When Alia wakes in the Dōjō, she feels different. She feels groggy and even lifting her eyelids is a labor. Luckily, she has been sitting in a big, padded chair that the Kazi designed for marathon mediation. Her arms rest heavily on the pillows tied to the wooden arms of the chair and she fears that the weight of her own body will crush the wooden chair underneath her. The pillows between her and the seat of the chair don’t feel too depressed, though, she can’t feel the wood underneath. Her perception of her body and its mass is warped by the nearly four months RET of lethargy and the loss of half of the energies that normally comprised her spirit and animated her body. Her physical body feels as though it is twice it’s normal mass and it is alarming for her. She fears paralysis, but when she focuses on a toe or finger, she can eventually summon the strength to move it.
“Alia?” she hears someone ask.
The view through her eyes is blurry, like when she lost access to the Aje and all of the information that allowed her to simulate perfect vision in her present. She sees a figure moving in the space in front of her, and she strains her eyes with effort as the view of a furry face comes into slow focus. She sees black eyes staring with concern. She recognizes the brown of the fur when the red tone of it is apparent. It’s Kazi Fandral but she can’t say his name.
“Rest,” she hears him say softly. “You are not your whole self. You found the road, didn’t you? I knew you would. Rest now. I will help you get used to your new experience so you can tell me all about what you have seen. Don’t strain yourself. Just learn your limits and then rest. It will get easier the longer you try. Close your eyes now.”
“She hasn’t moved in a long time,” Kazi Quail says with worry in his voice.
He and Kazi Fandral watch Alia with her eyes half open. She has been in the process of blinking for hours now and she hasn’t been able to sit up since she awoke.
“Have you ever witnessed half a spirit animate a body?” Fandral asks. “I have seen it, and she is further along than I thought she would be by now. She should be on her feet in a few cycles.”
“This is all so unbelievable,” Quail says, shaking his head slowly in disbelief as he stares at Alia. “I can sense that she is enlightened, she feels stronger than when she first sat there, but to see her like she is now, I can’t believe the Alia is so powerless.”
“She is never powerless,” Fandral says. “Not while I breathe. I wonder why she split her spirit energies. I am so eager to speak with her.”
“You can’t converse on the Dreamscape?”
“No,” Fandral says sadly. “The part of her that is there is far away now and harder to find. This part of her would snap back to the other half if she were to try and access the Dreamscape.”
“What about the other Earthling, Darker?” Quail asks. “He hasn’t woken up? He must have found her on the Dreamscape.”
Fandral smiles. He was glad that Alia had some company and the man Darker was very adamant about returning to the Ife-Osu, which he’d experienced before being resurrected to life from death.
“Well,” Quail says and sighs with something like relief. “This is going as well as can be expected, I presume. Keep up your work. I have a meeting with Lograt. Word from the Banned Regions is not great. The IP’s troublesome war games have concluded, but the soldier Whadgaf has yet to return from Wiis. Lograt says that the IP will move to occupy the Fhetat any day now and the casualties from that will be horrendous. The Fhetatians are as savage as they are proud. I didn’t realize the IP had the resources to occupy anything, but the Representatives from Wiis is determined to bring order to the universe.”
“The IP is seriously moving to civilize the Fhetat?” Fandral asks. “The universe is truly on the verge of darkness.” He looks to Alia. “She must succeed in her mission or we will all be occupied by the IP before long.”
After about a few days, Alia is back to what appears to be her normal self. She and Fandral have an impressive sparring session where she demonstrates full command of her faculties and when they are done, they are surprised at the applause that erupts. A crowd had gathered as the two threw punches at one another while they both floated above the red plateau, and everyone was happy to see Alia as strong as she had been.
“Alright,” Quail says waving his hands. “That is enough, everyone back to your business. The Alia is not training for your entertainment.”
He stood before her and smiled up at her.
“You look very healthy.”
“I’m not a hundred percent, but I have work to do and I need to do it.”
Quail nods at her.
“Fandral told me about your experience. Will you be leaving soon?”
“As soon as Fandral will let me,” Alia says looking back at him. “I trust him, and we have a long way to go.”
“How does it feel to make two journeys simultaneously?” Quail asks with wonder in his beady eyes. “What is the Rainbow Road like?”
Alia shrugs, “It’s aptly named, I guess, but I’m not there exactly, I’m here. I can’t see in real time what is happening there, I can only remember it. It’s like moving through light and all the colors of that spectrum. Sorry I can’t explain more, it’s just a lot to try to juggle two consciousnesses. I’m doing good to be moving around here like I am.”
They followed Quail inside the Dōjō and they had a meal together. When they were done, Alia went to her private room to prepare for her trip.
Meanwhile, at the gate to the Rainbow Road…
Alia felt lighter with only half of herself in the Dreamscape. It doesn’t feel like an impediment, though Darker and Nebuchad seem to be concerned.
“You look like a ghost,” Nebuchad says.
“Well, that’s the last thing you should be worried about,” Alia says. “When we go through that gate, we’re not coming back out. So I can’t help you Nebuchad. You can’t come with us, you’ll never get back to yourself.”
Nebuchad looks at Darker and then at the being who called themself SoEl.
“Is he going too? Can he help me get back?”
“I do not understand your predicament,” SoEl says and approaches Nebuchad.
“He’s stuck here,” Alia explains. “He doesn’t know how he got here so leaving is hard.”
SoEl extends his furry arm toward Nebuchad who is frightened and looks to Alia. She smiles at him and he relaxes. When SoEl touches his forehead, he feels the energies of his form sucked back, like he is falling or flying at an incredible speed. He closes his eyes and waits for the feeling to stop, and when he opens them again, he feels his body for the first time in a long time and he is on all fours in what appears to be a hospital room.
PRL Serials 