Chapter Twenty One — Part 2

After the battle, all the energy I had been using circled back into the wand, and with the exception of my presence, nothingness was restored to Zerospace. Where it had been frightening before, the blackness now felt more like a friend. But nothing, not even an absence of pressure and gravity, could get rid of the pain that tormented me, the pain of crushed skin and muscle and bone.

Drained and weak, aching everywhere, I closed my eyes for what felt like an eternity. When I opened them, I was still in Zerospace, still in pain. My heart pounded in my chest, aching. I looked around for the longest time, wondering where the door was.

There wasn’t much to say about Zerospace. I ached more now that the fight was over, and that was compounded by an absence of imagery and sensory information. I could get into and out of Realspace and Otherspace, and even the mixture of the two. But I had never been in Zerospace, and I had no idea how to leave.

“Father, Mother.” I whispered.

The silence of Zerospace was complete. The sound would carry forever. I wondered how fast sound traveled in a plane with properties like Zerospace.

The answer rung through my head. “I am here.”

“I want to go home.” I said, coughing. “If I don’t leave soon, I think I’m going to die.”

“I’m working on it now. I won’t let you die.” Where normally Tester’s voice was harsh and scolding, now she was loving and compassionate. “There are but a few resultant forces to balance before you can go home.”

“I’m scared, mama.” I said, trying not to cry.

“Don’t be. You’re in the very womb of creation, at the point where everything, including you, first came to being. You are in the infinite present. You are in the dream of God. We’ll always love you, child.”

I closed my eyes, trying to ignore the pain. When I opened them, I was with friends. I fell forward, gravity reminding me of my injuries.

Eohl looked down at me, obviously unsure as to how to handle an injured angel. “Can you turn into a human? We have to leave.”

I tried to shift, but it was a total failure. I fell forward, and managed to gasp. “No.”

“She goes nowhere.” Reed said.

Eohl looked defiantly at him, ready to fight the whole colony to see to my safety.

Reed calmed him with a gentle posture and soothing words. “If you try to move her now, you’ll kill her. We’ll take care of her. We are friends. You can help by staying out of my way.” He stopped whistling and his Scandivats worked around me, moving rubble away.

Several Hunters, working with hundreds of different organic tools and creatures, built a soft bed under me without moving me from the Central’s chamber. Somebody put a blanket over me, and in the warmth of it, I fell into a healing sleep.

For a while I thought maybe I was still trapped in Zerospace and that I had dreamed my return. I had slept so hard that it required a great effort just to pry open my eyelids. When I did, I was still with friends. Still an angel, still too weak to change my form, I didn’t try to move anything, because everything hurt.

Eohl sat next to me, working on something thin and wiry. “Eohl. What are you doing?” I wondered, half awake.

“Your crown got trashed in the fight. I’m making you a new one. I’ll be done soon.” My arm was in a sling, and I knew that my wing was bandaged to my body. “Reed woke you up because there are some people here who need your advice.”

I looked around, my balance lagging behind my sight. King Lotus and another of several delegates stood over my bed. “The Scandivat have surrendered to us, what should we do with them? If you tell us what to do, your friends will listen to you.”

I stared at King Lotus in disbelief. “Take them home and help them fix their world. Is that all?”

The King looked behind him, but I couldn’t see that far. “See, we should show mercy.” He looked back at me. “Don’t worry, dear, I’ll see to it your orders are carried out. Will we have to deal with Wastik again?”

“Not in this lifetime.”

He left me, and I slowly moved my head back to focus on Eohl. “I think I’ll go back to sleep now.”

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