Insight Kindling

by Chess Desalls

I frowned, understanding. Just to be sure, I tried to explain it aloud, the way Edgar would have done. “In other words, Person A created a daily reminder to harm Person B. Ivory protected Person B by overwriting Person A’s daily reminder.”

  Valcas squeezed me lightly. “Yes, exactly.”

  “So then the person Commissioner Reese said he’d find out about and charge for being contributorily liable was Person B, the person you wanted to protect?”

  Ivory nodded. “Yes, someone I care about very much.”

  “Why didn’t you just report the original daily reminder to the Commissioner so it could be destroyed? Wouldn’t that have helped your friend? Wouldn’t you have avoided an infraction?”

  “It’s complicated,” Ivory said, running a hand through her short white locks. “Super complicated.”

  MY EYEBROWS twisted together.

  Ivory’s story had me wondering about something else that had been nagging at me ever since she and Ray had come through the Fire Falls.

  “Ivory, if the Uproar is after me and my father, then why did it attack you and Ray? I thought it was targeting my father’s bloodline.”

  “I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Maybe because it noticed that we could sense it. Maybe it was mad at us for helping you to escape through the Falls. I’m not in the practice of reading Uproar minds. That’s Ray’s department.”

  “I have a theory,” said my father. His forehead creased. “This, again, is something that I suspect, and I sincerely hope that I’m wrong.” He rubbed his chin. “I believe it has something to do with how an Uproar kills.”

  I brought my knees to my chest and squeezed them, bracing myself for another lecture.

  “An Uproar attacks its victim by pummeling him, wearing him down, with the ultimate purpose of breaking the victim and making him bleed. Then it drinks, or rather absorbs, the blood, and with that blood absorbs the victim’s travel talent.”

  My mouth dropped to the floor. “You think that the Uproar gobbles up travel talents?”

  My father nodded. “Which is why, once it was directed at me, it was also directed to you because you are in my bloodline. And because you inherited my travel talent.”

  “Okay, that makes sense, but I still don’t get why it would attack Ray and Ivory.”

  “Just because the Uproar was sent after us doesn’t mean that it won’t destroy other travel talents in its path. Your mission placed Ivory and Ray in its way, making the Uproar aware of them.”

  Ivory scowled. “That’s just wrong. Sick and wrong.”

  Valcas stood up and stretched out. “All of this would seem to fit well with your conspiracy theory about the TSTA, Plaka. Do you think the agency plans to eliminate travel talents entirely?”

  “I’ve been gone for so long, here in this state of disconnect, that I’m not sure I know anymore.” He rose from his seat on the floor. “Valcas, will you walk with me? There are things I would like to discuss with you.”

  Valcas nodded. “Of course. I usually take the first watch while the others get settled in for the night anyway.”

  My father chuckled. “I assure you there’s no need for anyone to keep watch. The only beings alive behind the Fire Falls are right here in this room.”

  As Valcas and my father walked away, Ivory and I cleaned up the scraps of leaves used to cook our dinner and pulled more leaves out of the pool, lining them up near the fading pile of light sticks so they would dry by morning.

  I took one last look at Ray before settling in for the night. Satisfied that he was still sleeping peacefully, I stretched out near the fading pile of light sticks and fell asleep.

  I woke the next morning before anyone else. Ray was in his usual place. Ivory and Valcas were nestled up near the center of our cave, as if trying to keep warm near my father’s light sticks. But the light sticks were no longer there.

  With my hands, I cupped up a quick drink of water and wandered through the tunnels to a place where I could wash up in private. Afterward, I took the route through the tunnels that I knew led to my father’s cave. When I reached the familiar bend to the right, I noticed there was no yellow-orange glow. My father was not there.

  Disappointed, I walked back to our camp. I expected a smart remark from Ivory when I got there, but she and Valcas were both absorbed in fishing for our breakfast. I peeked over to see whether Ray had budged since I’d last seen him. He had. Not only was he sitting up, he was holding a small bowl of broth, consuming it without any assistance.

  “Did my father stop by?” I asked, looking around.

  Valcas pointed toward the Falls. “He’s in there, gathering liquid from the balm layer to use as medicine.”

  My father’s head popped out of the waterfall. His dark curls clung to the sides of his face as he gasped and sputtered for air. Then he sucked in a huge gulp of air and disappeared again behind the Falls.

  Okay, weird. “Valcas, can I talk to you?”

  He and Ivory exchanged a glance. “You mean alone?” she said, her eyes twinkling.

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, thanks. We’ll be right back.”

  Valcas walked with me back through the tunnel. “It’s a lot to process, isn’t it?” he said, taking my hand.

  “There are a lot of rules. Before you entered my life, I didn’t know there was more than one world.”

  He squeezed my hand. “I can remember not knowing that there was life outside of the White Tower.”

  “Yeah, about that—” I breathed. “Do you have any memories of us together when I visited your past self at the White Tower?”

  “No. I only know what I saw from your recordings inside the travel glasses.”

  “Do you remember destroying the photo of me and your past self at my TSTA hearing?”

  “I remember tearing up and burning a photograph, but I don’t remember what was pictured or what it meant.”

  Wow. It was as if the photograph and the writing on it had never existed, as if my relationship with his past self had never happened. “Ah.”

  Valcas stopped walking and turned to me. The light from the open area near the falls cast a soft glow on one side of his face. “You sound more upset about the photograph than you did after first meeting your father.”

  “Speaking of which…” I cleared my throat. “What did you and my father talk about last night? What did he want to discuss?”

  “He wanted to know how we met, everything that happened up until this point. I wasn’t able to explain your plans, since you ran away from me each time I found you. I gave him the abbreviated version.”

  I looked up into his eyes. “Which was?”

  Valcas sighed and ran a hand through his short, dark hair, now slightly grown out.

  “I told him that after he disappeared, I searched for you and found you at Lake Winston, just in time for the Uproar to attack you twice. He wasn’t pleased about that.

  “I explained that you came with me to my palace willingly, got annoyed with me, and then took off with one of my pairs of travel glasses.”

  I snickered. That was one way of describing my escape. Valcas’ abbreviated version of what really happened placed him in a much more flattering light than my version did.

  “Plaka thought your departure was funny too. From there it was difficult to explain, so I summarized by telling him you’d been to Edgar’s Nowhere, Enta’s homestead, seventeenth-century Venice, the Halls’ estate in Folkestone and the White Tower before Doreen successfully contacted you and told you to wait for me to take you to TSTA Headquarters.”

  “Did you tell him about the hearing?”

  “Yes, but your exchange with Commissioner Reese didn’t interest him outside of the fact that you were able to transport Shirlyn and Romaso’s silhouettes.”

  Valcas looked away, avoiding my eyes. What wasn’t he telling me?

  I caught his chin with my hand and turned his head so he looked me in the eyes. “What did my father want to know?”

  He looked at me and swallowed. “Plaka
wanted to know about our relationship.”

  I raised an eyebrow, confused. “You mean the relationship between you and my father?”

  “No,” he said. “He wanted to know about us, whether there’s anything going on between you and me.”

  NOW IT was my turn to feel uncomfortable. “Did you tell him everything that happened after the hearing—what you saw in the travel glasses?” I cringed. “You didn’t tell him about our talk by the campfire when you asked me whether I could feel that way about you again, did you?”

  Valcas placed his hand over mine, keeping it clamped onto his face. “I’d never spoken to Plaka about women or relationships before,” he whispered. “I wasn’t sure how to go about it. I didn’t tell him anything aside from where we’d been during our mission, the Uproar’s attacks—the events that led us here. And I told him that I would continue to protect you.”

  “Did he buy that? I mean, could you tell whether he wanted you to be in a relationship with me… or not?”

  “He didn’t forbid me to date you, if that’s what you’re asking, but I have a feeling that my reluctance to discuss the subject said more than words could have. I think he just wanted to know where we stand.”

  I frowned. “Where do we stand?”

  “I don’t know. I told you I’d prove myself to you and I’m still working on it. It’s up to you to tell me whether I’ve succeeded.”

  He let go of my hand and pulled me in for a brief hug. “We don’t have to make any decisions right now.” He leaned in to kiss me lightly on the forehead. “Just promise me one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “If at any point you decide that I have absolutely no chance with you, tell me plainly, and I’ll stop trying.”

  “But how would—?”

  Valcas tapped his fingertips on my lips. “I want to hear the words from your mouth.”

  I cocked my head to the side. “You’d give up, just like that?”

  Valcas smiled. “What other choice would I have?”

  My cheeks burned. Our conversation felt like a trap. I had no idea what I wanted; I hadn’t thought that far ahead. My father had been in my life for just one day and he was already somehow involved in my love life. Or was he? Did I have a love life?

  I creased my forehead. Maybe I wasn’t the one my father was worried about.

  I looked up at Valcas, knowing that I had just as much capacity—if not more—to hurt him as he had of hurting me, emotionally at least. Green eyes looked down at me, glistening beneath furrowed brows. Every version of him that I’d seen or met while researching his past looked at me in that moment, hopefully, waiting for my promise.

  He’d given me the choice, and all he expected in return was my honesty. “That’s fair, I guess. I promise.”

  His lips stretched into a grin. “Thank you. For now, I’m happy to know there’s still a chance.”

  I blinked; I’d never imagined there’d be any chance between Valcas and me after I’d left his past self at the White Tower. I felt foolish, having failed to realize that the version I’d left behind at the White Tower had been with me all along. It was a lot to process, even more so with him staring at me like that.

  “Okay, well. I’m going for another walk,” I said. “I’ll catch up with everyone later. Ray’s in good hands with my father, and you and Ivory have everything else under control…”

  “Don’t think for one minute that we don’t need you, Calla.”

  “I caused everyone a lot of trouble. No one needs that. Just look at Ray!”

  Valcas shrugged. “He chose this mission in lieu of the other one that the TSTA had planned for him. You brought him no more danger than he’d brought himself by committing an infraction and being charged. You are not responsible for him.”

  I sighed. “That doesn’t change how I feel.”

  “I suppose not,” Valcas said quietly. “I’ll look forward to seeing you back at our camp. For what it’s worth, I hope Ray gets well soon. We’ll need all of our brains to come up with a way out of here, and Ray has a special type of brain that the rest of us don’t have.”

  “You think there’s a way out of here?”

  “Of course.”

  I playfully squeezed his arm. “You’re not going to try to get out by using your World Builder talent, are you?”

  Valcas’ laughter echoed through the tunnel. “I need a blank space to do that, Calla. Rocky caves and dark tunnels aren’t the type of canvas I need.”

  Rolling my eyes, I said, “Obviously.”

  He smiled. “Obviously.”

  “I’d like to hear more about your travel talent sometime. That would make a fantastic first-date conversation—you know, a real date… one that doesn’t involve being imprisoned or a promise of engagement.”

  Valcas shook his head. “You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?”

  “Nope,” I said, walking in the opposite direction of our camp.

  “But there’s still hope for us,” he said. “You haven’t told me otherwise.”

  “What?” I called back, still walking.

  “There’s still hope,” he said, louder this time. “Hope for getting out of here and hope for us.”

  “I hope you’re right!” My voice rang out, along with a peal of laughter. I winced at the edge of craziness in my own voice. We seriously needed to find a way out of the Falls.

  “I hope so too!” Valcas yelled, his words echoing down the tunnel.

  Yes, there was still hope.

  MY WALK helped me sort out the thoughts that swam through my head. Walking wasn’t as good as going for a run, which the darkness prevented, but it helped me to calm down. The darkness also kept me from feeling exposed.

  Living in one room with three other people behind the Fire Falls was hardly a private experience. It wasn’t like we could shut the door when we needed to bathe or use the latrines. I envied my father for having his own small cave, but I didn’t have a seemingly endless supply of light sticks to start up my own little cave space; and it wasn’t like his cave was exempt from the open-door policy.

  The days passed and we made do with what we had, happy to at least have each other.

  Ray slowly got better. He began to communicate again, first in nods and headshakes, then with one to two word responses. But the smile behind his eyes was gone. It was as if the Fire Falls had transformed him too, only instead of changing him for the better, the way it had with me and Valcas, the transformation had been for the worse. It made no sense to me.

  Then one day everything became clear.

  Just a few days after Ray had started speaking in complete sentences again, he offered to help make dinner. That evening we’d attempted to make a large layered dish, like lasagna… if only. I lined up leaves, while Ivory tossed on thick slices of fish. Ray added handfuls of seaweed. We continued to alternate between the fish and seaweed until we had a stack the size of a casserole dish. After wrapping the whole thing in dry leaves, we placed it inside a pile of light sticks that my father activated and left it to bake.

  We quietly sat around the light stick “oven” until Ray broke the silence.

  “I know how to get out,” he said.

  My father, an increasingly ever-present accessory to our team gatherings, narrowed his eyes at Ray. “Out of what?”

  “The Falls—we can go back through, and live.”

  “What are you saying?” My father’s eyes looked and his voice sounded like they’d been possessed by a wild animal, which worried me. I’d never seen my father be anything but warm and patient with Ray.

  Ray breathed in a long, slow breath. “Like our dinner,” he said, “the Falls are layered.”

  My father’s face fell, defeated. “We know about the layers, Ray. But the outer layer is made of fire, which is why going back through the Falls is an expedition to our deaths.”

  Had my father not sounded so serious, I would have chuckled. He was melodrama personified, not to mention an alien with
a serious case of cabin fever.

  “No,” Ray said. “There is a way.” He looked off into the distance, as if he were remembering something, watching something inside his mind.

  I reached out and grabbed his shoulders. “Did you record something? What did you see inside the Falls?”

  “I saw four layers,” he said, rubbing his temples. “I recorded the entire time. I couldn’t turn it off.”

  The idea of Ray experiencing the fire layer—all that burning—in excruciating detail made me shudder. Trembling, I said, “Ray, please tell us… if it doesn’t hurt too much. Tell us everything you saw.”

  He groaned, and then grabbed his head. Gulping, he said, “I saw it the way I see during travel. The outer layer is pure flame—” An ashen tint covered his face. Sweat beads formed and drizzled down his forehead, as if he were in the fire layer in that moment. He looked physically ill.

  Then it hit me—what had happened to Ray and why he’d come through the Fire Falls speechless and shaking. He’d been traumatized, not just once by the experience itself, but by reliving every detail of it in his mind. Repeatedly.

  “He’s been replaying his recordings of going through the Falls, over and over, inside his head!” I hissed. “No wonder he’s been so sick!”

  Ivory’s lips puckered into a frown. She knelt down next to him and rubbed his back. “Here, drink this,” she said, handing him a leaf of water.

  Ray sipped without looking at the leaf, seemingly focused inside his mind, still traveling through the Falls.

  “The next layer inside the Falls is the healing balm,” my father prompted.

  “No,” replied Ray. “There’s a layer between the fire layer and the balm layer. Only you can’t feel it because you’re covered in flames. All you can feel is the burning. But what I saw—”

  Ray gulped, letting the leaf fall to the ground like a leaden feather. “The second layer is the thickest, but offers no relief from the pain. That layer is just air. I could see where the fire layer ended and the air began. I never thought I would make it to the next layer. But I saw the blueness and felt the coolness up ahead, and kept going.”