by c a king
“Excellent, why don't you test that idea with Mike's team and see what happens,” Aslo commented and the others agreed.
Pete stepped forward. “Things can't hit me,” he said. “I mean like weapons, it's like I have an invisible shell around me. Not very exciting I am afraid.”
Aslo moved close to the boy and examined him. “This is the best news we have heard. Your next step is to extend a shield to protect others and if I am correct one day you may be able to create containment fields and even enforce the barriers between the worlds which have grown thin. I will walk over with you to talk to Mike. I would like to see you trying to protect people against physical attacks.”
Pete looked quite proud of himself as the two walked off to join the other team. He had always been the understudy to his two other brothers being the shortest of the three, although still taller than most men. He was for lack of better description, the in between one, not really spectacular in any way, but now he was finally getting some recognition and stepping out from behind his brothers' shadows.
Malarchy motioned for Dezi to go next thinking the triplet brothers would stick together, but was surprised by his response.
“I don't know yet,” Dezi said looking at the ground. It was unusual for him to shy away from anything and, even more curious, he was the only brother of the three that hadn't figured out what his ability was. “I think I should just work on combat for now.” Without waiting for an answer, he headed over to the combat team and left everyone wondering what had just happened.
The next boy stepped forward and silence followed. Neil, everyone knew now as 'the boy who ripped open the space between worlds and let the invasion in'. It wasn't his fault of course. He had been bewitched by Jade into believing they were running away together to start a new life. He wasn't sure which was worse...being known as a weapon of destruction or a love struck pawn of Jade's.
“I can bend the reality of items,” he said quietly. “I can rearrange the way they appear, their texture. I can change space. I am not sure after stretching the barrier between worlds thin enough to break if there is anything else I will advance to. It was terrible but still sort of epic.”
“That it was,” Malarchy answered. “That it was...but, there is always room for advancement. For instance you can change the way this rock looks and whether it is rough or smooth, but could you make it appear as a rock, but feel like a sponge? On a side note, let's stay away from bending space and making holes for now and concentrate on something a little smaller. Perhaps Diana could work with you on that?”
Diana nodded and head off away from the crowd to work individually on Neil's talents, and keep an eye on what he was directing his attention to so no further 'accidents' could happen.
Malarchy turned his attention to his daughter, the only remaining family member he had. “Jade, darling, can you tell us what your talents are?”
“Nothing worth anything,” she said without looking up. She hadn't looked anyone in the face since the last day they were home. “I ... can make myself look good, convince people to do what I want sometimes. That's it.”
“Illusion can be a strong gift if you work on it. In one form or another, your mother and I have the same gift,” Malarchy said.
“Had.”
“Sorry dear?” he answered. The tone of his voice told everyone he had forgiven the girl for what had happened, or perhaps blamed himself. Either way she was his daughter and he loved her unconditionally. It didn't matter what she had done.
“Mother had that gift. She is dead now...and it's my fault. There is no illusion in that.” Jade ran off back to the building in which she had been sleeping the past few days.
Victoria moved forward and tugged on Malarchy's sleeve. “I can practice healing anyone who gets hurt in practice combat if you like. I am still learning though and have a long way to sixteen.”
“A wonderful idea. You head right over there and tell Uncle Mike you will be assisting with the wounded.” He flashed a devious smile at Mike.
Victoria skipped away happy as could be to her new job. After a few looks from Mike for sending him the young girl to deal with for the day, Malarchy continued on. Looking over his list, Faramund had been excused to help with combat. They had already discussed his teleportation powers and practising with accuracy.
“Camile?” he said loudly.
“Potions,” she replied. “I can make potions, for just about anything. Right now I use known potion recipes. The next step for me is to work on making my own up using ingredients readily available.”
“Good, perhaps we should stay away from consumption ones for the time being and stick to ones that you pour on objects,” Malarchy said, thinking back to the love potion she had created that had almost killed Jessie, Dezi and Pete. “And work on identifying the different ingredients and their purposes.”
Zsiga spoke next. “Stealth,” he said. “I can basically hide in plain sight, blend into shadows, escape detection. I would imagine the next step for me would be invisibility, if I advance any further.”
“There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to advance further. Our teachers were always geared towards continual advancement of skills during our lifetimes. You may be surprised at what you could be able to do,” Aslo said returning from the combat team with Iskander beside him to switch places with Zsiga.
“Your talent?” Malarchy asked.
“Seems a little strange for a big guy like me, but...” Iskander closed his fist and opened it again. There sitting inside was a small ball of light. “I call it 'my little star'. I can send it places and it shows me what it sees. It can give off a pretty good spark too for a little thing. Not to sure how I could expand it though.”
“How far can you send it? How many can you make at once? Can you make it larger, more powerful? Can it go under water? In any weather? If you answer 'I don't know' to any of those, that is what you should be working on,” Malarchy said.
“Never thought of all that. I guess there are ways to make her better,” the guard said smiling.
Malarchy signalled to Mike, William and Diana to come over. When they arrived, he looked at his chart, and back at them a few times then let out a sigh. “Good news...we have an enormous amount of defence. Bad news...we have hardly any offensive skills active. Those who are portal guards have a certain affinity for combat, which may help, but it's a long way to being able to mount an attack to bring our people back.”
“We do have thirteen and assuming Willow pulls through, fourteen guardians. Not to mention the red head has some unique skills too,” William added.
“Undeniably she does, but it's a far cry from growing fruit trees to fighting an army. I hate to have to say it, but, if she doesn’t wake, without her skills we may be stuck. Guardians can't go through any portals without a keeper and she is the only one we have,” Malarchy replied.
“If that is the case then a defence is what we will need in the end. For now though, I suggest we train in as many combat techniques as possible. Prepare them to fight as a regular army and use their defensive skills to stay alive,” Mike said and the others agreed.
While the new mentors were talking among themselves, Clairity approached Dezi. “You okay? I heard what you said, about not knowing what your gift was. It's not true. You do know. So why not tell them?”
“You should mind your own business,” he snapped instantly feeling bad. “Sorry, I have known what I can do for a long time but I never wanted to end up a freak show for a bunch of people to make fun of.”
“You won't. It's different here,” she answered. “They honestly want to develop our abilities so we can help in combat. It's elemental isn't it?”
“Yeah, fire and water, I can create both,” he said looking at the ground and kicking the grass.
“You need to tell them you know.”
“I will in my own time...maybe. I won't perform tricks though.”
The group leaders returned to their stations to begin setting up train
ing routines everyone could practice daily. Malarchy headed towards the sleeping quarters to find his daughter in hopes of training her with a few illusion abilities that might one day help her escape if the need arose.
At the end of the day, Dezi asked William and Mike for a minute of time alone and explained his situation, how the Council made people with his abilities dress up and entertain. They were sympathetic as to why the boy wasn't willing to share his skill set with others, especially Malarchy, but also happy to hear they now had a little more offence to work with. They assured him they would train him how to use his skills in combat, not for the circus and after trying to explain what a circus was for a while without success, they gave up and let him know they were a team working together towards one goal.
Mike and William were the last two remaining in the practice field that evening, practising their combat skills against one another as they often did to relieve stress.
“Do you think any of this is going to help? They aren't exactly militia material,” William said lunging forward with a sword at his friend's chest.
“They need a lot of work,” Mike blocked the attack. “And you sound out of breath old man,” he laughed.
“Old I am compared to you. Ten thousand of your years pass my people by for just one of our cycles. I age much slower physically than you,” he replied attacking again.
“Willow too huh.”
William stopped the fight and looked at his friend. The two had become close since they met years ago. “What's this about? You got a thing for the girl?” he smiled.
Mike laughed as he returned the weapon he had been using to a rack. “It's more a red hair thing. So few of us around we have to stick together.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Willow opened and closed her eyes a few times trying to focus on her surroundings. Everything was blurry. 'I must actually be waking up,' she thought to herself.
'Yes, we are.'
She recognized the voice, not one of the voices she had grown up with, but one from her dream. It was Shelby.
Things were coming clearer now. There was a woman walking back and forth checking numbers on some machines, which were making odd noises, and writing them down. Attached to one arm was a band of material which started getting bigger. Willow winced as it squeezed the upper part of her arm so tight she though it was going explode.
“You're awake!” the lady said rushing over.
Willow was preoccupied by the wires and tubes that were attached to her. “What is all this? Ow! I want it off. Get it off of me,” she tried to scream, but the words came out coarse and her throat ached. Panic set in, everything was confusing her. She wanted to get up but the woman was holding her down and yelling for someone named Richard. Who were these people? Where was she? Where were Aslo and Kiera, or the kittens? She hadn't even had time to learn their names yet. What if she never did? What if she had been captured and this was all for torture? Why couldn't she speak properly?
She was fighting as hard as she could, kicking and scratching, when the man arrived and held her tightly down.
“Relax, don't try to speak. Willow, you need to relax now or you will hurt yourself,” he said to her in a calm voice.
She wasn't about to relax when these people had her hooked up to who knows what. “Let me go!” She tried to scream. Again it was nothing more than a squeak and pain shot through her throat.
Richard looked at the woman and asked for something, Willow hadn't heard of before. She left for a moment and came back with a strange looking tube filled with liquid and what looked like one of Martha's sewing needles on top. She pushed on the bottom and some liquid sprayed out the top. The sight of it made her more nervous.
“Calm down now. You are going to hurt yourself. It's okay. We are trying to help you,” he said.
'Help me?' she thought, putting wires into her body didn't seem much like help. The woman moved up to a tube which had a sack of clear liquid on one end and was attached to her arm on the other. She inserted the needle and within seconds everything was flashing before her eyes. She couldn't struggle anymore. Her eyes lids closed.
“I think we need to have someone she knows here until she wakes up again. We will need William as well,” Richard said sending his wife to find the others.
Mike was the first to notice Mary the nurse running across the field towards where they were practising combat moves. He left the training group and ran over to meet her half way curious as to what news could be so important she would track them down.
“Mary, is everything okay?”
“The girl, she woke up,” she said while trying to catch her breath. “She completely freaked out. We had to sedate her before she hurt herself. Richard wants someone she knows and trusts in the room with her at all times till she wakes up again and he wants to see William too, as soon as possible. Maybe you could take a break here, just for a few hours, the sedative should wear off fairly quickly.”
“Sure, I will fill in William and the others and we will be right over. I am sure Aslo and Kiera will want to be there as well,” he said turning to head back to the others, many of whom were already staring and wondering what was going on.
Mike approached William and the two guardians first, taking them aside to fill them in. He didn't think everyone needed to know Willow had awoken afraid of the technology around her. He could see now why she would and couldn't believe none of them had the foresight to anticipate her reaction. Her world never had any doctors, medical rooms or hospitals. This would all be foreign to her and then adding on top she didn't recognize anyone she knew...It was a scenario for disaster.
After telling them what had happened, Aslo and Kiera decided to go straight over so as not to take any chance their keeper would wake up alone again. William sent everyone back to the command centre to wait except Clairity and Ashlyn. They were Willow's best friends and he wanted one of them always by her side. They could take shifts three or four hours at a time for the rest of the day. Both girls agreed, Clairity said she would take the first shift, heading over with William, while Mike and Ashlyn discussed what to tell everyone else back in the main cabin.
When they opened the door to the medical building, they saw that the guardians had changed back into their house cat forms and were on the bed beside Willow, while Richard and Mary were standing on either side. Richard had been talking to them when he noticed there was someone else in the room.
“Oh good, William, I want you to help make the choice. The IV and equipment really spooked the girl. We could unhook her from everything now and it might be easier next time she wakes. Downside is we couldn't monitor her vitals anymore and if she doesn't wake as we expect we would have to put it all back,” the doctor said.
“Aslo, you know her better than me. What do you think?” William asked.
“I believe we should remove everything. She is doing well. The avian guardian looks well. I see no reason to keep her hooked up to your machines and scare her further.”
“Think there is a prophecy for this?” William said rubbing the back of his neck and pacing a little “Okay, let's take her off of it all. We will give her twelve hours to wake. That should be long enough and still not dehydrate her body too much. Any longer and we will need the IV back in.”
“Agreed,” Richard said.
William pulled Clairity aside before leaving and asked her to keep him informed if anything happened. When she turned back, the nurse had pulled a curtain around the bed her friend was lying in, to detach all the wires in private. She was glad. The machines always made her nervous when she visited the room. She couldn't imagine all the things that were attached to Willow could feel very comfortable. Oddly enough, she thought, with everything in this world being so advanced in comparison to their home, their medical department was definitely lacking.
When the curtain was pulled back again, Clairity pulled a chair over and sat by the bed. Time seemed to drag for her. There was nothing she could do but practice her visions som
e, in between awkward conversation with Aslo and Kiera. They were doing their best to be cordial to her, but she had never actually spoken to them before. She told herself she would feel the same if she was left alone in a room with people she didn't know, but deep down she knew she felt nervous alone in the presence of the guardians because they were ancient beings of great power, the true protectors of everything. After what seemed like ten cycles had past, Willow began to move.
“She is waking,” Clairity said.
“It could just be muscle reflexes. Let's not get too excited yet,” Aslo responded.
“No, I can feel it. She is waking up,” the young prophet said.
Kiera had been curled up in a circle. Upon hearing the news she lifted her head to look at Willow's face, her eyes widening with anticipation. Within moments the young girl opened her eyes a little, then again a little more, trying to focus again.
When she had regained normal eye sight, she bolted into a sitting position, wishing she hadn't immediately after. Everything started spinning. She could hear voices she recognized but couldn't make out what they were saying. It was all muffled. She fell backwards to a lying position again. She tried to speak, but her mouth was dry and the words wouldn't form. Her throat was too sore from earlier. She had never felt so terrible before, so out of control of her senses, so weak. Lying down with her eyes closed she realized that she could focus better on what was being said.
“Relax child, please, it will take some time for you to feel better. You have been asleep for several weeks. Your muscles and eyes will need to adjust to being active again,” said a voice she was very accustomed to, a voice she trusted. It was Aslo and he would never do anything that would harm her.
“Willow. It's me, Clairity. The healer here said you could have some frozen water if you woke up, to wet your mouth some. He said it would help you until you could sit and drink water. If you open your mouth some I can put a little piece in.”
That was good news for Willow. She parted her dry, cracked lips and her friend slipped a little piece of ice into her mouth. It felt wonderful, cold and wet. She played with it with her tongue, letting it dance across teeth and gums. When the first piece was gone, she opened her mouth again and within moments she was rewarded with another small piece of ice.