Rising Shards

I was feeling better having Oka to text, Kalei was taking a bit longer than usual to write back but I understood it. I thought about talking to some of my other friends like Iris and Maia, but I didn’t know if I was on “social media message” level with them yet. I thought about messaging Lillia as well (I had managed some brief texting conversations about school work and Tower theories before, emphasis on brief), but even though she was closer friends with Oka, she still intimidated me a lot. And she watched Oka and I make out without our knowledge while we were on the void trip. So I was also still feeling fairly weirded out by that, even if I understood that we all needed something to pull us through that day, and that it did at least start from a well-meaning place as she helped Oka and I get over our “freezing up before we did anything” thing.

I was getting very used to staring at the ceiling, studying all the cracks on the one in the living room and in my room (and in the kitchen once when I was lying down there on a whim one day).

Stella was bringing some of her stuff over to the new apartment, so I was alone for an afternoon. I offered to help her move some stuff down, but Stella said no. She wasn’t exactly being cagey about letting me see the new place, but the number of times she’d dodged it had me a bit suspicious. My guess was it wasn’t as fancy as an apartment in the big city, which had her embarrassed. But I was just happy she found a place. I loved LE, but the dorms at school made me appreciate the suburb life. I figured that if I was spending more time staring at our ceiling than out at the big city skyline from one of the windows or from the outdoor area on our floor, I would be just fine with a move.

Oka had a Kilander-related dinner party to attend that night, so I wouldn’t be able to text her for a bit. Kalei said she had to do some video game thing, so with them busy and Stella moving, my mind started to wander to more anxious places. I couldn’t get my mind off the trip, so instead of replaying Jeans attacking Oka, Aira and Laenie leaving with Kitty Kilander, and Lophor Hothon stepping on me in my head over and over, I tried to think of the good parts.

First full make out with Oka was amazing, even with Lillia watching without us knowing in the moment. I thought about texting Oka about how perfect it was, but all the ways I attempted to phrase it in text came out in a way that I didn’t feel comfortable sending her while she was at a family dinner. It was nice to meet people on the trip, the few nice people at least. Kiki was probably the coolest of the Exumi, but they were all nice to us. The Exumi elder Mawiril told us about the Kathron sword and told me specifically to use it while Arctus was incapacitated.

I sat up abruptly. Arctus Kathron, the boy I rescued from Lophor Hothon. The one I met at Rising Shards, and then had some kind of telepathic link with his sword when I was trapped in a lake of Elka. He told me he was looking for me when he came from his home to here, and somehow snuck into Falling Shards, got a uniform, and a student job fixing bloodsabers? None of it made any sense. I still wasn’t sure if the place we went to was a dream or not, or even just a dreamlike place in the void.

I didn’t want to bug Stella with this while she was busy moving boxes a city away, but I had the sudden need to talk to someone. Since she told me I could call any time during the week if anything came up, and because I called her before so my phone anxiety wasn’t too terrible with her, I called Dr. Diast.

I still thought about hanging up immediately, but Diast picked up after a few rings.

“Howdy Zeta,” Diast said. “How are you holding up?”

“Fine…kinda, I mean. I’m not bad. But.” I stammered for a bit. “I’m still decompressing? I guess? I’m feeling confused right now.”

“I can do my best to answer anything if that would help,” Diast said.

I took a deep breath, unsure if I was ready for the answers Dr. Diast would give me about this.