-BEN-

  Ben was jolted awake by the loud crashing sound.

  It took him a few seconds to recall where he was. He felt the soft couch, and noticed the flowers on the floor and the wooden walls around him.

  Right, he thought. He was on Chin, in Phillip's house.

  He heard a loud female voice cry out. "Kalo!"

  "Sorry!" replied a squeaky voice. "Do you think he heard?"

  "I don't really care," the first voice replied.

  "I'll check."

  The kitchen door cracked open, and Ben saw the small Chintari girl peek through the gap. Their eyes met, and she gasped, then quickly closed the door with a loud bang.

  "Kalo!" the first voice cried again. "I've told you to stop banging doors."

  "He saw meeee! He looked right at meeee!"

  The first person sighed. The door opened again, this time much wider. Ben recognised Phillip's older sister, Lalo.

  Lalo stepped into the living room. The other sister, Kalo, followed her, hiding behind her older sister's skirts.

  "Good day human," Lalo said. She was trying to project a confident facade, but Ben could tell she was a little scared. She had a slight waver in her voice.

  "Hello," Ben said.

  "We are making food for you," Lalo said. "We would appreciate it if you actually ate it this time."

  Scared but brave, Ben thought. He glanced down at the small table they had placed next to him. The food and drink they had brought him in the night was gone. Ben looked back at Lalo and nodded. She seemed satisfied with that.

  "Also," she added. "One of your companions woke up not long ago. She's outside." Lalo pointed towards the front door.

  It must be the Priestess, Ben thought. Saya would take a bit longer to recover.

  "Thank you," he said to Lalo. She nodded then turned around and ushered her curious little sister back into the kitchen.

  Ben slowly rose to his feet. His body still ached but it was much better than before. He did a few stretches, then walked to the front door.

  Night had long passed. A blazing morning sun hung high in the air.

  Guess I've been asleep for a while, Ben thought.

  He stepped out on the wooden patio and surveyed the scenery. They were surrounded on all sides by plains covered with fields of long grass. The sun's rays bathed the grass with a warm yellow glow.

  Ben saw the Priestess a short distance away from the house. She had changed her clothing and now wore a long red dress that flapped in the gentle morning breeze. The dress left her arms bare exposing the rectangular tattoos etched along them.

  She was staring up at the sky and holding a piece of paper in front of her. She looked healthy, and Ben was glad about that. He descended the patio stairs and walked towards her.

  She heard him approach and turned to greet him. "Agent Wilson," she said. "I could tell it was you by your footsteps. So purposeful and bold."

  "Priestess," Ben replied. "I'm glad to see you're well."

  She smiled. "I am. Our hosts were very gracious to lend me their bath and some of their clothes." She looked Ben up and down. "I think you would do well to take advantage of that grace too."

  "I'm fine," Ben said.

  The Priestess made a face. "At least the bath," she said.

  "I'm fine," Ben repeated.

  She chuckled. "So be it."

  He stared at her long and hard, his thoughts casting back to their fall from the freighter. He remembered the magic she had used, and the familiarity of it.

  The Priestess caught him looking. "Are you surprised I'm so jovial?" she said, looking away.

  No, Ben thought. That was part of it, but not the main thing. He nodded anyway.

  "You are right to be," the Priestess said. "The freighter blew up. My people may be dead. And I am far away from where I have to be. But I have chosen not to worry. I've been worrying since I began this mission, trying to make everything perfect and everything has turned out the opposite. Now I choose not to worry. I will just press on."

  Ben looked at the piece of paper in her hand. It was a map.

  "Is that how you plan to press on?" he asked.

  She looked at the map. "Yes," she said. "I had hoped our hosts would have had something digital, but this will suffice. They're not a very technologically advanced family."

  She pointed to one spot on the eastward side of the map. "This is where we are right now. And we need to get here." She pointed at a cluster of islands in the northwest corner.

  Ben raised his eyebrows. "That's… far."

  The Priestess chuckled. "Yeah."

  "Why?" Ben asked.

  She looked at him in confusion. "Pardon me?"

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  "Why?" Ben repeated. "When my partner and I were given this mission, we were told that we would be helping the First Light settle on the planet. We didn't get the opportunity to ask many questions, but we're used to that. Now I'm starting to think we should have asked a lot of questions. That power you showed, the blue aura, that was the Vector Force. I know what it feels like. There aren't many humans with the Vector Force. And it makes me wonder why the Order of First Light would let one go to such a far corner of the universe, with just two Stellar Agents to protect her. It also makes me wonder who you are."

  He studied her face again. Fen had a little sister, but Amara couldn’t be her. Fen’s little sister had a round face and was a crybaby. Admittedly, that had been many years ago, but still…

  The Priestess folded the map slowly. Ben could tell that she was making an effort to look away from him. When the map was fully folded, she clenched it tightly and sighed.

  "I was wondering how to tell you," she said.

  Ben felt an odd sensation in his chest.

  "You’re Mae," he whispered.

  The Priestess nodded. "But I prefer Amara now," she said.

  A wave of mixed emotions flashed through Ben. He hadn’t been close to Mae. Frankly, he had ignored her most of the time, but she had been ever-present during his childhood in the Order.

  Fen’s little sister. Did she know? How would he respond if she asked? Should he tell her that it was his fault?

  She looked at him and smiled sadly. "Don’t worry, Ben Wilson," she said. "I already know my sister is dead."

  The words hit Ben like a blow to the chest, as if he was the one just finding out the news. Fen was dead. The words reverberated in his head.

  "Let’s go inside and talk," Amara said. She turned around, and Ben followed her back to the house. When they entered, she tossed the map onto one of the couches and called out, "Kalo!"

  There was a sound of scampering feet and the Chintari child came bounding out of the kitchen.

  "Amara!" she cried. She leapt into the Priestess' warm embrace. Amara squeezed her tightly and when they broke apart, the Priestess crouched down to talk to the little girl.

  "Kalo, can you get me some paper and a pencil? I would like to draw something for my friend Ben."

  "Ben," Kalo echoed in wonder. She turned a pair of shining eyes on Ben. "That's a nice name."

  "Thank you," Ben said gruffly.

  "I'll bring the things!" Kalo cried as she ran out of the room.

  Ben turned to look at Amara. "You move fast," he said.

  "I like people," she responded. "It's part of the job." That was part of the questions he wanted to ask her. When Ben and Fen had left the Order, Mae had just been an untalented junior acolyte. She showed no talent in magic, and had low expectations set for her. She had once told Fen that all she wanted to do was run the orphanage they had grown up in.

  It was one of the things that made it easier for Fen to leave her. She left with the knowledge that her younger sister would not rise into some of the more dangerous positions in the Order; dangerous positions like High Priestess.

  Kalo appeared, holding a paper and a black pencil. She handed them over to Amara and smiled happily when Amara thanked her.

  "I'm going now!" Kalo said, shouting at the top of her voice. "Bye Amara! Bye Ben!" She vanished into the kitchen, and Amara laughed. The Priestess then turned to Ben and gestured at the table in the center of the room.

  "Let's sit," she said.

  Ben followed her, and they sat on couches on opposite sides of the table. Amara set the paper on the table and drew lines on it, dividing it into three parts. She looked up at Ben and smiled. "I’m sure you have a lot of questions," she said.

  Ben nodded slowly. His eyes wandered to her tattoos. The Order awarded tattoos for accomplishments; one tattoo per accomplishment. Amara had a lot of tattoos.

  Amara began to draw on the paper. She drew in the first of the three parts of the paper, speaking as she drew.

  "Sorry about this," she said. "Drawing helps me think."

  Ben remembered that Mae loved to draw. She also loved to pester people with her drawings. Seeing her doing it again brought memories to his mind. He pushed them away. Those memories would inevitably lead to Fen, and that would make him unhappy.

  Amara continued. "I cried when you guys left the Order. I cried a lot. My sister was the only family I knew. I cried for days, months even. I thought she was the meanest person in the world. She left without a word to me, her little sister. Who does that?"

  Despite the content of her speech, Amara had a smile on her face. On the paper she drew two little girls, then drew hearts around them. In the corner, she drew a smaller face. The new character had a scowl on his face. She pointed at the character and looked at Ben.

  "That’s you," she said with a chuckle.

  Ben felt a smile touch his lips.

  Amara continued speaking, "But one day, she came back."

  Ben frowned.

  He didn’t know Fen had returned to the Order. He had enrolled in the Stellar Authority Academy with Fen not too long after leaving the Order.

  Fen was truant, and skipped many classes, sometimes disappearing for weeks, but Ben hadn’t known she had actually returned to the Order.

  "She came in the night," Amara said. "She snuck into my room and kidnapped me. She took me to the three hills. I’m sure you remember the place." Amara drew the three hills on her paper. She filled the space above the hills with stars.

  Ben did remember the three hills. It was a favourite spot among the Order’s acolytes, because it offered a grand view of the starry sky.

  Amara smiled as she drew in the stars. "That was when she told me the reason you guys left. She told me about how she wanted to protect the galaxy. She wanted to become a commander."

  "She became one," Ben interjected. He felt the need to let Amara know that her sister had achieved her dream.

  "I know," Amara said softly. "I felt so proud of her when she told me her dream, but it made me feel small. When she left, I made a choice. I was also going to protect people. I was going to push myself to my limit."

  Amara began to draw in the second part of the paper. She drew one of the little girls she had drawn before, but this time the girl had a sad face. She drew thorns, she drew books, she drew exercise equipment.

  "I trained a lot," Amara said. She drew hands with cuts in them. "I trained till I bled. And one day, it happened." She drew a small circle with smoke coming off of it. "I activated my mana core. The tutors were so pleased. And they became elated when they realised I could use the Vector Force."

  This time Amara dropped the pencil. She held her hand above it and a blue aura emerged from her hand and touched the pencil. She waved her hand, and the pencil lifted into the air. She began to draw on the paper. The drawings were far more crude than they had been.

  "My magic is a little different from my sister’s," Amara said. "Fen had more raw power. Apparently, my magic is supposed to represent fine control."

  She laughed. "But I’m not the best at it. I did learn some special skills though. And those helped me rise fast in the Order."

  She began to draw in the third column of the paper. There she drew crowns and laurels. "I became the best," she said. "And that’s why I’m here. You were with the Order, Ben Wilson. You should know our mission."

  Ben knew the mission of the Order of the First Light. The problem was that he didn’t believe it. The Order believed that all mana emerged from one first light that seeded the galaxy. They believed that all things had pieces of the first light inside of them. But even more importantly, they believed there were great collections of this light hidden around the galaxy. They wanted to find these pieces and recollect them to create another great light.

  Frankly, Ben believed most of it was made up mumbo jumbo, but he appreciated that the Order tended to bring peace wherever it went. It just hadn’t been the right place for him.

  "So you’re here to find one of the great lights?" he asked Amara.

  She nodded. "There’s one in Andaris," she said. "I’m certain of it."

  "And what happens when you find it?" Ben asked.

  "Peace," she responded. "Peace and prosperity for the Andaris reach." Ben could see that she believed every word she was saying.

  "Okay," he said softly. "I am here to help you. I’ll do that."

  "Thank you," she said.

  They had avoided the topic of Fen’s death.

  Maybe one day, Ben said to himself.

  The kitchen door opened and Lalo and Kalo walked in, holding plates of food.

  As they set down the plates, Ben looked at Lalo. "Where are your father and brother?" he asked. "I wanted to ask them a few questions."

  Lalo hesitated before answering. "Father and Phillip have gone to a nearby village. They've gone to gather resources for you to use when you leave here."

  "That's kind of them," the Priestess said.

  "Yes," Lalo responded. "They should be back soon. They took the speeder bikes."