by Jen Valena
Ithia thanked them.
They bowed modestly.
Datus’ curly, dark hair and beard were cut short. His smile was easy and his manner relaxed.
In Nolan, an intensity boiled. With a clenched jaw, Nolan jutted out his cleft chin. He stared at Ithia as he spoke to Tyrsten, “I could not track the man that ran off before the fighting started.” His voice suggested a storm brewing.
“I’m sure you did your best.” Ithia smiled to elicit the same from Nolan, but he only stared back with impatient green eyes, which she swore flashed briefly red.
Nolan addressed Tyrsten directly. “The nearby village, Dunlan, is now under curfew.”
Tyrsten considered the weary-eyed Ithia, irritated at Nolan for bothering Ithia with the news. “Yes, Charlan is the same.”
“They search for her.”
Tyrsten narrowed his eyes at Nolan’s rudeness.
Datus cleared his throat. “This can wait for a more appropriate time. I am certain you are exhausted from your travels.” Datus gave Nolan a disapproving glare.
Nolan stomped off in response. Datus bowed and followed after him.
Tyrsten showed Ithia down the hall and into a small room with a narrow bed and a dresser with three drawers. Each drawer had a simple hammered knob, embossed with a nine-pointed star. A glass oil lamp sat on top. In the corner, a smooth tree trunk was part of the structure of the room.
“Nolan doesn’t like me.” Ithia ran her hand along the tree.
“Do not take it personally. He has a rough temperament.”
Ithia shrugged. “What is Celestial’keel?”
“It refers to the experience of falling into the stars during the Actuation.”
“Yeah, quite a fall.”
Ithia sat, bouncing once to test the bed for comfort. A fresh scent of lavender drafted up from the linens. “Is this my room?”
“Yes. My room is the next one over—at the end of the hall is a wash room. Feel free to explore the grounds. If there is anything you need, at any time, please do not hesitate to ask anyone here.”
“You act like you are leaving me all on my own.”
“Acclimate. I am here whenever you need me. I am sure you tire of my lingering.” He exited her room with a quick nod goodbye.
As he shut the door, she whispered, “I’m not tired of you.” This fact alone disturbed her. It wasn’t her normal protocol.
✹ ✹ ✹
Tyrsten found Huldo at the kitchen table enjoying cheese and dried fruit with a mug of water. Huldo jumped up and got his older brother the same to eat and drink.
Once Tyrsten was eating, Huldo gave Tyrsten the once-over. “She is something, huh?”
“She is.” Tyrsten stared into his mug.
“Is she the one?”
Tyrsten nodded.
“The one for you?” Huldo chuckled.
“Huldo!”
Huldo grinned a smackable grin. “I do not understand why you hold back your emotions. Why do you always keep yourself so far in check? You are a living being—a young man in his prime. You are human. Even Master Larin would tell you to experience a little happiness.”
“He would not agree with you on that. I see little happiness if I were to go unchecked as you so eloquently put it.”
Huldo softened his delivery—their missing teacher was a touchy subject. “It is just—I see a connection with you and her.”
“Our connection is due to an unprepared Actuation, nothing more.” Tyrsten took a deep breath. “I appreciate your intention, but that is not one of my options. It is unproductive to even think about.”
“With everything that is going on in this world—”
Tyrsten interrupted him, “Even more reason why I cannot.” His voice downgraded to a whisper in case she might hear, “Not under these circumstances—not under my circumstances!” Tyrsten sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Her very presence is enough of a distraction to me without you—” He paused at Huldo’s impish smile. “I cannot compromise my judgement.”
“I believe she senses your connection too.”
Tyrsten stiffened his shoulders in alarm and glared at Huldo. “What did you say to her?”
“Nothing much. I told her very little of this world, only enough to satisfy her curiosities.”
“I fear you speak too much.” Tyrsten gritted his teeth.
“I fear you speak too little. She deserves to know.”
Tyrsten slammed down his mug and got up. As he stormed toward the kitchen door, Nolan approached from the hall. He stopped Tyrsten by bracing the doorway with his arm, creating a toll bridge. He demanded to be heard as payment for Tyrsten’s crossing.
“Is this the best place to bring her?” Nolan asked. “There is worry among us. This place is not invulnerable.”
“She stays.” Huldo came to Tyrsten’s defense. “Until it is no longer safe for us to stay.”
“And when would that be?” Nolan snapped. “When Garrick figures out where she is and uncovers the secret entrance? It is the only way in or out of the Vihar. Then it will be too late.”
“I will not,” Tyrsten clenched his fists, “put the others in jeopardy.”
“I am surprised a great Warrior worries over an unarmed woman,” Huldo interjected.
“It is unwise to judge by size or appearances.” Nolan stared at Huldo, daring him to push further. “And she is no simple woman.”
“If we treat her as a threat, then she may come to be one,” Tyrsten said.
“We do not know if we can trust her.” Nolan allowed Tyrsten to pass.
Tyrsten assured him, “I have seen her soul.”
“It would not be the first time a Magian has made a mistake in that arena.” Nolan narrowed his eyes.
Tyrsten didn’t address the accusation and headed to his room.
✹ ✹ ✹
A man in a cloak approached. His face was obscured by the low hanging branches of Ithia’s favorite oak tree. She lay sleeping on the hilltop. He pulled out a rag and doused it with liquid from a small bottle. He clasped the scarf over her face. He scooped up Ithia’s drugged body. A circular portal, ten feet in diameter, hovered and rippled almost invisible to the eye, perpendicular to the ground. With Ithia in his arms, the man leapt into its center and disappeared.
Now Ithia was being chased down the halls of a palace.
A woman was in pain, somewhere—hidden.
Ithia ran to find the woman, but the man anticipated her every move. She moved left. He was already there. She turned right. He appeared.
The man had her cornered. He crept toward Ithia and said, “You have taken my life from me and now I am going to take yours.”
A whimper, somewhere far off, was beyond her help.
Ithia couldn’t breathe. She struggled against his chokehold. It was no use. Her body grew numb.
Breathe!
Tyrsten burst into Ithia’s tiny room. On the floor, she lay thrashing against an invisible opponent.
“Ithia?”
Tyrsten’s voice released her from her dream. Still panting from the nightmare, Ithia sat up. “A bad dream,” she said to reassure herself and scooted against the bed. “I woke you. I’m sorry.”
“Do not be. I understand.” He had had his share of nightmares.
“A cloaked man was choking me to death.” Her hands went instinctively to her throat. “I couldn’t see his face. He chased me room to room through some sort of mansion.”
“A palace?”
“Yeah. First, he grabbed me from Earth and then jumped through a portal. We just disappeared. Then I was in a palace. I couldn’t stop it. I can usually change things in my dreams. But he had control.”
Tyrsten was intrigued. “You can control your dreams?”
“As a kid, I had reoccurring nightmares of being chased. Gramps told me to change it by thinking of a different outcome before I went to sleep. It worked. Eventually I became aware I was dreaming, and I changed what I didn’t like. I’ve used that ability ev
er since.” Ithia’s heart still raced. “Am I crazy for feeling I was really attacked?”
“No—” He stopped, the answer would frighten her. However, he knew he had to tell her the truth, so he continued, “It is possible.” Tyrsten stroked her hair to ease her anxiety. “More likely, it is just your fears.”
The idea of being defenseless frightened her. A flush of embarrassment filled her, but she asked anyway, “Will you stay here while I go back to sleep?” Ithia hung her head. “Forget it. Never mind.” She shooed Tyrsten away with her hands.
He knew better than to stay, but he actually felt how it pained her to even ask. She was no better than him when it came to being fiercely independent.
“If I were in your position, I would not have handled these last days as well. And there is a good chance you are a target of a psychic attack.” He stood up to leave. “I will get my bed roll for the floor.”
“You could just sit—only until I fall asleep.”
Tyrsten leaned back against the headboard, his head cushioned with a pillow.
She came close and rested her head on his side. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“Shh.” Tyrsten’s hand fell to clasp her arm. She was soon asleep.
However, he couldn’t rest. Every time he tried to leave, she began to wake, so he gave up.
Her sleepy smile in the morning, when she saw he had stayed all night, was a conflicting reward.
✹ ✹ ✹
“I have to tell you what is on my mind,” Tyrsten said with some gravity after she took her last bite of breakfast.
Ithia gulped, unsure of the tone in his voice.
Tyrsten led her out to the gardens behind the main building. She hadn’t yet explored the Vihar since she slept the entire first day.
Lush vegetation—plants and trees of a thousand varieties filled the Vihar grounds. A vegetable patch and greenhouse were located near the kitchen. Beyond this manicured area, several acres were dedicated to the untamed: wildflowers, long grasses, boulders and exotic trees. She was drawn to that outer rim, and she was disappointed when Tyrsten stopped at a bench in the center of the garden.
Her heart began to beat erratically. She had wanted answers, but now that she might get them, she was nervous.
“Would you like to hear why I believe you were brought to Ma’thea?”
She nodded.
“Quanen, a gifted Magian Seer and one of my teachers, had a vision. He had confided in me that an individual would challenge our precepts, old and new. Garrick, the tyrant behind your abduction, learned of Quanen’s vision and believes that you are this person. Even Sauvant Tancreed named you in his letter.”
“Why would anyone think it was me?”
“Quanen apprised a trusted few of the details before he vanished. He was the first Magian to disappear, which happened soon after he insisted he perform my Actuation. The world was deteriorating, and he sensed the societal storm would only get worse. So Quanen divulged his vision to me. He spoke of an Apex of Change. Quanen believed in a female force changing our ways, bringing balance, challenging unworthy authority. He conjectured our mindsets had swung too far into the masculine psyche, forgetting the full spectrum of our natures. And this woman would come from unexpected origins to awaken the ancient ways. Quanen said I should aid this woman in whatever way I could if I were to cross her path.”
Ithia tried to interrupt, but he continued, “I have no proof it is you. And you were not the only woman taken, however—”
“There were others?” Her spirit ached, worried they might have been hurt on her account. “Still, that proves my point, it could be one of them.”
“But I saw you—you were the only one in my visions.”
“That doesn’t mean—”
“You are a woman with the eye mark of a higher order of Magians called Sidari, like myself and Quanen. Throughout our history, the very few Magian women were Innocenti—their eyes being pure black. They possessed no stars. In recent generations, even most Magian men are Innocenti and cannot practice the supernatural to the level of a Magian Sidari. The powers of an Innocenti are passive. They are keepers of knowledge. They are Seers—often great prophets.”
“And we are Sidari, because of the stars?”
“Yes. And Sidari are rare among our people and are only men.”
“So,” she paused, hoping she misunderstood, “I’m rare?”
“You are unprecedented.”
Ithia excused herself and left Tyrsten alone on the bench. She wandered the grounds thinking unprecedented sounded like it might be fun, but in actuality, it was quite disconcerting.
✹ ✹ ✹
Ithia avoided everyone for the next two days, taking meals alone in her room and going for walks by herself in the gardens. Tyrsten observed her, but kept his distance.
Nolan noticed the tension between Ithia and the others, and sought out Tyrsten. “Has she turned against us? She speaks to no one.”
“She has a lot to digest about what she is.”
“Tyrsten, I feel doom upon us. She is Sidari. There is something wrong with that.”
“Because she is a Sidari woman?”
“She is unnatural.”
Tyrsten understood Nolan’s fear, but couldn’t tolerate it. “Maybe it is unnatural that we never had one before. Maybe that has been our downfall.”
“Perhaps you are correct in this.” Nolan bit down on his tongue for a second. “During my duties with Garrick’s soldiers I learned more troops amass in our region. She will be the Vihar’s downfall.”
✹ ✹ ✹
The next day, Tyrsten was in the garden meditating under a tree. Ithia resented that he radiated peace, at a time when she completely lacked hers.
Ithia had to confront him. “Why are you putting this on me? I’m just someone from a small town who got dragged into all your craziness.”
Startled, Tyrsten jumped to his feet. Not accustomed with being verbally assaulted, he instinctively matched her fervor, “I am not putting this on you. I was dragged into this too—years ago, by Master Quanen. And maybe it was you that called on me—and that is why I saw you.”
“How could I call on you? I didn’t even know your world existed. And now you try to make me believe I’m some… tool in your crusade! I didn’t ask for this.”
He paced, took a deep breath, and in a calm voice said, “I did not initiate the Actuation.”
“I didn’t do that. I’d never even heard of an Actuation.” She stomped off and then a few yards away turned on her heel to face him. “This isn’t my problem. Why don’t you use your woo-woo magic to fix what’s wrong? I don’t belong here.”
“I understand. This is all overwhelming.” Tyrsten shifted his approach and tone. “However, the stars always shine in their rightful place.” He took a step forward, and she took a step back. She wanted to run but didn’t.
Ithia couldn’t control her feelings around him. A levy had broken inside of her, each time she scrambled to repair it, another wave of emotion smashed it. She collapsed onto herself and slumped to the ground. She hung her head low between her knees. “I don’t see how I can help you when I can’t even get myself home.”
Tyrsten knelt down and held her. He grasped her hand, squeezing it hard, like a vow, he pressed into her palm. “You are not alone.”
✹ ✹ ✹
Ithia awoke to a low, rhythmic thrumming, reminding her of the drone of an Indian sitar. It resonated through the wall separating her room from Tyrsten’s. She closed her eyes and used the skill of sensing her surroundings that Tyrsten had taught her at the Mother Tree. Her consciousness expanded outside of her body and bubbled out to encompass Tyrsten’s room. She perceived him sitting cross-legged on a meditation cushion. As Ithia focused her attention on the vibration, she recognized it wasn’t a drone but a melodic series of syllables making up a chant. In his right hand, Tyrsten pushed another bead on a string with his thumb each time he completed another short phrase.
After break
fast, Tyrsten and Ithia meandered through the garden paths. They were both more relaxed after expressing what had built up in their minds.
“What were you saying in your room this morning?”
“My ancient chanting meditation.” He recreated his deep, resonant chant, “Aum-Nah-Ma-Si-Vah-Ha. Salutations to what I am capable of becoming.”
“And the beaded necklace in your hand?”
“Wait. You saw me? I do not approve of you spying on me in my room. Yet, I am pleased your skills improve.”
After a brief flash of pink on her ears, she said, “I just used the technique for keeping watch. I wasn’t thinking—how invasive it was.”
“Well, I did observe you before we met. We are even. Please do not make it a habit to keep my room under surveillance.”
With a frown, she asked, “Why do you chant with the beads?”
“I repeat it one hundred and eight times or multiples of that. The beads keep count.”
“Why that number?”
“It is a sacred number. The distance between Ma’thea and the Moon is one hundred and eight times the diameter of the Moon. The distance between Ma’thea and the Sun is one hundred and eight times the diameter of the Sun. The diameter of the Sun is one hundred and eight times the diameter of Ma’thea. Our ancestors taught us this. Earth is the same. Earth’s ancient Vedics knew this sacred number as well.”
“How do you know those measurements are correct?”
“Another lesson. However, modern Earth science has confirmed it.”
“So the number is connected to your celestial theology?”
Tyrsten nodded and handed her a small, brown bag. “Oh, I have been meaning to give this back to you. Huldo found this on the stretcher after we left the caves.”
Ithia jarringly stopped in her tracks. She stared at the item for a long moment. It was as if he had unearthed a relic of a time long since passed—so out of place with her surroundings—her sling bag and inside, her trusty wallet. She had owned this wallet since she was a child. She checked to see if her lucky coin pendant that Gramps had given her was still inside. She pulled out the silver medallion.