Horror of Ijuri

Domel Arcturus

          The first impression we got of Ijuri was that the facility was well camouflaged. If one did not have keen eyes, they might miss a small black box covered in dust in the distance. Even so, unless you had early telescopes, you might miss the fact that the facility was shaped like a pyramid. Well, vaguely like a pyramid to be exact. Years of being hit by the dust storm must’ve buried it, making the pyramid to resemble a mountain. It’s like hiding in plain sight.

          I approached the black box and tried opening it, but years of dust had accumulated around the hinges. It needed to be cleaned first, particularly on the hinges. Not a difficult task, considering that father did warned me that the dust would be a problem and suggested a cleaning kit for the travel. It helped us open the box to reveal a still working touchscreen interface with a big lock picture, along with a scanner underneath it.

          I was entrusted with the key to open the front door, which was a rather peculiar-looking picture of scrambled black dots with four black squares on the corner (Writer’s Note: this is basically a QR code) we used back in the day. I thought that it indicated the age of the structure and why it became completely camouflaged as a mountain, but I later found out that it wasn’t the case.

          Anyway, it was never said that the place was as heavily guarded as the president’s office or a military intelligence installment. It was simply a storage for a key to the return of our planet. Of course, there was an emphasis of ‘never said’. Turned out there were things that were deliberately kept out of everyone’s knowledge because the place had a different purpose that we would soon find out.

          After the picture code was accepted by the scanner, we could feel vibrations and a faint rumbling sound. The planet had a very thin atmosphere, which did not permit a lot of sound. We were also wearing enviro-suits with a very prominent protection helmet, which also muffle the sound further until almost no voice could be heard. Clearly, the silence was scientific, but it had that weird uncanny effect when the source was a pair of big hangar doors sliding aside, revealing a dark room behind it.

          Before we got out of the ship, I instructed the others to keep their comms up. The rest of the crew except George and Kilkaja knew how to use the suit comms and set up the frequency, so I helped the two with simple instructions on how to set the frequency and change the system to private and public, all with a simple turn on their suit’s knobs. George quickly grasped it and comparing it to a Ternorian radio, while Kilkaja needed a little bit more help which fortunately was not that much of a problem due to his willingness to learn.

          Of course, the first person to comment on the fact that the place was dark and not opened for years was George, who had a similar experience back on Earth. I think I remembered him commenting about the pattern was rather similar.

          “A Vyrnian structure untouched for years,” he said to me. “Sounds familiar?”

          “This one’s going to be much bigger than that ship,” I said. “I bet on it.”

          Given that it was not a private comm, Astha butted in and said, “I’d be more comfortable if we can see every single corner of this building. I don’t like being jumped on in the dark.”

          “I can see the place well,” said Kilkaja.

          “As do I,” said Sel.

          “A Felinian and a Nuoevan,” said the Saukaur. “Who would’ve guessed?”

          Astha’s rather forward comment was actually intended to comment on two facts. The first was the fact that Felinians and Nuoevans had natural night visions, and the second fact was because their romance was not a secret. Astha knew about this back on the ship when he overheard the two talking. Astha had no malicious intent, but sometimes his comment could be misinterpreted, especially since he said, “You know this is a small ship, right?”

          Sel, who still felt uncomfortable around Saukaur, thought that Astha was annoyed. I did not remember what she said in response to that comment, but I remembered Astha saying that he did not mean anything bad about it, just a little comment. Sel understood, which prevented this whole trip to become rather awkward. Good thing it did not prevent her to bring Astha onboard.

          Of course, the sight of a dark interior was enough to make us feel that something was lurking within the darkness. Not only that, for the rest of us with no natural night vision, the darkness hid the true size of the rooms. Only the sense of touch could give us a sense of what we were facing.

          That was if we did not bring Sel and/or Kilkaja along. Both of their natural night visions helped us walk through the corridor and determine the size of things without the limitations of flashlights. It may be redundant, but I’d prefer to see the things for myself instead of hearing someone describing it. I could misinterpret what they were saying.

          Of course, the first thing we needed to do was to restore power to the facility. The lock interface near the front door was powered by a different power source, along with the door’s mechanism itself. The rest of the facility was not powered, so we needed to find a way to open the doors manually. Good thing the place was a Vyrnian construct, meaning that it had the same system as most Vyrnian doors before Exodus, which Lekan had a schematic of. Normally, you’d need an engineer to do this, but there were simple instructions we could use to operate the doors, which was a mandatory piece of information during emergencies. You could pretty much find them in public places and in workplaces. Everywhere except this place.

          It was already apparent from the front door that this place was never intended to be a frequently used place. It was intended only to keep a specific thing, and that thing was the key to the sealed planet. I did wonder why they needed to build a pyramid as if it was a tomb or something. Why not built something smaller and less conspicuous? As far as I remember, by my time, Vyrnians had already been space-conscious due to an expanding Empire. You might think that it would make more sense to just move out of Vyrn, but Vyrnians had too much pride on their home planet. That pride may have been gone now, but back then, it was a hotly debatable issue.

          But I did not have the time to think about why the pyramid was built that way, especially when we already got the answer. This place may have been a storage, but it was never unoccupied. It didn’t take long for us to find out because it was just behind the door we were trying to open.

          At first there was nothing to be seen, given how it was dark. However, Kilkaja’s gasp drew our attention towards him, along with Sel’s expression. She looked like she had seen something horrifying in the dark.

          “What is it?” I asked. “Is it…?”

          “You better see it for yourself,” she said. She directed me towards a point as I shone my flashlight there. My reaction was just like Kilkaja.

          They both saw a long dead Vyrnian body on a nearby floor. His body was preserved like a desiccated mummy. Given the vacuum condition, I was possible. However, the one that drew my attention, along with the implication that we walked into a dangerous place, was the wound he had on his body.

          It was clear that he died violently. But a more detailed autopsy from Zarya revealed a gruesome fate.

          “Something took its time maiming this poor Vyrnian’s body,” she said while scanning the body. “His cause of death was blood loss, but before that, he was thrashed around, breaking almost every bone on his body. Then, the fatal wound is the big…cut on his neck.”

          “Shit,” said Astha. “What a beast.”

          “Then we can assume that a feral alien caused it?” said George. “Like a wild alien animal or something?”

          “Whatever it is, it won’t be alive now,” said Astha. “This place’s sealed from the outside and as far as I can see, the damage is not as extensive as I would expect from a rampaging animal.”

          “Except that thing,” I said, remembering what we face in Orlonel. “That thing can live in vacuum.”

          A newfound sense of dread started to fill everyone when we realized what we were up against. Only one creature could cause such brutality and still live in vacuum, and said creature was roaming about in this abandoned, sealed place waiting for new preys to come. We needed to stay alert, especially after knowing what we were up against.

          “We need to hurry,” said George as he pulled out his sword. He knew what’s at stake. “I don’t want to deal with that creature here. We’ll be at the disadvantage.”

          “Agreed,” said Sel. “The darkness and the vacuum worked against us. Do we have a plan?”

          “Stick with restoring power first,” I said. “Stay together and look at each other’s backs. I hope we can rely on your night visions.”

          Both Sel and Kilkaja nodded. Kilkaja looked rather unsure, but Sel, who seemed to notice his expression, made silent gestures that made Kilkaja smile. I guess that since the two of them were together, they learned to trust each other, along with having each other’s backs. I thought that it was the same case between me and Zarya, though it was because she was the one who healed me, and I protected her a couple of times.

          I hoped this time it was the same as before, except without risking my life too much.

          Even with all the looming unsureness and the general dread, we pressed on. This mission was too personal for me and for the Vyrnians, and I really wish to see how it went. I knew this made me sound selfish, and looking back, it was a rather selfish decision. However, I never regretted it, especially not after we found more answers in this abandoned structure.

          And then there’s the matter of the structure itself. The structure looked big on the outside, but it was apparent that the rest of the structure was underground owing to the big elevator that’s unpowered. The elevator’s shaft, which was more of a downward slope than a vertical one, gave us access to the rest of the facility. We had a couple of problems going through without power, especially if we had no way on how to open them without power. A little bit of muscle and mechanical strength helped us open most doors which, of course, did not include the hangar-like doors at the front and the door right after we traversed the elevator shaft.

          That eerie feeling that something was watching us persisted as we walked through the lower floors, which was apparently a Vyrnian surveillance facility or maybe an off-world laboratory. Was the place intended to research pre-space civilization? There were monitors all over the place along with facilities you would find in a long-term facility. This facility seemed to be much older than what it suggested. Some of the computers looked like they were holo-interfaces instead of the simple computers the Vyrnians currently used.

          Of course, it gave us a couple of questions, and also suspicions. For a 3500 years old facility, the place seemed very well-preserved. Too well-preserved, in fact. In fact, the facility on Lekan was still in a relatively good condition. The ship I was exiled with did not have the same condition, though it was due to Earth’s climate. Was it the vacuum? I was not someone that’s knowledgeable about science other than the essentials I needed for survival, so I couldn’t tell.

          I was not the only one who had this weird feeling. Astha, who, as usual, was a bit of a talker, said, “You know, I’d be amazed if we’re not feeling like we’re being stalked by something in the dark, but this place is well-preserved. I mean, it’s too well-preserved for…how long have you been in cryosleep, Arcturus?”

          “3500 years,” I said. “Why?”

          “Yeah, that long. Maybe we should find out when we got the electricity working, but tell me…have you ever heard anyone said that other than your ship’s computer? Hmm? Maybe those Vyrnians at Lekan?”

          “What are you implying?” I asked.

          “Do you think this whole thing’s kinda fishy? I have nothing against your desire to see your planet again, but clearly your planet’s not going to be sealed for 500 years without a reason, right? No, and don’t tell me that it’s because no one ever bothered going back to Lekan due to the cultist activity. You sure this isn’t just something they tell you?”

          Astha’s rather forward comment seemed to make me wonder. I only knew how long I had been exiled from my father, and I clearly never asked any clarification. I just believed that it was true because it was from my father, the only family I had known and trust. Also, if anyone ever wondered, no. Dad pretty much loved me almost too much that he came out as an overprotective dad. I never suspected anything because of that, and because I knew his love was genuine to a degree.

          Before I could even start wondering about the purpose of this mission, Sel called us towards a door saying ‘maintenance and power room’ along with the danger signs involved. We were immediately drawn to it. The room would contain a generator that we could use to power the whole place. Once we got the place working again, we could start searching for the key, which I suspected would be placed somewhere deep underground.

          Everyone knew it would not be that easy. Well, it was supposedly easy enough, but then you need to remember that this place was both abandoned and attacked by possibly Trikelians. I knew from experience that you never underestimate your enemies, especially an enemy that’s both smart and ruthless like the Trikelians. I never heard of an intelligent space-faring species ‘hijacking’ a dead body, which not only was scary, but also disrespectful.

          We could only know how to counter the Trikelians properly when we talk to the researchers on Orlonel. But until then, we had a mission to finish.

          We found the control room once we got through the power room door. The place, unlike the rest of them, had more battle damage in it, along with several desiccated Vyrnian bodies manning the controls. They seemed to be trying to either turn on the generator or turning it off, though with the present state of the place, the latter’s more likely.

          As me and Zarya started working on turning on the generator, which required a manual jumpstart due to its complete shutdown state, Astha started letting me know of his own suspicions.

          “Arcturus, are you really sure this is not some sort of trap?” said Astha.

          “I have concerns, too, but I can’t just simply suspect my father has something to do with this, right?” I said. “I know him too well to suddenly become the traitor.”

          “There is a saying among Saukaurs, Arc. Trust those whose life is short. Never trust a seasoned hunter. To make it clear, dead ones tell no tales.”

          “So, are you telling me that because he and the other Vyrnians are still alive, they might spin some stories to confuse us? That might be true, but this is my father we’re talking about. You can’t expect me to suspect him just because he asks us to do things that I also want to accomplish, right?”

          “Which is an idea that I never heard from other Vyrnians.”

          “They don’t have any memories of ever walking on Vyrn.” Of course, I started to become annoyed by Astha’s constant attempt in telling me that something was wrong, so as my patience started to wear thin, I became confrontational, and said, “Especially a Saukaur like you.”

          Astha, clearly knowing that he struck something, then said, “Oh, come on, Arc. Don’t start this.”

          “You started it first,” I said, still composed but with hint of starting to lose my cool. “Leave my planet’s problem to my people, okay? It’s not like it was once claimed by the Saukaurs, right?”

          I could not remember what others were saying, but George said to me that as I started to spew out aggressive comments, Kilkaja whispered to him and said, “George, Arcturus’s emotion’s starting to change.”

          George was the one who stopped me from saying something else. “Arcturus, focus on the job,” he said.

          “I will if he can just stop pestering me about the planet and my father,” I said.

          Of course, looking back, I was this naïve Vyrnian who became confrontational when the matter about my planet was being brought up. I had a deep-seated hatred against the cultists that caused our civilization to fall, and I blamed them for causing the sealing of Vyrn. This was my weakness. I had a tendency to follow things and expect them to work as it should.

          In truth, it was wrong, and that made me susceptible.

          Astha was a rather talkative and foul-mouthed Saukaur who would never back down if he knew he was right. However, he had a tendency of not reading the situation. If there was no mediator, he might talk and talk to strengthen his conviction, and that could end badly for the both of us. Luckily, there was someone who sensed if something was wrong, and that was Kilkaja.

          I did not know how Kilkaja did it, but every time he started sensing negative emotions, he managed to convince us to stop escalating the matter further. I almost botched the job of jumpstarting the generator as I started to become both annoyed and upset by the implications when both George and Kilkaja stepped in. George stopped me from causing errors while Kilkaja talked with Astha about understanding one’s feelings, in which Astha simply said, “Sorry” to me as he admitted that he started getting out of hand.

          I would demand a more sincere sorry if I had no doubt of what I was doing. Of course, that lingering doubt helped stop things from escalating. I was pretty much focused on jumpstarting the system, which worked.

          The generator used a fusion-type system that relied on collision of atoms to generate energy. However, before that could happen, the main system was a mechanical turbine powered by both muscle and energy conversion. Once the turbine had properly been turned, I simply used the electricity within me to start the generator up. From there, the main system would work with a simple activation from the control room.

          The whole facility suddenly came back to life, along with the holographic projections and interfaces. I felt a sense of joy of seeing the place came back to life, even if it was only in a low power consumption mode. Given that we had no need to stay in this facility for long, we did not need to turn things up to the maximum, especially since we still had the pre-space planet nearby that might see something on Ijuri.

          We walked out of the power room and turn to find a nearby computer where we could access the system and possibly the place where the key would be located. Of course, Astha’s suspicions and our own sense that something was wrong proved correct when George noticed a looping projection of a Vyrnian nearby. I quickly determined that a reset was necessary, so I turned off the projection and turned it back on.

          It then revealed something very, very disturbing.

          “To whoever watching this, I really hope you are a Vyrnian,” said the projected Vyrnian. “We made a mistake. The Planet’s Fall protocol only trapped their main army. The leaders are still out there. This is a warning for you. Do not trust anyone who asks for the key. I repeat. Do not trust anyone who asks for the key. We have killed anyone who asks for it, including our former comrades. If you’re one of them…well, you’re out of luck. We destroyed it the moment we knew we only trapped the main army. We have sacrificed the home planet to fight back, and we’ll continue to fight, even if we will never see our home again. It’s a sacrifice we make, even if it’s only temporary.

          “Go home to where you belong. Your perversion of our history ends here.”

          The recording stopped.

          We were quickly dumbfounded by this fact, especially me. Did they just tell us that they have got rid of the key for good? Did we come here for nothing? Of course, all those were within the context of them sacrificing Vyrn to lock something in, but I refused to accept that my planet was no longer mine.

          “Why did they do that?” I said, still not seeing the big picture. “Didn’t they know that some of them are trying to go back home, too?”

          “I think they know what they’re doing,” said Astha. “And clearly, this is a setup. They are sending us here so that we’re far from them.”

          “No, no, this is wrong. My father can’t be the enemy. Why would he…”

          Then it came to me why my father told me what he said to me before. “Trust your friends and no one else.” He never said ‘family’. It was a code saying that he was already compromised. But why would he say that if he was trying to manipulate us to stay as far away from Lekan as possible?

          I had no time to ponder that fact, especially when Kilkaja’s yelp turned our attention to him again. He was already walking away from a nearby corpse as he pointed at it and said, “That body…it just moves.”

          The shakiness in his voice was very apparent. I felt that it wasn’t him imagining things, because while Kilkaja was rather sensitive with the things around him, he wasn’t the kind of person to be a coward who’d panic easily.

          Of course, I’d prefer that he was just imagining things, because right after he said that, the body near us, a Vyrnian that had suffered a nasty head wound, slowly moved. It moved with a jerky, non-Vyrnian fashion, which added to the creepiness of the situation and also the alertness we needed to get going.

          I turned around, but then found another corpse walking slowly towards us. We soon found ourselves being cornered as one of them taunted us.

          “There is no escape,” said one of them with a hoarse voice. “Your bodies belong to the Trikelians.”

          “Our bodies don’t belong to no one, creep,” said Astha as he pointed his wrist-mounted gauntlet gun. It let out an energy blast that hit one of them square in the head. However, it could only stop the Vyrnian temporarily.

          However, it was enough for Astha to quickly dash towards the Vyrnian and pull out his sword. With a swift movement, he cut the Vyrnian’s head. Without losing a breath, he said, “Come on! Let’s get out of here!”

          The rest of us quickly followed, but it was harder for me and Zarya, who were of the same size with them while the rest were smaller. We were unable to get away, at least until George shot one of them in the leg and told us to get away now. Zarya ran towards the rest of them while I followed closely behind with George climbing onto my back. However, we were just slightly slower and were quickly routed by some of them. They quickly surrounded the two of us as I looked at the rest of them walking slowly towards the rest. They were trying to open the big elevator door, which opened rather slowly. I wanted to help, but there were too many of these Trikelian-controlled corpses, not to mention how coordinated they were. This was not some ‘undead horror’ situation. The Trikelians were not mindless corpses. They used the corpses to attack us.

          To a limit, of course. Despite their control, the bodies had limitations and it clearly showed when one tried to attack us. I dodged it and it hit the desk. I heard bones cracking and as it rose up, I saw the face. Oh, by Amarta’s grace, it was so horrifying. The lower jaws were clearly falling off.

          The whole horror situation almost demoralized me. I had seen a dead Vyrnian with a varying degree of mutilation but seeing one looming towards you with that damage took a whole new level of danger and terror. Still, it wasn’t enough to make me give up, especially with George around.

          George used his energy rifle sword a lot, especially in this situation where he basically shot them repeatedly. Of course, it had no effect, and he had no idea where to shoot. Given that he was the one who solved the situation in Orlonel, he must’ve known where to attack, but from what he was doing, it was clear he did not.

          But then, he had the right idea. Unlike me, George was still rather composed. He then shouted, “Use your electricity, Arc! Fry them!”

          George had the right idea, but even he clearly did not know that the Trikelians would not be that easily defeated with a simple electric shock. In fact, the shock only damaged the corpse enough for the Trikelian within to get out. We clearly did not know that they could move fast, because once George tried shooting it, it just dodged and tried to latch onto me like an octopus. I swatted it off, of course, and in the process opened the door behind us.

          Realizing that this was a fight we could not win, I simply told George to run. He quickly dashed towards the door as I held back the corpses. I could hear someone screaming my name as the door closed. It was familiar. Possibly Zarya. I did not know. All I was thinking about back then was to get the hell away from the danger and find a way to get out.

          It was clear that we did not know where to look, especially after we went through the door and into another corridor. No one bothered to download the facility’s map to any of our Pathfinder devices, which made me wonder whether the Vyrnians on Lekan were really trying to kill us. I mean, it was already obvious by this point, but I still had my doubts and a possibility that dad was not in it like the others and was trying to get out too.

          I really wished I saw this earlier. I was being manipulated because I did not know anything. I was assuming that my dad and those on Lekan did not know about it either, but then…I wasn’t sure who to trust anymore, not after this betrayal from the one Vyrnian who was closest to me. That was enough to make me unresponsive and even contemplating what did go wrong.

          Except I had no privilege to do so, especially if you had someone who kept everything strong. George Atmell was that someone. He did not need inspirational words, only actions.

          As I started to contemplate why my father was doing this, George pulled my tail and said, “We can think about it later. For now, our lives are more important.”

          I looked at him as I slowly knew that he was right. If I die, I would not get the answers I wanted. With that in mind, I nodded and looked around to see if we could get out using this alternate route. Before that, however, I opened my pathfinder device and try to contact the others.

          “Damn,” I said as I saw the no signal sign on the pathfinder’s screen. “No luck.”

          This is the problem if you claim to be in your home turf. The good thing is, you know what to do and even guide others to go with you. The bad thing is, you’re on the same level of technology that jamming a more sophisticated pathfinder device like mine would be possible. Of course, that wasn’t going to be a problem, especially if you focus on the good thing.

          Exploring the facility seemed to remind me of home. The facility was from the same era, so I knew what to expect and how to operate stuffs here. That was useful if you really needed to find your way out fast and in unknown, but familiar, territory. And to level things out, I quickly suggested what a former officer would do.

          “We need to find weapons,” I said to George. “Getting out of here is one thing. Defending ourselves is another.”

          “I thought your energy conversion ability is your weapon,” he said.

          “We’re fighting Trikelian-controlled Vyrnian corpses. The lethality of my ability depends on how many I would use. It would not kill a Vyrnian that easily, and frying them, as you say, expended all reserves in my body.”

          “So, not a very good weapon, then?”

          “Yeah.” I sighed. “I really wish I have my Draconis with me.”

          “Draconis?”

          “A weapon I’d really like to have right now. Especially since—"

          I quickly reeled back as I saw a corpse. However, after staring at it for a while, I sighed. It’s just a normal dead Vyrnian.

          “Since we’re in a very dire situation right now,” I continued.

          “Well, whatever it is, I hope it gives us a way out of here,” said George. “As for now, we are both separated and lost.”

          Not actually lost, given that I was trying to go to the weapon’s locker, or maybe an armory. I quickly assessed where we were based on the rooms. We were in the living area of the facility, which was always near the main working space. Some of the living area was, of course, designated for security, in which I quickly found.

          After a couple of turns, we quickly found the armory. Unfortunately, the place was already taken over by the Trikelians, with one of them clearly standing guard while the rest was taking the rifles within. It was already dangerous being surrounded by reanimated corpses controlled by an intelligent, ruthless species. It was even more dangerous that the same reanimated corpses were armed.

          Knowing that we had practically no chance to fight against them, I decided to resort to stealth and get out without attracting too much attention. I could use my black scales to blend in the dark while George, being smaller in stature to Vyrnians, could follow me easily.

          Luck was still by our side, however, as we moved into a room apparently used by a Vyrnian a long time ago. It was not a dead end, given that it had more than one entry point and we could get out through the second floor’s door, which led to a stairway we could use to get out without the elevator. While I knew that place would be swarming with the Trikelians and we had no weapons other than George’s rifle sword, I wasn’t talking about that. I was talking about the very weapon I was trying to find: the Draconis.

          It was apparently on the display, but due to the electricity failing, the magnet holding it up was turned off and it crashed onto the wardrobe below it. The wardrobe and the Draconis was not damaged, which was a relief. I quickly walked towards it and examined it.

          “1557 championship,” I said as I looked at the rod. “That’s 20 years before my time.”

          “What did you find?” said George.

          “A Draconis with a history,” I said with a smile on my face.

          “So, you’re telling me that the Draconis is a glaive?” said George.

          The Draconis was, as he said a glaive-type weapon, but with a couple of tricks up its sleeve, especially if it used as intended and not as a martial arts weapon. It’s a weapon that combined technology and skill. While the technology part was obviously forbidden during a tournament, the skill part made it a deadly weapon if used by the right Vyrnian.

          And that Vyrnian was me.

          “At least now we have an edge against them,” I said as a twirl the Draconis like it’s a toy. “I really miss the one I use, but you can’t be choosers in matters of life and death, I suppose.”

          “That depends on what the glaive can do,” said George. “I have been fascinated by space and the fact that space wyverns exist. Of course, I am always surprised by new things, especially knowing that a wyvern can use common race’s weapon like a pro.”

          “Then prepare to be amazed,” I said to George. Oh, yeah, he would be amazed, alright, especially now that I remembered what his weird weapon was capable of.

          The Draconis was quite low-tech, but it was so that anyone could use the weapon, provided they also had another requirement fulfilled. The true use of the Draconis rested on one very crucial skill that made it a handy and deadly weapon, and that skill was the skill of energy conversion.

          A simple flow of electric conversion from my body to the Draconis was enough to power it up. Once it was filled with electricity from my body, it lighted up as it let out crackles of electricity in tandem with the conversion element I was trained for. It slowly changed its shape to resemble a different kind of weapon. Such was the true capability of a Draconis.

          So, in a sense, this was a trick weapon, designed to confuse the opponent and also to give an edge. It was similar to what George had, except that his ability was bound to Earth’s mana particles, while mine’s from a reserve within my body.

          Now, he and I were the same. We were both mages of different methods.