CHPATER 6

I've just woken up with a bitter and perpetual pain in the inside of my right palm.

Oh, right, I am in the middle of the stage in which I share every sense my half is using, excluding sight and hearing. This was the last thing Rodrigo told me, when he brought me home, with his mother's astral vessel.

He even told me something extra, but I was thinking too much about the agony from my palm.

My ears are still ringing, not only from the pain but from the fact that I've barely closed an eye last night.

It just feels as if I've never got wounded. I'd gotten so many times, that I lost the count. It wasn't a week, at the beginning of my training, in which I didn't get a cut on my arm or my shoulder or a bruise in my knee. But, this time, it all felt unique. It didn't feel as if I was the one prepared for any kind of confrontation, but as one who overstates a lot over the pain and wounds, or as if I was afraid of blood and combat and daggers.

I wasn't afraid of anything. The knives have been my friends since I was thirteen. That was the time when Korag finally accepted to teach me how to use a spear. Up till then, I only knew how to use my fists and my feet. At perfection. And, thanks to him, I still do.

Maybe, I feel the distress through my half's view. And it's insupportable. I'm a hundred percent sure that it's a small cut in his palm from a piece of paper, or thread or, maybe, from some shards of a glass…

But I also feel that he was at the Night Partying Space last evening. No way he could get hurt from paper, a thread, or a needle… It could have been a chip or a blade.

But why would he want to maim himself?

"Because he wants attention!" a voice hissed right in the depth of my head.

Or maybe because he was desirous, I put the pieces together when I've remembered the rough and raw feeling of covetousness that was flowing in my veins, all over my trunk, before seeing my hand covered in blood.

He was envious because I was still together with Rodrigo.

Oh, Great Creator!

I might have faced palmed, standing in my bed, when Lynne comes into my room, with her arms filled with colored silky dresses, to put me choose which outfit to try today.

"Why are you staying like this?"

"Like what?" I narrow my eyes to her.

"Why are you facepalming? Have you already known I was about to enter your room? Why are you so rude already?"

No answer. I deeply sigh I just look at her blank.

"But you've just woken up! What have you dreamt of?"

"Well, I've got just the worst nightmare!" I shake my arms at her.

"What was it all about?" she widens her eyes.

"I dreamt that my half is afraid of knives and that he thinks he's gonna die 'cause of a small cut in his hand from a piece of paper. And you can't change my mind saying that the gem from his palm might be broken."

"Oh, well," she blinks. "What stage are you in?"

"Just take a guess, sister," I roll my eyes and get off the bed, going to the bathroom, but I stop middle way, feeling a taste I haven't felt in a long time.

I feel as if I was getting kissed on my lips by what seems to be an air creature, a male one, who is very handsome and dominant, standing right under a double mirrored rainbow of delicious, creamy, and even crunchy goodness that makes this world seem very dull. I see it, right at the moment being, a symbol of hope to be savored any time.

"Hello! Alphamundus to Enigel!" Lynne waves at me.

I shiver.

It was the peanut butter.

I haven't eaten some since I was eight when I almost got an anaphylactic shock because of nuts. Then, I found I am allergic to them.

Being taken away from my imagination, I begin to find the taste from my mouth slightly distinct. This time it felt more real: it was salty along with kind of a... smokiness; an earthy or wood-like aroma tickles my nose. My mouth feels a little oily, but also covered in not so much sugar, with a very light graininess. Suddenly, my tongue feels sticky. The taste hits in an almost restrained way, leaving me immediately wanting more.

I am dreaming again.

"Daddy!" Lynne screams for Korag, thinking something was wrong with me.

Hearing her, I have realized that I have to prepare for the activities from today from the educational field.

"What's wrong with you?" I shout to her, covering her mouth with my palm.

"What's wrong with you?" she askes me touching my forehead to check if I had a fever.

"Peanut butter" I find myself whispering, turning to my sister with a slightly confused and yet mesmerized expression

"What?" Lynne asks me with a strange face, as if she felt some kind of pain, not hearing me. "Nuts" I repeat. "He's eating peanut butter right now" I smile.

"Peanut butter? Who?" she narrows her eyes at me like she wouldn't see me.

"My half, you dumbass!" I facepalm. "I am in the stage of…" I begin to explain her, but Korag hurries into my room to see why Lynne called for him.

Later at the room of my series from the educational site, when the science of substances master is making the attendance, I get reflective again. It wasn't because of the peanut butter my half was eating, but because in my series there are over ninety apprentices and the master just got past mine and my sister's name, and yet there were still more than a half of the names to be called out.

It's just so boring!

While I was thinking of nothing, I begin to catch a glimpse of what it seems to be the inside of an astral vessel, a luxurious one, with white leather chairs and a very fancy technical crystal board. It was flying at high speed, when I looked on my right, on the windows. The orange sky and its white, transparent, and sparkling clouds were sliding towards me, flowing to the back at such a high speed, that they were more lines and dots than clouds and air.

As senor Mendez was calling Ryzen's name, I come around. Suddenly, I realized that I never told my sister what stage I was in since Korag lectured me for getting late again to the educational field.

"Ryzen Gonzalez?" "Where is our beloved Ryzen? Ryzen! Ryzen Gonzalez two times! Ryzen Gonzalez three times!" he is making fun of the boy for getting late again. And when she was about to move to the next name on the attendance list, a very loud rumble can be heard from the heights. The metal walls begin to tremble and a second later, the deepest end part of the room, where there is no desk with any console to sit an apprentice, falls, turning into shards. The room is covered in a thick silver cloud of dust, crystals, and other small metal parts.

Suddenly, I feel something strong, hard, and cold hitting me right in my face, as if I had fallen from heights on a metallic floor. Then, an extremely heavyweight has been put on my back and shoulders, as if I were carrying the whole Alphamundus on me! A breath later, my arms begin to tingle and I can no longer feel my fingers.

It is as if they have been crushed.

But I, like the rest of my commanders, am left untouched, while I was sitting in the chair in front of my desk with the crystal console, that wanted to seem to be comfortable.

If I wasn't hit, then what is this?

"Did you get past my name, senor?" can be heard from the ruins, while everyone coughed and puffed, to remove the dust near their eyes. "What was that?" Lynne cries while sitting next to me, touching the air, to see where I am. From the silver fog which was also heavy as lead, I see her pink manicure, freshly made yesterday. "I propose, let's all calm down. Accidents can happen any time." the master's voice is heard over all the coughing.

"Please forgive me for being late this time, senor! I promise I will never do this again!" Ryzen comes out smiling, from behind the curtain of dust, having his black cloak with sharp shoulders covered in white grain.

Suddenly, I feel a black, bitter, and heavy blood seeping into my veins, begging my broken heart to pump it. My eyes start to sting, threatening with heavy and extremely salty tears, just like the anguish that floods my whole soul.