* * *
Kayin ran down the sidewalk pulling me along, urging me to go faster. He was so cute; I'd never seen him this excited before.
"Gavin and Anali are way behind us, Big Brother, and they're the ones who are paying for us to get in. Maybe we should slow down?" I laughed as I tried to keep up without breaking into a run.
"I bet the entrance has something interesting to look at," Kayin insisted and tugged on my hand.
The outside of the aquarium didn't look very exciting, but I knew what waited inside, and I watched Kayin's face as we walked through the door.
His round eyes were huge as he took in the bits he could see from the ticket counter. "Look," he whispered, as if the huge model of a humpback whale hanging from the ceiling would vanish if it knew we were watching it. "Sapphire, it's beautiful."
"Wait, it gets even more amazing," I said, squeezing his hand. Kayin's joy and excitement bubbled through me, and soon both of us were bouncing on the balls of our feet waiting for Gavin and Anali to show up.
"All right, you two, where should we go first?" Gavin asked and handed us a map.
"There's too much to see," Kayin sighed, after looking the map over.
"I'm sure we'll get to see everything," I said.
"Maybe we should start here and see everything on the bottom floor, then move onto the top floor," Anali suggested.
"Okay, let's go," Kayin said as he tugged me to the first big observation window.
Kayin reached out to touch a round window and startled when his fingers didn't find anything. Leaning forward he stretched his arm into the recessed window, until he found the glass of the half sphere. "Oh," he gasped as he looked up into the water.
Kayin was mesmerized by a sunfish, when a shark suddenly swam over him. No matter how he tells the story, Kayin squealed a very unmanly squeal as he fell out of the window trying to get away from the shark.
"That was so amazing," he breathed, as we laughed. "Come on, Sapphire, you can protect me from the sharks."
"Sure, but don't you think the glass will do that?" I asked, lying back into the window with him.
"Have you ever seen anything as beautiful as this?" he asked ignoring my question.
Looking up into the water, I watched as huge ocean fish swam around us, their scales glittering as they moved through the water with enviable grace. "You're right, this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
The smile Kayin gave me came in a close second.
As we walked through the aquarium, I felt something new. Carefully, I filtered the other people's emotions as Shamash and Aya taught me. It took a bit longer as my empathy wasn't picking up much beyond Kayin's joy anyway.
Standing in front of the seahorse display I felt it again--a soft hum of thought and emotion, a simple contented awareness. All I knew was that the hum wasn't human. Following Kayin, I tried to figure out what I felt.
"Look up," Gavin said. "They're stunning."
Silver sardines swam above us in a circle. Then I noticed happiness, like a little giggle, and three of the sardines suddenly changed direction. The rest of the fish exploded, frantic to swim the new way.
"Those little troublemakers," Gavin laughed. "Did you see those three mess up how the rest were swimming?"
I gripped Kayin's hand a bit tighter. Did I feel the fish? I didn't know I could feel animal emotions, too. They felt different, less complicated, and maybe shared?
"I changed my mind. This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," Kayin said, as we stopped in front of a new window.
The reverence in Kayin's voice brought me out of my thoughts. In front of me were dozens of jellyfish. Their translucent bodies pulsed as they moved through the water. The hum of contentment felt stronger here, but even more simple than the sardines.
It was odd sensing a creature without a brain. They didn't feel or think anything. They simply were in the moment, and that was all. Walking through the aquarium, I found most of the creatures felt that way, totally in the moment without thought, and most without emotions, just a sense of being.
I smiled at a particularly agitated octopus. Its fight-or-flight instincts were in high gear as a young child tapped on the glass of its home.
Placing my hand on the glass I attempted to send out a feeling of safety. My gift warmed and slowly moved from my lower belly to my hand. Confused as to why it moved so sluggishly, I waited as calmly as possible. I didn't want to send the poor creature fearful emotions.
Once the octopus calmed down, I stepped back onto someone's foot! "Oh, I'm so sorry."
"It's okay. They are very fascinating creatures, aren't they?" an old man said, his face alight with amusement.
"Yes, very." Quickly, I found Anali, Gavin and Kayin. So far no one had managed to sneak up on me since I changed, I could always feel everyone. As we walked up the stairs, I tried to discover why my powers were so weak.
"Let's see what's outside." Anali moved toward the door.
"Sure." Gavin held open the door for us. The first tank we saw slowly drained of water. Small creatures clung to the rocks, and seaweeds drooped as the water vanished. We heard a dull rushing sound, then a wave crashed into the tank. Jumping back I bumped into Gavin, and he laughed.
Kayin and Anali were both fascinated with the wave and began to read the information plaques about tidal pools. I sat down on a bench, using the moment to focus inward. Quickly, I checked the two main points of power. My necklace lay against my throat, cool and still—--the connection to Akasha gone! Checking deep in my belly I looked for the fire Anali helped me create. What I found instead was an ash-gray rock.
I was still all closed up from this morning! I remembered making my powers as small as possible so we couldn't be seen, and I guess I never released them. Mentally, I poked at the rock, it steamed a bit like a fissure in a volcano. My empathy began leaking out. Good, I wanted to feel the Sons of Belial if they came around again.
Well, now what? I didn’t want to open up my powers here. What if I couldn’t control them right away? What if people noticed? What if one of the Sons of Belial felt me? No, I couldn't let them go right now. I wasn’t in any pain, so why not leave them alone? The Phoenix powers could stay hidden for a while.
"Sapphire, are you okay?" Gavin asked.
"I'm great." Smiling, I stood up. "Where to next?"
"The otters.” Gavin pointed the way and I followed, happy that for today no weird out-of-this-world stuff had happened.
Chapter Twenty-Two
"Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom."