The Black

Nine

  The man was standing in a totally white world, it was not bound but by a mist. He knelt net to a young girl, who was maybe 12 years old, skinny, blond hair, blue eyes, and looked like most 12 year olds totally innocent. She was playing with a ball of fire, which in reality was a ball of energy, turning it in her hands over and over, and forming into shapes, with her hands, and if truth be known her mind.

The man said, "This is what you need to be able to control." She felt around, and suddenly the world turned a kaleidoscope of color, they were forming patterns and losing them. "You see the patterns of the power?" he asked.

Her small voice said, "Yes Sir." She reached out with her hands, and the colors changed with her movements. She pulled colors to her, and they joined the small ball of fire in her hands, and then there was a shuddering of the world. He held out his hand, and the patterns did not change as fast. "Don't go too fast young one, take your time, there will be plenty of time to go that way in the future."

The girl stood and the patterns smoothed out, she said, "What is that?" She pointed to a strain of black, that wound through the colors, and he smiled.

"This is not the time, but it what you will control when you have more lessons," the man told her.

"Teacher, what will I be able to do?" she asked as she played with the colors more and more. He smiled at the question, holding out his hand, and she smiled as the color she was trying to move changed and then formed into a dragon. She laughed, she loved Dragons, he had found that out days ago. She clapped and then she took another color and formed another Dragon, and she worked and it flew with an effort, so he set his into motion and flew it with her. He felt the fluttering, and knew that they were getting too powerful and using too much energy for this area. So his dragon dissipated, the colors flowing back into the flow of colors all around him. The girl let her Dragon fade, and it snapped out of existence with a pop.

He said, "So we are getting along fine. Your lessons are going well, show me Control."

The girl, raised her hands and suddenly the flow of colors stopped, and white came back into the world. It was fast, and she was Grounded and the power he felt flowed through her, not into her and pilling up, it was what every Pilot had to master, and she was doing well with it.

At that moment, there was a third person on the white, it was Skinny. She looked at the girl, and stopped, then at him. "You told me that I needed to contact you when I lost contact, that happened .9 seconds ago."

He smiled looking at the girl she did not look too happy. He knew that she had been sending out probes, and thus part of herself to keep in contact. He said, "Okay, we are almost ready here."

Skinny looked at the man, then the girl, she said, "She looks just like her?" it was more of a question than a statement.

He looked at her, and said, "yes she does. Been looking again?"

She got defensive and said, "You told me it was alright, and needed from time to time for me to know what I was here for."

He held up his hand, he said, "that was not a rebuke, it was a question, I am sorry if it came out wrong. I have been looking there too, and have picked up some bad habits."

She said, "No, and yes I have, but I always feel guilty when I look at those before me."

He nodded, and Skinny vanished. He turned to the girl, she was looking at him with a question on her face, saying "Who do I look like?"

He wished that Skinny had a better filter, not for the first time, "You look like someone that was very important to me many years ago. When we are farther along I will tell you more about it."