The Heart Fountain

Isolated
I awake again, and I still can’t open my eyes.
Was the last awakening real, or some kind of dream?

I open my vision to the energy world.

I’m on a bed.
The bed rests on a platform in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by a crystal sphere.
There is no land in sight.

My energy body looks strange.
It’s not the right size, and the patterns are all wrong.
The area of the eyes is much brighter than the rest of the energy body.

There’s a small room near my body surrounded by its own crystal walls.
On the floor of that room, I see a transport platform.

And there’s someone sitting in that room.

“I’m awake,” I say, and sit up slowly, feeling my body.
“Who’s there?”

My voice is unfamiliar, too high, and weak.
But my body feels human.

“It’s Berek, Master Yagrin.”
“It’s a miracle you’re alive.”

“Berek. I’m so happy you’re alright.”

“I’m fine, master. I just needed a little rest.”

“You’ve been unconscious for days,” he says.
“We all take turns staying with you.”

“I told the others that I’d get them the moment you awake.”
“Balshown said that it’s very important that you don’t move or open your eyes.”

“Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

I drink some water and eat some food that I find near the edge of my bed.

I hear the tones of the transport platform as it activates to take Berek away.
A few minutes later, I hear it activate again.

I’m happy to hear familiar voices, but the voices are full of mixed emotions.
Shazira, Tzina, and Balshown are here, along with Berek.
But they are not completely happy to be here.

“Can I kiss him, master Balshown?” asks Tzina.

“No child, not yet.”
“We have to keep him within the shield.”

“What’s going on, Balshown?” I ask
“What is this prison?”

“It’s an isolation chamber, Yagrin.”

“We thought it best to keep you here until we understand more about what’s happened to you.”

“In the middle of the ocean?” I ask loudly.
“Why not in the healing room of the watchtower?”

There is a long silence.

“Tell him,” says Shazira.

“Let him rest,” says Balshown.
“Tell him!” shouts Shazira.

“Yagrin, you look like something described in a legend.”
“Something more powerful, and more dangerous than Krale.”

This place was built 1000 years ago, in case someone like you should appear.
As far as we know, it has never been needed until now.

“We brought you here to protect the watchtower and the city from you.”
“And also to keep you safe.”
“There are those who wanted to kill you while you slept.”

Transformed
“It’s my fault, Master Yagrin,” says Berek.
“If I hadn’t gotten angry, you never would have brought us to the black room.”

“Berek,” I say, “I was the one who was reckless and brought us there.”
“And as terrible as it all seems, I feel like this was supposed to happen.”

“Supposed to happen?” shouts Shazira.
“You’ve ruined our lives, destroyed our family, and all you can say is that it was supposed to happen?”

“I’m sorry,” I say weakly.

“Don’t be sorry!” she says.
“Fix it.”

“Shazira,” says Balshown, “he just awoke.”
“At least, let him rest a little, and learn about his situation.”

Shazira storms away to the far end of the room that they are in, and turns her back to me.

“What day is it Balshown?” I ask.

“Tonight is moonwatch,” he answers.
“The Krale will come tonight.

I almost died when I arrived in this world at last moonwatch.
At the full moon, the tower is not able to protect the city from the Krale.

At moonwatch, when the Krale approach, the guardians of the watchtower take action.
The guardians must be a married couple.
They take a special crystal, and charge it with power through song.

Then the crystal is absorbed into the body of the energy weaver.
The weaver sends a powerful blast of energy into the sky, driving the Krale away.

“Have we been replaced as guardians, Shazira?”
“Yes, Yagrin,” she says in a weak voice.
She loved being guardian, and she loved living in the watchtower.

“What will happen with the weaving tests that I was scheduled to take?”

“Forget about the tests, Yagrin!” Shazira says.
“We don’t know if you will even survive yet.”
“Balshown is right. Just focus on getting well.”

“Balshown, answer me,” I ask.
“What about the tests?”

“The time for tests is past Yagrin.”

“They have broken our marriage bonds?!” I ask.

“No Yagrin,” says Shazira in a sad voice, “they have not broken the bonds, at least, not in the usual way.”

“They have declared you dead.”
“The law considers you a new person, or at least a new being of some kind.”

“Berek told us, and your strange energy body confirms it.”
“You died in there.”

“The patterns of your energy body are different than any that I’ve ever seen,” says Balshown
“You don’t have the energy body of a person anymore.”

“Yagrin,” Shazira says, “tell us what happened in there.”

I tell them about the Krale and the Bizra.

“Do you know, Yagrin,” asks Balshown, “what you look like?”

“No,” I answer.

“You look like you’re 8 years old,” says Balshown.
“Your eyelids are covered with darkness.”

“We can’t tell if you have eyes beneath that darkness.”

“When anything approaches the darkness, it starts to burn.”
“And energy sight shows eyes of energy that glow like stars.”

“Can you feel your eyes?
“Can you open your eyes at all?”

I feel something like eyes on my face, but they won’t open.
“I can’t open them,” I answer.

Then I am filled with sadness, and my eyes fill with tears.
I try to open them again.

They open, and the world is filled with swirling colors and bursts of energy.
Suddenly the bed is gone, and I land on something hard.

“Close them, Yagrin!” Balshown shouts.

I close them.
“What’s wrong with my eyes, Balshown?”

“Yagrin, the sphere filled with a blinding light when you opened your eyes.”

“The sphere, and the walls of our visiting room are made from a rare, hard crystal.”

“Nothing we know of can scratch it, or melt it.”

“The crystal began to change color when you opened your eyes, although it seems undamaged.”
“Everything unprotected within the sphere, including your bed, turned to dust.”
“Without the extra walls of the visiting room, we would have burned away.”

“What can I do, Balshown?” I ask desperately.
“What can I do?”

“Yagrin,” he says, “we don’t know how to help you.”
“You could stay here as you are, but what kind of a life is that?”

I hear the sound of the transport platform activating.

Help

“How did you get here?” asks Balshown.
“This platform is locked.”

“A signal was sent to my land,” says a familiar woman’s voice, “when the old one’s light touched the sphere.”
“One of our duties is to assist the old ones, and we have complete access to this place.”

“Who are you?” asks Shazira.

“My name is Keela.”

“Send her away!” I shout.
“I want nothing to do with her.”

“Master Yagrin,” she says.
“Please forgive us for the test we gave you.”

“Test?”
“You planned to kill me, and take the necklace.”

“My father would never hurt you.”
“He wants us to marry.”

“He thinks that you are the one spoken about in a prophecy.”
“The one who is destined to awake the sleepers and restore the kingdom.”

She explains about the prophecy, and how my actions in the cave were foretold.

“We have enough problems without this madness!” says Shazira.

“Princess,” interrupts Balshown, “how can you help Yagrin?”

“Master,” she says, “I can bring him to live among the old ones.”
“He will be safe there.”

“And perhaps they can help him.”

“He does resemble the old ones of legend,” says Balshown.
“That’s why we brought him here.”

“But if they ever existed, they hid themselves away almost a thousand years ago.”

“Who are the old ones, Balshown?” I ask.

“The legends are confused Yagrin,” he says.
“It seems the old ones were a group of powerful energy masters.”

“They transformed themselves into beings like you, and then hid themselves away from the world.”
“Legends say that they looked like children, were covered in darkness, and fire burst from their eyes.”

“Master,” says Keela, “the legends are true.”
“They are hidden in Tshuan, and the royal family are guardians of their secret place.”

“Why,” I ask, “would they tell anyone where they are hidden?”

“Because,” she says, “we watch for a special time when they will be needed, and then we will call them forth from the cave.”

“A good story,” says Shazira, “but why should we believe you?”

“I carry a special armband,” says Keela. “If he wears it, he can walk safely among people.”

Paralyzed
I examine the armband with my energy sight.

It doesn’t weaken the energy web, like the one I saw before in Tshuan.
The energy web flows freely across it.

But I have no patience for her tricks.
There must be something deadly about it.

I reach for the patterns of the armband to turn it to water.

The patterns are clear.
I feel how I need to change them.

But I can’t bind them.
I can’t reach them.

“Put some water in a glass quickly,” I say, “and put it near me.”

Balshown does as I ask.
I try to reach the patterns of the crystal glass and turn it to water.

I can see everything as clearly as before, but I can’t affect the energy patterns.
I try to touch the energy web to rise in the air.

The energy web is like glass.
I can’t grab hold of it.

“Balshown,” I say, “I can see the energy clearly, but I can’t bind energy at all.”
“I can’t even fly.”
“It’s like I’m paralyzed.”

“Yagrin,” Balshown says, “the legends say that this form blocks the powers of the masters.”
“As long as you’re in this form, you can’t weave energy or flow.”

“I have nothing to lose then.”
“Give me the armband.”

Balshown gives it to me, and I put it on.
“Is everyone safely behind the shield?” I ask.

“Yes,” someone answers.

I open my eyes.
I see the swirling colors for a moment, but no bursts of energy.
Then my vision clears, and I see my family and friends in the room.

It’s already dark outside.
The moon will rise soon.

“It works,” Tzina says, “now you can stay with us.”

“No,” I say.
“Now, I must go.”

Goodbyes
I walk to the outside edge of the visiting room.
Tzina stands near me on the opposite side of the wall.

“But Ina,” she says, “Why do you have to go?”

“How could I put you in danger?” I answer.
“What if the armband fails?”

“The old ones have greater knowledge than any living master,” I add.
“If they can’t help me, no one can.”

Balshown opens a doorway in the visiting room.
Tzina and Shazira join me.

I give Tzina a hug.

“You’re so little, Ina,” she says.

“I know,” I say with a smile.
“And I’ll stay like this as you grow bigger.”

“How can you have an Ina who looks like me?”

She starts crying.
“I don’t care what you look like!”

Shazira comes near.
She kisses me on the top of the head like a child.

“It’s hard,” she says, “to look at you and think of you as anything else but a child.”
“A deadly child, maybe, but still a child.”

She leans close and whispers in my ear.
“I won’t say goodbye.”
“If you’re really in there, you’ll figure out a way to come back to us.”

“And then I can really yell at you for all of this,” she says with a teary smile.

Balshown and Berek hug me and say their goodbyes.
And Balshown tells me that Berek’s adopted parents are the new guardians of the tower.

“How will I travel, Keela?” I ask.

“With the armband, you can fly, Master Yagrin.”

“Keela, I am no master now.”
“I am no longer part of the guild.”

“Master Yagrin,” she says, “the greatest of the masters became old ones.”
“And the Bizra chose to turn you into an old one!”
“What do I care what the guilds think of you!”

“Balshown,” I say, “is it all right if we fly by the watchtower on the way to Tshuan.”
“I want to see the tower again before I go.”

Balshown frowns.
“Go Yagrin, but fly high above it, and don’t let yourself be seen.”
“And be careful. The Krale may come at any time.”

Moonwatch
I stand as my family transports away.
The dome opens, and Keela and I fly out.

It feels strange to fly this way.
I miss gliding along the energy web.

Before long, Keela and I approach the watchtower.
And I see the Krale approaching from the opposite side, about 200 feet above it.

In this body, I can see things sharply from miles away.

I look down at the watchtower deck.
Berek’s parents are charging the crystal.

His father is the flow master, so he begins.
Then his mother, the weaver, continues.

Finally, the father puts the crystal on her chest and it disappears into her body.
A great blast of light pours out of her and into the sky.

It has no effect on the Krale.

“How could this be?” asks Keela.

“I don’t know.”
“Perhaps I damaged the watchtower, or the Bizra did something to it, when I entered the black column.”

I see Balshown and Shazira and the two guardians rising through the air toward the Krale.
Fools.

They can’t do anything to stop the Krale.
But maybe I can.

“Keela, how powerful is the light from my eyes?”
“Does it travel in all directions, and destroy for miles?”

“Master,” she says, “the books say that it only travels about 100 feet, in all directions from your body.”
“But master, if the books are wrong, you will destroy the watchtower and the city.”

“They’ll be destroyed anyway.”
“Fly as fast, and as far away as you can.”
“Come back in about 30 minutes.”

I fly toward the Krale.

“Take everyone, and get away,” I shout to Balshown.
“I’m going to stop them.”

“Keela says that my light will only destroy for about a hundred feet.”
“The tower and the city should be safe.”

“Yagrin,” says Balshown, “let us take care of it.”

“How?” I ask. “You know that masters are helpless before the Krale.”
Balshown and the others agree, and fly quickly back to the tower.

I call after them, “Goodbye Shazira.”

I fly to 30 feet above the Krale, and close my eyes.
The Krale will fly below me in a few seconds.

I remove the armband, knowing that I will begin to fall.
I grip the armband tightly and open my eyes.

I see the light from my eyes strike the Krale.
At first, they grow larger and darker, as they begin to absorb the light.
But then, the light is too much for them and they explode into a thousand splinters of black rock.

The light vaporizes most of the fragments flying toward me, but a few reach me.
They scratch my arms and legs, but cause no serious wounds.

Then I look at the armband.
It has several holes in it.

I put in on,hoping that it still works.
But it does not.

I close my eyes, so I will not damage anything or anyone, as I fall swiftly toward the sea.