by M. Street
“Why?” Ozwald asked, reddening the gold in his hooded aura.
Dev remained observant, but his feelings backpedaled with opinionated force.
“We are doing this for the princess,” Jeremiah said forcefully, opening the bag until it was taut.
Raven, Haruz, and Miguel complied, showing support for the Canite king, though from their narrowed stares, they were apprehensive relinquishing their communication devices. The slender Native American Equuian placed her crystal in the bag with no sign of resistance. She slowly blinked her red backlit eyes at me. She remained quietly observant with clear bronze, always taking a place next to the Avians. She was amazingly still.
An annoyed Sabina and anxious Luja complied next. Luja’s golden aura jittered like she was giving up a cherished security blanket. Her face was as lost as a frightened child.
“Dev? Ozwald?” Jeremiah said.
“This makes no sense. Why strip away my ability to protect myself?” Ozwald asked, visibly coloring purple and scarlet in disagreement. “It puts me at a disadvantage.”
“There could very well be a traitor among us,” Jeremiah answered edgily with scalpel candor sharpened by fear. “A secret summon to Eli would end this quickly.”
It didn’t seem possible there was a mole burrowing, but it was the simplest explanation to how Eli knew everything. With my multilingual light, everyone was so open to me. Someone hiding so carefully as not to show a single lumen of their open intentions didn’t seem possible.
Tension wrapped around everyone, triggering suspicious glances. Ozwald backed down under the influence of his mother.
“No communications outside this circle,” Jeremiah lay down. Ozwald roughly detached his crystal from a long chain around his neck. His hand stopped just shy of the bag’s opening.
“I get this back when I leave.” Ozwald chucked it in the bag, the crystal clinking as it came to rest among the others.
“Yes,” Jeremiah said with winning eyes. “That you will.”
“And I’ll leave when I want,” he added provokingly.
“Absolutely.” Jeremiah remained steady. “As long as you take an escort.” The forced order and presumed jurisdiction caught Ozwald by surprise. “We will travel in pairs when leaving this enclave.”
The apprehension raised the light, but no one audibly protested. The glittering king drew attention to Dev, the only one remaining to conform.
“I must be exempt,” Dev said to Jeremiah with a frozen face.
“Why?” Sabina interjected, darkening her karat with soreness.
“I need an open line,” Dev insisted honestly to the group. He placed his candid, full eyes into mine. His thick concern over Valbeth bled through me. He hadn’t filled me in on their last exchange, but it had ratcheted his anxiousness.
“Sorry, Dev, no exceptions.” Jeremiah held out his open hand.
My heart stirred under the growing pressure. Building in charge, I drifted closer to Dev. I lifted higher to hold his hand comfortably. My love came first. Empty auras brightened in the stalemate of silence.
“You can check for messages at any time,” Safe said reassuringly. His mellow yellow state soothed the clashing emotions. After a few enormous seconds, Dev slowly lifted his crystal from inside his vest. He stopped with his hand extended above the mouth of the worn bag. “I look for your compliance as well,” Dev said, bypassing Jeremiah’s expansive palm and dropping his device into the bag. A miffing red formed around Dev’s violet backlit eyes, shading them hot. He cared for Valbeth with the camaraderie and love of a fellow solider.
Jeremiah volleyed with deliberate speed, dropping his crystal into the bag, keeping his eyes wound around Dev. He tied the bag shut and hung it around his neck. The clanging collection came to rest in the valley of fur between his iron pectoral muscles, safe and secure.
“We need to hold a council to discuss our next move,” Safe continued diplomatically. Lights percolated with emotions turning into thought. Yeses came from Sabina, Jeremiah, and Dev. Constructing ideas into plans focused intentions into action.
“Piper,” my Guardian mentor spoke my name with the weight of a senior. “Please go with Luja. She has another piece of your mask.” He nodded happily. “This is quite good.”
Dev turned to me as everyone launched forth.
“What?” I asked anticipating his light language. He was as murky as a stirred-up mud pond.
Miguel escorted Ozwald, Luja, and the Equuian woman to the computer cubes. Screens of light appeared around them, displaying animated electronic graphs. Raven and Haruz stepped away for a private word.
“Where are you going?” I asked Dev.
“With them.” Dev’s eyes looked toward Sabina and Jeremiah, heading toward the soft eucalyptus round table inside a bulb of amber light. “We are going to have an impartial discussion. Lay out our options.” He exhaled, narrowing his eyes and sparkling his silver in disbelief.
“Really, I should be a part of that,” I said, flashing muted colors in disagreement. I wanted to be the rudder of my own life. I didn’t want to railed for rules that I didn’t agree with or understand. I wanted to learn as much as there was to know. Now, more than ever, that was my responsibility. “I don’t like being the last to know what is next.”
He felt my heels dig and my jaw tighten.
“Your mask is first priority,” Safe stepped in.
“Yes.” Dev turned to Raven. “What do you think?”
“They are correct.” She ponged her eyes between Safe and Dev. “Come, I’ll go with you.”
“You are my first thought.” Dev showed pink, placing his hand on my wrist. The tender skin touched like a sweet goodbye kiss. “It won’t be long. We don’t have much time.” He let go of my wrist, taking my heart. Safe and Dev sped away to the fascinating table leaving Raven and Haruz.
Raven stood square in front of me with a pie-eating grin, reminding me of Lisa when she won an argument. My heart dipped into the cold waters of missing Lisa. Wrapping my senses around my childhood best friend stabbed, but sharing her soul was worth it.
From the complexity of the light works flying between Raven and Haruz, I knew they were in the midst of working smooth something uncomfortable. A constant rush of empty energy whirlpooled between their auras. From the raspberry anger fighting the tide of longtime yellow coral, I knew it was a family matter. I did my best to ignore the colorful, no-word discussion.
“Haruz is upset that I left his side for yours.” Raven warmed her copper into a fantastic orange. “For leaving the pack, for not calling, and for not involving him.” Her tempo read like a rap list.
Pride glimmering in Raven’s color caused Haruz to age, tangling his silver hair further. He perpetually spun between anger and relief.
“The Avians came through again,” Raven said unenthusiastically.
“Did they procure the ivory?” I asked, pulling out the leather braided bag carrying the emerald and pearl pairs. My aura splashed into shallow blue upon touch, though my color and brightness didn’t matter in this phenomenal place.
“No,” Raven answered quickly. “You are required to find the right ivory. Luja said she designed a chain and setting for the gems. It’s an alloy perfected from a sample of your light. That’s all I know.”
She watched Jeremiah, Sabina, Dev, and Safe pierce the amber rich light swirling around the table. They sat equidistant, taking sides in an edgy debate. Although strikingly yellow, they were completely infantile, stripped of all metal light.
“The Avians are always a step ahead,” Raven whispered with a calculated stare, fixing on the quartet under the deep yellow. “How were they able to procure the metals so quickly?”
Dev turned his head to look for me. Memories stepped in to replace our inability to feel through the touch of our eyes. He aged to fifty, older than I had ever seen him before. I knew Dev was ancient, but seeing it caused my mind to stop in the gap of realization. He had lived multiple lives before I was born.
; A lovely distraction caught me off guard. With so much red spilled it was nice to see that special beauty of pink again. Miguel, casting a fantastic, floral love like a peacock, approached from behind Raven. My heart jumped in rhythm over the sight, knowing I just discovered more about her, Miguel, and the Canites. Miguel’s soul expressing high-definition love for Raven thrust me into the wonder of past, present, and future. I stepped around Raven to get a better view of what was growing a smile across my face, eliciting bubbles of giggles.
“Princess?” Miguel asked Raven, full of intriguing accent. It didn’t matter that we were all color deaf in the magical den. His heart was bold and without walls in the exposed moment, telling a beautiful story I had to know.
“Wow, I had no idea …” trailed from my runaway thoughts of hopeful speculation.
20
Chromatic DNA
T
he language of light was laden with lavish limns. The luminosity eloquently spoke emotional resonances conveying momentous feelings. Miguel publicly showing his true love for Raven captured my interests, triggering run-on questions. Far in the wilds of the Black Forest in a mystical den, a heart beautifully opened. The intricate corals twinkling with pink-rose accents for the warrior princess were devoid of sensation inside the hidden Canite lair, but the heightened hues and sensual saturations shouted an ancient devotion, eliciting mountain-sized goose bumps. Love had a way of lifting me to seventh heaven without effort.
“May I have a word?” Miguel asked less formally, dancing on the intimate.
“Yes?” Raven responded pointedly, facing her suitor.
My heart hit the floor, flopping side to side like a largemouth bass on a dry deck. I fell into let-down blues watching Raven volley the courtship back with her glittering copper. The tips of her aura emanated a pink so white it looked like burning ethane, but then inverted just beyond arm’s reach to a buttercup yellow.
I saw similar cords of feelings when Lisa and I had a heart-to-heart. Josh and Chris made the vibrations when they would act rambunctiously for no reason. The sun-sweet sentiments were warm, generating a kind attraction. Although wonderfully pure, Raven didn’t share the same kind of affection for Miguel that he had for her. He was in love and she was in friendship. Interestingly, the detail and expansive breath in the synergy suggested the courtship had been longstanding. In comparison, Dev and I looked like nursery love.
“I’m glad you are back.” He smiled kindly, politely dropping his floral pink-rose like a ballerina gracefully lowering her hand.
“Thank you.” Raven failed miserably at trying to dilute her discomfort. Miguel, on cue, went back to dutifully shielding his heart. He expediently proceeded to the yellow null space where Dev, Safe, Jeremiah, and Sabina were holding an intense discussion. Seeing Dev so grayed and aged caused my body to stiffen, sink, and mature further into an age I had never contemplated. Fascinatingly, my senses peaked and ripened, despite the negating effects of Canite den. Whatever was being proposed and defended across the grains of the table was heavy and delicately sharp.
The beauty about hanging around with minds that have been operating at inconceivable levels for centuries was that the obvious could not be ignored. We all knew my chances were uncomfortably tight and my options were few with little give. My partially masked aqua-marine aura fluttered the space around us like tripped spiderwebs. I even disturbed the largest surges of laminar flow oozing from ground energy.
As I developed, the importance of being cloaked escalated instinctually into survival. I knew obtaining the ivory to complete my mask was critical. Being a ghost would make me self-reliant, but more importantly, I could protect Dev. I knew our unique union put an equal price on his head. Flowing like riptides, my soul became more dizzyingly wound to his with each clash we faced. I was constantly falling for him.
“Well.” I acted nonchalant, stalling my work with Luja to enhance my mask. “You and Miguel?” I asked with twinkling discovery bright enough to call for clarification. We watched Miguel take point guard just outside the aura of the table. He was the king’s constant companion with eyes and hidden heart on Raven.
“It’s not like that.” Raven laughed off my question, shifting her full attention to me.
“Let me try again,” I toyed. “How long has Miguel been …”
“There are many paths in life,” Raven interjected. “There is no single way. Not by a long shot. I’m not surprised the infants haven’t fully grasped this yet. It’s amazing yet frustrating watching another conscious species evolve so slowly.
“Canites do not love like Guardians,” she said, tossing her loose waves of black hair over one shoulder. “We couple to increase the strength of the race. Love is involved, but not always romantic. The basis of your world is still centered in infancy. Might be why you are in love with the cat.” She rolled her eyes. “There is much more to this reality. You require more exposure to the diversity of life,” she smirked.
“I am the Canite princess. When I am ready,” she emphasized, “I will couple with Miguel and give birth to our prince and become queen. I will rule in partnership with Miguel as my king. Together we will raise a worthy prince and protector of the Canite race.” She sighed. “Miguel burns bright and is resilient. He has been my father’s cohort, guard, and dear friend for centuries. He is the natural match to preserve our lineage. What is best for the pack is best for me. Duty comes before the follies of my heart.”
She spoke very business-like. “My father and mother shared a beautiful friendship,” she said, wading in pleasant remembrances. “They were never romantic but loved each other.”
Raven gazed through the drain hole in the ceiling, where moonbeams streamed down into the den. “Before I matured, I told my parents that I was going to fall in love. My mother said it was good that I had a high threshold for pain.” Her mouth turned up into a smile.
“Have you ever been in love?” I asked, hoping she’d say yes. My eyes steered across the room to Dev. “Everyone needs love.” I proclaimed the universal understanding from my higher perceptions.
“Yes.” She blinked slowly. “Of course.” Her aura rose before shadowing down. “And I hope to again.” She watched me, humbly causing a sequel’s worth of questions.
“Piper,” Ozwald called from across the room, squelching my alluring curiosities of the heart. I huffed, putting my inquiries for Raven on hold. “We need you,” he tacked on with his characteristic impatience.
Raven flared her nostrils and pointed her ears back, sniffing toward the requesting Avian prince, Luja, and the Equuian woman. They stood around a flickering cube, projecting numerous lively screens just above their heads. “Come on,” she said on my behalf, taking point toward the other side of the lair. Haruz and I followed.
“Luja has developed a way to amplify the effects of the gems,” Ozwald stated with enough smugness to take credit for the innovation. He pushed his blond hair behind his ears, exposing more of his blue-on-blue eyes. “We can construct a chain for your mask that will match your …” He paused, inquisitively going deep gold, canvasing his eyes around my aura as though I was a masterpiece. “… uniqueness.”
While watching us, Luja typed at a machine’s pace against a suspended holographic screen. The Equuian woman stood calmly and attentively next to a computer cube.
“Namid,” Ozwald said, revealing her name, “activate the spectrometer.”
The sleek woman engaged the mysterious box with intricate intensity. Suddenly, a humming vibration strong enough to be felt in the den raced through my body, causing my fingertips and bare toes to tingle. A swirling glow formed on the top of the box, creating a perfect circle of ethereal blue light. Namid moved her hands like she was playing a piano on a horizontal screen projecting from the mystery box. Six jets extended from the side of the machine with sun-bright tips oscillating at dizzying frequencies. It distorted the spherical space around us. Luja and Ozwald both turned to me like they needed something.
“Piper,” L
uja said in a medical bedside manner. “May I have the gems?”
I untied the leather braid around my neck, passing the pearls and emeralds to the Avian scientist. The instant they left my touch, pearlescent glitter flushed away the aqua colors in my aura. She fished the black spheres and green stones from the leather-bound net Dev had fashioned and put them into the beam of light next to the computing cube. They spun around in a gravity-free field of pale light forming two of the same configuration. A pair consisting of one pearl and one emerald united, circling each other. The gems rotated perfectly equidistant, forming a circle within a circle.
“Please hold the pumice sensor above the spectrometer.” Luja pointed to a black porous rock extruded into a hotdog shape. It was similar to the stone that held a sample of my light in the Avian nest. Raven shadowed my moves as I reached for the energy-absorbing rock. Her suspicion of the Avians was troubling. How could she not see them helping?
I picked up the black tube of stone. The surface was prickly. On contact, I felt a pull from inside my chest. Threads of my aura quickly bled into each bubbly hole, drawing out and concentrating my light. My hand glowed dense and felt heavy, like it was in a jar of jelly.
“Hold the sensor horizontally about seven centimeters above the center of the receptor. Like this.” Namid demonstrated by putting her fist above the whirlpooling light on top of the futuristic buzzing device. Like the true mirror in Madagascar, the light surrounding her fist slowly funneled downward toward the center of the machine, diffracting into a spectrum of bronze light. “The sensor will lock into phase when you get close.” She lowered her hand, raising her head and lifting her eyes. It was my turn.
Despite the kindness in her face and the bareness in her clear aura, the risk of any loss of control linked to the unknown mechanics caused my heart to climb. Wakes of waves disturbed the space around me. The fortitude in my light was growing exponentially, deepening the metallic in my aura.