Chrysalis
Book One: Trial by Fire
By: Jessica "Allronix" Krucek

Chapter Five

   Two days later, Niko stirred a little on the pillow. She felt almost too weak to move. For a moment, she didn't know who she was, or where. It was all a gray mist.

  Memory came back to her...being captured...torture...the shuttle bay...A flash of red and an awful feeling of burning washed over the memories. Where was she? Who was she? Nothing made sense, and it hurt too much to try and remember. Everything felt raw. Her vision was fuzzy, and nothing made sense. In confusion and shock, she let out a wail.

********
  Kahlen and Ariel had been in the next room, stoically munching a light meal. Kahlen insisted that Ariel at least eat something, just to keep her strength up. It was obvious that the vigil had taken a lot out of Ariel. "Draven tells me that his colony is doing well," said Kahlen, trying to break the tension. "The bread was made there."

  "Really," Ariel was picking at the bread and vegetables in front of her.

  "Ariel, you have to eat," said Kahlen. "I wouldn't like to reserve out a bed for you as well."

  Ariel looked up and pushed up her glasses. "I apologize, Kahlen. I'm just too worried to really think about eating, that's all."

  When they felt the Healer's Wing itself start to shake. Ariel slumped over. Guilt...rage...anguish. It was like being in the middle of a hurricane, but this was totally composed of emotion, thought...It assailed her, forcing her to the floor with a moan. Ariel picked herself back up, and attempted to shield herself, but the storm continued, abating only a little.

  They dashed into Niko's room to find her standing...no floating in the center of the room. Awful red-purple energy surrounded her, sending off a force field, and lighting the room like she was some sort of angry demon-spirit let free.

  Her eyes were open and unseeing, and the room literally shook. The objects in the room - the nightstand, the scone, and the bed, floated and swirled around her like she was the center of a hurricane.

  The only noise in the room was her keening, piercing cry. She looked and sounded like a banshee, especially in her loose nightgown and with her russet hair flowing out around her.

  What staggered Kahlen and Ariel back the most was the waves of emotion she was broadcasting. Rage, fear, panic, confusion, and an awful, sickening guilt.

  Ariel gasped and tried to Mind-Touch Niko herself, only to be thrown out of her mind, and picking herself off the floor. Only one coherent thought could be picked up.

  *Dead...all three...dead...Why did I live?*

  Kahlen helped Ariel to her feet. "She doesn't know what she's doing."

  The whole building started to rattle. Ariel clung to Kahlen for strength. Forgetting her bruises and safety, Ariel dashed into the room, narrowly missing the scone flying at her head.

  Picking a blanket out of the air, and doing her level best to shield so that she wasn't picked up herself, Ariel threw the blanket around Niko, the younger woman still convulsing and screaming. The objects in the room dropped hard, the scone shattering as it hit the floor, the nightstand and bed splintering. Ariel continued to bundle Niko up and force her to the bed.

  By now, an entire crowd of healers, mages, scholars, and worried people had bolted to the outside door.

  "Shield! Everyone!" Kahlen yelled. "Niko could die from all of you just being here. Now leave, move it!"

  Ariel was exerting herself, trying to shield both herself and her pupil. Her glasses were starting to slide down her nose. Kahlen rushed in, and uncorked a vial of something, which she pretty much forced down Niko's throat.

  The room stopped shaking, and Niko lay limp on the bed. Ariel also fell back, but Kahlen caught her, and helped prop her up in a corner.

  "What did you give her?" Ariel asked, worried.

  "Dorith root extract."

  "WHAT?!"

  "She's burning it off almost faster than I hoped," Kahlen said grimly. "Her Gifts are completely out of control."

  "I Mind-touched her for an instant, Kahlen," Ariel said quietly. "She said something about all three being gone...poor child's probably talking about her friends."

  "Her friends?"

  "Yes," said Ariel. "The three men on her team. The four of them were practically inseparable."

  "I met one of them, didn't I? The outsider?"

  "Zachary?" Ariel pushed up her glasses. "Oh, yes, Kahlen. He's one of them. Niko talked a lot about him."

  "Funny. I didn't read the slightest bit of psychic talent in him, other than a particular vulnerability to psychic attack."

  "He's not the one. The one who had the ability...Kahlen, do not spread this."

  "Healer's Oath, Ariel."

  "The one who had the ability was a young man. Niko's age. His name was Shane. Niko told me that during some emergency, he was able to project a call for help. That's probably what blew open her ability in the first place."

  "Lots of emotion, someone completely untrained...it's not unheard of, but not in the case of just colleagues. The bond has to be a lot deeper."

  Ariel stood up. "I'm afraid it was, Kahlen."

  Kahlen studied her patient, then studied Ariel. "I see..."

  Ariel nodded.

  Kahlen jerked up, looking at the door. She gasped. "Mistress D'Len!"

  Ariel looked up to see the tall, ancient woman walk silently into the room.

  "I sensed the outburst," she said, looking at Kahlen. "Tell me how she is doing."

  "Not well, I'm afraid," Kahlen said. "We've a Gift gone rogue, and a lot of psychic damage. The poor girl doesn't even have any natural shields anymore. She was attacked, and from what

  Ariel can tell, she lost her three comrades."

  D'Len glide over to the foot of the bed, moving as swiftly and silently as a cat. She looked at the young human sadly. "She is in a terrible way. I have encountered cases like this. That's why I am here. "

  "Mistress," Ariel asked. "Can you please help her?"

  "When she is awake," said D'Len. "Right now, I've got her under shield myself."

  Kahlen was a bit relieved. "Will she be all right?"

  Niko was groggy as she heard the conversation faintly.

  "There is a chance, but in order to survive," said D'Len. "Niko must stay here until she has recovered..."

  Niko's flash of panic drowned out the rest of D'Len's explanation. *Must stay here?* she thought, but couldn't say. *You don't know the danger...* The herbs Kahlen had given her earlier were kicking in, despite her efforts to keep her eyes open. *No, I can't stay.* Before she finally fell asleep, she screamed mentally...

  *I MUST leave...*

********

  Hours later, Niko awoke with a start to the sound of distant thunder and raindrops hitting the glass window. She had been dreaming. She could hear the screams...remember the pain...it hadn't been a dream. She could remember it only vaguely. Part of her mind felt like an open sore, sounded like wailing. There was nothing in her but grief and fever.

  She was the last one. The only one. Gods, she was alone...She couldn't save them...She had been too weak...

  From some corner of her mind, she remembered that she had to leave. There was a shuttle. She had to leave, either to rescue...

  Rescue who? She didn't remember.

  Pushing the blankets off her, Niko rose from the bed and frantically dashed out of the Healer's Chambers, dressed in slippers and a warm nightgown, out across the wet lawn, out into the darkness.

  Niko ran blindly, rain soaking her. She was dizzy, and practically blind. She fell into the mud numerous times, but managed to pull herself to her feet and dash in whatever direction she happened to be facing. Niko's feet took her over the hills, down near the creek, and the stone bridge, but the footing was slippery. She was soaking wet, covered in mud, and it was hard to keep her balance or see. Her whole body burned and ached. But across the creek. There it was! The shuttle waited for her like an old, expectant friend.

  *Have to reach the shuttle...have to rescue...before too late...*

  The obsession burned through her like the pain, like the high fever, but it didn't matter. She had a mad strength to get back. But her feet betrayed her, and Niko fell into the creek, flailing and thrashing. She inhaled sharply, and her lungs filled with water. She coughed and choked on it, spitting up mouthfuls of river. Still, she swam for the far shore, finally hefting herself onto the muddy bank, coughing, burning and exhausted.

  Sheer willpower pulled her to her feet and kept her going. Niko crossed her arms, and her teeth chattered. Her entire body was soaked, and everything felt cold and wet, or dry and hot because of her dangerously high fever. She was so dizzy, she couldn't keep her footing. She coughed again. That spill into the creek was still causing her to shiver with cold and sweat with fever.

  Just a few more steps. Then, she could rest.

  Niko crawled to the shuttle, and pulled the lock with all her strength. The shuttle door opened, and Niko made it inside, closing the door behind her.

  But she couldn't go any further before exhaustion and fever claimed her. She collapsed in a heap on the floor of the shuttlecraft.