by Petra Landon
“I’ve never seen her before in my life. I’m positive we’ve never met before tonight.”
“Who is she?” she asked curiously as the gold eyes narrowed at her emphatic response. “I sense a lot of power in her even though she’s not a Guardian.”
“It’s her pedigree that gives her the power you sense” Raoul’s response was succinct. “She’s the progeny of two very powerful wizards who also happen to be rather notorious for very different reasons; Lady Bethesda and the Oracle.”
Sienna gazed at the brightly lit streets showcasing the beauty of this city by the bay. She sensed the occasional glance that Jason directed at her contemplative self while he drove them back to their hotel. Sienna knew that he would not push her until she was ready. If she was ever ready! He’d leave it up to her to decide whether and when she wanted to confide in him. The young boy she’d had a hopeless crush on had grown up to be a man she liked very much. That Sienna had discovered in the past week she’d spent in San Diego, catching up with her Aunt Minnie and attending debriefings at Wizard Headquarters. The revelation that her mother might still be alive had caught her by surprise. The ones about the allegations of her mother’s involvement in the murder of Chosen children had shocked her to the core. Her entire world had been turned on its head. It suddenly felt like she had been left adrift on a churning ocean with no land in sight. The past week had forced Sienna to question everything regarding the traumatic events from her childhood.
Other considerations had also come into play. If Lady Bethesda was still alive, it was likely that the explosives that had razed the Registry in Chicago to cause so many fatalities had been deliberately planted and rigged to allow her to escape. The people killed had simply been collateral damage. Her Da had been one of many used as cannon fodder to enable Lady Bethesda to flee. And now the First Wizard had reasons to believe that her mother might try to get in touch with Sienna. Reeling from the set of bombshell revelations and the cauldron of emotions that they gave rise to, Sienna had been left distraught, confused and uncertain of all three - the past, the present and the future. Aunt Minnie had offered her a comforting shoulder but she’d been very conscious of the fact that her Aunt wore two hats in this particular situation. She was family; Sienna’s only surviving family to boot. But she was also part of the wizard administration, the same one that had dug up and was investigating the allegations against her mother.
Jason LaRue had proved a comforting and uncomplicated companion during that tough week. His quiet presence had provided a calming influence on her at Wizard Headquarters. They’d gone for long walks on the beach, explored the dining scene in San Diego, driven on Highway 1 to marvel at the stunning beauty of the California coast and shared spectacular sunsets over the water. And they had talked, of nothing in particular and of everything under the sun. His entertaining and unassuming companionship had helped her quietly process the almost daily stream of shocking revelations in an attempt to come to some sort of terms with them. The young man that she’d idolized all those years ago had indeed fulfilled the potential she’d seen in him, she had realized.
Sienna had been happy when the First Wizard had chosen Jason to be the GCW liaison to the Shifters investigating her mother’s last known whereabouts. She was to be part of the Shifter delegation to Chicago to investigate the site of the explosion that had devastated so many lives. Aunt Minnie had been worried about the upcoming visit. After all, Sienna had lost both her parents at that site, in one way or another. But Sienna had been surprisingly calm at the prospect. Now that she knew about the allegations, she felt a sense of urgency and determination to find out the truth about those events twenty-five years ago. Could the wizards’ suspicions actually be true, Sienna had wondered in consternation. Had her mother truly caused the deaths of her own husband and all those other wizards! If so, why? What was so important that she had walked away from her family – her sister, husband and daughter. And why had she never approached her surviving family if she was still alive? Had it been shame and guilt or was there something more sinister afoot, Sienna pondered constantly.
“You sure you’re alright, Sienna?” Jason inquired softly.
Sienna looked at him. Memories from the past week flashed through her as she gazed at him. She could do with an ally, she decided impulsively. She knew that Jason’s first loyalty lay with the Guardians. Yet she knew that she could trust him implicitly to keep her secret as well as give her good and unbiased advice. She’d also come to the realization that she needed an ally, someone with influence in the Chosen world. Her walking away from the Chosen had taken away all means of ferreting out any information from their world.
“Fancy a glass of wine, Jason?” she asked. “There’s something I’d like to discuss with you.”
“Sure” he agreed easily.
They drove back to the hotel in companiable silence and made their way to the hotel bar to find a table away from the crowd.
“You asked me once why I never applied to be a Guardian” she said slowly, her eyes on his chocolate brown ones.
“You don’t owe me any explanations, Sienna” he said quietly. “I didn’t mean to dredge up any bad memories for you.”
Sienna studied him, taken aback by his response. One she hadn’t been expecting.
“You didn’t dredge up any memories, bad or otherwise” she assured him, her tone conveying her surprise.
“I’m glad to hear it” he replied, the chocolate colored eyes searching on her.
“What I told you about wanting a different kind of life away from the Chosen is true. But there is something else that persuaded me to not apply to the GCW. Something I’ve kept a secret all these years.”
“I will never betray your trust, Sienna” he assured her quietly, the emphasis in his voice hinting that he spoke of more than just the secret that she was about to share with him.
“I know” she smiled. If there was one thing that she’d learnt in the past week, it was that Jason LaRue would always be a man of his word.
“I was very young the first time I saw it” she confessed slowly. “A pre-teen, worried about what my peers would think if anyone ever found out that I had visions. Then, the very idea of a vision seemed strange and weird to someone my age. The second time the vision came to me, I was a junior in high school. This time, I was less worried about my peers’ reaction and more concerned with what the vision meant. I remember ruminating obsessively over the details that I could remember in an attempt to make sense of it. When I saw it for a third time in my mid-twenties, I was already a believer. I had made some life choices based on my interpretation of the vision and was happy. I’d not yet figured out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life but was content that I’d made the right decisions.”
“So you have visions” Jason remarked easily, not surprised in the least by the news. “Given your pedigree, Sienna, I’m not really that shocked.”
“Actually, I’ve had the same vision three times in my life. The first time, it freaked me out and I tried to forget it; the second time, it led me to make the decision to not apply to be a Guardian. The third time, I guess I was older and more mature, it simply made me contemplative.”
Jason eyed her thoughtfully, his eyes patient. He was certain that she was not done yet.
“To be fair, I wasn’t really certain of applying to the GCW before the vision convinced me otherwise” she confessed. “It was just something that everyone expected of me. The vision just kind of helped me make up my mind to follow a different path.”
“I’m glad to hear that” he remarked. “I thought that you chose not to follow that particular path because of the havoc your mother had caused to the wizard community.”
Sienna gazed at him in astonishment. Perhaps he wasn’t that far off in his analysis, she realized with surprise. Part of the teenage Sienna’s reluctance and uncertainty about joining the Guardians had been Lady Bethesda’s reputation. She’d just not been self-aware, or possibly mature enough, to under
stand that at that age.
“That would have been a shame, Sienna. None of us are responsible for our parents’ crimes or faults just as we can take no credit for their gifts or good deeds.”
“I know that now” she acknowledged. “For a teenager in my position and with my Aunt, it was tough.”
He nodded silently. He could understand how things had been tough for her in a school populated by future wizards whose world had been so spectacularly affected by her mother’s actions. Although one of the worst affected by the tragedy, it had never crossed his mind to hold her responsible for the actions of someone else.
“In my vision, I’m in a three-storey arena - a circular one shaped like a small coliseum. The stands are full of Chosen, who gaze down in deathly silence at a solitary figure at the center of the arena. A young girl stands alone to face down the Chosen gathered there. I glimpse the four representatives of the Council of Chosen. It seems almost like they are present to sit in judgment over her.”
“You recognized the CoC Representatives?” the dark brown eyebrows were arched in surprise.
“I recognized the First Wizard” Sienna said simply. “The rest is conjecture on my part. She is flanked by three men. I’m almost sure one is the Shifter Representative based on the generic descriptions of him that I’ve heard over the years.”
Jason nodded, satisfied by her explanation. Faoladh was a legendary figure amongst Chosen of all stripes. He’d been a central figure, almost a catalyst, in the formation of the Council.
“I could also identify some of the Guardians present in the stands. They seem to stand with the First Wizard, united in opposition against the girl. The girl faces them down with no discernible fear in her eyes. And I feel this strong urge to stand by her … to help her … to stand up for her against the powerful Chosen who accuse her. I feel this … this sense of injustice, for want of a better term, at what has been done to her or what is about to be done to her at the behest of the Council. That part is a bit confusing for me. The vision is always stark for me. It’s like a silent movie where I feel overwhelmed with emotions as the scenes unfold. It’s a little hard to explain” she added apologetically.
“I can’t, of course, say that I completely understand the experience of a vision but I think I get what you’re saying, Sienna” he reassured her. “You cannot really explain it but you believe that one day you’ll be called upon to help the girl in the arena.”
“Yes” Sienna agreed with alacrity. “And I believe that I cannot play that role effectively if I’m a Guardian. The Guardians in my vision stand with the rest in the arena ready to condemn her. That was very clear. Every Chosen I note in the coliseum seems opposed to the girl. I get the impression that although they might not agree on what punishment to mete out to her, they are all united in opposing her.”
“I see.”
“I came to the conclusion that it might be better for me to keep my distance from the Chosen until it was time for the vision to come true.” Sienna’s lips twisted in wry self-deprecation. “I’d never really felt comfortable in that world anyway. So, I made the decision to make a life for myself away from them and bide my time until the girl from my vision needed me.”
She paused briefly to take a deep breath as if preparing to reveal something momentous. Jason realized that what she was about to confide in him now was the main crux of this conversation – everything until now had been building up to this.
“Tonight I found myself stumbling during the meeting at the Lair when I realized that what I’d been waiting for most of my adult life was upon me. The sheer shock almost brought me to my knees. The fact that it happened when I was least expecting it probably made it seem even more of a jolt.”
“What do you mean, Sienna?” Jason’s beautiful eyes were puzzled. “Did you see something at the Lair that reminded you of your vision?”
“Not something - the girl from my vision. I saw the girl from my vision there tonight, Jason” she repeated in awe.
Stunned into silence, Jason could only stare back at her in absolute shock. This revelation was unexpected – her words had left him flabbergasted.
“I chose my entire future based on the vision. That should tell you how much faith I place in it. And yet, when I saw her tonight standing in that room with all the Shifters, the shock of seeing her hit me like a bullet. I guess a part of me wasn’t ready for the vision to come to fruition yet. It was fine when it was an ephemeral event in the future. I would deal with it when the time came. Tonight in that room, I suddenly had proof that not only was it true like I’d always believed it to be but that, there might be no more time to bide. Soon that young girl is going to end up in an arena just like my vision to face the other Chosen. And it will be up to me to defend her.” Sienna looked helplessly at her companion, who stared at her blankly with a shell-shocked expression on his visage. “I need to find out everything that I can about her. I must be prepared and ready for when she needs me. Will you help me, Jason?” she beseeched him, a hint of desperation in her voice. “I need someone on the inside.”
Once the initial shock of seeing the girl had worn off, it had suddenly struck Sienna that being an outsider in the Chosen world might prove to be a disadvantage now when she needed to arm herself with knowledge about the girl that she was meant to protect.
Jason pulled himself together with an effort as he heard the undertone of desperation in her voice. The revelation about her vision and its contents, he had taken in stride. The one about Tasia Armstrong had stunned him into speechlessness. That one, he would never have guessed. Not in a million years!
“Of course, Sienna” he hurried to reassure her. “Whatever you need.”
He placed his hand over hers as she played nervously with the stem of her wine glass. The timing of this was fortuitous, Jason mused. If Sienna had dropped this bombshell of a revelation to him even a week ago, the significance of it would’ve escaped him. A week ago, no one had heard of Tasia Armstrong. Now the entire Chosen world buzzed with what a Shifter Alpha had done to a Guardian over a low level wizard called Tasia Armstrong.
Sienna smiled tremulously at him. Jason seemed to have a knack for saying just the right thing to make her feel better in any situation, she thought affectionately. He’d done it in San Diego too when she had been overwhelmed by the allegations against her mother.
Sienna took a sip of her wine, her thumb absent-mindedly stroking the palm of the strong hand that clasped hers. In response, Jason shot her a look from those chocolate eyes that should have set her ablaze. But Sienna was distracted, lost in her memories of the singular vision that had so shaped her life.
“Now that I think about it, what surprises me the most is her being a Shifter” she remarked casually to him.
Her words acted like a douse of cold water on her companion. They effectively cooled his ardor.
“You do mean Tasia Armstrong, Sienna?” he inquired cautiously, to be absolutely certain that he wasn’t barking up the wrong tree. “She’s the girl from your vision, right?”
“Yep, I vaguely remember the Alpha introducing her in the background. I was so shocked by my first glimpse of her that I didn’t pay too much attention.”
“Tasia Armstrong is no Shifter” he stated bluntly.
“No?” Sienna looked immensely surprised. “Then what was she doing at the Lair with the Shifters?” she asked innocently.
Jason laughed aloud with genuine amusement at the surreal situation. The Chosen world was a gossipy one especially when it came to the juicy stuff that had gone down between the Alpha Protector and the Guardian. He had forgotten how removed someone who chose to make a life away from them would be from their world of rumors and intrigue! Sienna had been so much a part of his world this past week in San Diego that he had almost forgotten that she wasn’t truly one of them in the real sense. She would not know the latest gossip or be aware of the latest political maneuverings or care about how communication was rumored to be breaking down between the vari
ous representatives on the CoC. That was why she needed someone like him to help her find out more about Tasia Armstrong, including why the girl might fall afoul of Chosen one day in the near future, he realized suddenly.
“Sorry” he gasped out, amidst his laughter. “The name Tasia Armstrong has been bandied about so much this past week in my world that it just completely caught me by surprise when I realized that you have no clue who she is.”
“Who is she?” Sienna asked curiously.
“A wizard that a certain Guardian just happened to ill-treat last week, to his considerable embarrassment and regret.”
Sienna’s brow crinkled thoughtfully. She had heard some hushed whispers of a Guardian being involved in a misadventure last week. Both Wizard Headquarters and her Aunt’s house were hotbeds of wizard gossip. She hadn’t paid much attention to it apart from a random thought that it was unusual for a Guardian to mess up so spectacularly.
“Hmm, now that you mention it, I did hear of a Guardian messing up very publicly. Something to do with Shifters and muggings.”
“You have been paying attention, Sienna” Jason said approvingly. “Yeah, the rumor is that he hired some non-Pack Shifters to target female wizards in San Francisco. They kidnapped Tasia Armstrong on his orders. The Alpha sauntered into the local Registry where she was being held to claim her. He also delivered a public thrashing of the Guardian before handing him over to the local wizard authorities.”
“You mean Raoul Merceau …?”
“Yep, Raoul Merceau is the same Alpha involved in this fracas.”
“He claimed her for himself?” Sienna looked shocked. Shifters very rarely forged any kind of relationships with other Chosen!
“No” Jason shook his head. “She’s under Pack protection.”
Sienna started in surprise once more, clearly astonished by this revelation.
“She’s a wizard that an Alpha Protector turned up to fight for” she exclaimed. “I thought that Shifters rarely mingled with other Chosen. How on earth did a wizard become part of a Shifter Pack?”
