by Holly Martin
‘Not Noah.’
‘Very well, Matthew then.’
‘I’ll inform them.’ Samuel’s eyes flicked to me for a second and then around the graveyard at the broken branches. ‘Party tricks,’ he muttered disdainfully.
Seth took my hand.
‘She has incredible strength. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen before,’ said Eli.
Samuel clearly bristled at this. ‘Stronger than us?’
Eli cocked his head in confusion. ‘Undoubtedly. But you knew that. If you were strong enough to save the world you wouldn’t need her.’
Samuel glared at Eli for a second before he looked back at me, his eyes taking in Seth’s hand in mine. ‘I don’t like that either.’
Eli looked at me and Seth and turned back to Samuel. ‘I do.’
Samuel tightened the cloak around him and vanished.
‘Who was that?’
‘Samuel of the Oraculum.’
My eyebrows shot up. One of the Oraculum had been here and hadn’t bothered to speak to me. I had so many questions for them, so much I wanted to know.
Just then Quinn, Persia and her sisters arrived. Quinn and Izri stayed near the car for a second, talking quietly as Persia walked over towards me.
‘Life is never dull with you around eh Eve.’ She hugged me. ‘I heard about your near death experience this morning, you ok?’
‘Just one of many.’
She smiled, sadly. ‘Come for a walk with me for a bit before we start, we can have a little chat.’
‘Ok,’ I nodded, with some confusion, whatever she wanted to say she obviously wanted to say it in private.
Eli and Caleb fell in behind us, but with a respectful gap, so they probably couldn’t hear.
‘What’s up Persia?’
She looked thoughtful, but didn’t say anything. The woods enveloped us, it would have been dark in there but the snow lightened our way. We didn’t walk for long when we came to a fallen tree. Persia held her hand over the snow and it melted quickly and then she sat down. I sat down next to her, the tree was surprisingly warm.
She sighed deeply. ‘I’m worried about you, since what happened yesterday…’
I sighed with relief. ‘Oh that, look I hadn’t used my powers before yesterday, it was only natural that there would be some side effects. The more I use them, the more used to it I will become.’
‘Eve, the usual things the Donum do uses relatively small amounts of their powers. Shields, telekinesis, telepathy, changing the weather, it hardly requires any strength at all. But as you saw yesterday, lifting bigger things requires more strength than lifting small things.’
‘Yes.’ I nodded in confusion. I was vaguely aware that Eli and Caleb had stopped some way off, talking loudly so as not to hear us.
‘And the more strength you need, the more power floods through your body, through your brain. Our bodies are not supposed to handle that much power, too much power can burn yourself out, but more likely it will kill you.’
‘Yeah but you already said I’m quite strong. That I have a lot of power.’ I flushed with embarrassment.
‘It doesn’t mean that your body can cope with it.’
‘Oh,’ I said quietly, finally starting to understand what Persia was getting at.
Persia sighed again. ‘Do you know how much power you would need to lift a Boeing 747, or a cruise ship.’
‘Well, not off the top of my head, but I imagine a lot.’
‘There are very few of us that could do something like that, we would never really need to. So our kind never develop powers that strong. Now you certainly have the power to do that, I’ve seen your power, what’s within you, and Eve, it’s amazing!’
I nodded, confused again.
‘But all that power is in this tiny little fragile human body.’ She gently patted my shoulder.
‘Oh.’
‘And you’re not responsible for saving a Boeing 747 or stopping the next Titanic disaster from happening, Eve the Oraculum believe you will save the world.’
I stared at her wordlessly.
‘Now I don’t know how that’s going to happen but whatever it is, it’s going to take more strength, more power than anything that has been ever been seen before.’
‘More strength than I’ve got?’ I asked, already knowing the answer.
Persia’s eyes filled with tears as she shook her head. ‘Eve, you have the power to save the world, of that much I’m sure, but you won’t live to see the world you have saved, there’s just no way your body can handle it. You will save the world and then you will die.’
10. The future’s bright, mine was black
‘Right,’ I nodded numbly, my eyes stinging as I comprehended this. ‘Do the Oraculum know this?’
‘I would imagine so, yes,’ Persia nodded.
‘The Guardians?’
‘Probably not,’
‘Seth and Quinn?’
‘Good god no. I think if they knew they would both whisk you away and hide you in a hut in the middle of the Amazonian rain forest, and keep you there till the end of the world came, where they would both quite happily die by your side, something I’m actually considering myself.’
I laughed, hollowly.
‘Eve, a part of me, a huge part of me in fact, feels like I shouldn’t train you at all, that being a part of this is condemning you to death. If you’re not strong enough to save the world, then you’ll never be able to use the power that will kill you, and you won’t die.’
‘Except I will won’t I, alongside everyone else when the end of the world comes.’
She shrugged. ‘If that’s what you believe.’
‘You don’t believe the end of the world is coming?’ I asked. Just like Quinn, he didn’t hold much stock in the Oraculum either.
Persia pulled a face. ‘I think I have to agree with the Oraculum on that one, something big is coming, something cataclysmic, I can’t see what exactly but it doesn’t look good.’
‘Persia you can see the future?’ I asked, incredulous.
She blushed, fiercely. ‘Just flashes, nothing concrete, storms, fire, colossal waves, the earth cracking, people dying.’
‘But that could just be an earthquake somewhere, or a tidal wave, it doesn’t have to be the end of the world.’ Maybe that’s what I was here for, to save people from natural disasters.
‘When I see these images I try to search to find out where it’s happening, normally I’m quite good at pin pointing the exact locations of these events. These images I’m seeing now are all over the world. I search for an end, for the places that escape it, or for places that are most affected but it’s everywhere, mostly I see the flames, literally scorching the entire earth.’
I swallowed feeling sick. ‘But I can stop it?’
Persia nodded. ‘Apparently.’
‘Then there’s no choice then is there, either I get burnt to dust alongside everyone else on this little planet or I die trying to save it.’
‘I can’t bear the thought that I’m training you up to die.’ Persia wiped fresh tears from her eyes, sobs breaking in her throat.
I hugged her tightly and she clung to me. We sat like that for what must have been half hour or more, then eventually I pulled away
‘How long have I got Persia?’
She shook her head. ‘Three years maybe, possibly five, it’s hard to be exact.’
I nodded. I felt empty inside. I covered my eyes with my hands, trying to block out the images of what Persia had just told me, but it was too late, they were seared on my brain. When I closed my eyes they were even clearer. I took a deep breath and forced a smile onto my face. ‘Still maybe the future doesn’t have to hold death for me, you and Quinn are always saying the future is what we make it, well maybe I make it so I live through the end of the world. Maybe with this great power comes great strength and my body is strong enough to withstand it. Maybe I grow old and die grey and wrinkly in my bed.’
‘I hope so Eve, I hope more
than anything that I’m wrong on this.’
We sat in silence for a moment.
‘Do you see my future?’ I asked quietly. What was left of it.
‘It’s hazy and fragmented. I can’t make head or tail of it. I think what I see are several possible futures, depending on what you decide, depending on whether the Putarians or Reapers get to you before the end of the world comes, I see you dying.’ She swallowed then she smiled. ‘I see you getting married.’
‘Really?’ My heart leapt.
She frowned. ‘But I think that future is if you decide to turn your back on the world, to live your own life.’
‘Of course it is,’ I nodded grimly. ‘I’ve hardly got time for a relationship what with me saving the world and all. How can I make ties to anyone, knowing they’ll be severed in a few years’ time?’
‘But you can have that life Eve, why should your life be any different to anyone else, why should everyone else get to live long and happy lives and you don’t. Choose life.’
‘Yeah, but I am aren’t I, I’m choosing the lives of the millions of people I’m going to try to save.’
Persia pulled a face.
‘Come on then Persia, let’s get on with the training.’ I stood up. ‘Just out of interest though, who was I going to marry?’
‘Seth,’ she said quietly.
I sat down again, heavily. ‘Seth? I get married to Seth?’ Choose life or choose Seth. Suddenly I wanted Seth more than anything else in the world. I could see my future with Seth at my side and I wanted that so much. Maybe it was the ‘grass greener on the other side’ syndrome. Maybe it was wanting something that I could never have, or maybe Seth had always been what I wanted but I just hadn’t figured it out. Either way it was a future I’d never have now.
‘Oh Persia, why are you telling me this?’
‘Because you should know what you are giving up, a happy future with the man you love.’
‘I love Seth?’
Persia grinned. ‘That’s the one thing I do know for certain.’
I don’t know why she was so certain of that, when I hadn’t decided for myself yet. I sighed. ‘It doesn’t matter anyway. If we did get married, if I turned my back on my training, it would only be for a few years, five years of happy marriage at most, then the end of the world comes and kills us both. I think it’s probably better to save the one you love, than die with him.’
‘So that’s it then, you’ve decided,’ Persia said, sadly.
‘I don’t have a choice do I?’
‘Ok.’ Persia stood up. ‘Ok.’ She paced a little. ‘Ok, I’m not totally sure how these things work. I don’t know the fancy words I should use, but I understand the magic involved,’ Persia mumbled, more to herself than to me.
‘Persia, what are you talking about?’ I watched her progress as she wore a path through the snow in front of me.
Persia turned back to face me with determination. Then she knelt down on one knee.
‘Persia what are you doing, I’m not going to marry Seth so you want to marry me instead. I love you and everything mate but…’
‘Shut up Eve and let me do this.’
I could feel Eli and Caleb’s attention suddenly on us. Through the trees they were watching intently.
Persia took my hand and I felt heat between us immediately, my hand tingled and I felt the warm tingling spread through my body. ‘Eve I pledge myself to you…’
‘Persia no…’
‘Shush, I pledge myself to you. I will be by your side, to guide you, to help you, to protect you until death severs this bond between us.’
She released my hand and the warm tingling continued for a moment then settled into me.
‘Persia what have you done,’ I gasped.
She stood up, grinning at me. ‘I pledged my allegiance to you.’
‘Persia undo it.’
‘No,’ she said simply.
‘Persia this is nothing to do with you, if I’m going to die I won’t have you standing next to me, watching whilst it happens, undo it.’
‘Eve I can’t, even if I wanted to, which I don’t, I can’t. Once I pledge to you it can’t be undone.’
‘You had no right.’ I stood up to face her. ‘You could have a life, be happy, you don’t have to follow me to the end.’
‘I have every right Eve, it’s my choice, just like you made yours.’
‘Damn it Persia,’
Persia smiled, as she listened to something in her head. ‘When we get back to the church, my sisters want to pledge to you as well.’
‘No they will not.’
‘Yes they will Eve, whether we have to hold you down and do it, they will pledge to you.’
‘Damn it Persia.’ I folded my arms angrily across my chest. Just what I wanted, all the people I loved and cared for to stand by my side and watch me die. What a nice happy memory for my friends.
She put an arm round me and hugged me gently. ‘Till the end then, my friend.’
I sighed, bitterly. ‘We should get back, the others will be wondering where we are.’
‘Ok,’ Persia linked arms with me and we started walking back to the church.
‘Wait.’ I stopped just before we caught up with the Guardians. ‘I don’t want Seth and Quinn to know about this.’
‘About the pledge?’
‘No, about me dying.’
She nodded. ‘Ok love. Whatever you need.’
Eli fell in at my other side as we walked out the woods; he squeezed my hand without looking at me.
I walked back into the church and Seth bounced up on to his feet, as soon as he saw me. ‘Hey what took you so long?’ he grinned at me.
But then Izri and Clementine were suddenly kneeling before me. I felt sick.
‘Don’t do this, please,’ I whispered. ‘Go and have a life, go enjoy yourselves.’
Go and have the life that I can’t. They ignored me, the words weren’t exactly the same as the ones that Persia used, but they meant the same. The tingling that settled over me after each of them had held my hand was the same. Persia grinned as each one made their pledge.
After it was over, there was silence in the church.
Seth was the first to break it. ‘Wow, I didn’t realise this was a pledge party.’
I went and sat on the window ledge, a million emotions tearing through me, anger, sadness, guilt, responsibility. The silence was deafening again. They all just looked at me expectantly. I looked away across the old graveyard. If I was with my other friends from school right now, some of my normal friends, if I was upset about something, then I would just listen to them chatter about mindless things, films, music, TV, to fill my head with inane stuff and it would help to block out what I was upset about. But, in reality, if I was with my normal friends, I wouldn’t have just heard how I was going to die to save the world, how the world was going to burn, how by rights Seth and I would have got married one day, when we were old enough to realise that the intense friendship we felt for each other was actually love and how that future was no longer possible. If I was with my normal friends, the most they would ever pledge is to lose a few pounds on a new fad diet or they might pledge to buy that new leather jacket in River Island. They certainly wouldn’t be pledging to spend the rest of their lives with me, to guide me, to protect me until one of us dies.
I started biting my nails, something I hadn’t done since I was six. The silence continued. Maybe, once I was strong in the power, maybe if I was a quick learner then that hut in the middle of the Amazonian rainforest wouldn’t be a bad idea. I could learn everything I needed to learn over the next few months and then live out the remainder of my days, surrounded for miles by trees. Persia, her sisters, Seth, Quinn, the Guardians, they could all carry on with their lives, go to university, get good jobs, get married, have children, live by the sea. I would live in a hut by myself, and when the time came, when the earth burned, I would just step out of my little hut and save the world and die and no one would be
any the wiser. My friends would feel a rumble, might see the odd storm, but other than that they could carry on with their happy lives. I would die on the floor of the rainforest and a while later some creature would feast on my remains. Everybody’s happy, even the creature.
But I’d miss Seth though. God the thought of not seeing him again, of living the last three or five years of my life without him made me ache inside, not just ache, it was painful. Didn’t I deserve some happiness. If I was going to die to save the world, then couldn’t I have some happiness with Seth for a few years before I died. I could balance a marriage and training. It’d be like going to work, by day I would train and then at night I would come home to my husband. Husband, wow. I’m seventeen years old and I’m thinking of getting married already. Something that definitely wouldn’t have happened to the other me some weeks ago. The other me, the me that didn’t know anything about my destiny, had a whole life mapped out. I was going to go to university and train to be a doctor. The thought of helping people appealed. How ironic. I had thought about marriage, even thought about the dress and where I’d like the reception to take place. But that would come after I’d qualified. Then I was going to get a job in a hospital, maybe as a surgeon. But after a few years I would leave to have children and move to the beach. Maybe work part time in a tiny local hospital. Ok so I wasn’t going to have any of that now, and that was ok, because my friends could, but maybe I could still have the marriage thing, I could do both, get married and save the world.
But then I thought about Seth and how unfair that was to him. I couldn’t ask him to marry someone that was going to die. He loved me so much now, after three years of marriage he’d love me even more. And then he’d just have to stand back and watch me die. Really, I could never tell Seth about that possible future, I could never tell Seth that I loved him too. The best thing for Seth would be for him to fall out of love with me and in love with someone else, someone he could have a long and happy life with. How was it still silent in the church. Oh for goodness sake, somebody say something, please, I screamed to myself.
‘Erm…apparently it’s going to snow again tonight,’ mumbled Mason.
