The Cleansing (Book One: The Folara Chronicles)

003: Kara

Kara panted and wiped her eyes. The room was still glowing golden from the warmth of the lotica flowers. She scooted up the bank and lifted a huge bloom to her face. It was soft, slightly furry, it glowed against the backdrop of bioluminescent blueness reflected off the cavern roof. Her arm had started to heal with the help of her suit. Carefully, she peeled back the petal of the flower and crushed it between her fingers. Lotica flowers held natural healing powers. She laid it flat along the edge of her major cuts and then fell back ungracefully against the sandy shore.

If for no other reason than birth, she felt Galantyne might condone her rescue attempt. Kara was the daughter of King Taan of Aquaria, and Jerrika was her closest friend. They had been together since Kara was born, one year after Jerrika. They'd never been apart. Most people considered Jerrika the same rank as the Princess. King Taan gave his approval as they'd gone off to school on the second closest undersea dome, Carrigah, then into further training on Aquaria.

It was when they'd applied to join Galantyne's forces in the smaller fortress beneath Sentinel that Taan had concerns, but both young women had shown academic superiority and had already demonstrated promise in the training fields. He'd granted approval grudgingly, quite unable to deny his willful daughter, and knowing Galantyne would do his best to keep the young women safe.

Originally Kara had thought her assignment to a lower cavern team was Galantyne's way of showing the others he would give his sister no special favors. Maybe it was. He certainly showed her no partiality. But after working with her team captain, who found out soon enough just how fanatically devoted to finding the Talisman she was-- she realized the difference lay in her inherent instinct that uncannily saved her from disaster many times.

Resting in the cavern gave her a chance to think clearly. She glanced around once more for signs of intrusion and finding none, she set her feelings and mind to sensing other dangers nearby. This sixth sense had developed as she'd spent more and more time inside the mountain over the last two years searching for the Talisman.

Galantyne had always believed in the Talisman theory. Even as this theory had become less popular, he'd trained vigorously, amassing a following until finally, he'd struck out on his own, building a crude half-dome under the mountain on the continent. She and Jerrika had been young children when he'd set out and begun searching, but when he came back to visit their father, he always came to see them as well. He treated them both equally, and agreed to train them both to be searchers when they were old enough, even though Jerrika was only an Etrusian war orphan and slotted to be the Princess's maid.

At least Kara always thought he intended to train them.

She tried to convince herself that he thought of them both equally.  She searched her mind for a time when he had treated her any differently than Jerrika. Surely he loved her also! Then why wasn't he launching an attack against Auditorium to free her? She was worth that to them, wasn't she?

Kara wiped her hand in the sand and then used it to wipe her nose. She was close to the waterfall, close to the cliff. By keeping one hand on the inner wall of the mountain, all dripping, live rock, she utilized one of the gifts she'd received with her kai. Kara could meld. Become invisible, unseen and undetected even by a fully cognizant Shadow Eater as she traversed the inner walls and tunnels of the mountain.

Was it magic? She didn't know. Had magic-- against all the odds-- been brought from Earth to Folara after all? Her history had taught her that no magic had been allowed or cultivated within the three original pioneer families. Five generations to prepare and purify them and breed out all superstition and mystique. Yet somehow now, just three generations on the planet and someone or something had instituted powers that no one understood.

Had there been magic on Earth?

Maybe. History downplayed its veracity.

But there were unexplained phenomena. Perhaps science had yet to delve fully into it.

Anyway, what did Earth science or magic have to do with her now?

Was there magic on Folara? Undoubtedly.

There was something. Something unexplainable. Even her mentor, Korlon could not explain his land adaptations. Perhaps magic was just that-- unexplained uses of planetary power.

And who had come up with the traditions?

A theory, that's all. Passed down as was the ability to meld with indigenous species.

My people were Earth natives. They had no magic.

This---! She pushed her fingers into the sand around the base of the ledge. This place is full of the unexplained!

Her right hand enveloped a fissure, a crevice in the mountain that drew her irresistibly forward. No! She did not wish to Search! But the Mountain was persistent, sensing her mission and giving her opportunity. It was almost more than she could bear to resist it. Others felt the draw of Sentinel, but Kara felt it intensely. She pulled her hand back and waited till the feeling passed.

Her mission to find and release Jerrika would not be found inside Sentinel, but rather, inside Auditorium.

No one ever leaves Auditorium.

But Jerrika isn't just anyone. And there will be no life for me outside without her, so my course is set. There can be only one solution. I must rescue her.

Auditorium. The hated name lit in the front of her mind with a sense of dread she couldn't ignore. Taken at face value, it was a prison, a place of doom. A place Quildor-- her enemy-- placed the will-less Searchers he allowed his Minions to assimilate, that they might become slaves, providing the labor force that kept his fortress alive and working. She closed her eyes, unwilling to imagine Jerrika held in that place: will-less, soul-less...

Kara's fingers scrabbled against the rough stone of the Mountain. It's my Mountain, she convinced herself, keeping her fear and anxiety distracted. Sentinel has always called to me. Someday I will find the Talisman and free my people! I know I will! I was born to do it. That will be the future!

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