“You still haven't expined anything about the bond between us,” Millie compined. “I have the right to know if it's dangerous, at least.”

  Millie spoke as she set Galon down on a patch of the backyard that they had lit a small fire on a few months ago. Galon had asked for a safe pce to be put down and when she had asked where she meant, Galon directed her to this spot.

  “Please have patience. I have expined and am still expining everything to you but I need to do this as soon as possible,” she said. “Now pce the two shards in the ground around me. They do not need to make contact, just being close is fine.”

  “I wish you had done this in the bag on the way home.”

  “It would be extremely dangerous. You’ll see why yourself soon. Go back to the tree and sit there.”

  Millie did as she was told and once seated pulled out her phone. She checked on the test conversation on yesterday's incident and found herself more sympathetic to some of the theories now that she knew it actually was aliens. She wondered if anyone else knew about Nixians and began typing it into search but then stopped. Was it paranoid to think that some government agency might be monitoring anyone who searched for Nixians? She didn't want to get thrown into the back of a bck van.

  She sent a text to Arthur telling him that she was home and to take his time with his date and then just watched alien conspiracy videos on her phone.

  After ten minutes she had begun to think she had to stop if she didn't want to rot her brain away when a single loud bang made her jump. She looked at the source of the noise and saw that there was a bck, smoking circle going three feet I'm every direction from Galon, whose rock had changed.

  She approached the circle and asked, “Hey, are you OK? Was that supposed to happen?”

  “Yes, I am well,” Galon replied. “Pick me up please.”

  She stepped into the surprisingly cool circle and picked Galon’s rock up. It wasn't even warm. The rock had gone from around the size of a football, to slightly bigger than a baseball. It was also now smooth and had the shape of a teardrop.

  Millie took it back under the tree and waited for Galon to speak.

  “In order to prepare you for my second boon there are few more things you need to know,” Galon began. “I shall skip the esoteric and technical details for now and give you the necessary information as simply as I can.

  “You are made up of many parts working in concert but we can separate them roughly into two relevant categories. Your physical form that is every part of you that exists in physical space and your meta-physical nature that is every part that doesn't.”

  Millie was already confused. Before she could interrupt, Galon continued, “I know that the definition I gave you makes little sense to you, but please just listen.

  “The most important meta-physical organ is the Aura which is used to produce and manipute the Power that nourishes your meta-physical part. When maniputed correctly, the Power that a living thing produces allows them to potentially do anything they wish and this is the method by which we all get stronger.

  “In most living beings and when left to be, the Aura atrophies and just produces enough Power to sustain thought and occasionally slight extrasensory perception. In order to make use of your Aura, you must be Awakened to it.

  “The gifts Awakening grants are great. You will become stronger, think faster, become resistant to disease and increase your lifespan by doing it. You cannot manipute Power yet but you can come to understand it and it is the first step on the path to ultimate strength.

  “In my society, Awakening is a necessary part of growing up. We are trained from as young as possible with the methods that we will use to attempt to Awaken. We cannot participate in society and cannot be considered adults until we make this breakthrough.”

  “So what is the bond and how will that help me Awaken?” Millie said, excited that she’d apparently be getting superpowers.

  “First I should say that it is generally possible for a powerful enough being to physically manipute an unawakened juvenile with their Aura as long as they offer no resistance. A game I used to py before I Awoke was giving control of myself to a passing Star Ranger who would then make me do incredible acrobatics. There are no side effects to it and I just need to apply my will to it if I don't want to do it anymore,” Galon said.

  Except when the victim is asleep of course, Millie thought. She could already think of a few ways that it could be used in a sinister manner.

  “However, when I tried to use this on you, some sort of resistance interrupted it. Instead of just cutting the connection, my Aura reached for yours and now whenever I am near you, I can feel them connecting. I have never heard of an Aura-to-Aura bond like this but it gives us a few advantages, the most important being the communication that we can do over the bond. I have no way to affect the physical world and so cannot make any form of physical communication.

  “The other advantage it gives you is that I should be able to force a fast Awakening on you by sending a small attack to your Aura.”

  “You’re going to attack me?!” Millie said, incredulous.

  “Yes, it will be like hitting a limb that you didn't know you had. The pain will make you aware of it and that is Awakening. I had actually hoped that merely communicating through the bond would be enough to make you aware of your Aura but unfortunately it is not. I previously used the word atrophy earlier and that is not really right. The Aura just does not grow, it is still perfectly usable and once you Awaken, it’ll grow to its necessary Power output,” Galon finished and then went silent.

  Millie weighed it in her mind. On one hand, the promise of pain but on the other, superpowers. Of course, there was no real choice.

  “So what are the side-effects?” Millie asked.

  “There is an unconscious part of you that wants to increase the quality of your life which we often nickname life drive. When you Awaken it is this part that first takes control of your Power and increases your strength, your senses, your healing, it increases the quality of every part of your life. However, I do suspect one area where things will go unpleasantly is detoxification.

  “Your body will purge itself of all the foreign material it does not need. In the Federation we closely monitor the diet of children and keep them away from pollution as best as we can to smooth this effect, but I suspect that you have not done this. The purge will be quick and forceful but as I said, it will likely be unpleasant.”

  “Well if it's just that I’ll take it. Maybe it'll be good to be less than 50 percent micro pstics,” she joked. “Well then, when do we do it?”

  “Immediately,” said Galon. “I do recommend that we do it in your living quarters in case you lose consciousness.”

  Millie got up and relocated to her room. She sat on her bed with Galon’s rock in her hand and braced herself.

  “I’m ready,” she said.

  “Please remember that I do this with no expectation of you repaying me. This is a gift, freely given to do with as you will,” Galon said.

  She doubted Galon’s honesty in this but kept quiet.

  “Now!” Galon said.

  After a few seconds, Millie hadn’t felt anything except an itch on the back of her hand.

  “Nothing,” she said while scratching it.

  “I was hoping a weak prod would manage. Unfortunate. I am sorry Millie.”

  “Huh? It’s fine, we can-”

  Millie then felt something hot pour on the very center of her being. Every muscle she knew locked up and began to spasm painfully, but that pain was dwarfed by the molten fire that was spreading through her, all emanating from a pce she would call her most central point now but never before. The part of her where everything she was came from. A part of her that she never knew she had till it was on fire.

  Her Aura.

  She’d be celebrating if she didn’t think she was currently dying.

  As the longest minute of her life came to an end her body stopped shaking and the parts of her that were burned began to cool down. When it was over she y on the bed, gasping for air.

  After she had got back her breath and could finally move again she sat up and then smacked Galon’s rock.

  “I thought I was going to die!” she said with a grimace.

  “Unfortunately I had to use a stronger attack than I initially hoped. It seems to have worked from what I can sense from your Aura,” Galon replied.

  She gred once again at the rock and then closed her eyes to focus on the part of her where the burning had started. It was cool now and didn't hurt anymore. When she focused on it she immediately encountered a problem.

  “It doesn't have a shape. I thought it'd be like a limb because you said it's a part I have but haven't used and I thought it'd be a heart when you said it's an organ. Instead it's like a feeling, but so detailed that I comprehend it completely but I don't know how to put it into words,” Millie told Galon.

  “The first exercise I’m giving you is to keep watching and form an image with your mind. Think about the properties and retions you can feel and try to make the image a metaphor for them. Your Aura will become much easier to understand once you impose the visual image on it,” Galon instructed.

  Millie focused inward and did as she was instructed.

  She first attempted complex metaphors such as a tree and its root and a spring that forms a stream but all the images colpsed when she tried to apply them to her Aura. In the end she came up with a simple visualization and when she applied it and it finally stuck, she opened her eyes and noticed that it was now past 6 o’clock. She had spent three hours doing visualizations.

  “Were you successful?” Galon asked.

  “Yeah. I applied a really simple image and it finally stuck,” she replied.

  “Tell me.”

  Millie was slightly embarrassed by how simple it was but said, “It's a white spot on a bck background. It has two lines leaving it and going out into nothing, one coming out of the top and one out of the bottom. That's all. Pretty simple, right?”

  “As long as it works, then it's good,” Galon said. “Can you apply any sort of force or direction to it?”

  Millie closed her eyes and checked. Before long she realized that she was able to supply a spinning force to it, but it was so smooth that she couldn't tell if it moved and the two lines stayed in pce. She told all this to Galon.

  “The two lines are the pathways by which your Power travels from your Aura to be applied to the rest of you. One is the old supply that goes to the meta-physical part of you. Having more Power avaible will lead to an increase in supply there and should show some great benefits in time. You will likely get better extrasensory perception, mental acuity and memory among many other small improvements.

  “The other line must then be the new path made by your life drive to take Power and improve your body with it. The changes there will be noticeable much sooner. Have you noticed any change since you first pced the visualization?”

  “I think the spot is a little bigger and both lines are a little thicker,” Millie told Galon.

  “That means the amount of power in your Aura and travelling through your pathways is increasing. When you grow stronger you will be able to make pathways yourself and control what you can do with them. Practice what little control you have on your Aura,” she said.

  After a few minutes of pying with her Aura, Millie heard Arthur pull into the driveway and got up to go greet him. She found him in the kitchen, microwaving some pasta.

  “Hi Millie, you want some?” he said, pointing at the microwave.

  “Hi Arthur, how was your date with Becky?” she asked. She then added, “And no I’m not hungry.”

  Arthur put on a shy smile and said, “It was a good time and we’ve scheduled again for next week.”

  The two of them went silent and waited for the microwave to finish its humming.

  When the microwave’s beep sounded Millie said, “Well goodnight Arthur. I’m tired and want to turn in early tonight.”

  After all her preparations she was back in her bedroom sitting near Galon.

  “So what should I expect tonight?” Millie asked.

  “I do not know. Aside from being a Nixian, a race that I have no experience with, you have also been raised outside the very controlled circumstances that I know about,” Galon replied.

  “Well the only way to know is to find out for myself. Sweet dreams Galon. I’ll keep positive and try to have the best night I can.”

  -

  The worst night in Millie’s life was that night, three years ago, when two cops pulled into the driveway to tell her about her parents' accident.

  The night she was having was sure to be the second worst.

  Millie was burning up but she felt so chilly that her teeth were chattering. Her sheets were drenched in sweat and she had already had to change them once. She took down gss after gss of water to keep hydrated. The very worst though was the throwing up. Her barf was completely bck and stank like a dead animal and it was so thick that she spent several minutes just trying to get it out of her mouth every time she threw up.

  She could tell that Arthur was worried and she tried to reassure him that it was fine because she knew she would be fine after this. All she told him was that she had eaten some garbage at her friend’s pce on Saturday.

  Eventually, the throwing up stopped but the fever persisted and till near sunrise before it reduced. By the time the sun came out, she was ready to get out of bed and see if her superpowers had come in.