Frael felt as though someone or something was slowly pulling each and every nerve out of his body through his fingertips. It wasn’t the normal way the transformation occurred. What made today, this morning, so different from all of the other times? Perhaps it was the bone-deep chill from the dewy mist that clung to everything with a vice grip, leaving every object feeling like a wet, limp dishrag. The transformation was always better on a dry day, when the sun warmed the sphere with an intense purple and red flame. The dampness could make today’s transformation painful at best or incomplete at worst.
He strained to raise his head off the smooth, slick concrete. It was as though his body had taken room throughout the night. It may very well have during the shift when he exited the physical and roamed the sphere searching for his entity. Frael had spent several millennia on this never-ending quest that left him more discouraged with each frustrating failure. It felt as though someone was dangling the golden prize just close enough for him to reach out and grab it, only to have it snatched away when he was so close.
The golden prize was literally the small gold key that held the secrets to his existence; who he was, where he had come from, and what purpose he was to serve now that he was the only one left. But his searching had been in vain. And now…
‘You must arise and complete the transformation. If you fail to do so, you run the risk of losing the way. To do so means that you will spin out forever in the great tangled web of perplexity that you have been weaving for some time now.’
Great. It was the ultimate command from the Commander Dorspark. It was the same commend that echoed throughout the early morning light that cast a thin pale shadow just before the sky morphed into a bright red. Failure to obey the command meant another day spent on the fruitless quest for the purpose and the identity. Commander Dorspark had been very patient for a very long time, using soothing words of encouragement to guide Frael. But today, it sounded as though the Commander had run out of patience and resorted to giving the latest instructions in the most monotone of voices.
For Frael, identity was the only last shred of contact that mattered when traveling from the zone back towards the earthly realm. Identity had led him to make an intimate contact with the most incredible woman he had met in centuries. Her soft pale green eyes danced and sparkled under a jet black fringe of thick straight hair. Every time Frael entered the earthly realm, he knew that it could cost him valuable energy to complete his transformations. Without enough strength, he would end up stuck between the two worlds, unable to move back and forth. The thought of being perpetually stuck tore through his heart like a sheet of ice cold meteorites shaped like spears.
‘I don’t want you to leave. Not yet. There is so much I need to know, so much I need to share.’ Almenasa, the girl-turned-woman that he had met on that journey to the earthy realm, pleaded with Frael to stay.
She had also entered the earthly realm via the immense dimension doors that opened only every few years, coinciding with Haley’s Comet. These doors were twelve feet tall, the colour of deep blood red with streaks of azure splashed across the panels. Normally these doors could not be moved no matter how much force was applied. But at the right moment when the comet sailed by, all it took was a simple breath emission like a sigh of relief for the doors to swing wide open. Once the comet cleared the skies, the doors clanged shut. There was little time to travel using the dimension doors, but it was the safest means and required little energy compared to transformation.
It was that small stroke of luck that brought the two of them together, connecting their synergies. When synergies joined, it was like being set on fire from the head on down, but the veins froze up with an icy tingle. It only lasted for a few minutes, but not everyone survived this partnership. Those that did would enjoy a synergy that sustained them through the difficulties of moving in and out of the sphere. The greatest problem was that what one partner experienced, so did the other.
Every time Frael moved from the zone to the earthly realm, Almenasa felt some of her synergy deplete a little. No one really knew just how long combined synergies could or should last. Now the quest for identity rested with Frael, who wondered if the golden key held the answers he needed. But would he have enough time before the mutual power ran out and he lost Almenasa to the dimension doors forever?
She had told him at their last meeting, ‘Never fear the separation, for we still have our connection.’
Frael tried to breathe but his lungs would not expand enough to let in more than a trickle of air. He was certain that Almenasa never used the transformation and she would not be causing his zapped energy. Yet somehow, he was losing far more than he should on his transformation procedure. His mind clouded over with a thick fog that left him unable to think about what was happening to him.
Commander Dorspark’s words echoed faintly in Frael’s head as he felt the ground force pull him towards the concrete, encasing him in the impenetrable shield that would prevent his getting up.
to be continued...
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