Huh! Last night I dreamed that I'd published a new book. I even posted about it in my FB group. Feels weird waking up and realizing that I didn't.
Perhaps my dream was a vision of the future. Yesterday, I wrote 1395 words (according to WPS) I never know exactly how many words I've written since all word processors count words differently, and none can decide on what a word actually is.
Here, I'll show my work. It's a plagiarism, of sorts, because I published two books in this universe, trying to go for a g-rated thing, and it was a mess. So I'm trying to recover the story and add it into my revised universe, which will be it's own new thing under a different name.
CoRaeL, the tall, gray, earless alien slithered into Tasha Dot Luramah's head. The intrusion felt foreign and cold, Tasha's stomach flipped in anxious flight.
Tasha rebelled against her stomach and refused to puke or give into the fear.
Tasha had learned of the SKRaeLLioN's in school, their kind were part of early EspirePsire experimentation to create stronger psiful telepaths. Their lack of ears created a race who only communicated intrapsifully.
"I thought all the SKRaeLLioN's died in the Lyzalien war," Tasha thought.
"You were taught many lies, young rebel. Come with me and learn the truth." At his words, the prison doors shattered open; Tasha stared in awe at the impressive show of power, but didn't move. The SKRaeLLioN worked for Auldron Arcturus, the man who had imprisoned her in the first place. "Why should I trust you? You were right there and you did star-squat to help me or my sister."
"Scarlet Dot Ruhamah chose her own future. Now it is time to choose your own."
"You did something to her," Tasha accused. "You were in her head, she passed out, then she was carried away. She could be dead now, for all I know."
CoRaeL frowned,"you were deeply bonded to this sibling, weren't you?"
Tasha shrugged. "she was bossy, arrogant, and never listened because she was always right, but she was still my sister."
CoRaeL sighed, "very well."
Tasha was out before she could question the SKRaeLLioN’s words.
***
“Yared,” Racaela’s familiar voice whispered in the air before her blond haired, blue-eyed loveliness shimmered into focus. Yared was shocked. The last time he saw her she was a bare foot, white night gowned child with plaited hair. Today she was a woman, her golden hair curled gracefully around her shoulders, her night gown replaced with a green, figure accentuating dress, her high heeled shoes were green as well.
“Racaela, what happened to you? I know it’s been six years since I saw you last, but you couldn’t have grown up that much. “Yared Omrison frowned, his midnight-black eyes welled with confusion. He’d had so many questions after the events six years ago which had led to her helping him rescue his splinter-clone, and setting up a new life with renewed purpose and personal growth. She had awakened him to the truth of his own power and the reality of his existence, given him fleeting descriptions of a war that was to come and then disappeared into the ether.
“I apologize for surprising you like this, Yared, but my mission demands that you understand some very basic facts about telepathy before we begin.”
“What mission?” Yared asked his stomach muscles tensing immediately.
“I need a lawyer,” Racaela twinkled mischievously.
“Since when do fairies need lawyers?”
“I am not a fairy. I'm a Lyzalien. What you see in front of you is merely a telepathic projection of what I wish you to see. That is why when you and Ishmail were small I appeared as the child I was when I died. Now that you are a man and I am coming to you for business purposes I appear like this.”
Yared was wary. He had been lied to so many times by Dr. Nola and also occasionally by Racaela that he no longer accepted every word as fact. “If you died does that make you a ghost? I doubt ghosts need lawyers, either.”
Racaela seated herself on the plush red visitors chair and gazed somberly at Yared across his desk. “When I was eight years old my people were murdered by the SKRaeLLioN. CalMoN WRauGHTH, their leader, set loose a virus that attacked every man, woman, and child on World Lyzaelia whose psiful gene was never turned on. Every psiless soul, that is every person who did not have psiful abilities, died in that plague. The only hope our people had was to download our conscious minds into the Ibrynic computer, a magical-extrapsiful wonder of a machine. I was one of the few thousand minds who were able to be saved.”
Yared was horrified into silence. He had no doubt by the unemotional inflection of her words, the way her body stiffened, and her blue eyes dulled that she was telling the truth. “I’m so sorry, Melina,” he said finally, “no wonder this war with the SKRaeLLioN is so personal to you. Did, did your family survive?”
“No, Yared, I was the only member of my family to survive the transition. Whenever I see a small child who is lost and alone my heart returns to those early moments when I, too, was alone in the machine, and that is why I have dedicated myself to saving as many children as possible.”
“And why you helped Ishmail and me,” Yared said.
“Yes, that’s why.”
“Ishmail will want to hear that story. He’s in school now. Sixth grade. He’s smart enough to be at university, but he is determined to be a normal kid and do everything that normal kids his age do. And I really want him to be able to do that.” Yared spoke of Ishmail as if he were his son rather than his actual progenitor.
“I want that for him, too. Which is why this mission is only for you. There is a woman, Neroli Rylenn who is currently being held on trial for treason and murder. I need for you to defend her in court, ensure she is clear of all charges, then bring her here to join us.”
“First of all, I am a lawyer in civil assessment. I’m a tax attorney, for crying out loud. I am not allowed to represent anyone in court, that is why I like my job. I am not qualified to defend murderers, and second of all, I would never subvert justice to the point of ensuring that a guilty person goes free. I’m sorry, Racaela. You need to find somebody else for this job.”
“Neroli is being held on Planet Irisia, in Kraelauria True. Your law credentials will do you no good out there. I need for you to pull the trial into your dreamworld where you can control the proceedings and the outcome. Ishmail has been teaching you, has he not?”
“Yes, he has,” Yared said slowly. “but I meant what I said about clearing murderers.”
“I believe Neroli is innocent. If you try her and find I am mistaken then let justice be served, but if she is truly innocent she could be a huge asset to our cause.”
Yared sighed. He hated leaving Ishmail, hated leaving his day-to-day schedule. He was a man who liked everything just so, variation was not his cup of tea. He had a hard time saying no to Racaela, however, or to the cause of justice. “Fine, where are we going and how long will we be gone?”
Racaela smiled and lit up the office. “We will be leaving the MultiReal and going out through the interdimensional door. I can fix time in the MultiReal, but doing so out there is beyond my power.”
“I’m not leaving Ishmail if we will be gone years in our time.” Yared said firmly, remembering the promise he’d made six years ago, wherever you go, Ishmail Omrison , I’ll go to."
Yared felt a slight stirring, a gentle rearrangement of atoms as the dreamworld slowly took over the real, and when he blinked Ishmail was standing before him, holding a three-court ball, his blue-black hair, tousled and unruly, the unruliness of Ishmail’s hair was the only true physical difference between the two other than their ages and the clothing they wore. Yared was dressed in his white striped business suit, while Ishmail was wearing his silver team jerzey with matching shorts.
“Racaela,” Ishmail cried, hugging her sideways, so as not to drop his ball. “We haven’t seen you in forever, is everything okay?”
