Empath

by Evans, S. Usher

  "You've had a long few days." She handed Lauren a bowl. Lauren hadn't realized how hungry she was until she dove in, inhaling half of it before Aerona sat down.

  "Mm, healing's hungry business." Lauren grinned sheepishly, as Aerona took her bowl and filled it to the brim again.

  Aerona took a seat next to her. "I'm sure the families in the village are appreciative. Cefin said you collapsed many times. I can't believe you continued on like that."

  Lauren speared a potato with her fork. "Oh yeah, just part of it, I guess." She wondered how often Cefin and Aerona spoke about her, and realized they were quite close in age for being aunt and nephew. Perhaps with so few people in the village, the pickings were slim for Aerona. For a brief moment, she wondered if Cefin and Aerona…but she dismissed the thought as soon as it popped into her head.

  "You don't like to make a fuss, do you?" Aerona smiled at her.

  "I figure people have much worse things to be worried about," Lauren shrugged, but couldn't help but add, "My problems are nothing compared to those of the rest of the world."

  Aerona took Lauren's empty bowl. "But your problems are problems to you. And problems left unresolved will fester into bigger ones."

  "I'd prefer to just pretend they don't exist. It's what I've been doing with my ex."

  "Your ex?"

  "My ex…lover," Lauren said, not sure if Aerona would get the concept of a boyfriend. "We were together a very long time."

  "And why is he your ex-lover? Did he die?"

  Lauren remembered that Aerona's husband died fighting the Anghenfil and felt stupid for even bringing it up. That was real pain, death was final. Josh could still come back—

  "No, he didn't die," Lauren said, quickly to avoid finishing that thought. "He just…didn't want to get married. No big deal. I'm mostly over it anyways."

  Aerona's eyebrows went up in suspicion.

  "Seriously." Lauren waved her off. "It was amicable, we're still…kind of friends. No worries. Besides, I'm here in this world, so it's not like I can do anything about it anyways!" She finished with a toothy grin and hoped Aerona would buy it and not ask any more questions.

  "And you don't think you'll ever return home?" Aerona asked, as Eddy and Mairwan left the table and jumped in their bed. "To him?"

  The idea of returning home and not being with Josh was more painful than the idea of never going home. Being in this other world was a convenient excuse to not have to come to terms with their new, separated reality. But Aerona was close to dragging it back to the forefront.

  "I…uh…" Lauren said, mask slipping a little bit. "You know what? I think I left something at Siors earlier today. I'll be back in a jiffy."

  Before Aerona could stop her, Lauren hightailed it out the door.

  ***

  The dark village was quiet, which was nice, because Lauren's head was filled with acerbic voices, each one berating her for being so stupid, for talking about Josh in front of Aerona, for opening old wounds. To add insult to injury, her mind was replaying memories over and over again—her and Josh on road trips, hanging out in the mornings drinking coffee. They were all agonizing to think about. And then she berated herself for daring to feel miserable when Aerona had suffered so much more.

  In the context of all of the other things that had happened to Lauren since she'd been in Rhianu, fire-breathing dragons and such, their break-up was laughable in comparison. Why was she even still thinking about it?

  "Enough," Lauren called to the darkness. She was going to stop being so upset over something so trivial.

  Unbidden, she wondered what Josh would say to her there in the fantasy world, what he would say about her healing people. He'd probably make some crack about it, knowing him.

  She hung her head, defeated. Why did she always need him when she was trying not to think of him?

  She turned her attention to where she had ended up, the watcher's post. The moon was full and bright, casting a pale glow on the valley below, and onto a familiar form slumped against a rock.

  "Asleep on the job?" Lauren announced, enjoying the way she startled him and he nearly fell over.

  "What are you doing up here?" Cefin asked, before giving her a look. "Are you trying to sneak past to the Anghenfil?"

  "If I was trying to sneak past, I wouldn't have woken you up." Lauren took a seat on a stone near to him. "What are you doing here at night?"

  "Graves took the day shift since I was in the village with you," Cefin replied, yawning a bit.

  "Sorry. I didn't mean to keep you—"

  "It was my pleasure," Cefin grinned back at her and her stomach churned. "Did you walk all the way up here just to make sure I wasn't sleeping?"

  "I needed a break," Lauren replied, playing with her necklace.

  "Break from what? You've been wandering around the village all day."

  "Just have too many…" Lauren trailed off. She still couldn't bring herself to be honest about what was really troubling her. She couldn't be honest with Siors, and she couldn't be honest with Aerona. And now, sitting here with Cefin, there was something keeping her from opening up.

  "Has your stone gotten any darker?" he asked.

  "I don't know," Lauren admitted, looking at her hands in the darkness. "I went to see Siors today, and he wasn't sure. He said he'd written someone in the city to see if they knew anything about it, or about me. I hate not knowing what's going on."

  "Wouldn't it be nice if there was another empath to read you?"

  She laughed and looked at him, aware of how close they were sitting.

  Cefin leaned back and seemed to be sizing her up.

  "What?" Lauren asked, both flattered and unnerved by the way he was eyeing her.

  "I think I can read you. I don't need to be an empath to know everything about you."

  "Oh really? All right then, spear-boy. What do you get off of me?"

  "Lauren Dailey," he began, sounding stern. "Not from this world. Would do well as a court jester in Traegaron."

  "Yes, indeed." Lauren nodded seriously. "Because I am high-larious." She ignored the pang in her heart; she and Josh used to share that phrase.

  "An empath who has no idea how to use her powers," Cefin continued, and Lauren nodded approvingly. "Eager to help others, and eager not to listen to village watchers who are trying to protect her from monsters."

  "And very good at listening when those monsters appeared." The monster was still with her, living inside of her head. Could she tell Cefin that? He seemed to be looking at her one way; how would he look if she told him?

  "But there's one thing I don't know," Cefin said.

  "What's that?" She smiled, suddenly aware of his breath on her face.

  He closed the gap between them, and she barely got to register what was happening before—

  She tastes so good, her lips are velvet, soft and delicate. Oh, to push her to the ground and explore all that is underneath her dress, but she is twitching, and…wait, I cannot—

  Lauren gasped, her mind reeling from the reading but her body very much turned on from the kiss. Cefin's lips were an inch from hers, where he had just lifted them. She could still taste him in her mouth, but she had no memory of their kiss. All she could remember was the peculiar sensation of kissing herself, and it made her squeamish inside.

  "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I forgot that—"

  "No, don't be sorry," she whispered back, struggling against the strong urge to kiss him again, to do other things to him, knowing that he wanted to do the same to her. With great pain, she turned her head away from him to look forward.

  "So we can't…really…" he trailed off.

  "Appears not," Lauren said, cursing inwardly.

  They sat in awkward silence for a few moments before Cefin spoke again. "What does it feel like to kiss me?"

  She was suddenly very interested in the ground ahead of them.

  "What? Is it bad? Does it hurt?"

  "No, it's just…" Lauren said, feeling the blush rise in
her face. How was she supposed to tell him that she knew the very sexual way he felt about her? She wasn't even sure if he was a virgin or not, although he seemed to have a very active imagination.

  "What?" he pressed.

  "I mean, it's an…well…it's an open book," Lauren confessed. "I mean, I can feel…everything."

  Cefin didn't understand.

  "Like…well…how much you…like me," Lauren finished lamely.

  Cefin's face turned redder than she thought possible and she immediately regretted telling him. "So, everything?"

  "Yeah."

  "Everything?"

  She knew his meaning and couldn't look at him.

  "I see." He swallowed. "I am sorry."

  "For what? Feeling?"

  "It's inappropriate to think that way about you."

  Lauren stifled a laugh.

  "Is that funny?" Cefin asked. "For me to feel that way about you?"

  "I mean, you're a guy. You can't help it," Lauren said.

  "Oh, so your beauty is so magnetic that all the men fall madly in love with you?" Cefin asked.

  It was Lauren's turn to blush.

  "I didn't mean that. I just…" Lauren sighed, and the panicked jitters were back. She should have told him that she couldn't see him anymore, that she couldn't even touch him without knowing every single intimate detail about him. She should have told him that she liked him as much as he liked her.

  But instead, in true Lauren fashion:

  "I…uh…guess I need to get back home," she whispered, pushing herself to stand. "I'm…sorry."

  CHAPTER NINE

  Lauren would have been lying through her teeth if she said she didn't think about Cefin, their kiss, and some things having to do with those bedsheets, especially as she and Mairwan spent the next day at the river cleaning several baskets of bedding and clothes for Aerona. She hoped that Cefin would get the message and just stop speaking with her, saving her from having to avoid him forever.

  Luckily, avoidance happened without Lauren needing to hide under a rock. Within two days of her return to Rhianu, a man arrived carting a young woman on a donkey. She was slumped over, barely breathing, and Lauren could see the trail of tyllwyllwch behind her. Lauren healed her in the street, with much applause from the villagers, who had never seen magic before. Eddy was stuck like glue to her for the rest of the day, hoping to catch a glimpse of someone being healed and the bright light from the stone.

  Over the next week, sick people poured into the village, sometimes as many as five a day. Each time, Lauren walked through the darkness of tyllwyllwch and healing them with the light from her stone. She said nothing to the villagers nor to anyone else, but after every banishment of the tyllwyllwch, she spent an hour examining her stone, looking to see if it had turned darker. And after every one, no change. Although that didn't give her much comfort—if it wasn't the tyllwyllwch darkening her stone, it had to be something decidedly more beast-like.

  But even though Lauren was healing the tyllwyllwch, she hadn't heard the Anghenfil's voice in her mind for a few days. Long enough that she was able to convince herself she had imagined the whole thing.

  After all, it was a fire-breathing dragon; they couldn't talk.

  Right?

  When there was no one to heal, she quelled these unending questions during her days on Baltes' farm. She couldn't get enough of these days, which flew by quickly and left her in a much calmer emotional state than when she arrived. When she was in the mind of a goat, she wasn't worried about Cefin or the Anghenfil or the stone—her own quiet escape.

  Baltes continued to talk with her as though she could hear him while she was reading animals, or maybe he just didn't care that she wasn't listening. Sometimes the twins joined her on the farm, usually supplying their own distraction.

  "I SAID I WANNA RIDE!" Eddy cried as Mairwan climbed onto Bessie. She stuck her tongue out at him and kicked the horse's barrel.

  "Kids." Lauren smiled to Baltes.

  "Seems like the stream of villagers has ended," he noted, an eye on the children.

  "Yeah, I'm hoping that it's mostly gone now. The other day, there was a villager from as far away as Traegaron."

  Baltes whistled. "That's a fair journey. At least a day on horseback."

  "I hope he's the only one," Lauren said. "I can't imagine if an entire city was infected. Heulog was bad enough." She began to worry again about the tyllwyllwch and the Anghenfil, and quickly replaced those thoughts with those of a nearby chicken. She let her own thoughts go and took a calming breath.

  "Hey, hey!" The twins were squabbling worse than before, and Baltes had run over to calm them down. "What's this fuss today?"

  "Eddy says he can ride Bessie better than I can!" Mairwan said, glaring at her twin from atop the horse. "I wanna show him!"

  "All right, all right," Baltes said, walking beside the horse as she plodded along the paddock in a circle.

  Lauren smiled and closed her eyes as a goat passed by her. The water trough was empty, and he was thirsty. When the presence passed, Lauren walked over to the trough and found it bone dry.

  Since Baltes was busy with the kids, Lauren decided to visit the river and bring back some water for the animals. She hoisted the water bucket easily, priding herself that she'd grown stronger in the few days she'd been there in the village. She even had sort of figured out how to keep her mind under control, as long as she had some livestock nearby.

  That was, until she came to the banks and saw a half-naked Cefin scrubbing himself down in the middle of the river.

  "Oh, hi," Lauren said, the bucket falling out of her hand. His long hair hung around his ears, wet and sticking to his face. He swiveled around when he heard her voice, and his entire upper body grew red.

  "Hello…." he said.

  They stood in awkward silence for a moment, and Lauren tried not to stare at his gorgeous body.

  "Do you need something?" he asked after an eternity of silence.

  "Was just getting water for Baltes."

  "Oh," he nodded. "Do you need help carrying it back?"

  "I….um…sure," Lauren stammered.

  Cefin smiled his gorgeous smile. "Let me get dressed and I'll do just that."

  Lauren stared at him for a moment before realizing he was in fact naked and probably didn't want her gawking at his nakedness. She spun around, haranguing herself for being such an awkward twit. She tried not to think about naked Cefin, but failed miserably. His naked body was firmly in the forefront of her mind, as was their kiss, as was all of other, more sexual thoughts that were currently heating up her cheeks.

  She looked around for a small mammal or bug she could read, just so she could stop the stream of consciousness. Unfortunately for her, the only living thing in the vicinity was currently the object of her erotic thoughts.

  She heard him finish sloshing around and call to her that he was dressed. She spun around and swallowed a hiss—his white shirt was sticking to his chest even more attractively, defining every single ripple and definition on his upper body.

  "Thanks for helping me," Lauren said, handing him the bucket. Their fingers brushed for a moment-

  I can't believe I kissed her. How stupid can I be—

  "Sorry," he winced.

  "Don't be," Lauren said, forcing a smile on her face. She then blurted out, "And don't be sorry about the other day, either."

  "Right…" Cefin blushed beet red and Lauren hated herself for speaking.

  They walked in silence down the path to Baltes' farm, but there was a loud conversation in Lauren's head. These empath powers weren't only a pain in the ass for her, they were awfully invasive to Cefin's privacy. Not wanting to chance getting another glimpse into his mind, she folded her arms tightly over her chest.

  Cefin noticed her distance and his face changed, but he said nothing as he carefully balanced the water bucket in his hand.

  Lauren was sure that the trip to the river was much shorter than the way back, but mercifully, they reache
d the farm. Mairwan, still on top of Bessie, was calling out to Eddy, who was looking quite put out that she wouldn't get off and let him ride.

  "Kids." Lauren shook her head, eager to break the tension between Cefin and her.

  "Mm," Cefin said.

  "Look, Cefin, here's the deal—" Lauren began, but a loud scream ripped through the both of them. Lauren spun around to search for the source of the scream and heard the bucket of water fall out of Cefin's hands.

  Eddy was the source of the ear-piercing screaming.

  Bessie was bucking, and Baltes was trying to get hold of her.

  Mairwan lay motionless on the ground.

  ***

  Lauren paced in front of the hut, her hands moving from covering her mouth to wringing anxiously to running through her hair. There was no sound coming from the hut, and that just made her more nervous. Siors was inside with a distraught Aerona, doing his best to calm the mother and save the daughter, who was breathing but not responsive. It seemed as though they had been in there for hours, and every passing second was agony.

  Cefin was holding Eddy, who hadn't stopped shaking or crying since he first saw his sister on the ground. Baltes had said he was prodding at Bessie, trying to get the better of Mairwan. Lauren knew he must be wracked with guilt; no wonder Cefin was holding him so tightly.

  Lauren spun back around to look at the door and began to feel guilty as well. She didn't even want to go near the young girl, the idea of death making her uncomfortable. She'd only seen it once before, when her grandfather died, and the sight of the once jolly man lying in the coffin had been unnerving. The idea that so much life and energy could just evaporate in an instant terrified her.

  But it was more than that: Lauren was afraid of what she'd find if she touched the young girl. Would she still be there, the sweet little girl that she had come to adore? Or would it be like Owena—nothing at all.

  Siors appeared in the doorway, his face grim and ashen, and Lauren's stomach fell to the floor.

  "I am afraid there is nothing more I can do for her," Siors whispered to Lauren.

  "Oh no," Lauren gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. She caught eyes with Cefin and his face scrunched up with unshed tears. He patted Eddy on the back, but didn't turn to keep the boy from seeing Siors.