One Soul

Chapter Seven: All The Wrong Answers

Calypso eyed the growing crowd, armed primarily with stone hammers and wooden shields. While their weapons paled in comparison to theirs, the numbers continued to grow and they were trapped on the beach. Luke joined them, though he was unarmed, though Solomon stayed behind with the girls. The younger boy's knees quivered but he put on a brave face.

"I don't want any trouble," Calypso said as the group continued to surround them. She prayed no one recognized her from under the hood. "I don't want to fight you."

They responded by advancing, only stopping when Calypso swung her spear in a wide arc to maintain distance. Norene punched a few that had gotten too close, her gauntlets flashing in the night. The ones she struck tumbled back to the ground but stood up again; the other girl didn't want to hurt anyone more than she had to. "Back down!" She warned. "If you attack, I can't go easy on you anymore."

The army continued advancing, and Calypso braced herself for battle. She didn't want to cause serious damage so used her spear like a hammer or a sword, swinging instead of stabbing to avoid drawing blood. However, the crowd wasn't so gentle, when they were knocked back they got back up, again and again, each time more determined to take the young girl down. They didn't feel guilty for attacking someone so young, especially with so many more people, and didn't feel fear even though their weapons were primitive compared to theirs. Solomon pulled out a small pocket knife, though it was clear he couldn't use it well. Calypso wondered why such a timid person would even have a knife in the first place, but the fighting took over her thoughts.

She, Solomon, and Norene fought well, but eventually, the mass numbers and their lack of will to go hard on the army started to overtake them. It seemed that none of them were fully trained with their weapons except for Norene, though even she had rarely punched moving people rather than practice dummies. "Norene, how much charge is in your gauntlets?" Calypso cried over the crowd.

"I'm almost full," Norene replied, dodging a swing of a blade and knocking the owner back with a jab. "And...there!"

She activated her gauntlets, causing a sort of ripple effect from where she next punched. A good portion of the mob fell backward, knocking over each other. It used half of the soul energy stored. The three kids ran over the fallen enemies and towards the coal mines, and as the group pursued Norene used the other half of the energy in her gauntlets to strike the ground, causing a fissure to open up and the ground to rumble. "That'll hold them off, but we need to hurry! I'll stay back and defend, you know best what you're looking for!"

Calypso gave a grateful smile to her friend, then turned to Solomon. His wide-eyed expression came back as his gaze flickered between the two girls and the army, which was starting to regroup. "I-I know how t-to g-get through the mines," He stammered, looking at Calypso. "Arisanna, should I g-go with y-you?"

It took a few too many seconds for her to respond, forgetting the fake names she gave them. I think I accidentally used Norene's real name earlier, Calypso worried but nodded to the boy. They headed off into the caverns as Norene punched and blasted the ground again and again to cause small quakes. As Calypso looked back, Norene was sprinting across the beach in the other direction, drawing the army to follow her.

~-~

"Solomon, do you know where the shipments are for the Heralds?" She asked, squinting to see in the dark. She wished she had a soul, so she could use her spearhead as a torch by making it light up.

"Um, I think it's not in h-here. They m-might be b-by the top of the hill...where they have the festival," Solomon replied, biting his nails as he looked around. Calypso noticed he had a small cut on his right cheek but couldn't tell how serious it was in the dark. At least it didn't seem to be bleeding too much, but she still hoped the boy was okay.

Sneaking around the other side, they managed to hike up the hill faster than either of them anticipated. The sound of Norene fighting could be faintly heard and it sounded like the white-haired girl was holding up well. Calypso found the shipments in burlap sacks and opened them up. All she saw was coal, but then she held up a small crystal disk like the ones the Heralds used the night she was taken. According to her research, it should glow brightly if it detected anything other than pure coal...such as plague disease...but it remained a clear glass figure in her hand when she held it over.

"What's wrong, Arisanna?" Solomon asked upon seeing her frustrated face. "are you looing for something?"

"Yeah," she sighed, lowering the device and returning it to her cloak. "I'm trying to see if there's...something wrong with it. If it's carrying disease."

Solomon, thankfully, didn't question why. Instead, he just approached the bag and held his hands over it. The lines on his palm and fingers glowed with soft yellow light, as did the coal.Calypso held her breath, never having before seen pure soul energy being used except for her parents and elite members of the guard on Ouránia. If he could, then how come he wasn't chosen with a soul like that?

His eyes closed as he was in deep concentration, biting his lip as the light began to tremble, almost vibrating and emanating a reverberating hum. Then, all the light sparked and died out at once, knocking him back to the floor. Calypso quickly rushed over. "Are you okay? That was amazing!" She helped pull the boy to his feet.

Solomon dusted off his knees and grinned sheepishly. "Thanks. I tried to tell you earlier before...we started f-fighting. I'm training to be a medic. I want to leave Pandora and study using my soul energy to heal people. So I can trace poisons and injuries...that sort of thing."

Calypso's eyes shone with admiration. "That's incredible..."Ouránia could definitely use a medic right now, she thought to herself. "What if I could get you off this island, then? Become a medic right now? You might need some training but I think I could."

His eyes flashed with joy. "You could do that?"

Before Calypso could respond, however, she was interrupted by a shrill melody from down on the beaches: Norene's signal for help. "I'm coming!" Calypso whirled around and dashed down the hill, sprinting as she let the incline carry her swiftly down. Wielding her spear, Calypso entered the fray swinging with Solomon running down behind her. Norene looked in her direction, tired. The ground was covered in fissures and sand laced the groups' hairs from her gauntlets, and Norene's hair had come loose in a tangled white mane. "Calypso-!" However, just as she smiled in recognition of her friend's arrival to the fight, a soldier's sword swung right at her.

"Norene-!" Calypso cried as her friend crumpled to the ground, staring at the wound bleeding on the left side of her lower ribcage. Norene coughed, faint traces of blood on her lips before collapsing completely. "NO!"

Calypso ran to her friend's aid, no longer afraid to make the Pandorian army hurt. She stabbed and swung her spear in a wide arc to keep them at bay, but in her hysteria, she didn't notice the spearhead starting to glow until it was crackling with energy. "Hrahh-!" Calypso stabbed an oncoming warrior directing in the chest, but as she did lightning seemed to spit out from the tip, racing through the army with electricity. Within seconds, they were reduced to sparking figures on the sand. The Ouránian princess struggled to carry her taller friend on her back as she whistled to call for Nephele. The horse arrived quickly and Calypso strapped Norene onto its back as securely as she could. Then she turned to Solomon, whose gash on his face was now masked by a large bruise.

"I'm so sorry I dragged you into this mess, but I need to leave. Could you come with us? I wasn't lying about you becoming a medic." she said, but Solomon just shrugged it off, taking her hand to climb aboard Nephele's back.

"Yeah, I'll go. And it's no problem...I was always planning to leave here, you know?" Solomon replied, putting away his knife. "Pandora...it's not the place for me."

"But are you really sure? I feel like I just came and caused a big mess...I didn't even find what I was looking for-"

"-It's okay, Calypso."