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Legend of the Promised One
Shatter
The continent looked like a low cloud across the horizon. Their destination was on the western coast, not quite a straight fly from the palace, but not too far off. Neri had recognized the location on the map: the fliers' healing temple. It had a magic window that transformed sunlight into a beam that made flesh heal, cells regenerate. Ruki had talked about it once-real stained glass from earth and the most magnificent building! -but Neri had never been there. The crystal wouldn't be safe with nobody knowing it had to be protected.
Neri's leg cramped and she winced. Crouching over the glider used a different set of muscles than swimming and she hurt....
What a beautiful building.
Miya brushed her hand over the white marble wall. The window in the ceiling looked broken already; shards held together with strips of copper colored metal. It threw broken shapes on the floor, turning the evening light to red and blue and Oceanna's clear blue-green. It was almost too beautiful to destroy, but it was only beauty. Miya stepped into the center where the crystal threw white light on the floor, looking for a weak spot, the best place to hit to shatter the whole thing. A red-orange piece caught her eye and she saw a coliseum of natural stone towers. A blue piece, and clear wind blew in her face from a strange sky.
She shook her head and tried to focus. She was used to seeing places she'd never been, but not used to them leaping before her eyes. The crystal didn't heal at all, just made dreams. Miya pulled out her gun and aimed past a vision of people shouting. She'd never fired a gun before, but she'd dreamed of someone teaching her.
The shot echoed. Glass showered down without touching her, and made a new pattern. The crystal drifted down into her arms glowing reflected sunlight.
Glass, even pieces too small to see, slid aside in front of her feet as she walked out. The temple was just above the beach so she only had to walk straight out. People were coming; she could hear them shouting but they were too far away. She didn't have to hurry. The water was up to her chest now and the crystal was heavy, dragging down her arms. She dived.
It looked like nothing was wrong except for the crowd outside, a crowd just now gathering. Something had happened and they had missed it by a minute. Then Neri saw the window.
"What's that?"
"We're too late!" Neri shouted and swung down to talk to the people. They shouted and waved, surprised to see their princess flying. Neri yelled, "Who was it? Did you see?"
"A human! None of us was close enough!"
"Black and white!"
"Went into the water, I was about to follow-"
The clamor stopped. Jobah shouted, "Neri!"
Neri turned to look. Something huge was rising out of the sea under the setting sun. It looked like a dome, a bubble of green glass with spidery legs underneath. It hovered there dripping and watching them. The silence seemed total.
Neri yanked the glider around by force and hit the engine, throwing herself upward.
Jobah yelled, "Neri! Idiot!" And followed.
It was bigger even than it looked; the palace could have fit in the dome. Neri flitted around trying to find a door, a window, anything. The glass threw back layers of reflections and she couldn't see through. She stopped and hovered, looking harder. A face shifted into view, a dead white face half obscured by heavy shadows.
Neri shrieked and rocked back, then looked again. There was no face, no way she could have seen anything there. She leaned forward and shouted, "Return it. Return it!"
"Neri get out of there!"
"No!" Neri leaned and slid sideways. Nothing but green glass and black metal. "Show yourself and talk to me! Do-you-know-what-you've-done!"
There was a low roar and the air suddenly was not supporting her wings. She tumbled, caught her balance, lost it again, and fell. She had time to wonder if this was high enough that the water would be like stone.
Promised One!
She hit the water hard but straight and kept falling for long minutes before she could turn and swim for the surface.
The ship was gone. Jobah was circling low over the water, looking for her. Neri jumped as high as she could and waved. "Over here! I'm all right!"
"That was a holy stupid thing to do! I can't believe you didn't break your neck!" Jobah glared at her for a minute then said, "Your glider came up over there, go get it."
Not sure whether she felt more annoyed or more guilty at his anger, Neri ducked under far enough to see the glider floating as a shadow on the surface. She got to it and took off in a V of spray. There was nothing they could do but go back to shore.
Neri had to land in the water; she hadn't gotten the trick of jumping off and catching the glider before it got away. She waded onto the beach and wondered if she should say anything. Best to apologize at least. "I'm sorry I scared you. Going up there was stupid. I thought I'd be able to see in, for what that's worth."
Jobah gave her a sidelong glance like he knew practiced humility when he saw it. "And could you?"
"No. That was Galiel, himself in there, wasn't it?"
"Yes."
Neri had known but now, really thinking about Galiel watching her through the glass gave her the shakes. If that monster hadn't known who she was, he did now. But the monsters are people and Galiel is....
"What are we going to do tonight?"
"Find a person and ask where we can stay for the night. There are lots of places for people who come to see the temple."
"Didn't think you'd been here."
"I haven't. Ruki and Emi told me."
They walked toward the lights of a town, carrying the gliders. Neri really wondered for the first time how Galiel knew where the crystals were. There were no maps... Neri's map had been drawn by Tiara's daughters after Galiel left Oceanna for the last time. So how did he find them?
"Jobah, do mediums ever have the ability to find lost things?"
"Sometimes. I have it; I flew to find animals on Bandor, to get an idea of how many there were."
"So your sister-is telling Galiel where the crystals are?"
"Could be."
` "It's Miya... no, couldn't be. She can breathe water and only people born on Oceanna can do that."
"My sister Mera and your Promised One look different anyway. You could try asking her who she is, next time we see her."
"She never answered that question before."
They did find a place to stay, a house that had been inherited by a widow and her small daughter. The house was far too large for two so they rented out the upper rooms and served food below. They didn't realize for half the evening who Neri was, then they came and bowed and said they were at her service. Neri said continuing their normal evening was fine.
"I think you've got an admirer." Jobah said, watching the little girl flutter around the eating room like a moth.
"I know. Would you mind if I invited her to sit with us?"
"Go ahead. You're paying."
So Neri waved, "Miss, join us?"
"Um, really? Sure! My name is Sarah. What's it like being the princess, really?"
"Well living in the palace is nice and I have a lot of friends, but being the princess is a lot of hard decisions and things, it's pretty scary. And it's lots of hard work!"
"No way!"
"Truly!"
So they talked and Jobah sat back and listened, speaking only to say yes, they could all try a little flying in the morning. He only smiled mysteriously when Sarah asked where he was from with an accent like that.
"Princess? Are you awake?" Sara's voice called.
Neri was, and was discovering her cramped muscles hurt even more the next morning. She wanted to just flop out and sleep all day! "I'm up."
"The king wants to talk to you. I think something bad's happening."
"What?" Neri opened the door, "Where can I talk to him?"
"I'll show you. Your friend is downstairs having breakfast."
Jobah looked very surprised to see a perfectly modern computer in a cabinet.
"Uncle?"
King Nemon looked old, and no little frightened. "The fliers have gone mad, Neri. Shema said she was 'taking back the planet' before she left, and there are crowds of them gathering. I don't know whether you should come back or fly as far away as you can."
Neri felt horror, then anger. How dare they, the day after a death? "I'm coming back. I have to try and stop them."
"I'm not sure-"
"Where's Miya? What's she doing?"
"Trying to talk to them."
"It will be evening before we reach you, but we're on our way." The call clicked off from the other end and Neri, free of the need to look confidant, staggered and groaned.
"Hey, you all right?" Jobah asked, looking concerned.
"Bright Lady, my legs hurt! Those great flying machines have an evil side! But I'll recover. Sarah, we'll have breakfast then we have to leave."
"Ok!" Sarah dashed off.
Neri ate while walking around and around the room, and apologized to Sarah for canceling their flying.
"It's ok. You have to save the world!"
Jobah looked down at her, "It takes more than one person to save the world. Works a lot better if everybody helps."
"Oh!"
"You help by hiding if any monsters appear, ok? You're part of the world so you should get saved too."
"Right!" Sarah nodded hard and went off to say hello to some people coming in.
"That was a good speech." Neri said and finished her last two bites.
"It was true. Ready?"
"Let's go."
The trip back took less time; they ran the engines without mercy and even the wind seemed to know just how they needed to go.
The fliers swarmed above the palace, sitting on the brass domes and fluttering above them. Their voices sounded harsh.
"Like they've declared war on all earthbound. But they still look like themselves." Jobah stood balanced, holding a telescope to his eye.
"Go and land, you can't help me. I'll talk to them."
"Ok, but be careful."
Neri turned up, let the glider take her right to the cloud. She set her feet and spread her arms free. "Shema! Shema it's Neri! Talk to me!"
They rose up in swirls dark over the sea. Neri fought to hold the glider steady. It was all she could do to stay airborne in this tornado of wings and beaks that swept too close but never touched her.
Another deep breath, "Stop this! You'll all change, do you understand? You'll change like Laziah did! Whatever you gain, you'll die! Like-he-did!"
By the end she was screaming, clutching the bars of the glider as it wavered dangerously. Then the fliers were leaving. Gone.
For a dizzy moment Neri stopped caring and wished she could simply fall. She was so tired. The glider disagreed and circled down to hit the water nose-first. It floated but Neri was tossed in and let herself sink. Already she was questioning.
"They knew already! They knew! I only said what they knew! Why did it stop them?"
At least you brought peace.
You did.
"But I was too late. Galiel has three of them, what can I do?"
The sacred whale was not afraid. All she said was, your friends are looking for you.
Neri opened her eyes. She saw a swirl of black and white above her. Miya. "Miya!" She called, reaching up.
Their hands met. "I was afraid." Miya said, "I tried to fix it, but it was nothing! Like everything I said was nothing!"
"It's all right now. They're gone, I think they won't try again. Let's go home, we have to find everyone."
"Yes." Miya took off, graceful as a fish, perfectly at home in the water.
Jobah was waiting to help both girls out of the water. "No one was even hurt! What did you say?"
"Only things-they knew." Neri coughed, breathing water and air at once. She was glad for Jobah's strong hands helping her up. "I don't know what I did."
"Whatever it was it was brave."
Well if fear was a measure of how brave something was, then it had been brave. Neri pushed her wet hair out of her eyes. "Let's go in. I want to see my uncle, and Neanda, and eat something, and-where's my dog?"
"He must not know you've returned." Miya said, smiling.
They went in, the three of them. The palace was eerily silent. Neri guessed everyone must be hiding.
"Princess!" Emilee appeared and flung herself at Neri like a much younger child. "I was so scared! Where did Mita and Ruki go?"
"We'll have to find them." Neri said, hoping they'd be able to.
"She didn't do anything!"
Miya flinched.
"She's a fake, Princess." Emi said solemnly.
"Whoa, Emi, enough. Miya tried hard."
"You know she's fake, and I don't forgive her!"
Emi's anger grated and Neri didn't know what to say so she retreated to a standby. "The Lady forgives her and so do I."
"Hmmf." Emilee wasn't impressed by a platitude.
"Miya don't listen, she's scared like everyone."
"I know."
Jobah went on ahead, being polite or else just not wanting to get into their fighting. Emilee stomped after him, and Miya went silent. Neri almost laughed; she'd stopped a war ten minutes ago and now she couldn't keep her own friends civil. She missed Neanda's steady wisdom terribly. Having only humans around just wasn't right....
Micro sat outside the door of the throne room, playing guard dog. His ears perked up and he forgot his post to bounce around Neri's feet, saying he'd been good and noble the whole time.
"I'm sure you were." Neri looked up. Here were the people. Neanda stood talking to two of his own folk; he didn't see her. Of course, Neanda was the leader of his people now. Things would change between them.
A hum went around the room when Neri entered; many bowed but no one came close to her. Were they afraid? She hadn't done anything. She didn't even understand what had happened. When they asked, she would say so.
"Neanda? Please, ask me what happened out there...."
Legend of the Promised One
Shatter
The continent looked like a low cloud across the horizon. Their destination was on the western coast, not quite a straight fly from the palace, but not too far off. Neri had recognized the location on the map: the fliers' healing temple. It had a magic window that transformed sunlight into a beam that made flesh heal, cells regenerate. Ruki had talked about it once-real stained glass from earth and the most magnificent building! -but Neri had never been there. The crystal wouldn't be safe with nobody knowing it had to be protected.
Neri's leg cramped and she winced. Crouching over the glider used a different set of muscles than swimming and she hurt....
What a beautiful building.
Miya brushed her hand over the white marble wall. The window in the ceiling looked broken already; shards held together with strips of copper colored metal. It threw broken shapes on the floor, turning the evening light to red and blue and Oceanna's clear blue-green. It was almost too beautiful to destroy, but it was only beauty. Miya stepped into the center where the crystal threw white light on the floor, looking for a weak spot, the best place to hit to shatter the whole thing. A red-orange piece caught her eye and she saw a coliseum of natural stone towers. A blue piece, and clear wind blew in her face from a strange sky.
She shook her head and tried to focus. She was used to seeing places she'd never been, but not used to them leaping before her eyes. The crystal didn't heal at all, just made dreams. Miya pulled out her gun and aimed past a vision of people shouting. She'd never fired a gun before, but she'd dreamed of someone teaching her.
The shot echoed. Glass showered down without touching her, and made a new pattern. The crystal drifted down into her arms glowing reflected sunlight.
Glass, even pieces too small to see, slid aside in front of her feet as she walked out. The temple was just above the beach so she only had to walk straight out. People were coming; she could hear them shouting but they were too far away. She didn't have to hurry. The water was up to her chest now and the crystal was heavy, dragging down her arms. She dived.
It looked like nothing was wrong except for the crowd outside, a crowd just now gathering. Something had happened and they had missed it by a minute. Then Neri saw the window.
"What's that?"
"We're too late!" Neri shouted and swung down to talk to the people. They shouted and waved, surprised to see their princess flying. Neri yelled, "Who was it? Did you see?"
"A human! None of us was close enough!"
"Black and white!"
"Went into the water, I was about to follow-"
The clamor stopped. Jobah shouted, "Neri!"
Neri turned to look. Something huge was rising out of the sea under the setting sun. It looked like a dome, a bubble of green glass with spidery legs underneath. It hovered there dripping and watching them. The silence seemed total.
Neri yanked the glider around by force and hit the engine, throwing herself upward.
Jobah yelled, "Neri! Idiot!" And followed.
It was bigger even than it looked; the palace could have fit in the dome. Neri flitted around trying to find a door, a window, anything. The glass threw back layers of reflections and she couldn't see through. She stopped and hovered, looking harder. A face shifted into view, a dead white face half obscured by heavy shadows.
Neri shrieked and rocked back, then looked again. There was no face, no way she could have seen anything there. She leaned forward and shouted, "Return it. Return it!"
"Neri get out of there!"
"No!" Neri leaned and slid sideways. Nothing but green glass and black metal. "Show yourself and talk to me! Do-you-know-what-you've-done!"
There was a low roar and the air suddenly was not supporting her wings. She tumbled, caught her balance, lost it again, and fell. She had time to wonder if this was high enough that the water would be like stone.
Promised One!
She hit the water hard but straight and kept falling for long minutes before she could turn and swim for the surface.
The ship was gone. Jobah was circling low over the water, looking for her. Neri jumped as high as she could and waved. "Over here! I'm all right!"
"That was a holy stupid thing to do! I can't believe you didn't break your neck!" Jobah glared at her for a minute then said, "Your glider came up over there, go get it."
Not sure whether she felt more annoyed or more guilty at his anger, Neri ducked under far enough to see the glider floating as a shadow on the surface. She got to it and took off in a V of spray. There was nothing they could do but go back to shore.
Neri had to land in the water; she hadn't gotten the trick of jumping off and catching the glider before it got away. She waded onto the beach and wondered if she should say anything. Best to apologize at least. "I'm sorry I scared you. Going up there was stupid. I thought I'd be able to see in, for what that's worth."
Jobah gave her a sidelong glance like he knew practiced humility when he saw it. "And could you?"
"No. That was Galiel, himself in there, wasn't it?"
"Yes."
Neri had known but now, really thinking about Galiel watching her through the glass gave her the shakes. If that monster hadn't known who she was, he did now. But the monsters are people and Galiel is....
"What are we going to do tonight?"
"Find a person and ask where we can stay for the night. There are lots of places for people who come to see the temple."
"Didn't think you'd been here."
"I haven't. Ruki and Emi told me."
They walked toward the lights of a town, carrying the gliders. Neri really wondered for the first time how Galiel knew where the crystals were. There were no maps... Neri's map had been drawn by Tiara's daughters after Galiel left Oceanna for the last time. So how did he find them?
"Jobah, do mediums ever have the ability to find lost things?"
"Sometimes. I have it; I flew to find animals on Bandor, to get an idea of how many there were."
"So your sister-is telling Galiel where the crystals are?"
"Could be."
` "It's Miya... no, couldn't be. She can breathe water and only people born on Oceanna can do that."
"My sister Mera and your Promised One look different anyway. You could try asking her who she is, next time we see her."
"She never answered that question before."
They did find a place to stay, a house that had been inherited by a widow and her small daughter. The house was far too large for two so they rented out the upper rooms and served food below. They didn't realize for half the evening who Neri was, then they came and bowed and said they were at her service. Neri said continuing their normal evening was fine.
"I think you've got an admirer." Jobah said, watching the little girl flutter around the eating room like a moth.
"I know. Would you mind if I invited her to sit with us?"
"Go ahead. You're paying."
So Neri waved, "Miss, join us?"
"Um, really? Sure! My name is Sarah. What's it like being the princess, really?"
"Well living in the palace is nice and I have a lot of friends, but being the princess is a lot of hard decisions and things, it's pretty scary. And it's lots of hard work!"
"No way!"
"Truly!"
So they talked and Jobah sat back and listened, speaking only to say yes, they could all try a little flying in the morning. He only smiled mysteriously when Sarah asked where he was from with an accent like that.
"Princess? Are you awake?" Sara's voice called.
Neri was, and was discovering her cramped muscles hurt even more the next morning. She wanted to just flop out and sleep all day! "I'm up."
"The king wants to talk to you. I think something bad's happening."
"What?" Neri opened the door, "Where can I talk to him?"
"I'll show you. Your friend is downstairs having breakfast."
Jobah looked very surprised to see a perfectly modern computer in a cabinet.
"Uncle?"
King Nemon looked old, and no little frightened. "The fliers have gone mad, Neri. Shema said she was 'taking back the planet' before she left, and there are crowds of them gathering. I don't know whether you should come back or fly as far away as you can."
Neri felt horror, then anger. How dare they, the day after a death? "I'm coming back. I have to try and stop them."
"I'm not sure-"
"Where's Miya? What's she doing?"
"Trying to talk to them."
"It will be evening before we reach you, but we're on our way." The call clicked off from the other end and Neri, free of the need to look confidant, staggered and groaned.
"Hey, you all right?" Jobah asked, looking concerned.
"Bright Lady, my legs hurt! Those great flying machines have an evil side! But I'll recover. Sarah, we'll have breakfast then we have to leave."
"Ok!" Sarah dashed off.
Neri ate while walking around and around the room, and apologized to Sarah for canceling their flying.
"It's ok. You have to save the world!"
Jobah looked down at her, "It takes more than one person to save the world. Works a lot better if everybody helps."
"Oh!"
"You help by hiding if any monsters appear, ok? You're part of the world so you should get saved too."
"Right!" Sarah nodded hard and went off to say hello to some people coming in.
"That was a good speech." Neri said and finished her last two bites.
"It was true. Ready?"
"Let's go."
The trip back took less time; they ran the engines without mercy and even the wind seemed to know just how they needed to go.
The fliers swarmed above the palace, sitting on the brass domes and fluttering above them. Their voices sounded harsh.
"Like they've declared war on all earthbound. But they still look like themselves." Jobah stood balanced, holding a telescope to his eye.
"Go and land, you can't help me. I'll talk to them."
"Ok, but be careful."
Neri turned up, let the glider take her right to the cloud. She set her feet and spread her arms free. "Shema! Shema it's Neri! Talk to me!"
They rose up in swirls dark over the sea. Neri fought to hold the glider steady. It was all she could do to stay airborne in this tornado of wings and beaks that swept too close but never touched her.
Another deep breath, "Stop this! You'll all change, do you understand? You'll change like Laziah did! Whatever you gain, you'll die! Like-he-did!"
By the end she was screaming, clutching the bars of the glider as it wavered dangerously. Then the fliers were leaving. Gone.
For a dizzy moment Neri stopped caring and wished she could simply fall. She was so tired. The glider disagreed and circled down to hit the water nose-first. It floated but Neri was tossed in and let herself sink. Already she was questioning.
"They knew already! They knew! I only said what they knew! Why did it stop them?"
At least you brought peace.
You did.
"But I was too late. Galiel has three of them, what can I do?"
The sacred whale was not afraid. All she said was, your friends are looking for you.
Neri opened her eyes. She saw a swirl of black and white above her. Miya. "Miya!" She called, reaching up.
Their hands met. "I was afraid." Miya said, "I tried to fix it, but it was nothing! Like everything I said was nothing!"
"It's all right now. They're gone, I think they won't try again. Let's go home, we have to find everyone."
"Yes." Miya took off, graceful as a fish, perfectly at home in the water.
Jobah was waiting to help both girls out of the water. "No one was even hurt! What did you say?"
"Only things-they knew." Neri coughed, breathing water and air at once. She was glad for Jobah's strong hands helping her up. "I don't know what I did."
"Whatever it was it was brave."
Well if fear was a measure of how brave something was, then it had been brave. Neri pushed her wet hair out of her eyes. "Let's go in. I want to see my uncle, and Neanda, and eat something, and-where's my dog?"
"He must not know you've returned." Miya said, smiling.
They went in, the three of them. The palace was eerily silent. Neri guessed everyone must be hiding.
"Princess!" Emilee appeared and flung herself at Neri like a much younger child. "I was so scared! Where did Mita and Ruki go?"
"We'll have to find them." Neri said, hoping they'd be able to.
"She didn't do anything!"
Miya flinched.
"She's a fake, Princess." Emi said solemnly.
"Whoa, Emi, enough. Miya tried hard."
"You know she's fake, and I don't forgive her!"
Emi's anger grated and Neri didn't know what to say so she retreated to a standby. "The Lady forgives her and so do I."
"Hmmf." Emilee wasn't impressed by a platitude.
"Miya don't listen, she's scared like everyone."
"I know."
Jobah went on ahead, being polite or else just not wanting to get into their fighting. Emilee stomped after him, and Miya went silent. Neri almost laughed; she'd stopped a war ten minutes ago and now she couldn't keep her own friends civil. She missed Neanda's steady wisdom terribly. Having only humans around just wasn't right....
Micro sat outside the door of the throne room, playing guard dog. His ears perked up and he forgot his post to bounce around Neri's feet, saying he'd been good and noble the whole time.
"I'm sure you were." Neri looked up. Here were the people. Neanda stood talking to two of his own folk; he didn't see her. Of course, Neanda was the leader of his people now. Things would change between them.
A hum went around the room when Neri entered; many bowed but no one came close to her. Were they afraid? She hadn't done anything. She didn't even understand what had happened. When they asked, she would say so.
"Neanda? Please, ask me what happened out there...."