by Rae Else
El looked at all the symbols of the eye on the wall, scanning the lines of each generation.
‘It seems that someone had it in most generations of the Carrases,’ El said.
‘Yes. Yia Yia’s theorised that we, as a line, must be very closely related to the original possessor of the full power. It manifests itself in only one serpent at any given time. I don’t just mean in the Carrases, but worldwide. And get this: it’s always the eldest living, female, full-serpent in each generation.’
‘Full-serpent?’
‘One whose parents are both serpents. It also seems that at least one of their parents has to be a hydra.’
El’s gaze swept up the wall, examining the names that had the eye symbol beside them. Each name possessed the triangular symbol for their element too, predominantly water. She noticed the familiar name of her grandma: Helena Devereux. But beside her name, where Charles Devereux should have been, was a question mark.
‘My older sister was the firstborn, female full-serpent of my generation,’ Theon said, touching the name on his immediate family tree. ‘But she died serving the Order. Next would have been your mother, Anna—’
‘No, she wasn’t a full serpent.’ El touched the question mark next to her grandma’s name. ‘And that there should say Charles Devereux, my granddad. He was a human so my mum wouldn’t have been able to inherit the full power.’
Theon looked abashed. ‘I hate to break it to you, El, but your grandmother was already pregnant with Anna before she left the Order.’
El stared at her grandma’s name in dismay. A woman it would seem, who she knew little about. Recent events had changed her view of her already but this distorted her even more. She wondered whether her granddad had known that Anna wasn’t his.
Theon hurried on, ‘With your mother’s passing, the next in line is Eirene.’
El took in the names of her mother’s cousins. She counted three of them: Eirene, hydra; Helena, hydra; Cora, drakon.
‘So why the games?’ El asked.
‘Yia Yia wants to create an opportunity for the full power to manifest in the next generation. Danger of loss of life and limb is the best way of increasing the odds that it does.’
‘But if the full power manifests in Eirene, her opponent will die. Helena would offer up family members for the cause?’
Theon nodded. ‘In a heartbeat.’
His fingers hovered above his sister’s name. ‘Eirene’s not like our sister, Helena, or like you for that matter. None of this comes naturally to her. I’m more afraid for her than those she’ll fight. But it’s true that none of us have a choice. Yia Yia has always had expectations of her family. We all started training and competing in our late teens. Most of my generation are either scheduled to compete in the Elysium or serving the Order like me. But from what I’ve heard, you got through the first arena with only a week’s training.’
El flushed. ‘Yeah, but I had an unfair advantage. When I competed in the Gymnasium most arete were too scared to look at me because they thought I had the full power. If the Opposition hadn’t attacked the Olympia when they did, I’d be dead.’
‘But you’re not,’ Theon said. ‘Don’t you see, that’s the point. It’s survival of the fittest, for all of us. And I feel guilty for wishing it on anyone, but when we heard the rumours about you having the full power, about how little training you’d had and how quickly you were getting through an Olympia, we hoped it was true.’
El didn’t know what to say. Helena’s expectations of Eirene and all the other serpents in the family weren’t fair. She wanted to say that raising arete to fight and serve in the Order was barbaric, that she believed it should end and hoped that they’d be able to change things before long. Instead she just stood there, contemplating the wall.
As she stared at the family tree, she realised that she was the only arete in her generation up there. ‘Where are all the cousins in my generation?’
‘Still to come into their power,’ Theon answered. ‘You’re much older than most of your generation. Your mother was young when she had you, wasn’t she? Most arete spend time competing and working in the Order before having children. Most of your generation aren’t yet seven, too young to come into their elemental ability. When their power manifests, Yia Yia will add them to the wall.’
‘My opponent in the Gymnasium was a Carras,’ El said. ‘Louisa set it up. The drakon was female but I didn’t catch her name. It could be this one here.’ She pointed at Cora.
‘What did she look like?’
‘A little taller than me, golden hair, narrow face.’
‘Yep, that’s Cora.’
El sighed. ‘Great. It’d be just my luck if she shows up … I kind of burnt her.’
‘Cora isn’t the forgiving type—’
‘I see that you’ve already given El the grand tour,’ said Helena, appearing in the doorway behind them.
Theon didn’t attempt a light-hearted response this time and seemed to shrink beneath her gaze.
‘Our guests will be arriving soon,’ she continued, ‘Would you be so good as to find something suitable for Luke to borrow this evening?’
Theon understood the dismissal and hastened out of the room.
Helena drew over to El. They both stared at the stone wall as if gazing up at a work of art.
‘So,’ Helena said finally. ‘You’ve seen my VIP list.’
El frowned, realising that she was one of the names on the list.
‘My mum was a full serpent, a hydra,’ El said slowly. ‘And although I don’t know who my father was, I inherited my drakon abilities from him. That means I’m a full serpent too.’
Helena looked at her and nodded.
‘You said that I had nothing to fear,’ El said. ‘It’s because of this, isn’t it? I’m the firstborn, female full-serpent of my generation – the full power will likely manifest in me one day.’
‘There is a high probability that one day it will, yes. And that is partly why I said that, my dear.’ Helena paused, examining the wall. ‘During my time as head of line, I have seen four generations come into this world. I taught my children, Helena, Suzanna and Phaethon to be ambitious. Your great-grandmother, Suzanna, instilled the same in her own children – your grandmother, Maria and Louisa. The ambition I sowed has flourished in some branches of our line but festered in others. I meant what I said when I told you that I mourned your grandmother’s passing. She is one of my deepest regrets.’
This didn’t sound like the woman who would willingly offer up a family member for the sake of bringing the full power about in her line again.
‘You mean you regret that the full power was lost to your line for so long, don’t you?’ El said.
A smile crossed Helena’s lips. ‘You don’t mince your words, my dear. I do regret that it was lost to us for so long. Our wealth, influence and power increased when it was among our line. We were undisputedly the most powerful of all four lines. I cannot say I am not looking forward to taking advantage of that again.
‘The information you’ve provided me concerning your grandmother has been useful. I believe that the full power will return to its rightful seat imminently. If it can manifest in Eirene, these tournaments will provide the best opportunity for it to.’
El looked at the wall again. It shocked her that Helena would willingly sacrifice family members to Eirene and actually wish death upon one of them so that the full power would manifest.
Fear crept through her, but she forced herself to ask, ‘Am I going to compete in the games?’
Helena surveyed her. ‘No. You should see these games, in part, as held in your honour: a welcome to the family. Besides, I’ll keep the females back. The males cannot inherit the full power, so they alone will be Eirene’s opponents.’
El felt a flutter of relief despite being nauseated by Helena’s flippancy over the lives of her family. She was treating them like cattle; El remembered once that her granddad had told her that bullocks were much mor
e likely to end up as beefburgers simply because they were born male and the vast majority were not needed for breeding.
A hum of chatter began to echo down the hallway. It was clear that the sea had washed in a multitude of Carrases, now amassing on the terrace and venturing indoors.
‘My dear,’ Helena said, ‘I really must go and greet our relations. Ah,’ she whirled around to the door, where Talus stood. ‘Impeccable timing as ever, Talus. El, Talus will take you through some training that I would like you to start. I look forward to seeing you both at dinner.’
Helena swept out of the room.
- Chapter Thirteen -
Kairos and Chronos
After showing El down a spiral staircase, Talus exited at the foot of a cliff, out into a quiet cove. They were on the other side of the island to where the yacht was moored. Talus snuffed out the torch he had used to light their way, before going over to the seashore. There he stood perfectly still, feet slightly apart, arms resting motionless at his side.
El wandered over to join him. Talus’ slate grey eyes turned to her. She felt a prickle of apprehension. She wondered what “training” Helena had been referring to. Helena had said that she wasn’t going to be competing in the tournaments so why did she need training? Why had Talus brought her down here?
She looked out at the sea, but her gaze crept back to Talus. When El met his eyes, she mused on an old adage: the eyes are the windows to the soul. What did that make a graeae’s eyes, those that belonged to one so adept at losing and undoing themselves? She held back a shudder, thinking that the grey shade was the beginning of oblivion.
‘Yia Yia is concerned that your emotions make you predictable to Janos,’ Talus said. ‘She would like me to explain a few things about the connection that exists between you, and to look at ways of blunting his insight into your timeline.’
El’s skin crawled at the thought of Janos snooping around in her past. ‘What do you mean about the connection between us?’
‘Have you noticed that graeae tend to keep some part of themselves transparent?’ Talus asked.
‘Yes.’ She recalled Janos’ blurring hands. Talus’ hands were fuzzy too.
‘By keeping a part of ourselves phased out we do not age,’ Talus explained. ‘It is also for protection: if even a little bit of our body is phased out, we cannot be wounded.’
She raised her eyebrows. That was kind of a cool superpower.
‘But there’s one other reason. Do you remember Janos touching you in the catacombs?’
El frowned. There was a joke in there somewhere but the chill sweeping down her spine made her earnest. Janos had pressed his palm to hers. She pulled her sleeves over her hands as if by doing so, she could hide them from him. ‘Yes. Why?’
‘Well, graeae don’t usually touch another arete like that because it gives them far too much insight into that arete’s timeline. In doing so, Janos established a powerful connection with you. Now he can hone in on your power signature wherever and whenever he pleases. He sees you and your timeline – your past, present and future – very clearly.’
‘He can see everything?’
Talus shook his head. ‘He sees a lot: things in your timeline linked to high emotion, turning points. But none of us are omnipotent.’
Great. She had a stalker, and not just in the present: her past and future were being watched too. She pictured Janos disappearing. He could be looking into her future or seeping into her past, into moments that had previously been hers alone. She felt nauseous. It was a violation to have everything that she’d experienced open to him.
She felt a flare of anger. She’d wanted him to tell her things about her future, but he’d refused. She’d wanted more guidance in her initial meeting with Helena, and to know if he foresaw the full power in her future. His responses had been minimal.
‘You wish to sit,’ Talus said, disturbing her train of thought. He didn’t wait for her to answer but went and sat down in the sand.
She sat opposite him.
‘You are still under the misconception,’ Talus said, ‘that until an action is begun, it is unknown. Take for example your action of sitting. I didn’t need my foresight to know that you would rather sit. Your body language revealed it: the way you stood told me that you’re feeling overwhelmed and wanted to rest.
‘In the same way, there are subtle nuances to graeae power.
‘Emotions are to actions, what body language is to the body. They are the driving force behind our decisions. Interpreting emotions will lead to deducing one’s future actions. So if Janos sees a strong flare of emotion in your timeline, he can hone into it very easily.’
‘You want me to hide my emotions?’ El said.
‘Did you know that the ancients had two types of time?’
El frowned, realising they weren’t having a conversation. This was a lecture.
‘Chronos denotes chronological time, but the Greeks had another type of time: Kairos. Rhetoricians used it to explain the perfect point to break in during an opponent’s speech to win a debate. In biblical scripture, it was the point when God’s work was done. Graeae power stems from these junctures.’
Great, now her lecturer was comparing himself to God.
‘My point,’ he continued, ‘is that you have spent most of your life without an awareness of kairos. Like a human, you have believed in chronos alone. Time is so much more.’
El looked out at the ocean. The expanse of water was vast, but time was even more so: infinite in all its possibilities. ‘So what’s this training Helena wants me to do?’
‘Yia Yia would have you be part of this family, but she cannot allow you to be part of its hierarchy until you have learnt to weaken this connection with Janos.’
El reflected on what he was saying. As the firstborn full-serpent of the next generation and daughter of a hydra, one day she was likely to have the full power. Helena would expect her to serve the family. She would expect her to use the power on other arete, at the behest of the Order, just as her grandma had. Fear threatened to flare in her, and regret that she’d come to Carras Island.
She mustn’t think that way. This was only one step of her journey. She was helping Janos and the Opposition by being here and forming the alliance with Helena. She had to trust that, once they had proof and got to the summit, Janos and the Opposition would come through to help her. She wouldn’t become stuck in the Carras family hierarchy.
Talus was watching her. She flushed, wondering how much he could suss out from the emotion that flitted across her face. Learning to control and conceal her intentions would be a good thing. And not just to prevent Janos from snooping into her timeline.
‘Is that why Helena is so composed?’ El asked.
‘Yia Yia has no specific connection with a graeae so doesn’t have the same need as you do to hide her emotion.’
‘No, but I suppose that by keeping her emotions in check, she makes her plans harder to predict – to everyone.’
‘Yes, to an extent, but Yia Yia has lived a long time. Age brings a past. A past breeds predictability and eventually vulnerability.’
She blinked in surprise at his honest answer. ‘So where do we start?’
‘First thing to do is to learn to keep your emotions in check. This will make your timeline harder to anticipate. We’ll start with meditation and move onto some Tai Chi.’
El hadn’t expected this hippy track from him and smiled, but his deeply entrenched seriousness wiped it from her face. ‘And how will meditation—’
‘It will give you more self-awareness. Your emotions – fear and grief – have governed you too much. It will teach you to concentrate, to control your heart rate and feel the balance that exists between yourself and the world around you.’
A smile threatened to break out again as she listened to his prognosis, but he immediately directed her to sit up straight. He talked about her posture and she was forced to concentrate.
Talus instructed her to feel the tension
in her body, to listen to the tight knots that spoke of the worries that were resting on her. He had her visualise pushing the physical tensions away with the same ease with which she expelled her breath. When she was more relaxed, he asked her to do the same with her thoughts. It was harder. Lots of thoughts were clamouring to be heard: about Eirene and the tournaments, worries about Dan and if he’d bring back evidence, and what Janos had seen of her timeline. Eventually her thoughts stilled, and only the rhythm of her breath marked the passage of time. As she centred her energy, it was as if she was drawing on Talus’ quiet strength. She grew calmer and steadier.
After half an hour, Talus called her back to the moment. She opened her eyes and looked out at the glittering ocean, aware of the breeze on her cheek in a way that she hadn’t been a moment ago. They moved onto learning some basic Tai Chi movements, focusing on breathing, clearing the mind and rooting herself in the moment. She started to appreciate the fluidity of each gesture.
At first El was self-conscious, overly aware of Talus, especially when he kept pushing her hand onto her abdomen, forcing her to be aware of what her body was doing as she inhaled and exhaled. As the afternoon progressed, the tension in her limbs was expelled and, with Talus’ guidance, she started to listen to her body. The feeling of ease seemed to translate to her mind. El had lost count of how many times they’d gone through the same routine and her body naturally manoeuvered into their starting position, mirroring Talus.
During the routine, El found herself thinking about the analogy Janos had used on the yacht: time was a blank slate, arete and men the marks upon it. When her thoughts were completely at peace and her body moved through the routine without conscious thought, she felt as if her emotions and actions were growing fainter, her edges becoming blurred.
El halted, her calm failing as a flurry of motion distracted her. Someone was descending from the cliff above, shooting down through the air. El’s heart thrummed in her chest like a trapped bird.
As the figure landed in the sand, El recognised Theon.