I point to a spot in the book and push it in his direction. “Why are the talnarins only able to harness the abilities from one affinity? What’s stopping them?” He leans forward and flips to a new page in the book. He pushes it back and I take a moment to absorb the words I’m reading. Looking up, I find Benjamin looking at me expectantly before gesturing to the book once more. I go out on a limb and say, “So more than one ability makes them too strong?”
“Close. Think about nature and how everything in nature has a balance. A creature dies, but another is born to replace it. A flower falls, but another blooms. Do you see?” I nod, unsure where he’s going with this. “Good. Our power is generated by nature. The energy we store in our core is absorbed from nature itself. That means we have to have a balance as well. We are a part of nature as it is a part of us.
“If we were to have two different affinities, the amount of energy we would need to store and consume would be much higher. When you think about it in the terms of only a handful of people having more than one affinity, it won’t have a crucial impact.” Benjamin leans back. “But when you have an entire species of people who consume that amount of energy on a daily basis, the impact would be disastrous. As it is, even with one affinity, there are multiple abilities to tie to one affinity. This requires more draining of energy as well. There are some who abuse the natural order and consume more energy than nature is able to replenish. Imagine if these talnarins were able to exceed their energy level within their cores. This could result in an even greater loss of plant and animal life. Add more than one affinity on top of it all, and it would cripple our energy source: nature.
“That’s why only the royal line is able to manipulate all the affinities. They remain as the last check of power for our species. Those who abuse their energy and affinities are dealt with by the King. The royal line is charged with keeping control and managing the consumption levels of energy. This ensures nature remains throughout the generations, allowing us to continue thriving.”
Put like that, and it makes complete sense. Too much power for an entire species puts the entire source of energy at risk. A risk to nature is a risk to food and water as well. After all, nature is the foundation for all life, without it there would be no life at all. Next thing you know, the entire species dies out from a lack of resources.
I tap my foot on the hard wood floors of the library. “Are we able to pull energy from sources other than nature?” He shakes his head. “Do we need the energy to survive? What happens if we are in a place that doesn’t have energy?”
He looks surprised, as if he hadn’t thought of it before now. “Nothing happens, we just grow weak and are unable to harness the energy. We don’t necessarily need the energy to survive, but it does strengthen us.”
Interesting. So, I could have had the energy from the start of the experiments. Perhaps I was just unable to harness the energy because I was removed from the energy source.
I’m drawn from my musing with Benjamin’s voice asking, “Did you have any other questions?” I shake my head. “Then we’ll finish up the energy lesson from yesterday before we talk about the other species and their qualities.”
I sputter, “Other species? What other species?” No, there’s only humans and talnarins. There can’t be any more. I abruptly stop tapping my foot.
He looks taken a back, “Do you want to start with that, then? I assumed you knew about the other species beside ours.”
“I had no idea. How many are there?”
“There are currently five known species on Bylir. The dratonians, sugavans, nifarions, humans, and talnarins.”
“Five? Not two?” He merely looks amused, a faint smile gracing his lips. I scowl. “Since when?” Five? How do I not know about these species? How come the village or my books never mentioned these other species? Are they secluded like the humans?
Benjamin laughs and my head snaps up to watch him. “Since when? Since the beginning. There’s always been five.”
Unbelievable, all this time and I never knew there were others. Even the talnarins were a recent discovery.
“All of the kingdoms, except the humans, have a ruling court. They are governed by royal families, overseen by a King or Queen. All the species have abilities of their own that distinguish them from the other. Not to mention, their appearances greatly vary. Our features are a result of the environment we live in, just as our abilities are dependent on our environment as well.”
This is all so surreal–out of this world actually.
“Take the talnarins, for example. We have two distinct features that separate us from the humans: our ears and eyes. As we discussed, the color is a direct indicator of what affinity we can manipulate. The human’s appearance is much like ours. They have the same body shape and structure, but they have rounded ears instead of our pointed ones as well. Their eyes are either brown, green, or blue, unlike ours. Even their green eyes are dull. We don’t know why any of these differences exist either, there haven’t been enough studies done on the human’s species to know. As for their abilities, as far as we know, humans don’t have any.” Benjamin shrugs nonchalantly. “Most humans stay away from us, with the exception of the ones housed here in Craforian.”
What he said makes me freeze, but I managed to ask another question. “What, so the humans could have powers too? Is there any way to find that out?” There’s just no way. I would have known, I lived with them for twenty-two years. But, I didn’t know the other kingdoms existed. Maybe I really don’t know anything after all.
“Theoretically they could, but no one knows.” His lips turn down in a frown. “There isn’t a concrete way to determine that, either. We could probably run some tests, but contact with the humans is prohibited.”
What? “Prohibited? But there’s humans here.”
Benjamin looks like he’s hiding something. Guilt and panic creep against his face. “The King forbids contact with them. You would need express permission before encountering any.”
That doesn’t make any sense. How will the King even know if any talnarins have contact with humans? The King can’t be everywhere at once. “Why would you need permission from the King? You just said there are humans here. Why is contact with them fine, but not with other humans?”
He looks even more uncomfortable than before as he shifts in his chair. “Contact with the humans is prohibited, even here. The humans in Craforian are isolated on the other side of the compound. There only a select few talnarins are allowed to interact with the humans, and they’re hand chosen by the King himself. No one knows why we have humans here, or why they want to be here. The entire thing is top secret, I don’t know anything more.”
I look at him suspiciously. Benjamin looks as if he does in fact know more than he’s telling. I let it go… after one more question. “Are they hurting the humans? Are they safe here?”
Now he just looks like he’s trying not to laugh. “Oh, they’re fine. Abel assures us that they are content and comfortable where they are. The humans staying at Craforian are here completely by choice.” He looks at me curiously as he asks, “Why so many questions about it though? Do you want to study the humans too?”
Too? He wants to study humans? “I’m just curious, everything is so unknown about them. And no I don’t, I’m done with humans now.”
“Done with humans? Have you had contact with them before?” His eyes light up with excitement at the possibility.
Shit. Me and my big mouth. I always say more than I intended. “Uh… once. It was an accident. I didn’t know about the rule, either.” I gulp. “It was a long time ago, I hardly remember it now. I won’t get in trouble or anything, right?” Please say no, please say no.
Benjamin’s leans forward and starts talking with his hands, his excitement evident. “Amazing. You’ve seen actually humans? What were they really like? Were they strange? Anything unusual happen? What was their behavior like? Did they speak our language? Did you go to
their village? How many did you meet? What happened? Who was it? Where was it?”
I cut him off harshly. “Nothing happened, it was a misunderstanding. It’s how I found my way here. One of the humans from their village sent me here.” I choose to omit Lori’s name for fear of Abel’s reaction if he found out I was talking about her again. He didn’t handle my mention of her well the first time, and I rather not go down that road again.
Benjamin looks hurt at my brash tone. I didn’t mean to sound nasty. He slowly says, “How did the human know to send you here? That’s doesn’t make any sense. How did the human know about Craforian?”
Well, she used to live here, not that you’d know and that I’d tell you. She left though here and I can’t say it was a pleasant departure either. “Oh, I don’t know, she didn’t say much. We were both a bit preoccupied. It doesn’t matter though, Abel knows. He can handle it, I’m sure.” In a rush I say, “What do the other three species look like?”
He looks thoughtful for a minute before reluctantly conceding to my poor subject change. “Besides the talnarins and humans, the other three have greater differences in appearance than us. The dratonians have some features that allow them to live comfortably under water. They have gills on their necks, fins where our ears are, and webbing between their fingers.” He points to the side of his face, along his neck. “All the dratonians have patches of scales across their bodies and large fish tails where our legs are. They have variations in the colors of these scales and tail fins. The variations in color have no direct relation to their abilities like ours.
“They have the ability to manipulate water. As you can probably guess, they also have an affinity with sea creatures. While all the dratonians are able to access these powers, only a select few are able to walk on land. Those special dratonians are able to morph their legs into ones like ours and walk across the land like we do. Though, they do ultimately prefer the water.”
I stare open mouthed for a few seconds before common sense climbs back in. Sea creatures? They look like sea creatures? That’s… terrifying and amazing.
“The sugavans all have light-colored fur all along their bodies to help them acclimate to the desert climate. They have variations in the colors and patterns
of their fur. They have long, furry ears, similar to a venhirs. Unlike ours, which extend out, theirs extend up.” Benjamin illustrates by putting his hands on his head pointing straight up. “All male sugavans have feathered wings on their backs as well and they vary in color. The sugavans are able to manipulate the air and have an affinity with avian creatures. Again, these two abilities are common for all of the sugavans.
“The nifarions’ appearance is relatively unknown since they live so far underground and hardly venture to the surface. We do know that they have long tails with sensory hairs in order to aid them with underground life. We also know that their eyes are nearly white, since they are a nearly blind species. When they do surface, though, they only remain aboveground for small increments of time since the sunlight bothers them. They travel during the night much easier but still prefer the relative safety of their underground caverns. Their primary abilities are shadow-”
This time I can’t hold my tongue as I point to him, “If you don’t know what they look like, then how do you know what their abilities are?”
He looks baffled before he stutters out a reply, “That’s… I don’t know. I’ve honestly never thought of that before. I’ll ask around and see what I can find. Perhaps it’s knowledge gained through communications with the King during the council meetings.”
Before I can ask him what he means by council meetings, Benjamin hurries on, looking uncomfortable. “The nifarions are able to manipulate the shadows of this world. They choose the underground caverns due to the number of shadows available for manipulation. It’s similar to how we stay in the forested region for the life sources. We also know that the nifarions have an affinity with all nocturnal creatures.”
After Benjamin trails off, I ask, “Do the kingdoms get along well with each other?”
“To a degree, yes.” I stare at him in the growing silence, waiting for more. I awkwardly clear my throat. He startles. “We’ll go over more about the neighboring Kingdoms in the next few days. For now, I really want to move onto the energy manipulation.”
I can’t fault that logic, even though it feels like my brain is going to self-combust. Five species?
I’m learning more than I bargained for in Craforian.
Chapter 19
My stomach rumbles loudly once more. I won’t last in training with Erik if I don’t eat lunch. I wanted avoid the kitchen, but I remind myself that my mission comes first. I’ll ignore Elaine as best as I can, grab some food, and head to my alcove for some privacy. After the overload of information Benjamin threw at me, I could use some peace and quiet.
Soon, I’m resting in the alcove with a loaf of bread. Luckily, the kitchen had been empty when I raced in. There was no sign of anyone, and I was able to get in and out without anyone spotting me. I devour the bread in no time, and my stomach quiets. I lean back against the cement wall and close my eyes. I’ll rest before training.
Pain. It’s everywhere. It never ends. Help me. Someone please. Help. I don’t want to feel this anymore. I want to go home. I’m tired. It hurts. My insides are melting. It’s too much. Everywhere the needles are it burns. It’s melting away, I can feel it. It’s terrible. It hurts. I want to go home. I want to be free.
The worst is my eyes. I can’t see anymore. They stuck needles there too… I think. It burns the worst there. I can’t see because they melted. My eyes are gone. At least I think so. I can’t take it anymore. I want to go home. No more needles. That golden stuff did this. It’s melting me from the inside out. It hurts. No more. Save me. Anyone. Someone make it stop.
How long has it been? They don’t talk to me. I don’t even know if I want Them to. They are cruel. They smile while I cry. At least I think I’m crying. It hurts. They look so unnatural. I want to go home. It doesn’t matter how much I plea. Or how I beg. They never stop. All the pain. It hurts. It’s too much. Help me. Is anyone going to help me? They laugh at me. It hurts. They fill those tubes with that golden stuff. It’s inside me, burning. It keeps burning. How much longer?
I want to go home. I can’t take it. That machine is always beeping. It’s so loud. It’s so fast. It hurts. Everything hurts. The golden thing is doing this. I saw it before. Now my eyes are gone. My legs too. It hurts. Help me please. I can’t move. I want to go home. I’m sorry. Why? Make it stop. Anyone. It’s eating my insides. I can feel it. It hurts.
I can’t hear it. The beeping stopped. It’s silent. I think I’m crying. It hurts. My voice is broken. It’s too much. The needles where there too. They are everywhere. It burns. Make it stop. I’m sure I’m crying. I want to go home. Save me. It hurts. I don’t like it. No more. I can’t see. Do I want to see? It’s scary. All of it. They’re scary. They hurt me. I don’t know why. They hate me. They hurt me. Hurts. It hurts. I hurt. I don’t want to hurt. No more. Help. Home. I can’t. Don’t. No. Home. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop.
My body jolts. My eyes pop open and I gasp for breath. Panicking and shaking, I stumble out of my alcove. NO. No. it’s over. I’m alright now. It’s all over, I’m fine. I’m okay. Just breathe. I shove the dream back. I push it to the far reaches of my mind and try to breathe a little easier. Phantom pain causes my muscles to tighten and tears to fall. I count my breaths over and over again until my breathing steadies. It takes a while, but eventually my eyes dry and the shaking subsides. I rub my arms, hoping to warm myself from the chill that’s gripped by body.
The anger surges and claims me in a sudden wave. It washes away the remains of the dreams and the pain. My rage cleanses my soul and eases my guilt. My focus is clearer and sharper as I let the anger warm me. I know I need to calm my rage—I still fear losing control—but I let it remain in at the helm for a little longer. I glance arou
nd before making my way to the arena for training.
Erik is already there waiting. I vaguely note that Abel stands off to the side once again. My pace is brisk and stiff, my emotional state a chaotic mess. The dream soured my mood and resurfaced my mistrust of these talnarins. I don’t like it. I’m on edge and it makes me twitchy.
Training in this state isn’t a good idea, I know this, but I’m determined to do it anyway. I feel like I need to prove a point to not only myself, but to Them as well. I need to prove that these emotions don’t define me, that they don’t control me.
I distantly hear what Erik says, as if my head’s in a fog and my anger is rushing through my ears. I don’t bother with the stretches. If he wants to see the flames, he will see them. I’ll embrace them today and only today. I’ll show them I can do it, I’ll show myself I can do it. I step into the center of the sandy field and steady myself. I allow my anger to fuel the heat already stirring inside. It slowly uncurls within me but this time it doesn’t shrink away. It’s bold as it expands within me and I feel it grow and boil.
No longer do I shout at it to do my bidding. Some internal part of me knows it will listen to my whispers this time. My fear is gone, and the wall holding it back is shattered. It hears my command and molten silver flames explode in my hand. I watch in awe as it twists and turns. It dances and grows in my palm. The build is steady and slow.
I distantly hear murmured talk but can’t seem to draw my mind or eyes from my fire. Yes, mine. It belongs to me, it is part of me. There is no separation between the heat and me. It’s all interconnected—my very being, my very existence. I take the time to study it and learn it as it moves inside me like a warm breeze.
Soon, my whole body is comforted in the flames. It comforts me like the warmest blanket on the coldest day. The flames encourage the anger. It welcomes it and I welcome it. And so, the blaze burns brighter.
Fractured Past (A Talnarin Novel Book 1) Page 11