Scout’s face transformed, a smile taking over the pout he’d been sporting. “Yes!”

Tiffany sat stiff in her seat, shoulders hunched, eyes wide. She slowly turned her head towards her parents. “Mom, Dad, would it be okay if I went with Scout and Ms. Doeth to watch Horax?” For a moment Viera thought she’d say more, but then she bit her lip and trembled slightly, as if scared of what her parents might say or do.

Upper lip twitching, Kelpweaver, Tiffany’s mom, glared first at Viera and then at Betsy. “If that’s what you really want, dear, but make sure you feel safe. Return to the rooms as soon as it becomes too much.”

Viera’s body tensed. As soon, not if. Her mom passed judgment without letting Tiffany enjoy the experience.

Betsy placed a hand on Viera’s arm but gazed back at Tiffany’s mom. “Be assured, Kelpweaver, if Tiffany wants to return to your rooms, I’ll personally escort her. She’ll never be alone.”

***

After the meal, Viera headed back to the rooms she shared with Thorn and Scout. As fun as it was to watch the training fields, she knew she had to practice her own magic. If she were younger, the slow mastery of her art would be fine, but she had adult responsibilities. She’d just become one of the Pillars of Earth, and there were only six. With so few, she needed to know how to harness the power coursing through her body before the different proficiencies played havoc on their own.

In the suite, she went to her bags and found the blue ball from her lessons on the ship. Her first goal of the morning was to be able to stop and reverse time. She felt like she was some sort of kraken with tentacles of magic waving out of her. If she didn’t start to control them, she feared the consequences. Weird pockets of time doing their own things around her, while sensing overwhelmed her.

Mostly, she knew that couldn’t happen, but on some level it was a fear. She’d seen movies with bubbles of time popping all around the main character and she really didn’t want that happening to her.

Not wanting to run into other people, she decided to practice in the guest room the suite provided. She walked towards the empty room. When she opened the door, Fezzik darted in, flying above her. With a sigh, she shook her head and decided not to fight the young ven. She didn’t want a hoard of flying creatures, so shut the door before any more of the rascals could fly or dash in.

Viera sat on the bed and the ven perched on her shoulder. Well, at least he isn’t on my head this time.

Her plan was to throw the ball against the wall and as it flew back, stop it and reverse time until it touched the wall again. Hopefully she could isolate her power to just the ball and not everything in the room.

With a calming breath, Viera focused deep within herself to find her central well of magic. Once she felt she’d found it, she tossed the ball at the wall opposite her. After it bounced, she bent the time around the ball to make the ball stop. To her surprise, it did. The rock on her shoulder told her the ven sat frozen as well.

“Fuck.” Both her hands faced the ball. She flicked her hands outward and released her spell. The ball flew towards her, and she caught it.

On her shoulder, the ven wiggled. “I know, my friend, not quite what we wanted. We’ll have to try something else.” She reached up to scratch the soft moth-like creature, who immediately began to make purring sounds of contentment.

Viera shut her eyes, imagining what she wanted: the time around the ball to stop so that she could reverse it, meanwhile the time around the rest of the room to remain in motion. After one more meditative breath she raised her arm. Fezzik, his annoyance at all her motions seeping into her mind like a buzz of white noise, leapt to the air and hovered above her. She shot a glance at him before lifting her arm to toss the ball.

Fezzik dipped and flew in a circle as the ball flew, hit the wall, and bounced. His butt wagged in anticipation. Hands out towards the ball, Viera released some of her magic, and … everything froze. She gazed at the ball and the ven both frozen in the air and sighed. With a frustrated wave of her hands, she released the magic and caught the ball, thinking back on everything that had happened, wondering if there was anything she could’ve done differently, better.

Fezzik happily flew and chased his tail. Viera snorted, relaxing as she watched him. I wonder what he’d do if we got him a string skirt? He’d be chasing the tassels attached to him for weeks. We’d have to make a video. I wonder if the alien world has an equivalent of a silly home video show?

Viera shook her head and tossed the ball. As it hit the wall, she focused with both hands out, palms towards the ball. She pushed a bit of magic out as she beat both hands forward as if giving someone a high ten. As before, the ball stopped. Freezing time was becoming easier for her.

A sound above her made her body quiver with hope. Slowly staring up, she realized Fezzik still spun above her. “Fezzik! I did it. The ball is frozen and you’re not.”

She wanted to dance, but knew she’d only done half the drill. I don’t even know if I can repeat what I’ve done.

Shaking out her hands, she dug deeper into her memory of Tiffany being burnt by her coffee. What she’d felt, her fear and her need for that moment not to happen. I need to undo the thing.

Trying to relax into her magic, Viera pushed out a bit of her will.

She watched, slack-jawed, as the ball flew back towards the wall, exactly how she’d hoped it would, flying back in time. I did it! Oh, my God above, I actually did it! I can’t believe I stopped the ball in time and reversed it!

As her eyes widened in shock and pleasure, her joy morphed to horror as the ball hit the far wall, splatting with a sickly sound, looking like it melted into the wall. Viera gulped, disgusted with what she saw. “What the actual fuck did I do?”

Even the ven seemed to vibrate with questions as Viera leapt up to investigate her failure. The ball slid slowly down the wall, deformed. When Viera brought her hand close to it, she felt heat radiating from it. Fuck, I must’ve doubled up my magical push. I need to get a new ball, and food. I'm feeling dizzy as well as defeated.

Disappointed, Viera walked out to the main area and ordered up a bowl of mac and cheese and another ball—green, ten inches in diameter. Then, after some consideration, she asked for a glass of red wine.

She considered feeding the ven, but knew they were on a strict diet. Scout and Thorn knew all the details.

Once she’d eaten and finished her wine, she headed back to the room. As before, Fezzik followed her.

Fezzik flew around. Stopping the ball in time felt easier. This time, she only used one hand—two felt like overkill. She knew what she needed to do; it was a skill she felt was in her bag of tricks. Clearing her mind, she focused on moving the ball back in time without heating it up. Just before she reversed time, Fezzik dropped down to play with the ball. Both he and the ball flew in different directions, being dragged back in their own timelines.

Her heart dropped as she watched the ven, making sure the spell hadn’t heated him or harmed him in any way. A small manic laugh echoed the relief she felt when he squawked and flew towards her.

His reaction made sense as the ball slammed into her head. Viera fell back on the bed, laughing. She felt both happy with her success, and glad to be done. She followed Fezzik as he chased the ball. I think I can do a lot more of this stressful level magic if I have a ven helping me out!

Chapter 14 - I Need A Vacation From My Vacation!

Thorn

“Major Shifts, please update us on Abritos.” Thorn thought the Major, her leader in this quadrant, looked tired. Had he slept much since she spoke to him last?

Thorn sat at a table in a conference room in one of the lower levels of Torville Station Number Six. The previous day, she’d found Viera in the guest room asleep, a silly ven on her hip, a melted bouncy ball smeared on the wall. She wasn’t sure what had happened, but she hoped the training session had ended successfully.

She knew her lover would spend time fine-tuning that time spell again today. She insisted Viera have a pile of food with her. In the conference room today, Thorn was joined by the Major, Flower Prancer, and Betsy. Yesterday, Thorn had sat and reviewed reports from all of the satellite leaders on their plans to bring the chanzii back home to Abritos. Today, she needed to figure out when their plan would be ready for fruition.

Both Flower Prancer and Betsy wanted to join in on this meeting for their own reasons. Flower Prancer because he had been the Elder representative who agreed that the Elders would stick their collective noses into other races’ business. Betsy, because she was interested in staying on top of what the damn bugs were doing. The Earth Pillar was nervous about her own planet.

So far there wasn’t any indication that the krottel were heading to Earth, but any information on those creatures was important.

Major Shift rubbed the back of his neck, his dark purple hair shifting over the back of his hand. “That’s just the thing, Commander Firoza. Like I told you before, I don’t think there are any of the krottel on Abritos. We’ve waited for you to get here, but we think they’ve already evacuated.”

Flower Prancer’s head snapped first to the Major and then to Thorn. “Commander Firoza? Is this true? And you haven’t told me?”

She grumbled low. “Elder, I didn’t have any facts. Until I knew one way or another, I didn’t feel comfortable bringing anything to your attention.”

His violet eyes narrowed. “And what is your plan, Commander Firoza?”

She sighed, unhappy with him dominating the meeting. “If you don’t mind, Elder Flower Prancer, that is the point of this meeting. To discuss and decide our next move. Please give us a few minutes and you’ll learn our decisions as we make them.”

His tail swished with his annoyance. “Very well.”

Thorn worked to not let her smirk show. “Major, how many ships do we have monitoring the planet?”

He consulted a digital pad, tapping it a few times. “We have six ships in and around the planet and its three moons. But we have more nearby, if we need them. Two have been more active in monitoring the krottel retreat.”

Betsy’s head tilted. “They didn’t notice when the planet had emptied of the bugs or when all the krottel ships had left?”

Major Shift’s hand continued to tap on the digital pad. “Well, that’s the thing. There are still a few of their ships on the ground. The last ship left only a few days ago. The threshold for evacuation hasn’t been met. We only checked our sensors because of the bug found on Earth.”

“Ah,” Betsy said, nodding. “That makes sense. But since the one bug was so hard to find, I’m assuming you need to do a closer inspection of Abritos?”