“You named me Anaar?”
“Yes. Though it was painful for me, I wanted you to have a piece of your father’s side in your life. He is a very bad man, but he was not always that way. If things had gone differently for him, he could have been one of the world’s greatest champions.”
Anaar threw up his hands as if he was trying to ward off a coming blow. “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You said he is a bad man. Does that mean my father is still alive?!”
“There is a very good chance he is. I saw him dealt a grievous blow, but I do not think that would be enough to stop him. If he is still alive, he would be over 120 years old.”
“Then he is a Water Affinity?”
“No, he is an Earth Affinity, the mightiest person I have ever come in contact with. His power was so strong he could sunder mountains.”
“What?! How is he still alive then…”
Noticing the distant contemplative look on his face, Yatik leaned forward questioningly. “What is it? What is it you know?”
“I know you said that you can’t see manifestations like I can, but it was clear he was a Terrakinetic. Also I’m only 19 which means he would have been over 100 when I was conceived. Did he look to be 100 years old at the time?”
“Not at all. He looked at best in his forties. Why?”
“It seems Yefferson has inherited the same ability from him. Was he Invulnerable too?”
“He could become invulnerable, but it was not a constant state for him. What is this ability you speak of?”
“Yefferson, despite being Fire and Earth attuned is long lived like a Water Affinity. It seems his cells do not break down at the same rate normal people’s do. From the looks of it, I take after you, and Yefferson takes after our father. If that is the case, where did our other attunement come from?”
“That is something I have wondered about for a long time. Perhaps if I start at the beginning we can tease it out together.”
“The beginning of what?”
“The beginning of how I met your father, and how you to came to be born.”
Anaar found himself swallowing hard as he heard those words. He had come to learn more about Yefferson, but this was the opportunity to learn more about himself as well. He had done everything in his power to restrain himself from angrily questioning the woman why she had abandoned not only him, but his brother. Now he was going to get his answer. He settled into his chair and Yatik began her tale.
33
Growing up as an Air Affinity in the Osage Nation held many of the same perks as other places in the world. Though our people never saw fit to enslave Earth and Fire attuned individuals, they were never treated with the same respect and status as those Water and Air attuned. Because we only treated them as second class citizens rather than something lower than human, our society was able to grow and flourish.
As a people we recognized that if we did not live in harmony with our brothers and sisters of the lesser attunements, we would inevitably fall to ruin and lose our livelihoods. In our culture, the makeup of a family determined more about status than the individual. For those rare instances where a Water or Air attuned child was born into a family of Earth and Fire, that child would still bear the badge of their family. The one difference was that the unique child could marry into a more prosperous family if they chose.
Air Affinities had run in my family for generations. As such we were very wealthy and lived in some of the greatest luxury of the village. Though we had status, our family never held much power. Since we lived in relative seclusion from the rest of the world, we only had the most basic of tools for determining affinity. This is why the familial unit was much more important in our culture, because often children would go undiagnosed for the greater portion of their lives.
Status and power were considered two sides of the same coin. There was only one Water attuned family in the village, and they held the most status, and it had been that way for generations. Their status often made for the men and women of their family to be appointed as the shamans of our village even though they too lacked definitive power. There was one family of Earth Affinities that held substantial power, their bloodline boasting a number of Quintessences. This allowed them to sit nearly on par with our family in terms of status, and their wealth was immense as well.
It never occurred to me that I would ever amount to anything special. Our family had never seen a Quintessence for as long as we could remember. Even though I was said to be born under a special star and during a celestial event, this always made me feel more like a prop than someone who had the potential to do great things. My birth during this omen was frequently used to retain the grip on our status.
As a consequence of the use of this situation, I personally became very well known amongst many of the villages. Simply travelling to another one of the villages made this fact clear as I was already receiving marriage proposals from a young age. This fame was only bolstered as I became older and was regarded as one of the most beautiful girls amongst all the villages. Of course my family attributed this to my birth, which only intensified the interest in me.
With so much attention, all I wanted was to leave the village and experience a life where I could make my own name for myself based on my deeds, rather than a legend that had been told at my expense. I had made it my mission to be as worldly as possible so I could one day finally have my wish granted. I studied other languages so that I could be sent on expeditions to surrounding cities where I could learn even more about other cultures.
It was one autumn day in my twelfth year that I had the most vivid of dreams regarding an expedition that was soon to happen. The misfortune that would befall our people if that expedition were to proceed was so substantial that I could feel it in my bones. For three days I refused to leave my bedroom, the sight of what was to come so real that it paralyzed me. When I finally did leave my house to go to school, the world was very different from what I remembered.
Everyone had these strange colored glows dancing around them now. The colors were not varied however, they only came in four variations, purple, red, blue and green. There was so much green and red throughout the village, and I found that people with the same color felt similar, though not exactly the same. I went to see our shaman, a man who often made me feel uncomfortable with his gaze, but I needed his wisdom in such a trying time. I attempted to tell him of the colors and my vision, but all he wanted to do was talk about how much I had grown.
With no help from our shaman I thought about seeking the help of another shaman from the surrounding villages. The trip to another village would take too long, and my anxiety about everything that had happened was too much. Instead I went to see the village elder and told him my story. During my story though, I was hit with another vision, this one of the elder himself being bitten by a water moccasin and dying before help could be administered. The vision was different from before, this time I was awake, and I was certain it was of a time only a few hours away.
The elder, despite being of the prestigious Water attuned family, fell to his knees before me, his head bowed as he began to pray in supplication to me. I did not understand, I had not even been able to tell him fully of the dream I had experienced days before, only that it would be best for him to avoid the pond lest he die an agonizing death. What he told me next would forever change my life.
It had long been foretold that one day a child would be born with the sight of the spirits. That sight would allow the child to tell the future with almost absolute accuracy. The sight would also give the child the ability to see the attunements of those they came in contact with. It was said when this child was found, they would be the anchor that united all the tribes and become the high shaman of the nation. We Niukonska were not the highest ranking in the Osage nation, so it was never suspected that the child of legend would ever be born to us. It was even more surprising that the child was female. It was on this day that my life as High Shamaness of the Osage Nation began.
> The prestige my family enjoyed became far greater than that of even the Water attuned families of the villages. I was considered royalty, and as a result so was my family. My family celebrated my new elevated status and told the story of my birth many more times than ever before. All the marriage proposals I once had faded away, as I was no longer fit to be wed to those of such weak blood. Only the strongest and most influential of the Water attuned families among the clans were even allowed to ask for my hand in marriage now.
People travelled from even the most distant of villages to seek my wisdom as my powers continued to intensify. It became more of a burden than a gift to me, as someone who had dreams to leave the village behind and travel the world. Though I was no longer allowed to go on the expeditions when I chose like I once did because I now symbolized both status and power, I was still able to obtain the materials to continue my education. No one questioned my requests because it was only expected that the High Shamaness be as learned and wise as possible.
On the village elder’s deathbed, he imparted to me the final portion of the legend that he had kept from me for years. He told me that in exchange for the great power granted to me by the spirits, I would never be able to have children. This had always been expected to be a male in the legend, so it was always accepted that he would never be able to pass on his seed. With the knowledge of this portion of the legend, I was devastated that I would never have children. I had never bled the same way as other women, and no future I saw of myself included a life where I had borne a child. I never expected it to be the price I would pay for my gifts.
With my heart broken, I chose to start my nineteenth year making my dream of leaving the village come true. Though it was not explicitly forbidden, it was expected that as High Shamaness I would never leave the village for long periods of time except when visiting other villages. I had a vision of the perfect day to make my escape, and from there I started a new life, not bearing the title and responsibility of High Shamaness, but of a young woman who sought to find herself in the world. With there being no possibility of ever having a family, I wanted to do all I could to spread the love I had so that I could give to others in need.
On one of my earliest efforts I was able to utilize my abilities to help stop a despicable sex trafficking ring. The conditions the women were living in were horrendous. They were treated like cattle, and they had all but given up on life. Because of my Affinity Detection, I could tell almost all the women were Earth attuned, as I came to find out they were still considered subhuman in many circles, and their natural resilience made them prime candidates for abuse. Fire attuned women were much more likely to be able to fight back and overpower their captors, so they were avoided when possible.
There was one particular woman, she had been in captivity one of the longest and she looked as if there was nothing left in her life worth living. I felt some special connection to this woman, and did everything I could to pull her from the pit of despair she had resigned herself to. Her attunement was so weak, she suffered the ravages of the abuse as if she had no resilience at all. As a result, she had been made barren, which only increased her value as a plaything for the disgusting whims of men.
There was something special about this woman, because even though she had given up on her own life, she sought to save mine. I had pictured myself as her savior but instead we found that trait in one another. She was the first to warn me of letting people know about my power, especially since I had multiple manifestations. She was particularly insistent that I keep my Affinity Detection a secret. Growing up in my village, I never came to understand just how rare and prized my gift was. She was the only person who had taken the time to educate me on ways to protect myself. Her extra decade of life experience had given her insight my ability of Prophecy could not touch.
I helped the woman establish herself a new life, and checked in on her from time to time when I was in the area. She had become one of the closest connections I had outside of my village and I cherished her dearly. As someone who had always been expected to provide wisdom, it was a welcome relief to be able to receive it on occasion as well.
As my exploits continued, I traveled the country more and more, fighting the injustices of a broken system. This system was something I had never quite experienced in my upbringing. The worst treatment I had seen of an Earth Affinity was not being able to marry into the family of a different affinity. In the greater world Earth and Fire Affinities alike were being killed just for existing. Their voices were often dampened to a degree that would practically render them mute. It was a tragic thing to witness.
I found my activism and efforts met with hesitation and mistrust more often than not. There were far too many scars or even open wounds to allow me to play my role without the expectation of something in return. It took me more time than I would like to admit coming to terms with these feelings directed toward me. Never had I been part of a group that was ostracized or put down. Even more so, in my own home I was considered royalty, a one of a kind entity the likes my people had never seen.
I never knew what it was to be unloved or undesirable. Even before becoming High Shamaness I had always been treated to an admiring gaze. The people I sought to help faced the disparate position to be human enough to utilize for primal urges and as living tools of labor, but inhuman enough to not be worthy of love and respect that even animals were given. The more people I helped, the more it broke my heart to understand how truly vile the world we inhabited was.
As my exploits continued, so did my notoriety. I had done well to take my dear friend’s advice and keep my powers of Affinity Detection a secret, but my renown for my Prophecy found me a target of sympathizers and those who sought to retain the status quo for as long as they could. With my help, the people I worked with were almost guaranteed success.
There was a time when my visions were debilitating and random. As time had gone by and I grew stronger, more confident in my abilities, I obtained enough control to see exact events in their entirety. The unfortunate downside to my abilities was that they were so accurate, they often did not lend themselves to change. If a plan was destined for ruin, even if everyone tried with all their might to change the outcome, somehow the result would always be the same.
It became haunting to see people you had come to care about die days before it actually happened and know there was nothing that could be done. Operations that were planned for complete success ending up in utter failure. I began to wonder what good it was to have the ability to see the future if I was so powerless to change it.
The only thing that gave me hope in the darkest of days was a reoccurring vision of the future. It was a future where all people lived together in harmony. Though there was still more than enough injustice to go around in the world, the challenges I was facing in the current time had become vestiges of a seemingly distant past. That vision of the future was one of the only I had that gave me no sense of when it was to come into existence. Even still it was enough for me to continue my fight to make it a reality. If it was written in the stars to come true, I would make sure I did my part in helping it along.
As my power grew, I found it odd that my blindness to my own fate grew proportionately. There was once a time I could very consistently see the path I was supposed to take. It had helped guide me along for many years and not steered me wrong in any major way. Now since my visions became more rigid, my own future became unobtainable. Perhaps it was my subconscious taking measures to prevent me from seeing something that was too painful to bear.
This is the only theory I can come up with for why despite the potency of my powers I could not foresee a way to prevent Meysam Jahangir from entering my life. Meysam had an attractive quality that could enspell almost anyone around him. He was one of the most attractive men I had ever met in my life, which was surprising given he was no doubt in his forties or fifties. Being only 24 years old I knew that a man of such refinement and power was beyond my reach, but it was all for th
e best, because I alone knew something about him that others could never imagine.
Meysam was a man who made me quake with terror every time I was near him. This was somewhat apt considering he was known for his mind-boggling feats of Terrakinesis. The movements that he was a part of found him to be a welcome ace in the hole in any situation. When you had a man who commanded the very ground you stood on it was difficult to not fall down in awe.
When I saw most people, it was very easy to pick out their attunement from the glow of their aura, or the feeling I received from them. His power was so absolute it was enough to blot out other people’s auras around him. He shone like a gigantic emerald held up to the light of the sun. He was also a large and imposing man even without his monstrous abilities.
He was a light skinned man, towering at 6'4" and well over 200lbs of pure muscle. His steel blue eyes had the ability to freeze a person solid like a block of ice when he affixed his gaze upon them. His dirty reddish-brown hair was streaked with many grays, his long thick beard a perfect match. In another life I could have seen myself falling for such a man, his beauty being undeniable. His terrifying power was enough to have me keep my distance from him however.
His devotion to breaking his people from the bonds of captivity and oppression was extreme, yet admirable. He was a rousing speaker and he had no problem jumping into the thick of a dangerous situation with everyone else. Despite my attempts to keep my distance, he managed to corner me one day. His thick accent was different from other Iranians I had met in my travels.
“You are the prophetess from the native tribes of this country are you not?”
It took everything in me to keep myself composed in the face of his staggering might. If it was heavy from a distance, it was obliterating up close. I found it was difficult for me to even look at him, he was so radiant. I kept my head bowed and did my best to hide the intense strain I was feeling. I was the brightest light I had ever encountered, yet this man made me seem like darkness compared to daylight.
Apotheosis (Song of Sophangence Book 3) Page 41