RAM GROANED.
He wanted to curse his Aunt El deep in his heart, but he couldn't. She did everything she could to protect him and also to make a way for him so that he could train with her proxy, the Powerful Female Elder, under the guise of her torturing him. "Since you are so convinced that I am dangerous to you, why don't you just let me tell you whatever that I wanted to tell. Are you afraid that I am going to manipulate you?" he said.
She nodded.
"Great. I promise that I am not going to manipulate you. All I wanted to tell was about my past. I believe you could at least listen to that?"
She seemed to be reluctant, but she nodded.
"I lost my parents when I was still a small kid. You see I was almost kidnapped back then. My parents were normal people, tried to prevent my kidnappers from doing succeeding. But my kidnappers shot them in a rage of fury at my parent's resistance and that killed them. In their panic, they forgot all about me and I stared at my parents with blood seeping all around them. It was…" Ram broke down, imagining how it would look like. It broke his heart.
"And you use your resentment to take it out in the world?" Elder of Air questioned.
Ram ignored her. "I was crying and I was depressed. But at that time, my aunt came to my rescue. She raised me, took care of me and made sure that I will walk in right path. If she saw any sign of me thinking of revenge, she would guide me out of it. She was an angel. I loved her, I still love her. To me, she was my mother that god blessed me. She was…" he trailed off as he remembered Aunt El.
He smiled, a genuine one that bloomed from the core of his heart. Warmth spread all around his body and for the first time in god knows how many days, Ram felt safe.
"You should have seen her when she tried to be a mother, a father, a sister and a friend to me. She tried to take care of me even though she was just a teenager herself," Ram said, and he gasped.
He remembered that she was barely in her late teens, just like Ram had been when my parents were murdered.
"She sacrificed so much for me, wasting away her early life just to be there for me. She is beautiful, had many suitors for her. But she was afraid they are not going to treat me well and let go of it. Let go of everything.
"And now she was in trouble and I wanted to do everything in my power to help her. And that's how I discovered my powers accidentally. I promise to you that I meant no harm to you, your Factions or The Institute. I want to learn how to control my powers so that I could help my aunt come out of this giant mess that she was in," Ram said.
Elder of Air was silent for some time. She seemed to be deep in thought, frowning form time to time, nodding her head or shaking her head, like she were discussing with her assistant. Finally she set her jaw.
She made her decision.
"I almost believed you. But I asked my assistant to get more information about you and she informed me that all the data we have about you was your past two years. The data earlier to that does not exist. You are trying to manipulate even me, violating the rights of one under suspicion and I am going to punish you for that," she said, closing her eyes and waving her hands.
Ram once again felt that the air levels around him dropping rapidly and he was angry at her.
What he said to her was the truth. It was just that he didn't revealed much details abut his Aunt El.
It was filled with so much warmth and happy memories that he thought she would also feel them. That she would trust him.
But …
Ram clenched his fists. He was so angry at her that he gathered all the anger he felt towards her.
Right before he was sending it to the reactor just above his navel, he remembered his aunt trying to teach him how to use her powers.
He was hearing her teaching to him through his memories back when she discovered that he was also able to use her powers as if she were right next to him and whispering to him.
***
"Every user of Light has their reactor situated at the middle of the forehead. If you have trouble finding it, remember that it exists at the same location as the third eye of Lord Shiva.
"You see, The Institute was very clever and spread all the myths and legends about gods with truth behind the powers of us elders as well as the location of their reactors in them.
"All you have to do was feed your strongest emotion you could summon at this moment to the reactor called the Third Eye.
"If you want to do use the power of light and do illusion upon yourself, to change the way you looked, then project that image in your mind's eye while spreading the energy that came out of your Third Eye all around your body.
"If you want to project an illusion outward, which was difficult to do for living beings, then spread the energy outside at the location where you want the illusion to exist, by projecting the necessary image in your mind's eye."
***
Ram did as his aunt instructed to him in his memories and used the anger he felt towards Elder of Air and fed it to the reactor, projecting the appearance he wanted to look like in his mind's eye and used the energy to spread it all around his body and broke the bindings on his hands and legs and stoop us, dusting it off.
Soon, Ram disappeared in front of Elder of Air. Instead, he appeared as the image that he projected in his mind's eye.
Elder of Air gasped, her whole body trembling. She collapsed on floor as she stared at the illusion that Ram projected for her in horror.
"You even doubt me, the leader of the Faction of Hope, the Elder of Time?"