Mirae Walkers

Chapter IX

The fact that Kaedin was able to sneak a Rune into Keoni's satchel without her noticing in all that chaos still surprised her. The Rune now sat in her palms, glittering in the blue sun. Ryley was with Qaye, busy learning a few words in the Miraen Language. He'd asked, and Qaye was happy to help him.

Though he definitely was struggling, as Qaye kept correcting even the tiniest of mispronunciations. It was a good time to notice the accents Mir-Cognates had: The way they rolled their r's, their annunciations on their vowels, so far and so forth. It was kind of funny to watch Ryley try to roll the R on his own name.

She glanced back at the shining Rune. Now would be a perfect time, Keoni told herself. She turned it around, trying not to hesitate as she pressed the Miraen letter to her head.

Samara, but Kaedin, phased into her view. They tilted their head and gave a smile. "Hello, Tejh Sister." The title still felt weird for Keoni. "Back for more?"

Keoni nodded, ready to learn how not to die while using her powers.

Kaedin was in their Mir-Cognate form, almost an exact twin of Keoni, just shorter. They walked over next to Keoni, lining up next to her.

"One of the first things you need to learn if you want to not explode yourself while using your magic is how to practically split your mind into two separate identities."

Keoni just stared at them.

Kaedin stared back.

Keoni blinked, "You want me," she pointed at herself. "To split my mind."

Kaedin stared at her for a moment longer.

"Yeah, that was not the right place to start for a mortal." They said, turning away and thinking.

While they thought, Keoni decided to try and do what they had said. She sat on the ground against the hill, closed her eyes, and tried to enter into her conscience. It seemed impossible to her, until she opened her eyes, and was surrounded by a white nothingness.

There was nothing there, except for what looked like her living room setup as it usually was, which confused her. Where am I? She thought.

She cautiously approached the coffee table next to the couch, and she could see something on it, but couldn't tell what.

As she got closer, she could see that it was a book, though it looked strange. It was large, and very thin.

She sat down on the couch in front of the book. The cover was blank, so she opened it up to read it.

Immediately, images sprang out from the book, like the "screens" that people had in more advanced cities. As she looked, they began moving, and she realized that these were her memories. The current one that she could see was when she, her father, and Samara were playing in the field behind their house.

She saw her father chasing her sister around with his arms straight up, laughing and smiling widely while occasionally play-growling, spurring Samara to squeal and giggle as she ran.

Keoni smiled, realizing that she had forgotten this moment. She scolded herself for it.

She swiped her hand across the memory like she was turning a page, and a new memory came up.

This one was right after the play session, and now her family was seated at the dining table. Little Samara was strapped into a tall chair in-between her father and mother.

Her parents focused on feeding her sister, making playful noises and faces while getting small spoonfuls of food into her mouth.

Keoni could hear her smaller self giggle at her parents' expressions.