by C J Benjamin
“Remi, it’s not a literal translation,” Sparrow sighed.
“You can say that again. I’m not even sure why Eja’s wasting his time translating it. None of it makes any sense.”
“I think it’s describing different uses of the elements. For instance, the earth Pillar might be able to cause earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions, or crevices. That kind of thing,” I offered.
“Well if that’s the case, then maybe Journey’s the earth Pillar. He’s manipulating the earth right now. Look, he just turned that branch to stone,” Remi pointed, sounding impressed.
We all turned to watch Journey and Nova skillfully battle.
“That’s a terrible thing to say, Remi. He’s not a Pillar,” Sparrow hissed. “The stone thing is the only power he has regarding the earth. If he was the earth Pillar he’d be turning the ground into quicksand or opening up big crevices under Nova or something.”
“Okay, Sparrow. You’re right. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” Remi apologized, seeing he’d upset her.
Journey may not be the earth Pillar, but it was much harder to deny that Nova was the fire Pillar, I thought dismally, as I watched him ignite a ring of flames around Journey.
I can’t say the thought hadn’t crossed my mind the moment I’d learned about the Pillars, but I’d protectively pushed it from my mind each time it crept back. Everything in me hoped that it couldn’t be true. I didn’t want any of my friends to be Pillars; targeted weapons coveted by the Ravinori. I knew Sparrow was right. The answers were hidden somewhere within the pages of the Book of Secrets. I sighed and resigned myself to return to its pages.
I gave it my all, but I couldn’t stop listening to Nova and Journey battling each other. It sounded like they were going to take down half the forest! I had a feeling Nova was still blowing off some steam from what he thought he saw last night. He was hot headed but it wasn’t like him to stay mad for so long.
“Ahh!” Journey grimaced. “Take it easy, Nova. We’re just practicing!”
We all turned around to see what happened and the blood drained from Sparrow’s face when she saw the crimson gash on Journey’s arm.
“Journey!” she cried, running to his side.
We were all on our feet, rushing to see what was going on.
“Nova!” I scolded.
“What the heck are you doing? We’re all on the same team!” Remi yelled
“Are we?” Nova challenged, getting in Remi’s face.
Remi put his hands up and backed away as I darted between them.
“Nova. Nova!” I called, trying to get him to look at me.
When he finally did, I could see the pain in his eyes.
“What’s going on?” I asked, pulling him away from the others while Sparrow worked on healing Journey.
“Nothing, I just got carried away. I should go apologize to Journey.”
I glanced over and saw that Journey was fine. He had a big grin on his face, while Sparrow and Jemma fussed over him.
“He’s fine. He knows you didn’t mean it. I’d actually really like you to come with me. I need to speak with the chief about something and I was hoping you’d come with me?”
He looked at me like he wasn’t sure he wanted to come.
“Please, Nova? Maybe it’ll give us some time to finally talk after . . .”
“Yeah, I think that’d be good for us,” he said forcing a grin.
“Come on.”
As we walked back toward camp, Eja came running to greet us.
“Good! I was just coming to get you. It seems you and the chief are on the same wavelength this morning. When I went to request a meeting on your behalf, he told me he was hoping he’d have time to speak to you about a pressing matter.”
“Is everything all right?” I asked.
“I’d rather let the chief explain,” Eja replied.
His response did little to ease my nerves, as Nova and I followed Eja back to the chief’s tent.
We ducked through the soft hides of the tent flaps to find the chief sitting cross-legged in the center of his mat. He nodded to acknowledge our arrival, but his eyes remained closed in thought. This time I noticed the scouts. Mali and Talon were stoically standing in the shadows, still as statues, except for a fleeting smile in our direction.
“Eva, thank you for coming,” the chief said, pulling my attention back to him. “I have a pressing matter I’d like to speak to you about, but I understand you have something you’d like to discuss with me as well?”
“Yes, Jaka. I wanted to ask your opinion about sharing powers,” I said jumping right into it.
I wanted to get to what the chief needed to tell me as quickly as possible.
“I shared a power with Jemma yesterday and—”
“Deus!” Jaka gasped. “You were able to share a power with your sister?”
I nodded slowly, unsure of whether that was a good thing or a bad thing from Jaka’s tone.
“I told you sharing powers was a big deal,” Nova telapathed.
I cut my eyes at him briefly, before returning my gaze to the chief’s bewildered expression.
“It all makes sense now. Pardon my outburst, my Eva, but I have been wondering about your sister. From what we were able to translate from the Book of Secrets, we know that your sister is your opposite, your shadow self. If you are light, she is dark. Where you are timid, she is fierce. Nature has created her as your balance. It has always seemed odd to me though, that while you are all powerful, she is an empty vessel, void of any real powers!” Jaka said with rapid enthusiasm.
Yeah, Jemma’s not too fond of that role, I thought to myself.
“Eva, I believe you were able to share your powers with your sister, because she was created specifically to help you manage them.”
“Manage them?” I asked.
“Yes! No one person was meant to possess so much power, my Eva. And it’s only going to get worse when you encounter the Pillars. Their powers will be much stronger than any others you’ve gathered. It will take its toll on you. You may start to have headaches, hallucinations, nosebleeds, ringing in your ears. Eventually, you may even lose control of your powers if you aren’t careful. And if that happens when you come across the Pillars, you risk being overpowered by the elements; earth, wind, water, fire. The results of which, would be catastrophic.”
My hands were shaking. It was as if I could see my future in his words.
“It’s been happening already, hasn’t it?” Nova accused.
I tried to deny it, by my trembling body gave me away.
“Are visions part of it?” I asked shamefully. “I’ve been having more of them and sometimes I have trouble telling my visions and reality apart.”
“Yes, and I’m not surprised you’re having them more often. You’ve been around my shadow scouts. They have powers that allow them to ‘see’. Your Parallel ability has probably picked up on that, absorbing their power and heightening your susceptibility to visions. I believe your visions will eventually become compromised because your mind is overcome with powers. It will become increasingly difficult for you to trust yourself. The shadow scouts have had a lifetime of training to control their sight, but I’m afraid time is not a luxury you have,” Jaka replied. “I’m sorry to have to tell you these things, my Eva, but I wouldn’t be doing my duty if I didn’t warn you.”
I stifled a sob, thinking back to the beautiful vision I’d had of marrying Nova and the conflicting visions my mother had shown me.
“Eva, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Now that you know you can share powers with Jemma, you have a solution,” Eja encouraged.
“She doesn’t trust her,” Nova interjected, knowing my thoughts before I even formed them. “She doesn’t trust anyone,” he added, for only me to hear.
I could see the hurt in his eyes. The fact that I had been hiding my visions from him, on top of making decisions to share powers without consulting him made Nova feel incredibly betrayed. Not to mention that he
thought he saw something going on between Remi and I. I could see that it had all been piling up and I understood his foul mood earlier.
“Is this true?” Jaka asked, interrupting my thoughts.
I nodded shamefully.
“It is very important that you trust her before you share your powers with her. It is a huge responsibility for you both and you need to be able to support each other. Sharing powers is similar to tethering. It’s a sacred and serious act, which will uniquely connect you for life.”
I swallowed hard. It had been so easy to share a power with Jemma. I guess I hadn’t thought of the consequences.
“It’s just that this is still so new to us. I only just found out that I had a sister. Jemma and I are still figuring each other out,” I argued.
“I understand and I encourage you to continue to build your relationship with your sister, but I caution you not to take too long. You need to share your powers with Jemma while you still can. If you wait too long, it may not be an option.”
After a brief pause to let the weight of his words sink in, Jaka said, “This brings me to our next matter on the subject of your powers.”
My mind was so busy trying to figure out if I could trust Jemma that I had forgotten Jaka wanted to talk to me about something.
“I’m going to have to respectfully ask all of you not to use your powers unless a situation deems them detrimentally essential.”
“What?” Nova and I both squawked at the same time.
“I know this is terribly inconvenient, but after Mali’s most recent vision, I’ve come to the conclusion that each time you use your powers, I can feel the pull of the Ravinori much stronger and closer. It’s almost as if they are tapped into them somehow, channeling them.”
“Do they know where we are?” I whispered, barely able to contain my fear.
“No, I don’t believe so. If they did, they’d already be here. But I do believe they know you are a source of great power and they will be coming for you. By choice or by force, they plan to use you to help resurrect Ravin.”
33
My head was spinning. Based on Mali’s vision, we’d agreed not to use our powers, unless it was a life or death situation. The chief suspected this would stop the Ravinori from somehow channeling our powers to pinpoint us. Nova argued that not being able to train was going to hurt our preparations for returning to the Troian Center. I agreed, but there didn’t seem to be a solution. Using our powers was just too dangerous.
Mali and Talon volunteered to help train us in fighting tactics as an alternative. It was a kind offer, which we’d politely accepted, but I felt as Nova did; without our powers, we didn’t stand a chance.
The chief had also suggested that I speak to Jemma about sharing powers with her. He said he’d be happy to speak to her of the responsibility of possessing powers if it would help. I politely accepted his offer, but said I would try to speak to her on my own first.
“How are we supposed to prepare? This is complete rubbish!” Nova cursed after we left the chief’s tent.
“I think the bigger issue is that I have to give half of my powers to Jemma,” I argued. “That’s going to make her just as powerful as me! And, you know she’s going to let that go to her head,” I grumbled.
“You know if you gave her a chance, you’d see she’s really not that bad. She actually wants to help you. She wants to be your sister, but you won’t let her in. You’re too busy keeping your secrets,” Nova said, his voice raising.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, halting in his path.
“I’m going to give you two a moment,” Eja said, silently excusing himself.
“You know what it means!” Nova hollered at me.
“I know you think I’m full of secrets, Nova, but you’re wrong! What you saw last night with Remi was nothing! You’re the one who blew it way out of context!”
“I know what I saw, Geneva! We were supposed to finally talk last night and when I came to find you, you were with him! And he was kissing you!”
“He kissed me goodnight! On my cheek!”
“Well . . . that’s not what it looked like, so how was I supposed to know that? You knew I’d seen you and you weren’t going to clear it up were you? You were going to keep it to yourself, like everything else.”
“Like what else, Nova!”
“I don’t know, but I know you’re hiding something from me. You’ve been so—closed off lately. I don’t know what to think. You won’t let me in,” he said throwing his hands up in the air. “And now I find out you’re having visions? You can’t control them can you? What else are you keeping a secret? Are you having headaches and nose bleeds?”
“No! Just ringing in my ears from time to time,” I admitted. “But it doesn’t matter. I know what to expect now and I’m fine. I’ll deal with it.”
“I just want to help you, Tippy. Why won’t you let me?” he pleaded, his face softening.
My heart panged, longing to just run into his arms, where I always felt better; like everything was somehow going to be okay.
“Because, Nova, I don’t think anyone can help me. You’ve all done so much for me already. Sacrificed so much. I don’t need to burden you with anything more.”
“You’re not a burden. You know that, right? You have to know that.”
I bit my lower lip to fight the pain I felt in my heart. Tears were stinging my eyes as I fought them back. I knew if I let them slip, cascading down my face, that Nova would catch them. He’d catch me and my splintering heart in his wonderful embrace and never let me go. How I wanted that, more than anything else in this world, but Vida’s words haunted me, making me second-guess my ability to be the Eva and be with Nova. And now, the chief was cautioning me that I might lose control of my powers.
I was essentially a ticking time bomb and more than wanting to let myself love Nova, I wanted to protect him. I couldn’t lose myself in him if I couldn’t be trusted not to hurt him, even if it wasn’t on purpose. It was a risk I wasn’t willing to take, but I knew if I told him how I felt, he’d never let me pull away. I’d never forgive myself if I hurt the boy I loved, but I knew my heart would never forgive me for denying it.
So once again I had to keep my love for Nova to myself. I let my love’s secret fire, silently stoke my determination to fulfill my destiny, in the hopes that someday, I might have a chance to tell Nova the words I longed to say. For now, I painted them on the inside of my closed eyelids as I pushed him further away, where I knew he’d be safe.
“I know that I am the Eva and if I say I don’t need your help, then I don’t need it.”
I strode away from Nova, turning my back on his hurt expression before I lost my nerve. I caught up with Eja and asked him to gather the others so I could fill them in on the news. I knew they wouldn’t be happy about not using their powers, but I promised Jaka I’d relay his orders. I wanted to do it as soon as possible, so I could explain that it also meant we’d be hiking to our next campsite, rather than morfing.
Another unfortunate set back, I thought to myself as I waited for Eja to gather my friends. I suddenly felt a suspicious notion creep up my spine, setting my hair on end. What if all of this is part of the Ravinori’s plan? It felt an awful lot like they were setting things in our way to change our direction or slow us down.
“Just try and stop us,” I said out loud, challenging the universe and whoever else might be listening.
Then, I set off to find my friends with a renewed determination.
34
As I stretched in the moonlight, I breathed in the cool night air outside the tent where my friends and I had been gathered for the past few hours. I hadn’t realized how stuffy it was inside. But with all the candles burning through the night and some of us being full of hot air, I guess we’d let off a lot of steam, going round and round with our crazy schemes and ideas now that we had to regroup since learning we couldn’t use our powers.
A sudden breeze picked up and I shuddere
d involuntarily as a shiver ripped through me. I tried rubbing down the gooseflesh that was forming on my damp skin when I felt something warm brush against my leg. I looked down to see two brown saucer eyes, sleepily blinking up at me.
“Niv,” I crooned, bending down to sweep him up in my arms.
I cradled him to my chest and buried my face in his thick, wispy fur, breathing in his comforting scent. He smelled like sweet hay and safety. Somewhere along the way, this little marmouse had become my security blanket. I scratched him behind the ears and he cuddled deeper into my arms, nosing his snout into my armpit as I giggled. It was his favorite spot. I was glad some things never changed. It seemed Niv didn’t care that I was the Eva now. I was still just the girl who saved him from a tarcat and he simply loved me for it. I was hoping he still would, after I told him that his less than favorite new friend, Quin, would be following us back to the Troian Center.
Before I could break the news to Niv, Remi emerged from the tent. The soft, yellow glow from the tent illuminated his cherub-like features, and he cast me a shy smile. Remi had been behind me all the way about sticking with our plans to return to the Troian Center even though we couldn’t practice our powers. He’d even supported my reservations about sharing my powers with Jemma. I was really surprised at his unabashed support for me and was reminded how grateful I was to have him as my friend.
“Hey,” Remi said, shivering, “it’s cold out here.”
“Yeah, I was surprised by that too,” I admitted.
“Kind of reminds me of the cave,” Remi observed. Then his cheeks flushed and that familiar foot in mouth expression crossed his face. “ . . . uh, sorry. I didn’t mean to bring that up.”
I flushed too. The mere mention of the cave brought our awkward kiss back to the surface, but then I laughed.
“It really does remind me of the cave,” I said while giggling. “Don’t worry about it, Remi. We’re best friends. We’re bound to have some awkward moments over all these years, right?”
