security cameras outside the room.

  “She’s got the plant,” she says, eyes widening as their color returns to normal. “We gotta go, she can track the microphone!”

  She vanishes and I groan as my heart rate sparks again. “Oh, come on!”

  “Go out the door and turn left, take the second left after that, and then the first door on your right,” Aldrea’s phantom voice says, her tone half-worried, half-amused.

  I dart to the exit and bolt left. I skid up to the second left turn, only to masterfully trip over my own feet as I try to execute a swift turn around the corner.

  “GET UP!” Aldrea hisses, sounding genuinely panicked for the first time. It does not help my nerves. I manage to scramble to my feet and hurtle around the corner. Standing in an open doorway ahead and to my right, Aldrea’s hologram is signalling frantically for me to get to her. I skid in after her, halfway sliding through her form, and the door slides shut behind me.

  We stare at each other for a moment in silence before breaking into barely restrained laughter, our bodies shaking as we try not to make noise. After we recover from our brief hysteria, Aldrea raises her arm, revealing a feed of the room we were just in. We see Hana carry the plant to the desk and place it beside the device we’d been using to listen in. She looks up at the camera, wearing the irritated and disappointed expression only parents can truly master. She then leaves, presumably to go get the prototype. Aldrea looks a bit sheepish as she dismisses the feed.

  “Oh man, this is bad,” she says. “It’s probably best we get out of here and pretend this never happened.”

  I nod. “Got it.”

  We head back to the elevator and Aldrea waves goodbye. When I enter, she disappears as the elevator ascends. I head straight to my room and wait for Hana to call me down for our meeting, but she never does. I was supposed to report to her tonight to discuss the shield and its performance, but it doesn’t look like she’s going to be calling me down. I wonder if she somehow knows I helped Aldrea eavesdrop on her and the Council.

  My room is on the top floor, next to Kou’s. It’s big enough that I could host a ten-person sleepover comfortably. I have access to balconies with views of the city before us and Hana’s outside garden behind us.

  I’m not sure if it’s because everything’s settled down, or because my body is finally giving in, but I feel an unpleasant pulsating on the back of my neck. My body is still adapting to the condenser, and after all that stress, it must really be taking its toll. In the far corner of the room is the resting pod where my vitals are tracked. I wonder how much data Hana has managed to get on me. No one’s ever been implanted with a condenser after an entire lifetime of not having one, so I’m sure she’ll appreciate whatever data she can collect.

  I enter the pod upright, and after it detects me, it magnetically lifts and flattens out horizontally. I take out the shield generating device and place it in its corresponding slot in the pod. While I rest, the pod is supposed to recharge the contraption so that I can use the shield again. Not that it does much in its current state, though. I feel the heaviness of my body take control, and I sink into the pod. I shut my eyes and listen as the pod hums quietly.

  What feels like a second later, my eyes fly open to the sound of beeping. After a moment of disorientation at the brightness of the room, I realize it’s morning, and my pod is telling me that my heart rate is too high. Fleeting impressions of shadowy figures and red lights flicker through my mind, but any dreams I have escape my consciousness before I can try to remember them.

  I get out of the pod and enter the bathroom located in the east section of the room. The water is gentle, mimicking rainfall from the ceiling of the shower. It’s warm and relaxes my muscles. I try once more to pull my mask off, but it doesn’t budge.

  “Hey, hurry out!” I hear Kou say as he pounds on my door. “We’re all having breakfast before we leave today.”

  “Be right out, I’m showering,” I respond.

  “Hurry or it’ll all be gone!” I hear him reply as he runs away.

  It doesn’t take me long to finish and get dressed. A few of the other residents greet me as we all make our way down to the dining hall. Unlike the hall used for public events, this one has a ceiling at standard height and is decorated in colors of cream and lavender. It’s still quite large—big enough to accommodate the many scientists, engineers, and other workers who live here, along with their families—but it has a homier feel. Round tables of various sizes and wide windows to let in the sunlight encourage a cheerful atmosphere.

  The hall is fairly full of people at this hour. I spot Kou and Hitori sitting at a table with some of the younger children. Two of the kids are braiding Hitori’s hair. Hitori spots me, and to my surprise, I don’t sense hostility. I can still feel her uncertainty, but I think she’s finally accepting that I pose no threat to Kou.

  I join the line of people moving steadily toward the counter, trays in hand. I get a few stares as people nearby notice my mask, but I do my best to ignore them. I’ve become rather good at it over the last couple of weeks, and fortunately most people are too polite to comment. Others just assume it’s a fashion statement or an artistic choice—I’ve even received a few compliments.

  My eyes wander over the multitude of different meals on display as I wonder which new dish I should try today. I’ve been eating as much new food as possible, hoping a certain taste or smell might trigger some new memory. A young biologist ahead of me accepts a plate of pancakes topped with apples and some kind of white sauce, and I feel a brief twinge of—longing? Excitement fizzles in my stomach. Could this be something I liked in my human life? When it’s my turn to order, Chives sees me and walks over instead of one of his chefs.

  “What’ll it be today, Eiji?”

  “Can I get apple pancakes with a white sweetener?”

  “White sweetener?”

  “Yes, drizzled on top.”

  “You mean lechera?” he asks, confused.

  “Yeah, lechera,” I say quickly.

  I join Kou and Hitori once my dish is ready, my mind occupied with trying to grasp whatever wisp of memory is teasing at the edge of my consciousness whenever I look at the pancakes.

  “I don’t know how you guys can eat those things. They’re gross.”

  I notice Hitori has the same sweet dish on her plate, though hers is already half-eaten.

  She turns sharply in his direction. “At least we’re not stuffing our faces with food meant for dinner,” she says pointing at his plate.

  “It’s not my fault you can’t handle the spiciness of Chive’s ‘chiladas!” he yells back. The kids laugh and Hitori scoffs. Kou’s plate consists of green sauce over tortillas filled with chicken, surrounded by red rice and topped with a white cream and cheese.

  Hitori pointedly turns to converse with the kids as she continues eating.

  Kou tries to enter their conversation while I look at the meal in front of me. I can hear their laughter and intend to look their way when I almost spit out the first bite I take of the pancakes. Something about the texture and sweetness disgusts
me, and I struggle to swallow while covering my mouth with a napkin to hide my expression. I don’t understand. Why did I feel something when I first saw the pancakes if I don’t even like them? With a ruined appetite I watch as Kou and Hitori play with the kids and finish their meals.

  #

  Many of the people we pass on the city streets carry clouds of discomfort and anxiety with them. There are fewer performers, more closed shops, and no groups of younger children playing about freely. More people stare at our pod than ever before, and it’s hard to tell if it’s out of contempt or curiosity. Regret twists in my stomach as I remember the lively cheer that I encountered during my first trip into Maluii—that playfulness is gone, replaced by suspicion and bitterness.

  As usual, protesters stand outside of our school. They seem to be testing how closely they can crowd the walkway into the building. Some students ignore the crowd, now familiar with their presence, while a few keep their heads down as if ashamed. More concerning, however, are those students whose energies flare with irritation and disdain when a protestor steps too close. They look over the crowd with their chins high and stubborn, their bodies taut, as if itching for a reason to engage. The longer we train and the more we learn about combat, the more I notice the hostility of these students growing. Their energies seem more clouded and obscure—like Tramil’s when he attacked his brother. The instructors lecture us about our duty to the people and our purpose as protectors, but strains of arrogance and bitterness persist within the students.

  All of us gather inside the deliberation room as General Bartek prepares to inform us of our groups. I desperately hope that I make it into Hitori and Kou’s group—it would defeat the purpose of my complicated charade if I were put anywhere else. Yet I have no more to offer Hana if I need her help to stay with Hitori and Kou—I’ve lost all bargaining power since my failure to open a Tear. I can still sense the few drops of power gleaned from closing the Tear in the lab explosion, but I’m not confident it’s enough.

  “I’m sure you’re all very excited to enter your teams,” the general begins, “I won’t keep you from them for too long.” He stands behind the center of the holographic display and presses a button. A massive two-dimensional chart pops up and displays a numbered list with eight entries per number. There is one white user, one green, three red, and three blue in each group. Purple users are listed separately, as they are usually assigned to teams on an as-needed basis.

  “Once you know what team you’re on, go to the arena to await your first training assignments.” He smiles and the hologram begins to fill with student’s names and their crystal color, as well as their overall score ranging from zero to one hundred. “I look forward to working with you all.”

  Everyone’s eyes are glued to the list as it fills itself out. There are sixteen teams total. As the names come up, some of the students yell and group up immediately, heading out to the arena with their squads. When the list is completed I frantically scan for Kou and Hitori’s names. I find them on the same team and hurriedly read through the rest. My heart sinks as I fail to find ‘Eiji Kurosawa’ on their team. I rub my eyes and look through the names again, more slowly this time, but the names remain. It’s not until I look significantly lower that I find my name on another team.

  Chapter Eighteen

  T he light in the room seems brighter, and I feel myself running short of breath. The voices and cheers around me become muffled as I struggle to concentrate. I glance through the names of my squad mates. All of them are foreign to me. I clench my fists, and it takes all of my self-control to stop from slamming them against the wall.

  Our holos display a map of our floor with dots representing the members of our squads, but I don’t wait for any of them. I head out with the rest of the squads and try to find Kou or Hitori. In the arena, the students form organized lines in their squads, ready for their assignments. I pulse for my friends and walk to the front of the lines where I sense Kou’s energy.

  “Are you lost, Kurosawa?” an instructor says as he stops me.

  I don’t have time for this. “I need to speak with Kou.” I reply, my eyes not meeting his.

  He grabs my shoulder with his arm. “We’re about to start handing out assignments. Go to your squad.” He turns me around and gives me a push. “You can talk to him all you want when you get home. Right now we have work to do.” As other students begin to stare, I have no choice but to go. I don’t want to draw any more unwanted attention.

  “Look who decided to show up,” one of my squad mates says as I head to the end of the line.

  “Great. Two Kurosawas and we get the deformed one,” another says with a scowl.

  “Are you two still in primaries? Leave him alone,” another responds, giving the other two a dirty look. I don’t pay attention to any of them. The remaining four squad mates look ahead and watch as General Bartek and all of the instructors make their way to the front. After exchanging a few words with the general, the instructors disperse, each one moving toward a different squad of students. The general lets out a short cough to get everyone’s attention.

  “I’m sure you’re all tired of hearing me speak, so I’ll make this brief. Each team will be headed by an instructor who will be teaching you from this day forth. Pay close attention to them—they’ve all experienced the reality of war.”

  The general steps down and the squads begin to break away as their instructors take charge. Some head straight for the deliberation room, some stay in the arena, and some leave altogether. I pulse for Kou and Hitori’s energies and find them among one of the groups that is leaving.

  “Alright, listen up,” our instructor begins. “First things first, I’m Sergeant Ishanvi Cross. I’ll be your squad leader from today until you’re done with our program. You’ll train together, fight together, and grow together. You’ve been chosen to complement each other. It’s my job to make sure that we do that successfully.”

  My squad’s excitement increases the more our Sergeant talks. Disinterested, I’m in the midst of considering my options when my holo vibrates with a call from Kou. I open it at the same moment that a wave of panicked energies surges from outside the school.

  “Eiji I need you out here!” His voice is hard to hear because there are protesters and students pushing and shoving each other in the background, creating a cacophony of angry sounds. “I can’t get—Hitori—your help—Eiji!” Kou’s message cuts in and out, but I hear an explosion behind Kou and his transmission ends just as an alarm begins to ring throughout the arena.

  Sergeant Cross sighs. “Looks like we’re starting practice early.” She glances at her holo as my squad mates trade looks of both worry and excitement. “Civilian protesters. Non-lethal force only,” she says, eyeing the three red users. They nod, their nervous smiles disappearing. “Move out.”

  I pulse for Kou and Hitori’s energies as our squad hurries toward the chaos, but the storm of heightened emotions makes it hard to pinpoint them. By the time my squad reaches the front entrance of the school, there are students and protesters actively fighting, with several other passersby gathering as the situation grows further out of control. Even with Kou’s panicked message still ringing in my ears, I can hardly believe how much the violence has escalated. I see a young red user fling a bolt of energy at a fleeing protestor. Seconds later, the overzealous student is on the ground with three protesters beating him with their fists.

  We wade in and try to break up the fighting, but as soon as students get involved in trying to stop the fight, condensers activate left and right and the brawl becomes increasingly dangerous for the protesters and passersby. Sergeants wade in to assist, but there are so many students that they can’t contain everyone before attacks start flying.

  I spot Kou capably defending a protester from a bloody-nosed red user and decide to focus on Hitori. I locate her at the memorial where she, along with two other white users, are either taking cover or healing wounded protesters and students. I run to her to ask how
this madness began when the top of the memorial behind her is hit by an attack. It cracks and begins to sway above her.

  “Hitori look out!” Kou shouts from behind as he sprints in her direction. He covers ground much faster than I do, even as I instinctively dash the rest of the way to her. She looks up and sees the memorial cracking, but the person she’s healing pushes her in an attempt to get away and she hits her head as she falls. Another shockwave strikes the memorial and the top breaks free, plummeting straight down toward Hitori.

  Kou moves to attack the memorial while I yell, “I’ve got her!” and slide in next to Hitori with my shield activated. I close my eyes and brace for a crushing weight, but I don’t feel an impact. My shield buzzes as sudden silence falls upon us. Hesitantly I deactivate it and look around.

  The protesters and students are gone. I don’t recognize any of the buildings around us. They look outdated and abandoned, vines and other greenery growing directly on the buildings and through the cracked streets. Just like in my vision, except the ones here look healthy and normal. I pulse for Kou’s energy, but I don’t sense it anywhere. I try to expand my reach but fail to get it any further because of how weak I’ve become. My powers only continue to diminish the longer I stay in this mortal form.

  “Where…where are we?” Hitori calls out from the floor. She’s bleeding from her temple. She touches the wound and winces. Seeing the blood on her hand, she activates her crystal and heals herself.

  “I’m not sure,” I respond. The sun’s rays feel warm and welcoming, and the lack of clouds gives us a clear look at the sky above. The breeze smells of vegetation and salt. I check my holo.

  “We must be pretty far away. The clouds are gone and I don’t have any signal here.” I report, leaning down to lend her a hand. She takes it hesitantly and dusts herself off once she’s up. She holds her head with both hands as she sways back and forth.