CHAPTER TWO

Sasami stood, her hands folded behind her back and her eyes focused on wall just beyond where Kiyone paced. "Do you have any idea what you've done?" she demanded angrily. "Your family has been searching the galaxy for you, and you've been here the whole time! Do you have any idea what they'll do to you, to me, when they find out?!"

Sasami met the woman's eyes for the first time. Some of the power from her earlier confrontation must have lingered in her face, for Kiyone suddenly backed away. "What's happening to you, princess?" Kiyone whispered, her eyes as wide as saucers.

The fear in the elder woman's eyes killed the last trace of power in Sasami's face. She sagged dejectedly, and Kiyone heaved a sigh of relief. "I don't know, Miss Kiyone. I don't know what's happening to me."

Kiyone came around her desk, standing before Sasami. She pushed Sasami's chin up with a gentle finger. "First of all, what are you doing here? Your family thinks you've been kidnapped."

Sasami groaned. "I wasn't kidnapped. I ran away." She blinked back the sudden tears in her eyes. "I was suffocating, Miss Kiyone. I wasn't even allowed outside my rooms any more. I had to get out before I went crazy."

Kiyone groaned. "You ran away. Gods, Sasami, that was stupid. Don't you know that your family has eyes everywhere? How long did you expect to stay hidden, especially when you pull stunts like that thing back in the lab?"

Sasami shrugged. "I just wanted to get away for a little while, to figure things out. I'm changing, Miss Kiyone, and there wasn't anywhere else I could go and still be allowed to be myself. I figured that I could hide out here, at least for a few months."

Kiyone ran a hand through her hair. "Okay, tell me what's wrong, princess. How are you 'changing'?"

Sasami looked at the floor, unable to meet Kiyone's eyes. "There was an earthquake back home."

Sasami seemed unable to go on, so Kiyone jumped in. "There hasn't been an earthquake on Jurai in centuries. The last one was nearly two thousand years ago. What's that got to do with anything?"

Sasami looked up at last, and Kiyone felt an icy finger trailing down her spine as she saw the deadened look in the normally happy princess' eyes. "I was supposed to be having an etiquette lesson at the time," she whispered, not seeming to care that her explanation probably didn't make any sense. "I was only a little kid, and I wanted so very badly to be outside, playing in the sunshine. I slipped a sedative into my instructor's tea, and then took off as soon as she fell asleep. I was just going to play outside, but somehow I ended up outside the holy room."

"The holy room?" inquired Kiyone with a raised eyebrow.

Sasami nodded. "The room where the sacred trees are kept."

Kiyone nodded in sudden understanding. The people of Jurai could live for centuries, sustained by the trees with which they bonded. In return for this expanded life expectancy, the Jurains protected and maintained the trees. Kiyone would know, since she'd been granted a tree of her own as a reward for her services to the royal family of Jurai many years previously. Both Kiyone and her partner, Mihoshi, had become virtually immortal thanks to the tree that they shared. Kiyone knew that not many people were given trees, and even fewer were allowed to see them. Her own tree remained in safety on Jurai. She'd only seen it once or twice, herself.

Sasami continued her narrative. "I wasn't supposed to go inside; I knew I wasn't. I didn't even want to, but it was like I didn't have a choice. Something was forcing me into the chamber, and I could hear voices coming from the inside. They were calling my name, telling me to hurry and find them before it was too late." She gulped, still expecting to be punished for entering in the first place. "I ran along the walkways, looking for the voices. I wasn't hurting anything; I was just running around. Then, the earthquake hit. I fell from the path." She closed her eyes tightly, fighting back tears. "I fell for such a long time. I knew I was going to die, that nothing could have saved me. I remember watching the ground as it came closer, knowing that landing was really going to hurt. I hit, and it did hurt, just not as much as I'd expected. I remember waiting for the pain, waiting for the darkness." She opened her eyes slowly. "I didn't have to wait long."

Kiyone stared at the girl in front of her. "Wait a second. Are you saying that you died?"

Sasami nodded slowly. "Yes, I did die. I'm pretty certain that I did, anyway. It was more of a sensation than true knowledge, really. I felt myself letting go. To be strictly honest, I didn't really care at that point. I was just glad that it hadn't hurt as much as I'd feared." She frowned. "I don't know what happened after that. One minute, I was dying, and the next, I was awake again. I remember standing up, wondering why I could move at all. At the very least, I should have been mangled, bones broken, something. I didn't even have a bruise. Instead, I felt better than I ever had. I'd always been somewhat frail as a child, but now I felt strong, as if I could do anything." She shrugged, irritated by her inability to put her thoughts into words.

"What happened after that?" Kiyone continued to stare, eyes wide. She'd known that Jurains had special abilities, but coming back from the dead had never been one of them. She would have believed that Sasami simply lied, but she knew the slender princess would never do anything of the kind.

Sasami shrugged. "I don't remember much after that. I remember running outside, where my mom and Aeka were calling my name. They never yelled at me for being in the sacred room. My mom just hugged me, but Aeka kept staring at me for weeks afterward. I think she knew that something big had happened. She later confessed that when I came out, my kishtaka changed before her eyes. Instead of the two circles, I now have these triangles." Sasami pointed to her forehead, where two blue-green triangles graced the skin just above and between her eyes.

"Nothing else happened for a few decades. Well, nothing that I noticed, anyway. Nonetheless, I was changing. I knew things about people that I shouldn't have known. I found that I could read most people like books. I knew when someone was lying, and when he or she was being honest. I could even sense some people's emotions. My tutors noticed the changes. I knew and understood concepts that defeated even the most advanced of students. I remembered events in history as if I'd been there. I could explain the processes and purposes behind things that had confused my people for generations."

Sasami gazed out the window. "And that wasn't all. As time passed, I realized that I was even more different than I'd imagined. Like any royal, I can summon energy. Unlike the others, though, I have enough to blow up a planet with a thought." She stopped talking, thoughts still trapped in the events of the past few decades. "I think Aeka suspects. Once, when we were little, she told me that not everyone can hear the rain before it falls, and that I shouldn't let on that I could. I didn't understand her at the time." Sasami shook her head in resignation. "She didn't bring the subject up ever again, and I'm not sure that she ever will. Like me, she doesn't want to delve any deeper than she has to."

Both women were silent for several long moments. Sasami was lost in her memories, and Kiyone was thinking hard about the facts that Sasami had just revealed. Kiyone wasn't certain how she should handle this startling information. Should she return Sasami? Or should she let the girl work matters out on her own? "So, what now?" Kiyone finally asked.

Sasami blinked, startled by the question. "I want to become a member of the Galaxy Police. I know that eventually I'll have to return to Jurai and face my past, but maybe the training will help me focus. At the very least, I'll have time to organize myself." She grimaced again. "It's like I have two people in my head, and both want control of my body. Sometimes they agree, and sometimes they share common goals. Sometimes I have to fight myself just to eat breakfast in the mornings. It's confusing, and it's hard."

Kiyone nodded in sympathy. "All right, you win. I'll let you stay here on the condition that you come to me when you have problems." She walked over to Sasami, laying a kind hand on the girl's shoulder. "You don't have to do this alone, you know."

Sasami nodded, striking the tears from her large eyes. "Thank you, Miss Kiyone."

Sasami turned to leave, but stopped when Kiyone called, "Call me commander. It'll raise suspicions if we're on a first name basis in public."

Sasami smiled briefly and gave the woman an impulsive hug. She fled from the room, shutting the door firmly behind her. As she rounded the corner outside the commander's office, she came face to face with the redheaded youth. He was lounging elegantly against the wall, his arms and ankles crossed and his eyes closed.

She was just about to pass by, when he suddenly spoke. "You left this in the med lab," he said in a deep voice as he opened his purple eyes. His face remained expressionless, but he held out his hand. When she hesitated, he grabbed her wrist with his other hand and placed something in her palm.

She opened her fist, staring silently at the bone ring from her vision/hallucination. "Where did you get this?" she breathed.

The redhead shrugged. "I found it on the floor after you left. Since it was glowing, I figured that it must be connected with you."

The young man turned to leave, not deigning her with a second glance. Sasami hesitated again, but then called, "Thank you." The man hesitated, glancing over his shoulder at her. Encouraged, she continued, "You don't know what this ring means to me. Thank you for returning it."

The redhead nodded slightly, and then continued on his way.

Sasami stared long and hard at the ring for several endless moments. Should she be relieved that her experience in the labyrinth was not a hallucination, or should she be afraid of this bit of proof? Having the ring meant that the blonde woman might also be real. Do I know what this ring means? Mahonori wouldn't have given it to me if it was dangerous, would he? Then again, was that even Mahonori? Making up her mind, she slipped it onto her finger, reveling in the smooth feel of the bone on her skin. She continued to gaze at the ring, and she could have sworn that in the dim light of the hallway, the runes carved into the surface winked at her.

Usual disclaimers, blah, blah, blah. (At least I remembered!)