NOVEL NEXT Chapter 43: Ghosts
The Blinding Light, for a single moment the world went white. For a single breath, reality fractured into nothing but searing brightness. Then there was darkness. Both internally and literally. When sight returned, the spaces where Vorden and Raten had been standing were empty. The air still hummed with residual energy, a cruel echo of what had just happened.
The blinding white light had vanished, leaving nothing behind but an aching emptiness. Dust shimmered in the air, left disturbed by the sudden burst of energy. The small patch of land between the transport hanger and the Blade building was now almost hollow—silent—like they had never been there at all.
Shiro's voice broke through the suffocating stillness. "They're gone." His tone was raw, as if saying it aloud would force him to believe it.
Cassidy staggered back, one hand gripping the hilt of a small blade sheathed on her hip for emotional support. "That wasn't teleportation," she said, her voice shaking. "That was something else. That was..." She swallowed, eyes darting to Jade, panicked. "Where the hell did they go?" Jade couldn't answer. She could barely think. Her hands were trembling, light flickering wildly around her fingers as her emotions spiraled out of control.
Jade's breath hitched, her pulse roaring in her ears. "No. No, no, no." This wasn't real. It couldn't be real. One second, Vorden had been beside her. Looking at her. Smiling. And then—nothing. Her stomach plummeted as she took a step forward almost as if she was hoping it had only been an illusion. That if she only took a step or two, the facade would be disturbed by her body and fall apart. "No, no, no..." Her voice barely pushed past her lips. Her hands still trembling, curled into fists.
The blinding white light vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving behind a deafening silence. Dust and debris still floated in the air, shimmering under the rays of daylight. Jade's pulse, still thundered loudly in her ears. It felt violating, to have an ability that seemed so very similar to her own, used in such a way. Like she had been betrayed by the light. She had never dealt with something like this, never seen an abduction, but now she had, and it had taken one of the only people alive that she cared about from her. Vorden. Right in front of her. Her mind screamed at her to do something, anything, but what?
For a moment, no one moved.
Jade's heart pounded loud enough to hear just standing near her, the hollow echo of it drowned out the ringing silence. Gone. Her mind screamed it, but she couldn't force her body to react. Her hands, were still balled into fists at her sides as she looked at each person still standing around her.
Shiro broke the stillness first. "They're gone." His voice cracked, the weight of it sinking into each of them like a stone.
Shiro was already moving. "I'll try to track them!" His voice was sharp, snapping Jade out of the frozen moment. Shiro, then fumbling with his communicator, cursed. "There's no trace—no energy signature. It's like they just... vanished."
His fingers flew across his wrist device, scanning for his brothers' signals. "I'm trying their watches again..." He growled furiously under his breath. "They're offline. Cut completely. Not a single trace, simply went offline while still here on the surface."
Cassidy stumbled backward, her breathing shallow as panic gripped her. "No... no, they can't be..." Her eyes bounced around the area like ping pong balls, scanning every thing in sight as if Vorden and Raten might reappear if she just looked hard enough. Jade couldn't comfort her. She could barely think. Her whole body now was trembling, light flickering wildly around her fingers as her emotions slowly spiraled out of control.
Sil stood completely still, his tall figure bathed in the afterglow of the abduction light. His face was unreadable, but his jaw clenched tightly, a flicker of something not usually seen there anymore was ablaze.
Sil stood apart from them, shoulders taut, gaze locked on the space where the light had been. He didn't speak, didn't move. His silence was a razor's edge.
Shiro turned towards him, a look of complete helplessness on his face "Sil..." His mouth opened and closed a couple of times as he searched for the words to say. What could he even say? In that moment of panic, he looked so much younger than he was, not like the fearless leader of the Blade family, much closer to the child Sil had saved from bullies so long ago.
Sil's chest rose with a slow inhale. "I couldn't stop it," he murmured, voice eerily calm. "I couldn't even move in time."
The words were too quiet, but Jade caught them. Her stomach twisted. She had seen clips of Sil fighting against, what any human would consider to be like gods. She had seen him stand unmoving before forces that could shake planets. But now, just then he had been powerless.
And he knew it.
Jade finally snapped out of her haze. "We have to get them back." Her voice cracked with emotion, her light ability surging involuntarily, making the air radiate around her.
Sil didn't move as he thought deeply, then, with a low exhale, he turned. "They didn't just vanish. They were taken." His tone was cold, calculating now, the thousand years of strategy kicking in.
"I have some ideas but if I'm right, rushing in will get us all killed. So I need to get some answers first." Sil's words were sharp but not cruel. His gaze softened, just slightly. "We'll get them back. I promise."
Jade's shoulders sagged, but she didn't argue. Shiro hesitated before adding, "We'll need to prep." Shiro refused to let the weight of the moment settle. No time. "We need a ship, we need to move." He turned to Cassidy, then Jade.
Jade's breath came fast. Too fast. Every instinct screamed at her to act, but there was nothing to hit, nothing to chase, no enemy to blind. She gritted her teeth.
Sil exhaled sharply, like a man pulling himself from quicksand. His eyes snapped to Jade, and he gave her an attempt at a reassuring nod. He had only one name on his mind at that moment. Bliss.
Suddenly he sprang into action. His already somber expression grew dark. He had an idea of somebody to contact, to help... maybe. Sil was already turning away. At least, they just had to or he had to try to get them to, at the very least. Sil, already moving toward the building, turned on his heel. "I need a moment." He spoke through gritted teeth as he clenched his fists while walking away. He would not fail his brothers again.
That was enough for Shiro. Seeing Sil move, he had a pretty good idea what was coming next. He turned to Jade. "You and Cass, get supplies. Food, weapons, med kits, beast crystals from the storage, whatever you think we'll need. I don't know if we will leave immediately but I can't imagine we will be staying here much longer." His voice softened, just barely as he looked both girls in the eyes. "We're getting them back."
Jade swallowed, forcing herself to nod. "Damn right we are." Cassie's mouth turned up slightly at the end. A glint sparkled in her eyes once more and she nodded. She and Jade split the list of items they would need and each set off to accomplish their task while Shiro headed for his office to access the logs on file in an attempt to gather a few high level abilities that may be useful for their endeavor.
Jade was moving with trained militarized precision and speed as she allowed her mind to wander and her body to go into autopilot. Her military training and experience came in handy for times like these, when she didn't want to allow her highly emotional state to circumvent her efficacy. The emphasis on programmed repetitive functioning for menial tasks and targeted habit forming for expedited accuracy when performing highly repetitive or unskilled objectives was unbelievably useful for situations of war that altered a soldier's mental or emotional state in a way that otherwise could compromise the ability to perform their assigned tasks.
In other words, she was dissociating. She let her brain check out before she had a complete mental breakdown. She kept thinking of her parents, her brother, many friends she had lost over the years. She wouldn't let Vorden become yet another ghost in her life. At the same time Sil was thinking the exact same thing, only Sil wasn't going to let either of them become ghosts again at all.