by Kim Fedyk
"Oh I see," Arleth smiled. "My favourite colour is green."
"I have a green one too! Green was my favourite colour last week. Ok, gonna show my friends!" Lucy raced away.
Arleth sat down on the grass beside Selene. "She has a lot of favourite colours."
Selene laughed, "She sure does. Keeps me busy."
"Is she your... daughter?"
"Oh gosh no! Aedan and I are not ready for kids yet. The whole waging war thing kind of gets in the way."
"Ok phew, so I'm not also an Aunt."
"No! When you are you will be prepared trust me. Aedan and I want to be married before we have kids and we don't want to get married until the war is over."
"But...uh... might you not get pregnant by accident? You can't exactly plan these things..."
"You can when you have magic." Selene winked at her. "Your brother probably won't want us to have had this conversation, but ask Samara about it. She taught me."
Arleth blushed "I don't think I will need to know that any time soon."
Selene reached over and grabbed her hand, "Good your brother will let me live long enough to see our wedding after all."
Both of them laughed.
"Selene?"
"hmm"
"If Rogan did something to me, magically, would you be able to tell?"
"Why did Rogan use some kind of magic on you?"
"Yes, but I'm not sure if it's bad or not....Absalom had wanted to question me about the Black Thorn assassin group."
Selene looked at her with confusion, "The what?"
"It was a thing he made up so that he could bring me to Oherra with him. Val attacked his Grekens and Absalom told me that he was a member of the Black Thorn and I was the only one that had seen one of their faces so he needed me to go back with him to Oherra so that he could question me."
"Ahh ok, continue."
"Anyways, Absalom told Rogan to question me using magic because apparently it gave the clearest evidence. I might be forgetting something, but with magic it wouldn't matter, they could still see it. But well now I'm worried, because, well, there is no Black Thorn so he wasn't trying to see what I had witnessed. So why did he use magic on me? What was he trying to find out - or do to me. And the whole thing with Zeeshan.... I don't want something like that to happen to me."
"It is right of you to be concerned. But don't worry, I can find out what he really did." Selene was glad that Arleth was smart enough to have come to this conclusion on her own. She hadn't liked the idea of probing around in Arleth's brain without her knowing. It was too close to Rogan's style for her comfort.
"And fix it?"
"Yes and fix it," Selene lied.
Arleth let out a sigh of relief.
Selene wasn't entirely sure if she could fix anything that Rogan may have done to her. But she sure as heck would try. There was no use worrying Arleth until she had inspected her to see what, if any, damage there was.
"Come sit in front of me, please."
Arleth shuffled over.
" No facing me."
Arleth turned around and crossed her legs."
"Closer."
She slid as close to Selene as she could, until their knees were just a hair's length away from touching.
"Ok great. I am going to need you to relax as best you can. I am going to place my hands on each of your temples. As the magic runs through your head you will feel slight bursts of heat - that is normal, it's just the magical energy at work. But if it hurts let me know right away ok? It shouldn't ever cause pain."
Arleth nodded. "I'm ready."
Selene placed her hands gently on either side of Arleth's head and closed her eyes. She let a few exploratory strands flow through Arleth's brain.
"Does that feel ok Arleth?"
"Ya, it's certainly weird, but not unpleasant."
"Good."
Selene increased the strands a bit, changing their chemistry so they would seek out any imprint that Rogan left. She had dealt with his magic enough that she could recognize his stain. Each sorcerer or sorceress left a characteristic mark, a magical signature on anything that they touched. Rogan's signature was a nasty stain - a rot.
And there it was! She latched onto his imprint and crafted her strands around it, unravelling it so she could determine what it had done. She continued for a few minutes, unravelling it and reading its pattern, probing deeper into Arleth's brain a few times to follow its trail. When she was satisfied, she squeezed her strands around the rot Rogan had left until it whiffed out. She pulled her own strands back into her hands and removed them from Arleth's temples.
"So?"
"It's good news Arleth."
Arleth let out the breath she didn't realize she had been holding.
"The magic that Rogan used on you was not harmful. He was in essence trying to read your thoughts. He used magic that would trace whatever you were thinking of at the time, to all its points of origin. So for example if you were thinking of me, and I cast that spell on you, it would allow me to access every single instance in your brain where you and I ever interacted, you ever saw me, or you ever even thought of me."
"This is good news?" Arleth felt extremely violated.
"Yes it is. It's not pleasant by any means that he was searching around in your brain like that, but he didn't do any harm. He left nothing in there that would manifest later, he didn't try to change anything, it was all just exploratory."
"Manifest later?!?"
Selene nodded, "Rogan has done it before. He will leave a small web of magic in someone's brain. It's virtually undetectable. The person will appear completely normal for days, maybe even weeks. And then the piece he left will mature and wreak havoc on the person."
Arleth was almost too afraid to ask, but her curiosity got the better of her, "Wreak havoc how?"
"In any number of ways really. But the latest one before I learned how to recognize it and correct it... Are you sure you wanted to know?"
"Yes," Arleth responded with more confidence than she felt.
"Well... he walked into a group of people and.... exploded. Killed himself and 4 other people."
Arleth felt like she might be sick.
"And you are sure, there is nothing like that in my brain?"
"Positive."
"Wow, I guess that is good news then. Compared to exploding."
Selene grimaced, "Unfortunately yes, the fact that a lunatic only poked around in your brain is good news."
Arleth sat in silence for a while contemplating what Selene had just told her. She realized she had been incredibly lucky to have spent as long as she did with Rogan and Absalom and come out unscathed. She was getting the distinct impression that not too many people could say the same.
Selene sat in silence beside Arleth, letting her have her time to process. She couldn't imagine how hard learning all of this at once must be for Arleth. She had grown up in a world with magic, had lived all of the things for years that Arleth was getting bombarded with all now in the space of a few days. At her age, Selene didn't know how she would have handled it, certainly not as well as Arleth was. Heck, she wasn't sure she would handle it any better now. Not for the first time, she marvelled at the girl's strength.
"Are you feeling better now? Not feeling nauseous anymore?" Selene asked, breaking the silence.
"Yes, I'm back to normal now. It went away shortly after I started eating breakfast."
"That's good to hear. Arleth do you find that you get sick, feel nauseous I mean, often?"
"I hadn't really thought about it, but I guess, maybe? I have noticed it more in the last few days though."
Selene didn't seem surprised. In fact it seemed like she had been expecting that answer.
"Why?" Arleth asked.
"It's based on your magic. Your powers work differently than mine. For you, the basis of your power is empathy. This means you can influence other living things, and do much more than I could ever hope to. But it also means that until you learn to
control your powers, you will empathize with other living things.... to the point of nausea."
"I don't get it."
"Since your magic works through empathy, you will feel other's pain and sickness as your own. The everyday stuff, like a child gets sick, or a woman gives birth you won't feel. But the big stuff, battles, war, torture, will affect you. The closer you are in proximity to the suffering the worse it is for you. Also, the closer you are emotionally to the person or people affected, the worse it will be. This is one of the reasons you need to go to Samara so quickly, quicker than I had to. If you don't learn to control this side of your power, your nausea will keep getting worse and worse, eventually, if you are never taught to control it, it will kill you."
Arleth's mouth opened in shock, "So if I had never come to Oherra, never been able to meet Samara and learn to control my power, I would have become so sick that I would have died? A power, I didn't even know I had, would have killed me?"
"No, not necessarily."
"But you just said..."
"On Tocarra, you were unlikely to face the same magnitude of pain and suffering that you are here. Every day on Oherra, there are battles, raids, skirmishes, ambushes you name it. On top of that, every day, Rogan kills more people, enchants them, tortures them just for the fun of it. In a world like this, you are in much more danger if you don't learn how to control your power."
"I guess that's why Aedan was so insistent on me not going to Occa, he wanted me to get to Samara as soon as possible."
"That could be, yes."
"But why wouldn't he just tell me that?"
"He probably didn't want to worry you."
"You told me."
"Yes, but I understand magic a lot better than your brother, and I have an ulterior motive."
That gave Arleth pause, "You do?"
"Yes, I know the plan is for us to leave for Samara tonight when everyone else leaves for Occa. But the more I have been thinking about it, the more I think I should go to Occa. Talywags are a stubborn, timid race - I don't think they will have much luck convincing them to come back with them here. Or at least not before Absalom attacks. I want to put up magical barriers, protection spells, that sort of thing."
"So what does that have to do with telling me about the problem with my powers?"
"Because you are more important. If you were still sick and in pain, you would need to go to Samara right away. But you aren't. And since I'm making the decision to delay your training, I wanted to give you all the facts first."
"I would like to go to Occa..."
"I thought you might. It will only be a two day delay. We will go with them to Occa, stay a day so I have time to set up my magic and then we will leave for Edika."
"But I am scared about getting sick..."
"Understandable. But honestly I don't think you are in danger right now."
"How come?"
"Your biggest threat comes from Absalom and Rogan and I'm willing to bet they are focused right now on waging war on the Talywags. They will have to prepare just like we do, so it should buy you a couple of days at least. If the war does happen, you will be safely with Samara by then."
Arleth thought about it for a few minutes. She did want to go to Occa. And what Selene was telling her made sense. Two days wouldn't delay her training by very long and that way the Talywags would be more protected too since Selene would have time to help them.
"Ok, I want to go to Occa."
"Excellent."
Arleth's heart sank, "But what about Aedan?" He had been so set on her going to Edika right away.
"Don't worry about him. I can be very convincing."
Arleth gave her a blank look.
"Wait right here, I'll go talk to him now. Be back in a few."
Arleth didn't know how successful Selene would be, but she hoped for the best. She pulled on a blade of grass and waited.
* * *
Twenty minutes later, Selene returned.
"You'd better get some sleep Arleth, we are leaving for Occa in a few hours."
Chapter 25
A gentle shaking of her shoulder woke Arleth out of her dream.
"Huh... what?" Arleth said blearily.
"Wake up Arleth. We are leaving shortly." Selene handed her a soft bundle.
"What's this?" In the darkness Arleth couldn't make out what it was.
"It's some warmer clothes for you - pants, a cloak, boots."
Arleth rubbed the sleep from her eyes and took the bundle from Selene. "Thank you."
"No problem." Selene got up and started to walk out of the tent. "Put them on, I'll be waiting out here for you." She lifted the flap and disappeared outside.
A few moments later, Arleth came out of the tent, yawning.
"Why did we have to leave in the middle of the night again?" Arleth asked as Selene and her started walking.
"Absalom has scouts everywhere. We don't want to be attacked when we leave Iridian, and preferably, we don't even want to be seen. There is a lot of open ground between us and Frasht Forest and with 4,000 of us making the journey - we need the cover of darkness."
"Ah, right," Arleth yawned again.
"Come on," Selene laughed, pushing her gently along. "We need to move faster."
By the time they reached the cave entrance, most of the soldiers had already left. The few hundred who remained were standing in a group off to the side. Graydon and Winn were giving them instructions, most of which Arleth couldn't hear, but she did pick out "rear-guard" and "watch for threats from behind." Zeeshan stood by himself, energetically hopping from one foot to the next. It was clear he couldn't wait to get going. Near him, Aedan was deep in conversation with Bain, who was nodding fervently to whatever his leader was telling him.
Aedan looked up when he heard them approach, "You are just in time ladies. If we leave now, we will be right behind Val and the first group." He whispered one last thing to Bain as the women approached, then smiled and clasped the man's forearm. "I know I'm leaving our stronghold in good hands."
Bain grasped Aedan's forearm in return. "Be safe out there Aedan," Bain replied."Absalom hasn't made a move this aggressive in a while, and now that he knows we have Arleth....I don't need to remind you, he's planning something big."
Aedan forced out a laugh he didn't feel, "We aren't 12 year old kids any more Bain." It was meant to sound like a joking rebuke, but it came out hollow. Aedan was just as tense as Bain was.
And Bain knew it too, "Just be careful." He made a move to walk away, but Selene grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards her. "You aren't getting away that easy old man," she said, wrapping her arms around him. "You be careful too." Before he could reply, she reached into the pocket of her cloak and pulled out a small brown cloth bag and dropped it in Bain's palm. "This is for you."
He undid the drawstring and looked inside. He nodded, retied the drawstring and put it into an inside pocket on his cloak.
"In case you need it, or in case we need to tell you something urgent." Selene instructed.
Bain nodded again. "Hopefully neither of us will have need of it, but thank you." He gave one final, meaningful glance at Aedan and a quick smile and a nod in Arleth's direction and walked away.
Aedan stared at Bain's retreating figure for a few moments and then without further ado, "Ok let's go."
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, Arleth found herself in a single file line, slowly making her way down the treacherous passes of the Iridian mountains. Directly in front of her Graydon seemed to be navigating the steep declines with ease. For what seemed like the hundredth time he stopped, turned, sighed in over-exaggerated displeasure and all but stamped his foot waiting for her to catch up. When she finally reached him, he whispered angrily "Hurry up, I don't know why you are taking so long. If I didn't keep turning around you would be left behind." He sighed again and turned back around.
What a jerk, Arleth thought. She highly doubted Zeeshan, and the hundreds of men behind him would allow
her to get left behind, even if Graydon stopped his 'generosity'. But she kept this to herself. Even if she had wanted to tell him, he was already 10 steps away from her and rapidly increasing the distance.
Crap, she thought, is the guy a mountain goat? She did her best to hurry after him, tripped and would have fallen if not for the supporting paw of Zeeshan directly behind her.
"Go slowly," Zeeshan grumbled into her ear, "It's better to go slow and stay alive than rush down the mountain like a damn fool."
With his help, she regained her balance and continued down the pass, more carefully this time.
Selene had given them all patches of light that they stuck to their hands so they could see better in the dark. But even with both hands held out in front of her, Arleth couldn't see very much. In an earlier altercation with Graydon, she had complained that if she could see better, maybe she could have gone faster. Graydon had called her an idiot and told her obviously the light couldn't be that bright because they were trying to hide, not tell all of Oherra exactly where they were.
So Arleth continued on as best she could. To her left was a sheer drop, and to her right was the cliff face. She moved as far to the right as she could and held her hand out so that she could feel her way along the side. Her left hand was held out in front of her so that she could vaguely see where her feet were stepping. The pass was littered everywhere with chunks of fallen rock. Even if she had been able to see clearly, in broad daylight, she would have still had to move slowly to choose where to step.
She sighed, put her head down and tried to forget the fact that if she tripped and fell to her left, there was nothing to stop her from going over the side of the cliff. And it was a very far way down.
* * *
Two excruciating hours later, an exhausted and very frazzled Arleth finally stepped onto solid ground. She had never been so thankful for grass in her entire life. She looked down almost lovingly, her hand held out in front of her so she could better see the blades of grass on the ground. Arleth started to bend over to run her fingers through it, when a rush of movement behind her jolted her back up again.