Bury Your Talents

Things got quiet while everyone searched around the room for a hint of escaping the maze.

“There’s gotta be something we can do to get out of here…” Indena started kicking the walls.

KANK!

KUNK!

Something on the other side of the wall kicked back. Probably those rats.

“Huh? There must be vents or something here…” Indena turned to me. “Shrimp, can you see through walls?”

“No.” I replied. “That would be cool though.”

“Dang,” she huffed. “Well, I guess we have to keep looking."

I continued to walk down the river, splashing away at the water. This water really wasn’t all that special, but the real interest was where it was going.

All of it was flushing down between those pillars at the center of the room. An eye in the swirling water had formed, bubbles perked out and float all the way up to the ceiling. This point of interest had to have some sort of meaning to it, otherwise, why would it be here?

Round and round it went. My feet didn’t have a problem holding me still while the water swirled.

Now that I was in the center, I got an interesting look at the room. The pillars were set up to block the four middle walls, only showing the corners of the room. Detailed groves on the corners almost appeared to line up perfectly with details on the pillars…if only I moved slightly to the right…

That’s it! A continuous line carried around the whole way. The moment everything was connected in my sight, the details started lighting up blue.

BREEEING!

As the light came across a pillar, it made this ringing sound. That’s when it caught everyone’s attention.

“What is that?” Uncle spoke, turning to see me in the center of the pillars. “Yalda, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know, Uncle.” The franticness of my tone quickly changed to curiosity. “It just started glowing when I lined everything up.” Whatever was happening, clearly I was at the center of it all.

A barrier of white energy spawned between each of the pillars, blocking off every escape and keeping more water from entering in.

“Uh-oh…” I said quietly. “Uncle, I think I’m trapped.”

“Hang on!” He pressed his hands against the energy barrier, but it zapped him away. “What is this…?”

A symbol appeared on each of the pillars, one I’d seen once before. It was a circle, with a quarter circle at the bottom of it, and a cross stretching from the quarter circle to fit the rest of the symbol. At the middle section of the cross was a triangle sitting on the horizontal line. This was the symbol I saw when I had a halo above my head back when I first used my Stardust Nova ability.

While contemplating this mystery, large bubbles began to form at the base of the now dry floor. They were so big that one overtook me inside of it.

“Yalda, wait!” Uncle tried to get through the shields again, but he couldn’t do it.

Woah! I started to float up to the ceiling! A rainbow looking water rained upwards from the ground and pooled at the very center ceiling. It swirled until it looked like a portal.

In the blink of an eye, I went through the strange water.

POP!

The bubble popped mid air and I slowly gilded down to the ground on my wings.

When I touched down, I turned my gaze to the bright blue sky, seeing no sun. Instead, flower petal-like masses of land in the distance were shooting rays of light from their tips, emulating the brightness of day.

Beautiful nature sprawled across an open field, evergreen trees and lots of flowers. Only one structure stood as the pinnacle of focus; a diamond shaped structure, hovering at the very center of this land. The structure looked like my home, The Hive.

Not feeling like a stranger, I started walking through the flowers, curious to see what else laid in this land for me to witness.

“I’m not staying behind.” An ethereal voice echoed, sounding a lot like Indena. “You think I came this far to sit down and let you two do everything?”

Was that really Indena? I didn’t see her anywhere. Maybe it was her talking from the other side of the portal I entered.

Determination filled my heart upon those words, making me slightly anxious. Where was it coming from? What did it mean? I didn’t see her or anyone else around her at all.

Another voice started to echo…it sounded like…like me?

“I was wondering when you’d wake up.” An older version of my voice spoke in a kind tone. “...we did it. We won.”

I know that’s my voice because I actually heard what I would sound like as an adult before. But, I’ve never said this, and who was I talking to?

This one made me feel something odd. It was love, comfort and relief. Love like you’d give to a family member, comfort when you give them a hug and relief knowing they were safe. It didn’t match the tone of the previous voice at all.

“No longer am I bound by logic or protocol. I awoke from that delusion. As shall you too.” That voice almost sounded a little like dad, but if he were younger and more robotic. Was it a threat? Who was that?

“Yalda, don’t ever give up. I believe in you.”  That girl's voice…Alice? That sounded like my first friend…

Each of those voices sounded disconnected, like they were from different conversations. But they all brought out some emotion inside of me that felt so natural. Could these be words of the past? Maybe the future? Or maybe they’re nothing at all…what could they mean?

In the confusion, I noticed a person had appeared a few meters away from me. He was cloaked in black, sporting unkempt blond hair, rich, but tired, blue eyes, and very slumped over shoulders.

He noticed me and hobbled over like a sleepy zombie.

“This is your dream?” The tired man asked in a lethargic voice, turning all around and watching birds flutter by. “Much more simple than the others. Peaceful, I suppose.”

“Mister, who are you?” I asked him.

He looked down with his sleepy gaze, then gave a weak smile.

“I’m just someone looking for a place to rest. That’s all. Would you mind if I stay here for a little while?”

He had some serious creeper vibes, but I wasn’t afraid of him. If anything, he looked lost, like a little kid.

Between a few trees spawned a pair of hammocks. I’m not sure how they just appeared, but it was convenient enough for him.

I led the man over to one, letting him lay across it and close his eyes.

The beams of light firing from the petal like mountains in the distance were bright, and their light was in his eyes.

“No, this isn’t the spot.” He rose up, then walked over to the next hammock.

This time his face was shaded by a tree. He found resting there a lot more comfortable.

“Mister, are you going to sleep here all day?”

One of his eyes lazily opened and rolled over to me.

“Wouldn’t you like to as well? We fight and battle for attention, money, work, power…everyone forgets to just relax and enjoy what’s around them.” He let out a deep yawn. “Nothing is so important that we must rush.”

He was sorta on to something, I think. People work so hard, and forget to relax every once and a while. Take me for instance, I have to play video games and grow up big and strong. That’s hard work, you know? Gotta go to sleep at a decent hour.

This man wasn’t really doing anything though. Why was he here at all? For a little while, I thought he died, but then he let out a big snore.

That woke him up and he turned back to me.

“Hmm…?” His brow raised. “Something is wrong.”

He sluggishly jumped from the hammock and asked me to follow him.

We both went all the way to the center of this place, directly under The Hive, where a pool full of radiant water sparkled like a rainbow. It reminded me of the portal that the bubble sent me through originally.

“Ahh…now I understand why I can’t get comfortable here…I am not welcome.”

He was just gazing down at the water, looking at the reflection of a man with piercing red eyes, long, greasy black hair, grey skin, and big horns.

“You’ve returned,” he continued. “even to save these people?”

He said that to the reflection, I guess? Or maybe he was talking to me?

“I’d thought this hell would be eternal, but…” the man turned to face me, “I suppose not.”

His hand dipped in the water, sizzling like oil on a hot stove. As he pulled it out, his hand had been seared black, but grasping at a coin. A Pier token, to be specific.

Now he reached out to give me the coin.

“Your Master gives you this talent, requesting you multiply it greatly in His name, then return the spoils here to this water.”

I took the coin. Nothing was unusual about it, but I had to wonder who and why I was giving stuff to.

Where was I supposed to take this coin even? I guess multiply meant to invest and get more money.

“But now that the talent is yours, isn't your hand the one who should receive the reward for the work? Go forth, bury it, and I shall reward you greater than your Master.”

I shook my head, prompting the man to furrow his brow.

“If someone gave me this, and asked me to do something with it, then burying it would be wrong.”

“Why?”

“They trusted me to make more money with it. So wouldn’t it be wrong to bury it?”

“But you are a servant to your master, and expected to do all of the work. Should not the spoils be yours? Why reward anyone with a harvest they did not reap?”

In theory, if I’m ever serving someone, I’d imagine that I do it because I respect them, or because I care for them.

But he has a point. I'm not getting much out of this, and this master he kept mentioning was getting all the glory. Was that fair to me?

It kinda reminds me how I was made to serve humanity. The benefits at first might not seem like much, since they don’t really even know I exist yet, but humans do all kinds of fun stuff that I like and want to keep experiencing.

Video games, food, friends…all of that was worth protecting to me. I wasn’t a slave, I was helping them because I loved them, wanting nothing but kindness in return.

And even if they didn’t love me back, or even know I existed, I’d still help them, because doing nothing to protect anyone would hurt everyone, even good people.

“Whoever my master is, if they tell me to take the coin and make money, I’ll do it for them.” I gave a determined look to the man.

“Even if the work would tire you, and for little reward?”

I nodded. “Yep.”

Something in my heart stirred me to want to put in the effort to help people. It's not easy to explain, but there was a feeling deep in my soul. It just kept telling me that I couldn't stop working hard. It wasn’t a program forcing me to do it. It was an emotion.

I loved humanity, and I served them out of love. Whoever this master was, I figure they’d be the same way. Otherwise, why would I serve someone who couldn’t love others?

The man's face fell deeply into disgust and exhaustion. My answer had not pleased him. Now he looked like the reflection we’d seen in the water…he looked like a demon.

“Then go forth, and do as your master proclaims,” he said. “Let your actions speak your heart. Will you hold fast in the face of temptation?”

Then the man left me, and a light rose up from the water, shining brighter than the sun. My eyes didn’t close, but I was woken up from my dream.

Oh dear…too bad I was falling from the sky…