The Light in Aquala

The old woman rose from her log with some difficulty, steadying herself on the shoulder of a younger woman beside her. She crossed from her place on the beach slowly, stopping close to the sisters and to Tavi.

"Long ago these lights appeared at the time of a Season change. The first thing the stories say is this event is extremely rare. But when the Season shifts much too early or too late, the lights come out of the jungle and move to the edge of the village. And when they do, they repeat a pattern, three clicks and a pause, three clicks and a pause, until someone with Neon responds."

Mara's pulse quickened. "Responds how?"

The old woman's eyes moved to Mara's face, then to Lena's, as she avoided answering the question. "The accounts say the lights are drawn to those who carry the colors. The ones with the Neon on their faces."

Lena stepped forward. "You said the pattern repeats until someone responds. What happens if no one does?"

The old woman was quiet for a moment. "Then the lights withdraw," she said. "But the accounts also describe something else. There are records in my family of an ancestor who went toward the lights. They appeared in the jungle and in the ocean. She decided to take a boat to go see the ones in the ocean and she did not come home for hours."

Mara felt a chill. "What happened to her?"

"When she came back, she was unharmed and calm. She told her family that she had seen a single column of vibrant light with silver and gold flowing around it. She said people with Neon on their faces were there, and that they had spoken to her and shown her a different world on the other side of the light. "

Lena leaned closer. "And then?"

"And then she chose not to go to the different world when they asked if she would come with them." The old woman's voice was steady. "She came home, and she lived a long life, and she never spoke of it again except to leave a written record. The record was sealed, but the stories were passed down. I have never opened the record, but my mother told me it belonged to her great-grandmother who had the Neon. It was meant to be given to those with Neon if the lights ever came back."

Mara's mind was racing. "You still have those records from her? Actual notes?"

The old woman nodded. "Yes. I did not think of it until tonight when the lights arrived. The record may matter more now than it ever has."

Mara turned to Lena. "We need to see it."

The old woman whispered something to Tavi, who immediately started darting between the villagers toward the old woman's hut.

The old woman watched him go, then turned back to Mara. "There is one more thing the accounts say, and I want you to hear it clearly. She now raised her voice so every villager could hear.

"None of the lights are a threat. The people my ancestor described were not hostile. They were searching. The signal repeats because they are looking for carriers, and they will keep looking until they find them, or until the Season passes and the lights leave again."

Mara let out a slow breath. "They are looking for us."

"They said they are looking for anyone with the Neon," the old woman said. "So yes, they are looking for you, since you are the only ones here who have the Neon."

Tavi came running back through the crowd with an ancient wooden box, clutching it against his chest with both arms. He handed it to Mara without a word, breathing hard.

Mara opened it.

The lid gave in with a soft crack of old wood. Inside were folded sheets of a material that was like paper, only it was thin and slightly cool to the touch with markings on them unlike any handwriting she knew. Then there were patterns, rows of lines and dots, arranged in sequences that looked like records of measurements rather than words.

Near the bottom of the stack was a single page with a hand drawn diagram of Aquala. The lines were careful and precise. Beside it was a sketch of a column of light with bands inside it, blue and silver and gold, drawn in careful layers. In the margin, someone had written a word in a script Mara could not read, underlined twice.

Lena leaned over her shoulder. "This looks like what we saw at Aquala."

Mara folded the pages and placed them back in the box just as the clicking started again. It came from the direction of the jungle, soft and regular. Three clicks, a pause, three more.

Every villager turned toward the sound. The dogs went quiet. The cooking fires flickered, and no one moved to tend them.

Then the lights reappeared.

They came softly at first, tiny points of color drifting between the trees at the edge of the village. Blue-green and orange then dozens more, in shades that neither sister had ever seen in the jungle before. Deep purples, brilliant pinks, silvers that glittered like metal, and rich golds.

The villagers began backing away and forming into groups for protection. Someone called for the children to come closer, and the large brown dog flattened itself against the sand and closed its eyes.

The lights continued advancing. As they came nearer, the vegetation around them began glowing too. Leaves shimmered turquoise and vines developed thin yellow, green and turquoise veins. Flowers opened along the forest floor, revealing brilliant centers that had not been visible earlier. The entire jungle seemed to be waking up.

Then everything went dark all at once.

The silence that followed was so complete that Mara could hear the ocean again, and the crackle of the nearest fire, and her own breathing. From somewhere far beyond the jungle, the clicking sound returned, three clicks, a pause, three more, and so on.

Mara stood very still and listened. The pattern was steady and didn’t change or come closer. It simply repeated, the way a signal repeats when it is waiting for an answer. She looked at Lena. Lena looked back at her.

"The lights are signaling people with Neon," Mara said quietly. "The same signal, over and over, until someone responds."

"And we are the only ones who can respond." Lena replied, looking at her sister seriously.

Tavi stepped forward. "What are you going to do?"

Mara looked at the gathered villagers, at the old woman, at the light far away in the ocean and then back into the jungle.

Finally, she looked at Lena. "We need to make a choice," she said.