The Rebellion (Sky: Children of the Light)

~Chapter Ten~

RAYEM'S POV

Rayem flew along the coast, heading towards the island's waterfall, where Mez had told him to meet her.

And all in good reason.

The day before, Rayem had been training with Mez, as all the elders had been at the time, and he had taken control of her mind, on complete accident.

And she was mad. But Rayem also needed an explanation.

Rounding the edge of the island, the waterfall came into view. And was that... everyone else? They hadn't seen each other very often, as the last few days had been vigorous training, and not much time to visit.

He landed with a splash in the shallow pool on front of the waterfall, surprising Sunny into nearly cutting his head off with her sword. She apologized and he observed the meeting. The Elders stood in a group and whispered, while the future Elders ran around in the water. Well, Ethis and Kira were sitting in the shore, as far away from the water as they could get before toppling into the hot springs below. Weird.

"Oh good. Everyone's here now," Mez said sarcastically, sitting on a rock, "Ready to start this wonderful discussion?"

Ereven rolled her eyes, "Basically, you children are slowly getting your Elder powers. The more power you get, the less we have until we turn into spirits."

"You brought us here just to tell us that?" Ethis said.

"There's more to it than that. You'll have... surges? If it all happened at once you!d basically burn up, so this is the next best thing." Ereven clarified.

Ethis mumbled something like Still pointless...

The sky children (And Avala) stood around awkwardly as the Elders walked away.

Until Ethis used telekinesis to drench the person closest to him that wasn't Kira -- Rayem. Warm water cascaded over his head, drenching everything - even his cape. Glaring at Ethis, Rayem walked over too the shore and wrung his cape out, leaving it on a warm rock to dry. He heard Sunny and Zaira snickering and turned to glare at them too when the whole "Elder powers" thing happened.

His consciousnesses got thrown about, bouncing from sky child to sky child. He had to stop this somehow. Dragging his mind back too his body, he looked around at chaos. Ethis and Kira were on fire - no. That was lightning! Sunny looked like she might vomit, and Edna was emitting a golden glow. Eclipse was... staring? Her eyes had turned solidly dark blue, and he swore he could see stars in them. Zaira was... where was she? There was a crab sitting in the place she had just been. The ground beneath Avala was moving around like water, turning from stone to grass to clay and back.

Rayem felt his mind slipping away, but he was too tired from the first time to stop it. He slipped into Sunny's mind first, and saw that she was trying her hardest not to let loose on some kind of great power. But what? Before he could determine what it was, his mind leaped over to Edna. On close inspection with Edna's mind, she was emitting a healing glow. Taking a mental deep breath, he forced Edna to look at where he had been sitting. Now he was crumpled on the ground, a bloody cut on his head from hitting it on the stone.

His mind ripped himself from Edna and jumped to the crab. No. The crab was Zaira! She couldn't turn back by herself, her mind told him.

He forced her to turn back into a sky child. Then his mind jumped back to his own body, and everything went black.

⁂

"Why is it always me waking him up?"

"You two are like, best friends."

"We are not! You met him first anyway."

Rayem opened his eyes to a cavern roof, and Edna's head. She looked down at him.

"Finally! You wake up! You've been asleep for three days!"

Three days? He tried to say, but his throat felt like it was lined with sandpaper. Edna noticed, and waved her hand. It glowed gold, and the dryness faded.

"What happened?" He croaked out.

"I don't know... you fell over, cracked your head open, nearly died, and drained your magic?"

Rayem grimaced and sat up, the world spinning from head rush. Feeling his head, he found no wound from where he had "Cracked it open".

"Wha-"

"Healing magic." Edna interrupted, waving her hands around. Little gold sparks jumped off her fingertips and fizzled out. Edna handed him a white cape in the design of a manta. Putting it on, he stood up, wobbled a bit, then straightened. Eclipse was in the corner, her eyes still dark blue. Looking closer, there really were stars dancing in them.

"Don't step forward," She warned him, "You'll trip."

Sure enough, there was a root sticking out of the ground right on front of him.

"How did you-"

"It's one of my Elder powers." She answered.

Rayem nodded. Looking around, he was in his room in one of the many floating islands of the Sanctuary. Opening his wings, Rayem prepared to fly up to the top of the island, where he could hear the other sky children.

"Don't you dare!" Edna hauled him backwards into his room, "Avala will get Land to help you."

As if on queue, the grass beneath him rumbled, and shot him through the ceiling. He landed with a thump next to a grinning Avala.

Edna flew over the edge of the island, "More gentle next time!"

Avala shrugged, "I've only been practicing for three days."

It looked like the phasing had started already.
Rayem started to feel the familiar river of minds that his wanted to jump into, and he had to restrain himself against it.

"You'll learn," Avala grinned, "Not that you have a choice."

They all could feel the rising tension. Soon, the current Elders would turn into spirits. Soon, they would be Elders.

Anyone think that at some point Ao should get cool powers too?