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“What did you do?” Suzan asked softly.

Julia shrugged as she gestured to Raymone to lay the stone down. Julia remained in mourning for her husband and rarely talked. We all tended to treat her with kid gloves for fear of hurting or damaging her even further.

“Did you use teleportation?” Diana questioned, laying a pale hand on her shoulder. Pale from the lack of sun.

Teleportation had been a skill widely used within our people, but since the change, we had found that skill no longer open to us. Why, I don’t know, but it was a fact that we can’t transport about the land like everyone else. Mildly frustrating wasn’t the word to use concerning the loss of it.

“No, I just ran,” Julia whispered before running, visibly, I might add, away from us. She headed down to where the stone was being loaded into boats to ship across to Mora.

“Julia ran?” I queried what I had heard.

“No one can run that fast,” Ricardus added.

“Julia did,” Nathan muttered, scratching his head.

“Julia was never into running or physical sports, from what I remember. It must have been teleportation,” Diana exclaimed, puzzled.

“No, Julia doesn’t lie either. If she said she ran, then Julia did,” Raymone demanded firmly, turning to all of us with a defensive glare on his face. He was extremely fond of Julia, having been a good friend of Kierran’s.

“How did she move that fast?” I demanded, not willing to drop the subject despite the look on Raymone’s face.

“That is something we must find out for ourselves,” Nathan said and narrowed his eyes as he considered this newfound ability.

We already had improved strength. For example, two of us could carry a two-ton block with ease and not break into a sweat.

“Somehow, Julia managed to transcend the boundaries of physical exertion and leaped into the emptiness beyond,” Diana mused out loud.

Nathan and I grinned at each other. What a load of gobbledegook.

“Raymone would have been injured, and Ana squashed.” I smirked again at Ana, who poked her tongue out at me. “Hey, I wonder what would have happened?”

“With what?” Inka asked.

“Would Ana have been flattened or knocked into the ground?

“Jacques!” Suzan exclaimed. “That’s extremely ghoulish!”

“No, Jacques has a point. Maybe the urgency of the situation allowed Julia to make the leap, or should I say run?” Nathan stated.

“Will you two behave for a moment?” Ana snapped. “It’s possible that you are correct. Someone was going to get hurt and Julia’s protectiveness welled up to make her forget her known limits.”

“Possibly,” Suzan mused. “After what happened with Kierran, she hates to see anyone in pain. The prospect of Ana being hurt drove Julia to exceed her physical limits.”

Inka said musingly, “If Julia can do it, we all can.”

“Yes. Julia’s shown us it’s possible; we’ve only to work out how,” Nathan replied in answer to my statement.

I sensed his mind turning over, and I guessed Nathan would try it. In an agreeable mood, I caught his gaze and walked slowly back to where Nathan had left his block.

“What are you two doing now?” Pal asked, exasperated. Over the past few weeks, I had become increasingly annoying, and I think that I had pushed Pal past his limit. I was meant to be helping Pal carry his block, but hey, if anybody, it would be Nathan and me who would do this.

“Just trying to do what Julia did,” I answered, bending down to pick the stone up. Pal snorted and threw his hands in the air before stomping off to help Curtan take mine down to the ship.

“Now, don’t get in our way. I would not want to be responsible for running someone over or squashing them,” Nathan ordered cheekily.

Ana sighed loudly enough for us to recognise that she was displeased with the pair of us and moved over to one side.

“Any ideas?” I asked softly so the others wouldn’t hear. I had my pride, after all, and didn’t want them to overhear.