Part 29 (2/2)
A growling hiss came from her right. She turned to face it, saw only darkness. She could hear it breathing, panting. A snuffle sound came from the left. She jerked back that way. Two green eyes glowed, blinked. She could see the outline of the tiger's head, tilted downward, staring at her feet. Something rumbled in its throat.
Mara eased away, not taking her eyes off the tiger. She used the sound of film clicking through the projector as a point of reference and stepped backward. She felt heat on her ankle and glanced downward. The s.p.a.ce heater, knocked aside during the attack, stood behind her. She stepped over it and kept backing away.
The tiger sauntered forward, now into the edge of the light. Pulling back its lips and whiskers in a hiss, the purple tiger bore its fangs and hunched onto its back legs, preparing to leap.
Mara froze. She heard a mewing sound. Something rubbed against her ankle and the back of her leg. She risked looking down. Two purple cubs frolicked between her feet. Slowly s.h.i.+fting her gaze upward, she saw the tiger's ears rotate backward as she eyed her cubs and raised her own gaze to Mara's face.
With a low growl, the tiger lunged, claws first.
Mara crouched then dived across the floor. The feline flew over her and landed near the projector. After rolling for several feet, Mara slammed into the heater. The tiger cubs gamboled after her as if playing tag. Their mother snarled, then lowered her head and stalked back toward Mara. She scrambled on the floor putting the heater between her and the mother tiger. Four feet away, the tiger reared up on her hind legs, letting loose a roar which Mara felt reverberate in her skull. As the tiger's front quarters and claws dropped, Mara grabbed the little s.p.a.ce heater and held it up.
A torrent of flame poured out of it, enveloping the tiger, consuming her in a quickened pyre that licked up to the ceiling in a single flash of fire. For a second, it lit up the entire warehouse and threw off a thermal blast that knocked Mara to the ground. In that moment, she could have sworn she saw her arm flicker. Then darkness surrounded her again, except for the sparks that sprinkled down from the rafters.
Ping's dust mote swirled in the flickering light of the projector. After a few seconds, he coalesced and took his familiar form.
Mara tried to stand up, staggered a step and changed her mind. She sat back down on the cement floor, not even trying to locate her mat.
”Are you okay?” Ping asked. ”You look pale.”
”No, I am not okay. I feel like something just sucked the life out of me. What the h.e.l.l just happened?”
”I'm not sure. That did not work out the way I thought it would,” he said.
CHAPTER 45.
”YA THINK? WHAT exactly did you expect?”
”I a.s.sumed you would imprint your thoughts on the film or project them in some way from the projector. I did not expect you to conjure live tigers from nothing. Especially purple ones that smelled like dittos. How amazing is that?” His eyes widened, and his cheeks flushed.
”First off, if you think magic is so lowbrow, you should come up with a word other than conjure. Second, I'm failing to see the upside to almost being eaten alive.”
Ping walked over to the projector and turned it off. He located their mats, rearranged their cla.s.sroom, walked over to Mara and offered her a hand. She took it and stood up. ”I think the wooziness is pa.s.sing,” she said.
Ping walked her over to the mat, and she sat down. He took his place across from her. ”I think we've had enough practicing for the moment. Are you up to continuing with some discussion, or do you want to call it a night?”
Mara took a deep breath and tried to get her pulse to slow. She lifted her arm, the one she thought flickered. It trembled. ”I'm not sure I'm up to this,” she said.
”You mean continuing with our session tonight?”
”No, I mean this metaphysics stuff. I have no idea what happened here tonight. If I am responsible for this, I clearly have no control over it.”
”There's no doubt you are responsible for it. Where else would a purple tiger reeking of duplicator fluid come from? It's certainly not something I thought up.”
”I just cannot fathom this. How can this be happening?” She ran her hands through her hair and stared back at Ping.
”Give it some time. With practice and experience, I believe you'll learn to control these abilities. The reality is, you don't have a choice. These abilities will manifest themselves whether you want them to or not.”
”My abilities, as you call them, didn't affect my life before we started all this.”
”That's not true, Mara. It was your abilities, or rather your lack of knowledge about your abilities, that allowed all those pa.s.sengers to cross over from other realms.”
”How can you say that? They crossed over because of the Chronicle.”
”The Chronicle doesn't work without a progenitor. Remember, the power comes from you, not the Chronicle. It is simply a tool.”
”It was the other Mara that did it, not me.”
”There is only one Mara. Your counterpart on the flight was just another facet of you, playing out a different scenario in a different realm. Well, she cheated and messed around in this realm, too, but, metaphysically speaking, this is your doing, your responsibility to fix. This is your realm.”
”Well, now you tell me. That is completely unfair, and, metaphysically speaking, it sucks.”
”However unfair it may be, there's still a pretender and a hundred other creatures from alternate realms out there. Sooner or later some of them will come knocking at your door. What do you want to do?”
”I don't really have a choice do I?” After a few minutes of silence, she sighed and said, ”I suppose we should keep going.”
”Do you have anything in particular you want to discuss?”
”Well, since you mentioned the pretender, I've got some questions about that. You said pretenders have the ability to manipulate the four elements-Earth, Wind, Fire and Water-correct?”
”Yes, they are the elements of perception, the elements that make up the world as we perceive it.”
”Does a pretender use all elements, just one of them or what? For example, we think a pretender created the electricity guy that showed up at my shop. What elements did he manipulate to do that?”
”Legends from my realm say each pretender has an affinity or talent for manipulating specific elements. Some may only be able to manipulate Fire or Water. Others may be able to work with a combination of elements. Each expresses the abilities differently. In the case of the creature that showed up at your shop, I suspect his creator is adept at using Earth and Fire, maybe more. The creature was somewhat solid, so my guess is that involves Earth, and electricity could be interpreted as a form of Fire.”
”Sounds a little ill defined, if you ask me.”
”Pretenders don't conduct chemistry experiments by mixing elements and getting a consistent reaction. Think of them more like artists. Each artist repaints perception based on the talent and palette available. Different pretenders use different media. Some use Water. Another might use Wind and Fire.” Ping tried to catch Mara's eye while he spoke to see if she followed his train of thought. ”This is one of the reasons I resist the notion of magic and witchcraft. There are not any spells here, no recipes for magic potions. Pretenders' abilities are metaphysical. There is nothing supernatural about it.”
”So pretenders can manipulate those elements, but a progenitor cannot. Correct?”
”From a practical perspective, that is not actually true. Remember, pretenders only manipulate the elements of perception. Progenitors can alter the elements of reality. Any perception can be undone or trumped by what is real, using the elements of reality.”
”What were those again?”
”Consciousness, Time, s.p.a.ce and Consequence.”
”If I am a progenitor, how would I trump a pretender?”
”I'm not sure, but it seems you have the ability to bring things into existence, like conjuring the tiger. You also seem to be able to alter reality. For example, you caused the radio to act like a cell phone. I imagine once you gain some experience, you could easily best a pretender,” he said, pausing. His eyes rolled upward as if he were trying to capture a thought. ”Your abilities appear to manifest themselves as an extension of your affinity for gadgets, technology. You even defended yourself using a s.p.a.ce heater. Eventually I believe you will be able to do this without these talismans. It is likely you will demonstrate other abilities as well, based on each element of reality.”
”Other abilities?”
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