book 4: chapter 14: countless other pieces

    the night sky above was close to black, the moon having not yet risen to illuminate the night. bravely standing against the darkness, uncountable stars twinkled through the inky monotony, doing what they could to light the shore i stood upon.

    with what little brightness they provided, i witnessed the surrounding sands turn to dust.

    maria atomized every last grain within her sphere of influence. none of them stood a chance against the chi exploding from her core. next, the wall of essence struck me. i rocketed backward across the small dunes, having done nothing to soften the blow.

    i skipped over the ground like a stone across water, and though my world was a confusing blur, i still noticed something astonishing.

    the sand particles that maria had turned to particles—her chi swept in behind the initial bubble of destruction and collected them. without her knowledge or intent, the grains of sand were mended, returning to the form they’d held only seconds earlier. it was... amazing. a possible sign of miracles to come. yet it didn’t stop overwhelming emotions from coursing through my body as i replayed the words maria had used to facilitate her breakthrough. not an ounce of their meaning had been lost on me.

    i skidded to a stop dozens of meters away, and as i rolled to my back, i stared up at the night sky. i’d just started to contemplate the myriad implications of the ability to mend when someone—panicked, crying, yet still somehow incredibly beautiful—blocked out the twinkling stars.

    “fischer...” maria sobbed, resting her hands on my shoulders. “i’m so sorry. it’s not what it sounded like. i...” she trailed off, squinting at me through tears. “you’re... why aren’t you upset?”

    i smiled back up at her, not needing to feign my happiness. “upset? you just had your first breakthrough!” i pulled her into a hug, squeezing her harder than ever before now that her body had been fortified. “you can heal things, maria! i can feel it!”

    “but... i just said that you hurt people.” with more strength than she’d previously possessed, she pushed herself up so she could look at me. “and animals.”

    “yeah, but i knew you didn’t mean it like that. it was more to do with your own breakthrough, right? my task is to protect everyone, and if that means destroying something that can’t be healed, that’s okay. meanwhile, if something or someone can be healed, we have you.”

    “it’s that simple?”

    “yep.”

    “you don’t even need to talk about it?”

    “nope.”

    she looked between me and my abdomen where my core resided, realization slowly coming to her face. “you really mean it, don’t you? even your chi says so.”

    “ah-huh.”

    she launched forward. i easily caught her and pulled her into my chest. as our abdomens touched, my core responded. of their own accord and completely out of my control, tendrils of power extended toward her, wrapping around and caressing maria’s nexus of power. shock flowed from both of us, marked by twin gasps that cut through the incessant crashing of soft waves.

    from the outside of her core, my essence assessed the transformation she’d experienced.

    since accepting my role as leader of the church, i’d struggled to communicate to others how the world felt. doing so was like trying to explain something in a different language. this feeling, the connectedness that existed between maria and me, was exactly the same.

    i couldn’t articulate what was happening, so i gave up trying to do so. my core beseeched hers, and hers responded, opening up and letting me in. as if it was my own, an intimate knowledge of its bounds, capabilities, and potential unwound in my mind.

    matching the woman it belonged to, maria’s core was beautiful.

    i already knew she was peaceful, loving, and selfless to a fault. i knew that about her before she formed a core at all, and becoming a cultivator had only confirmed it. this, though, was a step further. it was like reading about love versus experiencing its embrace firsthand. more than anything, she wanted to heal. good or evil. human, animal, or other—it mattered not. all were worthy of an attempt.

    in answer to my admiration, wisps of shadow flowed up from the depths of her being, causing a spike of terror to lance through me. what if it was the same thing that had happened to rocky? had another being somehow entered her core, and was now influencing her from within?

    when maria leaned back and gave me a wicked smile, i knew i’d made a mistake.

    “speaking of building,” she said. “should we speak about what you’re going to do while i practice my healing?”

    i let out an exaggerated groan. “how am i supposed to give you happy surprises if you learn all of my secrets?”

    “you can still surprise everyone else, at least. speaking of everyone else, i think claws might explode soon if we don’t tell her what happened.”

    we both glanced back toward tropica.

    maria now had the enhanced vision that came with a breakthrough, but even with that, it would have been difficult to spot the troublesome otter. if, that is, she didn’t currently look like the cursed lovechild of a hedgehog and a tesla coil. electricity sparked from her in every direction, her core loathing the fact that she wasn’t unleashing her chi and rocketing toward us.

    “wow...” maria said, her voice breathy. “is this how it always felt for you...?”

    “amazing, isn’t it?”

    “yeah...”

    “i remember the first time i sensed the unbridled chaos of claws’s lightning. the violent potential just looking for the slightest excuse to be unleashed. it’s...”

    “hard to describe.”

    “it is.”

    under our scrutiny, claws’s agitation had only grown. she shook her body and arcs of energy jolting out to strike the surrounding roof tiles. if we waited any longer, she might actually destroy the building.

    “come on, claws!” i called. “you can—”

    her war cry pierced the heavens as she shot upward, riding bolts of lightning as if they were streams of water. and when she was a mere speck high above, she changed direction, her needle-sharp teeth bared in a grin as she soared downward. when she was almost at us, i opened my arms wide, preparing to catch her.

    in response, i fell victim to a betrayal most foul.

    claws poked her tongue out, gave me a decidedly rude gesture, and changed trajectory once more. maria giggled as she caught claws and spun in circles, hugging the miscreant otter to her chest. claws swiftly extricated herself from maria’s grasp to run around her body like a squirrel on caffeine, her head fixed on maria’s core as if mounted on a gyroscope.

    try as she might, all maria could do was laugh as she tried to catch the zippy otter, whose speed and excitability only increased as she learned more and more about maria’s breakthrough. finally, claws came to an abrupt stop, her eyes intense and forepaws resting on maria’s collarbones. she let out a quiet, questioning trill, her tone making it clear she couldn’t believe it.

    maria, an adorable blush rising to her cheeks, nodded. “we don’t know how effective it will be, but my core is dedicated to healing.”

    i smiled as i watched claws wiggle like an animal with its head stuck in a jar, so overwhelmed with emotion that she didn’t know what to do with herself. as claws continued her weird little dance, i tilted my head to the side and glanced at the rest of our animal pals. though much more discreet than claws, they too were watching, countless eyes poking around corners and over rooftops.

    “come on, you goofs.” i shook my head. “as if we wouldn’t want to celebrate with all of you.”

    as one, they ran, flew, and hopped forward, heading for a portal that borks was already tearing into space. seeing their joy-filled faces was the cherry on top of a wonderful evening, and it wasn’t even late yet. we’d have all night to celebrate, and i intended on absorbing every single moment.

    after all, if i wanted to enact the secret plan maria had discovered, i’d need to leave tropica tomorrow.