With her gone, he turned back over to his back and again stared up to the rafters over the bed. He stared out into the void and searched for her thoughts. Like for so long now, he found nothing but a blackened emptiness coming back from the great void of her mind. Seeing this, and now knowing why it was there, he truly began to break down. He truly did begin to cry.
He would lie there and cry for the rest of the day. During it, he decided that he knew what he had to do. He had to tell her everything he felt for her. He had to tell her the truth. He loved her more than Kalima ever could, and knowing this, he now felt better. She would obviously choose him over his brother. How could she stay with a half blood and not want the real thing. After all, he was more powerful. He was the strongest. He was the smartest. He was perfect. Yes, she will choose me and together, we will rule the world as it was meant to be.
He finally fell asleep after this.
7
“How is that you learned of this place?” Rochie asked Sharlia first, after the others led them to a rather large looking village near the center of the island. All of the homes were made out of bricks and had simple thatched roofs. They looked very quaint. They also looked small. They looked just like home.
Sharlia led them to the center of the village, to the only water fountain on the island and there she motioned for them to sit down on one of sixteen wooden benches surrounding the brick enclosed water. It was the town’s only square.
“I did from her.” She sat down on the same bench as Rochie. She motioned to the Seer as she watched her join them at the head of the table, in between the benches.
He led Kenar to it and sat down beside him. Seeing the Seer, he just gave her a nod. “And how is it that you learned of this place?” He was dying to know everything he could. He couldn’t help himself. It was his nature.
She smiled. “I have learned many things through my travels. This was just one of them.”
He watched her move, and noticed that she carried a slight limp to her right side. He also easily noticed several long scars that wrapped around her wrists. She was also missing several teeth from both her bottom and lower mouth. A scar crossed her left eye, moved from her cheek up along her nose and separated her eyebrow into two neat halves. She looked warn and battered, but she did look healed. Her treatment by Devish was evident. No one could have missed it.
“Did he do all of that to you?” he asked as he nodded to her face.
She bowed her head. “Devish did some things to me yes. He treated well in only keeping me alive. With everything else, it does not matter.”
“How long were you with him?” With the sun coming up Kenar was blind again. He couldn’t see what Rochie was talking about so he didn’t mind changing the subject. Besides, he had other more pressing things on his mind. He wanted to know how far they went together. What did she tell him, and why did she do it. Him trusting her felt difficult then, as it did now.
She could only laugh with this, not to his question but to his thoughts. “He kept me locked up for years. How many I will never know for sure. He kept me close to him at all times.” She looked back up. “He made sure that I saw no one without his approval.”
Rochie saw her eyes sparkling. The white diamonds looked mesmerizing. He had never seen her before, so he had nothing to base them on. She was beautiful even with all of the scars, he knew this much.
Kenar had seen the eyes one time, a long time ago. “What did you tell him?” he continued with what needed to know.
She started right at him. “You wish to know why I told him about the black wolf. You wish to know how I could help him.” She even smiled. “How I helped him to find him.”
“Yes.” He knew her gifts, but still felt impressed by them all the same. Being there with her again, being this close, he couldn’t help himself but to think back to the time they had first met. He was such a young boy then, right after his mother vanished to live as the wolf that she had become. She helped him to come to grips with his loss of her, and to help him understand what he was and what he was meant to do with such gifts. She seemed to be with them, the Wanderers that is, but now he wasn’t too sure. She seemed to be up to something. He didn’t know what it was, but he wanted to find out. Whether she would tell him, he knew she wouldn’t. He still had to try.
She looked at Sharlia, then to Rochie, and finally back to Kenar again. “I cannot help but to speak an answer to a question when it is posed to me. You should know this Kenar. My gifts are meant to be shared whether I wish them to be or not.”
He nodded with this, understood it, but yet didn’t. “Even if it meant everything happening the way it did. So many have died because of it—because of him. It does not feel right with giving it to him. You should have known that this would happen.”
She laughed with this. After finishing it, she bowed her head again. “Things are in motion here that none of us understand what it is. You above all others know about the void. You know how the world within it works. Once the motion starts, it is like a wave splashing the shore. It cannot be stopped.”
Rochie had no idea what was on Kenar’s mind, but he found this fascinating all the same. He couldn’t help himself.
“What has been set in motion exactly?” he had to ask.
She turned to him and he now saw her eyes flaring to their Wanderer’s blue hue. Her powers were flaring with them, as it did with all of them.
“Many years ago, during the times of the great Walker dying, the world was set to something that should have never been. It should not have happened as it did. When Satar changed things, when he set out on this path, he set the world right again. Things must play out as they are meant to be. The wave has already begun and it must be allowed to strike the shore.”
Rochie saw her eyes return to their diamond shine. “You helped Satar do that. Why?” He thought back to the times before the war started. He remembered Satar. He remembered how they captured him and brought him back to the Elders for judgment. He thought about showing the silver to the humans. He thought about how that small thing had led to their burgeoning strength. He thought about all that he did to set things in motion too, and it dawned on him that he might have been part of this plan. He had to find out.
She answered his question first. “Satar did what he needed to do. He asked, and I answered him.” She looked directly into his eyes. “You did what you needed to do too Rochie. We all did.”
Hearing this changed the question for him. “What did I need to do?”
She laughed again with this. It came out soft and gentle. “When one makes a choice the future is set. The past leaves us behind. You followed the path you chose to take.”
“I chose no path.” That he didn’t understand at all.
Kenar did. “The Seer can see the future, but not directly. When a choice is made, your destiny unravels. Before this, it is nothing but a story without meaning and direction. The choice has to be made in order to set the decision in motion. Without choice, the world stops turning.”
“But I did not make a choice.” Kenar didn’t help him at all.
He laughed with his thought. “But you did. You chose to help Jameson. You chose to stand against the Elders. You chose to stand up to Devish and to fight him. You made a lot of choices; we all do each and every day of our lives. Sometimes we do them without thinking we are doing them. We move and the choice is made.”
Rochie just bowed his head and looked down at the table between him and Sharlia. He thought he understood this, but in all actuality, he didn’t. He figured that he never would.
Sharlia watched him and felt amused. She felt the same way when she first went to ask questions of the Seer. In many ways, she still did. The confusion felt blinding, but in the end, she believed that she understood, and that, as it turned out, was the key to her questions. Asking the question was the choice in itself. He was not at that point, so it was funny seeing someone now as she was. She could understand it—understand him.
The
Seer watched all of them, and looked back to Kenar. “She is looking forward to seeing you again. She has many things to ask you, and you to her I am sure.” It was time to start this journey. Again, the waves were roaring and there was no stopping them now.
Kenar felt a sudden urge to jump out of his own skin. In all of this conversation, he nearly forgot the very reason for them coming there in the first place. Now she was there again, and he needed her more than ever.
“Where is she?”
The Seer turned back to the fountain behind her.
Instantly, he saw her standing there just to his left. Seeing her again—yes truly seeing her with his human eyes—he felt astonished. It floored his very soul. How her power gave him sight, he hoped to ask her someday. He truly felt privileged all the same.
Rochie turned to her and also felt astonished with seeing her but for an entirely different reason than his friend. She could not be the same child he had seen before. That one, that sweet young child was only maybe three, but this—well—young woman was closer to twelve. It couldn’t be the same girl, even though he knew she was.
Kenar couldn’t believe his own eyes.
The young woman smiled with a hearty flare. “Hello again Kenar.” She moved to them and stopped to his left side. She was now in between Rochie and him. “And Rochie. How are you both?”
“You have grown so much.” Seeing her like this, somewhat faded but still there in the middle of the day felt like a miracle to him. He had never experienced something like this and didn’t know how to react to it.
Rochie saw him looking right at her, and it dawned on him as to why. “You can see her?”
He gasped. “I can. I do not know how, but I do.”
The Seer marveled at the emotions she felt emanating from him that it almost brought a tear to her heart. “She has many gifts Kenar. One of those is to correct what has been done.” She spoke with true pride in her voice. She felt it so strongly that she felt it hard to contain it. “I have worked with her for the past few years. She has done well in focusing her mind. She has done well in thus focusing her power.”
Kenar turned to her voice. “She has corrected my eyesight?” It seemed too good to be true. But yet here she was showing him it. “How?” Now was the time.
“When one is around me, I can do many things.” The young Sima nodded with a gracious smile that seemed to light up the world. It felt overpowering. “I correct what can be corrected.”
Yes, they could all feel it. It blasted through your soul.
“How is that possible?” Rochie listened and took in everything the best way he knew how. He just went along for the ride.
Sima reached out and touched Kenar’s shoulder with a gentle right hand.
He felt her warmth. It didn’t feel like heat. Instead, it felt like a warmth coming from deep inside his mind. It warmed him from within.
She turned to Rochie. “How can you control objects Rochie? How can Kenar see inside the mind? How can the Seer see you for as you will be? How can Sharlia see what is inside one’s heart?”
She sounded so pure, almost serene.
“You are a Wanderer then?” Rochie watched her closely. Her long black hair looked so calm, if that was a good word to use to describe it, he didn’t know, but it did seem to fit it. It seemed to fit her.
She looked at him with a casual glance. “I am more than that.”
Kenar continued to marvel at her face. Her rounded cheeks gave her such a gentle look that it felt hard to take his eyes off her. Her proud chin made her look strong and yet determined. Her brown eyes made her feel somewhat regal to him. She looked too beautiful to be real. He had no other way to feel about her but that. She must be a dream.
The Seer moved to her, and to both of them. “She is the answer to all life Kenar—Rochie. She is the answer to the world being as it is.”
Rochie looked at the Seer. He so wanted to understand this, but he didn’t know where to begin with anything. He figured to just start from the beginning and go from there. “Her father was a Walker, but a different one at that. Her mother was human. What is her father? What is the black wolf?”
The Seer laughed.
Sima dropped her hand from Kenar, moved behind him and sat down beside him.
He watched her all the way.
The Seer felt gleeful, almost powerful. Her life’s work was nearing its end. She could feel it. The path to the future has begun.
“Kalima is not an ordinary Walker Rochie. He is something that is so much more. He is the first of his kind, and is thus, more special. He is of a different time. Because of this, Sima has become something even more than an ordinary Wanderer has ever been. She is special too. She is the answer to the endless question of life and existence. Without her, the world will end. All life turns because of her. She is the world’s end and its future.”
Rochie watched her eyes turn blue again as she spoke, and no sooner as she finished, they went back to their normal white sparkle again. As for what she said, he didn’t understand it at all.
“You didn’t answer my question. What is he?”
She stared him down. “Why do you not ask him yourself?”
This startled him some. “How can I ask him anything?” He blinked hard and swallowed even harder. This woman speaks in nothing but riddles. How am I going to get what I need from her when she will not answer me? Unless that is the game, she is playing with all of this. Maybe she will not because of choice.
The Seer’s eyes turned blue again. “You may not be able to speak to him directly, but there is someone who can. It is someone you already have and will again.”
He watched them turn back to white.
Hearing what she said, his mind flared with only one name. “Rana?” It made sense to him, but at the same time, it didn’t. He hadn’t talked with his sister in years. She has ignored him. She has fought against him. Why would she change this now?
“She is not the same person you knew then Rochie. She has grown into someone so much more. She has turned into someone you would recognize again.”
Sharlia felt elated with all of this. She couldn’t help herself.
Sima held Kenar’s hand. They just stared at each other and said nothing.
Rochie listened and suddenly felt like he wanted to cry. He just sat there and didn’t know what to think.
The Seer moved to him and knelt down in front of him. She took both of his hands into hers. “She is not the person you knew Rochie. She has found a reason to live. She has found a reason to forgive.”
“Forgive?” He liked the sound of that even if he still didn’t believe it. Even still, he finally breathed. “She hates me. Why would she speak with me about the black wolf?” He shook his head with a resounding shudder. He felt a cool breeze flow down his back and it blasted his very heart.
She squeezed his hands. “She is closer to him than you can possibly imagine. The black wolf is her reason for life. He has shown her what love is and can be.”
This made him gasp. “She loves him.” He couldn’t believe that. His sister was many things to the Walkers, but loving one was something he just couldn’t imagine her ever doing. She didn’t trust them all that much for such feelings to build. He didn’t think anything would ever change that about her. Why would it?
The Seer smiled. It looked hollow with so many missing teeth. “You are wrong Rochie. You are wrong about her. She does love him and always will—even to the end of time itself.”
He wanted to hear more. “What does this have to do with me?” He also felt happy for her. At least he thought he did. He just wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
The Seer let go of his hands and stood back up. “Love can cause the mind to free itself from hatred. It can cause the heart to thaw in more ways than the feeling it gives to the one it cherishes. She is not the person you knew.”
He thought about this and did understand it. She had hated him for so long that he thought he knew where he stood with her. In thin
king about this, in thinking about her, if her heart did thaw for one it just might have thawed for him too. He didn’t know what this meant, but he was ready to test it. He had to try.
“I should contact her then?” He looked up.
“Yes you should.”
This was all he needed to hear. In all of these years, he has missed her like he never thought he would. They had been so close. They had spoken together since they were in the womb, and every day since that God-awful night, he has felt empty without hearing her voice. Just the thought, just the idea, that she has forgiven him for their father’s death, made him feel full again. If the black wolf did this to her, if he gave her back to him again, he would forever love the black wolf for it. No matter what he has done, no matter how much pain he has caused, he would love him to the end of time.
The Seer watched his mind turn, and feeling right with it, she looked back to the child and to Kenar. She heard them just as clearly as she did with Rochie. Their conversation was just as meaningful and needed. She now couldn’t wait for them to begin with what they needed to do next.
Kenar watched her sit down with him and watched her take his hands. Inside his mind, he heard that same voice he heard before as it coursed through his head like a stream flows down from the mountain. It felt like it was bathed with its warmth. It felt like the greatest feeling he had ever felt before in his life.
How is it you can warm me so? He asked her. Inside his mind, he could see her eyes sparkling to his.
As the Seer has said, I am what I am, just as you are who you are.
She sounded so strong. She sounded so alive.
You told me once that you were the flames. What did you mean by that? He thought back to what she told him that night in the tent before the world turned dark again.
A Werewolf's Saga, The Beginning (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 3) Page 54
