Tom Dowd - Burning Bright

Kyle also saw many patches of dark, places in the city where the creations of man were strong enough to dominate the living auras that inhabited them. The Shattergraves of old downtown Chicago was a dark blight, a scar across what had once been the heart of the city. That, however, was not Kyle's destination, but Truman Tower, still south of him.

He soared that way, high above the city, which passed as a prismatic blur beneath him. The Tower soon loomed before him, cold and dim in astral space, but recognizable by its shape and location. Dim patches of life could be seen emanating from within it, but the non-living obviously dominated.

Kyle shot toward the penthouse and entered through the lakeside windows that opened into what the Trumans used as their family room. Seated on the central couches were Melissa and her sister Madeleine, whom Kyle had met only in passing at the hospital. She was older by nearly a decade than either Melissa or Mitchell, and was lighter of complexion as well as build.

Entering the room, he hovered there as Charlotte also entered from the floor below. She braked to a quick stop in front of him.

"Master," came the reverberations of her voice through astral space. "The watcher found you!"

"What happened?" Kyle asked her.

"The area you told me to guard was entered by another spirit," the elemental told him. "I sensed it and moved to strike at it, but it sensed me also and fled before I could reach it. I did not pursue, as you did not instruct me to."

"No, you did well. Did you see what it was?"

"I could not," Charlotte replied. "Its coloration was dark."

"Dark?" asked Kyle. "It was weak?"

"No, it was powerful, but its colors were dark."

That puzzled Kyle. He'd never heard of any spirit with dark coloration. Then again, there were many things about this that he-

Something was wrong. The two women had stood up and were backing away across the room, frightened by something in his vicinity. He turned and looked behind, but saw only the dark opacity of the plasteel windows. He and Charlotte were the only beings present in the room beside Melissa and Madeleine.

Of course. He was unmasked and radiating power, which meant he was probably leaking some of that energy into the physical world, and Charlotte's presence was probably compounding the problem. The result was undoubtedly an area of haze or distortion hanging in the room. Between the two of them they might even be dumping off enough energy into the physical world to make the area glow slightly.

"We need to manifest," he told Charlotte.

"Very well," the spirit said grudgingly.

Kyle willed his astral form into synchrony with the physical world, and then allowed himself to appear there, ghostly and insubstantial. It was the best he could manage while he was a spirit without body.

The women were startled, and began to race toward the nearest doorway. Kyle held out his hand. "Melissa, Madeleine!" he called. "It's all right. It's Kyle Teller!"

They paused a moment as the more familiar form, at least for Melissa, of Charlotte appeared next to him. Slowly, recognition dawned on Melissa's face, though Madeleine still seemed frightened.

"Jesus fraggin' Christ!" Melissa said. "You scared the drek out of us!"

Kyle smiled and shrugged. "Sorry. I didn't realize you'd be able to see signs of Charlotte and me. Manifesting seemed to be the only thing to do once you noticed us."

Melissa turned toward her sister. "Maddy, you remember Mr. Teller from the hospital."

Madeleine Truman nodded. "Yes. Yes, I do. Of course, he looked slightly different then."

Melissa laughed. "Yes, I suppose he did."

Kyle started when he realized what was going on. His astral form, glowing and sparking with energy, was quite nude and quite idealized. He reached out and grabbed Charlotte and pulled the spirit down in front of his waist.

"Sorry," he said.

"Please," said Madeleine, "don't be modest on our account."

"Yes," said Melissa, "we had no idea." She smiled. "I mean there are all sorts of stories about orks and trolls, and even dwarfs, but I'd never heard of magicians being so, um, gifted."

"Unfortunately, it's not quite like that." Kyle was about to explain, then realized he didn't really want to. Let them think what they pleased. "There's no change in your brother's condition, but I wanted to check on you and the rest of the family."

"We're fine," said Melissa. "My mother and father are packing some clothes so they can stay at the hospital with Mitchell until you and the doctors can figure out what's wrong with him."

"Have you had any luck?" Madeleine asked.

"No, not really. Some theories, but nothing more than that."

Melissa broke in suddenly. "Oh! There was a message waiting here when we got back. The staff said some woman had called looking for Mitch. She sounded upset."

"Did she leave her name?"

Melissa shook her head. "No. She hung up when the maid said he was in the hospital."

"Damn," said Kyle. Now whoever it was, probably Linda Hayward, knew Mitchell was in the hands of his family. "Does Facile know about the phone call?"

"Yes, Hanna told him right away."

"Good. Tell Hanna to instruct the staff not to give out any more information."

"She's already done that."

"Good. I'm going back to the hospital. I'll let you know if anything changes."

"Thanks," said Melissa.

"Hope to see you again," added Madeleine.

Kyle smiled. "I suspect you will." He returned to astral space. "Charlotte, resume your duties. But make sure Lieutenant Facile of Knight Errant knows that another spirit was here."

"Yes, Master," the spirit replied.

And Kyle flew off back to the hospital.

He sat up and blinked, stretching out the slight lethargy that had begun to seep into his limbs. He'd been separated from his body for less than half an hour, a fraction of the time he was able to spend disassociated, but the body always showed some effects regardless.

"Everything is well?" Seeks-the-Moon asked.

Kyle nodded. "Some kind of spirit…" His words trailed off as he saw Delta, the watcher spirit, still hovering at the far side of the room. He sighed. "Delta," he said.

“Yes!" It bounced to life and began circling him.

"Go back to Charlotte and do what she tells you," he told it

"Yes!" it cried jubilantly and then vanished.

Seeks-the-Moon shrugged. "I tried to tell it the same thing, but it wouldn't listen."

"Doesn't matter now. What's important is that some kind of spirit visited the apartment. Charlotte couldn't recognize it, but she noticed something very strange. The spirit was dark."

"Dark?" both Seeks-the-Moon and Doctor Douglas said in unison.

"Dark. I don't really know what that means either."

Seeks-the-Moon turned toward Mitchell. "He's dark…"

Kyle nodded. "I thought of that. What if Mitch's astral self has somehow gotten separated from his body? What if it was off, lost somewhere, while his body slowly died?"

"That's a possibility," the doctor said.

"Except," said Seeks-the-Moon, "that his aura isn't weakening. It's dim, nearly dead, but stable."

Kyle sighed. "I know." He stood and looked at Mitchell Truman's still form. "We've got to find out what's going on in case he gets worse."

"Worse?" asked Doctor Douglas. "Pardon my pessimism, but this boy isn't going to get better. His mind is simply gone."

"I know, but there's always a chance." Kyle turned to Seeks-the-Moon. "Go back to the Truman residence and stay there in case another one of those spirits shows up. If it does, see what you can learn."

The spirit nodded. "I will."

"Also, while you're there, find an empty room and set up a full ritual circle."

"How big?"

Kyle paused and thought. "Nine meters across."