Power Trilogy Book One: An Ancient Power

by Ethan Ransom Becker

  Chapter Fourteen

  Kyle felt a questioning presence around him. He opened his eyes.

  He felt clean and well rested. He looked down at his arm, which wasn’t covered in blood anymore. He felt his head, with the same result. His vessels were glowing steadily, which for some reason no longer concerned him.

  He wasn’t where he remembered being. He was surrounded by a thick blue mist, but he could feel someone or something around him. He got to his feet and spun around, but no one was there.

  “Hello,” he said. He spun around on the spot several more times before he was answered.

  “What are you?”

  The voice was like nothing Kyle heard before. First of all, it wasn’t even a voice; everything the presence said was more of a feeling or a sensation then actually saying words. From the speech, Kyle couldn’t tell anything about whatever said it. It didn’t sound like a girl’s or a boy’s voice. It came from all around, so neither could he tell where it exactly came from. The only thing he could discern from it was that it was a question.

  But Kyle didn’t understand. “What do you mean?” he asked.

  The voice continued. “Throughout all time, we have witnessed and developed the Laws of Being. All matter is composed of pure energy, yet you are beyond energy in the regular physical form. What are you?”

  “I should ask the same question,” Kyle said. “From my point of view, you, whatever you are, and that alien started this. Why are you here, and what did you do to me?”

  It was silent before the voice spoke again. “We will tell you, but know this before we begin. We have no language of our own. Much of this explanation will fail to grasp the true concept of its content, for it is beyond your ability to comprehend.”

  “We are what you call energy, neither in a physical nor in a pure state of being. We began with the universe, which in its beginning was shapeless, both creative and destructive, and possessed no balance; a perfect chaos in every aspect. Events came to be and ended without any sense of purpose. We are a collection of some of the more violent energies that were bound together in order to create balance and tame the wild energy that was the universe. With these violent powers locked away within two separate vessels, the rest of the universe fell into a peaceful enough state of being to be shaped as it would. The destructive forces of the universe became dormant, but were still present. Forms that you call stars, planets, and galaxies took shape. We are those violent powers that were the beginnings of the universe it their original, primal form. The easiest thing to call us in a spoken language is “Primal”.

  “Primal,” Kyle repeated. “You keep saying ‘we’ and ‘us’. What do you mean?”

  “We are the original balance. Separate and yet the same.”

  Kyle thought for a second, and asked, “You mean you and that red alien?”

  “Yes, but we are not what you claim we are. We do not hail from a planet as much as planets hail from us.”

  “But if you are the same, why are you fighting?” Kyle asked.

  “Balance in itself is conflict,” the voice said.

  “Okay, then what did you do to me?” Kyle asked.

  “That has puzzled us more than it has you. What happened was not our doing specifically. What happened to you was not supposed to happen at all.”

  “Well that’s not a very helpful point at this juncture,” Kyle commented.

  “Nonetheless, it has happened. The form you touched could have been rendered unstable, or it could be something in you that caused this happening.”

  “Are you saying that this is my fault?” Kyle asked accusingly, frustrated that whatever he was talking to didn’t have a voice.

  The voice spoke again without a hint of remorse. “Throughout all time, nothing like this has happened; it is unnatural.”

  “Okay, again, not helping,” Kyle stated. “But why did the other Primal come after me and not the Primal I met first?”

  “You possess the only active portion of the energy in that form,” the voice explained. “After your connection with the Primal ended, the power left went dormant, so the other Primal that you fought couldn’t detect it.”

  “If I had only a portion of your power, how was I able to kill that Primal?”

  “We cannot die. The two forms you encountered are nothing more than a representative of something larger that will never end.”

  “Something larger?” Kyle repeated.

  “It would be impossible for you to comprehend the magnitude of it. As we said, the two forms mean nothing, for they are energy, which cannot be destroyed.”

  “Still, if what you said is true, and I only have a portion of the blue Primal’s power, how could I have defeated the red Primal?” Kyle asked.

  “We do not know. However, something strange happened right before the sudden growth in strength. We received visions of another being like yourself, but different. Your thoughts were foreign to us. What were they?”

  “What are you…?” Kyle said before realizing what the voice meant. He started to remember what was going through his mind at the time. He was thinking about Emma, about protecting her. “I remember. Emma was in danger and I had to protect her. I would never be able to live with myself if something happened to her.”

  “Why protect this Emma?” the voice asked.

  “Because I care about her,” Kyle said.

  It was silent for a minute. Then the voice returned saying, “Forgive us. We have no concept of emotions.”

  “You don’t?” Kyle asked.

  “We are as old as time, itself,” the voice said. “Emotions are not a part of what we are. Such concepts are not functional for us to have.”

  “Huh,” Kyle said.

  “However, they appear to have had some affect on the Primal energy you absorbed. The strength of your will and the power you possess seem to have been enough to bend the universe to your favor. The power you possess plus the strength of your desire to win was more than the Primal could withstand.”

  “Wow,” Kyle said. He took a minute to take that in before continuing. “So, what now? Will that Primal come back?”

  “What you just experienced hasn’t happened since the birth of this galaxy, and probably won’t again in the lifetime of another. It will take the Primal a long time to reform its body, and that will likely not take place anywhere near here.”

  “Good,” Kyle said, breathing a sigh of relief.

  “However,” the voice said, “There is a matter of great importance that must be done.”

  “What?” Kyle asked.

  “Your possession of even just a fraction of our power has given us much insight into the workings of how your body is accepting this power. We are afraid that this physical form is incapable to sustain our power for very long. The power inside of you is only a fragment, and thus much more unstable than if you were to possess all of the Primal’s power.”

  “What do you mean?” Kyle asked.

  “We mean that the small amount of power that you took from us is deteriorating the very fabric of your form.”

  Kyle thought for a second before saying, “You mean that this power I have is going to kill me.”

  “Again, we have no concept of the term ‘death’, but you will cease being.”

  Kyle didn’t speak. He couldn’t believe it. He was dying, but he was still just a kid. Hesitantly, he asked, “How long do I have left.”

  “Our best estimate is the corruption of your body will be complete in around three years. The power you hold within you is a fragment of our power, a fragment of the chaos that used to control the universe when time began. When your body is no more, those energies will be released. Even though it would only be a fraction of what it used to be, that power will grow, absorbing all that it can. Planets, stars, entire galaxies would be consumed until the power reaches its limits, leaving nothing behind when it does.”

  Three years. That was all Kyle had left. That was all the world had left, for that matter. Then what
was the point of trying to save everyone, if he was just going to be the destroyer of himself. He looked down at the vessels on his arms, again cursing himself for touching the Primal and starting all of this. And just when he was starting to feel good about himself again, he learns this.

  The voice continued, “In order to stop this from happening, there is something you must do.”

  Kyle looked up from his arms and said, “What?”

  “There is a way to reverse this. You must reunite with the Primal you got your power from, and return it.”

  Hope suddenly filled Kyle. “That’s it? All I got to do is touch that Primal again, and this’ll all go away.”

  “It should work. You must find the Primal again,” It said. It sounded different, though. The voice was fading. It continued, saying, “We cannot hold this connection much longer; you will be waking up soon.”The voice continued, but it was barely audible. “Find the blue Primal and return its power.” The voice faded to nothing, the blue mist dissipated, and Kyle was left in the darkness.

  Kyle could see light through his closed eyes, but was too tired to open them. It felt like he was sleeping in a bed; the sheets were soft and warm, and the blanket over him was a comfortable weight. It felt familiar though.

  Kyle finally opened his eyes a crack. He was lying in his own bed in his room. He reluctantly pushed himself up to where he was leaning against the frame of his bed. Even this action left him dizzy. He felt his head to find a small bandage there. The same went for his right arm. He was puzzled for a second before he remembered his battle with the Primal, and the outcome of that battle.

  Then his dream. Was it a dream? It seemed real enough, but it definitely did not take place here. He remembered what the Primal told him. About him dying, and what he had to do to prevent that from happening. He had to find the Primal he touched and somehow give back what it gave to him.

  But first, he was hungry. He stood up, but did so too fast, so he slumped back down on the bed. He waited a few minutes for the dizzy spell to subside before trying again, deliberately slowly. This time he was able to stay on his feet, but decided it would be best not to move faster than necessary.

  He got dressed, combed his hair with his fingers in the mirror on his door and tried to make himself smell as good as possible, for his smell pointed out that it had probably been more than a day since he last showered.

  He stepped out of his room quietly. The first thing he heard was the sound of someone playing his video games and people talking. He walked down the stairs to see Justin and Jules. Justin was playing video games while Jules stood behind the couch talking to him, but he wasn’t paying attention.

  “Why do you always want to play that stupid game while you’re here?” she asked him annoyed.

  “Because Kyle has better games than we do,” Justin said.

  “Then just buy this game for yourself,” Jules suggested.

  “Why would I do that? Kyle’s got the game already,” Justin pointed out as if that point was obvious.

  “We come here to watch the house while everyone is out, not to play games all day,” Jules said.

  “And we’re taking turns. You watch the house now, and I’ll watch it the next time Mrs. Foster asks us to watch it,” Justin said.

  Jules groaned, turned, and jumped when she saw Kyle standing there. Her startled gasp forces Justin to pause his game and turn. Both of them froze when they saw Kyle standing there.