Gemini

Memories and Awakening

I didn't think that dying again would be so painless. Maybe it's just me being weird, but I was probably getting used to it.
Around me everything was dark and I could not see, much less feel, my body.
This time, however, the darkness did not last long.
I was flooded with memories from my entire life that, like a movie tape, were being projected into that dark space, flooding it with light. I wonder if this is what people mean when they say that "you saw life passing before your eyes."
I didn't exactly see my whole life, they were more like jumbled scenes with no logical thread to tie them together.
For example here on my left, I think, is me walking hand in hand with my parents through the streets of Andúnë. How old must I have been? Probably four or five. Those were definitely other times, happier times.
I looked away. I didn't want to bring back painful memories. But evidently someone didn't feel the same way.
My eyes fell on another scene: there was always me, still sleepy, going to open the front door, where the all-dressed lawyer waiting for me would tell me that my parents would never come back.
I wasn't even ten years old.
«Tsk» I thought. «So much for not wanting to bring up painful scenes». Fortunately, among all those scenes there were also some decidedly happier ones. I saw Nate and I skating hand of hand in Andúnë, always us practicing in the clearing and joking with Sebas. Even now I can hardly call myself an unlucky girl.

After a while the images began to fade, as if the movie had ended. I couldn't really tell you how much time had passed; it could have been seconds as well as centuries.
«Here is my lift to a new life» I said to myself. «Maybe this time I will be luckier».
In my eyes light returned, and then darkness again.
«What are you saying» I heard a voice say to me. «Look, it's not like you died, dumb».
Oh, great. Now even my new life is making fun of me.
I opened my eyes and blushed almost instantly, both at the stupid things I had probably said and at the situation I was in.
Nate was holding me with disarming ease as the rock fell on us burying us alive.
Or rather, that would be what it would have done had Nate not been Nate. Basically the rock had surrounded us on all sides, continuing to fall but never reaching us.
«Oh. That's an...interesting development» I managed to stammer, visibly embarrassed.
«Yeah» he replied. «I'm sorry I couldn't get there sooner, but I was afraid that moving at hypersonic speed would only do more damage. In the end, though, I had no choice: it was either this or having Ellie under a few dozen feet of dirt. Let's just say that both perspectives were not exactly the best. Oh and I apologize for one other thing as well» he continued. «I'm afraid it's still my fault you fainted. The sonic boom must have played some tricks on you».
Indeed, my head still hurt, but otherwise I didn't seem to be hurt. Except for the stupid ankle that led to all this.

«How long was I out of the game?» I asked still stunned. «Probably not even a couple of minutes».
Having ascertained that at least my recovery time was still decent, I decided to face the elephant in the room.
«Um, how do we want to get out of this situation?» I asked, slightly embarrassed that he was still holding me.
Mind you, not that I wasn't appreciating.
«That's a very good question. I could blow up the whole mountain, but I'm afraid that's not the best solution» he proposed.
Sometimes this guy unsettles me with these reckless ideas of his.
«I would say blowing up the mountain is not a solution» I interrupted him before he could get any more strange ideas. «Especially with Sebas outside waiting for us».
Evidently he hadn't taken that into consideration, because he made the funniest expression. I could hardly keep from laughing.
«All right genius, start thinking of something while I heal myself» I told him, smiling. I didn't even have to struggle to make my Gift work. After the traumatic experience of the dragon, it seems to me that it has become easier and easier to use.
Maybe it's because hardly any situation could become more stressful than that. In not even a minute I was able to get my ankle back on track. Not that I was in a hurry to get off, but the sooner we got out of that situation the better. Also because sooner or later the oxygen would run out.
I tugged at his sleeve, letting him know I was finished and he could put me down. He nodded as he gently lowered me to the ground. «Be careful not to stray too far, I don't know exactly how far the effect of my Gift goes» he told me.
To play it safe I leaned my back against his, reducing the space we occupied as much as possible and also avoiding putting too much strain on my newly healed ankle.
«Any ideas?» I asked him as I looked around.
«None that would work at the moment or would be a bad idea to test now. I also considered the idea of teleportation, but the way I would apply it would not help us» he explained.
«With your Gift you would also be able to teleport?!» I exclaimed in amazement. «Nate Greene, is there anything you can't do?». Nate shook his head laughing: «There are plenty. Some are even just too dangerous to be tested. Besides, I told you, I have no certainty that they would work».
I couldn't help but feeling envious hearing his words; he probably didn't even realize it, but he had made tremendous progress. I, on the other hand, was just trudging along trying to stay beside him. There was a time when the me of the past would have burst into tears seeing this wide gap, but the new Ellie has become tough.
Now the difficulties only spurred me on to give even more. I would take care of getting us out of this situation; my time to shine had come.
«Hear me out» began Nate, who may have sensed this state of mind of mine. «I'll try to get in touch with Sebas and tell him we're both okay, so maybe he can avoid worrying any more. You in the meantime try to think of a way to get out of here».
Since we were back to back I had no way of really understanding what he was doing, but I think he had rested his hand on a rock. All that was left was to trust that he could do what he thought he was doing.
So now it was my turn to do my part, too.
I began to think calmly. Could I have created something that would have helped?
Probably not: it would only have taken up a lot of space, depriving us of our already little freedom of movement.
Creating water or fire would have been quite useless, as well as unnecessarily dangerous. «Think Ellie, think» I said to myself. «There is definitely something you can do, and if you can't think of it just think harder».
Ever since I was a child, I have always had the trivial problem of being able to think about everything except what I should actually think about.
And the same thing happened this time, too.
My thoughts went back to the first time I had woken up in this new world and to Nate patiently explaining everything he knew about the Gifts.

Mine is that of Creation and his is that of Reality, right? With his Gift Nate was able to bring to life new phenomena that were otherwise physically impossible, but also to exploit already existing phenomena to his advantage by simply manipulating the parameters that rule them.
I, however, could only directly create new things from scratch, but never actually modify already existing things as Nate did.
Was it an inherent limitation of my Gift?
«The control exerted by their Gifts extends to the world around them...they have been called Gemini, the Twin Gifts, partly because they have virtually identical characteristics».
These words kept swirling insistently in my brain, as if to suggest to me that there was something more beyond their obvious meaning.
I seriously doubted that in the whole world there was no one who could produce some water or flame with a Gift. Much less someone who did not have a Gift to heal others. That would have been a great and strange lack on an evolutionary level, wouldn't it?
So what was it that made my Gift so much different from others? So different that it was even feared?
It wasn't the flames, no...it was something else.
The Gift of the Deva, the Gift of Creation...
Maybe my Gift went beyond creating what I could imagine. Maybe it went beyond creating a little water and fire.
Perhaps...
The revelation hit me like a bolt from the blue.

Very different words were now swirling in my head, as if finally my very being had aligned with the Ellie of this world, not the Ellie who was 'simply Ellie', but the Ellie who was one of the Twins:

When all faces fade

In the nothingness of oblivion,

When all feelings turn numb

At the end of years of solitude,

That's when the art sublimates

In the artist's epiphany.

It was as if all of a sudden someone had turned on a light in a room that until then had only ever known darkness. «Nate» I said to him. «I found a way out of here». I heard him move behind me: «Great. I was able to contact Sebas. I advised him to move a bit away from the entrance, since in case we didn't find better solutions I would have blown up the mountain.»

I nodded, pleasantly pleased by his foresight and by the fact that, as I expected, he had not at all shelved his plan to blow up the mountain. «Hopefully there will be no need» I told him in a calm voice. «That's ok, although I am a little sorry. What should I do?» he asked trepidatiously. «Sit back and enjoy the show»

I felt him tilt his head in puzzlement, but he asked no questions. I appreciated the confidence he placed in me. I hoped with all my heart that it was not misplaced.

I had some work to do.