Starseeds: The Broken-Winged

| 8 | Seltris

Aqua Lordaire

Lurid light seeped through my thick, quivering eyelashes and touched my eyes, intensifying and illuminating my perception for a minute. I blinked, and blinked, and blinked again. My hazy vision cleared, and above me were rectangular lights submerged into the ceiling, welcoming me back from my siesta.

I groaned when pain suddenly erupted from my neck. I touched my neck, feeling something fluffy and soft compressed to my skin. A bandage. A bandage concealed the area where that hideous beast bit me. I wrenched my body upwards into a sitting position, analysing the environs.

I think I'm in a medical room. I could tell by the immense space, the stench of medicines promenading in the air and the endless rows of beds. Some occupied by people either sleeping or groaning as they felt pain, whilst others are awake and relaxing as they entertained themselves with their phones. Other beds are empty, refreshed and clean.

Where am I?

I heaved the sheets veiling me off my body, swinging my legs to the side. My nude feet touched the cold floor. I wasn't wearing my clothes anymore. Instead, I was in a plain gown, the type of gowns patients wear in hospitals. My warped hair was chaotic, and my naturally-light-tanned skin was bizarrely pale.

On the nightstand next to the bed, was a bowl filled with something mushy yet thick, and next to the bowl was a glass of water. I narrowed my eyes at some people who glanced at my direction. My uncertainties of this place strengthened. What if these people are bad people? What if they are Demons? So many questions overflowed my head, aching my mind for answers.

I grabbed the glass and gulped down the water, heaving a pleasant sigh as the drought in my throat disappeared. Then, I gently and silently battered the glass onto the nightstand for it to fracture. I picked up a large shard and clutched it securely, feeling the sharpness of it slitting the skin of my palm. I saw an exit, and gradually, I draw near to it, alert and aware of the eyes on me. 

I was a step away from the exit when it suddenly opened, knocking me off-guard. I staggered backwards but managed to keep my stability. A girl wearing a hijab stepped through the entryway, holding a tray with injections and needles. Walking alongside her was a boy. The boy is quite dark-skinned, has that fairness brightening his sharp cheeks, plump lips and a mess of tiny twisted hair. Suspending from his left ear was an earring, and hanging from his nose was a nose-ring.

"There's only little left," the girl wearing the hijab said. "Jayden managed to get more of the antidote from Peru. But they were the last ones left."

"Aren't there other cures?" the boy asked.

"No, Zach. The poison in her veins is different. Rare. These are the only serums left to kill the pathogens in her –" The girl stopped talking when she saw me.

Zach stopped too and looked at me. He arched his perfectly shaped and thick eyebrows, as if my presence was surprising. He ran his dark eyes up and down my body before saying, "Well, Khadija, I guess you don't need the serum anymore."

"How are you awake?" Khadija asked me. "Aren't you supposed to be dying by –?"

I leaped at her, the shard in my hand high in the air. Khadija yelped as I fell on top of her, her back smacking the wooden floor. Her hands grabbed my wrists, compressing their hold around them and stopping me from plunging the shard into her neck.

"Who the hell are you?" I snarled.

"Get . . . get off me!" she commanded.

"Tell me who you – Whoa!" I was unexpectedly jerked back by what seemed to be an indistinguishable force. My feet were pulled back as if hands were grasping them and tugging me away from the girl. I fell on my butt about three feet away from her and the boy.

"Wha . . ." I blinked, registering what happened. What the hell?

"Coma girl is a tiger, too," the boy commented, smirking. He lowered his hands to his sides, and I straight away knew that he must've used his Telekinesis to pull me away from the girl.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

"I'm Zach Lawal," the boy introduced. "The girl you just attacked is Khadija Malik. You're in Seltris."

"Sel-what?"

"Seltris," he pronounced slowly, as if I'm a little kid. "The academy for Starseeds. Age eleven to eighteen students."

It was in that moment I remembered what happened before I passed out.

Attack. Demons. Starseed information. Powers. Leaving Dad. Fighting Demons, and . . . I stifled back a despondent sob.

Kiyo.

He's dead.

Kiyo's dead.

Tears prickled the back of my eyes and I battered my eyelids rapidly to make them go away. Kiyo's gone. He's gone. Dead. Dad's gone, too.

I'm all alone. I don't know any of these people in this academy for Starseeds.

Wait . . . "Do you know somebody called Thaddeus Lytle?" I asked them, my hopes abruptly escalating. Perhaps I'm not alone after all. Perhaps, this man called Thaddeus Lytle will assist me.

"Yeah," Zach said. "Why?"

"Because my father told me to find him." I reminisced the moment when I left my father to fight those Demons. I wonder where he is now. I couldn't help but come to the conclusion that my father is in absolute danger, and my instincts are telling me to run and save him. I will talk to this Thaddeus person. If he is a good friend of Dad, then I can trust him. I think.

"Alright, but first, we need to get you checked up," Khadija said.

"Why? I'm perfectly fine."

"No, you are not. I think you remember a Demon bit your neck, right? Demons have poison. In their salivary glands, their saliva is deadly, and they release this lethal chemical to kill you. It's how they were made to murder. When we found you in the fountain –"

"Wait, in a fountain?"

"You just poofed in the water," Zach enlightened.

"Poofed?"

"Yeah. You know, poofed. Appeared." He made an exploding hand gesture. "Poofed. You must be a Water Elemental if you appeared in water."

"I am." The ocean must've guided me to this fountain. My mind flashes with reminisces of a man with golden hair. I was falling, but he caught me, and carried me...did he bring me here? If so - why would he place me in the fountain? 

"Anyway," Khadija continued, "as I was saying, we found you in the fountain. You were unconscious but you were having a type of seizure. It was a minor seizure, but the toxicity created severe pathogens and they were spreading in your body. The pathogens were getting stronger. Luckily, one of the students in the school found a serum and it was slowly killing the pathogens and the poison."

"Usually," Zach added, "for situations like this – getting bitten by a Demon – it takes weeks, if not months, for a person to recover from a demonic pathogen or toxicity. But, you . . . uh, what's your name?"

"Aquamarine. Aqua for short."

"Nice name. Anyway, Khadija thought you were dying. You were in a nasty shape while you were unconscious – your body was swelling, it was turning blue, and you're veins were bulging. Sometimes, blood would've dripped from your ears, nose and mouth . . ."

"We thought the serum wasn't working anymore," Khadija said, "so we did everything we could to heal you. Yesterday, you were in the stage of death. But now . . ."

"I'm fine," I said, finishing their sentence.

Khadija heaved a sigh, as if she couldn't believe it. "Yeah. You're healed. Somehow. Maybe Allah heard my prayers."

"You've been praying for me?"

Khadija smiled. "Yeah."

"Prayers are powerful," Zach said.

Zach Lawal and Khadija Malik led me back to my medical bed for them to do to a check-up. Zach tugged the curtains around us, concealing us from onlookers in the infirmary. Khadija used this device to analyse my body, and the results were positive. At least, to me, they seemed positive. To them, there were confounding.

Khadija frowned at her iPad. "That's odd."

"What?" Zach neared closer to Khadija, peeking over her shoulder.

"The serum is still in her systems. It didn't disappear . . . In fact, it didn't do anything to kill the Demon's poison. Zach, look at this." Khadija showed the screen of the iPad to Zach, and Zach read whatever was on the screen. "Aqua's body killed the demonic pathogens."

"I'm guessing that's not possible," I presumed.

"Very," Zach agreed. "Starseeds are immune to diseases and cancers, but not entirely to pathogens that immerged from Hell. Ever since the Great Loss, our body's invulnerability was limited."

"So, what, I'm magical?"

"Magic is witchcraft," Khadija countered. 'It's hellish. It's not very divine and it's forbidden to use in Eskor. Magic is trickery from the Enemy. We call it black magic. I've seen it done before in Pakistan. Humans surrounded a bonfire and performed dark arts, but what they didn't know was that they were also calling the Evituals, and the Evituals possessed them."

"Evituals?"

"They're demonic spirits."

"Oh. OK . . ." Demonic spirits. I should've seen that coming. I hopped off the bed. "Now can I see Thaddeus?"

"Do you want to get changed first? You're in a hospital dress."

"OK. Where are my clothes?"

"Zach burned them."

"Fire Elemental?" I guessed.

"Yeah." Zach grinned. "Despite your attack on Khadija, you're coping good with all this s**t. I'm impressed."

"Oh, trust me," I muttered, "I'm freaking out inside."

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, I'm dressed in a new, refreshing set of clothes. Outside the medical room, Zach was leaning against the wall of the hallway. He guided me to Thaddeus' office, and during the stride, he enlightened me with fascinating pieces of information about this new world I entered recently. Khadija waved us goodbye, saying she has lessons she must attend to.

"So, God created us about eight hundred years ago," he said. "And already, there are about seventy billion Starseeds in the universe."

"Already?"

"Yeah." Zach smirked and leaned into my ear, whispering, "We like a good fuck."

"I thought angels aren't allowed to have sex."

"Our cousins' aren't. We're allowed to, though. Because we're literally physical beings. The others . . . they're more spiritual, get what I mean? Also, God told us to multiply, so we're multiplying."

"Too fast."

"What can I say? We just love our beds. Anyway, there are seven million Starseeds on Earth, the rest are in Utopia. Utopia is the home galaxy for Starseeds. So Earth isn't the only home for us, space is too. In Utopia, there are seven planets. All of them are the size of Jupiter. Let's see if I can name any of them . . . Hmm . . ."

Zach pondered for a minute. "There's Ebon, Thellion, Leron, Selos . . . That's all the names I can remember. I forgot the others Jayden told me. Jayden's my best friend, by the way. He's the one who found the serum to help you."

We served into another hallway. "Oh. Well, if you see him, say that I said thanks."

Zach paused in front of a door. "This is Thaddeus's office. I would stay, but I got classes. So I'll see you later, yeah?"

"OK. Bye, Zach. Thanks for the help."

"Anytime."

He walked away just when the bell resonated through the entire school building. Doors abruptly swung open and spilling out are students, all seemed to be eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen and eighteen. Some of them glanced meaningless at me, some laughed with their friends as they approached their next classes.

I knocked on the door three times.

"Come in," I heard a voice reply.

A luxurious, strong odour of numerous pleasant scents hit me as I stepped into the office. The office was immense. The walls are curved and one of them was just a book shelf stacked with countless novels. The ceiling was flat with spherical lights, and to my right was a small lounge area – a white, L-shaped sofa with a table in the front of them. Sitting on the sofas were two young kids, both blonde, and they gazed at me with inquisitiveness.

In the front was a large, arced desk with a flat-screen Apple computer, a pile of papers, and sitting behind the desk was a middle-aged man.

Thaddeus looked up from his computer. He blinked, registering my presence. Then, he rose up and took off his spectacles, placing them beside his tea cup. "You look so much like Marina Lordaire."

I was about to respond when the young girl sitting on the white L-shaped sofa leaped off and approached me. She narrowed her eyes at me, placing her hands on her hips. Then, she smiled endearingly. "It's the sick girl!" she exclaimed. "She's not dead!"

I returned the smile. "And I'm sure happy about that."

"So am I," Thaddeus admitted. He smiled at me and walked around his desk. "Now that you're under my care, Christian would've killed me if he found out something treacherous happened to you. Please, sit down. Would you like something to eat? You must be hungry."

"She can have our cookies," the girl said, jogging over to the small table. She picked up the plate of cookies and handed it to me.

"Hey!" The boy jumped off the sofa. "Olivia!"

"I don't want the cookies. My tummy is fool," Olivia reasoned. They must be twins. They both have the same eyes, the same hair, and the same adorable dimples.

"My tummy isn't!" the boy argued.

"Kade," Thaddeus said in a warning tone. "We have a guest. What do we do when we have guests?"

Kade was silent for a moment. Then, he huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm sorry. You can have the cookies, sick girl."

"My name is Aqua," I told him. "And you can have the cookies. I'm not hungry."

A delightful grin erupted on his face, dimples popping in his cheeks. He grabbed the plate from his twin sister's grip and went back to the sofa, sitting down and resuming the video on his iPad. I sat down next to him and Olivia sat next to me. Thaddeus remained standing, seeming to be contemplating about a few things as he stared at me.

"So," I said. "You know my mother, right?"

Thaddeus smiled. "Of course. Marina was a sweetheart. You look a lot like her. Your father must've told you to find me, I presume."

"Yeah. He did. He said you'll help me."

"And I will. Your father was my favourite student when he was still in Seltris. And so was Davis. And Marina. And Marina's sisters. They still are."

Thaddeus sat down beside us. "I'm glad you didn't die in your sleep. It will be a horrible tragedy for your family, especially what happened to your mother." Sympathy washed his grey eyes. "I'm sorry about what happened to your mother."

"It's fine."

"Do you know how the Demons found you?" Thaddeus solicited.

"No."

"Do you know why they wanted your father?"

"Yes. He's someone important, isn't he?"

Thaddeus nodded. He stood up. "Aqua, I will tell you everything you need to know. For now, follow me."

"Where are we going?"

"To the Cadrate."