Awaken

by Bryan, Michelle

  “Welcome.”

  She is tall, I notice that right away. Her hair is back...black as mine and hangs long and straight down her back. She is dressed in a long gray robe and her hands are tucked away in the voluminous sleeves. But she is smiling and that smile says she is very glad to see us. She walks towards us, right up to me and the hands that come out to cradle my face are covered in puckered raised scars. At the contact I can feel a tingling shoot straight through me and I startle.

  “Tara...you have grown up! It is so good to see you again child.”

  Again? I ain’t ever seen this woman before in my life...why would she say that? I grab her hands and pull them away, finally finding my voice.

  “Where are we? Who are you? And why did your people save us? What do you want from us?” I say.

  She chuckles then, a soft tinkling sound and squeezes my hands in hers.

  “So curious and so full of bravado. Just like your mother. I shouldn’t have expected any differently. This is Sanctuary...and I am Lily.”

  Sanctuary

  I awake from my sleep disoriented, confused, and for a brief moment I don’t know where I am. Then the previous evening’s events come slowly back to me and I remember. Lily had found us! Rescued us. And we were now in a place called sanctuary...that was still all I knew yet. As full of questions as we had been last evening she had taken one look at us all and refused to answer anything coming out of our mouths.

  “Look at you.” She had clucked her tongue worriedly. “Tired, exhausted and probably scared witless I’m sure. You need to rest...all of you. Zoe, take them to their rooms.”

  Our rooms? She had rooms prepared for us? Like she knew we were coming? I had ignored the hooded woman trying to usher us back out into the white hall and had tried to question Lily again. There was so much I needed to know.

  How had she found us...how did she know gra’da...why was I told to find her...but she had laid a finger to my lips and smiled that kind but firm smile at me again.

  “Shush child. There will be time to ask all your questions in the morning, after you are all well rested. You have been through an enormously terrifying ordeal...things that would have broken even the strongest of soldiers. You need to sleep. The boy needs to sleep.”

  I had looked at Finn then and I knew she was right. His eyes had been huge in his pale, drawn face and he had looked befuddled, shocked, like someone had punched him hard in the head. Did we all look like that, I wondered. She must have seen the stubbornness on my face as well though ‘cause she added...

  “Tara all your questions I will answer in the morning...I promise child.”

  I must have been more tired then I realized ‘cause I had let the hooded woman lead us back through the white hall to a bunch of doors I hadn’t noticed the first time round, without so much as a peep of protest. She had opened three doors, one for each of us and I had nodded at Finn that it was okay before I headed into mine. I didn’t take much stock of the room at the time, just for the fact that it held a bed and I had collapsed onto it without even bothering to undress or even take off my boots. I had immediately fallen into an exhausted sleep.

  This morning however I take more notice. The room is simple enough. It contains just a bed, a chest and a small wooden table and chair sitting on the same smooth stone floor as found in the white hall. The late morning sunlight filtering through the high window above the bed falls onto a neatly folded pile of clean clothes sitting on the chair and a basin of water on the table. These were not here last night, I’m sure of that. Were these things meant for me?

  I unfold them. There’s a pair of dark cloth trousers and a white tunic...both of them looking to be my fit. Deciding it must be, I take off the dirty things I’m wearing, give myself a quick wash from the basin, and dress myself in the clean things. It feels real good to have the clean cloth against my skin and I cain’t help but smile at how it makes me feel so....normal just to be clean. Or maybe, I think, this happiness has more to do with the fact that the sun is reflecting off of my born day gift and that the person who had given it to me was alive and here in Littlepass, in arms reach.

  “I will get you out of there Ben,” I say in my head. “I promise you that.”

  I can hear voices coming from the hall now and I open my door. I find Finn and Jax standing there. They are dressed in the same kind of clothing as I am, though from the dirt still on Finn’s face I don’t think he bothered with the basin of water. Jax, however, looks clean but the huge bruise on his cheek and the cut on his lip tells the tale of Tater’s betrayal. I nod at his cheek, trying not to let my anger take root.

  “Does it hurt bad?” I ask.

  “Only when I smile,” he says, making me laugh.

  “Well you should be fine then since smiling ain’t one of your better habits,” I say and he surprises me with his own deep laughter.

  From out of nowhere seems like the woman from the night before appears in the hall...minus the hood. Zoe I think Lily had called her. She approaches us on strangely silent feet and greets us.

  “Good morning...I trust you all slept well?” She don’t give us a chance to answer though before she speaks again.

  “If you would follow me...Lily is waiting for you all at the breakfast table.”

  Breakfast? Now we’re talking! My stomach rumbles loudly at the thought of food and all three of us eagerly follow the woman. She leads us down the hall, through the room full of books, down a flight of steps, and into another hall. I look around all the while, overwhelmed at the vastness of each room we pass through. What the hell kind of place was this sanctuary and how big was it really? This second hall is much smaller than the first though and we pass under an archway into a room containing a long wooden table. The table was huge! Must of had at least ten chairs on either side of it. Lily sits at the end and she rises as we enter and gestures for us to join her. I still got the same barrel of questions from the night before bouncing around in my head, but the sight of the food on the table takes priority right now.

  “Please,” she says. “Sit. Eat.”

  She ain’t gotta tell us twice! We promptly fill the chairs on either side of her and I make a grab for the fresh bread I could smell as soon as we entered the room. It’s still warm! And is that...? Oh gods, it is! Butter! I ain’t seen butter since our goat had died about four years back. Weren’t all bad, the goat meat had kept us fed real good for quite a while but I sure did miss that butter. Grabbing the closest knife I can find I cut off a chunk of the white stuff and start smothering my bread with it. My mouth is watering something fierce as I watch it melt on my bread and ooze down over my fingers. I take a huge bite and close my eyes in pleasure.

  The only noise for a bit is our lip smacking and our sighs of satisfaction. After about my fifth or sixth slice of butter soaked bread (I had lost count) I look up to find Lily watching me, a sad little smile on her face. She must see my questioning look ‘cause she just shakes her head at me.

  “I’m sorry, it’s just you look so much like her....Rease, your mother,” she says and at the mention of my ma my appetite dies, just like that. The bread that I had been enjoying so much earlier now tastes like dust in my mouth and I lay it down, wipe my greasy lips on my sleeve. Her name was Rease. I never knew that. I mull this over for a bit, trying it out in my head.

  “You knew her well?” I say finally.

  “Very much so. She was a great friend...and a powerful new blood.”

  At hearing that my heart skips a beat. My ma was a new blood too? Did Lily know about me? I raise my eyes to her and as if she knows what I’m thinking, she nods at me.

  “Yes I am very aware that you follow in her footsteps Tara. I was hoping you would, praying really. That was the reason I took you away to the other side of the mountains so he wouldn’t get his hands on you. So you wouldn’t end up with the same fate as your mother.”

  Lily’s words, it’s what I want to know, what I need to know but now that I am finally about to get some an
swers I don’t know if I’m truly ready to hear them.

  “You were the one who left me in the sand lands?” So my ma didn’t abandon me? That thought causes me to involuntarily grip the edge of the table. Hearing what Lily is telling me, it’s like some huge weight is lifted from my chest…like I can breathe again.

  “What happened to...my ma then?” I’m pretty sure I already know, but when the answer passes from Lily’s lips I’m a little surprised at the sharp pain that accompanies it.

  “She died at his hands...just like every other new blood that has ever had the misfortune to cross paths with him,” she says and I drop my eyes to hide the tears that suddenly well up. I ain’t sure why I’m tearing up...it’s not like I didn’t know she was already dead. I reckon maybe there was this tiny little part of me that had been hoping I was wrong. I take a couple of breaths, get myself back under control and when I speak again my voice don’t waver.

  “How did you know that I would be like her. That I would carry the same curse?” I say.

  “Curse?” Lily is looking at me like she cain’t believe what she had just heard. “Is that what you think child? That you are cursed? You are blessed! You have been touched...chosen by the gods to do their bidding here on this earth.”

  The anger comes over me unexpectedly, like some rogue wave.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean? Why cain’t people talk plain enough when describing what a new blood is? Is it because I am a mutie...a freak and you don’t want to come right out and say it? Touched by the gods....fullfiller of prophecy...what a bunch of shite! I just want to know what I am and where I came from...is that too much to ask?”

  This is met by silence. Finn is regarding me with wide eyed surprise, the slab of hog he had been devouring sitting precariously on his fork halfway to his mouth. Jax is quiet as well but his blue eyes convey silent understanding. Lily.... she is surprisingly smiling at my outburst.

  “So much like your mother.” She motions to Zoe who has been standing wordlessly at the end of the table. At Lily’s request she picks up a cloth covered tray and joins us at our end.

  “I cannot tell you how new bloods came to be because I do not know. There may have once been a few souls who knew this answer, but I am afraid those people have long since passed. There are some who believe that new bloods descended from the gods, brought about to heal our destroyed world. Others believe that they were...created by man. The same men who brought about the Shift and now needed a stronger breed to be able to rebuild and repopulate the dead lands. I do not know which version is true. What I do know to be true is that new bloods gifts are very rare and vary in strength. I for one can heal others from life threatening wounds if I get to care for them quick enough. But that is the extent of my ability I’m afraid.”

  Was Lily admitting to being a new blood as well? But her hair...she ain’t got no white stripes. She notices what I am looking at and nods.

  “I am not of the light. That sort of chi only occurs in the most powerful of our kind. I hear you have experienced it...a few times.”

  She heard? From who? Who had she been talking to? I look to Jax and Finn but they are both shaking their heads at my unspoken question.

  “I have experienced...something...and I have done things I cain’t explain but I got no control over any of it,” I say.

  “You will. It takes time to know your Chi and learn to control it. It took your mother years to know hers. Let me show you something”

  She pulls the cloth off of the tray and sitting there was what looked like a little bowl of silvery water and a wilted weed sitting in a pot full of dirt. Okay....was this supposed to mean something to me?

  “Give me your hand.”

  I do as she asks and before I realize what she is about to do she pricks the tip of my finger with her knife causing the blood to flow.

  “Ow!” I cry and try to pull away from her but she holds on tight. What the hell was she doing?

  “Trust me,” she says in her calm voice. Trust her? The crazy bird just cut open my finger! But against my better judgment I don’t pull away. She holds my bleeding finger over the water and a few drops fall into the bowl. Then gently she wraps my finger in a piece of cloth. She picks up the bowl and swirls it around so that the red blood looks pinkish mixed with the odd colored water. Then she pours the water into the pot. I wait expectantly...for what I ain’t sure. Nuthin happens.

  “Shizen!” I think to myself. “She is just as bat shite crazy as the others we had met!” I don’t say it out loud though ‘cause I don’t want her pricking me with the knife again.

  “How did you know gra’da?” I say to her thinking I should take her mind off of new blood talk for a bit. “And why did you take me to him? Why didn’t you just keep me here with you?”

  “Is that what you called him? Gra’da?” She smiles to herself. “He must have been pleased with that name. Your ‘gra’da’ was my friend, my ally. He was once one of the Army himself until they found him out of course. He was lucky enough to escape into the sand lands before he could be...dealt with. And I took you to him because he was the only one at the time that I could trust with keeping you safe. After your mother died...the Prezedant looked high and low for you. He questioned everyone, tortured many...executed some. He wanted to find you badly. I needed to get you as far away from him as possible.”

  “Why? Why did he need to find me so badly? And how did he know I would become what I have become?” I say.

  “He didn’t. No one did. We hoped…prayed that you would take after your mother. That you would be as strong as her. And from what I have been told it appears we have been right. He wanted you badly because he wanted to kill you. We needed you badly to stay alive because we want you to kill him. Just like your mother was attempting to do...and would have done had she not fallen herself.” She says the words calm and off hand like it was just normal conversation, like we were just talking about the weather.

  “Are you crazy?” Jax ain’t said a word up ‘til now but he’s looking back and forth between me and Lily. I ain’t sure but I think his words are directed at her.

  “You want Tara to go up against a powerful immortal being who’s protected night and day by his Army and kill him? Just like that? She’s just a girl...a child. She may be a mutie but she doesn’t have the ability to take on someone like that! She would just get herself killed!”

  Lily don’t seem to take no offense. In fact she nods like she’s agreeing with Jax’s words.

  “You are quite right, she doesn’t have the ability...not yet. But she will. That is why her gra’da sent her back to me. That is why he protected her to the end. He knew she had to stay alive.”

  Her words confuse me. How did she know so much? How did she know what gra’da had done for me that day? Before I can ask though I hear Finn whisper “Tara!” and I look at him cross the table. His eyes have gone all big and he is pointing towards Lily. But it ain’t Lily he’s looking at. It’s the flower. The bright yellow flower rising from the pot which, only a moment ago, had been a wilted stem. Shizen! What kinda magic was this?

  Lily see’s what we are looking at and her smile grows wider.

  “You asked me what you are child? This is what you are. All your power comes from within...there are no limits to it. This chi, or bio-energy as it is truly known, is said to exist in everyone. A gift from the gods? Maybe. But in new bloods it is immensely powerful. While others can only use their chi within their own bodies, new bloods can use it externally. Apply it to others or objects as we desire. Our chi flows freely through our energy field. Some never learn how to use it while others have enormous chi…it overflows…crying to be released. Ours is abundant and until you learn to control it, it can overwhelm you. Through us it has the ability to impact anything it comes into contact with. We are able to control and manipulate....well, life energy itself.”

  “How is that possible?” I whisper, still not believing what I’m seeing. “It was almost dead. I cain’t do
something like that...” I trail off but then another question pops into my head.

  “Why didn’t I know I had this energy…I ain’t had a clue about this chi ‘til the attack on Rivercross. Why didn’t it show ‘til then?” I say.

  “It has always been a part of you Tara. Your hair…those white stripes, they are a result of this massive energy trying to manifest itself. Your ability to heal quickly, to control the sands….all bio-energy. Your chi was always there, it was just brought to the surface by the stress and grief you suffered. And it flows strongly through you Tara, I can sense it. It flows through your blood...that’s where your energy is the most powerful. When you learn to control it you can awaken new possibilities of strength and influence. That is why he needs you so badly. He takes new bloods and drains them of their power, their blood and uses it for himself. Our bio-energy carries the ability to heal this earth and make it livable again for all mankind, yet he chooses to keep us from doing so. Instead he depletes us to make his own life prosperous while the rest of the people live in despair....starving...sickly. Why should such a callous, ruthless creature continue to live? You have to be the one to finish what your mother started Tara...it is your destiny.”

  None of us speaks for a bit… Finn or Jax or me. It’s like what we are hearing and seeing is just too unbelievable for words to even express. I cain’t even pretend to begin to understand what Lily has just told me…but I do know one thing for certain. If the Prezedant is looking for me so badly then I cain’t put the two sitting across the table from me in any more danger. I cain’t expect them to follow me anymore. They need to get as far away from me as possible. Maybe Jax would find it in his heart to let Finn go with him back to Gray Valley...him and Cat. Keep them safe. But I also cain’t expect to do what Lily is asking me to do. It’s just craziness! How does she expect me to go up against the Prezedant and his Army?