Chapter 34: Mistake

“No, no, no. Don’t, please, She is a friend.” Safo waved his hand in front of the rat to stop him from killing his soul-roommate.

“She is a friend, she is in me by a silly accident. If you can carefully extract her so she could go into something else and live a full life, then I will be in a great debt before you.”

After pondering and asking for more details he said that he could try. Master Splinter explained his abilities, he could manipulate souls. He was able to extract and insert the soul from and into a living body. It was an excellent chance for Luna to finally receive a body and come back to life.

An old rat pondered a couple of minutes before saying his decision.

“Even though I'm a master in transporting souls from body to body I can’t guarantee that I can change her condition of existence. Unlike us folk of Psio who learned and practiced soul manipulation techniques for tens of thousand years. she will probably struggle a great deal before learning a proper way to live in an alien body.

We learned how to envelop the soul of the body of our chosen vessel to reinforce it for our future usage whilst she is oppressing that soul trying to dominate and overwhelm it. The result is, that what happened many times, bodies are rejecting her soul, sacrificing their own lives.

I never practiced manipulating not-psio souls, but maybe I will be able to grab her soul from inside of you and wrap it around the creature so both soul and body could sustain each other for a long time.

But again, I cannot guarantee the result.” An old rat master stood waiting for a response.

Achraf ran forward to place himself between Master Splinter and Safo Nur when he heard that he first wanted to kill her soul. After hearing that there was a chance his face gleamed in anticipation and hope. He tried his best to suppress his worries, but he couldn’t hide his concerns.

“Will she be alright if you won’t be able to succeed in your attempt? Because if not then it is better not to risk her life.”

“Absolutely, it is not the animals that are damaging her soul after all it is her soul damaging others.” The rat nodded in confidence.

“Do you want to try, Luna?” It was for her to decide if she wanted to trust a stranger rat to maneuver her soul in her last remaining resort.

{“Yes, please. I want to try.”} Long years of being in captivity inside of countless dying animals made her desperately wish to live. To live a full life, being able to use her limbs, to breathe and feel the world.

“Ok, then we will do it.” With that, he sat where the rat told him to. Master Splinter came from the back and put his hand on top of Safo’s head.

Inside the soul room, Luna was waiting. She was glad that she couldn’t sweat in spiritual form, she was rubbing her palms nervously. She couldn’t wait to be outside, to have a body, to move freely.

Suddenly the closed door wide opened bearing the darkness that was beyond. It was always daytime inside the soul room so the contrast was severe.

At first, nothing happened, the door was open and that was it. But seconds later a strong suction, same as the one which brought her in, was pulling her out of the room.

She happily let it do its job. Luna closed her eyes, spread her arms to feel the wind. She was about to fly out when she heard a loud thud behind her, followed by a quake.

When she looked around and located the source of the noise, her hopes shattered into million shards. A massive satellite of hers, the soul stone that came into that room with her, and traveled with her throughout all of her experience, collided with Safo's soul stone - the iced blue marble.

Debris of her former soul stone scattered away littering the surface of a perfect ice planet. The iced planet was unfazed without even a scratch on the shiny reflective surface.

“Ughh…” The soul master jerked back to save Safo’s clothes from the blood coming out from his mouth. He dropped on his knees catching himself several centimeters from the floor before crashing on it with his head, coughing blood clots to the ground.

{“My stone…”}

“What happened?” Safo ran to help the old rat along with everybody who was watching from a distance. He hastily asked Luna about the situation inside.

{“It crashed in smithereens. Pieces are all over the place... What will happen now?”} Luna plopped to the blueish floor near the door. The suction had stopped when Master Splinter let go of Safo’s head. It was no more pulling him out.

She sat with a blank impression, looking at her former soul stone. If she could cry she would. All those years of self-preservation, all the hard work of her father securing and protecting her temporary bodies, all for nothing. Her life was in runs in front of her eyes.

She couldn’t see the biggest piece of her mini planet because of the dust that arose after the encounter. While on the outside, everybody was rushing to help an old rat, she sat motionless ready to perish into nothingness. Which started to happen.

The tiniest pieces of the dirt on the iced surface began to fade. By each second bigger and bigger pieces repeated the fade of smaller ones. A moment later most of the rocks and dirt vanished slowly turning transparent.

Luna wished to tell Safo about the events, but she hesitated. ‘I don’t want him to feel guilty. He was the best thing that occurred to me since I lost my main body.’ She wished to say goodbye, but in the end, she couldn’t find the strength to call for him.

‘Poor father, my dear father. I hope he will move on. I was a huge burden for him, holding him his whole life.’ Regardless of her immense sadness, she could not produce a single tear.

By the time of her acceptance of her fate almost no dust and dirt was left on the iced planet. When she finally raised her head to face her end, shiny light reflections caught her eyes.

Right at the crash site where now was no trace of her grey planet lay a tiny white orb. Luna ran her hands over her body checking if she still exists. To her surprise, she was the same spiritual shape and blurry details as before. Nothing had changed.

She went to look at the tiny orb size of her fist. Before she came closer and bent down to get the orb it melted down like a snowflake.

An impeccable orb melted into a white puddle on top of the blue ice and moments later had been absorbed by the surface. And then, truly nothing left of her planet, not even dust in the air.

Meanwhile, Safo stood near the old rat, worrying about his well-being. He stopped coughing blood but was too weak to get up. Safo and Kutch helped him to sit down to restore his breathing. He looked as he aged a couple more years in a short period of time.

Apparently, manipulating a none-psio soul was a big deal. Toyan’s hands were still shaking when he faced Safo to ask about Luna. “How is she?”

Safo knew that her soul stone broke in the midst of the process but felt reluctant to tell it to Master Splinter who didn’t look good.

But before he could tell anything a strong sensation overflooded Safo. With a long deep gasp, he too fell next to Toyan Ay. Sitting with closed eyes while his facial expression clearly showed that Safo was experiencing a painful moment. Using both of his palms he pressed the middle of his chest so hard that it looked like he was trying to crush himself.

It occurred right after the absorption of the white liquid by his soul stone. Safo felt a lack of oxygen, suddenly his lungs felt the size of a building and the amount of air that he took was not nearly enough to satisfy them. He tried to get as much air as he could.

His heart was expanding with every beat it was inflating, and not going back. His chest was about to explode spreading his inner organs all over the place. Of course, he knew that it was only how it felt. For outside viewers, he looked the same with no changes.

He didn’t know why but he recalled the line from the famous dead terrorist doll’s performance. “Over there, over there, and up there.” Safo would’ve laughed if only his situation wasn’t so deadly.

The sensation stopped as quickly as it started. In a second Safo was the same again as if nothing happened. “Luna! How are you?”

“Luna! Answer me! Luna.”

Achraf covered his face with palms and banged his head on the wall behind. Tears slipped through his fingers when he finally stopped ramming the wall. “Aaaaa…” He screamed to himself, unable to contain his pain. He sobbed and sniffed, mumbling how bad he was as a father.

Kutch was handing cups of water to Tayan Ay and Safo Nur, whilst O’rmon went to check on Achraf. Dost was lost. Many other psioras from the office ran out to see what the fuss was about.

{“Safo… I think I died.”}