“And the types of things he wants?” Cenjo continued. “I mean he expects me to write down feelings and emotions as if I could touch them. It’s like explaining colors to someone who’s blind!”
Daith smiled. The two of them came to Tela about a year ago and their lives finally felt like they had direction. After Sintaur, Daith felt lost. She stayed for a while on the planet, but eventually she went back to Fior. Torrak and Kalil, with Preeaht moving into his room with him, began their lives again, both reentering the Academy, but Daith felt stuck. Her abilities far surpassed any professor at the Academy, she was too well-known for anyone to hire her, and the media enjoyed broadcasting her life story whenever anyone caught a glimpse of her going to buy food for the week or visiting her sister.
That situation had been the hardest of all for Daith. Valendra couldn’t remember anything about having a sister and no amount of memory retrieval or therapeutic work made a difference. Every time Daith visited, she had to start all over again. Valendra’s memory cells had been destroyed by the memory erasing serum she’d been given and any new memories were erased right away. And though she and Daith tried to reconnect, a gap remained between them, a space that couldn’t be filled. She felt like she’d lost her family all over again.
Daith sunk into a deep depression. Yes, Torrak and Kalil visited her when they could, and her friendship with Torrak grew, but Faan’s death always hovered over her, expanding the rift between them. Daith couldn’t forgive herself for what she did and the guilt and shame of it intensified every time she saw him. She missed Cenjo and Dr. Ludd. And of course, she still missed Dru.
Daith came to realize she couldn’t return to her old life on Fior. She lived for a year in a shadow of what her life once had been and she didn’t know how to get out of it.
The answer came when she received a vidlink call from Cenjo. He remained on Sintaur to help with the rebuilding efforts and had recently been contacted by Counselor Imah from Tela who wanted to reach Daith. Contact from Tela to someone off-planet happened very rarely. They were a secluded race, most of whom didn’t know how to use their vocal chords since they communicated telepathically, but Imah told Cenjo he wanted to change that. He’d been inspired by Daith’s story and wanted to meet her.
Cenjo told Daith he’d been invited as well. Apparently Imah wanted to document the history of the Aleet Army and wanted an insider’s perspective. Although a controversial idea on Tela, Imah knew his fellow citizens could no longer isolate themselves. He believed if they had been more involved with other planets, there would have been a chance they could have sensed Daith and helped her. Imah always regretted not following up on Jacin Jaxx after he received a vidlink call from him years before. He didn’t want that to happen again.
Daith agreed to visit Tela and meet Imah. She wasn’t really sure why. Maybe curiosity or that she needed someone to tell her what to do next with her life. Either way, she went. Relief flooded her to hear Cenjo would be there as well. Like her, he had no direction, and no family. He’d been a part of the Aleet Army for so long he didn’t know what else to do. He truly believed what Jaxx did had been worthwhile, and now to document that history was a chance for him to finally wrestle with and defeat his own darkness.
Once they arrived on Tela, they met with Counselor Imah. Imah worked very hard to communicate vocally, especially for Cenjo’s benefit, but every so often an image or feeling would emanate from him only Daith could translate. Daith explained her own situation, her fear of her power, and Imah offered to help work with her and her abilities.
Daith accepted Imah’s proposal and the next several months were as intense a training as Dru had put her through. The only difference was, with the support of other telepaths around her, Daith never overexerted herself. They could assess her mental and physical state simply by extending their senses.
Exhausting, exhilarating, terrifying, and encouraging all at the same time, Daith learned how to trust and listen to herself again, letting the energies flow through her instead of treating them like something she had to keep separate from herself.
Even through her training, however, Daith sensed something amiss. She enjoyed exploring her own gifts, but to what purpose? She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life seeing how far she could reach with her mind or how long she could levitate an object.
Daith brought these concerns to Counselor Imah and he offered a solution. Since she and Cenjo arrived, others had been more open to contact with outsiders and vocal communication. Imah wondered if Daith would be interested in teaching young students to communicate vocally as well. Many students never even learned to use their vocal chords, or if they did, it usually wasn’t until many years later and the sounds were rough and difficult to understand.
Daith accepted the job.
As she now prepared to teach her first class, anxiety hit her full force. But seeing Cenjo there, she remembered she wasn’t alone. Even if she made mistakes, she had friends who cared about her and beings like Imah who wanted to invest themselves in her life and well-being.
Daith let out a breath. “I know better than you think what it’s like to try to explain colors to those who can’t see.”
Cenjo looked up and grinned. “And I know what it’s like to try to train a bunch of students how to prepare themselves for the real universe,” he said. “It isn’t about telling them what to do; it’s about showing them what else is out there and then letting them find their own path. Trust yourself and you’ll be fine. And if they do something like glue you to your chair, you’ll have a funny story to tell me later when I’m going crazy trying to organize these datapads.”
Daith playfully pushed him with her foot as she left the room, but she felt better. Whatever happened next, she knew who she was and it wasn’t someone she hated anymore.
Right before she entered the classroom Daith heard a man’s voice, sad but strong, flow through her mind. It wasn’t someone’s actual thought; more like an echo of a thought.
Daughter, the voice whispered. Do not fear the colors.
Daith recognized the voice, remembering it from many years ago.
I won’t, Father. Daith didn’t know if her own thought could reach across time and space the same way, but part of her believed, on some other plane of existence, her father heard her.
She took a deep breath, opened the door, and entered the room.
“Good morning class. My name is Teacher Daith Jaxx. Are we ready to begin?”
THE END
About the Author
Christa Yelich-Koth is the author of science fantasy series, Eomix Galaxy Books, graphic novel HOLLOW, and comic book series HOLLOW’S PRISM. She has staffed and led a workshop at the Southern California Writer’s Conference, been a panelist at MiniCon, and was co-founder of Green-Eyed Unicorn Comics.
From Christa:
Why do I write? I write because I have a story that needs to come out. I write because I can’t NOT write. I write because I love creating something that pulls me out of my own world and lets me for a little while get lost inside someone or someplace else.
And I write because I HAVE to know how the story ends.
Follow Christa at www.ChristaYelichKoth.com
Want more from Eomix Galaxy Books?
Check out the next adventure!
COILED VENGEANCE
Ness Opute will not fail again. The woman who murdered his wife, who has eluded him all these years, has killed another. To subject her to his own personal justice, Opute must give up his identity as a notorious smuggler and work his way up the ranks of her empire. If he can ascend to her inner circle, he will claim victory over her lifeless body.
But Opute isn’t the only one on the hunt.
Coming 2017 from
Buzz & Roar Publishing
www.BuzzAndRoarPublishing.com
Want more from author Christa Yelich-Koth?
Find out what happened hundreds of years before Daith’s story.
Discover the Chears and h
ow they used Memory Machines to dominate the galaxy.
Check out the graphic novel HOLLOW and
follow-up comic book series HOLLOW’S PRISM
by author Christa Yelich-Koth and
artist Conrad Teves
Available now at www.ChristaYelichKoth.com
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CLOCKWORK ARMOR #I
Before the James Watt steam engine, before the Victorian Era, a theft occurred that changed history as we know it.
In the 18th century, Sebastien is recruited for an expedition that will take him across the world. Join him as he unravels the conspiracy behind the caravan's mysterious cargo.
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Eomix Galaxy Books: Identity (Book 2 of 2) Page 23