January 21, 2020
A lunarfly wakes, stretching its tired wings, looking toward the horizon as Earth peers into view. Kira’s outstretched palm carries a small pool of water to prepare it for a long day of fluttering. The insect’s white and gray patterned wings take their first glide to meet Kira’s hand for its morning refreshments. Light shimmers off the water’s surface as the lunarfly emits a dim white light from its abdomen, expressing its gratitude.
“Do you want to visit Earth too?”
Looking up toward the horizon, Kira admires just how blue the planet seems to be.
“Must be filled with all sorts of beautiful creatures, just like you!”
Breaking Kira from her trance, the lunarfly flutters off in the direction of Earth, as if the large body is close enough to reach. Kira leans back on the lush grassy hill and absorbs the reflected light of Earth. Her eyelids droop in bliss as she watches her new friend enjoy its simple life, just enjoying nature. The lunarfly ascends, with each flutter of its wings climbing higher in the sky.
Encased in ice, the lunarfly falls. Kira lurches forward in shock as her eyes follow her frozen friend into the hand of a woman. Her form clothed in white silks and linens that drape down loosely to the ankle. The garments embroidered with jagged crystalline designs to express her forte in ice magic and signify her status if her poise failed to do so. Her hair a light blue cascades down her neck with short antennae peeking out the top of her head. Disapproval and condemnation form on her face as her lips twist into a frown. Despite her magical affinity, her eyes blaze, glaring at the girl.
“Kira! How many times must I tell you? You’re not allowed outside until you’ve finished your studies!”
“But Mom, I-”
“No! You are to come back to the Karith Academy this instant!” Kira’s mother turns away. “How do you expect to become an adequate technomancer when you’re wasting your time outside…” She whips around, breaking her elegant posture. Fire builds inside her. “KIRA!”
Shoes with soles of ice allow Kira to slide down the hill at incredible speeds. Her cinnamon hair whips behind her as she makes her escape. Her mother, without hesitation, leaps down after her daughter, causing the ground beneath her to freeze over. Leaning forward and lowering her center of gravity, she throws her arms back emitting a gust of wind, launching her down the hill. Kira looks back for a moment to find her mother gaining on her position. The girl’s irritation turns to worry at the thought of being caught. She looks back to the path ahead to notice the tree line was much closer than anticipated. In a panic, Kira grabs hold of the contraption on her arm and emits frost from her palm to create a path of ice that could alter her direction from the obstacle in front of her. She glides off her ramp of ice, avoiding the first tree but immediately clipping a branch from the next. Tumbling down the hill, hitting every branch and root in her path, she eventually rolls to a stop face down in the sand.
Groans and grunts of pain are immediately muffled by a small wave of water from the lake, filling her nose and mouth. To keep herself from drowning, Kira pushes herself up and scoots away from the water, falling onto her back. The crunch of boots on sand precedes her mother’s approach. Kira could even hear the disappointment in her steps. As her mother stops next to her, Kira turns her head, grimace turning to sorrow.
—
The metal sleeve that covered Kira’s forearm lays broken and bent on the table as Kira sits there staring at this new chore. Her mother, standing behind her, looks down at her daughter, arms crossed in a reserved manner. The woman shrugs off the concerned look on Kira’s face and walks away remarking, “You’ll have to fix your Alchematic to cast spells again. You are not to leave this room until you are able.” The door to Kira’s room slams shut and immediately freezes over.
After some time, the Alchematic’s metal is tempered back into place, rewired, and welded shut. Kira fits the contraption back onto her forearm, looking at her work with a furrowed brow. She produces a flame in her palm and moves toward the door, expression unwavering. Water begins to drip down the frame of the door as the heat melts the ice. But Kira turns away. She clenches her fist, casting the flame away.
Kira turns and walks to her bookcase, grabbing the binding of a book titled Myths & Ancient Humans. Moving to her bed, she reaches under her mattress, arms searching for a particular item. A book. Kira hops onto her bed, lying on her stomach, and opens both books to their marked pages. The second book is completely blank other than the lines meant for writing notes, seeming to be a journal. However, the other book contains an illustration that spans both pages. The book beams with light as the illustration comes to life creating a small hologram of a pedestal that holds a crystal in the shape of an imperfect sphere. It almost looks like an unremarkable rock other than the bright pink light that shines within.
“The Arcanum…” she reads aloud to herself. “Ancient texts from the humans claim this crystal can be used as an infinite source of magic power and was created for the purpose of providing energy to an entire planet, altering it much like when martians invented terraforming technology.”
Writing furiously in her notebook, Kira’s mood has completely changed to intense excitement. She scrolls through the digital pages of her book and pulls up new holograms of clues archeologists found on Earth. She eventually pulls up a hologram that contains flora she’s never seen before. Kira immediately jumps onto her feet and expands the hologram to the size of her room, making it looks as though her room is filled with ivy and flowers and fluorescent flora she couldn’t put a name to.
“I have to see it. I have to go to Earth.”
The ice covering the door dissipates into a light mist, causing instant panic in Kira. She dives onto her bed, closing her books making the hologram fade away just as her mother enters the room.
“You must have fixed your casting focus by now,” her mother asserts as her eyes meet Kira’s sleeve. “Good. You have class.”
—
Her face rests in her palm as her eyes droop in boredom while listening to today’s guest lecturer talk about the responsibilities of technomancers. Technomancers are advisors to political figures and defenders of cities or planets even. Others are scientists who research the ancient magical ways of humans. She’s heard it all before. However, she still makes sure to listen in case something new does come up. People begin to clap as the lecturer finishes her presentation and the professor walks in to do some housekeeping. He lets the class know about an upcoming school trip to Earth, catching Kira’s ear.
“You just need to get your parent’s permission and we’ll all go together to visit the museums of Earth and learn a bit more about where magic first originated…” the professor iterates.
“Mom will never let me go,” Kira’s brief excitement turns to disappointment. “But I have to try. Maybe I can convince her it’s more effective than studying.”
—
Kira bursts through the door to her home immediately shouting out to her mother. “Mom! There’s a school trip to Earth where we get to learn more about the origins of magic! Can I go?” She looks to her mother with puppy dog eyes pleading to the best of her abilities.
“Those trips are a waste. Those museums,” she continues as she prepares dinner, “are meant for the common folk. There’s nothing there that you don’t already know; best you head to the library and start learning to control your ice more precisely. Perhaps with finer control, you’d actually make a decent attempt at leaving Luna.”
Kira despairs but pleads one final attempt. “Everyone else is going!” Her mother couldn’t count how many times she’s heard the same before. She gives her daughter a cold look, not even taking the time to respond.
“Here, dinners ready.”
The girl takes her seat at the dinner table, arms crossed and pouting. Even as a delicious meal of perfectly cooked meats and vegetables is placed on the table, her mood remains unchanged. She even refuses to look at her mother.
“Be grateful,” her mother insists. “You’re at the greatest magic school in the solar system and you’re going to utilize its resources to become a capable young technomancer like your father. It’s for your own good.”
Kira stands and rushes upstairs to her room. She paces in circles groaning in frustration. Her frustration contorts into a smile as inspiration struck. Kira dives to her bed and grabs her book bag as well as her journal. Rushing through her room she grabs all the books she finds most important to her and takes a moment to open Myths & Ancient Humans to look at the hologram of The Arcanum once more. Earth looms in the distance as Kira looks through her window. “I’ll get out this time.” Kira turns and freezes the doorknob in her room. Determined to adventure, she opens her window and takes a leap down to the brush below.
With haste, Kira rushes through the city she’s all too familiar with. It’s the only part of this moon she was allowed to explore. But instead of the path she takes to the great fields of Lina, she’s heading to the docking bay. She needs a ship to get out of here. She ducks through the alleys of the city, avoiding security bots at every corner. She looks at her arm, thinking of using magic, but decides it would not be of use here.
She sees a harbor of spacecrafts in the distance but there is no cover to get her there. A dash. She knows she’ll be caught unless she can make it to a ship before the bots get there. Kira grips her Alchematic and begins her run. People look at her bewildered and jump out of the way. Security bots spot her and begin to broadcast a message. “UNAUTHORIZED TRAINING GEAR. PLEASE RETURN TO KARITH ACADEMY IMMEDIATELY.”
The crowds have completely scattered from the streets clearing the way for the droids. Kira reaches for her casting focus and attempts to gather frost in her palm, but it dissipates. The security bots grab her and begin to pull her back toward the academy. Kira screams in protest, “No! Let go of me! I have to get out of here!”
A boy suddenly steps in front of the bots’ paths seemingly unaware of the ruckus being caused. Headphones cover the boy’s ears and the faint noise of music could be heard by Kira despite being five meters away. He wears a headband from which the stocks of his budding antenna protrude. Hair, as pointed as daggers sticks straight up toward the sky. A tinted visor hides his eyes making it difficult to see exactly where the boy is looking. The security bots instruct him to stand aside but he just keeps nodding his head to the beat. He flips his headphones outward to reveal the rhythm of a hip-hop beat.
We journey ‘till the sun dies, the heart is where the fun lies…
The two security bots holding Kira suddenly fall to pieces as two laser bolts pass through them. The boy in front of Kira is barely older than her but obviously is a skilled gunslinger. However, instead of running, she begins to dance. The bots shoot laser bolts at this teenage cowboy but manage to miss each shot as he moves to the rhythm of the music.