Veiled by Silvina Niccum

their
heads.
    “ This is great!” admitted
Russell. “We have a tactical advantage!” he said pointing at me.
“You’ll be able to find Celeste and Max, their auras should be
glowing too, right?” he asked me with hope.
    “ I think so,” I replied.
Finally I had proof that I was indeed a Discerner!
    We pressed on with new
found hope, and we needed it too. I focused my vision and looked
all around as we made our way down the street, but saw nothing.
Then I remembered the little glowing dots that I had noticed while
we were hovering above the planet.
    “ I know how to narrow this
search down,” I said. “It made no sense to me before, because I
have never seen auras before…or at least I never saw the contrast
that they make against a background such as this.”
    Russell looked eagerly at
me and Valerie looked like she wanted me to get to the
point.
    “ When we were hovering
above the planet, I saw glowing spots. At the time…” I hadn’t
finished my explanation before Valerie began a quick ascent.
Russell and the rest followed her, no doubt in a hurry to get out
of this oppressive place.
    “ Good idea, Tess.” Dorian
patted my shoulder before he too took to space. Alex was the only
one who still stood by my side, and he grabbed my hand and pulled
me up.
    “ Ahh…much better,” Valerie
sighed once we were out of the planet.
    Nancy muttered something
and so did the others, they sounded muffled by the gloomy feeling
that still possessed us.
    “ We have to get a little
closer, just above the city,” I said, and reluctantly they followed
me back down.
    “ OK,” Russell said, “start
looking for those glowing dots, Tess, before I go insane.” His
words resounded in our hearts as well as our ears. If we felt this
way…Celeste and Max would only be feeling worse.
    As soon as I spotted a
shimmer we went down to the surface. But when we got there, we
didn’t find Celeste or Max. We found a spirit named Katie. Some of
her clan members had come here seeking more information, but she
assured us that she didn’t want to be there. She was hesitant to
leave her loved ones, but she didn’t want to stay either so we told
her to come with us as we searched for Celeste and Max. She joined
us and we rose up to get a better view and to give our souls a
chance to recover from the gloom we felt. In the mean time, Dane
brought Katie up to speed on what our situation was, and got some
information about her own.
    “ This might take a while,”
Russell admitted. “It might also prove to be a bigger rescue than
we first anticipated,” he said while glancing over at Katie who
seemed to be a pleasant happy spirit, obviously foreign to these
parts.
    “ We’ll see,” I added. “I
don’t see very many glowing spots, none at all actually.” I was
trying to be thorough, which also meant that we were moving very
slow. I didn’t want to miss any parts of the city. After what
seemed like an eternity I saw them! Three glowing spots, two bright
and one dim and they were all some distance apart.
    “ There!” I
pointed.
    “ Yes!” said Valerie,
relieved.
    “ Who do you suppose the
dim aura belongs to?” Alex asked.
    “ Richard,” I said
bluntly.
    He grimaced, “You’ve made
your point beautifully.”
    “ I didn’t mean to rub it
in, Alex. I just…I just knew we couldn’t trust him.”
    “ Um…sorry to butt in,
but…what if the dim aura doesn’t belong to Richard?” Valerie
said.
    “ It has to! Who else?” I
snapped.
    Valerie and Alex exchanged
looks; I didn’t bother to look over to see what they meant. I knew
that Richard was lying about something, and the fact that we were
here, trying to save Celeste proved it. If someone’s aura was going
dark, it was his.
    Once we touched down on the
planet’s surface we were once more greeted by that awful feeling of
discouragement and I found it increasingly hard to believe that we
would succeed in our rescue attempts, in spite of the added
advantage of seeing