By Anh Thi
“If you dare,” a girl’s voice softly echoed next to Crys’ bed.
“I want to play,” Crys whispered. “Give me a minute.” She rolled herself into her blanket, creating a pillow fortress around her body. If her parents came by to check on her, they couldn’t tell she wasn’t huddled within the pile.
Crys took three deep breaths before slipping her consciousness into a crack within space, just leaving enough of her mind behind, if her parents decided to detect her. If they found out she had left her body again, they would tie her mind to her body until her she reached her majority. The last time they caught her, she was grounded for six months.
She discovered that crack by accident. Usually those cracks were repaired instantly by the keeper’s guard, but they somehow missed that little sliver. And Crys made sure they didn’t pick up on it by weaving an illusion patch over it so she could continue to sneak out to play with Sha.
Sha had been slipping in and out of cracks since she remembered. The universe was too interesting not to explore, and danger was just a word that stopped cowards from doing what they wanted to do.
“You took long enough,” Sha said when Crys arrived six seconds after Sha dared her to play. “Why do I always have to find you?”
“I found you the first time,” Crys replied.
“But I was already searching for you,” Sha said. “Never mind. I found the most beautiful thing.” She mentally lassoed Crys, and off they skimmed along the light curves of space to stop before a brilliant galaxy in the shape of a butterfly. “Isn’t it cute?”
“Wow,” Cry sighed.
“It’s yours,” Sha said. “Sorry I got you grounded. Am I forgiven?”
“Only if you promise not to do that again,” Crys said. “If I want to leave, you will never try to stop me again.”
Sha pouted. “But you were leaving too soon.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Crys said. “If you can’t show me respect, then I don’t want to play with you anymore.”
“But I’m giving you this galaxy.”
“You can’t give what isn’t yours in the first place,” Crys stated. “Now promise.”
“Fine,” Sha relented without grace. “I promise not to force you to stay. Now are we good?”
“Good,” Crys agreed. With a sudden mischievous smile, she mentally lassoed Sha towards the edge of the butterfly swirl. “Now let’s play.”
The girls plunged into the galaxy’s tip with a whoop and a twirl. Gone was any consideration that didn’t involve satisfying their curiosity and pushing the boundaries of fun. An array of unimaginable colors surrounded them like a glowing cloud. As they got deeper, they could see planets and moons and suns moving in a celestial dance.
“Wait ‘til you see what I’ve been practicing,” Sha said. She slipped out of Crys’ mental hold and pointed a finger at a random section of the galaxy. With a counterclockwise flick of her finger, she drained away the color, leaving behind only a shadow of its former glory.
“What did you do?” Crys exclaimed. “Put it back.”
“No,” Sha said. “Isn’t that neat?”
“That’s not right. Put it back.”
“I said no.” Sha pointed an accusing look at Crys. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Me,” Crys said in surprise. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Exactly! So why are you so concerned? This is not the end of the universe.”
“You just put a part of it off balance,” Crys explained. “We don’t know what might happen.”
“Might is not a good reason to do nothing.” Sha rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Stop sounding so old. You’re not your parents yet.”
“I am not old. And I would be lucky to be like my parents.”
“If you’re not old,” Sha challenged, “then live a little. It’s the duty of the young to push boundaries. We get to make mistakes.”
“But we don’t have to be stupid,” Crys pointed to the gray section sitting like a lump of coal in the midst of a rainbow swirl. “That makes no sense.”
“That is trying something new. Testing our power. I thought you would appreciate that.”
“Experimenting with our powers is fine,” Crys said, “but we have to be careful not to damage the universe if we’re to be its guardians.”
Sha laughed. “Let the ones with less potential guard. We shall be rulers, not guardians. And rulers get to make the rules.”
“Rulers should also know when to obey the rules,” Crys said. “You aim too high.”
“So should you,” Sha said. “We are better than guardians. Why do you think I was looking for someone that matched my potential? To be without an equal is so boring.”
“You’re not a god,” Crys commented. “You shouldn’t be proud of what you’re not yet.”
“I have no doubt one day I’ll rule the Shade family and all who owe allegiance to us. When you rule the Crystals, we can make a peace treaty so we don’t have to sneak around, hiding our friendship.”
“When did you care what others think?”
“When they can stop me,” Sha shrugged. “It’s better to make the rules than to follow them. Don’t you want to be unique in the universe, the only one who can take your family name as your own?”
“It’s just a name.”
“Names have power. I want to be the Shadow. Don’t you want to be the Crysalis?”
Crys frowned in thought. “I don’t know. That sounds like a lot of work to be the anything. I just want to be plain Crys.”
“Then enjoy your plainness while you can,” Sha laughed. “I bet you won’t have much choice when your powers outstrip everyone else except me.”
Behind her back, Crys gathered space dust to form a ball that she hurled at Sha. Yelping in surprise, Sha leapt to the side as the dustball exploded into a sparkle of light when it hit her shoulder. With a glint in her eye, Sha spun around and shot beams of light from her fingertips she channeled from the nearest sun. It slammed Crys backwards into a passing comet, shattering it into fragments.
Crys nodded in appreciation at Sha’s quick comeback. With a grin, she mentally scooped up some comet fragments, forged them into the shape of a dagger, and threw it at Sha who just managed to create a light shield to protect herself. The comet dagger exploded, and Sha used her shield to push the hot pieces towards Crys.
Duckng behind a planet, Crys directed the remaining pieces of the comet to enter the planet’s atmosphere where they promptly burned up. While Sha was distracted by the fireworks show, Crys quickly fashioned a net out of dust molecules and threw it over Sha.
But dust was no match for Sha’s quick thinking. She pulled a moon from its orbit. The force of the gravitational shift caused the dust net to disintegrate as the dust streamed after the rogue moon. While Crys was busy putting the moon back into its place, Sha slipped behind her and grabbed her hair.
“Gotcha,” Sha said with triumph.
“That’s what you think.” Crys flipped backwards, tearing free of Sha’s grip. Then they engaged in hand to hand combat. Kicking and punching, the two friends circled each other looking for an opening advantage. “Y ou’ve been practicing.”
Sha laughed. “So have you.”
“I wouldn’t want to disappoint you.”
“Then be second best.”
“Only if you want me to let you win.”
TO BE CONTINUED…