Chapter 9: Plans
It was several days later when the starship arrived at Kirvak Minor. Jarith had recovered from Corinn's attempt to kill him, Bekka hadn't gone into any more trances, and neither one of them had seen or heard from Corinn."Jarith?" Bekka asked as they left the starship. "What do we do now?"
"I...don't really know..." Jarith said. "I was planning to start looking for Corinn when we got here, but...I don't really want to find him anymore."
"Yeah..." Bekka said. "I still don't understand why he-why he did that. I've never even seen Corinn get angry at anyone."
"I don't understand either-maybe it was something you said, about how we're wrong to be fighting over the universe. That's pretty much the only thing he's cared about for longer than you can imagine."
Jarith sighed. "I never really wanted to control the universe...I just didn't want Corinn to kill me. And he always said that he just wanted his universe back. I guess we've both just been convinced we were right."
"When you put it that way, I don't know if I could tell who's right," Bekka said. "I know there has to be some way that you could stop fighting each other-"
"If it comes to that," Jarith said, "I really don't want to fight Corinn anymore. I just want him to leave me alone."
"Maybe I can get him to," Bekka said. "He might listen to me."
"He might," Jarith said. "But then, he might decide that you're standing between him and control of the universe. I honestly don't know what he'll do."
"Maybe...we should just forget about him for a while," Bekka said. "I'm worried about him, but I'm scared, too..."
"We could just stay here for a while," Jarith said. "It's a nice enough planet, and it's the only place in the universe where I've ever seen anything like the Crystal Forests."
"The what?" Bekka asked.
"Crystal forests. There's a kind of tree on this planet, and something about the ground here, that makes trees grow like living crystals. It's like being surrounded by giant wind chimes. I think you'd really like it."
"That sounds really cool," Bekka said. "And it's around here?"
"We could go see it right now, if you want," Jarith said. "I could just teleport us over there, it's the same planet, after all."
"Okay," Bekka said.
A few minutes later, Jarith and Bekka walked into the visitor center for the Crystal Forests. A short, orange-haired girl was waiting outside the building for someone. Her skin was blue and scaly. She wore a sleeveless brown shirt with a green sash and green pants. On her left arm was a purple band with a symbol on it-a black circle overlapping a white star on a gray background.
Could that be them? she thought as Jarith and Bekka passed her. She could sense an unusually strong power from him. He would be Light, then. And the girl....she would be the one I'm protecting....The girl looked at the picture she was holding in her hand. It was a photograph of Bekka and Jarith. That's them, all right. Now, to get to know them....The girl followed Jarith and Bekka inside.
"Hello," she said. "You are visitors to this planet, are you not?" she asked. Bekka nodded. "I was wondering if you were perhaps looking for a guide? To show you the forest?"
"Well...I've been here before," Jarith said, "but it was a long time ago."
The girl smiled. "Not to scare you, of course, but the forests can be dangerous to the unprepared. The crystals can be hypnotic, trapping you if you don't know what you're doing. I would be more than happy to guide you, for the customary fee of thirty kirvas."
Bekka blinked. "What's a kirva? Is that a lot?" she whispered to Jarith.
"Not really. Don't worry about it," he said. "We would be pleased to have you guide us," he said to the girl.
"Good," she said. "My name is Arysta."
Meanwhile, Corinn was still on his planet, planning what to do next.
"Jarith has already declared Challenge, so all I have to do is get Bekka to willingly Witness our battle. But with the way she's been acting, I don't think I can trust her anymore.
"I should be able to cancel her influence, though. I was the one who named her as Witness, so I should be able to un-name her. From there, it will be easy to kill Jarith, no matter what he tries to do.
"It's really too bad about Bekka, though. She doesn't really deserve to be caught up in this...but now, it's too late. Even if my powers weren't acting strangely around her, she's been with us too long for me to completely erase her memories of this. She'll still be here, remembering, after Jarith and I both die in this life."
For a moment, Corinn almost looked sad.
Image Gallery: : Characters: : Theme Song: : Link "Darkness and Light"