Chapter Twenty One
I lay there, frozen, in the darkness. My body was rigid, and my eyes were open. I stared blankly up at the metal ceiling several feet above the bed, knowing that it was there, but being unable to see it. Aura’s warm back lay firmly against my right side. I felt her body moving rhythmically with every cavernous breath she took. She was in a deep sleep. And she needed to be. It had been three days since we arrived here, and her wounds were only just beginning to heal. Seeing her blemished and bruised face made me sad. Of course I didn’t let her know I felt that way. She took a lot of pride in her appearance, and if she knew what she looked like, she would be really upset. I thought about how hard it must be to be beautiful. There must be a lot of pressure to always look perfect. And people judge you for it too. I was content with being… me. I got by fairly unnoticed, and that suited me just fine.
I closed my eyes, willing my brain to shut down, so that I too could go to sleep. I was so tired, and I needed to rest. I tried not to think about the people dressed in black, running towards us in the muddy field. I stopped focusing on their screams of agony as we used our powers against them. I erased the images of people being set alight by lightning, and being impaled by rain drops, from my mind. The blood, the rain, the bright white light, the terror, the suffering. It was all being washed away. Instead I focused on Ted Bear, my teddy bear. He was round and fat, with soft brown fur and a plump stomach and a big head. His arms and legs were short thick stumps that popped out of his snuggly body. His face was warm, and his black button eyes smiled at me. I felt a tear drip slowly out of my eye and dribble down my cheek. I wanted to hug him now, more than ever. I wanted to know that I was safe, and that everything was going to be okay. I remembered when dad bought me Ted Bear. It has to be the earliest memory I could recall. Like an old movie, the images are blurred and grainy and there is no sound, but it has always stayed with me. Aura was crying. Dad was miserable. Niyol was so small… Dad hugged Aura, and she hugged him back. Then Dad came towards me, and took Ted Bear out of a plastic bag, and placed him in my arms. Even though he had just told me that I would never see my mother again, somehow squeezing Ted Bear made everything feel okay.
My body lifted from the mattress, as I allowed the air particles to slowly push me up. I liked floating. It was fun. If I was a more daring person, I would probably use it to play practical jokes on people. But I would never do that. It would be cruel. And people would probably think that I was a witch or something.
My hair sprawled down towards the mattress as my whole body was now lifted a few feet above it. I loved this feeling. It was wonderful. It made me feel as if I was weightless and flying through space, where nothing and nobody could hurt me. I sighed, happily, and tried my best to fall back to sleep.
A few minutes later, the harsh light above me glared on. I opened my eyes and turned my head to the right. Aura had gotten out of bed and was standing next it. Her eyes were level with mine, and she was staring at me in confusion. I continued to hover.
“Why did you turn on the light, Aura? I was just falling asleep!”
“You can float?” she questioned. I closed my eyes. The bright yellow light was burning into my brain.
“Yeah… so?”
“I floated the other night too!”
“I’m sure you did.”
Aura grabbed my right arm, and I almost lost my balance. I spun through the air so that I was now on my side. My long hair fell over my face, and I removed it with my left hand, continuing to hover. She gasped in shock. It was then that I realised that perhaps she hadn’t been able to do this as long as I had.
“You’re floating!!” She exclaimed, still glaring at me as if I was an alien life form.
“Yes… can’t you?”
“I did the other night, but I think that was the first time…”
“Really?” I replied, “I’ve been able to it ever since I got my powers.”
Aura looked annoyed. “Why didn’t you tell me you could fly?”
“I just thought that we all could…”
“It’s like Peter Pan!”
“Oh no,” I chuckled, sitting up as I used the air particles to float me across the bed towards the door, “Peter Pan is magic. This is science.”
“Science?” She repeated, her eyes following me as I pushed my legs out towards the floor. I used the air to lower myself down, and soon I was standing on the cold steel tiles.
“We are a living embodiment of wind, Aura. Didn’t it ever cross your mind that we could fly? It’s pretty straightforward, really. Dr Kothari was telling me all about it. We can somehow change our bodies, by opening up our pores and molecules to allow air particles inside, which makes us lighter and more aerodynamic, and then we can command these tiny microbes inside of us, and the bits of air around us to lift us…”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying,” Aura interjected. She looked puzzled.
I walked over to her, and put my hand on her shoulder.
“Basically, we can use the air around us to fly. Our bodies are specially adapted for it. Dr Kothari has been studying us… me… to see how the Ventus are physiologically different. I thought that she was working with all of us, but clearly she hasn’t… She has also been telling me all about our genetics and our biological…”
“I floated the other night, but I did it while I was sleeping.”
I removed my hand from her shoulder.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” I apologised, “I just thought that…”
“No, it’s okay. It’s alright. It makes sense. We haven’t really been talking about these things… Do you think Niyol can do it too?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. It seems like I haven’t spoken to him for months!” I added, ashamed of myself, “He’s been so distant lately…”
Aura sat down on the edge of the bed, and pulled me down with her. I stared into her eyes, which were now a dark brown. I knew that mine would be too.
“Can you teach me how to do it?” She asked.
“Of course. But you’ve been doing it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I saw you using the raindrops as bullets. I saw you throwing the people out of your way. You know how to manipulate the molecules already… it’s just the same thing…”
She sighed, and looked down at her hands, which were clasped together.
“You’re right. I can manipulate the air. And the wind. I can feel when you do it too, like we are linked together. Do you remember when…?”
“Yes,” I cut her off, knowing exactly what she was talking about. “I feel both you and Niyol all the time. We’re somehow connected through the wind. The other day you called on me to make the wind stronger, and I did.”
“But that was the only time I felt connected to you…” Aura stated, forlornly.
“It just takes getting used to. We’re all different, we all have different powers. I can’t make rain, or use it as a weapon…”
“But you can fly and make a shield, and grow plants…”
I smiled, and put my hands on top of hers. It was weird. For the first time in my life, Aura seemed to be jealous of me. Or at least of my progress. She had always been told that she was better than me in every way, and yet now she envied what I could do. It didn’t make sense. I felt sad, guilty and conflicted. I didn’t want her to feel bad, but I secretly enjoyed the fact that for the first time ever, I was better than her at something. The pangs of guilt vibrated through my stomach. I had been able to fly for months now, but I didn’t ever do it in front of anyone because I didn’t want to show off. But deep down, I wanted to. Sigwald and the other scientists all told me that I was progressing much better than Aura and Niyol. And I knew that, to me, everything just felt natural. And instinctive. I was happy that, for once, I was doing something better than them. Niyol was good at sports, and Aura was good at everything, and I was never good at anything… until now. But I couldn’t enjoy it, because I knew that the only reason why wa
s because, unlike them, I didn’t have any anger clouding my judgement. I wasn’t holding onto pain from the past. I had let it go, and so I could move forward. And what made me upset was that I wished that they could too.
I began to sniffle, as large tears splashed from my eyes onto my legs.
“I’m sorry…” I cried. I didn’t want her to be angry at me, and I wished that she would stop being angry at our mother too. Aura immediately pushed my head into her chest as I continued to sob.
“What on earth is wrong with you?” she scolded me. “Why do you cry at everything? Why can’t you just for once be proud of yourself?”
“I don’t know…” I snivelled.
“You’re so amazing, Sefarina. You can use your powers better than me or Niyol, and you should be happy about that, not sad!”
“But I don’t want to be better than you because…”
“Well you are, and you’re going to have to live with it,” she commanded sternly. I smiled at the normality of her once again being mother hen. “We won’t hate you for it, Sefarina. We will only hate you if you don’t teach us how to fly!”
She laughed, and so did I. I pulled away from her and she let go of me. I looked at her cheerfully.
“We all have different skills,” she said softly, “and I’m sure as we practise more we will discover them…” Her face dropped, and then froze. Her eyes began to dart around in despair. She shot up, and began pacing across the floor. I stared at her in terror. What was going on?
“What is it?” I pleaded.
“Sefarina!” She exclaimed, pulling me to my feet and staring me dead in my face. She looked frightened. “The Elementus Populas, they knew you could fly, right?”
I nodded. “Of course…”
“At the battle… they kept attacking you, didn’t they? They kept coming for you, but you didn’t fly, did you?”
“No, I just used my shield to defend myself. And to throw them to one side…”
Aura seemed to ignore me, and continued to pace up and down the tiny gap between the bed and the wall. She was rambling something about threats and danger, and I began to feel very uneasy and incredibly disturbed.
I jumped up from the bed, and stood there, watching Aura babble on nonsensically.
“They knew she could, but they didn’t see it… and then they saw us, and knew that…”
“Please Aura,” I begged desperately, “Tell me what’s going on!”
Aura spun around and gripped me tightly by the shoulders.
“I didn’t want to tell you this, but I think I have to.”
I gulped. My arms trembled and my legs shook. I squeezed my eyes shut tight. I wanted this all to be a terrible nightmare, one that I would wake up from. I didn’t want this to get any worse. I just wanted to see Dad, and Grandpa, and Grandma, and my friends, and Ted Bear. I opened my eyes. We were still in the bomb shelter. Aura was still clutching me. This was not a nightmare. This was real life.
“Go on,” I whispered, willing the revelation to be over with as quickly as possible.
“A few days ago, Sigwald called me.”
My eyes widened in horror. Yesterday, during dinner, Valeska had told us that Sigwald had been arrested by the Elementus Populas for being a traitor. He had been the mole all along! They had found him, making his way towards our top secret location. They thought that he was trying to break us out, and take us to the Inimicus. I had cried when she told us. I didn’t want to believe that Sigwald could do something so awful. But it all seemed to make sense…
And now I find out he had been talking to my sister! Had he turned her? Had he convinced her to become a member of the Inimicus? I suddenly felt uneasy, knowing that I was distrusting and doubting my own sister. It made me feel sick to my stomach! But after everything that had happened, I just didn’t know what to think anymore.
“What did he say?” I wondered suspiciously.
“He’s not the mole.”
I scoffed. Of course he would say that. Aura looked disappointed in me, which made another knot pull tighter in my gut.
“Do you believe him?” I questioned her. She nodded, and I felt the room spin. My own sister: a villain?
“Of course I believe him, Sefarina. He was set up! Framed! Think about it: if he wanted to make us a part of the Inimicus, wouldn’t he have tried to do something sooner? Why would he attack the base so that we would get taken away from him- it wouldn’t make any sense!”
I thought about it for a moment. She was right. Sigwald would want us to stay close to him, so that he could influence us. And he could have done so this entire time, but he hadn’t. I beamed.
“You’re right!” I exclaimed happily, “It couldn’t have been Sigwald!” My smile quickly faded, as I realised that the mole had not yet been discovered. “Then it must be…”
“It’s Valeska,” Aura explained, “she wanted to see us use our powers, first hand. I don’t know why, but she does. And since you didn’t use yours…”
“You think that there will be another attack?”
“I’m sure there will be!”
I shook even harder. I didn’t want to have to hurt people again. I just wanted the violence to stop. The Ventus were supposed to help people, not harm them.
“I’ve been watching her the last few days, ever since I realised it was her. Have you noticed how she keeps saying things about us making a choice, and how we should do what we want to? And how we don’t have to work for the Elementus Populas?”
My mind raced, trying it’s hardest to remember the conversations we had had with Valeska. Aura was right. She did always seem to say things about going solo and working for ourselves.
“She’s wrapped Niyol right around her little finger, and now we know why.”
“Because she’s gorgeous?” I pondered.
“No, because he’s the most powerful one. He’s the Primus, and his lightning power is the most damaging. He wouldn’t harm her, not when he is infatuated with her. You know what boys are like around beautiful women… They act like idiots.”
Aura smiled, knowingly. I grinned back. I had seen what men were like around Aura. It did seem as if their brains dropped out of their head and landed between their legs.
“So what are you going to do?” I demanded.
“We have to tell Niyol. It’s only fair that we do. He has to hear it from us first. Then we have to tell someone in the Elementus Populas what is going on, and have Valeska arrested. But whatever we do, we can’t let her know that we know. If she finds out, there’s no telling what she might do!”
“What do you mean?”
“Beautiful women are used to getting exactly what they want. She will stop at nothing to get what she came here for. That makes her exceptionally dangerous.”