Chapter 35: Luna

Achraf couldn’t hold it any longer; he threw himself at the Toyan Ay with all his anger. “You killed my daughter! My only daughter!” Kutch was right in time to stop him by holding him tight. Everyone knew how Achraf cherished Luna’s life. It was the purpose of his life, to free her from a spiritual cell someday.

“Wait, Achraf, she is talking to me. She is still there.” Safo did his best to calm him down. It was hard to concentrate his attention on the voice that came within him with the noise that Achraf made. “What are you saying, Luna? I can hear you, so you’re still alive.” Safo understood her words as an act of panic.

{“No, you don’t understand. My soul stone is gone, I saw it blending into your stone. Many times over the years I witnessed something similar. When animals died with me in them their soul stone perished into dust. I know what it means. My time is up.”} She still sat watching the icy floor where her stone vanished seconds ago. It was hard to accept that after so many years of playing cat and mouse with the death itself, she eventually lost the game.

“Do not jump to conclusions. Especially with this matter. Let us check, ok? Can you take over my body? Please try.” Safo sat down to meditate, to reach his soul room. He had no idea how the soul things worked but he certainly knew how to get there. He practiced it so many times over the month or so after his first contact with Luna.

Actually, she was the one who taught him how to meditate with high efficiency. If it wasn’t for her his soul powers would probably be locked still. He would have no chance to be a king or even survive the negative 8 Stage.

Safo was adamant in repaying his debt to Luna by any means.

Within a duration of 5 minutes, Safo was already in the darkest place he ever saw. This time it was easy, the door was open. Light at the end of the tunnel. He hurried to enter. Luna, a short girl, maybe 4.9 feet which is 1.5 meters high, with red skin was looking at him with slightly blurry but still noticeably sad eyes.

Both didn’t know what to say. Safo couldn’t find the right words to ease the situation, she didn’t want to be even more burden with her problems. All she did in her life so far is to be a deadweight on everybody's shoulders. Somewhere deep she was glad that she might have died already, freeing others from the chains in their minds that obliged them to take care of her.

“Get up! It is not over. I won’t let you die so easily. You have to pay me the rent money.” Safo reached her with his hand to help her get up from the cold floor. “Now go and check if you can control the body as you did before.”

Safo didn’t say it to her but he was ready to give up his body if that could keep her alive. He didn’t care much about the race for being King. He had some good friends who, he was sure, would help him to get back to Earth if needed. He had no certain plan, but he hoped that they would figure out something to coexist sharing a body.

Luna sensed his attention and was reluctant at fulfilling the request. But Safo’s soft push made her step out of the bright soul room to the darkness. She stopped to look back.

“Go, tell your father that you are ok.” A gentle smile of encouragement helped her to move on.

‘What is “ok”?’ She thought to herself. She made a mental note to ask Safo about its meaning after everything settles down.

Kutch, O’rmon, Dost, and Toyan were waiting patiently, without taking their eyes off Safo’s motionless body. Only Achraf was biting his nails, sending angry shots with his eyes towards Toyan Ay.

Slowly, eyes opened. “Father, I’m ok...” She was about to say not to worry but Achraf could hold himself anymore. He ran to hug his daughter knocking her down on the ground. Tears pour down from both faces. Spectators sighed in relief.

Back in the soul room. “Thank you, Safo, for everything. And I’m sorry. It seems that without a soul stone I can't leave this place and I'm stuck here forever. Sorry, that you will have to live with this. I really am. At this point, I don’t even know how to die…”

“Shut up. What are you talking about, I will find a way to let you free. And it is me who should be sorry that you have to live with me. From now on I will try to be careful.”

A long hug followed after that. They both stood there blur, a bit transparent in some places, and happy that they met each other on their path of life. For a moment Safo wanted to say that he was glad that he ate her queen in the cave but the line sounded wrong in many ways so he just remained silent.

Strangely though, Safo felt a bit warm while hugging Luna. He couldn’t explain what type of a warm feeling it was, but it definitely was there. In the heart, in the soul, or just a regular sensation of another person's heat? He couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason because they were both in their spiritual forms. Regardless, it felt nice.

Toyan Ay gave Safo a last check-up before their departure. “Yes I can still feel it. I don’t know why I sense the same thing even after her soul stone’s disappearance, maybe the soul itself is much more important than I thought. Anyway, as far as I can tell, nothing has changed in your soul room. Worry not, child. Still, I deeply apologize for the loss that I cost.” Toyan Ay was too weak to walk, he couldn’t even stand up without help. Whatever the struggle he experienced in an attempt to extract the soul, it took a great toll on him.

“No, don’t say that. You were trying to help us. It is I who has to apologize. Can I or can we help you in any way with anything?” Safo felt uncomfortable to leave without asking that. An old rat was unable to work on his farm for the time being, and it was his request that caused it.

“This place needs constant maintenance. If you are offering genuinely then I shall ask for help. Can I borrow your droid over there?”

“Oh, him? He is not…”

“Yes, you can take our droid. It is a droid. Will do any job, do not go easy on him.” Kutch cut in.

Safo didn’t say anything contradicting, he just sighed.

The team, minus Dost that they left to help to run the farm, went on to their next destination. Back to the capital planet.

Kutch asked Safo if he wanted to hang out for longer and check out the underground settlement on the Hfan. After all, the main population of the planet, buildings, and everything important was underground. It was the only solution to escape the stench coming from the rotting waste.

Safo quickly rejected the offer. Due to the time limit of three days that had left for his preparations for the tournament. He was eager to start. Safo decided that he will visit the planets with more detailed tours after the race, with the title of the King.

He wanted to tickle the nerves of the Curators with inspection visits right after he won the title. For that, he must survive the battle at the tournament.

Their next stop was back at the capital planet, more precisely at the edge of the city and dumpster.

Jo’ra Kom lived there. He was Kutch's childhood friend. He lived in his apartment, full of tech waste, spending his days practicing assembling and disassembling, soldering, and constructing new things.

Jo’ra was the new generation psiora too, same as Kutch and O’rmon. His soul was also inside the animalistic creature. His both parents were the victims of the war against the Empire. He was raised by the Halazar with Wood siblings.

From a very young age, Jo’ra showed interest in technologies, science, and cyber-ordinance. Growing up he became a pico-scientist and professional pointer.

“So these “Pointers” of yours are like programmers as we call them on Earth and the cyber-ordinance is programming?” Safo managed to interpret the words of Kutch.

If he grasped the description right, programming on a universal scale was on a higher level as expected. Cyber technologies allowed for pointers, the programmers, to make commands, codes, for their devices and software using only their minds. Interface for cyber-ordinance was not simply a translation from zeros and ones to regular human language as it was on Earth, but a complex multilayer translation of the brain waves into the not less complex hardware language.

For Jo’ra coding aka cyber-ordinance was something as a hobby. When he started playing the universally popular VD game, The Cube, he saw the flaw and hastily used the opportunity. The game itself was perfect, no questions there, but there was no application to connect the players. So, he created one. VDtalk.

It used the ID’s of the players and interconnected them, to chat, talk, make video calls, and many more other options. The program went viral bringing Jo’ra millions of zees. But the humble guy still lived in an old apartment next to the dumpster that covered half of the planet.

“Long time no see, how is your green furry as* is still alive? Oh… you...here too… Hi, O’rmon.” A tall and skinny green-haired monkey’s loud voice quickly volumed down when he saw O’rmon. He mumbled his greetings and ran to his room.