Celestial Saga: Exiled to Earth II - Chapter 8：Stage SEVEN

Freyja had a dream.

In her dream, she is concentrating, against her will. There are six persons clad in long, white cloaks intensely looking at her, watching every twitch of her muscle. As the dream went on, apparently, she realized that she was supposed to be focusing all her aura on her back. It was extremely difficult, and painful. It felt like her back was being burnt! The harder she concentrated, the hotter and more painful it became. Tired, she gave up and sat on the floor with a pout. All those around her were obviously disappointed, but they couldn’t bring themselves to speak a single bad word about her. She could definitely tell.

“Lenfiare” One cloaked man, whose face is blurry, came forward and helped her stand. “Why do I even have to do this!?” She shouted in violent protest. But the man calmly took her hand, pulled her up and dusted her clothes off gently with his hands. “Listen Lenfiare,” He explained in a calm voice, “The Leafens’ wings are the most beautiful in Celestia. Wouldn’t you want to have one?”

Freyja, of course, wanted a pair. “Can I use them then, to fly to other worlds?” She demanded an answer.

“Well, yes. But there are places where you must learn to seal your aura off consciously. The balance of every world is different. In some worlds, you can fly as much as you like. In some, you must keep them hidden.”

“WHY?”

“Celestials are the guardians of the universes’ balance. We must never cause disruption, else, the universe itself will call upon the auras to counter ours. And when we leave, it will be much difficult for those living in there to return the original balance.”

“BORING!” she ran past the cloaked man, and straight to the door.

Then, the scene changed to a more serious and terrifying one. All of a sudden, flames engulfed the surroundings. Freyja suddenly found herself running high up a tower, as fast as she can, heart pounding in terror. The moment she reached the top, a woman was there, her face still a blur. The woman hugged her tight and whispered: “Forgive me, Freyja.” With force, she slammed her palm on Freyja’s chest. Freyja felt a strong, burning pain inside her. She struggled, sweat rained from her forehead. It was as if a raging fire was suddenly inside her body, and it felt the most painful. She violently threw her arms and legs, but the woman hugged her tighter, she couldn’t move. She couldn’t speak. Her voice won’t come out. Soon, even her eyesight was blinded by a hot, radiant white light that came from inside her. Freyja felt her body submit, her limbs fell, as if they’ve became lifeless all of a sudden. Then, the woman took a deep breath and pushed her into a raging, swirling vortex that slowly pulled her to the other side.

Freyja desperately tried to reach her hand out to the woman. She didn’t want to leave her. But the woman stayed there, without moving an inch, as the vortex slowly pulled her deeper and deeper until it was all black.

Finally, the last scene in her dream was her, holding a short sword and sparring against a young man, with silver hair and emerald eyes— Kirin. She felt aura around her body, as if she’s submerged in a hot liquid, and her body fels much lighter than usual. But this time she can control it at will. She shifted her aura in her weak spots, shifted it to her attack weapons, she did is masterfully.

And she woke up.

Freyja looked at her hands. Remembering what she did in the dream, she focused her aura into her hands. Much to her surprise, the white aura nicely wrapped around her fingers, her palms, not leaking uncontrollably like it used to be. Freyja smiled. And went back to sleep.

~ o 0 o ~

“And yes, I was scolded non-stop. But come on, what’s new anyway? Haha!” Van laughed out loud, despite having a few Band-Aids on her face. Scarlet, Aya, Van and Freyja gathered in Freyja’s old house at the town proper and there, they talked about the strange experience that happened, and the not-so-strange rage of their families when they came home late. As much as they wanted to tell them what happened, they are more than sure that the ‘lousy excuse’ would do them more harm than good. They all sighed.

“But I think that dream means something, Frey.” Aya shifted the topic back to Freyja’s dream. “If you really lost your memories, then maybe they are parts of the memories you lost! And maybe, they’re surfacing now because we’re encountering these strange things!”

“That’s possible.” Scarlet agreed. “But the thing is, why did these strange things appear just NOW? It has to have a connection with your memory loss!”

Remembering the dream she had that night, Freyja had to agree. “What if, by awakening my aura, I am somewhat disturbing the balance of this world. That’s why things turned hostile. And instinctively, they’re targeting me. It’s just like the case of the universe trying to repair itself.” Freyja felt extremely guilty. The thought of her inability to understand what’s happening to her, and controlling it, destroying the world bothers her.

“What about our aura? Don’t tell me we are after you too.” Van joined in.

“Well, what if it’s also a way of warding off the hostile auras?” Freyja quickly replied.

They all fell in silence. Things are starting to make sense, but they’re not quite there yet. Van tried calling her aura, but unlike the fight with the bush monster, it’s not appearing. “What’s this!? Is there some sort of trigger or what!?” Scarlet and Aya did the same. But nothing happened. Even Freyja, tried to conjure aura, but only a little came out. Nothing close to the aura sword she conjured yesterday.

In the middle of the serious mystery cracking, Van’s stomach growled. “Oops. I guess I’m hungry? Haha.” With that, they decided to head out and grab something nice and cheap. They bought a couple of sandwiches, juices and sat on an unused pavilion on their school. Despite being worn out and unused, the scenery from where they are sitting was nice. From there, they can see the high school building, and the little theater of the school on the other side. While they ate and had some light conversation, all of a sudden, Van spotted smoke coming from inside the theater. “Hey guys, what’s that?”

“It’s probably the barbecue stand beside the theater.” Scar dismissed it right away. Her dismissal made sense, they ignored it completely and headed back to Freyja’s old house. But before they left, Freyja felt something strange coming from the theater. She didn’t bother telling her friends, since it’s nowhere near as strong as the other disturbances she’s feeling. They headed back.

Even before they could reach Freyja’s old house, they saw people screaming, gossiping, about the burning theater at their school. “The theater is burning!” They remembered the smoke they saw quickly, they ran back to the school grounds and found the theater engulfed in thick, red flames. Freyja felt a chill run through her spine. The firefighters came right away, and stopped it. But it was too late, the building was completely burned to the ground. They even heard the firefighters talking about how unusually strong the fire was.

They headed to the nearby internet café to search the net for spontaneous fire incidents, as Scarlet suggested. They browsed the net for a couple of minutes, found some information, but ultimately didn’t appear to be much of help. They headed back to Freyja’s house.

“Spontaneous fire… they say there are people who can do that.” Aya recalled the articles she read earlier.

“But the spontaneous fire incidents are at most, the size of a room. NOT an entire theater. Not even a house. Maybe there really is an arsonist there!” Freyja rebutted.

“But there’s NO ONE there, I mean. Come on. We were there, man.” Van added. “We’re the only ones there for crying out loud!”

“Don’t say that!” Scarlet joined in. “After that bush forest monster incident, I might as well believe that we did that!”

���There must be an arsonist.” Freyja said. But quickly retracted her statement when another news reached them. The computer shop they were just in a couple of minutes ago, is now in flames. Freyja turned pale as a ghost. They all knew what Freyja was thinking. “Come on Frey, we can all sense it. It isn’t an ordinary fire. And if we don’t do something, who knows what will burn next!?” Van made a good point. Too good, actually. Just as soon as she said those, the bunch of assignment papers on the center table is in flames!

“Holy crap! That’s my science paper!” Van shrieked, jumping away instinctively. Being the nearest to the toilet, Aya grabbed a dipper and scooped water from the bath tub, before running back to extinguish it. It took three splashes before the fire stopped. “This is not the time to worry about your homework dammit!” Scarlet shouted.

“See what I mean!?” Van panicked, looking around for more fires. And yes, she found them. One by one, the house’s walls started to catch small fires. Even the exit, is starting to catch flames. Freyja knew very well, that if this continues, their house will be burned down to the ground as well… and with them inside!

~ o 0 o ~