Kazu milled around the bookshelf in front of him, stroking some of the spines and picking one or two out and starting a stack on the oak desk next to him. After it rose to a size of five books on top of each other, he moved to the chair behind the desk and sat down, grabbing the first one and started flipping through it when a woman wearing a dark green dress walked in with a troubled look on her face.
"Are you okay?" he asked, looking up.
"Are you busy?"
"Never too busy for you," he responded with a smile, closing the book, and setting it down. "Something on your mind?"
"I don't know," she replied, sitting down in the high-backed chair by the door. "I'm just… worried… I feel like something bad's about to happen but can't really say why."
"Probably my fault," he said, standing and walking over to her. "I came back the other night not really saying much." He reached her and gave her a kiss. "I'm not able to talk about it. Not yet, but we'll get it taken care of."
He sauntered back behind the desk, smiled at her and turned to look out the window.
"All I can say right now is there's a few people around here who haven't been entirely forthcoming with who they actually are. We'll know soon en—"
He turned around to see the woman had disappeared.
"Lightning Bug?"
He rushed across the room over to the door, throwing it open.
"Jupiter?" he asked, looking down an empty hallway.
Kazu took a step into the hallway but as his foot landed on the stone, the floor disappeared and he started falling into blackness.
Able to right himself after a few seconds, he looked down and saw nothing below him. He turned his head up, expecting to see part of a door but there was nothing but darkness all around him. Voices started ringing out.
"…Now that I'm with you, none of that matters…"
"…the kingdom will be in good hands…"
…I'm going to figure out who did this…"
…that's why we need to end this…"
…need to end this…
…end this…"
Suddenly, Kazu opened his eyes and sat up. He looked around to see he was in the small room the Masters had allowed him to have as an archivist. He fell backwards.
"Not... the worst one I've had," he said quietly before getting out of bed. "Need some air."
He put some clothes on and walked out the door, down the dormitory hall, and into the outside walkway to see it was still the middle of the night. He leaned against the outside wall and looked at the ground. He stamped his foot a couple of times, as if to make sure it wasn't going to fall out from under him. Satisfied, Kazu sighed, crossed his arms and looked at the starry sky.
I will find you… someday…
# # #
Aldreck traipsed up the corridor to his master's quarters, finding nobody along the way to impede his progress. Upon reaching the door, he gave a few loud knocks. It opened and Khondo exited and started walking along the way Aldreck came.
"The boy has been researching that temple. He's not going to find anything particularly useful apart from what he's already discovered," Khondo said. "If I'm going to make him mine, I need to entice him to look my way."
"I assume you already have a plan in mind for that?"
Khondo stopped by a window and gazed out at the planet in front of him. Lightning danced across the sky as a thunderstorm passed in the distance. He closed his eyes, raised his hands, and slowly waved them around, moving his fingers while doing so.
"I'll let him see… he'll get an idea of the possibilities… what could happen if he joins me… what might happen if he doesn't. He'll look my way and I'll put strings on him, one by one, meticulously placed with thought and consideration. And when I pull those strings," he continued, jerking both his hands up and clenching them.
He turned to face Aldreck.
"I'm going to make him dance. I'll make him dance… real… good…."
# # #
Kazu walked along the dormitory hallway, the sun shone through the windows, bathing the corridor in light and warmth. He stopped before the doorway to the outside, yawned, and made a mental note to possibly go to bed a bit earlier that night but knew he probably wouldn't.
He stepped outside and walked a few meters before noticing the warmth was gone. He looked up, expecting to see a sun hanging in a blue sky but instead found that the star had vanished and all that covered the sky above him was darkness. He backed up slowly, anticipating the feel of the door he had just left from but felt nothing. Turning, Kazu found that he was in an endless outside walkway that stretched before and behind him with the apex of the temple still reaching toward the now darkened sky.
The hell?
Kazu picked a direction and started running down the walkway as it continued to stretch out before him. He finally found a fork in the path and went down one of them, eventually seeing the back of a familiar blue figure.
"Xinnaa!".
No response.
He yelled her name again still with no response.
As he reached her, Kazu grabbed her shoulder and turned her around to find that instead of her face, he was looking at a white skull that melded into her lekku. He stumbled backward.
"Ka…Zu…" it rasped. "Ka…Zu…"
Kazu kept inching backward but the faceless Xinnaa crept toward him.
"Ka…Zu…"
"Go-go away!" yelled Kazu as he fell backward onto the ground. He started crawling backwards.
It stopped and watched Kazu get to his feet but after he regained his bearings, reared back and flew toward him. He braced himself, crossing his arms in front of his face and closing his eyes. When the thing reached him, he felt a great force of wind blow past. He opened his eyes and saw that he was hanging off his bed, the only noise around being the lifting off of a ship from the starport nearby and the wind in the trees.
It rustled through the leaves and Kazu swore he could hear a rhythm from their dancing, as if they were speaking to him.
"…you gotta tell them…"
# # #
Tycho walked from the starport and bounced up the temple steps, heading for the cafeteria when he walked through the entrance and saw Kazu walking with Saa'na and So'lia. He trotted over to join them, but his gait slowed when he noticed the bags under Kazu's eyes.
"What's with you?" he asked as he drew nearer.
"Nothing," Kazu said. "Just had a restless night. A few bad dreams last night."
"He lies," So'lia said.
"Not a lie, So," he replied slowly. "It was a couple of bad dreams."
"Bad dreams over one night isn't going to do this," Saa'na said. "It looks like you haven't been sleeping well for a few days."
"I'm fine, Sa. Hungry though."
"I was on my way to get something to eat," Tycho said. "Wanna come?"
"Sure," he said as the four of them started heading toward the cafeteria.
"Hey!" a fifth voice called out as they were making their way there.
They all turned to see Xinnaa walking up, waving and smiling. Kazu thought his brief flinch went unnoticed, not seeing the look the twins shared between each other. As Xinnaa drew closer, Kazu walked up to her and started inspecting her face, touching the sides of it and pinching her cheeks. He tapped her forehead and poked her right lek.
"You keep doing that," she smirked as the lek twitched lightheartedly. "And you're going to have to buy me a drink."
"Sorry," Kazu said, backing off.
"Odd," So'lia said. "Explain."
"The dream I had…" Kazu started, starting to point at Xinnaa. "She didn't have a face."
"Well that's a bit… nah, that's really horrifying, Koz," Tycho said. "Maybe you should talk to the Masters about it?"
"They're just dreams, Tycho," he said. "They can't do anything to me."
"Think so, huh?" Xinnaa responded.
"Dreams can often be a harbinger of something—" Tycho started.
They reached the entrance to the cafeteria and Kazu stopped and looked at the four of them.
"You worry about your missions," he said to Tycho and turned to the other three. "You've got your trials coming up, worry about those. And you," he said to Xinnaa, "have to figure out what you want to do with your life now. These are just dreams… just dreams," he concluded, walking into the cafeteria.
The four of them watched Kazu walk in and looked at each other before they all sighed and followed in after him.