July 13th, 2486 - Planet Haaloja-2, Yakaap Village

‘What was that all about?’ Angora asked Abiona, as the party followed Kogiri and Pazzik up the hill towards the temple. The pathway led them into a wooded area, a gentle breeze rustled the purple leaves of the charak trees, and the sunlight glittered between the branches, bathing their surroundings in a molten lilac glow.

Abiona’s expression was pensive. She told Angora, ‘As far as we were aware… Jokbaala, that man we met in the cottage, died in 84' on planet Vizran. It must have taken a lot of work to get here unnoticed … and he seems to know Pazzik personally, which was a surprise to me, but not a shock. There were lots of Haalojan rebels who tried to build new lives after the war … and many who didn’t answer Jokbaala’s call when he starting fighting on Vizran.’ She tapped Chara on the shoulder, causing her to blink rapidly, bringing her out of her quiet daze. ‘Hey, Chara—did Pazzik ever mention anything about this?’

Chara was silent. She watched her grandfather’s back in silent contemplation. At last she said, ‘No. He … never told me anything.’

‘I think I understand’, Angora muttered. ‘He started a new life … and probably didn’t want to bring his baggage with him.’

They reached the top of the hill, and were greeted by a view of a vast, clear lake, that reflected the rolling hills of orange grass. The temple was a ruin. Grass grew between the flagstones, pillars lay cracked and broken. The roof was nowhere to be found.

‘My grandma studied Mystik’, Kogiri said, turning to the party. ‘When she passed away … my parents didn’t believe in any of it, and I was too young to learn the oral histories of the order from my grandma, so no one saw a need to keep the temple around. They took a lot of the stone for building, so there’s not much left, but … well, I still like to come here and keep things tidy.’

Pazzik smiled, and walked up to the boy, placing a hand on his shoulder and gazing out over the ruined temple.

‘Our people have never appreciated difference, Kogiri. Even when I studied here, we faced ridicule from the priests of the true Haalojan religion… but even so, I found purpose in temples like these. Thank you Kogiri, you’ve made an old man happy.’ Pazzik turned back to his party and smiling, asked, ‘Shall we begin our training?’

They were ready, Abiona included, and they voiced their preparedness.

‘You can return to the ship if you’d like Chara’, Pazzik said.

‘I’d prefer to stay’, Chara replied. ‘I … want to learn too.’

Angora grinned, and Abiona and Ichiro exchanged a knowing smile.

‘Let us begin then’, Pazzik said, smiling joyously.

*

Kogiri watched in fascination. Of the four trainees, only Ichiro could call out a named Mystik Art, and it was an incredible spectacle. Pazzik explained that the name of a person’s Mystik Art came from within, and was born from powerful emotional experiences. The name could not be chosen—although Kogiri didn’t completely understand what any of that meant. It was curious that Pazzik refused to show them his own Mystik Art. Angora could manifest his Mystik energy as a sort of bubble, which surrounded his body and crackled with crimson lightning. Pazzik explained that the ‘aura’, as he called it, should be blue, and not red—but supposedly that would change with practice. So practice began. It consisted mostly of meditation—broken suddenly when sparks of red light burst forth from Abiona’s hands. She had taken the first step towards manifesting her Mystik energy. Next up was basic movements; although Kogiri didn’t think they were basic at all, and struggled to replicate the poses that the trainees and Pazzik made with their bodies.

Kogiri was more than happy to bring them lunch, when they were tired out. He ran down to the village, where his school teacher Ms. Pibi saw him and accused him of skipping school. When he explained that he was looking after the aliens, her expression of anger dropped immediately, and she became visibly worried, and she made an excuse to hurry away. All of the adults acted bizarrely when the aliens came up in conversation. Mrs. Gajama handed him several loafs of herb infused bread, but did so muttering, ‘bloody outsiders … it’s a bad omen, I’ll tell you that for free.’ Mr. Pulgo who worked at the windmill wasn’t much more enthusiastic. ‘If they offer you anything … weird, you come down here and tell me, and Kimbar and I’ll fetch our pitchforks. There’s no telling what those foreign types are like when it comes to boundaries.’ School was out, and the kids from the village desperately wanted to see the aliens. They followed Kogiri up the hill, chattering excitedly, asking him questions such as, ‘how many eyes do they have? Is it true they’re not green? Is they’re going to be a war, like the Elder used to talk about?’ They watched the aliens train closely, in awe and wonderment, until their parents arrived at sunset to drag them home.

*

‘I’m ready to call it a day’, Ichiro said, panting. His shield burst into a cloud of blue smoke, which drifted away from his arm. They all agreed. The sun was setting, and the rolling hills were magenta in colour. They were all exhausted, and when they reached the ship, it didn’t take long for everyone to fall asleep … everyone except Chara. She thought carefully about the future; she had questions to ask Pazzik … and questions to ask Chara Teqaku, the Boss of the Teqaku family … the woman who was undoubtedly her mother. Pazzik had explained to her, on one quiet evening as the Sparrow glided through space, that he had hunted down Chara Teqaku eighteen years ago. She had a baby with her and realising the situation that she was in, he had convinced her to entrust the child’s care to him. Pazzik had done so, and the child had grown into a fine mechanic.

A loud crashing noise roused Chara from the brink of sleep. She tiptoed through the ship in her underwear, between the steel piping and low ceilings, and looked out of one of the ship’s large windows. There was a light, coming from the woods just beyond the field. Chara considered waking the others, and then decided against it. Slipping on a coat and shorts and snuck out of the ship. She was going to investigate it by herself. Something compelled her to do so. There was a lightness in her chest, and a pull that she couldn’t quite explain, that guided her through the orange grass into the woods. She came to a stop in a clearing, where the earth had been scorched and a tree crushed … under the weight of a small, silver spacecraft. The door of the craft creaked open, smoke billowing from within. Someone lurched out of the ship, collapsing onto their knees on the ground. Chara gasped. It was a woman, dressed in white, with long black hair and eyes of aquamarine. She clutched a cyan coloured robe close to her body. She looked up at Chara, her eyes foggy, her face stained with tears…

‘They’re … coming’, the woman croaked, and then she fainted.

Chara stood over the unconscious woman, her heart hammering in her chest.

‘What the hell!?’ she hissed aloud.