Air

by Terra Harmony

  “So what did you find out about the document?” Micah interrupted my thoughts.

  So much for intimate contact tonight. I frowned, mood officially ruined.

  I put down my fork, wiped my mouth and came right out with it. “His organization is much stronger than we thought. He’s been busy.”

  “How so?”

  “Mostly seeking financing for his projects, setting up corporate partners and such. He’s also delving into high-tech gadgets to assist in his missions. His missions are pretty much the same as ours, but on a much bigger scale, and set up to bring him as much publicity as possible.” I paused to let Micah interject but he stayed silent. “Oh, and he’s been recruiting…heavily. There is a list of elementals he has already recruited.” I leaned over to get the document out of my small bag. I opened it to the personnel page and handed it to Micah.

  He scanned the list. “All of the strongest.”

  “Then why don’t we use them?” I asked. I honestly wasn’t sure who worked for us, but I knew there was usually just one person for each element. Shawn listed several for each.

  “There’s such a thing as being dangerously strong.” Micah raised an eyebrow. “But besides that, there are those who don’t agree with what we do or the way we do it, or whose personalities don’t mesh with the rest of ours. Others are just downright uncontrollable. Anyway.” He flicked his finger at the paper. “You can’t put more than one of the same type of elemental on a mission– the results are too unpredictable.”

  “Doesn’t he know that?”

  “Yes!” Micah shifted in his seat, “He knows it all. From first-hand experience in some cases.”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe he’s found a way around that.”

  “Why are you…?” Micah nearly lifted himself out of his chair with the force of the words. He caught himself and lowered his voice. “Why are you defending him?”

  I fixed my eyes on Micah and stared him down until he averted his. It was quite the coup for me – he had a major advantage when it came to the power of the eyes.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply you sympathized with him. I’m just upset,” Micah continued to stutter excuses.

  I looked down and rubbed my temples, trying to fight off the massive headache I could feel coming on.

  Finally Micah fell silent so I spoke, “I hope you understand how difficult it has been for me to even read this thing.” I grabbed the paper out of his hands and stuffed it back into my bag. “I’m only doing it as a favor to Cato. If I had my choice it would have burned in this God-awful fire.” I paused briefly to take a deep breath and began to rub my temples again, avoiding Micah’s eyes. “Shawn has— for some reason—given us this information. What we choose to do with it has to be smart. It can’t be what he expects us to do with it, and it can’t be more wild goose chases. He has us running around all over the place chasing after him while he can put his plan into action.”

  I looked up to see Micah smiling at me. “What?” I snapped.

  “This is the most I’ve heard you say in a long time. You must be feeling better.”

  “On the contrary, I feel like crap.” A sudden gust of wind blew open the restaurant doors. The otherwise bored waitresses chased down the paper menus that scattered across the room. “Unless you want this fire to flare up again, I suggest you take me back to the hotel.”

  Micah didn’t hesitate. He fumbled around in his pockets and left a few Australian polymer notes on the table. I fiddled with the plastic currency. The wind died down slightly as I realized the difference in lifestyle that I had not had a chance to witness. I should get something touristy before we leave. A shot glass, or t-shirt or something.

  Micah interrupted my thoughts, placed his hand around my upper arm and led me out of the restaurant. “Let’s go,” he whispered. I barely noticed the jealous stares of our waitress. I was too tired to care.

  Chapter 7

  Cold Weaves

  The next morning I awoke to Micah moving around my room, packing my carry-on. I swallowed a growl. Second time in a week someone had entered my room without me knowing. Besides, my headache had, if anything, gotten worse through the night. I sat up in bed and cleared my throat.

  Micah turned toward me. “Sorry, I wanted to let you sleep as long as possible.”

  “Yes,” I mumbled with a raspy morning voice. “You seem to be doing a lot of apologizing lately.”

  “Sorry,” he said again, then smiled.

  Despite my best efforts, his smile lifted my mood. I shook my head, swinging my legs out of bed. “Let me just run through a shower. Give me ten minutes.”

  “Ok. Meet us downstairs when you’re ready. Our plane leaves in two hours.”

  I padded across the room, careful to face away from him lest he get a whiff of my morning breath. By the time I left the bathroom, Micah had emptied the room of everything save one small bag for whatever items were left over. I met them downstairs and Micah greeted me with a small peck on the cheek. I looked at him, a little confused. He looked just as confused at his public display of affection, but came to terms with it more quickly than I and he smiled.

  Vayu interrupted our moment, “Taxi’s waiting.”

  Throughout the trip home, Vayu continued to interject when Micah and I might have had a moment to talk, or even simply to hold hands. Once when we arrived at the Chakra, Susan greeted us with an entire medical team on standby to give me a checkup. Personally, being able to get some alone time with Micah seemed a little more important than finding out I was dehydrated, but the recent lack of personnel with which to perform medical intervention had them too eager to assist me. In all the craziness, Cato captured Micah, no doubt so they could debrief each other.

  I sighed. Maybe next time.

  Susan stayed by my side, pestering me for information about our trip. Blissfully, she didn’t ask about the document.

  She finally paused for a moment, gesturing to the medics. “Just so you know, they know.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Know what?”

  “You know…”

  I didn’t want to say it out loud, in case we weren’t talking in code about the same thing. “You mean.” I looked down at my belly. “That thing?”

  She nodded.

  “Why?!” I half squeaked, half yelled.

  She rolled her eyes. “Puh-lease. Don’t you think it isn’t obvious to them – or to anyone else for that matter?”

  “Well, it isn’t obvious to Micah.” I attempted to keep from pouting like a child. “And I’d prefer to keep it that way until I am ready to tell him – on my own terms.” I fixed her with the same stare that had triumphed over Micah.

  She didn’t notice. “You don’t have much time left. The wrong position, or just the wrong angle would reveal everything. You’re showing.”

  “I know, I know.” I would almost have rather talked about Shawn’s document at that point.

  “All I’m saying is you need to start thinking seriously about what you’re going to say.” She brushed back a stubborn lock of hair that kept falling over her eye. I had to remind myself of her fierce loyalty to her brother.

  I changed the subject, “Let’s go find out if Cato and Micah have come up with a plan for Shawn yet.”

  Susan got the hint. “I’ll go see what they have in mind. You can join us when you are a little less tied down.”

  I looked at the myriad of needles going into me and huffed, “Fine.”

  Several hours and two IV bags later, I found everyone in the living room. I walked in, greeted by papers being shuffled away and several open books closing at once. Then all eyes were on me.

  I frowned, “What was that all about?”

  “Sorry, dear. We think it best you don’t know the details of what we’re planning.” Cato explained, his hands held out in an honest gesture.

  “Why not?”

  “He comes to you in your dreams, does he not?”

  I glanced at Micah but he was avoiding eye
contact. “He has once, yes…”

  “Then he has some connection to you. If he were to get any bit of information from your subconscious it could put us all at jeopardy.”

  “I see.” I walked over to an empty chair included in the circle of people and sat down. “What can you tell me?”

  A collective sigh of relief rang out as if they had all been on edge waiting for me to overreact.

  Vayu took initiative. “You and I are going to send a message to Shawn. We need to meet with him in person.”

  Cato walked forward and handed me a slip of folded paper. “Here is the meeting place. It will be three days from now. Why don’t you and Vayu go start on that now?”

  I tried looking at Micah again for some sign of encouragement, support, or further guidance but got nothing. He still avoided my stare.

  Fine then, be that way.

  I let Vayu escort me out of the room.

  Once outside, Susan caught up to us, “I think I can help, too.”

  Vayu put one arm around her and one arm around me. “Just us girls, then. Let’s go somewhere private.”

  “How about the rock?” I suggested.

  They turned without my direction toward the infamous landmark.

  The Cherry Blossoms weren’t in bloom outside. Still, I had a flashback of falling white and pink petals surrounding Micah and me on the small bench in a warm wind. One of the many talks we had had there. I felt a sharp pang in my heart, longing for that kind of relationship once again. Shawn had come between us in more ways than even he knew.

  Susan, Vayu and I walked further into the garden behind the bench, pushing our way through trees and shrubbery. This part of the grounds had not been tended to for some time. We stepped into an area that was now cluttered with fallen branches, overgrown weeds and other bits of nature’s debris. In the middle of it all was a large boulder. The center of the Chakra, as Micah once described it, where a large part of the energy contained within the Chakra resided. Micah had given me a handmade necklace made from a piece of the rock. My hand went to my neck, eager to feel the smooth rock in its butterfly frame, but it wasn’t there. Another unfortunate casualty of my time as Shawn’s prisoner.

  We stopped in front of the rock and looked at each other, each waiting for the other to say something.

  Susan finally spoke. “Kaitlyn, do you remember sending messages out to Micah and me while you were on Galapagos?”

  “Yes,” I said softly.

  “How did you do that?”

  I closed my eyes, trying to recall my spell while blocking out the unpleasant memories. “It was an impromptu prayer to water. I sat in front of a bowl of water, holding my hands over it. I used energy from within myself and said a chant. Then I used heat to evaporate the water hoping the wind would catch it. Sometimes I also blessed water then spilled it onto the ground whenever I could manage. I’m not sure which way worked.”

  I looked at Susan, prompting her for her side.

  She responded, “We were still in Spain. We didn’t want to leave since we weren’t sure if Shawn was keeping you there. I can’t explain how I received your message. It was more like a feeling. That’s the way Micah described it too. I can say that I tend to be more sensitive to water in the air than in the ground – as you might have guessed from my reaction in Australia.” She smirked at her own comment, but her eyes said it was still too fresh in her mind for jokes.

  Vayu interjected, “The elements of air and water balance each other. They’re good partners.” He nudged Susan with his shoulder. “Air expands your consciousness and represents truth. It’s also associated with thought and language, the breath of life. I very much believe your messages were delivered by the wind.”

  “Wind it is then – besides, I’ve had plenty of practice with it as of late.” I mumbled.

  “Ok,” Vayu smiled widely. “Let’s do it a little differently this time. Susan – we are going to need some water.”

  “I’m on it.” Susan nodded, weaving a water-tight bowl with stems and leaves laying on the ground. As she wove, she chanted a spell of intent into the forming bowl.

  Vayu, just as interested in the basket it seemed, forced his attention away from Susan to me, “We are going to bless the water but send it out a little differently. After you evaporate it, you are going to have to intertwine the evaporation strands with my wind. We’ll send it out together.”

  “How are you going to know which direction to send it?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “I won’t, but we will know once it has been absorbed.”

  “How?”

  “You’ll see.” He smiled. We looked back at Susan. She had successfully completed a small bowl and moved on to collecting water from some of the plant life. I would’ve loved to know how to do that. She would be a good person to have around if ever stranded in the desert.

  “Here you go,” she said proudly, balancing the bowl in the middle of the large boulder.

  “Well done,” Vayu congratulated her. “Your turn Kaitlyn.”

  “Ok, here goes nothing.” I centered a small amount of energy in my body and sent it out directly into the bowl. It didn’t take much, especially since all my powers were heightened at the Chakra instead of depleted like on the Galapagos. The water began to evaporate quickly and the strands of evaporation almost slipped away before I could get a hold of them.

  Susan coached me, “Careful, if you squeeze too much they’ll disintegrate.”

  I loosened my grasp on the drops and wrapped weaves of air around the strands.

  “Good, good,” Vayu said. “Now I’m going to slip in there; don’t let them waiver.”

  His weaves of air crept forward and slowly intertwined with my own. Combining powers with him instantly turned my stomach. My own weaves faltered. Everything turned cold and slimy. Vayu’s magic slithered forward insistently, enveloping the extensions of my body. It took everything I had not to retract my energy.

  “Oh come on, honey – it can’t be that bad.”

  I quickly wiped the look of disdain off my face, not realizing I was being so obvious. “Sorry, it just feels…weird.” Could he possibly know how his weaves felt?

  He didn’t seem to. “Ok, we’ll try going northwest first, to cover Europe – then we’ll try east as far as the states. Air always flows easier going east.”

  I let Vayu lead; not knowing which way was which with the sun straight above us in the sky. His weaves stretched my strands to the point I thought they would snap back.

  After what had to have been ten minutes, Vayu spoke again, “I can’t find him there. Let’s go another direction.”

  Instead of reeling in our strands then casting again, Vayu shot them straight over in the opposite direction. I almost fell over with the sudden shift in momentum. Susan grabbed my shoulders, physically steadying me. I ignored her, too deep in concentration. It didn’t take much longer before I felt the weaves vibrate with a sudden tension. An even deeper cold crept down our energy streams and into my skin. I shivered, resisting the urge to retreat.

  “Don’t!” Vayu yelled, startling me with his intensity. “That’s him. Keep the connection. Send the message.”

  “Oh crap.” I suddenly realized my mistake. “I forgot to bless the water before I evaporated it. That is how I did it last time.”

  “Better think of something fast,” Vayu pressured me.

  “Ok, ok. Just let me think.” I pulled out the piece of paper Vayu handed me, doing my best to read it while the chill grew, threatening to snap the connection. Wyoming. I blinked, trying to comprehend the one word scribbled in the middle of the paper. “That isn’t very helpful. Where, exactly in Wyoming?”

  “Your choice,” Susan said. “Don’t ask…”

  I closed my eyes to think, concentration shattering a little bit every time Vayu tapped his foot impatiently. I’ve only been to one place in Wyoming on a photography assignment, Yellowstone National Park. Kind of ironic, the similar names of meeting places. It would be ea
sier to send the message though.

  “Got it,” I announced triumphantly. Blessing the piece of paper in an impromptu prayer, I placed it on the rock. After a few seconds of deep concentration, manipulating two elements at once, the tiniest spark flared at the corner. The entire paper went up in flames within seconds. I urged the smoke from the fire toward the weaves Vayu and I created, letting all the elements mix themselves together. “I pray to Water, Air and Fire, and the God and Goddess Spirits that governs them. Send this to Shawn, wielder of power over Gaia; that he may find me.”

  I would have never admitted his power to Shawn’s face, but a pleasing message might be that much easier to absorb. As my energy neared its breaking point, I’d take all the help I could get. I looked to Vayu. “Do you know that Mellow Yellow song?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Sing it.”

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “Just do it,” I snapped. “It is part of the plan.”

  He broke into a hesitant, non-melodic song.

  I opened my mouth to chastise him when Susan interrupted with her own version, which was slightly better. Encouraged by each other, the song grew confident. They almost looked like they were having fun.

  “Good, that’s good,” I said. “Now let the song move your weaves. He needs to hear this somehow.”

  Their voices got louder and I found myself joining in. The song vibrated through my body and back down the cold strings of power. After we ran out of words to the song, we slowly let the weaves slip from our grasp. I shivered and hugged my arms around myself for warmth. No one spoke.