The Connected

Prologue

*Owen*

I could feel it beginning, the stasis.

We all knew that it was inevitable as we had not found her, our soul center, by our youngest brother's 18th birthday when he had been the last of us to come of age for power. None of us were at fault, it was actually quite common for larger groups of connections to require stasis until their center was either born or came of age. However, knowing I had not failed, that she will come to us in due time, does not curtail the heavy disappointment in my heart. We had all hoped, I had hoped, that we could be different, that our souls' center would surface early and we could begin the rest of our lives.

Our world lies within the human realm of Earth, yet we live separately from them, as our species naturally repel one another. We've made home in nature, high in the mountains, low in valleys, in jungles, forests and even on uncharted islands and desert oasis hidden from the destructive ways of mankind. Our race, the Solexion, also differ from man in that we have power, magic if you will. Each person is born with certain affinity for natural things such as fire, ice, earth, wind, animals and so on and so forth. Because such power is often too much for one person we live and marry in groups to regulate and focus our abilities. Because of this our family units are almost always polyamorous, chosen and blessed by the Earth herself.

At birth our souls are split into parts, the more powerful the soul, the more parts it must be made to be. Through life, these pieces find their way back to each other and a family is created.

To do this, every child receives their soul's mark, a design not dissimilar to a human tattoo that appears on the skin at age 12, and designates them as either a soul connection or a soul center. If they have a connection mark, it resembles a target, the number of rings representing how many connections are in your family unit. Centered in said ring is a vibrant burst of color, which moves and tingles pleasantly whenever the group's center is nearby. As these connections receive their marks, their respective ring in the design will darken and allow them to be found by their Connected brothers or sisters. The soul center mark is similar, but the rings are more prominent and the burst of color surrounds them entirely rather than just in the center as in the mark of a connection.

Normally centers and connections grow up all together in the same community, and find each other before they come of age and receive their full power at age 18. If the center has either not been found, and is not of age by the time the last connection reaches 18, the connections fall into a stasis until he or she can be found. The stasis has become more common in the past century as more and more of the humans have disrupted the order of things by stealing and often killing our children. When a soul center is killed, their connections fall into stasis until they can be reborn and reach power to maintain the balance of souls given by Earth. These connections can be frozen in time for indefinite amounts of time, the shortest stasis recorded was three days, but the longest was 55 years because their center had been reborn twice before he reached 18.

Shaking my head from the history lesson I focus my energy, the ice of my power and open the mental communication to my eight brothers, my fellow connections.

"Boys, I believe it's time for a family meeting." I sent this out, opening, the channels and receiving responses almost immediately.

"No shit O.B." Comes the sarcastic barb from Gabriel.

"Gabe, we knew this was likely in a group our size, don't take it out on Owen." Kota interjects, ever the mediator.

"I know, it's just...fuck...sorry O.B. It just would've been the best fuckin' birthday present ever to have found her before stasis so ignore me, I'm just talkin' out of my ass 'cause I'm fuckin' frustrated as shit." I can hear the regret in his voice and send soothing thoughts his way until I can feel him calming.