Rising Shards

I stared in horror at the shifting sky. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was looking at. The red streaks in the sky looked familiar, but it wasn’t until Iris reacted that I could tell what they were.

“Those…big veins.” Iris said.

I took out my bloodsaber (Minty, not the Kathron sword). The veins looked exactly the same aside from the obvious size difference. Energy flowed through the ones reaching out into the sky as they continued to grow upward, going farther and farther until their reach was out of our sight.

“Yessir!” Kitty said. “My little Jeannie-Weanie really did it! Don’t it warm your heart?”

“What did she do?” I asked, my mouth dry.

“She used the Starlight Despair, to make her Harmony.” Kitty said.

“The what?” Oka asked.

Jeans spent so much time telling me about how she wanted to make a world in the void that was like a paradise. When she brought me to her last attempt, it physically hurt me to stand in it. And now I was in it again. I winced in preparation for that searing pain through my whole body again, but it didn’t come this time. I was too scared to keep my bloodsaber up, it dropped from my hands to the ground.

“So they probably told you about the worlds in the void right? How they’re all dying?” Kitty asked. “Well, Jeans decided to do something about that.”

Kitty started counting the massive veins in the sky, now looking like a bloody forest above us, before quickly losing interest.

“Now this place is gonna be different, and not just because of the bloodbath above us,” Kitty said. “Even if you don’t come with me to Wildfire Hearts, you’re gonna see it. A lot of other worlds are glomping onto this one as we speak. All this nature—well, not this nature, this spot we’re in is a dump—the other nature, the one inhabited by creepy little robots is gonna have some new neighbors. Won’t that be fun? You’ll get to see it—I’m sure the Shardsy staff is gonna just love having you explore this place. You’re all a part of it as well.”

“What do you mean?” Oka asked.

“Remember those memory trials? The jump fifteens?” Kitty asked. “Remember how we record those? Well we used not only the sad energy from all your crap pasts to get a hearty amount of Elka, we also imprinted those on this place. So in a way, this place is a part of you, too.”

I felt ill at the thought. I didn’t want to be connected to Jeans’ Harmony.

“Oh, but it’ll be so boring if you don’t come with me,” Kitty said. “All I need is seven, remember? But you all could come if you want. I promise it won’t be boring like staying is.”

I couldn’t stand to look at the rest of the class to see anyone even considering it, but my group stayed firmly clamped together.

“We’ll see if her big project works,” Kitty said. I wasn’t sure if she was talking to us or if she was just thinking out loud because she loved to hear her own voice. “But even if it doesn’t, prime real estate baby. And even better…if that castle fell where I think it did…we might have a way to…”

Kitty trailed off, lost in thought. We had seen the castle on one of our void missions, and Mawiril thought it would be in the wastelands. Why would the Wildfire Hearts group not know where it fell if they knocked it down?

“It’s all just so amazing, what she did,” Kitty said. “And she did it with her girlfriend, aw, and a clybrid, ew.”

“That clybrid is your niece too, you know.” Oka said.

“Huh?” Kitty asked. “Oh right. Penty’s little daughter, huh. Still. Ew.” Kitty turned her attention back to me. “Oh, Zeta. You look so scared. Don’t be scared. Don’t be sad either. Listen, I know it’s probably kind of a bummer for you that Jeannie-Weanie goes to Wildfire Hearts. But it’s also amazing. Because she’s amazing. Sure, a hollow wind flows through whatever she calls a soul, but god, she’s talented, huh? What other Cani her age could pull all this off? Not me. Well, maybe me if I was really motivated and a bit luckier.”

Kitty paused in anticipation, as if that would convince me to come with her.

“Nothing? I thought that would work. Ah, well. Moving on!” Kitty said. “Oka sweetie, don’t you wanna get to know your auntie better?”

Kitty talked to Oka like someone talking to their puppy, which naturally didn’t get much of a reaction.

“I’m not gonna try too hard with you.” Kitty said, waving Oka off. “You got that Atrian spirit blah blah blah, yuck. Berin’s probably got you locked in on the spiritual path of boredom already. Kill me. Oh wait, you’re all Atrian, so blah blah, nice and kindness. Whatever.”

Kitty walked up to us. For some reason, the way she bared her fangs scared me as much as Jeans’ did by the end of our relationship.

“But summer ended…”

“If you’re not going to go, can you get out of the way at least?” Kitty asked. “Make better doors than windows.” Kitty pushed us aside, breaking our firm hold on each other. Kalei, Oka, and Lillia quickly grabbed back onto me once Kitty was past us. “Oh, and I can cross the line. If you were wondering. I charmed the line, I can do what I want. But if you step over the line while my back’s turned, I’ll…” her expression darkened. “Be weawy happy and surprised when I see you past that line!”

Kitty fully turned away from us and began checking through the rest of the class.

“Oh! Chellsi Mikeila-Keila!” Kitty shrieked when she stopped at the duo. “Big fan. Love the channel. You wanna see your girl Ovie again?”

Chellsi and Mikeila-Keila looked at each other. Without Ovie, they’d been pretty directionless, but also a lot less actively mean to me.

“Don’tcha miss her? I think she misses you—she’s been real messy.”

“I miss her too, I’m so messy oh my god!” Chellsi said, tears streaking expensive mascara down her face.

“But, Mikeila-Keila…”

“You’re Mikeila-Keila,” Chellsi said.

“Oh yeah,” Mikeila-Keila said. “But, Chellsi. Can we really give up our school life at Rising Shards just to see Ovie again and be at the, like, same school with her again and stuff?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“Oh yeah!”

Chellsi and Mikeila-Keila rushed past us and ran over the line. As soon as they stepped over it, they vanished, forcing a yelp out of me.

“Boom! That’s what I’m talking about! Two down, baby! WOO!” Kitty cheered.

I decided I detested Kitty Kilander.

“Alright, five more and I’ll let you go, I GUESS.”

Kitty continued her search.

“The three Kanibari standing weirdly close together,” Kitty said. “If you all come over here, I’ll…uh…let’s see.”

Kitty searched through their wristband info. She pulled up Rain’s account first.

“Rain…you’re royalty. More power if you join us. Lots more.” Kitty said. “KJ? Video crap…we have a great av club at Wildfire Hearts. Eh? No? Amara…ah…it says here you have laser powers, that’s badass. How’d you like to hone those in better ways than fighting baby void goop monsters that suck? Don’t you want to do some real damage?”

The love trio stood firmly together.

“Worth a shot,” Kitty said. “Getting three at once would help wrap this up quick. I have a big Fang Moon Web gala so I don’t want to go much longer now that I saw the big vein thing Jeannie-Weanie did.”

Kitty stopped at Elisa Burwell, the dragon Kanibari who was lying on her stomach with her knees bent as she read a magazine that had a big photo spread of her favorite pop singer, Osiris.

“Ooh, Elisa Burwell,” Kitty said. “Whatcha reading there, Tea for Teens? I was on the cover of that last month.”

“I’m reading about Osiris.” Elisa said. “Unless you want to talk about Osiris, I don’t want to hear it.”

“I know Osiris,” Kitty said. “So if you want to meet him, you can—”

Elisa moved so quickly over the line that I almost didn’t register that she’d left.

“I don’t actually know him,” Kitty giggled. “But my agent does. Probably. We’ll figure it out. Cry-laughing emoji. Pretend I texted that to all of you.”

That made three students. Three Rising Shards students who willingly chose to go to Wildfire Hearts, my personal nightmare school.

“You two,” Kitty said, pointing to Iris and Maia. She didn’t bother to bring their accounts up. “The cat girl and the green hair.”

“Dude, we barely made it this far, you think we’d do good at your intense school?” Iris said. 

“Pass on us.” Maia said.

“Fair.” Kitty said.

Kitty circled around the rest of the class until she was back before me. I didn’t want her to try anything else on me, her talking about Jeans was enough to make my legs feel like jelly.

“Lillia Cadence…” Kitty said. “Huh. I should’ve looked into you more. I didn’t bring anyone. Or anything for you. Maybe next time? Unless you’re the type to be convinced by nothing? It works on me sometimes. That’s how I ended up with a whole arena. Like, I own all of it. It sucks. What a waste of money.”

Kitty smirked.

“I did bring a guest or two though. Want to see them?” Kitty asked. “This one’s a surefire hit, a gimme, so I saved him for the end. Come on down, buddy!”

We all looked around. A few girls pointed towards the top of one of the wreckage piles where Kitty had made her entrance. A short boy appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and made his way down the pile. I didn’t recognize him, but he looked familiar.

“Rem!” Laenie screamed.

“Rem…” Aira said.

Laenie was instantly frantic, trying to push ahead to get to the boy. He however, didn’t look her way.

“Is that the line?” The boy asked Kitty, nodding towards the enchanted dirt.

“Yeppers, you headed back already?” Kitty asked.

The boy nodded.

“Wait, don’t go!” Laenie shrieked. “You can’t! Rem!”

The boy crossed over the line as Laenie wailed. We grabbed onto her to try and get her to stop thrashing around, but we heard a familiar growl within her. In an instant, she was in her massive Exa Cani form. She quickly threw us all backwards. With a frantic, beastly wail, she ran on all fours towards the line, and was gone as fast as she’d transformed.