Moonlark Madness: Unwelcome Reminders

“Well, I haven’t told you lots of things,” Luna said evasively, “and I’m sure you have many secrets yourself.”

“You don’t know what a nexus is,” Tam said quietly, counting on his fingers, “you were confused by the term light leaping, and you never remembered that you needed a crystal, which you would’ve thought of if you actually needed it.”

Luna could’ve kicked herself. Stupid, stupid stupid.

“Okay. Fine. I don’t know what this is,” she raised her wrist and pointed at the bracelet, “and I’ve never needed light leaping or crystals since…” she trailed off.

“Since?” Tam prompted.

“Well, since the Forkles kicked me out, I guess. I’ve just Teleported around since then.”

Tam went quiet. “‘Forkles’… Kicked you out?”

“Well… they put me up for adoption,” she amended sourly.

“So you grew up with the Black Swan, then?”

Luna made a face. “Not really. Only until I was, what, four? And I didn’t exactly get out much.”

“Luna… are you a Moonlark?”

“Was. Am. I don’t like the Black Swan, but I guess I am ‘theirs’, in a way. Why do you ask?”

Tam swept his bangs out of his eyes, which was actually… really cute. “Well, it would explain some things about…” he didn’t finish.

“My eyes? My personality? My… anti-sociality?” Luna raised an eyebrow.

A smile tugged at the corners of Tam’s mouth. “Only the eyes. The rest is just… you.”

Luna shrugged. “I guess. I’m also a Polyglot.”

Tam nodded, thinking. “Are you a Telepath?”

“Yeah, but I don’t have to use it much,” Luna confirmed. “I used to practice with the twins, but it was only for about a year or so…”

“You manifested when you were three?” Tam asked, surprised.

Luna shrugged. “Doesn’t everybody?”

“Um… no?” Tam raised his eyebrows. “You really have a lot to learn, don’t you?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “That was rude. But yeah, I guess I do,” she picked at her tunic, uncomfortable. “ And you can start by explaining to me what a nexus is.”

“Ah, right,” Tam laughed. “The sleep inducer. Well, first of all, it’s not really what I said it was. That was a test. Really, it holds together all your cells while you’re light leaping. Otherwise, you could… die.”

“Oh.” Luna’s voice was small. In the past, she’d thought about removing the bracelet, but always decided against it for some reason.

“I could’ve died,” she said quietly. “Cool.”

Tam snorted. “Weird reaction, but alright.” From there he explained how elves and light leaping worked, and then he got a mischievous look in his eyes.

“I need to teach you something,” he said. He lifted his hand up, so his palm was facing her. “This means, ‘I want a high five’.” He demonstrated by slapping his hand. “It’s usually to congratulate someone—or it can be used as a greeting. This is a fist bump,” he curled his hands into fists and made them bump against each other. Pretty self-explanatory. “Also to congratulate someone. And this,” he held out his hand the way he’d done it when he’d introduced himself, “this is for a handshake.” He grabbed her hand and shook it. Again, pretty basic. “That’s sort of like saying ‘Nice to meet you!’ And… this is a hug.” He hesitated for a moment before wrapping his arms around her in a quick embrace.

Luna let him, but she’d already known what a hug was. The gnomes she’d lived with before the village was attacked often showed affection that way. She actually really enjoyed hugs, and since she hadn’t had one in a while, she relished the moment.

“I knew what a hug was,” Luna said once Tam pulled away.

“Oh, uh, um—look! We’re at the top!” He pointed up and Luna was able to see the bubble break through the surface. “On the count of three, we levitate to the cliff. Ready? One—”

“Levitate?” Luna asked. “I don’t know that one.”

“You know, like, float,” Tam explained. He raised himself into the air a little. “You can do it—all elves can.”

Luna was uncertain, but she didn’t have much of a choice. She reached for Tam’s hand and shut her eyes, focusing on the idea of flight.

“Two… three.” Tam squeezed her hand and they lifted off the water just as the bubble popped, shooting up, up, up onto the cliff.

“We did it!” Luna exclaimed. Tam smiled sheepishly at the ground. “You did it,” she observed, deflating a little.

“Yeah, that was me,” Tam confirmed apologetically. “But I’m sure you’ll be levitating in no time.”

“Indeed she will,” A voice said from behind them. Luna didn’t have to turn around to place it; that voice had been the source of some terrifying nightmares a while ago. “Luna.”

“Mr Forkle,” she said flatly as she turned around. The pudgy, stinky ‘old man’ looked sad and happy all at once, but Luna felt a cold rage. “Checking up on me? What a nice surprise after, what, ten years? Eleven?” She took a small step back towards the cliff’s edge—just in case she wanted to make a quick escape.

“Luna, I apologize from the bottom of my heart. I would’ve come looking for you earlier, but—we thought you were dead,” Mr. Forkle’s voice cracked and Luna rolled her eyes. “Wiped out with the gnome village,” he explained. “I wanted to take you back, Luna, I swear—but we had created something too powerful and we were scared of what it might become—”

“So I’m an ‘it’, now?” Luna asked evenly. “A DNA strand under a microscope—is that it? Something you can throw away if you make a mistake?”

Mr Forkle closed his eyes and let out a breath. “You were my brother’s doing, Luna.”

“Sure, blame it on a dead guy,” she said bitterly.

Tam gave her a startled look.

“We had created Sophie’s embryo and planted it into a human,” Mr Forkle continued, unfazed, “but we started to worry. What if something went wrong? What if she was never able to manifest due to the poor air and food qualities of the human world? Little things,” he explained. “So we made you and kept Sophie as backup, but because we trained you as soon as you manifested as a Telepath, your mind found the crack in your mental barrier and… fixed it. We tried everything we could think of, but you couldn’t be fixed. So we gave you to Calla and told her to find you a safe home.”

“So once you realized you couldn’t control me, you decided to get rid of the problem?”

“We could never control you,” Mr Forkle laughed sadly. “You were always very stubborn, just like your sister.”

“Wait,” Tam looked between the two elves. “Her and Sophie are… sisters?”

“Yes,” Luna sighed. “And I heard all about her when I was living with him,” she pointed a finger at the ‘old man’. “His brother was off in the Forbidden Cities, but he used to transmit to us all the time with updates. That is, until he couldn’t reach me anymore.”

“But… Sophie and Fitz got in…” Tam looked a little confused now.

“They did?” Mr Forkle’s eyebrows shot up.

Luna rolled her eyes. “I pulled them in, you idiots. And they only saw what I wanted them to see.”

“You can do that?” Mr Forkle was amazed. “Try pulling me in.”

Luna felt a prick in her mental barrier. She could easily ignore it, but instead she reached for it and… shoved it out.

“No.”

“Perhaps I should’ve expected that,” Mr Forkle sighed as he rubbed his temples. “How’s your Telepathy coming along? And your Teleporting? And have you… have you manifested as anything else?”

“They’re fine. And I’m a Polyglot. I found that out when the gnomes adopted me. I can also do this.” Luna concentrated on her cells and pulled them apart. She stuck her hand through Tam’s chest, waved it around, and pulled it out again. “I don’t know what it’s called, though.”

“Phaser…” Mr Forkle breathed. “Incredible.”

“If I can add something,” Tam started. They turned to look at him. “She’s also an Enhancer. Every time she held my hand, I was able to see people’s shadowvapor without even trying.”

Mr Forkle raised an eyebrow at Tam, and his cheeks flushed. “Is there something you would like to tell us, Mr Song?”

“What’s that?” Luna interrupted, saving Tam without knowing. “Enhancing?”

“It means you can make someone else’s power stronger by touching their hand,” Mr Forkle explained. “You ‘enhance’ them. Sophie can do the same thing.”

“Oh. So I’m basically Sophie, but with a different eye color?” Luna asked wryly.

“And an extra ability,” Mr Forkle added with a sad smile. “My brother thought Phasing would be useful, but we’d already planted Sophie’s embryo. And you should also be an Inflictor, but maybe you haven’t manifested yet.”

“Interesting…” Luna mulled over this information in her head.

“Luna, I wanted to apologize again,” Mr Forkle said quietly. “I’m very, very sorry. I understand that I may not be your favorite person right now, but you’re very precious to me. You’re the last thing left of my brother… You can’t blame me for wanting to see you.”

“You… you abandoned me,” Luna reminded him. “You realize that’s a big barrier between us, right?”

Mr Forkle hung his head. “Yes. And I don’t expect you to forgive me right away, but at least let me make it up to you.”

Luna crossed her arms and let a moment of silence pass between them before saying, “I’m listening.”

“Well, I wanted to offer you a chance at a normal life,” Mr Forkle ran a hand through his hair. “You’ll still be different, of course, but you’d get to go to a school and train and make friends and… and have a family.” He looked at her and a secret hope made his eyes gleam.

“My last family didn’t exactly ‘work out’, so…” Luna let her eyes wander around as if she were considering the offer. “I’m gonna say… no.”

Mr Forkle rung his hands until his knuckles turned white. “It won’t happen again, Luna. And I didn’t mean me. As it turns out, I know two elves who’d love to have you…”