Cloud Shifters

Cadin stretched under the lone tree in Yi Field. He hadn’t stayed to hang out with his friends after first period, informing them that he need to pick his schedule for next semester.

“That’s what we will be doing too,” Treven said. “Why don’t you join us before everyone heads out?” The school was going to the Cloud Park at the end of the hour and he wanted to sort some things out.

“I just need some time to think about it on my own. Thanks, though.” He left before they could protest. Making a schedule with friends involved a lot of peer pressure that he didn’t want to deal with, especially when he wasn’t sure about his Path Choice.

He picked at the grass and watched as a small cloud drifted through the empty field, leaving dewdrops on the foliage it brushed on its journey. Gur rested in the main crook of the tree. Cadin glanced back at the sheet with his third quarter class choices listed.

“Hey, man.”

Cadin startled, and quickly looked up to see Lep smiling at him. “Oh, hey, Lep. I didn’t hear you at all.” He smiled and waved him down to the ground next to him. “That stealth training last week has paid off.”

“Yeah, right. You were so deep in thought, I could have been a wrath bringing my prey here to eat and you still wouldn’t have caught on until the meal was finished and I started stalking you for dessert.”

“That is a very strange thought. But yeah, I was sorta oblivious to the world.”

“What’s got you so engulfed?”

Cadin sighed and handed over his copy of the schedule. Lep glanced at it and soon was shaking with laughter. “Unsure a bit?”

Cadin took the schedule back and nodded. Nearly every class was circled out of interest. It was a year’s worth of classes.

Lep calmed down and nudged Cadin’s shoulder. “It’s okay to be unsure what you want to do with your life.” The sincerity in his best friend’s voice broke down his barriers.

Cadin took in a deep breath. He hadn’t realized that his anxiety was not just about upcoming classes, but about his life. Once Lep said it, it rang true. He had to choose a life path, and felt unprepared or unwilling to limit himself. “I just don’t feel ready to choose a Path yet; and according to all of our instructors, we should be ‘keeping a Path Choice in mind’ as we select our classes for the rest of the year.” Cadin felt his body slump, reflecting his mood.

“You worry too much, Cadin of Glade.” Lep gave him a friendly punch on the arm before continuing. “You can’t look at class choices like they are limiting you. Just let that visceral feeling guide you. Some classes might suck and others will be amazing. Either way, they will all help guide you to your ultimate decision.”

“And what if I like all of the options equally?”

“Even if you like all the Path Choices, it will not be equal. One you may be drawn to because it stimulates your mind, one because it utilizes skills that you are naturally good at, and so on. It’s up to each of us to decide ultimately what truly moves us. You may not know now, but I think you will when the time comes.”

“And when did you get so smart?” Cadin asked.

“Ha, I’ve always been smarter than you,” Lep said with a wry smile. “I’ll leave you to it,” he said as he stood up. “We leave for The Park in twenty.”

“Thanks, Lep.”

“Any time.”

“The clouds look angry today,” Treven said as they approached the Cloud Park. Cadin thought the same thing but was too excited to worry about it. He had told Master Emilio that the school was taking them to the Park again for another field trip and Master Emilio hinted that he might stop by and show Cadin a few tricks with gins and cloud-shifting.

“The clouds are quite unsettled today,” Instructor Kade said to Treven, “but that is good for us. The nature of clouds is to change, and the best way to learn cloud-shifting is to try on a temperamental cloud.”

“I’m definitely going to earn my Cloud-Shifting badge today!” Lep said excitedly. Many others echoed his sentiment as the transports stopped in front of the main gate.

Cadin saw Bart with a group of second years standing by the transports and pointed him out to Lep and Sun. Their own group stopped in front of the transport next to Bart’s group so they went over to say hello.

“Oh, hi guys,” Bart said as they approached. He did not seem to be standing with anyone in particular and seemed quite happy to see them.

“Hey Bart,” Sun said. “Did you hear about the Com Games?”

“Yeah, pretty cool prize. I always thought that the Warrior Path Games would be interesting, but you need a team to enter.”

“Well,” Cadin said, “we don’t all have our Paths fully figured out, however, we are supposed to form teams for training purposes and in preparation for the Games, so we were talking about forming an unofficial Warrior Path team that can train during the Archery Club.”

“Yeah,” Sun jumped in, “we know that you are a second year and may want to form a team with other kids your age, however, we thought we would offer you a spot on our team with Lep, Cadin and I? That is if we establish eligibility and of course if you’d like to.”

“Oh, that would be great!” Bart said bouncing on the balls of his over-sized feet. “My classmates had already formed teams before I transferred here, and none even considered me as an alternate.”

“I think we will make a great team.”

“Hey guys, did you hear that?” Someone called from the perimeter of the group. Gregor, the bulky third year that had confronted Cadin at the end of the triple exercises stepped forward with his friends behind him. “This second year has sunk so low as to join this group of firsty turds.” Gregor was smirking as his cronies laughed.

“Don’t forget criminals,” one of Gregor’s friends called from behind him.

“You’re right Jordy, first year criminals. Man, that is pathetic!” Gregor said to Bart with a sneer.

Bart hung his head as Gregor’s friends and even some of the second years laughed.

Cadin stepped up to Gregor and felt for the first time how big and intimidating Gregor really was with his Aura, wings and bulky muscles.

“What do you care?” Cadin asked, sounding braver than he felt.

“What did you say to me, pipsqueak?” Gregor took a step closer and Cadin noticed that all the instructors were busy organizing the group transports. Gregor smirked at his obvious discomfort. Cadin decided that he needed to say something to stand up for his friend. Cadin looked Gregor in the eyes and said clearly, “I asked ‘what do you care?’ If it means so much to you that a second year not be on a team with first years, why don’t you invite him to join your team?”

“I don’t work with people below me,” Gregor said in an intimidating voice.

“Then why do you care at all what team he is on? Do you feel threatened by him or by my team?”

“I don’t feel threatened by anyone, pipsqueak, especially a bunch of little firsties!” By now Gregor was shouting, and most of the other kids close by were watching, along with a few instructors. “I have true team of Warrior Angels that will annihilate any other team we go up against—and not just from Glade, but from any team in the Calvarian System!”

Cadin could feel Gregor’s breath on his face. Gregor’s team was cheering from behind them, but Cadin could see that Gregor was serious, and Cadin thought he might be a bit unstable. Best to defuse the situation before Gregor blows a vein, Cadin thought. Stepping back slightly, but keeping his eyes on Gregor, Cadin spoke in a calm but confident voice.

“Well, I would like the team that wins the whole tournament to be from Glade.” Gregor blinked and then took a much needed breath as his face had been turning beet red. Cadin continued carefully. “I mean everyone knows that Gladers are the most powerful angels in the System, right?” There were a lot of cheers from the onlookers. “We could very well have the strongest team from all of the cloud-lands right here among us!” Now everyone was clapping, and Gregor looked confused whether it was meant for him or not.

“Alright everyone!” Instructor Nightan called. “Let’s head in!”

Cadin started to follow Lep through the main gates, but Instructor Kade caught him by the shoulder.

“Master Emilio talked to me about training you today. Because you have already earned your Cloud-Shifting badge, I told him he could have you for the whole day—that is if it is okay with you.”

“Yeah, of course,” Cadin said as he looked around for Master Emilio.

“He is going to meet you in the natural cloud section, but I must accompany you to the entrance or they will not let you pass. They don’t like collecting kids that don’t have the appropriate cloud-shifting skills to get around.”

Cadin told his friends what he was up to and wished them good luck before heading off toward the natural cloud.

“Remember to not think about your basic cloud-shifting too much and you should be fine,” Instructor Kade said as they approached the gate. Master Emilio was waiting on the other side. After a few words with the guard who eyed Cadin suspiciously and a cursory hello to Master Emilio, Instructor Kade left to return to the school group.

“Good morning,” Cadin said happily to Master Emilio.

“Morning” he grumbled back. They were still in earshot of the guard and Cadin remembered that Master Emilio liked to put on an unapproachable front.

They walked and climbed for a while until they were completely secluded.

“Where are the path outlines?” Cadin wondered “How do we know when we need to cloud-shift?”

“There are no land paths here. As soon as you entered the gate you were cloud-shifting.”

“Wow, cool.” Cadin saw Master Emilio smile a bit before he cloud-shifted a seat for himself that looked simple but comfortable. Upon closer inspection of the cloud-chair, Cadin noticed that it wasn’t simple at all; there were small ornate details around the entire base, and the part that Master Emilio sat upon shifted a bit under his movement, so Cadin figured that the actual seat was not as solid as the base and somehow remained partly natural cloud.

“That is amazing.” Cadin said.

“Have you never seen someone make a cloud-chair before?”

“No.”

“Another dying art I am afraid,” Master Emilio said, shaking his head. “It used to be a bit of a status symbol, you see.”

Cadin shook his head, having no idea what Master Emilio meant.

“Whenever angels would convene for important meetings, they would cloud-shift their own chairs. It started out of convenience, but quickly turned into showing off. Some would create these fabulous thrones that took up half the cloud!” He chuckled and then looked at Cadin. “Why don’t you give it a try?”

“Okay, what do I do?”

“Imagine the type of chair that will work best for you in size and shape, and then think of any embellishments you would like to add. I enjoy a soft seat so I don’t harden the center completely. As you are shifting, actively imagine all the things that you want your chair to be. Shape it slowly at first so if there is anything that you would like to change, you can do it before you harden rather than simply starting over.”

Cadin thought for a moment and then reached into the cloud to begin. Master Emilio was watching with sharp eyes. Clouds started to bubble up in front of Cadin and slowly take shape. For his first chair, Cadin wanted it to be super cool rather than completely comfortable, so he decided to bring water from the cloud up the back and form an iced back that looked a bit like Gur’s wings. Since it reminded Cadin of Gur, he decided that any chair that he shifted should have a proper perch for his dragon, so he imagined a prong that would be easy for Gur to climb on from his shoulder.

The base of the chair swirled and rose to form the seat. The cloud wavered a little bit before Cadin decided to harden it, and he lost focus when he tried to harden everything but the seat cushion. The chair hardened and both Cadin and Master Emilio stood up to inspect his work. Cadin was upset to see the clouds making up the seat cushion floating away. They had not hardened at all, leaving a hole in the middle of his chair which now resembled a toilet with a cool ice back that had many prongs poking out of the top.

“Very interesting,” Master Emilio said. “Did you make this branch on purpose?”

“Yep, that is for Gur, see,” Cadin said as he sat on the chair carefully so as not to sink into the toilet bowl. “Gur, go up. That is for you.”

Gur looked curiously at what Cadin was pointing at. He smelled it and pushed it a little bit before jumping onto it. He wobbled a bit, turned all the way around, slipped and then jumped back onto Cadin’s shoulder, hissing in his ear.

“Guess we’ll have to work on that, buddy.”

“Actually, you did exceptionally well for this being your first chair. Kade was right about your natural shifting abilities.”

Cadin looked up curiously and asked, “What else did Instructor Kade say about me?”

Master Emilio just smiled and Cadin knew that he was not going to say a thing.

“Now we can at least use your chair as a target for the gins,” Master Emilio said as he walked back a few paces. Cadin jumped up and followed.

Master Emilio brought out his own slice-gins and Cadin did the same. They buzzed a bit in his hand in anticipation.

“Since you have several spikes coming out of the top of your ice back—nice touch by the way—why don’t you try to take off the one on the far right, like this?”

Cadin watched as the gin in Master Emilio’s hand grew to a curved shape that had a wicked edge to it but still fit nicely in his hand. When he threw it, the gin spun through the air and neatly clipped off the far-left prong before returning gracefully to his open hand.

“You may not want to have the slice-gins return to you until you gain more skill because they can take your fingers off if you get it wrong.”

Cadin flexed his fingers at the mention of losing them. He then focused on his black slice-gin and asked it to form into a shape similar to Master Emilio’s. Nothing happened. Cadin focused and tried again. It complied though it seemed to take a lot of energy and it looked more like a rocky blob than the sleek weapon that he had hoped for. He took aim and threw the gin. It spun and wobbled through the air and sailed over the top of the chair—disappearing into the cloud behind.

“Oh no—it’ll be lost!” Cadin exclaimed in a panic.

“Calm down. Now simply ask it to ‘return.’”

“Return! Please, return.” Cadin was surprised to see the gin come up from the base of the cloud that they were walking on rather than where it had disappeared into the cloud.

“Path of least resistance,” Master Emilio said simply. “Remember Cadin—these are your gins and they want to return to you. They do not get lost or instantly reabsorbed into the cloud. They will not fall through to Earth. They are drawn to you and will return to you when asked unless they are physically restrained. Even then, they may change shape to escape their holdings to try to get back to you.” The wind whipped around them, and the cloud below rumbled with thunder.

“Oh. Um, why was mine not as weapon-like as yours?” Cadin asked, brushing the dark hair out of his face. The weather was making it difficult to concentrate.

“That just takes practice. Eventually, your thoughts and wants will be translated much more clearly to your gins and you will not have to work as hard for your results.

“What were you thinking of when you released the gin?”

Cadin thought for a second and then answered, “I wasn’t thinking about much except for not wanting to lose my fingers.”

“You must have intention in your guidance of the gin—that’s what makes them special and different from an ordinary weapon like a throwing knife.”

Cadin looked up, confused.

“Gins have a strong connection to their master and bend to your will, but you must guide them. It helps if you speak your thoughts aloud when you are first learning so that you are clear and precise in your thinking and your gins will perform better for you. Try again with your other slice-gin and think, feel and say aloud exactly what you want it to do before releasing it.”

“Okay,” Cadin said as he fingered his white slice-gin. Already he could feel the ‘personality’ of this gin to be different than the other. First, he thought of the shape and concentrated on changing the gin. It took a few moments and a lot of energy before his gin turned into a slightly more weapon-like shape than his first attempt. He focused on the large ice prong that he wanted the gin to clip off.

He raised his hand and said, “Cut off the far-right chair prong…and do not return.” He threw the gin and was disappointed to see it stick into the top right back of his chair before falling to the firm cloud. Cadin ran and grabbed the gin before it could fall through and then sat awkwardly in his chair.

Master Emilio took to his own chair, while Cadin was constantly rearranging so as not to fall through the hole in the middle. Master Emilio shifted a bit of cloud up through the center of Cadin’s seat and partially hardened it for a cushion.

“Thanks,” Cadin said. “That is much better. I’m frustrated that my gins don’t seem to be working for me very well.” Cadin slumped in his cold chair. The water in the chair had turned to ice when he hardened it. He made a mental note to not use water again for a seat.

“On the contrary. You are doing quite well with your gins. Remember this is a lost art for a reason. It is not something you can master in a day—no matter how naturally talented you are.”

Cadin nodded but did not feel very reassured. He decided to change the subject. “Why did this gin not fall through the cloud?” Cadin asked as he returned the gin back to its resting state.

Master Emilio nodded and then turned to the question. “Because we have been walking and cloud-shifting in this area, the base of this cloud is reacting to our energies and hardening a bit into the first stages of a cloud-land. A full-blown cloud-land is formed by many angels naturally shifting on it for a long period of time. The more angels in an area, the more a natural cloud will shift into a cloud-land. This is good for us, because cloud-shifting takes up our energy, but if a natural cloud shifts to a cloud-land we do not have to exert any energy to stand on it.”

“Oh, that’s so cool.”

“Indeed.”

“How many cloud-lands are there around Earth right now?”

“Impossible to say,” Master Emilio answered. “You see, where we are now could technically be considered a baby cloud-land, though once we leave it will quickly shift back to a natural cloud, and anything that we leave behind will reabsorb into the cloud. There are many angels resting from long journeys, or small colonies or even families that do not want to live on the main cloud-lands and so they move to a smaller cloud to live on. All of these are technically cloud-lands though they are not fully recognized as such by the map makers and the Core. There are just too many that get recycled too quickly to count. Though there are currently ten established Cloud Systems around Earth right now—each with between two to ten cloud-lands. Of course, that does not include any fringe-lands.”

“Why would anyone want to live on a fringe-land? Aren’t there no schools or Town Halls or things like that?”

“Well some people don’t like the hustle and bustle of the main lands and some don’t like the way the Core runs things. They either peacefully move to the fringe and live a common life, or they rebel against the Core by either trying to live the life of a Guardian Angel without the proper training—which as you can imagine can really mess up our relations with humans, or they actively attack any angels that live within the Core. That is what happened several years before you were born. Luckily the Core was able to deal with them, allowing you to grow up in a time of peace.”

“Can you tell me about that time?” Cadin asked hungrily. He had been thinking about Instructor Kade’s comment to Instructor Zephran the first day of school when they didn’t know that he was listening to them. He had implied that Cadin’s dad was instrumental in the Core during the war.

“It is important to understand the past, though I’m sure you will hear about this in school at some point.”

Cadin just smiled, indicating that he still wanted to hear about it from Master Emilio.

“Fringe warfare,” Master Emilio started dramatically, waving his hands out to the far reaches of the sky, “is where angels on the outskirts of the main Cloud Systems attack fliers, transports, angels near the edges of cloud-lands and even humans. Twenty years ago, this started to happen with more frequency and by an organized group. They were like the human pirates and later became known as the Cloud-Raiders. At first it was to steal the goods that an angel would carry—swords, cloud-stones—anything of value. Eventually things turned violent and instead of just robbing angels, they would slay them. Soon they started traveling to Earth and abducting humans just to lure in Guardians so that they could rob them too. As you can imagine, top-notch Guardian equipment is worth a great deal on the black market. The Core removed all public access to Earth and acted against the Cloud-Raiders and the war began.

“The Cloud-Raiders fought dirty and the battles built in severity. The war was young and looking like it was just starting out and building up to be a fifty-year long war. About seven years in, it took a turn for the worse and a small, vicious group known as the Tlalocs joined the Cloud-Raiders, led by a strong, cunning angel named Tiberius. Many citizens don’t know this, but when the Cloud-Raiders joined forces with the Tlalocs, the Core came close to losing control of the Calvarian System. At that time the Core landed a counter-attack that was quick, precise and completely effective. All I can tell you is that this plan was extremely well thought out and executed. Everyone in the Core at the time of victory was counted as heroes. Those that were actually in the combat were all given Medals of Honor.”

A memory of a dusty velvet box flashed through Cadin’s mind. He opened it once to find an undisturbed medal. His dad found him looking at it and didn’t say anything, but took it away. Cadin hadn’t seen it since.

“That counter won the war and anyone that was involved in the planning of it made a huge difference in the quality of life for angels in the Calvarian Cloud System,” Master Emilio finished.

“What happened to the angels of the war?”

“Unfortunately, the head group of Tlalocs eluded capture. However, nearly all the Cloud-Raiders were either captured and sent to the Core Chambers or fell during battle. As angels in Heaven, they will have to serve penitence for the wrong that they did in their lives. Unlike humans, most angels have a choice as to how long we remain in our physical bodies. Once the choice is made to leave, our spiritual essence ascends and our bodies are reabsorbed into the clouds. There are still jobs that can be done as a spiritual angel, but they are different than when we have a physical body. For those angels that did not live a life of service in the physical realm, life as a spiritual angel is much more demanding. Otherwise, when you choose to rise, life in Heaven is quite wonderful, and the work that you do is on a voluntary basis.”

“What about the ones in the Core Chambers?”

“They have a choice to repent and serve some of their sentence in their physical bodies, or they can rise and serve in Heaven. Either way—there is no getting out of facing the wrong that they have done. Many angels in the Core Chambers from wars past are afraid to rise, and rightly so. Some have chosen to remain in their physical bodies for hundreds of years, working in the Chambers in hope that their required work in Heaven will be less severe. Some never repent before rising and I do not think that their time as a spiritual angel is much enjoyed.”

“If the bad guys can live as long as they want in the physical world, if they are never captured, can’t they just continue to hurt people forever and never have to pay for what they have done here or in Heaven?”

“Well, we can stay in our bodies for a very long time, but we are in the physical world and our bodies do age. It is our soul and spark of life that keeps our physical bodies anchored to the Earth System, but it becomes very difficult to do much after a hundred years. If you have good intentions and your soul is pure, your body does not disintegrate as quickly as if you are full of hatred and have intentionally done harm to another angel or human. Those that are old and in the Core Chambers do not look good. Many past two hundred years old have had their wings fall off and their bodies are shriveled to the point that they cannot even stand up.”

Cadin shuttered at the thought of being one of those angels wasting away in a corner, refusing to rise for fear of having to pay for what they chose to be in this life.

“Don’t worry, young Cadin,” Master Emilio said as he watched Cadin’s reaction. “You have a pure heart and will not be reduced to that as long as your choices in this life reflect that heart.”

At the end of the day, Master Emilio walked Cadin back to the natural cloud-gate and told him ‘good job’ before taking off in flight. Cadin followed the loud buzz until he came upon the school group. He found everyone playing in the big pit and looked for Lep and Sun. He found them with Bart.

“Hey guys, how’d it go?” Cadin asked, seeing that they were obviously done and now just had open time to mess around as he watched Vincent doing a flying front flip into the big pit.

Sun turned around and smiled. “It went great! The cloud-shifting felt so much more natural this time around.”

“Did you all earn a badge then?” Cadin wondered as he looked around at everyone’s arm guards.

“Well, most of us did,” Sun said, faltering a bit. She glanced sideways at Lep who was sitting a little slumped.

“I didn’t get mine,” he said sourly. “I was doing pretty good with most of it, but I wasn’t able to make a proper cloud-trap. I kept getting shocked by lightning every time I connected with the cloud.”

“Lep, you did great with everything else,” Sun said as she went and sat by him. “You just got all flustered during the trap practice because Instructor Nightan kept using you to demonstrate on, and then he was the one testing you. I think you just got a little thrown off is all.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Cadin added. “There is still another chance to get your Cloud-Shifting badge before the end of the year and Sun and I can help you. We can even go to the back side of Mist Lake where some natural clouds build up,” Cadin said, trying to catch Lep’s eye.

Lep smiled a bit, and Cadin knew that he was going to be alright. In an attempt to take his mind off the cloud-shifting, Cadin began to tell Lep and Sun about his day with Master Emilio.

“I wanna try fusing some gins,” Lep said. “They sound awesome!”

“Yes, they do sound useful, though I think I will stick with my bow. However, what I am the most interested in is this war. We started studying the Cloud-Raiders War when I was on Lance, though they did not talk much about the details of the final battle.”

“Maybe the leaders want to keep their battle strategy as secret as possible so they can use it on the next ridiculous angel that comes along and thinks that he can take on the Core!” Lep suggested with a shrug.

Cadin had conflicting feelings as he walked home. He was excited about his training, worried about not having his Aura, but more than anything he felt a stirring when Master Emilio talked about the war.

“Hi Cadin. Are you up for dinner and maybe a swim after?” Sara asked with a big smile which faltered a bit at seeing her son’s hard and determined look.

“I have to talk to dad tonight and I don’t know how long it will take.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine I guess; I just need to talk to him.” Cadin made his way through the tunnel and into his dad’s work valley.

Tal was concentrating on shaping a large breastplate when Cadin emerged. Knowing that he couldn’t be interrupted at this stage, Cadin took a seat and waited, gathering his thoughts. Gur was acting restless, so Cadin pulled out his tang-gin, filled it with water and let the dragon play in it.

“Hi, son,” Tal said when he finished. He flipped over a bucket nearby and sat it across from Cadin.

“Dad, can you tell me about when you were in the Core?”

Tal looked shocked at the subject but recovered quickly. “I guess we can’t avoid the topic forever; however, you must understand that there are some things that I am forbidden to talk about.”

Cadin nodded, too excited to talk. His dad had always brushed off his questions about the Core in the past.

“Where would you like to begin?” Tal asked.

“I want…no, I need to know more about the Cloud-Raiders War.”

“An interesting topic and my time in the Core that I am the most restricted in talking about. What would you like to know?”

Cadin didn’t hesitate. “I want to know about the final battle.”

“The final battle—you go right for the heart of things,” Tal said, shaking his head. “First of all, let’s start with what it is like to be in the Core. Cadin, it is important to get as complete a picture as you can about certain things, and for this war you need to understand about the Core and the fringe-lands,” Tal spoke with a very serious face. Cadin thought about it for a moment and then smiled, knowing that his dad was trying to tell him the full story.

“Thanks, Dad. Go ahead.”

“The Cloud-Raiders War was known throughout the Calvarian System when I was in school. The Raiders started out as mostly just thugs that you had to be careful of when flying around the fringe-lands. By the time that I got into the Academy, the war was widespread and the general quality of living was poor. Everyone feared being captured or killed. My parents were killed in a raid the same month that I was accepted into the Core.” Cadin watched as his dad’s face fell in a tortured expression. Cadin knew that his grandparents had died, but no one ever told him how. Tal returned his gaze to Cadin and continued.

“I was enraged at the Raiders, not only the ones that killed my parents, but at all of them for causing such destruction. During my basic training, I learned that the reason that we were having such a difficult time containing them was their type of guerilla warfare where they would refuse to outright battle the Core, and instead target civilians quickly and quietly and retreat to the fringes.

“I was one of the few selected to go live on one of the fringe-lands and gather as much information about the Cloud-Raiders as possible. Through pure luck, I was posted on one of the Cloud-Raiders resource lands. Living there, I learned much more about the full extent and true impact of the war. The people on the fringe-lands were more affected by the war than any of us on the main cloud-lands could imagine.”

“Weren’t the people on the fringe-lands the ones that became the Raiders in the first place?” Cadin asked.

“Yes, that’s true; however, not all people on the fringes were Raiders. They were just groups of unsatisfied or angry individuals that eventually joined forces to become the Raiders. Many others live on the fringes for other peaceful reasons. But once the war came into full swing, they were hit the hardest because the Core could only extend protection to Core-System cloud-lands, leaving the fringe-lands completely vulnerable to attack.

“The families on the fringe-lands were torn apart; young children were orphaned, the work opportunities were scarce, and so many teenagers joined the Cloud-Raiders as a means of survival.”

“But why would someone join the group that killed their family?” Cadin shook his head.

Tal could see the look of concern and confusion on his son’s face. “I saw firsthand the lies that came from the Raiders—especially once they were led by the Tlalocs. They were not obvious lies so they were not so easy to detect; especially to a young angel that has just lost his or her family. They were desperate to survive and looking for someone to blame for their loss. The Cloud-Raiders gave them a twisted solution to all their problems. They would feed them, offer them protection and a community, and they made it seem like the reason that their families had died was because of the Core.

“The only thing the Core could do at the time was to isolate and restrict access to Earth—protecting the humans, and do their best to protect angels on the recognized cloud-lands. With their twisted recruiting, the Cloud-Raiders were gaining rapidly in fighters. Even with their larger numbers, the main body of Cloud-Raiders remained elusive. The Core was not getting very far—just capturing a few raiding parties here and there. I knew that we needed to get more inside information to really prevail. After talking to people on the fringe-lands, I learned a dangerous way to get close to the Cloud-Raiders.”

“What was it?” Cadin asked, leaning forward.

“I had to join them,” Tal said with a shrug.

“You what?!”

“Other members from the Core had tried to go undercover to join them, but they were found out and killed. After living on the fringes, I had found another way to get in, and I was young enough that I did not raise too many eyebrows when I went to join. You see, the other members from the Core had just pretended to be lone angels and asked the first Raider they could find to join them. I learned that they did not recruit that way.

“There was a family on the fringe-land I was on that had just lost their parents and had an uncle who had lost a leg, both wings and an eye. The teenage son was trying to take care of his younger sister and uncle when I found them. I knew the Raiders were due on a recruiting mission to this area soon, and so I posed as the teenage son when they came around.

“They brought me right into the heart of their headquarters to be inducted.”

“What happened? Where was it?” Cadin asked excitedly.

“These are the details that are classified, but it is not the important part for you. You must understand, Cadin, that to be an effective leader in anything, including war, knowledge is the key. It is what I learned about the Cloud-Raiders that allowed me to lead the Core to victory over our enemies. I have shared this story with you because I understand that you are searching and trying to find your place in this world.”

Cadin had one more question that he had been wanting to ask for months. “Dad, who is Tiberius?”

Tal’s eyes furrowed. “Where did you hear that name?”

Cadin took a deep breath. “Master Emilio.” He could tell his dad was shocked to hear the name at first, but now was working out how much to tell him.

“Tiberius was and still is the leader of the Tlalocs.” His dad looked sad, as if remembering something, but said no more.

Master Emilio had said as much, but Cadin could tell by the look on his dad’s face that he should not push for more.

Gur had stopped playing in the water and had his forearms propped up on the edge of the gin to watch such an intense moment. When Cadin hugged his dad, Gur jumped from the gin and scrambled all around their shoulders, shaking his wet wings on them.

“It’s alright, Gur, calm down,” Cadin said as he grabbed him and dried him off with the corner of his shirt.

“Do you have any other concerns that I can help with now?” Tal asked.

Cadin thought for a moment. It seemed like such a trivial worry after hearing his dad’s story but he told him anyway.

“I don’t have my Aura yet. I know that it seems like a stupid thing to worry about right now, but I feel that if I don’t have my Aura soon, I will fall behind in school and ...” He did not finish his thought out loud. He was also hoping that having his Aura would help direct him to his Path.

“Hmm. Well, I know that training is something that promotes Aura growth, which you have been doing non-stop. However…oh your mother may smirk at me if this is the case…you may have a blue Aura.”

Cadin cocked his head to the side to think about it.

“Blue?”

“Well, you have been training on a green Aura cloud-land, in a green school. Your Aura may not be shining through because you may not have a green Aura. Perhaps your mom and I can think of some blue training drills for you. Oh, and on a side note, I received a package from Mira today, and she gave you something.”

Cadin felt a mental vertigo as he tried to process all the information his dad had managed to pack into a single moment. “Mira, the old cloud-stone angel on air?”

“She’s the one.”

“Why would she send something for me?”

“I like to share correspondence with her when I can. She is notoriously difficult to get a hold of when she mines a cloud that has drifted to the fringe. Anyway, in my last note I told her more about you, and she seemed to think that she had something that you might like.”

Cadin raised his eyebrows.

“I don’t know what it is, so don’t give me that look. I don’t open your mail.”

Cadin laughed as he followed his dad inside.

“You are looking better,” his mom noted as they passed inside.

“Yep. Can I have the package that Mira sent to me?” Cadin asked impatiently.

“After dinner.”

“But, mom...”

Sara gave him a look that ended the conversation.

Cadin ate as fast as possible, sharing food with Gur when his parents weren’t looking, and sped up the stairs to his room, prize in hand. The package fit neatly into his hand with a note secured to the top.

In true teenager fashion, he ripped into the package before glancing at the note, revealing a metallic box with unique etchings along the wall and lid. Cadin gave the box a shake, and heard rattling within. Unlatching the ornate lid, he peeked inside only to be utterly perplexed by the contents. Nothing more than bits of dirt and stone rolled around the polished metal interior.

Nonplussed, Cadin unfolding the note and instantly admired the smooth and embellished penmanship that hinted of a different era. The note read:

To Cadin, son of Talvarian.

My dear boy, I have heard much about you as of late and have decided to bestow a gift to you. I’m not entirely sure how useful they might prove, but I have a strong feeling that your futures are intertwined.

The cloud-stones within are raw gins.

Cadin stopped reading for a moment and glanced back in the box. He rubbed a little dirt off one of the stones. It looked nothing like the raw gins that Master Emilio had presented to him to fuse, but he took Mira’s word that they were in fact gins and continued reading.

I mined those years ago from a decidedly temperamental cloud and have not found any others since.

The box they arrived in is traditionally called a ginex, which is magnetic in nature and properly isolates the gins.

Use them well.

Sincerely,

Mira

Cadin double checked to see if there was more to the note. It felt like a big gift with very little explanation.