Moonrise ✔ [Complete]

53 Sunlight (Part 1)

Commotion stirred in the sickbay. Meera turned to follow the noise.

At the center of the cavern, a crowd of people stumbled off their mats to their feet. They blundered backward away from whatever it was that had startled them.

"What's going on over there?" Clover, who'd been pestering Meera with questions about ladies and love, said beside her.

The commotion crescendoed into shouts of surprise. Meera narrowed her eyes. "Trouble, I'm guessing."

Clover didn't budge, but Meera started toward the noise. "Come on," she urged him.

Others clustered around her to see the disturbance, and she shoved her way through them.

"Hey, what's going—"

The words stopped in her throat. Her eyes fell on the water that bubbled at the center of the cavern floor. Water spouted through the cracked dirt like a fountain, forming a small pond that grew larger with each second.

"What the hell?" muttered Clover.

The water gave off a soft, green glow. Meera had never seen anything like it before. When she took a step forward, the fountain exploded with light.

Her yelp meshed with those around the sickbay, and she covered her face with her arms. Water pooled at her feet and rose to her calves. With eyes still covered, she stepped back to higher, drier ground.

The light lasted for a few seconds. When it faded, she squinted between her arms at the newly-formed pond.

Water no longer spewed from underground. The pond had calmed, and now, instead of a fountain, there was a ball of light. It hovered above the water like a tear in reality, a window that peered into another realm shimmering with bright emeralds. And drifting within that light was the vague shape of a girl.

Her toes skimmed the surface of the water, her arms held adrift at her sides. Long, black hair swam around her head in gradual waves and contrasted with glowing, silver skin. Her head was bowed as if in sleep.

Meera gasped, and her chest thrummed in recognition. "Mae?"

Inside the fog of light, the girl's head rose, and her eyes snapped open—white and colorless.

The walls shook as energy detonated through the open space.

Meera felt something hard strike her chest—a tentacle of green light—and it nearly hurled her and those around her off their feet. She managed to keep her footing, but something powerful had absorbed into her body. She soon became lost in the sensations that coursed inside her.

Her senses multiplied. Her mind sharpened, and the fatigue in her eyes disappeared. Energy drenched every inch of her body, and she felt more alive than ever.

She drew in a lungful of air, savoring the power.

It had been so long since she'd felt like this.