Empath

by Evans, S. Usher

  "No, I just…" Lauren swallowed, realizing that she must be going insane. But if she knew she was going insane, did that mean she was going insane? Was it possible to watch oneself go insane?

  He peered at her with his beautiful face and she had to look away. "You must still be a little faint from the fever. You were murmuring when I pulled you out of the cave."

  "Yeah, what is this cave thing everyone keeps talking about?" Lauren said, finding her tongue. "And where am I?"

  "You are in the village of Rhianu," he said, the foreign word slipping off his tongue beautifully and unhelpfully. "I was up in the mountains and I heard you buried in the rubble, so I pulled you out."

  Lauren still couldn't register his words. "I was never in any cave. I was sitting in my office. An earthquake happened, and now I'm in the freaking Hobbit."

  "What's a hobbit?"

  Lauren let out a long breath between her pursed lips.

  "At least tell me your name," he said gently, as if she were a certifiable crazy person.

  "Lauren Dailey."

  "I'm Cefin."

  "Kevin?"

  "Keh-fin," he enunciated. "Cefin Vaughan. I'm the village watcher."

  "What's that?"

  "I protect the village," he said, "from the Anghenfil."

  "What's an—"

  Her question was silenced when an old man walked into the room, followed by the woman who had been tending to her. She wasn't sure why, but she had seen the old man in her dreams, and the thought was unnerving. He wore a dusty red robe, his white beard cut short to his face, and some liver spots dotting his bald head. He seemed pleased that she was awake.

  "Cefin, lad, we need to change her bandages," the old man said. The woman had a bucket in her hands filled with the same goop currently on Lauren's leg.

  "You know, I think I'll be fine." Lauren waved them off, not wishing to add fresh bacteria to her legs.

  "Nonsense," the woman said, placing the foul-smelling bucket next to Lauren.

  "Oh, sure the stench is bad, but it'll do the trick," Cefin said, shouldering a giant spear that he'd brought into the room.

  "Aerona, please hold her for me, she does like to thrash," the healer said, placing the bucket on the ground. The woman walked over to sit next to Lauren. When she placed her hands on Lauren's arm, she felt a rush of warm air enter her body again.

  Who is this girl? Why was she in the mountains? Why is she convulsing like this? She looks possessed. Are the children safe?

  Like a sharp turn from a steering wheel, another feeling came over Lauren, mixing in with the first in a loud, simultaneous two-person monologue.

  She must be in shock. This leg injury isn't that bad. Where did she come from—

  Where are the children now? I don't think I can keep her here, especially if she's a danger—

  A screaming voice joined the off-key chorus of conversations.

  She appears to be having a fit now, but…is she one of them?

  Lauren plunged back into herself, and realized that the person screaming was her. She gasped for breath and her brain felt like someone had just played ping-pong with it. As she stared at the ceiling, she gripped the wool sheets on the bed so hard her knuckles were white.

  "What the hell just happened to me?" she whispered, looking at the old man, Siors was his name. She knew him as well as her own grandfather, even though they had just met.

  "You don't know?" Siors replied, sounding as shocked as Lauren did. Aerona (again, the familiarity of the name and the person was unnervingly new and old at the same time) was similarly shocked, not even bothering to remove the two red-headed children from the room. Eddy, who was always getting into trouble, and Mairwan, sweet Mairwan who wouldn't hurt a fly, were against the wall. And Cefin, handsome Cefin had his hand on his sword, looking ready to slay some fantastic beast.

  "No." Lauren replied, her eyes dancing from one person to another.

  "You are an empath," the old man whispered.

  "A what?" Lauren pushed herself up right. She was dizzy and weak from whatever just occurred, but she was quite sure it had nothing to do with the fact that her leg was now covered in fresh magic mud.

  "Eddy, Mairwen, out," Aerona ordered to the twins. When they didn't move, Aerona walked over and hitched them by their arms, shoving them outside. Once they were out of the house, Lauren turned to look at Siors.

  "A what?" she repeated.

  "An empath, a reader of feelings." Siors was smiling like a young boy discovering the night sky for the first time. "You felt it just now, did you not?"

  "What was that?" Lauren said, pleased and horrified that she was not crazy.

  "When an empath touches another person, they absorb their feelings," Siors said. "Or at the very least, they can read them."

  "I just…it was like I was…you," Lauren sputtered, looking at Aerona, not even caring if she sounded crazy. She felt like Dorothy in Oz. "And then I was you," she pointed to Siors. "And then I was back, and it was too much and—"

  "This is incredible," Siors said, sitting back and stroking his white beard. "Where did you come from?"

  "My cubicle."

  "Mi-cubical," the old man repeated, looking to be wracking his brain. "I have not heard of this land—"

  "AARG!" Lauren cried out, laying back down. "This is a fever dream. I'm having a fever dream. Maybe if I fall asleep, I'll wake back up."

  She squeezed her eyes closed and wished. A twitch in her leg and a jolt of pain reminded her she wasn't dreaming.

  "My child, you have a gift," the old man said. "Even in this land, empaths are rare and highly valued."

  "But why do I suddenly have these powers now? I'm…I was…normal…. And why am I here? Are there other empaths I can talk to?"

  "The last empath to visit this land arrived over fifty years ago," Siors said. "I was a young man, but I remember when she came to the king's castle in Traegaron. She was the first empath in some time, too."

  Lauren looked up at him, hope filling her from top to bottom. "What? Really? Can I talk to her?"

  "The Anghenfil took her."

  "I'm sorry, the what?" Lauren said, after a moment. Cefin had used the same word as well, and somewhere in the back of her mind, she felt a drip of dread.

  "Ang-hen-fil," he said slower. "A monster, made of fire and smoke. It lives in the mountains, in the very caves where we found you."

  "Oh." Lauren nodded. "When you say it took her…"

  "The beast appeared in the kingdom and took her back to the mountains that surround the village. No one has seen her since."

  "Fantastic. And you said this…monster…inhabits the same caves where you found me?"

  The old man nodded.

  "No, I'm not—I'm normal, I'm feverish or something, I'm having a coma dream, but I'm not….NO!"

  She surprised herself with the ferocity of her words and tears welled up from a place deep within her. She was so tired of crying, but now she felt like her tears were worth it.

  "I wanna go home," she whimpered. She didn't care that she was twenty-four years old. She wanted her mom, she wanted her bed. She didn't want to be an empath or be eaten by a giant smoke monster or lose her leg to a bacterial infection or any of this.

  Aerona sat down next to her but didn't move to touch her.

  "You need your rest," Siors said gently. "You have endured quite a shock, and need some time. Aerona, Cefin, let's give her a moment."

  Lauren lay in the quiet room and felt the tug of sleep pulling at her. Maybe she was dreaming, and if she fell back asleep, she'd wake up in the hospital.

  She hoped.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Unfortunately, when Lauren awoke to the smell of hay and mud, she realized that she was not, in fact, having a coma dream.

  This was really happening.

  She rolled over and stopped, not from pain but from a lack of it. She looked down at her leg, which was still covered in the goop, and moved it gingerly. When it didn't explode in pain, she m
oved it more, testing it.

  "Well I'll be damned, it is magic goop," Lauren said, as if this were perfectly acceptable. Because why not; she'd already been transported to a brand new world. Of course, the mud was magic. Next there would be flying unicorns.

  She slid her leg off the bed, testing it out and watching as the bandages and goop slid off, and her leg was, indeed, healed. She tested her weight; it hurt, but not so much that she could not stand. On the edge of the bed, she saw of two folded pieces of cloth—one that resembled burlap and the other a dull white. She picked up the white cloth and it unfurled as a long white dress with sleeves. She assumed the burlap was another dress; she vaguely recalled Aerona wearing something similar. And together, they looked like something out of a fantasy novel.

  In which she was now living, she reminded herself. Magic goop and flying unicorns and such utter nonsense.

  She supposed she couldn't wander around in half-torn pants and a filthy silk shirt, so she peeled them off and put them on the ground. As her shirt went over her head, the cool backing of her new, expensive ruby necklace hit against her skin. The light reflected off the red stone, and she could have sworn it was alive. She almost pulled it off to stick it with the rest of her clothes, but something stopped her. Instead, she started peeling off her dirty underwear and bra, poking around on the bed for something to replace them. When she came up empty, she realized she was going to have to go commando until she could find a washing machine.

  Or, she realized with a terrible scowl, a river.

  God, she was in real shit now.

  Longing for her shower, she slid the long white cotton dress on, and it fell all the way to her ankles. She pulled on the burlap-looking dress over the cotton dress, the material itching at her arms. Although she missed her sweatpants, there was a draft in the room. But with this dress on, she was at least a little warmer.

  There was only one room in this small little house, with one bed corner, presumably where the entire family slept. Lauren had slept in another corner on a pile of hay with a single sheet thrown over it. No wonder she'd felt like something was poking her all night.

  There wasn't much else in this one room, a cold hearth where an iron pot hung, and a small wooden table. Lauren was playing with the rusted metal spoons when the rags to the outside rustled and Aerona came walking in, carrying a bucket of water.

  "Oh goodness, you're up," she said, a small smile on her face. "Glad to see Siors' healing has worked on you."

  "Yeah," Lauren said, putting the spoon down. "Um…thank you for letting me stay with you."

  "Think nothing of it," Aerona said, placing the water next to the fire. Lauren suddenly realized that she was perhaps a few years older than Lauren herself. Lauren still felt sixteen most of the time, a kid, but this woman couldn't have been older than twenty-seven with two young children.

  Aerona grunted as she lifted the water to pour into the cast iron pot over the fire.

  "Oh, geez, sorry!" Lauren hurried over to help, realizing that she was standing around like an idiot.

  "Thank you, dear." Aerona said, allowing Lauren to take the other side of the bucket. Even between the two of them, it was heavy, and Lauren realized she hadn't seen Aerona's husband—

  Aerona's husband was gone.

  She shook her head, the memory washing over her like it was her own. She wasn't sure where it came from, but she knew that however it happened still caused Aerona great pain.

  "Lauren?" Aerona asked, placing a hand on Lauren's arm.

  She is so strange, this empath. I'm still worried for the children, but Siors thinks it is best to keep her in the village, perhaps she can be—

  Lauren gasped and registered that water bucket had fallen, dousing the bottom half of her dress in water. She couldn't remember the past few seconds and was still feeling the aftershocks of Aerona's thoughts. Thoughts about her.

  "My dear, are you all right?" Aerona asked, looking both concerned and afraid at once.

  "Y-yes," Lauren croaked out, sitting down at the table and rubbing her face in her hands. She was dizzy and couldn't shake Aerona's concerns from her head.

  "That's right, we can't touch you." Aerona opened and closed her hands, and Lauren caught the hint of pity in her face. "Siors says that you read others through touch."

  "I…" Lauren looked up at her, nervous that Aerona was going to throw her out of the house for being a freak, or worse, for invading her privacy. The idea of someone knowing Lauren's deepest darkest secrets was enough to make her skin crawl.

  "Oh my dear, don't worry!" Aerona hurried over to the table and knelt in front of Lauren, but did not touch her. "I know this must all be very…"

  "Overwhelming," Lauren mumbled. "I'm sorry that I read your…I mean…I…" She couldn't keep it in another moment. "Please don't kick me out!"

  To her surprise, Aerona just laughed.

  "I most certainly will not 'kick you out,' dear." She stood and walked over to the overturned bucket. "We have too few people in the village as it is, and we always need help with things. We are glad to have you."

  Lauren suddenly realized the full scope of her predicament and she found it hard to breathe. She was stuck somewhere that was definitely not home. She had no idea where she even was—a different time, a different dimension? And without knowing where she was, she had no way to figure out how to get back home.

  "That reminds me," Aerona said, ignorant of Lauren's inner turmoil. "Siors wanted you to come visit him today. He's very interested in hearing about where you came from. And"—she smiled lovingly—"I'm sure that if there is a way for you to get back home, he would know it."

  ***

  Lauren stepped outside of Aerona's small one-room hut and took in this new village. It definitely looked like something from Lord of the Rings, tiny houses like Aerona's nestled along a gravel and stone path. Snowcapped mountain peaks rose all around them—the air was chilly and a little thin. She counted maybe twenty houses that she could see, each one looking like they had sprung from the land organically.

  She heard hushed whispering and saw two women talking in the front yard of a nearby house. They were looking at her and pointing. She waved to them, and they hurried inside their house.

  "Whatever."

  She wrapped her arms around herself and began walking along the main road in the village, lined by the ramshackle fences in front of the houses. Aerona had described Siors' house as the oldest of the bunch, one that she would find on the edge of town. She stopped in front of the last house on the street, the nearby trees dangling branches into the overgrown grass and vines that covered the front of the house. Smoke poured from the leaning chimney atop the roof. It certainly looked like a house the old man would live in, so she walked up to the door and knocked.

  "Hello?" she called. "Siors?"

  After a few moments, she pushed the door open and poked her head into the room. It was heavily perfumed with spices, smoke, and old books, which seemed to be stuffed into every nook and cranny of the small house. A small table stood in the center of the room, the only surface not covered by books. Lauren looked around for a sign of the old man, but didn't see any movement.

  "Siors, are you here?" Lauren called out again.

  "Oh, the empath!" Siors emerged through an open door on the other side of the room, a kind smile on his old face. "My dear, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

  "Well," Lauren said, "I have a lot of questions…such as how the hell I got here in the first place."

  "I'm sure you do," Siors said, pulling out an old book from the stack. "I've been looking through my own library here to see if I can find any mention of the girl who came here when I was a boy, but so far, no luck. All I know is the last empath arrived in much the same manner as you did."

  "Do people suddenly appear out of thin air normally here?" Lauren asked.

  Siors smiled. "I'm afraid not"

  "What about this empath stuff?" Lauren asked. "Is that normal? I didn't have any of t
hese kinds of powers in my world." Even saying the word powers was strange for her.

  "Empaths have been legend for centuries," Siors said. "Some of the old texts say that an empath can read emotions, and others say that an empath is really connecting with the other person's soul."

  Lauren grimaced; she wasn't sure she liked the sound of that.

  "So, there aren't any other empaths I can talk to?" she asked.

  "No, the only other one I am aware of was taken by the Anghenfil."

  "So this….Anghenfil." Lauren swallowed nervously. "You said that you found me near the caves where it lives? What…is it exactly?"

  Siors placed a thick and dusty book on the table, flipping it open and turning the dusty pages. He paused and turned it around, showing Lauren a painting of a winged red dragon looming over a flaming city. Bright red eyes and gleaming white teeth rounded out the frightening image.

  "Beautiful," Lauren pushed the book away before she had a full-blown panic attack. "And it ate the last empath, you say?"

  "The empath had been summoned by the king to the castle in Traegaron. The beast itself had not been seen in centuries. Most thought it was just a myth. And then it appeared and destroyed half the castle as it hunted for her. Those who were there say it wrapped her up in its fearsome tail and carried her to these very mountains."

  Lauren caught the vision of the beast in the book again and wondered if it was the reason why she was here. She remembered that odd voice that she heard in her office moments before the earthquake—

  She quickly squashed that train of thought to refocus her attention on Siors, and she began to play with her necklace anxiously.

  "The beast has been seen every few years since that day," Siors said. "But I'm afraid we do not know what powers the beast may have; just the fire and the claws are enough to be getting on with."

  "Do you have any more books about the Anghenfil?" Lauren asked.

  "This is the end of my compendium on the subject," Siors smiled. "But I shall send word to my scholar-brother. He is the keeper of the great library in Traegaron and one of the wisest men in the entire kingdom. If there is more to be known—about the Anghenfil, or about yourself—then he will know it."