Telesa - The Covenant Keeper

by Lani Wendt Young

  She shook her head fiercely. “I don’t believe you. Fanua afi is a myth. An old telesā story told to frighten small children.”

  I shrugged tiredly. If she didn’t choose to believe me, that was fine by me.

  “Prove it.”

  “Huh?”

  “Prove it. Show me. Now.” She stepped back further away and waited expectantly.

  I shook my head. “No, I won’t do it. The fire is unpredictable at best. If I’m not careful, it can run totally wild. I’m tired and messed up right now, if I let it out, then I can’t be sure that it won’t get out of control. Please don’t ask me to call it.”

  But Salamasina would not be dissuaded. She folded her arms and stood there defiantly. “You want me to help save your friend? Then summon fire and prove to me you are really Fanua Afi.”

  I closed my eyes in the dying day. Fire came quickly. Easily. Eager to wipe away a body of flesh and blood that was battered and weak from a long and challenging day. First there was the inevitable brief flash of pain, quickly followed by delight. Bruised muscles and torn sinews gave way to lava that bubbled with strength and power. I stood molten red and gold on the grass, trying not to let fire’s joy brim over too much, trying to keep it restrained. Salamasina stared at me wide eyed and stumbled back weakly to sit on the garden bench beside the jasmine. “Aue, it’s true.” Her eyes brimmed with tears and she sunk her head into her hands, “No, it can’t be.” She looked heavenward, as if praying, appealing to some faraway entity, “My son, not my son, please …” her voice died away as she stared at me with the eyes of one drowning in hopelessness. I hated to come any closer to her, still unsure of what my fire would do.

  “Salamasina, are you alright?” I asked anxiously but she did not respond. With silent tears streaming down her cheeks, she sat lost in a daze. I raised my voice back at the house, “Daniel! Come quick, something’s wrong with your grandmother.”

  That seemed to snap her out of her daze. She shook her head and stood up, wiping away the treacherous tears, “No, I am alright. Just shocked that’s all. I’m fine.”

  Daniel appeared in the back doorway, stopping at the sight of me in flames, side by side with Salamasina. “Leila? Mama? Is everything alright?” There was an edge of fear in his voice which cut me. Did he think I was hurting his grandmother? Salamasina waved out to him with a forced smile.

  “I’m fine son. I asked Leila to show me her gift and it kind of caught me off guard. But everything’s alright.” She turned back to me, “Thank you Leila, for indulging me with a demonstration. Can you … umm…turn it off now? Make it go away?”

  I nodded but then stopped short, suddenly awkward as I remembered I had just fried all my clothes and would be left standing naked in front of my boyfriend and his grandmother. Ouch. “Umm, is it alright, please can I borrow a shirt or something to wear for when I stop burning?”

  Daniel flashed me a grin, “Just hang on Leila, I’ll grab a lavalava. Don’t want you to go flashing Mama and totally freaking her. She might think you’re a woman of loose morals. A skanky ho…” He turned to go back inside but not before Salamasina’s prim reprimand.

  “Daniel, don’t be cheeky eh! There is no need to speak with such disrespect. Go, get Leila something to wear.”

  He disappeared into the house while Salamasina turned back to me. “There is much you need to tell me, about your mother and her sisters and their plans for you. But we don’t have much time. We must prepare an antidote for your friend and we must work quickly if we are to have any hopes of saving him. But when we’re done with that Leila Folger, you will be honest with me and tell me everything else I want to know, is that clear? Now come.”

  I would never have dared to argue with her. The woman was intimidating – even when I was in fire form. I nodded and followed at a safe distance behind her as she began walking towards a little shed at the furthest reach of the fenced garden. My curiosity got the better of my hesitancy, however and I ventured a question. “Salamasina, how will you know what antidote we need for Jason? I mean, don’t you have to examine him first, try to figure out what they poisoned him with?”

  She barely gave me a momentary glance as she stopped to unlock the padlock using a jangly bunch of keys. “No, it’s not necessary. Telesā have many concoctions for causing sickness, but there are only a mere handful of poisons designed to be fatal and only one of them ensures a drawn-out death. When telesā want to kill someone, they don’t usually mess around, they’ll just give them the instantly fatal choice. They must really want to punish your friend because what they’ve given him causes several days of intense suffering.” She paused to give me a look laced with compassion. “I’m sorry, Leila. I’ll prepare the antidote but you must be aware that it may already be too late for him.”

  Fire burned brighter as I fought to contain the rage that leapt to the surface at her words. Rage that wanted to destroy Nafanua and her entire sisterhood. I clung to the small measure of hope offered by Salamasina’s words. “Thank you. I know it will work. It has to. Please.”

  Daniel surprised us both then as he came up behind us carrying a red floral lavalava and a singlet top. “Here you go, something to wear. What else can I do to help, Mama?”

  She refused. “No, I have all the ingredients I need right here and it will only take me about twenty minutes to prepare the measure your friend will need. Leila, why don’t you get covered up and come help me? Daniel can get us some dinner perhaps, I’m sure we will all be very hungry once this is all done.”

  I couldn’t help thinking that Salamasina just wanted Daniel out of the way so that she could interrogate me further but I would have walked through Arctic ice barefoot, anything to get a cure for Jason. The old woman went into her medicine shed and I motioned at Daniel with a jerk of my head. “Turn around.”

  “Why?”

  “So I can kill these flames and put some clothes on.”

  He folded his arms and still stood there with his head tipped to one side. “Well, go on – kill the fire – and then I promise I’ll give you the lavalava.” His tone was teasing.

  Mine was threatening. “Turn around, give me the lavalava and I promise I won’t kill you with my fire. And don’t look!”

  He laughed. “Fine. No need to get so aggressive. I promise, no looking.” He turned away and held out the lavalava with one hand, throwing one more jab over his shoulder. “It’s not like I haven’t already seen you half naked, you know.”

  I would have flushed red if I had been in flesh form. As it was, my flames hazed brighter and errant sparks spluttered dangerously close to Daniel’s feet, making him dance a side-step out of the way. “Hey, watch it! I said I wouldn’t look.”

  “Sorry. Accident.” I mumbled as I focused on trying to still the flames, a very difficult thing when Daniel was standing right there reminding me about the nights he had found me swimming in ‘our’ midnight pool. The time he had joined me in the black water, held me, kissed me. Damnit, stop it Leila! You’ll never turn this thing off if you keep this up … Several deep breaths, focusing on the quiet beauty of the garden in the moonlight and my fire flickered and dimmed, spluttered and hissed. And I was left naked and shivering. Quickly, I reached out and grabbed the lavalava from his outstretched grip, wrapping it hastily around me. “Got it, thank you.”

  Daniel turned and before I could move to join his grandmother in the workroom, he pulled me to him and moved us both out of sight. Into the jasmine-fragranced darkness. “What?” my query was stilled as he enveloped me in his arms, gently running his hand through my hair to tilt my head back so he could bring his lips to mine. He was shirtless and I could feel every inch of him through the thin fabric of the lavalava that separated us. I clung to his warmth, his hard strength as he reminded me that I no longer faced my nights alone. His kiss spoke of the crashing surf on the distant reef. Of the silver splash of mermaids dancing on a crested moonlit wave. And I drowned in it. When he finally pulled away, there was a look I couldn’t r
ecognize in his eyes. Raw, ragged, and urgent. His hand came up to caress my face, lingering on my lips. “Leila … I …”

  “Leila! I’m waiting, I need your help here.” Salamasina’s imperious voice broke us apart. Daniel released me with a quick grin.

  “You better get in there.”

  I nodded and moved away, but my eyes told him I didn’t want to. Focus Leila. Jason needs you remember?

  The workroom was a cluttered space where many different fragrances battled for supremacy. Salamasina stirred a small pot over a single gas burner. She pointed to a cluster of bottles each with a different colored liquid. “Pass me the purple bottle.”

  “What’s in it?”

  She carefully measured two teaspoons of the liquid into the mixture in the pot before answering, “Distilled essence of the tulia flower. A powerful neutralizer for ti-fatu loa. Which is what I’m positive Nafanua used on your friend.”

  For the next ten minutes, Salamasina and I worked together over the antidote. I followed her instructions, cutting and stirring. Only when the antidote was complete and we waited for it to cool did I venture to ask her the question that had been burning at me.

  “Salamasina, how did you know? About Nafanua, about me being a telesā?”

  There was a tense silence before she answered. She gazed at me with a stare that seemed to try and pierce my very thoughts, as if trying to determine what I would do with her answers. “My mother was telesā. Back in Tonga.”

  I was stunned. “There are telesā in Tonga?”

  “Of course. There are telesā in many places throughout the Pacific. My mother was Vasa Loloa, water. I was raised in her sisterhood, taught their ways until I was twelve. Until they were certain that I had no earth gifts. And then they gave me away to a family in a coastal village.” She spoke the words simply, but even now, many years on I could feel the pain in her words.

  “Did you ever see her again?”

  A shrug. “Sometimes they would pass through our village but she never came to see me or ask after me. But it was alright. She gave me to a good woman who raised me with her other children. I was always gifted with plants. And healing. And I had learned many medicine secrets of the telesā, which I used to help my family and my village. So I had love and respect. And then when I was seventeen, I met Tanielu – Daniel’s grandfather. And I was no longer alone.” A soft smile transformed the severe face, and in the gas light I saw the beauty of the love they had shared. “We never had any children of our own though and so when Daniel’s mother – Moana – brought her baby to us, seeking a home for him, we were happy to have him and to love him. He doesn’t know that he is not our blood grandchild. And I would ask that you respect my wish to keep that information between us. For now at least.” For a moment she was lost in the past before she gave herself a mental shake and returned to the problems of the present. “So yes, I know a great deal about telesā and their ways. You know that what Nafanua and her sisterhood have done is an abomination to the true telesā calling don’t you?”

  I shook my head and she continued. “Telesā are women blessed with gifts from earth but they have always used those gifts only to safeguard a particular area and to serve the people living there. Vasa Loloa to guide people to the best fishing spots, and protect the fishermen. The strongest among them were meant to be the oracle of warning for times of tsunami and storm surge, keep people safe. Telesā Matagi are to summon rain for crops to grow, bring water to a parched land, call winds to drive the canoes to new lands, lightning for fire for cooking and for clearing forest to build homes. Ancient telesā lived in harmony with earth and humans. And in return, people honored them. Paid them tribute. Heeded their counsel about the best ways to care for the earth and her gifts.”

  In confusion I interrupted her, “But that’s not what Nafanua told me. Telesā were rulers, powerful forces to be feared and reckoned with, I don’t understand …”

  “There will always be those who use their gifts for evil. It has always been that way. Nafanua is a very old and very powerful telesā. She has long bullied and suppressed telesā in Samoa who did not adhere to her way of thinking. No-one in her sisterhood can come close to matching her in gift strength I don’t think. Have you ever seen them use their powers?”

  I nodded. “I’ve only ever seen two of them call lightning though. Nafanua and a younger one called Sarona. The others have summoned rain and wind but nothing like my mother and Sarona have.”

  “Yes, that is usually how it is. The Covenant Keeper of a sisterhood doesn’t ever like to have telesā who are too powerful in their covenant. You understand how a covenant works?”

  “No.”

  “Telesā are best as solitary creatures. They are not known for their unity and loyalty to one another. Think of all the stereotypical worst traits of women – backstabbing, manipulative, and catty – and then imagine them exacerbated by telesā powers. I grew up within a sisterhood, so I know first-hand. To reduce the likelihood of telesā warring for territory, a single telesā who is unusually gifted will gather around her lesser telesā and weave the covenant that binds them together. The followers are bound to honor their leader and she can draw on their accumulated gifts as her own, thereby multiplying her powers many times over. In exchange, the Keeper is bound to protect them and can never raise her hand against them, or else their covenant is broken and they are all weakened as a result. It provides a form of protection for all parties. The Keeper cannot harm any other lesser sisters, which keeps them safe from her and they in turn cannot rise up against her, which cements her leadership.”

  “I see, kind of … but they don’t live forever do they? Eventually a Covenant must die or something?”

  “That’s true. Telesā live very long lives but they are not immortal. They may not be quite human in the sense that we understand the term, but they’re not like vampires or anything ridiculous like that. Telesā will age eventually and, when a leader ages, her powers weaken. Either she will step down and pass the covenant on to a younger sister or else she will have it taken from her in outright battle or some other form of subversive rebellion.”

  Salamasina checked the antidote and pronounced it ready for use. She poured it into a slim phial and handed it to me. “If he cannot drink it then it needs to be administered intravenuously. All of it.”

  “And then?”

  “And then all you can do is wait. And pray. Now come, let us go in and Daniel can go with you to the hospital.”

  Before we went into the house though, Salamasina stopped me with a firm hand on mine. “Leila, I ask you not to tell Daniel anything about my Tongan telesā connections. He does not know. And it is not time for me to tell him. Let the only telesā he knows, be you.”

  I nodded and we joined Daniel in the kitchen where he had some dinner waiting. I couldn’t eat anything until I had taken the antidote to Jason though so Salamasina phoned Matile and Tuala to let them know my whereabouts and to get their permission for me to stay late at the hospital with my sick friend, promising them that Daniel would ensure I made it home safely. Daniel and I took off to the hospital. I was anxious. It was already 9.30pm. What if we were too late? What if I was making the wrong decision? What if Salamasina’s antidote didn’t work? That would mean I had held Jason’s only hope in my hands earlier that afternoon with Nafanua’s offer and then dashed it to pieces with my refusal. Daniel sensed my agitation and, at the hospital, he held my hand in his as we made our way to Jason’s floor.

  Blaine and Matthew were there, falling asleep on benches outside Jason’s room. Both men jerked awake at my greeting. I introduced them to Daniel. Neither of them had anything hopeful or positive to report on Jason. He was still unconscious and his vitals were steadily weakening. The doctors had given him another antibiotic an hour before but didn’t seem very hopeful about his chances. Blaine confided that Jason’s parents were flying in and would arrive the next afternoon, but he didn’t think that would be in time. To say goodbye.

 
“Can I see him? Alone? Just for a moment, please?”

  “Of course, go on in.”

  Daniel stayed outside with the two while I went in quietly. Jason lay exactly as I had left him earlier that day. I had to move fast before a nurse came in and questioned what I was doing. I washed my hands at the tiny sink before carefully unscrewing the protector cap on the IV bag insert. I poured the antidote in with shaking hands, watching the clear liquid run into the IV fluid, sending with it all my prayers and hopes that it would work. I bent to whisper in Jason’s ear,

  “You need to fight this, you hear me, Jason? I know you can. I’m so sorry I got you into this. I’m fighting for you, do you hear me? I’m not going to let Nafanua get away with this. I promise you. I will set the earth on fire if I have to.”

  And then I slipped out of the room, answering Daniel’s questioning eyes with a slight nod. I didn’t want to leave Jason’s side, but there was one more thing that I needed to do. I asked Daniel if I could use his phone and walked outside into the corridor to make the call I had been dreading.