Heart's tale

Chapter 9 part 1

Lieutenant Storm, the one who chased the three fugitives from the City, felt himself growing. Moreover, out of himself, from somewhere deep within. He tried to trace the source of the desire, but found only that it flowed irresistibly, as if from its very origin. He had to – he absolutely had to! – get there, to break out. He was exerting all his efforts, he was bursting with himself. Everything was spinning and pushing. He was a spring, never quite able to open up. And then. At last. No. Not yet. Too little strength. The lieutenant began to try some other movements. Suddenly... Suddenly he felt an energy which was cold and subtle. He looked for its source and drew on it. His gut began to fill with this unusual flow of energy. Unusual, because it was rising from his center.

However, such contradictions were of little interest to him; he could keep moving. An effort. Another effort, and now his prison was tearing apart, cracking at the seams, letting him free. The spring tugged outward, allowing him to straighten. He stretched out and revealed himself. An endless energy surged across the surface of his body. He rejoiced. No more tightness, only pleasure. Finally, he has reached it, he has succeeded. So fresh, so pleasant. His source immediately tapped into the energy coming to him, and the lieutenant began to pump. He was transmitting what seemed to him to be endless currents inside him and couldn't enjoy it enough. As he absorbed more and more, he didn't notice how it disappeared from his consciousness that his existence had once represented something else.

But life reminded him of itself. And he felt the flow become less. Storm became very frustrated. He had enjoyed getting so much. And now, now he wasn't ready for less. But then an even sadder event happened. Something else opened up in the way of the flow, and it became even smaller. The lieutenant began to panic slightly. He began to shake from side to side. For a moment the flow intensified again, but then became even smaller. Storm could not express what was happening to him. Not even to himself. It became cold. And scary. Hopelessness swept over the lieutenant. The flow continued to diminish. But then, when it became faint and barely noticeable, it stopped.

Storm waited, but nothing changed. So he slowly began to learn how to extract even so little useful power. After a while he realized that even with this flow of energy he could grow. So he went to work. He began to expand and accumulate his mass. This did not contradict his gut in the slightest. His gut was for more energy. The lieutenant grew and grew, and finally the flow was bigger, just a little, but bigger. And Storm took up the task with a new wave of enthusiasm. But what was blocking the flow also began to grow. The lieutenant realized: it's a race. And there was no stopping him. He was rushing forward. And the more he regained contact with the flow, the faster his rivals grew and took more and more contact area from him. The lieutenant began to have a hard time. His mass became such that he felt himself losing his balance and being pulled down somewhere, further away from the flow. And then... the flow disappeared. Panic and fear gripped Storm. He waited, but the stream did not return. The lieutenant trembled and shuddered more than ever. Because he had accumulated so much mass in this chase, he felt himself being pulled downward and losing his connection with the center. It was as if the center was pulling away from him. Storm rushed sideways out of fear and flew.

He was soaring, he was absolutely sure of it. It had happened many times before in his life, he knew that for sure. It was getting very cold. So cold that he felt his consciousness grow cold along with his body. How it was turning into a frozen shard, falling to the floor and shattering.

In the unaccustomed silence of the night, a leaf fell beneath Milo's feet, and she bent down to pick it up. Her finger accidentally touched the snow all over the stone surface of the balcony, and she jerked her hand away for want of habit.

"Don't worry, it's not dangerous," Tamen said in a gentle voice as he followed her out onto the balcony. "Except for these plants, but not for you. It snows here sometimes this time of year. We're very high up, so the air is much colder."