Within the empty, echoey walls of the great room, P'mauwa was sitting in the middle of the room, the glowing green disc spinning idly in front of her face. Inhaling slowly and deeply, she closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes, a new determination filled them and she pursed her lips tightly together.
She stood up, keeping her concentration on the green spinning disc, and walked to the gigantic window. She spread her hands on her sides and turned her face to the ceiling. Slowly, the green disk spun faster, and rose in the air so it reached her height, and then soared above her.
P'mauwa looked into the disc and tilted her head slightly. "Help me," she asked timidly at first. "Help me," she repeated, more determined than ever.
"I don't know if you understand me, but the fate of the galaxy is at stake," she said. "If my father gets his hands on this Gate, gets his hands on my power, there's nothing that can stop him. He will wipe out every planet he encounters, just like he has done countless times before."
The disc spun in the air, wavering like a failing hologram. But it remained silent. No reply came, no matter how much P'mauwa wished for. She let her hands drop, and turned her gaze downwards, closing her eyes. She sighed hard, and the sound of it echoed through the room.
"Please," she pleaded in barely more than a whisper. "I don't want to be responsible for more death."
Something within the wavering disc changed, and a faint blue glow faded in and mixed with the spinning green. Slowly, the amount of blue increased until the disc seemed to be a mix of the two colors.
"Who are you?" came a soft, barely audible whisper from within the swirling colors. It seemed as though the voice belonged to a young girl.
P'mauwa's eyes flew open, and she gasped loudly. Involuntarily, she took a step backwards as her eyes stared at the swirling blue color within the familiar red disc. Her breath catching in her throat, her hand shaking life dead leaves in the wind, she reached for the swirl.
"My ... My name is P'mauwa," she said. "Who are you? Where are you? What are you?" she asked, eager to know what was different now, than any other time she had tried this same thing.
"My name is Lilaina. I'm ... at home. I'm an elf. Who are you? Where are you?" the voice said. "How are you able to talk to me? Why is there now green on my En-il-aella?"
"On your what?" P'mauwa asked, her eyebrow shooting up.
"En-il-aella. This ... this thing that I've always had. The spinning blue disc. That's only there when I want?" the voice of Lilaina explained.
"Oh," P'mauwa said softly. "I'm P'mauwa er Ulera et Di'gatha. I'm aboard a large warship called Kth'a Tjak e-wnar. And I don't know how I'm able to do this now. I've done this countless of times before. I've tried for years to ask and plead, and nobody has ever asked."
"Is it because today, I'm considered a person? Because I'm old enough to carry my name in public?" Lilaina asked.
"It might be," P'mauwa said, tilting her head to the side. "I don't know how this works. Try concentrating on my voice. Try imagining a big, empty room with nothing but me in it. Tell me where you are."
With a trembling voice, Lilaina reluctantly agreed. "Okay, I'll try. Then you try imagining a small room inside a big tree. There's a window looking into a beautiful valley. And there are soft cushions in the room, and a life-fire," she said.
P'mauwa stared into the swirling colors, and something wavered in there. She squeezed her eyebrows together, trying to concentrate better. Slowly, an image appeared inside the swirling mists of the combined discs. It was an image of a young girl, maybe a few years younger than P'mauwa herself. She had long blonde hair that was freely flowing around her shoulders. Her eyes were brilliant green, and her ears were as long as P'mauwa's palms. She was wearing a simple, yet beautiful, black tunic.
"Oh! Your eyes ...!" Lilaina exclaimed, her brilliant green eyes widened in surprise, and P'mauwa noticed her hand move to her lips. "Can you see?"
P'mauwa nodded. "I can. Our eyes are like that. Yours are really beautiful. I've never seen anything that green in my life before," she said dreamingly.
"Do you know what this is, what we have?," she asked. "The thing you call ... what was it ...? Enilella?"
Lilaina smiled at her and chuckled. P'mauwa had heard nothing that beautiful before in her life.
"En-il-aella," Lilaina repeated. "No, I don't. It's just always been with me, for as long as I can remember. I've never been able to do anything with it before, though."
"They are Gates," P'mauwa said gently. "They can be used to travel across vast distances. You can never let it fall into evil hands, Lilaina. Never. Even if it means ... even if it means dying." She said it solemnly, her expression matching her words.
Lilaina nodded, pursing her lips together. "Okay," she whispered, her expression worried.
"I will help you, Lilaina," P'mauwa said. "But first you need to help me. I -- and my Gate -- are in terrible danger. Even as we speak, there's an evil man who wants to take mine and conquer the galaxy with it."
"What can I do?" Lilaina asked, her voice shaky and thin.
"I'm not sure. I don't know if this will work. But imagine that this is a door. Concentrate hard on it. Try as hard as you can to imagine this as a door that opens between us," P'mauwa said.
Lilaina nodded, closed her eyes, and her eyebrows squeezed together as she pursed her lips shut. P'mauwa took a deep breath and concentrated on imagining the spinning disc being a door. A door that would lead her to Lilaina. A door that would get her away from her father. A door, to salvation.
She inhaled deeply, held it in for as long as she could, then let it slowly out. Closing her eyes, she stepped into the swirling mists, and disappeared. The swirling mists faded and the great room was now emptier than it had ever been before. Its walls cold and lifeless, the only light coming out of the great window. As the last lingering tendrils of the Gate disappeared, a new page in the cosmic history opened, and the first word on the page was "hope."
Author's Note: Thus ends our brief foray into the Di'gatha side. Who were these people? Will we see them again? Did P'mauwa actually manage to escape? Who is the Lord? Next time we will return to see what our young couple comes up with, when they set their minds together.
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