The Chosen

by K. J. Nessly

  She glowered at him. “You would condemn us? That hardly sounds like the actions of an ally.”

  “An ally comes in many forms. Instructors are allies to their students, but their method of helping can involve allowing the students to fail before they can succeed.”

  “That prolongs the process.”

  “But it makes the student stronger and more confident in the final outcome. Look at you. The torture you endured at the hands of the Blackwoods and your uncle should have broken you. Any other person would have shattered, but not you. You came away stronger. Battered, but stronger.”

  “So is that my failure,” she asked sarcastically.

  “No, child. That was the equivalent of the lecture hall. If events play out, the final test is still coming.”

  She felt the blood rush from her face, numbing her. “What are you saying?” she asked in horror.

  “There are two paths open to your kingdom. One leads to peace, the other to war. If the path of war is chosen ancient, dark secrets will consume the light. Others will rely on your strength to survive it. And without your past, you would not survive it.”

  Staring at him in mute dismay, she struggled to comprehend what he was telling her. “How will we know?” she asked finally.

  “Know what?”

  “That the path of war has been chosen versus the path of peace.”

  Sadness clouded his features. “Trust me, child. When darkness begins to overtake the light, you will know.”

  “Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because you will play a pivotal role in the fate of your kingdom. Decisions you make in the future will affect the outcome, be it peace or death.”

  “Surely the fate of Archaea does not rest solely on my decisions!?” she exclaimed, panicking at the idea of so many lives riding on decisions she had yet to make.

  “Not just yours, no. There are others who are just as instrumental as you, but the path of the kingdom is determined by the decisions of the majority. If you chose peace, but the majority chose war, war would come. However,” he added gently, “if war does come, there is the possibility changing the path.”

  She stared at him. “No,” she said flatly. “You have me confused with someone else.”

  “I am not mistaken. I know who you are, remember?”

  His reminder of her family chased away the terror in her body and replaced it with resentment. “I don’t suppose you could tell me who my family is? Surely that is harmless enough?”

  With a shake of his head he replied, “That knowledge could change the path of the kingdom. It could change you.”

  He cut off her protest with a quick wave of his hand. “You are not your parents, Kathryn. You must learn to discover yourself before you learn of your heritage. You are conflicted, I can see it within your eyes. Telling you who your sires are will not solve that. There are issues in your life you must come to peace with before such knowledge is revealed to you.”

  “Such as?” she demanded angrily.

  “Trust for one. You must learn to trust others, rely on their strength instead of your own.”

  She stiffened. “No one, in my entire life, has proven worthy of my trust, and anyone I have ever trusted has betrayed me.”

  “Then perhaps you have trusted the wrong people too much and the right people too little?”

  “And just who is right and who is wrong?” she countered.

  Elyon spread his hands. “That is not for me to determine.”

  “Then how are your words of wisdom helpful?”

  “By making you think.”

  “I already think.”

  “Not on this matter you don’t. You made a decision as a child and have not revisited or revised it since that day in the Blackwood’s dungeon,” he rebuked her.

  “Why should I revisit and revise it if no one has ever given me reason to?”

  “Because you do not allow them the opportunity to give you cause to do so.” His eyes softened as he asked, “where is your faith, child?”

  “Back in the Blackwood’s dungeon with my innocence and trust,” she retorted sharply.

  “Not everyone is like Quint, Kathryn,” Elyon told her quietly. “Not everyone has a secret agenda.”

  “My experience suggests otherwise,” she shot back, suppressing a shiver at the name that had haunted her as a child; the face that still haunted her.

  “Jasmine? Jasse? David? Amy? Claude?” Elyon listed them on his fingers. “Surely they all don’t have hidden motives every time they deal with you?”

  “They all have at one point or another,” she replied firmly. Except maybe Claude.

  Elyon shook his head. “That is the way of people, Kathryn. They are not perfect. You need to accept that at some time or another, they will desire something of you. But you can’t hold those few times against them for the rest of their lives.”

  “I don’t.”

  “Yes, you do. It’s how you rationalize your actions toward even the friendliest of people. By assuming that they want something from you, you give yourself the right to treat them coldly.”

  “People are selfish, they always want something from someone else.”

  “But sometimes that selfishness can lead to purer actions. Have you ever considered the possibility that all they desire from you is your friendship and companionship?”

  “So that they can pry into my personal life? Force me to relive memories I would rather forget?”

  “How can you make friends without sharing a part of yourself with others? Until they know your story, how can they know when they are getting close to your wounds? If they reach out blindly they are more likely to stick their finger in an open wound than if you give them an idea of where you’re injured and where they should tread cautiously.”

  “They shouldn’t be poking around in the first place!”

  “How can a healer gage the extent of a wound without first examining it? A little poking and prodding is necessary to determine the depth and severity of the wound before a treatment can be devised.”

  She glared at him, unwilling to admit that in that point he was correct. She’d seen Jenna and Tyler in action enough times to know how a wound was treated.

  “Think on what I’ve said,” Elyon said finally. “You’ve set one foot on the path of healing, I can help you with the second step but the third is up to you.”

  “What is the second step?” She tried to remember how Jenna and Tyler treated injuries, but couldn’t manage to draw any similarities between her case and theirs.

  “The first step in healing is to treat the injury,” Elyon told her softly. “The second is to prevent further injury by infection from setting in. Lastly, the victim must overcome the physical and psychological restrictions that injury placed on them.

  “You have already done the first. You’ve faced your past. By facing the Blackwoods and your darkest secrets you’ve acknowledged and treated your injury. But a resentful fever still burns in your body over what happened to you. And it’s a fever you feed every time you touch your scars.”

  “So what’s the cure for the fever?” she asked sarcastically. “Remove the scars?”

  “Yes,” he replied calmly.

  “Good luck,” she returned derisively. “The most gifted healers of the Guardians tried to remove them and couldn’t. What makes you think you can?”

  “My gift of healing is stronger than that of the Council Guardians. I have the power to remove them.”

  Kathryn reached up and fingered her shoulder, hardly daring to believe such a thing was possible...Could he live up to his claim?

  “How?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “How do you have the power to remove them? The Council employs the strongest healers in the Kingdom. How can you surpass their power?”

  “The Guardians rely on their natural gifts to supply their power. Not only is my power stronger than theirs, but I possess techniques long lost to the Guardians.”

  �
��What kind of techniques?” she asked hesitantly.

  “The Elves and Guardians were not the only ones with the power to heal,” he replied with a smile. “There was another group of people who were given healing powers.”

  Kathryn felt her brow furrow as she tried to think. The answer hit her like a rock. “Wizards?”

  He nodded.

  “You know wizard magic?”

  He nodded again.

  “That’s impossible! They died out several millenia ago.”

  “Just because they can no longer be found within the borders of Archaea, it doesn’t mean that they died out,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

  And if the legends were true, wizard magic could remove scars. “You can really use wizard’s magic?” she asked again, slowly.

  Elyon nodded. “Yes.”

  “And what would you demand in return?”

  “Nothing, child, it is a gift I will gladly give you.”

  That raised alarm bells in the back of her mind. “Nothing in this world is free.”

  “My child, a gift is free to all. If something is asked for in return then it is not a gift.”

  Kathryn hesitated only a moment. “Then, please, I ask you to remove them.”

  He placed one hand on her shoulder. “Do you that believe I can?”

  His question made Kathryn pause. Did she believe that he, a stranger whom she’d only met twice before, could remove her scars? He radiated power and confidence that surpassed even that of King Darin. He was gifted, of that she was sure. And his calm responses to her questions told her that he was completely confident in everything he had revealed to her. It was his eyes, something in his eyes that prompted her response. She was surprised to discover, that yes, she did believe that he could. “I do.”

  Elyon laughed, it was a pleasant sound, nothing like the cold hard laugh of the Blackwood’s, but the warm comforting laugh of a father. It reminded her of Lord Jasse’s laugh. “Then reach up child, and see that you are healed.”

  Kathryn immediately reached up and felt nothing but smooth skin. “But...but how?”

  He smiled down at her. “I am a leader of men, this is true, but the one I serve is even stronger and it is his power that I call upon. It is by his authority that I am given the power to heal.” He cupped her chin in his hands and Kathryn could feel the intense power and calm that radiated from his touch. “I am not a king in the sense of your King Darin,” he said calmly. “I am a Dūta. I serve a King, much like you serve yours. My services are free to those within his kingdom.”

  “But I’m not in his kingdom,” she protested. And how can you call a kingdom yours if you aren’t a king?

  He smiled again. “You are, child. You have been since you were born. All that is left is for you to realize it.”

  “But how can a King give another magic? Magic is born not given,” she whispered, trying to sort through his confusing words.

  Elyon smiled. “It is both,” he said with a light laugh.

  “I have watched over you since your birth and will continue to do so,” Elyon promised her. “Remember that, child, for your next test has yet to begin.”

  “What next test?” she asked warily as she stood, her mind returning to his warnings of the two paths her kingdom faced. She wasn’t ready to face those decisions yet.

  “The trial that will tell you who you are,” Elyon put his hand on her shoulder and gazed into her eyes. “I fear it will not be an easy test for you, but you must have faith.”

  “Faith? Faith in what?”

  “Faith in yourself, faith in your family, but mostly faith in my king.”

  Why would I have faith in a stranger? “Why should I have faith in a king I’ve never met?” She demanded.

  “Because my magic is that of a child compared to his.”

  Now that was a disturbing thought. He’d already demonstrated abilities that would throw the Council into a tizzy, but the knowledge that someone more powerful than he existed…it would cause a full-blown panic. Time to change topics and return to the second most disturbing thing he’d said. “Will you be there during the trial?” Was it to be like the tests back at the school where a panel of instructors observed and graded each student’s abilities?

  “I will be watching over you,” he reminded her. “Even though you cannot see me, I will be there.”

  “How can you be there if I can’t see you?”

  “You must trust me.”

  “I already told you that I don’t trust others,” she replied a little heatedly. He may have just performed a miracle she’d never let herself dream of, but that didn’t give him the right to become presumptuous.

  Elyon smiled. “You believed that I could heal you.”

  “Trusting and believing aren’t the same thing.”

  “I know child, which is why what I am about to ask you will be difficult for you.”

  She arched an eyebrow. “What are you going to ask me?”

  “To put all your trust in me and the one I serve and to believe me when I say I will never leave or abandon you. Even when it seems like everything and everyone else has.”

  Kathryn stared at him a moment before shaking her head. “You ask too much,” she replied. “I don’t even know you. How can I trust you?”

  Elyon chuckled. “You know me, Kathryn. Search your heart and you will find you know me.” He reached out to her and pulled her into an embrace.

  Stunned and surprised by his sudden movement, she instinctively stiffened, but then another emotion took over and Kathryn finally knew what it was like to feel protected. She knew, deep down, she knew he was the one who would never betray her. How she knew she couldn’t say, but somehow she knew.

  When Elyon let her go she nodded at him. It wasn’t a nod of trust, but one of a promise to try. It was all she could offer.

  He smiled and laid his hand back on her shoulder. “Then go Kathryn, and know that you have been given a second chance.”

  Chapter 32

  As suddenly as he had appeared, Elyon disappeared. For a moment Kathryn stood motionless, then, fearing what she had seen and heard was a dream, she quickly reached her hands up towards her shoulder blades. Where there had been rough skin and long narrow scars there was now only smoothness, not even tenderness. The tautness and dull ache that permeated her back and shoulders for years was gone.

  “A path that leads to war and another to peace,” she mused over his words, turning them over and over in her mind, trying to make sense of it. What in the stars is that supposed to mean?

  “Kathryn!”

  She turned to find David hurrying up behind her. “Who was that?” He demanded.

  “You saw him too?”

  “Of course I saw him, what did he say to you?” He peered at her. “Is everything okay? You look a little…I don’t know.”

  She arched an eyebrow at him. “I look a little what?”

  He blinked hard several times before saying, “Never mind, I must have imagined it.”

  “Imagined what?”

  He shook his head emphatically. “Nothing. Who was that man?”

  Kathryn debated how much to tell him. “A man I’ve met before,” she hedged.

  “You willingly took part in a conversation with a strange man in the middle of the forest?” He was looking at her like she’d lost her mind. She was beginning to wonder the same thing.

  Rolling her eyes she replied. “He’s not dangerous…just a little odd.”

  “I don’t like it.”

  “Lord Jasse knows him. In fact, he asked me to get to know him.” Sort of.

  He hadn’t been expecting that reply. She could see the wheels turning in his head before he finally spoke. “Okay, fine. Lord Jasse is as good a reference as you can get, but you still haven’t told me his name or why he was here.”

  Turning to look back at the spot where the stranger had disappeared she said, “His name was Elyon, he told me…he said… he said…things that didn’t make sense,” she didn�
��t want to set him off with Elyon’s talk of war, “and he took away my scars.”

  “He took away your what?” David didn’t look, or sound, convinced.

  She nodded. “My scars. He told me I had carried them long enough.”

  David moved closer to view the miracle, but her tunic completely covered her back and shoulders. “And what was his price for removing them?”

  “Nothing.”

  One of his eyebrows shot upward toward his hairline. “Nothing is free.”

  “That’s what I told him. He said that it was a gift.” Or maybe I would just owe him one…

  “I don’t like it.”

  Kathryn turned and frowned at him. “I can take care of myself David.”

  “I know you can, I just don’t like the idea of strangers approaching young women alone in the forest.”

  “He wasn’t dangerous,” Kathryn insisted.

  “How would you know that?”

  As she sought an answer, she realized that she didn’t have any—just an indescribable knowledge that this man had truly wanted to help her. And it probably wouldn’t be wise to admit that he’d saved her life the previous winter. “He isn’t dangerous,” she said finally. Thinking about his words she added, “He may bring danger, but he himself isn’t dangerous.”

  David opened his mouth with some prepared retort, but it died when her words reached him. “What? How can someone bring danger but not be dangerous?”

  She shrugged. “I can’t explain it any other way.”

  “What else did he want?”

  She struggled with her reply. Oh, we just talked about the fact that my family is still alive and that they thought I was dead all these years. And how our kingdom is probably headed for war, but good news there, I may be able to stop it if the special majority I’m a part of choses the path of peace. Oh yeah, that would go over well. “He just wanted to talk.”

  “And you obliged him?!”

  She sort of understood his incredulity, after all, why would she talk to a stranger in the woods when there were fourteen of them living in her house? “I didn’t say that he wanted to get to know me,” she replied sourly. If Elyon was to be believed, there was no need for him to get to know her, he already did. “Just that he wanted to talk.”