The War Revealed - 3rd Novel in the Shadow Series

Chapter 22 .

Vai

My body and the Shadow jumped further away. My spirit spread across space as I searched. I wasn't sure searching out the Corruption in this form was a good idea, but the Awakened One had been in his trance for days now and wouldn't answer us when we tried to reach him. We had been tasked with finding the Corruption's homeworld and so we figured this was our best option at the moment. It would be so much easier if the Awakened one would just return to his body and tell us the location.

We didn't know enough about the Corruption or the light to know if they could harm us when we were in this form. Did they have some way to sever us from our body? The Awakened One had warned Esther before that the Corruption could find them in this form, but he didn't say if they could harm us in this form or if they could just follow us back to our physical bodies. The Corruption knew where we were, there was no point hiding at this point.

The broken wall Esther had stolen from the Museum of the I.A. Shadow was taken from a K'thaktran colony. That wall had belonged to the Awakened Ones not the Corruption so it was no use searching there, but the Corruption had targeted the K'thaktra first. That was how the whole K'thaktran war had started, so were they near the K'thaktra? Maybe near their homeworld?

My spirit crossed the dark expanse in less than a blink. If only physical travel could be as quick. I didn't sense any mass congregations of the Corruption. The others had a difficult time even now sensing the Corruption. And if what happened on Doussix was any indication, the Awakened One had a difficult time sensing them too. My light recognized them now. I could sense them in individual K'thaktra. I didn't spend too much time with that as I was worried I would get lost in the need to heal. It was only a cursory glance. Then I moved on to the first K'thaktran colony.

I was greeted with a similar situation, individuals with the Corruption, but no mass Corruption hiding.

"Vai." It was quiet and sounded far away. It made sense. My body was far away from me. I blinked back into my body and opened my eyes. Warpaint and Owen stood by my bed. It had been Warpaint who spoke to me.

"Any luck?" Owen asked.

I shook my head. "You?"

"No," Owen said. "I've got to be honest with you, friend. I don't see how it's possible to find their homeworld this way. The universe is endless. How are we randomly going to find their homeworld?"

I sat up on my bed. "I don't know," I said. "I thought I'd check the K'thaktra homeworld and some of their colonies seeing as how the Corruption first invaded the K'thaktra, but I didn't come across anything."

"I can't even sense the Corruption," Owen said. "I can't help but feel this is a waste of time. Although, Minmin had the idea that we might be able to narrow it down by examining the ancient ruins found on different colonies. She and Esther are doing that now. Esther has eliminated a lot of the ancient ruins already saying they belonged to the Awakened Ones."

"The Corruption wouldn't have ancient ruins like we are familiar with, would they?" I asked. "They are small. They aren't going to build buildings like we do."

"Well, at some point they'd have to evolve into what they are now," Owen said. "There has to be some trace of them somewhere."

"Where's Shel while they are doing this?" I asked. I stood and stretched my back. My stomach took that opportunity to growl loudly.

"Sir," Warpaint said aghast, "you are starving. I never should have let you take a nap for hours?"

"It wasn't a nap, Warpaint, it was...wait. Hours?"