Dark Revelation (10 page)

            “Suck your energy back into yourself without a companion,” Tristan’s tone sounded accusatory. “Are you screwing with us?”

            “No?  No, I’m not.  I don’t know how I did what I did, but I thought it was what I was supposed to do.  What do you mean by ‘companion’?”

            “You’re not supposed to draw it back into yourself Ryleigh, you expend it through your imp,” Illeana commented.

            “My imp?  What the hell is an imp,” asked Ryleigh.  As she uttered the word, two creatures appeared in the room.  One next to Tristan, the other beside Illeana. 

            “These are imps,” introduced Tristan.

            The bat wing eared creatures stirred.  They were just like the imp in her dream.  With glowing red eyes, faces like a squirrel, and bat wing ears.  Their arms and legs were lanky and attached to a small body.  They only stood about 2-feet high, but it seemed that with each breath they took, they continued to increase in size.  Each ones skin color complimented the twins.  One was a violet hue, the other the color of the Caribbean.  “You know, “Illeana sounded concerned.  “You should have one too.  It’s how we dissipate our energy.” 

Ryleigh shrugged, “I have no idea how or when I am supposed to have one of those.” 

            “You get one once you turn seventeen,” Tristan offered. “We got ours on our birthday.  But then again, considering how not forthcoming your aunt was, you may want to ask her about it.”

            Ryleigh nodded her head, “Yeah, but what do I say ‘Yo, hey auntie, where’s my imp?’”  Ryleigh giggled at the thought of walking in the room and talking with a New York accent asking for her imp. 

            “Actually… that might be what you need to do,” said Tristan.  “It’s not like she has been honest with you.  And it seems that she only offered up information only
after
we talked.” 

            Ryleigh agreed with Tristan.  “Curious.  What happens if you take the energy back?”  She was wanted to know.  It seemed that Illeana and Tristan couldn’t do it.  So why could she? 

            “You just - you aren’t supposed to be able to do it.  You create a free flow of energy that your imp cycles.  That’s why we were connecting with you, to help you cycle your energy and find your form,” Tristan explained.  Ryleigh got it.  She knew now why he insisted on touching her when creating an energy cycle.  He was trying to help her.

            “Right, I get that… but, what happens if you do it?”

            “What happens when
you
do it?”

            Ryleigh thought about that for a moment before answering.  She wondered if she should even tell him.  Could she even find the words she needed to explain to him what happens when she pulls the energy back into herself?  And if she wasn’t supposed to do it, why is it that she can?  What makes her so special?  She never was anything much before, so, why now?

            “Well, this was the first time that I did it.  So, I don’t really know how to describe it.”

            “Just do the best you can,” reassured Tristan. 

            Ryleigh looked at the twins and hesitated.  For a moment she could feel the residual energy pulsing inside her and wondered if it was the same for them.  She decided she would wait to find out.  She could hear theirs.  She noticed the slight difference in tones.  She never noticed it before. She imagined it had to do something with what just transpired.

            “I could feel you,” she pointed to Illeana.  “Then I could feel you,” Tristan nodded.  “Then I felt a connection between the two of you with me as like, a plug?”  Tristan and Illeana both nodded at the same time.  “Then I could feel my form start to come through.  I saw myself through your eyes,” she gestured toward Illeana once again.  “And then, once I opened my eyes, I could feel all of us.  The pulsing sensation across my skin was electric.  Then, I started to feel it get stronger and I needed to… disconnect somehow.  So, I pulled it back.  And, as I pulled it back… it just… went away.”

            “Hmm,” Illeana walked into the living room and flopped on the couch.  Even that was graceful. 

            “What do you feel?” Ryleigh desperately wanted to know what she was supposed to feel.  “I mean.  What do you feel when you are done?”

            Tristan started, “During, it feels the same as you described.  After, I can hear the hum, but that’s it.  I don’t feel it anymore.”

            Ryleigh nodded, "Yes.  It’s the same right now.”  She was lying but she didn’t know what she should say.  “So, when does my imp arrive?”

            Tristan laughed, “You need to talk to your aunt for that one.”

            Ryleigh knew that was the answer she would be given for now.  She wasn’t looking forward to having that conversation but she knew that it needed to happen.  This was all the energy work they were going to do for the day but Ryleigh had one other nagging question to ask.  “What is the purpose of this energy manipulation?”

            Tristan was solemn, “We feed off of the environment, people, places, things…  It’s who we are and if we don’t, then we are sick.  But…  We also use it to defend ourselves and also…to heal.”     

12

Too late to apologize

            Ryleigh dreaded having to have another conversation with Vera.  She knew she would get an earful for hanging out with the twins when she was told not to.

            “I told you to
stay… away…
from Tristan and Illeana,” Vera reprimanded.

            “Yes, I know, but…”

            “But nothing,” Vera interrupted.  “You continue to disobey me.  Were you always this disobedient?”

            Ryleigh should her head.  She knew that she shouldn’t seem ungrateful.  She had an aunt that took her in during her time of need.  She should be eternally grateful.  “I’m so sorry.”  Ryleigh was genuinely apologetic. 

            Vera sighed, “What did they tell you.”

            Ryleigh looked at her aunt, “They showed me how to find my true form.”

            Vera inhaled sharply, “Well then, I guess it’s time for your imp.  Come with me.”

            Ryleigh followed Vera into her study and she picked up the phone using the intercom, “Bring them in here.”  Siegfried entered the room pushing a steel cage.  Ryleigh could hear a soft tittering behind the cloth that covered the cage.  “What’s that?” Ryleigh asked.

            Siegfried lifted the cloth and revealed a cage of imps.  Ryleigh’s heart immediately melted when she saw the creatures.  There must have been five or six of the small creatures in the cage.  “Why are there so
many
?” 

            “You have to reach out and see which one connects with your energy, and unfortunately, it is not a pleasant process,” Vera instructed.

            “Tristan and Illeana didn’t tell me anything other than when I turned seventeen I was supposed to get an imp to help me channel my energy.”

            Vera nodded and agreed, “Yes, this is true.  However, in order to find
your
imp, you have to channel energy through one.  If the imp is yours, it will live.  If not, it will die.”

            Ryleigh’s eyes opened in shock. “I have to what,” she half yelled. 

            “This is the way it is done.  If you have seen your form, then you are ready for an imp.  Without one, you can do nothing with your energy.  You can do nothing that you need to do to survive as you grow.”  As Vera spoke, her imp, Jewel, popped into the room. 

            Ryleigh knew this was something she had to do.  She could feel it in her bones. “Okay.  I’ll do it.”

            Vera started to explain to her what she needed to do to connect with her imp. Ryleigh would have to cycle her energy and then use it to reach out and touch each of the imps in the cage.  Vera explained that she would know when the connection had been made.   

            Ryleigh closed her eyes and tried to remember what she felt when she’d connected with Tristan and Illeana.  She imagined invisible air flow passing over her skin and concentrated on feeling the energy ebb from inside rise to surface through her skin. 

            She felt the rise of energy like heat, pulsing through her skin and she opened her eyes.  She could see the faint glow from the energy permeating through the surface of her body, gently gliding over it in waves. 

            “Now, the imps,” Vera instructed.

            Ryleigh walked toward the cage where the imps were.  She could hear almost a small buzzing from inside each of their tiny little bodies.  She could hear her own energy harmonious inside her, cascading waves over her body and around her like a shower.  She closed her eyes and opened herself to hear the imp’s energy as Vera explained.  She could tell there were six of them and as she listened for all of them simultaneously, she tried to tune into the one who matched her own energy rhythm. Vera had explained how to test each imp, she was supposed to reach to each imp and see if they could match the own beat of her Chi.  As she concentrated harder, she could hear the pulsating energy from a few of the imps beating at different intervals so she dismissed them entirely and narrowed her focus.  This left two imps.  She didn’t want to kill any of the imps in the cage by trying to cycle energy through one that didn’t match her.

            She resolved her focus even more.  Ever so subtly she began to a rhythm that matched her own.  She could feel its glow, however faint.  She took a breath and as she exhaled she allowed a small stream of energy to flow to the imp.  As she did so, she said a silent prayer to herself that it would not harm the imp if this was not the one to connect with her. 

            As her energy thread reached the imp, it pulled on it and the connection was solidified – immediately.  Ryleigh felt a rush of power flow through her and opened her eyes to gaze into the eyes of her imp. 

            Vera looked at Ryleigh curiously, “Is this the first imp that you touched?” 

            “Yes, I guess I was lucky.” 

            Ryleigh closed her eyes to break the energy connection, however, just when she was thinking to back it off, the flow of energy stopped.  This wasn’t like when she took back her energy into herself.  She could see her imp breathing heavy and it looked as if it were growing ever so slightly with each breath that it took.

            “Don’t worry,” Vera said “Your imp is okay.  This is what they do.  They convert the energy and store it for later.  They tend to grow a little bigger when they are chewing on it.”  Vera nodded at Siegfried.  Siegfried opened the cage and the imp hopped out of the cage and walked over to Ryleigh’s side.  “Now you must name it.”

            Ryleigh thought about this for a minute.  She looked down at the imp and noticed that its skin was mottled grey and black.  Much like her own when she saw her true form.  Its eyes were small and beady with flecks of yellow.  The batwing ears were veiny and almost transparent.  “I’m not sure what to call it.” Ryleigh commented.

            “You must name it.  It’s part of receiving your imp,” Vera said.

            Ryleigh took a minute and then asked, “Are you a girl or a boy?”

            The imp replied, “I am female, Mistress.”

            Ryleigh smiled, “Then your name is Nissa.”

            “Yes, my Mistress,” Nissa replied. 

13

Betrayal

            The next morning, Ryleigh didn’t run like she normally did, she didn’t feel the need to push herself in the normal capacity she usually would.  She felt it curious, but remembered the conversation she had with the twins about energy consumption and dissipation.  She had used a lot of it over the past few days and the storm that was usually waiting to break inside her was now a placid lake. 

Today, Vera was going to start training Ryleigh now that she had her imp.  “I am disappointed that you haven’t been taught anything,” Vera commented as they walked to another part of the house that Ryleigh hadn’t ventured into before.

“I am going to push you as far as I can today.  You have to learn to concentrate and listen and hear your body.  Each of us has the ability to channel that inside of us.  We are able to project it outward in order to protect us.”  Ryleigh looked at her aunt precariously.  They’d entered into a dojo styled room lined with matts and assorted weapons.  Some of the weapons looked medieval with spikes and chains. 

Vera saw her nieces eyes widen when they entered the room and laughed, “Don’t worry, you will not be learning hand-to-hand combat.”

Ryleigh was relieved; she’d never been an outwardly violent person and couldn’t even think about swinging a weapon toward another human being.  When her Aunt advised her the previous night that she was going to start learning how to manipulate her own energy and defend herself, she was prepared to start learning.

            “Why
do
I have to learn how to do this?” Ryleigh asked. 

            “Because,” her Aunt started.  “There may be those that could harm you.”  Vera knew all too well the repercussions of others finding out about her.  “Trust me, we aren’t safe.  Not all the time.  And now that you have been found, trouble may find us and we need to be prepared.”

            Over the next few hours, Vera had Ryleigh cycle energy over and over again through her imp, Nissa.  Vera explained that it was important for Ryleigh to make an instantaneous connection with her imp.  Ryleigh got the hang of it rather quickly and Vera was impressed.  It took normal Halflings their entire lives to learn what Ryleigh was learning in a matter of hours. 

            By the end of the practice, Ryleigh learned how to pull energy and create an aura shield surrounding her before Vera had the chance to throw, what Vera called, an energy bomb.  The bomb bounced off of Ryleigh’s shield and exploded into the wall behind Vera. 

            “Very,
very
good,” Vera explained clearly impressed.  “I think that is enough practice for now.  I would suggest that you go to the kitchen and have Siegfried make you something healthy to eat and take a nap.”