Solara 21
Onidus writhes as the symbols burn into his skin, shimmering in shifting hues reminiscent of Delsfein runes, the ones that light up when they shift forces between realms in the private rituals I was never supposed to see. The same ones I saw on their bodies just before they vanished.
Terror that I am going to lose him makes me clutch him and brace his head to mine. He’s struggling to breathe, shivering because he’s on fire in a way an Isonian never has been before. My nerves fray as the real possibility they’ve summoned him to their dimension jabs at my heart.
“Stay with me.” My throat aches from the notion that I’m losing him. His eyes shine with similar trepidation. I strain to steady my voice in an attempt to comfort him. “I’m here.”
I dig up the Delsfein prayer from my buried memories in case they are listening.
I need Onidus with me. I need his shy dedication, loyalty, and lightly mischievous sense of humor.
But mostly, I need to not be the only one that remembers the devastation of their world.
The things we survived are things I simply don’t want to talk to anyone else about.
He knows. He understands without words. There is no one else in this universe who will ever get me like he does.
My lips quiver as I repeat their prayer. “Cevan ilsan diamond, yianna.” Stay with me, please.
“What’s happening to him?” Ryz asks, helping to brace Onidus’ legs as he convulses.
“I don’t know.” And I hate that I don’t. “This is a dimensional thing. The last time I saw it was when they left our realm and became...energy.”
“What?” Ulian roars. “That can’t be right. They need him here to help with the portal field!”
“That would make sense.” I wipe tears from my eyes and glance back at Ulian, my stomach in knots. “But they didn’t explain this. They just told me to hold him through his transition, whatever the fuck that means.”
Ulian checks Onidus’ eyes and rests a hand to his forehead. “I can’t read him. It’s just…chaos. Solara, you must’ve seen something when you lived with them.”
“I was seven when we moved to their world. I learned their language, ate their foods, played with their children, yes.” Frustration tightens my tone.
“But I was too young to be allowed to see the spiritual guides’ ceremonies.
I stole a few glimpses but not enough.” My mind races through ideas of what we can do to help him.
“We need to get him to Chris. He might have heard something from my father.”
ION Striker lowers his ramp. The hiss catches our attention.
Ulian motions for me to move back. He and Ryz pick up Onidus and quickly carry him into the ship. They settle him on a single medical bed in a small bay, stocked with items that are all useless because Delsfein power is not from this world of medicine. Only Chris might know what to do.
I help them strap Onidus to the bed, then I pull up the map of the mountains and select the cave hangar hidden behind trees and a cloak, where Chris should still be hiding out. Unless the chip got him into trouble.
“ION, I need you to lead the group here. The hangar is concealed under a cloak made by the Larisien.”
“Understood.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Ryz defends.
I turn to him. “You can’t leave your ships up here. Just follow me. There’s just enough room if you can dock with precision and patience.”
I am losing my patience with Onidus in such terrible pain.
Ulian shoves Ryz ahead of him and guides him down the ramp.
“ION, keep an eye on Onidus, please.” I throw myself into the pilot’s seat and hover us off the ground.
It takes a second to get a feel for the Isonian ship.
It’s not the first time I’ve been on one.
But it’s my first time flying something bigger than a personal luster transport or flight-capable hovercar.
I fly low, just over the treetops, racing toward Chris’ hideout. Hang on, Onidus.
Please don’t take him from me.
Delsfein medical facilities come back to me. I try to recall the names of medicines, conditions, and symptoms. The memories are there, but they’re locked deep in a place I never wanted to go again. Yet it seems that’s exactly what it’s going to take to help Onidus.
I target the cave ahead. “Silver Fox, Sun Shield. Come in.”
After a second, I hear his gruff reply and lean my head back in relief. “I do not understand why you insist on calling me that. But I’m glad to hear your voice.”
“Is this channel secure?”
“Always.”
“Three inbound. One injured passenger onboard.”
He sighs over the coms. “What have you gotten yourself into now, Little Fox?”
“You’ll see. Approaching now.”
The cloak fizzles out. I slam on the reverse thrusters and slow us until we hover outside. Once the room is visible, I ease the ship inside and set down. Ulian lands to our right and Ryz to our left. The moment the hoverpads are decelerating, I lower the ramp and run to Onidus’ side.
He’s alive on the bed as I fling the straps off of him. Onidus rasps and looks up at me. He grips my arm. His gold iris shifts through radiant colors like the symbols on his body. “Solara...”
I know what he wants. I don’t have the answers he needs. “Hang on. I’m working on it.”
“Shit.” Chris stands in the doorway looking in at us. “Delsfein?”
“Yes.” I explain the situation and who the Isonians are as the four of us cart Onidus down the ramp and onto a sofa in Chris’ cave.
Chris strokes his silver beard and steps back, looking at Onidus, then walks to his supply bay and searches through some cabinets.
I follow Chris. “I’ll help if you tell me what you’re looking for.”
“Blue bottle, translucent, metallic purple solution.”
“The berry poison from Delsfein that Dad gave you?”
“It’s not poison, Solara. That’s just what your father told you so you wouldn’t try it.” Chris finds the bottle in the back of a cabinet and dusts it off. He rushes back to Onidus’ side, snatches a spoon off of a nearby table, wipes it off on his shirt, then fills it. “Sit him up.”
We get Onidus upright just enough to get a spoonful of the shimmering purple liquid down. It stains his lips blue. He chokes but instantly starts to calm. I take his hand as Chris steps back beside a workbench with a torn-apart high-output thruster pad.
“Do you have any idea what this is?” I ask him.
Chris stares down at Onidus.
“Look, man…” Ryz gets up. “If you know something, talk! Onidus is not someone we can afford to lose!”
“Please. I don’t want to lose him either,” I add.
“Onidus...” Chris mutters his name. “The one who saved your life on Delsfein?”
“Yes.”
He storms into his bedroom. The rustle of books and papers echoes through the rock walls.
“What is he doing now?” Ulian asks.
I brace the side of Onidus’ face. “Stay with us, please.”
His white eye and his colorful one drift to mine. There’s vague recognition in them. At least the tremors in his body have stopped.
Ulian takes my seat when I leave to check on Chris.
I lean in the doorway. His perfectly organized office is a mess. He continues adding to it, pulling out books and notes from the dusty shelves. “I’ve never known you to be so frantic.”
Chris plants his hands on his hips and hangs his head. He turns and walks across his room to the shelf beside his bed. From a secret compartment, he pulls out a tattered leather journal. He flips through the pages until he finds something and reads it slowly.
“Did you hear me?” I ask.
“I did.” He walks back to me. “I just couldn’t get this image out of my head. Couldn’t remember where I’d seen it.”
Chris shows me a page from the journal of a man covered with the same marks as Onidus.
I read the title. “Enoinia – the anointed one will advocate for Delsfein, empowered with their telekinetic and telepathic abilities. They only do this when they know they’re in trouble and they need a speaker, someone respected in their ally who can act as the go-between. ”
I scan the office as Chris flips through other pages. The creases in his face deepen.
“Why do you look like you think that’s not a good thing?”
Chris rubs his mouth. “Because none of them have ever lived long. They start getting too hot, out of balance. They die. And the Delsfein have to defend themselves from angered allies. At least, that’s what your father wrote in his journal.
Of the two of you, they picked him because he can likely handle their power. ”
“I can’t because I’m just a damn human.” I am starting to hate it more and more.
He nods. “Correct. Transferring to you would turn you into dust.”
“Onidus!” Ulian’s voice summons us back into the main hangar. What we see is not what I expected.
Onidus stands at the workbench, hands moving quickly as he rebuilds the thruster module. He encounters a charred lock ring, lifts it in a hand, closes his eyes, and it rejuvenates. Then he keeps working.
Chris swears as he leans against the wall. “I’ve been working on that for two fucking weeks.”
Onidus has it together in minutes. He steps back, looks up at me, and blacks out. I rush forward as Ulian and Ryz catch him from behind as he collapses. We lay him down on the sofa again.
Chris fumes for a breath and glances at his completed thruster. “Trial mind-meld. Looks like it was successful.”
Ulian shakes his head, like he doesn’t know what to do. “He’s burning up.”
“How do you solve that as Isonians?” Chris asks, nodding toward the thruster pad. “Delsfein use the power up by creating.”
“Fighting, healing...” Ulian replies.
“Or other ways.” Ryz steals a glance at me.
Chris grunts. “He needs to be conscious.”
“Yes.” Ulian replies. “The only other way is to drain his body of energy.”
“You mean blood,” I correct. “Hard no.”
Ulian lifts his hands. “I’m just saying, no option is ever off the table if it could save his life.”
“That needs to be a last resort. Taking too much could kill him, too,” I reply. “Chris, you got any sparklets on hand?”
He smirks and digs through a cabinet above his sink. “Mostly downers in this place. But I’ve got a handful of those. Your father never approved of either one.”