We Leapt Into the Sky

Chapter 40

They rested on a small red moon orbiting a rust-colored planet. Aster shifted beside Kendra, sending blushes of gold shimmering across his form as he dozed. He curled nearer, and she draped her sleeve-like shadows over him. She gazed out at the stars surrounding them. Acinos's sun twinkled in the distance among other unfamiliar constellations. They were close, only another leap to the planet itself.

Aster stretched as he stirred, shimmering with cobalt light. She nudged him with her mind. "Feeling better?"

"Well rested." He rose from the dusty orange surface of the moon. "I am ready when you are."

She nodded and drew her awareness away from the physical world. Her senses focused, and the planet, moon, and distant stars seemed to flatten and compress. She reached out with her mind for the locations where space was most malleable, places she could fold together, bringing them close enough to touch. Then they jumped forward. Stars blurred around them like water in a rushing river, and they covered millions of miles in an instant.

Acinos lay before them, green with forests and blue with oceans, capped by ice-covered poles. Deserts spread across smaller stretches of the planet, nothing like the expanse of sand and rocky plateaus they had left behind. They drew nearer to their destination, from continent to city to university campus.

As they approached Bria's building, they moved like shadows, too indistinct for passersby to note. Only when they had slipped in through the stone walls to an empty corridor did Aster don his bodily form. He fit in well enough, but Kendra's body remained indistinct.

"Are you ready?" she asked.

"I am." He entered Bria's lab, approaching her office while Kendra remained out of sight. As he was about to knock, her door opened. She blinked as she looked him over, watching him curiously.

"Bria," he said.

"Yes? Did you need something?"

"My name is Aster. I must speak with you about your expedition to the Asteracean ruins."

Her expression grew apprehensive, her jaw tense as she nodded.

"I'm afraid that this may sound outlandish, but please trust that I am serious. You encountered my memories embedded within the caverns you discovered. I was unaware of the effect my presence had at the time. When I woke, I realized other beings had been there, and I saw your memories alongside mine. I met Kendra."

"You met her? She never mentioned—when?"

"After you, Antony, and Seph had left the planet. With the satellite broken, Kendra could not contact anyone, and my technology is unlike yours. But she survived and is here now. She thought it best I speak with you first, as her form is different from what it was before."

"But ... how? Where is she?"

"I'm here, Bria." She stepped into view and waved, sending sunlight filtering through the translucent tips of her fingers.

Bria's eyes widened and then flicked between her and Aster before settling back on Kendra, as if she were trying to make sense of what she was seeing.

"After the cave-in, the caretakers—the machines in the ruins—were able to repair my body temporarily. But their technology couldn't sustain me long, and my body began to disintegrate the same way Antony's arm did. The machines were agitated, and their commotion woke Aster. His ship's technology saved my mind and gave me this new form."

Bria grasped the lab bench, her knuckles white. "I'm so sorry." The words erupted from her, and she drew nearer to Kendra. "Are you ... alright?"

"Better than alright. I'm great, and I'm happy to see you again," she said gently.