CHAPTER 31 – RODI

Current Time

"Ah … my chest feels hot" she complained, touching the "ES" Echo-Seal. It activated, bringing her to a place that was unfamiliar, a simple scene, but with zones of the horizon saturated with golden light. "Good to see you found your way here" Pelfe remarked, closing the distance between her and the new arrival. "Sound-Sister, what is this place?" Echo questioned, hearing the feeble cry of illusion in every facet of the environment. Luminous harps in close rows arced up and out of the lake-water, then back in again like a great aquatic serpent. Looking over Pelfe's shoulder, she noticed houses lined the stretch of the lake. "I possess something that belongs to you, one of your memories. For several years many have been drawn to this place by its invitation, but they have never found it. Place this mask that I wear on your face, and you will see" she offered, and Echo took it, letting its smooth surface align with her skin. A cold, gratifying breeze rambled by, spiced with forest. Down the side of a hill, there was a little natural space between two columns of suburban homes tucked into the rusty autumn. Piles of leaves and their crisps enfolded aroma into the air. Echo could hear the grass swish with movement, and looked down the hill to see who or what it was. "Wait … that's me" she recognized, seeing the deliberate motions of a young sixteen-year-old girl. Rows of telephone poles were spaced evenly down the hill to a certain spot where there was a depression, then followed the curve of the land upwards as the hill changed directions. Wooden columns planted stoically ignored the latest rush of bitterness as it flowed, the ensuring wind, invigorating everything. Slowly, that phenomenon died down. Their cables extended away, tied to the tops of each pole in turn, drawing symmetrical lines to the distance. Pink blushes of the day's slow departure lingered above the canopies of the trees in the character of the motes of cloud. "Everything is going to be alright" whispered Priya as she saw the unbearable weight of the burden of emotion on the young woman, moving like molasses to the center of the green. Tracing every movement, the scientist watched her younger self, felt the heightening of her senses, how she looked about over every blurry motion of the leaves, and experienced every iota of the universe, drinking in its loveliness, its oddity. Young Priya looked forward up the hill to where the final pair of columns stood, and between them, the setting sun, its bright aura calling to her with warm fatherly light. "Dad, I promise that I will help people so they don't die like you. I love you … Now I have to put all of this away inside of me, store it away" she declared, clenching a hand against the skirt of her dress, the other reaching out to the corona. Echo could not help herself. Tears rolled down her face as the truth arrived. After she opened them, another figure was standing beside her, Dramatic, or the neural hologram he left behind. "This is why I chose you Priya. That girl standing over there, I knew she could face whatever life tried to throw at her after this. So now you know, but there is something else that will surprise her later. Both species have markedly different adolescence according to biology. Relatively soon you will have access to your potential as the Rikiral DNA in you awakens. Fortunately, that will let you unlock the techno-pathic abilites of the Rikiral. Historically, their civilization has followed the path of that trait and its manipulation of technology. Trust those powers" Dramatic advised. Receding into nothingness they returned to the golden landscape as the mask disintegrated. Pale and sickly, Pelfe leaned against Dramatic, letting his white beard grace her shoulder, "Obviously, I used a paradox to create Pelfe here. Melina and Linden really only had you in the first age. I wove sound into this construct". Agony braced the patron, "No, not today!" she cried, reaching her hand and putting it on the side of a face she had seen for the first time. Feeling the warmth on her cheek, Pelfe looked up with eyes that now seemed a little less lonely, having spent so much of it in place where travelers only came to seek gain, not friendship, "I was always just the guardian. Echo … don't trust Visioness. She's not who you think she is. She's not your friend". "Sister … No!" Priya demanded. Humbled as her powers did nothing, such as a pathetic human without magic, the beautiful sprite faded into smithereens, and when it was done, she looked up at Dramatic, his face certain that she could take such a loss. Priya opened her eyes, finding herself at the spot where her younger self stood. Butterflies fled in fear as the echo seal activated. Sending her thoughts through the fiefdom, the patrons were moved from base reality to the coffee island at the core of earth's star. Her voice led them through each step of the task. Several returned planet-side as Rider brought Narland Idea, Tack, Falzar and Witness on his cloud of burning roses. Disembarking they came to the location of the Jellyfish Flower. Releasing the one in his chest cavity, it produced pheromones that summoned four jellyfish honey-bees who tucked their legs underneath their arms, picking up the four patrons. Buzzing, they came to the jellyfish flower and released the occupants into its blossom. Once inside, the plant wiggled … retracting into the ground. Then the four of them became mindless termites in the cosmic tree, in the thriving construct, chewing pockets realms into the structure of the wood, mazes within mazes. Secondly the dream aether line entered a cup of bronze-colored coffee, taking a bath for at time until all at once submerging and entering a realm inside that was but a plain, empty room with a rubber tree. Focusing their magic upon the tree, Valco turned into an axe and cut a slit in it. As the bark broke and shattered, Ruin caused the destruction. A sticky white sap began to flow in a stream from the cut. As it drained, Oasis 2 reinforced it with her power, combining the essence of her milk. Uffhill wove inscriptions, alchemical formulas that transformed the latex into rubber. Touching it, the older generation, Valco, Emzeser, Zenith and Onsuru became rubber. Reacting to the bath that they had just taken, the younger generation's skin tinted bronze, and they became copper wire that the rubber wrapped itself around. Helping to form the wire, Connect became pliers that bent it in just the right places, and Timecurrent flowed as the electricity through the cable. Rider returned to coffee island, greeting the others. Lastly, at a different location the Scilyst Crytania poured a pitcher of coffee cream over TAP and the others of the echo line, Ostigim, Dazin, Etheria, Veles, Snow, Phantomess, OOTB, Rider, and Catcher causing them to vanished. Priya waited patiently … and lifted her hands as sawdust from the dissolving wood of the telephone poles danced around her. All that remained now was the cables and the circle of the setting sun. Collecting it at the crest of the hill, she wrapped the cable with magic until it formed a hollow sphere. With that eclipse, the light died down, stifling the sunset. Mending the Sphere of Time, the dream aether bloodline became the shell and the dust bloodline became the MOR, the moment of return at its center. "Just breathe … Just breathe … Just breathe" she thought. Mirror light thinned until Alexa could see her friend panting, down on her knees. Picking her up, they both walked to the opening that the little squirrels were so intent on escaping out of. The sound of laughter erupted from her friend, which at first, she could not guess the reason for until she wiped the hair from her face, "The SOTA … I did it".