Page 56 of Abalim

In the background, the prone Krystalii shimmered, casting a haunting glow as she and Abalim stood at a painful crossroads. The weight of their impossible division slid an impenetrable wedge between them.

Abalim jerked when a painful pinch pierced his neck. “Ow!” he exclaimed, slapping his hand over the offended area.

“So sorry, Mister Abalim, sir.” The tinny voice of JR15 stated. “But you’ve been in a trance for quite a while now. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

He blinked and took in his surroundings. He and Lisa were still in the cave with the prone Krystalii on the rock slab. Lisa was immobile in his arms while the Xeltrian Rerqel stood at the head of the table with his hands clasped in front of him.

Ablalim narrowed his eyes. He knew a Dreamwalk when he experienced one. “Why did you do that?” He directed the question to the willowy alien. Obviously, the alien hadn’t gone anywhere.

“We wanted to see how you and your female experienced life-altering decisions.” His shoulders twisted back-and-forth.

Abalim got the impression it was the alien’s way of shrugging.

“We find it interesting that while you two disagree on this key issue, you were both open to listening to each other. Even if you hadn’t reached a unified decision.”

Lisa struggled in his arms.

He loosened his hold.

She spun around and faced their sanctimonious jailer. “You’re right. We don’t agree.” She gripped the forearm he had wrapped around her shoulders. “The only thing we decided was we both want the impossible. A way to save the Lumarians without killing somebody to do it.”

“If I may interrupt—” A broken cough came from the figure on the table. “—I believe I have a solution that might solve everything.” The Krystalii coughed again, louder and deeper this time. He put his hand up to cover his mouth, but puffs of pulverized crystals spewed between his fingers. He coughed again.

Abalim pulled Lisa closer. With a tight grip, he tamped down the panic closing his throat and glared at the prone creature on the stone table. He didn’t trust the calm demeanor from someone who’d been frantic the last time he’d seen them. Peering closer, his eyes widened. Were the crystals on his body deteriorating? Parts of him appeared to be broken and cracked, ready to fall off.

“What’s wrong with you?” Lisa whispered. She moved as if to get closer, but Abalim held her back.

Remember, he has strong psychic abilities,he whispered in her mind.You don’t know if he’s sending us an illusion or not. Don’t let him touch you. It could be a ruse so he could grab you and disappear.

“I will not harm your female,” the Krystalii stated with a grimace. “My mission to obtain the Xeltrians as an ally is over before it began.” Another deep cough. “I miscalculated, and my time in this dimension has run out. With my last remaining life force, my only wish is to help you thwart the Krystalii horde.”

Abalim sent out a whisper of a psychic tendril to the alien. Not enough to draw attention, but enough to get a hint of his sincerity. He latched onto the outskirts of the alien’s consciousness and wormed his way inside. There, a hint that the underlying part of his brain had once been locked down by some outside force.

In an instant, Abalim saw into the heart of the Krystalii. He’d lived his life held in hard captivity by their leader, who kept a solid block on the part of his brain that housed free will. Coerced into serving his master for thousands of millennia, this creature was forced to be a part of a regime that eliminated thousands of species. But deep inside, the creature before him suffered with each atrocity he involuntarily committed.

“What’s your name?” Abalim asked the crystal figure in a gentle tone.

The Krystalii’s sunken green eyes fixated on him. “I am called Aollu.”

“What is wrong with you, Aollu?” Lisa asked, her tone equally soft.

Aollu glanced at her before fixating back on Abalim. “I believe there is something about this dimension that accelerates our life cycles. Even though I am relatively young for my species, I now am in the throes of advanced age. It is now my appointed time to return to the dust of my creation.” He coughed into his hand. Not only did streams of crystallized dust whiff around, but now chunks of clear glass spewed out of his mouth.

Wheezing in a shallow breath, he never took his eyes off Abalim. “There is no need for you to hide your presence in my mind. The block put on me at creation has finally disintegrated.” Another cough, this one dryer than the one before. “For the first time in my life, I am in control of my decisions.” The smile crossing the dull emerald skin around his mouth cracked. A piece of his bottom lip broke off. “By my own free will, I wish to do something my lord and master would never have allowed me to do before.” His eyes were steady but unfocused for a moment.

Abalim experienced the creature’s dimming memories full of regret.

Aollu had led a lonely and isolated life, even with his consciousness buried deep within the hive mind of the Krystalii nation.

“I have shared with the Xeltrians a way to help halt the Krystalii invasion. And now, I would deem it an honor to give you a small part of myself to aid the Lumarians.” A small solid, iridescent glass teardrop rolled out of the inner corner of his right eye. “I know doing this small thing won’t erase the deaths I caused to millions of sentient beings. But with my last breath, I hope to redeem my soul with the Omnipatron by doing this. I freely give you a part of myself that will allow the Lumarians to live.”

He covered his chest with one of his hands. With a grimace, he let go a stuttered breath and pulled his hand away. He opened his clenched fist and raised it. In the center was a ragged emerald oval the size of a large man's palm. “Take it. Give this to the Lumarian Echovara. It will restore it to its former glory.” He raised it higher. “I guarantee this will give them life for several millennia as well as provide them with the ability to grow life-crystals for the future when this one fades.”

Abalim plucked the emerald from the Krystalii’s corroding palm.

Lisa leaned over his hand and examined the stone with him. It was a beautiful gem with ribbons of various shades of green and black swirling within it.

“I swear a star is growing inside it,” Lisa stated with reverence in her tone. She caressed the top with a forefinger. “I can’t believe how gorgeous it is.”

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