Glistening Embers

Chapter 6: The Boy of Light

Author's Note: We have just begun working on a sequel!!!!!! I can't tell you guys about the plot without giving away a BUNCH of spoilers, but the working title is... Awakening Ice. So, we can get this finished, here's Chapter 6!

Days on the ship passed quickly. Every day was nearly the same: wake up, eat breakfast, hang out with various Gifteds, eat lunch, sister bonding time, dinner, then sleep. Very rarely did anything interesting happen, other than Tyvigar oversleeping and getting an earful from Showda and Hepas. That was kind of interesting.
 
"Glisteen! You there?" yelled a voice. Glisteen smiled. She and Mictochra had started to get to know each other. Since their time on the ship, even though Mictochra typically never said more than three words, Glisteen and Mictochra had become good friends.

"Yeah, come in!" Glisteen yelled. Mictochra's head peeked out from behind the door, her long black and white hair splayed across her shoulders. She smiled lightly and stepped into the cabin. To Glisteen's surprise, the pale kid was behind Mictochra. Thigil was his name, right?

"Oh," Glisteen said dumbly.

"Who are you?" Thigil asked.

"Oh. I'm Glisteen." Glisteen replied. Thigil nodded. He held up a hand and a white light lit the room.

"That's better." Mictochra stated.

"I know. I feel like I can trust you guys," he said.

"You can" Glisteen replied. She wanted this strange boy to feel welcome in this even stranger place. Thigil smiled. The three friends sat in silence.

"I gotta go," Mictochra said suddenly.

"Okay, I'll see you later, Mictochra," Glisteen said. She expected Thigil to leave with her, but to her shock, he remained seated next to Glisteen. They sat in an awkward silence, neither talking, and Glisteen silently wished he would talk or speak, anything to break the ice.

"I- I wasn't always blind." Thigil said.

"What?" Glisteen asked. She was somewhat surprised by his sudden outspokenness.

"I used to be able to see, really see," he said, almost to himself, as if he were just now realizing this.

Glisteen shifted in her seat. "If you don't mind my asking," she said, " what happened to make you, you know... go blind?"

"There was a... misunderstanding," Thigil said simply.

"Oh," Glisteen said. She didn't know another way to reply that wouldn't sound weird, or rude. "So, what happened?"

Glisteen didn't want to push him to tell her. She had her own experience with rotten memories, but she was so, so curious. Thigil didn't seem to mind, however.

"My- my parents were... superstitious. When my gift came in, they... didn't really accept it. They thought it was a curse brought to them from the devil. I was an outcast from my own family. For a while, I- I believed what they said... about me. That I was somehow a... poison to the family. But that was before I met her."

"Her?" Glisteen blurted out. She didn't mean to interrupt, but something caused her too. It might have been the fact that Thigil, the most shy, timid boy she had ever met, had once loved someone.

"Yes, her name was Kimber. She was the only one that believed I could do good in the world, that my Gift was beautiful, and not a poison. Which I guess was funny, because her gift was poison. Her skin... it was poisonous. She couldn't touch anyone."

"That's horrible," Glisteen whispered. "What about her family, her friends... you?"

"Her family was afraid of her. They pretended she was invisible, and she stayed out of their way. She had a younger sister, too. They were close before she realized how dangerous her gift could be and began avoiding everyone... everyone but me.

"We met while I was out in the woods, playing with my gift. I knew that if I was caught, I would be punished. I knew that my Gift was supposed to be a bad thing, but I couldn't help myself. I wanted to know the extent of my abilities."

Glisteen didn't blame him. She desperately wanted to know what her Gift was, and how she could use it.

"Turns out, Kimber was in the woods, too," Thigil continued. He had the most upset look on his face, one that she had never seen on the boy before. "She found me, probably because my Gift was so noticeable in the dim lighting of the forest. 'You're a Gifted, too?' she asked me. I remember her voice clearly, clear and mysterious, with a strange, intriguing lilt. I had nodded hesitantly. I didn't want to be in trouble. But she was a Gifted, too. I asked her to show me what her power was, but she wouldn't show it to me. I asked her if she would meet me again, the same place, the next day. She said she couldn't, that it was too dangerous, but I didn't understand her at the time. Part of me wishes I had. Part of me believes that it was all worth it, all the heartbreak, even going blind, just to have had that one happy moment in my life."

Thigil took a breath, and steadied himself. Glisteen's heart bled for him. "Anyway, when I went back to the woods. I looked around and Kimber wasn't there, I guess that makes sense. She did say that she wouldn't be there, but I went anyway. I decided to look farther into the woods. I found a beautiful place. It was a clearing, with a crystal river running through it, and Kimber was sitting in a boulder near it. It was breathtaking. I remember she asked, "What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here." And I said, "But you're here."

"'That's different,' she had said back. I asked her how, and she said it was because her Gift wasn't like mine. She said it wasn't meant to be around people, innocent people. Once again, I didn't understand her. I asked her what she meant, and she looked at me, very serious, and said, 'If I show you this, you have to promise not to tell anyone. Not even your bestest, bestest of friends. At the time, I really didn't have any friends, so I agreed.

Kimber got off the boulder, and touched a daisy. It immediately wilted under her touch. She said, "Now you see. Anything dies, if I touch it with my bare skin." I said nothing, probably because I was afraid, but I felt like I made some progress, and I wanted a friend, so, so badly. I said, "Okay, so?" And she said, "Don't you see? I'm dangerous."  I remember saying, "You're only dangerous if you touch someone." And she said, "Yeah, so I can't have any friends, or I'll hurt them."

"I told her to wait where she was, that I had a present for her, and then ran home. I found a pair of my mother's old banquet gloves, a pair that I knew she wouldn't miss, because she never wore them, and ran back to where Kimber had been. She was there, waiting for me. I gave her the gloves, and she said, 'Are you sure this will work? I don't want to assume it does, and then...' I told her to stop talking and just try them on. I set them on the ground so she could safely pick them up.

"She looked so, so beautiful with the gloves on. They matched her eyes, and her clothes. They made her look like some mysterious, exotic animal, full of grace. I told her to see if they worked, so she touched a tree. It didn't die. Kimber was overjoyed. 'Thank you, thank you, thank you!' she said, over and over, tears of joy streaming down her face. She asked me what my name was, and I told her. We agreed to meet again. That was the day we fell in love."