Chapter 26

We came out in the basement of Toukal’s Transport tower. I was relieved to see the refugees had carried on out of the place. My friends, however, were lined up waiting for me to return. The guardians here were all active now, and thankfully offered no threat, though they did become a little agitated a minute or so after our arrival.

One of the Silvers told me why. “We have divulged what we know to those who guard here.”

I nodded with what I hoped for compassion and understanding. “It must be hard to find the world you knew has so utterly disappeared.”

“I personally find it fascinating. Air, Water and Void are always more open to accepting change. We all have our Strengths I suppose.”

Danivra, Destruction and Sania were listening intently to every word the Silver said.

“And you are actually Alo-im?” Destruction asked.

“We are shadows,” Silver said sadly. “An echo of what we were in life.”

“So your actual bodies are dead?” Danivra added curiously.

The silver helmet tilted to one side. “Strange to think about it in terms of bodies. You are young aren’t you? Our Divine cores define us, rather than the physical shell our. But to answer your question in reference to our cores, then yes. Or at least I think it very unlikely we would have left ourselves here if we traversed the bridge between universes.”

“I thought you guys were immortal?” Destruction replied, with a deep frown.

“It was a very long time since we were last activated. A lot has clearly happened. There was no doubt great upheaval and conflict around such a decision.”

“Conflict? I thought the Alo-im were peaceful?”

“You speak of the Alo-im as if they were a single consciousness. Their appetites and behaviors were as varied as the forces that make up the universe, and that is as it should be.”

A red stomped over as she spoke. I couldn’t be sure, but I was convinced it was the same red that was fiery with me earlier. “The records indicate that our old ways were suppressed, Kai.” He looked at me next. “But, it matters not. We as guardians weren’t created to think, we were created to serve.”

He didn’t sound too happy about that, and I couldn’t help but smile at the anger radiating from him. “What’s your name?”

“Fire Two,” he snapped. “On Onnekus at least. Here I am just… another Fire.”

I pointed at the silver armor with the female voice. “You called her Kai, so what’s your name. Or the name of your Divine core?”

For the longest time, it seemed no answer was coming until Kai put an end to the standoff. “His name was… is Alturis. It wasunseemly to address a guardian by the name of their source being, but it appears as if Alturis has already decided that is no longer the case, so I do not know why he is being defensive now.  I should also mention that my full name was Kaialaris. I’m more comfortable with Kai.”

The Silver armored Kai was a mind fuck. Nothing like what I expected an Alo-im was like. For that matter, none of them were. I shook my head to try and clear my thoughts.

My mouth held on to my confusion. “You’re nothing like what I was led to believe Alo-im were. You seem…normal.”

Kai laughed. “I don’t know what you expected, and our society has gone through many changes, but when we were last conscious, it was a time of great liberation for our people. Our belief and focus were dictated by the source.”

“Is that why you’re all focused on one Neuma even when you can use them all?”

She nodded. “Correct. Each of us deep down has a true affinity. A true calling, sometimes two or three. Our society accepted and encouraged those differences, but that wasn’t always the case.”

“Kai is right, we did undergo changes,” Alturis snapped. “But none of that is relevant right now. We must commune together to discuss what we should do about this situation.” He pointed at me with a hint of aggression. “You are, by your own admission, a mongrel. Hakanilaris is a pure born Alo-im. Yet it is you with the Administrator System. We will not turn against you, but with our race gone, it is my belief that our original oaths and bonds are gone. We may need to step back from this conflict.”

As harsh as the words were, I totally understood where he was coming from and I nodded. “I get it Alturis. I really do. Go and talk among yourselves and while I hope you see enough about what’s  happened here to realise I’m just a desperate fucker trying to save the universe. Either way, I’ll accept whatever you choose.”

To my surprise Alturis bowed. “Thank you Administrator. I appreciate your permission to do this.”

I was taken aback by his thanks as he was, for want of a better word an asshole. We didn’t give thanks easily.

Kai chuckled at the exchange. We both turned to her, but she was looking directly at me. Her reflective visor prevented me from reading what kind of laugh it was without facial expression.

“You okay?”

“I thought you were a Soil at first. Then I saw the Fire. But now, I think I see it. You might very well be gravity.”

“He’s not a gravity,” Alturis snapped. Though his look back to me suggested uncertainty.

“What does being a gravity mean?”

“We’ll see,” Kai replied quickly. “I want to see more of you first. We will discuss things among ourselves and I will come and find you when we are ready.

I scratched my head at the unusual situation. “Er, sure. I look forward to it.”

They turned to go, but before they could get two steps away, I shouted after them. A burning question resurfacing.

“Before you go, can you help me with something.

“Ask,” Alturis replied.

“Hakan created a Sphere around the whole of Onnekus. “I’d like to do that on Falritas.”

“Do you have enough power?” The Red armored wanker asked. “I do not think you do, judging from your level. It is a rare Alo-im whose sphere could cover an entire planet.”

“I have a number of goddess’s with Divine Cores and a bunch of high level Mortals who can help me with the power requirement. I hope it’ll be enough. The only problem is that we don’t have strength across all of the powers. Is that something you could help with if you decide to join me?”

Kai shook her head. “We are a small fragment of a core. We do not hold that kind of power. We can help with information, though. Which do you lack? And are you familiar with power loops and channeling?”

“I'm not familiar with the words, but I might be familiar with the practice if you tell me what you mean.”

“A power channel involves finding a high source of the power you require, and creating a channel for it to flow from the source to the location you need it.”

I nodded along. I’d done something similar with shields, tapping into the latent Earth and Water Neuma’s on different occasions.

“So, say for instance, you’re low on Earth power. Send down a channel of Earth to the source and tie that into your altar and assign it to the Sphere.”

“Huh, that actually sounds pretty simple. It’s mainly Dark we need. I'm sure we can find a strong source of dark power to draw from.”

Kai’s head bobbed. “I'm sure you will. There should rarely be any issues creating a channel to a power.”

“Apart from Void," I pointed out, “Which is also one of the Neuma’s we’re weak in.”

“Void is as abundant as Dark!” Alturis offered with a patronizing tone. “Create a channel into space and you’ll have more than an entire race could ever use in a billion life times.”

I shook my head at his assertion. “The source needs to be defensible too. If Hakan comes and attacks the planet, he'll sever the channel.”

“Not at all,” Kai said calmly, removing the resurgent tension between the red and me. “Your intention is to cover the entire planet. Therefore your Sphere will reach the outer atmosphere. You’ll be able to absorb the Void required without difficulty. Added to that. Finding a Void channel in space would be close to impossible. It would take a team of highly sensitive Alo-im a great deal of active hunting to find such a small distortion in the ambient Void flow.”

“Damn! That’s awesome. Seriously, thank you for the information guys. IF together.”

As the two guardians headed off once more, I turned to my listening friends. “Looks like we’re going to get our Sphere!”

“More than that.” Sania said, coming to stand next to me. “An army of Alo-im. How can we lose now?”

“I don’t know, but you’ve gotta ask yourself. If they were hiding under here, what else will be hidden away? Hakan’ll know, and he’ll be looking to use it to his benefit.”

--It's been a rough few weeks, (Months Really.) William is still in hospital, for the third time and it's just eating up most of my time, but I'm still getting some words in here and there.  He's doing okay, but they still have no idea what's wrong with him so onward we trudge. Hope you're all doing well!